South Africa: Government returns to KZN for ex-miners compensation fund outreach

Government departments will on Thursday hold an imbizo in Pongola, KwaZulu-Natal, to provide feedback to stakeholders on the progress made with regard to the ex-mineworkers' compensation fund programme.

This follows an outreach programme conducted in the province, in partnership with various stakeholders, including the Southern African Miners Association (SAMA), Minerals Council South Africa, gold mining company Harmony and Tshiamiso Trust, in consultation with traditional leaders.

The programme targets former mineworkers or their beneficiaries for unclaimed social protection benefits and urges eligible claimants to continue with the lodgement process.

Government announced its partnership with various compensation fund schemes and other social protection benefits last month for those who contracted TB, silicosis and other occupational lung diseases while working in the mines, together with those who were not paid their pension or provident funds, the Department of Health said.

This outreach programme, according to the department, has enabled the provision of claims lodgement, medical assessment and banking services at various sites in the northern parts of KwaZulu-Natal, namely Vryheid, eDumbe, Ulundi, Nongoma and Pongola, as part of governments mission to bring services closer to the people.

The Deputy Ministers of Health, Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo, and Mineral Resources and Energy, Dr Nobuhle Nkabane, will represent national government.

The various provincial and local government leaders and senior executives from mining companies, Tshiamiso Trust, SAMA and representatives from organised labour formations operating in the sector will join the two leaders.

The imbizo is scheduled to take place at Belgrade Community Hall from 10:00 to 13:00.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2023-03-01. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
NA to hold fourth extraordinary session on March 2

The 15th National Assembly (NA) will convene the fourth extraordinary session on March 2 to make a decision on the Presidency of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.













At the NA's 3rd session on the morning of May 26, 2022.





NA General Secretary Bui Van Cuong said on March 1 that the event is set to take place at the National Assembly Building in the morning.



According to its programme, the swearing-in ceremony of the new President will be broadcast live by national broadcasters Vietnam Television, Voice of Vietnam, and the legislature's television channel from 10 am to 11 am on the day.
Zain KSA, a leading digital service provider, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Cisco to collaborate on the development of network automation and service orchestration to improve network service outcomes.

The MoU was signed during its participation at Mobile World Congress (MWC23), which was held in Barcelona from February 27 until March 3.

Through this MoU, Zain KSA and Cisco plan to work together to develop an automation blueprint that is aimed at simplifying day-to-day network operations, including maintaining, monitoring, and optimizing the system, with sophisticated automation tools, with the aim of supporting the kingdoms digital transformation, and enabling the community to enjoy a smarter mobile lifestyle, using advanced technologies so that Zain KSA will be the preferred digital partner for its clients, including individuals, and the business sector.

Pressure on networks

Zain KSAs Chief Technology Officer, Eng Abdulrahman Al-Mufadda, said: The expansion of the use of 5G technologies, the significant increase in networked devices, and the increasing consumption of content services have led to increasing pressure on networks, and our cooperation with Cisco is an important step to keep pace with this development and accelerate the digital transformation journey.

He added: This MoU is in line with our strategy to innovate, deliver integrated digital experiences to our customers, and enhance their experiences across the Kingdom, accelerating the realization of Saudi Vision 2030 goals.

Adam MacHale, Vice President, Service Provider EMEA, at Cisco, commented: Cisco's model-driven approach to network automation with open APIs and service orchestration will help Zain KSA simplify operations and deliver services more quickly across the entire lifecycle. This will enable Zain KSA to improve the quality of its services and continue to deliver a superior customer experience over broadband through reliable and high-speed connectivity.-- TradeArabia News Service
Global musician, producer, songwriter and multi-Grammy-award winner Alicia Keys hosted the second edition of Women to Women, an afternoon of honest conversation and collaboration in the palm tree filled oasis of AlUla, on Saturday (February 25).

Presented in collaboration with Good Intentions, the think-tank inspired format of Women to Women aims to initiate important conversations that create opportunity, mentorship and activate platforms of inspiration to put women at the heart of our collective cultural futures.

Following the second Alicia Keys concert at the iconic Maraya, where Alicia wowed and energised the crowd with a mix of favourite Keys classics and modern mash-ups and a very special moment with the AlUla Traditional Band, Keys has developed a meaningful connection to the people of AlUla and Saudi Arabia.

"Keep lovin', no one is goin' get in the way of us," said Keys to a delighted AlUla crowd.

Building on the success of the first edition of Women to Women, which was set in the art school Madrasat Addeera, this years event was set in the new outdoor venue in the heart of the AlUla oasis  the Wadi Ashar Oasis.

This second edition explored the concept Wisdom of Women: Sharing collective knowledge, shifting the narrative and continuing legacies which seeks to contribute to a route map that sets in motion further conversation and dialogue around collective support and mentorship between generations of women. Embracing a future-forward mindset, this edition aimed to address questions including: How women can become each others resource and continue their long-standing heritage of power. How can women benefit from each others wisdom in order to nurture the collective? How can women reclaim space to tell their own stories?

Alicia Keys started the afternoon by addressing the diverse audience with a keynote speech which create a space for dynamic conversation and exchange of ideas. Hala Al-Hedaithy, General Manager of Programs & Activation, Ministry of Culture, moderated some powerful and insightful conversations amongst a range of esteemed panelists from various fields including Mashael Alobeidan (Pro Racing Rally Driver), Rasha Alkhamis (KSAs first female certified boxer) and Hafsa Alkhudairi (Arts and Culture Initiatives Lead, RCU).

The first panel session, Women in Community, celebrated the previous generations who have in turn shaped the lives of women today, the connection between individual growth and its ripple effect on the community, and the value of leaving a legacy for the next generation which further explored the importance of mentorship today.

The second panel session, The Power of Narrative, deep-dived into stories as carriers of wisdom; the need for women to control their narratives; the representation of women in stories today; and the role of men in encouraging and championing these women-led narratives.

We are delighted to be hosting the second edition of Women to Women with Alicia Keys. Its important to nurture these collaborations and networks of support and creativity to enable inspirational women to flourish in the context of AlUlas thriving cultural landscape," said Nora Aldabal, Executive Director of Arts and Creative Industries at the Royal Commission for AlUla. - TradeArabia News Service
Helga Zepp-LaRouche Discusses Chinas Peace Proposal for Ukraine on Pakistani TVs Views on News

Feb. 28, 2023, 2022 (EIRNS)On Feb. 27, Helga Zepp-LaRouche was one of four invited guests on the Views on News program broadcast by Pakistans PTV. The other guests were: Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Program at the Wilson Center in Washington; Prof. Dr. Aqab Malik with the Center for International Peace and Stability (CIPS), National University of Science & Technology (NUST); and Air Commodore Basit Raza Abbasi (ret.), senior analyst.

The program was focused on the Ukraine crisis, and the Chinese 12-point peace framework, which has drawn positive comments even from Ukrainian President Zelenskyy.

The Chinese proposal was welcomed by all panelists as representing a path forward through a focus on reducing the loss of lives and military destruction. Zepp-LaRouche spoke to the potential for the Nord Stream destruction to split the NATO alliance. If the report by Seymour Hersh is true, and NATO member Norway attacked another NATO nation, then how could the alliance stay intact?

Zepp-LaRouche was asked about Blinkens warning to China not to supply weapons to Russia, and about U.S.-EU-NATO relations with China more broadly. She responded that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is against the Chinese proposal, and that many EU member states are seeking to diversify away from China. Zepp-LaRouche added that Chinas 12-point outline should be seen in the context of a growing number of peace proposals. Brazils President Lula da Silva has called for a peace club among nations of the Global South, and he will be going to China to discuss it (among other topics) with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Turkish President Erdogan has offered to help with peace talks. Italian Gen. Fabio Mini (ret.) has made a proposal. The Popes offer of the Vatican as a venue for peace talks is extremely important.

We must not allow a world in which an accident could lead to the thermonuclear annihilation of the human race. There is no way to win a war against Russia, Zepp-LaRouche added.

This is a new world crisis. Although the two World Wars were terrible, the only nuclear weapons were used at the very end of the war. What would war look like today?

As to the shifting of power, she told viewers that the BRICS nations already exceed the G7 economically. World power is shifting to Asia, to the Global South. And the Global South should speak up for peace!

Asked for her views on the U.S. response to this shift in world power, Zepp-LaRouche said that the U.S. should join the new paradigm. John Quincy Adams had denounced the idea of the U.S. going abroad in search of monsters to destroy. Abraham Lincolns collaboration with Mexican President Benito Juarez, the presidencies of FDR and JFKthese show the real potential of the U.S.

Is there a real risk of nuclear war? Yes, she replied. Unlike the Cuban Missile Crisis, today there is no trust. Kennedy and Khrushchev were in communication. But what about today? After Merkel and Hollande admitted that they used the Minsk agreements used simply to buy time to arm Ukraine, how can Russia take seriously any words from such nations?

Overall, the world needs a new security and development architecture, for which Zepp-LaRouche has advanced a ten-point outline. NATO should have been dissolved with the Warsaw Pact in 1991. In todays world, Chinas Global Security Initiative and Global Development Initiative point in the right direction.
EIR LEAD EDITORIAL FOR TUESDAY MARCH 1, 2023

Lift All Sanctions on Syria and End the U.S. Occupation

Feb. 28, 2023 (EIRNS)The LaRouche movement is circulating the following pre-release of the lead editorial of the March 3 issue of EIR magazine, as part of an intense, concentrated effort aimed at members of the U.S. Congress, to break through the deafening wall of silence on the barbaric activities sanctioned by U.S. military forces in Syria, military forces which are in that nation illegallyillegally under U.S. law, and illegally under international law. The similarly illegal and barbaric sanctions against Syria must now be lifted.

Editorial: Lift All Sanctions on Syria, End the U.S. Occupation

Feb. 25The sanctions against Syria can no longer be tolerated. Pax Christi USA joined several faith-based groups in an open letter asking the Biden administration and Members of Congress to affirm the dignity of all persons by lifting sanctions, continuing diplomacy, and sending aid to those most affected in Turkiye and Syria.

The Schiller Institutes two-hour Feb. 21 webcast, Syrian Sanctions Must Be Lifted, is a powerful weapon of truth, directly addressing the fact that the sanctions and war, which have forced 90% of the Syrian population into poverty, go hand in hand with the United States military occupation of Syria, which must also end.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute; Vanessa Beeley, British independent journalist now living in Damascus; Marwa Osman, a professor, author and TV presenter from Lebanon; Col. Richard H. Black (ret.), former Virginia State Senator; and Chandra Muzaffar of Malaysia, leader of JUST (International Movement for a Just World) presented the scale of destruction inflicted by United States and its European allies on Syria since 2007.

After the devastating earthquakes this February, the necessity of the complete abrogation of the unilateral economic and financial sanctions by which the United States and European Union are blocking reconstructionand now, even aid to that countryis imperative.

The call went out: You must demand that the U.S. Congress lift the Caesar Sanctions. This is collective punishment of the civilian population of Syria. Moderator Dennis Speed noted that as the seminar was going on, Schiller Institute delegations were in Congress pressing for an end to NATOs war in Ukraine and to the sanctions on Syria.

Action Beginning

In the U.S. House of Representatives, a War Powers Resolution, was submitted Feb. 21 by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) to get all U.S. troops out of Syria. By law, that action is a privileged measure, which must be voted upon within 18 days. If it is voted up, the Biden Administration will have 15 days in which to implement the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

The LaRouche movement is mobilizing to target Congress, which has blood on its hands, to pass this resolution, which will be an important first step in stopping the barbarism of sanctions in Syria, and worldwide.

Reports From Experts

Vanessa Beeley, speaking from Syria reported: Syrians are resilient, theyre resourceful. And despite the fact that 90% of the population is below the poverty level, they have survived. ... Now, they have a terrible humanitarian tragedy, 5 million estimated homeless in Syria. Even in the northwest, which is under the control of Western-backed terrorist groups, it is a humanitarian tragedy. But the West is not helping. She underscored that sanctions are a part of the occupation of Syria, which has three of its four borders controlled by hostile powers. Moreover, she said, The West is exploiting this tragedy to effectively kick start the war again against Syria, letting humanitarian aid in only through the Bab al-Hawa crossings from Turkiye which al-Qaeda controls. She concluded, What Syria needs now is for the sanctions to be lifted; but more than anything, it needs the U.S. occupation ended.... [The U.S.] occupies the southeast in their Al-Tanf military base which also controls the Rukban refugee camp. It has established a 55-kilometer no entry zone around it, where its training and arming armed groups, including ISIS. So, end the occupation, please.

Chandra Muzaffar emphasized, In all, sanctions wouldnt mean a thing without occupation.... We must understand that occupation continues in West Asia. Syria, he said, has become since 2007 a state which is not able to function as a state, because large parts of it are occupied by foreign powers and various groups backed by those powers. Syria had outdone many of the richer countries in Southwest Asia in providing both health care and education to all its people, equal rights and respect to women, tolerance in a multi-ethnic, multi-religious society. It is a victim of U.S. hegemony, he said, which must end. We should cooperate and work together ... where the finest values of our respective civilizations would be able to flourish.

Marwa Osman was very specific in suggesting to Americans: Go to associates or neighbors and raise some funds to aid the tens of thousands of Syrian victims of the earthquakes. Then contact your Member of Congress and ask for assistance in sending those funds to people or charities in Syrian cities like Aleppo, and ask that Member to explain to you why thats blocked, not possible, although the sanctions were supposed to be suspended for 180 days (the financial sanctions were not suspended). Then demand that that Member change it. Even NGOs in neighboring Lebanon, Ms. Osman said, are afraid that they will be sanctioned by the United States and EU if they convey funds to Syrians across the border.

Col. Richard Black (ret.), who has made numerous visits to Syria, graphically described the nature of the terrorists supported by the U.S. government, stating that we have turned over large parts of the country to terrorists who take selfies standing on the backs of innocent women. It is disgraceful! And now, were following up by taunting the people of Syria who are under this terrible earthquake devastation, and were taunting them about how they really should have gone the other way. They should have been on our side, and now theyre getting what they deserve is essentially what the State Department is saying.

It is a disgrace! It is a horror! If the American people understood what is happening, this government would fall. This government could not exist in the United States if the American people were not shielded by this complicit media in the horrors that we have imposed on the Syrian people.

It is a shame. I hate to see it, because I love my country. I want it to be a better place, than it was when I was growing up. And I have hope and prayer that it will become better, but we could certainly start by ending these obscene Caesar Sanctions that are imposing famine and freezing on innocent people.

Faith-Based Groups

An urgent appeal was issued on Feb. 6 by the Middle East Council of Churches, an affiliate of the World Council of Churches, stating We urge the immediate lifting of sanctions on Syria and allowing access to all materials, so sanctions may not turn into a crime against humanity.

On Feb. 17, an open letter was released by a group of faith-based organizations in the United States. The letter states in part:

Therefore, we as a community ask Congress and the Administration to: Lift sanctions in order to expedite aid delivery, open commercial access, and expand relief services to civilians in need. Remove the 180-day sunset on the new General License for Syria. Extend applicability for the newly adopted Global General License for material support in all of Syria. Continue to communicate with Syrian and UN counterparts during the earthquake response, and work to open new border crossings for personnel to access Northern Syria. Issue letters of comfort to financial institutions and aid organizations to help facilitate emergency assistance in Syria. Coordinate the opening of banking channels to help NGOs and INGOs get aid to where it is needed; including family remittances. Appropriate additional funds to USAID and UN programs to support Turkiye and Syria through the earthquake response and recovery.

The letter was signed by the Alliance of Baptists; American Friends Service Committee (AFSC); Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP); Community of Christ; Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, U.S. Provinces; Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL); Global Ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and United Church of Christ Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns; Mennonite Central Committee U.S. (MCC); National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd; Pax Christi USA; Presbyterian Church (USA); The United Methodist ChurchGeneral Board of Church and Society; Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC); and United Church of Christ, Justice and Local Church Ministries.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  How do people raised with a sense of right and wrong end up involved in terrible acts of violence against others?

That's the human mystery at the heart of 2,000 intercepted phone calls from Russian soldiers in Ukraine. These calls obtained by The Associated Press offer an intimate new perspective on Russian President Vladimir Putin's year-old war, seen through the eyes of Russian soldiers themselves.

The AP identified calls made in March 2022 by soldiers in a military division that Ukrainian prosecutors say committed war crimes in Bucha, a town outside Kyiv that became an early symbol of Russian atrocities.

They show how deeply unprepared young soldiers  and their country  were for the war to come. Many joined the military because they needed money and were informed of their deployment at the last minute. They were told they'd be welcomed as heroes for liberating Ukraine from its Nazi oppressors and their Western backers, and that Kyiv would fall without bloodshed within a week.

The intercepts show that as soldiers realized how much they'd been misled, they grew more and more afraid. Violence that once would have been unthinkable became normal. Looting and drinking offered moments of rare reprieve. Some said they were following orders to kill civilians or prisoners of war.

They tell their mothers what this war actually looks like: About the teenage Ukrainian boy who got his ears cut off. How the scariest sound is not the whistle of a rocket flying past, but the silence that means it's coming directly for you. How modern weapons can obliterate the human body so there's nothing left to bring home.

We listen as their mothers struggle to reconcile their pride and their horror, and as their wives and fathers beg them not to drink too much and to please, please call home.

These are the stories of three of those men  Ivan, Leonid and Maxim. The AP isn't using their full names to protect their families in Russia. The AP established that they were in areas when atrocities were committed, but has no evidence of their individual actions beyond what they confess.

The AP spoke with the mothers of Ivan and Leonid, but couldn't reach Maxim or his family. The AP verified these calls with the help of the Dossier Center, an investigative group in London funded by Russian dissident Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The conversations have been edited for length and clarity.

Warning: The conversations contain vulgar language and graphic details.

In a joint production on Saturday, Feb. 25, The Associated Press and Reveal at the Center for Investigative Reporting will broadcast never-before-heard audio of Russian soldiers as they confront  and perpetrate  the brutality of Russia's war in Ukraine.

***

LEONID

Leonid became a soldier because he needed money. He was in debt and didn't want to depend on his parents.

"I just wasn't prepared emotionally for my child to go to war at the age of 19," his mother told the AP in January. "None of us had experienced anything like this, that your child would live in a time when he has to go and fight."

Leonid's mother said Russia needs to protect itself from its enemies. But, like many others, she expected Russia to take parts of eastern Ukraine quickly. Instead, Leonid's unit got stuck around Bucha.

"No one thought it would be so terrible," his mother said. "My son just said one thing: 'My conscience is clear. They opened fire first.' That's all."

In the calls, there is an obvious moral dissonance between the way Leonid's mother raised him and what he is seeing and doing in Ukraine. Still, she defended her son, insisting he never even came into contact with civilians in Ukraine.

She said everything was calm, civil. There was no trouble at the checkpoints. Nothing bad happened. The war didn't change her son.

She declined to listen to any of the intercepts: "This is absurd," she said. "Just don't try to make it look like my child killed innocent people."

***

ONE: Kill if you don't want to be killed.

Leonid's introduction to war came on Feb. 24, as his unit crossed into Ukraine from Belarus and decimated a detachment of Ukrainians at the border. After his first fight, Leonid seems to have compassion for the young Ukrainian soldiers they'd just killed.

Mother: "When did you get scared?"

Leonid: "When our commander warned us we would be shot, 100%. He warned us that although we'd be bombed and shot at, our aim was to get through."

Mother: "Did they shoot you?"

Leonid: "Of course. We defeated them."

Mother: "Mhm. Did you shoot from your tanks?"

Leonid: "Yeah, we did. We shot from the tanks, machine guns and rifles. We had no losses. We destroyed their four tanks. There were dead bodies lying around and burning. So, we won."

Mother: "Oh what a nightmare! Lyonka, you wanted to live at that moment, right honey?"

Leonid: "More than ever!"

Mother: "More than ever, right honey?"

Leonid: "Of course."

Mother: "It's totally horrible."

Leonid: "They were lying there, just 18 or 19 years old. Am I different from them? No, I'm not."

***

TWO: The rules of normal life no longer apply.

Leonid tells his mother their plan was to seize Kyiv within a week, without firing a single bullet. Instead, his unit started taking fire near Chernobyl. They had no maps and the Ukrainians had taken down all the road signs.

"It was so confusing," he says. "They were well prepared."

Not expecting a prolonged attack, Russian soldiers ran short on basic supplies. One way for them to get what they needed  or wanted  was to steal.

Many soldiers, including Leonid, talk about money with the wary precision that comes from not having enough. Some take orders from friends and family for certain-sized shoes and parts for specific cars, proud to go home with something to give.

When Leonid tells his mother casually about looting, at first she can't believe he's stealing. But it's become normal for him.

As he speaks, he watches a town burn on the horizon.

"Such a beauty," he says.

Leonid: "Look, mom, I'm looking at tons of houses  I don't know, dozens, hundreds  and they're all empty. Everyone ran away."

Mother: "So all the people left, right? You guys aren't looting them, are you? You're not going into other people's houses?"

Leonid: "Of course we are, mom. Are you crazy?"

Mother: "Oh, you are. What do you take from there?"

Leonid: "We take food, bed linen, pillows. Blankets, forks, spoons, pans."

Mother: (laughing) "You gotta be kidding me."

Leonid: "Whoever doesn't have any  socks, clean underwear, T-shirts, sweaters."

***

THREE: The enemy is everybody.

Leonid tells his mother about the terror of going on patrol and not knowing what or who they will encounter. He describes using lethal force at the slightest provocation against just about anyone.

At first, she seems not to believe that Russian soldiers could be killing civilians.

Leonid tells her that civilians were told to flee or shelter in basements, so anyone who was outside must not be a real civilian. Russian soldiers had been told, by Putin and others, that they'd be greeted as liberators and anyone who resisted was a fascist, an insurgent  not a real civilian.

This was a whole-of-society war. Mercy was for suckers.

Mother: "Oh Lyonka, you've seen so much stuff there!"

Leonid: "Well ... civilians are lying around right on the street with their brains coming out."

Mother: "Oh God, you mean the locals?"

Leonid: "Yep. Well, like, yeah."

Mother: "Are they the ones you guys shot or the ones ... "

Leonid: "The ones killed by our army."

Mother: "Lyonya, they might just be peaceful people."

Leonid: "Mom, there was a battle. And a guy would just pop up, you know? Maybe he would pull out a grenade launcher ... Or we had a case, a young guy was stopped, they took his cellphone. He had all this information about us in his Telegram messages  where to bomb, how many we were, how many tanks we have. And that's it."

Mother: "So they knew everything?"

Leonid: "He was shot right there on the spot."

Mother: "Mhm."

Leonid: "He was 17 years old. And that's it, right there."

Mother: "Mhm."

Leonid: "There was a prisoner. It was an 18-year-old guy. First, he was shot in his leg. Then his ears were cut off. After that, he admitted everything, and they killed him."

Mother: "Did he admit it?"

Leonid: "We don't imprison them. I mean, we kill them all."

Mother: "Mhm."

***

FOUR: What it takes to get home alive.

Leonid tells his mother he was nearly killed five times. Things are so disorganized, he says, that it's not uncommon for Russians to fire on their own troops  it even happened to him. Some soldiers shoot themselves just to get medical leave, he says.

In another call, he tells his girlfriend he's envious of his buddies who got shot in the feet and could go home. "A bullet in your foot is like four months at home with crutches," he says. "It would be awesome."

Then he hangs up because of incoming fire.

Mother: "Hello, Lyonechka."

Leonid: "I just wanted to call you again. I am able to speak."

Mother: "Oh, that's good."

Leonid: "There are people out here who shoot themselves."

Mother: "Mhm."

Leonid: "They do it for the insurance money. You know where they shoot themselves?"

Mother: "That's silly, Lyonya."

Leonid: "The bottom part of the left thigh."

Mother: "It's bull, Lyonya. They're crazy, you know that, right?"

Leonid: "Some people are so scared that they are ready to harm themselves just to leave."

Mother: "Yeah, it is fear, what can you say here, it's human fear. Everybody wants to live. I don't argue with that, but please don't do that. We all pray for you. You should cross yourself any chance you get, just turn away from everyone and do it. We all pray for you. We're all worried."

Leonid: "I'm standing here, and you know what the situation is? I am now 30 meters (100 feet) away from a huge cemetery." (giggling)

Mother: "Oh, that's horrible ... may it be over soon."

Leonid says he had to learn to empty his mind.

"Imagine, it's nighttime. You're sitting in the dark and it's quiet out there. Alone with your thoughts. And day after day, you sit there alone with those thoughts," he tells his girlfriend. "I already learned to think of nothing while sitting outside."

He promises to bring home a collection of bullets for the kids. "Trophies from Ukraine," he calls them.

His mother says she's waiting for him.

"Of course I'll come, why wouldn't I?" Leonid says.

"Of course, you'll come," his mother says. "No doubts. You're my beloved. Of course, you'll come. You are my happiness."

Leonid returned to Russia in May, badly wounded, but alive. He told his mother Russia would win this war.

***

IVAN

Ivan dreamed of being a paratrooper from the time he was a boy, growing up in a village at the edge of Siberia. He used to dress up in fatigues and play paintball with friends in the woods. A photo shows him at 12 years old, smiling with a big Airsoft rifle and a slimy splotch of green near his heart  a sign of certain death in paintball.

Ivan's dream came true. He entered an elite unit of Russian paratroopers, which crossed into Ukraine the very first day of Putin's Feb. 24 invasion, one year ago.

***

ONE: Ivan's road to war.

Ivan was in Belarus on training when they got a Telegram message: "Tomorrow you are leaving for Ukraine. There is a genocide of the Russian population. And we have to stop it."

When his mother found out he was in Ukraine, she said she stopped speaking for days and took sedatives. Her hair went gray. Still, she was proud of him.

Ivan ended up in Bucha.

Ivan: "Mom, hi."

Mother: "Hi, son! How "

Ivan: "How are you?"

Mother: "Vanya, I understand they might be listening so I'm afraid "

Ivan: "Doesn't matter."

Mother: " to ask where you are, what's happening. Where are you?"

Ivan: "In Bucha."

Mother: "In Bucha?"

Ivan: "In Bucha."

Mother: "Son, be as careful as you can, OK? Don't go charging around! Always keep a cool head."

Ivan: "Oh, come on, I'm not charging around."

Mother: "Yeah, right! And yesterday you told me how you're gonna f kill everyone out there." (laughs)

Ivan: "We will kill if we have to."

Mother: "Huh?"

Ivan: "If we have to  we have to."

Mother: "I understand you. I'm so proud of you, my son! I don't even know how to put it. I love you so much. And I bless you for everything, everything! I wish you success in everything. And I'll wait for you no matter what."

***

TWO: Love and fear.

Russian soldiers had been told by Putin and others that they'd be welcomed by their brothers and sisters in Ukraine as liberators. Instead, Ivan finds that most Ukrainians want him dead or gone. His mood darkens.

He calls his girlfriend, Olya, and tells her he had a dream about her.

Ivan: "F-, you know, it's driving me crazy here. It's just that ... You were just  I felt you, touched you with my hand. I don't understand how it's possible, why, where  But I really felt you. I don't know, I felt something warm, something dear. It's like something was on fire in my hands, so warm  And that's it. I don't know. I was sleeping and then I woke up with all these thoughts. War  You know, when you're sleeping  and then you're like  War  Where, where is it? It was just dark in the house, so dark. And I went outside, walked around the streets, and thought: damn, f- it. And that's it. I really want to come see you."

Olya: "I am waiting for you."

Ivan: "Waiting? OK. I'm waiting, too. Waiting for the time I can come see you ... Let's make a deal. When we see each other, let's spend the entire day together. Laying around, sitting together, eating, looking at each other  just us, together."

Olya: (Laughs) "Agreed."

Ivan: "Together all the time. Hugging, cuddling, kissing  Together all the time, not letting each other go."

Olya: "Well, yeah!"

Ivan: "You can go f crazy here. It's so f- up, the s- that's happening. I really thought it would be easy here, to tell you the truth. That it's just gonna be easy to talk, think about it. But it turned out to be hard, you need to think with your head all the time. So that's that."

Ivan: "We are really at the front line. As far out as you could be. Kyiv is 15 kilometers (about 10 miles) from us. It is scary, Olya. It really is scary."

Olya: "Hello?"

Ivan: "Do you hear me?"

The line drops.

***

THREE: The end.

As things get worse for Ivan in Ukraine, his mother's patriotism deepens and her rage grows. The family has relatives in Kyiv, but seems to believe this is a righteous war against Nazi oppression in Ukraine  and the dark hand of the United States they see behind Kyiv's tough resistance. She says she'll go to Ukraine herself to fight.

Mother: "Do you have any predictions about the end ...?"

Ivan: "We are here for the time being. We'll probably stay until they clean up the whole of Ukraine. Maybe they'll pull us out. Maybe not. We're going for Kyiv."

Mother: "What are they going to do?"

Ivan: "We're not going anywhere until they clean up all of these pests."

Mother: "Are those bastards getting cleaned up?"

Ivan: "Yes, they are. But they've been waiting for us and preparing, you understand? Preparing properly. American motherf have been helping them out."

Mother: "F f. F kill them all. You have my blessing."

Death came for Ivan a decade after that boyhood paintball game.

In July, a local paper published a notice of his funeral with a photo of him, again in fatigues holding a large rifle. Ivan died heroically in Russia's "special military operation," the announcement said. We will never forget you. All of Russia shares this grief.

Reached by the AP in January, Ivan's mother at first denied she'd ever talked with her son from the front. But she agreed to listen to some of the intercepted audio and confirmed it was her speaking with Ivan.

"He wasn't involved in murders, let alone in looting," she told the AP before hanging up the phone.

Ivan was her only son.

***

MAXIM

Maxim is drunk in some of the calls, slurring his words, because life at the front line is more than he can take sober.

It's not clear what military unit Maxim is in, but he makes calls from the same phone as Ivan, on the same days.

He says they're alone out there and exposed. Communications are so bad they're taking more fire from their own troops than from the Ukrainians.

He has a bad toothache and his feet are freezing. The hunt for locals  men, women and children who might be informing on them to the Ukrainian military is constant.

Maxim's mood flips between boredom and horror  not just at what he has seen, but also what he has done.

***

ONE: Gold!

The only reason Maxim is able to speak with his family back in Russia is because they've been stealing phones from locals. He says they're even shaking down kids.

"We take everything from them," he explains to his wife. "Because they can also be f spotters."

Stuck just outside Kyiv, bored and unsure why they're in Ukraine in the first place, Maxim and a half-dozen other guys shot up a shopping mall and made off with all the gold they could carry.

Back home Maxim has money troubles, but here his hands are heavy with treasure. He gleefully calculates and recalculates what his pile of gold might be worth.He says he offered a wad of money the size of his fist to Ukrainian women and children.

"I wanted to give it to normal families with kids, but the people out there were drunks," he tells his wife.

In the end, he handed the cash off to a random, cleanshaven man he thought looked decent. "I told him: 'Look here, take it, give it to families with kids and take something for yourself. You'll figure it out, make it fair.'"

On calls home, the high sweet voice of Maxim's own young child bubbles in the background as he talks with his wife.

Maxim: "Do you know how much a gram of gold costs here?"

Wife: "No."

Maxim: "Roughly? About two or three thousand rubles, right?"

Wife: "Well, yeah "

Maxim: "Well, I have 1 kilograms (more than three pounds). With labels even."

Wife: "Holy f-, are we looters?!"

Maxim: "With labels, yeah. It's just that we f- up this  We were shooting at this shopping mall from a tank. Then we go in, and there's a f jewelry store. Everything was taken. But there was a safe there. We cracked it open, and inside  f- me! So the seven of us loaded up."

Wife: "I see."

Maxim: "They had these f necklaces, you know. In our money, they're like 30-40,000 a piece, 60,000 a piece."

Wife: "Holy crap."

Maxim: "I scored about a kilo and a half of necklaces, charms, bracelets ... these  earrings ... earrings with rings "

Wife: "That's enough, don't tell me."

Maxim: "Anyway, I counted and if it's 3,000 rubles a gram, then I have about 3.5 million. If you offload it."

Wife: "Got it. How's the situation there?"

Maxim: "It's f OK."

Wife: "OK? Got it."

Maxim: "We don't have a f thing to do, so we go around and loot the f shopping mall."

Wife: "Just be careful, in the name of Christ."

***

TWO: Propaganda.

Maxim and his mother discuss the opposing stories about the war being told on Ukrainian and Russian television. They blame the United States and recite conspiracy theories pushed by Russian state media.

But Maxim and his mother believe it's the Ukrainians who are deluded by fake news and propaganda, not them. The best way to end the war, his mother says, is to kill the presidents of Ukraine and the United States.

Later, Maxim tells his mother that thousands of Russian troops died in the first weeks of war  so many that there's no time to do anything except haul away the bodies. That's not what they're saying on Russian TV, his mother says.

Maxim: "Here, it's all American. All the weapons."

Mother: "It's the Americans driving this, of course! Look at their laboratories. They are developing biological weapons. Coronavirus literally started there."

Maxim: "Yeah, I also saw somewhere that they used bats."

Mother: "All of it. Bats, migrating birds, and even coronavirus might be their biological weapon."

Mother: "They even found all these papers with signatures from the U.S. all over Ukraine. Biden's son is the mastermind behind all of this."

Mother: "When will it end? When they stop supplying weapons."

Maxim: "Mhm."

Mother: "Until they catch (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelenskyy and execute him, nothing will end. He's a fool, a fool! He's a puppet for the U.S. and they really don't need him, the fool. You watch TV and you feel bad for the people, the civilians, some travelling with young kids."

Mother: "If I was given a gun, I'd go and shoot Biden." (Laughs)

Maxim: (Laughs)

***

THREE: War and peace.

The Ukrainian government has been intercepting Russian calls when their phones ping Ukrainian cell towers, providing important real-time intelligence for the military. Now, the calls are also potential evidence for war crimes.

But phones have been dangerous for the soldiers in another, more personal sense. The phone acts as a real-time bridge between two incompatible realities  the war in Ukraine and home.

In Maxim's calls with his wife, war and peace collide. Even as she teaches their daughter the rules of society  scolding the child for throwing things, for example  Maxim talks about what he's been stealing. His wife's world is filled with school crafts and the sounds of children playing outside. In his, volleys of gunfire crack the air.

One night last March, Maxim was having trouble keeping it together on a call with his wife. He'd been drinking, as he did every night.

He told her he'd killed civilians  so many he thinks he's going crazy. He said he might not make it home alive. He was just sitting there, drunk in the dark, waiting for the Ukrainian artillery strikes to start.

Wife: "Why? Why are you drinking?"

Maxim: "Everyone is like that here. It's impossible without it here."

Wife: "How the f- will you protect yourself if you are tipsy?"

Maxim: "Totally normal. On the contrary, it's easier to shoot ... civilians. Let's not talk about this. I'll come back and tell you how it is here and why we drink!"

Wife: "Please, just be careful!"

Maxim: "Everything will be fine. Honestly, I'm scared s-less myself. I never saw such hell as here. I am f shocked."

Wife: "Why the f- did you go there?"

Minutes later, he's on the phone with his child.

"You're coming back?" the child asks.

"Of course," Maxim says.

***

FOUR: The end?

In their last intercepted call, Maxim's wife seems to have a premonition.

Wife: "Is everything all right?"

Maxim: "Yeah. Why?"

Wife: "Be honest with me, is everything all right?"

Maxim: "Huh? Why do you ask?"

Wife: "It's nothing, I just can't sleep at night."

Maxim is a little breathless. He and his unit are getting ready to go. His wife asks him where they're going.

"Forward," he tells her. "I won't be able to call for a while."

***
The Native woman wearing feathers in her braided hair took a seat facing eight members of the Nebraska Legislature.

Alice Johnson stared down at the paper in her hands that held the speech shed practiced over and over until no amount of nerves could mask its message.

Our hair, our regalia, it's who we are. It's who our ancestors were. It's our identity, she told the Legislatures Education Committee, on Feb. 13. Everyone has the right to freely express themselves and show their individuality. So why can't we as Native Americans?

In 2020, two daughters of Johnson and her wife Norma Leroy told their mothers that a school secretary had cut their hair during an alleged lice check. The mothers told the school why this upset them  that hair was integral to their culture and beliefs.

Their concerns allegedly got nowhere in Kilgore, a town of 77 thats 22 miles west of Valentine. The familys grief and outrage became a national story  and the basis of an ongoing ACLU of Nebraska lawsuit against the school.

Now, the two women say, the bill Johnson testified for  a bill meant to protect their childrens right to wear their hair as they choose  represents the first sign of progress.

I feel like its a stepping stone, Johnson said.

Introduced by Sen. Terrell McKinney of Omaha, the bill (LB630) would require all Nebraska schools to adopt a written dress code and grooming policy that would not discriminate against anyones hair or dress based on race, religion, sex, disability or national origin.

The idea for the bill grew from a past McKinney bill to protect workers against discrimination for wearing natural hairstyles. That effort passed with wide bipartisan support. Gov. Pete Ricketts signed it into law in 2021.

Extending protections to students seemed the next logical step, McKinney said. The Legislatures Education Committee appears to agree, unanimously voting to advance the bill last week, sending it to the floor for consideration.

When he heard the story of the Lakota girls hair cutting  a story featured in USA Today and other national publications  the importance of the bill became clear, McKinney said.

How can you grow the state if youre not being welcoming to diverse communities? McKinney said. We have to have things in place  that allow kids to be themselves.

McKinneys office partnered with the ACLU of Nebraska on the bill after the group obtained dress code and grooming policies from 20 different school districts across the state. All 20 had vague language allowing school administrators and staff wide discretion on things like hairstyle. Several banned clothing that could be culturally or religiously significant, according to an ACLU report. Many of the policies included suspension or expulsion as a consequence.

Proponents of the bill included Native, Black, Muslim and LGBTQ+ advocates. Jordan Mason, president of the Muslim Law Students Association at the University of Nebraska College of Law, said its the sign of a special cause when people from so many different backgrounds come together under a unified message.

If you wanted a picture-perfect definition of what an intersectional bill looks like, it's this one, she said.

For Mason, who attended the Valentines Day hearing wearing a pink suit jacket and hijab, a bill like this shows the common interests many Nebraskans share. She chose to start covering her hair a few years ago when she was a first-year law student. She said she has received nothing but support at the law school. She wants that same feeling of acceptance extended to all Nebraskans.

I think it does make Nebraska a more welcoming place to be, Mason said. Maybe not writ large, but I think our children do represent our state. And if you're comfortable sending your kids to school on their first day wearing a hijab, you're more likely to stay.

Nyomi Thompson, policy and advocacy coordinator for I Be Black Girl, an Omaha nonprofit that advocates for Black women and girls, said allowing school staff and administrators to enforce vague policies leads to more Black students facing discipline. It also sets back their educational attainment, she said.

Black students continue to be disproportionately targeted by what presents as race-neutral learning policies, she said, policies that criminalize cultural expression of Black students who are already navigating their own identity.

McKinney is hopeful the bill will receive the same unanimous support as his past bill that outlawed workplace discrimination of natural hair. But he knows nothing is guaranteed.

Ive read the online comments  people think it's not necessary or we should leave it up to school boards, he said. But my response to that is our school boards aren't created equal. Without real cultural competency across the state, we need something like this in place to ensure that kids are protected.

The result of policy that includes cultural competency can make a big difference, as Johnson and Leroy say they found out firsthand.

After confronting school administrators about the hair cutting, they moved their five girls from Cody-Kilgore Unified Schools to a private school on the Rosebud Reservation on the South Dakota side of the border. Its a half-hour drive there and back every morning and afternoon, but Johnson and Leroy feel their kids are safer and spending more time learning about their culture.

There was even an incident where one daughter snipped off the end of her hair. Staff at the reservation school knew exactly what to do, Johnson said.

We went into the classroom and the teacher gathered the hair, brought in a medicine man and prayed, Johnson said. The next morning they discarded the hair properly.

Thats night-and-day from a Cody-Kilgore staff member cutting their kids hair against their wishes, the mothers say. In that case, the lawsuit alleges, the mothers had to fight to get the hair back so it could be burned in accordance with Lakota beliefs. A Lakota persons hair is their spirit, Lakota beliefs say. When its cut, or even gathers in a hairbrush, it must be burned to release the spirit.

Nearly three years after their daughters hair cutting in Kilgore, the moms still take them to sweats and pray to rekindle their spiritual connection.

Just like a tree has branches that extend to the root of the tree, our hair extends to our spirit, Leroy said. When our daughters hair was cut, we lost a part of who they are.

A bill like LB630 wont make everything better, Johnson and Leroy said. But its helping, they say, to reinforce ideas that hair, dress and other ways we express our identity should be protected, no matter what that looks like.

They're turning something that happened that was truly negative, into something really positive, said Rose Godinez, ACLU of Nebraskas senior legal and policy counsel who represented the parents in their lawsuit against Cody-Kilgore Unified Schools. And not just for the Native American community; they really are advocating for all students.

The Flatwater Free Press is Nebraskas first independent, nonprofit newsroom focused on investigations and feature stories that matter.

Top Journal Star photos for February 2023
Eckart Bueren (Georg-August University Gottingen) & Jennifer Crowder (Georg-August University Gottingen) have posted Sustainability and Competition Law  Germany (Forthcoming in Bruce Kilpatrick, Pierre Kobel & Pranvera Kellezi, Sustainability in competition law & Green IP, LIDC Contributions on Antitrust Law, Intellectual Property and Unfair Competition, 2023) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

German competition law has been witnessing a long-standing discussion on how and to what extent non-economic goals can and should play a role in the application of the German Act against Restraints of Competition (GWB). Recently, this discussion has centered on sustainability as a partly economic, partly non-economic goal, which is universally recognised, but seems to lack a clear-cut definition (see Section 2.1). Indeed, promoting sustainability, in particular with regard to climate protection and the protection of human rights in supply chains, is currently one of the most prominent hot topics in economic law in many jurisdictions. In Germany as well as in Europe, not only company law and capital market law, but also competition law has come into the focus of this debate. At the outset, it should be stressed that most scholars and practitioners in Germany share the view that sustainability, in particular climate protection, and competition law do not usually collide, as competition promotes an efficient use of resources in line with sustainability targets (see Section 3.1). However, conflicts may arise, in particular in situations of market failure (see Section 2.2).

This discussion is not completely new. As a spin-off of the debate and the vast scholarship on (certain) non-economic goals and competition policy, the period between (at least) the early 1970s and the late 1990s saw an intense discussion on German competition law vis-a-vis environmental protection, in particular with regard to so-called self-restraint agreements by undertakings (Selbstbeschrankungsvereinbarungen) and regulation on waste disposal. Besides, since the 1990s, several German monographs have been devoted to the topic, placing a focus on European competition law.

Especially since 2020, the discussion has gained traction again in light of the broader concept of sustainability, but is still focussing on environmental aspects, as evidenced by a steady stream of recent articles in German journals and commemorative publications. From a legal perspective, this renewed attention on sustainability-related matters is motivated by international law obligations for climate protection, both by European law and by German constitutional law (see Section 2.1). Another important driver is the practical need for companies to react to the aforementioned developments: Companies must adapt to new laws on supply chain liability and sustainable finance, to increasing societal pressure to stop ESG-irresponsible practices and to growing consumer demand for ESG compatible business behaviour and products. For these reasons, several companies have already approached the German Federal Cartel Office for advice on whether they can pursue joint sustainability initiatives (see Section 3). Against this background and in view of recent policy activities in other jurisdictions such as the Netherlands and on EU level, the current German government has announced that it will examine whether changes in the German Act against restraints of competition (Gesetz gegen Wettbewerbsbeschrankungen  GWB) to facilitate sustainability initiatives are in order (see Section 4).
The Middle Easts leading international art fairs most ambitious edition to date, featuring over 130 contemporary, modern and digital gallery presentations, opened today in Dubai.

Art Dubai, held under the patronage of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, is a leading global platform for art and artists from the Middle East and Global South. It is being held in Madinat Jumeirah Dubai from March 3 to 5 (previews on March 1 and 2).

Galleries from more than 40 countries across four main sections -- Contemporary, Modern, Bawwaba and Art Dubai Digital -- will be complemented by an ambitious partner and non-profit programme, including newly commissioned artworks and premieres by internationally renowned artists. With an expanded education and thought leadership programme, Art Dubais 16th edition will be the fairs largest and most extensive to date.

Art Dubais Executive Director Benedetta Ghione commented: Art Dubai has always tried to reframe what an art fair can be, and this years expanded programme fully reflects our role as a meeting point for the regions creative industries, across the commercial and not-for-profit sectors. As an independent organisation, we pride ourselves on being more than an art fair  we are an incubator of talent, a catalyst for the creative economy here in Dubai, a convener of great minds, and an entry point to this vibrant ecosystem for the wider cultural sector.

Art Dubais Artistic Director Pablo del Val commented: For nearly two decades, Art Dubai has been a place to discover and celebrate new trends, creating and facilitating conversations, and celebrating the strength of creative output across the Global South. Art Dubai is a truly global art fair, and this is reflected in both the quality and geographic spread of the galleries participating this year. That so much of the programme is once again drawn from the Global South highlights the increased interest in and appetite for collecting non-Western art, the strengthening of the gallery scene beyond the traditional centres of the art world, and the role Art Dubai plays as a platform for regions that are under-represented in international collections."

On renewing their partnership with Art Dubai, Mohammad Saeed Al Shehhi, CEO of A.R.M. Holding said: We are delighted to renew and expand our partnership with Art Dubai for a further five years. Art Dubai is one of the most important institutions in the regions cultural landscape, incubating and supporting innovation and creativity in all its forms and at all ages. Through this partnership we aim to reinforce Dubais position as a global centre of culture and to continue empowering the next generation through innovative programmes like the A.R.M. Childrens Programme, which will expand this year to more than 9,000 students."

Gallery Programme: The 2023 fair will include over 30 first-time participants and more than 60% of the gallery programme is drawn from the Global South, reaffirming Art Dubais position as the leading marketplace for art from this rapidly developing region.

Art Dubai Contemporary presents the very best in cutting-edge contemporary art from 76 galleries and 34 countries, with particular focus on art and artists from the Global South. For our 16th edition, we are pleased to welcome 14 first-time exhibitors, and 12 galleries who are returning to Art Dubai after a hiatus. The 2023 edition of Art Dubai will feature 24 Dubai- based galleries, more than ever before, reflecting the continued growth of Dubais artistic ecosystem and the emirates increasing importance as a global creative and cultural hub.

Art Dubai 2023 also sees the return of Art Dubai Digital, which launched to critical and commercial success at the 2022 fair. This physical section of Art Dubai provides an annual 360-degree snapshot of the digital art landscape, building bridges between the art and technology worlds, and exploring how artists are utilising new, immersive technologies to collapse the boundaries of the traditional art world. The selection is drawn from across 6 continents, reinforcing Art Dubais commitment to presenting global perspectives and diversity, inviting audiences to look beyond traditional art centres, and mapping out the key agents and platforms leading the way. Curated by Singapore-based educator and arts writer Clara Che Wei Peh, the expanded 2023 edition will focus on the artists, galleries and institutions who are driving this fast-developing arena.

Bangkok-based Vipash Purichanont curates the 2023 edition of Art Dubais Bawwaba section. Meaning gateway in Arabic, Bawwaba exclusively features artworks made in the past year or specifically for Art Dubai, and comprises solo presentations by 11 artists hailing from across the Global South. Across a variety of mediums, from painting and tapestry to filmmaking and performance, this section explores how contemporary artists from the Global South bring forth concerns within their worlds, from socio-cultural issues such as the

tension between rapid urban development and traditional values, the legacy of colonisation on environment, human relationships in the age of hyperconnectivity, or personal concerns around the meaning of language and void.

The 2023 edition of Art Dubai Modern is curated by Paris-based critic and curator Mouna Mekouar and Italian art historian Lorenzo Giusti (director, GAMeC, Bergamo) and features solo presentations by the regions modern masters, reinforcing Art Dubais commitment to curatorial scholarship and art historical research. The selection focuses on the pioneers of contemporary art in the MENASA area, whose works are retrospectively playing a key role in today's art and, by extension, in art history and reflecting the cultural richness and diversity of the region.

Art Dubai Commissions: Chaupal: A Journey through South Asia is a series of site-specific performances and activations by ten leading artists from South Asia that explore the power of food, ritual, and gathering. Inspired by the chaupal, a public space that encourages community building in rural areas, where people gather to discuss their problems, celebrate pleasures, and share their pains, it is the hub of community life in villages around South Asia. The programme is produced in partnership with Art Dubais galleries and several leading South Asian cultural organisations, and comprises a diverse lineup of daily live performances and food-based experiences by artists whose work explores themes of community, celebration, hope, and connection.

Conferences and Talks Programme: Art Dubais artistic programme is complemented by the fairs largest ever thought- leadership programme, convening a broad cross-section of the brightest cultural and creative minds. Continuing the fairs long-standing commitments to dialogue, diverse voices and the development of Dubais cultural infrastructure, the 2023 programme will feature more than 50 sessions in an ambitious daily conference, talks and education programme. Highlights include the 16th edition of Art Dubais flagship Global Art Forum, the first Middle East edition of Christies Art+Tech summit, a series of Modern and Collector talks developed in partnership with Dubai Collection, and a new event in partnership with the Art Business Conference.  TradeArabia News Service
Country

United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe
The Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters is hosting Poetry & Pi(e), an event featuring poetry readings and pie on Pi Day, March 14, from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Poetry & Pi(e) will feature readings by new Wisconsin Poet Laureate Nicholas Gulig, an associate professor of languages and literatures at UW-Whitewater, and outgoing Wisconsin Poet Laureate Dasha Kelly Hamilton, a writer and performance artist.

The event will be in the Promenade Lounge at the Overture Center, 201 State St. Pies will come from Hubbard Avenue Diner in Middleton.

Gulig will attend in person, while Hamilton will read remotely.

"Bringing people together and shining a light on brilliance in Wisconsin is the heart of our work," Erika Monroe-Kane, the academy's executive director, said in a release. "We are thrilled to provide an opportunity to hear the elegant, intimate poems of Nicholas Gulig and the compelling, artful work of Dasha Kelly Hamilton."

The event can be experienced in-person or remotely. Tickets are $20 for academy members and $25 for non-members. Online, the event is free for academy members and $5 for non-members. Tickets can be purchased at wisconsinacademy.org/evenings/poetry-pie-2023.

Take a look at 'Immersive Van Gogh'
The case against a 16-year-old girl charged with stabbing another teen in the heart during a fight at a North Side Madison park in January, nearly killing him, will advance to the next step after a judge ruled Tuesday that prosecutors had presented enough evidence to support an attempted homicide charge.

Dane County Circuit Judge Rhonda Lanford said there was enough evidence to show probable cause that Lanagsha M. Crawford, of Madison, had committed attempted first-degree intentional homicide on Jan. 17 when she stabbed the 14-year-old boy with a kitchen knife during a confrontation at Warner Park between two groups that had squared off earlier in the day at Sherman Middle School.

In testimony that hewed closely to a criminal complaint that was filed on Jan. 19, Madison Police Detective Joseph Buccellato testified that a witness told police Crawford had a knife and had said she was going to stab someone with it before the boy was stabbed.

Buccellato said the wound, which pierced the boys heart, came within three millimeters of killing him, and required immediate open-heart surgery to repair the damage.

Defense attorney Shaun OConnell argued that at most, Crawford committed a reckless act, not the intentional act that prosecutors alleged. But Assistant District Attorney Tim Verhoff said that by bringing the knife to the fight, stabbing someone in the chest  even though Crawford told police she had stabbed the boy in the abdomen  and then later throwing away the knife from a moving car, it was shown by Crawfords acts alone that she had acted intentionally.

Prosecutors also had a lower burden of proof at the preliminary hearing  where they received the benefit of all reasonable inferences of the evidence  than they would at a trial, where proof beyond a reasonable doubt is required.

Because Crawfords attorneys have asked that the case be moved to juvenile court, prosecutors had to show that Crawford had probably committed a specific crime  attempted first-degree intentional homicide  rather than any unspecified felony, the usual standard at a preliminary hearing.

The case will be back before Lanford on May 5 for a reverse-waiver hearing, in which attorneys for Crawford will try to show that the case belongs in juvenile court instead of adult court.

In Wisconsin, anyone age 10 or older who is charged with first-degree intentional homicide or attempted homicide is automatically charged in adult court. Cases can be moved to juvenile court if it can be shown that a juvenile court disposition is more appropriate.

Crawfords aunt, Samantha R. Gentry, 31, of Madison, is charged with contributing to the delinquency of a child and harboring or aiding a felon for allegedly driving Crawford and others to and from Warner Park before and after the fight. A preliminary hearing for Gentry is scheduled for March 14.

Photos: U.S. Championship Cheese Contest U.S. Championship Cheese Contest 9 U.S. Championship Cheese Contest U.S. Championship Cheese Contest U.S. Championship Cheese Contest U.S. Championship Cheese Contest U.S. Championship Cheese Contest U.S. Championship Cheese Contest U.S. Championship Cheese Contest 3 U.S. Championship Cheese Contest U.S. Championship Cheese Contest U.S. Championship Cheese Contest 2 U.S. Championship Cheese Contest U.S. Championship Cheese Contest U.S. Championship Cheese Contest 5 U.S. Championship Cheese Contest U.S. Championship Cheese Contest 4 U.S. Championship Cheese Contest U.S. Championship Cheese Contest 7 U.S. Championship Cheese Contest U.S. Championship Cheese Contest 6 U.S. Championship Cheese Contest 8 U.S. Championship Cheese Contest
A UW-Madison graduate student was ordered banned from campus after he was charged Tuesday with making an online threat to start sneaking guns into crowded school buildings and advised that others dont go to Bascom Hall next week during a chat on a social media platform last week.

The FBI was immediately tipped to the comments reported on Thursday and with Madison police tracked down Thomas D. Hansen, 26, and arrested him Friday morning. Hansen remained in the Dane County Jail until a court appearance on Tuesday, when he was released on a signature bond.

A criminal complaint charges Hansen with making a terrorist threat, a felony that carries up to 3 years of combined prison and extended supervision. According to the complaint, Hansen told investigators the comments he made on the social media platform Yik Yak were just a joke.

The online comments described in the complaint come just weeks after a gunman killed three students and injured five others at Michigan State University before turning the gun on himself.

UW-Madison spokesperson John Lucas said the impact of the case may be compounded by the recent tragedy at Michigan State University. The quick action taken by law enforcement demonstrates the presence of processes designed to protect public safety from threats.

Such threats, Lucas said, are taken extremely seriously by the university, the UW Police Department and other members of law enforcement. As soon as the posts were reported, law enforcement responded immediately in the interest of public safety. The student is currently banned from the UWMadison campus as a condition of his bond.

Court Commissioner Jason Hanson denied a request by Assistant District Attorney Cecelia De Marco for cash bail, but he ordered Hansen to be monitored by Dane County Pretrial Services and that Hansen not be on the UW-Madison campus unless the dean of students, in writing, specifically allows him to be.

Hansens attorney, Eric Habich, said Hansen is nearing completion of his masters degree in electrical engineering and only needs to finish a few classes. He said Hansen also received his bachelors degree from UW-Madison.

Lucas said the university is unable to share any additional information in accordance with federal student privacy laws and to avoid interfering with an active police investigation.

According to the complaint:

The FBI contacted Madison police for assistance after receiving word of someone making comments about bringing guns to school and specifically about Bascom Hall. The person was determined to be Hansen, and the FBI and police went to his apartment in the 400 block of Grand Avenue to speak to him, but received no response at the door.

In the post, a person believed to be Hansen had said a woman had canceled a date with him because he got a haircut the week before and she doesnt know what Ill look like. Afterward, Hansen said, Im getting to the point where I think I should stop trying to date and start sneaking guns into crowded school buildings.

In another comment, he said, Youre cool, dont go to Bascom Hall next week.

Interviewed Friday morning, Hansen told investigators the comments were a joke.

The joke is that it sounds bad, but there is nothing bad being said, Hansen said, before trying to explain what the joke was. He said he had made the joke because of the canceled date, which he said was frustrating.

Asked if he had any guns, Hansen said he did and later allowed police to retrieve the gun he had. The revolver that was found was not loaded, but there was ammunition for it in a closet.
I just feel like Ive been all around the world, Madison Area Technical College student Margaret Maggie Joof said of the schools first Black History Month Fashion Show.

Joof, who is from the West African country of Gambia, styled and modeled an outfit in honor of her heritage at Tuesdays show, which showed off cultures from around the globe.

All the student models who participated in the show wore outfits that they styled themselves and represented their respective cultures.

Annette Crowder, co-president of the Black Student Union, based her outfit on the fashion aesthetics of the Black Panther Party by wearing all black and styling her hair into an Afro. As she walked down the runway, she raised her fist, prompting many cheers from the audience.

I had to think of how I would represent someone who doesnt know their original heritage, Crowder said. I was hoping that my outfit brought awareness to the Black Panther culture. I know I was the odd one out, but I was like, I dont care, its a culture too and its prevalent in our history.

The celebration, which also featured a DJ, food and prizes, was co-hosted by Madison Colleges Intercultural Exchange Center and United Common Ground. Intercultural Exchange Center is a space on MATCs Truax campus that encourages cultural diversity, and United Common Ground is a student organization that focuses on equity and inclusion by hosting campus events.

The fashion show was one of multiple events that Madison College has hosted in honor of Black History Month. Others were a weekly film series and the opening of the second annual Dzigbodi Akyea Art Exhibit, organized by the colleges Black Womens Affinity Group.

Olivia Lemke, a graduate assistant for Madison College, was one of the lead organizers of the fashion show, which came about after feedback from the schools Black students. She said she was pleasantly surprised by the number of students interested in modeling.

There are people coming from, representing, all sorts of different countries and cultures, Lemke said. I think we got so many because theyre excited to be able to show the Madison College community their culture and not necessarily have to verbalize it, but do it in a unique way by showing off their clothing.

Second-year student Jovhany Michaud styled and modeled an outfit that celebrated his Haitian heritage. His outfit was inspired by Haitian farming, as he carried a traditional bag called a makout that held the Haitian flag. With his outfit, Michaud said he wanted to represent positive aspects of his homelands culture.

We dont have a lot of Haitian representation in Wisconsin, he said. Its a beautiful country and our story is very powerful.

Joof, who is co-president of the Black Student Union with Crowder and a member of the Student Senate, said that events such as the fashion show are essential for students to feel a deeper sense of belonging and community during Black History Month and at other times.

I am proud of who I am and its very important that we maintain who we are and express ourselves in whatever environment we are in, she said. We want everyone to see themselves, no matter what background they come from.






Nomination from counselor

Jed Lewis is an outstanding student at Declo High School with a 3.94 GPA. He serves as the student body vice president and represents Declo High School with high standards.

More about Lewis

Jed was nominated homecoming king by his peers and he recently claimed the title of Mr. Declo High School.

He is an accomplished musician and is involved in the band and show choir. He has served as vice president of the show choir and also as bass section leader.

He is an outstanding example of a student with many musical and performing talents and a willingness to share them with others. Jed leads by example and wants everyone to push themselves and he helps the team to reach its goals.

Talented and goal-oriented

Jed is the most genuine and likable student in the school. He is kind, patient, hardworking, committed and goal-oriented. He is dedicated to seeking and achieving excellence in academics and extracurricular activities. He plans to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and, after returning, he plans to attend either Brigham Young University-Idaho or Idaho State University.
RUPERT  Simply Hopes second Mental Health & Me conference dove into stereotypes and inclusivity for people with different sexual identities, the benefits of yoga, combating addiction and mental fatigue  along with suicide prevention tactics.

About 160 people attended the all-day conference Friday at the Wilson Theatre, which included lunch, door prizes and continuing education credits for teachers.

The conference also displayed 10 vendors to connect participants with mental health resources in the community.

Keynote speaker Portia Louder  who turned around her life full of addiction and bad choices while spending time in federal prison for a real estate scam  led the conference.

During the nearly five years she spent in prison, she saw her husband and children once a year.

Id lie in my bunk and ache, Louder said.

But she knew, she said, although it was hard to go to prison, it would have been harder to stay home in her addiction.

The long hours of introspection led her to develop lists of things she could do to become a better person, including being a good listener and friend  and being kind.

It was Groundhog Day, she said. But if I didnt get it right, I knew I had another chance tomorrow. There was no social media, I was separated from the world and free of all the things that bound me up.

Louder realized the key to leaving addiction behind was getting honest with myself.

She made another list of all the bad things shed done in her life and how she hurt people and shared it with fellow inmates. Then she burned it.

Some people still judge her for being a felon and for the life she led under the influence of drugs, she said, but now she knows shes living the best life she can by being genuine and honest  and she likes herself.

I knew I would build a new life on truth, she said.

Today, she shares her story as a public speaker and has written the book Living Louder: A Compassionate Journey through Federal Prison, which tells her story.

Small communities and diversity

Lance Jones, Burley High School drama teacher and Jon Maher, a psychotherapist based in Los Angeles, presented a session on eradicating stereotypes and providing inclusivity for LGBTQIA+ students.

There are more kids in high schools and middle schools than you think who are struggling with sexual orientation and gender, Lance Jones said. Just because this is a small community doesnt mean there arent people still struggling with these life issues.

Jones said different sexual orientations are becoming more accepted, but there are still Mini-Cassia horror stories about how some LGBTQIA+ people are treated.

In one case, he said, after a parent learned their child was LGBTQIA+, they removed the childs bedroom door, and in another instance, a family paid their gay son to leave Idaho because he was embarrassing the family.

Often students do better with each other than the adults, Jones said.

Maher said the suicide rate is three to five times higher for the LGBTQIA+ population.

My classes will always be a safe zone for all students, Jones said.

One teacher asked why some students who have come out as gay relate everything, even the music she is trying to teach, to being gay.

Maher said some kids do that partly because adolescence is a time when they figure out who they are.

They may just be practicing saying it out loud, he said.

Another teacher said many educators are reluctant to address students who are struggling with sexual identity because teachers are wary about getting in trouble for treading on forbidden ground.

Ruth Kent, a Minidoka County first-grade teacher, asked how to handle name-calling, such as when students use the word gay as a derogative word on the playground.

It does not seem appropriate to react as if the child said a bad word, because gay is not a bad word, Kent said.

Maher said reminding children that there are other meanings for the word, including happy, can help.

The attitudes straight people acquire make gay a derogative word and it is the avoidance of the issue altogether that sends a negative message to children, he said.

Yes, the training was helpful, Kent said after the session. Its a topic we dont talk a lot about.

Sheri Allred, with the family outreach program Simply Hope, said staff received information that some people complained the diversity training was included at the conference.

To not address our communities at-risk populations as we strive to strengthen families and the community as a whole, would be irresponsible. At-risk, means just that. Simply Hope will always work to fill that gap, Simply Hope staff said in a statement released to the Times-News.

Reducing mental fatigue

Kavi Branham, a licensed counselor in Rexburg, taught participants how to flex their self-awareness muscle to identify signs of workplace fatigue and how to enact a positive response.

Some of the contributors to mental fatigue are deadlines, actions, choices, relationships and thoughts, Branham said. A few of the signs of mental fatigue include dragging yourself to work, getting somewhere late or ending early, experiencing a decline in empathy, having a short temper, or withdrawing.

Positive ways to counteract these are to normalize the experience, set and maintain boundaries, utilize sources of support and prioritize self-care, he said.

Participant Chandi Marston, an addiction counselor and special education teacher, said she currently has workplace mental fatigue due to her very busy schedule, which is a choice she acknowledges.

The training was helpful, Marston said. I teach all of these things to my people and it validated to me that I need to do this for myself, too.
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
A new attempt to remove Yellowstone-area grizzly bears from the endangered species list was rolled out Tuesday by Wyoming and Montana representatives in the U.S. House.

Reps. Harriet Hageman and Ryan Zinke say the grizzlies are no longer at risk of extinction. Human and livestock encounters with the apex predators in the Greater Yellowstone Area are increasing and dangerous, the Republicans say.

A law proposed by the two would return population control of the grizzlies to the states. The legislation comes a few weeks after U.S. Fish and Wildlife announced it would again, under state pressure, launch a year-long study about delisting grizzlies in areas surrounding Yellowstone and Glacier national parks. A 2017 attempt by U.S. Fish and Wildlife to delist the bears failed a court challenge brought by wildlife groups. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the delisting responded to political pressure, not scientific and commercial data.

One of the main problems with the Endangered Species Act is that when we deal with these various species that are identified as either threatened or endangered, we typically have a recovery goal, said Hageman, of Wyoming. No matter how much we meet, no matter whether we meet that recovery goal, or substantially exceed that recovery goal, we can't ever get these species delisted, which I think is one of the primary weaknesses of the Endangered Species Act.

Hageman said the expectation is that congressional action would avoid another court challenge. Zinke, who was secretary of the Department of The Interior during the last attempt the delist the Greater Yellowstone Area grizzlies, said the legislation relies on agency work already done.

There are reams of data that support the population, particularly the Yellowstone, as recovered. Its not in dispute, Zinke said. So rather than everyone saying you know what, the Endangered Species Act worked, it shows by science the species has recovered. Lets celebrate a win and look at species that are challenged and under duress. Once you get on the highway, it seems on endangered species theres no off ramp.

Legislation specifically dealing with the Greater Yellowstone Area, which touches on Idaho, Montana and Wyoming was the chosen starting point because of the earlier research by U.S. Fish and Wildlife, Zinke said. The next step for the Western Montana representative would be the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, which includes the area surrounding Glacier National Park and the Bob Marshall, Mission Mountains, Great Bear and Scapegoat wilderness areas. That region also includes parts of the Flathead and Blackfeet reservations.

Wildlife advocates say the bears still deserve protection and that state political pressure is still driving attempts to delist grizzlies in the Greater Yellowstone Area.

Governors in both Montana and Wyoming have asked the federal government to turn over management of the bears to the states. Wyoming has had a grizzly bear management plan since 2016. Montana has a plan proposed under Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte with origins in the previous administration of former Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock.

The congressional delegations of both states have supported the 2017 attempt by U.S. Fish and Wildlife to delist grizzlies.

Theres several things wrong with legislatively delisting a species. Its simply not driven by science. It isnt the experts making the decision, its politicians who dont have a good grasp on the science, said Kristin Combs, Wyoming Wildlife Advocates director. Oftentimes, theyre listening to state management agencies and state wildlife agencies that are always pushing for delisting of grizzlies and to have large carnivores under their control and management.

The pressure applied to state governments by outfitters dependent on hunting income and ranchers facing livestock loses have fueled efforts to delist grizzlies, Combs said. Human encounters with bears have also increased with the rise in population in places like Bozeman and Kalispell, two fastest growing areas in the United States over the last decade.

But Combs said hunting in Wyoming is doing well. The success rate of elk hunting is strong. Livestock losses to bears could be reduced through managing the cattle and sheep differently.

Theres a lot of things that can be done to mitigate human-bear conflict, whether bears are listed or not, Combs said. Its not thats dependent on listing. There are non-lethal options so that were not constantly turning to lethal options for bears to die whenever there is some kind of conflict.

This (delisting) is pretty much just about hunting bears, which all states have made know thats the first thing theyre going to do.

Hageman is emphasizing the human conflict with grizzlies in the Greater Yellowstone Area as she tells other representatives about a wildlife issue unique to three states with a lot of wilderness and a small presence in Congress.

We had two wrestlers last year attacked outside of Cody, and mauled. The only way that they were able to escape with their lives was one of them just absolutely tore into the bear. But if you see the photographs of those young men, it was a pretty traumatic and a dangerous situation and probably within a matter of seconds of both of them being killed, Hageman said. We have the farmer, also up by Cody, just changing his water out in the field and the bear came up and ripped his face off.

It's making areas of my state very dangerous, Hageman said. And that isn't fair. And it's not right. And it's not fair to the people who are entitled to use those areas and access those areas. We've met the recovery goals, it's time to do less the grizzly bear.
Yango, an internationally recognised ride-hailing app, has joined forces with Kameh, a UAE-based, enigmatic brand, to create a bespoke design for the Yango pick-up point at the entrance of Art Dubai Digital.

By collaborating, both brands have demonstrated a mutual appreciation for art, design, and luxury. Visitors to the fair, which takes place at Madinat Jumeirah from March 3 to 5, will have the opportunity to discover the object and experience Yango's services firsthand.

The collaboration centres on the concept of visual landmarks and spatial navigation, with Kameh drawing inspiration from the idea of an object serving as a navigational landmark or wayfinding token. Through the minimalist forms and signature weathered textures, Kameh has created a contemporary totem that embodies the shared values of both brands.

Inspiration

Yango's general manager for GCC, Islam Abdul Karim, expressed his admiration for Kameh's talented and unique team and the inspiration the collaboration has sparked.

Kameh's art and design philosophy is rooted in the belief that technologies, designs, and art are intertwined and inseparable. By partnering with creative talents and firms from diverse fields, Kameh believes that they can bring about new and more meaningful projects. Kameh's work on the Yango pick-up point design is a perfect example of this, as it fuses practical and creative needs into a physical embodiment of Yango's services.

Both brands share similar values, focusing on quality, clarity, and delivering premium products and experiences. Their collaboration has resulted in a striking design object that is both a work of art and a functional wayfinding tool.

The project showcases the power of collaboration between talented, creative individuals and companies from different fields, highlighting how the appreciation of art, design, and luxury can bring about groundbreaking projects that inspire and captivate audiences.-- TradeArabia News Service
Heres what happened locally on March 1 over the past century, as reported in this newspaper, which went from being called the Henry Bulletin to the Daily Bulletin to the Martinsville Bulletin:

1923: Wanted: A renter or share cropper for the Tyler Wilson farm at Irisburg. Good opportunity for growing large crop of tobacco and corn. If you are a hustler you can make money here. Howard T. Baise, Irisburg./Today Phone 274: Extra in cups and saucers. Six rolls Toilet Paper 24 cents. Star Brand Shoes are better. More Goods for Your Money. T. W. Carter.

1948: Dr. Gus W. Dyer, one of Henry Countys most noted native sons, is dead at the age of [illegible  could be 81 or 84]. The death of the widely celebrated economist and philosopher came unexpectedly last Saturday in Miami, Fla., where he was on a speaking engagement, but relatives did not learn of it until today. Dr. Dyer was born at Dyers store in northeastern Henry County, a son of Capt. Ben F. and Mrs. Mattie Walker Dyer.

1973: An attempt by the Henry County Board of Supervisors to close the doors on Thursday nights discussion of the Martinsville Resolution was thwarted by newsmen. The newsmen objected to the move under Virginias Freedom of Information Act, which restricts closed sessions by public bodies generally to personnel matters and the acquisition of real estate. [The Martinsville Revolution was a motion to restrain and reduce the West Piedmont Planning District Commission.]

1998: The importance of the church, home and school in molding a child was stressed during a Black History Month program last week at Patrick Henry Elementary School. Without support of parents, its difficult to mold and shape these young persons, the Rev. Thurman Echols, pastor at Moral Hill Missionary Baptist Church, told the audience.
The Patrick County Board of Supervisors met for a work session on Monday, but discussion of the budget was stricken from the agenda by unanimous vote.

Chairman Clayton Kenrick said board members were still waiting on some updated figures regarding budget matters and until those figures were made available and could be reviewed, a discussion of them would be premature.

The Board voted to delay the discussion, but did not schedule a new date to do so.

Kurt Bozenmayer, a resident of the Smith River District, is a regular speaker at the regular meetings of the Board of Supervisors during the public comment period, but on Monday he said that he wanted to speak to them as a member of the Planning Commission.

Ive been on the Planning Commission for a year and a half and weve heard theres a problem with the solar ordinance, said Bozenmayer. Ive looked over my notes and when we were told we needed an ordinance, we didnt know that we needed one. No application had been put in for a solar farm.

Bozenmayer said the Commission crafted an ordinance to address the non-existent solar farms and it was reviewed and revised by the county attorney in April of last year.

On Sept. 12 it was presented to the Board and on the 26th a public hearing was held and there were no speakers, so it was adopted unanimously.

Bozenmayer said the Commission is now being told the ordinance is unenforceable because certain Virginia code cited in the ordinance is incorrect.

A special meeting of the Planning Commission has been called for today to revise the ordinance so that it may be enforceable.

FOIA/COIA

Patrick County Attorney Mark Popovich spent the remainder of the meeting, which lasted just over an hour, giving a training session on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Conflict of Information Act (COIA).

FOIA is legislation that grants public access to documents or other data in the possession of a government agency or public authority that is not specifically excluded from the legislation.

COIA is legislation that prohibits public officers and employees from participating in inappropriate conflicts and also requires disclosures of economic interests.

Popovich told board members that training in Virginia is required periodically for all public officers and government employees regarding both Acts and the training session he presented qualified as meeting the training requirements.
STATESVILLE  A convicted child predator is going away for a long time.

Vincent Deritis, 33, of Hickory, N.C., was sentenced Tuesday to 50 years in prison and a lifetime of supervised release for the sexual exploitation of a minor and possession of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), announced Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.

Deritis was also ordered to register as a sex offender after he is released from prison.

Ronnie Martinez, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in North Carolina and South Carolina, and Chief Reed Baer of the Hickory Police Department joined U.S. Attorney King in making Tuesday's announcement.

According to court documents, evidence presented at trial and Tuesday's sentencing hearing, between October 2018 and March 2019, Deritis created child pornography of an unknowing minor victim on three occasions.

On April 3, 2019, law enforcement armed with a warrant, searched Deritis residence. A forensic analysis of electronic devices seized from the defendants home and files in his cloud storage account revealed that Deritis possessed images and videos of the minor victim naked while getting in or out of the shower, photos of the minors genitalia, and thousands of images of child pornography Deritis had downloaded from the internet.

On June 22, 2022, a federal jury convicted Deritis of three counts of production of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.

Deritis is a child predator who caused a minor victim substantial harm, said U.S. Attorney King. Protecting children and holding perpetrators accountable is a priority for my office. Federal prosecutors work hand-in-hand with our law enforcement partners to investigate and prosecute child exploitation cases, and our victim assistance unit ensures that victims and their families receive the support and assistance they need throughout the court process and beyond.

Deritis is currently in federal custody. He will be transferred to the custody of the federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility.

In making Tuesday's announcement, U.S. Attorney King commended HSI and the Hickory Police Department for their investigation of the case.
The new Russian ambassador to Cabo Verde, Yury Materiy, conveyed Russias willingness to strengthen relations with the archipelago, in training staff or supplying grain, despite Cape Verdes condemnation of the invasion of Ukraine.

Yury Materiy presented today in Mindelo, Sao Vicente island, his credentials as Russias new ambassador to the President of the Republic, Jose Maria Neves, ending a two-year long process, after Cape Verdean authorities had rejected the name previously proposed, Natalia Poklonskaia, targeted by international sanctions.

I conveyed [to the Cape Verdean President] that the main goal of my mission here is to intensify relations between Russia and Cape Verde, especially in the economic sphere and trade, but also in fisheries, tourism, energy and grain supply, the diplomat told reporters after the ceremony.

I also mentioned that one of the main areas of cooperation that the Government of Russia pays great attention to is education. We are providing training to Cape Verde, ensuring scholarships, he explained.

Yury Materiy said that Russia intends to select, this year, 14 more students to study in that country free of charge.

Currently, more than 40 students are graduating in Russian universities and Russia is honoring its commitments, paying scholarships and guaranteeing accommodation, he also pointed out.

Despite the various condemnations of the government and the president of Cape Verde, public and in international resolutions, to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the new ambassador hopes to strengthen relations.
The Spanish justice system has summoned a son of the Equatorial Guinean president, as well as two other security officials of this country, to answer charges on the kidnapping and torture of two Spanish citizens, says a judicial document.

A judge from the National Court, a high court in Madrid that specializes in sensitive cases, summoned Carmelo Ovono Obiang, son of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo and head of the countrys foreign intelligence service, to appear before him on March 28, according to information revealed by the Spanish daily El Pais.

The magistrate also summoned two other senior officials from the small central African country: Nicolas Obama Nchama, Minister of State and head of internal security, and the Director General of Presidential Security, Isaac Nguema Endo.

These three people, presented as the three most senior security officials in this former Spanish colony, are suspected of having kidnapped and tortured four Equatorial Guinean opponents, two of whom also had Spanish nationality, one of whom died in January under unclear circumstances.

Equatorial Guinea has been ruled since 1979 by 80-year-old Teodoro Obiang, who holds the world record for longevity in power for a sitting head of state, excluding monarchies.
Uganda will consider a new anti-homosexuality bill on Wednesday, the speaker of Parliament said, while conspiracy theories on the subject abound on social networks.

According to an audio recording, Anita Annet Among said Tuesday at a religious gathering, Tomorrow we will bring an anti-homosexuality law.

Ms. Among also posted a video of the meeting on Twitter, adding in a comment. We must jealously protect our cherished values and culture. Same-sex relationships are illegal in Uganda  a legacy of colonial laws but since independence from the UK in 1962 there have been no convictions for consensual homosexual acts.

Western embassies and humanitarian agencies working in Uganda, which have repeatedly defended members of the LGBT community, are regularly accused of promoting homosexuality in the East African country.

In recent weeks, conspiracy theories have swirled on social networks, linking cases of child sexual abuse in boarding schools to homosexuality among adults. Last month, the government launched an investigation into alleged promotion of gay, lesbian and transgender rights in schools.

In 2014, a Ugandan court blocked a bill approved by members of parliament and signed by President Yoweri Museveni that sought to punish same-sex relationships with life in prison. The bill caused an outcry beyond Ugandas borders, with some wealthy countries suspending aid after it passed through parliament.
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

As the United States becomes increasingly more diverse, a growing number of patients are seeking specialized dermatologic care for skin and hair conditions unique to their ethnic backgrounds.

As a result, people of African, Asian, East Indian, Hispanic, and Middle Eastern origin, among others, are actively seeking multicultural dermatological care. Providers who work in multicultural dermatology are specially trained to diagnose and treat skin, hair, and nail conditions in people with skin of color.

In this Q&A, Director of Multicultural Dermatology and Hair Disorders, Oma Agbai, discusses important considerations when seeking care for skin of color.

What is skin of color?

Skin of color is defined more by the behavior of skin in response to sun exposure than by ethnic origin. Individuals with skin of color, such as those of African, South Asian, Hispanic, East Asian, and Middle Eastern descent, are more likely to tan with extended sun exposure and rarely or never experience a sunburn. Characteristically, these are individuals with olive to dark brown skin colors.

Are there differences in the biology of skin of color?

Skin of color is a very broad term that includes a wide variety of skin colors of people with different ethnic backgrounds. Skin pigmentation is the biggest difference. Interestingly, a person with dark skin has the same number of melanocytes (melanin-producing cells) in the skin as someone with very fair skin. The difference is that individuals with darker skin types produce more melanin (natural pigment), which is more broadly distributed across the outermost layer of skin, called the epidermis.

Melanin protects epidermal skin cells from UV-related damage, reducing the risk of sun-induced wrinkling, pre-cancers, and skin cancers in people of color.

What are some common misconceptions about skin of color?

There are patients with dark skin who believe that they do not need sunscreen because they are unlikely to develop a UV-induced skin cancer. This is certainly not true. I have had patients of all skin colors develop skin cancers related to UV exposure, such as squamous cell carcinoma, basal cell carcinoma, and melanoma.

It is rare to diagnose a person of African descent with melanoma. However, when the diagnosis is made in this ethnic group, melanomas have been shown to be at a more advanced stage, with worse outcomes than in fair-skinned individuals of European descent diagnosed with melanoma.

It is important to note that in people of African descent, melanomas are more likely to develop on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet, rather than high-sun-exposure areas such as the face. Remember reggae legend Bob Marley? He tragically died of a metastatic melanoma that developed on his foot.

What is the number one skin care issue people with ethnic skin experience?

Hyperpigmentation is one of the most common skin conditions diagnosed in my patients of color. It is a medical term describing dark patches or spots that develop on the skin at the site of a condition such as acne, a burn, or eczema.

How is hyperpigmentation treated?

There are several topical creams which can prevent or treat hyperpigmentation. Look for creams with specific ingredients such as hydroquinone, azelaic acid, tretinoin, or cysteamine. The key to success is to be consistent and patient, as daily treatment for at least two months is often required to see a noticeable improvement.

Hyperpigmentation can also be treated with cosmetic procedures such as superficial chemical peels and gentle laser treatments.

It is vital to work with a board-certified dermatologist when being treated for hyperpigmentation, as certain cosmetic procedures, and even topical creams, can worsen hyperpigmentation.

Are there ingredients in skin care products that people with skin of color should avoid?

Medium or deep peeling agents such as trichloroacetic acid should be avoided. This is available over the counter, so do not assume that because a product is sold without a prescription or doctor's visit that it is safe to use. These agents can cause severe hyperpigmentation and scarring in skin of color.

Furthermore, overusing superficial peeling products containing alpha hydroxy acids (such as glycolic acid) can also irritate the skin, worsening hyperpigmentation.

What are common errors people with skin of color make regarding skin care?

Scrubbing or exfoliating the skin to reduce blackheads can worsen acne by irritating the hair follicles. Scrubbing the skin can also worsen hyperpigmentation.

Picking the skin can also worsen hyperpigmentation, scarring, and even induce raised scars such as keloids.

Are there treatments that may not be a great fit for people with skin of color?

Certain laser treatments, micro needling, and chemical peels are safe to use in people of color. The key is to work with a board-certified dermatologist who is experienced in treating darker skin types.

Stronger laser treatments such as complete facial resurfacing with CO 2 laser should be avoided in darker skin types due to the risk of hyperpigmentation and scarring.

Lastly, I want to emphasize that patients of color should not be discouraged if they have been told that nothing can be done for their skin condition. Many of my patients tell me that they have heard this in the past. There are several medical and procedural options for the treatment of a wide variety of skin conditions in people of color.
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Credit: Shutterstock

James East, M.D., spends his days skillfully examining people's colons, searching for and snaring away suspicious polyps that might one day turn into cancer. A gastroenterologist at Mayo Clinic Healthcare in London, he says the ability to identify cancer risks and eliminate them on the spot during a colonoscopy is one of the most satisfying parts of his chosen profession.

Colonoscopy remains the gold standard in detecting and preventing colorectal cancer. But the procedure has limitations. Some studies suggest that more than half of post-colonoscopy colon cancer cases arise from lesions that were missed at patients' previous colonoscopies.

Now researchers at Mayo Clinic are investigating how artificial intelligence can be harnessed to increase polyp detection. In fact, gastroenterologists are engaging AI as a tool to improve care for a wide range of conditions, with the goal of finding elusive signs earlier when the diseases are more treatable.

In the case of colon cancer, the AI system works alongside the physician in real time, scanning the colonoscopy video feed and drawing small, red boxes around polyps that might otherwise get overlooked.

"We're all familiar with facial recognition software," Dr. East says. "Instead of training the AI to recognize faces, we train it to recognize polyps."

Artificial intelligence can be added to a traditional colonoscopy to identify polyps that otherwise might be overlooked.

Colon cancer is the second deadliest cancer worldwide. The past few decades have seen a steady rise in colorectal cancer rates among younger people. While colonoscopy can be an effective screening tool, Dr. East says there is variability in how well endoscopists find precancerous polyps.

Ironically, polyps are hardest to spot in patients who are most in need of screening. Patients with inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis are at high risk of colorectal cancer. But the pre-cancerous lesions they develop tend to be flat or only slightly raised, unlike the bulbous mushroom-shaped polyps seen in people without IBD.

"Most people that develop these cancers are undergoing regular colonoscopies, and the lesions still get missed because the tumors are very subtle," says Nayantara Coelho-Prabhu, M.B.B.S., a gastroenterologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Dr. Coelho-Prabhu believes that AI could be trained to track down deceptively innocuous-looking polyps.

"Mayo Clinic is uniquely poised to take on this type of research," she adds. "We conduct surveillance colonoscopies in 800 to 900 IBD patients a year. As a result, we have accumulated a huge databank we can use to develop the AI systems needed to improve how we do colonoscopies for these patients."

That databank provides what Dr. Coelho-Prabhu and other experts call "ground truth," the real-world observations and measurements used to train and test AI algorithms. Her team is currently annotating data from a subset of 1,000 patients, watching one colonoscopy video after another and marking lesions in every frame, from every angle. After the images are annotated, the researchers will feed them to a computer to generate the type of AI "machine learning" algorithms that enable the machine to learn how to recognize IBD-specific polyps on its own.

Dr. Coelho-Prabhu, gastroenterologist Cadman Leggett, M.D., and colleagues are pioneering a new digital endoscopy platform that will film all in-house procedures, correlate them with medical records, and then integrate AI back into the procedures as applicable.

"Once we develop algorithms, we can run them in our procedure videos to test their performance," she says.
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

A medical officer prepares to administer the COVID-19 vaccine. Credit: AMISOM Photo/Mokhtar Mohamed, Public Domain

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of vaccines in controlling infectious disease in sub-Saharan Africa and renewed interest in vaccine research and development across the continent.

Yet at the moment, Africa produces just one percent of its routine vaccines.

"Africa has to build that capacity to produce vaccines," Ebere Okere, senior technical advisor at the Tony Blair Institute for global change and honorary senior public health advisor of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, tells SciDev.Net.

This insufficient capacity to produce vaccines leaves the region dependent on imports for its vaccine needs, and makes it vulnerable to a vaccine crisis during health emergencies.

The COVID-19 pandemic served to ignite conversations between world leaders, researchers and scientists, covering everything from research and innovation to vaccine manufacturing and even the politics of vaccine production.

Yet in November 2022, leaders from Africa and Europe found themselves at loggerheads during a meeting in Brussels, Belgium, over how Africa could begin to develop and manufacture life-saving vaccines.

At the heart of the argument lay lucrative intellectual property rights. The EU had offered to help Africa build vaccine manufacturing plants, but refused to waive intellectual property rights that would give Africans the right to duplicate vaccines and speed up vaccine production.

On their side, African leaders argued that in a third year of pandemic, it was immoral to withhold intellectual property rights, when it meant people in Africa had unequal access to life-saving COVID-19 vaccines.

"We are talking about the lives of millions rather than the profitability of a few companies," South African president Cyril Ramaphosa told a news conference at the time.

While the leaders failed to agree at the February 2022 summit, some concessions were made.

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commissionthe EU's executive armsaid the bloc would be open to more conversations around the waiver, to be led by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Nigerian director-general of the World Trade Organization.

Vaccine hubs

These talks led to the creation of vaccine manufacturing hubs in Senegal, South Africa, Rwanda, Algeria and Nigeriamost of which are not functional yet.

The hubs are expected to employ the breakthrough vaccine technology behind Pfizer and Moderna's highly successful COVID-19 jabs, known as messenger RNA (mRNA), to replicate existing vaccines and drive research into the production of new ones. The technology could be aimed at diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria and AIDS.

Yet South Africa's Ramaphosa has insisted that until there is a removal of "intellectual property barriers," the "full operationalization of the mRNA hub" will be hampered.

In November last year, Gavi, the 23-year-old vaccine alliance which brings public and private sectors player to create equal access to vaccines for children, pointed out in a report that Africa only produced 0.1% of global vaccines, despite being home to 17% of the world's population and 58% of vaccine-preventable disease-related deaths in children under five years old.

In April 2021, the African Union Commission and the Africa Centers for Disease Control, made a commitment to develop a framework to reach 60% local manufacturing of Africa's routine vaccine needs by 2040.

"We are too reliant on a global system that just didn't actually put us first, for the supply of most of the technology we need for our health system," Okere tells SciDev.Net.

"So the work that is being developed now  will not only solve the problem of the current pandemic, but will set the foundation for us to have more resilience in our system."

She says Africa must find a way to engage and convince richer countries and the pharmaceutical industry to access IP waivers

As Ramaphosa suggested in Brussels, at the heart of the politics of vaccine research and production is profits.

Simply put, money over lives. "We are talking about the lives of hundreds of millions of people, rather than the profitability of a few companies," Ramaphosa said as he asked that Africa be supported to build a sustainable path to vaccine manufacturing.

One solution, according to Deborah King, vaccines research lead at Wellcome, is advance purchase agreements, where governments agree to buy a specific number of jabs ahead of them being produced.

This could be, King argues, a way to get necessary funding to produce vaccines on the continent, while also ensuring profitability for the manufacturers.

Consulting group BCG in a research note on ramping up vaccine manufacturing in Africa also recommends advance purchase agreements.

It adds that African manufacturers should focus on vaccines with "high supply constraints" and "low manufacturing complexity" such as such as the vaccines for rotavirus and meningitis.

"While there is no panacea for the challenges that African vaccine manufacturers face, an extensive vaccine-manufacturing ecosystem is imperative," the consultancy adds.

"It will improve vaccine-supply security, help to better tackle endemic diseases, and contribute to global pandemic preparedness while also boosting the continent's socioeconomic development."

Provided by SciDev.Net
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

The Canadian province of British Columbia announced Tuesday that it will make prescription contraceptives free for all, a first in the country at a time when women's rights are under attack in the neighboring United States.

Upon presentation of a prescription, all people covered by health insurance will be able to obtain contraceptives free of charge as of April 1, the province's finance minister Katrine Conroy said.

"When it comes to essentials, having full control over your reproductive rights is at the top of the list. All too often, these fundamental rights are under attack," she said before the provincial parliament.

"Not here in B.C.," she said.

"The days of passing down these costs to women and trans and non-binary people are coming to an end."

Contraceptive methods covered will include most hormonal pills, implants, injections and intrauterine devices, such as the IUD, as well as the morning-after pill.

"This is a win for health and it's a win for gender equity in our province," Conroy said.

British Columbia's government estimates that those who need birth control pills, which cost Can$25 ($18) a month, could save up to Can$10,000 over their lifetime under the new rules.

The western province follows several European countries, including France, Britain and Germany, which already partially or universally subsidize contraception.

The Canadian move to protect reproductive rights comes after the Supreme Court in the United States overturned women's right to abortion.

 2023 AFP
Explora Journeys has announced a new line-up of journeys for the autumn and winter 2024 - 2025 season of Expolora I, the first of a planned fleet of six luxury ships, which are now open for booking.

Featuring 23 journeys and two grand journeys between September 2024 and April 2025, the itineraries will encompass 73 unique destinations across 24 countries.

Eight of them will be a first for Explora Journeys, including Macapa, Alter-do-Chao and Manaus in the Amazon, and the Devils Island in French Guiana. Each journey has its own character that reflects the distinctive spirit of the destinations, starting at the far north of Americas East Coast, then sailing to the Caribbean and South America, before crossing the Atlantic to Europe.

Bridging continents and connecting cultures, this unique collection of journeys promises guests a new dimension of authentic, transformative travel experiences. Each of them has been designed around todays discerning traveller, with the emphasis on a slower pace and the opportunity to linger longer at each destination, including overnight stays.

Meanwhile, the highest standards in sustainable, responsible practices are rigorously maintained to ensure minimal impact on nature and local communities.

Highlights include an eight-night Journey to Trailing Whales and Falling Leaves, sailing from New York City on October 8, 2024 for Boston, Portland and Halifax, the mystical Whale Corridors and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, finishing in Quebec City.

The journey offers guests the opportunity to experience forest-lined clifftops ablaze with fiery autumn colours, secluded sandy bays, candy-striped lighthouses, world-famous lobster shacks, and the laidback spirit of authentic harbour towns. The journey continues into the waters of New England, where the cold Labrador Current meets the warm Gulf Stream, and blue, beluga and minke whales frolic in the mineral-rich sea.

In a first for Explora Journeys, Explora I will offer journeys up the Amazon River and into the Brazilian rainforest, complete with torchlit kayak tours and forest trails to hidden tribal villages. In Manaus, guests will witness the confluence of the rivers, where the inky Rio Negro joins the powerful Rio Solimoes; and in Santarem, where the Amazon meets the crystal-clear waters of the Tapajos.

A Journey into Wild and Wonderful Amazonia will depart Bridgetown, Barbados, on November 22, 2024, sailing to French Guianas Devils Island before heading to Macapa, Alter-do-Chao and Manaus in Brazil. A Journey to the Meeting Waters on the Almighty Amazon will set off on November 29, 2024, travelling up the Amazon to Macapa and Bequia before returning to Bridgetown.

A Journey of Tantalising Transatlantic Adventures sails on April 2, 2025 from Bridgetown on a 14-night transatlantic crossing. Guests enjoy leisurely days at sea before exploring Cape Verde, the 10-island Creole-Portuguese archipelago, with its volcanic landscapes and beautiful beaches. The ship will stop to take in the natural attractions of the Canary Islands, followed by Madeira, known as the flower island, before arriving in Lisbon on April 18, 2025.

Explora Is grand journeys, A Grand Journey to Amazonia & Tropical Isles (28 nights) and A Grand Transatlantic Odyssey in the Atlantic (32 nights), give guests the opportunity to explore the spirit of the unforgettable destinations along the routes, as they travel the Caribbean, the Amazon and the vastness of the ocean beyond.

Sacha Rougier, the Head of Itinerary Planning and Destination Experiences at Explora Journeys, comments: Guests will have the chance to delve into an exhilarating celebration of diversity: From private tours of MoMA in New York City to thrilling boat expeditions up the Amazon; discovering new shades of blue on a hidden Caribbean island or being fully immersed in the biggest show on earth with our exclusive Explora Journeys carnival experience in Rio, where theyll be granted insider access to join the vibrant performers. - TradeArabia News Service
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

People wearing face masks are reflected in windows as they walk at a shopping and office complex in Beijing, Wednesday, March 1, 2023. Credit: AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

For the second day in a row, China on Wednesday dismissed U.S. suggestions that the COVID-19 pandemic may have been triggered by a virus that leaked from a Chinese laboratory.

Responding to comments by FBI Director Christopher Wray, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said the involvement of the U.S. intelligence community was evidence enough of the "politicization of origin tracing."

"By rehashing the lab-leak theory, the U.S. will not succeed in discrediting China, and instead, it will only hurt its own credibility," Mao said.

"We urge the U.S. to respect science and facts ... stop turning origin tracing into something about politics and intelligence, and stop disrupting social solidarity and origins cooperation," she said.

In an interview with Fox News that aired Tuesday, Wray said, "The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in (central China's) Wuhan."

"Here you are talking about a potential leak from a Chinese government-controlled lab," Wray said.

Referring to efforts to trace the origin of the coronavirus, he added, "I will just make the observation that the Chinese government, it seems to me, has been doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate the work here, the work that we're doing, the work that our U.S. government and close foreign partners are doing. And that's unfortunate for everybody."

People wearing face masks walk past rows of lanterns at a tourist shopping street in Beijing, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023. Credit: AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

On Tuesday, Mao pushed back at a report from the U.S. Department of Energy that assessed with "low confidence" that the virus that was first detected in Wuhan in late 2019 leaked from a nearby government laboratory.

The report hasn't been made public and officials in Washington stressed that U.S. agencies are not in agreement on the origin of the virus.

Mao on Tuesday insisted that China has been "open and transparent" in the search for the virus' origins and has "shared the most data and research results on virus tracing and made important contributions to global virus tracing research."

A World Health Organization expert group said last year that "key pieces of data" to explain how the pandemic began were still missing. The scientists cited avenues of research that were needed, including studies evaluating the role of wild animals and environmental studies in places where the virus might have first spread.

People wearing face masks walk through a shopping and office complex in Beijing, Wednesday, March 1, 2023. Credit: AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

People wearing face masks walk through a shopping and office complex in Beijing, Wednesday, March 1, 2023. Credit: AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

The Associated Press has previously reported that the Chinese government was strictly controlling research into the origin of the pandemic that has killed more than 6.8 million people worldwide, clamping down on some work and promoting fringe theories that it could have come from outside the country.

Some scientists are open to the lab-leak theory, but many scientists believe the virus came from animals, mutated, and jumped to people, as has happened with other viruses in the past. Experts say the origin of the pandemic may not be known for many yearsif ever.

 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

A Yale-led study examines the potential environmental benefits of more carefully selecting patients for prostate biopsy in a way that can also spare low-yield and potentially harmful procedures.

Yale School of Medicine Associate Professor of Urology Michael Leapman, MD, MHS, and co-authors across seven other U.S. institutions estimated the environmental impacts of prostate magnetic resonance imaging [MRI] and prostate biopsy, procedures that are part of the diagnostic process for patients with known or suspected prostate cancer. Overall, they estimate that performing both an MRI and biopsy is similar to going on a "round-trip flight from London to Paris," in terms of energy used, staff travel, and supply production. Their research, using cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment methodology, was published in the January issue of the journal European Urology.

Study investigators say the overarching message is that sustainability efforts should be aligned with patient interests and evidence-based care. "We continue to see many medical and diagnostic procedures being used more often than recommended by clinical guidelinesincreasing health care costs and in some cases, directly harming patients," says Leapman.

"A dimension that has been less well studied is the environmental impact of care that is already considered low-value or unnecessary. In this analysis, we estimate the carbon footprint of a prostate biopsy, then extrapolate the potential environmental benefits of adopting various evidence-based approaches," continues Leapman, who specializes in the treatment of patients with prostate and genitourinary cancers and serves as clinical leader of the Prostate & Urologic Cancers Program at Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital.

Prostate biopsy is commonly performed across the world as the main diagnostic test for prostate cancer. Each year, approximately 1 million prostate biopsies are performed in the U.S. alone, yet more than half of patients who are being evaluated for an elevated prostate-specific antigen [PSA] are found to not have prostate cancer.

It has been well documented the health care industry is a major source of pollution, worldwide. But to date, no tangible figures existed of the environmental impact of the prostate biopsy and/or MRI. Leapman and his co-researchers, therefore, focused on these "overused" early-detection practices.

Study authors not only tried to show the impact of the procedures, but also calculated the potential impacts if different strategies were applied. Based on their measurements, it was estimated that performing 100,000 fewer biopsies would avoid 8.1 million kilograms of carbon dioxide emissions [the equivalent of 1.1 million gallons of gasoline burned]. If prostate MRI were used more in selecting patients who undergo a prostate biopsyan approach used in other countries and supported by several clinical studies1.4 million kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions could be reduced per 100,000 patients [the equivalent of 184,920 gallons of gasoline consumed].

Leapman and his team hope numbers such as this will help patients and physicians be aware of the connection between potential environmental benefits and evidence-based care. "We are already cognizant of the physical, emotional, and economic consequences of over-diagnosing and over-treating prostate cancer," says Leapman.

"We hope this work adds depth to the discussion by providing concrete estimates of health care pollution and environmental impact also incurred through these procedures." Leapman stresses the most important takeaway is that well-studied strategies can both help select patients more carefully for invasive diagnostic procedures and have a positive environmental benefit.

More information: Michael S. Leapman et al, Environmental Impact of Prostate Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Transrectal Ultrasound Guided Prostate Biopsy, European Urology (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.eururo.2022.12.008 Journal information: European Urology
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Graphical abstract. Credit: Mathematical Biosciences (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.mbs.2022.108940

A new mathematical model which aims to optimize treatment for prostate cancer has been developed by experts at the University of Portsmouth.

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer among men worldwide and accounts for 26 percent of all new cancer cases in males in the UK.

Over the past few decades mathematical models of tumor growth have been used to better understand the disease, to make predictions and to guide new experiments and clinical trials.

Dr. Marianna Cerasuolo, Senior Lecturer from the University's School of Mathematics and Physics, has worked on prostate cancer research since 2014, designing the best therapeutic strategies to eliminate tumors.

Her latest study considers the effects of multiple drug therapies by formulating a model that doesn't just represent the growth of cancer cells in time, but also the growth of cells in space.

Dr. Cerasuolo worked on the research with Dr. Andrew Burbanks from the University of Portsmouth, and Professor Roberto Ronca from the University of Brescia, Italy.

She said, "With more than 11,500 men dying from prostate cancer every year, research into the causes, and potential therapies, remains critical."

"Our recent research looked at a slice of prostate, as through a microscope, and then computationally observed how the growth of cancer cells is affected when you add certain drugs. Using a spatial distribution of cancer cells and analyzing certain combinations of drugs, we found that some treatments would get rid of the cancer completely in the model."

The therapeutic strategies explored by Dr. Cerasuolo and her colleagues include the use of a single drug, enzalutamide, and drug combinations, such as enzalutamide and everolimus or cabazitaxel, with different treatment schedules.

The results of the study show that alternating therapiesspecifically the combination of two drugs, enzalutamide and cabazitaxelcould significantly improve cancer treatment. This was verified by comparing the results with data obtained from mice with cancer.

Dr. Cerasuolo said, "We're confident that our mathematical simulations are reasonable predictions of a tumor's behavior in the short and long term."

"However, this mathematical model is based on cancer in mice and further work would be needed to obtain a mathematical modeling framework able to support research in humans and clinical trials."

The paper is published in the journal Mathematical Biosciences.

More information: Andrew Burbanks et al, A hybrid spatiotemporal model of PCa dynamics and insights into optimal therapeutic strategies, Mathematical Biosciences (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.mbs.2022.108940
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Black women at high risk of breast cancer face a variety of obstacles that may keep them from care that could prevent cancer and increase the chances they'll survive if they develop the disease, new research has found.

A study from researchers at The Ohio State University provides insights into the factors that contribute to racial disparities in use of preventive measures, including genetic testing, prophylactic mastectomies and medication to thwart breast cancer.

In the new study, which appears today (March 1, 2023) in the journal PLoS ONE, the researchers interviewed 20 Black women and 30 white women at high risk of breast cancer to better understand racial differences in the decision-making process, which hadn't previously been well-studied.

Among their findings: Black women may be less focused on breast cancer risk as an issue to be addressed proactively, may less frequently possess information to help guide their decisions about prevention, and face more constraints when it comes to making and carrying out health-protective decisions.

"We need to recognize that the personal, interpersonal and social dynamics that Black women are experiencing that influence their ability to cope with their risk are complicated and multilayered and need to be taken into account if we're going to empower people to do something about their risk," said Tasleem Padamsee, lead author of the study and an assistant professor in Ohio State's College of Public Health.

Women with strong family histories of breast cancer, genetic predispositions to the disease or other risk factors can face a 20% to 80% risk of developing the disease within their lifetimes, but can cut that risk in half, or more, by using preventive therapies, research has shown. Black women in the U.S. are diagnosed with breast cancer at about the same rate as white women, although at younger ages and later stages of disease, and with higher breast cancer mortality rates.

"I walked away from these conversations feeling like many of these women have experienced horrible things with cancer over and over again, and that they just have an overriding sense that cancer is this thing that comes at you, upends your life and the life of everyone around you, and it's up to God what happens from there," said Padamsee, who is a member of The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center's Cancer Control Research Program.

"Being in a cutting-edge cancer center, we have ways, and are finding new ones, to head the disease off at the pass andif we can'tto catch it earlier, when the prognosis is much better. And we want all high-risk women to have those advantages."

The researchers found several differences based on race, all of which pointed to potentially worse outcomes for the high-risk Black women.

Overall, the Black women in the study described feeling less ready and equipped to consider and cope with their risk and less informed about their options. They also reported facing more obstacles in availing themselves of those options and having less access to detailed information to help them make decisions about managing their risk.

Previous research using data from the same interviews with this group of women found that experiences with family members had a profound influence on perceptions of their own risk and prevention options. Though Black women generally reported having more up-close experiences with family members who had cancer, that didn't seem to be associated with awareness of measures they might take to protect themselves, Padamsee said.

The Black women in the study were more likely to describe cancers as a collective group of diseases for which they have an equally high risk, rather than recognizing a particular predisposition to breast cancer. Women who thought this way did not generally believe anything specific could be done to prevent their increased risk, instead viewing a healthy lifestyle and regular health screenings as their sole tools to mitigate risk.

Many white women in the study who were more inclined to pursue preventive medication, such as Tamoxifen, or prophylactic mastectomies, told the researchers they perceived themselves to be at specific risk of breast cancer and that they worried a lot about its impact on them and their families.

In contrast, Black women in the study who worried about their cancer risk were more likely to talk about their faith.

"We're just a really spiritual family, we believe in God.  I put my faith in God in that everything will be alright," said one of the middle-aged Black women interviewed for the study.

While worrying less and having a stronger spiritual connection could have mental health benefits for Black women, it also could serve as a barrier to seeking out risk-management options, Padamsee said.

Black women in the study were also more likely to describe other priorities in their livesincluding family and work demands and other health strugglesthat were top of mind. About 20% of white women in the study had a major health concern besides the high risk of breast cancer, compared to 40% of the Black women.

Access to care from specialists, including genetic counselors, was also uneven. About 15% of the Black women reported access to specialists, compared to 70% of the white women.

That disparity likely has a significant influence on another key findingthat Black women were less likely to know about preventive measures and were much less likely to undergo genetic testing even when they'd heard of it.

Black women's ability to manage their breast cancer risk also is more significantly impacted by financial barriers, the study suggests. Of the Black women in the study, 40% had experienced a time without insurance, compared to just 3% of the white women. And 40% of the Black women also described significant financial difficulties coping with health challenges, compared to 3% of whites.

These new findings could provide a foundation for building equity within health care, Padamsee said. Among the possibilities she suggests: Find better ways to acknowledge and incorporate patients' spirituality and religious perspectives into discussions about prevention, ensure that women have access to good insurance coverage or other ways of paying for specialist care, and improve training for primary care physicians who are often the sole source of medical counsel for high-risk Black women.

"There's a lot of hand waving when it comes to talking about health equity problems, and discrimination and disadvantage in general," she said. "One of the things that's really important in equity work is that we have clear documentation of where the differences are and where they're coming from, and this study helps provide that."

More information: Tasleem J. Padamsee et al, Racial differences in prevention decision making among U.S. women at high risk of breast cancer: A qualitative study, PLOS ONE (2023). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0278742 Journal information: PLoS ONE
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Interdisciplinary support groups (ISGs) exist to help health-care teams that offer medical assistance in dying (MAiD). But even though ISGs were introduced in Quebec in 2016, their mandates and services still aren't well-known.

And inconsistencies in the way the groups practice are a problem throughout the province.

These are some of the issues identified by ethicist Catherine Perron, in her doctoral project in clinical ethics for the biomedical sciences program at Universite de Montreal's Faculty of Medicine.

Her research project, completed under the direction of professors Marie-Eve Bouthillier and Eric Racine, responds to an approach initiated by the Quebec Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS). More than five years after the Act Respecting End-of-Life Care came into force, the MSSS sought an objective view on ISG implementation and practices across Quebec.

Aside from publishing her initial findings in the Healthcare Management Forum, Perron prepared a report for the MSSS with recommendations to be studied during the upcoming ISG Community of Practice symposium in June.

Perron's goal was to identify and analyze best practices so that she could offer recommendations on whether they should be implemented in the approximately 30 ISGs in Quebec. To do so, she carried out a mixed-method study divided into three phases.

245 people surveyed

In the first phase, she conducted a survey of 245 people from a variety of disciplines who offer medical assistance in dying. The sample included physicians, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, clinical ethicists, psychologists, spiritual-care workers and family partners,

"The survey showed that these professionals were often unaware that ISGs existed and that there is no platform to tell the public about them," said Perron.

Many respondents, even those who were ISG members, didn't know where to turn for accurate information approved by regulators such as the MSSS, the Quebec College of Physicians and the Commission on End-of-Life Care: "The indications provided by the three regulators are often inconsistent and sometimes contradictory," she added.

Furthermore, some caregivers within the ISG "community of practice" are reluctant to share their knowledge and methods for fear of criticism.

The survey also showed that some physicians are skeptical about whether ISGs actually add value. These physicians are particularly pro-MAiD and are affiliated with another community of practice, exclusively for physicians who offer MAiD, that is independent and not supported by the MSSS.

Dozens of interviews and discussions

In the second phase, Perron carried out semi-structured interviews with 59 people who coordinate their ISG.

And in the third phase she led seven discussion groups with 35 ISG coordinators and representatives of palliative care homes. The objectives were to take a closer look at issues that have arisen in different ISGs and to get participants to confirm which practices should be promoted more widely.

"One of their main concerns was how hard it is to get information on MAiD eligibility criteria," Perron said. "Some caregivers mistakenly thought that patients still had to be close to death, which is no longer the case."

At a broader level, the recommendations identified during these interviews had to do with things like ISG composition and cooperation within these entities, support activities and ISG positioning and operations. A few of the recommendations are:

Composition: get professional services departments involved, make sure the various disciplines and types of institutions are represented in each ISG and ensure continuity of coordinators.

Cooperation and proximity: improve cooperation between the regulators by setting up a provincial platform for ISGs, build partnerships with palliative care homes and improve communications with the general public.

Support activities: encourage mentorship of physicians in MAiD practices, establish partnerships between ISGs in regions where there is less demand for MAiD and ISGs in higher-demand areas, improve and cooperate on caregiver training, promote interdisciplinarity, and develop a formal range of support services for patients' loved ones.

Positioning and operations: a majority of respondents agreed that ISGs should not be centralized into a single support organization, since they felt that ISGs should retain a certain amount of independence and maintain close relationships with patients and their loved ones.

The discussions that will be held at the June symposium are highly important since they are aimed at making the services and information provided by ISGs more accessible, benefiting both health care teams and recipients of palliative care, end-of-life care and possibly medical assistance in dying.

Demand is highest in Quebec

This is especially true for Quebec since it is the jurisdiction with the highest proportion of people who choose assisted dying in the world.

In 2021, when the survey was conducted, 4.7% of deaths in Quebec were individuals who received medical assistance in dying, compared to 3.3% for Canada as a whole. Since then, the percentage in Quebec has risen to 7%.

According to Perron, this is especially surprising since euthanasia is the only form of medically assisted death that is legal in Quebec. In other Canadian provinces and other countries such as the Netherlands, assisted suicide is also permitted.

"Euthanasia involves administering to a person, at that person's request and in accordance with legally established criteria, a substance that causes their death, while assisted suicide consists of offering information and providing a substance to a person who will self-administer the substance and cause their own death," said Perron.

"In Quebec, we believe that medical assistance in dying has to be a treatment that is administered to the patient and that people who request it must receive support right to the end."

More information: Catherine Perron et al, Support structures for healthcare professionals involved in medical assistance in dying: Quebec, Canada, and the international landscape, Healthcare Management Forum (2022). DOI: 10.1177/08404704221136847
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Researchers from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology and University of Texas at Dallas published a new Journal of Marketing article that examines whether direct-to-consumer advertising for robotics surgery is effective at swaying patients to choose it over other types of procedures.

The study is titled "The Role of Advertising in High-Tech Medical Procedures: Evidence from Robotic Surgeries" and is authored by Tae Jung Yoon and TI Tongil Kim.

Robotic surgery and the ethics around its adoption has been a thorny issue since 2000 when the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the world's first minimally invasive robotic surgery called the Da Vinci system. Surgical robots provide a magnified high-definition 3-D view of the surgical site and allow surgeons to control the robot arms, offering more flexibility and a greater range of motion than is possible with human hands alone.

The Da Vinci system has become the most widely adopted robotic surgical system in the world and is approved by the FDA for many procedures in urology, thoracic surgery, general surgery, and gynecology, among others. The system has been installed in more than 1,500 U.S. hospitals whose estimated annual procedures performed increased from 136,000 in 2008 to 664,000 in 2017.

Advocates of robotic surgery argue that superior dexterity and smaller incisions translate into better patient outcomes. However, robotic surgeries have often been criticized for being substantially more costly than laparoscopic surgery without clear evidence of improvement in treatment outcomes, thereby contributing to higher health care costs. This tension points to the need to determine the true value of robotic surgery.

The relevant question arises for health care marketers: Is direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) for robotics surgery effective in swaying patients to choose it over other types of procedures?

This new study analyzes approximately 140,000 individual patient records and television advertising data from Florida between 2011 and 2015 to investigate how hospital advertising of robotic surgery affects patients' choice of robotic surgery over more conventional laparoscopic and open surgeries.

As Yoon explains, "We find that patients exposed to robotic surgery advertising are more likely to choose it over the conventional laparoscopic surgery. In particular, every additional $1 per 100 capita spent on robotic surgery advertising during a quarter increases the likelihood of the procedure being chosen by 13.9%."

For hospital marketers, these results indicate that DTCA is an effective way to sway patient choice, even for decisions involving direct and substantial health risks. This study quantifies that the advertising of high-tech surgery can influence consumers to choose this type of surgery.

While it does not observe long-term health benefits for patients who have robotic surgery, the shorter length-of-stay associated with robotic surgery (approximately five hours shorter) is a clear benefit. As long as the patient's out-of-pocket costs are low (e.g., no or low deductible), robotic surgery advertising can improve consumer welfare.

The study offers lessons for several stakeholders in the health care sector:

For health care providers

The study delivers new insights into the development and deployment of effective advertising related to high-tech procedures. For example, providers can note that Medicaid patients are more responsive to robotic surgery television advertising. In addition, results show that patients discern and respond to high-tech ad creatives. Therefore, marketers should consider consumer responses to specific advertising content when developing marketing plans.

For insurance providers

Robotic surgery ads can hurt insurance providers that offer plans with low out-of-pocket costs, especially when robotic surgery's shorter length-of-stay in hospitals is deemed minimal. Results also imply that robotic surgery advertisements have a greater influence on Medicaid patients, who tend to be of lower socioeconomic statusa finding that may be of interest to the federal and state governments funding Medicaid.

For health care policymakers

Agencies like the FDA must note that while patients might be affected by robotic surgery advertising, no clear evidence demonstrates the superiority of robotic surgery with regard to long-term treatment outcomes. Although FDA regulations require drug manufacturers to offer a balanced view of the risks and benefits in advertisements, DTCA of robotic surgery lies outside the scope of this regulation. As a consequence, television DTCA for medical procedures or medical devices requires no disclosure of either benefits or risks.

"Our results show that robotic surgery advertising can materially increase demand for the procedure," says Kim. He adds that "Given the complexity of surgical operations and their risk for patients, regulators may consider imposing rules for the marketing of high-tech procedures similar to those for pharmaceutical DTCA that require disclosure of the pros and cons of the procedures, including possible surgery complications. This would allow patients to make more informed decisions among surgery options."

Given the risks associated with surgery, this study's findings on advertising effectiveness point to the need for further policy discussion on the transparency of advertising content.

More information: Tae Jung Yoon et al, EXPRESS: The Role of Advertising in High-Tech Medical Procedures: Evidence from Robotic Surgeries, Journal of Marketing (2022). DOI: 10.1177/00222429221151058 Journal information: Journal of Marketing
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

(Panel A) Patients with medically refractory temporal lobe epilepsy undergoing stereo-electroencephalography (SEEG) for presurgical workup of epilepsy were included in this study (N=15). (Panel B) Each participant provided informed consent for electrode implantation into the thalamus for research purposes. EEG data from the seizure onset zone and thalamus were captured during the inpatient monitoring period. (Panel C) The EEG was divided into: (1) pro-ictal epochs, beginning 5 minutes before seizure onset and extending 40 minutes retrograde; and (2) interictal epochs, defined as all time points 4 hours removed from the nearest seizure. Epochs were further divided into 10-minute, nonoverlapping windows, which are illustrated as numbered (i.e., 18), bracketed EEG segments. (Panel D) Epochs were randomly distributed into training and validation cohorts in a 1:1 ratio. For each participant, a classifier used the training data to reduce EEG-based measures to a real-valued principal dimension, , in which pro-ictal and interictal states were assigned scores near 100 and 0, respectively. Training data were used to optimize the classifiers parameters. Subsequently, the optimized classifiers performance was assessed by using the held-out validation data. Both training and testing were performed in a patient-specific fashion. Credit: NEJM Evidence (2023). DOI: 10.1056/EVIDoa2200187

Seizures can be predicted more than 30 minutes before onset in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy, opening the door to a therapy using electrodes that could be activated to prevent seizures from happening, according to new research from UTHealth Houston.

The study, led by Sandipan Pati, MD, associate professor in the Department of Neurology with McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston, was recently published in NEJM Evidence.

"The ability to predict seizures before they occur is a major step forward in the field of epilepsy research," said Pati, senior author of the study and a member of the Texas Institute for Restorative Neurotechnologies at UTHealth Houston Neurosciences. "These findings are significant because they suggest that we may be able to develop more effective therapies for epilepsy, which could greatly improve the quality of life for patients who suffer from this condition."

Surgery is a common treatment for many patients with epilepsy. But when seizures affect larger areas of the brain, removing part of the brain surgically is not an option. Neuromodulation therapy could offer an alternative solution for patients with these seizures, Pati said.

Past studies of continuous electroencephalography (EEG)the measurement and recording of electrical activity in different parts of the brainhave suggested that seizures in people with focal-onset epilepsies tend to occur during periods of heightened risk, represented by pathologic brain activities known as "pro-ictal states." The EEG-based detection of pro-ictal states is critical to the success of adaptive neuromodulation, with the early detection of seizures allowing electrodes to be applied therapeutically to the brain's seizure onset zone and thalamus.

To distinguish these pro-ictal states, Pati's team studied a prospective, consecutive series of 15 patients with temporal lobe epilepsy who underwent limbic thalamic recordings in addition to routine intracranial EEG for seizure localization. In total, they analyzed 1,800 patient hours of continuous EEG.

The researchers were able to detect pro-ictal states in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy at least 35 minutes before seizure onset. Pro-ictal states were distinguished at least 45 minutes before seizure onset in 13 of 15 participants. In two of 15 participants, they were distinguished up to 35 minutes prior.

While Pati believes that modulation of these brain regions during pro-ictal periods may be an effective therapeutic approach to the treatment of temporal lobe epilepsy, his theory still needs to be tested in clinical trials. However, this information could lead to the development of electrical or drug therapies aimed at preventing seizures.

"This study was made possible by the collaboration of a team of experts in neurology, neurosurgery, and neuroscience," he said. "It highlights the importance of interdisciplinary research in advancing our understanding of brain disorders."

Temporal lobe epilepsy is the most common seizure disorder, affecting some 50 million people globally. There are two temporal lobes, one on each side of the head behind the temples. Mesial temporal lobe epilepsy, which accounts for about 80% of all temporal lobe seizures, involves seizures starting in or near a part of the brain called the hippocampus, which controls memory and learning. Neocortical or lateral temporal lobe epilepsy involves seizures starting in the outer section of the temporal lobe.

Omar A. Alamoudi, Ph.D., postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Neurology with McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston, contributed to the study. Other co-authors included Adeel Ilyas, MD, and Kristen O. Riley, MD, both with the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

A statewide alcohol-monitoring program in South Dakota that requires people arrested for drunk driving and other alcohol-involved offenses to be tested frequently for alcohol use can reduce the likelihood that participants die during the years after their involvement with the program, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

Analyzing results from the 24/7 Sobriety Program, researchers found that those arrested for drunk driving who participated in 24/7 Sobriety had on the order of a 50% lower risk of dying during the study period compared to those arrested for drunk driving who did not participate in the program.

The results are published in the latest edition of the journal JAMA Psychiatry.

"These findings add a public health dimension to the growing evidence that the 24/7 approach improves public safety by reducing rearrest," said Nancy Nicosia, the study's lead author and a senior economist at RAND, a nonprofit research organization. "We believe this is the first evidence that such programs may also improve health outcomes for those who are enrolled."

Alcohol is the third-leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. with alcohol-impaired driving alone claiming 11,654 lives in 2020a 14% increase over the previous year.

The South Dakota 24/7 program is a public safety effort largely focused on those who are repeatedly arrested for alcohol-involved offenses. The program imposes very frequent alcohol testing along with swift but modest sanctions for those testing positive or missing a testtypically a night or two in jail.

Past RAND studies have shown that the 24/7 program in South Dakota lowers the likelihood that participants will be rearrested or have probation revoked, as well as reducing county-level repeat DUI arrests and domestic violence arrests.

"We have also found evidence that 24/7 Sobriety improves impaired driving outcomes in other states," said Beau Kilmer, a co-author on the study and codirector of the RAND Drug Policy Research Center.

For the new study, researchers analyzed criminal history and mortality data for individuals arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol in South Dakota during 2004 to 2011. The sample included 11,827 people who participated in the 24/7 program and 48,834 nonparticipants.

Researchers used several statistical approaches to compare death rates between the two groups, with each adjusting for any differences between participants and nonparticipants. All of the methods showed a lower likelihood of death among those who participated in the 24/7 program as compared to those who did not.

Support for the study was provided by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Other authors of the study are Greg Midgette of the University of Maryland and Marika Suttorp-Booth of RAND.

Since 1989, the RAND Drug Policy Research Center has conducted research to help policymakers in the United States and throughout the world address issues involving alcohol and other drugs. In doing so, the center brings an objective and data-driven perspective to an often emotional and fractious policy arena.

More information: Association of an Alcohol Abstinence Program With Mortality in Individuals Arrested for Driving While Alcohol Impaired, JAMA Psychiatry (2023). DOI: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2023.0026 Journal information: JAMA Psychiatry
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Vulnerability to upper respiratory viruses such as flu and the common cold may help explain significant racial and ethnic disparities among children suffering from asthma, according to a new study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Lead author Darlene Bhavnani, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of population health at Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin. She and her team compared emergency department visit rates associated with asthma in Black, Latinx and white children living in Travis County before, during and after COVID-19 prevention efforts went into effect.

"Looking at the data, we made two main observations," said Bhavnani, who is also an infectious disease epidemiologist in the Biomedical Data Science Hub at Dell Med. "One is that the circulation of upper respiratory viruses in our community went down during the height of stay-at-home orders. The second is that disparities in asthma exacerbations between children of color and white children were dramatically reduced at the same time."

Key findings of the study include:

Black children had nearly a sevenfold higher rate of ED visits than white children did during the spring of 2019. This ratio decreased to twice as high during the spring of 2020 after pandemic mitigation efforts went into effect, then increased again to five times as high during spring 2021, when those measures were lifted and respiratory virus circulation increased.

Latinx children had a twofold higher rate of ED visits than white children did during the spring of 2019. The two groups had similar rates in 2020, but the rate among Latinx children was nearly 1.5 times as high as that of white children during spring 2021.

"The reduction in racial and ethnic differences in ED visit rates when circulation of upper respiratory viruses was reduced raises the question of whether these viruses are driving some of the disparities we see in asthma exacerbations outside of pandemic periods," said Bhavnani.

Based on these results, senior author and pediatrician Elizabeth Matsui, M.D., says the focus now is on investigating why Black and Latinx children may be more vulnerable to upper respiratory viral infections such as flu, rhinovirus, RSV and adenovirus.

"We need more research to test this hypothesis and to identify contextual factors that may underlie an increased vulnerability to these seasonal viruses," said Matsui, who is the associate chair for research in the Department of Population Health and a professor in the departments of Pediatrics and Population Health at Dell Med. "It could be that they're more exposed. It could be that they're more susceptible or that they have more severe infections that lead to exacerbations."

Next, Bhavnani and her team will examine the social and environmental factors that may play roles in the increased vulnerability to upper respiratory viruses.

For example, there may be challenges at the neighborhood level that lead to a child being exposed to more viruses at school, such as crowded classrooms and insufficient ventilation.

"There's also research that links air pollution and exposure to certain allergens to increased susceptibility to viral infection that we're just now starting to appreciate," said Bhavnani. "If we can learn more about the connections between the environment and our health, we can start to think about how to reduce these pervasive disparities."

More information: Darlene Bhavnani et al, Do upper respiratory viruses contribute to racial and ethnic disparities in emergency department visits for asthma?, Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.jaci.2022.10.031 Journal information: Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Graphical abstract. Credit: Water Research (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2023.119648

A new study by Rice University and the Houston Health Department shows wastewater-based monitoring is an effective way to detect viral outbreaks in schools.

After two difficult COVID-19 winters, a major concern for parents, school districts and medical professionals has been a "tripledemic"a simultaneous surge in cases of influenza, COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus, known as RSV.

"School-age children are in close contact with one another daily for long periods," said Rice environmental engineer Lauren Stadler. "Further transmission of viral infections is also likely due to underreporting of symptoms or from children who are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic."

Stadler, the principal investigator on the study, and her lab are part of a collaborative effort to establish a citywide wastewater monitoring system for the protection of public health, along with Rice statistician and community analytics expert Katherine Ensor and Loren Hopkins, chief environmental science officer at the Houston Health Department. Hopkins is also a professor in the practice of statistics at Rice.

The laboratory and data analysis from a 17-month study that tracked SARS-CoV-2 and influenza A and B in wastewater from Houston Independent School District (HISD) campuses demonstrated that viral loads were reflective of school, community and citywide infections. The findings also suggest that wastewater-based epidemiology of schools could be more broadly implemented to reduce the burden of disease on communities and the number of school days missed due to illness.

The results from the study are published in Water Research.

"Although wastewater monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 has been studied extensively, there have been a limited number of studies to date on wastewater monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 in pre-K-12 school settings, nor many studies that have expanded school monitoring to include other respiratory viruses, such as influenza," Stadler said.

The HISD schools participating in the study39 elementary and early-childhood centers, five middle schools, five high schools and two combined-grade-level schoolswere selected based on ZIP code as well as COVID-19 positivity and vulnerability rates.

School wastewater monitoring operates much like at a municipal wastewater treatment plant. Weekly composite samples are collected by Houston Public Works from manholes that capture wastewater generated at the schools over a six-hour timeframe during school hours.

Stadler's Rice lab analyzes the wastewater samples for influenza and SARS-CoV-2 genomic fragments, and the Houston Health Department's lab analyzes for SARS-CoV-2.

Weekly reports are communicated back to the schools and city and public health officials to enable strategies to stop the onset of potential outbreaks. School SARS-CoV-2 and influenza trend information is also available to the public through the City of Houston Wastewater Monitoring Dashboard and is linked on HISD's Health Alerts website.

"We have developed a unique partnership with HISD through this project and will continue to work with school and district leadership to quickly identify emerging outbreaks and hotspots and provide interventions and resources," said Hopkins.

Hopkins, an expert in environmental science and engineering, contributed to a consensus study report released last month by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine that looked at the value of wastewater surveillance as a tool to trace, prevent and control the spread of infectious diseases beyond COVID-19.

The team of Rice-Houston Health Department collaborators operates as Houston Wastewater Epidemiology, which has gained a reputation as a leader in the field and is designated as a National Wastewater Surveillance System Center of Excellence by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Major contributors to the analysis and writing of the study from Stadler's lab were research technician Madeline Wolken, postdoctoral fellow Camille McCall and Prashant Kalvapalle, a doctoral student in systems, synthetic and physical biology.

Ensor's statistical analysis and reporting team, which includes contributing author and doctoral student Thomas Sun, collaborates with analysts Rebecca Schneider, Kelsey Caton, Courtney Hundley and Kaavya Domakonda of the Houston Health Department's Data Science Division, which is managed by Hopkins.

Additional co-authors on the study include Stephen Williams, director of the Houston Health Department, and Dr. David Persse, the public health authority for the City of Houston, who is responsible for the medical aspects of clinical care quality management, disease control and public health preparedness.

More information: Madeline Wolken et al, Wastewater surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza in preK-12 schools shows school, community, and citywide infections, Water Research (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2023.119648
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
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Women around the world have adjusted to new working realities after the COVID-19 pandemic. Credit: Kristin Hardwick/Wikimedia Commons

One of the outcomes of the COVID pandemic is that people's working lives have changed. Working at home and hybrid work have become prevalent, after constantly changing government rules and guidelines.

Globally, employees report many pandemic-related challenges loss of employment, lack of career growth, loss of a sense of belonging with colleagues.

Our study investigated the impact of COVID-19 on working women in South Africa. We surveyed 402 working women. Most were in the 3645 years age range, married or living together, and better educated than South African working women in general (44.5% held a postgraduate degree). We looked in particular at work-life balance, well-being and liminality (uncertainty during a time of change).

About half (52%) of the women home-schooled children during the pandemic. Of these, 30% stated they were solely responsible and 31% were mostly responsible for the home-schooling. These results support findings that working women were forced to rapidly adapt to remote working while dealing with diverse psychological, social and economic impacts on their work-life balance.

The emotional responses of the sample group during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic showed that initial anxiety, fear and a sense of being overwhelmed shifted to optimism in a relatively short period of time. This finding gives encouraging news about safeguarding women's well-being during trying times and steps that can be taken to bolster well-being.

Women's experiences

Well-being is the measure of an individual's coping abilities. In particular it refers to their sense of being able to control their actions, and feeling that their behavior matches their personal values and goals (often called "authenticity").

Liminality is about passing from one social reality to another. A liminal state occurs when life is in transition and, as a result, uncertainty and confusion replace previously clear and well-established norms and roles. These transitions, while limited in time, are sufficiently uncertain and unclear to result in changes to established or traditional perceptions, beliefs and social role behavior.

What the women told us can be summed up by three themes.

One was that they had to rapidly adjust to a new working environment and to the new reality of home-based work. The transition resulted in a level of complexity never experienced before. They were suddenly required to juggle the various responsibilities associated with this unexpected transition. They were faced with home-schooling, an increase in chores during the pandemic, and conflict with their spouse or partner about chores and finances.

Second, working women experienced complex emotional journeys as a result of the pandemic. Their well-being suffered as a result of the multiple, unplanned changes that they facedand not by choice.

Finally, women had to set up a home office and adapt to changing working conditions, while coping with the responsibilities associated with being in a relationship and having children. Multiple dimensions of life, which previously could be separately managed to accommodate career choices, now needed to be blended in unexpected ways.

Work-life balance

Managers need to be aware of and help women employees to set boundaries. These boundaries will be specific to the individual. Organizational culture needs to adapt and adopt a respect for technological boundaries in a world of hybrid and at-home work. A new "technological" etiquette needs to be defined. Insisting on entering a co-worker's office, interrupting a family dinner or expecting an immediate work response late at night are all considered unacceptable and even antisocial. When it comes to remote work or electronic communications, this behavior somehow is considered acceptable. The "always on" for working women may result in uncomfortable choices between their personal responsibilities and their careers. Information technology needs to be reviewed to ensure that employees have the requisite remote work hardware, software and technical support to do their work productively.

Well-being

While women reported initial anxiety and fear, these feelings subsided quite rapidly. Managers should understand that the "new normal" of work has led to major disruption, and is still resulting in challenges and demands, which need to be explored on an individual basis. Employers should take steps to increase employee independence and support at "work"including the special challenges of home workingto enhance working women's mental health. Make flexible working the new norm to ensure that work-life balance and well-being of working women is enhanced.

Liminality

Lead with empathy. Check in with women employees, who have experienced far greater demands on their time than their male colleagues as a result of the pandemic, as to what their job-related expectations are. Management will need to take explicit steps to avoid two-tiered hybrid workplaces, with some employees interacting at the office while others are left behind. Management needs to sustain engagement and integrate remote employees into meetings and social events. Once again, with an emphasis on the special situation of female employees.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
A volume that combines poetry and photography has taken the prize for the 2022 Montana Book Award.

On a Benediction of Wind: Poems and Photography places the free-verse writing of Charles Finn alongside black-and-white pictures by Barbara Michelman.

The book weaves a tapestry of words and images from the natural world in the Pacific Northwest, the American Southwest and Montana, according to a news release.

The award was started in 2001 by the Friends of the Missoula Public Library and marks its 20th anniversary this year.

The field is open to any book written by someone who lives in Montana, is set in Montana, or deals with Montana themes.

Finn lives in Havre; he was editor of the High Desert Journal and has written poetry, fiction and nonfiction. Michelman, of Missoula, has photographed wildfire burn zones for a project, Fire on Every Mountain that earned recognition. She worked in lighting in Hollywood, and has photographed musicians like Terry Riley and former president Bill Clinton.

The award will be given out on April 12 at the Montana Library Association Conference in Billings.

Here are the three honor books the committee selected:

Lucky Turtle, by Bill Roorbach (Algonquin Books). The Maine author's latest is set in Montana, where a teenager is dispatched to a reform school run by a former actress. Kirkus Reviews said it's "an epic love story and love letter to the West. No greater reading pleasure to be had anywhere."

Montana Modernists: Shifting Perceptions of Western Art, by Michele Corriel (Washington State University Press). Corriel, an art historian, is the first to write a book-length treatment on the history of modernism in the state. She focuses on six artists, most of them educators, who laid the foundation for contemporary work since.

The River You Touch: Making a Life on Moving Water, by Chris Dombrowski (Milkweed). The Missoula poet and nonfiction author turns to the memoir form, retracing how he (a river guide) and his wife (a teacher) settled and raised a family in time of impending crises.
During the first two years of the covid-19 pandemic, while the federal government was trying to prevent people on Medicaid from losing health coverage, Idaho dropped nearly 10,000 people from the safety-net program.

Federal law generally banned states from dropping people, and federal officials said Idaho acted improperly. Idaho officials, however, said they didnt think they did anything wrong.

The episode, revealed in documents KHN obtained through a public records request and in interviews with state officials, offers a preview of what could soon unfold across the United States for millions of people covered through Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program for people with low incomes.

It shows how easily state bureaucracies can disenroll people they shouldnt be disenrolling, leaving those people in financial and medical jeopardy. It also illustrates the potential for confusion and disagreement over what procedures states should follow before cutting off anyones benefits, particularly when enrollees cant be reached.

A covid relief law Congress enacted in 2020 prohibited states from removing people from Medicaid except in a few narrow circumstances, such as if an enrollee died or moved out of state.

On April 1 of this year, after the prohibition expires, states will resume removing people who no longer qualify or do not furnish needed information. That process has come to be known as the unwinding. Some states see the end of the mandate as a chance to quickly winnow Medicaid rolls that have grown to record levels.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little was among 25 Republican governors who told President Joe Biden in a December letter that, by keeping ineligible people on the Medicaid rolls, the mandate was negatively affecting states.

Idahos Medicaid program had nearly 450,000 enrollees as of February. The state said about 150,000 of them no longer qualified or had not been in contact with the program during the public health emergency.

Nationally, as disenrollments ramp up, many officials are predicting a mess. The Department of Health and Human Services has predicted that nearly 7 million people still entitled to Medicaid benefits will lose coverage because they fail to complete renewals or state governments wont be able to contact them.

People may not realize theyve been dropped until they seek care.

The damage will be done, said Tricia Brooks, a research professor with Georgetown Universitys Center for Children and Families.

Idaho terminated Medicaid benefits for more than 9,800 beneficiaries during the pandemic after mail the state sent them was returned as undeliverable and other attempts to confirm that they still resided in Idaho failed, according to emails between the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare and the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

The emails, sent last spring and summer, detail Idahos rationale for the terminations, CMS concerns, and the states efforts to restore benefits.

CMS officials maintained that, when Idahos mailings were returned with no forwarding address or an out-of-state forwarding address, the state didnt do enough to make contact with the beneficiaries and ensure they no longer lived in Idaho, according to the emails and state officials.

CMS appreciates the states efforts to come into compliance, Sarah OConnor, a CMS official, wrote on Aug. 18 of last year.

In meetings with CMS, Idaho officials were told the state could not kick people off if it didnt make physical contact, Shane Leach, administrator of the Division of Welfare at Idahos Department of Health and Welfare, recounted in correspondence with CMS.

What they were saying early on, Leach told KHN, is, basically, we didnt do enough outreach to really prove that this person was no longer in Idaho and not eligible for Medicaid.

My perspective is, we did our due diligence, he added.

For the first two years of the pandemic, when Idaho received returned mail with an out-of-state forwarding address or no forwarding address  possibly indicating the enrollee no longer lived in Idaho  Leach said state officials would call them.

A lot of the calls went unanswered, he said.

Theyre really concerned about physically talking to the person or having them say, Yes, Im in another state, Leach said of CMS. And so thats where they said, OK, well, you need to reinstate those individuals.

We felt like we were following the guidance, added Jennifer Palagi, a deputy director at the Idaho health department.

CMS guidance in August 2021 stated that returned mail alone was not reason enough to disenroll Medicaid beneficiaries during the public health emergency. But if CMS had issued a written version of the standard to which it was holding Idaho  in which disenrollments would be justified only if the state made contact with the enrollee  Medicaid consumer advocates and other specialists said they were unaware of it.

CMS declined to answer several questions about the Idaho situation.

CMS is committed to working with states to ensure continuity of coverage for eligible individuals, including those for whom the Medicaid agency receives returned mail, Bruce Alexander, director of CMS office of communications, said in a written statement to KHN.

According to the batch of emails obtained by KHN, Idaho in March 2022 did change the states procedures after discussions with CMS. By July, the state Medicaid agency had reinstated benefits for 6,400 people the state couldnt get hold of.

In one of the emails the Idaho Medicaid agency sent to CMS last July, the state said it was reviewing the extent to which it needed to pay medical bills the program had originally rejected.

The inability to reach Medicaid enrollees has been a long-standing problem. The paperwork that agencies send people to fill out often goes unreturned. Some ends up at the wrong address. Up-to-date phone numbers or email addresses may not be available to state and county workers.

In a perfect situation, a member responds to give you their current address, a phone number, an email address, etc., said Jack Rollins, director of federal policy for the National Association of Medicaid Directors. But that is not the case for a lot of situations.

And thats bound to become a larger problem, consumer advocates say, after the pandemic-era enrollment mandate ends this spring. On Jan. 27, CMS detailed to health agencies in all states the minimum theyll need to do to reach a Medicaid recipient who hasnt responded to a mailed form: Before ending benefits, a state must try to obtain up-to-date contact information and attempt to reach the person through at least two means, such as by mail, phone, email or text message, if those means are available.

Still, theres just a lot of variation in terms of what that could look like, said Farah Erzouki, a senior health policy analyst for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a think tank in Washington, D.C.

If any state isnt following the rules, Georgetown Universitys Brooks said, it can take months to fix the problems  all while peoples benefits hang in the balance.

This is what we want to avoid, Brooks said. We dont need to spend the next three years after the unwinding trying to get people back on who should not have been disenrolled.

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).
The Missoula County Public Schools board will interview one person in its second attempt at a superintendent search this school year.

The trustees unanimously voted to schedule an interview with Micah Hill, who is currently the superintendent of Kalispell Public Schools. His interview will be held on Tuesday, March 7.

Hill transitioned from principal of Glacier High School in Kalispell to serve as the districts superintendent of schools after Mark Flatau retired in 2020. He was named Superintendent of the Year for the Northwest Region by the Northwest Montana Association of School Superintendents in 2021.

Hill was selected from a pool of nine candidates after the board rejected another slate of candidates earlier this month.

The board unanimously voted to reopen its search for a superintendent in early February after its first attempt was deemed unsuccessful by trustees. The first search produced 14 total applicants.

None of the three candidates interviewed in January had led a district the size of MCPS. Trustee Nancy Hobbins said that the district doesnt have the time to let somebody get to know this district and get to know our students and our staff.

We want somebody who was ready to hit the ground running, Hobbins continued on Feb. 7. While these candidates definitely have a lot of great experience, they dont have the experience running a district this size. Thats why we think it was an unsuccessful search.

Earlier this school year, the board selected the Nebraska-based consulting firm McPherson & Jacobson LLC to spearhead the search after former superintendent Rob Watson departed the district last summer to take on a new role as executive director of School Administrators of Montana. Russ Lodge, who previously served as assistant superintendent, currently serves as interim superintendent.

Trustees made no further comments on the new candidate after announcing his name at Tuesday's meeting.
A woman who shot and killed a 6-month-old husky puppy last September received a deferred sentence this week.

Amber R. Barnes was cited for first offense cruelty to animals. On Tuesday, she pleaded no contest to the charge in Flathead County Justice Court and was given a six-month deferred sentence, court filings show.

The husky was among a group of 18 dogs and puppies, including German shepherd mixes, that had been abandoned on national forest land in northwestern Montana last September, according to the Flathead County Sheriffs Office.

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks investigators were contacted after someone flagged a person harvesting a wolf in the same area the dogs were located.

According to the citation document, Barnes, a Martin City resident, shot the dog on the Aurora Basin Road in the Doris Ridge area on Sept. 24, 2022.

Her social media post showing the dead husky was widely shared online following the shooting.

Barnes was also ordered to complete an online hunting safety course, and she cant use her rifle for six months. A $585 fine was also suspended by the court.

After they were found, the puppies were turned over to the Flathead County Animal Shelter.

Rob Berryhill, who works at the Flathead County Animal Shelter, said as of Wednesday, all of the puppies had been adopted out to happy homes. Some of the dogs tested positive for the parvo virus when they first came into the shelters care, but they were given vaccines and tested negative before they were adopted.
The platinum and palladium mine  one of only a few in the world  is located on Custer Gallatin National Forest lands in Sweet Grass County. The mines owners, the Sibanye Stillwater Mining Co., is seeking permission from the agency and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality to expand its tailings facility in Lewis Gulch and Dry Fork, a total of about 470 acres. The storage areas are meant to allow the mine to operate through 2045 and 2047, respectively.

In a press release issued Tuesday, Earthworks, Montana Trout Unlimited and downstream landowners urged the agencies to consider requiring Sibanye to use dry or filtered tailings. That would remove water from the waste rock so if there was a dam failure there wouldnt be a catastrophic flood of tainted water surging downstream.

"The Boulder Valley is a scenic treasure, a remarkably undamaged natural resource that can hardly be improved, said Thomas McGuane, Boulder valley resident and author, in the release. There is no question that the Stillwater Mining Company needs storage for mine waste; but better technology is available than what they have proposed. The Boulder Valley must seem far away to a company whose offices are in South Africa; but we in Montana are at close range and want the best science available in protecting what we have."

Sibanye-Stillwater has defended the tailing dams design as the most robust developed with areas of high seismic activity and rainfall in mind. The only way the dams could fail was if there were 47 inches of precipitation in 24 hours or a 7.5 earthquake  both of which are unlikely. (The 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake had a magnitude of 7.2.)

"Although our area does not meet the qualifications for high seismic activity or rainfall, we purposefully chose this design option to maximize the stability of our facilities," said Heather McDowell, vice president of legal, environmental and government affairs for Sibanye Stillwater, in an email.

McDowell said the company has studied the dry stacking and filtering processes but they are not technically feasible due to the small grain of the tailiings produced.

"We are motivated to develop this technology, and are actively working on doing so, as placement of 'dry' or 'filtered' tailings would require less space, and space is quite limited at East Boulder," she said.

McDowell added that Montana has one of the toughest and most comprehensive tailings regulations in the world. Moira Davin, DEQ public relations specialist, agreed.

"A law passed by the 2015 Montana Legislature created the requirement for a specific design document for tailing storage facilities (with a prescribed periodic review)," she wrote in an email. "In addition, the legislation created specific requirements for an Engineer of Record for tailings storage facilities (including annual inspections) as well as created the requirement that an Independent Review Panel shall review the design document. Furthermore, the legislation required that a tailings operation, maintenance, and surveillance manual be developed for the tailings storage facility. The 2015 legislation was targeted at ensuring the safe construction, operation and closure of tailings storage facilities."

A video simulation the conservation groups had made highlights the effects of a dam failure on downstream lands and waters. Bonnie Gestring, northwest program director at Earthworks, and Bill Pfeiffer of Montana Trout Unlimited, said the video is meant to get the attention of the agencies to urge them to consider the alternate technology.

Although the threat of a dam failing may be low, Pfeiffer said the impacts would be severe.

A worst-case scenario breach analysis completed as part of the East Boulder Mines previous environmental impact statement for a tailings dam expansion calculated that should the main dam fail, between 20 and 30 buildings would be flooded, from 10 to 100 people could be killed and all bridges crossing the river would be overtopped as the river climbed 6 to 8 feet above its average maximum spring flow.

I live under Goliaths spear, said Noel Yantos, a downstream resident on the East Boulder, in the press release. A failure of the tailings pond will destroy everything I have with zero insurance coverage for that failure. I want the mine to be successful. I know that there are options, such as dry tailings, to reduce the downstream risks. I urge a close look at these options. It would certainly make us all sleep better.

The mines analysis prompted downstream landowner Leon Royer to launch an effort in 2021 urging the company to build a separate failsafe dam to lessen the effects if a tailings impoundment did fail. He also called for a higher bond amount to cover the costs of any failure.

On Tuesday Royer said he could take no credit for the conservation groups and other landowners stepping into the fray, but suggested the video simulation, produced by engineering firm Lynker, should raise concerns.

While this graphic should send shudders down the spine of every trout fisherman who loves the Boulder complex as well as every property owner on the East Boulder, portions of the Main Boulder and portions of the West Boulder, many of the people of Sweet Grass County  including the three county commissioners  seem to believe that the mine can do no wrong, Royer said in an email.

The Forest Service and DEQ are expected to release a Draft Environmental Impact Statement of the proposed expansion for public review and comment this spring.

Forest public affairs officer Marna Daley said the two conservation groups raised similar concerns regarding the tailings during the EIS scoping period last year.

"The Forest and Montana DEQ continues working through and responding to the comments received and additional environmental analysis," she wrote in an email. "We anticipate another opportunity for public input/feedback this summer."

Daley added the Forest Service would continue to accept comments during the current analysis despite the end of the official scoping period.
A bill that would in part disallow the awarding of attorneys fees for successfully litigating for a prescriptive easement was heard and quickly passed a Senate committee on Tuesday.

A prescriptive easement is a legal concept rooted in English common law. Under Montana law, a prescriptive easement across private property is established by open, exclusive, notorious, hostile, adverse, continuous, and uninterrupted use for a period of five years. Experts estimate thousands of prescriptive easements exist in the state, both in written and unwritten form.

Prescriptive easements may be complicated due to the evidence needed to establish or disprove them. Other easements come through a written contract such as allowing a road or other access to adjoining property.

Sen. Steve Fitzpatrick, R-Great Falls, brought Senate Bill 497 to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. The bill amends a segment of Montanas stream access law which currently states that a prescriptive easement cannot be acquired through recreational use on surface waters.

The bill would add language stating that a prescriptive easement cannot be granted should a government entity places private property signage for at least five years.

The bill additionally removes the ability for a person or entity bringing the litigation from obtaining attorneys fees under the private attorney general doctrine. The doctrine refers to when legal action is brought by a private attorney but the results benefit the public at large, such as when a public road is opened.

Fitzpatrick noted that a prescriptive easement is created more or less by trespassing that then turns into a property right. While most Montana code requires each side to pay their own attorney fees, he raised the issue of fairness, stating that the fees dont flow both ways as only the plaintiff may be eligible. A landowner that prevails in court against an easement cannot file for attorney fees, he said.

Charles Denowh with United Property Owners of Montana described the system as a perverse incentive in the law essentially encouraging groups to sue landowners in an attempt to force access and receive attorney fees.

The bill saw opposition from Montana Trout Unlimited and the Montana Wildlife Federation.

Colin Cooney with MTU expressed concern that the bill was opening Montanas stream access law at a time of bottleneck of bills before transmittal.

Marcus Strange with the federation said the bill would restrict the fundamental right to seek redress in the courts for the public to enforce access that is rightfully theirs.

The bill passed committee on a party-line vote of 7-4 where it moves to the full Senate.
A more than $1 billion spending package is one step away from Gov. Greg Gianfortes desk, after Democrats tried unsuccessfully Tuesday to disentangle the pieces of legislation to be considered separately.

On a series of mostly party-line votes, Republican senators endorsed legislation to spend $530 million on income tax refunds, $280 million in property tax refunds and about $244 million on programs to pay down the states debt and secure federal highway money passed second-reading votes. Each of the bills needs to pass a vote on third reading to advance from the Legislature.

Lawmakers this session have been debating how best to spend an estimated $2.5 billion budget surplus, driven largely by income tax revenues and federal stimulus spending over the past two years.

When the government has over-collected from the taxpayers, it should return that money to them, Sen. Carl Glimm, R-Kila, said. Glimm is carrying House Bill 192, which would cut income-tax rebates to Montanans worth up to $1,250 of an individuals tax burden in the last two years.

The four bills have already passed the House, where GOP lawmakers bridged their divide with the governors office by adding nearly identical coordinating language into each measure. The language ensures that the failure of any bill in the package means the effect of the others is cut in half. The package also includes two tax-cut bills that cleared their final Senate votes Tuesday.

Democrats have argued throughout the process that the legislation is unnecessarily being rush through the Legislature, and tried multiple times on the Senate floor to remove the coordinating language. Those attempts, which they said would have allowed each bill to get a more thorough consideration, were rebuffed by Republicans on mostly party-line votes. Republicans hold more than two-thirds majorities in both chambers.

Id love to vote for this bill, Sen. Ryan Lynch, D-Butte, said of the debt-paydown bill. But he implored his Senate colleagues to strip out the coordinating language first. Let the merits of each of these bills stand on their own.

Democrats also failed to amend House Bill 222, the vehicle for the property-tax rebates. Their change to the bill would have also given a portion of the surplus money to renters, who they say wont benefit from the property-tax rebates, despite contributing to those tax payments.

A competing proposal to pay down the states debt also passed a second-reading vote in the Senate on Tuesday. Senate Bill 417 would spend $150 million to do so, but sponsor Sen. Brad Molnar, R-Laurel, said it includes language that would only allow the state to buy back bonds if they were being sold at a price that results in a net cost-savings to the state.

SB 417 passed a second-reading vote unanimously.

Also Tuesday, Republicans previewed another bill a spokesperson said would put $200 million more of the surplus back to voters.

House Bill 816 would increase the income tax rebates by $100 million and property tax rebates by $100 million. It would work in concert with House Bills 192 and 222.

An initial hearing has not yet been scheduled for the bill.
The Chinese spy balloons that have traversed Montana should serve as a glaring wake-up call to all Americans about the increasingly aggressive and adversarial stance the Chinese government is taking against our country. China has made no secret of its plans to supplant the United States as the global superpower and the strides it is making to overtake America in terms of economic might and technological superiority.

Were in a race against the Chinese Communist Party, and its one we cannot afford to lose. Fortunately, the United States hold a big advantage over the CCP as the world leader in technological innovation, at least for the time being.

Our economy is bigger and stronger, and our military is more sophisticated. Staying ahead economically and militarily is the key to stopping the CCP worldview from taking over, which means we must maintain our technological edge.

The CCP recognizes this fact as well. It has invested heavily in advancing its own technology sector, which has produced clones of American companies, such as TikTok and Huawei. It also employ state-sanctioned cyber-attacks and intellectual property theft to weaken American competitors.

But most worrying is Chinas saber-rattling about Taiwan, the tiny island nation about 100 miles from the Chinese coastline that produces the majority of advanced micro-chips utilized by the United States and other Western countries.

None of these are idle threats. In fact, the CCP has made it a stated priority to overtake the United States as the worlds technology leader by 2035. Its part of the legacy Chinese President Xi Jinping wants to leave behind.

Thankfully the centrally planned, state-backed approach China is taking cannot beat the bottom-up, entrepreneurially-driven approach that has long made America the worlds foremost economic and military powerhouse. That is, unless we pursue anti-innovation policies that tie one hand behind our back. Unfortunately, that is exactly what some in Congress would have America do in limiting our technology sectors ability to drive American innovation forward.

Congress is currently considering proposals to undermine the technology sector by exposing them to new, heavy-handed, and short-sighted regulation that will make it even more difficult to innovate in this country. Weakening our tech sector is the worst thing we could do in a time of increasing CCP aggression.

We are in a technological arms race in which our competitor is willing to go to any lengths to increase its chances of gaining the upper hand. Increasing the regulatory burden on our domestic technology companies will only make that race easier for the CCP.

Instead, we should be bolstering Americas advantages, while further cracking down on CCP-sponsored intellectual property theft and cyber-attacks against American companies.

We need to ramp up our military support of Taiwan to protect its microchip industry. And at the same time we should be increasing production of American-made chips to reduce our exposure to imported technology. Most of all, we should be clearing out regulatory hurdles that hold our tech companies back.

America will no doubt see more incursions by the CCP against our country. The revelation of its aerial surveillance likely pales in comparison to the mass data collection it is perpetrating through other applications. Its time for our country to get serious about the threat posed by the CCP, and that starts with Congress implementing policy that strengthens our technology sector.
DIVIDE  In Montanas Big Hole Valley, we have a tradition of coming together to resolve problems.

The Big Hole Valley includes a blue-ribbon trout stream, working farms and ranches, and the biggest national forest in Montana.

In the 1990s, the Big Hole Watershed Committee came together over concerns regarding Arctic grayling and intensifying drought. Next, a growing population of wolves prompted more work. Today, concerns include grizzly bears.

Wildlife and agriculture have coexisted since the first homesteaders. Open rangelands (as opposed to fenced subdivisions) allow for wildlife movement between mountain ranges. Weve found that both producers and wildlife can thrive when we come together.

Today, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is considering Montanas petition to delist grizzly bears under the Endangered Species Act. Whichever way that decision falls, we have learned some important lessons about complex wildlife challenges.

Partnership is a key part of our success. United we thrive. Divided, our future is less certain.

In 1995, grayling were candidates for listing under the ESA. Concerned about the future of the fish  and the future of their irrigation supply  local ag producers came up with a voluntary drought management plan. Meanwhile, Fish, Wildlife & Parks revised fishing regulations for the hottest days of summer. This plan has become a model for other Montana communities.

But grayling were just the start. Our wildlife-conflict kit has several tools. Weve hired a range-rider, Chet Robertson, who has spent 12 grazing seasons roaming national forests. His purpose is to keep tabs on predators and their movements, as well as discover potential trouble like sick or orphaned livestock. The goal is heading off conflicts before they happen and, if stock is killed, identifying carcasses in a timely manner to help ranchers secure reimbursement for their losses from USDA Wildlife Services.

Unfortunately, there are always some livestock deaths during stressful seasons, like calving. If these carcasses are left in the wrong places, they can attract predators. Disposing carcasses at our composting facility near Wisdom, we have been able to reduce those kinds of attractants.

These successes led to more innovation and cooperation. For example, we borrow a dump truck from the USFWS Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge to collect the livestock carcasses. The Montana Department of Livestocks Livestock Loss Board provides funding for the range rider program, and we cost-share with the Montana Department of Transportation on the compost site. People and Carnivores in Dillon offers their expertise to local ranchers, helped us set up our compost site, and has helped us provide bear-resistant garbage cans to local residents.

In the past, a predator problem was just resolved by destroying that animal. But without addressing the key source of the conflict, the problems just recurred.

Society at large has decided that it wants wolves and bears on the landscape, but it is the local agricultural producers who end up dealing with them on a day-to-day basis and have the impact on their livelihoods. As a society, we must ask if it is fair to livestock producers to shoulder the costs of public wildlife as they expand their range and numbers.

Our wildlife-solution toolbox is supported by local ranchers, of course. We provide these tools on a shoestring, knotted together with grants, donations and volunteer labor. We could do even more, if we had more and more consistent funding.

As the federal and state governments figure out a future for the grizzly bear, lets not forget their future depends on healthy ranching communities that connect wildlife habitats to each other. Predator conflict prevention tools need to be a big part of the picture.
Anxiety from a toxic boss can appear in myriad ways both big and small.

Anxiety from a toxic boss can appear in myriad ways both big and small.

A toxic boss is not just one that makes you feel bad  theyre a serious threat to your wellbeing.

One of the main ways this type of bad boss can wreck your health is by making you feel anxious all the time. Anxiety is a state of being where you are very future-focused and that future is bleak, said Tanisha Ranger, a Nevada-based clinical psychologist.

In this way, she said, a toxic boss can trigger anxieties you already had or give you new ones.

Dread, worry and fear become your constant companions at the thought of displeasing your boss. If you suspect your anxiety is related to your toxic boss, look for connections between the anxiety and your interactions with your boss, said Shannon Garcia, a psychotherapist at States of Wellness Counseling in Illinois and Wisconsin. Anxiety often manifests in our behaviors and in particular can result in avoidance of what is causing us anxiety.

Here are some of the ways that anxiety shows up in your body and thought patterns when you have a toxic boss  and what to do about it.

1. You have stomachaches, chest tightness, breathing changes and other physical symptoms when thinking about your boss.

Your body may know before you fully do that your boss is having a toxic effect on your wellbeing.

We spend a lot of time at work, so having a toxic boss in your life can result in various physical signs of anxiety such as stomachaches, fatigue or your chest feeling heavy, Garcia said. I once had a client whose eye would start slightly twitching on her way into work. It would last the work day, and it would stop upon leaving work.

Breathing is foundational to our survival and it can change, too, when a toxic boss is in the room.

Peoples breathing patterns will change when they are coming into work or when theyre in front of the boss, because theyre feeling that sense of anxiety. Thats a really big sign that people need to be aware of, said Adriana Alejandre, a California-based licensed marriage and family therapist and founder of Latinx Therapy in Burbank. For some, it will be more shallow and slow, and for others, it will be more rapid breathing.

Story continues

Alejandre also noted that other bodily symptoms can include being sweatier than usual, feeling flushed, having a different body odor  and behavioral changes like stuttering in front of the boss or colleagues who are close to the boss can trigger the same response.

2. You feel increasingly alienated from your co-workers and isolated at work.

When you have a toxic boss that is equally horrible to everyone on the team, that can sometimes inspire solidarity in the group. But if youre the only one being bullied by your boss, it can feel like you are being gaslit and cause you to doubt that what you are experiencing is actually happening.

If you can sit in a meeting and see that this person speaks differently to other people than they speak to you, that feels very isolating, that feels very alienating. You feel disconnected not just to the boss, not just to the company, but also to your co-workers, because they get a different experience than you, Ranger said. You worry that if you say something, theyre going to be like, Thats not how that was. Thats not what they meant. Or Are you sure?

This can then, in turn, cause you to stop talking to co-workers and feel even lonelier at work, Ranger said.

3. You frequently feel on edge and irritable.

If you find that every little thing at work now has the power to set you off, it could be traced back to how your boss is making you feel.

The irritability is about trying to control what you cant control, Ranger said. You have no say. Youre here at somebodys pleasure and if that whim changes, youre done. That is a terrible feeling. It is incredibly stressful.

The people you love could be getting the brunt of your irritability, because we tend to show less favorable feelings and behaviors to those were more comfortable with, Alejandre said.

4. You wake up dreading the work day, and it makes you unable to sleep at night, too.

If good days or bad days are measured by how much youll see your boss at work, it is a warning sign you should not ignore.

Oftentimes, the dread that you feel when you wake up for the day is about, Is today the day that shit hits the fan? Ranger said. You dont know whats coming at you, and you dont know the intensity of whats coming, and it fills you with dread. That dread is anxiety. It is... the strongest belief that something terrible is coming.

Ranger noted that this dread can also cause sleep problems later at night, too.

If anxiety is not dealt with in the work environment, it will lead to burnout.Adriana Alejandre, a family therapist

5. You avoid your boss and the tasks they ask of you.

Avoidance is another way anxiety can manifest, Garcia said.

With a toxic boss, you may notice that you put off asking them a question youre needing answered for work, she explained. You may take a different route to avoid going past their office. If an email comes in from them, your anxiety heightens.

You may find yourself choosing your words extremely carefully and speaking up less in meetings out of fear that they will lash out at you.

6. You become more distracted and forgetful.

Having a toxic boss takes over your brain and makes it harder to focus on doing your actual job.

If all of your energy is dedicated to [your toxic boss], youre going to miss stuff, Ranger said. Youre going to walk into the copy room and have no idea why you walked in there... Your ability to stay focused and remain organized becomes impacted by anxiety.

7. You lose interest in things that used to matter to you.

Feeling increasingly disengaged in the world around you is a big red flag for how your toxic boss is worsening your psyche. It also has long-term health implications.

Lack of interest is connected to anxiety, burnout and depression, she added. These symptoms... can also lead to hopelessness.

8. You feel burnout.



You spend so much time worried that it drains all your energy, Ranger said. Your work will suffer because you cant get comfortable, you cant feel secure in this position.

Burnout is chronic workplace stress that can result from your toxic boss pushing you past your limits, among other things. Its emotional, physical, mental and spiritual exhaustion caused by overworking or being overworked, Alejandre said.

People dont usually realize that they are burnt out until its too late, she said. If anxiety is not dealt with in the work environment, it will lead to burnout.

Some of the red flags that you are experiencing burnout can include skipping meals, skipping self-care, making more mistakes than usual, forgetting tasks, and not feeling up to engaging with others emotionally or socially, Alejandre said.



How to address your toxic boss-related anxiety

If these signs of anxiety are resonating too much, there are ways to mitigate a toxic boss influence over your life and cope until you find a solution.

Understand where your boss is coming from. Toxic bosses can chip away at your self-worth, which is why its important to remember that your boss behavior is not because of you. You are a human being who is worthy of decency and respect, and the fact that this person is not giving it to you is not because of something [that] is intrinsic to you. Its about something that is going on with them, Ranger said.

Ask yourself, What is theirs vs. what is mine? Garcia said. Dont make your boss toxicity about you. For example, if they micromanage their employees, that could be a reflection of their own anxiety about their performance as a boss and ability to manage a team. While it affects you, its not about you as an individual.

Lean on your network for gut checks and support. You have to have people you can commiserate with and people who will be like Alright, lets stop talking about that terrible place, and lets do something positive, Ranger said.

She also said finding a mentor who is not associated with the company you work for is an ideal way for you to ask if what is happening between you and your boss is normal.

Having a toxic boss can make it hard for you to speak up. If you are finding it difficult to share how your boss is treating you, Alejandre suggests telling people you trust or colleagues with authority, such as human resources or a manager other than your boss, that youre experiencing difficulties with your boss or your boss treatment of you, and that you would like to understand and request some help.

Create time for respite and joy. Garcia said it is important to find ways to make your workday more enjoyable despite your toxic boss. Try to form relationships with your coworkers. If its allowed, leave the building for lunch even to just sit in your car. Take time off, she said.

Quit. If moving to a different boss is not possible, and asking for help has not been helpful, it may be time to plan your exit strategy from your company.

Garcia said that choosing to leave a job because of a toxic boss is a decision only you can make, but some questions to ask yourself when making such a choice can include, How much is this anxiety affecting you each day? Is it [manageable] or are you falling apart at the seams? Are you able to put up boundaries that provide some relief?

If things are not changing at work, dont feel guilty about considering a job change, she said. While it may sound simple, a list of pros and cons for each of your options can be incredibly helpful. If you do this, write down everything, big and small. Your wellbeing matters.



Related...
Whats more Parisian than escargots, onion soup and a saucy steak?

Nothing, as far as the Hotel de Crillon and Michelin-starred chef Paul Pairet are concerned. And thats exactly whats on offer at Nonos, the freshly opened, more relaxed dining option at the palace on Place de la Concorde.

More from WWD

As a follow-up act to the brasserie that opened in 2017 after the hotels extensive renovation, its team wanted to introduce a retro French grill concept. Pairet felt like the right partner, particularly for managing director Vincent Billiard, whod lived in Shanghai and met the chef at three-starred Ultraviolet after eating regularly at his Mr. & Mrs. Bund steakhouse with an expansive seafood counter.

Having long admired the palace hotel, Pairet imagined this retro grill that could have been from the 1950s or 70s with the characteristics of those international restaurants, right down to the carving trolley that brings a rack of beef to be cut at the table, nestled in the back of the hotel and accessible through Rue Boissy dAnglas.

The star chef liked the idea of ordinary things  dishes that are familiar, that many people offer [on their menu]  done with care, and offering things as simple as a green salad as a kind of comfort food for Francophiles.

On the menu are anything from fresh radishes served with a generous dab of butter, slices of freshly baked quiche, pepper steak, all manners of pates from around France, along with snails bathed in garlic butter. To follow, there are eggs mimosa, seafood platters and plenty that gets thrown on the grill, to be served with house sauces. Its mostly European fare livened up with touches that hail from elsewhere.

But before digging into anything Pairet is offering, theres another very French ritual: a basket of thickly sliced warm breads from master baker Benoit Castel, including a piece of his waste-busting Pain dHier et de Demain (or bread of yesterday and tomorrow, in French), that uses leftover loaves as the starting flour for freshly baked ones. This comes with a thick swipe of Pairets spread, a blend that includes butter, soy sauce, cream and a touch of olive oil.

Story continues

Nonos owes its name to the cute word French children use instead of saying bone, or os in French, which Pairet chose as a meat-eater and friend of dogs to express the new establishments unfussy personality and star cooking ingredient, bone-in meat.

The carving trolley and its star, the roast rack of beef.

Taking over the second restaurant of such a hotel was a challenge Pairet was particularly interested in, not least because it was an opportunity to balance out the sharply chiseled gastronomic experience offered by its fine dining restaurant LEcrin, which has one Michelin star.

In a hotel, if you want to speak to its clientele but also external customers, its very good to have an edgy [gastronomic] proposition with maximum risk-taking or strongly themed, but to offer a secondary proposition that is almost an extension of in-room dining, he explains, characterizing such a menu as a wide and lasting array of tempting crowd-pleasers, classics or seasonal choices alike.

The menu at Nonos is an exercise in simplicity, almost home-style cooking. So dont expect any gastronomic pirouettes, Pairet says with a laugh.

But how else to describe a deceptively simple cheese souffle thats served there? A recipe 10 years in the making, it arrives piping hot in its dish, only to be turned out into an elegantly sparse bowl and finished with a culinary siphons worth of airy cheese foam, for a result as decadently more-ish as it sounds.

Simplicity also felt like a way to demystify the Hotel de Crillon, a legendary address and long-standing luxury property, and turn it into a place that you can enter and dwell in if you just step inside, he says, as reflected in the range of dishes and prices.

The menu was finessed to be democratic enough, starting under 10 euros for his distractions, appetizers and hot or cold starters under 20 euros, all served in portions large enough to be shared, and up to 250 euros for a 2.5-pound Black Angus porterhouse, indicated to serve two  or more.

Paul Pairet on the balcony of the Hotel de Crillon.

Three weeks in and proof is in a room filled with diners, as servers efficiently dispatch orders, wheel the carving trolley and cheese cart, or flambe a chocolate souffle for those with room left for dessert.

In his opinion, the lynchpin of a restaurant is whether it is good or not. Thats the essential ultimately. I like this adjective that defines a restaurant. I went very binary in that regard, to keep things simple, he quips.

Among the must-try options on the menu at Nonos are the Dover sole with both sides of the skin still on, made crispy before being seared; an onion soup thats so rich you could well imagine it being finished with beef stock, and that roast on its carving trolley, of course.

Its not grilled but slowly cooked for 12 hours then rested, in the American or British way. Not something you see much in France, he notes.

But grill Pairet and he eventually confesses that hed go rack of lamb with aioli sauce  because Im Catalan, so stick aioli everywhere, Im happy, he jokes.

Studies of contrasts are at the heart of Pairets trajectory as a chef. Hes a native of the southern French city of Perpignan, which is nestled between the Mediterranean Sea and the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains. Initially attracted to science and chemistry, he eventually veered toward another form of chemistry  cooking.

After making a mark in Paris in the late 90s at Alain Ducasses Cafe Mosaic, Pairet worked in Hong Kong; Sydney, and Jakarta, Indonesia, before heading to Shanghai in 2005 to open an avant-garde restaurant in the five-star Pudong Shangri-La hotel.

Then came Ultraviolet, a restaurant he opened in 2012 in a former garage and conceptualized even before hed left Paris over a decade prior.

Nonos flambeed chocolate souffle.

Equipped with scent projectors, UV lighting, the latest speaker systems, to create a context to each of the 20 dishes served over the course of an evening, the 10-seat restaurant soon became the talk of the town for developing Pairets theory of psychotaste, of the connection between taste, the other senses and the emotions triggered even before eating. Accolades piled on, culminating with its three Michelin stars in 2017, which the restaurant has retained.

After such a high, his follow-up act was an all-day dining cafe named Polux, in Shanghais trendy Xintiandi neighborhood.

And Pairets far from done with dichotomies.

At a time when plant-based dishes are trending, it may be surprising to see a restaurant so unabashedly put meat on the table, but the fact that Nonos is not in the zeitgeist is not something that bothers me, says Pairet.

The same can be said about the origins of produce, sourced in France whenever it is superior. Pairet did not limit himself to any given territory, favoring flavor over the priority to the territory habits of the time.

Case in point: the cooked ham, usually considered a Parisian specialty but here selected from a producer from Spain. It just happened to be the one that came out on top when we did the tastings, he explains.

The same went with a beef fillet, sourced from a French producer who specialized in raising an Aubrac-Wagyu breed, and one of the few holdovers from the former Brasserie dAumont concept that occupied the place now given over to Nonos. Out of dozens of options from around the country and beyond, it stood out  and stayed.

How Pairet sees a table: full and fit to be shared.

In addition to Nonos, hes also imagined Comestibles (or edibles, in French). Think of this as a cross between the restaurants larder and an upscale convenience store where a selection of products will be available, either as a takeaway or for snacking on the premises.

There are three spots at the counter, but the plan is to serve this quick-and-easy fare along with the greatest hits of Nonos in the interior courtyard with a view over the underground swimming pool come warmer weather.

If Nonos & Comestibles, as the twinned eateries are known, mark Pairets return to Paris, hes not here to stay  physically at least.

Though hes about to come back on French TV screens with the 14th season of culinary contest Top Chef, hes already back in Shanghai. After three years in a holding pattern due to the pandemic, especially 2022s rounds of harsh lockdowns, the chef has gone into 2023 with cooking torches blazing.

Before Nonos late January opening, there was the launch of Charbon by Paul Pairet, an affordable and casual skewer-and-sundaes restaurant in the IAPM shopping mall. Next up is a pastry shop, also in the Chinese metropolis.

At 48 and with multiple accolades, Pairet is all about something that tastes good and works well, he says. Im having fun doing restaurants that are simpler. That cultivates my passion for cooking.

Best of WWD

Click here to read the full article.
Image via Francois Nel/Getty Images

Jake Pauls undefeated streak is over.

Paul squared off against Tommy Fury on Sunday at Diriyah Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with Fury winning in a split-decision.

Entering the last round, with Fury seemingly ahead, Paul knocked Fury down before he quickly recovered.

Drake bet $400,000 on Paul to win, which would have won the rapper $1 million.

After the match, Paul jokingly blamed Drake for the loss in a knowing wink to the infamous Drake curse.

Fuck! This is Drakes fault. Bro, why did you do this to me? Paul said in the post-match presser.

Nah, its my fault. $400,000 is nothing to him, Paul added. Hes won a lot more money betting on me before, so hes about even now. Sorry Drake, I am going to get that W in the rematch.

Following his defeat, Jake Paul jokingly blamed Drake for his loss 



The Drake curses lives on  | #PaulFury



: @trboxing pic.twitter.com/zHRKILStsX  Sporting News Fights (@sn_fights) February 27, 2023

As you might expect, people had strong reactions to the polarizing YouTube stars first loss in seven bouts. Check out some notable reactions to Pauls first loss below.

Drake realizing the script changed for Jake Paul vs Tommy Fury  pic.twitter.com/wqba01Bmfi  nick (@kra) February 26, 2023

KSI reaction to the Jake Paul vs Tommy Fury fight pic.twitter.com/JO0DfLO6gi  denver  (@denverwlr) February 26, 2023

how imma sleep after watching tommy fury beat jake paul pic.twitter.com/4PwwjkSEnf  not gen (@genmdk) February 26, 2023

Everyone arriving at Twitter to celebrate Jake Paul getting beat by Tommy Fury #FuryPaul #FuryVsPaul pic.twitter.com/LSLNJajH92  Darren (@Darren94775262) February 26, 2023

The internet celebrating Jake Pauls loss pic.twitter.com/vp4fxUdaIW  Robert Griffin III (@RGIII) February 26, 2023

Jake Paul on his way home after losing to Tommy Fury : pic.twitter.com/XJBzbti0EN  Shannonnn sharpes Burner (PARODY Account) (@shannonsharpeee) February 26, 2023

Related Articles

More Complex

Sign up for the Complex Newsletter for breaking news, events, and unique stories.

Follow Complex on: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok
Rihanna attends the Fenty Puma by Rihanna fashion show in 2016. Andy Kropa/Invision/AP

Puma announced a new partnership with Rihanna on Wednesday.

Rihanna started working with Puma in 2014 as the creative director of its womenswear business.

Her return announcement referenced Michael Jordan's infamous return to the NBA in 1995.

The Queen of pop is back at Puma.

Early Wednesday the German sportswear giant announced that Rihanna with be partnering with the brand once more.

It has been almost five years since the singer-turned-entrepreneur released a collection with Puma. It's not yet clear what this collaboration will involve but Puma teased fans on Instagram with a post that said: "She's back," alongside her Fenty brand logo.

The announcement appeared to be a direct callback to basketball legend Michael Jordan's 1995 announcement that he'd return to the NBA after time away from the game playing minor league baseball.

Jordan confirmed his return with a fax simply reading: "I'm back."

Rihanna first started working with Puma in 2014, as creative director for its womenswear business. She spent several years creating both clothing and shoe lines for the brand and led shows at New York Fashion Week. One of her sneaker designs, the Fenty x Puma creeper, was voted shoe of the year by industry news outlet Footwear News in 2016. The site based its winner on retail sales, consumer feedback, and overall buzz, it said.

Since her partnership with Puma ended in 2018, Rihanna has expanded her business empire  launching Fenty Beauty, her Savage X Fenty underwear brand, and in 2019, luxury line Fenty in collaboration with LVMH, which has since closed.

Fenty Beauty, one of her most successful ventures, helped to catapult her into the Forbes billionaires list in 2022. According to Forbes estimates, Fenty Beauty brought in over $550 million in annual revenue just one year after it launched and is currently worth around $2.8 billion.

Puma reported its fourth-quarter results on Wednesday. Currency-adjusted sales increased by 21.1% during this period. In a note to clients, Louise Deglise-Favre, an apparel analyst at GlobalData, said that sales growth was partly down to the strength of its partnerships with sports stars and celebrities such as Dua Lipa.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Re: Most Americans oppose plans to pack the Supreme Court, by Paul G. Summers, Feb. 12.

With all due respect and appreciation for most of the statements about the judicial branch of our federal government expressed by former judge and State Attorney General Summers in the Civility Tennessee series, I believe it is necessary to point out that he has overlooked the recent history of the Supreme Court, and as a result has erred in endorsing an amendment to the Constitution that would prohibit any addition to the number of justices on the court.

Mr. Summers says (t)he third federal branch, the judiciary, is not political, but this ignores the fact that our federal judges are selected and appointed through a political process, and that in recent years there has been an obvious, blatant, and successful Republican use of that process to accomplish a particular political result at the Court.

Our Supreme Court and other federal judges are nominated by elected partisan presidents. They cannot take office unless and until they are confirmed through another political process, i.e., the advice and consent of the U.S. Senate, controlled by the Senate majority leader, an elected political leader of the party which happens to have a majority in the Senate when a judge is nominated.

Hear more Tennessee Voices: Get the weekly opinion newsletter for insightful and thought provoking columns.

How Republicans effectively packed the high court

For many years the Republican party has used its political power to select and confirm members of the Court to bring about a reversal of the 1973 abortion decision in Roe v. Wade. Using a lobbying organization known as the Federalist Society, Republican presidents have gone to great lengths to research the life history and judicial records of possible nominees to the court, and select only those who are most likely to vote to reverse the Roe decision.

On Sept. 30, 2022, from left: Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Sonia Sotomayor and Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Samuel Alito, Elena Kagan and Brett Kavanaugh.

To aid in this partisan effort to overturn a court decision, Republican Senate Majority Leader McConnell refused to allow the Senate to consider or vote on a nominee by Democratic President Obama, supposedly because the court vacancy occurred shortly before the end of Obama's term.

However, when another vacancy occurred closer to the end of President Trump's term, McConnell submitted Trump's nominee to the vacancy to a vote in the Senate without delay.

The result of these unfair, unprecedented, inconsistent and unprincipled political tactics was that Republican President Trump was enabled to appoint three members of the Supreme Court in his single four-year term as President, while Democratic President Obama only managed to appoint two justices to the court in his two elected terms as president, totaling eight years.

Sign up for Latino Tennessee Voices newsletter:Read compelling stories for and with the Latino community in Tennessee.

Reversal of Roe v. Wade undid 49 years of precedents

These political tactics also resulted in producing the Supreme Court decision they were intended to produce by the "nonpolitical" Supreme Court. Less than two years after President Trump made the last of his three judicial appointments the court rendered its Dobbs abortion decision, reversing Roe, a 7-2 Supreme Court decision, subsequently affirmed, that had stood for 49 years.

All three of Trump's appointees voted in Dobbs to reverse Roe, a result you would expect under the circumstances, unless you accepted Summers' unqualified statement in his Tennessean article that the federal judiciary is nonpolitical.

Mr. Summers condemns adding justices to the court on the grounds that it would be court packing, which would be a disaster for the nation and any party that embraced it.

However, I submit that the present court has already been packed by the Republicans by a somewhat different method, and adding additional justices may be the only practical way to unpack it.

Sign up for Black Tennessee Voices newsletter:Read compelling columns by Black writers from across Tennessee.

Democrats should pursue adding more justices

Adding justices has been done in the past. The Constitution does not prescribe a certain number of justices, and it apparently was not a "disaster for the nation" when it was done before.

Denty Cheatham

There is a risk that if a Democratic President and Congress did this the Republicans would attempt to retaliate. But it would be worse for Democrats to do nothing in response to successful Republican efforts to pack the court.

The Dobbs decision is unpopular with the public, as shown by polls and 2022 state election results in which there was an abortion issue on the ballot. It is making the court unpopular and more widely seen as political.

The present Supreme Court's constitutional views expressed in the Dobbs majority are outside of the mainstream of the American legal profession, and a balance on the Court needs to be restored.

Denty Cheatham of Nashville is a lawyer with 56 years of experience and a partner with his wife in the law firm Cheatham & Palermo.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: The way federal judges are chosen justifies packing the Supreme Court
North Carolinas Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson will be coming to Trinity Baptist Church, 221 Ervin Road, Mooresville, on March 19 to speak during the 10 a.m. worship service.

Robinson is a native of Greensboro and is a proud Army veteran. He and his wife are blessed to have two children and two grandchildren. It was noted in a press release that he became a household name in 2018, when as a citizen he decided he had seen enough, and stepped up to address the Greensboro City Council. Under consideration was a seriously flawed effort to try and restrict the 2nd Amendment rights of individuals. Robinsons message was delivered that evening with such passion, understanding, and strength, that the simple video recording on a cellphone went viral, and would be viewed more than 200 million times online. He began receiving numerous invitations to speak, and began to share a message of common-sense conservatism on issues of protecting the unborn, giving control over a childs education back to the parents, veterans care, and standing up for law enforcement, in addition to his defense of the 2nd Amendment.

Dr. Mark Harris, senior pastor of Trinity Baptist, was asked recently what led him to invite Robinson to speak at the church.

Lt. Gove. Robinsons journey of faith and family is certainly inspiring in and of itself, Harris said. Having been raised as the ninth of 10 children, with an alcoholic father who abused his mother, he came to witness a mother who was strong in her faith, and heroically provided for them, despite all odds.

People in our world today need to hear that they can be more than conquerors in Christ Jesus, Harris continued. Furthermore, he has certainly been a refreshing voice across our state, unafraid to stand up and speak up for the values and principles which so many North Carolinians hold so dear. At Trinity Baptist we want our folks to hear from and know about those who are willing to stand courageously.

While the service will begin at 10 a.m., folks interested in attending are encouraged to arrive early. For more information, contact the church office at 704-662-9303 or email to office@trinitybaptist.com.
About 100 people turned out Tuesday for a forum on outdoor recreation and revitalization hosted by Butte-Silver Bow County officials and a team from the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal offices at Montana Technological University in Butte.

The purpose of the forum was to gather community input that will be compiled into a plan for Butte's outdoor recreation and economy that will contribute to the revitalization of the Mining City.

"It's important to have a plan for outdoor recreation and revitalization so that the residents can enjoy the resources and have a strong, healthy community," says Stephanie Bertaina, a senior policy analyst at U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C.

Bertaina says the forum came about through a technical assistant grant that the county applied for last year. She says the EPA's focus on the outdoor economy and recreation in rural communities can also benefit local business by encouraging visitors to partake in Butte's abundant outdoor resources.

By having a plan in place Butte will be well-positioned to attract visitors as while protecting its authentic sense of place, says Bertiana.
The House Human Services committee has killed a bill that would have made it illegal to donate blood or tissue if the donor had received any mRNA vaccines or treatments.

The bill called for perpetrators who knowingly collect and distribute blood or tissue containing gene-altering proteins or other isolates introduced by mRNA or DNA vaccines or chemotherapies, to face a misdemeanor charge punishable by a fine up to $500.

Misinformation about messenger RNA has been rampant among the far right since COVID-19 vaccinations were developed in record time using this biotechnology and vaccination mandates hit health care facilities.

Rep. Greg Kmetz, R-Miles City, explained that House Bill 645 is a constituent bill, saying the legislation arose from safety concerns among the residents in his district.

For years now weve heard the words safe and effective. Our entire planet has echoed these words. Safe and effective. Weve seen two presidents utter these words. We have seen top government medical spokesman utter these same words. Weve seen two Montana governors utter these same words...many of my constituents questions, just because we hear these two words safe and effective a million-plus times, does that make them true? Kmetz said during a Friday hearing for the bill.

Kmetz continued, saying that his constituents are suspicious of a government program that aims to eradicate a disease that has "over a 99% survival rate."

COVID-19 has been the third leading cause of death since 2021, topped only by heart disease and cancer, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In Montana, 13,995 people have been hospitalized due to COVID-19 and at least 3,634 people have died. During the Christmas and New Years holidays, 13 Montanans died due to COVID-19 complications, according to data from the Montana Department of Health and Human Services.

Eight people spoke in support of the bill, including Rep. Lola Sheldon-Galloway, R-Great Falls, who referred to a Facebook post as supporting documentation that the COVID-19 vaccine is directly tied to mysterious deaths in the area.

Sheldon-Galloway explained that her brother is a mortician and said that since the onset of COVID-19 vaccines, the blood in the corpses he embalms has become more "fibrous."

Another proponent, Dr. Christine Drivdahl-Smith, a family medicine doctor in Miles City, said the COVID-19 vaccine can cause prion disease, more widely known as mad cow disease. She also says that these proteins can be transferred during transfusions.

So if the spike protein can circulate in the blood for at least 30 days and act as a prion causing a fatal brain disease, wouldnt we want to exempt those people from donating blood? Drivdahl-Smith said.

While there is one paper written by J. Bart Classen that makes this claim, there is no evidence to suggest that mRNA vaccines cause mad cow disease or other neurodegenerative diseases, according to the American Council on Science and Health as well as a fact-check report by USA Today.

The claim has been discredited by experts nationwide.

The two mRNA vaccines, authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization (WHO), have undergone extensive scrutiny in clinical trials.

The organizations also acknowledge the very rare reports of myocarditis, inflammation of the heart muscle, following the second dose of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. This condition has developed in less than 3% of mRNA vaccine recipients, according to WHO.

About 67% of Montanans have had at least one dose of an mRNA vaccine, barring them from donating blood or organs and decreasing the donor pool to about 33%. Chemotherapies also utilize mRNA products during cancer treatments, meaning even fewer people would be able to donate.

That would devastate the blood supply, said Cliff Numark, vice president of the blood bank Vitalant, who spoke in opposition to the bill. He added that blood banks are struggling to meet patient needs today and decreasing the blood supply in this manner would devastate patient care  people would die.

About 12 people testified in opposition to the bill at the Friday hearing, some of whom had received organ transplants or were planning to donate organs to sickly family members.

Mike Kinsella has gone through two organ transplants, one graciously donated by his sister and the other from a deceased donor.

He told the committee that the bill would contradict federal regulations that require the organ recipient and the donor to have the COVID-19 vaccination before any procedure can take place.

(HB645) will damage and prolong anybody on that list. If you do decide to put it through, you should hold yourselves complicit in the deaths of anybody waiting for an organ transplant, Kinsella said.

On Monday night, HHS committee members voted to table the bill in a 19 to 1 vote. The vote to keep the bill was cast by Rep. Sheldon- Galloway.

Lee Enterprises story.
A blood lead study conducted by Butte Superfunds Residential Metals Abatement Program shows decreased blood lead levels in Butte children ages 1-5 years since 2003.

Part of RMAPs Medical Monitoring Program is to complete six medical monitoring studies over a 30-year period to evaluate the effectiveness of RMAP, according to Amanda Bailey, a participating member of the Ramboll Group, the medical monitoring working group that examines blood lead levels as part of RMAP.

RMAP is designed to reduce residential exposure to potential sources of heavy metals such as lead, arsenic and mercury.

The program approaches this by looking into sources of heavy metals, such as mine-related sources, lead paint and lead pipes, among others. RMAP works to sample and mitigate sources of heavy metals in places like yard soil, indoor dust, attics and earthen basements.

Priority is placed on homes where children six years of age or younger, pregnant or nursing mothers, or other potentially sensitive groups reside.

Bailey presented at last weeks Citizens Technical Environmental Committee meeting about the results of the second medical monitoring study, which took place from 2012-2017, and showed how it compared to the first study, which took place from 2003-2010.

Bailey said she is currently working on a third study.

CTEC Vice President Joe Griffin said that the amount of blood lead samples collected in Butte is unique to anywhere else in Montana.

It's been really interesting, Griffin said at the CTEC meeting. When we first started, we looked around Montana for a reference population, and there wasn't one at all. I mean, Buttes kind of unique in the amount of blood lead data that's been collected. It's probably unique in the United States.

Phase 1 collected about 6,700 records for all ages, including 3,500 records for kids 1-5 years old, 2,202 of which were in the study area. Bailey said the study areas were the populated areas of town and not just inside the boundary of the Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit.

In Phase 2, 3,392 records were collected, 2,558 were collected for children ages 1-5 years old and 2,330 of those were in the study area.

One difference between the Phase 1 and Phase 2 studies is that in Phase 1, capillary samples were collected and analyzed in a lab.

The samples for Phase 1 also had a detection limit of one microgram per deciliter. In Phase 2, samples were collected using the LeadCare II Kit, which enables providers to get a result right away and can prompt immediate follow up that's needed, but they also have a higher detection limit of 3.3 micrograms per deciliter.

Rosalind Schoof, who was principal on the study, said since the beginning of Phase 1, there was a steady decline in blood lead levels overall and the percentage of elevated lead levels.

She said the declining levels combined with the higher detection limit resulted in a mean or median of the data being less informative because most of the data from Phase 2 was below the detection limit.

So instead of focusing on means, which were evaluated during the Phase 1 study, the Phase 2 study focused on the percentage levels that were above this reference value of five micrograms per deciliter, which was also evaluated in the phase one study, Schoof said.

She added the threshold of five micrograms per deciliter is not a health-based value, and is a number that comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that was current at the time of Phase 2. She said it represents an upper percentile of blood lead levels measured throughout the US, and so it's just used as a reference for comparison.

The Phase 1 study looked at a number of data analyses just within the Butte data set, and the Phase 2 study continued those analyses, she explained.

One recommendation the researchers came to during Phase 2 was to do venous sampling confirmations for blood lead levels that tested over 5 micrograms per deciliter. Recently, the Butte-Silver Bow Health Department hired an environmental health nurse who can do venous confirmations right after a sample tests high, rather than having to arrange for them to come back at a later date.

This is important, she said, because sometimes the capillary tests, which consist of a finger-prick can test for a higher blood lead level than it actually is because of something with higher lead content being on the finger, such as dirt.

Bailey explained that there were significant variables in the study, including age, neighborhood and season. For instance, 12-month to 35-month-olds had higher blood lead levels than kids 36-60 months, those living Uptown had higher blood lead levels than those living in other neighborhoods, and there were higher blood lead levels in samples taken during summer and fall than spring and winter.

She also said that nearly all the samples used for the program came from Buttes Women, Infants and Children program, a low-income program, so that the results arent really representative of the entire community.

Schoof said that based on the Phase 1 and Phase 2 data, she was confident blood lead levels in Butte are declining, and the group is still trying to answer the question of what is causing the decline.

For one thing, she pointed out that blood lead levels have declined all over the country because of federal regulations on things like lead paint, but also said it was important to note that Butte is going to look different than the rest of the country because of things like house-age and poverty.
In a Feb. 21 order, a Helena judge found Montanas parental consent law for minors seeking abortions is unconstitutional, but said a trial was necessary to determine if a less-onerous parental notification law should stay in place.

The order from Lewis and Clark County District Court Judge Chris Abbott is another step in a decade-long case over the parental involvement abortion laws. The Notification Act was put into place by voters through a ballot issue in 2012 and the Consent Act was created by lawmakers shortly after.

Given the contours of the right to individual privacy established by the Constitution and prior decisions, the court must find the Consent Act unconstitutional and unenforceable, Abbott wrote in last weeks order that permanently enjoined the act.

He continued to say there were genuine disputes of fact that require a trial for the Notification Act. Acknowledging that the state Legislature is in session, Abbott said he pushed to get his order out so lawmakers could determine if it wanted to enact narrower or different laws in light of his decision. Friday is the deadline for general bills, which generally includes abortion legislation, to clear the chamber they started in, meaning a legislative response may not be procedurally possible.

The court finds that its duty here is clear: it must declare the Consent Act to violate the right of individual privacy and save the question of whether the Notice Act violates the rights of individual privacy or equal protection for trial, Abbott wrote. And because the Consent Act is unconstitutional, Planned Parenthood is entitled to permanently injunction against its enforcement.

Even with his order last week and pending trial, Abbott acknowledged the case will end up before the Montana Supreme Court.

As the session nears its midway point this Friday, Republican legislators have already advanced several bills to limit access to the procedure in Montana and voted down Democratic bills to preserve the states existing abortion landscape.

Abortion is legal in Montana under the 1999 state Supreme Court order known as Armstrong that found the Montana Constitutions right to privacy protected access to the point of viability. Republicans have long had their sights on overturning Armstrong, and have said following the fall of Roe v. Wade at the federal level, Montanas protections should also go. However, courts have found repeatedly Montanas right to privacy is one of the strongest in the nation.

Back in 2012 voters approved the Parental Notice of Abortion Act, and it became law a year later. It requires medical care providers to give notice to a parent at least 48 hours before performing an abortion on a minor under the age of 16 and allows for exceptions in some cases.

Also in 2013, the Legislature passed the Parental Consent for Abortion act, which is more restrictive than the Notice Act. A doctor must get notarized and written consent to perform an abortion for a minor until the age of 18, along with getting consent through a complex form developed by the state health department, in addition to documentation that someone is a parent or legal guardian.

The Notice Act has been in place while the legal case extended a decade, however the Consent Act was never in effect.

Much of Abbotts Feb. 21 order focused on the constitutional protections clarified by Armstrong. While the judge wrote that Armstrong was perhaps the most significant word on abortion regulation in Montana, it was not the final word and did not foreclose all state regulation of the procedure. However, the Consent Act went too far, he wrote.

Planned Parenthood's lawsuit claimed the parental involvement laws violated the Constitutions right to privacy and denied minors seeking an abortion equal protection of the law, as well as violated doctors rights to due process.

Abbott found that while its recognized parents and not the state have primary authority over minors, he also cited a case saying children are not simply chattels belonging to the parents, but have fundamental interests that may diverge from the interests of the parent.

The decision to terminate a pregnancy, Abbott wrote, cannot be equated with other issues where the law regulates a minors freedoms, such as over curfews, tattoos, marriage, schooling or other types of medical care.

Minors can abstain from consuming alcohol or getting a tattoo with little effect on their futures, but the same cannot be said of keeping a pregnancy or having an abortion, Abbott wrote.  ... Even poor decisions in marriage and schooling can be undone. By contrast, there are few decisions with higher or longer-lasting stakes in life than whether to become or stay pregnant, and even fewer (if any) with equally profound spiritual, physical, mental, social, and economic considerations.

Because the Consent Act would require a minor to surrender consent to an abortion to another person, it interferes with the minors right to privacy, Abbott wrote, and does not offer additional protections to the young person.

The impact of pregnancy or an abortion on the person who must live with the decision and directly bear the consequences is no less great because that person is a minor, Abbott wrote.

The state also did not prove that the Consent Act was necessary to promote the protection of minors from sexual abuse. Abbott cited the states concerns that women, especially young ones, are too often victims of domestic and sexual abuse and coercion, and that pregnancy and childbirth enhance their vulnerability. But so are non-minor women, he wrote.

The state has not justified why one rule should apply to a pregnant 18-year-old woman trapped in an abusive relationship with her 25-year-old boyfriend, but a more restrictive rule should apply to a pregnant 17-year-old teen whose child-to-be is fathered by her supportive 18-year-old fiance.

Abbott also rejected the states argument that requiring consent would help identify cases of sexual abuse or exploitation. All requiring parental consent accomplishes is to permit the parent to refuse consent to the early termination of a pregnancy that has already occurred, he wrote. Requiring consent does nothing to make it more likely that a sexual crime will be detected or punished.

Abbott also pointed out that doctors are already mandated reporters of suspected abuse.

And while Abbott acknowledged concerns that juveniles are less capable than adults of appreciating the comparative advantages and risk of terminating or carrying pregnancy to term, he pointed out the Consent Act does nothing to provide minors with resources to make those decisions.

Abbott also rejected the states argument that the consent act promotes family integrity.

The consent requirement empowers the parent to take the decision about whether to keep or terminate a pregnancy from the minor, Abbott said. This goes beyond merely facilitating parental involvement and guidance, and instead establishes conflict between parent and child.

The state also did not show the act was narrowly focused enough to protect minors but not overstep, Abbott wrote.

The consent act infringes on the right to individual privacy as articulated in Armstrong, and  it is not narrowly tailored to achieve the states compelling interest, particularly given the availability of less restrictive alternatives, including those found in the Notice Act.

The Notification Act, however, is starkly different and much less onerous, Abbott wrote.

For the court to decide if the Notice Act violates the privacy or equal protection rights of pregnant minors seeking abortions, Abbott said he must consider items in dispute between Planned Parenthood and the state, including the short- and long-term risk of carrying or terminating a pregnancy. That includes the incidence of mental health problems and effects of harmful or dysfunctional family or romantic relationships.

Abbott also said he needed more clarification on the extent to which notification enhances the likelihood of parents learning about a childs abortion or pregnancy intentions and if notification would delay or chill a minor from seeking an abortion or timely prenatal care.

He also wanted to clarify competing claims from the state and Planned Parenthood about the dynamics of domestic violence when deciding to keep or terminate a pregnancy and more details about if minors understand their decision without parental notification, along with information about if the judicial bypass process works.

In a statement Tuesday, Planned Parenthood of Montana welcomed the order.

"The courts ruling that parental consent for abortion is unconstitutional is an important protection for the most vulnerable youth in Montana," wrote Martha Fuller, president and CEO of the organization. "In this ruling, the court affirmed the Armstrong decision and recognized the rights of minors under the Montana Constitution. This has been a long awaited decision, and we feel confident that the court will ultimately also find the parental notice requirement unconstitutional."

The state Department of Justice also responded to the ruling Tuesday, saying it will ask the court to certify the Consent Act for immediate appeal.

Were glad that Judge Abbott recognizes the states compelling interest in protecting minors from sexual assault and the long-term mental and physical trauma that can result from abortions," wrote Emily Flower, the department's press secretary.
A bill prohibiting the sale of wildlife trail camera images and location trail data for hunting on public lands is nearing passage in the House.

House Bill 547, brought by Rep. Jill Cohenour, D-East Helena, would not affect private land, but would prohibit the sale of images, videos or other location data gathered on public land for hunting. She pointed to what are essentially scouting services where online postings offer to sell the location and images of big game animals.

Cohenour said the bill was about protecting Montanans' efforts to learn hunting areas and pushback against efforts to monetize the resource.

The state House on Tuesday gave strong initial approval to a bill that would allow students to use "reasonable and necessary physical force" in response to a physical attack by another student.

House Bill 450 sponsor Belgrade Republican Rep. Jedediah Hinkle said that the current framework where a student who has been attacked could also be disciplined if they fought back was "not just unfair, but unjust."

The bill cleared a second reading on a 70-30 vote, with three Democrats joining all but one Republican in backing the bill.

Hinkle said he thought the idea the bill would create violence is "absolutely false," saying the violence had already occurred.

But Rep. Eric Matthews, D-Bozeman, said he's never seen cut-and-dry situations around school fights in his 24 years as a teacher.

"This bill leaves way too much room for any unforeseen manipulated stories from students," Matthews said. " ... Violence is not the answer; we should not codify it here."

Several GOP legislators shared stories of school fights from their childhoods.

Rep. Gary Parry, R-Colstrip, said when he was in school he "didn't let bullies push me around."

He said the bill would "give the kid at least an opportunity to fight back or gives, in my case, the opportunity to step in and fight."

"I hate that and I still hate that and I'd still step in and take that fight," Parry said.

Rep. John Fitzpatrick, R-Anaconda, said when he was in seventh grade his dad told him to punch his bullies in the face. He then described getting his "brains beat in" after doing that, but said he was not bullied again. Fitzpatrick said he gave the same advice to his sons.

"The most important class any child will ever take in school is playground, and if he doesn't learn to pass playground, he's going to be a victim the rest of his life," Fitzpatrick said.

But Rep. Jennifer Lynch, a teacher in Butte and Democrat, said the bill amounted to condoning violence, which runs against what teachers and counselors try to teach kids with coping skills.

She added that her father, a former longtime legislator J.D. Lynch, taught her that "two wrongs don't make a right."

The bill faces one final House vote before moving to the Senate.

A bill to require businesses to file a declaration that they won't discriminate against people or businesses due to an involvement of firearms passed the Senate on Friday after some specific concessions by the sponsor.

Senate Bill 361 from Sen. John Fuller, R-Whitefish, was tabled in the Senate Business, Labor and Economic Affairs Committee last week, but was revived and elevated to the Senate floor Monday with a 27-23 vote.

The bill would prohibit finance, insurance and investment firms from refusing business with individuals' organizations, associations or businesses due to their affiliations with firearms. The bill got support from Republican Attorney General Austin Knudsen, who told the committee such discrimination was already taking place in the state.

Fuller's bill passed the Senate on Tuesday on a 33-17 vote after two amendments removed two industries who had raised the greatest issues with the bill in the first place.

One amendment removed state investments from the list of firms required to file the certificate. The director of the Montana Board of Investments told the committee "with absolute certitude" firms with which the state invests would not file it, forcing the state to divest.

The other amendment removed insurance companies from those required to submit the certificate. Sen. Dan Salomon, R-Ronan, said the State Auditor's Office indicated roughly 150,000 people in the state are licensed to sell insurance in Montana, and each one would be required to file an individual certificate if the law passed.

Both amendments passed by wide margins, but the bill passed on a party-line vote. Fuller said he was "committed" to addressing other concerns once the bill reached the House.

"This bill is an attempt to proactively deal with the situations that are occurring in this state," Fuller said.

A bill eliminating most permanent state-funded conservation easements was voted down by a Senate committee on Tuesday.

Senate Bill 357 from Sen. Steve Hinebauch, R-Wibaux, sought to limit conservation easements to 40-year terms. He argued that the bill would protect communities and potentially vulnerable landowners from signing away private property rights.

Easements may be held by a variety of organizations or government entities, but those held by Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks typically protect against subdivision while allowing some amount of public access. They are funded in part by Habitat Montana through hunting licenses, but have seen pushback from some Republicans over some controversial land purchases and easements.

SB 357 saw extensive opposition from private timber companies, agricultural interests and conservation groups who championed the easements for habitat, business certainty and an exercise in private property rights.

The Senate Fish and Game Committee on Tuesday passed an amendment carving out more forest lands, but a number of Republicans joined Democrats in voting down the measure 7-5.

A bill to change the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission from a governor-appointed body to an elected one was heard and then quickly voted down in committee on Tuesday.

Senate Bill 428 from Sen. Brad Molnar, R-Laurel, said his bill would bring the acrimony over fish and wildlife issues down by making the commissioners accountable to voters. He asked the Senate Fish and Game Committee when the last time residents had seen a big win, and then bemoaned what he sees as management failures, such as extended elk hunting seasons due to population booms.

Would you vote for somebody with the failure rates this commission, the previous commission, the previous commission and the previous commission can point to? he asked. Would you not ask where is the success, what is going better? Would you not have some consideration for the people that voted for you than someone from Chicago?

The bill saw no supporters but a diverse group of opponents ranging from hunting groups, landowner organizations and agricultural interests. Opponents disagreed that electing commissioners would turn down the temperature around contentious fish and wildlife issues, but could exacerbate them by introducing more politics via elections.

Molnar acknowledged in his closing that it would require a constitutional amendment to accomplish an elected commission, but stressed that the current appointment process is highly politicized.

The committee voted to table SB 428 shortly after the hearing.
First, we examine the white marble monument whenever I accompany visitors to Alexander Clarks grave at Greenwood Cemetery. Then I tell about other family members buried there. Then I point to the adjacent plot where a large central stone is inscribed Lee on one side and Mahin on the other.

As friendly as they were in life, I say. I tell, as I do in these columns, about pioneer editor John Mahin (1833-1919) who led this newspaper for half a century. His close association with Clark appears to continue through graveyard neighborliness.

I cant say how the eternal-rest deal came to pass, but I do say its not hard to guess.

Same with the Lees, I say.

In 1878 Mahin formed the Journal Printing Co. with two partners: father-in-law John B. Lee (1820-1904) and brother-in-law Alfred W. Lee (1858-1907).

John Mahin and Anna Lee married in 1864. A decade later, her 16-year-old brother A.W. went to work for John in the Muscatine post office. (Mahin was postmaster and ran the newspaper; he served a term in the legislature, too.)

Muscatine Journal, Dec. 6, 1910: [A.W.] remained in the postoffice [sic] for two or three years and then became a reporter on the staff of the Journal. For some twelve years more he lived in Muscatine and rose rapidly in the Journal office, assuming within a few years much of the responsibilities and labors of the position of business manager, which his father, John B. Lee, had previously come from Iowa City to accept.

Bette Veerhusens 1970s research concluded that A.W. boarded at the new Federal-style double house erected in 1878 by Alexander Clark. He may have lived there for several years, perhaps until after he married Mary Walker in 1885.

The Lee parents moved here in the late 1870s. Its possible they lived in the Clark house, too, before settling into their long-term residence farther up West 3rd Street. I am still connecting dots, sifting clues, trying to learn more.

Muscatine Journal, June 28, 1904: Though he had numerous relatives in the confederate army, Mr. [J.B.] Lee was a strong union man. and an abolitionist. moved to Muscatine about 27 years ago, where he has lived ever since.

Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette, June 4, 1885: Fred is not only admired in Muscatine for his personal worth and fine ability, but he is very popular among the fraternity throughout the state. He is secretary of the Iowa Press association.

A.W. Lee went on to achieve distinction as a publisher and founder in 1890 of the Lee Newspaper Syndicate  todays Lee Enterprises  leading provider of local news, information and advertising in 77 markets in 26 states (lee.net).

* * *

Muscatine Journal, June 3, 1876: The only colored printer in the State, Alexander Clark, Jr., is an employe of the Journal office, where he commenced to learn the business two years ago. He is a good compositor, a gentleman, and has won the confidence and esteem of his white fellow printers.

In 1879 Clark (1856-1939) became the first Black graduate of the University of Iowa College of Law. In 1882 he joined his father and Ferdinand Barnett, one of Illinois first Black lawyers, in purchasing a Chicago newspaper.

Muscatine Journal, Dec. 20, 1882: Alexander G. Clark, who has personal charge of the Conservator in its mechanical department, learned the art preservative of all arts in the JOURNAL office. He was an employe of this office nearly four years, and it is creditable alike to him as well as to his associates in the office that during all that time, notwithstanding the prejudice too often manifesting itself against colored persons employed on an equal footing with whites, no difficulty ever occurred between him and his fellow workmen, nor any bad feeling that came to the notice of his employers.

* * *

From Little Known Stories of Muscatine by William D. Randall:

[T]he Mahin lot in Greenwood Cemetery is on the exact location of the Jacob Mahin log cabin where John Mahin lived as a boy while working on the Bloomington Herald.  The cabin was situated on the bluff overlooking the river, and when little John came home after dark, his mother helped him find the isolated cabin by opening the front door so the light could be seen from what is now called Lucas Street but what was then a country road. Many years later, when the Greenwood Cemetery was expanding, John Mahin conceived the idea of purchasing the site of the log cabin and using the ground for the family burial lot. The Mahin lot is easily located; it is on the south side of the southerly road through Greenwood, west of the main road leading from the chapel entrance, near where the two roads intersect.

* * *

View Dr. Paul Finkelmans 2023 Alexander Clark Lecture, Feb. 27, Muscatine Community College: https://youtu.be/rR2s5CHemFg.

Next time: What became of Susie Clark?

Daniel Clark is a former Muscatine Journal reporter and a student of Iowa history
Much to the delight of Melissa Ramseys kindergarten class at Jefferson Elementary, her students had the chance to meet some very cute animals who all had good safety tips to share. These plush visitors included a pig, a dog and, naturally, a brainy owl.

Recently, members of the Pilot Club of Muscatine, which is part of Pilot International, have been presenting puppet programs at Muscatine elementary schools as part of its BrainMinder Buddies program. Using these shows, they hope to teach Muscatine residents both young and old about brain health, brain safety and other safety-related lessons.

Started by Pilot International in 2001, BrainMinder uses a variety of puppet characters depending on the age of their audience, each with their own specialty, to teach these lessons. Said lessons can range from playground safety and fire safety, to gun safety and boat safety, helmet safety, walker and medicine safety, and even car seat safety and warnings about button batteries for new parents.

Originally it was just for preschoolers, and now we have programs that go from preschool clear up to seniors, Judy Brotherton, a member of Pilot Club of Muscatine, said.

One of the major concerns is brain safety and brain health, so these are appropriate programs to just get children aware and learning about how to protect their brains, another member, Judith Lokenvitz, added.

According to statistics provided by Pilot International, traumatic brain injuries are one of the major causes of death in the United States and is the most frequent cause of death among young people, contributing to about 30% of all deaths, equating to 153 people each day.

As the program continues evolving to serve its varying audiences, new topics have been added to the shows and expanded upon, Brotherton added.

Its a different world now, she said, citing specific new scripts made for the program that focused on stranger danger and bullying.

One of the performances we gave today was about stranger danger, and years ago people didnt know so much about that, she said. So were just expanding on the new information that we have.

Although Muscatines Pilot Club ran these shows previously, the group had to put its shows on hiatus because of the COVID-19 pandemic. These shows then began returning in January 2023, and  according to the members who have helped put on these shows  have received just as much positive feedback as they did before.

As for what they have enjoyed most about returning to give these shows, the performing members of Muscatines Pilot Club all agreed that the best part has been interacting with kids, engaging with them and getting to see firsthand how much they are learning through the show. The group also hopes that, with restrictions now lifted, they are able to visit not only more schools but local nursing homes and other locations as well.

For those who would like to schedule a Pilot Club puppet performance, they can do so by reaching out through the Pilot Club of Muscatine Facebook page, or by calling Lokenvitz at 563-299-7561.
Muscatine County registered voters living in the Durant and Davenport school districts will be able to vote in the March 7 bond referendums either by absentee vote in the Muscatine County Auditors office or from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on March 7 in the Stockton City Hall.

Absentee votes can be cast during regular auditors office hours through 4:30 p.m. Monday, March 6. All Iowa voters are required to show a valid photo identification at the polls before they vote. Voters without the necessary ID will be offered a provisional ballot and can provide ID until the time of the county canvass, which will take place during a special Muscatine County Supervisors meeting at 9 a.m. March 14. Results will be posted on the Muscatine County Auditors website after the polls close.

We have one voting center that will handle both elections, Muscatine County Auditor Tibe Vander Linden said. The voters are in that area.

According to the Muscatine County Registered Voter count, 363 Muscatine County residents live in the Davenport School District in the Fulton 3 and 5 and Montpelier Township 1 districts and 459 live in the Durant School District in the Fulton Township 1 and 2 and the Wilton Township 1 and 2 districts. Muscatine County is not the control county for either election. The Durant School District election will be run by Cedar County and the Davenport School District election will be run by Scott County.

In the Durant School District, voters will decide two public measures. The first will be whether the district should issue general obligation bonds not to exceed $15.6 million to be used for renovations and repairs to the existing building, including the theater, gym, classrooms, HVAC system and electrical system. The second measure asks if the district should levy a tax between $2.70 and $4.05 per $1,000 of taxable valuation to service the bond.

The Davenport School District will ask voters if they feel the district should adopt a Revenue Purpose Statement to specify revenues from the Iowa Secure and Advanced Vision for Education Fund to install information technology infrastructure and to provide funds to build and furnish a new school building and to make improvements to the existing buildings and grounds. If the vote fails, the district will take it as meaning authority previously given by voters for the funds should be terminated. If approved, the statement will remain in effect until replaced or amended.

Copies of the ballot will be printed in the March 1 edition of the Muscatine Journal on page A3.

People with questions about the election can call the Muscatine County Auditors Office at 563- 263-5821 or email Vander Linden at auditor@muscatinecountyiowa.gov.
The future is now when it comes to higher order artificial intelligence  with tools like ChatGPT emerging as the latest technology to disrupt the labor, health care, social, and educational landscapes.

Acknowledging the reality that students, workers, employers, and corporations will use AI and chat bot technology  and, in many cases, already are  Iowa's public universities are issuing guidance, forming committees, crafting assignments and churning out research on how to use it, how to benefit from it and how to guard against its limitations and potential harms.

"Iowa students are likely to engage with these tools, and it is clear that instructors will need to consider carefully how to adapt," according to recent guidance issued by the University of Iowa's Office of Teaching, Learning, and Technology.

"These are new technologies, and the future is unknown; the availability and reliability of these tools are developing."

Of course, generative artificial intelligence  machines that create new content  isn't new. Apple's "Siri" or Amazon's "Alexa" for years have been answering questions and taking orders, like playing a song or setting a timer or reading the weather on command.

What it is

But ChatGPT  released in November by research company OpenAI as a "language processing tool" capable of generating text, computer code and images  "is much, much more powerful," said Patrick Fan, UI Tippie College of Business chair, professor in business analytics and faculty director of the Tippie Analytics Cooperative.

"Basically, it's a huge model that mimics the human being," Fan said. "But it can have much, much higher cognitive capability than a human being."

Anyone can use ChatGPT for free by entering a prompt  like asking it to summarize a historical topic or provide both sides of an argument  and it will, within seconds, churn out hundreds of words in well-written prose.

In just the few months since its release, major tech giants like Microsoft, Google and Apple have started using it or advancing their own versions.

It's only a matter of time before ChatGPT applications  GPT stands for Generative Pre-training Transformer  become commonplace and widespread, Fan said.

"People are going to continue to use this," he said. "And they're going to use this for a while."

Pros and cons

But fears have emerged around the explosion of AI  and ChatGPT specifically  such as the ease with which students can use it to take shortcuts on writing assignments or research; its inability to soften tone in discussing sensitive subjects; its potential for rogue behavior or dangerous suggestions; the odds it will spread misinformation; and its potential for replacing human workers.

But, Fan said, benefits abound  like its ability to help students get started on an assignment, to help businesses work more efficiently and to help companies improve customer service and wait times. And while artificial intelligence might eliminate some jobs, it will create new ones, too, he said.

"I do believe that these tools will be very, very fascinating," Fan said. "They're going to have a huge impact on all walks of life, and we have to learn how to live with it. So my attitude is we need to embrace it. We need to know how to use it. We need to leverage it. We can't just ignore it, otherwise, you could fall behind."

Lingyao "Ivy" Yuan, Iowa State University assistant professor of information systems and business analytics, has made artificial intelligence and "digital humans" central to her research over the last seven years.

And she recently published an article for Harvard Business Review spelling out the case for and against them  including that digital humans can work 24/7, don't ask for a raise and can help with sharing sensitive information.

They also can cost a lot and raise ethical questions  which the University of Northern Iowa hints at in its recent response to ChatGPT.

"A group of campus representatives are assembling to attempt an institutional response to these challenges," according to the UNI Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning.

AI assignments

Pamela Gibbs Bourjaily, associate professor of instruction at the UI Tippie College of Business, said she wants her students to learn how to leverage the AI tools.

This semester, she deployed a ChatGPT assignment in her business communication and protocol class.

"I am very interested in ChatGPT, and I wanted to get on it now  in terms of getting a sense of students and how are they already using it. Are they already using it? And what are their experiences?" Bourjaily said.

"It is something that is going to be part of their business communication, their business writing, when they are in the workforce. And so teaching students how to produce effective business communication is going to have to include how to work with AI-generated language."

Her assignment asks students to evaluate and revise a ChatGPT-generated response to the prompt, "How do employee monitoring systems help or worsen equity issues within the workplace among employees of different genders, races and abilities?"

When Bourjaily asked ChatGPT that question, it churned out a 249-word response that  while coherent and reasonably well-written  didn't necessarily follow the business-writing structure students had been taught, including front-loading information in a skimmable document with effective claim statements.

The goal of the assignment was to teach students how to recognize artificially generated language, address its deficiencies, make revisions and customize it for specific audiences and expectations.

"Students can either elect to use ChatGPT ... or they cannot use it at all and do their own writing, or they can do a mixture of both  a hybrid  it honestly doesn't matter," Bourjaily said, reiterating the goal of producing effective business writing. "If they can get machine learning to produce effective communication, that's great."

University guidance

But not all classes are amenable to AI-generated assignment submissions or even assistance  and Iowa's universities recently issued guidance for professors wanting to set student expectations at their course's outset.

In a class syllabus  per an example given by the UI Office of Teaching, Learning and Technology  instructors wanting to ban the use or artificial intelligence could list it among violations of academic integrity or include the following statement:

"Since writing, analytical, and critical thinking skills are part of the learning outcomes of this course, all writing assignments should be prepared by the student. ... Therefore, AI-generated submissions are not permitted and will be treated as plagiarism."

Iowa State issued guidance, too, suggesting optional language for professors who are OK with it on a conditional basis.

"It's allowed with appropriate attribution," according to one of ISU's suggestions. "It's allowed in limited instances," according to another. Or "AI can be used to prepare for assignments by brainstorming, but students must show how it helped them reach the result."

"It is important to be open and set expectations with students ahead of time," said Matt Carver, ISU Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching enterprise instructional technology senior manager.

Acknowledging some universities have banned ChatGPT altogether, Carver said students who use it with instructor permission remain responsible for submitting accurate information. One of the apps' limitations, he said, is its database only goes through 2021  making it unaware of current events.

'Imperfect solution'

Tools exist to detect artificial intelligence  like those used to detect plagiarism  but many lag behind the updated ChatGPT technology.

"It's important to remember that these emerging technologies are likely to be an imperfect solution," according to the UI guidance, warning against widespread use of AI-detection tools by quoting University of Mississippi instructor Marc Watkins.

"We should be proactive in our response and not approach our teaching out of panic and mistrust of our students," Watkins said.

"What message would we send our students by using AI-powered detectors to curb their suspected use of an AI writing assistant, when future employers will likely want them to have a range of AI-related skills and competencies?"
Napa Valley author Claudia Hagadus Long will sign copies of her new crime thriller, "Our Lying Kin," at Main Street Books/Napa Bookmine, St. Helena on March 11 from 11 a.m. to noon.

"Our Lying Kin" is a follow-up to Long's murder mystery "Nine Tenths of the Law," a mystery-thriller about two sisters, Zara and Lilly, their mother and a Nazi thief. The latter story was adapted into a feature film and chosen as one of the top three screenplays at the Silicon Valley International Film Festival.

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.

The sisters return in "My Lying Kin," although their relationship has suffered through the long pandemic isolation. The more straight-laced Zara, an investigator, is increasingly alarmed by Lilly's dubious  and not-particularly-legal  adventures.

As they attempt make peace, a woman calls, claiming a shocking connection to their deceased father. Zara and Lilly turn their sleuthing talents to unraveling a series of family mysteries, a quest that is complicated when the murderer and thief who nearly killed Lilly escapes from custody.

Filled with humor, sibling rivalry and love, "Our Lying Kin," is a haunting, quirky, rollicking story of the ravages of the pandemic and the power of family.

Claudia Hagadus Long is the author of four other novels: "Josefinas Sin," "The Duel for Consuelo" and "Chains of Silver," a trilogy of Colonial Mexico, 1690-1753) and "The Harlots Pen," aboutwomen in the labor movement in 1920 San Francisco.

She is an attorney in Northern California. She lives with her husband and far too many animals.

For more information, visit: www.claudiahlong.com.
Disputes between former Napa County Executive Officer Minh Tran and the county continue, with a new claim filed by Tran alleging wrongful termination and violation of his civil rights.

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.

This latest claim filed with the county is dated Jan. 27. It follows a 2021 claim Tran filed related to complaints he has about Supervisor Belia Ramos.

Attorneys representing Napa County apparently proposed Tran sign a release for the 2021 claim, which Tran had offered to settle for $1 under conditions not made public. Tran responded with four pages that include the additional claims.

I am unable to sign off on the release as-is because it contains ambiguities, inaccuracies and fails to tell the whole story, wrote Tran, who is now Riverside County counsel.

Tran did not respond to the Napa Valley Register's requests for comment.

However, the new claim describes the story from his viewpoint, as well as adding new allegations.

The Napa County Board of Supervisors went into closed session Tuesday to discuss both the 2021 claim and the latest claim, with no action announced. The Register requested and obtained a redacted copy of the latest claim.

Tran served as county executive officer in Napa from to May 2017 to late July 2022, having previously been county counsel. The Board of Supervisors released him after learning he might take a job as county counsel in Riverside County.

Tran is eligible for $467,000 severance pay, but under county policy must first release all claims against the county. A claim can be a precursor to a lawsuit.

Tran in latest his claim alleges a hostile work environment, retaliation and conspiracy to commit wrongful termination.

He recites what was previously known  how Ramos in early 2021 received a COVID-19 vaccine shot before her age group was eligible. Ramos has said this was an end-of-the-day shot that otherwise would have been thrown away.

Supervisor Belia Ramos wanted me to defend her when she was accused of jumping the vaccine line, Tran wrote. I refused.

Ramos later reported Tran to the State Bar of California, saying Tran withheld information favorable to her in that matter. Tran at the time called the information preliminary and said new information had arisen. This dispute led to Trans initial claim in October 2021, which he filed with the county while still its CEO.

In his latest claim, Tran goes further.

Ramos constantly berated me for every little thing, Tran said. She undermined my leadership and the credibility with my county team, with local community members and also with others throughout the state, because I was serving as president of the California Association of County Executives.

He accused her of calling his office on the third floor of the County Administration Building a dumpster fire and saying nobody wanted to work with him. Things got so bad that he had to have a witness present whenever he met with her, Tran wrote.

Ramos said in an email Monday that she is limited in how she can respond, given that this has the potential to involve litigation as well as a personnel matter.

Not everyone shared Tran's opinion of Ramos. Two former, high-ranking Napa County employees told the Register a couple of years ago they left in part because they thought Tran favored other supervisors over Ramos.

Tran referred to other incidents. For example, he said in 2021 he shared with a supervisor allegations he had heard about Ramos from the community that could impact her credibility and reputation and, in turn, that of the county.

Ramos then had her attorney send him and the county a cease-and-desist letter, he wrote. He didnt describe the allegations.

The Board of Supervisors ordered an investigation into how he learned of the allegations. The cease-and-desist letter interfered with his ability to perform his job and had a chilling effect on his regular communications with board members, he wrote.

The board did not take appropriate steps to protect me, its employee; instead, it gave in to political fear and went after me instead, Tran wrote.

He talked about a July 2022 county staff meeting he held that was apparently illegally recorded, with the recording becoming public. The Board of Supervisors later ordered a third-party investigation that proved inconclusive.

Napa County investigating audio recording incident Napa County supervisors recently talked about a possibly illegal audio tape recording incident involving a county staff meeting.

Tran said no one interviewed him. Based on when the recording starts and the timing of the arrival of a certain individual to the meeting, relationship connections and subsequent actions taken to erase or delete records, the county should be able to identify the culprit, he wrote.

To make matters worse, certain individuals actually got rewarded and promoted afterward, Tran wrote. There seems to be a conspiracy not only to fire me but also to violate my civil rights.

Trans claim also addresses his departure from his Napa County job.

On July 21, 2022, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors had an online agenda item briefly posted for its July 26 meeting that said it would appoint Tran as county counsel. The item disappeared within hours. Still, word got back to Napa County and several Napa County supervisors said they were surprised.

The Napa County Board of Supervisors released Tran on July 28, 2022 after a closed session.

"The board is concerned that Mr. Tran has sought employment elsewhere and he is apparently in active talks with another employer," the board said in a statement. "The board believes it is critically important that its CEO have a laser focus on the business of Napa County and will devote 100% of his time and energy on behalf of the county."

In his latest claim, Tran calls these reasons mere excuses. Supervisors served as references when he started his job search in early 2022, he wrote.

Reasons he gave for his job search  besides disagreements with Ramos  included pending retirements of Supervisors Brad Wagenknecht and Diane Dilllon. He had questioned spending at First 5 Napa County, which was headed by Joelle Gallagher, then a strong candidate for supervisor, he wrote. Gallagher was ultimately elected to Wagenknecht's seat.

Supervisors asked him to delay his departure because the Measure L wildfire tax was on the June 2022 ballot, Tran wrote.

Based on this request, I had both turned down job opportunities in Northern California and delayed accepting the job offer from Riverside, he wrote.

Tran didn't say which supervisors knew of his job search. Ramos responded in an email on Monday.

"In my capacity as a board member, I was not provided information or notice by Minh Tran seeking alternative employment," she said. "I learned of Minh Tran being offered a position with Riverside County on July 22, 2022 through a (Riverside) Press Enterprise article."

Tran wrote that he wanted to clarify the non-disclosure agreement and release proposed to him by Napa County. The non-disclosure seems so overly broad as to contractually impose censorship, he wrote.

"For example, after my separation with the county, various individuals have shared new information with me relating to county business transactions that either already occurred in the past, happening now or will take place in the future," he wrote. "The additional information helped me connect the dots and gave me a better understanding of the reasons for certain board members' decisions...

"For example, would any information about ongoing personal or business relationships between one board member and a local attorney, family business interests relating to investments and parties benefitting from those investments and future board decisions, projects happening on properties that are in the city now but were recently owned by the county, etc., be subject to this non-disclosure provision?"

He also asked if, with the release provision, the county would consider allowing certain tort claims to go forward separately.
Updated at 3:36 p.m. Wednesday  The former Napa business owner who was arrested more than two years ago in connection to a firebomb plot against California Democratic Party offices will spend nine years in federal prison.

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.

Ian Benjamin Rogers, 46, received a 108-month sentence Wednesday morning in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. Judge Charles R. Breyer accepted a plea agreement negotiated between Rogers defense lawyer and federal prosecutors.

Rogers, an auto mechanic who owned British Auto Repair of the Napa Valley, was arrested in January 2021 and accused with Vallejo resident Jarrod Copeland, 39, of planning to blow up the John L. Burton Democratic headquarters building in Sacramento, in response to their belief that Democrats stole the 2020 presidential election to hand victory to Joe Biden.

Later Wednesday, Breyer sentenced Copeland to 4 years on charges of conspiracy and destroying records, the prison term prosecutors sought.

Napa County sheriffs deputies who searched Rogers home and his repair shop on Action Avenue in Napa on Jan. 15, 2021 discovered five pipe bombs and 48 firearms, four of them machine guns.

Prosecutors also entered evidence including text messages between Rogers and Copeland, one of which read: I want to blow up a Democrat building bad. The text was time-stamped after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and before Bidens inauguration Jan. 20.

Rogers and Copeland were indicted that July on federal charges of conspiring to destroy a building, possessing destructive devices, and obstructing justice.

Prosecutors alleged the two men accumulated an arsenal of bombs and firearms for their plot, and discussed their plans through text messages.

According to prosecutors, Rogers and Copeland used an encrypted messaging app to plan an attack with Molotov cocktails and gasoline on several targets, including the Democratic Party headquarters, the Governors Mansion and buildings for the Facebook and Twitter social media platforms.

The pair hoped their attacks would prompt a movement, prosecutors said in announcing the charges.

In addition to recovering guns and explosives, agents also seized a white privilege card that looks like a credit card. Trumps Everything it says beneath the label, with the number 0045 repeated as a credit card number, signaling the 45th U.S. president. Scott Free is listed as the cardholder, a member from birth through death.

Investigators also pointed to the Three Percenters bumper sticker on Rogers vehicle, signaling support for an anti-government movement named after the belief that just 3% of American colonists defeated the British during the American Revolution.

Prosecutors said that in late December 2020, Copeland told Rogers he contacted an anti-government militia group to gather support for their movement. After Rogers arrest in January 2021, they say Copeland communicated with a leader of a militia group who advised Copeland to delete his old messages and switch to a new communication platform.

Sentencing for Rogers and Copeland originally was sentenced for September, but was delayed after Breyer questioned the sincerity of Rogers remorse in remarks made to U.S. probation officers.

Citing a statement to probation officers about his regret for putting myself in a bad situation that allowed the government to destroy my life, Breyer paused the sentencing and required lawyers to justify the plea deal, according to the Sacramento Bee.

I have to say, in 23 years Ive never seen that type of statement. Ive never seen a defendant come in and say I regret I was caught, the judge said at the time, also citing the quantity of Rogers weapons and his possession of a map with the Democratic headquarters location.

On Wednesday, however, Breyer concluded a mental evaluation of Rogers by a UC San Francisco psychiatrist supported Rogers assertion that his crimes were largely driven by a lack of self-restraint caused by alcoholism.

Rogers, wearing a prison suit, recalled how an existing drinking problem worsened early in the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when business at his since-closed auto garage fell 40%.

I said a lot of silly stupid things I didnt mean when I sat at home intoxicated, he said during the sentencing, which was livestreamed from San Francisco. I only said stupid things, but these things have come back to haunt me a million times over.

They were only dumb, stupid, drunken thoughts, and I regret them all, he said, adding that the demands of his Napa business ensured that I never had any spare time to moonlight as a freedom fighter.

Rogers insisted he never had any bona fide intention of carrying out an attack, and that he now regrets having kept his cache of weapons.

Though Rogers possessed three illegal weapons for more than 20 years, he fired them only four times for fun and otherwise kept them in a gun safe, he told the judge. The pipe bombs  also stored in his gun safe  were built in early 2020 to protect my family from a potential future event that may or may not occur, he continued, without giving further details.

Rogers later apologized to those who work and volunteer at the Democratic office in Sacramento  and also to the wife and two sons from whom he will be separated for nearly a decade.

To my family, I want to say I let you down, and Im sorry, and I hope you can forgive me, Rogers said, his voice nearly breaking.

(Breyer said he would recommend Rogers placement at a prison in the Bay Area or greater Sacramento, partly to make family visits more workable.)

In approving Rogers sentence, Breyer said he took into account a handwritten letter Rogers sent to him in October, in which the Napan implored him not to shoot down the plea agreement.

At the time, I believed the election was stolen, Rogers wrote in the three-page message, which was unsealed Feb. 8. At the time, I believed things said by the Trump administration. At the time, I was in a dark place in my life and I was abusing alcohol and acting out, in part, because of it. I was wrong in my thinking.

However, Breyer emphasized the need to prosecute those whose actions threaten peoples right to political participation.

I understand you can have serious disagreements with the way the government is operated, the judge told Rogers, who has been held in Alameda County at the Santa Rita Jail. And youre not wrong to have those views; you are entitled to have those views because you are an American living in this society. What youre not entitled to do is to violate the law and threaten the existence of the government and its institutions.

The fallout from the bomb plot has included spending on increased security, training, and camera and building upgrades  as well as a lingering fear that has had a chilling effect on active participation in our democratic process, said Rusty Hicks, chair of the state Democratic Party.

The defendants actions have negatively impacted the willingness of people to do door-to-door canvassing or meet in large groups, Hicks told Breyer.

Rogers co-defendant Copeland was scheduled to be sentenced immediately afterward, but his defense attorney received a postponement to the afternoon. The lawyer, John Ambrosio, asked for Breyer to close the courtroom because of what he described as concerns about Copelands safety, though he did not elaborate.

Following his federal sentencing, Rogers is scheduled to appear at 8:30 a.m. Friday in Napa County Superior Court for a plea hearing on local firearm and explosives charges also connected to the 2021 arrest.

Wednesday's sentencings took place in Breyers 17th-floor courtroom inside the Phillip Burton Federal Building in downtown San Francisco. The building is named for a longtime Democratic congressman who died in 1983.

The Democratic headquarters building in Sacramento that was the target of the attack is named for his brother.
ST. HELENA  St. Helenas relocated City Hall at the Napa Valley College Upper Valley Campus is open and ready for the public.

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.

City officials and residents gathered Monday afternoon at the College Avenue campus for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the move. Welcome to St. Helenas new home, Mayor Paul Dohring said to applause from several dozen people.

Whether NVC's Upper Valley Campus space will be a permanent home remains to be seen. But for the foreseeable future, it will provide stability after a 2019 incident that left St. Helena's previous City Hall on Main Street, built in 1955, with smoke damage.

St. Helena Police is still located 1480 Main St., but is scheduled to move to the campus in about May.

Asked why the public will be well-served by the new City Hall, Dohring said the city's staff has put up with substandard quarters for many years, and a new home will build staff morale that will help the public.

Our staff deserves it and the public will be proud of it, Dohring said.

Officials gave a long list of thank-yous that included city staff for being flexible.

Our partner is also Napa Valley College, who has opened the doors for us quite literally and (allowed) us to use this wonderful space, which we will hope will be a permanent home, said City Manager Anil Comelo.

St. Helena appropriated $2.4 million for the move to the NVC satellite campus, including design work, tenant improvements and moving costs.

The city is leasing about 8,000 square feet of the campus main building from Napa Valley College for $2 per square foot, provided the city sweeps the parking lot regularly. If not, rent is $2.50 a square foot. The five-year lease began in August 2021 and has an option for an additional two years.

City Hall was still getting some finishing touches on Monday. One worker stood on a ladder in an office working on the ceiling. A bulletin board was leaned up against furniture.

"This has been a substantial investment in our employees," Comelo said. "We recognize it is a serious endeavor. A lot of thought went into it."

As for the 1955 City Hall, it sits vacant on Main Street, its fate yet to be decided. It has seen happier days, when it was was celebrated as state-of-the-art.

Sixty-eight years ago, in February 1955, St. Helena held a grand-opening ceremony for that building with about 1,000 people present. California Gov. Goodwin Knight was the featured speaker.

That building cost $94,000 (equivalent to about $1.05 million today) and wasnt meant to be fancy.

The new city hall has obviously been designed with functionalism as its main purpose for existence, which is a proper objective when dealing with the publics money, Knight said that day almost seven decades ago.

By 2019, city officials considered the 1955 City Hall to be outdated and dilapidated and were studying how to replace it. Then, that December, malfunctioning climate-control equipment almost caused a fire and caused extensive smoke damage.

St. Helena temporarily relocated city offices to city-owned building at 1572 Railroad Ave. while looking for a longer-range solution.

That solution is here at the Upper Valley Campus. And on Monday, that proved an occasion to celebrate.

Im just really excited about this moment and the future and what this means for all of us, City Councilmember Anna Chouteau said.

PHOTOS: Snow hits Napa County Petrified Forest Road snow Howell Mountain Petrified Forest Road snow Angwin snow Petrified Forest Road snow Petrified Forest Road snow Atlas Peak Mount Veeder Snow in Angwin Snow in Angwin
LOS ANGELES  In 2014, California adopted a landmark law aimed at combating excessive groundwater pumping, especially in farming areas of the San Joaquin Valley where many families were seeing their wells sputter and run dry.

More than eight years later, many local agencies are still working on long-term groundwater sustainability plans. Water levels have continued to decline, and in many areas household wells have continued to dry up  including some that have failed since torrential rains soaked the state in January.

Now, with more wells at risk of running dry, activists are urging the state to intervene in five Central Valley areas where they say plans are inadequate to combat chronic overpumping.

At this point, we just dont believe that the locals will actually take into consideration drinking water needs, said Nataly Escobedo Garcia, a policy coordinator with the environmental justice group Leadership Counsel for Justice & Accountability.

Wells are still continuing to go dry, Escobedo Garcia said. We ask that the state treats this as the crisis it is and acts in urgency.

The push for stronger regulation comes as state lawmakers consider a bill that aims to clamp down on the frenzy of agricultural well-drilling in areas where groundwater supplies are considered to be in critical overdraft.

The bill, introduced by Assemblymember Steve Bennett, D-Ventura, would require so-called groundwater sustainability agencies, which were established under the 2014 law, to weigh in on well permit applications.

There is a loophole in our system, Bennett said, explaining that local groundwater agencies  which are responsible for managing their basins and reaching sustainable pumping levels by 2040  currently do not have the authority to decide whether permits for new wells fit with their plans. Counties have traditionally signed off on permits without public input, a system Bennett called over the counter permits.

In recent years, while local agencies have prepared groundwater plans, thousands of new wells have been drilled on farmlands in the Central Valley.

Its essential that somebody has not just the authority but the responsibility to say these new wells are appropriate and consistent to go in, Bennett said.

The bill, AB 1563, would make permanent requirements similar to those Gov. Gavin Newsom enacted as temporary drought measures in an executive order last year. The governor directed counties and cities to obtain written verification from a groundwater sustainability agency that issuing a well-drilling permit would be consistent with the local plan and wouldnt decrease the likelihood of achieving a sustainability goal for the basin. The order also requires that before issuing a permit, the local agency must determine that the proposed well would be unlikely to interfere with nearby wells or cause sinking ground that would damage infrastructure.

Under Bennetts legislation, those applying to put in small domestic wells would be exempt from the requirements. A permit for drilling a replacement well would be exempt if the original well is being shut down and the new well would pump the same amount of water.

The calls for more stringent measures have surfaced while state regulators are reviewing plans submitted by local agencies  one of the initial steps under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. The law requires local agencies in 21 critically overdrafted basins to achieve their sustainability goals by 2040.

Activists have called for state intervention in some of the 12 basins where the California Department of Water Resources has said submitted plans were incomplete and had deficiencies that needed to be corrected.

State water officials are expected to announce in the coming weeks whether they will accept plans developed for these 12 basins, require additional revisions, or deem them inadequate  a step that would trigger intervention by the State Water Resources Control Board.

Groundwater levels have declined across the Central Valley during the past three years of severe drought as supplies from rivers have diminished and as agriculture has depended more heavily on water pumped from wells.

More than 1,400 dry household wells were reported in 2022, the highest number since the state started tracking reports of well failures in 2013.

So far this year, 68 dry wells have been reported to the state.

Escobedo Garcia and other environmental justice advocates have recently raised concerns about plans in five areas of the San Joaquin Valley  the Kaweah, Kings, Merced, Tule and Westside sub-basins.

In letters to the Department of Water Resources, they said that current plans fail to address chronic lowering of groundwater levels and the associated problems  including degradation of water quality and sinking ground. They also argued that low-income communities and people of color have not been included in decision-making, and that their needs have not been prioritized.

When plans fail to protect residents drinking water, the activists said, the department should deem them inadequate and refer them to the State Water Board to be designated as probationary basins.

Under the law, the board has the authority to declare a groundwater basin probationary and to develop an interim plan for an area if the local agency fails to remedy an identified deficiency.

Escobedo Garcia told members of the State Water Board at a Feb. 7 meeting that despite the recent heavy rains, the storm runoff isnt nearly enough to recoup losses in aquifers that have been declining for decades.

This is unlikely to happen given the extreme shifts between dry and wet conditions we are experiencing due to climate change, Escobedo Garcia told the board. To make matters worse, the agriculture industry continues to drill new wells and overpump our limited groundwater, which leads to dry wells, water contamination, land subsidence and other harmful impacts.

SGMA requires that local agencies consider domestic well owners and disadvantaged communities, she noted.

We must ensure our basins are truly on a path to sustainability that protects all groundwater users, Escobedo Garcia said. As plans are currently written, we do not believe they will put us on that path.

She cited an estimate that if overpumping is allowed to continue drawing down groundwater in the San Joaquin Valley, 20% to 49% of domestic wells could be partially or fully dewatered  affecting the drinking water supplies of up to 127,000 people.

The plans need to be revised, and domestic wells cannot be sacrificed for agricultural use, said Tien Tran, a policy advocate for the Community Water Center.

State officials plan to announce decisions by March 30 on whether they approve the plans with recommended corrective actions or declare them inadequate and ask the State Water Board to intervene, said Paul Gosselin, deputy director of the Department of Water Resources sustainable groundwater management office.

Gosselin said the board would have discretion in how to address inadequate plans. Under the law, he said, the aim is to get the basin back to local control as quickly as possible.

Gosselin said even in areas where the plans have flaws, local officials have been making enormous progress, with some starting to implement water allocations and pumping limits, as well as projects focused on replenishing groundwater.

Its real difficult, challenging work, Gosselin said. We might have been the last state in the West to have a statewide groundwater law in place, but I think what were finding is we have probably the best structured law in the country.

Gosselin said its concerning that wells have continued running dry despite the recent wet weather, but he said it takes time for groundwater levels to rebound, and the basins have a long way to go to recover.

To address overpumping in some areas, the Department of Water Resources recently started a program called LandFlex, which will provide $25 million in grants to local groundwater agencies for farmers who agree to limit water use. The program focuses on reducing pumping where nearby drinking water wells otherwise could be affected.

The program will provide financial incentives to farmers for each acre they enroll, and includes rules intended to ensure the participation of small and mid-sized farms.

A state website describing the program says limiting overpumping will mean more water left in the ground and available for drinking water wells in Californias most vulnerable communities.

Farmlands in the San Joaquin Valley produce a wide variety of fruits, nuts and cattle-feed crops. In the coming years, the requirements of the groundwater law are expected to force landowners to leave large portions of the valleys farmland dry and fallow.

Researchers with the Public Policy Institute of California estimated in a recent report that by 2040, the average annual water supplies for agriculture could decrease by 20%  largely because of limits under the groundwater law but also because of climate change and other factors.

They estimated that in a worst-case scenario, nearly 900,000 acres of farmland would be fallowed and about 50,000 jobs would be lost. In some areas, they projected, more than half the irrigated farmland may eventually need to be left dry.

They said various measures could help soften the economic blow, including investments in boosting water supplies, localized buying and selling of water, and improvements in agricultural productivity.

The valley can still thrive with less water, said Alvar Escriva-Bou, a senior fellow at the institute.

The researchers said planning will be key in transitioning some farmland to other purposes, such as solar farms, crops that consume less water or restored habitat areas.

Theres a lot of land thats going to go out of production, Escriva-Bou said. If we want to do that in a careful way, to avoid more problems, we need to provide the right incentives.
SACRAMENTO  California's COVID-19 state of emergency officially ended Tuesday, bringing a symbolic close to one of the most challenging chapters of state history and of Gov. Gavin Newsom's political career.

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.

The Democratic governor declared the state of emergency three years ago, giving himself broad executive powers to protect Californians from an unpredictable and deadly virus. After previously resisting GOP pressure to end the emergency as conditions improved, Newsom now says California is finally ready to move forward.

"California is better prepared and that's because we have a serious Legislature and the health ecosystem in California is second to none in the country," Newsom said.

The governor proclaimed a state of emergency March 4, 2020, at a time when there were only 53 known cases of the coronavirus in California.

Anticipating rapid spread of the virus that could overwhelm hospitals, the proclamation gave the governor the legal authority to make, amend and rescind state regulations, suspend state statutes and redirect state funds. The emergency declaration also allowed Newsom to commandeer private property, including hospitals, medical labs, hotels and motels.

Although the pandemic solidified Newsom's legacy as a crisis governor, his use of power opened him up to scrutiny from across the political spectrum. His decisions to enact mask and vaccine mandates and ever-shifting restrictions on businesses and everyday activities turned him into a GOP caricature of oppressive Democratic rule.

Newsom was spotted dining with lobbyist friends at the posh French Laundry restaurant in Yountville after advising Californians to avoid mixing with other households, leading to headlines across the country and criticism of him as a hypocritical leader.

After a Sacramento County Superior Court judge granted more time to gather petition signatures because of the pandemic, Republicans forced a vote to recall the governor the following year. Critics also seized on the fact that Newsom's children were attending classes at a private school while millions of California public school children were forced into distance learning programs from home.

Newsom handily defeated the recall campaign, but the French Laundry misstep frustrated even his staunchest supporters. Meanwhile, leaders in his own party at times criticized his decisions.

"I think Gov. Newsom, like pretty much everybody else in California, is really sick of dealing with COVID," said Jack Pitney, a professor of American politics at Claremont McKenna College.

California's chief executive has been careful to avoid declaring victory over the virus, but in June 2021 he proclaimed at a reopening celebration at Universal Studios that the state was ready to "turn the page." Later that year, another wave of the virus led to more restrictions.

California currently has the 11th lowest COVID-19 death rate per capita in the country, according to data compiled by the Los Angeles Times. The state Department of Public Health also reported this year that California breached 100,000 deaths as a result of the virus.

Newsom recently said that his administration set the groundwork to end the state of emergency last year when he called off most of the remaining restrictions and began transitioning into a plan to live with the virus. The governor added that California is moving in the same direction as the Biden administration, which announced plans to let the federal coronavirus public health emergency expire May 11.

The change won't make much of a difference in the daily lives of most Californians but could eventually affect the cost of and access to treatment and preventive services.

California law requires health plans to cover the cost of COVID-19 therapeutics and vaccines and, until November, reimburse the cost of at-home tests. Starting in early November, drugs and tests will be covered only if obtained from providers in patients' insurance networks.

The situation is slightly less clear for the uninsured, who should be able to access the government's stockpile of COVID-19 drugs and vaccines until at least this summer. Federal government officials have said the Biden administration is seeking to ensure that supplies remain available beyond that time.

Robert Wachter, chair of UC San Francisco's Department of Medicine, warned that any policy changes that make it more difficult for the uninsured to access free COVID-19 care, testing or vaccinations could pose health equity problems and as a result increase the threat of contracting the virus for all Californians.

"If you have a situation where more people are sick, feel sick, don't know what they have, potentially are going into work and exposing themselves to other people and probably should be on Paxlovid, but don't have access to it, that's all bad," Wachter said. "In a perfect world, that wouldn't happen."

In preparation for the end of the emergency, Newsom called for new legislation to allow nurses to continue to dispense COVID-19 therapeutics and for laboratory workers to solely process COVID-19 tests. Assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park) introduced legislation to do that under Assembly Bill 269, which passed the Assembly earlier this month and is expected to come up for a vote on the Senate floor this week.

The governor, accused by conservatives of abusing his powers, noted that California is ending its state COVID-19 emergency while Republican-led Texas is not.

Texas is one of five states with an emergency declaration still in place. And similar to Newsom, Gov. Greg Abbott has been reluctant to give it up because of the broad powers he's granted under an emergency declaration, said Randy Erben, an adjunct professor at the University of Texas School of Law and a former legislative director for Abbott.

After initially requiring masks in indoor public places from July 2020 until the following March, Abbott changed course months later and has used his emergency powers to prevent cities and counties from instituting their own mask requirements and vaccine mandates.

Although Newsom and Abbott took divergent paths, Erben said Abbott was "absolutely excoriated by the conservative right" for his early mask rules. Unlike the criticism Newsom received from the GOP over restrictions and mandates, Abbott's carried the added pressure of coming from within his own political party.

"I have every bit of sympathy for any chief executive of a state during the COVID pandemic," Erben said. "I just think there was no winning. And I think that what they did in the beginning, and I'd say this about anyone, was heroic, and they took huge political risk in a time where nobody knew what the right answers were."

COVID-19 changed how we eat outhere are the trends that are here to stay Restaurant trends that will last after COVID-19 QR code menus Street and sidewalk dining Staff shortages Home delivery Price increases
The San Francisco Bay Area's recovery from the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic is one of the worst in the country among major metropolitan areas, according to an economic recovery tracker launched Tuesday by the Bay Area Council business group.

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.

Among the 25 largest metro areas in the U.S. by regional gross domestic product, San Francisco's pandemic recovery ranked 24th on the Regional Economic Recovery Index, besting only Baltimore.

San Jose fared better, but is still in the back half of the ranking at 16th. The Austin, Dallas and Denver metro areas have had the greatest recovery to date, according to the Bay Area Council.

Pandemic recovery was measured via 15 different metrics, including local job growth, population growth, office occupancy, labor force growth, sales tax receipts and the construction of new housing.

San Francisco's recovery ranking includes data from Oakland and Berkeley, while San Jose's includes data from Sunnyvale and Santa Clara.

"The Bay Area is competing for its economic future and in any competition it's critical to know where we stand and where we need to invest time, energy and resources to succeed," said Jeff Bellisario, the Bay Area Council Economic Institute's executive director.

The Economic Institute developed the index in partnership with the commercial real estate firm CBRE and its Tech Insights Center.

CBRE has regularly tracked office occupancy in San Francisco throughout the pandemic, finding in a report released last month that roughly 27% of the city's offices were vacant at the end of 2022.

In addition, permanent remote work skyrocketed in the Bay Area between 2019, when between 5% and 10% of workers in counties across the region self-reported that they worked from home, and 2021, when that number is as high as 46% in San Francisco, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey.

Newsom rescinds California's COVID-19 state of emergency, marking an end to the pandemic era California's COVID-19 state of emergency officially ended Tuesday, bringing a symbolic close to one of the most challenging chapters of state history and of Gov. Gavin Newsom's political career.

San Francisco also ranked last on the index's measure of economic activity with a score of just 3.2 out of 100, driven mainly by the city's sales tax revenue falling $96 million from 2019 to 2021. Washington, D.C. was the next closest region with a score of 12.7.

The stark drop in sales tax receipts and passengers boarding flights  the two metrics tracked for economic activity  has also had a cascading effect as the city and local governmental bodies like transportation agencies all face budget issues.

San Jose and San Francisco scored well in just one category  investment  with the San Jose metro area attracting the most venture capital funding of the 25 measured regions. San Francisco ranked eighth, near Philadelphia and New York.

"Macroeconomic uncertainty in the short term and new challenges related to remote and hybrid office-based work could slow the usual robust, tech-driven economic rebound the Bay Area expects," said Colin Yasukochi, the executive director of CBRE's Tech Insights Center.

"This is especially true for urban downtown areas that could benefit from economic incentives and other public sector support," he added.

Tuesday's index report is the first of three the Bay Area Council and CBRE plan to issue in the coming months to track regional pandemic recovery, with the next report scheduled for the second half of 2023.

The recovery index can be found at http://www.bayareaeconomy.org/economic-recovery.

Photos: Napa Valley Faces and Places, February 19, 2023
Hraparak daily of Armenia writes: Azerbaijan continues to demand other concessions in exchange for [re]opening the Berdzor [(Lachin)] road.

The demands were: the dismissal of Ruben Vardanyan [from the post of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) Minister of State], the installation of an X-ray device at the Artsakh checkpoint, permission for monitoring in the Kashen mine, the withdrawal of heavy military equipment from Artsakh.

Our sources say that the Azerbaijani side underscores the matter of the X-ray machine. They claim that such a device should be installed at the checkpoint... During the negotiations, only the issue of checking trucks was brought up in order to dispel the suspicions of the Azerbaijani side that dangerous baggageweaponswould not be transported from Armenia.

The Artsakh side also presented a counter demand: if Azerbaijan does not give up on that idea, then it can only install a device and use it to track the vehicles remotely; that is, only Russian peacekeepers shall continue to conduct monitoring at the checkpoint, Azerbaijani inspectors shall not be stationed there; that is, the content of the tripartite document of November 9[, 2020] should not be violated.

It is noteworthy that RF [(Russian Federation)] Foreign Minister Lavrov, who visited Baku yesterday, announced that the setting up of any control checkpoint at the Lachin corridor is not planned, and the operation regimen of the corridor must fully comply with the requirements of the November 9 tripartite statement.
Russian peacekeepers celebrate Easter in Artsakh

The Danish ambassador was summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry: Ankara has made a demand

Bloomberg: New pandemic possible in coming decade

44-year-old man found hanging from a tree

Yerevan Metro Police detain armed young man

Poland receives Bayraktar from Turkey

Artur Davtyan - European Championship bronze medalist

Asbarez: 6th international medical congress of Armenia invites doctors from diaspora to join by contributor

4.2 magnitude earthquake in Turkish Adana

Ukraine preparing a counteroffensive

Azerbaijani Armed Forces open fire at Sotk Gold Mine

Sudanese army blocks presidential palace entrances in Khartoum

No safety threat to Azerbaijani athletes nor could there ever be

Dozens of Tegh families in difficult social situation

12 patients transported from Artsakh to Armenia, 8  back in Artsakh

Azerbaijan and Iran FMs announce possible continuation of negotiations

Tigran Abrahamyan: Citizens of Artsakh remain alone in their worries

Azerbaijani athletes to leave EWF Championships

Suspect of Wakayama incident arrested

Macron signs pension reform bill

Aram Nikolyan: My only desire is to ensure that Azerbaijan's flag doesn't fly in Yerevan

IMF and World Bank unable to reach agreement on communique

Biden demands stricter protection of secret information

Most destructive games: What games cause people to break phones and walls?

Moodys reaffirms "Export Insurance Agency of Armenia"s rating

The newly appointed Human Rights Defender conducted fact-finding activities in Tegh village

Armenia ambassador to Canada, newly elected mayor of Ottawa discuss cooperation

Data Awards recognizes DISQO as best data research solution

Investigative Committee: Criminal proceeding launched into wounded soldiers case

Woman who threw umbrella at Armenia premier is charged

Zakharova responds to Armenia parliament majority faction secretary: They probably mistranslated it to him

What will the new iPhone 15 Pro buttons look like? photo, video

shamshyan.com: Man found dead, car found on train tracks in Yerevan

Matviyenko: Russia hopes Armenia-Azerbaijan peace treaty will be signed soon as possible

Armenia, Russia FMs discuss matter of Yerevan-Baku relations normalization

Smart solution from AraratBank: electric car loans at an interest rate starting at 9%

Armenian legislature speaker: We call on international community to clearly condemn Azerbaijan aggressive actions

Ameriabank CEO Artak Hanesyan sums up Triple Best campaign: We believe in potential of our team, Armenia

Armenia MOD: Soldier wounded by own weapon

Karabakh NSS deputy director, head of presidential Central Information Department are dismissed

Armenia official: I wouldn't call this a vector change, I would call it a search for certain security guarantees

Armenia parliament speaker expresses concern to Ashimbayev regarding Kazakhstan collaboration with Azerbaijan

Armenia, Russia FMs meet in Uzbekistan

GeoProMining Gold develops social cooperation with Ararat region

Armenia Security Council chief briefs OSCE Minsk Group US co-chair on Azerbaijan provocation near Tegh village

CIS FMs next meeting slated for October in Kyrgyzstan

Armenia Security Council secretary: International presence needed to resolve many security issues in Karabakh

Armenia ruling force lawmaker: PMs orders are mandatory for execution

Armenia police hand over Azerbaijani found in Kapan city area to National Security Service

Security Council head on CSTO: Not possible that Armenia be offered arms, ammunition help and it refuses

Armenia ruling force MP to Zakharova: If we hadn't fought, given casualties, Russia MFA could call as much as it wants

USD depreciating against several other major currencies

Armenia Security Council chief on Azerbaijan border stability: We expect Brussels to take appropriate steps

Armenia Security Council head: There were arrangements with Azerbaijan but most of them were broken

CIS FMs to hold meeting in Uzbekistan

Armenia Security Council chief: Azerbaijan is preparing for military escalation

Monetization on Twitter: Users can now offer paid subscriptions to their followers

Newspaper: Army General Staff chief admits that Tegh village incident was Armenian sides omission as well

Europa League: Game results of the day (VIDEOS)

Europa Conference League: Match results of the day (VIDEO)

Armenia MOD: Sanitary vehicle staff not hospitalized

shamshyan.com: Armenia MOD driver, 2 medical assistants hospitalized after truck, MOD sanitary vehicle collide

What is healthcare marketing? Astghik Medical Center marketing department head explains

Brazil's president in China called for abandoning the dollar

Artsakh's Ombudsman expresses dissatisfaction to OSCE chairman for attitude of international community

Ararat Mirzoyan will go on a working visit to Uzbekistan

How can your account be stolen via Telegram for Adults?

Police and demonstrators clash on the 12th day of demonstrations in France

Anahit Manasyan had a phone conversation with the Human Rights Ombudsman of Artsakh

The 12th protest against pension reform takes place in France

Russia MOD: No ceasefire violations recorded in Karabakh during last 24 hours

Lemkin Institute issues statement on Azerbaijan noncompliance with ICJ order to unblock Lachin corridor

MFA: Shushi is Artsakhs integral part in territorial, cultural, economic, historical aspects

Bankrupt FTX may resume work: It has recovered $7.3 billion in assets

An earthquake of magnitude 4.3 occurred in southeastern Turkey

Charles Michel explains his activeness in Armenia-Azerbaijan relations normalization process

Armenia PM to Bujar Osmani: This visit is good opportunity to get familiarized with complicated situation

South Korea bans its citizens from traveling to Armenia-Azerbaijan border region

What kind of photos does the world's most expensive camera phone Xiaomi 13 Ultra take?

Karabakh President convenes working consultation, security challenges discussed

OSCE Chairman-in-Office: I am here to find out if there is possibility to build bridges between Yerevan and Baku

Armenia PM chief of staff: Azerbaijanis are already in Yerevan, we have ensured their safety

Chairman-in-Office: OSCE toolkit provides mechanisms to assist peace process between Armenians and Azerbaijanis

Osmani: We are ready for any efforts to achieve positive dynamics between Azerbaijan and Armenia

Armenia FM: Replacing army with guards on Azerbaijan border should be part of final settlement

Armenia MFA: Rumors about OSCE Minsk Group activities termination are greatly exaggerated

168.am: Who is the Azerbaijani already rendered ineffective in Armenia? What does he say in video?

Armenia village youth tell how they caught Azerbaijani

Armenia Investigative Committee issues statement on murder of security guard, 56, in Syunik Province

Azerbaijani who crossed border into Armenia is caught by locals, found in Achanan village territory

2nd Azerbaijan soldier found, detained in Armenia

Armenian health minister: Wounded soldier in critical condition due to Azerbaijan provocation has stabilized

Which Armenia company is put on US sanctions list?

Astrophotographer captures 100,000 km high 'plasma waterfall' on Sun

Kev Orkian speaks about latest Azerbaijan military aggression against Armenia

Premier: Armenia ready for reopening of transport links, delimitation of borders

Pashinyan: We are ready to withdraw troops to safe distance along Armenia-Azerbaijan 1991 border

Armenia to have trade attache in Germany

Azerbaijan MFA accuses France foreign ministry of smear campaign and unfair position

Armenia PM: It failed to deploy border guards without escalation of tension
March 1 has been solved, but the culprits have not been punished yet. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told this to reporter after the unveiling of the monument to the casualties of the tragedy that occurred in Yerevan on March 1, 2008.

When asked why the culprits were not punished yet, he answered: "For a variety of reasons, including a number of legal decisions known to you. The fact that the murderers of March 1 have not been found yet does not mean that it won't happen like that.

One of the big problems is that, based on the proceedings of the criminal case as well, it has been proven that immediately after March 1, 2008, the investigation not only did not make all the efforts to solve the crime that occurred, but also all the efforts were made that solving will either be difficult or impossible. ().

One can imagine the consequences of all this. But it doesn't matter, as far as I can express a position regarding law enforcement agencies, my position is that we should achieve full and complete solving [of the crime]," said Pashinyan.

To the question, in that case, with what conviction did he once announce that the case was solved, the premier answered: "I declare with conviction even today that it has been solved. You know there was a criminal case, there was a trial. It was terminated due to legal interpretations, which is a matter of another dimension. When I say solved, I mean the reality, what sequence of steps happened. Ultimately, let's not forget that within the framework of this criminal case, it was found out that squads were formed, it was found out that illegal payments were made, that it was done under the auspices of the army. The main people responsible were in court, but under known circumstances, an attempt is made to do so that... I don't want to comment on irrevocable legal decisions. A decision has been made; we all have to take note [of that]. Including the decision of the Supreme Court; and those decisions that are not appealable.

March 1 is solved at least to the level of perpetrators. The actual perpetrators are not known, and how the rest of the chains worked is certainly solved."

Pashinyan responded to the question of whether it would be possible for all of this to be openly presented to the public in the future.

"Those questions are not for me to answer. I've already said that my position is that yes, it should all be solved. That is the task of the law enforcement officers, they should solve that problem," the Armenian PM said.

On the evening of March 1, 2008, the Armed Forces and police units had carried out special operationsusing weapons, explosive devices, and special meansto disperse the protesters in the downtown streets of capital Yerevan. As a result, hundreds of people were injured, and 8 civilians and 2 policemen died.
Results of recent research in Eastern and Southeastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus - conducted by Emerging Europe as part of the Shes Next Empowered by Visa campaign - show female leaders in the region have a keen interest in digital marketing and social media and are willing to expand their businesses internationally. The survey proves women entrepreneurs in Armenia tend to gain knowledge in obtaining additional financing

Visa today announced the results of research into female leadership and entrepreneurship in Eastern and Southeastern Europe, Central Asia & the Caucasus conducted by Emerging Europe, a prominent growth hub with expertise in the region, as part of the Shes Next initiative.

The extensive study comprised an online survey of 2,000 business owners or self-employed women in 11 countries, including Armenia, 75 in-depth interviews and focus groups. The findings provide a thorough profile of the average female entrepreneur from the region and will allow stakeholders to understand the struggles and challenges faced by women as they pursue their careers.

As one of our interviewees said, it is harder for women to raise funds. It is harder in Silicon Valley. It is harder in her country of Armenia. And raising funds is only one of multiple challenges that female entrepreneurs are facing, said Andrew Wrobel, Founding Partner of Emerging Europe. In this research, we wanted to explore female entrepreneurship as deep as possible and understand all potential obstacles that might influence the businesses and start-ups women create. We also wanted to explore their needs, as well as potential solutions that could empower them and help their businesses thrive and grow internationally.

Overall, most women-owned businesses in Eastern and Southeastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus (84 per cent) dont cross international borders, but female entrepreneurs are willing to learn about doing business abroad.

The leading sectors where women-owned businesses operate are beauty and wellness (17 per cent), retail (12 per cent), agriculture and food (12 per cent), education (eight per cent) and PR and marketing (seven percent). Two-thirds of female entrepreneurs do not use external financing, while three-quarters do not have any employees. Some 35 per cent of women-owned businesses in the region were set up with an investment of less than 1,000 US dollars. Only one in 10 women employs more than 5 people.

From its start in 2019, the Shes Next programme was all about empowering female leaders and local communities and helping them thrive, said Vira Platonova, Visa Senior Vice President and Group Country Manager for 17 countries. That is why it is very important for Visa to learn about the specific needs and concerns of women entrepreneurs in the countries where the initiative is active. We are happy to see female leaders of Armenia and the whole region of Eastern and Southeastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus gradually transition to e-commerce and enjoy convenient and reliable digital payments. We will use the results of the research to bring many more initiatives promoting gender inclusivity in the region.

Key takeaways

Women strive for professional and financial independence. The main sources of motivation for women to start their business are a desire to increase income (50 per cent), willingness to work for themselves (31 per cent) and fulfillment of a dream (21 per cent). In Armenia, the main motivation is to increase income (58 per cent).

Female entrepreneurs care about their business and private lives almost equally. Respondents named business failure (29 per cent), a worsening financial situation (27 per cent) and neglect of family and children (25 per cent) among their biggest concerns. Women in Armenia are mostly concerned about worsening financial situation (34 per cent), followed by business failure (32 per cent) and working a lot and not getting enough rest (28 per cent).

Women-owned businesses struggle to survive competition and raise funding. Female entrepreneurs tend to face such challenges as high competition (40 per cent), raising capital (32 per cent), and unfavorable business conditions (31 per cent). Respondents in Armenia said that the biggest challenges of setting up and running a business in their country were obtaining investments/financing (46 per cent), followed by high competition (38 per cent) and recruit workers and build a team (26 per cent).

Female entrepreneurs want to learn about doing business online. The primary skills that respondents are willing to obtain are strategies to acquire additional funding (47 per cent), digital marketing and social media (37 per cent), e-commerce (24 per cent) and international business development (21 per cent). In Armenia, among the most popular skills are obtaining additional financing (42 per cent), followed by digital marketing and social media management (37 per cent), electronic commerce and online operations (28 per cent)

Women-owned businesses stick to cash when paying employees and suppliers but tend to install POS terminals for customers. 42 per cent of female entrepreneurs pay their employees and suppliers in cash, while 37 per cent prefer card payments. For Armenia, 57 per cent choose payment by card and only 37 per cent select cash. When it comes to customers, electronic payments are far more popular: 37 per cent of respondents named card payments the most frequent method to pay for their goods and services and 42 per cent said they prefer their customers to pay them by card. In comparison, 35 per cent of female entrepreneurs said their customers paid in cash more often, and only 28 per cent prefer clients to stick to cash. In Armenia card payment share is 48 per cent, which prevails over 28 per cent of entrepreneurs, who choose to be paid in cash.

The next stage of the Visa and Emerging Europe partnership  which has the ambitious goal of uniting female entrepreneurs throughout the region within the Shes Next community  is to provide them with a platform to communicate, mentor, exchange experiences, and expand the horizons of their businesses.
Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) President Arayik Harutyunyan on Wednesday chaired a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers, Armenian News-NEWS.am has learned from the office of the President of Artsakh.

The Head of the State introduced Gurgen Nersisyan, the newly-appointed State Minister of Artsakh to the participants of the meeting. In his speech, President Harutyunyan noted that the State Minister will have broad powers, all ministries will operate under his coordination, except for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Internal Affairs, and he will have the freedom to develop and conduct personnel policy within the scope of his jurisdiction. The chairmanship of the Boards of Trustees of the Artsakh Investment Fund and the Village and Agriculture Support Fund will also be transferred to Gurgen Nersisyan.

Touching upon the situation developed as a result of the blockade of Artsakh by Azerbaijan, the Head of the State noted, that despite the fact that the people of Artsakh have been suffering huge social and economic losses during the last 80 days, and experiencing emotional distress, they show great will and determination to tirelessly overcome them day by day.

"Once again, I want to emphasize that regardless of the difficulties and various pressures, we will remain loyal to the ideas of the Artsakh Movement and there will be no step back from the path of independence. I want to declare with all responsibility that any integration process with Azerbaijan is excluded. However, this does not mean that we will avoid contacts to solve problems of an infrastructural and humanitarian nature. And for the negotiations on the settlement of the conflict, as I stated in my message of February 23, it is necessary to ensure certain conditions and an international format," the President said.

Arayik Harutyunyan also noted that the Government will continue to take all measures to alleviate the socio-economic burden and jointly overcome the existing challenges.

In this regard, the President instructed the new State Minister to develop and submit a package of new social programs in the coming days, aimed at the significant relief of utility bills, other current expenses, as well as tax and credit burden. At the same time, the Head of the State instructed to consistently and promptly exert efforts to increase the level of the economys self-sufficiency, attaching priority attention to food production.
Azerbaijan must respect the decision of the International Court of Justice of the United Nations. This was announced by French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna during the government hour in the parliament on Tuesday.

The minister reiterated the need to restore unhindered traffic through the Lachin corridorand in accordance with the decision of the UN International Court of Justice on February 22.

"The decision is binding for Azerbaijan and it should be respected," the minister noted, reminding that France participates in the EU mission, which deals with security issues and contacts between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Colonna emphasized the ICRC's activity in resolving humanitarian problems there.

"Unblocking the corridor, dialogue between Baku and Yerevan remains a priority. We, together with our EU and US partners, are ready to be useful. Azerbaijan must respect international law and restore free movement [along the Lachin Corridor], as demanded by the International Court," the French FM said.

Later, Catherine Colonna went on Twitter and wrote: "Unblocking the Lachin corridor is a primary issue. Free movement [along the corridor] must be restored without any delay. It is the obligation of Azerbaijan, the right must be preserved."
In Greece, the head of the railway station was arrested after the collision of a passenger and a freight trains in Tempi, as a result of which 36 people were killed, ERT public television reports.

It is noted that the director of the Hellenic Trains station is the main person responsible for the accident. On Wednesday morning, he was summoned to the court to testify. He had to explain why the passenger train stopped for more than an hour at the Palaiofarsalos railway station, as well as why the two trains ended up on the same opposite tracks.

Also, the railway employee who is responsible for adjusting the position of the rails was called to the Larissa road traffic department. Currently, the department is carrying out an investigation and collecting case materials on the incident.

The representative of Hellenic Trains as well as the train conductors and dispatchers also testified. According to ERT, the investigation is trying to find out whether the tragedy happened due to human factors or technical errors.

The criminal code of Greece provides up to life imprisonment in case of guilt in this railway disaster.

In the early morning hours on Wednesday, a freight and a passenger train collided in the town of Tempi, which is not far from the city of Larisa. As a result, a fire broke out, and three train cars derailed. According to the latest data, 36 people died and 66 were hospitalized; six of them are in the intensive care unit.
Vlogger showcases rare wild flowers in SW Chinas Xizang

People's Daily Online) 13:26, February 28, 2023

A set of videos showcasing a variety of rare wild flowers in southwest Chinas Xizang Autonomous Region has recently become an internet sensation.

Zheng Chuanjia, a photography enthusiast and a vlogger currently living in the autonomous regions Nyingchi city, has received nearly 400,000 thumb-ups from users on the Chinese online video-sharing platform Bilibili for hundreds of his videos on Xizangs rare flowers.

Photo taken by Zheng Chuanjia, a photography enthusiast and a vlogger, shows blooming flowers in southwest Chinas Xizang Autonomous Region. (yangtse.com/courtesy of the interviewee)

Zheng, 31, is from Zunyi city in southwest Chinas Guizhou Province and works as a chef in Nyingchi. Several years ago, he came to work in Xizang and started taking photos of the beautiful scenery in the autonomous region in his spare time.

During the process, I came across some plants I had never seen before. So I took photos of them and asked locals about the plants, Zheng said, adding that he knew that some of the plants are especially rare. I gradually became interested in rare plants on the plateau, the young man said.

Photo taken by Zheng Chuanjia, a photography enthusiast and a vlogger, shows blooming flowers in southwest Chinas Xizang Autonomous Region. (yangtse.com/courtesy of the interviewee)

Zheng said he began to upload his videos of the rare plants on short video platforms inspired by one of his friends. In July 2020, he shared a video of rheum nobile, a species of rhubarb in the family Polygonaceae that grows in Mainling county and Nang county in Xizang. He explained that the plant blooms once in even decades and its flowering stems can grow about 2 meters high.

The video soon fanned the curiosity of some netizens, which encouraged him to shoot more videos of the species and flowers of other plants on the plateau, including blossoms of alpine azalea, snow lotus, and Gentiana scabra.

Zheng said that what impressed him most was the journey for recording videos of snow lotus in Lhozhag county, Shannan city, Xizang. He and his girlfriend Hou Yuhan traveled about 500 kilometers by motorcycle to the county from Nyingchi, and captured photos of the plant at an altitude of 5,300 meters.

Zheng was keen on Meconopsis, a genus of flowering plants in the poppy family. There are 49 Meconopsis varieties worldwide and 38 of them are found in China, most of which are in Xizang. The species only survives in high altitude areas and has blue flowers. I was astonished by the attractive blue flowers when I saw them for the first time, the man said.

Over the past years, Zheng has traveled to several cities in Xizang, including Lhasa, Shannan, and Shigatse, to take photos of wild flowers. He is gratified to see that many plants have been put under protection in Xizang.

Photo taken by Zheng Chuanjia shows a blooming rheum nobile, a species of rhubarb in the family Polygonaceae, in southwest Chinas Xizang Autonomous Region. (yangtse.com/courtesy of the interviewee)

According to Zheng, filming flowers is his hobby, but the happiest thing was that he found true love during the process. Zhengs girlfriend, who once worked in Beijing, likes traveling and is interested in Xizang. She occasionally watched Zhengs videos of wild flowers and asked him about traveling in the autonomous region. They gradually became more familiar with each other. In March 2021, Hou went on a trip to Nyingchi, and Zheng served as her guide, leading her to enjoy peach blossoms in the city, which is known for its peach blossom tourism and culture festival. During the journey, they found that they were congenial companions and their friendship blossomed.

I will capture footage of more rare wild flowers on the plateau and showcase the unique beauty of Xizang, Zheng said.

Zheng Chuanjia takes photos of flowers in southwest Chinas Xizang Autonomous Region. (yangtse.com/courtesy of the interviewee)

Photo taken by Zheng Chuanjia shows blooming flowers of Meconopsis, a genus of flowering plants in the poppy family, in southwest Chinas Xizang Autonomous Region. (yangtse.com/courtesy of the interviewee)

(Web editor: Hongyu, Du Mingming)
Tinubu wins Nigeria vote but legal challenges loom

Bola Tinubu greets well-wishers after he was declared winner of the Nigerian presidential election. Photo: AP

Nigeria's new president-elect, Bola Tinubu, called on citizens to unite around him on Wednesday, as he defended the integrity of the national election he won amid a bitter dispute over the results.



Both of the two main opposition parties have rejected the outcome as fraudulent, and said they would challenge the results in court.



The bitter dispute has raised fears of violence in Africa's most populous nation and leading energy producer, which has a long history of electoral violence. In past polls, street gangs with loyalty to Tinubu in the commercial hub of Lagos have fought pitched battles with gangs loyal to rival parties.



"I am very happy I have been elected the president of the federal republic of Nigeria," Tinubu said to cheers in Abuja. "This is a serious mandate. I hereby accept it."



He now faces a litany of national problems, including Islamist insurgencies in the northeast, armed attacks, killings and kidnappings, conflict between livestock herders and farmers, cash, fuel and power shortages, and deeply entrenched corruption.



The Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) said Tinubu garnered 37 percent, or 8.79 million votes, in the weekend election, ahead of main opposition challenger Atiku Abubakar's 29 percent, or 6.98 million votes.



Peter Obi, an outsider popular with younger and more educated urban voters, won 25 percent, or 6.1 million votes.



With total votes cast at just under 25 million out of 87 million people with voter identity cards and eligible to vote, turnout was only 29 percent, low even by Nigerian standards.



The 2019 election saw 35 percent turnout.



The electoral process encountered problems, owing to new technology that did not function well and seemed to overwhelm Nigeria's notoriously inadequate communications network. That undermined trust in the whole process.



"In the eyes of God, the man (Tinubu) is not the winner," trader Mercy Efong said in Akwa, in Obi's home state of Anambra.



The Inec had promised to upload results from each polling unit to its website in real time, but most units were unable to do so immediately. That was not a legal requirement, but it meant results had to be collated manually inside ward and local government counting centres as in previous polls, reneging on a policy that was meant to improve transparency.



"President Buhari said that he would do free and fair election (but) Inec is now turning everything upside down," said rickshaw driver Nedu Chukwunata, referring to the outgoing president, Muhammadu Buhari.



Observer missions have criticised the problems as the result of poor planning. (Reuters)
Iran's president orders probe of poisoning at schools

Iran's president orders probe of poisoning at schools

Iran's president on Wednesday ordered authorities to investigate a series of incidents in which noxious fumes have sickened students at girls' schools, which some officials suspect are attacks targeting women's education.



Hundreds of girls at around 30 schools have been sickened since November, with some winding up in hospital beds. Officials initially dismissed the incidents, only acknowledging the scope of the crisis in recent days.



Children have complained about headaches, heart palpitations, feeling lethargic or otherwise unable to move. Some described smelling tangerines, chlorine or cleaning agents.



Unlike neighbouring Afghanistan, Iran has no history of religious extremists targeting girls' education. Women and girls continued attending school even at the height of the 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled Iran's Western-backed monarchy.



At a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, President Ebrahim Raisi said the Interior Ministry should probe the incidents, with help from the health and intelligence ministries, and promptly release the results to the public, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.



It was the first time he has publicly addressed the poisonings.



The night before the Cabinet meeting, a senior security official had downplayed the matter, dismissing it as psychological warfare by unnamed enemies of the country.



Over 99 percent of this is caused by stress, rumour and psychological war started particularly by hostile TV channels, to create a troubled and stressful situation for students and their parents, the deputy interior minister, Majid Mirahmadi, told state TV. Their goal was to force schools to close.



The poisonings come at a sensitive time for Iran, which has faced months of nationwide protests since a young woman died in September after being arrested by the morality police for allegedly violating Iran's strict Islamic dress code.



After months of downplaying the poisonings, state-run IRNA filed multiple stories on the subject on Sunday in which officials acknowledged the scope of the incidents.



Irans prosecutor-general has ordered an investigation, saying there are possibilities of deliberate criminal acts. IRNA quoted a deputy health minister as saying that unnamed people wanted the schools to close.



Suspected extremists attacked women with acid for not dressing conservatively enough around the Iranian city of Isfahan in 2014. But there's no opposition to women's education in Shi'ite Islam, and Iran has even called on the Taliban in Afghanistan to let women and girls return to school. (AP)
New Delhi [India], March 1 (ANI/ATK): Lisianthus Tech Private Limited, in collaboration with SAMDeS, organized a conference on Cyber Warfare on 23rd February 2023 at IIC, New Delhi. The event's chief guest was Lt. General (Retd.) Dr Rajesh Pant. The conference began with a welcome address by the guest of honour, Kailash Vijayvargiya. India's eminent dignitaries were present to create awareness and share their ideas and experiences on cyber security. Some of the eminent speakers who graced the event were: * Chief guest Lt. General (Retd.) Dr Rajesh Pant - PVSM, AVSM, Ph.D. * Guest of Honour - Kailash Vijayvargiya, National General Secretary, Bhartiya Janta Party * Former Chief of Naval Staff Admiral (Retd.) R.K. Dhowan - PVSM, AVSM, YSM and Chairperson of SAMDeS * Rear Admiral Mohit Gupta - VSM, Director General Defence Cyber Agency * Khushhal Kaushik - Founder & CEO of Lisianthus Tech * Brigadier Ramesh Balan - VSM * Sean Greven - Product Manager for the Keysight Cyber Security Operations Platform * Prayukth K. V. - Head of Marketing, Sectrio * Sandeep Aurora, Director - Government Affairs * Kinshuk De - Head Cyber Incident Response, TCS * Jitender Mehta - Director Oracle India * Lt. General AS Lamba - PVSM, AVSM, Ph.D. (Retd) Former VCOAS * Ambassador Dr Anup K Mudgal - IFS (Retd) Former High Commissioner to Mauritius * H. E. Freddy Svane - Ambassador of Denmark * Deepak Kumar Vishwakarma - Director Ministry of Defence * Dr Amar Kumar Pandey IPS (Retd) - DGP Government of Karnataka * Dr Narayan Prasad Padhy - Director MNIIT, Jaipur * Sandeep Mishra - Head North & East India region, SAARC region for Keysight. * Col Suhail Zaidi (Retd) Head - CII-Tata Communications Centre for Digital Transformation. * Kanishk Gaur Cybersecurity Expert, Founder - Indian future foundation. * Dr S. K. Verma - Chairman Lisianthus Tech. Cyber warfare and cybercrime have become challenging for security agencies and economies worldwide. The conference created awareness about cyber warfare and cybercrime and discussed strategies to mitigate the associated risks. Admiral R.K. Dhowan initiated the conference with welcome remarks to all the eminent speakers and guests. He focused on how cybercrime threatened India's national security and recapitulated some of his experiences from his remarkable career. Kailash Vijayvargiya, lit the lamp and addressed the audience. In his address, he quoted some real-life examples regarding the plight of illiterate people who are very vulnerable to cybercrime. He emphasized that enforcing stringent cyber laws can safeguard citizens against cybercrime. Rear Admiral Mohit Gupta, shared his valuable views and stated that cyberoperations would likely be a critical component of future conflicts as nations and non-state actors seek to gain a strategic advantage over their adversaries. Cyberattacks has crippled critical infrastructure and disable communication and logistics systems. To prevent such a critical cybercrime scenario, he suggested that using artificial intelligence and machine learning could make cyber operations even more potent, allowing attackers to automate their attacks and target vulnerabilities more effectively. His Excellency Freddy Svane, and Dr Anup K Mudgal, emphasized trust and cooperation of the nations to combat cybercrime because there are no boundaries in the digital world. Lt. General (Retd.) Dr Rajesh Pant highlighted the quote of honorable prime minister Sri Narendra Modi, "I dream of a digital India, where cyber security is an integral part of our national security." He threw light on National Cyber Space and National Sovereign Cyber Space. Differentiating the two, he said that total Cyber Space within the nation over which we have jurisdiction is a National Sovereign Cyberspace. The cyberspace outside our nation, which does not fall under our jurisdiction but deals with our data, is national cyberspace. He said that lack of attribution, international laws, and geo-political driven pathways are aiding cybercriminals. Khushhal Kaushik reinforced that a lack of awareness of cybercrime can make us a victim of cyber-attack. He elaborated that the script kiddies, with the help of Chinese applications, extort money and manipulate our data without our consent and knowledge. The government of India has banned such Chinese applications, which use our data and funds against our national interest and weaken our economy. He described Zero Trust Architecture as a powerful strategy and framework to prevent cyber warfare and crimes but should be developed and adopted indigenously. It is built to enhance the national security framework to continuously scrutinize users accessing the data to mitigate risks and identify unauthorized access. The conference concluded with General (Retd.) A.S. Lamba's vote of thanks to all the eminent speakers and guests and summarized major outputs from the stellar professionals. He warned and guided the audience simultaneously on how obliviously we transfer data by merely giving away a minute command to Alexa in our day-to-day lives. Dr S.K. Verma concluded by saying that while we develop a national cyber security strategy, it is equally imperative to enhance cyber warfare capabilities. The enhancement would require technological and organizational enhancements, which could be employed for cyber offense, cyber defense, cyber deterrence, or a combination of these. This story has been provided by ATK. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/ATK)
Earlier, the enforcement agency arrested the main accused Aamir.

So far, an amount of Rs 68.42 crore has been seized by the ED.

Further details about the raids are awaited. (ANI)
NCC, formerly known as Nagarjuna Construction Company, on Wednesday said it has received orders aggregating Rs 2,374 crore in the month of February 2023. Of these, one order was valued Rs 1,224 crore, relating to the transportation division; another order was valued at Rs 830 crore, pertaining to the water and environment division, and the last one valued at Rs 320 crore pertains to the mining division, the company said in a statement shared with exchanges on Wednesday. The company also said that these orders were received from the state government, agencies and public sector undertaking and do not include any internal orders. NCC is one of the largest listed companies in terms of revenue with proven expertise in buildings, transportation, water and environment, irrigation, electrical (transmission and distribution), mining and railways sectors. The company has expanded its footprint to have a pan-India presence with offices across nine cities - Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Lucknow, Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, and Patna with headquarters located at Hyderabad. Infor, the industry cloud company, on Tuesday announced that leading infrastructure conglomerate NCC has chosen Infor CloudSuite Engineering & Construction (E&C) to support their digital transformation journey. This project ties back to NCC's company strategy, and is aimed at increasing productivity, enhancing cross-functional collaboration, and delivering improved visibility across the business. The company said the 10-year commitment is expected to go live in 2023. The shares of NCC surged 2.02 per cent to Rs 90.85 apiece in the morning of Wednesday on BSE. (ANI)
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], March 1 (ANI/NewsVoir): VAV Lipids has announced that it received a Certificate of Appreciation from United States Pharmacopeia (USP) for its contribution to the standards-setting activities in lipid manufacturing. United States Pharmacopeia (USP) recognized the efforts of VAV Lipids Private Limited in providing candidate documentary and reference standards that reached important milestones in 2022. It awarded a Certificate of Appreciation to the company in acknowledgment of the outstanding contribution that it made toward global public health through the advancement of USP standards. Speaking of the development, Arun Kedia, Managing Director, VAV Lipids said, "We are deeply honoured and humbled at the recognition bestowed on us. We are grateful to USP for inviting us to contribute to the standard-setting process and making us a part of their mission to improve global health through public standards." USP's Certificate of Appreciation noted that VAV Lipids' contributions have added significant public benefit to the standards-setting process in support of the USP mission, that is, to improve global health through public standards and related programs that help ensure the quality, safety, and benefit of medicines and foods. VAV Lipids is one of the world's leading manufacturers of specialized phospholipids for novel drugs and biologics delivery systems (NDDS). Its high-quality lipids are used by pharmaceutical companies to develop multiple projects in drugs and biologics delivery. These include applications of lipids in developing vaccines and formulations, cancer therapy based on liposomes, and novel drug delivery systems for treating several diseases. The company is based in India. VAV Lipids, a subsidiary of VAV Life Sciences is a research-driven biopharmaceuticals manufacturing company headquartered in Mumbai, India. The company produces high-grade ingredients used in the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, healthcare & personal care industries. It is among the world's leading manufacturers of phospholipids and lecithin. The company has a state-of-the-art EU cGMP-certified facility for manufacturing phospholipids at Ratnagiri in Maharashtra. VAV's product portfolio includes plant phospholipids (LECIVA), Animal phospholipids (LIPOVA), synthetic phospholipids, and neutral lipids. The other products include APIs and specialty proteins. VAV exports almost 80% of its products primarily to North America, Europe, and Asia. VAV Lifesciences is also working in close cooperation with reputed academic research institutions for the development of advanced and novel drug delivery therapies. This story has been provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)
New Delhi [India], March 1 (ANI) Union Minister of Communications Ashiwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday said "what is unique about India's digital public infrastructure is that it is open source, interoperable, scalable, transferable, secure, and based on public-private partnership." "India has made it a policy objective to ensure the benefits of the digital economy reach the last mile -- this is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of inclusive growth," Vaishnaw said. Delivering the keynote address at an event hosted by G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant, Union Minister of Communications Vaishnaw said, "We are happy to share India's experience of digital public infrastructure, with the extended global family, which finds an echo in our civilizational ethos and India's G20 presidency theme -- Vasudaivam Kutumbakam." The theme of the event, which happened at Sushma Bhawan in New Delhi, was 'Building Resilient and Inclusive Economies: The Promise of Digital Public Infrastructure'. Bill Gates, co-chair and trustee, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, was the guest of honour at the event. G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant spoke on India's digital public infrastructure model. He said, 'Building and scaling digital public infrastructure has demonstrated the utility of safe, secure, and interoperable digital public platforms that have improved service delivery, minimised leakages and ensured efficient utilisation of available resources." Kant said India's achievements in financial inclusion, digital health, digital education, and governance demonstrated how to scale technologies, thereby maximising their impact. He said India's digital transformation model holds many valuable lessons for the world and urged G20 countries to leverage digital public infrastructure to unlock inclusive growth. Bill Gates said, "India has shown how investments in technology and innovation at scale can unleash changes from how people save money to how governments serve their citizens," He said there was an urgent need for an international initiative on digital public infrastructure to advance a range of G20 priorities, including pandemic preparedness, women's economic empowerment, financial inclusion, good governance, food security, agricultural transformation, and digital health transformation. Startup founders, entrepreneurs, representatives of civil society organisations, policymakers attended the event. The event also included a panel discussion between MobiKwik Chairperson and Co-founder Upasana Taku, ZestMoney Co-founder and CEO Lizzie Chapman, and Open Financial Technologies Co-founder and COO Mabel Chacko, moderated by the Sherpa. Digital public infrastructure is an important priority of India during its presidency year. A robust digital public infrastructure can accelerate a nation's progress towards achieving economic growth, and ensure greater job creation and innovation. (ANI)
Hosur (Tamil Nadu) [India], March 1 (ANI/NewsVoir): TVS Motor Company registered sales of 276,150 units in the month of February 2023 as against 281,714 units in the month of February 2022. Two-Wheeler Total two-wheelers registered sales of 267,026 units in the month of February 2023 as against 267,625 units in the month of February 2022. Domestic two-wheeler registered growth of 28 per cent with sales increasing from 173,198 units in February 2022 to 221,402 units in February 2023. Motorcycle registered sales of 126,243 units in February 2023 as against 143,523 units in February 2022. Scooter sales registered a growth of 21 per cent with sales increasing from 86,616 units in the month of February 2022 to 104,825 units in February 2023. Electric Vehicle TVS iQube electric scooters have been receiving a heartening response from customers. The electric scooters recorded its highest-ever sales of 15,522 units in February 2023 as against sales of 2,238 units in February 2022. TVS iQube Electric is now available in more than 100 cities across 200 touchpoints, selling more than 10,000 units for the fourth consecutive month with a strong order pipeline. International Business The Company's total exports registered sales of 53,405 units in February 2023 as against 107,574 units February 2022. Two-wheeler exports registered sales of 45,624 units in February 2023 as against 94,427 units February 2022. Three-Wheeler Three-wheeler of the Company registered sales of 9,124 units in February 2023 as against 14,089 units February 2022. TVS Motor Company is a reputed two and three-wheeler manufacturer globally, championing progress through Sustainable Mobility with four state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in Hosur, Mysuru and Nalagarh in India and Karawang in Indonesia. Rooted in our 100-year legacy of Trust, Value, and Passion for Customers and Exactness, we take pride in making internationally aspirational products of the highest quality through innovative and sustainable processes. We are the only two-wheeler company to have received the prestigious Deming Prize. Our products lead in their respective categories in the J.D. Power IQS and APEAL surveys. We have been ranked No. 1 Company in /the J.D. Power Customer Service Satisfaction Survey for consecutive four years. Our group company Norton Motorcycles, based in the United Kingdom, is one of the most emotive motorcycle brands in the world. Our subsidiaries in the personal e-mobility space, Swiss E-Mobility Group (SEMG) and EGO Movement have a leading position in the e-bike market in Switzerland. TVS Motor Company endeavours to deliver the most superior customer experience across 80 countries in which we operate. For more information, please visit www.tvsmotor.com. This story has been provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)
Electric car maker Tesla plans to build a manufacturing plant in the northern Mexican industrial hub of Monterrey, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has said. According to The Wall Street Journal, Lopez Obrador, who spoke several times in recent days with Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk, added at his morning press conference on Tuesday that details of the investment would be made known on Wednesday. "This will mean a considerable investment, and many jobs," he said. Obrador said that Tesla agreed to a series of commitments to address water-shortage problems in Monterrey, including the use of recycled water in the manufacture of electric vehicles. "They are going to help," he said. Tesla didn't immediately respond to a request for comment, WSJ reported. Growing demand for electric vehicles has set off a frenzy in the US for building new car plants, with foreign-owned car companies targeting the US for expansion and EV startups building out their manufacturing capabilities. According to WSJ, Elon Musk said last year that the electric-vehicle maker would likely need about a dozen factories to reach its goal of selling 20 million vehicles annually by 2030. Tesla produced over 1.3 million vehicles last year and has been steadily adding production capacity at its plants in the US, China and Germany. The carmaker said in January it would spend more than USD 3.6 billion to expand its plant near Reno, Nevada, where it assembles batteries and produces car parts, according to WSJ. Tesla also filed paperwork for a potential USD 775-million expansion at its electric-vehicle plant near Austin, Texas. Mexico, the world's seventh-largest automaker and fifth-largest exporter of cars and light trucks, has stepped up its efforts to advance the production of electric vehicles. Vehicles and auto parts account for around 3.5% of Mexico's gross domestic product and a third of its manufactured goods exports. (ANI)
YS Aviations, with a presence in India and UAE has done more than 200 asset management projects worldwide. They have dealt with Aviation Trading Brokerage, Aviation Consultancy, Aircraft Spare Parts & Components Trading, and Aircraft Exports & Legal Assistance and has now widened their horizon by singing an MoU with the HT Group at the Airlines Economics Growth Frontier Conference held at Delhi.

HT Group is a top tier Aviation Asset and Investment management company developed from previously asset management of Part 21, CAMO and PTF solution with a presence in Ireland, Shanghai and Singapore.

The MoU was signed between Mohammad Sadik, Director & CEO, YS Aviations and Bob Zhu, Managing Director, HT Group.

Commenting on the MoU, Mohammad Sadik Director & CEO, YS Aviations said, "We are excited to partner with the HT Group. HT Group is a top tier Aviation Asset and Investment management company globally and this partnership will not only help us enhance our presence but also provide CAMO & Part21 support to YS Aviations team."

Bob Zhu, Managing Director, HT Group said, "We are confident that this partnership will be a success and will provide world-class aviation assessment services to our clients."

YS Aviations will also support sourcing local available aviation assets in India to assist HT asset investment portfolio.

This story has been provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)
New Delhi [India], March 1 (ANI/PNN): Salvatore Babones, a well-known sociologist from the United States, recently praised the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) and Nova Dairy for their premium Nova Dahi, which was a component of his meal on the Rajdhani Express. Babones, who is renowned for his work and viewpoints on the global economy, particularly those of former US president Donald Trump, recently traveled on the Rajdhani Express and praised the top-notch food and welcoming environment provided by the IRCTC. In a Tweet posted on his official handle, Babones shared a picture of his food and the catering in-charge, Narendra Kumar. He noted in the tweet that the food's flavor was "first-class," especially in light of the fact that he was traveling in second-class. He praised the quality of the food and the excellent service provided by the IRCTC. He was especially appreciative of the IRCTC's commitment to excellent food quality and their inclusion of Nova Dahi, which he thought was of exceptional quality. Ravin Saluja, the Director of Sterling Agro Industries Limited stated, "We are glad to have been part of Babones's exquisite meal experience aboard the Rajdhani Express. At Nova Dairy, we offer only the best to our consumers, and we are honoured to see it being acknowledged by the IRCTC as well. Experiences like these are what create an image of our nation, and we will always strive to bring out the best in us." Nova Dairy takes great pride in producing premium-quality dairy products that are enjoyed by millions of people around the world. They retweeted Babones, glad he was relishing his Nova Dahi. Nova Dairy is committed to maintaining its high standards of quality and consistency and looks forward to continuing to provide customers with the best possible dairy products. Link to Tweet - https://twitter.com/novadairy/status/1625825911533887489?s=20 This story is provided by PNN. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PNN)
Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal on Wednesday underscored the importance of the India-Europe partnership in ensuring sustainability and inclusive growth and making the world a better and safer place. The Industry Minister was addressing the India-Europe Sustainability Conclave, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in collaboration with the Ministry of External Affairs, in New Delhi. Goyal emphasised that sustainable growth cannot be achieved unless there is a collective effort from all stakeholders of society including the government, businesses and citizens. The Minister highlighted that sustainability and inclusive growth were critical elements of India's Union Budget 2023. "Basic needs including access to water, digital and infrastructure connectivity, technology, healthcare, and education, among others, must be assured to everyone," added Goyal. Goyal stated further that India's growth story is driven by India's aspirational youth, who also recognise sustainability as an important element of India's future growth. The Minister urged business leaders and the global political leadership to come together in driving collective efforts in transitioning towards a greener future. He further mentioned that it was important to recognise that developing countries vis-a-vis developed countries will have different goals and timelines in their growth journey and therefore all countries must be sensitive to each other's needs, goals and outcomes. "India is an indispensable and strategic partner for the European Union," stated Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President, European Union. He highlighted that India is an important partner for EU in many areas, including energy and technology. He added there is greater potential for increasing India-EU energy cooperation, particularly in green energy and just transition. Borrell also underlined the need for strengthening the India-EU partnership in areas such as robotics, quantum computing, critical materials, semiconductors and in ensuring debt sustainability. "The Indian and European economies are connected through trade and innovation and cooperation between the two must be explored further as the two together can shape a better future for the world," stated Wopke Hoekstra, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands. He added the two economies could expand cooperation particularly in driving global response to global challenges and in the areas of digital health and cybersecurity. He further stated that India and Europe can join hands to promote a rule-based international order for enhancing a stable, prosperous and peaceful future. James Cleverly, MP, Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, UK, stated that India's G20 presidency has come at the right time, making India a crucial partner for the UK. The Secretary of State emphasised that the UK would lend its support to India's G20 presidency and will work together to strengthen the global trade system. He also added that the India-UK FTA has the potential to deliver real benefits across both economies. Silvio Schembri, Minister of Economy, European Funds and Land, Malta, stated that the India Europe conclave will further strengthen existing historical ties between India and Malta. He observed that aviation, pharmaceuticals, and technology were some of the potential sectors of collaboration between the two countries. The Minister stated that he looked forward towards a fruitful conclusion of the India-EU FTA. "Europe and India must look beyond bilateral cooperation and jointly address global issues," stated Sanjiv Bajaj, President, CII. He highlighted digital cooperation, global value chains, climate action and sustainability, and green product development as critical areas of cooperation between India and Europe. The India Europe Conclave over the past two days have seen a significant presence from Europe and received a strong response from global thought leaders which will help in deepening India's bilateral ties with many European countries, added Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII. (ANI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with Young Liu, the chairman of Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn) in New Delhi on Wednesday. They discussed topics related to enhancing India's tech and innovation ecosystem. In response to a tweet by Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn), the Prime Minister tweeted; "Had a good meeting with Young Liu. Our discussions covered various topics aimed at enhancing India's tech and innovation eco-system." The handle of the Hon Hai Technology tweeted on Wednesday, "Chairman Young Liu is visiting India. Today we had a warm meeting with Honourable Prime Minister @narendramodi and updated him on our good progress in the country. Foxconn will continue to build an ecosystem in India allowing all our stakeholders to share, collaborate and thrive." On December 21, the government had approved the incentives for two companies -- Foxconn India and Padget Electronics -- for mobile manufacturing under the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for the large-scale electronics manufacturing (LSEM) sector.According to a statement from Niti Aayog, the Empowered Committee headed by the then NITI Aayog Chief Executive Officer, Param Iyer, approved incentives for two companies -- one a domestic company and the other a global company -- for mobile manufacturing under the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme. Foxconn Hon Hai Technology India Mega Development is the first global company that has been approved under the target segment 'Mobile Phones' to receive incentives under mobile manufacturing for the period from August 1, 2021, till March 31, 2022, based on its incremental investments and sales figures, according to the statement. (ANI)
The Supreme Court on Thursday would pass an order on the appointment of a committee to probe the Adani-Hindenburg controversy. A bench, headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud and comprising Justices P.S. Narasimha and J.B. Pardiwala would deliver the order on a batch of petitions filed by advocates Vishal Tiwari, M.L. Sharma, Congress leader Jaya Thakur, and Anamika Jaiswal. On February 17, the Supreme Court had said it would not accept sealed cover names of experts suggested by the Centre for inclusion on the committee to be set up to examine Hindenburg report, which resulted in crashing of Adani Group companies; share prices and caused massive loss to investors. A bench headed by Chief Justice Chandrachud had said the court will select experts and maintain full transparency, and if the court were to take names suggested by the Central government, then it would amount to a government-constituted committee. The bench added that the court wants full transparency for protection of interest of investors and it will form a committee so that there is a sense of confidence in the court. On the aspect of the remit of the committee, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, submitted that there should be a holistic view and no unintended impact is caused in the security market. The bench orally observed that it cannot be denied that investors have lost a lot. Mehta added that so far as your lordship's suggestion that a former judge should sit on it is concerned, we don't mind. In a written response, the Ccentral government had told the Supreme Court that the "truthfulness" of allegations made by a US short seller against the Adani Group should be examined and a fact-finding exercise required to be undertaken as a one-time measure and without making it a precedent. In a note submitted in the apex court, the Central government supported the formation of a committee to probe allegations made in the Hindenburg report. The government said in view of the unprecedented financial loss suffered by the investors and in view of the complexities involved in the subject which requires urgent consideration, a fact-finding exercise requires to be undertaken as a one-time measure and a committee can be constituted by a former judge of the Supreme Court. The Centre proposed the committee could include Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, and the ED Director. "The committee shall have all the powers to undertake an effective investigation with all powers which are available under the relevant legislations/ regulations/ rules including every authority and powers to avail all assistance and protocols for its investigation outside India," said the note. --IANS ss/vd ( 456 Words) 2023-03-01-21:18:04 (IANS)
Television actor Debina Bonnerjee has been diagnosed with the influenza B virus and it caused worry for the new mommy. Taking to Instagram story, Debina posted the report of the medical test along with a note, "So got Influenza B Virus... well hang on Mamma! Staying away from my babies now... Motherhood is anything but easy." As a precaution, Debina is staying away from her baby daughters. Debina also wrote in the note that she is having fever and cough as symptoms. The actor reportedly returned from a Sri Lanka trip. Debina and her husband Gurmeet Choudhary celebrated their wedding anniversary recently. Gurmeet and Debina were blessed with their first daughter, Lianna in April, last year. "Hi World! That's my miracle baby @divishaadiva. Good vibes & blessings always #myfamily," Debina captioned the post. On November 11, 2022, Debina and Gurmeet shared a joint post on Instagram announcing the birth of Divisha. They added that Divisha was born before the due date. The couple wrote, "Welcome our baby girl into the world. As ecstatic as we are becoming parents again, we appreciate some privacy at this time as our baby has come into the world sooner than due. Keep blessing and showering your continued love." The couple tied the knot in 2011. (ANI)
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday said that it will continue hearing a bunch of pleas concerning the free treatment of children with rare diseases like Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), and Hunter's Syndrome, on March 3. On January 30, the High Court had asked All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) to file an affidavit as it heard the pleas seeking free treatment as it is very expensive to treat such rare diseases. During the hearing on Wednesday, counsel for one of the petitioners stated that two affidavits have been filed by the Centre. Last year, a single-judge bench of Justice Prathiba M. Singh had directed the Centre to release Rs 5.35 crore immediately so as to enable clinical trials for medicines that can help treat such rare diseases. "The court believes that the development of treatment for children with rare diseases should be considered a 'Nationally Important Project' due to the enormity of the issues confronting these children," she had said. Dr Kanika from AIIMS apprised the court that the tender has been given and the amount will be released in September 2023. At this, Justice Singh remarked: "This is just shocking, I can't believe AIIMS is behaving like this." The court then directed the doctor to be present in court on the next date of the hearing and listed the matter for review after 10 days. The petitioner, who sought directions to provide the children suffering from rare diseases like DMD and Hunter's Syndrome with free treatment, had earlier informed Justice Singh that an MoU with respect to the indigenous development of therapies for rare diseases was signed between Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council and Hanugen Therapeutics Private Ltd in January 2021. As per the MoU, a multicentric study for therapeutic evaluation with respect to DMD patients will be conducted by Hanugen. The HC, however, had noted that as per the agreement, 50 per cent of the study would be funded by the Centre while the remaining will come from the company. --IANS spr/vd ( 353 Words) 2023-03-01-21:36:03 (IANS)
The Congress seems to be trying to do a balancing act by keeping the Delhi unit of the party, which is against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), in good humour and at the same time targeting the BJP over the arrest of Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia by the CBI in connection with the 2021-22 Delhi excise policy case for the sake of opposition unity. Party sources revealed on Tuesday that Delhi Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit will meet the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, V.K. Saxena, on Wednesday demanding action against the Arvind Kejriwal-led government. The grounds on which action will be sought have not been disclosed yet. The development came after differences cropped up between the Delhi unit of Congress and the central party leadership over extending support to Sisodia. While the Delhi unit of the party welcomed the CBI action, veteran Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Monday night flayed it, and termed all the probe agencies as "harassment tools" of the BJP-led Central government. Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said, "We have the moral courage to rise for them (AAP) as opposition is being targeted by the government agencies. But when our leaders were interrogated for days and many in the opposition were also targeted, AAP did not utter a word... I think they did not have courage." However, she also said that "when Delhi was reeling under oxygen shortage, the AAP government was formulating liqour policy". She added that it was the Congress which had flagged the liquor policy, not the BJP which has seven MPs and more than half-a-dozen MLAs in Delhi. According to sources, the state leaders are upset after being 'snubbed' by Ramesh, with some even privately alleging that the senior Congress leader has a 'soft corner' for AAP. --IANS miz/arm ( 320 Words) 2023-02-28-20:00:02 (IANS)
Despite heavy criticism on the police crackdown on child marriages in Assam, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Tuesday that not a single instance of a child marriage had occurred in the state in the previous month due to government's action. On February 3, the Assam government launched a ferocious campaign against child marriages throughout the state, registering over 4,000 cases. As many as 3,145 people had been detained as of Tuesday. "In Assam, not a single child marriage has occurred in the past month. A significant accomplishment, this. Everyone has praised our efforts to combat this social threat," Sarma remarked during a Press conference in the city. He claimed that out of all those detained, the courts had granted bail to about 900 people. "Initially I thought they would be let out of the jails in seven to eight days. But after 14-15 days, the majority of them got bail. The judiciary also praised our action, according to Sarma. The Gauhati High Court stated on February 14 that there was no need for custodial interrogation of the accused in such circumstances, noting that the widespread arrests made as part of the campaign against child marriage caused "havoc in the private lives of people." --IANS tdr/uk/ ( 222 Words) 2023-02-28-21:00:04 (IANS)
Both the accused boys are 16 years old, police said.

On Tuesday, an incident of robbery was reported at Prem Nagar Police Station. The complainant is his complaint stated that two boys barged into his shop [Grahak Sewa Kendra] and intimidated him to give money at a gunpoint.

"They robbed Rs 1000-1500 from the shop owner at gunpoint," Delhi Police said.

"A case under sections 392/397/34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was registered at Prem Nagar Police Station and the investigation was taken up," police added.

During the investigation, CCTV footage of the spot was examined and later both were located were identified as residents of Shani Bazar Road, Kirari Suleman Nagar, Delhi. Both were juveniles of 16 years and have been apprehended in the case.

One pistol (Desi Katta), one Knife and two rounds, used in the alleged robbery, have been recovered from their possession," police said, adding that one of the juveniles has been previously involved in a case. (ANI)
The Supreme Court on Tuesday told the Eknath Shinde-led faction that if it did not want to go with the coalition in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra, then it should be decided outside the Assembly and queried whether writing to the Governor expressing unwillingness to continue with the coalition would it not amount to disqualification? The top court pointed out that the Governor, by considering the letter by the Shine-led faction, recognized the split in the party. Senior advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul, representing the Shinde-led faction, assisted by advocate Abhikalp Pratap Singh, submitted before a five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud that the Governor is bound by the 1994 verdict of a nine-judge Constitution bench in the S.R. Bommai case. He said this verdict was relied upon in the 2020 Shivraj Singh Chouhan case, that test of majority has to be held on the floor of the House. At this, the Chief Justice asked Kaul why a democratically-elected government should be asked to face a floor test and while querying if the Governor by recognising the rival group is legitimising the defection? The bench pointed out that it is otherwise not permissible under the Tenth Schedule. The bench told Kaul that if his client does not intend to go with the alliance, then decide that outside the house. Kaul then contended that the legislative party is an integral part of the original political party and argued that in June last year, there were two whips appointed by the party. He added his client followed the one, which said it did not want to continue in the MVA coalition. The bench, also comprising Justices M.R. Shah, Krishna Murari, Hima Kohli and P.S. Narasimha, added that inside the state Assembly, they are bound by the party discipline and "your writing of letter to the Governor that you don't want to continue with the MVA coalition, itself amounted to disqualification". "The Governor, taking note of the letter, actually recognised the split in the party," observed the bench. Kaul argued that the Governor was bound by the apex court's verdicts and he ordered a floor test, otherwise what could have he done. The bench further queried Kaul that the government was running and against this backdrop, could the Governor ask the Chief Minister for the floor test? It further added if it were to happen after the election, then it is a different scenario and when a government is formed, how could any group say that it will not go with the alliance. The bench queried Kaul to cite material available before the Governor, which made him decide to ask for the floor test and "what prevented the Governor asking you to move no confidence motion in the House?" Kaul cited the withdrawal of seven independents' support to the government, rebellion within the Shiv Sena against the coalition, and Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis meeting with the Governor saying that the government has lost its majority in the House. He stressed that a minority government cannot be allowed to continue and floor test is the only solution. The top court will continue to hear the matter on Wednesday. --IANS ss/vd ( 551 Words) 2023-02-28-22:36:02 (IANS)
Congress MLA Harish Meena, who is a supporter of former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot, lashed out at the Ashok Gehlot government in the Assembly on Tuesday over the net ban and leak of government recruitment papers. "Why are paper leaks and internet suspension are reported only in Rajasthan? The internet is operating in Ukraine despite the war. However, we shut down the net as soon as the exams are there," he quipped. "Some things are happening in Rajasthan, like paper leak. I am also a native of Rajasthan. I have also given papers. The UPSC exam is conducted all over the country. I have not heard that the IAS exam paper has been leaked. Shutting down the internet won't do anything. Go to the reasons. The main reason for this is that we are not reaching out to the criminals. This is an internal matter of Rajasthan. Papers are printed in Rajasthan only. Only the people of Rajasthan take the test. Only people of Rajasthan do paper leak. Till date, it could be found out that paper leak happens from RPSC, from where? Find out something. You people shut down the internet to hide your failure," he said in a fierce attack of his government. "Half of the internet shutdowns in the world happen in India. Rajasthan is at the top in India in banning the internet. This survey has been published today only. It's not a matter of pride for me, it's a matter of shame. It is a matter of concern. You should brainstorm on this. A solution should be found for this. Defending everything will not help," he added. Citing the recent killing of two men from Bharatpur in Haryana's Bhiwani, he said that that today in their village Ghatmika, the people of their society held a meeting and the internet was stopped there. "Children's exams are going on. You are shutting down the net. Traders in Jaipur had a meeting on Monday. They passed a resolution that due to the 2-day net ban, crores of rupees were lost. What method is this? To stop crime or to stop business? Nowhere in the world does it happen that you turn off the internet... what do you want to prove? Find some other solution for this," he said. --IANS arc/vd ( 401 Words) 2023-02-28-22:54:02 (IANS)
Revanth Reddy, who was addressing the meeting as part of his ongoing "Haath Se Haath Jodo Yatra", continued his speech, blaming ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) for the attack.

Later, supporters of both the parties pelted stones on each other. A policeman sustained head injuries in the clash.

Trouble began when BRS supporters raised slogans against Revanth Reddy when he was addressing the public meeting. They tried to surge towards the dais. Police acted swiftly to lock up the protestors in the premises of a nearby cinema theatre.

However, BRS men hurled eggs and tomatoes towards the Congress' Telangana unit President.

Security personnel formed a ring around Revanth Reddy and tried to shield him by holding a piece of cloth. Some Congress workers retaliated by pelting stones and bottles on BRS men in the theatre. The stone pelting by both sides continued for about 10 minutes. Window panes of the theatre were damaged in the attack. A sub-inspector of police was injured in stone pelting.

Normalcy restored after the public meeting was over and Revanth Reddy left the venue.

--IANS ms/vd

( 225 Words)

2023-02-28-22:58:04 (IANS)
Delhi BJP working President Virendra Sachdeva held a joint press conference with leader of opposition Ramvir Singh Bidhuri on Tuesday, wherein they alleged that getting Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain to resign from their ministerial posts is a new political move by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. As the investigation into the 2021-22 Delhi liquor policy case progresses, it is becoming clear that it is Arvind Kejriwal who will be implicated next, the BJP leaders said. "Frightened by the heat of the investigation, Kejriwal has played a new trick. If the resignations of Sisodia and Jain came on moral grounds, they should have come long ago. But Kejriwal has made them resign now after they beaome completely infamous," Sachdeva said. Sachdeva also said that the Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to entertain a plea filed by Manish Sisodia challenging his arrest by the CBI in connection with the liquor policy case. "The top court's decision makes it clear that now the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi will have to follow the rules in administrative and judicial matters. AAP has to understand that it will also have to show administrative accountability as per the Constitution and if there is any complaint, it will have to answer the investigating agencies," Sachdeva said. He also announced that the party has formed a 'Sangharsh Samiti' to campaign against the liquor policy case and other corruptions of the Kejriwal government, which is headed by Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, state secretary Kuljeet Singh Chahal and members Jai Prakash and Ashok Goyal Devraha. Sachdeva said that a campaign committee has also been formed to run this campaign in Delhi, which includes Aarti Mehra, Jitendra Mahajan, Praveen Shankar Kapoor, Harish Khurana, Virendra Babbar, Richa Pandey Mishra and Mohan Lal Gihara. Sachdeva added that in the next phase, the BJP will launch a public awareness campaign against the Delhi government at all the 13,649 booths across the national capital. Addressing the media, Bidhuri demanded that Kejriwal should resign from his post. He said that as soon as the new liquor shops were opened in Delhi, the BJP had started protesting against the move by holding sit-in demonstrations. --IANS dr/arm ( 371 Words) 2023-02-28-23:00:04 (IANS)
The Election Commission on Tuesday announced re-polling in four polling stations in Nagaland, where Assembly elections were held on Monday, officials said on Tuesday. The fresh polling will be held on Wednesday from 7 a.m to 4 p.m. at New Colony polling station (Zunheboto Assembly constituency), Pangti-V (Sanis Assembly constituency), Jaboka Village (Tizit Assembly constituency), and Pathso East Wing (Thonohy Assembly constituency). The EC in a letter to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Nagaland, V. Shashank Shekhar, said that on the basis of reports submitted by the general observers, and after taking all material circumstances into account, the Commission hereby declares the polls held on February 27 at the four polling stations as void, and fixes March 1 (Wednesday) as the date of fresh polls. Election officials in Nagaland did not explain to the media the reasons for re-polling in the four polling stations. According to election officials, voting was largely peaceful on Monday across the northeastern state except for some incidents of violence reported from five districts -- Mokokchung, Wokha, Mon, Zunheboto and Tseminyu. In Akuk village under the Bhandari Assembly constituency in Wokha district, supporters of a candidate attacked the rival party workers using sharp-edged weapons in which three persons were injured. Firing by underground militants, and stone pelting by rival party workers were also reported from Wokha and Mon districts, in which five persons were injured, including two security personnel. Briefing the media on Monday night, Shashank Shekhar had said that the law and order situation all over the state was largely peaceful and polling was successfully completed in all the 2,315 polling stations. Meanwhile, the Nagaland government on Tuesday prohibited the use of mobile internet and data service of all the service providers in the entire Kiphire district with immediate effect till further orders in view of the tension in the district after Monday's polling. Nagaland Home Commissioner Abhijit Sinha said in a notification that messaging services like SMS and WhatsApp and other social media platforms could be used for spreading rumours, false information, and for circulating inflammatory texts, pictures, videos etc., which may exacerbate the law and order situation in the district. --IANS sc/arm ( 373 Words) 2023-02-28-23:06:03 (IANS)
The accused, Vinod Kumar sustained a bullet injury on his right leg in the police firing.

A police official said that Vinod Kumar, who is a "history-sheeter" was the main accused in the murder of G. Balamurugan, 29, of Vallar in Madurai on February 22.

He was taken into custody and during interrogation, told the police that he had used a knife to stab Balamurugan and the knife was hidden at a certain spot.

As a police team took him to this spot to recover the knife on early Tuesday, he retrieved the hidden knife and attacked a policeman with it.

Police said that they had no option left but to open fire at the accused and hit him on his right leg. He was injured and admitted to Madurai Government Hospital.

Policeman Saravanakumar, who was injured in the knife attack, was also admitted to the hospital.

--IANS aal/vd

( 189 Words)

2023-02-28-23:20:02 (IANS)
A 22-year-old man succumbed to his injuries at a city hospital a day after he was shot at by unidentified gunmen at his cable TV office in the Ranhola area in West Delhi, a police officer said on Tuesday. The footage of the incident has been doing the rounds on social media since Monday. In the footage, two people could be seen entering the cable operator's office, where three people were sitting. On entering the office, they fired several rounds with the victims trying to escape the attack in order to save themselves. The deceased has been identified as Hitesh. According to the police, a PCR call was received on Monday informing about the firing incident near Chanchal Park, following which a police team was rushed to the spot. The police found that three unidentified bike-borne men came to the cable operator's office on Som Bazar Road in Chanchal Park. "Two men entered the office and one of them fired three rounds at Hitesh. Thereafter, the men came out and all the three again fired at the glass panes of the office, before fleeing from the spot," the officer said. "Hitesh was taken to the Rathi Hospital as he sustained two gunshot injuries. A total of 13 empty cartridges were found outside the office while three empty cartridges and a few broken lead pieces were found inside the office," the officer added. The officer said that the motive behind the assault is being ascertained, adding that different teams have been formed to nab the accused. --IANS ssh/arm ( 274 Words) 2023-02-28-23:24:04 (IANS)
After the Assembly elections in Tripura, Nagaland, and Meghalaya ended, Bharatiya Janata Party national secretary Rituraj Sinha on Tuesday exuded confidence that the party's vote share would increase in these three northeast states. "People in North-East saw good work done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and that's why our government is being elected in these states. I think a favourable trend will be seen in these three states again, our vote share will increase," Rituraj Sinha said. Polling for Nagaland and Meghalaya concluded on Monday, while elections in Tripura were held on February 16. The polling was held across 59 constituencies each in the two states. According to the Election Commission data, while Meghalaya saw 81.57 per cent polling, it was 85.90 per cent in Nagaland. The outcome of exit polls was also telecast by news channels. In Tripura where the BJP created history in 2018 by wresting the state from Left parties, the exit polls predicted that the BJP will be ahead of its rivals or get majority. India Today-Axis My India exit poll predicted that BJP would get 36-45 seats and the Left-Congress will get 6-11 seats. The exit poll gave 9-16 seats to Tipra Motha. The ZeeNews-Matrize exit poll predicted that BJP-IPFT will get 29-36 seats in the 60-member House. It said Left-Congress combine is poised to get 13-21 seats and Tipra Motha 11-16. The ETG-Times Now poll predicted BJP would get 24 seats, Left-Congress would get 21 seats and Tipra Motha 14 seats. The BJP had won 36 seats in the 2018 assembly election. For the 60-member Nagaland assembly, India Today-Axis My India exit poll predicted that the NDPP-BJP alliance would get 38 to 48 seats. It said Congress is likely to win 1-2 seats, NPF may win 3-8 seats and other parties could get 5-15 seats. According to Zee-Matriz exit poll, NDPP-BJP alliance could get 35-43 seats. ETG-Times Now poll gave 27-33 seats to NDPP, 12-16 seats to BJP and 4-8 seats to NPF. In the 60-member Meghalaya assembly, Zee-Matrize exit poll predicted NPP will get 21-26 seats, Trinamool Congress 8-13 seats, BJP 6-11 seats and Congress 3-6 seats. India Today-Axis My India exit poll for the state predicted NPP getting 18-24 seats, Congress (6-12), BJP (4-8), UDP (8-12 seats) and TMC (5-9) seats. Times Now ETG exit poll predicted that NPP will get 18-26 seats, AITMC 8-14 seats, UDP 8-14 seats and BJP 3-6 seats. The counting of votes in all three states will take place on March 2. (ANI)
Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Tuesday called upon the student community to think out-of-the-box and come up with innovative solutions to the country's developmental challenges. "Innovative thinking is in our DNA. We only have to activate it", he said while also calling students as warriors, who will shape the destiny of India in 2047. Referring to the various indicators such as the Global Innovation Index, Dhankhar pointed out "we have jumped by 40 positions and this is reflected in research and filling of patents". He also added that India has the third largest startup ecosystem with over 80,000 startups and third highest unicorns in the world. The Vice President was addressing the student community after inaugurating the 'Centre for Innovation' facility at IIT Madras in Chennai on Tuesday. Praising IIT Madras as an 'institute of excellence and one of the top innovative institutions in the country', Dhankhar also lauded the rich biodiversity on its campus. Noting that India's rise is unstoppable despite the global headwinds, the Vice President said that Bharat is a land of opportunity and a global destination for investment. Expressing confidence that India will be the third largest economy in the world by the turn of the decade, he underlined, 'when India speaks now, the world listens'. Acknowledging that institutions 'grow on the shoulders of their alumni', Dhankhar called for a mechanism for the structured evolution of alumni in all institutions. Such an alumni confederation would create an unprecedented 'think tank' with the potential to change the world for the better, he added. Emphasizing the role of citizens in ensuring the accountability of their Parliamentary representatives, the Vice President urged the youth to raise their voices in support of responsible actions and authentic information exchange in the House. He appealed to them to 'help generate an ecosystem so that the sanctity of temples of democracy is not outraged'. During the event, the Vice President also interacted with students and took a tour of the various projects at the Centre for Innovation facility. He said that ideas generated by such bright minds hold the potential to change the nation. Tamil Nadu Higher Education Minister, Thiru K Ponmudi, Prof. V Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, V Shankar, Benefactor, The New Centre for Innovation Facility, faculty members, students and other dignitaries were present. (ANI)
"On February 25, a PCR call was received at Kamla Market Police Station that a middle-aged man was seriously injured. On reaching the spot we found that Parvesh Bajaj (36) a resident of Jalpaiguri, West Bengal, was allegedly beaten up by a man," police said.

A case under section 307 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was immediately registered at the Kamla Market Police Station before the investigation.

After examining several CCTV footage, the accused was identified and efforts to nab him were launched, police said.

On February 26, he was located by a Head Constable, who was patrolling and was nabbed.

The arrested person is identified as Lallu Sharma (30), a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Gonda district.

"On sustained interrogation, he confessed to his crime and further disclosed that Parvesh Bajaj was abusing him," police added. (ANI)
Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday registered a complaint against the police in the Capital Police Station in Bhubaneswar for abusing and manhandling BJYM workers while they were protesting against the deteriorating law and order in the state. The youth wing of Bharatiya Janata Party also staged a night-long demonstration, trigged after the police detained their workers, who were protesting against the state government. "We were protesting peacefully but police attacked our workers and abused women workers, touched them inappropriately. We've given a complaint against police brutality and abuse against women workers. We will continue our protest till they register an FIR," a BJYM worker told ANI. The party, in a complaint to the Inspector-in charge of Capital Police Station, demanded to register an FIR against the police and "Goondas of ruling BJD in civil dress". Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) on Tuesday called for a night-long protest over the illegal detention of its cadre (Karyakartas) in Odisha's Bhubaneswar. Triggered by the recent killing of the state's Health Minister Naba Das, the youth wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party was protesting against the deteriorating law and order situation in Odisha, during which they also raised slogans against the CM Naveen Patnaik-led BJD government A section of agitators also tried to break through the police barricade intending for a gherao of the state assembly but was met with a lathi charge by the police which turned the situation violent. Later in the evening, the police detained many Karyakartas. Enraged by this, the BJYM is alleging that the police manhandled its Karyakartas, with BJYM national president and BJP MP Tejasvi Surya accusing the state police of filing draconian cases and illegally arresting the protestors. In a video shared by the BJYM, Odisha Police is seen manhandling and lathi-charging the activists of the BJYM. Taking to Twitter, Surya said that BJYM will protest against the Odisha Police at the Capital Police Station in Bhubaneswar 'through the night'." "Police brutality against BJYM Karyakartas is hitting new low in Odisha. Having manhandled our activists this morning during the protest, police are now filing draconian cases & illegally arresting them. BJYM will protest through the night at Capital Police Station, Bhubaneswar," Surya tweeted. The Bengaluru South MP further asked Odisha Police to drop the charges against the BJYM Karyakartas. "BJYM demands Odisha police to drop all false charges against our activists and release them from illegal detention immediately," Surya said. "Request all BJYM Karyakartas in Bhubaneswar to reach Capital Police Station, Bhubaneswar for the night-long protest, starting now," he added. While speaking to ANI on Tuesday, he said that they will even consider approaching the High Court tomorrow through a Public Interest Litigation (PIL). (ANI)
Sarfaraz was taken into custody by the Indore police on Monday on the tip of the NIA and the Mumbai Police on suspicion of being involved in terrorist activities.

"No connection with any terrorist organization was found during the interrogation of the suspect, Sarfaraz Memon. So he was released," Indore Police Commissioner Harinarayan Chari Mishra told ANI over the phone.

DCP intelligence Rajat Saklecha said, "NIA, Mumbai ATS, Madhya Pradesh ATS IB and Indore police interrogated the suspect Sarfaraz for a long time and handed him over to his family members on Tuesday night."

A team of Maharashtra ATS (Anti Terror Squad) on Tuesday reached Madhya Pradesh's Indore to interrogate Sarfaraz Memon, who was under the custody of Indore Police.

On Monday, National Investigation Agency emailed all the security agencies and Mumbai Police regarding Memon following which Indore Police in an operation detained the suspect. In a communication sent to Mumbai Police and Maharashtra ATS, the NIA had termed him 'dangerous'.

"Memon told the Maharashtra ATS team during his interrogation that he had spent the previous 12 years in Hong Kong", said an official.

Memon was located at his Indore residence in a joint operation conducted by Maharashtra ATS and Madhya Pradesh Police.

Earlier Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narrotam Mishra on this matter had tweeted "On the basis of NIA's input, the Indore police Sarfaraz Memon has been taken into custody. The entire matter is being investigated seriously. Rule of law prevails in Madhya Pradesh, an island of peace and no one involved in suspicious activities will be spared."

In the information given to the police during interrogation, Sarfaraz had also told about implicating his Chinese wife due to apprehension of a dispute with the lawyer in the ongoing divorce case. (ANI)
The police said they have apprehended three accused persons in connection with the matter, adding that the girl had been missing since February 25.

"The body has been sent for post-mortem. Four persons had been named as accused in the complaint. They are Chandrabhan, his wife, father, and brother. Three of them have been arrested," DCP, South Kanpur, said.

According to the police, an FIR was registered against the four people named in the complaint.

Further details are awaited. (ANI)
The brother of Galwan Valley martyr Jai Kishore has alleged that the Bihar Police ordered them to remove a memorial that they built for the fallen jawan, in Vaishali, failing which they will "dispose it in the waters". The claim comes a day after the kin of the jawan, who was among the 20 Indian soldiers who lost their lives in the clash with Chinese PLA troops in the Galwan Valley in 2020, alleged that his father was thrashed and arrested by the police for building a memorial for his son on government land at Jandaha in Bihar's Vaishali. The police claimed that the memorial was built on land owned by someone else, amounting to encroachment. "I don't have any idea why they arrested my father or why an FIR was filed against him. All the information that has come out in the public domain in the matter is fabricated. This memorial was built following due process. The DSP ordered us to remove the memorial, threatening to dispose it in the waters if we do not comply," Nand Kishore, brother of the slain jawan Jai Kishore, told ANI on Tuesday. Manju Devi, the mother of the fallen soldier, told ANI that the police manhandled her husband and gave no information on the legal action taken against him. She added the police "threatened" the family with consequences if they do not remove the memorial. "The police came and took away my husband. They manhandled him and didn't even inform us of his arrest or the legal action being taken against him. They repeatedly threatened us with consequences if we do not remove the memorial," the jawan's mother told ANI. The police had earlier claimed that no permission was sought to build the memorial on the land, which they claimed belonged to someone else. "On January 23, a case was registered under SC/ST Act over a bust installed on the land belonging to Hari Nath Ram and on government land in Jandaha. Later, boundary walls were erected around the memorial. They (family of the fallen jawan) did not seek official permission. If they wanted, they could have made it their own land or seek land from the government. There would not have been any issue then. The landowner's rights were violated due to encroachment," the SDPO Mahua said on Tuesday. However, the jawan's brother, Nand Kishore, who is also in the armed forces, accused the police of thrashing his father and abusing him. "DSP ma'am visited us, asking us to remove the statue within 15 days. I said I will show her the paperwork (for raising the memorial). Later, the police station in-charge came to our home and beat up my father before arresting him. They also abused my father. I am also in the armed forces personnel," Nand Kishore said. The locals protested against the police action and also chanted 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai'. (ANI)
He also paid tribute to the first chief Minister of state and DMK founder CN Annadurai, at his memorial.

The Chief Minister said in a tweet: "70th Birthday Tributes at the Memorials of Guru Anna, Muthamizharinagar Artist"

In a subsequent tweet, he wrote, "Tribute to Father Periyar on his 70th birthday".

Karunanidhi entered the Tamil Nadu assembly in 1957 and become the chief minister in 1969 after then-chief minister and DMK leader CN Annadurai's death. He passed away in 2018.

Annadurai, who had breathed his last in 1969, had served as the first Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. (ANI)
During a skill development programme held in Pulwama to train youths in computer science, Yadav said all security forces and intelligence agencies were striving for better coordination to "curb militant activities".

"We are trying to engage more with the youth and divert them towards the work of nation-building," IG BSF Yadav said.

On the crackdown on militancy in Jammu and Kashmir, Yadav said the forces were trying to identify splinter terror groups "so that their supporters could be neutralised".

Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police (DGP), Dilbagh Singh, said in a press conference in December 2022 that a total of 186 terrorists, including 56 Pakistan-based foreign terrorists -- belonging to the proscribed Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) -- were killed last year.

Further, according to the DGP, 28 properties, where terrorists were sheltered and terror conspiracies hatched, were also sealed last year.

He added that stringent action was taken against 649 alleged terror sympathisers under the preventive detention law of the Public Safety Act (PSA).

Since, the Union Territory has seen a major crackdown on militancy and cross-border terrorism and a push for development, across sectors. (ANI)
Opposition members raised a ruckus over the 'Life Mission' case in the Kerala Assembly on Tuesday. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has been probing alleged violations of Foreign Contributions (Regulation) Act (FCRA) and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) the flagship scheme of the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in the state. Leader of the Opposition in the Kerala Assembly, VD Satheesan, said the ruling party was being "intolerant" (in the wake of revelations in the ongoing ED probe in 'Life Mission' case), as he also lashed out at the LDF over 'evidence' connecting the Chief Minister's Office to the case. Later, addressing mediapersons on Tuesday, Satheesan invoked a speech by Congress leader and MLA Mathew Kuzhalnadan saying that the government was trying deflect the charges and concerns that he raised in the "Life Mission scam case". The Congress leader also underlined the arrest of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's former principal secretary, M Sivasankaran, and the summoning of another additional secretary by the ED in the alleged housing scam case. Terming the state Vigilance department as not being competent enough to investigate the matter, he said, "Three years ago, the Vigilance registered a case. We demanded that the case be investigated by the CBI as there are interstate and intrastate ramifications of the matter and it also involves the UAE consulate. The Vigilance department is not the competent authority to investigate this matter." He noted that the ED's investigation was limited only to the alleged PMLA violations in the case, as he demanded that the CBI should also be brought in to investigate the wider ramifications of the alleged housing scam. "How can the investigation be done by Vigilance and not the CBI," the Congress leader said. Claiming a collusion between the BJP's central leadership and the state CPM leadership in the matter, Satheesan said, "They were only conducting a selective probe, leaving aside wider ramifications which could implicate others." Stepping up his attack on the ruling LDF, Satheesan said, "How could the UAE consulate enter into an agreement to draw up a contract form? How could the consulate make a quotation to construct houses on land belonging to the Kerala government? There are a lot of aspects to this case that needs to be investigated. Both the right (BJP) and left (LDF) hands are involved in this." He added, "Mr. Sivasankaran, former principal secretary to the CM, arranged a job for Swapna Suresh, a middlewoman in the case, and held a meeting at his official residence. He can take the available legal recourse if he thinks the allegations are baseless. But he hasn't. Why?" (ANI)
The arrested accused persons were identified as Ajmera Rahul, a former friend who is alleged to have circulated her photographs on social media, and an accomplice.

Twenty-year-old Rakshita was found hanging at a relative's place in Warangal town on Sunday night.

"The third-year Btech student, Rakshitha, committed suicide after her former friend Ajmera Rahul made her photos viral on social media upon learning that she was to marry a friend with whom she was quite close," Warangal CP AV Ranganath said.

It was alleged that the death of the BTech student was the fallout of online harassment by her former friend Rahul.

A case of abetment was registered against the accused and his accomplice and they were remanded in judicial custody after being produced in court, the Warangal CP said.

Further investigation is underway.

In an earlier incident, on February 22, the junior doctor allegedly tried to kill herself by self-administering some injections at the Kakatiya Medical College. She died on February 26.

In a statement, the NIMS said, "In continuation to the health update of Dr Preethi, despite continues efforts of Multidisciplinary team of Specialist Doctors, she could not be saved and (was) declared dead on 26/02/2023 at 9.10 pm." (ANI)
Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena has recommended to President Droupadi Murmu that the resignations of deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain be accepted. The development comes after Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday accepted the resignations two days after Sisodia was arrested on Sunday in connection with the alleged irregularities in Delhi's liquor policy which has now been scrapped. "Delhi LG Vinai Saxena, upon request from Delhi CM to accept the resignations of ministers Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain on February 28, has recommended to the President that their resignations may be accepted," the LG office said. Both Sisodia and Jain had resigned from their respective posts in the Cabinet yesterday. Sisodia was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the Delhi excise policy case. Sisodia was arrested on Sunday in an ongoing investigation of a case related to alleged irregularities in the framing and implementation of the excise policy of the Delhi government. Delhi's Rouse Avenue Court on Monday sent him to CBI custody for 5 days. The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain Sisodia's plea challenging his arrest in connection in the case case. The apex court suggested Sisodia to move to Delhi High Court. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said that the court is not inclined to entertain the petition at this stage and suggested Sisodia to move to Delhi High Court. "It can not interfere in the matter as it may open the gate of people approaching the top court in every such matter," the court remarked. CBI has also quizzed AAP leader Satyendar Jain in Tihar Jail in connection with alleged corruption in the implementation of the Delhi Excise Policy. Jain is currently lodged in Judicial Custody in connection with another case related to money laundering case registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). His name surfaced in the matter along with another cabinet Minister of Delhi as well as Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Recently, CBI and ED have made several arrests for alleged corruption in the implementation of the Delhi Excise Policy. (ANI)
Dr Ritu Garg, the Director of Santushti Ayurvedic Medical College in Mirzapur was arrested and sent to jail till March 13, the STF said.

Garg has been arrested for allegedly facilitating the admission of undeserving candidates by forging the NEET merit list in connivance with former Ayurveda director SN Singh and counselling incharge Umakant Yadav.

In the AYUSH scam case, in November 2022, anomalies were flagged by the Union ministry of Ayush in admission of undergraduate students to state's government and private ayurvedic, Unani and homeopathy colleges. The probe revealed that 932 students were admitted without following the natural order of merit.

STF has already filed a charge sheet against Prof. Dr SN Singh, former Director Ayurveda Services - Member Secretary, Counseling, Principal and Superintendent, and Umakant Yadav, Officer-in-Charge, Directorate of Education, Ayurveda Services, the original post, Professor Government Ayurveda Medical College and were also suspended in November.

Previously, in November last year, the Uttar Pradesh government recommended the Centre to conduct a CBI inquiry into the alleged irregularities in admissions in AYUSH colleges in the year 2021 in the state. The recommendation was made on the directions of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. (ANI)
The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear on Friday the Tamil Nadu government's appeal against the Madras High Court order permitting the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to hold a route march in the state. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said it will hear the plea on March 3. Tamil Nadu government mentioned the urgent listing of its appeal against the Madras High Court order permitting the RSS to take out a route march in Tamil Nadu on rescheduled dates. Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi apprised the court that the route march is on March 5. The court said it will take up the matter for hearing on Friday. On February 10, the Madras High Court directed Tamil Nadu police to grant permission to the Sangh to take out route marches in various districts of the state. On September 30, 2022, the Madras HC, during the hearing on a contempt of court petition, directed the Tamil Nadu police to grant permission to the RSS to organise the rally on November 6, instead of October 2. The petition was filed by RSS' Tiruvallur joint secretary R Karthikeyan against the police for denying permission for the route march on October 2, 2022. In November 2022, RSS workers tgook out their annual rallies in Cuddalore, Kallakurichi and Perambalur districts in Tamil Nadu after the Sangh secured permission for the same from the Madras High Court. Last year, Tamil Nadu Police had denied permission for RSS rallies in many places, in the wake of which the Sangh office bearers had moved a contempt of court petition in the Madras High Court. The court had made it clear that authorities would face contempt action if they violate the order. "The court had passed orders only after taking all circumstances into consideration. It said no one should be allowed to undermine a judicial order and the denial of permission despite the court orders seems to be a mockery (of justice)," RSS senior counsel Prabhakaran had argued last year. Council Elango, arguing for the Tamil Nadu police, had said the central intelligence agencies, themselves, had given inputs to the state on possible disturbance to law and order due to the action taken against the Popular Front of India (PFI). "Chennai High Court has given permission for the RSS March and (has) ordered the Tamil Nadu government to consider giving permission for the RSS March. Though it is said that, due to law and order issues the Government is denying permission for RSS March," read an official release from Tamil Nadu Government issued last year. "The Union Government has banned PFI and condemning this various Muslim organization are protesting across Tamil Nadu. Recently, various events in Tamil Nadu are triggering religious feelings and on the same day of the planned RSS March. Few political parties have asked permission for human harmony chain demonstrations against the RSS march. Police are working day and night and patrolling to ensure law and order in the state. So it is decided not to give permission for the RSS march and other organised Human Harmony chains," the release stated further. Following this order, various DMK allies such as the VCK, MDMK and the Left requested the government not to give permission for the RSS march. (ANI)
In a bid to promote Make In India defence systems, the Indian Navy is going to hold its senior commanders' conference on board the aircraft carrier INS Vikrant in the Arabian Sea, off the coast of Goa. The decision is also in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's directives to organise major events outside Delhi after which Navy chief Admiral R Hari Kumar and the naval headquarters decided to hold it on board the new aircraft carrier on March 6, senior defence officials told ANI. The conference would see the participation of top naval brass along with the Defence Minister, Chief of Defence Staff Gen Anil Chauhan, Navy Vice Chief Vice Admiral SN Ghormade and other top tri-services officials. The INS Vikrant is the latest aircraft carrier of the Indian Navy and the force is going to carry out the flight trials of MiG-29K fighters on it in near future. It is also moving towards a proposal for constructing and inducting another aircraft carrier of this size and capability before inducting another bigger and more capable indigenous carrier warship. The conference of the naval officers is taking place ahead of the combined commanders' conference where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to address the defence top brass on April 1. The Indian Navy is the force responsible for organising the tri-services event and this would also come up for discussion at the meeting on INS Vikrant. The Navy commanders are going to review the security challenges faced by the force in the maritime domain from both the China and Pakistan front. The Navy brass would also discuss its towards enhancing the role of indigenous firms in making it combat-ready in both vessels as well as armament. The Navy is also working at a fast pace to promote indigenisation and has signed 80 contracts worth thousands of crores to induct high-end defence technology like fire fighting bots, blue green laser for detecting u der water vessels, AI-based equipment and multiple ammunition rounds. A large number of drones are also being inducted into the force as part of the inductions planned in the next few months. (ANI)
The Crime Branch of Delhi Police have arrested two accused in the kidnapping and murder of a boy at South Delhi's Kalkaji in in 2010, informed officers on Wednesday. The accused were identified as Gurnam Singh and Bharat Lal, police said. Further, according to officials in the Crime Branch, Gurnam Singh had changed his physical appearance after the incident and had been evading his arrest in the murder case of the school boy. "During investigation, the 3 accused were identified as the staff of a blueline bus. It was learned that they beat the boy to death. With none of them turning up for questioning in the case, all three were declared absconders by the court. They had been evading arrest and a cash reward of Rs 50,000 each was declared for information leading to their capture and arrest," an officer from the Crime Branch said. On February 19, the team from the Crime Branch tracked down the accused, Bharat Lal, at Sheohar in Bihar. "A case was registered under IPC sections 302, 363, 365 and 34 at Kalkaji police station," the official said. According to the police, he had been residing there after changing his last name and address in his identification papers. He left Delhi to evade his arrest, changing his name from Bharat Lal to Bharat Raut, as well as his Delhi address, in all his identification papers. "He is a driver by profession and at the time of the incident in 2010, he was driving the blueline bus. He was among the three accused wanted in the case. He was interrogated at length," said the Crime Branch official. The official said the Crime Branch team laid a trap in Pune and apprehended Gurnam Singh. During interrogation, Gurnam confessed to his involvement in the killing and disclosed that he was willfully evading his arrest by not only changing his physical appearance by growing his hair and beard and wearing a turban but also by frequently changing his hideouts, the official said. He admitted further that he knowingly never remained in touch with his family in his native village due to fear of arrest. "After the incident, he moved from Delhi to Punjab, Assam and Maharashtra, staying under the radar by taking up odd jobs. He is a bachelor and did not have any permanent or temporary residence," said the Crime Branch offical. The complainant Indu Devi (mother of the deceased boy Chandan) alleged that on August 27, 2010, her daughter received a phone call from a bus conductor, informing her that the boy had left his school bag with him. According to Crime Branch officials, the complainant tried to contact the caller again but the mobile was found switched off. "Her son didn't return home. After waiting till the evening, she approached Kalkaji police station. In the meantime, she came to know that the body of a student had been found on a railway track between Okhla and Tughlakhbad stations. The body was later identified as that of the missing boy," an officer informed. (ANI)
Mumbai police on Wednesday detained the Congress leaders, who were protesting against Gautam Adani, outside the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in Maharashtra's Mumbai. Congress leaders were protesting against the alleged financial fraud and corruption done by Adani Group. In a video, Congress leader Bhai Jagtap is being dragged by Mumbai Police and then lifted by a few policemen and detained. "If he (Gautam Adani) is wrong then take action against him, we have never supported wrong," said Bhai Jagtap. Earlier on February 27, Congress announced block-level agitations across the country from March 6 to April against the BJP government over the Adani-Hindenburg row. Congress general secretary in-charge organisation K C Venugopal said the party has decided to intensify its agitation and will hold 'PARDAFASH' rallies in March and April against Adani and organise agitational activities at various levels in the country to take the issue directly to the people. The party has directed all Pradesh Congress Committees (PCCs) to arrange press conferences in all districts which will be addressed by senior state leaders, and subsequently, all state units will organise the agitational activities at various levels, Venugopal said. Venugopal said the report of Hinderburg and said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been selling the country's important infrastructure to the Adani group. "The recent Hindenburg report has exposed Prime Minister Modi and the BJP government's policy of crony capitalism in favour of Adani. During deep economic distress, PM Modi has been selling the Nation's critical infrastructure to the Adani group, bending India's foreign policy and forcing public institutions like SBI and LIC to invest in the Adani group. The recent revelations have shown that crores of rupees of poor and middle-class people's savings are at risk," the Congress statement said. Focusing on the PARDAFASH Maharallies's participants scheduled to be organised in state capitals, Venugopal said, "Massive PARDAFASH Maharallies will be organised in all state capitals in the month of April, and these will be addressed by Congress President Shri Mallikarjun Kharge, former Congress President Shri Rahul Gandhi and other national-level leaders". "All the state-level senior leaders, MPs, MLAs/MLCs, and other elected representatives, leaders of frontal organisations, departments & cells, and party workers have been asked to participate in all of these agitational programmes", his statement read further. (ANI)
Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit on Wednesday met Delhi LG Vinai Saxena and urged him to prosecute Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and all other officials under Sedition Act in the alleged Feeback Unit (FBU) snooping case. Talking to ANI after the meeting Dixit said, "Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal created the feedback unit for espionage and the machines bought for the feedback unit does not fall under the jurisdiction of the Delhi government." Dixit pointed out that since internal security is also outside the jurisdiction of the Delhi government a feedback unit was formed and the decision was taken by the Delhi cabinet headed by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. "A demand has been made to the LG that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and the officials involved in setting up the Feedback Unit should be prosecuted under the sedition law," he said. Dixit has also demanded prosecution for sedition under UAPA in this case. The Congress leader has demanded the investigation by higher investigation agencies. Sandeep Dixit said that if there is a need for a CBI investigation, then a CBI investigation should be done in this matter. "Sir, we would like to draw your attention to the fact that if the Government of Delhi, with full knowledge of its Chief Minister, the entire Cabinet, and in the presence of senior Government officials sanctioned and setup a unit that had the capacity and intent to collect information, electronic data, etc. with a capacity to intercept and listen to/ observe/ record data, which is neither allowed to this Government Constitutionally or in any other way a part of its duties and responsibilities, then it is not just a case of corruption," read the letter sent to Delhi LG. "To acquire a capacity to listen to conversations, gather intelligence and Information and to "spy" on people and institutions in the National Capital territory that includes Government of India, the Defence establishments, intelligence agencies of the Union Government etc., is a clear case of sedition," it read further. Earlier on February 10, Delhi LG VK Saxena referred the case of 'Feedback unit' to the President for the prosecution sanction against Manish Sisodia through the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) after the CBI reported to the vigilance department against Sisodia. The Vigilance department had given the probe to Anti Corruption Branch (ACB) in March 2017 and subsequently, the LG office marked it to the CBI. The preliminary inquiry in the said matter was completed in 2021, after which CBI wrote to LG and MHA for sanction under section 17 A of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Under section 17 A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, prior permission/sanction is needed. Sanction has come only for a few, the CBI is for waiting for the sanction of others. Once that is given, CBI will file an FIR or RC. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government allegedly created a Feedback Unit in 2015 with the aim to strengthen the vigilance establishment and gather feedback on the working of various government departments, autonomous bodies, or institutions. In 2016, after the complaint of an officer of the Directorate of Vigilance, Delhi government, a preliminary inquiry conducted by CBI found that in addition to the assigned job, the FBU, as it was referred to in official communications, also collected political intelligence related to political activities of persons, political entities and political issues touching the political interest of AAP. (ANI)
On the basis of profiling done by the officers of the Customs AIU batch, a passenger coming from Kuwait to Kochi Airport by flight KU 357 was intercepted at the green channel.

During the examination of the said passenger, 4 capsules of gold in compound form totally weighing 1065.30 grams concealed inside his body were recovered and seized.

The accused has been identified as Muhammad Abdul, a native of Perinthalmanna in the Malappuram district.

Further investigations are going on.

Earlier on February 26, AIU of the Customs department arrested one person from the Kochi airport, seizing 1259 grams of gold, worth Rs 53 lakh, concealed inside his body, officers said.

The accused was identified as Faizal, a native of the Malappuram district, added the officials.

"Based on the profiling done by the officers of Customs AIU batch, one passenger who arrived from Dubai by AI-934 was intercepted by Customs officials. On examination of the passenger, 4 capsules of gold in a compound form weighing 1259 grams valued at Rs 53 lakh (and) concealed inside his body were recovered and seized," the Customs department said in a statement. (ANI)
As per officials, this will be the first time that CISF will be holding the 'Raising Day' celebrations outside the National capital, New Delhi.

A senior CISF officer has confirmed that for the first time, the annual celebration will be held outside Delhi.

It used to be held at CISF ground located on the outskirts of Delhi, in Ghaziabad.

"This time, it will be celebrated at National Industrial Security Academy (NISA) in Hyderabad. Union Home Minister Amit Shah will be the chief guest on this occasion," he said.

Last year, Shah attended the 53rd Raising Day ceremony of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) at Ghaziabad's Indirapuram.

"The preparation for the celebration is in full swing. A long list of guests has been prepared," he added.

For the last couple of years, all paramilitary forces are celebrating their Raising day outside Delhi.

On March 19, CRPF will hold an annual Raising Day in Chhattisgarh's Bastar district which used to be once dominated by Left Wing Extremism (LWE).

On December 1, BSF held Raising Day Parade in Amritsar. It was the first time in Gujarat and the second time outside of Delhi.

The CISF is a central armed police force of the country and is among one the six paramilitary forces of India. It functions under the Union Home Ministry.

The CISF was set up under the act of the Parliament of India on March 10, 1969. Since then, CISF Raising Day is being celebrated on March 10 each year. (ANI)
A jilted lover allegedly stabbed a woman to death on Tuesday evening after she refused to marry him over their caste difference, police said. The victim was identified as Leela Pavithra Neelami, a resident of Kakinada, Andra Pradesh. while the accused was identified as Dinakar Banalam, a resident of Srikakulam. According to the police, Leela was living in Bengaluru and working at Omega Healthcare. She was stabbed multiple times by Dinakar Banala after she alleged spurned his marriage proposal, stating that he is from a different caste and her family woudn't agree to their nuptials. "The girl's family was not ready for the wedding as she is from a different caste. With his marriage proposal spurned, the accused stabbed her more than 15 times in front of her office. The incident took place around 7 pm on Tuesday," said DCP, Bheemashankar S. Guled. Police said according to preliminary investigation, Dinakar and Leela fell in love five years ago. However, the latter's family was dead against their marriage because the caste difference. "Dinakar and Leela fell in love five years ago. But Leela's family was opposed to their marriage as Dinakar was from a different caste. Leela informed Dinakar that her family would not agree to their marriage and she would have to abide by their decision. This angered Dinakar who stabbed Leela multiple times outside her office," said the DCP. On receiving the information, the police reached the spot and arrested the accused. Further investigation is underway. (ANI)
Delhi police on Wednesday filed a status report in the High court and said that they are working expeditiously on a tender for the installation of CCTV cameras in all police stations. It is also stated that the Supreme Court is monitoring this issue and has called for a report from all the State governments on the issue of the installation of CCTV cameras with a storage capacity of 18 months in police Stations. Justice Prathiba M Singh disposed of the petition after considering that the matter is before the Supreme Court and no further orders are required by this court. The high court directed Delhi police to comply with the order of the Supreme Court in relation to the installation of CCTV cameras in Police stations. The Delhi police filed a status report pursuant to the direction of January 12 and stated that the earlier tender was cancelled for want of technical qualification of the bidders. A fresh tender has been floated and 12 bidders have applied for it. The final approval from the competent authority has been on January 30, 2023. We are working expeditiously on the tender process, Delhi police stated. Delhi police on January 13 apprised the High Court that 1941 CCTV cameras have been installed in 197 police stations of the National Capital. It was also submitted that an additional 2175 CCTV are to be installed. Delhi police through a status report had stated that 197 police stations have 1941 CCTV. The footage of one month can be retained. It was also submitted that Delhi police are working towards the upgradation of existing cameras. Delhi police had also stated that out of these 1941 cameras, 30 are not operational. It was also submitted that whenever a CCTV camera breaks down, a complaint is filed with the vendor having a maintenance contract. This earlier status report was filed pursuant to a direction of the bench asking Delhi police and Delhi Government to ensure that CCTV in police stations are functional and have audio recording facilities too. Delhi police stated in the report that a special committee has recommended that a microphone with a power supply can be attached to the existing 1941 CCTV in the police stations. The status report also submitted that the committee has mentioned that there is a need for an additional 2175 CCTV with audio and video recording facility needed to be installed as directed in the case of Paramveer Singh Saini and Baljeet Singh by the Supreme Court. The court was hearing the petition of Chandril Dabas filed through advocate Manan Agarwal. (ANI)
Amid the ongoing political crisis in the Aam Aadmi Party, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has called a meeting of party councillors and MLAs on Wednesday evening. The meeting has been called in the wake of a cabinet reshuffle which was mandated after top cabinet ministers Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain resigned from their respective positions following corruption allegations. The party organization can also be discussed in the meeting, according to sources. Meanwhile, Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena on Wednesday approved Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's proposal to allocate new departments to ministers Kailash Gahlot and Rajkumar Anand. Kejriwal had sent a proposal to allot eight portfolios to Gahlot and 10 portfolios to Anand. The Chief Minister has entrusted both the ministers with major portfolios including Home, Health and Education, besides the departments already held by the two ministers. In a notification by the Delhi government, Gahlot has been given the responsibility of Finance, Planning, Public Works Department, Power, Home, Urban Development, Irrigation and Flood Control and Water departments, which is in addition to the departments he is currently holding. Anand has been assigned the Education portfolio (previously held by Sisodia), Land and Building, Vigilance (also held by Sisodia), Services, Tourism, Art, Culture & Language, Labour, Employment, Health (previously held by Jain, then Sisodia after Jain's arrest), and Industries. Meanwhile, in a major rejig in the Delhi cabinet necessitated by the resignations of Sisodia and Satyendar Jain, chief minister Kejriwal has sent the names of Aam Aadmi Party MLAs Saurabh Bhardwaj and Atishi to Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena to be elevated as ministers, sources said today. Sisodia was earlier arrested by the CBI in connection with the Delhi excise policy case. Sisodia was arrested on Sunday in an ongoing investigation of a case related to alleged irregularities in the framing and implementation of the new excise policy of the Delhi government. The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain Sisodia's plea challenging his arrest in the excise policy case. Delhi's Rouse Avenue Court on Monday sent him to CBI custody for five days. The CBI had also quizzed AAP leader Jain in Tihar Jail in connection with alleged corruption in the implementation of the now-junked Delhi Excise policy. Jain is currently lodged in judicial custody in connection with a money laundering case registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Recently, the CBI and ED made several arrests for alleged corruption in the implementation of the Delhi Excise Policy. (ANI)
The National Investigation Agency's conviction rate stands at 93.69 per cent with the pronouncement of sentences for 10 accused in two separate judgements by Special Courts at Lucknow and Ahmedabad. Both cases relate to the online radicalization of the accused in the name of ISIS, and their motivation to commit violent Jihad and cause terror attacks in the country. NIA Special Court, Lucknow awarded death sentences against seven accused and life imprisonment for one in the ISIS Kanpur case on Monday. However, another NIA Special Court, Ahmedabad sentenced two to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment in the ISIS Rajkot case. "With the pronouncing of these two sentences, the conviction rate of NIA cases stands at 93.69 per cent," said the NIA in a statement. Continuing the tradition of evidence-based investigations, which rely on scientifically collected hard evidence, the NIA said it has achieved yet another milestone. The eight accused from Uttar Pradesh, Atif Muzaffar, Mohammad Danish, Asif Iqbal alias Rocky, Mohammad Atif alias Atif Iraqi, Mohammad Faisal, Mohammad Azhar and Gauss Mohammad Khan all hailing from Kanpur Nagar, Sayed Meer Hussain of Uttar Pradesh's Kannauj along with deceased Md. Saifullah had set up a hideout in Haji Colony (Lucknow), said the agency. "They had prepared and tested some IEDs and had unsuccessfully tried to plant them at various locations in Uttar Pradesh. Investigations have led to the discovery of several photographs of the accused making IEDs and even with weapons, ammunition and ISIS flag," the NIA said. "The group had reportedly collected illegal weapons, and explosives from various places." Atif and three others, identified as Md Danish, Sayed Meer Hussain and Md Saifulla had been responsible for fabricating the IED that was planted in the Bhopal-Ujjain passenger train, it said. The train explosion on March 7, 2017, had left 10 injured. All eight had come together to propagate ISIS ideology and promote its activities in India, said the NIA. In pursuit of this objective, the agency said, Mohammad Faisal, Gauss Mohammad Khan, Atif Muzaffar, Md Danish, and Md Saifulla had explored land routes and had visited several key cities across the country, including Kolkata, Sundarbans, Srinagar, Amritsar, Wagha Border, Badmer, Jaisalmer, Mumbai, and Kozhikode, for undertaking 'hijrah' (migration). Gauss Mohammad Khan and Atif Muzaffar had, in fact, explored a route to cross over to Bangladesh via Sundarbans, as per investigations, said the NIA. Faisal, Atif and Saifulla had also travelled to Kashmir in March 2016 in a bid to contact some terrorist groups that could help them to cross over to Pakistan, from where they could migrate to ISIS-controlled territories in Syria. Another accused, Saifulla, was killed during an exchange of fire with the Uttar Pradesh Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) on March 7, 2017, in Haji Colony. The case was initially registered on March 8, 2017, by Lucknow ATS and re-registered by the NIA on March 14, 2017. After investigations, the NIA said, a charge sheet was filed against eight persons on August 31, 2017. Post the trial, eight accused persons were convicted on February 24 this year. NIA Special Judge, Lucknow Court, Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday pronounced a sentence convicting the accused under various offences of the India Penal Code, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Arms Act and Explosive Substances Act. Seven of the accused namely Mohammad Faisal, Gauss Mohammad Khan, Mohammad Azhar, Atif Muzaffar, Mohammad Danish, Sayed Meer Hussain and Asif Iqbal have been awarded the death penalty while Mohammad Atif has been sentenced to life imprisonment. On the other hand, in yet another ISIS-related case, Gujarat NIA Special Court sentenced two terrorists to ten years rigorous imprisonment after the NIA found the use of social media platforms, such as Skype and Telegram, to radicalise and recruit cadres to carry out terror acts in India in the name of ISIS during its investigation. Both accused Vaseem Arif Ramodia alias Ninja Fox and Naeem Arif Ramodia are brothers and residents of Rajkot in Gujarat. "Investigations have revealed that they used online chats and messages to advocate and spread the ideology of ISIS. They arranged, participated and assisted in organizing online discussions and meetings among active ISIS operatives to plan and execute acts of violence and terrorism," said the NIA. They had tried to commit arson by burning vehicles and shops belonging to non-Muslims, said the agency, adding "they have unsuccessfully tried to fabricate an IED as well". On the directions of their online ISIS handlers, the NIA said, both the accused were preparing to carry out a lone-wolf attack at Chotila Temple. "They had already recee'd the area but they were apprehended before they could carry out the attack." The case was initially registered as by ATS Ahmedabad and re-registered by the NIA on May 25, 2017, and the Chargesheet was filed against them on August 22, 2017. After the trial was completed, judgment convicting the accused was pronounced on Tuesday. (ANI)
The smugglers were trying to smuggle these birds from India to Bangladesh.

Foiling the attempts of smugglers, the BSF said, its troops under South Bengal Frontier rescued these 135 rare species of birds (parrots) from the clutches of smugglers in their area of responsibility in the Indo-Bangladesh International Border area.

The incident took place at 12.50 am on March 1 in the area of Border Out Post Betai, under 84 Battalion of BSF.

"The jawans on duty sensed some suspicious activity while patrolling in their area of responsibility and immediately cordoned off the area. During the search, the smugglers started running away. Meanwhile, the jawans got two cages from the spot, out of which 135 rare species of parrots were found," said the BSF.

The seized birds have been handed over to the Forest Department Bathuadahari for further legal action.

The Commanding Officer of 84 Battalion expressed satisfaction over the success of the jawans and stated that this is only a reflection of the vigilance displayed by BSF jawans on duty. (ANI)
A 32-year-old male, who was declared clinically brain dead on February 28, saved the lives of four people by donating his organs on Saturday. The person was brought in an extremely critical condition at a private hospital in Delhi following a road traffic accident in the morning hours of February 25. The CT examination revealed severe brain damage. Despite the best efforts of the team of doctors, the patient was declared brain-dead on February 28. But post-counselling, the patient's family displayed enormous grit in their hour of grief and decided to donate his heart, liver and kidney to save the lives of patients needing transplants. "A green corridor was created from Fortis Hospital, Vasant Kunj to AIIMS which transported the heart, covering a distance of 10 kms in just 11 minutes. The heart was donated to a patient at AIIMS, the liver, to another patient at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Delhi, and the kidney was donated to a patient at Max Hospital, Shalimar Bagh, Delhi," the hospital said in a statement. "I salute the deceased donor and his family to have realized the value of organ donation and giving life to ailing patients. The clockwork precision of all internal and external teams including the Delhi Traffic police made this donation a reality. This should encourage more people to come forward and get themselves registered for organ donation to save more lives," Dr Gauri Shankar Sharma, Director and Head, of Critical Care Medicine, Fortis Hospital, Vasant Kunj said. As per the data available from National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO), in 2022, 11 cadaver donations were done with the successful retrieval of 30 organs in Delhi. Facility Director of Fortis Hospital Vasant Kunj Yashpal Rawat said that people who come forward for these types of noble works should be given priority support by the system. "Organ donation is a very big cause for humanity, and those who come forward for it should be given priority support by our system. I thank the family for being a part of this noble cause and also the team of doctors who helped facilitate the process. Clinical expertise to handle such cases is the hallmark of Fortis Hospital, and we continuously endeavour to provide the highest level of care to save lives and get the best outcomes," Rawat further said. (ANI)
Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar on Wednesday ordered an inquiry into the alleged "thieves" and the "house of thieves" remarks made for MLAs and the Assembly by the Shiv Sena Uddhav Thackeray faction leader Sanjay Raut. BJP MLA Atul Bhatkalkar submitted a breach of privilege notice to Speaker Rahul Narwekar against Raut. Narvekar said he would inquire into the matter and adjourned the House for the day as chaos prevailed over Raut's remarks. The Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha was adjourned four times today during the ongoing budget session amid sloganeering. Earlier in the day, Raut while talking to the reporters in Kolhapur allegedly called the Vidhan Sabha a "Chor Mandal" and the MLAs as thieves and goons. "This is not a legislature but a band of thieves. What if we are removed from the post are we going to leave the party? Many such posts have been given to us by the party, Balasaheb had given them, and Uddhav ji has given them, we are not hawkers," Raut allegedly said. Mumbai BJP President and MLA Ashish Shelar while talking to the media expressed his displeasure over Raut's remarks and said that those who are thieves themselves view everybody as thieves, Shelar further said, "Sanjay Raut does not have any work, he just sits idle. In his free time, he just sits and watches movies and makes statements But this is an insult to the assembly, and all the members present here are also insulted." Maharashtra Congress President Nana Patole said, "We do not support the statement of Sanjay Raut, the legal process that has to be done on this will happen, all the other MLAs also agreed with this." He said that the government itself created so much ruckus that the House had to be adjourned. "There are many topics in Maharashtra on which we have to discuss and seek answers from the government, but the government does not allow the house to run, so what can we do now, we hope that the government will answer all the questions of the opponents in the house," said Nana Patole. (ANI)
JD Sangma, NPP chief of West Garo Hills district, said the party will over 30 seats in the 60-member assembly and emerge victorious.

"We have worked very hard. Our Chief Minister also worked very hard not only for this election campaign but he worked for the people to boost development, specially in Garo Hills region. We are very confident," he said.

"We are hopeful that our party will win at least 15 seats in Khasi and Jaintia Hills region. We are expecting it will be around 31-32 seats in the state. We are preparing for the celebrations," he added.

NPP workers also expressed confidence of victory. Meghalaya saw voting for assmebly polls on February 27.

Agatchi W. Momin, a NPP worker from the South Tura constituency, said that all party workers are eagerly waiting for tomorrow's result.

NPP leader and Chief Minister Conrad Sangma is contesting from South Tura constituency.

Both BJP and NPP contested the assembly polls separately though they partnered in the ruling alliance.

In an interesting development, Conrad Sangma met Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in Guwahati on Tuesday night.

The meeting lasted for half an hour. Exit polls have predicted a hung verdict in Meghalaya.

The Election Commission has made all the arrangements for the counting of votes. The security at EVM strong rooms has been strengthened.

Apart from Meghalaya, the counting of votes will be taken up on Thursday for assembly polls in Nagaland and Tripura. (ANI)
The Delhi High court on Wednesday stayed the Rouse Avenue Court order directing the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to supply unrelied documents to businessman Sameer Mahendru, accused in the excise policy scam. The Bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma on Wednesday issued notice on ED's plea challenging the trial court order and listed the matter for hearing in April month. On Tuesday, granting interim bail to Mahendru on medical grounds, the trial Court said, "Sameer Mahandru is granted interim bail of 30 days from the date of his release for undertaking surgery for removal of his gallbladder stone and also for undergoing MRI and other diagnostic tests and treatment for his back pain and other ailments." The trial Court on Tuesday also granted bail to Mahendru in the CBI case and noted that he was never arrested by the investigating agency in the present excise case being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation. On December 20, 2022, the trial court took cognizance of a prosecution complaint (chargesheet) filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case revolving around an excise policy case. The Chargesheet was filed against Sameer Mahendru and four firms. The court took cognizance of the offence of money laundering as defined under section 3 r/w section 70 of the PMLA and has made it punishable under section 4 of the said Act hereby taken by this court and since sufficient grounds exist for proceeding further in the matter against all the five accused, they are directed to be summoned to appear and face trial before this court for the above said offence, though some further investigation with regard to the other persons or entities involved in the case and to trace out the balance proceeds of crime is still stated to be pending. Court noted that it was alleged in the said case that huge kickbacks through hawala channels were paid by a few persons in the liquor business from South India to some public servants of the ruling AAP and of the Excise Department of the GNCTD to achieve the objectives of monopoly and cartelization between three components of the said policy, i.e. liquor manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers, by violating provisions and breaking the spirit of the said policy and these kickbacks were to be returned back to the above persons from South, either out of profit margins of the wholesalers or through credit notes issued by the wholesalers to the retail vends owned or controlled by such persons from the south. "It has been alleged that the profit margin of the wholesalers was initially kept high at 12 per cent to ensure payment of around 6 per cent portion thereof to achieve the above illegal objective and even records and books of accounts of the licensees were falsified for the said purpose," the court noted. The present complaint has been filed by ED through Jogender, who is an Assistant Director of ED and the same has been filed by him in his official capacity of a public servant. "As per provisions contained in the amended Section 44 (1) (a) of the PMLA, an offence punishable under Section 4 of the above said Act and any scheduled offence connected to that offence are triable by the Special Court constituted under the Act for the area in which the offence has been committed," the Court further said. Further, as per amended Section 44 (1) (c) of the PMLA, if the cognizance of the scheduled offence has been taken by some other court than the court of Special Judge constituted under the Act, then on an application moved in this regard by the concerned person authorized to file a complaint under PMLA, the other court is required to commit the case pertaining to scheduled offence to the Special Court so that the same can be dealt with by the Special Court under the PMLA and thus, both cases are required to be tried by one and the same special court. The court further said that as already discussed, the CBI case pertaining to the commission of scheduled offences of this case is also pending before this court and a chargesheet against some of the accused persons in the said case also stands filed now and cognizance of the offences alleged therein has been taken by the court and the concerned accused persons have been directed to be summoned to face trial for the alleged offences, though even in that case some further investigation is still going on. According to the ED, among the accused public servants are Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, the then Excise Commissioner Arva Gopi Krishna, Deputy Commissioner Anand Tiwari and Assistant Commissioner Pankaj Bhatnagar. Other accused are Manoj Rai, a former employee of Pernod Ricard; Amandeep Dhal, director of Brindco Sales; director of Buddy Retail Amit Arora, and Dinesh Arora; authorised signatories of Mahadev Liquors Sunny Marwah, Arun Ramchandra Pillai and Arjun Pandey. The ED and the CBI have alleged that irregularities were committed while modifying the Excise Policy, undue favours were extended to licence holders, the licence fee was waived or reduced and the L-1 licence was extended without the competent authority's approval. The beneficiaries diverted "illegal" gains to the accused officials and made false entries in their books of account to evade detection. The FIR in the case was instituted on a reference from the Union Home Ministry following a recommendation from Delhi Lieutenant-Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena. (ANI)
The service, which went down at around 4 pm resumed after a short while.

According to the outage monitoring website, Downdetector, affected regions in India included major cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Nagpur, Lucknow and Patna among others.

Users in India complained about the twitter homepage being unable to load. The issue began around 4 pm. The users claimed social media website was not allowing users to refresh their feeds. Issues were reflected not only on the web version but also on the Twitter app for iPhone and Android.

As many as 58 per cent of users had problems with the mobile app while 37 per cent had issues with the desktop website, with the remaining 5 per cent complaining about the server connection, as per the Downdetector.

After connectivity was restored, many users swarmed the microblogging platform to share their thoughts on the outage.

Some found humour in the situation and shared hilarious memes.

https://twitter.com/Alexisyn_/status/1630912505190006788

https://twitter.com/tahaactually/status/1630910269428842499

https://twitter.com/sukoon1111/status/1630912046383632385

Some users took the opportunity to troll the new Twitter CEO Elon Musk.

https://twitter.com/BoiesX45/status/1630912904534052864

https://twitter.com/ChekrishnaCk/status/1630911210664390657

Meanwhile, several Indian users noted that the network went down only on Jio networks. (ANI)
More than 1.21 lakh 'majras' have been electrified in Uttar Pradesh and the Yogi Adityanath government is dedicated to quickly electrifying the remaining 36,990 villages with cooperation from the Centre, said Energy Minister AK Sharma on Wednesday. In response to a question raised during the Question Hour session in the Vidhan Sabha, he said, "In October 2022, we had written a letter to the Central Government regarding this and it is expected that soon this process will be completed and the remaining villages will also be provided with electricity supply." The Energy Minister said that after coming to power, the Yogi government has shown readiness to provide basic facilities to the rural areas. "Work is being prioritised because there was a lot of unfinished work from the previous government. Under this, the state government has completed the electrification of revenue villages. At the same time, a total of 1,21,324 'majras' have been electrified. This process is going on continuously. Information regarding the remaining areas that need to be electrified is available. On October 18, 2022, we sent a letter to the Union Energy Minister requesting his cooperation with this," said Sharma. He further said that the electrification will be done with Rs 2,000 crores. "In the letter written to the Union Energy Minister, it has been stated that approximately 18,818 majras of Purvanchal, approximately 12,372 majras of Madhyanchal, and approximately 5710 majras of Dakshinanchal are estimated to be left with a total of 36,900 majras," he said. "As far as the cost of proposed electrification in all DISCOMs is concerned, a total demand of Rs 1958 crore has been made from the Government of India, including Rs 758 crore for Purvanchal, Rs 516 crore for Dakshinchal. We plan to include the rest of the majras under the RDSS scheme. Union Energy Minister has given his consent on this. It is expected that soon all the majras in the state will be electrified", he added. (ANI)
Detailing the police action, Sarma took to Twitter on Wednesday and wrote, "In a huge recovery on Tuesday, @cacharpolice arrested two drug peddlers at Kachudaram and seized 3 kg Brown Sugar being transported from a neighbouring state. Much appreciated."

The two arrested peddlers belonged to the North 24 Parganas district in West Bengal, police said.

Earlier, on February 25, the Assam Police had apprehended two accused from the Karbi Anglong district and seized 2.013 kg of Morphine, valued at Rs 8 Crores in the international market.

John Das, SDPO of Bokajan in Karbi Anglong, while speaking to ANI had said the police launched a hunt in the case after receiving a tip-off and nabbed two during a naka-checking on the National Highway 36.

While in a separate case on February 1, a drug peddler was injured in a police fire after trying to flee the spot in Assam's Nagaon District. (ANI)
"Based on credible information, a joint operation was launched by the Jaliura company of the Radhanagar Battalion and Kachudrama Police Station. The team seized 2.6 kg of heroin worth Rs 10.4 Crore," the Assam Rifles said in a statement.

Seized drugs were handed over to Sonai Police Station for further investigation and legal proceedings.

"The operation was based on the input obtained after interrogation of the culprits apprehended by the Jaliura company of Radhanagar Battalion and Sonai PS on 28 Feb 2023 at Sadim Bazar, Cachar District," it further said.

This is considered to be the biggest seizure in the area in recent times.

Inputs suggest that the money generated from Drug trafficking is being channelized into narco-terrorism activities of the NSCN IM in the region posing a threat to national security.

Assam Rifles highlighted it's the commitment towards ensuring national security and a drug-free society. (ANI)
Based on credible information, a joint operation was launched by the Assam Rifles and Sonai Police Station and seized 2500 yaba tablets worth Rs 7.5 lakh.

The apprehended people have been identified as Nojrul Haq and Eklas Uddin Laskar.

"Radhanagar Battalion of Agartala Sector Assam Rifles under the aegis of Inspector General Assam Rifles (East), seized 2500 yaba tablets worth Rs 7.5 lakh from Gen Area Sadin Bazar, under Sonai PS, Cachar District, Assam on February 28, 2023," the Assam Rifles said in a statement.

The individuals along with seized yaba tablets were handed over to Sonai Police Station of Cachar District in Assam on February 28 for further investigation and legal proceedings. (ANI)
A Delhi court has recently dismissed the appeal against the acquittal of a former Jamia Hamdard University Registrar in a sexual harassment case. He was acquitted by the Mahila Court in December 2021. A case was registered against him at the Ambedkar Nagar police station. The acquittal was challenged by the complainant in the matter. Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Rakesh Kumar Singh upheld the order of the magisterial court acquitting the accused of the charges of sexual harassment, criminal intimidation and assault, outraging the modesty of a woman. ASJ dismissed the appeal and said, "In the present case, the counsel for the petitioner has not been able to show any irregularity. Consequently, the appeal is dismissed and the order of acquittal is maintained." "In an appeal against acquittal, it was well settled that though the appellate court could re-appreciate the evidence, it should normally not disturb the magisterial court's view unless glaring irregularity was shown either for factual appreciation of the case or for the applicability of the law," the Sessions court observed. The judge said that the magisterial court order is a thorough one supported by detailed reasons. "I am of the view that there have been gross and deliberate improvements in the version of the complainant which she made gradually only with a view to somehow settle some score with the accused who was Registrar under whom the complainant was working," ASJ Singh said in the order of February 10. He also pointed out that the testimony of the complainant was not reliable. While acquitting the accused, the magisterial court had said that the prosecution's case had fallen flat on its face as the complainant made "major material improvements with every successive statement" and there was an "utter lack of cogent corroborative evidence." The Complainant alleged that from November 11, 2011 to June 11, 2012 at Jamia Hamdard University, the accused used criminal force on to complainant by trying to touch her, had put his hand on her shoulder while she bent down to pick up the file/pen, tried to hold her hand on the pretext of giving her the teacup, stroked her head and moved his hand over her face intending to outrage or knowing it to be likely that he will thereby outrage her modesty. After the completion of the investigation, the police filed a chargesheet against the accused/ respondent before the Ld Magistrate. A charge Under section 354/354A/506 IPC was framed against the accused on 19.05.2018 to which he pleaded not guilty and claimed trial. After completion of trial, the Trial Court came to the conclusion that the prosecution has failed to prove the guilt of accused beyond reasonable doubt and acquitted the accused forthe said offences. This order was challenged before the court of Sessions. (ANI)
Targetting Samajwadi Party, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday alleged that SP chief Akhilesh Yadav had "handed over the state to the mafia during his tenure". Addressing the state assembly's budget session, the Chief Minister drew comparisons and said that the BJP government launched 'one district, one product scheme' while the Samajwadi Party gave "one district, one mafia to the state." "Keeping in mind each and every district of the state, we launched the 'one district, one product' scheme, which created lakhs of employment opportunities there and made the poor self-reliant. On the other hand, the previous Samajwadi Party government, while handing over the state to the mafia, ran the 'one district, one mafia' scheme. The state was handed over to riots, murders and loot," said the Chief Minister. "It is true you (Samajwadi Party) gave one district, one mafia to UP. Which district didn't have mafia? There were kinds of mafia in the state, some were land mafia, forest mafia and cattle mafia. Everyone in the state knew well about it," added CM Yogi. The Chief Minister also attacked Yadav over his photo with an accused in the Umesh Pal murder case. The photo has went viral on social media. "Yesterday I saw that a picture of Prayagraj's incident accused is going viral. People will say it is an era of social media but (in the picture) there is a logo of your (SP) party, you (Akhilesh) can be seen shaking hands but still, you are denying it," said CM Yogi. He said that the BJP government focused on education, health, law and order, employment, agriculture, women's safety and worked on it. "We provided a safe environment for foreign investment in the state, as a result of which investment worth crores of rupees is coming from abroad," he said, adding that the day is not far when Uttar Pradesh will be one of the biggest economies of the country. Adityanath said that six years ago, the people of Uttar Pradesh changed the government by adopting the basic mantra of "Sabka Saath, Sabka Vishwas." "The government worked from 2017 to 2022 and got the opportunity again in 2022. The Finance Minister presented a self-reliant budget with the concept of all-inclusive overall development," he said. Stating that in the last six years, the size of the state budget has more than doubled, the CM said the government has allocated Rs 6.90 lakh crores for the development in the 2023-24 budget. "It shows the economic development, GDP and progress of Uttar Pradesh and its journey of public trust," he added. The Chief Minister said that the government should not turn away from the problems, but should accept the challenge. "The government should not be the one to turn away from the problems, it should be the one to accept the challenge. Who should work with zero tolerance policy on corruption? Yesterday, what the leader of the opposition party said, he was feeling good in pushing Uttar Pradesh to the last position," he said. The Chief Minister further said that we are sitting in this house for 25 crore people. CM Yogi said that the BJP government in the state fulfilled the promises made by the party during the elections. "Funds were arranged for 110 out of 130 resolutions. For this, an amount of Rs 64,700 crores has been proposed. Earlier many announcements were made but were not fulfilled. Development used to be obstructed by the previous governments. Schemes were announced but never completed. The budget was not given for the schemes. There was looting in the entire state," he said targeting the previous governments in the state. (ANI)
Results will be declared on Thursday for assembly polls in Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland with the keenly-fought battle in the three northeastern states marking the first round of polls in an electorally-crucial year. Meghalaya and Nagaland went for the assembly polls on February 27 and voting was held in Tripura on February 16. The three states witnessed high voter turnout. The BJP, which has replaced Congress as the dominant party in the northeast, is optimistic of prospects in the three states. Apart from the three states, results will also be declared in the bypolls for Erode (East) seat in Tamil Nadu, Sagardighi in West Bengal Ramgarh in Jharkhand where polling was held on February 27. Polling for Kasba Peth and Chinchwad in Maharashtra was held on February 26. Apart from the assembly polls, the bypolls have also evoked wide interest due to battle for supremacy between two factions of Shiv Sena. Though the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction is not the contesting the bypolls, it has thrown its weight behind the Maha Vikas Agadhi candidates. The bypolls are the first since the Election Commission recognised the faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde as the real Shiv Sena and allotted it party name and symbol. The bypoll to the Erode East assembly seat in Tamil Nadu is also significant for both the ruling DMK and opposition AIADMK. The exit polls have predicted a clear victory of NDPP-BJP alliance in Nagaland, a clear edge to BJP in Tripura and a hung verdict in Meghalaya. While Tripura saw 87.76 per cent polling, it was 85.90 per cent in Nagaland and 85.27 per cent in Meghalaya. Meghayala Chief Minister and National People's Party leader Conrad Sangma met Assam Chief Minister Himanat Biswa Sarma on Tuesday night. The parties were partners in the ruling coalition but fought the assembly polls separately. BJP leader Rituraj Sinha expressed confidence of party's performance in the three northeastern states. "People in North-East saw good work done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Our government will be elected in these states. Our vote share will increase," Sinha said on Tuesday. The BJP had created a record in Tripura in 2018 election, ousting Left parties from their bastion and hopes to continue its winning run. Left parties and Congress joined hands in this election to give a tough fight to BJP. Tipra Motha, a regional party led by Pradyot Debbarma, a member of Tripura's erstwhile royal family, is also expected to make its presence felt. The BJP has allied with IPFT (Indigenous People's Front of Tripura), its partner in the previous assembly polls. The BJP contested 55 seats of 60-member assembly in Tripura in Februart 27 election. The Left Front fielded candidates in 47 seats and Congress on 13. Tipra Motha fought 42 seats and Trinamool Congress put up candidates on 28 seats. Chief Minister Manik Saha contested from Town Bardowali constituency and Union minister Pratima Bhowmik fought the polls as BJP candidate from Dhanpur. BJP leaders in their speeches talked about the development picking up pace in the border state and efforts of the "double-engine" government over the past five years. Tipra Motha has raised demand of Greater Tipraland. The counting of votes of 60 assembly constituencies in Tripura will be held in 21 counting locations across the state. Meghalaya went to the polls for 59 of its 60 assembly seats. Polling for the Sohiong Assembly constituency was postponed following the demise of the state's former Home minister and United Democratic Party (UDP) candidate from the seat, HDR Lyngdoh. The National People's Party (NPP) is leading the ruling alliance which also included the BJP. But the two parties have contested the poll separately. Trinamool Congress and regional parties such as the United Democratic Party and People's Democratic Front have also sought to put up a strong fight and a split verdict could throw open various possibilities in the state. The BJP and Congress contested 59 seats while the NPP has put up nominees in 56 constituencies. Meghalaya holds significance for pan-India ambitions of Trinamool Congress and the party contested 57 seats. Conrad K Sangma contested from South Tura constituency while Trinamool Congress leader Mukul Sangma is in the fray from Songsak and Tikrikilla. In Nagaland, the ruling Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) contested 40 seats while its ally BJP put up candidates 20 seats in the on the 60-member House. Akuluto seat was won uncontested by BJP. Congress contested 23 seats in the state. The NDPP-BJP alliance in the state is led by Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio. Naga People's Front (NPF) leader Kuzholuzo Nienu has said that the party is open to post-poll arrangements. Interestingly, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) has fielded 16 candidates. The Election Commission has made adequate arrangements for counting of votes. While elections have been held in Nagaland, Tripura and Meghalaya, six more states will go for the assembly polls later this year before the Lok Sabha battle in 2024. The outcome of the polls in three northeastern states is likely to have a bearing on the prospects of national parties in state polls later this year. BJP is hopeful of the outcome giving it momentum for the poll battles ahead. (ANI)
"Prime Minister Narendra Modi is continuously working to achieve complete security and independence in the energy sector by promoting alternative energy resources in India," Dhami said while addressing the event.

The Chief Minister further said that due to favourable weather, there are immense possibilities for developing projects related to solar energy in Uttarakhand.

CM said that the state government is trying to bring an "energy revolution" in the state by proper use of solar energy.

"The state government is moving ahead with a 'no-choice resolve' to make Uttarakhand a leading state of the country by 2025," he added.

He said that the priority of the government is to ensure an uninterrupted power supply to every household in the state. (ANI)
The counting of votes of the Meghalaya Assembly elections will be held on Thursday amid tight security arrangements. "All necessary arrangements have been made in respect of counting tomorrow. We have 13 Counting Centres across the state, 12 in all District headquarters, one in Sohra Sub Division. 22 Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) companies have been retained for purposes of ensuring 24x7 safeguard protocols in respect of the strong rooms containing the polled Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) of 3,419 polling stations in the 59 poll-going Assembly Constituencies and will stay on till April 4 for any post-poll contingencies/exigencies," said Meghalaya Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) FR Kharkongor. The Meghalaya CEO said there will be three-tier security arrangements with CAPF guarding the innermost layer and State Armed police will keep vigil over the second and third layers. The Counting Centres are all placed under CCTV and webcast surveillance during the entire period. There will be a total of 383 rounds of counting, with a maximum of nine rounds for the biggest assembly constituency Mawlai in East Khasi Hills District and four rounds for smaller ACs like Dalu in West Garo Hills District, informed the CEO. According to the Election Commission, the counting in all 13 centres will commence at 8 am on Thursday. The counting will initially begin with Postal ballot Count for the first 30 minutes followed by the counting of polled votes in the EVM Control Units. The CEO accompanied by the District Electoral Officer (DEO) and Superintendent of Polic has already personally inspected the counting arrangements at the East Khasi Hills Counting Centre at Polo grounds, Shillong, which has the States maximum number of 14 Counting Halls, one each for each assembly constituency. West Garo Hills District Counting Centre caters to 11 assembly constituencies and is the second-largest counting centre in the state. Election Commission has deployed 27 Counting Observers and over 500 micro observers will also assist the Counting Observers at each table. Each table will have a Counting Observer assisted by 4 Counting Assistants. In 7 polling stations, there were cases of non-deletion of mock poll data. These include a polling station in East Jaintia Hills, Khliehriat AC, one in West Khasi Hills, Rambhai AC, two in East Garo hills, Songsak AC, two in South West Garo Hills, Salmanpara ACs and one in Mylliem AC. In the above polling stations, DEOs and ROs (returning Officer) have been directed to strictly follow Election Commission protocols on counting. Also, post counting of EVMs, five polling stations will be selected at random, through a draw of lots and manual counting of 5 randomly selected EVMs will be undertaken as per ECI protocols Additionally, Concerned DEOs have issued necessary orders pertaining to traffic arrangements & victory processions post-counting in respect of their concerned districts. Ahead of the counting of votes for Meghalaya assembly polls, Meghalaya Chief Minister and National People's Party (NPP) chief Conrad Sangma met Assam Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma in Guwahati on Tuesday night. Notably, Sarma is the convenor of the North-East Democratic Alliance (NEDA). A top source of NPP told ANI that both Chief Ministers took part in a crucial meeting in a hotel in Guwahati and the meeting lasted for half an hour. Following the meeting, the Meghalaya Chief Minister returned to Tura in West Garo Hills. Earlier on Tuesday, Meghalaya CM hinted at forming a post-poll alliance to form the government. The exit polls published by various media groups predicted that the northeastern state would have a hung house, with Sangma's NPP emerging as the single-largest party. Following this, Conrad Sangma said that he would keep all options to form a stable government. "We will keep all our options open to form a stable government. We are happy to see the trend is in line as we expected to get more seats than we received last time," said Sangma. Meghalaya recorded a voting percentage of over 76 per cent on Monday. Polling was held at 3,419 polling stations across 59 Assembly constituencies in the state. Of the 60 Assembly constituencies in Meghalaya, 36 constituencies fall in Khasi, Jaintia Hills region while 24 are in Garo Hills region. However, polling for the Sohiong Assembly constituency was postponed following the demise of the state's former Home Minister and United Democratic Party (UDP) candidate from the seat HDR Lyngdoh. (ANI)
The aircraft will be supplied over a period of six years and the decision is expected to provide fillip to the Indian aerospace defence ecosystem and boost efforts towards 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat'.

The HTT-40 is a turbo prop aircraft and is designed to have good low speed handling qualities and provide better training effectiveness.

The fully aerobatic tandem seat turbo trainer has air-conditioned cockpit, modern avionics, hot re-fueling, running change over and zero-zero ejection seats, a Defence Ministry release said.

The aircraft will meet the shortage of basic trainer aircraft of IAF for training of newly- inducted pilots.

The procurement will include associated equipment and training aids including simulators.

Being an indigenous solution, the aircraft is configurable for upgrades to incorporate the futuristic requirements of the Indian armed forces.

The HTT-40 has about 56 per cent indigenous content which will progressively increase to over 60 per cent through indigenisation of major components and subsystems.

The HAL would engage Indian private industry, including MSMEs, in its supply chain, the release said.

The procurement has the potential to provide direct employment to about 1,500 personnel and indirect employment for up to 3,000 people spread over more than 100 MSMEs. (ANI)
Mahila Congress on Wednesday protested against the rising prices of commercial LPG cylinders in Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala. Rajya Sabha MP Jebi Mather who inaugurated the protest told the media, "It is very unfortunate that the common man continues to suffer on daily basis in this country. Everyone sleeps in this country with the trauma of the next morning what is the price that is going to increase? If one day it is LPG, then the next day it is fuel." Every single day there are decisions by the Central Government that affect the common man. Schemes like MNREGA which is a relief for the poor have been cut short. When there is an election that is the only time when the people of India can expect there will no price hike of fuel or LPG. Once elections are over, the Modi government will come with decisions that have a hard-hitting impact on the people." MP Mather also slammed Union Minister Smriti Irani, she asked " 50 rupees in one stretch, where is Minister Smith Irani, when the UPA government increased the prices? In parliament, we will raise this issue and whenever people's issues are raised they're trying to submerge our voices. But we will continue to protest." Petroleum and oil marketing companies raised the price of commercial liquid petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders by Rs 350.50 per unit and domestic LPG cylinders by Rs 50 per unit with immediate effect from Wednesday. On Wednesday, the ruling front and the opposition in Kerala slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Central government for the "unjustified" Rs 50 hikes in LPG domestic cylinder price. As per the revised rates, commercial LPG cylinders will now cost Rs 2,119.50 per unit in Delhi and the price of domestic LPG cylinders will be Rs 1,103 per unit, in the national capital. This is the second hike in commercial LPG cylinder prices this year. On January 1, commercial cylinder prices were increased by Rs 25 per unit. (ANI)
"Special status for Andhra Pradesh is only possible with Congress" government, state party chief Gidugu Rudra Raju said today while interacted with people here. Talking about the AICC 85th Plenary Session, Gidugu said, "On February 26,27, and 28, AICC 85th Plenary Session was held in Chhattisgarh. Leaders discussed to strengthen Congress. It has been decided to intensify the fight for special status for AP." "The Polavaram water project will greatly benefit the farmers of AP. Further, the Congress government also announced that it should be recognized as a national project and completed," he added. Alleging "political dramas" on Polavaram, Gidugu said, "The rulers are playing political dramas on Polavaram. It was announced in the plenary that Polavaram would definitely complete if Congress came to power. Congress works for the development of backward districts." Gidugu also talked about the Visakha Steel Factory and said, "Congress opposes the decision to privatize the Visakha Steel Factory. Manmohan Singh contributed to the development of Visakha Steel Factory. We have decided to support Visakhapatnam Steel Factory." He also highlighted the contribution of Congress in caste enumeration of backward classes and said, "At the national level, Congress has worked on this to some extent in the past. The party is committed to caste enumeration of BCs as per social justice. It has been decided to give fifty per cent reservation to SCs and STs as a party organization." Further talking for the youths in the state, AICC President said, "In order to encourage the youth, even if they are under fifty years of age, party positions are reserved for them." Attacking PM Narendra Modi and Adani, Gidugu said, "We will explain Modi's lies and Adani's irregularities to the people. People's money was stolen by conspiracy." "Strikes in mandal centres are organised on the 6th of this month for the Adani robbery case. On the 13th we will take up programs at Chalo Raj Bhavan. Let's join hands and go door to door in the name of Congress. Congress is sure to come to power in 2024. As per the assurances given, we will implement the items in the Bifurcation bill for AP. Special status and Polavaram are only possible with Congress. For us, the interests of the state are more important than self-interest," he added. (ANI)
With the Madhya Pradesh government presenting the state budget on Wednesday, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president VD Sharma termed it as a pro-farmer budget and accused the previous Congress governments of making farmers defaulters. VD Sharma said this budget is all-inclusive and touches every section of society. "This budget reflects the voice of the poor. This is a budget to bring change in the lives of the people. This is a historic budget for the farmers. The way the Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh governments had defaulted the farmers, a provision has been made in the budget to make those defaulters non-defaulters. This budget is pro-farmers," Sharma said. The Madhya Pradesh BJP chief while addressing a press conference earlier said that the budget will fulfil the resolve to make the state self-reliant. This time the government has not imposed any new tax. The government launched the "Ladli Bahna" scheme for women and made provisions for it in the budget, he said. "The important thing about the budget is that it was prepared after taking suggestions from the people. This budget is dedicated to the farmers, labourers, sisters and daughters of the state," added Sharma. Congress legislators led by former chief minister Kamal Nath on Wednesday staged a walkout from the Madhya Pradesh Assembly in protest against the price hike in the domestic and commercial LPG cylinders. The walkout took place as the government today presented a Rs 3.14 lakh crore state budget for 2023-24. Congress members including former ministers Tarun Bhanot, Vijay Laxmi Sadho and Jitu Patwari created ruckus in the House over the LPG price hike issue the moment state Finance Minister Jagdish Devda started reading out the budget proposals. Speaking to ANI, Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) Chief Kamal Nath lashed out at the BJP-led state government for the budget proposals. "We had demanded that Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan should reduce the price of an LPG cylinder by Rs 500 in Madhya Pradesh. He (CM Chouhan) did not give the assurance, so we walked out of the assembly," Kamal Nath said. "The state government is spoiling the budget of the households along with the budgets of women over the in the last three years as they had promised they would give Rs 1000 to the women. It is only their politics," Kamal Nath added. Notably, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had earlier this month said Rs 1000 per month will be given to women in the state under the 'Ladli Behna Yojana' from International Women's day on March 8 this year. Congress workers also staged a protest against the price hike in the domestic and commercial LPG cylinders outside the state assembly this morning. The budget session of the Madhya Pradesh assembly began on Monday. (ANI)
Former Bihar CM and a major ally in Bihar's ruling Mahagathbandhan Jitan Ram Manjhi was also present at the occasion, wishing Bihar CM on his 72nd birthday.

On this occasion, JDU District President and former MLA Abhay Kushwaha said that Nitish Kumar has created a whole new identity for Bihar in the whole world.

Speaking further at the event Khushwaha said, we wish Nitish Kumar will further work to give a new direction to the country. He added, "The way Nitish Kumar ji has done the work of giving new light to Bihar. We hope that in the near future, they will work to give a new direction to the country."

Marking the occasion during the cake-cutting ceremony the party leaders wished for the central leadership for Nitish Kumar. (ANI)
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday said his government accepts problems as challenges and adopts a zero-tolerance approach to corruption and crime. Attacking the Opposition during the discussion on the budget in the State Assembly, CM Yogi said, "As the Leader of the Opposition spoke, he seemed pleased to have pushed UP to the last position. Everyone is aware of why UP was going down before 2017. There are two ways to fix the issue-- 'Bhaag lo ya phir bhaag lo' (Either face the challenge or run away)." CM Yogi continued his criticism by saying, "Either accept the issues as a challenge and work to resolve them like our government has in the past six years, or 'run away' like the seat of the Leader of the Opposition is 'vacant' right now." During the session, CM Yogi thanked all the 134 members who took part in the discussion on the budget and also answered the questions and allegations of Akhilesh Yadav with facts. CM Yogi stated that everyone has a responsibility for such a sizable state. "All of us are sitting here as the representatives of 25 crore people. The leader of the Opposition said that proposals worth Rs 50 lakh crores would have surfaced if we had gone to Davos. That indicates that he believes proposals have arrived," the Chief Minister told the House. He said the proposals, totalling Rs 34.09 lakh crore, are a reflection of the public's trust in the government and its credibility. "Why did not this come before 2017? The people of the state and the world would not have forgotten the incident of 2013 when they had gone to Harvard for a presentation on Kumbh and 'Chachajan' had to go through an investigation. Where did we take the state? Results would have been different if there had been an effort to advance UP in any one field," the Chief Minister said. Taking a dig at the Leader of the Opposition, he said, "Earlier you used to issue manifestos. Despite major announcements, nothing happened. In 2016, you had announced to give one crore each to Rio de Janeiro Olympics players, including PV Sindhu, Sakshi Malik and Dipa Karmakar. Nothing was done in six months, and then the public rejected you. We provided the amount on behalf of the state government. What did you do apart from making announcements? We make resolutions and act on that basis." He said the Yamuna Expressway Authority (YEIDA) suffered a loss of Rs 642 crore till 2016, but after that, it turned a profit. "It is been stated that whoever travels to Noida will not return to power. I travelled to Noida, and the leader of the opposition said that I would definitely not return to power. I had faith that I would return," CM Yogi said. The Chief Minister said the revenue earlier used to come to Rs 86,000 crore. This time, the total revenue is expected to reach Rs 2.30 lakh crores by March 31. GST was Rs 49,000-51,000 crores in 2016, now it is going to cross 1.24 lakh crore. The mafia used to rule the state excise before 2017. The state got a little more than Rs 12,000 crores from state excise, and this time 45,000 crores is going to come. Who did this money go to? Aise he koi England mein hotel aur Australia mein tapu (island) thode na khareeda jaa raha hai," he added. Appreciating the budget, CM Yogi said that within the last six years, the size of UP's budget has more than doubled. The budget was Rs 3,400 crores in 2016-17, this time it was more than double ie more than 6,900 crores. "It represents the expansion of UP's economy. It represents growth progress in GDP, but growth in capita income. This journey of UP is based on public trust," added CM Yogi. (ANI)
A police team that was conducting a vehicle check at Karamadai found four men in suspicious circumstances and on searching them, found the electronic detonators.

Police said that two of the men purchased the electronic detonators from the state's Salem and sold to the other two men from Kerala at a higher price.

Police sources told IANS that a thorough interrogation and background check of the four men is on, but did not reveal their names.

On October 23, 2022, the Deepavali eve, a 29-year-old man was charred to death in a car bomb explosion at Ukkadam in Coimbatore.

Jameesha Mubin was allegedly trying to carry out a major explosion on the eve of Deepavali day near a temple in Ukkadam but his lack of experience led to the explosion much before planned leading to his death.

With Coimbatore being a sensitive area, police are not taking any chances on the youths who are in custody and a thorough investigation is conducted on whether the youths were buying and selling detonators for a profit or whether there was something other more serious.

--IANS aal/vd

( 216 Words)

2023-03-01-19:36:03 (IANS)
The Shiv Sena-UBT on Wednesday demanded action against Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde for allegedly calling the Opposition 'deshdrohi' (traitors) after they boycotted the customary session-eve tea party on last Sunday. The Chief Whip of Sena-UBT and MLA from Dindoshi, Sunil Prabhu said that the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) had sent a letter to the government on their decision to boycott the tea party. "Despite this, the CM's comment is regretful and is disrespectful to the Legislative Assembly. How can the Opposition legislators tolerate this," he asked. Prabhu said that it is the duty of the Speaker to protect the Opposition legislators, adding that he had sought an opportunity to air his views in the House, but could not get the chance as many other members spoke. The development came shortly after Sena-UBT MP and chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut's remarks of 'chor mandli' (band of thieves) against the ruling Shiv Sena headed by Shinde created a huge ruckus in the Assembly on Wednesday. Later, the ruling ally Bharatiya Janata Party moved a breach of privilege motion against Raut which the Speaker accepted and promised to probe the matter and announce his decision on March 8. Prabhu's letter came even as some Opposition legislators clamoured for a breach of privilege against the CM for his "traitor" comments and Raut supported the demand. However, Leader of Opposition in Assembly Ajit Pawar, of the NCP, and Leader of Opposition in Council Ambadas Danve, of the Sena-UBT, termed Raut's remarks as untenable and avoidable, even as the process of the breach of privilege motion got underway. Congress MLA Dr. Nitin Raut termed the stance of Pawar and Danve as "hasty" and said they were falling in the BJP's trap of "dividing" the Opposition parties. State Congress President Nana Patole said that the Speaker's move to adjourn the House till Thursday was intended to avoid debates on major issues confronting the people and the farmers. On his part, Sena's Raut, while claiming that his utterances were "misinterpreted", said that he was prepared to face any enquiry in the matter and bear its consequences. --IANS qn/vd ( 365 Words) 2023-03-01-19:44:02 (IANS)
The Indian Army on Wednesday paid rich tributes to late Sepoy Pawan Kumar, who was killed in an encounter in the Potgampora area of Pulwama district on Tuesday in which two terrorists were also gunned down. In a solemn ceremony at the Chinar War Memorial, Major General Vivek Dogra, Chief of Staff, Chinar Corps, paid homage to the gallant soldier along with other officers. "Sepoy Pawan Kumar in a sheer act of bravery had overpowered a terrorist in a hand-to-hand combat during a cordon and search operation in Potgampora, and was grievously injured in the process. He subsequently succumbed to his injuries, making the supreme sacrifice in the highest traditions of the Indian Army," the army said. The deceased soldier is survived by his mother. The mortal remains of Kumar are being moved to his native place at Pithyt village in Shimla district, where he will be laid to rest with full military honours. "In this hour of grief, the army stands in solidarity with the bereaved family and remains committed to their dignity and well-being," the army said. --IANS zi/arm ( 191 Words) 2023-03-01-20:24:02 (IANS)
Deputy Inspector General of Police, K. Muniswamny, and Vellore's Superintendent of police, Rajesh Kannan, on Wednesday distributed buttermilk and lemon juice to traffic police on duty at key junctions in Vellore.

Sources in Tamil Nadu Police told IANS that the project will be extended across the state.

A sachet containing 200 ml of buttermilk will be distributed to police personnel both in the morning and evening from March 1 onwards. Glucose biscuits and water bottles will also be provided to keep their energy levels high.

In the Vellore police range, there are 5,000 police personnel, including women, and of them, 600 are traffic police. The police personnel were also provided lemon juice in addition to buttermilk in some districts of the Vellore range.

On average, police personnel on traffic duty will get two hours of break for doing four hours of duty.

In addition to lemon juice and buttermilk, police personnel will also be provided jute hats as the temperature rises in these districts.

The jute hats stop direct sunlight on on-duty personnel and small holes in this headgear provide better ventilation and air circulation.

--IANS aal/vd

( 231 Words)

2023-03-01-20:24:04 (IANS)
In wake of the alleged humiliation of a Galwan martyr's father in Bihar's Vaishali, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh called up Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and expressed anguish over the incident. He also asked the Chief Minister to take action against officers who misbehaved with the father. Nitish Kumar himself revealed the incident in the Assembly on the third day of the Budget session on Wednesday. While BJP MLAs including Leader of Opposition Vijay Kumar Sinha were walking out from the house on this issue, he asked them to stay in. "The Defence Minister has called me and he was concerned about it. I have assured him about the investigation. I have directed Bihar Police to investigate the matter and take action if any police officer is involved in misbehaviour with the father of Galwan martyr's son," he said. Despite the Chief Minister's assurance, Sinha walked out from the Assembly. Galwan martyr Jay Kishore Singh's father Raj Kapoor Singh is facing charges of encroaching on a piece of land belonging to the state government and some portion of fellow villager Harinath Ram. Vaishali police booked him under the SC/ST Act as well as under extortion ('rangdari') apart from land encroachment acts. Singh's son Nand Kishore alleged that the SHO, Jandaha, Vishvanath Ram came to his house in Kajari Bujurg on Sunday night and humiliated his father, used abusive language against him and dragged him into the police van. Nand Kishore also claimed that as the SHO and the complainant are from the same community, the former has taken the side of the latter. DGP R.S. Bhatti directed the Vaishali police to constitute a team to investigate the incident. The district police was also directed to submit the report in a time bound manner and take necessary action if any official was involved in misbehaving with the martyr's father. Complainant Harinath Ram had registered two FIRs in 2019 and January 23, 2023 against Singh for encroaching his land as well as the government road to building a monument for his martyred son. During the police investigation, the officials said that it was found that Singh has encroached on the land of the complainant as well as the government property and due to the monument, the road was blocked and villagers were facing problems. Hence, Jandaha SDPO Poonam Keshri visited the village and gave Singh 15 days to remove the monument from the government as well as the land belonging to Harinath Ram. --IANS ajk/vd ( 425 Words) 2023-03-01-21:10:02 (IANS)
Normal functioning at the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) was affected on Wednesday as a section of employees went on an unscheduled pen-down strike to protest against comment by city mayor and West Bengal Urban Development and Municipal Affairs Minister Firhad Hakim on the pending dearness allowance (DA) arrears to the state government employees. On Tuesday evening, Hakim had said that any employee who is not satisfied can quit. "The state government has its own priorities. The priority should be to provide ration to those deprived of it rather than hiking the salary of a person from Rs 40,000 to Rs 60,000 a month. Since the comparison is with Central government employees, then why don't aggrieved ones join Central service," he had said. A large section of the KMC employees went on the unscheduled strike on Wednesday protesting against the Mayor's comments. They reported on duty on Wednesday during normal hours, marked their attendance but refrained from taking up the daily assignments. The KMC Clerks Union spear-headed the pen-down strike. They claimed that the Mayor had spoken in such a manner as if he was paying the salary from his own pocket. "The salary and DA are the legitimate rights of the employees. Had the Mayor had the courage he should have gone to the court and tell the court what he said yesterday," an agitating employee of KMC said. --IANS src/vd ( 245 Words) 2023-03-01-21:20:04 (IANS)
National Conference leader and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah on Wednesday said that opposition's Prime Minister candidate will be named after it wins the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and assumes office. In his remarks at a public function here to mark the 70th birthday celebrations of Tamil Nadu Chief Minster M.K. Stalin, he termed Stalin was India's hope and called on him to be in national politics Abdullah also called upon the opposition parties to work as a single front. He also said that it was unacceptable for Jammu and Kashmir to be made a Union Territory. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said that the Prime Minister candidate was immaterial but opposition unity was the need of the hour. Lauding Tamil Nadu for being an industrial hub as well as a welfare state, he also blessed Stalin, saying: "I have all the rights to bless you as I am 81 and you are only 70." Samajwadi Party President and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said that Stalin was working for the welfare of the people of his state and added that he was not against any faith. He also praised Stalin for opposing farm laws. Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav praised the Dravidian movement and Stalin's leadership, adding that political parties of north India must focus on social justice issues. He also condemned the idea of an India that looks down on marginalised communities with contempt. --IANS aal/vd ( 263 Words) 2023-03-01-21:40:03 (IANS)
Dalsey, Hillblom and Lynn (DHL), a global logistics company on Monday announced the suspension of some of its operations partially in Pakistan due to the government's restrictions on outbound remittances, Pakistan-based Dawn newspaper reported. According to Dawn, DHL Pakistan has informed its customers that it is suspending 'Import Express Product' and restricting outbound shipments to a maximum weight of 70 kg per shipment for all customers billed in Pakistan from March 15. As per the company, the last pick-up date would be March 14 and shipments picked up on or before this date would still be delivered. The Pakistan Muslim League (N) (PMLN) led coalition government and the State Bank of Pakistan, amid the fast dwindling foreign exchange, imposed restrictions on outward remittances for foreign companies operating in Pakistan. "The remittances sent by DHL Pakistan cover the cost of DHL's international aviation, hub, gateway and last-mile delivery incurred through our global network for the shipments sent/received by valued customers," the courier service provider said, adding that this constraint has made it unsuitable for DHL Express to continue providing the full product offering in Pakistan. The company said it is in regular contact with the Pakistani authorities to allow pending remittances to resume the full suite of services in the country at the earliest, according to Dawn. Islam Khabar recently reported that Pakistan could have made an economic recovery through foreign investments. The country, however, is not known to have an investment-friendly regime. Foreign investors avoid bringing money into Pakistan due to various factors such as political instability, discontinuity of macroeconomic policy, terrorism, corruption and energy shortages. In the past two decades, Pakistan has tried implementing several FDI-friendly measures. Wide-ranging structural reforms were attempted by the country to attract multinationals which could become the enablers of economic growth and job creation in the country. However, effective implementation of such measures remained slow due to ground-level problems in the country including red-tapism, bureaucratic lethargy, rampant corruption, misguided ideology and extremism, Islam Khabar reported. Corporations from many developed countries have thus struggled to grow their investments in Pakistan. Companies such as Proctor and Gamble, Oracle services Pakistan, IBM Pakistan, FedEx (Gerry's Group of Companies), Marriot Hotels, and Troy Group Inc. have to approach the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and other departments for minor problems which leads to disruptions in their operation. Proctor and Gamble's plans for importing raw materials and machinery into Pakistan are in limbo due to SBP's restrictions on the import of machinery. (ANI)
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday inaugurated the Bir Muktijoddha Abdul Hamid Cantonment in Kishoreganj's Mithamoin upazila, Bangladesh-based bdnews24 reported. The prime minister flew from Dhaka to Mithamoin via helicopter and landed at 11 am on Tuesday. She then inaugurated the cantonment built on 275 acres of land beside the Ghorautra river. A cantonment refers to a permanent military station The Bangladeshi prime minister last visited Mithamoin in 1998. At that time, Abdul Hamid was the deputy speaker of parliament. MP Rejwan Ahammad Taufiq, son of Bangladesh President Mohammad Abdul Hamid, as quoted by bdnews24, said: "The wetland in Kishoreganj has gone through huge development under the current prime minister. There was a time when people avoided this wetland, and now they come to visit as tourists. This is the contribution of the prime minister." According to bdnews24, the development projects by the government, such as an all-weather road, submersible road, expansion of power system and infrastructure construction, have propelled growth in connectivity, education, health and trade and commerce in the region "The huge development in the backward wetland area under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's leadership has brought positive changes to the lives of the working class," said Sameer Kumar Baishnab, general secretary of the Mithamoin Upazila Awami League. Asian Lite recently report that Bangladesh has showcased a "strong record of growth and development, even in times of elevated global uncertainty" under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. A "robust demographic dividend, strong ready-made garment (RMG) exports, resilient remittance inflows and stable macro-economic conditions" have backed rapid economic growth in the past 20 years. Bangladesh's capital Dhaka has undergone a "remarkable transformation" with construction in all directions and new flyovers, bridges and commercial sites. The 6.15-km rail-road bridge on the Padma River was formally inaugurated on June 25. It is the country's biggest infrastructure since its independence, according to Asian Lite International. After 50 years, South Asia's youngest nation Bangladesh has excelled to become the "bull case" for the region with Sheikh Hasina at the helm. Within a short period of time, Bangladesh has witnessed growth from being a low-income and least-developed country to a lower-middle-income-developing country, according to the Asian Lite International report. From bringing millions of people out of the clutches of poverty and witnessing more than 6.6 per cent average economic growth to sheltering more than a million displaced Rohingyas from Myanmar, the days of Bangladesh being in the news only for natural disasters have gone. According to the IMF, Bangladesh is now the 43rd largest economy in the world in terms of nominal GDP while its position is 32nd in terms of PPP, as per the news report. (ANI)
An Islamabad sessions court hearing the Toshakhana case against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan on Tuesday issued non-bailable arrest warrants against him over persistent absences, Pakistan-based Dawn newspaper reported. According to Dawn, just hours before the warrants' issuance, Khan secured bail in two other cases, pertaining to prohibited funding and terrorism, as he appeared before the courts at Islamabad's judicial complex accompanied by a large number of party workers. The PTI chief was today required to appear before courts in Islamabad in four different cases. Khan was set to be indicted in the Toshakhana case today, but his lawyer requested the court that he be exempted from the hearing because he had to appear in several other courts. His indictment was deferred twice before, Dawn reported. Pakistan additional sessions judge Zafar Iqbal adjourned the hearing to March 7. Imran Khan, soon after the setback, reached the Islamabad High Court, which granted him pre-arrest bail until March 9 in the attempted murder case. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) recently summoned the PTI chief on March 9 in connection with the Toshakhana case, reported Geo News. The PTI chairman has been asked to appear before the anti-corruption watchdog on March 9 at 2:30 pm. The development comes shortly after NAB Chairman Aftab Sultan resigned from the post citing personal reasons. In its notice to Khan, the anti-corruption body wrote: "The competent authority has taken cognizance of an offence allegedly committed by the accused persons under the provisions of NAO, 1999," reported Geo News. The inquiry proceedings have revealed that Khan during his tenure as PM, retained some state gifts presented to him by various foreign dignitaries. The anti-graft watchdog asked the deposed prime minister to appear before the combined investigation team at its Islamabad office on March 9 and record his statement in this regard, reported Geo News. On November 19, the NAB had taken notice of the alleged non-disclosure of the actual value of gifts received by the former prime minister, his wife, and other cabinet members. Sources privy to the matter said that there was a discrepancy between the actual value of the gifts received by the former prime minister and the sale. (ANI)
While Pakistan's citizens are queuing up for wheat flour, pulses and medicines, the Generals have usurped a major part of the Budget for new weapons, reported Afghan Diaspora Network (ADN). The army, responsible for much of what is horribly wrong in Pakistan, cannot deny that it has fattened up on what has been snatched from the people. In times of crisis, the so-called guardian of Pakistan, the army has refused to share close to USD 10 billion which its various enterprises generate every year, reported ADN. Such largesse is spent as privileges and perks of military personnel, mostly to the generals in the form of land, houses and other benefits. This huge sum remains out of the public domain. The 2022-23 defence budget is estimated to be PKR 1.53 trillion (USD 7.5 billion), a phenomenal 12 per cent increase over the original military expenditure in 2021-22. This increase is extraordinary and criminal given the civilian government's decision to impose heavy taxes-a whopping USD 170 billion-on already-burdened people to meet the IMF loan conditionalities, reported ADN. There has been no letup in the defence budget as the country went down economically and otherwise. The increase this year was in sharp contrast to the cuts in spending on the development sector, health, education and housing. The army cornered USD 669 million in 2019 which shot up to USD 760 million in 2020 and USD 884 million in 2021. These were the very years when the country suffered the Covid pandemic and then cataclysmic floods, reported ADN. The latest data on the army's procurements is confidential but a reliable estimate of the previous budgets as well as conservative estimates of combat requirements for the next five years would put the budgetary estimates to be higher than the present year. For instance, the army in 2021 purchased armoured vehicles worth USD 263 million compared to USD 92 million in 2020. These vehicles were part of Pakistan's efforts to maintain and upgrade conventional warfare capabilities. Likewise, the navy bought ships and accessories worth USD 358 million in 2021 as compared to USD 145 million the previous year. Although the air force had not made any big-ticket purchases in the past few years, its budget for drones and sensors from China has increased. In 2021, it imported sensors worth USD 25 million, a sharp rise of USD 15 million from 2020. Moreover, the Pakistan army also increased its investments in boosting capabilities for cyber warfare capabilities. A new cyber division headed by a Major General has been set up with the help of China, reported ADN. Pakistan has also released a National Cyber Security Policy in 2021 which indicates an increasing budgetary outlay for increasing its capability in the cyber as well as artificial intelligence domain. The recent air force purchase of a Drone Jx gun from China indicates the new thrust. Pakistan has also set up a secret cyber army unit with the help of Turkey while China has helped set up Information Security Laboratory (ISL) under the National Electronics Complex of Pakistan (NECOP), reported ADN. (ANI)
Ruling party candidate Bola Tinubu WAS declared the winner of Nigeria's presidential election on Wednesday, against Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, reported The Washington Post. Tinubu won for the ruling party despite the unpopularity of its outgoing president, Muhammadu Buhari. Meanwhile, the opposition, including the campaigns of both outsider candidate Peter Obi and former vice president Atiku Abubakar, has vowed to challenge the results, saying that a new election should be held under a new elections chief, reported The Washington Post. Tinubu, 70, known as a kingmaker in Nigerian politics, received 36 per cent of more than 24 million votes cast, according to results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). He also received over 25 per cent of the vote in more than two-thirds of Nigeria's 36 states and Abuja, thus meeting both requirements to win Nigeria's presidency. Tinubu, who had the support of Buhari and a massive get-out-the-vote effort behind him, ran on the slogan "It's my turn". He benefited because the Opposition was divided between Obi, 61, a former governor popular among the youth, and Abubakar, 76, on his sixth bid for the presidency, reported The Washington Post. Now, Obi's and Abubakar's campaigns have joined forces to call for a fresh election, saying that INEC's poor performance overseeing the election led to a loss of confidence in the results. At a news conference Tuesday afternoon, key Opposition figures alleged widespread technological problems, delays in poll openings on Election Day, violence and voter intimidation, and manipulation of results, reported The Washington Post. Pockets of protest, including in the capital, Abuja, emerged Tuesday, and political analysts warned it could spread. Leaders in the opposition and ruling parties urged calm. While analysts said it is not clear whether delays and vote discrepancies could have altered the election outcome, they said that such problems undermined the confidence of voters in Africa's largest democracy. Many were already deeply frustrated with their government after years of spiraling economic and security crises. President Muhammadu Buhari is stepping down after two terms in office, marked by economic stagnation and growing insecurity around the country -- from an Islamist insurgency in the north-east to a nationwide crisis of kidnapping for ransom and separatist attacks in the south-east. Tinubu now has the task of solving these problems, among others, in Africa's most populous nation and the biggest oil exporter to the continent. (ANI)
At least 29 people were killed and more than 85 injured when a passenger train carrying more than 350 people collided with a freight train on Tuesday evening, shortly before midnight, in Tempi, central Greece, near the city of Larissa, the Greek Fire Service said.

Recovery efforts are underway and the death toll is expected to rise, the Greek Fire Service said.

"Due to the severity of the collision between the two trains, crane-carrying vehicles are assisting in the extrication work," the Fire Brigade said in a statement.

Greek Fire Service spokesman Vassilis Varthakogiannis said that 194 passengers had been taken safely to Thessaloniki, reported CNN.

At least 150 firefighters with 17 vehicles and 40 ambulances are involved in the rescue operation, he added.

The passenger train had been travelling from the capital Athens to Thessaloniki, Greece's second-largest city, which is renowned for its festivals and vibrant cultural life.

The collision follows a nationwide carnival at the weekend which ended with a public holiday on Monday, reported CNN.

Authorities said it is still not clear what led to the collision.

Hellenic Train, the main Greek railway company, was acquired by Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane in 2017 and is now fully controlled by Trenitalia. The company operates both passenger and freight transport. The main line on which daily connections are offered is Athens-Thessaloniki. (ANI)
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday held a bilateral meeting with UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, holding discussions on the commencement of the Young Professional Scheme. He also exchanged views on the global situation as well as the G20 agenda. "Began the morning with a bilateral meeting with Foreign Secretary @JamesCleverly of the UK. Reviewed the progress in our relationship since our last discussion. Noted in particular the commencement of the Young Professional Scheme. Also exchanged views on the global situation as well as the G20 agenda," tweeted Jaishankar. "During a visit to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Delhi today (Wednesday), the Foreign Secretary will mark the opening of the Young Professionals Scheme, an ambitious new partnership between the UK and India which allows up 3,000 Brits and 3,000 Indians a year the right to live and work in the other country for up to two years," read a release from the UK Embassy. Foreign Secretary Cleverly said India is a hugely important partner to the UK and "the deeper ties we are forging now will help to grow the UK economy and boost industries for the future". Cleverly is in Delhi to attend the G20 Foreign Ministers meeting. "He will also launch the new UK-India Young Professional Scheme and announce the creation of UK's first Tech Envoy to the Indo-Pacific region," the British embassy in India tweeted. Jaishankar also met Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard and Foreign Minister of Comoros, Dhoihir Dhoulkamal. He welcomed the opening of the Mexican Consulate in Mumbai. "A warm meeting with FM @m_ebrard of Mexico on #G20FMM sidelines. Noted our strong multilateral cooperation and discussed the G20 agenda. Focused on issues related to growth and development. Bilateral ties have progressed significantly in recent years. Welcomed the opening of the Mexican Consulate in Mumbai. Exchanged ideas on mobility, sustainability and innovation," tweeted Jaishankar. Meanwhile, he assured Dhoulkamal that India's G20 Presidency will prioritize the voice of the Global South. "Glad to welcome Dhoihir Dhoulkamal, FM of Comoros and Chair of African Union at the #G20FMM. Reiterated our steadfast support to our maritime neighbour, guided by our SAGAR policy. Assured him that India's G20 Presidency will prioritize the voice of the Global South," tweeted the EAM. The G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting (FMM) is scheduled to kick off in physical format from March 1-2, 2023 in New Delhi, under India's presidency. The New Delhi meeting will be attended by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, China's Foreign Minister Qin Gang, and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, however, Japan's Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi will not attend the meeting. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to address the foreign ministers of the member countries of G20 and he will talk about India's growing influence globally. (ANI)
Referring to the extradition of fugitive economic offenders Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi, UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly on Wednesday said that the British Judicial system is independent of the government and it is them to decide. Without mentioning the names of fugitive economic offenders, Cleverly, who is currently in India to attend the G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting, told ANI, "The legal process in the UK, just as it is in India, is independent of the government. We always want to see the machinery of the justice system working promptly but those are the decisions of the British Judicial system." Vijay Mallya, chairman of Kingfisher Airlines, was ordered to be extradited by the British judiciary in 2019 and is yet to be sent to India. Similarly, diamantaire Nirav Modi has been held in custody at south London's Wandsworth prison since he was arrested in 2019. India and the UK had signed an extradition treaty in 1992. This was ratified the following year and has been in force since. Fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi's plea to move the UK Supreme Court against his extradition to India on charges of fraud and money laundering was denied in December last year. Modi lost the bid to take his fight against extradition to India on charges of fraud and money laundering to the UK's Supreme Court. Nirav Modi, who is a prime accused in the Rs 13,500 crore PNB scam, had fled India. He lost his appeal after he had moved the High Court in London against extradition on mental health grounds. The bench of Justice Stuart Smith and Justice Robert Jay of the High Court said there are "no features of psychotic illness". The court rejected Nirav Modi's counsel's claims that he will die by suicide due to severe depression and said "Nirav Modi neither is nor is very likely to be at the most severe end of the scale of depressive illness". Speaking on the attacks on Indians in the UK by Khalistani groups, he said that everyone in the UK, irrespective of their origin, has the right to live in peace and security. "We take the security of people very seriously, our police and security services always pay a close regard to such activities and if it is an illegal activity, we act upon it," Cleverly said, adding that he wanted to make it very clear to the Indians that the UK is a welcoming place for them. UK Foreign Secretary said, "We want to see more connections with Indians and we want to strengthen the bilateral relations in the coming future." He further said that India's G20 presidency is quite exciting, it has fantastic opportunities. This is a great opportunity to talk about sustainable economic agenda and green agenda. Speaking on India-UK Free Trade Agreement (FTA), James Cleverly said, "The UK does a lot of business with India and is working extensively." He added that he'll be meeting India's trade secretary to make sure this trade agreement really benefits both countries & unlocks billion of pounds of bilateral trade.\ British Foreign Secretary said that the issue of searches on BBC offices in India was raised with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar during a bilateral meeting today. Cleverly brought up the issue of the BBC tax searches during his meeting with Jaishankar, sources told ANI. He was firmly told that all entities operating in India must comply fully with relevant laws and regulations," according to sources. In February this year Income Tax authorites had conducted searches at the offices of the British broadcaster in New Delhi and Mumbai. Speaking to ANI in an exclusive interview, Cleverly said that BBC is an independent organisation and is separate from the UK Government. "I didn't see the documentary but I've seen reactions in UK and India. BBC is an independent organisation and separate from government. I enjoy a strong personal relationship with Dr Jaishankar...relationship between UK-India growing stronger by the day," said Cleverly when asked about the BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Speaking on the UK PM Rishi Sunak's priorities in terms of India, he said that he has launched the young professional scheme, whereby 3,000 young Indians can come to the UK, and vice-versa, to develop answers to the challenges of the future together. The living bridge, those connections are very well exemplified given the fact that the British PM is of Indian heritage. (ANI)
"HE Alan Ganoo, Minister of Land Transport and Light Rail, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade of the Republic of Mauritius called on Union Minister Shri @nitin_gadkari Ji in New Delhi today," office of the minister tweeted.

Alan Ganoo, Mauritius' Minister of Foreign Affairs arrived in Delhi on Tuesday ahead of G20 Foreign Ministers' meeting.

"During the meeting with senior officials from both nations, the discussion focused on strategies for promoting sustainable infrastructure development through effective collaboration," it added.

On Tuesday, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar also met his Mauritius counterpart Alan Ganoo and tweeted, "Started my meetings on #G20FMM sidelines with FM Alan Ganoo of Mauritius. Value Mauritius' participation in G20. Reiterated our commitment to Neighborhood First, SAGAR&Forward Africa policies. Discussed our robust development partnership & our strong multilateral cooperation."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to address the foreign ministers of the member countries of G20 and he will talk about India's growing influence globally.

The March 1-2 meeting of the G20 foreign ministers will be held days after a meeting of finance chiefs of the bloc in Bengaluru.

The New Delhi meeting will be attended by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly. In all, representatives of 40 countries, including non-G20 members invited by India, and multilateral organisations will attend. (ANI)
United Kingdom Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, on Wednesday, said that he respects India's judgement to have bilateral relations with Russia. "For the UK, Russia's invasion of Ukraine is unacceptable. We're helping to defend the UN charter, sovereignty and territorial integrity. We hope this war comes to a swift conclusion. I respect India's judgement to have bilateral relations with countries of its choice," UK Foreign Secy said while talking to ANI. Recently, the Russia-Ukraine conflict marks its first anniversary on February 24, 2023. The United Kingdom, on February 8, announced a new round of sanctions against the Russian military and Kremlin elites. "In total the UK's sanction package hits 6 entities providing military equipment such as drones for Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as well as 8 individuals and 1 entity connected to nefarious financial networks that help maintain wealth and power amongst Kremlin elites," UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office announced in a statement. Meanwhile, in an interview with ANI in Delhi, Cleverly talked about the violent attacks on Indians in the UK. He said that United Kingdom's police and security services are paying close attention to the attacks against Indians and assured that action against any illegal activity. "We take the security of people very seriously, our police and security services always pay close regard to such activities and if it is an illegal activity, we act upon it," Cleverly said. Pro-Khalistan groups have time and again resorted to violent protests outside the High Commission of India in London. Recently, on February 18, anti-India slogans were raised outside Indian High Commission in London. The Khalistani supporters not just raised Pro-Khalistani slogans but also chanted anti-India slogans outside the Indian High Commission. He also said that India's G20 presidency was quite exciting, it has fantastic opportunities. This is a great opportunity to talk about sustainable economic agenda and green agenda. Speaking on India-UK Free Trade Agreement (FTA), James Cleverly said that the UK does much business with India and is working extensively. He said that he would be meeting India's trade secretary to make sure this trade agreement really benefits both countries & unlocks billion of pounds of bilateral trade. British Foreign Secretary said that the issue of searches on BBC offices in India was raised with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar during a bilateral meeting today. Cleverly brought up the issue of the BBC tax searches during his meeting with Jaishankar, sources told ANI. He was firmly told that all entities operating in India must comply fully with relevant laws and regulations," according to sources. In February this year, Income Tax authorities conducted searches at the offices of the British broadcaster in New Delhi and Mumbai. Speaking to ANI in an exclusive interview, Cleverly said that BBC is an independent organisation and is separate from the UK Government. "I didn't see the documentary but I've seen reactions in UK and India. BBC is an independent organisation and separate from government. I enjoy a strong personal relationship with Dr Jaishankar...relationship between UK-India growing stronger by the day," said Cleverly when asked about the BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (ANI)
Catherine Colonna, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of France, will visit India on March 2 and 3 to attend the G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting, the Raisina Dialogue, and bilateral engagements. On the first day, Minister Colonna will attend the G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting under India's presidency, and participate in sessions on: "Strengthening Multilateralism and Need for Reforms", "Food and Energy Security", and "Development Cooperation", "Counter-Terrorism: New and Emerging Threats", "Global Skill Mapping and Talent Pool", and "Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief" In the evening, she will speak at one of the inaugural panel discussions of the Raisina Dialogue, entitled Lessons and Look Ahead: Black Swans and Lighthouses. Minister Colonna's trip will also serve to boost bilateral ties and pave the way for an ambitious renewal of the Indo-French strategic partnership in a year marking its 25th anniversary. Minister Colonna will hold bilateral consultations with her Indian counterpart, S Jaishankar, External Affairs Minister of India. Their talks will cover all aspects of our strategic partnership in order to prepare for its ambitious renewal and expansion, setting new goals for our cooperation for the years to come. The two Ministers will also discuss regional and global subjects of common interest, including the war in Ukraine and our joint strategy in the Indo-Pacific, and coordination on issues under consideration at multilateral fora. They will review the progress of joint initiatives in the Indo-Pacific, including the Indo-Pacific Development Cooperation Fund launched by France and India in September 2022 to fund sustainable solutions in countries of the region, as well as the implementation of the Indo-French Roadmap for Blue Economy and Ocean Governance. The French Foreign Affairs Minister will also meet Ajit Doval, National Security Adviser to Prime Minister, for discussions on regional and global security issues, bilateral cooperation on security and counter-terrorism, and France's commitment to being India's foremost partner on the path to "Aatmanirbhar Bharat". Boosting people-to-people and cultural ties between our countries will also be high on Minister Colonna's agenda. She will unveil the Villa Swagatam initiative, which aims to draw France's best artists, writers and intellectuals to participate in the best Indian residencies in the fields of the Performing Arts, Literature, and Arts & Crafts, welcoming dialogue, collaboration, and exchanges. The Minister will also hold talks with Hon'ble Minister of Culture, G. Kishan Reddy, on how France can be India's "knowledge partner" in the creation of a new National Museum in Delhi. She will also launch France's tenure as the EU Gender Champion initiative in India, wherein for the next six months France will further enhance gender equality in its action in India and with India. Finally, Minister Colonna will meet the first cohort of the new Young Leaders programme of the France-India Foundation, which brings together talented French and Indian youths from all walks of life to build lasting bonds between our two countries. (ANI)
India and Denmark signed four Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) to take forward the Green Strategic Partnership. Denmark's Crown Prince Frederik Andre Henrik Christian and Crown Princess Mary Elizabeth arrived in Chennai on Wednesday and signed four MoUs on Next Generation fuels and Energy Systems. IIT Madras will collaborate with Danish researchers on a project on the hydrogen economy. The second project pertains to cement decarbonisation. Signing of Indo-Danish projects with IIT Research park was announced. Four MoUs- Efficient Cost saving grid friendly Power Converter;Drinking water for coastal Regions using renewable energy; Towards Decarbonisation of cement industry model based Optimization of a Pyrolysis Technology for flexible use of waste fuels; Energy Consortium Membership Agreement. The Energy Delegation visited IIT Madras Research Park, where a session on next-generation fuels and energy systems was held. Lars Aagaard, Minister for Climate, Energy and Utilities, Government of Denmark, said "Denmark is paving the way for investments in new technologies, which must scale. We see a great potential in sharing mutual knowledge with India and its engineers, which can help in implementing these technologies." Denmark's Crown Prince is accompanied by a high-level delegation of Danish Ministers. The Danish government launched a multi-layered strategic programme to support India's green and sustainable development as well as to deepen trade links between the two nations in the water and energy sectors. The Danish team highlighted strategies, technological advancements, and the most recent information on energy and water during the tour in order to assist India in becoming carbon neutral. Regarding energy, Denmark is a global pioneer in the green transition and has a lot to offer in terms of renewable energy sources like wind, green hydrogen, and bioenergy, as well as energy efficiency at a green energy transition that is both efficient and affordable. Given that India is presently the fourth-largest onshore wind market worldwide in terms of cumulative installed capacity, Denmark and India will also explore offshore wind strategies. Tamil Nadu has identified 15 offshore locations to establish wind turbines. "Denmark is collaborating to establish the first wind farm offshore in Tamil Nadu," Aagaard added. Danish Minister for Climate, Energy and Utilities, Denmark was also present at the event as Chief Guest. Tamil Nadu Minister for Electricity V Senthibalajai, Minister for Finance and Human Resources Management Palanivel Thiaga Rajan and Minister for Industries Thangam Thennarasu also took part in the event. (ANI)
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived here on Wednesday to take part in the G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting. G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting under India's G20 presidency will be held on March 2. During his visit, Blinken will have bilateral meeting with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. He will also participated in the Raisina Dialogue. "Welcome to India, FM Sameh Shoukry of Egypt @MfaEgypt, FM @ABZayed of UAE @MoFAICUAE and @SecBlinken of USA @StateDept. Looking forward to deliberations at the #G20FMM. @SecBlinken & FM Shoukry will also participate in #Raisina2023," the Ministry of External Affairs said in a tweet. The G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting will be held at Rashtrapati Bhavan Cultural Centre and nearly 40 delegations are expected to participate. This will be second ministerial meeting being held under India's presidency so far. The first ministerial meeting - Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors - was held in Bengaluru. A US State Department official had said last week that Blinken will attend a bilateral meeting with Jaishankar on the sidelines of the G20 meeting. "They will talk about our strategic partner partnership but really focus on how we're working together in the Asian Quad, in the G20, what we're doing on defence cooperation and the Initiative for Critical and Emerging Technologies that is being run out of the White House and the prime minister's office," Donald Lu, Assistant Secretary Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, had said. Blinken and Jaishankar will also meet with ministers from Australia and Japan. The four countries are part of Quad. (ANI)
Ramiz Alakbarov, the Deputy Special Representative of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said that Afghanistan's gross income has declined by 35 per cent, and nearly 700,000 people have lost their jobs over the past 18 months, the Khaama Press reported. Alakbarov, in a press conference on Tuesday, said that 65 per cent of the people need humanitarian aid, and millions are on the verge of catastrophic starvation in Afghanistan. According to the Khaama Press, a high-ranking UN official in Afghanistan has said that the price of essential food items has increased by 30 per cent, and three-fourths of the ordinary people's income goes to food only. Furthermore, he highlighted that currently, 28.3 million people in Afghanistan are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance, and six million people are on the verge of starvation. Besides the devastating earthquakes which hit Turkiye and Syria the worst in decades, the situation in Afghanistan is considered the biggest humanitarian crisis in the world in 2023, and natural disasters have added to the problem of the people as well. As per the report by the Khaama Press, Alakbarov described the natural disasters including floods and earthquakes in 2022 as quite unprecedented in Afghanistan and said that natural disasters might also adversely affect people in 2023. The United Nations has repeatedly called on rich countries to donate generously and help this organization in offering life-saving services for needy people across the world. "Budget request for Afghanistan make only 9 per cent of the total fund for global humanitarian aid, and it is requested that special attention should be paid to the Afghan people due to the existing humanitarian crisis in the war-torn country," Alakbarov said. This comes as the Afghan interim government is struggling with major economic issues and security challenges. The Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K) militants have intensified their attack, targeting foreign embassies, diplomatic missions, hotels, and educational institutions over the past months, which resulted in the death and injury of scores of innocent people. (ANI)
Russia is satisfied to see the potential of India's G 20 presidency, echoing Russian writer Leo Tolstoy and Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy and highlighting people's unity, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday. While addressing the gathering at an exhibition put up at a special G20 Pavilion under the Indian Chairmanship's initiative at the International Book Fair, Lavrov said, "It is truly emblematic that the 50th anniversary of the New Delhi World Book Fair, the event we are currently at, coincides with India's independence 75th anniversary today. Studying the rich legacy of these outstanding public figures and moral authorities of our countries is more relevant than ever." "We are satisfied to see the tremendous constructive potential of India's G 20 presidency, so aptly seen to echo Tolstoy and Gandhi's philosophy and highlight people's unity and mankind's shared future regime," he added. Russia on Wednesday cited the commonality of worldview and mutual influence of Leo Tolstoy and Mahatma Gandhi to demonstrate the strong historical ties with India. Hours after his arrival in New Delhi for the G20 Foreign Ministers' meeting, the Russian Foreign Minister spotlighted the closeness of both countries' approaches to the formation of a polycentric and fair world order. Equality of people, rejection of colonialism, as well as any other forms of domineering, were the core values that brought together Leo Tolstoy and Mahatma Gandhi, who had lived thousands of kilometres away from each other back then in the early 20th century. The great Russian author and the young lawyer corresponded for about a year. The ideals of equality and justice as well as those of love for one's labour, of course, inspired Gandhi for his non-violent resistance to the British colonial rule. "I would like to give a separate mention to the increased humanitarian cooperation between Russia and India. It is heartening to see that the creativity and the art of Russian authors elicit the most vivid responses among Indian readers. This is evidenced by the tremendous popularity of Russia's stand at the New Delhi Book Fair and other large events. Russian readers reciprocate India's interest towards their culture and are always interested to see Indian books," Lavrov said. He further stated, "I wish everyone every success. Have an interesting day. Mesmerizing and enlightened words and recalling the long association and friendship of Tolstoy and Gandhi, as well as India and Russia." (ANI)
People in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (Pok), Gilgit-Baltistan protested in two districts over the shortage of electricity and wheat, Dawn reported. According to the Pakistani newspaper, in Gilgit Baltistan, many residents including women gathered at the intersection and blocked Shahrah-i-Quaid-i-Azam in continued protest against 22 hours of daily power outages in their area. Protesters at Zulfiqarabad Chowk chanted slogans against the government and said the crisis had been going on for the last two weeks. The residents said they were sometimes deprived of even two hours of daily electricity supply, making their lives difficult amid winter. On top of it, they were also faced with wheat shortage, the protesters said and blamed the government for failing to provide even necessities to people, according to Dawn. One of the protesters said that the Gilgit Baltistan Chief Minister should be here to resolve public issues, but he was in Lahore "to protect former prime minister Imran Khan". Later, the protesters dispersed peacefully after Amin Baig, coordinator to the chief minister, negotiated with them and assured them of resolving their issues immediately. Meanwhile, the residents of Ghanche's Barah village, the hometown of GB Local Government Minister Haji Abdul Hameed, also staged a protest against the wheat shortage. The demonstrators blocked Siachen Road and staged a sit-in to press the government to fulfil their demands, reported Dawn. Prolonged power cuts have led to frequent angry demonstrations in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. Skardu city has been left totally without electricity for the past three months. Load-shedding has become a daily occurrence. Power shortage is not the only issue for the ACC protesters. Wheat and flour have disappeared from the shops, according to reports in Baad-e-Shimal, Daily K2. The power situation has worsened over the years despite the abundance of water resources in a region that is reputedly Pakistan's principal water reservoir. But only 16 per cent of the capacity for hydropower generation has been utilized so far. The estimated total hydropower potential of Pakistan is around 60,000 MW. Currently, the hydro installed capacity is only 10,251MW, around 25 per cent of the total installed capacity. Successive governments have resorted to imports as an easy solution. Writing in The News International (February 21, 2023), irrigation and power engineer Ali Rehmat Shimshali points to the overall neglect of hydropower and preference for fuel-based power generation. (ANI)
UK Labour party leader Keir Starmer has said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the Foreign Office seem to be pulling back support for British Sikh Jagtar Singh Johal, lodged in an Indian jail for five years. According to The Guardian, the Sunak government has refused invitations to echo assertions that India has arbitrarily detained Johal. Johal aka Jaggi Johal was arrested by Punjab Police on November 4, 2017, in Jalandhar over his alleged role in killings by the Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF), a banned terrorist organisation. Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson as well as a UN panel on arbitrary detention had said last year that Johal has been arbitrarily detained, without any prosecution started. Calling it an "important step", Starmer wrote to Sunak early in February asking him what action he intends to take on the matter. "I would like to ask if you can confirm if the UK government still believes that Jagtar is being arbitrarily detained and if so, what further steps your government will take to secure a breakthrough in the case?" he said. In response, according to The Guardian report, Sunak avoided the direct question, saying that the FCDO (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) "continues to provide consular support" to Johal and his family. The Labour leader said Johnson's recognition of arbitrary detention should have led the FCDO to formally seek the Briton's release, which did not happen."I am therefore concerned that in his response to my letter and in discussions with Jagtar's family, Rishi Sunak's government may now be backsliding on their previous stance. To ease these fears, it is crucial No. 10 and the Foreign Office make their position on arbitrary detention clear," The Guardian cited Starmer as saying. "It is the duty of the British government and political parties in Westminster to make proper representations and do what it takes to bring him home to his family in Dumbarton." An FCDO spokesperson told the paper that they have consistently raised concerns about Johal directly with the Indian government, including allegations of torture and his right to a fair trial. "We are committed to doing what we can to assist him," the spokesperson told The Guardian. The free Johal protests are now directed toward the British -- earlier they were targeting India -- after a BBC report revealed last year that the alleged KLF activist was arrested in India on the basis of information provided by the UK intelligence, IANS reported earlier. According to BBC, Johal's activities in the UK as a fundraiser for Sikh separatists active in Punjab were in the knowledge of the British intelligence agencies. --IANS mi/vd ( 450 Words) 2023-03-01-19:40:02 (IANS)
UAE's Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Wednesday arrived in India to participate in the G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting. Foreign Minister of Egypt, Sameh Shoukry and US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken have also arrived to participate in the meeting. "Welcome to India, FM Sameh Shoukry of Egypt @MfaEgypt, FM @ABZayed of UAE @MoFAICUAE and @SecBlinken of USA @StateDept. Looking forward to deliberations at the #G20FMM. @SecBlinken & FM Shoukry will also participate in #Raisina2023," Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said in a tweet on Wednesday. G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting under India's G20 presidency will be held on March 2.The meeting will be held at Rashtrapati Bhavan Cultural Centre and nearly 40 delegations are expected to participate. This will be second ministerial meeting being held under India's Presidency so far. The first ministerial meeting, Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, was held in Bengaluru. Foreign ministers of Canada, Argentina, Netherlands, Singapore and Bangladesh have also arrived in Delhi for the meeting. Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra said it is one of the largest gathering of the Foreign Ministers hosted by any G20 presidency. "The theme of India's G20 presidency has been enunciated repeatedly as Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, roughly translating into One Earth, One Family, One Future. For India, the G20 presidency also marks the beginning of Amrit Kaal, which will lead to the centenary of our independence, towards a futuristic, prosperous, inclusive and developed society with human-centric approach at its very core. This is also the spirit which propelled us to organize the Voice of the Global South Summit in January earlier this year, which saw participation of over 125 countries," Kwatra said at a press conference. (ANI)
UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly on Wednesday said that the India-UK Free Trade Agreement can and must deliver practical, real-world benefits for businesses in both countries and that this will give a strong message to the world that the two countries are committed to building closer partnerships. "FTA can and must deliver practical, real-world benefits for businesses in both of our countries. It will also send a strong signal to the whole world that our two great countries are committed to building even closer partnerships with each other," Cleverly said. Cleverly was addressing the gathering at the Confederation of Indian Industry's (CII) Special Plenary Session of India Europe Business and Sustainability Conclave in New Delhi on Wednesday. Union Minister Piyush Goyal also attended the session. Cleverly during his address said that UK and India, the 6th and 5th largest economies in the world respectively, must work closely together to contribute to the world's economic security and prosperity. "Today, we're living through a period of geopolitical competition. Russia's invasion of Ukraine sent shockwaves through global economy and across the world and we're seeing the ripple effect of that in food prices, energy prices, global insecurity," the UK Foreign Secretary said during the session. He further added: "I am also going to echo the wise words of Prime Minister Modi who was right when he said to Putin, "today's era is not an era of war." Vladimir Putin must listen to those words and heed those words. Sadly, he is not doing so yet." He said that in times of social and economic turbulence, trusted partners need to work even closely together. Piyush Goyal while addressing the session said that developed and developing countries must have different goals and timelines while being sensitive to each other's needs, potential goals and roadmap towards sustainability. Goyal highlighted that India has been one of the top 5 performers when it comes to benchmarking our work and meeting the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). 'Technology, finance and sustainable lifestyles are going to play an important role in ensuring sustainable growth', he opined. Goyal urged world leaders to recognize that everyone must contribute their fair share in improving energy efficiency, reducing waste, boosting the circular economy and in achieving green goals by transitioning and helping other nations transition to green growth to make the world a better place to live in. "India's partnership with the UK and the EU is significant in the global effort to make the planet safer and greener," he said. (ANI)
Xi had said in Samarkand in September last year that he and Lukashenko jointly announced upgrading bilateral relations to an all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership, injecting strong impetus into bilateral cooperation in various fields, Xinhua news agency reported.

For China, this year marks the beginning of the full implementation of the guiding principles laid down at the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. China's high-quality development and modernisation process will bring new opportunities to other countries including Belarus, Xi said.

Hailing the unbreakable China-Belarus friendship, Xi stressed that the two sides should further enhance political mutual trust and remain each other's good friends and partners.

He said China highly appreciates Belarus's firm support for China's justified position on issues related to Taiwan, Xinjiang and Hong Kong, and on human rights.

The two sides should firmly support each other's choice of development path, support each other in safeguarding respective core interests, oppose external interference in internal affairs, and protect their sovereignty and political security, Xi said.

The two presidents agreed to expand economic and trade cooperation, do a good job in building the China-Belarus Industrial Park, and focus on the joint building of the Belt and Road to advance cooperation in connectivity projects such as the China-Europe Railway Express service.

--IANS int/arm

( 237 Words)

2023-03-01-21:10:04 (IANS)
Handmade carpets or dramtse dhen are an alternate source of income for women in Bhutan's Zhemgang district's Cha-Ngar-Zam village, The Bhutan Live reported. A group of twelve women working in the Traditional Drumdhen Unit, weave carpets of all sizes and designs. The Traditional Drumdhen Unit not only generates profits but is also helping empower rural women. The women were in 2021, trained to weave carpets by the Handicrafts Association of Bhutan. Their handwoven carpets are of good quality and the group also uses locally sourced materials. Though the group is working in full force, their products are yet to capture the market. "Right after our training and setting up this unit, we could not start our production because of the pandemic. We had to keep a long gap in between," said Tsezom, a member. "After having skills and experience, I would say it would benefit us a lot because it fetches a good price in the market and I am pretty sure, this will benefit us," said Lungten Dema, another member, as quoted by The Bhutan Live. The members despite the promise of good profits, say the lack of a proper place to house their production unit is hampering their work. The current structure is government owned and is not in a good condition. A new centre is under construction below the current location. Members are hoping to enhance production when they move into the new structure. "The existing structure belongs to the government, and it is very inconvenient and difficult for us during the rainy season because rainwater seeps inside the open space," said Tsezom. "Let us see after the completion of the ongoing construction of our unit. We will sell our products through group bank account and not individually," said Tsewang Lhamo, a member, as quoted by The Bhutan Live. According to villagers, some youths are coming back to the village to learn carpet weaving. The Handicrafts Association of Bhutan provided weaving equipment and established the Traditional Drumdhen Unit in 2021. Theb Bhutan Live recently reported that the completion of a nine-kilometre-long farm road has uplifted the lives of people in Bhutan's Yuejug village. The village is one of the most remote villages in Singye Gewog. According to The Bhutan Live, access to a farm road contributes to generating increased agricultural income and easing the marketing of agricultural produce, thereby enhancing the quality of rural life. Yuejug village, located about 20 kilometres from Bhutan's Sarpang district, has remained cut off in the absence of a road. But with the completion of the first cutting, the people said their lives have become convenient and easier. (ANI)
An Australian-Indian man pleaded guilty to one count of behaving in an offensive and disorderly manner in an aircraft, and was fined AUS$750 by a local court this week. Hardik Patel, 46, from Rooty Hill in western Sydney, became aggressive and abusive onboard a 15-hour Air Canada flight from Vancouver due to heavy drinking, and was arrested upon his arrival at Sydney Airport earlier this month, the Daily Mail reported. The Air Canada crew found one litre bottle of Bacardi and a water bottle containing a liquid smelling strongly of alcohol with Patel. The crew confiscated the bottles as according to the Civil Aviation and Safety Authority, airline passengers can only consume alcohol provided by cabin crew during a flight. The crew reported that Patel had then become aggressive shortly before AC33 from Vancouver touched down. The Australian Federal Police officers, who arrested Patel, observed he had a "flushed face and a strong alcohol odour". According to a statement of facts submitted in the court, Patel "had poor ability to understand instructions and indifferent demeanour, which escalated to being abusive towards police". When the police told him that it is an offence to consume one's own alcohol in an aircraft, Patel's responses were "largely aggressive and incoherent", the Daily Mail reported. He continued to ask police why he was arrested and "became more verbally aggressive and argumentative towards police officers, yelling and screaming and trying to engage with members of the public," the report said. The police then decided to take Patel into custody "for his own safety and welfare and the welfare and safety of those around him", the statement submitted to the court said. The Downing Centre Local Court on Monday convicted Patel and fined him AUS$750. --IANS mi/vd ( 306 Words) 2023-03-01-21:56:01 (IANS)
Fire-worshipping festival celebrated in SW Chinas Yunnan

People's Daily Online) 16:03, February 28, 2023

Performers play musical instruments in the Axi Jihuo festival, in Hongwan village, Mile city, southwest China's Yunnan Province. (Photo/Pu Jiayong)

People of the Yi ethic group held the Axi Jihuo festival, a fire-worshipping festival in Hongwan village, Mile city, southwest China's Yunnan Province on Feb. 22, 2023, attracting large numbers of visitors from home and abroad.

Held on the third day of the second month of the Chinese lunar calendar, the festival is the most important ritual for the Axi people of the Yi ethnic group in Mile.

Participants drew patterns related to a fire on their bodies and faces. Wearing skirts made of reed leaves and flax, they danced to imitate the primitive people.

The traditional customs of Yi people are well preserved in Hongwan village. The village has prompted countryside tourism and rural vitalization by staging the festival.

(Web editor: Tian Yi, Du Mingming)
Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sander in "Murder Mystery 2." Netflix

Here are the best movies on Netflix in March.

Watch favorites like "Sleepless in Seattle" and "The Hangover."

Also check out Netflix originals like "Luther: The Fallen Sun" and "Murder Mystery 2."

"Big Daddy" (March 1)

Dylan Sprouse and Adam Sandler in "Big Daddy." The Sprouse twins shared the role of Julian 'Frankenstein' McGrath opposite Adam Sandler (right) in 'Big Daddy.'

A year after his hugely successful comedy "The Waterboy," Adam Sandler returned with this comedy in which he plays a guy who, after being dumped by his girlfriend who feels he's unmotivated, tries to prove her wrong by becoming the guardian of a boy who is left on his doorstep.

Let's just say he's not the best influence for the kid.

"Easy A" (March 1)

Emma Stone starred in "Easy A." Fox via Getty Images

Emma Stone is fantastic in this high school comedy in which she plays a clean-cut student who suddenly finds herself the center of attention after being the talk of the school for being a floozy.

But in reality, all she's doing is allowing guys to pay her to say they have hooked up with her.

"The Hangover" (March 1)

(L-R) Zach Galifianakis, Bradley Cooper, and Ed Helms in "The Hangover." Photo courtesy of Legendary Pictures

Before director Todd Phillips went and made "Joker," he crafted his greatest comedy work with this look at the outlandish happenings three friends go through while throwing a bachelor party. The movie would make Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, and Ed Helms instant stars.

The sequel and third movie are also available on Netflix, but honestly, just stick with watching the original.

"Magic Mike XXL" (March 1)

Channing Tatum in "Magic Mike XXL." Claudette Barius/Warner Bros.

Regardless of whether you liked "Magic Mike's Last Dance" or not, the second movie in this trilogy is always worth going back to watch.

Most of the original cast returns as Mike (Channing Tatum) takes the gang on a road trip to Myrtle Beach for one final performance for the ladies.

"National Lampoon's Animal House" (March 1)

John Belushi in "Animal House." Universal

John Landis' comedy classic follows one of the most troublesome fraternities ever to step on a college campus as its members wage constant chaos in whatever they do. It's the movie that made John Belushi a legend.

"Rango" (March 1)

"Rango." Paramount

This Oscar-winning animated movie stars Johnny Depp voicing a chameleon who finds himself the new sheriff of a dangerous outpost called Dirt.

Story continues

"Sleepless in Seattle" (March 1)

(L-R) Rosie O'Donnell and Meg Ryan in "Sleepless in Seattle." TriStar Pictures

Nora Ephron's beloved romantic comedy stars Meg Ryan as a woman who is on the verge of being married but changes her heart when she hears about the life of a widowed man (Tom Hanks) on the radio who lives on the other side of the country. Now, she's obsessed with learning more about him, and maybe even wants to meet him.

World War Z (March 7)

Brad Pitt in "World War Z." Jaap Buitendijk / Paramount Pictures

Brad Pitt plays a guy who is humanity's last chance as a zombie pandemic is on the verge of spreading across the globe.

"Luther: The Fallen Sun" (March 10)

Idris Elba in "Luther: The Fallen Sun." John Wilson/Netflix

This Netflix original has Idris Elba returning to play his memorable detective John Luther who is out to solve another unsolvable case.

"Riddick" (March 16)

Vin Diesel in "Riddick." Universal

Vin Diesel plays a notorious murderer who is left for dead on a desolate planet and must learn how to survive. The sci-fi character that originated with the 2000 movie "Pitch Black" is one of Diesel's most interesting characters.

Dive deeper into the character by watching "The Chronicles of Riddick" on the streamer before watching "Riddick."

"Murder Mystery 2" (March 31)

Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler in "Murder Mystery 2." Scott Yamano/Netflix

Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston return for a sequel to their Netflix original action comedy in which they play a couple who once more must solve a whodunit.

Read the original article on Insider
In this piece, we will take a look at the 12 biggest port terminal operators in the world. For more companies, head on over to 5 Biggest Port Terminal Operators in the World.

The global shipping industry has been in the media spotlight for the past couple of years. The sector first started to make headlines as the coronavirus pandemic started to take root globally and ships were prevented from docking at ports - leading to a container shortage and mental health problems for crews. Then, a year later in 2021, the Panama Canal was blocked for six days and almost immediately, prices of various goods soared all over the world. Just as the industry had started to recover from these events, the Russian invasion of Ukraine kicked off last year and forced oil shippers to take longer routes.

One integral part of the shipping industry is the port terminal sector. This industry deals with transporting goods from and to the ships that berth at harbors, and according to a research report from Infiniti Research Limited, the sector is set to grow by $42 billion between 2022 and 2027 at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.1%. This dollar value estimate is also mirrored by Technavio, who in a research report dives a bit deeper into the sector. It explains that food transportation will form the biggest chunk of the market, with APAC accounting for 67% of the overall growth estimate. The firm adds that growth in operations automation will aid the industry moving forward into the future, with machine to machine (M2M) communications and the Internet of Things (IoT) enabling terminal operators to improve costs and reduce hazards.

Zooming in on the U.S., the largest terminal operator in the country is Ports America, which has operations in 33 ports across 70 locations. Ports America came under a bit of controversy a while back, when Howard Marks' Oaktree Capital, which had assumed ownership of the company through buying Highstar Capital in 2014, decided to sell the firm to the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board in 2021. The sale opened a debate about crucial U.S. infrastructure making its way into foreign hands, with Federal Maritime Commissioners asking for a deeper review of the deal. While this might have come as a surprise to some, the problem of foreign companies owning U.S. ports has been around for decades, and the last time the issue created this much attention was in 2006 when Dubai Ports World attempted to buy facilities across six U.S. ports. Speaking at the House Subcommittee of Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation, Representative James Oberstart (D-MN) revealed that the problem was going on for even longer. He explained to the Committee that:

We have 95,000 miles of shore line, 361 U.S. ports. Eighty percent of our port terminals are operated by foreign companies. Ninety-eight percent of the cargo that we import or export goes on foreign flag vessels. And that is an issue that has been going in the wrong direction for the last 32 years, since I have served in Congress, despite all of our efforts to build a U.S. flag maritime fleet.

This problem has continued until today, with the latest data from 2021 revealing that Chinese companies own stakes in terminals at five U.S. ports, such as those in Long Beach, Seattle, Houston, Miami, and Los Angeles. Apart from China and Ports America, another major entity, also foreign, that controls U.S. ports is APM Terminals. APM Terminals is a subsidiary of A.P. Mller - Mrsk A/S (OTCMKTS:AMKBY), and in the firm's earnings call discussing its fourth quarter of 2022 results, its chief executive officer Mr. Vincent Clarc commented on the industry and noted that it remained resilient in a difficult environment:

That said, terminals remains an extremely resilient business with strong pricing and good cost control, which made it possible to offset the inflationary cost increase in 2022. The segment ROIC of 7.6% is still affected by the impairment of our Russian activities and adjusted for that, we continue to have an excellent ROIC of 12.3%. As we look towards a full normalization of the extraordinary storage income, we are confident that the segment ROIC will remain above the targeted 9%.

Today, we'll take a look at some of the largest port terminal companies in the world, with the big ticket names being Evergreen Marine Corporation (Taiwan) Ltd. (TPE:2603.TW), COSCO SHIPPING Holdings Co., Ltd. (OTCMKTS:CICOY), and CK Hutchison Holdings Limited (HKG:0001.HK).

12 Biggest Port Terminal Operators in the World

Photo by ammiel jr on Unsplash

Our Methodology

We analyzed the port terminal industry through several metrics such as tonnage, terminals operated, number of countries in operational footprint, revenue, and market capitalization. This enabled us to sift out both the biggest public and private firms in the sector, and these are ranked according to their revenue.

12 Biggest Port Terminal Operators in the World

12. China Merchants Port Holdings Company Limited (HKG:0144.HK)

Trailing Twelve Month Revenue: $1.05 billion (1USD = 0.13HKD)

China Merchants Port Holdings Company Limited (HKG:0144.HK) is a port operator headquartered in Central Hong Kong. The firm has operations in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and other countries. The firm builds ports, operates berths, and provides tugboats, and power for docked ships. The company is a subsidiary of the China Merchants Group, which is a state owned Chinese company. China Merchants Port Holdings Company Limited (HKG:0144.HK) also took over the lease of a Sri Lankan port after the country's economic crisis left it unable to pay its debts to China and other countries.

China Merchants Port Holdings Company Limited (HKG:0144.HK) joins COSCO SHIPPING Holdings Co., Ltd. (OTCMKTS:CICOY), Evergreen Marine Corporation (Taiwan) Ltd. (TPE:2603.TW), and CK Hutchison Holdings Limited (HKG:0001.HK) in our list of the biggest port terminal operators in the world.

11. Hutchison Port Holdings Trust (OTCMKTS:HUPHY)

Trailing Twelve Month Revenue: $1.54 billion (1USD = 0.13HKD)

Hutchison Port Holdings Trust (OTCMKTS:HUPHY) is a Singaporean company that is also headquartered in Singapore. It runs deep water container ports primarily in China, Hong Kong, and Macau. The company's fiscal year 2022 results disappointed investors as it missed analyst estimates for both revenue and earnings. Hutchison Port Holdings Trust (OTCMKTS:HUPHY) is also expected to reduce its revenue by 3.4% alongside an earnings drop of 9.6%. The firm's management attributed the results to a Chinese slowdown.

10. Hamburger Hafen und Logistik Aktiengesellschaft (FRA:HHFA.F)

Trailing Twelve Month Revenue: $1.66 billion (1USD = 1.06EUR)

Hamburger Hafen und Logistik Aktiengesellschaft (FRA:HHFA.F) is a German shipping company that is a subsidiary of HGV Hamburger Gesellschaft fur Vermogens- und Beteiligungsmanagement mbH. and is headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. The firm primarily operates terminals in its home country and in Europe, in areas such as Ukraine, Estonia, and Italy. Hamburger Hafen und Logistik Aktiengesellschaft (FRA:HHFA.F) is currently building a hydrogen station at its Hamburg port, as part of its efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

9. International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (OTCMKTS:ICTEF)

Trailing Twelve Month Revenue: $2.2 billion (1USD = 0.13HKD)

International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (OTCMKTS:ICTEF) is a Philippine based company that is headquartered in Manila. The firm operates ports and terminals all over the world, in regions such as Asia, Africa, and the Americas. It has 35 terminal operations and projects in 20 countries.

8. Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited (NSE:ADANIPORTS.NS)

Trailing Twelve Month Revenue: $2.3 billion (1USD = 0.012INR)

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited (NSE:ADANIPORTS.NS) is an Indian company that is the maritime arm of the Adani Group. The company is headquartered in Ahmedabad, India. The Adani Group is one of the biggest stories in the media these days, after allegations by a U.S. short seller accused the firm of shady accounting practices. In this controversy, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited (NSE:ADANIPORTS.NS) became a breath of fresh air for the Group, as it bought Israel's Haifa port for $1.2 billion in an attempt to paint business as normal. The company's shares have also performed better than the group's shares, as they are down by 'only' 32% year to date while the Adani Group has bled 65% of its market value.

7. PSA International Pte Ltd

Trailing Twelve Month Revenue: $3.48 billion (1SGD = 0.74SGD)

PSA International Pte Ltd is a Singaporean shipping company owned by the country's state owned investment management firm Temasek. It is one of the biggest terminal operators in the world, with 66 terminals under its belt. The firm's latest revenues stand at $3.48 billion.

6. A.P. Mller - Mrsk A/S (OTCMKTS:AMKBY)

Trailing Twelve Month Revenue: $4.4 billion

A.P. Mller - Mrsk A/S (OTCMKTS:AMKBY) is one of the largest marine shipping companies in the world. The firm operates in the terminal business through its subsidiary APM Terminals. A.P. Mller - Mrsk A/S (OTCMKTS:AMKBY)'s annual report for 2022 revealed that APM Terminals had earned $4.4 billion in revenue, which marked a $371 million annual growth. APM Terminals has access to 59 terminals across 31 countries, and its adjusted EBITDA stood at $1.2 billion last year. The firm's terminals in North America have the highest concession times among its global operations, which currently stand at 25 years.

Evergreen Marine Corporation (Taiwan) Ltd. (TPE:2603.TW), A.P. Mller - Mrsk A/S (OTCMKTS:AMKBY), COSCO SHIPPING Holdings Co., Ltd. (OTCMKTS:CICOY), and CK Hutchison Holdings Limited (HKG:0001.HK) are some of the biggest port terminal operators in the world.

Click to continue reading and see 5 Biggest Port Terminal Operators in the World.

Suggested Articles:

Disclosure: None. 12 Biggest Port Terminal Operators in the World is originally published on Insider Monkey.
marekuliasz / Getty Images

The current cost of Amazon Prime is $14.99 if you pay every month, or $139 per year, and Prime Video membership is $8.99. You might be trying to save money and think canceling Amazon Prime is an easy solution. After all, are you really watching that many Prime shows? The thing is, Amazon Prime offers a ton of benefits that you might be overlooking  or didnt even know about when you signed up. Here are some things to consider before you hit the cancel button on your Amazon Prime subscription.

See: 10 Aldi Brand Products Worth Buying

Find Out: 3 Signs Youre Serious About Raising Your Credit Score

Expedited Delivery

One of the best perks of Amazon Prime is the fast and free delivery thats available on millions of products. Some items even offer free same-day or next-day delivery for when you need items right away. You also have the option to pick up deliveries from nearby Amazon pickup locations if thats easier for you.

Exclusive Prime Deals

Amazon offers Prime members exclusive deals every day. These prices can range up to 50% off the normal price. There are new items offered daily, so no matter what youre looking for, Amazon is sure to offer it at a discounted rate if youre a Prime member.

Ability To Download Movies and Shows To Watch Later

About to go on a long flight? Going somewhere with unreliable Wi-Fi? With Prime, you can download select movies and shows to your device so you have them for later, no internet connection required. To download something from Amazon Prime onto your device, youll need a Fire tablet, or the Prime Video app for iOS, Android, macOS or Windows 10.

Take Our Poll: What Do You Plan To Use Your Tax Refund For?

Big Deals on Prime Day

Prime Day is usually technically two days long and offers deep discounts that only Amazon Prime members can access. The event typically happens twice a year. Another perk of being a Prime member is that youll get early access to these sales, so you can snag some of the top deals before they sell out.

Story continues

You Can Share Your Prime Benefits

Heres a cool perk: Prime members can share certain benefits with another person. You just have to add them to your Amazon Household, then youll both have access to Prime benefits.

Free Media Storage

Amazon Prime offers you the ability to be extra safe with your favorite photos and videos. Every member gets 5 GB free for full-resolution photos and videos, then its $1.99 a month after that for 100GB. You can access all your media across any device that can access Amazon Prime and grant access to others in private groups. From here, you can also order prints to be made of your images. You can even use your photos as your Echo Show home screen and Fire TV screensaver.

You Can Read Books for Free

With an Amazon Prime membership, you have access to Prime Reading, which gives you unlimited access to a rotating catalog of ebooks and audiobooks. You also have access to select magazines and comic books. Prime Reading materials are available on any device.

Free Prime Music Subscription

As a perk of having an Amazon Prime membership, you have access to Amazon Prime Music. This includes access to 100 million songs and an array of podcasts without having to listen to ads. You also get recommended new music and podcasts based on what you already listen to.

Access to Prime Gaming

Love video games? Youre in luck since your Prime Membership comes with access to tons of exclusive content for your favorite games, a rotating collection of free PC games and a free Twitch channel subscription that you can change every month if you want to. You also receive free two-day shipping on all official Twitch merchandise purchased in the United States.

Save at Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh Stores

As a Prime member, you can order groceries to be delivered the day you order them (within two hours of placing the order) from Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh. On top of that, youll save 10% on certain items at each of the stores just for being an Amazon Prime member.

Government Assistance Recipients Can Save on Membership Costs

If you receive EBT, Medicaid or other government assistance, you might qualify for an Amazon Prime membership that only costs $6.99 a month.

You Can Save Money If Youre a Student

If youre looking to save cash on your membership and youre enrolled in classes right now, you might qualify for Amazon Student. This will save you a lot on Amazon Prime. Students get Amazon Prime for $7.49 a month, or just $69 a year. Thats less than half the normal price.

More From GOBankingRates

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: 12 Reasons Amazon Prime Is Worth the Extra Cost
Mass burials in Izyum, Kharkiv Oblast

"In the case of the Izyum mass grave  unfortunately, people were buried there improperly, and the condition of the bodies is very bad  we still have 122 unidentified victims who died as a result of Russian aggression," Bolvinov said.

Read also: Izyums forest graves yield terrible evidence of Russian torture, war crimes

He noted that DNA profiles of all the victims have been obtained, and the investigation hopes the relatives of the victims will come forward.

On Sept. 15, mass graves were discovered in a forest belt on the territory of Izyum, following the areas liberation from Russian occupation by Ukrainian forces.

Read also: Over 400 bodies of victims of Russian occupation remain unidentified in Kharkiv Oblast

At the time, Bolvinov, said that about 440 graves had been found near the war-torn town in eastern Ukraine following its liberation by the Ukrainian military.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
(Bloomberg) -- Bola Tinubu wont have much time to celebrate his victory in Nigerias presidential election.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Africas biggest economy is facing a deepening fiscal crisis, acute shortages of domestic and foreign currency, and widespread insecurity. The governments ability to deal with those issues is being undermined by a gasoline subsidy that will drain 6 trillion naira ($13 billion) from state finances this year  about two-thirds of the revenue expected to be generated by oil and gas output.

For overseas investors, Nigerias multiple exchange rates and moves by the central bank to ration dollars are also a big deterrent.

The next president will be tasked with a course correction anchored on sound economic policies, fiscal and structural reforms, as well as monetary policy orthodoxy, JPMorgan Securities Plc analyst Gbolahan Taiwo wrote in a note. The top policy priorities are clear with fuel subsidy reforms and the liberalization of the foreign-exchange market at the top of the agenda, he said.

Its going to be politically difficult to scrap the popular price cap thats used by residents and small businesses in Africas most populous nation to run cars and power generators in the energy-deficient country. Outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari resisted pressure from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to end the payments that dwarf spending on education and health combined.

Arbitrary Policy

In his election manifesto, the 70-year-old Tinubu pledged to end the subsidies and use the money to fund health and education programs, as well as infrastructure and social-welfare projects. Previous efforts to end the payments triggered social unrest.

The president-elect also promised to carefully review and better optimize the nations system of multiple exchange rates  a central bank policy hes described as somewhat arbitrary. He hasnt said whether he will retain central bank Governor Godwin Emefiele, whose unorthodox policies have been criticized for being interventionist.

Story continues

The IMF has cited central bank interventions in Nigerias foreign-exchange market as a hindrance to capital inflows. Foreign direct investment in the West African nation plunged 52% to $698 million in the six years through 2021. By comparison, inflows into Indonesia increased 6% to $31 billion in the same period.

Many of the issues that worried the Nigerian electorate in 2015 are a bigger headache in 2023  significantly due to the self-inflicted fiscal and monetary decisions, said Leena Koni Hoffmann, an associate fellow at Chatham House in London. Tinubu would need to marshal an extraordinary amount of political capital and consensus to redirect and reunite a fractured and volatile Nigeria.

Tinubus other campaign commitments include ensuring that his administration limits the nations exposure to foreign-currency debt. He plans to contract non-naira loans only for projects that generate cash flows from which the debt can be repaid.

Nigerian public debt has grown more than six-fold since Buhari became president in 2015 with servicing costs consuming about 80% of government income last year. The IMF projects the country may spend more on servicing its loans than it raises in revenue this year unless it significantly improves tax collection.

Tinubu will be sworn on May 29 as the countrys fifth democratically elected president since the end of military rule a quarter century ago. The former leader of Nigerias commercial hub of Lagos also plans to reverse a decline in oil output  setting an ambitious target to boost production of about 1.5 million barrels a day by more than 70% by 2027.

Africas biggest crude producer has been unable to meet its OPEC quota since the beginning of last year because of pipeline theft and dwindling investment in an industry that accounts for more than 80% of export earnings.

His positioning on the oil sector, including subsidy and leadership at the central bank, will be key points to watch, said Ayodeji Dawodu, head of Africa sovereign and corporate credit research at BancTrust & Co. This will have significant implications on Nigerias economic performance and direction.

--With assistance from Mike Cohen.

(Updates with analysts comment in ninth paragraph.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
In this piece, we will take a look at the 15 biggest airplane manufacturing companies in the world. For more companies, head on over to 5 Biggest Airplane Manufacturing Companies in the World.

When it comes to high technology, the aircraft industry ranks right at the top of the food chain, alongside semiconductor fabrication and astronautics. The modern day jet aircraft - whether civilian or military - has hundreds of thousands of parts which are often shipped from all over the world for final assembly into the beast that takes to the skies.

Naturally, this amount of complexity makes for high barriers to entry into the industry and leaves only a handful of firms that are able to make and sell airplanes. Due to their size, jets also take months to assemble and end up costing millions of dollars. This high cost also makes the aircraft manufacturing industry one of the most lucrative in the world - and one which sees little threat from new entrants. For instance, a research report from Polaris Market Research outlines that the aircraft manufacturing market was worth $413 billion in 2021 and that it will grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.7% between then and 2030 to be worth an estimated $626 billion by the end of the forecast period.

As is the case with nearly every high tech industry, perhaps except semiconductors, Polaris Market Research also highlights that North America was the largest aircraft manufacturing market in 2021 with a large demand for next generation airplanes fueling the growth. However, despite being the largest, North America will not be the fastest growing sector, as this title will go to Asia Pacific which is fueled by the growing populations of India and China spurring demand and increasing the need for planes to fly people around.

The aircraft industry is also evolving, with new manufacturing and computing technologies providing companies the opportunity to improve their operations. One interesting innovation that has made its way to the manufacturing line is the use of smart glasses. These are eyewear that comes equipped with digital displays and provides the assembly technician useful inputs throughout their activities. For instance, The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA), which is one of the world's largest aircraft manufacturers, has found that using these wearables in its wire harness assembly has enabled it to reduce production time by a massive 25%. Boeing is not the only one that uses smart glasses in the aircraft supply chain. One of the world's most advanced jet engine manufacturers, General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), has been researching their use since 2017 and found that not only did the mechanics who are responsible for tightening nuts on fuel lines see their productivity improve by 8% due to smart glasses but that 85% of those surveyed said that they reduced errors and 60% preferred using the wearables.

Story continues

Another trend in the industry is the push towards sustainable aviation fuels since air travel is among the leading sources of carbon dioxide emissions. On this front, Boeing announced in February 2023 that it plans to procure 5.6 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel for its 2023 flight operations, more than doubling last year's procurement and accounting for a quarter of the aerospace giant's total fuel needs. Not to be left behind, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is looking at the future as it is designing aircraft that reduce fuel use through their airframe. NASA's Sustainable Flight Demonstrator project aims to invest $425 million with Boeing over seven years as part of the White House's Climate Action Plan.

At the same time, demand for conventional aviation is also booming, with Boeing's chief executive officer (CEO) Mr. Matt Welch sharing an update during the firm's fourth quarter of 2022 earnings call held in January 2023. Mr. Welch sounded optimistic about his company's future, sharing that demand was strong across Boeing's portfolio, as he explained that:

On the order front and on the market side, we continue to see very strong demand across the portfolio. More than 800 net orders on the year, driven by the 737 MAX and the 787, highlighted most recently by the very historic deal with UAL, United Airlines in December. In 2022, we sold 200-plus net wide bodies. Thats the most since 2018. More broadly, the 737 MAX team has made tremendous progress. Fleet is performing exceptionally well. Production is stabilizing, demand is strong. We delivered 1,000-plus 737 MAXs in total now. And since our return to service, the fleet has surpassed 3 million flight hours. Its safe and its the most reliable of the airplane fleets. Production, weve all gone from 0 to 31 a month and were prioritizing stability, which we have not yet achieved, but were on a steady course to do so. And orders, more than 1,500 gross orders to date. 737 MAX returning to service in China is another indication of this overall improvement in our business. This month, of course, we all know that, that occurred. We have more airplanes on the Tarmac in China to bring back into service just as we did here in the U.S. before we began any deliveries of any sort.

The Boeing chief also shared the cheer flowing through his as NASA launched the SLS rocket (built by Boeing) to the Moon last year, and stated:

Our SLS launch. This was an enormous emotional upper for our company and for our team broadly. The Artemis 1 launch in November, which was powered by the SLS rocket was more than a little inspiring.

Today, we'll look at some of the biggest aircraft manufacturing companies in the world. One of these, unsurprisingly, is Boeing, while the others include Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT) and the Aviation Industry Corporation of China.

15 Biggest Airplane Manufacturing Companies in the World

Our Methodology

As a starting point for our list, we first listed all publicly traded companies that make planes and selected them through market capitalization. Then, private or state-owned firms were added to the mix, and the resulting curation was ranked through the latest revenue statistics available. However, some firms that are major players but whose revenue isn't available are also included.

15 Biggest Airplane Manufacturing Companies in the World

15. Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, Ltd.

Latest Available 12 Month Revenue: N/A

The Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, Ltd., commonly known as Comac, is a Chinese state owned aircraft manufacturing company. It had delivered 101 single aisle. dual engine aircraft as of March 2022 and is designing a double aisle aircraft that it aims to deliver by 2026. Comac's first aircraft took to the skies in 2007.

Along with Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT), The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA), and Aviation Industry Corporation of China, Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, Ltd. is one of the biggest airplane makers in the world.

14. Embraer S.A. (NYSE:ERJ)

Latest Available 12 Month Revenue: $730 million (1BRL = 0.19USD)

Embraer S.A. (NYSE:ERJ) is a Brazilian company that is headquartered in Sao Paulo. It primarily makes and sells small aircraft that can carry between 66 to 146 passengers. In total, the firm has seven different civilian commercial aircraft with active production lines. Embraer S.A. (NYSE:ERJ) also makes and sells military and private jets, and is known for its role in making the renowned JAS 39 Gripen fighter.

13. Korea Aerospace Industries, Ltd. (KRX:047810.KS)

Latest Available 12 Month Revenue: $2 billion (1KRW = 0.00076USD)

Korea Aerospace Industries, Ltd. (KRX:047810.KS) is a South Korean company that is made up of the former aerospace divisions of some of the country's largest chaebols. Currently, the firm produces supersonic trainer aircraft, turboprop training aircraft, and piston engine trainers. It is also licensed to upgrade Boeing's 737, has been involved in F-16 production, and is designing a multi role, stealth, and supersonic fighter jet.

12. Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (NSE:HAL.NS)

Latest Available 12 Month Revenue: $3 billion (1INR = 0.012USD)

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (NSE:HAL.NS) is an Indian state owned aircraft company. The firm makes all kinds of aircraft, ranging from fighter jets, to trainers, and passenger jets. One of its trainers has been flying for three decades, and the firm expects its first regional airliner to be in service by 2026.

11. Public Joint Stock Company United Aircraft Corporation (MCX:UNAC.ME)

Latest Available 12 Month Revenue: $5.93 billion (1INR = 0.013USD)

Public Joint Stock Company United Aircraft Corporation (MCX:UNAC.ME) is a Russian publicly traded company that is one of the most advanced airplane manufacturers in the world. The firm makes the Tupolev, Illyushin, and Superjet lines of civilian and cargo aircraft alongside its well known Sukhoi line of fighter jets.

10. Bombardier Inc. (TSX:BBD-B.TO)

Latest Available 12 Month Revenue: $6.9 billion

Bombardier Inc. (TSX:BBD-B.TO) is a Canadian business jet company that is headquartered in Montreal. The firm has three jet lineups in its fleet and it also makes a helicopter. It also offers aftermarket parts and services for its products

9. Dassault Aviation Societe anonyme (EPA:AM.PA)

Latest Available 12 Month Revenue: $7.6 billion (1EUR = 1.06USD)

Dassault Aviation Societe anonyme (EPA:AM.PA) is a French aircraft company that makes and sells business and fighter jet aircraft. Its Falcon family of business jets have almost a dozen models, and the fighter jet arm is known for the highly reliable and popular Mirage aircraft as well as the Rafale - one of the few fifth generation fighter aircraft in the world.

8. Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT)

Latest Available 12 Month Revenue: $12.8 billion

Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT) is the parent company of Textron Aviation, which is one of the biggest small aircraft manufacturers in the world. Textron Aviation has been making planes for decades and has built more than two hundred thousand to date.

Insider Monkey's Q4 2022 survey of 943 hedge funds revealed that 36 had bought Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT)'s shares. Out of these, Israel Englander's Millennium Management is Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT)'s largest investor with a $157 million stake that comes via 2.2 million shares.

7. Leonardo S.p.a. (BIT:LDO.MI)

Latest Available 12 Month Revenue: $15.32 billion (1EUR = 1.06USD)

Leonardo S.p.a. (BIT:LDO.MI) is an Italian aviation and aerospace company. The firm builds the Eurofighter Typhoon - Europe's backbone fighter jet - in partnership with Airbus and BAE Systems as well as the ATR turboprop regional propeller aircraft.

6. Safran SA (EPA:SAF.PA)

Latest Available 12 Month Revenue: $20.64 billion (1EUR = 1.06USD)

Safran SA (EPA:SAF.PA) is a French firm that forms a crucial part of the aircraft supply chain. The firm makes and sells critical airplane components such as landing gears, wheels, engine nacelles (pods or covers), avionics, wiring, fluid management systems, software, and most important of all, engines.

Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT), Safran SA (EPA:SAF.PA), The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA), and Aviation Industry Corporation of China are some of the biggest airplane manufacturers in the world.

Click to continue reading and see 5 Biggest Airplane Manufacturing Companies in the World.

Suggested Articles:

Disclosure: None. 15 Biggest Airplane Manufacturing Companies in the World is originally published on Insider Monkey.
A 19-year-old was found dead in the woods one day after his mother reported him missing in Massachusetts, police say.

Daniel Cambrourelis-Haskins was last known to be near the Milford Bike Trail, where he ended up pushing his bicycle after getting a flat tire the evening of Feb. 27, according to Milford police.

That day, Cambrourelis-Haskins left his home in Hopkinton in the morning and didnt arrive home at 5 p.m. as expected, his mother later told 911 dispatchers, police said in a news release.

Around 6 p.m., Cambrourelis-Haskins spoke to his mother over the phone and said his phone was dying, according to police. She then reported him missing around 7:30 p.m.

Authorities launched a search, saying he needed first responder assistance immediately.

Cambrourelis-Haskins body was found in the woods in Milford the evening of Feb. 28, police said in another news release. It wasnt specified where in the woods he was found or if it was near the bike trail.

The investigation into his death is ongoing, police said. This appears to be an isolated incident and there is no danger to the public.

His death is being investigated by Milford police, Hopkinton police and state police detectives from the Worcester County District Attorneys Office.

McClatchy News contacted authorities inquiring about any updates in the case on March 1.

Milford is about 40 miles southwest of Boston

Body found in river is identified as 14-year-old missing for months, New York cops say

Women spend 5 days in frigid woods after running out of gas, Maine officials say

Man from Georgia traveled out of state for business trip. Now, hes missing, cops say

Toddler goes missing while parent slept. Then former Marine finds him in Florida woods
Two commanders and four subordinates at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, an installation that is crucial to America's nuclear triad, have been fired from their jobs, reportedly after officials lost faith in their ability to perform their mission.

Col. Gregory Mayer, the commander of the 5th Mission Support Group, and Maj. Jonathan Welch, the commander of the 5th Logistics Readiness Squadron, were both relieved of their jobs, a Minot Air Force Base spokeswoman confirmed to Military.com on Tuesday morning.

"These personnel actions were necessary to maintain the very high standards we demand of those units entrusted with supporting our Nation's nuclear mission," Maj. Gen. Andrew J. Gebara, commander of 8th Air Force, said in an Air Force Global Strike Command press release Monday.

Read Next: Military Services Will Amend COVID Vaccine Refuser Records So They Aren't Passed Over for Promotions

Air Force Global Strike Command added that, in addition to the two commanders, four subordinate leaders were fired by other officials at Minot. The firings were "due to a loss of confidence in their ability to complete their assigned duties," according to the Monday press release.

The names of the subordinates are not being publicized by base leaders.

"To protect the privacy of the individuals, further details will not be released," the news release said.

The services often don't disclose specifics of why commanders are relieved of their duties, typically citing the federal Privacy Act, which protects military records, and relying on the vague phrase "loss of trust and confidence" instead of detailing the specific reasons behind a shake-up, including whether there was misconduct.

An Air Force biography about Mayer's career has been removed from the base's website, but an archived copy on the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine shows he took on his role as commander of the 5th Mission Support Group in June 2022.

Story continues

He was commissioned in the Air Force after graduating from Texas A&M University's ROTC program in 1999 and had deployments to Iraq, Kuwait and Oman in various roles.

The 5th Mission Support Group assists and supports the "5th Bomb Wing's 28 B-52 strategic bombers, the 91st Missile Wing's 165 Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic missiles and Launch control centers, and the 54th Helicopter Squadron's eight UH-1 helicopters," according to Mayer's biography.

Biographical details about Welch's career were not immediately available.

The shake-up in leadership also comes as Air Force officials are now investigating whether service members in a wide assortment of jobs who have served at any of the nation's intercontinental ballistic missile bases, including Minot, are at risk for Non-Hodgkin lymphoma and other cancers.

-- Thomas Novelly can be reached at thomas.novelly@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @TomNovelly.

Related: Special Operations Commander Fired After Being Arrested for Alleged Drunk Driving, Hit and Run
Editors Note: This story has been updated to clarify that the two men were cited by authorities.

STANTON COUNTY, Neb. (KCAU)  Two men have been cited for killing an American bald eagle and planning to make a meal of it, Nebraska authorities say.

According to a release from the Stanton County Sheriffs Office, officials were called around 4 p.m. to investigate a suspicious vehicle at the main Wood Duck Recreation Area near Stanton, Nebraska.

Officials said they found the vehicle in a field, where the two men had a dead eagle with them.

According to the release, officials said Ramiro Hernandez-Tziquin and Domingo Zetino-Hernandez, both 20, had shot the eagle, a protected species, and planned to cook and eat it.

These US bird species face a tipping point as populations decline sharply, report finds

Officials cited the two men, both of whom are Honduran nationals who needed an interpreter, for the unlawful possession of an eagle. Herneanez-Tziquin was also cited for not having a drivers license.

Nebraska Games and Parks took the bird and the rifle allegedly used to shoot it.

The investigation is ongoing, and more serious charges are possible.

According to the National Audubon Society, the number of bald eagles had been in serious decline  due largely to shootings  during most of the 20th century. However, their numbers have been seeing a gradual increase since the 1970s.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
US President Joe Biden speaks during a press conference where he announced Julie Su as his nominee to be the next Secretary of Labor during an event in the East Room of the White House on March 1, 2023, in Washington, DC. Win McNamee/Getty Images

The US Senate voted down a Biden-backed socially conscious investing rule 50-46.

Two Democratic senators up for reelection in 2024 joined Republicans in opposing ESG.

It's likely to be a short-lived win since neither chamber has the votes to override a promised veto.

Two reelection-wary Democratic senators joined a united GOP caucus in disapproving of a Labor Department rule allowing for socially conscious investing by retirement fund managers, a procedural loss the Biden administration can overcome with a promised veto.

Wednesday's defectors, both of whom are facing tough reelection bids this cycle in states Donald Trump won by double digits in 2020, include Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana.

The duo joined the 48 Senate Republicans present in spiking the DOL rule allowing investment advisors to consider "the economic effects of climate change," voting it down 50-46.

The absence of Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, and John Fetterman of Pennsylvania left Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer three votes down before deliberations even started. Republican Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho also missed votes throughout Wednesday.

Congressional Review Act resolutions like the one challenging the ESG rule only require a simple majority vote, rather than the 60-vote threshold required to break a standard filibuster.

Republican Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana, who led part of the multi-pronged effort to thwart Biden's proposal and stir up conservatives ahead of the 2024 elections, told Insider that he doubted that the Senate or House could muster the two-thirds majority vote in each chamber to override the looming presidential veto.

But he said putting Biden on the defensive feels "pretty good."

"Biden will have to explain why he thinks it's a good idea to put a rule in place that would give him a 30% lower return," Braun said at the US Capitol.

The GOP's ongoing battle against environmental, social and corporate governance issues seeks to curtail the billions of dollars in ESG-related investments already coursing through state-run pension funds and personal 401k retirement accounts.

Story continues

Opponents like Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin maintain that considering ESG to any degree puts political ideology above financial returns.

Democratic Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota begged to differ, telling colleagues on the Senate floor that the Biden rule "doesn't force choices, it creates choices."

Congress can't do much else to counter ESG at this point, Braun conceded.

But he said all hope isn't lost.

"The only other part of government that could weigh in on it would be the courts," Braun said, dangling the possibility that a circuit court judge or the US Supreme Court could still intervene somewhere down the line.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Two teenagers stole then crashed a vehicle into a police cruiser, injuring a Columbus officer.

>> TRENDING: Police make arrest in connection to deadly shooting of 2 women at Dayton gas station

Columbus Police were dispatched to the 3600 block of Karl Road at around 7:15 a.m. after receiving reports of an armed robbery at a local business, a spokesperson for the department stated. The suspects fled the scene before officers arrived.

A preliminary investigation found that the suspects were driving a stolen Kia.

Franklin County Sheriffs Office and Clinton Township Police were able to locate the suspect vehicle two hours later near Walford Street and Elmore Avenue, the spokesperson continued.

A Columbus Police cruiser responded to the area and was hit by the suspect vehicle at a high rate of speed, causing heavy damage to both vehicles, the spokesperson said. While authorities were uncertain of the Kias exact speed at the time of collision, they noted that the Kia was driving above the areas 25 mph speed limit.

Following the crash, the officer was pinned inside his cruiser and had to be extricated. Medics treated him at the scene, but was later taken to a local hospital for further care. He was in stable condition.

The teenage suspects were safely removed from their car and treated by medics. However, during their treatment, the teens attempted to run away on foot.

Authorities caught the teens and arrested them without further incident, the spokesperson informed. They also discovered and confiscated a firearm.

No charges were filed directly following the crash.

We will update this story as it develops and more information is released.












electhunterlarkin.com

A 23-year-old mayor who was accused of staging a coup to retake office last month after stepping down in 2022 amid an ethics scandal says hes protecting the citizenry from woke, liberal, mafioso-style people foisting a leftist agenda on them.

They want to attack me so they can put their own person on the city council and as mayor and push their liberal propaganda, their woke propaganda, Hunter Larkin, the mayor of Goddard, Kansas, told talk radio host and former Republican state legislator John Whitmer.

Larkins two main political foes are both Republicans, but that did nothing to stop him from presenting himself as a crucial bulwark against progressivism, saying he was the one best suited to preserve Goddards traditional values.

On Whitmers show, which aired Sunday, Larkin described Goddard, a suburb of Wichita with a population of 5,300, as small-town USA.

We have the nuclear family where you have the mother, you have the father, you have the kids, he said. And at the center of everything, theres God, okay?

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=248715820590622&set=pb.100063566162201.-2207520000.

Larkin, who was arrested for DUI in 2021 and later pleaded guilty, went on to trash former Goddard councilman Michael Proctor, a Republican who is now leading a bipartisan, grassroots recall effort to force Larkin from office. Proctor is nothing more than a RINO, or Republican In Name Only, who is jealous of his success, claimed Larkin.

And of former Goddard Mayor Larry Zimmermanwhose seat Larkin usurped by exploiting procedural minutiae in an extraordinary move many observers likened to a coup detatLarkin claimed he didnt hold a gun to his head to tell him to leave. (In fact, Zimmerman, also a Republican, automatically retained his council seat but resigned on the spot, in disgust, after Larkin maneuvered his way back into power and promptly fired the Goddard city administrator upon once again becoming mayor.)

Story continues

Larkin unironically blamed the toxic atmosphere in modern politics on misinformation, decrying the influence of social media. Those that dont agree with Larkins views see him as the devil, he said.

Theyre just awful, Larkin continued. And I keep on thinking about Ronald Reagans quote, you probably know it: Thats the problem with our liberal friends, is not that theyre ignorant, but its that they know so much that isnt so. And this is the example of what's going on in Goddard, are these liberal, woke people, and these RINO Republicans, they know so much that isnt so. And Im not going to give it any attention.

Proctor, according to Larkin, wanted to be mayor, and coveted a seat in the state legislature, as well.

And both of those things never happened, he told Whitmer, alleging that Proctor has teamed up with these Democrats to expel him. And he is upset with me.

Proctor grew up in Goddard and relinquished his seat on the city council last year when he moved to another town nearby. He told The Daily Beast that Larkins claims are nothing short of absurd, emphasizing that he never had any interest in running for the statehouse.

City of Goddard

Hes trying to say Im just butt-hurt and the rest are liberals in sheeps clothing that Im harnessing for ill will, Proctor said Wednesday, noting that one of the people quietly helping out in the recall bid previously served in a Republican leadership position.

He believes Larkinwho works for a company owned by a local real estate family that has donated heavily to Larkins political ambitions and relies on Goddards city legislature to approve or deny things like building permitsis just trying to to distract from his ethical issues with the appearance of a personal vendetta.

Proctor explained that the Goddard mayor and city council members serve at-large and dont officially claim party affiliations. In his latest stint as mayor, Larkin, according to Proctor, has taken to creating his own reality.

Zimmerman, who told The Daily Beast he almost always votes Republican, has been part of Goddards municipal fabric for more than three decades, serving at one point on the city council with Proctors grandfather.

Last May, then-Vice-Mayor Zimmerman allowed Larkin to maintain a portion of his dignity in the wake of ethical concerns that would have otherwise seen him forced from office, he said. (Larkin was promoted from city council president to mayor in August 2020, when the then-mayor of Goddard stepped down over a fraud charge for counterfeiting tickets to a local Zoobilee charity event.)

The council gave him the choice to either step down or be removed, and he stepped down to save face, Zimmerman said Wednesday, noting that this was the first time he has ever publicly revealed this behind-the-scenes detail. And that made him unhappy, and he was looking for an opportunity to get back in and be mayor again.

But, Zimmerman added, Apparently saving face isnt something hes too concerned about, the way hes now slamming everybody else.

electhunterlarkin.com

Larkin should have stepped aside long before it came to that, because he was voting on issues involving [people] who were contributing to his campaign, Zimmerman continued. After he was no longer Goddards mayor, Zimmerman said Larkin did not have control over how money was being spentit was being watched over by the city administrator.

And he basically got together and created a coup because he knew I would not remove the city administrator, Zimmerman explained. There was no reason to. And so now we have a city council that has chosen to blindly follow Larkin into wherever he is taking them, with no one to watch over what theyre spending money on because hes got the final say on their expenditures. And now the taxpayer has no one to raise a red flag, except the citizens themselves, who will now have to watch every [city council] meeting.

Zimmerman said he was on the Goddard city council for 23 years before walking out in protest. That entire time, he maintained, things ran smoothly. Now, the opposite is true. (Larry doesnt care to be mayor, said Proctor. But hes been a great asset to the city council because he knows so much about how we got to where were at. Larry knows the backstory.)

That Larkin is once again running Goddard is a black eye for all involved, and casts a dark shadow over the city, according to Zimmerman. Until Larkin took office again in January, Goddard was respected by other cities and legislators in the region.

And now were not, he said. Its going to take us five to 10 years for us to rebuild our reputation after hes gone.

Proctor said the recall petition is awaiting authortities approval to proceed. Larkins term as mayor of Goddard expires at the end of 2023, after which he plans to run for a seat in the Kansas statehouse.

His campaign website, a leftover from a prior, unsuccessful bid for the same office, says he will defend the ideals so many of us hold dear, such as voter integrity, right to bear arms, protecting the unborn and keeping Critical Race Theory (CRT) out of schools.

Larkin told The Daily Beast via text that he was focused on Goddard and preserving the virtues that my constituents value.

My position is that there are many outside forces like The Daily Beast that push their Woke agendas and feel it necessary to attack the small town American values possessed by communities such as Goddard, Larkin said. We are proud of our way of life and are doing just fine without you. As mayor I will defend my city against you and your Woke friends.

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.
For the second time, a group of well-heeled Palm Springs residents is fighting to remove the 26-foot statue of Marilyn Monroe by the late sculptor Seward Johnson that was installed last year on a public site next to the Palm Springs Museum of Art, the Art Newspaper reported Monday.

Forever Marilyn depicts Monroe in the iconic white dress she wore in the 1955 romcom The Seven Year Itch and, just as in the movies most memorable scene, the dresss hem is lofted upward, as if the actress is perpetually standing over a New York City subway grate.

More from Robb Report

Residents are infuriated by the sculptures provocative nature, specifically the lifted dress that reveals Marilyns unmentionables from some angles.

You come out of the museum and the first thing you see is a 26-foot-tall Marilyn Monroe with her entire backside and underwear exposed, Palm Springs Museum of Arts executive director Louis Grachos said at a city council meeting in 2020, when he opposed the installation. What message does that send to our young people, our visitors and community to present a statue that objectifies women, is sexually charged and disrespectful?

Protests besieged the installation in 2021 amid calls that the work was misogyny in the guise of nostalgia, derivative, tone deaf, in poor taste, and the opposite of anything the museum stands for.

Now, a once-dismissed lawsuit filed by the activist group CReMa (the Committee to Relocate Marilyn) against the City of Palm Springs has been reopened this month by Californias 4th District Court of Appeals, giving the anti-Marilyn cohort, which includes fashion designer Trina Turk and Modernist design collector Chris Menrad, another chance to force the statues removal.

Story continues

The suit hinges on whether or not Palm Springs has the right to close down the street on which the statue was installed. According to California law, the city has the right to block traffic on public streets for temporary events. Palm Springs planned to bar traffic near the giant Marilyn for three years. CReMa disagrees, and so did the Appellate court.

These enactments allow cities to temporarily close portions of streets for short-term events like holiday parades, neighborhood street fairs and block parties proceedings that generally last for hours, days or perhaps as long as a few weeks. They do not vest cities with the expansive power to close public streetsfor years on endso statues or other semi-permanent works of art may be erected in the middle of those streets, the courts decision read.

There have even been a few ideas about where the sculpture should go. In a comment on a Change.org petition with 41,953 signatures titled Stop the misogynist #MeTooMarilyn statue in Palm Springs, Los Angeles artist Nathan Coutts said if it must be displayed, move it down the road with the concrete dinosaurs near Cabazon, where it can exist as the campy roadside attraction it excels at being.

The sculpture was purchased in 2020 by PS Resorts, a city-funded tourist agency that was mandated to increase tourism to Palm Springs. According to the Art Newspaper, the city council unanimously voted in 2021 for the statues placement near the museum.

Best of Robb Report

Sign up for Robb Report's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.
[Source]

Japans space agency revealed their two newest recruits on Tuesday: a surgeon and a disaster prevention specialist.

Ayu Yoneda, the youngest candidate to be selected by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), will become the third Japanese woman to go to space after she completes a two-year training program.

The 28-year-old Japanese Red Cross Medical Center surgeon was chosen along with Makoto Suwa, 46, from a pool of 4,127 applicants, of which only 22.2% were women.

JAXA received four times the amount of applications last year after changing their application prerequisites, no longer requiring applicants to have obtained a university degree.

More from NextShark: 85-year-old Asian man with heart condition reported missing in Oregon

Suwa, a senior disaster prevention specialist for the World Bank, was chosen this year after a previous unsuccessful attempt to join the program more than a decade ago. He studied geosciences at Princeton University before going to Rwanda to teach through the Japanese International Cooperation Agencys overseas volunteer program as well as the U.N.s World Meteorological Organization.

The new recruits learned of their acceptance by phone on Monday.

Suwa, who attended Tuesdays news conference from the United States through a video call, said he has been so excited since learning he had been picked that he has not been able to sleep.

More from NextShark: Viral TikTok of 'COVID-19 Positive' Asian Woman Spitting on Bananas is FAKE

Yoneda, a graduate of the University of Tokyos School of Medicine, likewise expressed her excitement.

"I was happy and surprised," she told The Japan Times. "I also felt a sense of responsibility and calling, which was a very sobering experience, and eventually a sense of gratitude to the people who have supported me thus far."

Yoneda, who will be joining the current six-person Japanese crew of all men, continued: "Of course there are factors such as age and gender, and I think that men and women are often viewed in different ways, but I myself would like to put forth my best first as an astronaut candidate rather than as one that is a young female."

Story continues

More from NextShark: Facebook, Twitter and Google escape Indonesia ban by complying with imposed registration at last minute

Both Yoneda and Suwa gained interest in becoming astronauts at a young age.

As a child, Yoneda became interested in space after receiving a biographical manga from her father of the first Japanese woman in space, Chiaki Mukai.

I learned about the job of an astronaut from that book and was moved by the moment where she was overcome by the view she saw of Earth from space, she said.

More from NextShark: Indian Schoolgirls Spot Asteroid Headed to Earth

Suwa was influenced to become an astronaut during his teenage years by Mamoru Mohri, the first Japanese astronaut to be part of an official Japanese space program.

Yoneda aims to study the impacts of space travel on human health.

"We will see an era where many people will go to space. The duration and distance of those stays will become extended. As a physician, I believe I can do my part to learn about what happens to human bodies in space," she said.

After Yoneda and Suwa complete their two-year training period, their goal is to become officially certified astronauts. They will then be able to stay at the International Space Station before participating in the Artemis lunar exploration program to visit a new base on the moon.
Rep. Mark Takano, a California Democrat Patrick Semansky/AP

Pilot programs of a 4-day workweek have been a resounding success, with revenue up and workers happier.

Now, Congressman Mark Takano is once again pushing to make the shorter week US law.

Takano is reintroducing his act to make the standard workweek just 32 hours long.

As the workers of the world ponder whether they should be on the job just four days a week, Congressman Mark Takano once again wants to make it law in the US.

Takano has reintroduced his 32 Hour Workweek Act, which would tweak the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to make the standard workweek 32 hours, instead of the 40 it's currently at.

"Workers across the nation are collectively reimagining their relationship to labor  and our laws need to follow suit," Takano, a Democrat from California, said in a release. "We have before us the opportunity to make common sense changes to work standards passed down from a different era. The Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act would improve the quality of life of workers, meeting the demand for a more truncated workweek that allows room to live, play, and enjoy life more fully outside of work."

It's not the first time that Takano has pushed to make the working week shorter. He previously introduced the legislation in 2021, where it picked up an endorsement from the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

In a 2022 interview with Insider, Takano said that the pandemic had made people more aware of their mortality  which also made them value their time more.

"I think there was a Great Realization among a lot of Americans  how hard they're working and that they wanted to move on from the jobs that they were working at," Takano said. "So a four-day work week is something that connects a lot of Americans."

Under Takano's legislation, workers clocking over 32 hours a week would be eligible for overtime, meaning more money in their pockets and greater incentive for employers to keep weeks short.

Other lawmakers have previously called for a shortened work week. Sen. Bernie Sanders pushed for the idea late last month, writing on Twitter that with "exploding technology and increased worker productivity, it's time to move toward a four-day work week with no loss of pay. Workers must benefit from technology, not just corporate CEOs."

Story continues

Sanders' comment, along with the reintroduction of Takano's bill, comes on the heels of a number of studies that reflected the major successes a four-day workweek has had on companies nationally and globally.

One pilot program based in the United Kingdom  that included 3,000 workers  found that workers slept better and had more time to spend with their loved ones, and their employers made more money.

Additionally, 4 Day Week Global  a New Zealand-based nonprofit  conducted a study last year that found participating companies in the US, Australia, Ireland, the UK, and New Zealand saw a "resounding success on virtually every dimension" with a four-day workweek. Revenues rose and sick days went down, the study found, and almost all of the companies were "already committing or planning to continue with the 4 day week schedule."

While it's unclear if the shortened workweek will be adopted at the federal level, state governments are tossing their hats in the ring. Last month, Maryland lawmakers introduced the Four-Day Workweek Act of 2023, which would reduce an employee's workweek to 32 hours without cutting their pay while giving employers a tax credit.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Preliminary reports from Dmytro Lunin, Head of the Poltava Oblast Military Administration, indicated that up to five Russian UAVs had been shot down. Later, the Air Force confirmed: they had shot down four out of the four Shaheds launched by Russia.

Source: Lunin on Telegram, Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat on the air of the national joint 24/7 newscast

Quote: "Preliminary reports have been received of the downing of up to five enemy UAVs. Information is being established.

Thank you for the successful work of the air defence system! Remain calm! Stay in shelters! We believe in our Armed Forces!"

Details: The Air Force later clarified that the Russians launched a total of four drones, they were moving from the north, and all of them were destroyed by Air Command Tsentr (Centre).

Quote from Ihnat: "According to the Air Force, four Shaheds were launched and four were shot down."

Previously: An air-raid warning was issued in the city of Kyiv, Kyiv Oblast and a number of other northern and central oblasts.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
Amblerlee Barden shovels snow Tuesday after successive storms dumped several feet of snow in Big Bear Lake. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency Wednesday evening for 13 counties, including Los Angeles, affected by winter storms that have ushered in unusual snowfall and strong winds and have damaged state highways and roads.

The other 12 counties under the order are: Amador, Kern, Madera, Mariposa, Mono, Nevada, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Sierra, Sonoma and Tulare.

The order makes it easier to bring in resources from out of state and to hire snow-removal teams and equipment that isn't always easy to access. It will also provide financial resources and reduce bureaucratic red tape that often stall disaster response at the local level, as well as activate the state National Guard and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to support counties.

In Los Angeles County, the order might free up federal highway funds for road repairs, said Brian Ferguson, spokesperson for the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services.

Meanwhile, dangerous weather conditions in the San Bernardino Mountains were forecast to ease up after heavy snowfall over the last several days blocked mountain roads and stranded residents. Ferguson said the declaration could bring relief in particular in San Bernardino County, especially in the hard-hit Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear Lake areas.

The Lake Arrowhead area saw a little more than 77 inches of snow over a seven-day period, according to meteorologist Samantha Connolly with the National Weather Service office in San Diego.

"That area could see a little more snow heading into next week," she said, "but nothing as big as the drop that happened in the last storm that passed through."

Road crews with Caltrans were forced to cancel their plans to escort residents up the San Bernardino Mountains on Wednesday morning. Heavy snowfall hampered drivers from making it up the mountain, even with chains on their tires, Caltrans said.

"We are working on clearing the roadway as quickly as possible to resume the escorts for residents for the next window," the agency wrote on Facebook.

Story continues

To help rescue people trapped in their homes, Ferguson said "the state is actually mobilizing National Guard and Cal Fire personnel to go door to door in those neighborhoods."

"This is super unprecedented," he said.

I thank the governor for recognizing our communities that are in dire need of help, said state Sen. Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh (R-Yucaipa). The extreme snowfall has residents trapped in their homes, running out of food and medication."

Wednesday's storm was the last in a series and moved out of Southern California with a blast, bringing hail and graupel to many communities and plunging snow levels to 1,000 feet in some areas.

It was a day of rain, sunshine and then icy downpours, which spread from the South Bay and Long Beach to Disneyland and many valley and foothill communities.

The National Weather Service's Los Angeles office reported a graupel shower in Malibu, about 540 feet above sea level.

There and in other parts of the L.A. area, the soft, snow-like crystal droplets floated down to the ground from otherwise sunny skies and were captured on social media by multiple people.

In Claremont, Shannon Burns was shocked to see a light dusting of snow falling outside her window.

"My general reaction was to completely disrupt a work call I was on so I could shout at people about it snowing," Burns said.

By Wednesday afternoon, there were reports of snow at elevations as low as 1,000 feet, including in Claremont and Santa Clarita, according to the weather service.

The snow and icy conditions Wednesday morning led to the closure of Interstate 5 through the Grapevine, according to the California Department of Transportation. The department reported its reopening around 4 p.m., after the California Highway Patrol worked to clear stalled big rig trucks around the Tejon Pass and surrounding areas.

A large swath of the area around the Grapevine in Kern County was under a winter storm warning that was set to be in effect until 10 p.m. Wednesday, according to the weather service. The warning extended to the interior valleys of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties.

Cold wind, rain and snow will continue to pass over Southern California on Wednesday and gradually ease up by Thursday, according to forecasts.

"We should be dry for the next several days," said meteorologist Mike Wofford with the National Weather Service office in Oxnard.

The weather service issued a wind advisory for Santa Clarita and the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys until 4 a.m. Thursday. Winds could reach 20 to 30 mph, with gusts up to 50 mph, and will be "strongest in the foothills." Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara mountains are also under a wind advisory until 4 a.m.

The California Highway Patrol reported a rockslide and boulders on Malibu Canyon Road, which closed the roadway in both directions from Civic Center Way to Piuma Road on Wednesday afternoon, according to Malibu Emergency Services. There was no estimated time for reopening.

Snowed under in the San Gabriel Mountains, Mt. Baldy Resort said on Twitter that there were "multiple life threatening avalanches" in the Movie Slope area and that Baldy Road was closed. The resort later announced it would be closed Thursday.

Other damage included downed trees throughout the region. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power said its crews were responding to "multiple outages that have occurred as a result of strong winds from this afternoon" that had downed trees, power poles and wires.

Conditions will be dry in Los Angeles starting Thursday, with temperatures reaching into the low 60s for some areas. The temperature is still low for this time of season, Wofford said, but anyone setting foot outside will notice the difference after the long cold snap.

"It's still going to be chilly out there," Wofford said.

After a dry period from Thursday through Saturday for Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, rain could return by the start of next week, according to forecasts.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
The Biden administration squared off with legal challengers to its sweeping student debt relief plan at the Supreme Court on Tuesday as the justices held oral arguments on two cases.

Most of the conservative justices aired serious doubts about the legal underpinnings of the program, but the arguments seemed to leave open the possibility of a reprieve for the debt relief plan based on flaws in the pair of legal challenges that reached the high court.

After more than three hours of back-and-forth among the justices and lawyers, the best hope for the Biden administration and those covered by the program seemed to be that the courts liberals and two or more conservatives might agree that both the coalition of GOP-led states who sued over the program and a pair of student-loan borrowers who object to the plan lack the sort of concrete injury needed to challenge the plan in court.

The three liberal justices and Amy Coney Barrett all raised questions about whether the states had standing to bring the case. A big wild card is three other Republican appointees  Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, and Roberts  all of whom were silent on the standing question, even though they seemed sharply critical of the merits of the case.

Heres POLITICOs look at five key aspects of Tuesdays closely-watched arguments on one of the Biden administrations highest-profile policy initiatives:



John Roberts: Size matters

One particular fact about the Biden administrations education debt relief program really seemed to be galling to Chief Justice John Roberts: Its so darn big.

Roberts seemed fixated on the sheer amount of the debt cancellation the Education Department was planning to offer before the courts froze the effort: an estimated $400 billion.

Not content with the B-word that made astronomer Carl Sagan famous, the chief justice turned to the even more gargantuan T-word at least four times to make the debt relief program sound simply enormous.

We're talking about half a trillion dollars and 43 million Americans, Roberts intoned just minutes into the arguments Tuesday. Congress shouldn't have been surprised when half a trillion dollars is wiped off the books?

Story continues

That became the prevailing framing of the program for Roberts and many of his colleagues, even liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

Justice Samuel Alito uncharitably characterized the administrations arguments this way, perhaps with inspiration from the late Senate Majority Leader Everett Dirksen: When it comes to the administration of benefits programs, a trillion dollars here, a trillion dollars there, it doesn't really make that much difference to Congress.

Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar told the conservative justices they were making a mistake to put so much emphasis on the overall cost and insisted it was proportionate to the need. I recognize that this is a big program, she said, adding, but that's in direct reaction to the Covid-19 pandemic, which itself was a really big problem.

Did Kavanaugh compare student loan relief to Korematsu?

One of the most jarring comparisons at Tuesdays arguments came when Justice Brett Kavanaugh suggested that the dangers posed by Bidens debt relief plan could be akin to those from some of the worst excesses of presidential power. Kavanaugh mentioned the seizure of steel mills by President Harry Truman in 1952.

Another leading example that the Trump appointed-justice didnt cite directly is the internment President Franklin Roosevelt ordered of about 120,000 people of Japanese descent during World War II, a policy blessed by the Supreme Court in 1944 in Korematsu v. U.S., a decision many Americans hold in disgrace.

Some of the biggest mistakes in the Court's history were deferring to assertions of executive emergency power. Some of the finest moments in the Court's history were pushing back against presidential assertions of emergency power. And that's continued not just in the Korean War, but post-9/11 in some of the cases there, said Kavanaugh, who worked in President George W. Bushs White House during the September 11 attacks.

While Kavanaugh said that history left him concerned about the Biden policy, he later seemed to backtrack a bit, pointing to an amicus brief calling the debt relief plan a case study in abuse of those powers. I'm not saying I agree with that, the conservative justice quickly added, muddling the question.

The most pointed rejoinder to Kavanaugh came from Justice Elena Kagan, who sits next to Kavanaugh and often trades quiet asides with him during arguments. She said Bidens action didnt sideline Congress as other presidents have, but directly embraced Congressional authority.

Congress used its voice in enacting this piece of legislation, the Obama appointee said, referring to the 2003 law allowing the Education secretary to waive various rules during emergencies. All this business about executive power, I mean, we worry about executive power when Congress hasn't authorized the use of executive power.

Wheres MOHELA?

The Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority, known as MOHELA, figured heavily in the justices debate over whether the GOP states had standing to bring their lawsuit in the first place.

Missouri, one of the states, argues that it can advance its case based on harms to MOHELA, which is a state-created entity that will face a reduction in revenue under Bidens student debt relief plan.

Prelogar, representing the Biden administration, conceded that if MOHELA itself had brought the lawsuit, the government wouldnt contest its standing to bring such a case. But she said that Missouri couldnt adopt MOHELAs injuries as its own.

Several of the justices also seized on the fact that MOHELA wasnt part of the case.

If MOHELA is an arm of the state, why didnt you just strong-arm MOHELA and say, youve got to pursue this suit? Barrett asked the lawyer representing the GOP states.

Thats a question of state politics, responded James Campbell, the Nebraska solicitor general who was representing the group of Republican states, including Missouri.

Kagan suggested the state of Missouri was so far removed from MOHELA that the attorney general had to submit a public records request to obtain documents from the company. If MOHELA was willing to hand you over the documents, you wouldn't have filed a state FOIA request, she said.

Alito, who appeared sympathetic to the states argument for standing, speculated that MOHELA might have been worried about its contract with the Education Department under which the company is paid to manage millions of federal student loan borrower accounts. Do you think there might be a dependent relationship between agencies like MOHELA and the federal government since we're speculating about why they're not here?

Indeed, MOHELA has publicly distanced itself from the GOP states lawsuit. The company has said its executives were not involved with the Missouri attorney generals decision to file a lawsuit.

MOHELA officials from the company also privately sought to reassure Democratic congressional aides and Biden administration officials that they were not involved in the lawsuit, POLITICO previously reported.



Sotomayor tugs at heartstrings

In hours of debate on complicated legal questions of standing, statutory interpretation and separation of powers, one soliloquy by Justice Sonia Sotomayor stood out: She detailed what hangs in the balance for borrowers in personal terms.

There's 50 million students who  will benefit from this who today will struggle, Sotomayor said, somewhat inflating the number of federal student loan borrowers who would benefit. (The Education Department estimates the total is roughly 42 million).

Many of them don't have assets sufficient to bail them out after the pandemic, the Obama appointee said. They don't have friends or families or others who can help them make these payments. The evidence is clear that many of them will have to default. Their financial situation will be even worse because once you default, the hardship on you is exponentially greater. You can't get credit. You're going to pay higher prices for things. They are going to continue to suffer from this pandemic in a way that the general population doesn't.

Sotomayor also seemed to warn her colleagues against substituting their judgements about fairness and need for those the administration made in setting up the debt relief program.

What you're saying is now we're going to give judges the right to decide how much aid to give them, Sotomayor said during an exchange with Campbell. Instead of the person with the expertise and the experience, the Secretary of Education, who's been dealing with educational issues and the problems surrounding student loans, we're going to take it upon ourselves.

A former Education secretary makes an appearance:

Former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who invoked the HEROES Act in 2020 to extend the pandemic moratorium on student loan payments, was among those who watched the arguments from the court gallery.

DeVos has been sharply critical of student debt relief and signed an amicus brief with other former Republican education secretaries that blasted the proposal as unconstitutional.

Under her leadership, the Education Department developed a legal opinion concluding that the agency lacked the legal authority to cancel large amounts of student debt without new Congressional approval. The Biden administration last August rescinded the departments legal opinion and issued its own memo concluding that the HEROES Act provides a basis for broad-based debt relief.

Several Biden Education Department officials also attended the arguments, including Rich Cordray, the head of the departments student aid office, who oversees implementation of the debt relief program.
7-Eleven Malaysia Holdings Berhad (KLSE:SEM) Full Year 2022 Results

Key Financial Results

Revenue: RM3.76b (up 34% from FY 2021).

Net income: RM68.6m (up 55% from FY 2021).

Profit margin: 1.8% (up from 1.6% in FY 2021). The increase in margin was driven by higher revenue.

EPS: RM0.061 (up from RM0.039 in FY 2021).

All figures shown in the chart above are for the trailing 12 month (TTM) period

7-Eleven Malaysia Holdings Berhad Earnings Insights

Looking ahead, revenue is forecast to grow 5.8% p.a. on average during the next 3 years, compared to a 8.1% growth forecast for the Consumer Retailing industry in Asia.

Performance of the market in Malaysia.

The company's share price is broadly unchanged from a week ago.

Risk Analysis

We should say that we've discovered 1 warning sign for 7-Eleven Malaysia Holdings Berhad that you should be aware of before investing here.

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
EDITORS NOTE: This reporting is part of ongoing News & Observer and Charlotte Observer coverage about gun violence, its impact on families and communities and relevant public policy.

More than 74,000.

That is how many guns North Carolinas 10 most populated cities have under lock and key. Some are evidence in criminal cases. But most are simply warehoused, with their numbers growing weekly.

Inventories of handguns, rifles and automatic weapons have been growing inside police stations for years. The prime reason is a 2013 North Carolina law that essentially forbids police from destroying most functioning firearms.

The law, backed by gun rights advocates, allows law enforcement agencies to sell guns to licensed firearm dealers. But some officials in North Carolinas most populated cities dont want to for various reasons.

Some police chiefs worry those guns would end up in the hands of criminals at a time when firearms and shootings are already too common in their communities

A lot of departments dont want to sell them back into circulation because they will see them again used in other crimes, said Fred Baggett, a lobbyist for the North Carolina Association of Chiefs of Police.

But keeping the weapons brings challenges too, including at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, which now houses more than 25,000 firearms.

We are at a critical mass, said Charlotte Major Brad Koch.

Prior to the 2013 law, once a relevant criminal case was finished, firearms that could not be returned to their owners could be destroyed.

Now, the guns are growing liabilities spilling out of the evidence room, wrote Mike Allinger, a spokesperson for Charlotte-Mecklenburg police, in an email to The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer.

When the number of firearms stored increases weekly, the level of responsibility and liability increases as well, he wrote.

Store them or sell them?

No one keeps a tally of all guns stored by this states police and sheriff departments. But the fact that an N&O survey documented more than 74,000-plus firearms are now held in 10 cities doesnt surprise North Carolina Central Police Chief Damon Williams.

Story continues

Williams is the immediate past president of the North Carolina Association of Chiefs of Police. That group recently voted, as it has in the past, to lobby the General Assembly to change the law, but Williams is not expecting much to come of it.

Along with leaders in Durham, Fayetteville and Greensboro, Williams supports legislation to allow them to destroy weapons taking over evidence rooms not equipped for the inflow of hundreds of guns each year.

I am always hopeful, but right now, I think it is not a very high chance that we will be able to get some traction with this, he said.

The 2013 law passed with bipartisan support and was signed by Gov. Pat McCrory that June.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Dept. has over 25,000 guns storage that they are unable to dispose of.

Previous efforts to change the law in 2015, 2019, and 2021 were unsuccessful in the Republican-led General Assembly.

Some legislators feel that it is wrong to destroy guns, explained Baggett, the Association of Chiefs of Police lobbyist.

That includes Sen. Danny Britt, a Robeson County Republican known for bridging bi-partisan divides on criminal justice reform issues.

But Britt prefers little government control over firearms. Hes introduced bills, this year included, to repeal pistol permits and to allow people with concealed carry permits to carry guns on school property after hours during religious services.

Storing or destroying 74,000 guns isnt going to make our cities safer, he said. Individuals who want to get their hands on a gun, are going to get their hands on a gun, he said.

Britt suggested that the state set up an easy way for their departments to transfer the weapons to an agency that will.

Seventy-four thousand guns could buy quite a few squad cars for a sheriffs department in my district, he said.

A difference of opinion

With more than 25,000 guns locked up, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department has the largest stockpile among cities. Just like other police departments, the firearms have been found or collected as evidence and held for safekeeping, Allinger wrote in an email.

Boxes containing firearms stored as evidence at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.

Storing 25,000 guns is also a drain on the citys resources, as every firearm has to be tracked and easily located in a space not designed for those kinds of numbers, he wrote.

Greensboros facility was designed for about 3,000 guns, but they have ended up with nearly 11,000.

Thats better than them being on the street being used in crimes, said police spokesperson Josie Cambareri.

We would like to be able to destroy any guns; not just the ones the law allows now, Cambareri wrote.

Fayetteville, which has nearly 9,000 guns in storage, recently spent about $50,000 on rolling storage shelves, to store additional weapons, Police Chief Gina Hawkins wrote in a statement to The News & Observer before she retired recently.

Last year, the Durham Police Chief asked for more than $80,000 to increase storage space, in part to accommodate the about 8,400 guns the city has stored.

Raleigh Police Department takes in from 900 to 1,300 guns each year, according to information provided by Raleigh police spokesperson Jason Borneo. Late last year it held about 7,227, police said.





Some sell guns

Police departments in Cary, High Point and Concord sell their weapons.

Cary has sold 47 over the past 12 months. Concord sold 296 in 2021 and 2022. High Point has sold 1,041 since 2014.

Guns confiscated by High Point police are transferred to a Kentucky-based business Buds Police Supply FFL through auction services and sold through open bidding, according to spokesperson Victoria Ruvio.

The High Point Police Department traces all guns that come in, and they have no known instance of a firearm being sold and then returning back into their possession, Ruvio wrote.

Through the police departments sale of about 902 guns, the Guilford County School Board received more than $65,800. The police department received about $10,000.

Raleigh Police Department staff did not responded to questions about whether their department sells its guns and how many it has sold. Nor did it respond to questions about whether staff support legislation that would allow them to destroy guns.

An image from a video shows some of the thousands of guns in storage at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.

A tale of two police chiefs

Williams, who supports allowing North Carolina law enforcement to destroy guns, watches over public safety for NCCU in Durham. In 2022, there were about 46 homicides in Durham, most of which involved deaths shootings. More than 200 people were shot.

Considering the situation, Williams cant understand why the request is controversial.

We are not talking about weapons that are classic collectible items, he said, adding: We are talking about guns used in violent crime and different criminal events.

Chiefs in more rural communities seem more comfortable selling guns, Williams said, while chiefs in bigger cities, responding to shooting after shooting, often wont entertain the idea.

Chief Blair Myhand, who was elected president of the North Carolina Association of Chiefs of Police in January, leads the Hendersonville Police Department.

The department patrols a usually peaceful town south of Asheville with a population of some 15,000.In 2022, Hendersonville experienced zero homicides; less than five people were shot there.

Myhand, who describes himself as unabashedly a pro second-amendment individual, supports the current law. Gun rights supporters have concerns that a law allowing police departments to destroy guns would erode gun rights, Myhand said.

There is this fear, if the government were to pass a law that said you could destroy these firearms, that is the crack in the ice, he said.

Hendersonville trades its guns in, and uses the credit, as much as $6,000 a year, to buy police equipment. That saves our cities thousands of dollars a year, he said.

Myhand doesnt track the guns he sells, but said hes confident about the process, he said.

The vendors only sell to law enforcement or a wholesaler, he said. So the guns have to be sold legally. No different than any new gun that is sold now, Myhand said.

Still, as president of the national association, Myhand said he will advocate for a change that would allow municipalities to decide.

He respects other chiefs concerns about putting guns seized in crimes back into circulation, even though he disagrees with it, he said. He also wants chiefs to have the tools they think they need to serve their community.

I think we lead at a community level, and so every community is different, he said.
Key Insights

Given the large stake in the stock by institutions, Philip Morris International's stock price might be vulnerable to their trading decisions

The top 15 shareholders own 50% of the company

Recent sales by insiders

Every investor in Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. We can see that institutions own the lion's share in the company with 77% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Since institutional have access to huge amounts of capital, their market moves tend to receive a lot of scrutiny by retail or individual investors. Therefore, a good portion of institutional money invested in the company is usually a huge vote of confidence on its future.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Philip Morris International.

Check out our latest analysis for Philip Morris International

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Philip Morris International?

Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once it's included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing.

Philip Morris International already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we can't rely on that fact alone since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. When multiple institutions own a stock, there's always a risk that they are in a 'crowded trade'. When such a trade goes wrong, multiple parties may compete to sell stock fast. This risk is higher in a company without a history of growth. You can see Philip Morris International's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Story continues

Since institutional investors own more than half the issued stock, the board will likely have to pay attention to their preferences. Philip Morris International is not owned by hedge funds. Our data shows that Capital Research and Management Company is the largest shareholder with 17% of shares outstanding. The Vanguard Group, Inc. is the second largest shareholder owning 8.7% of common stock, and BlackRock, Inc. holds about 6.6% of the company stock.

A closer look at our ownership figures suggests that the top 15 shareholders have a combined ownership of 50% implying that no single shareholder has a majority.

Researching institutional ownership is a good way to gauge and filter a stock's expected performance. The same can be achieved by studying analyst sentiments. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of Philip Morris International

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO.

Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group.

Our data suggests that insiders own under 1% of Philip Morris International Inc. in their own names. It is a very large company, so it would be surprising to see insiders own a large proportion of the company. Though their holding amounts to less than 1%, we can see that board members collectively own US$218m worth of shares (at current prices). It is always good to see at least some insider ownership, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 22% stake in Philip Morris International. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Philip Morris International better, we need to consider many other factors. Consider for instance, the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 2 warning signs with Philip Morris International , and understanding them should be part of your investment process.

Ultimately the future is most important. You can access this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures.

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
Former Presidents John F. Kennedy, George H. W. Bush, and Donald Trump. AP Photo. Diana Walker/Getty Images. Win McNamee/Getty Images.

Several US presidents are said to have engaged in affairs  some more infamous than others.

Some are said to have had decades-long relationships, while others had trysts in the White House.

From FDR to Trump, here are nine presidents with sex scandals and misconduct accusations.

Franklin D. Roosevelt cheated with his wife's secretary, records show.

Eleanor and Franklin D. Roosevelt. CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images

Roosevelt, who was in office from 1933 until his death in 1945, had a longtime affair with his wife's secretary, according to The New York Times.

FDR married Eleanor Roosevelt, his fifth cousin once removed, in 1905. He later engaged in a romantic affair with Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd, who became Eleanor's social secretary in 1914, according to historic records maintained by the National Park Service.

When Eleanor found out about the affair in 1918 after finding Rutherfurd's letters among her husband's things, she offered him a divorce, but his mother would not allow it, PBS reported.

The couple continued a civil marriage, but there's some evidence Roosevelt's affair with Rutherfurd likely continued during his presidency, according to The Times.

Dwight D. Eisenhower reportedly had an affair while serving in World War II.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower. AP Photo

The 34th president, who served from 1953 to 1961, was married to his wife, Mamie, from 1916 to his death in 1969.

But there were whispers for years that he had an affair with his chauffeur, Capt. Kay Summersby, while he was serving as a WWII general.

The allegations heightened when President Harry S. Truman said Eisenhower wrote to a general during the war asking to return to the US to divorce Mamie so that he could marry Summersby, The New York Times reported in 1991.

The general whom Eisenhower propositioned threatened to run him "out of the Army" and keep him from "ever drawing a peaceful breath" again, The Times said.

Several women said they had affairs with John F. Kennedy.

John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier, later named Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, a few months before their wedding. Bettmann/Getty Images

Kennedy, who was the 35th president of the US and often considered one of the most attractive, married Jacqueline Bouvier in 1953.

Story continues

Even before Kennedy's 1963 assassination, there were rumors that he'd had extramarital affairs, according to People. Following his death, several women  from college students to White House staffers  alleged they had affairs with the president.

The former first lady didn't appear naive to the rumors. A 2012 story in The Atlantic said he had liaisons with secretaries named Priscilla Wear and Jill Cowen, with whom he would go skinny dipping in the White House swimming pool.

It's been widely reported that while the first lady was giving a French reporter a tour of the presidential home, she passed by one of the secretaries' desks and said in French: "This is the girl who supposedly is sleeping with my husband."

For his 45th birthday, Kennedy was famously serenaded by the actor Marilyn Monroe, which prompted widespread rumors that the two had a love affair, according to Glamour. While the public musings ran wild, the affair has never been confirmed, and the Monroe biographer Donald Spoto has said the pair only met four times.

Lyndon B. Johnson is said to have had multiple affairs that his wife ignored.

Then-President-elect Lyndon B. Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson in a preinaugural photograph. Bettman/Getty Images

Johnson, who served from 1963 to 1969, had a long marriage with his wife, Lady Bird Johnson, though he did stray from it. They married in 1934, and a few years later, Johnson began an affair with a woman named Alice Glass, according to Texas Monthly.

His wife never publicly responded to the affair, saying simply that she "never saw that side" of her husband, Texas Monthly said. But she did spend more time away from Johnson and begin a weight-loss and self-beautification effort, opting for "sexier clothes Johnson liked," the outlet reported.

Still, Johnson is said to have continued has escapades, including an affair with a White House staffer named Helen Gahagan Douglas, according to The Oklahoman. The president also paid child support for years to another woman who said he fathered her child, the outlet reported.

Gerald R. Ford reportedly had an affair with a German spy who was later deported.

Gerald R. Ford and Betty Ford in 1947. Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone/Getty Images

Ford was one of two presidents  the other being Kennedy  who was accused of having an affair with an East German spy named Ellen Rometsch. The accusations came from a former Senate staffer named Bobby Baker, who worked closely with Johnson, according to The Washington Post.

In an interview with Politico, Baker said he had introduced Rometsch  who he said "really loved oral sex"  to Kennedy, who thanked his friend for the "best head-job he'd ever had."

Baker also alleged that Rometsch had sexual encounters with Ford when he was a congressman, saying the FBI had a "tape where Jerry Ford was having oral sex with Ellen Rometsch." Rometsch would later be deported to East Germany, according to the New York Daily News.

David Horrocks, the former chief archivist of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum, told Politico he found the accusations "hard to believe" and "so out of character for the Ford that I knew."

Ford served as president from 1974 to 1977 and had a decades-long marriage to Betty Ford.

George H. W. Bush's wife was suicidal over his affair, her biography says.

President George H. W. Bush. Diana Walker/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images

Bush, the one-term president from 1989 to 1993, was married to his wife, Barbara, from 1945 until his death in 2018. The couple were said to have a storybook romance over their 73-year marriage.

But the story had painful chapters. Susan Page's "The Matriarch: Barbara Bush and the Making of an American Dynasty" says Barbara was suicidal in the 1970s after her husband was accused of having an affair with his aide Jennifer Fitzgerald.

Rumors persisted for years of the affair, which all parties publicly denied.

But Barbara told Page she tearfully relayed to her husband how empty she felt because of his affair, according to the biography. Another biographer, Randy Taraborrelli, says in his book "Grace & Steel" it was a "long 18-year affair."

Aside from Bill Clinton's multiple affair allegations, he was accused of sexual assault.

President Bill Clinton. Diana Walker/Getty Images

Clinton's affair with the White House intern Monica Lewinsky became national news and a cornerstone of his impeachment trial in the 1990s.

He famously denied the allegations at first, telling his family and the nation that he "did not have sexual relations with that woman." Evidence of the affair would later come to light, and Clinton confessed, according to The New York Times.

Multiple women have accused Clinton of sexual assault and rape over his career, including Juanita Broaddrick, Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey, and Leslie Millwee. Four other women have said they had affairs with Clinton, all while he was married to Hillary Clinton.

Clinton has denied all of the misconduct allegations against him, including those made by four other women who say they had consensual extramarital relationships with him.

Bill Clinton held presidential office from 1993 to 2001, and he and Hillary have been married since 1975.

George W. Bush was accused of assault by a woman who later died by suicide.

President George W. Bush. President George W. Bush December 14, 2008.

Bush, who served from 2001 to 2009, was on the receiving end of a sexual-assault claim that gained little attention at the time in American media.

A Texas woman named Margie Schoedinger filed a lawsuit against Bush in 2002, accusing him of raping her in 2000. But few details of the civil suit gained media attention, and Schoedinger died by suicide in 2003. The following year, attorneys for Bush filed a motion to dismiss the case, and it was dismissed shortly thereafter for want of prosecution.

At about the same time, a woman named Tammy Phillips said she had an affair with Bush. But even the National Enquirer determined she wasn't being truthful, according to Texas Monthly.

Bush has been married to his wife Laura since 1977.

Donald Trump has an extensive history of misconduct allegations and affair rumors.

President Donald Trump and Melania Trump. SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images

Trump had affair and sexual-assault accusations, as well as other sex scandals, that predated his time in office  which was from 2017 to 2021  but many came to light through media reports during his presidency.

His first marriage, to Ivana Trump, dissolved when he began an affair with the model Marla Maples, whom he would later marry. He and Maples announced their divorce in 1997, and shortly afterward, he was with Melania Knauss, now Trump. They married in 2005.

The adult-film star Stormy Daniels said she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, a story that made national news in 2018. Trump denied he had such a rendezvous, which Daniels said took place while Trump's wife, Melania, was pregnant.

Trump also denied that his personal lawyer facilitated a $130,000 payment to Daniels ahead of the 2016 election to keep her from going public with her story. Trump, who had long denied the affair, appeared to acknowledge it in a January 2023 Truth Social post in which he said it "happened a long time ago."

At least 26 women  several of whom came forward during Trump's 2016 presidential campaign with detailed accounts and lawsuits  have accused Trump of sexual misconduct or assault, which he has denied.

The columnist E. Jean Carroll has two separate lawsuits against Trump, both connected to her allegation that he raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid-1990s. Trump has denied her allegations.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Continuing  and ridiculous  debates over masking are just another symptom of our political dysfunction. (Matt Rourke / Associated Press)

On Monday, the White House announced there is no consensus in the Biden administration about whether COVID-19 sprang from a leak in a virus laboratory in China or was the result of a leap from another species to humans.

The announcement was prompted by a Wall Street Journal report that the Department of Energy, one of several federal entities in the intelligence community that has weighed in on the origins of the virus, had low confidence that the pandemic started when a novel coronavirus escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Some trumpeted this as proof the virus was a Chinese leak. But other parts of the intelligence community disagree.

There are, however, areas of consensus among the agencies investigating COVID's origins, according to a declassified 2021 assessment by the director of national intelligence:

The first cluster of COVID-19 cases emerged out of Wuhan, China, at the end of 2019. The virus was not developed as a biological weapon, and it probably wasn't genetically engineered. Chinese officials knew nothing about the virus before the pandemic emerged. And no one can say with a high degree of certainty whether the virus was the result of animal-to-human transmission or a terribly unfortunate laboratory incident.

Was a lab worker in a highly secure setting inadvertently infected while collecting unknown animal specimens? Or is it more likely that an infection occurred among the many human beings who have frequent, natural contact with animals  hunters, farmers, merchants?

Bottom line: We may never have a definitive answer to the virus origins. Beijing has refused (mostly) to cooperate with the world scientific community. It has resisted sharing information and has blamed other countries for the outbreak, including the United States.

As a regular old civilian, I can live with the uncertainty. We know that lab accidents will occur from time to time because human beings and their safety systems are fallible. We also know that diseases can leap between animals and human beings  plague, rabies, Lyme disease, West Nile virus, to name a few.

Story continues

I reserve my anger for the way the government under former President Trump bungled its response to the disease, the way that some conservative ideologues still push bogus theories, dismiss proven science about the effectiveness of masks and vaccines, and generally demonize experts like Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who devoted a long career to protecting the health and lives of his fellow Americans.

Experts warned for years that the world was overdue for another pandemic. In 2019, the "Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community" included this admonishment: "The United States and the world will remain vulnerable to the next flu pandemic or large-scale outbreak of a contagious disease that could lead to massive rates of death and disability, severely affect the world economy, strain international resources, and increase calls on the United States for support.

Instead of a coordinated response, confusion and conflicting proscriptions reigned, abetted by an American president who took too long to admit the obvious, shot from the hip and seemed to view the pandemic as a personal foe to vanquish using blustery, nonsensical pronouncements. Trump exploited scientific uncertainty about the new virus and, out of fear of being seen as failing, gagged the governments top scientists, then tried to make them into scapegoats.

Did some health officials overreact? In hindsight yes, but not out of incompetence or malice.

Fauci, who changed his mind about masks, has compared fighting a new disease to the fog of war. In an interview with MSNBCs Rachel Maddow last year, he explained his changing outlook: It really was the evolution of science. Once it became clear there was not a mask shortage, that asymptomatic infections were common and that the virus spread through breathing particles, or aerosols, Fauci urged people to cover their faces. For this, Republicans want to investigate him? Give me a break.

These continuing  and ridiculous  debates over masking are just another symptom of our political dysfunction. People with absolutely no background in science or medicine decided that they were experts on whether masks and mask mandates were effective. Or, horrors, an infringement on American liberty. It took then-President Trump seven months to wear a face mask in public, because in his warped view, masking was a sign of weakness.

Of course masks are effective in preventing disease transmission. Would you opt for surgery in an operating room full of bare-faced doctors and nurses?

Just last week, New York Times columnist Bret Stephens proclaimed that a new meta-study on masking concluded that Mask mandates were a bust. The mainstream experts and pundits who supported mandates were wrong. Masking, he allowed, should always be a personal choice, not a requirement.

Not so fast, wrote my colleague Michael Hiltzik, who accused Stephens of failing to actually read the study he was quoting. The two studies in the meta-analysis that actually measured the effect of mask mandates in the COVID-19 pandemic, from Bangladesh and Denmark, wrote Hiltzik, showed that mask mandates did reduce infections and the spread of the virus  quite the opposite of a conclusion that they did nothing. 

One thing we can all agree on (I pray) is that vaccines are more effective than masks in preventing serious disease and death. But I daresay there is a large, Venn-diagram overlap of people who refuse to don masks and those who refuse to be vaccinated.

For the latter, especially if they've had COVID, at least a part of their skepticism was recently reinforced by research. A meta study, published in the Lancet, found that natural immunity after COVID-19 infection can be as protective as vaccines. It took nearly three years to substantially confirm the claim, though it is still unclear exactly how long the protection lasts. (It will wear off eventually, so you should still take the vaccine.) Early on, experts downplayed natural immunity because there was no solid evidence for it. Now there is.

I am always going to put more faith in health experts, vaccine developers and doctors than in politicians and right-wing cable TV hosts. When it comes to COVID's prevention and treatment, we didn't know very much at first, and now we know a lot. Thats how science works, folks.

@AbcarianLAT





This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Photo: Bloomberg (Getty Images)

The Communications Workers of America (CWA) have today filed charges against publisher Activisiona company with a long track record of alleged union-bustingclaiming the publisher violated several workplace laws in relation to the firing of two QA testers.



The charges are related to Activisions recent decision to begin forcing workers back into the office, which has been met with resistance across the companys workforce. The CWA say that numerous workers protested the [return to office] plan citing cost of living concerns and the impact it would have on their co-workers who might be forced out of their jobs.

Read more

Two QA testers expressed their outrage using strong language. In response, management set up disciplinary meetings where both workers were fired.

The CWA argue that the use of outbursts and strong language in the context of concerted activity by employees was protected by the National Labor Relations Board until as recently as 2020, before the Trump administration systematically rolled back workers rights, including modifying the standard for determining whether employees have been lawfully disciplined or discharged after making offensive statements, which ultimately limits free speech rights for employees.

The charges have been filed against Activision CEO Bobby Kotick directly, and allege that the firingswhich took place on February 17were made in response to [the employees] engagement in protected, concerted and union activity. The CWA also allege that Activision improperly denied a request to have a coworker witness the disciplinary meeting which preceded the termination of [their] employment.

For far too long, Activision has gotten away with treating its employees, especially QA testers, like disposable work horses. Firing two employees for joining with their co-workers to express concern around hasty return to office policies is retaliation, point blank, CWA Secretary-Treasurer Sara Steffens says. When faced with unfair treatment by unscrupulous employers like Activision, workers should have the right to express themselves.



Story continues

Activision has been contacted for comment.

More from Kotaku

Sign up for Kotaku's Newsletter. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.
MEXICO CITY (AP)  A human rights activist in Mexicos dangerous northern border city of Nuevo Laredo said Wednesday that he suspects the Mexican army  and the government in general  are behind claims linking him to a drug cartel, which could put his life at risk.

The issue is a sensitive one in a country where dozens of activists have been murdered in recent years. In many parts of Mexico, being called a drug cartel collaborator can be a death sentence.

Over the last decade, activist Raymundo Ramos has investigated a number of killings and disappearances carried out by the military in Nuevo Laredo. On Sunday, Ramos denounced the killing of five young men by soldiers, events the army eventually confirmed.

Soldiers said they opened fire on the pickup truck that the young men were traveling in in response to a bang sound bang when the truck sped away in the pre-dawn hours on Sunday. The killings sparked angry confrontations between soldiers and residents of Nuevo Laredo, and the army said the incident was under investigation.

Carlos Dominguez, who runs a web site called Nacion 14, was the first person selected to ask a question at President Andres Manuel Lopez Obradors morning press briefing, where he claimed Ramos worked for a drug cartel. Ramos has denied the accusations. Dominguez played a taped intercept of a telephone call purportedly between Ramos and a supposed drug trafficker.

Lopez Obrador did not openly endorse the claims of Dominguez, whose news site largely echoes the president's statements. But the very few people allowed to ask questions at the morning briefings are personally selected by the president.

This is clearly a response by the Defense Department. They are using the morning press briefing to smear me and to discredit the victims' complaint, Ramos said. They are misusing journalism, he said, referring to the fact the president allows people  some of whom have only a tenuous connection to journalism  to air accusations at the widely covered briefings.

Story continues

Lopez Obrador has given the army a greater role than any other modern Mexican president, and the army may have been embarrassed by the revelation of Sunday's killings.

Ramos denies working for the Northeast cartel, which dominates Nuevo Laredo, and investigations have shown that Ramos' phone was hacked with Pegasus spyware in 2020.

The Pegasus hack was confirmed by a forensic investigation by the University of Toronto group Citizen Lab. The company that makes Pegasus says its spyware is only sold to governments.

Dominguez, the reporter who made the accusations, did not say where he obtained the taped phone call. But Dominguez did suggest that guns had been found with the bodies of the five men killed Sunday in Nuevo Laredo  something that does not appear in any reports from the crime scene or the army about the incident.

These people have been found with high-powered weapons, Dominguez said. He said Ramos is just another operator for drug cartels, in this case, the Northeast cartel.

There were no guns listed in the prosecutor's crime scene report or army report. Still, the cartel accusation could be deadly.

There is a war between cartels in Mexico, so any other cartel could attack me or my family, Ramos said.

It may be a dispute between a web site operator and an activist, but the attitude toward Ramos is consistent with other government statements.

Ramos was the first person to publicly denounce the killings. On Tuesday, Mexico's National Human Rights Commission told Ramos to be quiet about the Nuevo Laredo case to avoid spreading disinformation.
By Angus McDowall

TUNIS (Reuters) - Since Tunisia's president announced a crackdown on illegal immigration last week using language the African Union denounced as racialised, Malian construction worker Mohamed Kony has been evicted from his apartment and sacked from his job.

Unemployed, homeless and without legal residency, he now fears he will face the fate of several of his friends who have been attacked on the street.

"I am confused and worried," said Kony, 32, who has lived in Tunis for five years and appeared well liked in his neighbourhood, where Tunisian residents said they enjoyed his cheerful demeanour and often employed him for small repair jobs.

"I can't believe we are a problem here," he said, his eyes skipping to each end of the road in case of a police car.

Kony's problems began last week, when President Kais Saied said there had been a conspiracy to change Tunisia's racial makeup, ordering security forces to stop all illegal immigration and to expel any migrants living in Tunisia illegally.

"The undeclared goal of the successive waves of illegal immigration is to consider Tunisia a purely African country that has no affiliation to the Arab and Islamic nations," he said.

Saied's speech - repeating the "great replacement" theory that political elites are replacing native inhabitants with immigrant supporters - was called "shocking" by the African Union and praised by French far-right politician Eric Zemmour.

When Saied issued a second statement last week, he denied being racist and said he only wanted police to implement Tunisian law, but he repeated the idea that there had been a conspiracy to change Tunisia's demographics.

Social media has, meanwhile, filled with accounts by darker-skinned people in Tunisia, including migrants with and without valid visas, African students and Black Tunisians, of ill treatment and fear.

They have described detentions for not carrying identity papers, insults, stone throwing, evictions and job losses.

Story continues

The Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES), a group that works with migrants, said it had documented hundreds of arbitrary arrests and hundreds of evictions without notice.

More disturbingly, it said it had documented some violent assaults, including with knives, that police had been slow to respond to. The Interior Ministry has said it will comply with all national laws and international treaties with full respect for human rights.

Outside the Ivory Coast's Tunis embassy, dozens of the country's citizens stood this week, seeking repatriation.

"After the president's speech, we were attacked. We are afraid. We were kicked out of the house," said one, Berry Dialy Stephan.

Another, Foufana Abou, said people in his district had insulted and attacked him.

"They threw stones and pieces of wood at us," he said. "Why? We are all Africans!" he added.

CRACKDOWN

Saied's critics say the crackdown is consistent with his increasingly fiery, conspiracy-laden rhetoric as he pursues a parallel crackdown on political opponents, accusing them of plotting against the state with foreign backing.

Both were preceded by social media campaigns among online groups of Saied supporters that his critics say were increasingly intertwined with his approach to rule.

It also comes at a difficult time for the president as ultra-low turnout in parliamentary elections casts doubt over popular support for his political programme after seizing most powers in 2021, and amid an economic crisis.

"The presidential campaign aims to create an imaginary enemy for Tunisians to distract them from their basic problems," said Ramadan Ben Amor, a spokesperson for FTDES.

After racially charged language by some media commentators, the journalists syndicate and the independent media regulator both responded by urging press to be more careful in their language to avoid racist incitement.

Official figures say there are 21,000 migrants from sub-Saharan African countries in Tunisia. FTDES said the true figure was likely higher, but not more than 50,000.

Tunisia introduced visa-free travel for many African countries over the past decade. Getting a residency permit can be very difficult.

Many migrants in Tunisia aim to cross illegally to Europe but cannot afford the hundreds of dollars to get to Italy - a journey also taken by growing numbers of Tunisians.

Mamuella, an Ivorian woman who has stayed inside her apartment in Tunis for over a week for fear of arrest, said Tunisians had no reason to fear her or her compatriots.

"We just want to arrive on the other side of the Mediterranean where we can find opportunity," she said.

(Writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
During a Tuesday Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Attorney General Merrick Garland refused to take responsibility for the Department of Justices (DOJ) failure to prosecute protesters who regularly demonstrate outside the homes of conservative Supreme Court justices, arguing that the federal marshals on the ground have the discretion to arrest the protesters and have chosen not to.

In his first appearance before the 118th Congress, Garland was grilled by Republican senators about the DOJs failure to enforce a federal law that prohibits protests outside the homes of judges and jurors, who might be intimidated into changing their thinking on pending cases in response to such displays. Since the draft opinion in the Dobbs case, which ultimately overturned Roe v. Wade, was released, protests outside the justices suburban homes in Virginia and Maryland have intensified.

You just said yes, its a crime to protest at the home of a judge. Same goes for jurors, by the way, with the intent of influencing a case. But in the wake of the leak of the Dobbs decision, when rioters descended on the homes of six Supreme Court justices, night after night after night, you did nothing, Senator Ted Cruz said to Garland. The Department [of Justice] did nothing.

Cruz repeatedly asked the attorney general whether a single prosecution has been brought against such protestors.

Why are you unwilling to say no? You know its no. I know its no. Everyone in this hearing room knows its no,' said Cruz. Youre not willing to answer the question.

How do you decide which criminal statutes the DOJ enforces and which ones it doesnt?, Cruz continued.

Garland responded that he was the first attorney general to offer the protection of United States marshals to the justices, but argued that arresting the protestors is up to the marshals, not him.

The marshals on scene make that determination, Garland explained.

Cruz countered: The marshals do not make a determination over whether to prosecute. You, the attorney general, make a determination. You spent 20 years as a judge and youre perfectly content with justices being afraid for their childrens lives.

Story continues

Ted Cruz: Is it a federal crime to protest outside of a judges home with the intent of influencing that judge as to a pending case? AG Garland: The answer to that is yes. pic.twitter.com/zzff4UgnvJ  Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) March 1, 2023

In response to the Dobbs draft, a leftist group called Ruth Sent Us posted what it claims are the home addresses of the Courts six conservative justices in order to mobilize protestors. Democrats have defended these demonstrations so long as they are peaceful.

Though the Department of Justice has prosecuted a man for planning to assassinate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, there have been no prosecutions of protestors.

Several senators also grilled Garland on why many pro-life activists have been prosecuted during his tenure for allegedly blocking access to abortion clinics while those who have defaced pro-life pregnancy centers have largely escaped justice.

Garland explained to Senator Mike Lee that most of the former cases occur in broad daylight and are photographed, while most of the latter occur at night by persons who are often never found. The FACE Act, signed by President Clinton in 1994, protects abortion clinics and pro-life pregnancy centers from those who would interfere with their daily business.

But Garlands explanations for the prosecution and treatment of Mark Houck, a pro-life activist, drew the ire of Senator Josh Hawley.

The case involves Houck shoving a 72-year-old patient escort for Planned Parenthood twice. Houck claims the the man invaded his 12-year-old sons personal space and yelled at him.

The Philadelphia district attorney declined to prosecute the case, but the DOJ did, charging Houck with two FACE Act violations. Hawley expressed outrage about the fact Houck had offered to turn himself in, but was instead subjected to an arrest in front of his children by tens of FBI agents carrying long guns.

You use an unbelievable show of force with guns  that I just note liberals usually decry. Were supposed to hate long guns and assault-style weapons. Youre happy to deploy them against Catholics and innocent children, Hawley explained.

And then you haul him into court and the jury acquits him in one hour, Hawley continued, calling the Justice Departments behavior disgraceful.

Houck was found not guilty last month.

Whats really interesting to me is this seems to directly contradict your own memorandum about the use of force at the Justice Department. You say officers may use only the force that is objectively reasonable, Hawley said.

Garland strongly disagreed with Hawleys characterization that he was abdicating responsibility and argued that the FBI disagreed with Hawleys characterization of Houcks treatment.

However, the attorney general once again deferred to law enforcement officers on arrests.

Determinations of how to make arrests under arrest warrants are made by the tactical operators in the district, said Garland. All I know is what the FBI has saidthey made decisions on the ground of what was safest and easiest.

More from National Review
Anti-aircraft defence shot down a Russian drone in the skies over Kyiv Oblast.

Source: Yurii Ihnat, Spokesperson of the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in an interview with UP

Quote: "During an air raid siren on Wednesday in Kyiv Oblast, a UAV was detected, and combat work was conducted on it by air defence systems. The target was hit."

Details: The spokesperson of the Air Force Command added that the drone type is currently unspecified. It will be determined when the remains of the drone are found.

In addition, Ihnat specified that the previous air raid siren in Ukraine's east on 1 March was announced due to the activation of Russian tactical aviation.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
The Ukrainian air defense system worked at 100%, the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported

The enemy attacked Ukraine from the northern direction with Shahed-type attack drones. All four kamikaze UAVs were destroyed by air defense forces and equipment, they said.

Read also: Russia launches Shahed UAVs from new site to further threaten Kyiv, says UK intelligence

Yuriy Ihnat, the Air Force spokesman, specified on Ukraines national television that all enemy objects were shot down by the Center Air Command.

It's hard to say what the target was, but four out of four Shaheds were destroyed by the forces of the Center Air Command. We have a 100 percent result, Ihnat said.

On the night of March 1, Russian invaders attacked Ukraine with Iranian kamikaze drones. The explosions occurred, in particular in the city of Kremenchuk, Poltava Oblast.

Read also: Ukraine Air Force says countrys air defenses to be further strengthened

Dmytro Lunin, head of the Poltava Oblast Military Administration (OVA), reported that up to five Shaheds were shot down over the region.

Before that, the Russians attacked Ukraine with Iranian Shahed drones on the night of Feb. 27. The General Staff reported the destruction of 11 out of 14 drones launched by the invaders. The enemy also shelled Zaporizhzhya, Myrnohrad in Donetsk Oblast, and Nikopol in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.

In the city of Khmelnytsky, the invaders hit rescuers who were at an earlier drone impact site  two died, and three were hospitalized with injuries.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
In the city of Kyiv and Kyiv Oblast, an air-raid siren was sounded due to a flying object being spotted in the sky. The danger lasted for over an hour.

Source: map of air-raid sirens, Telegram-channel of the Kyiv Oblast State Administration, Kyiv City Military Administration on Telegram

Quote: "Kyiv Oblast! A flying object spotted in the sky. In connection with this, air defence may be activated."

Details: The administration calls on civilians to remain in shelters or other safe places until an all-clear is given.



Updated: At 12:42, the air-raid warning in Kyiv Oblast was canceled. The danger lasted for over an hour.

Background: Earlier, the UK Defence Intelligence reported that Russian forces started launching Iranian-made Shahed kamikaze drones from Bryansk Oblast of the Russian Federation in order to pose a bigger threat to Kyiv.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
A 2-year-old boy died in Atmore, Alabama, on Monday after being left unattended in his father's vehicle for eight hours. This is the first hot car death of the year that has been reported in the United States.

The father, 51-year-old Shawn Rounsavall, was arrested and charged with reckless murder after he allegedly forgot to drop the child off at daycare and left the toddler in the backseat of his car all day.

When Rounsavall went to the daycare center to pick up the child Monday afternoon, daycare workers informed him that the toddler was never dropped off in the morning. Rounsavall then found his child unresponsive in the backseat of his car, The Associated Press reported. According to the Atmore Police Department, Rounsavall rushed the child to a hospital, where the boy was later pronounced dead.

"This is a terrible, terrible tragedy. This community is shocked," Atmore Police Chief Chuck Brooks told FOX 10.

According to Brooks, the incident was unintentional, but because of the "disregard for the child," Rounsavall now faces a criminal charge of reckless murder.

Fox 10, citing local investigators, reported that Rounsavall had spent Monday working at his restaurant in the area.

GET THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP

Although most of the country has been dealing with rounds of wintry weather in recent days, the Southeast has been experiencing a surge of warmth. In Atmore, where the toddler died, temperatures have been at least 10 degrees above the historical average since last week.

On Monday, the high temperature in the southern Alabama city reached 83 degrees Fahrenheit, 14 degrees above the historical average for Feb. 28. The temperature inside the car likely reached triple digits within 20 minutes after the air conditioning unit was turned off.

Child hot car deaths from 1990-2021. Numbers include U.S. children aged 14 and under. (Kids and Car Safety)

According to Kids and Car Safety, a national nonprofit child safety organization, Alabama ranks 10th in the nation for child hot car deaths by a large margin, with at least 32 such deaths since 1995.

Story continues

Since 1990, more than 1,052 children have died in hot cars. Most children who die in hot cars are unknowingly left by a caregiver, Kids and Car Safety reports.

According to Atmore Police, there won't be an official cause of death until the autopsy is finished, FOX10 reported. Rounsavall is being held on a $500,000 bond.

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.
Like its counterparts throughout the country, the Alabama Hospital Association is pushing claims that their hospitals are hemorrhaging money. Recent media stories claim Yellowhammer State hospitals have lost $1.5 billion since 2020 and are facing an "existential crisis." According to a hospital-industry-funded consultancy, the bulk of these losses came in 2022.

But a deeper dive into the finances of Alabama hospitals tells a different and more complex financial story. Annual financial reports of three large hospitals in the state suggest Alabama hospital systems made significant operating profits between 2020 and 2022. Reported losses are primarily the result of unrealized investment losses associated with the 2022 stock market downturn. Despite the financial market pullback, they continue to sit on hundreds of millions of dollars of surplus funds.

With such significant financial resources available, Alabama hospitals have no financial excuse for failing to comply with a federal hospital price transparency rule that took effect over two years ago on January 1, 2021.

Marilyn Bartlett, left, and Christin Deacon.

UAB Hospital, the biggest hospital system in Birmingham and the state, made $237 million in operating profits 2020, $336 million in 2021, and $225 million in 2022.

Baptist Health, the largest hospital in Montgomery, and Huntsville Hospital Health System, the largest hospital system in Huntsville, each made tens of millions of dollars in operating profits in 2020 and 2021. According to their most recent 2022 disclosures, they were also profitable in 2022.

So where are these claims of dramatic losses coming from? American not-for-profit hospitals are sitting on nearly $300 billion of investments, including private-equity and venture-capital funds. As anyone who paid attention to their 401(k) or 529 accounts knows, 2022 was a brutal year for financial markets. The S&P 500 fell by 20%, marking its worst year since 2008.

Story continues

Hospitals, when they operate like investment firms, are not immune to such downturns. However, these investment "losses" exist only on paper.

Even with last year's market pullback, large Alabama hospitals continue to sit on hundreds of millions of dollars in assets. The most recent 2022 filings show UAB has $1.5 billion in cash and investments, Huntsville Hospital has $988 million, and Baptist Health has $375 million.

Hospitals have more than enough surplus funds to comply with the law on hospital price transparency and post online their actual prices by health insurance plan so consumers can avoid overcharging. The federal government estimates it costs hospitals less than $12,000 to turn over their prices.

Robust hospital price transparency can create a competitive, pro-customer healthcare marketplace that significantly reduces healthcare costs burdening patients, businesses, and the broader economy. Employers, who provide most Americans with private health coverage, can leverage this information and share the savings with their employees.

Consider the recent story of Lehigh County, PA, which provides healthcare coverage for about 2,400 employees, retirees, and their family members. The county government cut its healthcare costs by 43% by analyzing hospital price disclosures and steering members to quality, less expensive care. The county expects to save $13 million on its $30 million annual healthcare plan, offering a template for employers, unions, and state and local governments looking to reverse runaway costs.

Unfortunately, a new report by PatientRightsAdvocate.org finds that only a quarter of hospitals nationwide  and only 10% in Alabama  are fully following the price transparency rule. In other words, hospitals continue to profiteer off the backs of patients by keeping them in the dark about the costs of their care while flouting the very law meant to empower those patients.

The Biden administration has an opportunity to empower Alabamians and all Americans to inform themselves about the price of their care and avoid financial ruin. Holding hospitals accountable for well-documented outrageous prices will only be achieved by strongly enforcing the price transparency rule that hospitals are skirting.

Looking past the headlines, Alabama hospitals and their counterparts across the nation certainly have the financial resources to comply.

Marilyn Bartlett, CPA, CMA, CFM, CGMA, is the former administrator of the State of Montana Employee Health Plan. Christin Deacon is the former Director of Health Benefits Operations and Policy and Planning for New Jersey.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Alabama hospitals profitable enough to comply with price transparency
Alex Murdaugh has pleaded not guilty to two charges of murder - AP

Alex Murdaugh was "living a lie" and only he could have killed his wife and son, the jury in his murder trial has been told.

The disbarred South Carolina lawyer's theft of millions of dollars was about to be revealed so he murdered them in an attempt to cover his tracks, a prosecutor said in his closing argument.

Mr Murdaugh, 54, has pleaded not guilty to two charges of murder. He faces 30 years to life in prison if he is convicted of either charge.

His son Paul, 22, was shot twice with a shotgun and his wife Maggie, 52, was shot up to five times with a rifle outside kennels on the family's property.

The trial, which has lasted six weeks, has gripped much of the American public.

Prosecutors have argued that Mr Murdaugh carried out the murders to generate sympathy, thereby distracting attention from a litany of financial crimes.

That included the theft of millions of dollars from his law partners and clients, which was used to feed his addiction to opioids.

A bullet hole at the Murdaugh property in Colleton County - AP

In his closing argument prosecutor Creighton Waters said Mr Murdaugh had feared that his decade-long theft would be exposed.

He made sure his wife and younger son were at the family's home in Colleton County on June 7, 2021, the prosecutor said.

Mr Waters said the defendant then killed them as part of a plan informed by his knowledge of how criminal cases work.

He said: "The pressures on this man were unbearable, and they were all reaching a crescendo the day his wife and son were murdered by him."

Jurors began the day with a visit to the crime scene.

Creighton Waters, the prosecutor, holds up a sketch for the jury - AP

At least one of them carefully inspected the door frame of a storage closet where Paul Murdaugh was standing when he was killed.

The weapons used have not been found.

An expert testified that the markings on the bullet casings found near Maggie Murdaughs body matched those from a shooting range on the family's property.

But there was no blood or DNA linking the killings to Mr Murdaugh.

Mr Murdaugh cried as the shootings were described to the court in detail - AP

Mr Waters said: "As all of these [financial] pressures were mounting, the defendant killed Maggie and Paul.

Story continues

"The forensic timeline puts him there. The use of the family weapons collaborates it. And his lies and his guilty actions afterward confirm that."

He said Mr Murdaugh had been lying for years to cover up his opioid addiction, and was "living a lie".

He added: "After an exhaustive investigation, there is only one person who had the motive, who had the means, who had the opportunity to commit these crimes, and also whose guilty conduct after these crimes betrays him."

Defence lawyers have argued that investigators missed evidence such as fingerprints and shoe prints that could have led to the real killers.
If you thought this villa in the South of France looked familiar, thats because it appeared in Alfred Hitchcocks 1955 Academy Award-winning thriller, To Catch a Thief. Now, the Cote dAzur abode can be yours.

Nestled in the hills of Nice, the residence where the legendary filmmaker shot the kiss between Frances Stevens (Grace Kelly) and John Robie (Cary Grant) has hit the market. Though, if you want to own a piece of cinematographic history, itll cost you a cool $3.8 million (3.6 million). Originally built in 1935, the spread features a main house and a charming guest cottage that offers up seven bedrooms and a combined 4,574 square feet of living space between them. In addition, the compound sits on over an acre of land in Saint-Jeannet with a large parking area. The fact that it overlooks the French Riviera coast is, of course, just another perk.

More from Robb Report

The French villa that served as a filming location for Alfred Hitchcocks To Catch a Thief has listed for $3.8 million.

The view of the village under the Baou with the visual impression of the two silhouettes of stars embracing each other is simply breathtaking, notes the listing in reference to the iconic scene. The movie itself took home the Oscar for Best Cinematography in 1956 and was also nominated for Best Set Decoration, thanks in large part to the scenic Mediterranean landscape.

The historic home, which overlooks the French Riviera, has a large swimming pool and a guest cottage.

Constructed out of stone to complement the rockiness of the site, the palatial pad has been carefully preserved throughout the years by its current ownerstheyve worked hard to retain the propertys old-world feel while also making improvements. Internally, you can still find an abundance of vintage-looking features. Built-ins, wood paneling, big archways and ornate chandeliers give the space a ton of character. Outside, theres a sparkling swimming pool for you to take a dip in or lay out next to. Either way, there are worse ways to spend your summer than living it up at this stately home.

Click here to see all the photos of this historic villa in Saint-Jeannet.

Saint-Jeannet villa

Best of Robb Report

Sign up for Robb Report's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.
Izyum was released in the fall of 2022

Almost 50,000 people lived in our territorial community before the war, he said.

Read also: Izyum museum employee saves 300-year-old Gospel from Russian invaders

Some 15,000 people remained after the liberation. Currently, there are already almost 22,000 residents. People are slowly coming back.

According to Marchenko, 80% of the towns high-rise buildings have been destroyed or damaged, while its private sector housing has been 30%-destroyed.

The shortage of utility equipment, which is either stolen or destroyed, is the biggest problem now, he added.

Read also: Volunteer explains what life under occupation was like in Izyum

For example, we had 10 garbage trucks before the war, now we barely collected three, so we just dont have time to take away the garbage, the official said.

This is a very big problem. There are also no bulldozers or excavators.

Izyum was liberated on Sept. 10, 2022, during a lightening Ukrainian army counter-offensive in Kharkiv Oblast. The town was heavily damaged as a result of Russian shelling and occupation.

Read also: Over 400 bodies of victims of Russian occupation remain unidentified in Kharkiv Oblast

Mass graves of Ukrainian civilians and Ukrainian servicemen, including many bodies with traces of torture and mutilation, were discovered on the outskirts of the town.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
(Reuters) -Alphabet Inc's self-driving technology unit, Waymo, laid off 137 employees, in its second round of job cuts this year, the firm told Reuters on Wednesday, bringing total cuts for the year to 8% of its workforce.

Waymo has eliminated some engineering roles as part of the cuts to "focus on commercial success," the company said in a statement. The company has now cut a total of 209 jobs this year.

The job cuts at Waymo are part of wider layoffs across the auto and tech industry, including at Rivian Automotive Inc, General Motors Co and Meta Platforms Inc.

Companies, in general, have found that developing fully autonomous vehicles (AVs) that can go everywhere has proven harder and more expensive than expected, and prospects of a profitable robotaxi business likely remain several years away.

Investors and industry watchers have been concerned about billions of dollars that have been poured into the self-driving technology sector in a short span of time to commercialize it.

Ford Motor Co and Volkswagen AG pulled the plug on self-driving unit Argo AI in November. General Motors Co burned through nearly $2 billion in 2022 at its robotaxi unit, Cruise, and said it anticipates spending even more this year.

Activist investor TCI Fund Management said in November that Waymo is the biggest component of the Google-parent's Other Bets segment and it has not justified excessive investment.

Alphabet said in January it would slash 12,000 jobs, which would affect a large number of employees who support experimental projects. Its health science unit, Verily Life Sciences, said in January it had laid off over 200 employees, or about 15% of its workforce.

(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru and Abhirup Roy in San Francisco, and David Shepardson; Editing by Shailesh Kuber, Shinjini Ganguli, Maju Samuel and Leslie Adler)
The Conservative Political Action Conference, a highly influential hub on the Republican political circuit, heads to Washington on Wednesday, and it will be sponsored by an advocacy organisation once dubbed among the top purveyors of Covid misinformation by a member of Congress.

The group, called Americas Frontline Doctors (AFD), passes itself as any other medical organisation, but public health experts and critics say it has promoted pseudoscientific Covid cures like using horse dewormer, fostered anti-vaccine sentiment, and abused donor funds.

Theyre the 21st century, digital version of snake-oil salesmen, Irwin Redlener of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University once told KTLA of the group. And in the case of ivermectin, its extremely dangerous.

The Independent has contacted CPAC and AFD for comment.

Founded in 2020, AFD brands itself as a leading medical authority, writing on its website that Americas Frontline Doctors is the nations independent authority on ethical and transparent standards in science, health, and human right, touting its efforts to provide individuals with unbiased and accurate information from the worlds top experts in medicine and law.

In fact, the group is connected to influential conservative political organisations including the Tea Party Patriots Foundation and a GOP network called CNP Action.

In a leaked May 2020 recording obtained by the Associated Press, Republican activists can be heard discussing the need to create such a group.

There is a coalition of doctors who are extremely pro-Trump that have been preparing and coming together for the war ahead in the campaign on health care, Nancy Schulze, a GOP activist married to former Republican congressman Dick Schulze, can be heard saying on the recording. And we have doctors that are  in the trenches, that are saying Its time to reopen.

Mercedes Schlapp, a Trump campaign and White House adviser who was on the call, reportedly endorsed the idea, according to the AP. (Ms Schlapp is now a fellow at CPACs foundation, and her husband Matt Schlapp is chairman of CPACs parent organisation.)

Story continues

The following month, an Arizona nonprofit called the Free Speech Foundation, sponsored by the Tea Party Patriots Foundation, was formed, and it launched AFD as one of its initial projects, according to The Intercept.

Since then, the group has attracted a storm of controversies  and support from top Republicans.

AFD has toured the country denouncing medical censorship, promoted medicines like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin over the advice of public health officials, and claimed masks were unnecessary.

Figures like Donald Trump have reposted the groups videos, and doctors affiliated with AFD met with vice-president Mike Pence.

According to an investigation from TIME, the organisation also promised hundreds of people paid access to ivermectin, but failed to deliver.

Data obtained by The Intercept shows that patients spent upwards of $15m working with AFD and affiliated medical providers to obtain various non-official Covid cures.

In 2021, South Carolina Democrat James Clyburn singled out the group as part of his work on the House Covid committee.

While (Americas Frontline Doctors) is not alone in providing these services, it is reportedly among the top purveyors of questionable treatments nationwide and a prominent source of misinformation related to the coronavirus, Mr Clyburn wrote on a letter to the group.

In December of that year, the head of Californias medical board, Kristina Lawson, accused members of the group of stalking her.

On Monday, I was followed and confronted by a group that peddles medical disinformation, promotes fake COVID-19 treatments, and is under investigation by Congress for stealing millions of dollars from consumers. It was a terrifying experience, she wrote on Twitter.

At least one of the members of the group had flown across the country to stake me out, she continued. That evening, when I left the office building and entered the parking garage, four men jumped out of the SUV with cameras and recording equipment and confronted me as I tried to get into my car to drive home.

In March of 2022, one of the groups cofounders, Dr Simone Gold, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge for joining a group of demonstrators who entered the grounds of the Capitol on 6 January, where officials said she gave a speech about opposing Covid vaccine mandates.

Later that year, AFD sued Dr Gold, accusing her of misappropriating group funds to buy a muilti-million dollar home, luxury vehicles, and a security detail. (The lawsuit was dismissed in December.)The Independent has contacted Dr Gold for comment.
DANIEL MIHAILESCU/Getty Images

Andrew Tate asked associates to help him gain political support for his release, per Reuters.

The influencer also asked an associate to upload videos of an accuser partying to discredit her.

Monday, a Romanian judge ruled Tate would stay in prison through March amid a trafficking investigation.

Influencer Andrew Tate has attempted to push his political influence in Romania over prison phone lines while seeking to discredit his accusers, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

According to transcripts of wiretaps obtained by Reuters, Tate arranged calls to several right-leaning Romanian politicians and asked his associate to spread videos of his accusers partying.

The calls highlight a streak of restless efforts by the popular misogynist influencer as Romanian authorities ruled that he and his brother would remain in jail through March as a human trafficking investigation into the pair and two others carried on.

On January 28, while in custody, Tate placed a call to two of his colleagues, requesting that they reach out to Romanian politicians George Simion and Diana Iovanovici-Sosoaca, to tell them it would be "very good for their careers," to support him and claim he was framed.

"So make it clear to them: You will get a lot of votes when Tate says you took their side," Tate told his associates on the call, according to Reuters. Reached by Reuters, the two politicians denied being contacted by Tate.

According to the report, Tate also made calls asking his associate he referred to as Luke to upload "party clips" of one of the alleged trafficking victims, purporting to show her dancing out in Bucharest.

"Yes, put them everywhere and say, 'This girl says she is kidnapped when she is not kidnapped,'" Tate told Luke, according to Reuters.

"You're saying you want me to discredit them, have social media pull hard, yes?" his colleague Luke asks, per Reuters. "Yes, screw them," Tate responds.

Tate's attorney did not immediately return Insider's request for comment.

Story continues

Tate, his brother Tristan, and two Romanian women were arrested in December on charges related to a Romanian human trafficking and rape investigation into the four. They are accused of exploiting women in the country to produce pornography and are also facing a separate rape accusation.

Since his imprisonment, Tate has sent a cease and desist letter to an accuser, threatening to sue her for $300 million, and has claimed to have updated his will to set up a $100 million charity for men falsely accused of crimes.

He has also re-ignited a longstanding beef with influencer Logan Paul, who he has claimed is an "agent" of "The Matrix."

Andrew Tate has monetized his views through his paid video subscription program "Hustler University," where he has amassed millions of dollars and a legion of largely male followers, according to Buzzfeed News.

In an apparent message from jail shared with his subscribers on January 24, Tate claimed authorities were "trying to break me."

"Cockroaches, lice, and bed bugs are my only friends at night," Tate said in the message.

If you are a survivor of sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline (1-800-656-4673) or visit its website to receive confidential support.

Read the original article on Insider
Salesforce-Job Cuts (Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Salesforce, San Franciscos largest private employer that recently laid off 8000 employees, has reportedly been paying Matthew McConaughey $10m a year to serve as a creative adviser and TV consultant.

The payments to McConaughey, estimated at about $160m so far, were called out by the Wall Street Journal and come at a time when the company has laid off employees and cut back on monthly off days.

McConaughey is reportedly a friend of Salesforce founder and co-CEO Marc Benioff. According to the WSJ report, he has been receiving an eight-figure compensation made up of cash and equity.

Mr Benioff has, however, denied playing any part in the deal. Earlier this year, Salesforce announced plans to lay off about 10 per cent of its workforce as part of a restructuring effort.

It was also reported that Mr Benioff discussed a proposal, that he later scrapped, to rank employees and routinely fire the bottom-performing ones, according to the report.

Calling out Salesforce, journalist Katie Bindly said: Crazy to think a year ago I was writing about Salesforce launching a wellness retreat for employees. Times sure have changed (& the retreat is no more) but theyre still paying Matthew McConaughey $10m a year as an advisor.

Mr Benioff added around 30,000 employees from the start of 2020 until the end of last year, roughly a 60 per cent increase. And then in January, the business-software company said they had to let go of 8,000 employees.

Its an unfortunate part that you have to say goodbye to folks who, in many cases, are your friends and you have relationships with, Mr Benioff said in an interview.

But, ultimately, the success of the business has to be paramount.

As part of cutbacks, Salesforce let go of some of the speciality-coffee baristas at the companys San Francisco tower. Salesforce also cut ties with a 75-acre wellness retreat, known as the Trailblazer Ranch, where employees enjoyed a mix of training and getaway activities such as hiking and yoga.

The Independent has reached out to the actors agent for comment.
JASPER, Ind.  For the second time in two days, a former leader of a Southern Indiana nonprofit has been indicted on multiple counts of wire fraud.

Michele Rose, 61, is accused of 12 counts of wire fraud and 12 counts of forging checks, the U.S. District Attorney's office said in a news release Wednesday.

Neither the release nor federal court records specify where Rose worked, only that she served as a "medical staff coordinator." According to Dubois County Herald archives, Rose served in that same position for Memorial Hospital and Healthcare Center. Older entries on the hospital's website also identify Rose as their medical staff coordinator.

Rose has pleaded not guilty. A jury trial is set for May 8 at 9 a.m. at the Evansville federal courthouse.

More:'Shattered forever': Here's how a fatal Vanderburgh County shooting reportedly unfolded

According to the indictment, which was unsealed Tuesday, Rose is accused of stealing more than $153,000 between March 2011 and December 2020.

Prosecutors allege Rose had access to the "medical staff checking account," which is "used to pay for flowers, employee assistance, birthday presents, scholarships, and other charitable activities."

Funds usually went directly to whomever was receiving the assistance, but occasionally Rose could buy something using money from the account and reimburse herself, the indictment states. She was supposed to do so by writing a check to herself and drawing the funds from the staff checking account.

"Rose made it appear as if the checks were for legitimate reimbursements by writing 'reimbursement' or something similar on the check memo lines," the indictment states, "but those were false and fraudulent representations."

According to the release, Rose wrote "165 fraudulent checks to herself for reimbursement of purchases that she never made."

If convicted, she could face as much as 30 years in prison.

Story continues

More:Former Southern Indiana youth group leader accused of wire fraud

She's the second former nonprofit leader in Dubois County to have a wire fraud indictment unsealed against her this week. On Monday, a day before Rose's charges were unveiled, former $156,000 over five years from Mentors for Youth, former Mentors For Youth director Ellen L. Corn, 47, was accused of embezzling more than $156,000 from the organization between March 2017 and August 2022.

She faces 15 counts of wire fraud. If convicted, she could serve 20 years in prison. Like Rose, she's pleaded not guilty.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Another former Southern Indiana nonprofit leader accused of wire fraud
Another Wichita police officer has been suspended in the departments text message scandal, Chief Joseph Sullivan said Tuesday.

Sullivan would not say what message or messages were sent, but said they were inappropriate and unprofessional.

I take it seriously knowing that it was certainly something that would be offensive to all communities and thats why I took the actions that I did, he said.

Sullivan, who joined the department late last year, declined to say more.

This is the 14th Wichita officer known to be involved in the message scandal and the fourth to be suspended after the department reopened the case amid public outcry following an Eagle investigation. The Eagle first reported on some of the messages and a lack of discipline in March 2022. The only officer originally suspended was one who called former Chief Gordon Ramsay a tool.

The messages included a photoshopped image of a naked Black man sitting on the head of George Floyd, an officer affiliating with the extremist group the Three Percenters and officers in a text thread talking casually about shooting and killing people.

The message or messages sent by the officer now being suspended were discovered after the case was reopened. That officers name and details about what the officer sent have not been made public.

After reopening the case, the city eventually issued suspensions to three officers and written reprimands to a couple of others. Two of the officers suspended  Donielle Watson and Jamie Crouch  have since resigned.

Chad Spain, who identified as a member of the anti-government militia group the Three Percenters, was also suspended.

Investigators looking at the case again also found that two Wichita firefighters had sent inappropriate messages. They have also been disciplined.

Its unclear why the latest discipline took so long to complete or when it was discovered. There were thousands of messages for police investigators to search through. The internal investigation into the message or messages was completed Jan. 26, 2022, and showed up on the police departments Citizens Review Board packet for its February meeting.

Story continues

After The Eagle report, the review board released a report detailing the messages known at the time. Sullivan said the board is independent and it would be up to them to release those types of details about the most recent suspension.

The messages were found in April 2021 when police investigators looked through the phone of a Sedgwick County Sheriffs Office deputy involved in a stalking case. Originally, racist and inappropriate messages were found involving a dozen Wichita officers and three deputies. The deputy whose phone was taken and the Wichita officers all served on the elite SWAT team  the firefighters worked as medics on the team as well. The deputies all resigned or retired amid lengthy suspensions.

After the messages came to light, City Manager Robert Layton said a city committee would look into the text message scandal and a third-party company would be brought in to do a top-to-bottom look at the police department.

The committee report blamed former chief Gordon Ramsay, former deputy chief Chester Pinkston and deputy chief Jose Salcido for mishandling the discipline and investigation, which included missing some of the messages officers sent and not notifying the district attorneys office about the messages. Federal law requires disclosure of any suspected police bias to people accused or convicted of a crime investigated by those officers.

Pinkston, Salcido and former deputy chief Wanda Givens in turn sued the city, claiming they have tried to clean up corruption and wrongdoing at City Hall but have been stopped by city officials. Their lawsuit seeks $2.4 million.

Pinkston resigned this month to take over as chief in Liberal, Kansas. Givens retired in January 2022. Salcido has not been disciplined for his involvement in the text message scandal.

The city is awaiting a report from Jensen Hughes, one of the top law enforcement consulting companies in the country. Jensen Hughes issued scathing reports to the cities of Louisville and Minneapolis after the police killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP)  Republicans and their anti-abortion allies, who suffered a series of defeats in ballot questions in states across the political spectrum last year, are changing tactics as new legislative sessions and the new election season start.

In states where citizens have direct access to the ballot, Republicans are considering ways to prevent another loss in an abortion-rights referendum.

In some states, Republicans are considering exemptions to sweeping bans or looking at ways to prevent abortions besides trying to roll back the number of weeks during which an abortion is allowed.

To be sure, abortion restrictions have seen some success in a few Republican-controlled states.

West Virginia and Indiana passed laws to ban abortion after the U.S. Supreme Courts June ruling overturning a nationwide constitutional protection for the procedure.

South Carolina and Montana lawmakers are also trying to ban abortion  or more heavily restrict it  despite a court-ordered right to privacy that currently protects a right to abortion in those states.

But in a number of states, the battle over abortion rights is fluid and influenced by what voters had to say last year, when Kentucky, Montana and Kansas rejected anti-abortion measures on ballots and Michigan, California and Vermont approved abortion rights amendments.

In politically divided Pennsylvania, Republican lawmakers have stalled their push for a constitutional amendment that would declare there is no constitutional right to an abortion or for taxpayer support for an abortion.

The wording is nearly identical to a measure that failed in Kentucky, and the experience in Kansas last August told abortion opponents that it would be very difficult to win a statewide referendum, said Michael McMonagle, president of the Pro-Life Coalition of Pennsylvania.

We realized that if the referendum turns on the left's arguments that these pro-lifers are trying to outlaw abortion, were going to get slaughtered," McMonagle said. It will be the mushy middle people who will vote against the pro-life referendum.

Story continues

Rather, abortion opponents in Pennsylvania decided to wait to see the outcome of a pending court case where abortion clinics are asking the state Supreme Court to overturn a law that bans taxpayer funding for abortions.

A court decision that overturns the law  and allows the state to use public money for abortions  would give abortion opponents a stronger message and a more persuasive case with voters to help them succeed in a referendum, McMonagle said.

Elizabeth Nash, of the New York-based Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights, sees Republicans changing their approach in some states by trying to put up barriers to abortion pills, fund pregnancy programs or soften strict abortion bans.

As an example, Nash pointed to Tennessee, where a growing number of Republican lawmakers say the states abortion ban went too far. A bill to allow an abortion if necessary to save the mother's life passed a Senate subcommittee in February but faces uncertain prospects in the GOP-controlled Legislature, and with Republican Gov. Bill Lee should it reach his desk.

House Speaker Cameron Sexton, a Republican, said polling data and discussions with Republican women persuaded him that the law should, at least, include an exception for the life of the mother.

Its a very delicate issue, Sexton said, but what you see is Republican women wanting exceptions.

In Kansas, meanwhile, anti-abortion lawmakers recovering from their referendum defeat last August have dropped the idea of trying to ban abortion earlier in pregnancy. Kansas is one of the more permissive states, barring most abortions after the 22nd week.

For the moment, Kansas Republican legislators are aiming to provide financial help to centers that discourage abortion by offering free pregnancy and post-pregnancy services.

Elsewhere, officials at Planned Parenthood say several Republican-controlled states are taking steps to head off potential ballot questions that ask voters to enshrine abortion rights into state constitutions.

That dynamic is playing out in conservative Missouri.

It is one of 13 states where abortion is banned  largely by trigger laws that took effect after the high court overturned its landmark Roe v. Wade decision  and one of 22 where citizens have direct ballot access.

There, Republican state lawmakers are considering a handful of alternatives, including making it more difficult to amend the constitution by raising the threshold for voter approval from 50% to 60% in a referendum.

Republicans also floated their own proposal to amend the constitution to say that no provision in the constitution shall be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion.

In Republican-controlled Ohio, abortion opponents are gearing up to try to defeat what is expected to be the nation's next referendum to protect access to abortion.

Abortion remains legal in Ohio through 20 weeks, but courts may allow a near-complete ban on abortion approved by lawmakers in 2019.

To fight the referendum, a Republican state lawmaker is sponsoring a resolution to make it more difficult for voters to amend the constitution.

In a memo to colleagues, Rep. Brian Stewart wrote, after decades of Republicans work to make Ohio a pro-life state, the Left intends to write abortion on demand into Ohios Constitution.

Stewarts measure drew support from Ohio Right to Life, whose leaders met with their philosophical allies in Kentucky, Kansas and Michigan to research why the movement had suffered losses in referendums in those states.

Mike Gonidakis, president of Ohio Right to Life, said he is raising money, hiring campaign staff and intending to get out their message early in the state that just elected a slate of anti-abortion politicians to statewide offices in November.

What were doing now is were creating a campaign operation to oppose what Planned Parenthood wants to do, Gonidakis said. And were going to hire campaign manager, media firms  were running this as if its a traditional campaign. You have to. Theyre going to raise, by their own admission, probably $40 million. Weve got to match them dollar for dollar. And well do that.

___

Associated Press writers Kimberlee Kruesi in Nashville, Tennessee; Amy Beth Hanson in Helena, Montana; Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio; and John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, contributed to this report.
Republicans and their anti-abortion allies, who suffered a series of defeats in ballot questions in states across the political spectrum last year, are changing tactics as new legislative sessions and the new election season start.

In states where citizens have direct access to the ballot, Republicans are considering ways to prevent another loss in an abortion-rights referendum.

In some states, Republicans are considering exemptions to sweeping bans or looking at ways to prevent abortions besides trying to roll back the number of weeks during which an abortion is allowed.

To be sure, abortion restrictions have seen some success in a few Republican-controlled states.

West Virginia and Indiana passed laws to ban abortion after the U.S. Supreme Courts June ruling overturning a nationwide constitutional protection for the procedure.

South Carolina and Montana lawmakers are also trying to ban abortion  or more heavily restrict it  despite a court-ordered right to privacy that currently protects a right to abortion in those states.

But in a number of states, the battle over abortion rights is fluid and influenced by what voters had to say last year, when Kentucky, Montana and Kansas rejected anti-abortion measures on ballots and Michigan, California and Vermont approved abortion rights amendments.

In politically divided Pennsylvania, Republican lawmakers have stalled their push for a constitutional amendment that would declare there is no constitutional right to an abortion or for taxpayer support for an abortion.

The wording is nearly identical to a measure that failed in Kentucky, and the experience in Kansas last August told abortion opponents that it would be very difficult to win a statewide referendum, said Michael McMonagle, president of the Pro-Life Coalition of Pennsylvania.

We realized that if the referendum turns on the lefts arguments that these pro-lifers are trying to outlaw abortion, were going to get slaughtered, McMonagle said. It will be the mushy middle people who will vote against the pro-life referendum.

Story continues

Rather, abortion opponents in Pennsylvania decided to wait to see the outcome of a pending court case where abortion clinics are asking the state Supreme Court to overturn a law that bans taxpayer funding for abortions.

A court decision that overturns the law  and allows the state to use public money for abortions  would give abortion opponents a stronger message and a more persuasive case with voters to help them succeed in a referendum, McMonagle said.

Elizabeth Nash, of the New York-based Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights, sees Republicans changing their approach in some states by trying to put up barriers to abortion pills, fund pregnancy programs or soften strict abortion bans.

As an example, Nash pointed to Tennessee, where a growing number of Republican lawmakers say the states abortion ban went too far. A bill to allow an abortion if necessary to save the mothers life passed a Senate subcommittee in February but faces uncertain prospects in the GOP-controlled Legislature, and with Republican Gov. Bill Lee should it reach his desk.

House Speaker Cameron Sexton, a Republican, said polling data and discussions with Republican women persuaded him that the law should, at least, include an exception for the life of the mother.

Its a very delicate issue, Sexton said, but what you see is Republican women wanting exceptions.

In Kansas, meanwhile, anti-abortion lawmakers recovering from their referendum defeat last August have dropped the idea of trying to ban abortion earlier in pregnancy. Kansas is one of the more permissive states, barring most abortions after the 22nd week.

For the moment, Kansas Republican legislators are aiming to provide financial help to centers that discourage abortion by offering free pregnancy and post-pregnancy services.

Elsewhere, officials at Planned Parenthood say several Republican-controlled states are taking steps to head off potential ballot questions that ask voters to enshrine abortion rights into state constitutions.

That dynamic is playing out in conservative Missouri.

It is one of 13 states where abortion is banned  largely by trigger laws that took effect after the high court overturned its landmark Roe v. Wade decision  and one of 22 where citizens have direct ballot access.

There, Republican state lawmakers are considering a handful of alternatives, including making it more difficult to amend the constitution by raising the threshold for voter approval from 50% to 60% in a referendum.

Republicans also floated their own proposal to amend the constitution to say that no provision in the constitution shall be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion.

In Republican-controlled Ohio, abortion opponents are gearing up to try to defeat what is expected to be the nations next referendum to protect access to abortion.

Abortion remains legal in Ohio through 20 weeks, but courts may allow a near-complete ban on abortion approved by lawmakers in 2019.

To fight the referendum, a Republican state lawmaker is sponsoring a resolution to make it more difficult for voters to amend the constitution.

In a memo to colleagues, Rep. Brian Stewart wrote, after decades of Republicans work to make Ohio a pro-life state, the Left intends to write abortion on demand into Ohios Constitution.

Stewarts measure drew support from Ohio Right to Life, whose leaders met with their philosophical allies in Kentucky, Kansas and Michigan to research why the movement had suffered losses in referendums in those states.

Mike Gonidakis, president of Ohio Right to Life, said he is raising money, hiring campaign staff and intending to get out their message early in the state that just elected a slate of anti-abortion politicians to statewide offices in November.

What were doing now is were creating a campaign operation to oppose what Planned Parenthood wants to do, Gonidakis said. And were going to hire campaign manager, media firms  were running this as if its a traditional campaign. You have to. Theyre going to raise, by their own admission, probably $40 million. Weve got to match them dollar for dollar. And well do that.

TRENDING NOW:

Teen kidnapped in Cranberry during armed home invasion; Police believe family was targeted Target 11 Exclusive: Man accused of impregnating foster child in McKeesport dies Local mother speaks out after daughters hair allegedly set on fire at Westinghouse Academy VIDEO: Student awarded for reporting gun in local school bathroom DOWNLOAD the Channel 11 News app for breaking news alerts
CEO has failed to adequately diversify business, supply chain from oppressive communist nation

Falls Church, VA --News Direct-- National Legal & Policy Center

Ahead of Apple Inc.s annual meeting on March 10, National Legal and Policy Center is calling upon its fellow shareholders in the company to support its proposal to provide greater transparency about its risks of doing business in China, and to join the organization to oppose the reelections of CEO Tim Cook and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore to the board of directors.

NLPC is sponsoring a Communist China Audit resolution at the meeting, which seeks an annual report to shareholders that addresses the nature and extent to which corporate operations depend on, and are vulnerable to, communist China. The item is Proposal No. 6, found on page 82 of Apples proxy statement. NLPCs response to the Apple boards opposition to its proposal was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in mid-February.

NLPC also reported to the SEC last month its opposition to the reelections of Cook and Gore to the companys board of directors. An excerpt from NLPCs filing on Cook says:

Since taking over as CEO in 2011, Mr. Cook has failed numerous times to live up to what he says are Apples ethical standards, and he has made multiple strategic mistakes that have cost the company billions of dollars. These include labor rights failures, privacy violations, and overreliance on China. But he is shielded from accountability, in part because of his position on Apples board. He should be removed as a director so the proper chain of command can be restored.

An excerpt of NLPCs filing on Gore states:

Mr. Gore has held a position on Apples board since 2003, despite having no relevant experience in technology or core business functions. His primary benefit to the board is his supposed climate change expertise. However, Mr. Gores public reputation is inconsistent with his track record, his carbon-intensive lifestyle, and his actual investments. Instead, he has used his public advocacy as a tool for personal enrichment. In addition, his political activism poses to Apple a reputational risk that is not worth his limited skillset.

Story continues

It may be counterintuitive for shareholders to upset the Apple-cart with our proposed changes, since the company is always among the highest valued in the world, said Paul Chesser, director of NLPCs Corporate Integrity Project. But Corporate America is slow to recognize the threat from China, just like companies were caught by surprise by Russias invasion of Ukraine, and had to scramble to exit suddenly.

We dont want to see a repeat if the saber-rattling communist government actually attacks Taiwan, Chesser added. Tim Cook was blindsided by Chinas zero COVID crackdowns last year and Apples holiday sales suffered greatly as a result, so he needs a time-out while the board monitors his leadership further. And at this point Al Gore is a cartoon caricature who is routinely mocked and scorned  he needs to go as well.

###

For more information or to schedule an interview with Paul Chesser, contact Dan Rene at 202-329-8357 or drene@nlpc.org.

Please visit http://www.nlpc.org.

Founded in 1991, NLPC promotes ethics in public life and government accountability through research, investigation, education, and legal action.

Contact Details

National Legal and Policy Center

Dan Rene

+1 202-329-8357

drene@nlpc.org

Company Website

http://www.nlpc.org

View source version on newsdirect.com: https://newsdirect.com/news/apple-shareholder-demands-more-transparency-on-china-seeks-removal-of-tim-cook-al-gore-from-board-of-directors-877812311
The last time Prince Harry was in the country was for Queen Elizabeth's state funeral, and it is unclear when he will next be able to come back to the UK. (Getty Images)

The news that Harry and Meghan are being evicted from their Frogmore Cottage residence in Windsor to potentially make room for Prince Andrew has thrown into question the prospect of the Sussexes visiting the UK in the near future.

The couple moved into the royal residence on the Windsor Estate in 2019 and, despite stepping back from life as senior royals in January 2020, it continues to remain their UK residence and is used by the family when they travel to the UK.

However, with Harry and Meghan now packing their belongings and shipping them over to the US  with Andrew primed to move in later this year  it means the Duke of Sussex may not have anywhere else to stay in the future that he feels meets his security needs.

The issue of security has been a concern for the Sussexes for many months.

Harry is currently taking legal action against the Home Office over a decision not to allow him to pay for police protection for himself and his family when visiting from the US.

In February 2020, Harry was told he would no longer be given the same degree of personal protective security when visiting  a decision the duke is now challenging.

He believes he requires personal protective security because a private security team would not have access to the kind of intelligence or jurisdiction needed to keep him and his family entirely safe.

Harry has claimed he was told by his brother that the removal of his personal security was a 'government decision'. (Getty Images)

Without a secure and private royal property to stay in that affords him and his family the protection he believes they need, it could mean the Sussexes will not return to the UK at any point soon.

A spokesperson for Harry said last year that the current situation renders him "unable" to come to the UK.

"The Duke and Duchess of Sussex personally fund a private security team for their family, yet that security cannot replicate the necessary police protection needed whilst in the UK. In the absence of such protection, Prince Harry and his family are unable to return to his home," they said.

Story continues

Whether the decision to remove the couple from Frogmore will impact the Sussexes' decision about attending King Charles's coronation on 6 May remains to be seen, last week Omid Scobie, Royal Executive Editor at Yahoo UK, revealed that they had "yet to be invited".

In his memoir Spare, Harry described that issues over his security arrangements have been a sticking point with the rest of the Royal Family since 2020 at the so-called Sandringham Summit when the option of a full break from the royal institution was first raised as being a potential result of the couple stepping back.

Harry said that he flagged at that point that he was "desperate" to keep his security arrangements in place.

Meghan has been subjected to 'disgusting and very real' threats from the far right since joining the Royal Family. (Getty Images)

"I told everyone assembled that, above all, I was desperate to keep security. That was what worried me most, my familys physical safety. I wanted to prevent a repeat of history, another untimely death like the one that had rocked this family to its core twenty-three years earlier, and from which we were still trying to recover."

According to one royal expert, security for Harry and Meghan's most recent return to the UK  for Queen Elizabeth's funeral  was covered by wider royal security arrangements.

"They were living at Frogmore, their house on the Windsor estate protected by all the security that protects the Windsor Castle environment. They were protected by the royal infrastructure in cars, in the procession of Buckingham Palace, everywhere. I think there was likely no tension around security in terms of the funeral because there was so much security around it already," Nick Bullen told Fox News at the time.

The threats faced by Meghan in particular were put into sharp focus in November 2022 when former head of counter-terrorism at the Metropolitan Police, Neil Basu, revealed she had faced "disgusting and very real" threats from the far-right while living in the UK.

"If you'd seen the stuff that was written and you were receiving it", Basu said, "the kind of rhetoric that's online, if you don't know what I know, you would feel under threat all of the time." He added that people "have been prosecuted for those threats".

Watch: Charles and Camilla's controversial love story
Asia File Corporation Bhd (KLSE:ASIAFLE) Third Quarter 2023 Results

Key Financial Results

Revenue: RM74.6m (down 4.9% from 3Q 2022).

Net income: RM6.40m (down 18% from 3Q 2022).

Profit margin: 8.6% (down from 9.9% in 3Q 2022). The decrease in margin was driven by lower revenue.

EPS: RM0.033 (down from RM0.04 in 3Q 2022).

All figures shown in the chart above are for the trailing 12 month (TTM) period

Asia File Corporation Bhd Earnings Insights

Looking ahead, revenue is forecast to grow 4.5% p.a. on average during the next 3 years, compared to a 16% growth forecast for the Commercial Services industry in Malaysia.

Performance of the Malaysian Commercial Services industry.

The company's share price is broadly unchanged from a week ago.

Risk Analysis

It's still necessary to consider the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 2 warning signs with Asia File Corporation Bhd, and understanding them should be part of your investment process.

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
(Bloomberg) -- Bain Capital Ventures, the venture arm of the namesake private equity giant, has raised $1.9 billion across two new venture funds targeting startups of all sizes.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The funds, which set a new record for Bain Capitals 20-year-old venture capital business, will target investments in fintech, infrastructure, apps and commerce technology, BCV said in a statement Tuesday. The raise eclipses the $1.3 billion BCV announced in May 2021 to invest in earlier-stage companies.

The firm also launched a $560 million fund last year, exclusively targeting crypto-related companies.

Entrepreneurs want to build alongside investors whove done so successfully, and our team of operators, builders and experienced investors delivers on that promise, BCV Partner Enrique Salem said in a statement.

The funding size is notable in an industry that pulled back in 2022. Venture capital investments dropped globally last year, and VCs showed more caution amid public market turmoil.

Bains new funds were over-subscribed and will invest in companies of all stages from seed to growth, BCV said. The venture group has also been adding to its investment teams and bringing in talent from other firms, the company said.

The group will focus in particular on startups that serve other businesses rather than consumer-facing technology, BCV partner Matt Harris said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Tuesday.

Harris also said that there was momentum in the tech industry, despite the current market downturn. I think technology is moving very quickly, Harris said. What we found is that investors are still very interested, and this may be, in fact, a buying opportunity.

Story continues

He said that while about 70% of the firms investments have been in the US, BCV was increasingly interested in Europe and the UK. Harris added that investors will monitor opportunities in generative artificial intelligence, an area in vogue for technology executives and investors. The partner described recent AI tools as strikingly useful and emphasized the firms investments in AI over the last decade.

"I have no doubt things will get overheated in AI and there will be articles in nine months about the letdown and unfilled promise, Harris said, but we think the promise quite durable as it relates to AI.

--With assistance from Caroline Hyde.

(Adds executive comments starting in the seventh paragraph.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
"We can create an environment that keeps people safe," Amie Ward says.

Amie Ward has spent her entire adult life working in hospitality, including while pursuing studies in kinesiology and wellness. It didnt take long for her to see the pain points in the service industry, problems for which her health expertise could often provide solutions. With her consultancy The Healthtender, Ward provides hospitality workers with accessible approaches for handling everything from relationships with alcohol to standing throughout long shifts without damaging ones body. Her mission to make hospitality healthier for its people physically, mentally and emotionally has now expanded to include training venue staff as executive director of Safe Bars. The organization helps alcohol-serving venues create safe environments for both employees and patrons, with measures to prevent and intervene in cases of discrimination and sexual aggression. The programs aim is vital, addressing long-running needs in nightlife and hospitality that have long been under the microscope. In this edition of Voices In Food, Ward shares her story in her own words.

How Safe Bars Makes The Industry Safer For Both Workers And Patrons

Safe Bars addresses gender-based violence in the hospitality industry. This industry has higher rates of sexual harassment than any other. At the same time, when looking at trying to prevent sexual harassment and aggression, people in hospitality are in a very unique position to be able to help out with that. Were where people come to have an experience, with friends or themselves. Were able to create that experience for them, see everybody coming in, and check in at tables to make sure everyones OK and having a good time. We can create an environment that keeps people safe. We can say how we want people to behave in our spaces. We can say, Hey, thats not OK.

We go into any alcohol-serving space and give them the tools to be able to recognize when somethings up, and to be able to intervene safely and non-confrontationally and set the tone of how people are going to experience their night and the hospitality industry in general. We teach bystander intervention: What to look for, how to trust your gut, and our methodology of the five Ds, direct, distract, delegate, document, delay. Maybe you can have a direct conversation with somebody if you see something, or you can delegate to someone else, or document whats going on, or interact with the person who is the target of the aggression rather than the actual aggressor. No matter how you are most comfortable talking with people, you can safely get involved. A de-escalation portion of our training arose out of the pandemic, too. We help staff understand how to help themselves or co-workers if someone is becoming aggressive.

Story continues

We can really help reframe the way people think about interactions between humans and set a new tone for how we all behave in and experience these spaces.

We aim to help people understand the facts related to sexual harassment and assault, who the populations are that are the most vulnerable, why people actually do the aggressing in the first place. Because of the industry were working with, we talk extensively about the fact that alcohol does not cause sexual assault. We break down a lot of the victim-blaming narratives that have allowed people to not address this for so long. We talk too about how alcohol can be used as a weapon to incapacitate a target or camouflage the behavior of the aggressor.

There are multiple reasons why this mission is so important. Number one, its just the right thing to do. Number two, the service industry is largely built upon the labor of women, and disproportionately women of color. You also have a huge population of LGBTQ community members. These are vulnerable people. In hospitality, we are so reliant on tips because of how low wages are; we allow certain behaviors to go unchecked because our livelihood is at stake. But while the labor force is vulnerable, it is also very powerful. The immediate need is that we must protect the people in the service industry to begin with. And then because we are creating a certain atmosphere for the community, we need to also think about providing a safe space for anybody sitting at our bars.

How Ward Got Involved

I got started in the hospitality industry at the age of 17. Im from Maryland and [started as] a dishwasher at a crab house, which is about the most Maryland thing you could possibly do. From there, I went in and out of the industry working in every aspect of it, from back-of-house to front-of-house. In the last 15 years, I was primarily running beverage programs and focusing on cocktails.

Meanwhile, I went to school for kinesiology. I have always loved sports. I went to the University of Maryland and when I went into grad school, I ended up doing a masters program in kinesiology, with a sociology focus. We were learning about the body but also politics of the body, and politics of race and gender. Thats where my advocacy and desire to fight for change came through, alongside my kinesiology studies, and all the while I was working in bars and restaurants.

I thought once I finished my masters, Id teach and write. But I ultimately did not enjoy the world of academia. It was publish or perish ... and all old white dudes and very conservative, and I did not fit in that space very well, being a person whos heavily tattooed with lots of piercings, very loud and outspoken. I went back into hospitality because it was my happy place. I love talking to strangers. I love making drinks.

So I stayed in that world and [began] running bar programs, which felt like a team. It was a beautiful space to be in. At the same time, I started to see some of the things I took for granted in terms of my background and knowledge of health and wellness, areas that just didnt translate very well in the hospitality industry, especially being a bartender and being out late at night. I was always bringing healthy snacks to work and going to the gym after my shift instead of going out drinking.

In hospitality, we are so reliant on tips because of how low wages are; we allow certain behaviors to go unchecked because our livelihood is at stake. But while the labor force is vulnerable, it is also very powerful.

People started asking questions: Why was I bringing these snacks? Why was I going to the gym? Combined with watching people in our industry not take care of themselves and start to have problems with alcoholism, I started talking about it more. We have our own independent craft bartenders guild in Baltimore and had monthly education opportunities at our meetings. In December 2015, I did a little talk about wellness, giving everybody a breakdown on nutrition, what it does for your body when you work out, why I do stretches before I bartend, and how simple it can all be. I was kind of shocked the talk was so well received. In 2015, nobody was really on that self-care train just yet, so it was really nice to see people interested in this.

I started speaking at hospitality conferences, giving talks on physical wellness, nutritional wellness and mental health. People really did want to make an improvement for themselves and just didnt know how. Thats where I got the idea to start The Healthtender in 2016. I started creating meal prep programs and easy snacks people could have on their shifts. I talked about how people could stand behind the bar without being in pain  basically life hacks on how to bartend and protect your body. I made the jump to doing The Healthtender full time in 2019.

Meanwhile, I had my first training with Safe Bars in 2016 and it totally appealed to me. Everything in its mission is related to wellness, equity and safety. I started running trainings with Safe Bars in 2018. When the pandemic hit, all my clients had to press pause on everything. At the same time, there was so much happening in the industry in terms of safety. There were a lot of escalated issues coming up with how people were treating service workers as a result of having to wear masks. Simultaneously, the craft beer world was starting its own reckoning with sexism, discrimination and sexual aggression. Suddenly there were just nonstop trainings that needed to happen, and Safe Bars was able to create an executive director position when the founder, Lauren R. Taylor, was stepping into some [other endeavors]. I got that role in October 2022.

The overall goal of Safe Bars is to really change the landscape of the hospitality industry and the larger world. My own dream of saving the world is still in there too, because we can really help reframe the way people think about interactions between humans and set a new tone for how we all behave in and experience these spaces.

Related...
(Bloomberg) -- In a politically fractured Congress, a spate of hearings demonstrated that going after China has become one of Washingtons most unifying causes.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Just back from a two-week recess, the House of Representatives held no fewer than three hearings and debated more than a dozen bills Tuesday focusing on the danger posed by what lawmakers argue is an increasingly aggressive Communist Party.

The flurry of activity was capped Tuesday night with the first meeting of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, a new congressional body led by 38-year-old Wisconsin Republican Mike Gallagher. Designed to mimic the Jan. 6 hearings on the insurrection at the capital, it featured videos and charts warning of President Xi Jinpings global ambitions  and was even held in the same room where those hearings occurred.

We must act with a sense of urgency, Gallagher said in opening the three-hour hearing, which didnt attract live television coverage. Our policy over the next ten years will set the stage for the next hundred. We cannot allow the CCPs tech-powered dystopia to prevail.

The hearing underscored the depth of animosity that has blossomed within the US toward China as the worlds two largest economies spar over everything from Taiwan to the Covid-19 pandemic to high-tech semiconductors and the alleged spy balloon that the US shot down. That bipartisan anger has pressured President Joe Biden to double down on export controls and sanctions to counter Xi despite Bidens promises to keep the relationship from deteriorating further.

Part of the pressure on Biden is to restrict the US operations of TikTok, the popular short-video app owned by a Chinese company. The House Foreign Affairs Committee approved a measure on Wednesday that would authorize Biden to ban TikTok in the US.

Story continues

At Tuesday nights hearing, witnesses including H.R. McMaster, who was national security advisor under former President Donald Trump, recounted Chinas repression of dissent and the treatment of its Muslim minorities that led the US to accuse it of genocide.

Caution, Protest

There were few notes of caution against ramping up tensions with China. But Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, the top Democrat on the new committee, said it must remain bipartisan and avoid anti-Chinese or Asian stereotyping at all costs.

We must recognize that the CCP wants us to be fractious, partisan and prejudiced, he said.

Otherwise, the only dissenting voices came from a pair of protesters who held up signs saying China is not our enemy and shouting we need cooperation, not competition before police escorted them from the room.

Other House committees on Tuesday debated what lawmakers portrayed as threats from almost every aspect of Chinas leadership, military and economy. There was a bill meant to fight alleged organ harvesting in China, and another authorizing the president to ban TikTok in the US. There was one to hold China accountable over the alleged spy balloon. Another would seek to deny China access to technology allowing it to build undersea cables. And another would have the US stop categorizing China as a developing nation at international organizations.

It is a mood that has clearly made investors uneasy. As the hearing was underway, the American Chamber of Commerce in China issued a report saying that for the first time in its 25-year history, fewer than half of respondents ranked China as a top three investment priority.

Taken overall, China is no longer regarded by American companies as the primary investment destination it once was, the organization said. Still, US-China trade endures, approaching record levels.

Meanwhile, Chinas economy is showing signs of a stronger rebound after Covid restrictions were abandoned, with manufacturing posting its biggest improvement in more than a decade, services activity climbing and the housing market stabilizing.

Stark Turnaround

The tone of the China committees first hearing marked a stark turnaround from 2016, when then-Secretary of State John Kerry said that when the US and China cooperate, we accomplish more for everybody, or Trumps 2017 visit to China when the US sought its help countering North Koreas nuclear program. We love each other, Trump later said of Xi.

The outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic changed all that, and animosity has only grown. The threat frequently cited in Tuesday nights hearing was making sure China never feels emboldened to invade Taiwan.

In the Pacific, we cant afford to let deterrence fail, Democratic Representative Seth Moulton of Massachusetts said.

The sharpened competition has ground conversations to a halt, and the bipartisan push to portray China as the fundamental threat of the era has led some outside experts to plead for caution  and more conversation between Beijing and Washington.

On Tuesday, the Pentagon said that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin hadnt spoken with his Chinese counterpart in more than three months, and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed a trip to China after the balloon incident became known.

Blinken spoke with Chinas top diplomat, Wang Yi, on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference but that meeting only strained ties even more. Blinken warned China against providing lethal military aid to Russia, while Wang accused the US of harboring a Cold War mentality.

The priority should be quickly securing a new date for Secretary Blinkens trip to Beijing before the zero-sum environment that has emerged hardens, said Suzanne DiMaggio, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Its clear a range of serious issues are mounting that only can be managed through direct, high-level dialogue.

--With assistance from Billy House, Eric Martin, Erik Wasson and Jarrell Dillard.

(Updates with TikTok legislation advancing in sixth paragraph)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Gleb Garanich/Reuters

Russian troops vying for control of a Ukrainian stronghold after weeks of failed attacks have tried to boost morale with a video message from the frontlinethat appears to show them abandoned and dying.

The brief video made waves on pro-war Russian Telegram accounts Wednesday, with a string of propagandists praising the powerful message as a testament to the Russian spirit.

Hello to everyone, says the man filming the video, identified as a Russian tankist fighting against Ukrainian troops near Vuhledar, a coal-mining town in the Donetsk region that has come to be known as a death trap for Vladimir Putins forces after weeks of catastrophic tank assaults.

The video is perhaps not as reassuring to Russians as it was intended to be. After introducing himself, the cameraman then pans over to another soldier seen crumpled up, wounded, and lying motionless on the frozen ground.

We saved Andryukha, hes already been lying there for two days wounded. Everythings fine, we already bandaged him, the soldier says.

Another soldier lying on the ground lifts himself up slightly to declare, through a coughing fit, Glory to Russia!

In the distance, black smoke can be seen pouring into the sky, and the cameraman calmly explains, Thats my tank burning.

From the frontline, firsthand, thats whats happening here, he says, as artillery fire is heard in the background. Its fucked up here.

But were fucking putting the heat on. Glory to Russia!

The footage has gained traction among Russian war supporters, even as a new report revealed that Russias war losses in Ukraine have already topped those of all other wars Moscow took part in after 1945 combined, including Afghanistan and both Chechen wars.

The Washington, D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies found that between 60,000 and 70,000 Russian troops have been killed or gone missing since the full-scale invasion began last February.

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.
A model walks the Diesel runway during Milan Fashion Week. Estrop/Getty Images

Milan Fashion Week was held in Italy between February 21 and February 27.

Fashion houses including Diesel, Bottega Veneta, and Gucci hosted runways during the event.

The best looks included shredded gowns, ruffled shirts, and suits printed with dog portraits.

Antonio Marras kicked off Milan Fashion Week with dresses and suits printed with dog portraits.

Models walk the Antonio Marras runway during Milan Fashion Week. Estrop/Getty Images

Beloved dog breeds like Dalmations and pugs were represented in the Italian designer's maximalist and preppy garments.

Many of Diesel's daring designs were shredded to pieces.

Models walk the Diesel runway during Milan Fashion Week runway. Estrop/Getty Images

Some models walked the runway in crocheted hoodies and matching pants that were covered with large tears from top to bottom.

Others wore neon dresses with shredded skirts and tiny, ripped crop tops.

A tan gown on Del Core's runway showed the power of simplistic fashion.

A model walks the Del Core runway during Milan Fashion Week. Estrop/Getty Images

Neutral-colored wrap dresses were a staple of the Fall/Winter 2023 show from the Milan-based fashion house.

One of the most striking was a tan, sleeveless gown with a flowing train and form-fitting bodice that looked as if it was molded to the model who wore it.

Marco Rambaldi's best looks included sheer bodysuits, a cutout gown, and animal prints.

Models walk the runway during Marco Rambaldi's Milan Fashion Week show. John Phillips/Stringer/Getty Images

There was a red, knit gown covered in heart motifs that created tiny cutouts, and a snakeskin minidress paired with heart-print tights.

Additionally, the Italian designer showcased see-through, tan bodysuits that were illustrated with red tattoo-style designs.

Etro's standout outfits mixed bold patterns and textured fabrics.

Models walk the runway at Etro's Milan Fashion Week show. Estrop/Getty Images

There was a '70s vibe to the runway, as seen via warm-toned, knit dresses with floral embellishments and leather outerwear sets.

Fendi's best looks hearkened back to '90s style trends.

A model walks the Fendi runway during Milan Fashion Week. Victor Virgile/Getty Images

The runway was filled with trench coats, pleated pencil skirts, and asymmetrical dresses, all of which were subtly emblazoned with Fendi's monogram.

But arguably the best look showcased was a baby-blue turtleneck paired with a lace skirt, lace-up boots, and a gray handbag.

Alberta Ferretti showcased the sheer trend in three unique ways.

Story continues

Models walk the Alberta Ferretti runway during Milan Fashion Week. Victor Virgile/Getty Images

The Italian fashion designer displayed short-sleeve, high-neck dresses made entirely from lace, and minidresses covered in crystals with sheer panels across their skirts.

But most unique were Feretti's sheer, two-piece sets, which included mesh tops paired with beaded, see-through miniskirts.

Roberto Cavalli's show was one of the best and most daring this season.

Models walk the Robert Cavalli runway during Milan Fashion Week. Victor Virgile/Getty Images

The designer displayed daring gowns made from denim, printed suits with feather-like designs, and webbed, see-through dresses.

Blumarine's fiery runway proved that ruffles are here to stay.

Models walk the Blumarine runway during Milan Fashion Week. Pietro S. D'Aprano/Stringer/Getty Images

The best examples of the style came in the form of a flowing, tan halter dress with fabric roses on its neckline, and a feather-covered miniskirt paired with a ruffled shirt worn open.

Cukovy's outerwear stood out during the Budapest Select showcase.

A model wears Cukovy on the Budapest Select runway during Milan Fashion Week. Pietro D'Aprano/Getty Images

The Hungarian brand gave a new meaning to the term "puffer coat" with a massive jacket it displayed on the runway.

It had three puffy tiers each in a different color, and it was so long that it reached the catwalk.

GCDS proved that yellow is about to be the next "it" color.

Models walk the GCDS runway during Milan Fashion Week. Estrop/Getty Images

Yellow was most prominently featured on the Milan-based brand's runway via a puffy gown that had a tiered skirt, thigh-high slit, and neckline bow.

But the color also made appearances in standout menswear, like one button-up top embellished with a moss-like fabric.

Moschino's best looks were encrusted with crystals.

Models walk the Moschino runway during Milan Fashion Week. Mondadori Portfolio/Getty Images

Some pieces, like Moschino's leather jacket and matching shorts, were decorated with massive, diamond-rimmed crystals.

But others, like the sheer dress Jeremy Scott paired with a fluffy feather jacket, were covered in smaller, colorful gemstones.

Vivetta's runway was full of fun, colorful clothes and matching tights.

Models walk the Vivetta runway during Milan Fashion Week. Estrop/Getty Images

One exceptional look was reminiscent of Little Red Riding Hood, featuring a red satin cape over matching tights.

Another look mixed shades of baby blue across its asymmetrical top and quilted skirt.

One particularly bold look seen on the Andreadamo runway featured arm cutouts and strategically-placed metal leaves.

A model walks the Andreadamo runway during Milan Fashion Week. Pietro S. D'Aprano/Stringer/Getty Images

The silver leaves, attached to the bodysuit's chest and below the waist, added some shine to the otherwise neutral outfit.

Gucci's Fall/Winter 2023 collection features some of the boldest looks seen during Milan Fashion Week.

Models walk the Gucci runway during Milan Fashion Week. Victor Virgile/Getty Images

One of the best was a strapless gown with a cream-colored corset top and a black velvet skirt that puffs out at the hips. For a pop of color, Gucci added red tights.

Similarly, one of the most daring looks on the brand's runway paired neon-yellow tights with a lace halter-neck dress.

Act N1 mixed menswear and womenswear to create stunning suits.

A model walks the Act N1 runway during Milan Fashion Week. Justin Shin/Getty Images

Look 45 in the show was a tan, suede suit with oversized sleeves and loose-fitting pants.

Attached to both pieces were layers of green ruffles that looked as if they'd been plucked from a ball gown.

MSGM took texture to another level with a fuzzy sweater worn as a minidress.

A model walks the MSGM runway during Milan Fashion Week. Pietro S. D'Aprano/Stringer/Getty Images

The long-sleeved, lilac dress paired perfectly with MSGM's fuzzy pink heels.

The structured garments seen on Han Kjbenhavn's "Chthonic Penumbra" runway were some of the week's most unique looks.

Models walk the Han Kjbenhavn runway during Milan Fashion Week. Estrop/Getty Images

The designer displayed a red, mesh gown that looks simple at first, with long sleeves and a form-fitting bodice. But up top, the neckline extends into a solid red shield around the model's face.

Similarly, he paired a black, mermaid-style leather skirt with a 3D swirl that wrapped around the model's head and acted as a top.

Both the sculptured piece and blood-red design were inspired by the upcoming "Diablo IV" video game.

Bottega Veneta's looks were office-ready in a fun way.

Models walk the Bottega Veneta runway during Milan Fashion Week. Estrop/Getty Images

The brand's long-sleeve dresses stood out with sheer fabric and tiered layers of unique prints.

Two-piece outfits, on the other hand, were made from thick fabrics and paired with gloves made from the same material as Bottega Veneta's signature purses.

Raxxy took quilted fashion to another level.

A model walks the Raxxy runway during Milan Fashion Week. Justin Shin/Getty Images

The Chinese brand's runway was filled with its signature inflated garments, which are made from materials similar to what's used to create winter puffer coats.

But one look, in particular, stood out: a blouse, matching tie, and sweater worn with light-blue pants  all made from the puffy material.

Read the original article on Insider
Lululemon just dropped so many new arrivals for spring  these are the ones we want the most (photos via Lululemon).

It is a well-known fact that we are dedicated Lululemon stans here at Yahoo Canada. Therefore, we consider it our duty as both shopping editors and Canadians to highlight new releases from the Vancouver-based brand.

Lululemon just dropped a new spring collection "made to look, move and feel the way you want it to." It includes more than a dozen pieces, ranging from transitional rain jackets to an open-back sweater we're dying to get our hands on.

To shop 11 highlights from the collection and give your wardrobe a much-deserved refresh for spring, scroll below.

Relaxed-Fit Rain Shell in bold beige (photo via Lululemon)

Rain, rain, go away! This relaxed-fit rain shell is windproof, waterproof, breathable and available in two colours: bone and bold beige (pictured).

$298 at Lululemon

Ribbed Nulu Asymmetrical Yoga Bra in java (photo via Lululemon)

This asymmetrical yoga bra offers light support and is best for A/B cup sizes. Made with a ribbed version of Lululemon's buttery-soft Nulu fabric, the bra is available in five colours.

$64 at Lululemon

Roll-Top Crossbody Bag 3L in solar orange (photo via Lululemon)

This roll-top cross-body has a unique silhouette with the added security of a three-step closure, making it perfect for travel days and city adventures.

$58 at Lululemon

Open Back Half-Zip Sweater in black (photo via Lululemon)

With its cut-out opening at the bank, this half-zip sleeveless top will give your knitwear collection an edgy upgrade.

$138 at Lululemon

Relaxed-Fit Super-High-Rise Cargo Short 4" in bold beige (photo via Lululemon)

These utility-inspired, super-high-rise shorts have spacious cargo pockets to hold your keys, phone, wallet, and then some. Take home a pair in three colours: beige, pale yellow and black.

$118 at Lululemon

Restfeel Women's Slide in solar orange (photo via Lululemon)

These ultra-comfy slides were designed to soothe your feet post-workout. They feature dual-density cushioning for maximum comfort and support and heel-to-toe rubber traction for grip.

$68 at Lululemon

Heavyweight Cotton Mock-Neck T-Shirt in finch yellow (photo via Lululemon)

This mock-neck T-shirt's brushed, heavyweight fabric and cuffed sleeve make for a sleek combination of structure and comfort.

$98 at Lululemon

Cinchable Cuff High-Rise Jogger (photo via Lululemon)

These crisp, lightweight joggers are designed with a high rise, relaxed fit and cinchable cuffs. They're made from sweat-wicking fabric and come in two colours: black and bone.

$178 at Lululemon

Scuba Oversized Funnel Neck Half Zip (photo via Lululemon)

An oldie but a goodie: Lululemon's classic Scuba sweater has a new look for spring 2023. Shoppers say the sweater is "so soft and warm" and call it the "best ever."

$118 at Lululemon

Smooth Fit Pull-On High-Rise Pants in dark olive (photo via Lululemon)

Lululemon's sleek Smooth Fit pants feature Smooth Fit Waistband technology to keep you comfortably held in while delivering a just-right fit.

$158 at Lululemon

Mixed Fabric Half-Zip Pullover (photo via Lululemon)

This sporty pullover is a dream come true for spring's transitional weather. Its soft, structured fabric and textured panels will keep you cozy while looking cool.

$178 at Lululemon

Let us know what you think by commenting below and tweeting @YahooStyleCA! Follow us on Twitter and Instagram.
Image: Images: Shutterstock Graphics: Vicky Leta

Researchers at Polar Bears International, York University, and 3M are winners of the 2023 Gizmodo Science Fair for developing a burr-like tracking device that sticks to polar bears fur.



The Question

Is there a better way to track polar bears in the Arctic, that avoids the problems with collars and ear tags?

Read more

The Results

A team of researchers from Polar Bears International, 3M, York University, and participating zoos worked to create a polar bear tracking device that could be safely attached to most polar bears. They thought of how burrs stick to animal fur, hanging on even as the animal travels great distances. They began to develop burr on fur, a tracker that is placed onto the fur at the back of the bears neck. The best time to place these trackers is in the fall, when that fluffy white fur is becoming thicker in preparation for winter.

Finding the right design was a challenge. They created several attachment prototypes, which they tested on faux fur and real bears. One is shaped like a pentagon, with a tracker box on a small platform. The fur is pulled through copper tubes, which researchers then crimp to hold the fur in place. Another is the tri-brush attachment, which looks like a metal triangle with strong pipe-cleaner like brushes on each side that tangle into the bears fur. Other prototypes have included adhesives and velcro-like attachments.

The team partnered with zoos to further test the tracker on real bears before deploying it in the wild. So far, theyve attached trackers to polar bears in the Western and Southern Hudson Bay in Canada.

Researchers usually track polar bears by looking for them from a helicopter, then tranquilizing the bear and placing an ear tag or collar. Collars only work on adult female bears, because they tend to have wider heads than male bears. Juvenile bears grow too quickly; a collar that fits them today would be dangerously small in less than a year.

Story continues

Illustration: Vicky Leta

Using ear tags is an invasive method, but the new tracker does not involve piercing skin. The burr-on-fur tracking device has allowed researchers to put trackers on polar bears of all ages and sizes.



The tracking devices give researchers satellite data about a bears location. York University professor Gregory Thiemann explained that researchers are emailed coordinates that they map onto GIS or Google Maps and use that to learn patterns. During a deployment in late 2021, Thiemann and other researchers saw that, in the fall, bears spent a lot of time resting and eventually became more active as the weather became colder.

Why They Did It

Understanding how [polar bears are] using their environment is super important with making sure that we can protect those areas moving forward, said BJ Kirschhoffer, director of conservation technology at Polar Bears International. If we can see spots where they continue to persist, these are places that really do need to be protected, as we slow down our emissions.

I honestly think the most promising application of the tag is monitoring adult males, particularly with respect to problem polar bears. So in communities like Churchill and further north, theyre monitoring problem bears, said PhD candidate Tyler Ross, who analyzed some of the burr-on-fur tracking data. If theyre coming to communities, these tags can be used to track their movements.

Understanding the kinds of habitats that they use on the ice and onshore is essential for identifying critical habitat under endangered species legislation, said York University Professor Gregory Thiemann. Its important to understand migratory routes, where bears are moving in different seasons.

I feel so fortunate to have spent my career on polar bears. Both in the research side and on the conservation side, said Polar Bears International staff scientist Geoff York. Theyve given me a career trying to understand them, and I owe them something in return.

Why Theyre a Winner

This team found a less invasive way to track an endangered species that is beloved around the world. Several dedicated groups came together to create the multiple attachments used for the burrs, and they conducted thorough testing in the lab, in captivity, and on bears in the wild.

These trackers will allow conservationists to learn more about how polar bears move and how they interact with the environment around them. The trackers can also be used to support community safety. Several researchers referenced how these tracking devices could better support communities in the Arctic that need to know if a bear is coming too close to people.

Whats Next

The team plans to continue testing the trackers. Currently, some trackers stay on the bears for about 100 days, which the researchers say is ample time to draw data. But they hope to figure out how the various attachments can stay stuck to the bears and functional, regardless of the distance the bears have traveled and the environments they visit, like out on the sea ice or with cubs in caves. When hunting, polar bears also swim for long distances, so researchers want to ensure that the burr tracker stays on during those kinds of strenuous activities.

Jon Kirschhoffer said he was surprised when a tracker fell off a bear that had been walking around willows. He discussed why it might have detached with his son, BJ. He said, polar bears are like a lot like tanks. They just go in a direction and whatever is in the way, they just roll over [it], they just go right through, Kirschhoffer said. Weve done in-the-lab testing... even the best of testing will never fully represent what the animals will actually do.

There are other information gaps that researchers are hoping to fill, especially with the less-studied adult male polar bears. Thiemann explained that some male bears gather along bay shores and hang out. They play and wrestle, so future attachments will have to stay on firmly if we want to learn more about those adult male bears.

The Team

Kevin Bangen, 3M senior technologist providing 3D technical support; Andrew Derocher, University of Alberta biology professor; George Durner, former Research Zoologist with the United States Geological Survey; Jennifer Ehrlich, 3M senior communications manager; Lindsey Hines, 3M research specialist; Chris Kelton, 3M advanced prototype engineer; BJ Kirschhoffer, Polar Bears International director of conservation technology; Jon Kirschhoffer, former 3M advanced research scientist; Marissa Krouse, Polar Bears International director of conservation programs; Joseph Northrup of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry; Evelyn Padilla, 3M digital marketing leader; Tyler Ross, York University researcher and PhD candidate; Vasav Sahni, former 3M advanced research specialist; Gregory W. Thiemann, York University associate professor; Vicki Trim, Manitoba regional wildlife manager; and Geoff York, Polar Bears International senior director of conservation and staff scientist.

In collaboration with the following aquariums and zoos: Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium; Kansas City Zoo; Columbus Zoo and Aquarium; San Diego Zoo, Como Park Zoo; Oregon Zoo; Louisville Zoo; Maryland Zoo in Baltimore; Utahs Hogle Zoo; Assiniboine Park Zoo and Toronto Zoo in Canada; and Skandinavisk Dyrepark in Denmark.



kinjavideo-193906

See the full list of Gizmodo Science Fair winners

More from Gizmodo

Sign up for Gizmodo's Newsletter. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.
Photo Illustration The Daily Beast / Reuters

The eagerness of the Supreme Courts conservative majority to assert its power was blatantly on display again in oral arguments over President Joe Bidens proposed cancellation of federal student loans. In arguments heard Tuesday, the conservative justices repeatedly showed their interest in stopping Biden from relieving Americans of $400 billion dollars worth of student debt.

The two cases heard arose over a challenge to the plan by six Republican-led statesNebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, and South Carolinaplus two individuals, relying on recent Supreme Court decisions utilizing the so-called major questions doctrine.

Trumps Georgia Election Case Wont Hinge on One Person Mouthing Off

Deploying this doctrine as the conservative majoritys judicial activist weapon of choice, Chief Justice John Roberts made clear that he believes the Department of Education has no business deciding the loan terms of the loans it administers. Roberts asserted at oral argument his view that the forgiveness of student loan debt is a subject of such great controversy that he believes only Congress can act on it. His invocation of the term great controversy is critical to using the major questions doctrinewhich in practice simply means actions by a Democratic administration that might offend conservatives should be viewed as too controversial for the high court to allow.

Roberts ushered in the new age of this doctrine in the 2022 decision West Virginia v. EPA where SCOTUS struck down the EPAs ability to require power plants to move away from the use of coal. Small wonder that the dissent in that case, written by Justice Elena Kagan, characterized Roberts majority opinion as announc[ing] the arrival of the major questions doctrine. Its use allows the conservative majority to impose its views on what it deems should be important to Americans.

An excellent example of the lack of legal basis for these views is Justice Samuel Alitos claim that the ordinary colloquial meaning of major questions encompassed what the government proposes to do with student loans. This is the equivalent of claiming that if you looked up major questions in Blacks Law Dictionary youd find a picture of Bidens plan to cancel student loans. Its the kind of non-legal analysis that would get a first-year law student raked over the coals in class by their law professor.

Story continues

The doctrine is always cloaked in the idea that controversial issues of major importance must be left to Congress to decide rather than allowing the Executive branch to act. The fallacy of that argument in this case isas pointed out by Justice Kaganthat Congress already acted. Specifically, the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003, known as the HEROES Act empowers the Education Department to waive or modify any statutory or regulatory provision to protect borrowers affected by a national emergency like the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bidens Strategy: Legally Smart But Politically Clumsy

If you dont believe Justice Kagan, just ask the Trump administrationwhich relied upon that exact statute to pause student loan repayments and suspend interest accrual because of the national emergency caused by COVID-19.

Significant issues of whether the states and individuals even have standing to challenge the Biden plan were identified by both conservative and liberal justices. Standing is the legal doctrine for federal courts that prevents cases from being brought simply on the ground that an individual or group is displeased with a government action or law. Cases must involve actual cases and controversies where the party suing has suffered an actual injury connected to the conduct at issue that can be redressed by a court decision.

It is difficult to see how that basic standard is met here.

Put simply, the Republican states suing dont have a dog in this fight because they are not parties to any of the student loans. Those contracts are between the students and the government, not between the students and the states.

As Justice Kagan pointed out, the actual non-profit state agency in Missouri tasked with administering student loans did not even join the suit. The two individuals suing at least actually had student loansalthough one student only had loans from commercial entities, not loans held by the government. But Justice Neil Gorsuch, part of the conservative majority, was dismissive of their standing.

Can Stormy Daniels Be to Trump What Taxes Were to Al Capone?

In a pre-Federalist Society dominated federal judiciary, questions like standing served as an important guard at the courthouse doors. But that is unlikely to work in this case, as SCOTUS conservative majority seems particularly concerned about the fairness of forgiving student loans. Chief Justice Roberts seemed particularly troubled by fairness, when he wondered why the owner of a small lawn mowing business wouldnt get their business loan forgiven, but students would get this benefit. He seemed oblivious to Justice Kagans point that Congress did not pass a law that dealt with repayment for lawn businesses.

The chief justices hypothetical question might seem humorous to some and bizarre to otherssomehow conjuring up a stereotypical white suburban fantasy a la Wandavisionbut it accurately reflects a disconnect between the world that justices like Roberts live in versus the reality of most everyday Americans.

Justice Sonia Sontomayor told the Nebraska solicitor general the financial problems for those who default includes consequences that grow exponentially, and that he was asking to give judges the right to decide how much aid to give them. If Roberts and his conservative brethren are really concerned about fairness then they would leave the administration of federal education loans in the hands of the Department of Education.

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.
BALTIMORE  President Joe Biden will huddle here with House Democrats on Wednesday as they work to develop a messaging strategy to help them hold the White House and flip the five seats needed to take back the House in 2024.

Given the divided government, theres only a very slim chance that Congress will pass any meaningful legislation during the next two years.

So a big piece of the partys messaging puzzle will be focused on implementing the legislative successes of the first two years of Bidens presidency: a massive infrastructure package, the most significant gun reform law in a generation, funding to boost domestic computer chip manufacturing and a landmark climate and health care law.

"Implementation" isn't the sort of rallying cry that's apt to excite voters ahead of the 2024 elections. The challenge for Biden and congressional Democrats is persuading Americans that the new laws will make a meaningful difference in their daily lives.

Its about Democrats delivering for the American people when we talk about implementation, Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo., who heads Democrats policy and messaging operation, said in an interview. What do we mean? We mean lowering costs for senior citizens, we mean bridges and highways that are being rebuilt across the country for the first time in 60 to 70 years.

So, to me, thats what the message is focused on. Its delivering for the American people, and a big part of that is implementing these laws.

During the three-day issues retreat at a hotel in Baltimores Inner Harbor, House Democrats also will hear from Vice President Kamala Harris and top administration officials, including Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan and Bidens new infrastructure czar, Mitch Landrieu.

Wes Moore, Marylands new Democratic governor and a rising star in the party, will also address Democrats.

Story continues

The following day, Biden will head to his old stomping ground  Capitol Hill  to convey his message to Senate Democrats.

'Finish the job'

The presidents pair of meetings come as his focus is turning more and more to the reelection campaign he is preparing to wage. Polling shows that few Americans are either aware of or particularly impressed by Bidens legislative accomplishments to date.

He wants to change that.

At a White House event Monday celebrating Black History Month, Biden told the scores of guests in attendance that, Even in your communities, they dont know what weve done.

So weve got to talk about it, he continued. Spread the word. Defend our progress. Finish the job.

Thats a message he likely will deliver at the Baltimore retreat, while spelling out his differences with Republicans who are refusing to raise the debt ceiling without billions in budget cuts.

One White House official said the president will use the appearance in Baltimore to speak to congressional Democrats about building on the progress they have achieved making the economy work from the bottom up and the middle out, as well as combating Republicans top-down policies that hurt working Americans.

He will thank them for the strength of their unified caucus on both of those core priorities, the official continued. The president will discuss how to keep bringing jobs back to America at an historic rate, keep lowering costs like prescription drugs and energy, and further cutting the deficit by having rich special interests pay their fair share."

Echoing the White House, Democratic Vice Caucus Chairman Ted Lieu, D-Calif., said the party will show voters that Democrats will stop stupid stuff from happening.

We need to make sure that the debt limit is increased so we dont default on our debts. We have to make sure they dont pass a national abortion ban, said Lieu, who organized the retreat with Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar, D-Calif.

First, though, Democrats need to get on the same page. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries recently tapped Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., to lead a new group, the Regional Leadership Council, to ensure top Biden officials inform Democratic lawmakers when they are visiting their districts or states to announce new infrastructure projects or deliver federal grants.

Congressional Democrats have been frustrated at missed opportunities when some Cabinet members made trips to swing states without giving a heads-up to local lawmakers. Jeffries raised the issue on Tuesday during two closed-door meetings with Democrats, lawmakers said.

"Administration officials SHOULD be including the ones who did the work when any project funding is announced. There isn't an excuse for it," one House Democrat said in a text message, adding, "The president wants us to focus on implementation. So we are. All Cabinet officials need to get the message."

20,000 projects funded

Major highway, port and public transit projects take time to complete. The $1 trillion infrastructure bill that Biden signed into law in 2021 wont be fully implemented until long after his presidency ends. Still, White House officials are confident that Americans will see improvements ahead of the 2024 presidential election. Signs are going up reminding people that the money being spent on new highway and bridge projects under construction came from the Biden administration.

Landrieu, the former New Orleans mayor who is now a senior White House adviser coordinating the infrastructure plan, said that 20,000 projects have already been funded and there are projects coming out of the ground as we speak.

Americans, he said, are not driving around going, Im so happy that the president turned that piece of concrete. But when, all of a sudden, the street is better or youre getting to work faster, or you have high-speed internet, or you have clean water, you go, Wow, that Biden guy did pretty good!

Biden has not officially announced his candidacy, but he is acting and sounding like he wants a second term. His wife, Jill Biden, has made clear that she wants him to run. When asked in a recent interview with the Associated Press if her husband would run again, she said: How many times does he have to say it for you to believe it?

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
President Biden on Wednesday traveled to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to mark 20 years since the creation of the sprawling agency, as its leader, Alejandro Mayorkas, faces a barrage of criticism from Republican lawmakers.

Biden extolled the value of DHS, an agency that has faced its share of controversy since it was formed in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to combat terrorism and potential threats against the United States.

The agency has grown significantly in the 20 years since its creation. It now houses more than a dozen government agencies, and its purview includes matters related to immigration, cybersecurity, election integrity and disaster response. The department as a whole has roughly 260,000 employees, Biden noted.

In the 20 years since DHS began, the world has become more interconnected, more complicated than ever, and new threats are emerging with the incredible advances in technology, Biden said in prepared remarks. Some are frightening  many are reassuring. And yet because of you, America is safer and stronger and is better prepared to meet whatever threat we face.

But, the agencys work securing the southern border has been in the spotlight and the target of intense scrutiny during the past two administrations.

The focus on the influx of migrants at the southern border has made it tough for other work of the department to get attention, argued Stewart Verdery, a former assistant secretary at DHS under President George W. Bush.

Twenty years ago at its creation, DHS was supposed to tackle several equally important missions at all once  aviation security, securing international travel and disaster preparedness. Of course the southern border was part of the equation, but it wasnt the whole equation, he said. But the political focus on migrant flows in this hemisphere by both the right and the left has almost made it impossible for the other missions to get any real attention, especially from the Congress.

Story continues

During the Trump administration, DHS was frequently at the center of criticism because of its immigration enforcement responsibilities. Former President Trump largely used the agency to implement his crackdown on the flow of immigrants into the country, and some Democrats during the last administration called for defunding Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is housed within DHS.

Trump also publicly clashed with cybersecurity experts who said the 2020 election had been secure as the former president sowed doubt about the results.

Biden said on Wednesday that the work of DHS is now even more important than it has been in its 20 years, rattling off its work, notably including protecting our air, our land, our maritime borders.

The department was at the center of a firestorm over an order under Trump to separate migrant families who illegally crossed the border, and the governments inability to reunite hundreds of those families in a timely manner has lingered into the Biden administration.

The departments secretary, Mayorkas, has been closely scrutinized by Republicans who have complained that he has not done enough to secure the southern border and reduce the flow of migrants. Some Republicans have called for Mayorkass impeachment over his handling of the border.

But Biden came to do the defense of Mayorkas, who he nominated, calling him a true patriot who decided his career to protecting and serving the American people, while upholding our nations laws and standing up for American values.

The ceremony on Wednesday also included remarks from Mayorkas, as well as recorded messages from former President George W. Bush and Tom Ridge, the first secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, which was created under Bushs tenure.

The people who work at DHS come to work every morning knowing their most important job is to protect their fellow citizens, Bush said in a pre-recorded message. Youve worked tirelessly and effectively to do just that. I thank you for your service to our country and for the sacrifices you have made in the pursuit of keeping your neighbors safe.

Updated at 5:30 p.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
President Joe Biden will soon be in a position to issue his first veto, after moderate Senate Democrats helped Republicans pass a measure that would undo an environmental and social investing rule.

Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, a Democrat who is facing a tough 2024 election campaign, ensured passage of the rollback by announcing his support before the Wednesday afternoon vote. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, another Democrat facing reelection next year, also backed the effort.

The Senate passed the GOP-led resolution in a 50-46 vote. House Republicans passed it on Tuesday, with the backing of Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine). It now heads to Biden's desk.

Tester and Manchin defied Biden's threat to veto the rollback, which targets a new Labor Department rule that allows retirement plan managers to incorporate climate and social factors into investment decisions. Republicans have criticized the regulation  which itself reversed a Trump-era rule discouraging environmentally and socially focused investing  as a threat to retirement savers because it would allow political forces to take precedence over returns.

At a time when working families are dealing with higher costs, from health care to housing, we need to be focused on ensuring Montanans retirement savings are on the strongest footing possible," Tester said in a statement. "Im opposing this Biden Administration rule because I believe it undermines retirement accounts for working Montanans and is wrong for my state.

The fact that Republicans are poised to push the measure through a divided Congress underscores the growing political momentum behind their crusade against what they deride as "woke" business practices. Conservative officials at the state and federal level are increasingly attacking big corporations for embracing social and environmental causes. It's a push that Democrats in red states and swing districts are finding they're unable to ignore.

Story continues

Republicans took advantage of procedures under the Congressional Review Act that allow lawmakers to nullify recently issued rules with simple majority votes, avoiding the Senate filibuster.

The Biden administration said in its veto threat this week that undoing the DOL rule would unnecessarily limit the options available to retirement plan participants and investors.

Biden's threat in a way gives moderate Democrats a free pass to distance themselves from the president because they don't face the risk of the rollback actually being implemented.

Asked whether Democratic leadership had pressured him to vote no, Tester told reporters that they gave a presentation to the broader caucus Tuesday. But it wasnt like, pestering.

The 2024 election "hasn't been my focus, but that ought to be their focus," Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.), who sponsored the measure, told reporters. "I just tried to make the merits of the case out there understandable to everyone listening."

Manchin took to the Senate floor to blast the Biden DOL rule as "just another example of how our administration prioritizes a liberal policy agenda over protecting and growing the retirement accounts of 150 million Americans."

The Labor Department rule at issue doesn't require investment managers to focus on environmental, social and governance factors in retirement accounts, but instead clarifies that they're free to do so.

ESG investing has been a big focus for money managers for years, partly in response to consumer demand for sustainable investment products.

Republicans' campaign against the ESG movement has put them at odds with major Wall Street firms like BlackRock and State Street, which have struggled to mount a lobbying response. Braun said Wednesday that he personally didn't get pushback from financial firms.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in a Wall Street Journal op-ed blasted the GOP rollback effort, accusing Republicans of sacrificing their free market ideals in favor of "forcing their own views down the throats of every company and investor."

The whole anti-ESG operation is a fake, cooked up by the fossil fuel industry, said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said in an interview.
President Joe Biden continued his attacks on Republicans Tuesday, warning in a speech from Virginia Beach, Virginia, that some in the GOP would raise health care costs, cut vital programs like Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act and cause millions of people to lose their medical insurance.

The president also kept up his focus on the deficit, continuing an effort to claim the mantle of fiscal responsibility and paint Republicans as endangering the full faith and credit of the country. Biden is set to release his budget on March 9 and has said it will protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid while also cutting deficits by $2 trillion over 10 years.

If they say they want to cut the deficit but their plans actually would explode the deficit, how are they going to make the numbers add up? What are they going to cut? Biden said of Republicans. Thats the big question. For millions of Americans, health care hangs in the balance. Will they continue to fight to cut the Affordable Care Act and make health insurance more expensive for millions of Americans?

Biden also touted his efforts to reduce health care costs, pointing to legislation hes signed, including allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices. Its a win-win, he said of that program Wednesday. It saves taxpayers money, it makes Medicare stronger and reduces government spending overall.

Biden has been on the offensive as he prepares to release his 2024 budget proposal next week  the next step in whats likely to be a long showdown with House Republicans over federal spending and debt. Bidens attacks also come shortly before he is expected to announce a re-election bid.

Beginning with his State of the Union address earlier this month, the president has touted his policies and sought to contrast his agenda with that of Republicans seeking to force spending cuts as part of a deal to raise the nations debt limit. Biden has pressed House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to put forth his own budget plan and propose specific spending cuts. McCarthy has not yet released such a plan, but Biden has used other GOP proposals and statements as a foil.

Story continues

Unfortunately, congressional Republicans to date havent put forward their own budget plan. They claim cutting the deficit is a top priority, but their floated proposals  based again on what we know so far  explode the deficit and increase it by more than $3 trillion, White House Deputy Communications Director Kate Berner told reporters.

Why it matters: The growing fixation on the deficit is notable for a White House that championed an expansive economic agenda, including trillions of dollars in emergency deficit spending that, it says, proved critical to fighting the pandemic and revitalizing the economy, Politicos Adam Cancryn writes, adding that some progressives are concerned by the presidents fiscal focus, worried that it could backfire in the event of a recession.

This is the most anticipated recession in the history of the country, and if it finally happens, I promise you the deficit is going to go much higher on its own, economist Stephanie Kelton told Politico. Might as well anticipate that and not talk yourself into a situation where you told everybody to evaluate you on your ability to keep bringing the deficit down.

The bottom line: Biden and his administration are trying to draw stark contrasts with Republicans, including by highlighting differences in the two approaches to deficit reduction. [Biden] wants to reduce the deficit by having a real conversation about reforming the tax code, by cutting wasteful spending that we make to large corporations, one White House official told Politico. Hes not interested in having a deficit reduction conversation thats about cutting programs Americans really count on.

Like what you're reading? Sign up for our free newsletter.
U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order on March 1 prolonging a "national emergency" in the U.S. with regards to the war in Ukraine for one year.

The first executive order was signed on March 6, 2014, by then President Barack Obama following Russia's annexation of Crimea and the start of the war in Donbas, which according to the White House, posed, by extension, an "unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States."

Biden renewed the executive order on Feb. 21, 2022, after Russia recognized the occupied territories in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts as independent states. According to the White House, this was a contradiction of "Russias commitments under the Minsk agreements and further threatens the peace, stability, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Ukraine."

The executive orders also include sanctions related to Russia's actions in Ukraine that conflict with U.S. interests.
Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/Shutterstock

Semiconductor companies who want funding from the CHIPS and Science Act  signed into law last year  will have to provide employees access to affordable childcare, the Department of Commerce announced Feb. 28.

See: Biden Prioritizes Schools, Childcare, Small Business with $2.04 Trillion COVID Strategy Plan

Find: 3 Signs Youre Serious About Raising Your Credit Score

Applicants requesting over $150 million in direct funding must also submit plans to provide both their facility and construction workers with access to affordable, accessible, reliable, and high-quality childcare, the Department of Commerce said in a statement.

Applicants requesting less than $150 million are very strongly encouraged to provide access to childcare.

There is $52.7 billion specifically set aside in the CHIPS and Science Act for American semiconductor research, development, manufacturing and workforce development.

The department added that this requirement will be essential to getting people  especially women  into the workforce.

Indeed, according to the CHIPS fact sheet, a 10% decrease in the cost of childcare leads to a 0.5% to 2.5% increase in maternal employment.

In turn, applicants for funding are required to submit a plan to provide access to childcare that is affordable, accessible, reliable, and high quality. In addition, it should be within reach for low- and medium-income households, be located at a convenient location with hours that meet workers needs, grant workers confidence that they will not need to miss work for unexpected childcare issues, and provide a safe and healthy environment that families can trust.

As The New York Times noted, there is a critical shortage in childcare in some areas where semiconductor companies are set to build new plants  for example, in the Syracuse, New York area. Micron announced a $100 billion chip making investment in the region last year. There, the demand for openings in childcare facilities is three times the size of the capacity, according to The New York Times.

Story continues

According to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), childcare is unaffordable for typical families in New York, as infant care for one child would take up 22.1% of a median familys income. For low-income families, childcare would eat up 62.7% their earnings.

The EPI added that, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), childcare is affordable if it costs no more than 7% of a familys income. By this standard, only 9.4% of New York families can afford infant care. On a broader level, per CNBC, the average annual cost of childcare in the United States topped $10,000 in 2022.

Take Our Poll: Do You Think Bankruptcy Is an Acceptable Way To Escape Student Loan Debt?

More: How Millennial Women Can Take Control of Their Debt

The administration said it will release further details about childcare requirements in the next few weeks, the Washington Post reported.

More From GOBankingRates

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Biden Wants Semiconductor Companies To Pay for Your Child Care  How Much Could It Save You?
Education Sec. Miguel Cardona. GREG NASH/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

The Supreme Court concluded oral arguments on Biden's student-debt relief on Tuesday.

Education Sec. Miguel Cardona said Biden's team made a "powerful defense" of the relief.

The Supreme Court will make a decision on the legality of Biden's plan by June.

A consequential day for millions of student-loan borrowers has wrapped up at the nation's highest court, and President Joe Biden's administration is feeling good about it.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments for the two conservative-backed lawsuits that blocked Biden's plan to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt for federal borrowers. While the liberal justices drilled the lawyers representing the two cases on the standing they have to bring the lawsuit, the conservative justices appeared skeptical of Biden's authority to cancel student debt broadly for millions of Americans without Congressional approval.

Still, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona did not appear to be deterred by the harsh line of questioning, saying Biden's team "mounted a powerful defense before the U.S. Supreme Court on our plan to provide targeted, one-time student debt relief to more than 40 million working- and middle-class Americans as they recover from the pandemic."

"The Department of Justice argued against the lawsuits aimed at denying relief to borrowers, made clear that challengers to the program lack standing to even bring their cases to court, and explained the Department of Education's decades-old authority used by multiple administrations to protect borrowers from the effects of national emergencies," Cardona said.

"President Biden, Vice President Harris, and I recognize how essential this relief is for tens of millions of Americans, and we are fighting to deliver much-needed help to borrowers trying to get back on their feet after the economic crisis caused by the pandemic," he added.

In the hours leading up to arguments, advocates, Democratic lawmakers, and borrowers rallied outside the Supreme Court to voice their support for Biden's plan. Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley, a vocal leader for debt relief, told Insider that she's so confident in the plan's legality that a backup plan right now isn't necessary.

Story continues

"I'm not there yet. I'm ceding nothing," Pressley said. "We are still in this. The president has the authority. The Supreme Court needs to apply the letter of the law, and we need to get this done."

The White House has also previously said it's not deliberating any alternative plan for relief right now, maintaining confidence in the plan it has put forth. Now, all eyes turn to the Supreme Court, which is expected to make a final decision on the legality of Biden's plan by June. Student-loan payments will remain on pause for 60 days after the lawsuits are resolved, or 60 days after June 30  whichever happens first  and Pressley told Insider she will "absolutely" push for payments to remain on pause until borrowers get relief.

"This movement pushed for those pauses," Pressley said. "It's been game-changing and transformative for so many people. By eliminating that bill, I mean, do you all understand that there are people that are paying monthly student loan of bills that are the equivalency of a mortgage?"

Read the original article on Business Insider
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Bidens restaurant order on a recent date night has sparked intense debate, and not because they ordered an elitist dish made with exotic ingredients.

The president and first lady raised eyebrows when they dined at the citys famed Red Hen restaurant because they ordered exactly the same main course dishes.

Mr and Mrs Biden chose a chicory salad, grilled bread and butter and two bowls of rigatoni, reported The Washington Post.

And the presidential decision to not have different entrees to share has kicked off a firestorm of culinary reaction.

Getting the same thing as the person youre eating dinner with is silly, Hannah Madden, a 24-year-old Washington resident who does fundraising for a political nonprofit told the newspaper. The whole point of going out to eat is getting to try as many things as possible.

And she added: At first, I thought, its funny that everyone is in such a twist about this. And then I realised, Oh wait, Im in a twist about this.

Red Hen chef and owner Michael Friedman admitted he had also enjoyed the discussion of the presidents order.

Its such an honour to have a presidential visit, but its funny that this is what came out of it, he told the Post. Its a fascinating thread people have chosen to follow, and Im just really enjoying the banter.

He says that the rigatoni is the restaurants signature dish and that they sell 50 to 70 orders of it a night.

When I worked the pasta line, I would dream about it. But Im still passionate about it because of the love its gotten from around the world, he said.

He admitted that he and his wife mainly order different dishes, because of their particular tastes.

Im the guy ordering the offal, while shes getting the salmon. But maybe wed get the same thing if its what we both wanted, he said.

Christine Gwinn, a 31-year-old lawyer, told the newspaper that she was less strict on the issue and that she and her husband had soft guidelines about not ordering the same dish.

Story continues

If its our first visit to a restaurant, I would want to try more things, she said. But for a second or third visit Im not opposed to it, if theres something we thought was really delicious and if one of us would be sad that we didnt have all of it.

The Post article sparked more than 1,300 comments, with many people saying that the president and first lady were right to order whatever they wanted, regardless of their partners choice.

Eat what you love. If your partner of 30 years happens to share the same tastes, well then you likely picked well in both areas, wrote one commentator.

Id eat that rigatoni all day instead of a well-done steak doused in ketchup, wrote another in a shot at one-term president Donald Trump.

But another commentator added: My wife and I always find the 2 most appealing dishes on the menu. She gets one, I the other, and we share.
Nearly 70 years ago, Mamie Till-Mobley held an open casket funeral for her son, Emmett Till, at a church on the South Side of Chicago. The sight of his 14-year-old body, bloated and disfigured, reignited a civil rights movement.

Now, Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) has introduced legislation to designate the Roberts Temple Church where Tills funeral was held as a national monument. Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Corey Booker (D-N.J.), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) joined Duckworth in introducing the bill.

The Roberts Temple Church is of both extraordinary and incredibly heartbreaking historical importance to Chicago, our state and to this country, and what happened to Emmett matters both during Black History Month and each day of the year, Duckworth said.

By designating this church a national monument, we will help ensure that generations of Americans can come show respect to Mamie and Emmetts stories. Its past time we recognize how national monuments can not only teach us about our history  but provoke us to build a more just future.

In August 1955, Till traveled from Chicago to Mississippi to visit family. One afternoon, Till went inside the Bryant Store. Carolyn Bryant, who worked at the store, claimed that Till grabbed her, made lewd advances and wolf-whistled at her.

On Aug. 28, 1955, Bryants husband and brother-in-law kidnapped Till, brutally beat him to death and threw his body into the Tallahatchie River. Though a trial was held, the two were acquitted. They later admitted to the lynching.

In 2017, Bryant told Duke University professor Timothy B. Tyson the allegations she made of Till grabbing her and being crude toward her were fabricated, according to Vanity Fair. Despite this, in August 2022, a Mississippi grand jury declined to indict Bryant.

In March of 2021, President Biden signed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act into law, making lynching a federal hate crime. Then, last December, the House passed a resolution to posthumously award both Till and his mother, Till-Mobley, the Congressional Gold Medal.

Story continues

But for years, the Till and Roberts families have been working to obtain federal recognition and National Park status for Roberts Temple, as well as for important sites linked to Emmett Till in Mississippi.

We are grateful for the introduction of legislation to preserve the legacy of Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley by making Roberts Temple a National Historic Site, which will help to fulfill Mamies request for my wife and I to continue her work to ensure her sons death was not in vain, said Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr., Tills cousin and the last living witness to Tills abduction, Dr. Marvel Parker and the Till family.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A Channel 2 Action News Investigation is getting results in the Georgia General Assembly.

A bill passed committee Wednesday in the state House of Representatives that would essentially outlaw the controversial 40-year Homeowner Benefit Agreements that MV Realty has signed thousands of Georgians up for.

Channel 2 consumer investigator Justin Gray has been investigating and reporting on concerns with those MV Realty contracts for nearly 2 years.

House Bill 472 passed unanimously out of committee and now moves to the full House of Representatives for a vote.

In November 2022 in a Channel 2 Action News Investigation, we introduced you to Ira Dorin. He was sued by MV Realty.

He served me papers right there in front of my kids, Dorin said.

MV Realty placed a lien on this sale of his Cobb County home and sued him to block the sale.

I had to pay MV Realty over $9,000, Dorin said.

RELATED STORIES:

The newly proposed Georgia law would end liens like the one that forced Dorin to pay out thousands of dollars.

So that practice of taking a lien on someones home would be banned for this type of contract, said Sarah Mancini, an attorney at the National Consumer Law Center.

In a series of Channel 2 Action News Investigates stories, Gray has reported on MV Realty and its 40-year listing agreements.

Debbie Chasteen signed an MV realty contract in June.

I just want the contract torn up and gotten rid of, Chasteen said. I dont want anybody to have to go through what Ive been through with this.

Since our investigations began airing, there have been lawsuits launched by Attorneys General in three states against MV Realty and enforcement action taken by the FCC.

Story continues

This week, the company announced that it has voluntarily temporarily suspended entering into new customers contracts as we work to address the concerns raised by regulators and legislators.

A company spokesperson said, The company remains confident that the homeowner benefit program fully complies with the law.

I think it is a huge win for consumers to have this business practice stopped, Mancini said.

INVESTIGATIONS BY OUR SISTER STATIONS ON MV REALTY:

Now here in Georgia, lawmakers are looking to change the law, to clearly outlaw these type of contracts going forward.

What this bill would do is essentially cut off the spigot for them to make more deals, said the bills sponsor Republican State Rep. Clive Crowe.

The bill is on a tight timeline. Crossover Day is March 6, so it essentially has to pass the House by then to get to the Senate and have a chance at becoming law this year.

Also this week, a Massachusetts Judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking all MV Realty activity in that state until the conclusion of a lawsuit there.

It is the first time a court has taken action in several lawsuits MV Realty is facing.

RELATED NEWS:




A dusting of snow blankets flowers left by mourners outside of Kristie Allen's home in Windsor Heights. Shot to death JaN. 18, She was among six women to die in the Des Moines metro in the past two months in domestic violence-related shootings.

Acting after a rash of domestic partner murder-suicides in the Des Moines metro, bipartisan Iowa legislators and advocates are pushing for a new law aimed at providing better assessments of the ongoing risk to victims of domestic violence.

A second bill, filed in response to a high-profile case of alleged electronic stalking, would enhance criminal penalties for offenders.

Polk County state Reps. Sean Bagniewski, a Democrat, and Brian Lohse, a Republican, filed a bill late last week almost identical to one the House passed unanimously in 2018, but which failed to make it through the Senate.

Still awaiting a bill number, it would require police across the state to conduct evidence-based standardized assessments when interviewing victims of domestic violence.

Used already in more than 30 states and tried in several of Iowa's largest counties, lethality assessments aim to help the justice system determine further risk to victims, better connect them with services, make safety plans and place conditions, if needed, on offenders before or after trial.

More:7 Des Moines metro women shot in 2 months: What is Iowa doing about domestic violence?

This is something that all legislators should be proud to pass, said Tiffany Allison, a domestic abuse survivor and founder of the nonprofit Soaring Hearts Foundation. This would help so many victims in their communities.

Seven women have been shot, six fatally, in the Des Moines metro in the past two months by men who then turned their guns on themselves. Five of the women died at the hands of their former partners; one was killed along with her daughter by the daughter's ex-boyfriend.

The assessment bill would help screen thousands of offenders accused of domestic abuse, a top call by law enforcement, and require GPS monitoring for the most serious offenders.

About 9.4% of people convicted of domestic abuse used an extreme level of violence in their assaults, according to an analysis of 2015 offenses by Iowas Division of Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning.

Story continues

Iowa Code section 236.12 already says that if a peace officer has reason to believe that domestic abuse has occurred, that officer is to use all reasonable means to prevent further abuse.

The lethality assessment would attempt to identify those offenders who are most likely to try to kill their victims. Results would be provided to county attorneys, who would use them to determine the appropriate level of supervision.

The bill prohibits the release of defendants on their own recognizance or on an unsecured bond if they are charged with a violation of domestic abuse assault under Iowa Code section 708.2A and is considered at a high risk to reoffend.

It also requires anyone convicted of a domestic abuse assault class D felony to be supervised by an electronic monitoring system upon release until authorities determine they can go without.

More:Despite mens rights claims, colleges expel few sexual misconduct offenders while survivors suffer

Sgt. Paul Parizek said Des Moines police see firsthand the effect of intimate partner violence and "are supportive of further efforts to protect and assist victims, reduce the occurrence of these crimes and hold offenders accountable."

He said the department works closely with crime victims and their advocates, connecting victims with "resources and services that can provide counseling, shelter, and support as the victim and their loved ones navigate through the court processes that can often be lengthy."

Another bill, introduced by Sen. Tony Bisignano, D-Des Moines, would address electronic stalking, which is defined as an abuser planting an electronic device that allows tracking of another person, potentially enabling harassment.

Bisignano's legislation would make a second conviction for the unauthorized placement of a GPS device an aggravated misdemeanor punishable by up to two years in jail.

More:Narcissists often try to win back their exes with hoovering; experts say its emotional blackmail.

Someone tracking a minor who is not the child's parent or guardian could be charged with a class B felony, Bisignano said.

He said he already had been considering legislation when he read about the arrest in an Ankeny case of Des Moines metro bar owner Steve McFadden, owner of Grumpy Goat, Tipsy Crow and other establishments. McFadden is accused of stalking an ex-girlfriend by hiding a GPS device in her car.

Also charged was a friend of McFadden's, Edwin Allen III, owner of Zora Bar and Rooftop. Police said Allen helped McFadden track the woman while McFadden was in Florida with another ex-girlfriend.

McFadden's arraignment in the stalking case is set for March 2.

Bisignano said he considers anyone who would do such a thing as "dangerous people. When you put a tracking device on someone, whats the next step? What happens then when you're around the wrong person and they react?"

More:Woman allegedly beaten by bar owner describes going back to him, says it was a mistake

He acknowledged he faces an uphill battle in the Republican-controlled Legislature getting the bill heard in subcommittee before March 3, the so-called funnel when many unpassed bills get sidelined. But he is hopeful he can find bipartisan support.

"There are just so many concerns with these devices and minors being trafficked," he said. "I've got good rapport with a number of Republicans who have the power to do this.  Its time we start to address this."

More:Iowa bar owner sought sex from tenant, then moved to evict her when she refused, suit says

Allen, who had been charged with harassment and stalking, pleaded guilty to a count of disorderly conduct and will be sentenced in May.

Lee Rood staff photo, Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021.

Lee Rood's Reader's Watchdog column helps Iowans get answers and accountability from public officials, the justice system, businesses and nonprofits. Reach her at lrood@registermedia.com, at 515-284-8549, on Twitter at @leerood or on Facebook at Facebook.com/readerswatchdog.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Violent domestic abusers target of bill that would require assessments
The rezoning request for a proposed expansion of Birkdale Village in Huntersville did not win the support of the towns planning board.

At its meeting Tuesday, the planning board voted against a recommendation to approve a rezoning request from Birkdale Village owner North American Properties. The motion to recommend approval failed by a 5-2 vote.

NAP is seeking the rezoning to allow for the development of a building with 150,000 square feet of office space and 25,000 square feet of street-level retail space at Birkdale Village. The developer is also proposing a 450-space parking deck.

The planning board makes recommendations to the towns board of commissioners, which has final authority on the rezoning.

Keep reading here.

PREVIOUS:

(VIDEO: This is not Charlotte: Neighbors weigh in on more changes proposed for Birkdale)
Make tastier treats with these baking tips.

Ted Lasso fans will soon be able to try his shortbread cookies for themselves.

Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams teamed up with the Apple TV+ series to create the "Ted Lasso"-inspired Biscuits with the Boss ice cream. The limited-edition flavor features shortbread cookie crumbles in salted butter sweet cream.

Biscuits with the Boss drops Thursday in Jeni's scoop shops, on the store's app for pickup and delivery and online for nationwide shipping.

Early birds who go to stores on the day of the release will get "a few surprise and delight items." Jeni's Splendid Rewards members, meanwhile, get access to the limited-edition collaboration merchandise, including stickers and shirts.

Chipotle adds TikTok-inspired menu items: 'Keithadilla' and 'Fajita Quesadilla Hack'

KFC's Double Down: The sandwich with no buns, just chicken filets, returns this month

Jeni's drops the Ted Lasso-inspired Biscuits with the Boss ice cream on March 2.

The release comes ahead of the third season of "Ted Lasso," which starts streaming on March 15. (Here's how you can watch the Emmy award-winning series.)

"Ted Lasso" isn't the first show that has collaborated with Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams. The company released an ice cream flavor inspired by "Outlander," Claire's Cabinet, in 2020.

Last year, Jeni's partnered with music icon Dolly Parton to re-release the collaboration flavor Strawberry Pretzel Pie, which sold out when it was initially launched in 2021.

This month is bringing another sweet collaboration. McDonald's will start selling Krispy Kreme doughnuts in about 160 Kentucky locations starting March 21.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jeni's 'Biscuits with the Boss' ice cream is inspired by 'Ted Lasso'
Maine residents accustomed to seeing moose or black bear got a glimpse of another, more unusual large animal recently.

Three bison sprung from their enclosure in rural Maine on Feb. 27, leading police and state officials on a perilous chase.

Police in Fort Fairfield  a small town on the U.S.-Canada border  received a call reporting the loose bison on a state highway early in the morning Monday, according to a police news release.

Upon receiving the report, state and local officials set out to round up the enormous animals.

These types of incidents create a difficult and dangerous situation for all involved as the animals are quite large, unpredictable, cannot be captured or trailered and need to be pushed back to their pen utilizing the roadway, police said.

An image posted on social media shows the bovine trio trotting down the middle of a road while a column of cars and a school bus follow closely behind.

Aided by a local snowmobiler, officials were eventually able to corral two of the bison back into their pen.

Drivers were urged to use caution as one bison remained on the loose.

Police also discovered a damaged portion of fencing on their pen, which they believe allowed the animals to escape. The area was repaired with the help of volunteers.

The last loose bison was found on the state highway and returned to its pen Feb. 28, police said.

The owner of the animals, whom police are familiar with, will likely face charges. An investigation into the incident is still underway.

The Fort Fairfield Police Department did not immediately respond to a McClatchy News request for comment.

The American bison is the largest land animal in North America and can weigh over one ton, according to the National Wildlife Federation.

About 30 million bison roamed the continent several hundred years ago, but they were driven nearly to extinction by settlers, according to the NWF. Today, bison populations have recovered somewhat, and wild herds can be found in state and national parks and reserves.

Story continues

Bald eagle found unable to fly in cemetery. Rescuers race to save her from poisoning

Motorcyclist dies after hitting mom picking up son at school bus stop, Alabama cops say

Brothers accused of crashing wedding reception, killing groom face prison in California
Blair Goss has just opened Goss Law, a new firm dedicated to providing clients with reliable and effective legal services.

Sacramento, CA --News Direct-- Goss Law

After working for almost 15 years in the criminal defense field, Blair Goss decided it was time to manage things the way he believed they should be and take all responsibility for all aspects of his cases. Blair claims he doesn't need a team working on his cases because he wants to make sure each client gets the individual attention they deserve.

This law firm's foundation revolves around the belief that having one skilled attorney focusing on every detail of a case can produce spectacular outcomes that huge firms simply cant match.

Blair aims to work for fewer clients on fewer cases, as this will ensure he provides the most dedicated effort to every case, and now that he opened his own law firm, he can do that.

Goss Law - What Makes It Special?

One of the main things that stand out about this new law firm is its no-fees trial policy, which is rare among other criminal defense lawyers. Blair only goes to trial when there is no other option; in those cases, he offers the service without an extra charge.

This is a huge perk for his clients, and it lets the prosecutor know the level of commitment Blair has with each case. Prosecutors know Blair treats his clients as fairly as possible, and he is willing to go to trial no matter if the client can afford it or not.

Most attorneys might attempt to get their clients to take a bad deal before going to trial, but this law firm won't do that, as its main purpose is to defend its clients until the end.

Moreover, another perk of Goss Law Firm is that it focuses on criminal defense, unlike many lawyers who try to take care of all sorts of cases but don't have a specialty they excel at. Exclusively working in criminal defense gives Blair Goss an advantage in understanding the relevant legal framework and figuring out how to effectively assist those charged with a criminal offense.

Story continues

The final perk that differentiates Goss Law from other law firms is that Blair prosecutes his cases as quickly and efficiently as possible. Although some clients occasionally value having their case go as slowly as possible, most people want to see results, and they want them fast. This will avoid the stress and uncertainty of being charged with a criminal accusation. Therefore, all Goss Law clients can make sure they will go home as soon as possible.

Why Should People Trust Blair Goss?

Blair Goss has 15 years of experience in criminal defense, which has allowed him to learn and develop an efficient procedure that helps deal with these cases. He claims that every case has two main focuses. The first one is the legal case which is the one that requires the most effort.

This is the step in which he must examine all the evidence and create a solid defense considering all the potential turns the case can take. It also includes being one step ahead of the prosecutor and having a quick response for every aspect of the conversation. Moreover, he must also consider what to do if the case needs to go to trial.

Presenting the defendant as someone deserving of fair treatment and consideration is another crucial aspect of any case. Blair will persuade the prosecutor that their case lacks merit while reminding them why the client shouldn't be charged with a crime or have their punishment reduced. These two strategies are the key to success.

Also, Blair's whole service doesn't only focus on the outcome. He maintains good communication with his clients to keep them informed of the status of their cases and lessen the stress they might be going through at the moment.

Blair explains things to his customers as straightforwardly as possible so they know what they are dealing with and which strategies are being used to help them. This makes clients feel confident that their case is handled appropriately and that a professional is working hard to keep them out of trouble.

How Can Goss Law Help Sacramento's Community?

Goss Law aims to assist those going through what might be the worst experience of their lives. It is terrifying to be charged with a crime, to be arrested, and to deal with the criminal justice system. Luckily, Blair Goss is here to support his clients so they won't have to deal with it alone. He will help them rebuild their reputations and prevent the courts from seeing them as any other criminal who needs to be punished.

Those in these terrible situations can now see a way out. They can contact Goss Law, and Blair will surely give them a helping hand and get them out of the problem they're in.

Source Blair Goss

Release ID: 540832

View source version on newsdirect.com: https://newsdirect.com/news/blair-goss-starts-his-new-firm-goss-law-296126583
MUNCIE, Ind.  Were it a prank, it was exquisite.

But it's no joke. Vote centers were voted down by the Delaware County Election Board Tuesday and likely won't reappear for consideration until after the 2024 election.

Democratic Election Board member Ashley Nichols quietly voted no on the entire proposal moments after voting in favor of pieces of the plan. A final plan requires a unanimous vote of the three board members before being passed along to the state for its approval in time for the primary election. That deadline now cannot be met for 2023.

"I don't know why (Nichols) sat there through the whole meeting and then voted no," said fellow Election Board member Peter Drumm.

The Republican representative on the board said if Nichols was planning to vote no, she could have just said so, and the meeting could have dismissed with everyone going about their business.

Nichols said after the vote that she did not think county government had prepared the public for using the centers, and it had not laid the groundwork to have vote centers ready. She said the county clerk did not yet have contracts with the owners of the properties where the centers were to be located.

Members of the Delaware County Election Board pore over maps of the proposed sites for vote centers in the city and county at an earlier meeting. Standing from left to right is Ed Carroll, Republican County chairman,; Ashley Nichols, Democratic representative to the board; Ana Quirk Hunter, Democratic County Chairman; Rick Spangler, county clerk; standing to the right is Pete Drumm, Republican representative to the board. Nichols voted down the plan Tuesday.

Ana Quirk Hunter, chairman of the Delaware County Democratic Party, who was with Nichols after the vote, said that most people in the community were not aware of vote centers and the plan.

"I don't feel like the public really knows what this is," said Hunter.

She said that maybe if the neighborhood association had been included, the citizenry would have been better informed.

The abrupt end comes after months of work by people from both political parties to follow the lead of other counties in the the state. A vote in favor would have moved voting from polling places based on precincts to vote centers, which allow voters throughout Delaware County to cast ballots at any center in the county.

The other two election board members, County Clerk Rick Spangler and Drumm, voted in favor of the plan and seemed stunned when the no-vote came from Nichols, who had worked alongside them for months developing the proposal.

Story continues

"That vote just cost this county hundreds of thousands of dollars," said Spangler.

He said the county will have to replace its voting machines, which are growing out of date, within a couple of years. The county will now have to replace enough machines to equip as many as 77 precincts as opposed to 23 vote centers.

Drumm said a lot of people in county government devoted many hours, including mapping and demographic research, to help determine where the polling centers could best be located.

Ed Carroll, Republican County chairman, said he was bewildered by the vote.

"I'm very disappointed," Carroll said. "We were blindsided."

Carroll said he spoke to many people about the vote centers, and no one had been opposed to the idea. And he can't explain why Nichols would continue to vote in favor of plans as they were being developed, even drilling down to the places where the centers would be located.

Carroll said Republicans and Democrats each produced maps of vote center locations. The Election Board took the map Democrats had offered.

"They chose all the locations and they still said no," he said. "They voted down their own plan."

Before the final vote came, the board discussed finding an early voting site to replace the Delaware County Fairgrounds. Spangler said the former Anthony Elementary School on Oakwood would work.

Nichols said not having an early voting location on the south side of the city would be an issue.

Leisa Meer, a voter registration clerk who has been working to develop vote centers for the county for years, said the Laborers Union Local 1112 on Meeker Avenue had agreed to become an early voting site on the south side. The board, including Nichols, voted in favor of having three early voting locations, including the Delaware County Building, leading into the primary election this year as part of the vote center plan.

On the next vote, Nichols killed the entire plan.

She said after the vote that she didn't really see why the county couldn't switch from precinct to vote-center balloting in 2024, a presidential election year, when the voting is traditionally much heavier.

Tuesday's vote came after the Election Board gathered public comment on the plan for 30 days. Spangler said 10 to 12 people commented and no one really opposed the change. One person had lobbied for a particular location.

Nichols said later that 10 or 12 people wasn't enough.

She said that vote centers represented a big change for a lot of voters, and she was thinking of them.

The local effort for vote centers has been a priority of Spangler, who is a Republican.

Last May, he said that both the Democratic and Republican county chairmen had worked to keep the centers out the county. The GOP county chairman at that time, Victor Whitehead, denied he was against them. Whitehead resigned in July and Carroll, who is also the Delaware County auditor, took control and placed his support behind the change.

Both he and Hunter said last year they were in favor of vote centers in priniciple.

Spangler said that after Hunter seemed to be joining in the effort, he thought maybe vote centers could become a reality for the county.

"We fed off each other," he said of the rising opitmisim among supporters.

Most counties in Indiana use vote centers, and the county clerk said he expects the General Assembly to order counties to adopt their use at some point. He won't pursue the change in 2024 and said he would be nearing the end of his last term beyond that, so he was unsure if he would try again.

"Wouldn't it be nice, if we could just do it?" he said.

This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Democrat kills county vote centers at plan's final vote
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that current evidence does not provide any indication that Russian President Vladimir Putin is open to peace talks, as China and Belarus call for a cease-fire and negotiations over the war in Ukraine.

If Russia, President Putin, were genuinely prepared to engage in meaningful diplomacy necessary to end the aggression, of course wed be the first to work on that and to engage, Blinken said during a trip to Uzbekistan. But there is zero evidence of that. To the contrary, the evidence is all in the other direction.

He pointed to Putins demand that Ukraine recognize the new territorial realities as a starting point for negotiations, in an apparent reference to the four Ukrainian regions that the Russian president formally annexed last fall.

Thats obviously a nonstarter, and it should be a nonstarter not just for Ukraine or for us, but for countries around the world, Blinken said.

And I think that certainly resonates here in this region, where every single Central Asian country feels very strongly about their territorial integrity, their sovereignty, their independence  all of which, of course, were very, very hard-won, he added.

Blinkens comments come as China and Belarus called for a cease-fire and peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv on Wednesday, during Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenkos visit to Beijing.

The joint appeal by Lukashenko and Chinese President Xi Jinping appeared to essentially be an endorsement of Beijings recently released 12-point plan for peace in Ukraine, which CCTV reported that the Belarusian president fully agrees with and supports.

While China has increasingly sought to portray itself as a neutral arbiter in the conflict, the U.S. has accused Beijing of providing Russia with non-lethal aid and strongly considering providing lethal assistance. Belarus has also been one of the only countries to stand by Russia amid its invasion of Ukraine.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has stressed the importance of regional stability during a short tour of Russias Central Asia neighbor countries as Moscows war on Ukraine presses into its second year.

In his first trip to Central Asia as secretary of state, Blinken met in recent days with leaders from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, also called the C5+1 group, underscoring U.S. support for the countries sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity.

Donald Lu, the assistant secretary of State for South and Central Asia, had said ahead of the tour that the State Departments main goal was to show that the United States is a reliable partner, in contrast to Russia.

In a joint press conference with Kazakhstan Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tileuberdi, Blinken applauded the country for hosting more than 200,000 Russian citizens who fled after the war began last February, and for provisions of food, clothing and other humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

Tileuberdi said that Kazakhstan has very historic ties with both Russia and Ukraine, complicating the economic dynamics in the region, but said that the country would not allow the use of its territory for Russian aggression or sanctions evasion.

February 26-March 3, Blinken is off to India for a meeting of foreign ministers in the G-20 after wrapping up visits to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
In this issue

Blur: Tricks of the trade Coinbase: Testing, testing Hong Kong: Crypto comeback

From the editors desk

Dear Reader,

Watch what they do, not what they say is one of the most solid ways of assessing developments in any sector  and, just as solid, if not more, in the crypto industry and digital asset space.

Its a maxim thats been frequently and conspicuously applied to the embrace of crypto by investment bank JPMorgan despite the fact that its chief, Jamie Dimon, has repeatedly disparaged the entire phenomenon. Watch what they do, indeed.

So, when it comes to recent news that the Chinese government has given authorities in Hong Kong the go-ahead to rebuild the citys status as a crypto hub, we are certainly watching.

Given that mainland China has walled itself off from crypto industry development  despite having spawned some of the sectors biggest success stories  Beijings stance on the matter is nothing if not intriguing.

However, as much as Beijing wants to keep crypto out of the mainland, it may be struggling to suppress its curiosity about it. Beijing thus appears happy to experiment with crypto on a small scale in the laboratory setting of Hong Kong.

Hong Kong stands increasingly as an expression of Beijings desire to experiment  even more keenly than in the past, thanks to the fact that Singapore recently snatched the citys title as the worlds third-biggest finance hub. The territory has suffered not only in terms of its current finance center ranking but also from an exodus of talent that accelerated amid Covid-19 restrictions, which has left it looking for ways to shore up its economy.

So, in time-honored fashion, Hong Kong is setting itself up as a test bed for finance sector innovation. The city has reinvented itself before, and may be poised to do so again. And if Hong Kong is successful in fostering the development of a crypto industry that Chinese authorities dont deem a threat to their own national prerogatives, the citys crypto experiment could yet lead to a softening of attitudes to the industry in Beijing.

Story continues

Watch what they do in Hong Kong and Beijing, and watch this space.

Until the next time,

Angie Lau,

Founder and Editor-in-Chief

Forkast

1. Fast times at Blur

Wash trading, which is generally illegal in traditional finance, has inflated NFT trading volumes on the Blur NFT marketplace to extraordinary levels. Image: Blur.io

By the numbers: Blur  over 5,000% increase in Google search volume.

At least US$577 million of wash-traded non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have been detected on the NFT marketplace Blur.io since the platform started airdropping its native tokens on Valentines Day.

The wash trades involved suspicious behaviors such as resales within short periods at prices close to initial levels, suggesting that some Blur users have been selling NFTs to themselves using different wallets to acquire Blur (BLUR) tokens and accrue points for airdrops, according to NFT multi-chain data aggregator CryptoSlam. CryptoSlam and Forkast are both owned by parent company Forkast Labs.

On Feb. 14, Blur released BLUR in a long-anticipated airdrop, giving users 60 days to acquire listing and bidding points on the marketplace, which keeps track of the top contenders through its airdrop leaderboard. Users can then receive BLUR via airdrop, and it can also be sold through centralized and decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges.

The promise of gifting tokens has fueled a sales spike on Blur, which has recorded a trading volume of US$1.34 billion in the past 30 days, more than twice that of rival OpenSea, the largest NFT market by all-time trading volume, which recorded US$481.6 million over the same period, according to Web3 application tracker DappRadar.

All of this is a by-product of [Blurs] war with OpenSea, said Scott Hawkins, a data engineer at CryptoSlam. This token scheme has artificially distorted real activity in NFTs.

Wash trading, which is illegal in the traditional finance sector, remains a gray area in the unregulated NFT space. More than half of last years NFT trading volumes on Ethereum were attributable to wash traders trying to boost profits through the illusion of increased value, according to data platform Dune Analytics.

Backed by crypto investment firm Paradigm, Blur was launched last October, rising to prominence and popularity thanks in part to its policy of charging zero marketplace fees.

There is no restricting mechanism from Blur to prevent this  in fact, it appears that because of no royalties [being] paid [and] no marketplace fees, there is no disincentive to farm points for airdrops, aside from rising Ethereum gas fees, Hawkins said. What were finding is that this is artificially propping up sales volume in a very disingenuous way for the entire NFT market.

Forkast.Insights | What does it mean?

Wash trading has long been a problem in crypto. With the advent of NFTs, the market-manipulating scourge has infected that market as well. Blurs meteoric rise highlights the fact that the industry lacks the ability or will to police itself.

Blur has insisted that it monitors the practice, but the three biggest traders and recipients of the most tokens are widely understood to have traded among themselves to inflate the value of their underlying assets. CryptoSlams recent discovery of the problem indicates the extent to which it has become endemic on the platform.

Blur has also begun marketing its next airdrop, dubbed Season 2, leading to another surge in trading volume as traders jostle for the biggest airdrops. The problem, as with so many things in crypto at the moment, is regulation.

In traditional finance in the U.S., wash trading is illegal under the 1936 Commodity Exchange Act (CEA), which covers cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, but non-fungible digital tokens remain in a regulatory gray zone. Some 45% of the total NFT trading volume on Ethereum during the height of the NFT boom is now widely believed to have been attributable to wash trading. That proportion is thought to have been as high as 98% on some NFT marketplaces.

While the industry drags its feet when it comes to banishing the practice, trust in cryptos already battered image will continue to erode.

2. Base layer

Coinbases Base protocol, a layer-2 for Ethereum, is part of the companys plan to diversify in the face of regulatory and other challenges to its centralized exchange business. Image: Coinbase

By the numbers: Coinbase  over 5,000% increase in Google search volume.

Coinbase Global, the biggest cryptocurrency exchange based in the U.S., has launched the testnet for Base, an Ethereum layer-2 protocol, as part of its venture into the Web3 developer space.

Coinbase says Base aims to provide decentralized application (dApp) developers with a low-cost, open source and decentralized layer-2 environment that offers access not only to Ethereum but also to other layer-2 and layer-1 blockchains such as Solana.

The launch date for Bases mainnet has not been disclosed, and Coinbase does not plan to issue a new token for the Base network.

Coinbase developed Base in collaboration with Optimism Collective, the governance organization behind Ethereum scaling protocol Optimism, and it will join OP Labs as a core developer of OP Stack, an open-source toolkit for blockchain developers.

The price of Optimisms native token, also named Optimism (OP), reached an all-time high of US$3.22 last Friday, an increase of over 20% from its opening price a day earlier, according to Coingecko data. OP has since retraced to US$2.78 as of mid-week in Asia.

The Base testnet encountered glitches following its launch due to a bug in Coinbase wallets accompanied by massive traffic on the network, which a Coinbase engineer said had been resolved on Friday.

Last September, Coinbase introduced Node, a tool for Ethereum developers to build and monitor Web3 applications, as part of an initiative to boost crypto adoption by supporting dApp builders.

Meanwhile, Coinbase is facing challenges its centralized exchange business and recently reported Q4 net revenue that was 75% lower than that of the same period the previous year. The company, which was also recently hit by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissions recent enforcement focus on crypto staking services, plans to cut 20% of its workforce by the second quarter of this year.

Forkast.Insights | What does it mean?

Coinbase is diversifying. The exchange has faced increased headwinds as regulation and dwindling consumer confidence have led to a slump in its exchange business.

The announcement of the protocol is, according to the exchange, part of a secret master plan to bring a billion people to its business. The reality is, perhaps, a little more down to earth.

U.S. regulators have taken a dim view of centralized exchanges offering staking services, which have become a significant part of Coinbases business.

For Q3 last year, Coinbase reported US$62 million of revenue from staking, or 10% of its total revenue for the period. It appears regulation could put an end to that.

Earlier this year, crypto exchange Kraken was fined US$30 million by American regulators in a case involving its staking services, which it subsequently shut down for U.S. customers, creating uncertainty about the future of exchanges offering staking.

Coinbase is therefore looking elsewhere for revenue. Its move into the blockchain business harnesses its position as one of the main on-ramps for crypto users, especially in the U.S., giving developers direct access.

If Coinbase succeeds, its reliance on its other services  and the beneficence of regulators  will be reduced, giving its investors some much-needed relief.

3. Beijings blessing

Hong Kongs cryptocurrency hub ambitions are back on track with support from Beijing, despite Chinas still-uncompromising stand on crypto on the mainland. Image: Canva

Hong Kongs bid to reclaim its status as a global crypto hub has gained discreet backing from authorities in Beijing, according to a Bloomberg report.

Representatives from Chinas Liaison Office in Hong Kong  the top mainland Chinese government agency in the city  have been frequent attendees at Hong Kong crypto gatherings in the past months, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources.

The report said the presence of mainland officials indicates Beijings low-key support for Hong Kongs attempts to rebuild itself as a crypto hub and shows Chinese authorities interest in testing digital assets in the city.

Despite the recent series of high-profile crypto exchange collapses, Hong Kong is pushing ahead in Web3. Last December, its legislature passed an amendment to a bill that included a licensing regime for virtual asset service providers, which is now open for public consultation and set to take effect on June 1.

Under the new arrangements, Hong Kongs Securities and Futures Commission may require cryptocurrency exchanges to apply for licenses that would allow retail investors to trade certain large-cap tokens, which are currently limited to professional investors with at least US$1 million in investable assets.

Hong Kong introduced restrictive rules for crypto in 2018, preceding mainland Chinas ban on cryptocurrency transactions in late 2021. But authorities in the city still see blockchain and digital assets as a potential driver of economic growth. In January, several Chinese state-backed entities launched the China Digital Asset Trading Platform, a regulated secondary market for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in China.

Hong Kongs new crypto positioning is already attracting firms in the industry. Huobi Global, a crypto exchange that was founded in China but exited the country in late 2021, is seeking to move its Asia headquarters from Singapore to Hong Kong and to expand its local headcount from 50 to 200 this year.

Apart from the virtual asset licensing regime, Hong Kong authorities are also ramping up regulation for stablecoins and investment in Web3 development.

Forkast.Insights | What does it mean?

As regulation has taken some of the wind out of the crypto industry in the U.S., Asias emergence as a hub for the industrys future growth appears to be continuing.

Hong Kongs renewed bid for crypto hub status suggests that China now sees the territory as a testing ground for the adoption of both private and public crypto infrastructure. China is already years ahead of many other countries in rolling out a central bank digital currency, in which Hong Kong has played a part. Via the real-world laboratory of Hong Kong, mainland authorities can now examine up close how a regulated crypto environment works out.

The region is ready for these explorations. Japan, Mongolia and Taiwan have seen impressive growth in the number of crypto transactions, which were up 113% in Japan from July 2021 to June 2022, according to Chainalysis. Hong Kong meanwhile, reported a 9.5% increase.

Despite concerns around Chinas hardline stance towards the crypto industry and its reluctance to back down on what has been a concerted effort to ban it, Hong Kongs repositioning has seen a surge of interest among Chinese entrepreneurs keen to build a business in the territory. About 70% of the 300 crypto firms applying to join Hong Kongs accelerator program G-Rocket were set up by Chinese entrepreneurs. In China, which Hong Kong is part of, little happens without the national authorities blessing  or purposely looking the other way.
A Belgian government-owned investment company, SFPI-FPIM , plans to sell about 2.17 billion worth of shares in BNP Paribas (OTC: BNPQY) (OTC: BNPQF), cutting its holding from around 7.8% to 5.1%.

SFPI said it had successfully placed 33 million shares with investors following an accelerated sale.

SFPI said it has been looking to reduce its exposure to the financial services sector but would continue to support the French bank.

It has agreed not to sell further shares for 90 days.

"Following the transaction, SFPI-FPIM confirms its continued support of BNP Paribas and belief in the company's long-term strategy," the Belgian state participation agency said.

Belgium's government-owned agency became a shareholder of BNP Paribas in 2008/2009, following the bailout of Fortis, which the French lender took over as part of a state-backed rescue.

Belgian state was BNP Paribas' largest investor, with Amundi and BlackRock Inc (NYSE: BLK), with 7% and 6% holdings, respectively, in the company, Reuters reported.

SFPI-FPIM will receive its expected dividend for 2022 of 3.90 per share, subject to approval by BNP Paribas shareholders at their May annual meeting, the terms show, Bloomberg reported.

Don't miss real-time alerts on your stocks - join Benzinga Pro for free! Try the tool that will help you invest smarter, faster, and better.

This article BNP Paribas' Largest Investor, Belgium Government, Cuts Holding Ownership originally appeared on Benzinga.com

.

 2023 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Nikki Lowery places some flowers at a memorial during a vigil for Rico Ruiz-Altamirano at the Hammer Landing shopping center in Stockton on Saturday, Jan. 14, 2023. Ruiz-Altamirano was killed in an officer involved shooting at the Excel gas station in the shopping center on Tuesday, Jan. 10.

Roughly three minutes of body camera footage and 911 call recordings Stockton police released Tuesday appears to show the mental distress a 33-year-old veteran was experiencing during a more than 25-minute standoff before officers shot him to death on Jan. 10.

The clips from four different officers' body cameras  ranging from one minute and five seconds to 22 seconds long  also provide glimpses into their efforts to persuade the veteran, Rico Ruiz-Altamirano, to drop his gun before a driver in a white truck interrupts the scene.

Altamirano died on the morning of Jan. 10 after being shot by police near West Hammer Lane and Interstate 5, according to a police spokesman.

At 4:17 a.m. that day, police said, someone called to report that a man was threatening him with a gun near the Hammer Landing shopping center.

Altamirano later called 911 and told police he had a gun, police said.

On Tuesday's emergency call recordings, Altamirano's voice can be heard speaking distraught to a dispatcher.

Why are you crying? What's going on? the dispatcher asks Altamirano.

"I need you guys to go do it for me. I cant do it myself, Altamirano says.

In another recording, a man can be heard saying Altamirano is holding him hostage at gunpoint.

The first body camera clip starts at about 5:30 a.m., according to its timestamp, and multiple officers can be seen gathered around the front of a smoke shop at the Hammer Landing strip mall with guns drawn.

Altamirano exits the shop, and an officer can be heard saying that Altamirano was wearing a bulletproof vest and his hands were behind his head.

It's unclear from the footage when police first catch sight of Altamirano's gun. At one point, multiple officers can be heard yelling, "I don't want to shoot you."

In another clip, an officer is heard attempting to talk Altamirano down. "We went to the same high school ... Tokay High!" he shouts. "Put it down so we can talk to you.

About 25 minutes after the first bodycam clip starts, a final clip shows a white truck pulling out from a side alley to the left of the strip mall. A woman's voice can be heard yelling, "hey!"

Story continues

"Back up your car!" one officer yells.

"He's pointing his gun at the citizen," an officer can be heard saying before seven shots ring out.

Police have said five officers shot Altamirano.

Altamirano struggled with his mental health, including PTSD from serving in Afghanistan, his wife, Samantha Lopez-Altamirano, said.

The police department has not provided Altamirano's family with the full, unedited footage of the shooting, Lopez-Altamirano said Tuesday.

The five officers involved have returned to work, police spokesman Officer Joseph Silva said Tuesday.

"Even though the administrative review is still ongoing, it appears the officers were within policy," he said.

This article originally appeared on The Record: Bodycam shows glimpses of police standoff that killed Stockton veteran
Boris Johnson appoints Nadine Dorries as culture secretary in 2021 - Andrew Parsons / No10 Downing St

Rishi Sunaks claims of a negotiating victory over the EU are smoke and mirrors, Nadine Dorries has said, as she became the first Tory MP to openly criticise his Brexit deal.

The former culture secretary, who is a close friend and ally of Boris Johnson, accused Downing Street of spin in its sales pitch for the new agreement on Northern Ireland.

She also hit out at Number 10 for being pretty naff and childish over its rubbishing of the Protocol bill, which was introduced by the former prime minister but has now been dropped.

Cabinet members including Mr Sunak had enthusiastically signed up to the legislation, which would have given the Government powers to rip up border checks, she added.

Her remarks came after sources close to Mr Johnson were forced to deny reports that he will support the pact because any Commons rebellion is only set to be small.

Ms Dorries said the trumpeted Stormont brake, which will allow Northern Irish politicians to ask for a veto on new EU rules applying to the Province, doesnt actually exist.

The mechanism was created to address Unionist concerns about the imposition of Brussels regulations over which the Belfast assembly currently has no say.

She also said Mr Sunaks claim that the deal will get rid of the Irish Sea border was patently not true because under it checks are being reduced, not eliminated.

Ms Dorries said that we are all desperate for something that works to fix the problems in Ulster but hit out at the huge quantities of smoke, mirrors and spin at play.

First Tory critic

She is the first Tory MP to openly criticise the Brexit deal struck this week, with the European Research Group (ERG) reserving judgment until its lawyers have analysed the text.

The prospect of a Conservative rebellion has receded after a number of veteran Eurosceptics backed the agreement, but the DUP is yet to pass its judgment.

Mr Sunaks hopes of securing the Unionist partys backing have been severely dented by an EU briefing note which brags that the bloc has not renegotiated the Protocol.

Story continues

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, its leader, brought up the memo at a meeting of the ERG on Tuesday night, expressing concern about how Brussels was presenting the deal.

He raised the Commissions claims that, under the pact, swathes of EU rules will continue to apply in the Province, still directly overseen by the European Court of Justice.

According to sources present he said the DUP will put more store by Brussels interpretation given that the deal is based on continued application of the blocs laws.

Sammy Wilson, the partys chief whip at Westminster, said it would go back to Mr Sunak once it had looked past the spin and at the realities of the agreement.

We have already identified a whole range of things that the Government has claimed will happen which we now know wont happen, he told Times Radio.

Because we have looked at the EUs explanation, we have looked at the Governments explanation, we have seen the difference.

His comments come amid splits within the DUP over whether or not to back the deal, with many of its representatives at Stormont keen to take up their seats again.

In contrast, the partys MPs at Westminster, who are not directly affected by its boycott of the assembly, are pushing for a complete rejection of the pact.

Northern Irish sources said Sir Jeffrey was more minded to accept the deal than his hardliners but was wary of causing a rupture within the party.

Jim Allister, leader of the harder line Traditional Unionist Voice party, said: His inclination will be to be the statesman and buy the deal, but he will also be very wary of splitting his party.

It is thought the DUP leader may try to avoid making a decision on whether to back it until after Mays local elections, for fear that coming down on either side will cost votes.

But industry sources in Northern Ireland have warned there is a risk that a delay could give his rebellious MPs enough time to make the deal politically impossible to accept.

The longer the deal is out there, the more time they will have to tear it apart, one well-placed insider said.
WASHINGTON (AP)  A federal agency born in the aftermath of Sept. 11 when the primary concern was stopping terrorists from entering the U.S. is changing to meet new challenges, said the secretary of homeland security as he marked its 20-year anniversary during a ceremony Wednesday.

Alejandro Mayorkas highlighted emerging threats such as cybersecurity attacks and lone offenders radicalized online, but the Department of Homeland Security is perhaps most in the spotlight for its role in the country's immigration debate.

We have adapted and built capabilities to address the threats and challenges as they have evolved, Mayorkas told a crowd assembled at the agency's Washington headquarters. We were created 20 years ago in the largest restructuring of the federal government since World War II. Now we are a critical part of peoples lives, interacting with the American people on a daily basis more than any other department or agency in the federal government.

Hundreds of people from across the department  the third largest in the federal government with 260,000 employees  gathered to mark the occasion, among them the heads of some of the various agencies that make up DHS, including the Transportation Security Administration, the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency and the Secret Service.

Former President George W. Bush appeared in a video message, as did the agency's first head, former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge. President Joe Biden thanked DHS employees for their service, saying that because of them the country is safer and stronger.

We owe you," he said.

The Department of Homeland Security was created in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. It was compiled from 22 federal agencies or departments whose responsibilities ranged from Border Patrol agents on horseback to Federal Emergency Management Agency personnel inspecting damaged homes after hurricanes to Coast Guard personnel teaching boaters about marine safety.

Story continues

The creation of the agency was described as no less than the most significant transformation of the U.S. government in over a half-century in a June 2002 document laying out Bush's vision for the agency. The goal, according to the report, was to create a single agency out of the current confusing patchwork of government agencies responsible for protecting the country against the threats it was facing then and get ready for problems it would face in the future. Bush nominated Ridge to be the first person to lead the department.

At the time the U.S. was already at war in Afghanistan and was months away from invading Iraq. Homeland Security was tasked primarily with preventing terrorist attacks in the U.S. The plan came at a time when the administration was facing questions on what it knew about the terrorists before they struck on Sept. 11, 2001.

Every member of this new department accepts an essential mission  to prevent another terrorist attack, Bush told Cabinet members and federal workers involved in homeland defense in 2003 on the agency's first day.

But in recent years, other issues have taken center stage, including immigration, cybersecurity, the rise of domestic extremism and the coronavirus pandemic. Republicans intent on making immigration a key election issue in 2024 have portrayed the southern border as wide open for migrants and targeted Mayorkas for impeachment.

__

Follow Santana on Twitter @ruskygal
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - A Brazilian court on Tuesday granted a request by bankrupt retailer Americanas that it be allowed to immediately pay workers' wages and settle small supplier debts, for a total of about 192 million reais ($36.7 million).

Rio de Janeiro Judge Paulo Assed Estefan said in his ruling the payments would help small suppliers and "meet the needs of workers, many in extremely vulnerable situations."

The ruling comes weeks after Americanas, backed by the billionaire trio that founded investment firm 3G Capital, entered into bankruptcy protection after around 20 billion reais in "inconsistencies" were uncovered, sparking a legal feud with creditors and investors.

Americanas, a 93-year-old company with stores all over Brazil and a major e-commerce unit, said in a securities filing in January that it would restructure debts of about 43 billion reais.

Wages owed to workers, employee benefits, and payments to small suppliers amount to "a tiny portion" of Americanas' overall debt and "do not represent any loss" to other creditors, the judge wrote.

($1 = 5.2367 reais)

(Reporting by Rodrigo Viga Gaier; Editing by David Alire Garcia and Richard Chang)
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has broken with the European Union to throw his support behind China's position paper for peace in the Ukraine war.

In a speech to the Hungarian national parliament on Monday, Orban warned that "the whole of Europe is slipping into the war, step by step".

"We need a ceasefire and the start of peace talks; Hungary calls for peace in all international forums; I see that most states support peace and Hungary cannot isolate itself from most of the world.

Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

"Therefore, we consider China's peace plan important, and we support it," he said, according to the Hungarian news website Telex.

Photos of Ukrainian soldiers killed in the war with Russia are posted on the wall of St Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery in Kyiv. Photo: Kyodo alt=Photos of Ukrainian soldiers killed in the war with Russia are posted on the wall of St Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery in Kyiv. Photo: Kyodo>

China's 12-point position paper, released on Friday to mark the first anniversary of Russia's invasion, calls for an immediate ceasefire, opposes the use of sanctions and nuclear weapons, and calls on all parties to stop "fanning the flames" of the war.

Orban, who is considered Beijing's closest ally in Europe, warned that with many other EU member nations now considering sending fighter jets to Ukraine, troops may follow.

By contrast, EU leaders have criticised China's paper, saying that it takes Russia's side.

"China introduced its 'position paper' on a political settlement. It is not really a peace plan and mostly reiterates well-known Chinese positions - some of which we share while important ones are missing," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell wrote in a blog post on Sunday.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said last week that the bloc would assess the paper, "but it is already clear that the key problem is that it does not really distinguish aggressor from the victim, putting the parties at an equal level".

Story continues

China's proposal was also rejected by the United States and Nato. But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky cautiously welcomed it, reiterating a desire to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

According to media reports, Zelensky told reporters in Kyiv that "the fact that China started talking about Ukraine is not bad ... but the question is what follows the words. The question is in the steps and where they will lead to."

Orban has frequently shown willingness to break with EU consensus on important foreign policy issues. He has held up sanction packages and halted the export of weaponry to Kyiv.

He has referred to Zelensky as an "opponent", drawing criticism from the Ukrainian leader.

However, Orban, who critics say has established an authoritarian government within the EU's borders, supported Brussels sanctions on Chinese officials for alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang in 2021, even as he torpedoed a package of measures to be taken in response to the imposition of Hong Kong's national security law months earlier.

Russian spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the proposal deserves "great attention", but added that Moscow saw "no preconditions at present" for the conflict to shift tack and will continue its assault.

"We are paying a great deal of attention to the plan of our Chinese friends," Peskov told reporters on Monday.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright  2023 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2023. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
For Brendan Fraser, it was nearly a wrap on The Mummy.

The actor recalled on Tuesdays episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show that he was choked out accidentally while filming a hanging scene for the 1999 blockbuster after director Stephen Sommers demanded more realism from his reaction to the simulated pain.

I was standing on my toes  with the rope [around my neck], and you only got so far to go, Fraser told Clarkson. And Stephen ran over and he said, Hey, you know, youre choking  can you sell it? And I was like, Alright, fine. So I thought, One more take, man.

That particular scene saw Frasers handsome scoundrel of a character on the verge of execution in an Egyptian prison. While The Mummy made Fraser a leading man and bona fide Hollywood star, it nearly killed him when the stunt went terribly wrong.

The camera swooped around and I went up on the toes, and the guy holding the rope above me, he pulled it up a little higher. And I was stuck on my toes and I had nowhere to go but down, Fraser said. So, he was pulling up and I was going down.

The next thing I knew, my elbow was in my ear, the world was sideways and there was gravel in my teeth, he continued. And everyone was really quiet.

Fraser recalled being woken by the stunt coordinator, who leisurely called his name while making clapping noises. The man congratulated Fraser for joining the club of on-set choke-outs, telling him: The same thing happened to Mel Gibson on Braveheart!

Thanks, I think? Fraser replied. I wanna go home.

Fraser virtually disappeared from the Hollywood spotlight after accusing Philip Berk, the former president and member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, of groping him at a luncheon in 2003.

Hes now enjoying a celebrated comeback after his Critics Choice and SAG Award-winning role in Darren Aronofskys The Whale has turned him into an Oscars front-runner this year.

As for another Mummy, Fraser wouldnt mind returning.

Story continues

I dont know how it would work, he told Variety in October. But Id be open to it if someone came up with the right concept.

You know what to do, Hollywood.

Related...
Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism.
The executive director for the Brevard Zoo said he was recommending the zoo no longer rent event space to political campaigns following backlash over a fundraiser for State Rep. Randy Fine.

A planned fundraising event for Fine's State Senate campaign, held Monday at the zoo, drew heat in recent weeks from critics angered over Fine's positions on transgender issues and recent push for legislation to codify state restrictions on certain therapies for transgender children.

About 30 protesters lined the zoo's entrance Monday evening, waving signs and shouting at cars carrying fundraiser attendees. Rally-goer Christina McPherson, a counselor who works with transgender students, said she was confused and upset by the zoo's decision to let the fundraiser go on.

'Enough of this nonsense': Fine vows to ban some treatments for trans kids

"We're big zoo fans, and the morals don't align," McPherson said. "The zoo is everything good that Brevard County has and Randy Fine is the opposite."

Brevard Zoo Executive Director Keith Winsten said the zoo, as a tax-exempt nonprofit under federal law, makes no judgement about who rents its facilities and makes the space available to everyone. Fine's campaign paid the same rate it offers other clients, he added.

A rally was held Monday evening outside the Brevard Zoo by people against the policies of State Representative Randy Fine, and for him holding a political event on zoo property after hours.

"I think a lot of people were under the assumption that we were comping something or supporting, where this is simply a rental," Winsten told FLORIDA TODAY. "It's not a statement on his candidacy at all. It's a service we provide the whole community."

Nevertheless, the zoo will be reconsidering its policy of renting to political campaigns in the future, he said. The proposed change, if approved by the zoo's board of directors, would not go into effect until the next election cycle, which begins in 2024.

Trouble ahead:New BPS transgender bathroom rule risks federal funding, lawsuits, Belford says

"Our preference is to let this election cycle run out so that everyone has fair access to the zoo," including any potential Fine challengers, Winsten said. "But that's my current recommendation to the board."

Story continues

"It's important to us to be open to all, but we also understand a lot of people felt hurt by this," he said. "Anyone who felt hurt or felt we did something wrong, we apologize for that."

A rally was held Monday evening outside the Brevard Zoo by people against the policies of State Representative Randy Fine, and for him holding a political event on zoo property after hours.

Fine said he didn't blame the zoo for considering the policy change, calling the protesters "clowns" and "deviants." At least one potentially threatening comment left on a Facebook thread led the Brevard County Sheriff's Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to provide additional security for the event, he said.

"It said, 'Let's remove him by force. Let's show up and send him to the shadow realm,'" Fine said, paraphrasing the post, which he shared with FLORIDA TODAY.

"Absolutely, I understand why Keith Winsten wouldn't want anything to do with these violent thugs," Fine said.

Reporters noted a sheriff's office patrol car regularly cruising past protesters and observing the rally from a distance, but saw no violence or disruptive behavior beyond some obscenities shouted at passing cars by a handful of rally-goers.

Words were briefly exchanged at one point between some protesters and a small group of pro-Fine supporters, but the situation quickly defused without incident.

A small group of State Rep. Randy Fine supporters turned out against a rally Monday protesting a fundraiser held by Fine on zoo property. Protesters were angered over Fine's stances on transgender issues and called on the zoo to cancel the event. Zoo officials said they had rented one of their venues to the campaign, and said it was not a statement of support for Fine's policies.

Fine said the fundraiser was a success. He said about 300 people attended the event, which he estimated had raised over $250,000 for his campaign or his Friends of Randy Fine political action committee.

Shelley Rodden, a past director for Space Coast Pride who attended the protest, said the Brevard Zoo has been a strong ally for the county's LGBTQ community. Banning political campaigns would be a good move, she said, but for some people it wasn't enough.

"A lot of people are still very upset that it wasn't canceled," Rodden said of the fundraiser. She cited Fine's proposal for legislation that would ban certain therapies for transgender minors, which mirrors recent restrictions by the Florida Board of Medicine.

'Dehumanizing':Brevard LGBTQ clinic's response to proposed transgender healthcare restrictions

The state Board of Medicine approved new rules banning hormone replacement therapy, surgeries and other treatments for children under 18 years old late last year. All 15 members of the board were appointed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The ruling contradicts guidance from most major medical associations. Critics have said a lack of gender-affirming care could worsen already alarming suicide rates among transgender children.

Winsten said the zoo was strongly committed to promoting equity and inclusion.

"We remain focused on embracing diversity in our community and being welcome to all, and always helping to advance equality," he said. "That doesn't change, no matter who rents our facilities."

Eric Rogers is a watchdog reporter for FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Rogers at 321-242-3717 or esrogers@floridatoday.com. Follow him on Twitter: @EricRogersFT.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Brevard Zoo may ban political campaigns after Fine fundraiser anger
Dado Ruvic/File Photo/Reuters

A senior British government minister had a coronavirus test for his child couriered to his home when the pandemic was raging and national panic was being stoked by a shortage of the crucial tests, a trove of WhatsApp messages leaked to the Daily Telegraph has revealed.

Then-Cabinet Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg, who has been widely mocked as the Minister for the 19th Century owing to his anachronistic style, dress, and Victorian affectations, had the test personally delivered to his house by courier on Sept. 10, 2020, on the orders of a key aide to Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

Twenty people died of COVID in the U.K. on that day, official records show. With the country about to be plunged into a second wave of the disease, there was widespread panic as demand for testing services soared.

Just two days before the Rees-Mogg test was specially sent out, the British director of testing had made a humiliating statement offering heartfelt apologies to anyone who cannot get a COVID test at present. The countrys laboratories were working through a backlog of 185,000 tests at the time.

The test was whisked round to the Rees-Mogg abode after a test taken earlier by one of his children had been lost. Hancocks special adviser responded to the lost test by organizing the courier who not only delivered a new test that evening but waited for the test to be taken before driving it directly to the testing lab. The test came back negative.

The revelation is just one of many astonishing claims being made in British newspaper the Daily Telegraph on Wednesday after a trove of more than 100,000 WhatsApp messages from the former health minister were released by his former ghostwriter in a stunning betrayal.

The ghostwriter, Isabel Oakeshott, said she felt morally obliged to release the messages, which were given to her by Hancock when she was helping him write his autobiography, out of fear the official inquiry into the governments handling of the pandemic would be a colossal whitewash.

Story continues

Oakeshott boasts that the communications treasure trove includes conversations with Boris Johnson, who was then prime minister; Rishi Sunak, who is now PM but was then chancellor; and almost every other member of the Cabinet.

Britains Third PM This Year, Rishi Sunak, Is Twice as Rich as the King

She writes: Taken together, the messages reveal the turmoil inside Downing Street and the Department of Health and Social Care as infection rates spiraled and ministers and their advisers flailed around trying to figure out how to respond.

They expose the fear and frustrations of a vacillating prime minister as he lurched from optimism and lockdown skepticism to pessimism and lockdown zealotry; the behind the scenes battles to establish the testing and contact tracing systems required to tackle the virus... As the pressure on politicians and policymakers mounted, tempers frayed. As the population was imprisoned and the sick lay dying, ministers and political operatives clashed egos, indulged in petty turf wars, sniped about their own colleagues and obsessed about how they appeared in the media.

Headlines to so far emerge from the messages include that Matt Hancock rejected advice from the chief medical officer to test people going into care homes, a catastrophic error that is believed to have led to thousands of unnecessary deaths: The Telegraph says that between April 17 and Aug. 13, 2020, when the advice was changed, a total of 17,678 people died of Covid in care homes in England.

Hancock has claimed his doctored and stolen WhatsApp messages have been spun to fit an anti-lockdown agenda.

A spokesman for Hancock said: It is outrageous that this distorted account of the pandemic is being pushed with partial leaks, spun to fit an anti-lockdown agenda, which would have cost hundreds of thousands of lives if followed.

What the messages do show is a lot of people working hard to save lives. The full documents have already all been made available to the inquiry, which is the proper place for an objective assessment, so true lessons can be learned.

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.
Insiders were net buyers of Brookdale Senior Living Inc.'s (NYSE:BKD ) stock during the past year. That is, insiders bought more stock than they sold.

While we would never suggest that investors should base their decisions solely on what the directors of a company have been doing, logic dictates you should pay some attention to whether insiders are buying or selling shares.

View our latest analysis for Brookdale Senior Living

Brookdale Senior Living Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider purchase was by Independent Director Frank Bumstead for US$154k worth of shares, at about US$3.09 per share. That implies that an insider found the current price of US$3.23 per share to be enticing. While their view may have changed since the purchase was made, this does at least suggest they have had confidence in the company's future. If someone buys shares at well below current prices, it's a good sign on balance, but keep in mind they may no longer see value. Happily, the Brookdale Senior Living insider decided to buy shares at close to current prices. Frank Bumstead was the only individual insider to buy during the last year.

You can see the insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!

Brookdale Senior Living is not the only stock insiders are buying. So take a peek at this free list of growing companies with insider buying.

Insider Ownership Of Brookdale Senior Living

Many investors like to check how much of a company is owned by insiders. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. It appears that Brookdale Senior Living insiders own 2.1% of the company, worth about US$13m. We've certainly seen higher levels of insider ownership elsewhere, but these holdings are enough to suggest alignment between insiders and the other shareholders.

Story continues

What Might The Insider Transactions At Brookdale Senior Living Tell Us?

The fact that there have been no Brookdale Senior Living insider transactions recently certainly doesn't bother us. But insiders have shown more of an appetite for the stock, over the last year. Insiders own shares in Brookdale Senior Living and we see no evidence to suggest they are worried about the future. In addition to knowing about insider transactions going on, it's beneficial to identify the risks facing Brookdale Senior Living. Case in point: We've spotted 1 warning sign for Brookdale Senior Living you should be aware of.

But note: Brookdale Senior Living may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with high ROE and low debt.

For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We currently account for open market transactions and private dispositions, but not derivative transactions.

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
Brooklyn Borough Hall recently held a reception to celebrate the reopening of the Brooklyn is Africa art exhibition and close out Black History Month.

In collaboration with Eric Edwards and the Cultural Museum of African Art (CMAA), the exhibit conveys the story of Survival + Persistence = Resistance through 35 rare and historical African art pieces and relics from the boroughs diaspora. Visitors will have the opportunity to examine art dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries and other unique items, such as a 19th century Yoruba palace door from Nigeria. The work was carved by one of the most celebrated Yoruba sculptors of the 20th century, Olowe of Ise (ca. 1873  1938).

Brooklyn has a large African-American, so this event was important. For New York residents, this exhibition shows the rich history and tradition of their culture. Through Brooklyn is Africa, visitors are able to gain a greater appreciation for the history of African art, as well as its impact on Brooklyn.

Art is storytelling, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso said. Art is beauty, courage and love, but more than anything, art is resistance and perseverance.

Courtesy of Brooklyn Borough Hall

Reynoso said that the Brooklyn is Africa exhibit is about honoring the people of the African diaspora who have made a home in Brooklyn, despite how long they have been there.

The stories of African ancestors have survived erasure and persecution through art and artifacts  and Eric Edwards collection of pieces helps us celebrate the mark all of Africa has made on the world of today, Reynoso added.

Brooklyn is Africa: The Cultural Museum of African Arts Opening Reception

Over 250 people attended the exhibits opening night reception, which featured performances by the Patsy Grant and Friends jazz trio and the Jamel Gaines Creative Outlet. The Jamal Gaines Creative Outlet performed a dance, titled Thank You, which commemorated the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington and recognized the 60th anniversary of the Birmingham Church bombing.

Story continues

We are very thankful for the support of the Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, and the opportunity to serve the people of New York City, and in particular Brooklyn, said Eric Edwards, who is the founder and executive director of the Cultural Museum of African Art. We appreciate the opportunity for allowing us to provide a deep insight, through CMAAs artifact collection, of the contributions of Africa and the diaspora, to man and womankind.

CMAA aims to bring attention to African-American art and culture by carrying with them a vast amount of diversity and creativity that have been present in Brooklyn for centuries. Whether it was for religious, spiritual, protective, secretive, potent, beautiful, educational, or practical reasons, each artifact has an inspiration. Some of those driving forces are discussed as part of this historic endeavor because, through art, one can learn about African culture and history.

Edwards History

Edwards journey took more than 50 years. During that time, he carefully chose these one-of-a-kind artifacts that date back more than 4,000 years and represent all 54 African countries. His lifelong endeavor has resulted in a stunning collection that is more than just a reflection of African history. It serves as an educational tool, providing insight into the unique cultures and traditions that make up the continent

The CMAA is a testament to Eric Edwards immense dedication to preserving and celebrating African culture.

About Borough Hall

Brooklyn Borough Hall was established in the 18th century and is New York Citys oldest City Hall. Brooklyn Borough Hall is the Civic Centers centerpiece, and one of Brooklyns most important government buildings. The citys most extensive endeavor to restore the exterior, which had decayed, began in the 1980s. The award-winning work includes stonework restoration, cupola copper shingle replacement, main roof stainless steel cladding, and clock and tower maintenance.
A manager of a Buffalo Wild Wings in Florida is facing a grand theft charge after police say he was seen on surveillance footage pocketing large sums of cash and walking out of the restaurant with bags full of money.

Officers arrested the manager at a Buffalo Wild Wings franchise in Largo on Feb. 27, according to an arrest affidavit from the Pinellas County Sheriffs Office.

Another manager who was transferred to the Largo store to assist in July noticed almost immediately that change order payments delivered to the restaurant by Brinks security services werent being recorded, according to the affidavit. Change order payments are orders of small bills and cash that can be used for change at the restaurant, according to police.

He also noticed that safe counts were off, the affidavit says.

Company leaders reviewed safe counts dating back to Jan. 4, 2022, and found around 32 instances of change orders not being recorded and money missing from the final safe count, the affidavit says.

On at least two occasions, the accused manager was seen on surveillance footage pocketing large sums of cash from a change order and walking out of the restaurant, according to the affidavit.

In one surveillance video, he can be seen putting money in a bag and walking out the front of the restaurant to his vehicle, the affidavit says. A second video shows him grab a bag with a large amount of cash and leave with it out the back of the restaurant, according to the affidavit.

Buffalo Wild Wings calculated the total amount of money stolen as $72,820, the affidavit says.

The company did not respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News.

He is being held on a $10,000 bond, according to Pinellas County Jail records. He faces one count of grand theft of over $20,000 and under $100,000.

Largo is about 25 miles west of Tampa.

Buffalo Wild Wings has 1,236 locations across the U.S.

Kids under age 16 banned from eating at this Chick-fil-A in Pennsylvania without adult

Bank worker gave up customer identities in plot to steal thousands from banks, feds say

Woman hid mother-in-laws death to steal $450,000 in retirement benefits, feds say
Key Insights

The projected fair value for Datasonic Group Berhad is RM0.49 based on 2 Stage Free Cash Flow to Equity

Datasonic Group Berhad's RM0.46 share price indicates it is trading at similar levels as its fair value estimate

Our fair value estimate is 30% higher than Datasonic Group Berhad's analyst price target of RM0.64

Today we'll do a simple run through of a valuation method used to estimate the attractiveness of Datasonic Group Berhad (KLSE:DSONIC) as an investment opportunity by taking the forecast future cash flows of the company and discounting them back to today's value. We will use the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model on this occasion. Believe it or not, it's not too difficult to follow, as you'll see from our example!

Companies can be valued in a lot of ways, so we would point out that a DCF is not perfect for every situation. If you still have some burning questions about this type of valuation, take a look at the Simply Wall St analysis model.

Check out our latest analysis for Datasonic Group Berhad

What's The Estimated Valuation?

We're using the 2-stage growth model, which simply means we take in account two stages of company's growth. In the initial period the company may have a higher growth rate and the second stage is usually assumed to have a stable growth rate. In the first stage we need to estimate the cash flows to the business over the next ten years. Seeing as no analyst estimates of free cash flow are available to us, we have extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the company's last reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years.

A DCF is all about the idea that a dollar in the future is less valuable than a dollar today, so we discount the value of these future cash flows to their estimated value in today's dollars:

Story continues

10-year free cash flow (FCF) estimate

2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 2031 2032 Levered FCF (MYR, Millions) RM99.6m RM108.1m RM115.8m RM122.8m RM129.3m RM135.5m RM141.5m RM147.4m RM153.2m RM159.2m Growth Rate Estimate Source Est @ 10.77% Est @ 8.61% Est @ 7.10% Est @ 6.04% Est @ 5.30% Est @ 4.78% Est @ 4.42% Est @ 4.16% Est @ 3.98% Est @ 3.86% Present Value (MYR, Millions) Discounted @ 12% RM89.1 RM86.6 RM83.0 RM78.8 RM74.3 RM69.7 RM65.1 RM60.7 RM56.5 RM52.5

("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)

Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF) = RM716m

We now need to calculate the Terminal Value, which accounts for all the future cash flows after this ten year period. The Gordon Growth formula is used to calculate Terminal Value at a future annual growth rate equal to the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield of 3.6%. We discount the terminal cash flows to today's value at a cost of equity of 12%.

Terminal Value (TV)= FCF 2032  (1 + g)  (r  g) = RM159m (1 + 3.6%)  (12% 3.6%) = RM2.0b

Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= RM2.0b ( 1 + 12%)10= RM667m

The total value, or equity value, is then the sum of the present value of the future cash flows, which in this case is RM1.4b. To get the intrinsic value per share, we divide this by the total number of shares outstanding. Relative to the current share price of RM0.5, the company appears about fair value at a 6.8% discount to where the stock price trades currently. Remember though, that this is just an approximate valuation, and like any complex formula - garbage in, garbage out.

dcf

Important Assumptions

Now the most important inputs to a discounted cash flow are the discount rate, and of course, the actual cash flows. Part of investing is coming up with your own evaluation of a company's future performance, so try the calculation yourself and check your own assumptions. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at Datasonic Group Berhad as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 12%, which is based on a levered beta of 1.018. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business.

SWOT Analysis for Datasonic Group Berhad

Strength

Debt is not viewed as a risk.

Dividends are covered by earnings and cash flows.

Weakness

Dividend is low compared to the top 25% of dividend payers in the IT market.

Opportunity

Annual revenue is forecast to grow faster than the Malaysian market.

Good value based on P/E ratio and estimated fair value.

Threat

Annual earnings are forecast to grow slower than the Malaysian market.

Moving On:

Valuation is only one side of the coin in terms of building your investment thesis, and it shouldn't be the only metric you look at when researching a company. DCF models are not the be-all and end-all of investment valuation. Instead the best use for a DCF model is to test certain assumptions and theories to see if they would lead to the company being undervalued or overvalued. For instance, if the terminal value growth rate is adjusted slightly, it can dramatically alter the overall result. For Datasonic Group Berhad, we've put together three essential aspects you should consider:

Financial Health: Does DSONIC have a healthy balance sheet? Take a look at our free balance sheet analysis with six simple checks on key factors like leverage and risk. Future Earnings: How does DSONIC's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with our free analyst growth expectation chart. Other Solid Businesses: Low debt, high returns on equity and good past performance are fundamental to a strong business. Why not explore our interactive list of stocks with solid business fundamentals to see if there are other companies you may not have considered!

PS. The Simply Wall St app conducts a discounted cash flow valuation for every stock on the KLSE every day. If you want to find the calculation for other stocks just search here.

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
[Source]

A high school teacher in Irvine, California, has been arrested for allegedly hiding video recording devices in restrooms on campus.

Siu Kong Sit, 37, is accused of bugging a pair of all-gender restrooms near the swimming pool of Beckman High School, part of the Tustin Unified School District.

A maintenance worker reportedly found the devices and turned them over to school administrators. Irvine police then discovered that several victims had been filmed.

More from NextShark: New York Times Describes Vietnams Early Success in Managing Pandemic as Luck

Siu was arrested on campus Monday, according to reports.

The Santa Ana resident faces charges of possession of  or manufacturing  child pornography, burglary and two misdemeanors.

More from NextShark: 4-month-old baby dies after being kidnapped and thrown off roof by monkeys in India

Irvine police are trying to locate more victims.

Anyone who used the campus bathrooms between Feb. 24 and Feb. 27 or believes that they have been victimized is urged to call the Investigations Bureau information line at 949-724-7104.

Siu is being held at Orange County Jail. Anyone with information related to the case is asked to call detectives at 949-724-7168.

More from NextShark: Malaysian ambulance driver heads to fatal crash site and makes horrifying discovery

Enjoy this content? Read more from NextShark!

'Chinese Are Destroying Bay Ridge': NYPD Investigates Anti-Chinese Posters in Brooklyn
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass Wednesday endorsed California Rep. Barbara Lee in the 2024 California Senate race that is attracting several prominent Democrats campaigning to fill the seat of retiring Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

Lee will be campaigning against Democratic Reps. Katie Porter, who was the first to announce her candidacy for the seat, and Adam Schiff. Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., endorsed Schiff last month.

Lee receives endorsement from LA mayor

Karen Bass, the first Black woman elected Los Angeles mayor, left, shakes hands with Vice President Kamala Harris, a longtime friend, and former California attorney general in Los Angeles, at Bass' swearing-in ceremony on Sunday.

Bass previously served as chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, a position Lee has also held. The Los Angeles mayor is the first woman and second African American mayor of the nation's second largest city.

"Barbara Lee and I have been friends for decades, and I am proud to endorse her for U.S. Senate," Bass said in a statement. "As her colleague in Congress, I saw her leadership firsthand."

Smart analysis delivered to your inbox: Sign up for the OnPolitics newsletter

Countdown to 2024: These candidates have already announced Senate plans for next election

These are the Democrats running in the California Senate race

Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif speaks at a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022.

Lee, 76, will face a tough primary next year against Porter and Schiff for the solidly blue seat.

The candidates are vying for the seat that Feinstein, a former mayor of San Francisco, has held since 1992. She has served longer than any other woman in the Senate.

Porter, 49, has called for "new leadership" in a video announcing her campaign shared on her social media accounts.

Schiff has served in the House since 2001 and was a member of the House Intelligence Committee in the last Congress. The 62-year-old, who led the first impeachment of then-President Donald Trump, was a key figure on the committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.

Lee, was first elected to the House in 1998. She said in a campaign video she is running for U.S. Senate because Californians deserve a strong, progressive leader who has accomplished real things and delivered real change.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Rep. Barbara Lee endorsed by Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass for Senate
Museum of Yin Ruins in C Chinas Henan attracts crowds

People's Daily Online) 16:15, February 28, 2023

Tourists visit the museum of Yinxu, or the Yin Ruins, remnants of the capital of the late Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BC), in Anyang, central China's Henan Province. (Peoples Daily Online/Huo Yaping)

The museum of Yinxu, or the Yin Ruins, remnants of the capital of the late Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BC), in Anyang, central China's Henan Province, was recently crowded with visitors.

The museum has offered a rich collection of relics, including imposing bronze ware, majestic horse and chariot pits, and well-preserved tombs, creating a platform for visitors to get a glimpse of local culture and history and to learn more about China.

Tens of thousands of exquisite relics, ranging from oracle bone inscriptions to jade objects, have been excavated from the Yin Ruins, representing rich cultural connotations of the site.

The archeological site has become an important symbol of Chinese civilization and attests to a civilization featuring uninterrupted progress and pluralistic unity, which can be found in the sites city ruins with complete facilities, a magnificent palace complex, a grand tomb complex, well-developed bronze ware and an advanced system of ancient Chinese characters.

(Web editor: Chang Sha, Du Mingming)
[Source]

A Cambodian American man was taken into custody for the alleged murder of a woman during an argument over money.

Moul Net, 68, is accused of killing Keo Srey Mom, 38, at Chak Chrouk village in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Feb. 24.

According to the victims mother, she heard a heated argument between her daughter and Net before she witnessed the man leave the house on his motorcycle.

Moms nephew later found her unconscious in the bathroom. When he reportedly tried to wake her, he discovered that she was dead.

More from NextShark: 'Strongest action' vowed against fan who allegedly made racist gesture at Son Heung-min

Net, who fled the crime scene, was arrested while attempting to take a taxi to Bangkok.

He was taken into custody by Thai authorities and handed over to the Cambodian authorities at the Klong Leuk-Poipet international border gate.

During his interrogation, Net reportedly stated that the murdered woman was his mistress, whom he had an argument with over a debt of $18,000.

More from NextShark: Asian man punched, shot with gel pellets by muggers on NYC subway

Net claimed that Mom attacked him with a knife.

She just wielded a knife in front of me, I said stop, do not let go, and she just took a knife in front of me, I got up and I grabbed her from behind and she bowedtrying to stab me, I pulled her handso that the knife would fall, and I shouted for help. I asked her where the money was, she ran, but I grabbed her hand to talk, she ran into the room, and I pushed the door, she ran down to the second staircase, she fell. I pulled her to the bathroom and I left the house and went. More from NextShark: 7-Time Female Olympian Elected as Tokyo Olympics Head After Formers Sexist Remarks

Net is currently detained in prison. If he is found guilty of criminal offenses punishable under Cambodias Article 200 of the Penal Code, he will be imprisoned for life.

Enjoy this content? Read more from NextShark!

Democratic Rep. Judy Chu among 181 arrested during peaceful abortion rights protest at Capitol
An ongoing shortage of monkeys used in scientific and medical experiments is about to get worse, as fallout continues from a federal investigation into an alleged primate smuggling ring in Cambodia.

Several major companies are warning of supply constraints, delays and higher prices that they say could eventually lead to bottlenecks in drug testing. However, industry analysts have expressed skepticism that the situation in Cambodia will have major impacts on research, with one saying "this is just going to be another handful of sand in the gears."

Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post.

Nonhuman primates are used to test experimental drugs and vaccines before they enter human trials, and to probe fundamental questions about the aging brain and infectious diseases. Nationally-funded primate research centers maintain domestic colonies for biomedical research, but about 30,000 are imported each year to meet demand.

Cambodia has emerged as the largest international source of monkeys used in U.S. research, after China stopped exporting primates during the pandemic. Imported monkeys must meet various international and U.S. regulatory requirements. The investigation into Cambodian monkeys centers on the question of whether they were bred in captivity, as permits stated.

In November, eight people, including two Cambodian government officials, were indicted on charges of allegedly capturing wild long-tailed macaques from national parks and protected areas and falsifying permits, due to a shortage of monkeys at the breeding facilities. As the investigation continues, shipments of primates from Cambodia have been paused.

The disruptions come on top of an already strained supply of laboratory monkeys in the United States. Five years ago, a National Institutes of Health study predicted that future demand for nonhuman primates was likely to outstrip supply.

Then the coronavirus pandemic landed and demand soared, as monkeys were needed to test coronavirus vaccines and therapeutics. At the same time, China stopped exporting monkeys, so U.S. suppliers had to scramble to find new sources, shifting much of their business to Cambodia.

Story continues

"So this has been coming to a head for a while, and the covid pandemic certainly exacerbated it," said Lyric Jorgenson, acting director of NIH's Office of Science Policy.

Many different sectors of the biomedical research community use monkeys in research, and they rely on different sources. NIH funds a domestic network of National Primate Research Centers that house about 20,000 monkeys. These are self-sustaining breeding colonies that provide animals primarily for NIH-funded research.

Contract research organizations, such as Charles River Laboratories International, Inotiv and Laboratory Corporation of America, provide primates to drug companies as well as academic and government scientists and they rely on multiple sources, including international suppliers.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declined to provide numbers on how many primates are imported into the United States. A Freedom of Information Act request was not responded to immediately. According to PETA, the country brings in about 30,000 primates each year.

On Feb. 22, Charles River Labs disclosed that it had received a subpoena related to shipments of monkeys from Cambodia and had voluntarily suspended future shipments until they could develop a new protocol that has the U.S. government's blessing. The company's shares fell 10 percent that day.

"With regard to Cambodia, where 60 percent of the animals come from, we are all at least temporarily foreclosed from bringing new animals in and utilizing them on studies in the United States," James C. Foster, chief executive of Charles River Labs, said during an earnings call last week. "This is an industry issue, a relatively profound one, because drugs aren't going to move through preclinical [stages] and into the clinic."

Research analysts at investment bank Evercore estimate that, given the supply decrease, Charles River will raise its prices on nonhuman primates this year to $33,000 each, up from $22,000 last year and just $2,500 in 2019.

In the wake of the announcement, animal activists called for an even broader investigation into Charles River and its customers. They reject the idea that there is a shortage of monkeys and argued that the high prices the animals can now command is creating incentive for people to capture wild monkeys.

"The allure for the amount of money that's now available to catch these monkeys . . . the folks are going to do it. They're just going to do it as long as the demand remains, and the price remains at this point," said PETA senior scientific adviser Lisa Jones-Engel.

Charles River said the company is committed to ensuring its operations comply with laws and regulations globally, and that it was critical to work with the government to resolve the concerns in Cambodia. "The U.S. biopharmaceutical industry and the patients who need new treatments and cures are counting on us," the company said in a statement, adding that any concerns regarding its practices "are without merit."

Charles River was just the latest company to come under scrutiny in the DOJ investigation. In June 2021, two companies that later became subsidiaries of Inotiv received subpoenas regarding their primate imports, following up on grand jury subpoenas each had received in 2019, according to a securities filing. Inotiv has said its main supplier of nonhuman primates was criminally charged in November with illegally importing the animals from Cambodia.

Inotiv brought in $140 million from selling Cambodian monkeys in 2022, a quarter of its revenue, and the company's stock lost half of its value the day after DOJ announced the indictments.

Inotiv said that it would establish new procedures before importing more primates from Cambodia, adding that lawfully securing animals bred for research there was "imperative for the support of critical pharmaceutical development activities in the United States." Earlier this month, Bob Leasure, chief executive of the Indiana-based company, said that Inotiv had been able to determine that some monkeys imported from Cambodia were "purpose bred" - not illegally smuggled from the wild - and resumed shipping them to customers.

Laboratory Corporation of America, which also supplies primates to biotech and pharmaceutical customers, said earlier this month that delays in procuring primates will hit its revenue by $80 to $100 million early in the year. The company said nonhuman primates make up less than 2 percent of its revenue, and it has reached agreements with additional primate vendors.

The expected price increases and delays will have downstream effects. For example, academic researchers and smaller biotech companies that use contract organizations may be less able to absorb the price hikes.

"We're looking at it as an acute stress upon a chronic situation," said R. Paul Johnson, director of the Emory National Primate Research Center, which maintains a breeding colony with about 3,400 monkeys. The center has four tiers of priority, supplying animals to researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health before other government-funded scientists, foundations and finally pharmaceutical companies.

Skip Bohm, chief veterinary medical officer and associate director of the Tulane National Primate Research Center, said that it is a struggle to even meet the demand from the first priority tier.

"The first thing to recognize is there may not be enough animals or resources to get to the bottom of that list," Bohm said. The waiting time for NIH-funded researchers who get first priority "can be three months, or up to a year or more depending on the type of animal."

Part of the challenge is that long-term planning is essential for biomedical research involving primates, because resources can't be increased overnight to respond to an emergency like a pandemic. Emory's Johnson gave the example of rhesus macaques, a key animal used in scientific research, that breeds seasonally in the fall and gives birth in the spring. Mature animals are often needed for experiments, and females may be needed to continue sustaining the population.

"The process of breeding rhesus macaques requires a long-term investment. Decisions we make now won't have an impact for four to five years from now," Johnson said.

But it's equally important to make sure that there isn't a wasteful surplus of the animals, NIH's Jorgensen said.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine is currently conducting a review of the state of science for primate research, including examining questions about how to reduce reliance on animals. A report is expected to be released this summer.

In the short-term, the interruptions stemming from investigations into Cambodian suppliers may be par for the course in an industry that has had to scramble repeatedly to find new sources of animals or work around supply disruptions. Over the years, major airlines have stopped carrying the animals, for example.

"It's not like there's this massive sea change in ability to do preclinical work that's just happened today," Jon Miller, an Evercore analyst, said on the firm's podcast. He said it will probably take a couple of years for the backlog to fully resolve itself.

"In the meantime," he said, "we shouldn't expect new drug pipelines to suddenly come to a screeching halt because of this issue."

Related Content

D.C.'s long-term finances at risk as downtown stays sluggish, CFO warns

Starbucks committed 'egregious' violations in battling union, judge rules

The Texas judge who could take down the abortion pill
CANADA-POLITICS-GUNS

Jen Lavigne (R), co-owner of That Hunting Store, shows a customer a Ruger GP100 Magnum 357 on June 3, 2022 in Ottawa, Canada. Canadians rushed to buy handguns this week, after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on May 30, 2022, a proposed freeze on sales in the wake of recent mass shootings in the U.S. Credit - Photo by Dave ChanAFP/Getty Images

Canadians celebrate sharing the worlds longest undefended border with the United States, and take comfort in an imagined wall that keeps out American gun politics. That wall may now be crumbling.

In November 2022, Canadas federal government introduced amendments to draft gun control legislation that would permanently ban military-style assault weapons, fulfilling a campaign promise that contributed to Liberal Party electoral victories in 2019 and 2021. The amendments sought to accomplish three goals: enshrine in legislation the ban on more than 1,500 types of assault weapons put in place following one of Canadas worst mass shootings in Portapique, Nova Scotia in 2020; add some firearms that had been excluded previously, including a military rifle used in several recent shootings of police in Canada; and incorporate an evergreen definition to prevent gun manufacturers from skirting the ban in the future.

The changes are supported by public health science. They have been called for by Canadian health professionals, gun violence survivors and their families, womens groups, and community leaders alarmed by rising firearm violence, which has been on an upward trajectory in Canada over the past decade. They would bring Canadas gun control laws closer in line with other peer nations.

But they have met with a well-organized campaign of disinformation and division from Canadian gun lobby groups, reminiscent of the rhetoric and tactics of the NRA. One that, this time, has not fallen entirely on deaf ears. In early February 2023, a political impasse forced the minority Liberal government to withdraw the assault ban amendments for further study. Opposition parties, particularly the Conservative Party that had been echoing gun lobby talking points, rushed to claim victory.

Story continues

More from TIME

Canadiansand the worldshould be concerned. The country has long sought to draw clear distinctions with their American neighbors on the issue of guns. There is no constitutional right to keep and bear arms in Canada. Most Canadians support strong gun control laws. When it comes to military-style assault weapons, 82% favor a complete prohibition. Former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien once noted that gun control was a core value that helped define the differences between Canadians and Americans.

Read More: Justin Trudeau Cited U.S. Mass Shootings in Canadas New Gun Bill. But Crime Is Surging There, Too

Canada must be wary of such firearm exceptionalism. Between 2006-2016, Canadians saw an erosion of gun control laws, as other peer nations in Europe and elsewhere progressively moved to strengthen theirs. Canada has the fifth highest rate of gun ownership in the world according to the most recent Small Arms Survey. Access to guns in the home has consistently been shown to be a risk factor for firearm injury and death. Canada now has the third highest rate of firearm homicide among populous high-income countries, after the U.S. and Chile. Worldwide, it has the ninth highest age-standardized rate of firearm-suicide among men, which at 2.87 per 100,000 is more than twice the global average. In the past decade, the country has experienced 15 mass shooting events. During the same period, and with almost twice the population, Englandwhich has prohibited military-style automatic and semi-automatic weapons since 1988recorded two.

Gun control has been back on the political agenda in Canada under the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau. After legislative changes in 2019 including lifetime background checks, and the 2020 ban, the government created a community-focused fund to address social determinants of gun violence. Legislation now under consideration, Bill C-21, would freeze the sale of handguns, seek to address cross-border gun smuggling, establish a Red Flag Law, and further restrict non-powder firearms. It was to this Bill that the amendments banning assault weapons (as well as dealing with ghost guns) were introduced. Together, the legislation addresses different aspects of gun violence. The assault weapons banfirst introduced in response to one mass shootingaims to prevent further such events.

The latest retreat on an assault weapons ban is not only a Canadian concern. As more Americans, including President Joe Biden, call for similar bans in the U.S., the ability of Canada to take decisive action to prohibit these guns is of regional importance.

The gun lobbys interventions in Canadian politics are not new, but in recent years their rhetoric and tactics have more closely mirrored Americas gun lobby. Social media has extended this reach and amplified messaging. Stay in your lane is a catch cry of the NRA, in response to American doctors undertaking research on firearm harms and gun control policy. The slogan was quickly adopted by a Canadian gun lobby group and used against Canadian physicians advocating for an evidence-based, public health approach to reducing mass shootings, firearm injury and death in their own communities. Targeted campaigns have sought to discredit firearm victims and their families, doctors and public health experts alike who have spoken out about firearm harms.

Canada needs to re-center the public health imperative amidst the politics. Fair criticism has been levied at the government for the way they introduced the amendments on assault weapons. Key stakeholders, including Indigenous groups and hunters, should have been consulted early on.

What should not be up for political debate is the public health science underpinning the proposed bans.

Scientific evidence and public health consensus supports that comprehensive gun control laws are effective at saving lives. Assault weapons are designed to inflict maximal harm to the human body in minimal time. The now-withdrawn amendment, and a definition still favoured by advocates, includes firearms capable of discharging centre-fire ammunition in a semi-automatic manner, with high-capacity (more than five) magazines and detachable magazines that allow a shooter to quickly reload. It covers firearms with high destruction potential (based on bore diameter and muzzle energies), beyond the limits required for legitimate civilian use. Policy analyses from other countries demonstrate that similar bans decrease both the overall number of mass shootings and per-event fatalities and injuries.

To be most effective, assault weapon bans must be comprehensive, restrictive, and durable. They must cover both the firearm characteristics and magazine capacity. Loopholes and limitations can substantially weaken the public health impactas was seen with the US assault weapons ban in 94-04. It saved lives but was not as effective as it could have been, permitting grandfathering and allowing for copycat models to enter the market.

Most hunting rifles in common use in Canada are neither the target of, nor were affected by, the proposed changes. Experts from the Canadian Firearms Program testified to this during study of the proposed amendments at a Parliamentary Committee. Yet the banning of hunting guns has been an effective cry from gun lobby groups. Historically, hunters in Canada have distanced themselves from American-style gun lobby politics. Hunting practices and firearms legislation have not been seen as mutually exclusive. Anti gun-control activists are working hard to turn this narrative.

Canadians must not fall victim to disinformation. Comprehensive bans on weapons that can injure and kill many people in a short period of time can and do save lives. The proposed assault weapons ban would bring the country closer in line with other peer nations, including Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Japan and the United Kingdom. In these countries, assault weapons bans introduced as part of comprehensive firearm legislation have led to a reduction in the number of mass shootings, and in some instances reduced firearm-suicides and homicides. Politicians concerned about the response from their voting base should be reassured: in other countries the bans enjoyed widespread bi-partisan public support after they were introduced. They did not dampen hunting cultures. Moreover, they placed citizens and politicians alike on a permanent path to viewing firearm law not as a threat to personal freedoms, but as the foundation upon which public health responses to gun violencewith the end goal of safer communitiesare built.

Amendments permanently banning assault weapons are expected to be re-introduced in the coming weeks. In the interim, politicians across the partisan divide must use their time wisely, listen closely, especially to First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities who have a constitutional right to engage in traditional hunting practices and decision making, and challenge gun lobby disinformation. Most importantly, they must prioritize public health and safety over private interest.

In doing so, Canada could once again become a model of gun control action for the U.S., rather than the other way around.
(Bloomberg) -- Two thirds of Canadians suspect China attempted to interfere in recent elections that returned Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberals to power, according to a new poll.

Most Read from Bloomberg

More than half think the alleged meddling represents a serious threat to Canadas democracy. A similar proportion says Trudeaus response to the simmering scandal hasnt been tough enough.

A series of recent media reports that cited secret intelligence documents alleging China attempted to interfere in the 2019 and 2021 votes has brought the issue into the spotlight. Trudeau has so far resisted pressure to call a public inquiry into the matter.

While the strongest belief in Chinese interference comes from supporters of the main opposition Conservatives, the survey published Wednesday by the Angus Reid Institute found majority support for the notion among backers of all parties.

The political aspect of this is undeniable, Angus Reid President Shachi Kurl said by email, flagging the belief among Conservatives that China denied them an election win in 2021. This is significant because it runs the risk of further undermining trust in the election process.

Overall, 32% of respondents said China definitely tried to interfere in recent Canadian elections and 33% said it probably did. Only 6% answered a definitive no to the question.

Stolen Vote?

On Tuesday, a non-partisan group of government officials released a study on the integrity of the last national vote, in which Trudeau secured a third term but fell short of a parliamentary majority that would have allowed him free reign to pursue the Liberal governments agenda.

Story continues

National security agencies saw attempts at foreign interference, but not enough to have met the threshold of impacting electoral integrity, the panel said.

Angus Reid, however, found that 42% of Conservative voters said they thought the 2021 election was stolen due to Chinese interference, compared to tiny support among those backing left-leaning parties.

While Trudeau and Chinese President Xi Jinping have clashed in public, the Liberals are seen as more open to doing business with the Asian superpower than the Conservatives, who take a hard line on human rights issues and national security concerns.

China maintains it doesnt interfere with Canadas internal affairs and has warned that the northern nation should stop smearing Beijings government with what it calls unfounded allegations.

Its too soon to tell if the issue will do lasting damage to Trudeau, according to Kurl. These data offer an early directional arrow in terms of expecting the PM and his government to be seen to be taking this issue more seriously, she said.

The poll found that 53% of respondents think Trudeaus response to the allegations hasnt been strong enough, and want to see Canada take further action. About 64% said they believe Canada doesnt put enough focus on national security and defense.

Asked if Trudeaus government is afraid to stand up to China, 69% said they agree.

Reporting by broadcaster Global News and the Globe and Mail newspaper has alleged Trudeau received secret intelligence briefings saying China attempted to get certain candidates elected to parliament, and preferred to see his Liberals govern the country over the Conservatives.

The prime minister has called the stories inaccurate, but declined to go into detail about what exactly he disputes. The reports included claims that China spread misinformation to hurt certain candidates, and funneled money and volunteers toward people it wanted to see elected.

A parliamentary committee is studying the matter, and will hear testimony later Wednesday from government witnesses including Trudeaus national security adviser, Jody Thomas.

The Angus Reid survey was conducted online between Feb. 23 and 25 among a representative randomized sample of 1,622 Canadian adults. The firm said that for comparison purposes, a probability sample of this size would carry a margin of error of 2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
By Steve Scherer and Susan Heavey

OTTAWA (Reuters) -Canadian opposition parties on Wednesday stepped up their push for a broad public inquiry into alleged foreign election interference, particularly by China, a move that Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has not yet endorsed.

Recent media reports have alleged ongoing Chinese interference in Canada's elections, with Trudeau this week denying one article saying his office was told by Canada's spy agency to drop a Chinese Canadian candidate in 2019 because of his ties to Beijing.

Canada's main opposition party called for an independent and public inquiry, headed by a commissioner who is selected with unanimous agreement of all federal parties in the parliament.

"We want to know exactly what the Chinese authoritarian government did, and whether there were political parties aware of those actions or not," Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre told reporters in Ottawa.

New Democrats put forward a motion for a "full public inquiry" during a parliamentary committee collecting testimony on Wednesday from spy agencies and other security officials about possible Chinese meddling.

The New Democrats have been supporting Trudeau's minority government.

The prime minister has acknowledged attempts by China to interfere in elections, but he has resisted calls for a broad public inquiry, saying the outcome of both the 2019 and 2021 votes were not altered.

Asked whether he would support a public inquiry again on Wednesday, Trudeau did not respond.

He said the government would continue to do "what is necessary" to "safeguard our democracy and our elections."

The Chinese embassy in Ottawa denied any election interference. "We are not interested in meddling with Canada's internal affairs, nor have we ever tried to do so," the embassy said in an email.

Canada's national security adviser, Jody Thomas, told the parliamentary committee that China was the greatest "foreign interference threat to Canada," but she cautioned that a public inquiry would not necessarily yield more information.

Story continues

"A public inquiry will have the same limitations that this committee does, in that we cannot talk about national security information in a public forum," Thomas said.

The media reports have contributed to rekindling tensions between Canada and China. They had improved somewhat after Beijing released two Canadian men in 2021 who had been detained.

Canada this week banned the use of the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok on government-issued devices, citing privacy and security risks. And a suspected Chinese spy balloon flew over the United States and Canada before being shot down last month.

A majority of Canadians want Trudeau to respond more forcefully to alleged election interference by China, according to a poll published on Wednesday.

Some 53% of respondents said they felt Canada's response following a string of recent events was "not strong enough," polling firm Angus Reid Institute said.

"Canadians are indicating that they expect their government to take this seriously," said Shachi Kurl, president of the institute.

Some 65% of Canadians said they believe the Chinese government "definitely" or "probably" tried to interfere in the 2021 vote, according to the survey.

(Reporting by Steve Scherer in Ottawa and Susan Heavey in Washington, additional reporting by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa and Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Sharon Singleton, Nick Macfie and Bill Berkrot)
The man accused of killing two young women as they cycled along Phoenix canals 30 years ago was sane at the time of the murders, a court-appointed expert testified.

Forensic psychologist Dr Leslie Dana-Kirby said Tuesday that in her opinion Bryan Miller had several mental disorders in the early 1990s, but none that left him incapable of understanding that murder was wrong.

Miller is accused of murdering 21-year-old Angela Brosso in November 1992 and high school student Melanie Bernas in September 1993. He could face the death penalty if convicted.

He has pleaded not guilty for reasons of insanity, and says he has no memory of killing either woman.

His attorneys argue Miller was acting under a dissociative trauma state created by childhood abuse, as well as being unable to comprehend his actions due to his autism and general immaturity.

In her testimony, Dana-Kirby said the murders of Brosso and Bernas were sexually motivated and in her view not committed by somebody in a dissociative state.

"I think they were planned and they were carefully executed," she said.

"He evaded detection and arrest for a long time.

30 years later:The man accused in the Phoenix canal killings goes to trial in deaths of two women

A cold case in the deaths of two women

Miller was arrested in 2015, more than two decades after Brosso and Bernas were killed.

Brosso never returned home after heading out for a bike ride on the eve of her 22nd birthday. She was mutilated and beheaded after death, her body found close to the apartment she shared with her boyfriend the day after she went missing and her head located in the Arizona Canal 11 days later.

Nine months later, Bernas was found dead in the same canal. The high school student was last seen by her mom the night before. She had a similar fatal stab wound on her back to that inflicted on Brosso, as well as shallow cuts to her throat and on her chest.

The murders were linked by forensic evidence in 1994, but with no suspect, the case grew cold. Twenty years later, fresh DNA analysis led police to Miller, now 50.

Story continues

He faces charges of murder, kidnapping and attempted sexual assault in relation to each woman.

'Canal killings'Defendant used costume to feel 'less invisible,' expert testifies

Expert doubts claims of amnesia

Dana-Kirby said in her view it was "exceedingly unlikely" Miller was suffering from dissociative amnesia that prevented him from remembering the murders.

"It could be argued that he is so distraught by his actions during these crimes that he has now suppressed all memory for them," she said.

"The reason why I dont think that is likely is one, the time frame. The question comes in, when? When did he suppress the memory? Did he forget the first one and then commit the second one, and then forget that one too?"

Based on her professional experience, Dana-Kirby said, trauma survivors do not typically forget traumatic experiences in their totality.

"They may forget bits and pieces," she said. "It may have a fuzzy or dreamlike quality to it. But its atypical to forget everything.

"If he did forget these incidences because he was so horrified by them," she added, "it still suggests he appreciated the wrongfulness of them.

The trial of accused murderer Bryan Patrick Miller, the so-called "Canal Killer" is underway in Maricopa County Superior Court in Phoenix on Oct. 3, 2022.

She said in her view, Miller denied remembering the murders not to avoid a conviction, but to maintain plausible deniability.

She pointed to a police interview in January 2015, conducted soon after Miller's arrest, in which he had continued talking after police left him by himself in the room.

"I think what he said to the camera during the interrogation, after he was left alone, its pretty telling to me," Dana-Kirby said.

What struck me most was some of the things he wanted to say. And I will say, because it is true, that one of the very first things he said was, I didnt hurt anybody.

He went on to issue a message to his daughter, she said, saying something along the lines of: Please dont believe what they tell you about this.

And to his best friend: You know I could not have committed these crimes.

One more than one occasion, Dana-Kirby said, Miller told the camera "I'm a good person. I'm a decent human being."

And thats why I think he doesnt want to acknowledge these crimes," she said.

A tendency to 'play the victim'

Dana-Kirby described Miller as having a tendency to play the victim.

"I could just see it again and again, he has a tendency to minimize, rationalize, justify, excuse his own culpability in anything," she said.

She said the murders were "very consistent" with a document that has been referred to throughout the trial as "The Plan."

The court has heard evidence Miller wrote the document as a teenager and that his mother took it to Phoenix police after discovering it in 1990.

It outlined in detail a plot to "kidnap, rape, torture, terrify, kill, eat and save some body parts" of a teenage girl, Dana-Kirby said.

"It was extremely graphic and very violent."

Expert sees 'adult antisocial behavior'

Miller's insanity defense is centered on diagnoses of dissociative disorder and autism spectrum disorder.

Various experts have diagnosed him with several other disorders including depression, anxiety, PTSD and complex PTSD, and hoarding disorder.

Dana-Kirby said she believed at the time of the murders Miller had persistent depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, PTSD, hoarding disorder, a sexual sadism disorder and antisocial personality disorder.

The latter two, she said, cannot be used to support an insanity defense.

She said in her view Miller was not impaired by any of these disorders to the extent that he couldnt understand that what he was doing was wrong.

Under cross-examination, Dana-Kirby walked back her diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder.

She agreed the information she had reviewed did not support a diagnosis of conduct disorder in Millers youth, a necessary precursor to antisocial personality disorder.

By the strictest definition, I dont think I have enough data points, she said, adding that she suspected if she had more information  in particular, had she been able to interview Millers mother, who died in 2010  that the criteria for conduct disorder may have been met.

She said she would instead diagnose Miller with a different condition known as adult antisocial behavior.

Her testimony continues Thursday.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Expert says accused in 'canal killings' was sane
By Ryan Suppe, State Politics Reporter

Idaho Gov. Brad Little announced yesterday a new school parent committee to advise state officials on the Empowering Parents grant program.

The $50 million state program, created by the Republican governor and approved by the Legislature last year, covers education expenses such as technology, textbooks, therapy and tutoring. The grants offer up to $1,000 per student or $3,000 per family, giving priority to families who earn $60,000 or less.

The new advisory panel will be made up of seven parents with school-age children who will be appointed by the governor and House and Senate leaders. The committee will advise the Idaho State Board of Education on ways to implement, administer and improve the grant program, the governor announced.

The Parent Advisory Council reinforces our recognition of the important role parents play in our childrens education, he said. We want, and need, their help to strengthen and improve this program.

The Empowering Parents grant program was initially billed as a way to ease education burdens brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. But Little is pushing to make the grants an ongoing program. Hell need the Legislatures approval for that.

Littles announcement comes as Idaho lawmakers debate ideas for school voucher programs, funding mechanisms that would direct public education money to private schools, which have been branded as opportunities to expand education choices.

Senate Republicans on Monday rejected a bill that would have created a universal voucher program with no income limits. Yesterday, Republican lawmakers discussed with the House Education Committee three scaled-back proposals that would allow private school parents to collect public education funding.

One proposal, from Rep. Wendy Horman, R-Idaho Falls, and Sen. Lori Den Hartog, R-Meridian, would expand the Empowering Parents grants to allow private school families to use the funds for tuition.

Story continues

Little was tight-lipped regarding the new bills, but hes signaled opposition to voucher proposals in recent months.

Yesterday, he said the grants fit into Idahos existing abundant school choice options. A news release from the governors office noted that Idaho is ranked third in the nation for education freedom  thats according to the Heritage Foundation.

Committee clears bill granting drivers licenses to undocumented immigrants

A bill that would allow undocumented immigrants to obtain restricted drivers licenses and vehicle insurance cleared the Senate Transportation Committee yesterday.

Its not the first time the Legislature has considered the controversial proposal, but past attempts failed to advance beyond a committee, said Estefania Mondragon executive director of Poder of Idaho, an immigrants rights advocacy group.

The Transportation committee voted to advance the bill to the full Senate without a recommendation that legislation be approved. Typically, committees include such a recommendation or hold the bill, effectively killing it.

We dont normally send out something without recommendations, said Sen. Lori Den Hartog, R-Meridian. I think we might need the wisdom of the whole body as we debate and deliberate this.

Read Reporter Rachel Spaceks full story here.

Budget request to cover McGeachin shortfall approved

Idaho lawmakers last week approved a budget request from Lt. Gov. Scott Bedke to cover wages for former Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, who last year faced a budget shortfall.

McGeachin in June deferred paying out most of one paycheck  about $2,000  until the current fiscal year to rectify a shortfall, which resulted from McGeachin using her offices budget to cover $29,000 in legal fees stemming from her refusal to release complete public records.

Bedke, the new Republican lieutenant governor, inherited the lieutenant governors budget when he took office in January. Bedke asked lawmakers approve a supplemental appropriation covering McGeachins wage deferral in the current fiscal year, which runs from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023.

Bedke also requested an additional $5,000 for travel expenses.

The $7,000 budget gap was created by decisions in the prior administration, Bedke told the committee last month. Former lieutenant governors paid for active traveling using personal income or campaign funds, Bedke said.

This will allow us to meet the full commitment that we have in the lieutenant governors office to the people of the state of Idaho, he said.

The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee unanimously OKd Bedkes supplemental requests last week, and cleared his fiscal year 2024 budget yesterday.

For the upcoming fiscal year, Bedke requested additional funds for two full-time staff members, who will be paid $65,000 each. Previous budgets for the office funded one full-time chief of staff, while wages for a part-time assistant came out of the offices operating expenses.

The full-time positions allow the lieutenant governors office to be staffed during business hours, which is required by Idaho law, Bedke said.

Whats the cost of execution by firing squad?

A new bill would allow a firing squad as a second form of execution for Idaho, as state officials struggle to obtain drugs for lethal injection.

But the cost to implement that method in Idaho has more than doubled since it was last reviewed by the state prisons system. Today, it would cost $750,000 to build a venue for such an execution, up from $300,000 in 2014, when state officials determined it wasnt worth it.

This is a rule of law issue: Our criminal system should work, and our penalties should be exacted, Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa, whos sponsoring the bill told a legislative committee last week. When promised and deserved, the death penalty should be duly invoked.

Read reporter Kevin Fixlers full story here.

What to expect today

8 a.m. House Education. Public hearings are scheduled for two bills dealing with library materials. One would allow parents to sue schools and libraries over materials considered harmful. The other would direct library boards to create policies to clearly label age-appropriate material and create a process for parents to challenge materials.

8 a.m. Senate State Affairs. The committee is scheduled to consider bills from Rep. Jason Monks, R-Meridian, that would codify a ban on COVID-19 vaccine passports and block state agencies from sponsoring nongovernmental events, such as the Boise Pride Festival.

9 a.m. House State Affairs. The committee plans to host a public hearing on a bill that would reduce school board trustee terms from four to two years and make school board races partisan. Also on the docket are proposals regarding absentee ballots and Taiwan.

9 a.m. House Revenue and Taxation. Rep. Jason Monks, R-Meridian, is scheduled to present three proposals dealing with development impact fees and the Idaho State Tax Commission.

1:30 p.m. House Judiciary and Rules. A public hearing for a bill to allow capital punishment by firing squad is on the docket.

3 p.m. Senate Local Government and Taxation. A bill from Sen. C. Scott Grow, R-Eagle, that would use state sales tax revenue for property tax relief is scheduled for a public hearing.

Find the full list of committee meetings and agendas for the House here, and for the Senate here.

What else happened?

Keep track of high-profile bills as they go through the legislative process. You can find yesterdays updates here.

If you like this newsletter, forward to a friend or colleague, and they can sign up here.
Carrie Johnson spoke of her experience as a victim of John Worboys discovering he was to be released from jail - Kirsty O'Connor/PA

Carrie Johnson on Wednesday urged Dominic Raab to block the automatic release of a wife killer - as she described how she had experienced a similar injustice over black cab rapist John Worboys.

The wife of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged the Justice Secretary to ensure his punishment fits the crime by halting the release of Robert Brown, who bludgeoned to death his estranged wife Joanna Simpson with a claw hammer as their children cowered inside their home.

At an emotional launch of a campaign to block Browns automatic release halfway through his sentence, Mrs Johnson, who was supported at the event by her husband, spoke of her own experience as a victim of Worboys discovering that he was going to be released from jail.

Brown, a former British Airways pilot, admitted manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility and was jailed in May 2011 for 26 years. He is due for release in November having served half his sentence.

Joanna Simpson was bludgeoned to death by her husband Robert Brown with a claw hammer in their family home in 2010 - Thames Valley Police/PA

Speaking on a platform at Westminster Chapel alongside Joannas mother Diana Parkes and close friend Hetti Barkworth-Nanton, she recalled how Diana and Hetti had described feeling like sitting ducks, powerless to do anything when they had been told of Browns imminent release.

I knew that feeling from my own experience when I found out that taxi cab rapist John Worboys was due to be released much earlier than we thought with no explanation as to why, she said.

I remember feeling really scared. I wont go into the details of that case but it was a similar injustice. Another circumstance where the law was badly letting victims down and failing to do its job to protect women.

Mrs Johnson said she had first met the pair at a Buckingham Palace event organised by Queen Consort Camilla and was horrified by the decision to release Brown which was so obviously wrong and showed a real failure in our system.

Carrie Johnson (left) with Joanna Simpson's mother, Diana Parkes, for launch of a campaign to prevent the release of Robert Brown - Kirsty O'Connor/PA

However, she said she had learned from her own case, where the victims secured a judicial review that ultimately led to Worboys release being blocked, that sometimes against all the odds, you can change things.

Story continues

All were asking for today is that the punishment fits the crime. We think that the Justice Secretary Dominic Raab should urgently review this case and use all his powers to do what he can to prevent the early release of Robert Brown. Surely, common sense must prevail. If you agree with us please, please help us, she said.

Boris Johnson joined his wife Carrie for the launch of the campaign to prevent the release of Robert Brown - Kirsty O'Connor/PA

Mrs Johnson argued that there was no justification for the automatic release of Brown who had shown no remorse and whose defence that he had killed in the heat of the moment was undermined by all the evidence in the case.

The campaign was also backed yesterday by former Home Secretary Priti Patel, former Justice Secretary Robert Buckland and Labours spokeswoman on domestic abuse, Jess Phillips.

The Justice for Joanna campaign urges supporters to write to their local MP asking them to put pressure on (Justice Secretary) Dominic Raab to take this case seriously and do the right thing - for Jo, for her family, for all women and girls.

Mr Raab has invited Mrs Parkes to meet with him next week to discuss the case, which he says he will be reviewing carefully.
(Reuters) -Caterpillar Inc said on Wednesday it had reached a tentative agreement with a union that represents workers at four of its facilities, dodging a possible walkout at a time when companies across the United States are dealing with widespread labor shortages.

The construction equipment maker's new six-year agreement, which needs to be put to a vote by employees, comes after some union workers had threatened a strike as they negotiated wage increases, improved safety measures and better healthcare benefits.

Caterpillar, which has been struggling with margin pressures as input costs keep rising, has more than 100,000 employees around the world.

Labor unions in the United States have, in the meanwhile, stepped up efforts to ensure cost-of-living adjustments keep pace with inflation.

"Members at four locals in Illinois and Pennsylvania will review the tentative agreement and vote at upcoming ratification meetings," United Auto Workers (UAW) said in a statement on Wednesday.

The UAW will schedule a ratification vote soon, Caterpillar said in a statement, adding that the current agreement would be extended until the voting was complete.

The contract covers roughly 7,000 union employees represented by the UAW at three manufacturing plants in central Illinois and a parts and distribution center in York, Pennsylvania.

In January, union workers at the four Caterpillar facilities voted almost unanimously to authorize a strike, according to one local union's Facebook page.

Contract negotiations between the UAW and the Irving, Texas-based manufacturer began on Jan. 5, the company said.

(Reporting by Aishwarya Nair and Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema and Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
A superbug is what doctors said the CDC has issued a serious public health alert about.

The Center for Disease Control said the stomach bug infects millions of Americans each year and it can spread easily to anyone of us in the Miami Valley. Now there is a bacteria in the virus that is not responding to medication.

Doctors are used to antibiotics working to treat norovirus, also known as the stomach bug. However, for some people medicine is not helping right now.

>> New study examines the relationship between Long COVID symptoms and specific variants

The bacteria, which is considered to be a superbug, can live in your gut even if you take antibiotics.

On Friday, the CDC released a health advisory to alert the public that the virus is out there.

Dr. Joseph Allen said this has to do with a continuous cycle of adaptation. So, we develop something that does really well, a few of them survive it. They just figure out how to survive it, he said.

Which the superbug is doing a good job of with people in the country.

It kind of flourishes, and then it produces a toxin that causes some, some disruption with the way that the body absorbs nutrients, Allen said.

It can create a list of side effects like loose stool, malaise, fatigue, fever and bloody stool. In rare cases, it can lead to death.

Your older population and your immunocompromised and maybe even your really, really young population, Allen said.

>> Study finds exercising 22 minutes a day cuts risk of death by 31%

To prevent that from happening, antibiotics would be used, but since they arent working it leaves Allen asking What do we do?

Doctors are used to antibiotics working for bacterial causes of GI symptoms, however there are also viral stomach bugs, like Norovirus, that do not respond to antibiotics, Allen said.

At this point, its supportive treatment such as getting IV fluids and staying hydrated are the ways to help, but he said prevention is your best bet.

Wash your hands very well, you know. Avoid those places where maybe you dont have the most sanitary conditions. Certainly, avoid those if you have any of those symptoms as well, he said.

Allen said he has yet to see these bacteria pop up but its only a matter of time. News Center 7 reached out to a couple of public health departments and Miami County responded by saying they have no current cases of this superbug.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning about a rise in extensively drug-resistant cases of the bacterial infection Shigella, a major cause of inflammatory diarrhea.

The agency calls the new form of the stomach bug, which causes the diarrheal condition known as shigellosis, a serious public health threat. Evidence suggests the illness is spreading among gay and bisexual men in particular, apparently through sexual contact, both in the U.S. and abroad.

The CDC held a call Tuesday with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the U.K. Health Security Agency to alert doctors about the spread of a form of the bacterium that is resistant to all typically recommended antibiotic treatments.

We do not have all the answers today, Dr. Louise Francois Watkins, a medical officer at the CDCs National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, said on the call. The agency, she said, could make no official recommendations for antibiotic alternatives.

A parallel outbreak in the U.K., first announced in January 2022, most likely stemmed from an initial single infection, British health officials said on the call Tuesday. That speaks to how widely individual drug-resistant strains can spread and to the importance of infection control.

The CDC said in a health alert Friday that the proportion of the approximately 450,000 annual U.S. Shigella infections that were resistant to all known antibiotic treatments rose from zero in 2015 to 0.4% in 2019 to 5% last year, an indicator of potential greater spread.

Shigella, which is highly infectious, spreads when infected fecal matter enters the mouth or the nose, including through sexual activity or because of poor hand-washing after diaper changes, unsanitary food handling or swimming in contaminated water. The infection is typically seen in young children.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control issued an alert Friday about 221 confirmed and 37 possible cases among people who traveled to Cabo Verde off West Africa since September and returned home to about a dozen nations, including the U.S.

Story continues

During the CDC call Tuesday, officers from the U.K. health agency reported they had analyzed all but four of 185 cases of the infection in Britain since late 2021. Half required antibiotic treatment. The Shigella samples retained susceptibility to four antibiotics: carbapenems, chloramphenicol, fosfomycin and temocillin.

Eighty-seven percent of the cases were in men presumed to have sex with men.

Dr. Stephanie Cohen, the section director for HIV and STI prevention at the San Francisco Public Health Department, told NBC News that Shigella is a really important and serious pathogen.

It can cause really severe diarrhea, sometimes bloody diarrhea, cramps and abdominal pain, she said.

Shigellosis usually goes away without treatment. But physicians may prescribe antibiotics to hasten recovery or otherwise avert complications in more vulnerable patients.

The infection can cause prolonged and debilitating illness, with about 6,400 U.S. patients needing hospitalization each year.

Death from shigellosis is rare, although it is more likely among people who are immunocompromised, such as by untreated HIV or chemotherapy for cancer.

Shigella is considered extensively drug resistant when it is not susceptible to any of the recommended first-line or alternative antibiotics, including azithromycin, ciprofloxacin, ceftriaxone, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and ampicillin.

From May 2014 to February 2015, the CDC identified 243 U.S. cases of travel-associated Shigella that were resistant to most but not all of those antibiotics.

Now, doctors face a considerable challenge caring for patients with this form of Shigella. Reviewing an extensive roster of potential alternative antibiotics on the call Tuesday, Watkins noted that the medications are largely saddled with one or more limitations, such as unavailability in the U.S., lack of clinical trial data, resistance to the pathogen or the fact that they penetrate the gut lining poorly.

The CDC has called on health care providers to be vigilant for potential Shigella infections and to report suspected cases to state and local health departments, while educating people most at risk about shigellosis.

In addition to gay and bisexual men, antibiotic-resistant Shigella infections have been on the rise among people experiencing homelessness, international travelers and people living with HIV.

Of 232 cases reported from 2016 onward about which the CDC has data, 197, or 85%, were in men. Just one was in a child. Of the 41 of those people who answered questions about recent sexual activity, 88% were men reporting recent sexual contact with men.

Meanwhile, sexually transmitted gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis have been rising steadily in recent years and are particularly prevalent among gay and bisexual men. The CDC has issued increasingly urgent warnings that gonorrhea is at risk of losing susceptibility to the last remaining simple and effective antibiotic to treat the infection.

Enterobacteriaceae contain over a hundred species including Shigella, Klebsiella, Salmonella and Escherichia coli. (Stephanie Rossow / Science Photo Library via Getty Images)

People who have shigellosis, the CDC advises, should stay home if they work in health care, food service or child care. The agency also advises that during the illness and for two weeks after, people should avoid preparing food for others, wash hands often, refrain from swimming and abstain from sexual contact, or at least observe rigorous hygiene before and after sexual activity.

The World Health Organization cites drug-resistant pathogens, the emergence of which are largely driven by the misuse and overuse of antibiotics in people and livestock, as one of the top 10 global public health threats facing humanity.

The clinical pipeline, the drugs that are in human testing, is fragile, and theres not enough there, said Kevin Outterson, the executive director of CARB-X, a Boston-based nonprofit group that seeks to spur innovation in early antibiotic research and development.

There are encouraging signs with antibiotic development, at least in early phases, Outterson said.

If you want a drug thats going to work against this disease or any other bacteria in 2033, we need to be working on that today, he said.

The new Shigella raises concerns in the wake of the global mpox (formerly monkeypox) outbreak, which has overwhelmingly spread through sex between men. Cases of the virus, first identified in Britain in mid-May, peaked in the U.S. and internationally in early August and have largely subsided.

Similar to shigella cases, mpox infections, which can be severe, typically resolve without the need for treatment and are rarely fatal. However, a paper published Feb. 21 in The Lancet found an mpox death rate as high as 15% among people substantially immunocompromised by HIV.

CORRECTION (March 1, 2023, 1:00 p.m. ET): A previous version of this article misstated when British health authorities first announced an outbreak of drug-resistant Shigella. The cases were announced in January 2022, not last month.
A Sanford nurse is doing her part to solve a nationwide nursing shortage.

Shes providing new nurses with unique resources to make onboarding and shifts a lot easier.

Channel 9 spoke with nurse Meg Harrell about how it works and why its critical.

Watch: 25 people charged in massive scheme to sell thousands of fake diplomas to nursing students

As soon as I was training new nurses, I saw the gap, Harrell said. I was seeing things getting missed by new grads who were just very overwhelmed. They didnt draw the lab on time, they didnt give them medication on time, it can have adverse effects or delay other care from happening.

She said there are 100,000 nurses leaving the profession every year, either doing something different or retiring.

Read: Health care vaccine mandate remains as some push for an end

So, while working at AdventHealth, she got to work putting new nurses on the fast track.

The simple digital worksheets help with overall patient care, making things like shift changes a breeze, with easy to fill out report sheets.

Watch: Congress discussing ways to address nationwide healthcare worker shortage

See more in the video above.

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.
Jeannette police have filed charges against five people after four children were found to have drugs in their system.

According to Westmoreland County Sheriff James Albert, Jeannette police went to the home of a 1-year-old last summer after the child was taken to a hospital for a suspected drug overdose. Tests revealed the child ingested cocaine, Albert said.

During their investigation, police found that three other children between the ages of 4 and 10 who were also living in the home tested positive for cocaine, with two of them also testing positive for cannabinoids, Albert said.

Jeannette police charged Samantha Stanford and Michael Dewberry, parents of the 1-year-old; Anna Dengler, the babys grandmother; Latasha Cottrell and Shelly Kemerer. Dewberry, Stanford and Dengler were arrested, according to Albert.

During a search of the home, over three pounds of suspected cocaine, approximately two pounds of suspected marijuana and approximately $15,000 was found, according to Albert.

Stanford and Dewberry are expected to face additional charges.

Anyone with information on the location of Cottrell or Kemerer is asked to contact the City of Jeannette police department.

TRENDING NOW:

Teen kidnapped in Cranberry during armed home invasion; Police believe family was targeted Target 11 Exclusive: Man accused of impregnating foster child in McKeesport dies Local mother speaks out after daughters hair allegedly set on fire at Westinghouse Academy VIDEO: Student awarded for reporting gun in local school bathroom DOWNLOAD the Channel 11 News app for breaking news alerts
Could ChatGPT be the technological tool that will, finally, radically change higher education? Shutterstock

Less than a week after Open AI released ChatGPT, CEO Sam Altman announced that the chatbot had already surpassed one million users. By January 13, 2023, the global Google search for the word ChatGPT had hit a popularity score of 92 and Microsoft has since invested $10 billion in OpenAI.

Now, the chatbot is at capacity and no longer available for use thanks to server saturation, but OpenAI has recently announced a $20 per month subscription service that it will be piloting with people off its waitlist.

As most of us are now aware, ChatGPT is a text-based artificial intelligence tool capable of natural language generation and human-like responses with a certain level of accuracy.

This new tool  and, importantly, conversations about the new tool  is taking the world by storm. Opinions abound.

Some people are ready to totally embrace it, citing its high efficiency in creating texts such as emails or press releases in terms of time, money, and resources. Using ChatGPT to generate a letter of acceptance (or rejection), for instance, can reduce the time it usually takes to do this job from 30 minutes down to five. Thats quite spectacular, particularly for those of us who find such tasks time-consuming and tedious. Yet, others see the beginning of the end of human uniqueness and originality in the way that the tool uses massive amounts of commonly existing data.

Misinformation is another shortcoming of ChatGPT because it pulls from trusted and non-trusted sources of data equally. On top of that, ChatGPT is unable to cite the references it uses in executing the requested tasks and sometimes (many times) it even makes up an entire response, albeit eloquently.

Enthusiasts and alarmists

This new technology has a direct impact on higher education  and it certainly has classrooms talking. Opinions around the use of this tool in academia are clearly divided between enthusiasts (particularly students) and alarmists (namely professors).

Story continues

Professors fear (rightfully so) that the use of this tool will open doors to cheating and plagiarism, while students see it as the long-awaited technology that will help them with writing late assignments, executing complex coding exercises, and perhaps even acing exams. The whole academic body feels uncomfortable, and so do some students, it turns out.

All this activity and debate around the entrance (or not) of ChatGPT into academia shows that it is providing a shakeup that the industry has long needed, and perhaps even long craved. New technology, old problem, same debate.

Historically speaking, technology has always affected education in significant ways and always with a mix of supporters and opponents. In his book, Teaching in a Digital Age, A.W. Bates writes that arguments about the role of technology in education go back at least 2,500 years. Written communication is one of the greatest tools that made knowledge more accessible and allowed the worldwide expansion of education. In Europe specifically, this coincided with the invention of the printing press in the 15th century.

Ironically, Socrates, the great Greek philosopher, was not a strong supporter of written documents and did not believe writing to be an effective means of communicating knowledge. In the mid-1990s, Internet-based learning was made possible due to the development of web-based learning management systems, another technological breakthrough that made MOOCs possible, challenging the traditional educational model and causing debates that are still in existence today.

Could ChatGPT be the technological tool that will, finally, radically change higher education?

Challenges in higher education

Alongside student wellbeing and campus sustainability, digital transformation is one of the biggest challenges facing higher education  and with ChatGPT, the challenges are even bigger.

No doubt, there will be many who resist ChatGPT and much research and investigation spent on methods of not only detecting its use but preventing its entry into higher education. As if prevention in its entirety were possible.

Whether we embrace or resist ChatGPT, there is no denying that this new tool has exposed, once again, the fragility and vulnerability of our higher education systems. Mack Institute Co-Director Christian Terwiesch tested the ability of ChatGPT in a Wharton MBA program Operations Management course and found that the tech tool would have received a B to B- grade on the exam. A rather unsettling result. According to Terwiesch, this outcome has numerous implications for business school education, including the need to improve teaching creativity and productivity, and to change current exam policies and curricula.

Change of mindset

Isnt it about time, anyway, that we revisit our curricula, evaluation criteria, and learning and teaching tools? Making room for this new technology might very well be the excuse we need, as Christian Terwiesch indicates. If our evaluation systems were reconsidered so that they are not based on endless assignments, multiple tests, and countless deliverables, then this would certainly make room within the curriculum and create time in the classroom (and out of it) for something new.

But the question becomes: room and time for what? This next step must be considered carefully, because what we have here is a golden opportunity if used wisely. Thus, we must not only ask what will happen to our coding and programming classes if we rethink our evaluation systems thanks to the entry of ChatGPT (in whatever form that takes), but also: what do we want to happen? And what about courses focused on writing skills and communication? Should they be removed entirely from our educational programs? Just to think about such a change makes one uneasy.

This is the type of conversation that has started thanks to ChatGPT. We are finally asking the big questions about higher education.

As Mollick points out, ChatGPT may very well be the harbinger of a new era, one of human-machine integration. If thats the case, education is the logical  and unavoidable  starting point.

So, what if, instead of prohibiting the use of ChatGPT in essays, assignments, and exams, students were allowed  no, required  to use the digital tool, and then spend their time critically analysing its output, outlining the thought-process and pinpointing its strength and weaknesses? What if the true assignment is no longer in providing an answer to a question or a solution to a problem but in analysing how that answer is generated?

This change in mindset around assignments could help students develop their critical and analytical thinking.

We can either view ChatGPT as the ultimate blow to our educational systems or as the spark that will change education for the better. I think both humans and technology would provide the same answer to this question.

A version of this article was originally published by IE Insights, the thought leadership publication of IE University.
(Bloomberg) -- Chicagos mayoral elections is headed for a runoff, with a former head of the citys school system leading the race.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Paul Vallas, who gained support from the business community and the police by pledging to fight crime, has secured a spot in the runoff, according to the the Associated Press. Its still unclear which of the other eight candidates he will face  a field that includes current Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot  on April 4.

Under the citys nonpartisan mayoral election rules, if no candidate meets the 50% threshold, the two highest vote-getters advance to a second round. A crowded race, low turnout and a large number of mail-in ballots means that getting the final tally may be a lengthy process.

Vallas, 69, raised more than $6 million for his campaign and is the only White candidate. He benefited from a crowded field with seven Black candidates, including Lightfoot, 60, and Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson, 46, dividing votes among that key demographic group. Latinos are widely expected to have leaned toward US Representative Jesus Chuy Garcia, 66.

See also: Chicago crime defines mayor race as spending, lawbreaking surge

Lightfoot, who has seen her popularity wane since taking office in 2019, has struggled to keep crime under control in the third-biggest US city. She has also faced a slow recovery from the pandemic and the high-profile departures of Citadel and Boeing Co. If she doesnt make it to the runoff, shell be the first incumbent to lose a reelection bid in 40 years.

The spike in shootings has been enormously damaging to her and the concerns about crime, said John Mark Hansen, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, before the election. Thats something that Vallas has been hammering on again and again and again.

Story continues

Rising Violence

Crime incidents jumped 41% last year and are up 33% since 2019. At the same time, the citys number of police officers has fallen 12% since 2019 as the pandemic sparked a wave of retirements. Even so, the Chicago police budget ballooned to a record $1.9 billion for 2023.

Solving that conundrum while keeping spending in check and simultaneously addressing concerns around police brutality against Black residents will likely be a key hurdle for the final winner of the race.

Billionaire Ken Griffin cited violence as one of the reasons for moving his hedge fund to Florida, while McDonalds Corp. Chief Executive Officer Chris Kempczinski told the Economic Club of Chicago last year that it had become harder to attract talent to the Windy City.

Vallas has pledged to boost police ranks, overhaul a scheduling system thats prompted burnout and give officers local beats to better connect with communities. He has also earned the support of many business leaders, with Citadel Chief Operating Officer Gerald Beeson recently inviting him to speak at a private function at the funds building, according to a person familiar with the event.

The former schools chief gained a runoff spot even as he was criticized after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican with presidential aspirations, gave a speech for the Fraternal Order of the Police, a union that endorsed him. He also was criticized for liking racists tweets, according to a Chicago Tribune analysis. He later said his account was hacked.

--With assistance from Bill Allison, Brad Skillman, Aradhana Aravindan and Tarso Veloso.

(Adds academic quote in sixth paragraph)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
(Bloomberg) -- Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot lost her reelection bid on Tuesday after failing to overcome voter dissatisfaction with rising crime, several high-profile corporate departures and the citys slow economic recovery from the pandemic.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Instead, Brandon Johnson, 46, a member of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, will face Paul Vallas, the 69-year-old former head of Chicago Public Schools, in an April 4 runoff, according to the Associated Press. Lightfoot, 60, is the first Chicago mayor to lose reelection since 1983.

Vallas garnered almost 34% of the vote and Johnson had 20% with about 94% of precincts reporting, according to the Chicago Board of Elections. The mayor had about 17%, finishing third.

Lightfoot, the first Black female leader of Americas third-largest city, is missing out on a runoff after a tough campaign that saw her come in third in several polls. She struggled to keep crime under control, with the citys woes only made worse by the departure of Citadel and Boeing Co.

Chicagos nonpartisan mayoral election requires a winner to garner at least 50% of the vote. If no candidate meets that threshold, the two highest vote-getters advance to a runoff.

Its a combination of the pandemic and the crime, and the civil unrest, said Anthony Fowler, a professor at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago. There has been a sense among Chicagoans that she just hasnt done a very good job even though shes been in office during a very difficult time.

Chicago is faced with rising violence thats sparked outrage among residents and business leaders. Billionaire Ken Griffin cited violence as a reasons for moving his Citadel hedge fund to Florida, while McDonalds Corp. Chief Executive Officer Chris Kempczinski told the Economic Club of Chicago last year that it had become harder to attract talent to the Windy City.

Story continues

Crime Incidents

Crime incidents jumped 41% last year and 33% since 2019, the year Lightfoot took office. At the same time, the number of officers fell 12% in the period  as the pandemic sparked a wave of retirements  and the police budget ballooned to a record $1.9 billion for 2023.

Solving that conundrum  while keeping spending in check and simultaneously addressing concerns around police brutality against Black residents  will likely be a key hurdle for the final winner of the race.

The last Chicago mayor to lose a reelection bid was Jane Byrne, who ran when the city still had a partisan system and lost her Democratic primary nomination to Harold Washington in 1983. Washington went on to become the citys first Black mayor.

We were fierce competitors in these last few months, but I will be rooting and praying for our next mayor to deliver for the people of the city for years to come, Lightfoot said Tuesday night, adding she had called Johnson and Vallas to congratulate them.

Just like many other US mayors, Lightfoot had to battle a global pandemic in her first term, a wave of protests against the police force following the 2020 murder of George Floyd and rising crime. As a result, many mayors saw their popularity slide, with several deciding to step down.

Chicago has been slow to recover from the pandemic, with a slow return of workers to downtown putting pressure on local businesses and the economy. A University of California study that analyzed cellphone data in 62 North American cities put Chicagos activity at just 50%, behind places including New York City, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, Houston and Boston.

Business Community

Vallas gained support from the business community and the police by pledging to fight crime. The only White candidate raised more than $6 million for his campaign and benefited from a crowded field with seven Black candidates, including Lightfoot and Johnson.

My pledge to you is that Im running for mayor to be the mayor of all Chicago, Vallas told cheering supporters. When people tell me that this used to be the city that works and it doesnt work anymore, Ill tell you, this city has never really been the city that works for everyone, but it will be when I am mayor.

He has pledged to boost police ranks, overhaul a scheduling system thats prompted burnout and give officers local beats to better connect with communities. He has also earned the support of many business leaders, with Citadel Chief Operating Officer Gerald Beeson recently inviting him to speak at a private function at the funds building, according to a person familiar with the event.

The former schools chief gained a runoff spot even after he was criticized after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican with presidential aspirations, gave a speech for the Fraternal Order of the Police, a union that endorsed him.

Johnson, endorsed by the influential Chicago Teachers Union, had been rising in the polls in the run-up to the elections. His fast gain in popularity prompted Lightfoot to step up attacks on him in recent weeks, even urging Black residents in the citys South Side to vote for her, or to stay home. The mayor sought to distance herself from the comments later, recording a video asking Chicagoans to head to the polls.

She also accused Johnson of making the city unsafe by planning to defund the police, something he denied. Responding to her attacks, he pledged to focus on mental health and expand youth jobs and said crime was paralyzing the city and it was time to get smart, not just tough.

Lightfoot, a former prosecutor who had never run for public office, came into power in 2019, offering herself as a stark opposition to former Mayor Rahm Emanuel. She beat many more experienced candidates then, including Vallas himself and Toni Preckwinkle, Cook County Board president.

But many of the qualities that brought her to power made it hard for her to succeed. She was seen as abrasive, didnt have contacts within city government and alienated many of her allies on the city council, said John Mark Hansen, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago.

In some sense, her outsider status, while it was an aid in getting elected, I think it has been a hindrance to her actually performing as mayor, he said.

--With assistance from Kim Chipman, Shruti Date Singh, Bill Allison, Mark Schoifet and Elizabeth Campbell.

(Updates to include vote tallies and quotes from candidates.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Lori Lightfoot. Kamil Krzaczynski/Getty Images

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot will not serve a second term, after failing on Tuesday to advance to an April runoff election.

There were nine candidates in the mayoral race, and with no one securing more than 50 percent of the vote to win outright, there will be a runoff on April 4 between the top two candidates: Paul Vallas, a former chief executive of Chicago Public Schools, and Brandon Johnson, a Cook County commissioner. Vallas has the support of the Fraternal Order of Police, while the Chicago Teachers Union is backing Johnson.

Lightfoot was elected in 2019, becoming the first Black woman and first openly gay person to serve as mayor of Chicago, the third-largest city in the United States. During her tenure, she cleared the way for Chicago's first casino and secured financing for the expansion of the Red Line to the South Side. Lightfoot also faced criticism from opponents who said she didn't follow through with her campaign promise to reform City Hall or disagreed with how she handled the COVID-19 pandemic. She is the first incumbent mayor in Chicago to lose a re-election bid in 40 years.

In her concession speech, Lightfoot told a crowd of supporters that "obviously, we didn't win the election today, but I stand here with my head held high and a heart filled with gratitude." Being mayor was "the honor of a lifetime," she declared, adding, "we fought the right fights and we put this city on a better path."

Ahead of the election, with murders and robberies up in the city, Vallas focused on crime and public safety, saying he would hire more police officers and fire David Brown, the superintendent of the Chicago Police Department. Johnson pushed for more funding for education and mental health services, investments in housing, and police reforms. Both are Democrats. But pointing to the Fraternal Order of Police endorsement, Lightfoot accused Vallas of being a shadow Republican, The Chicago Tribune reports.

You may also like

Jurassic-era insect discovered at Arkansas Walmart

Why space experts want to establish a lunar time zone

The Dilbert debate: Were newspapers right to 'cancel' the cartoon?
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, whose election to Chicagos highest office made history, has lost her reelection bid.

CNN reported Wednesday morning that Lightfoot finished Tuesdays race behind at least two competitors, who will face off in an April runoff election. Lightfoots defeat brings to an end a term that began in history-making fashion and was later marked by controversy and conflicts.

The post Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Loses Reelection Bid appeared first on Blavity.

CNN states that Lightfoot finished behind candidates Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson; because no one received a majority vote, Vallas and Johnson will face an April runoff election. Vallas, who formerly headed Chicago Public Schools, ran on a conservative, pro-police, tough-on-crime message and gained the endorsement of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police. Johnson, who serves as Cook County Commissioner, ran as a progressive and was endorsed by Chicagos Teachers Union. Lightfoot was left stuck in the middle, and her relatively moderate message and track record did not convince a majority of Chicagoans to keep her in office.

Lightfoot conceded the race on Tuesday night as results were becoming evident. She posted a message to social media telling Chicagoans that serving as your mayor has been the honor of a lifetime. She also touted her accomplishments, saying her administration had made significant progress building a safer, more equitable city and thanked her supporters.

Serving as your mayor has been the honor of a lifetime, and I am so grateful to all of you who have stood beside me these last four years. Weve made significant progress building a safer, more equitable city. I thank each and every one of you for believing in me. pic.twitter.com/l33IGevNPC  Lori Lightfoot (@LoriLightfoot) March 1, 2023

Lightfoot broke new ground with her election as mayor in 2019. She was the first Black woman to serve as mayor of Chicago and one of the first lesbians to lead any major U.S. city, pushing aside anti-gay rhetoric during her campaign. Presenting herself as a progressive, Lightfoot implemented programs prioritizing medical and mental health first responders and moved away from a police-centric approach to responding to emergencies.

Story continues

But even as a Black woman, Lightfoots term was controversial for Chicagos Black and brown communities. Critics often called out the mayor for allowing police misconduct and attempting to shield officers from accountability. For example, Lightfoot was heavily criticized for trying to protect officers in the case of Anjanette Young, a Black woman detained naked and handcuffed by officers who raided her home by mistake in 2019. In 2021, Lightfoot faced protests and calls to resign after Chicago police shot and killed 13-year-old Adam Toledo; protestors chastised the mayor for the citys slow release of information, including bodycam footage, following the killing. Mayor Lightfoot also clashed with Chicago teachers who accused her of failing to live up to her campaign promises.

In addition to these policy-based disagreements, Lightfoot also got into more personal political spats during her term in office. For example, in 2020, Lightfoot had a public back and forth with Trump White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany; McEnany called Lightfoot the derelict mayor of Chicago, leading to Lightfoot calling McEnany Karen on social media. In another incident, the mayor reportedly argued with lawyers representing an Italian American group over the display of a statue of Christopher Columbus; Lightfoot allegedly told the men, My d**k is bigger than yours and the Italians.

With Lightfoot now out of the mayors race, these personal controversies will likely be left behind, but the policy debates over crime, education and more will continue in Chicago. The two remaining candidates present very different ideas for the direction Chicago will go, and it will be up to voters to decide what leadership will look like in a post-Lightfoot Chicago.
CHICAGO  Lori Lightfoot lost her bid for a second term as Chicago mayor Tuesday in the nation's third-largest city after facing widespread criticism over her divisive leadership and the city's increase in crime.

Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson will advance to the April 4 runoff to be the next mayor of Chicago after none of the nine candidates won a majority in the officially nonpartisan election.

Lightfoot, who made history in 2019 when she became the city's first Black woman and first openly gay person to serve as mayor, fell in popularity after Chicago saw a spike in crime following the coronavirus pandemic.

Since then, opponents have blamed her for the increase in crime and criticized her as being a divisive, overly contentious leader. She's also received criticism for her handling of an 11-day teachers' strike, the COVID-19 pandemic, and protests in the summer of 2020.

Speaking to supporters Tuesday night, Lightfoot called being Chicagos mayor the honor of a lifetime.

Regardless of tonights outcome, we fought the right fights and we put this city on a better path, Lightfoot said. She told her fellow mayors around the country not to fear being bold.

Public safety has been a key ballot issue in the Windy City's local election where policies on crime have increasingly resonated with voters. Residents also made selections for other local offices, including for representatives on the city's new police district councils  the latest effort to improve police oversight and accountability.

Who will head to the April 4 runoff?

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks to the media following a city council meeting on February 01, 2023 in Chicago, Illinois.

Paul Vallas, 69, is the former head of Chicago Public Schools and scored endorsements from the Chicago police union and the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board. His campaign has focused on law-and-order, school choice, and reforming the city's finances. Vallas previously ran for mayor in Chicago and for governor and lieutenant governor in Illinois. His opponents have criticized him as too conservative to lead the Democratic stronghold.

Story continues

Brandon Johnson, 46, is a former teacher who serves on the Cook County Board of Commissioners. According to The Associated Press, Johnson received about $1 million from the Chicago Teachers Union for his campaign and had support from several other progressive organizations, including United Working Families. The former teacher and union organizer has argued that the answer to addressing crime is not more money for police but more investment in mental health care, education, jobs, and affordable housing, and he was accused by rivals such as Lightfoot of wanting to defund the police.

Mayoral candidates (L-R) Ja'Mal Green, Sophia King, Kam Buckner, Wille Wilson, Brandon Johnson, Paul Vallas, Lori Lightfoot, Roderick Sawyer and Jesus Chuy Garcia get ready to debate one another at WLS-TV ABC Channel 7 studio on January 19, 2023 in Chicago, Illinois.

What are the key issues in the Chicago mayoral election?

Most Chicago voters say crime is the top issue, the poll found. Violent crime rose in cities across the nation during the pandemic, including in Chicago, where carjackings and shootings soared.

While homicides and shootings in Chicago fell by double-digit percentages last year from the year prior, other types of crimes  like robberies  rose, according to city data.

Candidates have laid out various plans to address the issue, including hiring more police officers, bringing back retired officers, removing the sitting police chief, adding a witness protection program, eliminating the citys gang database and instituting programs designed to address the root causes of crime.

Other key issues include affordable housing, the state of Chicago Public Schools and public transit.

What are Chicago's new police district councils?

Residents on Tuesday also cast votes as part of the citys new civilian police oversight model. In 2021, in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and subsequent racial justice protests, city leaders passed an ordinance creating two bodies  a citywide commission and district councils  aimed at improving community-police relations.

Voters elected three people to serve on councils in each of the citys 22 police districts. The councils are tasked with building stronger connections between the police and the community at the district level, holding monthly public meetings, working with the community to get input on police department policies and practices and more.

Dig deeper on Chicago

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Chicago mayoral election: Lori Lightfoot loses reelection bid
A child custody feud was at the root of a double shooting that left one man dead and a woman critically injured on the northeast side of Indianapolis, according to court documents.

Gerald Lewis III, 25, was killed about 9 a.m. Feb. 26 in the 4300 block of Mill View Court, near E. 46th and Shadeland Avenue.

His girlfriend was shot in the hand and cheek, and the father of her son was preliminarily charged Tuesday in the deadly shooting, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Jailyn Hurt, 26, is facing preliminary charges of murder, attempted murder and aggravated assault, according to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.

Hurt initially told investigators he did not go to the womans apartment the day of the shooting. Then he told the detective he did visit the apartment but left after no one answered the door, according to the affidavit.

Woman injured in shooting speaks to detective

The 23-year-old woman injured in the shooting told a detective that Hurt was supposed to bring her son over before the shooting. Hurt arrived at the apartment with another man, who waited outside, but he did not have her son with him, she told police.

More Indianapolis crime news:Jodessa Cooper's family 'devastated' after prosecutor declines charges against boyfriend

She stated that several times (Hurt) kept yelling at her boyfriend, the affidavit reads.

Then Lewis and the woman were shot, her injuries so severe she was unable to dial 911. Someone nearby called 911 and told police they heard shots fired inside the apartment, then saw two men leaving the complex in a silver vehicle.

The woman told detectives Lewis did have a firearm but kept it under his arm on the couch and never pointed it.

More:Court records: Confrontation led to exchange of gunfire at Castleton Square Mall

While investigating, detectives learned there was no sign of forced entry into the apartment. Police found several fired shell casings near two different areas of blood on the floor and couch.

Story continues

The injured womans father arrived at the apartment and told investigators his daughter was having an ongoing child custody, visitation and care dispute with Hurt over their son.

The silver car described by the 911 caller and its license plate were captured on multiple cameras in the area, according to the affidavit.

Detectives initially arrested Hurt on unrelated drug charges on the day of the shooting. He was still in custody Tuesday when he was arrested in connection with the shooting, according to police.

An attorney for Hurt was not yet listed in online court records before publication of this story.

Contact Jake Allen at jake.allen@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter @Jake_Allen19.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indianapolis crime: Custody issues led to killing on Mill View Court, IMPD says
BEIJING (Reuters) -China President Xi Jinping and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko called for the "soonest possible" peace deal for Ukraine at talks in Beijing on Wednesday, the Belarusian state news agency Belta reported.

Their summit brought together two of the foreign leaders on whom Russian President Vladimir Putin is most reliant for support as his army struggles to achieve the goals of its year-old invasion.

Belta said they issued a joint statement in which they expressed "deep concern about the development of the armed conflict in the European region and extreme interest in the soonest possible establishment of peace in Ukraine".

"Belarus and China are interested in averting an escalation of the crisis and ready to make efforts to restore regional peace and order," it added in its report on the declaration.

Beijing has become increasingly vocal in calling for peace as the Ukraine conflict drags on, and denied it would provide arms to Moscow after U.S. officials said China was considering doing so.

Last week it issued a 12-point paper calling for a comprehensive ceasefire in Ukraine that largely summarised China's previous stance and was met with scepticism in the West.

In televised comments, Xi said China was keen to strengthen trust and cooperation with Belarus "given the instability and turbulence of the international situation".

PEACE PLAN

Lukashenko said the meeting was taking place "in a very complicated time" and was necessary to prevent "an uncontrolled descent into a global confrontation which has no winners".

He said Xi, in his peace plan, had "clearly, definitively, pointedly declared this to the international community.

"This is why Belarus has been actively putting forward its peace proposals, and comprehensively supports your incentive on international security," he added.

China signed a "no limits" partnership deal with Russia just weeks before its invasion of Ukraine, and has refrained from criticising Moscow over the war.

Story continues

Lukashenko allowed Putin to launch the invasion from Belarusian territory and has let Russia train newly mobilised soldiers at Belarusian bases, while saying he will not enter the war directly unless his country is attacked by Ukraine.

The summit produced a series of agreements to build on an "all-weather" partnership agreed between the two countries last year. They signed a range of cooperation documents in economy and trade, industry, agriculture, science and technology, health, tourism and sport, Xinhua News reported.

The Belarusian economy ministry said one of the agreements was on the planned creation this year of a free trade and investment zone. With a population of just 9.3 million, Belarus has a tiny economy compared with China's but is a major producer of fertiliser.

(Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Alex Richardson)
By Josh Ye

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese regulators have eased some deadline pressure on multinational companies struggling to comply with new rules requiring them to seek approval to export user data, according to lawyers advising clients on the matter.

In theory, global companies operating in China had until Wednesday, March 1 to submit extensive documentation that maps out their users' data flow as well as complete a security review and gain government approval.

But the extensive disclosure required and repeated back-and-forth over issues such as documentation made the target date unattainable for many, the lawyers said.

In practice, companies now need to have only submitted an application containing documents on user data and flow by Wednesday, rather than have completed a whole security review, said Carolyn Bigg, a partner at international law firm DLA Piper.

The rules were introduced in September by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) to strengthen cyber and national security.

They apply to firms with more than a million Chinese citizens as users, those seeking to export "important data", those handling the personal information of more than 100,000 Chinese individuals, and those with the "sensitive" personal data of more than 10,000 people.

The issue affects a wide range of global companies that need to share Chinese user data with overseas offices and how strictly data security is enforced in the future will determine how far businesses may have to go in "localising" their data.

Ling Jin, head of digital and commercial services at Lusheng Law firm, said regulators had made a "compromise" in not strictly enforcing the deadline as they were also under pressure to restore confidence in the economy among multinationals.

"Their attitude has become a lot more practical," she said.

It was not immediately clear if regulators would be setting a new deadline for the whole process to be completed. The CAC did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Story continues

The regulator's Beijing arm said last week that companies including Amazon.com Inc, Samsung Electronics, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Toyota Motor Corp, Volkswagen and Xiaomi have submitted documents for regulatory approval.

But the approval process has been slow, with authorities so far only disclosing approvals for two entities  Beijing Friendship Hospital and Air China.

Jin said companies must receive approval from local as well as national regulators.

In a typical case, she said, to win the nod at the local level, a company needs to prepare a 180-page document mapping out the data flow of its users. Then on the national level, the company needs to justify why certain data must leave China.

"For the regulators, this is also new to them," she said, "They have to learn on the go."

The CAC on Friday also issued separate data security rules that apply to organisations with smaller user bases.

(Reporting by Josh Ye; Editing by Anne Marie Roantree and Edwina Gibbs)
By Liangping Gao and Joe Cash

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's manufacturing activity expanded at the fastest pace in more than a decade in February, an official index showed on Wednesday, smashing expectations as production zoomed after the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions late last year.

The manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) shot up to 52.6 from 50.1 in January, according to China's National Bureau of Statistics, above the 50-point mark that separates expansion and contraction in activity. The PMI far exceeded an analyst forecast of 50.5 and was the highest reading since April 2012.

The world's second-largest economy recorded one of its worst years in nearly half a century in 2022 due to strict COVID lockdowns and subsequent widespread infections. The curbs were abruptly lifted in December as the highly transmissible Omicron spread across the country.

Global markets cheered the big surprise in the PMI with Asian stocks and the Australian dollar reversing earlier losses, the offshore yuan perking up and oil rallying, as investors took a more optimistic view on China's economic prospects.

"The high PMI readings partly reflect the economy's weak starting point coming into this year and are likely to drop back before long as the pace of the recovery slows," said Julian Evans-Pritchard, head of China economics at Capital Economics.

"We had already been expecting a rapid near-term rebound, but the latest data suggest that even our above-consensus forecasts for growth of 5.5% this year may prove too conservative."

Markets expect the annual meeting of parliament, which kicks off this weekend, will set economic targets and elect new top economic officials.

"The decent PMI readings provide a positive note for the upcoming National People's Congress. We expect the government to roll out further supportive policies to cement the economic recovery," said Zhou Hao, economist at Guotai Junan International.

Story continues

The official PMI came out just before an upbeat private sector index from Caixin/S&P that showed activity rising for the first time in seven months.

Businesses accelerated their resumption of work and production, as the effect of economic stabilisation policies was felt by the sector while the impact of COVID-19 receded, the NBS said in a separate statement.

Furniture manufacturing, metal products and electrical machinery equipment saw big improvements, with production and new orders indexes in these industries all above 60.0.

(Graphic: China's factory activity at a decade high, https://www.reuters.com/graphics/CHINA-ECONOMY/PMI/gdpzqmkngvw/chart.png)

MIXED OUTLOOK

New export orders rose for the first time since April 2021, the PMI showed.

At the same time, China's PMI contrasted with more downbeat factory activity readings from other Asian economies for February, showing conditions abroad were sluggish.

More broadly, the outlook remains mixed as the country's major trading partners deal with surging interest rates and cost pressures.

China's manufacturing sector had been under pressure this year with factory-gate prices falling in January, data last month showed, due to still cautious domestic consumption and uncertain foreign demand.

Manufacturing companies have also seen surging purchasing prices in steel and related downstream industries, the NBS said.

The official non-manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) rose to 56.3 from 54.4 in January, indicating the fastest pace of expansion since March 2021.

Construction activity, which is part of the official non-manufacturing PMI, picked up further, standing at 60.2 from 56.4, partly due to the resulting boost to infrastructure spending and increasing financing to help developers complete stalled projects.

Services activity also continued to rise with improvements in the transportation and accommodation sectors.

On Friday, China's central bank said the domestic economy was expected to generally rebound in 2023, although the external environment remained "severe and complex."

The composite PMI, which includes both manufacturing and non-manufacturing activity, rose to 56.4 from 52.9.

(Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Sam Holmes)
The new House China Select Committee previewed its agenda for this Congress in a prime-time evening hearing on Tuesday that revealed early partisan fault lines in the bodys legislative agenda.

The hearing  whose witnesses included former deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger and former national security adviser H.R. McMaster  marked the climax of a full day of intensive congressional scrutiny of China through seven hearings on Tuesday.

In a three-hour event complete with multimedia presentations and hecklers from the activist peace group Code Pink, the committees 24 members heard from witnesses who painted a lurid portrait of an America at acute risk from malign Chinese government activities. Witnesses and committee members raised perennial bilateral tensions ranging from Taiwan, trade and TikTok to supply chain security and human rights.



Pottinger spiced up his testimony with a video of quotes by Chinas paramount leader Xi Jinping that suggested hostile intentions toward the United States. Pottinger accused the Chinese government of waging information warfare on the U.S. and likened it to a series of magicians, calling the Chinese Communist Party the Harry Houdini of Marxist-Leninist regimes; the David Copperfield of Communism; the Criss Angel of autocracy. McMaster echoed that assessment and argued that some of the blame lies with leaders in academic, industry, finance and government whove exercised wishful thinking and self-delusion about Chinas intentions.

But the hearing revealed stark differences in how GOP and Democratic committee members perceive the U.S.-China rivalry and the strategies to approach it.

Committee chair Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) laid out a GOP vision of an external facing existential struggle against Chinas ideological, technological, economic and military threat. Democratic committee members countered with a more domestic-focused approach hinged to bolstering U.S. democracy and backed by government funding for an industrial policy that ranking member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) said could thwart Chinas challenge through investments in technologies of the future, workforce improvement and by fixing weaknesses in our economy.



Story continues

And Democratic members made implicit reference to Rep. Lance Goodens (R-Texas) statement on Fox News on Feb. 22 in which he questioned Rep. Judy Chus (D-Calif) loyalty or competence  a sign of the divides that could undermine the committee. Calling into question the loyalty of Chinese Americans, as a member of Congress recently did, is as dangerous as it is deplorable, said Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.). Neither Chu nor Gooden are members of the committee.

Gallagher and Krishnamoorthi have also rejected Goodens comments. Still, the divisions on display at the hearing suggest they face serious challenges from day one in delivering on their commitment to keep the committees focus on China rather than GOP-Democratic bickering.

Just because this Congress is divided, we cannot afford to waste the next two years lingering in legislative limbo or pandering for the press, Gallagher said in opening remarks. And he warned that a failure by the U.S. to respond decisively to the Chinese governments threat means a world crowded with techno-totalitarian surveillance states where human rights are subordinate to the whims of the Party.

That tone captures the growing congressional concern about China following the discovery and subsequent destruction of a Chinese spy balloon over the continental U.S. in February. Biden administration warnings that the Chinese government is considering providing lethal weaponry to Russia in its war against Ukraine have only fanned those fears. And a Department of Energy report leaked on Sunday that concluded that a laboratory leak in Wuhan, China sparked the Covid pandemic has renewed congressional anger toward Chinas role in a pandemic that has killed more than a million Americans.



Bipartisan antagonism toward the Chinese government led the House Financial Services Committee to approve 10 bills on Tuesday aimed to rein in Beijings economic power. That legislation included measures that would target Chinese manufacturing of synthetic drugs, and commission a Treasury Department report on the global economic risks associated with Chinas financial sector.

But while GOP China committee members focused mainly on well-trod U.S-China hot button issues, including the role of Chinese-sourced precursor chemicals in the U.S. opioid overdose epidemic, concerns about Chinese purchases of agricultural land and the plight of Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang, Democratic members called for domestic policy initiatives to offset challenges from China.

Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif) and Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) called for the U.S. to develop an industrial policy that would fund the development of manufacturers to supplant Chinas dominance of global supply chains in areas including the supply of semiconductors for consumer products. It provides dividends not only to our economy, but to our national security, to invest in R&D and invest in our manufacturing sector, Stevens said.

There were no takers among GOP committee members. The United States should not mimic the Chinese industrial policy and should not copy the Chinese command and control system.  We should not try to counter China by becoming more like China, said Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.)

Democratic members argued, meanwhile, that facing down Chinas authoritarian threat required a concerted effort to bolster what they described as Americas ailing democracy. Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.) described the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection as a propaganda gift to Beijing. That day was Xi Jinpings best day in office, said Auchincloss. I hope the bipartisan spirit of competing with the Chinese Communist Party overseas extends to defending democracy here at home.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report misstated Rep. Jake Auchincloss' party affiliation and misspelled Criss Angel's first name.
This aerial view shows the P4 laboratory in Wuhan which conducts research on the world's most dangerous diseases. HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images

The FBI's director has added his support to claims COVID-19 leaked from a lab in China.

The theory was dismissed by some as disinformation during the initial months of the pandemic.

But it has gained credibility in some quarters, despite angry denials from China.

Once dismissed as a wild conspiracy theory, the claim that COVID-19 leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, is gaining traction.

FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday lent his support to the claim in an interview with Fox News, saying the virus "most likely" originated in a "Chinese government-controlled lab."

"The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident," he said, in the first public confirmation of the FBI's classified judgement on the source of the pandemic.

It came days after the US Energy Department found a lab leak to be the most likely source of the disease although it said it reached that conclusion with a low level of confidence. In response, Beijing accused Washington of "political manipulation".

China has pushed another theory, suggesting the COVID-19 may have jumped to humans from frozen food shipped from elsewhere in the world.

So how has the claim that coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab found its way into the mainstream?

Lab leak theory initially dismissed

The suspicion that COVID-19 may have leaked from a Wuhan lab has circulated since the earliest days of the pandemic.

The theories focus on the fact that the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where research into coronaviruses has long been conducted, is located a short distance from the market from which the first cases were linked.

Former President Donald Trump and Dr Anthony Fauci, considered to be a world-leading infectious disease expert. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

When former President Donald Trump began promoting the theory in April, 2020, it became the subject of fierce partisan debate in the US, with some dismissing it as a conspiracy. Trump sought to use the pandemic to discredit China, using the xenophobic term "China virus" to describe the disease.

Story continues

Anthony Fauci, the US government's top expert on infectious diseases, said in 2020 that he believed the virus had originated in nature, but more recently he's expressed doubt we'll ever know the source of the virus.

China's lack of transparency fuels rumors

China has since the earliest days of the pandemic resisted a full and transparent investigation into its origins, fuelling rumors and speculation.

Beijing has strongly pushed back against the claim the virus could've originated in a lab, describing the hypothesis as having no scientific basis.

China has pushed its own conspiracy theories about the source of the virus, claiming it could have originated in US labs, a claim for which it's offered no evidence.

Firefighters prepare to conduct disinfection at the Wuhan Tianhe International Airport on April 3, 2020 in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. Getty Images

When Australia pushed for international inspectors to allow access to China in 2020 to investigate COVID-19's origins, Beijing responded with sweeping economic sanctions.

However, China did allow World Health Organization (WHO) investigators into the country as part of a joint probe. The March 2021 WHO report found that it most likely originated in nature, and described the lab leak theory as "extremely unlikely," but added that China had not been fully cooperative. A group of scientists criticised the WHO for dismissing the lab leak thesis too hastily, and pointed to gaps in the report's evidence.

China has rejected calls for a follow-up investigation, and has pointed to a report by one of its leading virologists who found several coronavirus strains which could make the leap to humans in bat caves near Wuhan in 2015.

Yet the lab leak theory has continued to gain credibility, despite China's efforts, and scientists who once dismissed it now think it's a credible explanation.

We may never know the truth

In May 2021, US media reported that intelligence agencies had found that several employees of the Wuhan lab had been admitted to hospital in November 2019, weeks before the first recorded cases of COVID-19. Shortly after, President Joe Biden ordered intelligence agencies to renew their efforts to discover the origins of the virus.

But for now, the prospect of researchers being allowed to conduct a new on-the-ground study in China appear remote, and a conclusive answer to the mystery seems no closer.

The Chinese foreign ministry on Tuesday rejected the US ambassadors call for more transparency from China on COVID-19's origins. Mao Ning called on US investigators to "stop smearing China and stop politicizing origins-tracing."

Read the original article on Business Insider
An illustration of the Tiangong Space Station.

Construction of the Tiangong Space Station was only completed late last year, but China already has big plans to expand on its low Earth orbit project.

During an exhibition at the National Museum of China, the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO) revealed plans to launch a new module to add to the Tiangong Space Station, Chinese state media reported on Tuesday. The expansion module will attach to the three modules already in low Earth orbit, turning the T-shaped space station into a cross.

Read more

The plan is for the multi-functional module to have six docking ports, allowing more spacecraft to dock with the space station. China had previously announced that it would allow space tourists to travel to Tiangong, so the extra ports will come in handy.

In October, China launched the third module of Tiangong, completing the T-shaped structure of its three-module space station in low Earth orbit. The first module of the space station, Tianhe, launched to orbit in April 2021, while Wentian followed more than a year later in July 2022. As it stands now, Tiangong is about a quarter of the size of the International Space Station.

CMSEO officials also revealed plans to begin hosting international astronauts on Tiangong, according to SpaceNews. We are about to start selecting international astronauts to send to our space station and carry out scientific experiments together, Chen Shanguang, a deputy chief designer of Chinas human spaceflight program, is quoted as telling reporters in China.

Seeing as how Tiangong is Chinas answer to the ISS, launching astronauts from different countries to the space station is part of the plan to establish it as an international hub in low Earth orbit. The European Space Agency had planned to send some of its astronauts to Tiangong, but later announced that it didnt have the budget or the political green light to do so.

Story continues

In November 2022, China launched three of its astronauts to Tiangong as part of the Shenzhou-15 crew. The three-person crew performed the first handover on board the space station, taking over duties from the Shenzhou-14 crew who had arrived at the space station in June.

Shenzhou-15 is set to spend about six months on board the space station, preparing it for operations. Its not clear when China plans on sending its expansion module to Tiangong, but the countrys national space program has made a lot of headway in its plans to establish the space stations presence in low Earth orbit.



More: NASA Lacks Plan for Ditching Space Station in an Emergency

More from Gizmodo

Sign up for Gizmodo's Newsletter. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.
By Laurie Chen and Kevin Yao

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's annual parliament opens on Sunday and will implement the biggest government reshuffle in a decade as Xi Jinping tightens control while contending with a host of challenges, from an uneven post-COVID economic recovery to cratering U.S. relations.

Nearly 3,000 delegates will gather in the Great Hall of the People west of Tiananmen Square for the first National People's Congress (NPC) of the post-zero-COVID era, although some precautions remain including testing and quarantine for journalists.

The rubber-stamp NPC will confirm Xi's new economic team after China's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong cemented a norm-breaking third term and stacked the top of the ruling Communist Party with allies during its twice-a-decade congress in October.

It will also discuss Xi's plans for an "intensive" and "wide-ranging" re-organisation of state and Communist Party entities, state media reported on Tuesday, after a three-day meeting of the party's central committee.

"It will likely entail more incorporation of State Council ministries into the party under the name of the partys comprehensive leadership," said Wen-Ti Sung, a political scientist at the Australian National University, with public health and national security likely to be areas of focus.

The government is likely to set a 2023 economic growth target of between 5% and 6% to keep a lid on unemployment, policy sources and analysts have said, with measures aimed at boosting consumption and foreign investment, among other efforts, but little expected in the way of landmark reforms.

China's economy grew just 3% last year, one of its worst showings in nearly half a century.

Loyalist Li Qiang, previously Shanghai party chief, is poised to become premier, charged with managing the world's second-largest economy, with investors cautiously hoping his ties with Xi will enable him to usher in more business-friendly policies after an increasingly statist turn.

Story continues

The NPC will install new faces at the top of main economic and regulatory bodies including the central bank, replacing a generation of leaders seen as more reform-oriented, such as retiring Premier Li Keqiang and economic czar Liu He, a vice premier.

"The National People's Congress will be a continuation of the 20th Party Congress and will firmly implement Party decisions taken then, including a focus on security," said Alfred Wu, associate professor at the National University of Singapore's Lee Kwan Yew School of Public Policy.

The NPC takes place at a challenging time for China and Xi, who abruptly dropped his COVID policy in December after three years, following widespread protests unprecedented during his tenure.

It comes against the backdrop of a demographic turn that saw the population shrink for the first time since 1961, while urban employment fell last year for the first time in six decades, and per capita spending also declined.

Worsening relations with the United States, which is squeezing China's access to cutting-edge technologies, and a sluggish global economy add to headwinds for Xi, who will be confirmed in a third term as president after doing away with constitutional term limits in 2018.

ROCKY BEGINNING?

The 63-year-old Li Qiang, a veteran of provincial-level posts whose prospects were undiminished by his handling of last year's crippling two-month Shanghai COVID lockdown, will be the first premier of the People's Republic never to have served in the central government.

"The beginning of his tenure could be a bit rocky as he tries to find his place in the State Council and really understand how to make it work for him," said Trey McArver, co-founder of Trivium China, a research group.

Ding Xuexiang, a former Xi aide set to become the top vice-premier, also lacks central-level management experience.

The congress, which typically lasts between one and two weeks, will begin with the outgoing Li delivering a 2023 work report, which is expected to focus on stimulating an economy damaged by three years of COVID curbs and a property sector downturn.

"We will strive to spur growth and have policy tools to do that, mainly by channelling money into big projects," Xu Hongcai, deputy director of the economic policy commission at the state-backed China Association of Policy Science, told Reuters.

(Reporting by Laurie Chen and Kevin Yao; Editing by Tony Munroe)
Zhang Bin, the Chinese billionaire and political adviser to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), who made a $1 million donation to the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, wanted to build a joint monument featuring the dictator Mao Zedong and the former Canadian prime minister at the University of Montreal.

Approximately $50,000 was originally earmarked for a statue commemorating the elder Trudeau that was intended to be built in front of the colleges law school. However, Zhang reportedly proposed an alteration. They [Zhang] suggested one of Trudeau and Mao together, Genevieve OMeara, a spokeswoman representing the University of Montreal confirmed for the Globe & Mail on Tuesday.

Zhang made the contribution following the 2015 Canadian federal election which brought Justin Trudeau to power and attended a later fundraiser in Toronto which the prime minister was at.

Chairman Mao Zedong, also known as the Great Helmsman, was the founder of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) and presided over the country from 1943 until his death in 1976. Mao imposed crippling policies on the largely agrarian country known as the Great Leap Forward in a bid to rapidly modernize.

Mao thought that he could catapult his country past its competitors by herding villagers across the country into giant peoples communes. In pursuit of a utopian paradise, everything was collectivised. People had their work, homes, land, belongings and livelihoods taken from them, the historian Frank Dikotter explained in an article in History Today.

However, the Great Leap Forward devastated the newly independent country and claimed the lives of millions of people.

What comes out of this massive and detailed dossier is a tale of horror in which Mao emerges as one of the greatest mass murderers in history, responsible for the deaths of at least 45 million people between 1958 and 1962, Dikotter notes.

Reporting in recent weeks by the Globe & Mail as well as Global News have revealed that China engaged in a sophisticated election meddling campaign in Canada ahead of the 2021 federal election which saw Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party hold onto power.

Story continues

Sources from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), the countrys equivalent to the CIA, shared with journalists information that Chinese diplomats made undeclared donations during Canadian political campaigns and recruited local business owners to hire international students for campaigning purposes reported last week.

The primary objective of the CCP was to deprive the Conservative Party of victory, which it viewed as taking a tougher stance on issues such as the sovereignty of Taiwan or human rights in Hong Kong, compared with the incumbent Liberals.

Most important, the intelligence reports show that Beijing was determined that the Conservatives did not win. China employed disinformation campaigns and proxies connected to Chinese-Canadian organizations in Vancouver and the GTA [Greater Toronto Area], which have large mainland Chinese immigrant communities, to voice opposition to the Conservatives and favour the Trudeau Liberals, journalists Robert Fife and Steven Chase wrote.

Part of the election interference effort included the dissemination of anti-Conservative political messages through local Chinese-language media including statements such as: The Liberal Party of Canada is becoming the only party that the PRC can support.

Prime Minister Trudeau has sought to dismiss calls for a public inquiry into the matter by denouncing critics as needlessly politicizing the matter. Its not about one party versus another, Trudeau said earlier this week.

Trudeaus associates also sought to parallel recent American debates over election integrity. This is the same Trump-type tactics to question election results moving forward, Jennifer OConnell, the parliamentary secretary to the minister of intergovernmental affairs, stated.

More from National Review
A state-backed Chinese news outlet is calling out Elon Musk for appearing to endorse the lab leak theory of the origin of the coronavirus.

On Monday, an editorial from the Global Times accused the Tesla owner of breaking the pot of China, using a Chinese idiom akin to biting the hand that feeds, NBC reported. Teslas largest factory is in Shanghai, and one of its biggest markets is China.

Relevant sides should stop hyping up the lab leak theory and stop smearing China and politicizing the origin tracing issue," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told the outlet.

The following day, Global Times published comments on its official WeChat page, arguing, ridiculously, anti-China forces in the United States are again hyping the rumors that the coronavirus originated from a lab leak in Wuhan.

On Sunday, Mr Musk responded to a video edit from a Twitter user insinuating the US funded viral research in China which produced a lab leak. Mr Musk wrote that Dr Anthony Fauci did it via a pass-through organization.

Federal health officials have denied funding viral research in Wuhan tied to any lab leak.

The account that Mr Musk was responding to has been flagged by the Anti-Defamation League for posting false claims about Covid and the 2020 election.

Discussion about the lab leak theory of Covid has heated back up in recent days, after the Wall Street Journal reported that the Department of Energy concluded in a classified document that a leak was the likely origin of Covid, though it noted its conclusion was backed with low confidence.

Other agencies, like the FBI, have reached similar conclusions, while some, like the CIA, remain undecided.

DOE told the paper it continues to support the thorough, careful, and objective work of our intelligence professionals in investigating the origins of COVID-19, as the President directed, but did not confirm the report.

President Biden specifically requested that the national labs, which are part of the Energy Department, be brought into this assessment because he wants to put every tool at use to be able to figure out what happened here, national security advisor Jake Sullivan told the Journal.
[Source]

Chinese superstar actor Fan Bingbing, who disappeared from public view and social media in July 2018 after it was rumored that she had fled China, recently attended Berlin International Film Festival to promote her new movie Green Night.

Months after her hiatus, it was revealed that Fan was fined for tax evasion and ordered to pay about 880 million yuan (approximately $128.1 million) in fines.

Soon after, she issued a statement apologizing for her actions on Weibo, saying that there would be no Fan Bingbing "Without the great policies of the [Communist] Party and the state."

In a candid interview with the South China Morning Post, the 41-year-old actor spoke about the challenges of returning to acting after a long break.

More from NextShark: Olympic swimmer Erica Sullivan donates to LGBTQ cause, Camila Cabello 'honored' to be a part of her 'gay awakening'

I was at home, I was dealing with some things. But, you know, everybodys life has highs and lows. And when you reach a low, you steadily, gradually climb back up again. And its a tough process. But you learn a lot of new things at the same time, and you learn a lot about the world, a lot about people. And for me, it was a very good experience in retrospect  and everythings fine with me now.

Fan, who played the superhero Blink in the blockbuster X-Men: Days of Future Past, also discussed the difference between shooting in Hollywood and China.

Hollywood is so developed and they really know every single minute what theyre going to do on set and what you have to be doing. And [theyre] very on track and on top of things. It was different from shooting in China, but I was able to learn a lot from that experience. More from NextShark: Naomi Osaka is Now a Sci-Fi Manga Heroine

Talking about the importance of staying grounded, Fan noted, For me, I really feel its important to maintain this sort of life because then you can see the details of real people, in real life, and then I can bring those emotions and experiences into acting.

Story continues

She added that she considers her new return to acting a restart," revealing that she plans to "stick at it" as it is "something that Ill probably be doing for my whole life."

Last year, Fan appeared in the South Korean series Insider," on the television network JTBC.

More from NextShark: Fresh Off the Boat Star Hudson Yang Accepted to Harvard

In her new film, Fan plays Jin Xia, a Chinese immigrant in South Korea who works as an airport security official while living with an abusive Korean husband.

Her encounter with a Korean drug mule (played by actor Lee Joo-young) sends her and the mysterious green-haired stranger on a wild run for freedom across Seoul.

"Thanks to my friends from all over the world," she told journalists before the movie's premiere on Feb. 23. "Everyone's life has its ups and downs. It can be very difficult and hard work at times, but you actually learn a lot of things in the process. Everything is fine now."

More from NextShark: Mortal Kombat Star Lewis Tan Lands Lead Role in Series Adaptation of Quantum Spy

Green Night director Han Shuai, who last joined the festival in 2020 with her film Summer Blur, heaped praise for the actor, highlighting how shes very straightforward and frank rather than a star-star.

"Green Night," which is Han's second feature, premiered in the Berlin film festivals Panorama section on Feb. 23.

Watch the trailer for "Green Night" below.
[Source]

The Global Times, a daily tabloid newspaper run by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), warned Tesla CEO Elon Musk for pushing the COVID-19 lab leak theory.

On Feb. 27, Musk responded to a tweet that questioned whether Anthony S. Fauci, the former chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, funded the creation of the coronavirus, which refers to the conspiracy theory that the virus originated in a Chinese government-controlled lab.

He did it via a pass-through organization (EcoHealth), Musk wrote in a tweet.

The Global Times, which was designated as a foreign mission by the Trump administration in 2020, called out Musk in a post and said that his tweets and retweets are being used to frame China.

More from NextShark: Thai sister bows down to brother who withdrew from school for her to graduate

According to reporter Eunice Yoon of CNBC, the Global Times social media post asked if Musk is breaking the pot of China, which has a meaning similar to asking if he was biting the hand that feeds him.

China is Teslas second-largest market and is home to one of the electric vehicle manufacturers gigafactories. China is also a source of materials that are key to making electric cars.

The Wall Street Journal first reported of a classified Energy Department assessment concluding with low confidence that the COVID-19 pandemic began in a Wuhan laboratory.

More from NextShark: Indian medical student refused to flee war-torn Ukraine without her Siberian husky puppy

Following the news, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson called for the U.S. government to stop defaming China and politicizing the process of tracing the origins of the virus.
TikTok food influencers Keith Lee, at left, and Alexis Frost, created their own Chipotle food hacks and now the restaurant chain is adding limited time menu items in their honor.

Chipotle Mexican Grill is expanding its quesadilla options  thanks to a pair of TikTok food influencers.

Starting Thursday, customers can order five new quesadillas using the Chipotle app or Chipotle.com website  and for the first time get fajita veggies plus your choice of protein (steak, chicken, barbacoa, carnitas or sofritas plant-based protein) stuffed within.

Previously, you could order a Fajita Veggies Quesadilla (peppers, onions and cheese) or, for instance, a Steak Quesadilla (steak and cheese) but not have it all  protein, veggies and cheese on your quesadilla.

Chipotle lovers can thank a pair of TikTok influencers with the new menu additions. In December, TikTok foodie creator Alexis Frost posted a video in her "Eating What Employees Would Order" series featuring a Chipotle quesadilla with steak and fajita veggies, and declared it a perfect "10" food hack to her 2.4 million followers.

Then, another TikTok food critic Keith Lee, who has more than 10.7 million followers, created his own video taste testing the steak quesadilla after seeing Frost's video and added his own food hack: combining Chipotle's honey vinaigrette dressing and sour cream to make a dip for the dish and deeming it worthy of a "10," also.

Their videos went viral and customers rushed to to their local Chipotle and placing the special orders. Chipotle decided to add the menu items but needed time to train more than 100,000 employees at about 3,200 locations to add the items.

In the meantime, they let Frost and Lee announce the plan in a new video on January 6. "It's worth the wait," Lee said.

New Coke: Coca-Cola launches Move, a new limited-edition flavor in tandem with Rosalia

Menu downsizing: KFC is trimming its menus, dropping fried chicken wings, popcorn chicken combo and more

New quesadillas, including 'Fajita Quesadilla Hack' and 'Keithadilla'

Chipotle's five new Fajita Quesadillas are available via the chain's app or website:

Story continues

Steak Quesadilla with Fajita Veggies

Chicken Quesadilla with Fajita Veggies

Barbacoa Quesadilla with Fajita Veggies

Carnitas Quesadilla with Fajita Veggies

Sofritas Quesadilla with Fajita Veggies

The quesadillas each come with three sides, and the restaurant's Chipotle-Honey Vinaigrette will be available as a side in the app or online starting Thursday.

Additionally, both Frost and Lee will have orders named after them on the menu for a limited time:

Frost's "Fajita Quesadilla Hack" comes with steak, cheese and fajita vegetables inside and, on the side: roasted chili-corn salsa, tomatillo red-chili salsa and sour cream (each Fajita Quesadilla comes with three sides).

The "Keithadilla" also comes with steak, cheese and fajita vegetables; on the side: Chipotle-honey vinaigrette, roasted chili-corn salsa, and sour cream.

Chipotle customers can order quesadillas with veggies, cheese and protein such as chicken, for the first time March 2 on Chipotle's app or website. All thanks to some TikTok food influencers.

I never could have imagined that Id have my own menu item at Chipotle, Lee said in a statement. Im blessed to be able to work with Alexis and Chipotle to answer the call from the TikTok community.

TikTok 'changed the way we communicate with Gen-Z'

Chipotle used the launch of the new Fajita Quesadilla to recognize the power of the TikTok foodies and "our superfans who were craving this delicious customization while prioritizing support for our employees," said chief marketing officer Chris Brandt in a statement.

The Fajita Quesadilla was "one of my favorite reviews I've done on TikTok," Frost said. "Collabing with Chipotle and Keith for this launch is a dream, and I'm so excited to play a part in making the Fajita Quesadilla an official menu item."

Added Chipotle's Brandt: TikTok has not only changed the way we communicate with Gen-Z, but its proven it can identify areas of opportunity within our business.

Farmesa, Chipotle's new spinoff

Chipotle also has begun testing a new "fresh eatery concept" spinoff restaurant, Farmesa, in California, serving customizable food bowls with salmon and other protein options.

Follow Mike Snider on Twitter: @mikesnider.

What's everyone talking about?: Sign up for our trending newsletter to get the latest news

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Chipotle menu adds new quesadillas with fajitas, plus 'Keithadilla'
Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has said that he thinks former President Donald Trump will be indicted in connection to at least one of the numerous investigations hes the subject of, as the former president campaigns for the 2024 GOP nomination.

Mr Christie, who ran against Mr Trump and more than a dozen others in the 2016 Republican primary, spoke to conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Wednesday, saying that he believes Mr Trumps attorneys wouldnt be able to reject the case of the grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, even after the jury foreperson made a series of media appearances, prompting criticism towards some of her conduct.

But Mr Christie, who ran Mr Trumps transition team and was considered for vice president before being dumped by the real estate mogul, said that I still have a hard time believing that Mr Trump would be indicted for trying to pressure Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, into overturning the 2020 election results in the state, which President Joe Biden won as the first Democrat to do so since Bill Clinton in 1992.

This is a very difficult case to make off the phone call, Mr Christie said of the phone conversation between Mr Raffensperger and Mr Trump. Now I dont know what their other evidence is. Thats supposed to be the beauty of the grand jury system. And it is so far in this case that you dont know what all the specific other evidence may be. But based upon what I know publicly, I think its a tough case to bring against the former president based upon the information we now know.

Mr Christie added that Mr Trump appears to be legally vulnerable in connection to the lead-up to the January 6, 2021 insurrection and obstruction of Congress.

The former governor added that he doesnt think Mr Trump nor Mr Biden would be indicted after classified documents were found at their respective homes.

Mr Christie said the most likely place where a Trump indictment would happen would be New York state, where he faces investigations from the state attorney general and the US attorney of the Southern District of New York.

Story continues

He added that Mr Trumps campaign for president was likely to worsen his situation.

I think the most likely place it will happen is New York. And I think its the least harmful matter to him, he told Mr Hewitt. If in fact, all theyre looking at is the Stormy Daniels payments, I think that (New York Attorney General) Letitia James has made it clear that shes a political prosecutor, and that what she wants to do, and that she promised during the campaign, that she was going to go get Donald Trump. And I think she probably will. But I dont think that would do much harm to him.

Special Counsel Jack Smith was appointed by US Attorney General Merrick Garland in November of last year to oversee two Department of Justice investigations into Mr Trump.

I think in terms of the likelihood of indictment, Id put New York first, the special counsel second, Georgia third. But in terms of the seriousness of the peril for the president, Id put the special counsel above either of those, Mr Christie said.

So in brief, do you expect an indictment by July? the host asked the ex-governor.

I expect that New York probably would act. I dont know whether the special counsel will act by that time, but my guess is that New York would act by that time, he said.

Can someone run for office and do debates and give interviews when theyre under indictment and not make their situation worse? Mr Hewitt asked.

No, I think its impossible for them not to make the situation worse, although what I would say to you, Hugh, is that given the limited nature of the New York case, I dont know that hes going to be getting a whole lot of questions about the Stormy Daniels situation anyway, Mr Christie said.

I think it seems to me a pretty cut-and-dry situation. And I dont know that hed make his situation markedly worse, he added. But every time you open your mouth, as you know in this kind of situation, you run the real risk of it adding complications to a case where you could lose your liberty. And thats why defence lawyers always rightfully tell their clients to keep quiet because you dont need to make that situation more complicated because your liberty is at stake.
As he gears up for his return to the big screen, Chris Pine is opening up about the alleged off-screen drama that engulfed the release of his last movie, Dont Worry Darling.

Speaking to Esquire in an interview published Wednesday, the actor finally set the record straight regarding the viral video that appeared to show his Dont Worry co-star Harry Styles spitting on Pines lap at the movies Venice Film Festival premiere last September.

It does look, indeed, like Harry spitting on me, Pine said. He didnt spit on me.

A representative for Pine previously dismissed allegations that Styles sent some saliva Pines way, calling the claim a complete fabrication and the result of an odd online illusion that is clearly deceiving and allows for foolish speculation.

From left, Olivia Wilde, Chris Pine, Harry Styles, Gemma Chan and Florence Pugh at the 2022 Venice Film Festival premiere of

From left, Olivia Wilde, Chris Pine, Harry Styles, Gemma Chan and Florence Pugh at the 2022 Venice Film Festival premiere of "Don't Worry Darling."

In his chat with Esquire, Pine clarified the moment even further, noting that the two men were merely sharing an inside joke that had been honed over the course of the movies grueling press tour.

I think he said, Its just words, isnt it? Pine recalled. Because we had this little joke, because were all jetlagged, were all trying to answer these questions, and sometimes when youre doing these press things, your brain goes all befuddled, you know, you start speaking gibberish, and we had a joke like, Its just words, man.

The incident, dubbed Spitgate by the internet, was just one flare-up in a veritable media inferno that surrounded the release of Dont Worry Darling. The rollout for the film got off to a rocky start in April 2022, when a representative for actor Jason Sudeikis, the former partner of Dont Worry director Olivia Wilde, served her custody papers pertaining to the former couples two children as she was about to deliver a presentation on the movie at CinemaCon.

Story continues

Other areas of intrigue included conflicting reports about actor Shia LaBeoufs exit from the film, as well as Wildes subsequent romance with Styles, who replaced LaBeouf.

And despite numerous on-the-record denials, Wilde was never able to fully quash rumors that she and actor Florence Pugh feuded on set.

Pine returns to the big screen this month in

Pine returns to the big screen this month in "Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves."

Pine, for his part, insists he was mostly oblivious to any behind-the-scenes turmoil. He did, however, find humor in the memes created with photos of him looking less than enthused during an Italian press conference  which he once again attributed to jet lag.

If there was drama, there was drama, he told Esquire. I absolutely didnt know about it, nor really would I have cared. If I feel badly, its because the vitriol that the movie got was absolutely out of proportion with what was onscreen. Venice was normal things getting swept up in a narrative that people wanted to make, compounded by the metastasizing that can happen in the Twittersphere. It was ridiculous.

Pines next film is the action-fantasy Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, due in theaters later this month. Hes set to make his directorial debut with Poolman, a forthcoming mystery starring Danny DeVito and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Related...
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said on Wednesday that the foreperson of the Georgia special grand jury investigating former President Trumps efforts to overturn the states 2020 election results did a lot of damage with her recent comments to the media.

I think she did a lot of damage to the case, Christie said in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, but added that she didnt violate the law.

Shes under, as you know, no legal obligation not to talk. But we, when I was U.S. attorney [for New Jersey], we used to tell every grand juror, you know, You put in all this work to help us conduct this investigation, please dont talk about it publicly until we take some action, because you put us at risk,' he continued.

Emily Kohrs, the forewoman of the Fulton County grand jury, discussed the groups final report with several media outlets last week, suggesting that its anticipated charging recommendations would not come as a surprise.

But unlike a standard grand jury, the special grand jury in Georgia cannot issue an indictment, only recommendations. If Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis wants to pursue an indictment, she will have to bring the case before a standard grand jury.

I will tell you that if the judge releases the recommendations, it is not going to be some giant plot twist, Kohrs said. You probably have a fair idea of what may be on there. Im trying very hard to say that delicately.

Christie said on Wednesday that Kohrss comments create a real challenge for prosecutors if they decide to bring charges against Trump or his allies.

Theyll grab everything thats a weakness and attach it to the lack of credibility of the grand jury itself, even though all of the other people of the grand jury may be incredibly serious folks who have not spoken publicly, he said.

I guarantee you theyll subpoena [Kohrs] and put her on the stand, Christie added. And whatever her foibles are in addition to what weve already seen, theyll be on full display in a courtroom.

Story continues

Trumps lawyers already appear to be taking such an approach. Drew Findling and Jennifer Little, two of the former presidents defense attorneys, called the special grand jury clown-like in an interview with The Atlanta-Journal Constitution last week.

This type of carnival, clown-like atmosphere that was portrayed over the course of the last 36 hours takes away from the complete sanctity and the integrity and, for that matter, the reliability, Findling said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Cindy McCain is set to take over as head of the United Nations World Food Program, putting the longtime political spouse at the top of the globes largest humanitarian group and on the frontlines of a growing global food crisis.

The United Nations will announce McCains appointment Thursday, according to two people familiar with the matter. The move caps a sharp rise in the global food policy realm for McCain, a close political ally of President Joe Biden and the wife of the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz).

The WFP position is apolitical and the U.N. takes great pains to keep it that way. But McCains experience campaigning for her husband and relationships with U.S. politicians will be critical as she seeks to marshal resources for a record-high 349 million people suffering acute food insecurity globally, amid a geopolitical firestorm over the war in Ukraine, concerns about China hoarding global food supplies and, most importantly, calls for a pullback in funding support from members of her own party in the U.S. Congress.

The media outlet Devex first reported McCain was set to be tapped for the role.

While McCain has participated in decades of humanitarian work, her appointment last year as U.S. ambassador to three U.N. food and agriculture agencies marked her first formal role in food policy. In that post, which is based in Rome, she has been part of a small cadre of U.S. diplomats working to limit the damage from Russias war in Ukraine, which has sent global food prices sky-rocketing and threatened to destabilize dozens of fragile countries already on the brink of widespread hunger. McCain described her initial months in the job as a baptism by fire, in an interview with POLITICO last year .

McCain said in an interview with POLITICO last month that she saw room for improvement from the Middle East in contributing to global food aid amid the fast-moving crisis. Asked about Chinas role in global food security and U.S. criticism of Beijing for not doing more, McCain urged the Chinese government to be engaged. But she added, Theres always strings attached with China.

Story continues

McCain will replace David Beasley, the World Food Programs current executive director and the former Republican governor of South Carolina. People close to Beasley say he would likely consider pursuing a Senate bid in his home state, should Sen. Tim Scott (R) run for president in 2024 or Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) retire in the next few years.

McCain met Wednesday with Beasley and top United Nations food program officials, including Qu Dongyu, the director general of the UNs Food and Agriculture Organization.

A person close to McCain had described the prospect of leading the World Food Program as a role of a lifetime for her.
The coast of Southern California has become a nursery hot spot for juvenile great white sharks. Reinhard Dirscherl/ullstein bild/Getty Images

Great white shark numbers are increasing off the coast of Southern California's beaches.

They are frequently spotted near surfers and swimmers, but there hasn't been an increase in attacks.

Researchers say the sharks may be returning as a result of successful conservation efforts.

The coast of Southern California is well known for its popular beaches, which are visited by millions of people each year and where swimmers and surfers  and now shark nurseries  abound.

The area in recent years has become a hot spot for great white sharks, which can frequently be captured with drones gliding along below the surface just 50 feet from shore, sometimes as many as 40 at a time.

Researchers with the Cal State Long Beach Shark Lab, led by Chris Lowe, have been monitoring the sharks, which are predominantly juvenile, and their new gathering spots.

"The first time I saw white shark near a beach, a baby white shark near a beach, I just couldn't believe it," Lowe told local outlet KABC, adding: "Then it went from one to five, and to 20 and to 40, and when you see all the sharks in one area, and you go, 'Those are white sharks at one of the most busiest beaches in the world. You're like, 'How did this happen?'"

Most of the juvenile sharks, aged around three or four years old, are 6 to 8 feet long. Adult white sharks can reach 12-20 feet, but they rarely come close to the shoreline. Instead, the gathering spots along the coast serve as white shark nurseries, where the juveniles stay temporarily before moving on to other places.

The shark lab is studying the behavior of the sharks, as well as how their behavior changes in the presence of people. The lab has frequently documented drone footage of the white sharks, swimming by a group of surfers or just off the shore where sunbathers, swimmers, and boogie boarders are present.

They are also studying what makes a good hot spot for the sharks and how long they typically stay.

As with people, the SoCal shoreline is highly appealing to juvenile sharks. The coast provides warmer waters, food sources like stingrays, fish, and squid, and safety from predators that are unlikely to travel into the shallower waters, including larger sharks or orcas.

Story continues

A great white shark swims near the beach in Monterey Bay, California. Chase Dekker Wild-Life Images/Getty Images

Successful conservation efforts

Marissa Wu, the aquarium programs and operations director for the Roundhouse Aquarium, said the return of the sharks correlated with conservation efforts. The Roundhouse Aquarium, located on the Manhattan Beach pier, focuses on native species in the local Southern California waters, including sharks.

"There has been shark overfishing," Wu said, adding that there have been concerted efforts to enforce laws related to fishing practices. "Because those have been more regulated recently to help conserve populations of sharks in our local waters, we're starting to see that benefit. We're starting to see the populations come back, and those sharks are starting to appear more and more off our shores."

California banned actively targeting white sharks in 1994, as well as certain fishing nets that often entrapped the sharks. Populations of the sharks' preferred food sources, including marine mammals like whales, seals, and sea lions, have also rebounded, providing an additional boon to white sharks.

Wu said the sharks are incredibly important to the local ecosystem. They help maintain fish and stingray populations, as well as other shark and even marine mammal populations. Stingrays in particular are important to manage, as a beachgoer in Southern California is much more likely to be stung by one than to be attacked by a shark.

And despite the increase in white sharks, there has not been an increase in shark attacks in California

California remains low in terms of the number of shark attacks, especially compared to Florida. The discrepancy may be due to Florida's warmer water, and thus more swimmers, as well as the types of sharks that are present, such as bull sharks, which are more aggressive than white sharks.

Still, getting attacked by a shark is extremely rare, anywhere.

There were 57 unprovoked shark attacks on humans worldwide in 2022, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History's International Shark Attack File. The US leads the world in shark attacks, with 41 recorded last year, one of which was fatal. There were 16 attacks in Florida, making up 39% of the US total, while California had four.

Researchers at the shark lab and Wu have emphasized that sharks and humans can coexist. Most of the time when a juvenile white shark encounters a person off the California coast, it may check out the swimmer or surfer but just swim right on by.

"We can exist with these creatures just fine. We're aware of them, they're aware of us, and we all get home safely," Wu said.

Warning signs for shark sightings remain in Long Beach, California, on May 16, 2017, where Great White sharks and their pups have been sighted regularly off southern California beaches. Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images

Staying safe at the beach

There are a few things to keep in mind to stay extra safe if you're concerned about sharks when at the beach. Be aware of your surroundings and pay attention to any signs posted by lifeguards, which will often say if a shark has recently been spotted in the water. Sharks tend to avoid busy beaches, so it's generally safer to swim at crowded beaches or in groups.

If you do spot a shark in the water, keep your eyes on it. "That lets them know you see them, and they're less likely to interpret you as prey," Wu said. Most of the time, the shark is checking you out and will likely just move on along. But it's important to keep watching it and look out for aggressive behavior, such as if it starts moving rapidly toward or away from you. While watching the shark, you should swim calmly back to the beach.

If a shark does bite you, you should hit it in the eye or nose, or stick your hand in its gills. In most cases, the shark will release and not come back. Then you can call for help and return to the beach as quickly as possible.

Researchers emphasized it is still safe to swim along the Southern California coast, which sharks have historically inhabited longer than us.

"They've been here for longer than we have," Wu said. "It's just learning to exist in this shared home with them, safely."

Read the original article on Business Insider
Classes at Cocoa High School will resume Thursday after they had to be canceled on Wednesday, Brevard Public Schools announced.

District officials said that a power outage was to blame for the schools closure, but as of Wednesday afternoon power had been restored.

According to BPS, a power transformer near Cocoa High School failed Tuesday night and despite Florida Power and Light crews working overnight on repairs, the high school was still in the dark as of Wednesday morning.

READ: TRAFFIC ALERT: Truck hauling oil overturns, shuts down part of I-95 in Brevard County

The district added that SAT testing set for March 1 at Cocoa HS has been rescheduled for March 22.

Officials said they notified CHS students and parents of the closure directly and advised them to monitor the districts Facebook and Twitter accounts for updates.

WATCH: Volusia sheriff interrupts radio interview to assist in high-speed pursuit on I-95

School officials said classes the rest of the week are anticipated to be held as normal.

SCHOOL IS CANCELED TODAY AT COCOA HIGH SCHOOL.



A power transformer near Cocoa High failed last night. Florida Power and Light worked through the night in an attempt to restore power but as of this morning the power is still out at the school.

Updates will be posted here.  Brevard Schools (@BrevardSchools) March 1, 2023

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.
Orlando Exteriors And Landmarks - 2022 - Credit: AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images

Walt Disney World was given a dystopian makeover on Tuesdays episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The satirical news follows the very real law signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that wrests control of the resorts self-governing district.

In the clip, fireworks soar above Cinderella Castle as a voiceover declares: We here at Disney Parks have received our marching orders and are thrilled to announce updates to our newly de-wokeified magical kingdom.

More from Rolling Stone

As the camera pans to the parks Hall of Presidents, viewers are informed that the attraction will no longer include parts of American history Rons supporters dont want to talk about as an animatronic Abraham Lincoln caps his achievements to creating the Department of Agriculture. Other re-imagined horrors include an Animal Kingdom where guests can hunt, and costume characters with realistic genitalia so that their gender is overtly apparent.

In March last year, facing pressure from employees, Disney fans, and shareholders, then-Disney CEO Bob Chapek announced the companys opposition to the controversial Dont Say Gay bill that placed widespread restrictions on the discussion of LGBTQ related topics in schools. In retaliation, the GOP-controlled government moved to strip the company of its special tax status. The bill penalizing Disney passed the Florida legislature in April of last year.

Were not going to have a corporation controlling its own government, DeSantis said during a news conference on earlier this month. So the states going to have a board to run it. So Disney will not have self-governing status anymore.

DeSantis added, Were not going to bend the knee to woke executives in California. The Florida governor reportedly accepted multiple donations from Disney, totaling $100,000 between 2019 and 2021.

Story continues

Best of Rolling Stone

Click here to read the full article.
In Colorado, farmers must enroll in a four-state program by March 1, if they want to get paid for fallowing their fields perhaps the best option to plump up the Colorado Rivers giant reservoirs, Mead and Powell.

Not everyone is a fan, including Andy Mueller, director of the Colorado River District. He doesnt like programs that pay farmers to stop farming. Mueller also didnt ask for the Inflation Reduction Acts $125 million to pay the farmers he represents. Muellers organization exists to keep Western Colorados rural water away from growing cities across the Rockies.

State Sen. Dylan Roberts, D-Avon, who chairs the Committee for Agriculture and Natural Resources, has a more nuanced view. He says he understands that rural communities fear a buy and dry scenario. Where annual leases become routine, and once-verdant fields and farms wither. He insists that any water leasing must be temporary, voluntary and well compensated.

Dave Marston

A water-leasing program called demand management was created for Colorado irrigators under former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper  it was tested, but never used. It would have allowed farmers to lease and store their water in a Lake Powell account under state control. Under Gov. Jared Polis administration, however, demand management was quietly shelved.

Now, this new, multi-state program for leasing agricultural water, called a system conservation pilot program, isnt getting much traction. The program was announced two and a half months ago by Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming.

Its major drawback, says Tom Kay, an organic farmer in western Colorado, is that the Upper Colorado River Commission is offering a stupid price of $150 an acre-foot.

Farmers like to farm; you have to pay them more than they make farming to interest them, Kay adds. He gets around $650 per acre-foot of water growing mostly organic corn and dry beans on his 350-acre farm near the town of Hotchkiss.

Kay says he recently toured Californias Imperial Valley, where farmers are getting $679 an acre-foot. They sell their 200,000 acre-feet of Colorado River to the San Diego County Water Authority and consider the price reasonable.

Story continues

Water prices are also rising. In California last summer, when the Bureau of Reclamation was looking hard for water, large irrigation districts in the Lower Basin were asking $1,500 per acre-foot to lease their water to cities, reported Janet Wilson of Californias Desert Sun.

If farmers got more money for their water under the new pilot program, says State Sen. Roberts, Colorado could get more participation (and) show the federal government we are doing our part. He also says that many state legislators think California and Arizona should bear the brunt of water cuts.

Getting farmers to fallow their land could build resilience in the Colorado River Basin, says Aaron Derwingson of The Nature Conservancy. A few years ago, he worked with grower Kay and Cary Denison, formerly of Trout Unlimited, to develop an organic transition program whose concept was simple: Lease two-thirds of your water for three years so pesticides and fertilizers leach off the land, then apply for organic certification. The demand management trial was largely funded by the Bureau of Reclamation.

So the question remains: Why is the Upper Colorado River Commission offering farmers so little for their irrigation water? The commissions executive director, Chuck Cullom, explains: $150 per acre-foot was chosen to discourage drought profiteering.

Kay guesses that the low price was set to discourage participation. While $150 is the floor, and farmers can negotiate for more, commission representatives havent gone to agricultural communities to beat the drum for its program.

Kay says, That $125 million is a lot of money, and it belongs to Upper Basin farmers.

Meanwhile, in mid-November, 30 western cities agreed to cut non-functional turf grass by up to 36%, including big water guzzlers such as Utahs Washington County, which wants to siphon more water out of Lake Powell.

Whats unclear is how much water from not watering grass stays in the river. Mueller points out that Aurora, a fast-growing Denver suburb, is cutting water to sell more water taps. Theyre building more houses.

Kay admires Muellers rural leadership but thinks the way forward is clear: Denver has a junior water right. Why isnt it paying us in western Colorado to fallow ground, just like what Los Angeles and San Diego are doing?

Dave Marston is the publisher of Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org an independent nonprofit dedicated to spurring lively conversation about the West. He owns a small, irrigated parcel in Western Colorado.

This article originally appeared on Carlsbad Current-Argus: Colorado conflicted about cutting its water use
Paul Hult, a 102-year-old World War II veteran shown in his Hollywood apartment, reluctantly decided to accept help after he received a $526 gas bill. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times )

I had just read dozens of offers from readers who wanted to help a 102-year-old World War II veteran pay his outrageous $526 gas bill, for a tiny one-bedroom apartment in Hollywood, when I got an email from the Southern California Gas Co.

Was the company writing to offer a price break to the vet? Or maybe to apologize for the heart palpitations felt across Southern California, where millions of homeowners and restaurateurs have been crushed by monthly bills that were double, triple and quadruple normal amounts?

No. SoCalGas was notifying me of its request to raise rates in 2024 and beyond. The company invited me and other customers to make comments and raise concerns at virtual hearings to be held March 6 and 15.

If you just cant wait that long to let the company know what you think about rate increases, and your fingers are not frozen, you can type up your comments and leave them on the California Public Utilities Commission website. And you wouldnt be the first to do so.

This is inhumane! wrote Janet from Los Angeles, who said she and her two young children have to wear snow gear inside the house because they cant afford to keep the heater on.

This must be a cruel joke, wrote Nina from San Clemente, one of hundreds to plead with the CPUC to reject rate hikes.

How dare you, wrote Martti of Los Angeles. People are suffering and shivering because of your vile and disgusting price gouging.

Similar sentiments ran through the responses to my column about veteran Paul Hult, who was already down to his last dollars because of the cost of in-home care when he got his shocker of a gas bill.

Veterans wanted to help a fellow veteran, older adults wanted to help a fellow traveler, and indignant SoCalGas customers wanted to blast the utility. One of the most livid was actress Mimi Rogers, who stands ready to lead the charge against the utility.

This is disgusting, Rogers told me by phone, saying she thinks customers should unite and withhold payment. This is price gouging.

Story continues

The actress, who plays a no-nonsense attorney in the "Bosch: Legacy" series  based on former L.A. Times reporter Michael Connellys fictional detective Harry Bosch  said shes been studying up on SoCalGas and doesn't like what she's learned. The utilitys parent company, Sempra, is lining up lucrative natural gas contracts in Europe, and paying its executives obscene amounts of money while SoCalGas sticks it to customers, Rogers said.

When I mentioned some of SoCalGas explanations for the price hike  which include rising wholesale prices and supply and storage issues  Rogers wasnt having it.

They have failed miserably, which means Sempra has failed miserably, which means they should be bearing the brunt of the cost  not ruining peoples lives and putting restaurants out of business, Rogers said. She told me her own gas bill had ballooned, but she was more concerned about the principle of the matter and the people who are hard-pressed to pay.

This is as disgusting and horrible as Exxon Mobil recording record profits during the pandemic, especially during the last year, with faux gas shortages, Rogers said. I feel like Peter Finch in Network.' Id love to go on camera and say, 'People of California, no, dont take this, dont accept this. This is wrong on every level and lets have a sit-in, lets have a protest.' 

Its easy to share Rogers indignation if you saw my colleague Terry Castlemans reporting on Sempra Energys executive compensation numbers for 2021. Chief Executive Jeffrey Martin raked in $25 million while two other Sempra poohbahs hit jackpots of $8 million and $7 million.

Those three, Castleman reported, have also accumulated pension benefits  totaling nearly $60 million.

If you didn't pop a vein reading that, you might when I tell you that SoCalGas announced Monday that it is coming to the rescue by committing $10 million to support low-income families, seniors and small-restaurant owners impacted by unprecedented regional gas market prices.

SoCalGas has 21.8 million consumers, so you do the math.

To be fair, the natural gas economy is nuanced, energy markets are complicated and prices are always subject to fluctuation. California imports the majority of its natural gas, which puts it at the mercy of suppliers, and the massive Aliso Canyon gas storage site has had reduced capacity since the leak scandal in 2015.

SoCalGas warned in late December that "shockingly high" bills were coming our way due to an "unprecedented cold snap" that drove up wholesale prices in the West, and pipeline problems in Texas were another factor. The company, which said it doesn't profit from passing along inflated wholesale prices, provided links to payment assistance programs, and said bills will soon be coming down sharply.

But as Gov. Gavin Newsom said in requesting a federal investigation, the factors cited by SoCalGas and other companies cannot explain the extent and longevity of the price spike. Newsom wanted investigators to look at the possibility of market manipulation, among other things.

Severin Borenstein, a UC Berkeley energy economist, told me that gas prices in the East did not rise sharply like they did in the West. And price hikes from Pacific Gas & Electric in Northern California were nowhere near as high as those imposed by SoCalGas, which argued that it was merely passing along the higher price it had to pay on the wholesale market.

PG&E was much more hedged, Borenstein said, meaning it was able to use stored gas purchased at lower prices rather than get stuck at the checkout stand just as wholesale prices skyrocketed.

Theres room for anger at the CPUC for not requiring more hedging, Borenstein said, as well as anger at both the CPUC and gas companies for not addressing storage issues. And I think theres room for anger at all the people who say theres no need to worry about natural gas because were getting off of it.

Were not getting off of it anytime soon, Borenstein said.

There is, for all of this, some good news to report on Paul Hult.

The veteran had been doing fine on income and benefits from Social Security, a railroad pension and the VA until he fell a year and a half ago and burned through his savings to pay for in-home aides. Thats why his gigantic gas bills were such a blow.

Hult is a proud man who told me he didnt want financial help, but his step-grandson Jim Moreno was planning to take out a loan to help pay for in-home care. Readers  many of them veterans  wouldnt take no for an answer and offered financial help and advice on assistance programs for seniors, veterans and low-income residents.

Moreno has since set up a GoFundMe page for Hult, who told me he's still uncomfortable about accepting help, but humbled by such a generous response.

Its great to know that people think of you that way, he said.

Steve.lopez@latimes.com

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Reps. Barbara Lee, Adam B. Schiff and Katie Porter, from left, are vying to become one of relatively few House members from California to make the leap to the U.S. Senate. (Associated Press)

When Adam B. Schiff recently brought his U.S. Senate campaign to Northern California, 500 people showed up for his stop at a 55-and-older community nestled in the green, rolling hills of the East Bay Area. Dozens more were turned away.

A few weeks earlier, Katie Porter drew a similar overflow crowd when she kicked off her bid to replace the retiring Sen. Dianne Feinstein with an appearance before the same Democratic audience.

The turnout suggests more than just keen interest in a primary that's still close to a year off. It reflects a notable shift in California politics.

It used to be that House members like Schiff and Porter spent their days toiling in relative obscurity. Those who traveled just a few blocks outside their districts  much less the vast distance between points in California  were about as familiar as the anonymous attendant working the drive-through window at some random doughnut shop.

However, by the time Schiff and Porter arrived more than 350 miles from home to address the Rossmoor Democratic club, the largest in Northern California, they were both household names with well-established political brands: the Trump tormentor, the whiteboard wizard.

Neither was hindered by their personal geography  Schiff rooted in Burbank, Porter in Irvine  or their lack of a significant connection to the Bay Area. Their celebrity status  minted in viral videos, national TV appearances and countless clicks on social media  saw to that.

California has a very limited history of electing House members to the U.S. Senate. Just a handful have managed the feat since the direct election of U.S. senators began roughly a century ago.

In a lightly populated state such as Wyoming or Montana, with just a lone House member or two, "you're a big deal as a congressperson," said Bill Carrick, a longtime Feinstein strategist.

"But the more members of Congress there are, the tougher it is to move up the ladder," Carrick said. "If you're one of seven House members in South Carolina, it's a challenge. If you're one of 52 in California, it's a challenge beyond comprehension."

Story continues

California's last House member to make it to the Senate was Barbara Boxer, in 1992, and the notion that the Marin County congresswoman could have launched her bid before 500 cheering and stomping Democrats in, say, Long Beach or Laguna Niguel, is utterly fantastical.

When she started running, she knew almost no one in Southern California, and more importantly, they didn't know her," said Rose Kapolczynski, who ran Boxer's long shot campaign. "She did months of meetings with political leaders and major donors, and finally got a core group of people who were excited about her, and did bigger events and started to become better-known.

"But that was a long retail politics project," Kapolczynski said.

And it was a long time before the development of today's political news ecosystem, with its star-making capacity and circulation beyond borders.

Voters are no longer "captive to a piece of media that shows up on their doorstep," said Democratic strategist Jim Ross. "It's all digital now, so a story in the San Francisco Chronicle might be read in Bakersfield. A piece in the L.A. Times can be read in Berkeley."

More significantly, bottomless TV news coverage and the ability of viewers to share choice snippets on social media have turned voters into front-row spectators to the political dramas of the day and made heroes of the supporting cast.

"Our members were glued to the Jan. 6 hearings. They were glued to the impeachment hearings," said Katha Hartley, chair of the Rossmoor Democrats' speakers committee. "We've seen Adam Schiff do his thing. We've seen Katie Porter in action."

Little wonder partisans met both with rousing ovations before they even said a word.

Of course, there is another House member running for Feinstein's seat: Oakland's Barbara Lee. Her distinction as the sole candidate, so far, from Northern California could theoretically give her an advantage.

Four of California's most recent U.S. senators  Boxer, Feinstein, Kamala Harris and Alan Cranston  and the state's last two governors  Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom  all had a background in Bay Area politics.

Democrats in the region tend to turn out in greater number than those elsewhere in the state, and historically they have shown greater preference for candidates from the north than the south.

Porter and Schiff promise to test that loyalty with their fame and dedicated followings, and Lee knows better than to take her home turf for granted. Soon after entering the race, the East Bay congresswoman ran into The Times Dakota Smith at Los Angeles City Hall. Im going for votes everywhere, Lee told her.

She needs to. A recent Los Angeles Times poll showed Schiff and Porter both running ahead of Lee in the Bay Area.

It was just one poll, and it's still very early in the contest. But clearly California is a different place than it was the last time a House member made the leap to the U.S. Senate.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Ukrainian air defense is shooting down 80% of Russian missiles, according to Lieutenant General Serhii Naiev, commander of the Ukrainian Joint Forces.

"At the moment, the percentage of missile interceptions has changed significantly and is at 80% or even higher in some cases. Our air defense specialists have become more professional and competent," Naiev said on March 1.

Naiev added that Russia is changing its methods and tactics when it comes to air attacks.

"Therefore, we conduct analysis after each strike," said Naiev. "This analysis is necessary, and the commanders make decisions accordingly to ensure the resilience of the air defense is at the highest level."


SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's former defence minister said on Wednesday he favoured Australia choosing a U.S. nuclear-powered submarine over a British model in its AUKUS alliance, comments swiftly labelled "irresponsible" by the government, which expects to announce a decision within weeks.

Leaders from Australia and Britain are expected to travel to Washington this month to announce how Australia will acquire nuclear subs, which Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described as "the single biggest leap in our defence capability in our history".

Opposition leader Peter Dutton, who was defence minister when the AUKUS partnership between Australia, the United States and Britain was formed in 2021, told reporters at the Avalon Air Show he favoured the American Virginia-class submarine.

"It was a proven design, it gave us interoperability with the Americans, and there'll be more American subs in the

Indo-Pacific than there will be British submarines, who will concentrate, quite rightly, particularly given the Russian threat, to continental Europe," he said.

"I worry that if the government's taken a decision to go for a cheaper design, that it will delay the delivery of those submarines," he added, when asked about defence industry speculation that a British submarine would be chosen.

Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy, who last week visited the British submarine shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness, said that Dutton's comments were "incredibly irresponsible" and that his predecessor was "not privy to the latest information".

"I've got a full briefing on what the United Kingdom is doing. I stay in regular contact with the U.S. Navy, and we'll make announcements very shortly about the optimal path forward on our nuclear propelled submarines," he said.

(Reporting by Kirsty Needham. Editing by Gerry Doyle)
The Cobb County Fire Department is mourning the loss of a firefighter who died Tuesday.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

According to the departments Facebook page, Firefighter Julian Daniels died on his 18th anniversary at the department. He joined on Feb. 28, 2005.

Officials said they would release details regarding his death as they become available.

TRENDING STORIES:

Our hearts are heavy as our department mourns the loss of our brother who served the citizens of Cobb County for 18 years, officials wrote on Facebook.

No further information has been provided.

[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]

IN OTHER NEWS:
Alex Murdaugh with his attorneys at his murder trial (Grace Beahm Alford/The Post And Courier via AP, Pool)

Legal dynasty heir Alex Murdaugh is currently on trial in a South Carolina courtroom for the brutal double murder of his wife and adult son.

Maggie, 52, and Paul, 22, were both shot dead at the familys sprawling 1,700-acre property in Islandton, South Carolina, on the night of 7 June 2021.

Mr Murdaugh, 54, claimed that he returned home from visiting his elderly mother to find the victims bodies at the dog kennels on the land.

No arrests were made for more than a year, until  in July 2022  Mr Murdaugh was charged with their murders.

Prosecutors allege that Mr Murdaugh killed his wife and son to distract from the growing number of scandals and crimes swirling around him.

Its a dramatic saga that now includes murder, a botched hitman plot, multi-million-dollar fraud schemes and a series of unexplained deaths.

The now-disbarred attorney denies the allegations and has pleaded not guilty.

Mr Murdaughs trial got underway at Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro on 23 January.

Six weeks later, both the prosecution and the defence have rested and jurors will soon begin deliberations in the case.

Here are the key revelations from the trial:

Prosecutors opening statement reveals video will be key to trial

Opening arguments kicked off the trial on 25 January, with the prosecution telling jurors that cellphone records and a video taken by Paul minutes before he died are critical in proving Mr Murdaughs guilt.

Attorney Creighton Waters gave a timeline for the murders, saying that Paul was shot at the dog kennels first at 8.50pm and Maggie minutes later.

Cellphone records allegedly place Mr Murdaugh at the dog kennels minutes earlier  when the suspect had told everyone he was never there.

Mr Waters also described a video Paul made at the kennels minutes before his murder as he was filming a dog to send to a friend. According to the prosecution, three voices  Paul, Maggie and Mr Murdaugh  can be heard.

Other evidence the prosecution promised to show jurors included gunshot residue found in both Mr Murdaughs car, on him and on a raincoat that he allegedly left at his parents home a week after the murders.

Story continues

Defence details horror injuries of victims in opening statement

In the defences opening statement, Mr Murdaugh was seen breaking down in tears as his attorney Dick Harpootlian described the fatal shot which killed his son Paul, saying it exploded his brain, like a watermelon.

Mr Murdaugh then arrived home and found his sons brains by his feet, he said.

Mr Harpootlian insisted Mr Murdaugh is an innocent man, saying that jurors will see a Snapchat of him and Paul happily spending father-and-son time together less than two hours before the murders.

Paul, the apple of his eye. You are going to see a video from the night of the murders of Paul and Alex riding around looking at trees they planted, a Snapchat sent to other people. They were laughing, having a good time, he said.

He also argued that cellphone records from that night are incomplete and that Maggies phone was thrown on the side of a road halfa mile from the family estate at the same time that Mr Murdaugh was at the property.

The suspect would have to be Houdini to be in both places, he said.

Buster, Maggie, Paul and Alex Murdaugh left to right (Maggie Murdaugh/Facebook)

Murdaugh immediately told police murders were tied to 2019 boat crash

Mr Murdaugh immediately suggested that his wife and son had been murdered because of a 2019 fatal boat crash as soon as the first law enforcement officer arrived on the scene of the grisly slayings, bodycam footage played in court revealed.

The footage was taken from the bodyworn camera of Colleton County Sheriffs Sgt Daniel Greene when he was the first officer to respond to the scene.

It captures the disgraced legal dynasty heir pacing around the dog kennels, sobbing and wailing, and repeatedly asking: Are they dead?

Has somebody gone to check em? They did check em? Theyre sure that theyre dead? he says.

The first thing Mr Murdaugh tells the officer when he arrives is that he armed himself with a shotgun after finding his wife and sons bodies.

Sir I wanted to let you know because of the scene I did go get a gun and bring it down here, he says.

Unprompted, Mr Murdaugh then tells the officer that the murders must be connected to the 2019 fatal boat crash involving Paul.

This is a long story. My son was in a boat wreck months back. Hes been getting threats, most of its been benign stuf we didnt take serious... hes been getting pinched , Mr Murdaugh says. I know thats what this is.

At the time of Pauls death, he was awaiting trial over the death of 19-year-old Mallory Beach.

Paul was allegedly drunk driving a boat of his friends including Beach in 2019 when it crashed and they were thrown overboard. The rest of the group survived but Beachs body washed up days later.

Paul was charged with boating under the influence and faced up to 25 years in prison.

Mr Murdaugh was also heard mentioning the boat crash in the 911 call alerting law enforcement to the scene and in his first interview with law enforcement on the night of the murders.

In the bodycam, Mr Murdaugh is also seen regaling in great detail his alleged movements that night.

I came to the house first, he says. My mom has late stage Alzheimers, my dad is in the hospital. I left, I dont know what time. I can go on my phone and tell you the exact times, he says, before suddenly saying: Did you check?

Suspect shed no tears after finding wife and sons bodies

Colleton County Sheriffs Office Sgt Daniel Greene testified that Mr Murdaugh appeared to shed no tears after he claimed to have found his wife and sons bodies.

Sgt Greene told the court that Mr Murdaugh seemed upset and repeatedly asked if his wife and son were dead but did not appear to have any physical tears in his eyes.

Did you ever see any physical tears? the prosecutor asked.

I did not, the officer said.

As bodycam footage from the night of the murders was played in court, Mr Murdaugh was seen breaking down in tears.

Bodycam shows Murdaughs clean shirt after claiming to touch bloody bodies

Bodycam footage from the night of the murders revealed Mr Murdaugh wearing a clean white shirt after he claimed he touched his wife and sons bloodied bodies on finding them shot dead.

In the footage, Mr Murdaugh is dressed in a white T-shirt and dark shorts with no obvious signs of blood.

During courtroom testimony, multiple law enforcement officials described how Mr Murdaugh was clean and did not appear to have any blood on him when they arrived on the scene of the murders.

Alex Murdaugh seen in bodycam footage on the scene of the murders (Colleton County Court)

Yet, according to the 911 call made by Mr Murdaugh and bodycam footage from his first police interview on the night of the murders, Mr Murdaugh claims he touched his wife and sons bodies when he found them by the kennels.

In the interview footage, he is heard telling law enforcement twice that he tried to turn over his sons bloodied body and that he had checked him and his wife for pulses.

I could see his brain ... I ran over to Maggie, actually I think I tried to turn Paul over first... um... you know, I tried to turn him over, I dunno, I figured it out, he is heard saying.

Mr Murdaugh said that his sons cellphone fell from his pocket when he tried to move him and that he handled it briefly.

His cell phone popped out of his pocket, I started trying to do something with it but I put it back down really quickly, and then I went to my wife, he says.

Detective Laura Rutland of Colleton County Sheriffs Office contradicted his version of events as she said that Mr Murdaugh was clean from head to toe with no signs of blood on his body, shirt, shorts or shoes.

She said she didnt say where he checked for a pulse but, in a gripping reenactment, agreed that if Mr Murdaugh had touched pulse points on Pauls neck or wrists he would have been covered in blood.

As jurors have previously heard, the crime scene was especially violent and bloody, with Pauls brain shot out of his skull and both he and Maggie lying in pools of their own blood.

Crime scene photos show blood on the floor of the dog feed house (Law & Crime)

911 call played at trial

The unredacted 911 call placed by Mr Murdaugh on the night of the murders.

In the dramatic audio, Mr Murdaugh cries and and sobs down the phone as he tells the dispatcher its bad and my wife and child have been shot badly.

He also the dispatcher about the 2019 boat crash involving Paul, saying that the 22-year-old had been getting threats for months and months and months.

The attorney then says he is going back to his house to get a gun just in case. When officers arrived on the scene, Mr Murdaugh had a shotgun which he handed over.

Murdaugh tells wild story about Black Panthers

Alex Murdaugh recounted a wild story about a farmhand claiming to kill radical Black Panthers when he was interviewed by law enforcement on the night of the double murder of his wife and son.

In footage of the interview, Mr Murdaugh says he cant think of anyone overly suspicious who could be responsible for the murders but suggests law enforcement speak to a farmhand he had recently hired to work at the 1,700-acre estate.

Mr Murdaugh claims that the man had told Paul a really weird story just one week before the murders.

He told Paul a story the other day of how when he was in high school he got in a fight with some Black guys and an FBI undercover teams observed him fighting those guys, he says. And they put him on an undercover team with three Navy Seals and their job was to kill radical Black Panthers.

He adds: Paul was so taken aback by it that he recorded it on his phone.

Mr Murdaugh tells the officers that Paul had been working with him a lot and the story was really weird.

However, he adds that he doesnt believe the man could be behind the murders, saying that its such a stupid that he was embarrassed to even bring it up.

Speculation over whether Murdaugh accidentally confessed

Audio from Alex Murdaughs second interview with law enforcement was played in court on 30 January, revealing that the disgraced legal dynasty heir may have unwittingly slipped up and confessed to the murders of his wife and son.

I did him so bad, a sobbing Mr Murdaugh appeared to say about his son in a police interview on 10 June 2021.

SLED Special Agent Jeff Croft was asked by prosecutor Creighton Waters to clarify what he heard Mr Murdaugh saying.

Its just so bad. I did him so bad, he responded.

While prosecutors sought to suggest that the 54-year-old father and husband slipped up during the police interview, Mr Murdaugh was seen shaking his head and appearing to mouth I did not say that to his attorneys in court.

However, the audio of the interview has also raised doubts, being somewhat unclear as to whether Mr Murdaugh says I or they, with some inside and outside court believing he actually says: They did him so bad.

During cross-examination on Tuesday, Mr Griffin grilled Agent Croft as to why  if Mr Murdaughs statement raised alarm bells  he didnt follow up on it.

The special agent testified that he made a mental note about Mr Murdaughs comment but said it was early in the investigation when officials were in more of an information gathering stage.

The audio was played again in court  twice in real time and once at one-third speed.

When asked by Mr Griffin if he heard they not I when the recording was slowed down, Agent Croft testified that he still heard I.

Guns and ammo at Murdaugh home match crime scene

Bodycam footage released by the court on 30 January revealed a huge stash of firearms inside the Murdaugh family home in the days after the murders.

SLED Special Agent Jeff Croft told jurors how he seized firearms and ammunition from the Murdaugh home  including weapons and ammo that matched the type of gun and bullets used to kill Maggie and Paul.

A .300 Blackout semiautomatic rifle, 12-gauge Browning shotgun, Benelli shotgun and 12-gauge pump shotgun which were seized from the family home were all brought into the courtroom and shown to jurors.

The agent testified that several empty boxes of ammunition were also found during searches of the Murdaugh home on 8 June and 13 June.

Inside the .300 Blackout rifle was Sellier & Bellot .300 AAC BLK ammo  the same type of ammo that was used to kill Maggie.

Also seized as evidence was a credit card receipt for an $1,021.10 item from Gucci  the item had been circled.

On 31 January, Agent Croft also testified that ammunition  steel shot ammo specifically Winchester DryLok  matching the fatal shot fired through Pauls brain had been located on the Murdaugh family property.

Two separate guns  a rifle and shotgun  were used to kill Maggie and Paul. They have never been found.

Defences two shooters theory

Mr Murdaughs legal team sought to push its theory that there could have been two shooters separately responsible for killing the mother and son.

Jurors were shown photos and diagrams of the crime scene from both the night of the murders and more than one month later on 16 July, with defence attorney Dick Harpootlian honing in on two bullet projectiles in particular  one that travelled through the dog house and one through the quail pen.

Under cross-examination of SLED special agent Melinda Worley, Mr Harpootlian pushed the idea that, because the bullet projectiles were shot at different angles, it was a reasonable possibility that there was two killers.

One reasonable explanation is there are two people there: one with a shotgun, one with an AR. Could someone have been a lookout, they went there to kill Paul and Maggie surprised them? Mr Harpootlian pressed.

Agent Worley admitted that the theory is possible but said that it is only one one explanation as to what may have taken place that fateful night. She added that the angles could also be explained as one single shooter moving around.

Victims last texts and calls revealed

Jurors learned about the final text messages and phone calls made by Paul and Maggie before their brutal murders.

On the night of 7 June 2021, Paul placed a call on his cellphone to friend Rogan Gibson at 8.40pm, lasting four minutes, followed by a second call at 8.44pm. The second was the last incoming communication Mr Gibson received from Pauls cellphone.

Five minutes later, at 8.49pm, Mr Gibson sent Paul a text message: See if you can get a good picture of it. Marion wants to send it to a girl we know thats a vet. Get him to sit and stay. He shouldnt move around too much.

Five missed calls made by Alex Murdaugh to Maggie Murdaughs phone after her murder (Colleton County Court)

The message  believed to be about a dog Paul was taking care of for him  went unanswered.

From that point onward, neither Paul nor his mother Maggie responded to any messages or calls on their cellphones.

Prosecutors said in opening statements that Paul was shot dead first at 8.50pm and Maggie minutes later. Their cellphones had no activity from 8.49pm onward.

After sending the text message at 8.49pm and receiving no response from his friend, Mr Gibson sent a follow-up text at 9.58pm, which simply read: Yo.

Mr Gibson also tried calling Paul multiple times at 9.10pm, 9.29pm, 9.42pm, 9.57pm and 10.08pm.

Getting no response from his friend, jurors heard that he also texted Pauls mother Maggie at 9.34pm, saying: Tell Paul to call me.

Shortly after, Mr Gibson had four missed calls from Alex Murdaugh at 10.21pm, 10.24pm, 10.25pm and 10.30pm.

Doubts cast on preservation of crime scene

During much of his cross-examination of SLED Special Agent Worley, Mr Harpootlian sought to pick holes in the evidence gathered from the bloody crime scene.

He raised doubts about a mark or potential footprint spotted on Maggies calf on the night of the murders.

While Mr Harpootlian suggested it was a footwear impression, Agent Worley said she couldnt say that was what the mark was but that it could be.

The mark was not examined on the scene and no impression of the imprint was taken, she testified.

She also confirmed that a bloody footprint found in the feeding room was later determined to be that of a law enforcement officer  something that supported the defences line of questioning that some evidence was not preserved correctly and was even destroyed.

Do you know what other evidence they may have destroyed? asked Mr Harpootlian.

I have no idea, the agent said, to which he responded: Thats right you dont.

Murdaughs cousin testifies he sold him guns  matching one used to kill Maggie

On 31 January, Mr Murdaughs cousin John Bedingfield testified against him, revealing how the 54-year-old bought several firearms from him in the years prior to the murders  ones that match the type used to kill Maggie.

Mr Bedingfield, who works for the Department of Natural Resources but has a side business making and selling firearms under a federal licence, told the court that Mr Murdaugh approached him before Christmas 2016 wanting to buy both Paul and his surviving son rifles as presents.

He purchased two subsonic 300 BlackOut rifles  one black, one tan colour  for $9,188 so his sons could hunt hogs, he testified.

Two years later in April 2018, he said that Mr Murdaugh bought a third rifle from him for $875 because he said that Paul had lost his other one.

Murdaughs chilling text message to wife after murders revealed

On Alex Murdaughs chilling final text to his wife moments after he allegedly killed her and their son was revealed in court during his murder trial on Tuesday.

Jurors were shown data from the cellphones of Maggie, Paul and Mr Murdaugh on the night of the murders.

Prosecutors say that Mr Murdaugh shot Paul first at 8.50pm and Maggie after.

Almost immediately after, cellphone data shows Mr Murdaugh made several calls to Maggie and other family members.

Mr Murdaugh first called Maggie at 9.04pm  minutes after he allegedly shot her dead  and the call went to voicemail.

He then texted her phone at 9.08pm, claiming he was going to visit his mother: Going to check on M. Be right back. The text was never read.

Alex Murdaughs brother John Marvin Murdaugh and surviving son Buster Murdaugh in the courthouse (AP)

In total, Mr Murdaugh called his wife five times between 9.04pm and 10.03pm after allegedly killing her. None of the calls were answered.

His last text message to his wife came at 9.47pm, writing: Call me babe.

As well as calling Maggie, Mr Murdaughs cellphone records show he also made several calls to other numbers in the hour between the time prosecutors say the murder took place and he called 911. Prosecutors allege that Mr Murdaugh was seeking to build an alibi for that night.

Minutes after the final call, Mr Murdaugh called 911 at 10.07pm claiming to have found Maggie and Pauls bodies.

Someone was holding and moving with Maggies cellphone after murder

SLED Lt. Britt Dove, who works in the computer crimes centre, testified that he processed the three cellphones.

Based on the cellphone data, he said that the last text Maggie read was a message from her sister-in-law Lynn Murdaugh in a group chat which she read at 8.49pm.

After 8.49pm, she didnt open or respond to messages or calls from several people including her husband, oldest son Buster and Mr Murdaughs brother John Marvin Murdaugh.

Jurors also heard how the cellphone data shows Maggies phone orientation changed from portrait to landscape at 8.54pm and then again at 9.06pm, indicating that it was in someones hands. One minute later, at 9.07pm the screen went on and off as though someone tried  but failed  to unlock it.

Health app data was also presented to jurors, showing that Maggies cellphone recorded 59 steps in two minutes after 8.53pm  after prosecutors allege Maggie and Paul were already dead.

It tells me someone was holding this phone and took steps, and it recorded those steps, said Lt Dove.

Maggies phone was locked between 8.49pm on 7 June 2021 and 1.10pm the following day when it was found dumped by the side of a road around a quarter of a mile from the Murdaugh property.

Pauls cellphone was also initially locked after the murders, until US Secret Service Digital Forensic Examiner Jonathan VanHouten testified that he managed to unlock when he successfully tried Pauls birthday as his passcode.

Witnesses say voice in murder scene video is Alex Murdaugh

In a dramatic day on 1 February, jurors were shown cellphone footage taken by Paul at the dog kennels just minutes before he and Maggie were shot dead which casts doubts on Mr Murdaughs alibi.

Off-camera, three voices are heard  Paul, Maggie and a man prosecutors say is Mr Murdaugh.

In dramatic testimony, two friends of Paul with close ties to the family told jurors that they are 100 per cent sure that the voice belongs to Mr Murdaugh.

Cellphone data shows that the video was recorded for 58 seconds from 8.44.49pm to 8.45.47pm  less than five minutes before the murders. The disbarred attorney has claimed he was napping at the family home at that time.

Rogan Gibson, who had known Paul since they were young and described the Murdaughs as his second family, testified that he was 100 per cent sure Mr Murdaugh is the voice in the footage. A second friend Will Loving echoed this.

As the footage was played in court, Mr Murdaugh appeared to rock his head up and down and cry.

Snapchat shows Alex Murdaugh in different clothing one hour before murders

Jurors were shown a Snapchat video Paul sent to Mr Loving less than one hour before he and Maggie were murdered.

The video, sent at 7.56pm on 7 June 2021, shows Alex Murdaugh on the grounds of the family estate.

In the footage, Mr Murdaugh, 54, is seen dressed in trousers, loafers and a blue button-down shirt  clothing that does not match what he is seen wearing in police bodycam footage in the aftermath of the murders.

In the bodycam footage, shown in court last week, the disgraced attorney is dressed in a white short-sleeved t-shirt and shorts.

Questions had already raised about this outfit as multiple law enforcement officials have testified that Mr Murdaugh and his clothing were clean from head to toe  despite his claims he had touched the bloody bodies of his wife and son.

It is not yet clear if investigators ever located or seized the second outfit Mr Murdaugh is seen wearing in the Snapchat video and jurors are yet to hear an explanation from the defence.

Less than one hour on from the 7.56pm Snapchat, Paul and Maggie were shot dead at around 8.50pm.

Murder timeframe narrowed down to eight-second window

Prosecutors claim that Paul was shot dead first at around 8.50pm, followed by Maggie  with cellphone data being used to narrow down the murders to a precise eight-second window.

SLED Lt. Britt Dove testified that Pauls last phone activity was at 8.48.59pm and Maggies was at 8.49.27pm.

Eight seconds later at 8.49.35pm, Paul received a text message but it went unread. Neither Maggie nor Paul used their phones after that time.

Calls Murdaugh made to wife on night of murders deleted

In dramatic courtroom testimony, jurors heard that calls Mr Murdaugh made to his wife on the night of the murders were mysteriously later deleted from his call log.

In court on Tuesday, Lt Dove testified that Mr Murdaugh had called Maggie five times between 9.04pm and 10.03pm on the night of 7 June 2021 after he had allegedly killed her and Paul. None of the calls were answered.

But, according to the call log on his cellphone, Mr Murdaugh did not place or receive any calls between 4.35pm on 4 June and 10.25pm on 7 June.

Lt Dove, who processed the three cellphones belonging to Mr Murdaugh, Maggie and Paul, testified that the trove of phone calls Mr Murdaugh made to his wifes cellphone after he allegedly shot the victims dead was missing from his call log.

The only explanation for the missing data is that the call logs were manually and intentionally deleted by someone between the 7 June 2021 murders and his phone being seized by authorities in September 2021, he said.

Defence casts doubt on theory Murdaugh took Maggies phone

Under cross-examination, the defence cast doubt on the theory that it could have been Mr Murdaugh who threw Maggies phone along the side of Moselle Road.

Lt Dove admitted that cellphone data suggested Maggie and Mr Murdaughs phones were not in the same place at the same time at 9.06pm as the step data did not match.

This was important because 9.06pm is when the final orientation change  or movement  was recorded on Maggies phone.

Lt Dove testified that this movement could have been as it was being thrown from a vehicle to where it was discovered the next day, with the defence contending that Mr Murdaugh was at the family property walking with his cellphone at that time.

Evidence photos of Maggies phone found on Moselle Road (Colleton County Court)

However, under redirect, prosecutors cast doubt on the defences timeframe for when the phone was tossed down Moselle Lane, as Lt Dove testified that an orientation change can only take place when the phone screen is on.

The SLED agent testified that the screen on Maggies phone was off between 9.07pm and 9.31pm so if the phone was thrown from a car during that time, there would have been no orientation change recorded.

Shadow trial hears evidence of Murdaughs alleged multi-million-dollar fraud

In court on 2 and 3 February, several witnesses testified without the jury present as the judge weighed whether to allow evidence of Mr Murdaughs alleged financial crimes to be presented at trial.

Prosecutors claimed that Mr Murdaughs alleged financial crimes are key to proving the motive while the defence asked the judge to throw the evidence out of the trial.

On 7 February, the judge ruled in the states favour that evidence about Mr Murdaughs financial crimes is admissible in court  dealing a blow to the defence and leading the state to recall the financial witnesses to redeliver their testimony in the presence of the jury.

At the time of the murders, Mr Murdaughs law firm PMPED was closing in on his alleged multi-million-dollar fraud scheme with a colleague confronting him about it on the morning of the killings.

His finances were also coming under intense scrutiny in a lawsuit brought by the family of Mallory Beach  a 19-year-old woman who died in a 2019 crash in the Murdaugh family boat. A hearing for the boat crash lawsuit was also scheduled for the week of the murders. It was postponed following Maggie and Pauls murders.

Now, separate from his murder trial, Mr Murdaugh is currently facing around 100 charges for stealing almost $8.5m from law firm clients dating back to 2011. The attorney, who has since been disbarred, represented the clients in wrongful death lawsuits before allegedly pocketing the settlement money for himself.

Murdaughs best friend sobs as he reveals how suspect stole money

Mr Murdaughs former best friend of 40 years broke down in tears in court as he described the moment that he learned the disgraced attorney had stolen millions of dollars from his law firm clients  and $192,000 from himself.

Chris Wilson choked up with emotion as he said the betrayal knocked me down and revealed that I dont know how to think any more about the man he had known and loved for most of his life.

Mr Wilson testified that the two attorneys worked on a case together where Mr Murdaugh made a $792,000 cut.

At Mr Murdaughs request, Mr Wilson made the check payable directly to him instead of PMPED. Then, in July 2021  one month on from the murders  Mr Wilson said that his friend got in touch saying he had been unable to structure the fees as planned and needed to pay the money back and have it paid directly to PMPED.

Mr Murdaugh only had $600,000 to pay it back, with Mr Wilson saying that he covered the additional $192,000, on the basis that Mr Murdaugh would pay him back.

On 3 September 2021  three months on from the murders  Mr Wilson said he finally learned his friend had been scamming him and many other people. He confronted him the next day.

Choking back tears, Mr Wilson revealed that his longtime friend broke down and confessed to stealing the money to fund a secret 20-year opioid addiction.

He broke down crying, he said. I was so mad. I had loved the guy for so long, and I probably still loved him a little bit, but I was so mad, and I dont remember how it ended. How did I not know these things or see these things?

Law firm CFO confronted Murdaugh about missing money on day of murders

Jeanne Seckinger, the CFO at Mr Murdaughs former law firm PMPED, revealed she had confronted Mr Murdaugh over missing payments on the day of Maggie and Pauls murders.

She told the court that by 7 June 2021 the law firm partners had noticed $792,000 worth of legal fees missing from the case he worked with Mr Wilson.

When she approached Mr Murdaugh to ask him about it that morning she said he gave her a dirty look  something that she said she had ever received from him before.

Hours later, Maggie and Paul were shot dead.

Over the coming months, the law firm partners uncovered an alleged multi-million-dollar fraud scheme where he had stolen millions from their clients and pocketed it himself  reaching a head with the confrontation and resignation on 3 September.

The day after he was forced to resign, Mr Murdaugh was shot in the head in what turned out to be a botched hitman plot.

Son of housekeeper accuses Murdaugh of stealing $4m after her mystery death

Mr Murdaugh was accused of stealing a $4m settlement from his late housekeepers family, where prosecutors also raised questions about her mystery death.

Gloria Satterfield worked as the Murdaugh familys housekeeper and nanny for more than 20 years, before she died in a mysterious trip and fall at the family home in 2018.

Her son Tony Satterfield told the court how Mr Murdaugh allegedly swindled almost $4m in a wrongful death lawsuit payout from the family in the aftermath of her death.

The court was shown evidence of two separate settlements in the wrongful death suit  one for $505,000 and one for $3.8m. Mr Satterfield testified that Mr Murdaugh did not tell him about the settlements and that he did not receive one cent of the money.

Gloria Satterfield died in a trip and fall at the Murdaugh home in 2018 (Provided)

In June 2021  the same month that Maggie and Paul were shot dead  there were reports in the media about a settlement and Mr Satterfield said he chased Mr Murdaugh about the progress of the case.

Unbeknown to him, Mr Murdaugh had already allegedly received payouts and pocketed them for himself.

Now, Mr Murdaugh is charged with almost 30 criminal charges over the Satterfield settlement.

Prosecutor Creighton Waters also hinted at the ongoing uncertainty about the nature of her death.

Was she able to say how she fell? he asked.

No she was not, Mr Satterfied replied.

At the time, Satterfields death was regarded as an accidental fall  however her death certificate cited her manner of death as natural.

In September 2021, SLED announced that it was reopening an investigation into her death and, in early 2022, officials announced plans to exhume her body. The investigation is still ongoing and her body is yet to be exhumed.

Boat crash attorney says fuse was lit to expose Murdaughs financial crimes

Attorney Mark Tinsley testified without the jury present about the lawsuit he brought against Mr Murdaugh on behalf of the family of Mallory Beach and how it was putting his finances under increased scrutiny at the time of the murders.

Mr Tinsley told the court the Mr Murdaugh claimed he was broke and couldnt pay the settlement he was asking for his clients.

He didnt believe this  so he filed a motion compelling Mr Murdaugh to reveal his finances.

A hearing for the suit had been scheduled to take place on 10 June 2021 and Mr Tinsley testified that he expected to take the lawsuit to trial in the late summer of 2021. But, the proceedings were derailed because of the murders.

He said that the fuse had been lit to expose Mr Murdaughs slew of alleged financial crimes  but that his problems would likely be over if the family was the victim of an unspeakable tragedy.

Pretty quickly, I recognised that the case against Alex, if he were in fact the victim of some vigilante, would be over, he said.

Mallory Beach died in the 2019 boat crash (Facebook)

If the disgraced attorney was the victim of an unspeakable tragedy then no jury would side against him in the case, Mr Tinsley said.

He later testified: There wouldnt have been an explosion June 10. But the fuse was lit the moment that information became available in this case.

He added that Mr Murdaugh knew it was going to unravel and that the fuse was lit when he started stealing money.

Under redirect, the witness testified that if the hearing had taken place on 10 June it would have set in motion the process that wouldnt have stopped until Mr Murdaugh either settled the case or disclosed his finances.

Caretaker says fidgety Murdaugh lied about alibi  and offered her money

Muschelle Shelly Smith, who worked as a caregiver to Mr Murdaughs mother Libby from October 2019, told jurors about Mr Murdaughs unusual behaviour both on the night of the murders and in the days that followed.

She testified that a fidgety Alex Murdaugh showed up at his sick mothers house between 8.30pm and 9.30pm on the night of 7 June 2021  then left 20 minutes later.

She testified that it was unusual for him to visit at night and he was fidgety.

A few days after the murders, she testified that Mr Murdaugh spoke to her about his visit that night, telling her to tell authorities that he had stayed at his parents house for double the length of time that he had.

I was here 30 to 40 minutes, she said he told her.

The conversation left her feeling nervous, she said  so much so that she called her brother who is a police officer to relay what he had said to her.

Days after that initial conversation, Mr Murdaugh spoke to her again  this time offering to help her out with paying for her upcoming wedding and putting in a good word for her with her other job.

Ms Smith broke down in tears describing Mr Murdaugh and his family as a good family and told jurors under cross-examination that she believes his offers were simply him being a good person.

Blue tarp or blue raincoat?

Days after Mr Murdaughs offer with wedding expenses, Ms Smith testified that Mr Murdaugh showed up at his mothers house at 6.30am in the morning cradling a blue something in his hands.

She said he took it upstairs and left it before leaving again.

She also noticed for the first time that he had a cut or bruise on his forehead.

He returned sometime later that day driving a white truck, which he then left at the property and switched to a black truck.

Prosecutors said that law enforcement found a blue tarp and a blue rainjacket in a search of the home. The state says that gunshot residue was found on the jacket.

Under cross-examination, Ms Smith insisted that the item she saw him carrying was a blue tarp and not a blue rainjacket.

However, under redirect she was shown a photo of a bundled up blue item and asked if that was what she had seen. She confirmed it was.

Prosecutor holds up blue tarp during trial (AP)

Mr Waters said that was the rainjacket bundled up.

The judge denied a motion from the defence to strike the raincoat as evidence.

Gunshot residue found all over blue raincoat

Gunshot residue was found all over the mystery blue raincoat that Alex Murdaugh allegedly hid in his parents home in the days after the murders.

SLED forensic scientist Megan Fletcher testified that at least 38 gunshot residue (GSR) particles were found on the inside of the jacket  a significant number which would be consistent with a recently-fired gun being wrapped up inside the jacket.

She added that she stopped counting after reaching 38 but contended that she could have gone on to find more.

A smaller number was found on the outside.

The two firearms used to kill Maggie and Paul  an AR-15-style rifle and a shotgun  have never been found.

Blue raincoat shown in court (Jeff Blake Photo)

Mr Murdaughs hands, his shirt and shorts and the seatbelt buckle of his car also had smaller numbers of GSR particles on them. On his shoes, no gunshot residue was found.

Friend testifies that Murdaugh lied to him about being at kennels

Ronnie Crosby, PMPED partner and Mr Murdaughs friend of 25 years, revealed that the accused killer lied to him about going to the dog kennels that night, as he became the third state witness to say he is 100 per cent sure that the voice captured in Pauls cellphone video belongs to Mr Murdaugh.

Mr Crosby testified that he rushed to Moselle as soon as he learned about the murders and stayed with Mr Murdaugh until around 3.30am the following morning.

During that time, he had multiple conversations with his friend about his movements that night including where Mr Murdaugh told him personally that he had never gone down to the kennels that night.

That came up in one of the conversations, and he specifically said that he did not, he testified.

Instead, Mr Murdaugh gave him the same alibi story that he gave to law enforcement  that he was napping at the family home, woke up and drove to his parents home to visit his sick mother.

Mr Crosby also testified how he learned that Mr Murdaugh had been stealing millions of dollars from PMPED clients  and how the probe into missing payments was put on hold because of the murders.

Car data suggests holes in alibi

Data taken from Mr Murdaughs car has offered a potential timeline for his movements on the night of the murders  and suggests holes in the alibi he gave to his mothers caregiver.

FBI electronics engineer Dwight Falkofske testified that he extracted data from the onboard computer system of Mr Murdaughs 2021 Chevrolet Suburban, including call logs, contact lists, some location data and the state of the vehicle in terms of when it was turned on, when it was in and out of park mode, and when the doors were opened.

The data offers jurors a timeline for the vehicles movements  and therefore its driver Mr Murdaughs movements  on the night of 7 June 2021 when his wife Maggie and son Paul were shot dead on the familys 1,700-acre estate in Islandton.

The data indicates that Mr Murdaugh did leave his family home and drove to visit his sick mother at around 9.06pm, arriving at 9.22pm.

However, it also indicates that he only stayed at his parents home for 21 minutes  and not the 30 to 40 minutes he told Ms Smith to tell authorities  leaving again at 9.43pm.

The records show him arriving at Moselle at around 10pm. He called 911 at 10.07pm.

Murdaughs rehab text revealed

Annette Griswold, who worked as a paralegal at PMPED, also revealed how she learned that he had been stealing money from the firm.

Days after his fraud scheme came to light and he was ousted from PMPED, Mr Murdaugh checked into rehab.

Ms Griswold testified that she received a text from Mr Murdaugh in late September 2021 apologising for what he had done. He also sent the text to another colleague.

Text message Alex Murdaugh sent to his paralegal apologising for stealing funds (Post and Courier/Pool)

Hey, its Alex. Im finally feeling a little bit better each day, the text message said.

Im over the worst but still feel like i have the flu. Real weak. Im have been worried about yall and Im sorry I didnt get to tell yall myself. I know both of you have been hurt badly by me. I know it sounds hollow, but I am truly sorry.

The better I get, the more guilt I have. I have an awful lot to try to make right when I get out of here. The worst part is knowing I did the most damage to those I love the most. Im not sure how I let myself get where I did. I am committed to getting better and hope to mend as many relationships as I can.

You both are special people and important to me. Please know how sorry I am to have made you part of my misdeeds. I hope you are doing as well as possible. I love you very much.

Murdaugh text friend after time of murders

When he testified for a second time  this time in the presence of jurors  Mr Wilson told the court that he had spoken with Mr Murdaugh on the night of Maggie and Pauls murders.

Records show that Mr Murdaugh called him at 9.11pm on the night of 7 June. He said he asked Mr Murdaugh if he could call him back in a bit as he was busy.

Mr Murdaugh seemed normal at the time, he said.

Call records show Mr Wilson called him back at 9.20pm and Mr Murdaugh said he was just getting to his mothers house.

At 9.52pm, Mr Murdaugh sent him a text saying: Call me if you up.

Mr Wilson said he called him right away. The first time there was no answer so he called a second time and Mr Murdaugh answered and they had a brief chat about Mr Murdaughs mother.

Prosecutors say that Mr Murdaugh killed his wife and son at around 8.50pm.

Murdaugh asked housekeeper to clean home hours after murders

Mr Murdaugh asked his housekeeper to clean the family home on the morning after the murders of his wife and son  and then tried to get their stories straight about what clothes he was wearing before the killings.

Blanca Simpson, who worked as the Murdaugh family housekeeper for several years, revealed that Mr Murdaugh had asked her to come to Moselle on 8 June 2021  hours after the murders  to make the house the way Maggie liked.

When she went to the house, she said she noticed several very unusual things including pots being in the fridge instead of on the stove or sink and Maggies pyjamas and underwear lying neatly in the middle of the doorway of the laundry room.

She said it was very unusual, saying: It just didnt look right to me because Maggie didnt wear underwear with her pyjamas and the underwear appeared to be clean not dirty.

In the shower room, she said she also noticed a light puddle of water, a towel and a pair of khaki pants. (On the morning of 7 June, she told the court she had seen Mr Murdaugh wearing a pair of khaki pants.)

She testified that she then put the pants in the wash.

Ms Simpson also testified about the full outfit she saw Mr Murdaugh wearing on the morning of the murders  the khaki pants, a seafoam polo shirt, a blue sports coat and some house shoes.

As the person who cleaned all the Murdaugh familys clothing and the house, she revealed that she never saw the seafoam coloured shirt or the house shoes again after that day.

Murdaugh tried to get stories straight with housekeeper

Two months after the murders  in August 2021  she testified that Mr Murdaugh brought up what shirt he was wearing on the morning of the murders.

The two of them were at one of the Murdaughs properties and he said to her: I need to talk to you, come here sit down.

She did and Mr Murdaugh, while pacing, said: I got a bad feeling ... somethings not right.

Mr Murdaugh mentioned to her that theres a video and said you remember the Vinnie Vine shirt... I was wearing that shirt that day, she testified.

Ms Simpson said that she believed he was trying to make sure that she told law enforcement the same story about he was wearing that fateful day.

Murdaugh insisted Maggie and Paul come home on night of murders

Jurors also heard about phone calls and text messages between Ms Simpson and Maggie  revealing that Mr Murdaugh had insisted both Maggie and Paul come to the property at Moselle on the day of the murders.

Ms Simpson told the court that Maggie texted her saying: Alex wants me to come home.

Maggie liked being at the family beach house in Edisto and had been preparing to host a big July 4 gathering there, she said.

The text messages between Maggie and Blanca (Pool/Avery Wilks)

In a phone conversation, Maggie also mentioned that Mr Murdaugh wanted her to come to Moselle that day and she seemed a bit disappointed, she said.

She sounded like she didnt want to come home... she sounded like she was a little disappointed, she said.

Mr Murdaugh had also asked Paul to come home too because he wanted his son to fix something on the property, Ms Simpson testified.

Maggie was concerned about money and husbands truthfulness

Prior to her murder, Maggie had confided in Ms Simpson about concerns with the familys finances  and concerns that Mr Murdaugh was not being truthful with her about the extent of their situation, she said.

She said that Maggie had asked to speak to her and they went in a room in the home together where Maggie broke down crying.

She was concerned about the amount of money they were requesting on the lawsuit  $30m is what she told me, she said.

Maggie told her that she felt Alex was not being truthful to her about the lawsuit... she said he doesnt tell me everything, testified Ms Simpson.

Under cross-examination, Ms Simpson told the court that she got the impression Mr Murdaugh adored his wife.

However, Ms Simpson damningly became the fourth witness to identify Mr Murdaugh as the voice in the video at the dog kennels moments before the murders.

No blood found on Murdaughs shirt

South Carolina Law Enforcement Division Agent Sara Zapata said that no blood was confirmed on the white shirt that Mr Murdaugh was wearing on the night of the murders.

However the negative result could be due to some of the tests carried out. Preliminary tests had found probable blood stains.

Prior to the trial, reports said that blood spatter was found on Mr Murdaughs clothing but prosecutors appear to have abandoned this argument.

Suspected blood stains found on Alex Murdaughs shirt (The Independent)

Instead, they are arguing he changed his clothing after the murders as he claimed to have moved the bodies, but no blood was found in the white t-shirt.

Blood was found on the steering wheel of Mr Murdaughs SUV, jurors heard.

Paul was facing killer when he was shot, says pathologist

Forensic pathologist Dr Ellen Riemer testified about the extent of the injuries suffered by Maggie and Paul.

Dr Riemer, who performed the autopsies, revealed that Paul was likely standing with his face tilted towards his killer when he was shot.

The first bullet  to the chest  likely left him standing but the second bullet blew the inside of his head, leaving almost all his brain matter detached from his body.

Dr Reimer said that stippling was found on Pauls chest wound, indicating the shot was fired from within three feet, but not closer than six inches. There was no soot, which would indicate a closer shot.

Maggie was also facing her killer when she was first shot, the expert said.

She first suffered a gunshot wound to her left breast, and the bullet travelled upward to the left side of her face. The second shot went through her kidney, which probably caused her to bend over and while in that position, she was shot in the chest and to the back of her head, Dr Riemer said.

Cameras in the courtroom were requested not to show the graphic autopsy pictures while Mr Murdaugh wept in court.

Maggies sister says Murdaugh told her killer had planned murders for long time

Maggies sister Marian Proctor took the stand on 14 February where she revealed her brother-in-laws odd comments in the aftermath of the murders.

She recalled one conversation where she said he reassured her that his wife and son did not suffer in their brutal murders.

Now I dont know that thats true, Ms Proctor told prosecutors through tears.

At a later time, she said she asked him if he had any idea who was responsible.

Her brother-in-law responded by telling her the killer had planned the murders for a long time.

[He said] that he did not know who it was but that whoever did it had thought about it for a long time, she said.

Marian Proctor, Maggie Murdaughs sister, testifies against her brother-in-law (News19)

Ms Proctor said Mr Murdaugh also seemed more eager to clear Pauls name in the boat crash than he was about finding the killer.

[Mr Murdaugh] said that his number one goal was clearing Pauls name. And I thought that was so strange because my number one goal was finding out who killed my sister and Paul ... I dont know how he could have thought about anything else, she said.

We never talked about it. We never talked about finding the person, who could have done it. It was just odd. We were sort of living in fear because we thought this horrible person was out there, Ms Proctor said.

We were mostly afraid for Alex and Buster but we didnt know the motive behind the killings. We thought it probably had something to do with the boat case. And we thought that up until September. And then things started to change a little bit.

Sister-in-law reveals affair years before murders

Ms Procter also testified about a time when Maggie discovered her husband was having an affair.

In the absence of the jury, Ms Proctor claimed that although the affair had happened 15 years ago and they were able to work through it, it was still a sore point in the marriage and Maggie had brought up again around the time of the murders.

She did not think anyone was still going on, it just bothered her, Ms Proctor said, also saying that Maggie made her husband leave the house years ago when she first became suspicious.

The defence denied the affair and asked the judge to disregard the testimony  something the judge agreed to.

Mr Murdaughs sister-in-law also revealed, in the presence of the jury, that the family knew about his opioid abuse.

Maggie even nicknamed Paul the Little Detective as he kept an eye on his fathers behaviour and opioid use.

Dog caretaker reveals unusual state of kennels

Dale Davis, who cared for the Murdaughs dogs at the kennels, said that puddles of water were not where they should have been, the hose had clearly been used and the dogs were in the wrong kennels when police arrived on the scene of the murders.

Prosecutors have suggested that Mr Murdaugh cleaned up himself and the crime scene after the murders before building an alibi for that night.

The kennels and feeding room where Paul was shot dead (FOX19)

Under cross examination, Mr Davis confirmed that the hose was already in a different position to where he had left it in the cellphone video captured by Paul.

He also recounted a time when Mr Murdaugh couldnt bring himself to put down a dog.

Police interview footage reveals wild inconsistencies in alibi

Footage from an 11 August 2021 police interview with Mr Murdaugh was played in court.

In the interview, which has never been seen before, SLED Special Agent David Owen confronted Mr Murdaugh about wild inconsistencies in his alibi in a police interview two months on from the murders.

Among the inconsistencies were: how long Mr Murdaugh spent at his mothers home that night; whether or not he went to the dog kennels; the different clothes he was wearing; the timeline of when he was at his law firm; and the reason Maggie had gone to the family estate that day.

Mr Murdaugh denied that his voice is in Pauls cellphone video  something multiple witnesses have testified is Mr Murdaugh.

The police interview also revealed Mr Murdaugh claiming he had spent 45 minutes to an hour at his sick mothers house that night  a timeline that has been refuted by both car data and testimony from his mothers carer.

The accused killer also claimed that he wasnt expecting his wife home but later learned she had come to the property because she was worried about him. Ms Simpson testified he had told Maggie and Paul to come to the home that night.

It wasnt one inconsistency. It was several inconsistencies within a period of time that were repeated, Agent Owen testified in court, adding that Mr Murdaugh was the only known suspect at that time.

The footage also showed Mr Murdaughs apparent lack of surprise when he was told for the first time that his wife and son had been murdered by the familys own guns.

Video shows moment police ask Murdaugh if he killed wife and son

Near the end of the police interview, the agent is seen telling Mr Murdaugh that he has a few more questions.

Then, in a bombshell moment, the officer asked Mr Murdaugh for the first time if he had killed his wife and son.

Did you kill Maggie? he asked.

Mr Murdaugh replied: No... Did I kill my wife? No, David. When the agent asked if he knows who did, Mr Murdaugh said: No, I do not know who did.

Did you kill Paul? Agent Owen continued.

No, I did not kill Paul, Mr Murdaugh said.

Agent Owen said he had to go where the evidence and the facts take me as he told him: I dont have anything that points to anybody else at this time.

Alex Murdaugh is seen during an 11 August interview with law enforcement (Law & Crime)

At that moment, Mr Murdaugh realised for the first time that he was the prime suspect in the case.

So does that mean that I am a suspect? Mr Murdaugh asked.

Murdaugh spent $50,000 a week on drugs

Mr Murdaugh spent a staggering $50,000 a week on drugs which he was buying from Curtis Edward Smith, defence attorney Jim Griffin told the court.

During cross-examination of Agent Owen, Mr Griffin claimed that Mr Smith  Mr Murdaughs alleged drug dealer, distant cousin, former law firm client and accused co-conspirator in a bizarre September 2021 botched hitman plot  in turn owed money to a local cowboys gang, said Mr Griffin.

The defence attorney grilled Agent Owen about why the members of this unidentified gang were never treated as suspects and why their DNA was not tested against evidence taken from the crime scene.

The special agent testified earlier that, by August 2021, Mr Murdaugh was the one and only suspect in the brutal slayings.

The cross-examination somewhat backfired, as it led the judge to reverse a ruling, allowing jurors to hear testimony about the botched hitman plot  and potentially from Mr Smith, infamously known as Cousin Eddie, himself.

On 4 September 2021  three months on from the murders  the disgraced attorney was ambushed in what he initially claimed was a drive-by shooting along a road in Hampton County. He checked into rehab the following day, announcing that he was struggling with a 20-year opioid addiction and that he had resigned from his law firm PMPED.

But, Mr Murdaughs story about the roadside shooting soon unravelled and he confessed to law enforcement that he had orchestrated the saga, paying Mr Smith to shoot and kill him in an assisted suicide plot so that his surviving son Buster could get a $10m life insurance windfall.

Both Mr Smith and Mr Murdaugh were then arrested and charged over the incident.

Killer allegedly ambushed Paul and shot Maggie on knees as she fled

Dr Kenny Kinsey, an Orangeburg County sheriffs deputy and crime scene expert, gave graphic testimony walking jurors through the victims final terrifying moments including each of the gunshots they suffered and where the gunman stood while firing each shot.

He revealed that the killer ambushed Paul in the feeding room of the dog kennels leaving him with no time to defend himself.

The first shot, which struck Paul in the chest and arm, was not fatal.

The feeding room and dog kennels where Paul was shot dead (FOX19)

The 22-year-old remained standing for several moments and then moved slowly towards the door of the feeding room  and towards his killer. As he reached the door frame, he was shot a second time in the shoulder and brain and fell forward landing outside the feeding room.

After killing Paul, the gunman then left the feeding room area and approached Maggie outside.

In her final terrifying moments, she faced her killer and backed away, knocking into the familys ATV before being gunned down by her killer.

She was struck twice before falling to her knees, at which point the killer shot her twice in the head.

Jurors were shown a photo of a tire impression on the back of Maggies calf  which the expert said was from the tire of the ATV under the hanger next to Maggies body.

Moment Murdaugh confessed to botched hitman plot

Following the judges reversal of a ruling, jurors finally heard evidence of the botched hitman plot as SLED Senior Special Agent Ryan Kelly was called to the stand.

Jurors heard Mr Murdaugh claim  first in the 911 call and then in a police interview in hospital  he was ambushed in a drive-by shooting by a nice-looking white male, aged 30-40 with facial hair and close-cropped hair.

Mr Kelly testified about how a sketch artist was called in to help capture Mr Murdaughs description of the non-existent man, with the sketch being presented in court.

Curtis Eddie Smith on left and the composite sketch of the man Alex Murdaugh falsely claimed shot him (Colleton County Courthouse)

Jurors then heard audio of a call Mr Murdaugh and his lawyers made to Agent Kelly on 13 September 2021  nine days after the shooting  where he confessed to orchestrating the entire plot with Mr Smith.

In the call, which had never been heard before, Mr Murdaugh told the agent he had believed his family would be better off without him because he knew his ousting from his law firm and his string of financial crimes were about to come out.

I was in a very bad place, he said. I thought it would be better for me not to be here anymore. I thought that it would make it easier on my family for me to be dead.

He insisted that he did not pay Mr Smith to kill him, something the agent told him doesnt make any sense to me.

In the audio he also admitted he had spent up to $60,000 a week buying drugs from Mr Smith  using ill gotten money  but dismissed any connection between his drug abuse and the murders of Maggie and Paul.

Prosecutors claim that the roadside shooting saga was part of Mr Murdaughs pattern of creating violence to get away with things  with the shooting coming just one day after he was confronted by PMPED for stealing millions from clients.

Car data places Murdaugh at spot where Maggies phone was dumped

Newly-obtained car data has placed Mr Murdaugh at the spot where his wifes phone was later found dumped  before he quickly sped away from the scene.

General Motors had contacted law enforcement to hand over a trove of data from Mr Murdaughs 2021 Chevy Suburban, including never-before-seen speed and GPS data, days after an agent testified about data from the car.

It shows the disgraced legal dynasty heir left the family home in his 2021 Chevy Suburban at 9.07pm on the night of 7 June 2021  just minutes after he allegedly shot and killed Maggie and Paul.

One minute later, while driving at a speed of 42 mph, his car passed the very spot along Moselle road where Maggies cellphone was recovered from the shrubbery the next day.

Map shows Alex Murdaughs car at the spot where Maggies phone was later found (Law & Crime)

After passing that spot, his car then picked up speed, reaching 52mph just one minute later at 9.09pm and continuing to go at a high speed all the way to his mothers house.

After passing that location, the defendants vehicle accelerates, SLED Agent Peter Rudofski testified.

Just 17 seconds passed between arrival at kennels and 911 call

In another bombshell moment, the data revealed that less than 20 seconds passed between the moment Mr Murdaughs car arrived at the dog kennels and the start of his 911 call where he claimed he found Maggie and Pauls bodies.

During the 911 call  and in interviews Mr Murdaugh gave in the aftermath of the murders  he claimed he had touched both his wife and sons bodies to check for signs of life before calling 911.

He also claimed that when he moved Paul, his cellphone popped out of his pocket. He said he picked it up but then put it back down on his son.

The data shows that Mr Murdaughs car arrived at the kennels at 10.05.57pm, he said.

Mr Murdaugh made the 911 call 10.06.14pm  just 17 seconds after his car pulled into the kennels.

The data also showed a drastic change in speed from Mr Murdaughs drivign on the day of the murders  to his driving to and from his mothers house in the aftermath.

Maggie and Paul found bags of pills month before murders

A bombshell voicemail message has revealed that Maggie and son Paul found bags of pills in the accused killers bag just one month before their murders.

The message, on 6 May 2021, shows Paul confronting his father about the discovery of the drugs  at a time when the disgraced attorney claims he was spending up to $60,000 a week to feed a 20-year opioid addiction.

I am still in EB because when you get here we have to talk. Mom found several bags of pills in your computer bag, it says, referring to Edisto Beach, the Murdaugh familys beach home.

The voicemail Paul Murdaugh left for his father one month before the murders (Law & Crime)

It is not clear whether Mr Murdaugh responded to the message left by his son or if the family members confronted him about the drugs in person.

Days later on 26 May 2021  12 days prior to her murder  Maggie then carried out several internet searches seeking to identify different types of pills.

Then, on 3 June 2021  four days before he allegedly killed his wife and son  Mr Murdaugh sent a voicemail to then-Palmetto State Bank CEO Russell Laffitte asking him for money.

I need to extend farm credit line another 600k. My dad will sign also if needed. How much turnaround will that take? he asked.

Buster says his father was destroyed by murders

Mr Murdaughs surviving son Buster took the stand in his fathers defence for the murders of his mother and brother.

The 26-year-old said that his father had been destroyed and heartbroken after the murders.

In what marks the first time he has ever spoken out publicly about the murders, he recounted the moment that he learned that his mother and brother were dead.

Buster said that Mr Murdaugh called him that night and asked him if he was sitting down.

He sounded odd and then he told me that my mom and brother were shot, he recalled.

He headed to the family home and foudn his father heartbroken and barely able to speak.

He was destroyed, he was heartbroken. I walked in the door and saw him and gave him a hug... just broke down, he said.

During calm, controlled testimony, Buster appeared to water down  but not refute  some key points in the prosecutions case, including his fathers behaviour on the day of the murders, the clothes he was wearing and the police interview where he appeared to unwittingly confess to killing his wife and son.

Buster Murdaugh, the son of Alex Murdaugh, testifies during his fathers trial (AP)

Defence witness claims shooter is 52

Mike Sutton, a forensic engineer who specialises in external ballistics, took the witness stand for the defence and suggested that Maggie was gunned down by a 52 shooter  and not her 64 husband.

Based on the projection of one of the bullets at the crime scene, Mr Sutton told the court that he believes the assailant who shot Maggie with an AR-15-style rifle had to be 52 to 54.

Mr Murdaugh is 64 tall.

In my opinion, its very unlikely that he fired that shot, he testified.

You would have to be bending over and have your shooting hand down at or below your kneecap. It just makes it very unlikely that a tall person made that shot.

Jurors were shown 3D animations of the area around the dog kennels and images of anonymous shooters.

During a tense cross-examination, the prosecution sought to cast doubts on Mr Suttons credibility  questioning his lack of training and gunshot expertise, mockingly referring to the defences alleged assailant as an 11 or 12-year-old child and suggesting his testimony was little more than guesswork.

Baseball-sized piece of Pauls skull left at crime scene

Jurors heard that a piece of his sons skull the size of a baseball was left behind at the crime scene by South Carolina investigators.

Mr Murdaughs former law firm partner at PMPED Mark Ball described a chaotic crime scene on both the night of the murders and the next day  with evidence left out in the elements or left behind altogether.

Mr Ball, who knew Mr Murdaugh for three decades and was close to the family, said that SLED had released the crime scene back to the Murdaugh family by the morning of 8 June 2021  just hours on from the murders.

He said he went down to the dog kennels of the familys Moselle estate in Islandton and made a grim discovery.

A piece of Pauls skull the size of a baseball was there, he said.

It really infuriated me, he said, adding that it was still a pretty raw scene.

The defences case has repeatedly sought to cast doubts on the preservation and collection of evidence from the crime scene  indicating that the investigation into the murders may have been botched from the get go.

On the night of the murders, Mr Ball testified that the area wasnt taped off and law enforcement officials, friends and family were walking all over the crime scene.

Defence witness places Murdaugh at kennels

The defence witness appeared to do a favour for the prosecution when he said he now has no doubt that the third voice in the kennel video is Mr Murdaughs.

Mr Ball testified that Mr Murdaugh told him on the night of the murders that he had never been down to the kennels that day. He then continued to tell him that version of events at least three times over the coming days and weeks.

When asked about the video from the kennels, he said he has no doubt at all that the three voices were Alex, Maggie and Paul.

He said that he had not seen the kennel video until about a month a go but, now that he has, he knows his friend lied to him.

Murdaugh confesses to lying about alibi on night of murders

In a dramatic day in court on 23 February, Mr Murdaugh took the stand in his own murder trial and confessed that he had lied about his alibi on the night of the murders.

At the start of testimoy, the disgraced attorney admitted that he had lied about not going to the dog kennels with Maggie and Paul on the night of 7 June 2021.

He blamed his opioids addiction for giving him paranoid thinking and his distrust of SLED which together led him to lie to law enforcement agents, family members and friends on multiple occasions and for the past 20 months.

On June 7, I wasnt thinking clearly. I dont think I was capable of reason. And I lied about being down there. And Im so sorry that I did, he said, his eyes brimming up with tears.

Oh what a tangled web we weave. Once I told the lie, and I told my family, I had to keep lying, he testified.

This is the first time that Mr Murdaugh has ever confessed publicly or to law enforcement that he had lied.

This confession comes after jurors have seen Pauls damning cellphone video which places him at the scene of the murders  with multiple witnesses identifying his voice in the footage.

Murdaugh sobs as he describes finding murder scene  and insists innocence

While confessing to lying, he continued to insist his innocence of the murders.

I did not shoot my wife or my son any time, ever, he told his attorney Mr Griffin.

Mr Murdaugh spoke fondly of his wife and son  who he repeatedly referred to as Paw Paw  as he faced jurors head on and broke down in tears on multiple occasions.

My boy was lying face down... I could see his brain laying on the sidewalk. I didnt know what to do, he said of Pauls body.

He dismissed the significance key parts of the prosecutions case  such as his change in clothing and his alleged attempts to get his story straight with his mothers carer and his housekeeper.

Alex Murdaugh gives testimony during his murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina (AP)

Murdaugh confesses to financial crimes and roadside shooting

Mr Murdaugh also confessed to stealing money from his law firm and to orchestrating a bizarre botched hitman plot  but continued to deny killing his wife and son.

Mr Murdaugh blamed his alleged financial crimes on a 20-year opioid addiction, which he said he had spent years battling.

Im not quite sure how it got the way it got but I was battling addiction for so many years. I was spending so much money on pills, he said.

He claimed that he developed his addiction after injuring his knee in college, and his addiction just escalated after that.

When asked how long he had been clean of drugs, he smiled at the jury and said: 535 days and Im very proud of that.

In a move that sought to undermine the prosecutions theory of a motive, Mr Murdaugh insisted that he was not concerned that his financial crimes were on the brink of exposure on the day of the murders.

His law firm was asking questions about missing payments  with his CFO confronting him about $792,000 on the day of the murders  and a hearing in the 2019 fatal boat crash lawsuit was scheduled for that week.

He also sought to dismiss the significance of a voicemail message he sent to former Palmetto State Bank CEO Russell Laffitte four days before the murders  and suggested that the deaths of Maggie and Paul could not have benefited him financially.

Mr Murdaugh insisted that there was $7m equity in Moselle home and that the home was fully in Maggies name.

The entire Moselle property was 100 percent in Maggies name, he said, so her death actually made it more difficult to access his finances.

On the botched hitman plot, Mr Murdaugh told the court that believed it would be better for him to be dead.

I knew all this was coming to a head. I knew how humiliating it would be for my son... Id been through so much, he said.

At the time... I thought it was the better thing to do.

Murdaugh accused of wearing solicitor to try to influence boat crash victims

Mr Murdaugh snapped during a tense cross-examination about his familys prominence in the low country, his alleged abuse of power, and the string of legal clients who he stole millions of dollars from.

The disgraced legal dynasty heir was confronted by prosecutor Creighton Waters on Thursday, who reeled off a list of real people who had suffered extensive injuries or losses  and were then swindled by the now-disbarred attorney.

In one case, Mr Murdaugh stole $6m from Hakeem Pinckney, a man who became a quadruplegic after a car crash.

The cross grew increasingly heated as Mr Waters delved into the financial crimes with Mr Murdaugh repeatedly returning to what the prosecutor said was a rehearsed line.

How many times did you practice that answer before your testimony today? he asked.

Mr Murdaugh fired back: Ive never practiced that answer.

He also sparred with the prosecutor over the prominence of the Murdaugh family in Hampton County with Mr Murdaugh admitting that people likely saw him as a successful lawyer and that he and his family were prominent in the local legal circles.

They had a lot of friends in law enforcement, he said.

He also admitted that he may have used his solicitors badge to curry favour with law enforcement  including on the night of the boat crash.

The court was shown a surveillance image of Mr Murdaugh at the hospital where the other teenagers were taken. He is wearing his soliticors badge hanging out of his pocket in the image.

Mr Murdaugh denied telling the survivors not to cooperate with law enforcement and said he wasnt sure why he had his badge on him  but may have done so to get a warmer response from police.

I never told anybody not to cooperate with law enforcement, he insisted.

Did I pull my badge out when I went in the room with those kids? I know I did not do that.

The jury also learned how he fitted blue police lights in his vehicle  even though he was never a member of law enforcement.

Murdaugh cant remember last conversation with wife and son

During a testy cross-examination on 24 February, Mr Murdaugh claimed he cant remember the last conversation he ever had with his wife Maggie and son Paul  just minutes before they were gunned down on the familys hunting estate.

The disgraced attorney was confronted by Mr Waters about his new story where he admits to being at the kennels with his wife and son.

When asked what he did at the kennels, he said that he was talking to Mags.

Yet, he was unable to recall what their final conversation was about.

I dont remember the exact details of what we talked about, he said.

Under further prompting from the prosecutor, Mr Murdaugh said that Maggie was very concerned about Paul and so he believes they may have spoken about that. He also said he believes he spoke to Paul was not sure what about.

Murdaugh is accused of changing alibi to fit evidence

The testy exchange came as Mr Waters confronted the accused killer about his new story about being at the dog kennels  which came after 20 months of lying to officials, friends and family members.

The prosecutor pointed out that this confession only came after jurors saw Pauls damning cellphone video which places him at the scene of the murders with his wife and son at 8.44pm and after multiple witnesses had identified his voice in the footage.

You, like you have done so many times in your life, had to back up and make a new story to fit with the facts of your life, Mr Waters said.

Mr Murdaugh denied this and instead sought to blame the prosecution for his lies rumbling on until his trial testimony, claiming that he tried to tell the truth  but that the state would not speak to him.

In a dramatic moment  laced with objections from the defence  Mr Waters pointed out that Mr Murdaughs own attorneys were not apparently aware of his change in story either.

Jurors heard how  at a time when Mr Murdaugh claims he wanted to come clean  his attorneys did a national TV interview in November last year repeating your own lies about his alibi.

Murdaugh: No one else at kennels that night

In another bombshell comment, Mr Murdaugh insisted that there was no one else in the vicinity of the kennels when he was there  or the familys dogs would have reacted.

There was nobody around that the dogs didnt know, he said.

Pressed about the specific time that he left, Mr Murdaugh estimated that he likely left around 8.47pm.

With the drive back up to the house in the golf cart taking a couple of minutes, Mr Waters pointed out that he would have got there at around 8.49pm.

Data indicates that Maggie and Paul last used their cellphones at 8.49pm and were shot dead around 8.50pm.

Mr Murdaugh testified that he didnt hear any gunshots after arriving back at the house.

The accused killer was grilled about his cellphone data which did not record any steps between 8.09pm and 9.02pm.

Mr Murdaugh claimed he must have left his phone at the house while at the kennels  though he claims to have been back for aroudn 12 minutes by that point.

In a four-minute period between 9.02 and 9.06pm, Mr Murdaughs cellphone then recorded 283 steps  movement Mr Murdaugh struggled to explain other than saying he was getting ready to go to his mothers home.

Murdaughs timeline of touching bodies disputed

Mr Murdaugh was grilled about discrepancies around when he allegedly touched the bloody bodies of his wife and son.

In direct questioning on Thursday, Mr Murdaugh again claimed to touch both vicitms  but appeared to change the timing, saying he did it while on the phone to the 911 dispatcher.

Mr Waters confronted him about this saying that he had repeatedly told law enforcement that he had touched both Maggie and Paul prior to the 911 call.

I know I checked them but I dont think I checked them before calling 911, Mr Murdaugh said.

In the 911 call, Mr Murdaugh does say he has already touched them but it is unclear if this was earlier in the call or prior to the call being placed.

However, Mr Waters suggested that this was another attempt by Mr Murdaugh to amend his story to try to fit the irrefutable evidence.

Data from the accused killers SUV has previously revealed that less than 20 seconds passed between his car arriving at the scene and him placing the 911 call  a brief time that casts doubt on him touching the bodies beforehand.

Murdaugh claims boat wreck is motive for murders

Mr Murdaugh has claimed that he still believes his wife and son were murdered by unknown assailants because of the 2019 fatal boat wreck.

The social media response that came from that was vile. The things that were said about what they would do to PawPaw, they were so over the top, he said.

I believed then and I believe today that the wrong person saw and read that because  I can tell you for a fact that the person or people who did what I saw on June 7  they hated Paul Murdaugh and they had anger in their heart.

Breaking down in tears again, he said: And that is the only, only reason that somebody could be mad at PawPaw like that and hate him like that.

Mallory Beach died in the 2019 boat wreck (Facebook)

Prosecutor Creighton Waters scoffed at Mr Murdaughs theory of a random vigilante acting over the boat wreck  bringing up the defences previous theory that the shooter was just 52.

He also pointed out that there was no evidence to support the accused killers theory.

So what youre telling this jury is its a random vigilante, the 12 year-old 52 people that just happen to know that Paul and Maggie were both at Moselle on June 7, that knew theyd be at the kennels alone on June 7, knew that you would not be there but only between the times of 8.49pm and 9.02pm, he said.

That they show up without a weapon assuming theyre going to find weapons and ammunition there. That they commit this crime during that short time window and then they travel the same exact route that you do around the same time to Almeda?

Murdaugh accused of lying on stand  about reason for alibi

After an hours-long cross, a bombshell moment unfolded when Mr Murdaugh was accused of lying on the stand  about why he had lied over his alibi on the night of the murders.

Mr Murdaugh had testified that he had lied for the past 20 months because he was paranoid over his suspicions of SLED, warnings from his law firm partners about always have a lawyer present when speaking to the police and investigators having swabbed his hands for gunshot residue.

But, in a dramatic moment, Mr Waters poured cold water on this testimony as he played a clip from bodycam footage from the first officer to respond to the scene.

In the video, Colleton County Sheriffs Sgt Daniel Greene asked Mr Murdaugh when he last saw Maggie and Paul.

It was earlier tonight. I dont know the exact time, he said.

I was probably gone about an hour and a half to my moms and I saw them about 45 minutes before that.

Mr Waters pointed out that none of the factors Mr Murdaugh claimed prompted his paranoid fuelled lies were present at that time.

But you still told the same lie, Mr Waters confronted him. And all those reasons you just gave this jury about the most important part of your testimony was a lie, too. Isnt that true, Mr Murdaugh?

Mr Murdaugh responded: I disagree with that.

The prosecutor said he had nothing further leaving Mr Murdaugh, looking somewhat dejected and defeated by what had just taken place.

Defence witnesses say Paul was shot in head at point blank range

Two defence experts gave gruesome testimony detailing how Paul was shot in the back of the head at point blank range.

Forensic pathologist Dr Jonathan Eisenstat and crime scene analyst Tim Palmbach were called as witnesses for Mr Murdaughs defence team, where they both cast doubts on the prosecutions theory of how the murders unfolded.

Both experts testified that the killer held a shotgun to the back of Pauls head and pulled the trigger, with the force causing the 22-year-olds brain to explode out of his skull.

This explosive nature you never see that unless you have a high-energy source contact wound, testified Mr Palmbach.

The crime scene analyst and expert in blood spatter analysis said that seeing that head in the position it was, that is a contact wound from an high energy source weapon like a shotgun.

Tim Palmbach, a forensic scientist, demonstrates the affect of a shotgun blast (AP)

Because the shot was fired at point blank range  meaning the killer would also have had to be close to the 22-year-old when they pulled the trigger  the assailant would have been covered in the victims blood and other bodily substances, he said.

The contact wound theory disputes the testimony of Dr Ellen Riemer who performed autopsies on the bodies of the two victims. Dr Reimer said that the shooter fired from outside the feed room and the second, fatal shot had entered his shoulder and neck first, before travelling up to Pauls brain.

On Maggies wounds, Dr Eisenstat testified that he believes one of the five shots travelled in the opposite way to Dr Reimer. He testified that the killer fired a bullet down into Maggies head as she leaned forward while facing her killer. The bullet then travelled into her chest, he said.

Mr Palmbach also testified that  based on the evidence  it was likely that there were two shooters.

Murdaughs brother describes cleaning up what was left of Paul

Mr Murdaughs younger brother broke down in tears as he revealed how he cleaned up what was left of his nephew Paul the morning after the gruesome murders.

John Marvin Murdaugh, the youngest of the Murdaugh siblings, became the final witness in the defences case, telling jurors how he cleaned up his nephews blood, brain matter and skull fragments from the crime scene the morning after the murders.

John Marvin  who told jurors he had always had a very special relationship with the 22-year-old victim  said he had gone down to the dog kennels on 8 June 2021 and could see Pauls blood, brain matter and pieces of his skull left all over the feed room.

By then  just hours on from the murders  SLED had already released the scene back to the Murdaugh family.

It had not been cleaned up. I saw blood, I saw brains, I saw pieces of skull... I dont know what I was seeing, he said.

John Marvin testified that he set to work cleaning up what was left of Paul while he cried incontrollably.

I promise you no mother, father, aunt or uncle should ever have to see and do what I did that day. Im not blaming anybody. But I was just so overwhelmed, he said.

John Marvin testified that  as he cleaned up what was left of Paul  he made him a promise to find out who did this to him  something he said he has not yet done.

He said that his brother had a great relationship with his wife and son.

Officials told family about false blood spatter evidence

Besides the lack of clean-up of the crime scene, John Marvin also gave other testimony critical of the investigation including what he described as a baffling statement released by law enforcement, an apparent lack of urgency to locate Maggies cellphone and evidence law enforcement shared with him that turned out to be inaccurate.

John Marvin testified that he met with investigators a lot over the course of the investigation and had been shown evidence that officials had connecting his brother to the murders. He told the court how he later learned that some of the evidence was not accurate.

He recalled one day where he was asked about a blue raincoat which had been found during a search of an upstairs bedroom at their parents home in Almeda.

Lynn Murdaugh Goette, Alex Murdaugh's sister, speaks with John Marvin Murdaugh, standing, Brooklynn White and Buster Murdaugh, the son of Alex Murdaugh (AP)

John Marvin said he, his brother and sister were later shown the coat and he said he had never seen it before. However, he said he learned that it had been found in a closet in his parents home that was typically used to store junk.

A SLED agent also told him that they knew his brother was responsible for the murders because of blood spatter evidence found on the white t-shirt he was wearing the night of the murders.

They made reference to the shirt Alex was wearing that it was covered in blood, he said.

They went so far to tell me on the police bodycam he takes his shirt and wipes his face... and that thats how they knew that he was at the scene. That he was the one.

Prior to his indictment, a Colleton County grand jury was told that Mr Murdaughs shirt was covered in blood spatter  evidence that he was next to one of the victims when they were shot.

This later turned out to be false, with forensic tests finding no human blood on the shirt.

However, prosecutors allege that Mr Murdaugh actually changed his clothing and showered after the murders.

Pathologist refutes defence experts claims about murders

During the prosecutions rebuttal, Dr Ellen Riemer returned to the stand to push back against the two defence witnesses who argued Paul had been shot in the head at point blank range.

The forensic pathologist who carried out the autopsies on the bodies stood by her conclusions about the victims brutal wounds  and said that there is no way Pauls injuries are consistent with a contact shotgun wound to the head.

The damage to his head wounds would be so much worse, she said, saying that Pauls entire head would have been blown off  with both his entire face and skull exploded by the blast.

Instead, she said his face was largely intact and his skull had a large hole in it.

The pathologist, who said that she has carried out around 5,500 autopsies over the years, testified that she also found no evidence of soot or stippling on Pauls head during the autopsy  something that would be consistent with a contact wound.

She also disputed the defence experts testimony on Maggies fatal injury saying that the entrance wound in Maggies skull could only have come from below.

Multiple rebuttal witnesses contradict Murdaughs testimony

During the rebuttal case, the prosecution also sought to show jurors how Mr Murdaugh had continued to lie when he took the stand in his own defence last week  with two of the accused killers friends and colleagues, and a law enforcement officer disputing key aspects of his testimony.

Mark Ball returned to the stand to dispute Mr Murdaughs claim that he distrusted law enforcement  the reason he gave for why he had lied about his alibi.

I never heard Alex say he distrusted law enforcement and believed he had a good relationship with law enforcement, he said.

Mr Ball and Ronnie Crosby  both of whom went to Moselle the night of the murders  both also disputed Mr Murdaughs testimony about when he touched Maggies and Pauls bodies.

His two former friends said that he clearly told them after the murders that he touched the bodies prior to calling 911.

Former Hampton County Sheriff T. C. Smalls, the only rebuttal witness who had never before taken the stand, also contradicted Mr Murdaughs testimony that he had given him permission to fit blue lights in his vehicle.

I never had any knowledge that he had blue lights in the vehicle, said Mr Smalls, who retired in December after 39 years in law enforcement and has known Mr Murdaugh for many years.

Crime scene expert rubbishes theories on 52 shooter and Pauls injuries

Crime scene expert Dr Kenny Kinsey returned to the witness stand as the final rebuttal witness where he rubbished the preposterous and unscientific defence theories that Maggie was killed by a 52 shooter and Paul was shot in the head at point blank range.

In a graphic demonstration in the courtroom, Dr Kinsey and South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson acted out the defences version of how Paul was murdered  with the killer shooting him in the back of the head at point blank range.

Dr Kinsey testified that the state of the crime scene was inconsistent with the defences theory, saying that this wouldnt have caused blood, brain and other biological matter to hit the doorframe of the feed room.

To think that the pressure from flesh and bone will cause that pellet .those steel pellets They will turn around because of that pressure and go back the opposite direction, a 180 degree direction at enough velocity to hit an exterior and embed in the doorframe that doesnt happen, that doesnt happen in my opinion, he said.

Dr Kinsey said that Pauls wounds were also inconsistent with the injuries he has seen on around three dozen individuals shot at point blank range in the head saying that often the eyes will pop out, the facial bones will move round and pieces of pellet gather in the skin.

The crime scene expert also tore apart testimony from defence witness Mr Sutton who had claimed that Maggie was murdered by a 52 shooter  and not her 64 husband.

Dr Kinsey said Mr Suttons conclusion about both the angle of the bullet trajectories and the shooters height was unscientific and that he disagreed wholeheartedly that it would even be possible to come to determine this information.

The notion of being able to look at this evidence and say that its unscientific, he said. Its an unknown. There so many variables, he said.

Dr Kinsey testified that the killer could have been a 54, a 64 or a 74.
(WTNH)  Its been over 300 years since 34 men and women were accused of witchcraft in Connecticut. Now, they may have the chance to be exonerated.

While the history of witchcraft in Connecticut was difficult to track due to lack of documentation, the accusations led to the first large-scale witch trials in the American colonies, predating the infamous Salem Witch Trials by nearly 30 years.

During a resolution hearing on Wednesday, members of the Connecticut Witch Trial Exoneration Project (CWTEP) shared stories of the innocent witch-trial victims of the 17th-century Connecticut Colony.

The members urged the state of Connecticut to acknowledge the victims innocence.

CWTEP said legal procedures were radically different in the 17th century, and many court practices would no longer meet modern standards of proof today, according to court documents. Additionally, misogyny played a significant role in the trials and denied defendants their rights and dignity, CWTEP noted, which, combined with panic and superstition, led to the suffering of those accused.

Penguin to publish classic Roald Dahl editions after censorship controversy

The group asked the state to proclaim the innocence of those sentenced to death.

The following 11 Connecticut residents were executed for witchcraft between the 1640s and 1660s:

Alice Young (1647)

Mary Johnson (1648)

Joan Carrington (1651)

John Carrington (1651)

Goodwife Bassett (1651)

Goodwife Knapp (1653)

Lydia Gilbert (1654)

Mary Sanford (1662)

Nathaniel Greensmith (1663)

Rebecca Greensmith (1663)

Mary Barnes (1663)

In addition, CWTEP urged legislators to exonerate anyone who was indicted, forced to flee the state, banished  or even acquitted, but had their lives and reputations destroyed.

While not convicted, the following residents were said to have suffered after the year of their indictments (indicated in parentheses):

Goodwife Bailey (1655)

Nicholas Bailey (1655)

Elizabeth Godman (1655)

Elizabeth Garlick (1658)

Unknown person in Saybrook (1659)

Margaret Jennings (1661)

Nicholas Jennings (1661)

Judith Varlet (1662)

Andrew Sanford (1662)

William Ayers (1662)

Judith Ayers (1662)

James Wakely (1662)

Katherine Harrison (1668, 1669)

William Graves (1667)

Elizabeth Clawson (1692)

Hugh Crosia (1692)

Mercy Disborough (1692)

Mary Harvey (1692)

Hannah Harvey (1692)

Mary Staples (1692)

Winifred Benham (1697)

Winifred Benham Jr. (1697)

Elizabeth Seager (convicted and reprieved in 1665)

Story continues

Although only 34 people were convicted of witchcraft, the trauma likely endured, with families forced to live in shame for generations. Because of this, CWTEP would like the state of Connecticut to formally apologize to the descendants of those indicted, convicted, and executed for witchcraft.

A collections associate with the Connecticut Historical Society displays a 1669 complaint against a woman who was tried multiple times for witchcraft, the Associated Press reported. One of the complaints, according to the letter, blamed her giving headaches to someone who wore a hat she had wanted to purchase. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

Chief Attorney Sandra Norman-Eady and Librarian Jennifer Bernier of the Connecticut General Assembly said that while historians cannot say with absolute certainty what gave rise to the witch trials in Connecticut, many believe the primary cause was simply fear. Colonists needed something  or someone  to explain hardships like floods and epidemical sickness, and Satan was a prime suspect.

Witchcraft, defined as a crime of conjuration and dealing with evil and wicked spirits, has transformed in modern society. The Wicca modern pagan syncretic religion, which grew in the 50s, delves into self-help, healing and divination.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Colorado is failing to keep pace with many of its neighbors in the shift toward a renewable energy economy  with coal remaining the states dominant source of electricity generation, a new analysis has found.

The carbon-rich combustible is responsible for 37 percent of the states power, compared to the national average of 20 percent, according to a Center for Biological Diversity analysis of new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Sadly, the data reveals Colorado is still running on dirty fuels that continue to harm our health and spoil the states natural splendor, Robert Ukeiley, an environmental health attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement.

In addition to maintaining a reliance on coal, Colorado also generates less renewable energy than many other nearby states, the analysis found.

For example, although the Centennial State has 2 million more residents than Utah, Colorado generated less solar power than its western neighbor in 2022.

Colorado produced just 3,780 gigawatt-hours of electricity from solar in 2022, fueling 6 percent of the states power supply, according to the EIA data.

Meanwhile, Utah produced 4,616 gigawatt-hours from solar, or 12 percent of the states electricity.

As far as wind energy is concerned, this resource only accounted for 29 percent of Colorados electricity generation, or 16,706 gigawatt-hours, in 2022, the Center for Biological Diversity analysis noted.

In comparison, Iowa generated almost three times as much at 44,664 gigawatt-hours, which accounted for 63 percent of the states power supply.

Other states in the region also outperformed Colorado in statewide share of electricity fueled by wind: 55 percent in South Dakota, 37 percent in North Dakota, 47 percent in Kansas, 44 percent in Oklahoma, 35 percent in New Mexico and 31 percent in Nebraska, the analysis found.

In addition to Colorados heavy reliance on coal, the state last year depended on natural gas for 29 percent of its electricity generation, according to the data.

Story continues

The ongoing combustion of both coal and gas generates soot and sulfur dioxide pollution that increases the risk of illness to Coloradans, the Center for Biological Diversity stated.

This continued burning of fossil fuels also damages wildlife and trees, while creating unsightly haze in places like Rocky Mountain National Park, the statement added.

Ukeiley, the environmental health attorney, accused Colorados current administration  led by Gov. Jared Polis (D)  of both making excuses and hoping that the states energy will be cleaner in the future.

The people, forests and wildlife of Colorado cant hold their breath for years and years, Ukeiley said.

In response to the Center for Biological Diversity analysis, Conor Cahill, a spokesperson for Polis, described the group as out of touch in its attempt to shift the data in bizarre and contorted ways to fit their agenda.

The facts remain that Colorado continues to be a national leader in clean energy policy while making progress towards achieving Governor Poliss bold goal of 100 percent renewable energy by 2040, Cahill told The Hill in an emailed statement.

The state is on track to secure more than 80 percent renewable energy and an 85 percent carbon reduction from electricity in the next seven years, by the end of 2029, according to Cahill.

Josh Chetwynd, director of climate communications at the Colorado Energy Office  a non-regulatory branch of the governors office  argued that the claim that Colorado has less renewable energy than our neighboring states is incorrect and not support by the facts.

Colorado is a top-ten state for renewable energy production, Chetwynd said in an email, noting that Colorado uses almost three times more total renewable energy than Utah does.

The Centennial state generated a total of 38 percent of its energy from renewable sources in 2022  29 percent from wind, 6 percent from solar and 3 percent from hydroelectric  while only nine U.S. states used more renewables than Colorado, he explained.

Six of those are lesser-populated states with bigger wind resources, two are scarcely populated northeastern states with significant wood-derived biomass and one is California, Chetwynd stated.

It is true that Colorado is a state that has historically relied on coal generation as the largest source of electricity, he acknowledged.

Nonetheless, the Polis administration has approved legally binding plans to retire every remaining coal plant by the end of the decade, Chetwynd stressed.

Unlike many eastern states that have replaced coal with natural gas, Colorado is replacing this generation almost entirely with wind, solar and batteries, with natural gas just playing a backup role for reliability, he said.

Replacing high-cost energy sources such as coal is a top priority for the Polis Administration to protect Coloradans health and safety and save people money, Chetwynd added.

 Updated at 8:37 p.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday heard arguments about President Joe Bidens plan to forgive more than $400 billion of student debt over 30 years, and by most accounts, it didnt go well for the administration.

The conservative justices, who hold a 6-3 advantage on the court, seemed unsatisfied with the argument offered by U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar that the program reflects the will of Congress, which in 2003 authorized the executive branch to provide student debt relief in times of emergency, The Washington Posts Robert Barnes, Danielle Douglas-Gabriel and Ann E. Marimow write.

Chief Justice John Roberts made it clear that he doubted that the administration, as part of its response to the Covid-19 pandemic, was merely modifying the 2003 law, as allowed by the statute. Quoting former Justice Antonin Scalia, Roberts said: Modify, in our view, connotes moderate change. It might be good English to say that the French Revolution modified the status of the French nobility, but only because there is a figure of speech called understatement and a literary device known as sarcasm.

"We're talking about half a trillion dollars and 43 million Americans," Roberts added. "How does that fit under the normal understanding of modify?"

The conservative justices suggested that Congress would need to be involved explicitly in the creation of such a sizeable program, which would provide as much as $20,000 in student debt relief for millions of Americans. I think most casual observers would say if youre going to give up that much amount of money, if youre going to affect the obligations of that many Americans on a subject thats of great controversy, they would think thats something for Congress to act on, Robert said.

The skeptical justices also questioned the fairness of the plan, which would benefit one specific group of debtors (former students) but not others (those who borrowed money to start a business instead of going to school, for example). Why is it fair? asked Justice Samuel Alito. Why was it fair to the people who didnt get arguably comparable relief?

Story continues

While some analysts think that the White House may possibly have an advantage when it comes to the issue of standing  that is, is anyone really being harmed by the plan and therefore has standing to sue?  the fact that the justices jumped into the merits of the case suggests that they may have already dismissed that angle.

The bottom line: The conservative majority on the court clearly have doubts about the legality of the debt forgiveness plan, which is currently on hold amid legal challenges. But we wont know their decision until late June, when the current court session ends.

Like what you're reading? Sign up for our free newsletter.
Russian military

One unit is reportedly going to the Chervona Mohyla station in Luhansk Oblast.

On Feb. 27, another unit of the Russian Armed Forces was sent from the Polonka station (Brest Oblast) to the Gukovo station (Rostov Oblast) and then to the Chervona Mohyla station (Luhansk region).

The military train consisted of 50 cars, in particular:

10 passenger wagons (with approximately 500 troops);

three covered wagons (with equipment);

37 platform wagons (with military equipment).

Read also: Russia lacks forces and means to invade from Belarus in coming weeks  Ukraines intel

The new contingent is expected to arrive at its destination station in Russia around March 3. There will be a change of locomotive to a locomotive of the so-called DPR  one of the sham republics Russia set up in Ukraines Donbas in 2014.

Next, the contingent will go to the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, more precisely to the Chervona Mohyla station and further towards Debaltseve, and then to Vuhlehirsk.

Furthermore, the Hajun reported that on Feb. 27, two more military units with equipment and a trained contingent of the Russian army were sent from Belarus to the Donetsk/Luhansk oblasts (from the Lisova station and the Osipovichi station). In both contingents, the destination stations are located on the North Caucasus Railway.

Read also: Belarus invading Ukraine would be a mistake, Zelenskyy says

It is reported that the following were taken from Osipovichi:

six passenger cars (approximately 300 people);

five freight cars (equipment);

25 trucks (KamAZ, Ural, gazelles);

12 artillery pieces (most likely 152 mm Giatsint-B guns).

According to the monitoring group, at least 83 pieces of equipment, at least 800 personnel, and at least eight wagons with equipment and ammunition have already left Belarus.

Commander of the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Serhiy Nayev said that Russia does not have the resources for an offensive in the north of Ukraine.

According to him, there are currently 65,000 personnel of the Belarusian Armed Forces in Belarus, of which 4,000 are based in the border areas with Ukraine.

Story continues

According to him, there are currently 65,000 personnel of the Belarusian Armed Forces in Belarus, of which 4,000 are based in the border areas with Ukraine.

On Feb. 20, the spokesperson of the State Border Service Andriy Demchenko stated that there is currently no strike group on the territory of Belarus capable of launching a new attack on Ukraine from the north.

However, he emphasized that the enemy should not be underestimated and that the situation could change at any moment.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Calling all foodies: Regent Seven Seas Cruises will sail a new series of culinary cruises starting this year, the cruise line announced Tuesday.

The Epicurean Spotlight Voyages will launch this year as part of Epicurean Perfection, a new slate of food-focused programming for the luxury brand. The 11 specialty sailings will feature cooking demonstrations, wine tastings, food tours and more.

"Nothing enhances travel like cuisine," Andrea DeMarco, the line's president, said in a news release. "That is why we are unveiling our new Epicurean Perfection programming, so our guests have an unrivaled culinary experience onboard and ashore with our collection of world class restaurants, immersive shore excursions, tours, classes, and tastings. We're incredibly excited to launch our new Epicurean Spotlight Voyages with world-renowned chefs, vintners and sommeliers who will provide fascinating insights and unforgettable moments for our guests."

Can travelers still find cruise deals?: Yes ... for now

'A completely unique experience': Sail to Greenland's northern tip on this expedition cruise

When are the Epicurean Spotlight Voyages?

The sailings will take place between 2023 and 2025. The first cruise will sail from June 21 through 28 on the line's Seven Seas Explorer ship departing from Seward, Alaska.

Seven Seas Explorer is among the ships that will be offering the specialty cruises.

Where will the cruises sail?

The itineraries feature a variety of destinations around the world. The first sailing from Seward, Alaska to Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada will feature food journalist Mark Bittman and the line's executive culinary director, Wolfgang Maier.

Bittman will lead tours and cooking demonstrations that allow guests to explore local food, while Maier will share insights about how to source ingredients from various locales, according to the release.

Celebrity Cruises co-captains: Meet the brothers helming Celebrity Ascent

Family-friendly cruises: These 4 cruise lines have the best new onboard rides and attractions for families

Story continues

During a cruise from Rome to Venice, Italy departing Aug. 14, Chef Alain Roux of the three-Michelin-starred U.K. restaurant The Waterside Inn will prepare special dishes, while its chef instructor, Chef Michael Nizzero, will discuss the ins and outs of daily operations. Stephanie and Michael Honig of California's Honig Vineyard and Winery will be on board during a cruise leaving Athens for Rome on Nov. 6, and will host wine tastings, cocktail parties and other events.

Other destinations include Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and Tokyo, Japan.

How much do the Epicurean Spotlight Voyages cost?

The prices vary by itinerary, but the week-long June 21 cruise from Seward to Vancouver starts at $7,399 per person based on double occupancy, according to the line's website.

The fare includes all specialty culinary events, food, most drinks, gratuities, Wi-Fi and more.

Nathan Diller is a consumer travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Nashville. You can reach him at ndiller@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Regent Seven Seas sailing new culinary cruises through 2025
Western warnings about the possibility of China sending lethal military aid to Russia are well placed, military analysts told NBC News, as help from Beijing could be a crucial boost for the Kremlin's hopes of battlefield success in the months to come.

China is considering sending Moscow ammunition and artillery, according to U.S. officials, which could be particularly crucial as the war grinds into a second year with the front lines likely to be dominated by brutal artillery duels.

Beijing has accused the United States of "disinformation" over the claims and said Washington should stay out of its relationship with Moscow. But it may be well equipped to support Russia's military should it choose to do so, experts said.

With Russia engaged in a new offensive in the eastern Donbas region, Chinas existing stockpile of old artillery and ammunition  some of which is Russian made and could be readily used  might give Russias army the breathing room to keep fighting a war that has already lasted much longer than the Kremlin had planned.

From the end of the Cold War until approximately the mid-to-late-2000s, China was the most significant foreign customer of Russias defense industry, said Lukas Fiala, project coordinator of China Foresight, a research program at the London School of Economics. Despite waning reliance on Russian imports and a turn toward home-grown weapons systems, he said, China still has a sizable contingent of Russian equipment.

So far, U.S.-supplied long-range weapons like HIMARS artillery have proven to be highly effective on the battlefield, allowing Ukraine to retake large swaths of territory that Russia had annexed by hitting targets well beyond its previous ability, helping to lay the groundwork for sweeping counteroffensives.

The Russian side, too, has been heavily reliant on artillery.

The Russian army has shown one of the few things it can do is saturate areas with artillery, said Phillips OBrien, professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, with any new supplies allowing their forces to continue scorching Ukrainian lines.

Story continues

But that success has come at a heavy cost and may have drained the Kremlins supplies.

Image: (Libkos / AP)

While it was difficult to ascertain the current level of ammunition stocks at Russia's disposal, OBrien said, They certainly have used far more than they were originally thinking.

Russia was firing about 20,000 artillery rounds a day, a senior U.S. official told NBC News in November. Even Russias own mercenary force, the Wagner Group, has accused Moscow of starving them of shells. In November, U.S. officials also said North Korea was covertly supplying Russia with a large number of artillery shells, which, according to experts, suggested Russia was indeed running out.

All the artillery you have are just empty tubes if you cant fire ammunition from them, said Frank Ledwidge, senior lecturer of law and strategy at the University of Portsmouth in England.

We can absolutely guarantee that this would extend the artillery capabilities of Russia into next year at the very least even if they dont give anything else, Ledwidge added.

But Beijing is stuck in a tricky position, said Fiala.

While China has refrained from condemning the invasion and last week put forward a peace plan that was quickly dismissed by the West, it has so far practiced a careful balancing act.

Russias victory and stability was ultimately in Chinese interests, Fiala said, but Western sanctions that could be imposed if it did step up its support may make Beijing think twice.

Kyiv will undoubtedly be watching closely, and perhaps renewing its bid for increased support from its own allies, experts said.

The Ukrainians will probably use it as an argument for their NATO backers to say youve got to get us more, quickly, before the Chinese really start giving the Russians real support, OBrien said.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
LONDON (AP)  A growing number of governments have banned the popular video-sharing app TikTok from devices issued to staff as privacy and cybersecurity concerns rise. A handful have imposed nationwide bans on the app.

TikTok, owned by Chinese technology company Bytedance, has long maintained that it doesn't share data with the Chinese government. It says a project to store American user data in the U.S. will put it out of China's reach and it disputes accusations that it collects any more user data than U.S. social media companies do.

The arguments fell flat with U.S. lawmakers who grilled the companys CEO last month, with some pushing for a total ban for American users amid reports that Washington wants to force ByteDance to sell off TikTok.

Many governments remain cautious about the platform and its ties to China. Here are the places that have implemented partial or total bans on TikTok:

AFGHANISTAN

Afghanistans Taliban leadership banned TikTok and the game PUBG in 2022 on the grounds of protecting young people from being misled.

AUSTRALIA

TikTok was banned from devices issued by the Australian federal government. Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said he made the decision after getting advice from the country's intelligence and security agencies.

BELGIUM

Belgium temporarily banned TikTok from devices owned or paid for by the federal government, citing worries about cybersecurity, privacy and misinformation. Prime Minister Alexander de Croo said the six-month ban was based on warnings from the country's state security service and cybersecurity center.

CANADA

Canada announced government-issued devices must not use TikTok, saying that it presents an unacceptable risk to privacy and security. Employees will also be blocked from downloading the app in the future.

DENMARK

Denmarks Defense Ministry banned its employees from having TikTok on their work phones, ordering staffers who have installed it to remove the app from devices as soon as possible. The ministry said the reasons for the ban included both weighty security considerations as well as very limited work-related need to use the app.

Story continues

EUROPEAN UNION

The European Parliament, European Commission and the EU Council, the 27-member blocs three main institutions, have imposed bans on TikTok on staff devices. Under the European Parliaments ban, lawmakers and staff were also advised to remove the TikTok app from their personal devices.

FRANCE

Recreational use of TikTok and other social media apps like Twitter and Instagram on government employees phones has been banned because of worries about insufficient data security measures. The French government's statement didn't name specific apps but noted the decision came after other governments took measures targeting TikTok.

INDIA

India imposed a nationwide ban on TikTok and dozens of other Chinese apps like messaging app WeChat in 2020 over privacy and security concerns. The ban came shortly after a clash between Indian and Chinese troops at a disputed Himalayan border killed 20 Indian soldiers and injured dozens. The companies were given a chance to respond to questions on privacy and security requirements but the ban was made permanent in January 2021.

LATVIA

Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics tweeted that he deleted his TikTok account and that the app is also prohibited from official foreign ministry smartphones.

NETHERLANDS

The Dutch central government banned apps including TikTok from employee work phones citing data security concerns. A government statement did not name TikTok specifically but said civil servants are discouraged from having apps "from countries with an offensive cyber program against the Netherlands and/or Dutch interests installed and used on their mobile work devices.

NEW ZEALAND

Lawmakers in New Zealand and staff at the nations Parliament will be prohibited from having the TikTok app on their work phones, following advice from government cybersecurity experts. The app will be removed from all devices with access to the parliamentary network, although officials can make special arrangements for anybody who needs TikTok to perform their democratic duties.

NORWAY

The Norwegian parliament banned Tiktok on work devices, after the country's Justice Ministry warned the app shouldn't be installed on phones issued to government employees. The Parliament's speaker said TikTok shouldn't be on devices that have access to the assemblys systems and should be removed as quickly as possible. The country's capital Oslo and second largest city Bergen also urged municipal employees to remove TikTok from their work phones.

PAKISTAN

Pakistani authorities have temporarily banned TikTok at least four times since October 2020, citing concerns that app promotes immoral content.

TAIWAN

In December 2022, Taiwan imposed a public sector ban on TikTok after the FBI warned that TikTok posed a national security risk. Government devices, including mobile phones, tablets and desktop computers, are not allowed to use Chinese-made software, which include apps like TikTok, its Chinese equivalent Douyin, or Xiaohongshu, a Chinese lifestyle content app.

UNITED KINGDOM

British authorities in mid-March banned TikTok from mobile phones used by government ministers and civil servants with immediate effect. Officials said the ban was a precautionary move on security grounds, and doesn't apply to personal devices. The British Parliament followed up by banning TikTok from all official devices and the wider parliamentary network. The semi-autonomous Scottish government and London City Hall also banned TikTok from staff devices. The BBC urged staff to delete TikTok from corporate devices unless they're using it for editorial and marketing reasons.

UNITED STATES

The U.S. at the start of March gave government agencies 30 days to delete TikTok from federal devices and systems over data security concerns. The ban applies only to government devices, though some U.S. lawmakers are advocating an outright ban. China lashed out at the U.S. for banning TikTok, describing the ban as an abuse of state power and suppressing firms from other countries. More than half of the 50 U.S. states also have banned the app from official devices, as have Congress and the U.S. armed forces.
(Bloomberg) -- Coupang Inc., the South Korean e-commerce giant backed by SoftBank Group Corp., reported lower sales than analysts estimated, marring another profitable quarter for the company.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Revenue gained 4.9% to $5.33 billion in the October-December period, the US-listed company said in a statement. That compared with an average estimate of $5.45 billion. Coupangs active customers grew just 1% to 18.1 million, also missing projections.

Slowing sales growth overshadowed the company turning its second straight quarterly profit after years of losses. Coupang posted earnings of 6 cents a share, compared with a loss of 23 cents a year earlier. Analysts had predicted a 4.6-cent profit. Shares of Coupang fell 2%, after rising as much as 5.6%.

There are economic uncertainties globally that affect all of us, Bom Kim, founder and chief executive officer at Coupang, said on a call with analysts. But as youve seen, we continue to grow much faster in the market and continue to grow at a robust pace.

Known as South Koreas answer to Amazon.com Inc., Coupang had lost money for years as it built out the business. The company is now looking to save money with what it calls extreme automation, where thousands of robots deliver products and sort out packages at its newest fulfillment center.

Automation more than doubles the fulfillment networks efficiency, Kim said, adding that the company will continue to lower costs by using more robots. The company is now targeting margins of 10% or more on its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, he said.

Stalling demand in the post-pandemic e-commerce sector has spurred Coupang to lock in shoppers with subscriptions. Coupang faces competition not just from internet giant Naver Corp., but also retail conglomerates Shinsegae Inc. and Lotte Shopping Co., which are investing heavily in their online offerings. Coupangs customer base remains loyal despite a price hike in its monthly payment service, said Nam Seong-hyun, an analyst at IBK Securities.

Story continues

The company is seeking revenue in other areas too, including its money-losing Coupang Eats food delivery service and Coupang Play streaming service. The company also plans to expand its fast-delivery services in Taiwan and Japan.

--With assistance from Nick Turner.

(Updates with executive comment from earnings call)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Rapper Kodak Black arrives at the November 2022 American Music Awards in L.A. (Jordan Strauss / Invision / Associated Press)

A judge has ordered Kodak Black, who is awaiting trial in Florida on a drug trafficking charge, into a month of rehab after the rapper allegedly tested positive for fentanyl. His attorney, Bradford Cohen, said in an email Wednesday, "We actually volunteered to enter and the court agreed."

The 25-year-old performer, whose real name is Bill Kapri, tested positive for the drug Feb. 8 after missing a required drug test on Feb. 3, according to the Broward County Sheriff's Office, prompting Broward County Judge Barbara Duffy to issue a bench warrant for his arrest.

But Kapri won't start rehab until Tuesday, the judge allowed, so he can play the Rolling Loud California festival on the Hollywood Park grounds in Inglewood this weekend. Travis Scott, who is also dealing with his own challenges, is the headliner.

Kapri was placed under house arrest in July after being pulled over by the Florida Highway Patrol because his window tints were too dark. After allegedly smelling marijuana, police said they searched the SUV and found a bag with 31 oxycodone tablets and almost $75,000 in cash. Regular drug tests were a part of the house-arrest order.

The rapper's attorney, Bradford Cohen, told XXL magazine at the time that Kapri's doctor had prescribed the oxycodone so he could manage chronic pain after being shot in the foot outside a party following a Justin Bieber concert during 2022 Super Bowl weekend in Los Angeles.

At the Tuesday hearing, Cohen suggested to the judge that a "star-struck" lab technician could have mixed up Kapri's urine sample or paperwork with another patient's, the Miami Herald reported. While the Herald reported that the attorney declined to have his client's hair tested  a test that would have shown any drug use over the previous 90 days  Cohen said Tuesday on Instagram that "No one refused a Hair sample. Pretrial does not provide Hair sample services."

"I am glad @kodakblack will get an opportunity to take a break from his hectic schedule and focus on his physical health," Cohen wrote on the post. "Great kid, great philanthropist and as usual a portion of his Rolling Loud pay check will go to the Meadow Pollack scholarship fund at Nova Southeastern Law School, that he set up last year."

Story continues

All the good deeds I do, all the good things I do, it never goes as viral, Kapri said in court, according to the Herald. I dont know why [they] are so hungry to see me in jail.

"You better get it together, Duffy told him.

The rapper was famously freed from federal prison by former President Trump, who in January 2021 commuted Kapri's 46-month sentence for lying on background-check paperwork related to firearms purchases in 2019. Kapri had a separate one-year term for gun possession running concurrently and was serving out his sentence at a high-security federal prison in Kentucky. Those charges stemmed from a mid-2019 arrest at the Canadian border near Niagara Falls.

Trump's commutation noted that the rapper  who has sold more than 30 million singles since 2014  had paid for childrens school notebooks, supplies for daycare centers and food for the hungry, and also donated $50,000 for restaurants in his hometown of Pompano Beach, Fla.

In a song celebrating his release, Kodak Black rapped, Ran up out of prison, I aint say bye to nobody / I want sushi, then some coochie, no more lunch trays, yeah / Had to stop showin everybody where my mama stay, yeah / Trump just freed me, but my favorite president is on the money / All the hate and prejudice has become evident to me.

In April of that year, Kapri was sentenced to 18 months' probation in South Carolina after pleading guilty to first-degree assault of a teen. The girl said the rapper attacked her at a hotel room after the show, biting her on the neck and breast and continuing even after she told him to stop, authorities said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
The Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) announced on March 1 that Yevhenii Dykhne, the former head of Ukraine's state-owned Boryspil International Airport, has been sentenced to five years in prison for abuse of power.

According to the announcement, Ukraine's High Anti-Corruption Court found Dykhne guilty of Hr 15.7 million ($429,000) in damages.

Boryspil is Ukraine's biggest airport, located just southeast of Kyiv.

Between 2014-2019, Dykhne, as well as another official, leased out property for entrepreneurial activity at a price below market value. However, only Infrastructure Ministry and the State Property Fund have the right to lease land that is owned by the state.

In addition to his five-year sentence, Dykhne is forbidden from holding positions related to organizational-management or administrative-economic functions for a term of three years. He must also pay a fine of Hr 8,500 ($233).

Dykhne is also the former president of the privately-owned Ukraine International Airlines (UIA).


WASHINGTON  Republican lawmakers are demanding federal documents from government officials that could shed light on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic that swept the globe in 2020 and killed millions.

At a hearing Tuesday, GOP senators aired their frustration that the National Institutes of Health has been slow to provide key documents related to the outbreak amid recent revelations that COVID-19 may have leaked from a lab.

The COVID origin concerns stem from reporting that the Department of Energy found there is "low confidence" to believe the virus was unintentionally leaked from a lab in China. Senators pushed for the documents during the second nomination hearing for the Colleen Shogan, President Joe Biden's pick to be the next archivist of the United States.

Republicans press archivist as gatekeeper of federal agency docs

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, the top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee, said he sent over a dozen letters to NIH officials requesting documents related to the origins of COVID-19  and has not received any.

"This is important because we are still struggling to get information from the NIH," he said. "You wouldn't think that a scientific organization is resisting document disclosure but they are."

Smart analysis delivered to your inbox: Sign up for the OnPolitics newsletter

More: With National Archives under fire, senators show little urgency to confirm Biden's pick to lead agency

Republicans pressed Shogan, on how she would act in a nonpartisan way to hold NIH accountable and obtain documents related to COVID's origins.

The hearing was Shogan's second time appearing before the committee to be considered for archivist of the federal agency that preserves documents for the executive branch. Republicans previously said she was too partisan to serve in the position and did not vote to confirm her.

Colleen Shogan speaks during her nomination hearing to be Archivist of the United States, before the the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022, on Capitol Hill in Washington.

The National Archives serve mainly as a depository for federal records. Shogan said it's the agencies themselves which are responsible for classifying and declassifying records, though she promised Paul that if confirmed, she would work to speed up declassification of "older records."

Story continues

That would not be in the direct purview of the archivist of the United States, she said. But, nonetheless, at the National Archives, the principal value is that of transparency so I will be responsive to any requests that you may have while following the law.

More: U.S. agencies haven't agreed on the origins of COVID-19 virus in wake of controversial report

More: Trump, Biden, Pence classified documents hang over Archives nominee Colleen Shogan's hearing

Sen. Rand Paul: 'Everything is classified'

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., attends a Senate Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Spending Oversight on Capitol Hill August 3, 2022 in Washington, DC.

Paul claimed NIH is not being cooperative in providing information and records related to the COVID outbreak to the Senate and looked to the archives administration as the unbiased agency that must protect documents.

"We need somebody in a nonpartisan position to say: 'We got to make sure they are not destroying records over there (NIH)'," he said.

Because so many documents are designated secret or heavily redacted, it makes oversight difficult, he said.

"The bigger problem though I think is that everything is classified," Paul said. "We classify everything. The menu at the White House is supposedly classified so I mean weve got problems with too much classification."

More: The real issue with the COVID-19 lab leak theory? The US isn't spying on China like it used to

More: House Oversight subcommittee to investigate COVID-19 origins and Wuhan lab funding

How do COVID origin docs relate to archives?

People walk up the steps even though the National Archives is closed with the partial government shutdown Dec. 22, 2018, in Washington.

Committee member Ron Johnson, R-Wis., questioned whether Shogan, as archivist, would act on document requests from lawmakers in the minority party (in this case Republicans).

Shogan said she will be responsive to any requests in compliance with existing law.

The National Archives holds the records of the United States in custody for the American people," she said. "But the American people  it's their records. And I look forward to sharing them with as many Americans as possible while following the law."

More: Senate committee schedules hearing for Biden's National Archivist nominee Colleen Shogan

What did the DOE find on COVID origins?

Shots of Pfizer-BioNTechs new COVID-19 booster, which updates the original vaccine to also target the BA.4 and BA.5 variants.

The Energy Department found this week that there is a possibility the COVID-19 pandemic started after an unintentional lab leak in China, according to reporting from the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.

There have been various theories about how the virus spread  ranging from its jump from animals to humans to leakage from a lab where scientists studied coronaviruses.

The Energy Department found with "low confidence" that the pandemic most likely began after researchers were studying coronaviruses at a scientific lab at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and possibly infected themselves. USA TODAY could not independently confirm the reports.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: GOP frustration bubbles over on federal COVID pandemic documents
A vial. Illustrated | Gettyimages

The Energy Department has determined that the coronavirus pandemic probably started with an accidental leak from a lab, although with "low confidence" in the conclusion, The Wall Street Journal reported this week. The department previously said it was undecided on how the pandemic originated, but a new analysis by experts from the department's national laboratory complex, using the latest intelligence, tilted it toward the lab-accident theory. The FBI also has concluded, with "moderate confidence," that a leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology likely started the pandemic.

But four other agencies and a national intelligence panel have said the first outbreak in China was likely caused by a natural "spillover" from animals. "The bottom line remains the same: Basically no one really knows," a U.S. official told The Washington Post. China has disclosed little information about the first cases in 2019, stoking allegations of a cover-up. Will the latest report by the Energy Department change Washington's understanding of how the pandemic started, or merely stir up more heated exchanges in an inconclusive debate?

These experts can't be 'dismissed'

There are plenty of "first-rate" research teams in the United States, said Jim Geraghty in National Review, but the Energy Department's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory "is the biggest of the big-time." It has a team of scientists that "specializes in the study of biological weapons such as viruses" as part of the lab's research on weapons of mass destruction. This crew's "assessments are not to be ignored, dismissed, or hand-waved away."

The Livermore Biosciences and Biotechnology Division's past studies have looked at "how to better determine the origin of a virus," how SARS, MERS, and other coronaviruses "transferred from animals to human beings," rare mutations of viruses with animal hosts, and other topics particularly pertinent when investigating the pandemic's origins. Yes, it reached its new conclusion with "low confidence," but whatever new information caused it to change its mind is "probably extremely significant."

Story continues

This shows the 'groupthink' was wrong

"China has covered up whatever evidence it has about the virus' origin," so "we might never know for sure how the virus first struck humans," said The Wall Street Journal in an editorial. Beijing also "refuses to let the World Health Organization conduct a more thorough probe than it did in 2021." Still, this may not be "the final word" on the subject, but the DOE assessment "is more evidence that the media and public-health groupthink about COVID," and how the lab-leak theory was a nutty conspiracy theory, "was mistaken and destructive."

It's obvious China "fears what an independent inquiry might find." The Energy Department's assessment comes as Republicans who now control the House prepare to launch their own investigation, and push the Biden administration to be more transparent about the intelligence it has uncovered. We now know "that public-health officials wanted to hide that U.S. financial aid to the Wuhan lab may have contributed to the 'gain-of-function' research that could have led to the leak." The American people "deserve to know the facts about the relationship of the U.S. National Institutes of Health to the Wuhan lab," so we can fully understand this "disgraceful episode."

There's still zero evidence COVID leaked from a lab

The claim that COVID escaped from a Chinese lab "has been consistently debunked by scientific experts and should have been buried long ago," said Michael Hiltzik in the Los Angeles Times. But, like a zombie, it "still walks among us," and the report on the Department of Energy's latest assessment just gave it "another shot of life-giving plasma." The trouble is, that theory is only supported by "conjecture and fueled by Trumpian ideology that has infected" the Republican Party.

Despite the reversal by the DOE, there still is "no evidence  not a smidgen, particle, speck, or iota  that COVID leaked from a lab. There never has been." Virologists and epidemiologists, who "base their conclusions on empirical data," overwhelmingly back the theory that "the pandemic originated in human contacts with infected wildlife, known as the 'zoonotic' hypothesis." That's the way pathogens have always reached humans, and "the evidence that it has done so in this case is powerful and getting progressively stronger."

Either way, U.S.-China relations just got worse

Right or wrong, the DOE assessment "could have wide-ranging consequences at home and abroad," said Andrew Ross Sorkin in The New York Times. In Washington, the DOE's finding "threatens to cause partisan bickering" even though there's no "consensus" among scientists and federal agencies. At least everyone agrees on one thing  "no agency believes the coronavirus was a bioengineered weapon."

The biggest danger might be that the DOE's assessment could "further roil U.S.-Chinese relations at a time of heightened tensions between the superpowers." Beijing has always "pushed back against the lab-leak hypothesis as a lie with no scientific basis," and it responded to the DOE assessment by telling the U.S. to stop "defaming China." "It's uncertain whether Beijing will take further steps as punishment" for reviving this debate, but if it does U.S.-China relations will have suffered with no real change in our understanding of how the pandemic started.

You may also like

Jurassic-era insect discovered at Arkansas Walmart

Why space experts want to establish a lunar time zone

The Dilbert debate: Were newspapers right to 'cancel' the cartoon?
Jonathan Majors and the little cup he always carries have gotten far in life, including to the 2023 Oscars.

The 33-year-old actor currently stars in two blockbuster franchises, "Creed III" and "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania," but he's been getting attention lately for his habit of carrying a small mug everywhere he goes.

Jonathan Majors, Creed III (Carol Lee Rose / FilmMagic)

The "Magazine Dreams" star recently spoke about the curious habit on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" in February.

"I've been doing it since I left my mother's house when I was around 18," Majors told Colbert, explaining that he has around four cups he alternates between.

Majors said his mom gave him a meaningful piece of advice growing up that has stayed with him as he's found success as an actor.

"She was so terrified of the circus that I've joined," he said, referring to Hollywood. "My mom's a pastor and she was very clear about safety. She would say, 'No drinking, no drugs, no sex,' every time I left the house."

"This has happened my entire life," he added. "But the drinking was a thing, and she'd always say, 'So baby, watch your cup. Watch your glass.' And I kept that in mind."

Jonathan Majors stars in Lovecraft Country (Mary Mathis / The Washington Post via Getty Images)

The "Lovecraft Country" actor said carrying little mugs around reminds him of his mother's message.

"Now it means mind your cup," he explained. "You're a vessel. Nobody can fill you up. Nobody can pour you out. You do that yourself."

"And so holding onto this (cup) is a reminder that, even in this craziness that's happening, my self-esteem is my self-esteem. No one can big me up, as it were, or tear me down."

On a visit to TODAY on Feb. 22, Majors spoke about his own experience as a father, saying his 9-year-old daughter doesn't really know what he does for a living  only that he works with Paul Rudd.

All she understands is that Im in a movie with Paul Rudd, with Ant-Man, he said on TODAY.

Ive never seen my daughter starstruck, Majors said. Shes like, Nice to see you, too, to Paul Rudd and I lost my mind. I was like What did you say? Oh my god.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
Following the collapse of industry behemoth FTX, there are few words currently dirtier to the average American than crypto.

But to Animoca Brands chairman Yat Siu, cryptos enduring PR problem has little to do with crypto itself, and much more to do with Americas present attitude towards another C word: capitalism.

The no-coiners thing is predominantly a Western narrative. Its much more predominant in America and Europe, Siu told Decrypt during an interview at NFT Paris. In Asia, we dont have that. And I think a lot has to do with peoples perspectives towards capitalism.

Siu contends that crypto is a much less controversial subject in Asia, where people, he says, have embraced capitalism after living through failed experiments with other economic and political systems, including socialism.

But in America and Europe, where capitalism has existed largely unchallenged for centuries, peopleespecially young people, Siu saysare converting their growing ire towards billionaires and inequality into disdain for the novel crypto industry.

Capitalism hasnt worked for them, Siu says of younger, Western generations that have championed anti-capitalist rhetoric in recent years.

And to such people, crypto is a perfect target, says Siu. Thats because despite being a technological innovation, Siu says, crypto is also uniquely, fundamentally, political.

Blockchain is one of the few technological approaches in which a political system is actually embedded, he says. Its a capitalist, liberal viewpoint of the world.

While not everyone in crypto might label themselves an ardent capitalist, the association is both real and unavoidable, Siu believes.

People who are in crypto, even if they dont think of it this wayhave a belief in a kind of stakeholder capitalism, in a shared economy, in which we can share values, he said.

Facebook, Tencent a Threat to Open Metaverse: Animocas Yat Siu

Siu is a vocal proponent of cryptos potential to better the world. And he believes that it may in fact be crypto that saves capitalisms Western perception problem in the coming years.

Story continues

I think Web3 and crypto can save the capitalist narrative, he says. They can reintroduce the value of democracywhich, frankly, a lot of people have started to lose faith in, moreso in the West[back into capitalism].

Blockchain-based systems like DAOs, for example, allow for collaboration on a company-sized scale, but also encourage profit-sharing and group decision making. DAOs, or decentralized autonomous organizations, are essentially business structures organized by smart contracts where control is spread out rather than hierarchical, and participants vote on issues before the organization using governance tokens. Siu is confident that as technological innovations like DAOs proliferate the mainstream, anger toward crypto, and toward capitalism, will dissipate simultaneously.

In the meantime, though, that anger is as intense as ever. Since the historic collapse of crypto exchange FTX in November, American lawmakers and regulators have turned up the heat on crypto-related projects and companies. Increasingly, American politicians views on crypto appear to be crystalizing on the same lines as partisan rhetoric regarding capitalism.

Senator Warren: Crypto Puts Financial System in the Hands of 'Shadowy Super-Coders

Progressive Democrats like Senator Elizabeth Warren, who famously warned of the shadowy super coders in the crypto industry years ago, have amped up the hardline rhetoric against the broader crypto industry in a manner typically reserved for Wall Street and other capitalist symbols. Conservative Republicans, for their part, have defended the industry with blanket enthusiasm.

While there may be exceptions within this growing trend, the market crash and ensuing contagion of the previous year has unquestionably thrust crypto into the mainstream political spotlightand battle lines are now very clearly being drawn.
To get a roundup of TechCrunchs biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PST, subscribe here.

TikTok just cant dodge the watchful eyes of the watchmen: Earlier this year, Taylor reported that a string of universities banned TikTok from devices. Last week, Paul reported that the European Commission threw the kibosh on having TikTok on work devices, and today, Amanda reported that Canada followed suit for its government devices. The bans are coming down over concerns that China-based TikTok can be used to spy on its users.

 Christine and Haje

The TechCrunch Top 3

Raise the roof : Continuing to work remotely in 2023 remains a hotly contested issue in todays workplaces. What if we told you that Gable can give your company better remote working options? Still with us? Okay, Haje writes about how Gable raised $12 million to not only show your remote employees a nearby workplace, but also show them if any of their colleagues are there so they can connect.

The world in the palm of your hand : Reporting from Mobile World Congress, Brian sat down with OnePlus COO Kinder Liu to discuss the companys first foldable phone.

Closing the feedback loop: Engaged customers are where your company can get some of its best ideas for new products. Cycle snagged $6 million to help companies collect all of that customer feedback for a more streamlined product management process, Romain writes.

Startups and VC

Bain Capital Ventures is doubling down on what works, literally, Natasha M reports. The venture firm, one of Bains 11 financial divisions, has raised $1.9 billion across two funds, one for seed for growth-stage startups that hovers around $1.4 billion, and one for later-stage opportunities that closed around a third of that, at $493 million.

Devin reports that the FTC, fresh off announcing a whole new division taking on snake oil in tech, has sent another shot across the bows of the overeager industry with a sassy warning to keep your AI claims in check.

Story continues

And we have five more for you:

Active learning is the future of generative AI: Heres how to leverage it

Digital generated image of silhouette of male head with multicoloured gears inside on white background.

Image Credits: Andriy Onufriyenko (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

The generative AI models that have made headlines and memes in recent months weren't cooked up in someone's garage or basement.

"Only well-funded institutions with access to a massive amount of GPU power are capable of building these models," says Encord co-founder Eric Landau, who recommends using the iterative process of active learning to "leapfrog the AI production gap and build models capable of running in the wild more quickly."

In a TC+ post aimed at ML team managers, he shares tactics for leveraging active learning and addresses the perennial buy-versus-build dilemma.

Three more from the TC+ team:

TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code DC for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!

Big Tech Inc.

As you can see from our stories today, Brian has been writing a lot about new phones lately. In this particular article, he spoke with Nothings Carl Pei about the companys expansion strategy and its upcoming Phone (2) and how it will run on Qualcomms Snapdragon 8 series.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is really going all in on this artificial intelligence thing for Bing. Frederic reports that the software giant brings the new Bing to Windows 11 while also launching Phone Link for iOS.

And we have five more for you:
Dangerous chemicals may be in your babys clothes and that bag of dog food.

They are called forever chemicals, and they are linked to cancer and other serious health problems. Forever chemicals are known as PFAS and are highly toxic.

New testing found them in baby supplies  everything from bedding to clothes to toys  and in the packaging of some popular brands of dog and cat food.

Ladarius Jackson told Channel 2 investigative reporter Sophia Choi that his dog Cecilia is full of energy as she plays fetch at midtown Atlantas Piedmont Park.

But what Jackson feeds her at night could slow her down with forever chemicals.

Its actually kind of scary to know that. I didnt know that actually, Jackson said.

The Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit focused on protecting public health, had an independent lab test bags of seven popular pet food brands.

The tests found fluorine which indicates the presence of PFAS in all of them, including Cecilias kibble.

Thats what I use. Thats exactly what I use, Jackson said.

RELATED NEWS:

Further testing found specific PFAS in four brands.

PFAS is so toxic at such low levels that any level really is cause for concern, said Sydney Evans with the Environmental Working Group.

She said forever chemicals build up in our bodies and our pets over time and never break down in the environment.

There are quite a few health concerns. Earlier on studies were showing links to various kinds of cancer to thyroid issues, said Evans.

The Pet Food Institute, which represents pet food makers, sent Channel 2 Action News a statement, saying:

As pet food makers and pet owners themselves, Pet Food Institute members are committed to the production of safe, nutritious pet food that meets or exceeds all state and federal product safety regulations. PFI understands that some pet owners may have concerns about the presence of PFAS in pet food packaging. For decades, specific PFAS have been authorized by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for food contact applications, such as use in cookware (e.g., Teflon) and food packaging materials for their non-stick and oil- and water-repellant properties. It is important to note that before FDA approves food-contact ingredient applications, the agency requires the manufacturer to submit an extensive review of scientific data to ensure that all the substances present in the food-contact material are safe for their intended use. Food packaging with FDA-approved food contact substances is designed and manufactured to protect the safety and integrity of food, and pet food makers encourage packaging suppliers to continuously look for superior packaging options. We look forward to advancements and innovations in science that lead to the availability of alternative, vetted packaging materials that are approved by the FDA, like the materials currently in use.

Story continues

The nonprofit also sent 34 samples of baby items including clothes, bedding, and toys to a lab. Again, all contained fluorine.

Further testing found detectable levels of PFAS in 10 samples.

Forever chemicals end up as dust in our homes where we can breathe them.

The biggest concern is pets and children crawling around on the floor.

MORE STORIES FROM 2 INVESTIGATES:

And with that hand-to-mouth behavior, exploring the world through their hands, through their mouths, playing with toys, crawling on the ground, theyre more likely to ingest the PFAS, Evans said.

Its horrifying, said Sally Baldwin, a mother and dog owner. And the only thing we seem to be able to do is educate ourselves.

Channel 2 Action News took the PFAS test results to Georgia U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, who is also a father.

Ive got a 14-month-old baby girl, and its a worst nightmare for a parent, Ossoff said.

He shared exclusively with Channel 2 Action News a letter he sent to the EPA Administrator urging the agency to do more to identify products with PFAS.

Im taking this action now because we need to understand definitely whether, in babys clothes or crib sheets or other products, there is hazards to their health posed by these PFAS chemicals, Ossoff said.

Forever chemicals are in everything from some drinking water to personal care products.

But Evans said you should try to limit your exposure.

All of that is going to make a difference for your exposure levels, for your body burden, and ultimately the risks for health effects in the end, Evans said.

For our pets, holistic veterinarian Dr. Judy Morgan said to do your homework.

Definitely stop purchasing the foods that were found to have these very high levels of the PFAS in them and switch to something that is going to be a healthier alternative for your pet, Morgan said.

That is something Jackson said he is going to do.

Now, I know what to keep it away and let my friends know, Hey, look, dont use that, Jackson said.

Evans said you can reduce your exposure to PFAS by filtering your water.

You also can stay away from stain-resistant and waterproof products since they tend to have more.

You can cook at home to avoid PFAS in food wrappers and take-out containers.

You also can make dusting a regular part of your cleaning routine to get it out of your house.

IN OTHER NEWS:




Dave Grohl is bringing out the best of Twitter after volunteering at a Los Angeles homeless shelter making barbecue for hundreds of people during Californias winter storm last week.

He provided the food and the time and got caught cooking over 24 hours in the middle of the storm last week. Grace Ancheta, director of development at Hope the Missions Trebek Center in Northridge, California, told HuffPost.

The organization told Today that the Foo Fighters frontman whipped up and served ribs, pork butt and brisket to people in need. The shelter said Grohl showed up at around 3 p.m. on Feb. 22 and began preparing the meat in their kitchen.

Dave Grohl prepares meat at Hope the Mission's Trebek Center in Northridge, California, in February 2023 during the winter storms.

Dave Grohl prepares meat at Hope the Mission's Trebek Center in Northridge, California, in February 2023 during the winter storms.

The meat didnt go into the smoker until midnight that night because hes like, Oh, it has to season, and it has to do this, Ancheta told Today. Hes definitely a craftsman when it comes to that, and then he spent the night.

Grohl and other barbecuers took turns dodging hailstones and rain to smoke the meat overnight until it was ready around 3 p.m. the next day. He then served the food to guests at 6 p.m. and was happy to take photos with fans.

Grohl admires the barbecue meat he prepared for hundreds in need.

Grohl admires the barbecue meat he prepared for hundreds in need.

He wanted no glory for it, Ancheta told Today. He was like, I just want to do this for you guys and give back in that way.

Grohl got a bit of shut-eye in the shelters parking lot before feeding around 450 people, according to TMZ.

Grohl in the kitchen with the meats he spent hours preparing and cooking.

Grohl in the kitchen with the meats he spent hours preparing and cooking.

Foo Fighters fans also praised Grohl on Twitter.

When the aliens get here and ask whos in charge?, I think we take them to Dave one Twitter user said.

Dave Grohl out there doing the Lords work, another user tweeted.

Grohl told Bon Appetit in 2019 that he fell in love with barbecue during his Nirvana days but didnt start smoking meat until he broke his leg falling off the stage at a Foo Fighters show around 2015.

Story continues

Grohl tends to his smoker, where the meats are cooked overnight before it being ready to be served.

Grohl tends to his smoker, where the meats are cooked overnight before it being ready to be served.

When I got off tour, I had nothing to do but mess around with a [portable kitchen grill called] Big Green Egg that our bassist Nate [Mendel] got me, he said.

Grohl watched a YouTube tutorial on how to make ribs because thats whats on the Chilis commercials, he said, and then he began dabbling in the art of creating smoky, fall-off-the-bones meat.

Grohls delicious-looking barbecue.

Grohls delicious-looking barbecue.

I was hooked, he told the magazine.

He got the idea to start a one-man catering company called Backbeat BBQ while cooking for displaced people during 2019s Malibu fires.

He also cooked up his sweetmeats for a Ronnie James Dio Stand Up and Shout Cancer Fimd benefit event in 2019.

I didnt want to open a restaurant, Grohl told Bon Appetit. But I did want to pull up at a Slayer show or a Harley dealership or a church or the L.A. Food Bank benefit and cook. Its kinda cool that Im able to do that  and its f****ing fun!

After all of that, we know if youre still reading this, theres one last thing youd like us to say about Grohls good deed, so here ya go:

Related...
Dave Grohl of "Foo Fighters" and "Nirvana" fame performing on stage and helping prep food at Hope the Mission, a housing nonprofit in Los Angeles. Getty Images and Hope the Mission

Rock star legend Dave Grohl helped cook meals at a Los Angeles shelter during a major storm.

Writer Liz Seccuro tweeted a photo of Grohl, who brought his own smoker and cooked for 16 hours.

"When the aliens get here and ask 'Who's in charge?' I think we take them to Dave Grohl," she wrote.

On February 22, most people in Los Angeles battened down the hatches to prepare for the massive rain and snowstorm heading towards the city. But rock legend Dave Grohl wasn't staying in. Instead, he drove to the nonprofit organization Hope the Mission with his two giant BBQ smokers and several friends. Together they bought, prepared, cooked, and served 450 dinners for people seeking shelter.

"He provided the food and the time and got caught cooking over 24 hours in the middle of the storm last week," Hope the Mission's director of development Grace Ancheta told Insider over email.

She continued: "Dave cooked over 450 dinners for several of our shelters and stayed to serve his food to all of our participants at the Trebek Center shelter."

Dave Grohl with his freshly-cooked BBQ. Hope the Valley

Grohl's presence at the shelter was documented by a writer on Twitter named Liz Allman Seccuro, who shared an image of the rockstar in the kitchen.

"Paid for it all. Worked 16 hours," she wrote. "So when the aliens get here and ask 'Who's in charge?' I think we take them to Dave Grohl."

Liz Allman Seccuro (@LizSeccuro) February 28, 2023

Here's a full version of her image, sent to us by Hope the Mission:

Dave Grohl and others helping prep the dinner plates. Hope the Valley

The BBQ/smoker set up Dave Grohl helped with. Hope the Valley

The Trebek Center shelter where Grohl volunteered is one of many locations where Hope the Mission serves the people of Los Angeles and raises funds for opening additional family shelters. While Grohl was cooking in the storm, the nonprofit's founder Ken Craft and president Rowan Vansleve were in the middle of a fundraising run from Las Vegas to Los Angeles.

"Ken and Rowan are currently in day 12 of the run which they estimate will take about 21 days," Ancheta said in the mail.

Story continues

By the looks of the photos, Grohl and his friends worked through most of the night to keep the meat cooking and then helped prep sandwiches and sides for a complete dinner plate.

In the days following Grohl's visit, the Los Angeles area was hit with a massive amount of rain and even snow, depending on the altitude of people's neighborhoods. This meant added dangers and risks for unhoused and unsheltered people. And it seems that many more LA residents will need added support (and hot meals) in the coming month.

"UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain said about 20% of forecast models are currently depicting a very strong and warm atmospheric river storm in California around mid-March," the LA Times reported on Wednesday, a week after Grohl's visit to the shelter. Those atmospheric "river storms" already peppered across California at the very start of 2023, which led to breaching levees and "nearly two dozen deaths."

For more on Hope the Mission, you can see projects and stories on the nonprofit's Instagram page.

Read the original article on Insider
The National Park Service predicted on Wednesday that D.C.s peak cherry blossom season will be from March 22 to 25, marking another early peak bloom for the capital.

The Park Service defines the peak bloom as when 70 percent of the cherry blossoms around the Tidal Basin have bloomed, which typically occurs between the final week of March and the first week of April. The earliest peak bloom was recorded in 1990 on March 15, and the latest was on April 18, 1958.

Washington hit the peak bloom mark last year on March 21, which was 10 days ahead of the average of April 4, the National Park Service said last year.

Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) also announced the peak bloom prediction on Wednesday with organizers of D.C.s annual National Cherry Blossom Festival, which is set to begin on March 20 and last until April 16. The festival includes more than 30 events, including a parade and a fireworks show.

Spring is a beautiful and exciting time in DC, and we love to welcome visitors to our city for the National Cherry Blossom Festival, Bowser said in a statement. And when people come for the Cherry Blossom Festival, we want them to stay and experience DC  our restaurants, our free museums, our theaters and sports, and our beautiful neighborhoods across all eight wards that are also filled with cherry blossoms.

Bowser also welcomed back members of a four-day, five-city bus tour on Wednesday to promote the National Cherry Blossom Festival. Deputy Mayor John Falcicchio was a member on the tour and said in a statement he was a part of tour encouraging residents in other cities to follow us to spring.

DC is easily accessible by car, bus, train, or plane and were expecting more than one-million visitors to help revitalize DCs neighborhoods and economy by bringing in much needed revenue during this years National Cherry Blossom Festival, Falcicchio said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Scott Adams, cartoonist and author and creator of Dilbert, poses for a portrait in his home office in Pleasanton, Calif., on Jan. 6, 2014.

Scott Adams, cartoonist and author and creator of Dilbert, poses for a portrait in his home office in Pleasanton, Calif., on Jan. 6, 2014. Credit - Lea SuzukiThe San Francisco Chronicle/Getty Images

Its been said at this point so often that its a contender for a modern cliche: When you have had an exclusive stranglehold on the best of everything, anything that demands reconsideration, efforts to expand access, or insists on sharing feels like oppression rather than progress.

But, it bears, once again, making that plain.

Thats been clear to me for so long now that the news Scott Adams, creator of the comic strip Dilbert, was in the midst of a likely temporary cancellation did not register as significant. The fact that Adams comic-strip distributor and many of its subscriber newspapers dropped him following his declaration that Black Americans are a hate group he will not help and does not wish to be near barely rose to the level of things I thought it wise to read.

There are bigger, badder, quieter threats to equality and justice that haunt me. This was just the daily racist outrage. And it happened during Black History Month, a period during which it appears to have become a tradition for some people to do, say, and put into the public sphere the most offensive, dismissive, racist ideas that they can.

Whats more, Adams claims struck me as patently ridiculous.

More from TIME

A hate group is defined by the U.S. Department of Justice as people who share fears, prejudices, and a need for quick solutions and easy targets, whose members affirm their prejudices in uniting against people of a different race, religion, ethnic background, or sexual orientation. Black Americans are the people who arrived here in chains then forced the country to begin the slow, long, ongoing work of making some of its foundational promises real. That which Black Americans have pushed, pulled, and shamed the United States to change has ultimately benefited millions of others. Black Americans are the group that, despite long-standing and once legal bans on our citizenship, our literacy, our liberty, and our dominion over the fate and location of our children, have in no large-scale, organized, or even disjointed way sought to exact group revenge. Black Americans have not marched through Southern college towns insisting that their nonexistent dominion remain unchallenged but marched to demand the right to live without fear of state-sanctioned abuse and summary execution.

Story continues

Yes, there are Black groups that meet that Justice Department definition. But theres simply no way  without twisting the meaning of activism and demands for equality into organized hate-group work  to claim 46.9 million Black people are hate-group participants. If Adams argument amounts to more than jumbled nonsense intended to offend, what have you to say about white Americas collective resume?

Read More: U.S. Medical Schools Are Struggling to Overcome Centuries of Racism in Health Care

Given Adams previous entirely unoriginal claims that his economic and creative opportunities had been curtailed because he is white, there was simply no reason for shock or anything like disappointment. Given what Ive read about the content of Dilbert in recent years, Adams views have long been clear. Bigots sometimes have a sense of humor, a social media following, and a skilled drawing hand.

The only reason for some level of concern here is that Adams ideas do not, in fact, cast him into a remote and lonely zone. He is not simply one self-described rich white man pontificating on losses amid luxury. Adams is just one more white person who comforts himself in the face of a job loss, a denied school admission, or a promotion pass-over with the notion that his own shortcomings, an off day, bad luck, or the actual merit and superiority of other candidates could not possibly explain the outcome. He is one more person convinced that he is a victim of progress, pummeled by the very slow end of white Americas exclusive hold on the best of everything. But, a nation must grow more brutal and willingly out of touch with itself if it is to maintain a nearly all white and male power structure as its population grows more diverse. One need look no further than South Africa, home country of Adams defender, Elon Musk, for evidence.

Last week, Adams told his YouTube viewers that his conclusions  Black Americans are a hate group whom he would not help  were entirely logical ideas reached after his read of a poll conducted earlier this month. Then, three days ago, Adams appeared as a guest of Bryan Sharpe, a Black man, who serves as the host of Sharpe Conversations With Hotep Jesus, a YouTube show, to expound on this topic. He has repeatedly urged people to take a look at this conversation to understand the context of his remarks. Doing so does not help his case.

Adams begins by explaining that hes realized he enjoys attention and describes himself as an energy monster, who does nothing for clout  meaning online influence, followers, and standing. He says he made none of his comments for financial gain  if anything, there would be losses because hes spoken so freely. Instead, he says with a healthy dose of gaslighting, he is providing a service to those too afraid or otherwise unable to speak about the same things.

I discovered that the price of free speech is really high and there are only a few people willing to pay it, Adams says. So I decided to pay it. So that I could extend the conversation to something that everybody needs to hear.

Read More: What Reading 220 History Textbooks Taught One Scholar About Racism in America

At Adams direction, the host plays a clip from the live stream on Adams own YouTube channel, the one that took Dilbert out of syndication:

If nearly half of all Blacks are not OK with white people, according to this poll, not according to me, according to this poll, Adams says calmly in the clip. Thats a hate group. Thats a hate group and I dont want anything to do with it. And I would say based on the current way things are going, the best advice I would give to white people is get the hell away from Black people. Just get the f-ck away. Wherever you have to go, just get away.

The context, Adams tells Sharpe, for his comments had been lost. He declares himself a supporter of legal equality and reasonable treatment of other individuals along with the freedom to marry whomever one wants. But, for career maximization or life maximization, people should avoid those who have a bad opinion of you. And hed suggest the same to Black people with some variations on the theme.

It was hyperbole, Adams claims. Sharpe then describes himself as a former extreme Black nationalist who immediately knew that Adams was engaging in comic overstatement but considers the optics of Adams comments dangerous.

Read More: White Women Must Do More to Confront Racism

But I think the bigger issue here is how large your voice is, Sharpe says to Adams. OK. And two groups of people have been particularly enraged Black Americans, and maybe the diaspora, and this Neo-Nazi, white nationalist crowd. You are the new hero of white nationalists.

Let me say I disavow them completely for agreeing with me for all the wrong reasons, Adams says.

Both men chuckle.

In the end, the whole thing is a journey into the low-grade intellectual engagement and grab-bag philosophy that passes for thoughtful inquiry on channels where the real bosses are the algorithm and advertising dollars that reward controversy over concrete facts.

But before its over, Adams says something truly revealing: Part of what is allowing Black America to be winning, in my opinion, at the moment, is they have made a good argument for being victims.

Leaving the YouTube interview aside, there are multiple problems with Adams analysis. First theres Rasmussens work, which Adams says undergirded his claims. Adams arguments were based on his read of a Rasmussen Reports survey showing that of the 1,000 polled, 117 of which were Black, almost 50% of Black respondents disagreed with or or were not sure if they agreed with the statement Its OK to be white.

The poll involved a small sample size and deployed a question loaded with language born from acts of racial trolling. Its OK to be white, has recently appeared on Neo Nazi and alt-right groups flyers and websites and in some of their real-world speeches. Some of those polled may have recognized it. Rasmussen doesnt appear to have asked why respondents agreed(53%), disagreed (26%), or were not sure (21%). Then theres the fact that Rasmussen has a tendency not only to consistently produce results that vary widely from other polls querying similar things, but to lean consistently to the right and do so most significantly when conservative candidates or ideas are trailing elsewhere. Those are just a few of the issues the political scientist and political-behavior expert Alan Abramowitz warned of in an October 2016 blog post titled Dont Trust Rasmussen Polls.

That may be further down into the statistical weeds than a cartoonist engaged in a YouTube coffee clatch is inclined to go. Adams admits during his conversation with Sharpe that there may be some problems with the Rasmussen data and later describes himself as a person whose online schtick is doubting polls, doubting science, doubting authority.

But theres still the rather basic question of why Adams then leaped to the conclusions that he did. Here we get to the real point of Adams commentary, the stuff that makes Adams so-called rant part of a broader phenomenon of diseased thinking.

Adams seems convinced he and other white people are the victims of a spiraling effort to minimize them, their influence, and their life trajectories if and when they are accused of racism, harboring racist intentions and supporting the discriminatory effects of past and present policy. White people, Adams tells Sharpe, are being demonized daily.

Put another way, the changes and conversations necessary to create a more equal country seem to all but make him itch.

Its not a new idea, a phenomenon that Rasmussens question made clear, or a position Adams maintains alone. In 2015, in the run-up to the election where Trump would encourage rowdy crowds of mostly white supporters to punch or physically overpower protesters, 43% of respondents to a Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) poll told researchers discrimination against white Americans has become as large a problem as discrimination against Black Americans and other minority groups. Half of white Americansincluding 60% of white working-class Americansagreed that discrimination against white people had become as big a problem as discrimination against Black Americans and other minorities, while 29% of Latino respondents, and 25% of Black Americans agreed.

Last year when PRRI returned to that question, its researchers found a slightly smaller group of Americans  39%  agreed with the idea that discrimination against white Americans had become as large a problem as discrimination against Black people and other minority groups. White Americans  46%  were significantly more likely to agree than the 33% of Latino Americans who concurred and the 13% of Black respondents who told researchers the same thing.

Similar patterns have shown up in other polls.

Adams and those who share this view have a problem though: from the cradle to the grave, white Americans are, statistically speaking, the ones winning. White Americans up and down the income and education ladders continue to enjoy better quality health care and better health outcomes than Black Americans, helping to make them less likely to be born early or die before the age of one. Those who give birth are significantly less likely to die when they do so. They are more likely to have the option to send their children to the best-quality public schools, to have access to nearby full-service grocery stores with fresh fruits and vegetables, and to see mortgage applications approved, which puts those things within easier reach. They are more likely to attend a four-year college, more likely to be able to depend on family financial support, more likely to receive no-cost financial aid and therefore more likely to graduate and earn more, become more likely to be employed, and then experience shorter periods of unemployment should they lose a job. They are more likely to report being able to stock away more in retirement savings. They, on average, live longer than Black Americans and are far more likely to leave behind a tangible legacy, which is also worth more when they die.

Yes, some arent doing as well as generations before them. And some come from families that have never done well at all. But still, in almost every measure of economic or social well-being, white Americans, including those who are white and poor, fare better than most other Americans. Its a choice to view any disruption of that pattern as a terrifying diminution of white America, a dangerous turn, rather than a slow opening of opportunity, health, and safety to other Americans.

Stay away from Black people isnt the only logical conclusion. Its not a logical conclusion at all. The average pay coming from employers compared to profits, the cost of health care, the amount of debt and stress that most households must take on, and terrible decisions or investments figure far more prominently in bankruptcy-court cases than claims that nearly 47 million Black people did this to me. But somehow this all makes sense when you are in victim mode, where Adams seems to dwell and, as many conservatives appear to believe, public disputes and popular opinion are won.

Leap far enough in Adams direction and you get to a place called Winter 2023, where people are arguing in public forums that anything and anyone who identifies systemic or individual discrimination are the problem, the real racists. Information that illuminates racist assumptions, myths, stereotypes, or even the racially uneven effect of policies and practices and, of course, an accurate and inclusive recounting of history are a devious plot against the self-esteem and mental health of white children. Its all an unnecessary and enraging burden for grown-up workers inside companies that make their staff watch an annual diversity and inclusion video but change little about who they hire or how. And its simply intolerable, downright unreasonable, to demand any of the above from legislators engaged in public policy debates and hearings that shape all of our lives.

Adams appears to be trying, just like that cast of complainers above, to reset social norms back to the point that joining him in a feast of bigotries seems like taking a seat at the only table available. None of us have to eat there. But some only recently let into the room, some whose forefathers waited that table, and some who have always had a seat are clamoring for another chair.

Having now spent more time with Adams and his ideas than Id like, Ill probably go back to tuning out most of the hyperbolic Dilbert is dead, murdered by a woke army in the winter of 23 chatter. (Are his supporters confessing that to share their views one must remain effectively asleep?) Or I should say Ill aim for that.

Its not quite that simple since a good portion of white America shares both Adams disdain for facts and figures, and good old plain truth about actual discrimination in this country. Some have been primed by religious institutions, a penchant for denying their personal shortcomings, and schools and families where they havent been taught to meaningfully question what the countrys political and economic systems make possible and likely in their lives. And some outright share Adams ambition to recast themselves as the victims of any progressive social change. Its a problem, but one that women as wise as Toni Morrison warned those hated and underappreciated not to be distracted by. There are real questions of justice, inclusion, and equity that demand attention. That means I will sigh deeply when Adams inevitably tells his fans how they may subscribe, individually, to any cartoons that he decides to draw.

Then, I will remember that the self-described attention seeker also told Sharpe hes 65 and his plan has long been to retire by blowing Dilbert up.
-160

As NV has previously written, this was first reported by Yahoo News, referring to information from anonymous sources in the U.S. government.

According to this unconfirmed report, the engineer and his family entered the United States from Mexico at the end of December 2022, saying that he was one of the Tu-160s engineers at the plant in Kazan.

Claiming that he had important information for the U.S. government, the man explained his move by saying that he was afraid of persecution for participating in protests in support of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

The journalists did not release the alleged defectors name, but their FBI and other law enforcement sources have reportedly confirmed his identity.

Judging by Russian media reports, the Tu-160M variant  the first strategic supersonic bomber and missile carrier to be built completely in Russia  made its debut flight a year ago. The Americans are first and foremost interested in whether the modernized strategic aviation of the Russian Federation can carry hypersonic weapons.

Secret information

Citing its sources, Yahoo News reported that the Russian engineer worked on the Tu-160 from 2018 to 2021.

This aircraft was adopted by the USSR army in the late 1980s, and today it is the most modern missile carrier in Russias strategic aviation fleet.

After the collapse of the USSR, the Ukrainian Air Force received 19 Tu-160s, but by 2000, these air-craft were disposed of as part of the American disarmament program, and also transferred to Russia as payment for natural gas.

Today, the Tu-160 and other strategic bombers are being used by Russian troops to launch cruise missiles to strike Ukraine.

The aircraft can carry up to six Kh-55SM ground-attack cruise missiles, each with a 200 kiloton thermonuclear warhead, or Kh-555s armed with a conventional high-explosive fragmentation warhead, writes Kyle Mizokami, who writes about defense and security issues for Popular Mechanics.

Story continues

"As a carrier of cruise missiles, the Tu-160 usually flies at a speed of 940 km/h and at an altitude of up to 12 km. The bomber can also penetrate enemy airspace at low altitudes, flying at speeds in ex-cess of 1,000 km/h and using collision avoidance systems.

According to him, there are at least 17 Tu-160s, built at least 34 years ago, in service today with the Russian Aerospace Forces. In 2014, the Kremlin launched a modernization program for these bombers and planned to produce 40 to 50 of the new Tu-160s.

It is extremely important for American intelligence agencies to obtain information about what engines these aircraft will receive and how their performance characteristics will change.

So far, it is known that the latest version of the Tu-160M is equipped with new navigation systems, new satellite communications equipment, a modified glass cockpit, and other components. The new generations of Tu-160 are designed for 40 years of operation.

Since the Tu-160 is part of the Russian "nuclear triad", it is also important for the U.S. military leader-ship to know what weapons systems new versions of this strategic bomber can carry.

This first and foremost concern is the hypersonic X-47M2 Kinzhal missile system. According to its declared characteristics, the Kinzhal is Russias most competitive weapon in relation to similar systems from the United States and China.

The missiles speed is presumed to exceed 14,500 km/h, and it can be carried by the MiG-31K super-sonic fighter-interceptor, the Tu-22M3M strategic bomber, and most likely its relative, the Tu-160. There are also presumed to be ground-based Kinzhal launchers, although the exact number of these missiles in service with the Russian army remains unknown.

If the MiG-31K can carry a maximum of one hypersonic missile, according to some reports, up to eight Kinzhals can be loaded onto the upgraded version of the Tu-160 (four on each of two drums).

A number of outlets have reported that a Kinzhal missile fell near the city of Stavropol on September 14, 2022, about 350 kilometers from the border with Ukraine. Among the possible reasons is a technical malfunction of the rockets engine on its way to attack a target in Ukraine.

Strategic aviation of the Russian Federation

As of today, Russia's strategic bomber fleet consists of 125 aircraft, including 66 Tu-95s, 42 Tu-22Msand 17 Tu-160s.

These aircraft are located at air bases in the Saratov, Ryazan, and Kursk Oblasts, which were hit by strikes by the Ukrainian military in December 2022.

The most outdated bomber is the Tu-95, which still uses turboprop engines. Nevertheless, it is still an extremely dangerous and powerful weapon which the Russians have repeatedly used to launch cruise missile strikes at Ukraine from the Caspian Sea and from Russian territory.

The Tu-160 can carry up to 12 modern X-101 cruise missiles (with a warhead mass of more than 400 kg and a flight range of up to 5500 km) in its internal compartments, while the Tu-95 can carry up to eight such missiles on an external platform.

The Tu-95 can also carry up to three obsolete Kh-22 cruise missiles, which was the type used to destroy a residential building in Dnipro.

The main mission of these aircraft remains the launch of long-range cruise missiles with nuclear war-heads. According to the Russian state corporation Rostec, two more Tu-160M missile carriers were sent for flight tests in December 2022.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
The long-delayed plans to develop a new state office building at West Wisconsin Avenue and North 27th Street could move forward under a new plan.

The long-delayed plan to develop a new state office building on Milwaukee's near west side could be proceeding under a revised plan.

State officials under both Gov. Tony Evers and his predecessor, Gov. Scott Walker, have called for the project to replace an outdated nine-story state office building, in downtown Milwaukee at 819 N. Sixth St. It was constructed in 1963.

The state's 2019-'21 construction budget included $4 million to buy and prepare the development site at the southwest corner of West Wisconsin Avenue and North 27th Street.

But the Legislature rejected Evers' proposal to spend $163.6 million to construct the 283,000-square-foot building, with a 1,000-stall parking structure, during the 2021-'23 budget period.

That came after the estimated construction cost increased from a 2019 proposal to spend $98.5 million on a 200,000-square-foot building.

The governor's new $3.8 billion 2023-'25 capital budget proposal doesn't include funding for the near west side building.

But, in a statement released Wednesday, Evers administration officials outlined plans to evaluate the state workforce and workplaces  including Milwaukee's state office building.

That includes reducing the amount of state office space in Madison by 27.8% within the next few years by consolidating state-owned facilities and creating more one-stop shopping options for government services.

In Madison, the plan calls for closing the State Education Building, more commonly known as GEF 3; the State Natural Resources Building, known as GEF 2; and an Art Deco-style building constructed in the 1930s thats home to the Department of Health Services. The first would close within a year while the DHS buildings targeted closure is more than four years off.

In Milwaukee, the state Department of Administration still plans to sell the downtown state office building.

Its operations would relocate either to the new near west side building "or to locations more convenient to the people they serve," according to the DOA statement.

Story continues

Also, instead of the state owning it, the new Milwaukee state office building "will be built through a public/private partnership with a request for proposals anticipated to be issued in late 2023/early 2024," it said.

That means the building would be owned by a private developer with the space leased to the state  similar to the nearby state office building at 635 N. 26th St.

That approach would not involve new state funding and wouldn't depend on a new budget approval, said Tatyana Warrick, DOA communications director.

DOA says relocating operations to the near west side and other sites would eliminate the need for $95.7 million in renovations at the downtown building.

In total, the agency says its overall proposal, named Vision 2030, would save taxpayers more than $541 million in deferred maintenance costs for aging and underused facilities in Madison and Milwaukee.

Vision 2030 is a win-win for taxpayers and state workers, said DOA Secretary Kathy Blumenfeld.

It fosters a flexible, mobile work environment that will support our state workforce, optimizes our building and energy footprint, and improves access for the public while delivering taxpayer savings," she said, in a statement.

Meanwhile, developer Rick Wiegand has held off on his plans to convert a nearby historic former school, 2708 W. Wisconsin Ave., into a 23-room extended-stay hotel because of delays in replacing the blighted state-owned site with a new building.

The Evers administration's plans to proceed with the office building drew praise from Near West Side Partners, a neighborhood improvement group.

"This development will bring jobs, continued investment and further economic development to our community," said Interim Executive Director Lindsey St. Arnold Bell, in a statement.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Tom Daykin can be emailed at tdaykin@jrn.com and followed on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.

DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get the latest news, sports and more

Subscribe to get the BusinessWatch email newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Delayed Milwaukee state office building could proceed as plans shift
ATLANTA (AP)  Pilots at Delta Air Lines easily approved a new contract that will raise their pay by more than 30% over four years and likely lead to similar agreements covering union pilots at other major U.S. airlines.

The Air Line Pilots Association said 78% of Delta pilots who voted supported the contract. Delta has about 15,000 pilots.

Smaller airlines face a shortage of pilots as major airlines recruit from their ranks. While the biggest carriers say they have enough pilots, the shortage has given unions leverage to bargain for rich pay increases. The union said the Delta deal will lead to a cumulative $7 billion in pay raises.

The ratification comes after picketing by pilots last summer and about six months after Delta pilots voted to authorize a strike.

This industry-leading contract is the direct result of the Delta pilots unity and resolve, said Darren Hartmann, a pilot and union official.

John Laughter, the Atlanta-based airline's chief of operations, said the contract "recognizes our pilots contributions to Delta. He said the airline set out to reach a deal that keeps Delta as a top destination for aviation employees.

The contract takes effect Thursday and runs through 2026, when it can be amended  by federal law, union contracts in the airline industry do not expire.
Crowd of protestors wearing pink and white at the Zocalo main square, in Mexico City, Mexico Anadolu Agency / Contributor/ Getty Images

Tens of thousands of people gathered in Zocalo, Mexico City's central plaza, on Sunday to protest President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's recently-passed legislation that many believe will "threaten democracy" and "mark a return to the past," The Associated Press reports. Many of the protestors wore white and pink, the colors of electoral watchdog National Electoral Institute (INE), shouting slogans like "Don't touch my vote!" The scene echoed a similar march last year in November when people nationwide protested Lopez Obrador's proposed constitutional amendment.

The legislation, which passed last week, aims to cut INE's staff and almost one-third of the agency's $760 million annual budget, "eliminating many of its units and nationwide offices in charge of issuing national identification cards to the country's 95 million adults at no cost," The Wall Street Journal says. The ID cards are required to vote in Mexico's elections. INE estimates that the laws would lead to massive layoffs, "including key technical staff in charge of organizing elections," the Journal writes. Lopez Obrador's first attempt to pass constitutional amendments to replace the electoral agency failed in December.

"We are clearly witnessing a direct onslaught against the independence of Mexico's electoral system, against the country's democratic system," Lorenzo Cordova, the head of the INE, said in an interview about the earlier protests last fall.

Fernando Belaunzaran, a lawmaker from the opposing party who helped organize the recent protests, "argued the INE changes weakened the electoral system and increased the risk of disputes clouding the 2024 elections when Lopez Obrador's successor will be chosen," Reuters writes. "Normally, presidents try to have governability and stability for their succession, but the president is creating uncertainty," Belaunzaran added. "He's playing with fire."

What are the commentators saying?

Critics say the laws threaten Mexico's progress since transitioning to democracy 25 years ago. Mexico was governed by a single party until a candidate from the opposition won the presidential election in 2000. "The creation of a strong electoral agency independent from the government in 1996 was a key step toward ending the single-party rule," the Journal explains.

Story continues

Indeed, the INE is one of the most trusted institutions in Mexico, The Economist observes. "By nobbling it, Mr Lopez Obrador makes it less likely that elections will be free and fair." He claims the INE's operational costs are excessive and its management corrupt, but this argument is "flimsy," says the Finacial Times. Really, he wants to "handpick a successor," hold on to a congressional majority, and get enough power to change the constitution, so he needs an electoral institute that's on his side. "Lopez Obrador's attacks on the electoral system mirror those of other populists in the Americas, such as Donald Trump or Jair Bolsonaro," the FT writes.

The protests have prompted a response in the United States. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian Nichols tweeted that the U.S. "supports independent, well-resourced electoral institutions that strengthen democratic processes and the rule of law."

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Tex.) and Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), chairmen of the House and Senate foreign relations committees, said that by approving the amendments, "the Mexican Congress has imperiled the future of its country's democratic institutions," per The Washington Post. "Returning Mexico to its dark past of presidentially controlled elections not only sets the clock back on its democracy but also U.S.-Mexico relations."

What's next?

"Opposition parties, INE's directors, and governors of many of Mexico's 32 states have said they would file constitutional challenges against the laws," the Journal reports. The head of INE said citizens are also expected to file thousands of injunctions because the laws violate their constitutional right to free and fair elections. He added that INE staff would file similar injunctions if they were fired.

Lawmakers from the rival party say the president's ruling party will have another opportunity to take over the INE by packing its governing council with loyalists, the Journal adds. "Four of the institute's 11 board members, including its president, will be named next month when their terms end."

Some ruling party legislators are doubtful that the overhaul of the electoral system will move forward, though, "as lower court judges can suspend the implementation of laws that have been challenged until the Supreme Court issues a ruling," the Journal says.

You may also like

Jurassic-era insect discovered at Arkansas Walmart

Why space experts want to establish a lunar time zone

The Dilbert debate: Were newspapers right to 'cancel' the cartoon?
Democrat Maryland Representative Jamie Raskin hit back at Colorado Republican Lauren Boebert with quotes from former President Donald Trump when she tried to change the record on the former presidents handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Youre right. President Trump was in office when the Covid virus was released from a lab in China, Ms Boebert said on Tuesday during a hearing of the House Oversight Committee as she blasted mask and vaccine mandates.

And he tried to make that very clear that this came from China, and reporters regularly dismissed that, she said, as HuffPost reported.

Mr Raskin went on to say that Ms Boebert had missed that Mr Trump had often heaped praise on Chinas President Xi Jinping and his administrations control of the situation during the initial stages of the outbreak in late 2019 and early 2020.

I appreciate the gentleladys passion. Theres two facts that she should perhaps be alerted to, he said.

One is that Donald Trump, on more than 20 different occasions, defended the performance of the Chinese government and specifically President Xi in terms of his treatment of Covid-19 and said he was doing a wonderful job and a great job and they were working closely and they were constantly in touch, he added.

So, if theres a problem with the Chinese government unleashing a virus a which has not been proven anywhere, but it certainly could be true a you would have to pin that on your favourite president, Donald Trump, not on Joe Biden, Mr Raskin added.

Raskin: Trump on more than 20 different occasions defended the performance of the Chinese government in terms of COVID.. so if there is a problem with the Chinese government unleashing the virus.. you would have to pin that on your favorite President Donald Trump not Joe Biden pic.twitter.com/S2d0jflOeq  Acyn (@Acyn) February 28, 2023

Mr Raskin, a former constitutional law professor, added that Mr Trumps Covid-19 adviser, Deborah Birx, wrote in her book that Mr Trumps policies during the pandemic led to the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives in the US.

Story continues

So you dont have to believe anybody on the Democratic side of the aisle. Thats Donald Trumps own special adviser on COVID-19, he told Ms Boebert.

More than 1.1 million Americans have died because of Covid-19, according to the CDC.

Several experts said in an opinion piece for the Scientific American that 450,000 Americans died of Covid-19 during Mr Trumps last year in office. Many of the deaths were avoidable; COVID-19 mortality in the U.S. was 40 percent higher than the average of the other wealthy nations in the Group of Seven, they said.

A report in The Lancet on Public policy and health in the Trump era states that Trump exploited low and middle-income white peoples anger over their deteriorating life prospects to mobilise racial animus and xenophobia and enlist their support for policies that benefit high-income people and corporations and threaten health.

Dr Birx said in a House hearing in October 2021 that she thought the Trump administration had missed an opportunity to avoid as much as 40 per cent of the deaths caused by Covid-19 in the US, according to HuffPost.
A pair of House Democrats on Tuesday unveiled a bill that would tighten regulations for trains with hazardous materials, a direct response to the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, earlier this month that spilled chemicals into the area.

The Decreasing Emergency Railroad Accident Instances Locally (DERAIL) Act  introduced by Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.)  would direct the Transportation secretary to amend the definition of a high-hazard flammable train to increase the number of trains subject to stricter regulations. Those regulations include slower speeds, newer cars, better breaking equipment and required reporting.

For too long, railroads have prioritized profit ahead of public safety and their workers, and it is time to regulate the railroads. This legislation is an important step forward to finally strengthen our rail regulations and improve rail safety in communities like Western Pennsylvania and across America, Deluzio wrote in a statement.

According to the Transportation Department, a high-hazard flammable train is currently defined as a continuous block of 20 or more tank cars loaded with flammable liquid or 35 or more tank cars loaded with a flammable liquid dispersed through a train.

The legislation introduced on Tuesday would modify that language to lower the threshold to trains transporting one or more loaded tank cars of a Class 3 flammable liquid or a Class 2 flammable gas. It also allows the Transportation secretary to add other materials to the definition that they determine is needed to ensure safety.

The train that derailed in East Palestine included 11 tank cars that held hazardous materials that were ultimately ignited, which led to fires, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. Despite the materials on board, the train was not considered a high-hazard flammable train under the current definition, according to Khanna and Deluzio, exempting it from stricter safety regulations.

Story continues

The people in East Palestine and western Pennsylvania are the working-class folks who feel invisible and abandoned by our nation, Khanna said in a statement. Im proud to introduce this legislation to expand our safety regulations and help prevent against this type of disaster in the future. This is a moment where we need political leaders from all parties and from across the country to speak out loudly for better safety regulations and to acknowledge what so many Americans are going through.

In addition to introducing legislation, Congress is preparing hearings and investigations into the train derailment.

The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment, Manufacturing and Critical Materials is holding a hearing on March 28 on the Environmental Protection Agencys response to the derailment, according to subcommittee chair Bill Johnson (R-Ohio), whose district includes East Palestine.

And last week, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, launched an investigation into Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigiegs response to the derailment. He sent a letter to Buttigieg requesting documents and information regarding the departments response to the incident.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Dermot Murnaghan has signed off from Sky News. (Getty Images for Sky News)

Sky News anchor Dermot Murnaghan gave an emotional sign off from his final bulletin on Tuesday, but lightened the mood by using a quote from Anchorman as he admitted: "I've always wanted to do this".

Murnaghan, 65, has also worked for the BBC and ITN during his career, but retired from Sky News this week where he thanked viewers for enabling him to have such a rewarding career.

Read more: All you need to know about Danny Dyer and Ellie Taylor game show Cheat

But he turned to Will Ferrell's hit comedy film Anchorman, set in the world of TV news, to express his final feelings on leaving.

The journalist, who broke the news of the Queen's death for the broadcaster in September, said: "And finally, as the saying goes, some news about me. After 15 years, this has been my final programme for Sky News, the best organisation in the UK, which you already know, for its coverage and analysis but also for its dedicated and inventive hard-working staff so many of who have become close friends.

"I hope I've managed to serve you well. It has been an absolute privilege. Thanks for making this career so worthwhile. You stay classy planet earth."



Watch @DermotMurnaghan say goodbye to Sky News after 15 years https://t.co/PAiZ4D1jU3



 Sky 501 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/AFhjDiOxbH  Sky News (@SkyNews) February 28, 2023

"Thanks to you all for putting up with me and supporting me so resolutely through elections, resigning prime ministers, and monarchs' funerals.

"But of course, my greatest thanks goes to you the viewers, you make Sky News, you are Sky News. Your engagement, encouragement and feedback have been invaluable over my time here. I hope I've managed to serve you well. It has been an absolute privilege and thanks for making this career so worthwhile."

Story continues

Read more: Russell T Davies BBC Viagra drama Men Up to star Joanna Page and Aneurin Barnard

Murnaghan finished: "I leave you with, I've always wanted to do this, a last look at the headlines... there they are," he said as he showed the camera his papers and then threw them over his shoulder to laughter and applause from the crew.

He added: "You stay classy, Planet Earth. Goodbye."

Will Ferrell played Ron Burgundy in Anchorman. (Paramount)

Ferrell's Anchorman character Ron Burgundy was known for his "stay classy" sign off at the end of bulletins, and used the line Murnaghan quoted at the end of the film.

Murnaghan's career has spanned nearly four decades in news, and he has also presented quiz show Eggheads.
Florida governor Ron DeSantiss new book, The Courage to Be Free: Floridas Blueprint for Americas Revival, hit No. 1 on Amazons top 100 list on its release day and could have the biggest first week in sales for any book by a sitting politician or presidential hopeful, according to his publisher.

Eric Nelson, the vice president and editorial director of Broadside Books, tweeted on Tuesday that DeSantiss book sales are going to be bigger than the first week of sales for Ben Carson, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and maybe even Barack Obama.

Ron DeSantis's book may have the biggest first week of sales for any book by a sitting politician or presidential hopeful. It's going to be bigger than the first week of sales for Ben Carson, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and maybe even Barack Obama. Anyone else I should look up?  Eric Nelson (@literaryeric) February 28, 2023

Former president Barack Obamas 2006 book, Audacity of Hope, sold 66,786 copies in its first week, according to Bookscan figures Nelson shared.

Its possible DeSantis could get higher than that first week based on the first two days of sales, he said.

The sales come despite a widely publicized review in the New York Times that suggested the book reads like a politicians memoir churned out by ChatGPT.

The book paints DeSantis, a Yale University and Harvard Law grad, as an everyman who was raised in a working class home with family ties to steel country Ohio and Pennsylvania that made him God-fearing, hard-working and America-loving. He describes summers spent working at a local electric company to help pay for college and feeling like a working-class outsider at Yale.

DeSantis takes on the media and the GOP establishment in the book and writes about his work in Florida, including pushing back against draconian Covid-19 lockdowns and fighting against indoctrination in schools.

Story continues

He will kick off a book tour this week beginning in Venice, Fla. The tour will criss-cross the country as the governor flirts with a 2024 presidential bid. DeSantis will also headline two Republican fundraisers in Texas on Saturday before heading to an event for the GOP of Orange County, Calif., the next day. Hes set to give a keynote speech for the Alabama GOP next week.

More from National Review
When a teenage gunman in Orlando was accused of shooting and killing a 9-year-old girl, a journalist and a 38-year-old woman last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Rick Scott were quick to criticize the countys prosecutor for not doing more to hold the suspect accountable in previous cases.

The gunmans lengthy juvenile record was further evidence of woke prosecutors, they said. DeSantis accused Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell, a Democrat, of refusing to prosecute people.

I know the state attorney in Orlando thinks that you dont prosecute people, and thats the way that somehow you have better communities. That does not work, DeSantis, a Republican, said this week. His comments echoed his criticisms of ousted Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren.

The reality behind the case of 19-year-old Keith Moses, charged with three counts of first-degree murder, appears to be messier.

His juvenile record is sealed, and details on those cases, and how prosecutors handled them, is not known. Worrell took office in January 2021. Moses turned 18 in June that year.

In Moses only prior arrest as an adult  a 2021 drug case  Orange County Sheriffs Office deputies failed to pursue DNA testing on a gun found at the scene, a sheriffs office spokesperson confirmed Tuesday. If Moses DNA was found on the gun, he could have been charged with a second-degree felony, punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

Instead, Moses was charged with two misdemeanor marijuana-related charges. Those charges were dropped when the Florida Department of Law Enforcement  which reports to DeSantis  was unable to determine whether the substance was marijuana or hemp, records show.

The Orange-Osceola State Attorneys office has been on edge since August, when DeSantis removed Warren, saying Warren was refusing to enforce certain laws.

Warren signed statements by the advocacy group Fair and Just Prosecution pledging not to prosecute people accused of transgender or abortion-related crimes, which DeSantis argued was evidence of Warrens incompetence.

Story continues

During the federal trial over Warrens ouster, Worrells name surfaced multiple times.

Worrell was the only other prosecutor in Florida who signed the statement about transgender crimes. She did not sign the statement about abortion.

When DeSantis public safety czar, Larry Keefe, was reviewing prosecutors for potential removal, they consulted with Orange County Sheriff John Mina, a Democrat.

Mina told Keefe that to be a law enforcement sheriff in that area [Orlando] was very difficult, Keefe testified.

Mina directed Keefe to Warren, however. Mina knew of Warrens reputation as a [George] Soros-progressive prosecutor, referring to the billionaire liberal donor, Keefe testified.

Moses is accused of shooting and killing 38-year-old Natacha Augustin, then returning to the scene while police were investigating and firing numerous shots into the crowd, killing 9-year-old Tyonna Major and Spectrum News 13 reporter Dylan Lyons. The girls mother and a Spectrum News 13 videographer were wounded.

Worrell told Spectrum News 13 on Tuesday that her office couldnt prosecute the 2021 drug case against Moses because the FDLE was unable to verify the substance found was marijuana.

We could not legally prosecute this case, and my office follows the law, Worrell said.

She said the sheriffs office never presented any evidence tying Moses to the gun.

The sheriffs offices failure to test it, confirmed by a spokesperson, has not been previously reported.

DeSantis general counsel, Ryan Newman, sent a letter to Worrells office on Tuesday demanding answers on why Moses wasnt prosecuted in the 2021 case and requesting all records about Moses.

Newman wrote that our records show Moses had been arrested as a juvenile on charges of battery, burglary, larceny, robbery with a firearm, possession of a firearm, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon without intent to kill, and multiple instances of resisting an officer.

Tragically, despite the clear threat that Mr. Moses posed to our community, you apparently made the decision to not pursue charges against him, Newman wrote.

When asked about the sheriffs failure to conduct DNA testing on the gun, DeSantis spokesperson Jeremy Redfern declined to comment.

The letter speaks for itself, he wrote.

Republican Sen. Rick Scott also weighed in on Moses record, calling for every prosecutor that chose to give this young criminal a pass to be fired.

These innocent Floridians were the victims of past justice denied and a leftist, soft-on-crime approach that is spreading like cancer through Americas criminal justice system, Scott said in a news release.

Little is known about Moses juvenile record, which is not public. After Moses was arrested last week, Mina told reporters that his record included numerous serious crimes.

At 19, he has a lengthy criminal history to include gun charges, aggravated battery and assault with a deadly weapon, burglary and grand theft charges, Mina said.

Moses only previous arrest as an adult was on Nov. 12, 2021.

He and two others were stopped when a deputy saw them smoking marijuana in their car in Pine Hills, an unincorporated neighborhood northwest of Orlando, the deputy wrote in Moses arrest report.

As the deputy approached the car, someone on the passengers side tossed a loaded handgun into the bushes.

Moses, 18, was in the rear passengers seat. A 16-year-old was in the front passengers seat. The driver, 19, took off running, according to the report.

Deputies found ski masks in the car. The handgun was found in nearby shrubs, loaded with 15 rounds in the magazine and one in the chamber.

All three people in the car had extensive criminal records, including attempted murder and armed robbery, the deputy wrote. They denied knowing anything about the gun.

To find out who had the gun, the deputy wrote that he would submit it for DNA testing.

I will be authoring DNA warrants for all three subjects to compare against the recovered firearm and any other articles that could contain his DNA, the deputy wrote.

That never happened.

When asked why, an Orange County Sheriffs Office spokesperson couldnt say.

We really dont know the answer to that question, the spokesperson told the Herald/Times.

If DNA tests had confirmed Moses was in possession of the gun, it could have subjected him to more serious charges. Although Moses was 18, he was on juvenile felony probation for his previous cases, making it a second-degree felony to possess a firearm until he was 24.

In August, the gun found at the scene was test-fired by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to see if it was used in any other crimes.

The department spokesperson said Tuesday that they are checking to see whether there are any results from that comparison.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Tuesday moved to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a group of Venezuelan migrants that the state flew to Marthas Vineyard, Mass., in September.

The group filed a myriad of claims against DeSantis, other state officials and the aviation company that facilitated the flights, including purported violations of civil rights.

DeSantis and the other defendants on Tuesday urged a federal judge in Massachusetts overseeing the case to dismiss the lawsuit, or in the alternative, transfer the case to a federal court in Florida.

Before even getting to whether Plaintiffs allegations state a plausible claim for relief, this extraordinary suit faces insurmountable defects concerning jurisdiction, standing, venue, and multiple immunity doctrines. The Amended Complaint should be dismissed in its entirety for multiple, independent reasons, attorneys for DeSantis and the other state defendants wrote in a court filing.

DeSantis is one of multiple governors to relocate migrants to northern areas of the country in protest of President Bidens immigration policies, arguing it is a necessary move to provide relief to overwhelmed communities closer to the southern border.

His offices decision to fly the group of migrants last fall from Texas to Marthas Vineyard, an island known for its popularity among the wealthy, in particular received criticism from Democrats, many of whom viewed the relocations as cruel and inhumane.

The suit alleges that the migrants boarded the two planes, which were facilitated by Vertol Systems Company, under false pretenses, and it accuses various defendants of false imprisonment and anti-discrimination laws, among other claims.

DeSantis and the other state defendants argued that the lawsuit fails to state a claim that can be brought in either federal or state court, so the suit should be dismissed. They further contended that the suit was brought in an improper venue, as Massachusettss federal court in this instance does not have jurisdiction over the state and its officials.

Story continues

The number and variety of claims should not distract from the fact that Plaintiffs assert two basic theories of misconduct, neither of which can survive a motion to dismiss, attorneys for the state wrote.

The migrants, who are backed by Alianza Americas and Boston-based nonprofit Lawyers for Civil Rights, asked the judge to declare DeSantiss relocations illegal under the Constitution as well as federal and state laws. The suit further demands the judge prevent Florida from inducing immigrants to travel across state laws by fraud and misrepresentation.

The bottom line is that Governor DeSantis doesnt want to be hauled into a Massachusetts court, but he surely hauled distressed migrants to Marthas Vineyard without compunction, said Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of Lawyers for Civil Rights. Governor DeSantis essentially pretends that Perla Huerta, a former spy, was running around plotting on her own. But she was not alone. It is not surprising that Governor DeSantis and his co-defendants are throwing up every procedural argument they can think of, in a desperate attempt to avoid facing the music for this callous political stunt.

Updated at 11:43 a.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Authorities believe a woman found dead on Manzanita Lane in Thousand Oaks Tuesday morning was possibly involved with a nearby burglary at a storage facility on Willow Lane.

Major crimes detectives from the Ventura County Sheriffs Office investigated a womans body found Tuesday morning in Thousand Oaks, with the death possibly involving a burglary suspect.

Officials were initially called to a burglary at a storage facility shortly after 9 a.m. The facility, SoCal Self Storage, is located in the 2500 block of Willow Lane.

While looking into that incident, a womans body was found nearby in the 200 block of Manzanita Lane, officials said. The block is on the south side of Highway 101 off Willow Lane, between Skyline Drive and Hampshire Road.

Thousand Oaks Police Chief Jeremy Paris said authorities believe the woman was one of the perpetrators of the burglary. The sheriffs agency is contracted to provide police services in Thousand Oaks.

The burglars had allegedly broken into a storage unit and stolen what was inside it, Paris said. No details were available regarding what was taken.

On Tuesday evening, Capt. Ryan Clark said two men and a woman had reportedly fled the burglary scene. One man was arrested and later released pending further investigation. Another was outstanding as of Wednesday morning.

The third suspect is believed to be the woman found dead, Clark said. We need a little more time to draw the conclusion definitively, he said.

There was no obvious reason for the death and no obvious sign of trauma, officials said. There did not appear to be any foul play involved.

On Wednesday, the Ventura County Medical Examiners Office identified the woman as Nastaza Schmidt, 34, of Ventura. The cause and manner of death were pending, the agency reported.

Ventura County Fire Department units responded to the scene, which was described in the agencys log notes as a female passed out on front steps, said Andy VanSciver, an agency spokesman. Firefighters cleared the call relatively quickly as the incident involved a death rather than a situation requiring medical aid, he said.

The incident remained under investigation Wednesday, authorities said.

This story may be updated.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Sheriff's detectives investigate body found in Thousand Oaks
By Kylie Madry

SANTA LUCIA, Mexico (Reuters) - Logistics giant DHL will double its planned investment in Mexico through 2024, executives said on Tuesday, as it shifts cargo flights from the capital's closest airport to a new, distant facility backed by the country's president.

The company will invest $600 million in Mexico through next year, up from its previous plan to spend $300 million from 2019 to 2024, company executives said following an event with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

The strategy includes about $55 million for cargo operations at Mexico City's new Felipe Angeles International Airport, according to DHL country head Antonio Arranz.

DHL is the first cargo carrier to transfer its flights from Mexico City's more centrally-located Benito Juarez airport to the new hub after a presidential decree earlier this month required the move by July.

Lopez Obrador argued that the switch to the new airport was needed as there was insufficient space at Benito Juarez, but critics have panned the move as rushed and a bid to increase traffic at the still-unpopular airport, which opened last year.

At the event on Tuesday, Lopez Obrador highlighted Felipe Angeles' state-of-the-art facilities and said the airport would break even by December, nearly two years after opening.

DHL expects three daily flights to come into Felipe Angeles by June, Arranz said, including one new route. The flights will move 120 tonnes of cargo through the facility per day, he added.

The new route will be operated by Canadian partner Cargojet, Arranz told Reuters, as Mexican carriers are currently unable to open new U.S. routes due to an aviation safety downgrade by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Another senior executive hinted at additional DHL investments in Mexico, but offered few details.

"In the next 60 to 90 days, we'll be making ... a further investment ... in a city that we currently operate (from) here in Mexico," said Mike Parra, the company's regional director.

($1 = 18.3095 Mexican pesos)

(Reporting by Kylie Madry; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Sonali Paul)
BOSTON (AP)  The TV provider Dish Network continued to recover Wednesday from a ransomware attack last week that it said disrupted operations, internet sites and call centers. It said unspecified data was stolen and it was investigating whether that included the personal information of customers.

We are experiencing a system issue that our teams are working hard to resolve, said a message on Dish's main page. A separate notice to customers said many were having trouble reaching our service desks, accessing their accounts, and making payments. Dish TV was up and running, it added.

As with many victims of ransomware, Dish did not immediately acknowledge the outage's cause when announcing it on a Feb. 23 earnings call. Instead, it did so in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday.

The Colorado-based company's stock price has fallen 20% since it first reported the incident.

Dish did not respond to detailed questions about the ransomware attack including which criminal group was behind it, how much ransom was demanded and whether the company paid. Nor did it say how long the attackers were inside its network.

Ransomware gangs, which largely operate out of Russia, break into networks and sow malicious code. Before the criminals activate the ransomware, which paralyzes infected machines by encrypting data, they steal files. That increases their chances of obtaining extortion payments and helps explain why ransomware has become the leading global cybersecurity headache.

In an email Wednesday responding to questions from The Associated Press, Dish did not say when it expected to fully recover.

Instead, it sent the notice it had posted online, which said it discovered Monday that some data had been stolen. Its possible the investigation will reveal that the extracted data includes personal information.

The security of our customers data is important to us, and if we learn that information was compromised, well take the appropriate steps and let any impacted customers know, the notice added.

As of Dec. 31, Dish said it had 7.4 million satellite TV subscribers with 9.7 million PAY-TV and 2.3 million Sling TV subscribers. It also reported 8 million wireless subscribers.
A TikTok influencer known for his viral pranks has divided fans with his latest practical joke, with some outraged on his parents behalf.

Corbin Millet, 19, from Pennsylvania, goes by the username @corbinnmillet on TikTok, where he has 190,000 followers, and where he frequently shares videos showing him pranking his parents.

However, viewers claimed that Millet should be disowned after his latest viral prank, which saw him covering his mom and dads entire kitchen in peanut butter.

In the clip, which has been viewed more than 39 million times, Millet began by showing a look at his parents kitchen pre-peanut butter. Covering my parents kitchen in peanut butter, the 19 year old wrote in a text caption on the video.

The TikToker then showed footage of the after, which saw nearly every surface of the kitchen, including the cabinets, oven, counters, microwave, coffee maker and lamps, smeared with peanut butter.

All peanut butter was eaten by doggies, Millet wrote in the caption of the video.

The viral video, which has also been circulated on Twitter, has sparked a debate among viewers, with many horrified by the prank.

My jaw literally dropped, one person revealed, while another viewer said: I dont care if theres plastic wrap [underneath], I would change the locks and get a restraining order over this.

Not even my kitchen and Im already mad, someone else wrote.

According to one viewer, the video was another reason to not have kids, while someone else suggested Millet should be grounded for life.

Others pointed out that, in addition to being difficult to clean, the peanut butter may lead to ants. Youre going to have a HUGE ant problem, one person claimed, while someone else asked: Was the swarm of 1,000 ants worth it?

In addition to alarm over the prank, others criticised Millet for the overwhelming food waste required to carry out the stunt.

Story continues

Bro wasted so much peanut butter, one person pointed out, while another viewer said: The amount of food wasted.

In a follow-up video, Millet shared his fathers understandably outraged reaction to the prank.

Corbin! You sick f**k! Were going to get ants, Millet captured his father yelling as he stormed up the stairs after his son.

It was at this moment that he knew, Millet captioned the video of his fathers reaction, which has been viewed an additional 14 million times.

According to viewers, the reaction was not surprising, with one person claiming the screaming was deserved.

How are you not kicked out of the house? someone else asked.

According to Millet, he carried out the prank in question in August, and had originally posted it to his former TikTok account, which has since been banned.

As for how long it took him to carry out the stunt, and how much peanut butter it required, he told the New York Post it took him seven hours and 28lbs of peanut butter. It then took him an additional three to four hours to clean up the mess.

While speaking to the outlet, Millet also reflected on his mothers reaction, with the teenager revealing shed been pissed and left after finding her kitchen covered in peanut butter.

However, according to Millet, this isnt the first time his parents have been upset by one of his social media pranks, as he told The Post that hes been kicked out a couple of times.

However, the teen said his parents have come around slightly since learning how popular his videos are on social media.

As for how he feels about those hating on him over the prank, Millet pointed out that the videos are clearly liked by some, or he wouldnt get as many views as he does.

The Independent has contacted Millet for comment.
DJ Sol David Solomon - Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

On a balmy Friday in late July last year, David Solomon hopped on his companys Gulfstream G650 private jet bound for Chicago.

The chief executive of Goldman Sachs was headed to the Windy City for meetings with employees and clients. Yet his main engagement that weekend was a very different sort of gathering, taking place just a ten minute drive from Goldmans Chicago office in Grant Park: Lollapalooza.

The four-day music festival boasted worldwide stars including Metallica, Dua Lipa and Green Day on its line-up. Solomon  who moonlights as a DJ in his spare time and goes by the name DJ D-Sol  was also performing.

Dressed in a black t-shirt, the 60-year-old father of two was videoed doing his best Fatboy Slim impression as a group of young revellers bounced around to his roster of hits.

In a post on his personal Instagram account, Solomon said: Lolla was full of special moments, but this was the best in a nod to a performance of his song Learn To Love Me.

Yet while DJ D-Sol is clearly having a good time, Goldman Sachs investors are finding it difficult to learn to love Solomon.

Profits at Goldman Sachs have now been falling for more than a year as a misfiring bet on consumer lending wracks up billions in losses. The bank's share price has lagged rivals since Solomon took charge in 2018 and doubts about his strategy are growing louder, with one City analyst saying Goldman is flailing.

Goldman Sachs David Solomon - BRENDAN MCDERMID/REUTERS

On Tuesday, Solomon attempted to get shareholders back on side by hosting only the second ever investor day in Goldmans 154-year history.

In an olive branch to disgruntled investors, Solomon pledged to explore "strategic alternatives" for its loss-making consumer business.

Since taking charge, Solomon has pushed headlong into retail banking under Goldmans Marcus brand and through credit card partnerships with Apple and General Motors.

Last year it bought GreenSky, a point-of-sale lender. This is a far cry from the corporate M&A work that Solomon, a veteran investment banker, made his name doing.

Story continues

The strategy has not paid off. Earlier this year, Goldman revealed that its newly formed consumer lending and fintech unit had suffered $3bn in pre-tax losses since 2020.

It became clear that we lacked certain competitive advantages and that we did too much too quickly, Solomon conceded on Tuesday, pledging to stop losses at the division by 2025.

Goldman has already sidelined its retail bank Marcus, announcing at the end of last year that it was folding the business into its wealth management division as part of a reorganisation.

Weve narrowed ambitions in the consumer space, Solomon said. We will do whats right for Goldman Sachs, were focused on it and we will execute appropriately.

Solomon is under growing pressure to improve performance after continually lagging behind stock market rivals in recent years. Shares in arch rival JPMorgan are up a third over the last five years, while Goldman has climbed by just a quarter.

Critics argue that the banks historic strengths in investment banking and trading make it more suited for a pre-financial crisis era.

New regulations force banking giants to hold much higher levels of capital than they once did, making trading strategies less profitable.

Goldman is also more vulnerable during periods of subdued market activity, such as last years dealmaking drought following Russias invasion of Ukraine, than rivals with broader businesses.

The bank has been trying to diversify its business for years but has struggled, in part because of its well entrenched culture of investment banking and trading.

Profits plunged by two-thirds in the final quarter of 2022, representing the fifth consecutive quarter of falling profits.

The quiet deals market and the mammoth losses at its consumer unit forced Goldman to embark on its biggest cost-cutting drive since the financial crisis earlier this year.

In January, it announced it was cutting more than 3,000 jobs, while it has also reduced bonuses and launched a sweeping review of spending in an attempt to rein in costs.

Solomon told investors on Tuesday: Sometimes we fall short. Sometimes we don't execute. But we always learn and adapt.

Brennan Hawken, an analyst at UBS, told Bloomberg: Its not good to see Goldman flailing. Theres a perception that all the partners are not singing from the same hymn book. It leads investors to conclude that the CEO might be losing confidence of the partners. And that is worrying.

Analysts are concerned that there is no quick fix for Goldmans malaise. Michael Wong, an analyst at Morningstar, said: "Earnings could continue to be subdued for the next year or more, as the economic environment remains uncertain, which should pressure investment banking and asset management revenue.

Solomon on Tuesday reaffirmed a target for return on tangible equity  a key measure of profitability for banks  of 15pc to 17pc, which was higher than its target in previous years. However, the target is still lower than rivals Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan.

Bosses at Goldman believe its $2.5 trillion asset and wealth management business is key to unlocking future growth.

Solomon told CNBC on Tuesday: The real story for growth for us is asset management and wealth management. Theres a real opportunity for us to continue to make the firm more durable.

However, the investor day also appeared to do little to quell investor concerns: shares in the bank were down 3pc in afternoon trading in the US.

Meanwhile, Solomon also warned that operating in China will get tougher over the next few years, given the rising tensions between the communist state and the West.

He told CNBC: "We are at a very tough place in bilateral relations with China and my own view is it only gets tougher ... It is a more 'cautious' time for investment in our own franchise.

Shareholders looking for reassurance may take succour from the latest post on Solomons personal Instagram account, promoting his new track featuring German DJ TMW. The title of the song? Nothing I Wont Do.

Investors will be hoping that attitude applies to turning around the stumbling Wall Street giant as well as dance music.
Why did the western become arguably the most important genre in post-war filmmaking? From John Ford to Sam Peckinpah, the sweeping vistas and amoral politics lit up the big screen, gifting America a new creation myth. Now, the western is back in a more compact form  and with a transatlantic hue. After Hugo Blixs excellent The English, Sky Atlantic is rebooting Sergio Corbuccis Django film franchise as a brooding 10-part stampede through the dawn of the United States.

Its the Old West, 1872. From the wreckage of the American civil war, John Ellis (Nicholas Pinnock), an almost messianic figure, is building a utopia: New Babylon. His city will be a home to all, regardless of colour or creed, gender or sexuality. Except theres one man who is apparently unwelcome in this false-front Xanadu. Django (Matthias Schoenaerts) arrives as a drifter, offering himself to the bearpit in a fight to the death. Are you ready for your destiny? Ellis asks this scraggy stranger. But when Django shows mercy to his stricken opponent, he breaks Elliss covenant, and reveals his destiny as something far greater than a barroom brawl.

That path has led him to Elliss young bride-to-be, Sarah (Lisa Vicari), who, it turns out, is his daughter and the last surviving member of Clan Django. It will also bring him into the crosshairs of Noomi Rapaces savage and mysterious local landowner, Elizabeth. Shes introduced to viewers in a carefully orchestrated atrocity at a brothel, which sets the tone both for the relentless violence she will enact and the shows attitude towards life and death. This is the pioneer era, where a man could make fame and fortune with nothing more than a steady hand and a willingness to shoot.

This new series, created by Italians Leonardo Fasoli and Maddalena Ravagli, is all about reintroducing the spaghetti to the western. In the 1960s, Sergio Leone rewrote the rules of the genre by bringing a European artistic sensibility to the definitive American story. The western, after all, is not the simple, outmoded, story of civilisation versus barbarism that it seems superficially. Instead, it reveals how civilisation is built on barbarism; how the two work in tandem. Leone stirred in a ragu of moral ambivalence and nomadic indolence  and Django champions those continental ideas. Along with the core creative team, the lead actors are an excellent selection of stars from European arthouse cinema (Schoenaerts is Belgian, Vicari German, Rapace Swedish, and Pinnock English). It demonstrates America as both an immigrant heartland, and a canvas on which to project European colonial anxieties.

What kind of a name is Django anyway? Ellis asks his sharp-shooting new arrival. Its just a name, Django replies. But when quizzed on whether its his own (hes called Julien in flashbacks, where he has a more pronounced European accent) he hesitates. In this life it is. Since the days of Franco Nero, Django has been a name passed around as a pseudonym, shared between both bounty hunters and vengeful former slaves. Fasoli and Ragalis vision is more conventional  Schoenaerts, despite a horrific wig, is very much in the mould of Nero or Clint Eastwood  but embraces that sense of self-mythologising. The West is, once the dust has settled, a place of reinvention.

Unfortunately, the execution is at times more spaghetti junction than spaghetti western. The family drama is frequently superseded by needless shootouts, and characters come and go with the flash of a muzzle. Without the central crutch of Djangos relationship with Sarah, it would be hard to follow (or care about) the land management and brokering grievances that result in so much bloodshed. Djangos backstory is equally slippery (though, thankfully, he has a better haircut in these scenes). You might argue that nobody watches westerns for the plot, but when that narrative is stretched over 10 hour-long episodes, it needs unsnarling to sustain viewers attention.

For diehard aficionados of the genre, Django is a welcome throwback and an unapologetically European addition to the canon. But, for the casual viewer, the action is unlikely to have sufficient impetus. Thats the problem with spaghetti: for all its base carbohydrate appeal, you can all too easily end up with a glutinous tangle.
Forty-three years ago, field workers found a womans body in a California cornfield.

The woman, found in the unincorporated area of Dixon in August 1980, would only be known as Jane Doe for more than a decade, until she was identified as 21-year-old Holly Ann Campiglia from New Jersey in 1992, the Solano County Sheriffs Office said in a Feb. 27 news release posted to Facebook.

Now, 31 years after she got her name back, a man has been arrested in her killing, the sheriffs office said.

DNA linked Herman Lee Hobbs, 76, who is currently serving a prison sentence after he was convicted of murder charges in a different case, to Campiglias death, according to the sheriffs office.

Cold cases are particularly difficult cases to work because sadly, time goes on which leads to gaps in memory and new cases that come in and change the prioritization, the sheriffs office wrote, adding that original deputy assigned to the case, Jose Joe Cisneros, died in the line of duty in 1985.

After Campiglia was found in 1980, her cause of death was determined to be multiple gunshots to the head and neck, the sheriffs office said.

Despite learning Campiglias identity in 1992, her case remained cold, the sheriffs office said.

There wasnt a break in the case until after Campiglias family asked the sheriffs office in late 2021 if it could review her case to see if there was any evidence that could be submitted for DNA analysis, deputies said.

Months later, the Serological Research Institute said it found male DNA on one of the pieces of evidence, the sheriffs office said.

That DNA was submitted to a San Mateo Crime Lab database and was a match for Hobbs, deputies said. Detectives got a warrant to get a new DNA sample from Hobbs, which again confirmed he was a match, according to the sheriffs office.

Hobbs was transferred from state prison to Solano County Jail to face murder charges in connection to this case, along with the enhancement for the use of a gun, deputies said.

Story continues

The sheriffs office said it is working with other neighboring agencies to determine if Hobbs may be linked to additional cases.

Dixon is about 20 miles southwest of Sacramento.

Lady in the fridge was a mystery for 27 years. Body now identified as California mom

Pregnant soldier was found strangled to death in 2001. Now, man is arrested in Florida

Two young women were killed in 1981, California officials say. Now, theres an arrest
A truffle hunt was our favorite day of a recent trip to Italy. Hiking beautiful countryside with dogs, then eating delicious scrambled eggs and soft, young Pecorino Romano cheese with a freshly found truffle shaved over the top: What could be better?

But you don't have to travel to Europe to go truffle hunting. You can teach your own dog to hunt for the treasured tubers, and depending on where you live, you may well be successful.

The best times of day to go truffle hunting are early morning and late afternoon.

Truffles are found in the Pacific Northwest  which ranges from northern California into British Columbia  and from the southern United States into Ontario. As with most scenting activities, any dog can learn, although professional truffle hunters seek certain qualities in their dogs.

At Truffle Hill in Australia  Australia is a primary producer of truffles  truffle hunter Adrian Mielke looks for dogs with high drive and stamina who are food-motivated and don't mind searching in wet and cold conditions  cool, moist air holds scent closer to the ground.

"In our experience, the best breeds are Labradors or kelpies, but many mixed 'hybrid' breeds have been very successful," he says. Other dogs with good scenting skills include beagles, German shorthaired pointers, spaniels or other retrieving or hunting dogs.

At Black Truffle Lodge in Italy's Umbria region, where we went on our hunt, Mac (more formally known as Nathan McMillan Ryde, co-owner of the lodge with his wife, Francesca Chiacchiarini) says truffle dogs are started as puppies simply by playing fetch with them to encouraging their retrieving instinct. Gradually, the ball is switched for an egg-shaped plastic container with holes, which can hold the truffle and disseminate its scent while protecting it from destruction by rambunctious puppies. Mac and truffle hunter Luca like using dogs who are a blend of springer spaniel, English setter and pointer. Later, young dogs in training go out with more experienced dogs to learn the secrets of truffle location.

Story continues

What if you don't live in an area where truffles are found? Your dog can still learn, thanks to online training courses and the availability of truffles by mail or from your local gourmet store.

And you don't need a fancy dog such as a Lagotto Romagnolo, considered by some to be the Lamborghini of truffle dogs, thanks to their Italian heritage and traditional use in truffle hunting.

Washington state-based truffle hunter and dog trainer Kristin Rosenbach offers lessons in person or online (wagnificentk9.com). She's had clients succeed with many different breeds and mixes, including a Vizsla, a Staffordshire bull terrier, flat-coated retrievers, an Anatolian mix and a papillon. Her own dogs are two border collies, a Shetland sheepdog and a Belgian tervuren, the first of their breeds to truffle hunt in the Pacific Northwest.

"Honestly, the only requirement is that someone has a good relationship with their dog," she says.

As with any detection dog training, positive reinforcement coupled with scent association is key. Your dog should view hunting as a game with plenty of tasty rewards (not the truffles, though) or other desirable incentives, such as play with a favorite toy.

Rosenbach's top tips for training dogs to find truffles are to use real truffles (not truffle oil), train outdoors and move the truffle underground as soon as possible. During training, she recommends staying away from truffle-producing locations, counterintuitive as that may seem. That allows you to control as many variables as possible so you can set up your dog for success.

Once a team in training is proficient at a mock truffle hunt  a blind hunt in a forest that Rosenbach knows does not produce truffles  she takes them out for a forest lesson.

Truffles are being cultivated and discovered in many new areas, so your dog could surprise you once trained.

"I suspect truffles are growing in a lot more places than we think they are, and that's just because there aren't enough of us out there looking," Rosenbach says.

by Kim Campbell Thornton

Do you have a pet question? Send it to askpetconnection@gmail.com or visit Facebook.com/DrMartyBecker. Pet Connection is produced by veterinarian Dr. Marty Becker, journalist Kim Campbell Thornton, and dog trainer/behavior consultant Mikkel Becker. 2023 Andrews McMeel Syndication

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Pet Connection: Truffle hunting is a popular pastime for dogs
Donald Trump Jr., in a video shared online, whined about not being invited to appear on Fox News anymore.

The eldest son of former President Donald Trump blamed former Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, who is now on the Fox Corp. board of directors, for his absence from the conservative network.

The Trump scion claimed no one gives a crap about Ryans vow not to attend the 2024 Republican National Convention if Donald Trump wins the GOP nomination. Ryan has said hell support anybody but Trump in the presidential election.

Trump Jr. then slammed the channel, which has come increasingly under the spotlight with the release of court documents that show owner Rupert Murdoch knew its personalities endorsed Trumps 2020 election lies.

This guy is the guy on the board of Fox News, which also explains a lot about the direction and some of the content Im seeing out there folks, Trump Jr. said of Ryan.

This explains, to me, almost everything, frankly, he continued. I know I havent been invited on in six months, so Im sure thats him pushing his RINO, America-Last, war-forever garbage, fold to the Democrats agenda.

Junior says he hasnt been invited on Fox in 6 months, and hes pretty sure Paul Ryan is behind it. pic.twitter.com/wcmsIXthL2  Ron Filipkowski  (@RonFilipkowski) February 27, 2023

Related...
The breadless behemoth is back.

On March 1, Kentucky Fried Chicken announced the long-awaited return of a hotly debated menu item: the Double Down. Finally, the prayers of those on Twitter who have been aching for its return have been answered!

KFC's Double Down Sandwich. (KFC)

For those who dont remember (or tried to forget), the bun-free sandwich comes with two of KFCs Extra Crispy white-meat chicken fillets (which serve as the "bread"), two slices of both cheese and hickory-smoked bacon, and is finished with the customer's choice of either KFCs mayo or a spicy sauce.

KFC originally debuted the Double Down in 2010 and said it sold more than 10 million sandwiches in the items first month, even as it was initially considered an April Fools' Day prank since it was announced on April 1.

Still, due to much hype and fanfare, the brand brought it back in April of 2014, only to wait until now to resurrect it. Yes, it's really been gone for that long, even though it feels like yesterday.

In a statement sent to TODAY.com, KFC acknowledged the menu items cult following and celebrated how, for the first time in nearly a decade, its back. The Double Down will be available at KFC restaurants across the country starting on March 6 for a limited time  only four weeks  at participating KFC stores.

The Double Down is one of the most buzzworthy fast food menu items ever, Nick Chavez, chief marketing officer or KFC U.S. said in a press release. After nearly a decade of people begging for its return, were embracing the chaos, bringing back our most iconic sandwich ever for just four weeks.

There was Bring Back The KFC Double Down! Change.org petition that sprang up a few years ago, much like there was for Taco Bell's Mexican Pizza, but unlike that hugely popular petition, this one only got half of its intended 500 signatures.

For those who aren't about that "'no bun' life," as KFC puts it, there is another new sandwich that may be of interest.

KFC's Bacon & Cheese Chicken Sandwich. (KFC)

In addition to bringing back the Double Down, KFC is introducing a new item called the Bacon & Cheese Chicken Sandwich. The double-breaded and extra-crispy white-meat chicken fillet comes paired with a slice of cheese, two pieces of hickory-smoked bacon, the Colonels mayo and pickles, this time on a toasted brioche bun.

Story continues

Just like the Double Down, the Bacon & Cheese Chicken Sandwich will be available at KFC starting March 6, but only for a limited time.

And on March 5, KFC will host a Double Down Drop, allowing select fans early access to get a first taste one day before the rest of the country. The contest is open to legal residents of all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia, who are 18 years of age or older.

To sign up, head over to KFCs special website devoted to the contest on March 2. If youre really clamoring for it, be warned: Itll only be available for pre-order on a first-come, first-served basis to the first 2,014 consumers. (That number is a clever nod to when the Double Down was last offered at KFC in the States.)

KFC is also rewarding a select group of eager Double Down devotees with custom merch to don while theyre enjoying their long-awaited dish.

The Double Down can be ordered on its own or in a combo meal that comes with an order of Secret Recipe Fries and a medium drink in restaurants and online through the KFC app or KFCs website.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
High winds pushed a large pine tree down and across Giddings Street toward Valley Strong ballpark Wednesday, March 1, 2023. The street is closed south of Murray Avenue while crews make repairs.

Visalia businesses and homes were without power Wednesday morning after a severe storm toppled trees and downed power lines in multiple areas throughout the city.

Early this morning Visalia Fire responded to nine calls from 2 to 4 a.m. involving trees down into houses and on power lines," an update from the Visalia Fire Department stated. Power is still out in the area of Jacob (Street) to Mooney (Boulevard) and from Mineral King (Avenue) to Murray (Avenue).

The power outage on Giddings Street initially affected 2,000 customers but was isolated to 30 customers, according to the fire department. The latest update from Southern California Edison estimates over 300 customers are currently impacted by the outage.

Most of the power should be restored by 9 p.m. Wednesday, according to Southern California Edison.

High winds pushed a large tree onto a house in the 900 block of West Goshen Avenue on Wednesday, March 1, 2023.

Giddings is currently closed between Center and Murray avenues near the Rawhide stadium due to the large tree blocking the roadway.

Caltrans Districts 6 and Caltrans District 7 also reported multiple road closures following the storm, including I-5 along the Grapevine between Parker Road and the Grapevine as well as State Route 58 and Towline Road.

Due to unsafe conditions from heavy snow and ice, the Grapevine is closed in both north and south directions, an update from the California Highway Patrol Fort Tejon reads. Please be patient as crews work to clear the roadway of snow and ice.

The National Weather Service has also issued a freeze watch and warning for areas throughout Central California Tuesday, including Visalia, Porterville and Reedley. The colder conditions may kill crops and other vegetation, as well as damage unprotected outdoor plumbing.

The final in a series of storm systems will bring additional rain, low elevation snow, and gusty winds today, the National Weather forecast discussion reads. Below-freezing temperatures are expected for much of the San Joaquin Valley both Thursday and Friday morning.

Story continues

Visalias warming center is open from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. at 701 E. Race Avenue.

High winds pushed a large pine tree down and across Giddings Street toward Valley Strong ballpark Wednesday, March 1, 2023. The street is closed south of Murray Avenue while crews make repairs.

This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: Downed power lines, toppled trees knock out power for some Visalians
Lee County deputies with the narcotics unit about noon Tuesday cleared a house they say was suspected of handling narcotics. At least four people were arrested. One of them begged authorities for their child's welfare as they sat handcuffed on the ground.

The Lee County Sheriff's Office arrested dozens of alleged drug dealers and seized more than a kilogram of meth and fentanyl following a weeks-long anti-narcotics operation, Sheriff Carmine Marceno announced Tuesday.

The sweep, which Marceno dubbed Operation Curbside Crackdown, began in January and was targeted at street-level dealers, he said. The sheriff, who has a habit of taking jabs at people arrested by his office, described this latest group of people arrested as "oxygen stealers."

"These dealers are the trash responsible for placing poison directly in the hands of others," Marceno said.

Deputies seized more than 8 grams of powder cocaine, 49 grams of crack cocaine, 620 grams of methamphetamine and 497 grams of fentanyl, eight guns and $309,000 in cash, Marceno said. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid about 50 times stronger than heroin.

Marceno said 50 people were arrested in the operation, with more pending. The News-Press could not verify the exact number; when asked for records of each arrest made during the sweep, the Sheriff's Office provided 43 booking sheets.

Evidence seized by the Lee County Sheriff's Office and displayed at a press conference on Feb. 28, 2023.

According to the booking sheets, 32 people were charged with selling or trafficking drugs, five with illegal firearm possession and one with armed robbery. Other charges included possession with intent to sell marijuana, opiates and cocaine, simple possession and auto theft.

The announcement Tuesday afternoon came hours after deputies raided two North Fort Myers houses allegedly connected to the drug trade. At least four people were arrested at a house off Bayshore Road. One of them begged authorities for their child's welfare as they sat handcuffed on the ground.

Marceno took shots at progressive cities like New York, Seattle and Portland, saying frustrated police officers in those cities were welcome to apply for jobs at his agency.

"Hug-a-thug, defunding the police and cowardly community leaders result in places like Seattle, Portland, Chicago and, I'm sad to say, New York City," Marceno said. "This is what Lee County stands for. Law and order."

Story continues

New York City's crime rate has increased in recent years but remains down about 75 percent from its peak in the early 1990s, according to the NYPD. Its violent crime rate was 629 per 100,000 residents in 2021, according to New York State's Department of Criminal Justice Services.

By comparison, Lee County's rate was 280 per 100,000 residents in 2020, according to the most recent data released by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

On a state level, New York's 2021 violent crime rate was 384 per 100,000, just below Florida's rate of 385 in 2020.

There were 31 fatal overdoses in New York City per 100,000 residents in 2021, according to city officials. Lee County had a fatal overdose rate of 54 per 100,000 that year, according to state data.

Lee County deputies with the narcotics unit about noon Tuesday cleared a house they say was suspected of handling narcotics. At least four people were arrested. One of them begged authorities for their child's welfare as they sat handcuffed on the ground.

Tomas Rodriguez is a Breaking/Live News Reporter for the Naples Daily News and The News-Press. You can reach Tomas at TRodriguez@gannett.com or 772-333-5501. Connect with him on Twitter @TomasFRoBeltran, Instagram @tomasfrobeltran and Facebook @tomasrodrigueznews.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Lee Sheriff drug operation results in dozens of arrests
A 68-year-old man was arguing with his passenger when he indicated he was going to end their lives, according to authorities in Illinois.

As he was driving a Nissan Murano SUV in Beach Park, the man accelerated, swerved off the road and rammed into a tree, the Lake County Sheriffs Office said in a Facebook post.

Deputies were called to the scene at about 7:45 a.m. Wednesday, March 1. They found the man and a 38-year-old woman were trapped inside the SUV, which had sustained significant damage.

The fire department rescued the driver and passenger, police said, and they were rushed to hospitals with serious, but non-life-threatening injuries.

Authorities said the man and woman have a relationship with each other.

The driver is being charged with aggravated domestic battery and reckless conduct, police said. Additional charges may be filed.

His name is not being released until he is released from the hospital, authorities said. Hell be booked into the Lake County Jail once he is discharged.

Beach Park is about 60 miles north of downtown Chicago.

If you are experiencing domestic violence and need someone to talk to, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline for support at 1-800-799-7233 or text START to 88788.

Daughter shoots parents, herself in yard, PA cops say. Family pre-planned deaths

Son kills mother and her twin sister, then shoots himself, Georgia police say

Murder suspect found dead a week after man was killed in his car, Missouri cops say
20th CPC Central Committee 2nd plenary session issues communique

Xinhua) 08:07, March 01, 2023

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, makes an important speech at the second plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee in Beijing, capital of China. The plenary session was held from Feb. 26 to 28, 2023. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)

BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The 20th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee issued a communique at the end of its second plenary session on Tuesday.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, made an important speech at the three-day session, which was presided over by the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

A total of 203 full members and 170 alternate members of the CPC Central Committee attended the session. Deputy secretaries of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and leading officials of related departments were also present in a non-voting capacity.

At the session, the CPC Central Committee heard and discussed a work report presented by Xi, who was entrusted by the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

The session adopted a list of proposed candidates for the leading positions of state institutions to be recommended to the first session of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC), and a list of proposed candidates for the leadership of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee to be recommended to the first session of the 14th CPPCC National Committee.

The plenary session decided to recommend the two lists respectively to the presidium of the first session of the 14th NPC and the presidium of the first session of the 14th CPPCC National Committee, according to the communique.

The plenary session adopted a plan for the reform of Party and state institutions. Xi delivered explanatory remarks on the draft plan at the session.

The session agreed to put part of the reform plan to the first session of the 14th NPC for deliberation in accordance with due legal procedures.

The session fully affirmed the work of the Political Bureau since the first plenary session.

The plenum emphasized that upcoming sessions of the NPC and the CPPCC National Committee are of great significance for further mobilizing the whole Party and people of all ethnic groups to strive in unity to build a modern socialist country in all respects and advance the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts.

It was pointed out at the plenum that since the 18th CPC National Congress, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has made deepening the reform of Party and state institutions an important task in modernizing China's system and capacity for governance.

As a result, the functions of the Party and state institutions have been transformed in a systematic and holistic manner, which has provided a strong guarantee for the Party and the country to make historic achievements and see historic changes in the pursuit of the cause of the Party and the country. Valuable experience has also been accumulated in this process for further deepening the reform of Party and state institutions.

Noting that important arrangements for deepening the reform of Party and state institutions have been made at the 20th CPC National Congress, the session underscored efforts to coordinate the institutions of the CPC Central Committee, the NPC, the State Council, and the CPPCC National Committee, and coordinate the central and local authorities.

Efforts are needed to deepen institutional reform in key areas and ensure that the Party's leadership over socialist modernization becomes more refined in institutional setup, more optimized in the division of functions, more improved in institutions and mechanisms, and more efficient in operation and management, the session noted.

All local authorities and departments should fully appreciate the importance and urgency of the reform of Party and state institutions, and faithfully implement the tasks of institutional reform, the session stressed.

Thoroughly studying, disseminating and implementing the guiding principles from the 20th CPC National Congress is the primary political task of the whole Party, both at present and in the near future, the plenary session stressed, calling for further efforts in this regard.

It called on leading officials to continue setting good examples in comprehensively studying, grasping and implementing these guiding principles.

Localities and departments should formulate and carry out detailed plans and initiatives in line with their realities to ensure that the guiding principles are implemented, it stressed.

At present, the world is undergoing momentous and rapid changes unseen in a century, and it has entered a new phase of turbulence and transformation, the session said.

It noted that China has entered a development period in which strategic opportunities, risks and challenges are concurrent, and uncertainties and unforeseen factors are rising, and it must therefore be ready to withstand high winds, choppy waters and even dangerous storms.

At home, China faces many deep-seated problems regarding reform, development and stability, with the triple pressures of shrinking demand, disrupted supply and weakening expectations remaining relatively high, the session underscored, adding that the foundation for economic recovery needs to be further consolidated, and unexpected circumstances may occur anytime.

The plenary session urged all Party members to remain confident and strategically clear-headed, and carry forward the fighting spirit to strive to achieve the goals and tasks for the year.

It stressed the need to fully and faithfully apply the new development philosophy on all fronts, accelerate the creation of a new development pattern, and pursue high-quality development.

More efforts should be made to expand domestic demand, guarantee and improve the well-being of the people and advance rural revitalization across the board, the session stressed.

Reform and opening up should be resolutely deepened, and a series of strategic, creative and pioneering reform measures should be put forward focusing on the goal of building a modern socialist country in all respects, with new breakthroughs in important areas, it said.

It stressed thoroughly implementing the strategic plans on Party building laid out at the 20th CPC National Congress, as well as improving the system of full and rigorous self-governance of the Party.

Efforts must be made to improve Party conduct and enforce Party discipline with a strict tone, and consistently tackle the problems of formalities for formalities' sake, bureaucratism, hedonism, and extravagance, the meeting said.

It underlined that integrated efforts should also be made to ensure officials do not dare to be, are not able to be, and do not want to be corrupt, so as to win the tough and prolonged battle against corruption.

The plenary session called on all Party members and people of all ethnic groups to rally more closely around the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core to make solid strides to advance Chinese modernization and work together to achieve the goals and tasks set at the 20th CPC National Congress.

The second plenary session of the 20th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee is presided over by the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee in Beijing, capital of China. The plenary session was held from Feb. 26 to 28, 2023. (Xinhua/Yan Yan)

Xi Jinping, Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang and Li Xi attend the second plenary session of the 20th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee in Beijing, capital of China. The plenary session was held from Feb. 26 to 28, 2023. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

Xi Jinping, Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang and Li Xi attend the second plenary session of the 20th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee in Beijing, capital of China. The plenary session was held from Feb. 26 to 28, 2023. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

The second plenary session of the 20th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee is presided over by the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee in Beijing, capital of China. The plenary session was held from Feb. 26 to 28, 2023. (Xinhua/Yue Yuewei)

The second plenary session of the 20th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee is held in Beijing, capital of China. The plenary session was held from Feb. 26 to 28, 2023. (Xinhua/Yue Yuewei)

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Editors note: This story is available as a result of a content partnership between WFTV and the Orlando Business Journal.

Dutch Bros. plans to open another coffee shop in Orlando as part of its regional expansion.

Read: Sheriff: 4 found dead, including child, at Brevard County home

The Grants Pass Oregon-based chain has proposed a 950-square-foot drive-thru at 12200 Lake Underhill Road, according to Orange County documents. The project would go on 0.52 acres currently part of a parking lot for a Lowes store.

Dutch Bros. spokesperson Madison Fahey said the location is in the very early planning stages and more information is not available yet. The proposed shop currently is going through preliminary review of plans with Orange County.

Click here to read the full story on the Orlando Business Journals website.

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.




Una Brands, a Singapore-based e-commerce aggregator, has raised $30 million in pre-Series C financing just five months after announcing its $30 million Series B funding that was raised in September of last year.

Northstar Group, a regional private equity firm, is the sole investor in Una Brands' latest round, which involves a mix of equity and debt, though Una Brands declined to break out how much equity versus debt the newest round involves. It also declined to disclose its valuation when asked.

The company has now raised more than $100 million in total funding since its inception in 2021, and says it will use the new capital to continue developing its platform and buying up more direct-to-consumer brands in categories like home and living, mom and baby, and beauty and personal care.

Una Brands has differentiated itself as an Asia-focused e-commerce aggregator capable of operating brands across all channels, such as Amazon, Shopify, Shopee, Lazada and Tokopedia, compared to some of its peers, which focus on brands that sell on Amazon.

According to Kevin Boo, the company's director of corporate development, Una Brands' key differentiator is its diversification in geography, e-commerce channels and product categories, all of which provide the company a long-term competitive advantage and greater defensibility against any industry headwinds, he said.

Boo added that due to the macroeconomic environment, the company is also focused on profitability, telling TechCrunch that Una Brands was on a $70 million revenue run rate for the latest fiscal year and that it expects to achieve EBITDA profitability this year. (The startup said in September it had annualized revenue of more than $50 million.)

The company, which employs more than 200 people across Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, India and China, has acquired over 20 e-commerce brands in Asia. Its flagship brands, Singaporean furniture brands ErgoTune and EverDesk+, are now in Asia and recently expanded into the U.S. The company also has the Australian "unbreakable" drinkware startup Bellaforte in its portfolio.

Story continues

In a statement, Una Brands praised its newest investor, saying: "We believe [Northstar's] deep knowledge of the Southeast Asian markets and strong e-commerce experience will be very valuable to Una Brands as we look to double down our operations across the region."

Some of Una Brands' earlier investors include Alpha JWC Ventures, White Star Capital, 468 Capital, 500 Global, Claret Capital Partners, Global Founders Capital and Kingsway Capital.
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - The death toll in Turkey from last month's devastating earthquake has risen to 45,089, the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said on Wednesday, bringing the total toll including Syria to about 51,000.

The earthquake and subsequent powerful tremors injured more than 108,000 in Turkey and left millions sheltering in tents or seeking to move to other cities.

President Tayyip Erdogan has pledged to rebuild homes within a year but it will be many months before thousands can leave tents or container housing, and daily queues for food, and move into permanent housing.

He is due to give a speech to his ruling AK Party deputies in parliament at 0900 GMT, with the focus on the quake and presidential and parliamentary elections. They are set to be held by June and present the largest political challenge Erdogan has faced in his two-decade rule.

More than 160,000 Turkish buildings containing 520,000 apartments collapsed or were severely damaged in the disaster, the worst in the country's modern history.

Some two million people were registered as having fled the region, which has been hit by more than 11,000 aftershocks since the initial quake, AFAD said in a statement.

It said it had put up more than 350,000 tents, with tent cities established at 332 places across the region. Container housing settlements were being established in 162 places.

On Tuesday, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that it would support Ankara in its response to the quake.

Turkey is "doing its best" but still needed international support to help victims, Tedros said.

(Reporting by Daren Butler; Editing by Robert Birsel)
EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (WKBN)  As the cleanup continues from the Feb. 3 train derailment, local healthcare workers are seeing more and more people from the East Palestine area complaining that they dont feel well.

Workers with QUICKmed Urgent Care in Columbiana, Ohio said theyre seeing patients sharing similar symptoms, including a burning sensation when they breathe, as well as rashes and general weakness.

Federal agencies speak on train derailment

Some even complain they start feeling better when they leave their homes for a while, only to feel worse once they return.

This could be a lot of things, but if youre leaving your house and [symptoms] improve, and you go back and it comes back, Im not thinking thats allergies or not thinking its a cold, said Deb Weese with QUICKmed. I think its related to that stuff youre inhaling there.

Weese says the burning sensation when breathing could be a form of chemical bronchitis. She urges anyone suffering similar symptoms to seek treatment.

CDC warns not to use eye drop brand as it investigates death, infections across 11 states

Lets face it: If it comes down to it, it might be something in the future that comes about from all these chemicals theyre breathing in that we dont know about, so its important that they document all of their symptoms, Weese said.

On Monday, U.S. senators Sherrod Brown and J.D. Vance released a joint statement regarding long-term health monitoring for East Palestine residents. They sent a letter to leaders of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, urging them to ensure that individuals affected by the derailment have access to baseline medical testing.

We have spoken with multiple constituents who have attempted to get this kind of baseline testing done by their primary care doctors, only to learn that their local doctors lack the capabilities  The residents of East Palestine and the surrounding community deserve to know if their health has been compromised by this disaster now and for years to come. Therefore, we urge you to work with your colleagues across the federal government to allocate the resources and expertise needed to begin the surveys and assessment needed to establish a medical baseline for the community. Letter from Brown and Vance

Story continues

The full letter can be found below.

Vance-Brown-Letter-To-CDC-And-EPADownload

On Monday, Brown spoke with East Palestine residents about their health concerns.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
When a Chinese spy balloon traversed the United States, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) posed for a photo pointing a rifle up at the sky.

And when a train derailment last month contaminated the air and water in East Palestine, Ohio, the new Republican senator stuck a stick down in a creek, revealing an unnatural oily sheen.

In both cases, Vance showed a knack for one of a U.S. senators most important duties: appearing to do something.

But on Wednesday, Vance followed through with actual legislation, partnering with Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) on a bipartisan bill slapping new safety requirements on the freight rail industry.

Through this legislation, Congress has a real opportunity to ensure that what happened in East Palestine will never happen again, Vance said in a press release accompanying the bill. We owe every American the peace of mind that their community is protected from a catastrophe of this kind.

The former Marine, venture capitalist and memoirist landed in the Senate this year, displacing Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) as the chambers youngest up-and-coming populist Republican.

These new Republicans practice the same white identity politics that their party has used since the civil rights movement, but they have shown more interest in curtailing corporate power than Republicans typically do.

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) speaks at East Palestine Fire Department during a visit to East Palestine, Ohio, following the Feb. 3 Norfolk Southern freight train derailment on Feb. 22.

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) speaks at East Palestine Fire Department during a visit to East Palestine, Ohio, following the Feb. 3 Norfolk Southern freight train derailment on Feb. 22.

Vances reaction to the derailment displayed both tendencies. In the aftermath he proclaimed that he, Donald Trump and Fox News host Tucker Carlson had realized that the village of fewer than 5,000 residents, most of whom voted for Trump, was exactly their constituency.

The three of us, in our own ways, recognized instantly: This is fundamentally our voters, right? Vance told Axios. These are sort of our people. Its a reasonably rural community. Its been affected by industrialization.

Story continues

Carlson had emphasized to his millions of viewers that East Palestines population is overwhelmingly white and suggested a similar disaster in Philadelphia or Detroit would have received much more attention from the government and the media.

If this affected the rich or the favored poor, it would be the lead of every news channel in the world, Carlson said on his show last month, but it happened to the poor benighted town of East Palestine, Ohio, whose people are forgotten and in the view of the people who lead this country, forgettable.

Vance has kept Norfolk Southern, the company responsible for the derailment, in his sights, urging CEO David Shaw to shell out compensation to all East Palestine residents, rather than just those within a one-mile radius of the crash, as Shaw had earlier pledged. And in a letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Vance and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) asked if efforts by rail companies to increase efficiency and drive down costs by moving more freight with fewer workers contributed to the derailment.

The conservative writer Sohrab Ahmari praised the letter as a rejection of free market neoliberalism. Rubio and Vance are making an important break with not just the establishment GOP  but even many of their fellow populists, who complain about corporate power and then turn around and lament the rise of the modern administrative state, Ahmari wrote last week.

The bipartisan rail response stands in stark contrast to the reaction to last years baby formula contamination scandal. Food and Drug Administration inspectors found unsanitary conditions at an Abbott Laboratories plant in Michigan, which produced formula that may have sickened several babies. Republicans complained less about the contaminated plant than about the FDA not letting it reopen fast enough.

This photo taken with a drone shows portions of a Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed Friday night in East Palestine, Ohio, are still on fire at mid-day Saturday, Feb. 4.

This photo taken with a drone shows portions of a Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed Friday night in East Palestine, Ohio, are still on fire at mid-day Saturday, Feb. 4.

Vance told HuffPost on Tuesday, in response to a question about his letter to Shaw, that Norfolk Southern should pay for its mistake.

I think its pretty straightforward: They cause a disaster, they have to reimburse the residents of the town, Vance said. I dont think that requires an act of Congress. I just think that requires Norfolk Southern to do their job.

The new rail legislation, introduced Wednesday by Vance, Brown, Rubio and Hawley, along with Pennsylvania Democratic Sens. John Fetterman and Bob Casey, would create new safety requirements for all trains carrying hazardous materials, require trains to have crews of at least two people, and massively increase penalties for safety violations.

Brown praised Vances response to the derailment on Tuesday.

I cant say were partners yet because we dont know each other that well, but we are working together on this, Brown told HuffPost. Hes been there a number of times, hes talked to the same people Ive talked to.

Its unclear whether the Vance-Brown Railway Safety Act of 2023 could make it through both the Senate and the Republican-controlled House, but theres no doubt its bipartisan backing gives it a better chance than most bills.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday said he would work to get the bill passed, calling the measure precisely the kind of proposal we need to see in Congress: a bipartisan rail safety bill, one that includes provisions relevant to the accident that happened a month ago.

In the meantime, Vance is also getting rave reviews for his efforts to draw attention to the disastrous derailment.

When you jabbed that stick into that body of water and it turned every color of the rainbow, millions of people saw that video, Fox Host Jesse Waters said during an interview with Vance this week. I was personally moved by that. The whole country was.

Related...
NEW DELHI (AP)  Fractured East-West relations over Russias war in Ukraine and increasing concerns about Chinas global aspirations are set to dominate what is expected to be a highly contentious meeting of foreign ministers from the worlds largest industrialized and developing nations this week in India.

The increasingly bitter rift between the United States and its allies on one side and Russia and China on the other appears likely to widen further as top diplomats from the Group of 20 gather in the Indian capital on Thursday. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and their Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov will all be in attendance and battling for support from non-aligned members of the group.

While they will all be in the same room together, there was no sign that Blinken, who spent two days in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan warning Central Asia about the threat Russia poses before traveling to New Delhi, would sit down with either. Blinken said he had no plans to meet with them individually but expected to see them in group settings.

As at most international events since last year, the split over the war in Ukraine and its impact on global energy and food security will overshadow the proceedings. But as the conflict has dragged on over the past 12 months, the divide has grown and now threatens to become a principal irritant in U.S.-China ties that were already on the rocks for other reasons.

A Chinese peace proposal for Ukraine that has drawn praise from Russia but dismissals from the West has done nothing to improve matters as U.S. officials have repeatedly accused China in recent days of considering the provision of weapons to Russia for use in the war.

Those accusations have exacerbated the already poor state of affairs between the worlds two largest economies over Taiwan, human rights, Hong Kong and the South China Sea that took another hit last month with the U.S. discovery and then shoot-down of a Chinese surveillance balloon in American airspace that resulted in Blinken postponing a much-anticipated trip to Beijing.

Story continues

A hastily arranged meeting between Blinken and China's top diplomat, Wang Yi, on the margins of the Munich Security Conference two weeks ago yielded no tangible results. And recently renewed U.S. suggestions that the COVID-19 pandemic could have been the result of a Chinese lab leak have made the situation worse.

Blinken on Wednesday again warned China against transferring lethal military equipment to Russia, saying there would be significant consequences for such actions. And, he said the Chinese peace plan for Ukraine rang hollow given its focus on sovereignty compared to its own recent actions.

If China was genuinely serious about this ... it would have been spending all of the last year working in support of the restoration of Ukraines full sovereignty, he told reporters in Tashkent. And of course, its been doing the opposite."

China cant have it both ways, Blinken said. It cant be putting itself out as a force for peace in public, while in one way or another, it continues to fuel the flames of this fire that Vladimir Putin started.

He also said there is zero evidence that Putin is genuinely prepared for diplomacy to end the war. To the contrary, the evidence is all in the other direction, he said.

In the meantime, Moscow has been unrelenting in pushing its view that the West, led by the U.S., is trying to destroy Russia.

Ahead of the meeting, the Russian Foreign Ministry slammed U.S. policies, saying that Lavrov and his delegation would use the G-20 to focus on the attempts by the West to take revenge for the inevitable disappearance of the levers of dominance from its hands.

The destructive policy of the U.S. and its allies has already put the world on the brink of a disaster, provoked a rollback in socio-economic development and seriously aggravated the situation of the poorest countries, it said in a statement. The entire world is suffering from the cynical revelry of illegal sanctions, the artificial breakup of cross-border supply chains, the imposition of notorious price ceilings and, in effect, from attempts to steal natural resources.

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, meanwhile, said there were no plans to spend all of the time in the meetings condemning Russia.

We are not trying to turn this G-20 into a criticism of Russia, he told The Associated Press, adding that the world is already aware of the Western position "with regards to Russias illegal invasion of Ukraine.

There are many important things we need to discuss and were going to work with India to make the G-20 a success, Cleverly said.

Still, the antagonism has left G-20 host India in the unenviable position of trying to reconcile clearly irreconcilable differences.

The meeting is particularly crucial for Indias hopes to use its chairmanship of the group to leverage its position on the global stage and adopt a neutral stance on Ukraine in order to focus on issues of importance to developing nations like rising inflation, debt stress, health, climate change and food and energy security.

I think those are equally important issues to focus on, of course along with the Russia-Ukraine conflict, said Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra, the most senior bureaucrat in the foreign ministry.

But just last week, India was forced to issue a chairs summary at the conclusion of the G-20 finance ministers' meeting after Russia and China objected to a joint communique that retained language on the war in Ukraine drawn directly from the declaration from last year's G-20 summit in Bali, Indonesia.

India hopes to avert a repeat of that, but prospects appear dim. U.S. officials said discussions were ongoing about language that could be used in a final statement but could not predict if they would succeed.

We will see how it goes forward. It is a repetition of the Bali declaration, said Indian foreign ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi. Obviously, we stand by that declaration. Our prime minister was there. There is no question of not agreeing with that text. We are with that text.

So far, though, India has refrained from directly criticizing Russia, its major Cold War-era ally, while increasing imports of Russian oil, even as it has increasingly faced pressure to take a firm stand on Moscow. India has also abstained from voting in U.N. resolutions that condemn the Ukraine invasion.

Indias messaging has been clear and consistent: Its not about to criticize Russia, but it strongly opposes the war and supports all efforts to bring it to an end, said Michael Kugelman, director of the Wilson Centers South Asia Institute.

The West would prefer it go further, and Russia would prefer it say less, but each side has accepted New Delhis position, and Indias relations with both sides have remained strong throughout the war, he said.

___

Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and Krutika Pathi, Sheikh Saaliq and Ashok Sharma in New Delhi contributed to this report.
Despite ongoing heavy battles in Bakhmut, Donetsk Oblast, the Ukrainian forces have not made the decision to withdraw from the city, Serhii Cherevaty, spokesman of the Eastern Operational Command, told CNN on March 1.

If we see that the threat to our personnel and our operational situation is greater than the need to hold the territory, we do it (withdraw troops), but we do it in an organized manner, without panic, Cherevaty said.

On Feb. 28, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar reported that additional troops would be sent to Bakhmut.

On Feb. 15, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of Russia's Wagner mercenary group, said that Bakhmut could be surrounded in March or April. Prigozhin added, though, that it is "hard to predict," and Russia's success in surrounding the town partially depends on the amount of Western weaponry supplied to Ukraine.

Ukraine continues to hold Bakhmut despite the seven-month-long Russian attempt to capture the city as Moscow tries to increase its grip over the entirety of the eastern Donetsk Oblast, around half of which it currently occupies.

At the same time, according to the U.K. Defense Ministry's intelligence update published on Feb. 24, Russia has likely changed its approach from seizing extensive territory in Ukraine to exhausting the resources of the Ukrainian military.


The State Attorney's Office for the Eighth Judicial Circuit announced on Wednesday the conviction and sentencing of a previously known sexual predator.

Donald Bryan McKee, 67, on Tuesday was sentenced to life in prison by Judge James M. Colaw on charges of lewd or lascivious molestation on a person under 12 years old and lewd exhibition as an offender over 18 years old.

Courts:Grand jury indicts 5 Gainesville men on murder charges in separate cases

Alachua County:Man with pending attempted murder charge appointed to, removed from county's Historical Commission

The prosecution was led by Assistant State Attorney Ryan Nagel and the jury deliberated for just under two hours, a release from State Attorney's Office said. The offenses occurred between September 2019 and September 2020.

Court records show a previous trial in the case in January ended in a mistrial when jurors were unable to reach a unanimous decision.

The Gainesville Police Department initially launched its investigation following a tip from the Gulfport Police Department.

McKee's previous criminal offenses as recorded in Florida Ninth Judicial Circuit  Orange and Osceola counties  include convictions for sexual battery, DUI, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and robbery with a firearm.

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Donald McKee, 67, given life in prison in Gainesville for sex crimes
A man convicted of taking part in the killing of three men in a shooting seven years ago inside a Juarez nightclub was sentenced Tuesday to 60 years in prison, the Chihuahua Attorney General's Office said.

Juan Pablo V.O., alias "El Compadre," was convicted at trial last week on homicide charges in connection with a deadly attack inside the Tr3s Cantina Bar on Manuel Gomez Morin Boulevard on Oct. 8, 2016.

Armed men stormed into the bar and began shooting at a party of six people, killing three men and wounding three women accompanying them, according to El Paso Times archives. The fatal victims included a businessman and a student at the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juarez. A possible motive for the attack was not disclosed.

Violence in Mexico:2 killed, 2 wounded in shooting at Juarez funeral vigil

"El Compadre" Juan Pablo V.O. was convicted in the murder of three men in a shooting inside the Tr3s Cantina Bar in Juarez on Oct. 8, 2016.

"El Compadre" was charged with the murders of the three men while he was already serving a sentence at the Cereso No. 3 state prison on various charges, authorities said.

More:Mexican troops, border residents clash after 5 shot, killed in Nuevo Laredo

The convicted killer's last name was not disclosed by officials due to rules in Mexico regarding the naming of crime suspects.

Over the years, three other suspects in the attack were absolved of criminal charges after prosecutors could not prove their guilt, according to El Diario de Juarez newspaper.

Borderland:Chalk, love and kindness: Messages raise awareness of teen dating violence in El Paso

A Juarez police officer is shown in this file photo.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: 'El Compadre' sentenced in triple-murder in Juarez nightclub in 2016
Paddy Kirk will try to take his own life in Emmerdale. (ITV)

Dominic Brunt has revealed an insight into playing Emmerdales devastating Paddy Kirk storyline, which is due to air this week.

Paddys life has taken a dark turn following his split from cheating wife Chas Dingle (Lucy Pargeter), and upcoming scenes will see the much-loved village vet prepare to attempt suicide.

There are heartbreaking performances ahead from Brunt and Mark Charnock, who plays Paddy's best friend Marlon Dingle; and the show has worked with two charities, Samaritans and Andys Man Club, to portray the character's journey.

At a recent press event, the actor told us that he spoke to men who have been in Paddys shoes ahead of filming. Whether its been through Andys Man Club, talking to Neil [Waine] or doing my own research, its been incredible.

Paddy returned home after fleeing the village alone. (ITV)

"Not only has it been inspirational, but its been pitch-black dark, and its made me appreciate what I have. Speaking to people where life has hit them so hard, from left field - nobodys asked for this - its been really shocking.

Brunt also explained that the scale of this storyline is something hes not experienced since Paddy helped adoptive son Aaron Dingle (Danny Miller) come to terms with his sexuality back in 2010.

Read more: Emmerdale spoilers: Kyle launches new attack, all-male episode makes soap history

It kind of transcends the normal storylines that were normally given. I think the only time Ive had something like this before was when Aaron came out.

Paddy sits alone as he prepares to end his life. (ITV)

It mattered to people, I remember an uncle that was kind of, you know, that generational bigotry thats there  and he watched it and went yeah, I understand that. I got that. And I was hoping that this story might do that, that it might actually make a difference and normalise talking.

Read more: Emmerdale fans praise Dominic Brunt for handling of mental health storyline

Asked what the future holds for Paddy, he added: Hes opened the door to it now, hes capable of having those thoughts; hes capable of attempting to take his own life. I think hes going to have to watch that now for the rest of his life. And thankfully the story isnt dropped, therell be hints, hopefully forever that hes capable of that.

Story continues

Read more: Emmerdale teases 'deceit in the Dales' with blackmail and secrets

But theres also a lot of light as well. I think what Emmerdale do brilliantly, time and time again is, its not a misery fest. Its not this dark story thats awful to watch; its really well coloured in with the pace, and even two blocks later theres little pinches of light. Hes found his humour again, but at the same time, he has to watch himself.

Marlon Dingle leads a men's lock in a bid to support Paddy. (ITV)

Also, it normalises talking. He has a little slump, and he just turns to someone and says are we alright to just grab a cup of tea, I just want to talk to you about something. Im really, really glad its normalised that.

In fact, Emmerdale will go a step further by airing its first all-male episode next week, led by Marlon. Ahead of these important scenes airing, Lorna Fraser, executive lead for Samaritans' Media Advisory Service, discussed how the soap approached the charity for guidance.

The team got in touch with us really early on, which is a more helpful approach. It was very clear from the start that Emmerdale wanted to go with this story, but they really wanted to understand how they could do it right; wanting to tell a story that was very true to life, that viewers could relate to.

So wanting us to be involved in that way, to make sure they could tell something that was true to life and safe, doing it in the right way and having as much helpful impact as possible.

Emmerdale airs Paddys distressing decision on Thursday 2nd March and Friday 3rd March from 7pm on ITV.

Anyone affected by Paddys story can find help and support by visiting the Samaritans and Andy's Man Club websites, or by calling Samaritans' 24-hour hotline on 116 123. The NHS website also provides advice on how to seek help if you're experiencing suicidal thoughts.

Watch Emmerdale's spoilers for this week
It was bound to happen, sooner or later. On Monday, the Walt Disney Co.s corporate privilege in Florida finally succumbed to its Democracy Problem.

Specifically, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation that stripped Disney of its highly unusual control over a special entity, the Reedy Creek Improvement District, that had the power to tax, spend, plan, zone and generally govern the acreage surrounding Disneys Florida theme parks.

More from Deadline

In narrow terms, the move stemmed from a dispute over Disneys stance over a Florida parental rights law, branded Dont Say Gay by opponents, that limits sex-and-gender education to younger children.

But in truth, the revocation was a long overdue rupture in a corporate/political structure that concealed a hidden flaw. Reedy Creek was a Utopian construct, endowed with powers  including the right to generate nuclear power, if needed  that were granted 55 years ago in the expectation that successors to company founder Walt Disney would fulfill his plan to build a techno-based paradise, a truly functional Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. Introducing EPCOT, Floridas then-governor, Haydon Burns, called it the greatest single announcement in the history of the state.

Of course, things didnt quite work as planned.

By the time I got a close look at the Reedy Creek apparatus, as a reporter for the Wall Street Journal in 1985, the Disney company, by now under chief executive Michael Eisner, had already discovered a structural fault that would never be fixed. Eisner and his fellow executives called it the one man, one vote problem.

Story continues

Essentially, Reedy Creek, which embraced most of the 28,000 acres owned by Disney in Central Florida, was a corporate dictatorship. When I visited, voting control of the district was vested in about 50 full-time residents, almost all employees who had been deeded small plots, allowing them to participate in a faux democracy that was entirely controlled by the company.

As conceived by Walt, political control was a sine qua non if Imagineers were to design a perfect world. Technocrats would create order. But let the inhabitants vote too freely, and things would inevitably get messy  or worse, fall apart. Walt wasnt against people voting, explained Eisner. He just didnt want them hanging their dirty laundry out.

As Disney developed its land with theme parks and resorts, the Democracy Problem was never fully resolved. Permanent residents were permitted in pockets like the Golden Oak development and the planned community of Celebration, with careful concessions to democratic involvement. But once-anticipated mass residential development, never mind Walts Utopia, with a large population living the dream, never materialized.

Instead, Disney remained an undigested lump in Floridas body politic. It enjoyed special powers through Reedy Creek. But those powers would be diluted if real-life Floridians were permitted to inhabit the district. And, as we learned this week, they would be lost if Disney tried to push its ideals on elected representatives in the rest of the state.

Best of Deadline

Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.
(Bloomberg) --

Most Read from Bloomberg

Turkeys elections will take place as planned on May 14, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday, quashing speculation over whether the vote would be postponed following two deadly earthquakes.

Erdogan is facing the toughest electoral race of his two decades in power. Hes sticking to the previously-announced timetable for parliamentary and presidential elections and has stepped up a multi-billion dollar reconstruction effort.

This nation will do what is necessary on May 14, Erdogan said in parliament, just a day after his ruling AK Party lawmakers won the legislatures approval on a key election pledge to enable early retirement for more than 2.2 million people.

Hes also responded to widespread criticism over the governments initial response to the Feb. 6 earthquakes in Turkeys southeast, which have killed more than 45,000 people.

Bloomberg has reported Erdogan is concerned a delay to the vote could coincide with a further deterioration of the economy. Large parts of the population are battling with the worst cost-of-living crisis in two decades.

Bloomberg Economics estimates the earthquakes could shave 1% off GDP this year while major lenders like the World Bank see billions of dollars of direct costs stemming from physical damage.

The president is expected to make an official decision around March 10 to trigger elections on May 14, more than one month earlier than the original election date of June 18.

Why Turkeys Next Election Is a Real Test for Erdogan: QuickTake

During his tenure, Erdogan has effectively shifted Turkey to an executive presidency by assuming sweeping powers since 2018. His determination to bring the vote forward increases pressure on a six-party opposition bloc which has yet to name a presidential candidate to challenge him.

Story continues

The opposition is expected to hold a meeting Thursday, to try to make progress on this.

--With assistance from Beril Akman.

(Updates with context starting from second paragraph)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Key Insights

Using the 2 Stage Free Cash Flow to Equity, Evergreen Fibreboard Berhad fair value estimate is RM0.31

Current share price of RM0.31 suggests Evergreen Fibreboard Berhad is potentially trading close to its fair value

Peers of Evergreen Fibreboard Berhad are currently trading on average at a 663% premium

Today we'll do a simple run through of a valuation method used to estimate the attractiveness of Evergreen Fibreboard Berhad (KLSE:EVERGRN) as an investment opportunity by taking the expected future cash flows and discounting them to today's value. This will be done using the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model. Before you think you won't be able to understand it, just read on! It's actually much less complex than you'd imagine.

We would caution that there are many ways of valuing a company and, like the DCF, each technique has advantages and disadvantages in certain scenarios. Anyone interested in learning a bit more about intrinsic value should have a read of the Simply Wall St analysis model.

View our latest analysis for Evergreen Fibreboard Berhad

The Method

We use what is known as a 2-stage model, which simply means we have two different periods of growth rates for the company's cash flows. Generally the first stage is higher growth, and the second stage is a lower growth phase. To begin with, we have to get estimates of the next ten years of cash flows. Seeing as no analyst estimates of free cash flow are available to us, we have extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the company's last reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years.

Generally we assume that a dollar today is more valuable than a dollar in the future, and so the sum of these future cash flows is then discounted to today's value:

Story continues

10-year free cash flow (FCF) estimate

2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 2031 2032 Levered FCF (MYR, Millions) RM44.5m RM42.9m RM42.3m RM42.3m RM42.8m RM43.6m RM44.6m RM45.8m RM47.2m RM48.7m Growth Rate Estimate Source Est @ -6.63% Est @ -3.57% Est @ -1.43% Est @ 0.07% Est @ 1.12% Est @ 1.86% Est @ 2.37% Est @ 2.73% Est @ 2.98% Est @ 3.16% Present Value (MYR, Millions) Discounted @ 18% RM37.7 RM30.8 RM25.7 RM21.8 RM18.7 RM16.1 RM14.0 RM12.2 RM10.6 RM9.3

("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)

Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF) = RM197m

The second stage is also known as Terminal Value, this is the business's cash flow after the first stage. For a number of reasons a very conservative growth rate is used that cannot exceed that of a country's GDP growth. In this case we have used the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield (3.6%) to estimate future growth. In the same way as with the 10-year 'growth' period, we discount future cash flows to today's value, using a cost of equity of 18%.

Terminal Value (TV)= FCF 2032  (1 + g)  (r  g) = RM49m (1 + 3.6%)  (18% 3.6%) = RM349m

Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= RM349m ( 1 + 18%)10= RM67m

The total value is the sum of cash flows for the next ten years plus the discounted terminal value, which results in the Total Equity Value, which in this case is RM264m. The last step is to then divide the equity value by the number of shares outstanding. Compared to the current share price of RM0.3, the company appears about fair value at a 0.8% discount to where the stock price trades currently. Remember though, that this is just an approximate valuation, and like any complex formula - garbage in, garbage out.

dcf

The Assumptions

Now the most important inputs to a discounted cash flow are the discount rate, and of course, the actual cash flows. If you don't agree with these result, have a go at the calculation yourself and play with the assumptions. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at Evergreen Fibreboard Berhad as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 18%, which is based on a levered beta of 1.802. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business.

SWOT Analysis for Evergreen Fibreboard Berhad

Strength

Debt is not viewed as a risk.

Dividends are covered by earnings and cash flows.

Weakness

Dividend is low compared to the top 25% of dividend payers in the Forestry market.

Opportunity

Expected to breakeven next year.

Has sufficient cash runway for more than 3 years based on current free cash flows.

Good value based on P/S ratio and estimated fair value.

Threat

No apparent threats visible for EVERGRN.

Moving On:

Although the valuation of a company is important, it shouldn't be the only metric you look at when researching a company. DCF models are not the be-all and end-all of investment valuation. Instead the best use for a DCF model is to test certain assumptions and theories to see if they would lead to the company being undervalued or overvalued. For instance, if the terminal value growth rate is adjusted slightly, it can dramatically alter the overall result. For Evergreen Fibreboard Berhad, we've put together three relevant items you should explore:

Risks: Take risks, for example - Evergreen Fibreboard Berhad has 2 warning signs we think you should be aware of. Future Earnings: How does EVERGRN's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with our free analyst growth expectation chart. Other Solid Businesses: Low debt, high returns on equity and good past performance are fundamental to a strong business. Why not explore our interactive list of stocks with solid business fundamentals to see if there are other companies you may not have considered!

PS. Simply Wall St updates its DCF calculation for every Malaysian stock every day, so if you want to find the intrinsic value of any other stock just search here.

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
Ukrainian military personnel

Read also: Ukrainians not prepared to forego EU and NATO membership in exchange for peace, survey shows

The first step of the three-step-plan involves an immediate increase of the ammunition supply, including 155mm artillery shells, to Ukraine. The EU intends to allocate EUR 1 billion ($1.07 billion) for it.

The second step involves the joint purchase of 155mm ammunition by the European Defense Agency in order to refill the stocks of EU countries and ensure supplies to Ukraine in the long term.

The third step is meant to ensure a long-term increase in European capacity of ammunition production.

Emergency assistance under the first step will be provided following the already established plan: the EU countries supply Ukraine with ammunition, and receive money from the European Peace Fund.

Read also: Ukrainian strikes on ammunition depots in Russia not excluded, says military intelligence

The second step of the plan contains a clear message: the time when peace in Europe was guaranteed is over. The situation has changed dramatically with the Russian attack, and the EU countries should take this into account by purchasing more ammunition in the long term. This has to happen with the help of EDA. EU member states and Ukraine need to bring their needs together to "place bulk orders and give the industry a clear signal of demand". According to the European Commission, only if the industry is confident that such demand exists, it will be ready to increase its production capacity in the long term.

Read also: EU and NATO discuss providing Ukraine with Western fighter jets

The commission also hopes that the joint order will result in significantly lower prices than before. 25 out of 27 EU countries, and Norway, have already expressed their interest in participating in the project, which will last seven years.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
(Bloomberg) -- The European Union is scrambling to salvage a plan to effectively ban new combustion-engine cars by 2035 after Germany and Italy threatened to block the agreement.

Most Read from Bloomberg

In one possible compromise, Germany is seeking assurances that there will be an exemption to the rules for e-fuels, according to people familiar with the matter. German Transport Minister Volker Wissing spoke with Frans Timmermans, the EUs climate chief, to discuss the proposal as part of a flurry of talks ahead of a vote on Tuesday, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private.

If the Commission has a credible stance in conversations with the ministers and the German government Im optimistic that a solution will be found, said Sven Giegold, state secretary at Germanys Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action. However I can say, and thats obvious, that the ongoing conversations are difficult.

The last-minute intervention by Germanys transport ministry has thrown what would normally be a formality into disarray. Preparations for Tuesdays vote were postponed until Friday due to Germany threatening to abstain and Italy saying they would reject the CO2 rules agreed last year. Without a qualified majority among member states, the regulation cant become law.

There is widespread frustration in the European Commission that Germany is raising objections at this stage when it agreed on the councils position last June. The home to Volkswagen AG and BMW AG took part in a final deal with the parliament in October and balking after a so-called trilogue agreement is highly unusual.

Story continues

While Italys opposition is seen as stubborn, EU officials hope Germany can be persuaded to back down, if it gets assurances that the commission will propose an exemption for climate-neutral synthetic fuels before a scheduled review in 2026.

The technical nature of the alternative fuel means that the blocs executive branch wont be able to put something on the table this week, but it could still show its support bilaterally.

E-Fuel Skepticism

Despite Germanys support, e-fuels face skepticism over whether they can really help reduce emissions for ground transport because theyre currently scarce and significantly more expensive than gasoline and diesel. One of Wissings counterparts in the German cabinet appeared ready to back down.

I believe Germany should act reliably at the European level, Environment Minister Steffi Lemke told ARD radio. There is a solution that needs to be found, for which we still have enough time. It should then come into force in 2035.

The differing views is a sign of the complexity inherent in Chancellor Olaf Scholzs three-party coalition. Wissing is a member of the pro-business Free Democrats, which has butted heads with the Greens  a fellow junior partner in the government  over transport policy among other issues.

The FDP, which has suffered a series of setbacks in regional elections, is keen to be seen as a champion of technological choice as well as supporting German jobs.

The automotive industry makes up roughly 5% of the nations economy and employs more than 800,000 people. The sector includes scores of specialized parts-makers that have developed over the course of more than a century of supplying carmakers including Mercedes-Benz with transmissions, exhaust systems and components for combustion-engine cars. Many of these parts arent needed for electric vehicles.

In a sign of the concerns surrounding the transition to battery-powered cars, Ford Motor Co. last month announced plans to cut about 3,800 jobs across Europe, with workers in Germany and the UK set to be the hardest hit.

Whoever is serious about climate-neutral mobility must keep all technological options open and also use them, Wissing said in an interview with public broadcaster ARD. I dont understand this fight against the car and why people want to ban some technologies.

--With assistance from Petra Sorge and Katharina Rosskopf.

(Updates with Giegold comment in third paragraph.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Evan Rachel Wood has submitted court documents denying that she pressured a former Marilyn Manson accuser into making allegations against Manson, saying the woman initiated contact with her through social media.

Last week, Ashley Morgan Smithline, who had sued Manson and publicly accused him of abuse, filed a declaration of support for Manson in Los Angeles County Superior Court in his defamation case against Wood. Smithline said in the document that she publicly accused Manson of sexual assault and sexual battery only because she was pressured by Wood.

Manson, whose legal name is Brian Warner, filed a defamation suit last year accusing Wood of having secretly recruited, coordinated and pressured women to accuse him of abuse.

Actress Evan Rachel Wood and musician Marilyn Manson arrive for the after party for a special screening of

Wood has said Manson horrifically abused her for years.

He has denied any wrongdoing and vowed to fight the accusations.

In the latest legal filing, Wood also denied ever having coerced or pressured women to make claims against Manson. She said Smithline first made contact with her in 2019, more than a year before Smithline alleges Wood reached out to her to meet with fellow accusers.

Communicating on social media

Wood, who denies that she pressured Smithline to make accusations, included in the filing what she says is a screenshot of Instagram comments made by Smithline.

"Specifically, on March 11, 2019, I posted an Instagram post with quotes about being a survivor of domestic violence from a podcast on which I had appeared," Wood said in the filing. "At that time, I had spoken publicly about being a survivor of abuse  including in testimony before the United States Congress  but I had not yet publicly named Mr. Warner as my abuser."

An account that Wood said was Smithline's said Wood's post had hit her "hard."

"when he had me captive in the stupid ballet studio, i cringed hearing him brag about replaying that scene from rules of attraction to you... i thought no one would ever talk about this..." the comment read, according to the court filing.

Story continues

Wood also included screenshots of direct messages with Smithline on Instagram, but the account no longer appeared identifiable, as the messages seemed to come from just "Instagram User." It's unclear whether the account was deactivated or whether Wood was blocked.

But in screenshots of the May 2021 messages that Wood says came from Smithline, the user asks Wood how she is doing and then says: "I can't breathe. I have no reason to make this up."

Wood responded and encouraged Smithline to "sit" in her truth and not to let anyone get to her.

In her declaration of support, Smithline said she felt manipulated into accusing Manson after having met with other women in October 2020. She said in the legal document that she denied being abused when she spoke with Wood in 2020.

When I said, no this did not happen to me and this was not my experience, I recall being told by Ms. Wood that just because I could not remember did not necessarily mean that it did not happen, Smithline said in her filing.

Wood said in her opposition declaration that she had met Smithline in person only once, in the October 2020 meeting filmed for her HBO documentary "Phoenix Rising." The only other times Wood says she had spoken to Smithline were in direct messages over social media, including after Smithline went public about her allegations in a magazine interview.

"Prior to that meeting, I had never spoken to Ms. Smithline on the phone," Wood said. "During the October 2020 meeting, Ms. Smithline described abuse that she claimed Mr. Warner inflicted upon her. Ms. Smithline has always told me that she was abused by Mr. Warner."

Mansons attorney has called the accusations against his client a coordinated campaign of #MeToo lies.

Smithline's public accusations

Smithline publicly accused Manson of physical, sexual and psychological abuse in a May 2021 interview with People magazine. She filed a federal lawsuit in 2021 accusing Manson of sexual assault, human trafficking and unlawful imprisonment.

Manson was accused of whipping Smithline, carving his initials into her body, penetrating her while she was unconscious and other conduct. The People report included a photo of Smithline in a towel, showing what appeared to be a scar on her thigh, which she referred to in the interview and alleged was caused by Manson.

A judge dismissed Smithline's lawsuit without prejudice in January after her attorney, Jay Ellwanger, withdrew and Smithline failed to respond to the courts request for a decision about new representation.

Wood's attorneys alleged in the filing against Smithline's testimony that Manson's attorneys reached out to Smithline to turn her against Wood and other accusers.

Wood's attorneys cite voice messages Smithline sent to a friend in June and allege that Manson's lawyer tried to pressure Smithline to speak one on one with Manson, "no lawyers."

Smithline was alleged to have told the friend, whom Wood's attorneys did not identify, that she thought Manson's lawyer saw her as a "weak link" and that he "might want to settle with me to turn on the other girls and say that it was all, like, a ruse."

"Given that Plaintiffs attorneys apparently had no scruples about contacting Smithline when she was represented by counsel, it should come as no surprise that they continued to pressure Smithline after her counsel withdrew and her federal lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice," Wood's attorney said.

Manson's response

Manson's attorney said in a statement Tuesday that it was not shocking that Wood was fighting Smithline's testimony's being admissible in the defamation case and that Smithline "has told the truth."

I never discussed Ashley Smithlines claims against Brian Warner until after she had reached out to me and terminated her counsel," attorney Howard King said. "Moreover, when Ms. Smithline recently spoke with me for almost two hours, we taped the conversation in full and that recording proves that every single thing in her declaration was taken from her words, not mine.

A representative for Smithline did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Smithline told Rolling Stone that Wood was full of s---.

Thats my comment, Smithline said. Shes saying anything she can to discredit me.
A former Tennessee police officer who was fired amid revelations of casual sex among sworn, often on-duty personnel, alleged in a federal lawsuit that she was subjected to sexual grooming at work.

Maegan Hall, who admitted to investigators that she participated in sexual liaisons with four officers  two of whom were her superiors  filed the suit Monday in U.S. District Court in Nashville.

It names the city of La Vergne, former Police Chief Burrel Chip Davis and former Sgts. Lewis Powell and Henry Ty McGowan. The suit alleges the defendants deprived Hall of due process and violated federal law against sharing intimate images online and across state lines.

La Vergne Mayor Jason Cole launched an internal probe in December after he learned Hall had had intimate relationships with other members of the department, according to an outside investigation commissioned by the city. She told superiors about the encounters at the time, according to the external investigation conducted by a law firm.

The sexual activity was alleged to have included a hot tub party on a houseboat attended by at least three other officers and the sharing of nude photos of Hall and other officers, according to the investigation, the findings of which were included in the suit.

Some of the other encounters took place on city property, that investigation found.

Hall, Powell, McGowan and two other officers were fired in late December, and three others were suspended.

Davis was fired in early February after an external investigation concluded he knew what was happening but failed to discipline the officers, the city said in a statement at the time.

The suit alleged Davis tried to have sex with Hall and discussed plans to have sex with her with one of her superiors in text messages.

During her employment, Ms. Hall was groomed to engage in sexually exploitative activities by men in the department including Sgt. Powell, Sgt. McGowan, and Chief Davis, the suit alleged.

Story continues

The suit argued Hall was set up and ultimately harmed, both by the intimate interactions and by her subsequent firing, because her work environment was sexually charged.

From the beginning of her employment, Ms. Hall experienced a workplace environment permeated with sexual innuendo and sexually explicit behavior, the filing said.

The document lists a number of other alleged incidents that contributed to what it described as a sexually coercive environment," which it said affected Hall's mental health.

The suit alleged that male colleagues discussed the attractiveness of women and traded stories about their intimate experiences, that an officer told Halls superior he wanted to have sex with her and that two officers exchanged photos of their genitals in her presence.

A superior, not named as a defendant, said he wanted to see all of Halls tattoos, including ones covered by clothing, and asked to meet her off-duty, the suit alleged.

Efforts to reach Davis, Powell and McGowan were unsuccessful.

Attorney Wesley Clark, who filed the suit on Halls behalf, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A representative of the police union, the Fraternal Order of Police, did not immediately respond Tuesday to a request for comment. The union said earlier in February that no additional statements would be forthcoming.

The suit does not specify name damages sought but said it ultimately seeks lost wages and medical expenses, as well as compensation for the sharing of her nude photos and for emotional distress, mental suffering and loss of enjoyment of life.

After the chief was fired in February, Cole, the mayor, lamented the scandal.

There arent words to describe the disappointment and frustration felt by myself and other city leaders, he said at the time, according to NBC affiliate WSMV of Nashville. Officers are held to a higher standard; even more so is their chief.
Tim Ryan may not agree with Senator JD Vance on much, but the 2022 election rivals have found common ground on the scorched, stinking earth that surrounds a massive train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

The former Senate candidate spoke to The Independent as part of his first major media blitz since his service in the US House of Representatives ended just one month ago. The 49-year-old Mr Ryan is coming off of a narrow loss in one of the most-watched Senate races of the midterm cycle  and one of just two where a Trump endorsee who was not already an incumbent won a competitve seat in Congress upper chamber.

Now Mr Ryan continues his same efforts to spark the generational change within Washington that he has long argued is necessary and which once triggered his own leadership challenge against then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi. On Tuesday, he was set to appear in deep-red Tennessee for an event on civil discourse with the Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy at Vanderbilt University.

And speaking about the reaction of state and federal electeds to the devastating scene in East Palestine, Mr Ryan commended a bipartisan call for a long-term health study of the towns residents by Ohio Senators Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, and JD Vance, a Republican.

"While we understand that EPA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and other local, state, and federal authorities have been more focused  by design  on emergency removal action and associated risks related to acute exposure in the immediate aftermath of the derailment, we want to ensure that efforts moving forward also anticipate and address our constituents concerns over potential long-term impacts from the disaster," the senators wrote to the EPA and CDC this week.

Mr Ryan commented that it was exactly the kind of commonsense across-the-aisle work that Washington could and should be doing every day.

A black plume rises over East Palestine, Ohio, after a controlled detonation of a portion of the derailed Norfolk Southern trains, Feb. 6, 2023. On Tuesday, Feb. 28, in the wake of a fiery Ohio derailment and other recent crashes, federal regulators urged that freight railroads should reexamine the way they use and maintain the detectors along the tracks that are supposed to spot overheating bearings. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File) (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

I think it's great, he said of their effort. And those are the kinds of, like, little things that are really common sense, that are really helpful, that getting Democrats and Republicans working on can be the beginning of kind of stitching this thing back together.

Story continues

He went on to say, however, that he was very concerned and worried about the residents of the Ohio town, adding that he had recently spoken to one woman from a nearby town who had told him that she was concerned for her own health after driving through the area and instantly detecting an odd smell in the air.

I just had several conversations in the airport for people who live over that way, Mr Ryan told The Independent. And just the level of concern still in the community, the people that are just picking up and leaving out of concern for their own health.

Former Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan. (Getty Images)

I'm just really concerned. I think we've got to figure out, you know, how we're going to help those people? asked the former congressman. You know, what are the technologies that are out there? You know, what are the businesses that are out there that can that can maybe come in and intervene and maybe provide some level of, you know, remediation?

He also had a serious warning for Ohio officials who have declared the water and air of East Palestine safe, as well as officials in the Biden administration overseeing the cleanup effort, and hearing residents concerns: Dismissing their questions could have potentially lethal consequences.

You know, I'm not a scientist, and I'm not in Congress. I'm not privy to all those conversations. But I will say that, you know, any diminishment of what's going on there is potentially lethal, said Mr Ryan.

Yeah, maybe it's not in the water table right now, but it will make its way into it, he warned. And then into the Ohio River and you know, who knows.

Mr Ryans former congressional district was redrawn as part of the states redistricting process; he previously represented regions bordering East Palestine including the nearby urban hubs of Youngstown and Akron.

Ohio officials including the states governor, Mike DeWine, have insisted to residents that health concerns have been addressed and there is no danger to people from chemicals in the air or drinking water following the crash. But reports continue to surface from residents who claim otherwise, basing their arguments on environmental damage that continues to spread in the areas around the derailment scene.

Mr Vance himself recently posted a video of what the senator said was a polluted creek a short ways downstream from the site of the crash.
CINCINNATI (AP)  Former Republican Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder directly contradicted FBI testimony in his corruption trial Wednesday, taking the stand for the first time to deny attending a series of swanky dinners in Washington, D.C. where prosecutors have alleged he and executives of Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. hatched a $60 million bribery scheme in 2017.

Householder, 63, looked relaxed and confident during his first day of testimony, setting the stage by describing his lifetime lived in a single rural Ohio county, his early political-underdog days and his rising path to become speaker. His wife of 38 years, Taundra, sat facing him from the gallery.

The trial is in its fifth week before a jury and U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Black in Cincinnati.

Householder and Matt Borges, 50, a lobbyist and former Ohio Republican Party chair, have been charged with conspiracy to participate in a racketeering enterprise involving bribery and money laundering. Federal prosecutors allege Householder controlled a scheme, secretly funded by FirstEnergy, to elect allies, win the speakership, pass a $1 billion nuclear plant bailout and that Borges sought to bribe an operative for inside information on the referendum to overturn it. Both have pleaded not guilty and maintain their innocence. Each faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Householder told jurors that he invented the strategy of recruiting large numbers of like-minded Republican House candidates and setting up expensive operations to help them all get elected at once, requiring the raising of large sums of money. But he denied demanding loyalty oaths from his recruits or extracting promises to vote a certain way.

I really looked for people who are independent-minded, he said.

Three of Householder's former caucus members testified last week that he pressured them to vote for the bill, and texts were presented in which Householder appeared to express anger at disloyalty.

Story continues

Associate Jeff Longstreth, among four other individuals and a dark money group charged in the scheme, had testified for the prosecution that Householder wanted casket carriers, people so loyal they would carry his casket on the day of his funeral. Householder told jurors casket carriers were just friends, and that a long-time politician like him doesn't need anymore enemies.

In another denial of previous allegations, Householder said he never granted Statehouse superlobbyist Neil Clark, a co-defendent who died by suicide in 2021, a proxy to act on his behalf. The former speaker guffawed at the suggestion.

I don't give up my right to speak for myself, he said.

Clark was taped describing himself as Householder's proxy while speaking to two undercover FBI agents posing as developers. He went on to describe in detail Householder's use of dark money groups to conceal campaign contributions. Householder's attorneys have said Clark exaggerated.

Perhaps the day's most striking exchange was when Householder described his trip to Republican President Donald Trump's inauguration in January 2017. He recounted flying to Washington on a FirstEnergy plane, then outlined his weekend activities in detail  photo opportunities, cocktail parties, balls, parades, a concert with his son and pizza with a wife addicted to it.

Missing from the account were several dinners, which earlier documents had shown were arranged by Longstreth, head of the dark money Generation Now, to involve then-FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones, Vice President Michael Dowling and others. Householder said he had not attended any such dinners. He said he saw Jones on the plane flights to and from the inaugural, and then throughout the weekend only at a packed house party hosted by media consultant Rex Elsass and perhaps once more in passing. Asked if he attended the dinners, Householder simply said, No or I was not.

Earlier in the trial, FBI Agent Blane Wetzel had walked through internal documents from both Generation Now and FirstEnergy, phone records, emails and other documents indicating Jones, Dowling and Householder were part of a party of eight that met three times in D.C. over Trump's inaugural weekend.

It was about two weeks later that Longstreth opened a bank account for Generation Now, through which FirstEnergy admitted in an agreement to avoid prosecution to pushing millions of bribes aimed at getting the bailout bill passed. The same day, Longstreth emailed Dowling wiring instructions for FirstEnergy to put money in the account. Regular $250,000 began flowing.

Longstreth and Generation Now have pleaded guilty to their parts in the bribery scheme, as has a third individual, Juan Cespedes, who testified last week. Clark had pleaded not guilty.

Cross-examination of Householder had not yet begun at day's end Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, Statehouse lobbyist Robert Klaffky testified to being present at a meeting where a $400,000 check from his client, FirstEnergy Solutions, was given to Householder in an envelope. Klaffky said he could not remember what was said at the meeting, but that he was certain he had not witnessed pay-to-play.

Klaffky said he was already a Householder insider and adviser before taking on FirstEnergy Solutions, a subsidiary that owned the two nuclear plants, as a client  and wanting him to win the speakership.

Borges' attorney, Karl Schneider, said he expected his client also to take the stand.
UNITED NATIONS (AP)  Award-winning Haitian broadcaster Michele Montas follows the chaos in her home country every day from her apartment in New York. She has a simple answer to why peace remains elusive and violence is worsening in the country: Haitians were never part of any solution.

Montas, who was exiled three times and served as spokesperson for the former United Nations secretary-general, said in an interview with The Associated Press that this was the main reason foreign interventions and aid efforts have largely failed, including after the devastating 2010 earthquake where lives were saved but there wasnt help rebuilding the country.

And we have the same problem today, she said. We have gang wars in Haiti. We have a situation where people are dying. People are being kidnapped on a daily basis. People are afraid to leave their homes. But if Haitians arent part of the solution  there is no outside help that can do it for Haitians. We know it. Haitians know it.

Montas husband Jean Dominique, a Haitian journalist and human rights and democracy activist, was assassinated in April 2000 as he was driving into the radio station he took over in 1972, which they helped build into the countrys leading news outlet. Radio Haiti-Inter was the first station to broadcast mainly in Creole  the language spoken by Haitians, rather than French, the language of the elites  and to do political analysis and investigative reporting. Montas took over running the station after his death but closed it in February 2003 after she was shot at and her bodyguard was killed.

Montas, who speaks almost daily to family and friends in Haiti, said the High Transition Council that Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced in December and appointed in February is not large enough and representative enough to ensure elections in a country with no democratically elected institutions, and where she and other Haitians consider Henry illegitimately holding power. He assumed power shortly after the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenal Moise.

Story continues

Henry and the countrys Council of Ministers sent an urgent appeal Oct. 7 to the U.N. calling for the immediate deployment of a specialized armed force, in sufficient quantity to stop the crisis in Latin Americas poorest nation, caused partly by the criminal actions of armed gangs.

There have been at least three major foreign military interventions in Haiti led by the United States and the United Nations since the early 1900s, and at a Security Council meeting in late January, neither the U.S. nor Canada showed any interest in leading a new intervention.

At that meeting, U.N. special envoy for Haiti Helen La Lime, who backs U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres call for a force, pointed to an increase in homicides and kidnappings in Haiti for a fourth straight year in 2022. She said the 1,359 kidnappings last year was more than double the number in 2021, and killings were up a third to 2,183, touching all segments of society, including a former presidential candidate and the director of the National Police Academy.

Montas said in Monday's interview in her Manhattan apartment that the Canadians concluded after speaking to Haitians that no military intervention would work. But she said the national police could do much more if they had the proper help.

She said the international community keeps talking about elections, just as they did after the earthquake, but elections are not the only democratic solutions.

You first have to have established a political base for a transition that can be legitimate, that could be recognized by most Haitians as valid, she said.

Henry has proved totally unable to control the gangs, she said, and his High Transition Council is too limited and maintains all power in his hands without any checks and balances.

Instead, Montas said, she believes serious consideration should be given to the proposal by the so-called Montana group for a two-year transitional period to allow Haiti time to create a safer environment for voters. The group is made up of thousands of supporters, including prominent politicians and civil society leaders.

She noted that eight political parties got together and rejected Henrys Dec. 21 transition plan, and stressed that they must be taken into account before any elections. So she thinks there will be further negotiations with the Montana group.

To deal with the gangs, Montas urged the United States to stop the flow of heavy weapons and automatic weapons to their members from Florida, including by imposing sanctions.

As long as the gang members have weapons that are more powerful than the police, how do you expect the police to be able to control them? she asked.
By Jarrett Renshaw and Stephanie Kelly

(Reuters) - The Biden administration is expected on Wednesday to recommend for approval a rule that would allow expanded sales of gasoline with a higher ethanol blend in certain U.S. Midwest states, based on a request from governors in those states, four sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

The approved rulemaking is not expected to take effect until summer of 2024, the sources said.

The rule would be a win for the ethanol industry, which has sought for years to expand sales of so-called E15, which contains 15% ethanol, and for the farm industry, as ethanol is made from corn.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is expected to seek a public comment period on the rule, sources said.

In April, governors from major corn-producing Midwestern states including Iowa, Nebraska and Illinois requested that the EPA effectively lift the ban in their states.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency head Michael Regan said in September the agency intended to act on the request before next summer.

The White House and the EPA did not respond to a request for comment.

The governors say that expanding E15 supply would ease pump prices and help farmers, but critics of the idea - including those in the refining industry - have voiced concerns that a piecemeal approach to growing E15 sales could introduce distribution challenges.

The oil refining industry has traditionally balked at efforts to expand the ethanol market because it competes against gasoline at the pump and can be costly to blend.

The EPA enforces a summertime ban on E15 over concerns it contributes to smog in hot weather, though research has since shown E15 blend may not increase smog relative to the more common E10 sold year-round. E10 contains 10% ethanol.

President Joe Biden lifted the ban last summer in an attempt to lower historically-high gasoline prices.

(Reporting By Jarrett Renshaw and Stephanie Kelly; Editing by Tom Hogue and Sonali Paul)
SHANGHAI/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Tesla is readying a production revamp of its top-selling Model Y, according to three people with knowledge of the plan.

The changes to the Model Y  code-named Project Juniper - involve the exterior and interior of the electric vehicle (EV) with a target of starting production in 2024, according to two of the people, who asked not to be identified because the planning remains private.

A revamp of the Model Y would mean Tesla is on track to offer new versions of its top-selling models over the next two years, addressing pressure in markets like China and the United States for a visible reboot of its best-selling vehicles in the face of increasing options for EV buyers.

Tesla did not immediately comment when asked by Reuters about the plans for the Model Y, a crossover EV which was its best seller in California, China and Europe last year.

At Tesla's investor day, CEO Elon Musk and other executives declined to discuss specifics of new models.

Tesla has already been working to retool its Shanghai assembly plant to prepare for a revamped version of its Model 3 sedan in a project codenamed Highland, Reuters has reported.

A revamp of the Model Y, first delivered to customers in 2020, would mean production and supply changes for a car now in production across all of Tesla's major hubs: the United States, China and Germany.

"With the Model Y being not only being Tesla's top seller, but also the top-selling EV in the world, it's important to keep it fresh," AutoPacific president and chief analysts Ed Kim said, adding that he had been tracking Project Juniper.

"As the global EV sales leader, Model Y has a target on its back," Kim said. "As with Project Highland, Project Juniper should deepen Tesla's already massive production cost advantages over the competition."

PROJECT JUNIPER

Musk and other executives detailed efforts to take costs out of EV manufacturing during Tesla's investor day.

Story continues

Tesla Chief Financial Officer Zach Kirkhorn said the factory layout for Model Y production varied across the three plants that make the car and that Tesla would work to standardize planning for future vehicles to reduce costs and complexity.

Musk declined to comment on the specifics of any future models but said Tesla could look to address the variants of Model Y it currently sells.

"But, broadly speaking, the most profound architectural changes will be in future vehicles," Musk said, in response to an investor question.

Tesla has asked suppliers for quotes for exterior and interior components that will be used in the Project Juniper version of the Model Y, two of the people with knowledge of the plan said.

The projected start of production is October 2024, according to one of the people.

It was not immediately clear how sweeping the revamp would be or what specific changes or improvements Tesla was looking to deliver with the new Model Y.

HIGHLAND MODEL 3

The Highland version of the Model 3 is expected to go into production in Shanghai in September, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

With Highland, Tesla is aiming to cut production costs and boost the appeal of an electric sedan that first went on sale in 2017, people involved in the project have said. There will also be changes to the exterior and powertrain performance with a focus on production efficiency, they said.

The leading EV maker has faced increasing competitive pressure in China, its second-largest market behind the United States, even after it cut prices.

Analysts have said that is in part because it has been seen as lagging competitors in introducing new models, improved navigation or luxe interior touches that car shoppers in the world's largest EV market are seeking.

In contrast to legacy automakers, which have tended to make incremental model-year changes before introducing an all-new version, Tesla has pressed the pace of change in its EVs.

Tesla has made frequent changes to its EVs through software updates and sometimes through hardware changes to add features, improve performance or cut production costs, analysts have said.

In one example, Tesla announced on Wednesday it had made changes in the suspension system on the Model Y made in China since January to make the ride smoother, an update Tesla fans applauded on social media.

Tesla's plant near Berlin hit a new production record equivalent to annual output of over 200,000 Model Ys earlier this week, the company said. That was three weeks ahead of an internal production target reviewed by Reuters.

(Reporting by Zhang Yan in Shanghai and Hyunjoo Jin in San Francisco, editing by Kevin Krolicki and Himani Sarkar)
A Tri-Cities judge has entered into an agreement that could allow him to avoid jail time for a second DUI arrest, but comes with years of required treatment for alcoholism.

Benton County District Court Judge Terry M. Tanner Jr. appeared in person at the Yakima County District Court in Grandview on Tuesday, where he agreed to accept a deferred prosecution agreement to resolve his the DUI charge.

The 5-year deferred prosecution agreement was approved by District Court Judge Gary Hintze.

Tanner had been charged with his second DUI in five years after crashing his Cadillac into a concrete block in Richland in early January.

He took a month-long leave of absence and has since been back at work, but with limited duties.

Judge Terry Tanner

Deferred DUI prosecution

Hintze warned Tanner that the agreement shouldnt be taken lightly, as the consequences for failing to meet the obligations are severe.

Under the agreement Tanner will be required to continue treatment for alcoholism, as well as keep an ignition interlock device in his car for the 5-year term. He could also be regularly tested for alcohol consumption during that time.

Under Washington law, the treatment portion of the program lasts two years, and three years after that, Tanner will be eligible for the charge to drop off of his record if he successfully completes the program.

If he violates the agreement, a judge can simply look at the police reports and find him guilty of the original charges. He would then likely face a sentence between 30 and 364 days in jail.

A deferred prosecution for a DUI can be granted only once, and requires a diagnosis of either alcoholism, substance addiction or mental health issues. Tanner also has to agree to waive his right to a speedy trial and the ability to call witnesses or present evidence in his defense.

The treatment portion of the program comes with a list of requirements regarding sobriety.

Tanner will have to attend at least two self-help recovery group meetings each week, such as Alcohol Anonymous, weekly outpatient counseling for the first six months and then monthly outpatient counseling for the rest of the term.

Story continues

It also requires extensive recovery treatment, which Tanner provided documentation to the court showing he had already started.

Benton County District Court Judge Terry M. Tanner Jr. was charged with driving drunk when he high centered his car on a concrete block in Richland police on Jan. 2.

Tanner told Hintze he already has completed a 28-day, in-patient treatment program and is nearly finished with an intensive outpatient treatment program that required three hours per night for four days each week.

I recognize that this is the only thing that is going to save my life and others, Tanner said.

Tanner said he is fully prepared to commit to the extensive treatment and recognizes he can never drink alcohol again.

Judicial conduct

While Tanners legal issues may be resolved, he still could face discipline from the Washington Commission on Judicial Conduct.

Typically the commission does not begin disciplinary proceedings until after criminal cases are concluded.

Tanner was previously reprimanded for his 2018 DUI.

Typically the commission reaches a disciplinary agreement with the judge, as was the case in 2018.

The reprimand included an agreement that he would meet all the criteria of his sentence, engage in public speaking appearances about the crime and refrain from repeating the behavior, a spokesperson for the commission previously told the Herald.

The three levels of disciplinary action that can be taken by the commission, in order of severity, are an admonishment, a reprimand and censure.

In the reprimand, Tanner was warned that further legal trouble could result in undermining the integrity of the judiciary and undermine public confidence.

The commission spokesperson said past disciplinary action and the circumstances of the incident are one of a number of aggravating factors the commission considers.

With a censure, the commission also can recommend suspension to the state Supreme Court with or without pay or removal from office.

Tanner is a former Richland city councilman and was appointed to District Court in 2009. He was re-elected last November to a new 4-year term after running unopposed.

The annual salary for full-time District Court judges in Washington in 2022 was about $193,000. They preside over misdemeanor charges, such as DUIs, traffic offenses and minor assaults, as well as civil actions, such as small claims court.
By Trevor Hunnicutt and Michael Martina

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States is sounding out close allies about the possibility of imposing new sanctions on China if Beijing provides military support to Russia for its war in Ukraine, according to four U.S. officials and other sources.

The consultations, which are still at a preliminary stage, are intended to drum up support from a range of countries, especially those in the wealthy Group of 7 (G7), to coordinate support for any possible restrictions.

It was not clear what specific sanctions Washington will propose. The conversations have not been previously disclosed.

The U.S. Treasury Department, a lead agency on the imposition of sanctions, declined to comment.

Washington and its allies have said in recent weeks that China was considering providing weapons to Russia, which Beijing denies. Aides to U.S. President Joe Biden have not publicly provided evidence.

They have also warned China directly against doing so, including in meetings between Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping as well as during a Feb. 18 in-person meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi on the sidelines of a global security conference in Munich.

The Biden administration's initial steps to counter Chinese support for Russia have included informal outreach at the staff and diplomatic levels, including the Treasury Department, sources familiar with the matter said.

They said officials were laying the groundwork for potential action against Beijing with the core group of countries that were most supportive of sanctions imposed on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine a year ago.

Asked about the consultations, a White House National Security Council spokesperson said Russia's war made it difficult for China with Europe and others.

"It's a distraction for China and a potential blow to their international relationships they do not need nor should they want," the spokesperson said.

Story continues

INTELLIGENCE

One official from a country consulted by Washington said that they had only seen scant intelligence backing up the claims about China considering possible military assistance to Russia. A U.S. official, however, said they were providing detailed accounts of the intelligence to allies.

China's role in the Russia-Ukraine war is expected to be among the topics when Biden meets with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the White House on Friday. Before that in New Delhi on Wednesday and Thursday, the war will be discussed by foreign ministers from dozens of countries, including Russia, China and the United States.

Last week China issued a 12-point paper calling for a comprehensive ceasefire that was met with scepticism in the West.

The initial outreach by Washington on sanctions has not yet led to broad agreement on any specific measures, the sources said.

One source said the administration wanted to first raise the idea of coordinated sanctions and "take pulses" in the event that any shipments are detected to Russia from China, which declared a "no limits" partnership shortly before the invasion on Feb. 24 last year.

"On the G7 front, I think there is real awareness," a second source said, but added that detailed measures focused on China were not yet in place.

COULD CHINA TILT CONFLICT?

The Ukraine conflict has settled into grinding trench warfare. With Russia running low on munitions, Ukraine and its supporters fear that supplies from China could tilt the conflict to Russia's advantage.

As part of a related diplomatic push, Washington won language in a Feb. 24 G7 statement to mark the war's first anniversary that called on "third-countries" to "cease providing material support to Russia's war, or face severe costs."

Though the statement did not mention China by name, the U.S. imposed new penalties on people and companies accused of helping Russia evade sanctions. The measures included export curbs on companies in China and elsewhere that will block them from buying items, such as semiconductors.

"We've tried to signal very clearly, both in private in Munich, and then publicly, our concerns," Daniel Kritenbrink, the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia, told Congress this week. "We've talked about the implications and the consequences if they were to do so. And we also know that many of our like-minded partners share those concerns."

Among the challenges the United States faces in putting sanctions on China, the world's second-biggest economy, is its thorough integration in the major economies of Europe and Asia, complicating the talks. U.S. allies from Germany to South Korea are reticent to alienate China.

Anthony Ruggiero, a sanctions expert under former President Donald Trump, said the Biden administration does have scope for economically restricting private actors within China and that doing so could deter the government and banks from providing further support.

"Then the administration can send messages to China in public and in private, with the latter being more explicit, that the U.S. will escalate the sanctions to include targeting Chinese banks with the full range of available options," said Ruggiero, now with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies group.

Washington should make China choose between access to the U.S. financial system or aiding Russia's war, Ruggiero said, citing the sanctions approach to Iran and North Korea.

(Reporting by Michael Martina and Trevor Hunnicutt; Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Don Durfee and Grant McCool)
(Bloomberg) -- The plan for greater US military access in the Philippines has drawn opposition from politicians who raised concerns the Southeast Asian nation might be embroiled if tensions with China over Taiwan escalate.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Senator Imee Marcos, the presidents sister, said the move to allow American troops in more Philippine sites is geared at bolstering the US possible defense of Taiwan instead of the Philippines.

We are not volunteering to fight wars that are not our own, Senator Marcos, who chairs the foreign relations committee, said in a hearing with Philippine defense officials and diplomats on Wednesday. She also questioned why the Philippines is granting the US greater access, when only five of the 21 projects in the initial sites have been completed.

Defense Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., however, defended greater US access in the Philippines, saying it will allow militaries from both countries to work more closely, especially in the event of natural disasters.

The Southeast Asian nation last month gave the US access to four more military bases under the countries Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, bringing the total to nine. The 2014 pact allows the US to rotate its troops for prolonged stays as well as build and operate facilities on Philippine bases.

The move is part of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.s efforts to bolster the Philippines longstanding alliance with the US amid lingering tensions with China over Taiwan and the South China Sea. Manila is expanding its military exercises with American troops, and also plans to restart patrols with the US in the disputed waters.

At Wednesdays Senate hearing, Governor Manuel Mamba from the northern Cagayan province, which was earlier reported as one of the four possible new sites for US access, said his locality doesnt want to be caught up in any conflict between the superpowers.

Story continues

Our only wish is to have no foreign forces in Cagayan. We will have sleepless nights, Mamba said.

Three Philippine bases near Taiwan - two in Cagayan and one in Isabela province - in addition to another in Palawan near the South China Sea, are among the additional sites being considered where US forces may gain greater access, a former Philippines military chief said in November.

The new sites may still be changed, Defense Secretary Galvez said at the hearing, while declining to name the locations. Local officials will be consulted before any site is finalized, he added.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP)  A Pennsylvania man faces federal criminal charges after he checked in a suitcase with an explosive device hidden in the lining on a flight to Florida, authorities said Wednesday.

Marc Muffley, 40, is charged with possessing an explosive in an airport and possessing or attempting to place an explosive or incendiary device on an aircraft, according to a criminal complaint.

Prosecutors allege that the material was found in a suitcase Muffley had checked in Monday at Lehigh Valley International Airport to Allegiant Air Flight 201, which was bound for Orlando Sanford International Airport in Florida.

After an alert during security screening, the bag was examined and found hidden in the lining was a circular compound about three inches in diameter encased in a wax-like paper and clear plastic wrap.

An FBI bomb technician X-rayed the compound and concluded that it contained a granular powder consistent with a "commercial grade firework" and "suspected to be a mixture of flash powder and the dark granulars that are used in commercial grade fireworks."

Attached to it was a quick fuse similar to a candle wick  apparently part of the original manufacture of the compound  as well as a hobby fuse that burns more slowly and appeared to have been added after the manufacture, authorities said.

Authorities said they concluded that both the black powder and flash powder are susceptible to ignite from heat and friction and posed a significant risk to the aircraft and passengers, according to the criminal complaint.

The baggage also contained a can of butane, a lighter, a pipe with white powder residue, a wireless drill with cordless batteries, and two GFCI outlets taped together with black tape, authorities said.

GFCI outlets are a type of circuit breaker.

Authorities said Muffley was paged over the airports public address system and shortly thereafter he was seen leaving the airport. He was traced to a Lansford address where he was arrested by the FBI late Monday night.

Officials said he remains in custody pending a probable cause hearing and detention hearing Thursday at 1:30 p.m. in Allentown, with Muffley attending via videoconference. A message was left Wednesday for Muffleys federal public defender, Timothy Wright.
By Cath Turner

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, California (Reuters) - After a winter of epic storms in California, Yosemite National Park's famous waterfalls are in full flow, its reservoirs are brimming, and the snowpack in the surrounding Sierra Nevada Mountains is well above average.

In drought-stricken California, that is cause for celebration, but wildlife experts warn that weather extremes driven by climate change can also change habitats too quickly for wildlife to adapt.

"These extremes really take a toll on both the landscape, the wildlife and us," Beth Pratt, California regional director for the National Wildlife Federation, told Reuters.

Pratt has been studying Yosemite Valley wildlife for 25 years, including the more than 400 species of vertebrates that call the 1,200 square-mile (3,100 square-kilometer) park home.

One of the smaller residents Pratt surveys is the native California Newt, a small orange salamander with rough, grainy skin. In 2022, Pratt was concerned that low water levels in the Merced River, which flows through the park, would dry up seasonal ponds where the newts lay their eggs. This year, that concern has been washed away - she spotted some newts on a recent visit.

However, after a spate of deadly "atmospheric river" storms that unleashed widespread flooding, triggered mudslides and killed at least 20 people, her worry is that too much water is disrupting their ecosystem.

"When you have a six-week period where they're happening daily, the wildlife can't shift their habitat that quickly," she said. The storms also will not end California's historic drought as virtually none of the storms reached the key Colorado River basin.

In his 27 years as a Yosemite park ranger, Scott Gediman has never seen so much winter snow and water in the park.

As well as delighting Yosemite visitors with thundering waterfalls, the deluge led to a bumper snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountains, sometimes referred to as California's "frozen reservoir."

Story continues

According to a California Department of Water Resources manual survey conducted on Feb. 1, statewide snowpack was almost double the average for the time of year. The snowpack supplies around 30% of California's water needs.

"We kind of look at it like a bank," Gediman said. "You bank all the snow up in the high country and then in the warm weather, the water comes down."

But climate change means climate extremes, and as California experiences more severe droughts and heat waves, its occasional wet years are expected to be excessively rainy.

"Climate change isn't something we're waiting for," Pratt said. "We're experiencing it here, especially in the Sierra Nevada in California, we're ground zero, just because of our Mediterranean climate."

Mediterranean climates with rainy winters and dry, hot summers are particularly vulnerable to climate change.

"We don't want people to come to Yosemite and not see Yosemite Falls in future years because we have no snowpack because of climate change," Pratt said. "We want to preserve these places for both ourselves and the future. And climate is slowly destroying even the best protected places on the planet."

(Reporting by Cath Turner and Nathan Frandino in Yosemite National Park; Writing by Josie Kao; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)
ROME (Reuters) - Italy's authorities are facing scrutiny over their response to a tragic shipwreck near their shores, in which at least 67 migrants, including 16 children, have died.

Here is what is known about Sunday's disaster, which took place before dawn near the coast of Steccato di Cutro, in the southern Calabria region.

THE BOAT

A Turkish wooden sailing boat, known as a gulet, left from Izmir in western Turkey on Feb. 22 and arrived near Italy after about four days of navigation.

Between 150-200 migrants were on board, mostly from Afghanistan but also Pakistan, Syria, the Palestinian Territories, Iran and Somalia, Italian authorities said.

According to Italy's Guardia di Finanza Police, they each paid traffickers about 8,000 euros ($8,540) to make the perilous sea journey.

THE SHIPWRECK

The boat was first spotted late on Saturday about 74 km from the coast of Calabria by a plane operated by Frontex, the European Union's border agency.

In response, the Guardia di Finanza police force said it sent out two patrol boats, but they gave up searching for the migrants and returned to port due to "difficult" weather conditions. Television footage on Sunday morning showed blustery weather with strong waves.

Authorities then mobilised search units along the coastline, expecting the migrants to come ashore, but by then the boat had already crashed against rocks, breaking into pieces.

Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said Sunday it was "materially impossible" to intervene to save the migrants at sea, as the rescuers' own lives would have been endangered.

In the morning police, firefighters and other emergency services found nearly 30 bodies washed up on the shore, and more in the water, in scenes that have been described as apocalyptic.

WHERE WAS THE COAST GUARD?

La Repubblica newspaper and other media have questioned why the Guardia di Finanza and not the Coast Guard, whose vessels are better equipped to face rough seas, were deployed.

Story continues

It is unclear why this decision was made and who was responsible for making the call.

The Guardia di Finanza is Italy's tax and customs police, a role that investigates financial crimes, including smuggling and contraband activities on the coastline and at ports.

In a separate statement, the Coast Guard said it also received the Frontex message on Saturday evening, but did not act on it as it contained no information about the migrants' boat being in distress.

The Coast Guard said it intervened only after it received a call about an emergency situation at about 4:30 am (0330 GMT) Sunday, from people on the coast who had spotted a vessel in distress near the shore.

No distress call came from the boat, the Coast Guard added, pointing out that the Carabinieri police, as well as the Guardia di Finanza, were alerted about the situation before it was.

The Coast Guard's local commander, Vittorio Aloi, told reporters on Wednesday he was sure that the rules of engagement had been properly followed by his corps - but also said that sea conditions were not that severe.

He talked of "force 4" wind conditions, which are classified as a "moderate breeze", on the night of the shipwreck, and said Coast Guard vessels could have gone out at sea even with "force 8" conditions.

THE PROSECUTOR

Prosecutor Giuseppe Capoccia, who is conducting investigations into the shipwreck, told La Repubblica newspaper that a lack of coordination may have contributed to the tragedy.

"We are certainly seeing a system with gaps, where, probably in perfectly good faith, everyone does their own thing, but which in the end results in a 'you go, no you go' situation that can lead to tragic situations like this one," he said.

Capoccia confirmed that no formal "search and rescue" event was declared in response to the sighting of the boat, and said the first help call from the vessel came at around 4 am - presumably just before the shipwreck.

"We will reconstruct everything (that happened) but it makes me angry, as a family man, as a citizen, to think that perhaps something could have been done to save those people," the prosecutor said. ($1 = 0.9370 euros)

(Reporting by Angelo Amante, Alvise Armellini, Gianluca Semeraro, Cristina Carlevaro, writing by Alvise Armellini; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
AUSTIN, Texas (AP)  Family members of victims killed in the Uvalde school shooting confronted Texas' police chief Tuesday in an emotional end to a day of protests at the state Capitol over gun laws.

Velma Duran, whose sister Irma Garcia was one of two teachers killed at Robb Elementary School last May, scolded Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw as other Uvalde residents and gun control supporters looked on inside a committee room at the Capitol, where McCraw prepared to leave after testifying to lawmakers.

Nineteen students were killed in the Uvalde attack, one of the worst classroom shootings in U.S. history. Duran briefly brought the hearing to a halt as she yelled from her seat to McCraw over law enforcement officers waiting more than an hour to confront the gunman who had an AR-15-style rifle inside the fourth-grade classroom.

They stood around and enabled the shooter to obliterate my sister. You couldn't recognize her, Duran said to McCraw. Look at me!

McCraw briefly leaned over to Duran, but it was not clear what he said before walking out of the committee room.

Brett Cross, the uncle of 10-year-old victim Uziyah Garcia, followed McCraw out and said later he had a brief conversation with the director in an elevator.

A spokesman for DPS did not immediately return a request seeking comment Tuesday about encounters with the family members of victims.

The unusual scene inside the Capitol happened just hours after a crowd of gun control supporters rallied outside. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and leaders of the state's commanding GOP majority in the Legislature have shown no support for passing new gun restrictions between now and May, during which is their first chance to pass new laws since the Uvalde attack.

McCraw has said he will not resign amid some Uvalde residents calling for his ouster.

He has called the broad response to the shooting an abject failure and seven state police officers were placed under internal review over their actions during the shooting. Four were cleared of wrongdoing and one resigned before the review was complete. Two were fired, with one currently appealing the decision.

Some audience members shouted at McCraw to step down as he left the room. Lawmakers sat quietly and listened as Duran continued to criticize them and police, while a Capitol staff member tried speaking to her.

A short time later, the hearing resumed.
Orlando police are hunting for a couple accused of targeting an elderly woman and stealing some irreplaceable items.

The victims own surveillance cameras inside the house caught part of the crime on camera, showing the couple pulling what looks a safe throughout the home.

Neldie Reys family said the 89-year-old victim is too scared to go home.

Whlie the burglars didnt hurt Rey, they left her with emotional scars that are preventing her from returning home.

READ: Deputy arrested for soliciting minor faces additional child pornography charges, officials say

Surveillance video shows the woman in black walking in and out of the home, paying close attention to Reys belongings, and slipping up when asked her name.

Its all believed to be in an effort to distract the elderly woman. Right after they walked outside, this man walked inside.

After 15 minutes, the suspect took off with all her personal papers, her wedding ring  all the things you just cant replace, Reys son Antonio Rey said.

READ: Deputies release minute-by-minute timeline of shootings that killed woman, reporter & girl

Reys son drove to Orlando with his wife after the situation left his mom in complete panic, resulting in a visit to the hospital.

Her mind is incredible unstable now, Rey said. We cant seem to get her out of the hospital because she is scared.

READ: Man accused of shooting his girlfriend at DeBary park surrenders

The family said they hope spreading the word and showing images will help police catch the two suspects who not only robbed Rey of her valuables, but her peace of mind.

Theyre not going to keep doing this, figuring they wont get caught, Rey said. These people wont change.





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.
Left: Mississippis shuttered abortion clinic aka the Pink House with pink paint. Right: The building has now been painted white and is set to re-open as a luxury consignment store.

In one of the worst visual metaphors Ive ever seen, Mississippis one embattled abortion cliniccalled the Pink House for its bubblegum stucco wallshas now been painted white and is set to re-open as a luxury consignment store selling high-end home goods and furniture.

Jackson Womens Health Organization in Jackson, Mississippi, was the states only abortion clinic since 2004 and was relentlessly targeted by lawmakers and protestors. When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last spring, the justices were hearing a case about a 2018 Mississippi law in which the Pink House was the plaintiff challenging the law. The clinic served its last patients on July 6 before the states trigger ban took effect.

Read more

Gulf States Newsroom reporter Shalina Chatlani shared a photo of the former clinics new exterior on Tuesday, calling it surreal and adding that the building is in a highly gentrified neighborhood known as Fondren.

Surreal to see the Pink House in Jackson painted white. This clinic was at the heart of the Supreme Court case that overturned Roe v Wade. And now its being turned into a luxury consignment store in a highly gentrified neighborhood. pic.twitter.com/ttYVYCdF8f  Shalina Chatlani (@chatlanis) February 27, 2023

The news of the store taking over was first reported in January, but renovations on the 3,000 square foot building had just begun. Hunt The Shop is relocating from a smaller store less than a half-mile away and was originally set to open March 1, but Hunt said on its Instagram that it plans to open at 2903 North State Streetthe former clinic siteon March 22.

Story continues

Hunt owner David Carpenter told NBC News that he wasnt interested in discussing the past of the building that he bought in July from a developer.

I really dont want to get into the political side of it, Carpenter said in January. That was then. This is now. I want to do something that the community will embrace. I want it to be a positive thing.

Thats nice for him, I guess, but it does seem like its way too easy for a white male business owner to brush aside the history of a building that fought and lost against a decades-long conservative effort to erase a fundamental right. A building that predominantly served Black patients, as it was located in a majority-Black city in the U.S. state with the highest proportion of Black residents. A city that, to this day, cant get state and federal leaders to solve the water crisis caused by decades of systemic racism.

Derenda Hancock, co-organizer of the "Pinkhouse Defenders," a group of volunteers that shield and escort patients entering the Jackson Women's Health Organization (JWHO), Mississippi's last remaining abortion clinic, called the "Pinkhouse," stands watch on May 3, 2022.



Derenda Hancock, co-organizer of the Pinkhouse Defenders, a group of volunteers that shield and escort patients entering the Jackson Womens Health Organization (JWHO), Mississippis last remaining abortion clinic, called the Pinkhouse, stands watch on May 3, 2022.

And Carpenter only owns the building because JWHO owner Diane Derzis, who is also white, chose to sell it and open a clinic in New Mexico, rather than stay in the community and offer birth control and prenatal care, as other former abortion clinics have done.

Best of luck re-selling rich peoples armchairs, David.

More from Jezebel

Sign up for Jezebel's Newsletter. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.
Starmer - Hollie Adams/Getty Images Europe

The Office for National Statistics doesn't record how many Romanians live and work in Whitby, North Yorkshire, but according to Bram Stoker's, Dracula, this is where Nosferatu, arguably Romania's most famous persona  albeit a fictional one  berthed his plague ship on leaving his ancestral home in Transylvania.

These days he wouldn't bother. Instead he would stay at home, for according to Labour Party analysis, Britain will be poorer than Romania by 2040 on present trends, and is therefore a rather more attractive proposition than Whitby.

For the pedants among you, at the time Stoker wrote his novel, Transylvania was in fact part of Hungary, which still to this day yearns after its former province. It was only later ceded to Romania.

But no matter. If Sir Keir Starmer is to be believed, this once impoverished, if stunningly beautiful, backwater of Europe, will soon be richer than Britain, birthplace of the industrial revolution and much that we associate with economic modernity.

The same goes for Poland and Bulgaria, both of which, Sir Keir says, are set to overtake Britain in terms of income per head if things carry on as they are.

Much like Starmer's goal of making Britain the fastest growing economy in the G7, the projection is largely meaningless. On the goal of superior growth, Starmer has no control over how other economies perform, so whatever success or otherwise he achieves on these shores, should he get the chance, he is powerless to influence such an outcome.

The projections for Bulgaria, Poland and Romania are equally spurious, since all three only relatively recently emerged from the yoke of Communist rule. Once freed from these shackles, stellar growth was virtually inevitable, boosted by fast track entry into the EU and not a little help from the strong ties Eastern Europe developed with Britain via mass migration. If you start at the bottom, you are almost bound to climb faster than those at the top.

Taking Poland by way of example, GDP rose by more than 150pc between the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the start of the pandemic, which is more than any other country in Europe. The Eurozone, by contrast, grew by less than 40 percent in the same period.

Story continues

Growth in per capita income has been more impressive still. In 1991, during the recession that followed the chaotic dismantling of communism, income per head fell to less than a quarter of the German average. Today, it is more than two thirds of the Eurozone norm, and is indeed fast catching up with Britain. Like the tiger economies of the Far East, this is a story of rags to relative riches in just one generation.

In his book, Europe's New Growth Champion, Marcin Piatkowski attributes Poland's success mainly to good policy, including the establishment of strong institutions, foreign debt restructuring, a demanding education system, and an open and transparent privatisation process, which  unlike most other former communist states  did not produce oligarchs.

The details need not concern us too much here, suffice it to say that, though prospects for the Polish economy continue to look good, growth is almost bound to slow from here on in. The further up the ladder you climb, the harder it gets.

It is fair to say that Poland has probably already escaped the so-called Middle Income Trap, where growth gets stuck at a mediocre level and the country struggles to attain advanced economy status. The same may not yet be true of Bulgaria and Romania.

Yet despite the advantages Eastern European states have of beginning with a clean slate, in contrast to the debilitating legacy of past political choices that Britain contends with, the UK would have to do something very wrong indeed for Starmer's prophecy to come true.

Serious relative decline does happen over time. Just look at Argentina, once one of the richest countries in the world. But it's far from common in the post war era. Examples of successful catchup with the economic powerhouses of the US and Europe, moreover, are even rarer.

Smaller countries generally stand a better chance than big ones. There are areas of China, admittedly, which are already as high income as Italy, but across the country as a whole, China is still firmly marooned in middle income territory.

Big regional differences also apply to Britain. London is the richest place in Europe. But there are other areas which are among the poorest.

What is more, it appears to be true that even America's poorest state  Mississippi  is richer in per capita terms than the UK. In any case, simply extrapolating from current growth rates doesn't tell you an awful lot about the future.

The wider point that Starmer was trying to make  that Britain is stuck in a low growth rut  is however undoubtedly true, if also only a statement of the blindingly obvious. This has been the case ever since the financial crisis. Sir Keir's claim that the public finances would be 40bn a year better off had the growth achieved by New Labour before the crisis persisted, is almost as ridiculous as his extrapolation of growth in Poland and Romania.

The crisis was the culmination of more than a decade of delusional, economic manipulation. There was bound to be a price to pay for the candyfloss growth that had preceded it.

Nonetheless, something plainly has to be done to break free from Britain's growing sense of malaise. It is quite something when the big battalions of business start suggesting that Labour has better answers than a notionally Conservative Government, but this is what the likes of John Allan, chairman of Tesco, now repeatedly say.

Personally, I struggle to see the difference. Beyond the schmoozing of business lobbies and a rather more determined approach to net zero, which in itself is likely to be hugely costly, Labour's plan for growth is otherwise just a list of motherhood and apple pie aspirations and worthless platitudes.

After the tragi-comedy of the last seven years, there is something to be said for the sense of grown up, pragmatically-minded, technocratic government that now emanates from Downing Street. In seemingly defusing the standoff with Europe over the Irish Protocol, Rishi Sunak has made a promising start in righting the ship.

But it is not enough to turn things around. The Government needs much more actively to engage with business concerns; it must radically reform our struggling education and health systems, and it must bulldoze its way through the vested interest and planning constraints that stand in the way of growth.

There's another Budget next month, and as luck would have it, the fiscal constraints on the Chancellor's room for action seem to have eased somewhat. He must act decisively, or Romania's unlikely il sorpasso  the term used by Italian commentators when Italy's GDP per head briefly exceeded that of Britain  may indeed become a reality.
2023 SmartAsset Study: Fastest-Growing STEM Jobs in the U.S.

Science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) jobs are projected to grow 15% between 2021 and 2031. But this year is a mixed bag for many workers in these occupations. In recent months, tens of thousands of tech workers have been laid off at big firms such as Meta, Amazon and Google. Keeping this in mind, SmartAsset set out to determine which STEM jobs are best poised for growth.

In this study, SmartAsset analyzed both historic employment growth over four years (from 2017 to 2021) and projected employment growth over 10 years (from 2021 to 2031) to identify and rank the fastest-growing STEM jobs in the U.S. SmartAssets free tool matches you with up to three vetted financial advisors who serve your area, and you can interview your advisor matches at no cost to decide which one is right for you. If youre ready to find an advisor who can help you achieve your financial goals, get started now.

Specifically, we compared data across 74 occupations using four metrics: the four-year percentage change in the number of workers from 2017 to 2021, the four-year growth in the number of workers from 2017 to 2021, the 10-year projected percentage growth in the number of workers from 2021 to 2031 and the 10-year projected growth in the number of workers from 2021 to 2031. For more information on our data or how we put together our findings, read the Data and Methodology section below.

This is SmartAssets fourth annual study on the fastest-growing STEM jobs in the U.S. Check out the 2022 edition here.

Key Findings

STEM jobs are predicted to increase by nearly 800,000. BLS employment projections show a forecasted increase of 798,000 by 2031 and more than half (449,200) are predicted to belong to computer and mathematical occupations.

Information security jobs are No. 1 for the second year in a row. This profession also ranked as the fastest-growing STEM job in our study. The BLS predicted a 34.7% increase in employment between 2021 and 2031. Additionally, this occupation held the strongest employment growth over the four-year period beginning in 2017 at 49.38% for our entire study.

Nuclear technicians saw a steep decline in growth numbers. According to BLS data, nuclear technicians saw a 21.75% decline in occupational numbers from 2017 to 2021. As a result, this occupation ranks No. 71, just three spots from the bottom. From 2021 to 2031, the BLS predicts a slightly smaller decline of 16.6%.

STEM jobs account for 5.9% of the projected fastest-growing occupations. BLS data shows that when computer and mathematical occupations, architecture and engineering occupations, and life, physical and social science occupations are combined, they account for 5.9% of the total employment projected for 2031.

Story continues

Computer and Mathematical Occupations

Information security analyst remains ranked as the fastest-growing STEM job across all occupations in our study, with employment figures growing by more than 49% between 2017 and 2021. In the coming years, this occupation is expected to see another 35% of growth. At the state level, Alaska saw the biggest increase in information security analysts (200%) between 2017 and 2021.

Computer and mathematical occupations include actuaries, statisticians, computer and information research scientists, and computer user support specialists. And while information security analysts showed the strongest job growth in this category, it is also worth noting that actuaries had the second-highest four-year change between 2017 and 2021 (19.94%) and are expected to grow by 20.8% over the next decade. Additionally, actuaries in Georgia saw the biggest increase in employment between 2017 and 2021 (314%).

Architecture and Engineering Occupations

Industrial and civil engineers are the only two occupations from this job category to rank in the top 10 of our study. Industrial engineers reclaimed the No. 2 spot from last year as the fastest-growing STEM job, while civil engineers ranked No. 8 (up from No. 10 last year).

At the state level, the number of industrial engineers in Alaska grew by 138% from 2017 to 2021. Other states with notable job growth over the same four years include Nevada (104%), Delaware (87%) and Iowa (84%).

Life, Physical and Social Science Occupations

BLS data showed that this job category held a mere 0.9% of employment distribution in 2021, with predictions that it will remain the same over the next 10 years into 2031. But several occupations within this group ranked in our top 10. Biochemists and biophysicists rank No. 3 with projected employment growth of 15.3% between 2021 and 2031. And epidemiologists claimed the No. 7 spot with a projected growth of 25.8% over the same period. Similarly, occupational health and safety specialists and forensic science technicians made the top 10, both with expected growth exceeding 4% in the coming years.

At the state level, the number of biochemists and biophysicists in states such as Delaware, Kentucky and Oregon more than doubled between 2017 and 2021.

Data and Methodology

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) defines science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) occupations as computer and mathematical, architecture and engineering, and life and physical science occupations, among others.

To find which STEM jobs are growing the fastest, we analyzed 74 BLS-defined occupations across the following four metrics:

Four-year percentage change in number of workers. Data comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and is for 2017 to 2021.

Four-year growth in number of workers. This is the gross increase in number of workers. Data comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and is for 2017 to 2021.

10-year projected percentage growth in number of workers. Projections come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and are for 2021 to 2031.

10-year projected growth in number of workers. This is the gross increase in number of workers. Projections come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and are for 2021 to 2031.

Using the four metrics above, we ranked each occupation in every metric, giving all metrics an equal weighting. We then found each occupations average ranking and used the average to determine a final score. The occupation with the best average ranking places first in our study. The occupation with the lowest average ranking places last.

Tips for Making the Most of Your Paycheck

Contribute to a 401(k) or IRA. In 2023 you can contribute a max of $22,500. One of the best ways to save is through a retirement savings account. Some employers will also match your 401(k) contributions up to a certain percentage of your salary, meaning that if you chose not to contribute, you are essentially leaving money on the table. Our 401(k) calculator can help you determine what you saved for retirement so far and how much more you may need. If your employer does not offer a 401(k) plan, an IRA is another great option.

A financial advisor can help organize your finances with a financial plan. SmartAssets free tool matches you with up to three vetted financial advisors who serve your area, and you can interview your advisor matches at no cost to decide which one is right for you. If youre ready to find an advisor who can help you achieve your financial goals, get started now.

Questions about our study? Contact us at press@smartasset.com

Photo credit: iStock.com/Portra

The post Fastest-Growing STEM Jobs in the U.S.  2023 Edition appeared first on SmartAsset Blog.
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Wikimedia Commons

Whenever Jonathan feels a craving for methamphetamine, he turns to kratom. Each time, the 41-year-old from Colorado will take 3 milligrams of kratom extract and toss and wash"mix the extract into a liquid, and chug for dear life.

Jonathan (who requested omission of his last name due to privacy concerns) is 20 years in recovery from a methamphetamine addiction. It hasnt always been easy. Five years ago, he went through a terrible period of stress which caused an intense desire to use again. It was through personal research that he came across kratom as a potential cure to his withdrawal symptoms. After my first dose, something switched, he said. Since then, it has played a key role in helping him manage his methamphetamine cravings and relapsing.

Jonathan is one of many Americans who use kratom, a drug originating from Southeast Asia and spreading rapidly throughout the West in recent years. According to the U.S Department of Health and Human Services 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, about 1.7 million Americans over the age of 12 reported using kratom, though experts believe this could be an underestimate.

Derived from the plant Mitragyna speciosa, kratom is known for its reported stimulant and opioid-like effects. Wikimedia Commons

At many headshops and vape shops across the country, youll find kratom sold alongside vapes, cigarettes, delta-8 and all the other semi-legal cannabinoidseither as raw leaves, capsules, tablets, powder, or concentrated extracts. Derived from the plant Mitragyna speciosa, kratom is known for its reported stimulant and opioid-like effects. Some use it as a stimulant to boost energy and stave off fatigue. For others, it provides a sedative, opioid-like ability to mediate pain relief and promote relaxation. Kratom users, including Jonathan, report the differing effects are dose dependent, but this has not yet been confirmed by science. However, scientists have determined that both of these effects are likely linked to the presence of mitragyninea chemical compound that interacts with the bodys opioid receptors in a way thats similar but weaker than classic opioids, but still elicits similar feelings of relaxation. Studies also show the stimulating effects are likely due to activation of adrenergic receptors, serotonergic and dopamine receptors in the body.

As a result, people have found many reasons to take kratomfrom the recreational effects, to treating mental health disorders, managing pain, to using it to help recover from addictions to other drugs.

But if you try to educate yourself about kratom, youll be deluged with fiercely conflicting information. Legally, its not a controlled substance, which means its use is not tightly regulated by the government. But guidance from major health authorities and institutions warn consumers to avoid kratom products due potential addictive qualities, adverse effects and lack of sufficient research. The Food and Drug Administrations April 2022 statement reads that the agency is concerned that kratom appears to have properties that expose users to the risks of addiction, abuse, and dependence. The Mayo Clinics website says potential side effects of kratom use include weight loss, liver damage, seizure, coma, and even death.

Opioid Cure Kratom Ruins Lives, Too

Other health authorities like the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and Johns Hopkins Medicine take a less prohibitory approach, noting potential benefits like managing pain withdrawal symptoms and cravings, pain, fatigue, and mental health problems; while acknowledging the existent but rare adverse effects like psychiatric, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and respiratory problems. They mention the possibility of death, but note that compared to death from other drugs, a very small number have been linked to kratomin most cases, other contaminants were involved.

Adjacent to the health authorities own recommendations are the real-world stories of kratom already visible in the media. Kratom-associated deaths continue to grab headlines in the newsjuxtaposed against others in social media who testify to positive experiences with kratom, in which the plant helped them overcome drug dependence or eased withdrawal symptoms. Persuaded in one direction or another, some states have already banned kratom use or are moving forward with such plans; while others have introduced measures to protectand appropriately regulatekratom-derived products.

But the drug is about to be debated on the biggest stage possible: the floor of the U.S. Congress. In December, a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced the Federal Clarity for Kratom Consumers Act to both the House of Representatives and the Senate. If passed, the billwhich will be reintroduced to both chambers later this monthwould prevent the Department of Health from implementing any new legal restrictions on kratom than what is already allowed by federal law.

The bill could not arrive at a more pivotal time. Kratoms emergence as a more mainstream recreational drug shows no signs of slowing downdespite the efforts of the FDA and other health authorities.

Jonathan says he lives a completely different (and better) life than he did 20 years ago when he was addicted to methamphetaminea change he directly attributes to kratom.

Its tempered the cravings for meth that just never go away, such that I dont feel them anymore, he told The Daily Beast. Being free from that for the first time five years ago was stunning.

Jonathans story is far from a one-off. Various survey studies report that many users take kratom to help them manage their own addictions to opioids and other addictive substances, with similarly positive results. Animal studies suggest that mitragynine could be responsible for alleviating withdrawal symptoms.

On the flip side, because mitragynine is binding to the same receptor as other opioids, many critics point out that it could potentially elicit similar addictive qualities as opioids. A few users have reported kratom-related withdrawal symptoms, though these seem to be rare.

Could This Dissolvable Implant End the Opioid Epidemic?

According to Aidan Hampson, a pharmacologist and senior advisor in therapeutics at NIDA, kratoms abuse potential isnt a serious concern for most health experts. He told The Daily Beast that its not uncommon that the alternative agents used to treat substance use disorders are somewhat addictive (e.g. nicotine substitutes). Even if kratom has addictive qualities, studies have shown that risk of overdose death is much greater with actual opioids. Hampson and others at NIDA are currently working on investigating whether kratom or a pure formulation of kratom could be useful in opioid withdrawal.

Were still in a position where we cant answer that very well because we dont have a purified clinical drug product yet, Hampson told The Daily Beast. But personal testimonies seem to follow similar trends.

The potential therapeutic benefits of kratom go beyond addiction management. A 2020 study from Johns Hopkins University surveying almost 3000 kratom users found that while 41 percent of respondents used kratom to stop or reduce illicit opioid use, 91 percent also used it to help manage pain; 67 percent found relief from anxiety; and 65 percent from relief from depression symptoms. Other surveys have reported similar trends of additional use for self-treating pain and emotional or mental conditions.

Unfortunately, federal agencies dont have much of an appetite for funding bigger investigations into these potential applications for kratom. The agency cites concerning reports about the safety of kratom, The FDA is concerned that kratom appears to have properties that expose users to the risks of addiction, abuse, and dependence, the FDA told The Daily Beast in a statement. Scientific evidence, such as data from well-designed clinical studies, are essential in demonstrating medical benefit, especially when a product is being marketed to treat serious conditions and disorders such as opioid use disorder (OUD) and pain. We are not aware of any evidence that would meet the agency's standard for approval of kratom as a drug.

Its a bit of a catch-22: the lack of data encourages skepticism against researching kratom; while the skepticism further discourages pursuing new research into kratom.

It doesnt help that even if there was more interest in researching kratom, federal regulations make administering clinical trials difficult. A March 2022 report in Frontiers in Pharmacology shows there has only been one published clinical trial of kratoms effects in humans.

Other people in the real world are out there using it already, Albert Garcia-Romeu, a behavioral pharmacology researcher at Johns Hopkins University involved with both the 2020 study and the 2022 report, told The Daily Beast. We have this huge natural experiment going on of people taking drugs, and we dont know the public health impact of that until something terrible happens. A regulated clinical trial would open up the path to clearly measure the physiological and psychological effects of kratom on people. But instead, regulatory barriers are in place that make it near impossible to do this work because of a lot of legal liability and risk aversion.

Reports of kratom-associated deaths in the news are an especially big dissuading factor. Hampson explained that physicians may file a report about a death where kratom was involved . But these cases can only really be considered anecdotalin order to make conclusions about the effects of the drug, you really need controlled studies, which these are not.

Dividing the debate for kratom into only two campspro and antiis a bit of an oversimplification. As Garcia-Romeu sees it, there are a few different factions of opponents.

There are groups who think outright it should be banned and become an illegal substance and that its dangerous, which includes people who have family members or friends who have become addicted to kratom or have bad effects of kratom, he said. Theres also just people who think drugs are bad and shouldnt be illegal and if their kids get their hands on these drugs, bad things will happen. Theyre going to get addicted or overdose. I think thats a lot of the mentality which is very naive and doesnt take into account the complexities of the situation.

And the advocates for kratom fall into just as many subgroups. Some believe that the kratom market should run free without any restrictions or regulations. There are others who are the complete opposite. The advocates, researchers, and kratom users who spoke to The Daily Beast had more nuanced takes.

The American Kratom Association (AKA), a consumer advocacy organization, says it recognizes the potential benefits of the plant, but emphasizes the importance of making sure safe kratom is available to all. Frustrated with the FDAs obstinate stance on itand convinced that the agency has a vendetta against the drugthe organization has worked with various states on passing bills that create frameworks for regulation, preparation, distribution, and sale of products. It has also lobbied federal legislators to support the Federal Clarity for Kratom Consumers Actan initiative they feel is necessary to curb the FDAs authority on the matter. But regulation and ensuring consumers dont get adulterated kratom products, remains a key part of their advocacy.

We think its a responsible approach in order to protect consumers rather than letting it be the wild west, Mac Haddow, senior fellow on public policy at AKA said in an interview. While the vast majority of kratom vendors are opposed to the AKAs intervention or proposed regulatory measurespreferring to see the infant kratom industry grow and operate freelythe organization says it has found a few who are willing to submit their products to third parties to be tested.

Jonathan is also a strong proponent of use with regulation.

I do think it should be regulated as there have been instances where it was laced with fentanyl or heavy metals, we need to make sure it doesnt happen, he said. Alcohol is regulated. Marijuana is regulated. Why would we take a different approach with this?

And while Jonathan acknowledges the horror stories of kratom-associated ailments, he reiterated NIDAs observation that most individuals who have died had been taking kratom concurrently with other substances.

I havent found good arguments against it, he said. But Ive found a lot of fear leftover from the war on drugs, and a lot of ignorance and misunderstanding.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here

Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now.

Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now.
Fox News

The FBI has for the first time made clear its assessment on the origins of COVID-19with the bureau's director, Christopher Wray, saying on Fox News Tuesday that it believes the virus leaked from a Chinese laboratory.

The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan, Wray told Foxs Bret Baier. Here you are talking about a potential leak from a Chinese government-controlled lab.

The interview comes on the heels of a Feb. 26 story from The Wall Street Journal, which cited a classified report by the U.S. Energy Department that came to the same conclusion after being previously undecided on the issue.

However, it dubbed the assessment with low confidencewhile the FBI has declared its determination comes with moderate confidence.

In his Tuesday interview, Wray said: So, here youre talking about a potential leak from a Chinese government-controlled lab that killed millions of Americans, and thats precisely what that capability was designed for.

I should add that our work related to this continues. And there are not a whole lot of details I can share that arent classified.

Eight agencies in total have investigated COVIDs origins, according to an Aug. 2021 report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Four agencies and the National Intelligence Council concluded with low confidence that COVID emerged as a result of natural transmission from animals to humans, while two have yet to come to a conclusion.

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.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The FBI has assessed that a leak from a laboratory in the central Chinese city of Wuhan likely caused the COVID pandemic, director Christopher Wray said on Tuesday, a claim China said had "no credibility whatsoever".

"The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan," Wray told Fox News.

His comments follow a Wall Street Journal report on Sunday that the U.S. Energy Department had assessed with low confidence the pandemic resulted from an unintended lab leak in China.

Four other agencies, along with a national intelligence panel, still judge that the pandemic was likely the result of a natural transmission, and two are undecided, the Journal reported.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on Monday the U.S. government had not reached a definitive conclusion and consensus on the pandemic's origins.

China denounced Wray's comments on Wednesday, saying it was firmly opposed to any form of "political manipulation" of the facts.

"Based on the poor track record of fraud and deception of the U.S. intelligence community, the conclusions they draw have no credibility whatsoever," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters in Beijing.

"...We urge the U.S. side to respect science and facts."

Wray said he couldn't share many details of the agencys assessment because they were classified.

He accused the Chinese government of "doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate" efforts by the United States and others to learn more about the pandemic's origins.

The virus was first identified in Wuhan in December 2019 before spreading round the world and killing nearly 7 million people.

(Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Nick Macfie)
FBI Director Christopher Wray said that the agency has assessed that the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic was most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan, China.

Wray told Fox News Bret Baier in an interview on Tuesday that the FBIs work on determining where the pandemic originated is continuing, but many details related to the investigation remain classified.

So as you note, Bret, the FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan, he said.

Wray added that he believes that Beijing has been working to undermine the investigation from the United States and other members of the international community.

I will just make the observation that the Chinese government, it seems to me, has been doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate the work here. The work that were doing, the work that our U.S. government and close foreign partners are doing. And thats unfortunate for everybody, he said.

Wrays comments come a couple days after the revelation that the Energy Department (DOE) recently released a report that determined with low confidence that a lab leak was responsible for the start of the pandemic.

A 2021 report released from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence stated that one element of the intelligence community had moderate confidence that a lab leak was the cause of the coronavirus spreading to the public.

The report did not name which agency believed the leak was the cause. Multiple outlets reported that the agency was the FBI.

But U.S. intelligence agencies were divided on what the pandemics origin was.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that people who read the DOEs report said the CIA and one other agency are unsure about the source of the pandemic, while the report said the National Intelligence Council and four agencies believe it came by a natural occurrence from an infected animal.

Story continues

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan responded to the Journals report on Sunday that the intelligence community has not received a definitive answer on the pandemics origins.

There is a variety of views in the intelligence community. Some elements of the intelligence community have reached conclusions on one side, some on the other. A number of them have said they just dont have enough information to be sure, he said.

The House Select Committee on the Coronavirus Response, which the body formed last month, is investigating the source of the pandemic during this session of Congress. Debate over the origin has been significantly politicized since the pandemic began three years ago.

GOP members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee concluded in a report released last year that the virus escaped from a Wuhan lab.

Updated: 9:58 p.m. ET

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
The FBI recovered four medical-style gloves and a silver flashlight last year when they searched the Pennsylvania home of the parents of the man charged with killing four University of Idaho students.

A buccal swab DNA test was also recovered Dec. 30 during the search of Bryan Kohberger's parents' home in Albrightsville, according to a search warrant return obtained by NBC News on Tuesday.

Investigators were authorized to get swabs from Kohberger, according to the court records.

The search warrant return did not specify whom the gloves belong to.

Other items collected included a white T-shirt, a Washington State Cougars sweatshirt, a pair of Nike shoes, a pair of socks, black shorts and black boxers, the search warrant return said.

Kohberger, 28, was arrested in Pennsylvania seven weeks after four students were stabbed to death in their beds in a home not far from the University of Idaho campus  an incident that stunned residents in tiny Moscow, Idaho, perplexed police and prompted a nationwide manhunt.

Kohberger waived extradition to Idaho, where he's being held without bail. He has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder and burglary, and if convicted, could face the death penalty.

Killed on Nov. 13 were Ethan Chapin, 20, of Conway, Washington; Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur dAlene, Idaho; Xana Kernodle, 20, of Avondale, Arizona; and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho.

Kohberger, who was living in an apartment in Pullman, Washington, appeared to have a keen interest in crime. He had been a Ph.D. student in criminal justice and criminology at Washington State University, which is 10 miles from the University of Idaho.

A probable cause affidavit from Moscow police said investigators used video surveillance in the area to connect the quadruple homicide with a white Hyundai Elantra driven by Kohberger.

The affidavit also said male DNA left on a knife sheath was used to link Kohberger with the slayings. But the affidavit did not suggest a motive for the attack.

Kohberger has not formally entered a plea, but has said through a former attorney that he believes he will be exonerated.
From L-R: Ellice Stevens, EM Williams and Zachary Willis in rehearsal for After the Act (Alex Brenner)

When Breach Theatres Billy Barrett and Ellice Stevens started telling people that they were writing a musical about Section 28, the 1988 piece of legislation that banned local authorities from intentionally promoting homosexuality, they were surprised by how little their peers knew about the subject. But when the pair, who are in their early thirties, began trawling the archives and conducting their own research, the writers realised they didnt really know anything about it either. Everything was kind of new to me, says Stevens, as I sit with the pair at the New Diorama Theatre, where the show is being staged. Oh, except for one thing. Apart from the experience of shame, she laughs. Apart from the trauma, adds Barrett, joining in. Stevens stops and thinks for a moment. Yeah, thats kind of rang true for me.

While LGBT+ lives in the 1980s and 1990s have been the subject of a number of recent stage and screen projects, Section 28 itself is rarely the main focus. Its mentioned in Russell T Daviess groundbreaking Aids drama Its a Sin and is the backdrop to the recently released lesbian drama Blue Jean, but, as Stevens and Barrett point out, its difficult to dramatise. As Stevens asks, how do you make a play about a piece of legislation? Section 28 was in place for 12 years in Scotland and 15 in England and Wales, during which schools, libraries and other public services werent allowed to acknowledge LGBT+ people. How do you explain  let alone dramatise  silence?

Stevens and Barrett have navigated these challenges with panache; After the Act is a vast stretching musical extravaganza set to a punchy Eighties synth beat. The title nods to the eve of Section 28s introduction, when Ian McKellen staged a theatrical performance protest evening called Before The Act at the West Ends Piccadilly Theatre. Breach Theatres show aims to capture that same variety show spirit, combining first-person testimony with the stories that made the headlines at the time, such as protests by groups of lesbians who abseiled into the House of Lords and crashed a BBC News broadcast. With After the Act, they want to create something loud, energetic and fiercely political  just like McKellens event.

Section 28 might be a challenging topic to stage, but thats never stopped Breach Theatre before. In 2019, Stevens and Barrett wowed the Edinburgh Fringe with historical drama Its True, Its True, Its True, about the real-life trial of Agostino Tassi for the rape of baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi in 1612. For Barrett and Stevens, who are directing and starring in After the Act respectively, this will be the first major project since then  and since the pandemic. Its also their first full-scale musical, one all about queerness and shame, and shedding that shame, and really celebrating the queer experience, Stevens says. Other real-life stories theyve brought to the stage have included a scientist who teaches a dolphin to talk and the 1985 Battle of the Beanfield at Stonehenge.

The word queer  a term now reclaimed by many LGBT+ people  carries extra weight when discussing Section 28. The law was in place until 2000 in Scotland and 2003 in England and Wales, meaning it impacted Barrett and Stevens school years. Id already felt such shame, and Id been bullied, and teachers werent able to intervene, or Id had conversations with teachers who couldnt say certain things, Stevens says. Barrett nods: You couldnt have conversations about [homophobia] when you probably needed it most, when you were a teenager I think Section 28 really took away the opportunity for those conversations to take place and those role models to be there.

To bridge the gaps in their own knowledge when creating the show, the pair scoured newspaper clippings and parliamentary archives, reading really, really homophobic things. At the same time, they conducted between 30 and 40 in-depth interviews with people affected by Section 28, allowing them to facilitate conversations that actually werent allowed to happen. They spoke to students who were at school at the time and couldnt ask for support, teachers who couldnt offer support to students because of the law, and activists who were trying to do something about it.

But telling the story of Section 28 carries a particular weight in 2023  one that goes beyond the anniversary of its repealing. When Its True was staged in 2018, audiences and critics alike pointed out its powerful relevance to that current moment, one year on from the #MeToo movement. Section 28 may have been introduced 35 years ago, but the theatre-making pair see the homophobic rhetoric that surrounded the legislation in 1988 as reflective of modern-day transphobia.

Stevens (left) with Zachary Willis and Tika MuTamir in rehearsals (Alex Brenner)

The parallels were cemented for Stevens and Barrett during their lengthy research process, when they read shocking diatribes and headlines from the right-wing press and politicians of the time about protecting children  something they saw echoed in news and online discourse today. A lot of the public debates that happened around gay rights are being almost resurrected around trans rights now, Barrett says. Its quite chilling, when you read it, when you trawl through the archives in the way that we have how many phrases and words and images are repeated now.

As the founders of this proudly queer theatre company, Barrett and Stevens have no intention of trying to hide away from the side that were taking with After the Act. Still, theyve tried to understand where that counter-position came from. After all, there are people who lived under or protested against Section 28 who now use that same rhetoric about trans people. Its easy to caricature them or be like, They were bigots, and probably some of them were, but also it was coming from a place of a fear of the unknown that somethings being imposed on them, Barrett says. To be really generously sympathetic, you might say that that is a similar thing now. People are just scared of something new. I dont think thats an excuse, but thats why, isnt it? Stevens adds: Its a fear of She pauses. I dont know. I dont know what that threat is. But its definitely fear.

Stevens and Barrett hope that After the Act will show the similarities between 1988 and 2023 to those who may not have noticed them. The process has been educational for them, on a historical, social and personal level, and theres a desire to pass that on. Being able to have these discussions now, having these conversations feels like a sort of healing process, or really coming to terms with it, Stevens says of the laws aftermath. That idea of actually meeting loads of LGBT people and having those conversations felt really new for me, and it was really healing for me and I think healing for them, in part. Its been brilliant. Really emotional, really brilliant.

After the Act runs at New Diorama Theatre until 1 April
Will men be popping pills before sex? And how do they actually feel about it? (iStock)

What is the greatest invention in history? Some might say the wheel, others sliced bread. But there is a strong argument that no single item has revolutionised society more than the contraceptive pill. Developed in the United States in the 1950s, the pill became a symbol of sexual freedom, integral to the womens liberation movements of the Sixties and Seventies. Over 60 years after it was first introduced on the NHS, the pill is the main form of contraception for nearly a third of women of reproductive age in the UK, and more than 150 million women use it worldwide. Yet, while both the combined pill and mini pill are often held up as emblems of modernity  and as feminist milestones  the advent of oral contraceptives also put the burden for avoiding pregnancy on women. On one hand, the pill granted sexual freedom. On the other, the perception of sexual responsibility. And so, for many years, one question has dogged the medical establishment: what about the boys?

The idea of a male pill has been a dream for many years, but its also at times felt like wishful thinking  mainly from women who find the pill gives them spots, or blood clots, or depression. Successive trials of male contraceptives have stalled, despite results showing they would be effective in preventing pregnancy. This is due to the drugs being judged to have too many unacceptable side effects  an undeniable kick in the teeth for everyone forced into accepting the physical and emotional toll of many current contraceptive methods. Yet this could all be about to change.

Less than a fortnight ago, scientists revealed theyve made a breakthrough in the creation of a male pill. So far, tests have only been carried out on mice, but theyve been encouraging enough to suggest that an effective, reversible oral contraceptive for men might be on the market in the next few years. Unlike the female contraceptive pill, this new drug does not involve hormones, meaning it will not affect testosterone or have any hormonal-related side effects. Instead, the pill targets the sperm-swim switch, immobilising sperm for a couple of hours. The study, which was published on 14 February, found the medication is 100 per cent effective for up to an hour after being taken. After three hours the pills effectiveness dips to 91 per cent, and by 24 hours it appeared to have worn off fully. So, is a new sexual revolution around the corner? Will men be popping pills before sex? And how do they actually feel about it?

Dr Gareth Nye is a senior lecturer at Chester Medical School, specialising in maternal and fetal health and endocrinology. The idea of a male contraceptive pill should be a fantastic thing, he says. For too long the burden of contraception has fallen to women and this may be in part due to the rather limited options for men  condoms or a vasectomy. He says this status quo is mostly a product of physiology: Men are constantly producing sperm, compared with women who are releasing one egg in a normally regular pattern. So far, he says, there have been difficulties in stopping the sperm production and retaining fertility, which is why progress has been slow. He thinks the new male pill seems promising, but adds that its still a way off before humans can use it.

Aside from physiological issues though, Dr Nye believes widespread take-up will boil down to a question of risk versus reward. I can imagine many men will weigh up the possible side effects of the drug against the benefits, he says. For women, the risks of unprotected sex are high and that just isnt the same in men. So we see much more reluctance to engage with newer forms of contraception, which even has a risk of lowering libido, for example. The most important question, then, is how much risk are men willing to take, to make their sexual partners lives easier.

The feminist in me is, like, hell yeah!, says Tim*, whos in his mid-twenties. But he also notes that because he doesnt currently take any medications, it would be a change in lifestyle. I probably would have to get over thinking it would make me infertile.

My peers wouldnt want to take the male pill because theres already a female one. We can acknowledge thats a terrible argument, [but] its sadly the reality

Harry*, whos a similar age, shares similar concerns. Id love it if it was safe and effective, he says, but also suggests any new medicine will have problems gaining trust  obviously this pill has the potential to be massively profitable, which makes me think some companies may not fully investigate potential side effects. Harry also raises an important issue about sexual safety. I think theres a danger that men would see it as a replacement for condoms, he says, which doesnt do anything about STIs.

James* is 42, and believes any ability to take personal ownership would be a good thing and it seems equitable not to leave the imbalance with a female partner. Initially, he seems fairly relaxed about the idea of potential side effects, claiming he would assess them in the same way I would any other medical treatment. He also admits, though, that theres a limit to what he would put up with. Ive had partners for which the pill has played absolute havoc with their bodies, so Ive absolutely supported them not using it at all and relying on other contraceptives. If that same havoc is in store for me, Id definitely be cautious and see things like condoms as remaining a better option for us both. While he thinks a male pill might helpfully change the conversation around responsibility for sexual health and safety, James also seems to partly confirm Harrys concern that the male pill might be used as a replacement for condoms. There is so much Andrew Tate-flavoured discourse around how much better [sex] feels without a condom, he says. Well, OK lads. Theres a pill for that now.

Its interesting to note that while all the men I spoke to were personally positive about the idea of taking a male pill  at least in theory  most also suggested that other men might be more reluctant. James, for example, predicted a huge push back, partly due to what he described as ignorance as to what women have gone through, and a general feeling of this isnt my problem. Harry adds: Youll get men saying its chill, Im on the pill, and theyre not.

For some men, the decision to take the pill would depend on their relationship status. If I was single I would not want to take the male contraceptive pill, Greg* tells me. But in a relationship, and certainly in my current one, where my partner is running out of contraceptives available to her, I would happily take the male pill  assuming its at the same risk level as the female one. Again, though, Greg predicts he might be the exception rather than the rule. My peers wouldnt want to take the male pill because theres already a female one, he says. We can acknowledge thats a terrible argument, [but] its sadly the reality. However, I do think that opinion stems from a lack of understanding around the female contraceptive pill, as few men understand the true impact it can have on female lives.

Gregs girlfriend Phoebe, meanwhile, is all for it. I think that the male contraceptive is the only way we can make meaningful progress in the way society views who bears the responsibility in sex over pregnancy, STIs, and female sexuality, she tells me. For her, the choice is stark. If a male pill isnt available after Ive had kids, I would be keen to have my tubes tied. The side effects of female contraceptives are so severe I cant keep on them until menopause.

Most research over the last five years shows that men would use the male pill in large numbers. A poll done by YouGov in 2018 showed that 30 percent of British men would be willing to take it  almost exactly the same percentage as the number of women using contraceptive pills in the UK today. Among 25 to 49-year-old men, this figure actually rises to 40 percent. More than anything, maybe what this shows is a growing understanding that the current state of affairs isnt good enough.

The side effects of female contraceptives are so severe I cant keep on them until menopause (iStock)

Alice Pelton is the founder of The Lowdown, the UKs leading reproductive and sexual health platform, and believes the whole contraceptive space desperately needs innovation and investment. She lays the blame at the feet of the pharmaceutical industry. There are thousands of new and innovative ways to prevent pregnancy, but the industry doesnt want to invest more time and money into developing new ways to stop people from getting pregnant, or investing in male contraceptive methods. She says the reasons for this are manifold, from the fact contraceptives are expensive and difficult to develop, to pharmaceutical companies fearing that any new male methods will erode the established female contraceptive market. Aside from these practicalities though, Pelton believes the prospect of a male pill raises fascinating questions about sexual responsibility and agency. Will we require men to carry around contraceptive passports to prove their contraceptive status, like a vaccine? How would a woman feel taking a male partner home for casual sex if they say theyre on the pill?

Contraception choices might be imagined as intensely personal, but they are also clearly connected to much broader questions about ethics, society, and bodily autonomy. Dr Elizabeth Chloe Romanis, an assistant professor of Biolaw at Durham University, has recently been considering how connected contraception is to state regulation of reproduction. For white women the pill has always been a symbol of freedom, Romanis says, but thats just not true for Black women and indigenous women in the United States because it is another vehicle by which the state controlled who was enabled to reproduce and in what circumstances. She cites Krystale Littlejohns book Just Get on the Pill: The Uneven Burden of Reproductive Politics, which examines the complex history between people of colour and long-term contraception because of state violence, and says that any new contraceptive method raises questions about who this invention is for, and structurally who is likely to bear the brunt of its development.

Ultimately, while contraceptive tests still revolve around mice not men, all these questions still reside in the realm of fantasy. Yet, perhaps imagining a different reality is half the battle. As Romanis notes, for most of the 20th century, the focus was, how do we stop the person getting pregnant, as opposed to how do we stop the sperm being viable in the first place. Imagine if there had been just a little less patriarchy in the ways we thought about reproduction only 100 years ago  maybe we would have the male contraceptive pill already.

*Names have been changed
WASHINGTONLogan Rachwal entered college in fall 2020. He never finished his freshman year. He died at 19 years old in his dorm room at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Feb. 14, 2021.

A toxicology report showed three different forms of fentanyl in his system, even though he didn't seek out the drug, his mother said.

"Losing Logan was like a bomb going off in the middle of our family that we had build our life around," Wisconsin mom Erin Rachwal said during a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing Wednesday morning. "The explosion killed our son and Caden's brother."

The debate at hearings this week split among partisan lines, but grieving parents were unified in their testimony: Children are dying.

Logan was among the tens of thousands of young people who overdose on fentanyl after unknowingly buying counterfeit pills or taking other drugs laced with the highly potent and addictive synthetic opioid.

"No family is immune to this danger," said Rachwal, who noted her son did not use fentanyl. "This could happen to your family. Fentanyl does not discriminate."

Her testimony underscored a major shift in the opioid crisis. For much of the last 20 years, there have been warning signs of addiction and treatment. Now death is often the only warning sign. Parents say children don't have a chance to learn from their mistakes because they are instantly dying from them.

House and Senate try to stop fentanyl trafficking

The fentanyl trafficking supply chain is so dangerous it has created the leading cause of death in Americans ages 18 to 45.

More than 70,000 people died of a fentanyl overdose in 2021, according to the most recent federal data available. That's more than double the amount in 2019 and a large share of the nearly 107,000 drug overdose deaths in 2021.

"It is the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced," Drug Enforcement Agency Administrator Anne Milgram said in a Senate hearing Feb. 15. "Fentanyl is everywhere. From large metropolitan areas to rural America, no community is safe from this poison."

Story continues

At 9 a.m. Wednesday, a House Judiciary subcommittee examined the issue.

Subcommittee Chairman Andy Biggs, R-Arizona, pointed out that from 1999 to 2020, there were 564,000 opioid overdose deaths. In 2021 alone, there were more than 100,000.

"Communities all across this country are suffering from this poison," he said.

Congressional Republicans have tied the fentanyl crisis to a surge of illegal border crossings, but Democrats say that is misinformation that conflates migrants seeking asylum with a dangerous influx of fentanyl trafficking.

Border Patrol and the DEA say the overwhelming majority of fentanyl is trafficked through legal ports of entry by U.S. citizens driving cars and commercial vehicles, hiding the illicit drugs among other goods.

Tragic loss: What is fentanyl poisoning? These State of the Union guests lost their son to it

'This is a war'

While Democrats and Republicans in the Senate debate the politics of the issue, grieving mothers have been the face of this crisis.

"This is a war. Act like it! Do something," pleaded Rebecca Kiessling.

Kiessling, a Michigan mom who lost her sons Caleb and Kyler to fentanyl overdoses in 2020, testified during a House committee hearing Tuesday on the southern border.

She admonished lawmakers for not doing enough to battle the opioid crisis.

"We have a weather balloon from China going across our country, no one died and everyones freaking out about it. But 100,000 die every year and nothings been done. Not enough is being done. Numbers are going up, not down," she said.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., during the Wednesday hearing said he is a member of the GOP who doesn't need much convincing.

"The war on drugs is one that has been won by drugs," he said.

What is fentanyl?

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid so powerful that it is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It is highly addictive and deadly, even in the smallest quantities.

Fentanyl is often found in counterfeit pills  deceptively made to look like prescription drugs  and other illegal drugs. It is frequently mixed in with other drugs, such as marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin. Even trace amounts can kill the user.

It is nearly impossible to tell if street drugs are laced with fentanyl unless they are tested, according to the CDC.

Go deeper: Republicans said Biden wasn't doing enough on the border. New GOP-led House is demanding answers

Where is fentanyl made?

This undated photo provided by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Los Angeles Field Division, shows some of the seized approximately 1 million fake pills containing fentanyl that were seized when agents served a search warrant, July 5, 2022, at a home in Inglewood, Calif. (DEA via AP)

The supply chain mainly traces to China, where chemicals in fentanyl are mass produced.

Those chemicals are then typically sent to Mexican cartels, which turn them into fentanyl powder and pills that are often made to look like prescription drugs.

Fentanyl typically enters the U.S. from Mexico through ports of entry in low concentration, high-volume loads, according to the DEA. Deadly doses can move in tiny quantities and are sometimes shipped by mail. However, fentanyl is often hidden among legal goods and trafficked by U.S. citizens driving cars and tractor trailers.

In fiscal year 2022, more than 14,000 pounds of fentanyl, or hundreds of millions of doses, was seized at the U.S.-Mexico border, according to Customs and Border Protection.

'A market that is not typically exposed': DEA reports 150% jump in seizures of fake prescription pills laced with fentanyl

Biden administration officials told senators last week how the fentanyl pipeline increases the challenges they face in stopping the surge of deaths. They also said China and Mexico need to cooperate more with the U.S. to reverse the increase in fentanyl deaths.

"We believe Mexico needs to do more to stop the harm that we're seeing," Milgram said.

Todd Robinson, assistant secretary for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, said the U.S. has had "very limited engagement with China" about fentanyl. "We have a number of issues to discuss with them."

Fentanyl poisoning 'a national crisis'

The latest trend in the fentanyl crisis is one of the most disturbing to lawmakers and law enforcement: kids are being poisoned.

Many of the opioid deaths among teens happen after they buy drugs illegally through social media, such as prescription pain killers like Percocet, unaware that they contain fentanyl. Some of them have taken a pill for the first time  not knowing it's counterfeit and full of fentanyl  and have died.

In 2022, the DEA seized more than 50 million poisoned pills.

When someone dies after taking one of the counterfeit pills, Milgram calls them drug poisonings, not overdoses, because people are tricked into consuming fentanyl.

From September 2021 through August 2022, more than 107,000 people died of drug poisonings in the United States, Milgram said.

"Every day, 294 people die from drug poisonings," she said. "Countless more people are poisoned and survive. These drug poisonings are a national crisis."

The DEA, now in year two of its "One Pill Can Kill" campaign, is focusing most of its efforts on trying to dismantle the Mexican cartels that are driving U.S. drug poisonings, Milgram said.

Candy Woodall is a Congress reporter for USA TODAY. She can be reached at cwoodall@usatoday.com or on Twitter at @candynotcandace.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fentanyl hearing investigates overdose deaths, how drugs cross border
Crews try to get to a submerged car toppled over the Buckman Bridge after being hit by a Road Ranger truck early Feb. 28, 2023,, in Jacksonville.

A state Road Ranger pickup truck crashed into another pickup Tuesday morning on the Buckman Bridge sending it over the concrete barrier into the river, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

Master Sgt. Dylan Bryan said no one was seen exiting the truck that plunged into the water. It happened about 3:30 a.m. while the Florida Department of Transportation motorist-assistance driver was on routine patrol in Jacksonville.

A 61-year-old Jacksonville man died in the collision, according to the crash report. The Road Ranger was a 23-year-old man, also from Jacksonville, whose injuries were listed as minor.

It was too early to determine the circumstances, but tire skidmarks were evident at the scene on the northbound lane and shoulder. Crews from the FHP, Jacksonville Sheriff's Office and fire department were able to locate the submerged vehicle under the bridge, Bryan said.

By 8:30 a.m. they pulled the pickup from the water. No other occupants were listed. Meanwhile, traffic backed up for hours and miles.

FDOT: Buckman Bridge not to blame in fatal accident over the railing

Road work: Buckman Bridge begins $8.3 million preservation project

Over the guardrail: Tampa man, 48, identified as victim in Wednesday's deadly Buckman Bridge accident

The state's Road Ranger program helps drivers with things such as flat tires and also clears debris from roads to try to keep traffic flowing and safe.

Its "mission is to provide free highway assistance services during incidents to reduce delay and improve safety for the motoring public and responders," according to the Department of Transportation website. "The Road Rangers are roving vehicles that patrol congested areas and high-incident locations of the freeway, and provide a direct service to motorists by quickly clearing travel lanes of minor incidents and assisting motorists."

The FDOT said it will investigate the crash in addition to the Highway Patrol.

For years the Buckman's guardrail and its height have been scrutinized due to vehicles toppling over the safety barriers.

Story continues

A Florida Department of Transportation Road Ranger remains on the scene of a deadly crash after the truck hit another pickup on the Buckman Bridge, knocking it over the barricade into the St. Johns River on Tuesday in Jacksonville.

The concrete barriers are built to federal standards of 2 feet, 8 inches high and are designed to redirect swerving cars back into the road lane, according to a previous story published in the Times-Union. But violent collisions have still caused vehicles to go airborne over the railing.

In 2015 the Florida Department of Transportation conducted a study after several deadly crashes and two vehicles that plummeted into the river from 2009 to 2014.

In the short term, the department called for increased police patrols on Interstate 295 over the Buckman to help reduce traffic fatalities and gridlock. The study concluded the bridge's design was not to blame for any fatalities there.

In the long term, the department called for the installation of message boards to provide real-time traffic information.

The study also concluded there was nothing wrong with the railing, which adheres to state and national standards for "crash worthiness," according to the report.

"Driver error is the clear leading cause in crashes on the Buckman Bridge," the report said.

Apparent skid marks are highlighted where a car crashed over the concrete barrier on the Buckman Bridge when struck by a Road Ranger truck early Tuesday in Jacksonville.

"There is no research available to suggest that raising the railing height would eliminate the possibility of a vehicle departing the bridge," the summary said. It stated that altering the railing type would not reduce the number of crashes, "even by a single crash."

The study also reported the average speed on the bridge from 2010 to 2015 is 72 miles per hour, about 11% higher than the posted limit of 65 mph. It recommended working with the FHP to shore up the enforcement of that limit to reduce the number of crashes.

The 3.1-mile Buckman was built as a four-lane bridge in 1970 and widened to eight lanes at a cost of $80 million in the mid-1990s. In 2005 the Transportation Department remodeled the barrier on the Shands Bridge in Clay County to 2 feet, 10 inches after a pair of fatal crashes, according to Times-Union archives.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville man killed when Road Ranger knocks vehicle off Buckman Bridge
nv

Year of the Fierce: Major events of 12 months of full-scale Russian aggression

UA EN RU

NV recalls the key days of the first year of Russia's great war against Ukraine, which the Kremlin started eight years after its invasion of Crimea and Donbas. This timeline contains the events that had the greatest impact on the course of the war and are most deeply etched in Ukrainians' memory.

24 

         .



 3:40        ,  4:00                 .



       '    ,      ,      (       ).

24 

         .



 3:40        ,  4:00                 .



       '    ,      ,      (       ).

24 

         .



 3:40        ,  4:00                 .



       '    ,      ,      (       ).

Story continues

February 24

The beginning of a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine after eight years of war.



At 3:40 a.m., the first tank column entered the territory of Luhansk Oblast. At 4:00 a.m. the Russian Federation published Vladimir Putin's statement about the start of a "special military operation" with the purported goal of the "demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine."



At the same time, Russia carried out airstrikes on dozens of targets across most regions of Ukraine, and a Russian ground offensive from Belarus, Russia, and occupied the previously-occupied parts Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts began.

The first week of the war:

February 24 - March 2

The decisive days of the invasion, which determined the course of events of the great war for a long time to come.



After the Russians' unsuccessful attempt to immediately seize Ukraine's capital by landing an airborne assault at the Hostomel airport, the defense of Kyiv began. During this week, Snake Island, Kherson, Melitopol, Berdyansk, Enerhodar, and the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant were captured, and areas in Kyiv, Sumy, Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhya, Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, and Zhytomyr Oblasts came under occupation.



During the fighting for the Hostomel airport, the invaders destroyed the world's largest aircraft, the An-225 Mriya. The Ukrainian Armed Forces managed to defend Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, and Odesa.



February 28

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed Ukraine's official application for membership in the EU.



Mariupol was completely surrounded, the heroic defense of the besieged city began. The occupiers turned it into a trap for the civilian population. A minimum of 25,000 of Mariupol's inhabitants are estimated to have died during the Russian siege.



Photo: Evgeniy Maloletka / Facebook



We were essentially the Instagram police and called out fake influencers left, right and centre. It was fun and all, but there is only so many bikini chicks you can look at on Instagram before you start losing your mind.



Dan, Co-founder and CEO of Lumio



February 28, March 3 and 7

Three rounds of negotiations are held between the Ukrainian and Russian delegations on the Belarusian border with Belarus, the only result of which was an agreement on the organization of humanitarian corridors (which Russian troops regularly violated).



On the same day, a member of the Ukrainian negotiating delegation, Denys Kireev, was killed in Kyiv. As it turned out later, he helped Ukrainian military intelligence (HUR) to receive important intelligence about the invasion from Russia, although the SBU suspected him of treason.



March 1

Russia carries out a missile strike on the Kharkiv Regional State Administration, which is emblematic of the missile terror that the Russians would carry out against the city for many weeks. The attack killed 29 people and seriously damaged other buildings in the area of Maidan Svobody in the city's center. The State Administration building was later determined to be damaged beyond repair.



We were essentially the Instagram police and called out fake influencers left, right and centre. It was fun and all, but there is only so many bikini chicks you can look at on Instagram before you start losing your mind.



Dan, Co-founder and CEO of Lumio



March 9

Russia carries out an airstrike on hospital No. 3 in the center of Mariupol. The maternity hospital, children's department, and therapy center were destroyed. The war crime was recorded by photographers Mstislav Chernov and Yevhen Maloletka, whose photos traveled around the world.



We were essentially the Instagram police and called out fake influencers left, right and centre. It was fun and all, but there is only so many bikini chicks you can look at on Instagram before you start losing your mind.



Dan, Co-founder and CEO of Lumio



: Evgeniy Maloletka / Facebook



At least one pregnant woman and her baby later died in hospital from their injuries, and another pregnant woman lost her long-awaited unborn child.



March 10

A meeting between Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov takes place in Turkey, but fails to produce a result. It is the only meeting between the two in the first year of the invasion.

March 16

One of the most egregious crimes of the war occurs when Russia carries out an airstrike on the Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theater in Mariupol. Civilian residents of the city, in particular families with children, used it as a bomb shelter, as evidenced by the inscription "CHILDREN" in car-sized letters on both sides of the theater.



We were essentially the Instagram police and called out fake influencers left, right and centre. It was fun and all, but there is only so many bikini chicks you can look at on Instagram before you start losing your mind.



Dan, Co-founder and CEO of Lumio



The building was thought to hold more than 1,000 people. A detailed investigation by the Associated Press concludes that the attack killed at least 600 people. In December 2022, the Russians demolished what remained of the theater, destroying the evidence of their crime.



March 21

The first of seven secret missions by Ukrainian helicopters in Mariupol is launched to deliver equipment, provisions, medicines, and ammunition to the defenders of the Azovstal steelworks, as well as to evacuate the wounded. One of the wounded rescued was Nikita Nadtochy, who assumed the role of commander of the Azov Battalion in June 2022.



During the fifth and seventh of these missions, two helicopters were shot down on the way back. Another Ukrainian helicopter which went to rescue one of the downed crews was itself also shot down.

March 29

A rocket attack on the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration kills 38 people and completely destroys the central part of the building. Another approximately 35 people were injured.

March 31

The Kyiv suburb of Bucha is liberated, and Russian forces withdraw from the Chornobyl NPP. These two events are harbingers of Russia's great retreat from the north of Ukraine.

1 April

The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces confirms the fall of the city of Izyum, which for five months became an important logistics center for the occupiers in Kharkiv Oblast.

April 2

Kyiv Oblast is completely liberated, and the full scale of the war crimes committed by the Russians during their occupation is revealed. The world sees images of hundreds of bodies of civilians tortured and killed by the Russians: in mass graves, in shot-up cars, and simply lying on the streets.



Bucha, liberated days before, would become known around the world as a site of Russian genocide. The world begins seeing photos of scores of bodies of people tortured and killed by the Russian occupiers in the town.

We were essentially the Instagram police and called out fake influencers left, right and centre. It was fun and all, but there is only so many bikini chicks you can look at on Instagram before you start losing your mind.



Dan, Co-founder and CEO of Lumio



422 bodies are ultimately found in Bucha, and 1,300 murdered civilians are ultimately found in Kyiv Oblast. Similar crimes have been recorded in all regions of Ukraine that fell under Russian occupation.



First week of April

Zhytomyr, Chernihiv, and Sumy oblasts are completely liberated from enemy troops.

April 3

The Russian propaganda agency RIA Novosti publishes an article titled What Russia Should Do With Ukraine. The text is an explicit call to end the existence of Ukraine and commit genocide against the Ukrainian people.

April 8

Russia carries out a missile strike on the main train station of the city of Kramatorsk, where hundreds of people had assembled to board evacuation trains. The missile's cluster munitions kill 61 people, including seven children, and maim more than 120.

: Ministry of Defence Ukraine/via REUTERS



April 9

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson makes his iconic first visit to Kyiv. Johnson is preceded in his wartime visit to Ukraine's capital by a number of other Western leaders, such as the Lithuanian Foreign Minister, the prime ministers of Poland, Czechia, and Slovenia, the presidents of the European Parliament and PACE, the head of the European Commission, and its vice president. However, the Johnsons walk with President Zelenskyy through the center of Kyiv becomes an important signal for the whole world that Kyiv is still standing.



A strong sign of support. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson arrived in Kyiv  photo report

We were essentially the Instagram police and called out fake influencers left, right and centre. It was fun and all, but there is only so many bikini chicks you can look at on Instagram before you start losing your mind.



Dan, Co-founder and CEO of Lumio



April 13

The Ukrainian Navy strikes the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the missile cruiser Moskva, using a Ukrainian-made Neptune missile. The Moskva sinks the next day. The ship's crew numbered up to 500 people, and Russia is yet to announce how many were lost.



We were essentially the Instagram police and called out fake influencers left, right and centre. It was fun and all, but there is only so many bikini chicks you can look at on Instagram before you start losing your mind.



Dan, Co-founder and CEO of Lumio



April 18

Russia launches the Battle of Donbas after regrouping its forces from its withdrawal from northern Ukraine. President Zelenskyy and Secretary of the National Security Council Oleksiy Danilov announce that fighting is intensifying in the east.

April 26

The first meeting of the Contact Group on Defense of Ukraine takes place at the American air base in Ramstein, Germany, hence the name later assigned to it, the Ramstein format meetings. It marked the creation of an anti-Russian coalition of more than 40 countries to provide Ukraine with arms for its defense.

:   / Facebook



May 8-13

Russian forces attempt to ford the Siverskyy Donets river near the town of Bilohorivka in Luhansk Oblast, but are crushed in one of the greatest single defeats of Russian forces in the war. Almost 500 invaders and about 80 pieces of equipment are destroyed in the failed river crossing.



We were essentially the Instagram police and called out fake influencers left, right and centre. It was fun and all, but there is only so many bikini chicks you can look at on Instagram before you start losing your mind.



Dan, Co-founder and CEO of Lumio



May 9th

U.S. President Joe Biden signs the Lend-Lease Law for Ukraine, which entered into force in October 2022.

May 16

The defenders of the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol begin handing themselves over to Russian occupiers. After their heroic 86-day defense of the city, the Mariupol garrison receives the command to lay down arms in order to save their lives. According to the Ukrainian General Staff, the defenders of Mariupol pinned down about 20,000 Russians troops, preventing the invader from taking the city of Zaporizhzhya, reaching the borders of Donetsk Oblast, and encircling Ukrainian forces in Donbas. About 2,500 Azovstal defenders are taken prisoner, including 600 seriously wounded soldiers.



One Mariupol defender is able to share farewell photos from the remains of the bunker where he and his comrades in the Ukrainian garrison heroically resisted the Russian invaders.

We were essentially the Instagram police and called out fake influencers left, right and centre. It was fun and all, but there is only so many bikini chicks you can look at on Instagram before you start losing your mind.



Dan, Co-founder and CEO of Lumio



June 16

French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi visit Kyiv and Irpin. They lend their support to granting Ukraine EU candidate status, pledged not to pressure Kyiv to sue for peace, and condemned Russia's war crimes.

June 23

Ukraine and Moldova officially become candidates for EU membership by the decision of the European Council, which unites the leaders of the 27 countries of the European Union.



The first American HIMARS MLRS arrive in Ukraine. Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov hints that it will be a "hot summer for the occupiers." Thanks to the weapon system's ability to strike targets up to 80 km away with pinpoint accuracy, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are able to begin directly targeting Russia's logistics facilities, ammunition depots, command headquarters, and concentrations of personnel, causing massive disruption to Russian war plans.



These strikes were crucial for the subsequent liberation of part of Kherson Oblast and other areas on the front.

June 24

The Ukrainian Armed Forces fall back from Sieverodonetsk. The Russians had been trying to capture the city since the beginning of the invasion, subjecting Sieverodonetsk and its surroundings to devastating artillery and air strikes.



Street fighting in the city began at the end of May. The occupiers almost completely destroyed the city, annihilating all its critical infrastructure and 80% of its residential buildings, according to the Luhansk Oblast Military Administration.

June 27

Russia launches a missile attack on the Amstor shopping center in the city of Kremenchuk in Poltava Oblast. The packed shopping center burns down completely, killing 22 people.



We were essentially the Instagram police and called out fake influencers left, right and centre. It was fun and all, but there is only so many bikini chicks you can look at on Instagram before you start losing your mind.



Dan, Co-founder and CEO of Lumio



June 30

Ukraine liberates Snake Island, as the Russian occupiers abandon the island in the western Black Sea in what they call a goodwill measure. On July 4, the Ukrainian flag is raised on the island. The retaking of Snake Island allows Ukraine to re-assert control of the western Black Sea.



The military raises the flag of Ukraine on Snake Island  photos

We were essentially the Instagram police and called out fake influencers left, right and centre. It was fun and all, but there is only so many bikini chicks you can look at on Instagram before you start losing your mind.



Dan, Co-founder and CEO of Lumio



July 3

The Ukrainian Armed Forces withdraw from Lysychansk, the last remaining large unoccupied city in Luhansk Oblast. Several villages in Luhansk Oblast remain under Ukrainian control. However, the Russians are exhausted and depleted by their efforts to take the two cities, as they will not manage to take another Ukrainian city until Soledar in January 2023.

July 4

The first evidence emerges of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the man behind the Wagner mercenary outfit, beginning a large-scale campaign to recruit inmates from Russian prison colonies to fight in the war against Ukraine.



These convicts, to whom Prigozhin promised an amnesty after six months of service, temporarily fill the gaps caused by Russian losses in Ukraine and serve as cannon fodder in Russia's the battles in Donbas. In February 2023, Prigozhin announces the end of his prisoner recruitment campaign.

July 14

Russia carries out a missile strike on a central square in the city of Vinnytsia. The attack kills 27 people, including three children (a 4-year-old girl and 7- and 8-year-old boys), and injures more than 200.



We were essentially the Instagram police and called out fake influencers left, right and centre. It was fun and all, but there is only so many bikini chicks you can look at on Instagram before you start losing your mind.



Dan, Co-founder and CEO of Lumio



July 22

The Black Sea Grain Initiative is signed, partially unblocking the maritime export of Ukrainian grain. The Initiative was agreed upon between Ukraine, Turkey, and the UN, with a mirror agreement concluded with Russia. It allowed the export of Ukrainian grain from the Ports of Odesa, Chornomorsk, and Pivdennyy. Under the initiative, merchant vessels allowed to pass through specially created and de-mined corridors, and are required to pass inspection in Turkey.

July 24

The Ukrainian Armed Forces strike the bridge over the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant dam. It is the last of the three large bridges across the Dnipro in Kherson Oblast to be hit and damaged in that week (including the Antonivka road and railway bridges). Ukrainian fire control over Russia's transport and logistics routes and river crossings made it possible to isolate and significantly worsen the provision of Russian forces on the right bank of Kherson Oblast, which ultimately helped to "squeeze" the occupiers out.

The night of July 29

Russia carries out a terrorist attack at a prisoner of war camp in Olenivka, committing an organized killing of Ukrainian POWs, mostly defenders of Mariupol from Azovstal. By deliberately burning down a prisoner barracks at former Volnova correctional colony No. 120, Russia kills about 50 POWs and injures more than 130.



The invaders had created a filtration prison in Olenivka after February 2022. Former inmates have testified to the torture and mistreatment used on Ukrainian prisoners here.

August 9

Explosions at the Saka airbase near the village of Novofedorivka in occupied Crimea mark the first high-profile strikes by the Ukrainian Armed Forces against military facilities on the peninsula. At least 8-9 Russian military aircraft are destroyed, with several more damaged.



Later, Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Valery Zaluzhnyi calls the attack as an example of Ukraine's successful efforts to physically shift hostilities onto the occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. On August 16, explosions ring out at a Russian ammunition depot near Dzhankoi, with more near the Belbek airfield on August 18.

August 29

The Ukrainian Armed Forces announce the beginning of "offensive actions in many directions in the south of Ukraine," marking the of the counteroffensive which eventually led to the liberation of the right bank of Kherson Oblast.

September 6

A parallel rapid counteroffensive kicks off in Kharkiv Oblast. Over the next six days, about 6,000 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory are retaken, bringing almost all of Kharkiv Oblast back under Ukrainian control.

 September 8 - Balaklia is liberated

 September 10  Izyum is liberated

 September 12 - Sviatohirsk is liberated (the beginning of the liberation of Donetsk Oblast)

 September 16 - Kupyansk is liberated



We were essentially the Instagram police and called out fake influencers left, right and centre. It was fun and all, but there is only so many bikini chicks you can look at on Instagram before you start losing your mind.



Dan, Co-founder and CEO of Lumio



September 15

A mass grave is discovered near the liberated city of Izyum, where about 450 bodies are ultimately exhumed. The majority of them are Ukrainian civilians, many of whom died violently. Dozens of bodies bear signs of torture.

September 21

Vladimir Putin announces a "partial" mobilization in Russia, with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu declaring that the country plans to mobilize 300,000 reservists. Within two weeks, according to estimates by Forbes Russia, between 600,000 and 1 million people leave Russia.



The first mobilized troops began to appear at the front after a few days. On October 31, the Russian Ministry of Defense announces that it will cease serving mobilization summons. There is no decree to end the mobilization, however, so it continues covertly. Ukraine conducts its largest exchange of prisoners. Ukraine receives 215 people held by the Russians, including 188 defenders of Mariupol, as well as ten international volunteers.



Ukraine hands over 56 people to Russia, including leading collaborationist politician Viktor Medvedchuk. Under the personal guarantees of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, five commanders who defended Mariupol and Azovstal were sent to Turkey to remain until the end of the war in Ukraine.



They include Azov commander Denys Prokopenko (callsign Radis), his deputy Svyatoslav Palamar (callsign Kalyna), commander of the 36th Separate Marine Brigade Serhii Volynskyi (callsign Volyn), commander of the Dmytro Vyshnevetskyy 12th Operational Brigade Denys Shlega, and company commander Oleh Khomenko (callsign Apis), who led the defense of Azovstal.

September 23-27

Russia carries out illegal pseudo-referendums in the occupied areas of Kherson, Zaporizhzhya, Donetsk, and Luhansk Oblasts, as well as in several occupied settlements in Mykolaiv Oblast which the Russians had declared subordinate to the Kherson occupation administration.

September 30

A farce in the Kremlin following the results of its fake "referendums:" Vladimir Putin announces Russia's annexation of four Ukrainian oblasts, none of which his forces had full control over at the time. On October 2, Putin's legally void decision is ratified by the Russian Constitutional Court, and by the State Duma on October 3.

October 2

The city of Lyman in Donetsk Oblast, an important transport hub occupied by Russia since the end of May, is liberated. In addition to retaking a strategic city, Ukraine demonstrates the emptiness of Russia's claims to Ukrainian territories.

October 4

The Kherson counteroffensive develops, as the Ukrainian Armed Forces announce the liberation of about 50 settlements in the Kherson Oblast, including Dudchany, Velyka and Mala Oleksandrivka, and Davydiv Brid.

October 8

An explosion rocks the Kerch Strait bridge in Crimea, causing the collapse of two half-sections of the automobile deck of the bridge and heavily damaging the railway track. In addition to the powerful symbolism of the event, the attack further complicates Russian logistics and support for its occupying forces in Crimea and southern Ukraine.

General Sergei Surovikin is named commander Russia's forces in Ukraine. Surovikin had earned the nickname "General Armageddon" for his use of savage bombardment against civilian targets, as well as war crimes by units under him in Chechnya and Syria.



However, Surovikin would fail to significantly change situation at the front in Russia's favor: three months later, he would be replaced by the Chief the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, General Valery Gerasimov, and be demoted to Gerasimov's deputy.

October 6 and 9-10

Devastating night rocket strikes by Russia on residential high-rises and houses in Zaporizhzhya kill more than 30 and injure more than 100.

: Reuters/ Stringer



October 10

Russia launches a campaign of massive missile attacks on Ukraine's critical infrastructure, leading to ongoing shortages in Ukraine's energy system. This causes both scheduled and emergency blackouts across the country.



Kyiv suffers a several series of rocket attacks that day, in particular downtown. Russian missiles strike a playground in Shevchenko Park, the intersection of Volodymyrska and Shevchenko Boulevards, and near the pedestrian and bicycle bridge over Volodymyrsky Descent. In addition, a number of energy facilities and the 101 Tower business center near the central railway station are damaged.



We were essentially the Instagram police and called out fake influencers left, right and centre. It was fun and all, but there is only so many bikini chicks you can look at on Instagram before you start losing your mind.



Dan, Co-founder and CEO of Lumio



October 12

The UN General Assembly adopts a resolution rejecting Russia's pseudo-referendums and the Kremlin's attempts to annex Ukrainian territory. 143 countries vote in favor of the resolution, with only five voting against: Russia, Belarus, North Korea, Nicaragua, and Syria.

October 13

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopts a resolution designating Russia a terrorist regime.

October 17

Russia carries out its first large-scale attack with Iranian kamikaze drones in Kyiv, hitting critical infrastructure and destroying a residential building. The strikes kill five people, including a young couple who were expecting a child, as well as the mother and stepfather of a soldier who had come home from the front for a few days to visit them.

Mid-October

Bakhmut emerges as the biggest battle of the first year of Russia's invasion, and as the most hellish spot on the eastern front. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense reports on October 18 that Russian forces were ordered to take the city by the month. The Russians' main assault force for Bakhmut and the nearby city of Soledar are mercenaries from Yevgeny Prigozhin's Wagner, in particular convicts from Russian prisons.

November 11th

The Ukrainian Armed Forces liberate Kherson, the only regional center that the Russians had managed to capture since the beginning of their full-scale invasion. The Russian command officially issues the order to retreat from the right bank of Kherson Oblast on November 9.



Flowers and autographs from soldiers. How residents of Kherson celebrated the liberation of their city after eight months of occupation - photo report

We were essentially the Instagram police and called out fake influencers left, right and centre. It was fun and all, but there is only so many bikini chicks you can look at on Instagram before you start losing your mind.



Dan, Co-founder and CEO of Lumio



November 23

The fifth, most serious Russian mass strike on Ukraine's energy infrastructure of Ukraine. The salvo includes about 70 missiles, and for the first time in Ukrainian history, all four Ukrainian nuclear power plants are disconnected from the power network.



The European Parliament recognizes Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism which carries out indiscriminate attacks on residential areas and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, resulting in thousands of deaths. The resolution also states that the Russians are carrying out extrajudicial executions, abductions, sexual violence, torture, and other atrocities in the territories they occupy.



We were essentially the Instagram police and called out fake influencers left, right and centre. It was fun and all, but there is only so many bikini chicks you can look at on Instagram before you start losing your mind.



Dan, Co-founder and CEO of Lumio



December 5

Ukraine strikes Russia's Engels-2 airfield in Saratov Oblast, marking the first time Ukraine is able to attack military facilities deep in Russia's rear. At least two Tu-95 aircraft, which Russia uses to launch missiles against Ukraine, are damaged. On December 26, a second strike is carried out on the Engels-2 airBase, along with a strike on the Diaghilev airfield in Ryazan, where another plane is damaged.

December 16

Russia carries out a record-breaking missile attack on Ukraine's civil and energy infrastructure, launching 98 missiles and more than 65 attacks with multiple ocket launchers.

December 21

President Zelenskyy makes his first trip abroad since the beginning of the invasion. He visits the United States, where he meets with President Joe Biden delivers a rousing address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress.



We were essentially the Instagram police and called out fake influencers left, right and centre. It was fun and all, but there is only so many bikini chicks you can look at on Instagram before you start losing your mind.



Dan, Co-founder and CEO of Lumio



December 22

The Ukrainian General Staff reports that Russian losses in Ukraine have total over 100,000 people.

December 31

In another landmark prisoner swap, another 140 Ukrainians are returned from Russian captivity, among them defenders of Mariupol and Snake Island.

December 31 - January 1

Russia bombs Kyiv and many cities of Ukraine over the New Years holidays, launching about 20 cruise missiles, about 50 Shahed-136 suicide drones, and 55 S-300 missiles, in particular at the Kherson Children's Hospital.

The first weeks of January

Russia's assault on Soledar strengthens. Russian troops from Wagner and the regular army launch continuous assaults with small groups, attempting to exhaust Ukrainian defenders, but sustaining immense losses on their own side.

January 14

Russia strikes an apartment building in Dnipro. During another massive wave of 57 missiles, Russia fires a Kh-22 missile into a nine-story building in Dnipro. The bombing completely destroys part of the building, kills 46 people, injures more than 80, and leaves hundreds homeless.

January 18

A helicopter flown by the State Emergency Service crashes in the Kyiv suburb of Brovary. The aircraft falls on a kindergarten, killing 14 people, including one child. Ten of the dead were onboard the helicopter, including the leadership of Ukraine's Ministry of Internal Affairs.



The tragedy claimed the lives of Internal Affairs Minister Denys Monastyrskyy, his first deputy Yevhen Yenin, and State Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Yuriy Lubkovich. The helicopter was on its way to a hot spot in the east of Ukraine. The causes of the disaster are being investigated.

January 19

The European Parliament supports the creation of a special international tribunal to try the crimes of aggression by Russia and Belarus against Ukraine.

January 24

The birth of the "tank" coalition: the German government agrees to provide Ukraine with Leopard-2 tanks and permit their re-export from other countries. On the same day, U.S. President Joe Biden announces the decision to transfer American M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine. This move opens the way for many other countries to transfer tanks to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

January 25

The Ukrainian Armed Forces officially confirm their withdrawal from Soledar after completing the main tasks of their defense of the city, exhausting the enemy as much as possible, and holding the front line. According to the Ukrainian command, Russian losses at Soledar alone reached the level of Russian losses in both Chechen wars.

January 26

The United States recognizes the Wagner mercenary company as a transnational criminal organization. According to the Institute for the Study of War, in the battles for Bakhmut and Soledar, Ukrainian forces have exhausted Wagner forces so much that they have begun to be replaced by units of the regular Russian army on this sector of the front.

February 4

The U.S. Attorney General announces the first transfer of confiscated Russian funds to Ukraine. About $5.5 million seized from Russian billionaire Konstantin Malofeev in 2014 for evading sanctions are handed over.

February 8-9

Volodymyr Zelenskyy makes his second trip abroad since the start of the full-scale invasion. He visits London, Paris, and Brussels over two days. In the UK, Zelenskyy meets with King Charles III and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and in an address to the British Parliament calls for fighter jets to be provided to Ukraine. In France, Zelenskyy meets with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron, while in Belgium he addresses the European Parliament and a summit of the leaders of the 27 countries of the EU.

February 9

The Institute for the Study of War and the Office of the President confirm that a new major Russian offensive has begun in Luhansk and Donetsk Oblasts. At the beginning of February, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense had reported that Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to capture the entire territory of the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts by March 2023.

February 10-13

News emerges of a massive Russian defeat near Vuhledar, where Russian assaults had been intensifying in the weeks before. According to the Defense Forces of the Tavria Region, i[1] n engagements near Vuhledar, Ukrainian forces crushed Russia's elite 155th Marine Brigade from Vladivostok, killing 150-300 Russian marines in each day of the fighting.

February 20

Joe Biden pays an unexpected and historic visit to Kyiv, becoming the first U.S. president to visit Ukraine in 15 years. Before him, no modern American leader had dared to visit a warzone not under U.S. military control. Biden arrived in Kyiv on a secret train from Poland, met with President Zelenskyy, and commemorated fallen Ukrainian defenders near St. Michael's Cathedral. He assured Ukraine of America's long-term support and declared that Vladimir Putin had made a catastrophic mistake in his calculations: "One year later, Kyiv is still standing. Ukraine stands. Democracy stands. Americans stand with you, and world stands with you."



We were essentially the Instagram police and called out fake influencers left, right and centre. It was fun and all, but there is only so many bikini chicks you can look at on Instagram before you start losing your mind.



Dan, Co-founder and CEO of Lumio



Read also

The diary of a scout. First 100 days of war

NV is publishing this journal, covering the first 100 days of the full-scale Russian war. It was written by a scout in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as his wife, recording the events and moods of both the front lines and the home front.



Read

Hope and tragedy

A year full of suffering and hope for victory and retribution  in this photo report from NV.

Read

 

 .    

29   81-        1941                50   



 

 

27  2002-,      (      )          .

 

 MEDIA-DK PUBLISHING HOUSE LLC. All rights reserved.

Editorial e-mail: news@nv.ua, dvertising department: sales@nv.ua

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
A border guard officer walks along a fence marking the boundary area between Finland and Russia. Alessandro RAMPAZZO / AFP

Finland has started building a 10-foot-tall barbed-wire fence along parts of its border with Russia.

The 124-mile-long fence will cover one-seventh of its 832-mile-long border with Russia.

The construction started after a marked surge in Russians fleeing the country amid the Ukraine war.

Finland has started building a 10-foot-tall barbed-wire fence on its land border to firmly separate itself from its neighbor, Russia.

Finland kicked off construction of the fence on Tuesday with a section that will start in the southeastern Finnish town of Imatra, per a statement by the Finnish Border Guard.

An initial 1.8-mile stretch of fence will be completed in June 2023. The rest of the 124-mile fence is slated for completion in 2026. At its full length, the fence will cover one-seventh of the 832-mile border between Russia and Finland, the Finnish Border Guard said on its website.

Building the fence is expected to cost Finland $393 million, per the Associated Press.

In a statement in September, the Finnish Border Guard said the fence will not cover the entire border, but will span "riskier areas" like border crossings and the areas around them.

Some parts of the Finnish-Russian border are now demarcated only by wooden posts or low fences meant to stop stray cattle, the AP reported.

In September, Russian President Vladimir Putin started drafting soldiers to fight in the Ukraine war, prompting a mass exodus of thousands of Russians. Between 15,000 and 20,000 Russians fled to Finland on the weekend of September 24, following the announcement of Putin's draft, local Finnish media outlet Yleisradio Oy reported, citing Matti Pitkaniitty, the head of international affairs at the Finland Border Guard.

Reuters reported that 17,000 Russians made the crossing that weekend, citing information from the Finnish authorities. This was an 80% increase from the weekend before it.

The Finnish Border Guard then imposed restrictions on the entry of Russian citizens to curb the surge. Russian tourists were banned from entering Finland on September 30, the AP reported.

Story continues

Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin said in October that the fence is not only being built for symbolic reasons, Yleisradio Oy reported. Marin said that month that the border fence will prevent a wave of illegal migrants crossing from Russia into Finland, the AP reported.

The start of the fence-building project comes amid Finland's rush to join NATO, a move that stands to end its wartime neutrality in Europe. On Wednesday, members of Finland's Parliament approved the country's NATO bid.

Any country joining NATO requires the unanimous vote of all NATO members. Two countries, Turkey and Hungary, are holding out on approving Finland's bid.

Representatives of the Finnish Border Guard directed Insider to statements on their website when asked to respond to queries about the border fence.

Read the original article on Insider
HELSINKI (AP)  Finlands Parliament on Wednesday gave final approval for the Nordic countrys historic bid to join NATO, with lawmakers signing off on membership along with the required legislation.

The 200-seat Eduskunta legislature passed the measure in a 184-7 vote to allow for Finlands accession to NATO, clearing the last required national hurdle for joining the 30-member Western alliance.

The vote was initiated by Prime Minister Sanna Marins center-left government, which wanted to proceed with the vote before Finlands April 2 general election even though two NATO members  Turkey and Hungary  haven't yet ratified the membership bids by Finland and neighboring Sweden.

Wednesdays legislative decisions need to be signed into a law by President Sauli Niinisto, who has pledged to do so before Aprils parliamentary election.

Finland and Sweden  close Nordic partners culturally, economically and politically  applied together to join NATO in May.

NATO requires unanimous approval from its existing members to admit new ones. Most of the opposition for Finland and Swedens membership bids comes from Turkey, which wants stronger action, mostly from Sweden, against groups that Ankara considers to be terrorists.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday in Helsinki that membership for Finland and Sweden is a top priority for the alliance, and urged Turkey and Hungary to urgently ratify the Nordic countries accession.

Turkey has agreed to resume talks with Finland and Sweden on their membership bids in Brussels this month to iron out obstacles and issues that Ankara has, especially with Sweden.

Meanwhile, Hungarys parliament was scheduled to start debating the Nordic duos NATO membership on Wednesday with expected ratification at the end of March.

A senior Hungarian lawmaker said last week that Hungary was planning to send a delegation to Finland and Sweden to resolve political disputes that have raised doubts among some Hungarian lawmakers of whether to support their NATO bids.
By Essi Lehto

HELSINKI (Reuters) -Finland's parliament on Wednesday overwhelmingly backed its bid to join NATO, the assembly's speaker said.

Approval of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's treaties and Finland's accession passed with 184 members of the 200-seat parliament voting in favour, seven against and one abstaining.

In response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine a year ago, Finland last May applied to join NATO, having until now relied solely on its own armed forces to defend the 1,300-kilometre (800 mile) border it shares with Russia.

New NATO entrants must be approved by all existing members of the Western military alliance, and support for Finland's application remains pending from Turkey and Hungary.

By adopting NATO's founding documents, Finland may get a head start on neighbouring Sweden, which has also applied to join but has had its application held back by Turkey.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said his country is ready to accept Finland into NATO but accuses Sweden of harbouring people he considers members of terrorist groups.

Sweden is also still awaiting approval from Hungary, whose parliament began debating the ratifications on Wednesday and could hold a vote this month.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg last week said he aimed to have both Nordic countries as members in time for a summit scheduled for July.

(Reporting by Essi Lehto, editing by Terje Solsvik and John Stonestreet)
Naxxar, Malta --News Direct-- FinXP

By David Willey, Benzinga

Many crypto exchanges - and merchants accepting crypto payments - are on the lookout for the best crypto-friendly financial institutions to keep them ahead in the market.

FinXP is one example of a reliable and cutting-edge fintech company based in Europe. Established in 2014, building on decades of previous experience, the team at FinXP provides fiat payment and account services, solving troublesome pain points in the crypto market.

Crypto companies, such as exchanges, crypto processors, crypto developers, and others, face dire options when it comes to banking. They want to avoid turning to industry sharks and unreliable fintech startups for such services. On the other hand, most traditional banks are nervous about providing accounts to companies in the crypto space. Some, like Signature Bank and Silvergate, have turned against crypto exchanges, while many other banks have seemingly always been anti-crypto.

Over the past nine years FinXP has worked with international companies and big enterprises across different industries, establishing itself as a reputable fintech. An award-winning European-licensed Electronic Money Institution (EMI), the company has operations in Malta, Germany, Lithuania, and Cyprus. These factors combined make FinXP a commonly-cited trustworthy partner for crypto companies looking for banking solutions.

FinXP Provides a Haven For Crypto

A principal issue in the crypto industry is that traditional banks are often unwilling to offer their services to crypto companies due to the high-risk associated with the industry. This pain point also extends to merchants that accept crypto payments, as they may have their merchant accounts frozen if their bank finds out about crypto payment activity.

FinXP is stepping in to offer account services to companies affiliating with crypto, as it recognizes the importance that fiat currencies have to play in growing crypto adoption. Unlike many banks that focus primarily on banking services such as loans and investing, FinXP provides leading payment and Euro IBAN (International Bank Account Number) account solutions. FinXP distinguishes itself from many other fintechs through its deep experience, wide product portfolio, and by its culture of regulatory compliance, making it well-positioned to provide reliable and secure services to its clients.

Story continues

Ineffective payment infrastructure also plagues the fintech industry, and this is causing particular problems for digital cross-border payments. Crypto is an efficient way to make cross-border payments, but it is floundering because of its difficulty to find safe and reliable banking. FinXP is offering a solution to this problem through IBAN4U, its fiat Euro account for crypto companies. Prioritizing a business-friendly experience and offering an account which is streamlined for cross-border financial transactions, IBAN4U might be an attractive option for crypto companies looking for a safe and dependable banking solution. FinXP also offers an accompanying XP White Debit Mastercard to go with its IBAN4U accounts to facilitate user accessibility to their account funds.

Another industry problem arises because many fintechs use white-labeled solutions to open accounts with third-party financial institutions. In some cases, a merchant might think hes opening an account with fintech X, when hes actually opening an account with a bank. As a result, some fintechs do not have the final say on who they can onboard or keep as clients. This is not the case with FinXP. The company doesnt rely on any intermediary banks to open accounts. FinXP - not a third-party - makes the final decision on what accounts to open and maintain. Different to many other financial institutions, the company also doesnt reinvest client funds, meaning money deposited in a FinXP IBAN account is secure and safeguarded.

As FinXP grows in popularity, it has now also started working with crypto exchanges to onboard the latters users to IBAN4U, as consumers often also face similar banking challenges. This arrangement makes it easy for end users to make instant Euro deposits and withdrawals to and from exchanges, while enjoying a very high rate of transaction approvals. This payment system can also be extended by providing end users with a debit card linked to their IBAN4U account, giving them seamless access to their funds.

Though many traditional banks have lost trust in crypto companies, crypto still offers a lot of practical solutions for the global marketplace. FinXP remains confidently optimistic about the future of the industry. Alongside companies like Cardano, MultiversX and Hedera, the company is sponsoring the upcoming Paris Blockchain Week Summit, the biggest European crypto conference.

Finally, FinXP is planning to launch an innovative, instant pay-out solution later this year, which will help crypto exchanges offer a much improved payment experience for their users.

Learn more about this leading fintech working at the heart of the crypto payment market. Visit FinXPs website or subscribe to their monthly newsletter to stay up-to-date with the latest payment and company insights.

This article was originally published on Benzinga here.

FinXP, founded in 2014, is a Malta-based electronic money institution licensed by the Malta Financial Services Authority. The companys mission is to enable its customers to quickly and easily, make and receive payments in whatever form best suits them. The company is registered with the European Payments Council and SWIFT, and it is a principal member of Mastercard. FinXP provides Dedicated IBAN Accounts, Card-Issuing, Omnichannel Payment Processing, Unique Pay-out Solutions, SEPA Direct Debit services, and Clearing services. It is a fast-growing player in the European PayTech industry.

This post contains sponsored advertising content. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice.

Contact Details

Jens Podewski

jens.podewski@finxp.com

Company Website

https://finxp.com/

View source version on newsdirect.com: https://newsdirect.com/news/fintech-brings-much-needed-fiat-banking-solutions-to-the-crypto-industry-554815412
flight savings to Toronto, Canada

Youve come to the right place if youre looking for a good flight deal this March.

March is one of the best times to travel because its what the travel industry calls the shoulder season  meaning its not a busy time for travelers. During the shoulder season, you will not only get a good flight deal, but also visit fun and famous attractions without the busy crowds you typically see in the summer.

Travel Noire has rounded up some of the best flight deals for you to purchase for less than $300 round-trip this March.

Toronto, Canada: Less Than $100 Round-Trip Flight

It may be a little colder than what youre used to, but dont sleep on Toronto this March.

Visiting during the off-season means that you will save money on a hotel or an Airbnb, especially in the downtown area.

This March, be sure to head to the iconic CN Tower. It remains the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere, and tourists love it. More than 2 million people visit annually, so visiting this attraction during the off-season is a win. There are hardly going to be any crowds. Be sure to take in the breathtaking views from the top and dine at the restaurant.

Another hidden gem in Toronto is St. Lawrence Market. Its open to the public from Tuesday to Saturday and has more than 120 vendors, including restaurants, specialty shops and more.

Toronto is easily accessible this March for less than $200 round-trip.

Skyscanner

There is also a flight option for less than $100 round-trip, if youre in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Use March 13 through March 20 as your travel dates to secure this deal.

Fort Lauderdale To Toronto March 2023

$92.00

Flair Airlines

Fort Lauderdale To Toronto March 2023

Skyscanner

San Juan, Puerto Rico: Less Than $200 Round-Trip

No passport; no problem. Visit San Juan, Puerto Rico, this March. Its a great time to go considering its right before the Atlantic Hurricane Season, which starts in June.

In San Juan, you can get Caribbean vibes for really cheap, and you dont need a passport. Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory filled with beautiful oceanfront resorts, authentic native cuisine, such as Mofongo, and many outdoor excursions. There area lot of ways to have fun and enjoy a trip to San Juan.

Story continues

Skyscanner has a ton of flights for less than $100 round-trip from various U.S. cities.

Skyscanner

The cheapest option leaves from Miami, Florida, on March 23 and returns on March 28 for $148 round-trip.

Miami To San Juan March 2023

$148.00

Spirt Airlines

Miami To San Juan March 2023

Skyscanner

St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands: Less Than $265 Round-Trip

Another destination that doesnt require a passport is St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. This is hidden gem and is less touristy than St. Thomas.

St. Croix is always the winner if you genuinely want to be immersed in local culture. There is a lot of Black-owned businesses there that you can support during your visit. When youre done, make sure to head to the Limpricht Park Vintage and Collectibles Fair, where you can enjoy art and jazz at the park in Christiansted, or visit the St. Croix Yacht Club International Regatta.

St. Croix in March presents another opportunity to enjoy with friends and family as there are a ton of flights from the U.S. for less than $265 round-trip, according to Skyscanner.

Skyscanner

The cheapest option leaves Fort Lauderdale, thanks to Spirit Airlines. Traveling from March 18 through March 24, this flight will only cost you $186 round trip.

Fort Lauderdale To St. Croix

$186.00

186 roundtrip

Fort Lauderdale To St. Croix

Skyscanner

New York To Reykjavik, Iceland: $260 Round-Trip Flight

Located on the coast of Iceland, Reykjavik is the capital of Iceland and the countrys largest city. Its home to the National and Saga museums, where you can trace Icelands Viking history.

Other iconic places include the Hallgrimskirkja church and the rotating Perlan glass dome, which offers impressive views of the sea and hills. One activity that you cant go to Iceland without doing is taking a dip in the geothermal Blue Lagoon.

You can enjoy all of this for $260 round-trip using the dates March 7 through March 14, according to Skyscanner.

NYC To Iceland

$260

New York City

NYC To Iceland

Skyscanner

Oranjestad, Aruba: Less Than $300 Round-Trip

Aruba is another island home to beautiful beaches and natural bridges, caves, and rock formations. For nature lovers, theres no better destination. The first stop on your itinerary should be soaking in the sun at Eagle Beach in Oranjestad, which ranked among the best beaches on the island.

If you want more excitement, Aruba offers snorkeling, parasailing and the opportunity to explore the island in a submarine.

According to Skyscanner, if youre leaving from Atlanta, Georgia, or Florida, you can get to Aruba for less than $300.

Skyscanner

For the people leaving from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, this is another great deal for you.

Fort Lauderdale has the cheapest option to Oranjestad for $227 round-trip.

Fort Lauderdale To Oranjestad, Aruba

$227

Oranjestad, Aruba

Fort Lauderdale To Oranjestad, Aruba

Skyscanner
When the state Supreme Court suspended Pinellas Park attorney Chris Reynolds in December, the Florida Bar said the personal injury lawyer had disappeared owing clients and medical providers about $211,000.

The Pinelleas County Sheriffs Office said Reynolds ripped off $840,000 from 16 clients  and more victims could be out there.

READ MORE: Did suspended lawyer Chris Reynolds steal money from his clients?

Pinellas County Sheriff Gualtieri announced Monday that Reynolds has been arrested on 14 counts of grand theft, one count of grand theft from a person 65 or older and one count of money laundering. The 44-year-old remains in Pinellas County jail.

Gaultieri said a woman contacted his office in October stating she had hired Reynolds, who specialized in auto accident cases, to handle her case in 2020. Once Reynolds stopped answering her phone calls and messages, she contacted the insurance company of the other driver involved in the crash.

Thats when, Gaultieri said, Reynolds client reached out to the insurance company. The insurance company told her Reynolds had settled her case for $100,000. Gaultieri said Reynolds forged the womans name on settlement documents and kept the cash that should have gone to her and the doctors who treated her.

Reynolds repeated this pattern with others, Gaultieri said.

After an investigation, Gaultieri said, its believed that a portion of the stolen money was used to buy drugs. Also, he spent a lot of money on pornography and prostitutes.

Reynolds expenditures Gaultieri alleged by numbers were $30,000 on OnlyFans sites, $400,000 on PayPal and $24,000 on Uber rides.

If you think youre a victim of Chris Reynolds or know of someone who might be, call the Pinellas County Sheriffs Office at 727-582-6786.
By Brendan O'Brien

(Reuters) - Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has ordered a local prosecutor to hand over information on why a suspect with a history of violent crime as a juvenile was not in prison, but on the street where he allegedly carried out a deadly shooting spree last week.

The Republican governor's office sent a letter on Tuesday to the state's attorney in Orlando demanding details about the criminal and judicial record of Keith Moses, 19. Moses is accused of killing a 9-year-old girl, a woman in her 20s and a television journalist covering the incident in Pine Hills on Feb. 22. The girl's mother and another reporter were wounded.

Moses was arrested and charged with three counts of first degree murder with a firearm and two counts of attempted first degree murder. He has been held in jail since shortly after the shootings.

"The shocking nature of these horrific acts is difficult enough to process, but even more galling is the fact that the man who was promptly arrested for these crimes has been allowed to remain on the streets," Ryan Newman, the governor's general counsel, wrote to State Attorney Monique Worrell, who was elected in 2020.

Worrell's office was not immediately available for comment. On Monday, she told a local news outlet in Orlando that there are strict limitations regarding juvenile punishment and she favored passage of stricter punishments for juveniles who commit violent crimes.

DeSantis, widely thought to be weighing a 2024 presidential campaign, has been accelerating efforts to build his national profile. In February, he traveled to New York, Chicago and Philadelphia to speak to law enforcement groups on criminal justice matters.

In August, DeSantis suspended a state's attorney in Hillsborough County who had pledged not to bring criminal cases against people seeking or providing abortions.

In the letter on Tuesday, Newman wrote that Moses was a "known gang member" allowed to remain on the streets after being convicted as a juvenile of several crimes, including aggravated battery, assault and robbery with a firearm.

Story continues

The letter noted that Moses was arrested in 2021 for possession of cannabis, but Worrell's office did not pursue charges against him. Moses was on felony juvenile probation at the time for previous crimes.

"We must determine if Mr. Moses was enabled by gaps in our sentencing laws that must be corrected, or, to be frank, your office's failure to properly administer justice," he wrote to Worrell.

DeSantis' office is seeking from Worrell's office all documents and information regarding Moses, adjudication of his previous cases and his lengthy criminal record.

During a news conference last week, Worrell said her office decided against charges in the 2021 case because prosecutors could not prove Moses and two others were in possession of 4.6 grams of marijuana.

"When you have a quantity that low, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement does not test the substance, and that means the State Attorneys Office cannot prove the case," Worrell said, according to a report in Florida Voice, a statewide news outlet.

(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Chicago; Editing by David Gregorio)
(fontaines dc press )

A new Nick Drake album has been announced, featuring various artist interpretations of his classic songs.

The late artist, who is best known for songs such as Pink Moon, Place To Be and Northern Sky, died in 1974, aged 26.

Now, a new album entitled The Endless Coloured Ways, Songs By Nick Drake will be released, compiling new interpretations of some of his best-known songs.

Irish band Fontaines DC lead the releases, sharing their raucous version of Cello Song on Steve Lemacqs 6 Music show today (Wednesday 1 March).

Other artists including Self Esteem, Feist and John Grant will be included on the new album, due for release on 7 July.

The record, an idea from Nick Drakes Estate Manager, Cally Callomon and Jeremy Lascelle of Blue Raincoat Music and Chrysalis Records, will also include covers from David Gray, Aurora, Bombay Bicycle Club and Emeli Sande.

Nick Drake was not that concerned with promoting himself as an artist but I think he would have been overjoyed to hear his art revisited and newly promoted by so many vibrant and talented artists, said Callomon.

Cally and I embarked on this venture with one simple brief to each of the artists  that they ignore the original recording of Nicks, and reinvent the song in their own unique style, Lascelle said.

Artwork for the album of Nick Drake covers (press nick drake)

It was really humbling to hear so many similar responses, with everyone saying how important Nicks music was to them, and how much they wanted to be part of this project.

As the results came in one by one, we were thrilled by the brilliance and invention that each artist had shown. They had done exactly what we hoped for - they had made the song their own, he added.
Bianca Devins, 17, was killed after attending a concert in New York City (Bianca Devins)

On July 13, 2019, Kimberly Devins got the call no parent ever wants to take. Her 17-year-old daughter, Bianca, was in danger, she was told by police who had been alerted to some disturbing footage proliferating on social media. Not long afterwards, on a dirt road near where Bianca lived with her mother and sister in the town of Utica, New York, her lifeless and bloodied body was found. Her killer, 21-year-old Brandon Clark, had filmed the murder using his cellphone, and had distributed the video as well as imagery of Biancas body across Snapchat, Instagram, and Discord. Unwitting viewers of the graphic imagery had contacted police.

When authorities found Clark, he was still using his phone to generate live-streamed footage. His was a heavily staged crime: he had spray-painted the words MAY YOU NEVER FORGET ME on the ground, and set an indie song to play on repeat from speakers. The knife he used to kill Bianca had been hidden in his car the entire time he, Bianca, and another friend had been out at a concert. After killing her, he moved her body onto the ground, covered her with a green tarp, and spoke to family members on the phone in a way that convinced them he was suicidal. He then called police to alert them to his whereabouts and told them what hed done. Im not going to stay on the phone long, he added, because I need to do the suicide part of the murder-suicide.

Both Bianca and her mother had considered Brandon Clark a family friend. He met Bianca through social media, where she often posted pictures of herself and identified as an e-girl. Theres a name for men who follow beautiful young girls on social media and attempt to ingratiate themselves with those girls: orbiters. Its a label the orbiters dislike but also throw at each other. You are not a real friend to these girls, it says: you are merely someone who orbits around a bright star and means nothing to her. In incel or red-pill terminology, beta orbiters are the opposite of alpha males who have sex with women. When Clark posted an image of Biancas body to a Discord server shared by her friends and followers, he allegedly wrote: sorry, f**kers, youre going to have to find somebody else to orbit. When police arrived, he slit his own throat and took a selfie.

Story continues

Brandon Clark was sentenced to 25 years to life for second-degree murder

Brandon Clark did not succeed in his murder-suicide. He survived and was later sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison. But the impact of what he did continues even to this day. When I speak to Biancas mother, Kimberly, she tells me that recently, the imagery Clark distributed of her daughters body has begun to appear on TikTok: It was on TikTok about a month ago. It was on a TikTok video. It was uploaded to Instagram  the last I know about was in November People will make me aware of it. People will message me and let me know that its there.

Kimberly Devins has been dealing with an onslaught of graphic imagery from her daughters murder for over three years. She details the experience during a phone call, in between work meetings. Her tone, straightforward and matter-of-fact, makes it clear this has been her life for a while now. Its just, you know, I never feel like I can let my guard down, she says. Im constantly on guard around social media. I never know when [those pictures] are going to be uploaded Its just like youre re-traumatized every time you have to see that. I mean, thats my 17-year-old daughter. We have to see her like that. No one should have to continuously look at that. Biancas younger sister, Olivia, couldnt face logging on to any social media for a year after Biancas death, for fear of coming across one of the images or videos.

In the months after Biancas death, the incel community on sites like 4chan picked up footage of Biancas murder and amplified it. They had, according to friends of Biancas, been harassing her for at least a year prior to her murder because of her online presence. A popular influencer, she was known to have male admirers. A lot of this is from the incel community, and they just hate women, says Kimberly. And Bianca was a strong woman that advocated for herself and for other people and really stood up against the incel community when she was alive. But I mean, its been three and a half years. I dont understand these people who are still doing this. I dont understand them doing it at all. To me, it just doesnt make sense. I guess I just dont have that evil in me to understand it. She adds that online incels have put Biancas murderer on a pedestal since her death, and that this twisted admiration seems to drive the continued sharing of images of her body.

Kimberly thought Brandon Clark was a quiet, nice man when he was alive and friends with her daughter. But now she says she realizes he was fully aligned with that online incel community: Theres definitely this toxic masculinity where they believe theyre entitled to women and I really think Bianca stood for everything they hated. She was a strong woman. And, I mean, even the motive behind her murder is: If I cant have you, no one can.

Clark killed Bianca after a night out during which she had kissed another friend. It became clear during the trial and from some of his social media messaging during and after the murder that Clark was obsessed with Bianca and that, although she saw him as only a friend, he believed he had the right to be with her romantically. Clark made an apology to Biancas family and friends at his trial, although his boastful posts and the premeditated way in which he carried out the murder led Kimberly to believe that it was all an act. That apology was not  I wouldnt even categorize it as an apology, she says. He is just very narcissistic and wants to be famous and he said what he thinks people want to hear. I dont believe hes sorry at all. I think hes quite pleased with himself.

Kimberlys memories of Bianca are of an abidingly kind and thoughtful person who proactively helped people throughout her life: She was a beautiful person, stronger than I could ever be Over the years, Ive continued to get messages about the way Bianca helped or inspired people. Shes really good at giving advice. She was a talented artist. She was an aspiring model, I think. I think she couldve done some really wonderful things if she had that platform as a model. Shes just a really, really sweet, kind person. Kimberly had Bianca when she was a teenager herself and, in many ways, they grew up together. Bianca, Olivia, and Kimberly were a close-knit family who thought of each other as best friends. Without her, it just feels empty, I guess, Kimberly says. Bianca and her sister and I were very, very close. And it just always constantly feels like somethings missing.

These days, Kimberly busies herself with holding social media companies to account. The platforms incels used to proliferate imagery and footage of her daughters death  Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, 4chan, Discord  have always been able to hold up their hands and say that they arent legally responsible for what users choose to share. In the early days, Kimberly tried desperately to have every photograph or video removed by reporting each individual instance through the networks reporting portals. Her complaints were hardly ever upheld and she never heard back from a human being. It was only after she contacted her local congressman and he contacted the same companies onor her behalf that she ended up with a contact at Instagram. Shes angry that it had to come to that  but even more angry that other families who dont have the ability to bend the ear of local politicians might have to go through the same thing with no resolution at all. Social media is often described as the Wild West, she says. Its just so unregulated, and yet its so immersed in our culture and in our lives.

Last week, the US Supreme Court began hearing arguments in two cases that could change the Wild West. Section 230 is a law that currently shapes how the internet works. In its simplest form, it states that platforms like Twitter or Facebook arent responsible for what is published on them. They are seen as effectively neutral. This argument comes somewhat unstuck when you factor in the algorithms behind such social media networks. YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, for example, will take into account the kinds of videos you view and suggest that you watch more content like that.

Such algorithms can send users down an increasingly radical rabbit-hole. Thats the argument of families who are bringing those two cases to the Supreme Court. In both Gonzalez v. Google and Taamneh v. Twitter, families of those who were murdered by Isis terrorists argue that their relatives were put at risk by those algorithms. One case concerns radicalization through Twitter, and the other radicalization via YouTube videos (Google is the parent company of YouTube.)

Kimberly Devins sees distinct parallels between the ideologies of Isis terrorists detailed in the case and incels who advocate for murderous violence against women. She says she experiences the continued sharing of the graphic imagery of Bianca as psychological terrorism, and she has been campaigning for Section 230 to be overturned for a while now. Indeed, Kimberly has campaigned ceaselessly since Biancas murder. First, it was for Biancas Law  a piece of legislation signed into effect by Governor Kathy Hochul in December 2022  that makes sharing graphic images of crime victims online illegal in the state of New York. Now, she hopes that the Supreme Court realizes how Section 230 may have once worked for a fledgling internet, but is no longer fit for purpose.

Early arguments in the two cases suggest that the conservative-minded SCOTUS judges are leaning toward upholding 230, though we wont know full outcomes until the summer. Critics of the cases have argued that if 230 is overturned, it would change the Internet as we know it. They argue that an essential freedom will be taken away if social networks are forced to heavily regulate the content on their platforms. But heavy regulation isnt what Kimberly Devins wants; she simply wants to live in a world where faceless misogynists cant share images of her daughters body with impunity. The family are still unable to stem the tide of photos and videos of Bianca. Surely there has to be another way.

Governor Kathy Hochul signed Biancas Law in 2022

I guess I just had an immediate mothers instinct of like, we need to fix this, she says. And my first thought is I need to protect my daughters dignity. She was being exploited all over the Internet after her death. And that just wasnt okay with me You know, were going through everyones absolute worst nightmare. The worst thing you can do is lose a child, especially to murder. And then to have the pictures of that all over the internet, people being harassed, we were being harassed

What drives Kimberly to continue, despite the emptiness of Biancas absence and despite the fact that she doesnt feel Biancas killer will ever feel remorse, is that she might be able to change things for someone in the same position in the future. Im a fighter, she says. I just had this advocacy instinct. This cant happen to another family.
Pedro Santiago-Marquez, who is charged with first-degree intentional homicide and mutilating a corpse, both as party to a crime, looks back in the courtroom during his jury trial at the Brown County Courthouse on Feb. 28, 2023, in Green Bay, Wis.

GREEN BAY  Multiple former employees of Pedro Santiago-Marquez took the stand Tuesday during the first full day of testimony in his trial and said he got them involved in the aftermath of a fatal shooting of another employee.

Santiago-Marquez, of Green Bay, is charged with first-degree intentional homicide and mutilating a corpse, both as party to a crime. He is accused of fatally shooting Jason Mendez-Ramos, a 36-year-old Ashwaubenon man, and ordering the burning of the body in September 2021. His trial started Monday in Brown County Circuit Court.

Santiago-Marquez owned Empire Painting, on East Mason Street, where prosecutors say the shooting took place. Mendez-Ramos worked as a painter there, as did four of the 11 prosecution witnesses to testify Tuesday.

Investigators say Santiago-Marquez owed Mendez-Ramos money related to drug trafficking, but Brown County Circuit Court Reserve Judge William Atkinson has made decisions limiting how much of this information can be brought up during the trial.

All former Empire Painting workers who testified said Santiago-Marquez would not always pay his employees for their jobs. Multiple workers had quit over money issues.

One of the former workers to testify Tuesday, Jeisaac Rodriguez-Garcia, is currently in custody facing a charge of mutilating a corpse, as party to a crime, for his role in the incident. He is accused of dumping the body and setting it on fire with gasoline.

Jeisaac Rodriguez-Garcia testifies on Feb. 28, 2023, during a jury trial for Pedro Santiago-Marquez, who is charged with first-degree intentional homicide and mutilating a corpse, both as party to a crime, in Green Bay, Wis. Rodriguez-Garcia also has been charged with mutilating a corpse in connection to the incident.

Outside the presence of the jury, Rodriguez-Garcia acknowledged his testimony could potentially implicate him, but chose to testify anyway.

Rodriguez-Garcia said the weekend before Mendez-Ramos was killed, he was on vacation with family in the Wisconsin Dells. Throughout the weekend, he received multiple phone calls from Santiago-Marquez regarding work.

Rodriguez-Garcia and his family returned from the Dells on Monday, Sept. 27, 2021, the day Mendez-Ramos went missing. That day, Rodriguez-Garcia said Santiago-Marquez called him twice  once while he was still at the Dells, and again after he returned home to Green Bay.

Story continues

"Something was kind of urgent. He needed a favor with urgency," Rodriguez-Garcia testified in court through a Spanish-to-English translator.

Over the phone, Santiago-Marquez asked Rodriguez-Garcia to pick up a work van, dispose of "garbage" in the backseat, then clean the van and park it in Rodriguez-Garcia's garage. Santiago-Marquez said he would pay for the favor, Rodriguez-Garcia said.

"He needed me to go get the van, and the garbage which was inside the van he wanted me to set on fire," Rodriguez-Garcia testified.

Rodriguez-Garcia said he went to Santiago-Marquez's house, where Santiago-Marquez gave him a gallon of gasoline and keys to the van. Rodriguez-Garcia then returned to his home, had his girlfriend drive him to Santiago-Marquez's paint shop on East Mason Street, and he took the van. Rodriguez-Garcia said he then stopped at home again to change clothes, because he was still dressed from vacation, and then drove to UW-Green Bay, where he found a spot on the northwest corner of Cofrin Memorial Arboretum he believed was secluded enough to set a fire without drawing attention.

Rodriguez-Garcia testified that he did not know what the "garbage" in the back of the van was. He said there were black plastic bags covered with a blue tarp, about five to six feet long. He said it was heavy, and he struggled to move it out of the van.

When he did get it out of the van, Rodriguez-Garcia poured gasoline on the tarp, and set it on fire with a piece of paper. In total, he said he was at the site of the fire he started for "minutes."

In the early morning hours of Sept. 28, Mendez-Ramos' body was discovered after firefighters were dispatched to put out a grass fire and discovered the body.

Rodriguez-Garcia said that about a day later, he asked Santiago-Marquez about what happened. When they were alone, Santiago-Marquez said he and Mendez-Ramos got into an argument about Mendez-Ramos "doing business under the table" and "cutting him out," Rodriguez-Garcia testified. When Mendez-Ramos met Santiago-Marquez at the shop, there was a physical altercation and Santiago-Marquez shot Mendez-Ramos twice, he said.

During cross-examination, defense attorney Heather Lynn Richmond pointed out that Rodriguez-Garcia initially lied to police officers and did not tell them that Santiago-Marquez admitted to shooting Mendez-Ramos until his third interview. Rodriguez-Garcia said he wanted to wait to disclose everything to investigators once he had an attorney.

Israel Ortega, who also previously worked as a painter for Santiago-Marquez, testified that he was asked to do tasks for Santiago-Marquez after Mendez-Ramos' disappearance as well.

Ortega said he was at Santiago-Marquez's shop on Sept. 27 and saw Mendez-Ramos there. He said he tried to persuade Mendez-Ramos to leave, because Santiago-Marquez had previously told Ortega he was going to "start something" with Mendez-Ramos.

"I told Pedro (Santiago-Marquez), don't do anything stupid, you know, think about your future, think about your kids," Ortega testified.

Ortega said he left the shop while Mendez-Ramos was still there, and went to work at a job site at a home on Pine Street. He later returned to the shop around 2 p.m.

Inside the shop, Ortega met with Alex Burgos-Mojica, who worked for Santiago-Marquez. Burgos-Mojica said something about Santiago-Marquez "setting him up" and handed Ortega a small bag of items to throw away, Ortega testified.

The bag included a cellphone, watch and shell casings. Ortega said he threw away all the items except three shell casings, which he sealed in concrete at the work site on Pine Street.

Burgos-Mojica is charged with harboring or aiding a felon in connection with the incident.

That same day, Santiago-Marquez also asked Ortega to move Mendez-Ramos' car from the shop's parking lot. Ortega said he got his cousin to move the car.

Richmond again pointed out on cross-examination that Ortega changed his story and withheld information from police on multiple occasions.

A third former employee of Empire Painting, Sergio Valentin, testified that Santiago-Marquez asked him to pick up a van parked at a house he had never previously been to, which prosecutors said was Rodriguez-Garcia's residence, and take it to a car dealer on the west side of Green Bay. As soon as he got in the van to drive to the dealer, police pulled him over, Valentin said. Santiago-Marquez, who was driving in a vehicle directly in front of Valentin, continued driving.

Valentin said he called Santiago-Marquez to ask about the vehicle's insurance information and to help with speaking to police, because Valentin does not speak English. Santiago-Marquez did not return to the site of the traffic stop, and police gave Valentin a citation for an expired registration sticker and took the van, leaving Valentin without a vehicle.

Valentin said he paid the ticket and was never repaid by Santiago-Marquez.

Other witnesses who testified Tuesday included analysts with the Wisconsin State Crime Laboratory and Mendez-Ramos' girlfriend, Gabriela Garcia. Garcia testified that the last time she spoke to Mendez-Garcia was over Facetime while he was in Green Bay on his way to Santiago-Marquez's shop.

RELATED:Trial set to begin Monday for Green Bay man accused of killing man to whom he owed $80,000 for drugs

Contact Kelli Arseneau at (920) 213-3721 or karseneau@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @ArseneauKelli.

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Day 2 in trial for man charged with homicide after burned body found
Former Wyoming GOP Rep. Liz Cheney is joining the University of Virginia's Center for Politics following her ouster from Congress by a Trump-backed candidate last year.

Cheney lost her congressional seat last year after she incurred the wrath of former President Donald Trump, who backed a primary challenger who ousted the one-time number 3 Republican in Congress.

Her loss was a stark sign of the grip the former president still holds over his party, as Republicans who disagree with Trump have found the party increasingly inhospitable.

Trump, Russia, Biden: The US has 3 special counsel investigations at once. What are they?

What will Cheney do?

Cheney will serve as a professor of practice for UVA in an inaugural appointment. She will teach through the fall 2023 semester, according to a press release.

Her duties include holding university-wide lectures and serving as a guest lecture and contributing to the center's politics research.

'Domestic threat': Liz Cheney says Republicans must abandon Donald Trump

What is Cheney saying?

I am delighted to be joining the UVA Center for Politics as a Professor of Practice. Preserving our constitutional republic is the most important work of our time, and our nations young people will play a crucial role in this effort," said Cheney.

"I look forward to working with students and colleagues at the Center to advance the important work they and others at the University of Virginia are doing to improve the health of democracy here and around the world."

Rep. Liz Cheney , R-Wyo., vice chair of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, on Dec. 19, 2022, in Washington, D.C.

Why did Cheney lose her seat?

Cheney lost the Wyoming primary in August to Trump-backed Republican Harriet Hageman last year, after Trump retaliated against Cheney for voting to impeach Trump in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection.

Jan. 6 hearings: Rep. Liz Cheney calls Jan. 6 Capitol attack a 'conspiracy' and says threat is 'ongoing'

Cheney served as chair of the House Republican Conferencethe third highest GOP post in the Houseuntil May 2021. But she was removed from the position after Republicans booted her from leadership for excoriating Trump's involvement in the Jan. 6 insurrection.

As vice chair of the Jan. 6 committee investigating Trump's role in the insurrection, Cheney continued her public persona as the most prominent Republican critic of the former president.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ex-GOP Rep. Cheney, who lost to Trump-backed Republican, to join UVA
A former Ohio National Guard member was sentenced Tuesday to nearly six years in prison after authorities said he made and sold so-called ghost guns and made online threats about violence against Jewish and Black people.

Thomas Develin was sentenced to 71 months in prison on federal weapons counts, according to online court records.

Develin, 25, made and sold 3D-printed guns and made and advertised the sale of devices that are used to turn semi-automatic weapons into fully automatic ones, federal prosecutors said. He pleaded guilty in October.

A handgun alleged to have been modified by Thomas Develin, which would be subject to additional federal rules, in a photo included in a criminal complaint. (U.S. District Court, Southern District of Ohio)

Develin was also charged in state court with making terrorist threats and pleaded guilty to two counts Tuesday, according to state records. He was sentenced to six years, which will run at the same time as his federal sentence.

The comments in a private chat group were violent and racist, said Bob Krapenc, Develins defense attorney in the state case.

I have no reason to think that he was ever going to act on this  but that doesnt take away from the absolute fear and concern of people when they read these kinds of posts, Krapenc said.

The posts involved mass violence against Jewish and Black people, federal prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum in that case.

A post at a synagogue where Develin worked security at the time suggested he might join in if there were an active shooter there, according to an Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives affidavit in the federal case. In others, he said he would start shooting at a Jewish school or called for violence against Black people and women.

Develin was in the Ohio National Guard and deployed to Afghanistan in 2017 to 2018, his federal attorney wrote in court documents.

In a letter to the judge, Develin said he became depressed and was drinking heavily after he returned from Afghanistan. He said that his online comments were disgusting and that they happened after conversations with friends spiraled out of control into an undeclared contest to see who could come up with the darkest or ugliest ideas.

Story continues

I never intended to put fear into the community," Develin wrote. "Now that our discussions have been made public, I realize the shock, fright, and pain it has caused others.

Develin was also sentenced to six years of supervised release after his prison term, court records show.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Sheila Garcia-Wilder, the former chief of schools for the Savannah-Chatham County Public School System, has filed a civil lawsuit against the district that claims she was terminated in retaliation for raising concerns that Black male students and special needs students were disproportionately disciplined with suspension and expulsion.

In her first month as chief of schools in July 2019, Garcia-Wilder said she started receiving expulsion packets from SCCPSS principals. Inside the expulsion packets were discipline recommendations, including short- and long-term suspensions, for students who had gotten in trouble for a wide array of infractions. In her position, Garcia-Wilder was responsible for approving or disapproving these discipline recommendations.

Sheila Garcia-Wilder, former chief of schools for the Savannah Chatham County Public Schools System.

Garcia-Wilder discovered after reviewing the expulsion packets that more than 50% had not been processed according to SCCPSS policies and procedures. In many cases, parents had not been made aware within the required 10-day timeframe that their child was scheduled for a discipline hearing. Some parents were not made aware that a disciplinary hearing was even available. Some students who were expelled or suspended were falsely marked as present in the classroom. A high number of suspensions and expulsions were not being recorded and reported  and, even if they were, the district wasnt sending the report to the Georgia Department of Education (GDOE).

It started becoming a pattern, Garcia-Wilder told the Savannah Morning News. This was a big issue. That's where things went awry for me.

Findings:Savannah-Chatham Schools report reveals district not following due process in school discipline cases

Gun Violence:Family of slain 15-year-old grapples with grief after teen arrested for his murder

Students' due process not followed

Garcia-Wilder first raised the issue on Oct. 6, 2019, when she emailed then-SCCPSS Executive Director of K-12 School Transformation Vallerie Cave that she had reviewed and returned a number of expulsion packets for Mercer Middle School.

Story continues

In review of the packet, I would like to meet with you and Dr. [Garrett] Brundage [chief of executive services] to discuss a behavior plan of action to support the administration and to ensure students due process is being followed.

In an email that same day, Cave wrote to Garcia-Wilder that she was concerned about the dynamics of this situation as it pertains to the culture of Mercer Middle School, calling the discipline recommendations a safety concern.

The two agreed to meet to discuss Cave's plan to ensure principals were implementing the referral packet process with consistency to ensure due process, that the packets would be submitted to Garcia-Wilder before the 10-day window approached and/or expired, and that expectations would be clearly communicated to principals.

Garcia-Wilder said that she then wanted to review a clear school discipline plan with the administration and to identify needed supports for its implementation.

Sheila Garcia-Wilder, former chief of schools for the Savannah Chatham County Public Schools System, with her attorney Wesley Woolf.

At the same time she was receiving packets and identifying discipline patterns, Garcia-Wilder was also conducting additional research into the root causes of the district's drop in the state's College and Career Readiness Performance Index (CCRPI). There was a nearly 7% decrease in elementary school scores between 2017-2018 and 2018-2019, and Savannah-Chatham County elementary age students trailed the statewide average by almost 12%.

Garcia-Wilder said she had planned to examine middle and high schools to look for similar trends and patterns, but she never got the chance.

Succession:Savannah-Chatham schools Superintendent Ann Levett to retire at end of school year

Filling the Gaps:International teacher recruitment program fills 'critical need' for teachers, diversity

Demotions, reduced pay follow superintendent conversation

Garcia-Wilder sent a copy of the root-cause analysis to SCCPSS Superintendent Dr. Ann Levett along with the disciplinary findings that the school system was not following legal standards ahead of an October 2019 meeting.

According to the lawsuit, At this time, Superintendent Levett threatened Dr. Garcia-Wilder, indicating that she could remove Dr. Garcia-Wilder from her position and place her in a position where she would feel comfortable.'

The following month, according to the lawsuit, Levett acknowledged to Garcia-Wilder that she also disapproved some recommended suspensions and expulsions before she became superintendent, but she did not put those recommendations in writing.

But for me, it needed to be in writing because it needed to stop. I was trying to change a practice that was becoming more problematic, Garcia-Wilder said.

Sheila Garcia-Wilder, former chief of schools for the Savannah Chatham County Public Schools System.

In mid-January 2020, Garcia-Wilder was copied on an email from Kim Hancock, then-associate superintendent of learning support services. That email informed Garcia-Wilder that a fourth-grade student who had been suspended for 10 days in November 2019 has not returned to the classroom.

Garcia-Wilder knew how missing school could affect young children. In an academic article published in 2011, researchers found when students are suspended or expelled, the likelihood that they will repeat a grade, not graduate, and/or become involved in the juvenile justice system increases significantly.

I kept trying to get someone to understand the impact, and I kept hitting a brick wall because I couldnt get anyone to see that had something happened to this child, then he would have been in trouble, but nobody even looked for this child, Garcia-Wilder said. And then, to add insult to injury, this child was out of school and we were reporting that he was in school.

It was eating up at me. I kept thinking: What if this happens again?

In the lawsuit, Garcia-Wilder alleges that when she informed Levett about the situation, she was referred to Chief of Human Resources Ramon Ray, who convened Cave and Brundage to discuss the matter.

"[Garcia-Wilder] was gung-ho," recalled Brundage, who was demoted before retiring from the district in 2021. "Garcia-Wilder was steadfast in that we needed follow state law, and monitor the incidents, in terms of suspension and expulsion not being in the system."

Then, according to the lawsuit, Ray made it clear to Dr. Garcia-Wilder that she should proceed no further in opening a can of worms."

"She was deflated," Brundage said.

Four months later in May 2020, Ray and Levett met with Garcia-Wilder to inform her that her position was being eliminated due to restructuring. Ray offered Garcia-Wilder a senior grant writer position. The following month, Ray told her that her salary was being reduced from $162,923 to $120,000.

According to what Dr. Levett was telling us, we knew that COVID was going to affect the budget, said Garcia-Wilder. But it wasnt until I received a big demotion and decrease in pay, that I realized they were retaliating against me.

Garcia-Wilder wondered why she had not been offered a principal position. I'm more than qualified in those areas of administration. Instead, [Levett] took me completely out of the department. That's when I realized this is me reporting about the discipline [recommendations]. I realized that this was personal.

Sheila Garcia-Wilder, former chief of schools for the Savannah Chatham County Public Schools System.

But Garcia-Wilder was only one year away from retirement after 29 years as an educator. She wanted to retire in the district where she started her career, so she accepted the demotion.

I was home, said Garcia-Wilder. "I'm best at helping students in this community."

In May 2021, Garcia-Wilder was demoted again, this time to grant writer. Her salary was reduced again by another $35,000.

In a letter dated April 13, 2021, Garcia-Wilder wrote to Levett: This is the second demotion that I have received from the school system since I began reporting discipline and attendance data that showed the school systems unbalanced disciplinary actions against our students who are disabled or racial minorities, denials of due process to students regarding their suspension or expulsion and failures to make a record of their absences.

She requested a meeting to discuss the matter, but that meeting never occurred. Garcia-Wilder filed the lawsuit against the district one month later, then in July she officially resigned from SCCPSS.

[Levett] hired me to do this job, so why didnt she just let me do it? Garcia-Wilder said. Because it would have exposed her. It would have exposed her because shes been in charge for the last 13 years and she would have allowed this to happen. She knew about it and didnt do anything about it.

Savannah-Chatham County Public School spokesperson Sheila Blanco responded to the allegations via email:

"As a normal function of the school district, administrative meetings were certainly held over the course of her employment. Dr. Garcia-Wilder was informed of the departmental restructuring plan in one of those meetings and was provided an opportunity to accept another position with the District. Salary levels are consistent with the employees position and the associated duties and responsibilities. The District is prepared to respond to the allegations and refutes many of the factual contentions in Dr. Garcia-Wilders complaint. As this is a personnel matter with pending litigation there is no further comment."

Garcia-Wilders attorney Wesley Woolf said the lawsuit is not only an effort to restore Garcia-Wilder's professional reputation, but also to restore the integrity of the education system.

"Some of those that are not getting the education they were promised by the community are experiencing a jeopardy to their futures careers and even their lives, said Woolf.

Said Garcia-Wilder, Hopefully, more parents will become more aware about their child's rights, so that when they're in this situation, schools can't just throw them to alternative schools or suspend them from school without due process.

Drew Favakeh is the public safety and courts reporter for Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at AFavakeh@savannahnow.com.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Former Savannah schools chief alleges retaliation in lawsuit against district
Rupert Murdoch. Illustrated | Gettyimages

Fox News once used the slogan "We Report. You Decide." These days, the opposite might be true. Court filings in Dominion Voting Systems' defamation lawsuit against the cable news network reveal that senior Fox figures  people like owner Rupert Murdoch and primetime host Sean Hannity  knew that former Presidet Donald Trump's claims of improprieties in the 2020 election were false. Fox News hosts endorsed them anyway.

Why? The evidence suggests a fear of losing its conservative audience to competitors like Newsmax drove the network's coverage. "Getting creamed by CNN!" Murdoch wrote to a company executive in November 2020, as Fox's approval ratings among Republicans dipped. Fox's audience decided what it wanted to hear, and the network's brightest personalities adjusted accordingly.

Now? "I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing it in hindsight," Murdoch said of Trump's claims, in a deposition quoted in Dominion's filings this week. As for the election itself, he said, "we thought everything was on the up-and-up." But he rejected the idea that Fox News as a whole  and not just individual hosts  promoted the "Big Lie" theory. "No. Not Fox."

The future of Murdoch's empire could well be determined by whether the legal system agrees with him. Dominion is asking for a judgment of $1.6 billion against the network.

'Respecting our audience'

The "stunning" release of texts, emails, and testimony from Fox News figures reveals a "split screen" between what hosts like Hannity and Tucker Carlson were saying behind the scenes and the claims and questions they raised on the air, Politico reports. Behind the scenes, Carlson referred to Trump lawyer Sidney Powell as a "complete nut." But Hannity and Carlson also called for Fox reporter Jacqui Heinrich to be fired after she debunked Trump's false claims about Dominion in a tweet. Similarly, then-White House correspondent Kristen Fisher got a talking-to from a Fox executive after she similarly debunked a press conference featuring Powell and Rudy Giuliani. Fisher, the exec said, needed to do a better job "respecting our audience."

Story continues

"To be clear, by 'respect' they didn't mean 'tell the truth,'" David French writes at The New York Times. Over the years, Fox News became a "cultural cornerstone" for right-wing America, a place "where Red America goes to feel seen and heard." But that means it also morphed into "something more" than a news network with right-leaning inclinations. The result? Fox effectively "placed the audience in charge of its content."

And Fox's audience didn't want to hear that Trump had lost the election. The Associated Press points out that Fox News' fears about losing its audience were real, "judging by Fox's ratings in the election's aftermath." Newsmax  which was more enthusiastic about Trump's claims  even scored a ratings win over Fox in the weeks after President Joe Biden's victory became apparent. Carlson bemoaned the effects on Fox News' stock price, and asked a producer if network execs "understand how much credibility and trust we've lost with our audience" because it had aired skepticism of Trump's falsehoods. So network hosts increasingly played up the bogus claims while muting their skepticism of them. "It's remarkable how weak ratings make good journalists do bad things," one network executive reportedly said.

'A watershed of misdeeds'

The Dominion-Fox developments are the biggest story about American media right now  but one that, ironically, Fox News is not covering. Howard Kurtz, the network's media correspondent, said Sunday on-air that viewers have been asking why he's not reported on the revelations. That's a "fair question," he said, but Fox execs have decided that "as part of the organization being sued, I can't talk about it or write about it, at least for now."

But the most important question may be what all the dirty laundry means for the future of Fox now that it's being aired. "News organizations rarely look good when their internal emails and text messages surface in the public square," Erik Wemple writes at The Washington Post. Even by that standard, though, Fox News is coming off badly. The Dominion filings have revealed "a watershed of journalistic misdeeds."

Some observers think Fox News is in hot water. CNN media analyst Sara Fischer  who is allowed to cover the case for her network  says some network executives believe they will lose the case because there "was a discrepancy between what the hosts were saying, what they knew and what was being aired." She adds: "I don't see how any person in their right mind could look at this and say that this is going to be easy for Fox to win."

If Fox News loses the lawsuit, The Guardian's Margaret Sullivan writes that the network's coverage might look very different in the future. Fox might be "forced to become less reckless," she writes. After all, Fox is a business, once answerable not just to its audience but also to shareholders who don't really want to lose a billion dollars. Telling the truth about the 2020 election might have hurt Fox News with its audience, but failing to do so might be even more damaging. And the result? The lawsuit might not put the network out of business, but it's "possibly enough to make coverage more responsible." The defamation trial is scheduled for mid-April.

You may also like

Jurassic-era insect discovered at Arkansas Walmart

Why space experts want to establish a lunar time zone

The Dilbert debate: Were newspapers right to 'cancel' the cartoon?
Gov. Maura Healey continued Wednesday to focus on the spending side of her annual state budget, visiting a community college in Charlestown to promote her plan to have taxpayers cover the cost of community college for any resident 25 or older without a college degree or equivalent industry credential.

Healey said her budget bill, which will be fully unveiled later in the day, will include funding for the MassReconnect program and investments in workforce development and early college programs, all designed to boost opportunities for individuals and employers and address the states labor shortages.

The governor will ask lawmakers to allocate $20 million to create MassReconnect, a program that will offer students last-dollar financial support to cover the cost of tuition, fees, books and supplies as well as provide funding for career and wraparound support services to encourage retention and degree-completion. Healey also plans new public investments in apprenticeship programs and health care worker training.

The MassReconnect program would give more than 1.8 million residents who have a high school diploma or equivalency, many of whom are students of color, the financial flexibility to consider advancing their education without having to worry about incurring unaffordable debt, the administration said in a morning announcement. It can also help bring back students who have received some college credit but did not finish their degree. As of July 2020, nearly 696,000 Massachusetts residents had some college credit but no degree -- the majority of whom are over 25.

The governors budget (H 1), which will be referred to the House Ways and Means Committee, will propose $46.9 million for early college and innovation pathways, a $14.4 million increase over this years budget. The administration estimates that under its early college plans more than 18,000 students in the 2023-2024 school year will have the opportunity to earn up to 12 college credits before graduating. The pathways program will enroll more than 10,000 students in courses across priority industries including IT, engineering, health care, life sciences and advanced manufacturing, the administration said.

Story continues

At Bunker Hill Community College in Charlestown, Healey also announced her budget will propose $18 million for the Community College SUCCESS fund, $17.9 million to support career technical institutes, $5 million for registered apprenticeship programs, $1.15 million for the health care worker training and AFL-CIO workforce development programs, and $16.2 million for Youthworks to connect more young people with jobs during the summer and school year.

Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.

Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
For the first time in two decades, Freed-Hardeman University celebrated its international student population with International Student Day on Thursday, Feb. 23 at the Henderson campus.

International students stand in front of the student body holding the flags of their home country during International Student Day in Loyd Auditorium at Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tenn., on Thursday, February 23, 2023. Students representing 19 countries carried their home country flags into the auditorium and then introduced their countries.

Hundreds of students filled the university's Loyd Auditorium to celebrate their international peers and the unique culture they each bring to campus. The event commenced as the international students entered the auditorium, carrying their respective country's flags where they took their seats on stage.

Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Germany, France, Ghana, Haiti, Israel, and Iran were just several of the 19 total countries represented. Each student representing their country had the opportunity to stand at the podium and share a few facts about their country and its history with the audience.

Omer Shifris, who is from thirty minutes outside Tel Aviv in Israel, walks to the stage carrying the Israeli flag with Delfina Molina following behind him with the Argentinian flag during International Student Day in Loyd Auditorium at Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tenn., on Thursday, February 23, 2023. Students representing 19 countries carried their home country flags into the auditorium and then introduced their countries. It felt good, Shifris said on speaking about Israel. Im the only one for Israel so to be the face of Israel here and share my values and culture with everyone.

The fall 2022 semester enrollment was comprised of 2,283 students from 34 states and 25 countries, according to FHU enrollment records.

Vice President of Student Services TJ Kirk explained that the purpose of the event was to do more than allow the international students to "just feel welcomed."

"There's a difference between feeling welcomed and feeling at home," Kirk said. "What we want to do is get away from just tolerating and allowing, and it just be in a place to where people can be here, be different, have a different language, have a different cultural background, but feel at home and loved."

Omer Shifris, who is from thirty minutes outside Tel Aviv in Israel, speaks about his home country during International Student Day in Loyd Auditorium at Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tenn., on Thursday, February 23, 2023. Students representing 19 countries carried their home country flags into the auditorium and then introduced their countries. It felt good, Shifris said on speaking about Israel. Im the only one for Israel so to be the face of Israel here and share my values and culture with everyone.

Dr. James Dalton, Director of the M.S. in Counseling Programs and Graduate Certificates in Counseling at the university, was instrumental in creating a day specifically catered towards the inclusion of international students.

"Everybody should know they have a place," Dalton said.

Once the on-stage presentations concluded, those in attendance ventured to the cafeteria where they had the opportunity to indulge in an authentic dish from the countries of the international students.

International students stand in front of the student body holding the flags of their home country during International Student Day in Loyd Auditorium at Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tenn., on Thursday, February 23, 2023. Students representing 19 countries carried their home country flags into the auditorium and then introduced their countries.

"What made it extra special is that the students were able to be a part of the creation of not only the menu, but the food itself," Kirk said.

Story continues

The international students were provided the opportunity to taste test the trial runs of the dishes and give feedback on their accuracy, allowing other students to have the most authentic experience when trying their country's food.

The event would not have been possible without the establishment of the BRIDGES group, a space dedicated to the inclusion of other cultures, organizers say. The BRIDGES acronym stands for Belonging to the FHU Community, Reinforcing Gods love for all, Integrating an inclusive learning environment, Developing a kingdom culture, Growing together, Embracing diversity, and Strengthening our communities.

Students from Brazil speak about their country as one waves the Brazilian flag during International Student Day in Loyd Auditorium at Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tenn., on Thursday, February 23, 2023. Students representing 19 countries carried their home country flags into the auditorium and then introduced their countries.

Kirk said the group stemmed from "the realization that those things are lacking here."

"For a long time, this has been very much a southern, conservative culture that has prevailed here," Kirk said. "And it's not that we don't like that, we do, but we want to be open and welcoming to others."

With plans to make the event an annual one moving forward, FHU set a new precedent for itself in the resurgence of representing its international student population.

This article originally appeared on Jackson Sun: FHU hosted its first International Student Day in 20 years
By Elizabeth Pineau

LIBREVILLE (Reuters) - Emmanuel Macron landed in Gabon on Wednesday, the first stop of an Africa tour that will also take the French President to Angola, Congo Republic and Democratic Republic of Congo.

Macron's trip, his first to all four countries as President, follows the launch of a new Africa policy and is focused away from France's troubled former colonies in West Africa's Sahel region where anti-French sentiment is rising.

Spiralling insecurity there has spurred military takeovers in Mali and Burkina Faso, two hotbeds of jihadist activity, whose ruling juntas have butted heads with France as well as with other regional and Western allies.

Macron announced the withdrawal of French troops from Mali a year ago after its junta began working with Russian mercenaries, while Burkina Faso last month ended a military deal with France.

In a speech on Monday, Macron proposed a fresh approach, promising that French military bases in Africa would be co-run with host nations with fewer French troops on the ground.

He also said this week's Africa tour would not be political and his schedule, which includes a speech at a high-level forest summit in Libreville on Thursday, suggests a focus on the environment, culture and scientific research.

While only two of Macron's stops, Gabon and Congo Republic, are former French colonies, some in Gabon's capital Libreville were sceptical of his motives.

"What is Macron doing in Gabon? Is he coming for the forest or to back (President) Ali Bongo?" asked Kevin, a 39-year-old technician who did not wish to give his full name.

"If Macron wants to support the Bongo family, we will rise up," he said. "Gabon is an independent country. It is not France that appoints Gabonese presidents."

Meanwhile in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), hundreds protested in front of the French embassy in the capital Kinshasa to denounce France's alleged support for Rwanda, which Congo accuses of backing a rebel group. Rwanda denies this.

Macron is scheduled to fly to Angola on Thursday evening, Congo Republic on Friday and DRC on Saturday.

(Reporting by Elizabeth Pineau; Additional reporting by Justin Makangara in Kinshasa; Writing by Sofia Christensen; Editing by Alessandra Prentice, Richard Chang and Alexander Smith)
LedgerX, a trading platform offering derivatives products based on Bitcoin and Ethereum cryptocurrencies, is no longer using Silvergate Bank to receive domestic wire transfers, according to a Bloomberg report.

Going forward, LedgerX will use Signature Bank instead, the company said in an email to customers.

LedgerX was acquired by FTX.US in 2021 and was one of the few Sam Bankman-Fried-linked projects which remained solvent in the aftermath of FTXs Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings last November.

FTX Cleared to Sell LedgerX, Other Assets to Repay Creditors

As a CFTC-regulated trading platform, it also played an important role in the disgraced crypto moguls push to gain influence in Washington.

FTXs new management was cleared to sell four of the firms independent subsidiaries, including LedgerX, in January this year. Some of the bidders reportedly include crypto exchanges Blockchain.com, Gemini, and Bitpanda, as well as event-contracts trading platform Kalshi.

LedgerX and Signature Bank did not immediately respond to Decrypt's request for comment.

Silvergate, Signature mired in controversy

Both Silvergate and Signature Bank have made their name connecting crypto firms with traditional banking services. Of late, though, they have both faced a fair share of controversy.

Bankman-Frieds FTX and its affiliated entities had accounts at both Silvergate and Signature Bank, with the two companies now facing increased scrutiny from regulators.

Silvergate was slapped with a class action lawsuit in December, alleging it directly aided FTXs fraudulent activities, being engaged in first-hand participation in the commingling of funds, improper transfers, and lending out of customer money.

Silvergate's dealings with FTX and Alameda also drew attention from a bipartisan group of U.S. senators, including the long-time crypto critic Elizabeth Warren. In a letter to CEO Alan Lane last month, the lawmakers alleged that the California-based company "further introduced crypto market risk into the traditional banking system," demanding more information about the relationship between FTX, Alameda Research, and Silvergate.

Story continues

US Senators: Silvergate 'Further Introduced' Crypto Risk Into Traditional Banking

In its Q4 2022 financial results, Silvergate reported a $1 billion net loss as well as a decline in customer deposits of roughly $14 billion, citing the "planned reduction in digital asset banking deposits" alongside industry-wide chaos.

Signature Bank, in turn, was hit with a separate class action lawsuit last month, with investment and algorithmic trading firm Statistica Capital alleging that it had actual knowledge of and substantially facilitated the now-infamous FTX fraud.

While Signature Bank refused to comment on specific clients, the firm told Bloomberg it is still in the business of holding digital asset deposits.
Funeral plans have been set for the Linden family who died in a murder-suicide at their home earlier this month.

A funeral Mass for Justyna Nieroda, 41, her son Sebastian, 14, and her daughter, Natalia, 13, is scheduled 10 a.m. Friday, March 3, at St. Theresa of the Child Jesus church, 131 E. Edgar Road, Linden. Interment will follow at St. Gertrude Cemetery, Inman Avenue, Colonia section of Woodbridge.

Visitation is scheduled 5 to 9 p.m. Thursday, March 2, at the Krowicki McCracken Funeral Home, 2124 E. St. Georges Ave., Linden, according to the funeral home's website.

Linden police responded around 9:30 a.m. Feb. 19 to 18 Chatham Place to conduct a welfare check after neighbors reported hearing gunshots.

A memorial is set up outside the Linden home of the Nieroda family who died in a murder-suicide earlier this month.

A joint investigation by the Union County Prosecutors Office Homicide Task Force and the Linden Police Department revealed that during that morning, Krzysztof Nieroda shot his wife, son and daughter, according to the prosecutors office.

Nieroda then called a family member to say he had shot and killed his wife and children, according to the prosecutors office. Nieroda proceeded to kill himself with a single gunshot to the head, and the weapon was in his hand when authorities arrived, the prosecutors office said.

Nieroda, his wife and daughter died at the scene. His son was transported to the hospital where he died.

Linden murder-suicide: Family among citys tight-knit Polish community

The siblings were students at McManus Middle School where Sebastian Nieroda was in eighth grade and Natalia Nieroda was in seventh grade.

Justyna Nieroda had been a hairstylist for many years at Prestige European Salon of Beauty in Rahway. A memorial tribute post about Justyna and her children appears on the salon's Facebook page.

More than $85,000 was raised through GoFundMe for the funeral expenses of Justyna Nieroda and her children.

Krzysztof Nieroda graduated from Linden High School and worked as an electrician, according to his LinkedIn page.

Story continues

His funeral Mass is scheduled 10 a.m. Saturday, March 4, at St. Theresa of the Child Jesus church, followed by interment at St. Gertrude Cemetery.

Visitation is scheduled 5 to 9 p.m. Friday, March 3, at the Krowicki McCracken Funeral Home.

Email: srussell@gannettnj.com

Suzanne Russell is a breaking news reporter for MyCentralJersey.com covering crime, courts and other mayhem. To get unlimited access, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Linden family dead in murder-suicide has funerals scheduled
(Bloomberg) -- Russias war in Ukraine is expected to dominate discussions at the Group of 20 foreign ministers meeting in New Delhi as the conflict enters its second year.

Most Read from Bloomberg

A meeting of the groupings finance ministers and central bank heads over the weekend failed to reach a consensus on the language to describe Russias aggressions in Ukraine, forcing host India to issue a chairs summary instead of a traditional joint communique. Russia and China deviated from the language agreed to in Bali, Indonesia, objecting to the use of the word war, Indias Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said after the finance heads meeting ended.

A senior Indian official said New Delhi is seeking to convince Moscow and Beijing to go along with a consensus on describing Russias war in Ukraine, similar to the one reached by leaders of the G-20 in November. Then, the joint declaration referred to the war in Ukraine but not Russias war in Ukraine to get as many leaders to sign off as possible.

Key Developments

Blinken Has No Plans to Meet Russia, China Counterparts at G-20

India Pushes Russia, China to Join G-20 Consensus on War Wording

Blinken Aims to Pressure Russia on Trip to India, Central Asia

Russias War Sees G-20 Finance Chiefs End With No Communique

Japan Foreign Minister Set to Attend Quad Talks Hosted by India

(All times local)

India Buying Russian Oil Below Western Price Cap: US (4:58 p.m.)

The Biden administration will continue to discuss Indias purchases of Russian oil with government officials but are satisfied so far that New Delhi is buying the crude well below a western price cap, senior State Department officials told reporters on Wednesday.

Indias purchases of Russian oil are a constant topic of discussion between the US and India as Washington seeks to deny Russia the revenue it needs to fund the invasion of Ukraine, the officials said. They briefed reporters on condition of anonymity. India is buying deeply discounted crude well under the price cap in a way thats both good for the Indian economy and stabilizing for oil markets, the officials said.

Story continues

Blinken Has No Plan to Meet Russia, China Counterparts (5.40 p.m.)

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he will not meet with his Russian and Chinese counterparts in India, as relations remain frayed over Vladimir Putins war in Ukraine and US allegations that Beijing may offer Moscow weapons or other lethal aid.

No plans to see either at the G-20, Blinken told reporters at a briefing in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, on the last leg of a trip through Central Asia before traveling to New Delhi. Blinken added that he may participate in group sessions at the meeting alongside diplomats from those countries.

Britain Raises BBC India Tax Probe Ahead of Meetings (3:00 p.m.)

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly raised the recent tax investigation at the BBCs India offices during his bilateral meeting with his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, according to people familiar with the matter. The meeting took place ahead of the G-20 foreign ministers meeting, the people said asking not to be named because discussions were private.

Press Trust of India had reported the news earlier.

The New Delhi and Mumbai offices of the British broadcaster were searched by Indian tax officials last month for alleged violations. Indias External Affairs Ministry and the British High Commission in New Delhi did not immediately respond to text messages seeking comments.

Japan Foreign Minister Hayashi Set to Attend Quad Meeting (2:30 p.m.)

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi is set to attend a get-together of top diplomats from the so-called Quad nations hosted by India after he skipped a G-20 meeting in New Delhi to be present at a parliamentary committee in Tokyo.

Hayashi gained parliamentary approval allowing him to attend a Friday meeting of Quad nations that also includes the US and Australia, Kyodo News reported. Japan dispatched a deputy minister to attend the meeting of foreign ministers.

India Should Make Russia Understand War Has to End, EU Says (1:30 p.m.)

India should convince Russia, through its diplomatic efforts, that its war in Ukraine must end, a senior European Union official said, asking not to be named.

The war has to be condemned, the official added, likely signaling to New Delhi and other countries that have stayed neutral on Vladimir Putins aggression.

India Says Russias War in Ukraine Will Be Discussed (12.00 p.m.)

At a media briefing ahead of the ministers meeting, Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra said Russias war in Ukraine would be part of the discussions. However, New Delhi cannot prejudge the outcome of the foreign ministers meeting.

India stands behind the final statement that emerged from last years leaders summit in Indonesia, Foreign Ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi added.

Russia to Urge Friendly Nations in G-20 to Ditch US Dollar (9 a.m.)

Russia will press its longstanding case to constructive colleagues in the G-20 to break the dollar and weaken sanctions, according to a statement from its foreign ministry ahead of the meeting.

The entire world is suffering from the cynical revelry of illegal sanctions, the artificial breakup of cross-border supply chains, the imposition of notorious price ceilings and, in effect, from attempts to steal natural resources, the statement said, adding that Moscow will discuss in detail its plans to diversify foreign economic ties and logistics corridors.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Dwayne Wade and Gabrielle Union have been together for years. Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Gabrielle Union and Dwayne Wade first met in 2007 and began dating in 2009.

The pair got married in 2014 and welcomed a baby girl via surrogate in 2018.

They've been together for over a decade.

February 2007: The couple met for the first time.

Dwayne Wade and Gabrielle Union met at an event. Frederick M. Brown/Getty

Gabrielle Union and Dwayne Wade first met while cohosting a sponsored Super Bowl party. At the time, Wade was still married to Siohvaughn Funches.

Just a year earlier in 2006, Union and her then-husband Chris Howard got divorced after being married for five years.

Wade would file for divorce from Funches later that year.

July 2009: Union and Wade were spotted together for the first time.

Gabrielle Union was his guest. Pascal Le Segretain/Getty

While cohosting a charity dinner, The Summer Groove, Wade brought Union as his guest to the event. The rumors that the two were dating began to swirl.

May 2010: Funches sued Union.

Siohvaughn Funches and Dwayne Wade were also going through a legal battle. Tasos Katopodis/Getty

Although Wade and Funches had been separated since 2007, their divorce was still ongoing in 2010.

In May, after Wade filed for sole custody of his two children, Funches filed a lawsuit against Union for "emotional distress." The case would later be dismissed by the courts.

July 2010: The couple made their red-carpet debut.

Dwayne Wade and Gabrielle Union five years later at a gala. Larry Busacca/Getty

After years of dating rumors, Union and Wade made their red-carpet debut at the Summer Groove Charity event. The couple's appearance together came one month after Wade's divorce was finalized.

March 2011: Wade was granted sole custody of his two kids from his previous marriage.

The Wade family a few years later at the Union-Wade wedding. Instagram/gabunion

He had filed for custody over a year prior. After a long legal battle, Wade was awarded sole custody of Zaire and Zaya, his two children with Funches. At this time, he also has custody of his nephew.

January 2012: Union and Wade starred on the cover of Essence's February issue.

Dwayne Wade and Gabrielle Union opened up about their relationship. Jason Carter Rinaldi/Stringer/Getty Images

Speaking in a joint interview for Essence's February 2012 edition, the couple opened up about their romance and whether or not they plan on getting married.

"We're not rushing it. Both of us have been married before, and we understand that if we choose to marry again, we want it to be right. We both took failing at marriage hard. The next time it's gotta be forever," Wade said, according to HuffPost.

Story continues

January - April 2013: The couple took some time apart.

Their break didn't last long. Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Union and Wade temporarily went their separate ways in early 2013.

Later, Union told Glamour they split "because of distance and scheduling."

"I finished filming ["Being Mary Jane"], then I flew to Vegas right away to start shooting "Think Like a Man Too," she told Glamour. "I couldn't take time off, and I missed some quality togetherness we desperately needed."

During this split, Wade fathered a child with another woman.

"It should go without saying that we were not in a good place at the time that child was conceived," Union wrote in a 2021 essay for Time. "But we were doing much better when he finally told me about the pregnancy. To say I was devastated is to pick a word on a low shelf for convenience."

A few months later in April, the couple was spotted together at a Miami Heat event.

December 2013: Wade and Union got engaged.

Gabrielle Union announced it on Instagram. Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

Wade proposed to Union, who happily announced the couple's engagement on Instagram. The ring reportedly cost $1 million.

"Sooooo this happened... #Yessss," she commented with a string of dancing emojis, clapping emojis and heart-eyed emojis.

August 2014: They tied the knot and went on an epic honeymoon.

Gabrielle Union and Dwayne Wade at the 2022 Met Gala. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue

The celebrity couple tied the knot on August 30, 2014. Some family members were included in the wedding party, per shared photos.

After the wedding, they embarked on a honeymoon in the Maldives.

August 2018: The couple celebrated their fourth wedding anniversary.

Gabrielle Union and Dwayne Wade at an event. Rich Fury/Getty

Union shared a sweet wedding moment on Instagram.

"Waking up every morning next to my best friend is a blessing I could've never imagined," she wrote.

November 2018: The couple welcomed the latest addition to their family.

Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade in 2022. Chris Pizzello/AP Images

According to Union's tweet, their baby girl arrived via surrogate on November 7.

May 18, 2021: The couple released a children's book together

Dwayne Wade and Gabrielle Union at the 2022 Vanity Fair Oscar Party. Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

The book, "Shady Baby," is inspired by their daughter.

"This is our first children's book we did together and we're so excited for the world to read Shady Baby," the pair told People in an exclusive joint statement at the time. "Inspired by our daughter, Kaavia James, we wanted to create a children's book that not only had a little Black girl as the main character but that also reflects the global community we live in."

November 2022: Wade got a tattoo for Union.

Dwayne Wade has a tattoo to celebrate his wife. Getty Images for Time Magazine

On November 11, Union shared a video of herself reacting to Wade's new tattoo, which he surprised her with for her 50th birthday during a family vacation to Cape Town, South Africa.

Wade's tattoo is on his wrist and shows a heart outline next to her initials "GU."

"The moment you find out your man has made you his 17th tattoo. @dframeddanewade made his best bday surprise for #SouthAfrica WadeWorldTour2022 edition #Capetown Part 4," Union wrote in the post's caption, which was sprinkled with heart emojis.

February 2023: The pair accepted an award and gave a speech at the 54th NAACP Image Awards.

Gabrielle Union and Dwayne Wade at the NAACP Image Awards in 2023. Amy Sussman/Getty Images

At the event, the couple was presented with the President's Award to honor their philanthropic work and support of the LGBTQ community.

NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson told Variety that the couple was chosen for how they supported their daughter Zaya Wade, who came out as transgender in 2020.

During the speech, Union called for support of Black trans people.

"This is a conversation worth having in ways that can actually build bridges. That don't fan the flames of hatred or division," she said during the speech, per Variety. "That don't enable lawmakers or justice systems to look the other way when Black trans people are under attack. That don't drive more young people to hate themselves or harm themselves. That don't cost people their lives."

Read the original article on Insider
(Bloomberg) -- Attorney General Merrick Garland told Republican Senator Ted Cruz he vigorously disagrees with his characterization that the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have been politicized under his watch.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Garland defended the Justice Department under his leadership as Republican senators led by Cruz accused it of using heavy-handed tactics to target conservative Catholics, protesters at abortion facilities and parents angry at school boards.

I hear from agents of the FBI who are angry that it is treated as the enforcement arm for the DNC, Cruz of Texas yelled at Garland, alleging that the department is being used as an arm of the Democratic National Committee.

Garland also defended the department from attacks from Republicans for not prosecuting abortion rights protesters outside the homes of Supreme Court justices after they struck down Roe v. Wade last June. Garland pointed out that for the first time in history he ordered round-the-clock protection for all justices, sending 70 federal marshals.

We prosecute without respect to ideology, Garland said. But we do focus on the most violent acts and the most violent actors.

The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing marks the first time Garland testified publicly before the new Congress. The Justice Department has been girding for bruising clashes with Republicans, especially those in the House, who now control committees and have subpoena power.

Its a turnaround from the previous Congress, when Democrats hurled sharp criticism that Garlands predecessor, William Barr, politicized the department to advance the interests of then-President Donald Trump.

Republicans have been demanding more information about investigations now being led by separate special counsels into Trump and into the handling of classified documents by Trump and President Joe Biden. But Garland didnt face questions about those cases.

Story continues

Instead, much of the focus was on what committee member Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee tweeted ahead of the hearing, alleging Garland had set up a two-tiered system of justice, one for Washington elites, and another for the rest of America.

Blackburn said during the hearing that 70 pro-life pregnancy centers have been targeted with attacks, including one that experienced a fire-bombing but only two people have been indicted.

On attacks against anti-abortion activists, Garland said its a priority of the department to find the people doing the attacks. But he said its difficult because the attacks are carried out at night, which helps the people conceal their identities.

Louisiana Senator John Kennedy, also a Republican, pressed Garland on a memo written addressing the disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence made against school boards and teachers.

Did you understand the chilling affect that it would have to parents when you issued your directive, when you directed your criminal divisions and your counter terrorism divisions to investigate parents who were angry at school boards and administrators during Covid? Kennedy asked.

Garland defended the memo and said it was misinterpreted.

Garland defended the department and its investigators, saying they work to uphold the rule of law that is the foundation of our system of government.

Every day, the 115,000 employees of the Justice Department work tirelessly to fulfill our mission: to uphold the rule of law, to keep our country safe and to protect civil rights, Garland said.

Last fall, Garland appointed a special counsel, Jack Smith, to investigate Trump and his allies concerning the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election as well as the discovery of classified documents at the former presidents Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. He later appointed another special counsel to look into Biden after classified material was found at his home and a private office.

Every day, department employees counter complex threats to our national security. They fiercely protect the civil rights of our citizens, Garland said.

--With assistance from Billy House.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Attorney General Merrick Garland pledged Wednesday that the U.S. Attorney pursuing a criminal probe of President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden has broad independence to pursue appropriate charges, including bringing a case outside of the prosecutor's base in Delaware if that's necessary.

Testifying at a Senate oversight hearing that lasted just over four hours, Garland was pressed by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) to promise that U.S. Attorney for Delaware David Weiss won't face bureaucratic obstacles if he decides that Hunter Biden should be prosecuted outside his home state.

"The U.S. attorney has been advised that he has full authority to make those referrals youre talking about or to bring cases in other districts if he needs to do that," Garland said. "He has been advised that he should get anything he needs.I have not heard anything from that office that suggests they are not able to do anything that the U.S. attorney wants them to do."

When Garland was nominated as attorney general, he agreed to leave Weiss  an appointee of former President Donald Trump  in place to complete the Hunter Biden investigation.

While offering those assurances about independence, Garland did not share any substantive update on the investigation into the president's son. The probe is reportedly focused on Hunter Biden's failure for years to pay a federal income tax bill that eventually amounted to about $1 million and a false statement Hunter Biden allegedly made about his drug use when purchasing a gun in 2018. Hunter Biden has said he is confident the investigation will clear him of wrongdoing.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) urged Garland to also consider allegations that Hunter Biden's business dealings abroad involved efforts to trade on his influence over his father. Garland didn't say if that was part of what Weiss is reviewing, but reaffirmed that no limits have been placed on the prosecutor's work.

Story continues

"He's not restricted in his investigation in any way," Garland said.

While the Hunter Biden questions were the most politically explosive issues aired during Wednesday's hearing, questioning from senators was a potpourri, spanning concerns ranging from violent crime to drugs to guns to the impact of social media platforms on American society.

Several senators challenged Garland about federal law enforcement's handling of protests that broke out at the homes of some Supreme Court justices after POLITICO reported last May on a draft Supreme Court opinion that would overturn the federal constitutional right to abortion established in 1973 in Roe v. Wade. The protests intensified after the court formally issued its ruling the next month in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, with the opinion in much the same form as the earlier draft.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), a former law clerk to the author of Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote Dobbs, pressed Garland on why no one has been arrested under a federal statute that prohibits trying to influence the administration of justice by picketing or parading near the homes of federal judges.

"Its very clear theyre tying to influence in one way or another that those serving on the United States Supreme Court," Lee said of the protesters. "Yet, not one person to my knowledge has been prosecuted for such things."

Cruz, who served as a law clerk to the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist, later thundered at Garland over the department's failure to act against what the senator called "rioters" at the justices' homes.

"You're perfectly content with justices being afraid for their childrens lives," the Texas Republican shouted.

Garland stressed that he responded rapidly to the leak and the protests by assigning more than 70 deputy U.S. Marshals to guard the justices and their families around the clock. "As soon as the Dobbs draft leaked, I ordered the marshals to do something that the marshals had never done in United States history before, which was to protect the justices and their families, 24-7."

The attorney general eventually conceded that no protester has been charged under the federal law, but he said the "priority" of the marshals is keeping the justices and their families safe, not policing the demonstrators. Garland insisted, however, that no directive has been given to the marshals to ignore that law.

"They have full authority to arrest people under any federal statute, including that statute," Garland said.

But Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) rejected Garland's suggestion that marshals involved in the justices' security details would have to be involved in any arrests of demonstrators. Cotton noted that the Justice Department has used videos to charge hundreds of people for crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and said similar evidence could be used against the protesters who target justices at home.

"These people were not criminal masterminds. They posted pictures and videos of themselves protesting. You could probably go and arrest them today from a cold start," Cotton said. "Its a simple black-letter legal violation."

Some experts have said the federal law could be open to a First Amendment challenge, although the attorney general noted that the Supreme Court marshal wrote to local law enforcement in Maryland and Virginia last year urging them to enforce similar local ordinances.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) also challenged Garland on abortion-related issues, grilling him over alleged "anti-Catholic bias" at the Justice Department. Hawley pointed to an intelligence memo prepared by the FBI's Richmond, Va., field office and dated in January that warned of the potential for violence from "radical-traditionalist Catholics," particularly among those who favor the Latin mass.

"It's appalling. It's appalling. I'm in complete agreement with you," Garland replied. "I understand that the FBI has withdrawn it and is now looking into how this would ever have happened....It does not reflect the methods the FBI is supposed to be using."

"Are you cultivating sources and spies in Latin-mass parishes and other Catholic parishes around the country?...How many informants do you have in Catholic churches across America?" Hawley asked.

"I don't think we have any informants," Garland said, pointing to longstanding Justice Department policies.

Democrats also used the hearing to cajole Garland for support for their key issues, with Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) railing against social media companies for enabling drug trafficking and dangerous behavior by teenagers.

"This is out of hand," Durbin told the attorney general. The chair also bemoaned the influence of the 1996 law known as Section 230, which gives online platforms broad immunity from being sued over content third parties post online and from being sued over the adequacy of their efforts to police that content.

"I think Section 230 has become a suicide pact. We are basically saying you are absolved from liability, make money and deaths result from it," Durbin said.

Garland called the situation Durbin described "horrible," but was careful to limit his specific criticism to the role social media plays in drug dealing.

"We do have to do something to force them to provide information to search their own platforms for drugs," the attorney general said.

One moment of rare agreement between Garland and Republicans on the panel came as Sen. John Cornyn of Texas deplored the practice of many news outlets to mention which president appointed a particular judge when reporting on one of the judge's rulings.

Garland said he fought against that practice when he joined the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals a quarter-century ago, but made no headway.

"When I first got on the judiciary, I and several of my colleagues pounded our heads against the wall trying to get the reporters to stop  this is more than 25 years ago  to stop reporting the name of the president who appointed us and  or the party. Unfortunately, this is a battle that has not been won," Garland said. "And I don't think, given the authority the First Amendment, its importance  it's one that we're not going to be able to win."

"I come from a kinder and gentler era and a kinder and gentler court, even in terms of the way the members of the court treat themselves," Garland added. "My moral authority is against divisiveness from all sides and all quarters and for all arguments to be made on the merits."
From Ames to Waterloo, students slipped out of classrooms by the hundreds Wednesday afternoon in an organized "We Say Gay" walkout to protest a slew of legislative bills that target LGBTQ youth.

Organizers estimated students at 47 schools across Iowa walked out in protest Wednesday, as Republican lawmakers pushed forward with legislation aimed at tightening school policies and state law regarding gender identity, sexual orientation, gender-affirming care and equity, diversity and inclusion.

Student organizers worry about the repercussions of those bills, which would, among other things, prohibit teaching about gender identity and sexual orientation to students through sixth grade and ban gender-affirming medical care for transgender and nonbinary youth under 18.

In Des Moines, about 400 students marched in sunny, temperate weather from Central Academy to the governor's mansion, chanting "We say gay!"; "What do you want? Justice! When do you want it? Now!"; and "Trans rights are human rights."

Passing cars honked in support of the students. One administrator estimated about half of the students in the building took part in the march.

"In this legislative session, we've had a lot of bills introduced that would limit the rights of LGBTQ students," said Josue Aleman, Des Moines East High School senior and Central Academy walkout organizer, "and obviously we all took notice. It's not hidden from us."

Students from Des Moines Public Schools' Central Academy walked out of school Wednesday in protest of several anti-LGBTQ bills introduced in the Iowa Legislature.

East High School senior Dayton Fleenor said he joined the walkout because the proposed bills will be especially harmful to LGBTQ students, particularly House File 180, which would require parental consent before children may identify themselves by different pronouns in school.

"Any person knows if your parent doesn't agree with what you are, life is not going to be easy for you  we're just trying to make it easier for all of those students," he said.

Des Moines Roosevelt High School juniors Hannah Hayes and Kathleen Loder carried a white sign that spelled Pride in rainbow lettering. Hayes said lawmakers "are trying to address something that's not broken."

Story continues

"We don't see that at all in class, she said. I think that the only thing that's talked about is respecting other people and their identities. There's not any sort of brainwashing or anything going on."

Iowa State University students walk out of class to protest bills introduced in the Iowa Legislature that discriminate against the rights of LGBTQ people on Wednesday, March 1, 2023, in Ames, Iowa.

Walkouts target 'don't say gay' bills

The "We Say Gay" walkout is a play on the "Don't Say Gay" bills students are protesting, said Waverly Zhao, a Johnston High School senior and co-founder of IowaWTF.

"(The walkout) also promotes the need for conversations about LGBTQIA+ issues in schools, which is something that is being taken away with a lot of these bills," she said.

The statewide protests were organized by IowaWTF and Iowa Queer Student Alliance, which track legislation, in conjunction with groups at each school district.

The protests came one day after Republican lawmakers introduced bills that would bar transgender youth from receiving gender-affirming care until they are adults and prohibit students from using a school bathroom that does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth.

A separate bill, Senate Study Bill 1145, requires school staff to tell a student's parent or guardian if they believe their child is transgender.

Variations of these bills have been put forward by lawmakers around the country over the last few years.

The current legislative session has focused heavily on Gov. Kim Reynolds' "parental choice" agenda, which includes bills prohibiting schools from teaching about gender identity to students in sixth grade and under, and placing any successfully challenged books on a statewide list.

Related:Iowa GOP proposes ban on gender-affirming care for trans kids. Here's what's in the bill:

Reynolds has spoken out frequently during the last three legislative sessions about the need for more "parental control" in public education.

"Parents are the decision-makers for their children," Reynolds said at a talk for the free market Cato Institute. "I think its so sad that we have to codify that in todays environment, but the fact of the matter is we have to."

Students said Wednesday those bills would have long-lasting, negative impacts.

Students from Des Moines Public Schools' Central Academy march to the governor's mansion at Terrace Hill in protest of anti-LGBTQ bills introduced in the Iowa Legislature.

The bills are 'stripping the rights away' from students and parents, students say

Student leaders argue the new bills and laws will take away a family's educational choice.

(The bills) wouldn't even allow me as a student, or a parent the opportunity to say, No, don't read that book because it has a gay couple in it or talks about racism," said Jemma Bullock, an Ankeny High School senior and co-founder of IowaWTF, in an interview Monday. "It is inherently stripping the rights away from both the students and the parents."

The series of bills will harm a student's overall educational experience, Aleman said in an interview Tuesday.

It would be limiting what we can teach some of our younger students," Aleman said. "I think it just harms their education because theyre not getting the full story.

The University of California, Los Angeles School of Law's Williams Institute  which is a center for research on sexual orientation and gender identity law and public policy  in September 2020 estimated 9.5% of youth ages 13 to 17 years old in the U.S. were LGBT, or about 1.99 million youth.

That included an estimated 19,000 LGBT youth in Iowa, including an estimated 800 transgender youth.

Students gather in front of Iowa City High School on Wednesday, March 1, 2023, for a march to the Old Capitol to protest state legislation targeting transgender youth.

We are appalled at the elected leaders who continue their unbridled attacks on Iowas young and vulnerable," said Mike Beranek, president of the Iowa State Education Association. "Maliciously singling out and targeting Iowas LGBTQ+ youth is harmful, and we support all students standing up and encouraging each other in opposition to hate. All our children deserve to grow up living in safe, supportive communities with safe supportive schools where they are not singled out and further marginalized."

For subscribers:Iowa now records the number of nonbinary students. It's important to be 'accurately represented,' student says

Students at Capitol rotunda chant 'East says gay'

At East High School, dozens of students marched into the Iowa Capitol rotunda Wednesday afternoon, chanting we say gay, East says gay and trans rights are human rights.

Several Democratic lawmakers addressed the group, including Sen. Liz Bennett, D-Cedar Rapids, the first publicly queer woman to serve in the Iowa Senate.

High school students protesting LGBTQ-related bills have arrived at the Iowa Capitol, chanting "we say gay" and "trans rights are human rights." pic.twitter.com/5ztL5yiduP  Stephen Gruber-Miller (@sgrubermiller) March 1, 2023

She led the crowd in chanting we are not going back.

I love you. I see you. I am proud of you, Bennett told the crowd of students. You are beautiful exactly the way that you were created.

Iowa City students march to Old Capitol

Iowa City students and supporters gather Wednesday, March 1, 2023, at the Old Capitol for a rally against Iowa legislation targeting transgender youth.

In eastern Iowa, 150 Iowa City Community School District middle and high school students and several elected officials gathered on the front lawn of City High School before walking to the Old Capitol.

Students' chants of "We say gay" were interspersed with honks of support from passing cars. About 300 students, officials and community members gathered to listen to speakers.

They cheered as Iowa City Mayor Bruce Teague announced he and his husband had just returned from their honeymoon. Teague is Iowa's first Black, openly gay mayor.

The 1.4 mile March to the Old Capitol has begun with chants of WE SAY GAY



Many here are holding LGBTQ Pride flags and have signs expressing support for the LGBTQ community pic.twitter.com/hnYZMlEVPT  George Shillcock (@ShillcockGeorge) March 1, 2023

As your leader, I stand in full solidarity and I will continue to do everything in my power to protect LGBTQ+ rights, he said as the crowd cheered.

Johnson County Supervisor V Fixmer-Oraiz spoke at the Pentacrest in Iowa City about their own experience as a transgender and queer person who grew up and came out to friends and family in the 1990s and last fall became the first transgender, queer and biracial person elected to countywide office in Iowa history.

Fixmer-Oraiz encouraged students to run for office to right this wrong and told them to visit their office, pointing out that Johnson Countys government building was the one with the trans flag flying over it.

I know that pain so intimately, but Im also here to tell you that you are not alone, that you are so loved and that we will rise above this. We will, they said.

Dozens of Valley High School students in West Des Moines walked out of class March 1, 2023, to protest bills they feel target LGBTQ youth.

Protesting Ankeny students turn out with rainbow flags

More than 100 Ankeny High School and Southview Middle School students gathered in a circle on the grass outside the schools to speak about the struggles they face as LGBTQ individuals. Many said they do not feel accepted for who they are by classmates and adults.

The students held rainbow flags or stood draped in LGBTQ-related flags, including one that read "HUMAN."

I will raise my voice so high they cant help but hear me, said Evan Huegel, an Ankeny High School sophomore.

Students received some pushback, including someone who drove by and yelled a homophobic slur.

'Having someone I could rely on was very important to me'

At Ames High School, more than 100 students protested the bills.

Zack Pinto, a trans male senior, said he feared not so much for himself but for younger students who may not get the same opportunities he had. Pinto came out to close friends and teachers first.

"Having someone I could rely on was very important to me," Pinto explained after the protest.

Being able to express his gender before he started hormone replacement therapy four months ago helped him understand his decision beforehand and know it was the right call, he said.

'You are humans. You are good': Iowa State students turn out in protest

At Iowa State University, more than 100 students gathered in a walkout.

Im kind of scared, and I hope you all are too, said Madison Mason, Pride Alliance student organization president, during the protest.

Mason spoke to a crowd with many LGBTQ students  including trans, nongender binary, genderqueer, asexual and pansexual.

"No one's going to fight for us like we're going to fight for us," Mason told the crowd. "You are people. You are humans. You are good."

Afterward, Mason said, Its not just me and not just about my identity. Its about the fact that I am a part of a community thats being targeted right now by bills that take away human rights.

School districts with planned walkouts Wednesday afternoon included Johnston, Ankeny, Ames, Atlantic, Clear Creek Amana, West Des Moines, Storm Lake, Des Moines, Decorah, Dubuque, Waukee, Marion, Urbandale, Johnston, Iowa City, Fort Dodge, Bettendorf, Linn-Mar, Waterloo, West Liberty, Solon, and Grinnell College and Iowa State University.

Student organizers are arranging photo shoots for students to take pictures as themselves, a day on the hill at the state Capitol and more protests during the legislative session, Bullock, the Ankeny High senior, told the Des Moines Register in an interview after the protest.

"Queer students are angry, rightfully so, at what the government is doing and how they're trying to treat us, Bullock said. We're done just sitting here and dealing with all the stuff they throw at us. We're taking action to stop what they are doing and fight back."

Samantha Hernandez covers education for the Register. Reach her at (515) 851-0982 or svhernandez@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @svhernandez or Facebook at facebook.com/svhernandezreporter.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Hundreds of Iowa students walk out to protest LGBTQ bills
By Laura Alviz and Sarah Marsh

BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany's centre-left government on Wednesday announced new feminist guidelines to shape its diplomacy and development work including the creation of a new role for an "ambassador for feminist foreign policy".

Germany will lobby to ensure women's concerns are more in focus worldwide, that women are better represented and that the country's generous development funds are allocated more to projects that tackle gender inequality, according to the guidelines.

Given Germany's clout as Europe's biggest economy and a key diplomatic actor, the move gives fresh momentum to the feminist foreign policy movement, which was pioneered by a leftist Swedish government in 2014.

Such a policy has been embraced in recent years by other countries like Canada, France, Mexico and Spain - although Sweden abandoned it last year after a shift to a right-wing government.

"We will work hard to give our foreign service a more female face and to raise the proportion of women in senior roles," Germany's first female foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, said in the introduction to the 88-page long feminist foreign policy guidelines. Just 26% of German ambassadors are currently female.

"We will also more systematically allocate our financial resources in the service of feminist foreign policy," the Greens politician said.

Baerbock has already made a point on her trips abroad to address gender issues such as sexual violence during the conflict in Ukraine and abortion in the United States.

Critics say the government needs to avoid coming across as moralising. Sweden antagonised several allies after it started focusing more on gender equality and human rights in its diplomacy.

"We must not make the error of mixing up value-oriented foreign policy with moralising foreign policy," Bijan Djir-Sarai, the general secretary of junior coalition partner the Free Democrats, told broadcaster Welt.

Story continues

Baerbock addressed those concerns in her speech on Wednesday presenting the guidelines, saying they were not a "missionary pamphlet with which we naively want to improve the world" and that Germany had much to learn from other countries.

RESOURCES FOR GENDER EQUALITY

Going forward, at least 8% of Germany's 12 billion euros ($12.8 billion) of development funds will go to projects with gender equality as their main goal, while 85% must have it as their secondary goal, the development ministry announced.

In 2021, just 64% of those funds had to in some way advance gender quality.

Gender will also be taken more into account in foreign policy spending, according to the foreign ministry.

Germany will lobby to hike the participation of women in formal peace processes, given this was shown to increase the chances of a lasting peace, according to the policy guidelines.

Germany was in a good position to do so, they said, as a member of the commission overseeing the U.N. Peacebuilding Fund and other initiatives. It was already supporting the African Union with establishing a network of women mediators.

The ministry said Germany would also seek to ensure European foreign policy would focus more on the concerns of women.

Former conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel became a feminist icon during her 16 years governing Germany, but it was only towards the end of her tenure that she accepted that label and conceded "we should all be feminists".

And it was not until the current centre-left government took office in late 2021 that gender issues were brought to the forefront of politics, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz for example insisting on a gender-balanced cabinet.

(Reporting by Alexander Ratz, Sarah Marsh, Andreas Rinke and Laura Alviz; Additional Reporting by Matthias Williams; Editing by Nick Macfie and Toby Chopra)
Ghislaine Maxwell argued this week that the judge presiding over her 2021 trial prevented her from mounting a meaningful defense and that anonymity granted to several of the victims who testified against her turned the trial into a form of Kabuki theater.

The arguments she made for why her verdict and sentence should be overturned are not new, but they now will face a new audience of three appeals court judges.

A New York jury found Maxwell guilty on Dec. 29, 2021, on five of the six counts she faced, including sex trafficking of a minor.

At her trial, four women testified about the former socialites role in recruiting and grooming them as teenagers to be abused by Maxwells ex-boyfriend, financier Jeffrey Epstein.

What she did was wrong and she picked vulnerable young girls and trafficked them, said one of the victims at the trial, testifying under the pseudonym Carolyn, who said she was first abused by Epstein at the age of 14.

Maxwell grew up in a life of privilege as the daughter of publishing magnate Robert Maxwell, and counted members of the royal family and world leaders among her friends. She and Epstein enjoyed a luxurious lifestyle, hopscotching the globe in his private jets and staying in his luxury properties, which included mansions in Palm Beach and New York and a private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Those luxurious homes were also the site of Epsteins abuse of hundreds of girls, which Maxwell facilitated and on at least occasion participated in. Numerous victims have also accused Maxwell and Epstein of trafficking them to their high-powered friends.

Maxwell was sentenced in June 2022 to 20 years in prison and now calls a federal prison in Tallahassee home.

Maxwells appeal made the following arguments:

 That the crimes she was prosecuted for had exceeded the statute of limitations

 That she should have had a new trial because one of the jurors subsequently told reporters after the case that he had inadvertently failed to disclose his prior sexual abuse during juror screening

Story continues

 That Judge Alison J. Nathan denied their request to provide clarification about one of the charges in response to a question from the jury during deliberations, which could have led the jury to misunderstand the charge and convict her erroneously

 That the sentencing guidelines used to determine Maxwells sentence were incorrect.

Maxwell was denied bail four times and complained bitterly about her conditions in federal custody ahead of her trial, which her lawyers said Tuesday was one more factor against her in preparing for trial.

By the time of trial, Maxwell was so disoriented and diminished that she was unable meaningfully to assist in her own defense, much less to testify, her lawyers wrote.

A photograph of Ghislaine Maxwell giving Jeffrey Epstein a foot massage on his plane was introduced as evidence at Maxwells trial on sex trafficking charges.

Maxwell had previously tried to have the case thrown out by arguing that it had exceeded the statute of limitations and invoking the non-prosecution agreement, but both arguments were rejected by Nathan.

Nathan also declined to invalidate the verdict after Maxwell raised the issue of the jurors post-trial admissions, finding that his mistake was highly unfortunate, but not deliberate.

Ahead of Maxwells sentencing, her lawyers had argued that Maxwell should be sentenced to no more than five years and three months based on the timing of the crimes and less-stringent sentencing requirements in place at that time.

Four women spoke at Maxwells June sentencing about the damage Maxwell and Epsteins crimes had done to them and their hope that Maxwell would receive a long sentence.

For over two and a half decades, I felt like I was in prison, said Elizabeth Stein, who said she first met Maxwell in 1994 when Stein was a student at the Fashion Institute of Technology, and was abused by Maxwell and Epstein for years afterward. She had her life. Its time to have mine.

During her sentencing, Maxwell acknowledged the suffering that the four women had endured, but stopped short of apologizing for her role in it.

That contributed to Nathans decision to sentence Maxwell to 20 years, rather than the lighter sentence her attorneys had sought.

What wasnt expressed was acceptance of responsibility, Nathan said. A lack of expression of remorse for her own conduct.

In Tallahassee, where Maxwell is serving time in a federal prison facility, she has reportedly become friends with Narcy Novack, a stripper turned socialite who received a life sentence in 2012 for hiring hit men to murder her husband, Fontainebleau hotel heir Ben Novack, and her mother-in-law, Bernice Novack. Maxwell  who once dined with royalty and world leaders  is also reportedly teaching etiquette and yoga classes.

Novack family members pose with Santa Claus. From left: Stepdaughter May Abad, Ben Novack, wife Narcy Novack, mother Bernice Novack.

Despite Maxwells previous life of luxury, she has reportedly had money troubles since her conviction. She was sued by her longtime law firm, Haddon, Morgan, Foreman, in August 2022 over non-payment. The suit was voluntarily dismissed in December.

Maxwell was arrested in July of 2020 in the tiny town of Bradford, New Hampshire, where she had been holed up in a 156-acre estate purchased months earlier through a shell company.

Her arrest came roughly one year after Epstein had himself been arrested on a fresh set of sex charges. He died in federal custody one month later in what has been ruled a suicide.

More than a decade earlier, Epstein had escaped harsh penalty after being investigated in Palm Beach for sexually abusing dozens of girls. He cut a deal with federal prosecutors in the Southern District of Florida that allowed him to plead guilty to two state solicitation charges and served just over a year in the private wing of the Palm Beach County jail, where he was allowed to leave for several hours a day to work in a nearby office. Epsteins deal was the subject of the Miami Heralds 2018 Perversion of Justice series, which led federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York to revisit Epsteins crimes.

In this photograph, which caused a huge, ongoing stir among British royal watchers, a teenage Virginia Giuffre socializes with Prince Andrew and Ghislaine Maxwell.

Following Maxwells guilty verdict, Maxwells friend Prince Andrew settled a suit with Epstein victim Virginia Roberts Giuffre, reportedly for more than $10 million.

Giuffre, Andrew and Maxwell are pictured together in a notorious photograph that Maxwell said in a recent interview she believes is fake. Andrew is reportedly exploring options to have his settlement with Giuffre thrown out after she agreed to drop a defamation suit against famed defense attorney Alan Dershowitz, who represented and was friends with Epstein. Giuffre, who said she was recruited by Maxwell at former President Donald Trumps Mar-a-Lago club as a teenager and was subsequently abused by Epstein and trafficked to Epstein and Maxwells friends, admitted as part of her agreement with Dershowitz that she might have been mistaken in identifying him as one of her abusers.
NEW YORK (AP)  A federal appeals court should reverse the conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell or grant a new trial on charges that she joined and enabled the sexual abuse that Jeffrey Epstein committed on scores of teenagers and young women for more than a decade, her lawyers argued in court papers Tuesday.

The arguments the lawyers submitted to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals largely repeated claims she unsuccessfully made to a trial judge who sent her to prison for 20 years.

The 61-year-old British socialite argued through her lawyers that the convictions violate an agreement Epstein reached with federal prosecutors 15 years ago, they violated the statute of limitations and should be tossed because a juror failed to reveal he was a victim of child sex abuse.

She also cited judicial error and a miscalculation of the federal sentencing guidelines range as reason to reject her conviction and sentence.

Maxwell is serving her sentence at a low-security federal prison in Tallahassee, Florida, where yoga, Pilates and movies are available.

She was convicted in December 2021 of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein, an American financier who had hundreds of millions of dollars and an appetite for daily massages used to persuade vulnerable and mostly financially desperate girls to engage in sexual acts for hundreds of dollars.

Her lawyers had unsuccessfully argued previously that Maxwell became a scapegoat for prosecutors desperate for someone to blame after Epstein committed suicide in a federal prison cell in August 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges.

Her trial featured testimony from some women who were victimized when they were children as well as the testimony of pilots who dropped the names of famous men  Britains Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump  who flew on Epsteins private jets.

Evidence showed that Epstein had transferred over $30 million to Maxwell, his onetime girlfriend, during and after a stretch of years from 1994 to 2004 when they were most closely connected.

Story continues

Lawyers for Maxwell, a once privileged daughter of a shipping magnate, said in court papers that prosecutors never should have been able to press their case against her because a deal Epstein reached in September 2007 with federal prosecutors in Florida protected not only himself from prosecution but any potential coconspirators.

They also argued that a law used to convict her no longer applied once her accusers reached the age of 25, which all of them had by the time of the trial.

The lawyers repeated their claims that a juror's disclosure to reporters after the verdict that he had failed to reveal that he was a victim of child sex abuse even though he had been asked were grounds to reverse the verdict. They said the trial judge mishandled the controversy.

And they wrote that Maxwell's deplorable conditions of confinement at a federal jail in Brooklyn prior to trial left her so disoriented and diminished that she was unable meaningfully to assist in her own defense, much less to testify.

They also criticized the judge for letting three of four women who testified about sexual abuse they suffered to use pseudonyms even though one granted an interview with the Daily Mail after the verdict and another made public statements even before testifying.
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in a photo produced by prosecutors as evidence in her trial. US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York

Ghislaine Maxwell is appealing her criminal conviction and 20-year prison sentence.

Her lawyers argue Jeffrey Epstein's infamous 2007 non-prosecution agreement should also protect her.

They also say the juror who didn't disclose his childhood sexual abuse deprived her of a fair trial.

Ghislaine Maxwell has appealed the conviction and 20-year prison sentence she received for trafficking girls to Jeffrey Epstein for sex, with her lawyers arguing that a 15-year-old agreement between Epstein and Florida prosecutors should have protected her.

In the 113-page appeal filed late Tuesday, Maxwell's lawyers also repeated a defense that came up often in her trial: She argues she was "a proxy" for Epstein, the notorious and well-connected pedophile who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial for his own set of sex-trafficking charges.

"In its zeal to pin the blame for its own incompetence and for Epstein's crimes on Maxwell, the Government breached its promise not to prosecute Maxwell, charged her with time-barred offenses [and] resurrected and recast decades-old allegations for conduct previously ascribed to Epstein and other named assistants," the lawyers wrote in the filing.

Jurors in Manhattan federal court convicted Maxwell of five sex-trafficking charges in December 2021. Prosecutors alleged she groomed girls to have sex with Epstein and sexually abused some of them herself.

US District Judge Alison Nathan, who oversaw her trial, sentenced her to 20 years in prison plus additional probation time and fines. She's currently serving her sentence in a low-security prison in Tallahassee, Florida.

A rogue juror nearly derailed Maxwell's guilty verdict

Maxwell's conviction was thrown into doubt, however, after one of the jurors gave media interviews disclosing that he was personally a victim of sexual abuse as a child. The juror  identified as Juror 50 in court documents and Scotty David, his first and middle name, in the interviews  failed to disclose his experience in juror forms and wasn't asked about it during the judge's voir dire interview ahead of the trial.

Story continues

Maxwell's lawyers asked Nathan to vacate her conviction and grant a new trial. Nathan held a highly unusual hearing where she questioned the juror, who said he "flew through" the questionnaire because he was bored during the selection process and said he no longer considered himself a "victim."

Scotty David, a juror in Ghislaine Maxwell's trial, disclosed after her conviction that he was personally a victim of sex abuse. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

Nathan ultimately allowed the verdict to stand, ruling the juror didn't deliberately lie and that he "would not have been stricken for cause even if he had answered each question on the questionnaire accurately."

The episode with Juror 50 featured prominently in Maxwell's appeal. Her attorneys complained that Nathan didn't give them the opportunity to cross-examine the juror, didn't allow questions about whether his experience was similar to Maxwell's accusers', and claimed he "gave a patently absurd explanation for his failure to give truthful answers to multiple questions on the juror questionnaire."

Maxwell's appellate lawyers  Arthur Aidala, Diana Fabi Samson, and John M. Leventhal  also argued that prosecutors filed the charges against her too late according to the relevant criminal statutes, that Nathan failed to fix a perceived misunderstanding the jury had on one of the charges, and that the judge gave her too high a sentence based on her crimes.

Epstein's notorious plea deal protected Maxwell, the lawyers say

Maxwell's lawyers spent the bulk of the appeal arguing that Maxwell should have been barred from prosecution based on a 2007 agreement between Epstein and federal prosecutors in Florida.

The non-prosecution agreement, negotiated by Epstein's high-powered attorneys, came after law enforcement concluded that he had sexually coerced and abused dozens of young women.

Instead of bringing federal sex-trafficking charges, then-US Attorney Alexander Acosta allowed Epstein to serve a brief and lenient sentence in Palm Beach County jail in Florida on prostitution solicitation charges. The document also said that "the United States" would not bring criminal charges against four specific women as well as "potential co-conspirators."

Nathan previously ruled that the agreement's language bound only the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida, which Acosta led, and not the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, which prosecuted Maxwell.

"Courts cannot infer intent to depart from this ordinary practice from an agreement's use of phrases like 'the government' or 'the United States.' Those are common shorthand," Nathan wrote. "A plea agreement need not painstakingly spell out 'the Office of the United States Attorney for Such- and-Such District' in every instance to make clear that it applies only in the district where signed."

Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein. US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York

The Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility, which investigated Acosta's conduct and admonished him for the agreement, dug up volumes of emails and other communication regarding the agreement. But nowhere in all of that negotiation history, Nathan said, could Maxwell's lawyers find any evidence that Epstein's co-conspirators would have unlimited protection across the country.

In Tuesday's appeal, Maxwell's lawyers argued that Nathan read the agreement too narrowly. Epstein wanted a broad agreement, they said.

Her lawyers pointed to Leslie Groff, one of the people explicitly named as a potential co-conspirator, who worked for Epstein out of his office in New York. US Attorneys in Manhattan decided not to seek charges against Groff, Insider previously reported.

"Epstein's objective in negotiating the NPA was to obtain a global resolution that would, among other things, provide maximum protection for any alleged co-conspirators," Maxwell's lawyers wrote.

In any case, the judge should have held a hearing to figure out the non-prosecution agreement's true meaning before concluding it didn't apply to Maxwell, the lawyers argued.

Read the original article on Insider
On a routine trip to an Arkansas Walmart to pick up milk, a university scientist made a historically buggy discovery.

Michael Skvarla, director of Penn State University's Insect Identification Lab, found a mysterious large insect outside the Fayetteville super chain's building  an experience he remembers "vividly."

"I saw this huge insect on the side of the building," he said in a press release from Penn State. "I thought it looked interesting, so I put it in my hand and did the rest of my shopping with it between my fingers. I got home, mounted it, and promptly forgot about it for almost a decade."

Little did he know that years later, the giant flying bug was a "super-rare" Jurassic-era insect.

A zoom call lesson

The scientist originally thought the bug he plucked from the Walmart's exterior was an antlion. According to the Missouri Department of Conservation, the insects have:

Fragile, drab damselflies

Elongated bodies

Four intricately veined wings mottled with browns and black

Clubbed or curved antennae about as long as the combined head and thorax

Enter the fall of 2020: Skvarla was teaching an online course on insect biodiversity and evolution and, during a Zoom call, he realized it wasn't what he originally thought.

The insect, he learned, was a true conversation piece.

We were watching what Dr. Skvarla saw under his microscope, and hes talking about the features and then just kinda stops, said Codey Mathis, a doctoral candidate in entomology at Penn State.

We all realized together that the insect was not what it was labeled and was in fact a super-rare giant lacewing. I still remember the feeling. It was so gratifying to know that the excitement doesnt dim, the wonder isnt lost. Here we were making a true discovery in the middle of an online lab course.

What's the 'Z Division'?: A secret team of scientists searches for answers on COVID-19's origins

Story continues

This Polystoechotes punctata or giant lacewing was collected in Fayetteville, Arkansas in 2012 by Michael Skvarla, director of Penn State's Insect Identification Lab.

Skvarla and his colleagues then performed DNA testing on the specimen to confirm its true identity.

Upon confirmation, he deposited the insect safely in the collections of the Frost Entomological Museum at Penn State, where scientists and students will have access to it for further research.

It was one of those experiences you dont expect to have in a prerequisite lab course, said Louis Nastasi, a doctoral candidate studying entomology at the university. Here we were, just looking at specimens to identify them, and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, this incredible new record pops up.

Cheetah escapes zoo enclosure: Gretchen the cheetah escapes enclosure, forces brief closure of Nebraska zoo

Discovery or recovery?

A giant lacewing spotted in an urban area of Arkansas likely reveals a bigger story about biodiversity and a changing environment, Skvarla said. Explanations vary for the giant lacewings disappearance from North America, he said, and still largely remain a mystery.

Scientists, the release says, hypothesize the insects disappearance could be the result of the ever-increasing amount of artificial light and pollution of urbanization; suppression of forest fires in eastern North America, if the insects rely on post-fire environments; the introduction of non-native predators such as large ground beetles; and introduction of non-native earthworms, which significantly altered the composition of forest leaf litter and soil.

Bird strikes: Reports of bird strikes on planes are increasing. Here's why you're actually safer since the Miracle on the Hudson.

How did COVID spread?: Are these furry creatures to blame for the pandemic? Study finds 'reasonable' origin of COVID

Natalie Neysa Alund covers trending news for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on Twitter @nataliealund.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Giant flying bug found at Walmart is 'super-rare' Jurassic-era insect
Investigators tracked a man suspected of burglarizing about a dozen Gig Harbor businesses to Oregon and arrested him last week.

Gig Harbor Police Chief Kelly Busey said detectives suspect the 36-year-old of burglaries at Wilco, United Rentals, Gerber Collision & Glass, Famous Footwear, Office Depot, a couple gas stations, Sherwin-Williams, Puerto Vallarta restaurant, and several burglaries at Ulta Beauty in Gig Harbor  starting in November.

This is a massive case, Busey told the Gateway.

Investigators in Pierce County, Mason County and Kitsap County have been looking for the suspect and believe the number of burglaries within the three-county area could reach into the dozens, Gig Harbor police said in a news release about the arrest last week.

Weve had commercial burglaries, but we havent had this quantity of them in such a short period, Busey said.

He called it a significant crime spree for Gig Harbor.

Investigators served a search warrant the morning of Feb. 22 at the suspects home in Port Orchard.

This resulted in the recovery of a large amount of stolen property and other evidence of criminal activity, the news release said.

Busey said many tools were stolen, among other things. Investigators are still sorting through what they recovered, he said.

Investigators served a search warrant at a Port Orchard home Feb. 22, 2023 as part of their investigation into a series of commercial burglaries in recent months in Gig Harbor and elsewhere in Western Washington. The tools pictured are some of the goods they believe were taken from Gig Harbor businesses.

The alleged burglar had been on the run since the issuance of a $1 million arrest warrant issued in Kitsap County, in February, the news release said.

The Kitsap Sun reported that he allegedly tried to steal an ATM in Kitsap County in December, was arrested, and two days later investigators found $14,000 worth of stolen audio equipment in a storage unit he leased in Port Orchard. He made his $200,000 bail a few days later and was released, the Sun reported.

The Sun also reported earlier in February that Kitsap County prosecutors charged him with nine felonies  thefts and burglaries  that happened last fall. Investigators used Google location data to link him to crimes at businesses such as Kitsap Tractor and Equipment, Affordable Used Cars, Ace Hardware, AT&T and the Hwy 420 cannabis dispensary, the Sun reported. Bail that time was set at $1 million, and a warrant for his arrest was issued Feb. 17, the Sun reported.

Story continues

Gig Harbor investigators worked with the Oregon State Police and the Eugene Police Department, to find the suspect Feb. 22, the news release said.

He allegedly fled, and the Eugene police SWAT team helped take him into custody following a police chase and search.

Investigators served a search warrant at a Port Orchard home Feb. 22, 2023 as part of their investigation into a series of commercial burglaries in recent months in Gig Harbor and elsewhere in Western Washington. The tools and other items pictured are some of the goods they believe were taken from Gig Harbor businesses.

The Lane County Jail roster showed he was still in custody Tuesday in Oregon, following an arraignment Friday.

Lane County prosecutors charged him with first-degree burglary, being a felon in possession of a firearm, felony fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer in a vehicle, fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer on foot, recklessly endangering another person, and reckless driving, according to court records.

After he faces those charges, hell be extradited to Pierce County, the Gig Harbor news release said.

The Mason County Sheriffs Office, Bremerton Police Department, Poulsbo Police Department, Port Orchard Police Department, Kitsap County Sheriffs Office, Homeland Security Investigations, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Customs and Border Patrol, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, and the Drug Enforcement Agency helped with the investigation, the news release said.

Investigators served a search warrant at a Port Orchard home Feb. 22, 2023 as part of their investigation into a series of commercial burglaries in recent months in Gig Harbor and elsewhere in Western Washington. The tool pictured is among the goods they believe were taken from Gig Harbor businesses.

The Eugene Police Departments news release about the arrest said that investigators recovered commercial drug quantities of methamphetamine, two stolen firearms out of Washington, and more than 200 pieces of crucial evidence linked to multiple, high-profile property crimes throughout Western Washington.

That release also said that the suspects girlfriend was arrested and that at one point Feb. 22 she reported a kidnapping to divert Vancouver police resources and aid in the couples flight from Washington to Oregon.

Busey said the suspect has fled police multiple times, and that the law doesnt allow police pursuits for burglary.





The state law changed in 2021. Officers are still allowed to pursue suspects if they have reasonable suspicion to believe a suspect committed violent or sexual crimes or is driving under the influence, The Olympian reported.
(Bloomberg) -- The recent appointment of a prominent Democratic economist to lead the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago is fueling friction over political partisanship in the US central bank.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Austan Goolsbee became president of the Chicago Fed in January, but only after a contentious hiring process.

Bloomberg News reported Feb. 17 that two of the Feds Washington-based board, both of whom had been nominated for their roles by then-President Donald Trump, took the rare step of abstaining from supporting the appointment.

And while the regional banks directors unanimously approved Goolsbees selection, several have a pattern of giving money to Democratic political candidates, a fact which hasnt previously been reported.

Nothing prohibits directors of regional Fed boards from contributing to political campaigns, according to the Feds code of conduct. And there is no evidence suggesting a direct connection between the donations and Goolsbees selection, which a Chicago Fed spokesman said was apolitical.

Goolsbee, 53, is widely considered qualified for the job: Before joining the Chicago Fed, he spent nearly three decades as a professor at the University of Chicagos Booth School of Business, and holds a doctorate in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also previously advised Democrats including former President Barack Obama and has a history of robustly defending Democratic policies and criticizing Republican ones on TV and radio talk shows.

Such a history is providing fresh impetus to concerns that the central bank is becoming increasingly politicized, risking the independence of monetary policy from the cut and thrust of government.

Goolsbees appointment, which was backed by Fed Chair Jerome Powell and four other governors in Washington, also raises questions about the opaque process for choosing regional Fed leaders. Bloomberg obtained a record of the Fed board vote on his appointment through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Story continues

It follows a series of recent controversies among the regional Fed banks that has prompted bipartisan calls in Congress for more Fed oversight, and led to internal changes aimed at reining in political activity.

The central bank is way more political than it appears, said Kaleb Nygaard, a research fellow at the University of Pennsylvanias Wharton Initiative on Financial Policy and Regulation. Just because the reserve banks are one step removed from partisan politics, that doesnt mean they are not partisan positions.

Governors Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman declined to comment on their decisions to withhold support for the pick. Goolsbee, who cast his first vote on monetary policy this year, also declined to comment, the Chicago Fed spokesman said.

Goolsbee is among several people under consideration to be President Joe Bidens choice to succeed Lael Brainard as Fed vice chair in Washington, Bloomberg News reported Feb. 23. That role would require Senate confirmation.

Democratic Donors

Regional Fed presidents, by contrast, are chosen by their local boards of directors  typically business and community leaders  subject to final approval by the seven-member board of governors in Washington.

Of the six directors involved in Goolsbees appointment, four have a history of giving to Democratic Party candidates or causes, according to campaign finance disclosures. The Chicago Fed district includes Republican strongholds like Iowa and Indiana.

The co-chair of the search committee, Helene Gayle, contributed $71,800 to Democratic campaigns since 2011, including the Biden Victory Fund and Hillary For America, according to Federal Election Commission records compiled by Bloomberg.

Gayle, who is the president of Spelman College, left the Chicago Fed board when her term expired at the end of 2022. She is the former president and chief executive of The Chicago Community Trust foundation.

My contributions made in my personal capacity are separate matters and in no way influenced my work or decision-making during my service on the board of directors, Gayle said in a statement. The board made our selection based on the candidate we felt was best qualified for the role.

Another Chicago Fed director who had a vote on Goolsbee was Juan Salgado, the chancellor of City Colleges of Chicago and the boards deputy chairman. Salgado serves on the board of the Obama Foundation, based in Chicago, and Waller abstained from his approval for a Chicago Fed board seat. Salgado referred questions to the Chicago Fed.

The selection process and eligibility criteria for board members does not include discussion of party affiliation or past or current support for candidates and/or political parties, said Michael Adleman, a Chicago Fed spokesman. The board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago is apolitical in nature.

Lawmaker Angered

Separately, the selection of a White person to helm the Chicago Fed also angered a veteran Democratic senator, Robert Menendez of New Jersey, who had repeatedly requested the Fed hire a Hispanic leader.

Menendez responded to Goolsbees appointment in December by saying its unacceptable, and quite honestly a slap in the face to the 65 million Latinos in the country, that the Federal Reserve Board of Governors has ignored calls from Congress for a more inclusive and transparent leadership selection process.

Other regional Feds have at times been run by figures who previously served in presidential administrations.

Janet Yellen, the current US Treasury secretary, served as an economic adviser to President Bill Clinton and was a Fed governor before running the San Francisco Fed from 2004 to 2010. Raphael Bostic, currently the Atlanta Fed chief, served as an assistant secretary for policy development from 2009 to 2012 at the Department of Housing and Urban Development under Obama.

Despite those backgrounds, Yellen, Bostic and other officials in their vein have generally been seen as technocrats, rather than partisan messengers.

Goolsbees history as an outspoken defender of Democrats and GOP critic makes him unusual, and Fed watchers said they were surprised by the selection, particularly given the pressure the central bank has faced to steer clear of politics.

The regional chiefs, who oversee a dozen districts across the US, vote on rate decisions that affect millions of Americans, and rotate as voting members of the Feds policy committee four at a time each year. In recent years, they have tended to come from within the Fed system, academia or the financial sector, and their appointments have historically drawn little opposition.

The regional character of the Fed is viewed as a strength, as the presidents can bring on-the-ground information from their districts to national policy making.

Given the diversity of these regions, where a single district can span from Baltimore to rural Southwest Virginia, staying out of politics has long been viewed as an asset among most reserve bank presidents.

I object vehemently to making the Federal Reserve partisan, said former Philadelphia Fed president Charles Plosser. Independence needs to be protected. The Fed needs to protect itself from appearing to become partisan.

Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari, a former George W. Bush administration official who previously ran as a Republican candidate for governor in California, faced criticism from Congress and inside the Fed in 2020 when he teamed up with a retired Minnesota Supreme Court justice to propose an amendment to the state constitution.

Political Problems

Goolsbees Democratic brand raises questions about whether the Fed board is keeping an eye out for potential political problems, said Sarah Binder, a political scientist at the Brookings Institution in Washington and co-author of The Myth of Independence: How Congress Governs the Federal Reserve.

A strong political orientation such as Goolsbees is not unusual for presidential nominees to the Fed Board or other technocratic jobs in government, said Peter Conti-Brown, an associate professor at Penns Wharton School and a Fed scholar, and its acceptable because these officials are vetted by elected representatives.

This is not the case for the reserve banks, he said, where leaders are picked by private boards.

Supposedly, the benefit of the reserve bank system is you get independent, non-partisan judgment and a check on democratic excesses, said Conti-Brown, whos also co-director of the Wharton Initiative on Financial Policy and Regulation. But in the reserve bank selection process we just channel those excesses and politics into more secret spaces, he said.

Goolsbee served as chairman of Obamas Council of Economic Advisers from 2010 to 2011. His direct experience with fiscal policy and research on innovation bring potential to enhance the Feds business cycle debates.

His sharp communication skills are also an asset to the Fed at a time when monetary policy revolves around projecting a credible framework to the public.

As Obamas CEA chair, Goolsbee presented several video white board discussions where he explained everything from disagreements with Republicans over taxes to programs supporting startups.

He has also been an occasional sparring partner with Fox News anchor Sean Hannity. And in a podcast with former Senator Al Franken, a Democrat, he said of Trump: Everywhere he goes he brings this cloud of dirt that just sticks to everything.

Resisting Temptation

Michael Strain, director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, said he didnt view Goolsbees Republican criticism as partisanship.

Austan and I disagree about a lot of policy issues, but I think he is a serious scholar, Strain said.

Even so, he has to worry about the independence of the Fed, and that has to be front of mind when he speaks in public, he added.

More swerves into political commentary would likely raise headaches for Powell, who on Jan. 10 spoke about resisting the temptation to broaden our scope to address other important social issues of the day. Powell is set to testify on Capitol Hill next week for his semiannual congressional testimony.

Over the past three years, seven of the 12 presidents of the central banks regional outposts stumbled into ethics scandals, butted heads with Congress over transparency, or faced complaints that they strayed beyond their mandate into politically charged issues such as climate change and inequality.

Fed officials quietly tightened internal restrictions on employees political activities after some reserve banks ran afoul of Congress over real or perceived engagement on issues within the domain of elected officials. The code of conduct now explicitly prohibits the kind of activity that Kashkari engaged in.

Frustration with the Fed was high in the last congressional session. Two members of the Senate Banking Committee who served as icons of progressivism and conservatism  Elizabeth Warren and Patrick Toomey  teamed up on a bill to make the Fed more transparent.

Sherrod Brown, the Ohio Democrat who chairs the committee, told Bloomberg News in January that more aggressive oversight of the Fed was needed. I do think they have not always gone in the direction of the public interest, Brown said.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah at a hearing on January 24, 2023. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images

Twitter suspended "BasedMikeLee," Utah GOP Sen. Mike Lee's personal account, on Wednesday.

It was unclear why the suspension occurred, and Lee said no explanation has been given.

It came after he issued a series of tweets directed at Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah's personal Twitter account was briefly suspended on Wednesday.

"My personal Twitter account  @BasedMikeLee  has been suspended," the senator wrote on his official Twitter account, saying the company "did not alert me ahead of time, nor have they yet offered an explanation for the suspension. My team and I are seeking answers."

It was not immediately clear why the suspension had occurred.

Lee's account was later restored around 2:30pm ET. The senator said he still hadn't been given an explanation.

Lee has used the account since August 2022 to sound off on political events in a more informal way than is typical of politicians  particularly senators  on the popular social media site.

"The haters can't handle this frickin' smoke," Lee declared in a July 24th tweet that isn't currently available.

"This account is no cap  bussin, forreal forreal," Lee tweeted that same day.

"Based" is a slang term particularly popular among the online right that generally means not caring what others may think.

Hours before Lee's suspension, the Utah senator used the account to tweet at Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, urging him to release Lt. Ridge Alkonis. The US Navy lieutenant's three-year prison sentence in Japan, stemming from his involvement in a deadly traffic accident in 2021, has caused tensions between the US and Japan.

"Hand Lt. Alkonis over to U.S. custody immediately," Lee declared in one tweet.

"If you don't hand him over in the next seven hours, a series of conversations will begin tomorrow to inform Americans of how poorly you're treating our military personnelnot just Ridge Alkonis, but all 55,000 U.S. forces in Japan," he later tweeted.

Story continues

After a midnight deadline previously set by Lee passed early Wednesday morning, Lee tweeted again.

"You've made your choice," tweeted Lee. "I hope you're ready for some conversations on the Senate floor that you're not likely to enjoy. This issue isn't going away, and neither am I."

Read the original article on Business Insider
Senator Mike Lees personal Twitter account @BasedMikeLee was suspended (Twitter)

Twitter has suspended the personal account of US senator Mike Lee, after the Utah Republican appeared to the threat the prime minister of Japan over a detained US Navy serviceman.

My personal Twitter account  @BasedMikeLee  has been suspended, Senator Lee wrote from his official account on Wednesday. Twitter did not alert me ahead of time, nor have they yet offered an explanation for the suspension. My team and I are seeking answers.

My personal Twitter account  @BasedMikeLee  has been suspended. Twitter did not alert me ahead of time, nor have they yet offered an explanation for the suspension. My team and I are seeking answers. pic.twitter.com/1llVm4fVu3  Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) March 1, 2023

Earlier in the day, Mr Lee wrote multiple messages to Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida on his personal account regarding detained US Navy lieutenant Ridge Alkonis.

"Hand Lt. Alkonis over to U.S. custody immediately," one tweet read.

"If you dont hand him over in the next seven hours, a series of conversations will begin tomorrow to inform Americans of how poorly youre treating our military personnelnot just Ridge Alkonis, but all 55,000 U.S. forces in Japan," another said.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated with new information.
Senior Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee grilled Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday about the nations fentanyl crisis, the flow of drugs and migrants over the U.S.-Mexico border and the Justice Departments stance on mandatory minimum sentences.

The moments of drama came during the panels first oversight hearing of the Justice Department in the 118th Congress.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) challenged Garland over a Justice Department memo recommending that prosecutors not seek mandatory minimum sentences in some drug cases.

Cornyn pointed out that drug-related deaths in the United States have become so frequent that the daily death toll is equivalent to a passenger jet crashing and killing everyone on board every day.

I have been just astonished at the lack of sense of urgency to deal with this issue, he said, blaming the flow of drugs across the border on the Biden administrations law enforcement and asylum policies.

He then zeroed in on a Garland memo that argued the proliferation of mandatory-minimum sentencing guidelines had caused too many disproportionately severe sentences.

Garland responded that its a question of the resources, adding we dont have money, we dont have enough jails, we dont have enough judges.

That answer didnt sit well with Cornyn, who replied sternly: Youve arrogated to yourself the decision to make policy.

Youre telling prosecutors dont charge those if they involve a mandatory-minimum sentence, he said.

When Garland countered that his memo didnt apply in violent crime or drug trafficking, Cornyn accused him of cherry-picking which cases you will charge with a mandatory-minimum sentence.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) demanded the nations top law enforcement officer explain the discrepancy between the number of prosecutions of counselors and activists who oppose abortion rights and those who support those rights.

The hearing grew heated when Cruz accused the Justice Department of showing little urgency in protecting Supreme Court justices from protesters after a decision last summer overturning Roe v. Wade. The Texas senator repeatedly interrupted Garland until Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) stepped in to enforce the limit on Cruzs time.

Story continues

You spent 20 years as a judge and youre perfectly content with justices being afraid for their childrens lives, and you did nothing to prosecute it, Cruz said.

The exchange was one of the few times Garland raised his voice during the hearing, with the attorney general noting the Dobbs decision prompted the first time in history that U.S. Marshals were asked to provide 24/7 security at the homes of Supreme Court justices. It was up to agents themselves, however, whether to arrest anyone who approached justices homes.

Senator, you asked me whether I sat on my hands and [it was] quite the opposite. I sent 70 United States Marshals to defend [their homes], Garland said before being cut off by Cruz.

The marshals on scene  they do make the decision over whether to make an arrest, he said.

The fallout of the Dobbs decision, including responses to protesters, was a running theme throughout the hearing, with multiple lawmakers accusing the department of anti-Catholic bias following the leak of an FBI memo detailing growing overlap between white nationalist groups and Radical-Traditionalist Catholics which it identifies as a small minority within the church.

Garland condemned the memo, telling Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) that I saw the document you have, its appalling, its appalling. I am in complete agreement with you. I understand the FBI has withdrawn it and is now looking into how this ever could have happened.

Hawley also pushed Garland on issues related to abortion, asking, without evidence, how many informants do you have in Catholic churches across America?

I dont believe we have any informants aimed at Catholic churches. We have rules against investigations based on First Amendment activity and Catholic churches are obviously first amendment activity, Garland said.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) quizzed Garland about the murder rates in the home countries of migrants seeking asylum and expressed surprise the attorney general didnt have those stats at his fingertips.

He then pointed out that murder rates are higher in major U.S. cities.

Should American citizens in places like New Orleans and Baltimore and St. Louis begin to seek asylum in countries like Honduras and Guatemala under your asylum principles? Cotton asked.

Garland replied that his departments asylum policies are guided by threats faced by individuals in countries where the local governments are unwilling or unable to protect them, not just on murder rates.

Cotton also hit Garland over the selective pursuit of mandatory-minimum sentences by federal prosecutors.

You said to Sen. Conryn this is about allocating resources, he said incredulously. What resources are you talking about?

Cotton pointed out the number of federal inmates has dropped from 219,000 to 158,000 over the past ten years and demanded: Do you need more prisons?

Garland said many senators have complained that jails are overcrowded and that has made it difficult to protect guards and prisoners from violence.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the ranking member of the Judiciary panel, pressed Garland on designating Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations.

Garland said he had no objection but cautioned that such a decision is up to the State Department and he would defer to its authority.

The attorney general said the Mexican government is helping us in trying to interdict fentanyl shipments but conceded they could do much more.

Asked whether U.S. drug policies are working, Garland acknowledged they are not stopping fentanyl from killing Americans but emphasized we are putting all the resources that Congress provides to us into fighting drug smuggling.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Gov. Ron DeSantis office sent a letter to the Orange-Osceola State Attorneys office Tuesday requesting information about the criminal history of the man accused of shooting five people in Pine Hills last week.

The letter, signed by DeSantis general counsel Ryan Newman, requests information and documentation from Monique Worrells office about their investigations into Keith Moses, 19.

>>> STREAM CHANNEL 9 EYEWITNESS NEWS LIVE <<<

The letter calls for the state attorneys office to turn over the information by March 14.

The letter reads in part: we must determine if Mr. Moses was enabled by gaps in our sentencing laws that must be corrected, or, to be frank, your offices failure to properly administer justice.

Worrell responded to the letter Wednesday afternoon saying the accusations that her policies promote crime are empty political statements that are unsupported by facts. She also said she is gathering the records requested

Read: Deputies release minute-by-minute timeline of shootings that killed woman, reporter & girl

DeSantis office sent the letter on the same day that Worrell sat down with Channel 9 to defend her offices track record, saying she was being blamed for a system that was understaffed, underfunded, and ill-equipped to deal with the problems of today.

You can read more about the interview here. Read the letter sent by the governors office and Worrells response below.

Read: Worrell defends office, says shes being blamed for broken system

Governor's office letter by WFTV on Scribd

Read a statement from Worrell below:

State Attorney's Office response to governor by Jason Kelly on Scribd

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.
Gov. Ron DeSantis office sent a letter to the Orange-Osceola State Attorneys office Tuesday requesting information about the criminal history of the man accused of shooting five people in Pine Hills last week, killing three of them, including a 9-year-old girl and a TV news reporter.

The letter, signed by DeSantis general counsel Ryan Newman, requests information and documentation from Monique Worrells office about their investigations into Keith Moses, 19.

The letter calls for the state attorneys office to turn over the information by March 14.

The letter reads in part: we must determine if Mr. Moses was enabled by gaps in our sentencing laws that must be corrected, or, to be frank, your offices failure to properly administer justice.

[DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks]

Worrell responded to the letter Wednesday afternoon saying the accusations that her policies promote crime are empty political statements that are unsupported by facts. She also said she is gathering the records requested.

DeSantis office sent the letter on the same day that Worrell sat down with Channel 9 to defend her offices track record, saying she was being blamed for a system that was understaffed, underfunded, and ill-equipped to deal with the problems of today.

You can read more about the interview here. Read the letter sent by the governors office and Worrells response below.

Governor's office letter by WFTV

State Attorney's Office... by Jason Kelly

[SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter]

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.
Usually, when one insider buys stock, it might not be a monumental event. But when multiple insiders are buying like they did in the case of Induction Healthcare Group PLC (LON:INHC), that sends out a positive message to the company's shareholders.

While insider transactions are not the most important thing when it comes to long-term investing, logic dictates you should pay some attention to whether insiders are buying or selling shares.

View our latest analysis for Induction Healthcare Group

Induction Healthcare Group Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

In the last twelve months, the biggest single purchase by an insider was when Non-Executive Director Andrew Williams bought UK100k worth of shares at a price of UK0.52 per share. That means that even when the share price was higher than UK0.21 (the recent price), an insider wanted to purchase shares. While their view may have changed since the purchase was made, this does at least suggest they have had confidence in the company's future. We always take careful note of the price insiders pay when purchasing shares. Generally speaking, it catches our eye when insiders have purchased shares at above current prices, as it suggests they believed the shares were worth buying, even at a higher price.

While Induction Healthcare Group insiders bought shares during the last year, they didn't sell. You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last 12 months, below. If you want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below!

Induction Healthcare Group is not the only stock insiders are buying. So take a peek at this free list of growing companies with insider buying.

Insider Ownership

For a common shareholder, it is worth checking how many shares are held by company insiders. I reckon it's a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. Insiders own 24% of Induction Healthcare Group shares, worth about UK4.8m. This level of insider ownership is good but just short of being particularly stand-out. It certainly does suggest a reasonable degree of alignment.

Story continues

So What Does This Data Suggest About Induction Healthcare Group Insiders?

The fact that there have been no Induction Healthcare Group insider transactions recently certainly doesn't bother us. On a brighter note, the transactions over the last year are encouraging. Insiders do have a stake in Induction Healthcare Group and their transactions don't cause us concern. So these insider transactions can help us build a thesis about the stock, but it's also worthwhile knowing the risks facing this company. At Simply Wall St, we've found that Induction Healthcare Group has 2 warning signs (1 is potentially serious!) that deserve your attention before going any further with your analysis.

But note: Induction Healthcare Group may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with high ROE and low debt.

For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We currently account for open market transactions and private dispositions, but not derivative transactions.

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
The Great Salt Lake in Utah is at risk of disappearing within five years, scientists say. Johnny Adolphson/Shutterstock

Scientists have warned that the Great Salt Lake in Utah could disappear within five years.

The lake supports major industries, provides habitats, and suppresses toxic dust in the lakebed.

Lawmakers in Utah are working to pass water conservation bills before the current session ends on Friday.

Lawmakers in Utah are working to address the calls of scientists who say time is running out to save the Great Salt Lake from disappearing and stave off impending environmental disaster.

"Great Salt Lake is facing unprecedented danger. Without a dramatic increase in water flow to the lake in 2023 and 2024, its disappearance could cause immense damage to Utah's public health, environment, and economy," an emergency briefing published by dozens of researchers in January warned.

The Great Salt Lake, the largest saltwater lake in the Western hemisphere, is a keystone ecosystem that supports thousands of local jobs and major industries, provides food and habitat for millions of birds, and suppresses toxic dust in the lakebed that gets exposed as the water levels recede.

Sediments in the lake collect pollutants that come from human activity, such as mining or agriculture. Pollutants that have been detected in the lake include arsenic, lead, mercury, and other dangerous heavy metals. Once the soil is exposed and eroded by wind, the result is dust pollution that can lead to respiratory problems, chronic disease, cancer, and other health issues. When clouds of dust roll into Salt Lake City, they can make the air toxic.

The Great Salt Lake is used for recreation, natural resource extraction, and brine shrimp fishing, a multimillion-dollar industry. It also serves as vital habitat for 10 million migratory birds along the Pacific Flyway. Agriculture is the largest user of water in the Great Salt Lake watershed, accounting for 85%, according to the Utah Rivers Council.

The scientists blamed excessive water use for the historically low water levels, and warn that at the current rate "the lake as we know it is on track to disappear in five years." Without a coordinated effort to rescue the lake by pumping water into it this year and next, Utahns could experience widespread air and water pollution, declines in agriculture, industry, and quality of life, and push many species to be classified as threatened or endangered.

Story continues

The Utah legislature has responded to the dire warnings, with several bills introduced in the current session, which concludes on Friday. Lawmakers are working to pass a bill before then.

One proposed bill would set an emergency trigger that would be activated when the lake reaches a certain level of salinity. As the water level lowers, salinity rises, killing food sources for birds and threatening the brine shrimp industry.

Another bans lawn watering from October to April but was stripped of a provision that required all conserved water to go to the Great Salt Lake, as local water districts had emphasized the need to direct water into reservoirs for later use. And still another bill would create a Great Salt Lake Commissioner who would coordinate between different stakeholders to develop a plan to save the lake and have the power to implement it.

Last year, state lawmakers passed a bill to direct $40 million into efforts to conserve the lake. The federal government also set aside $25 million to "assess, monitor and conserve" saline lake ecosystems in the Great Basin. But the emergency briefing released in January, which outlined recommendations for saving the lake, called for immediate action, not just further study.

"The decisions we make in the coming few months will affect our community and ecosystems across the hemisphere," Ben Abbott, an ecologist at Brigham Young University and the lead author of the study, said in a press release.

Abbott said the lake needs to be fed an extra million acre-feet of water per year to stave off its collapse, which would require a 30% to 50% reduction in water use across the state of Utah. He also said he was encouraged by state leaders and others who were working on solutions.

It's still unclear what bills will pass before the legislative session concludes on Friday, but some lawmakers say they are committed to saving the lake.

"It's nothing less than an existential threat for people on the Wasatch front," Utah state Rep. Doug Owens, a Democrat and co-chair of the Great Salt Lake Caucus, told Bloomberg. "It's not going to be a livable place if the lake disappears. I feel confident that we aren't going to let that happen."

Have a news tip? Contact this reporter at kvlamis@insider.com.

Read the original article on Business Insider
ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek authorities have arrested a 59-year-old man over the collision of a passenger and a freight train in central Greece that killed at least 36 people and injured dozens, government and police sources said on Wednesday.

The station master of a train station in the city of Larissa testified before a prosecutor and was arrested, a government official said.

A police official said that the prosecutor laid misdemeanour charges against him. He has been charged with mass deaths through negligence and causing grievous bodily harm through negligence, the official added.

The man has denied any wrongdoing and has attributed the accident to a possible technical failure, the police official said.

(Reporting by Renee Maltezou; Editing by Christina Fincher)
By Lefteris Papadimas

LARISSA, Greece (Reuters) - When he heard the news of the deadly train crash in central Greece, 24-year-old student Konstantinos rushed to the city where the injured had been taken to search for three friends who had been on the train.

Unable to reach them by phone, the wait has been long and worrying.

"We're here waiting. They're not among the injured, they're not among the dead," said Konstantinos, a fisheries student who declined to give his last name.

"It's tragic. We're just waiting. You don't know what's worse. We're just waiting," he said.

A passenger train collided head-on with a cargo train late on Tuesday, throwing entire carriages off the tracks and killing at least 36 people, many of them students, in the country's deadliest rail crash in living memory.

Passengers described a "nightmarish" crash which shattered their train just before midnight near the central town of Larissa. It had departed from capital Athens and was headed to the northern city of Thessaloniki after a long holiday weekend.

Konstantinos' friends were in carriage five, he said. They were in touch with another friend as the train approached Larissa, telling him that they were almost home. That was the last anyone heard from them.

"When I woke up this morning I couldn't believe what happened," Konstantinos said. "We're on standby. It's soul-wrenching. It eats at you."

Carriages were engulfed by fire, which sent thick plumes of smoke billowing into the sky.

Authorities said the death toll was expected to rise. Temperatures in the first carriage rose to a staggering 1,300 degrees Celsius (2,370F), burning people to death.

Officials said some of the bodies would require DNA testing to identify them.

Inside the overwhelmed hospitals, Konstantinos described scenes of "chaos."

"There's a lot of misinformation. You hear names of hospitals where they sent people, but then it turns out they didn't send them there," he said. "You see politicians coming and going but I find it a bit pointless."

Story continues

Outside the hospital, a priest was offering support to the families and friends of the victims.

"There are no words to describe this," Father Stefanos said. "What can you tell people who lost their children, people who sent what is most valuable to them to study and now they're in a hospital waiting for answers?"

(Reporting by Lefteris Papadimas, Writing by Karolina Tagaris, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)
ROME (Reuters) - Tough Greek border policies might have contributed to decisions leading to the sinking of a migrant boat off Italy on Sunday, killing more than 60 people, by spurring a journey to Italy instead of Greece, Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi has said in an interview.

In an interview with state-owned television RAI, Piantedosi was asked late on Tuesday why migrants setting off by sea from Turkey headed to Italy instead of Greece, which is much closer.

"Greece is implementing policies of strong containment of arrivals on that route, even with pushbacks that are under scrutiny from the European Union," Piantedosi said.

"So that - and survivors will be asked about it - will have probably influenced the decision to come directly to Italy," the minister said.

The boat crashed against rocks off southern Italy, killing at least 67 people, including 16 children, several days after departing from the western Turkish port of Izmir. Dozens of people are still unaccounted for from the vessel, which survivors said may have held up to 200 passengers.

Rescuers said most of the boat's passengers were from Afghanistan, with others from Pakistan, Iran, Somalia and Syria.

There has been public controversy in Italy over whether the coast guard and police could have done more to prevent the shipwreck.

Authorities have said that patrol boats were sent to intercept the migrants, but severe weather forced them to return to port. Police then mobilised search units along the coastline, and found bodies washed ashore.

"Human lives continue to be lost in the Mediterranean, as human smugglers continue to profit by putting people in unseaworthy vessels," the Greek Ministry of Migration and Asylum said in a statement on Wednesday, adding it was imperative that "all irregular crossings are prevented at the point of departure."

Greece has repeatedly denied accusations that it has pushed back migrants and asylum-seekers, saying it intercepts boats at sea to protect its own and the European Unions borders.

Story continues

Greece, like Italy, has long been a key entry point into the European Union for refugees and migrants from the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Hundreds of thousands of migrants have reached Italy by boat over the past decade, fleeing conflict and poverty back home.

The vast majority departed from North Africa, but increasing numbers have left from Turkey over the past two years, including some 16,000 in 2022 -- 15% of all arrivals.

(Reporting by Giselda Vagnoni, additional reporting by Renee Maltezou in Athens, writing by Cristina Carlevaro; Editing by Alvise Armellini and Bernadette Baum)
By Gwladys Fouche and Victoria Klesty

OSLO (Reuters) -Environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg was twice detained during a demonstration in support of Indigenous rights in Oslo on Wednesday, with police removing her and other activists from the finance ministry and later the environment ministry.

Thunberg had on Monday joined protesters demanding the removal of 151 wind turbines from reindeer pastures used by Sami herders in central Norway. They say a transition to green energy should not come at the expense of Indigenous rights.

The demonstrators have in recent days blocked access to some government buildings, putting the centre-left minority government in a crisis mode and prompting Energy Minister Terje Aasland to call off an official visit to Britain.

Norway's supreme court ruled in 2021 that the turbines, erected on two wind farms at Fosen and part of Europe's largest onshore wind power complex, violated Sami rights under international conventions, but they remain in operation more than 16 months later.

Thunberg, holding a red, blue, yellow and green Sami flag, was lifted and carried away by police officers from the finance ministry while hundreds of demonstrators chanted slogans.

"We want to make it very clear that it is the Norwegian state that is committing the real crime here, for violating human rights," she told Reuters minutes before she was removed.

Thunberg and other demonstrators later blocked the entrance to the climate and environment ministry and were again removed by police.

The Swedish activist, for many a global standard-bearer of the campaign to end the world's reliance on carbon-based energy, was released along with other protesters who had also been detained.

Reindeer herders say the sight and sound of the giant wind power machinery frighten their animals and disrupt age-old traditions.

The president of Norway's Sami parliament, an elected consultative body, will meet with the energy minister on Thursday and demand an apology before discussing a solution, she told Reuters.

Story continues

"We need the government to clearly acknowledge that there is a violation of human rights, and then act accordingly and honour the matter with the seriousness it deserves," Silje Karine Mutoka said.

The energy ministry has said the turbines present a legal quandary despite the supreme court ruling and is hoping to find a compromise, but that it could take another year to make a new decision in the Fosen case.

Activists on Tuesday said they had raised close to $100,000 in recent days to help individual demonstrators pay police fines.

(Additional reporting by Nora Buli, writing by Terje Solsvik; Editing by Nora Buli, John Stonestreet and Tomasz Janowski)
POMPTON LAKES, N.J.  When a house in North Jersey exploded while firefighters were inside, officials were relieved that no one was killed.

We were blessed, borough fire official John Keating said at the time, after being asked how nobody died.

Police body camera footage recently obtained by NorthJersey.com, part of USA Today's network, provides a clear look at the blast, showing a large fireball shoot out the rear of the house.

How the chaotic event unfolded

The three officers whose body cameras captured the blast were standing on Riverdale Road, adjacent to the side of the Ramapo Avenue home where six firefighters were inside on Jan. 14 when it exploded, officials said.

According to Keating, they were inside for less than a minute before the explosion at 2:19 a.m.

At the beginning of the videos, smoke can be seen coming out of the dwelling, but no flames are visible. At the time of the explosion, one firefighter is seen standing on the back porch.

The three officers were chatting moments before the explosion suddenly happened, causing them to run from the blast. The force of the blast blew the roof upward. When the officers turned back toward the house, flames could be seen inside the blown-out home and on the grass surrounding it.

Photos taken later that morning show that much of the structure, including the roof, eventually collapsed.

What happened after the explosion?

Right after the explosion, one of the officers is shown running around to the other side of the house, where the entire facing was blown out. That officer can be heard telling responding EMTs to approach the house "from the back."

On another of the officers' body cams, two firefighters can be seen walking a third from the house after the explosion. Someone can be heard saying over a radio, "I need medics here."

More: Drone footage shows dramatic Ohio train explosion

The first attack on the Twin Towers: A bombing rocked the World Trade Center 30 years ago

Story continues

When the firefighters arrived at the scene, a team of three entered the basement, where they believed the fire was, Keating said. Another team of two went in behind them, along with the assistant chief.

I thought we were going to have six fatalities. I really did, Pompton Lakes Fire Chief Jason Ekkers said at the time. They managed to climb out of the basement with compromised stairs. They all helped each other out, they came out one at a time and we were at the back door, just feeding them out.

None of the firefighters suffered life-threatening injuries, though two were taken to the hospital to be treated for burns and were released.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: New video shows moment NJ house with firefighters inside exploded
A royal biographer has said to Yahoo UK that Andrew's financial situation is very different from Harry and Meghan's. (Getty Images)

Prince Andrews uncertain future within King Charless slimmed down monarchy is back in the spotlight with the news that Harry and Meghan are due to be evicted from their UK home of Frogmore Cottage.

Charles has told the Sussexes they must be out of the property by early summer and has reportedly offered the cottage to Prince Andrew, who it is understood has been told by the King to downsize from his Grade II-listed Royal Lodge residence nearby.

Andrew is believed to be reluctant to leave and, as the King seemingly flexes his muscles, one royal expert has said the news highlights the stark difference in financial arrangements between the Sussexes and the Duke of York.

"The Sussexes have shown that they can look after themselves, financially at least, but Andrew can't", Nigel Cawthorne, the author of Prince Andrew, Maxwell, Epstein and the Palace, and multiple other royal books covering subjects such as Harry and Prince Philip, told Yahoo UK.

Read more: Everything Harry and Meghan have been stripped of since leaving the Royal Family

Since stepping back as working royals in 2020 and working to become financially independent, Meghan and Harry have reportedly signed multi-million dollar deals with streaming giants Spotify and Netflix and a multi-book deal with Penguin Random House.

Harrys memoir, Spare, has spent weeks atop bestseller lists, which shows that being the Duke of Sussex can be a lucrative business  and has allowed the couple to pay for security in the US.

Harry and Meghan have signed deals with Netflix and Spotify reported to be worth millions of dollars. (Netflix)

Cawthorne also said that one likely consideration for Charles is that it is better to keep the unpopular Andrew close by and out of the public eye. He added: "As Lyndon Johnson said of J. Edgar Hoover: "It's better to have him inside the tent p***ing out, than outside the tent p***ing in.'"

The Duke of York stepped down from royal duties in 2019, following his disastrous Newsnight interview, during which he attempted to address the allegations levied against him by Virginia Giuffre.

Story continues

Giuffre has alleged that Andrew raped her three times when she was a teenager  Andrew has vehemently and consistently denied these claims.

So there might be a reluctance on the part of the Royal Family to let Andrew leave the fold entirely, something Cawthorne notes does not apply to Harry and Meghan.

In his Yahoo column this week, Omid Scobie  Yahoo UK's executive royal editor  pointed out that despite the rent on Royal Lodge being a pretty meagre 250 per week, the upkeep of the 30-room mansion is a far more significant at around 400,000 per year.

Virginia Giuffre (nee Roberts) submitted this photo as evidence that she had met Prince Andrew at Ghislaine Maxwell's London home.

Andrews allowance from the Duchy of Lancaster  249,000 per year  is coming to an end this April, and so that might be one reason the new King is eager to move his brother into a cheaper property: the five-bedroom Frogmore Cottage.

Andrew is also reported to be considering plans to attempt a return to public life, while  as Scobie has previously reported for Yahoo  one friend of the prince has recently said he has been exploring legal options to clear his name in relation to the allegations made by Giuffre.

"Andrew would be no threat to the monarchy at all if he would just keep his mouth shut and give up this idiotic idea of challenging the ruling in the Giuffre case", Cawthorne said.

Watch: Prince Andrew's moments fleeting in The Crown - likely so we don't feel too sorry for him
The economic punch that 2022 packed was especially difficult for the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank to absorb, but the organization's leaders said Tuesday they remain staunchly committed to providing for those who experience food insecurity across the area.

The food bank kicked off its 32nd annual Harvest for Hunger initiative with nearly 400 people gathered at the John S. Knight Center in Akron for a breakfast and update on the nonprofit's mission.

More:Food pantries in Wayne, Ashland struggle to keep up with rising demand, supply shortages

"The sheer volume of bad news related to the labor market, and supply chain disruptions, and donation shortages, inflation  it just felt like we couldn't get any momentum going," said Dan Flowers, the food bank's president and CEO. "I've never seen anything like it. There were times this past year  2022  when our food list was the shortest I've seen it in my 20 years here. It was a scary time."

And 2023 is starting with more unsettling news for those served by the organization, with pandemic-related SNAP benefits set to expire this month. This year's Harvest for Hunger campaign is aiming to help make up for that by bringing in enough financial and food donations to secure the equivalent of 4.54 million meals for hungry people in the area.

Together with three other foodbanks  Greater Cleveland Food Bank, the Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley, and the Second Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio  Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank uses the Harvest for Hunger campaign to fight hunger across 21 counties.

More:Ohio food banks urge lawmakers to take action amid 'impossible scenario' for many families

Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank President and CEO Dan Flowers addresses the audience during the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank's Harvest for Hunger campaign kickoff breakfast Tuesday at the John S. Knight Center in Akron.

Can the misery of 2020 be topped? Yes, it can

Speaking to the room, president and CEO of the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank Dan Flowers said 2022 was the toughest year of his career, even tougher than 2020, the first year of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite the hardships of soaring food prices and slowing donations, the organization managed to do an incredible amount of work, Flowers said  managing to stay fully staffed and find new ways to procure and supply food.

Story continues

Last year, Flowers said, 79% of the food that passed through the warehouse went out to 600 charities that the food bank supports at no cost to the charities or the recipients.

"When I say that, I'm talking about $30 to 35 million worth of food given away for free in this community as a way to fight food insecurity and poverty at the same time," Flowers said. "Together, we distributed the equivalent of 23.3 million meals last year  over 30 million pounds of food  including 6.9 million pounds of fresh and nutritious produce."

The Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank also served over 11,000 people with mobile food distribution services, and was one of the first food banks in the nation to pilot an online order-ahead program that allows people to choose what goes into their boxes from the pantry.

Drive-thru distributions served a total of 24,000 people. Flowers said that each month, more than 13,000 children were served through the Feeding Kids initiative.

The organization also partnered with Summa Health Systems, Cleveland Clinic Akron General and Akron Children's Hospital to set up food distribution operations inside the hospitals.

In Wayne County, the Wooster Hope Center is the largest partner of the Regional Foodbank, Flowers said after the event. "We do a ton of great work together from pantry operations to large distribution programs."

Richard Frazier is the executive director of the Hope Center. "We're thankful for the foodbank," said Frazier. "We're 100% behind the new strategic plan they are doing to serve communities and neighbors. We are going to see what we can do better on our end, so we reach more people this year."

In addition to completing the construction of its Stark County campus last year, the food bank began renovating its Akron site in November. When completed, it will feature a network partner welcome center, a distribution site on the building's south side, and freezers and coolers with double the capacity of the existing.

Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank President and CEO Dan Flowers addresses the audience Tuesday during the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank's Harvest for Hunger campaign kickoff breakfast at the John S. Knight Center in Akron.

New three-year plan

The foodbank's plan for the next three years is to "deepen our impact" by focusing on five areas: food bankers (the people working at the pantry), the physical food bank, investors, communities and neighbors.

Flowers said a key goal to retain staff, investing in employees through professional development opportunities and a mentorship program.

For the physical facility, Flowers said that the food bank is going to annually review its disaster response plan. Developing an environmental sustainability plan centered on operations is also part of the strategy.

Colleen Benson, vice president of development, took the stage to talk about the agenda for deepening connections with investors and communities.

"To deepen our impact with our investors, first, we will continue to celebrate and engage our army of volunteers," Benson said. "We are launching a new recognition program for our most dedicated volunteers, our can-do crew. We're going to be offering a variety of opportunities for them to further engage in meaningful fellowship together."

Benson added that the food bank is working to fortify relationships with companies and organizations that donate food and money.

Creating stronger connections in the community will involve engaging in robust two-way communications with everyone the food bank serves, said Benson.

"We will explore opportunities for deeper engagement and connection through community advisory committees," she said, "and a partner leadership academy, which is very exciting. These strategies will support a strong foundation of leadership within our network, and make sure the voices of our region are present  represented in the work we do when we're making decisions."

The organization will also expand advocacy efforts by building outreach strategies for local, state, and federal elected officials.

Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank Cice President Katie Carver Reed tells the audience about her food struggles growing up during the Harvest for Hunger campaign kickoff breakfast Tuesday at the John S. Knight Center in Akron.

Reaching out to neighbors

Katie Carver Reed, vice president of the food bank, spoke about how it plans to strengthen its connection with people in the community dealing with hunger in their own lives.

"To deepen our impact with our neighbors," she said, "we plan to listen more intently to the people we serve, soliciting and addressing their feedback all along the way. We'll focus on evaluating and accommodating food needs related to nutrition, and culturally appropriate foods; and we'll expand our partnerships providing services beyond food."

Carver Reed grew up with food insecurity in her own life, and understands the importance of the work she's engaged in now.

"One of the high points for me, working at the food bank, is having the privilege to meet and connect with the families we serve," she said. "Being trusted with people's stories is an honor. It's a constant reminder of why we do this work day in, and day out."

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank kicks off 2023 Harvest for Hunger drive
[Source]

Havana Rose Liu has been added to the cast of Blumhouse Sonys upcoming horror film They Listen.

Liu is best known for her work on the Hulu thriller No Exit. Her other notable credits include a recurring role on Netflixs The Chair, opposite Sandra Oh, and A24s The Sky is Everywhere. She is also slated to star in the MGM feature Bottoms, alongside Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri. The film is set to make its world premiere at SXSW.

They Listen is directed and written by Chris Weitz, whose resume includes films such as About a Boy and The Golden Compass. The films ensemble cast is composed of John Cho, Katherine Waterstone, Greg Hill, Riki Lindhome, Keith Carradine, Ben Youcef and Lukita Maxwell, who plays Cho and Waterstones daughter.

The film is set to hit theaters on Aug. 25.

More from NextShark: Squid Game is the first Korean series to rank No. 1 on Netflix in the US

Enjoy this content? Read more from NextShark!

K-pop girl group Dreamcatcher nab their first music show win since their 2017 debut

Filipino actor Dolly de Leon snags Best Supporting Performance at LA Film Critics Association Awards

Bong Joon-ho Once Lied to Harvey Weinstein in an Epic Troll Move
China urges self-choice on human rights

08:17, March 01, 2023 By WANG QINGYUN ( Chinadaily.com.cn

China will keep following its own path of human rights development and opposes using human rights as a pretext for interference and containment, Foreign Minister Qin Gang said in a UN address on Monday.

China has found a path that meets the trend of the times and suits its national conditions, which is key to its historic achievements in human rights, Qin said in his address to the high-level segment of the 52nd Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

"The right of all countries to independently choose their own path of human rights development should be respected," Qin said in his address delivered via a video link from Beijing, as he also dismissed attempts to "blindly copy" the model of others or impose one's own model on others.

Emphasizing that no country is qualified to act as "the judge on human rights", Qin said that countries should carry out exchanges and cooperation on the basis of equality and mutual respect, and oppose some countries' acts of politicizing and weaponizing human rights issues.

Scheduled to last for more than five weeks, the 52nd Session of the UNHRC opened on Monday as the world faces a number of major challenges, including the threat of recession, food and energy crises and climate change.

Qin said more attention should be paid to the human rights challenges and needs of developing countries and called for the immediate and unconditional lifting of "measures of unilateral coercion", which violate international law and the basic human rights of people of targeted countries.

Countries should commit to promoting and protecting all human rights, the foreign minister said. "Human rights are indivisible," Qin said. "The right to subsistence and the right to development are basic human rights of primary importance. Civil and political rights, and economic, social and cultural rights should be accorded equal attention and advanced in a holistic way."

Comprised of 47 member states elected by the UN General Assembly, the Human Rights Council holds at least three sessions every year.

China has urged the council to avoid becoming "an arena for political confrontation" where some countries make false accusations against China's policies in its Xinjiang and Tibet autonomous regions and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Reaffirming China's position on Monday, Qin said the council should facilitate constructive dialogue and cooperation and added that the UN human rights system should uphold impartiality, objectivity, non-selectivity and non-politicization.

China's stance was shared by other countries participating in the event.

Tran Luu Quang, deputy prime minister of Vietnam, said each country may adopt a different approach suitable to its particular circumstances, and it's vital to understand and respect particular details and seek commonalities, instead of politicization, imposition or interference.

The council must guard against the politicization of human rights, including as a tool for geopolitical rivalry, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said.

Finger-pointing and double standards would divide the council, and the organization should avoid the "us versus them" mentality, she said.

On Japan's decision to discharge nuclear wastewater into the sea, Qin said that countries should urge Tokyo to take the international community's concerns seriously and ask it to treat the wastewater in an open, transparent, science-based and safe manner.

Qin is also scheduled to attend the G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting in New Delhi, India, on Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning announced on Tuesday.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Bakhmut

"There are heavy battles for our Bakhmut," he wrote.

It is painful to see what enemy shells are doing to the town, what they are turning the community into.

He said 4,500 residents remain in the war-torn Donbas town.

"Residents are provided with food, water, and hygiene products," he said.

We continue to deliver bread to the town, twice a week, in an amount of 5,000 loaves.

Reva stressed that it is extremely dangerous in Bakhmut.

"The enemy is mercilessly destroying the town, injuring and killing civilians," his message reads.

To date, Russians have ruined more than 4,400 residential buildings. There is no forgiveness for them.

Earlier, the General Staff noted that the Bakhmut section of the front remains the most difficult sector. In their attempts to capture the town, Russian troops are losing thousands of soldiers killed, while Wagner mercenaries are not counted at all.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)  Jurors in Alex Murdaughs murder trial will get to see for themselves the rural hunting estate where his wife and son were killed, following in the footsteps of other juries that have viewed crime scenes in cases that captured the nations attention.

Crime scene visits by juries are relatively rare but have occurred in a number of other high-profile prosecutions, including the 1995 murder trial of O.J. Simpson and last year's trial of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz.

Murdaugh, the disgraced South Carolina attorney, is accused of killing his wife and son at dog kennels near their home on June 7, 2021, as his career and finances were crumbling. Murdaugh has denied any role in the fatal shootings.

Alex Murdaugh trial live stream, updatesProsecutors drive final nails into murder case

Here's a look at the practice of having juries view crime scenes and some other notable cases:

Evidence shown in Alex Murdaugh's trial for murder shows the Colleton County property where the Murdaughs lived, at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, S.C. on Thursday, Feb. 2, 2023. The judge has agreed with a defense request to let jurors ride 40 minutes to see the sprawling property. The exact date and time of the jury trip has not been scheduled because it is dependent on how many witnesses the prosecution calls in its reply case. (Andrew J. Whitaker/The Post And Courier via AP, Pool)

What happens when a jury visits a crime scene?

In a criminal trial, both the defense and the prosecution can request that juries view a crime scene and it's generally up to the judge to decide whether to approve it. In many cases, it doesn't happen because the trial is taking place years later, so the scene has changed and taking jurors there could provide a false impression of what happened.

In some cases, however, crime scene visits can be useful to give jurors a sense of distance or other physical features that don't come across in photos and other evidence presented in court, said Steven Benjamin, a Richmond, Virginia, defense attorney who is not involved in the Murdaugh case.

It permits a 3D appreciation for what has otherwise been a two-dimensional presentation in court," said Benjamin, a past president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

When jurors are taken to the scene of a crime, they are generally advised not to share their thoughts with one another because deliberations don't begin until both sides are done presenting evidence. The attorneys are typically present but instructed by the judge not to say or point out anything to the jurors, Benjamin said.

Story continues

What it is not is a scene reenactment, Benjamin said.

The front entrance to Moselle, where Maggie and Paul were found shot and killed.

Why does Alex Murdaugh's defense team want a jury to go to Moselle?

The distance between the kennels where the bodies were found and the home where Murdaugh says he had been napping has been a key component of the trial.

Only 16 minutes passed between when the victims stopped using their cellphones and Murdaugh left the house about 1,100 feet (335 meters) from the crime scene. Defense attorney Dick Harpootlian said the jury must see the sprawling 1,700-acre (690-hectare) property to appreciate the spatial issues.

Prosecutors opposed the visit because the scene has changed significantly in the 20 months since the killings. Trees planted between the Murdaugh home and the kennels have grown taller and thicker over that period  blocking the line of sight they allege would have allowed Murdaugh to see the kennel lights when he says he returned from visiting his mother.

Bill Nettles, a criminal defense lawyer and former South Carolina U.S. attorney who is not involved in the case, said the visit could give jurors a sense of scale to make more informed decisions about the timeline and other questions  such as whether Murdaugh could have heard the gunshots across the grounds  that have arisen during the trial.

I can see how both sides can benefit from a jury seeing that, Nettles said. "In the interest of justice, it is probably a good thing for them to see it.

In what other notable US cases has a jury visited a crime scene?

A GPS map routes Murdaugh's drive from Moselle to Almeda on the night of the murders.

The most notable recent example was the sentencing trial for Cruz, who pleaded guilty to killing 14 students and three staff members at Parklands Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

The visit, in that case, was requested by prosecutors, who said jurors needed to see the scene to understand the horror of what happened. The defense vigorously objected, arguing that taking the jurors to the school would play to their emotions and that photos and videos were sufficient.

The building had been sealed off and left largely untouched  except for the removal of victims bodies and some personal items  before jurors visited last year and retraced the steps Cruz took on Feb. 14, 2018. Inside, they saw bullet holes in walls and shards of glass from windows shattered by gunfire. Large pools of dried blood still stained classroom floors.

Evidence shown in Alex Murdaugh's trial for murder shows the Colleton County property where the Murdaughs lived, at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, S.C. on Thursday, Feb. 2, 2023. The judge has agreed with a defense request to let jurors ride 40 minutes to see the sprawling property. The exact date and time of the jury trip has not been scheduled because it is dependent on how many witnesses the prosecution calls in its reply case. (Andrew J. Whitaker/The Post And Courier via AP, Pool)

Nearly three decades earlier, jurors in the Simpson trial toured the scene where prosecutors alleged that he killed his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. Jurors saw the spot where Nicole Brown Simpson and Goldman's bloodied bodies were found on the walkway leading up to her Brentwood condominium.

Prosecutor Marcia Clark said at the time that taking jurors to see the narrow, confined walkway would show the reason why one person could accomplish this, and how the victims were cornered.

Simpson was acquitted of the killings but was later found liable for the deaths in a civil suit.

In 2003, jurors went to the North Carolina home of novelist Michael Peterson where his wife's body was found at the bottom of a staircase. Defense attorneys argued that Kathleen Peterson had died in a 2001 accidental fall.

They were very curious about how far up they can go up that stairwell, said Raleigh News & Observer reporter Demorris Lee, who went with the jurors, according to a Court TV report. Many of them went up to about the fourth, fifth step and would turn back and look, even wave their hands to see, look behind them to see if they can fall or if they can possibly catch themselves.

That trial ended with Peterson's conviction for murder, but a judge later ordered a new trial, and Peterson entered a special plea in 2017 acknowledging prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him of manslaughter.

___

Richer reported from Boston. Associated Press reporter Terry Spencer contributed from Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

___

James Pollard 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.

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Why juries view scenes like Murdaugh estate where Maggie, Paul killed
For beginners, it can seem like a good idea (and an exciting prospect) to buy a company that tells a good story to investors, even if it currently lacks a track record of revenue and profit. Unfortunately, these high risk investments often have little probability of ever paying off, and many investors pay a price to learn their lesson. A loss-making company is yet to prove itself with profit, and eventually the inflow of external capital may dry up.

So if this idea of high risk and high reward doesn't suit, you might be more interested in profitable, growing companies, like Chevron (NYSE:CVX). While profit isn't the sole metric that should be considered when investing, it's worth recognising businesses that can consistently produce it.

Check out our latest analysis for Chevron

How Fast Is Chevron Growing Its Earnings Per Share?

Over the last three years, Chevron has grown earnings per share (EPS) at as impressive rate from a relatively low point, resulting in a three year percentage growth rate that isn't particularly indicative of expected future performance. Thus, it makes sense to focus on more recent growth rates, instead. Outstandingly, Chevron's EPS shot from US$8.16 to US$18.60, over the last year. Year on year growth of 128% is certainly a sight to behold. That could be a sign that the business has reached a true inflection point.

It's often helpful to take a look at earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) margins, as well as revenue growth, to get another take on the quality of the company's growth. Not all of Chevron's revenue this year is revenue from operations, so keep in mind the revenue and margin numbers used in this article might not be the best representation of the underlying business. The music to the ears of Chevron shareholders is that EBIT margins have grown from 13% to 20% in the last 12 months and revenues are on an upwards trend as well. Ticking those two boxes is a good sign of growth, in our book.

Story continues

In the chart below, you can see how the company has grown earnings and revenue, over time. To see the actual numbers, click on the chart.

While we live in the present moment, there's little doubt that the future matters most in the investment decision process. So why not check this interactive chart depicting future EPS estimates, for Chevron?

Are Chevron Insiders Aligned With All Shareholders?

We would not expect to see insiders owning a large percentage of a US$307b company like Chevron. But we do take comfort from the fact that they are investors in the company. Given insiders own a significant chunk of shares, currently valued at US$50m, they have plenty of motivation to push the business to succeed. That's certainly enough to let shareholders know that management will be very focussed on long term growth.

Should You Add Chevron To Your Watchlist?

Chevron's earnings per share growth have been climbing higher at an appreciable rate. That sort of growth is nothing short of eye-catching, and the large investment held by insiders should certainly brighten the view of the company. The hope is, of course, that the strong growth marks a fundamental improvement in the business economics. Based on the sum of its parts, we definitely think its worth watching Chevron very closely. We don't want to rain on the parade too much, but we did also find 1 warning sign for Chevron that you need to be mindful of.

Although Chevron certainly looks good, it may appeal to more investors if insiders were buying up shares. If you like to see insider buying, then this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying, could be exactly what you're looking for.

Please note the insider transactions discussed in this article refer to reportable transactions in the relevant jurisdiction.

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
A teacher accused of hiding cameras in a restroom near an Irvine high school swimming pool has been arrested, California police reported.

Siu Kong Sit, 37, of Santa Ana faces charges including possessing or manufacturing child pornography and burglary, Irvine police said in a news release.

A maintenance worker discovered the cameras in an all-gender restroom at the Beckman High School swimming pool on Monday, Feb. 27, the release said.

Police arrested Sit at the school after an investigation determined he had placed the cameras in the restroom, the release said.

The Tustin Unified School District did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News on March 1.

Investigators found images of several victims on the cameras and are seeking additional victims, police said.

Police ask that anyone with information contact detective Gavin Hudson at 949-724-7168 or ghudson@cityofirvine.org.

Irvine is a city of 310,000 people about 40 miles southeast of Los Angeles.

I felt angry. Man accused of killing 4-H lambs at high school, California cops say

Cop fires gun into elementary school floor in swatting incident, Colorado police say
(KTLA)  An anti-racism protest at Indian Springs High School in San Bernardino, California, turned unruly and led to a campus safety officer using pepper spray on students Tuesday, authorities said.

The protest, which began around 11:30 a.m., started peacefully, but got out of hand when a group of students attempted to enter and disrupt a teachers classroom, according to a statement released by the San Bernardino City Unified School District.

When that group of students refused repeated requests from school staff to return to class, the campus safety officer started to use pepper spray, officials said.

Students pepper-sprayed

Video posted on social media shows a campus security officer detaining a student as another student wrestles with a school official.

Two students were sent to the nurses office for examination and no further injuries were reported, district officials said.

Indian Springs High School was in a precautionary Secure and Hold status from 11:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. while authorities assessed the situation. Normal campus activities resumed thereafter.

The district planned to deploy additional personnel and police officers to the campus on Wednesday.

We have plans to give students opportunities to dialogue with each other and staff so they can express their viewpoints in a manner that is constructive and conductive to greater understanding, said Maria Garcia, Communications Officer for the San Bernardino City Unified School District. We discourage students from engaging in non-peaceful protests because they disrupt teaching and learning and can have negative, unintended consequences.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Can an exhibition of work by a little-known Swedish artist change our understanding of avant-garde art? The history of early 20th-century art seems to be sufficiently set that the spectral appearance of an artist on the periphery of Europe wouldnt change it in any way. However, the phenomenon of Hilma af Klint has opened up completely new avenues of study in our approach to abstraction.

Portrait of Hilma af Klint in her studio at Hamngatan in Stockholm. Circa 1885. Wikimedia Commons

Born in 1862, Hilma af Klint studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm, where she developed a naturalistic style in keeping with her academic education. However, in the shadow of this official painting and, in private, she produced a completely different type of work.

Together with four friends she formed the group De Fem (The Five), which held seances from which they derived sketches and instructions. Using these, Af Klint embarked on composing an abstract, symbolic and complex work that sought to represent the order of the cosmos.

This monumental work that Af Klint began in 1908 is now considered the first manifestation of abstraction.

Seeking inclusion in the canon

Although Af Klints work had been shown in a number of collective exhibitions before, in 2013 the Moderna Museet in Stockholm devoted a monographic exhibition to her , which revealed the breadth and brilliance of her oeuvre.

This had been hidden for 40 years at the artists wish, as she hoped that future society would be prepared to better understand her ideas. This seems to have been the case, as the exhibition was a success with both the public and the critics. After its presentation at home, Hilma af Klint began a tour of the worlds most renowned museums and travelled as far as the Antipodes.

The name of the original exhibition, Hilma af Klint. Pioneer of abstraction, made things clear: the Moderna Museet wanted to claim that the first abstract painter was Swedish. It was an attempt to introduce a new figure into the select canonical group of the great masters of the avant-garde, a woman in an eminently male list. The intention was not to change the narrative of contemporary art, but to complete it with a national figure.

Story continues

That is why in the Stockholm exhibition De Fem only appeared at the end, in a tangential way, so as not to detract from the real and only protagonist. But the exhibition not only launched a new vein of merchandising, but also opened a hitherto veiled window. And out of it emerged the spiritualists.

The emergence of spiritualists

It was not the interest in the supernatural that came as a surprise: the relationship of many abstract artists to the doctrine of theosophy was well known, and some of its fruits, such as Kandinskys Concerning the Spiritual in Art, were widely disseminated. The surprise was that, following in the wake of Af Klint, studies began to emerge of women who, guided by their conversations with spirits, had experimented with abstraction as early as 1861, as in the case of Georgiana Houghton.

Suddenly, new artist mediums were appearing everywhere, and along with them a whole field of research that had previously been neglected. What began in Stockholm as an attempt to include a new actress in a well-structured story - that of the masculine and rational avant-garde where a touch of spiritualism coloured the narrative  became an inescapable change of gear. Hilma af Klint was not a pioneer, but a leading member of a social and artistic impulse that went beyond her and had left a strong mark on the more experimental avant-garde.

New avenues for a richer and more complex history

The appearance of new authors has in turn encouraged the study of the relationship of other avant-garde artists with spiritual doctrines, and has made it clear that the occult, the esoteric and the spiritual had a fundamental place in the avant-garde.

Altarpiece, No. 1, Group X, Altarpieces, de Hilma af Klint. 1907. Photo by Albin Dahlstrom/ Moderna Museet. Wikimedia Commons

It is also becoming clear that the protagonists of these trends were mainly women. As the artist Olivia Plender said, it is not surprising that the mediums were female, since speaking with the voice of another could be the only way to be heard. Nor is it surprising that these artists, writers and influencers of their time have been left in the shadows of a profoundly heteropatriarchal art history.

Now, the window that Hilma af Klint opened for us is widening, and another field of study is asking for its place in the foundations of the avant-garde: dance, closely related to esotericism and oriental cultures.

In 1944, Af Klint wrote in his will that his works would not be shown until 40 years after her death, when the world would be more ready to understand them. She was optimistic. It has taken almost twice as long, but it seems we are finally getting there.
Ahead of King Charles coronation, the monarch has reportedly offered Harry and Meghans U.K. residence to Prince Andrew.

Should the Duke and Duchess of Sussex  more familiarly known as Meghan and Harry  choose to attend King Charles coronation on May 6, they will reportedly not be able to stay at Frogmore Cottage, which was gifted to them by Queen Elizabeth. Following multiple reports out of the U.K., a spokesperson for the couples Archewell Foundation confirmed to People magazine that the Sussexes  and presumably, their two young children  have been requested to vacate the residence they have retained on the grounds of Windsor Castle, which King Charles has reportedly offered to the scandal-plagued Prince Andrew.

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex leave Westminster Hall on Sept. 14, 2022, in London.

(Photo by Nariman El-Mofty  WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Buckingham Palace has yet to release a statement on what the BBC described as a private family matter. However, Yahoo UK Royal Executive Editor Omid Scobie, who also co-authored Finding Freedom, the bestselling chronicle of the couples divestment from the royal family, reported his sources said the move has left Harry and Meghan stunned, and at least two members of the Royal Family appalled.

A sense of surprise might be warranted, given that as Harry and Meghan further settled in California and loaned Prince Andrews daughter Princess Eugenie and her young family use of the residence in early 2021, a source stated, per People: Frogmore Cottage continues to be the Duke and Duchess of Sussexs residence in the U.K., and they are delighted to be able to open up their home to Princess Eugenie and Jack as they start their own family.

That may no longer be the case, but the couple was all smiles as the news broke Tuesday night, and they dined out in Los Angeles, their first public outing since the publication of Harrys bombshell memoir, Spare. In fact, reports that Meghan and Harry had been asked to relinquish Frogmore Cottage first surfaced in January, only days after the books publication, notes the BBC.

Story continues

Spare included explosive claims about King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla, Prince William, and Princess Kate, and proved a new breaking point in the already tenuous reconciliation between the Sussexes and the British royal family. Following the couples March 2020 exodus from royal life, their subsequent interview with Oprah in March 2021 further strained the relationship, and despite the deaths of both Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth in the nearly two years since, there has been little progress in repairing it. The rift deepened with both the publication of Spare and the December 2022 premiere of Harry & Meghan, the couples docuseries for Netflix.

Similarly, the Sussexes image and goodwill continue to suffer in the British media. British tabloid The Sun was the first to report the eviction of the couple from their U.K. home, a term gleefully latched onto as the news made the rounds in international media. Notably, The Sun is the same outlet that published a deeply misogynistic op-ed by Jeremy Clarkson in which the columnist proclaimed his visceral hatred for Meghan and fantasized that she be paraded naked through the streets and shamed, as was a character in a scene from Game of Thrones. Its also worth noting that in addition to Meghans successful legal battle against another British tabloid, The Daily Mail, at least one analysis revealed a coordinated campaign of social media hate against the former actress-turned-princess.

As noted by a Sussex spokesperson in response to Clarkson: [T]his is not an isolated incident shared in haste, but rather a series of articles shared in hate.

The puppets for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at the Feb. 7, 2023, world premiere of Idiots Assemble: Spitting Image Saves the World, at the Birmingham Rep Theatre. (Photo by Jacob King/PA Images via Getty Images)

Nevertheless, Harry has continued to declare his hope for an eventual reconciliation with his estranged family, telling ITVs Tom Bradby in January [h/t People], the door is always open. The ball is in their court. Theres a lot to be discussed, and I really hope that they are willing to sit down and talk about it.

There is also no reason to assume the Sussexes had any immediate intention of giving up their U.K. residence. In 2019 they refurbished the property at their own expense, converting it from a 10-bedroom estate into a five-bedroom, single-family home and eventually reimbursing taxpayer money used to do so through the Sovereign Grant. The couple even celebrated daughter Lilibets first birthday at Frogmore Cottage while visiting the U.K. in 2022. Harry and Meghan have not confirmed their attendance at King Charles coronation, which takes place on the same date as son Archies fourth birthday. As of early February, an invitation hadnt been extended.

Coincidentally, Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, is also provided residence by the Sovereign Grant and has long lived in the nearby Royal Lodge, a 31-bedroom estate he shares with ex-wife Sarah Ferguson. Having fallen into disgrace following revelations of his longstanding friendship with Jeffrey Epstein and settling the civil sexual assault case brought against him by Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre for an undisclosed sum, Andrew has also stepped down as a working royal. As a result, the BBC reports he is rumored to soon have his annual grant cut, forcing him to downsize by August of this year.

He is said to be resisting the offer of the smaller property, according to a source quoted by the Sun, the BBC reports.

TheGrio is FREE on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, and Android TV. TheGrios Black Podcast Network is free too. Download theGrio mobile apps today! Listen to Writing Black with Maiysha Kai.

The post Home is where the hatred is: Meghan and Harry reportedly evicted from Frogmore Cottage appeared first on TheGrio.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee has voted to advance legislation that would give President Joe Biden the power to ban TikTok in the US along with other apps owned by Chinese companies. The panel approved the the Deterring Americas Technological Adversaries (DATA) Act in a 24-16 vote. All Republicans on the panel were in favor while every Democrat voted against the bill.

There are several more steps that the bill needs to go through before it becomes law. The full House and the Senate would have to pass it, and Biden would have to sign the bill. Still, it's a notable step forward for the latest attempt to ban TikTok in the US entirely.

Republican committee chair Michael McCaul introduced the DATA Act (PDF) only last week. McCaul expects the bill to go to a full house vote later this month, according to Reuters.

The legislation would grant the president the power to enact sanctions, including bans, on any company that the Treasury Secretary deems "knowingly provides or may transfer sensitive personal data of persons subject to United States jurisdiction to any foreign person that is subject to the jurisdiction or direction" of China. The same applies to a foreign person or company that "is owned by, directly or indirectly controlled by, or is otherwise subject to the influence of China."

Democratic members of the Foreign Affairs Committee claimed that the legislation was too broad. It would "damage our allegiances across the globe, bring more companies into China's sphere, destroy jobs here in the United States and undercut core American values of free speech and free enterprise," Rep. Gregory Meeks, the ranking Democrat member, said. He suggested that the legislation as is could lead to sanctions against businesses in Korea and Taiwan that supply semiconductors and other parts to Chinese companies.

"A US ban on TikTok is a ban on the export of American culture and values to the billion-plus people who use our service worldwide," TikTok wrote on Twitter. "We're disappointed to see this rushed piece of legislation move forward, despite its considerable negative impact on the free speech rights of millions of Americans who use and love TikTok."

Story continues

"Congress must not censor entire platforms and strip Americans of their constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression," American Civil Liberties Union senior policy counsel Jenna Leventoff said in a statement. "Whether were discussing the news of the day, live streaming protests, or even watching cat videos, we have a right to use TikTok and other platforms to exchange our thoughts, ideas, and opinions with people around the country and around the world." Leventoff called the bill "vague, overbroad and unconstitutional."

TikTok has faced a growing backlash in recent months over concerns that the Chinese government may obtain user data from the app. Owner ByteDance is headquartered in Beijing, but TikTok claims it doesn't share data with the Chinese government. By last summer, TikTok was routing all US data to Oracle servers based in the country. It pledged to delete US users' private data from its own servers.

Nevertheless, the US government has banned the app from federally owned devices, this week giving agencies 30 days to make sure it's gone from phones and tablets they operate. Most US states, the European Union, Canada and Quebec are also preventing their employees from using TikTok on state-owned devices.

TikTok has been trying for years to convince US officials that it's not a threat to national security in an attempt to evade a complete ban. The company's CEO Shou Zi Chew is set to testify before the Energy and Commerce Committee on March 23rd to discuss privacy, as well as TikTok's influence on kids and its links to China.
A House Democrat is seeking to add criminal provisions to a federal law that bars federal employees from electioneering, naming his amendment after former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway.

Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), who played a central role in impeachment of then-President Trump, is seeking to update the Hatch Act through an amendment to a GOP-led bill dealing with free speech.

The so-called Kellyanne Conway Amendment from Goldman would create a felony provision for a law that ethics watchdogs often describe as relatively toothless, particularly for those serving at high levels of government.

The Hatch Act bars promotion of a presidents political interests during the course of administration officials performing official duties, but its consequences are largely limited to disciplinary action and leaves no method for addressing conduct of those who have left government employment.

Under Goldmans amendment, willful violators could face up to two years of jail time as well as facing a fine of up to $1,000 if they use their office for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election.

Conway dismissed Goldman as a crappy lawyer [and] creepy stalker after he mentioned her eight times in a release about the amendment.

Todays stunt by that TV lawyer guy with 15 minutes of fame and zero accomplishments in Congress is why so Americans believe their representatives in Washington focus on themselves and not the people, she said in a statement to The Hill.

Like many others, he misunderstands the Hatch Act, which makes clear that an employee retains the right to express his opinion on political subject and candidates, Conway said, adding that her comments included factual, non-political statements.

Conway was the subject of numerous Hatch Act complaints while serving as an aide to Trump, with a 2019 Office of Special Counsel (OSC) report ultimately recommending that the president bar her from federal service due to repeated incidents in which she appeared to campaign for the president while on the clock.

Story continues

In that report, it noted she appeared to scoff at the lack of consequences under the law.

If youre trying to silence me through the Hatch Act, its not going to work, Conway said in a 2019 gaggle with reporters.

Let me know when the jail sentence starts, she added.

Conway was cited for comments on Fox News and CNN disparaging former Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) during his runoff election campaign against Roy Moore in December 2017, including when she said the then-candidate was weak on crime and would be a vote against GOP-backed tax cuts.

OSC later noted that she repeatedly posted political messages on social media in the weeks before the 2018 election, and cited Conway for repeatedly attacking Democratic presidential candidates during the partys 2020 primary, making jabs at Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and then-candidate Joe Biden by name during TV interviews.

Ms. Conway failed to comply with OSCs requests and, in fact, escalated her partisan critiques of candidates after OSC had communicated to the White House that her conduct violated the law. In sum, Ms. Conway continues to violate the Hatch Act and signals that she will not comply with the law, the report stated.

A 2018 report from the office found she violated the Hatch Act 22 times, though accounting from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which itself lodged Hatch Act complaints against Conway, asserted she may have violated the law more than 50 times.

Trump declined to discipline Conway for the Hatch Act violations, suggesting at the time that OSC was infringing on Conways free speech.

A government watchdog in October 2021 found then-Biden White House press secretary Jen Psaki violated the Hatch Act by appearing to endorse Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe (D) at a briefing with reporters. OSC later confirmed the violation. Psaki said she took the complaint seriously.

Goldmans amendment was offered to a bill from House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) aimed at prohibiting federal employee censorship set to be reviewed by the panel Tuesday, something he said is already barred under law.

I am offering the Kellyanne Conway Amendment to address a truly serious issue: that the Trump administration wantonly and repeatedly violated the Hatch Act prohibition against using the official power of the government for partisan political purposes, he said.

Though the Hatch Act itself only contains civil penalties, a sister statute bars coercing federal employees into political activity and carries a three-year prison sentence.

Brett Samuels contributed.

Updated 7:48 p.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A House Republican is eyeing legislation that would prevent Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) from profiting off his fabrications if he is convicted of an offense involving financial or campaign finance fraud, intensifying his opposition to Santos amid the embattled congressmans growing controversy.

Rep. Anthony DEsposito (R-N.Y.)  who was the first House Republican to call on Santos to resign amid questions about his biography and finances  is circulating a bill and a resolution that bear some differences but would both prohibit members of the House found guilty of an offense involving financial or campaign finance fraud from receiving compensation for biographies, media appearances or expressive or creative works.

The bill, titled the No Fortune for Fraud Act, would create a law prohibiting House lawmakers convicted of such offenses from profiting off their fabrications, while the resolution, titled the No Fame for Fraud Resolution, would amend House rules to make such a regulation for those who are indicted, according to copies of the legislation obtained by The Hill.

The measures do not specifically mention Santos, but asked Tuesday if they are meant to target the New York Republican, DEsposito told The Hill, its one of those things that if the shoe fits, wear it; in his case, even if the shoe doesnt fit he still wears it.

Additionally, a Republican with direct knowledge of the move told Politico  which first reported on the measures  that the legislation was triggered by Santos.

Santos has not been convicted of any offenses, but a number of entities have received formal complaints about the congressman or are said to be looking into him amid questions about his finances. Outlets reported in December that the U.S. Attorneys Office in the Eastern District of New York was looking into Santoss finances and financial disclosures, and the House Ethics Committee has received a complaint about the congressman that accused him of failing to file timely, accurate and complete financial disclosure reports.

Story continues

The New York Republican told Axios on Tuesday that he has not been convicted of any crime.

Santos has drawn significant scrutiny since being elected in November to represent New Yorks 3rd Congressional District amid questions about his background and finances.

The freshman lawmaker has admitted to embellishing parts of his work history and falsely claiming that he graduated from college. Questionable aspects of his financial disclosure reports are further fueling the controversy surrounding him.

Lawmakers from both parties have called on Santos to resign. Two of those Republicans  Reps. Marc Molinaro (N.Y.) and Nick Lalota (N.Y.), both of whom are freshman  are co-sponsoring DEspositos bill, according to Axios.

Despite that mounting pressure, however, the New York Republican has vowed to remain in Congress.

Let me be very clear, Im not leaving, Im not hiding and I am NOT backing down, he wrote on Twitter earlier this month. I will continue to work for #NY03 and no amount of Twitter trolling will stop me. Im looking forward to getting what needs to be done, DONE!

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A vial of human papillomavirus vaccine. (iStockphoto/Getty Images)

The vaccine for human papillomavirus, or HPV, works best when given to children in late childhood and early adolescence  before theyre sexually active  according to some experts. While public health officials recommend the vaccine to prevent cancer, its up to the states to determine which vaccinations are required for students.

Lawmakers in two states have recently proposed legislation on the roles schools should play in HPV vaccination.

In California, the Cancer Prevention Act was introduced in February with the goal of adding HPV vaccine to the list of vaccines that both private and public school students must receive before entering the eighth grade, at around 13 or 14 years old. According to the proposed legislation, medical exemptions would be allowed.

Hearings on the bill will begin this month. If signed into law, it could go into effect next year and make California the fourth state to mandate the vaccination, behind Rhode Island, Hawaii and Virginia, along with Washington, D.C., which already requires middle schoolers to be vaccinated against HPV.

In Iowa, however, multiple bills have been introduced to eliminate a requirement that has been in place since 2007 that schools inform seventh and eighth graders about the HPV vaccine. One of the bills advanced out of an Iowa House subcommittee a few weeks ago and would make HPV vaccine education optional. However, general instruction about sexually transmitted diseases, including HPV, would remain a requirement, the Gazette reported.

Another bill, which was proposed by Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, aims to restrict education around gender identity and sexual orientation for younger students, but it also includes a provision that would strike down the requirement that schools teach about HPV and the HPV vaccine. Iowa lawmakers heard from constituents about the bill last week and the legislation is heading to a full Senate committee and possibly to the Senate floor for debate, according to local news outlet KCRG.

Story continues

To learn more about HPV, the HPV vaccine and why receiving the vaccine at an earlier age is more beneficial, Yahoo News spoke with Dr. Abigail Zamorano, assistant professor of gynecologic oncology with the McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston.

What is HPV? Who is affected?

Teenagers hang out in a park. (Image Source/Getty Images)

HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States, affecting about 80% of men and women at some point in their lives, Zamorano explained. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 13 million Americans, including teens, become infected each year.

Most people dont know that theyre ever affected by it because its one of those viruses that we get and then our body fights off, Zamorano said. Most people are asymptomatic from this infection and for that reason, we dont typically think about it like a sexually transmitted infection, even though that is how its classically passed from one person to the other, she added.

According to the CDC, HPV most commonly spreads during anal or vaginal sex. However, it can also spread without intercourse through close skin-to-skin contact during sex. A person who is infected can pass HPV to another even if they exhibit no signs or symptoms. A person can also get the virus even after engaging in sex with only one person.

Zamorano said that while most people clear the virus on their own, many people  for reasons not yet well understood  do not. Thats when HPV can become a problem, she said.

In some people ... it can linger and their bodies dont fight it off, and its with this lingering infection that [HPV] can cause cellular changes that can then lead to precancer or cancer.

What types of cancer can HPV cause?

Cervical cancer cells. (iStockphoto/Getty Images)

HPV is responsible for almost all cervical cancers, over 95% [of them], Zamorano said, adding that it can also cause vaginal and vulvar cancer in women. But the virus can also lead to other types of cancers that can affect men, including penile, anal and throat cancer.

Even though there are over 100 different types of HPV, only about a dozen of them are high-risk strains. Two of them  HPV16 and HPV18  are responsible for most HPV-related cancers.

Doctors normally monitor HPV through Pap smear tests, which can detect abnormal cervical cells or lesions. When the cell changes that are observed in the cervix are only mildly abnormal, they arent considered a problem. Most of the time, Zamorano said, these low-grade lesions clear up on their own. However, more serious changes, or high-grade lesions, can contain precancerous cells. If left untreated, they can turn to cancer over time.

The CDC advises women who receive a cervical cancer diagnosis to see a gynecologic oncologist who can then discuss the different types of treatments that are available. Some of these can include surgery to remove cancer tissue, radiation and chemotherapy.

Is the HPV vaccine safe and effective?

In 2006 the Food and Drug Administration approved the first HPV vaccine.

The vaccine is one of those really amazing contributions of science in the last couple of decades, Zamorano said. As soon as it was introduced and started to be used, we really started to see a decline in cervical precancers ... and weve now also started to see declines in cervical cancers that can be really attributed to this vaccination strategy and to vaccinations of especially, you know, younger adolescents, she said.

Infections with HPV types that cause most HPV cancers and genital warts among teen girls have decreased by 88% since the HPV vaccine became available, according to CDC data.

The most current HPV vaccine given to people in the U.S. is called Gardasil 9. The shot, Zamorano said, is very effective and helps protect against nine different types of HPV. The most common side effects of the shot are mild and can include pain, redness or swelling at the injection site, as well as dizziness, nausea and headache.

Early vaccination is the most effective

A nurse administers a vaccination. (iStockphoto/Getty Images)

The CDC recommends that everyone through age 26 get the HPV vaccine. Vaccination after that isnt as effective because more people in this age range were exposed to HPV already, the agency notes. Immunizing a person before they come into contact with the virus is what works best, the CDC says.

Children ages 11 to 12 years old should get two doses given six to 12 months apart, according to the CDC. However, children as young as 9 can receive the shot.

Those who get the vaccine when they are 15 or older should receive three doses given over six months.

But Zamorano said there are many reasons why doctors recommend vaccination to start as soon as children qualify for the shot. Besides achieving immunity against the virus before sexual activity begins, she said, theres compelling evidence that vaccinating in late childhood and early adolescence may lead to more robust protection against the virus.

Theres some data that shows that people who are vaccinated earlier in life have a more robust response to the virus than perhaps people who are vaccinated later. Were still figuring all of this out, but there is pretty compelling [evidence] to say that earlier vaccination might be a really good thing.

While the CDC recommends that the vaccine series start at 11 years of age, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) actually recommends that the HPV vaccine series begin between the ages of 9 and 12. In a recommendation statement, the organization said this is an age that the provider deems optimal for acceptance and completion of the vaccination series. There is also no known downside to starting the series earlier, the AAP said.

Getting vaccinated against HPV earlier could improve immunization rates in adolescents, a retrospective study published this week found.

In the study, children who started the HPV vaccine series at age 9 or 10 were compared with those who began at ages 11 to 12. The research showed that those who initiated the vaccine series earlier were more likely to complete all the doses by age 13 (74% vs. 31.3%) and age 15 (91.7% vs 82.7%).

While adolescent HPV vaccination coverage in the U.S. has improved in recent years, it remains well below that of other adolescent vaccines.

The National HPV Vaccination Roundtable, a coalition of about 70 organizations whose mission is to improve HPV vaccination rates in the U.S., notes that adolescent (13-17 years) HPV vaccine coverage, as assessed in 2020, has continued to increase in the United States (75% having received at least 1 HPV vaccine dose, compared to 72% in 2019; 59% up-to-date, compared to 54% in 2019), but still trails coverage of Tdap vaccine (90%) and quadrivalent meningococcal conjugate vaccine (89%).

Zamorano told Yahoo News that she believes schools providing information on HPV and HPV vaccines, or requiring the shot, is a good public health measure.

We have a real opportunity to completely eradicate cervical cancer. But its only going to happen if enough people in the population get vaccinated that we can drive down HPV to the point where its not causing problems, Zamorano said.

For parents who are unsure about vaccinating their children, the UTHealth physician advises that they should talk to their doctors and think of the HPV vaccine as a cancer prevention tool.

I think that the biggest message  especially since we think that theres so much more value in this vaccine when given to a younger population  is really trying to separate out this from being a vaccine against a sexually transmitted disease, because that does have a lot of stigma, Zamorano said.

I definitely understand, like, as a parent myself, I understand ... you want to do the best thing for your child and ... you dont want to think about the fact that, in however many years, theyre going to be sexually active. But ... think about this much more as a cancer prevention vaccine, like, you dont want your child to have oral or penile or cervical or vulvar cancer in the future. So youre doing everything that you can to help protect them when its the best time to do so, she added.
Ejecta streaming from Dimorphos about a day after the DART impact.

In September 2022, NASA deliberately crashed its DART spacecraft into a small asteroid some 6.8 million miles from Earth, in an attempt to redirect its trajectory as a test-run for any future rock that might threaten Earth.



Now, the Hubble Space Telescope has compiled imagery taken of the target rock, Dimorphos, before and after the September crash test. The images have been stitched together to create a timelapse movie of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission.



Read more

Ground telescopes picked up grainy footage of the violent event, but Hubble also captured the hour-or-so before the event and the days after.

The timelapse starts at 1.3 hours before the DART spacecrafts impact into Dimorphos, according to a European Space Agency release. The first image taken after the impact is around 20 minutes after the event; if you look carefully, you will see lines of dust and debris kicked up by the impact.



Hubble Captures Movie of DART Asteroid Impact Debris

About 17 hours after the impact, the ejected debris changes shape due to interactions between Dimorphos and its larger partner asteroid, Didymos. The gravitational pull of Didymos yanks the debris toward it, causing the ejecta to take on a pinwheel pattern.

But the pinwheel doesnt last. As time passes, the lightest particles of debris fly the farthest from the asteroid, and the debris field becomes more diffuse. At a greater distance (around the 16-second mark in the video) the debris tails split in two.

Shortly after the September test, NASA scientists determined that Dimorphos orbit had indeed been changed by about 32 minutes, proving that humankind can redirect the trajectory of bodies in space.

The DART team is a winner of the 2023 Gizmodo Science Fair, for its successful effort in changing Dimorphos trajectory. The experiment, which wasnt guaranteed to work, provides the first steps toward a viable strategy for planetary defense.

Story continues

More: The Last Images From Doomed Space Probes

More from Gizmodo

Sign up for Gizmodo's Newsletter. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.
A group of human rights attorneys have filed a joint submission urging the United Nations to review abusive solitary confinement practices used in the U.S. against Black Americans.

The submission, which comes ahead of U.N. officials April trip to the U.S. to review issues related to racial justice and equality in law enforcement, details the physical and mental health repercussions of solitary confinement.

The visit is part of a four-point agenda to end systemic racism and human rights violations by law enforcement against Africans and people of African descent. It comes after the Biden administration extended an invitation to the U.N. in December.

A lot of times theres a focus on pretrial work and bail reform, which is incredibly important. But sometimes we lose sight of what happens to people post-conviction, said Delia Addo-Yobo, staff attorney for Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights U.S. Advocacy and Litigation program, one of the organizations involved in the submission.

More often than not, the people who are put in custody, pretrial or post-conviction, theyre returning to society, theyre coming back home and its really tragic that theyre having these deep psychological and physical wounds placed upon them.

More than a third of people held in solitary confinement become psychotic or suicidal within the first 15 days, according to the submission. Those who have been subjected to solitary confinement are 78 percent more likely to die by suicide within a year of being released from prison.

There have also been reports of those who have spent time in solitary confinement experiencing hypertension, chronic headaches, trembling, sweaty palms, extreme dizziness and heart palpitations.

Solitary confinement can also exacerbate pre-existing conditions and cause hypersensitivity to light and eyesight deterioration.

Because of these effects, the submission says, solitary confinement is considered torture under international law.

Story continues

Addo-Yobo told The Hill one of the reasons the submission focused on Black people is because not only are they more likely to face incarceration than white Americans, they are also more likely to be placed in solitary confinement.

Black men make up 40.5 percent of the total male prison population and more than 43 percent of men in solitary confinement, according to a 2019 study by the Correctional Leaders Association and the Liman Center at Yale Law School. Meanwhile, Black women make up only 21.5 percent of the total female prison population but 42 percent of women in solitary confinement.

The United States also has a very long and unfortunately active history of weaponizing solitary confinement against Black people, Black political prisoners and people exercising their constitutional rights, Addo-Yobo said.

The submission specifically mentions the Angola 3: For decades, Albert Woodfox, Herman Wallace and Robert King were held in solitary confinement in Louisianas Angola Prison, a former slave plantation, as punishment for their membership in the Black Panther Party. Woodfox survived 44 years in solitary confinement, the longest a person has been held in isolation in the United States.

Theres little evidence to show that solitary confinement improves safety in the jails and prisons, and theres actually evidence that shows that it has the opposite effect, Addo-Yobo said. It doesnt keep people safer while theyre in jail. It doesnt keep prison guards or correctional officers safe from jail. And it doesnt keep people who are incarcerated safe while theyre there, either.

In fact, studies have found that recidivism rates for those leaving solitary confinement were 35 percent higher than those who had not been held in solitary confinement.

Addo-Yobo said she hopes the submission will highlight the work of organizations trying to reform solitary confinement rules, including those working to pass legislation akin to the International Mandela Rules, which would prohibit those who are incarcerated from spending more than 15 days in solitary confinement.

She also wants to see mandatory public data reporting on how long and how many are in solitary confinement in local, state and federal prisons and jails, youth centers and immigration detention centers.

We also hopefully want to tell the stories of folks who are suffering because this is an everyday occurrence, and we would like to see this practice banned, especially as a form of punishment for prolonged periods of time, Addo-Yobo said.

That includes an immediate ban on solitary confinement for those who have disabilities and for young people, she added.

We want the United States to join the rest of the world in banning and strictly limiting the use of solitary confinement, Addo-Yobo said. Its torture, and I believe the United States is better than torture.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
By Gergely Szakacs

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz party will back the ratification of Finland and Sweden's bid to join NATO, the party's parliamentary group said on Wednesday, as lawmakers began the process after a months-long delay.

The announcement followed calls by Hungary's president and a government official to swiftly endorse expansion of the Western defence alliance in response to Russia's year-old invasion of neighbouring Ukraine.

Sweden and Finland applied last year for membership in the transatlantic military pact after Russian forces swept into Ukraine. But all 30 NATO members must ratify the applications, and Sweden has faced objections from Turkey for harbouring what Ankara considers to be members of terrorist groups.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday talks with Sweden and Finland on their NATO membership bids would resume on March 9, although he said Sweden had still not fulfilled its obligations under a memorandum signed last year.

With Hungary's ratification process stranded in parliament since July, nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban aired concerns about Sweden and Finland's NATO membership for the first time last Friday.

Among other criticisms, Orban has accused both countries of spreading "outright lies" about the quality of democracy and rule of law in Hungary.

While Fidesz lawmakers said bilateral meetings in the two Nordic countries would still go ahead next week, for the first time since Budapest's concerns surfaced, they also made clear they would swing behind their NATO entry.

"We will provide our support to Finland and Sweden's NATO accession," the ruling party, which along with a junior partner controls just over two-thirds of seats in Hungary's parliament, said in a statement.

Opening a general debate of the legislation on Wednesday, both President Katalin Novak and a Foreign Ministry official urged lawmakers to ratify Finland and Sweden's NATO entry "as soon as possible".

Story continues

Only around a 10th of Hungary's 199 lawmakers attended the opening debate on the process, with a final vote not expected until the second half of March.

"The expansion of NATO to Finland and Sweden is a significant step towards strengthening the security of the euroatlantic region," Foreign Ministry State Secretary Peter Sztaray said, speaking to a nearly empty chamber.

"The countries wishing to join meet all conditions of NATO entry," he said. "Finland and Sweden's NATO membership serves our foreign policy, security and economic interests and it also strengthens NATO."

Speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said he hoped the vote would be positive after Hungarian lawmakers meet counterparts in Sweden and Finland.

Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said on Tuesday Hungary intended to send a parliamentary delegation to Finland on or around March 9 for discussions on Helsinki's NATO bid.

(Reporting by Gergely Szakacs, Jason Hovet, Alan Charlish and Gabrielle Tetrault-Farber; editing by Christina Fincher, Alex Richardson and Mark Heinrich)
DUBAI (Reuters) - The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Grossi will visit Iran on Friday for high-level meetings, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Wednesday.

The visit comes amid discussions with Tehran on the origin of uranium particles enriched to up to 83.7% purity, very close to weapons grade, at its Fordow enrichment plant, a report by the watchdog seen by Reuters confirmed on Tuesday.

Iran has rejected the claims of enrichment up to that level.

The head of Irans Atomic Energy Organisation, Mohammad Eslami, said on Wednesday that the Islamic Republic's production is at 60 percent according to state media.

(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
Photograph: Ozan Kose/AFP/Getty Images

The international criminal court (ICC) in The Hague is being asked to investigate the Turkish government for alleged crimes against humanity in its pursuit and persecution of opponents around the world.

A panel of European legal experts has compiled a dossier of witness testimonies giving details of torture, state sponsored kidnapping, and wrongful imprisonment of about 200,000 people, said to have been carried out by the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The dossier is due to be delivered on Wednesday to the chief ICC prosecutor, Karim Khan.

Turkish officials have committed crimes against humanity against hundreds of thousands of opponents of the Erdogan regime, the submission says. These crimes amount to a widespread and systematic attack against a civilian population, meeting the threshold for the ICC to launch proceedings against high ranking officials of the Erdogan regime.

Related: Turkey fines broadcasters for coverage critical of earthquake response

Turkey is not a signatory to the Rome Statute that established the ICC, but the Turkey Tribunal, an investigative body set up in 2020 by lawyers and human rights groups to collate evidence and witness testimonies, said that at least some of the alleged crimes were carried out on the territory of 45 ICC member states, as Turkey has pursued its perceived enemies well beyond its borders. Therefore, the tribunal argues, the ICC has jurisdiction.

The ICC presentation says there were 17 cases of enforced disappearance in which victims were abducted from Kenya, Cambodia, Gabon, Albania, Bulgaria, Moldova, Mongolia and Switzerland and taken back to Turkey. The targets were linked to the opposition movement, led by US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen, designated as a terrorist organisation after Gulen was accused of being behind a failed coup attempt in 2016, which was followed by hundreds of thousands of arrests inside Turkey.

On 14 October 2019, Osman Karaca was seized by unidentified men, believed to be Cambodian counter-terror police, while visiting a bank in Phnom Penh. Karaca, aged 49 at the time, is a Turkish-born teacher, who had been a school headteacher in Cambodia before moving to Mexico in 2011 where he was a college principal until late 2018. He had feared that he was being watched by Turkish intelligence because he had been working in a school linked to the Gulen movement. In 2019, Karaca took up an invitation to return to Cambodia to work at a school whose owners were related to members of the Cambodian government, thinking he would be safe there.

Story continues

After being held incommunicado for four days, Karaca was handed over to Turkish authorities who flew him back to Turkey on a small government jet. He was convicted of leading an armed terrorist group in the 2016 coup attempt, despite the fact he had left Turkey for Cambodia in 2002.

The tribunal says Karaca is just one of many Turks living abroad who have been designated as terrorists because of links to Gulenist schools or other institutions. The tribunals submission to the court also includes statements on the torture of 800 people, which it says describe in detail how torture has been inflicted on a large and consistent scale.

The Turkish foreign minister has so far not responded to a request for comment.

This should be investigated, said Johan Vande Lanotte, a former Belgian deputy prime minister and human rights law professor, who helped set up the tribunal and is leading the effort to persuade the ICC to open an investigation. The universal basic principles of international law are being violated.

The Turkey Tribunal points out there is a precedent for investigating the crimes of a non-signatory state. In 2019, the ICC decided it could investigate Myanmars ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims, even though Myanmar did not recognise the courts authority, because many of the victims had been deported to Bangladesh, which is an ICC signatory. Therefore, the tribunal argued, elements of the crime had been committed in a member state.

In the case of Turkey, it argues, the crimes were committed on the territory of 45 party states, for which the ICC has territorial jurisdiction. These specific crimes are related to some 1300 victims.

Vande Lanotte said: We had the United Nations Working Group on Forced Disappearances look into this, the UN Human Rights Committee, the European court of human rights, and even judges in Turkey itself, and nothing has been done, so this is the last possibility for justice.
Playalinda Beach at Canaveral National Seashore has had nude sunbathers for some time. Until recently, theyve mostly managed to keep to themselves.

STORY: 2 young men dead, suspect in custody after shooting at apartment Caroline Square

But Hurricane Nicole damaged or destroyed most of the beach access on the north part, and thats led to some unexpected encounters.

Now, the park service is working to resolve the issue.

A sign at Playalinda Beach advises beachgoers they may encounter nude sunbathing within Boardwalk 13. However, a Brevard County couple said there was no warning for what they encountered closer to Boardwalk 5 last weekend.

STORY: WATCH: Fishing boat caught up in shark feeding frenzy off the coast of Louisiana

Its a pretty long walkway, beach visitor Daniel Donaldson said. You get down there, and its completely full of nudists.

Donaldson and his wife headed south, but the nude sunbathers drifted south.

Theres obviously lots of families with kids that are on the beach, he said. There were some just on the other side of our tent, and just nudists walking all the way through and in front of kids.

STORY: Eli Lilly to cut insulin prices, cap costs

Due to damage from Hurricane Nicole, there is no access to any of the boardwalks north of Boardwalk 7. That includes Boardwalk 13, which is traditionally used by nude sunbathers. There is no federal law against simple nudity on any federal land.

The Canaveral National Seashore has made reopening Boardwalk 13 a priority, and it could happen as soon as Saturday.

In addition to Boardwalk 13, Canaveral National Seashore may open one more before weekend crowds return.

CLICK HERE for original WFTV article.

STAY UPDATED: Download the Action News Jax app for live updates on breaking stories
(Bloomberg) -- India is seeking to convince Moscow and Beijing to go along with a consensus on describing Russias war in Ukraine, similar to the one reached by leaders of the Group of 20 nations last year, a senior official with knowledge of the matter said.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Efforts are on to bridge differences ahead of the meeting of G-20 foreign ministers starting later Wednesday, the official said, asking not to be identified because the discussions are private. The latest round of meetings of the grouping comes as Vladimir Putins war has entered a second year.

A meeting of G-20 finance ministers and central bank heads over the weekend failed to reach a consensus on the language to describe Russias aggressions in Ukraine, forcing host India to issue a chairs summary instead of a traditional joint communique. Russia and China deviated from the Bali formula, objecting to the use of the word war, Indias Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said after the finance heads meeting ended.

The official said New Delhi had also pushed at the finance heads summit to stick to the language of the Bali G-20 statement from last November. However, it was unable to get China and Russia to agree, resulting in an impasse.

At a media briefing ahead of the ministers meeting, Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra said Russias war in Ukraine would be part of the discussions. However, New Delhi cannot prejudge the outcome of the foreign ministers meeting.

India stands behind the final statement that emerged from last years leaders summit in Indonesia, Foreign Ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi added.

Just hours ahead of the meeting, Russias Foreign Ministry in a statement, accused the US and the European Union of terrorism and of instigating its aggression in Ukraine, hinting at the difficulties New Delhi is set to face to get all the member nations on the same page.

Story continues

We are set to clearly state Russias assessments of the current security, energy and food situation, the statement added.

The Foreign Ministry in Moscow didnt immediately respond to an email request for comment.

China Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning repeated that her nations position is clear: The core of which is promoting peace talks.

We hope the international community will play a constructive role in de-escalating the situation and facilitating a political settlement to the crisis, she said Wednesday at a regular press briefing in Beijing.

At last Novembers summit, the joint declaration referred to the war in Ukraine but not Russias war in Ukraine to get as many G-20 leaders to sign off as possible.

Beijing and Moscows coordinated moves at G-20 illustrate a growing closeness even as the many nations led by the US have imposed stringent sanctions to isolate and punish Russia for its war in Ukraine. India, which is buying increasing amounts of discounted crude and is heavily dependent on military hardware from Russia, doesnt want to be dragged into either camp.

New Delhis primary focus is to make the G-20 a success, the official said without clarifying whether India would again publicly name countries that deviate from the Bali consensus and block a joint statement.

--With assistance from Philip Glamann.

(Updates with comments from Indian foreign ministry.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Harry and Meghan pictured inside Frogmore Cottage. (Netflix)

For more of Omid's exclusive columns for Yahoo, click here

With the Sussexes still unable to access royal police protection when in the UK, there is just one remaining space that meets the family of fours security needs when visiting  Frogmore Cottage.

Just five minutes walk from Windsor Castle, and ensconced within the Metropolitan Police-led ring of steel surrounding the Windsor Estate, the couples British home has become Prince Harry, Meghan, Archie and Lilibets only sufficiently secure refuge in the country since their access to armed police protection was taken away in 2020.

Their official UK residence, which is covered by the Mets Royalty and Specialist Protection Unit, made it easy for the family to spend time with the Queen during their June 2022 visit, and its where Harry and Meghan have based themselves during multiple stays since moving to California.

Though the Sussexes travel with their own private security team, royal protection officers provide a level of security  including access to essential intelligence information  that is already deemed necessary for other members of the Royal Family.

Read more: Its time for Andrew to realise that a comeback is never going to happen

The 19th-century Grade II-listed sanctuary hasnt come without controversy  especially after 2.4m of taxpayer funding was spent in 2019 on exterior and structural changes before the couple moved in. But, after stepping away from their royal roles in January 2020, public furore was quickly shut down after the duke and duchess repaid the amount in full.

Alongside the unprecedented sovereign grant reimbursement was also a large sum paid by the couple to the Crown Estate covering the rent on the property for the foreseeable future.

Frogmore Cottage has been home to the Sussexes for a number of years. (PA Images via Getty Images)

But now, less than three years into that long-term lease, Prince Harry has been dealt a crushing blow after his father, King Charles, announced he is evicting the family from their Windsor property  a decision made shortly after his revealing memoir, Spare, was released in January.

Story continues

At a time when communication between Harry and his family has reached an all-time low, further details provided to the couple by the institution have been scant. The property, they were told, is needed for someone else. Its news, sources tell me, that has left Harry and Meghan stunned, and at least two members of the Royal Family appalled.

That someone else now has been revealed as Prince Andrew. The late Queens disgraced son  who was stripped of his royal titles and patronages amid underage sex abuse allegations by Jeffrey Epstein survivor Virginia Giuffre (which the Prince has denied)  was last week offered the keys to Frogmore by King Charles after being warned he must downsize from his Royal Lodge mansion by August.

The Indian Kiosk in the grounds of Frogmore Cottage. (Alamy)

Harry and Meghan have until early summer to vacate, a source shares. Initially they were given just weeks, but now they have at least until after the coronation. (No word yet on whether the couple will be attending said coronation  invites arent being sent to its 2,000 guests until next week).

The decision on the Sussexes home is a clear sign of just how sour relations between the King and his son have become. Given the timing of the news, its hard not to view it as a response to his sons literary tell-all, which is said to have left the monarch spitting mad.

Watch: Inside Lilibet's first birthday party at Frogmore Cottage

It all feels very final and like a cruel punishment, says a friend of the couple. Its like [the family] want to cut them out of the picture for good.

With Harrys High Court challenge against the Home Office over a decision not to allow him to pay for police protection in the UK still in progress, the loss of Frogmore Cottage means that the Sussexes will soon be without a base in the country which provides the level of home security senior members of the Royal Family have access to. No alternative accommodation has been offered.

Read more: Stop pretending to be shocked by Harry's book  he's following his own father's footsteps

But despite the risks, and the prospect of grandchildren Archie and Lilibet not being able to visit in the future, King Charles is sticking firm to his eviction notice. The monarch, Im told, has focused his priorities elsewhere. I think the King is just fed up with the entire situation, says a royal source. A Buckingham Palace spokesman refused to comment.

Andrew has not yet given an answer to the offer, but with King Charles ending his annual 249,000 grant in April, it has become abundantly clear that he can no longer afford to live in Royal Lodge without the additional funding from the 652.8m Duchy of Lancaster Fund, also known as the Privy Purse.

Though The Duke of York pays just 250-a-week rent for the 30m mansion, maintenance and running costs of the 30-room, 98-acre property are his responsibility and come close to 400,000 per year. Since moving in 19 years ago, he has had to spend over 7.5m on essential renovations alone.

King Charles and Harry's relationship has worsened over time - the pair at the Queen's committal service during a brief truce last year. (Getty)

He has until autumn to leave but is resisting, adds an insider, who confirms that it was Charles who personally offered Frogmore to his brother. The King is also reportedly covering the cost of private, unarmed security for Andrew, estimated to be close to 3m a year.

Its not the first time the future of Frogmore Cottage has been discussed without Harry present. Last summer, the Prince William briefly had his eyes on his brothers seven-bedroom home before choosing the nearby Adelaide Cottage for his family. A source said William had questions about whether Harry and Meghans home could be an option. The optics would have been terrible though, they added. A Kensington Palace spokesperson has been contacted for comment.

Over the past six months, several meetings about the future of a number of royal properties have taken place between Charles, William and keeper of the Privy Purse Sir Michael Stevens  a long-serving senior aide who will have played a considerable role in the decision on the Sussexes Windsor residence.

At the time of starting renovations in 2018, both Harry and Meghan saw Frogmore as a forever home. It was a property that a member of their Palace team once dubbed to me as the little house that could because of the dire state it was in when they first viewed it.

Prior to getting the keys, the cottage had spent more than 90 years split into five separate units for estate workers. It was really tatty but they did so much to turn it back into a proper home, so many personal touches and so much of it on a tight budget, a friend said at the time.

Frogmore Cottage is set in the extensive grounds of Windsor Castle. (AP)

Adds a source, This is not just some random rental they keep for convenience. Every drawer is full, every closet is packed Its a real family home.

Now, as they start arranging for items to be shipped over to the US, the Sussexes last remaining high security space in Britain is just weeks away from being handed to someone else. To the couples friends and former royal security personnel who have been privy to the volume of threats received by the couple over the years, especially Meghan, the news will no doubt be worrying.

In November, former head of counter-terrorism policing in England Neil Basu confirmed just how many of those threats came from British-based far-right extremists during his tenure. "If you'd seen the stuff that was written and you were receiving it, the kind of rhetoric that's online, if you don't know what I know, you would feel under threat all of the time," he said. We had teams investigating it. People have been prosecuted for those threats.

Last year a legal representative for Prince Harry detailed why sufficient security was so important to the royal. Prince Harry inherited a security risk at birth, for life. He remains sixth in line to the throne, served two tours of combat duty in Afghanistan, and in recent years his family has been subjected to well-documented, neo-Nazi and extremist threats, the statement said. While his role within the institution has changed, his profile as a member of the Royal Family has not. Nor has the threat to him and his family.

That troubling point, it seems, appears to have gone completely over King Charless head.
The intelligence community has determined that unexplained health incidents referred to as Havana Syndrome that have afflicted hundreds of government officials in recent years were not caused by a foreign adversary, knocking down a main theory among victims and experts.

The assessment, compiled by the CIA and six intelligence agencies, also said the U.S. found no evidence that the symptoms experienced by American intelligence officers, diplomats and other government employees were the result of an intentional weaponized attack, according to two U.S. intelligence officials.

The finding undercuts a years-long narrative, propped up by more than a thousand reports from government employees, that a foreign adversary used pulsed electro-magnetic energy waves to sicken Americans.

We cannot tie a foreign adversary to any incident, said one of the U.S. intelligence officials, who, like the other, was granted anonymity to speak more freely about the assessment.



Investigators studied more than 1,500 reports from across the U.S. government that detailed symptoms ranging from headaches to dizziness, the intelligence officials said.

There is no one explanation for any of this, the second U.S. intelligence official said. We believe that what these officers are reporting is real.

The officials said most agencies involved in the assessment determined it was very unlikely that a foreign adversary was involved. Of the seven agencies, two had moderate-to-high confidence in that assertion, three had moderate confidence, and two said it is unlikely an adversary was involved but did so with low confidence, the officials said. The officials did not provide the names of those agencies.

The assessment is based not just on a lack of evidence but also existing evidence that actually points against a foreign actor being involved, the second official said.

The assessment also found that no foreign adversary has a weapon or collection device that is causing the incidents. Two agencies said they had high confidence in that determination, three had moderate confidence, and two had low confidence because they believe radio-frequency energy is a plausible cause.

Story continues

The intelligence community assessment released today by ODNI reflects more than two years of rigorous, painstaking collection, investigative work, and analysis by IC agencies including CIA, CIA Director Bill Burns said in a statement. We applied the agencys very best operational, analytic, and technical tradecraft to what is one of the largest and most intensive investigations in the agencys history.

Initial reports about the mysterious syndrome first emerged in 2016 among U.S. and Canadian diplomatic staff in Havana, Cuba. The diplomats complained of hearing piercing sounds coming from one direction and acute nausea and vertigo. In the years that followed, hundreds of additional U.S. government workers reported symptoms that aligned with those initial health reports.

The buildup of reporting prompted lawmakers and various agencies throughout the U.S. government to investigate potential reasons for the unexplained health incidents.

The intelligence assessment briefed to reporters Wednesday contradicts previous findings from various government groups.

In 2020, the National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine said it found that the most probable cause of the syndrome was directed, pulsed-radio frequency energy. A year later, administration officials told Congress they were increasingly worried about the reporting and that there was a chance a foreign adversary  potentially Russia  was using a weapon to target Americans. And a panel of experts put together by the intelligence community also found that an external energy source could have caused the symptoms and that a foreign power could have been involved.



When the reports initially emerged, intelligence officials said medical studies suggested that the incidents represented a new medical syndrome that looked similar to a traumatic brain injury. Now, they said, that medical thinking has evolved and the intelligence community found that the symptoms did not fall into any discernible patterns.

The two intelligence officials said the seven agencies looked at reports spanning 96 countries. Some of the reports took place on different continents on the same day.

When the intelligence community initially launched its investigation two years ago, analysts approached the probe with the assumption that a foreign actor was targeting Americans intentionally with portable technology. But as they examined the data more closely, those assumptions did not hold, the officials said.

Analysts and officials contacted other governments to understand the extent to which their employees were experiencing similar symptoms. Those governments did not indicate that they had received an upswell in those kinds of reports.

I want to be absolutely clear: These findings do not call into question the experiences and real health issues that U.S. government personnel and their family members  including CIAs own officers  have reported while serving our country, Burns said.
Flag of Ukraine

Putins disastrous miscalculations reflect a leader increasingly detached from reality and surrounded by a shrinking circle of sycophants intent on telling him what he wants to hear. The delusional Russian dictator appears to have been convinced that Ukrainian military resistance would crumble in a matter of days and genuinely expected invading Russian troops to be welcomed as liberators. Instead, his own army has suffered catastrophic losses amid a series of battle-field defeats that have shattered Russias reputation as a military superpower.

The strength and tenacity of Ukraines national resistance has stunned Putin and made a mockery of his claims to be returning historic Russian lands. Nevertheless, as the war enters its second year, he shows no signs of abandon-ing his imperial ambitions. In recent months, Putin has moved to replenish the ranks of his depleted army by launching Russias first mobilization since World War II. Meanwhile, earlier attempts to shield the Russian public from the hor-rors of the invasion have been replaced by grim warnings to expect a long and bitter war.

While Putin continues to publicly insist he will achieve his objectives in Ukraine,many commentators are now questioning whether the Russian military retains the capability to mount large-scale offensive operations. Russias recent mobi-lization has generated an additional 300,000 troops, but much of this intake is poorly trained and appears prone to rapid demoralization. Moscows hopes of a collapse in international support for Ukraine also look unrealistic. Ukraines partners have begun 2023 by significantly expanding the range of weapons they are prepared to supply, while US President Joe Bidens recent Kyiv visit was designed to send a strong signal of unwavering Western resolve.

Despite the setbacks of the past twelve months, Russia continues to enjoy con-siderable advantages over Ukraine in terms of both destructive power and sheer numbers. Could this eventually be enough to turn the tide in Moscows favor? As the invasion of Ukraine enters its second year, the Atlantic Council asked a range of experts whether Putin still has a pathway to victory in Ukraine.

Story continues

Alyona Getmanchuk, Director, New Europe Center: Putin can still win if the West allows him to win. This could happen intentionally if Western leaders actively seek to avoid humiliating Putin, or less directly if Ukraine does receive the weapons it needs in time. We should be very clear that every single post-poned political decision or delayed delivery of weapons brings Putin closer to victory. As Russias invasion passes the one-year mark, it is time to lift any re-maining psychological barriers over the categories of weapons that can be sentto Ukraine. Putin is now completely committed to winning the war at all costs, but Ukraines international partners are still struggling to send just 10% of the available Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine despite a long and painful debate over theissue. This needs to change.

There should no longer be any illusions over the possibility of peace in Europe if Putins invasion of Ukraine is even partially successful. A fragile ceasefire or acompromise agreement imposed on Ukraine would reward Putin for his inva-sion and set the stage for the next war. The only way to secure a sustainable peace is via a decisive Ukrainian victory. It will then be up to the Kremlin pro-paganda machine to explain this defeat to the Russian public.

It is profoundly depressing to note that we are now entering the second year ofa genocide in the heart of Europe with Russian victory still a possibility. The mere fact that this is even being discussed illustrates the utter inadequacy of the international reaction to Russian aggression. Clearly, a far tougher re-sponse is necessary if Putin is finally to be stopped.

Diane Francis, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council: Putin has no path to victory because Ukrainians will never surrender until Russia is expelled from their country. Last years invasion took Ukraine and the international com-munity by surprise, but over the past 12 months the worlds strongest military coalition has taken shape to support Ukraine and enlarge NATO to prevent fu-ture incursions by Moscow. Russias armed forces have not won a major battle since last June. More than half of Putins initial invasion force of 190,000 men have been killed or wounded. Russian losses in tanks, armor, and aviation havebeen equally catastrophic.

Russia is now struggling to advance at Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, where Putins generals sacrifice human waves of untrained conscripts and merce-naries and are still unable to break through Ukrainian defenses. Each side pre-pares new offensives, but Russias armed forces have been seriously degraded and impaired from doing so, according to the Institute for the Study of War.

Ukraine has already liberated around half of the land captured by Russia duringthe initial months of the invasion. Meanwhile, the Western world is currently more united behind Ukraine than ever and has recently agreed to provide new categories of weapons including tanks and long range missiles. Key factors such as support, time, money, motivation, and leadership all appear to be on Kyivs side. Perhaps most important of all, Ukrainians refuse to accept anythingshort of victory. As President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has stated, Ukrainians are not ready to give away their land, to accept that these territories belong to Russia. This is our land.

Miriam Kosmehl, Senior Expert Eastern Europe, Bertelsmann Stiftung, Germany: As the war enters its second year, Putin still has a number of poten-tial pathways to victory in Ukraine. A great deal will depend on whether Ukraine is provided with the military aid it needs to defeat Russia on the battle-field.

Putin is clearly preparing for a long war. The genocidal rhetoric on Russian TV and from senior Kremlin officials has not changed. He has also painted himself into a corner by declaring the annexation of four partially occupied Ukrainian regions, thereby creating major constitutional obstacles to any future peace process. Perhaps most importantly, it is now obvious that Putin is completely unconcerned by the scale of Russian losses in Ukraine and does not fear a do-mestic backlash.

While Russias military options in Ukraine currently appear limited, the Kremlin continues to communicate effectively to both Russian and international audi-ences. Tailored messages about food security resonate in Africa, while Russian charm offensives and anti-Western posturing have proved persuasive in Latin America and Asia.

If the alliance of liberal democracies that has formed around Ukraine over the past year limits its support to preventing a Ukrainian defeat, then the war will drag on. This will feed Ukraine fatigue and play into Putins hands. President Zelenskyy appears to understand this, which is why he has recently sought to increase the pressure on Ukraines allies by calling for greater urgency.

Western leaders need to understand that the idea of a compromise peace is anillusion. Putin only hints at a readiness for negotiations in order to weaken the Wests resolve and drive a wedge between Ukraine and its partners. In reality, Russia remains committed to Ukraines destruction as an independent state and as a separate nation.

Alexander Motyl, Professor of Political Science, Rutgers University-Newark: Everything depends on how Putin himself defines victory. Could Putindefeat Ukraine on the battlefield without massive casualties? Almost certainly not, as the Russian army is degraded, the Ukrainian army is performing well, and Ukraines Western-supplied weapons outclass Russias.

Could Putin win the war if he accepts enormous losses of up to a million men killed and wounded? This also seems unlikely, as Ukrainian battlefield skills andWestern weapons should enable Ukraine to hold its own. In this second sce-nario, the main problem for Putin would probably be the Russian reaction. Would domestic audiences tolerate such catastrophic losses? Would the Rus-sian elite not object? The probability of protests or a palace coup rises with ev-ery dead Russian soldier.

Alternatively, Putin could simply choose to define victory in terms other than Ukraines battlefield defeat. Victory could mean holding onto at least some of the Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia since February 24, 2022. This could be sold to the Russian public as a major advance for the Russian World. How-ever, some Russians might question whether gaining control over relatively limited areas of devastated Ukrainian territory really warranted such huge sac-rifices.

Putins best option may be to rebrand the war entirely and insist that Russia is actually fighting against Western (or more precisely American) imperialism rather than Ukrainian Nazis. This narrative is already being actively promotedand has in recent months begun to increasingly dominate Russian propaganda.It enables Putin to magically transform his Special Military Operation into a defensive action intended to forestall an imminent Western invasion of Russia via Ukraine. And since Russia still exists despite all Western efforts to destroy it, Putin can claim success and declare victory.

Suriya Evans-Pritchard Jayanti, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council: Courtesy of Ukraines stunning defense, Putin has lost all paths to vic-tory except through attrition, but this still poses a major threat. With superior numbers (however reluctant those troops are) and far greater resources, Putin can still realistically hope to outlast Ukraine if, as many fear, Western military support for Ukraine continues at its present pace or actually declines. Neither side currently enjoys a meaningful military advantage. This bloody stalemate favors Putin while Russia continues to pulverize Ukraines economy and energy sector.

Unless Western governments begin equipping Ukraine to actually win the war rather than simply not lose too badly, time is on Russias side. This is the tragicreality of the current situation. Russias sheer size may trump Ukraines resolveand dedication in the long run. If the watching world fails to step up its military and energy sector support to Ukraine, this inspiring, nascent democracy that is so eager to join with the West may well be ground slowly out of existence by the relentless brutality of Putins war machine. If Russia is allowed to erase Ukraine in part or in whole, the consequences for international security will be catastrophic.

Brian Mefford, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council: Like the Byzantine emperors who tried to restore the glory of Constantinople following the Fourth Crusade, Putins attempt to restore the Soviet Union is also destinedfor failure. In the most optimistic scenario for Putin, the overwhelming weight of the Russian military could yet achieve a Pyrrhic victory in which the bulk of eastern Ukraines Donbas region might be taken, with areas south of the Dnipro also remaining under Russian occupation.

Some commentators argue that Russia always fights badly during the first yearof a war but then mobilizes to win. However, this observation neglects the fact that Russia does so only when defending its own territory. Historically, Russia has almost always performed poorly when invading other countries.

Putins goal is still to install a puppet regime in Kyiv. However, he wasnt able to do so a year ago with his best troops. This objective is even less feasible now with Ukraine armed to the teeth and his own military badly depleted. A more realistic scenario would see economic hardships created by the war fuel-ing ethnic rivalries and regional secession within Russia. These factors could eventually accelerate the Balkanization of Russia into a dozen new countries. Putin dreamed of regime change in Ukraine, but he is now more likely to bring regime change to Russia itself.

Kristina Hook, Assistant Professor, Kennesaw State University: Putins imperial dreams against Ukraine and the global order have irreversibly shat-tered. Russian goals have deteriorated from boasts of Kyiv in three days to straining for smaller Ukrainian towns at the cost of thousands of soldiers. Putin cannot realistically hope to overcome catastrophic losses in troops, officers, or equipment. Nor can he repair what he really cares about, namely Russias global reputation under his leadership.

Now that Putins intention to subjugate Ukraine through massive civilian target-ing is indisputable, democracies must remain resolved that no pathway back tobusiness as usual with Russia exists. Encouragingly, even Western leaders who were slower to accept the permanent schisms caused by Russias full-scale invasion are now signaling their commitment to Ukrainian victory. Never-theless, Putin must be prevented from snatching limited successes from the jaws of defeat. Western political courage to boost defense production and avoidincrementalism must match the historical significance of the moment.

On the information front, Western leaders must champion the strategic impor-tance of Ukraines full victory to their constituents. This is vital as Putin excels in propaganda that blames the victims of his revanchism instead of his own strategic incompetence and callous cruelty. Finally, without judicial prosecutionof Putin and the return of trafficked Ukrainians including children, a hollow vic-tory would demonstrate to other authoritarians that they can operate without full accountability.

Michael Bociurkiw, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council: Lets beblunt. Had former US President Barack Obama responded to Russias annexa-tion of Crimea in 2014 with lethal weaponry for Ukraine instead of sanctions, Russian forces wouldnt be in Ukraine at the moment. It was a miscalculation ofhistorical proportions, the consequences of which Ukrainians and regional neighbors are forced to live with to this day.

Putins hopes of victory hinge on what happens between now and the next ma-jor Russian offensive. Russian forces are reportedly beefing up their air strength in Belarus and other areas close to Ukraine. Moscow, taking advan-tage of the gap before Western main battle tanks arrive, could succumb to the temptation to strike with a mix of waves of men, cruise missiles, modified Ira-nian-built drones, and cyber attacks.

The biggest challenge now is for the West to expedite shipments of ammuni-tion, tanks, and missiles to the Ukrainian battlefront. It is regrettable that it took Western leaders so much time to send lethal weaponry to Ukraine; deliv-eries should now include missiles capable of striking legitimate military targets within Russia.

A huge obstacle to a victory for Putin in Ukraine is the irrepressible resilience ofthe Ukrainian people. Day in and day out over the past year, Ive witnessed first-hand how the residents of Odesa and elsewhere in Ukraine have turned fear into anger and hopelessness into optimism. It is a response which, more than weaponry and sanctions, will deny Putin the ability to dictate the future arc of history.

Andreas Umland, Analyst, Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Stu-dies: It is still possible to imagine a number of Russian military offensives with the potential to achieve victory. For instance, Russia could make an attempt to cut Ukraine off from vital supply lines of weapons flowing into the country across the western border with the EU. So far, there is little indication of any preparations for such an ambitious operation, which may indicate that it is sim-ply beyond Russias current military capabilities.

Another option available to the Kremlin would be a mass killing event designed to shock Ukraine into surrender, such as the use of nuclear weapons or an or-chestrated accident at a dam or nuclear power plant. However, desperate mea-sures of this kind would be unlikely to break Ukrainian resistance and could easily have the opposite effect. This approach would also run the risk of stiffen-ing Western resolve while alienating many of Russias remaining partners such as China and India.

With the war now entering its second year, Putins chances of achieving a deci-sive military victory are clearly fading. If the Russian armys fortunes continue to deteriorate in the coming months, Ukraine and its international partners should brace themselves for massive pressure from Moscow as the Kremlin seeks to secure a ceasefire.

This story was originally published by the Atlantic Council. NV is republishing it with permission.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)  Iran said Wednesday it has expelled two German diplomats over Berlin's alleged interference in its internal affairs.

The move comes a week after Germany expelled two Iranian diplomats over a death sentence handed down to Jamshid Sharmahd, an Iranian-German dual citizen and opposition figure accused of masterminding deadly attacks.

Irans Foreign Ministry said it had also summoned the German ambassador over excessive demands, without elaborating.

Germanys Foreign Ministry said Iran's latest move was completely unjustified.

With its (earlier) expulsions the German government reacted in an appropriate way to the death sentence against and the massive breach of the rights of German citizen Jamshid Sharmahd, it said in a statement, adding that the German diplomats had done no wrong.

Iran has repeatedly summoned European diplomats in recent months as it has accused Western countries of being behind nationwide anti-government protests, without providing evidence.

The protests erupted over the death of a young woman in the custody of Iran's morality police in September. The protesters deny having any foreign agenda and say they are fed up with decades of corruption, poor governance and Islamic theocracy.

Germany expelled the two diplomats a day after Iran sentenced Sharmahd, who had been residing in Glendora, California, prior to his detention. Iran accuses the 67-year-old of leading the armed wing of a a group committed to restoring the Western-backed monarchy that ruled Iran before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Sharmahd's family says he was only a spokesman for the opposition group and deny he was involved in any attacks. They say he was abducted from Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, in 2020 and spirited into Iran.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock summoned Iran's charge d'affaires last week to protest against the death sentence.

Baerbock has said that Sharmahd, who lives in Glendora, California, did not have even the beginning of a fair trial and that consular access and access to the trial had been repeatedly denied. She has also alleged that he was arrested under highly questionable circumstances, without elaborating.
(Bloomberg) -- Iran expelled two German diplomats after the government in Berlin condemned the Islamic Republic for the sentencing to death of a German-Iranian political activist on terrorism charges.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The move announced Wednesday by the foreign ministry mirrors the expulsion of two Iranian diplomats by Germany last week after Iran said it handed the death penalty to Jamshid Sharmahd, a US-based activist who was arrested by the Islamic Republic while traveling in Dubai in 2020.

Germanys foreign ministry called the expulsion of its diplomats arbitrary and unjustified and again condemned Sharmahds sentencing as a massive violation of his rights.

Tensions between Tehran and Berlin have escalated significantly in recent months over Irans deadly crackdown on widespread anti-government protests, its advancing nuclear program and its sale of military drones to Russia for use in its war on Ukraine.

Germany has strongly condemned Irans use of force and executions to quell the unrest and has led efforts to tighten European Union sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

Sharmahd has German and Iranian citizenship but was based in California where he led a dissident group that campaigned for an end to Irans theocracy. He is accused of being involved in a 2008 bomb attack on a mosque in Shiraz that killed 14 people.

He and his family have denied the charges, according to London-based rights group Amnesty International, which said in a report last year that authorities in Tehran had tortured him in order to obtain a forced confession.

--With assistance from Iain Rogers.

(Updates with statement from German foreign ministry in third paragraph)

Story continues

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran on Wednesday declared two German diplomats as personae non gratae and ordered them to leave the country, accusing Berlin of interfering in Tehran's judicial affairs.

The move came after Germany expelled two employees of the Iranian embassy in Berlin last week in response to Iran sentencing a German national to death.

"The two German diplomats are being expelled due to Germany's irresponsible interference in Iran's internal and judicial affairs," state media quoted Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani as saying.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran will act firmly against excessive demands."

Germany has called on Iran to revoke the death sentence handed out to German-Iranian national Jamshid Sharmahd on charges of "corruption on earth". The verdict can be appealed.

Iran accuses Sharmahd, who also has U.S. residency, of heading a pro-monarchist group accused of a deadly 2008 bombing and planning other attacks in the country.

Tensions between Iran and the West have intensified in recent months, pushing already-stalled efforts to revive talks on Tehran's nuclear programme further into the background.

Germany has been a vocal backer of European Union sanctions against Iran over its crackdown on protesters in the country. The bloc plans to widen the measures to include Iranian actors involved in the Russian war in Ukraine.

(Reporting by Elwely Elwelly; Editing by Parisa Hafezi and Gareth Jones)
Iran could produce enough material to develop a nuclear bomb within 12 days, a senior Pentagon official told lawmakers on Tuesday.

Colin Kahl, the undersecretary of Defense for policy, said Tehrans nuclear development progress has been remarkable since the Trump administration withdrew from a nuclear pact in 2018.

In 2018  it would have taken Iran about twelve months to produce one bombs worth of fissile material, Kahl told lawmakers at a House Armed Services Committee hearing. Now it would take about twelve days.

The United Nations nuclear watchdog recently warned Iran has enriched uranium at one nuclear site up to 83 percent, close to the 90 percent enrichment level needed to produce weapons-grade material.

About 192 pounds of Irans uranium stockpile is already enriched up to 60 percent and the nation could produce several bombs, according to the UN, but it would likely take months to fit those onto missiles.

Negotiations between the Biden administration and Iran on restarting a key nuclear pact to constrain Tehrans ability to produce nuclear weapons have stalled in recent months.

Kahl said the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is on ice and not on the horizon in the near term for the Biden administration.

The administrations position remains that a diplomatic deal to put constraints around Irans program remains the best alternative to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, he told lawmakers.

But the president has also made clear that his policy is Iran will not get a nuclear weapon  period, he added. And if a diplomatic outcome is not possible, then we have other options.

The JCPOA, enacted in 2015 during the Obama administration, lifted sanctions on Iran in return for restrictions on Tehrans ability to enrich uranium to levels where it could be developed into nuclear weapons.

Story continues

Trump scrapped the agreement in 2018, calling it a bad deal for the U.S. before reimposing sanctions on Iran.

The Biden administration began indirect negotiations with Iran in April 2021 to revive the deal, but talks dragged out and no deal emerged.

In December, a video surfaced of President Biden saying at a rally last year the Iran nuclear deal was dead but his administration was not going to announce it.

When asked to comment on the video, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby acknowledged there was no progress with the Iran deal.

We dont anticipate any progress, anytime in the near future, Kirby told reporters at the time.

Russias war in Ukraine has also raised tensions between Tehran and Washington. Iran has reportedly been shipping explosive drones to Moscow for months.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Iranian officials said young girls have been poisoned in about 30 schools across the country, in an apparent effort to stop them from going to school, according to several news reports.

The BBC reported about 700 girls have been affected by toxic gas since November, many of whom have been hospitalized, but none have died. The girls impacted have exhibited symptoms, including nausea and fatigue, the network added.

Schoolgirls have been on the forefront of protests that have rocked the country following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in morality police custody in September after the young woman was arrested for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly.

The first cases of poisoning were reported in November in the religious city of Qom, which is home to Shiite Muslim clerics and many religious schools.

Students at Qoms Noor Yazdanshahr Conservatory fell ill both in November and December, according to The Associated Press, but authorities at first failed to recognize a connection between those incidents.

More cases were later reported in other cities, including in the countrys capital Tehran and in Borujerd, suggesting the incidents werent isolated.

Most of the poisonings affected schools were young girls were taught, but at least one so far was reported in a boys school in Borujerd, the AP added.

About 100 people, including parents, protested the incidents in Qom last month, and some families have already not been taking their children to school.

Both Irans prosecutor general and the Intelligence Ministry have launched investigations into the poisonings.

The poisoning of students of Qom was intentional and caused by available chemical compounds. Some people wanted all schools to be closed, especially girls schools, Younes Panahi, a deputy health minister, said at a press conference Sunday, according to a report by Iranian state broadcaster IRIB, cited by NBC News.

Panahi, who did not identify who is behind the attacks, subsequently said his remarks that implied the targeting of girls schools were thought to be premeditated had been misunderstood, as the government has not confirmed that, the BBC reported.

Story continues

During the news conference, Panahi said those impacted exhibited mild symptoms, including weakness and lethargy, and none of the students suffered complications.

The poisoned students do not need aggressive treatment and a large percentage of the chemical agents used are treatable, he said.

Young women opposing the strict Islamist dress code were targeted with acid attacks in 2014 in Isfahan, Iran.

If operatives of the acid attacks had been identified and punished then, today a group of reactionaries would not have ganged up on our innocent girls in the schools, Azar Mansoori, a reformist politician, wrote on Twitter, according to Reuters.

Girls education in Iran has not been questioned since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the AP explained, despite the countrys very conservative leadership. Iran has even called on Afghanistan to allow girls to attend schools and universities.

Government critics in Iran, however, have raised the possibility the poisonings could be an act of revenge on behalf of the government for girls participation in the protests following Aminis death. There does not appear to be any evidence so far to support those claims.

Related...
By Rami Ayyub and Ali Sawafta

WASHINGTON/HUWARA, West Bank (Reuters) -Israel's closest ally the United States on Wednesday demanded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repudiate a call by his hardline Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for a Palestinian village to be erased.

Further pressuring the Israeli leader were images unseen for years in Tel Aviv where police fired stun guns and scuffled with Israeli protesters on a main road during a national "day of disruption" over government plans to overhaul the judiciary.

The head of a pro-settler party in Netanyahu's nationalist-religious coalition, Smotrich made the comments at a conference on Wednesday amid a spate of deadly Palestinian attacks and Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank.

Asked about a weekend settler rampage through the Palestinian village of Huwara, which an Israeli general on Tuesday described as a "pogrom," Smotrich said: "I think that Huwara needs to be erased".

Smotrich added: "I think that the state of Israel needs to do it, but God forbid not individual people."

U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price called the comments "irresponsible," "repugnant" and "disgusting," telling reporters: "We call on Prime Minister Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials to publicly and clearly reject and disavow these comments."

Palestinian leaders welcomed the State Department reaction.

The unusually forthright reaction from Washington underlined the increasing international alarm at the escalating violence in the West Bank, where three Israelis and a Palestinian were killed in two days of bloodshed earlier in the week.

Violence persisted on Wednesday. Israeli forces killed one Palestinian and arrested six in the West Bank.

ARRESTS IN SETTLER RAMPAGE

Israeli police also arrested 10 people suspected of involvement in the settler rampage through Huwara on Sunday, launched after two Israeli brothers were shot by a suspected Palestinian gunman as they sat in their car.

Story continues

One Palestinian was killed and scores were hurt as dozens of houses and cars were torched in what one Israeli commander described as a "pogrom". A day later, an Israeli American was shot dead in his car on a highway in the Jordan Valley.

As the man, Elan Ganeles, was being laid to rest, Israeli forces surrounded a house in the Aqabat Jabr refugee camp adjacent to the city of Jericho, and arrested six Palestinian men suspected of involvement in his killing, and killed another man during the operation.

Amid international alarm and calls for restraint, the Huwara rampage was condemned by Israeli politicians, including Netanyahu, who said people should not take the law into their own hands.

Smotrich's comments underlined the gulf between international calls for de-escalation and the instincts of major sections of Netanyahu's right-wing government who have called for tougher action against Palestinians.

After making the Huwara comments, Smotrich issued a statement saying the media had misinterpreted them, without retracting his call for the village to be erased.

"I spoke about how Huwara is a hostile village that has become a terrorist outpost" where attacks against Jews are launched daily, Smotrich said, adding it was forbidden to take the law into one's own hands.

"I support a disproportionate response by the (Israeli military) and the security forces to every act of terrorism," including the "deportation of the families of the terrorists," Smotrich added.

POGROM

With the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and Jewish Passover festival weeks away, foreign mediators have sought to tamp down tensions that have surged after a spate of deadly Palestinian street attacks and lethal Israeli military raids.

Earlier on Wednesday Major General Yehuda Fuchs, who commands the Israeli military in the area, said his forces had prepared for attempted settler retribution but had been surprised by the intensity of the violence, which he said was perpetrated by dozens of people.

"The incident in Huwara was a pogrom carried out by outlaws," he told N12 News late on Tuesday.

"Collective punishment doesn't help combating terrorism, on the contrary it might even cause terrorism," he added.

A pogrom is a mob attack, often approved by authorities, against a religious, racial or national minority. The term is usually applied to attacks on Jews in the Russian Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Netanyahu formed a government two months ago, promising his coalition partners to limit the Supreme Court's ability to strike down legislation or rule against the executive and to entrench Israeli control of the West Bank where Palestinians hope to establish an independent state.

The protests have been going on for weeks. The overhaul has yet to become law but it has already affected the shekel currency. Businesses and economists say the planned reforms could harm Israel as an investment destination.

(Reporting by Rami Ayyub in Washington and Ali Sawafta in Huwara; Writing by Maayan Lubell and James Mackenzie; Editing by Howard Goller)
JERUSALEM (AP)  Israeli troops arrested three Palestinians on Wednesday suspected of involvement in the killing earlier this week of an American-Israeli while a fourth was shot and killed fleeing the scene of a daylight raid in a West Bank refugee camp, the military said.

The arrest raid in the Aqabat Jaber refugee camp near Jericho came as Israel's parliament gave initial approval to a proposal to impose the death penalty on Palestinians convicted in deadly attacks. A top minister in Israel's far-right government, meanwhile, called for erasing a Palestinian town in the occupied West Bank where radical Jewish settlers went on a rampage earlier this week.

The official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that three Palestinians were also wounded in the raid in the Aqabat Jaber camp.

Israeli leaders said the men arrested were suspected in the killing of Elan Ganeles, a 27-year-old Israeli-American who was fatally shot while driving on a West Bank highway near the refugee camp on Monday. Ganeles, of West Hartford, Connecticut, lived in the United States and was visiting Israel for a wedding, friends said.

The Israeli military said it received intelligence about the whereabouts of the suspects and encircled the house. Security camera footage shared on Twitter by an Israeli lawmaker appeared to show a squad of Israeli special forces exiting an unmarked white van ahead of the arrests.

The raid coincided with Ganeles's funeral in the central Israeli city of Raanana.

The military said that one suspect was shot fleeing the scene and died on the way to the hospital, and three others were arrested. The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the man as 22-year-old Mahmoud Hamdan.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the arrests. Whoever tries to harm us will pay, he said.

Wednesday's raid came during one of the worst rounds of Israeli-Palestinian violence in years, with more than 60 Palestinians and 14 Israelis killed this year. Earlier this week, after two Israelis were killed in the West Bank, an Israeli settler mob set homes and cars ablaze in a Palestinian town, burning dozens of cars and homes and leaving one man dead.

Story continues

A top military official said forces were not prepared for the violence and a senior Israeli Cabinet minister said Wednesday the town must be erased.

The bloodshed is part of a year of escalating violence triggered by Israeli raids on Palestinian areas of the West Bank which were prompted by a spate of Palestinian attacks against Israelis.

Tensions have surged in the West Bank, especially after the settler attack on the Palestinian town of Hawara, which sparked international condemnation as well as rebuke from Israels political opposition. But the countrys right-wing government, made up of ultranationalist, pro-settler parties, has not condemned the violence, only appealing to settlers not to take the law into their own hands.

On Wednesday, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich  who was given sweeping powers over the occupied West Bank under the new government  went even further, saying he thought Hawara, which has several thousand residents, should be wiped out.

Speaking at a conference hosted by Israeli business paper The Marker, Smotrich said that Hawara needs to be erased. I think the state of Israel needs to do it and not private citizens.

He added that there was no such thing as Jewish terrorism, and called this week's attack by settlers on Hawara a criminal act.

The settler attack was the worst such violence in decades and on Tuesday, Maj. Gen. Yehuda Fuchs, head of the militarys Central Command in charge of the West Bank, told Israels Channel 12 that the military was not prepared for what he called a pogrom done by outlaws.

We were not prepared for a pogrom of this magnitude, with many dozens of people, he said, using a term that usually refers to mob attacks against Jews in eastern Europe in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Also Wednesday, Israel's parliament passed a preliminary vote on a bill to allow the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of killing Israelis.

Public Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir's ultranationalist Jewish Power faction has promoted the death sentence bill as a means of deterring would-be Palestinian attackers after a more than year-long surge in violence.

Critics say the death penalty is immoral, antithetical to Jewish principles, and will not serve as a deterrent.

The proposed law would allow the death penalty for a person who killed an Israeli as an act motivated by racism or hostility toward the public and with the aim of harming the state of Israel and the revival of the Jewish people in its land.

Limor Son Har-Melech, the ultranationalist settler lawmaker proposing the bill, told Kan public radio that it is just and most moral that someone who murders Jews, and just because theyre Jews is sentenced to death.

The bill passed by a vote of 55-9 in a preliminary reading. Most of the opposition, along with some of Netanyahu's ultra-Orthodox allies, were not present for the vote. It is not clear whether the bill will win enough support to pass in the coming months since some of Netanyahu's religious allies have expressed opposition.

So far this year, 62 Palestinians, about half of them affiliated with armed groups, have been killed by Israeli troops and civilians. In the same period, 14 Israelis, all but one of them civilians, have been killed in Palestinian attacks.

Israel says its raids are meant to dismantle militant networks and prevent future attacks, but there has been little evidence that they are slowing the violence. The Palestinians view them as further entrenchment of Israel's 55-year open-ended occupation.

Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war, territories the Palestinians claim for their hoped-for state.
By Rami Ayyub

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's call for a Palestinian village to be "erased" amounted to incitement to violence and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must publicly disavow it, the U.S. State Department said on Wednesday.

An ultranationalist in Netanyahu's right-wing coalition, Smotrich made the comments at a conference on Wednesday amid a spate of deadly Palestinian attacks and Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank.

Asked about a weekend settler rampage through the Palestinian village of Huwara, which an Israeli general on Tuesday described as a "pogrom," Smotrich said: "I think that Huwara needs to be erased".

Smotrich added: "I think that the state of Israel needs to do it, but God forbid not individual people."

State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters that Smotrich's comments "were irresponsible. They were repugnant. They were disgusting."

Price continued: "And just as we condemn Palestinian incitement to violence, we condemn these provocative remarks that also amount to incitement to violence."

Israel's police have arrested 10 people for suspected involvement in the Huwara attack in which one Palestinian was killed. The rampage followed a Palestinian gun attack that killed two Israelis.

On Wednesday, Israeli forces killed one Palestinian and arrested six others suspected of involvement in the fatal shooting of an Israeli American in the West Bank on Monday.

After making the Huwara comments, Smotrich issued a statement saying the media had misinterpreted them, without retracting his call for the village to be erased.

"I spoke about how Huwara is a hostile village that has become a terrorist outpost" where attacks against Jews are launched daily, Smotrich said, adding it was forbidden to take the law into one's own hands.

"I support a disproportionate response by the (Israeli military) and the security forces to every act of terrorism," including the "deportation of the families of the terrorists," Smotrich added.

(Reporting by Rami Ayyub in Washington, Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles and Emily Rose in Jerusalem; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Howard Goller)
WFLD

Hundreds of teenagers flooded into Downtown Chicago on Saturday night, smashing car windows, trying to get into Millennium Park, and prompting a major police response. A woman whose car was smashed by people jumping on the windshield said her husband was beaten as he sat in the driver's seat. Police were escorting tourists and others back to their cars in the Millennium Park garage.
By Rami Amichay and Maayan Lubell

TEL AVIV (Reuters) -Israeli police fired stun grenades and scuffles broke out in Tel Aviv on Wednesday during a nationwide "day of disruption," raising the intensity of protests against a government plan to overhaul the judiciary.

In images not seen in Tel Aviv for years, police on horseback confronted demonstrators breaching barricades as traffic piled up. Live footage showed police dragging protesters off the road to shouts of "Shame" and "We are the majority and we are out on the streets."

One Tel Aviv protester who appeared to have been injured by a grenade crouched down, holding his head, while an Israeli flag lay beside him on the road next to a pool of blood.

Israel Radio said police had used a water cannon to disperse demonstrators.

"I came to make sure that my kids will live in a democracy," a protester named Avichai told Reuters. "We see what happened in Hungary and in Poland and in other countries and we are trying to save the democracy we had for 75 years."

"I'm not happy with the direction that the government is going, I think it's a very slippery slope in terms of the blurring between what is independent and what is political," protester Shoshanna Silberstein told Reuters.

The judicial overhaul would give Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's nationalist-religious coalition decisive sway in picking judges and limit the scope of the Supreme Court to strike down legislation or rule against the executive.

Netanyahu formed a government two months ago, promising his coalition partners to overhaul the judiciary and entrench Israel's control of the West Bank where Palestinians hope to establish an independent state.

In parliament, the Knesset's Constitution, Justice and Law Committee gave initial approval to more proposals in the plan, in a vote boycotted by opposition lawmakers who say Israel will cease to exist as a democracy if it goes through.

Story continues

The right to protest is not the right to halt the country," Netanyahu told a news conference. "Its not a license to bring the country down into anarchy.

Netanyahu compared the demonstration to a rampage by Jewish settlers this week through the Palestinian village of Huwara following a deadly Palestinian attack. Police arrested 10 suspects over the rampage in which one Palestinian was killed.

"We wont take breaking the law not in Huwara, not in Tel Aviv and not anywhere," Netanyahu said.

Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said some demonstrators had thrown stones and that police would use all means at their disposal to stop "anarchists" from rioting and blocking roads.

The protests have been going on for weeks. The overhaul has yet to become law but it has already affected the shekel currency and drawn concern among some Western allies about the health of Israeli democracy.

"Slow down a little a bit, maybe bring people together, try and build some consensus," U.S. Ambassador Tom Nides said at Tel Aviv University's conference of the Institute for National Security Studies on Tuesday.

Netanyahu, on trial on corruption charges that he denies, says the changes will restore balance between the branches of government and boost business. Businesses and economists say the planned reforms could harm Israel as an investment destination.

Opinion polls have shown the plan is unpopular with most Israelis who would prefer a compromise be reached.

Warning that the country is on the brink of "constitutional and social collapse", President Isaac Herzog is pushing for an agreed accord.

(Reporting by Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem; Rami Amichay and Amir Cohen in Tel Aviv; Editing by Nick Macfie, Gareth Jones and Howard Goller)
Antonio Tiberi says he will donate all his prize money this season after killing a cat with political connections. (Photo by Tim de Waele/Getty Images)

An Italian cyclist has been fined and suspended and said he will donate all his prize money this season to animal welfare organizations after he admitted to killing a neighbor's cat with an air rifle.

The cyclist is Antonio Tiberi, a 21-year-old who rides for Trek-Segafredo, while the neighbor is Federico Pedini Amati, San Marino's tourism and posts minister and a former joint head of state of the country, per the BBC.

Tiberi reportedly admitted that he tried out an air rifle by pointing it at the cat's head and firing, for which he was fined 4,000 euros (about $4,230 as of Tuesday) by a San Marino court. Tiberi's team later announced that the cyclist will be suspended 20 days without pay for the "reprehensible act" and will donate the money to "an appropriate animal care, protection and rescue organization."

The owner of the cat reportedly wasn't pleased with the punishment levied by the court:

"The cat didn't bother anyone," Mr. Pedini Amati told the Corriere della Sera newspaper.

"It had been with us for a long time. My 3-year-old daughter, Lucia, loved it. You cannot kill a pet and get away with a 4,000-euro fine."

Pedini Amati reportedly also said that he appreciated that Tiberi admitted to killing his cat but added, "we don't need to give these people residence." Pedini Amati served as captain regent of San Marino for six months in 2008, a position that functions as one of two heads of state for the tiny country landlocked in Italy.

Tiberi later released a statement apologizing for his actions and pledging to donate all of his prize money this season to animal welfare organizations in San Marino.

I deeply regret my shamful actions. I did something tremendously stupid and irresponsible. I really want to apologize everyone  pic.twitter.com/ooO1JGwsE3  Antonio Tiberi (@AntonioTiberi4) February 28, 2023

Tiberi's statement:

Story continues

I deeply regret my shameful actions. I did something tremendously stupid and irresponsible, the seriousness and danger of which I realized only after the act. I don't want to make excuses. There is no "if" or "but." I take full blame for my actions and fully accept the consequences. I did not speak publicly about the incident before only because of my strong shame and regret.

I understand the anger that many people are feeling right now. I can do nothing but apologize to them, just as I did to my team, who are blameless in this incident. My conduct was not at all befitting a professional athlete, much less a humane and kind person. I am especially sorry to the minister of San Marino, Federico Pedini Amati, for the emotional damage I caused him, as well as to all the citizens of San Marino.

Apologies are meaningless without action. Therefore, I will be donating all of my prize money this season to animal welfare organizations in San Marino, with the help and collaboration of the local government. In addition, I will be volunteering my time to helping those organizations in person.
ROME (AP)  Bracing for Italy's second consecutive year of drought for the first time in decades, Premier Giorgia Meloni huddled with ministers Wednesday to start mapping out an action plan, joining France and other nations in western Europe grappling with scant winter rain and snow.

Meloni and her ministers decided to appoint an extraordinary commissioner with executive powers to carry out the government's drought battle plan once it's devised. Italy appointed someone to a similar position to implement strategies against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Experts say the last time the nation experienced two back-to-back years of drought was 1989-90 but that conditions are more severe now.

With scant winter snowfall translating into vastly insufficient snowmelt to supply streams and tributaries that flow into Po River, farmers in Italy's Emilia-Romagna region worry they might have to abandon traditional crops like corn and soy and plant sunflowers instead.

The region is one of Italys most productive agricultural areas. The lack of water could also affect the supply of animal feed for Emilia-Romagna's cows and pigs, whose milk and meat are essential to producing Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and prized prosciutto.

France recorded 32 days without rain this winter  the longest such winter drought since record-keeping began in 1959. Snow levels in the French Alps, the Pyrenees and other French mountain ranges are also much lower than usual for this time of year, according to the national weather service.

Since snowmelt is crucial to filling rivers and reservoirs, weather watchers are worried about depleted water supplies later this year. Around France, residents are sharing images of dried-up riverbeds and shrunken lakes  shocking sights in the depths of winter.

French President Emmanuel Macron promised his government would devise an urgent water plan in mid-March.

The last two summers in France also were exceptionally dry, prompting some farmers to consider switching to new crops.

Story continues

Italy last year reeled under its worst drought in 70 years, and the Po, its longest river, turned into a long stretch of sand. The drought battered the rice plants that supply the main ingredient for risotto.

What precipitation Italy received in late February seemed to do more harm than good for some farmers. A combination of lower temperatures, snow and frost threatened fruit crops that, due to a warmer winter, had already started blooming, notably almond, peach and cherry trees, the agricultural farm lobby Coldiretti said this week.

The arrival of precipitation in any case wont succeed in making up for the water deficit in a situation in which Italy is 30% short of water, with the percentage rising to 40% in north Italy, Coldiretti noted, citing data from Italys National Research Council.

While briefing lawmakers Wednesday, Italy's minister of agriculture and food sovereignty, Francesco Lollobrigida, described the lack of water as an emergency. He cited infrastructure as a contributor to the problem.

"We must intervene with planning for the long-, medium- and short-term period to make aqueducts, which have leakage as high as almost 50%, more efficient and devise a plan for reservoirs and water basins,'' Lollobrigida said.

Experts from the National Research Council, which is known by its Italian acronym CNR, observed last month that the snow, which fell at the end of the month after various weeks, isnt sufficient to reach the average values of the 2011-2021 decade, above all on the Alps.

Earlier this week, Frances environment minister ordered officials who are working on what Macron s government calls its water sobriety plan to take immediate steps to restrict water usage to ensure there is enough water this summer.

Four regions in southern France -- Isere, Var, Bouches-du Rhone and the Pyrenees  already have water restrictions in place, and 10 other departments were placed on the vigilance list.

In Germany, experts say that rain around the start of the year will not be enough to replenish deeper parts of the soil that have become worryingly dry in recent years. Germanys Federal Statistical Office said this week that drought and heat led to a significant drop in the vegetable harvest last year, which was down 12% compared with 2021 a record year  and down 2% compared with the five-year average.

Thanks to recent rain in Spain, water reserves are at 51% of capacity, way above the dangerously low 35% of late 2022. Last year was Spain's third-driest year and the hottest one since 1961, when record-keeping started.

Dry conditions remain a worry in Spain's Catalonia region, where water use has been restricted in agriculture and industry since November and using potable water to wash cars or fill swimming pools is prohibited.

___

Angela Charlton in Paris; Barbara Surk in Nice, France; Ciaran Giles in Madrid;, Frank Jordans in Berlin, and Colleen Barry in Milan contributed reporting.
MADISON  As partisan groups pour in millions making this year's state Supreme Court race the most expensive judicial race ever run, the two candidates seeking a seat on the state's highest court are taking different approaches to how they will handle cases involving the state political parties that are backing their campaigns.

Milwaukee County Judge Janet Protasiewicz, the race's liberal-backed candidate, said Wednesday she would recuse herself from hearing lawsuits brought by or against the Democratic Party of Wisconsin because of the millions of dollars the state party has funneled into her campaign for the state's highest court.

Conservative candidate Daniel Kelly, a former justice, would not make a similar pledge to step away from cases involving the state Republican Party, which supported his 2020 campaign with funding and office space, instead saying he would decide on a case-by-case basis.

The state Democratic Party has put $2.5 million into the Milwaukee County judge's campaign, according to Protasiewicz  a level she said is high enough to affect the public's perception of her neutrality.

"I don't know that the public could really say, 'she's fair when she's received two and a half million dollars from a particular entity," Protasiewicz told reporters following an event hosted by the Wisconsin Counties Association in Madison.

Following a separate appearance Wednesday at the counties association's annual legislative conference, Kelly said "the decision to recuse is an individual one."

"One of the important things that we can be looking at, as we look forward to this election, is electing someone whose character you trust and recusal is a matter of character," he said. "I will look at it at that issue very closely in any case that would potentially implicate the Republican Party or anyone else who makes contributions."

Kelly also has worked for the GOP, including providing legal advice to former Republican Party of Wisconsin chairman Andrew Hitt in December 2020 about Republicans' efforts to organize a group of electors for former President Donald Trump despite his election loss  a nationwide plan that became the target of a U.S. House investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Story continues

Kelly said Wednesday he could not discuss the nature of the work citing attorney-client privilege and characterized his advice as a 30-minute phone call to Hitt.

Wisconsin's legitimate electors have sued the Trump electors in a case that could end up at the state Supreme Court. Kelly said Wednesday he would recuse himself from the case if his legal advice to Hitt were part of the lawsuit.

Protasiewicz says she will not step away from abortion cases

Protasiewicz said if elected, she would not step away from cases involving abortion policy despite her campaign's intense focus on the issue, which has defined the race after Wisconsin doctors stopped performing abortions following last year's U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul have filed a lawsuit seeking to repeal the state's abortion ban, which will likely end up at the state Supreme Court.

"I've been very, very clear and very, very careful that I have talked to people about what my personal values are ... I make sure everybody understands that I will only be making decisions based on what the law is, and based on what the Constitution is," Protasiewicz said.

If Planned Parenthood spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in the race, Protasiewicz also said the campaign support would not push her off a case involving the group.

"Absolutely not. I have made no promises in regard to that," she said.

The state Democratic Party, state GOP, and Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin have each been a party to a case before the Supreme Court three times over the last 20 years, according to state court records.

This years race has already shattered national records with more than $18 million spent less than a week into the general election.

Democrats are pouring millions into Protasiewiczs campaign, seeing an opportunity for the first time in more than a decade to seize control of policymaking in the Badger State, as Republicans are unloading their coffers with a $1 million ad buy starting this week to support Kelly and defend the courts 4-3 majority.

At least $8.8 million has been spent since the Feb. 21 primary election, putting the total spending tally from the start of the primary election race to Tuesday at $18 million  breaking the record of the countrys most expensive judicial race, previously set in 2004 in Illinois at $15 million, with five weeks still to go until the April 4 general election.

Molly Beck can be reached at molly.beck@jrn.com.

Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.

DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get the latest news, sports and more

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: What Protasiewicz and Kelly are saying about recusing from cases
(Bloomberg) -- Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi is set to attend a get together of top diplomats from the so-called Quad nations hosted by India, after he skipped a G-20 meeting in New Delhi to be present at a parliamentary committee in Tokyo.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Hayashi gained parliamentary approval allowing him to attend a Friday meeting of Quad nations that also includes the US and Australia, Kyodo News reported. Japan dispatched a vice minister to attend the G-20 meeting of foreign ministers in India that started Wednesday.

A committee in Japans upper house of parliament began debate Wednesday on the budget. All members of the cabinet are customarily present for the initial sessions of the budget committee, which is planned to run for two days.

Hayashi became the first Japanese foreign minister to miss a G-20 meeting of his counterparts, Kyodo reported, saying he only spoke for 53 seconds during the parliament session he was obliged to attend.

Hayashi had said Japan would diligently participate in the diplomatic events abroad when he faced questions from reporters Tuesday over whether keeping the foreign minister at home for a domestic matter could be seen as a slight to India. Japan has been seeking to bolster security and other ties with Narendra Modis government amid growing concerns about Chinas assertive behavior in the region, as well as Russias war in Ukraine.

The decision not to dispatch the foreign minister to the G-20 meeting may have been more about internal politics in Japan, as opposed to sending any diplomatic message. Hayashi had already arranged bilateral discussions with some of his counterparts on the sidelines of the meeting, Kyodo previously reported.

Read: Top Japan Diplomat Set to Skip G-20 Talks Hosted by India (2)

Story continues

Bolstering ties with India has been a priority for Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishidas government as it seeks partners beyond its sole treaty ally, the US, to counter security threats posed by the likes of China. The Quad is a prominent format for cooperation. It has grown in stature in recent years as a counter to Beijing, which has criticized the group as a clique that could stoke a new Cold War.

--With assistance from Isabel Reynolds.

(Updates with report on Hayashi in parliament.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Jena Malone attends the premiere of Verticals Lorelei at Laemmle Royal on July 28, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Jena Malone has opened up about being sexually assaulted while working on The Hunger Games franchise.

Malone joined the film saga in its second instalment Catching Fire. She played Johanna Mason, the female tribute from District 7.

On Tuesday (28 February), Malone shared a photo to Instagram that she took after filming wrapped on the series fourth and final film, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay  Part 2.

The Donnie Darko star began her post on Instagram with a trigger warning.

This photo was taken right after I wrapped Mockingjay Part Two and I had to say goodbye to everyone on set, she wrote.

We were shooting in a beautiful estate in the countryside of France and I asked the driver to let me out in this field so I could cry and capture this moment.

Even tho this time in Paris was extremely hard for me, was going thru a bad break-up and also was sexually assaulted by someone I had worked with, I was so full of gratitude for this project, the people I became close with and this amazing part I got to play. A swirling mix of emotions Im only now just learning to sort thru.

Malone continued: I wish it wasnt tied to such a traumatic event for me but that is the real wildness of life, I guess. How to hold the chaos with the beauty. Ive worked very hard to heal and learn thru restorative justice, how to make peace with the person who violated me and make peace with myself.

Its been hard to talk about the Hunger Games and Johanna Mason without feeling the sharpness of this moment in time but Im ready to move thru it and reclaim the joy and accomplishment I felt. Lots of love to you survivors out there. The process is so slow and non-linear [sic].

Malone ended her post by saying that she was here for anyone who needs to talk or vent or open uncommunicated spaces within themselves, telling them to direct message her if they needed a safe space to be heard.

Story continues

The Independent has contacted Lionsgate for comments.

In the comments section, Malone explained she had chosen not to name her alleged assailant due to the cancel-like culture nowadays.

Her Hunger Games co-star Willow Shields  who played Katniss Everdeens (Jennifer Lawrence) little sister Primrose  commented supportively: This post has me at a loss of words. I understand and I hope that though the process is so slow you are okay Jena.

If you have been raped or sexually assaulted, you can contact your nearest Rape Crisis organisation for specialist, independent and confidential support. For more information, visit their website here.
Photo: Michael Tullberg (Getty Images)

Actor Jena Malone shared on Wednesday that she was sexually assaulted while filming The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2, in which she portrayed character Johanna Mason, in a poignant Instagram post.

This photo was taken right after I wrapped mocking Jay part two and I had to say goodbye to everyone on set, the actress wrote. We were shooting in a beautiful estate in the countryside of France and I asked the driver to let me out in this field so I could cry and capture this moment.

Read more

Malone went on to detail the range of emotions she was experiencing when the moment was captured: Even tho this time in Paris was extremely hard for me , was going thru a bad break up and also was sexually assaulted by someone I had worked with , I was so full of gratitude for this project, the people I became close with and this amazing part I got to play, Malone continued.

The actor then parsed through the complexity of allowing herself to feel moments of joy while confronting the trauma that accompanies a sexual violationan experience thats unfortunately quite relatable for an overwhelming number of survivors of sexual assault and abuse. I wish it wasnt tied to such a traumatic event for me but that is the real wildness of life I guess. How to hold the chaos with the beauty, she wrote, adding that shes since found some relief. Ive worked very hard to heal and learn thru restorative justice , how to make peace with the person who violated me and make peace with myself.

Malone concluded by adding that shes ready to reclaim the joy and accomplishment of her time making the film and extended her support to fellow survivors. I want to say im here for anyone who needs to talk or vent or open uncommunicated spaces within themselves, she writes. Please dm me if you need a safe space to be heard.

Story continues

All the best to Malone as she continues to heal.

More from Jezebel

Sign up for Jezebel's Newsletter. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.
Jena Malone at the 2014 premiere of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay  Part 1 (Photo: Reuters)

Jena Malone has revealed she was sexually assaulted by someone she worked with filming The Hunger Games. In an emotional post Tuesday on Instagram, the 38-year-old actress opened up about healing through restorative justice in an effort to "make peace with the person who violated me and make peace with myself."

Malone played Johanna Mason in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay  Part 1 and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay  Part 2. On Tuesday, she shared a photo of herself in a field in the countryside of France after the final film wrapped. Malone explained she had just said "goodbye to everyone on set" and asked her driver to pull over "so I could cry and capture this moment."

"Even tho this time in Paris was extremely hard for me, was going thru a bad break up and also was sexually assaulted by someone I had worked with, I was so full of gratitude for this project, the people I became close with and this amazing part I got to play," she captioned the picture. "A swirling mix of emotions I'm only now just learning to sort thru. I wish it wasn't tied to such a traumatic event for me but that is the real wildness of life [I] guess. How to hold the chaos with the beauty. I've worked very hard to heal and learn thru restorative justice, how to make peace with the person who violated me and make peace with myself."

Restorative justice is when victims communicate with their offender to explain the impact of the assault.

Malone noted "it's been hard" to talk about The Hunger Games films and her character "without feeling the sharpness of this moment in time but I'm ready to move thru it and reclaim the joy and accomplishment I felt."

She concluded by sending love to other survivors and called her healing process "slow and non linear." Malone offered support to anyone who needs it.

Willow Shields, who played Jennifer Lawrence's onscreen sister, Primrose Everdeen, was among those who responded in the comments section. "This post has me at a loss of words. I understand and I hope that though the process is so slow you are okay Jena," she wrote.

Story continues

Malone replied to some people in the comments where she opened up more about her journey.

When one person remarked how the unnamed individual "got to walk away with no repercussions," the actress responded and said, "That's not true."

"I used restorative justice to allow healing and accountability and growth with the other person. It was a hard process but one i believe truly helped me move thru some of the hardest parts of the grief," Malone explained.

Malone replied to someone else and said she's "not quite ready" to talk about specifics of her restorative justice process, but said it began by doing research online.

"What lead me there was feeling not held by 'outing' someone using the traditional cancel like culture that has been created. I also don't fully see how the criminal justice system could fully repair my healing, though I do believe it can help in many ways. It all lead me to using restorative justice, basically a system of repairing harm, to speak to the other party involved and make requests of my healing journey and really just be heard. It wasn't perfect and I'm sure I could have used the help of the many teachers out there who practice restorative justice in meditation settings. I felt I heeded to do it alone I guess," she wrote.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, help is available. RAINNs National Sexual Assault Hotline is here for survivors 24/7 with free, anonymous help. 800.656.HOPE (4673) and online.rainn.org.
Its only March, and Jennifer Coolidge has already been crowned as having the best celebrity photoshoots of the year.

On Wednesday 1 March, W Magazine revealed The White Lotus actor as its final cover star for the magazines Directors Issue. As part of the annual issue  which pairs actors and directors for themed editorial shoots  Coolidge teamed up with dynamic duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, the directors of the Oscar-nominated film Everything Everywhere All At Once.

The photoshoot sees Coolidge dressed up in a variety of funky, colourful, and all-around eccentric outfits as she towers 50-feet over a city and poses as a Power Rangers villain. The cover shoot, titled Jennifer Coolidge vs. Haute Squad 5: Attack on Neo Runway CityJennifer Reborn, is inspired by tokusatsu, a Japanese style of live-action cinema that makes heavy use of practical effects.

The iconic cover, which was photographed by Lenne Chai, shows the Legally Blonde star seemingly claiming victory as she clangs two metal swords together. Coolidge, who is wearing a custom black and pink bow dress from Bad Binch TongTong, is seen puckering her lips and staring directly at the camera.

Another image sees Coolidge dressed in a Valentino Haute Couture coat and gloves while destroying the city at her feet, a la Godzilla. Even co-director Daniel Scheinert joined in on the photoshoot when he slipped on a crustacean-like ensemble to play Coolidges nemesis.

What is it about lobster claws that Im so attracted to? Coolidge told the magazine.

In another vignette, Coolidge stars as a Power Rangers evil villain trying to defeat the four action heroes.

Ive never been asked to do a shoot like this: I have weapons, take down small cities, pick up cars and throw them, Coolidge said. I dont know if I will ever be this surprised again. It was one of the best things I have ever been involved in.

The creative photoshoot instantly received praise from fans after it was shared to social media on Wednesday.

Story continues

Jennifer Coolidge for W Mag directed by DANIELS has to be the one of the best photo shoots of 2023 so far, read one tweet from a fan.

This may be the greatest photo shoot I have ever seen omg, another wrote.

She is a campy queen, joked someone else, while one person tweeted: With no hyperbole I say this is the absolute best photo shoot in history

Jennifer Coolidge for W Mag directed by DANIELS has to be the one of the best photo shoots of 2023 so far pic.twitter.com/TsDXosBOEd   (@vampiireweekday) March 1, 2023

This may be the greatest photo shoot I have ever seen omg https://t.co/vrMMbM83Cp  Heather Siebert (@HeatherSiebert) March 1, 2023

She is a campy queen  https://t.co/otTLNQmwsE  faby (@FabyRivera_) March 1, 2023

With no hyperbole I say this is the absolute best photo shoot in history https://t.co/haK3h7CilW  Joshua Yehl (@JoshuaYehl) March 1, 2023

Meanwhile on Instagram, the love for the epic cover shoot continued when one fan wrote under W Magazines post: Best shoot ever

I cant imagine a more beautiful thing this cover really hits me, another Instagram user said.

She ate and left no crumbs, commented someone else.

The print issue of W Magazines Directors Issue Volume Two will be on stands 14 March.
Jillian Michaels has long enjoyed the daredevil life of jetskiing, snowboarding and horseback riding, but it was a simple slip and fall in 2021 that caused a back injury serious enough to have her thinking her "life was over."

The fitness celebrity and former star of "The Biggest Loser" spoke to People about how she suffered a spinal injury that prompted her to go "off the grid" and keep it private for over a year as she contemplated her future health.

Jillian Michaels (Paul Archuleta / Getty Images)

Michaels, 49, said that in the spring of 2021 she was walking into the bathroom to speak to her wife, DeShana Marie Minuto, when she simply slipped and hit her back on the edge of the bathtub.

By six weeks after the injury, she had trouble moving and felt bolts of pain down her leg. A trip to the hospital resulted in doctors diagnosing a "nerve impingement," aka a pinched nerve, but the pain did not subside.

I couldnt sleep, she told People. The pain at night was so bad. I truly thought to myself, The only thing I think would be worse than this would be burns. It was so crazy. I couldnt walk, I couldnt sleep, I couldnt stand. I was having to crawl on the ground. Im like, My life is over.

She visited multiple doctors before spine expert Dr. Stuart McGill determined she had fractured her L3 vertebra in her back.

"What this guy basically has me doing is nothing, Michaels said. He literally is like, Youre going to lay on your stomach. Youre going to work on standing, youre going to walk as many steps as you can, you are going to lay back down, and thats it. That went on for a month.

Michaels had been stretching on her own, which McGill said was making the issue worse by destabilizing her spine and increasing the size of the herniation in her back.

She kept the injury private, sharing old videos on social media and avoiding any interviews.

"Ive disappeared off the grid. No one knows. Nobody has any idea all of this is going on except my immediate circle," she said. "Im like, Im not telling this story until I know how this story ends.

Story continues

It took about six months before she said her health began to improve with a plan laid out by McGill and the use of an assisted squat machine. Michaels said she is now back to snowboarding and other activities, but has been super careful since her injury.

As she continued her recovery, the mother of two also had a major life milestone when she eloped with Minuto in July 2022 in Namibia.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
The US House is considering a bill that would give the federal governments executive branch the power to ban TikTok, a popular video-sharing app, from phones across the country.

But will that ban ever come to pass? It remains unlikely, as the issue is mired in both domestic and international politics and comes at a time when US-China relations are at their most tenuous point in recent memory. Chinas Communist Party continues to express frequent and growing anger over US delegations to the island of Taiwan, which considers itself its own independent nation while Beijing (and many countries, at least officially) consider it to be part of China.

This week, the House Foreign Affairs Committee voted along party lines to advance TikTok legislation to the full House; if signed into law, it would give the president the power to ban TikToks parent company ByteDance from processing transactions in the US, effectively prohibiting downloads of the app going forward.

The committees party-line vote, with all Democrats voting against, is a sign that the bill is doomed in the US Senate, which remains firmly in Democratic hands. The presidents party believes the legislation goes too far, warning that its wide-reaching requirements would force the US government to sanction other companies that do business with ByteDance, including semiconductor chip manufacturers.

National security and cybersecurity hawks have long accused ByteDance of gathering personal information on Americans with the intention, or at least possibility, of providing that information en masse to the Chinese Communist Party. Republicans in particular have used grandiose language to describe the risk posed by the app, with Foreign Affairs panel chairman Michael McCaul referring to the popular platform for goofy dances and other memes as a spy balloon in the pocket of millions of Americans.

Rep Gregory Meeks, the committees ranking Democrat, told Reuters that he understands the national security concerns posed by TikTok while calling the Republican bill dangerously far-reaching in its effects.

Story continues

Joe Biden himself seemed unsure if his administration would make an effort to ban the app from Americans phones when asked in early February about the issue. The US government has, however, ordered the app deleted from all federal devices.

"I'm not sure. I know I don't have it on my phone," the president told reporters on 6 February.

His press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said during Wednesdays press briefing that she agreed with Republicans about the alleged national security risks posed by the app. Its not likely, however, that the White House will go against congressional Democrats on the issue.

We have concerns about the app and thats why we have called on Congress to act  including how China is trying to collect the privacy of Americans, she said, while not indicating any support for this bill in particular.

At Mondays press conference, she added: "We'll continue to look for other actions to deal with this.

Banning TikTok from US phones under a Democratic president is a long-running campaign for Republicans; their party announced plans to do so via executive order under the Trump presidency, only for Mr Biden to overturn that order when he took office.

The ban never actually went into effect, as TikTok sued the Trump administration over the order and won a preliminary injunction halting the move.

Chinas goverment has predictably criticised the effort of US lawmakers to ban the app from Americans devices, and has long denied that it seeks the personal information of Americans or uses backdoors into technology built by Chinese companies to do so. Beijing calls US criticism of the company an effort to fight foreign competition against American companies.

How unsure of itself can the worlds top superpower be to fear a young peoples favorite app like that? The US has been over-stretching the concept of national security and abusing state power to suppress foreign companies, a Foriegn Affairs ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday. We firmly oppose those wrong actions.

The US government should respect the principles of market economy and fair competition, stop suppressing the companies and provide an open, fair and non-discriminatory environment for foreign companies in the US, she continued.
A Johnson County woman whose child died of fentanyl intoxication in November 2020 was sentenced on Tuesday to a little more than 10 years in Kansas prison.

Shelly Christine Vallejo, 31, of Merriam, pleaded guilty in December in Johnson County District Court to one count of felony murder along with reckless child endangerment and drug possession, also felonies. Her total sentence on her convictions will span 123 months, according to the Johnson County District Attorneys Office.

Prosecutors say the investigation began with a 911 call that brought police officers to a Merriam residence on Nov. 14, 2020.

Inside the home the officers found a child who was unresponsive. The child, who was born in 2018 and identified in court documents as JLM, died shortly after.

Medical examiners found that fentanyl was in the childs system at the time of death. The powerful synthetic opioid was determined to be the cause of death, according to prosecutors.

Kansas is one of many states that allows prosecutors to bring a murder charge in cases where an underlying non-violent felony leads to a death.

In April 2021, 28-year-old Jean Pierre Morales, the childs father, and Vallejo were both charged in Johnson County District Court with murder and child endangerment. In November, Morales pleaded guilty to distributing drugs resulting in a death, a felony.

Morales is scheduled to be sentenced March 8. Prosecutors are seeking a 176-month prison sentence, according to court documents.
Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson is projected to advance in Chicagos mayoral race, pitting him against former Chicago Public Schools (CPS) CEO Paul Vallas, according to The Associated Press.

The Cook County commissioner needed to be among the top two candidates with the most votes in order to advance to the Chicago mayoral runoff given the unlikeliness that any one candidate would outright win at least half of the vote on Tuesday.

The race also marks a stunning fall for Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D), who was running for reelection but failed to advance to the final round.

Despite being an incumbent, Lightfoot was largely seen as an underdog. Recent polling either placing her in a statistical tie with or trailing one of the following candidates: former Chicago Public Schools (CPS) CEO Paul Vallas, Rep. Jesus Chuy Garcia (D-Ill.), and Johnson.

Johnson has sought to position himself as the progressive candidate in the race, accusing fellow mayoral candidate Garcia as being a staunch ally of Lori Lightfoot. The Cook County commissioner, who has the backing of the powerful Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), however, has had to tread a fine line over a previous position of supporting defunding the police.

The Cook County commissioner was targeted over his support for defunding the police in one of Lightfoots ads. In an interview with The Hill last week, he would not say whether he would remove funding from the Chicago Police Department, only saying he would be investing in what works.

Vallas, meanwhile, last ran for mayor in 2019, though he was unable to make it into the runoff that year, which saw Lightfoot elected.

He leaned into tough-on-crime messaging during the race in an election where public safety was ranked in some polling as a top issue among voters. Hes also backed by the Fraternal Order of Police.

In a sign of the competitive nature of the race, Lightfoot and other candidates targeted Vallas, casting him as a Republican. The Chicago mayor has also targeted him over his position on abortion. Vallas has dismissed the attacks, saying hes a lifelong pro-choice Democrat.

The Chicago mayoral runoff is set for April 4.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co on Tuesday rejected the U.S. Virgin Islands' demand that it turn over more documents concerning Chief Executive Jamie Dimon for a lawsuit accusing the bank of aiding in Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking.

In a Tuesday filing in Manhattan federal court, JPMorgan accused the territory of pandering for media attention by demanding documents from Dimon from 2015 to 2019.

The largest U.S. bank said Dimon was not involved in any decisions regarding Epstein's account, and that it had dropped the financier as a client in 2013.

It also called the U.S. Virgin Islands' demand a "fishing expedition," after the territory had obtained a "massive trove" of information in litigation against Epstein's estate, where it recovered more than $105 million.

"Dimon is not relevant to this action," JPMorgan said. "If there were evidence supporting discovery from JPMC from 2014-2019, USVI would have found it."

Lawyers for the U.S. Virgin Islands did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In a Feb. 23 court filing, the territory had called Dimon "a likely source of relevant and unique information" about decisions to keep Epstein as a client, and discussions on Epstein's referrals of prominent and wealthy potential clients.

The U.S. Virgin Islands is seeking damages from JPMorgan for missing red flags about Epstein's misconduct on Little St. James, a private island he owned there.

JPMorgan on Tuesday also asked a judge to reject a demand by Epstein victims for more documents for their own lawsuit.

Both cases focus in part on Epstein's relationship with Jes Staley, a former JPMorgan private banking chief who has acknowledged having a friendship with Epstein but denied knowing about his alleged crimes.

Epstein died in August 2019 at age 66 in a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

Story continues

Dimon and Staley, who later served as Barclays Plc's chief executive, are not defendants in either lawsuit.

The case is Government of the U.S. Virgin Islands v JPMorgan Chase Bank NA, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 22-10904.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Stephen Coates)
GUATEMALA CITY (AP)  A Guatemalan judge ordered the investigation Tuesday of nine journalists from a newspaper whose president, a prominent government critic, has already been jailed on various charges since last year.

Judge Jimi Bremer said that to find out whether the journalists from El Periodico newspaper were maliciously pursuing prosecutors, judges and other members of Guatemalas justice system, thereby opening themselves up to criminal charges, they should be investigated.

Top prosecutor Cinthia Monterroso had argued that El Periodico published stories about complaints, disciplinary processes and questioned decisions by justice officials, including herself. She said who ordered such stories and the sources of their financing must be investigated.

It was the governments latest move against the newspaper known for hard-hitting investigations of public officials and government wrongdoing led by Jose Ruben Zamora.

In December, a judge ordered that Zamora stand trial on charges of money laundering, influence peddling and blackmail. In Tuesdays hearing, Bremer also added a new case of alleged obstruction of justice.

Mario Recinos, president of the Guatemalan Association of Journalists, said were seeing a deterioration in rights.

The Constitution establishes that criticism of officials is not a crime, he said. It also protects freedom of the press and opinion. He said his organization was on alert because this is a reflection of what happens in countries like Nicaragua.

Nicaraguas authoritarian government has shuttered independent press outlets and driven journalists into exile.

The U.S. government has sharply criticized the weakening of anti-corruption efforts in Guatemala under President Alejandro Giammattei and last year cancelled the U.S. visa of Monterrosos predecessor Guatemalan Attorney General Consuelo Porras.

Press freedom groups have said the prosecution of Zamora is politically motivated. His defense has maintained he received a $38,000 donation to keep the paper afloat and asked a friend to deposit it in a bank because the donor did not want to be identified.
DOVER, Del. (AP)  A Delaware judge has dismissed claims against directors of McDonalds in a shareholder lawsuit challenging their handling of sexual harassment by former CEO Steve Easterbrook and the companys former top human resources executive.

The judge ruled Wednesday that the lawsuit does not support an inference that the board failed to respond to allegations involving Easterbrook and former Chief People Officer David Fairhurst, who were accused of promoting and participating in a party atmosphere at the companys Chicago headquarters.

The allegations date to 2018, when the board received reports that Fairhurst had pulled a female employee onto his lap at a company party. Easterbrook told a board committee that Fairhurst had been involved in a prior incident of sexual harassment in 2016 that had not been reported, and that he had been warned about excessive drinking at company events.

When the head of the human resources function has repeatedly engaged in sexual harassment, that is the most vibrant of red flags regarding a potential problem with sexual harassment and misconduct," Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster said.

Nevertheless, Easterbrook recommended a deviation from the companys no-tolerance policy and proposed that Fairhurst be punished by forfeiting half of his bonus payment for 2018 and signing a last chance letter. The board also undertook a broader effort to address sexual harassment and misconduct issues, which had led to protests by restaurant workers in cities around the country that drew scrutiny from several U.S. senators.

In October 2019, however, the board learned that Easterbrook was engaging in a prohibited relationship with a female subordinate that included sexually explicit private messages and video calls. Two weeks later, the board terminated Easterbrook without cause, allowing him to retain tens of millions of dollars in stock-based benefits and other compensation, while firing Fairhurst for cause.

Story continues

The confluence of events during 2018, including the revelations about the global chief people officer, led to action, Laster noted, saying it was not possible to infer that the defendants acted in bad faith or breached their duty of oversight.

The lawsuit also claimed that the directors breached their fiduciary duties by terminating Easterbrook without cause, arguing that they declined to fire him for cause because they feared ugly litigation that would expose their own failures to address the companys problems with sexual harassment and misconduct.

Laster rejected that argument, noting that Delawares business judgment rule protects decision-making by corporate directors absent a showing of bad faith.

It is not reasonably conceivable that the director defendants sought to provide the CEO with a no-fault termination out of self-interest, Laster wrote. It is also not reasonably conceivable that the director defendants breached their duty of care.

Reasonable minds can disagree about whether the director defendants made the right decision by opting initially to terminate the CEO without cause, the judge added. Even if the defendant directors made an objectively wrong decision, the business judgment rule protects them from liability for a good faith error.

Laster said the business judgment rule also shields the boards decision to hire Easterbrook and to give Fairhurst one last chance.

At the time of his firing, Easterbrook told the company there were no other similar instances of misconduct. In July 2020, however, the company received an anonymous tip claiming that Easterbrook had engaged in a sexual relationship with another employee. An investigation revealed that, in addition to the relationship that prompted Easterbrooks termination, he had engaged in sexual relationships with at least three employees. He also used his company email account to transmit dozens of nude and sexually explicit photographs and videos, including photographs of the three employees.

The board sued Easterbrook, claiming it would not have terminated him without cause if it had known the extent of his misconduct. The company sought the return of equity awards he was granted in 2018 and 2019. In 2021, it announced that the lawsuit had been settled and that Easterbrook had returned equity awards and cash valued at more than $105 million.
In 2012, Michael Skvarla, director of Penn State University's Insect Identification Lab, picked up what he thought was just an antlion  a fairly common flying insect  from the side of an Arkansas Walmart. But as it turns out, it was actually a Polystoechotes punctata, or giant lacewing, an insect from the Jurassic era.

giant lacewing

Michael Skvarla / Penn State

Though once common, the giant lacewing "was mysteriously extirpated from eastern North America by the 1950s," according to a press release from Penn State. Skvarla's finding was the first of its kind in the past 50 years. Giant lacewing fossils date back to the Middle Jurassic era, over 160 million years ago. Fossil lacewing insects are also "much more abundant compared to living ones," per the authors of a 2018 study on lacewing fossil findings.

Scientists are still unsure why the insect disappeared, but have hypothesized that urbanization and habitat changes may have played a role. "Entomology can function as a leading indicator for ecology," Skvarla said. "The fact that this insect was spotted in a region that it hasn't been seen in over half a century tells us something more broadly about the environment."

Skvarla discovered he had misidentified the insect while teaching a Zoom class in 2020 when he noticed that the characteristics of antlions did not match up with the specimen he found. In 2022, he published his findings in the journal, Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington.

"This discovery suggests there may be relictual populations of this large, charismatic insect yet to be discovered," he said.

You may also like

Jurassic-era insect discovered at Arkansas Walmart

Why space experts want to establish a lunar time zone

The Dilbert debate: Were newspapers right to 'cancel' the cartoon?
(Bloomberg) -- Just Eat Takeaway.com NV reported revenue that rose last year as spending on orders increased, even as volumes fell.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Revenue increased about 4% to 5.6 billion ($5.9 billion) in 2022, the company said in a statement Wednesday. That matched what analysts expected in the period.

The food-delivery companies that experienced surging orders during the pandemic have been grappling with a slowdown after restaurants reopened for in-person dining. Amsterdam-based Just Eat has been focusing on cutting costs as it looks for ways to win new customers.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization for the full-year was 19 million compared to a loss of 350 million the previous year, the company said. Just Eat maintained its long-term targets and said it still expects to achieve adjusted Ebitda of about 225 million in 2023, with growth skewed toward the end of the year.

The shares reversed earlier losses of as much as 11% and were trading 3% higher as of 1:40 p.m. local time.

Just Eats large Ebitda beat in the second half of 2022 was mainly due to the firms Northern Europe segment, according to Jefferies analyst Giles Thorne. Another key item from the results was a lack of guidance on the gross transaction value for 2023, Thorne said.

Growth in the US needs to improve said Chief Executive Officer Jitse Groen on a call with journalists, adding that the companys businesses have very varied results.

Read More: Just Eat Takeaway Records 3 Billion-Euro Hit on Grubhub

Just Eat Takeaways recent efforts to consolidate have led it to partner with UK supermarket J Sainsbury Plc, Turkish startup Getir Perakende Lojistik A.S. and Dominos Pizza Inc.

Story continues

The firm has plans for additional partnerships this year, Groen said in an interview with Bloomberg. We have a huge pipeline of grocery stores that we anticipate will go online in a large number of countries within a couple of months, said Groen, referring to upcoming partnerships.

The company is not only looking into food delivery partnerships but is also carrying out test runs with Dutch retailer Blokker which allows customers to have non-food items such as cookery or batteries delivered.

Key Insights

The company reported a loss for the period of 5.7 billion, which was wider than analyst estimates for a 3.65 billion loss. That was mainly due to a 4.6 billion impairment on past equity-funded acquisitions and a book loss of 275 million on the sale of the firms stake in iFood.

Orders dropped 9% to 984 million and the gross transaction value of 28.2 billion in 2022 was stable compared to a year earlier due to higher average transaction value and favorable foreign exchange rates.

The firm said in its January trading update that the pandemic continued to affect its year-on-year comparison, but a focus on profitability resulted in Just Eat meeting its goal of positive adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in 2022.

Just Eat said it continues to actively explore the possible sale of its US-based Grubhub unit.

There is uncertainty about the future profitability of Grubhub because of the fee caps that are still in place in New York, Groen said.

--With assistance from Saksha Menezes.

(Updates throughout. An earlier version of this story corrected third bullet to say gross transaction value was driven by a higher average transaction value)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
[Source]

Justin Lin is reportedly returning to his indie roots to direct The Last Days of John Allen Chau, a film about the Asian American evangelist killed by the indigenous people of Indias North Sentinel Island.

The news comes from Deadline, whose sources name Ben Ripley as the screenwriter. Filming is expected to begin this spring.

Chau, a 26-year-old missionary from Alabama, was shot dead with bows and arrows on Nov. 17, 2018, after kayaking alone to the isolated island, defying non-contact laws of the Indian government.

His notes revealed that he sought to convert the reclusive Sentinelese  an uncontacted tribe who are believed to have thrived on their own for 60,000 years  to Christianity and establish the kingdom of Jesus on the island.

More from NextShark: Daniel Dae Kim Speaks Out on Drastic Pay Cut He Got From Hawaii Five-0

This is not a pointless thing  the eternal lives of this tribe are at hand and I cant wait to see them around the throne of god worshiping in their own language as Revelations 7:9-10 states. I love you all and I pray none of you love anything in this world more than Jesus Christ.

The upcoming film is reportedly based on author and journalist Alex Perrys article of the same title for Outside Magazine.

In that piece, Perry introduces Chau as a young adventurer driven to extremes by unshakable faith.

More from NextShark: 'Real Housewives of Salt Lake' star Jenny Nguyen confronts co-star Mary Cosby over 'slanted eyes' remark

Lin, whose credits include Fast & Furious and Star Trek Beyond, is also slated to helm Sony Pictures live-action One Punch Man, which reportedly awaits a new script draft in the coming weeks. However, sources told Deadline the studio wanted to give Lin the chance to work on The Last Days first.

Enjoy this content? Read more from NextShark!

'An insult to life itself': Studio Ghibli's Hayao Miyazaki condemns AI art

Little Women K-drama to be removed from Netflix in Vietnam over Vietnam War depiction
A teaching training for a Kansas school district warns that refusing to call a student by preferred pronouns could lead to catastrophic consequences, including death, for the child.

A presentation for staff and a so-called gender support plan, obtained by nonprofit Parents Defending Education, reveal the extent to which gender ideology has infiltrated Wichita Public Schools.

In the staff training, titled LGBTQ+ Students: Pronouns and More, are definitions for the terms gender identity, gender expression, and cisgender. The slides claim that schools are hostile places for LGBTQ+ students, citing high suicide statistics for LGBT youth who dont receive parental support

The lack of using pronouns could lead to death. We are here to support and educate students, not to judge them or push them over the proverbial edge, it reads. Misgendering can avoid sending students into a spiral of depression, it implies.

The slides demonize parents who question their childs new gender identity, accusing them of being neglectful and bigoted.

To not use the preferred pronouns and/or names can equate to discrimination. To allow a parents wishes to not use the students preferred pronouns and/or names is to allow yourself to be deputized to discriminate. This is not acceptable, it says.

The gender support plan appears to show that the gender identity of students could be kept secret from parents in Wichita.

Are the guardian(s) of this student aware and supportive of their childs gender transition?, a question on the form asks.

According to the document, gender-confused children will be encouraged to seek counsel with a staff member at school, potentially further removing the parents from the conversation.

Who will be the students go to adult at school?, the form asks.

A section on the form is also dedicated to use of facilities, for a staff member to mark which gender restroom, changing space, and rooming arrangements for overnight trips should be arranged for the student struggling with gender dysphoria.

Story continues

School districts across the countries have enacted gender policies that have effectively walled off parents from an extremely high-stakes, intimate question concerning their childrens wellbeing. The alienation felt by many parents over the last few years, since the gender craze has exploded in K-12, has driven an exodus from the public school system into private schools, charter schools, and homeschooling.

Under the doctrine of in loco parentis, schools are delegated some measure of authority over children during the course of the school day. However, this certainly does not mean that public school officials replace or supplant the role of the family  which sadly, far too many taxpayer-funded educators seem to have forgotten, Nicole Neily, president of Parents Defending Education, said. To undermine parents right to direct the upbringing of their children is not only immoral, but also illegal.

More from National Review
[Source]

Actor Karan Soni, best known for his role as the taxi driver Dopinder in the Deadpool film franchise, will join the cast of the upcoming animated superhero film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

In the sequel to 2018s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Soni, 34, will voice the character Pavitr Prabhakar, a poor Indian boy who is granted spider powers by an ancient yogi to fight evil. Prabhakar eventually becomes Spider-Man India and a member of Miguel O'Hara's (voiced by Oscar Isaac) Spider-Forces.

Speculation about the South Asian web-slinger appearing in the sequel first began in December 2021 when Sony Pictures released a first look at the sequel.

Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Justin K. Thompson and Kemp Powers, the highly anticipated film sees the return of Shameik Moore as Spider-Man/Miles Morales and Hailee Steinfeld as Gwen Stacy/Spider-Gwen.

More from NextShark: BTS Jimin reveals title, release date for debut solo album

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse will also feature returning actors such as Jake Johnson, Luna Lauren Velez and Brian Tyree Henry, as well as newcomers such as Jason Schwartzman and Daniel Kaluuya.

In 2019, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse won an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film and helped introduce the concept of multiverses in the superhero film genre to mainstream audiences.

The next installment of the Spider-Verse franchise will premiere in cinemas on June 2.

More from NextShark: Henry Golding Hints at Why Crazy Rich Asians Sequel Has Been Delayed

Enjoy this content? Read more from NextShark!

'Elden Ring' Game of the Year acceptance speech interrupted by stage crasher

Simu Liu shares 2022 highlights, lowlights in Subtle Asian Traits Facebook post
Kate paid tribute to the Welsh Guards in a red coat and leek brooch. (Getty Images)

The Prince and Princess of Wales visited the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards in Windsor on Wednesday to watch the St. Davids Day parade, the first time the royal couple have visited the regiment since William became Colonel.

In true diplomatic form, Kate paid tribute to the Welsh nation on its national day in a red coat and leek brooch at the Combermere Barracks in Windsor.

The princess often wears red for her visits to Wales to represent the Welsh flag, which made her stand out amongst the Guardsmen at the ceremony, and had a real leek also pinned to her lapel alongside the diamond brooch version.

The Princess of Wales watched on as a young boy performed a back-flip at the St David's Day Parade. (Getty Images)

The humble root vegetable is so well established as part of Welsh culture that it forms part of the St. Davids Day parade, where Prince William handed out leeks to the Officer and Guardsman who then issued them along the ranks, and Kate received a leek as a gift from the regiment.

Read more: Why does the Princess of Wales wear so much red?

Eagle-eyed royal fans have suggested that the diamond leek brooch might be the same as the one belonging to the late Queen Elizabeth. However, other members of the Royal Family have previously worn replicas of the diamond pin to public events, including Camilla, Queen Consort, who wore a replica to her husband King Charles first trip to Wales since he acceded the throne in September 2022.

The queen wearing the original diamond leek brooch in 2020 (L), and Camilla wearing a replica in 2022 (R). (Getty Images)

The original leek brooch was presented to the late monarch in 1960 by the Welsh Guards. Created from drawings made by the Welsh Guardsmen, the brooch was a gift, paid for by each of the guards themselves, who each paid a 12 and a half pence contribution.

Read more: Princess of Wales wins latest sporting battle against Prince William in spin class

The queen wore the diamond brooch on several occasions since receiving it over 60 years ago, with its last significant appearance on her lapel being the pared-back 2020 Trooping of the Colour ceremony during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Prince Williams late mother, Diana, also wore a replica for the St. Davids Day parade in 1990 when she was Princess of Wales.

Story continues

Diana wearing a replica of the leek brooch during the Presentation of the Colours to the guards at Buckingham Palace, London, May 1990. (Getty Images)

Kate accessorised her red double-breasted coat with a black scarf, black hat by Jules millinery, black leather gloves and black high-heeled boots, whilst William wore the traditional uniform of the Welsh Guards.

Read more: Kate wears red for first Wales visit as Princess - just like Diana 40 years ago

During the parade, William received the Royal Salute during the traditional march-past, his first since he took on the role of the Prince of Wales from his father. He and Kate later met with families from the Regiment as well as a group of troops from the 5th Royal Australian Regiment (5RAR) who are currently in the UK helping to train the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Watch: Prince William and Kate, Princess of Wales visit Welsh Guards for St David's Day parade
A man from Kent, who was a leader in a violent international drug trafficking organization, was sentenced Tuesday to 12 years and three months in prison, according to U.S. Attorney Nick Brown.

37-year-old Jose Elias Barbosa helped lead a group of drug traffickers that distributed heroin, fentanyl and methamphetamine in the Puget Sound region. They also used guns and threats of violence to collect debts.

This cartel-connected drug trafficking ring damaged our community with dangerous drugs, and with their guns and threats of violence, said Brown. Our focus is on curtailing the flow of dangerous and addictive drugs into western Washington. We need the community to work together to reduce the market for these substances.

According to case records, Barbosa pleaded guilty in August 2022 to being one of the leaders of a transnational drug trafficking organization. Law enforcement linked the organization to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel in Mexico.

In Nov. 2019, the DTO received a shipment of liquid methamphetamine concealed in candles. Barbosa helped DTO members to extract the methamphetamine and cook it into crystal form in Port Orchard.

While surveilling the Port Orchard house, law enforcement heard multiple gunshots and later learned that a rival had shot Barbosa in the collarbone.

Members of the drug ring were concerned law enforcement would arrive at the Port Orchard house, so they loaded the meth-infused candle wax into a van. The van was later stopped by law enforcement, who seized the meth and the processing equipment.

Barbosa was responsible for distributing at least 55 pounds of methamphetamine, 600 grams of heroin and fentanyl throughout Western Washington and elsewhere.

Wiretapped phone calls revealed that Barbosa confronted people who owed drug debts to the DTO. He once threatened another DTO member and took his car to satisfy a debt, according to the plea agreement.

The calls also showed that Barbosa and others frequently talked about kidnappings, assaults and even murders as ways to get people to pay up.

Story continues

This effort is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces operation.

The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administrations Tacoma Resident Office in partnership with the Tahoma Narcotics Enforcement Team, Kent Police Department, Homeland Security Investigations, SeaTac Police Department, Thurston County Narcotics Team, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation.

Every day, the men and women of the DEA in Seattle and throughout the U.S. are working tirelessly to stop dangerous drugs from entering our country, said Jacob D. Galvan, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the DEA Seattle Field Division. We will continue with all of our partners in holding those like Mr. Barbosa accountable and protecting our communities from illicit narcotics, guns, and violence.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Amy Jaquette and C. Andrew Colasurdo.




US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has defended giving about 40,000 hours of surveillance footage from the insurrection on January 6 2021 to Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

The California Republican told reporters that the footage is set to be released more widely and that the speakers office is taking steps to address worries about security risks.

It almost seems like the press is jealous, the speaker told The Washington Post. And thats interesting because every person in the press works off exclusives on certain things. People like exclusives, and Tucker is someone thats been asking for it.

He noted that Mr Carlson does opinion journalism, not news.

So, I let him come in and see it, but everyones gonna get it, Mr McCarthy told the paper in the wake of having skirted questions about his deal with Mr Carlson after he revealed last week that his staff had been afforded access to the footage.

A number of media outlets wrote to the speaker asking for the same kind of access.

On behalf of CBS News, CNN, Politico, ProPublica, ABC, Axios, Advance, Scripps, the Los Angeles Times and Gannett, lawyer Charles Tobin sent a letter making the case that the footage should be made available to others as well.

Without full public access to the complete historical record, there is concern that an ideologically-based narrative of an already polarizing event will take hold in the public consciousness, with destabilizing risks to the legitimacy of Congress, the Capitol Police, and the various federal investigations and prosecutions of Jan. 6 crimes, it said.

Democrats have slammed the speakers decision to give Mr Carlson access. The host has often de-emphasised the attack on the Capitol. Concerns have also been raised about the security risks of revealing the camera locations around the congressional buildings.

On Tuesday, Mr McCarthy pushed back on those concerns, claiming that Mr Carlson said that he didnt want to share footage showing exit paths from the Capitol.

Story continues

The speaker added that he has been speaking to the US Capitol Police (USCP) regarding the release of the footage and disregarded concerns that Mr Carlson will mislead his viewers regarding what took place that day.

Mr McCarthy instead chose to slam the House Select Committee investigating the attack on American democracy for showing footage of then-Vice President Mike Pences hurried escape from the senate chamber as rioters entered the halls of the Capitol, some chanting that he should be hung.

During a press briefing on Tuesday, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said, if you watch what the January 6 committee did under Speaker Pelosi, they actually released a lot of video that was very sensitive.

I didnt hear a lot of concern about that back then. We were concerned about how selective they were, he added.

Former January 6 committee spokesman Tim Mulvey previously said in a statement that the footage was treated with great sensitivity given concerns about the security of lawmakers, staff, and the Capitol complex. Access was limited to members and a small handful of investigators and senior staff, and the public use of any footage was coordinated in advance with Capitol Police. Its hard to overstate the potential security risks if this material were used irresponsibly.

A spokesperson for Georgia Republican Representative Barry Loudermilk, the chair of the House Administration subcommittee on oversight, told The Washington Post that the rules put in place governing the release of the footage to Mr Carlson prevent his team from taking any footage from the area set up for them to view the footage. The spokesperson said that the videos Mr Carlson and his team selects will have to be vetted before its broadcast.

We want to be transparent on everything, Mr Loudermilk told the paper. But theres also areas that we have to be concerned, like escape routes and holding rooms, and cameras that we dont want al-Qaeda to know about.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told The Post that his main concern going back to when Speaker Pelosi was still there is the security of the Capitol, which was obviously severely threatened on January 6.

Mr Carlson has repeatedly defended the rioters and he has boosted the conspiracy theory that the insurrection was a false flag operation instigated by the government.

They are experts in manipulating media and cutting context so its absolutely true that they may take some of that tape and manipulate it in really disturbing ways that could incite violence, New York Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told The Post.

Mr Carlson said last month: Its not easy to be speaker when the House is this closely divided, and in some ways Kevin McCarthy is perfectly suited for that. And critically McCarthy is willing to spend the next two years living in hotel rooms raising money for his party ahead of a historic presidential election. What other Republican in the House is willing to do that?

The Independent has reached out to the US Capitol Police and Fox News for comment.
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Reuters

When House Speaker Kevin McCarthy followed through on his promise to release Capitol surveillance footage from the Jan. 6 riot, it seemed like an obvious bid to appease his most vocal critics on the right.

But, miraculously, its had the opposite effect.

McCarthy achieved a rare feat with his decision to hand over 40,000 hours of surveillance footage from Jan. 6: He managed to piss off just about everyoneDemocrats, Republicans, even the ultra-conservative allies of former President Donald Trump.

The left, naturally, is enraged. They argue the release threatens to reveal sensitive security details about the Capitol, including the placement of cameras, evacuation routes, and floor layouts. But more surprising has been the far rights reaction. Theyre mad McCarthy didnt release the footage to the public immediately, instead only granting access to Fox News, for now.

Colbert Tears Into Tucker and McCarthy for Rewriting History of Jan. 6

Now, not even two months into his speakership, McCarthy is once again doing a sort of damage control, potentially reversing himself again, saying Tuesday that hed hand over footage to defendants on trial for storming the Capitol. While that could placate some of McCarthys detractors, the decision also threatens to make things worse with otherswhile also not being enough for the most diehard Republicans.

The drama all started last week, when Axios reported that McCarthy had granted Fox News kingpin Tucker Carlson exclusive access to more than 40,000 hours of security footage from the day of the attack. There was never any legitimate reason for this footage to remain secret, Carlson told Axios at the time.

The release of the footage was a flashpoint in the contentious race for House Speaker. McCarthy was urged by the ultra-MAGA wing of his conference to make the tapes public. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA, whod become an unexpected ally of the California congressman), was among the loudest voices in that chorus. And when McCarthy announced that hed hand over the footage to Carlson, she relished the victory.

Story continues

We are releasing the J6 tapes and not one single lying grifter on social media had anything to do with it, she said. I told you we would all along.

But quickly after news about McCarthy sharing the footage with Carlson spread, the speakers critics pounced.

Longtime Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani called the decision from McCarthy a terrible mistake, which gave rise to an issue that doesnt have to exist. Newsmax TV host Eric Bolling echoed that sentiment, questioning why other conservative news outletssuch as his Fox News rivalwerent given the same red-carpet treatment as Carlson.

Why not other media? Why not Newsmax? Why did he just give one host, on one cable network, this information? Bolling complained.

D.C. Cop Regularly Texted Info to Proud Boys Leader Before Jan. 6

Trump-ally and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell said Lindell TVhis media firmhad sent an official request to McCarthy and Congress to release the tapes last week. He has yet to file a lawsuit, but pledged to take legal action against McCarthy if Lindell TV was not given all the tapes and access that Carlson was issued.

I have a request sent out," Lindell told The Daily Beast. Its all of our right, before adding that CNN and The Daily Beast should have access to the tapes, too.

All of us have that right to that 44,000 hours of video, he said, while suggesting Fox News would filter out whatever would benefit them.

Democrats on the Hill quickly voiced their anger. In a letter to his colleagues, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said the footage being released to Carlson poses grave security risks to members of Congress and everyone who works on Capitol Hill.

Other lawmakers expressed similar concerns.

I'm so horrified by that, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) said Monday night of the release to Carlson. And I'm horrified by how much danger the Speaker of the House is putting us all in it's really a dereliction of duty.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), who served on the Jan. 6 Select Committee, told The Daily Beast that the Jan. 6 Committee handled that footage with great care.

We had many staff members go through thousands and thousands of hours in search of the truth, so we could develop a coherent picture of what happened and share it with the world, he said. Now, Speaker McCarthy has, in one way or another, turned all of it over to one media entity with one particular propagandistic mind.

Noah Bookbinder, president of the ethics watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told The Daily Beast there were serious ethics concerns to be had with the release, including regarding the decision to only hand the tapes to Carlson.

The Real Tragedy of Jan. 6 Is That Its Still Not Over

It is very different for a speaker or any member to say, you know, I'm gonna give you an exclusive look at legislation that I've drafted or, or something like that, as opposed to security footage, which is highly sensitive, which is not something that was created by Speaker McCarthy, Bookbinder said.

A number of news organizations have also explicitly asked for the same access Fox News is being granted.

With such an uproar, McCarthy now seems to be trying to redirect the narrative. Hes now making clear that while the footagefor nowis being released to Fox News exclusively, he plans to release it to everyone at some unidentified point.

I think putting it out all to the American public, you can see the truth, see exactly what transpired that day, McCarthy told reporters Tuesday. My intention is to release it to everyone.

McCarthys office did not respond to a request for comment on his timeline for releasing the footage to the public, or what specific procedures would be put in place to ensure sensitive security details would not be released.

But Politico also revealed on Tuesday that McCarthy has already authorized Jan. 6 defendants to have access to Capitol footage on a case-by-case basis, in an effort led by Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA). Loudermilk has framed the sharing of footage as an issue of due processinsisting the Capitol footage can be crucial evidence for defendants hoping to disprove their charges. (Loudermilk was the Republican who took a group of rallygoers on a tour, on the eve of Jan. 6, through the Capitol complex and allowed them to take pictures of entrances and exits, as well as magnetometersa no-no on Capitol Hill.)

Jan. 6 lawyer Joseph McBride confirmed news of the footage sharing with defendants to The Daily Beast, adding that he believes everyone should have access to the tapes. McBride sat on the fence when asked about Jan. 6 organizer Ali Alexanders claim that releasing the footage would harm defendants charged over their actions that day. Could January 6 defendants at large, you know, suffer some kind of consequence for releasing the footage? I suppose so. Could they be exonerated by footage...I suppose so, he said.

Raskin, for one, questioned the merits of this footage for defendants.

If one of the convicted defendants believes that there is going to be evidence that antifa was really behind this, and this somehow would exonerate them, then, you know, that is a dream they can have, but I wouldn't hold out much hope of that particular outcome, he said.

According to a source familiar with the Jan. 6 Select Committees work, sifting through Jan. 6 footage took months and involved ongoing discussions about what footage could be used without revealing private information about the Capitol complex. Footage had to be viewed in a specific room and with a Capitol Police-approved setup.

Carlson and his team of producers do not have unfettered access to the footage. They are apparently confined to viewing the materials from a terminal in McCarthys office. But that also raises its own set of journalistic questions.

Kevin McCarthy Shores Up the Right by Pissing Off the Left

To be sure, McCarthy has supporters in his handling of the release. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), whos been a bit of a rebel within the Republican conference this term, tweeted that shes not sure why both sides of the aisle wouldnt want every minute of the J6 video footage unfiltered, not redacted, for all to access.

Sunlight is the best medicine, she said.

Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SC), another McCarthy ally, told The Daily Beast that McCarthy is making good on his commitment to release the footage, though he recognized there are some legitimate concerns that people have raised about security issues.

But you look at the January 6 committee released the footage of Mike Pence and his exit route out of the Capitol. That, to me, would have been the most sensitive piece of security information, Johnson said.

Other Republicans seem mostly indifferent about the decision. Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), another Republican whos openly criticized party leadership in recent years, wasnt particularly concerned with the release of footage to Carlsonand eventually the public.

I dont know. Why not? he told The Daily Beast Tuesday.

As for security concerns from Democrats in particular, Crenshaw said he hadnt heard their issues. I think it's fine, he said.

One of the main concerns is that, with more than 40,000 hours of footage, its anyones guess what is released and packaged to the public. Carlsonas hes consistently donecould downplay the attack by only publishing select snippets of the tapes.

Democrats seem to think thats the overall reasoning for handing over the Jan. 6 tapes to someone like Carlson.

But still, even if Carlson manages to achieve that goal and effectively softens the attack on the Capitol, its still unlikely to be enough for the most hard core GOP voices.

Marjories boo Kevin McCarthy is still sitting on J6 footage. And now, Barry Loudermilk is assisting Kevin McCarthy in preventing the release of all of the J6 footage, far-right radio host Stew Peters told The Daily Beast late Tuesday. He and Marjorie are now complicit in holding up justice for these political prisoners. Release the footage now.

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.
Kim Kardashians daughters North and Chicago West wont have to worry about finding a dress for prom because they can simply borrow one from their mothers fashion archive.

While backstage at Dolce and Gabbanas spring 2023 show at Milan Fashion Week, the 42-year-old SKIMS founder shared details to Vogue about her bedazzled red dress that she will save for her daughters to wear one day.

Kardashian explained in a TikTok video that she had re-worked the vintage Dolce and Gabbana dress  which dates back to 1994  into a two-piece ensemble. It was a long red dress and so we kind of modernised it a little bit, made it a crop, she said.

The reality star accessorised the all-red look with a matching bedazzled mini bag, and noted that she had different versions made for her daughters North, nine, and Chicago, five, to make herself look like the best mom ever.

Itll go in my Dolce and Gabbana archive that I hope my kids want to wear one day, Kardashian continued. I hope North and Chicago  they can wear this to prom, they can wear this to a formal dance at school, they can wear it to whatever they want.

Kardashian even said that her girls can wear the cropped dress on a night out clubbing, before admitting that she wont be stingy with her excessive clothing archive.

Vogue captioned the TikTok: If you see North or Chicago in this look at prom in 10 years, now you know the backstory.

While some viewers in the comments were skeptical that Kardashians daughters would consider wearing the two-piece number to prom  particularly since North is known to have a drastically different style than her mother  others praised Kardashian for putting her children first.

To prom?!?! Lol, commented one TikTok user, to which one person replied: By the time Northy goes to prom. Yes this will be the look

Story continues

Lol North is not interested in dressing anything like Kim, another fan jokingly wrote, adding a laughing crying emoji.

Its so sweet how she always thinks of her kids, said someone else, while one user commented: I so see Chicago being a mini Kim

Kardashian recently gave fans a glimpse into her massive fashion archive, which houses 30,000 different items of clothes.

In season one of Hulus The Kardashians, the reality star visited the storehouse in an attempt to discover her new fashion era. The billionaire business mogul explained that shes on a journey to find her own personal style following her divorce from rapper Kanye West, who famously dressed his ex-wife.

Kardashian and her best friend Tracey Romulus visited the fashion archive to sift through the reality stars most iconic fashion looks.

I have thousands and thousands of clothes. I think I have 30,000 pieces, Kardashian said as she perused through the packed storage facility. I love seeing all this stuff. I just want to see where Ive been and where I want to go.

However, it may be some time before her eldest daughter borrows items from her mothers archive. In an interview with Vogue last year, Kardashian admitted that her then eight-year-old daughter North had strong thoughts about her fashion choices, especially if its an entirely black outfit.

North is very opinionated when it comes to what Im wearing, Kardashian said at the time. Shell always complain when Im wearing too much black.

Kardashian added: I showed up at her school on Valentines Day wearing head-to-toe pink, and she got so excited she ran over and hugged me. [Of course] she opened my coat, saw the black lining, and says: Mom, youre still wearing black.

Despite complaining when her mother wears all black, Kardashian once described her daughter North as a full goth girl.

North is like goth, shes into Hot Topic, she said onThe Ellen Degeneres Show in 2021. She puts fake tattoos on her face, and she listens to Black Sabbath, and shes just like a full goth girl.

In addition to their two daughters, Kardashian and West are also parents to sons Saint, seven, and Psalm, three.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has hired a company to administer the state's new program to let families access taxpayer funds to pay private school costs.

Reynolds said Tuesday she has chosen Odyssey, a vendor that has contracts in Idaho and Arizona. Iowa still has to negotiate a contract with the company before it can open the application process for the program.

What does Iowa's 'school choice' law do?

Reynolds signed the sweeping "school choice" law in January.

It will phase in over three years and eventually allow every Iowa family to access about $7,600 in taxpayer funds per student each year through an education savings account that can be used to pay private school costs, including tuition and fees.

The law is expected to cost $345 million annually once it's fully phased in.

More:Jubilant Kim Reynolds signs Iowa's seismic 'school choice' bill into law. What it means:

What is Odyssey's role in Iowa's 'school choice' progam?

Odyssey will be responsible for managing all aspects of Iowa's program, including applications, payments, compliance, fraud prevention and customer service, Reynolds said in a news release Tuesday. The state picked Odyssey over three other applicants seeking to run the program.

The company's application estimates that running Iowa's program would cost $629,550 per year.

What other states has Odyssey worked with?

Odyssey's application states it worked last year to distribute $50 million in taxpayer funds to Idaho families as part of that state's Empowering Parents program.

According to its website, that program gives federal COVID-19 relief money to families of K-12 students to buy educational services and devices like computers to help students recover from learning loss through the pandemic.

In its application, Odyssey said it has the ability to distribute funds through a "digital wallet" on its platform.

More:What to know about enrolling in Iowa's new education savings accounts for private school

Story continues

"From there, families can use the funds to purchase qualified goods and services directly through the platform using the vendor marketplace," the application states.

How fast can Odyssey set up Iowa's education savings account program?

The company also said it can have its platform operational within four weeks of being awarded a contract, and is prepared to allow a 60-day period for families to apply to the program in time for the June 30 deadline to apply for the 2023-24 school year.

More:Which Iowa kids could 'school choice' help most? These 3 maps tell the story:

In the first year, the education savings account program will accept applications from all incoming kindergarteners, all public school students switching to private school and current private school families who make at or below 300% of the federal poverty level.

Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on Twitter at @sgrubermiller.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Kim Reynolds hires Odyssey to run Iowa's private school ESA program
King Charles and Prince Harry at the Committal Service for Queen Elizabeth II. Kirsty O'Connor - WPA Pool/Getty Images

Harry and Meghan have been evicted from Frogmore Cottage, a spokesperson confirmed.

The couple moved into the Windsor Castle cottage in 2019 and stay there when they visit the UK.

But after Harry released "Spare," the king reportedly offered the cottage to Prince Andrew.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been evicted from their cottage at Windsor Castle, a spokesperson for the couple has confirmed.

In 2019, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex moved from a property on the grounds of Kensington Palace into Frogmore Cottage at Windsor Castle shortly before the birth of their son, Archie.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex stayed in the cottage as recently as June 2022 for Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee celebrations. Meghan told The Cut at the time that it was "surreal" to visit the home for the first time since she and Harry left the UK in 2020.

But on Thursday, a spokesperson for Harry and Meghan confirmed to Insider that the couple has been asked to vacate the property, following a report by royal author Omid Scobie.

"We can confirm The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been requested to vacate their residence at Frogmore Cottage," the spokesperson said.

Scobie reported on Wednesday that the couple will no longer have access to the cottage, as King Charles decided to evict Harry and Meghan after his son released his memoir "Spare" in January.

Page Six and The Sun published similar reports on Tuesday, with the former claiming the king evicted Meghan and Harry the day after "Spare" was released.

Representatives for Buckingham Palace did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle moved into Frogmore Cottage in 2019. AP/Star Max

Frogmore Cottage gave Harry and Meghan access to royal protection in the UK

Harry and Meghan made extensive renovations to the cottage, changing it from five separate properties into one large home for their family.

They originally used $3 million of UK taxpayer money to update the home, but they paid that money back to the Sovereign Grant in 2020, according to The Independent.

Story continues

Harry and Meghan had already moved to the US at the time they paid the money back, but a spokesperson for the couple said in a statement to The Independent at the time that they planned to maintain ownership of the property.

"This contribution as originally offered by Prince Harry has fully covered the necessary renovation costs of Frogmore Cottage, a property of Her Majesty The Queen, and will remain the UK residence of the duke and his family," the statement said.

Scobie reported for Yahoo News that Harry and Meghan have access to royal protection when they stay at Frogmore Cottage because it is on Windsor Castle's grounds. Harry and Meghan's royal security was removed when they stepped back as senior royals in 2020, and though they have private security, the protections provided to the royal family offer Harry, Meghan, along with their children  Archie and Lili  additional support when they are in the UK.

Prince Andrew was reportedly offered the cottage

According to Scobie, Charles offered the cottage to Prince Andrew.

Andrew was stripped of his military titles and royal patronages in 2022 after Virginia Giuffre filed a lawsuit against him, accusing him of sexual assault. Andrew has repeatedly denied Giuffre's allegations and said he doesn't recall ever having known her.

Andrew settled Giuffre's lawsuit against him in March 2022 for around $16 million, and the king recently informed him he needs to move to a smaller home than his Royal Lodge, Scobie reported.

Prince Andrew and King Charles. Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

Meghan and Harry were "stunned" by the king's announcement, while two other unnamed royal family members were "appalled" by the king's decision, according to Scobie.

An unnamed source told Scobie the Sussexes will have to be completely moved out of Frogmore Cottage by the summer.

"Initially they were given just weeks, but now they have at least until after the coronation," the source told Scobie.

Scobie went on to report that the royal family had not provided Harry and Meghan with another protected location where they could stay when they visit the UK, and Harry's appeal to the UK government to allow him to hire police protection for his family is still under review.

Prince Harry in "Harry & Meghan." Netflix

Following the release of "Spare" and Netflix's "Harry & Meghan," Harry's relationship with the royal family, particularly the king and Prince William, has been more strained than ever.

On December 17, Roya Nikkhah of The Sunday Times tweeted that "William has cut all contact" with Harry following the premiere of "Harry & Meghan."

In the Netflix docuseries, Harry said William's press office traded stories about him and Meghan, that his older brother screamed at him during a crisis meeting, and that the royal family was "happy to lie" to protect William.

Harry also said in "Spare" that William physically attacked him in 2019, and he wrote that Queen Elizabeth's death did not help him to reconcile with his family, saying he and William were "barely exchanging a word" as they stood together by their grandmother's coffin on September 19, 2022.

And according to People, Harry said in an article dated January 8 that he had not spoken to his father or brother for "a while."

Read the original article on Insider
Adam Kinzinger is gone from Congress and the Jan. 6 committee, but hes still raging against what he sees as dangerous political extremism.

The Illinois Republicans political organization is launching a nationwide campaign urging voters to reject extreme candidates on both sides of the aisle ahead of the 2024 election. The centerpiece of the campaign is a nearly six-minute-long short film titled Break Free, inspired by Apples 1984 Super Bowl ad about escaping the conformity of non-Apple computers.

In the political ads twist, people are forced to wear blue- and red-tinted goggles showing them divisive images and broadcasts from a Big Brother-type character until they take them off and escape. A monologue from Kinzinger urges Americans to reject political extremes.

What were showing, by the video, is weve been programmed so much to believe that theres only two choices to everything, that the other side is our enemy, that each event in the world should be seen through blue or red glasses, Kinzinger said in an interview. And were saying theres a completely different way.

He said the nationwide campaigns rollout, which will include TV, digital, billboard and guerilla marketing, will involve spending as close to a quarter million [dollars] or more. Shorter versions of the video will be displayed too.

And as an example of what Kinzinger described as performance art, people have been spotted around Capitol Hill wearing the all-white costumes from the video. The former congressman said the display was also meant to draw attention to how many lawmakers on Capitol Hill were just looking for that next social media opportunity, and not actually trying to do what their constituents need.

Its just another way to put that in perspective, he added. And its a little creepy too.

Kinzinger broke with his party after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, eventually serving as one of two Republicans on the select panel investigating the insurrection. He now identifies as a homeless Republican.

Story continues

Asked about the select panels unfinished business, he said his working assumption was that the Department of Justice and Senate Democrats might be able to carry on the investigative mantle from the select panel, which sunsetted at the end of the last Congress.

The Senate needs to pick up that slack, he said.

There were still investigative leads to pursue with the Secret Service, Kinzinger said, and with former President Donald Trumps social media manager Dan Scavino, who had resisted the select panels subpoena and was eventually held in contempt of Congress. He did agree, however, that the Jan. 6 select committee had acted correctly in not further pushing former Vice President Mike Pences testimony, saying it would have taken up a ton of energy for probably, as far as we were concerned, probably not a ton of information thats useful.

Theres a lot of those kinds of loose ends that, while Im impressed at the committees ability to put together what we were able to do ... if we had more time or infinite time, I think we could have done a lot more, Kinzinger said.

Kinzinger didnt close the door to running for office again, though he said it wouldnt be in the near future.

Theres a good chance I run for something again someday, he said. But I definitely need to take a good breather and a reset and focus on my wife and kid right now.
A political group led by former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), who voted to impeach former President Trump, is unveiling a national ad push to urge voters to reject political extremism.

Kinzinger, who did not run for reelection in 2022, told Politico that the ad push, which is centered around a six-minute short film, is meant to show people that there is a completely different way than the political polarization between the Republican and Democratic parties.

What were showing, by the video, is weve been programmed so much to believe that theres only two choices to everything, that the other side is our enemy, that each event in the world should be seen through blue or red glasses, Kinzinger said. And were saying theres a completely different way.

The ad blitz  which Kinzinger said would cost around a quarter of a million dollars or more  is centered around a short film based on the 1984 Super Bowl advertisement by Apple, showing people wearing blue and red-tinted goggles and being shown divisive video clips from political events over the past few years.

It was then overlaid with a speech from Kinzinger, urging people to reject political extremism.

Performance artists dressed in white straightjacket outfits, similar to those seen in the advertisement, were seen around Capitol Hill earlier this week, including in House offices. They were carrying QR codes with links to a website denouncing political extremism.

Kinzinger retired from Congress last year after voting to impeach Trump in his second impeachment hearing. He also served on the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection and has been a fervent critic of the former president, as well as extreme views on both sides of the aisle.

On top of building the ad campaign, Kinzinger, who has said he plans to stay in politics, has a book that will be released in October.

Theres a good chance I run for something again someday, he said. But I definitely need to take a good breather and a reset and focus on my wife and kid right now.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Alex Murdaugh's family long dominated the legal scene in his small South Carolina county, but for the past six weeks, he was on the other side of the courtroom, standing trial on murder charges in the shootings of his wife and son. He was convicted Thursday and sentenced to life in prison the next morning.

More than 75 witnesses were called and about 800 photographs, reports and exhibits were presented as evidence. Jurors visited the crime scene Wednesday before the prosecution and defense gave closing arguments over parts of two days.

When closing arguments wrapped up Thursday, the judge turned Murdaughs fate over to jurors, who took less than three hours to come back with their verdict. Murdaugh, 54, could have received as little as 30 years behind bars, but the judge on Friday gave him the maximum: two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.

Here are some takeaways from the trial:

WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE KILLINGS?

Alex Murdaugh called 911 on the evening of June 7, 2021, and said he found his son and wife dead when he returned home from a one-hour visit with his mother, who has dementia.

Authorities said Paul Murdaugh, 22, was shot twice with a shotgun, each round loaded with different sized shot, while Maggie Murdaugh, 52, was struck with four or five bullets from a rifle. A crime scene report suggested both victims were shot in the head after initially being wounded near dog kennels on the Murdaughs sprawling rural property.

Prosecutors took more than a year to charge the disgraced lawyer with murder but decided not to pursue the death penalty. Murdaugh, who is also charged with about 100 counts of financial and other crimes, adamantly denied any involvement in the killings.

WHAT WAS THE PROSECUTION'S CASE?

Prosecutors, who contend that Murdaugh killed his wife and son to distract from his financial crimes, did not present direct evidence against him.

They called 61 witnesses and introduced more than 550 pieces of evidence over 17 days of testimony  from descriptions of the brutality of the killings to numbing details about bank records.

Story continues

The weapons used to kill the victims were not produced. But prosecutors did get one key piece of evidence that showed Murdaugh lied to police and that put him at the kennels where his wife and son were shot just five minutes before investigators think they were killed because they stopped using their cellphones.

It's a video taken by Paul Murdaugh, locked in his cellphone for a year after the killings until federal agents could hack into it. Alex Murdaugh told the first police officer to arrive and every investigator afterward that he was never at the kennels. But his voice is on that video.

That changed everything," prosecutor Creighton Waters said in his closing statement Wednesday.

I did lie to them," was one of the first things Murdaugh said when he took the stand in his own defense, blaming paranoia about law enforcement because he was addicted to opiates and had a bottle of pills in his pocket when he was questioned.

Waters asked jurors why an innocent man who just saw his wife and son slaughtered or the state agents investigating would be worried about pills.

He was lying to you when he made that up  just like he has lied to everyone close to him. And hes good at it," Waters said.

STAR WITNESS

Murdaugh was the 72nd witness called during the trial.

His defense team wasted no time. Their first questions were whether he killed his wife or son, which he denied forcefully. During questioning by his lawyer and prosecutors, he repeatedly denied that he ever hurt them.

Prosecutor Creighton Waters tried one last time: Mr. Murdaugh, are you a family annihilator?

You mean, did I shoot my wife and son? Murdaugh said in a measured tone. "No. I would never hurt Maggie Murdaugh. I would never hurt Paul Murdaugh under any circumstances.

In his closing argument, Waters pointed out that Alex Murdaugh nodded as he said that, just like he nodded in police videos when state agents asked if he was at the kennels on the night of the killings and he said he wasn't.

Murdaugh also admitted over and over that he lied and stole millions of dollars from his clients and law firm. Waters told the court about nearly every victim and asked Murdaugh if he lied to their faces.

I took money that wasnt mine. And I shouldnt have done it. I hate the fact that I did it. I am embarrassed by it. Im embarrassed for my son. I am embarrassed for my family, Murdaugh said.

Murdaugh is awaiting trial for the many financial crimes he admitted to on the stand and insurance fraud charges for asking someone to kill him so his surviving son could get his $12 million in life insurance as well as tax evasion and money laundering charges.

WHAT ABOUT THE DEFENSE?

The defense called experts who said investigators didnt dust for fingerprints, collect and test blood, or photograph evidence with the angles or clarity needed to study it properly later.

The first officer arrived at the rural Colleton County estate 20 minutes after Murdaugh called 911. Almost immediately, the local sheriff turned the investigation over to the State Law Enforcement Division.

It took hours for agents from across the state to get deep into the South Carolina Lowcountry. During that time, more than a dozen family and friends walked around the scene, comforting Murdaugh.

The bodies of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh were covered with a sheet, which can absorb fluid, instead of a tarp. Then the sheet wasnt saved, meaning possible hair or DNA from a killer could have been lost. Intermittent rain fell and the runoff from the kennel roof fell on Paul Murdaughs covered body.

When state agents arrived, they sent Murdaugh and his entourage to the home. Witnesses testified that it hadnt been searched for weapons, bloody clothes and other evidence, or even checked to see if a suspect was hiding inside.

The defense also called an expert who testified that the killings likely required two shooters because both Paul and Maggie Murdaugh appeared to have been taken by surprise. Their hands were not raised in defense and the shockwave, blood and gore after Paul Murdaugh was shot in the head at close range with a shotgun likely would have stunned the shooter for at least several seconds and Maggie Murdaugh would have responded.

Alex Murdaugh was charged with both killings, which bound prosecutors to him being the only shooter.

Defense attorney Jim Griffin said Thursday that state agents put Murdaugh in the center of a circle of suspicion and did nothing to get him out.

We believe we have shown conclusively that SLED failed miserably in investigating this case and, had they done a competent job, Alex would have been excluded from the circle a year ago, Griffin said.

WHAT DID THE JUDGE SAY?

After Thursday's verdict was read, the defense moved to have a mistrial declared and the outcome tossed out, but Judge Clifton Newman denied the motion and commented on the massive amount of evidence and testimony jurors heard.

The jury has now considered the evidence for a significant period of time, and the evidence of guilt is overwhelming, he said.

Murdaughs lawyers will almost certainly appeal the conviction based on the judge allowing evidence of the financial crimes, which they contend were unrelated to the killings and were used by prosecutors to smear Murdaughs reputation.
What youre saying is now were going to give judges the right to decide how much aid to give them instead of the person with the expertise and the experience, said Justice Sonia Sotomayor during Tuesdays oral arguments.

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two unprecedented cases  Biden v. Nebraska and Department of Education v. Brown  to determine whether President Joe Bidens student loan debt relief program would prevail.

This comes months after The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit issued an injunction halting forgiveness nationwide, leaving many borrowers in limbo about what will happen with their student loans.

Student loan borrowers and advocates gather for the Peoples Rally To Cancel Student Debt During The Supreme Court Hearings On Student Debt Relief on February 28, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Peoples Rally to Cancel Student Debt )

In August 2022, Biden announced a plan to eliminate up to $20,000 in federal student debt for borrowers who received a Pell Grant and up to $10,000 for borrowers who did not receive the grant to help citizens combat financial hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic. To qualify, an individual has to make less than $125,000 or the total household income must be less than $250,000, as theGrio previously reported.

During Tuesdays oral arguments, Justice Sonia Sotomayor condemned the six GOP lead states for putting the fate of millions of borrowers in the hands of the Supreme Courts nine justices.

Sotomayor noted that while 50 million students will benefit from Bidens student loan forgiveness plan, the injunction means that they are going to continue to suffer from this pandemic in a way that the general population doesnt.

She added, What youre saying is now were going to give judges the right to decide how much aid to give them instead of the person with the expertise and the experience  the secretary of education  whos been dealing with educational issues and the problems surrounding student loans.

In the Biden v Nebraska case, states contend that their economies will be greatly impacted by the student debt forgiveness program.

Nebraska Solicitor General James A. Campbell, one of the attorneys representing the states, called the student loan debt forgiveness program unlawful and alleged that no statute authorized Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to create it.

Story continues

He added that Cardonas actions were unprecedented and that the HEROES Act, which grants the secretary authority to waiver or modify a statute governing the federal student financial aid programs in the wake of a disaster or emergency, has never been used to eliminate student debt before.

President Joe Biden delivers remarks regarding student loan debt forgiveness in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Aug. 24, 2022. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona joined. (Photo by Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Sotomayor challenged Campbells statement and said Congress anticipated that the HEROES Act would be used for debt cancellation.

Why would you think that Congress didnt intend under the HEROES Act to permit cancellations of debt if a national emergency required it, she asked.

Campbell asserted that the states would suffer financial injury due to Bidens initiative; however, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson disagreed. The newest justice told the attorney that he did not present sufficient evidence to support that claim.

On the contrary, the government asserts that these states lack standing because they have not presented a case in which they have suffered harm.

U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar, the attorney who represents the federal government, asked the court to reject the states arguments.

She also stated that Cardona acted within his authority under the HEROES Act when he proposed a plan to eliminate student debt for eligible borrowers amid the COVID-19 pandemic and that Congress authorized his plan because it was deemed essential.

The attorney also claimed that the states would not suffer financial harm from the governments actions.

However, the conservative justices were not entirely convinced that the Biden-Harris administration had justified invoking the HEROES ACT to create a loan forgiveness plan for borrowers.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh pushed back while speaking with Prelogar and was skeptical that the language in the HEROES Act authorized Cardona to eliminate student debt for some borrowers.

So, that leaves us with a situation that I think weve seen before  an old statute with kind of general language  Congress specifically considering the present issue repeatedly but not, as you acknowledge, he said.

Student loan borrowers and advocates gather for the Peoples Rally To Cancel Student Debt During The Supreme Court Hearings On Student Debt Relief on February 28, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Peoples Rally to Cancel Student Debt )

He added the Biden administration created a massive new program that was not permitted under the HEROES Act.

Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin told theGrio that he believes the Republican-led states lack standing.

I hate the pendulum where we are in our country right now. And when something works for all Americans, that its still being hijacked and or held hostage for partisan reasons, he said.

Jonathan Miller, chief program officer at Public Rights Project, told theGrio that these suits were filed against the Biden administration solely as a political stunt.

The pushback is all political. They dont want the Biden administration to get the success and the win of the debt cancellation. And so theyre trying to get the courts to strike it down, he said.

Woodfin believes that if Bidens student debt forgiveness program is permitted to move forward, Black Americans will be positively impacted.

[They wont] have to choose between being a homebuyer and paying student loans. Between being able to start a family and paying student loans, he said.

Woofin added, This debt cancellation is a shot at a greater equity in our country.

At this time, the Biden administrations efforts to provide relief for millions of Americans is on hold while the nine justices debate their arguments.

TheGrio is FREE on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku and Android TV. Also, please download theGrio mobile apps today!

The post What you should know about Supreme Court hearings on the fate of student loan debt relief appeared first on TheGrio.
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said on Wednesday that trilateral cooperation with the United States and Japan has become more important than ever to overcoming North Korea's growing nuclear threats and other crises.

Yoon spoke at an event commemorating the country's historic March First independence movement against Japan's 1910-1945 occupation of Korea.

"Japan has transformed from a militaristic aggressor of the past into a partner that shares the same universal values with us," said Yoon.

"Today Korea and Japan cooperate on issues of security and economy. We also work together to cope with global challenges... We must stand in solidarity with countries that share universal values."

Yoon's comments come after South Korea's presidential office said on Tuesday that officials from South Korea, the United States and Japan have held their first economic security dialogue, amid efforts to strengthen supply chain resilience and develop technology.

Though Japan and South Korea are at times uneasy neighbours, the three countries are keen to expand cooperation in various fields in the face of increased global tensions, a more assertive China and an unpredictable North Korea.

Last November, Yoon and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida agreed to continue discussions for a prompt resolution of pending issues, according to Yoon's office, as they seek to improve relations dogged by historical disputes.

(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Tom Hogue and Michael Perry)
(Bloomberg) -- Russian critics of President Vladimir Putin have spent the past year pressing the US and its allies to impose sanctions on thousands of Kremlin officials and business tycoons. Now they want a clear way for those who come out against the war to get off the blacklists.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Exiled businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who spent years in a Russian prison after a conflict with President Vladimir Putin, wrote to the UK Foreign Office this week appealing for sanctions to be lifted from Oleg Tinkov, a self-made billionaire who publicly condemned Putins invasion and renounced his Russian citizenship.

I believe the decision to impose sanctions on him was wrong, Khodorkovsky said in an interview, citing Tinkovs repeated criticism of Putins government. Lifting sanctions should be very clearly linked to public disengagement from this regime and its aggressive war.

As the war drags on, many tycoons are challenging the legal basis for including them on Western sanctions lists. None have yet succeeded.

Tinkov formally applied this week to the UK Foreign Office to be removed from the sanctions list.

I support the UK governments decision to sanction people who back Putin or facilitate the war, Tinkov said in a statement. Its sad they mistakenly thought I was one of those people. Lifting sanctions on me would be fair and send a signal that Western sanctions are not aimed at all Russians but only people who prop up Putin and his invasion.

Asked about the request, the Foreign Office said it doesnt comment on individual sanctions designations. Every sanctioned individual or entity has the right to challenge their designation and there is a clear legal route to do so, it said in a statement.

Story continues

Khodorkovsky isnt the only Russian opposition activist calling for sanctions to be tied to public criticism of the war.

Leonid Volkov, the chairman of Alexey Navalnys Anti-Corruption Foundation, has been lobbying European, British and US officials to expand sanctions to include everyone on the organizations list of 6,000 Russian officials and enablers of the Kremlin.

But to make sanctions more effective at destabilizing Putin, Volkov said Western officials need to lay out clear criteria for how individuals can get removed from the list, including by denouncing the war and paying damages to Ukraine.

The Evolution of Sanctions as Financial Warfare: QuickTake

The ultimate goal is to stop the war, not to punish people, Volkov said in an interview. Only with an exit strategy will sanctions be effective. Otherwise, people have nowhere to run but back to Moscow, where they get more dependent on Putin. They have to be presented with a clear option  do this and this and sanctions will be lifted.

Volkov said he has told UK officials they should lift sanctions on Tinkov as an incentive for other Russian tycoons to break with Putin. Tinkov has said the Kremlin threatened to nationalize the online bank he founded after he criticized the war, forcing him to sell his stake last year in what he called a fire sale.

In October, Volkov wrote to the EU asking to remove businessmen who condemn the war and are not connected to the crimes committed by Putins regime. The sanctions sometimes target businesspeople acting in good faith, often simply because they hold Russian passports, while the real criminals, who enriched themselves through their close connections to Putins regime, have once again escaped scot-free, Volkov said.

A spokesperson for the European Commission said bloc would see an end to the war and an unconditional withdrawal of Russian troops as among the main preconditions for easing sanctions.

Opposition activists have also called for sanctions relief for others whove been more restrained in criticizing the war than Tinkov.

Volkov cited billionaire Mikhail Fridman and his partners in the Alfa Group, which controls the countrys largest retailer and private bank - Petr Aven, German Khan and Alexei Kuzmichev - as examples of tycoons deserving of sanctions relief. Fridman publicly condemned the war as a tragedy, saying war can never be the answer, in a Feb. 28, 2022 statement, but he stopped short of directly criticizing Putin.

We do not believe that they were somehow connected to Putins regime or that they should be held responsible for his crimes, Volkov wrote of the Alfa shareholders.

Broke Oligarch Says Sanctioning Billionaires Wont Sway Putin

The UK and the EU have both cited Alfas alleged Kremlin ties when they imposed sanctions. The EU called Aven one of Vladimir Putins closest oligarchs. It called Fridman an enabler of Putins inner circle and said the other Alfa shareholders maintained close relationships or ties with the Kremlin. The UK said Fridman, Aven and Khan are closely associated with Putin and that they, along with Kuzmichev, have benefited from the Russian government.

The men have denied those claims and are challenging the sanctions.

The US has refrained from targeting the Alfa shareholders or Tinkov but it has imposed sanctions on Alfa-Bank. Fridman has remained in London despite the restrictions, while Aven and Kuzmichev have not returned to Russia since the invasion. EU sanctions are up for renewal this month.

Other Kremlin critics made similar appeals on Fridmans behalf. Nobel Peace Prize winner Dmitry Muratov, the editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, an independent newspaper shuttered by the Kremlin, called for the EU to reconsider sanctions on the tycoon given his investments in Ukraine and his friendship with the late Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was gunned down near the Kremlin in 2015.

Its hard to imagine a person close to Putin who would befriend a furious opponent of the Kremlin, Muratov wrote, stressing he has no financial or professional connections to Fridman. Ilya Yashin, an opposition politician now jailed in Russia, wrote a similar appeal for the tycoon last month.

Lawyers for Fridman have sent the letters from activists to the EU ahead of its decision this month on renewing sanctions.

Navalny, one of Putins most prominent critics, survived a poisoning in August 2020 that he and Western governments blamed on the Kremlin. He was jailed after returning to Russia in 2021 and is serving a 9-year prison sentence after being convicted of fraud and contempt of court. While hes in jail, aides at his foundation have continued investigating Russian officials and tycoons for corruption.

Volkov said the foundation had no financial ties to the Alfa Group. He called Avens attendance at a Kremlin meeting between the president and tycoons on the day of the invasion a mistake but shouldnt be used as a sign of a connection to Putin.

Khodorkovsky said tycoons seeking sanctions relief must not only condemn the war but also denounce Putin and declare support for Ukraines territorial integrity. Fridman has met only the first of those conditions, he said.

I believe Fridman and Aven are scared of falling into the gap between the two chairs on which they have been sitting for many years, he said. Russia will block the way for them and the West will not open it.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Dmitry Peskov, Press Secretary of the Russian President, has stated that the Kremlin does not believe the words of Mykhailo Podoliak, Adviser to the Head of the Office of President of Ukraine, who said that Ukraine did not attack Russia with drones.

Source: Russians Kremlin-aligned news outlet RIA Novosti



Quote from Peskov: "We do not believe him [Podoliak  ed.]"



Background:

On 1 March, Mykhailo Podoliak, Adviser to the Head of the Office of President of Ukraine, stated that Ukraine does not carry out attacks on the territory of Russia  it is how he responded to the Russians accusations of Ukraine allegedly striking Russian regions with UAVs.

On the night of 27-28 February, explosions rocked the Russian city of Tuapse in Krasnodar Krai, followed by a fire at a Rosneft oil refinery. News outlets reported that it was an attack of UAVs.

An unidentified aircraft crashed in Adygea, in the Southern Federal District of Russia, the head of the republic said. There was a large fire in the Temryutsky district.

On 28 February, 200 square kilometres of the airspace were closed in the Russian city of Saint Petersburg, and the local Pulkovo Airport stopped accepting planes for landing after an unidentified flying object was detected over the city.

Later, the Russian Ministry of Defence reported that the airspace over Saint Petersburg had been closed because they were conducting "air defence training".

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
The Kentucky Senate will get two bills aimed at fixing the states broken juvenile justice system, one with $47.9 million a year in staffing and security enhancements and the other calling for a $500,000 audit of the eight juvenile detention centers where violence and neglect have become a recurring problem.

The Senate budget committee approved the bills on Wednesday as senators repeated their calls for Vicki Reed, the states juvenile justice commissioner, to resign. Reed, who was appointed in 2021 by Gov. Andy Beshear, has refused to step down despite lawmakers urging her to do so because of multiple riots and assaults on her watch.

Beshear has told reporters that he supports Reed.

I fear its the result of political patronage, state Sen. Danny Carroll, R-Paducah, testified to the committee on Wednesday.

She seems to be a very nice lady, Carroll said. But overwhelmingly, those within the system whom we have spoken with feel she does not have the ability, she does not have the credibility to get the organization where it needs to be.

Juvenile Justice Commissioner Vicki Reed

In several bills now moving through the legislature, lawmakers are trying to address the chronic under-staffing that has led to many serious problems at the Department of Juvenile Justice. In January, Beshear announced a hefty pay raise for the security officers at juvenile detention centers, taking them to a starting salary of $50,000.

Senate Bill 162 would spend nearly $48 million annually on the raises for security officers at the Department of Juvenile Justice and, to be equitable, at the Department of Corrections, which runs the prisons; 146 additional staff positions; physical security upgrades; a diversionary program to help youths with mental illness; and a tracking system, so families and lawyers more easily could locate incarcerated youths.

SB 162 also would make a number of systemic changes to the Department of Juvenile Justice.

It would reverse Beshears recent executive order segregating male and female youths, as well as low-risk and high-risk youths, by sending them to different detention centers around the state, sometimes several hours from their homes. Beshear took this step after a girl reportedly was raped by several boys during a riot at the DJJ facility in Adair County.

Story continues

Instead, the bill would require DJJ to return to a regional detention system where youths are housed in the facility closest to their homes. However, the bill calls for security upgrades to better separate the boys and girls and the violent and nonviolent offenders when they are housed inside the same facilities.

The bill also requires emergency response teams to be trained and ready in each DJJ facility; agreements to be signed with outside police agencies to assist with violent incidents if necessary; and security officers to resume wearing uniforms while on duty in DJJ facilities.

In the last few years, discipline inside DJJ has become lax, contributing to the current problems, senators said.

This is our response to a crisis in leadership, said state Sen. David Givens, R-Greensburg.

The other measure passed Wednesday, Senate Bill 158, provides $500,000 for the state auditors office to hire an independent firm to conduct a performance review of the juvenile detention centers, with a report due Oct. 15.

The House on Tuesday passed its own juvenile justice measure, House Bill 3, with a list of recommended changes and funding proposals.

Some items in HB 3 are similar to SB 162, such as a requirement for the state to provide mental health care to youths in detention if a professional assessment determines they need it. Others parts are different, including a three-year waiver on the confidentiality of juvenile court records for youths who are convicted of violent offenses.

KY falls short on mental health care for kids in lockup. This bill might change that.

As politicians get tough on KY juvenile justice, what about kids mental health?
In Kyiv and Oblast were warned about the possible operation of air defense

The alert was announced at 11.32 a.m.

An unidentified object was spotted in the sky, the Kyiv Regional Military Administration said in a Telegram messenger post.

Read also: Russia launches Shahed UAVs from new site to further threaten Kyiv, says UK intelligence

The work of air defense forces and means is possible in this regard. Stay in shelters or other safe places until the alert is cancelled.

Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv City Military Administration, said the aerial object had been detected in the skies outside Kyiv.

The alert was cancelled at 12.08 p.m.

Meanwhile, neither air defense operations nor explosions were reported or heard.

Read also: Air defense downs all four Shahed drones approaching from north during Russian night attack on Ukraine

Later, Ukrainian Air Force Spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said Ukrainian air defenses had shot down an unidentified enemy drone. He said the type of drone would be established when wreckage from the shoot-down was recovered.

The preliminary assessment was that the object had been an enemy balloon.

He added that an earlier alert in the eastern oblasts of the country had been triggered by the activity of enemy tactical aviation.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Employees of Pacific Power expressed concern that the utilitys power lines may have ignited some of the 2020 Labor Day fires in private messages made public Tuesday in Multnomah County Circuit Court filings.

The messages, sent during the height of the infernos, came to light as part of a class action lawsuit that blames Pacific Power for igniting four of Oregons Labor Day fires.

God the fires near our service territories are right underneath our lines, PacifiCorp fire data scientist Pavel Grechanuk wrote in a message to Tyler Jones, a PacifiCorp senior transmission and distribution asset performance engineer, on the morning of Sept. 8, 2020.

A Christmas star on Dec. 14, 2020 lights up Don Stuart's Otis property that was destroyed during the Echo Mountain Fire.

In another message, referencing what became the Echo Mountain Fire in the Otis/Lincoln City area west of Salem, Grechanuk wrote that it looks like there is a fire in Lincoln City which also started under our transmission lines. Like the fire is in the transmission corridor.

The messages are included as one exhibit in a motion asking the court to sanction PacifiCorp for withholding documents about the cause and origin of the fires. Lawyers suing PacifiCorp allege the utility has not been forthcoming in disclosing all documents and information that would shed light on the causes of the fires.

More:Satellite maps show spread of Beachie Creek, Holiday Farm wildfires in Labor Day blowup

The class action lawsuit, currently scheduled for trial April 24, alleges Pacific Powers failure to maintain its power lines and shut down power during a historic east wind event led to the ignition of the Santiam Canyon/Beachie Creek, Echo Mountain, 242 and South Obenchain fires.

Pacific Power, which is owned by Berkshire Hathaway Inc., denies the claims. In previous court filings, the utility called the fires an "unavoidable accident or Act of God.

Two and a half years after they occurred, the official causes of the fires remain under investigation by federal and state officials. The lack of a government explanation for what happened sets up a scenario in which the jury trial will lack what would normally be a key piece of evidence in determining whos at fault for wildfire damage.

Story continues

Plaintiffs in the case include owners of 2,500 properties burned by the four fires, which in location include the Santiam Canyon, Lincoln City/Otis area and southern Oregon. The outcome of the trial will impact anyone harmed by the fires, even if they havent taken legal action.

In previous attempts at reaching comment, PacifiCorp said only that it did not comment on pending litigation.

Investigation:Missed opportunity? Records detail Forest Service response to Beachie Creek Fire before blowup

The messages included in the court filing make specific reference to the Echo Mountain Fire in the Otis/Lincoln City area and the Slater Fire in the Happy Camp., Calif. area. They reference, but do not call out, the wildfires in the Santiam Canyon that led to a mass evacuation and ultimately burned thousands of homes.

The messages do not appear to clearly show the two individuals knew power lines had ignited the fires.

In another message discussing the Echo Mountain Fire, Jones wrote, My buddy lives in LC (Lincoln City), he's in the south part of town  sent me a picture and the smoke is so thick."

Grchawk responded: "God I just hope it was another baby shower and not us.

More:They stayed and fought: Volunteer firefighters battled to save Mill City from the Labor Day fires

In reference to the Slater Fire, the conversation includes:

It looks like a fire was started  in one of our PDZ areas (proactive de-energization zones), wrote Grechanuk.

Jones responded: Uh oh. Wait so Happy Camp went into PSPS (public safety power shutoff)?

Grechanuk replied: A fire was started in the PDZ and then we went PSPS.

Daaaang, not good, wrote Jones.

More:Report from lawsuit says Pacific Power utility to blame for Labor Day Fires

Zach Urness has been an outdoors reporter in Oregon for 15 years and is host of the Explore Oregon Podcast. To support his work, subscribe to the Statesman Journal. Urness is the author of Best Hikes with Kids: Oregon and Hiking Southern Oregon. He can be reached at zurness@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6801. Find him on Twitter at @ZachsORoutdoors.

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: As wildfires exploded, Pacific Power worried power lines were at fault
Gaga dogs

A woman charged in connection with the violent theft of Lady Gagas French bulldogs has sued the musician for alleging she was denied a $500,000 (416,000) no questions asked reward after the pets were returned.

Jennifer McBride was one of five people charged over the dognapping of Koji and Gustav in an attack which saw dog walker Ryan Fischer shot and wounded.

Despite being charged with receiving stolen property and accessory to attempted murder, Ms Mcbride is accusing Lady Gaga of breach of contract, fraud by false promise and fraud by misrepresentation for not paying her the $500,000 reward when she returned the two dogs.

In addition to the reward money, McBride is seeking no less than $1.5 million in damages, as well as unspecified general damages, according to an eight-page complaint filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Ms McBride claims she was entitled to the reward for having delivered the dogs to the Los Angeles police Olympic Community station two days after they were taken.

By then, Lady Gaga, who was filming a movie in Rome when her pets were taken, had issued a public plea on social media for an act of kindness to bring them home and offered half a million dollars as a reward.

The suit alleges Lady Gaga never intended to pay the no questions asked reward money, instead having law enforcement ask McBride questions about the return of the bulldogs.

As a result, McBride says she endured pain and suffering, mental anguish and loss of enjoyment of life.

She also later pleaded no contest to receiving stolen property from the theft, NBC News reported, and was sentenced to two years probation.

James Howard Jackson, the gunman who shot the dog walker and stole the French bulldogs was sentenced to 21 years in prison for attempted murder.

Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Michele Hanisee said any payout from a lawsuit would be considered restitution for Lady Gaga, who along with her wounded dog walker, were victims of a crime.

Story continues

It was clear from the evidence presented to the grand jury that Ms McBride knew the dogs had been stolen in a violent robbery in which Ryan Fischer had been grievously injured. It was also clear from the evidence that McBride had known at least two of her co-conspirators for years, Ms Hanisee said.

If Lady Gaga suffers a financial loss by paying that reward, she will qualify as a victim of crime under California law, and the people will be obligated by law to seek restitution in court for that loss from each and every defendant in the case.

Ms Hanisee added that if Lady Gaga had not come forward publicly acknowledging the dogs were hers and offering a reward, the dogs would likely have ended up in a breeding mill.
[Source]

Lauren Tom will be joining the cast of Hulu's upcoming series "Interior Chinatown.

Tom will play Betty, a successful and quick-witted real-estate agent, according to Deadline.

The 61-year-old actor, who played Ross girlfriend Julie in Season 2 of the classic 90s sitcom Friends, is also known for portraying Lena St. Clair in the 1993 film The Joy Luck Club and Celia Mack, the grandmother of Peyton Elizabeth Lee's Andi Mack in the 2017 Disney Channel series Andi Mac."

Tom has also voiced characters such as Amy Wong in Futurama, Jinx and Gizmo in Teen Titans and Teen Titans Go!, Minh and Connie Souphanousinphone in King of the Hill and Numbuh 3 in Codename: Kids Next Door.

More from NextShark: Simu Liu hypes up Destin Daniel Cretton on directing the new Avengers movie

She will reportedly reprise her role as Lena St. Clair in the highly anticipated Joy Luck Club sequel.

"Interior Chinatown," which is based on the National Book Award-winning novel of the same name by Charles Yu, revolves around Willis Wu (portrayed by Jimmy O. Yang), a background character stuck in a police procedural show.

Wu, who aims to break into the shows main plot, eventually uncovers truths about the bizarre environment he exists in, as well as his family's covert past.

More from NextShark: Simu Liu tapped to host Academy's Scientific and Technical Awards

In addition to Tom and Yang, the films cast includes Chloe Bennet as Lana Lee, Ronny Chieng as Fatty Choi, Tzi Ma as Joe Wu, Archie Kao as Uncle Wong and Diana Lin as Lily Wu.

Thor: Love and Thunder and "Akira" director Taika Waititi will direct the pilot and executive produce the series. Yu will serve as showrunner and also executive produce. Other executive producers include Dan Lin and Elsie Choi.

An official release date for Interior Chinatown has yet to be announced.

More from NextShark: MOMOLAND members leave MLD Entertainment after 7 years

Enjoy this content? Read more from NextShark!

Kal Penn comes out as gay, shares how his 11-year relationship started with NASCAR
The initial findings of the investigation into the Jan. 18 helicopter crash in Brovary, which claimed the lives of top officials of the Interior Ministry, will be released between late March and early April.

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko announced the news on television on March 1.

A helicopter transporting the top officials of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry crashed near a kindergarten and an apartment building in Brovary, a city located east of Kyiv, on Jan. 18.

The crash resulted in the death of Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky, the highest-ranking Ukrainian official to die since Russia's full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, as well as his first deputy. Fourteen individuals died due to the crash, including all 10 passengers on board the helicopter.

Klymenko said that the investigation is being carried out in collaboration with French Airbus officials who manufactured the helicopter. The results of the investigation will be made public upon its conclusion, he added.


Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast / Public Domain

The House Criminal Justice Committee of the Tennessee legislature was discussing a bill to add the firing squad to electrocution and lethal injection as the states death penalty options when Rep. Sherrell suggested one more.

Could I put an amendment on that that would include hanging on a tree, also? he inquired during Tuesdays proceedings.

Sherrell paused and sat with his hands folded before him, the fingers interlaced. His mouth briefly closed and his cheek registered a swirl of his tongue, as if he were savoring the moment.

Among the other committee members who can be seen in a video of the proceedings is Rep. Joe Towns Jr., a Democrat from Nashville. He could not be reached by The Daily Beast afterward, but his clearly horrified expression said it all.

WATCH: Rep. Paul Sherrell (R-Sparta) wants to bring HANGING BY A TREE back to Tennessee   as an amendment to @DennisHPowers firing squad bill.



(Reminder: SHERRELL also had a bill to change John Lewis Way to Trump Blvd) pic.twitter.com/9aSTinwKAo  The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) March 1, 2023

The prospect of stringing someone from a tree has a particular history in a southern state such as Tennessee, especially in some of the rural communities such as Sherrell represents. That includes his hometown, Sparta, where a runaway slave was dragged from the jail and hung from a tree on a hill in the town cemetery in 1855. One man tried to stop the lynching, and a newspaper recorded the mobs reply.

Hang the speaker to the other end of the rope.

And Sherrell was not talking about a gallows on Tuesday. He meant a noose dangling from a tree limb, just like in Sparta 168 years ago and in thousands of lynchings that followed across the South. He ended his pause by saying the firing squad is a very good idea and asked to become a co-sponsor of the legislation.

Story continues

Sherrell is already one of two sponsors of a bill to rename part of a Nashville street after Donald Trump that is currently named after the late civil rights icon and longtime U.S Rep. John Lewis in 2021. Lewis attended American Baptist College and Fisk University in Nashville. He was a leader of the 1960 sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in downtown Nashville. The four months of non-violent protests led to Nashville becoming the first city to admit Blacks to previously segregated public places.

Trumps only significant connection with Nashville was a 30-minute speech he delivered at the Municipal Auditorium in May 2017, followed by a visit to The Hermitage, the plantation where President Andrew Jackson once kept 200 slaves. Jackson says in his letters that he lynched two Native American chiefs. Trump laid a wreath on Jacksons tomb on what would have been Old Hickorys 250th birthday.

We will make America great again! Trump declared.

Unless Sherrell succeeds in renaming it President Donald Trump Boulevard, the address of his legislative office will remain 425 Rep. John Lewis Way. The street was previously Fifth Avenue and the official state assembly website still uses that name, which is only fitting for Sherrell. He was one of only two state legislators who voted against a 2022 bill requiring schools to include Black history and Black culture in their curriculums in grades five through eight.

And Sherrells bigotry is not limited to race. He was a co-sponsor of a 2020 bill that ensures private adoption and foster care agencies can reject gay couples. Just last month, he championed a bill to ban gender-affirming care for transgender youths

Our preacher would say, If you dont know what you are, a boy or girl, a male or a female, just go in the bathroom, take your clothes off and look in the mirror, Sherrell said. Youll find out what you are.

Throughout four terms in the legislature, Sherrell has repeatedly shown exactly who he is. And his fellow Republicans have responded by making him the majority floor leader, whose official duties include working toward passage of all Administrative bills approved by the Republican Bill Review Committee.

Paul Sherrell is an extraordinary legislative leader who is admired and respected by his Republican colleagues, House Majority Leader William Lamberth was quoted saying at the time of the selection in 2018.

Assistant Majority Leader Ron Gant said, I know he will work tirelessly to ensure Tennessee remains a model of success that our entire nation can follow.

The person who made Tennessee a model for the nation to follow was John Lewis, for whom a street is so rightly named. Lewis is one of the figures Sherrell did not want school kids to study.

But Sherrellwho did not respond to phone and e-mail requests for commenttaught a little lesson of his own in Black history on Tuesday with his suggestion about hanging from a tree. It even came with just a ghoulish hint of a smile.

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.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP)  Nebraska lawmakers held a public hearing Wednesday on competing bills to address ways to enact a voter ID requirement approved by voters last November.

Nebraska became the 36th state to require a form of identification to vote with the successful referendum initiative, which was conducted in the wake of false allegations of widespread election fraud in the 2020 presidential election. In January, Ohio enacted a strict voter photo ID law that takes effect this year.

While voters approved the proposal to show photo identification at the polls, it's up to the Legislature to define what forms of ID will suffice to meet that requirement.

The Legislature's committee that deals with government affairs heard a bill by Omaha Sen. Jen Day that would offer a wide range of identification that would satisfy the photo ID requirement, from driver's licenses, state IDs and passports to student and government employment IDs. Day's bill also would allow residents to register to vote online, offer transportation for the elderly and disabled to obtain photo IDs and provide a public awareness campaign regarding the new voter identification requirements.

The last thing we need is voter confusion on Election Day, Day said.

Two bills introduced by state Sen. Steve Erdman, of Bayard, go beyond the question of requiring photo identification to vote. While one measure would cancel some fees to acquire IDs, another also would largely eliminate voting by mail except for registered military members and nursing home and assisted-living residents.

One of his bills also would require all ballots to be counted on Election Day at individual polling places, instead of at central county election commission offices. It also proposes making primary and general election days state holidays to get more people to the polls, but Erdman testified Wednesday that he's considering dumping that proposal as it may be too cost prohibitive.

Story continues

Three state election officials testified against Erdman's bills, including the election commissioner of Douglas County, the state's most populous with nearly 600,000 people. Eliminating most mail-in elections and requiring precinct-by-precinct ballot counts would be too costly and disenfranchise too many voters, Douglas County Election Commission Brian Kruse said. Some sparsely populated counties, he said, have no public buildings available to serve the most rural precincts or no polling places that are accessible to the disabled.

Voters have become acclimated to by-mail elections, Kruse said. It would cost $1 million annually in Douglas County alone to drop voting by mail.

Seward County Election Commissioner Sherry Schweitzer said Erdman's proposal would violate federal election law that mandates allowing U.S. citizens overseas to vote by absentee ballot. It also doesn't make allowances for voting by mail for students away at college, the homebound or those in hospitals, she said.

Under Erdman's plan, if the election was held yesterday, most senators on this committee would not have been able to vote, Schweitzer said. We know that early voting is safe and secure.

The single-day precinct vote counting proposed by Erdman would cost Hall County an additional $200,000 per election, Election Commissioner Tracy Overstreet said. Further, it's physically impossible to do, she said. It ignores the counting of provisional ballots, which can't be done on Election Day.

Counting ballots within individual precincts would require most counties to find new polling places, Overstreet said, because many places now used  like churches and schools  can't give up their facilities for the several days it would take to count all votes.

The vast majority of those who testified in favor of Erdman's bills cited what they believed to be rampant election fraud in both national and Nebraska elections  including ballot and voting machine tampering. Nebraska has no history of widespread voter fraud.

The committee's chairman, Sen. Tom Brewer of Gordon, said before testimony in the hearing began that the committee would likely take parts from the various bills and craft its own to advance to the full Legislature.

Voter ID measures have been approved in a number of Republican-controlled states nationwide. But Nebraska Republicans previous efforts to do so in the officially nonpartisan Legislature were unable to overcome opponents who said such voter ID laws are meant to discourage voter turnout by minorities and others who are less likely to have appropriate identification and tend to vote for Democrats.

When efforts in the Legislature failed in 2021, a petition effort  bankrolled by then-Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts mother  was launched to get the measure on last Novembers ballot.
The isle was formed five miles into The Solent, off the south coast. (Solent)

Britain has a brand new isle after a landmass formed off the south coast  and it has already been claimed by two sailors.

The uncharted territory, that measures 330ft by 65ft, formed five miles into The Solent  the water between mainland Britain and the Isle of Wight.

Sailors Chris Fox and Nick Ryley were the first to make landfall at the isle and have claimed it by painting the flag of the Royal Lymington Yacht Club in Hampshire and planting it in the middle of the shingle bank.

The pair have named the isle Lentune Island, after the original name for Lymington from 1,000 years ago.

The half-acre isle, which is fully visible at low tide, has gradually built up over the last few months to the east of historic Hurst Castle.

It is thought Lentune Island has formed naturally as a result of work to protect the castle from coastal erosion after one of its walls collapsed in 2021.

Sailors Chris Fox and Nick Ryley have claimed the isle by painting a flag of the Royal Lymington Yacht Club in Hampshire and planting it in the middle of the shingle bank. (Solent)

Thousands of tonnes of shingle have since been dug up from the seabed to bolster Hurst Spit.

The excavations have altered the tidal currents and conditions which in turn has moved the shingle about to form the new bank.

Now local sailors and fishermen are calling on the authorities to recognise it and chart it to stop mariners from grounding on it at high tide.

Fox, who is aged in his 50s, said: "We had been monitoring the island for a while. It started as a strange lump in the sea and just kept growing.

"Nick had the idea that we should head out there and try to see exactly how big it had become

Lentune Island has gradually built up over the last few months to the east of historic Hurst Castle. (Solent)

"We took a flag for a bit of fun but in all seriousness I think it is dangerous for any visiting sailors who don't know the area very well.

"We're trying to spread the word with the RNLI that this is a new hazard which could prove disastrous for someone unaware of it.

The new landmass has caused a lot of concern for the local RNLI team which has also been monitoring the progress of the island.

Alistair Mackay, manager of Lymington Lifeboat Station, said: "We know that the local sailing clubs are aware of the problem but we worry about visiting sailors.

Story continues

The half-acre isle is fully visible at low tide. (Solent)

"It definitely will be a problem, in storm conditions being grounded on the shingle would be disastrous.

"You wouldn't be able to swim to shore and the rocks and waves battering the boat would cause real damage.

"We are advising people to be very careful even if they are experienced sailing in the area.

An English Heritage spokesperson said: "The Hurst Spit and the wider coastal environment around Hurst Castle is complex and ever changing, facing issues such as longshore drift, rising sea levels and more frequent storms.

"Any work undertaken to care for Hurst Castle is carried out as part of the Beach Management Plan and in close discussion with those statutory bodies responsible."
A buoy sits on a lake bed that was once covered by Colorado River water at Lake Mead on June 28, 2022. (John Locher / Associated Press)

To the editor: Eric Kuhn proposes a solution to breaking the impasse to allocating water between California and the other states drawing from the Colorado River. Unfortunately, he failed to mention the one ingredient that will actually solve the impasse: money.

Large water users in California have water rights that they will not give up unless paid an amount of money commensurate with their actual value. And that value can be determined by what is done with the water and the end value of that use. If it's alfalfa feed or almonds, the end result of the water use is the value of those crops.

If other users want that water for cities or other more profitable agribusinesses, then they should agree to pay the farmers to give up their water and their farms while earning the same income from the sale of their water rights.

Lester Ostroy, Redondo Beach

..

To the editor: So the state is going to wait until the Colorado River is close to drying up like the Great Salt Lake. And then what?

Right now the country of Israel is using desalination plants and pumping an abundance of water into neighboring Jordan. California has a very long coastline and could build numerous plants to help with the water shortage.

Don't let this serious issue be a political one. If California is waiting on any other legislature to actually do something on the Colorado River, please stop. Less talk, more action.

Roger Robbins, Sebring, Fla.

..

To the editor: There is only one solution to vanishing Colorado River water.

All Americans, much less the world, use goods and agriculture from the American southwest. The nation spent billions building interstate highways. We pipe oil from Canada to Texas.

Water must be imported via canals, pipes and pumps from where there is an abundance.

Richard Melniker, Los Angeles

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
A Lexington police officer has been arrested and charged with child abuse in Estill County.

Kentucky State Police arrested Detective Ryan Raker Tuesday on a warrant issued by the Estill County Sheriffs Office, Lexington police said in a news release. Raker is charged with second-degree criminal abuse of a child 12 or under.

Raker was being held in Three Forks Regional Jail in Lee County Tuesday.

As of Tuesday, Lexington police said he was relieved of sworn duties and transferred to an administrative assignment in accordance with department policy while the incident is under review.

Online court records indicate that Raker, 39, of Irvine, was indicted in Estill Circuit Court Friday.

Raker has worked for the Lexington Police Department since 2009, according to a database of city employees previously published by the Lexington Herald-Leader.
Sometime in November, someone walked into a U.S. post office and filled out a change of address form, just as tens of millions do each year to route their mail to a new address. The person signed the form, handed it in and walked out. That was enough to set in motion a domino effect that upended the life of a former Microsoft executive several states away, as the person who signed the form effectively hijacked the executive's home address in just a few minutes.

The fraud relies on a simple flaw in how the U.S. Postal Service processes changes of address. It's neither new nor a particularly sophisticated technique, and has long been known to fraudsters and federal investigators. A fraudulently filed change of address form can have lasting fallout for the thousands of individuals whose mail is hijacked and rerouted every year, with criminals able to obtain bills, credit cards and other sensitive information that can be used to raid bank accounts or make fraudulent purchases.

What is more baffling is that there seems to be an equally simple fix. But while USPS acknowledges there is a problem, it wouldn't say how it plans to close the loophole that allows fraudsters to cash in on someone else's identity.

The former Microsoft executive, who asked not to be named but agreed to tell his story to TechCrunch, is not naive to cybersecurity and privacy threats. But by his own admission, the former executive said he did not know it was so easy for someone to maliciously change his address without his consent, let alone open the doors for criminals to raid his accounts or potentially rack up thousands of dollars in fraudulent purchases. All of this, he says, is because of a simple paper form that gets handed back to the post office without much of a second thought.

USPS processed some 36 million changes of address in 2021. There are two ways to change an address. Most people fill out the form online by providing their old and new address, then pay $1.10 for the convenience of speed. The other way  still used by a significant minority of folks  is by filling out the paper form at a local USPS post office.

Story continues

Neither online or paper form requires the person to present proof of their identity. The online form, at least, requires a small payment, which is by no means verification of a person's identity, but it leaves a digital paper trail that makes it ultimately traceable to someone. But USPS relies almost entirely on the system trusting the person signing the paper form, whoever they might be.

a postcard-sized change of address form, made of paper, facing front-side up on a flat wooden desk.

After filling out this form, there are no guarantees that USPS will check the identity of the person submitting the change of address request. Image Credits: TechCrunch

The paper form is officially known as PS Form 3575. As bureaucratic as government paperwork goes, this form is both refreshingly simple and remarkably dull. You have to request the postcard-sized form at a USPS post office, which we did  for journalism! The person then fills it out with their name, old address, new address and for how long they want to reroute their mail.

The last thing is to sign the form, and hand it back to a postal worker or drop it in the letter mail slot inside the post office. But besides a notice on the reverse side warning that filling out the form with false information could result in criminal charges (if caught), there are no guarantees that USPS will check the identity of the person submitting a paper change of address form. That is the simple flaw that fraudsters exploit in order to hijack home addresses, steal their credit cards and wreak havoc on their bank accounts.

Once a form is handed in and processed, USPS sends out two letters, one letter to the old address and another to the new address, notifying the resident that the change of address went through. But these letters can, and are, easily missed, and the letters themselves do not require customer attention or interaction, only if the person wants to "view or cancel" an unauthorized change of address request.

Not only is this flaw not new, it's widely documented. In a particularly comical case from 2017, an Atlanta resident was arrested for cashing checks that he had rerouted from the corporate headquarters of shipping giant UPS, resulting in literal bathtubs of mail piling up outside the hapless fraudster's apartment. Yet, it still took nearly three months for UPS to notice that its mail wasn't showing up.

A letter from one of the former executive's banks, which he shared with TechCrunch, corroborates his account and confirmed that the bank made the address change in its systems "as a result of data received from the United States Postal Service (USPS) indicating that an address change had occurred." Because USPS had accepted the fraudulent change of address made in the former executive's name, USPS passed along the new address set by the fraudsters to countless other companies, including his banks. USPS has long sold change of address data to data brokers, which resell this information to anyone who wants to buy it, like financial institutions.

Luckily for him, he caught the fraud before the criminals could do irreversible damage, yet it still took weeks to return his accounts  and his home address  in order. But change of address fraud still affects thousands of people every year who don't have the clout of a former technology executive to get their lives back to normal.

To understand how the U.S. Postal Service was reducing this kind of change of address fraud given that it remains an ongoing issue, TechCrunch asked USPS for comment.

USPS spokespeople Sue Brennan and Tatiana Roy declined to comment and referred our email to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, or USPIS, the law enforcement arm of USPS, which provided TechCrunch with a boilerplate statement  some of which repeated itself  but did not say how the U.S. Postal Service planned to prevent change of address fraud. USPIS sent its response from a general unnamed email address, and repeatedly declined to provide a spokesperson's name when asked by TechCrunch, despite being standard practice for reporters to ask. When reached by email, USPIS' Ariana Ramirez also declined to provide the name of the department's media spokesperson.

In its boilerplate statement USPIS said that, "as these situations arise, USPS reevaluates their internal controls to address security concerns," without saying what those internal controls were, if any, nor if they implemented any changes. We asked again, but did not receive a response.

"Customers are encouraged to monitor the receipt of their mail, by retrieving it daily from their mailbox or through Informed Delivery online," the statement added, referring to the online service that allows residents to preview their inbound USPS mail and packages. But while regularly checking your mailbox could help notice missing mail before it's too late, this is by no means foolproof. That's why fraudsters are still doing it.

Neither USPS or USPIS mentioned what seems like an obvious solution. If the online form requires a small payment to reduce the chance of fraud, why not check the person's proof of identity when handing in the form in person?

It is not a novel idea. The independent watchdog that oversees the postal service, the USPS Office of Inspector General (or USPS OIG), has raised concerns about change of address fraud for years. USPS OIG said in its 2018 audit report, which it initiated based on concerns from lawmakers, news outlets and customer complaints, that the postal service did not require customers to present a government form of identification, such as a passport or a driver's license, for review when submitting a paper change of address form. The watchdog noted that several overseas postal services, notably Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, all require some form of identity check when manually submitting a change of address form, but that they also accept a range of documents for those who do not have a government-issued form of identification.

The USPS OIG was clear in its findings. "The lack of a national policy to support such an ID-requirement control may perpetuate additional fraudulent activities and harm the Postal Services brand as a trusted provider."

Following the audit, USPS said it planned to implement government-issued identity checks for paper change of address forms by the end of March 2019.

USPS OIG spokesperson Bill Triplett told TechCrunch that USPS agreed with the inspector general's findings of its 2018 audit report and the recommendations were closed in August 2019, indicating that the matter is resolved. The spokesperson said that USPS "provided documentation demonstrating sales associates require identification to process change of address requests in person."

When asked about whether USPS enforces this policy: "The Postal Service would have the most up-to-date information on how they are enforcing their policies. Typically, once we close a recommendation based on supporting documentation provided by the Postal Service, we do not complete follow-up work to check whether they continue to implement it," the spokesperson said.

USPS OIG said it would "consider auditing this topic in the future."

To say the quiet part out loud, USPS is not adequately enforcing its own policy on identity checks when someone files a paper change of address form. USPS has yet to comment or identify any efforts where it is trying to reduce this kind of fraud.

This isn't just the case of one former Microsoft executive who got unlucky and fell through the cracks. Seattle-based KIRO 7 News covered this story just six months ago and reached the same conclusions. After reporting on a local family that had faced this issue on two separate occasions, USPS dismissed the family's ordeal by claiming that identity theft "cant happen" through change of address fraud.

"But that doesnt account for someone not asking for ID at the counter," KIRO 7 News wrote, pointing directly to the flaw in the system.

An identity check need not rely on some grand database of information or keeping a ledger of records for decades to come. It should not require more than a person simply showing a postal worker their proof of identity, or similar documentation, as they hand in the form, just as postal systems do in other countries. Check their name, and nothing more. And while no system is ever perfect, a brief glance at a person's ID or documents would make it significantly more difficult to change someone's address without their permission.

Otherwise, there is little anyone can do to prevent this kind of fraud without some level of constant vigilance. But at some point, it shouldn't be the responsibility of the consumer, when the USPS could enforce the solution it allegedly fixed four years ago.

"For elections, for financial issues, everybody's relying on the Post Office," the former executive told me. Yet for a simple but devastating flaw with an equally simple fix, he said he could not understand why the USPS is "not doing anything."

Get in touch with the security desk on Signal and WhatsApp at +1 646-755-8849 or by email. You can also tip us stories or securely share documents via SecureDrop.
REUTERS/Kamil Krzaczynski

Chicagos mayoral race, a bitter campaign rife with controversy and blunders, from gnome insults to accusations of fake Democrats, ended Tuesday with no candidate winning a majority of the vote, placing Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson in a runoff to be settled in April.

Incumbent Mayor Lori Lightfoot conceded defeat in the race on Tuesday night as it became increasingly clear that voters had rejected her bid for a second term in office. I stand here with my head held high, she said in her concession speech.

Serving as your mayor has been the honor of a lifetime, and I am so grateful to all of you who have stood beside me these last four years, she later posted on Twitter.

Weve made significant progress building a safer, more equitable city. I thank each and every one of you for believing in me.

A runoff was expected, with pundits in the Windy City predicting that more than half of the nine candidatesall self-described Democrats in a nonpartisan racehad a chance of being among the top two to qualify for the runoff, but none could realistically carry more than 50 percent of the vote on Tuesday.

Lightfoot won just over 16 percent of the vote to lose her spot on Aprils ballotsomething that emerged as a possibility in the buildup to election day. Multiple polls from February had Lightfoot, the first Black woman and first openly LGBTQ person to be Chicagos mayor, hovering around just 18 percent of the vote.

The tight race, which centered around crime and the perception of it in the city, pulled out a series of embarrassing blunders by frontrunners.

#BREAKING: Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot loses Democratic primary, and will not serve a second term. pic.twitter.com/FhKXAq5dxU  Forbes (@Forbes) March 1, 2023

In January, Lightfoot was accused of abusing her offices power when her campaign blasted out emails to Chicago teachers offering internship credit to students who volunteered for her campaign. The email, which the mayor later conceded was a mistake, asked specifically for kids who have a strong commitment to Democratic ideals.

Story continues

More recently, Lightfootone of seven Black candidates in Tuesdays racebizarrely remarked during a speech on the citys south side, which is predominantly Black, that voters should just stay home if they arent going to vote for her.

Lightfoot, who quickly walked her comments back, insinuated she was the only Black candidate with a chance of qualifying for the runoff, and that voters would be stuck with Paul Vallas, who is white, or Jesus Chuy Garcia, whos Hispanic, if they didnt vote for her.

If you want them controlling your faith and your destiny, then stay home, Lightfoot said on Feb. 18. Then don't vote.

Twitter/Jesus Chuy Garcia

It wasnt the only clumsy invocation of race politics in a city thats nearly equally white, Black and Hispanic.

A Chicago Tribune review of social media accounts for Vallas, a former Chicago Public Schools CEO who has insisted hes a lifelong Democrat despite pushing for more conservative policing policies, revealed that he regularly liked offensive and racist posts about Lightfoot.

Three posts liked by Vallas Twitter account referred to Lightfoot, a lesbian, as Larry.

I bet Larry Lightfoot is with his family today, said one of those posts, written in response to Vallas shouting out first responders on Fathers Day.

Other posts insulted Lightfoots height, referring to her as a gnome, and her appearance, liking a post that said, trust has eroded just like her hairline! Vallas account also liked a post that insinuated that Lightfoot only hired Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown because he was Black.

Other candidates were more qualified, but they werent black. Lightfoot is a racist, big news flash, the tweet said.

Paul Vallas Twitter/Paul Vallas

Vallas, whos long taken to social media to share manifestos on crime and schooling, claimed it was a mystery staffer who liked the posts. He apologized and has since unliked the posts, many of which predated his entry into the race.

Vallas, who finished ninth in 2019s election, was one of Lightfoots loudest critics since her first day in office, campaigning on Chicago being a city in crisis that needs more cops to battle rising crime.

With many of the candidates, bar Vallas, aligned ideologically, Lightfoot had to get creative in how she attacked her opponents.

She ran ads that tried to tie Garcia to disgraced crypto CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, while criticizing candidate Brandon Johnsona Cook County Commissioner and Chicago Teachers Union staffer who received the unions coveted endorsementfor wanting to slash police budgets. She also hit at Chicago businessman Willie Wilson, known for giving away free gas to Chicagoans when prices peaked last summer, for filling his campaign coffers with $5 million of his own money to stay relevant in the race.

She also regularly took aim at Vallas, insinuating he called himself a Democrat to endear himself with left-leaning Chicago voters but was actually a Republican at heart. She has also accused him of living outside city limits.

Lightfoot also regularly referenced a 2009 interview in which Vallas said he was more of a Republican than a Democrat now. In the same interview, he said he doesnt support abortion rights for religious reasons, and that he was a fan of Rudy Giulianis politics. Lightfoot pulled clips from that interview in ads against Vallas, one of which closed with: Paul Vallas is a Republican. Just ask him.

Paul Vallas a Republican. Just ask him! pic.twitter.com/GIOkVmVo8A  Lori Lightfoot (@LoriLightfoot) February 7, 2023

Lightfoot, who The New York Times wrote last month has an uncanny ability to make political enemies, spent the entire campaign under attack herself. Opponents accused her of not keeping promises to reduce violent crimeit has since skyrocketed to generational highsand admonished her for multiple clashes with labor unions and with city council members, including one feud in which she allegedly claimed to have the biggest dick in Chicago.

To combat these attacks, Lightfoot has done a 180 from her 2019 campaign. Back then, the former prosecutor portrayed herself as a political outsider who vowed to make Chicago safer and attract more people to the city. This time around, Lightfoot has focused on her experience in leading Chicago, namely through the COVID pandemic, and has emphasized her progress in battling the citys affordable housing issues.

The world is very different than it was four years ago, Lightfoot said while campaigning last week. I believe that Im still the right person and I think the voters will validate that, but weve been through a lot. We cant go back.

The constant stream of negative ads that have dominated Chicago this year are set to last another 35 days, with the mayoral runoffthe third in a row after decades of a single candidate winning outrightconcluding on April 4.

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.
Lockheed Martin will interview hundreds of engineers early into their careers at a hiring event in Fort Worth on Saturday, March 4.

Were expecting a big turnout, Lockheed Martin officials said in a news release.

The company is looking to build its Dallas-Fort Worth area-based talent by holding interviews at a Grow in STEM hiring event for recent engineering graduates.

The event will be held at the Omni Fort Worth Hotel, at 100 Houston St. from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Lockheed Martin leaders are looking for candidates who meet the basic qualifications for early career engineering positions including aeronautical, cyber, electrical, industrial, mechanical, software, and systems engineers with 2021 to 2023 graduation dates.

Interested engineering candidates are encouraged to pre-register for the event at https://tiny.lmco.com/growinstem.

For additional information about careers at Lockheed Martin, visit lockheedmartinjobs.com.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin Corporation is a global security and aerospace company principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services.
Texas Legislature Returns For Third Special Session

The Texas State Capitol is seen on the first day of the 87th Legislature's third special session on Sept. 20, 2021 in Austin. Credit - Tamir KalifaGetty Images

Over the past year, the backlash against so-called ESG investing has swept through red states as legislatures enacted laws punishing investment firms that use environmental, social, and governance metrics in their decision making.

As the saying goes, its bigger in Texas.

After banning 10 ESG-friendly financial firms from doing business with the state last summer, right-wing lawmakers in Austin have set their sights on another, bigger target: the insurance industry. Republican lawmakers in the Texas House and Senate have introduced legislation to ban insurers from considering ESG scores as they establish insurance rates. If enacted and implemented, the law could boot some of the countrys best-known insurance brands from operating in Texas. Most big insurersthe Hartford, Allstate, and State Farm, to name a fewcurrently embrace ESG metrics.

The move would be a big blow for the industry, potentially beyond Texas. Insurance companies fear that restrictions on ESG considerations could hamper their ability to make sound decisions about policies they offer their customers given that environmental, social, and governance issues can represent real financial risks.

Lone Star lawmakers are not moved. I hope Texas delivers a wake up call, says Jason Isaac, a former state legislator who led the charge to pass anti-ESG legislation and now works on energy issues at the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation. Insurance companies are licensed and regulated in the state of Texas, so [if this passes], they can no longer do business in the state.

The outcome of this showdown between right-wing lawmakers and the powerful insurance industry is not a foregone conclusion. Supporters and opponents alike acknowledge the legislation has a chance of passing this year in the Texas legislature, which has adopted a range of aggressive right-wing measures in recent years. But theres definitely going to be a fight, says Luke Metzger, who heads the non-profit Environment Texas, of the insurance legislation.

Story continues

ESG investing has grown dramatically over the last decade, in step with concerns about climate change. Investors had $8.4 trillion placed in sustainable assets in 2022, according to data from Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment. Thats up from less than $4 trillion a decade prior.

Last year, opposition to the movement took off. Some businesses, in Texas and elsewhere, say that ESG measures make it harder to finance their operations and growth. Oil and gas and related projects, for example, can sometimes get low marks from ESG graders, making it more difficult to access capital. As of December, at least 18 states had passed or introduced anti-ESG laws.

More from TIME

Until recently, the insurance industry had received far less attention from ESG opponents than financiers. And, now, few seem eager to highlight the looming confrontation in Texas. Opponents, particularly corporate leaders, fear that openly opposing the House and Senate legislation will make them a target for state officials. On the other side, many leaders of anti-ESG efforts in Texas did not respond to requests for comment, or ultimately declined to talk on the record.

But the state business and political community is quietly paying attention, in large part because the insurance measure would in some ways shift the landscape more dramatically than those targeting financial firms. For one, the previously passed Texas ban on financial firms only stops the ten sanctioned firms from doing business with government entities within the state. It does not affect the ability of those firms to do business with corporations or retail customers. The insurance ban would go further, effectively restricting insurance companies that use ESG metric from doing any business in the state, including with consumers and other businesses.

Some ESG supporters also argue that it would be harder to nix ESG consideration in the insurance business than in finance. Calculating risk is central to insurance companies, as risk determines how much customers pay and whether theyre offered a policy at all. Increasingly, climate-linked concerns are a part of that risk. Physical risks like flooding or wildfires might strike an asset; transition risks like producing a carbon-intensive product that runs afoul of new regulations could hurt the business making it.

Those are precisely the kinds of risks that ESG metrics aim to measure, and for that reason have taken on increased significance for the industry. A 2022 survey from the consulting firm PWC found that 85% of insurers said ESG would impact all functions of their business. There is not an industry more directly affected when you think of the costs of fires and floods and droughts, than the insurance industry, says Steven Rothstein, managing director of the Accelerator for Sustainable Capital Markets at the non-profit group Ceres.

To make matters worse for the insurers, Texas may only be the start. ESG experts say that behind closed doors fears have grown that Republicans may target the insurance industry in other states, too. Theyre definitely concerned, says Leslie Samuelrich, president at Green Century Capital Management, an investment advisory firm, of the insurance industry. If you can see it move from investments, and then it moves to insurance, says Samuelrich. Where does it go next?
A pedestrian pushes a baby stroller at Shoreline Aquatic Park in Long Beach on Monday. Pushback from residents prompted Long Beach officials to nix a plan to provide temporary shelter to unhoused people at a community gym during the region's cold snap. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Long Beach officials on Tuesday announced they had halted plans to set up a temporary winter homeless shelter at a community gym after complaints from neighbors.

Those living next to the gym, located in Silverado Park, have insisted this is not a NIMBY issue. They say they don't want to lose an important community gathering spot in an area of the city where recreational amenities are limited.

City officials had proposed placing 84 beds inside the gym starting this month to accommodate people living on the streets during extremely cold and wet weather. A winter shelter at Community Hospital, which opened in the eastern part of the city late last year, has 81 beds, but they're already taken, officials said.

Residents who live near Silverado Park  at 32nd Street and Santa Fe Avenue  pushed back on the plan, saying it was unfair for the city to take away a recreational facility in an area without much open space. Neighbors held a rally outside the gym earlier this month and as of Tuesday, more than 1,100 people had signed a Change.org petition asking for officials to reconsider the shelter's location.

Resident Anavelia Valencia questioned during a City Council meeting this month why the city couldn't find a vacant building for the shelter.

Let me be clear, this issue has nothing to do with being against the homeless being housed," Valencia said. "It has everything to do with taking already limited resources away from a community that has already little to no resources."

The number of unsheltered individuals increased dramatically in Long Beach during the pandemic. The seventh-most-populated city in California has 3,296 people experiencing some level of homelessness, a 62% increase compared with 2020, according to a report published last year.

The nixing of the shelter location comes as Los Angeles is on track to experience its longest cold snap in nearly 20 years. Another winter storm is expected to hit the region, bringing rain, icy temperatures and low-elevation snow this week.

Story continues

Meteorologists expect Wednesday to be the eighth consecutive day that downtown L.A. hasn't topped 60 degrees. Temperatures have dipped even lower  often into the 40s  overnight.

On Friday, a person experiencing homelessness in Long Beach died because of exposure to the elements. "We must do more to prevent more of the same during the stormy weeks ahead," Mayor Rex Richardson and City Manager Tom Modica wrote in a letter to the community.

Richardson, who has said tackling homelessness in the city is a top priority, said Tuesday he would be meeting with neighborhood leaders in the coming weeks as officials considered other possible shelter locations. In an interview with The Times, Richardson said he was proud of the work the city had done to address homelessness, noting that Long Beach had "more shelter capacity right now than we've ever had."

"But we still need to do more," he said. "And also address the long-term issues like housing that's affordable for families and making sure that we have permanent supportive housing. We have to keep that long-term lens going as well."

In the meantime, the city has set up 60 temporary beds for people to stay overnight at the Multi-Service Center, which offers homeless support services during extreme weather. But Richardson added that the location wasn't a long-term solution since the beds needed to be cleared out for the center's daytime operations. Officials will continue scouting for another temporary winter shelter, he said.

"We still need more capacity to effectively meet this challenge," Richardson said.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
A head-on collision between a passenger train and a freight train in Greece has killed dozens of people and injured scores more. Rail travel in Europe is a common and relatively affordable and convenient way for many Europeans to travel.

It also has a good safety record overall, growing safer in past years. Yet the tragedy in Greece is a reminder of how deadly crashes can be when they happen. Here is a look at some of the most deadly train crashes in recent years.

FUNICULAR FIRE

In November 2000, a cable car on a funicular railway caught fire in a mountain tunnel in Kaprun, Austria, killing 155 people. Those who died were skiers and snowboarders heading to the slopes of the Kitzsteinhorn mountain.

HIGH-SPEED TRAIN HITS BRIDGE

In June 1998, a high-speed train traveling at 200 kph (125 mph) collided with a bridge at Eschede, Germany, causing it to collapse, a crash that killed 101 people and injured more than 100. It was Germany's deadliest postwar rail disaster.

SPANISH COMMUTER TRAIN

In July 2013, a commuter train hurtled off the rails as it came around a bend near the northwestern Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela, killing 80 and injuring 145 others. An investigation showed the train was traveling 179 kph (111 mph) on a stretch with an 80 kph (50 mph) speed limit when it left the tracks and smashed into a wall. The case finally went to trial in October with the driver and a former railway security director accused of professional negligence. A verdict is expected in the coming months.

SPANISH SUBWAY TRAIN

A subway train traveling at excessive speed crashed in an underground tunnel in the eastern city of Valencia in July 2006, killing 43 people and injuring scores more. It took 13 years for a court to find four managers of the citys subway system guilty of negligent manslaughter for not taking the necessary safety measures needed to prevent the tragedy.

TRAIN PLUNGES INTO RAVINE

In January 2006, a failure of the braking system in a train caused it to derail and plunge into a ravine outside the Montenegrin capital, Podgorica. The crash killed 45 people, including five children, and injured a further 184. It was the worst train disaster in Montenegros history.

Story continues

EXPLOSION AT STATION

In 2009, a freight train carrying gas derailed at the Viareggio station, near the Tuscan city of Lucca, and exploded, killing 32 people. Poorly maintained axels of the train were blamed.

HEAD-ON CRASH IN LONDON

The worst rail crash in Britain in the past 30 years happened in October 1999, when a train heading out of Londons Paddington station went through a red light and crashed into an incoming high-speed train, killing 31 people. Around 400 people were injured.

COMMUTER TRAINS CRASH

In July 2016, two Italian commuter trains collided head-on in late morning between towns in the southern region of Puglia, killing 31 people and injuring scores more. An investigation found an error of communication between the stations that each train had departed from.

RUSH HOUR CRASH NEAR BRUSSELS

On Feb. 15, 2010, two commuter trains slammed into one another just outside Brussels during morning rush hour when one ran a red light. In all, 19 people were killed and 171 injured in the nations worst train crash. Compounding the tragedy was that a similar red-light crash had happened years before and that promises to add security measures weren't fully implemented.
Key Insights

Kinatico's estimated fair value is AU$0.075 based on 2 Stage Free Cash Flow to Equity

With AU$0.074 share price, Kinatico appears to be trading close to its estimated fair value

The AU$0.11 analyst price target for KYP is 47% more than our estimate of fair value

Does the March share price for Kinatico Ltd (ASX:KYP) reflect what it's really worth? Today, we will estimate the stock's intrinsic value by taking the expected future cash flows and discounting them to their present value. The Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model is the tool we will apply to do this. Models like these may appear beyond the comprehension of a lay person, but they're fairly easy to follow.

We generally believe that a company's value is the present value of all of the cash it will generate in the future. However, a DCF is just one valuation metric among many, and it is not without flaws. Anyone interested in learning a bit more about intrinsic value should have a read of the Simply Wall St analysis model.

View our latest analysis for Kinatico

The Model

We're using the 2-stage growth model, which simply means we take in account two stages of company's growth. In the initial period the company may have a higher growth rate and the second stage is usually assumed to have a stable growth rate. To begin with, we have to get estimates of the next ten years of cash flows. Where possible we use analyst estimates, but when these aren't available we extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the last estimate or reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years.

Generally we assume that a dollar today is more valuable than a dollar in the future, so we need to discount the sum of these future cash flows to arrive at a present value estimate:

Story continues

10-year free cash flow (FCF) forecast

2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 2031 2032 Levered FCF (A$, Millions) -AU$600.0k AU$1.40m AU$1.70m AU$1.92m AU$2.11m AU$2.26m AU$2.39m AU$2.50m AU$2.60m AU$2.68m Growth Rate Estimate Source Analyst x2 Analyst x2 Analyst x1 Est @ 13.05% Est @ 9.71% Est @ 7.38% Est @ 5.74% Est @ 4.60% Est @ 3.80% Est @ 3.24% Present Value (A$, Millions) Discounted @ 8.0% -AU$0.6 AU$1.2 AU$1.3 AU$1.4 AU$1.4 AU$1.4 AU$1.4 AU$1.4 AU$1.3 AU$1.2

("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)

Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF) = AU$12m

After calculating the present value of future cash flows in the initial 10-year period, we need to calculate the Terminal Value, which accounts for all future cash flows beyond the first stage. The Gordon Growth formula is used to calculate Terminal Value at a future annual growth rate equal to the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield of 1.9%. We discount the terminal cash flows to today's value at a cost of equity of 8.0%.

Terminal Value (TV)= FCF 2032  (1 + g)  (r  g) = AU$2.7m (1 + 1.9%)  (8.0% 1.9%) = AU$45m

Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= AU$45m ( 1 + 8.0%)10= AU$21m

The total value is the sum of cash flows for the next ten years plus the discounted terminal value, which results in the Total Equity Value, which in this case is AU$32m. The last step is to then divide the equity value by the number of shares outstanding. Compared to the current share price of AU$0.07, the company appears about fair value at a 0.9% discount to where the stock price trades currently. The assumptions in any calculation have a big impact on the valuation, so it is better to view this as a rough estimate, not precise down to the last cent.

dcf

Important Assumptions

Now the most important inputs to a discounted cash flow are the discount rate, and of course, the actual cash flows. Part of investing is coming up with your own evaluation of a company's future performance, so try the calculation yourself and check your own assumptions. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at Kinatico as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 8.0%, which is based on a levered beta of 1.026. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business.

Moving On:

Whilst important, the DCF calculation is only one of many factors that you need to assess for a company. DCF models are not the be-all and end-all of investment valuation. Instead the best use for a DCF model is to test certain assumptions and theories to see if they would lead to the company being undervalued or overvalued. For instance, if the terminal value growth rate is adjusted slightly, it can dramatically alter the overall result. For Kinatico, we've compiled three relevant aspects you should assess:

Risks: To that end, you should be aware of the 1 warning sign we've spotted with Kinatico . Future Earnings: How does KYP's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with our free analyst growth expectation chart. Other High Quality Alternatives: Do you like a good all-rounder? Explore our interactive list of high quality stocks to get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing!

PS. Simply Wall St updates its DCF calculation for every Australian stock every day, so if you want to find the intrinsic value of any other stock just search here.

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
Incumbent progressive Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot lost her bid for reelection on Tuesday night after one term in office, outpaced by two challengers who will advance to a runoff race.

Lightfoot came in third with 16.6 percent of the vote behind former CEO of Chicago Public Schools Paul Vallas, who received 35 percent of the vote, and Cook County commissioner Brandon Johnson, who received 20.3 percent, according to CBS News Chicago. Since no candidate received more than 50 percent, a runoff election will be held. Vallas and Johnson will face off on April 4.

After a turbulent first term marked by backlash to Covid restrictions and concerns over rampant crime, Lightfoot faced an uncertain path to a second chance at leadership.

A former federal prosecutor whose early campaign platform included police reform and cracking down on city corruption, Lightfoot sailed to victory in 2019 as the political outsider option, making a bold entrance as the first black woman to lead the countrys third-largest city. Four years ago, Lightfoot bested Cook County Board president Toni Preckwinkle with 70 percent of the vote in a runoff election.

However, this cycle shes had to contend with her plummeting popularity stemming from her poor management of crime and Covid, as well as eight rivals, including progressive U.S. congressman Chuy Garcia, Johnson, and Vallas.

In December 2021, Lightfoot asked U.S. attorney general Merrick Garland to send additional federal resources to Chicago amid a surge in crime and gun violence. She requested federal marshals to assist the Cook County Sheriffs Office and Chicago Police Department with tracking down thousands of people wanted on warrants, as well as to help tackle gun-trafficking into Chicago from other states.

With the competition heating up, Lightfoot this week tried to reverse course on policing in an attempt to outflank her progressive opponents. On Saturday, Lightfoot accused Johnson of being a radical whod wreck our city with defunding of police. She had embraced measures associated with the defund-the-police movement in 2020.

Story continues

In the last few years, Lightfoot has sparred with the radically activist Chicago Teachers Union over compensation and class sizes during the pandemic. Johnson earned the endorsement of the union.

Departing from the example set by other Democratic mayors, Lightfoot pushed in 2022 to reopen schools after Covid. Lightfoot blasted the unions teachers for refusing to come into work for multiple consecutive days over fears of the virus spreading, promising she would not allow them to take our children hostage. The mayor also called the teacher strike, which lasted eleven days, an illegal work stoppage.

More from National Review
Incumbent Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Campaigns One Day Ahead Of Election

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks to reporters before campaigning in the Uptown neighborhood on February 27, 2023. Credit - Scott OlsonGetty Images

This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIMEs politics newsletter. Sign up here to get stories like this sent to your inbox.

Seismic shifts in politics sometimes arent appreciated in real time. The urgent often overtakes the important; deadlines to avoid government shutdowns, for instance, crowd out significant but quiet shifts in public sentiment on topics like abortion, marriage, and immigration. As a result, headlines can sometimes catch audiences by surprise, giving them a jolt and sparking the all-too-common question from the Trump Era: Did that just happen?

Well, one of those spasms manifested Tuesday night on the shores of Lake Michigan, as Chicago voters for the first time since 1989 denied an incumbent mayor re-election. Mayor Lori Lightfoot, a 60-year-old former federal prosecutor who became the first Black woman and the first openly gay person to lead Americas third-biggest city, failed to advance to an April 4 runoff after carrying each of the citys 50 wards just four years ago. While Lightfoot entered Election Day as something of an underdog, the extent of her loss was striking. In a city known for its political leaders longevity and the machines ability to defend its own cogs, the hiccup showed that Lightfoot had misread this fraught moment, failing to grasp that even the weary voters of deep-blue Chicago will put up with persistent upticks in crime for so long, and that the realities of a pandemic and racial justice protests have clashed with the citys self-image.

The result: Lightfoot closed out Tuesday in a distant third place. Paul Vallas, a former public schools chief, and Brandon Johnson, a county board commissioner, will vie to replace her.

Even Lightfoots biggest defenders will concede her lone term has not been without unique challenges. The Covid-19 pandemic threw mayors of cities great and small for loops. Teachers unions rightly had questions about their personal safety, as well as the wisdom and limits of virtual classrooms. The upheaval that rocked small towns and metropolises alike about policing practices and racial justice opened very necessary conversations in Chicago. Meanwhile, a vaccine mandate for those policing the city cleaved her from the support of her citys public safety teams. And a crime wave that never seemed to go to low tide prompted Lightfoots administration to test a tactic usually reserved for fantasy novels or comic book-based movies: she literally raised the bridges to quarantine parts of the city from its neighbors. Homicide rates were like those of the 1990s, but the politics were not.

Story continues

On top of that, Lightfoots tough negotiating stylethe one that gave her credibility as a corruption-busting outsiderleft her with fewer allies than she realized. Several of her nominal pals on City Council ended up endorsing her opponents, and prompted the citys polar opposite police unions and teacher unions alike to separately decide it was time to test what Chicago looks like in a post-Lightfoot era. (The police union backed Vallas, and the teachers got behind Johnson) The isolated Lightfoot seemed more in danger by the day, with conservative media personalities using her as a reliable punching bag.

Perhaps Lightfoots bigger power is that of reminder. It has long been taken as an article of faith that Chicago is a Democratic stronghold, the place where John F. Kennedy is alleged to have stuffed ballot boxes to win the White House in 1960. Once in office, mayors there are expected to be set for long and steady tenures: Richard J. Daley was in office for 21 years; his son, Richard M. Daley, served for 22 years. Even Rahm Emanuel, whom no one will accuse of being deferential, powered through a 2015 re-election primary against a progressive darling without too much of a headache. Crime, however, became too much a drag on Lightfoot, and she had too few friends to help her power through.

Lightfoot will, of course, be fine. The days of Daley-style political dynasties in Chicago are probably more mythology than strategy these days, but Lightfoots legacy is one that will be debated in poli sci seminars, leadership retreats, and post-mortem reports for years. Her wins will be muted by her Tuesday-night loss, but there will always be a well-funded think tank or fundraising machine that can use Lightfoots biography and sharp elbows.

Still, in 2023, with so much of the last four years still as unsettled canon in future history books, Lightfoot may serve as a hint thatjust maybewe havent yet fully appreciated the historic moment we just lived through. Retrospection and reflection are valuable, but almost always find their way to the list of things to be handled tomorrow. As politicians in Washington and elsewhere consider their own fates, theyd do well to consider the warnings incumbent with Lightfoot: what had long been assumed to be a safe run turned perilous and then temporary in short order. Engaging in fightsand winning, in some caseswith powerful unions is seldom a winning strategy for Democratic leaders, but it proved riskier than expected. And crime, and how it is perceived, may have far more power than strategists have come to respect. The public noticed, and it acted.

The original version of this story misstated which unions supported Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson in the Chicago mayoral election. The Chicago Teachers Union supported Johnson, not Vallas, and the Chicago police union supported Vallas, not Johnson.

Correction: Due to an editing error, the original version of this story misstated which unions supported Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson in the Chicago mayoral election. The Chicago Teachers Union supported Johnson, not Vallas, and the Chicago police union supported Vallas, not Johnson.

Make sense of what matters in Washington. Sign up for the D.C. Brief newsletter.
LOS ANGELES (AP)  The Los Angeles Police Departments rank-and-file union is proposing that someone other than police respond to more than two dozen types of 911 calls in a bid to transfer officers' workload to more serious crimes. The move is part of a national trend aimed at limiting situations where armed police officers are the first to respond.

The proposal announced Wednesday by the Los Angeles Police Protective League lists 28 kinds of 911 calls where other city agencies or nonprofit organizations would be sent first. The calls range from mental health situations, quality-of-life and homeless issues, problems at schools and welfare checks, to certain non-fatal traffic collisions, parking violations, trash dumping, loud parties, public intoxication and panhandling.

The league said officers would respond if the situation becomes violent or criminal in nature, but only after the initial call goes to another agency or an affiliated nonprofit.

Police officers are not psychologists. We are not psychiatrists. We are not mental health experts. We are not social workers, doctors, nurses or waste management experts, Debbie Thomas, one of the unions directors, said Wednesday during a news conference. I do believe that many people think we should be all those things but we are not. We should be focused on responding to emergencies, saving lives (and) property, and of course, engaging in community policing.

Police Chief Michel Moore said he welcomed the union's push for an alternative non-law enforcement service response to non-emergency calls.

Moore said the department has worked with elected officials to establish a support network of resources including mobile therapy vans and a mental health crisis phone line.

"These emerging alternatives have already diverted thousands of calls away from a police response, allowing officers to time to focus on our most essential activities," Moore said in a statement.

Story continues

Cities including San Francisco, San Diego and New York  as well as Los Angeles  have already implemented programs where clinicians are either paired with officers or work in civilian teams to respond to 911 calls involving someone who is having a mental health crisis.

The changes came amid a closer look at law enforcement in the U.S. in the wake of George Floyds killing by Minneapolis police in 2020. That included looking at how police handle mental health and other calls that don't include violence or criminality.

The Los Angeles proposal comes during the unions contract negotiations with the city and amid activists pleas for reducing or eliminating armed responses to certain situations. The City Council and the mayor's office will be involved in the final decision, the union said.

Activists have long called for Los Angeles police to stop responding to certain mental health calls, minor traffic collisions and encounters in homeless encampments, pointing to times when officers have fatally shot people during the response.

Mayor Karen Bass' office didn't immediately comment Wednesday. Bass promised during her campaign to create a public safety office that did not include the LAPD.

Hugh Esten, a spokesperson for City Council President Paul Krekorian, said the union's proposal will be given serious consideration as city officials work to ensure that sworn personnel are deployed where they are truly needed and that unarmed responders address those situations where an armed response is unnecessary.

With decreased staffing during the COVID-19 pandemic, the union said its proposal would free up officers to respond to more important calls  such as violent crime  and allow cops to engage in more community policing to build better relationships with the city's residents.

Other cities have also experimented with similar models, such as Portland, Oregon, where unarmed public support specialists take reports on things like vehicle break-ins and bike thefts.

In 2021, the LAPD launched a pilot program to divert some mental health calls to service providers. The department also started dual-response teams that pair officers with clinicians in situations involving mental health crises and people experiencing homelessness, as well as domestic violence and abuse.

Also in 2021, the LAPD stopped responding to minor traffic crashes; a deputy chief at the time said the change would eliminate officers responding to roughly 40,000 calls a year.
Lukashenko arrived in Beijing on February 28, 2023

The aim also appears to be to slow down the provision of Western tanks and other aid to Ukraine amid an expected counteroffensive by the Ukrainian army, ISW analysts said.

Read also: Poland to transfer more Leopard tanks to Ukraine within few weeks, says Polish official

ISW highlighted the following examples of such information rhetoric:

On Feb. 28, the Russian Ministry of Defense falsely accused "the United States and its accomplices" of planning a "provocation with the use of toxic chemicals" in Ukraine;

Similarly, on Feb. 19, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed that Ukraine was allegedly planning "false flag attacks" on radiation-hazardous facilities in Ukraine, ostensibly to later accuse Russian forces of striking such facilities;

Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has also noticeably resumed nuclear rhetoric in the Russian information space.

Read also: Lukashenko to meet with Xi Jinping to help Russia and China circumvent sanctions, reports ISW

The ISW believes that the apparent surge in such false biochemical and nuclear threats accompanies Russia's information operation, which is trying to falsely accuse Ukraine of preparing to invade the Kremlin-created sham republic of Transnistria in Moldova.

The Institute notes that it has previously observed a correlation between similar Russian campaigns and the realities of the battlefield  especially when Russian forces were unable to achieve significant results in offensive operations in Ukraine.

ISW analysts predict that Russia will intensify such information operations as its offensive in Luhansk Oblast "nears culmination" and more opportunities for Ukrainian counter-offensives arise.

Read also: Lukashenko to meet with Xi Jinping to help Russia and China circumvent sanctions, reports ISW

A senior Pentagon official, Deputy Secretary of Defense Colin Kahl, supported ISW's continued assessment that Russia's use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine is highly unlikely.

The United States does not believe that Russia will use nuclear weapons, Kahl said during a hearing at the House Armed Services Committee on Feb. 28. According to the Institute, Russia's constant references to the nuclear doctrine and its corresponding nuclear threats are part of an information operation aimed at intimidating Ukraine and the West, but do not reflect any real intentions to use such weapons.

Story continues

The Kremlin is likely trying to revive another information operation  the false portrayal of Russia as a country open to negotiations, in contrast to the alleged refusal of the "collective West" to negotiate.

On Feb. 28, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated that Moscow was open to negotiations, but that Kyiv and the West must recognize the new "territorial realities," i.e., Russia's false claim to have annexed the territories of Ukraine it has occupied. To the list of these "preconditions" he also added Russia's goals in the war against Ukraine, including a change of government in Ukraine (called "denazification" in Moscow) and the elimination of Ukraine's ability to defend itself against future Russian attacks ("demilitarization").

In this narrative, Moscow appears to be using Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko as a proxy or conduit to negotiate with the West on terms favorable to Russia and to further delay the delivery of critical Western weapons systems to Ukraine.

Read also: Russia reportedly negotiating with China to supply strike drones  media reports

Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko's visit to China from Feb. 28 to March 2 may also be used to try to set up schemes to circumvent sanctions blocking trade between Russia and China, ISW said.

During his official trip to China, Lukashenko said that Russia was supposedly ready to take steps toward a peaceful settlement and that it was possible to end the war in Ukraine before Russia switched its economy to a war footing. Lukashenko also falsely accused the West and the United States of forcing Ukrainian officials to abandon negotiations with Russia.

ISW analysts believe that the Kremlin and Lukashenko are likely using China's publication of a 12-point "peace plan" to revive an earlier Russian information operation that Moscow promoted in December 2022.

Read also: Russia wont see major gains in Ukraine in 2023, Pentagon says

At that time, the campaign, which created the illusion of Russia's openness to negotiations, was aimed at encouraging the West to make preemptive concessions and force Ukraine to negotiate on Russia's terms. This likely contributed to the delay in providing Kyiv with Western tanks and other equipment needed to continue Ukraine's mechanized counteroffensives.

In addition, during his official visit to Beijing (Feb. 28 to March 2), Lukashenko may help build schemes to circumvent sanctions blocking trade between Russia and China. Earlier, Deutsche Welle reported that Lukashenko will sign a large package of agreements on the development of joint projects, trade, economic, investment, humanitarian and political cooperation with Beijing.

Lukashenko previously stated that the Belarusian defense industry can produce weapons, as Belarus has access to microelectronics, optics, and other imported components, unlike Russia. ISW suggests that China may be secretly transferring equipment to Russia through Belarus.

Other conclusions of ISW analysts over the past day:

Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasized the role of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) in supporting the war in Ukraine during an address to the FSB board;

Russian forces conducted limited ground attacks near Svatove and Kreminna, and likely made limited advances north of Kreminna;

Russian forces made tactical gains in northern Bakhmut and continued ground attacks around Bakhmut and in the Avdiyivka-Donetsk City area;

Ukrainian officials continue to report potential Russian preparations for renewed offensive operations in Zaporizhzhya and Kherson oblasts, though ISW has not observed indicators that Russian forces plan to renew offensive operations in these areas;

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky enacted a Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council decision to sanction 109 Russian citizens involved in the forced deportation of Ukrainian children.

Map of hostilities: battle for Bakhmut, fighting in Donbas and Zaporizhzhya Oblast, in the south and northeast of Ukraine

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
During his visit to China, self-proclaimed President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said that his country fully supported Beijing's "peace plan."

Source: Lukashenko, during a meeting with China's President Xi Jinping



Quote from Lukashenko: "Today's meeting [March 1  ed.] is taking place in a very difficult time that requires new, non-standard approaches and responsible political decisions. They should be aimed at preventing a slide into a global confrontation, in which there will be no winner.

You have recently stated this clearly, unequivocally, and punctually in your address to the international community. That is why Belarus is making proposals for peace and fully supports the international security initiative you have put forward."



Background:

On 28 February, Alexander Lukashenko, self-proclaimed President of Belarus, arrived in China to meet the country's leader Xi Jinping.

On 24 February, Chinese Foreign Ministry published a so-called "peace plan" with its ideas for the settlement of Russia's war against Ukraine.

The published document includes 12 points, such as respect for the sovereignty of all countries, cessation of hostilities and resumption of peace negotiations.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
Russia officially suspends participation in New START treaty

Xinhua) 08:17, March 01, 2023

In this image from video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry, the Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile blasts off during a test launch from the Plesetsk launch pad in northwestern Russia, March 30, 2018.

The decision to resume Russia's participation in the New START is up to the head of state.

MOSCOW, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday signed a law officially suspending Russia's participation in the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) with the United States.

The law comes into force immediately and the decision to resume Russia's participation in the treaty is up to the head of state, according to the published law.

In his annual address to the Federal Assembly on Feb. 21, Putin said Russia was suspending its participation in, rather than withdrawing from, the New START treaty. He also pointed out the combined strike potential of NATO as Britain and France also have nuclear arsenals that pose a threat to Russia.

A day later, a bill on the New START treaty suspension was unanimously adopted by Russia's parliament and then sent to Putin for his final approval.

The New START, the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty in force between the two nuclear superpowers, can be extended by a maximum of five years with the consent of the two countries. Russia and the United States officially extended the treaty by five years on Feb. 3, 2021.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot attributed her election loss to racism and sexism in comments to reporters Tuesday night, glossing over the impact of violent crime, which surged in the windy city during her tenure.

Lightfoot failed to make the April runoff, losing to Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson, who outflanked her from the right and left respectively. Crime had become the leading issue in the election, leading Lightfoot to pivot towards supporting the police.

Im a black woman in America. Of course, she replied when asked by a reporter if she had been treated unfairly, according to the New York Post. Lightfoot neglected to mention that Johnson is also black.

Nevertheless, she called her time as Chicagos mayor the honor of a lifetime.

Regardless of tonights outcome, we fought the right fights and we put this city on a better path, Lightfoot said.

The comments made Tuesday night were in line with her previously stated view that it is difficult for someone like her to succeed in an electoral setting.

In an interview with the New Yorker prior to the election, Lightfoot explained: I am a black woman  lets not forget. Certain folks, frankly, dont support us in leadership roles.

The same forces that didnt want Harold Washington to succeed, theyre still here, she told one black audience, referring to the citys first black mayor.

Lightfoot is the first black woman and the first openly gay person to lead the nations third-largest city.

She has been heavily criticized for the rampant crime in Chicago and the demonization of the police. While Lightfoot initially supported cutting the citys police budget, she has since pivoted.

Violent crime in the city increased by 40 percent since she was elected in 2019 on a promise to bring down crime rates, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

With 94 percent of votes counted, Vallas, who was the tough-on-crime choice of the Fraternal Order of the Police, is leading with a plurality of 34 percent. Brandon Johnson, who wants to defund the police, is second with 20 percent of the vote.

Story continues

Fifty percent of the vote was needed to avoid a runoff, which will take place on April 4, 2023.

More from National Review
A Pennsylvania man was arrested for allegedly bringing explosives in his luggage Lehigh Valley International Airport in Pennsylvania before boarding an Allegiant flight to Sanford, according to officials.

Mark Muffley was arrested at his home and is being charged with possession of an explosive in an airport and possessing, or attempting to place, or attempting to have placed, an explosive or incendiary device on an aircraft, according to the criminal complaint.

Muffley checked in his rolling suitcase at the Allegiant desk. It was screened by TSA and an alarm was set off, alerting the presence of suspicious items, according to the criminal complaint.

READ: Apopka firefighters to announce vote of no confidence in fire chief

A physical inspection of the baggage led to a circular compound about 3 inches in diameter that was wrapped in a wax-like paper and clear plastic wrap hidden in the lining of the baggage, among other items, the criminal complaint states.

Officials X-rayed the circular device and found it contained a granular type of powder concealed within the wax paper and plastic wrap, according to the criminal complaint.

READ: Human skull, 30 other bones found at New Smyrna Beach historical site

Attached to the compound was a quick fuse and a hobby fuse. In addition, investigators found the powder is susceptible to ignite from heat and friction and posed a significant risk to the aircraft and passengers, the criminal complaint states.

Inside the luggage, investigators also found a can of butane, a lighter, a pipe with white powder residue, a wireless drill with cordless batteries and two GFCI outlets taped together with black tape.

READ: Governor requests information from state attorneys office on accused Pine Hills shooters record

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.
A 38-year-old Wichita man was arrested Tuesday in the September killing of a teen, arrest records show.

Michael Dwayne Austin Jr. was arrested in south Wichita on suspicion of second-degree murder in the killing of Amyion McDowel-Mitchell. The 18-year-old was found unconscious and not breathing when police responded to a Sept. 23 shooting during a small party at an apartment complex in the 5000 block of East Osie.

Officers began life saving measures and the victim was transported to an area hospital in extremely critical condition, police spokesperson Chad Ditch previously said.

McDowel-Mitchell died the next day.

Police said the teen and two suspects, who they believed to be men ages 20 to 30 and 18 to 20, got into an argument. The first man pulled out a gun and shot the victim in his upper body. The suspects then ran off. The shooting was reported at 10:55 p.m.

Police have said the fatal shooting  along with at least one other fatal and other non-fatal shootings  has ties back to the March 2022 fatal shooting at Towne East Square.
WAUKESHA - Authorities say a 23-year-old man, fresh out jail, attacked and sexually assaulted a 68-year-old woman in a downtown Waukesha store, resulting in an intense search to find him.

Kendrew O. Wilson Jr., who in separate court records was listed as having addresses in Milwaukee and Waukesha, was charged Tuesday in Waukesha County Circuit Court with first-degree sexual assault of an elder person and misdemeanor bail jumping. If convicted, he could face as many as 60 years in prison.

According to a criminal complaint, the woman had been working in her store at about 6:30 p.m. Feb. 23 when Wilson entered. He reportedly first asked if she had any money and then asked to use her landline phone, which records show was used to call a provider of net spend cards issued to people released from custody for a criminal offense.

The woman told Waukesha police that the man acknowledged having recently been released from jail on an ongoing disorderly conduct charge, which court records show was related to an incident on a Metro Transit bus a week earlier. (He was released on a signature bond for that incident on Feb. 20, according to online court records.)

But, according to her statements in the complaint, the visit suddenly turned violent when Wilson allegedly pushed her onto a table and then slammed her to the ground, sexually assaulting her and threatening to kill her if she didn't stop fighting him.

The woman went to ProHealth Waukesha Memorial Hospital for treatment. They also notified police of the assault.

In a separate news release, Waukesha police said the department took uncommon steps to locate the suspect, using surveillance cameras and phone tracers, and received assistance from law enforcement officers elsewhere in the area.

"This was an all-hands-on deck investigation that did not stop until the suspect was located," Waukesha Police Capt. Dan Baumann said Tuesday. Wilson was located "in another jurisdiction," Baumann added, and subsequently arrested.

Story continues

Police, as well as the criminal complaint, noted that Wilson is a repeat offender and was considered a "predator" by authorities. The complaint also included an enhancer charge, which could add as many as six years prison time if Wilson is convicted.

Wilson is expected to appear in court again March 3 for a status conference. The identity of the victim was sealed under court order this week, and a protection order on her behalf was also filed.

Contact Jim Riccioli at (262) 446-6635 or james.riccioli@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @jariccioli.

Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.

DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get the latest news, sports and more

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Man charged with sexually assaulting 68-year-old woman in Waukesha
Israel Palestinians (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Israeli authorities said Tuesday that a motorist shot to death by a suspected Palestinian gunman in the occupied West Bank held both American and Israeli citizenship. It was the latest in a bloody string of violent attacks roiling the region.

The government identified the slain man as Elan Ganeles, 27, of West Hartford, Conn. A friend told local media he had been visiting Israel for a wedding and driving on a highway near the Dead Sea when he was shot. The attackers remained at large Tuesday.

Ganeles was the sole fatality of what the army said was a multi-site shooting spree a day earlier. The army said the attackers opened fire at an Israeli car near the Palestinian city of Jericho, hitting Ganeles. The assailants, traveling in one vehicle, then drove further and fired again, the army said. The attackers set their own vehicle afire and fled, setting off a manhunt.

Ganeles died later at Hadassah Medical Center, the hospital said. He is to be buried Wednesday in the Israeli central city of Raanana. Israeli President Isaac Herzog extended condolences to Ganeless family.

The Jewish Federations of North America said it was devastated. A recent college graduate, Elan had a bright future ahead of him. Our hearts go out to his family and to the West Hartford community and we cry together with them. May Elans memory be for a blessing, it said in a statement.

David Waren, President of the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford, said: We extend our deepest condolences to the Ganeles family and affirm our solidarity with the people of Israel at this time of escalating violence. May Elans memory be a blessing for his family and our entire community."

Ganeles's killing came a day after two Israelis were killed by a Palestinian gunman in the northern West Bank, triggering a rampage in which Israeli settlers torched dozens of cars and homes in a Palestinian town and one Palestinian was killed. It was the worst such violence in decades.

So far this year, 62 Palestinians, about half of them affiliated with armed groups, have been killed by Israeli troops and civilians. In the same period, 14 Israelis, all but one of them civilians, have been killed in Palestinian attacks.
Alex Balestrieri

Instagram

A 24-year-old man from Wisconsin died in an avalanche while visiting an area near Smoot, Wyoming, on Thursday.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Alex Balestrieri was attempting to cross a roughly 100-foot slope on his snowmobile when the snow beneath him gave way, carrying him into a creek.

"His sled landed on top of him, 6 to 7 feet of debris piled in and he was facedown in the water," Frank Carus, director of the Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center, told the newspaper.

After the avalanche, a beacon search was conducted and Balestrieri was found using avalanche probes.

He was the only person in his group who was caught in the avalanche, per ABC affiliate WISN.

RELATED: Man Dies in Colo. Avalanche While Skiing with His Father, Who Freed Himself from Snow and Survived

A storm had recently dumped 20 to 30 inches of snow in the Greys River area where Balestrieri was killed, the Journal reported. Authorities also noted that water in the creek may have interacted with the snow, creating slush and high-density debris.

Balestrieri was a third-generation employee of the Balestrieri Group and held the position of project manager and estimator at the construction company, per the Journal.

RELATED: 2 Backcountry Skiers Found Dead Under Debris, Snowmobiler Missing in Separate Colorado Avalanches

Loved ones remembered Balestrieri on social media, with friend Ryan Zinzow recalling his "passion for life."

"I am so grateful that we were able to create so many awesome memories in such a short period of time," Zinzow wrote in a tribute on social media. "I can't thank you enough. You had so much passion for life and were always ready to chase your dreams no matter what. From being little kids tagging along on our dads hunts, to chasing everything we loved to do with all of our friends and all the rough patches along the way."

RELATED VIDEO: U.S. Freestyle Skier Kyle Smaine Killed In Japan Avalanche

He added: "I will cherish every moment for the rest of my life. Everybody, please keep the Balestrieri family in your thoughts and prayers. We all love you, man."

Following a "string of recent avalanches," the Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center made a public safety announcement on social media, urging snowmobilers and backcountry users to be cautious and aware of the risks posed by avalanches, especially during and after snowstorms.
A Bolivian who claimed to have been missing in the Amazon rainforest alone for a month on Tuesday recounted eating insects and worms, collecting water in his boots and drinking his own urine to stay alive.

If confirmed, this could make Jhonatan Acosta, 30, one of the longest-ever lone Amazon survivors.

"It helped a lot to know about survival techniques: I had to consume insects, drink my urine, eat worms. I was attacked by animals," he told Unitel TV.

El hombre declaro este martes en la Policia por un caso que hay abierto sobre su desaparicion en la selva ocurrida el pasado 25 de enero. El joven fue encontrado el 25 de febrero #Jhonattan #Baureshttps://t.co/r7PYnZvbbn  Unitel Bolivia (@unitelbolivia) March 1, 2023

Acosta was reported missing by his family at the end of January. He had been on a hunting trip with four friends in the Amazon rainforest but got separated from his party on Jan. 25.

Exactly a month later, last Saturday, he was found by search and rescue teams. Earlier this month, officials had enlisted a specially trained dog named Titan to help search for Acosta, the station reported.

Acosta told Unitel it rained half the time he was lost. He used his rubber boots to collect whatever rainwater he could.

But when the skies dried up, he said he had to drink his own urine.

"I asked God for rain," Acosta recounted. "If it hadn't rained, I would not have survived."

Disoriented, he had walked about 25 miles in search of civilization, Acosta said, but soon discovered he was going around in circles.

Story continues

Exposed to the elements at night, he said he was bitten by all sorts of different creatures.

His sister, Miladde Acosta, told Unitel TV that her brother "had to fight with a pig, which is a wild and dangerous animal" and a tiger lurked nearby.

"I am very happy and grateful," Acosta told the station after being reunited with his family.

In another well-known case in Bolivia, Israeli adventurer Yossi Ghinsberg survived three weeks in the Amazon in 1981, a feat which inspired the movie "Jungle" starring Daniel Radcliffe.

In Brazil, pilot Antonio Sena survived 38 days in the Amazon after crashlanding in 2021. The following year, two brothers aged 7 and 9 were rescued after spending 25 days lost in the Brazilian part of the rainforest. The BBC, citing local media, reported the two boys told their parents they had eaten nothing while lost and had had only rainwater to drink.

Consumer Confidence Index falls in February

Madam Speaker: Betty Boothroyd | 60 Minutes Archive

Why more Americans are ditching full-time jobs for part-time
The Maricopa County Attorney's Office announced on Tuesday afternoon that County Attorney Rachel Mitchell had referred criminal charges Goodyear police submitted regarding a fatal pickup collision involving 19 bicyclists back to police.

The deaths of the two cyclists and injuries suffered by others that morning is an unimaginable tragedy," Mitchell said in a statement. "The police need time to complete their investigation. It is critical before making any charging decision, and triggering legal time constraints, that a full investigation is completed and provided to prosecutors for review."

Mitchell's referring of the charges back to police would allow investigators more time to gather additional evidence and witness testimony for prosecutors to make charging decision.

Mitchell's announcement came one day after Goodyear officials held a news conference about the Saturday morning collision where they identified the deceased as 61-year-old Karen Malisa of Goodyear who was pronounced dead at the scene and 65-year-old David Kero, who was visiting from Michigan and died at the hospital. The collision left 17 others with injuries ranging from minor to life-threatening.

Police arrested 26-year-old Pedro Quintana-Lujan who was traveling south while driving the truck on Cotton Lane Bridge at around 7:57 a.m. when he crashed into the group of cyclists. Court documents state Quintana-Lujan told police that his steering was locked when the vehicle began drifting to the right and into the cyclists.

Officers booked Quintana-Lujan into jail on two counts of manslaughter, three counts of aggravated assault, 18 counts of endangerment and two counts of causing serious injury or death by a moving violation. He was being held on a $250,000 bond until Mitchell referred the charges back to Goodyear police, causing him to be released from jail on Tuesday.

Catch up:Here's what we know on deadly Goodyear bicycle crash

Story continues

Goodyear police Chief Santiago Rodriguez said Monday there was no indication that Quintana-Lujan intended to crash into the group of cyclists or whether speed or impairment were factors. He added that police obtained a sample of Quintana-Lujan's blood to be tested. It was unclear when the results of the blood test would be available.

Court documents state Quintana-Lujan told police that he was a contractor on his way to a job site from Chandler. He told investigators he had smoked marijuana with his wife the prior evening  roughly 11 hours before the collision.

Reach the reporter Perry Vandell at 602-444-2474 or perry.vandell@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @PerryVandell.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: MCAO refers criminal charges back to police in fatal Goodyear collision
It stumbled into law in messy Albany style almost six years ago: a new bridge name that honored the governor's father and has never quite stuck with the Hudson Valley drivers who cross it.

Thrown into a hodgepodge of leftovers after the 2017 legislative session was the rechristening of the Tappan Zee Bridge, which was then being rebuilt. The $4 billion double span that partially opened a month later would be known as the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, after the late, three-term governor whose son signed the proposal into law.

A bill to restore the original name  supported by a petition with more than 260,000 signatures  has sat for two years. But it was recently revived and stands a better shot this session, with a Democratic senator taking up the cause in the Democratic-majority Legislature and Gov. Kathy Hochul wielding the pen to sign or veto it instead of her predecessor, Andrew Cuomo.

A sign for the Mario Cuomo Bridge before the Palisades Parkway exit onto the NY State Thruway in West Nyack Aug. 1, 2019.

GOP push:As Cuomo angles for a comeback, a renewed push to revive the Tappan Zee Bridge name (March 2022)

Bridge history:Five lives lost, $3.98B spent: A look at the timeline of the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge

Missing letter:Missing 'M' on Cuomo Bridge should go the way of the 'Z' in Verrazzano, lawmaker says

Sen. James Skoufis, a Cornwall Democrat who represents most of Orange County, said Monday that he decided to sponsor the proposal after reviewing that and other lingering bills left by former Sen. Mike Martucci, an Orange County Republican who left office in December.

Skoufis said strong feelings persist among constituents about the "unseemly process" by which lawmakers and Cuomo renamed the crossing, with no public input. The three-mile Hudson River crossing had been the Tappan Zee Bridge  a name that echoed the region's Native American and Dutch heritage  since it opened in 1955, connecting Rockland and Westchester counties.

"This is nothing against the Cuomos," Skoufis said, adding that he would support dedicating another bridge, tunnel or roadway to the liberal icon who led New York from 1983 to 1994.

Story continues

Republicans lead crusade but have no clout

The bridge's renaming was a bipartisan irritant for some Hudson Valley users but particularly inflamed Cuomo-averse Republicans, even those in distant places. Of the eight Republican senators co-sponsoring the bill with Skoufis, only freshman Sen. Bill Weber of Rockland County is from the area. One GOP sponsor lives more than six hours from the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge.

The Assembly sponsor is John McGowan, a Rockland freshman who inherited the bill from his predecessor, Mike Lawler, a fellow Republican now serving in Congress. No Assembly Democrats have joined him as co-sponsors, although two did last year and four Democrats voted in vain with Republicans to advance the bill in committee last April, the New York Post reported.

Two Assembly Democrats from the Hudson Valley took different stances on Monday. Ken Zebrowski of Rockland told the Journal News he supported the bill, while MaryJane Shimsky of Westchester questioned its importance and said she preferred merging the two bridge names.

"Instead of prioritizing an issue of questionable benefit to the taxpayers, let's devote our time and energy to fixing more of our crumbling roads and bridges, Shimsky said.

Democrats hold roughly two thirds of all seats in both chambers and control the flow of legislation. Without a Democratic Assembly sponsor, Skoufis said, the Tappan Zee bill is less likely to pass by itself than as an addition to the budget or another omnibus whopper. The budget is due by April 1 and the session is set to end June 8.

How much it would cost to replace bridge signs if the legislation passes is unknown. The state Department of Transportation and Thruway Authority used patches and overlays to update many signs when the elder Cuomo's name was affixed to them in 2018  and then modified again after his middle initial was omitted.

How did Cuomo get his dad's name on the new bridge?

Cuomo wrangled the bridge renaming with classic Albany horse-trading  and Republican support. In return, Republicans who then controlled the Senate got a stretch of Orange County road named for then-Sen. Bill Larkin and a promise of $10 million to expand the Purple Heart Hall of Honor in New Windsor, a prized site for Larkin. Assembly Democrats got a Manhattan park named for Denny Farrell, a 42-year stalwart in their conference.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo's resignation is renewing calls to change the name of the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge back to the Tappan Zee Bridge

Those pieces were mashed into a legislative package that extended mayoral control of New York City schools and granted crucial extensions of local sales- and hotel-tax rates around the state, among other unrelated items.

A conservative group launched an immediate petition drive to restore the Tappan Zee Bridge name, a campaign the Democratic governor declared personally "hurtful." Critics would get fresh ammunition four years later when Cuomo resigned, felled by scandals that included accusations of sexual harasssment.

Bringing back the original bridge name sounded fitting to William Belhumeur, a Nyack resident interviewed last week beside the Hudson in the village's Memorial Park.

Bikers and walkers on the opening day of the shared use path on the Gov. Mario Cuomo Bridge June 15, 2020.

Im a recent transplant, but I think everybodys known it as the Tappan Zee, Ive known it as the Tappan Zee, Belhumeur said. I think its a little bit of hubris. I think his dad is worthy of remembrance, but I think in context maybe its a little much.

Photographer Tania Savayan contributed to this report.

Chris McKenna covers government and politics for the Journal News and USA Today Network. Reach him at cmckenna@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on New York State Team: Mario Cuomo Bridge would go back to Tappan Zee under revived bill
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Marjorie Taylor Greene on Monday voted against mourning the 50,000 dead in the Turkey-Syria earthquake.

She and her GOP colleague Thomas Massie were the two lawmakers who voted no on the matter.

The resolution also honored humanitarian aid workers who've helped earthquake victims.

Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was one of two House Republicans who voted against mourning the 50,000 people killed in the deadly earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.

Greene and her GOP colleague, Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, were the two nays on a House resolution on the Turkey-Syria earthquakes. The bill, H.R. 132, was introduced by South Carolina Republican congressman Rep. Joe Wilson on February 17.

According to the bill's summary, the House resolution "mourns the loss of life" in Turkey and Syria after the quakes.

"The resolution also (1) applauds the work of humanitarian aid and rescue workers on the ground; and (2) condemns the efforts by the Assad regime of Syria to exploit the disaster to evade international pressure and accountability, including by preventing the United Nations from providing assistance through border crossings between Turkey and Syria," the summary reads.

Greene and Massie were the two nays in the roll call vote held on February 27. Even her colleagues, Reps. Lauren Boebert and Matt Gaetz  who are known for their controversial views  voted yes. The bill passed 414 to 2.

More than 50,000 people were killed after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Turkey and Syria on February 6. Over 160,000 buildings collapsed or were severely damaged in the disaster, Reuters reported. The UNDP further estimates that more than 1.5 million people have lost their homes in the quake.

Greene has not made many public statements on the earthquake but did tweet about the disaster.

"Praying for Turkey and other countries suffering through deadly earthquakes. Thousands are feared dead," the congresswoman tweeted on February 6.

It's unclear why Greene chose to vote against the bill, but it might have something to do with Wilson's rationale for introducing the resolution in the first place.

Story continues

Wilson said in Congress on Monday that the congressional bill was a message to the "war criminal Putin" that delaying humanitarian aid to the region is "despicable." Wilson's speech referenced a diplomatic row in February when the UN's aid to Syria was held up by Russia.

Greene has taken a fairly pro-Russia stance on the Ukraine war. On Monday, she tweeted that it's "unconstitutional" for President Joe Biden to help Ukraine because it is "not a NATO ally nor a democracy." In April 2022, Greene was among the six GOP House members who opposed a bill meant to preserve evidence of war crimes by Russia.

Representatives for Greene and Massie did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.

Read the original article on Business Insider
A Massachusetts Superior Court judge ordered a controversial Florida-based financial company to stop doing business in the Commonwealth.

Judge Kenneth W. Salinger granted a motion for a preliminary injunction against embattled MV Realty, which has come under fire in recent months from federal and state regulators. The Mass. Attorney Generals Office Consumer Protection Division filed suit against MV Realty in December, accusing the company of targeting hundreds of elderly and low-income homeowners using deceptive and unfair sales tactics.

Salingers order prevents MV Realty from marketing to homeowners, collecting undisclosed fees, obtaining or recording additional mortgages and enforcing existing mortgages in Massachusetts.

25 Investigates first reported on MV Realtys business practices in November. The company markets a product called a Homeowner Benefit Agreement that, according to investigators, offers a small cash payment averaging $1,150 in exchange for a 40-year exclusive right for MV Realty to act as the listing brokerage when the homeowner decides to sell. Investigators said under the terms of the contract, the company can collect payments of at least 10 times the amount advanced with virtually any title transfer or other service provided to the homeownernot just when the home is sold.

At least 400 Massachusetts homeowners signed contracts with MV Realty. The AGs office is seeking restitution for consumers, rescission of the contracts, release of the mortgages, and civil penalties. Attorneys general in Pennsylvania and Florida have filed similar lawsuits against the company.

The Court finds that the Commonwealth is likely to succeed in proving that MV [Realty] has engaged in a pattern of unfair and deceptive conductby tricking homeowners into thinking they would never have to repay the amounts that MV [Realty] advanced to them and that they would owe no interest to MV [Realty], hiding the fact that MV [Realty] would record a mortgage on the borrowers property with a statutory power of sale, falsely representing that MV [Realty] would serve as their agent in selling their home when MV [Realty] never had any intent of doing so, Salinger wrote in the Feb. 21 order.

Story continues

An MV Realty spokesperson said the company has suspended its Homeowner Benefit Agreement program.

MV Realty has voluntarily temporarily suspended entering into new customers contracts as we work to address the concerns raised by regulators and legislators. The Company remains confident that the Homeowner Benefit Program fully complies with the law and benefits consumers who receive a cash incentive to select MV Realty as their listing agent, the spokesperson said.

Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.

Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
Matt Hancock's messages reveal how Boris Johnson made decisions around placing the UK into COVID lockdown. (Reuters)

More than 100,000 explosive WhatsApp messages sent during the height of COVID have been leaked, shedding new light on Boris Johnson's handling of the pandemic.

Former health secretary Matt Hancock shared thousands of messages with journalist Isabel Oakeshott, the ghost writer of his book, who later shared them with The Telegraph.

Initially released on Wednesday, a second tranche of messages released on Thursday showed Johnson was convinced to keep schools open, worried second lockdown data was wrong and was guided by public opinion at times.

Oakeshott tweeted that the messages were "the biggest leak of data involving the government since the 2009 MPs' expenses scandal, shedding new light on issues including care home deaths, lockdowns, testing, school closures and face masks. We all deserve to know."

Yahoo News sums up the most explosive messages released on Thursday:

Johnson was told second lockdown data was wrong

The data used to justify plunging the country into a second lockdown was called into question by then-prime minister Johnson, who feared people would think the government had "blinked too soon" on locking down.

Boris Johnson messaged Sir Chris Whitty (pictured) with concerns the lockdown data was wrong. (Reuters)

Texting his chief adviser Dominic Cummings, chief medical officer Professor Sir Chris Whitty, chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance and Hancock, Johnson said he had spoken with two lockdown-sceptics, Dr Raghib Ali and Dr Carl Heneghan, and been told "the death modelling you have been shown is already very wrong" as it was three weeks out of date.

The message came in November 2020, just a day after Johnson had announced a second lockdown, and a month before COVID cases increased and Christmas was "cancelled".

Public information differed from private messages

In July, the government announced that schools would reopen in September, but wouldn't open before the school holidays, with Hancock stating that there were very difficult policy judgments based on the best available science, always guided by that science.

Story continues

However, in WhatsApp messages sent between himself and Johnson, Hancock suggested they shouldn't open schools because everyones accepted there wont be more on schools until Sept.

The view that decisions were being made to "follow the science" was also questioned by Conservative MP Miriam Cates after the huge Hancock data dump. She told Talk Radio: "We suspected at the time a lot of these decisions were being made for political reason and not necessarily on the evidence."

Boris Johnson apparently wanted to end lockdown sooner. (Reuters)

'Public opinion' kept lockdowns in place

Johnson was keen to end COVID lockdowns sooner than they did, but was told by his advisers 'Slackie and Lee' the public wasn't ready for the change, the newly released texts show.

In messages, Johnson suggested bringing the end to lockdown sooner, but was told this was too far ahead of public opinion. He told Hancock what his advisers had said, to which the then-health secretary said: "I think Slackie and Lee have a point.

"I think its too soon for outdoor hospitality  and theyre not expecting it until next month."

Johnson had suggested opening up more non-essential retail, outdoor hospitality and some things for families on 15 June, when the government slowly began opening things up, but was convinced to hit the brakes. Around the same time, hundreds of fines were handed out for lockdown breaches.

Teachers accused of being lazy

Messages sent between then-education secretary Gavin Williamson and Hancock reveal Williamson thought teachers unions really do just hate work and managed to persuade Johnson to keep schools open in January 2021.

An exchange between the pair, sent on 1 October, show Hancock texting: Cracking announcement today. What a bunch of absolute arses the teaching unions are

I know they really really do just hate work," Williamson replied. Hancock replied with laughing emojis and a bullseye.

But the pair also clashed over school closures, with Hancock arguing to close schools in January 2021 and Williamson insisting they should remain open.

The then-education secretary Gavin Williamson wanted to keep schools open. (Reuters)

Texting an aide after the prime minister agreed that schools should stay open, Hancock wrote: "The next U-turn is born".

He added: "I want to find a way, Gavin having won the day, of actually preventing a policy car crash when the kids spread the disease in January. And for that we must now fight a rearguard action.

Williamson has responded to the data dump by defending the comments he made about people not wanting to work, saying they were "about some unions and not teachers".

"I have the utmost respect for teachers who work tirelessly to support students," he said, also revealing that he considered quitting over the decision to close schools.
GO NAKAMURA

With this years Conservative Political Action Conference finally kicking off, organizer Matt Schlapp is now claiming hes the victim of fake journalists amid an alleged groping scandal thats overshadowed the right-wing confab and led to Fox News ignoring the event.

As a result of what appears to be a Fox blackout, in addition to a number of prominent Republicans having decided to skip CPAC 2023, Schlapp has turned to smaller conservative media outlets in an effort to hype this years event. And while he had largely avoided publicly mentioning the groping allegations, he broached the subject in a Wednesday interview with The Washington Examiners Paul Bedard.

According to the CPAC boss, reports on the allegations that he groped a Herschel Walker staffer and that there are concerns about his leadership are nothing more than fake journalists... pushing this leftist agenda and lying. Schlapp is a victim of that, he claimed.

CPAC Has a Major Fox News Problem

This media will take any charge and run with it if they can destroy a Republican or a Trump supporter or conservative, the CPAC leader declared. Thats what we have in this country.

Claiming his current plight is another example of woke politics supposedly taking down conservative activists, Schlapp said this has to stop and we have to find a way not to back down because thats what the people of CPAC are all facing in their own lives.

Schlapp also brushed off concerns that marquee Republicans have ditched the event. Besides Fox News largely ignoring this years confab, likely 2024 presidential candidates Ron DeSantis and Mike Pence have turned down invitations to speak at the conference. Schlapp, for his part, hyped up the fact that former President Donald Trump, who has already announced a White House run, is scheduled to appear.

The beleaguered CPAC chief raging about fake journalists victimizing him comes as hes also boasted that he will shut out reporters and media outlets from the convention if he feels theyve been unfair to him.

Story continues

The Daily Beast spoke to a number of reporters whove covered previous CPACsand whose outlets covered the sexual misconduct allegationswho had not heard back regarding their media credentials in the days leading up to the event. After The Daily Beast emailed CPAC for comment on Tuesday, some reporters began receiving last-minute confirmation emails for their credentials.

The Daily Beast, which first reported on the allegations against Schlapp, has not received a CPAC credential.

Herschel Walker Staffer: Matt Schlapp Groped My Crotch

In January, a male staffer on Walkers failed Senate campaign alleged that Schlapp grabbed his junk and pummeled it at length, an experience that left the individual scarred and humiliated. Schlapp, through his attorney, denied the allegations at the time and called them an attack on his family, prompting the unnamed staffer to file a defamation lawsuit accusing the conservative icon of sexual battery.

Since then, Schlapp and his wife Mercedes Schlappa former Fox News contributor and Trump administration officialhave been personae non grata on Fox media outlets, despite making dozens of appearances prior to the scandal. The networks ghosting of the Schlapps meant no promotional hype for CPAC on the top-rated right-wing channel.

While essentially turning its back on Schlapp, the conservative cable giant has all but ignored CPAC, even though its digital streaming platform Fox Nation provided round-the-clock coverage of the confab in the past. (One Fox News staffer told The Daily Beast theyve gone radio silent.)

Furthermore, Fox has helped underwrite the conference in recent years, serving as a Featuring Sponsor for the partisan celebration while donating $250,000 in 2021.

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.
WASHINGTON (AP)  House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is defending his decision to give Fox News Tucker Carlson exclusive access to Jan. 6 security footage of the Capitol attack, despite the conservative commentators own work raising false claims and conspiracy theories about the 2021 riot over Joe Bidens election.

McCarthy vowed Tuesday to eventually make roughly 42,000 hours of sensitive Capitol Police security videos available to the broader public as soon as possible, but made it clear the Fox News commentator had first dibs. The Republican McCarthy is also supportive of giving access to some of the nearly 1,000 defendants being prosecuted for their roles in the siege.

Five people died in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack and its aftermath after then-President Donald Trump encouraged a mob of supporters to fight like hell as Congress was tallying the election results from the states.

I dont care what side of the issue you are on. Thats why I think putting it out all to the American public, you can see the truth. See exactly what transpired that day, McCarthy told reporters at the Capitol.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson

Have you ever had an exclusive? Because I see it on your networks all the time. So we have exclusive, then Ill give it out to the entire country, McCarthy said.

The speakers decision to release the mountains of police security footage has set off a firestorm at the Capitol over the way the images will be potentially used as a political tool to rewrite the history of what happened that deadly day. Fox News is facing new scrutiny in a separate court case over its airing of false claims about the 2020 election that Trump lost to Biden.

Its also raising new concerns about sensitive security operations at the Capitol. While video from the Jan. 6 riot has already widely aired as part of the public hearings last summer by the House committee investigating the attack  including from the police cameras, documentarians like then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosis daughter who filmed secret locations and even the rioters themselves  McCarthy is making available almost 42,000 hours of footage, three times what was first seen, from cameras stationed in all corners of the Capitol complex.

Story continues

More: 'Shockingly reckless': Fox News hosts privately shot down Trump's 'big lie' over election fraud

Committee conclusions: Jan. 6 report says Trump floated plan for 10,000 troops to protect him - recap of findings

We are deeply concerned that the release of footage related to the January 6 violent insurrection will reveal some security details that could create some challenges in terms of the safety and well being of everyone on the Capitol Complex, said Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, the former chairman of the House Jan. 6 committee, said the panel went through a painstaking process to work closely with the U.S. Capitol Police to review and ultimately release approved segments of the surveillance footage as part of its public hearings.

Im supportive of a process, if this is true transparency, that would not compromise the integrity or the security of the Capitol, the Mississippi Democrat said.

When McCarthy told fellow Republicans behind closed doors about his decision Tuesday, he was greeted with applause, according to a person who was familiar with the private conference meeting but unauthorized to speak about it publicly.

FILE - Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., leaves the House Chamber after President Joe Biden's State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol, Feb. 7, 2023, in Washington. Thousands of hours surveillance footage from the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack are being made available to Fox News Tucker Carlson.

The speaker has had a rocky relationship with Carlson, who has been critical of McCarthys leadership. But the influential Fox News commentator ultimately stood down when the California Republican was battling to become House speaker in a dragged-out party vote earlier this year. It was seen as helping to boost McCarthy to the job.

McCarthy insisted he was taking measures to ensure security at the Capitol would not be jeopardized by the release, but declined to provide details  only to say that Carlson made it clear to the speakers team he did not want to show exit routes used by lawmakers or others.

Access to the footage will also be available to defendants who are facing charges over their alleged involvement in Jan. 6. McCarthy said defendants have had access before, but if its still needed, We can supply that to them too.

The House Administration Committees subcommittee on Oversight, which is chaired by Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., is making accommodations for any attorneys representing defendants who have asked to view the footage, the person familiar with the situation said.

Capitol insurrection: This is insane. Lawmakers relive Jan. 6 horror alongside fresh trauma of effort to rewrite history

More: Capitol riot arrests: See who's been charged across the U.S.

Democrats on the panel said they were deeply troubled by McCarthys actions, warning that access to such large swaths of footage could expose security vulnerabilities to be used by those who might wish to attack the Capitol again, according to a report. They vowed to conduct oversight.

But the Republican leader has made it clear he is working to set the record as he sees it, and repeatedly complained that other media outlets, including CNN, already had received exclusives to show video last year, when Democrats held the majority in House.

Insurrectionists loyal to President Donald Trump breach the Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.

McCarthy also suggested it was unfair that the Jan. 6 panel, which disbanded once Republicans took control of the House, released security video during the riot of former Vice President Mike Pence fleeing for safety as well as the GOP leaders own staff scrambling to secure their office.

It was disturbing to me that the January 6 committee would show the exit strategy of the vice president, McCarthy told reporters Tuesday. What I thought would be best is if the entire world and the country could see what transpired.

Carlson has said that his producers have been on Capitol Hill since early February, poring over the footage after getting the unfettered access from McCarthy.

The archive is a potential trove of the inner workings of the Capitol and includes the hideaways of lawmakers as well as the evacuation routes that Capitol Police used to usher leadership and rank-and-file members to safety. It also includes long moments of empty hallways where nothing is happening.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the release of tapes to Carlson was despicable and said he would not agree to release them to other media. Security has to be the number one concern, Schumer said.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell would not comment directly on McCarthys move, saying his only concern is the security of the Capitol.

Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jan. 6 video trove to FOX News Tucker Carlson defended by McCarthy
Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) doubled down on his decision to hand over Jan. 6 footage to Fox host Tucker Carlson, saying that the press seem jealous.

Earlier this month, McCarthy granted access to 41,000 hours of security footage from the Jan. 6 attacks to Carlson, sparking criticism from other news outlets and security concerns from Democrats. In an interview with The Washington Post, McCarthy said that the footage will be released broadly soon and that his team took actions to mitigate security concerns.

It almost seems like the press is jealous, McCarthy told the Post. And thats interesting because every person in the press works off exclusives on certain things.

People like exclusives, and Tucker is someone thats been asking for it, McCarthy added. He also said in the interview that he let Carlson see the tapes, but that everyones going to get it.

After days of remaining silent on the issue and dodging questions from reporters, McCarthy and other Republicans made it clear on Tuesday that no information would be given to Carlsons team without it first being screened for security purposes. McCarthy told reporters on Tuesday that his team is working with the U.S. Capitol Police to ensure the footage is safe to release.

McCarthy defended his decision to give the security footage to Carlson, adding that the Fox host was not interested in seeing footage of the exit routes, which he said he was concerned that CNN had access too. This comment was directed at the select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attacks, which aired former Vice President Mike Pences route leaving the Senate chamber. The footage, however, did not show Pences full route out of the chamber.

He also accused the select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attacks of giving footage to outlets favored by liberal viewers, like CNN and MSNBC.

I know CNN was given tapes that the January 6 [committee] would pick and choose so I know theyve had a lot of exclusives around that. I want to make sure we dont play politics like that, he said on Tuesday.

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the since-dissolved Jan. 6 committee, defended the committees actions on Tuesday, saying that any video shown to the public was vetted through the chief of the Capitol Police.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
WASHINGTON (AP)  House Republicans pressed ahead Wednesday with one of the central planks of their midterm election campaign, introducing legislation to give parents more of a say in school curriculum.

Thats what today is all about: Its about every parent, mom and dad, but most importantly about the students in America, Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said in introducing the bill at an event on Capitol Hill.

Reflecting the importance to the GOP agenda, the parents' bill of rights is the first bill that McCarthy has formally announced as speaker. He was flanked at the event by dozens of parents and young children.

By turning parents rights into a rallying cry, Republicans hope to harness the frustration with schools that reached a boiling point during the pandemic when educators grappled with masking requirements, closures and remote learning for children. Many states with Republican-controlled legislatures have already enacted similar measures.

The proposal comes as the House Judiciary Committee has opened an investigation into the Justice Department and Department of Education for what Republicans contend is the mistreatment of parents who protested woke school board policies.

The GOP-led investigation is focusing on a letter the National School Boards Association, which represents school board members around the country, sent to the Justice Department in fall of 2021 outlining more than 20 instances of threats, harassment, disruption, and acts of intimidation in California, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, Ohio and other states.

The letter cited the arrest that September of an Illinois man for aggravated battery and disorderly conduct for allegedly striking a school official at a meeting. In Michigan, a meeting was disrupted when a man performed a Nazi salute to protest masking.

We are coming after you, a letter mailed to an Ohio school board member said, according to the association. You are forcing them to wear mask  for no reason in this world other than control. And for that you will pay dearly. It called the board member a filthy traitor.

Story continues

The term parents' rights has been invoked over the last century in disputes related to home-schooling, sex education and even the teaching of foreign languages.

Since the pandemic began, there was a shift where many parents joined a conservative movement pushing for state legislation giving them more oversight of their childrens schools. At issue are library books and course material, transgender students use of school bathrooms and the instruction of topics related to race, sexual orientation and gender identity.

Republicans capitalized on the issue during the November's midterms election after seeing Republican Glenn Youngkin win Virginia's race for governor in 2021 with his slogan Parents matter. The national party embraced the message, with conservative political action committees funneling millions of dollars to school board races in the wake of frustration over remote learning and school mask mandates.

Democrats and education groups have argued that Republicans efforts to establish a parents bill of rights is an overreach that is proving to be more harmful to schools and educators than trying to empower parents.

McCarthy would rather seek to stoke racial and social division and distract us from what will really help our students thrive: an inspiring, inclusive, and age-appropriate curriculum that prepares each and every one of them for their future, the National Education Association, the nations largest teachers union, said in a statement Wednesday.

___

Associated Press writer Stephen Groves contributed to this report.
House Republicans are pumping the brakes on the release of Jan. 6 surveillance footage theyve offered to Fox News host Tucker Carlson and going on offense against Democrats who have spent the past week slamming the move.

Republican leaders are emphasizing that no clips will be broadcast without prior security clearance while accusing Democrats of neglecting the same precautions during the investigation by the House select committee last year  a charge the Democrats quickly rejected.

Carlson, Foxs wildly popular conservative pundit, said last week that he would begin airing footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot this week, after Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) offered him what Carlson described as unfettered exclusive access to more than 40,000 hours of unreleased surveillance tape starting earlier in the month.

Yet McCarthy and other Republicans, following days of silence on the topic, made clear Tuesday that no information would be released to Carlsons team  let alone broadcast publicly  before the footage is screened to ensure it doesnt compromise the security of the Capitol complex.

The Speaker said Republicans are working with the U.S. Capitol Police to ensure thats the case.

Its many more hours of tape than we were ever told. They said at the beginning it was like, 14,000 hours. Theres roughly almost 42,000 hours. Were working through that. We work with the Capitol Police as well, so well make sure security is taken care of, McCarthy told reporters in the Capitol.

Theres certain parts that he wanted to see, McCarthy said of Carlson, but stressed that the Fox News hosts team specifically said they do not want to see exit routes.

Theyre not interested in it. They dont want to show that, McCarthy said.

McCarthys statement was a shot at the Jan. 6 select committee for airing footage showing then-Vice President Mike Pence leaving the Senate chamber after rioters stormed into the Capitol in a failed effort to prevent Congress from certifying President Bidens election victory.

Story continues

The footage did not show Pences full route out of the Capitol, and members of the investigative committee said they took pains to clear each video clip with leaders of the Capitol Police before broadcasting them.

What we showed to the public was video that we vetted through general counsel, we vetted through the chief of the Capitol Police, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the since-dissolved Jan. 6 committee, told reporters Tuesday. And under no circumstances did we push out anything that we felt that would have violated any aspect of the security of this area.

McCarthy, though, cast doubt on the Democrats narrative, saying members of the Capitol Police force have informed him directly that not all footage from the Jan. 6 select committee was screened.

Theres times when the Capitol Police told me that they didnt consult with them either on some of these routes, so thats a concern, McCarthy said.

The Capitol Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

McCarthy said that he expects the security footage to be widely released as soon as possible, but would not predetermine the format of such a release.

McCarthy told The Hill that he has not spoken personally to Carlson about the Jan. 6 footage.

McCarthy also criticized the Jan. 6 select committee for airing clips that showed his staff members being evacuated from his office wing.

They went in and they showed our office  because they have a camera in our office. They never talked to any of us about it, said McCarthy, who did not cooperate with the Jan. 6 select committee after it issued a subpoena to question him.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) also raised concerns about footage released by the Jan. 6 select committee, pointing to then-Speaker Nancy Pelosis (D-Calif.) daughter filming a documentary in a secure location where congressional leaders were kept during the riot.

But Democrats are also pointing fingers, voicing their own doubts that Republicans are adopting strong security protocols as they share the footage with Carlson, who has downplayed the violence on Jan. 6 and promoted conspiracy theories about the riot being orchestrated by Trumps political adversaries.

Thompson said his office has been asking for  but not received  written procedures governing how the many hours of footage would released, and then used.

If they dont have anything in writing  then I say its a bad idea, Thompson said.

Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), chairman of the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight, said that his panel is still working through those procedures.

Were working on putting protocols together and policies and procedures and schedules, Loudermilk said.

While Carlsons team has full access to watch the tens of thousands of hours of footage, Loudermilk said, he will work with the sergeant-at-arms and Capitol Police to ensure that any copies of that footage given to Carlson do not pose security risks.

There hasnt been a release of tapes, Loudermilk said. Its basically controlled access to be able to view tapes. Cant record, cant take anything with you. Then they will request any particular clips that  that they may need, and then well make sure that theres nothing sensitive, nothing classified  you know, escape routes.

The fierce debate over the release of the full Jan. 6 footage  and the appropriateness of granting exclusive access to Carlson  comes as McCarthy fights to solidify support from some Republicans wary that the new Speaker lacks the conservative bona fides to take on Biden and the Washington swamp.

Some of those critics said McCarthy had promised them, during the hard-fought Speakers balloting, that he would release the full library of Jan. 6 footage in return for their support. Carlson himself also suggested that McCarthy pledge to release the tapes to earn support for the Speakership.

McCarthy denied that claim on Tuesday. While he has said in other comments and in a fundraising email that he had promised to release the footage, he said that was a reference to a question in a press conference last month, not because of negotiations during the Speakers election.

Im just following through on that, he said Tuesday.

Its unclear if McCarthys most vocal Republican detractors  whose backing he needs to pass legislation in a narrowly divided House  will accept a more limited release of the footage.

Carlson, Foxs most popular commentator, has been among McCarthys most prominent, if not most frequent, right-wing critics. And McCarthys decision to share the Jan. 6 footage exclusively with Carlson has led to accusations that the Speaker is simply coddling up to the popular host to save his own political hide.

The Speaker is saying that this is about public accountability and transparency. But that is totally belied by the fact that he gave it to one extreme person in the media, said Rep. Katherine Clark (Mass.), the Democratic whip.

The choice of Carlson is under additional scrutiny this week following revelations  released as part of an ongoing defamation lawsuit against Fox News  that he was among the network pundits furious that Fox had correctly called Arizona for Biden. Carlson, at the time, voiced concern that the accurate reporting would drive Fox viewers to other conservative outlets, which continued to report Trumps lies about a stolen election.

McCarthy defended the choice of Carlson on Tuesday, accusing the Jan. 6 select committee of handing surveillance footage to outlets favored by liberal viewers, including CNN and MSNBC.

Have you ever had an exclusive? I see it on your networks all the time, McCarthy said to a group of reporters that included correspondents from CNN and MSNBC.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Michelle Yeoh attends the 2022 Met Gala. Dimitrios Kambouris / Staff / Getty Images

Michelle Yeoh didn't work for two years to avoid being typecast in "stereotypical roles."

She told People she "could not agree" with the roles being offered to her after her 1997 US debut.

Yeoh is up for best actress at the 2023 Oscars for her role in "Everything Everywhere All At Once."

Michelle Yeoh said she didn't work for almost two years in the 1990s because she didn't like the "stereotypical roles" being offered to her in the United States at the time.

While Yeoh spent the 1980s and part of the 1990s starring in Hong Kong martial arts films, Yeoh told People that her breakout role in Hollywood was 1997's "Tomorrow Never Dies," with Pierce Brosnan starring as James Bond. In it, she changed the reputation of the typical "Bond Girl," she said, because she was the one to save Bond's life rather than the other way around.

Still, following that character, only jobs that wanted to typecast her were rolling in.

"At that point, people in the industry couldn't really tell the difference between whether I was Chinese or Japanese or Korean or if I even spoke English," Yeoh told People. "They would talk very loudly and very slow."

But because Yeoh was resistant to being typecast, she said she didn't work for almost two years until 2000's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" came along.

"I didn't work for almost two years, until 'Crouching Tiger,' simply because I could not agree with the stereotypical roles that were put forward to me," Yeoh said.

Yeoh is up for best actress at the 2023 Academy Awards after already snagging the same award at the Golden Globes and SAG Awards for her starring role in "Everything Everywhere All At Once."

Coming up, Yeoh is set to play Madame Morrible in the film adaptation of "Wicked," a role she said, "In the past ... would've been for a Caucasian lady."

"This is what we call diversity, inclusivity," Yeoh told People. "This is how you make it work. It is a natural process  progress, evolution that we can have as storytellers."

Read the original article on Insider
Flowers are placed outside Berkey Hall on Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023, at Michigan State University in East Lansing a day after 3 people were killed on campus.

EAST LANSING  Michigan State University is limiting evening access to most campus buildings, installing locking door handles in about 1,300 classrooms and is looking to add more security cameras, officials announced Wednesday.

"Creating a safer and more welcoming campus is a stated goal of Michigan State University," reads a letter sent to the MSU campus community Wednesday, signed by Interim President Teresa Woodruff and other top administrators. "The injury and loss of life that occurred Feb. 13 commits us to do more and better. Over the past two weeks, we have received many suggestions regarding the safety of our campus, and we appreciate the robust discussion."

MSU announced that starting as soon as students return from spring break on March 13, most buildings will only be accessible with a Spartan key card from 6 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. Monday through Friday, according to the letter. Those buildings will be closed during weekends.

Buildings that already have restricted access will not be impacted, said Vice President for Public Safety and Chief of Police Marlon Lynch during a University Council meeting on Tuesday. Accommodations will also be made for public events on campus, the letter states.

"We recognize theres going to be some adjustments made, specifically for students or even faculty and staff who may not be accustomed to carrying their ID with them," Lynch said, during the University Council meeting. "We do recognize this is not a complete solution, piggybacking or holding doors for people, different things like that, it occurs, its that way, but this is just an additional step in trying to restrict or limit accessibility to our buildings, specifically after hours."

Officials have also identified a vendor to install lock systems for doors across campus, including more than 1,300 academic classrooms, according to the letter, with hopes of having the locking system fully installed by the beginning of the fall 2023 semester.

Story continues

We have approximately 1,300 classrooms on campus, so this is something that will take time, Lynch said, during the University Council meeting. We are hopeful that we will have some level of cooperation regarding supply chain, even with that, it takes time to install as well.

There are more than 2,000 cameras installed across MSU's campus and officials plan to install more, focusing on areas that lack camera coverage, like academic buildings and all Green Light emergency phones, according to the letter. Additionally, MSU Police and Public Safety is requesting proposals and plans to improve monitoring of all the cameras across campus, including new cameras that soon will be installed.

Lynch said they hope to add more cameras both on the outside and inside of campus buildings, including building entrances. This work is part of an ongoing project to centralize security systems across campus, but Lynch said they've specifically moved forward with the security camera part of the project.

MSU officials also are requiring all employees and students to complete active violent intruder training beginning next fall.

Three students were killed and five wounded Feb. 13 when a lone gunman entered Berkey Hall and the MSU Union and shot at people. MSU officials will conduct an external after-action evaluation to review how emergency personnel and university leaders responded to the shooting. According to the letter, such an evaluation is common practice among educational institutions that have experienced similar situations and it will provide officials a chance to review what went well during the response and areas of improvement.

The review will result in recommendations that will be made public, according to the letter.

"We will update the campus community as these safety improvements and enhancements roll out," the letter reads. "Our first week back was an emotional one, but we hope you find strength in being back together. The upcoming spring break will provide another opportunity for reflection and healing for some and a slower pace on campus for others."

Contact Mark Johnson at majohnson2@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ByMarkJohnson.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Michigan State to restrict building access, put locks on classroom doors
Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin and Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov during a meeting in the Ramstein format in Brussels, February 14, 2023

On Radio NV, Sych explained that Thomas Theiner is a former Italian military officer and an expert on NATO forces who has been studying and analyzing information from open sources about conflicts in the former USSR for the past 10 years and has about 100,000 followers.

One of his recent publications caused a lot of discussion on Twitter, explained Sych. In it, Theiner analyzed amendments to the Pentagon budget, specifically a $3.8 billion arms order. Theiner and his commentators believe that studying these documents indicates what exactly the Pentagon is sending to Ukraine. Sych noted that the farther one goes, the more positions of the weapons in these files are classified, but Theiner "has a good idea of what exactly is classified there, because he is an expert and he studies it."

Thomas Theiner's Twitter thread about the Pentagon budget

Mr. Sych explained that Theiner believes that these amendments to the Pentagon budget are an excellent source of what kind of secret military programs the US leadership is implementing in Ukraine and what equipment it is sending.

There was one thing that was difficult to understand, Sych said.

Many have concluded from this information that the Pentagon is preparing the Ukrainian army for a big offensive in the spring, judging by the weapons it is sending. ...Part of it looks like the Pentagon is replenishing its stockpiles of weapons. It has given a lot of older weapons to Ukraine, and this is a replenishment with new, modern, very advanced weapons that can defeat China  not only Russia. But some of these weapons will be intended for Ukraine.

Read also: Operation De-occupation: What Ukraine will need to liberate occupied territories  NV analysis

He also listed a number of points from Theiner's writing on the Pentagon order.

Its clear, $7 million for 120-mm mortars, almost a thousand new Javelins, 40-mm grenades  185 thousand, NVs editor-in-chief explained.

And then the curious stuff begins. The Pentagon is now ordering for the first time $230 million worth of 155mm shells  that's NATO caliber  and $200 million worth of Excalibur shells, also NATO caliber. And Thomas Theiner says this is the first time the Pentagon is spending the same amount of money on Excaliburs as it does on conventional shells. We should recall that Excaliburs are long-range projectiles, very accurate, controlled by GPS and with a margin of error of 1 meter. And they are almost completely switching to them. Then they are ordering a lot of HIMARS, worth half a billion dollars. And where these HIMARS will go is not entirely clear, because they may go to Ukraine, or they may keep them, or perhaps theyre for Taiwan. ... Then the next thing the Pentagon orders is GMLRS missiles, which they had previously ordered 3200 in total. Now they are ordering 7600 of them in a single order, and they have a range of150 km. That is  a lot. These are the missiles that we wanted to get.

Story continues

In response, Fursa suggested that perhaps some of these missiles had already arrived in Mariupol.

There were rumors, leaks from the Presidents Office that said that Biden did not come to Kyiv empty-handed, ... that more long-range missiles came, Fursa suggested.

Read also: Ukrainian intel officer reveals plans to liberate Crimea

Sych stressed that before these missiles were ordered for half a billion dollars, and now this single order is more than a billion dollars.

As an example of an order almost 100% designed for Ukraine, he named the order by the Pentagon of demining equipment for $53 million.

Its interesting, because before they had ordered only a total of $1 million, he explained.

According to Sych, Theiner concludes that Ukraine will soon be breaking through many minefields.

In addition, Theiner highlighted the fact that the Pentagon is ordering many new types of modern missiles, in particular the air-launched version of Harpoon missiles.

They say that they used to provide us with Harpoons  these are anti-ship missiles, Sych stated.

Now they are ordering a more modern, more advanced 400 km version and ordering a lot of them. But here he [Theiner - ed.] concludes that the Ukrainians have probably learned how to mount anti-ship missiles on their fighters, and a batch of these missiles with a range of 400 km, the most advanced, the fastest in the world, they also ordered quite a lot of them.

Read also: Russia unlikely to succeed in its spring offensive, experts say

Sych cited Theiner's findings that the Pentagon provided Ukraine with excellent older missiles that are well suited to defeat Russia, and is now replacing them with new missiles designed to defeat China.

That is, part of this will be intended for the U.S. army, and part, it is not known which, for the Ukrainian army, he said.

NVs editor-in-chief emphasized that many commentators have concluded that Ukraine is being prepared for a big offensive in the spring, and much of what Theiner listed and did not list due to secrecy will come into Ukraine in the spring.

On Jan. 20, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced that Ukrainian forces would be able to launch a counteroffensive in the spring.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
March 1st marks the 2nd anniversary of the disappearance of Relisha Rudd. Dozens of people and children within the community participate in a rememberance celebration of Relisha Rudd is held at the Deanwood Recreation Center in Washington, DC on February 27, 2016. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Minnesota state lawmakers are moving forward with a bill that would establish the nations first office to investigate cases of missing Black women and girls as tens of thousands of women of color remain missing in the U.S.

On Feb. 20, the Minnesota House voted 110-19 in favor of advancing House Bill HF55. And it is on the fast track this year to be signed into law, Rep. Ruth Richardson, DFL (Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party), the bills author, told Yahoo News. This is part of the governor's budget, and it's one of his top priorities. So we are excited to be at a point where we can finally get this across the finish line.

In previous years, similar bills passed in the Minnesota House but failed in the Senate. If the legislation is signed into law it would require the Bureau of Criminal Apprenticeship to operate a missing person alert program for Black women and girls.

The Office of Missing and Murdered Black Women and Girls would review missing persons and cold cases, and the first-of-its-kind project is expected to cost roughly $2.5 million.

In the United States, Black women only make up 13% of the female population but studies found that they make up 35% percent of missing women in the country. In 2020, during the pandemic, nearly 100,000 of the 250,000 women that went missing in the U.S were women of color.

Demonstrators against police brutality march in London in 2016. (Daniel Leal/AFP via Getty Images)

Currently, national statistics tell us that over 60,000 Black women are missing, and Black women are twice as likely than they appear to be victims of homicide, Brittany Lewis, co-founder of Research in Action, told Yahoo News. In the state of Minnesota, Black women are three times more likely to be murdered than white women in Minnesota.

According to the state report completed by Minnesotas Missing and Murdered Black Women and Girls Task Force, created in 2021, Black women are less likely to receive media attention when they go missing.

What were finding is that people are disappearing for a number of reasons: sex trafficking of our young girls, increase in domestic violence, mental health reasons, and there are a lot of systemic reasons, Natalie Wilson, co-founder of the Black and Missing Foundation, a nonprofit organization that brings awareness to missing people of color, told Yahoo News.

Story continues

Wilson says she is working to bridge the gap so that all missing women have the same media attention and resources. Were trying to eliminate this barrier because what were finding oftentimes with our communities [is that] race, zip code, where you live, education, your economic status  all of these things are barriers, Wilson said.

In 2016, when 21-year-old Keeshae Jacobs went missing in Richmond, Va., her mother said she faced barriers that made her feel like she was the only one searching for her child.

Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one fighting here, Toni Jacobs, Keeshaes mother, told Yahoo News. When I went to go file the police report that she was missing, it felt like the police officer didnt believe me.

Keeshae Jacobs, left, and her mother, Toni Jacobs. (Courtesy of Toni Jacobs)

People [said] oh she had a boyfriend. She just ran out. She was pregnant and she was scared to tell me. I mean, these are the first things that come to my mind and Im like this is not fair, Jacobs said.

According to experts, cases that involve missing Black women and girls stay open four times as long compared to other cases involving white people.

People are taking them because they know theyre not getting attention, Jacobs said. I shouldn't have to wait six years and I honestly believe Im fighting by myself to bring my daughter home.

In 2014, 8-year-old Relisha Rudd went missing in Washington, D.C, and still has not been found.

If a white girl with blond hair and blue eyes goes missing every light comes on. [But] when a black girl or black woman goes missing you never hear about it, Dr. Verna Price, founder of Girls Taking Action, a nonprofit organization in Minnesota that mentors young girls, told Yahoo News.

Experts say this is known as missing white woman syndrome  a term that refers to the unequal amount of coverage that white women receive compared to women of color.

In 2021, MSNBC host Joy Reid called the coverage of Gabby Petito a prime example of missing White woman syndrome. Why not the same media attention when people of color go missing? Reid asked.

A demonstrator in Madison, Wis., holds a sign to commemorate missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. (Stacy Revere/Getty Images)

According to Lynnette Grey Bull, founder of Not Our Native Daughters, White people were more likely to have an article written while they were still missing, she said on MSNBC.

Price says this is not just a problem in Minnesota as Black women and girls have been targeted nationwide.

In this country, Black women since slavery have been dispensable and it is high time that we protect us, Price said.

Richardson and supporters of the legislation said they are hopeful that the bill will pass and spur other states to take action on the issue.

We believe that this is a blueprint for a national response, Richardson said. We are hoping that we can help to lead the way to ensure that Black women and girls are extended the same protection and the same support and the same energy that we see in coverage of other cases.
JACKSON, Miss. (AP)  Mississippi residents might get back the ability to enact public policy through statewide ballot initiatives, but people would be banned from using the process to change abortion laws.

Republican lawmakers advanced a proposal Tuesday that would strip voters of their ability to launch abortion measures under a revived ballot initiative process.

Starting in the 1990s, Mississippi had an initiative process that allowed people to put proposed state constitutional amendments on the ballot. The state Supreme Court ruled in 2021 that the process was invalid because it required an equal number of signatures from five congressional districts. The state had dropped to four districts after the 2000 Census, but initiative language was never updated.

Since the 2021 ruling, Mississippi voters have lacked a process for addressing issues by launching initiatives. The restriction on abortion ballot measures is the latest update to a resolution moving through the Legislature that would restore the initiative process. This would allow proposed laws, not constitutional amendments, to go on the ballot.

The initial version of the resolution had no provisions related to abortion; those were added Tuesday. Rep. Fred Shanks, the Republican chair of the House Constitution Committee, told reporters there was concern among GOP lawmakers that Mississippi voters might use the initiative process to expand abortion access, which is now tightly restricted.

There was some concern about it, yeah, Shanks said.

In 2011, Mississippi voters rejected a personhood initiative that would have defined life as beginning at fertilization. The measure was promoted as a way to eliminate abortion rights, and its failure surprised many in the deeply conservative state.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court stripped away constitutional protections for abortion based on a Mississippi case. In his majority opinion, Justice Samuel Alito wrote that the decision would allow abortion laws to be settled through the democratic process.

Story continues

"Roe and Casey must be overruled, and the authority to regulate abortion must be returned to the people and their elected representatives, Alito wrote.

If the proposed new initiative process is adopted, state legislators would be the only people in Mississippi with the power to change abortion laws.

Since the Supreme Court ruling in June, voters in six states have either expanded or protected existing abortion rights through statewide ballot initiatives. Kansas resoundingly protected abortion rights in August, and five other states have either enshrined those rights or rejected constitutional restrictions on abortion.

To put an initiative on the statewide ballot in Mississippi, petitions would need to be signed over a 12-month period by at least 12% of the state's registered voters as of the last presidential election. Shanks said that would be about 240,000 signatures.

The requirements are tougher than those under the prior initiative process. Before 2021, a petition only needed about 106,000 signatures to appear on the ballot  12% of the total votes cast in the most recent election for governor.

The resolution will go to the full House for more debate. If it survives, senators could either accept the House changes, seek final negotiations or let the proposal die.

___

Michael Goldberg 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. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/mikergoldberg.
Mississippi governor Tate Reeves on Tuesday signed into law a bill banning gender-transition procedures for minors.

Reevess final approval for the Regulate Experimental Adolescent Procedures (REAP) Act comes after the Republican-controlled state legislature approved the bill on February 21. The measure makes Mississippi the seventh state to ban sex-reassignment procedures for minors.

There is a dangerous movement spreading across America today, Reeves said while signing the bill. Its advancing under the guise of a false ideology and pseudoscience being pushed onto our children through radical activists, social media, and online influencers. And its trying to convince our children that they are in the wrong body. I stand before you today to sign legislation that puts a stop to this in Mississippi and protects our kids.

The law bans medical professionals from performing gender-transition surgery and from prescribing puberty blockers or hormone replacements to minors in the state. The measure grants the Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure the authority to strip medical professions of their licenses for violating the law.

The legislation also withholds public funding from any institution or individuals who provide gender-transition care to minors and allows minors who receive such care to sue providers for 30 years after they receive care.

The law takes effect immediately.

At the end of the day, there are two positions here, Reeves said Tuesday. One tells children that theyre beautiful the way they are. That they can find happiness in their own bodies. The other tells them that they should take drugs and cut themselves up with expensive surgeries in order to find freedom from depression.

I know which side Im on, he added. No child in Mississippi will have these drugs or surgeries pushed upon them.

Other states that have banned or restricted surgical gender-transition procedures include Utah, South Dakota, Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona and Florida.

Story continues

The law comes after Mississippi passed a law in 2021 banning biologically male athletes from competing in girls and womens sports.

More from National Review
Trevor McKinley is seen with his fiancee and one of their sons. Courtesy of Jackie McKinley

A Mississippi jury declined to indict deputies who barged into Trevor McKinley's home and killed him.

McKinley's mother said she was "extremely disappointed" but not surprised by the decision.

Five people died after interactions with the Rankin County Sheriff's Department in 2021.

A Mississippi grand jury decided not to indict sheriff's deputies who barged into a 28-year-old man's home in 2021 and shot him to death.

Rankin County Sheriff's deputies shot Trevor McKinley to death inside his grandmother's house in August 2021 after responding to a domestic disturbance report. Jason Dare, an attorney for the sheriff's department, told Insider that a grand jury in January returned a "no bill"  meaning there's insufficient evidence to indict  for McKinley's case.

McKinley's mother, Jackie McKinley, told Insider that she was "very disappointed" in the decision, but was "not surprised" because "no one's ever held accountable for their actions down here."

Jackie McKinley said she was frustrated by the lack of communication from authorities to her family about the status of the investigation over the last two years.

She said she was unaware her son's case had even been closed when Insider reached out to her for comment.

"I'm extremely disappointed and I'm even more disappointed that it has taken almost two years and with zero information whatsoever," Jackie McKinley said. "I mean, literally, like, nothing."

"It's unfair and unjust, and families deserve to know, you know?" she continued. "I mean, we all know how the system is, and especially in the Rankin County. As sad as it is, it doesn't surprise me."

She said she spoke to Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey over the phone shortly after the shooting and that he was "very rude" and "hung up on me."

The sheriff's department did not return Insider's request for comment.

Trevor's relapse caused a fight with his fiancee

Trevor McKinley had a warrant out for his arrest when Rankin County sheriff's deputies were called to his home.

Story continues

Trevor's former fiancee, Ashton Durr, previously told Insider that the couple got into a fight on June 1, 2021, after she found a stash of pills and confronted Trevor  who had been sober for several years at the time  about relapsing. Durr said Trevor chased her around the house and hit her after the confrontation.

One of Durr's friends told police about the fight, and deputies came to the house to question her, she said, but she refused to talk to them.

Durr said Trevor checked himself into rehab and stayed with his mother in Memphis, and upon completing the program, he learned that there was a warrant for his arrest, and made plans to turn himself in when he returned to Rankin County.

Trevor's grandfather called police to their home

McKinley returned to Mississippi in August and tried to turn himself in, his father, Shannon McKinley, previously told Insider, but the sheriff's department told him he would have to get a negative COVID-19 test first.

On August 21, 2021, McKinley's grandparents planned to take him and his kids to a lake to spend one last day together as a family before he turned himself in.

Trevor McKinley and his two sons. Courtesy of Jackie McKinley.

Sonny Quarles, Trevor's grandfather, previously told Insider that Trevor became irate when he asked him to put some drawers that he had removed back in place. Quarles said Trevor threw him to the ground.

Quarles said he called 911 because his wife, Charlene Quarles, began experiencing shortness of breath after the scuffle, but she recovered while he was on the phone, and he said he no longer needed assistance. Quarles said he called 911 a second time after Trevor began "cussing again," but he couldn't remember if he said that Trevor had hit him.

When deputies arrived, they came "flying up in the yard," Charlene Quarles previously told Insider.

"They jumped out of the car, didn't say one word, show nothing. One went for the front door, one went for the kitchen door," she said.

A few minutes later, Charlene Quarles said, she heard shots ring out as deputies shot her grandson inside the house.

In a press release after the killing, the sheriff's department said they were initially called to the home for a "medical call," but "a caller from the scene indicated that the call was a domestic disturbance," before deputies arrived.

According to the press release, deputies found Trevor hiding in the home's attic. When Trevor fled from the attic, he turned and fired multiple shots at deputies with a handgun, according to the release.

A Mississippi Bureau of Investigations report obtained by Insider said deputies told investigators that they also tried to use a Taser on McKinley as he fled.

Charlene Quarles previously told Insider that she believes her grandson hid from the deputies because someone from the sheriff's office threatened Trevor with violence if he didn't turn himself in.

"Trevor knows how they work up there," Quarles said. "He's been up there many times in his life, and he knows they do that. They're famous for roughing people up."

McKinley speculated that his son may have fired his gun because the electricity of the Taser caused his muscles to tense when it struck him.

Sheriff's deputies who shot Trevor apparently didn't write incident reports

Insider sued the sheriff's department in July 2022 for Rankin County Sheriff's Department incident reports related to McKinley's death.

The department's attorney only provided two incident reports related to the case in January 2023, after the grand jury reached a no-bill. Both reports were written by sheriff's deputies who arrived after McKinley was shot.

The first report, written by deputy Allison Defour, simply says that Defour arrived on scene after the shooting and "roped off an area across the front yard and up the side of the house" and "began a crime scene log of those that entered/exited the residence."

The second report, written by deputy Craig Williams, said Williams heard on his radio that two patrol cars were on a medical call that "turned into a domestic disturbance."

"The suspect was Trevor McKinley and was hiding in the attic," Williams wrote. "Dispatch advised there is an active felony warrant on Trevor. I then heard radio traffic of shots fired and responded to the scene."

Williams wrote that he identified himself to "deputy Pickle and deputy Little" as he entered the house.

The sheriff's department did not respond to Insider's request for comment about if the deputies involved in the shooting did not write incident reports and what the department's policy is on when to write a report.

5 deaths in 8 months

Trevor McKinley, Damien Cameron, and Cory Jackson all died after interaction with the Rankin County Sheriff's Department in 2021. Families of Trevor McKinley, Damien Cameron, and Cory Jackson.

McKinley's death is one of five deaths involving Rankin County sheriff's deputies over an eight-month period in 2021. Insider sued the sheriff's department in July 2022 for records related to three of the deaths, including McKinley's. Insider previously reported the deaths of Cory Jackson and Damien Cameron.

Jackson died inside the Rankin County jail in May 2021 after deputies arrested him while he was having hallucinations and refused to drive him to the hospital, his family says. Cameron died in July 2021 after deputies chased him inside his home, Tased him, and knelt on his back for more than 15 minutes.

Deputies shot and killed Robert Rushton in December 2021 while responding to a call of a drug overdose. The sheriff's department said in a press release he was armed with two knives. The fifth man, Adam Coker, also died in the Rankin County Jail in September 2021.

No charges have been brought against deputies involved in any of the five cases. In October 2022, a jury declined to indict the deputies connected to Cameron's death.

'You're not following any kind of protocol'

Jackie McKinley said that when she tried to speak with Sheriff Bryan Bailey over the phone, she wanted to impress upon him that she thinks his deputies need better training.

"You're not doing things how they should be done, you're not," McKinley said. "You're not following any kind of protocol. You're just going willy-nilly killing people."

Damien Cameron's family has been in touch with McKinley's family since Trevor and Damien's deaths, talking and sharing experiences with each other, Jackie McKinley said. She said she hopes bringing attention to cases of police violence will lead to justice for others in the future.

"My son wasn't perfect, you know, he had a lot of demons and issues," Jackie McKinley said. "But he didn't deserve to die."

Read the original article on Insider
Tiffany Werner is a 42-year-old mom from McHenry, Mississippi. Tiffany Werner

Last January, Tiffany Werner pulled her kids out of school and traveled with them for a year.

She documented it on TikTok to show people from her hometown what other countries are like.

In particular, Werner shared an inside look into one of her favorite tourist hotspots  the malls.

Before January of last year, 42-year-old Tiffany Werner had barely had the opportunity to leave her hometown in McHenry, Mississippi.

She went abroad for the first time in her 30s, backpacking in Europe with her mother for two weeks. Up until more recently, she had only traveled with her own children, now aged 15 and 14, a handful of times, first on cruise trips to the Caribbean and to Mexico in 2012, and then on a short visit to Paris in 2019.

After going on these holidays, Werner was still worried that her children might grow up with a sheltered outlook on life, as there were so many parts of the world they had not seen.

In January 2022, she and her husband Christopher pulled their kids, Reagan and Carson, out of school, and traveled to Tbilisi, the capital of the former Soviet country of Georgia, where they stayed for just over four months. They had actually wanted to visit Turkey, but their plans fell through due to ongoing Covid travel restrictions, and Georgia was the cheapest alternative, Werner told Insider.

The family did make it to Turkey later that year, however, and visited another four countries  Malaysia, Thailand, Greece, and Italy  as well, staying in each location for months at a time to become immersed in cultures that were different from their own.

Werner documented the entire experience on TikTok, sharing regular updates about visiting historical monuments and taking part in outdoor activities as the family traveled together.

She got a taste of viral fame along the way with her review of an impressive mall in Malaysia's capital city, which Werner previously told Insider she filmed to dispel misconceptions about Asian countries being underdeveloped that her friends from back home, who have hardly traveled, continued to believe.

Story continues

Werner went on to post reviews of every mall she visited during her travels, believing that by showing people from back home the way a country shops, she could help them get a sense of what life there is really like.

Visiting malls was one of Werner's favorite pastimes during the trip

"I feel like you can totally judge a place by the mall," Werner said in a conversation with Insider.

The TikToker filmed herself exploring more than seven malls around the world over the past year. Many things surprised her, including the fact that a mall in Istanbul had a Shake Shack and a Popeye's, much like the average American mall, while in Malaysia, one mall had a children's rollercoaster ride that twisted through the shopping center.

While Werner said she rarely intended on buying anything from the malls, going there gave her an opportunity to observe the local people and visit shops that she had never seen in America.

"Have you ever just walked through a big city, and then just gone into a major building to sit in the lobby? It's kind of similar to a lobby experience. I just want to check it out, sit here, relax, and people-watch," she told Insider.

Werner told Insider that her local mall in McHenry, Mississippi, pales in comparison to the large, modern malls in the cities she visited.

"I haven't even been to our mall since I've been back home. I haven't even stepped foot in it because it's just a disappointment," she said.

When she arrived back in the US at the start of this year, the 42-year-old also got the chance to visit "The Mall at Millenia," in Orlando, Florida, which is thought to be one of the nicest malls in the state. However, she said that this "did not even touch" the impressiveness of the malls she visited in places like Malaysia: "The malls there, they're just stacked, and they have some kind of architectural ambiance that sucks you in," she said.

Werner's family in Rome, Italy. Tiffany Werner.

Werner told Insider that many people around the world believe in a stereotype that American life is superior to life in countries outside the west, largely due to popular culture and the fact that "everyone watches American movies."

But seeing the quality of the shopping malls in other countries, in comparison to the small mall in her hometown, was for Werner just one indication that not everything about America is as glamorous as popular culture makes it seem.

"People really think all Americans live like it's the movies  but those brick stone houses you see in little romance movies set in New York City  most people are not living that kind of lifestyle," she said.

Now that her family is back home in Mississippi, Werner says that she is glad she is able to look back on all the videos she posted on TikTok while she was away, to remind her of the different people she met and cultures she was able to experience along the way.

"I feel like it got my kids out of that bubble, where they could see other cultures that probably very few teens in America will get the opportunity to see," she said, adding, "I think we're much more cultured people now."

For more stories like this, check out coverage from Insider's Digital Culture team here.

Read the original article on Insider
From 2026, the fourth content-based subject will only be counted for university admissions if it improves a candidate's score, according to MOE. (FILE PHOTO: Yahoo News Singapore)

SINGAPORE  Students from junior colleges (JCs) and Millennia Institute (MI) can now take the fourth content-based subject of their interest without worrying about grades.

From 2026, the fourth content-based subject will be counted for university admissions only if it improves a candidate's score, while from 2024, the project work subject will be graded as a "pass or fail" subject and will be excluded from the computation of the university admission score.

Education Minister Chan Chun Sing announced these changes at his ministry's Committee of Supply debate in Parliament on Wednesday (1 March), explaining that the Ministry of Education (MOE) wants students to follow their passions rather than just picking subjects that would boost their grades.

He added that, with the new changes, students can adjust their learning load and direct more time to holistic learning.

"I should emphasise that students will continue to benefit from a broad-based A-Level curriculum, as they still have to offer four content-based subjects, of which at least one would be from outside their specialisation," Chan said in his Parliament speech.

With these changes, the maximum university admission score will be 70, instead of 90.

As part of their application for autonomous universities, students are currently required to submit four content-based subjects (for example, three H2 subjects and one H1 subject), a general paper and project work.

When calculating the university's admission scores, students who offer four H2 content-based subjects have their lowest score treated as an H1 subject.

No mid-year examinations for JC and MI students from 2024

From next year, Chan said mid-year exams would gradually be eliminated for consecutive JC/MI students cohorts.

Rather than preparing for exams, he explained that the time saved can be utilised to engage students deeper and facilitate their learning through various experiences.

"Teachers will continue to use assessments in a formative and calibrated way to monitor learning progress and support each student. The removal of the mid-year examinations will take place in phases for different levels in JCs and MI starting from 2024," he added.

Story continues

It follows the MOE's decision to remove mid-year exams from primary and secondary schools as part of the effort to focus on academics instead of testing.

Subject-based banding will be fully implemented

By next year, the education ministry will fully implement subject-based banding (SBB) in secondary education, enabling greater individualisation and flexibility for students.

With full SBB, students can choose different subject levels, known as G3, G2 and G1. These are roughly mapped from today's Express, Normal (Academic), and Normal (Technical) standards.

Secondary 1 students in over 100 secondary schools will benefit from the full SBB.

Primary 6 students will be placed in secondary schools in three posting groups - Posting Groups 1, 2, and 3. These correspond to PSLE score ranges at Normal (Technical), Normal (Academic) and Express courses.

Chan said, "This ensures that schools continue to admit students with diverse strengths, and students continue to have access to a wide range of schools."

Unlike streaming, Chan maintained that posting groups will be used only to facilitate admissions and determine students' initial subject levels at the start of Sec 1.

"Beyond that, posting groups will not shape the secondary school experience. Currently, students may choose to take certain subjects at a more demanding level if they are eligible. Under Full SBB, this flexibility has been expanded to more subjects," he said

"With guidance from their schools, some students have also begun to offer elective subjects at a less demanding level. This gives them room to pursue their interests without adding unduly to their overall curriculum load."

Standard certificate for all students during the end of Secondary School education

Additionally, Chan announced that students would begin receiving a common certificate, the Singapore-Cambridge Secondary Education Certificate (SEC).

He said: "Starting from 2027, the SEC will replace the separate Singapore-Cambridge General Certificate of Education O and N Level examinations."

Chan added that students who wish to choose subjects at a more challenging level will still be able to spend a fifth year in secondary school, allowing them to pace their learning and potentially access more post-secondary options.

Education Minister Chan Chun Sing announced these changes at his ministry's Committee of Supply debate in Parliament on Wednesday (1 March). (PHOTO:MCI/Screenshot)

Do you have a story tip? Email: sgnews.tips@yahooinc.com.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter. Also check out our Southeast Asia, Food, and Gaming channels on YouTube.
A Montana woman who killed and skinned a domesticated Siberian husky in September has been hit with a six-month deferred hunting ban.

Amber Rose Barnes, who posted a picture of herself with the dead husky on social media, pleaded no contest to a charge of misdemeanor animal cruelty. TMZ reported that the judge in Barness case deferred a six-month hunting ban and banned her from using her hunting rifles for that same period of time.

Barnes will also have to take an online hunter safety class before having her hunting rights restored.

Its not the worst time to be banned from hunting in Montana  the states hunting season doesnt begin until September, meaning there is little legal hunting Barnes could have done there in the next six months anyway.

Barnes drew attention to the killing of the dog with a social media post in which she mistakenly identified it as a wolf pup.

So this morning I set out for a solo predator hunt for a fall black bear, however I got the opportunity to take another predator wolf pup 2022 was a great feeling to text my man and say I just smoked a wolf pup. #firstwolf #onelesspredatorMT, she wrote in the post about the killing.

The post quickly went viral, outraging a number of Montanans both for its tone and what it portrayed. She eventually made another post  offering context for her misidentification of the dog. She then suggested she would have shot it anyway even if she had correctly identified it.

I purchased my wolf tag prior to leaving for a bear hunt in the event I ran into a wolf in which I came to encounter with what I thought could be a hybrid during this time [] my safety was top priority this animal was growling howling and coming at me like it was going to eat me, she said.
Bipartisan committee with Beijing in its sights. AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

In a rare show of bipartisanship, Republican and Democratic House members put on a united front as they probed how to respond to the perceived growing threat of China.

The inaugural hearing of the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party comes at a delicate time  amid concerns in the U.S. over Chinese espionage and tensions over Taiwan and Chinas position on the Ukraine war.

Michael Beckley, an expert on U.S.-China relations at Tufts University, was among those watching on as witnesses gave evidence during the committees prime-time session. Here are his takeaways from what was discussed.

1. The days of engagement are over

What was abundantly clear from the lawmakers was the message that the era of engagement with China is long past its sell-by date.

Engagement had been the policy of successive government from Nixons landmark visit to China in 1972 onward. But there was a general acceptance among committee members that the policy is outdated and that it is time to adopt if not outright containment then certainly a more competitive policy. This would include selective decoupling  that is, the disentangling  of technology and economic interests, along with a more robust stance on confronting Chinas military and providing a barrier to Chinese conquest in East Asia.

This proposed hardening of the U.S. policy is driven by internal developments in China as well as any perceived external threat. President Xi Jinping is viewed as having installed himself as dictator for life and created an Orwellian internal control system, complete with concentration camps and hundreds of millions of security cameras all over the country; this is a regime that is only becoming more authoritarian as the years go by. It has dispelled any idea that with its economic opening China would also become a more open society.

And the committee appears to want to set course for the long term, not just for the near future. The general idea is U.S. policy over the next 10 years could determine the relationship between the U.S. and China for the next century. Rep. Mike Gallagher, the panels Republican chair, said as much in his opening comments: This is an existential struggle over what life will look like in the 21st century  and the most fundamental freedoms are at stake.

Story continues

2. Reframing the debate

As Gallaghers remarks suggest, the panel implied that U.S. issues with China do not boil down to just disagreement over a few issues. Rather, it was framed as a battle between two very different visions of society.

The committee is clearly modeled on the Jan. 6 House panel  for example, by airing hearings in prime time and with dramatic testimony from witnesses. The idea seems to be that the issue is of such importance that to pursue it successfully the U.S. public needs to be educated, invested and mobilized. To that end, the inaugural session had testimony from an activist jailed for two years for supporting pro-democracy movements. The point was to get across the idea that the way of life that the U.S. is trying to promote  both at home and abroad  is antithetical to that of the Chinese Communist Party.

President Joe Biden has similarly framed his administrations policy around the idea that this is an epic struggle between democracy and autocracy. Indeed, in some ways Biden has been more hawkish than previous presidents on China. In terms of tightening economic restrictions on China and stressing U.S. concerns over Chinas human rights record, Biden has picked up the baton from his predecessors and run with it.

But the panel was keen to stress this as a bipartisan push for a more hawkish policy. And this is important. It gives the panels recommendations more heft, especially as the U.S. heads into the 2024 presidential race, during which both parties will be looking to stress how tough they are on the U.S.s adversaries.

3. Confronting Chinas leaders, not its people

Although framed as a battle between democracy and autocracy, the panel appears conscious that the debate shouldnt be framed as a clash of Western and Asian civilizations.

With anti-Asian sentiment having risen during the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. lawmakers are walking a fine line here  they will need to focus any criticism on Chinese leaders rather than its people. Gallagher made this point, noting: We must constantly distinguish between the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people themselves, who have always been the partys primary victims.

This balancing act may be more difficult in future hearings when issues of Chinese students at U.S. universities, immigration and cooperation with China on certain scientific issues come up. That is when they will need to weigh concerns over Chinese espionage against not coming across as anti-Chinese visitors and immigrants.

4. Reshaping policy on three fronts

Although this first hearing was very much a table-setter, there were three broad policy recommendations implicit in the testimony:

Taiwan  The panel heard evidence suggesting that the U.S. needs to mobilize for the potential of a hot war with China over the island of Taiwan, the status of which is contested. Former National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster told the panel that in regards to China, the next two years would be a particularly dangerous period. He suggested that U.S. capabilities to deter an invasion of Taiwan were not adequate. Meanwhile, there were mentions of a backlog in weapon sales to Taiwan. And as the war in Ukraine has underscored, there is an imperative to get weapons on the ground before any shooting starts.

Economic competitiveness  The panel heard evidence from the U.S. National Association of Manufacturers pointing out how China had stacked global trade in its favor through unfair subsidies and corporate espionage. To improve Americas competitiveness, the panel could look at recommending the expansion of export controls or tax reforms to make U.S. products more competitive. The U.S. is also eyeing a strategic decoupling with China on the economic front, which is encouraging U.S. businesses to divest from Chinese operations and restricting Chinese businesses operating in the U.S., such as the social media platform TikTok.

Human rights  The committee made it clear that human rights should be front and center in the U.S. China policy going forward. The hearing repeatedly stressed that this was not just an economic and security disagreement but a clash of values.

5. A boilerplate response from Beijing

Chinas response to the committees inaugural hearing was standard.

In a statement, the foreign ministry in Beijing said it rejected Washingtons attempt to engage in what it called a Cold War mindset. Chinese media also tried to make it sound as if anti-China policy is driven by special interests, including defense contractors and members of the Taiwanese diaspora.

The narrative that the U.S. is warmongering was aided by the interjection of two protesters from the Code Pink activist group, who held up a sign during the hearing stating that China is not our enemy.

This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. Like this article? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

It was written by: Michael Beckley, Tufts University.

Read more:



Michael Beckley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More work is needed to break down bureaucratic barriers to technology sharing in the second pillar of a trilateral defense agreement between Australia, Britain and the United States, British and Australian defense officials said on Wednesday.

Shimon Fhima, director of Strategic Programmes at Britain's Ministry of Defence, made the comment referring to part of the 2021 AUKUS agreement dealing with advanced technology programs such as artificial intelligence and hypersonic weapons.

Speaking at a virtual event hosted by Washington's Center for a New American Security think tank ahead of an expected announcement of a way forward on AUKUS after an 18-month consultation period, Fhima cautioned that their adversaries did not share such bureaucratic constraints.

He said the political will was "absolutely there to ensure that the barriers that we have are broken through," but this took time.

Referring to the so-called Pillar One of the AUKUS agreement - under which Australia is to acquire nuclear-powered submarines, Fhima added:

"The willingness to share really sensitive technologies and capabilities in Pillar One; if we can do that, and we can do that at pace, we must be able to do that in Pillar Two."

Asked if enough progress was being made in Pillar Two, Stephen Moore, first assistant secretary of defense industry policy at Australia's Department of Defense, said there was "a frustration, I think amongst all of us, that our bureaucratic processes need to be better."

He added: "We know our bureaucracies need to be more agile, better equipped to face some of the strategic challenges that we are looking at, and I think there is momentum there."

The officials did not address details of how Australia will acquire nuclear powered submarines under AUKUS to counter the increasing threat posed by China in the Indo-Pacific region.

Leaders from Australia and Britain are expected to travel to Washington this month to announce the way forward.

Story continues

The United States and Britain each have closely guarded nuclear submarine programs and the three allies have yet to say exactly how the capability will be transferred to Australia, which does not have a domestic nuclear propulsion industry.

U.S. defense technology sharing is tightly controlled under International Traffic in Arms Regulations and it remained unclear whether Australia will acquire a U.S. or a British designed submarine and when.

The capabilities in Pillar Two of the AUKUS agreement are seen in part as a way to close a capability gap in the meantime.

Australia's former defence minister said on Wednesday he favored Australia choosing a U.S. nuclear-powered submarine over a British model, comments swiftly labeled "irresponsible" by the government.

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom, Idrees Ali and Mike Stone; Editing by David Gregorio)
Steve House in uniform - Victoria Jones/PA

Sir Steve House, the former acting Met Commissioner, has been referred to the police watchdog over allegations that he described the bulk of rape complaints as being the result of regretful sex.

The comments were allegedly made during a meeting in January 2022 between senior officers and academics discussing a major review that was taking place into rape prosecutions.

Professor Betsy Stanko, an adviser appointed by the Home Office to conduct the review called Operation Soteria Bluestone, made the allegations relating to Sir Steve in an interview with Channel 4 News.

Following the claims, Sir Stephen  who is currently seconded to the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC)  was referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct by Scotland Yard.

Sir Steve, who was number two in the Met when the alleged comments were made in January 2022, has emphatically denied making the comments, saying he found the term regretful sex completely abhorrent.

He retired as a serving officer last year and is now seconded to the NPCC as a civilian employee, carrying out work on behalf of the Home Office.

Deputy Commissioner Lynne Owens said: Having been made aware of an allegation that the comments were made by a senior Metropolitan Police officer, we are referring the matter to the Independent Office for Police Conduct.

Speaking to Channel 4 News, Professor Stanko said: It felt as if he [Sir Stephen] was trying to minimise what the problem was, not taking it seriously. He used terms to describe  or a term to describe  what he thought the bulk of the rape complaints were, which was the term regretful sex.

She added: The only way I understand the term regretful sex  and it was said by officers elsewhere, in the other forces that we visited and researched  it is something about the victim.

Again, the victim is mistaken. That that fault line of forcible sex, which is rape, was not crossed because it must have been confusion. The problem was about confusion, not about the facts or the evidence that could have been collected if one was trying to investigate a rape.

Story continues

A source said Sir Steve completely denies the claims and is utterly distraught at the allegations.

In a statement, Sir Steve said: I have dedicated over four decades of public service to protecting the public from predatory offenders.

I categorically deny using the phrase regretful sex. These are not words I have ever used in relation to rape or sexual assault and the reason I am so certain that I did not say this is because I simply do not believe it; I find the phrase abhorrent.

I find this characterisation of me to be deeply upsetting, and colleagues who know me know how untrue it is.
Key Insights

Novartis' Annual General Meeting to take place on 7th of March

Salary of US$1.93m is part of CEO Vas Narasimhan's total remuneration

Total compensation is similar to the industry average

Over the past three years, Novartis' EPS grew by 1.7% and over the past three years, the total shareholder return was 5.8%

Under the guidance of CEO Vas Narasimhan, Novartis AG (VTX:NOVN) has performed reasonably well recently. This is something shareholders will keep in mind as they cast their votes on company resolutions such as executive remuneration in the upcoming AGM on 7th of March. We present our case of why we think CEO compensation looks fair.

Check out our latest analysis for Novartis

Comparing Novartis AG's CEO Compensation With The Industry

At the time of writing, our data shows that Novartis AG has a market capitalization of CHF168b, and reported total annual CEO compensation of US$12m for the year to December 2022. That's mostly flat as compared to the prior year's compensation. While this analysis focuses on total compensation, it's worth acknowledging that the salary portion is lower, valued at US$1.9m.

For comparison, other companies in the Switzerland Pharmaceuticals industry with market capitalizations above CHF7.5b, reported a median total CEO compensation of US$9.2m. So it looks like Novartis compensates Vas Narasimhan in line with the median for the industry. What's more, Vas Narasimhan holds CHF24m worth of shares in the company in their own name, indicating that they have a lot of skin in the game.

Component 2022 2021 Proportion (2022) Salary US$1.9m US$1.9m 16% Other US$9.9m US$9.7m 84% Total Compensation US$12m US$12m 100%

Talking in terms of the industry, salary represented approximately 52% of total compensation out of all the companies we analyzed, while other remuneration made up 48% of the pie. It's interesting to note that Novartis allocates a smaller portion of compensation to salary in comparison to the broader industry. If non-salary compensation dominates total pay, it's an indicator that the executive's salary is tied to company performance.

Story continues

A Look at Novartis AG's Growth Numbers

Novartis AG has seen its earnings per share (EPS) increase by 1.7% a year over the past three years. In the last year, its revenue is down 2.0%.

We would prefer it if there was revenue growth, but it is good to see a modest EPS growth at least. It's hard to reach a conclusion about business performance right now. This may be one to watch. Looking ahead, you might want to check this free visual report on analyst forecasts for the company's future earnings..

Has Novartis AG Been A Good Investment?

Novartis AG has generated a total shareholder return of 5.8% over three years, so most shareholders wouldn't be too disappointed. Although, there's always room to improve. In light of that, investors might probably want to see an improvement on their returns before they feel generous about increasing the CEO remuneration.

To Conclude...

Given that the company's overall performance has been reasonable, the CEO remuneration policy might not be shareholders' central point of focus in the upcoming AGM. However, we still think that any proposed increase in CEO compensation will be examined closely to make sure the compensation is appropriate and linked to performance.

While it is important to pay attention to CEO remuneration, investors should also consider other elements of the business. We've identified 3 warning signs for Novartis that investors should be aware of in a dynamic business environment.

Switching gears from Novartis, if you're hunting for a pristine balance sheet and premium returns, this free list of high return, low debt companies is a great place to look.

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
Gov. Phil Murphy on Tuesday outlined a $53.1 billion budget that supports what he calls the Next New Jersey as the state faces the prospect of a recession after recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Loaded with billions to cut another round of rebate checks to taxpayers, stockpile savings and pay down debt, the spending plan is once again the biggest in state history, but does not include new taxes or fare increases for NJ Transit riders. It doesnt include any notable new programs, either, but instead builds on the foundation the Democratic governor laid in budgets past with an eye on what he called affordability, responsibility and opportunity.

This entire budget is purpose-built to help you find your place in the Next New Jersey by securing your place in the New Jersey of right now, Murphy said in a roughly 50-minute speech. Indeed, this is a budget focused on the pocketbooks of our families.

Murphys annual address kicks off months of negotiations with the Democratic-led Legislature that inevitably will lead to changes and late deal-making. Last year, for example, lawmakers added millions in pet projects to Murphys proposed $48.9 billion budget, bringing the total to $50.6 billion when he signed it in June.

With all 120 seats in the Legislature on the ballot in November  the first election since Democrats lost several seats in a surprisingly strong Republican cycle in 2021  it wouldnt be surprising to see another year of padded spending to arm incumbents with arguments for reelection.

And Democrats already have one perk to show off to voters: the ANCHOR property tax rebate checks hitting mailboxes this spring. That program, first launched last year, delivers up to $1,500 to about 1.5 million homeowners and renters in an attempt to soften the blow of the states nation-leading property taxes.

Murphy is proposing to continue that program for another year at a cost of $2 billion.

Murphy also wants to double the states child tax credit from $500 to $1,000 for each child younger than five years old. And for seniors, he wants to expand the Senior Freeze property tax reimbursement program to people with incomes up to $150,000. Last year, the income limit was $100,000.

Story continues

Possible signs of a recession

The spending proposals may play well to voters in the fall, but it could also serve as a lifeline next year if the economy turns. Murphy has said he expects a shallow, fairly short-lived recession, and Treasury officials shared that view in a briefing with reporters before Murphys speech. They said the administration expects economic growth to slow to a very low level over the next few quarters, but theres no consensus among themselves or economists what exactly to expect.

Already the administration has seen wage growth slow significantly this year, and income revenues are stabilizing after beating expectations coming out of the pandemic, a large factor in the states strong current finances.

I dont think weve seen anything that would indicate if there was a recession, it would be anything more than sort of a short-term or mild recession, Treasurer Elizabeth Maher Muoio said.

Murphy has been planning for a downturn by building up the states surplus since he took office in 2018. This year, Murphy proposes bringing it to its highest level in at least a decade at $10 billion.

This surplus  all $10 billion of it  is a signal to the credit rating agencies that we can pay our bills. That our foundation is strong, he said. And even more, its a signal to our taxpayers that we treat every one of their tax dollars with the same care that they do.

Much of Murphys budget is a continuation of a long-term plan to improve the financial condition of a state thats earned a reputation as one of the most unstable in the country. His budget makes another full pension payment for public employees, increases public education funding  both required by law  and adds nearly $2.4 billion to a relatively new fund that helps lower the states infamously high debt.

By the end of the current 2023 fiscal year in June, the administration said it will have decreased outstanding borrowing debt by $1.8 billion since last year, bringing it to its lowest level since 2010.

The state, in turn, has been rewarded by the three major ratings agencies with three credit upgrades in the last 14 months, a longtime goal of Murphys after a string of downgrades in the previous administration.

Seeking affordability

More than anything, though, Murphy and fellow Democrats have sharpened their focus on making New Jersey more affordable after bruising losses in the Legislature and other offices when Murphy ran for a second term in 2021 and narrowly won.

In addition to the ANCHOR program, Murphy and lawmakers have taken steps to ease some of the day-to-day financial pain of living in a high-cost, high-tax state with limited perks such as tax breaks on school supplies, doing away with fees for marriage licenses and making entry to state parks free. Murphy plans to once again lift the entry fee for state parks.

Republicans said Murphys budget fails to address the underlying causes of the states high property taxes and cost-of-living, such as rising health care costs and a salary cap for public employee contracts.

It's an election year budget for the Democrats, and it's filled with a lot of gimmicks, Assembly Budget Officer Hal Wirths (R-Sussex) said after the governors address. Are there some good things in there to pay? Of course there is. But this is our money. We were overtaxed tremendously, up to $53 billion. So we need structural reform if were going to make a difference.

Progressive organizations have a similar criticism.

Theyve decried Murphys decision to allow a tax hike on corporations he approved in his first budget to expire at the end of the year, a move the self-described cold-blooded capitalist said would create jobs and lower costs for consumers. A coalition of otherwise faithful Murphy supporters condemned the move this week, calling it a windfall to corporate behemoths that smacks of Republican trickle-down economics.

The left-leaning think tank New Jersey Policy Perspective estimated eliminating the corporate surcharge would cost the state at least $664 million in annual revenue, threatening its ability to pay for programs and services. But the states budget documents show a loss of up to roughly $1 billion in the 2025 fiscal year.

Thats $1 billion for the most profitable businesses in the state every single year, the group said on Twitter.

Environmentalists are also upset about the corporate tax, as well as Murphys other budgeting practices.

While Murphy has committed for the sixth straight year of holding the lines on NJ Transit fares, hes done it in part by regularly taking money from the states Clean Energy Fund and transferring from the agencys capital budget to its operating fund. That means fewer improvements and more failures, delays and cancelations for riders, the group Clean Water Action said.

He promised to stop Clean Energy Fund raids, fix NJ Transit if it kills him and end the Corporate Business Tax surcharge. Which promise does he keep? said Amy Goldsmith, the groups New Jersey director, in a statement.

Only one, the one that gives money to the wealthiest corporations and takes money away from doing public good, mitigating climate change, making the state more affordable and enabling everyone to be part of a growing economy.

Caroline Petrow-Cohen and Daniel Han contributed to this report.
The Navy has released a new "playbook" -- a 26 page document -- for mental health that officials say will not only provide commanders with an idea of what resources are available but help dispel any stigma around seeking help.

The playbook's opening lines say that the work of addressing mental health issues "starts with the climate our leaders create and how you lead the people in your care" and notes that "Navy-wide, we must become comfortable with the idea of preventative maintenance for our people."

The release of the new document comes after a year in which the Navy saw several major clusters of suicides and at a time when the service's top brass have admitted that suicide is a major concern.

Read Next: All Combat-Injured Vets Would Keep Their Full Retirement, Disability Pay Under Proposal

Last year, the Navy reported 70 suicides. That figure is the second-highest annual number in more than a decade, according to Navy data.

Rear Adm. Brett Mietus, director of the Navy's Culture and Force Resilience Office, told reporters during a call Monday that "most of all of the resources that are in the playbook have been out there, but they just haven't been put together in a way that [is] easily digestible and then usable by a fleet leader."

Mietus went on to explain that the document "began from us listening to the fleet, and we see it as an answer to questions and concerns that they had," noting that "the number of programs that were out there were ... just a challenge for folks to get their heads around how to do this well."

A recently released investigation into the USS George Washington, an aircraft carrier that has experienced at least nine suicides since November 2019, revealed that the ship had no shortage of sailors seeking help from the four mental health providers onboard -- in fact, the report described it as "overwhelming." Yet, by contrast, a "Deployed Resiliency Counselor" who was available to the crew but at a three-mile walk away from the ship saw barely any sailors.

Story continues

The playbook lays out the responsibilities of key leaders at every command, including shining a light on the responsibility that senior enlisted members like chief petty officers have in fostering good mental health. It addresses concepts like stigma, personal biases and empathy, while encouraging sailors to have "conversations that matter."

"It is incumbent upon every Deckplate Leader to develop great competence in how best to take care of their people: the minds, bodies, and spirits entrusted to their care," the document said.

Since chiefs are usually a young sailor's first point of contact with leaders and Navy policies, they end up having enormous sway over how any large policy or initiative is implemented.

Force Master Chief Jason Dunn told reporters that he hopes other chiefs note the emphasis that the document places on "conversations before medical care."

"Sometimes, the sailor just needs that conversation -- that kneecap to kneecap -- to have a discussion about what's going on in their lives," Dunn explained.

"The chief's mess is obligated to know their sailors and detect differences and things in a sailor so that they can have that conversation and check on their quality of life and well-being," Dunn said.

"There is no better starting point than going out into your command with an acknowledgement of your own humanity and that of your crew," the document explained.

The document's release comes as the Navy is pushing to make changes in a variety of areas, not just mental health access, to improve sailors' lives.

During a hearing before a House Appropriations subcommittee Tuesday in Washington, D.C., the Navys top enlisted sailor, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy James Honea, said the primary stressor for active-duty sailors, especially those in operational billets, is "exhaustion," and he asked for a private audience with panel members to discuss reducing operational demand of expeditionary afloat units, which he said would really "draw down on the exhaustion."

Honea took on the top enlisted sailor job in September and since then has been trying to deliver on his promise to be a "problem solver" for sailors in the Navy.

Honea also asked Congress to change the law that prevents junior enlisted personnel from receiving Basic Allowance for Housing. Responding to a question about suicides of sailors assigned to aircraft carriers undergoing overhauls in shipyards, he said that allowing junior sailors to live in town would "help out tremendously" in terms of their quality of life.

"For a sailor that grew up living on ships, I'm telling you, it's not a great place to live. I would ask that we could look at that law, making those changes, so we could afford a greater break from their place of work to their place of home, giving them that separation," Honea said.

Sailors aboard the George Washington -- a ship that was stuck in the shipyard for years  described difficult working and living conditions after much of the crew had been ordered to move back aboard the still-under-construction carrier.

Despite initially being told that there was nothing the Navy could do about living conditions, less than two weeks after news of the suicides became public, the crew was offered a chance to move off the carrier. Rear Adm. John Meier, the officer who oversees the ship, told reporters in May that "if I knew then what I know today, I think we would have clearly delayed [the] crew move aboard."

Mietus explained that the new playbook "is going to meet some of the recommendations that will come out of the investigation" into the suicides aboard the carrier.

Meanwhile, some commands have taken to developing new and innovative ways to get sailors engaged with available resources without a push from top Navy leaders.

In December, Capt. Justin Dowd, the commanding officer of the Southeast Regional Maintenance Center, a command that largely mirrors a similar, troubled center in Norfolk, Virginia, that suffered a cluster of four suicides, proactively developed a forum for his sailors that saw remarkable success.

Dowd told Military.com in an email Tuesday that he was holding another forum again Wednesday.

"I think the important thing for us all is to normalize conversations around [mental health care]," Mietus said.

Veterans and service members experiencing a mental health emergency can call the Veteran Crisis Line, 988 and press 1. Help also is available by text, 838255, and via chat at VeteransCrisisLine.net.

-- Konstantin Toropin can be reached at konstantin.toropin@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @ktoropin.

Related: Top Enlisted Sailor Says Service Members Should Be Able to Access Mental Health Care Without a Referral
(NewsNation)  The murder clearance rate hit an all-time low in 2020, and data analyzed by a nonprofit shows that trend continued last year.

In 2021, only 51% of homicides were solved, according to FBI statistics analyzed by the Murder Accountability Project. The country is seeing a continued decline in cleared cases compared to previous decades when the rate was closer to 70%.

A case is defined as cleared when an arrest is made or there is an exception, such as a suspected killer being dead or incarcerated for another crime.

Thomas Hargrove, founder of the Murder Accountability Project, suggested Monday on NewsNations Rush Hour that the reason for the low clearance rate is simple: there arent enough people to solve them.

Timeline of the Ohio train derailment response: From EPAs initial response to Buttigieg visit

We have given inadequate resources to properly fund local police departments. There are not enough homicide detectives, not enough trained detectives, not enough forensic technicians to go to crime scenes, not enough laboratory capacities, Hargrove said. We simply lack the necessary resources to properly investigate major crimes.

The problem is exacerbated when broken down by demographics.

A CBS News analysis of the FBI data published last year found that murders of white victims were about 30% more likely to be solved than in cases with Hispanic victims, and about 50% more than when the victims were Black.

There is a growing disconnect in many major cities between police and the community they serve, especially in the African American communities in the aftermath of events like the murder of George Floyd, Hargrove said. That disconnect causes people not to trust police, to regard law enforcement to be illegitimate and not to cooperate with investigations.

Defense at Murdaugh trial says 2 shooters; jury to see scene

Story continues

John Skaggs, a retired homicide detective for the Los Angeles Police Department, told The Guardian a lack of experienced personnel is a contributing factor.

You hear every cop saying, We cant do better because they dont cooperate,' Skaggs said, But these young cops dont know how to talk to people and get them to cooperate.

Rising crime rates have become a central focus in major metropolitan areas including New York City, Philadelphia and Chicago. The U.S. murder rate jumped by 30% from 2019 to 2020, an increase attributed to a variety of factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic.

Were in a war when you think of homicide as a conflict, and we dont have enough boots on the ground, Hargrove said. The problem is most cities are broke. Tax bases have not kept up with the demand for services, and so theres been the slow starvation of law enforcement.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Triangle Asked & Answered: What do you want to know?

Have a question about something in our community? The News & Observers Service Journalism team wants your questions for our Triangle Asked & Answered series. Reach out to us by filling out this form or by sending an email to ask@newsobserver.com.

When storms or other weather force trees and branches to fall, theres a good chance theyll land on things in their way  without regard to property lines.

That may result in a neighbors tree damaging your property, including vehicles.

If your car is damaged in that way, you might have a few questions: What are your rights in the situation? Will the damage be covered by an insurance policy? Can your neighbor be held responsible for the incident?

We recently heard from a reader who wanted information on tree damage to cars, including scenarios in which the damaged cars are parked on the street.

To understand the answers to those questions and more, The News & Observer spoke with Andrew Branan, a lawyer and extension assistant professor at N.C. State University.

Heres what we learned.

Note: This story and the advice Branan provided should not be treated as legal advice. If you experience a scenario described below and have questions, its a good idea to contact a lawyer of your own for advice specifically related to your situation.

What should I do if a neighbors tree fell on my car?

If you notice that a neighbors tree has fallen on any of your property, including your car, you might be wondering: What should I do first?

Branan recommended contacting your homeowners and vehicle or auto insurers as a first step if a neighbors tree falls on your car.

Most likely, if your car was outside of your home  that is, not inside a garage or other structure  the damage will be covered by auto insurance. In some instances, if your car is damaged while it was in a garage or other structure, home insurance may cover the damage if your policy considers the car to be contents of the home.

Story continues

In any case, you should check with your insurance company to see whats covered under your policies.

Hopefully, Branan said, the damage will be covered by at least one of the policies.

Generally, it is my understanding that the insurance company treats a tree falling (even one rooted on a neighbors property) as an act of god, an accident outside the control of the insured, Branan said.

Youll likely need to fill out and provide documents to file your insurance claim. Your insurer should tell you about any requirements.

Is my neighbor responsible if their tree falls on my car?

Branan said theres a sparse legal record regarding this issue, but as far as he can tell, the North Carolina Court of Appeals has suggested that evidence of negligence may be admissible to hold a neighbor accountable for damages caused when their tree falls on someone elses property.

What this means is that a jury could theoretically find that the neighbor could have negligently decided to ignore a problem tree that then caused damage to your property, Branan said.

The concept of negligence in these cases and others is largely based on foreseeability, Branan said, such as whether it was only a matter of time before the tree caused damage, or whether a reasonable person would or would not have taken steps to avoid having the tree fall on someone elses property.

If a judge or jury were to find that the neighbor was negligent, there would need to be facts supporting that. Those facts might include how obvious it was that the tree was a problem or posed a risk, how the tree was leaning, whether the tree was dead or diseased and more, Branan said.

What about cars parked on the street?

Branan said he doesnt believe the location of the car  whether its on the street, in a driveway or somewhere else  would prevent a jury from potentially finding that the neighbor was negligent in their actions, or lack thereof, with the tree. And, again, your auto insurance should cover the damages, regardless of whose tree fell or where.

Can I legally cut limbs from a neighbors tree in NC?

Some of this issue may involve trees on your neighbors property that, in your opinion, clearly pose a risk to your property  that is, the branches are hanging over your property, or the tree has damage that might cause it to fall.





To prevent those branches or trees from falling, you may have an urge to cut or trim them before they pose a serious problem or cause damage.

But are you legally allowed to do that?

Branan previously addressed that question and more for The News & Observer and in an article he wrote for N.C. State Extension.

While theres no clear-cut answer, Branan generally believes that if a neighbors branch or tree is encroaching on your property, you may have a right to trim them  but you could assume legal risk and liability for damaging the tree by doing so.

The solution? Before you grab your chainsaw and cut any limbs off your neighbors trees, ask your neighbor and discuss the issue with them. You may come to a solution that keeps you from assuming those legal risks by cutting the limbs yourself, and that keeps the neighbor from assuming negligence later, if the tree were to fall across property lines.

There may also be local ordinances or homeowners association policies that govern whether you can trim limbs or cut trees. Consult those before taking action, too.

And, Branan added, you should never trespass onto someone elses property to cut or trim limbs.

More information

More information about these topics can be found in an article Branan previously wrote for N.C. State Extension at content.ces.ncsu.edu/tree-fall-liability-who-is-responsible-for-property-damage.
JERUSALEM  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long leaned into his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, leveraging it to act as an intermediary between the Kremlin and Washington and to help secure Israels northern border with Syria.

What a difference 18 months makes.

Netanyahu returned to power in late December amid expectations that he would pivot Israel in the direction of Russia. He has instead shored up his countrys backing of Kyiv under pressure from Israels most significant ally, the U.S. Now he has to weigh alienating Putin by providing defensive arms to Ukraine, a move he has yet to agree to and which Russia has already made it clear would be a red line.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy publicly asked Israel for its advanced Davids Sling system in his virtual address to the Munich Security Conference on Feb. 17, expressing confidence that Israel would eventually acquiesce.

We do not have yet the Davids Sling from Israel, but I believe it is just temporary, Zelenskyy said.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meets with Israel's Foreign Minister Eli Cohen in Kyiv on Feb. 16, 2023. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Service via AFP - Getty Images)

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba also laid out his countrys demands when he met with his Israeli counterpart, Eli Cohen, in Kyiv on Feb. 16.

Israel knows perfectly well the list of our military and defensive requests which we have provided  to this government, and we will be waiting for some decisions to be taken, he said. We are talking about the provision of the Ukrainian skies.

Cohen, who was the first high-level Israeli official to visit Ukraine since the start of the war, went to Kyiv on a solidarity trip that included a meeting with Zelenskyy, but he left without promising defensive military help.

Senior Israeli lawmakers have already called on Netanyahu to provide Ukraine with anti-drone and anti-missile systems.

Yuli Edelstein, a member of Netanyahus Likud Party who heads the parliamentary Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, traveled to Ukraine and met with Zelenskyy on Feb. 20, along with opposition legislator Zeev Elkin, with a message that was markedly different from Cohens.

Story continues

They promised Zelenskyy to do everything possible to help ensure Israel sends defensive weapons.

Israel can and should do much more than it has done so far, they said in a statement after the meeting. We must stop being afraid, and take an active unequivocal position in accordance with the basic moral values, as would be expected from any Western country.

Automatic sympathy

Elkin and Edelstein both immigrated to Israel from Ukraine decades ago and say they feel automatic sympathy with its citizens under fire. But they also add that they broke ranks with their government, both from a moral position and then a policy one, given Russias growing military alliance with Iran, which has said it wants to see Israel wiped off the map.

Tehran has already shown its enmity to Kyiv by providing Russia with battlefield weapons such as armed drones, which Moscow has used against Ukraine, a move that has automatically tightened ties between Netanyahu and Zelenskyy.

So the strengthening of the Russian-Iranian alliance threatens the security not only of Ukraine, but also of Israel, Edelstein and Elkin said, saying both countries were now on the same side when it came to defending their citizens against Iran.

In Jerusalem at the end of January, Secretary of State Antony Blinken pointed to Russias growing dependence on Iran to supply weapons for the war and explicitly demanded that Israel boost its support for Kyiv.

Tehrans deepening ties with Moscow and the sophisticated weaponry that theyre exchanging to enable one anothers aggression are among the many reasons that weve raised with Israel the importance of providing support for all of Ukraines needs  humanitarian, economic and security  as it defends its people against Russias brutal war of aggression, Blinken told reporters.

In a sign of a possible concession to Washington, Netanyahu indicated in an interview with CNN that aired immediately after Blinkens visit that he was weighing Ukraines long-standing request to provide anti-drone and anti-missile technology.

I am certainly looking into it, Netanyahu said. In an unusually blunt statement, he also indicated that Israel was working covertly to prevent Iranian-made arms from arriving in Russia, with its regional policy of attacking Iranian targets connected to arms production or arms flow. Israel is taking action against certain weapons development that Iran has, and Iran invariably exports them, he said.

An example of that kind of action was most likely on display this month as Damascus blamed Israel over a rocket attack against a gathering of Syrian and Iranian technical experts in drone manufacturing, according to Reuters.

Avoiding a Russian-Israel conflict

Moscow has focused on Israels public actions rather than its covert ones. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned this month that Israels provision of defensive military equipment to Ukraine would lead to an escalation of the crisis.

Countries supplying weapons should understand that we will consider these weapons as legitimate targets, she said, adding that the position is well-known to all.

Netanyahu told NBC News in December that he wanted to avoid a Russian-Israeli war. The question of whether Netanyahu, who despite his hawkish reputation is historically loath to use the countrys full military might, should put Israel on a possible collision course with Russia has been a growing debate in Israel.

Israels well-understood beneficial relationship with Russia  a relationship that has been personalized by Netanyahus strong ties to Putin  has made many hesitant to have Netanyahu pivot fully to Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin cuts a ribbon with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at an unveiling ceremony of the Remembrance Candle for World War II heroes of besieged Leningrad on Jan. 23, 2020 in Jerusalem. (Aleksey Nikolskyi / Sputnik via AP)

On the security front, Russia has been Netanyahus partner in neighboring Syria, where it is one of President Bashar al-Assads most important military backers. An agreement with Israel has made it possible for the Israeli army to conduct aerial raids against Iranian-linked targets there.

We are in a very different situation than Europe and the U.S. when it comes to Russia, said political science professor Reuven Hazan of Jerusalems Hebrew University. Israeli prime ministers know the relevance of an open dialogue with Russia when it comes to our national security.

Zvi Magen, who first was Israels ambassador to Ukraine and then to Russia in the 1990s, said that if Israel were to give Ukraine weapons, especially ones that would change the balance of the conflict, it would be going to war with Russia.

There is the danger, Hazan said, that Russia could close the airspace over Syria, turning to a land bridge for the advanced weapons that Iran is trying to ship to Hezbollah in Lebanon, he said.

Israel has also been concerned by the impact on Russias Jewish community of 83,000 should ties be severed.

But those and other considerations appear to be giving way to the threat posed by Iran.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Netflix has revealed more details about a Stranger Things prequel that you'll need to get off your couch to experience (at least for the foreseeable future). A stage play called Stranger Things: The First Shadow will premiere at the Phoenix Theatre in London's West End later this year. Netflix announced the production last year.

The play takes place in Hawkins in 1959, over two decades before the beginning of the '80s-set sci-fi/horror series. It will feature younger versions of key characters, including Joyce Byers, Jim Hopper, Bob Newby and Henry Creel (aka Vecna). Netflix says The First Shadow "will take you right back to the beginning of the Stranger Things story  and to the beginning of the end." That suggests the play will tie into the show's fifth and final season , which doesn't have a release window as yet.

Welcome to Hawkins, 1959. Before the world turned upside down



Stranger Things: The First Shadow. A new story live on stage.



London | Late 2023 | https://t.co/6dx4JppFhw pic.twitter.com/DTcWn21wXE  Stranger Things On Stage (@STOnStage) March 1, 2023

The First Shadow comes from the minds of series creators Matt and Ross Duffer, Stranger Things writer Kate Trefry and Jack Thorne, the writer of Enola Holmes 2, which features Millie Bobby Brown. Trefry wrote the play, which is being directed by Tony and Emmy winner Stephen Daldry. Tickets will go on sale this spring and Netflix says those who register at the play's website will jump to the front of the line.
The threat actors who infiltrated News Corp., the company that owns The Wall Street Journal and other news outlets, apparently had access to its network for two full years. In February last year, News Corp. admitted that it had discovered a security breach a month earlier and that hackers broke into a third-party cloud service that contained employees' information. Now, according to Ars Technica, the company has sent a breach notification letter (PDF) to at least one affected personnel. In it, the company has admitted that "an unauthorized party" gained access to business documents and emails in some employees' accounts between February 2020 and January 2022.

When News Corp. announced the breach, the security firm (Mandiant) that investigated the intrusion said it believes the threat actor was connected to the Chinese government. Further, it said the company was most likely attacked to gather intelligence for the country. In an email to Ars, a representative said News Corp. continues to believe "that this was an intelligence collection," but didn't respond to a question asking if investigators still think the hackers were linked to China.

The company has revealed in the letter, though, that the bad actors may have gotten a hold of employees' names, birth dates, Social Security number, driver's license and passport numbers, as well as their financial, medical and heath insurance information. "Not all of this information was impacted for each affected individual," it added. News Corp. said that it hasn't heard any incidents of identity theft or fraud resulting from the security breach so far, but it's offering affected employees two years of identity protection and credit monitoring.

"Our investigation indicates that this activity does not appear to be focused on exploiting personal information," News Corp. wrote in its letter. However, it didn't reveal that details of the documents and emails the threat actors were able to access, and it didn't say if they were specifically looking for information connected to the company's reporting.
Ukrainian artillery teams fire Pions toward Russian positions in Bakhmut on Feb. 5, 2023. Madeleine Kelly/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Russia will emerge from war in Ukraine a "shattered military power," a senior Pentagon official said.

Colin Kahl told lawmakers that Russia lost the war  echoing a similar remark by the top US general.

He added that US military support for Kyiv has been, and will continue to be, flexible and dynamic.

Russia will emerge from its war in Ukraine a "shattered military power," a senior Pentagon official said on Tuesday, stressing that the country has yet to achieve any of its goals and is expected to continue to struggle on the battlefield.

Colin Kahl, the under secretary of defense for policy, told US lawmakers that the situation looked "dire and pessimistic" for Ukraine when Russian forces first invaded in late February 2022, but after a year of fighting, it has become clear that Russian President Vladimir Putin has "lost" the war.

"While I don't know how the war is going to end, I think we already know one conclusion for sure, which is that Russia has lost," Kahl said during a House Armed Services Committee session on oversight of US military aid to Ukraine. "They intended to take over all of Ukraine  that didn't happen, it's not going to happen. They intended to divide NATO  NATO is stronger."

"They intended for Russia to emerge out of this war a great power in a multi-polar world  they will emerge from this conflict a shattered military power," he added.

Ukraine's successes against Russia have been fueled in part by security assistance from the US and other international partners, including the provision of essential lethal aid. Kahl told lawmakers that US military support for Kyiv has been flexible over the course of the war and that the security assistance provided by Washington has changed as the battlefield dynamic shifts.

Ukrainian soldiers fire US-made "M109" self-propelled howitzer on the frontline, in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine on February 17, 2023. Photo by Mustafa Ciftci/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

During the early weeks of the war, as Ukraine was defending Kyiv, the US focused on providing weaponry like shoulder-launched anti-tank Javelin missiles and loitering munitions. As the campaign pivoted to Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, the weaponry became more long-range in nature  like the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS). In recent months, the US focused on advanced air defense batteries like the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS). And as Ukraine looks to regain battlefield momentum, the US is, along with other partners, providing tanks.

Story continues

Kahl said the strategy to assess what weaponry is best for the US to send to Ukraine is working and would continue in accordance with what Kyiv needs.

"It is incumbent upon all of us to think about what Ukraine needs over the medium term to make sure they can defend whatever territory they claw back from the Russians and deter the Russians from going at it again when, and if, there's a halting to the fighting or a peace settlement  or even if there isn't," he said.

In November 2022, Kahl noted that Russia had likely lost half of its main battle tanks on the battlefield in Ukraine, arguing then that it will "emerge from this war weaker than it went in." His remarks in November, and again on Tuesday, echo what other top US officials and generals have said in stating that Russia has already lost and failed in Ukraine.

After a year of brutal fighting, Ukraine's military is facing a pivotal moment. It's forces must absorb Russian attacks and hold on long enough for the arrival of much-anticipated and advanced Western armor and heavy weaponry.

Read the original article on Business Insider
U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-GA) speaks during a hearing before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee at Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill on February 8, 2023 in Washington, DC (Getty Images)

Forgive me, for I am about to do something foolish: For a moment, Ill take Marjorie Taylor Greene seriously.

Im referring to the right-wing Georgia congresswomans rumination about American Divorce, Greenes Big Idea that blue states are so darn hard on the red-state mindset that Real Americans be fixin to secede! Real Americans, in other words, must leave America to show what Real Americans are.

Welcome to Marge-istan, population one.

We need a national divorce, Greene said on Twitter, before expanding on the idea on Sean Hannitys Fox News show, despite almost taking it back. We need to separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government.

Shall we make the economics of this simple?

What Greene proposes is an American Brexit. As disastrous as Brexit  the United Kingdoms withdrawal from the European Union and its collection of free trade, immigration and other agreements  has been, American Brexit would be worse.

Lets talk about American Brexit economically.

Investment in Britains economy dropped 30 percent after Brexit, says the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, doubling forecasts. Brexit has cost 330,000 UK jobs  in the US economy, that projects to about 1.6 million. Overall, the UK has had Europes weakest major economy since 2019  and is now doing nearly as badly as Russia, reeling from sanctions and war.

It would be much worse than that as red states form the new territory Marjorie Taylor Greene is pitching.

Lets begin with the simplest observation: Counties that voted for President Joe Biden generate 70 percent of gross domestic product.

Fourteen of the poorest 15 states voted Republican in 2020. All 12 richest states chose Biden. Only four red states have median household incomes in the top half of the 50 states.

The nine red states that seceded in 1861 get, on average, 42 percent of their budgets from Washington, according to SmartAsset. Mostly that buys health care  70 percent of federally funded state spending in Tennessee goes towards health and social services. So much for shrinking DC being good (or survivable) for Marge-istan.

Story continues

State residents are even more Washington-dependent than state governments. Another 1.4 million Tennesseans use Medicare, which doesnt pass through the states budget, and 1.2 million get Social Security pensions. Every southern red state besides Texas has more Social Security dependents than the national average.

Youre on your own as Washington-dependent hospitals  giant employers in small towns, in state economies much more dependent on health care than the US average  go broke. The EU couldnt bankrupt Britains National Health Service.

Also, the Souths privately generated wealth depends on being in the US  able, under the Constitution, to trade freely within America. Much as the UK did with Europe. Until Brexit.

Of Georgias 10 richest billionaires, for example, four come from Home Depot or Chick-Fil-A, which have stores all over. Some of Arkansas richest folks stem from global enterprises like Wal-Mart and Tyson Foods. And so on.

Next, consider where money comes from within red states. From blue cities. If were really talking about secession or something like it, theres no reason Greene should assume these cities are up for the cause. Consider Tennessee without Nashville. Think hipster chefs and musicians moving there signed up for Greenes side of the culture war? What is Texas without Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin, population 6 million? Marge-istan would have aspects of East Germany - conceived and dedicated largely to stamping out free thinking about race, gender and other things that make Greene see red - but it would be dotted with West Berlins firmly committed to modernity.

The list of purely economic levers True-Blue America would have over Marge-istan is long. Companies can leave, or impose conditions for staying. So can people.

Take 2015s standoff between Indiana and Salesforce, which has a subsidiary in Indianapolis, after the state passed an anti-gay rights law. San Francisco-based Salesforce barred employees from traveling to Indiana, and threatened to cancel events there. The law was changed literally a week later.

Most wittily, consider Charlotte, North Carolina. The Queen Citys best-known company headquarters is Bank of America. Shall we take odds on whether it would stay after secession, or choose, you know, America?

So, dont take Greene either literally or seriously. Marge-istan cant make it without Washington, without its own largest cities, its markets in blue states, or its largest companies and highest-value-added workers. None would salute Marge-istans flag for a minute.

Marge-istans collapse could happen as fast as the US Congress wishes. Health care crumbles the moment DC pulls the money. Trade tanks if Congress exercises its authority to regulate it (as the ex-Confederacys 18-4 Republican contingent leaves the Senate, gridlock ends). Or Marge-istan could crumble gradually, as ponytailed banjo pickers who gravitated towards Nashville for the live music and techies who live Austin for cheap housing learn Chicago is better for both.

In 1861, rebels were subjugated by arms. Today, lawyers  and the market power of queer chefs and megabanks  would do. Red and blue both know green really rules. And we dont mean Marjorie Taylor Greene.
(Bloomberg) -- Bola Tinubu was declared the winner of Nigerias presidential election, handing him the reins of Africas biggest economy as it confronts a deepening fiscal crisis, acute shortages of local and foreign currency and gasoline, and widespread insecurity.

Most Read from Bloomberg

With ballots from all of Nigerias 36 states and the federal capital territory tallied, Tinubu won 35.2% of the total votes, results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission on Wednesday show. Atiku Abubakar of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party won 27.9% of overall ballots, while outsider candidate Peter Obi garnered 24.4%, according to Bloomberg calculations.

Tinubu, 70, pledged to work toward achieving good governance, a functional economy and a safe nation, in an acceptance speech at the ruling All Progressives Congress partys headquarters in Abuja.

Electoral Authority Defends Results Process (Feb. 28, 4:14 p.m.)

Nigerias electoral authority defended its handling of the Feb. 25 presidential vote after opposition parties and civil-society groups criticized the results, citing disparities between official tallies and data available with parties polling agents.

Three of the parties said that they will boycott the process.

Allegations that the agency is declaring doctored results are unfounded and irresponsible, Rotimi Oyekanmi, a spokesman for the INEC, said in a statement on Tuesday. The scores announced so far point to a free, fair and credible process, he said.

Bonds Drop as Opposition Boycotts Vote-Counting Process (Feb. 28, 4:07 p.m.)

Nigerian bonds dropped for the first time in four days as a boycott of vote-counting by opposition parties jeopardized the uncontested result that markets want to see.

Story continues

The countrys dollar bond due 2051 slid 1.7 cents to 69.88 on the US dollar, while securities maturing in 2047 and 2031 dropped less than one cent each, data compiled by Bloomberg showed.

Its sovereign-risk premium widened 16 basis points, according to a JPMorgan Chase & Co. index. Investors worried the latest developments may delay the formation of a stable government that can carry out fiscal reforms needed to ease a crippling debt burden and stabilize the currency.

Vote Count Suspended in Oil Hub (Feb. 28, 3 p.m.)

An electoral officer in Rivers State, Nigerias main oil hub, suspended the collation of votes on Tuesday, saying hed been blamed for the malfunctioning of the voter-verification system and his life had been threatened.

Charles Adias, state collation officer for the presidential election, told reporters, political party officials and law-enforcement agents gathered at the regional results center to disperse until the electoral commission clarified his role to the public.

Nigeria Vote Unlikely to Revive its Oil Industry (Feb. 27, 4:40 p.m.)

Whatever the outcome of the election, a revitalization of the nations oil industry is seen as unlikely in the short to medium term. Oil production has been in decline for over a decade, dropping from more than 2.5 million barrels per day in 2011 to less than 1.3 million barrels a day last year.

Fiscal hardship, persistent oil theft and the prioritization of lower-risk assets by oil majors remain significant bottlenecks that do not lend themselves to a quick-fix solution.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
(Bloomberg) -- Bola Tinubu was declared the winner of Nigerias presidential election, a victory that will place him at the helm of Africas biggest economy as it confronts a deepening fiscal crisis, acute shortages of local and foreign currency and gasoline, and widespread insecurity.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The ruling All Progressives Congress partys candidate won 35.2% of the votes cast on Feb. 25, while Atiku Abubakar of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party finished runner up with about 28%, official results announced on Wednesday showed. The election was marred by glitches and delays in collating the results, which prompted the two main opposition parties to boycott the process.

Tinubu will succeed Muhammadu Buhari as president in late May after a three-month transition period.

The ex-governor of Lagos state, Tinubu will inherit a mountain of public debt thats grown seven-fold to 77 trillion naira ($167 billion) during Buharis eight-year tenure and left the government with an interest bill that consumed about four-fifths of its revenue last year. Besides having to get the nations finances back on track, hell need to quash violence perpetrated by jihadists, secessionists and armed bandits across vast swathes of territory.

Tinubu has pledged to expand the size of the security forces, more than triple crude production, reduce exposure to foreign debt and make it easier for citizens to access financing. Hes also vowed to eliminate gasoline subsidies that cost the government 4.9 trillion naira last year and consumed most of its oil revenue  a move that will push up transport costs and could trigger social unrest.

Attention should turn to the challenges for the next administration, Charles Robertson, global chief economist at Renaissance Capital Ltd., said before the result. In the meantime, lets hope that the outgoing Buhari administration is prepared to do a favour to Tinubu and the APC by taking some tough decisions on the fuel subsidy and perhaps the exchange rate.

Story continues

The outcome of the election is likely to be challenged in court, with the PDP and the Labour Party alleging monumental disparities between the official results and the data available with their parties polling agents.

The accusations were denied by the electoral commission.

The 70-year-old Tinubu is used to navigating controversy, having spent decades at the forefront of Nigerian politics. After running the commercial hub of Lagos for eight years until 2007, he remained the most influential politician in southwestern Nigeria, where he played a key role in the selection of state governors.

He has been a leading powerbroker in the APC since its formation in 2013 and saw off challengers including former Transport Minister Rotimi Amaechi and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to secure the partys presidential nomination by a landslide in June last year.

Besides receiving the most support nationally, Tinubu crossed a constitutional threshold requiring a successful presidential contender to win more than 25% of the votes cast in two-thirds of Nigerias 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, the Independent National Electoral Commission announced in the capital, Abuja. Kashim Shettima, the 56-year-old former governor of the northeastern Borno state, will serve as his vice president.

The APC, which dislodged the PDP from power in 2015, has now won three consecutive presidential elections. Peter Obi of the LP secured 24.4% of the vote and won 11 states, including Lagos, and the FCT, making significant inroads in areas long dominated by the two main parties.

Turnout at 28.6% of the 87.2 million people that registered and collected their voting cards was the lowest since 1999.

--With assistance from Emele Onu, Arijit Ghosh and Anthony Osae-Brown.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
By Felix Onuah and Camillus Eboh

ABUJA (Reuters) -Nigeria's new president-elect, Bola Tinubu, defended the election he just won as credible on Wednesday but Peter Obi, one of his main opponents, planned to challenge the result in court, according to Obi's running mate.

The main opposition parties have described the outcome of Saturday's election as fraudulent after new technology that the electoral commission had promised would make the process more transparent instead malfunctioned, eroding trust.

Voter turnout was also low, even by Nigerian standards. With total votes cast at just under 25 million, out of 87 million people with voter identity cards and eligible to vote, turnout was only 29%. The 2019 election saw a 35% turnout.

"I am very happy I have been elected the president of the federal republic of Nigeria," Tinubu, 70, who was the ruling party's candidate, said to cheers in the federal capital Abuja. "This is a serious mandate. I hereby accept it."

A former governor of Lagos and a veteran power broker at the heart of Nigeria's political class, Tinubu will take the helm of Africa's most populous country, biggest economy and top oil producer as it struggles with overlapping crises.

Those include Islamist insurgencies in the northeast, an epidemic of kidnappings for ransom and conflicts between herders and farmers, as well as shortages of cash and fuel, industrial-scale oil theft, high inflation and deep-rooted poverty.

But for now, the focus is on the election itself, in which Tinubu won 37% of the vote, or 8.79 million votes, according to official results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Nigeria has a population of over 200 million.

"I commend INEC for running a credible election no matter what anybody says," said Tinubu. "The lapses that were reported, they were relatively few in number and were immaterial to affect the final outcome of the election."

Story continues

'DISAPPOINTING'

But Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, Obi's running mate, said a legal challenge was already being mounted. "We will go to court within the limit of the time. The legal people are putting the papers together," he said, calling on supporters to remain peaceful.

Nigeria has a long history of political violence, but the atmosphere was calm in the main cities on Wednesday, with many people appearing deflated.

"In the eyes of God, the man (Tinubu) is not the winner," trader Mercy Efong said in Awka, in Obi's home state of Anambra.

Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room, a group that monitored the election, said the outcome was not credible because of what it described as severe logistical failures, a lack of transparency, disruption of voting and violent incidents.

"This is all the more disappointing since the elections were held in an atmosphere in which the people showed remarkable commitment to democracy, eagerly engaging in the electoral process and waiting patiently to vote in very difficult circumstances," the group said in a statement.

Some voters were unable to cast their ballots due to malfunctioning of voter card reading machines.

INEC said the main opposition challenger, former vice president and political veteran Atiku Abubakar, won 29%, or 6.98 million votes, while outsider Obi won 25%, or 6.1 million votes.

To win, a candidate must get more votes than the others and at least 25% of the ballot in at least two-thirds of Nigeria's 36 states. Tinubu cleared both hurdles.

'EVERYTHING UPSIDE DOWN'

Obi's slick social media campaign had generated fervent support among younger, more educated urban voters hoping for an end to the duopoly of Tinubu and Atiku's parties, which have alternated in power since the end of army rule in 1999.

Remarkably, Obi, an ethnic Igbo, won in Lagos, which was considered Tinubu's political stronghold and is in the heartland of the president-elect's Yoruba ethnic group. The vast metropolis is Nigeria's commercial hub and most dynamic centre.

Outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari congratulated his successor. "Elected by the people, he is the best person for the job. I shall now work with him and his team to ensure an orderly handover of power," Buhari said in a statement.

INEC's vaunted new technology, an electronic system that was supposed to identify voters using biometric data and transmit results directly from polling stations to a secure portal, seemed to overwhelm Nigeria's patchy telecoms network.

This meant results had to be collated manually inside ward and local government counting centres as in previous elections, giving rise to suspicions that the numbers were being manipulated.

"President Buhari said that he would do a free and fair election (but) INEC is now turning everything upside down," said rickshaw driver Nedu Chukwunata.

As Lagos governor from 1999 to 2007, Tinubu won praise for partially fixing some of the city's problems, including reducing violent crime, improving waste collection and easing traffic.

Tinubu, however, sometimes appeared frail in public, slurring his speech, answering questions with platitudes and skipping several campaign events, leaving some to doubt how effective or dynamic he will be as leader.

(Additional reporting by Ahmed Kingimi in Maiduguri, Hamza Ibrahim in Kano, MacDonald Dzirutwe and Tim Cocks in Lagos; Writing by Tim Cocks and Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Alex Richardson)
Antony Blinken

On the contrary, there are clear indications of the opposite, said Blinken.

Read also: Blinken says he had talks with Musk on use of Starlink satellite internet in Ukraine

Just listen to what Putin says. He says there is no point in negotiating until Ukraine recognizes the new territorial reality. In other words, until Ukraine admits that Russia has seized its territories forever, they wont talk.

The secretary stressed that this approach to resolving the issue is unacceptable.

Read also: Ukraine was offered closer NATO ties to encourage negotiating with Russia, WSJ report says

On March 1, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that Putin wasnt interested in peace talks, as his goal is to destroy Ukraines statehood.

On Oct. 4, 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy approved a National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) decision that outlaws negotiations with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, suggesting peace talks with Moocow could commence only after a new Russian leader emerges.

Read also: Polls show Zelenskyy and Zaluzhnyi to be most popular of Ukraines leaders

Zelenskyy later said that Ukraine would be able to find a format for dialogue with Putin if Russian forces withdrew from occupied Ukrainian territories.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP)  North Carolina lawmakers and voters have rejected past efforts to strip an unenforceable literacy test requirement from the state constitution that was used for decades to disenfranchise Black voters. But some say a renewed proposal that passed its first committee on Wednesday marks the best recent attempt to do so.

A House judiciary committee voted unanimously to advance a bipartisan measure that would allow voters to decide next year whether to strike the controversial section from the state constitution.

Widely considered a racist relic of the Jim Crow era, the literacy test required that everyone registering to vote be able to read and write any section of the Constitution in the English language. It became unlawful under the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Rep. Terry Brown Jr., a Mecklenburg County Democrat, called for colleagues on both sides of the aisle to talk with their constituents about getting the section off the books. I do believe the stars might be aligning this year for us to finally get this done, said Brown, a primary sponsor.

The House unanimously passed a similar referendum in 2013, but it did not advance in the Senate. Renewed attempts in 2019 and 2021 also sputtered.

Three-fifths of the state House and Senate members would have to agree to offer the ballot question to voters in 2024. It would not be subject to the governors approval.

Added to the state constitution in 1900, the literacy test requirement was used for decades to prevent Black residents from casting ballots. Rep. Kelly Alexander, a Mecklenburg County Democrat and another primary sponsor, said prospective voters were required to read a passage to the satisfaction of the registrar.

That is about as subjective a test as you could have," he said.

Although the requirement had already become unlawful under the federal Voting Rights Act, North Carolina voters in 1970 defeated a constitutional amendment to remove the provision.

Story continues

Advocates warned at the committee meeting Wednesday of a possible repeat outcome if politicians use the proposal as a political bludgeon to attack their opponents in an upcoming election and inadvertently drive down public support. Some said the requirement's lingering presence reflects poorly on the state and sends an alienating message to its Black residents.

Even as lawmakers signal that legislative support has grown  including in the Senate, which hasn't taken up previous proposals  Andy Jackson of the conservative John Locke Foundation said the public vote could be an uncomfortably close margin" if the matter becomes more politicized.

Senate leader Phil Berger said on Tuesday that he thinks a majority of North Carolina voters recognize or will recognize why the section should be removed. He had voiced his support for a repeal in January, signaling that it could gain greater momentum than in past years.

I think this may be the year, but Ive been wrong before, Berger said. I think for folks who first hear about it to know that its in the constitution, they would be surprised. And if you look at the history of how it got into the constitution, I think most folks are more convinced that it ought to be out of the constitution.

___

Hannah Schoenbaum 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.
Eric Adams

New York City Mayor Eric Adams is under scrutiny after he dismissed the separation of church and state while giving a speech at an interfaith breakfast on Tuesday. During his speech, the mayor said a lack of faith is causing homelessness, violence and other issues in society.

When we took prayers out of schools, guns came into schools, Adams said.

Eric Adams went on an insane rant essentially arguing against the separation of church and state today.



It was full of gems like: When we took prayers out of schools, guns came into schools.



pic.twitter.com/nXBUj7V6Xj  Read Jackson Rising by @CooperationJXN (@JoshuaPHilll) February 28, 2023

The post NYC Mayor Eric Adams Says Lack Of Prayer Is Leading To Homelessness And Violence appeared first on Blavity.

He also said in his speech that a stronger belief in God will help children in school.

Why cant our children read and write? Why dont they behave? he said. We are destroying our next generation, destroying them. And we say over and over again, We need to build a world thats better for our children. No, we need to build children thats better for our world. And we have to be honest about that. And it means instilling in them some level of faith and belief.

The mayor, who described himself as a servant of God, said he puts policies in place with a God-like approach to them.

Dont tell me about no separation of church and state, he added. State is the body. Church is the heart. You take the heart out of the body, the body dies.

New York Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Donna Lieberman spoke out against the mayor. Lieberman pointed to the First Amendment, which states, in part, that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.

It is odd that Mayor Adams would need a refresher on the First Amendment. After all, he has sworn to uphold the Constitution more than once, first as a police officer, later as a state representative, and then last year upon becoming mayor, Lieberman said according to PIX 11. The very opening passage of the Bill of Rights makes clear that church and state must be separate.

Adams spokesperson said the administrations policies are rooted in the mayors belief in the creator.

The mayor personally believes all of our faiths would ensure we are humane to one another, spokesperson Fabien Levy said according to PIX 11. While everyone in the room immediately understood what the mayor meant, its unfortunate that some have attempted to hijack the narrative in an effort to misrepresent the mayors comments.
New York City is set to pay several hundred people $21,500 apiece to settle a class-action lawsuit brought after protesters were corralled and then beaten by police in 2020 while demonstrating against police brutality in the Bronx.

The proposed settlement, pending a federal judges approval, would be among the highest-ever per-person settlement in a class-action case involving mass arrests.

While we are happy to have gotten this result for the people who were attacked and arrested, the fact remains that the highest leadership of the NYPD carried out an organized, premeditated attack on peaceful citizens in broad daylight with no real consequences, said Michael Spiegel, among the attorneys for the plaintiffs.

What sparked the lawsuit?

The June 2020 incident took place in the Bronxs mostly residential Mott Haven neighborhood, where more than 300 protestors were demonstrating after the previous months murder of George Floyd by a former Minneapolis police officer. In a controversial practice known as kettling, police corralled protesters into a one-block area near a stretch of Interstate 87, where many were then beaten and struck with batons.

Oscar Vera of New York City was among several thousand protestors who marched through Manhattan on May 30, 2020 to protest the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis earlier that week.

The practice, also known as trap and detain, has been criticized for contributing to heightened tensions and has since come under scrutiny by city and police department leaders nationwide.

New York Citys inspector general, in a December 2020 report examining the NYPDs handling of that summers protests, noted that the Mott Haven demonstrators never had a chance to leave once surrounded by police. Civil rights organization Human Rights Watch said the incident violated international human rights laws in its own report, citing evidence that police planned an aggressive crackdown on the Mott Haven protesters.

Attorney calls settlement 'unprecedented'

Police used bicycles to form a wall around protesters while officers, including some in riot gear, attacked demonstrators  beating them with batons, kicking and punching them, and spraying them with pepper spray, the report from the Human Rights Watch said. At least 61 people were hurt, with injuries including a broken nose, lost tooth, sprained shoulder, broken finger, split lip, black eyes and bruises.

Story continues

The violence unleashed upon us that night was intentional, unwarranted, and will be with me for the rest of my life, said Charles Henry Wood, among the five plaintiffs. What the NYPD did, aided by the political powers of New York City, was an extreme abuse of power.

Attorney Joshua Moskovitz described the images from that evenings police operation as reminiscent of Bloody Sunday, the March 1965 incident in which state troopers in Selma, Alabama, viciously attacked activists marching across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Footage of the incident, broadcast on national television, helped spur passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

This unprecedented settlement recognizes that the NYPDs actions on June 4th were grievously wrong and we hope this settlement marks an inflection point for policing in New York City, Moskovitz said.

Terms of the settlement

According to the settlement terms, each protester will get $21,500, with some who were detained longer by police receiving an additional $2,500.

In a statement, the NYPD said protests in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic were a challenging moment for officers and the department and that it has since reformed how it responds to protests.

Much of the NYPDs policies and training for policing large-scale demonstrations have been re-envisioned based on the findings of the departments own, self-initiated analyses and on the recommendations from three outside agencies who carefully investigated that period, the department said. The NYPD remains committed to continually improving its practices in every way possible.

If the settlement is approved, protesters will have several months to accept or object to the terms. A fairness hearing will be conducted in October for final approval, attorney Rob Rickner said.

This settlement serves as testimony of the wrongdoing by the hands of the NYPD, and it is a reminder that this institution is not built to protect Black and Brown communities, said Amali Sierra, among five protestors named as plaintiffs in the suit.

Ali Frick, another attorney for the plaintiffs, said she was gratified that the settlement would offer some measure of justice to those involved.

We hope this historic award forces the City to finally account for how it polices peaceful demonstrations, Frick said.

Contributing: The Associated Press.

Dig deeper:

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What is kettling? NYC to pay millions over criticized police practice
The Russians shelled four hromadas in the Nikopol district overnight with heavy artillery, with a haulage company and three industrial plants damaged in Nikopol. [A hromada is an administrative unit designating a town, village or several villages and their adjacent territories - ed.]

Source: Serhii Lysak, Head of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Military Administration, on Telegram

Details: The occupiers shelled the area with heavy artillery 8 times. Nikopol, Marhanets, Myrivka and Chervonohryhorivka hromadas came under fire.

Lysak noted that in Nikopol itself, a haulage company and three industrial plants, roads and power lines were damaged.

There is damage to an agricultural company and a shop in Myrivka hromada. Half a dozen houses and outbuildings, a car and a scooter were damaged. The electricity network and a gas pipeline were damaged.

"Emergency workers are still working in the remaining areas and are establishing the aftermath of the attacks," the Head of the Military Administration added.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
An off-duty Orlando police officer was arrested Tuesday on drunken driving charges while trying to pick up his daughter from after school care in Winter Springs, a Seminole County Sheriffs Office arrest report said.

Deputies said they were called shortly after 4:30 p.m. to Choices in Learning Elementary Charter School after Anthony Lappas, 42, showed up to the school drunk.

Investigators said Lappas parked in a through lane, blocking other vehicles from passing, and walked into a waiting room.

Lappas had trouble standing up straight, had to lean against a pole to steady himself and had bloodshot eyes, an arrest report said.

Read: Sheriff: 4 found dead, including child, at Brevard County home

School workers said he had trouble comprehending what they were telling him.

Deputies said Lappas returned to his pickup truck, circled the parking lot and pulled into a parking space.

Anthonys vehicle violently struck the concrete parking stop block, and as a result, the vehicle shook several times, the report said.

Read: Man arrested for attempting to get explosive device on plane heading to Sanford

The schools principal alerted a school resource deputy to the incident and Lappas was arrested.

He was booked into the John E. Polk Correctional Facility on a driving under the influence charge.

The Orlando Police Department provided Channel 9 with the following statement on Lappas arrest:

Read: Buc-ees receives approval for new Central Florida location; heres where it will be

On February 28th, 2023, the Orlando Police Department was notified that Sergeant Anthony Lappas was arrested while off-duty. Upon notification, Sgt. Lappas was relieved of his law enforcement duties and placed on administrative leave with pay, pending an internal investigation of the incident.

See a map of the school below:

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.
Senate Bill 1, which passed 26-7 on Wednesday, would take control of Ohio's Department of Education away from a partially elected statewide board and give it to the governor's office.

Citing "abysmal" state testing scores and high rates of absenteeism, Republicans in the Ohio Senate passed a bill to change who is in charge of public education.

Senate Bill 1, which passed 26-7 on Wednesday, would take control of Ohio's Department of Education away from a partially elected statewide board and give it to the governor's office.

"The system that is in place right now is a system that is designed to be slow and bureaucratic," Sen. Andrew Brenner, R-Delaware, said. "We dont have time for bureaucracies when youve got passage rates in the low single digits on proficiency. When kids, hundreds of thousands of them, are behind."

The bill would rebrand the agency as the Department of Education and Workforce and create two, new deputy directors, one for traditional K-12 education and one for career technical education.

Republicans and Democrats are generally supportive of those ideas. Where they differ is who should get the top spot.

More:Ohio Senate trying again for education overhaul giving more power to governor

SB 1 would create a director position appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate. Currently, a State Board of Education elects a state superintendent to lead the department.

"I believe that if we put the executive branch in charge of the department, we help as members of the General Assembly hold him and the department accountable through checks and balances," Brenner said.

But Democrats like Sen. Catherine Ingram, D-Cincinnati, said taking control away from an elected body could erode the local control parents want from their school districts and limit their ability to comment on statewide policies. The state board currently holds monthly meetings where the public can testify.

"Im disappointed. I'm not surprised," Ingram said. "Unfortunately, this bill will not do what is intended, and hopefully, when it does get to the House, additional amendments will be made."

SB 1 now heads to the Ohio House.

Anna Staver is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio Senate votes to put governor in control of public education
The Senate Chamber is pictured Thursday, March 10, 2022, inside the Oklahoma Capitol.

Two Oklahoma Senate bills that would give families state funds for homeschooling and private education are expected to die this week, as a House tax-credit proposal becomes the center of school choice efforts in the state Legislature.

Sen. Julie Daniels said the Senate Rules Committee, which she leads, won't hear her school voucher bill nor a similar one from Sen. Shane Jett before a legislative deadline this week. All bills must pass their committee by Thursday to proceed this session.

"The House sent us a very strong school choice bill, and its been determined that thats the vehicle through which the school choice legislation will happen," Daniels said.

Daniels, R-Bartlesville, is the principal Senate author for House Bills 2775 and 1935, which make up Speaker Charles McCall's signature education package. Jett, R-Shawnee, is a Senate co-author on both bills. He couldn't be immediately reached for comment Tuesday evening.

Daniels

HB 1935 would offer parents a $5,000 refundable tax credit for every child enrolled in a private school and a $2,500 refundable tax credit for each student who is homeschooled.

HB 2775 would pour $500 million into Oklahoma public schools with $2,500 pay increases for all teachers, extra funding for classroom needs or support staff raises, and additional grants for districts with underfunded facilities.

McCall, R-Atoka, has opposed legislation like Daniels and Jett introduced in the Senate that would appropriate state dollars into accounts that families could apply to their choice of educational expenses. The speaker condemned a similar voucher bill in last year's session before it died in a Senate floor vote.

McCall said he views tax credits differently because they don't redirect any money intended for public schools.

Daniels said she prefers giving families direct accounts, but recognized tax credits are a smoother logistical fit for state government. The Oklahoma Tax Commission already administers a number of tax credit programs.

Story continues

Gov. Kevin Stitt initially called for education savings accounts like those suggested in Daniels' and Jett's bills. The Republican governor said he backs McCall's tax credit proposal.

Gov. Kevin Stitt, center, speaks Wednesday, May 15, 2019, during a news conference as Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat, left, and Speaker of the House Charles McCall stand at his side as they announce the Fiscal Year 2020 budget deal at the state Capitol in Oklahoma City.

House Democrats equated the tax-credit bill to school vouchers because ultimately they would come at the cost of state revenue. McCall estimated the maximum fiscal impact would be $300 million if families of all students currently attending private schools applied.

The minority party unanimously voted against the bill, along with a handful of House Republicans.

The Senate is still in the early stages of reviewing the two House bills, Daniels said. Some of the proposals, like the teacher pay raise, overlap with similar measures that passed the Senate.

"Its a generous school choice bill," Daniels said. "Obviously, it has a big public education price tag. Were delving more into that."

Reporter Nuria Martinez-Keel covers K-12 and higher education throughout the state of Oklahoma. Have a story idea for Nuria? She can be reached at nmartinez-keel@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at @NuriaMKeel. Support Nurias work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma school voucher bills hit dead in favor of tax credits
Photo: Contributed

It didnt end with the pandemic. It has actually grown worse.

Alone but never lonely isnt always the case, as loneliness is becoming an epidemic of growing proportions. Humans are a social species and while we can live much of our lives from the comfort of our homes, we need to experience connection with one another to be healthy.

Post-pandemic research reveals the prevalence of severe loneliness among Canadians is high38.1% among women, 31.3% among men and an average of 37.7% for both genders. And, its not just the elderly who experience loneliness, it stretches across all age groups.

Loneliness is a painful feeling caused when social interaction is less than what someone desires. While being alone doesnt necessarily equate with feeling lonely, living with others doesnt prevent us from feeling lonely. We can try to keep busy to distract ourselves from feeling loneliness, yet these distractions only offer temporary relief and just because someones busy, that doesnt mean theyre not lonely.

According to Dr. Richard J. Davidson, neuroscientist and founder of the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, the silent epidemic of loneliness is one of the four challenges facing humanity today, along with distractibility, negative self-talk and loss of meaning and purpose.

Loneliness is much more than a painful, subjective feeling and is associated with many mental and physical risks. It negatively affects our health and happiness, and is a strong predictor of premature death.

Loneliness isnt just an emotion or innocuous feeling. It also affects our physical health, increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease, elevated blood pressure and inflammation, as well as contributing to depression and social anxiety, even increasing the risk of dementia.

The increased use of social media and screens are not enough, as we can feel even more disconnected through use of these platforms as others post only the picture-perfect version of their lives.

We need each other, and we need to feel connected. Research reveals our need for connection. Being engaged with others in things that lift our spirits and inspire awe fortifies our internal hormonal chemistry, as we benefit from the energy of the collective as we co-regulate with other human beings. Research by psychology professor, Dr. Dacher Keltner of the University of California Berkley has increased my understanding of why being in physical proximity and engaged with other people is so transformative.

That flies in the face of the isolationist world thats evolved over the past few years, an isolationist view that has created what Keltner calls both a crisis of emotional well-being & meaning and a crisis of loneliness. He and his Greater Good Science Center are researching human qualities weve previously understood as virtues, or viewed as spiritual, and now view them as intelligences and elements of human wholeness.

This science is an invitation to practice whats life-giving and nourishing, and actively create good for this world of pain and promise we inhabit, says Keltner.

What science is revealing about the power of community, the power of joining a collective, is the power of engaging in what Keltner calls collective effervescence.

In joining a collective in uplifting activities, we benefit both ourselves and others. Science reveals theres a collective effervescence created when we join and gather, bubbles of goodness and harmony that change us as individuals, physically, mentally and emotionally.

Our bodies and our internal hormonal chemistry start linking up and it becomes a shared mental and physiological state. Our brains show evidence of unison of activation. Our physiological responses to joining with others can be quantified and measured.

When we become fully present to gather, move together, sing together and participate in rituals and ceremony, we harness and add to the power of collective effervescence. It becomes so much more than an intellectual exercise. It affects us on a cellular and chemical level.

This helps me understand why Im drawn to go out and just be with others and connect, even casually. Connecting with real life, reaching out and stretching ourselves to leave the comfort of our homes is vital.

Talking to strangers in what we might consider trivial conversation, such as with a grocery clerk or barista, as we go about our day helps keep loneliness at bay. Simply sharing the beauty of nature with another also helps.

So, make it a point to reach out and connect. Recognizing our presence matters. Joining in meaningful community changes us, whether it be a spiritual community, a group of friends, or volunteering in a meaningful way.

While theres not a single answer to this loneliness epidemic, there are things we can do to help ourselves and others.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.
Russian forces attacked Chornobaivka in Kherson Oblast, injuring a one-year-old child.

Source: Kherson Oblast State Administration

Details: Invaders deployed artillery to shell the settlement. Russians targeted a house of civilians, the Oblast State Administration stressed.

A projectile hit the windows in the nursery, and it injured the baby with glass fragments. Fortunately, the munition did not detonate.

Screenshot from the video

Quote: "An ambulance took the baby to the hospital so that doctors could save his life.

The boy is in a serious condition; glass fragments have injured his ears and face," the Oblast State Administration reported.

Currently, the lives and health of the boy and his mother are not in danger, but they will stay in the hospital for several days.

According to the Prosecutor Generals Office, 461 children have been killed in Ukraine since the beginning of a full-scale war in Ukraine, and 927 have been injured.

Background: Doctors recently saved a teenager from Bakhmut who was hit in the chest by a shell fragment that got stuck in his heart.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
A silhouette of a police officer at a crime scene in London, 2003 (Getty Images)

Police in the UK have conducted a series of raids on properties around the country as part of an ongoing crackdown against online piracy.

The Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) said the action resulted in four arrests, with one person charged in relation to intellectual property theft.

The raids, which took place in London, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Stoke, took place throughout February and targeted an illegal streaming operation believed to be used by more than half a million people.

Police also served more than 200 cease and desist notices to individuals suspected of running illegal streaming services.

Organised criminal groups often view the distribution of illegal streaming services as a low-risk, high-reward crime which can be used to fund other serious forms of criminal activity, said Detective Chief Inspector Gary Robinson from PIPCU.

We hope that this period of action sends a clear message; PIPCU will continue to work with partners across law enforcement and the industry to take action against those who provide illegal streaming services and protect consumers against the risks associated with using them.

Despite the latest police operation, online piracy remains widespread, with free streams and torrents of films, TV series and sporting events easily accessible.

Recent figures from piracy research firm Muso found that illegal streaming of films grew by more than a third between 2021 and 2022.

The surge in illicit streaming sites is assisted by a lack of action from many online platforms, with the search engine DuckDuckGo refusing to purge piracy sites from search results.

Broadcasters remain hopeful that police action will have an impact on reducing online piracy.

This coordinated effort by police and partners which saw action spanning the UK has made a significant impact against individuals involved in serious organised crime, said Matt Hibbert, director of anti-piracy at Sky.

More and more effective action is being taken against the criminals behind big piracy operations and we thank PIPCU and all the police forces involved.
An Opa-locka police sergeant arrested Tuesday night on three domestic abuse charges physically battered and threatened to kill family members for almost a decade, police said on Wednesday.

The wife of Johane Hendrik Taylor told police that several times dating back to 2014 her husband hit her with closed fists, once even breaking a rib and trying to drag her outside while she was unconscious. Another time, the womans mother told police, she saw Taylor hit one of her grandchildren over the head with a vacuum cleaner.

The mother has alleged that the defendant has abused the children since the oldest child was three years of age and she is currently 13 years of age, the arresting officer from the city or Miramar wrote in his report.

Taylor, 36, is the youngest son of former Opa-locka Mayor Myra Taylor and the brother of the citys current Mayor John Taylor.

On Tuesday evening, Miramar Police were waiting for Johane Taylor outside his home when he returned and took him into custody. He was charged with three felonies  aggravated child abuse, felony battery and aggravated assault with intent to commit a felony. He was taken to Broward Countys Main Jail, where he remained late Wednesday morning.

Late Wednesday afternoon  after failed attempts to reach his brother, mother, the city manager, city attorney and police chief at their offices or on cellphones  the head of a public relations firm hired by the city said Taylor had been suspended without pay until an investigation into his actions is complete.

The only indication that the city was aware of the sergeants arrest was an internal memo sent to city leaders and obtained by the Miami Herald. It did not name Taylor, but said an officer had been arrested and charged with domestic aggravated battery, domestic aggravated assault and child abuse. And that the city should prepare for a significant amount of media coverage of the arrest tomorrow.

A law enforcement source familiar with Taylors arrest said Miramar police had obtained a search warrant and were going through his home Wednesday morning. It wasnt immediately clear if Taylor had hired an attorney.

Story continues

Taylor has been in the news before. A Miami Herald story from 2014 explained how he was hired as an officer in Opa-locka despite twice failing his police exam and having a criminal past involving domestic battery. He resigned in 2013 when it was discovered that the police department failed to do a thorough background check. He was rehired in Opa-locka as a police officer about two years later. Chief Israel recently promoted him to sergeant.

The charges filed Tuesday against Taylor stem only from incidents that took place in Miramar since May of 2022. In some cases, the arrest warrant doesnt list specific dates. Miramar Police records obtained by the Miami Herald show that police first became concerned about Taylors alleged actions at the end of January, when they were called to the familys home over a domestic violence incident and spoke with Taylors wife and daughter. Police said they convinced his wife that night to take her kids to her mothers home in Opa-locka, which she did.

Opa-locka Police Sgt. Johane Hendrik Taylor, 36, was arrested by Miramar Police Tuesday and charged with aggravated child abuse, Broward County records show.

Taylors wife also told police that day that her husband placed a firearm against her head saying he should kill her right now. After putting the gun away, she told police Taylor threw her on the couch and began beating her.

Taylors wife told Miramar Police that he became particularly violent one day last May when she told him she wanted out of the marriage. She said he hit her in the head and neck with closed fists and that she passed out as he tried to drag her outside. When paramedics arrived, she said she told them she fell while mopping. She also said she believed her husband broke one of her ribs, but she chose to let it heal naturally instead of seeing a doctor.

She also told police, according to Taylors arrest report, that her husband struck the children repeatedly over the years, most often with a belt that left welts on their legs and buttocks, parts of their body that teachers wouldnt see. She claimed her husband coached the kids, ages 7, 10 and 13, on how to deal with teachers.

Miami Herald Staff Writer Jay Weaver contributed to this report.
Opening arguments were heard in court for the first time at the Horry County courthouse for the murder trial of a man accused of orchestrating the fatal shooting of a 19-year-old.

Horry County police found Jamie Johnson, 19, dead inside his vehicle and several people were charged in connection to his murder in 2020.

Tronahz Jahmarius Whittingtonwho was 17 years old at the time of the murderappeared at the Horry County municipal court Tuesday morning for the start of his trial. He is facing murder, three charges of attempted murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime.

Johnsons family also appeared in court, along with several Coastal Carolina University students. Lucinda Johnson, the mother, walked into the courtroom tearfully as she took her seat.

A spider is just a spider and a fly is just a fly

Prosecutor Christopher Helms began his argument by introducing the players in the courtroom, including his co-counsel, Johnsons mother and the defense team. When introducing Whittington, Helms said his street name is Draco.

Street names play a role in this case, he said.

Thats how many people in the culture hes involved in identify each other.

He then went on to detail the the events of Sept. 12, when Johnson was found dead. Helms argued that Whittington gathered five friends, instructed them to follow Johnsons vehicle, cut him off and then shoot at him.

By virtue of sitting in that chair and picking you as a jury, [Whittington] is saying that Im lying to you, Helms said.

Defense attorney Ralph Wilson objected to this statement, causing Judge Steven Deberry to pull the jury out of the room.

Wilson argued that the statements made were personalizing the opening argument  Helms was making it personal between him and the defendant. Judge Deberry sustained the objection.

Sometimes its enough folks, that a spider is a spider and a fly is a fly, Helms told the Jury after they came back. Whittington made his web with what he had available, he said. The crime was not random, and was planned and organized, Helms argued.

Story continues

After Johnson was found dead, Helms said that Whittington fled to the Greenville area, where he was arrested by U.S Marshals.

A deal with the devil

Attorney Wilson, representing Whittington, began his opening arguments by telling the jury to be patient, and listen carefully to witness testimony.

Its not so much what a witness says, but what he doesnt say, he said.

Wilson then said that prosecutors, in an effort to find justice, sometimes make a deal with the devil.

Wilson argued that the state made a deal with the person who likely fired the shot that killed Johnson that day. All the state knows is what the witnesses tell them, he argued.

There were multiple people shooting out there that day, Wilson said. Only one bullet was found on Johnson according to evidence, he added.

Wilson urged the jury again to pay attention carefully to witness testimony, and to find out who fired the shot that killed Johnson.

You will decide what happened on that night, he said.

The trial against Whittington will continue Wednesday. The cases against the co-defendants also remain active.
When a movie gets tangled up in all kinds of financial problems, delayed for over a year, played out internationally, sent straight to streaming in Canada, and then finally getting the green light to open in the U.S. via a new distributor and thrown into theaters with virtually no notice or time to mount a marketing campaign, you have to think there must be something very wrong here.

Well surprise, surprise. The awkwardly titled Operation Fortune: Ruse De Guerre is loads of fun, an entertaining spy thriller that is faithful to the genre, very well cast, and a hoot to watch. Caught up in the STX mess and then handled by Miramax and a distribution service deal for Lionsgate, the film has been played out in much of the world but is finally being released stateside in a theatrical run that has been so rushed it sadly may not have enough time to find an audience. If it does, I would bet word of mouth will be just fine as it tries to find some customers in between Marvel and DC tentpole movies, and sequels like Creed III which will likely bury it this weekend.

More from Deadline

Its a shame because I think this is one of director Guy Ritchies best movies, an international spy caper that doesnt take itself seriously but delivers on the action, suspense, and genuine wit the genre requires. Plus it has Jason Statham in a tailor-made role as a kind of superspy out to retrieve a $10 billion black market device that has disastrous consequences for the world if it is in the wrong hands. Plus it also has those wrong hands in the form of Hugh Grant, who is having a blast playing bad, as an international arms dealer whose operation Stathams character Orson Fortune must infiltrate with his hand-picked team of operatives.

Story continues

Fortune is recruited to find the device before it is too late by Nathan Jasmine (Cary Elwes), a no-nonsense team leader with a plan he expects Fortune to follow. Think again. With his own team in place including cyber guru and hacker extraordinaire Sarah Fidel (Aubrey Plaza), and eager sniper J. J. Davies (Bugzy Malone), he sets out to bring in a movie superstar Danny Francesco (Josh Hartnett) to win over star-obsessed arms dealer Greg Simmonds (Grant), who is ironically throwing a big event for his war orphan charity on his glamorous yacht off Cannes. With Fidel posing as his girlfriend, and also becoming the object of Simmonds desires, the actor reluctantly takes on the role after being essentially blackmailed into doing it. Meanwhile, an arch rival of Fortunes, Mike (Peter Ferdinando), also has designs on the world-changing device and sets about to get it himself. With all these players in place we have the ultimate cat-and-mouse spy game set to go.

With the movie, shot mostly in Turkey which doubles for several international locales, Ritchie has co-written a smart script with Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies that may not rise to the level of his gritty earlier triumphs like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch (both with Statham), but if you ask me is miles above some of his bigger-budgeted bloated flicks like The Man From U.N.C.L.E., King Arthur: Legend of the Sword and even the successful but overrated Sherlock Holmes franchise of his. Despite an atypical departure as director of a Disney musical in Aladdin, Ritchie more recently has returned to his roots with some solid genre pictures like Wrath of Man (which reteamed him with Statham) and the cheeky gangster flick The Gentlemen, which he is now turning into a TV series for Netflix. Operation Fortune also has him back on the right track of where his strongest talents lie: mixing humor and action in undeniably recognizable Ritchie ways.

The director has a knack for casting and letting actors shine. Statham does what Statham does best here, an infinitely watchable screen action presence, and he is well matched against Grants hilarious and slippery arms dealer. Grant, as with the sleazy tabloid reporter in Gentlemen, almost seems to be doing another homage to Michael Caine here, but it is another later-career example (along with Paddington 2) of the versatility of this terrific actor. Plaza is working against type in this kind of picture, but she pulls it off effortlessly, as does Malone. Elwes is all pro as well as the flummoxed Nathan. Hartnett really goes to town, playing all the tropes of an ego-driven action star who finds himself in the role of his life, the real danger zone.

Alan Stewarts widescreen cinematography is lush, and a shout-out to Chris Bensteads score which echoes John Barry at his Bond best but does the job perfectly for this assignment.

Producers are Bill Block, Ritchie and Atkinson. Lionsgate opens it in the U.S. on Friday in a wide release.

Best of Deadline

Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.
The United States is in the middle of a seismic shift in its educational landscape. The pandemic accelerated the longstanding need for innovative school models that offer increased flexibility and better serve students and families. Philanthropies, following the intent of ideologically diverse donors, are responding to this shift in a variety of ways. While many donors are placing diversity and equity at the center of their strategies, others are leading with the core values of excellence and agency, believing that high expectations and empowerment lead to improved academic and life outcomes for all Americans.

There is no shortage of vibrant options in K-12 philanthropy to achieve improved education and life outcomes. One way to foster excellence and agency is to focus on building a rich ecosystem of school choice options  whether they be charter schools, microschools or hybrid homeschools.

Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter

Here are some ways that philanthropists around the country are helping to improve education for todays students and future generations:

J.A. Kathryn Albertson Family Foundation is encouraging high-quality schools in Idaho through Bluum, an initiative designed to support educators willing to take risks in the mission of helping children. This philanthropic partnership has produced an effective organization that empowers education choice for families. Since 2015, Bluum has provided support to 31 schools across 10 counties.

Building school cultures on such time-tested principles as courage, justice, temperance and wisdom, funders including the William E. Simon Foundation are supporting schools like New York Citys Vertex Partnership Academies. This is a first-of-its-kind network of character-based, International Baccalaureate public charter high schools dedicated to equality of opportunity, individual dignity and common humanity  the idea that people have an innate tendency to cooperate and solve problems. This is in sharp contrast to the dominant narrative permeating much of society, which focuses on division and an increasing us-versus-them mentality.

Story continues

Its unique offerings include a Pathways to Power class, which teaches students about The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, financial literacy, time management, resume writing and relationship skills, and a success sequence that reinforces the rewards of graduating high school, getting a job and getting married  before having children. Founder Ian Rowe says that when he started teaching the success sequence at his former charter network, he got huge pushback from staff who said, We cant do this. We might be insulting parents. Actually, Rowe said, what he heard from parents was, Thank God someone is teaching this.

When entrepreneur Jeff Sandefer decided to pursue education philanthropy, he and his wife started Acton Academy, a global network of innovative K-12 schools that encourage students to be curious, independent, lifelong learners. The mission of the academy, which has 300 locations in 25 countries, is centered on the idea that every student is a genius and a hero. The idea that students ought to be independent and proactive in their daily education is infused in the design of the school itself. Acton operates as a one-room schoolhouse, where there is often only one teacher. Thus, students must help with the teaching; older kids or those who have mastered material more quickly assist others. Peer- and team-based learning has been found to be quite beneficial, particularly to prepare students for success in workplaces where group-based teams of different ages and backgrounds must collaborate.

The Daniels Fund has taken a regional approach to its reform efforts by pulling together a multi-faceted strategy in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. The fund focuses on fostering high-performing charter schools and portable voucher programs that expand access to schools of choice for underserved communities. Over the last two decades, it has distributed roughly $146 million to K-12 education reform, all with the intent of expanding opportunity through the power of education and the dignity of work. Additionally, it runs a scholarship program that focuses on cultivating free and entrepreneurial thinkers who are proud of their community and their country and believe that hard work is the way to improve it.

Jeff and Janine Yass are using yet another approach with their $1 million national prize recognizing top-notch education providers. As they saw tremendous concern for the health care system during the pandemic and recognized the strain that the lack of care put on schools. Consequently, they decided to find problem solvers in communities across the country. The 2022 prize winner, Arizona Autism Charter Schools provides unique, individualized learning programs, and the prize money will support the creation of a national accelerator for autism-focused charter schools.

As these philanthropies assess the results of their strategies in the years to come, there will no doubt be adjustments along the way. But, at its core, this excellence- and empowerment-based approach to education reform rests on the idea that people are mostly motivated by deeply held values and live  and give according to them. America, in all its complexity, is a nation that prizes the pursuit of excellence and a commitment to innovation and problem solving. By focusing on creating quality options for families, and by cultivating school cultures that empower and engage students and prepare them for life after school, philanthropy can and will continue to play a crucial role in the future of education reform.
A series of settlements from lawsuits related to the opioid crisis have flooded billions into the United States. This influx of money, advocates say, presents a unique opportunity for the U.S. to fund treatment solutions for substance use disorder and the overdose epidemic.

The settlement money comes from a number of legal battles around the nation and the world. Companies including Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson and Walgreens have settled, to the tune of billions of dollars, for their role in fueling the opioid crisis through actions like downplaying the risks of prescription opioids and promoting the use of the drugs.

Christine Minhee, attorney by training and founder of OpioidSettlementTracker.com, has compiled data on the settlements tracking the amount of money allocated and where states have decided to spend it. According to her data, which is used by state governments and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the total pot of funds available from the settlements has reached around $54 billion dollars, with nearly half of the money coming from a $26 billion dollar 2022 settlement with drug manufacturers and distributors, and more funds expected from ongoing legal battles.

States are required to spend 85% of their settlement funds on opioid remediation, with 70% of that allocated to future remediation, Minhee says, to prevent a repeat of the 1998 tobacco settlement controversy, when just 3% of billions of dollars was used for treatment and cessation of smoking. Remediation can include funding harm reduction, treatment options and more. States have wide discretion over how they choose to spend the money.

In many states, advisory boards have been created to make recommendations on the best way to allocate the available funds. A non-exhaustive document, called Exhibit E, provides routes for states to take, Minhee explained. The 15-page document includes three pages of required techniques and 12 pages of recommended ones. Minhee said that she's found that about half of states are following Exhibit E to the letter in both sections, while the other half of the country is following the requirements but "remixing" the rest of the document. Required techniques include funding "gold standard" programs like naloxone distribution, medication assisted treatment, and more.

Story continues

In Rhode Island, some of the settlement money is being used to try a tactic relatively new to the United States: About $2 million dollars have been allocated for the establishment of overdose prevention centers. These sites, also called OPCs, are places where people who use drugs can consume substances in a safe, clean environment with trained medical staff who can handle overdoses and other side effects. Brandon Marshall, the Scientific Director of PreventOverdoseRI (PORI), which collaborated with the state government to develop settlement spending recommendations, said that the committee looked at the "vast scientific literature" supporting OPCs to make the decision.

"They are legal under a (2021) state law, so the committee recommended that some investments be made in this approach, particularly in the era of a highly toxic and contaminated drug supply," Marshall told CBS News. "We know that fentanyl and other analogues are involved in many deaths, and those can be effectively reversed and prevented in a supervised environment like an overdose prevention center."

The Rhode Island overdose prevention centers won't be the first approved sites in the United States: In Nov. 2021, New York City opened the country's first sanctioned OPCs. Two such sites are operated by OnPoint, a harm reduction organization in Manhattan that works to connect with people who use drugs and provide care. OnPoint says that the sites have reversed 701 overdoses in the 15 months they have been operating, and while they have the approval of local government, they are currently funded with private money, something that OnPoint executive director Sam Rivera says makes operations "difficult." He said that at one point, it looked like the centers would have to close in Feb. 2023 because of the uncertainty of their funding.

While New York's advisory board recommended using the state's settlement money to continue to fund existing overdose prevention sites and create more, governor Kathy Hochul's administration rejected that recommendation. In a letter to the advisory board, State Office of Addiction Services and Supports Commissioner Chinazo Cunningham said that the recommendation "violates State and Federal Laws, rules and/or regulations," saying that state money cannot be used to fund OPCs.

Rivera, who emphasized that overdose prevention centers and other efforts from OnPoint have reduced open-air drug use and removed 1.7 million tons of waste from the streets, said that Hochul's decision felt like "a slap in the face," especially since the settlement funds are not state dollars.

"I was so sure that we were going to be OK, especially since (Hochul) created this board to advise her. They advised her, and she vetoes what they suggested," Rivera said. "The money shouldn't even be negotiable. This money is for people. It's a lawsuit. It has nothing to do with tax dollars, with city, state or federal dollars. This is a lawsuit won for opioid users who we serve, who we keep alive."

Other states and municipalities, including cities like San Francisco and Chicago, are considering opening overdose prevention centers, but Rivera said he worried that the decisions made in New York City could impact efforts to open such sites.

"I spoke in San Francisco, to the city council, and all they talk about is the 'New York model,'" Rivera said. "And yet, we're here fighting to get the New York model funded by New York. ... I do worry that it (Hochul's decision) gives other jurisdictions the opportunity to say 'New York is so great, but they're not funding it themselves, so why should we?'"

The New York board issued dozens of other recommendations across ten categories. All but two, including the OPC suggestion, have been approved by the Hochul administration. Hochul's administration has funded crisis centers for evaluation, care and treatment, has developed mobile medication units, decriminalized possession of naloxone, and more.

"As someone who has personally experienced loss from an overdose, Governor Hochul is deeply committed to combating the opioid epidemic and to saving lives," a spokesperson for the governor told CBS News. "Together with our Department of Health and Office of Addiction Services and Supports, we will continue to explore the legal implications of this approach and how it impacts our communities to determine how best to reduce harm and keep New Yorkers safe."

Nationwide, other states and municipalities are considering hundreds of other recommendations, including added funding for law enforcement, the development of new treatment facilities and the expansion of existing services.

Marshall said that Rhode Island is taking care to consider "the whole continuum of care," including social determinants of health like housing and healthcare access.

In the meantime, experts and advocates hope that the billions of dollars available will be used to fund the best options available, as well as to research new solutions to the overdose crisis.

"We do want to use this funding to understand what is promising and build more evidence around what could work particularly well, given the current state of the crisis and how rapidly it is evolving," Marshall said. "We need to be innovative and use the funding for states and jurisdictions to implement novel interventions and build that evidence base for other states to benefit from. ... There isn't a single intervention which is going to get us out of this crisis."

Northern lights seen shining from plane window

Closing arguments underway in Alex Murdaugh double murder trial

H.R. McMaster on the threat posed by China
Participants of Plan Victory have attacked a Russian A-50 AWACS military aircraft at the Machulishchy airfield in Belarus using DJI drones converted into kamikaze UAVs.

Source: The BYPOL initiative

Details: The organisation stated that Belarusian partisans used two drones manufactured by DJI, converted into kamikaze drones in an artisanal way, for the attack.

Quote: "Each drone carried a charge of 200 grams of explosive in TNT equivalent. Metal bullets were used as a striking element with an approximate number of 200 pieces each.

Based on the published satellite images, it can be assumed that two spots sustained damage. First, the key element of the three-coordinate radar station, particularly the locator, was damaged. Second, there is damage in the area of the satellite radio line antenna fairing, in the front part, near the nose compartment."

Details: BYPOL assumed that during the explosion the steel balls must have penetrated to a sufficient depth into the rather thin shell of the aircraft's hull, damaging the wiring and internal equipment.

Background:

On the morning of 26 February, the BYPOL initiative reported explosions at the Machulishchy airbase in Minsk Oblast in Belarus. There is information about a damaged Russian AWACS aircraft.

Alexander Azarov, Head of the BYPOL initiative, said that Belarusian partisans were behind it. As he stated, the participants of the alleged sabotage in Machulishchy left Belarus and are now safe.

Later, the media published satellite photos of an aircraft before and after the incident.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!






Photo: The Canadian Press FILE - Nathan Chasing Horse sits in court in North Las Vegas, Nev., on Feb. 8, 2023. The former "Dances With Wolves" actor pleaded not guilty Wednesday, March 1, 2023, to state charges that he sexually abused Indigenous women and girls for a decade in Nevada. Chasing Horse, 46, appeared briefly in Clark County District Court following his indictment last week on 19 charges, including sexual assault, first-degree kidnapping and drug trafficking. (AP Photo/Ty O'Neil, File)

A former Dances With Wolves" actor pleaded not guilty Wednesday to state charges that he sexually abused Indigenous women and girls for a decade in Nevada.

Nathan Chasing Horse, 46, appeared briefly in Clark County District Court following his indictment last week on 19 charges, including sexual assault, first-degree kidnapping and drug trafficking.

He has been jailed in Las Vegas on $300,000 bond since his arrest Jan. 31 near the home in North Las Vegas that he shared with five women he described as his wives.

Authorities describe Chasing Horse as the leader of a cult known as The Circle who took underage wives. They allege that at the time of his arrest he was grooming young girls to replace his older wives.

Born on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota, Chasing Horse is widely known for his role as Smiles a Lot in Kevin Costners 1990 Oscar-winning film.

His arrest by Las Vegas police followed a monthslong probe that officials said was prompted by a tip from Canadian authorities investigating Chasing Horse in connection with a 2018 rape allegation in British Columbia.

Authorities in Las Vegas allege that his crimes in Nevada spanned a decade. According to court documents, they also uncovered a pattern of sexual abuse dating back to the early 2000s across multiple states, including Montana and South Dakota, as well as Canada.

Documents show at least six victims have been identified, including one who said she was 13 when sexual abuse began, and another who said she was offered to Chasing Horse as a gift when she was 15.

Criminal cases against Chasing Horse are mounting, and he now faces charges in four jurisdictions  in state court in Las Vegas, in U.S. District Court in Nevada, in British Columbia and on the Fort Peck Reservation in northeastern Montana.

Inside Chasing Horse's home, court documents say detectives found firearms, psilocybin mushrooms, 41 pounds of marijuana and two cellphones containing videos and photos of underage girls being sexually assaulted. The footage led to federal child pornography charges.
The police have detained two administrators of the Redan youth movement channels in the social media; members of these groups were planning to organise a fight between teenagers in the Darnytskyi district of Kyiv.

Source: press service of the National Police in the city of Kyiv

Details: Juvenile police officers of the Darnytskyi police department have established that a meeting of teenagers from the Redan movement was planned a few days ago in the Darnytskyi district, near one of the shopping centres. The police identified the organisers of the meeting, the administrators of groups in a social network.

According to law enforcement officers, the "instigators" were a 15-year-old girl from Kyiv who, for the sake of hype, created a Telegram channel for supporters of the subculture, and a 14-year-old boy  the administrator of another channel, who called his peers to fight.

Police officers held preventive talks with teenagers and their parents. The Telegram channels are blocked.

Background:

On 27 February, teenagers who belong to the Russian subculture, Redan youth movement, gathered for mass fights in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv, Zhytomyr, and Ivano-Frankivsk.

On 28 February, the police blocked 18 channels and group chats that were created for promoting the Redan Private Military Company, the newly created youth movement in Ukraine.

On 28 February, the Cyber Police Division of the National Police of Ukraine detained the 16- and 13-year-old founders of the Redan PMC Youth Movement's Telegram channels in the cities of Dnipro and Cherkasy.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
A new painting for the Ohio Statehouse has been commissioned, honoring four Ohioans contributions to space exploration, The Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board (CSRAB) and the Capitol Square Foundation announced Wednesday.

Bill Hinsch, an artist from Perrysburg, has been chosen as the painter, for the painting that will hang in the Ohio Statehouse Rotunda. Hinsch has painted portraits that have hung in The National Museum of the United States Air Force and the Pentagon.

>> I just want to know why; Friends of 2 women killed in Dayton shooting say they want answers

The painting is the first major one commissioned for Rotunda since 1957.

This artists vision of honoring Ohioans who have gone above and beyond exceeded the hopes of the committee. This commissioned artwork, the first in 66 years, will be a fitting addition to the historic Ohio Statehouse  a celebration of four Ohioans remarkable firsts in space exploration, said Charles Moses, Capitol Square Foundation chair.

The painting will feature astronauts John Glenn, Neil Armstrong, Jim Lovell, and Judith Resnik. Engineers and scientists will also be presented in the painting through the work of Flight Director Gene Kranz, along with spacecraft, the moon, and the earth.

>> We hope they dont come out and bloom; Impact of warmer winter weather on local farmers

The painting will honor Ohioans in space. Ohioans have achieved many firsts in flight and in space exploration. Twenty-five NASA astronauts were born in our state, and many Ohioans have advanced space technology in supporting roles, a spokesperson said.

The nine-foot by twelve-foot painting is scheduled to be unveiled in 2024 and will be funded by private donations.
LAHORE, Pakistan (AP)  Pakistan launched its first-ever digital population and housing census on Wednesday in an effort to securely gather demographic data on every individual ahead of this year's parliamentary elections, officials said.

The digital count will provide data for policy decisions, which now are based on the 2017 census that counted the population at 207 million people. It's also meant to beef up security and avoid another morass like the one that beset the 2021 census. The results of that count, which was done manually, were never announced over complaints about errors and exclusion.

The results of the digital census will be announced next month, according to Pakistan's Bureau of Statistics, which is conducting the census amid tight security.

On Wednesday, census workers fanned out across Pakistan to collect the data. In addition to policy decisions on such matters as education and health, the information also will be used for the next parliamentary elections.

For the first time, census workers will count transgender people, who are largely neglected in this impoverished Islamic nation. According to human rights groups, there are around 10,000 trans people living in Pakistan.
[Source]

Two Pakistani brothers held by the United States government at the Guantanamo Bay military prison for nearly 20 years have been repatriated back to Pakistan, the U.S. Defense Department announced last week.

Accused of operating safe houses for Al-Qaida, Abdul, 55, and Mohammed Ahmed Rabbani, 53, were apprehended by Pakistani officers in Karachi in 2002 and handed over to U.S. authorities.

While the siblings were never charged with any crime, they were sent to the controversial detention camp on the coast of Guantanamo Bay in Cuba in 2004.

The brothers claimed that before being transferred to Guantanamo, they were tortured in CIA custody. Based on military records, the siblings provided little intelligence of value and recanted statements made during interrogations.

More from NextShark: Meet the Filipino Heroes Fighting COVID-19 in New York, And Those Who Sacrificed Everything

According to a statement from the Pentagon, the mens detention was "no longer necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat to the security of the United States.

Both men were approved for release in 2011, but for reasons unclear remained in detention.

A statement from the foreign ministry in Islamabad confirmed the brothers' transfer home, revealing that the repatriates have been reunited with their families.

More from NextShark: Chinese Man Complaining About Shower Door Becomes Internet Star For Being 'Too Handsome'

The transfer, which involved an inter-agency process, is part of the Biden administrations efforts of reducing the detainee population and ultimately closing the Guantanamo Bay facility, according to the Pentagon.

The Pentagon's statement also revealed that there are still 32 detainees remaining at Guantanamo Bay, 18 of whom are eligible for transfer to relevant "stable third-party countries" that would house them.

Majid Khan, another Pakistani detainee who confessed to being a former al-Qaida courier, completed his sentence and was resettled in Belize earlier this month.

Story continues

More from NextShark: Sri Lanka Police Anally Torture, Whip Gay Men Suspected of Having Sex, Human Rights Watch Says

Established by former president George W. Bush in 2002, the Guantanamo camp was built to detain foreign terrorism suspects believed to be involved in the 9/11 attacks. By 2003, around 600 prisoners considered terrorists were held at the site.

More from NextShark: Teen gets children's books about Japanese American incarceration into Seattle-area elementary schools
When a Southern California couple were retaliated against by their kids' school for supporting the LGBTQ community, they decided to have the last laugh. (Photos: Jaymi Lynn via TikTok)

A Southern California husband and wife say that the church theyve belonged to since childhood, as well as the affiliated school their elemntary-age kids attend, retaliated against them after they made a public stance supporting LGBTQ rights.

Jaymi and Josh, who chose not to share their surname or the name of the school in question for this story, citing legal threats, tell Yahoo Life that it all began when Josh made an Instagram post on Dec. 9.

In the post, Josh, who is a born-again Christian, affirms that he believes LGBTQ people are made in the Image of God and that they cant change who [they] are.

I STAND WITH YOU, he wrote. I stand with those who are part of the LGBTQ+ community. You are family. I love you and affirm you and Jesus does not hate you but loves you; wholeheartedly for who you are. I am sorry for how I have hurt you. I am sorry for how the church has hurt you. He also advises religious leaders to pray first before judging people: Pray for me, sure, but I also ask that you truly ask God to soften your heart for His people, everyone.

Josh's post didnt sit well with their church and its school, which their two children, ages 5 and 7, attend, and where their other children, including teens theyve fostered and two theyve adopted, ages 16 and 17, have at one point attended.

As Jaymi explains to Yahoo Life, when parents enroll their children in the school they have to sign a contract, a belief statement stating that they agree to uphold the schools stance on traditional gender and sexuality, which is that theres only two genders and that only a man and woman can get married.

When we first started sending our kids to the school, that's really what we had been raised to believe was the right way, she says. But over the past few years, I havent felt comfortable with that. And so, when we started publicly posting that we are affirming of the LGBTQ community, the school really just changed their viewpoint towards us. And the parents at the school started complaining that we were at the school.

Story continues

The parents' complaints reached a peak on Feb. 15 when, according to texts obtained by Yahoo Life, the schools principal messaged Josh while he was at work, urgently requesting him to call them in the next 10 minutes. The couple and the principal ended up having a three-way call, during which they were informed that parents had complaints about their pro-LGBTQ stance, says Jaymi.

As a result, the school decided to disinvite Josh from a pre-planned museum field trip with their 7-year-olds class, planned for the next day, which he was to chaperone. Furthermore, they were told that moving forward, they werent allowed at any school events where there would be children present  including any future assemblies at the end of the year, any field trips, really nothing. We werent even allowed on campus.

The news hit Jaymi and Josh hard, especially since theyd met at the church, which theyd attended since they were children  Jaymi since she was 4 and Josh since he was in the fourth grade  and which has now played an important role in the lives of all their children.

These are parents that weve likely all grown up with, she says. Weve likely gone to their weddings, our kids have likely been friends for many, many years. But now, all of a sudden that our theology has changed in this area, even though we are both still Christians, their whole viewpoint of us shifted.

Jaymi and Josh, who used to be on staff at the church, say theyd been considering pulling their kids out of the school for some time now, beginning with an incident last fall, when their 7-year-old told them their teacher said during class that a boy cant marry a boy, and a girl cant marry a girl.

We had a conversation with him [that day] and said, Hey, buddy, like, factually, that's just not true because boys can legally marry boys and girls can marry girls. But some people don't think that's okay, Jaymi says.

To prove her point, she showed her son a photo of a gay couple getting married. The next day, he innocently told his teacher about it, after which, Jaymi claims, the teacher "reprimanded" the couple for showing him the photo. They had framed it as if we had shown our 7-year-old pornography or something that was completely awful, she recalls. That's when we knew we werent keeping them at the school.

Jaymi, who came out to her family and friends in November as queer, using an umbrella term to express being not exclusively straight, says the incident triggered years of religious trauma shed faced growing up in the church.

That's when she began posting affirmations about the LGBTQ community to her 26.5K Instagram followers. To support his wife, Josh started to routinely do the same on his own social media accounts. Over the course of those months, since the fall incident, complaints from parents grew and grew  until it reached its peak in February, when Josh was informed he was disinvited from the field trip.

Two weeks after being disinvited, Jaymi and Josh shared their story in a Feb. 26 TikTok video that has garnered more than 550K views and 7.5K comments.

We were told that he couldnt go [on the field trip] because parents complained about our public social media posts affirming the LGBTQ community, Jaymi said in the video. And so I said, So our years of youth ministry and our career serving children now make us an inherent harm to kids? And they basically said yes, and You are not welcome at any school event where there are kids present.

The couple pulled their sons out of the school nearly two weeks after the field trip incident. Later in the video, they say that on their kids last day, they sent the church a platter of rainbow cupcakes to celebrate. Or, as Josh puts it, to be petty.

It was hard on my two boys, so I wanted them to leave with a celebration, Josh tells Yahoo Life about sending the rainbow cupcakes. I thought, what if we did cupcakes in a way to be petty, but also still kind of respectfully say, We stand for this community and we're going to support this community. Why not send them cupcakes with rainbow flags on them? I thought they were very fitting.

Since pulling their kids out of the school, Jaymi says they havent had any contact with members of the school, many of whom had been lifelong friends.

That's been really sad and heartbreaking for our family, especially with me coming out and really losing our whole church community. One of the pastors even walked me down the aisle at my wedding, she says. I was in foster care myself as a kid. I started going to this church when I was 4 and they really became my family. They fostered me, they were the safety and belonging I really needed as a kid. And because of that, I repressed a lot of my identity because I had to fit in order to get that safety and belonging. But, through therapy and working through religious trauma, I've realized that both of us really have lost that whole church community."

The family has since found another church thats been extremely welcoming to them. The boys are also thriving at their new school. But, Jaymi says, theres still more healing to be done. Above all, she hopes their video can send a message to Christians that being gay is not a sin.

Being queer and Christian, I think my main thing that has been so healing for me is knowing that those two words are not mutually exclusive: queer and Christian, she says. Because in the church community I was raised in, I was told if you're gay or lesbian or transgender or bisexual, that you're not a Christian, that you're going against the Bible. And I think that knowing and meeting other LGBTQ Christians, and being one myself where I know in my heart of hearts and in my soul that I believe in God, and that he has been there for me, and that he's such an active part of my life, and my faith is so important to me, and also knowing that I'm attracted to women, those things are not mutually exclusive.

Adds Josh: There is such beauty in the queer community, and I don't think it's represented and talked about enough. When I really dove into understanding and getting to hear people's stories, I realized how much love and beauty there really is.

Wellness, parenting, body image and more: Get to know the who behind the hoo with Yahoo Life's newsletter. Sign up here.
A California panel on Wednesday declined to grant parole to Sirhan Sihan, the man convicted of the 1968 assassination of Senator Robert F Kennedy.

The decision marks the 17th time the 78-year-old has petitioned for release from state prison.

Two years ago, a different California parole board voted to release the man, but was overruled by California governor Gavin Newsom.

This is a breaking news story and will updated with new information.
CHICAGO  Mayor Lori Lightfoot conceded defeat in a stunning election Tuesday in America's third-largest city after failing to qualify for the spring runoff.

Former public school chief Paul Vallas and Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson are the top vote-getters who now head into an April 4 runoff that will likely be fraught with racial tensions and divisiveness.

Chicagoans havent ousted an elected mayor in 40 years, when Jane Byrne, Chicagos first female mayor, was defeated in the 1983 Democratic primary. Lightfoot, a Democrat who was first elected in 2019 and led the city through the Covid-19 pandemic, drew scrutiny from voters and the eight challengers in the race for her handling of the citys crime .

I've called Brandon Johnson and Paul Vallas to congratulate them on their victories in advancing, Lightfoot told supporters at the Carpenters Local 1 Hall. We were fierce competitors. ... But I will be reading and praying for our next mayor to deliver for the people for years to come.

Two runoff competitors could hardly be more different among Lightfoots leading challengers.



Vallas, who is white, ran to the right of Lightfoot and has focused primarily on public safety. He won the endorsement of Chicagos conservative Fraternal Order of Police and faced accusations from his rivals of being a Republican despite declaring himself a Democrat.

And although Johnson, a Black progressive with the backing of the Chicago Teachers Union, doesnt use defund the police rhetoric, he has argued for police resources to be redirected to the citys social service agencies.

None of the nine candidates on the ballot came close to securing the 50 percent needed to win the nonpartisan election outright Tuesday.

I havent been this happy since my son returned from Afghanistan, Vallas, who was projected to make the runoff less than 45 minutes after polls closed on Election Day, told supporters at a swanky West Loop venue called City Hall that quickly filled with hundreds of supporters.

Story continues

He added: We will make Chicago the safest city in America.  Public safety is the overriding issue, but we will not have true public safety in this city until the schools become part of the public safety solution.

Lightfoot took the stage to concede less than two hours after the polls closed.



With her wife at her side and her daughter in the hall, Lightfoot said she would be rooting and praying for the next mayor. We didnt win the election today, but I stand here with my head held high and heart full of gratitude.

Later in the evening, Johnson addressed his supporters in a packed ballroom on Chicagos West Side while taking a swing at his runoff rival over the citys divisions.

We get to turn the page on the politics of old, he said. Were going to finally retire this tale of two cities.  Paul Vallas is the author of the tale of two cities.

Vallas has also been a school administrator in New Orleans and Philadelphia, and unsuccessfully campaigned for Illinois governor in 2002. When he didnt qualify for the Chicago mayoral runoff in 2019, he endorsed Lightfoot.

Before Vallas took the lead, it was Democratic Rep. Jesus Chuy Garcia, who pushed then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel into a runoff in 2015, who was expected to be Lightfoots biggest threat. Garcia was initially seen as a frontrunner this time, but he started his campaign late  so he could first win reelection to Congress in the November midterms. That delayed his fundraising and put him weeks behind with getting on TV.

This is the citys third runoff in the 24 years since Chicago started holding nonpartisan elections.



Vallas heads to the runoff after getting more than a third of the vote, thanks in part to high turnout in majority-white wards on the citys North Side  the quintessential Lakefront liberals  that have been particularly vocal about crime. Johnson had about 20 percent of the vote when the Associated Press projected his win, while Lightfoot trailed him by more than 3 percent.

The other six candidates, including Garcia, won less than 30 percent combined.

Tonight, Im proud of what we've accomplished in this campaign for a safer and more just Chicago, state Rep. Kam Buckner, another mayoral candidate, said in a statement.

After polls closed earlier in the evening, a person close to Lightfoots campaign said they expected to wait for mail-in ballots to trickle in over the next few days. But when 56 percent of the votes were counted and the gap between her and Johnson was still too large, it was clear the difference between the two was too great to overcome, the person said.

Lightfoot was upbeat after her announcement. She greeted guests and took phone calls. She declined to talk to reporters, though she did tell POLITICO, One door closes, another opens.
Food and Drug Administration advisers recommended this week that the agency approve two RSV vaccines for older people, one from Pfizer and another from GlaxoSmithKline.

The next step is for the FDA to approve each vaccine, which could take several months, even though the agency usually follows the advisory committees recommendations. After FDA approval, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must recommend the shots before they become available to the public. If all of that happens, the shots would be the first vaccines for respiratory syncytial virus to get approved in the U.S.

The FDA advisers' recommendations came in separate meetings on consecutive days. On Tuesday, the Independent Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee voted 7-4 to recommend Pfizer's vaccine based on its efficacy, with one abstention. The single-dose shot was shown to reduce the risk of illness from respiratory syncytial virus by as much as 86% among people ages 60 and up, according to Pfizer.

Image: A highly-magnified transmission electron microscopic image of the human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). (E.L. Palmer / CDC)

Then on Wednesday, the committee's 12 voting members unanimously recommended GSK's vaccine for the same age group based on its efficacy. Trial data published this month in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that the shot lowered the risk of symptomatic illness by 83% and of severe illness by 94% in people ages 60 and up.

RSV causes lower respiratory illness, although for most healthy adults the symptoms are mild. In serious cases, however, RSV can lead to bronchiolitis, which inflames airways and clogs them with mucus, or pneumonia.

Older people and infants are particularly vulnerable to such outcomes. RSV kills more than 10,000 people ages 65 or older and around 300 children under 5 every year in the U.S. Cases spiked dramatically among infants this winter, which overwhelmed childrens hospitals  a reminder of the viruss threat.

Some advisory committee members seemed to have more hesitations about Pfizer's shot than GSK's. Several of the experts expressed concerns that not enough participants in Pfizer's trial got infected with RSV to adequately assess the shot's efficacy.

Story continues

In terms of its safety, some advisers worried about the Pfizer vaccine's potential association with Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that damages nerve cells and causes muscle weakness or paralysis. One man in Pfizers trial developed Guillain-Barre syndrome, or GBS, after he received the vaccine, and a woman developed Miller Fisher syndrome, a rare nerve disease related to Guillain-Barre.

It was a 1 in 9,000 risk of GBS, which is concerning, said Dr. Hana El Sahly, the FDA advisory committee chair.

The FDA has asked Pfizer to conduct another study to evaluate the risk of Guillain-Barre syndrome after its vaccine is approved.

In GSK's trial, meanwhile, the FDA identified one case of Guillain-Barre potentially related to the vaccine, as well as a higher number of incidences of atrial fibrillation (irregular heart rhythm) among vaccine recipients relative to the control group.

There are some challenges, some possible safety signals, but I think the data warrant a vote of yes, Dr. James Hildreth, a committee member and the president of Meharry Medical College, said of GSK's shot.

In terms of other side effects, the most commonly reported in GSKs trial were injection site pain, fatigue and muscle pain. In Pfizer's, the most common were fatigue, headache, pain at the injection site and muscle pain, according to an FDA briefing document.

Participants in GSK's trial reported side effects more frequently than those in Pfizers did.

The race to an RSV vaccine

Several companies have been racing to secure FDA approval for RSV vaccines.

Eleven RSV vaccines are being actively studied in U.S. trials, according to data from PATH, a nonprofit global health organization.

Moderna has said an RSV shot it developed for older adults could be submitted to the FDA by July. Bavarian Nordic expects to have late-stage trial data for its RSV vaccine, which targets the same demographic, by the middle of the year.

The FDA is also reviewing data from trials of a monoclonal antibody injection designed to protect babies from RSV, which functions similarly to a vaccine. The shot, from Sanofi and AstraZeneca, has already been approved in Europe.

Meanwhile, Pfizer has tested its RSV vaccine in pregnant people to see whether the protection can pass to babies in utero. The company said its data suggests the vaccine reduced the risk of severe illness in infants by 82% through their first 90 days of life and by 69% through six months.

But the FDA committees vote was limited to the Pfizer vaccines use for older people. The agency is still reviewing the data for pregnant people, with a decision expected in August.
A postal worker died after officials say she was attacked by dogs in a Putnam County neighborhood after her vehicle broke down.

Action News first told you about this back in August of 2022.

Now, Putnam County Sheriffs Office says there will be no charges and no one held responsible for this.

>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<

The memorandum reviews the incident that took place on August 21 of 2022 where Pamala Rock, 61, was attacked by 5 dogs. The dogs escaped and attacked people several times in the past, and the owner had repeatedly tried to surrender them to Animal Control, without success.

The fatal attack took place outside his Interlachen residence when Pamela was performing her duties as a mail carrier for the United States Postal Service (USPS). Her vehicle broke down approximately 100 yards north of the residence. At some point, Ms. Rock exited her vehicle and walked back towards the home, which is surrounded by a wire style field fence and has at least one gate. The bottom of the fence line in front of the residence had been fortified by the owner, who has very limited means, with rocks, tree logs, cinder blocks, and other materials to prevent his dogs from escaping.

Once Ms. Rock was back in front of the residence on foot across from his mailbox, the dogs escaped from the fence and attacked her. The owner exited his residence and immediately began trying to get the dogs back inside of his yard by kicking, punching, and using other techniques.

At the time the dogs escaped, the gate was secured and closed. A neighbor heard the commotion, armed himself with a rifle, and fired approximately three (3) shots in an attempt to get the dogs off of Ms. Rock.

[DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks]

The neighbor also called 911 for emergency assistance and provided them with updates until the owner was able to get the dogs back inside of the fence. Law enforcement and paramedics arrived on scene and medical attention was immediately administered to Ms. Rock. She was ultimately life flighted to an out-of-county hospital where she unfortunately passed away.

Story continues

The State Attorneys Office stated the following:

Florida law states that [i]n order for negligence to be culpable, it must be gross and flagrant. Culpable negligence is a course of conduct showing reckless disregard of human life, or of the safety of persons exposed to its dangerous effects, or such an entire want of care as to raise a presumption of a conscious indifference to consequences, or which shows wantonness or recklessness, or a grossly careless disregard for the safety and welfare of the public, or such an indifference to the rights of others as is equivalent to an intentional violation of such rights.

After the review and consideration of all of the evidence in this case, particularly the multiple attempts by [the owner] to surrender the dogs to Putnam County Animal Control and his actions in fortifying his fence in multiple places with multiple materials to prevent any of the dogs from escaping, there is insufficient evidence to prove that [the owner] demonstrated a willful or wanton reckless disregard under the circumstances beyond and to the exclusion of a reasonable doubt.

Related read: Mail carrier dies after being attacked by 5 dogs in Interlachen, deputies say

The five dogs were taken into custody by Animal Control. PCSO said that the owner has relinquished custody of the dogs and they have been humanely euthanized.

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.
Photo: The Canadian Press B.C. Premier David Eby answers a question as Canada's premiers hold a press conference following a meeting on health care in Ottawa on Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. The British Columbia government has agreed in principle to a $27.47 billion deal for health-care funding from the federal government.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

The British Columbia government has agreed in principle to a $27.47 billion deal for health-care funding from the federal government.

The agreement is a step toward completing a $196-billion, 10-year health-care funding proposal that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made with Canada's premiers last month.

The money for B.C. includes an immediate $273 million to address urgent needs, especially in pediatric hospitals and emergency rooms and to address long wait times for surgeries.

The federal government says in a news release that B.C.'s priorities include access to high-quality health services when residents need them, especially in rural and remote areas, timely mental health and substance-use services and allowing residents access to their own electronic health information.

Ottawa has said the provinces must come up with specific plans for how they would spend the money and prove that their health-care systems are getting better.

The offer made by Trudeau to Canada's premiers included health transfers of two billion dollars right away and annual increases of five per cent over the next five years, but only if each province agrees to conditions, including upgrading health data collection.
A statewide appeals court upheld Tuesday the jail sentence of a Centre County contractor who stole tens of thousands of dollars worth of wages and benefits from his workers.

Goodco Mechanical owner Scott C. Good, 60, was unsuccessful in his attempt to have the state Superior Court vacate his misdemeanor theft convictions and sentence. The ruling opens the door for Good to serve at least four months in jail.

It was not immediately clear if he plans to file additional appeals.

We are thoroughly reviewing the opinion and considering whether there are any avenues to seek further review, defense lawyer Sarah Hyser-Staub wrote in an email. We obviously disagree with the result, but we have nothing further to say at this time.

Good was charged in September 2019 after a nearly two-year grand jury investigation. He was accused of directing employees working on public construction projects to record some of their hours at a lower pay rate.

The states Prevailing Wage Act requires all contractors working on projects that receive state or federal funding pay the same wage rates. The wages and benefits change depending on the classification of the worker.

A certified electrician who worked 10 hours, for example, would be directed to report nine hours of work as an electrician and one hour as a laborer. The latter are paid about $20 less per hour. Some workers told Pennsylvania prosecutors Good would ask them to change their time sheets or have someone change it for them.

The grand jury also found Goodco  which employs about 60 workers  reduced the amount the company had to pay toward fringe benefits by crediting itself hourly vacation benefits that employees didnt use. As a result, prosecutors wrote, worker were paid at an incorrect rate and had money withheld from their benefits.

The thefts totaled more than $64,000 in wages and benefits over the course of at least five years. The scheme allowed Goodco to reduce labor costs and bid for projects with lower wage and fringe benefits costs, prosecutors wrote.

Story continues

The prosecution was the first of its kind in Pennsylvania.

Clearfield County President Judge Fredric J. Ammerman rejected the first two plea deals. The first would have required Good to paid about $75,000 in fines, while the second would have required about $65,000 in restitution and served five years of probation.

Neither required jail time.

Ammerman said incarceration was warranted to send a message to other contractors. He described white-collar crime as a pet peeve.

Good pleaded guilty in March 2021. He was sentenced one month later to a maximum of two years, less four days in jail and 200 hours of community service. He also paid more than $64,000 in restitution, while his company was fined $10,000.

Good raised eight challenges in his appeal, ranging from an argument that the state law was unconstitutional to Ammermans sentence being the result of bias and prejudice. All were rejected by a unanimous panel of three Superior Court judges.

Although the court said that it is tough on white-collar criminals, the court stated at the same conference that it had no grudge against Good as an individual. The courts tone was consistently one of dispassionate reflection, Superior Court Judge Maria McLaughlin wrote in a 56-page ruling. Nor do we find the courts statements indicate that it had decided from the outset that it would sentence Good to incarceration. Although the court stated it rejected the first two plea deals because a term of incarceration would be warranted to send a message to other offenders, the court also explained that it had not predetermined that it would impose a sentence of incarceration.

The Pennsylvania Attorney Generals Office declined comment. Good has remained free on bail pending the outcome of his appeal.
Western Pennsylvania residents living near the Ohio border say they have been left out of recovery efforts following the Feb. 3 Norfolk Southern train derailment in neighboring East Palestine, Ohio.

The crash led to evacuations and fears of air, water and soil contamination, especially after one chemical was deliberately released and burned to prevent an explosion.

On Tuesday, the administrator of the federal Environmental Protection Agency, Michael Regan, returned to East Palestine to visit the spill site and told NBC News the agency is "here to stay and we are not leaving until the job is done."

But Pennsylvania residents say they are frustrated by a lack of information about the lasting risks from the disaster and demand more transparency from state and federal leaders, who they say are focused too narrowly on recovery efforts within a 2-mile radius surrounding the derailment, a designation set by the EPA.

Joshua Barber carries a case of water into his house after returning from a donation bank in East Palestine, Ohio while his sister, Jessica Fosnaught, works on her computer on Feb. 17, 2023 in Darlington, Penn. (Michael Swensen / Getty Images)

Nobody is doing anything to help us, said Patty Barber, who lives in Darlington, Pennsylvania, less than one mile from the spill site. Pennsylvania is being left out.

State officials have said they sympathize with residents' concerns and are coordinating response efforts across multiple agencies.

Last week, Gov. Josh Shapiro met with residents in Darlington who received water testing through the state's Department of Environmental Protection.

The department has also been working closely with the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency and the state departments of health to monitor developments in East Palestine.

On Monday, Shapiro announced the opening of a health clinic in Beaver and Lawrence counties that closely mirrors one created for East Palestine residents. The state departments of environmental protection and agriculture will be on hand at the clinic to help community members sign up for free water testing and to provide guidance on food and animal safety, according to the governors office.

As of Monday, the EPA said, East Palestines municipal water was safe to drink. Indoor air quality screenings from more than 550 homes did not exceed safety standards, and air quality in the community remains normal, the EPA said.

Story continues

But residents who live outside the immediate area say crucial information is hard to come by even as people complain of various ailments, including bronchitis, headaches and other symptoms associated with chemical exposure.

Many thousands of fish have died, and community members have talked about finding sick pets and wildlife.

Image: Environmental And Health Concerns Grow In East Palestine, Ohio After Derailment Of Train Cars Containing Hazardous Material (Michael Swensen / Getty Images)

"Not to take anything away from the folks in East Palestine  they got the worst of it  but that cloud did not stay there," said Sherry Strozza, who lives about 3 miles away, in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania.

Strozza said she has experienced headaches since the chemical spill and worries about the safety of her dog and three horses. A yellow-white residue now covers parts of her soil, which Strozza has not been able to test despite repeated calls to state and federal environmental agencies and local testing companies.

A yellow-white residue now covers parts of Sherry Strozza's soil, which she has not been able to test. (Courtesy Sherry Strozza)

"I called the DEP. I called the EPA. They keep telling me I'm outside of the range of the testing area," she said. "I would feel more comfortable if I could get my soil tested, but I don't know how."

A spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection said the agency is testing private wells within a 2-mile radius of the derailment site and developing its soil sampling plan. It intends to aggressively pursue recovery of those costs from Norfolk Southern, department spokesman Jamar Thrasher said in a statement.

He encouraged residents like Strozza, who live outside the 2-mile boundary, to contact the department directly to request testing.

Officials began private well testing on Feb. 21, and public suppliers were tested a week earlier. The department said it has not detected groundwater contamination to date.

As of Wednesday, the state has completed collecting samples from 13 of the 16 known residential wells within a 1-mile radius of the derailment site and is working to schedule more testing in the coming days.

Results from the first round of testing are expected this week.

If we do find any contamination related to the train derailment, we will respond appropriately to protect public health and remediate the contamination, Thrasher said. We will stay in communities like Beaver County as long as it takes to assure Pennsylvanians their air, water, and environment are safe.

Jerry Barber changes a furnace filter in his house after receiving free filters from a donation bank on Feb. 17, 2023 in Darlington, Penn. (Michael Swensen / Getty Images)

Leah Renee Markovitz, who lives 25 miles from East Palestine in Clinton, Pennsylvania, said her biggest concern is the health of her children, who have experienced cold-like symptoms in recent weeks, and contaminated water leaching into her well.

"Anywhere that the wind was blowing that day [of the derailment], all those people are an afterthought," she said.

Many of her concerns were underscored Feb. 17 during a five-hour Pennsylvania state Senate committee hearing. Eight community members shared their worries and frustrations, with most saying they felt like Pennsylvania had been abandoned.

An air filter runs in a living room on Feb. 17, 2023 in Darlington, Penn. (Michael Swensen / Getty Images)

Lawrence County resident Sheila Stiegler, who lives 16 miles from where the train derailed, told lawmakers she is angry and heartbroken by what she calls a slow response from the state. She described her family as modern-day homesteaders who grow their own food and buy what they cant grow from local farmers. She now worries about the longterm impacts of the derailment to her food and her family.

We faced uncertainty, and felt abandoned and on our own, she said.

In Darlington, Barber said she still doesn't know if her house is safe. She and her family didn't see birds fly over their rural home for about a week after the train derailment, and the deer that normally drink from her ponds still haven't returned, she said. The creek where her family likes to swim is filled with dead fish.

Is my house safe? I dont know, she said. This is where I grew up. Where else would I go?

Both Strozza and Barber would like to have their properties tested for toxic chemicals, but neither have been able to secure appointments through local companies or state agencies. Strozza said she would feel more comfortable if her home could be cleaned "top to bottom," and Barber would like her well to be tested periodically in the coming months and even years.

I live less than a mile from ground zero. My brother is a 7-minute drive, she said. Our whole way of life has been compromised, and nobody seems to understand that.
William Abel, a mail censor at Iowa's State Prison, Fort Madison, using a hot iron to bring out a secret message written in lemon juice on a letter. Three Lions/Getty Images

Humans have had a long history with sending secret messages.

The practice dates back to ancient Greeks tattooing a servant's head to a modern-day employee stealing corporate secrets.

Invisible ink is one of the most popular methods, created using various substances like milk, lemon juice, or urine.

Secret messages have been sent for thousands of years.

Folklore tells of enslaved people using methods like hair braiding to secretly communicate without their slave owners knowing, while old women have hung laundry or knitted the routes of trains during wars to help resistance fighters.

More recently, prisoners and employees have tried to break rules and laws  and even put out hits on staff  by sending secret messages.

Here are a number of ways people have sent secret messages over the centuries.

One of the first secret messages in history reportedly traveled on a servant's skull in 513 BC. Greek tyrant Histiaeus shaved his servant's head before tattooing a secret message  that the Persian army led by King Darius was planning an attack  to the man's head.

The war council of King Darius on a Greek vase. Culture Club/Getty Images

They had to wait for the hair to grow back before the messenger was sent to the Greeks, who shaved his head again to read the message.

This was one of the first instances of steganography, a process of hiding a message in an otherwise innocent-looking person or object.

Sources: New York Times, Wired

Around the 16th century, folklorists believe enslaved people in Colombia may have used hair braiding to hide secret messages. For instance, if an enslaved person wanted to escape they would tie their hair into thick, tight braids close to the scalp with the ends tied into buns.

Ziomara Asprilla Garcia of Colombia braids brightly colored stands into a womans hair as others look on in 2011. Matt McClain/For The Washington Post/Getty Images

This means of messaging is according to a woman named Ziomara Asprilla Garcia, who told the story during a folk festival in 2011.

She said enslaved people also curved their braids to indicate what roads they planned to take after they escaped.

Source: Washington Post

Rumors have lingered that enslaved people in America used quilts to send messages to help escapees using the Underground Railroad, although it's difficult to verify these claims.

Story continues

A portrait of abolitionist Harriet Tubman with her family in 1887. MPI/Getty Images

Patricia Turner, a professor of African American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, told Snopes they were urban legends, but they were "ultimately very true" in her mind.

Source: Snopes

During the American Revolution, a woman named Ann Strong who lived in Long Island reportedly used laundry to send coded messages to spies working for George Washington, who was then Commander in Chief of the Continental Army.

A woman hangs laundry in 1900. Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis/Getty Images

This occurred during the British occupation of parts of Long Island and Staten Island.

It was a simple system that the soldiers didn't notice. If a message was ready to be picked up she hung a black petticoat on her line.

She would then hang a number of pieces in a certain order and that order told whoever was watching where they were going to meet.

Sources: History.com, Science History

At the same time, invisible ink played a role in secret messages being sent to Washington. According to a letter from 1776, one type of invisible ink was invented by an English doctor named Sir James Jay, the brother of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Jay.

An engraved portrait of American politician, governor, and first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Jay in his robe in the late 1700s. Kean Collection/Getty Images

According to his letter, he had a method for his correspondence.

To avoid suspicion, he wrote short letters to his brother and a few others, leaving the rest of the page black. He then filled these blank spaces with intelligence information he thought might be useful, writing it with his invisible ink.

Sources: New York Times Archive, Science History

During the American Civil War, Elizabeth Van Lew, a well-off woman from Virginia, secretly worked for the Union. She brought prisoners food and medication, as well as sneaking messages into books and in a secret compartment of a custard dish.

Elizabeth Van Lew, an American abolitionist who operated an anti-Confederate spy ring during the Civil War, offers shelter to escaped secret agents of the Federal army in a secret room of her house in Richmond, Virginia. Culture Club/Bridgeman via Getty Images

Later in the war, she started writing messages to Union soldiers in a clear liquid that turned black when milk was added.

Source: Smithsonian Magazine

During World War I, both the CIA and the Germans came up with their own concoctions for invisible ink.

The use of ultraviolet light reveals the use of invisible ink on a letter. Bettmann/Getty Images

The CIA released several of its old recipes in 2011, including one which was 3.4 ounces of water plus three grams of copper sulfate and potassium bromide. The Germans used a mixture of powdered aspirin and water.

Source: Wired

During World War II, knitting had its day as a form of covert messaging. In German-occupied Belgium, the resistance had women who lived beside railway lines to knit the order of trains into the clothing to keep track of the enemy's movements.

An 80-year-old woman, who lost five of her six sons during World War II, knits in 1938. Maeers/Fox Photos/Getty Images

It was simple work, like a hole made by a dropped stitch signifying that a train had passed, or a purl stitch, which created a bump, meant another type of train had been by.

Sources: Telegraph, Lithub

And at least one Belgian woman used invisible ink on her back to transport information during the war.

A Belgian female spy has invisible ink on her back in 1940. Bettmann/Getty Images

Invisible ink was used again in 1943 to send what appeared to be a love letter from a woman in Krakow to a man in Romania, but it was actually providing information about concentration camps.

A reproduction of a postcard used to send an invisible letter about Auschwitz, the Nazi concentration camp. STR New/Reuters

To the naked eye, the letter said: "My darling, I remember you with love."

But if you heated the postcard with a hot iron, the real letter said, "Death camp, the rest deceit."

This was followed by a series of words, including "starvation, torture chamber, terror, killing by gas, gallows, murder, incinerator, agonizing hell, children of four and under."

Source: Independent

The less-sophisticated method of lemon juice had its day, too. Two spies, a German man named Carl Muller and an English man named John Hahn, reported the movements of British Troops by writing to their government from Britain using invisible ink made with lemon juice.

William Abel, a mail censor at Iowa's State Prison, Fort Madison,  not Carl Muller or John Hahn  using a hot iron to bring out a secret message written in lemon juice on a letter. Three Lions/Getty Images

When the pair were caught and their houses were searched, the police found a lemon filled with holes as well as a pen nib ruined by citric acid.

The lemon Muller used is still stored in the British National Archives.

Sources: Science History, National Geographic

There was even one instance where four imprisoned Polish Girl Guides in a concentration camp called Ravensbruck used their urine to send secret letters.

Women working at Ravensbruck concentration camp during World War II. ADN-Bildarchiv/ullstein bild/Getty Image

They told their families about what was going on in the camp, including details about horrific testing by the Nazis, as they experimented with infectious diseases.

The girls asked that in return, they signal that they were receiving the messages by including a blue thread in the package they sent back.

Source: First News, Reuters

It was also during World War II that the Germans started using a technique called microdots. J. Edgar Hoover said it was "the enemy's masterpiece of espionage."

These three microdots, magnified several times, featured as exhibits in the spy trial at the Old Bailey in London on March 22, 1961. AP

These messages were shrunk down to the size of a period.

These messages were so small  shrunk up to 200 times  most of the time you had to know about them before you could find them.

Sources: New York Times, BBC, BBC, Vice

In 1968, American prisoners of war captured by North Korean forces started sending not-so-subtle messages by raising their middle fingers. It was a way to show their rebellion and to keep their humor.

Men of the captured crew of the USS Pueblo subtly raising their middle fingers in a photograph taken in North Korea. Bettmann/Getty Images

The sign wasn't recognized by the North Koreans so the message went right over their heads.

Sources: Vice, Atlas Obscura

Back in America, the secret messages continued. Prisoners began to use them, though their messages were often more advanced than using invisible ink mae of milk, lemon, or urine.

Col. Mark Adger/Business Insider/Mark Abadi

In 2018, Insider reported on the secret codes some prisoners were using.

These included writing hidden messages using every fifth word, substituting letters in what's known as a substitution cipher, or using a telephone number cipher so that letters indicated phone numbers.

One letter that was intercepted requested a hit on one of the prison staff at Fulton County Jail in Atlanta.

Source: Insider

In 1999, there were reports that scientists had taken the idea of microdots and used it to hide secrets in DNA. This strategy was more reflective of what scientists were capable of doing rather than signaling the future of hidden messages.

Dr. Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins, 46, of Greenwich, England, stands with a model of a DNA molecule during a news conference in the New York office of the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research. Anthony Camerano/AP

Source: New York Times

As for modern secret messages, most of it takes place on computers. A common way to do it is to hide messages in digital photographs. In 2018, a low-resolution sunset made headlines when a GE employee tried to hide corporate secrets in emails he sent to himself with nothing but the photo attached.

General Electric logo displayed on a phone screen and a binary code displayed on a screen are seen in this illustration photo taken in Krakow, Poland on January 15, 2023. Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images

The former employee Xiaoqing Zheng was charged  and later found guilty  of conspiracy to commit espionage. He was accused of attempting to steal 20,000 electronic files from GE about its turbine technology.

In the emails he sent to himself with the photo, he wrote: "nice view to keep."

Sources: Vice, CNBC, Science History

Read the original article on Insider
The TikTok ceramicist known as Pottery Boy BuzzFeed News; courtesy Pottery Boy

Adam Blythe, a 27-year-old ceramicist from Illinois with just over 5 million followers on his TikTok account, @thrdfloor , is tired of all the references to that scene in the 1990 film Ghost. You know, the one in which Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore use their entwined hands to massage a lump of clay as the Righteous Brothers haunting Unchained Melody plays on the jukebox. Its widely considered one of the sexiest film scenes of all time .The amount of times Ive read, Why isnt Unchained Melody playing in the background? he said. You get certain comments all the time that are irritating. Blythe said that as an act of protest hes never watched Ghost. And hes made a concerted effort to avoid associations with TikToks ceramics scenes more sensual side. Thirst trap content performs really well and gets a lot of engagement, he said. But sometimes my question is, Is the audience really there for your work? Or are they there for the video?

Adam Blythe Courtesy Adam Blythe

A quick glance at the platforms #pottery hashtag, which has amassed almost 10 billion views, reveals an abundance of videos that cater to the thirsty masses. Its easy to see the appeal, erotic romance novelist and sex educator Scotty Unfamous said. You see them doing stuff with their hands, using a very delicate touch, and you start to wonder what those hands would feel like on you, she explained. How delicately could you touch, mold, and sculpt me? Although plenty of women clad in crop tops have found success on TikTok throwing pottery, its the men who seem to attract the most attention. Male ceramicists, wearing aprons over bare chests , make eye contact with the camera as they massage phallic lumps of clay . Some dispense with the aprons altogether.

Blythe, for one, keeps his shirt on. He wants to be known for his art, rather than his torso. It can be frustrating when I take an active effort to kind of fight that stereotype, and because of this environment that exists, you sometimes get lumped in with super overtly sexualized content, he said. Still, the thirsty comments  Ive never been more interested in this man *I mean pottery* and he knows what hes doing  persist.

Story continues

Some ceramicists are more willing to embrace the sensual side of their craft. Its quite a sexual, intimate thing  just the way it looks, I guess, said Pottery Boy, a 25-year-old ceramicist from Melbourne, Australia, with 1.6 million followers on his TikTok account who has previously made international headlines for being dreamy. (Pottery Boy asked BuzzFeed News to withhold his name for privacy reasons.) I suppose Im a sexual person, he said, and I like the sexual element of lots of things in my life.

Pottery Boy admitted his videos have horny undertones: He said he adds extra mayo  Australian slang for a bit of spice or oomph  to the slaps he gives the clay at the beginning of his videos, and hes learned that making direct eye contact with the camera excites his viewers. At the same time, he doesnt consider himself a thirst trapper. No one ever says my videos are thirsty-trappy. They just say that they find them very attractive, said Pottery Boy, who pumped a bare arm for the camera in a recent video as he lifted a particularly heavy lump of clay. And Im not shirtless, he insisted. Im wearing an apron.

Others in the scene blamed the intimate nature of pottery for revving up their viewers. Having that undivided attention  that potters give to their clay  is something most people crave from their partner, whether they realize it or not, said Renee Monaco, a 28-year-old ceramicist and entrepreneur from New York with almost 2 million followers on her account, @peachmangojuice777 . I think viewers feel like theyre getting that through the pottery videos, which is nice.Monacos videos often involve her shaping phallic-looking lumps of clay using repetitive stroking movements, set to innuendo-laden songs like Lil Waynes  Lollipop  and Sam Smiths  Unholy . Her comment sections are filled with horny adoration.

Renee Monaco Courtesy Renee Monaco

But she insists that she is simply being herself and behaving normally in videos, rather than trying to be sexy. I don't think anything of it, but of course, like, its all about what the viewer thinks  it's totally up to them, Monaco said.She added that she is unbothered by viewers who choose to sexualize her: They have every right to take the video and see it the way that they want to see it.

While some TikTok ceramicists are happy to leave their videos open to interpretation, others have joined the platform with the express purpose of changing the way their craft has been framed.I was at a fine art school when I started my TikTok, and I felt like [the shirtless videos] were completely taking away from the art form and focusing on sexualizing it. I didnt want that to be what people thought pottery is, said Oliver Elias, a 22-year-old ceramicist from Minnesota with 1.3 million followers on his TikTok, @oliverthepotter . Early on he used the hashtag #ikeepmyshirton in the captions of his videos, he said, because I was like, Fuck this, I want to be an all-clothed potter.Although Elias has since taken a live-and-let-live approach to pottery thirst traps, he hasnt escaped the stereotype. His followers frequently leave comments like I feel like youd be a good hugger or pottery boys know how to use their fingers. Obviously I enjoy the comments like, Oh, you're cute, admitted Elias, who added that his TikTok has definitely allowed me to gain that exposure in my work and bring me more commissions.

Oliver Elias Courtesy Oliver Elias

Blythes comment sections, in comparison, are tame  although he does get some seriously horny private messages. I get very strange emails, where its like, Could you massage my socked feet? or something like that, Blythe recounted. I dont know if they thought the socked part made the outrageous request more normal, but something about that makes me laugh.

Still, as 60% of Blythes viewers are women, he feels he has it easier than most of his female peers. I think if you're a woman on the app that does pottery, you could probably get a lot of creepy messages, he said. Monaco  who gets comments like  Nobody is looking at the pottery  and  We all know why we watch   said she doesnt think its too bad. She added, Most of them are pretty funny.

Unfamous said that influencers may be reluctant to admit theyre purposefully thirst-trapping. If you are leaning into it, theres a negative judgment that comes with that, she said. Theres also a cringe factor that plays into it: Its cooler to pretend that youre aloof, and pretend that youre above it, than admitting youre doing it.Unfamous also told BuzzFeed News that, while she could appreciate the sex appeal of pottery TikTok, thirsty viewers should be following the lead of influencers when it comes to the comments they make. There is a boundary. There are some people that are cool with [being sexualized], and there are others that are not, she said. Viewers need to take that seriously in terms of consent.For ceramicists like Pottery Boy, however, horny comments are a small price to pay for success. While he did not admit to intentionally thirst-trapping his followers, he does welcome the attention that those kinds of viewers bring. After all, they helped him to sell all of his $53 mugs in 40 seconds last year . His IRL business is thriving, too: He operates three pottery studios that attract 350 students a week and has plans to open two more this year. Business is going really, really well, Pottery Boy said. But I dont think my TikTok can take full credit for that.To be honest, I'm not too phased about how I'm perceived, PotterBoy said. I want to create content that people love to watch, and that brings more people to the sport of pottery. I think my videos are doing that, and that's the most important thing. If you come for the pottery or if you come for the sex appeal, I welcome everyone.

BuzzFeed news; courtesy Adam Blythe

Blythe, meanwhile, hopes to keep his brand PG. I try to structure my stuff where I'm glad people think I'm cute and enjoy watching me do my work. But if that was the only reason they're there? That wouldnt be a very sustainable future for me, he explained. Because at that point, what you have to sell is not your work, it's you  and that's a difficult thing to sell, unless you start an OnlyFans. (Incidentally, Pottery Boy does have one set up, although there arent any posts on it .)But it doesnt mean Blythes completely opposed to putting on a show. If I get to 10 million followers, he said. I would make the best-edited, thirsty pottery video.

More on this
(Warning: Spoilers from the season finale of Perfect Match ahead.)

"Perfect Match" is a Netflix show that pairs up cast members from past reality shows for another shot at love.

For the first few episodes of Netflixs Perfect Match, it seemed like Shayne Jansen, first seen on "Love Is Blind" Season Two, would eventually leave the show without finding love. He went on a couple dates, but the connections quickly fizzled.

Everything seemed to be going in the wrong direction  until he met Chloe Veitch of "Too Hot to Handle" Season One and "The Circle" Season Two.

The two immediately hit it off on their date and Jansen was enamored with her effervescent personality. They decided to match with each other. She later expressed she was falling for him.

However, the arrival of Veitchs ex, Mitchell Eason, whom she met when they both appeared on Season Two of The Circle, temporarily paused their budding romance. Veitch chose to rekindle her relationship with Eason and Jansen was briefly sent home.

Eventually, Veitch realized that she and Eason were still battling the same issues they had that led to their breakup. She cut things off with Eason for good and Jansen returned to the Perfect Match villa.

Veitch and Jansen had a few explosive disagreements  including one about her splashing him after jumping into a pool  but they managed to make it until the finale. They were named as one of the finalists, but ultimately Dom Gabriel and Georgia Hassarati were crowned the winners.

In an interview with TODAY.com, Veitch opens up about her love triangle.

Shayne Jansen and Chloe Veitch in Episode 12 of

Chloe Veitch has no 'Perfect Match' regrets

The Too Hot to Handle star says she does not regret choosing to pursue Eason and pausing her promising connection with Jansen.

I needed to date Shane and then date Mitchell to really see how different they were. Not comparing them to each other but to also my inner self. Like, how do I feel being with these individual men? Do I feel strong, empowered, loved, cared for? And it really opened my mind to what Chloe actually wants in a man, she says.

Story continues

She jokes, Dating multiple guys isnt normally my forte, but it is amazing because obviously theyre both really sexy.

At the time of the interview, Veitch hadn't seen the episodes. She was dreading watching Jansens reaction to her exploring getting back together with Eason.

Im gonna see Shane hurting on the show when I watch it, she says. So Im probably gonna close my eyes for that. But (on a) competition dating show, these things happen.

She says the decision was difficult but necessary at that moment.

Mitchell Eason and Chloe Veitch in Episode Seven of

Eason shares a similar view of the situation in a separate interview with TODAY.com. He says did not know his ex-girlfriend would be on Perfect Match when he agreed to do the show.

He wanted to give their relationship another chance because they didnt really get to know each other before it ended the first time, he says.

I dont regret it because at the end of the day, I wanted to just give it my all for the show and for myself. Its sad it didnt work out with me and Chloe, but were good friends, he says.

Are Chloe Veitch and Shayne Jansen still together?

In short? No, Veitch and Jansen are not together. After Perfect Match ended, Veitch and the Love Is Blind star broke up.

Were not together unfortunately, she says. Towards the end of the episodes in Perfect Match, there were some bumpy roads, up and down.

On the show, Jansen struggled to forgive Veitch and move on from her short-lived reunion with Eason.

She continues, When I decided to make him my perfect match, I was feeling very hopeful. When we got outside of the villa, the bubble that we had around us just popped.

The UK native points out that Jansen resides in Chicago while she lives across the pond.

As a single woman, Veitch says she is focusing on presenting, acting and following her dreams.

I will find my perfect match one day, she says.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
Perusahaan Sadur Timah Malaysia (Perstima) Berhad (KLSE:PERSTIM) Third Quarter 2023 Results

Key Financial Results

Revenue: RM312.8m (down 19% from 3Q 2022).

Net income: RM21.2m (up 34% from 3Q 2022).

Profit margin: 6.8% (up from 4.1% in 3Q 2022). The increase in margin was driven by lower expenses.

EPS: RM0.16 (up from RM0.12 in 3Q 2022).

All figures shown in the chart above are for the trailing 12 month (TTM) period

Perusahaan Sadur Timah Malaysia (Perstima) Berhad shares are down 1.1% from a week ago.

Risk Analysis

You should learn about the 1 warning sign we've spotted with Perusahaan Sadur Timah Malaysia (Perstima) Berhad.

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
The mummy is shown in the delivery bag. Dirrecion desconcentrada de cultura de Puno

A 26-year-old was caught carrying an ancient mummy in his delivery bag in Peru.

The man said the mummy was his 'spiritual girlfriend,' and that he shared a bedroom with it.

The mummy is believed to be an adult male that died between 600 and 800 years ago.

The police had a surprise when they searched a young man who was caught drunk with two of his friends at an archeological site in Puno, western Peru.

Inside his cooler bag they found an ancient mummy believed to be 600 to 800-years-old, cowered in the fetal position.

The 26-year-old, named Julio Cesar Bermejo by the newswire France24, referred to the mummy as his "spiritual girlfriend," which he said he had named Juanita.

"At home, she's in my room, she sleeps with me. I take care of her," he said in a video, according to AFP.

The mummy was found wrapped in the fetal position, as is common in Peruvian mummifications. Dirrecion desconcentrada de cultura de Puno

Authorities, who have since examined the mummy, have concluded the remains are of a 4 foot 11 inches tall 45-year-old man who died between 600 and 800 years ago.

"It's not a Juanita, it's a Juan," a specialist at the Peru Ministry of Culture told France 24.

Bermejo claimed he been given the mummy by his father, and it had been in his family for over 30 years. It's not clear where his father would have acquired the mummy, per AFP.

The delivery bag used to carry the mummy is shown here. Dirrecion desconcentrada de cultura de Puno

Bermejo said he kept the mummy in his bedroom in a box, next to his television.

Bermejo added that he had taken the mummy to the archeological site to show it off to his friends, per France24. He denied trying to sell the mummy, per France 24.

The local police are investigating possible crimes against Peru's cultural heritage. Dirrecion desconcentrada de cultura de Puno

Bermejo and his two friends are being detained while police investigate possible crimes against Peru's cultural heritage, per the BBC.

Mummification was common in ancient Peru before the Spanish colonization. The body was mummified and bound in a fetal position, which was a common burial practice at the time.

Mummies were often placed in graves above the ground that were easy to pillage and they were often ransacked, an expert previously told Insider.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg defended President Joe Biden not visiting East Palestine, Ohio, where a train carrying hazardous materials derailed last month.

Mr Buttigieg spoke to CNN on Tuesday, when host Don Lemon asked whether Mr Biden should visit East Palestine; Mr Buttigieg visted the area last week. Mr Buttigiegs visit came after former president Donald Trump arrived in the town and pledged to donate cleaning supplies and water.

What I know is hes been very concerned throughout this process about what the people of East Palestine are going through, Mr Buttigieg said. I also think a visit to that level can have a lot of disruptive effects, so it would need to be thought of carefully. But Im certainly glad that I went.

Many Republicans have criticised Mr Biden for not visiting the site where a train carrying vinyl chloride, a hazadrous chemical, derailed. Some Republicans have also called for Mr Buttigiegs resignation in response to the derailment and the fact it took him more than a week to make remarks about the situation.

Mr Buttigieg offered a similar response on Monday when asked on MSNBC whether Mr Biden would visit East Palestine.

So on the first question, what I do know is that the president cares a lot about this issue, he said. Hes spoken repeatedly with me and other senior members of the administration about what can be done both to support the community and hold these railroads accountable.

The Republican National Research Committees research Twitter account flagged both appearances.

Pete Buttigieg says itd be too disruptive if Biden  who didnt say a word about it for 18 DAYS  visited the toxic train disaster in East Palestine, Ohio, it tweeted in response to his CNN appearance.

Pete Buttigieg says it'd be too "disruptive" if Biden  who didn't say a word about it for 18 DAYS  visited the toxic train disaster in East Palestine, Ohio. pic.twitter.com/1rSEWiDAdu  RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 28, 2023

Another dodge from Pete Buttigieg on whether Biden  who waited 18 days before saying a word about the toxic train disaster  will ever visit East Palestine, Ohio pic.twitter.com/VU3LgEw9UV  RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 1, 2023

Another dodge from Pete Buttigieg on whether Biden  who waited 18 days before saying a word about the toxic train disaster  will ever visit East Palestine, Ohio, it tweeted after his MSNBC appearance.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg delivers remarks to the press as he visited the site of the Norfolk Southern train derailment on February 23, 2023 in East Palestine, Ohio. Michael Swensen/Getty Images

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg hasn't ruled out running for the White House again.

He's in the spotlight and the hot seat far more than most other transportation secretaries before him.

His response to the hazardous-materials train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, didn't help.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg hasn't ruled out running for the White House again. But before he reaches higher, he must resolve his "Google problem," as one Democratic strategist put it.

"If you type his name into Google, the first 10 things that come up are not great," said Adrian Hemond, CEO of the bipartisan consulting firm Grassroots Midwest in Michigan, Buttigieg's new home state.

The search-engine test shows Buttigieg has become a high-profile target who finds himself in the spotlight far more than most other transportation secretaries before him.

Some attacks have been personal, aimed at Buttigieg's paternity leave or job qualifications. But he's also taken hits, mostly from the right but also on the progressive left, for the supply chain crisis, the Southwest holiday flight cancelation debacle, and his handling of the hazardous-materials train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. He acknowledged he could have expressed his concern for the community "sooner" after waiting 10 days to speak out.

"Politics 101  you've got to speak to the pain of the people," former Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner, a longtime ally of independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, told Insider. "He's in over his head, he ain't qualified to do this job, and he needs to go."

On the GOP side, former President Donald Trump, who showed up in Ohio a day before Buttigieg, criticized him for not being there already, Florida senators sparred with him on Twitter, and several GOP House lawmakers introduced a resolution calling on him to resign over his record as secretary.

Now he's also on defense against a DOT Inspector General audit of his use of government planes for official trips, instigated by Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who has called for his resignation and accused Buttigieg of demonstrating "a gross level of incompetence and apathy" in his job. Buttigieg says he welcomes the review of his travels to "get past the politics."

Story continues

The transportation job was expected to be a resume booster for Buttigieg, a 41-year-old former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who won the 2020 Iowa caucuses and gained a following as the first openly gay, major Democratic presidential candidate. He is considered to be a viable future candidate, with a favorability rating among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents that has improved since he ran for president, according NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist polling.

But the next years clearly won't be easy, especially given his political aspirations. He'll have to push back against GOP investigations and critics, all while working to implement the Biden administration's massive $1.2 trillion infrastructure law, historic legislation designed to upgrade roads, bridges, ports, airports, and other public works.

"Assuming, rightly, that he wants to run for something in the future, yeah, absolutely it's a problem," Hemond said of the bad headlines. "He needs a couple of wins."

His move to Michigan in July sparked speculation about his next job in politics. He has said he isn't interested in running for the state's open Senate seat. But Hemond said Buttigieg could potentially run for governor there.

"He definitely has some repair work to do to get to the point where he's a viable candidate," he said. "It seems pretty clear at this point that he needs to win something else before he can try running for president again."

Using his star power to his advantage

Buttigieg isn't the first DOT secretary to come under fire. His predecessor in the Trump administration, Elaine Chao, faced allegations of misusing office resources, though the Justice Department declined to investigate.

However, no transportation secretary has likely entered the job with more star power. After he strode onto the stage of The Late Show last fall, host Stephen Colbert noted that not many transportation secretaries have been guests on late night talk shows.

"Well, I'm glad to be part of changing that," Buttigieg responded before geeking out over the childhood "magic" of trucks, roads, and planes, and projects like a biomass power plant in New Hampshire that will be used to help melt snow on sidewalks.

"Any mayor from north of a certain latitude knows that the battle of mayors versus snow is second only to the battle of mayors versus potholes," he told Colbert.

Jeff Davis, of the nonprofit Eno Center for Transportation, said he has been studying transportation for 25 years and it has been "very strange" to see the secretary of the "low-key" transportation department making the rounds on the late-night talk show circuit.

"Because we've never had a secretary who had national political ambitions before, people are treating him a little more differently than they would a regular secretary of transportation," Davis said.

His high-profile stature "does make him a natural target for criticism," said Elaine Nessle, executive director of the lobbying group Coalition for America's Gateways and Trade Corridors. "I'm sure that the general public probably can't remember the names of our past several secretaries of transportation."

He has been able to use his name recognition to his advantage, however, when it comes to promoting the infrastructure law's investments. "I think that he's added value in that way," she said.

Buttigieg has proven himself adept at breaking down complex issues into digestible soundbites and firing back at his opponents, including on Fox News.

He responded to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's poke at him for pursuing "woke initiatives" by pointing to the bridge the department is funding in McConnell's home state of Kentucky.

"And Leader McConnell could be enormously helpful by joining us in standing up to the railroad industry lobby to make hazardous trains safer," he added.

Since the infrastructure law passed in 2021, the Transportation Department has churned out funding for projects across the country while standing up new competitive funding programs under the law.

"It's difficult to understate what a large task that is in terms of standing up all of these new programs," Nessle said.

DOT, not NTSB

Overseeing all of that is part of his job. What's not his job: Answering for the National Transportation Safety Board, an independent agency charged by Congress with investigating transportation accidents.

Buttigieg schooled House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer on this recently when the Kentucky Republican announced an investigation of Buttigieg's response to the train derailment and referenced a preliminary report from "DOT's National Transportation Safety Board."

"I am alarmed to learn that the Chair of the House Oversight Committee thinks that the NTSB is part of our Department. NTSB is independent (and with good reason)," Buttigieg tweeted in response.

His tug-of-war with Republicans will likely continue as several committees probe the crash.

For his part, Buttigieg has been slamming Trump for rescinding a rule requiring better brakes on high-hazard cargo trains, pushing for freight rail accountability, and calling on Congress to increase maximum fines that DOT can hit rail companies with for violating safety rules.

The current maximum fine of $225,455, the department says, is a "rounding error" for a company reporting an operating income in the billions. McConnell could help change that, Buttigieg said.

"The freight rail industry has wielded a lot of power here in Washington," Buttiegieg said on CNN. "I would love to see Leader McConnell join us in standing up to them."

Read the original article on Business Insider
The viral video showed an Philippine airport security officer inserting something into the jacket of a fellow staff at the security checkpoint which, according to a witness, was the cash taken from fellow tourist Kitja Thabthim. (Photo credits: Piyawat Gunlayaprasit/Facebook)

Authorities in the Philippines have sacked five airport security personnel who were caught on a viral video allegedly engaging in extortion of money from a foreigner.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) on Monday (27 February) has relieved from duty the five individuals who allegedly took around 20,000 (S$200) from a Thai tourist at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) on 22 February.

The victim, a Thailand national, was identified as Piyawat Gunlayaprasit. A witness, another Thai tourist, posted videos of the incident on Facebook, which quickly went viral, showing the security screeners inserting money into their pockets, and later returning the money to the passenger after being confronted.

In a statement, the Office for Transportation Security (OTS) said that the agency will address the issue accordingly by filing criminal complaints against the security personnel. It also emphasised that those involved will not only be dismissed from the service but will also be put behind bars for their criminal acts. It vowed to find other strategies to solve the problem.

A crime of necessity?

Meanwhile, a Philippine lawmaker urged the OTS to look into the salary of its security officers, saying it could be the prime motive why these people are committing such crimes.

Theres no excuse for doing illegal acts. But in reality, if youre in need, one is more likely to commit crimes like this, said Senator Grace Poe, Senate Public Services Committee chairperson.

This incident is not the first involving security personnel at the Philippine airport. Since July 2022, 14 OTS personnel have been dismissed while three others were suspended. Six cases, ranging from violation of the agency's "no tipping policy," improper disposal of intercepted prohibited items, extortion, rude behavior, and the use of mobile phones while on duty, remained under investigation.

Marvin Joseph Ang is a news and lifestyle writer who focuses on politics, the economy, and pop culture. Follow him on Twitter at @marvs30ang for latest news and updates.

Story continues

Do you have a story tip? Email: sgnews.tips@yahooinc.com.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter. Also check out our Southeast Asia, Food, and Gaming channels on YouTube.
Photo: The Canadian Press Scientists examine a step in the vaccine purification process as they design updates to the Novavax's COVID-19 shots in the company's research laboratory on May 24, 2022, in Gaithersburg, Md. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Angie Wang

An American company that signed a deal with the federal government to produce COVID-19 vaccines in Montreal is warning investors it could go out of business within the year.

Executives at Maryland-based Novavax told investors yesterday on a conference call that there is significant uncertainty surrounding the company's ability to continue funding operations as the market for COVID-19 vaccines changes.

In February 2021, the federal government announced a deal with the company to begin producing its vaccine at a National Research Council facility in Montreal.

The NRC said on a website last updated in December that it is still working on the "technology transfer" required to produce the vaccine.

Novavax Chief Financial Officer Jim Kelly told investors that the company, which lost more than $600 million last year, doesn't expect to sell any new vaccine during the first three months of 2023 and there are fears that funding from the United States government could be cut.

Mitsubishi Chemical announced early last month that another company planning the commercial manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines in Canada, Quebec-based Medicago Inc., would be shut down.
Snow-covered mountains provide a backdrop for the downtown L.A. skyline. (Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)

Staggering snowfall totals have been reported this week from the storm in Southern California.

San Bernardino County has declared a state of emergency, with mountain residents trapped in their homes and motorists stranded.

More snow was expected in many communities where residents, unable to drive through deep snow on roads that were closed anyway, largely got around on foot.

Cal Fire Fenner Canyon fire crew inmates dig snow from around a residence at a Big Bear Lake trailer park on Friday. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Big Bear Lake streets are plowed while the area is still choked with snow on Friday. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Many street signs are still nearly covered in snow on Friday as the Big Bear Valley digs out off successive snowstorms which lasted a week and blanketed San Bernardino Mountain communities. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Men shovel snow off the roof of a Big Bear Village gift shop following successive storms that blanketed Southern California for a week. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

A lone snowboarder on an empty slope Friday at Snow Summit where there were no lines as San Bernardino Mountain communities still prohibit visitors. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

The Big Bear Valley is covered with snow following successive storms that blanketed San Bernardino Mountain communities on Thursday. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

A sailboat cruises off the coast of Corona del Mar with snow-covered mountains in the background. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

A snowplow belches black smoke as the driver clears a path for vehicles past homes inundated with snow in Sugarloaf. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

A snow-covered dock at a marina on a frozen Big Bear Lake, where successive storms have pummeled the resort town in the San Bernardino Mountains. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Many streets in Sugarloaf are deserted as snow trapped residents in their homes and kept visitors away from resort areas. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Homes and vehicles are inundated with snow in the latest storm to pound resort areas in the San Bernardino Mountains. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Snow in the mountain town of Sugarloaf piles up outside a house. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Carved wooden bears are covered in snow in Big Bear. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Big Bear residents are worrying about food supplies after snow nearly paralyzed the mountain town. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Amblerlee Barden shovels snow from her driveway after successive storms dumped several feet of snow in Big Bear. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

As roads to the mountain resorts were closed, chairlifts were mostly empty at Big Bear Mountain Resort. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Icicles hang at a firewood lot as resort areas in the San Bernardino Mountains dig out from successive storms. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Karen Brianza walks her dog on an icy street in Big Bear. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
A man found murdered earlier this month in a North Miami Beach fast-food restaurants parking lot didnt deserve to die, his brother said Tuesday.

The victim was located less than two weeks before he was supposed to get married.

Hershy Schwartz, 39, was found unresponsive in the rear parking lot of Wendys, 25 NE 167th St., at 8:30 a.m. Feb. 19, North Miami Beach police have said. Investigators called it a homicide and said Schwartz was likely killed during a robbery.

Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers has put out a flier about Schwartzs death and offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction. No one has publicly said how Schwartz was killed.

During a news conference at police headquarters, Yoel Schwartz pleaded for the publics help to find his brothers killer.

READ MORE: Man found dead in car behind a North Miami Beach fast food chain. Cops say its a homicide

Its very hard for us to comprehend and fathom what happened to him or the reason why it happened to him, Schwartz said. I beg everyone in the community, no matter who he is, no matter if he knew him or if he didnt know him, to please, please help us.

Schwartz also said he was very close to his brother.

Hershy was to me not only a brother, he was my best friend, he said. Please help us find the person who did this and bring justice for Hershy.

Hershy Schwartz was a first responder for the William P. Faist Volunteer Ambulance, and the Brewer Fire Engine Company No. One, Inc., in New York, WPLG Channel 10 had reported.

Chesed Shel Emes, a Jewish nonprofit that says it works with law enforcement and medical examiners to provide respect and dignity for the deceased, had also tweeted shortly after the slaying that Hershy Schwartz had been one of its members.

Schwartzs bride-to-be, Rosie Brutowsky, had told the television station that she felt empty without him. My heart was completely ripped out... I love him and I cant live without him, she said.
Feb. 28POLAND  Those who know Aaron Aldrich the best said he's been in trouble with the law since his earliest days.

Court records bear that out.

Now charged in a double homicide in Poland last week, the 46-year-old Aldrich's criminal history spans decades, as well as several areas of the Maine landscape.

From the mid-1990s when he became a legal adult, Aldrich has been convicted of a long string of crimes, including numerous thefts, burglaries, drug possession, robbery, reckless conduct with firearms and other charges in three counties.

In 2003, he was one of three people charged with robbing The Big Apple store in West Paris, a crime that ultimately got him seven years behind bars.

Some people who have known Aldrich since his youth said these charges stem from his longtime involvement in drugs and the culture of crime that goes with it. Some said he was mostly a thief  just not a very good one.

Aldrich has been in and out of prison his entire adult life, according to the court records. That trend didn't change in the weeks and months leading up to the killings in Poland.

In September 2022, Aldrich was charged with a slew of crimes, including reckless conduct with a firearm, assault on an officer and possession of fentanyl, in Westbrook.

In recent months, he has also been charged numerous times  in Oxford, Androscoggin and Cumberland counties  with violating conditions of release, which typically means a return to jail.

Yet, on Feb. 7, just days before the killings on Tripp Lake Road in Poland, Aldrich was out and about, only to be arrested by Lewiston police and charged with three counts of failing to appear in court and refusing to submit to arrest.

He was released shortly after that arrest, too. And not long after, police said, he killed a man and a teenager at a mobile home in Poland.

Maine State Police, investigating the killings, have not described Aldrich's relation to the two people he is accused of murdering.

Story continues

Mohamed Aden, 16, of Lewiston and Shoeb Mohamed Adan, 21, of Springfield, Massachusetts, were found dead Feb. 21 in a home at 205 Tripp Lake Road by Androscoggin County Sheriff's deputies conducting a welfare check.

Police caught up with Aldrich in New Hampshire days later, and charged him with two counts of murder. On Tuesday, he was being held at the Rockingham County Jail in Brentwood, New Hampshire, awaiting extradition to Maine.

Those who know Aldrich speak about him only reluctantly and only on the promise of anonymity. Several said they are afraid of him, even though Aldrich is locked up and charged with crimes that may put him away for decades.

As a teen, his intimates said, Aldrich spent time at state youth centers after being charged as a minor with various crimes. Once he turned 18, he entered the adult system and began to serve jail and prison time on a regular basis.

"It was always stealing and drugs," one longtime acquaintance said. "He could not stop stealing, even from family."

In 2012, Aldrich described himself as a victim of addiction; a misunderstood tattoo artist whose criminal record was a hindrance to living an honest life.

He learned carpentry in prison, Aldrich told a Sun Journal reporter. He got a welding certificate, but once free, he was unable to get a job or to get a license to open a tattoo parlor in Lewiston.

At the time the article was published, Aldrich was 35 and claimed to be a changed man.

"Ten years ago I was a very different person," he said. "I was a drug addict. I was a thief and an alcoholic. I'm not trying to deny that, but currently I'm a productive citizen of Lewiston and Auburn, and I haven't been in a stitch of trouble."

And it appears that Aldrich did stay out of trouble for a time after his release from prison in 2010. His criminal history doesn't pick up again until 2019 when he was charged with possession of crack cocaine. After that, more trouble quickly followed, including new and numerous charges of thefts, burglary, criminal mischief and various other crimes.

Aldrich has also been known to use the name Aaron Trebilcock, according to court records. Over the years, he's listed addresses in several jurisdictions, including Portland, Auburn, Turner, South Paris and Oxford.

At the time of his arrest in the Poland killings, Aldrich was living on Cottage Road in Lewiston.

Details in the double homicide on Tripp Lake Road remain murky. The mobile home where the killings occurred is owned by a New Gloucester couple, but the trailer was supposed to be unoccupied. There was also no word on how the 16-year-old Mohamed Aden was connected to the 21-year-old from Springfield, Massachusetts.

On Monday, Maine State Police said, Aldrich waived extradition. He is expected to be brought to Maine at the start of next week when he will be held at the Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn.
Jason waves as Ashley Anderson talks to the crowd prior to the start of the 2023 Special Olympics of Gaston County Polar Plunge held Saturday at Lineberger Pool in Gastonia.

Approximately 200 people recently submerged themselves in a chilly swimming pool to raise money for Special Olympics Gaston County.

The annual Polar Plunge took place Saturday, Feb. 25, at Lineberger Pool.

Teams and individuals turned out for the event and took the plunge just as the rain stopped.

Despite the overcast weather, the turnout was on par with previous years, but the amount of money raised exceeded this years goal of $10,000, according to Ashley Anderson, coordinator of Special Olympics Gaston County.

In total, participants raised $14,000.

We far surpassed our goal, Anderson said.

For the past 10 years, volunteers have raised money for the event that's held each February.

Payton Eaves, left, keeps warm by line dancing with some of her friends from Gaston Early College prior to the start of the 2023 Special Olympics of Gaston County Polar Plunge held Saturday at Lineberger Pool in Gastonia.

Polar plunges for Special Olympics are held throughout North Carolina to benefit the programs in the counties where they operate.

According to Anderson, Gaston Countys chapter operates on a $20,000 annual budget.

That money is used to support programs for people eight and older with developmental disabilities.

A Gaston Early College team takes the plunge during the 2023 Special Olympics of Gaston County Polar Plunge held Saturday at Lineberger Pool in Gastonia.

This article originally appeared on The Shelby Star: Polar plunge benefits Special Olympics
Canton Police Department, Ohio

CANTON  A 30-year-old city man was arrested Wednesday, accused of last month's robbing a grocery store bank.

The suspect was arrested at his home in the 1500 block of 30th Street NW on Wednesday after detectives from the Canton Police Special Investigation Unit and the Canton office of the FBI executed a search warrant.

The man is accused of robbing the Huntington Bank branch inside the Giant Eagle at 608 Raff Road SW at 12:31 p.m. Feb. 1. The masked robber approached the teller and handed her a note demanding cash. He fled with an undisclosed amount of cash.

Store robberies:Canton store robberies: Police arrest 18-year-old suspect

The suspect faces charges of aggravated robbery, possession of heroin and possession of fentanyl-related compounds. He also was wanted on an unrelated parole violation.

The investigation is ongoing, police said.

Anyone with any information regarding the crime is asked to call the Canton Police Detective Bureau at 330-489-3144 or the Canton Office of the FBI at 330-456-6200. Anonymous tips can also be sent through Tip411 or the Stark County Crime Stoppers.

This article originally appeared on The Independent: Canton man arrested in connection with Huntington bank branch robbery
Human remains found near 1700th block of North Dixie Highway in New Smyrna Beach, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023.

New Smyrna Beach Police on Tuesday were notified of a human bone found in a wooded area in the 1700th block of North Dixie Highway, which is near the city airport.

"An archeologist employed by the city of New Smyrna Beach located the bone while working in a documented historical site," police said in a press release.

Police received the call at around 9 a.m. and officers responded to the scene, where they found several other bones, including a human skull.

Human remains found in Flagler:Flagler County Sheriff's Office hopes new image solves cold case murder mystery

Investigation:Flagler Sheriff's Office, USF team uncover additional human remains at Palm Coast site

"New Smyrna Beach detectives, along with Volusia County Medical Examiner investigators, thoroughly searched the area and were able to recover approximately 30 bones," police said.

The identity, race, and sex of the individual is unknown at this time, and the investigation is ongoing.

"DNA will be utilized in an effort to identify the person and detectives are working toward identifying a cause of death," police added.

This story will be updated as more information is available.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Human remains found near wooded area in New Smyrna Beach, police say
Multiple Kansas schools responded to hoax calls threatening shootings Wednesday morning.

The Topeka Police Department said it received a hoax call around 8:15 a.m. of an active shooter at Highland Park High School.

Officers and other local law enforcement responded and cleared the school and surrounding area by 9 a.m., but discovered no threats to the school, students or staff. The police department said its looking into the false call and was made aware of similar calls in the region.

In a message to staff and families, Highland Park High School said officials are cooperating with law enforcement in the investigation. The school ended its lockdown and secure campus procedures, but additional school staff and law enforcement will remain at Highland Park and other schools in the district.

Other safety measures are also in place, such as locking front doors and using additional steps before allowing staff to enter.

We know this is a very frightening ordeal for everyone and any parent that would like to pick up their student today will have an excused absence, the school said.

Administrators and the superintendent stayed at Highland Parks campus and visited every classroom to make sure students were OK. The mental help team will also be on campus to meet with students.

In Lawrence, police said they responded just before 8:30 a.m. to a separate hoax call about an active shooter at Free State High School. A school resource officer at the campus identified the call as a swatting incident, but the department involved all available officers in the area to handle the incident.

We at the Lawrence Police Department take this type of threat very seriously and are actively investigating, along with various law enforcement partners, to understand the scope of this crime, said Laura McCabe, a spokeswoman with the department.

Riley County police also received a hoax call around 8:30 a.m. of an active shooter at Manhattan High School West, but a school resource officer and sergeant on duty determined in about a minute that the school posed no threat because the room number the caller mentioned did not exist. Police worked with the school to send a message to the community and students letting them know there was no threat.

The department said it was in contact with other area law enforcement agencies who had received similar hoax calls about shooters, but they still havent determined what happened or the motivation for the calls.
Teens, mental health care professionals and crisis-line volunteers told state and federal leaders that youth need access to more culturally relevant mental health care and better communication about what services exist.

Addressing these two issues would go a long way toward combating a youth mental health crisis that has grown in the wake of the pandemic, they told Gov. Tina Kotek and Xavier Becerra, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The group convened at Faubion School in northeast Portland on Monday afternoon to discuss mental health issues facing students and resources available through state and federal dollars. Also present at the K-8 school were representatives of Portland Public Schools and the University of Oregons new Ballmer Institute for Childrens Behavioral Health. The institute was set up to address the lack of mental health care professionals by placing its first class of 200 undergraduates into Portland Public Schools as interns in the fall of 2023.

Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter

A survey of about one-third of Oregon students conducted in 2020 by the Oregon Health Authority and the Oregon Department of Education found nearly half felt sad or hopeless for more than a two-week period. And a report released in August by the Annie E. Casey Foundation found that the number of Oregon children struggling with mental health issues grew from 11% in 2016 to 16% in 2020.

Jaiyana Jones, an eighth grader at Faubion, said during a roundtable discussion that COVID and social media have increased mental health suffering among students over the last few years. She said some who dont feel comfortable talking with counselors and school staff turn instead to abusing substances. Tanvi Vemulapalli, a volunteer for the nonprofit crisis hotline Lines for Life, said a lack of supportive adults is the number one reason young people say they call the hotline.

Story continues

Its one of the biggest things, the lack of comfort reaching out to someone, Vemulapalli said.

As a Black student, Jones said it would be helpful to have more Black counselors and mental health staff. People who share some of what you experience, she said.

Jeida Dezurny, a member of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians and a youth representative of the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board, said there is a generational and cultural disconnect among many Native American youth to mental health care services. In the absence of more Native mental health care providers, Dezurnby said she and her colleagues have focused on training Native adults from all walks of life to talk with young people about suicide, opioids, mental health, sex and other topics that can feel uncomfortable to discuss.

We start teaching the caring adults, the educators, the guardians, the community members, she said, asking them: How do you address mental health? We know that you probably have never addressed it in your life, and thats OK, were gonna get past it, were going to educate you.

To combat nationwide shortages of school counselors, psychologists and social workers, Becerra said the federal human services department is planning to launch a scholarship program that would help pay for graduate studies for people hoping to become mental health care professionals. In exchange, they would need to commit to three to four years of work in the field.

Becerra also touted the federal governments investment in the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline launched in July, which connects callers and texters to counselors trained in helping people in a crisis. Becerra said the Biden administration is investing $500 million over two years to get the line established nationwide, but states will need to provide their own funding to sustain the service.

I think itd be a great challenge for the youth who are in this space to convince the leaders in your state  because there are only a few states today that actually provide a steady stream of money  to keep the 988 lifeline going, he said.

In Oregon, Lines for Life oversees the service except in Marion and Polk counties, where Northwest Human Services is in charge. Koteks proposed budget includes adding a fee of 40 cents per cell line to sustain the 988 Lifeline into the future.

The Legislature is considering several bills to target the mental health care workforce shortage and improve access to mental health care in schools.

Two bills, House Bill 2485 and House Bill 3274, would require Portland State University and Southern Oregon University to educate and graduate more public mental health and addiction treatment providers over the next five years. House Bill 2636 would require every school district to ensure every school has a mental health professional and nurse.

In 2019, the state allocated more than $1 billion to the Student Success Act, which helped pay for mental health care in schools. Additionally, Oregon received millions from the American Rescue Plan during the pandemic, with directives to use some of it for mental health staff and programs.

Oregon Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oregon Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Lynne Terry for questions: info@oregoncapitalchronicle.com. Follow Oregon Capital Chronicle on Facebook and Twitter.
Xiplomacy: Why exploration of Greek, Chinese civilizations is beneficial to the whole world

Xinhua) 08:19, March 01, 2023

Photo taken on March 14, 2022 shows flowers blossoming at Filopappou Hill opposite Acropolis in Athens, Greece. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos)

ATHENS, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- China and the ancient Greece are among the world's most important cradles for human civilizations. More than 2,000 years ago, the two ancient civilizations still had some indirect exchanges despite being separated by the vast Eurasian landmass. The ancient Greek people even had a name for the Chinese at that time: Seres, which means the silk-people.

In today's world of interdependence, it is of great historical and contemporary significance for China and Greece to promote exchanges and mutual learning between the two civilizations and also push forward the development of civilizations in other countries.

Last week, the Center of Greek and Chinese Ancient Civilizations was officially inaugurated at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA). Partnering with the Center of Chinese and Greek Ancient Civilizations of the Southwest University in China, the newly-opened institute aims to promote bilateral exchanges of scholars and students to advance the study of the two civilizations.

A deeper exploration of Greek and Chinese civilizations, two of the most ancient ones, will benefit the whole world, said professors from Greek universities involved in founding the new center.

"We believe that in this world, which is fragmented, where values are in crisis, it would be very beneficial for all of us, not just for China and Greece, but for the whole world, to look at the legacy of these two great cultures and look at them in a comparative way," said Stelios Virvidakis, president of the Steering Committee of the Center of Greek and Chinese Ancient Civilizations.

Visitors take photos of Caryatids on display at the Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece, Nov. 7, 2019. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos)

A JOINT INITIATIVE

Back in 2019, during his state visit to Greece, Chinese President Xi Jinping and then President of Greece Prokopis Pavlopoulos visited the Acropolis Museum in Athens.

Xi said the tour left him a beautiful and memorable impression, and deepened his understanding of ancient Greek civilization. He said he felt the impact of history and further realized that China and Greece, as two ancient civilizations, have much in common.

During Xi's visit, the two leaders jointly advocated exchanges and mutual learning between civilizations. After the visit, the two sides started to build centers dedicated to what the two leaders proposed.

The deepening of cooperation between Greece and China through this new venue opens a new world, a new era, said Apostolis Dimitropoulos, former general secretary of higher education at Greece's Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs.

Recalling his visit in 2019 to Qufu city in Shandong Province of China, the birthplace of Confucius, Dimitropoulos said he realized at that time that it was of great significance to start from a comparative study of the philosophies of the two countries when exploring the two ancient civilizations.

Confucianism has great influence on the eastern civilization, "while ancient Greece has saved the western civilization. By studying the foundations of the two in a comparative perspective, I think we could understand more the foundations of the globe," Dimitropoulos told Xinhua.

The initiative to build the research centers brings together eight universities from Greece and China, and was warmly supported by the Chinese president.

Xi has recently replied to a letter from Virvidakis and four other Greek scholars, extending congratulations over the founding of the Center of Greek and Chinese Ancient Civilizations.

"I am very happy and honored and moved that the Chinese president has responded to our letter and has pledged to support and sustain our joint efforts of the two centers, the center in Greece and the center in China," said Virvidakis, also professor emeritus of Philosophy of the NKUA.

Visitors view exhibits during an art exhibition of creations by Chinese artist Qi Baishi at the B&M Theocharakis in Athens, Greece, Nov. 12, 2019. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)

A MIRROR TO EACH OTHER

Nikos Kazantzakis, a giant of modern Greek literature who had visited China twice, commented that "Confucius and Socrates were two masks that covered the same face of human logic."

For Virvidakis, each civilization is like a mirror to the other.

Greeks feel that Chinese are friends, and China is another self of Greece, Virvidakis said, referring to a quote of ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle who said that a friend is another self.

"My colleagues and I believe that the Chinese are real friends who can share our worries, and our dreams, hopes and vision for the future. I do believe that they are like a mirror that makes us understand ourselves better here in Greece and in the West to the extent that the whole West has been influenced by Greek thought," he explained.

"From now on the partnership between China and Greece will have a very different character," said Pavlos Kontos, professor of Philosophy at the University of Patras. He added that the University of Patras in Greece and the Southwest University in China will jointly launch a master's program which will begin in September.

"It is on Chinese and Greek civilizations and it is the first one worldwide that introduces a comparative approach to these two civilizations," Kontos said.

A man flies a kite on the occasion of Clean Monday at Filopappou Hill in Athens, Greece, on Feb. 27, 2023. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos)

A COMMUNITY WITH A SHARED FUTURE

In his letter to Greek scholars, Xi said in order to promote the development of human society and jointly build a community with a shared future for mankind, we must deeply understand and grasp the age-old origins and rich contents of different civilizations and let the essence of all civilizations benefit the present generation and all mankind.

The world today is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century, Xi said, adding that to solve outstanding contradictions and problems facing the mankind, it is necessary to rely on material means to overcome difficulties and rely on the strength of the spirit to rectify mind through thinking with sincerity.

"We think it is a very sound and correct advice. Because we do believe in the power of the spirit and in the importance of values ... The idea is that the people, the scientists and the administrators and politicians who work on solutions, can be inspired from the teaching of great thinkers," Virvidakis said.

"In our civilizations, both the Chinese civilization and Greek civilization, we have concepts which provide us with guidelines to more harmonious cooperation in our world," former Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou told Xinhua in a recent interview in Athens.

"We do believe that if people from different cultures get together and exchange ideas, this will benefit the whole world. If two big cultures, like Chinese and Greek cultures, get together and exchange ideas, then the hope is that people from other traditions may join," Virvidakis said.

"China and Greece have showed the way for this convergence of people and developing new solutions," he added.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Photo: The Canadian Press Matthew McKnight holds arms with his mother as they walk into court in Edmonton on July 10, 2020. The Alberta Court of Appeal has sentenced the former Edmonton club promoter to 11 years for the sexual assaults of five women. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson

Alberta's top court has increased the sentence of a former club promoter convicted of sexually assaulting five women to 11 years in prison.

Matthew McKnight was sentenced to eight years after he was convicted in 2020 of the assaults that happened in Edmonton between 2010 and 2016.

In a unanimous decision released Wednesday, the panel of three justices said the eight-year sentence "does not adequately send a symbolic, collective statement that (McKnight's) conduct should be punished for encroaching on our society's basic code of values."

Last month, the Crown asked the Court of Appeal of Alberta to sentence McKnight to 15 years, arguing that he was premeditative in offering women free alcohol at the bars where he was working before he assaulted them at his downtown apartment. His victims were between the ages of 18 and 22.

"Even though the jury apparently did not accept the Crown's theory that (McKnight) had embarked on a plan to sexually assault multiple women, there was clearly a pattern involved," said the decision.

The Crown also argued that the gravity of the offences was not properly assessed and that an eight-year sentence was not severe enough.

The starting point for jail time in a major sexual assault is three years, cited the decision.

Justice Doreen Sulyma, who originally sentenced McKnight after a four-month jury trial, had said he was "a first-time offender of previous good character," adding that he was "very repentant."

The Crown had originally asked at trial that McKnight serve 22 1/2 years, arguing that drugs were used in the assaults. The use of drugs was not proven in court.

The Appeal Court said that the 11-year sentence properly reflects the gravity of the offences.

"While the trial judge sought to avoid a sentence that was too harsh, (it) resulted in a sentence that is lenient to the point of undermining public confidence in the administration of justice," said the decision.

McKnight was originally sentenced to 10 years in prison but was credited time due to an assault that occurred at the Edmonton Remand Centre, which the court said authorities attempted to cover up, and his compliance with rigorous bail conditions.

The Appeal Court also reduced a lifetime Sexual Offender Information Registration Act order imposed by Sulyma on McKnight to 20 years.
Dawn Tyree, 51, didn't have much of a childhood.

At 11, she says she was encouraged by her father and step-mother to spend time with a man 19 years her senior.

The man started to "groom" her, she says, giving her adult responsibilities, like driving a car, to make her feel older.

The man impregnated her with her first child at 13. He was 32.

"The solution was marriage," Tyree tells TODAY.com. "Marriage covers up the rape, the sex abuse and the child endangerment."

"The marriage saved him from a prison sentence," she adds, "and essentially put me in a prison."

In 1985, Tyree finished sixth grade. That summer, she was married.

Dawn Tyree, pictured at age 13. (Courtesy Dawn Tyree)

"As minors, we can't do anything about it," Tyree explains. "It was a confusing time. It is brainwashing  call it what it is."

As recently as 2017, child marriage  what Child USA and UNICEF define as any formal marriage or informal union between a child under the age of 18 and an adult or another child was legal in all 50 states, according to Unchained At Last, an organization dedicated to ending forced and child marriage.

Currently, only seven states ban the practice with no exceptions. One 2021 study found that 300,000 minors under the age of 18 were legally married in the U.S. between 2000 and 2018.

"It would've been really nice, if one adult out of the 30 adults in my life might have had the courage to stand up and say something," Tyree says. "The generation of minding your own business is a thing of the past  we want more for our children."

'I was genuinely terrified of giving birth'

At 13 years old, Tyree says she was "afraid of dying during childbirth."

"Not because anyone had told me it was a possibility," she adds."It was because I was genuinely terrified of giving birth."

Children giving birth face higher risks of eclampsia, puerperal endometritis and systemic infections, according to the World Health Organization. The American Academy of Pediatrics has condemned child marriage, citing increased risk of sexually transmitted infections, early pregnancies and intimate partner violence.

Story continues

"I was in and out of consciousness when I was giving birth to my first child," Tyree explains. "I now realize that likely my life was in danger."

Dawn Tyree, pictured with her first child. (Courtesy Dawn Tyree)

Being a 13-year-old with a husband and a child was "all she knew," Tyree says, so she tried to "make the most of my circumstances."

"I learned at 14 that I was pregnant again," she shares. "It was a hard pill to swallow  it put a little lump in my throat. But I lived through the first birth, so I just reassured myself: 'You're going to be OK. You can do this.' Then I had my daughter."

Now a mother of two, Tyree says she lived in a "weird limbo" where the adults in her life didn't "want to engage with her" but also made it clear they "didn't want me interacting with their children."

"I can remember these different times during my childhood marriage where I wished that the person who seemed genuinely concerned would've asked if I was OK," she says. "I wish someone would've saved us. I wish they would've picked up the phone. But the truth is, even if they wanted to, after the marriage there was nothing they could do."

"It was a legally binding contract," she adds. "Basically, my husband owned me."

'I escaped without a plan'

At 16, Tyree found out she was pregnant for a third time. This time, she says, everything felt different.

"I became concerned about sexual abuse directed towards my children," she explains. "So after my daughter was born, I began to try to plan a way out. When I became pregnant again, I felt very trapped, so I made the decision to terminate the pregnancy and I escaped without a plan."

Dawn Tyree became a mother and a wife when she was 13 years old. (Courtesy Dawn Tyree)

With a 2-year-old and 1-year-old in tow, Tyree went to a women's shelter  she says she was turned away because she was a minor.

"A social worked told me to go back to my parents, because they were 'responsible for me,' but I was emancipated," she adds. "But if I was emancipated, why was my husband reporting me as a runaway? It was a road no one should have to navigate."

Rima Nashashibi, president of Global Hope 365, a nonprofit organization focused on ending child marriage and human trafficking, says it's common for homeless youth to be turned away from adult shelters.

"When they go to an abused women's shelter, they're turned away because they're minors and a liability," Nashahibi tells TODAY.com. "They can't go to a runaway shelter because they're married and have kids. So some of them end up on the street."

With nowhere to turn, Tyree says at 16 she was homeless.

"I had to separate our family unit, because my children deserve to be housed and fed, so they went with their paternal grandparents and I tried to get my feet on the ground," she explains. "Once I found a roommate situation, I took my kids back."

Tyree says she had to wait until she was 18 to finalize her divorce, win custody of her children and start to rebuild her life.

"The courts, even in these grotesque marriages, these egregious acts toward children, favor the adult," she explains. "My first real job was assembling bicycles at Toys R Us. That is how I paid rent for our one bedroom in a little house."

Dawn Tryee pictured with her two children in their first apartment. She was 17 years old. (Courtesy Dawn Tyree)

It wasn't until her own children were in their 20s, Tyree says, that she was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief.

"I don't live in fear of losing my kids anymore," she says. "I've done it  I kept us safe. They're adults now."

'Im speaking for those who are silenced '

Tyree now dedicates her life to ending child marriage in the United States, testifying in state committees across the country as she pushes for state and federal bills that will outlaw the practice.

"It's no longer about me," she says. "I can remove all of my trauma and show up for the other 13-year-old brides. I'm speaking for those who are silenced  for those who don't have a voice."

Countries across the world, including the United States, have pledged to end child marriage by 2030 as part of 17 new United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Yet advocates like Tyree and Nashashibi say they have experienced significant pushback at both the state and federal level.

The "Child Marriage Prevention Act" was introduced in Congress on Jan. 19, 2018, but did not receive a vote and died in the 115th Congress.

"Federal elected officials will say this is a state issue," Nashahibi explains. "So we're meeting with elected officials on the state level. We still have 43 states to go, which is why a federal law that says 'no child marriage under 18, no exceptions'  we need to own it. If we're going to be a world leader we need to act like one, in all aspects."

Indonesia outlawed child marriage in 2019. In Iraq, Jordan, Morocco and Algeria, the minimum age to be legally married is 18.

Dawn Tyree, present day. (Courtesy Dawn Tyree)

Additional issues advocates face are "freedom of religion" arguments and educating the public on the problem itself. According to one 2020 survey, nearly half of all Americans believe that child marriage is already illegal in the United States.

"People need to get involved," Nashahibi says. "And we need to amplify the voices of survivors."

In addition to starting a digital letter writing campaign and requesting a personalized resolution for a specific city or county, Nashahibi says it's important for parents to speak openly with their children.

"Parents can't put their heads in the sand and say, 'This is not going to happen to our kids," she says. "Have an honest discussion about your religion, abstention or safe sex. Talk about what's a healthy relationship, what is allowed and what's not allowed, and how to respect your own body."

As Tyree continues to work to eradicate the type of marriage that stole her childhood from her, she says she has a message for the victims living that reality right now:

"There are people out here aware of these circumstances that feel so lonely and isolating," she says. "We're fighting for you. Hang in there. Hang on."

If you or someone you know is a victim of intimate partner violence or sexual abuse, visit the National Domestic Violence website or call the hotline at 1.800.799.SAFE (7233), all 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, or find emergency resources for minors being pressured to marry or are currently trapped in a marriage at preventforcedmarriage.org.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
Podolyak called the launch of drones

He said that Ukraine is not striking at Russian territory, but is waging a defensive war to liberate all its lands.

"Ukraine doesn't strike at Russian territory," he said.

Ukraine is waging a defensive war to de-occupy all its territories. This is axiomatic.

The adviser also called the launch of drones "internal attacks" that are manifestations of the process of "panic and disintegration" in Russia.

Read also: Explosions heard in western Crimea, test of civil defense alert system planned

"Panic and disintegration processes are building up in Russia, reflected by an increase in internal attacks on infrastructure facilities by unidentified flying objects," Podolyak said.

On Feb. 28, there were a series of mysterious explosions and other incidents involving unknown drones in various regions across Russia.

On the night of Feb. 28, the authorities in Belgorod, Russia, reported the downing of three drones.

Later, an oil terminal was attacked by "two unidentified aerial vehicles" in the Russian city of Tuapse. A large-scale fire broke out as a result of the explosion.

St. Petersburg declared a Kovyor alert because of an unknown object in the airspace above the city. The Russian Defense Ministry later said the alert had been a "training exercise."

And in Moscow Oblast south of the Russian capital, a drone crashed near a Gazprom facility.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Mykhailo Podoliak, Advisor to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, has stated that Ukraine does not carry out attacks on the territory of Russia  it is how he has responded to the Russians accusations of Ukraine allegedly striking Russian regions with UAVs.

Source: Podoliak on Twitter

Quote: "Ukraine doesnt strike on Russian Federations territory. Ukraine is waging a defensive war to de-occupy all its territories. This is an axiom."

Details: According to Podoliak, processes of panic and disintegration are building up in Russia, and it's reflected by "an increase in internal attacks on infrastructure facilities by unidentified flying objects".

Background:

On the night of 27-28 February, explosions rocked the Russian city of Tuapse in Krasnodar Krai, followed by a fire at a Rosneft oil refinery. News outlets reported that it was an attack of UAVs.

An unidentified aircraft crashed in Adygea, in the Southern Federal District of Russia, the head of the republic said. There was a large fire in the Temryutsky district of the Russian Federation.

On 28 February, 200 square kilometres of the airspace were closed in the Russian city of Saint Petersburg, and the local Pulkovo Airport stopped accepting planes for landing after an unidentified flying object (UFO) was detected over the city.

Later, the Russian Ministry of Defence reported that the airspace over Saint Petersburg had been closed because they were conducting "air defence training".

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
Prince Harry calling Meghan Markle his favorite smell has royal fans gushing over their relationship, while others have found the answer cringe-worthy.

On Tuesday 28 February, the Duke of Sussex made a surprise appearance in a segment of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, in which hed answered Colberts 15 burning questions. The pre-recorded segment aired one month after Prince Harry initially sat down with the talk show host to talk about the release of his bombshell memoir, Spare.

During the Colbert Questionert segment, the comedian asked the 38-year-old royal a variety of questions  from the best sandwich, to his favourite action movie, to what he thinks happens when we die. Prince Harry joined the ranks of other famous figures who have been interviewed in the Colbert Questionert, including Michelle Obama, Cate Blanchett, Sandra Bullock, and Daniel Craig.

While some of his answers were surprising, Prince Harry had one response that fans mostly couldnt get enough of.

When asked by Colbert what his favourite smell is, the father of two paused and took a second to ponder over the question.

Favourite smell he said under his breath, before letting out a soft chuckle. My wife, he said confidently, which prompted the audience to let out an echo of awws.

Following the late-night talk show appearance, a video of the moment circulated on social media as royal fans declared Prince Harry had set the bar for husbands everywhere.

if this isnt his answer, hes not the one, tweeted one fan.

That smile before he answers, another pointed out.

A third user shared: I get this answer. Ive been happily married for 32yrs that smell of someone you love is very comforting all it takes is a hug, a peck on the cheek that sense of smell memory last forever.

if this isnt his answer hes not the one https://t.co/TJ2CYRy2qB  sunshine & roses (@chxrrycacti) March 1, 2023

That smile before he answers https://t.co/4gSJwdhFxG  Factsand2cents Podcast (@factsand2cents) March 1, 2023

I get this answer. I've been happily married for 32yrs that smell of someone you love is very comforting all it takes is a hug, a peck on the cheek that sense of smell memory last forever. https://t.co/jkTGIGeqc6  VP360 (@ViewPoint_360) March 1, 2023

This man is so in love and theres nothing his detractors can do about it, said someone else.

Story continues

Others simply shared their NSFW reactions to his response.

Now, Henry joked one fan.

My guy has absolutely no chill, said someone else. He will always let them know.

This man is so in love and there's nothing his detractors can do about it.  Sarah M (@ForumsMeghan) March 1, 2023

My guy has absolutely no chill. He will always let them know. https://t.co/0MhfysEU2i  R.S. Locke / Royal Suitor (@royal_suitor) March 1, 2023

One fan tweeted: That pause is dangerous, if Henry Charles Albert David doesnt chill out

The moment before he says my wife, another said. He was having flashbacks.

That pause is dangerous 



If Henry Charles Albert David doesnt chill out https://t.co/yKoAMLTvnc pic.twitter.com/NijBssTTiC  erika (@erika_kay10) March 1, 2023

The moment before he says "my wife"........He was having flashbacks #HarryandMeghan pic.twitter.com/t3tZn2RvKN  Alexis( sowing discord in the west) (@ArchewellBaby) March 1, 2023

However, others felt the response was too over-the-top, with one person alleging it might be the saddest, most pathetic response to a question that Ive ever heard.

As for his favourite sandwich, Prince Harry revealed it to be a cheese and ham toastie with Dijon mustard on top. Although, Colbert hesitated after the word toastie, while Harry acknowledged that he too struggles with Americanisms.

In addition to admitting that he should really throw out his ripped boxer shorts, Harry shared what he thinks happens after death.

I think we become animals, he said, adding that he would like to come back as an elephant after he dies.

And when he was asked to describe the rest of his life in five words, Prince Harry answered: Freedom. Happiness. Clarity. Space. Love.

The Duke of Sussex previously appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert after the release of his autobiography, Spare, which hit bookshelves on 10 January. During their conversation, the two discussed many of the claims written in Harrys book as they knocked back shots of tequila.

The royal answered plenty of questions about his frostbitten penis and showed off the necklace his brother, Prince William, allegedly broke during their physical fight at Nottingham Cottage in 2019.

Prince Harry also gushed over the two children he shares with his wife, Meghan Markle  son Archie, three, and daughter Lilibet, one. When Colbert asked the duke whether he sees any of his late family members in his and Meghans children, Harry said he definitely sees his mother  the late Princess Diana  in his children, before joking that the ginger gene is a strong one.

The Spencer gene is very, very strong, he joked. I actually really genuinely thought at the beginning of my relationship that, should this go the distance and we have kids, that theres no way the ginger gene will stand up to my wifes genes. But, I was wrong.

He then fist pumped the air, saying: Go gingers!
Peter Nicholls/Reuters

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are to be evicted from their largely unused Windsor home, Frogmore Cottage, which King Charles wants to use to house Prince Andrew instead, according to a sensational report in British tabloid The Sun on Wednesday.

Sources say the reportwhich remains unconfirmed, with Buckingham Palace and Archewell declining to comment on it to The Daily Beastis likely accurate, as the king is acutely concerned about appearances of extravagance while a cost-of-living crisis batters British living standards.

A friend of the kings told The Daily Beast: Charles has made it quite clear he wants to reduce the size of the royal estate. Its not a good look for a house to be sitting empty so it can accommodate Harry and Meghan once in a blue moon.

Asked about rumors that Andrew would be eased out of the late queen mothers former home, the palatial Royal Lodge, where he and Sarah Ferguson live in separate wings, the source said: Andrew cant continue living in a 30-room stately home at taxpayers expense. I wouldnt be at all surprised if the king is making changes.

A separate palace source said of the rumored move to Frogmore Cottage, which despite its diminutive name is actually a five-bedroom farmhouse worth millions: Any such discussions would be a private family matter.

The report was effectively confirmed, however, by the reporter Omid Scobie, Harry and Meghans biographer, who is known to have excellent contacts within the Sussex organization and has at times acted as a quasi-spokesman for the couple.

Writing on Yahoo!, Scobie said the couple had paid a large sum to cover rent on the property for the foreseeable future and were appalled by the move to kick them out of the property.

It all feels very final and like a cruel punishment, a friend of the couple told Scobie. Its like [the family] want to cut them out of the picture for good.

The source added: This is not just some random rental they keep for convenience. Every drawer is full, every closet is packed Its a real family home.

Story continues

A source told Scobie that it was Charles who personally offered Frogmore to his brother.

The Sun reports that Meghan and Harry are now shipping their last items of furniture to the U.S., where they settled in Montecito, California, after quitting the royal family in 2020.

The paper adds that the king began the process of evicting the couple from the cottage just a week after Harrys memoir, Spare, was published.

All Prince Harrys Memoir Revelations Spare No One, Including Himself

The Suns source said: This eviction surely spells the end of Harry and Meghans time in the U.K. Andrew is resisting the idea of moving into Frogmore Cottage after he was offered it last week. But it shows Harry and Meghan are powerless to stop the eviction.

The couples controversial tenure of the idyllic property began when they were given use of the home by the queen as a wedding present in 2018. The premises underwent a $3 million renovation before they moved inbut six months later they fled the country in fear of their lives, as Harry has claimed.

Following intense public outrage, they eventually paid back the renovation costs and were given a lease on the property for several years.

They have sought to hang on to the property despite making only fleeting visits home.

Andrew, meanwhile, is under pressure to quit 30-room Royal Lodge.

But he may not be able to afford the upkeep if, as reported, Charles axes the annual stipend of at least $300,000 per annum that he was given by his mother, having shelled out an estimated $14 million to settle Virginia Giuffres sex abuse allegations.

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.
Photo: The Canadian Press A snowmobile rides down the main street Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2012, on the Fort Hope First Nation, Ontario. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

Search and rescue crews are looking for a small commercial plane with two people on board that went missing Tuesday in a remote area of northern Ontario.

The Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Trenton is leading the search for the missing Cessna 208, which left Nakina around 12:45 p.m. and was expected to arrive in Fort Hope approximately 45 minutes later but never did.

JRCC Trenton spokesman Maj. Trevor Reid says military and police planes and helicopters, as well as civilian aircraft, have been deployed along the Cessna's flight route.

On Wednesday an Ontario Provincial Police helicopter joined the search.

Reid says Tuesday's search was hampered by unfavourable conditions including fresh snow and low clouds.

He could not confirm the identities of the people on board the missing plane.
Prince William and Prince Harry attend an Anzac Day service at Westminster Abbey on April 25, 2018, in London, England. Mark Cuthbert/UK Press via Getty Images

Prince Harry and Prince William have had a rift between them for years.

In his memoir, "Spare," Harry shared new details about their relationship.

These photos show how the brothers' rift unfolded over the years.

Earlier this year, Prince Harry shared new details about his years-long rift with Prince William.

Prince Harry and Prince William on the balcony of Buckingham Palace on July 10, 2018, in London, England. Max Mumby/Getty Images

Prince Harry wrote about his relationship with his older brother in his memoir "Spare," which was released on January 10, and shared new details about their falling out in the book and in promotional interviews that month.

Speaking to ITV News at Ten presenter Tom Bradby on January 8, Harry said that William physically attacked him in 2019 and asked him not to tell Meghan Markle about it. In his memoir, Harry said that William described Meghan as "difficult" and "rude" during the incident, and that William was parroting the "duchess difficult" narrative spun by the press.

But there had been reports about the brothers' rift for years before Harry opened up, dating back to Harry and Meghan's royal wedding in 2018. Here are a handful of photos that hinted at their feud through the years, and others that were taken during a tumultuous period in the brothers' relationship which wasn't as apparent at the time.

Harry and William were never as close as the public believed them to be, which is evident when looking back at William's 2011 royal wedding.

Prince William with Prince Harry outside Westminster Abbey before his royal wedding to Kate Middleton on April 29, 2011. Samir Hussein/WireImage via Getty Images

Writing in "Spare," Harry revealed that he wasn't William's best man at his wedding to Kate Middleton in 2011, contrary to what the public believed.

"The public had been told that I was to be best man, but that was a bare-faced lie. The public expected me to be best man, and thus the Palace saw no choice but to say that I was," Harry wrote.

William instead chose two friends, James Meade and Thomas Van Straubenzee, to be joint best men, according to Harry. The prince said another reason that William didn't tell the public was to insure his friends, who were not in the public eye, were able to avoid the media spotlight.

Story continues

The brothers weren't as close as the public thought they were, and this is also apparent when reading about their relationship as children. In "Spare," Harry wrote that William didn't want anything to do with him when he joined the same boarding school, Eton College, as a young boy.

The brothers' relationship was tense during Harry's royal wedding to Meghan Markle in 2018.

Prince Harry with Prince William before his royal wedding to Meghan Markle at St. George's Chapel on May 19, 2018. Jonathan Brady - WPA Pool/Getty Images

Harry wrote that William also wasn't his best man at his 2018 wedding, but his friend Charlie was.

He added that he and his brother had been in an argument in the lead-up to the wedding because William was upset that Harry was allowed to keep his beard when he had been required to shave his off. Harry wrote that he had to ask permission from the Queen to not shave before his nuptials, and she gave her blessing.

Harry wrote about Meghan and William's awkward first meeting in "Spare," and it seems evident that the pair weren't close when looking at photos of their interactions in 2018.

Prince William greets Meghan Markle before an Anzac Day service at Westminster Abbey on April 25, 2018. Mark Cuthbert/UK Press via Getty Images

Harry wrote that William was "freaked out" and "recoiled" when Meghan tried to hug him when they first met in 2016. While Meghan was used to hugging strangers, William was used to more formal interactions, Harry wrote.

"Maybe Willy expected Meg to curtsey? It would have been protocol when meeting a member of the Royal Family for the first time, but she didn't know and I didn't tell her," Harry wrote.

In the years that followed, Meghan was a source of contention between the brothers, as William believed the "duchess difficult" narrative that had been spun by the press, Harry wrote.

This rare photo of William and Meghan sharing a kiss on the cheek before a service for Anzac Day in April 2018 is the only time they were photographed publicly embracing one another, and it certainly appeared to be a more formal greeting than the one Meghan originally gave William.

The "Fab Four" posed for photos on the Buckingham Palace balcony in July 2018, which was around the same time that their relationship was falling apart behind the scenes.

Meghan Markle, Prince Harry, Prince William, and Kate Middleton at Buckingham Palace on July 10, 2018. Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

Writing in "Spare," Harry described a "clear the air meeting" that he said took place between himself, Meghan, Kate, and William in June 2018 at Kate and William's home.

Harry wrote that during the meeting, William and Kate were upset because Harry and Meghan hadn't given them Easter gifts in April of that year, and he and Meghan were upset because William and Kate switched place cards and changed seats at their wedding that May, which they insisted wasn't them but someone else.

According to Harry, Kate then demanded an apology from Meghan because she had told her sister-in-law that she had "baby brain" during a phone call where Kate had forgotten something about wedding rehearsals. Kate told Meghan that "we're not close enough for you to talk about my hormones," while William pointed at Meghan and said: "It's not what's done here in Britain," according to Harry.

Both couples attended the same Remembrance event in London in November 2019, but they were seated far apart.

The royal family at a Remembrance Service at Royal Albert Hall in London in November 2019. Chris Jackson/- WPA Pool/Getty Images

As Insider previously reported, the couples entered the venue separately and did not appear to interact at the event.

Harry and Meghan didn't speak with William and Kate at their final royal engagement at Westminster Abbey in March 2020.

Prince William, Kate Middleton, Prince Harry, and Meghan Markle attend the Commonwealth Day Service 2020 on March 9, 2020, in London, England. Phil Harris - WPA Pool/Getty Images

Awkward photos and video footage from the event showed that the couples entered the venues separately, and although they were seated just one row apart, they did not speak to each other.

Harry and William didn't walk side by side at Prince Philip's funeral on April 17, 2021.

Prince William, Peter Phillips, and Prince Harry at the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral on April 17, 2021. Samir Hussein/Getty Images

Harry and William's cousin, Peter Phillips, was placed between them during the funeral procession.

Harry wrote in "Spare" that he had a meeting with William and King Charles after the funeral, where he said both of them seemed confused and unwilling to comprehend why he and Meghan stepped back from royal duties the previous year.

The funeral took place shortly after Harry and Meghan's bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey, where they spoke about their fractured relationship with the royal family and said that an unnamed royal had "concerns and conversations" about their son Archie's skin tone before he was born. Days after the interview aired, Buckingham Palace said the issues raised were concerning and would be "addressed by the family privately."

The brothers were most recently photographed walking together at the Queen's funeral in September, but their relationship seems to be far from repaired.

Prince Harry and Prince William follow the hearse with the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II moving towards St. George's Chapel on September 19, 2022, in Windsor, England. Jon Super - WPA Pool/Getty Images

Harry and William were reunited at Queen Elizabeth II's funeral in September. They walked together in the funeral procession, and during his interview with Tom Bradby in January, Harry said they both joked that they "knew the way," because it was the same procession they had walked as young boys at the funeral of their mother, Princess Diana.

The brothers weren't seated together at the funeral and Harry and Meghan flew back to California the day after the ceremony, Page Six reported at the time.

The royal family has not publicly commented on his memoir, but Harry seemed to confirm that he and William were not on speaking terms during his interview with Bradby.

"I would like to get my father back. I would like to have my brother back," Harry said, adding that his family hadn't shown any effort to reconcile.

Read the original article on Insider
Princess Keisha of Nigeria. Michael Stewart/Getty Images

Princess Keisha Omilana is an American model who married a Nigerian prince.

Speaking on Insider's "Royal Representation" panel, Keisha said her life is "very non-royal."

She said people might be surprised to learn that she loves Target and sometimes takes the train.

Princess Keisha Omilana, an American model who married Nigerian royalty, told Insider that people are often surprised by how ordinary her life is.

Keisha was living in New York City when she met her future husband, Prince Adekunle "Kunle" Adebayo Omilana, from the Arigbabuowo ruling house in Nigeria, in 2004. She previously told Insider that she didn't know he was a prince until two years into their relationship, when she met Kunle's mother and she referred to Keisha as "my princess."

Princess Keisha and Prince Kunle at their home in London. Mikhaila Friel/Insider

The couple now lives in Europe and have two children, Prince Diran and Princess Dior. And while they often use their royal titles for public events, Keisha said they tend to keep a low profile in their daily lives.

Speaking on the virtual Insider panel, "Royal Representation," alongside Princess Sarah Culberson of Sierra Leone on Monday, Keisha was asked by an audience member what would surprise people most about being a princess.

She responded: "We have multi-faceted lives, and we have great interests, and we have causes that we're working on. But sometimes, for me, my day-to-day life is just very non-royal."

"They may be surprised that they may find me on the train one day, or they may be surprised that when I'm in the US, oh my gosh, I love Target. So you might find me at Target," Keisha said.

Keisha said that it's easy for members of the public to place royals "in a box," even though her life is likely quite similar to theirs. She said that while she and Kunle do have royal responsibilities that they take seriously, they also have "ordinary" moments.

Keisha and Kunle's children were born in New York, however, they've spent most of their childhood living in different countries. Keisha previously told Insider that the family has spent time in Dubai, Cyprus, and London.

The family spent last summer in New York City with their children. Writing in an Instagram post on June 26, Keisha said she and Kunle had "vowed to NEVER let another full year go by without visiting our favorite city in the world."

Read the original article on Insider
Roger Ng, a former banker for Goldman Sachs, is pleading for leniency ahead of his March 9 sentencing in the US over the 1MDB scandal. Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg/Getty Images

US authorities convicted an ex-Goldman Sachs banker of bribery and money laundering in the 1MDB scandal.

Ng, who also spent time in a Malaysian prison, said conditions were "brutal and distressing."

He is appealing for leniency and no more prison time ahead of his sentencing hearing on March 9.

A former Goldman Sachs employee who was locked up in Malaysia over the country's 1MDB scandal has described the prison conditions as being vermin-infested and "brutal and distressing."

Roger Ng, the former head of investment banking at Goldman Sachs in Malaysia, was convicted by the US authorities in April 2022 on bribery and money laundering charges in connection with the 1MDB sovereign wealth fund embezzlement case.

Ng, who faces up to 30 years in prison, has pleaded for leniency in a letter to Margo Brodie, a US district judge, on Saturday. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for March 9 at a federal court in Brooklyn, New York.

He is appealing for the court to not impose extra prison time for him in the US as he has been traumatized by his confinement in a Malaysian jail  an experience he says has left him physically and mentally vulnerable, according to court filings seen by Insider. Ng's lawyers argued in the Saturday filing that he has already served time "in objectively sub-human conditions in Malaysia."

In his letter, Ng described the harrowing conditions at Malaysia's Sungai Buloh prison, which is 30 miles from the capital city of Kuala Lumpur. Ng spent six months there before being extradited to the US in May 2019.

The letter states Ng was placed in a solitary confinement cell with "a single hole in the ground for sanitation and a single water tap without windows, a bed, running water, or plumbing."

The cell was "always damp and vermin-infested" and he contracted infectious diseases from mosquitoes and rats, Ng said. On many occasions, he was in solitary confinement for as long as two weeks, he added.

Ng also said he was handcuffed and chained to 20 other inmates before being loaded into an "overcrowded police truck" for a "treacherous" high-speed ride to the courthouse.

Story continues

"Six months in the Malaysian prison had a devastating effect mentally and physically," Ng wrote in his letter. "Until today, I find myself reclusive socially as I continue to deal with this brutal and distressing experience. The time without sunlight and in isolation made me lose my mind and become frightful."

The Malaysian Prison Department did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

FBI agent Ryan Collins had testified at Ng's trial in 2022 that the ex-banker  who joined Goldman Sachs in 2005  had netted $3 million in annual salary and bonuses in 2012, according to The Edge, a Malaysian media outlet. Ng is the only Goldman employee to have been tried and convicted over the 1MDB case. Tim Leissner, another former Goldman employee implicated in the scandal, pleaded guilty.

Seen as one of the world's largest financial scandals in history, then US Attorney-General Jeff Sessions said at a global forum on asset recovery in Washington this was "kleptocracy at its worst."

The scandal foiled then prime minister Najib Razak's bid to secure a third term at the polls in 2018. In 2020, the former leader was sentenced to 12 years in prison for breach of trust, abuse of power, and money laundering in connection with 1MDB.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Raquel Evita Saraswati, the chief equity, inclusion, and culture officer of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker charity, resigned from her position on Monday following revelations that she had misrepresented herself as Latinx and Arabic.

Layne Mullett, a spokeswoman for AFSC, confirmed that Saraswati had departed the organization.

Raquel Saraswati, who is facing public allegations that she misrepresented her background and past associations, has informed us of her intention to separate from the organization, Mullett wrote in a statement to USA Today.

An open letter in early February circulated anonymously by concerned community members and staffers publicized allegations that Saraswati, born Rachael Elizabeth Seidel, was engaged in cultural vulturism by fabricating her identity.

Seidel is actually part German and Italian, and converted to Islam.

@joyce_afsc please fire Raquel Evita Saraswati. She is a racist, troubled, culture vulture who is an attention seeker that does not care about harming all the ethnicities, races and religions she stole. Please do not make AFSC complicit to her crimes. FIRE HER! pic.twitter.com/PTA2fuu1A8  SailorMoonLight (@SailorHoe100) February 19, 2023

In the wake of the revelations, The Intercept confirmed through Saraswatis mother, Carol Perone, that the entire thing was a farce. I call her Rachael, Perone said. I dont know why shes doing what shes doing.

I am as white as the driven snow and so is she, Perone added.

Prominent documentarian Laila Al-Arian previously derided Saraswiti as the Rachel Dolezal of the Muslim community.

This is not about proving ones heritage but about lying, misrepresentation and taking opportunities from actual women of color, Al-Arian tweeted in mid February.

Story continues

Saraswatis story resembles the infamous case of Dolezal, a white woman who identified as black for years. Dolezal worked her way up the rungs of a local NAACP chapter in Spokane, Wash., ultimately becoming president of the branch before her falsified identity was publicized.

For me, how I feel is more powerful than how I was born. I mean that not in the sense of having some easy way out. This has been a lifelong journey. This is not something that I cash in, cash out, change up, do at a convenience level or to freak people out or to make people happy, Dolezal told the Guardian in 2015.

If somebody asked me how I identify, I identify as black. Nothing about whiteness describes who I am.

Saraswati was previously named Woman of the Year by the National Organization for Womens Philadelphia branch and serves on the citys Commission for LGBT Affairs.

Saraswati was also an occasional guest speaker on television programs including Fox News and Al Jazeera.

More from National Review
The man accused of hitting and killing a San Luis Obispo couple while they were walking their dog was released from custody Wednesday and will have to wear an ankle monitor until his trial.

Daniel Angel Saligan Patricio, 24, allegedly struck Matthew Chachere, 39, and Jennifer Besser, 36, with his car on Nov. 21.

Chachere and Besser were found under dense brush near the intersection of Sacramento Drive and Basil Lane the next day, several hours after police received a report of a dead dog in the creekbed.

The San Luis Obispo Police Department arrested Saligan Patricio on Monday after a three-month investigation.

The San Luis Obispo County District Attorneys Office subsequently charged him with two felony charges of vehicular manslaughter.

Matthew Chachere, 39, and Jennifer Besser, 36, were found dead under dense brush near the intersection of Sacramento Drive and Basil Lane in San Luis Obispo on Nov. 22, 2022, following a car crash the evening before. Police believe the driver hit the couple while traveling at excessive speed. A memorial with flowers and photos were placed where the car had hit the bridge, and the driver is cooperating with the investigation, according to police.

Police say driver was speeding

According to police, Saligan Patricio was traveling in the 3400 block of Sacramento Drive when he lost control of his vehicle and fatally struck the couple and their pet.

Saligan Patricios vehicle hit the curb, a street sign and the bridge that spans the creek, police said.

Speed was likely a factor in the crash, according to police. The deputy district attorney trying the case said in court Saligan Patricio was driving 60 miles per hour on a street he knew well, despite the speed limit being 25 miles per hour.

Up until Wednesday morning, Saligan Patricio had been in custody at San Luis Obispo County Jail, with bail set at $200,000.

But defense attorney Ilan Funke-Bilu asked San Luis Obispo Superior Court Judge Craig van Rooyen to lower his clients bond because he cannot afford it.

IIan Funk-Bilu is the defense attorney for Daniel Angel Saligan Patricio, 24, who was charged with vehicular manslaughter in the deaths of Matthew Chachere, 39, and Jennifer Besser, 36, on Nov. 21, 2023.

Funke-Bilu said Saligan Patricios Apple Watch immediately called police to the scene and said the incident was determined an accident by responding officers.

The defense attorney said his client has continued to work and stay in the area despite the publicity surrounding the case.

The court has had the benefit of seeing my clients risk to safety since Nov. 22, and there isnt one, Funke-Bilu said.

Story continues

The lawyer asked for Saligan Patricios bail to be lowered to $10,000 in exchange for his drivers license and a promise not to drive in the near future.

The deputy district attorney asked the judge to keep the bail at $200,000, adding that Saligan Patricio was reviewing texts on his phone coming up to the turn where he crashed, and was drinking earlier that day.

Police did conduct a DUI investigation and no evidence was found to support that charge, the deputy district attorney confirmed.

During Wednesdays hearing, van Rooyen said he did not see Saligan Patricio as a public safety threat.

Judge Craig Van Rooyen speaks during the arraignment of Daniel Angel Saligan Patricio, 24, who is charged with vehicular manslaughter in the deaths of Matthew Chachere, 39, and Jennifer Besser, 36, on Nov. 21, 2023.

Medical emergency halts morning hearing

The morning hearing was disrupted suddenly when the prosecutor suffered a medical emergency and collapsed while the judge was in the middle of setting new bail parameters for the defendant.

An ambulance was called, and the arraignment was postponed to the afternoon. The prosecutor is OK according to those familiar with the matter.

When the arraignment resumed, Saligan Patricio did not enter a plea to two felony vehicular manslaughter charges.

Judge van Rooyen released Saligan Patricio from custody, with the caveat that the defendant will have to wear an ankle monitor, surrender his drivers license, cannot drink alcohol or go to somewhere that sells alcohol, and follow probation requirements.

Saligan Patricio is expected to enter a plea March 22.
An 18-year-old man is accused of pointing a gun at an officer twice and then leading police on a miles-long vehicle chase during which he is accused of driving more than 100 mph.

Angel Mosqueda was denied a bond reduction Wednesday in connection with a high-speed chase with police about 11:30 a.m. Monday when he pointed a gun at an officer and fled the scene.

Angel Mosqueda

Mosqueda was arrested on several charges in connection with the police chase that started in Northeast El Paso and ended at Bassett Place, El Paso Police Department officials said.

The charges include aggravated assault on a peace officer, unlawful carrying of a weapon, manufacturing or delivery of a controlled substance, possession of marijuana and two counts of evading arrest with a motor vehicle.

He also was arrested in connection with a bond violation in a pending case involving the unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, according to statements made during the bond reduction hearing.

An El Paso Police Department motorcycle officer, who has been with the department for 11 years, conducted a traffic stop Monday on Mosqueda, who was driving a 2013 Lexus, for not wearing a seat belt in the 9700 block of McCombs Street by Railroad Drive in Northeast El Paso, police said.

The officer asked Mosqueda for his ID, but he told the officer he did not have any, El Paso County District Attorney's Office Assistant District Attorney Danica Carman said during the hearing.

More:El Paso police search for killer in 18-year-old man's stabbing death near Downtown

Mosqueda kept the vehicle in gear, Carman said. The officer then asked him to turn off the car, she added. He then turned his body toward the officer and pointed a handgun at him, then fled, Carman said.

The officer followed Mosqueda and attempted to pull him over again, but he refused to pull over, Carman said.

The officer lost sight of Mosqueda during the chase, but other officers assisting in the incident located him driving on Spur 601 and Airport Road, police said.

Story continues

Mosqueda eventually pulled over, but again pulled out a gun and pointed it at an officer, Carman said.

He then fled the scene again in his car and was driving at speeds over 100 mph, Carman said. She added officers later found two handguns in Mosqueda's car.

Mosqueda then crashed his vehicle at Montana Avenue and Geronimo Drive, police said.

He then fled on foot with a handgun toward Bassett Place, police said.

More:If you help me, Ill help you: Texas man accused of trying to bribe El Paso HSI agent

Officers arrested Mosqueda at one of the main entrances on the north side of the mall.

He was then booked into the El Paso County Jail on bonds totaling $196,100, police said.

El Paso County Jail Magistrate Judge Linda Estrada denied a request to reduce Mosqueda's bond during Wednesday's detention hearing.

"I'm going to deny any reduction based off of the nature and the circumstances of the offenses and the future safety of the community," Estrada said during the hearing.

Aaron Martinez may be reached at amartinez1@elpasotimes.com or on Twitter @AMartinezEPT.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Teen allegedly drove over 100 mph, pointed gun at El Paso police
Pueblo police are searching for three teenage suspects, one male and two female, after a series of armed car thefts and shootings Monday resulted in several injuries, one of them serious.

At approximately 7:30 a.m. Monday, officers responded to the 5300 block of Cedar Court on a report of a carjacking. The victim told officers that three males approached in one red vehicle and one white vehicle, ran up to him in his driveway, fired a gun, and took off with his 2016 black hatchback Hyundai Elantra.

The victim was not injured during the incident. He described the suspects to police as three teenagers wearing masks. Police said one suspect was wearing a yellow shirt and a black-and-white bandana and another was wearing a grey hoodie. Police were not able to obtain a description for the third suspect.

Just an hour later, at approximately 8:32 a.m., officers were dispatched to the 1600 block of East 15th Street on a report of a shooting. The female victim reported that her vehicle had been blocked in by a black hatchback and the suspects inside fired a gun at her, causing minor injuries.

The victim told police a male suspect wearing a black hoodie fled on foot while two female suspects drove from the area in the black hatchback.

More public safety news:Pueblo coroner identifies victims in Friday homicides

While officers were on scene at the 15th Street shooting, Pueblo PD dispatch received a call at approximately 8:39 a.m., reporting another shooting in the 1100 block of Fearnow Avenue.

In that shooting, two vehicles allegedly approached a residence in the area and a male suspect exited one of the vehicles and attempted to take the victims car keys, according to police.

The victim was then shot several times and the suspects fled the scene. The vehicles used by the suspects were described as a newer white vehicle and a black vehicle. One suspect was described as a male wearing a light-colored shirt and a black mask.

The victim was transported to a local hospital with serious injuries but was in stable condition as of Tuesday afternoon.

Story continues

Shortly after officers arrived on scene at Fearnow Avenue, other Pueblo Police Department officers spotted the stolen black hatchback in the area of Northern and Santa Fe avenues. A short pursuit ensued, but the officers lost sight of the suspect vehicle due to traffic conditions.

Then, at approximately 8:48 a.m., a crash was reported on northbound Interstate 25. The reporting party said they saw several males get out of the car and run from the scene on foot. Officers responded and took two juvenile males into custody.

Pueblo police believe all three incidents were related, and each vehicle appears to be stolen. Officers have recovered the black hatchback and red vehicle they believe were used by the suspects.

Pueblo PD initially stated they were seeking a third suspect vehicle, a white Hyundai Elantra, but announced late Tuesday afternoon they'd located the vehicle. The car was unoccupied when police found it and the suspects are still at-large.

Others are reading: Pueblo County, sheriff's deputies sued for 2022 fatal shooting outside middle school

Police believe the white vehicle may be associated with another male and two female suspects who are believed to be "armed and dangerous."

"Do not attempt to approach the vehicle or the suspects," police advise.

Pueblo PD's investigation into the car thefts and shootings is ongoing.

Anyone with information about the incident is encouraged by Pueblo PD to contact Detective Joe Cardona at 719-553-3385. To remain anonymous, contact Pueblo Crime Stoppers at 719-542-STOP (719-542-7867) or visit pueblocrimestoppers.com. Information that leads to a felony arrest could qualify its submitting party for a cash reward.

Questions, comments, or story tips? Contact Justin at jreutterma@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @jayreutter1.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo police search for auto theft suspects in string of incidents
A monkey at the Dr. Juan A. Rivero Zoo in Puerto Rico. Danica Coto/AP Photo

The only zoo in Puerto Rico will close following years of complaints about the welfare of its animals, The Associated Press reported Tuesday.

The Dr. Juan A. Rivero Zoo is located in the town of Mayaguez. The 45-acre zoo, which contains around 300 animals, has been closed since a series of hurricanes battered Puerto Rico in 2017. Officials have now confirmed that it will never reopen.

"Animal welfare comes first," Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said during the announcement of the zoo's closure. "Questions have been raised for a long time."

Allegations of misconduct and abuse towards the zoo's animals have been swirling for years. The announcement of the zoo's shuttering comes just days after the U.S. Department of Justice said it would send veterinarians from Colorado's Wild Animal Sanctuary to inspect and evaluate the zoo.

Following the inspection, the director of the sanctuary, Pat Craig, told AP that the zoo in Puerto Rico "has been degraded," saying that the facilities were "overgrown and dilapidated to some degree."

Concerns have previously been raised about a number of individual animals at the zoo. This includes "two pumas that died, an underweight chimpanzee, and a rhinoceros named Felipe that was limping," among others, per AP. It was also determined that numerous animals at the zoo had not been vaccinated or given regular physicals.

The zoo had its exhibitors license canceled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2018 after finding numerous violations.

Craig said that the Wild Animal Sanctuary would be able to take at least 50 percent of the zoo's animals, and Puerto Rico's Department of Natural Resources said it was cooperating with the transfer. It is unclear where the remaining animals will be housed.

You may also like

Why space experts want to establish a lunar time zone

The Dilbert debate: Were newspapers right to 'cancel' the cartoon?

Elon Musk laments that Scott Adams' Dilbert is 'legit funny and insightful.' Cartoonists disagree.
A routine traffic stop turned into a double drug bust on the northeastern coast of Florida in the wee hours of last Thursday.

According to a police report reviewed by the Miami Herald, at around 1 a.m. in Bunnell, deputies with the Flagler County Sheriffs Office noticed a silver Toyota Camry traveling east with windows that had a very dark tint.

READ MORE: Florida driver doing donuts crashes into police car

According to Florida law, drivers can have tinted windows as long as they have 28 percent VLT, or Visible Light Transmission, meaning the window allows at least 28 percent of light to pass through.

As the deputies hit their emergency lights and attempted to pull over the Camry, they noticed the driver moving around in his seat and leaning over the console, according to the report.

After the car came to a stop, a deputy approached the25-year-old passenger. The officer wrote in the report that he noticed a strong odor of burnt cannabis emanating from inside the vehicle.

The 34-year-old driver was asked to get out of the car for a search of the interior. Deputies spotted a small plastic cup in the center consoles cup holder containing a white crystal substance, which they immediately recognized as crystal methamphetamine. The substance was later field tested and they were correct.

READ MORE: Florida woman arrested after cops find drugs in her leggings

Both suspected were cuffed. When asked if she had anything on her, the passenger admitted to storing meth in her vagina, and blamed the driver for telling her to hide her stash when they were being pulled over, the report says. A female deputy was requested and assisted with removing the drugs from her body cavity. Found inside, according to the report: a plastic bag with 10.8 grams of methamphetamine.

A more thorough search of the Camry revealed drug paraphernalia including plastic bags, scales and a small bag that contained several prescription bottles with no labels.

Both driver and passenger were taken to the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility. The passenger was charged with trafficking amphetamine, possession of narcotics with intent to sell/manufacture/distribute, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia/equipment. Bond was set at $36,500.

The driver, who has an extensive rap sheet, was also hit with multiple charges including trafficking amphetamine, possession of methamphetamine with intent to sell/manufacture/distribute, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia equipment. His bond: $111,500.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP)  Lindsey Lundholm looked out over hundreds of people at the Utah State Capitol last year and felt a deep sense of healing. Abuse survivors, religious leaders and major party politicians were all gathered to rally for an end to a legal loophole that exempts religious clergy from being required to report child sexual abuse once it comes to their attention.

Lundholm, one of the rally's organizers, recalled telling the crowd how, growing up as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Idaho, she told her bishop about her painful abuse only to see it go unreported.

Unearthing the trauma wasn't easy, but back in August she hoped reforms could be forthcoming so others would not face what she did.

There was really a lot of momentum," said Lundholm, now a teacher in northern Utah. Everyone we were talking to was like, This is a no brainer. This is something that needs to be changed.

It hasn't.

Proposals to reform laws that exempt clergy from child sex abuse reporting requirements went nowhere in Utahs statehouse this year, failing to receive even a hearing as lawmakers prepare to adjourn for the year. Efforts were stymied by a coalition of powerful religious groups, continuing a yearslong pattern in which Catholics, Latter-day Saints and Jehovahs Witnesses have defended the exemptions as survivors like Lundholm fight for reform.

In Utah, where the majority of lawmakers are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, state law requires most professionals  therapists, doctors and teachers among them  report abuse, yet clergy are exempt from alerting authorities about abuse they learn of through confessions.

Republicans and Democrats announced plans last year to reform laws that exempt religious clergy from reporting child sexual abuse cases revealed in conversations with parishioners.

Behind-the-scenes conversations between legislative leaders in Utah and what Senate President Stuart Adams said was a broad base of religious groups helped thwart four separate proposals to add clergy to the list of professionals required to report child sexual abuse.

Story continues

I think they have First Amendment rights and religious protections, Adams, a Latter-day Saint himself, said, noting fears among religious leaders that clergy could be punished for breaking vows of confidentiality.

Each proposal was introduced or announced after an Associated Press investigation found that the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' sexual abuse reporting hotline can be misused by its leaders to divert abuse accusations away from law enforcement and instead to church attorneys who may bury the problem, leaving victims in harms way.

In lawsuits detailed in the investigation, attorneys from the faith widely known as the Mormon church have argued clergy-penitent privilege allows them to refuse to answer questions and turn over documents about alleged sexual abuse.

Church officials declined to comment about the stalled legislative efforts. The Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City did not respond to requests for comment but campaigned against them, saying in January that priests and clergy were different from other professionals mandated to report sexual abuse.

Legislation that would require a priest to (report sexual abuse) violates our right to practice our religion, Bishop Oscar Solis, of the Salt Lake City Diocese, wrote in a Jan. 25 letter to parishioners.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox last month said he had no problem with the bills moving forward and receiving consideration in the statehouse.

I think its an important conversation to have. Weve encouraged the Legislature to look at this and make sure that our model is the right model, he told reporters.

Marci Hamilton, chief executive of the abuse prevention nonprofit Child USA, said churches have maintained the same playbook for decades in opposing more disclosure.

Routinely it involves a two-pronged approach, defending clergy-penitent privilege in statehouses and using it to avoid damaging disclosures in court cases, said Hamilton, also a University of Pennsylvania law professor.

"They have not veered from it. Both institutions are hoping that time will simply let everybody start trusting them again," Hamilton said, referring to Catholics and Latter-day Saints.

But, she added, "by preventing the public  and especially the sincere believers  from getting the full story you dont create the accountability that these organizations should be held to and the secrets continue.

The problem in the United States  and this is particularly acute in state like Utah  is that the lobbying power of these religious organizations is so extraordinary, Hamilton said.

Laws in 33 states exempt clergy  regardless of religion  from laws requiring people report child sexual abuse allegations to authorities. Religious leaders have systematically fought efforts to expand the list of states. They currently oppose efforts from Vermont to Washington, where a proposal advanced through the state Senate Tuesday.

Kansas lawmakers introduced multiple proposals on penalties for not reporting suspected child sexual abuse, including one in the state Senate that would have added clergy to a list of mandatory reporters. It faced especially fierce public rebukes from Catholic leaders because it didnt exempt confessions. No proposal received even a hearing before an initial deadline this year.

In the wake of the AP's investigation last year, Republican state Rep. Phil Lyman and Democratic Rep. Angela Romero announced plans to reform Utah's clergy-penitent privilege loophole. Lyman, who served six years as a Latter-day Saints' bishop, said at the time lawmakers should want to reexamine the loophole regardless of religious or political affiliation.

People should be able to go and confess their sins to their bishop without fear of being prosecuted up until when they are confessing something that has affected someones else life significantly, he told the AP in August.

Lyman ultimately released a proposal that broadly affirmed clergy's exemption from mandatory reporting. It didn't advance or receive any hearing as lawmakers prepare to adjourn Friday. He did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Proposals from Democratic Reps. Romero and Brian King, and Sen. Stephanie Pitcher to close or narrow the loophole have also not moved forward amid opposition from religious groups.

Both Pitcher and Romero, who is Catholic, said they planned to reintroduce their proposals next year.

With AP uncovering what they uncovered, you'd think this would be a matter of urgency for this Legislature and for Legislatures across the country. But again we are allowing these institutions to dictate what we mandate, Romero said, referring to the Catholic Church.

Several Utah lawmakers told AP that opponents of limiting clergy-penitent privilege regarding child sexual abuse had circulated research that they claimed suggests mandatory reporting reform doesn't result in more confirmed reports of sexual abuse and may deter perpetrators from speaking to clergy.

What most of the research shows is that if people arent able to come to them for fear of being reported on, theyre not able to provide the help and support they need, Sen. Ann Milner said.

However, conclusions drawn from the study, which the Catholic Diocese also circulated in opposition to a similar bill from Romero in three years ago, have been challenged by its authors.

University of Michigan law professor Frank Vandervort and his co-author, Vincent Palusci, a pediatrics professor at New York University, told the AP last year the study was limited, partly because churches often wouldnt give them access to relevant data.

A single article should not be the basis for making policy decisions, Vandervort said. It may be entirely the case that theres no connection between the changing of the laws and the number of reports.

Lundholm said Utah lawmakers adjourning without having a true public discussion on any clergy-penitent privilege reform proposal provoked eerily familiar feelings for survivors. Though she never expected political change to happen overnight, she said survivors like her who had abuse go unreported  once again  feel unheard.

Maybe the worst part is that this is something that survivors experience often, and unfortunately, its rare when their stories are heard, she said.

___

The story has been updated to correct the spelling of the first name of Lindsey Lundholm.

___

Associated Press writers Joey Cappelletti in Lansing, Michigan, and John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, contributed to this report.
Photo: The Canadian Press The embassy of the People's Republic of China in Ottawa is shown on Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Chinas embassy in Ottawa is denying reports of attempted election interference in Canada, saying the claims are baseless and defamatory. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

The RCMP is not investigating any allegations of foreign interference concerning the last general election, the federal deputy minister of public safety told a parliamentary committee Wednesday.

Shawn Tupper was appearing at the committee on procedure and House affairs, which is looking into accusations of Chinese meddling in the 2019 and 2021 elections.

The Liberal government has come under pressure in recent weeks to explain what Canada is doing about accusations of Chinese interference in the elections following leaks to the media from unnamed security sources.

The Globe and Mail newspaper, citing classified Canadian Security Intelligence Service records, recently said China worked to help ensure a Liberal minority victory in the 2021 general election as well as defeat Conservative politicians considered unfriendly to Beijing.

The Globe said the spy service quoted one Chinese diplomat as saying Beijing likes it when Canadian political parties are fighting with each other, whereas if one has a majority, the party in power can easily implement policies that do not favour China.

The newspaper also said that, according to CSIS, Chinese diplomats are behind undeclared cash donations to campaigns, and have business owners hire international Chinese students and assign them to volunteer in election campaigns.

A recent Global News report cited anonymous sources alleging CSIS had urged senior Liberal party staff to rescind Han Dong's nomination in a Toronto riding in 2019, but that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau approved his candidacy.

Dong, who won the riding for the Liberals in 2019 and 2021, said his nomination and campaign teams have found no indication of irregularities or compliance issues regarding his candidacy or election.

Tupper told MPs on the committee Wednesday that "the RCMP is not investigating any of the allegations that are arising from the last election."

National security adviser Jody Thomas, who appeared alongside Tupper, said the security-and-intelligence community is clear-eyed in understanding the challenge posed by foreign meddling.

"We are taking concrete steps to strengthen our counter-foreign interference approach, including by making sure that those who engage in such activities face consequences."

Under a federal protocol, there would be a public announcement if a panel of senior bureaucrats determined that an incident  or an accumulation of incidents  threatened Canada's ability to have a free and fair election.

There was no such announcement in 2021 or concerning the 2019 election. In both ballots, the Liberals were returned to government with minority mandates while the Conservatives formed the official Opposition.

The Conservative party, NDP and Bloc Quebecois have called for an independent public inquiry into the allegations of foreign interference.

On Tuesday, a report evaluating the protocol for monitoring the most recent general election said the federal government should explore lowering the threshold for when to notify Canadians about potential interference in a campaign.

The independent report by former public servant Morris Rosenberg nonetheless found that the protocol designed to advise Canadians in the event of threats to the 2021 federal election worked well overall.

But he made several recommendations on better informing Canadians about what the panel would consider cause for concern.

He also urged further study into whether to lower the bar for telling Canadians about potential threats.

Trudeau said Wednesday the government is looking very carefully at Rosenberg's "excellent" recommendations, but rejected calls for a public inquiry because he believes there are already independent mechanisms in place to determine what kinds of foreign interference is happening.

"We've seen over the past number of days and weeks many Canadians are very concerned about the issue of foreign interference into our democracies, into our election processes. We share that concern," Trudeau said, defending his government's record on the issue.

Walied Soliman, a lawyer who worked on the 2021 Conservative election campaign, recently said on social media that the party was never notified about any threats to the electoral process.

Despite this, he said the party saw "clear signs of tampering in ridings with substantial Chinese diasporas'' that were "never taken seriously.''

Soliman said he was appointed by former party leader Erin O'Toole to serve as its representative on the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force, which provides information to government officials, including the panel of senior bureaucrats tasked with monitoring election campaigns.

He also said the party continued working with the task force after the election, "providing everything we had.''

Thomas told the committee Wednesday that a response was provided to Soliman, adding that nothing was found to suggest "the ridings that he was concerned about were affected by attempts at foreign interference."

However, she noted that additional information had since come to light and that she had asked for it to be reviewed.

Speaking before Wednesday's committee, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said he accepts the results of the 2021 election.

He also called for "a quick, simple direct process to alert the public and the system if a foreign government is actively interfering in an election or intimidating voters."

China's embassy in Ottawa has rebuffed accusations of attempted election interference in Canada, saying they are "baseless and defamatory" and harm diplomatic relations.

"China has always been firmly against any attempts to interfere in other countries' domestic affairs," the embassy said in an emailed statement.

"We are not interested in meddling with Canada's internal affairs, nor have we ever tried to do so."

The embassy says all its consulates follow the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, which includes "a duty not to interfere in the internal affairs of the state" where diplomats reside.

The embassy also says it has bilateral agreements with Canada that hold diplomats to behaving "in an open and above-reproach manner" in each other's country.

In the statement, the embassy accused some Canadian agencies, as well as media outlets, of creating and spreading "disinformation" about China and "poisoning the media atmosphere" about the country.

It urged everyone to "stop stigmatizing Chinese consulates and personnel that performed their normal duties."
HIMARS

The first two months of 2023 have seen a series of landmark decisions to provide Ukraine with weapons that Western leaders had previously been reluctant to deliver, with the list including armored vehicles, modern tanks, and long-range missiles.

At the same time, the whole process continues to lack a sense of urgency. Instead, excessive caution on the part of Kyivs Western partners prevents Ukraine from receiving the quantities of weapons its requires, while also fuelingdelays that risk handing the battlefield initiative back to Russia.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell highlighted the issue during the Munich Security Conference on February 19. We are in urgent war mode, he said. This shortage of ammunition has to be solved quickly. If European countries did not step up ammunition supplies in a matter of weeks the war would be over, he warned.

Recent steps to increase arms deliveries to Ukraine are encouraging and indicate that the West is gradually losing its fear over the possible consequences of a decisive Russian military defeat. Over the past year, Moscow has sought to the intimidate Western leaders with everything from nuclear blackmail to gas shut-offs, but these scare tactics appear to be increasingly ineffective.

Putin is now betting on the overwhelming numbers provided by Russias first mobilization since World War II, and is in the process of deploying an estimated300,000 fresh soldiers to bolster his depleted forces in Ukraine. However, these poorly trained replacements can hardly be compared to the tens of thousands of professional Russian soldiers killed or wounded during the first year of the invasion. Indeed, Russian losses over the past twelve months have been so severe that many analysts believe Moscow must now build what essentially amounts to a new army from the ground up.

As a fresh Russian offensive gets underway in eastern Ukraine, there is little to suggest that Putin is on the verge of achieving the military breakthrough he craves. On the contrary, initial reports indicate primitive tactics and catastrophic losses, with NATO intelligence estimating that Russia is losing around 2000 soldiers for every 100 yards of Ukrainian land gained.

Story continues

With Putins invasion force looking anything but formidable, Kyivs Western partners may now sense an opportunity to arm Ukraine for a major spring offensive. Most observers expect Ukrainian activity to focus on the southern front, where the Russian army is believed to be particularly vulnerable. By striking south toward the Azov Sea in the coming months, Ukraine could split Russias invasion force in two and cut the land bridge to Crimea.

This is an appealing prospect to Western leaders such as French President Emmanuel Macron, who have often framed their support for Ukraine in terms of achieving battlefield victories that would enable Kyiv to negotiate a peace settlement from a position of strength. A decisive offensive against Russian forces in southern Ukraine would expose the costly failure of Putins invasion and inevitably lead to a decline in his political authority.

An alternative explanation for the Wests recent readiness to increase arms deliveries to Ukraine may be found in mounting fears that Russias mobilization will ultimately prove successful. Western leaders could be genuinely concerned that Moscow can regain the military initiative and make significant further territorial gains, or at least achieve a stalemate that secures the considerable areas currently under Russian occupation.

Whatever their individual motivations, Ukraines partners must both expand and speed up arms deliveries if they wish to achieve their stated aim of pre-venting a Russian victory in Ukraine. During the first year of the war, it was striking to note that the most active European members of the coalition arming Ukraine were former Eastern Bloc countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the Baltic states, Romania, and Bulgaria. While these countries are all potentially next in line if Russia is not stopped in Ukraine, they have nevertheless been most willing to draw down their own weapons stocks. Clearly, they recognize that weapons sent to Ukraine are of more use than those sitting in warehouses.

The nations of Old Europe have been significantly less decisive and still often appear unable to grasp the gravity of the military and political situation. Rather than doing everything to secure Ukrainian victory, they sometimes seem preoccupied with the notion of avoiding escalation. Such thinking is delusional. In reality, there is no way Ukrainians can liberate their country entirely from Russian occupation without crossing the Kremlins red lines.

Unless Russia is militarily defeated, no sustainable diplomatic solution will be possible. If Ukraine is pressured into accepting a disadvantageous settlement before Russia is beaten, this would reward Putin and set the stage for the next war. Europe would be plunged into an era of instability. If they wish to avoid this disastrous outcome, Western policymakers must accept that the only path to peace is via a decisive Ukrainian victory.

Recent developments suggest an international consensus is indeed forming over the need for a long-term commitment to Ukrainian victory. However, decisions to deliver new categories of weapons to Ukraine are still subject to unacceptable delays that cost lives. Likewise, Ukraines partners have yet to begin producing weapons and ammunition on a wartime footing. This has to change if the West is serious about stopping Putin.

Western arms deliveries played a key role in enabling Ukraine to survive the initial onslaught of Putins blitzkrieg. Military aid has since helped Ukraine liber-ate around half of the territory occupied by Russia during the early months of the invasion. In order to finish the job in 2023, Old Europe must follow the ex-ample of the former Eastern Bloc countries and open up its warehouses without further delay. Continued hesitation and indecisiveness could have dire consequences for European security, allowing Putin to rescue his faltering invasion and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

This story was originally published by the Atlantic Council. NV is republishing it with permission.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Alina Kabaeva - Sport Express

Vladimir Putin is reportedly living with his gymnast girlfriend on a vast, heavily-guarded country estate featuring several palatial mansions and a playground for their young children.

Alina Kabaeva, a 39-year-old Olympic rhythmic gymnastic champion who has long been linked with the 70-year-old Russian leader, lives in a villa on Putins estate on Lake Valdai, about 250 miles north west of Moscow, according to a report from Russian investigative news site The Project.

The Russian president has reportedly bought his lover a property empire worth $120 million (100 million) through a slush fund in Cyprus, the site reported.

Construction on Ms Kabaevas mansion began in 2020 and was completed two years later, according to The Project.

At nearly 13,000 square feet, the mansion was built entirely of wood in the style of a Russian dacha. Construction was carried out by a company owned by Yuri Kovalchuk, the Russian businessman also known as Putins banker.

Ms Kabaeva's ruby-studded chandelier

Unnamed officials told The Project they had seen children on the premises, and satellite images taken between 2016 and 2020 showed a playground in the woods believed to have been built for the family.

The area has been frequented by Ms Kabaevas distant female relatives, described as her chaperones in leaked train manifests. The chaperones also reportedly own properties in the area.

The house where Ms Kabaeva is said to live is located just 800 metres (2,640ft) from Valdai, Putins best-guarded and most private residence, where he almost never holds public meetings.

Photographs of that mansion, leaked by a construction executive who worked around the house until 2005, showed opulent interiors reportedly inspired by Putins love for his hometown of St Petersburg and its eighteenth-century Hermitage Museum.

One image purportedly shows the presidents study bedecked with ornate mahogany furniture and featuring the secure landline phones used by top Kremlin officials.

In another room, gilded chairs can be seen arranged around a glass table and a spherical chandelier, with golden leaves hanging from the ceiling.

Story continues

Room with gold chairs

Putin's bedroom

Guests to the house were encouraged to reach out and take one, the contractor claimed. Another photo appears to show a massive chandelier decorated with rubies.

The existence of the villa was first reported in 2021 by the team of Alexei Navalny, the jailed Russian opposition leader, who claimed that budget funds were used to lease the property from Mr Kovalchuk, the businessman.

Both the Russian president and Ms Kabaeva have repeatedly denied that they are in a relationship.

Unnamed officials who attended Putins private parties said they had never seen the two together but they have no doubt that they have a relationship, saying that only top-ranking officers in the presidents security detail were aware of the details of their arrangement.

In another sign of her proximity to Putin, Ms Kabaeva was, in 2014, appointed to lead Russias National Media Group, a sprawling media holding owned by Mr Kovalchuk, despite having no relevant experience. The position provides her with an annual income of about 8.6 million.

A swimming pool

The investigation drew on documents provided by an unnamed whistleblower described as an executive in the business empire of one of the presidents closest friends who was directly involved in managing a Cyprus-based company used as a slush fund for the president.

The whistleblower contacted the journalists as he was outraged by Russias invasion of Ukraine and said the Russian regime must be stopped.

Documents reviewed by The Project revealed how Putins close friends and their companies were pumping money into Ermira, the Cypriot company, which was later used to buy luxury estate and provide for the needs of Putin and his family.

The Russian leader was also accused of racking up profits from the sale of a popular vodka brand named after him that appeared on the market in the early 2000s. Property rights to the vodka were repeatedly transferred between his childhood friend Arkady Rotenberg and the Cyprus-based company.

The vodka sales alone would have earned Putin at least half a million dollars between 2004 and 2019, according to The Projects estimates.

Known for her secretive lifestyle, Ms Kabaeva was revealed as the owner of a number of other luxury properties across Russia, including a penthouse in Sochi on the Black Sea which is believed to be the biggest apartment in Russia.

While the apartment was briefly on sale, 3D visualisations available online showed its over-the-top luxurious interiors such as a dining room with marble floors and walls and gilded bannister rails on the stairs between the floors.

The gymnasts properties were registered in the name of her relatives, including her elderly grandmother.
Generally, when a single insider buys stock, it is usually not a big deal. However, when several insiders are buying, like in the case of Charter Hall Retail REIT (ASX:CQR), it sends a favourable message to the company's shareholders.

Although we don't think shareholders should simply follow insider transactions, logic dictates you should pay some attention to whether insiders are buying or selling shares.

See our latest analysis for Charter Hall Retail REIT

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Charter Hall Retail REIT

Notably, that recent purchase by Roger Davis is the biggest insider purchase of Charter Hall Retail REIT shares that we've seen in the last year. So it's clear an insider wanted to buy, even at a higher price than the current share price (being AU$3.97). It's very possible they regret the purchase, but it's more likely they are bullish about the company. To us, it's very important to consider the price insiders pay for shares. It is generally more encouraging if they paid above the current price, as it suggests they saw value, even at higher levels.

In the last twelve months Charter Hall Retail REIT insiders were buying shares, but not selling. The chart below shows insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year. By clicking on the graph below, you can see the precise details of each insider transaction!

Charter Hall Retail REIT is not the only stock that insiders are buying. For those who like to find winning investments this free list of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket.

Insiders At Charter Hall Retail REIT Have Bought Stock Recently

Over the last three months, we've seen significant insider buying at Charter Hall Retail REIT. Independent Chairman of Charter Hall Retail Management Limited Roger Davis spent AU$180k on stock, and there wasn't any selling. This could be interpreted as suggesting a positive outlook.

Insider Ownership Of Charter Hall Retail REIT

Many investors like to check how much of a company is owned by insiders. A high insider ownership often makes company leadership more mindful of shareholder interests. From looking at our data, insiders own AU$4.3m worth of Charter Hall Retail REIT stock, about 0.2% of the company. We prefer to see high levels of insider ownership.

Story continues

So What Do The Charter Hall Retail REIT Insider Transactions Indicate?

The recent insider purchase is heartening. We also take confidence from the longer term picture of insider transactions. On this analysis the only slight negative we see is the fairly low (overall) insider ownership; their transactions suggest that they are quite positive on Charter Hall Retail REIT stock. While we like knowing what's going on with the insider's ownership and transactions, we make sure to also consider what risks are facing a stock before making any investment decision. For instance, we've identified 4 warning signs for Charter Hall Retail REIT (2 shouldn't be ignored) you should be aware of.

If you would prefer to check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt.

For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We currently account for open market transactions and private dispositions, but not derivative transactions.

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
Photo by Getty Images

As communities begin to grapple with their long and sordid history with inequity and inequality, more and more doctors, public health practitioners, and policymakers are looking into the impacts of racism on healthwith many major bodies even going as far as calling it a public health crisis. Its not just rhetoric: New studies are bearing out the potentially lethal consequences of systemic racism.

Preliminary research analyzing responses from more than 48,000 people enrolled in the Black Womens Health Study found that people who reported experiencing certain types of racial discrimination had higher rates of heart disease over a 22-year period. These findings were presented on March 1 at the American Heart Associations Epidemiology, Prevention, Lifestyle & Cardiometabolic Health Scientific Sessions.

Structural racism is realon the job, in educational circumstances, and in interactions with the criminal justice system, Michelle Albert, the president of the American Heart Association and an author on the research, said in a press release. Now we have hard data linking it to cardiovascular outcomes, which means that we as a society need to work on the things that create the barriers that perpetuate structural racism.

This 11-Minute Ritual Could Reduce Your Risk of Cancer

The Black Womens Health Study is not new. In fact, researchers have been following nearly 60,000 people since 1995, when they mailed questionnaires to subscribers of Essence magazine and members of a few professional organizations. According to the Health Studys website, its purpose is to follow these women over time and collect information about their health.

The data will help researchers answer certain questions about Black female health, such as why young Black women are more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer than young white women, why Black women more commonly have lupus, and why Black babies are more often born prematurely. The researchers also pose a question that potentially links these observations: Do experiences of racism affect the occurrence of various illnesses in Black women?

Story continues

Studies over the past two decades roundly suggest that it does. Stress can be separated into categories of acute and chronicwhile the acute stress of rushing to meet a deadline can be bad enough for your health and sleep, a chronic stressor like racism can be even worse in the long run. For instance, people who report experiencing racial discrimination tend to have shorter telomeres, which are caps that protect chromosomes and are a marker of cellular aging. Shorter telomeres, in turn, are associated with shorter lifespans. This means that racism can literally ageand fatally injurea persons body.

How Hollywood Can Better Protect Black Viewers Mental Health

But certain conditions, like heart disease, have never before been tracked over time and tied to perceived racism, Shanshan Sheehy, an epidemiologist at Boston University who led the research, told The Daily Beast in an email. In this preliminary research, Sheehy and her co-authors analyzed responses to eight survey questions sent to Black Womens Health Study participants in 1997. They then tracked the respondents health until 2019 to see who developed heart disease, both fatal and nonfatal.

Nearly 2,000 participants developed heart disease over the course of those 22 years, allowing the researchers to see whether they agreed with statements like People act as if they are afraid of you or You receive poorer service than other people at restaurants or stores more often than those who didnt.

Interestingly, responses to questions meant to measure interpersonal racism in daily life, like the two above, were not significantly tied to a Black womans risk for heart disease. This may be because the effects of racism in ones daily life might be mitigated by a coping mechanism, such as talking to a friend, Sheehy said.

How Medical Records Sow Discrimination

But looking at the responses of questions meant to measure perceived racism in jobs, housing, and police interactions told a different story. Black women who reported experiencing racism in these aspects of life were 26 percent more likely to develop heart disease than the women who did not report experiencing racism.

The consequences of being treated unfairly at job, housing, and by the police are much harder to tune out by talking with a friend, Sheehy added.

There are several factors to keep in mind when interpreting these statistics. For one thing, the women in this study were all compared to one another. Theres no telling whether significant differences might exist in heart disease risk based on experiences of daily interpersonal racism if these participants were compared to white women, for instance.

Additionally, this research did not measure structural forms of discrimination, like redlining. The survey responses cannot capture racism existing outside of conscious awareness, Sheehy said, though she added that future research using data from Black Womens Health Study aims to incorporate measures of structural racism, too.

Ultimately, Sheehy said, the takeaway of the research is simple: Racism has a real impact on the heart health of Black women.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here

Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now.

Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now.
The CEO of Norfolk Southern railroad will testify in Congress next week about last months fiery Ohio derailment and the precautions the railroad takes to prevent similar crashes.

The railroad said Wednesday that Alan Shaw had agreed to appear before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works next Thursday. He is likely to face tough questions about whether the railroad has been investing enough in safety as it slashed jobs and streamlined operations in recent years to rely on fewer, longer trains.

Already, several lawmakers have proposed a series of rail safety reforms in response to the Feb. 3 derailment that forced the evacuation of half the town of East Palestine, Ohio, near the Pennsylvania border because of concerns about the toxic chemicals that were on fire. The National Transportation Safety Board has said that an overheating bearing likely caused the derailment that sent 38 cars, including 11 carrying hazardous materials, off the tracks.

Shaw has said the railroad is committed to helping the town recover from this derailment, and Norfolk Southern has committed millions to that effort. But he has said that major safety reforms should wait until after the NTSB investigation is complete, which might take more than a year.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, told reporters on a call Wednesday that he wanted to hear Shaw commit to paying for both the short-term and long-term effects of the wreck. We want to hear his commitment to make this community whole, to make this so that people can get back to their lives the way they were -- that means reimbursement for all the expenses, Brown said.

Norfolk Southern said Shaw and other railroad officials continue to engage in discussions with Members of Congress and other committees about additional requests to testify, while balancing his commitments to the remediation process and the community.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said earlier this week that Shaw needs to testify because Norfolk Southern is responsible for the derailment.

Story continues

The American people should hear from Norfolk Southerns CEO precisely why they thought it was a good idea to spend years  years  lobbying to loosen regulations designed to prevent accidents like this, Schumer said in a speech on the Senate floor. And I especially want to hear why Norfolk Southern, after seeing a record $3.3B in profits last year, prioritized billions billions  in stock buybacks instead of putting that money toward safety and towards their workers.

The Federal Railroad Administration issued an advisory Tuesday urging railroads to reexamine how they use and maintain the networks of detectors they have installed along the tracks to spot overheating bearings before they fail. Regulators are expected to announce plans Wednesday afternoon to conduct additional inspections nationwide on tracks that carry large quantities of hazardous materials.

Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts.

Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW

TRENDING NOW:

West Virginia could pay former residents $25,000 to come back Woman, man dead after apparent murder-suicide in Penn Hills identified No umps when Orioles and Pirates play unneeded bottom of 9th VIDEO: Man killed in South Park house fire DOWNLOAD the Channel 11 News app for breaking news alerts
Rebel Wilson went straight to the top to determine if her recent Disneyland proposal to girlfriend Ramona Agruma was meant to be. (Watch the video below.)

No, not Mickey Mouse. She called Disney CEO Bob Iger.

Hes the big, big boss. And I thought, well, if he says yes, then it was meant to be, and I was meant to propose that day at Disneyland, Wilson said in a preview clip of The Drew Barrymore Show shared this week on Twitter.

In February, the Senior Year star announced her engagement to designer Agruma in a photo with them both on one knee in front of Sleeping Beautys Castle at the Anaheim, California, theme park. We said YES! she wrote on Instagram.

But Wilson insisted that the fairy-tale ending wouldnt have happened without approval from the corporate king of the realm, who turned out to be a prince of a guy.

I had to get special permission to get a special area roped off and get the topiary trees in, and you know I had a violinist playing like Disney classics, and it was very, yeah, it was really romantic, Wilson said. So I did go to the big boss to get permission.

Wilson told Barrymore that she later collapsed at the park from being so overwhelmed by the moment. The actor said she fell to the ground after going on a ride, and it took her several minutes before she declared, OK, Im good. Lets get churros.

Story continues

.@rebelwilson collapsed after proposing to her girlfriend at @disneyland.



Watch more with Rebel this Thursday, March 2nd: https://t.co/sM7OB9ldEepic.twitter.com/krml2tKy4X  The Drew Barrymore Show (@DrewBarrymoreTV) February 28, 2023

The Pitch Perfect actor, whose Barrymore visit will air Thursday, has had a busy last few months.

In November, she welcomed a daughter via surrogate.

Related...
olaf scholz - JOHN THYS/AFP via Getty Images

And then there were two, possibly even three or four. As the only member of the G7 whose economy had not recovered to pre-pandemic levels, Britain was beginning to look not just like the odd man out, but the sick man of the developed world. Brexit and a very much deeper contraction than more or less everyone else experienced during the pandemic were widely blamed.

Yet the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, and several other major economies are now fast sinking back down into the same dispiriting territory.

The way things are going, Keir Starmer's utterly ridiculous target of achieving the highest rate of sustainable growth in the G7 might actually be met before he even gets his hands on the keys to Downing Street, if indeed he ever does.

The aspiration is absurd because even if Starmer's Labour Party could do something to improve Britain's growth potential, it has little or no control over anybody else's, and is therefore powerless to determine the UK's place in the hierarchy.

Be that as it may, recent revisions to the data show that the German economy actually shrank in the final quarter of last year, unlike the UK, which merely stagnated.

Nor is the mood music in Germany around the current quarter at all good either. The manufacturing PMIs are down, and although the latest Ifo index reading suggests that things may now be picking up a bit, the second consecutive drop in Ifo's so-called "current assessment" points to another quarter of economic contraction yet to come.

This would push Germany into the technical definition of a recession (two consecutive quarters of declining growth). But for the unseasonably warm weather and a large dollop of fiscal stimulus, which protected German consumers and industry from the full impact of surging energy prices, it could have been a great deal worse. A mild recession would have become a deep one.

As it is, German GDP has already slipped back down below its pre-pandemic level, and looks set to fall further. The same fate awaits Italy, according to forecasts by Moodys Investors Service. Japan too looks to be in the danger zone.

Story continues

Things hardly look brilliant in Britain either, with the full force of rising energy bills and mortgage rates still to be felt. Even so, we seem to be on an improving trend, and no longer in such a bad way relative to others as we were.

This is the very reverse of what the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was forecasting only as recently as last month. In an update to its World Economic Outlook, the IMF said it expected the UK to contract this year, but for the rest of the G7 to show some growth.

The old rule of thumb that you should look at what the IMF is saying and then think of the opposite has once again been vindicated. In any case, the IMF may have to eat humble pie when it releases its latest "Article IV assessment of the UK economy shortly.

As for Germany, it is not just the short term that policymakers have to worry about.

Technological and geopolitical developments have cruelly impaired the economy's long-term prospects too. Germany has adapted with lightning speed to the curve ball thrown at it by Putin's invasion of Ukraine, but it has been greatly helped in this regard by the warm weather, and as for one of the country's key competitive advantages  cheap Russian gas to sustain its powerful manufacturing base  this appears to have gone for good.

Worse still, the age of the internal combustion engine, in which Germany has enjoyed a near 100-year competitive advantage, is drawing to a close, with China and others showing every sign of effectively bypassing the old technology and going straight to electric vehicles.

Germany's ability, and determination, to adapt should never be underestimated. Besides, Germany is a large and mature economy, and therefore highly resilient to any structural change that might be thrown at it.

Some of its latest EV designs are moreover second to none. The manufacturing capacity and infrastructure needed to make the leap into the new age is also streets ahead of anything you see in Britain, whose ability to transition its volume car making into the new age of EVs looks increasingly questionable.

Without an indigenous source of mass battery production, the future looks bleak; it is not yet clear that this week's rescue of Britishvolt by another startup, Recharge Industries, is capable of plugging the gap. Yet the point is that these sectors have long been far more important to the German economy than they are to Britain.

Olaf Scholz, the German Chancellor, was this weekend out in the so-called "lithium triangle" of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile, where more than half the world's lithium reserves are thought to reside, attempting to persuade them not to succumb to the temptations of China, and side with Germany's markets instead. In this sense, Latin America is potentially Germany's new Russia, an abundant source of natural resources for its mass production car industry.

Technicians work on the assembly line of German carmaker Volkswagen's electric ID - REUTERS/Matthias Rietschel/File Photo

Maybe he'll succeed, but the trouble is that Germany enjoys no particular competitive advantage when it comes to EVs, unlike the internal combustion engine where it has always been world leading in design and engineering.

An EV also involves considerably fewer, high value added parts than existing automotive technologies. Unfortunately, these are the backbone of Germany's "mittelstand". Large parts of German supply chain excellence are about to be made obsolete.

Schadenfreude is a German word, and we should be careful not to indulge in it when it comes to Germany itself. It is very much in Britain's long term interests that Europe continues to thrive and prosper, so that it can provide a reasonable bulwark against the incoming tide of Eastern authoritarianism. In any case, the league table of European economies is in a more or less continual state of flux. In the long term, it matters little who is up and who is down right now.

I doubt settlement of the Irish border issue is going to be as much of a boost to the UK economy as some imagine. Yet a dialling down of tensions certainly cannot do any harm and may even help with a number of big investment decisions that have been held back by the threat of a trade war with Europe.

What's certain is that belligerent talk of which economy is on top and which faces relegation doesn't ultimately do anyone any good. We prosper together or not at all.
A 25-year-old man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for crashing a stolen SUV into a car and killing its driver as he sped through a stop sign in Eastside Tacoma in September.

Tyler Townsend was sentenced Friday after pleading guilty Jan. 27 to vehicular homicide, failure to remain at an accident resulting in death and two counts related to motor vehicle theft, Pierce County court records show.

Townsend, who has a lengthy criminal record, had been out of prison for less than a year when he stole a 2022 Kia Sportage in Puyallup and, a day later, crashed into a 2014 Dodge Avenger shortly after 3 p.m. at East 34th and D streets, according to court records.

The stolen SUV was traveling 62 mph when it struck the front driver-side of the Avenger, causing the SUV to roll over onto its roof. Both vehicles came to rest in a yard and planting strip. A Tacoma police officer described the crash as a catastrophic collision, according to a charging document filed against Townsend.

The driver of the Avenger, 31-year-old Jenessa Sjogren, was pronounced dead at the scene. Her vehicle had Texas plates, authorities said.

When officers arrived, the SUV was empty. Townsend left behind only a cell phone and an Adidas shoe upon fleeing, according to the charging document. Officers spoke to witnesses and reviewed surveillance video, including one at the Puyallup retirement home from where the SUV had been stolen. Roughly two weeks after the crash, authorities received an anonymous tip from a family member of Townsends.

The investigation homed in on Townsend, who had been hospitalized in Vancouver, Washington, following a separate, later crash  this one involving a stolen vehicle on Interstate 5. Authorities visited Townsend at the hospital where they conducted cheek swabs to test DNA. Townsend reportedly became emotional when learning that the victim in the Tacoma crash had died.

(Townsend) said he wanted the family of the deceased driver to know that it was not intentional, a detective reported, according to the charging document.

Story continues

Townsend, who reportedly told authorities that he struggled with methamphetamine addiction, was previously sentenced to more than seven years in prison following a 2017 conviction for 19 felonies, including vehicle theft, eluding police and first-degree burglary, according to court records and prior reporting from The News Tribune.

Within three months of being released from prison, he was back in trouble.

Townsend crashed a stolen vehicle in Pierce County in January 2022. He was charged with possession of a stolen vehicle and obstructing an officer in that case and released on $75,000 bail, court records show.

Those charges were dismissed as part of the plea bargain in the vehicular homicide case, according to court records.
Remote work is now costing the heart of NYC $12.4 billion annually in lost spending  here are 3 stocks that benefit from increasingly flexible work policies

The trend of working remotely has really accelerated since the COVID-19 pandemic. Even though the economy has already reopened, not all workers have returned to the office.

And that is costing big money for the financial capital of the world  New York city.

Don't miss

Here's how much money the average middle-class American household makes  how do you stack up?

Rich young Americans have lost confidence in the stock market  and are betting on these 3 assets instead. Get in now for strong long-term tailwinds

UBS says 61% of millionaire collectors allocate up to 30% of their overall portfolio to this exclusive asset class

According to Bloombergs analysis of data from Stanford University economist Nicholas Blooms WFH Research team, workers coming into Manhattan  often called the heart of New York city  are spending at least $12.4 billion less a year because they are spending about 30% fewer days in the office.

$12.4 billion is a big number, but that also means employees could be saving a lot of money by not having to commute to the office every day. Research-based consulting firm Global Workplace Analytics estimates that due to reduced costs for travel, parking and food, workers can save between $600 and $6,000 a year by working from home half the time.

This trend is fueling growth at companies that provide the necessary tools for people to work remotely. Heres a look at three of them. Wall Street also sees upside in this trio.

Zoom Video Communications

When meetings and classes moved online due to the pandemic, business at Zoom Video Communications (ZM) flourished.

But as the economy reopened, there have been concerns about the growth potential of this video communications company. It didnt help the case that sentiment towards tech stocks in general wasnt exactly bullish in 2022.

Over the past 12 months, Zoom shares have fallen a painful 38%.

And that could give contrarian investors something to think about. Zoom had approximately 209,300 enterprise customers as of Oct. 31, 2022, up 14% year-over-year.

Story continues

If the hybrid work environment is here to stay, it would be good news for Zoom.

RBC Capital Markets analyst Rishi Jaluria has an outperform rating on Zoom and a price target of $95  roughly 30% above the current levels.

DocuSign

DocuSign (DOCU) is a company known for its eSignature solution that allows different parties to securely sign agreements without having to be in the same room.

Its remote business offerings have naturally come in handy over the pandemic-stricken years.

Read more: Here's the average salary each generation says they need to feel 'financially healthy.' Gen Z requires a whopping $171K/year  but how do your own expectations compare?

On Jan. 31, 2020, it had 589,000 customers. By Oct. 31, 2022, it had 1.32 million customers worldwide.

Despite expanding its customer base, the company hasnt been a market darling. Shares have tumbled by more than 40% over the past year.

Jefferies analyst Brent Thill has a buy rating on DocuSign and a price target of $70  about 17% higher than where the stock sits today.

Box

Box (BOX) is a cloud-based content management, collaboration and file sharing service company.

Unlike the other two names on this list, Box is not a beaten-down stock. In fact, shares have surged 38% over the past 12 months.

Business is booming. In fiscal Q3, Boxs revenue grew 12% year over year to $250.0 million. Excluding the impact from exchange rate fluctuations, top line growth would have been 17%.

The company is also returning cash to investors through buybacks. In fiscal Q3, Box spent approximately $29 million repurchasing 1.1 million of its shares.

Morgan Stanley analyst Josh Baer sees better days ahead for Box. Baer has a buy rating on the company and a price target of $39, implying a potential upside of 16%.

What to read next

This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
Tenants of Pioneer Investments  which has housed renters in dilapidated and sometimes unsafe buildings, one of which was linked to child lead poisoning cases  fought back at a State House rally on Tuesday.

Roughly three dozen demonstrators, organized by local progressive group Reclaim RI, gathered in the rotunda alongside a handful of state legislators to speak out.

"It has become so mentally draining for the past few years, I can no longer take it and I am taking a stand," said Melissa Grussi, a West Warwick tenant who is now part of a tenants union comprised of Pioneer renters.

Pioneer renters have pushed back against landlord, face eviction

Pioneer tenants, whom The Providence Journal has been covering since last year, have offered tours of their apartments, which have been plagued by structural issues, overgrown yards, apparent animal droppings, serious leaks and sewage stench. Landlord Anurag Sureka has not commented directly to The Journal, allowing attorneys to deliver statements on behalf of Pioneer, which has argued that tenants have skewed the facts and that the company cares about the condition of its properties and has made some repairs.

More:Tenants band together against RI landlord as they face deplorable conditions

Melissa Grussi talks about the poor condition of her rental housing in West Warwick during a Tuesday State House rally to call on the legislature to pass strong tenant protection laws.

In February, tenants said they were being pushed out of their homes with termination of tenancy notices or the expectation of receiving one. But they may not find it easy to locate new housing, even if they want out. In certain cases, because of nonpayment of rent, tenants already have eviction proceedings on their record, which will serve as a black mark when they look to rent again as Rhode Island leaves those records unsealed.

What tenants' rights bills might be filed this session?

The rally comes ahead of a House Judiciary Committee hearing set for Thursday when lawmakers will discuss a slate of bills intended to boost protections for renters. Among the long list of proposals is legislation to increase the amount of notice for rent hikes, limit the use of credit checks and criminal history in the application process, ban application fees, bar landlords from asking tenants about immigration status, and prohibit rents from being raised more than once a year  something that may be a headache for month-to-month renters.

Story continues

Some lawmakers, such as Sen. Tiara Mack, are also pushing for evictions to be sealed and a landlord registry to be created to identify landlords and ensure they comply with local laws.

Mack, who is herself a renter, said "this legislation is not just for them but for me and other people who look like me."

Melissa Grussi, a West Warwick tenant who is now part of a tenants union composed of Pioneer Investment renters, attends Tuesday's rally at the State House.

'A matter of life or death for so many families'

Mack is also pushing for a Tenant Bill of Rights to ensure tenants' rights to legal counsel, habitability, protest, equity, and being "free of eviction without good cause." It would also establish the right of first refusal, which would allow a tenant to purchase their property if it goes on the market.

Rep. Cherie Cruz, who is also a renter, said the state was not just facing a housing crisis but a public health crisis.

Demonstrators, including tenants of Pioneer Investments, call on lawmakers to pass strong tenant protection legislation during a rally Tuesday afternoon at the State House rotunda.

"This is a matter of life or death for so many families," she added, expressing frustration that the states housing laws aren't implemented.

"Across the state of Rhode Island, tens of thousands of renters have to deal with deplorable conditions," said Rep. David Morales, who condemned "outdated tenant laws that aren't even enforced to begin with."

In response to news of the rally, Pioneer's attorney, Samuel Grossack, said in an email that the company "looks forward to reviewing the bills put forth in the Legislature and encourages dialogue on all sides of the debate."

"Pioneer provides affordable housing to residents in Rhode Island," Grossack wrote. "Pioneer is spending substantial resources, time, and money in updating their properties while striving to improve the overall living conditions of their residents. Pioneer is seeing a majority of its residents pleased with the progress. Pioneer does understand that they may not be able to please everyone, but they strive to do so regardless."

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI tenants' rights bills could be filed this session
[Source]

During a House Judiciary markup on Tuesday, Rep. Dan Bishop (R, NC-8) said he did not know what the acronym for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) stood for.

Bishop, a Republican from Charlotte, North Carolina, rejected a declaration of congressional support for federal action against hate crimes involving AAPI communities, white nationalism and antisemitism.

Bishop said that he did not understand why the amendment was part of Tuesdays discussions on the House Judiciary Committees authorization and oversight plan.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D, CA-28), a Democrat from California, proposed the amendment to the committees oversight plan, citing a very simple, straightforward amendment to support federal efforts to combat domestic violent extremism, with a particular focus on crimes motivated by bigotry.

More from NextShark: Trump wanted to nuke North Korea in 2017 and then blame another country: book

In 2020, hate crimes in the U.S. rose by 30% to the countrys highest levels in 12 years. According to a study by the FBI, 60% of the crimes were perpetrated because of a persons ethnicity, race or ancestry.

Crimes against Asian Americans notably increased by 70%, prompting Congress to pass the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act in 2021.

However, the committees conversation led to arguments regarding white nationalism, Christianity and wokeism.

More from NextShark: Filipino American man sentenced to 45 days in jail for role in Jan. 6 riot

Bishop said Schiffs amendment appeared to be advocating for wokeism.

While Bishop was reading the document, he asked Schiff what AAPI stood for.

Candidly, Im sure I should know what the acronym AAPI is. I dont know what that is, he said. I just dont know the acronym because I dont focus on that all the time.

More from NextShark: Japanese student says he was also assaulted by Portland man charged for attack on Japanese man, his daughter and Filipino woman

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D, WA-7), who was previously the target of a hate crime, informed Bishop that the country has a population of 22 million AAPIs.

Story continues

In Bishops district, more than 17,000 people reportedly identify as Asian and nearly 100 as Pacific Islanders.

Although Schiff offered to remove the word support and replace it with a call to oversee the federal efforts, the amendment failed 21-10.

More from NextShark: Biden signs order to block Chinese investment in US tech

"I find it astounding that an amendment that says we should support efforts to combat domestic violent extremism in the United States in these forums has opposition, that thats somehow considered woke," he said. "I would submit that those that think were not seeing an explosion of hate are asleep and maybe they should wake up."

Schiff said he believes that Bishop did not want the amendment because it would take away efforts to look into deep-state conspiracy theories.
[Source]

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R, FL-1) inadvertently cited the Global Times, an English-language daily tabloid newspaper run by the Chinese Communist Party, while grilling Defense Under Secretary for Policy Inspector Colin Kahl.

During a congressional hearing on Tuesday, Gaetz grilled Biden administration officials regarding the United States continued support for Ukraine in its defense against the ongoing Russian invasion.

The GOP congressman asked Kahl whether the U.S. is providing military assistance to the Ukrainian paramilitary unit Azov Battalion, a militia founded by far-right extremists that has been fighting pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine since 2014.

Not that Im aware of, Kahl responded, prompting Gaetz to cite an article from Chinese state-run media outlet The Global Times, which was designated by the Trump administration as a foreign mission in 2020 because it is effectively controlled by the government of the Peoples Republic of China.

More from NextShark: The White Lotus Season 3 could center on Eastern religion and spirituality, creator says

"I intend to enter into the record The Global Times investigative report that talks about training," he said "Its from the Atlantic Councils Digital Forensics Research Lab. Citing the Azov battalion was even getting stuff as far back as 2018."

Recognizing the name of the publication, Kahl replied, Im sorry, is this the Global Times from China?

Gaetz initially responded No before referring back to the article he had just entered into the record.

More from NextShark: Los Angeles County passes new gun control measures after Monterey Park mass shooting

Yeah, it might be, yeah. Would that be a reason? he clarified as Kahl cut him off.

I dont have any evidence one way or the other. As a general matter, I dont take Beijings propaganda at face value, Kahl said.

Fair enough. I would agree with that assessment, Gaetz replied before immediately moving on to question Kahl about the U.S. funding for pensions in Ukraine.

Story continues

More from NextShark: Gov. Ron DeSantis used to pronounce Thai as thigh to assess dates, former Yale classmate claims

The Global Times article that Gaetz cited quoted a 2018 blog post to support the idea the U.S. is training the Azov fighters despite no firm evidence to support the claim.

It appeared that the GOP congressman failed to do adequate research as the article also went on to accuse the United States of conniving with the neo-Nazi forces in Eastern Europe.

More from NextShark: Dozens rally at New Orleans federal hearing on future of DACA immigration law
Chairman Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., presides over the first hearing of the U.S. House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, in the Cannon House Office Building on February 28, 2023 in Washington, DC. The committee is investigating economic, technological and security competition between the U.S. and China.

WASHINGTON  A House select committee led by U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher on Tuesday called for urgent action in what the Wisconsin Republican described as an existential struggle with China that poses a threat to fundamental freedoms.

The (Chinese Communist Party) is laser focused on its vision for the future, a world crowded with techno-totalitarian surveillance states where human rights are subordinate to the whims of the Party, Gallagher said during the select committee on Chinas primetime hearing.

Time is not on our side, he said. Just because this Congress is divided, we cannot afford to waste the next two years lingering in legislative limbo or pandering for the press.

The hearing was the first for the committee formed to investigate how the U.S. can best counter Chinas growing influence and attempted to convince Americans they should care about the countrys competition with China. It came at a time of heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing and weeks after a Chinese surveillance balloon traversed the U.S.

The committee opened the hearing with a video highlighting various moments in the Chinese Communist Partys history, from its push for a communist society to the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations to the ongoing human rights abuses against the Uyghur ethnic minority in the Xinjiang region.

Here are some takeaways from the hearing:

Lawmakers and witnesses details a wide-ranging threat from China

Among the committees four witnesses Tuesday were H.R. McMaster, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general and national security advisor under President Donald Trump, and former deputy national security advisor Matthew Pottinger, who gave the committee a wide-ranging overview of challenges the Chinese government poses to the U.S.

They included combatting data privacy concerns related to China through apps like TikTok to addressing supply chain issues and finding ways to help the Chinese people freely access information outside of Chinese censorship.

Story continues

McMaster testified that the U.S. should act with urgency to expand its defense capabilities and echoed calls for arming Taiwan in the face of a potential Chinese invasion, mentioning the $19 billion backlog in weapons the U.S. has approved for the island.

Hard power matters, McMaster said.

Both witnesses and a number of committee members indicated they believed Washington has for too long underestimated the Chinese Communist Party.

Pottinger told the committee that Chinas leaders are masters at disguising their true intentions and said the Chinese Communist Party has a deep hostility toward the democratic West and the liberal international order.

Still, Pottinger called for keeping communications open with China, though he warned Beijing is not interested in pursuing cooperation with us for the greater global good.

It would be better to constrain and temper Xis ambitions now through robust, coordinated military deterrence (including an urgent expansion of our defense industrial capacity) and through strict limits on Chinas access to technology, capital, and data controlled by the United States and its allies, Pottinger said in written testimony.

Scott Paul, the president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, testified that China's economic policies "represent a clear and present danger to the American worker, our innovation base and our national security."

He said bringing China into the World Trade Organization in the early 2000s was a spectacular failure of conventional wisdom and urged Congress to build on new laws like the CHIPS and Science Act, which aims to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing, and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

"I believe the U.S. now has the seeds of policy in place to realign our supply chains and develop our domestic capabilities, but more needs to be done," Paul testified, calling for an end of U.S. dependence on Chinese manufacturing.

Committee members maintained a showing of bipartisanship

Ranking member Raja Krishnamoorthi , D-Ill., participates in the first hearing of the U.S. House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, in the Cannon House Office Building on February 28, 2023 in Washington, DC. The committee is investigating economic, technological and security competition between the U.S. and China.

Members of the panel continued to stress their commitment to bipartisanship  a question that has loomed over the committee since its inception.

Illinois U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, the committees top Democrat, said practicing bipartisanship and avoiding anti-Asian stereotypes is one of the overarching themes that will underpin our success as a committee.

The CCP is counting on us to be divided, Krishnamoorthi said. We must rise to the occasion and prove them wrong,

A handful of Democrats have raised concerns in recent months about whether the committee would foment anti-Asian hate. But Gallagher has pushed back on that worry and repeatedly emphasized that the committee has no quarrel with the Chinese people.

This should remind us that at all times we must constantly distinguish between the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people themselves, who have always been the Partys primary victims, Gallagher said in his opening remarks, referencing Chinese dissidents.

Protesters briefly interrupted the hearing

A protester disrupts the first hearing of the U.S. House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party as Lt. Gen. H.R. McCaster (Ret.) testifies at the Cannon House Office Building on February 28, 2023 in Washington, DC. The committee is investigating economic, technological and security competition between the U.S. and China.

Two protesters briefly interrupted proceedings during opening remarks from McMaster, one of the four witnesses at Tuesdays hearing.

The pair, who stood up holding signs moments apart from each other, appeared to denounce the committee and suggest the panel was provocative, saying: We need cooperation, not competition with China. One protesters sign read, China is not our enemy.

The protesters were escorted out of the room by U.S. Capitol Police, and police on Wednesday told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the two protesters were arrested for demonstrating inside the Capitol.

Police in an email cited Washington code that prohibits continued demonstration "after being instructed by a law enforcement officer to cease the crowding, obstructing, or incommoding."

California Democratic U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna used the interruption to highlight a difference between the U.S. and China. He said that while he disagreed with the protesters, he respected them.

When we listen to dissent, Khanna said, we show by example exactly what makes the United States different from the Chinese Communist Party.

Panel puts focus on human rights issues

Human rights activist Tong Yi testifies before a hearing of the U.S. House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, at the Cannon House Office Building on February 28, 2023 in Washington, DC. The committee is investigating economic, technological and security competition between the U.S. and China.

Another panel witness was Tong Yi, a Chinese human rights activist who told the committee about her experiences with the Chinese Communist Party from her protests at Tiananmen Square to her arrest in the 1990s during the pro-democracy movement.

Tong described her time in prison and mentioned modern Chinese surveillance systems that allow the government to crack down on protesters today.

But she also warned that investments in China from U.S. corporations  lawmakers like Gallagher have called for an economic "decoupling" from China  have enriched China

We need to face the fact that we have helped to feed the baby dragon of the CCP until it has grown into what it is now, Tong said.

Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.

DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get the latest news, sports and more

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Rep. Mike Gallagher hearing on China challenges: 4 key takeaways
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP)  A critical report into the protection of three murder victims, including a celebrated Dutch journalist gunned down in central Amsterdam, said Wednesday that security services in a fragmented protection system didn't always act on tips about possible threats.

The conclusions highlighted flaws in a network involving police and prosecutors that is intended to offer protection to people facing threats ranging from stalkers to possible attacks by criminals and terrorists.

The report came following an 18-month government-commissioned investigation by the Dutch Safety Board into the slayings of crime reporter Peter R. de Vries, lawyer Derk Wiersum and the brother of a key witness in the trial of an alleged Dutch crime gang.

De Vries, who was shot on an Amsterdam street on July 21, 2021, and died nine days later acted as a confidential advisor to the witness. Wiersum, the witness' lawyer, was gunned down on Sept. 18, 2019, outside his home in Amsterdam. The witness' brother, identified only Reduan, was shot and killed March 29, 2018.

The witness played a key role in the prosecution of Ridouan Taghi, who is accused by prosecutors of multiple murders in the violent Dutch criminal underworld. Judges are expected to deliver verdicts later this year in the trial of Taghi and several alleged accomplices.

The report said that command of the surveillance and protection of the persons under threat was fragmented across national and regional organisations and the protection service did not receive all the information about the threat that was available to the investigation.

It added that signals of possible threats from the victims were not regarded as concrete threat information and therefore did not fit into the usual system.

Both Wiersum and De Vries had police surveillance at their homes. De Vries was not willing to share his schedule to make it possible to organize surveillance for his arrivals and departures. He also made no use of the option to personally notify any high-risk moments, the report said.

Story continues

The brother of the witness insisted on protection for members of his family. When the attack on his life took place, no specific security measures had yet been taken for him, it added.

Justice Minister Dilan Yesilgoz-Zegerius said in a reaction to the report that the government has made investments to beef up the security apparatus in recent years.

The increased threat, specifically from organized crime, means that the number of people and objects that are intensively monitored and secured for a long period of time  sometimes even many years  has increased considerably, she said in a statement.

Yesilgoz-Zegerius said that the person to be protected is now more central, and tailor-made security measures are being developed.
The three Republican Iowa legislators representing Johnson County have not been showing up at legislative forums in Johnson County despite the gains their party made in Iowa's most Democratic-voting county in the 2022 election.

Republican state Sen. Dawn Driscoll and state Reps. Heather Hora and Brad Sherman have all been absent from the last two legislative forums held by the nonpartisan League of Women Voters, but have attended similar events in GOP-voting Washington and Iowa counties.

Some members of Johnson County's Democratic delegation at a League of Women Voters forum Feb. 28 at The Center in Iowa City criticized their Republican colleagues for their absence.

"(We) continue to be very disappointed that our Republican colleagues choose not attend these events and hope they're able to join us in the future," state Sen. Zach Wahls said.

Adam Zabner, Elinor Levin, Dave Jacoby, Janice Weiner, and Zach Wahls participate in a League of Women Voters Legislative forum, Saturday, Dec. 3, 2022, in Coralville, Iowa.

State Rep. Dave Jacoby said he thinks the reason "the other team" is not showing up at forums is because Republicans have been rude to people who have testified and presented during committee meetings during the current legislative session.

"It is out of hand," Jacoby said.

Republicans point to forums elsewhere, say they're busy when Johnson County's are held

The moderator of the event, Bea Hicks, said all three Republicans were invited to attend. Hicks said Driscoll declined due to family conflicts while Hora and Sherman did not respond.

Asked to comment, Driscoll told the Press-Citizen in an email that she has held several forums with Hora and plans to hold more with Sherman before this legislative session is over. She did not answer questions about why she did not show up to the League of Women Voters forums in Johnson County.

Driscoll said every Friday she also holds a "Day in the District" event where she travels District 46 in Johnson, Washington and Iowa counties, touring small businesses, schools and visiting with constituents. During the visits, she said, she often takes questions from people on legislation she is working on and other issues.

Story continues

"Its been an eye-opening experience to see all the amazing businesses and schools are in District 46 and look forward to continue with our forums and tours on Fridays in the District," Driscoll said.

Hora, in an email, said she has participated in several forums in Washington County, including one in Kalona on Feb. 10 put on by the Washington Chamber of Commerce in Washington County, and that there will be additional ones March 10 at Halcyon House in Washington and April 14 at the Washington County Hospitals and Clinics.

"We appreciate all the great conversation that we have at these forums and encourage any constituent that has questions either try and attend or reach out to Senator Driscoll or myself," Hora said.

She did not say why she missed the last two forums in Johnson County, but she pointed out that Saturdays present a challenge for both her and Driscoll because each is the mother of three children and both spend time with their families and work on their family farms on weekends.

Driscoll and Hora did not say whether they plan to attend the next League of Women Voters forum March 25.

Sherman did not respond to a request for comment. He and Driscoll have a forum planned at 9:30 a.m. Friday at Brickhouse Coffee in Williamsburg in Iowa County.

Absence comes despite GOP gains in Johnson County

Driscoll, Hora and Sherman skipped all Johnson County-based candidate forums in the 2022 election cycle. Hora and Driscoll attended a packed candidate forum in Washington County when Gov. Kim Reynolds showed up to support them.

Their absence in Johnson County comes despite stepped-up Republican efforts there in the past year, including an Iowa City fundraiser U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks held with Ohio U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan and a large door-knocking effort before the November vote.

After once-a-decade redistricting, Republicans in the 2022 voting hold two of the six Iowa House seats and one of three Iowa Senate seats representing Johnson County. Previously, state Rep. Bobby Kaufmann of Wilton was the sole Republican representing a part of Johnson County.

When he represented Johnson County prior to redistricting, Kaufmann attended the League of Women voters forums but stopped doing so during the COVID-19 pandemic when they switched to a virtual format.

Despite their November gains, including a larger share of the vote for Reynolds than in 2018, Republicans are still heavily outnumbered in Johnson County. Besides Wahls and Jacoby, Johnson County Democrats include state Sen. Janice Weiner and state Reps. Elinor Levin, Amy Nielsen and Adam Zabner. Unlike Hora, Sherman and Driscoll, none of them represent a second county.

More:People to Watch 2023: Iowa City's Adam Zabner brings different perspective to Legislature

George Shillcock is the Press-Citizen's local government and development reporter covering Iowa City and Johnson County. He can be reached at (319) 214-5039, GShillcock@press-citizen.com and on Twitter @ShillcockGeorge

This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: GOP lawmakers absent at legislative forums in Johnson County
Senate Democrats on Wednesday rallied behind President Bidens long-delayed pick to lead the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) while Republicans vowed to block the nomination.

The Senate Commerce Committee has slow-walked the nomination of Phil Washington, the CEO of Denver International Airport, amid questions about his aviation experience and an ongoing corruption investigation related to his tenure as head of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority.

Biden nominated Washington to lead the FAA more than seven months ago.

The FAA has been without a Senate-confirmed administrator for nearly a year amid numerous challenges, most recently struggling with near collisions and a high-profile system meltdown.

At a Commerce hearing on Wednesday, Washington told senators he would aim to swiftly address pressing issues such as a flurry of drones entering the airspace and staffing shortages at the FAA.

However, to accomplish all these things, we need permanent leadership at the top of the FAA to address the challenges that we have seen in the last several years, Washington said.

Republicans aim to block nomination

Republicans on Wednesday criticized Washingtons aviation experience, arguing that his 20-month stint as an airport executive doesnt qualify him to lead the FAA.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), the committees ranking member, said that Republicans might be able to block Washingtons nomination.

While the nomination would normally require a simple majority vote in the Senate, where Democrats have a slim majority, Cruz said that Washingtons military status necessitates a congressional waiver that would need the support of 60 senators and the GOP-controlled House.

Washington is a retired 24-year Army veteran, and federal law says the FAA administrator must be a civilian. Previous FAA nominees have had to secure a waiver or give up their retired military status, which comes with government benefits.

On five occasions Congress has passed legislative waivers.  We would do the same for Mr. Washington if his record merited it, if he had experience in aviation safety. But it doesnt, Cruz said. And if Senate Democrats force this nomination through without a waiver, a legal cloud will hang over every single FAA action.

Story continues

Republicans made their case by quizzing Washington about specific aircraft safety functions and noting that he was unable to answer most of them.

The FAA cant afford to be led by someone who needs on the job training, Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) said. And for that reason, Im going to be opposing your nomination.

Republicans also pointed to a criminal investigation into allegations of favoritism in no-bid contracts Washington handed out as head of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority. They noted that Washington was named in a federal lawsuit this month filed by a former Denver International Airport employee who alleged discriminatory and retaliatory practices at the airport.

I think its fair to say that you would already be confirmed if there had not been serious, bipartisan questions about your qualifications and fitness for office, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) told Washington, adding that he was surprised Biden renominated Washington.

Democrats rally behind Washington

Democrats on Wednesday largely voiced support for Washington, arguing that the FAA needs a Senate-confirmed administrator as soon as possible and celebrating his job leading the worlds third-busiest airport.

They noted that several FAA nominees didnt have an aviation background but were confirmed with bipartisan support, including former FAA Administrator Michael Huerta. They argued that its a good thing Washington isnt an airline veteran.

Hes not an airline industry insider using his role as a position for the industry to police itself, Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) said. The challenges facing the FAA are those of managing a large, complex bureaucracy badly in need of modernization, and certainly in that respect hes no novice.

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), chairwoman of the Senate Commerce Committee, argued that the FAA and the aviation industry got too cozy in recent years.

Democrats cited the agencys certification of the Boeing 737 MAX, which would later suffer technical issues that led to two disastrous crashes, killing nearly 350 passengers.

FAA faces series of hurdles

In January, the FAA suffered an outage to its pilot alert system, forcing the agency to ground all U.S. flights for the first time in two decades, prompting congressional investigations. The agency said that it needs to modernize its aging systems, but acknowledged the overhaul will take years.

The FAA is investigating a near collision on Monday between a private charter jet and a JetBlue airplane at a Boston airport. That comes after a near miss at an Austin airport earlier this month and another close call at a New York City airport in January.

Airlines struggled with delays and cancellations during some of last years busiest travel days and blamed summer disruptions on a shortage of air traffic control staff.

Southwest Airlines suffered perhaps the biggest meltdown in aviation history over the Christmas holidays, canceling nearly 17,000 flights after its own systems went haywire.

Meanwhile, the agency needs to adapt to an influx of drones and other aerial vehicles entering the airspace.

Billy Nolen, the FAAs associate administrator for aviation safety, has been leading the agency since April 2022, when Trump-appointed FAA Administrator Steve Dickson stepped down. That leaves the agency without a permanent head as lawmakers work on FAA reauthorization legislation this year.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Rishi Sunak visits Belfast in Northern Ireland after agreeing a new deal - Simon Walker / No10 Downing Street

Rishi Sunaks Brexit deal failed to secure duty-free shopping on flights from Northern Ireland to the European Union, The Telegraph can disclose, despite claims the United Kingdom has taken back control of tax rules in the province.

Travellers leaving Northern Ireland will remain blocked from taking advantage of tax-free offers when heading to European countries and Great Britain, a potentially multi-billion Brexit boost for the region.

Ports and airports have repeatedly warned they are losing out on vital customs because of the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Under the original deal, brokered by Boris Johnson in October 2019, the province was forced to follow hundreds of EU rules, including on tax rates, to prevent a hard border with the Republic.

When Mr Sunak on Monday announced his new-look Windsor Framework, he claimed Westminster had taken back control over VAT, taxation and state aid in Northern Ireland.

But multiple EU sources confirmed this did not mean the province would be able to benefit from duty-free shopping, as Great Britain has since Brexit.

No change here, one said.

The return of duty-free shopping between the UK and the continent was one of the big selling points of Brexit for consumers and businesses.

Brussels banned tax-free allowances for travellers moving between EU states in 1999.

They were reinstated for holidaymakers heading from Great Britain to European countries in 2021, but not for those coming from Northern Ireland.

Airports and ports in the region have appealed to both London and Brussels to allow duty-free shopping for travel to either Great Britain or the EU.

In a letter to the Government last month, Baroness Hoey of Lylehill and Rathlin, a Northern Irish peer, demanded immediate action be taken on the issue.

Not part of negotiations

However, The Telegraph understands that a return of duty-free wasn't part of the negotiations on the "Windsor Framework" agreed by Mr Sunak and Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission's president, on Monday.

Story continues

The deal handed Britain partial control over taxation, including reduced rates for immovable objects, such as heat pumps and solar panels for homes.

An EU official suggested the agreement could be re-visited in the future to address duty-free shopping.

"This could be something that could be looked into in the future," they said.

Previously, the Treasury had blocked Northern Irish travellers from tax-free offers on routes to Great Britain, a possibility under the original protocol, as the province followed EU rules.

Officials said it cant allow duty-free shopping for travellers heading to Great Britain because Northern Ireland is part of the UKs tax area.

But the Commission used the same excuse for flights destined for the EU, arguing the province is following its rules under the border deal.

Baroness Hoey, a Brexit-backing Northern Irish peer, said: This is just one of the many issues that have not been resolved by the new agreement.

People in Northern Ireland are in limbo still over duty-free. Are they allowed duty-free flying from Belfast to Majorca and if not why not if they are fully part of the UK?

If they are part of the EU then why can they not get duty-free from Belfast to Birmingham as Dublin Birmingham can?

NI airports are at a disadvantage with Dublin airport.

A Treasury spokesman said: Northern Ireland is an integral part of the United Kingdoms tax territory, and the UK Government would not propose or agree to any new policy that undermined this. Applying duty-free arrangements would risk undermining business in both Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Officials fear opening up duty-free sales on the Northern Ireland / European Union routes would risk creating a route for unlimited tax-free goods into the UK as there is no physical border with the Republic.
Nik Storonsky - Pedro Nunes/Reuters

Revoluts pursuit of a UK banking licence is facing a fresh hurdle after the finance app's own auditor warned that the majority of its revenues may have been materially misstated.

BDO, the UKs fifth largest accounting firm, said it was unable to fully verify 477m of the companys revenues for 2021 owing to flaws in Revoluts internal systems. The sum amounts to more than two thirds of Revoluts 636m in revenues for the year.

As a result, the auditor issued Revolut with a qualified opinion on its long delayed 2021 accounts.

BDO said: We were unable to satisfy ourselves concerning the completeness and occurrence of certain revenues for the year ended 31 December 2021. This meant that references to Revoluts turnover may be materially misstated.

BDOs verdict risks increasing scrutiny of Revoluts claims that it is close to securing a lucrative UK banking licence.

The City watchdog declined to comment on the specifics of Revolut's application. However, a spokesman for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said: All firms seeking authorisation must prove they meet the standards relevant to the business that they wish to undertake.

To assess applications, the FCA will consider whether firms are ready, willing and organised to comply, on a continuing basis, with the requirements and standards under the regulatory system.

Gary Greenwood, a banking analyst at Shore Capital, said: Id be very surprised if they were able to secure a banking licence without a solid audit opinion. If they were a listed bank their share price would have likely already tanked.

Revolut, which has been waiting for more than two years for approval, says it is in advanced stages of its application with City regulators.

Mikko Salovaara, Revoluts finance chief, said: I havent been made aware of [BDOs opinion] being a blocker [to a banking licence].

I think its a reasonable question but I dont think it will be.

Revolut - John Nguyen/JNVisuals

The Bank of England states that companies seeking a licence must ensure that they are operationally ready to carry out the regulated activities at the time of their authorisation and demonstrate how they will meet the required standards at authorisation and on an ongoing basis.

Story continues

BDO said Revolut's internal IT systems were not able to provide sufficient appropriate assurance over revenue streams from areas of the business including its foreign exchange and wealth department, which includes revenues from crypto trading.

The auditor was forced to revert to methods such as verifying cash balances and cash in client accounts because it had been unable to rely on Revoluts IT systems and controls throughout 2021.

It added that no reliable documentary evidence of the transactions was produced or maintained outside of the IT system.

BDO said it had identified an underdeveloped financial control environment as a key risk to Revoluts operations.

Mr Salovaara blamed the issues on a failure to grow Revolut's systems and controls at the same pace as the core business.

He said: We effectively outgrew the IT systems related to accounting Its kind of a technical point. I dont think its particularly unusual for a growing company to take some time to put that in place, but with the pace of growth and the visibility we have as a business, Im not surprised its been called out.

"The specific issues that [BDO] found in terms of our IT systems were remediated by the end of the third quarter of 2021 I think were basically there and we dont expect any continued audit delays.

Earlier this month, the City watchdog criticised e-money companies for weak financial crime and fraud controls, saying there needs to be a significant shift in culture and behaviour.

BDO did not issue any warning on Revoluts ability to continue as a going concern and said it verified 100pc of cash balances held on behalf of customers with third parties.

Mr Salovaara said: There is not any doubt over the completeness of the balance sheet, which, in turn, logically means that total revenue is also correct.

He added that he did not want BDOs comments to overshadow frankly the business success that everyone who has been working really hard at Revolut has been able to deliver.

Revolut made a net profit of 26.3m in 2021, according to its accounts, compared to a loss of 223m in the 12 months prior.

About a third of Revolut's total revenues in the year came from cryptocurrency fees following a surge in interest in digital assets. Revoluts foreign exchange and wealth division, which includes its cryptocurrency and commodities trading products, made up more than half of its revenues in 2021.

Revolut has suffered a turbulent few months, including a series of high profile resignations.
(Revolut)

Fintech giant Revolut saw a tripling in sales in 2021, its accounts show today, amid a boom in crypto trading activity, before the so-called crypto winter slowed revenue growth in 2022.

The London-based firm, which offers debit cards and crypto services, posted revenues of 636 million for the year to end-December 2021, while profits topped 59 million, turning around a loss of 223 million the year before.

But the recent turmoil in the crypto market, which has seen the value of Bitcoin plunge amid a string of bankruptcies, caused Revoluts own turnover in digital asset activity shrink in 2022, with crypto services accounting for only 5-10% of the total income last year. The firm said it saw sales growth of 33% in 2022 to 850 million, but could not confirm whether it remained profitable.

Revolut chairman Martin Gilbert said: When profitability often plays second fiddle to growth for FinTechs, we showed that a company as young as Revolut can continue to accelerate its growth while also being profitable.

Such strong financial performance and profitability demonstrates Revolut efficiently moving from the start-up that is only focused on growth, to the scale-up looking to grow profitably.

Revoluts accounts were published two months after the statutory filing deadline. Chief financial officer Mikko Salovaara told Reuters the delay was because our accounting systems needed replacement."

The company has grown to become one of the worlds biggest and most valuable fintechs, with a July 2021 funding round valuing the firm at $33 billion (27billion).

Theres no sign that the firm is slowing down its rapid expansion, having doubled its employee headcount to top 7,000 staff last year, according to LinkedIn data, and with plans to hire a further 1,700 staff this year.

But Revoluts lightening-quick growth has not come without its own stumbling blocks. In January the firm established a new behavioural team after it faced allegations of poor corporate culture, including staff having to work long hours and quitting after feeling under pressure to deliver unachievable targets.

The firm has been waiting for more than a year to be granted a UK banking license, which would it allow it to expand its range of services to customers in Britain. It may face more scrutiny if its EU operations, which are currently regulated in Lithuania, reach a scale that causes them to fall under the direct aegis of the European Central Bank.
Serving up a deep dish pizza at Pizzeria Uno in Chicago in 2009. Pizzeria Uno, owned by Uno Restaurant Holdings Corp., announced it is selling its frozen pizza division to focus on expanding the restaurant franchise. (Nancy Stone / Chicago Tribune)

Romeoville-based Great Kitchens Food Co. has acquired Uno Foods frozen and refrigerated pizza brands as the iconic deep dish chain focuses on expanding its franchise restaurants.

Uno Foods is the frozen food division of Uno Restaurant Holdings Corp., owner of the original Pizzeria Uno  which has been credited with inventing deep dish pizza  at Ohio Street and Wabash Avenue in downtown Chicago. Uno Restaurant Holdings Corp. is owned by Texas-based investment firm Newport Global Advisors.

Advertisement

Pizzeria Uno CEO Erik Frederick said Wednesday the company would maintain ownership of the restaurants, which are split between 30 company-operated and 50 franchised locations across 17 states and abroad. Three of the company-owned restaurants are in Chicago, including Pizzeria Uno, Pizzeria Due and Su Casa, a Mexican restaurant that does not sell pizza.

Frederick described the companys manufacturing business, which includes calzones, entrees and appetizers in addition to pizza, as kind of an odd duck.

Advertisement

Operating a restaurant and franchising a restaurant, he said, have a lot of operational synergies. But manufacturing, not so much.

Pizzeria Uno pictured on June 29, 2019, in Chicago. (Michelle Kanaar/for the Chicago Tribune)

Pizzeria Uno plans to focus on expanding its restaurant presence in hotels, Frederick said. The company sells pizzas in two hotels in the Chicago area, he said, including one in Schiller Park and one in the Indiana Dunes.

Great Kitchens manufactures frozen pizzas in Romeoville and Chicago Heights, said Henk Hartong, CEO of Brynwood Partners, the Connecticut-based private equity firm that owns the company. Among Brynwoods other holdings is the Chicago-based Hometown Food Co., which owns brands including Pillsbury and Funfetti.

Great Kitchens operates a 165,000-square-foot crust facility in Chicago Heights, where about 80 people work, and a 155,000-square-foot toppings facility in Romeoville, where about 720 people work including in corporate roles, Hartong said. Uno Foods manufactures its frozen brands in a facility south of Boston.

Hartong said Great Kitchens did not have plans to move manufacturing of Uno Brands to the Chicago area. The acquisition could lead to single-digit staff additions in Romeoville to support the new brands, he said.

Uno Foods Boston facility, unlike Great Kitchens Chicago-area plants, has the ability to manufacture deep dish pizza crusts, Hartong said. As silly as that sounds, we dont, he said. But well now have the capability to distribute it through this business, and were really excited about that.

Hartong added that Great Kitchens has already received inquiries from retail partners about bringing Uno brand pizzas to Chicago-area grocery stores. Right now, Hartong said, Uno brand products have a very small presence in local grocery stores, if any. Thats a big part of why we bought the business, he said.

Advertisement

Terms of the sale were not disclosed.

Demand for frozen pizzas soared during the pandemic. That demand is still strong, Hartong said. Great Kitchens pizza sales are up more than 30% over the last year, he said.
TYCHR is a reliable solution for your educational problems, working to develop people's personal and professional integrity in addition to assisting them in achieving academic success.

Dallas, TX --News Direct-- KISS PR Brand Story

Tychr has established itself as a reliable solution for all of your local and global educational problems. Our mission and vision at Tychr center around the notions of fostering innovation, closing gaps to strengthen the foundation, and disseminating information in a comprehensive and integrated way. We work to develop students personal and professional integrity in addition to assisting them in achieving academic success. Our unwavering commitment to assisting the student community will only help them create a better future for themselves.

We assist. We mold. We develop.

Our Approach

We have created an organized method for our tuition classes and have given the students all the necessary tools. Firstly, we have a section of open, free resources where students can read through our very thorough notes on every chapter of every subject we tutor in.

Additionally, we also use a very structured process that divides each course into a semester. We have divided it over 4 semesters to guarantee a seamless learning process free from pressure. We also have a comprehensive IB syllabus for each subject so the student is fully aware about what is covered. With our students' best interests in mind, we have also put together an extensive collection of IA concepts that will give them a head start in the thinking process.

Lastly, our special teaching approach has worked wonders for our students. Tychr ensures knowledge transfer from an integrated, comprehensive, and cross-disciplinary perspective.

T.E.S.T Methodology

According to us, the sky's the limit and we should work to accomplish the most challenging goals. To guarantee that each student receives the necessary attention, TYCHRs students get accustomed to a personalized learning environment. We have established our proven T.E.S.T Methodology after analyzing and putting it into practice for over ten years.

Story continues

T- Theoretical Framework Extensive subject-wise study material for almost every topic in the curriculum is curated for students.

E- Explanatory Videos Students benefit from our in-depth explanation videos to improve their knowledge and supplement their academic base.

S- Strengthening Concepts The student further starts to drill with modular assignments and questions to help practice and furnish their skills and abilities.

T- Time Bound Test Series The student progresses on to handling mock tests under exam-style setups

This is how were going to help

A number of issues arise for students during their time in school and when they apply for college. They can be having trouble understanding a few concepts, or they might need to compose a scholarship-winning essay for an application. Tutoring is perhaps the best solution available to help you avoid these potential barriers.

You name your concern, were there. We offer a variety of services:

IBDP Online Tuition

IB MYP Online Tuition

Cambridge Online Tuition

A-Levels Online Tuition

IGCSE Online Tuition

AP Online Tuition

SAT Online Tuition

ACT Online Tuition

College Counseling

With the wide array of services we offer from IB to SAT tutoring, we have one more to the list; College counseling. This is your one stop destination for help with college counseling because all our tutors are all graduates or current students from top UK, US & Indian Universities. If youre unsure, experience a free tutoring session with our top-quality tutors before you decide to get on board!

Weve seen a lot of people be skeptical about online tutoring. Online tuitions arent just an alternative to normal tuitionin many ways, they are superior to face-to-face classes. Let us tell you why:

Personalization: Study and learn in smaller groups for personal attention.

No commute: Get tutored from the comfort of your home.

Learn from the best: Compare and choose the best tutor according to your needs.

Always available: Our tutors are readily available for you to get your doubts clarified via text or call.

Flexibility: Most tutors are happy to schedule classes on short-notice before the exam if required.

We have the perfect solution for you right here! All in all, we are committed to serving the global student community as best as we can. In our mission to do so, we ensure to make education as widely accessible and attainable to as many students possible.

Were your friend, philosopher and guide for all your educational concerns.

Media Contact az@kisspr.com

Source: KISS PR Press Release Distribution

Release ID: 537119

View source version on newsdirect.com: https://newsdirect.com/news/revolutionizing-teaching-methodology-get-ready-to-learn-with-tychr-642039321
Guyanese-American designer Marrisa Wilson dreamed of working in fashion at a very young age. Now, it's a reality. Christian Wright for Insider

The designer, who has collaborated with Levi's and Gigi Burris, unites fashion, music, and art to create vibrant garments that encourage Black women to be their most confident selves.

In an intimate loft in Chelsea, Manhattan, funky guitar riffs from Roy Ayers' 1970 hit "Pretty Brown Skin" glide through a set of speakers. Marrisa Wilson, the founder and creative director of womenswear brand Marrisa Wilson New York, grooves through the space with graceful urgency. She's preparing to showcase her Fall/Winter 2023 collection, titled "Rhythmic," at New York Fashion Week and plans on restyling the loft into a runway-worthy venue.

She'll accomplish just that. In a week, the compact space will transform into a dynamic, immersive NYFW experience: Wilson's very own canvas paintings will hang along a white brick wall; Hera, an all-female jazz band, will perform live music as models flaunting Wilson's garments and Afro-centric hairstyles caper down the runway; and legendary model Pat Cleveland will make a surprise appearance and dance with Wilson to close the show.

But when I meet with Wilson, none of that has happened yet. She's still making ready, and the loft is lined with racks of her unrevealed pieces boasting abstract prints and hand-painted fabrics.

Amid all of the planning, Wilson takes a moment to reflect. She's come a long way since graduating from Marist College in 2015  she majored in fashion design and double minored in fashion merchandising and product development  and studying fashion in Paris.

At the beginning of Wilson's Fall/Winter '23 NYFW show, Chelsea Baratz of Hera sported one of Wilson's looks while playing the saxophone. Meanwhile, model Lauren Forge danced down the runway in one of Wilson's bright yellow designs. Jonas Gustavsson

"I wanted to go into this industry from a young age," she told me. "That's why I work on having a strong point of view in my designs. I want to make sure that everything feels right coming from me and doesn't feel like it could just be anyone else in the world."

As a creative, it makes sense that Wilson covets idiosyncrasy and has mastered the art of merging individuality and relatability. And she's reaping the fruits of that labor.

Story continues

She's a member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, she's now shown three collections at New York Fashion Week, her designs have been worn by the likes of Tamron Hall and Sherri Shepherd, and she was recently recognized as a finalist for Fashion Group International's "Rising Star" award. She's also worked for brands such as Oscar de la Renta and Calvin Klein and has collaborated with Levi's and Gigi Burris.

In a conversation with Insider for our ongoing series, Black Ensemble: Fashion for the Culture, Wilson opened up about her start in fashion, building her brand, and the significance of Black creativity in artistic spaces.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

You were born and raised in New Jersey, but your parents are from Guyana. How did being a first-generation Guyanese-American influence you as a designer?

The colors, spices, and flavors of Guyanese culture that I grew up around are things that I draw from. Going to Guyana as a kid  we have a house down there  and seeing the colors, birds, hearing the language, I felt the shift in how the world moved. There was a slower pace of life.

My mom is also a creative person. When I was in the second grade, for my First Communion, she reupholstered all the chairs in our kitchen, and there were these scraps of fabric and fabric-covered buttons that she made. She saw me using those buttons on my Barbies and decided to teach me how to hand-sew. Then I got my first little mini sewing machine before graduating to a Brother machine.

I also used a lot of Teen Vogue magazines for collages. I remember a cover that had Chanel Iman and Jourdan Dunn. That was the first time that I saw someone that looked like me on a magazine, and I realized there weren't many people that looked like me in fashion. So as I understood myself as a person, I realized there is value in my experience that I wanted to express in my work.

"There are elements of function and form but from a joyous and expressive perspective," Wilson said of her design DNA. "Effortless expression is the way that I really love to describe my brand." Christian Wright for Insider

What aspects of your upbringing have governed your approach to building your brand?

Guyanese culture involves a strong family dynamic, and I associate that with my entrepreneurial spirit. Starting this company right after I finished school didn't feel that crazy to me because we had a family business growing up, which gave me a hustler mentality.

That was something that I always had going through school and often being the only person of color in the room. I grew up with this mentality that I'm going to have to be not just good, but better than the rest. I do look back and wish that I gave myself more grace.

But what I have learned is I can really lean into my lived experiences. My new Fall/Winter '23 collection is inspired by my connection to dance, music, art, and fashion. From when I was 3 up until my early 20s, I did all sorts of competitive dancing, and it was a big part of my life.

What styles of dance were you trained in?

All different types: tap, jazz, ballet, hip-hop, contemporary, lyrical. I really dove into the history of jazz, particularly, because growing up we did a ton of Bob Fosse routines.

But I wanted to feel more connected to something from a cultural perspective, so I dug into Katherine Dunham. She's considered to be the Black matriarch of modern dance and was known for polyrhythmic movement. She traveled throughout the Caribbean, Haiti, Cuba  all of these different countries  to understand the people and incorporate those cultures into dance. A lot of my new collection is inspired by her costumes.

Wilson and Cleveland enraptured NYFW guests with a dance to conclude the Fall/Winter '23 show. Jonas Gustavsson

I would love to hear more about the process of creating your Fall/Winter '23 collection.

I explored a new medium this time, playing with pastels, which was very new to me, and sketching a ton. I also experimented with painting directly onto the fabric. I had 10 yards of fabric that I painted with this circular motion to replicate a rond de jambe in ballet. I wanted the fabrics and the prints to feel like they were dancing and moving, so there are some that have this lyrical motion to them.

Then I dug into what I do best: tried-and-true silhouettes; split details; pops of color; utility pockets. And I dove more into sweaters, which I think is a really great place to explore novelties and textures.

You've been releasing NFTs and digital art collections as part of your Woman's Prerogative Project. What has that been like for you?

I've built a strong community in the Web3 space, and community is something that's always been important to me. I've been able to bring people into the Fashion Week space and connect with other enthusiasts who might not necessarily buy the clothes but can connect with my artwork.

As Wilson evolves as a designer, she continues to keep things in perspective. "I've been going back to that idea of, 'Why me, and why now?'" she said. Christian Wright for Insider (left); Jonas Gustavsson (right)

Why was it important for you as a Black woman to explore the Web3 space?

Right now, this space is heavily dominated by white men who are going to take inspiration from things that exist in Web2 and in the real world and monetize it. So I knew that I needed to learn and understand this in order to establish a point of view in this space. Because if it's not going to be me, then it's going to be someone else on my behalf.

How do you feel about the luxury industry's relationship with Black creatives?

We're in an interesting place right now where we're starting to move toward more Black representation in these spaces. But I think there are still certain unfavorable perceptions of Black women, which is wild because we're the ones that are driving the volume, the business, and the culture. I think we're starting to make progress, but I would love to see more women of color in positions of leadership in the luxury space.

Something else that's important to me as a Black woman is the styling of all of my shows. I intentionally cast models who bring the clothes together through their own personalities and can command a room with their energy. That's what I feel is really fresh and directional in high-end fashion and what I want to see more of: Not being one archetype of a character for a brand.

Wilson hopes that her work as a designer and an artist will expand into other realms beyond the runway. Christian Wright for Insider

Is there anything in particular in Black history and culture that inspires your designs?

In terms of the process that I went through with my new collection, I listened to "A Love Supreme" by John Coltrane as a starting place and began sketching.

I also looked at historical photos of Katherine Dunham and the costumes, headwear, voluminous skirts, colors, and patchwork that she wore. I watched these old videos of a guy playing the bongos while she shook her hips in a very intentional way. It was so cool and inspiring to me. I wanted to use those elements of rhythm. That's why the name of my new collection is "Rhythmic."

The late Katherine Dunham, a renowned 20th century dancer who performed all over the world, inspired some of Wilson's Fall/Winter '23 designs. Baron/Stringer via Getty Images; Hulton Archive/Stringer via Getty Images

What do you think the future of fashion will look like, and what do you think it should look like?

I think because of COVID, there's going to continue to be a big shift toward comfort, whether it's visible comfort or something that looks sharp but feels comfortable to wear. We're getting into this hybrid place of dressing up maybe three or four times a week.

It might actually be easier to dress up now because you're not doing it as often. You're having these moments that are less frequent but more impactful. So I think easy-breezy looks that are more elevated and cool is where the industry should be going.

What advice would you give to the next generation of fashion designers?

Give yourself grace. You're not going to have it all figured out. School, especially art school and design school, is tough. You're at an age where you're figuring out who you are, and you have people poking at everything that you think you might know about yourself.

Wilson is hopeful about where her brand is heading. "I've got a wonderful team," she said. "It's starting to feel like we're building the groundwork for a well-balanced business. Christian Wright for Insider

What I've found helpful is having a point of view on specific elements, like silhouettes, hems, and color palettes. That way, when somebody starts to poke, you can say why you made a decision.

That's the artist's journey of figuring things out. You're going to get critiques, and it's still going to sting sometimes when you hear things that you don't want to hear. But it certainly makes it easier to have a point of view.

What have you learned about balancing your creativity with running a business?

I've learned to separate those things. It would be creatively stifling if I went into a work session and tried to be creative and business-minded in the same setting. I creatively explore and let things sit. Then I look at numbers, pricing, and costs and come at everything as if I'm a different person.

What are some goals that you have for yourself in the near future?

I would love to see my art, prints, and brand in a different medium  maybe footwear or experiential art. Continuing to grow as an artist is something that I'm really excited to do. And then, I'm planning on getting married this year, so I want to just take a moment to have a moment.

Stay tuned for more Black Ensemble stories in the coming months, featuring some of the most important trendsetters in fashion.

Read the original article on Insider
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP)  Human rights lawyers have called on the International Criminal Court to open an investigation into alleged crimes they say were committed by Turkish authorities against thousands of opponents of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Former Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Johan Vande Lanotte unveiled details Wednesday of a 4,000-page dossier sent to the court's prosecution office last month seeking a probe into allegations of crimes against humanity. The prosecution office receives hundreds of such submissions each year from around the world, and they rarely lead to an investigation.

The lawyers alleged that more than 200,000 people were victims of a crackdown that began after a failed 2016 coup in Turkey. However, since Turkey is not a member of the ICC, the courts prosecutors do not have jurisdiction over cases involving victims who are in the country.

However, the lawyers said, crimes with some 1,300 victims could be prosecuted by the Hague-based court  17 cases of enforced disappearances, the closure of 73 schools in 13 countries that are members of the court, and what they called the discriminatory withdrawal or refusal to extend passports and refusal to issue identity cards.

The crimes led to what Vande Lanotte called social death for the victims.

He said the 1,300 victims identified in the filing to the court were targeted in dozens of countries that are members of the court, which would give prosecutors jurisdiction based on a 2019 ruling that allowed the court to open an investigation into the alleged deportation of members of Myanmars minority Rohingya who were forced to flee across the border into Bangladesh, which is an ICC member state, from Myanmar, which is not.

The allegations aired Wednesday follow Turkey's sweeping crackdown on alleged members of a network around U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom the government held responsible for the failed military coup in 2016.

Story continues

Tens of thousands of people were detained, while others were purged from government jobs, including the police and military. Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said last year that more 19,000 people are still in prison, convicted of links to the Gulen network which Turkey has designated as a terrorist organization.

Meanwhile, Turkey is seeking the extradition of more than 1,100 suspects from 110 countries, according to the Justice Ministry. In 2021, Turkish agents captured a nephew of Gulen in an overseas operation and brought him to Turkey. Selahaddin Gulen, who was believed to be residing in Kenya, was wanted in Turkey on charges of membership in a terror organization.

Fethullah Gulen, a former Erdogan ally who now lives in exile in Pennsylvania, has rejected accusations of involvement in the coup attempt.

Turkish authorities did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.

____

Associated Press writer Suzan Fraser in Ankara contributed.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, like Donald Trump,

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, like Donald Trump, "is a shameless bigot willing to punish communities for headlines," the author writes.

During a recent press conference, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that his state would be blocking a new Advanced Placement course on African American studies over its inclusion of queer theory and ideology related to prison abolition, claiming that doing so would spare children from a political agenda.

We believe in teaching kids facts and how to think, but we dont believe they should have an agenda imposed on them. When you try to use Black history to shoehorn in queer theory, you are clearly trying to use that for political purposes, he explained.

DeSantis is not an especially talented politician. He has very little charm, even fewer skills as an orator, and whether his fans care to admit it or not, he is largely foreseen as a successor to Donald Trump solely because he is the only decent knockoff of the real thing readily available.

Still, for what he lacks as a politician, DeSantis, like Trump, is a shameless bigot willing to punish communities for headlines  and there is constant reason to worry about how much damage a politician like that can cause.

Towards the end of 2020, the DeSantis administration christened him the Education Governor over his commitment to fighting woke indoctrination.

I have lost track of the precise meaning of woke, as its several years from its original rumored definition, but whenever it flies out of the mouth of a man like Ron DeSantis or his supporters, I take it as a slur.

Im sure most of them mean it that way.

Same goes for groomer, another word DeSantis has employed to stigmatize groups and rationalize his ongoing assault on public education in the state of Florida.

Since embracing that title, DeSantis and his government have sought to make targets out of minority communities  be it through the banning of transgender student-athletes, math textbooks he feels contains woke ideology, select books in school libraries, or the outright mentioning of LGBTQ+ people (aka the states Dont Say Gay bill).

Story continues

Should you find yourself in vocal opposition to DeSantis antics, you may become a target of retaliation by the governor  something the Walt Disney Corporation, which is headquartered in the state, has learned this week.

DeSantis, like many of the aspiring Republican presidential nominees before him, has turned to bigotry to gain a national following, hence him treating queer and trans people as political pawns.

But as some of us who are Black and queer long suspected, it would only be a matter of time before DeSantis racism joined his homophobia and transphobia in shaping policy.

DeSantis, like many of the aspiring Republican presidential nominees before him, has turned to bigotry to gain a national following.

DeSantis might have cited queer theory to explain his contempt toward the AP course, but, as I keep repeating, no one should forget that in 2018, he ran one of the most racist gubernatorial campaigns in modern history.

Hes always maintained multiple targets, and his attack on this African American studies class is part of a larger plan from a familiar playbook that will continue.

On Feb. 12, the College Board criticized DeSantis in a letter for his actions, stating: There is always debate about the content of a new AP course. That is good and healthy; these courses matter. But the dialogue surrounding AP African American Studies has moved from healthy debate to misinformation.

It was necessary for the College Board to push back on DeSantis publicly  but the board also announced revisions after Floridas criticism, including the elimination of lessons on Black Lives Matter and reparations.

That is a capitulation that has undoubtedly sparked envy among DeSantis peers.

DeSantis attack on AP Black studies is the latest stunt of a familiar con, but the problem has now spread as other Republican governors  some with their own higher political aspirations  have taken cues from the Florida governor and are now targeting Black studies.

The Washington Post recently reported that state officials in Virginia, Arkansas, North Dakota and Mississippi have said they had questions and planned reviews before deciding whether the new class may be taught in their classrooms.

Additionally, four separate states said no formal review was planned but that this could change. One presumes that theyre only one segment on Tucker Carlson Tonightaway from such a decision.

Macaulay Porter, a spokesperson for Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), confirmed that Youngkin has asked state education officials to examine the class to determine whether it conflicts with his previous executive order forbidding certain ways of teaching about race.

That executive order, signed by Youngkin last year on his first day of office, barred teachers from teaching inherently divisive concepts, including concepts or ideas related to Critical Race Theory.

Porter noted that Youngkin acted after becoming aware of numerous reports about draft course content.

Uh-huh.

Now-Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin campaigns on Oct. 23, 2021.

Now-Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin campaigns on Oct. 23, 2021.

I recall Youngkins gubernatorial bid and found his campaigning against CRT to be racist. And no matter how many pictures he takes with Black people in Virginia, he nonetheless governs as a white politician doing just enough to further stoke white grievance out of political expediency. I know what to make of politicians like that and what to call them.

The problem remains that not enough people in the media do the same.

And unless that changes, the Republicans, led by DeSantis, might successfully troll their way to defiling all of public education.

Recently, a member of the Florida legislature introducedH.B. 999, which would give DeSantis more control over state colleges and universities.

Should it pass, it will allow him the ability to deliver on his pledge to defund diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, change how instructors are hired and fired, and determine what is and isnt taught at schools.

The bill would require that general education courses at state colleges and universities promote the values necessary to preserve the constitutional republic.

DeSantis doesnt just want to do away with queer theory and Black studies, but also gender studies and any and everything else he deems unworthy.

It is a dangerous power to give to someone as small-minded as Ron DeSantis  and if hes granted it, the strategy will likely be replicated, and we are going to become a much dumber country because of it.
New College of Florida's Board of Trustees abolished the office handling diversity, equity and inclusion programs during a contentious and emotional meeting Tuesday that included testimony from students worried that a board reshaped by Gov. Ron DeSantis is making the school unwelcoming to minorities.

DeSantis appointed six members to New College's board on Jan. 6 in an effort to transform the school, putting the small Sarasota institution at the center of the GOP's nationwide pushback on education policies aimed at supporting historically marginalized groups, including racial minorities and LGBTQ individuals.

DeSantis has emerged as a key national figure in this debate after he pushed through legislation governing how K-12 schools discuss race and gender identity and recently prohibited an Advanced Placement course in African American studies, which caused an uproar. The governor is now taking aim at university programs.

Eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives  which have become a major flashpoint for conservatives and a target of DeSantis throughout Florida's public university system  is among the first substantive actions by New College's revamped board, which also fired the former president last month and hired DeSantis ally Richard Corcoran as interim president. Corcoran's first board meeting was Tuesday.

How conservatives are reshaping colleges: Board shake-ups, threats to tenure and money

'Hillsdale of the south': DeSantis launches conservative overhaul of a Florida college's board

'We value academic freedom': Students walk out in protest of Ron DeSantis' education policies

A review of DEI programs

Among DeSantis' New College board appointees is prominent conservative activist Christopher Rufo, who pushed at his first meeting on Jan. 31 to abolish diversity programs.

The board opted to wait until more research could be done. College administrator Brad Thiessen presented the results of his DEI review Tuesday, delving into everything from faculty training to hiring practices and student admissions.

Story continues

Thiessen said there was little mandatory diversity training and that only recently had prospective faculty been asked to submit a statement in their job application outlining how they would promote diversity.

Richard Corcoran the new interim president of New College of Florida was not welcomed by the majority of students and adult speakers.

Additionally, only one of the employees in the Office of Outreach and Inclusive Excellence was primarily focused on DEI programs. The others managed grants, worked on community outreach and performed other activities that aren't controversial.

That led Trustees Grace Keenan and Matthew Lepinski to question whether the impacts of the DEI programs had been overstated.

Im concerned that were solving a problem that isnt serious, or doesnt really exist," Lepinski said.

Keenan wondered if the board was spending a lot of time and energy on something that was relatively limited in scope. She suggested that the effort spent weeding out DEI programs was out of proportion to the amount of DEI that actually exists on campus.

This is not a very impressive DEI bureaucracy," Keenan said.

Keenan, Lipinski and Trustee Mary Ruiz voted against eliminating the diversity office.

Conservative appointee Christopher Rufo: DEI efforts discriminatory

Rufo conceded that DEI isn't as deeply embedded in the college's practices as he expected, but said it was still important to remove it on "principle." Rufo and Trustee Matthew Spalding both suggested it is discriminatory to take race into account when setting the college's priorities.

"It treats people differently on the basis of their skin color," Rufo said.

This is discrimination, it should be gone," Spalding added.

The majority of trustees voted to have Corcoran move forward with eliminating the Office of Outreach and Inclusive Excellence, which handles DEI programs. The Office's four employees will be offered other jobs.

New College students protest before a board of trustees meeting on campus Tuesday.

Trustees also voted to eliminate the diversity statement when hiring faculty and to direct Corcoran to consider adopting a prohibition on diversity training for employees.

Additionally, the board voted to have Corcoran create a school policy that prohibits spending money on any DEI efforts.

Under the new regulation, DEI will be defined to include "any effort to manipulate or otherwise influence the composition of the faculty or student body with reference to race, sex, color, or ethnicity."

The definition of DEI also would include: "Any effort to promote as the official position of the administration, the college, or any administrative unit thereof, a particular, widely contested opinion referencing unconscious or implicit bias, cultural appropriation, allyship, transgender ideology, microaggressions, group marginalization, anti-racism, systemic oppression, social justice, intersectionality, neo-pronouns, heteronormativity, disparate impact, gender theory, racial or sexual privilege, or any related formulation of these concepts."

The rollback of New College's diversity programs came at the end of a 3-1/2-hour meeting that featured emotional testimony for students, parents and others. About 200 people attended the meeting.

Economics and finance student Joshua Epstein, 17, argued diversity programs are important at a meeting of the board of trustees of New College of Florida Feb. 28, 2023. The board votes to abolish the school's office handling diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

Where is New College of Florida?

New College of Florida is in Sarasota, in the central part of the state just south of Tampa on the Gulf Coast. The college bills itself as a community of "Free Thinkers, Risk Takers and Trailblazers," and invites prospective New College students to "discover a public arts and science education driven by your curiosity, career aspirations, and individual learning style."

Parents, students decry abolishing diversity programs

Economics and finance student Joshua Epstein, 17, said he graduates next year and plans to become a corporate lawyer or banker.

"Folks, I am so far from woke," Epstein said.

Yet Epstein argued that the school's diversity programs are important. Epstein said his grandparents on his father's side survived the Holocaust and his grandfather on his mother's side was a tank commander in the Israeli Army "where he fought for the survival of a Jewish state to fight to have a place where I'd be safe from persecution if people ever saw Jews as less than human again."

"Today I fear that other groups of people are being seen as less than human; today I fear that we may eliminate the office that ensures that the composition of our classrooms resemble that of our great nation," Esptein added.

The concerns raised by the public extended beyond eliminating diversity programs to DeSantis' broader effort to reshape the school, Corcoran's $699,000 base salary and other issues.

Corcoran thanked DeSantis during his first public remarks as interim president, saying the governor has a heartfelt desire to have New College be a leader" in liberal arts education.

Diversity and equity demand: Why are colleges offering up more DEI degrees? Demand for diversity expertise is growing.

Affirmative action: The next legal battle over race and education has already begun

Students vow continued resistance

Earlier in the day students joined religious and political leaders in a large protest before the board meeting.

About 300 people gathered in front of the Hamilton Center on New College's Sarasota campus to again criticize DeSantis' conservative takeover of the school and vow continued resistance. Many of the speakers were minority students who criticized the push to eliminate the Office of Outreach and Inclusive Excellence.

DeSantis has targeted DEI programs across all of Florida's public universities, and New College is first in line.

Lianna Paton, a minority student in her first year at New College, said targeting DEI programs is an attempt to suppress and "erase students of color."

"You do not get to say diversity is divisive when its very existence is what makes communities like my own feel welcome and safe," Paton said.

New College supporters protested before a board of trustees meeting on campus Tuesday.

Members of the crowd held up signs saying "Black history is American history" and "Jesus was/is woke."

Chai Leffler, 21, a gay third year New College student, said he struggled with his sexuality growing up and went through a dark time in high school. He went to a youth center in Sarasota where he met New College students who made him feel welcome.

"There's one thing they cannot change," Leffler said. "Us. We the students of New College are the spirit of New College and we will not let that be taken away from us.

Church leader accuses DeSantis' of prioritizing presidential ambitions

Rev. Dr. John C. Dorhauer leads the church that helped found New College as a private school in 1960 before it became part of the state university system. He said he is outraged by what DeSantis is doing to the school.

"I want to express my moral outrage at Gov. DeSantis willing to compromise and sacrifice the future, the vision, the hopes, the dreams and the safety of the students on this campus for his aspirations to serve as president," Dorhauer said.

Dorhauer's United Church of Crist provided funding to create New College and church members were active in the school during its early days.

Dorhauer also spoke at the board meeting, where he told trustees that their actions will be judged harshly by history.

The long arc of history will grind you into dust and... you will be remembered for the sycophants that you are," he said. "Thats what history does.

Incomprehensible: White House slams DeSantis administration for rejecting AP Black studies

AP African American Studies: Here's what's actually being taught in the course Florida rejected

Exacting punishment: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis takes over Disney district on eve of book launch

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY NETWORK: Ron DeSantis-appointed New College board abolishes diversity office
Here's a roundup of recent incidents from Ventura County agencies:

The area near Highway 33 in Ventura where an unhoused woman was found murdered in 2021. On Tuesday, the female suspect changed her plea to guilty.

Plea change in murder case

A woman accused of the 2021 murder of an unhoused woman in Ventura changed her plea to guilty on Tuesday, court records show.

Sandra June Dillard, 40, had previously pleaded not guilty in December in the death of Kelsey Ann Dillon, 30, a former Thousand Oaks resident who had been living on the streets in Ventura at the time of her death.

On Tuesday, Dillard withdrew the earlier plea and then pleaded guilty to one count of murder before Ventura County Superior Court Judge Bruce Young, court records show. In the plea agreement, Dillard also admitted the special allegation of a serious prior felony.

Dillon's body was found on Sept. 24, 2021, in a homeless encampment near the Highway 33 onramp at Olive Street. She had been killed two days prior as a result of stab wounds and blunt force trauma, according to the Ventura County District Attorney's Office. Because of the location, the case was investigated by the California Highway Patrol.

Less than three months before her death, Dillon had posted a video requesting financial support to get off the streets because she felt unsafe. The video, which resurfaced after she was murdered, drew additional attention to the case.

After a yearlong investigation, CHP officials arrested Dillard in September.

On Wednesday, a spokesman for the DA's office said the plea deal essentially resolved three open felony cases. In addition to the murder charge, Dillard faced a felony for an allegedly stolen gun and had also reportedly bit a deputy while in jail, said Joey Buttitta, the spokesman.

With the plea deal, she will face a possible sentence of 25 years to life plus seven years, which would likely keep her behind bars past her 60th birthday, Buttitta said.

Sentencing has been scheduled for the morning of March 28 in courtroom 23.

Kelsey Ann Dillon was found murdered in Ventura in 2021.

Man sentenced in death of brother-in-law

An Oxnard man has been sentenced to prison for the fatal shooting of his brother-in-law in 2018.

Story continues

Jonathan Fuentes, now 26, was sentenced Monday to 19 years to life in prison by Ventura County Superior Court Judge Gilbert Romero. He was also ordered to pay restitution.

Fuentes shot Ryan Switzer, 33, in March 2018 at the home they shared on Deodar Avenue in Oxnard, according to the Ventura County District Attorney's Office. Switzer was shot in front of his three children, prosecutors said. Fuentes had fled the home and was arrested the following day by Oxnard police.

In December, Fuentes pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and admitted to a special allegation he had used a firearm. He remained in county jail Tuesday. Sheriff's officials will transport him to Wasco State Prison, court records show.

Jonathan Fuentes

Items may be updated.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Roundup: Guilty plea in Kelsey Dillon murder, more news
(Bloomberg) -- The Senate Intelligence Committees top Democrat and Republican are dissatisfied with a closed-door briefing they received Tuesday about classified documents found at the homes and offices of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Senators Mark Warner of Virginia and Marco Rubio of Florida were among eight congressional leaders with special access to sensitive secrets who were briefed by members of intelligence agencies and the Justice Department on the public exposure of the documents.

While todays meeting helped shed some light on these issues, it left much to be desired and we will continue to press for full answers to our questions in accordance with our constitutional oversight obligations, Rubio and Warner said in a joint statement.

Other members of the so-called Gang of Eight congressional leaders attending in the briefing  including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell  declined to comment.

Lawmakers from both parties have been calling for such briefings. The Justice Department has appointed special counsels to investigate how records with classification markings ended up at private residences of Biden and Trump.

A White House spokesman, Ian Sams, said in a statement on Tuesday night that the decision to brief and the determination of what content would be briefed were made independently by the Justice Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

On Wednesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland is scheduled to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he likely will be asked questions about the documents.

Story continues

Since November, batches of classified records or pages with classified markings were found in Bidens Delaware home and former office in Washington. That followed the recovery under subpoena of hundreds of documents from Trumps Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida last August.

Earlier this month, government officials searched for classified documents at former Vice President Mike Pences Indiana home and Washington office, after others were found by his lawyers.

--With assistance from Justin Sink.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
A new law on personal data has classified information about real estate owners in Russia that journalists previously used in their investigations.

Source: Latvia-based Russian media outlet Meduza



Details: It is reported that on 1 March 2023, the amendments to the law "On Personal Data" came into force in Russia, according to which the Federal Service for State Registration (Rosreestr) stopped publishing information about owners in extracts of the Unified State Register of Real Estate without their personal consent.

Spouses, cadastral engineers, notaries, law enforcement and judicial officers have the opportunity to obtain a full extract from the Rosreestr.

Any other third parties are now not able to receive this information without the real estate owners conformation statement.

Background:

On 28 February, Prokt (Project) journalists published an investigation into the offshore accounts of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.

In particular, Vladimir Putin and Alina Kabaeva, gymnast and likely mother of his children, live together in a residence in Valdai using Putin's funds from the Cyprus offshore company Ermira Consultants; this company is a "common treasury" for Putin and his inner circle.

Kabayeva and her relatives own at least US$120 million in real estate, relying on Putin's figureheads.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
Ah, Dilbert, we hardly knew ya.

Scott Adams, creator of the popular Dilbert comic strip, has faced a backlash of cancellations after a tirade on his YouTube livestream in which he described Black people as members of a hate group from which white people should get away.

Advertisement

Instead, hundreds of newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune, where I work, decided to get away  from Dilbert, even though it has ranked as one of the nations most popular comic strips.

A devastating blow hit the comic Sunday evening when its distributor, Andrews McMeel Universal, severed ties, citing the companys policy of rejecting commentary rooted in discrimination or hate.

Advertisement

Discrimination? Hate? Dilbert? Who would have expected such ugly allegations would rise up around dutiful office drone Dilbert, his faithful pet-pal Dogbert and the other familiar characters in the 34-year-old strip, as well as a bonanza spinoff of Dilbert books, calendars and toys that decorate office cubicles around the globe?

Alas, things turned ugly after Adams posted a YouTube livestream last week in which he riffed on a Rasmussen Reports poll of racial attitudes.

My ears perked up as soon as I heard the name Rasmussen. The firm often has been accused of a pro-conservative, pro-Republican bias, but it also comes up with polling questions too provocative to be ignored by talk shows or sociopolitical columns like mine.

Or by YouTube livestreams like Real Coffee with Scott Adams, in which Adams flew into a rage over a Rasmussen poll that found only a slim majority of Black Americans agreed with the statement, Its OK to be white.

As a Black American who believes its quite OK to be whatever color the Almighty made you, I thought the question was simple and uncontroversial, as Rasmussens head pollster described it to The Washington Post.

But as a news junkie, I knew the phrase Its OK to be white has a loaded history in light of todays racial politics.

Its Okay To Be White is a slogan popularized in late 2017 as a trolling campaign by members of the controversial discussion board 4chan, according to the Anti-Defamation League. The idea behind the campaign was to choose an apparently innocuous slogan and put it on flyers or websites in public locations and trigger the libs, as the alt-right calls anything that upsets liberals, thus proving that liberals dont think its OK to be white.

In other words, its a trick question  and Adams, who leans quite conservative on such matters, appears to have been a bit too eager to fall for it. If nearly half of all Blacks are not OK with white people , thats a hate group, he fumed in his livestream.

Advertisement

And, The best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from Black people, he continued.  You just have to escape. So thats what I did. I went to a neighborhood where, yknow, they have a very low Black population.

In other words, contrary to the Rev. Martin Luther Kings classic quote, Adams prefers to judge Black folks by the color of their skin, not the content of their character.

Well, as The Temptations famously sang about that sort of escape in the 1960s: Run, run, run, but you sure cant hide.

In fact, the polls results were not all that clear. Some 53% of Black respondents agreed that its OK to be white, and only 26% disagreed. To reach his nearly half of all Blacks, Adams had to add the 21% who were not sure to the group that flatly disagreed.

Frankly the question as phrased itself is so unclear  Are you OK? Am I OK?  that I, too, am unclear and more than a little suspicious about the motives behind it.

Not to be left out of this toxic tiff, Twitter CEO Elon Musk chimed in with an odd defense of Adams, saying the media is racist and, without evidence, opined, for a very long time, US media was racist against non-white people, now theyre racist against whites & Asians.

Advertisement

In other words, its all the medias fault. Got it.

Well, I, for one, prefer to stick with Dr. Kings advice. Im trying to judge Adams and Musk by the content of their character. So far, its not a pretty sight. Good luck, Dilbert.

cpage@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @cptime
The State Duma of Russia made amendments to the Criminal Code and the Code of Administrative Offences, according to which the "discreditation" of the Russian military can be punished with up to a 15-year prison sentence.

Source: Viacheslav Volodin, speaker of the State Duma of Russia, on Telegram

Quote: "Today [on 1 March  ed.] together with my colleagues we submitted for the consideration of the State Duma the amendments to the Criminal Code and the Code of Administrative Offences about the responsibility for discrediting the participants of the special military operation.

Offenders will be severely prosecuted with fines of up to five million roubles or in the amount of salary or other income within a five year period, or community or forced labour of up to five years, or imprisonment for up to 15 years."

Details: Volodin states that this legal initiative will allegedly "protect" all the occupiers who are fighting in Ukraine.

According to the amendments, "any public spread of deliberately false information as well as public actions aimed at discrediting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, voluntary formations, organisations or persons who facilitate the completion of tasks by the Russian Armed Forces, is unacceptable."

Volodin remarked that the second reading of the document is set to be held on 2 March, and the final third reading on 14 March.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
Russia has started launching Iranian Shahed drones from the Bryansk region

UK intelligence said that on Feb. 27, 2023, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence confirmed it had shot down 11 Shahed one-way attack unmanned aerial vehicles (OWA UAVs) out of 14 launched overnight.

Read also: Russia running out of Iranian kamikaze drones

Serhii Popko, head of Kyiv City Military Administration, reported nine of these were shot down in the vicinity of Kyiv airspace. Three additional Shahed UAVs were reportedly shot down in Chernihiv Oblast, northern Ukraine.

Read also: Russia concerned by unexplained explosions in Mariupol, reports UK intelligence

The agency notes that due to the vector of the attack, these Shahed-UAVs were highly likely launched from the Bryansk Oblast, Russia. Previously, the only observed launch site since mid-December 2022 was from Krasnodar Krai, across the Sea of Azov.

A second launch site would give the Russians a different axis of attack, closer to Kyiv, the ministry said in its daily summary.

This is likely to decrease time in the air over Ukraine and an attempt to further stretch Ukrainian air defences.

Read also: Russian troops are aiming to seize all of Luhansk and Donetsk Oblasts in next few months, warns military intel

The UK intelligence added that prior to this Feb. 26 attack, there had not been any reports of OWA UAVs being used in Ukraine since around Feb. 15, 2023. This decrease in OWA UAV attack tempo likely indicates that Russia has run down its current stock: it will likely seek a resupply, it said.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Destroyed Russian equipment at the exhibition in the center of Kyiv

The CSIS said the average number of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine per month is at least 25 times higher than the number of killed per month in Chechnya, and 35 times higher in Afghanistan.

On average, Russia loses 5,000 to 5,800 soldiers per month (95 to 185 per month in Chechnya over 15 years).

According to analysts estimates, from February 2022 to February 2023, 60,000 to 70,000 Russian soldiers were killed in Ukraine. These figures include regular Russian soldiers from the Russian Armed Forces, the Russian National Guard, the FSB and the Federal Security Service (FSO), militants of the L/DPR terrorist organizations, and mercenaries from the Wagner private military company.

Read also: Daily artillery round use in Ukraine equal to a month in Afghanistan, NYT reports

In total, according to CSIS, Russia has lost 200,000 to 250,000 wounded, killed and missing. The occupying forces also lost about half of their T-72B3 and T-72B3M main battle tanks and about two-thirds of their T-80BV/U tanks.

Analysts noted Ukraines impressive use of military innovations (in particular, drones) against an enemy with a significant advantage in resources.

The CSIS report mentioned that Russias war against Ukraine has turned into a war of attrition, and the West must prepare for a protracted war and long-term support. According to them, Ukraine now needs advanced systems for offensive operations  air defense systems, long-range artillery, armored vehicles, fighters and ammunition, training and intelligence.

Earlier, the head of the Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR), Kyrylo Budanov, said that Russia is not ready to wage a long war against Ukraine, because its resources are limited.

According to the Ukrainian militarys General Staff, since the beginning of the full-scale war, Russia has lost about 149,890 of its soldiers, 3,395 tanks, and a great deal of other equipment in Ukraine.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Destroyed Russian equipment at an exhibition in the center of Kyiv

According to CSIS, the average number of Russian soldiers killed per month in Ukraine is at least 25 times higher than the number killed per month in Chechnya and 35 times higher than in Afghanistan. On average, Russia loses from 5,000 to 5,800 soldiers per month (in Chechnya, Russia was losing 95 to 185 troops per month, over 15 years).

Read also: 70 Russian soldiers killed in one failed attacked in Donbas, Luhansk governor says

According to the analysts, 60,000-70,000 Russian military personnel were eliminated in Ukraine between February 2022 and February 2023. These figures include ordinary Russian soldiers from the Russian Armed Forces, the National Guard, the FSB (State Security Service), militants of the so-called peoples republics in Donbas, and mercenaries from Wagner PMC.

In total, according to CSIS, Russia lost from 200,000 to 250,000 people wounded, killed and missing in action. The invading forces also lost about half of their T-72B3 and T-72B3M main battle tanks and about two-thirds of their T-80BV/U tanks.

Read also: Podolyak names two resources Russia has in war against Ukraine

Analysts note Ukraine's impressive use of military innovations (specifically drones) against an enemy with a significant advantage in resources. The CSIS report says that Russia's war against Ukraine has turned into a war of attrition, and the West must prepare for a "protracted war and long-term support." In their opinion, Ukraine now needs advanced systems for offensive operations  air defense systems, long-range artillery, armored vehicles, fighter jets, and ammunition, on top of training and intelligence.

On Feb. 27, Ukrainian Military Intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said that Russia is not ready to wage a long war, as its resources are limited.

Read also: Russia launches Shahed UAVs from new site to further threaten Kyiv, says UK intelligence

According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, since the beginning of the full-scale war, Russia has lost about 149,890 troops and 3,395 tanks in Ukraine.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Russia continues to maintain five Kalibr missile carriers in the Black Sea for the second day in a row.

Source: Ukraines Navy on Facebook

Details: Ukraines Navy reported that as of 1 March, 17 Russian warships are deployed for combat duty in the Black Sea, including five Kalibr missile carriers armed with a total of 32 cruise missiles.

One Russian warship is deployed in the Azov Sea.

On 28 February, the Navy also reported that five missile carriers were on combat duty in the Black Sea. On 27 February, there was only one Russian missile carrier there.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!






The Russian military started launching the Shahed kamikaze drones from Briansk Oblast in Russia in order to pose a bigger threat to Kyiv.

Source: daily report of the British intelligence, as reported by European Pravda

On 27 February, the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine confirmed shooting down 11 Shahed drones out of 14 launched at night. Serhii Popko, Head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, reported that nine out of them were shot down near the airspace of the city of Kyiv, and three more  in the north of Ukraine.

Quote: "Due to the vector of the attack, these Shahed UAVs were highly likely launched from Bryansk Oblast, Russia. Previously, the only observed launch site since mid-December 2022 was from the Krasnodar Krai, across the Sea of Azov."

Prior to this 26 February 2023 attack, there have not been any reports of UAVs being used in Ukraine since around 15 February 2023. This decrease in UAV attack tempo likely indicates that Russia has run down its current stock: it will likely seek to resupply.

"A second launch site would give the Russians a different axis of attack, closer to Kyiv. This is likely to decrease time in the air over Ukraine and an attempt to further stretch Ukrainian air defences," the British Defence Ministry reported.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
Igor Russak/Reuters

Russias notorious Wagner Group has reportedly begun trawling schools in a disturbing new recruiting drive.

After the mercenary group was sidelined from prison-recruiting efforts last month, it now appears to be setting its sights on the next generation.

The twisted new recruiting method was captured in a video shared Wednesday by Lyubov Sobol, a lawyer and ally of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Sobol said a student whod been present for Wagners presentation at a Moscow high school this week reached out and provided the surreptitiously recorded video.

In it, a masked man wearing military garb with a Wagner logo talks up the students career prospects if they sign a contract with the private military accused of war crimes on multiple continents.

We have the best prospects, he said, describing members of the group as cool, good, and nice.

The main hope is with you, he told the teenagers, standing in front of a chalkboard that featured written messages of praise for the special guest.

We welcome all our favorite musicians! one message read, using a nickname for the group popularized while they slaughtered civilians in neighboring Ukraine.

Bizarrely, in his sales pitch to students, the Wagner fighter suggested that if he was allowed to join, anybody could.

Im a former inmate... and they took me, so they will take you as well. So, guys, we will be glad to have you, he said, noting that hed brought some applications with him and hoped the class would fill them out.

The form, titled Application of a Young Warrior, asked for basic details like name and phone number, along with the home address and personal information of the students parents.

It also asked students: Do you have any relatives in unfriendly countries? and Are you ready to defend the motherland?

The anonymous Wagernite also reportedly offered to show students a gun hed made sure to bring with him. The teens were apparently not too impressed, however. The one who filmed the video was quoted telling Sobol: Weve already had members of the military come hereone of them was missing an armso we were not even surprised. And I filmed this Wagner [guy] just for fun. He was afraid to even show his face.

Story continues

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now.

Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now.
The Pentagon does not rule out that the war in Ukraine could last for three years

Kahl said that is was difficult to predict the terms of continuation of aid to Ukraine.

Read also: Russia likely lost 50% of its tanks in Ukraine war  Pentagon

Its difficult because we do not know the exact trajectory of the conflict. The conflict may end in six months, or maybe in two or three years, the Pentagon representative said.

At the same time, he noted that U.S. President Joe Biden had promised to provide support to Kyiv as long as it was needed.

Kahl expressed hope that the U.S. Congress would support the effort, should the war continue.

He also said that Russia will not be able to achieve significant territorial gains in Ukraine during 2023.

Read also: Putin may have overestimated Russian militarys own capabilities to capture Donbas by March  ISW

Ukrainian local officials, as well as political and military experts in Ukraine and the world, predict various dates for the end of Russias war against Ukraine.

The Latvian security service in a recent report said that Ukraines battles against the Russian army would continue at least until the end of 2023.

A fresh Russian ground attack on Kyiv is also not ruled out, the Latvian security service said.

Read also: This is the beginning of the end. The main reason for the West's determination to supply Ukraine with heavy weapons

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Russian target industries find workarounds to sanctions or turn to other partners

In March 2022, Russia banned airlines from returning leased aircraft to their owners abroad. Since then, most aircraft have continued to fly even though they are cut off from important software updates and maintenance needed to ensure airworthiness.

Read also: Ukraine International Airlines reportedly decides on new chief

Boeing states it hasnt provided parts, maintenance, or technical support to airlines or repair companies in Russia since the beginning of last year due to U.S. sanctions. Company CEO Guillaume Faury said that in the second half of 2022, Russian airlines used Boeing's aircraft more than before the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Bloomberg, Russian carriers source parts from friendly countries and move components from one aircraft to another to keep them operational.

Read also: Russian oil price halved after Western sanctions

The article notes that Russian airlines have abandoned flights to the United States, Western Europe, instead flying more frequently to Thailand, Turkey, the UAE, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. The number of domestic flights for the year decreased by 15%, to about 1,100 per day.

Read also: Wizz Air suspends all flights from Chisinau starting March 14

As Russia remains open to airlines from "friendly" countries such as the UAE, the number of international flights serving airports daily hasnt changed significantly  270 flights compared to 300 just a year ago.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
The Communist Party of Russia has proposed to oblige schools to raise the red "Victory Flag" together with the flag of the Russian Federation on Mondays.

Source: Russian Kremlin-aligned media outlet RBK

Details: The Communist Party of Russia has submitted a bill to the State Duma [the lower chamber of the Russian parliament - ed.].

According to the Russian media, the Communists propose to solemnly raise the flag on the first school day of the week and take it down on the last. The MPs do not insist on raising the flag during the holidays.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
Lawyers for former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan argued in a series of court filings late Tuesday that the racketeering charges against him fail to connect any benefits the powerful speaker allegedly received from utility giants Commonwealth Edison and AT&T Illinois and any action he took  or didnt  on particular legislation.

Madigans legal team also accused federal prosecutors of misleading the chief judge in applications to tap the phones of former Chicago Ald. Daniel Solis and later members of Madigans inner circle, saying they deliberately misconstrued an innocent 2014 meeting with Chinatown developers at the speakers law office as a possible shakedown, then later buried crucial exculpatory information in a footnote.

Advertisement

The motions to dismiss most of the charges in the 23-count indictment and to suppress the Title III wiretaps marked the first round of whats expected to be a protracted legal battle over the bombshell charges against Madigan and his longtime confidant, Michael McClain.

The motions run some 108 pages total and go deep into the legal weeds at times, but at their core they represent the essence of Madigans defense: That the government, in its zeal to land a prized political target, allegedly cut corners in its investigation and ultimately filed charges that intentionally blurred the bribery statute and attempt to criminalize legal lobbying and politicking.

Advertisement

Currying favor with government officials  even those with the capacity to influence legislation of interest to the employers  is legal, the 75-page motion to dismiss stated, adding that the far-flung indictment impermissibly treats lawful ingratiation as illegal bribery, and stitches together unrelated allegations of purported misconduct into a single scheme.

The mismatch between the conduct alleged and the statutes invoked is a fatal defect that precludes this prosecution, the motion stated.

In their motion to suppress, Madigans attorneys, Sheldon Zenner, Daniel Collins and Gil Soffer, have asked U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey for an evidentiary hearing to determine whether investigators made any misrepresentations in its wiretap applications.

Though rarely granted, the so-called Franks hearing could provide a fascinating glimpse into how the government built its investigation, first by gathering evidence on Solis own misdeeds, then pressuring him into cooperating against two of the states most powerful and long-standing politicians, Madigan and Chicago Ald. Edward Burke.

The agents who handled Solis stunning turn as an FBI mole  or even Solis himself  could be required to testify should the judge order the hearing. Blakey has set a telephone status hearing for March 10 to discuss the schedule going forward.

The defenses pretrial motions come one year nearly to the day since Madigan was hit with federal racketeering charges alleging his elected office and political operation were a criminal enterprise that provided personal financial rewards for him and his associates.

Among the allegations in the indictment was a scheme by ComEd to secretly funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments and other perks to Madigan loyalists in exchange for the speakers influence on legislation in Springfield. Four others charged separately in that scheme, including McClain, are set to go on trial on bribery conspiracy charges on March 14.

The Madigan indictment also accused the ex-speaker of illegally soliciting business for his private property tax law firm during discussions to turn a state-owned parcel of land in Chinatown into a commercial development  a project unrelated to the earlier hotel proposal.

Advertisement

Solis, who by then was secretly cooperating with the investigation, recorded numerous conversations with Madigan as part of the Chinatown land probe, including one where the speaker told Solis he was looking for a colleague to sponsor a House bill approving the land sale. The deal was never consummated.

In November, prosecutors unveiled a superseding indictment adding allegations that Madigan and McClain participated in another scheme to funnel payments from AT&T to a Madigan associate in exchange for the speakers influence over legislation the telephone company wanted passed.

Madigan and McClain have pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The 32-page motion to suppress focuses largely on the Aug. 18, 2014, meeting at Madigans law office where developer See Wong, who was secretly cooperating with investigators due to his own misdeeds, met with the speaker, Solis, and a Chinese real estate magnate who wanted to build a hotel in Chinatown.

The roughly half-hour meeting formed the basis of future wiretap requests for Solis and eventually a phone belonging to McClain, which led to numerous recordings of Madigan himself.

The defense motion said prosecutors improperly theorized in their application that Madigan and his law partner had conspired with Solis, who at the time was the head of citys Zoning Committee, to threaten to withhold Solis approval of a zoning request unless the developer hired Madigans law firm.

Advertisement

There were no winks. There were no nods, the motion stated. To the contrary, the recording demonstrates two private lawyers who were doing their best to earn the opportunity to represent a potential client based on the quality of their work and experience and by offering a fee arrangement that would be competitive and in the clients best interest. Madigan even suggested putting a cap on the fee.

The misrepresentations were repeated by prosecutors for years on subsequent wiretap requests, even after Solis, when confronted with a recording of the meeting, tried to explain that he would have very likely approved the zoning change regardless of whether the developer hired Madigans firm, according to the defense motion.

It wasnt until 2018 that the government, in a footnote buried in the McClain wiretap application, acknowledged Solis statements denying any quid pro quo at the meeting. But the footnote also tried to spin Solis comments by adding hed admitted an independent observer would interpret what was said at the meeting as pressure to hire Madigans firm.

According to the motion, that was added to an FBI report about a remarkable two-day session where Solis was repeatedly challenged by agents and prosecutors who were trying to parse what was said on the disjointed recording.

Solis, according to the motion, never adopted the governments viewpoint during the questioning, offering only the comment, I see (your) point.

Madigan was not charged with any wrongdoing stemming from that 2014 meeting. The defense motion stated that was due to one simple reason  Madigan had committed no crime.

Advertisement

The governments theory that Madigan conspired to commit extortion, put forth in the September 26, 2014, affidavit as well as numerous other subsequent affidavits to support its Title III surveillance, was purposefully false, the motion stated.

The motion to dismiss, meanwhile, deals at length with the allegations that the benefits bestowed on Madigan and his associates influenced what he did to push or block legislation on behalf of ComEd and AT&T.

The indictment cites three key bills that Madigan allegedly influenced, including ComEds 2011 Smart Grid investment bill and a controversial measure touted by AT&T to end landline service for millions of Illinois customers.

The defense motion alleges that prosecutors cite only four votes Madigan actually took on any energy legislation, and that all of them occurred months or years before any benefits were bestowed by ComEd.

The motion said that applying the bribery statute to Madigans conduct would expose untold numbers of public officials and their constituents to federal prosecution.

As indicted here, any state or local official who receives (and anyone who gives a state or local official) a thing of value would risk prosecution if the official ever took an action that benefits the givereven if the thing of value and the act are so attenuated as to permit only the most feeble inference of a causal connection between the two, the motion stated.

Advertisement

Meanwhile, when the AT&T Illinois charges were added to the Madigan indictment in November, the Tribune reported it was the first time prosecutors had alleged that a direct vote the speaker made on legislation was tainted by a scheme to influence him.

That vote came after a protracted fight over the landline bill, which passed during the final hours of the spring 2017 legislative session  with Madigans direct assistance, according to legislative records and the statement of facts agreed to by AT&T.

On June 29, 2017, Madigan permitted the bill to be brought to a vote and cast his ballot in favor of the legislation, records show. Two days later, after Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner vetoed the legislation, Madigan and the Democrat-led General Assembly overrode him, with Madigan again voting for the override.

Prior to the bills passage, AT&T Illinois had learned through McClain that the speaker was looking to kick some money to former state Rep. Edward Acevedo, a Madigan ally who was retiring and going into lobbying, according to the companys admissions as part of a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. attorneys office.

Email exchanges showed AT&T Illinois director of legislative affairs asked two of the companys executives if they were 100% certain they would get credit from the powers that be if the payments were made to Acevedo, court records showed.

Afternoon Briefing Daily Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox each afternoon. By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our Subscriber Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy >

I would hope that as long as we explain the approach to McClain and (the associate) gets the money then the ultimate objective is reached, one of the executives wrote back, according to court records.

Advertisement

The legislative affairs director responded, I dont think (then-CEO Paul La Schiazza) wants this based on hope. We need to confirm prior to executing this strategy, court records showed.

In all, Acevedo was paid $22,500 by AT&T Illinois through a subcontract with lobbyist and longtime Madigan ally Tom Cullen, the Tribune has reported. Neither Acevedo nor Cullen has been charged with wrongdoing.

Madigans attorneys said in their motion there was no evidence that the speaker was aware of the agreement by AT&T to pay Acevedo.

The bribery count involving AT&T must be dismissed, the motion argued, because it fails to allege that Madigan knew of and agreed to effectuate such a transaction with AT&T.

jmeisner@chicagotribune.com

rlong@chicagotribune.com
The Russian Ministry of Defence has said that on 1 March, Crimea was ostensibly attacked by 10 Ukrainian drones and all of them were shot down.

Source: report of the Russian Ministry of Defence

Quote from Igor Konashenkov, the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Defence: "[We] prevented an attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a massive drone attack on the Crimean Peninsula targets. 6 Ukrainian combat drones were shot down by anti-aircraft missiles, four more were disabled by radio-electronic warfare systems."

Details: He also claimed that there are no alleged victims or destruction as a result of the attack.

Background:

On the afternoon of 28 February, it was reported that a drone had crashed in Moscow Oblast near Kolomna, not far from a facility owned by Gazprom, Russia's state energy monopolist. Later, Russian media wrote that the members of the Federal Security Service of Russia (FSB) found explosives inside the drone that fell in Moscow Oblast on 28 February.

Later that day, an unidentified aircraft crashed in Adygea, in the Southern Federal District of Russia.

In addition, on the night of 27-28 February, explosions rocked the Russian city of Tuapse in Krasnodar Krai, followed by a fire at a Rosneft oil refinery. News outlets reported that it was an attack of UAVs.

On 28 February, 200 square kilometres of the airspace were closed in the Russian city of Saint Petersburg, and the local Pulkovo Airport stopped accepting planes for landing after an unidentified flying object (UFO) was detected over the city. Later, the Russian Ministry of Defence reported that the airspace over Saint Petersburg had been closed because they were conducting "air defence training".

Mykhailo Podoliak, Advisor to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, responding to the Russians accusations of Ukraine allegedly striking Russian regions with UAVs, stated that Ukraines Armed Forces did not carry out attacks on the territory of Russia.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
Russian oil has halved in price since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine

The ministry added that "the average price of Urals oil in January-February 2023 was $49.52 per barrel, compared to January-February 2022 when it was $88.89 per barrel."

Read also: Russia uses North Africa to circumvent oil sanctions, WSJ reports

As reported in January 2023, Russia's oil and gas revenues fell sharply, leading to the largest January budget deficit since at least 1998.

From Dec. 5, 2022, the EU Council set the top price at $60 per barrel for crude oil exported from Russia by sea. This price cap was previously agreed upon by the countries of the G7 group, together with Australia.

Read also: Sea exports of Russian crude via Black Sea to grow despite embargo in January 2023  BlackSeaNews

On the same day, the EU imposed an embargo on the import of crude oil from Russia by sea. The United States, the UK, Canada, and Japan imposed an embargo on Russian oil imports in the first days after Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Read also: Oil depot set on fire in Tuapse, Russia, locals report explosions, drone attack

The price cap policy stipulates is that buyers of Russian oil will lose access to Western insurance and other transportation services if they pay more than the price cap prescribes.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
By Yevhen Titov

NEAR CHASIV YAR, Ukraine (Reuters) -Russian forces carried out relentless attacks on Bakhmut on Wednesday, trying to encircle and storm the eastern Ukrainian city and claim their first major prize for more than half a year after some of the bloodiest fighting of the war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Moscow of throwing waves of men into battle in Bakhmut with no regard for their lives, and said the fighting was "most difficult" but the city's defence essential.

"The enemy continues to advance. The assault on the city of Bakhmut continues," the general staff of Ukraine's armed forces said in a Facebook post on Wednesday evening.

Hours later, Zelenskiy said in a video address that "we are keeping each sector of the front under control". He accused Russian forces of shelling cities on the frontline in a campaign of "deliberate terror".

The leader of Russia's Wagner mercenary group said the Ukrainians were putting up "furious resistance" trying to hold the city at all costs.

Russia also said it had repelled a massive drone attack on Crimea, the peninsula its forces seized from Ukraine and claimed to annex in 2014. On Tuesday Moscow accused Kyiv of launching a series of drone strikes on targets in Russia itself.

Reuters was able to reach Bakhmut from the west on Monday - proof the city was not yet surrounded despite Russian forces pressing from north and south to close the last access routes.

Flames and smoke rose into the sky from blazing buildings. Constant gunfire and explosions rang out into the sky. Ukrainian armoured vehicles roared through the streets, while stray dogs wandered amid the mud and debris.

NO UKRAINIAN WITHDRAWAL

A Ukrainian soldier said in a video he posted on Wednesday on messaging app Telegram that it was "a bit calmer" in Bakhmut.

"We (have) silenced the enemy a bit ... There's a gunfight on the outskirts. A few explosions, shells flying," serviceman and vlogger Andrii Babychev said, blasts reverberating behind him.

Story continues

"Nobody plans to withdraw anywhere at the moment. We're standing. Bakhmut is Ukraine. Glory to Ukraine!" he said.

Reuters was able to confirm the location as Bakhmut from the look of the buildings in the video, which matched file pictures, though not that the video was filmed on Wednesday.

Only a few thousand residents remain inside the ruined city from a pre-war population of around 70,000.

"It is frightening indeed," said a middle-aged man bundled in a coat and woolly hat on the steps of his apartment block.

"I can hardly move my legs - they barely move - from the stress of the situation. As long as my home is intact and I am not hurt, I will stay here."

In the town of Chasiv Yar just to the west, a grocery store was ablaze.

WINTER OFFENSIVE

The area around Bakhmut has been the one segment of the front where Russia has made notable gains during a winter offensive that has seen what both sides describe as the deadliest fighting of the year-long war.

In an audio message on social media, Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said the Ukrainian military was throwing extra reserves into the battle for Bakhmut.

"Tens of thousands of Ukrainian army fighters are putting up furious resistance. The bloodiness of the battles is growing by the day," Prigozhin said.

Since being ousted from some territory in the second half of 2022, Russian forces have been replenished by hundreds of thousands of reservists. Ukraine, for its part, has stuck mainly to defence over the past three months, hoping Russia's assault will exhaust its forces before Kyiv launches a counter-attack with new heavy weapons promised by the West.

Russia says seizing Bakhmut would open the way to fully capturing the rest of the surrounding Donbas industrial region, one of its main war objectives. Ukraine says Bakhmut has limited strategic value but the losses have been so huge they could influence the future course of the war.

MUD

Ukrainians and Russians traditionally view March 1 as the start of spring. Already, frozen ground has melted at the front, ushering in the season of sucking black mud - "bezdorizhzhia" in Ukrainian, "rasputitsa" in Russian - that has been notorious in military history for destroying attacking armies in the region.

Ukrainians declared that the arrival of milder weather proved Russia had failed to "freeze" them into submission with missile and drone attacks on energy infrastructure.

Putin's close allies, presidents Xi Jinping of China and Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, called for the "soonest possible" peace deal for Ukraine at talks in Beijing on Wednesday, Belarusian state news agency Belta reported.

China has become increasingly vocal in calling for peace and denied it would provide arms to Moscow after U.S. officials said Beijing was considering doing so.

The war took centre stage on the eve of a G20 foreign ministers' meeting in New Delhi on Wednesday with the EU foreign policy chief saying its success would be measured by what it could do to help end the conflict.

(Reporting by Reuters bureauxWriting by Peter Graff, Mark Heinrich and Grant McCoolEditing by Gareth Jones, William Maclean and Diane Craft)
The head of the Donetsk Oblast Military Administration (OMA), Pavlo Kyrylenko, said that three civilians were killed during Russian shelling over the past day.

Source: Kyrylenko on Telegram

Quote from Kyrylenko: "On 28 February, Russians killed three residents of Donetsk Oblast: two in [the village of] Lastochkyne and one in [the village of] Velyka Novosilka."

Details: According to him, four more people in the oblast were injured.

It is currently impossible to determine the exact number of victims in Mariupol and Volnovakha.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
Russian troops continued to fire on the Kherson Oblast

The report says that the Russian artillery hit the village of Chornobayivka.

A one-year-old boy was wounded by enemy fire, and has been hospitalized. The child is in a moderate condition, his ears and face were injured by shards of glass.

In the village of Zmiivka, two people, including a volunteer from Kryvyi Rih, were injured by the enemy attacks.

Read also: Russia shells Kherson Oblast almost 80 times in the past day, killing two, injuring seven

The volunteer came to the region to help local residents, but got caught under fire. His condition is assessed as serious. He has shrapnel wounds to the arm with a partial amputation of the forearm, complex fractures of the arm and leg.

The injured were hospitalized at the Beryslav hospital, they are being provided with the necessary assistance.

On Feb. 28, Russian troops shelled Kherson Oblast, killing four people and wounding five more.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
By Rupam Jain

NEW DELHI (Reuters) -Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held talks with his Indian counterpart on Wednesday, a day before attending the G20 foreign ministers' meeting in India, which has kept a largely neutral stance on Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

India has declined to blame Russia for the war, seeking a diplomatic solution and sharply boosting its purchases of Russian oil.

Besides meeting Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Lavrov also held talks with counterparts from Turkey, South Africa and Brazil, a senior Indian diplomat overseeing diplomatic engagements on the sidelines of the G20 meeting said.

He is due to meet Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang later in the day.

"The G20 meeting has given Russia the opportunity to engage directly with many countries who wish and choose to continue trade with Russia," a Russian official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

Lavrov assessed the current security situation in the context of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and ironed out issues on the use of local currencies for settling trade during his hour-long meeting with Jaishankar, the Russian official said.

The Russian delegation is not planning contacts with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the sidelines of the G20 meeting, Moscow's RIA news agency reported, citing deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov.

Blinken is travelling to New Delhi after meetings with leaders of five Central Asian countries that used to be ruled by Moscow as part of efforts to rally the world to oppose Russia's invasion of Ukraine that began more than a year ago.

Ministers from Britain, the Netherlands and Malta and the EU's top foreign policy adviser told reporters in New Delhi that the success of the G20 meeting would be measured by what it achieves on Ukraine.

Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra, the top diplomat, said the conflict's impact on food, energy and fertiliser security will be discussed.

Story continues

"It would not be correct to prejudge the outcome of the meeting," he said.

In a statement issued on Tuesday ahead of Lavrov's visit, the Russian embassy in New Delhi said the Russian side would describe in detail actions to reduce these threats and diversify foreign economic ties and logistics corridors.

Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 last year in what it calls a "special military operation" to "denazify" the country and protect Russian speakers.

India hosted a meeting of G20 finance ministers last week in the city of Bengaluru. It declined to raise the issue of the war but Western nations insisted they could not back any outcome that did not include a condemnation.

The lack of consensus among G20 members meant India resorted to issuing a "chair's summary and outcome document" in which it simply summed up the two days of talks and noted disagreements.

(Reporting by Rupam Jain, Neha Arora, Shivangi Acharya; Editing by Y.P. Rajesh and Nick Macfie)
Ukrainian, Romanian, and US Army Special Forces soldiers conduct close-quarters-battle training in Romania in May 2021. Romanian army/Capt. Roxana Davidovits

The challenges of waging modern warfare are on vivid display in Russia's attack on Ukraine.

A less-visible aspect has been the need for a robust logistical network to sustain frontline forces.

For US special operators, the war is a reminder that such a network won't always be available.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has brought renewed attention to the challenges of a large-scale, conventional nation-on-nation conflict.

After a year of the fighting, the world has learned a lot about what it takes to wage modern war. Ukraine thwarted Russia's initial attack and, with extensive Western support, has driven Russia's forces back. Russia continues to struggle to achieve its objectives despite reducing its ambitions after the first few months of the war. So far, Moscow has lost an estimated 200,000 troops.

Access to heavy weapons and ample ammunition as well as a will to fight among troops have been important elements in each side's performance, as has the ability to set up an effective logistics enterprise.

According to US special-operations leaders in Europe, Russia's logistical struggles in Ukraine have shown that in a major war, US commandos will need to live without the logistical "tethers" they've relied on in past conflicts.

Logistics and Ukraine

Ukrainian soldiers reload a Grad multiple-launch rocket vehicle in the Donetsk in November. Diego Herrera Carcedo/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

During an event hosted by the New America think tank in September, US Air Force Maj. Gen. Steven Edwards, the commander of Special Operations Command Europe, outlined some of lessons SOCEUR had learned from Ukraine.

Edwards said that one of his command's biggest hurdles to being more effective in Ukraine had been finding ways to support Ukrainian forces remotely, as US troops were withdrawn from the country shortly before Russia attacked.

"Trying to get equipment and resourcing in to our partners has proved to be very, very difficult," Edwards said, pointing to the logistics required "to actually move it from one country inside Ukraine."

One of the major logistical hurdles Ukrainian forces face is getting the right munitions and spare parts to the front. Over the past year, scores of Western nations have sent Ukraine billions of dollars in military gear and other assistance.

Story continues

Ukrainian troops now use an array of weapons that require different ammunition and have different maintenance needs, so the Ukrainian military's logisticians have had to be very organized and maintain good situational awareness of what equipment is needed and where and when it is needed.

For example, sending Western-made 155 mm ammunition to a unit that has 152 mm howitzers, which for decades was Ukraine's standard howitzer caliber, would be a waste of time and resources.

Logistics and special operators

Ukrainian, Romanian, and US Army Special Forces soldiers conduct close-quarters-battle training in Romania in May 2021. Romanian army/Capt. Roxana Davidovits

At the same New America event, Michael Repass, who commanded SOCEUR before retiring from the US Army as a major general, also highlighted the importance of logistics not only for special-operations forces but also for militaries facing bigger, better-armed opponents.

"We know that logistics matters. It's very interesting to see SOF guys talking about how important logistics are," Repass said. "Stockpiling material to defend your nation has become an imperative for small nations in conflict with big states."

Indeed, Russia's struggles in Ukraine are showing US commandos that in a conflict with a near-peer force like Russia or China, they will need to live without the stockpiles and short supply lines they were accustomed to during the wars that followed the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the US.

For US special-operations units, logistical demands in a conflict "would largely depend on the unit and the mission," a US Army Special Forces soldier in a National Guard unit told Insider.

US special-operations forces "are designed to operate deep behind enemy lines in often austere environments with little to no support for outside," the Green Beret, who was granted anonymity to discuss prospective operations, said, adding: "We are trained and mentally prepared to fight without much logistical support."

Ukrainian troops train to clear a trench with guidance from US soldiers at a training center in Yavoriv, Ukraine, in June 2017. US Army/Sgt. Anthony Jones

Getting supplies to US special operators in the Indo-Pacific region would be more challenging the closer they got to China because of the weaponry China developed to deny its rivals access to parts of the region, such as the South China Sea. The US Army is the service responsible for logistics across the Indo-Pacific area of operations.

"Again, depending on the unit and the mission, we will require some sort of logistical support eventually," the Green Beret added. "That's where our relationships with the conventional military and any partner forces will be key."

US Special Operations Command is trying to address the challenge of getting supplies to the front lines by pursuing what one official described as "untethered logistics."

The command is considering new technology and other means that would allow it to push supplies to special operators in remote environments or enable those troops to produce what they need where they are. Some of the technology in the works involves 3D printing, which could allow frontline commandos to produce much-needed ammunition and spare parts on their own.

Military logistics may not be as sexy as some of the weapons and operations on display in Ukraine, but the war there has shown they're as important to battlefield success as ever.

Stavros Atlamazoglou is a defense journalist specializing in special operations, a Hellenic Army veteran (national service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ), and a Johns Hopkins University graduate. He is working toward a master's degree in strategy and cybersecurity at Johns Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Sacramento police detectives arrested a 20-year-old mother on suspicion of homicide in the death of her son, a toddler who was treated by medics Tuesday night before he died later at a hospital.

Officers initially detained Samisha Frazier at the scene for questioning before homicide detectives arrested later, according to a Sacramento Police Department news release.

The mother was booked on the homicide charge Wednesday at the Sacramento County Jail, where she was being held without bail. Frazier is scheduled to make her first appearance Friday in Sacramento Superior Court.

Shortly before 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, patrol officers were called to the 2400 block of Meadowview Road, just east of 24th Street in the Meadowview neighborhood, regarding a medical aid call.

Medics from the Sacramento Fire Department provided emergency medical aid to a male juvenile and took him to a hospital, police said. Despite life-saving measures, the child was pronounced dead at the hospital.

The Police Department did not release any further information about the boy who died, including his age or his condition at the scene. The department also did not release any information about the manner of his death or whether any weapons were used.

Andre Taylor, a 12-month-old boy, was the name of Fraziers son who died Tuesday after an incident at an apartment in the 2400 block of Meadowview Road, according to the Sacramento County Coroners Office. His death came 12 days after his first birthday.

Detectives continued to investigate the childs death, but they believe there are no other suspects involved, police said.

Investigators asked any witnesses with information about this homicide to call officers at 916-808-5471 or Sacramento Valley Crime Stoppers at 916-443-4357. Tips can also be submitted anonymously through the P3 Tips website and app.
Sacramento Sheriff Jim Cooper has reversed his position on providing cold-weather gear to jail inmates, with the county informing advocates late Tuesday that the sheriff will use inmate welfare funds to buy warm clothing for all inmates, advocates say.

The reversal comes one day after The Sacramento Bee reported that the county had rejected a plea from Prison Law Office advocates to provide warmer clothing at the Sacramento County Main Jail and Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center, where inmates were provided only short-sleeve T-shirts during recent winter storms in the region.

Patrick Booth, a staff attorney for the Prison Law Office that advocates for the rights of inmates, said in an email statement late Tuesday that the sheriff had agreed to their request for more appropriate clothing for jail inmates.

We are pleased that the sheriff has reversed his position and affirmed his offices commitment to meeting the needs of people incarcerated in the Sacramento County Jails, Booth wrote in an email statement to The Bee.

The Prison Law Office forwarded an email from Sacramento Deputy County Counsel Rick Heyer confirming the sheriff planned to use money from the $14 million inmate welfare fund to provide the clothing.

The sheriff has agreed to purchase cold weather clothing for all inmates using funds from the Inmate Welfare Fund, the email stated. I will provide further information in the next few days as I learn the details of this purchase.

Sheriffs Office spokesman Sgt. Amar Gandhi did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday night.

Gandhi previously had declined to comment, and on Monday after The Bee reported on the issue cited surveys that he said showed most measured temperatures on housing floors (in the jail) were 70 degrees or higher.

The Prison Law Office had been urging the county for weeks to provide more appropriate winter clothing for inmates, with Booth writing to officials Feb. 6 that jail-issue clothing consisted only of one short-sleeve T-shirt, a pair of pants, a pair of socks and one or two pair of underwear.

Story continues

Inmates were not provided with long-sleeve shirts, sweatshirts or jackets, leaving many feeling extremely cold and refusing to go outside for recreation because of the weather conditions, Booth wrote.

People are forced to choose between extended periods of isolation in their cells or being outside on a cold, concrete recreation yard with no sweatshirt, no long-sleeve shirt, and no undershirt, Booth wrote in a letter to the county that warned advocates may pursue the matter in federal court, where conditions in the jails for some disabled inmates are governed by a consent decree.

The county responded last Friday to the request by writing that issuing cold-weather gear to inmates is unwarranted and that temperatures in the downtown jail are monitored and measured at 67.5 degrees or above.

SSO recognizes that on a few days per year, the temperature outside the facilities may not be warm enough for extended outdoor recreation, Heyer wrote then. However, these are a relative few days in the year.

Heyer wrote that most areas of the jails are temperature controlled and that temperature readings at the main jail showed that all floors have temperature of at least 67.5, with some units where the temperature was measured at 70 degrees.

But the Prison Law Office noted that other agencies, including the state prison system, provide cold-weather clothing to inmates, and that complaints about the lack of such gear in Sacramento was widespread.

When we visited the Main Jail on January 12, 2023, we heard dozens of reports throughout the facility, from both staff and incarcerated people, that people forego their outdoor recreation time because they are too cold to go outside in only a T-shirt, Booth wrote. For example, Deputy Conley, who works on 3 West, told us that many people are too cold to spend any amount of time in the outdoor recreation space, and he is even cold when working inside the building.

People in the jail who refuse outdoor time are not offered extra dayroom time to compensate for their lack of out-of-cell time. Instead, they merely receive less time out of their cell.

Prison Law Office Legal Director Margot Mendelson said Monday that the clothing could be paid for using the inmate welfare fund, which is generated by inmate telephone calls and commissary purchases.

That fund is currently at more than $14 million, according to an email from Heyer to the Prison Law Office, which said that money could be spent improving conditions for inmates in the jails.

Given the filthy and deprived conditions in the Sacramento County jails, we are hopeful that Sheriff Cooper will prioritize spending these funds to bring the jails closer in line with basic standards of decency, Booth wrote in a statement to The Bee.
The woman pastor at the center of the Southern Baptist Convention's decision to oust Saddleback Church  the California megachurch founded by pastor and best-selling author Rick Warren  says she will continue to serve as a ministry leader despite her longstanding ties to the nation's largest Protestant denomination.

Saddleback has yet to say if it will appeal its expulsion. But at least one other church  a Kentucky congregation ousted the same day for having a woman pastor  plans to do so, guaranteeing Southern Baptists will weigh the issue at their annual meeting in June in New Orleans.

Stacie Wood, teaching pastor at Saddleback and wife of lead pastor Andy Wood, wrote an Instagram post about her churchs ousting. She credited her Southern Baptist upbringing for shaping her faith, but stood firm on heeding her calling despite being at the center of the discussion.

Im serving Jesus under the authority and in alignment with my spiritual leaders, Wood wrote. We believe that women can be gifted and empowered as teachers and as pastors."

Her husband told the congregation during weekend services about his plan to release a video explaining the church's position on women pastors. Wood told The Associated Press last year that the Bible teaches that men and women were given spiritual gifts by God.

My wife has the spiritual gift of teaching and she is really good. People often tell me shes better than me when it comes to preaching, he said.

The SBC's statement of faith says that women should not be pastors. The SBC is not a hierarchy and can't tell a member congregation what to do, but it can deem a church to be not in friendly cooperation with the Convention, the verbal formulation for ouster.

On Feb. 21, the conventions Executive Committee voted to expel Saddleback, the SBC's second largest congregation, alluding to Stacie Wood functioning in the office of pastor. It was one of five congregations kicked out for the same issue.

Story continues

One of them, Fern Creek Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, plans to appeal, said the Rev. Linda Barnes Popham, who has served as Fern Creek's pastor since 1993.

She said the congregation wants to continue working with the SBC, regularly uses its religious-education curriculum and supports its missionaries and other causes. At the same time, it believes the larger body of Southern Baptists  not just the Executive Committee  should decide whether to maintain fellowship with churches with women pastors.

We feel like the average Southern Baptist would have no problem with this, she said. The other reason is to be a change agent for women in the Southern Baptist Convention  for all those young girls, for all those young people God is calling into ministry.

The other three churches also said they planned to continue with women's leadership but did not indicate they would appeal.

An elder for New Faith Mission Ministry of Griffin, Georgia, said it is nondenominational and never had an affiliation with the SBC, though the convention says its records showed one.

Pastor Minnie R. Washington of St. Timothys Christian Baptist in Baltimore said her church has had no interaction with the SBC and said it was an honor to be named alongside the other ousted churches.

Is it possible that the Executive Committee of SBC believes it can tell God who to call to lead His people? she said via email.

Pastor Linda Smith of Calvary Baptist Church in Jackson, Mississippi, a former Southern Baptist missionary, said her church doesn't expect to appeal. Were going to press on and do what God calls us to do, focusing on ministry in a needy neighborhood, she said.

Saddleback did not respond to requests for comment regarding a possible appeal.

In an email, Andy Wood told the congregation he would soon release a belief statement about women as pastors.

God intends for both men and women to exercise their spiritual gifts of shepherding and teaching the church." He also asked them not to speak publicly against the denominations decision.

Though we are disappointed by their decision, we are not offended. We love and have valued our relationship with the SBC and its faithful churches. We will engage and respond through the proper channels at the appropriate time, the email stated.

The Saddleback controversy began in 2021, when Warren ordained three women as pastors, prompting discussions within the SBC about possibly expelling the megachurch. Warren, who retired last year after more than 42 years at Saddleback, made an emotional speech in June 2022 at the Southern Baptists annual convention in Anaheim, saying: We have to decide if we will treat each other as allies or adversaries.

The denominations statement of faith was revised in 2000 to state: While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.

But opinions have varied on whether this is a litmus test for a churchs alignment with the SBC. The SBCs constitution allows for the expulsion of churches whose faith and practice dont align with it, though it doesn't specifically name women pastors as cause for removal.

In her Feb. 23 post, Stacie Wood called herself a Southern Baptist girl born and bred and expressed gratitude for how those roots shaped her faith. She remains impressed with the SBC's passion for Bible study and missions.

But, in her adult years in ministry, she said, denominational affiliations havent felt like a central component to what weve been called to do including the time when the Woods started and ran Echo Church, a nondenominational church in the San Francisco Bay Area.

We partnered with Southern Baptists who helped us get started, but weve also been delighted to partner with many different church leaders from a variety of denominations to advance the Gospel, she said.

She has received an outpouring of support.

Her husband, replying to her Instagram post, said he was proud of her: Im grateful that I get to be part of a generation of leaders who propel sons and daughters forward in the Kingdom!"

Kay Warren, her predecessor and wife of Pastor Rick Warren, also responded supportively: I love you Stacie!  Its a privilege to run this race side by side with you!"

Many congregants are backing her, too.

When Stacie came on board, I remember thinking, Finally, we have a woman pastor, said Charity Hurt, a Saddleback member for seven years. If thats what youre called to do, you should be able to do it."

Hurt said it does not really matter to her whether Saddleback remains in the SBC or not.

Im just so happy with the direction in which (the Woods) are taking us, she said, adding that she is not sure if many in Saddleback even know that their church is part of the SBC.

Some are approaching the issue with caution. Kimberly Lattimore, a congregant for 33 years, said she supports Saddleback 100%," but is eager to hear Andy Wood's reasoning in favor of women pastors and do her own research.

I have no problem with women being pastors and teaching other women," she said. But, the question I have is whether women should be teaching men. I'm going to look carefully to see what Bible says.

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the APs collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
One thing is clear from the mayoral election: The people of Chicago want reform. Thats why we saw such a large number of candidates enter the race against a one-term mayor and why there were more than twice as many early votes counted than in 2019.

In this moment, Chicago needs to come together to make sure the next mayor  whoever that person may be  listens, is collaborative and understands that they have a mandate to see through reforms that have thus far been broken promises and missed opportunities.

Advertisement

As a state representative and former chair of the House Black Caucus, I know a thing or two about how legislative bodies like Chicagos City Council are supposed to work. And let me tell you: This aint it. During my campaign, I spoke regularly about the changes needed to allow the City Council to operate like a real legislative body, not a rubber stamp for the mayor.

I styled my extensive policy platforms in this campaign as a love letter from a little boy to his city. Part of that love letter demands that we change the way we operate municipal government in Chicago.

Advertisement

Chicago needs a city charter, which is essentially a governing document like the Constitution. Every other major American city has one, while Chicago is ruled by arcane traditions and no guiding principles set forth in law. With a charter, we could have avoided disastrous deals like the parking meter agreement because there would be rules for how such agreements are executed and the amount of transparency and legislative support they need to be approved.

Springfield must approve for Chicago to have a charter, and Im ready and willing to work with the next mayor to see this through.

The City Council also should choose its own leadership structure and be empowered to pick its own committee chairs and parliamentarian. These are basic standards of representative democracy because they create accountability mechanisms, and without them, Chicago mayors will continue to enable machine politics to thrive.

[ David Greising: Mayor Lightfoot, aldermen should be able to agree on transparency, accountability ]

However, these reforms mean that the next mayor has to willingly give up power, and as voters, its our job to make sure we elect someone whos politically competent enough to work with an empowered City Council.

We must also elect a mayor who understands that no major city in the 21st century can thrive without a safe, reliable and affordable public transportation system, and we dont need to return to George Wallaces Alabama with armed K-9 patrol units on the CTA to get us there.

The key to taking our transit system to the next level isnt policing; its leadership, planning and investment. Unlike most other cities, Chicagos mayor has direct control over the CTA, and yet we havent changed the transit funding formulas since 1983 under then-Mayor Harold Washington.

The next mayor should seriously consider launching a Transit Ambassador program in which ambassadors are trained in deescalation techniques to peaceably ensure safety for all riders. We also must invest in upgrading our technology. Today, only some of the more than 32,000 cameras in the CTA system are equipped to relay footage in real time. This is unacceptable.

The CTA is my primary mode of transportation and has been my go-to since I was a child. When I did well in school, my reward was a trip on the L with my father. Its how I first saw this city  through the windows of trains and buses. Its frustrating seeing how administrations have allowed it to deteriorate, especially since 25% of Chicagoans dont own a car and rely on public transit to live and work in this city.

Advertisement

Our transportation network is the vascular system that carries the lifeblood of Chicago, and transit is the most vital artery of the system. Our buses and trains simply must run on time. Chicagoans need the CTA to be reliable, and when its not, whole communities are cut off from economic opportunity, and those who can afford it shift to ride-shares, which leads to increased traffic and pollution.

[ Christina Marfice and Morgan Madderom: Transit riders deserve honesty from the CTA, not fudged statistics ]

The solutions arent revolutionary; they simply require a mayor whos committed to getting it done. The next mayor should establish dedicated bus lanes for high-ridership corridors and modify bus routes based on recent ridership data; better connect the CTA to Metra and Pace by implementing an integrated fare system that allows riders to easily make transfers; and implement connections to the CTA and Metra at key locations and at a new connected station in the West Loop.

There are also several large-scale projects the next mayor and the new City Council should plan for like electrifying the CTA bus fleet and rebuilding the Forest Park Blue Line branch, where 70% of trains go slower than theyre designed to because of outdated rails.

We should also be building for the future by restarting conversations about a potential Circle Line, creating a new Metra line that connects McCormick Place, Union Station, the West Loop and OHare International Airport  connecting massive job centers to neighborhoods and workers.

Finally, discounted fares for Chicago Public Schools and City College students arent enough. The city must expand accessible transit options for students so they can safely get from home to school and back again.

During this runoff, I challenge both candidates to talk about concrete ideas instead of personal politics. Chicago is at a crossroads, but with the right leader  someone who strives for consensus and is personally dedicated to reform  Chicago can be the city we love, that loves us back.

Advertisement

State Rep. Kam Buckner, a Chicago Democrat, represents the 26th District.

Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk Elon Musk stands on the construction site of the Tesla factory in Grunheide near Berlin, May 17, 2021. He revealed in a tweet that he's now living in a rented house in Boca Chica, Texas, that costs $50,000. Christophe Gateau/picture alliance via Getty Images

Twitter on Tuesday announced a new violent speech policy for users of the site to adhere to.

The new rules prohibit threats of violence against people  as well as infrastructure and buildings.

Users may also be suspended or banned for wishing harm, illness, or tragedy on others.

Under Twitter's new violent speech policy, threatening to kill or rape someone has the same consequence as threatening to damage infrastructure or business property.

"You may not threaten to inflict physical harm on others, which includes (but is not limited to) threatening to kill, torture, sexually assault, or otherwise hurt someone. This also includes threatening to damage civilian homes and shelters, or infrastructure that is essential to daily, civic, or business activities," Twitter's updated policy, announced Tuesday, reads.

Users will be "immediately and permanently" suspended from the social media platform "in most cases" when the policy is violated. In unspecified "less severe" instances, accounts may be temporarily locked.

Representatives for Twitter did not immediately respond to Insider's detailed request for comment about the violent speech policy updates.

The updated policy goes on to include, in another new addition to the rules: "You may not wish, hope, or express desire for harm. This includes (but is not limited to) hoping for others to die, suffer illnesses, tragic incidents, or experience other physically harmful consequences."

Under the previous version of the rule, statements that expressed a wish or hope that someone experiences physical harm were not actionable under the violent speech policy but, under certain circumstances could be addressed under the abusive behavior or hateful conduct policies, according to archives stored by the Wayback Machine of Twitter's previous violent speech policy.

Story continues

Since Elon Musk's $44 billion takeover of the social media platform in October, he has changed the app's private information policy, banned a college student who tracked his private jet, and changed the site's policy on satire accounts after a swath of comedians with verified checkmarks pretended to be the billionaire.

It is unclear what prompted the change in the violent speech policy.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Sen. Bernie Sanders is raising the stakes in his effort to get Starbucks interim CEO Howard Schultz to testify at a Senate hearing about an ongoing unionization effort at the company.

Sanders, a Vermont Independent and chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said Wednesday that the committee will vote March 8 on whether to issue a subpoena to Schultz.

If the vote passes __ and its likely it would, since Democrats are in the majority on the committee __ Schultz would be required to appear before the committee on March 15.

In a statement, Starbucks called Sanders' announcement a disappointing development and reiterated its offer to send AJ Jones II, its chief public affairs officer, to testify instead. Starbucks said Jones has been more closely involved with the unionization effort.

At least 289 company-owned U.S. Starbucks stores have voted to unionize since late 2021. Union supporters say they want higher pay and more consistent schedules, among other issues.

Seattle-based Starbucks doesnt support unionization, saying it already provides industry-leading benefits and can run the company more effectively when it works directly with employees.

The process has been contentious. Regional officers for the National Labor Relations Board have filed 79 complaints against the company for various issues, including failure to bargain, according to a board spokesperson. Starbucks, meanwhile, has filed 102 unfair labor practice charges against the union, Starbucks Workers United.

In a statement, Sanders said he was taking the rare step of voting to subpoena because Schultz hasnt responded to repeated requests to meet and provide documents to the committee. Sanders wants to question Schultz about reports that it has fired more than a dozen pro-union workers, among other things.

While Howard Schultz is a multi-billionaire who runs a very profitable multi-national corporation he must understand that he and his company are not above the law, Sanders said.

Schultz has previously refused to appear before the committee. In a letter sent to the committee in mid-February, Starbucks noted that Schultz __ a longtime Starbucks leader who came out of retirement last year to assume the interim CEO job __ will be transitioning out of that role at the end of this month. Laxman Narasimhan, a former PepsiCo executive, will become Starbucks new CEO on April 1, but Schultz will remain on the companys board.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will seek to subpoena Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, who has declined to testify on allegations of unlawful anti-union practices at the coffee chain, Sanders said Wednesday.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which Sanders chairs, will vote on whether to issue the subpoena on March 8. The Democratic-controlled committee will also vote on an investigation into labor law violations by large corporations.

Sanders said that Schultz has denied meeting and document requests, skirted congressional oversight attempts, and refused to answer any of the serious questions we have asked regarding the companys alleged union busting, including firing more than a dozen Starbucks workers who led organizing campaigns.

Unfortunately, Mr. Schultz has given us no choice, but to subpoena him, Sanders said in a statement. A multi-billion dollar corporation like Starbucks cannot continue to break federal labor law with impunity. The time has come to hold Starbucks and Mr. Schultz accountable.

Schultz is set to step down as CEO in April but will remain a Starbucks board member. Starbucks offered to have its Chief Public Affairs Officer AJ Jones testify before Sanderss committee, arguing that he is better suited to answer questions.

This is a disappointing development, but we will continue our dialogue with Chairman Sanderss staff and are optimistic that well come to an appropriate resolution. Our response to the Chairmans initial request still stands, Starbucks spokesperson Andrew Trull told The Hill.

More than 350 Starbucks stores have voted to form a union since the first store in Buffalo, N.Y., unionized in December 2021. That prompted a wave of organizing at other chains that historically havent been unionized.

Starbucks has sought to crack down on organizing efforts by using tactics deemed unlawful by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

The NLRB ruled earlier this month that Starbucks unlawfully threatened and later fired employees who led organizing campaigns at two Philadelphia locations. The board ordered Starbucks to rehire the workers and give them back pay.

Sanders said that the NLRB has filed more than 75 complaints against Starbucks, and more than 500 unfair labor practice charges have been levied against the popular coffee chain.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
(Bloomberg) -- Representative George Santos may not be well liked by his colleagues or constituents, but his first bill in Congress deals with something wildly popular in his district on New Yorks Long Island  the state and local tax deduction.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Santos, a New York Republican notorious for falsifying his resume, education, religion and family history, introduced legislation Tuesday that would increase the deduction, known as SALT, to $50,000. Expanding the SALT write-off, which was capped at $10,000 in President Donald Trumps 2017 tax overhaul, has been a sore spot for New Yorkers and residents of other high-tax states for years.

Increasing the state and local tax deduction would mean that home owners in states like New York, New Jersey, California could get bigger breaks on their Internal Revenue Service bills  an issue thats on the minds of many Americans as they begin filing their annual tax returns.

The SALT question is unlikely to get a House vote this year, with Republicans, who largely oppose increasing the deduction, controlling the chamber. That would deprive Santos of a chance to bolster his support in a district, where, according to one poll, nearly 80% of voters want him to resign.

This bill likely wont ingratiate Santos, 34, with his colleagues in the House, where dozens of members, including some fellow New York Republicans, are pushing to expel him from the chamber.

Representative Nick LaLota, another Long Island Republican, who has called for Santoss ouster, said he would reject the SALT proposal, despite supporting increases to the cap.

Lets not pretend anything George Santos does is serious, he said. Theres great ideas about SALT. Theyre not going to come from George Santos.

Story continues

Santoss bill is one of three introduced so far in this Congress to amend or abolish the SALT cap.

A measure by Representative Mike Garcia, a California Republican, would eliminate the cap and make it retroactive  allowing taxpayers to claim the full value of the deduction on past returns as if the cap never existed.

Another, by Representative Michael Lawler, a New York Republican, would double the cap to $20,000 for a married couple, eliminating what he calls the SALT marriage penalty.

This is the first legislation Santos, who also represents part of the New York City borough of Queens, has introduced since being sworn in two months ago. Hes also signed on as a co-sponsor on 27 bills, including a bill making the AR-15 the national firearm of the US, a bill banning federal funds for schools that allow transgender athletes to participate in womens sports, and a bill to mint a coin honoring service dogs.

--With assistance from Samantha Handler.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
The detainee turned out to be a tactical training instructor who trained the Ukrainian military

The SBU said the agent turned out to be a local tactical training instructor for a non-government organization.

Read also: Ukraines SBU captures two Russian agents in Mykolayiv Oblast

Under the guise of conducting Ukrainian military training, he collected intelligence on the deployment of the defense forces units in the southern regions.

Russian special services tasked him with identifying the deployment sites of foreign weapons and warehouses with ammunition of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

To gather information, he gathered information from an unwitting Ukrainian military serviceman and passed it to a representative of Russias FSB security service. In turn, the enemy used this data to launch targeted missile strikes at Ukrainian military facilities.

Read also: SBU detains suspected Russian agents preparing strikes on critical infrastructure in Odesa and Kherson

The SBU officers launched a counter-intelligence operation and exposed the Russian agent.

According to the investigation, the traitor turned to the FSB on his own initiative and offered his help in the war against Ukraine.

During searches at the suspects place of residence, law enforcers found a mobile phone with evidence of the suspects correspondence with Russian supervisors, as well as weapons and ammunition. The seized items have been sent for examination.

Read also: Bodies of 27 people killed during occupation found in Mykolaiv Oblast

The suspected traitor has been charged with treason and taken into custody.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
A reconstruction of a Gravettian hunter-gatherer, based on archaeological findings at the Arene Candide site in Italy.

Researchers scrutinized the genomes of hundreds of Ice Age hunter-gatherers from across Eurasia and found that many people stayed in southern Europe during the Last Glacial Maximum, the coldest part of the last Ice Age.



Groups that made up the Gravettian culture, which existed across Europe between 32,000 and 24,000 years ago and is known for its iconic Venus figurines, had cultural similarities across Europe. But, according to the new research, populations in different parts of the continent were not closely genetically related.

Read more

According to the study, descendents of the western Gravettian populations (which existed in what is today France, Spain, and Portugal) gave way to the Solutrean and Magdalenian cultures, which waited until after the Last Glacial Maximum to move northeast into the rest of Europe. The new research is published today in Nature.



The work includes the largest ancient genomic dataset of European hunter-gatherers ever produced, with new genomic data from 116 individuals from 14 different countries in Europe, covering a time span of 30,000 years between 35,000 and 5,000 years ago, said Cosimo Posth, a paleogeneticist at the University of Tubingen in Germany and the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment, in an email to Gizmodo.

Our data show how environmental changes influenced the emergence of new archaeological cultures, with or without human migrations and resulting genetic turnovers, Posth added.

The team found that genetic evidence for the Gravettian culture that inhabited central and southern Europe vanishes from the region after the Last Glacial Maximum. New gene poolsnamed the Epigravettianset up shop in their stead, in places like the Italian peninsula.

According to the researchers, those new arrivals are thought to have come from the Balkans and moved all the way south into Sicily during or shortly after the glacial maximum. After the maximum, and with glaciers in retreat, populations from southern Europe began to move up into the rest of the continent. This was not a returnthe populations moving northward were distinct from the Gravettian culture that came before.

Story continues

At that time, the climate warmed up quickly and considerably and forests spread across the European continent. This may have prompted people from the south to expand their habitat, said Johannes Krause, a geneticist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, in an institute release. The previous inhabitants may have migrated to the north as their habitat, the mammoth steppe, dwindled.

After little to no contact (and virtually no genetic exchange) between hunter-gatherer groups in western and eastern Europe for millennia, interactions resumed about 8,000 years ago, according to the research. Alongside this genetic exchange came a shift toward sedentary, agriculture-based lifestylesa far cry from the hunter-gatherer systems of the Ice Age populations.

In other words, communities increasingly gave up foraging and hunting mammoths for farming on the warming continent, and eventually began building more permanent settlements.



The new research makes a good pairing with findings published last year, about 10,000 years of genetic history in Eurasia, as told through genomes from Britain to Iraq. That work interrogated population mixing farther east and in more recent times, including the diversity of the Roman and Byzantine empires. Taken together, the two studies paint a more comprehensive picture of how groups moved and mixed across Europe and Asia in the last 35,000 years, and how their ways of life changed.

Increasingly research into ancient genomes is adding to what we know of human history, revealing hitherto-unknown migrations that gave rise to the world as we know it.

More: Sweeping Genetic Study of Ancient Eurasians Reveals Thousands of Years of History

More from Gizmodo

Sign up for Gizmodo's Newsletter. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.
SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Scientists have found a previously undiscovered moai on Easter Island, uncovering the large stone statue in a dry lake bed on the tiny, remote island in the middle of the Pacific.

Geologists were studying the site after fires swept through the area last year. It could mean more figures and tools used by the ancestral Rapa Nui people are buried nearby in the once-underwater site, scientists said.

"This is the first time, from what I understand, that something has been found in the basin," said archaeologist Jose Miguel Ramirez.

It meant that the lake had likely dried at some point in the past, and perhaps the Rapa Nui were taking advantage of that to move the statue, he added.

"I think more (moai) are going to keep showing up," Ramirez said.

Easter Island, a Chilean territory some 2,200 miles (3,540 km) from the mainland, is a protected national park and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Researchers believe the island's first residents arrived more than 1,000 years ago and that its famous monolithic human figures were erected about 400 to 700 years ago.

"What we've seen today is very important, because this is part of the history of the Rapa Nui people," said Salvador Atan Hito, a leader of the Ma'u Henua Indigenous community overseeing the site.

The half-buried, 1.5-meter (5-ft) moai will now undergo tests to determine what state it is in, researchers said. While Easter Island is littered with hundreds of the towering stone heads they face threats from the elements, including the fires which led to this statue's discovery.

(Reporting by Reuters TV; Writing by Fabian Cambero and Kylie Madry, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)
The musical duo Green Heron

EXETER  The Seacoast Artist Association in Exeter, N.H. presents N.H. favorites, musical duo Green Heron, at their March Second Friday artist reception on March 10, from 5 to 7 p.m. The music of Green Heron stretches across the entire folk landscape of old-time, folk, bluegrass, country, Celtic and blues. Featuring Betsy Heron, who is also an SAA artist member, on fiddle, banjo and vocals, and Scott Heron on guitar, banjo and vocals, the duo has been sharing New England stages together since 2017.

Betsy, brought up playing country music with her family's band in rural Massachusetts, still plays alongside her three sisters in The Green Sisters. Meanwhile, Scott spent several years in various metal bands touring New England and much of the country before discovering folk and bluegrass. Despite their very different backgrounds in music, the pair still draws from their roots when writing and performing and have found a common love for Americana and folk music. To date, Green Heron has released three albums: Folk Heroes in 2018, New Pair of Shoes in 2019 and Feet on the Floorboards released in 2021.

Throughout their home state of New Hampshire, the duo has been featured in a variety of publications and have made appearances on several television and radio stations including WMUR's New Hampshire Chronicle as well as NHPR's All Things Considered and The Folk Show. New Hampshire Magazine featured Green Heron among the Editor's Choice picks for their Best of 2020 issue and Seacoast Edge listed Feet on the Floorboards among their best albums of 2021. In 2022, the band was nominated for Best Roots Act for the New England Music Awards and took first place for Banjo and Fiddle Duet in the Lowell Banjo and Fiddle Contest.

Green Heron has shared the stage with several touring acts including The Del McCoury Band, The Seldom Scene, The Way Down Wanderers, and Them Coulee Boys in world-class venues such as Prescott Park, Belleville Roots Music Series, Ossipee Valley Music Festival, Stone Church, Bank of New Hampshire Stage, Club Passim, and Word Barn.

The Seacoast Artist Association is an all-volunteer non-profit completely supported by donations, exhibition fees, and sales commissions. New members are welcome. The SAA gallery is located at 130 Water St., in downtown Exeter. Second Friday receptions celebrate their monthly theme shows and Body of Work shows along with works by their 29 gallery artists. The SAA sponsors art scholarships to area high school seniors furthering their art studies at college or university, and donations are welcome in person or at seacoastartist.org.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Seacoast Artist Association presents the musical duo Green Heron
The crypto mining operation was discovered under Cohasset Middle/High School in Massachusetts, US (Wikimedia Commons)

A man has been charged with stealing thousands of dollars worth of electricity after a secret bitcoin mining operation was discovered underneath a school in Massachusetts.

Nadeam Nahas, 39, is accused of setting up 11 machines in the crawl space beneath Cohasset Middle/ High School, which used the schools electricity to mine cryptocurrency  the process of generating new units of digital currency through solving complex computational puzzles.

The setup was uncovered by the towns facilities director, who spotted unusual electrical wiring and duct tape during a routine inspection of the school.

Mr Nahas, who served as Cohassets assistant facilities director, resigned from his post in early 2022 following a three-month investigation into the machines.

He initially denied any knowledge of the machines, though police say they found credit card receipts in his name for coleman 48qt coolers, insulated flex ducts, extreme weather foil, insulation sleeves, and a water-based sealant tub, all items located in the crawl space and used to facilitate the mining operation.

Mr Nahas, who denies the allegations, is due to appear in court on 17 May for a pretrial conference.

Prosecutors estimate that the mining operation cost the school around $17,500 (14,500) in electricity during an eight month period in 2021.

Bitcoins energy consumption has proved controversial in recent years, with estimates suggesting that it is equivalent to that of a small country.

Other leading cryptocurrencies have sought to address environmental concerns by switching from a proof-of-work system to proof-of-stake, which doesnt require vast computational power in order to operate.

Ethereum managed to cut its energy consumption by 99.9 per cent in September 2022 after making the switch in an event known as the Merge.
Sophie Craig, 19, cheers during a gathering after University of South Florida students and faculty members join a statewide student walkout to protest Gov. Ron DeSantis' education policies at the Tampa campus on Feb. 23, 2023. (Ivy Ceballo/Tampa Bay Times)

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says he wants every college in his state to teach courses in Western civilization.

And I say: Bring it on.

Advertisement

We want to make sure that everybody that goes through a Florida university has to take certain core course requirements, thats really focused on giving them the foundation so that they can think for themselves, DeSantis declared earlier this year. And the core curriculum must be grounded in actual history, the actual philosophy that has shaped Western civilization.

But any course that did that would teach students to question everything, including DeSantis. And I rather doubt that the governor and his GOP disciples want that.

Advertisement

Nor do Democrats, who quickly denounced DeSantis proposal as an effort to indoctrinate American  or, even, white  superiority. Taught properly, however, a course on Western civilization would undermine some of the Democrats own favorite ideas, especially about race and identity.

Anyone who thinks otherwise should read Rescuing Socrates: How the Great Books Changed My Life and Why They Matter for a New Generation by Roosevelt Montas. Montas is the former director of the core curriculum at Columbia University, which is centered heavily upon, yes, Western civilization. And he rebuts both conservative and liberal assumptions about it.

In Florida, for example, several charter schools and right-wing Christian academies focus their curricula on classical texts. They proudly advertise the centrality of the Western tradition and nourishing the soul on truth, beauty and goodness, as one school declares.

But heres the essential truth that conservatives wont tell you: The Western tradition has never spoken with one voice about whats true.

Indeed, philosopher Leo Strauss  whom conservatives often invoke in defense of timeless verities  described Western civilization as a continuous conversation, not a singular set of beliefs. It includes theists and atheists, stoics and hedonists, warriors and pacifists, and everything in between. And since the greatest minds contradict one another regarding the most important matters, Strauss wrote, we cannot take on trust what any one of them says. Instead, we need to figure it out for ourselves.

Thats where Socrates comes in. Arguably the most important figure in Western philosophy, he wandered around Athens, Greece, questioning everyone and everything. Most people went through life with presumptions that they never really subjected to scrutiny, Socrates said. Education should force them to do precisely that, over and over again.

Thats probably not what DeSantis has in mind. One of the matters that the ancients constantly debated was the nature of love, including same-sex attraction. By contrast, DeSantis Dont Say Gay bill  which he pointedly signed at a classics-centered school  restricts discussion of gender identity and same-sex relationships. How can we learn about these subjects, Socrates would ask, if we cant talk about them?

But Socrates was an equal-opportunity myth buster. So you can be sure he would question Democrats, too, especially about their fixation upon race as the most indelible feature of modern life. In a diverse society, they often ask, why teach great books by dead white guys? We should instead teach material thats relevant to the rainbow of ethnic and racial groups in our classrooms.

Advertisement

Tell that to Montas, who was born into a working-class family in the Dominican Republic and came to the United States when he was 12. He won a scholarship to Columbia, where he encountered Plato, Augustine, Sigmund Freud and the other mostly dead white males of the colleges core curriculum.

These authors came from different times, places and races than Montas did. But they spoke to him, anyway, because they asked the questions that define us as human. Why are we here? How can we live a good life, and what does that mean? What will happen to us after we die?

True, Montas admits, many of these texts contained claims that strike us as racist or misogynist today. But they also provided the intellectual tools to critique bigotry and discrimination of every kind. Thats the genius of the Western intellectual tradition: By teaching inquiry, it liberates us from our inherited predilections and prejudices.

I went to Columbia many years before Montas, but we read the same books. They didnt make me into a white chauvinist; instead, they taught me how much human beings have in common.

Its a lesson we could all stand to learn, especially right now.

Jonathan Zimmerman teaches education and history at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of Whose America: Culture Wars in the Public Schools, which was recently published in a revised 20th anniversary edition by the University of Chicago Press.

Advertisement

Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.
Sen. Bernie Sanders announced Wednesday that he plans to hold a vote among his colleagues to determine whether Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz should be subpoenaed to testify before a Senate committee.

The Vermont independent has been hammering the Starbucks co-founder over the companys anti-union campaign against Workers United, a union that has organized nearly 300 of the chains stores. Now, Sanders says Schultz should be compelled to testify before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which Sanders chairs.

Unfortunately, Howard Schultz has given us no choice, but to subpoena him, Sanders said on Twitter. A multi-billion dollar corporation like Starbucks cannot continue to break federal labor law with impunity. The time has come to hold Starbucks and Mr. Schultz accountable.

Sanders office said in a press release that the committee will hold the vote next Wednesday. Democrats hold a slim majority in the committee and the Senate at large.

Sanders said the subpoena would be related to Starbucks lack of compliance with federal labor law. He also said he hoped to authorize a committee investigation into major corporations labor law violations.

Workers United has encountered aggressive pushback from the coffee chain as the union has tried to organize stores from coast to coast since 2021. The general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board has issued dozens of complaints against the Seattle-based company, alleging it illegally fired workers, closed stores, and threatened to withhold raises and benefits so that employees wouldnt unionize.

Sen. Bernie Sanders wants Howard Schultz (above) to testify before his committee.

Sen. Bernie Sanders wants Howard Schultz (above) to testify before his committee.

Sanders sent a letter to Starbucks last month requesting that Schultz testify before his committee, but the company responded with a letter saying the CEO did not intend to do so. They recommended that a different executive, A.J. Jones II, appear in his place. Schultz plans to step down from his role atop the company in March.

Story continues

Given the timing of the transition, his relinquishment of any operating role in the company going forward and what we understand to be the subject of the hearing, we believe another senior leader with ongoing responsibilities is best suited to address these matters, Starbucks general counsel Zabrina Jenkins wrote to Sanders.

Starbucks called Sanders announcement of the upcoming committee vote disappointing in a statement Wednesday, and reiterated its offer to send Jones to Capitol Hill.

This is a disappointing development, but we will continue our dialogue with Chairman Sanders staff and are optimistic that well come to an appropriate resolution. Our response to the Chairmans initial request still stands.

Schultz is the face of Starbucks and has been deeply involved in the campaign against the union, making direct appeals to workers. The labor boards general counsel has accused Schultz himself of violating the law amid the campaign. In a sign of how contentious the campaign has been, the unions lead organizer has called Schultz the Al Capone of union-busters.

After Starbucks rebuffed the senators request that Schultz appear before the committee, Sanders called the response disappointing, but not surprising.

Apparently, it is easier for Mr. Schultz to fire workers who are exercising their constitutional right to form unions, and to intimidate others who may be interested in joining a union than to answer questions from elected officials, Sanders said.

This story has been updated with comment from Starbucks.
Photo: Future Publishing (Getty Images)

On Wednesday, the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee voted along party lines to advance a bill that would pressure President Biden to impose a national ban on TikTok. The billH.R. 1153, or the Deterring Americas Technological Adversaries Actwas only introduced by House Republicans on Friday, but it was fast-tracked out of supposed urgency, as Republican lawmakers claim the social platform empowers the Chinese government to surveil, gather intelligence, and meddle in U.S. policymaking. This is because TikTok is owned by a private company called ByteDance, which is based in China.



The home-country of TikToks parent company has been the subject of controversy for years now, and state governments including Texas have considered state-wide bans on the app in recent months. Back in December, Congress banned TikTok from government devices, and the app has been restricted from state computer networks (including at public universities) in some states as of January. To be clear, the bill has a long way to go, as it awaits a House floor vote and another in the Senate, which doesnt seem especially likely to send the bill to Bidens desk. From there, it would be up to the president whether to sign H.R. 1153, and then, whether to ban TikTokan app that Biden, himself, has used, quite memorably, with the aid of the Jonas Brothers.

Read more

That said, concerns about TikTok arent just partisan; the FBI and Federal Communications Commission have both warned that ByteDance could share TikTok users data with the Chinese government. Many steps and barriers remain for the bill to reach Bidens desk, if it makes it at allbut the fact that the House Foreign Affairs Committee expedited the legislation suggests Republicans intend to move the bill forward as quickly as possible. Still, as the bill advances, TikTok remains very much not banned, meaning all the two-minute niche drama explainers and fan-theorizing about Kylie Jenner and Selena Gomezs eyebrow-gate are safe for now.

Story continues

A ban on TikTok would violate the First Amendment rights of millions of Americans who use the app to express themselves daily. pic.twitter.com/rCvCTMOza7  ACLU (@ACLU) February 27, 2023

Regardless, groups like the ACLU are certainly taking H.R. 1153 and the threat it may pose to free speech and civil liberties seriously. The bill would establish that the president has a right to penalize companiesincluding banning their products (in this case, TikTok)if they determine that said company is transferring user data to any foreign person or otherwise working for or under the influence of a foreign government. If enacted, it would weaken a long-standing law known as the Berman Amendment, which, per CNN, [prohibits] the U.S. government from restricting the free flow of informational materials such as movies, photos, news, and eventually electronic media to and from foreign countries, even those under US sanction.

In a letter to House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Tx.) and the ranking Democrat on the committee, Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), the ACLU argues that H.R. 1153 could be weaponized to punish ordinary U.S. citizens who may not be educated on what amounts to the transfer sensitive personal data to any foreign person, or what may or may not be subject to the influence of China.

It would be impossible for the average person to know what the term subject to the influence of China means, and the term is not defined in the legislation, the letter states. Would an entity be under the influence of China if the CEOs sister had moved there, or married a Chinese person? Would an entity be under the influence of China if the CEO regularly travels there for leisure? Further, the ACLU argues the bill could open the door for additional censorship and policing of foreign media that could eventually leave U.S. residents without some of their favorite international books, movies, and artwork.

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has taken the lead on moving a proposed TikTok ban through the House.

House Democrats have critiqued the bills writing, with Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.) calling it ill-conceived, hastily drafted, and precipitous. Meeks called the bill unvetted and dangerously overbroad. Other members questioned why other companies operating the U.S. with roots in foreign countries arent being subjected to the same policing.

McCaul, in turn, defended the bill by likening TikTok to a Chinese spy balloon in your phone.



In any case, there could be hope for TikTok yet, if, in the worst case scenario for the company, the bill passes out of Congress. Youll recall that back in 2020, then-President Trump announced that he would ban the app via executive actiononly for him to back-track upon reaching a deal with the app, as it sought partnerships with the American companies Oracle and Walmart. The deals didnt pan out, but CNBC reports its still possible for TikTok to be acquired by a U.S. company, which could protect it from being banned in the U.S. over concerns regarding international security.

Ultimately, the outsized attention and Congressional action surrounding TikTok (but not other social apps!) for its role in foreign affairs and consumer surveillance are notable. Facebooks algorithms have promoted the violence and bigotry that yielded genocide in Myanmar, not to mention Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election that swayed its outcome. Post-Roe, Facebooks parent company, Meta, has turned in the text messages of a teenager who had a self-managed abortion to police, resulting in her arrestall amid reports that the company shares abortion seekers data with anti-abortion groups who request it. McCaul is right that our phones are essentially spy balloons, but by no means is this solely because of TikTok.

More from Jezebel

Sign up for Jezebel's Newsletter. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.
Republican Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Josh Hawley of Missouri, both seen here speaking at previous CPAC conferences, are not slated to attend this year. Joe Raedle/Getty Images; Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images.

CPAC is typically a major opportunity for GOP politicians to boost their profile and give red-meat speeches.

But many aren't going this year as chairman Matt Schlapp faces a $9.4 million sexual assault lawsuit.

Two GOP senators even said they weren't sure when the event  which began Wednesday  was happening.

The Conservative Political Action Conference kicked off on Wednesday just a few miles south of the Capitol, offering Republican lawmakers easy and quick access to what's historically been a major gathering of conservative activists and party faithful from around the country.

But despite that close proximity, several prominent Republicans are skipping the event this year, including potential presidential contenders like former Vice President Mike Pence and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Marco Rubio of Florida and Josh Hawley of Missouri are among the big-name Republican senators who attended the conference in Florida last year but are not scheduled to speak this year.

Both senators told Insider at the Capitol on Tuesday that they didn't even know if they'd been invited  and a spokeswoman for CPAC did not respond to Insider's request for comment asking whether they had.

"Yeah, I didn't even know if it's  is it here?" asked Rubio. "I don't know if I'm not going or not, I don't know what their schedule is."

Mercedes Schlapp and Matt Schlapp speak at CPAC Texas in August 2022 Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images

American Conservative Union Chair Matt Schlapp, the chief organizer of the conference, is facing a $9.4 million sexual assault lawsuit from a former staffer for GOP Senate candidate Herschel Walker. The man, who Insider is declining to name in order to maintain his anonymity, has accused Schlapp of "fondling" his groin without his consent following a night of drinking during a campaign swing through Georgia in October.

"I will never forget the look on Matt's face as he did what he did," the staffer previously told Insider. "That's something that will be burned into my mind for the rest of my days."

The Washington Post also reported on Tuesday that Schlapp faces ongoing internal questions about his leadership of the American Conservative Union, stemming not just from the sexual misconduct allegations but from what one former staffer described as a "toxic" culture at the organization.

Story continues

Despite those setbacks, several other prominent Republicans  including former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, and Sen. Rick Scott of Florida  are still scheduled to speak later this week. And former President Donald Trump will give the event's closing address on Saturday night.

'The allegations are unfortunate'

In February of last year, Hawley delivered a speech at CPAC Florida about the "goodness" of America where he triumphantly declared that he "wasn't backing down" after facing a year's worth of criticism for his decision to object to certain states' 2020 election results on January 6.

"Hello CPAC! Oh, it's great to see you," said Hawley at the opening of his speech.

This year, Hawley sounded a different note in a February interview with Insider, saying he was aware of the allegations against Schlapp while signaling he was undecided on whether he would attend.

On Tuesday, Hawley professed ignorance on whether he'd been invited to this year's conference, but told Insider that "we will get you the answer to that." His office did not respond to repeated follow-up requests on the matter.

Asked why he wouldn't attend, Hawley said he doesn't "go to all these events, and I'm not gonna go this year," demurring when asked if the allegation against Schlapp played a role in his decision.

"I'll just stick with: I'm not gonna go this year," the senator said. "We'll leave it at that."

Republican Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, who would typically be a likely contender for a CPAC speaking slot as the chair of Senate Republicans' campaign arm, said he also didn't know if he'd received an invitation  and demurred when asked if he'd be willing to go if he had.

"You know, I'm focused on ensuring that we elect a Republican majority," said Daines. "So my time is spent on the United States Senate and getting a Republican majority."

Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, also not attending, visibly cringed when asked about CPAC. She said she didn't even know when the event was happening or whether she'd received an invitation. She appeared on a CPAC-sponsored program as recently as May 2022.

"When are they scheduled?" asked Ernst. She reiterated her prior concerns about the allegations against Schlapp.

"You know, it's a great organization," she said. "The allegations are unfortunate, and we hope that they get to the bottom of it."

Read the original article on Business Insider
Shahed drones hit house, infrastructure object in Poltava Oblast

As a result of falling debris, a country house burned down and an infrastructure object was damaged. There were no casualties.

Read also: Kyiv Oblast sees air raid alert over unidentified aerial object

On the night of March 1, the Russian invaders attacked Ukraine with Iranian drones. Explosions rang out in Kremenchuk, Poltava Oblast.

Air defense forces shot down all four Shahed drones that approached the country from the north during the night attack on March 1, Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Its been months since Mexican authorities announced that an arrest warrant was issued for a friend of Shanquella Robinson after her death in Cabo San Lucas. Now, an attorney representing Robinsons family says they need diplomatic intervention from the U.S. government in order to move the case forward.

Robinson was killed in late October while vacationing in Mexico, according to a Mexican prosecutor who told ABC News on Nov. 23 that a friend of Robinsons was the direct aggressor in her death, which was officially called a femicide.

That friend hasnt been publicly identified, but a video surfaced showing a woman attacking Robinson inside a hotel room. Sallamondra Robinson, Shanquellas mother, previously identified the people in the video as the friends her daughter accompanied on the trip to Cabo. Robinson is from Charlotte, and many of the people on the trip were from North Carolina.

At first, friends told Robinsons family she died of alcohol poisoning, but the autopsy showed she died of a broken neck and spine. Channel 9 obtained Robinsons death certificate. It lists the cause of death as severe spinal cord injury and atlas luxation, and says she died within 15 minutes of injury. Alcohol poisoning is never mentioned.

PAST COVERAGE:

Channel 9 checked in with Baja California Sur Attorney General Daniel de la Rosa Anaya in January, who said that Robinsons death investigation was ongoing. De la Rosa Anaya said his office is working with U.S. authorities. His investigators asked the U.S. for interviews with the other people who went on the trip to determine if they should face charges, as well.

Story continues

On Wednesday, Channel 9s Joe Bruno sat down Sue-Ann Robinson, the attorney whos representing the Robinson family, after she just returned from Mexico to see where the case stands. (Editors note: Theres no relation between the family and their attorney.)

The attorney said one of her biggest takeaways is how difficult it is to get information and make inquiries about the case in Mexico.

We werent greeted by the consulate and taken to the attorney generals office, we kind of had to make our way in order to get the information, Robinson told Channel 9. We did not receive any assistance from [the Consulate], despite their knowledge of the protocols and Mexico that the attorney general would require the consulate to be involved because it is a crime involving a U.S. citizen.

Ultimately, the attorney was able to get information from the Mexican attorney general, who said they had completed their investigation and prepared an extradition packet. That extradition information was forwarded to U.S. authorities, and the attorney says theyre essentially waiting for our government to do the next steps in the process.

So whats taking so long? Is it just red tape? Joe Bruno asked.

It is a unique case in that this extradition process is requiring the United States to essentially turn over a United States citizen or citizens to the Mexican government in order to be brought to justice under their criminal justice system, the attorney said. But its not something thats unprecedented or that lacks a protocol for it to be done, it just takes a high-level diplomatic intervention.

Someone has to come forward and say, You know what, Ill be the one thats responsible to talk to the Mexican government and make sure that extradition is happening, that the protocols and everything thats in place to effectuate something like this is happening in a timely manner. And based on what Ive seen so far, and based on what the family is being advised, its just not being done.

The familys attorney says theyll be going to Washington, D.C., on Friday to rally for support. Activists will join Robinsons family members in calling on the U.S. Department of State to take action.

The State Department wouldnt talk to Channel 9 about the case, saying they dont comment on extraditions. The Federal Bureau of Investigation told Joe Bruno that the investigation is still ongoing, and that the agency is working with the Department of Justice.

(WATCH: North Carolina governor hopeful feds will solve Shanquella Robinsons death)
Teacher Nina Hike raises her fist in support of Brandon Johnson for Chicago mayor on the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Day at Chicago Teachers Union offices on Jan. 16, 2023, in Chicago. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)

In the 1919 mayoral campaign in Chicago, a young Richard J. Daley signed up as a precinct captain in Chicagos 11th Ward, and he hitched his wagon to the Cook County Democratic Organization, otherwise known as the Chicago machine.

The operation was hierarchical  as rigidly hierarchical as the Catholic Church, Adam Cohen and Elizabeth Taylor write in their definitive Daley biography American Pharaoh  and membership came with a moral code involving utter fealty to those above you in the hierarchy, a willingness to reward or repay those faithful to you, an obligation never to question or undermine the party as a whole and to keep your nose out of intermural fights that were not your business.

Advertisement

In return, the machine delivered an unbeatable ground game at election time: an army of precinct captains who were expected to have personal relationships with every Chicago voter in their territory. The machine knew that a sense of moral obligation to a friend and neighbor was a far more reliable way to get someone to the polls and have them vote for the right candidate, than yard signs or advertising thrown out to the winds of chance. Over time, Daley learned how to use the machine to undergird his own rise to decades of power.

These days, of course, the word machine summons up coercion and corruption; there can be no doubt that some of those personal relationships with precinct captains back in the day involved turkeys or bottles of whiskey, a harbinger of the more modern practice of sending some clients the way of a law firm specializing in property tax and belonging to an Illinois politician.

Advertisement

[ 2023 Chicago live election results ]

On the other hand, you could argue that the machine also got things organized, created helpful coalitions and levels of engagement among citizens who could not gain power on their own, and became, at its best, a house for all people, as Mayor Anton Cermak famously declared.

Lori Lightfoot, who was cast out of office Tuesday night, was no machine politician. In fact, her future biographer likely will declare her to be, or have been, about as far from a machine politician as it is possible to travel. But when it came to Brandon Johnson, one of the candidates who won a spot in the runoff with Paul Vallas to succeed her, that old-school adjective reappeared Tuesday night.

Except the boss was not the Cook County Democratic Party but the Chicago Teachers Union.

Ald. Brian Hopkins, 2nd, marveled at Johnsons ground support on polling day, saying there had been at least three CTU members or staffers in precincts he had visited Tuesday in neighborhoods such as Old Town, Streeterville, Lincoln Park, Wicker Park and the Gold Coast, Fran Spielman reported early Wednesday in the Sun-Times. Voters in those areas abandoned Lightfoot, who had warred with the CTU, in large numbers and chose the more progressive Johnson instead.

Theyre everywhere, Hopkins told Spielman, referencing the CTU workers. Its a saturation ground game  even in precincts where Johnson was not expected to do well. If they have that many people to spare, thats incredible. Its something to see. This is the new machine.

[ What is a runoff election and why does Chicago have one? ]

Hopkins, who is supporting Vallas, has a partisan view and agenda. But the evidence Tuesday night, when a lesser known candidate with largely socialist positions vanquished a sitting, center-left mayor with a growing national profile in sympathetic media outlets, certainly suggested he had a point. Much media attention had been paid to the vast amounts of money that the CTU had injected into the mayoral campaign, but the ground game probably proved to be the more significant mover of the numbers and perhaps a harbinger of what is to come in the April runoff.

An argument could be made that the politically pejorative machine can be applied to any coalition one does not support; you could call the business community a machine, or use it to describe the Fraternal Order of Police, or firefighters and first responders. Or you could apply the term to racially identifiable groups. And anyone who was out there ringing doorbells for their candidate was not only exhibiting their constitutional right but also showing admirable commitment to the political process.

But while we congratulate Johnson and Vallas on making it to the runoff, we do remind them of the long history of fealty to sponsoring organizations, leading to corruption and moral compromise. The old machine was often compared to the Politburo and not without reason. We note the importance of transparency. And we assert that asking about a candidates independence from a larger agenda is not only a fair question but also one that demands an honest answer. Especially if we are talking independence from an entity that is doing a very fine job of helping them get elected.

Advertisement

How long a string do you actually have to compromise with those who disagree with you? might turn out to be the most important question of the upcoming March madness.

Join the discussion on Twitter @chitribopinions and on Facebook.

Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.
Rep. Toni Hasenbeck, R-Elgin, pictured here on Jan. 24, has authored a bill that could help incarcerated women who committed crimes while defending themselves from domestic violence.

In 1998, April Wilkens shot and killed her fiance, who had handcuffed and raped her in a Tulsa home. A jury convicted her of first-degree murder, and Wilkens was sentenced to life in an Oklahoma prison.

I knew that I was going to die. I just knew I was going to die, Wilkens said last year about being abused and why she shot her fiance with his own gun.

Wilkens has been denied parole four times, but she has never been able to use the evidence of her domestic abuse in her appeal for early release.

But House Bill 1639, which was unanimously advanced by a state House committee on Wednesday, could give Wilkens and other incarcerated women like her a chance at freedom.

"If the bill passes and is signed into law ... it's going to make a difference in the lives of so many women and so many families in Oklahoma. This is a huge step forward in addressing a serious issue in our state," said Leslie Briggs, the legal director for the Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, an organization that has ben advocating for the bill.

More:More Oklahomans are being released from prison. Now what?

Inmates at Mabel Bassett Correctional Center, an Oklahoma prison facility for women.

There are multiple cases of women in Oklahoma charged with murder, but who claim they killed an abuser because they feared for their life, Briggs said.

Evidence of domestic violence can be difficult to use in applying for early release, but HB 1639 would give women the chance to present those details to a court.

The bill also would allow a woman convicted of a crime to enter evidence of their abuse at a sentencing mitigation hearing.

The bills title was struck, meaning the exact language is still being crafted as it advances past this week's deadline to be heard by a committee.

Rep. Toni Hasenbeck, the bill's author, told the House judiciary committee on Wednesday she was still hoping to speak with various representatives of the legal system to finalize the exact language.

"The next thing we need to do is all of us need to get in the same room and have a big talk and find the sweet spot," said Hasenbeck, R-Elgin.

Story continues

Oklahoma Appleseed has been advocating for the bill since last year, and the Tulsa-based nonprofit recently produced a seven-episode podcast series about Wilkens.

The podcast, which has been downloaded more than 27,000 times, tells the story of Wilkens and why she felt killing her fiance was necessary.

Wilkens also advocated for the bill through a guest column she recently wrote for The Oklahoman.

The odds are certainly stacked against women in Oklahoma, Wilkens wrote. Mothers, daughters, sisters and even grandmothers like me are far more likely to be abused and end up behind bars in Oklahoma than in nearly any other state.

Oklahoma has some of the highest rates of domestic violence and female incarceration in the nation, two issues that often intertwine, said Colleen McCarty, the executive director of Oklahoma Appleseed.

"There are these crimes where a person might be considered violent, but all the facts aren't really taken into account," McCarty told The Oklahoman. "We have to start talking about domestic violence and its impact on these women."

Other states have adopted similar policies, including New York where judges can now shorten prison sentences for those who can prove a connection between their crime and domestic violence. A similar bill also has been proposed in Oregon.

McCarty said HB 1639 is another way Oklahoma can continue to reform its criminal justice system, which incarcerates more people than most states.

"It really is the next step we need to take in Oklahoma," McCarty said.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma bill could help imprisoned domestic violence victims
Of the 12 finalists for Oklahoma Teacher of the Year, perhaps none had a more unusual path to the classroom than the eventual award winner  Traci Manuel, of Tulsa Public Schools.

The Booker T. Washington High School teacher and alumna won the state's top teaching award for 2023 in a ceremony Wednesday in Oklahoma City.

Manuel was a student who had to study extra hours during lunch and after school to keep up, one who needed the full class period to finish a test. She was eager to plan out her academic future after graduating from Booker T. Washington, but a school counselor threw a bucket of cold water on those ideas.

There were no options for Manuel, the counselor had said. There would be no plans.

"Someone told me what I could not achieve like they do to many of our urban and rural students," Manuel said. "But, they can and will achieve."

Booker T. Washington High School teacher Traci Manuel, left, is hugged by Tulsa Public Schools Superintendent Deborah Gist on Wednesday after Manuel was named Oklahoma's 2023 Teacher of the Year at a ceremony at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.

Mentor teachers and Manuel's family encouraged her to keep pushing for a shot at college. She continued preparing for the ACT and started volunteering with north Tulsa youths, and eventually college acceptance letters rolled in.

After earning a degree in English literature at an out-of-state university, Manuel studied the achievement gap in public schools as a graduate student. A city with a glaring disparity for underprivileged students, she found, was her hometown of Tulsa.

That's when Manuel decided, "I have to go back home."

But, becoming a full-time teacher was still a ways away. She worked as a long-term substitute teacher, then a teaching assistant and later a parent facilitator  jobs that connected her to students with deep academic and social needs.

Booker T. Washington High School teacher Traci Manuel, second from right, reacts Wednesday to being named Oklahoma's 2023 Teacher of the Year during a ceremony at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.

Once Manuel became a full-time teacher 13 years ago, her atypical path to the classroom had made all the difference. She now teaches 10th-grade English at her alma mater.

"I think at the end of the road, students realize I traveled that road with them," Manuel said. "I just think it makes me who I am, and they can be all they set their mind to be. I try to implement that on a daily basis."

Story continues

Tulsa Superintendent Deborah Gist said Manuel is a remarkable educator, communicator and mentor to young women.

Many Teacher of the Year finalists recounted positive experiences from their years in school that inspired them to work in the classroom. Manuel's story is different.

"A lot of teachers really experienced a lot of success in school," Gist said. "I think that Traci's description of the challenges that she faced and also the obstacles that were put in her path give her a unique perspective that allows her to be not only a better teacher but also a strong advocate and truly that champion for young people."

Booker T. Washington High School teacher Traci Manuel shakes hands with state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters on Wednesday after she was named Oklahoma's 2023 Teacher of the Year during a ceremony at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.

Four Oklahoma City-area teachers were among the 12 finalists  Marcy Boudreaux-Johnson, of Deer Creek Public Schools; Emily Boyett, of Edmond Public Schools; Rob Bradshaw, of Norman Public Schools; and Alona Whitebird, of Moore Public Schools.

Manuel is the third Teacher of the Year winner from Tulsa Public Schools, following Brian Grimm in 2010 and Bona Gordey in 1963.

She will spend a year out of the classroom to travel the state as an ambassador for the teaching profession.

Oklahoma's current Teacher of the Year, Rebecka Peterson, was unable to attend Wednesday's ceremony. She is in Washington, D.C., representing Oklahoma as a finalist for National Teacher of the Year.

"On our best days, we believe viscerally in the equalizing power of public education to dismantle marginalization, eliminate systemic inequities and end generational poverty," Peterson said in pre-recorded remarks. "Teachers, you hold liberty, a kind of freedom not available to every child on this Earth."

Reporter Nuria Martinez-Keel covers K-12 and higher education throughout the state of Oklahoma. Have a story idea for Nuria? She can be reached at nmartinez-keel@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at @NuriaMKeel. Support Nurias work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Tulsa high school educator wins Oklahoma Teacher of the Year
A 65-year-old woman died after a house fire Tuesday afternoon in Lincolnton, according to the Lincoln County Sheriffs Office.

The fire happened at about 5:20 p.m. at a house on Fox Creek Trail, which is southeast of Highway 150.

According to the sheriffs office, deputies responded to the burning home and learned that the woman was inside. Firefighters were able to pull her out of the building.

A medical helicopter was called in but she died before it arrived.

The victim hasnt been identified at this time. Its not clear if anyone else was in the home when the fire started.

The cause of the fire hasnt been released.

(WATCH: Two first responders wounded in Rowan County house fire helped others before themselves, report says)
Shipping companies agreed to pay $96.5 million to settle a lawsuit with the operator of the crude oil pipeline that ruptured in October 2021, spilling tens of thousands of gallons of oil off the coast of Southern California.

Amplify Energy, the company that operates the pipeline, announced on Wednesday that it had reached an agreement with the companies that owned and operated the MSC Danit and COSCO Beijing  two cargo ships it accused of dragging anchors during a winter storm and damaging the pipeline.

We are eager to move forward and turn the page on this unfortunate and preventable event, Martyn Willsher, the president and CEO of Amplify, said in a statement.

Amplify had accused the companies of improperly allowing their ships to remain in San Pedro Bay ahead of a January 2021 storm, whose forceful winds and waves caused the ships anchors to drag across the seafloor into prohibited areas near the pipeline.

The company also reached a non-monetary agreement with the Marine Exchange, a non-profit organization that monitors and directs marine traffic at major Southern California ports, but did not provide details on the agreement.

The shipping companies also settled a lawsuit with Orange County business owners and residents earlier this month, agreeing to pay $45 million, while Amplify reached an agreement last fall to pay $50 million to those affected by the spill.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
An A-50 plane at the airport in Machulyshchy

The arrests took place in Dzerzhinsk, Minsk Oblast.

Read also: Belarusian opposition leader takes credit for damaging Russian plane in Belarus

All the suspects were sentenced to two days in prison for disobedience, but they have since been freed. It is noted that during the detention people were beaten, but not by local policemen, but by other security forces.

Two expositions were reportedly heard at Machulishchy air base, which is 12 kilometers away from the Belarusian capital, the Belarusian opposition initiative BYPOLs Telegram channel wrote on Feb. 26, referring to its own sources.

Read also: Russian A-50 air defense plane allegedly attacked by Belarusian partisan drones

A Russian A-50 radar early warning and control aircraft and snow cleaning equipment are said to have been damaged in the incidents.

Alexander Azarov, head of the Belarusian opposition initiative BYPOL, said that the sabotage was organized by Belarusian partisans.

As stated by BYPOL, as a result of two explosions, the front and central parts of the A-50 aircraft were damaged, with both the avionics and the radar antenna suffering damage. It is reported that the plane will no longer be able to operate.

Read also: Russian Il-76 military aircraft reportedly delivers spare parts for damaged A-50 plane in Belarus

The Belarusian resource Zerkalo reported that security forces are looking for Nikolai Shvets, a 29-year-old native of Russian-occupied Crimea, on suspicion of being involved in the attack on Machulishchy air base.

It was also reported that after the attack, Belarusian border guards increased checks on those exiting the country.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
The interior of the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Sacramento is seen in April 2019. (Rene C. Byer / Sacramento Bee)

Hundreds of recently filed sexual abuse lawsuits could lead to the bankruptcy of the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento, the diocese's bishop said this week in a letter to the congregation.

The diocese's financial predicament stems from a law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2019 that temporarily lifted the statute of limitations regarding child sexual abuse lawsuits. The law extended the age at which victims could file civil lawsuits over abuse to 40. It had been 26.

The law also opened a three-year window in which victims of any age could file lawsuits. The window closed on Dec. 31, 2022.

More than 200 lawsuits alleging child sexual abuse were filed against the diocese as a result of the law, 80% of which stem from abuse that occurred in the 1980s or earlier.

By late 2022, more than 2,000 lawsuits had been filed against the Catholic Church statewide.

"To learn of this staggering number of claims is truly heartbreaking," Bishop Jaime Soto wrote. "These claims represent real people whose lives have been damaged by the sins of individuals whom they had been taught to trust."

Soto said he was committed to resolving all claims fairly but acknowledged the issues that might arise.

"Given the number of claims that have been presented ... resolving them may overwhelm the dioceses finances available to satisfy such claims," he wrote.

"This financial challenge is unlike anything we have faced before. I must consider what options are available to us, should the diocese become insolvent."

The lawsuits filed against the Diocese of Sacramento and other dioceses in Northern California are being overseen by a judge in Alameda County, and the claims process is still in its early stages, Soto said.

But the Diocese of Sacramento is responsible for paying claims from a fund earmarked for that purpose, and Soto anticipates that it would be required to sell off some of its assets.

"Very little insurance coverage remains to cover abuse that occurred in past decades," the diocese said on its website, and financial help from the Vatican "is not an option."

Story continues

"There are no Vatican funds available to us in this situation," the diocese said.

One option, Soto said, would be for the diocese to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which would allow it to operate while attempting to pay out the rest of lawsuits.

"Importantly, in the context of a diocesan bankruptcy, victims of clergy sexual abuse would be represented in a bankruptcy proceeding, and a fund would be established to be distributed as fairly as possible," Soto said.

Without that, Soto said, the first cases that go to trial and result in damages could financially devastate the diocese, leaving the remaining plaintiffs with nothing.

"We are in this situation because of grievous sins committed by individual priests ... and a smaller number of the laity in the diocese," the diocese said on its website. "It is these evil acts that brought us to this place  not the victims of sexual abuse seeking justice."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
PARIS  U.K.-based AlixPartners has launched the sale process for a 37 percent stake in accessible luxury player SMCP. The French fashion company also owns the Claudie Pierlot and Fursac brands.

SMCP confirms that it has been informed by GLAS of its intention to initiate a sale process for 37 percent of the companys capital. This point will be examined by the board of directors, which is meeting today as part of the approval of the 2022 annual accounts, the company said Wednesday in a statement to WWD.

More from WWD

The meeting had been previously scheduled ahead of the release of full-year financial results expected Thursday.

AlixPartners is acting receiver of 8 percent of SCMP stock, while GLAS holds 29 percent. Bondholders include asset management firms BlackRock and Carlyle, which took the equity stake after GLAS majority shareholder European TopSoho, the Luxembourg-based subsidiary of Chinese conglomerate Shandong Ruyi, defaulted on 250 million euros of debt in September 2021.

Shandong Ruyi positioned itself as the LVMH of China, and had attempted to build a multinational fashion conglomerate by acquiring brands including Aquascutum, Cerruti 1881 and Gieves & Hawkes in 2015, but struggled after the buying spree.

Together AlixPartners and GLAS shares total 37 percent of SMCP, which could trigger a mandatory takeover action under French law if a single purchaser snaps them up.

It is not yet possible to assess whether the transaction will trigger or not a subsequent mandatory takeover bid, AlixPartners said in a statement.

A mandatory takeover bid can be triggered if the threshold of 30 percent ownership is crossed. GLAS had transferred the shares to AlixPartners to avoid crossing the takeover threshold and was said to have been eyeing a sale since October 2021.

AlixPartners has enlisted French bank Lazard to advise on the sale. The initial search stage is expected to last two months, the company added.

Story continues

Shares in SMCP saw an 8 percent bump on the Euronext stock exchange following the announcement.

Best of WWD

Click here to read the full article.
On Wednesday, an alert was issued by Virginia state agencies to inform the public of criminal attempts to steal SNAP EBT and P-EBT card information.

The Virginia Department of Social Services (VDSS) is aware of criminal attempts to steal SNAP EBT and P-EBT card information, according to a scam notice issued by VDSS and the Virginia Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services (DARS).

With COVID emergency benefits ending in mid-February, users might receive unsolicited text messages or phone calls by criminals to take advantage of any questions they may have about their benefits.

"Protect your benefits by never providing personal information to any unknown source and by changing your card Pin often," said the Virginia Department of Social Services in the scam alert. You will never be contacted and asked to provide your EBT or P-EBT card number or Pin, the agency added.

If you have responded to any unsolicited calls, texts or website links about your benefits, immediately contact the Virginia EBT client customer service help desk at (866) 281-2448.

Click or scan the QR code here to learn more EBT scam protection.

More: Co-owner of Harrisonburg firm charged with construction fraud in Staunton, Augusta County

More: Reduction of staff through attrition may be only way to balance Waynesboro's school budget

Reporter Monique Calello can be reached at mcalello@newsleader.com. Subscribe to us at newsleader.com.

This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: SNAP EBT, P-EBT card scams: Virginia state agencies issue alert
China unveils ambitious plans to expand its space station

Xinhua) 08:27, March 01, 2023

This screen image captured at Beijing Aerospace Control Center on Feb. 9, 2023 shows Shenzhou-15 taikonaut Fei Junlong conducting extravehicular activities (EVAs) out of the space station lab module Wentian. (Xinhua/Liu Fang)

BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- During an ongoing exhibition at the National Museum of China, it was revealed that China plans to expand its space station in near-Earth orbit by launching a new module that will dock with the existing structure and create a cross-shaped combination.

At the exhibition of achievements in China's manned space program of 30 years, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) made public its follow-up plans after the assembly and construction of the space station's T-shape structure last year.

The new module, which will function as a node cabin, will have multiple docking ports like the core module Tianhe, allowing the space station to accommodate more spaceships, according to the CMSA.

The agency added that China plans to extend the in-orbit operation of its space station by implementing updates and upgrades.

The exhibition also showcased China's development of a new-generation reusable near-Earth crewed spacecraft with the capacity to carry four to seven astronauts into space and bring back over 700 kg of payloads to Earth. The country's existing spaceship can launch three astronauts into space and bring back 50 kg of payloads.

The space station will shift its priority from technological breakthroughs in the building stage to the performance of space applications. A slew of experiments is currently underway or poised to begin, in the space station. Some of them are aimed at figuring out how to resist microbes that may damage spacecraft metals, produce oxygen from algae in space, and convert heat energy into electricity.

Recently, the in-orbit Chinese astronauts of the Shenzhou-15 crew successfully obtained 3D structural images of their skin cells with the country's self-developed two-photon microscope, which is the first of its kind in the world.

In the coming years, over 1,000 applications across 65 projects will be implemented on the space station. This effort aims to advance key technologies in special material preparation, stem cell and regenerative medicine, high-precision time-frequency systems, and quantum precision measurement, according to the CMSA.

Chinese Survey Space Telescope, also known as the Chinese Space Station Telescope (CSST), will be launched as a part of the space station project, and the telescope, during its normal observations, will fly independently in the same orbit as China's space station.

The CSST is a space-based optical observatory for astronomers to carry out sky surveys, capturing a general map or images of the sky. It can dock with the space station for refueling and servicing as scheduled or as needed, making its maintenance more affordable than Hubble.

This flagship telescope of China is projected to survey an all-sky area with 17,500 square degrees in 10 years after its operation, in order to explore frontier sciences like the accelerating expansion of the universe, dark matter and dark energy, according to the CMSA.

During this exhibition, the CMSA also unveiled China's blueprint for human lunar exploration, which aims to send three astronauts into lunar orbit and allow two to land on the Moon.

Plans are underway for a lunar probe and sample return that will involve collaboration between humans and machines.

A scale-down model of the Long March-10 rocket was also displayed at the exhibition. The new-generation launcher will be used to bring no less than 27-tonne payloads including the lunar lander and moon craft into Earth-Moon transfer orbit.

The rocket measuring 88.5 meters in height, will have a liftoff thrust of about 2,678 tonnes and will be powered by liquid hydrogen, liquid oxygen and kerosene.

According to the exhibit profile, a rectified version of the rocket, without roll boosters and with a liftoff thrust of approximately 873 tonnes, is planned for the space station's manned and freight missions. Additionally, a portion of the rocket will be designed for reusability.

The miniature models of the lunar lander and moon craft have also been put on display at the exhibition, which began on Friday and will run for three months.

The museum's central hall showcases a variety of exhibits, including a same-sized replica of the space station's core module, the re-entry capsule of the Shenzhou-13 spaceship, rocket engines, spacesuits, and other life-supporting facilities in space, drawing a constant stream of visitors.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Jeylu Gutierrez, a candidate for 14th Ward alderman, celebrates on election night, Feb. 28, 2023, at Apollos 2000 Theatre in Little Village. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)

In a Chicago aldermanic election marked by a dozen aldermen calling it quits, incumbent City Council members who did run Tuesday had an overwhelmingly good night.

Only one incumbent was losing Tuesday, according to unofficial results. And that was 12th Ward Ald. Anabel Abarca, who had just been appointed to the seat by Mayor Lori Lightfoot in December.

Advertisement

Meanwhile, 31 other incumbents had over 50% of the votes cast in their races, according to unofficial results. They appeared poised to win their races outright, avoiding April runoff elections.

In six other ward races involving sitting aldermen, nobody had more than 50% of the votes cast, according to unofficial results. But the incumbents in those races were among the top two vote-getters and seemed set to make the runoffs. Three of the six incumbents who seemed headed for runoffs were Lightfoot appointees.

Advertisement

If those results hold, Chicago voters largely endorsed the status quo in the council despite the many veteran members of the body who opted not to seek to retain their seats.

A dozen aldermen with around 200 years of cumulative experience are stepping down at the end of this term. And Lightfoot has already replaced four others over the past 11 months who either took other gigs or, in one case, got convicted of a federal crime and had to resign.

[ [Dont miss] Complete 2023 Chicago election results ]

At the same time, many incumbents who were thought to be in competitive races ended up winning outright or surviving to advance to an April 4 runoff.

Citywide, about 175 candidates were running for four-year terms on the City Council and the $142,000 salaries that come with the responsibility of being perhaps the elected officials Chicagoans complain to the most.

This was also the first council election to be held using new ward boundaries determined through the once-a-decade remapping thats done after each U.S. census.

There were more than than 97,000 mail-in ballots outstanding as of Tuesday, with election officials expecting 60,000 to 80,000 of those to be returned on time to be counted.

Heres a look at some of the more prominent contests.

Advertisement

1st Ward

Ald. Daniel La Spata, 1st, speaks on election night from Subterranean in Chicagos Wicker Park neighborhood on Feb. 28, 2023. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)

In the Northwest Sides 1st Ward, progressive first-term incumbent Ald. Daniel La Spata was close to garnering more than half the vote, which would let him avoid a runoff for the seat that represents parts of Wicker Park, the Ukrainian Village, West Town and Logan Square.

La Spata faced a stiff challenge from a slate of well-financed and well-known rivals, including attorney Sam Royko, the son of the late Chicago newspaper columnist Mike Royko, who was pulling second.

Former Ald. Proco Joe Moreno was attempting a political comeback following a series of scandals but trailed behind La Spata, Royko and community organizer Stephen Andy Schneider.

Chicago 1st Ward aldermanic candidate Mike Royko laughs while talking with supporters at his election night party at Jacks Bristro on Feb. 28, 2023. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)

Advertisement

My opponents took a lot of ugliness, the worst there is in politics in their campaigns, La Spata said, citing incidents where a beer was thrown at him during a campaign cycling event and a window of his campaign office was smashed. He said he wants to believe that his opponents are capable of decency in the runoff election. Im gonna need to see them prove that, he said.

La Spata addressed his supporters when he was 106 votes short of the 50% vote minimum to avoid a runoff.

Whether we find those 106 more votes in the next 24 hours, or the next six weeks, were going to find those votes together, and then Im going to continue serving and being your alderman in the 1st Ward, La Spata said.

4th Ward

Fourth Ward Ald. Sophia King gave up the seat to run for mayor, leaving five hopefuls vying to succeed her in the ward that runs along the lakefront from the South Loop to Kenwood.

King chairs the councils Progressive Caucus, and the ward has a history of electing independent-minded aldermen.

In unofficial results, state Rep. Lamont Robinson was leading with 46% of the vote. For the second spot in a likely runoff, Ebony Lucas and Prentice C. Butler, were separated by 60 votes in unofficial totals. Butler is Kings chief of staff and got her endorsement.

Advertisement

5th Ward

Veteran Ald. Leslie Hairstons announcement of her City Council retirement opened the floodgates for candidates who want to represent the 5th Ward, which covers most of Hyde Park, South Shore and part of the Greater Grand Crossing community.

With 11 political neophytes on the 5th Ward ballot, voters in the traditionally liberal, independent ward had plenty of options. The race is likely headed for an April 4 runoff.

Tuesday night, Desmon C. Yancy, a senior director of organizing and advocacy at Inner-city Muslim Action Network, was leading the vote at 26%, while attorney Martina Tina Hone, who worked as the citys former chief engagement officer, had about 17%.

6th Ward

With veteran 6th Ward Ald. Roderick Sawyer running for mayor, the race to replace him had 11 candidates ranging from schoolteachers and church pastors to current and former law enforcement officers and small business owners.

They were all vying to represent a ward centered around the Chatham neighborhood, long a center of Black political and cultural strength on the South Side that has recently struggled with high crime.

Advertisement

Leading Tuesday night were William Hall, pastor at St. James Community Church, and Richard Wooten, a former police officer and security business owner who was a member of the citys Police Accountability Task Force under former Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

10th Ward

Public safety and environmental concerns are top of mind for many voters in the far Southeast Side 10th Ward, which stretches from the South Chicago neighborhood to Hegewisch and the Indiana border.

Outgoing Ald. Sue Sadlowski Garza endorsed Ana Guajardo, a founding member of the United Workers Center group that works to protect the rights of immigrants and low-wage workers. Guajardo placed second Tuesday, heading to a runoff.

The top vote-getter, with 41% in unofficial totals, was Peter Chico, a police officer in the South Chicago district and the grandson of a South Chicago steelworker. Jessica Venegas, a CPD officer and practicing attorney, did not make the runoff.

Advertisement

11th Ward

It appeared that incumbent Nicole Lee will need to win a runoff to retain the seat to which she was appointed by Lightfoot almost a year ago.

Lee became Chicagos first Chinese American alderman when she joined the City Council, and she was on the ballot Tuesday as the first ever majority-Asian ward, which includes parts of Bridgeport, Chinatown and McKinley Park.

Tuesday evening, Lees supporters piled into the second floor of a dim sum restaurant in her ward. The incumbent, who was selected by Lightfoot to fill in for Patrick Daley Thompson following his federal tax fraud conviction, fell 26 votes behind challenger Anthony Ciaravino with 78% of votes reporting. Yet no stress could be found at New Furama Restaurant as family and friends served themselves heaping piles of orange chicken and crab rangoons. Barring something drastic, Lee and Ciaravino are heading for the April 4 runoff.

The 11th has long been a central player in the Democratic political machine and the seat of the Daley political dynasty. Tuesday, Cook County Commissioner John Daley, the son and brother of the former mayors, strode into Lees party to show his continued support for the alderman.

Advertisement

As seasoned as I am, (Lee) is very seasoned as well, Daley said. She gets it, she understands basic needs for the community and shell be out there explaining that to the community.

12th Ward

Newly appointed Ald. Anabel Abarca appeared to be the only incumbent who lost her seat outright Tuesday.

Community activist Julia Ramirez topped Abarca by winning about 56% of the vote, thus avoiding a runoff.

Abarca got the job in December after outgoing Ald. George Cardenas endorsed her in the Southwest Side ward, which includes much of Brighton Park and McKinley Park. Cardenas left the council to take a seat on the Cook County Board of Tax Review.

Ramirez said she opted not to seek Lightfoots appointment to the seat because the mayor is deeply unpopular here in the area and she didnt want the political baggage of the endorsement. Abarca, a former Cardenas chief of staff, said she felt compelled to seek the appointment because she wanted the seat.

14th Ward

In the Southwest Side 14th Ward, progressive candidate Jeylu Gutierrez opened up a lead over Raul Reyes as Gutierrez seeks to become the first new council member in the ward in more than 50 years.

Advertisement

With all precincts reporting unofficial results, Gutierrez had 65% of the vote to 35% for Raul Reyes.

The two candidates on the ballot are far less well-known than their political backers.

Gutierrez, district director for Cook County Commissioner Alma Anaya, runs with the support of mayoral candidate and U.S. Rep. Jesus Chuy Garcia. Outgoing Ald. Edward Burke has ties to Reyes.

One way or the other, the ward will see its first new alderman since Burke was elected in 1969. Facing federal corruption charges, he declined in November to file petitions to get his name on the ballot for reelection.

Supporters who were gathered for Garcias Little Village watch party erupted when Gutierrez arrived. Fifty-three years after Burke first won the office, Gutierrez  the first immigrant, Latino and woman elected in the ward  claimed victory.

Were bringing equity to this ward, she told reporters. Im not going to make a difference between undocumented permanent residents and citizens. They all deserve the same type of treatment.

Advertisement

After soundly beating the Burke-backed Reyes, Gutierrez said shed run the office differently than her predecessor, who is currently facing racketeering charges.

Im going to be transparent, she said.

19th Ward

Ald. Matt OShea, 19th, opened up a wide lead as he appeared to fend off two challengers and avoid a runoff for a fourth term representing the Far Southwest Side neighborhoods of Beverly, Mount Greenwood and Morgan Park.

He was flanked politically on the ballot by Fraternal Order of Police-backed former Chicago police Sgt. Mike Cummings on the right and computer consultant Tim Noonan on the left.

With all precincts reporting, OShea had 63% of the vote, to about 31% for Cummings and 5% for Noonan, according to unofficial results.

All three said public safety is the top issue in the election, but Cummings argued OShea didnt do enough to support police, while Noonan said the ward is far more diverse than its reputation as a haven for police and firefighters makes it seem. OShea insisted his middle path was best for representing the wishes both of first responders and the many others who live in the ward.

Advertisement

[ [Dont miss] What is a runoff election and why does Chicago have one? ]

Buoyed by a 55% ward turnout  the highest turnout of any ward  the incumbent claimed victory late Tuesday night and turned his attention forward.

His plans: Enjoy the evening, and then get up early tomorrow and get back to work, he told the Tribune in a call.

Throughout the campaign, OShea faced tough criticism from retired CPD Sgt. Mike Cummings, who alleged OShea hadnt done enough to support police and address crime during his third term in City Council.

The incumbent said Tuesday a top priority for his next term would be supporting police by investing in new law enforcement technology, such as license plate readers and police observation cameras.

Obviously, we got to work on an issue thats plaguing every community across this community, and thats crime, OShea said.

21st Ward

With Ald. Howard Brookins Jr. stepping down after 20 years representing the 21st Ward following an unsuccessful run for Cook County judge, seven candidates were hoping to lead the ward, which stretches from Auburn Gresham to the border of Calumet Park.

Advertisement

The ward has been hobbled by downturns in population and its shopping districts, as well as rising gang crime and the havoc brought by the 2008 foreclosure crisis.

The person whom Brookins endorsed, Ronnie Mosley, was the top vote-getter with about 25% of the ballots. Mosley has worked in government under 8th Ward Ald. Michelle Harris and others. He appeared to be headed to a runoff with retired firefighter Cornell Dantzler.

23rd Ward

The head-to-head 23rd Ward election fight featured incumbent Ald. Silvana Tabares  once an ally of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan who has had a falling-out with him  versus community activist Eddie Guillen, who worked for Madigans political operation briefly but said Madigan isnt backing his run against Tabares.

Instead, Guillen said he ran because Tabares has failed Latino voters in the ward, which includes parts of West Lawn and West Elsdon, hooking west through Garfield Ridge north of Midway Airport.

For her part, Tabares said she wants to focus on her record of getting things done and on being a strong independent voice for a ward that has traditionally been seen as being politically dependent on neighboring wards.

Advertisement

Tabares appeared to win reelection outright Tuesday with about 73% of the vote.

24th Ward

In the West Sides 24th Ward, Lightfoot appointee Ald. Monique Scott appeared headed to a runoff. With 95% of precincts reporting, Scott had 45% of the vote, according to unofficial results.

In a field of seven challengers, firearms instructor Creative Scott was in second place with 14.9% of the vote, according to unofficial results.

Monique Scott was appointed in June to succeed her brother, Michael Scott Jr., after he stepped down from the West Side seat.

Advertisement

25th Ward

In the 25th Ward, which now includes Pilsen and some of Little Village, one-term progressive incumbent Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez faced a tough head-to-head challenge from Aida Flores, an assistant principal at Darwin Elementary School who also ran in 2019.

Sigcho-Lopez appeared to be winning the seat outright in unofficial totals.

Flores wanted to reduce crime through better community engagement, and to find better ways to fight the gentrification that has long threatened working-class Pilsen residents.

Sigcho-Lopez has been a staunch critic of Lightfoot and an outspoken member of City Councils socialist caucus and is endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union. The pro-business Get Stuff Done political action committee has spent has spent more than $62,000 opposing his candidacy, and has spent nearly $100,000 on media and mailers supporting Flores.

33rd Ward

The 33rd Ward featured a competitive race between incumbent Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez, Samie Martinez, a Chicago planning department project coordinator, and finance professional and affordable housing developer Laith Shaaban.

Four years ago, Rodriguez Sanchez upended the reign of the longtime Mell family in the ward, beating Deb Mell, who had taken the seat after her father, Richard Mell, retired after nearly 40 years on the council. The ward now includes much of Albany Park and has since been one of the vocal members of the city councils caucus of Democratic Socialists.

Advertisement

Rodriguez Sanchez appeared to fend off her challengers to win the seat outright Tuesday.

34th Ward

Lawyer and 34th Ward aldermanic candidate Bill Conway lifts his daughters Bella, left, and Birdie at his election night gathering on Feb. 28, 2023, at Carnivale restaurant in Chicago. (Vincent D. Johnson/for the Chicago Tribune)

The brand-new 34th Ward, which encompasses most of the western half of the Loop and stretches into Greektown and Fulton Market, was home to a two-way race.

Bill Conway  a former assistant Cook County states attorney, Navy veteran, and son of the billionaire co-founder of the Carlyle Group, a private equity firm  unsuccessfully ran for Cook County states attorney in 2020 but appeared to handily won his aldermanic race Tuesday. He faced Ascot Realty CEO James Ascot, the past president of the Chicago Association of Realtors.

Conway supporters were in good spirits shortly before 8 p.m., with their candidate leading with 67% of the vote with 90% of precincts reporting. Among them was Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, who said he had known Conway since the two attended high school together at Latin School of Chicago.

I think hes a breath of fresh air, said Giannoulias.

[ [Dont miss] In new 34th Ward, billionaires son emerges as winner, set on addressing crime and development ]

Conway addressed a jubilant crowd shortly before 9 p.m. He told supporters he had spoken with Ascot, who he said had conceded.

Advertisement

Conway focused on public safety and economic development, which were key issues during the campaign to represent the new ward. He said that during the campaign, public safety had emerged as voters main concern.

We need to make sure our police officers have the resources they need to fight and deter crime, he said, but we also have to embrace a community policing model.

In an interview before his remarks, Conway said he would like to see more police in the ward. He said it was also important to address root causes of crime, including issues related to homelessness, job growth and mental health.

43rd Ward

Lincoln Parks incumbent alderman, attorney Timmy Knudsen, who was appointed by Lightfoot, is expected to face a runoff with business consultant and Sheffield Neighborhood Association President Brian Comer.

The wards recently retired alderman, Michele Smith, was backing marketing and PR professional Wendi Taylor-Nations. Also running were Rebecca Janowitz, an attorney who has worked on the countys Justice Advisory Council and who poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into her own campaign; Steven McClellan, who owns a sales and food vending company for festivals; and Steve Botsford, who works with the real estate firm Laurel Canyon Holdings.

Advertisement

As he awaited results at his campaign party Tuesday evening, Knudsen said hes proud of the race he ran.

We knocked on 13,000 doors as a team, which is every vote-able door a couple times, Knudsen said. ... Im totally confident that with whatevers happened tonight, we put it all out there. ... Im trying to show how we work, show how we fight.

Looking back on his five months in office, Knudsen said he considers it a gift to be thrown into the deep end.

I was in the role trying to get things done fast, knowing that I might have a short stint. I also knew there were a lot of eyes on me. ... Its been a great five months. ... Weve gotten a few things done pretty quickly, he said, regarding a technology overhaul to improve constituent services in the ward. It was important for me to come in and show that, as a city, we need to modernize constituent services. I think its going to work so well in 43 that other wards around the city will want to follow suit. Ive already had other aldermen reach out about the one were using and what that could look like for them.

45th Ward

First-term Ald. Jim Gardiner has been dogged by controversy since winning a close race to represent the Northwest Side Park in 2019. But on Tuesday he was pulling far ahead of his five challengers and nearing an outright victory, though it appeared he will face a runoff.

Advertisement

At his election night party in Portage Park, Gardiner said his campaign felt really good about his commanding lead. With one precinct outstanding in unofficial totals, Gardiner had nearly 49%. His closest competitor, Megan Mathias, a small business owner and Chair of Local School Council at Belding Elementary, claimed only about 16% of the vote.

Past controversies for Gardiner range from a reported federal investigation into whether he sought to withhold ward services from some residents who opposed his agenda, to leaked profane texts about political colleagues and alleged remarks likening detractors to rats.

The alderman declined to comment on the controversies.

46th Ward

The 46th Ward, which includes Uptown and part of Lakeview, is used to nail-biter elections. This years race was wide open, thanks to the retirement of three-term Ald. James Cappleman. Six candidates ran to replace him, including two candidates who challenged him from the left in 2019: chemist Marianne Lalonde and political organizer Angela Clay, who is endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union and the Chicago chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America.

Advertisement

Kim Walz, who works in government affairs for Walgreens, has garnered the most support from established Democrats, including her former boss, U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley. Roushaunda Williams, a bartender at and a shop steward for Unite Here Local 1, has the support of several labor organizations, while Patrick Nagle, the chief administrative law judge with the federal Social Security Administration, has the support of several business owners in the ward. Real estate agent Michael Cortez was also running.

Clay and Walz ended up on top Tuesday and appeared headed to a runoff.

48th Ward

A crowded, 10-candidate field emerged after three-term Ald. Harry Osterman announced his retirement in the 48th Ward, which includes part of Uptown, as well as Edgewater and Andersonville.

Among the candidates were affordable housing developer Joe Dunne, university lecturer and police reform organizer Larry Svabek, artist and restaurant worker Nick Ward, real estate broker Andre Peloquin, resale business owner Brian Haag, Illinois Assistant Attorney General Isaac Freilich Jones, dance supply business owner and Indivisible Illinois organizer Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Deputy Director Roxanne Volkmann, restaurateur Andy Peters, and Nassir Faulkner, a communications manager for State Comptroller Susana Mendoza.

Dunne won Ostermans endorsement and has been a top fundraiser. Ward, a member of the Chicago chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, was hoping young progressives push him to victory.

It appeared Dunne and Manaa-Hoppenworth were heading to a runoff.

Advertisement

50th Ward

Incumbent Ald. Debra Silverstein appeared to have won a fourth term on the City Council outright representing the ward that borders Evanston on the far northern end of the city, covering most of West Ridge and a little bit of North Park.

Her sole challenger, Mueze Bawany, a Chicago Public Schools high school teacher and the son of Pakistani immigrants, had campaigned as a progressive alternative, with support and large donations from the Chicago Teachers Union and other left-leaning groups. Bawany lost several endorsements when a series of his deleted past tweets resurfaced in which he used profanities against the state of Israel, for which he apologized. The ward has a significant Jewish population. Silverstein, who is a practicing Orthodox Jew, described the tweets as hateful and obscene.

Uncontested races

Unopposed this election are incumbent Aldermen Brian Hopkins, 2nd, Pat Dowell, 3rd, Gregory Mitchell, 7th, David Moore, 17th, Walter Burnett, 27th, Scott Waguespack, 32nd, Carlos Ramirez Rosa, 35th, Brendan Reilly, 42nd, and Matt Martin, 47th. Bennett Lawson, the former chief of staff to retiring Ald. Tom Tunney, is also unopposed in his bid to lead the 44th Ward.

City Clerk Anna Valencia, who manages City Council records as well as the citys vehicle stickers, parking permits, dog registration and municipal IDs, also ran unopposed. She has served in the role since 2017. Treasurer Melissa Conyears Ervin  who manages the citys cash, and investments as well as pension funds for city employees and teachers  is also guaranteed another reelection. She was first elected in 2019.

Chicago Tribunes Will Lee, Dan Petrella, Sarah Macaraeg, Jake Sheridan, Talia Soglin, Richard Requena and Hank Sanders contributed.
Image shows a canal covered in solar panels. The project aims to save water while making clean energy.

Solar AquaGrid, the University of California Merced, Turlock Irrigation District, and the California Department of Water Resources are winners of the 2023 Gizmodo Science Fair for innovating a way to combine clean energy with water conservation.

The Question

Would covering Californias miles of canals with solar panels help save significant amounts of water from evaporationand generate clean energy in the process?

Read more

The Results

In 2021, researchers at University of California Merced and Santa Cruz released the results of a study commissioned by Solar AquaGrid, a development firm based out of the Bay area, finding that covering all of Californias 4,000 miles of irrigation canals with solar panels could save up to 63 billion gallons of water annuallyenough for the needs of 2 million peoplewhile also generating a potentially massive influx of renewable energy. Now, a local water utility is working with the company and the university on two pilot sites that will go into operation next year as a proof-of-concept.

Why They Did It

Covering irrigation canals with aqueducts or solar panels is not a new idea, said Brandi McKuin, a scientist at UC Merced and the lead author of the 2021 paper. But before McKuin and her team were contacted by Solar AquaGrid, no one had yet done a rigorous study doing a technoeconomic and engineering analysis to understand whether the idea was worth pursuing, she said.

We needed academic support to really understand if this is possible, said Jordan Harris, a cofounder of Solar AquaGrid. Solar panels are more productive over water than they are over land, so a cooler microclimate below them actually makes them work betterthe economics of that are important.

Illustration: Vicky Leta

Reimagining our existing infrastructure, our land use policiesits going to take an all-of-the-above approach in order for California to meet our climate goals, especially considering the sixfold buildout of renewables that we need, said Josh Weimer, an external affairs manager at Turlock Irrigation District.



Story continues

Why Solar Panels Over Canals Are a Winner

Covering canals with solar panels has been floated before, but no one had actually done the math about the feasibility and benefits of covering Californias canals, and no irrigation district had volunteered to test out the idea. The founders of Solar AquaGrid connected with University of California Merced, which has both solar and water research centers, to conduct a feasibility study, with blockbuster results. Turlock Irrigation District, a water and electric utility, saw the results and decided to try to make the idea a reality. In 2022, Turlock Irrigation District secured a $20 million grant from the state to build panels at two canal sites that will be proof-of-concept for the idea.

Whats Next

The two project sites are under construction and will come online next year, providing around 5 megawatts of power. Weimer stressed that rather than water conservationwhich, he says, the district is able to do more efficiently through other methodssome of the other benefits, like reduced aquatic growth in the canals and added renewable energy without taking up excess land, are the most exciting for Turlock Irrigation District. The results and impacts of the pilot projects will be watched eagerly by other water and electric utilities across California.

The Team

Solar AquaGrid, a development firm; researchers at the University of California Merced, including Brandi McKuin, lead author of the initial study; the California Department of Water Resources, which is funding the project; and Turlock Irrigation District, a local water and electric utility company.

See the full list of Gizmodo Science Fair winners

More from Gizmodo

Sign up for Gizmodo's Newsletter. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.
U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Win McNamee/Getty Images

SCOTUS Justice Sonia Sotomayor questioned efforts to gut the Biden student-loan forgiveness plan Tuesday.

Sotomayor was among a few justices pushing back on common GOP arguments on the "fairness" of the program.

Sotomayor was joined by justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan, and Amy Coney Barrett in scrutinizing the cases' standing to sue.

Liberal US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor brushed aside conservative arguments against President Joe Biden's student-loan forgiveness plan on Tuesday, urging the justices to think about the tens of millions of affected students.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard over four hours of oral arguments related to two consequential cases challenging the Biden administration's program to cancel up to $20,000 in debt for federal borrowers.

Justices heard a case brought by Republican-led states who argued the debt relief would hurt their states' tax revenues, and later picked apart a case brought by two student-loan borrowers who sued because they did not qualify for the full $20,000 amount of debt relief.

Conservative justices appeared skeptical of the legality of Biden's plan in their lines of questioning, with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Neil Gorsuch bringing up the issue of fairness when it comes to giving student debt relief to some, but not all.

"I think it appropriate to consider some of the fairness arguments," Roberts said, with Gorsuch also asking what the "cost" of the plan is "in terms of fairness" to people who have paid their loans, who haven't taken out loans, or who are ineligible for loans in the first place.

But Sotomayor challenged that argument. When questioning Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, on behalf of Biden, about the scope of the debt relief plan, Sotomayor asked: "I take your bottom-line answer to be, everybody suffered in the pandemic, but different people got different benefits because they qualified under different programs, correct?"

Story continues

"There's inherent unfairness in society because we're not a society of unlimited resources. Every law has people who encompass it or people outside it," Sotomayor said, adding that "that's not an issue of fairness. It's an issue of what the law protects or doesn't."

Ahead of the arguments, Republican lawmakers also made their voices heard on the issue of fairness. GOP Sen. Rick Scott wrote on Twitter: I think it's unfair to make YOU pay off the debts of a small percentage of Americans who chose to take out student loans. Don't you?"

It's unclear which way the conservative-majority court will lean. Conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the liberal justices in challenging the standing of both of the cases, but it would require the vote of an additional conservative justice to uphold Biden's debt relief plan.

Still, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona expressed confidence the plan will prevail following the arguments.

"The Department of Justice argued against the lawsuits aimed at denying relief to borrowers, made clear that challengers to the program lack standing to even bring their cases to court, and explained the Department of Education's decades-old authority used by multiple administrations to protect borrowers from the effects of national emergencies," Cardona said in a statement.

Read the original article on Business Insider
(Bloomberg) -- South African Deputy President David Mabuza tendered his resignation to parliament ahead of Cyril Ramaphosas anticipated cabinet reshuffle.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Mabuza sent a letter to parliament on Tuesday confirming that hes stepping down, the governing African National Congresss chief whip in parliament, Pemmy Majodina, said by text message on Wednesday. Mabuza had written to Ramaphosa in early January offering to resign to make way for the partys newly elected deputy leader, Paul Mashatile, to become the nations deputy president.

Ramaphosa said he needs time before making a final decision about who to appoint as his deputy. Mabuzas resignation may now compel Ramaphosa to make changes to the executive.

The vacant position of minister of public service and administration and the new position of electricity minister are among the positions that need to be filled. The president is also expected to name a new transport minister after the incumbent, Fikile Mbalula, was appointed to the full-time position of ANC secretary-general.

Ramaphosa will make an announcement in due course about the appointment of a new deputy president, Ramaphosas office said in a statement.

Read: Godongwana Becomes MP in Prelude to South African Cabinet Revamp

(Updates with comment by presidency in final paragraph.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
PIERRE  The Senate taxation committee voted 6-0 to send an amended version of a bill seeking to reduce the overall sales tax rate to Senate appropriations on Monday. The amended bill, HB 1137c, would now lower the overall sales tax from 4.5% to 4.3% for two years.

The sales tax cut would expire on June 30, 2025 and leave future legislators with another chance to lower the sales tax. The original bill did not feature a sunset clause.

Sen. Jim Stalzer, R-Sioux Falls, who brought the amendment, said there was concern that an initiated measure that's currently gathering signatures to cut the overall sales tax on grocery would be passed in 2024.

More:Why Gov. Kristi Noem's long-touted bills were killed in the S.D. Legislature this session

"We cannot afford both this and that," he said, adding if a recession hit South Dakota, legislators could be put in a tough space of having to cut the budget again, similar to what happened in the late 2000s.

"I think if everything is looking good and we can afford it, then next legislature would undoubtedly be predispositioned to pass or to remove the sunset clause," Stalzer said. "But it would give some people more confidence going forward."

Rep. Chris Karr, R-Sioux Falls, who brought HB 1137, found the amendment unfriendly.

Others like Sen. Herman Otten, R-Lennox, said he didn't like the amendment, but it kept the discussion alive about a tax cut.

"I know there's some angst in the Senate over this thing," Otten said.

HB 1137 now heads to Senate appropriations for debate. If passed through Senate appropriations, the bill will be sent to the Senate floor for debate.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: SD Senate committee puts sunset clause on effort to cut overall sales tax
By Jihoon Lee

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's exports fell in February for a fifth straight month in annual terms, trade ministry data showed on Wednesday, although at a slower pace than in January due mainly to calendar effects related to national holidays.

Outbound shipments from Asia's fourth-largest economy fell 7.5% to $50.10 billion in February from a year earlier, whereas imports rose 3.6% to $55.40 billion. As a result, the country posted a monthly trade deficit of $5.30 billion.

Exports fell by a slower pace than a 16.6% drop in January mostly because there were two more working days in February this year than in the same month of 2022 due to the different timing of the Lunar New Year holidays. On average per working day, they dropped 15.9%.

In a Reuters survey, exports in February were forecast to be 8.7% less than a year earlier whereas imports were seen growing 4.0% from a year before.

Shipments to China, in their ninth month of decline, slumped 24.2%. Those to the United States and European Union rose 16.2% and 13.2%, respectively.

Semiconductor exports fell 42.5%, those of cars jumped 47.1% and petroleum product shipments rose 12.0%.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol last week convened a meeting of economy ministers and told them to do whatever they could to avert a widely expected decline in 2023 exports.

The government expects exports to fall 4.5% in 2023, following a 6.1% gain in 2022.

(Reporting by Jihoon Lee; Editing by Choonsik Yoo, Christopher Cushing and Tom Hogue)
Widers latest yacht is wild by name and wild by nature.

Christened the WiLder 60, the daring, all-aluminum thrill machine cleverly straddles the line between chase boat and performance cruiser. It also channels a much larger superyacht with a stylish interior that showcases the finest Italian craftsmanship, according to Wider.

More from Robb Report

The 61-footer is the first model by the Italian yards new WiLder brand that is aiming to appeal to the wilder side of seafarers. The newcomer also marks quite a departure from the bigger boats and catamarans Wider has historically delivered. Thats no coincidence, of course. The Italian yard, which was founded in Castelvecchio di Monteporzio in 2010, was recently acquired by marine heavyweight Marcello Maggi and is in the midst of a rebrand.

The yacht spans 61 feet from tip to tail.

Widers DNA still runs strong, though. Designed in-house by Centro Stile Wider, the WiLder 60 has the yards signature angular styling and generous layout. The light yet sturdy hull ensures seaworthiness in all conditions, while the shallow draft of three and a bit feet enables cruising in shallow waters. In fact, you can beeline it right to the beach.

The thrill machine can really run, too, with a top speed of 40 knots. We wouldnt be surprised if WiLder embraced green propulsion later down the track, either, since Wider was an early champion of sustainability and has delivered both hybrid superyachts and solar-powered cats in the past. The team also plans to build a yacht with a hydrogen fuel cell.

The aft is equipped with a sun pad.

The WiLder 60 is more than just a boatit is a bespoke statement of intent for secret escapes or wild weekends, a celebration of life and a conduit for fun, Maggi said in a statement. It represents another ground-breaking step forward by Wider, which from its foundation has always sought to challenge the status quo with sometimes radical but always forward-thinking designs and solutions.

Story continues

The best part? Each WiLder 60 delivered will be a one-off. The design can be fully customized to each clients tastes, meaning that no two yachts will be the same. The first hull is currently in build and is scheduled for launch this summer.

Best of Robb Report

Sign up for Robb Report's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.
Starbucks employees are pushing back against a return to office mandate. Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

Dozens of Starbucks employees signed a letter Wednesday pushing back against return to office policies.

The corporate staffers are calling to overturn a mandate to come in at least three days per week.

The letter also asks the company to not interfere in unionization efforts.

Dozens of Starbucks corporate employees signed a petition letter on Wednesday calling on the company to reverse its return to office hybrid work policy, as well as commit to allowing stores to unionize across the country.

The letter  first reported by Bloomberg and later shared to Twitter by Starbucks Workers United, the union that has organized hundreds of Starbucks stores  was signed by over 40 employees and endorsed by another 22 who wished to remain anonymous.

"An unforeseen and poorly planned 'return to office' mandate is making our lives more difficult, prioritizing corporate control over productivity, diversity & inclusion, and individual job satisfaction, effectively reducing our ability to positively impact store partner experience," the letter reads.

Months after Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said he was pleading with employees to return to the office, the executive ultimately announced a policy in January requiring employees "within commuting distance" to return to the office at least three days per week.

The Wednesday petition came on the same day that Sen. Bernie Sanders announced plans to hold a vote on whether to subpoena Schultz to testify before Congress on allegations that Starbucks has intimidated and fired pro-union employees as the organization effort has grown across the country.

A Starbucks spokesperson declined to comment to Insider on the contents of the letter, but confirmed it has been received by members of the company's leadership.

The return to office policy and alleged union busting is "fracturing trust in Starbucks leadership," the letter states. The letter makes official requests for the company to reverse the return to office policy and "commit to a policy of neutrality and respect federal labor laws."

Story continues

Starbucks has repeatedly denied allegations of anti-union activity, and maintains it has not violated any labor laws. However, a recent ruling from the National Labor Relations Board found the company committed multiple violations, including in at least one instance at a Philadelphia store location.

A judge in Michigan last week briefly ordered that Starbucks was not allowed to fire any workers involved in unionization activities, but later rescinded and altered the decision to apply to just one location in Michigan.

Starbucks is the latest major US company to face issues over its return to office policy, joining employees at corporations like Amazon and Disney who have also raised concerns and debated about the merits of such mandates in recent weeks.

Read the original article on Business Insider
The state education board approved a charter for a new school in Worcester on Tuesday, despite opposition from school committee officials, the citys legislative delegation, and Secretary of Education Patrick Tutwiler.

Opponents alleged that the proposed Worcester Cultural Academy will take $7 million away from the Worcester Public School system, and will exclude students from diverse backgrounds and students with disabilities. Supporters said the school will offer a needed alternative to city students and parents.

The board voted in favor of the charter 7-4, with Tutwiler and members Darlene Lombos of Boston, Eric Plankey of Westford and Mary Ann Stewart of Lexington voting in opposition.

Students at the school, which is scheduled to open in August 2023 for 200 kindergartens through 4th-grade students and then expand to enroll a total 360 students in grades K-8, will spend parts of their typical school week taking lessons at museums and other cultural institutions.

The school will be run through a partnership with Old Sturbridge Village, a 19th-century living history museum in the town of Sturbridge in southern Worcester county. It will adopt a curriculum developed by national education nonprofit EL Education, which says it uses a comprehensive, standards-based literacy program that engages teachers and students through compelling, real-world content.

Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Jeffrey Riley voiced his support for the school last week, and recommended that board members vote in favor of awarding a charter to the school.

Members of the Worcester community began expressing concerns about the school when it was first proposed in late 2022. Worcester Mayor Joseph Petty said at a Board of Elementary and Secondary Education meeting on Tuesday that every elected official representing the city, including the school committee, city council and state delegation, opposed the proposed charter school.

Story continues

My city opens its arms to children from all over the world. Ninety languages are spoken in the Worcester Public Schools by children, staff and teachers from over 100 different countries. We know this proposed school will not educate the students of our city, it will not educate our English language learners, or our special needs students. Our students with autism, Down Syndrome and physical disabilities will not be attending or welcome at this school, he said to members of the board.

He added that the school would not provide physical education or the breadth and depth of artistic programs offered at Worcester Public Schools.

Rep. David LeBoeuf and Sens. Robyn Kennedy and Anne Gobi also urged the board to vote against the charter, saying the school would drain public resources for an institution that does not serve students equally.

Several public commenters, including LeBoeuf, took special issue with a line in Old Sturbridge Villages 2022 annual report, that said the charter school would provide reliable, contractual revenue to the museum, safeguarding us against fluctuations in uncontrollable factors that impact admission revenue such as weather and public health.

The application proposes to drain $7 million a year from our 24,000 students [in the WPS system], all for enrollment that maxes out at 360. This plainly parasitic proposal is meant to see how far [Old Sturbridge Village] can go in taking public money meant for public education, LeBoeuf said.

The Worcester Democrat argued that the charter school would receive public funding despite contradicting the legislative intent of an education finance reform law passed in 2019 known as the Student Opportunity Act. The law, which Gov. Maura Healey announced last week would be fully funded in her fiscal year 2024 budget, calls for an unprecedented infusion of state funds to lift up historically high-needs students and districts.

My fellow colleagues and I when we passed the SOA were directing funds to lift ELL, special ed and DCF-involved kids in districts like Worcester, not aiming for school budgets to be tapped as a piggy bank for the museum, LeBoeuf said.

The mayor and state delegation were joined by members of the Worcester School Committee, the WPS superintendent, Worcester parents, the president of the Worcester NAACP and the president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association in urging the board to vote against granting a charter to Worcester Cultural Academy.

The charter school applicants also spoke at Tuesdays meeting in support of the proposed school, saying that it would provide new learning opportunities for children from a school district that is underperforming.

Melissa Hogan, director of special education at Old Sturbridge Academy charter public school, who said she would run the special education department at the new charter school if it opened, said the interactive learning model was helpful for students with disabilities.

Ive also witnessed first-hand the positive impact of a school and museum partnership for students with disabilities and the project-based learning that is the core of the academic programming. Ive become so passionate about this school model where students with disabilities can thrive with these project-based and hands-on learning experiences, and through connecting what they learned in the classroom to real-world applications, Hogan said.

The application summary that the charter applicants provided to the education board says the school is intended to provide new opportunities for students. It also says the school plans to target urban children historically underserved for learning due to poverty, language or learning differences, to thrive in a charter public school setting.

The Hanover Theater and Conservatory for the Performing Arts and the EcoTarium both told DESE they plan to partner with the charter school, and a third Worcester cultural organization, Joy of Music, submitted a letter of support, according to the departments final application review.

Stacey Luster, a founding member of Worcester Cultural Academy, said WPS has taken a turn in the wrong direction.

Recruiting and retaining diverse educators has been put on the back burner. Most Worcester Public Schools are not meeting academic expectations. Low achievement has become normalized, she said. Parents and educators have been approaching me all along during this process, saying we hope this school gets approved because we need other options.

Charter schools are often controversial when they come before the education board, as they use public funds but offer specialized education. BESE Chair Katherine Craven said more state-granted charters have been forfeited than have been granted in the last five years.

Tutwiler, in his first vote on a charter school in his role as education secretary, said his vote against Worcester Cultural Academy should not be seen as a general opposition to charter schools. He said he would examine each proposal before him individually.

But as for the Worcester charter school, Tutwiler said he was concerned about equity and access.

The particular provider does not have proven experience with multilingual learners, and the application does not provide specific research citations to demonstrate how the model theyre proposing would serve multilingual learners well, Tutwiler said. Worcester is a community whose student body is nearly 30 percent ELL or multi-lingual learner, among the highest in the state. I believe that all public schools, charter or district, must provide equal access to all students.





This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.

Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
Ald. Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez speaks before a vote on curfew for teens was enacted by a skeptical Chicago City Council meeting, May 25, 2022. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)

Four years ago, Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez upended the longtime reign of the Mell family in the ward in a razor-thin election, going on to become one of the city councils most vocal progressives.

But amid criticism over her handling of crime and ward services, Rodriguez faced two opponents, including a candidate she claimed was backed by the wards longtime leader, former Ald. Dick Mell. On Tuesday night, Rodriguez Sanchez declared victory outright, with unofficial returns showing shed won 53% of the vote in the ward that now includes much of Albany Park.

Advertisement

[ [Dont miss] In City Council races, most incumbent Chicago aldermen are holding on to their seats or advancing to runoffs ]

Samie Martinez, a Chicago planning department project coordinator, won about 35% of the vote and finance professional and affordable housing developer Laith Shaaban won 11%. Martinez told the Tribune he called Rodriguez Sanchez to concede on Wednesday morning.

We have decided to do politics in a very different way, Rodriguez Sanchez told supporters gathered at Noon-O-Kabab for her victory party Tuesday night.

Advertisement

We knew the machine was coming, she said, naming Mell, Democratic ward Committeeperson Iris Martinez and Board of Review Commissioner George Cardenas. Iris Martinez, the Cook County Circuit Court clerk, supported Samie Martinez (no relation), who was a staffer for Cardenas when Cardenas was 12th Ward alderman. But their time is over.

We have been organizing on the ground with the people that are at the center of the suffering that this system causes, she said, including undocumented people, tenants facing eviction and people who are homeless.

Supporters grew raucous as the alderwoman mentioned progressive Brandon Johnson, who won a spot in the mayoral runoff election April 4. We are going to elect him mayor of Chicago, she said.

Her next terms focus will include passing the Treatment Not Trauma ordinance and making additional investments in affordable housing, she told the Tribune.
Authorities in Massachusetts are searching for a vehicle that fled the scene of a fatal pedestrian crash in Brockton Tuesday night.

The crash happened at about 6 p.m. in the area of 690 North Quincy St., which is near the Brockton-Abington line.

The Plymouth County District Attorneys Office said the victim, 70-year-old Leland Thompson, of Brockton, was transported to South Shore Hospital in Weymouth, where he was pronounced dead.

Investigators said Thompson was attempting to cross the roadway when he was struck by a blue Buick Enclave. Boston 25 News crew captured video of that vehicle stopped at the scene, and the SUV had damage to the windshield and hood on the front passengers side.

According to investigators, the driver of the Buick immediately stopped his vehicle and was making attempts to stop traffic when a white Jeep Wrangler appeared to make contact with the lower portion of Thompsons body.

Authorities said the white Jeep Wrangler did not stop after striking Thompson, and that investigators are looking to identify the vehicle and its driver.

This is an active investigation.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.

Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
DENVER (AP)  In a Colorado mountain town, Christine Collins injected herself with black tar heroin while hanging out with friends in a cozy basement a few days after her 30th birthday. Sitting beneath a Happy Birthday sign with hearts scrawled in colorful sharpies, she overdosed.

She awoke on the floor, her friends screaming as they fumbled to administer the overdose-reversing naloxone, which pulled Collins back from near death.

Collins, now 33 and clean from heroin, has seen dozens of friends wake up from overdoses, and known dozens more that never did.

I dont make friends anymore because I dont want to see anyone else die," she said.

Such scenes of terror have increasingly played out from Denver's snow-filled streets to rural West Virginia, with drug overdoses killing over an estimated 100,000 people in 2021, according federal health official's latest data. That's roughly one overdose death every five minutes.

The snowballing death toll has pushed lawmakers in Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada to consider joining New York and Rhode Island in allowing what are often called safe injection sites." Also called overdose prevention centers, these are places where people can use drugs under the supervision of trained staff who could reverse an overdose if necessary.

Democratic lawmakers in Colorado pushed the controversial bill forward in committee Wednesday. While Democrats control the state's legislature, the measure faces steep odds amid broad backlash from police, Republicans, and lingering questions about whether the sites are even legal in the United States.

The idea of sanctioning the use of drugs including heroin and methamphetamine on these sites  an about-face from the long-waged war on drugs  has garnered stiff pushback.

Youre basically sending a message that, Hey, its OK to do this," said Colorado Rep. Gabe Evans, a Republican and former police officer. That not only imperils the health of drug users, Evans argued, but encourages dealers and invites crime that threatens nearby residents.

Story continues

But proponents argue its an imperative first step to tackling drug use, with many repeating a one-argument refrain.

You cant enter treatment if you are dead, said Dr. Joshua Barocas, an associate professor at the University of Colorado who studies substance use disorder. All the data suggests that people are going to do drugs regardless. ... All we are trying to do is reverse the harm that could come from what people are already doing.

The trend is growing internationally with centers in Canada, Australia and Europe, but in the U.S. questions remain over whether the Department of Justice will permit such programs amid pushback that the sites merely enable illegal drug use and attract the ancillary crime.

Last year, the Justice Department told The Associated Press it was evaluating such facilities and talking to regulators about appropriate guardrails. The department did not immediately respond to requests for updated information from the AP this week.

Being open to evaluating the sites marks a shift from the Justice Department's posture under former President Donald Trump, when the department fought against such a proposal in Pennsylvania, arguing that such facilities violate a 1980s-era law which bans operating a place for taking illegal drugs.

Data from sites both in and outside the U.S. found that they can prevent overdoses, with New York City's centers stopping more than 150 in their tracks within three months of operating. The centers also typically include equipment, such as sterile syringes, and offer resources for drug users to find treatment.

Existing studies, such as a 2021 report from the Boston-based Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, show that sites are linked to fewer ambulance calls  potentially saving taxpayer dollars  and didn't metastasize various crime rates in neighborhoods of operation.

In Wednesdays hearing, Jason Dunn, a former U.S. attorney for Colorado, pushed back against the data. A life may be saved when an overdose is reversed, said Dunn, but that doesn't mean "these facilities reduce the overdose death rate over the long term or even reduce drug usage over the long term.

In Nevada's Democratic-controlled Legislature a proposal to legalize safe injection sites is on the table but has yet to get a hearing, one year after a similar push failed. In New Mexico, a similar bill faces unknown prospects.

Even while a long list of health care organizations have signed on in support of Colorado's bill  including the Colorado Nurses Association, Colorado Psychiatric Society and Colorado Behavioral Healthcare Council  the legislation faces an uphill battle.

While Democrats in Colorado hold majorities in both chambers, Gov. Jared Polis has vocalized his concern over the proposal. The governor's spokesperson, Conor Cahill, said in a statement Monday that the governor would be deeply concerned with any approach that would contribute to more drug use and lawlessness.

Colorado's Democratic leadership in the legislature have signaled interested in the proposal, but they've stopped short of full-blown support.

State Sen. Kevin Priola, a former Republican who defected to the Democratic Party last year citing concerns over the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, is one of the bill's sponsors. Priola said he's felt the power of prescription painkillers first hand, having weaned himself early off the drugs following a ski accident that broke his leg.

I couldve been a statistic myself, said Priola, who added that the opposition to such proposals stems from a deep-seated stigma. People fear what they dont understand, and theyve never walked a mile in some of these folks' shoes.

Collins has watched the scourge of fentanyl rip through communities as she moved from Florida to Louisiana and finally Colorado and believes legalizing the centers is the bare minimum to keep people breathing.

I know they say: Oh, whatever, it just enables junkies, she said. The fact of the matter is that we may be junkies, but we are somebodys fcking families.

____

AP writers Gabe Stern contributed from Carson City, Nevada, and Morgan Lee contributed from Santa Fe, New Mexico. Jesse Bedayn 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.
Justin S. Weddle, attorney for WeBuildTheWall, arrives at New York Supreme Court in Manhattan. Mary Altaffer/AP

Steve Bannon's 'We Build the Wall' is officially a zombie charity  its last director quit Tuesday.

The scam non-profit has one last victim: its defense lawyer, who said he hasn't been getting paid.

The lawyer told a Manhattan judge he can't advise and defend a company with no 'human' client.

Steve Bannon's "We Build The Wall" charity, notorious for ripping off millions of dollars from donors in 2018, apparently has one last victim  its own defense lawyer.

The lawyer, Justin S. Weddle, revealed Tuesday that the not-for-profit has not been paying him, and that its very last officer had earlier that day handed in their resignation.

That leaves Weddle in an uncomfortable position as an attorney, he complained to a Manhattan judge Tuesday, during an otherwise routine court appearance in the latest iteration of the Bannon donor-scam case.

He's not getting paid, Weddle complained in court, as Bannon, also charged in the case, sat nearby at the defense table, with a new legal team in tow.

He also has no prospect of getting paid, Weddle told the judge. And his "client" is now a zombie entity that exists only theoretically, on paper, and therefore cannot be advised or consulted with.

"The only human beings associated with 'We Build The Wall' have all resigned," Weddle told New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, who is presiding over the felony money laundering and conspiracy case.

But when Weddle asked to please be allowed to quit the case  arguing that he has "a significant outstanding bill" for his legal services  the judge said not yet.

When a human defendant vanishes, a judge can try them in absentia and transfer all decision-making authority to the attorney, but, "here we don't even have a physical defendant," the judge noted.

"If you withdraw, the defendant would disappear from the defense table," the judge added.

"That's our understanding," Weddle agreed.

"I'm hearing this for the first time right now," the judge said, appearing stumped. "I have not had the opportunity to research this and I need that time."

Story continues

Weddle must for now keep his zombie client  the one that's not paying him  at least for another two weeks, the judge said, while he and prosecutors figure out what their positions on the matter are.

The case, in which Bannon and "We Build The Wall" are both charged with money laundering, conspiracy, and fraud for allegedly defrauding donors out of more than $15 million through a sham charity.

Despite having no staff, WeBuildTheWall, Inc. remains an active not-for-profit registered in Florida.

Bannon faces anywhere from zero jail time up to 15 years in prison if convicted of the top charge.

"I ain't going to prison," Bannon told reporters when asked about the charity-scam case, and about a 4-month jail term he faces in his July contempt-of-Congress conviction for defying a House January 6 committee hearing subpoena; the sentence has been stayed pending Bannon's appeal of his conviction.

Manhattan prosecutors d0 not allege that Bannon pocketed any of the money siphoned from the charity.

Instead, he is accused of setting up shell companies that funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to the charity's president, veteran Brian Kolfage.

Kolfage and two other participants in the scheme have pleaded guilty and are scheduled to be sentenced next month.

Bannon was first charged with defrauding donors through the charity by federal prosecutors, in August 2020.

Five months after pleading not guilty in that case he received a last-minute pardon by a departing President Donald Trump, for whose first seven months in office Bannon had served as a top advisor.

Read the original article on Business Insider
News Corp. executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch. (Drew Angerer / Bloomberg via Getty Images )

Dominion Voting Systems is out for blood in its defamation case against Fox News.

The company is suing Rupert Murdoch's network for $1.6 billion in damages, saying the mogul and his top lieutenants knew that former President Trumps claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election were false but gave them continued coverage to placate its viewers and boost ratings.

To prevail, Dominion's lawyers must prove the network acted with malice by knowingly spreading false information.

Fox News maintains that its reporting and commentary was protected by the 1st Amendment because allegations presented by a sitting president are newsworthy even if false. In the network's coverage, Dominion was wrongly accused of using its machines to manipulate votes to throw the election to Joe Biden and of being owned and controlled by the Venezuelan government.

Dominion has filed two legal briefs that expose internal discussions showing that some Fox News personalities, executives and even Murdoch himself did not believe Trump's claims but still gave his lawyers and supporters a forum to spread their unfounded theories because they were concerned about declining ratings. The briefs include stunning deposition testimony from Murdoch, who admitted he knew that some of the statements his on-air personalities and guests were making were false.

Here's what's next in the case, which is headed for trial in mid-April.

How strong is Dominions argument against Fox News?

Many 1st Amendment attorneys said Dominion has presented highly compelling evidence of malice by Fox News, which poses a significant threat to the network if it goes to trial, they said.

I do overall believe that this is one of the strongest plaintiff's cases that I've ever seen, said attorney Lee Levine, who litigated 1st Amendment matters for 40 years. "I have a hard time envisioning a scenario in which Fox wins before a jury."

Andrew Geronimo, director of the 1st Amendment Clinic at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, said he was taken aback by the evidence and believes Fox News is in an unenviable position as a defendant. Dominion's motion cited numerous examples of Fox News insiders disputing the veracity of Trump's claims in blunt terms.

Story continues

"Usually, making out actual malice is all about inferences to things, what should have been discovered and what might have been overlooked," Geronimo said. "Its not usually so stark as 'this is BS.' From a defense lawyer's perspective, it gives me the cold sweats reading this."

Fox News has said Dominion's motions "took an extreme, unsupported view of defamation law that would prevent journalists from basic reporting."

Fox News has argued in its motion for summary judgment that the damages Dominion wants are excessive because they are far greater than the voting machine maker's estimated valuation. Fox also cites comments by a Dominion executive suggesting that its business was not hurt by the media coverage. Will those arguments work?

Levine and other attorneys believe Fox's motion is meant to get Dominion to agree on a settlement that is lower than the $1.6 billion figure in the suit.

"Fox's brief is designed to say, 'You guys are not entitled to $1.6 billion, that's really ridiculous. Let's talk in a more reasonable range,'" Levine said. "I don't see any other reasons for Fox to have filed a summary judgment motion on that issue."

Fox News  knowing the impact of having embarrassing private communications made public  may also be trying to mitigate the financial damages it faces if it loses in court, Levine added.

(In a statement, Fox News called the damage claim "outrageous" and a "naked attempt to suppress legitimate speech protected by our Constitution.")

People inside Fox say privately that there are no signs a settlement is near.

Is there any chance of the judge granting a summary judgment for either side?

Highly unlikely, as such a decision would have to be based on undisputed facts. "This is a classic case of reasonable people could differ on these facts," said Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law. "This is full of factual disputes. It would have to go to a jury."

Will the revelations in the motions filed by Dominion so far hurt Fox News' reputation among its viewers?

The question is how much Fox News viewers will actually learn about the case. While other news organizations are devoting major time and space to the story, Fox News has yet to report on it. The networks longtime media analyst Howard Kurtz told viewers Sunday that the company has told him not to discuss or write about the Dominion case, a decision he disagrees with but is obeying. Fox News has devoted so much time over the years to discrediting other news organizations that loyal Trump-loving viewers could dismiss any reports they hear as fake news.

But a slow drip of story after story in other outlets could chip away at the network's credibility among the political independents and Democrats who watch (Nielsen data shows they are out there). At some point, those viewers may want the network to speak up and present its side.

Fox News did not comment on how it plans to report on the matter.

Will advertisers react negatively to Fox News' behavior?

Some sponsors already avoid Fox News opinion programming that they feel is too polarizing and controversial for their brands, and this situation wont help.

But what may be far more problematic down the road is the Dominion legal briefs revelation that Murdoch shared information about President Bidens advertising strategy with Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner during the 2020 election campaign. (Biden's campaign bought commercials on Fox News.)

That could make Democratic campaigns less likely to spend money on Fox News going forward. It may also give pause to Democratic candidates who spend major dollars to advertise on other Murdoch media properties such as the Fox broadcast network and the company's owned television stations, which are highly dependent on political ad dollars during presidential and midterm election years.





This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
The Matanzas High School student accused of attacking a teachers aide had three prior misdemeanor battery charges on his juvenile record.

Brendan J. Depa, 17, was charged with aggravated battery on a school board employee, a first-degree felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison, in the attack on a paraprofessional at Matanzas High School. The News-Journal is naming Depa because he was charged as an adult.

Depa is being held in the Duval County jail on $1 million bond. The Flagler County jail does not have a facility for juveniles.

Teacher's aide attacked:Matanzas student accused of attacking teacher's aide over Nintendo Switch held on $1 million bail

What's next in teacher's aide attack:Will Matanzas High School student who attacked teacher's aide be expelled? Here's the process

Depa attacked paraprofessional Joan Naydich on Feb. 21, according to a charging affidavit. A school security video shows a male identified as Depa walking quickly up to a woman, knocking her off her feet and onto the floor. The video then shows Depa beating the woman as she lays unresponsive on the floor, the affidavit states. People intervened and separated Depa from the woman, the affidavit states. Depa later threatened to kill her as he is being led away, the affidavit states.

While the affidavit stated that Depa was upset because Naydich took away his Nintendo Switch, a GoFundMe for Naydich stated that she did not take the Switch from him.

Depas arraignment is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. on Monday before Circuit Judge Terence Perkins.

Depa charged previously with battery in Hillsborough County

Juvenile justice records listed three misdemeanor battery charges against Depa, all of which took place in the 13th Judicial Circuit which covers Hillsborough County. The charges were each listed as first-degree misdemeanors, according to records.

The first misdemeanor battery charge was for an incident that occurred on June 5, 2019, and the case was closed five days later, according to records.

Story continues

Depa was charged with two additional misdemeanor batteries in incidents on April 25, 2019, and March 22, 2019. Both of those were closed on May 8, 2019.

The record indicates that in all three misdemeanor battery cases Depa was referred to a program known as JDAP. Another notation mentions JDAP Bays.

An internet search shows a program called Bays JDAP in Tampa. Its website states it is a juvenile diversion program for youth 17 and younger who were charged with misdemeanor offenses. Participants in the program must be referred by the Department of Juvenile Justice and approved by the State Attorneys Office.

The program provides services including monitoring and anger management and strives to minimize the risk of the youth becoming a repeat offender, according to the site.

The records also indicate that after the attack at Matanzas High School, Depa was initially charged in juvenile court with aggravated battery causing bodily harm or disability, which is a second-degree felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Matanzas High School attack: Brendan Depa had 3 prior battery charges
People rally outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday to show support for the Biden administration's student debt relief plan while the court hears oral arguments in two cases challenging that plan. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)

Hundreds of debt advocates and progressive political organizers gathered outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday while justices heard oral arguments in two cases challenging President Bidens plan to cancel up to $20,000 in student loan debt for some borrowers.

Several speakers, including some members of Congress, defended the presidents decision to cancel the debt and framed loan forgiveness as an economic and racial justice issue.

The rally was organized by a coalition of more than two dozen groups, including teachers unions and other labor unions, consumer and legal advocacy groups, and voting rights organizations.

We are here today because student debt is a crisis, and when theres a crisis you take action, said Cody Hounanian, the executive director of the Student Debt Crisis Center, which advocates for protections for people with student debt. The president has taken action, and the only thing thats in our way are the folks in that building right now.

Inside, the 6-3 conservative majority court considered two central issues: whether the plaintiffs in the two cases against the debt cancellation have legal standing to challenge the plan, and whether the Biden administration implemented the plan properly.

This should be an open-and-shut case, Rakim Brooks, the president of Alliance for Justice, an association of groups focused on creating a more progressive federal judiciary, said in an interview. I still have hope that the court will do what its supposed to ... but if they actually get to the substance of the questions, I  like everybody else  am afraid that partisanship is going to overwhelm reason.

For years, activists on the left have called for complete student debt cancellation, pointing to the exponential rise of college costs and loan balances.

Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) speaks Monday night outside the Supreme Court to supporters of the student debt relief plan. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)

An increasing number of Democratic politicians have come on board. During the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) called for $50,000 in loan cancellation, while Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called for wiping out all student debt.

Story continues

Biden took a more modest approach and campaigned on forgiving $10,000 in debt through congressional legislation. When that proved impossible, progressives argued that Biden had the right to act by executive order and Republicans attempted to pass legislation preventing him from doing so.

As pressure grew for Biden to fulfill his promise to cancel debt ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, the administration argued that it had the right to cancel debt under the HEROES Act, the 2003 legislation that allows the secretary of Education to modify loan terms in the event of a national emergency  in this case, the COVID-19 pandemic.

His administration in August announced its plan to cancel up to $10,000 for borrowers making less than $125,000, and an additional $10,000 for Pell Grant recipients. More than 16 million people, including about 1.5 million Californians, had been approved for cancellation when the policy was blocked by the lower courts in November. The Supreme Court is expected to decide the case by June.

For some, Tuesdays rally was about supporting a policy they believe still didnt go far enough toward alleviating the student debt crisis, particularly for Black borrowers, who on average have higher loan balances and take longer to repay them.

No matter what happens, stay in this fight, Warren told the crowd Tuesday. We cannot let a Supreme Court that is an extremist court take away the opportunity for millions of Americans to have a little racial justice, a little economic justice, a little opportunity to build more secure futures going forward.

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach) addresses the crowd on Monday night. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)

Many of the rally attendees were current or recent college students, some of whom waited in line overnight in the rain to get a spot inside the courtroom for oral arguments.

Lydia Zajichek, a student organizing fellow with Rise, which advocates for making college more affordable, waited until 3:30 a.m. with some of her schoolmates to get the 52nd spot in line. Though she got a scholarship to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where shes a sophomore, her parents have more than $100,000 in student loan debt.

We came out here, we sat in the rain all night and waited until we could get the SCOTUS tickets to listen to the hearing, because its just that important to us, she said.

Kaylah Lightfoot, a sophomore at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va., and a member of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored Peoples Youth and College division, said she already has $12,875 in debt and anticipates taking out more student loans.

Lightfoot said that she wanted to show up for the people who couldnt attend themselves, including her younger siblings in middle school. She said she sees the current plan as a steppingstone toward expanded access to education and, possibly, even more debt cancellation.

"If they can do this once, they can do it again," she said.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Neither of the two cases argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday is guaranteed to settle whether the Biden administration is legally empowered to wipe out hundreds of billions of dollars in federal student loan debt.

The court could sidestep the question altogether if the justices decide that the parties challenging the debt relief plan lack standing, or the right to have their grievances heard.

However, if the court does tackle the scope of the executive branchs power, its decision could hinge on whether Bidens debt relief plan, purported to alleviate financial hardships for more than 40 million American student loan borrowers, is actually tied to Covid-19.

Thats because the HEROES Act  a law the administration taps as authority for forgiving student loans  empowers the U.S. Education Secretary to waive or modify laws or regulations concerning federal student loan programs for student loan recipients who suffer direct economic hardship as a direct result of a war or other military operation or national emergency.

The law further specifies that the Secretarys authority is meant to ensure that student loan borrowers experiencing an emergency-caused economic hardship are not placed in a worse position financially in relation to those loans.

According to the administration, the Covid-19 pandemic is just the sort of national emergency contemplated by the HEROES Act because it directly caused economic hardship for certain student loan borrowers.

U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Pregolar, who argued on behalf of the administration in both cases  Biden v. Nebraska and Department of Education v. Brown  said during Tuesdays hearings that student loan borrowers in forbearance for long periods, including those who took advantage of Covid-19-related repayment pauses set to expire within months, are more likely to default on payments, particularly those with annual income of less than $125,000.

Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Elena Kagan, and Justice Amy Coney Barrett questioned whether the pandemic is directly responsible for degrading the indebtedness of all student loan borrowers entitled to forgiveness under the relief plan.

Story continues

[I]t seems, you know, a real mixture of COVID and non-COVID-related things, Justice Kagan said.

Supporters of student loan debt relief rally in front of the Supreme Court as the justices are scheduled to hear oral arguments in two cases involving President Joe Biden's bid to reinstate his plan to cancel billions of dollars in student debt in Washington, U.S., February 28, 2023. REUTERS/Nathan Howard

As for the governments claim that forbearance compounds borrowers economic peril, Kagan said, I guess I wonder, is that about COVID, or is that just about something that happens when you excuse loan payments for a long period of time? And how it is that that gets to be converted into an emergency COVID rationale?

Solicitor General Pregolar admitted that the complexity of the U.S. economy makes it difficult to isolate cause and effect.

It's, of course, true that I can't make a representation that the harms that borrowers are facing are solely due to COVID-19, Pregolar said. But I think that it would be an impossible burden to place on the Secretary to suggest that he needs to isolate and identify just one economic factor or force that's causing that kind of distress for borrowers.

Chief Justice Roberts illustrated the complexity of tying a borrower's default risk to Covid-19, pointing to unpublished, pre-pandemic data from the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank. The 2019 data, which the administration used in part to justify forgiveness eligibility, showed that a significant percentage of student loan borrowers in income brackets that qualify for relief had a history of regularly repaying their loans.

Didn't half the borrowers say they would not have any trouble paying their loans without regard to the forgiveness program? the Chief Justice asked about the group of borrowers in the survey who earned between $55,000 to $74,000 in annual income.

Yes, it's true that in certain income brackets, the data I think reflected that, Pregolar said, adding that the financial insecurity of those with student loans falls as income rises. That wasn't the only data the Secretary consulted, though.

During the Nebraska case, Justice Barrett also asked Nebraska Solicitor General James Campbell to clarify the connection between the pandemic and the student debt relief offered by the Trump and Biden administrations.

Campbell made a distinction between the pause on repayments legalized by the CARES Act that the Trump and Biden administrations extended and Bidens debt forgiveness plan. Pauses on student loan payments, he argued, qualify as modifications permitted by the HEROES Act, because they coincided with the Covid-19 national emergency and kept the status quo in place.

At some point, I think it goes beyond a modification and the connection to the national emergency became too tenuous to maintain it, he said. [W]hen you put a pause in place, when the nation is still dealing with lockdown conditions, there's a pretty close connection between that and a national emergency. When two and a half years down the road, the Secretary, having much time to contemplate the situation, comes in and creates a debt forgiveness program for 95% of borrowers, the connection to the national emergency is too tenuous.

Still, the legality of the debt forgiveness plan could give way to concerns over standing, voiced by justices across the ideological spectrum. In both cases, the justices questioned whether the plan's challengers  six Republican state attorneys general and two student loan borrowers  were the right ones to contest the U.S. Education Secretary's authority. A finding that both parties lack standing would supersede the legality issue, and absent further holdings from the court, the administration could move to forgive student debt, as planned.

Biden v. Nebraska is brought by the administration against six Republican state attorneys general  Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, and South Carolina  who say the forgiveness plan requires, yet never received, Congress' authorization. The AGs, who obtained an injunction blocking the plan from the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, also say that with fewer loans on their books, future state tax revenues will suffer. Missouri specifically argues that MOHELA (Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority), the nation's largest loan servicer, will collect less interest than planned on its furnished loans.

The other case, Department of Education v. Brown, is filed by two student loan debtors  one who doesn't qualify for relief under the plan and another who qualifies for partial forgiveness. They, too, argue that the Education Department needs Congressional approval to adopt its plan  and that they were improperly denied the opportunity to comment on its provisions. Their case is backed by conservative advocacy group, Job Creators Network Foundation.

The U.S. Department of Education, which adopted the plan, estimates that as of December 2022, approximately 43 million borrowers held federally backed student loan debt totaling more than $1.6 trillion. However, forgiveness as envisioned is available only to federal loan borrowers with annual incomes under $125,000 (or $250,000 per household). Those borrowers are eligible for up to $10,000 in forgiveness, and borrowers who also received Pell Grants can receive another $10,000 in relief.

Alexis Keenan is a legal reporter for Yahoo Finance, an attorney, and co-creator of the documentary, Valley of Hype. Follow Alexis on Yahoo Finance and Twitter @alexiskweed.

Yahoo Finance is on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, LinkedIn, and YouTube

Find live stock market quotes and the latest business and finance news
The high-stakes battle over President Bidens student debt relief plan reached the Supreme Court on Tuesday, with each justice giving a glimpse into their thinking during back-to-back oral arguments.

Bidens plan appears in peril after the courts conservative majority cast doubt on the administrations authority to forgive up to $20,000 in student debt for qualifying borrowers in two separate challenges.

The case more broadly touched on a number of legal issues  states ability to challenge administration policies they dont like and the scope of executive authority  that revealed insights into each justices approach to cases.

Heres a key statement from each justice during Tuesdays arguments:

John Roberts

Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts arrives before President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023, in Washington. (Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)

Were talking about half a trillion dollars and 43 million Americans. How does that fit under the normal understanding of modifying?

Roberts, the chief justice, near the start of the first argument pressed U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar on how the HEROES Act justifies cancelling hundreds of billions of dollars in debt.

The law, which the administration cites as authorizing the plan, enables the education secretary to waive or modify federal student financial assistance programs in connection with national emergencies  in this instance, the pandemic.



But Roberts repeatedly stressed the plans price tag, quoting the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia as defining modify as moderate change and questioning how Bidens plan falls under that definition.

Clarence Thomas

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas delivers a keynote speech during a dedication of Georgia new Nathan Deal Judicial Center in Atlanta, Feb. 11, 2020. (Associated Press/John Amis)

Could you explain then, in other provisions there is express language as to cancellation, and, of course, there isnt here.

Story continues

Like most oral arguments, Thomas became the first justice to ask a question before remaining fairly quiet afterward.

Thomas leveraged the opportunity to kick off the high-stakes argument by noting other statutes that explicitly refer to debt cancellation. He compared that to how the administration is justifying their plan as merely a waiver and modification.

It became the first of many moments in which the courts conservatives appeared to invoke the major questions doctrine, which requires Congress to speak clearly when authorizing an agency to take actions with vast economic and political significance.

In his only other line of questioning to the solicitor general during the first case, Thomas noted the difference between past uses of the HEROES Act to pause student loan payments during the pandemic.



Forbearance fits more comfortably in waive or modify language, Thomas said. Its you simply forbearing on collecting an underlying debt, but you dont cancel the debt. And thats what were talking about here.

Neil Gorsuch

Gorsuch gave Campbell an opportunity to challenge some of the Biden administrations claims about the student debt relief program. (Greg Nash)

I understand the Secretary has considerable expertise when it comes to educational affairs, but in terms of macroeconomic policy, do we normally assume that every Secretary, cabinet member, as learned as they are, has that kind of knowledge?

Gorsuch gave Nebraska Solicitor General James Campbell, who represented the state challengers, an opportunity to push back on the administrations assertion that the Education Department has the expertise to exert authority over debt relief.

The administration insists that since the Education Department is given authority to forgive student debt in other contexts, Congress had foreseen the possibility of debt relief when it gave the department emergency authority under the HEROES Act.

No, we dont. When were dealing with a nearly half-trillion dollar loan cancellation program, this is squarely in the ken of Congress, Campbell responded to Gorsuchs question.

Brett Kavanaugh

Kavanaugh appeared wary of using executive authority for the cancellation of student debt during his arguments. (Getty)

Some of the biggest mistakes in the Courts history were deferring to assertions of executive emergency power. Some of the finest moments in the Courts history were pushing back against presidential assertions of emergency power.

Kavanaughs views on the limits of executive power were a frequent topic in his confirmation hearings, but he appeared wary on Tuesday of using executive authority for a massive cancellation of student debt.

He referenced an amicus brief from a Fordham Law School Professor Jed Handelsman Shugerman, who called the plan a case study for how administrations abuse emergency powers

And thats continued not just in the Korean War but post-9/11 in some of the cases there, Kavanaugh continued. So, given that history, theres a concern, I suppose, that I feel at least, about how to handle an emergency assertion.

Samuel Alito

Alito pressed Prelogar on why the Biden administration considers the student debt program to be fair. (Stefani Reynolds)

Why is it fair? If it was, if you didnt have to do it? Why is it in the answer to say that it was warranted? Maybe it was warranted, but why was it done? I guess you dont want to answer the question.

Alito again proved his reputation as a searing questioner during the second argument, a challenge from two individual borrowers who did not qualify for the full $20,000 in relief.

He pressed Prelogar on why the administration believes the plan is fair, asking multiple times and expressing dissatisfaction with Prelogars answers in each iteration.

Alito stressed that the administration was not legally required to forgive the debts, so it is legitimate to inquire about the view of how the Education Department evaluated the plans fairness.

All right. Ill try one more time. Why was it fair to the people who didnt get arguably comparable relief? Alito later asked.

Sonia Sotomayor

Sotomayor emphasized the challenges that student borrowers may face without receiving debt relief. (Getty)

Theres 50 million students who will benefit from this, who today will struggle.

Sotomayor during a 2017 interview described a continuing tension in the U.S. between people who believe everyone must pull themselves up, and those who believe societal inequalities build barriers that must be struck down for some people to have a chance.

In a similar vein on Tuesday, she highlighted at length the harms that some student borrowers could face without debt relief.

Many of them dont have assets sufficient to bail them out after the pandemic, Sotomayor added. They dont have friends or families or others who can help them make these payments. The evidence is clear that many of them will have to default.



Their financial situation will be even worse because once you default, the hardship on you is exponentially greater, she continued. You cant get credit. Youre going to pay higher prices for things. They are going to continue to suffer from this pandemic in a way that the general population doesnt.

Elena Kagan

Kagan used a hypothetical situation involving an earthquake to make a point about the utilization of emergency authority. (Stefani Reynolds)

Congress doesnt get much clearer than that. We deal with congressional statutes every day that are really confusing. This one is not.

Kagan expressed in blunt terms her views on the clarity of the HEROES Act.

She went on to ask Campbell, who represented the states, a hypothetical involving an earthquake, repeatedly stressing the value of emergency authority.

This isnt a massive delegation to the Secretary of Education. Its designed to deal with emergency conditions. You have a lot of power in emergencies. When those peoples homes are destroyed, you have the power to discharge their loans.

Ketanji Brown Jackson

Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson answers questions during the third day of her Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Wednesday, March 23, 2022.

Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson answers questions during the third day of her Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Wednesday, March 23, 2022. (Greg Nash)

I feel like we really do have to be concerned about jumping into the political fray, unless we are prompted to do so by a lawsuit that is brought by someone who has an actual interest.

After a number of her colleagues raised alarm about executive overreach, Jackson during the final line of questioning in the states challenge noted that the judiciary, too, is part of the separation of powers dynamic.

Jackson tied her point to her concerns about giving the challengers standing, suggesting that it would improperly lead the courts to encroach on the political branches of government.

Amy Coney Barrett

Barrett notably broke with her fellow conservative justices in questioning Missouris argument. (Bonnie Cash)

If MOHELA is an arm of the state, why didnt you just strong-arm MOHELA and say youve got to pursue this suit?

Before the court reaches the merits, they first must establish that a challenger has standing, meaning the legal capacity to sue. Missouris standing theory received the most attention.

Barretts questioning broke with her conservative colleagues sympathy towards Missouris argument, and it instead more closely mimicked the skepticism of the courts liberals.

The debate revolves around whether the Higher Education Loan Authority of the State of Missouri (MOHELA) is an arm of Missouri, or if MOHELAs purported revenue losses from the debt cancellation would cause it to miss out on payments it owes to the state treasury.

The courts liberals noted that MOHELA itself had the capacity to sue, but it didnt.

Why didnt the state just make MOHELA come then, if MOHELA is really an arm of the state? asked Barrett. And all of this would be a lot easier.

But even if Barrett and the three liberals reject that the challengers have standing, the five remaining conservatives could still deliver the debt relief plans fatal blow.



For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Activists and students protest in front of the Supreme Court during a rally for student debt cancellation in Washington, DC, on February 28, 2023. ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images

Education Sec. Miguel Cardona reiterated that student-loan payments will resume this year.

It will happen 60 days after June 30, or 60 days after the Supreme Court issues a decision on Biden's debt relief.

Oral arguments on Biden's plan to cancel student debt concluded on Tuesday.

Supreme Court arguments on President Joe Biden's student-loan forgiveness are now over, and many Americans are anxiously waiting to learn if  and when  they'll resume their monthly debt payments with any relief.

After two years on pause, the resumption of payments depends on when the justices issue a final decision on the legality of the plan.

In November, Biden's plan to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt for federal borrowers was put on pause by two conservative-backed lawsuits seeking to permanently block the plan. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on both cases on Tuesday  the first case it took on was filed by six Republican-led states who argued the relief would hurt their states' tax revenues, and the second case wsa filed on behalf of two student-loan borrowers who sued because they didn't qualify for the full $20,000 amount of relief.

Following the conclusion of the arguments, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona emailed about 6.5 million people who signed up to receive notices about student debt, according the Education Department. He expressed confidence that the plan will prevail  and also reiterated that borrowers will be resuming payments this year.

"While opponents of this program would deny relief to tens of millions of working- and middle-class Americans, we are fighting to deliver relief to borrowers who need support as they get back on their feet after the economic crisis caused by the pandemic," Cardona wrote.

"While we await the Supreme Court's decision, the pause on student loan payments remains in effect," he continued. "Payments will resume 60 days after the Supreme Court announces its decision. If it has not made a decision or resolved the litigation by June 30, payments will resume 60 days after that."

Story continues

This means that student-loan payments could resume in September at the latest, and as of now, that could happen even if the Supreme Court strikes down Biden's debt relief plan. The Education Department has not yet commented on any additional measures for relief  like another extension of the payment pause  if the ruling does not go in its favor.

The payment pause has been instrumental for many student-loan borrowers struggling financially during the pandemic. Alexandria Mavin, a borrower with $90,000 in student debt, previously told Insider that the pause allowed her save about $400 a month to put toward home and car repairs, basic necessities, and food and clothes for her daughter, and she said it helped her "afford life."

"With the freeze and being able to save that money, I'm not worried about random expenses that pop up with my home, my child, my husband, nothing," Mavin said. "But now that's coming to an end soon."

Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley told Insider on Tuesday that she will push for payments to remain on pause until borrowers get relief.

"It's been game changing and transformative for so many people," Pressley said, referring to the pause. "By eliminating that bill, I mean, do you all understand that there are people that are paying monthly student loan of bills that are the equivalency of a mortgage?"

Read the original article on Business Insider
Hundreds of Iowa students took part in a school walkout Wednesday to protest a slew of proposed state legislation that they say discriminates against LGBTQ students.

Students from 26 high schools and two colleges coordinated the walkouts to take place throughout the day across the state.

IowaWTF, a coalition of high school students that fights discriminatory legislation, and the Iowa Queer Student Alliance, a group for LGBTQ high school and college students, organized the day of protests.

Students at high schools across Iowa walked out of classes on March 1, 2023, to protest anti-LGBTQ legislation moving through the Iowa General Assembly. More than 400 students from Central Academy in Des Moines took part, marching from school to the Governor's mansion a few blocks up the street. (Phil Roeder / Des Moines Public Schools)

Jemma Bullock, a member of the Iowa QSA, said the group is leading walkouts for two reasons: to educate students about the bills under consideration in the state Legislature and to get the attention of the lawmakers behind those bills.

We are trying to make it so that its impossible for those in power to ignore us, said Bullock, who is a senior at Ankeny High School, just north of Des Moines. Because right now, there are people who are going to the Capitol and attending those public hearings about these bills  they have been teachers, psychiatrists, doctors, students, parents, administrators, all sorts of people who come and say, This is harmful. This will have bad effects. This will cause bullying, it will cause depression and anxiety and it will not be safe for the LGBTQ+ community in our schools. And they just will not listen.

By mid-afternoon Wednesday, students and local reporters started to share images and videos from the walkouts on social media.

Allison Steffen, a senior at Marion High School, north east of Cedar Rapids, and Hannah Neuville, a junior, said the walkout they organized at their school felt empowering. They said about 70 students and teachers joined them.

We refuse to stay silent, Neuville said. This generation has the power to speak up and out about issues that affect us. The government shouldnt have a say in private matters such as sexual orientation, gender identity  it doesnt affect them. And they say that theyre doing it for protection. But who are they protecting?

Story continues

Steffen added, We say gay, we say trans and that will not change.

Some of the states largest school districts are among the 21 districts that have students participating, including Des Moines Public Schools, Iowa City Community School District and Ankeny Community School District. Students at Grinnell College and Iowa State University have also signed up to the walkout, according to Waverly Zhao, a senior at Johnston High School, just north west of Des Moines, and an IowaWTF co-founder.

Students at high schools across Iowa walked out of classes on March 1, 2023, to protest anti-LGBTQ legislation moving through the Iowa General Assembly. More than 400 students from Central Academy in Des Moines took part, marching from school to the Governor's mansion a few blocks up the street. (Phil Roeder / Des Moines Public Schools)

A spokesperson for Grinnell College said in an email that the school strongly supports civic engagement by Grinnell students.

We are watching this legislation closely and are deeply concerned about its potential impact on members of our campus community, the statement said.

Phil Roeder, the spokesperson for Des Moines Public Schools, said he attended the walkout at Central Academy, a public secondary magnet school, along with more than 400 students.

"Students have the right to engage and speak out on issues that matter to them," Roeder said in an email. "With that right comes responsibilities  such as not disrupting the education of students who do not participate in an event such as a walkout  but Des Moines Public Schools respects and supports our students in sharing their voices and ideas on topics important to their lives."

Iowa lawmakers have proposed at least 29 bills targeting LGBTQ people so far this year, according to One Iowa Action, a local advocacy group.

Bullock said she is most worried about a group of bills that would ban instruction related to sexual orientation and gender identity, including one that bars instruction of gender identity through eighth grade. Bullock also mentioned another bill that would prohibit school staff from withholding a students gender identity from their parents if that gender identity differs from the students assigned sex at birth, and a joint resolution introduced Tuesday by eight House Republicans that would outlaw same-sex marriage.

Lawmakers have introduced bills seeking to restrict gender-affirming care for minors  which can include puberty blockers, hormone therapy and, rarely, surgery  in at least 23 states, including Iowa, so far this year. Utah, South Dakota and Mississippi have all enacted their bills, and Iowa advanced such a measure Tuesday, local NBC affiliate WHO-TV in Des Moines reported.

Zhao said the ban on transition-related care could hurt the mental health of trans minors, who already face a higher risk of suicidal ideation. She said she also fears that the bills targeting schools could impact the emotional support that LGBTQ students receive at school  and may not receive at home.

The worry here is that increasing the parental involvement in such a controversial issue and such a personal issue for a lot of students will definitely cause harm to them, she said.

So far this year, state lawmakers from across the country have introduced over 300 bills targeting LGBTQ people, according to counts by both the American Civil Liberties Union and a separate group of researchers who are tracking the flow of legislation.
Lawyer Bill Conway, with his wife Brittany, gives a victory speech at his election night gathering for his 34th Ward bid on Feb. 28, 2023, at Carnivale restaurant. (Vincent D. Johnson/for the Chicago Tribune)

The brand-new 34th ward, which encompasses most of the western half the Loop and stretches into Greektown and Fulton Market, has a brand-new alderman.

Bill Conway  a former Cook County assistant states attorney, Navy veteran and son of the billionaire co-founder of the private equity firm The Carlyle Group  rebounded from his unsuccessful run for states attorney in 2020. According to unofficial returns, he won a commanding 67% over his opponent, Ascot Realty CEO James Ascot.

Advertisement

[ [Dont miss] In City Council races, most incumbent Chicago aldermen are holding on to their seats or advancing to runoffs ]

Conway addressed a jubilant crowd shortly before 9 p.m. Tuesday, telling supporters Ascot had called him to concede.

Conway pledged to address what he said was voters top concern: public safety. We need to make sure our police officers have the resources they need to fight and deter crime, he said, but we also have to embrace a community policing model.

Advertisement

In an earlier interview, Conway said he would like to see more police officers in the ward. He said it was also important to address root causes of crime, including issues related to homelessness, job growth and mental health.

Conway pointed to economic development as another pressing issue in the new ward, saying development should be done in a thoughtful way, recognizing the infrastructure limitations that exist.

The future of key economic corridors such as State Street, Michigan Avenue and LaSalle Street, will confront Conway when he assumes the role, as will the impact of mega-projects just outside the wards boundaries, including the Thompson Centers transformation into a Google headquarters in the 42nd Ward and a first-ever Chicago casino in the 27th Ward.

Among Conways supporters was Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, who said he had known Conway since the two attended high school together at Latin School. I think hes a breath of fresh air.
REUTERS

Tensions boiled over at Connecticut College this week, with students locking themselves inside a campus building over several race-related issues, including the dean of diversity abruptly quitting in February after the school planned a fundraising trip to a social club with an alleged history of discrimination.

On Wednesday, hundreds of staff members and students gathered outside Fanning Hallwhich houses the presidents officeto cheer on the occupiers and call for the ouster of President Katherine Bergeron.

The diversity scandal came to a head after the school planned a Feb. 8 fundraising trip to the Everglades Club in Palm Beach, Florida, which students and the former Dean of Institutional Equity and Inclusion Rodmon King accused of having a racist and antisemitic past. The club reportedly had a pattern of excluding Black and Jewish people as members when it opened in 1919, according to the editorial board of student newspaper The College Voice.

We dont want to take donations from people who are racist or antisemitic, Connecticut College student Leila Merhi told Connecticut Public radio.

The College Voice claimed Connecticut College President Katherine Bergeron was aware of the Everglades Clubs shady history and still chose to hold a fundraiser there. The event was ultimately canceled on Feb. 6.

Full participation is a core value at Conn, which is why I regret our decision to schedule an event at a location whose history and reputation suggest otherwise, Bergeron wrote in a letter to the college community two days after the cancellation, The College Voice reported. We made that decision believing that our values were clear. But the decision to proceed came across differently, and we recognize now that we were wrong.

Academic Freedom Group Decries Black Professors Racist Firing

On Feb. 7, Bergeron announced King, a Black man, had resigned from his position, but didnt provide any explanation as to why he left.

Over the past year, I have witnessed President Bergeron yell at, denigrate, talk over, and silence my colleagues during Cabinet meetings, King wrote the same day in a letter to Connecticut Colleges Board of Trustees chair and vice chair, obtained by The Day. These bullying behaviors are clearly violations of the basic respect that should be afforded any professional. This has led to a toxic administrative culture of fear and intimidation. People seek to avoid triggering [Bergerons] anger and this affects their ability to do their jobs.

Story continues

Students believe that King was not the only faculty member of color who was subjected to bullying from school officials, and in the wake of his resignation, they continued voicing their frustrations with the schools leadership, gaining the support of over 120 faculty members who signed a letter expressing the need for change, local outlet WTNH reported.

Nearly a week after King left on Feb. 12, the schools Board of Trustees released a letter to the community about his sudden resignation.

Like President Bergeron, we acknowledge that the decision of the College to schedule a fundraising event at a venue that has been associated with discriminatory policies and practices was a mistake, inconsistent with our Colleges commitment to equity and inclusion, which is why the event was canceled, the board wrote. Still the planning of the event sent an unintended message that has caused disappointment, dismay, and confusion in our community.

The Board of Trustees vowed to take diversity efforts seriously and accepted the call to much more effectively ensure that all members of our community experience, and not just hear about, that commitment.

But it wasnt enough. On Feb. 23, Student Voices for Equity, a group created after Kings departure, launched an online petition demanding Bergerons resignation, transparency in the search for a new college president, increased diversity initiatives and offices, more people of color employed at the school, more readily available resources for students from marginalized communities, and stronger support of various ethnic studies programs.

The Board of Trustees attempted to calm the burgeoning storm by holding meetings with students and faculty members regarding the lack of diversity initiatives on Feb. 24, The College Voice reported. Students began their building takeover the following week.

New Development: @ConnCollege students have locked themselves inside the Fanning academic building in protest.



The students in the building plan to remain until the demands offered by Student Voices for Equity (SVE) are met.  The Conntrarian (@The_Conntrarian) February 27, 2023

Late Sunday night, dozens of students locked themselves inside Fanning Hall, hung signs outside windows calling for change, and crowded college streets, according to The College Voice. Some professors canceled classes. The demonstrations continued into Tuesday and Wednesday and could last up to five days, The Day reported.

expressing solidarity with students at connecticut college, my undergrad institution, who have occupied fanning hall (a main administrative building & historic site of protest), questioning the politics of higher-ed funding & protesting ongoing equity & inclusion issues on campus  Amna Qayyum (@amnaqayyum_) February 28, 2023

Many students have realized from the resignation of our former dean of institutional, equity, and inclusion that we just can no longer stand for the tokenization, bullying, and blatant racism that President Bergeron and leadership has had [an] impact on our Connecticut College community, Student Voices for Equity member Lyndon Inglis told the Connecticut Mirror.

Students at Connecticut College have said they won't perform Into the Woods this weekend unless the college president resigns, among other demands.https://t.co/dNgLglXDaf  BroadwayWorld (@BroadwayWorld) March 1, 2023

Connecticut College alumnus David Collins wrote in an essay for The Day that it was a bad look for a school president accused of bullying and ignoring college diversity issues to refuse to appear in public and address the growing crisis, as both students and faculty demand a change in leadership.

On Wednesday morning, Bergeron responded to Student Voices for Equity demands. She claimed finances would be reviewed for the purpose of finding funding for diversity programs, but she did not comment on students and faculties cries for her resignation.

Students continued protesting into the afternoon.

In a statement to The Daily Beast, Vice President for Marketing and Communications John Cramer said the rest of the college community is operating normally with some academic and administrative units working remotely this week.

College leadership supports the right to free expression and peaceful protest, and will continue to pursue constructive dialogue with students, faculty and staff as we address the important concerns they have raised, he said.

King declined to comment on the matter.

Editors Note: This story has been updated to reflect that the students attempted to lock themselves inside multiple buildings but are only occupying one.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here

Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now.

Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now.
Scientists have identified a surprising new source of forever chemicals awash in global wastewater: the ubiquitous paper product dangling next to most of the planets toilets.

Toilet paper is the latest product that could be contaminating environments worldwide with cancer-linked per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), according to a study, published Wednesday in Environmental Science & Technology Letters.

Notorious for their presence in jet fuel firefighting foam and industrial discharge, these so-called forever chemicals are linked to a variety of illnesses, such as testicular and kidney cancers.

There are thousands of types of PFAS, many of which are also key ingredients in household items and cosmetics  and some of which end up flowing down the drain.

The study authors, who had recently investigated the presence of a major type of PFAS in biosolids, decided to continue their quest with toilet paper.

We asked ourselves where is the chemical used, and one product is paper, corresponding author Timothy Townsend, a professor of environmental engineering at the University of Florida, told The Hill in an email.

Hence the look at toilet paper, he said.

Paper production processes often include PFAS as additives during the wood-to-pulp conversion process, the authors explained.

These compounds are used as a wetting agent to boost the efficiency of the pulping process  making paper mills a known source of environmental contamination, according to the study.

Not only might standard toilet paper contain PFAS, but so too could rolls made from recycled paper  as they may be made with contaminated fibers, the authors found.

The researchers asked a volunteer network of students and professors to collect toilet paper sold in North, South and Central America, as well as in Africa and Western Europe. In addition, they evaluated sewage sludge samples from eight wastewater treatment plants in Florida.

They then extracted PFAS from both the paper particles and sludge solids and analyzed them for 34 different compounds, according to the study.

Story continues

The main substances they detected were diPAPs  precursor compounds that can convert into other kinds of PFAS such as the potentially carcinogenic PFOA.

After combining their results with sewage data from other studies and accounting for per capita toilet paper usage, the scientists observed that toilet paper was responsible for about 4 percent of the most common type of diPAP in U.S. and Canadian sewage.

But in Sweden and France, they saw this figure climb to 35 percent and 89 percent, respectively.

Despite the fact that North Americans use more toilet paper than people living in many other countries, the calculated percentages suggest that most PFAS enter the U.S. wastewater systems from cosmetics, textiles, food packaging or other sources, the authors stated.

The study, they concluded, identified toilet paper as a source of PFAS pollution in wastewater treatment systems  and a major source of contamination in certain places around the globe.

While the scientists evaluated both nonrecycled and recycled toilet paper, Townsend said they did not assess other alternatives, such as bamboo-based rolls. They determined, however, that diPAP concentration did not differ based on recycled content.

The authors expressed some optimism that consumer product choices and discard practices could ultimately help inform regulations aimed at curbing PFAS content in wastewater.

This reduction in PFAS is critical, since wastewater effluent and sludge are commonly reused for irrigation and/or land application, the scientists stated.

Research has already shown that these two pathways pose a risk for human and environmental exposure to PFAS, they added.

While Townsend said that his teams goal was to better understand PFAS sources, he expressed hope that such research could help influence future policy.

Decision makers will be better equipped to implement changes if we better understand the sources and fate of PFAS entering our wastewater treatment plants and landfills, he said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Dana Woodson leads a line of little people to the blue carpet in the next room. They plop down, some sitting crisscross applesauce while others extend their legs and point their small shoes toward the ceiling.

They gaze up at Woodson, curious about what they'll do next.

More:A closer look at Erie's child care 'crisis,' and how state officials, others are trying to fix it

Woodson leads the class of 16 3- and 4-year-old students in a singing of the "days of the week" song, then asks them to describe what the weather was like on this Wednesday morning, and finally asks them to count aloud with her the number of boys and girls among the group.

"You're right," Woodson says with glee to the boys and girls. "There are 16 friends today. Sixteen. Woo."

It's a typical morning inside the Learning Ladder Early Child Care Center, 2502 Peach St., a Black-owned business that began taking shape a decade ago in Kenya and Sean Johnson's basement. The couple started the center "out of necessity" in 2013 when Sean, 40, and Kenya, 39, who was in graduate school at the time, were regularly caring for a half-dozen nieces and nephews.

Dana Woodson reviews the days of the week with a class of 16, 3- and 4-year-old students at the Learning Ladder Early Child Care Center, 2502 Peach St., on Jan. 4, 2023. Woodson is the lead teacher for the center's pre-kindergarten program.

'Very hard days'

Kenya, who was also pregnant at the time, wanted a source of income. Sean, who had been working as a home health aide and who had launched a real estate business with the purchase of his first rental property coming in 2007, pitched the idea of starting her own business.

More:Erie childcare centers share $11.3 million in COVID funding. Find your center on the list

"He had mentioned (the idea) a few times because we knew another childcare provider that had just started," said Kenya, who received a bachelor's degree in psychology in 2005 from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. "Around that time I went back for my master's and he kept saying, 'why don't you just do child care?'"

"It was not easy, for sure," Sean said. "There were some hard days, very hard days, but I wouldn't change anything about it."

Within two years, Kenya was caring for eight children. It was time to expand. Sean and Kenya began leasing first-floor space at the former concert venue Forward Hall, which at the time was partially occupied by McLane Church.

Story continues

That's when they took a risk and put faith in themselves: They invested $70,000 to make improvements to a building they didn't own, taking out a second mortgage on their home to do so.

Sean Johnson, 40, and his wife Kenya Johnson, 39, who own the Learning Ladder Early Child Care Center at 2502 Peach St., talk about the growth of the business since its founding in 2013 and the challenges facing child care providers like themselves.

"We used every dime of it," Sean said.

Coming to a crossroads

They started the Learning Ladder, officially, in 2015 with the eight children Kenya was watching at home. Within two months they had 27 kids enrolled. And by the end of the year, the business was at capacity with an enrollment of about 60 kids.

"Kenya really cares about their education, teaching them, and instilling in the kids what we instill in our own children," Sean said.

But then they found themselves at what Sean called a crossroads. The building's owner was anxious to sell, but the couple didn't have the $165,000 to buy it.

Even though Sean had slowly expanded the couple's real estate portfolio  today they own 25 units on 15 properties  they had difficulty acquiring a bank loan. Two local banks denied their applications.

"We had a rude awakening," Sean said. "I had real estate. We had 50, 60 kids enrolled. Kenya was making income and I think two of the local banks denied us. It was at the point where we could have lost our center. We could have truly lost our center. And the little bit of money that we used to remodel in here, the guy could have just took it and sold the building out from under us."

Sean and Kenya Johnson believed they had hit a color barrier with prospective lenders.

"These banks, it isn't black-and-white what they write on these papers. There is a lot of gray," he said. "Whoever's making that decision ... they hold your life in their hands."

That's when Bridgeway Capital stepped in with funding that helped the couple grow their business. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Bridgeway Capital is a community development financial institution, which, unlike a bank, is a private, nonprofit entity that provides low-interest loans to low-income, low-wealth and other disadvantaged people who otherwise might not qualify for traditional bank loans. It opened its Erie office in 2012.

At the time, Bridgeway Capital was working with two other businesses in the neighborhood, Dapper Don's Styling Lounge and French Maids. The Johnsons worked with then-Erie Region Director T.J. King of Bridgeway Capital.

"It was the best thing that ever happened to us," Sean said. "He worked us through the loan process so easily. We only had to end up putting 5% down on the $165,000 and then he gave us historical credit for the two years that we were paying rent. We only had to come up with maybe like $7,000."

Bridgeway Capital, Sean said, is integral to the Black, Indigenous and People of Color community and anyone struggling to start or grow a business in the area.

Making changes

Most of the children enrolled at the Learning Ladder receive a subsidy for their care through the state's Child Care Works program. Parents pay a small copay. The United Way of Erie County picks up the tab through a scholarship for other children to get care at the Learning Ladder  those who might not otherwise qualify for the state subsidy.

In addition to the pre-kindergarten program for 3- and 4-year-old children, Kenya Johnson also has an after-school program for kids up to age 12. They can work on school assignments inside the facility's classrooms or get exercise in the gymnasium.

In August, however, Kenya made the difficult decision of ending the Learning Ladder's program for toddlers and infants. Kenya said the industrywide shortage of childcare workers, especially through the COVID-19 pandemic, has made it difficult to keep up with the child-to-staff member ratios required by the state for infants and toddlers.

"When I first started I had infants to (age) 12, but infant and toddlers require more staff and they require much more attention," she explained. "I was only operating with just enough staff , and if somebody called off, if somebody needed some time off, then it kind of put us in a bind of ratio issues and not being in compliance with state regulations."

Calculated risks

Sean and Kenya Johnson say they've learned a lot along the way. Here are recommendations that they have for other minority business owners.

"Start with the education side," Sean said. "You have to learn some of these things, whatever field you're trying to be in. If I want to do real estate, I'm going to figure out how these loan officers work. I'm going to figure out how property managers work. I'm going to figure out how accountants work. I don't need to know everything that they need to know, but I need to have an understanding of what they're doing."

People need to "immerse" themselves in whatever field they're trying to break into, he added.

"At the beginning when I started, it was mixed with a little luck, but as we were starting to make income and things started growing, I needed to know how to control this monster that we're creating," he said. "I started to submerge myself in the books and podcasts and anything that I could get my hands on."

Kenya said it's also important to "get uncomfortable."

"I know for me, I was shy, even starting a business," she said. "I didn't like want to talk to the newspaper, didn't want to do interviews. I was very uncomfortable. And I'm still adjusting to that, talking in front of people. I know sometimes people don't want to go into unfamiliar places, but there is always somebody who was better than you, who knows more than you. So if you don't put yourself in those places, you'll be stagnant. You won't grow, so just get uncomfortable."

Sean also said aspiring entrepreneurs need to believe in themselves and take risks.

"It may be more calculated risks," he said, "but believe in yourself and believe in your dream."

Kenya Johnson said she's proud of the quality of care that she and her 11 staff members provide the children. They've received a four-star rating from the state as a result.

"I go by those standards and I go above and beyond," she said. "It's a joy and a rewarding feeling when parents come to me, even when I don't have space, and they say 'can you put me on the waiting list? I'll wait as long as I can to get in.' They always hear good things about us. That fuels my fire."

Matthew Rink can be reached at mrink@timesnews.com or on Twitter at @ETNRink.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: How a Black-owned Erie PA childcare business evolved and succeeded
Sundance prize winner Sofia Alaoui, Yemeni-Scottish Oscar-nominee Sara Ishaq and Emmy-feted Egyptian cinematographer Muhammad Hamdy will be among filmmakers presenting projects at the Doha Film Institutes Qumra event, unfolding in Qatar March 10-15.

The nine edition of the talent incubator aimed at DFI grantee filmmakers will showcase 44 projects from 23 countries as it returns as a physical event for the first time since 2019.

More from Deadline

Moroccan-French director Alaoui, who won Sundances World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award: Creative Vision for her fantasy drama Animalia in January, attends with a new series which is in development.

Titled Let The Earth Burn, it revolves around a police academy graduate who is posted to a remote town in the Atlas Mountains despite coming top of her year.

Ishaq, who was Oscar-nominated for short film Karama Has No Walls, will present her second feature project The Station set against a women-only gas station in a gender-segregated village in war-torn Yemen.

Hamdy, who shared an Emmy for outstanding cinematography for his work on Egyptian revolution documentary The Square, will unveil his first fiction feature project Perfumed With Mint about a friends reunion that takes a nightmarish turn.

Works in post-production include Lina Soualems documentary Bye Bye Tiberias about her mother, the award-winning Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass, whose recent credits have included Ramy and Succession.

The bio-doc explores Abbasss decision to leave her native village in the Galilee to pursue her dreams of an acting career and how the women in her family she left her behind have influenced her life.

Story continues

Our goal is to support independent voices in cinema in their script-to-screen journey, said DFI CEO Fatma Hassan Alremaihi as the selection was unveiled. The skills filmmakers learn at Qumra will be invaluable in their journey, not only in connecting their projects to global audiences but in gaining exceptional insights into the craft of filmmaking.

The projects in development will receive advice from international film and TV professsionals specialized in production, sales and film film finance while there will be closed rough-cut screenings for fims in post-production open to festival programmers, broadcasters, market representatives, sales agents and distributors.

Aside from some 100 professional guests, the event will also invite five so-called previously announced Qumra masters.

They comprise playwright, screenwriter and director Christopher Hampton, producer David Parfitt, costume designer Jacqueline West and filmmakers Lynne Ramsay and Michael Winterbottom. They will each give a masterclass on their careers and mentor individual partipants.

The full list of 2023 Qumra Projects (synopses provided by the DFI)

Feature Narrative  development

Perfumed with Mint (Egy-Fr-Qat-Brazil)

Dir. Muhammed Hamdy.

Old friends reunite in a nightmare where mint sprouts out of their bodies. Relentlessly chased by ruthless shadows, will the companions escape the maze, or will they endlessly hide in empty streets filled with memories?

The Other Wife (Fr-Qatar-Alg))(working title)

Dir. Meriem Mesraoua

Salima adopts extreme measures to save the illusory refuge of her marriage, and is confronted with the fragility of her long-preserved image.

El Bastardiya  Once Upon A Time In Tripoli (Lib-Egy-Fr-Qat)

Dir. Abdullah Al-Ghaly

Three friends try to survive in Tripoli, where violence is the rule of the land.

Weedestine (Pal-Jor-Qat-Saudi Arabia )

Dir. Said Zagha

Abbas, a self-righteous, middle-aged car mechanic living in Palestines lawless Area-C, where marijuana cultivation is thriving, who will do anything to avenge his older sons death.

Feature Narrative  in-production

Thank You for Banking with Us! (Ger-Pal-Qat).

Dir. Laila Abbas

Two bickering, impoverished sisters try to overcome their differences in order to beat the system. They successfully concoct a scheme and finally get a chance to start over.

Sink (Jor-Fr-Swe-Qat)

Dir. Zain Duraie

Nadias life begins to slowly change when she finds herself sinking into her teenage sons undiagnosed mental illness.

The Station (Yem-Jor-Fr-Nl- Qat)

Dir. Sara Ishaq

Layal runs a women-only petrol station in a gender-segregated, war-torn village in Yemen to shield her 12-year-old brother from recruitment.

Feature Narrative  post-production

Brief History of a Family (Ch-Den-Fr-Qat)

Dir. A middle-class family becomes intertwined with a mysterious new friend of their only son.

If Only I Could Hibernate (Mon-Fr-Switz-Qat)

Dir. Zoljargal Purevdash

A poor but prideful teenager who is determined to win a physics scholarship.

Hounds (Fr-Mor-Bel-Qat)

Dir. Kamal Lazraq

In the working-class suburbs of Casablanca, father and son Hassan and Issam struggle to survive from day to day.

Tiger Stripes (Malay-Tw-Sg-Fr-Gr-Nl-Indo-Qat)

Dir. Amanda Nell Eu

A girl discovers a terrifying secret about her physical self.

Backstage (Mor-Tun-Bel-Fr)

Dirs: Afef Ben Mahmoud and Khalil Benkirane

Aida, a member of a contemporary dance troupe touring Morocco, provokes Hedi during a performance triggering a series of events.

Dead Dog (Leb-Fr-Qatar)

Dir. Sarah Francis

A middle-aged couple faces the dysfunctional status of their relationship and their inability to break the cycle theyve become trapped in.

Motherhood (Tun-Fr-Canada-Qat)

Dir. Meryam Joobeur

A mother blinds herself to the darkness in her sons soul. Through her eyes, we see how an individuals inner darkness can emanate outward to consume an entire community.

Feature documentary  development

Souraya Mon Amour [working title] (Leb-Qat)

Dir. Nicolas Khoury

A portrait of Lebanese actress Souraya Baghdadi through her reflection on her relationship with late director husband Maroun Baghdadi.

The Woman I Never Called Mum (Alg-Fr-Qatar)

Dir. Sabrina Adiri Chemloul

Fatima, 73, lives alone in Oran, Algeria, and has never done the right thing.

Fouledh (Tun Fr-Lux-Qatar)

Dir. Mehdi Hmili and Abdallah Chamekh

In the largest steel factory in Tunisia, two workers who suffer from psychological and physical disorders are haunted by the loss of their colleague.

The Myth of Mahmoud (Pal-US-Qat)

Dir. Mayar Hamdan.

The story of Mahmoud Said, a Palestinian man who died at 93 years old after attempting to build a home.

Feature Documentary  in-production

West of May (Leb-Fr-Qat)

Dir. Sarah Srage

A family chronicle following the fate of a fishing family in the heart of a working-class neighbourhood in Beirut. Behind the affection that unites this home, it tells of the fractures that run through contemporary Lebanese society.

Women of My Life (Iraq-Swe-Qat)

Dir. Zahraa Ghandour

The filmmakers search for her missing childhood friend, a journey that unfolds secret worlds of abuse and violence against women across Iraq.

Feature Documentary  post-production

Bye Bye Tiberias (Fr-Pal-Bel-Qat)

Dir. Lina Soualem

A portrait of Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass, who left her native village Deir Hanna in Galilee 30 years ago to follow her acting dream in France. Director and daughter Lina questions her mothers bold choices and how the women in her family, whom she left behind, have influenced her life.

Machtat (Tun-Leb-Fr-Qat)

Dir. Sonia Ben Slama

Chronicles the lives of Fatma and her daughters, Najeh and Waffeh, who are married to musicians in Mahdia, Tunisia. The sisters follow opposite pathswhile Najeh, divorced, tries to remarry to escape the authority of her brothers, Waffeh wishes to divorce her violent husband.

After the Bridge (It-Qat)

Dir. Marzia Toscano

Valeria Collinas life is shaken by the death of her son Youssef, one of the three jihadist terrorists who killed eight people on London Bridge. Valeria finds herself mourning and having to put her life back together.

Monisme (Indo-Qat)

Dir. Riar Rizaldi

Professional actors and non-actor professionals portray dynamic human-nature relationships in one of the most active stratovolcanoes in the world, Mount Merapi.

River of Toads (Mex-Qat)

Dir. Juan Carlos Nunez Chavarria

A sensory documentary about a family of healers who maintain the ancient practice of the cult of death in a small town in Veracruz, Mexico.

The Forgotten [Working Title] (Pal-Qat-UAE)

Dir. Ghada Terawi

The life of Kozo, a Japanese freedom fighter and member of the Japanese Red Army, who gave up his life in Japan to join the Palestinian Liberation Movement.

Qumra Series



Land of Nairi (Armenia)

Dir. Ovsanna Gevorgyan

The ill-managed demolition of a chemical plant floods Nairi with a purple liquid that puts the towns young people to sleep.

Miara (Mor-Qat)

Dir. Talal Selhami and Jawad Lahlou

In 8th Century, North Africa, when her father is brutally murdered, a young Berberian woman discovers he was a fallen Viking King.

Nguya (DRC, Bel)

Dirs. Michiel Robberecht, Precy Numbi

Nias life is turned upside down when she meets Nguyaa superhero robot born in the coltan mines of Eastern Congo.

Status Quo (Leb-Qat-Spain-US)

Dirs. Gilbert Karam and Hiba Louis

Beirut heats up as three unsuspecting girlfriends are forced to unite against the corrupt regime after they mistakenly kidnap a powerful politicians son.

From the Mountain (Syr-Jor)

Dir. Faisal Attrache

A fiery young farmer rises to become his communitys hero in the Arab nationalist fight for independence against the Ottomans.

The House that my Mother Built (Sudan)

Dir: Alyaa Musafollows

Eight women from across Sudan share their astonishing encounters with the inhabitants of the households where they take refuge during Sudans revolution 20192022.

Let The Earth Burn (Fr-Qat)

Dir. Sofia Alaoui

Despite getting excellent results, fresh police academy graduate Kenza is posted to a remote station in a small town in the Atlas mountains.

Best of Deadline

Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.
The Supreme Court's conservative majority on Tuesday appeared deeply skeptical of the legality of a White House plan to forgive $400 billion in federal student loans during the pandemic, even as the Biden administration vigorously defended its power and attacked the ability of six states to block it.

Oral arguments in a pair of cases challenging the Biden plan, which remains on hold pending the litigation, stretched well past their scheduled two hours, as the justices wrestled with key questions of legal standing and legal authority under a 2003 education law.

The court's conservative justices seemed most concerned about the scope and scale of the administration's action, which was not specifically authorized by Congress.

"We're talking about half a trillion dollars and 43 million Americans," said Chief Justice John Roberts. "I think most casual observers would say, if you're going to give up that much amount of money, if you're going to affect the obligations of that many Americans on a subject that's of great controversy, they would think that's something for Congress to act on."

After the relief program was announced in August 2022, more than 26 million Americans signed up; 16 million were approved for relief before federal courts put it on hold pending the litigation, according to the White House. More than 90% of the financial benefit would accrue to individuals making less than $75,000 a year, an administration official said.

PHOTO: Student loan borrowers and advocates gather for the People's Rally To Cancel Student Debt during the Supreme Court hearings on student debt relief on Feb. 28, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Jemal Countess/Getty Images for People's Rally to Cancel Student Debt)

MORE: How Biden's student debt relief plan landed before the Supreme Court: Timeline

"In effect, this is a grant of $400 billion," posited Justice Clarence Thomas, "and it runs headlong into Congress' appropriations authority."

Justice Samuel Alito suggested it's unlikely Congress could have imagined implicitly authorizing a plan of such a large scale. "A trillion dollars here, a trillion dollars there, it doesn't seem very sensible," he said. "Is this the sort of thing Congress is likely to address expressly?"

Story continues

"Congress did address this expressly here," replied Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, arguing for the Biden administration. She said the HEROES Act, which Congress approved 20 years ago, explicitly grants the Education Secretary authority to "waive or modify" the terms of existing federal student loans during a national emergency.

"It's perfectly logical for Congress to broadly empower the executive to provide benefits, especially in a crisis situation or an emergency like we've seen with COVID-19," Prelogar said. The administration says financial fallout from the COVID pandemic had "profound" effects on student borrowers.

"This is not a situation where the secretary is acting outside the heartland of his authority," she said. "This is the student loan program. That falls within the wheelhouse of the secretary of education."

The three liberal justices relentlessly zeroed in on the legal standing of six GOP-led states suing the administration, suggesting none would suffer direct harm from federal loan cancellation and therefore have little grounds to sue.

PHOTO: In this Aug. 24, 2022, file photo, President Joe Biden announces student loan relief, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, D.C. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images, FILE)

MORE: Fate of Biden student debt relief could hinge on Missouri

The court's precedents say a plaintiff must suffer an "injury in fact" directly flowing from a policy or program in order to challenge it in court.

"We really do have to be concerned about jumping into the political fray, unless we are prompted to do so by a lawsuit that is brought by someone who has an actual interest," said Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who suggested the alleged harm to states was "attenuated."

Jackson added that she "worries" about the government's ability to operate if states can sue over the "most minor state interests."

A key focus of the questions on standing was the state of Missouri, home to the nation's largest loan servicer, the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority, or MOHELA. It alleges that eliminating loans on the company's books would in turn harm its ability to contribute student aid to Missouri.

"About half of MOHELA's operating revenue from direct loans will be cut and overall that amounts to about forty percent of its operating revenue," said James Campbell, Nebraska's solicitor general, arguing on behalf of the states. "The state's interest is directly implicated."

"MOHELA is not here, General Crawford [sic]; isn't that correct?" responded Justice Elena Kagan. "Usually we don't allow one person to step into another's shoes and say I think that that person suffered a harm, even if the harm is very great."

Added Justice Sonia Sotomayor: "It's hard to imagine how the state of Missouri can claim an injury ... when it's not responsible for the debts of MOHELA."

Justice Amy Coney Barrett appeared to share some of the concerns about standing related to MOHELA, which is notably not a party to the case.

"If MOHELA is an arm of the state, why didn't you just strong-arm MOHELA and say you've got to pursue this suit?" Barrett asked skeptically.

PHOTO: Justices of the US Supreme Court pose for their official photo at the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., Oct. 7, 2022. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images, FILE)

MORE: 171 Republican lawmakers join effort to stop student loan forgiveness program

A second, related challenge to the Biden debt forgiveness plan, brought by two individual borrowers who are ineligible for relief, accuses the administration of acting arbitrarily without sufficiently considering the interests of all Americans as required by law.

While federal law ordinarily requires a public "notice and comment" period for significant regulatory changes, the administration argues emergency circumstances allowed them to bypass that process.

Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh suggested the administration overlooked questions of fairness.

There may be "deficiency" for not considering costs to "in terms of fairness, for example, people who have paid their loans, people who don't -- plan their lives around not seeking loans, and people who are not eligible for loans in the first place," Gorsuch said. "I didn't see anything in the [secretary's] memorandum that dealt with those kinds of questions."

"There are going to be winners and losers, and that raises similar questions about individual rights, individual liberty," said Kavanaugh.

Justice Alito added: "Why is it fair to the people who didn't get comparable relief?"

"Congress has made the judgment that when an emergency affects borrowers in this way, the secretary can provide relief," Prelogar said.

A decision in the cases is expected by the end of June.

Supreme Court conservatives take skeptical view of Biden student debt forgiveness originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
WASHINGTON (AP)  The Supreme Court seemed ready Wednesday to allow New Jersey to withdraw from a commission the state created decades ago with New York to combat the mob's influence at their joint port.

During arguments at the high court both liberal and conservative justices suggested that the Garden State doesn't need New York's consent to withdraw from the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor. The commission was created in 1953 when organized crime had infiltrated the port and was demanding payments from workers and shippers through extortion and violence.

The two-member commission  with one commissioner from each state  oversees licensing and inspections at the Port of New York and New Jersey and has its own police force.

The commission's formation followed by several decades the creation of the vastly bigger Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which oversees transportation infrastructure in the region.

Chief Justice John Roberts at one point during argument said it seemed to him that after 70 years of the Waterfront Commission's operation it's going to take a long time and hard work to kind of unravel all of this if New Jersey wants to walk away.

At another point, however, Roberts distinguished the Port Authority from the Waterfront Commission, which he called a "very important but relatively small enterprise dealing with a particular problem. Roberts suggested to Judith Vale, who was arguing on behalf of New York, that it would be not that disruptive for New Jersey to withdraw.

Vale pushed back, suggesting the commission, which employs about 70 people, makes it harder for corruption and undue influence to succeed.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett told Vale that it seems very odd that New York wants to hang on to the commission when the majority of the port's business goes through its New Jersey side.

At the time the commission was created, about 70 percent of the port's business came through the New York side of the port. Now, in the era of container shipping, about 80 percent of cargo goes through New Jersey.

Story continues

New Jersey lawmakers say changes in the industry, including the development of container shipping, have lessened the influence of organized crime at the port and reduced the need for the commission. The state says the commission has become an impediment to economic growth.

In 2018, then-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, signed legislation withdrawing his state from the compact. Ultimately, New York took the issue to the Supreme Court, which handles disputes between states.

The language of the compact creating the commission does not specifically address whether either state can decide on its own to withdraw. But New Jersey argued, among other things, that "mere silence as to withdrawal gives one State no basis to hold another hostage to a compact forever." Some justices also seemed particularly persuaded by New Jersey's assertion that the commission was always intended to be temporary.

We know here that the parties never intended for this to be perpetual, said Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who grew up in New York.

Elena Kagan, who also grew up in New York, was similarly skeptical of the state's argument as was the court's only member from New Jersey, Justice Samuel Alito.

New Jersey has the support of the Biden administration, which has told the court that the compact's text suggests either state can withdraw on its own.

New York argued that when the compact was written, the states intended to prohibit unilateral termination, not allow it.

___

Follow the AP's coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.
NEW ORLEANS (AP)  A lawsuit against oil and gas companies over damage to Louisianas wetlands will remain in state court, the U.S. Supreme Court said, rejecting an appeal by major energy companies who wanted to get the case moved to a federal court.

The high court rejected the appeal in a brief order dated Monday that did not give reasons. In effect, it upheld an October appeals court decision that keeps the lawsuit by Plaquemines Parish against oil giants  including Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobile  in state court.

It's the latest development in connection with dozens of lawsuits filed in Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. Bernard, St. John the Baptist, Vermilion and Cameron parishes between 2012 and 2017. The suits claim the defendant oil companies have failed to comply with state law governing coastal resources.

The parishes cited damage to wetlands stemming from the building of service canals, disposal of hazardous waste and saltwater, and other operations. Each asked that the companies either repair the damage or pay the parishes and state for the losses.

The lawsuits have long been bogged down in jurisdictional questions. Oil companies have long argued that the lawsuits involve federal questions that belong in U.S. District courts, not in the various local state courts where the suits were originally filed. Attorneys for the parishes say the disputes are over state regulations and should go before state juries. The lead attorney for the parishes in the lawsuits has called the effort to have the suits moved to federal court a delaying tactic.

Earlier federal decisions have resulted in many of the cases being sent back to state court. One, a Cameron Parish case, has a trial date for Nov. 27, John Carmouche, the lead attorney for the parishes in the lawsuits, said Wednesday.

The Supreme Court case turned on whether cases involving federally overseen oil and gas operations on the coast during World War II must be heard in federal court. The late U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman eventually decided that they did not  a decision later upheld by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and allowed to stand with Monday's Supreme Court ruling.

Story continues

Backers of the suits say they are needed to hold businesses accountable for damaging the vulnerable wetlands. Carmouche said Wednesday the companies should end the years-long litigation and seek an agreement with the parishes to address coastal damage.

Oil industry executives have long cast the suits as a needless attack on a vital industry and major employer in Louisiana.

An industry spokesperson, Tommy Faucheux, president of the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association, said in a statement that the energy industry already contributes to coastal restoration through federal law that shares oil lease revenue with Gulf of Mexico states for coastal restoration.

Instead of pursuing legal actions that continue to discourage investments in our state, we should focus on building upon our longstanding partnership with local communities to advance the coast, economy, and the state of Louisiana for future generations, Faucheux said in an email.
JACKSON, Miss.  Transgender youth in Mississippi were banned from receiving gender-affirming health care after Republican Gov. Tate Reeves signed legislation making certain treatments illegal on Tuesday.

Gender transition surgeries, hormone therapies, and puberty blockers are all banned for minors under House Bill 1125. The law comes amid a wave of anti-transgender legislation in largely red states.

As of last June, more than a dozen states had restricted access to gender-affirming care for youth or considered laws that would do so, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Similar bans are making their way through legislatures or have recently passed in Utah, South Dakota, and Tennessee.

Medical groups including the World Health Organization, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Psychiatric Association all point to gender-affirming care as the only effective treatment for gender dysphoria, with which many transgender people are diagnosed.

Rob Hill, state director for Human Rights Campaign, has been tracking the Mississippi bill since the session began at the start of the year.

"My reaction to it initially was sadness because I know how this is going to impact families, trans kids in Mississippi who are already very vulnerable, but that turned as this bill was fast-tracked through the House and the Senate and now to the governor's desk for his signature," Hill said shortly before the signing ceremony began. "It's anger now. I'm angry at the governor and lawmakers for making decisions they shouldn't."

Eighteen stories above him, the mood was very different. Local Republican Party officials chatted with the lawmakers who shepherded the bill through the two chambers across the street. They were soon joined by Reeves and Matt Walsh, who hosts a show for the conservative media outlet the Daily Wire.

SHOULD TRANS YOUTHS GET GENDER-AFFIRMING CARE?: Why bans are 'cruel' and 'dangerous'

Story continues

Gov. Tate Reeves, left, answers questions from media in Jackson, Miss., Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023, after signing HB 1125 baning gender reassignment procedures for Mississippians under the age of 18. Matt Walsh, with the Daily Wire, a conservative news website and media company, stands at right.

"This dangerous movement attempts to convince these children that they're just a surgery away from happiness. It threatens our children's innocence, and it threatens their health," Reeves said.

Reeves, who said through this law Mississippi will "follow the science," said rather than undergoing medical procedures, children should be told they are accepted and loved for who they are  meaning the biological sex listed on their birth certificates.

Critics of HB 1125, including Hill, say politicians like Reeves can't know more about how to help a child than that child's parents and doctors.

"It's an overreach. It's dictating something that they have no real knowledge about," Hill said.

TENNESSEE LEGISLATION: Ban on gender-transition care for transgender minors overwhelmingly passes Tennessee legislature

Reeves said in response that an adult can decide with a doctor whether to have these procedures, but a child should not be allowed to.

"I am highly against 30-year-olds and 40-year-olds getting these types of surgeries, but the libertarian in me kind of says if that's what you want to do to your body, OK. But not to children," Reeves said.

Beneath the heated language surrounding the impact of gender-affirming care is the question of whether these procedures are actually happening in Mississippi. There is no evidence that gender transition surgeries, the procedure Reeves most often references, are being performed on minors in in Mississippi.

Some transgender people between the ages of 16 and 18 do currently use puberty blockers, though this law now makes that illegal. Reeves said the law is necessary, even if the procedures aren't happening.

"If we want to take the position that, 'Hey, we're just doing this on a preventative basis because we don't want it to happen in our state,' then that's fine for us to say that, and I'm willing to take this as a victory if that's the case," Reeves said.

Even if the number of people currently receiving gender-affirming care is small, transgender people and activists have said the message this law sends could have a wide impact.

At a rally earlier this month, a 16-year-old transgender person said that the bill would pose a real threat to the lives of transgender youth, who already face disproportionally high rates of suicide and depression.

"It has been said this bill is about saving children, but this bill is really about removing the parents' ability to save their own children," Leviathan Myers-Rowell said. "HB 1125 is in the media and is telling society that there is something wrong with people like me and my parents. HB 1125 will be the reason that more of my community and more of my friends die."

Questions remain over whether doctors will be able to prescribe the same drugs often given to transgender people in order to pause the onset of puberty in people who use them for other purposes, including to treat health conditions like abnormally early puberty and idiopathic short stature.

Reeves said a transgender minor would likely be barred from receiving the drugs even if they were prescribed for purposes other than gender-affirming care, and that doctors should know their patients well enough to know when to enforce that ban.

Rob Hill, state director of Human Rights Campaign Mississippi, right, says the new law signed by Republican Gov. Tate Reeves banning gender-affirming care in the state for anyone younger than 18, will "demonize and alienate transgender kids" who are already vulnerable, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023, outside the governor's offices in Jackson, Miss. Hill and a small group of protestors gathered outside the offices during the bill signing ceremony.

Any physician found to be in violation of the new law risks losing their medical license.

GENDER-AFFIRMING CARE EXPLAINED: What to know about health care services for transgender and nonbinary communities

Shortly after the law was signed, a group of advocates released a joint statement through the Campaign for Southern Equality.

"Gov. Reeves decision to sign this bill is an act of violence. He and the lawmakers who pushed this bill in Mississippi are willfully ignoring the unique needs of transgender young people, interfering with their medical care and sending a stigmatizing, exclusionary message," said Mickie Stratos, president of the Spectrum Center in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. "Advocates for transgender equality in Mississippi and beyond will continue doing everything in our power to care for and protect trans youth in our state."

Hill said activists plan to keep fighting for transgender Mississippians' ability to access care, including possible court challenges.

He also had a message for the state's transgender youth: "My message is that I love you, and there are plenty more people who care about you than don't."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY NETWORK: Mississippi bans transgender minors from gender-affirming care
Election judge Marisol Diaz, center, helps a voter feed her ballot into the machine at Lawn Lanes bowling alley in Chicagos 23rd Ward on Feb. 28, 2023. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)

Mayor Lori Lightfoot conceded defeat Tuesday night, ending her efforts for a second term and setting the stage for Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson to run against former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas for Chicago mayor.

A visibly shaken Lightfoot conceded the race just before 9 p.m. and said she will be rooting and praying for our next mayor to deliver for the people of the city for years to come.

Advertisement

She continued: I looked into the camera and spoke directly to young people of color who looked like me and to every kid who felt like I did when I grew up. And Im going to do that again tonight.

Obviously, we didnt win the election today, but I stand here with my head held high and a heart full of gratitude, Lightfoot said in brief remarks, highlighting how the city emerged from a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic and made real progress on public safety.

Advertisement

The Associated Press just before 9 p.m. called the race for Johnson, who in addition to defeating Lightfoot also outmuscled U.S. Rep. Jesus Chuy Garcia.

Johnsons victory sets up an ideological battle with Vallas over the future path of the nations third-largest city. The two will face off in five weeks on April 4.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot takes the stage to give a concession speech during her election night watch party at the Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council on Feb. 28, 2023. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)

Vallas scored the top spot in the first round of the mayoral campaign.

Unofficial results showed Vallas garnered 35% of the vote with 90% of the precincts reporting. Johnson was second with 20%, followed by Lightfoot at 17% and Garcia at 14%.

[ [Dont miss] Complete 2023 Chicago election results ]

[ [Dont miss] What is a runoff election and why does Chicago have one? ]

With nine candidates running, including seven Black candidates, few expected Tuesdays election would be the final say on the 2023 race for mayor.

Vallas spoke to his supporters shortly afterward, surrounded by a gleeful campaign staff as he announced that Lightfoot had called to congratulate him on securing a spot in the runoff.

I want to thank the voters of Chicago for making this campaign about the issues, and nothing but the issues, Vallas said, a pointed rebuke of attacks from nearly all his rivals who had attempted to paint him as a Republican.

Former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas speaks with supporters after forcing a mayoral runoff election during his election night gathering at City Hall Events on Feb. 28, 2023, in Chicagos West Loop. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)

You cannot erase the record; public service is in my DNA, Vallas said. I am the grandson of Greek American immigrants.

Advertisement

But the clear victor of Tuesday night did not linger on that negativity, instead beaming at how he hasnt been this happy since his son returned from war in Afghanistan.

The former education chief, who throughout the race echoed that public safety is a fundamental right, continued with a campaign promise that the now-lame duck mayor too had pledged: We will make Chicago the safest city in America.

Are you with me? Vallas asked his supporters, who responded by chanting Vallas, Vallas, Vallas.

[ [Dont miss] The battle for City Hall is on: Paul Vallas will face Brandon Johnson to become Chicagos next mayor ]

[ [Dont miss] In 4 years, Lori Lightfoot went from breakout political star to divisive mayor of a Chicago beset by pandemic and crime ]

Over at Johnsons campaign party, the atmosphere was just as ecstatic as supporters of the newest face of Chicagos progressive coalition chanted, We want Brandon.

Well, heres Brandon, Johnson opened, a clear reference to the famous You want Harold? Well, heres Harold! line Harold Washington uttered when he was elected Chicagos first Black mayor in 1983. Well, Chicago, we did it, yall. You know, they said that this would never happen. I am so freakin proud.

The commissioner took a moment to celebrate his arc from growing up as a foster child, one of 10 siblings and the son of a pastor  and then went after Vallas in the first attacks of the runoff season.

Advertisement

Cook County Commissioner and Chicago mayoral candidate, Brandon Johnson speaks with supporters after forcing a mayoral runoff election during his election night gathering on Feb. 28, 2023. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)

This is the truth about Paul Vallas: He has literally failed everywhere he has gone. In fact, Paul Vallas is the author of The Tale of Two Cities, Johnson said, again accusing Vallas of being a closet Republican. Chicago, we cannot have this man as the mayor of the city of Chicago.

Others running included businessman Willie Wilson, state Rep. Kambium Kam Buckner, Ald. Sophia King, 4th, Ald. Roderick Sawyer, 6th, and community activist JaMal Green. Wilson scored with 9% of the vote and the remaining candidates each received 2% or less of the vote.

[ [Dont miss] The rest of the field: Some failed Chicago mayoral candidates will return to current positions, while others contemplate whats next ]

Wilsons position in the race was critical to the result. The businessman campaigned vigorously with Lightfoot in 2019 but their relationship fell apart before she even took office, spurring his run and potentially siphoning votes from the reelection seeking mayor.

Though he didnt formally concede, Wilson said he hadnt given too much thought about who he would support in the runoff. But Wilson said one thing Im proud to say here tonight was word that Lightfoot has conceded the race.

You wont see her no more after today, Wilson said. So, thats a blessing to Chicago.

Mayoral candidate Willie Wilson greets supporters at his election night event on Feb. 28, 2023 at the Swissotel in Chicago. (Lou Foglia/for the Chicago Tribune)

The final matchup was a stunning blow to Lightfoot, who became the first full-term incumbent to fail to win reelection since Jane Byrne lost to Washington in 1983. It was also a clear indication that after an arduous four years, residents were clamoring for a new direction from City Hall. But what direction that is remains to be seen.

Advertisement

The more conservative Vallas and progressive Johnson sparred throughout the divisive campaign, which saw the two typically on opposite ends of the biggest issues in the race  education and crime.

Vallas, 69, has long been a critic of the Chicago Teachers Union that Johnson helps lead, asserting the unions work stoppages during the pandemic harmed childrens well-being and hurt their growth for generations. Johnson, 46, regularly paints Vallas approach to public education as morally bankrupt for its promotion of private school vouchers and expansion of charters across the country.

On crime, Vallas has spouted tough talk and positioned himself as the pro-law enforcement candidate who will stamp out the complete lawlessness he has seen in Chicago by, among other things, reversing police department rules he contends restrict cops from doing their jobs. Johnson, meanwhile, decried the citys reliance on policing as a failed strategy and instead promised a new citywide strategy that would shift focus toward community investments in housing, mental health and more.

This is a breaking new story. Please find more of our election coverage here.

gpratt@chicagotribune.com

ayin@chicagotribune.com
Dozens of rescued passengers were transported to the Thessaloniki Railway Station in Thessaloniki, Greece, on March 1, 2023. Konstantinos Tsakalidis/SOOC/AFP via Getty Images

At least 36 people have died after two trains collided head-on in Greece on Tuesday evening.

Surviving passengers said they had to use luggage to break windows and escape carriages.

One survivor told local media he heard passengers screaming "we are on fire" as he was escaping.

Survivors of a deadly train crash in Greece recall passengers screaming "we are on fire" as their carriage flipped upside down, according to Greek news outlet Kathimerini.

At least 36 people have died and more than 80 are injured after two trains  one passenger train and one carrying only cargo  collided head-on in the northern region of Thessaly, Greece, on Tuesday evening.

The collision was so violent that the first two carriages of the passenger train "no longer exist," Kostas Agorastos, the governor of the region told state television, according to the BBC.

Footage from the scene shows derailed carriages, broken windows, and thick plumes of smoke. Shell-shocked passengers who survived the crash told local media they were lucky to be alive.

"We felt the whole carriage shake, the train was coming towards us. I still don't feel alive," one man told Kathimerini. "We could hear people shouting 'we are burning.' It's shocking. I'm still in shock."

Rail accident involving a collision between a cargo and a passenger train in Greece, on March 1, 2023. STRINGER/SOOC/AFP via Getty Images

Passenger Stergios Minenis, 28, said he jumped to safety from the wreckage after his carriage flipped and came to a stop.

"We heard a big bang," Minenis said, according to Reuters. "We were turning over in the carriage until we fell on our sides and until the commotion stopped. Then there was panic. Cables, fire. The fire was immediate. As we were turning over we were being burned."

Another witness told Kathimerini that the crash felt like an earthquake, adding: "I was in the fourth carriage, the luggage fell and we turned upside down ... Words fail, I thought I was going to die."

People have described having to crawl through windows and over broken glass as they tried to escape.

"There was a woman with a child with us. There was a fire next to us. We found a hole and from there we managed to get out," another passenger told EPT news channel, according to Kathimerini. "It was a nightmarish 10 seconds, in the flames. You couldn't see around you because of the smoke, there was panic."

Story continues

An injured passenger, who was involved in the collision of two trains in Greece, on March 1, 2023. Reuters/Alexandros Avramidis

It is unclear what caused the crash. Several survivors told Kathimerini they were told they would be delayed 15 minutes because of "heavy traffic on the railway lines."

Around 350 people are believed to have been on board the passenger train, while two crew were on the cargo train, Reuters reported, citing Hellenic Train data.

It is still unclear what caused the crash, though officials will be investigating "in full transparency," Infrastructure and Transport Minister Kostas Karamanlis, told reporters, according to Reuters.

Agorastos said the trains "were traveling at great speed and one [driver] didn't know the other was coming."

Read the original article on Insider
A man hiding from law enforcement in his bathtub in Florida tried a novel approach to avoiding capture  he called 911 and directed deputies to a neighbors home, the Polk County Sheriffs Office says.

When that didnt work, the 38-year-old called again, this time reporting his mom needed emergency medical care.

But that didnt work either  because she was talking to deputies when he called, according to a Feb. 26 news release.

At no time did she advise she was having a medical emergency, the sheriffs office noted.

The strange series of events happened around 1 a.m. in a Lakeland neighborhood, as deputies were searching for a man accused of smashing the windows of a neighbors car, officials said.

He also threatened to hang the family, one by one, the sheriffs office said.

When deputies arrived on scene, (the suspect) was advised that a warrant for his arrest was obtained and that he needed to exit the residence and surrender, a deputy reported in the affidavit.

(He) refused to do so and barricaded himself in his residence. While on scene, I was advised by dispatch that (he) called 911 twice. In his first call, he advised the residents of (a nearby home) needed assistance, despite law enforcement being at that location at the time of the call. In his second call, (he) advised his mother needed EMS. At the time of this call, law enforcement was at his mothers house and she was in active conversation with law enforcement.

The suspect eventually cut off communication and instructed deputies to do what yall have to do, officials said.

They responded with a chemical agent, began searching the home and found their suspect hiding in a bathtub, officials said.

He was arrested and charged with aggravated stalking; felony criminal mischief; violation of probation; misuse of 911 (two counts) and resisting arrest, officials said.

Lakeland is about 35 miles east of Tampa.

3 dogs attack and kill someone walking in dark through Florida neighborhood, cops say

Defiant 67-year-old woman kills 64-year-old home intruder at 3 a.m., Florida cops say

Motorcyclist head-butts car and shoots at it in a fit of road rage, Florida cops say
U.S. Atty. Martin Estrada, with L.A. Mayor Karen Bass to his left, announces the arrest of suspect Jaime Tran last month in the shooting attacks on two Jewish men near synagogues in Los Angeles' Pico-Robertson neighborhood. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

A man charged with the hate-motivated shootings of two Jewish men in Los Angeles was on the FBI's radar before the attacks, Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore said.

In the year before the shootings, Jaime Tran had been charged with carrying a loaded firearm and was investigated after threatening and racist messages were sent to former dental school classmates, according to court records and interviews.

How Tran slipped through the FBI's threat-tracking system despite suggestions that he posed a considerable, and perhaps deadly, danger remains under investigation by the FBI, said Moore and other officials.

LAPD officers on horseback patrol along Pico Boulevard to increase their presence in the wake of the Pico-Robertson shootings. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

In a departure from local law enforcement leaders' usual reluctance to publicly question the actions of federal agencies, Moore made his remarks at a Los Angeles Police Commission meeting on Tuesday.

"He was on the radar, if you will, of our FBI partners in what we call a 'Guardian lead' because of hate-fueled remarks or emails that he was sending to former classmates of a dental school which he was attending," Moore said.

Moore said that Tran, 28, had been the "subject of mental health evaluations and was and has been suffering from mental illness through the years."

The chief said that Tran shot the two Jewish men, who survived, with a handgun and also had a rifle on him when arrested in Cathedral City on Feb. 16.

"How he came into the possession of that rifle as well as the handgun, given his mental health condition, is the subject of our continued investigation," Moore said.

Investigators believe the weapons were acquired outside of California, the chief said. Tran told investigators that he got the guns in Arizona.

"Was everything done?" Moore said. "The FBI is continuing to evaluate and go back over their efforts these last few years in regards to interplay with him and ensuring everything was done that could be done."

The FBI's Guardian Threat Tracking System documents potential terrorist threats and suspicious incidents, assigns them for follow-up investigation and issues alerts about potential threats or suspicious activity.

Story continues

According to two law enforcement sources who were not authorized to speak on the record, at least two Guardian reports about Tran were generated before the shootings.

According to one of the sources, the Guardian reports can be of limited use, since the actions they document often do not rise to criminal acts.

While this is an ongoing investigation and prosecution, the Chief is correct that Guardian leads were generated, shared with the appropriate partners and investigated. The leads did not result in federal charges," Laura Eimiller, a spokesperson for the FBI's Los Angeles office, said in a statement. "The information generated did assist law enforcement in apprehending Mr. Tran within hours of the attacks and, potentially, stopping further acts of violence."

Brian Levin, director of Center for the Study for Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino, said there seems to have been a structural failure in Tran's case.

"The Guardian system had no sentry in the box. This assailant was well on the radar screen of authorities, and nothing was done," Levin said. "How was it possible that Tran was able to gain access to firearms, given his pending criminal trial on a gun possession and the antisemitic threats?"

Elat Market customers stop to watch LAPD officers pass by on horseback through the Pico-Robertson neighborhood. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Tran told investigators after his arrest that he had searched on Yelp for a kosher market to target Jewish people in the first shooting near Shenandoah and Cashio streets in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood. The victim, in his 40s, was shot in the back while walking to his vehicle on Feb. 15.

The next morning, about a block away, Tran allegedly shot a man in the arm as the man was walking home.

Both victims wore black jackets and head coverings indicating their Jewish faith.

Within hours of obtaining images of Tran's Honda Civic, LAPD major crimes investigators identified him and discovered his history of antisemitic threats.

Federal prosecutors charged Tran with two counts of hate crimes for allegedly targeting and shooting the two Jewish men. He faces a maximum sentence of life without parole.

Federal and local authorities first became aware of Tran's hate-filled diatribes last year.

According to the federal complaint charging Tran with the shootings, Tran was expelled in 2018 from a dental school. Law enforcement sources identified the school as UCLA.

In late 2022, a former dental school classmate received repeated calls and texts from Tran.

Identified as M.N.H. in the complaint, the man, who is Jewish, told investigators that Tran sent him "numerous threatening and antisemitic voicemails and text messages."

One of the messages said, I want you dead, Jew," according to the complaint.

In November, Tran emailed dozens of former classmates at the same dental school.

In one email, Tran wrote: That Persian/Iranian Jew of the Class of 2020 made up a fake, bs disease (COVID)."

Beverly Hills Police Chief Mark Stainbrook told The Times that Tran made some of the threats to an individual in Connecticut and that Southern California law enforcement officials reached out to agencies there.

The person in Connecticut and another person who received threatening messages from Tran did not wish to pursue criminal charges, according to two law enforcement sources who were not authorized to discuss the investigations.

But the two cases brought Tran to the FBI's attention, the sources said.

In both cases, while the language and threats were blatantly racist, they did not rise to a crime because there was no violence involved, according to one of the sources.

It is unclear why the threats did not result in more action from the FBI given Tran's documented history of mental illness and the firearm charge against him.

On July 3, someone spotted an armed man sitting on a bench near the engineering building on the Cal State Long Beach campus, according to the Los Angeles County district attorneys office.

According to prosecutors, Tran told officers that he was carrying the loaded weapon for protection. He was charged with felony possession of a loaded firearm on a school campus.

Tran was due to appear at a pretrial hearing in late February. Records show he was released without posting any bond.

In charging Tran with the gun crime, L.A. County Dist. Atty. George Gascon said his office had not been aware of Tran's prior hate-related actions, and that Tran did not have a criminal history.

Gascon said no one informed the prosecutor in the gun case about Tran's threats to former classmates and that prosecutors never received a request to charge Tran with the threats  all of which could have led to some intervention, including rescinding Tran's bail or obtaining a plea deal that included mental health services.

"The dots were never connected for us," he said. "This is the first time I am hearing this was on the FBI's radar."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
BANGKOK (AP)  Lawyers for ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is serving a 33-year prison sentence on what are widely seen as contrived charges, have been denied meetings with her as they prepare her appeals, legal officials familiar with her situation said.

In December, a court sentenced Suu Kyi, 77, to seven years in prison on corruption charges in the last of a string of criminal cases against her, leaving her with a total of 33 years to serve. That was the last time her lawyers have seen her in person.

The army seized power and detained Suu Kyi on Feb. 1, 2021, the day when her party would have begun a second-five-year term in office after winning a landslide victory in a November 2020 general election.

Her supporters and independent analysts say the charges against her are an attempt to legitimize the militarys seizure of power and keep her from returning to politics.

Most of the appeals that lawyers have filed on her behalf have already been rejected, but some are still being processed, a legal official who insisted on anonymity for fear of being punished by the authorities told The Associated Press. Her lawyers, who had been a source of information on the proceedings, were served with gag orders in late 2021.

Currently, the lawyers are waiting for an appointment with the Supreme Court for it to hear their appeal of her convictions last December on five corruption charges.

The lawyers applied to prison authorities in mid-January for permission to meet with Suu Kyi to discuss the appeals, but as of Tuesday had not received any confirmation they can do so, the legal official said.

According to the colonial-era jail manual still in use in Myanmars prison system, every newly convicted prisoner should be allowed reasonable facilities for seeing or communicating with relatives or friends to prepare an appeal or to procure bail. Prisoners can communicate with any person to arrange appeals of their conviction, the law says.

Story continues

Because her lawyers have been unable to meet with Suu Kyi, they cannot receive her instructions on handling her appeals or even confirm her health situation, said a second legal official, who also asked not to be identified because he fears punishment by the authorities,

The lawyers are allowed to send parcels for Suu Kyi via prison authorities once a week.

A spokesperson for the Prisons Department did not respond to inquiries about the lawyers assertions. According to the jail manual, prison superintendents are allowed to refuse to grant prisoners permission for meetings if they think it is against the public interest, or if another sufficient cause exists.

Suu Kyi was convicted on a range of charges, including illegally importing and possessing walkie-talkies, violating coronavirus restrictions, breaching the countrys official secrets act, sedition and election fraud.

The military-installed government has not allowed any outside party to meet with Suu Kyi since it seized power, despite international pressure for talks including her that could ease the countrys political crisis.

Myanmar security forces have killed at least 3,073 civilians and arrested 19,954, according to a detailed list compiled by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a watchdog group that tracks killings and arrests.
Help from Sweden

Besides, Ukraine received 14 pontoon sections that can be combined into crossings of different lengths.

The ministry clarified that the structures have already arrived in Ukraine. They are being promptly unloaded to be sent to the required location.

Pontton bridges are a quick and effective way to restore transport links between the de-occupied regions and the rest of the country.

In addition to Sweden, the Czech Republic, France, and Norway have already provided Ukraine with equipment for the construction of such bridges.

According to the ministry, 153 bridges and overpasses have been destroyed on Ukraine's state roads since the beginning of Russia's full-scale aggression. Traffic on 80 temporary crossings has already been restored.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
ASHEVILLE - When The Citizen Times reported in December that Ta-Nehisi Coates' would be speaking Feb. 28 at UNC Asheville, Dwight Mullen, a retired political science and Africana studies professor at UNCA, expressed the hope that Coates would provide guidance to city and county leaders on the issue of reparations for Asheville's Black residents.

For many years, Coates' name has been linked with discussions of reparations. His 2014 article in The Atlantic, "The Case for Reparations" brought more mainstream attention to reparations and inspired countless conversations. In 2020, it was named the "Top Work of Journalism of the Decade," by a panel of judges convened by New York Universitys Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute.

Dwight Mullen was one of the first Black professors at UNC Asheville and is responsible for many newly established programs there, including Native American Studies.

At sold-out Kimmel Arena, Mullen, chair of Asheville's historic Community Reparations Commission, asked Coates how he felt the committee should proceed in its next steps, but the former journalist said he deferred to the work of reporters.

"I actually wouldn't recommend at all, and here's why: I'm a journalist by trade," he said. "The first lesson I learned in that is the way in which you come to see something or understand something or write something, it always has to be built on the foundation of a reporter. This is my first time in Asheville. I just flew in today. Far be it for me to sit back and recommend to you guys who are enmeshed in this on a daily basis.

"'The Case for Reparations' itself is an article that's built on reporting. I haven't done the requisite and required research and reporting to have the understanding to make (a recommendation)."

Ta-Nehisi Coates, an author and journalist, answered questions from Tiece Ruffin, director of Africana studies and professor of Africana studies and education at UNC Asheville, February 28, 2023.

Asheville's Community Reparations Commission is a 25-member board intended to make short, medium, and long-term recommendations that will make progress toward repairing the damage caused by public and private systemic racism going back 400 years to the time of slavery, to the Jim Crow era and even today with large gaps in wealth, education, health and more between Black and white residents. The commission was officially seated in April.

Story continues

According to Tiece Ruffin, director of Africana studies and professor of Africana studies and education at the university who led the discussion with Coates, the committee has been assured appropriation of $1 million in reparations funding  $500,000 from the Asheville City Council and $500,000 from Buncombe County. Asheville became the second municipality in the country, after Evanston, Illinois, to appropriate reparations funding for Black residents.

But Coates wasn't completely silent on the issue of reparations.

Coates also brought up reparations in a discussion on the pitfalls of cryptocurrency, which he likened to a "virtual pyramid scheme" in a student-submitted question wondering whether Coates saw capitalism as an impediment to a racially just society, and how social change can be affected without deconstructing capitalism.

Ta-Nehisi Coates, an author and journalist, answered questions from Tiece Ruffin, director of Africana studies and professor of Africana studies and education at UNC Asheville, February 28, 2023.

"(Cryptocurrency) was an investment with no guarantees," Coates said. "It ultimately awarded folks who were early adopters, and took from folks who were late adopters. You don't have to do too much guessing about who the late adopters were. You don't have to guess who was holding the bag - the same people who were left holding the bag in the housing bubble.

"(Due to) this mentality that 'I have to be a boss,' or 'You're a sucker because you're a worker ... and that I control my own destiny through the accumulation of capital, and I'm a person that takes and that is not taken from,' as long as you don't have a collective society, any sort of reparations  and I wouldn't have said this five years ago  any sort of program of reparations will always be seen as taking from someone else."

Earlier in the event, Coates remembered the times before being recognized as a National Book Award winner, when he was first starting out as a writer and speaking to crowds of less than 20 people.

He's come a long way since those days, as evidenced by the crowd Feb. 28 at UNCA.

"I always tell my students, 'Nobody is ever promised an audience,' and if you find one, you are particularly lucky and you are particularly fortunate,'" Coates said. "My first book, I think maybe 15 people showed up, and I think about 10 of them were family."

Coates is the author of the bestselling books "The Beautiful Struggle," "We Were Eight Years in Power," "The Water Dancer" and "Between the World and Me," which received the National Book Award in 2015. From 2016-18, he also wrote the Black Panther comic series.

Over his two-decade career, Coates has written for The New York Times and The Atlantic, where he penned the National Magazine Award-winning 2012 essay, "Fear of a Black President."

In fall 2022, Coates joined the faculty of Howard University as a writer-in-residence and the Sterling Brown Chair in the Department of English.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Ta-Nehisi Coates: 'Far be it for me' to advise reparations committee
The Tacoma Police Departments property-crime initiative, which launched in November, has led to charges in two cases, according to Investigations Bureau assistant chief Tamara Floyd.

Floyd and TPD deputy chief Paul Junger gave an update on business property crimes to the City Council during its Tuesday study session. The presentation comes ahead of Thursdays Tacoma Business Councils Summit on Crime, which will focus on the impact of crime and similar issues on the business community.

Junger said the council asked for a commitment from the Tacoma Police Department to address property crime during a November study session, which led them to start the initiative.

Property crime obviously impacts the quality of life of a lot of folks here in the community, and I appreciate the police department is making some efforts to address that, City Council member Joe Bushnell, District 5, said.

To date, the initiative has 92 property-crime cases, with 18 open, 21 pending and 53 closed. Floyd said 10 cases have been referred to prosecutors, with eight for felony charges and two for misdemeanor charges.

Junger said the initiative is designed to reduce property crimes through follow-up investigations. Due to the departments staff shortage, detectives volunteer to work overtime to investigate property crimes, he said.

The initiative assigns a detective with a property crime case that has actionable intelligence and leads, such as videos, known suspects and license plates. The initiative includes a working relationship with the Pierce County Prosecutors Office.

Property crimes include arson, burglary, forgery, destruction of or damage to property, fraud, larceny, motor vehicle theft, robbery and stolen property.

Since the initiatives launch, there have been 36 organized retail thefts, 20 thefts, 16 shoplifting, 13 destruction of properties, four robberies and three burglaries investigated, Floyd said.

Floyd said organized retail theft can be complicated and cumbersome for detectives. Suspects are known to travel the Interstate 5 corridor, affecting multiple counties and jurisdictions, she added.

Story continues

It can take a little bit of time to put together a case in this area because it can involve multiple stores and dollar amounts, she said.

According to the Revised Code of Washington, organized retail theft is:

theft of property with a value of at least $750 from a mercantile establishment with an accomplice,

possess stolen property with a value of at least $750 from a mercantile establishment with an accomplice,

theft of property with a cumulative value of at least $750 from one or more mercantile establishments within a period of up to 180, or

theft of property with a cumulative value of at least $750 from a mercantile establishment with no less than six accomplices and makes or sends at least one electronic communication seeking participation in the theft in the course of planning or commission of the theft.

Floyd suggested business owners who are victims of property crimes call 911 and file a police report.

A lot of people unfortunately feel thats not efficient or effective for them, she said. But if they dont call 911, we dont know.

Council Member Kiara Daniels, at-large, asked what property owners can do to ensure someone is charged and prosecuted.

Floyd said a good percentage of property-crime cases close without referral of charges because detectives are unable to get phone calls returned.

Please follow up with us when we reach out to you, because we cant do it by ourselves, Floyd said.

She also said business owners can install concrete bollards, shatter-resistant glass, live-feed alarm systems, bright exterior lights and high-quality resolution cameras.

Junger added it is helpful to know serial numbers or unique identifiers on pieces of property or to take photos of inventory.

He said the Tacoma Police Department has several campaigns, including auto theft prevention tips, reminders about not leaving weapons in cars and CATCON ID for catalytic converters program.

The initiative is only focused on property crimes involving businesses. Junger said the department plans to add residential property crimes to the initiative when it adds more staff.

According to TPDs citywide weekly briefing, in the past year there have been 3,560 property offenses. Between Feb. 13 to Feb. 19, there were 366 reports of property crimes with larceny/theft, motor vehicle theft and destruction/damage/vandalism of property as the top offenses. Compared to Feb. 14, 2022-Feb. 20, 2022, there were 650 property offenses.
A judge has issued a civil arrest warrant for a woman with tuberculosis, allowing law enforcement to arrest her as soon as Friday after she refused to isolate or take life-saving medication for over a year.

After her arrest, she would be taken to a facility equipped for isolation, testing, and treatment.

The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department says this is only the third time in 20 years that it has had to seek a court order to detain a potentially contagious person who refused treatment for TB.

We have worked with family and community members for more than a year to do everything we can to persuade this woman to take her medication to protect herself and our community, said Nigel Turner, division director of Communicable Disease Control in Pierce County, in a blog post on Tuesday. After 15 court hearings, we are closing in on our last option.

On Feb. 24, the judge overseeing this case found the woman in civil contempt for refusing to comply with an order to resume taking her medication or voluntarily isolate herself.

Most people with TB disease will need to take TB medicine for at least six months to be cured, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In each case like this, we are constantly balancing risk to the public and the civil liberties of the patient. We are always hopeful a patient will choose to comply voluntarily. Seeking to enforce a court order through a civil arrest warrant is always our last resort, said Turner.

Washington averages about 200 cases of active TB per year, with about 20 of those cases occurring in Pierce County.

State law requires healthcare providers to report all cases of active TB to a local health department.
TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan's defence ministry said on Wednesday it had spotted 19 Chinese air force planes in its air defence zone in the past 24 hours, part of what Taipei calls regular harassment by Beijing.

Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, has complained for the past three years or so of stepped up Chinese military activities near the island as Beijing seeks to assert its sovereignty claims.

China has said its activities in the area are justified as it seeks to defend its territorial integrity and to warn the United States against "colluding" with Taiwan, despite the anger this causes in Taipei.

Taiwan's defence ministry said 19 J-10 fighters had flown into the southwestern corner of the island's air defence identification zone, or ADIZ, though closer to the Chinese coast than Taiwan's according to a map the ministry released.

Taiwan's forces monitored the situation, including sending up its own air force planes, the ministry added, using the normal phrasing for its response to such Chinese incursions.

However, the aircraft did not cross the sensitive median line of the Taiwan Strait, which previously served as an unofficial barrier between the two sides but which China's air force has been flying over on an almost daily basis since staging war games near Taiwan last August.

No shots have been fired and the Chinese aircraft have been flying in Taiwan's ADIZ, not in its territorial air space.

The ADIZ is a broader area Taiwan monitors and patrols that acts to give it more time to respond to any threats.

The democratically elected Taiwanese government has repeatedly offered talks with China, but says the island will defend itself if attacked and that only the Taiwanese people can decide their own future.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Yimou Lee; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
Mayor Lori Lightfoot is surrounded by supporters after giving a concession speech during her election night watch party at the Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council, Feb. 28, 2023. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoots failure to advance to a runoff election Tuesday represents an astonishing fall from power four years after she was ushered into City Hall with a promise of reform.

Instead, Lightfoot struggled through a storm of skyrocketing crime, the COVID-19 pandemic and a series of personality conflicts that left her labeled as a divisive leader who was unable to build political coalitions or maintain relationships.

Advertisement

Lightfoot conceded defeat late Tuesday, finishing third in the nine-candidate race behind former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas and Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson, who will face each other in the April 4 runoff election, according to unofficial results.

The difference between Lightfoots political position from four years ago couldnt be starker.

Advertisement

[ Para leer en espanol, haga clic aqui ]

Buoyed by a corruption scandal involving powerful Ald. Edward Burke, Lightfoot won all 50 wards in a 2019 runoff election against Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, defeating the powerful Democratic Party chairwoman as badly as Mayor Richard M. Daley used to beat political has-beens and nobodies, and making history as the first Black female and first openly gay Chicago mayor.

This time around, Lightfoot was dealt a political embarrassment unlike any suffered by a sitting mayor seeking reelection since Jane Byrne  the first and only other female mayor of Chicago  lost the 1983 Democratic primary to Harold Washington.

[ [Dont miss] Complete 2023 Chicago election results ]

Lightfoots transformation from breakout ballot-box star to also-ran centered on three key issues: a dramatic spike in crime during the pandemic, an astonishing array of conflicts with the citys political and civic communities, and the hellscape of challenges that came with the pandemic and civil unrest.

University of Illinois at Chicago professor emeritus Chris Mooney, speaking before Tuesdays election, said Lightfoot faced enormous problems outside her control and lacked a clear political base. Unlike Vallas, the only white contender in the nine-person race, or Jesus Chuy Garcia, the only Latino, she had to compete for votes with six Black candidates, including some who have been more deeply involved in South and West side communities.

Crime was a key issue confronting Lightfoot, as some residents went from seeing police reform as a key priority after the Minneapolis police murder of George Floyd to being more concerned about growing violence.

Then-mayoral candidate Lori Lightfoot celebrates with supporters after making the runoff election on Feb. 26, 2019. (Erin Hooley/Chicago Tribune)

Everyones whiplashed on this. The George Floyd (unrest), defund the police  (then) all of a sudden theres a couple carjackings and people are like, Bring in the white guy, Mooney said. This is a very difficult time and difficult to navigate what do we do about police reform. It would be difficult for anybody, and she hasnt shown the magic touch to figure it out.

Mooney also said Lightfoot hurt herself by being gratuitously pugnacious.

We like our Daleys and our Rahms. We complain about them but we say youve got to be tough to run the city of Chicago, Mooney said. Shes got that but almost in a gratuitous way. She picks fights for reasons unknown to most people.

Advertisement

Veteran political consultant Delmarie Cobb, also speaking before Tuesdays results were in, noted Lightfoots overly defensive approach to criticism, particularly around public safety, where she often scolded white audiences about how they were experiencing crime for the first time.

Lightfoot should have focused more on explaining the issues, Cobb said, rather than dismissing as haters those who had attacked her over crime.

[ [Dont miss] The battle for City Hall is on: Paul Vallas will face Brandon Johnson to become Chicagos next mayor ]

Shes not taken that tack, Cobb said. Instead, its, Im going to force-feed you into acknowledging that Ive done a good job.

On a more fundamental level, Cobb said, Lightfoot hasnt done enough to make herself into a likable person.

She took a page from Barack Obamas book where he said Im a blank slate, people project onto me what they want. Thats what people did in 2019. They knew everyone else. They figured they were part of the same machine, Cobb said. Lets go with someone else. Lets bring in the light. She was supposed to be the light. She did a better job disguising who she is in 2019 than she did in 2023.

Lightfoot campaigned for mayor in 2019 by arguing crime was too high, saying she wanted to make Chicago the safest big city in the country.

Advertisement

But homicides, mostly from gun violence, spiked dramatically in 2020 and 2021 from 500 murders in 2019 to 776 and 804 in the next two years, respectively. Shootings and carjackings also skyrocketed.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announces a 10 p.m. weekend curfew for minors to reduce crime on May 16, 2022, after a teenager was shot and killed in Millennium Park. (Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune)

Lightfoot has blamed rising crime on a mix of factors including a lenient court system and the pandemic. She also said her administration deserves credit for a 20% drop in shootings and 14% drop in homicides in 2022 compared with 2021.

Experts question whether a mayors policies can affect crime rates, which are influenced by broader societal factors. But Lightfoots opponents argued the city needed new leadership to undo both the reality of crime and the perception that the city is unsafe, and to continue investing in more police and social programs.

Vallas, who is endorsed by the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police, has staunchly stuck to this message, one that is received enthusiastically in more conservative communities on the Southwest and Northwest sides.

Public safety is a human right. The community is under siege, Vallas told a packed crowd last month at Dannys Pizza in Garfield Ridge, after lamenting what Lightfoot has done to our police department.

[ [Dont miss] What is a runoff election and why does Chicago have one? ]

On the campaign trail, Lightfoot struggled with how to address the issue.

Advertisement

I know for many of you, youre feeling a touch of violence, maybe for the very first time in your lives in Chicago, she recently told a North Side crowd. Lightfoot frequently invokes the sentiment, but it has struck some residents as out of touch or insensitive.

Lightfoot has also privately questioned the severity of the recent crime spikes. In a text exchange with a downtown alderman previously reported by the Tribune, Lightfoot said she shared his concern about crime but downplayed how bad it has been.

I will push back and say that it was not that long ago that River North was not a nice safe neighborhood and that is recent enough that I remember it, Lightfoot added.

Its been an issue she repeatedly tried to blunt even as critics and rivals used it against her. Her first TV ad featured two young men playing video games on a couch and arguing over crime, one pointing out: You know, we didnt get into this mess overnight.

A later ad took a defensive tone.

You wouldnt know it by watching the news or listening to the haters, says the narrator as he walks down a Chicago street, adding, but on crime, Lightfoot has a plan.

Advertisement

At the same time, the left flank of the citys political class hit Lightfoot on what theyve said is a string of broken promises from 2019, when she ran as a progressive. Those include abandoning commitments to a real estate transfer tax increase on high-price properties to fund programs for homeless people; an elected school board for Chicago Public Schools; and a fully staffed Department of Environment.

The mayor countered that the actual proposals put forth by supporters of those issues are flawed, arguing the state legislation mandating an elected school board beginning with the November 2024 election created a body that is too large, with 21 members, and doesnt account for financial entanglements between the city and CPS.

Johnson scored points among progressive audiences on the campaign trail by noting Lightfoots resistance to such proposals. When he turned in his nominating petitions in November, he summed up his motivation for running against her: The mayor of Chicago has been an incredible disappointment to me. She has broken nearly every single promise.

[ [Dont miss] The rest of the field: Some failed Chicago mayoral candidates will return to current positions, while others contemplate whats next ]

Lightfoot also drew criticism over her handling of the case of Anjanette Young, a social worker who was forced to stand naked during a botched raid by Chicago police. The mayors lawyers tried to withhold video of officers ignoring Young as she pleaded with them to let her put on clothes. Lightfoot falsely said she hadnt been aware of the case but later apologized and acknowledged she had gotten a detailed email about it, explaining that she simply forgot the exchange and wasnt lying.

At a 2019 campaign event, journalists Ben Joravsky and Mick Dumke asked Lightfoot if she could work with the Chicago Teachers Union despite their support for Preckwinkle, or if she would be Rahm-like in seeking vengeance.

You harm me mortally by comparing me to Rahm, Lightfoot quipped. Im not going to lead with my middle finger.

Advertisement

But over the past four years, Lightfoots personal approval took a nose-dive in part due to a series of conflicts and her defensive response to even mild criticism. Lightfoot at times alienated friends and allies who agreed with her on issues but disagreed with her scorched-earth approach to those who question her decisions.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot and police Superintendent David Brown greet new recruits before the start of the Chicago Police Department's graduation and promotion ceremony at Navy Pier on March 29, 2022. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)

Defending police Superintendent David Brown, Lightfoot said his detractors didnt know anything about public safety, even though the chorus of critics included some of her former top advisers on crime and policing. Amid a high suicide rate for Chicago cops and concerns raised by officers that they were being overworked as the department canceled their days off, Lightfoot said they have an incredible amount of time off.

Throughout her term, Lightfoot blamed high-profile crime incidents and a spike in homicides on Cook County judges and States Attorney Kim Foxx. But the mayor sometimes acted as a political chameleon and alienated residents with contradictory statements throughout the years, including both praising Foxx as our great states attorney before Black audiences and criticizing her in front of white ones.

Garcia attempted to pitch himself as the anti-Lightfoot when it comes to leadership style and personality. He frequently touted himself as a uniter on the campaign trail.

I endorsed (Lightfoot), but when she failed, instead of doing what a leader does  taking responsibility and solving problems  she dug in, Garcia said. Have you seen the finger-pointing between the mayor and the states attorney? The mayor and the courts? The mayor and the governor? Chicago knows me. I bring people together. I build constructive relationships. 

Her relationship with aldermen started poorly and worsened. Over the past four years, Lightfoot publicly and privately bad-mouthed her coequal branch of government on a regular basis. While negotiating her second budget, Lightfoot told aldermen who did not plan to vote for her spending plan, Dont come to me for s---.

Advertisement

In text messages, Lightfoot referred to one alderman as a dumb, dumb person of color being led astray by Ald. Burke, who is white. Other examples of her past epithets toward aldermen include remarks that Jason Ervin was full of crap, Brendan Reilly was bush league and Byron Sigcho-Lopez was a jackass.

During one City Council meeting, when she was upset with aldermen for delaying a vote on Celia Mezas appointment as corporation counsel, Lightfoot stormed off the dais to confront Ald. Jeanette Taylor, leading to an ugly encounter where they screamed at one another and pointed their fingers in each others faces.

Some of the aldermen Lightfoot has had scrapes with are former allies. In a remarkable break, Lightfoots hand-picked budget chair, Pat Dowell, endorsed Johnson for mayor. One of Lightfoots committee chairs, Roderick Sawyer, ran against her. At least three committee chairs and the councils president pro tempore publicly supported other candidates.

Ald. Susan Sadlowski Garza went from exchanging I love yous with the mayor via text message to publicly declaring she would absolutely not support her for reelection. I have never met anybody who has managed to piss off every single person they come in contact with  police, fire, teachers, aldermen, businesses, manufacturing, and thats it, Garza told the Readers Joravsky.

Lightfoot struggled mightily in Springfield too. Her relationship with Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker was filled with tension over the citys finances and COVID-19. One day, Lightfoot texted Pritzker to complain about his staff, even after he told her, Texting probably not the best way to communicate.

She also fought with Senate President Don Harmon. The conflicts had real-world consequences for her administration when state legislators approved the elected school board bill over her objections after she was unable to build a coalition to stop it.

Advertisement

Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks with Ald. Emma Mitts, 37th, following a City Council vote for a new map of the citys 50 wards at Chicago City Hall on May 16, 2022. (Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune)

Lightfoots feuds extended beyond the world of politics and into the business community. When McDonalds CEO Chris Kempczinski said his company would remain in Chicago but had concerns about crime, Lightfoot said he should educate himself before speaking. She accused Uber of paying off Black ministers to oppose a congestion tax. When the Bears announced they were pursuing a possible move to Arlington Heights, Lightfoot mockingly tweeted that they should focus on putting a winning team on the field, beating the Packers finally and being relevant past October.

At times, Lightfoot also was accused of punching down. In January 2021, Lightfoot sent staff an email where she wrote, I need office time everyday! sixteen times and repeated several other sentences in a message some compared with Jack Nicholsons descent into madness in the film The Shining. A former Park District lawyer filed a lawsuit claiming she mocked his legal training and that she boasted she had the biggest d--- in Chicago. (Lightfoot has denied that.)

During the early days of the pandemic, Lightfoot marched up to a group of young Black men in a playground on the West Side and told them to go home. Lets move on, move on, move on, Lightfoot said, flanked by Brown, staff and her police security detail. You want to take this virus back to your house, get your mama sick? As she walked away, one of the youths responded, You go home. The mayors message was well-intentioned but they were kids and the image of the citys most powerful woman scolding young folks while surrounded by police officers didnt sit right with some people.

Lightfoot also repeatedly interjected her race into controversies, drawing criticism even from Black supporters. When the chief of detectives disagreed with Lightfoot on a charging decision, she publicly suggested he cares more about white residents in Beverly than Black West Siders. In 2021, Lightfoot famously declared she would only speak with non-white journalists in interviews for her two-year anniversary, a move that generated criticism from white people who claimed discrimination and from journalists of color who said she was using them as political pawns.

During the 2020 presidential election, Lightfoot said she wouldnt consider endorsing Democratic candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, who she said didnt talk to her during the 2019 teachers strike. They were very supportive of the Chicago Teachers Union strike but didnt feel it was necessary to talk to the new black LGBTQ mayor, Lightfoot said.

Through it all, Lightfoot resisted pleas from friends and allies to temper her approach.

Advertisement

Look, Im 60 years old, Im not going to change who I am, she repeatedly told the press, a statement supporters and critics alike may have had in mind as they cast their votes.

gpratt @chicagotribune.com

ayin@chicagotribune.com
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP)  China sent 25 warplanes and three warships toward Taiwan on Wednesday morning, the island's Defense Ministry said, as tensions remain high between Beijing and Taipeis main backer Washington.

The ministry said 19 of those planes crossed into Taiwans air defense identification zone while the ships were continuing to operate in the Taiwan Strait. It said Taiwan responded by scrambling fighters, dispatching ships and activating coastal missile defense systems to closely monitor and respond.

China stages such incursions on a near-daily basis, part of what are termed gray zone" tactics, aimed at intimidation and wearing down Taiwans equipment, exhausting its personnel and degrading public morale. Those also include cyberwarfare and disinformation campaigns, along with a relentless drive to deprive Taiwan of diplomatic allies.

Taiwan has responded by upgrading its fleet of F-16 fighter jets and ordering 66 more of the planes from the U.S., while purchasing a range of other weaponry and extending its mandatory term of military service for all males from four months to one year.

Relations between Beijing and Washington, Taiwans primary ally and source of defensive weaponry, have spiraled over Chinas actions toward the island, trade, technology and the South China Sea.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled a visit to Beijing last month after the U.S. shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the U.S. east coast, drawing furious protests from China.

China claims Taiwan as its own territory to be brought under its control by force if necessary, and has been rapidly expanding its military to meet that challenge should it arise.

In memos and testimony, top U.S. officers have called for heightened preparations, saying China sees a shrinking window for action and may move on Taiwan within a few years.

China says it prefers peaceful unification between the sides, but the Taiwanese public overwhelmingly favors the current state of de-facto independence.

Wednesday's incursions were relatively modest by recent standards. During China's National Day weekend in 2021, Beijing dispatched 149 military aircraft southwest of Taiwan in strike group formations. In August, in response to a trip to Taiwan by then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, China staged war games surrounding the island simulating a blockade and fired missiles over it into the Pacific Ocean.

Along with ordering new hardware from the U.S., Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen has been pushing for a revitalization of the domestic defense industry, including producing conventionally powered submarines.
Tan France. Fiorella Occhipinti/Starbucks

Tan France told Insider the seventh season of "Queer Eye," in New Orleans, was the hardest to film.

He said he became emotional after seeing the long-term effects of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans.

France also said the coming season of "Next in Fashion" was upping the ante for contestants.

For the "Queer Eye" fashion guru Tan France, shooting the coming season of the award-winning reality show was an emotionally charged experience.

The seventh season of "Queer Eye," which doesn't have a release date yet, sees the Fab Five  France, Jonathan Van Ness, Karamo Brown, Bobby Berk, and Antoni Porowski  spend time in New Orleans.

But witnessing the long-term effects of Hurricane Katrina, which ravaged the city in 2005, proved particularly challenging for France.

"It was seeing just what has happened to the city and the state and to the people, and how it's affected them," France said in an interview while promoting his collaboration with Starbucks and its Spring Coffee Break campaign. "But my main emotions have changed in general ever since I became a parent. I just am a crier now. So I'm a lot more in touch with my emotions. And so there are many reasons why this was a much more emotional journey."

France and his husband, Rob, welcomed their son, Ismail, in July 2021.

Since then, the couple has made concerted efforts to protect Ismail, from shielding his identity on social media to building a new home with a schoolroom in Salt Lake City where they can homeschool Ismail with their friends' children.

France partnered with Starbucks for its Spring Coffee Break campaign. Fiorella Occhipinti/Starbucks

The style guru, who had Ismail with him in New Orleans while shooting "Queer Eye," teased at the people, or "heroes," who would be featured in the coming season.

"Each of our heroes come from a really diverse background  and by that, I don't mean just ethnic or sexuality," France said. "I mean, different from the lives that we live or what many people may live. New Orleans went through a heck of a lot of turmoil with the last couple of decades and how they've recovered and in many cases not recovered from that."

Story continues

"And so that story is very precious to really give our opinions on aspects or topics that we haven't really talked about on the show before," he added.

France also weighed in on the second season of Netflix's "Next in Fashion," which debuts Friday. France cohosts this new season with Gigi Hadid, who replaced Alexa Chung.

For France, shooting this season with Hadid was a cakewalk. The two friends have known each other for nearly five years and traded parenting tips  Hadid shares a 2-year-old daughter, Khai, with her ex-boyfriend Zayn Malik.

"It was just us talking about people's clothes that we would do on her sofa whilst watching TV  something that we do in real life basically," France recalled of filming the show with Hadid. "Nothing hard about that. The only hard part is that we are both new parents, and at that time, we would watch newer parents as they juggled personal life with work life."

But he said the show itself "was not hard at all," describing the experience as "five weeks of bliss."

Aside from "Next in Fashion" and "Queer Eye," France also recently partnered with Starbucks' Spring Coffee Break campaign to offer customers the chance to meet him for a virtual coffee date.

Read the original article on Insider
Siu Kong Sit, 37, is accused of placing the devices in an all-gender restroom at Beckman High School in Irvine, California. (IPD)

A California teacher was arrested for allegedly hiding recording devices in a toilet on the schools campus, according to police.

Siu Kong Sit, 37, is accused of placing the devices in an all-gender restroom at Beckman High School in Irvine, California.

Authorities say that the restroom where the device was found was near the schools swimming pool.

The devices were discovered by a maintenance worker who turned them over to the Tustin Unified School District.

Investigators say that several victims had been recorded and they are trying to identify those people who were captured by the devices.

During the course of the investigation, IPD detectives determined the recording devices were put in place by Beckman High School Teacher, Siu Kong Sit, Irvine Police Department said in a statement.

Mr Sit, of Santa Ana, was arrested at the school on Monday and booked into the Orange County Jail on charges of possessing or manufacturing child pornography, burglary and two misdemeanours.

He was a science teacher at the school, according to the schools website, and is being held on $20,000 bail, according to jail records.
The COVID pandemic  the topic that has dominated education conversations for the past three years  is largely missing from the State of the State addresses that governors are delivering to their legislatures this winter.

Instead, state leaders are using their bully pulpits to call for bigger investments in early learning and in the transition into the workforce and college. They are supporting better pay for public school teachers while pushing for public money to flow to private schools, which could ultimately make it more difficult to fund public school pay increases.

FutureEd analyzed 39 governors speeches and partnered with The 74 to convert our analysis into a series of interactive maps. We found that despite the academic gaps exposed in last years National Assessment for Educational Progress scores, there was surprisingly little talk of learning loss and efforts to catch students up. There was also little explicit culture war rhetoric around teaching racial history or banning books  and more lofty talk about the value of education.

Education is a great equalizer in our society, said Democratic Gov. Janet Mills in her Feb. 14 address to the Maine legislature. Every child, regardless of where they live, deserves a world-class education that will prepare them for a successful adulthood.

Here are some of the topics trending among the nations governors this year:

(Click here if you are having trouble viewing maps)

Teaching Profession

The teaching profession was a top priority across party lines, with 20 governors discussing ways to improve pay and support educators. Most of those governors proposed raising salaries, largely in response to shortages in their states but also as a way to recognize the important role teachers play.

In Kentucky, Democratic Gov. Andrew Beshear is supporting an across-the-board 5% pay hike, which he called both vital and necessary to address Kentuckys shortage of nearly 11,000 public school teachers. Idaho Republican Gov. Brad Little also pledged to increase salaries  both for starting teachers and for all instructors  by an average of $6,300 annually because students and their families deserve quality teachers who are respected and compensated competitively.

Story continues

South Carolina Republican Gov. Henry McMaster took a different approach, offering both salary increases and one-time $2,500 retention bonuses, paid out in two installments. Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin wants to provide retention bonuses as well as $50 million in performance-based compensations. Republican state leaders began supporting teacher pay hikes in response to widespread teacher protests against low pay in red states in the years before the pandemic  perhaps realizing that many rank-and-file teachers in their states are Republicans, even though teacher unions, favorite Republican political foils, lean left.

Related: Principals View: To Fix Learning Losses, Expand Loan Forgiveness for Educators

Governors also pitched additional strategies to address recruitment and retention challenges. Maryland Democratic Gov. Wes Moore is pushing legislation to strengthen the teacher pipeline with loan forgiveness, fellowships and grow-your-own programs. Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp is proposing grants to help paraprofessionals become teachers. Nevada Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo is adding $30 million to provide stipends and tuition for student teachers. And in Wisconsin, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers announced plans to invest more than $20 million in recruiting, developing, and retaining teachers and student teachers.

School Choice

Unlike the bipartisan support for teacher compensation, the school choice proposals in 13 State of the State addresses nearly all came from Republican governors. The only Democratic governor to broach the subject, Arizonas Katie Hobbs, pledged to provide more accountability for a broad expansion of education savings accounts that her predecessor pushed through the legislature. Any school that accepts taxpayer dollars should have to abide by the same accountability standards that all district schools do, she said.

Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds proposed, and has since signed, a measure that would provide nearly $8,000 in state funding to each family who sends their child to a private school  the same amount the state provides for each public school student. Every parent should have a choice of where to send their child  and that choice shouldnt be limited to families who can afford it, she said. Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine proposed expanding eligibility for the states voucher program to include middle-class families. He also proposed increasing funding for charter schools.

Some governors emphasized the importance of parents in making educational decisions for their children, including Idahos Little, who plans to make permanent a grant program that helps families pay for such educational expenses as computers, instructional materials and tutoring.

While school choice programs open to all students, like those in Iowa and Arizona, are drawing much of the attention  and criticism  this year, governors in Nebraska and South Dakota have focused specifically on children in need, including those in foster care or living in poverty.

Curriculum and Instruction

With support for the science of reading sweeping the country, governors are responding with calls for explicit, evidence-based reading instruction. The evidence is clear. The verdict is in. There is a great deal of research about how we learn to read. And today, we understand the great value and importance of phonics, said Ohios DeWine, one of 10 governors who mentioned literacy in their speeches; altogether, 17 proposed some sort of curriculum initiatives or restrictions.

Some governors, such as Iowas Reynolds, are focusing on training teachers to implement reading initiatives. Youngkin called for extending the use of reading specialists under the Virginia Literacy Act to fifth grade.

In Wisconsin, Evers announced a $20 million investment to increase literacy programming and implement evidence-based reading practices. He, along with Youngkin and Colorado Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, also proposed investments in high-quality math curricula, training and support.

In Nevada, Lombardo wants to reinstate a rule holding back students who arent reading proficiently, and Indiana Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb is proposing to reward schools that improve their third-grade reading results.

Related: The Evidence is Clear: Ohio Gov Pushes For Science of Reading As Only Approach

This focus on literacy and academic initiatives marks a big shift from last year, when culture wars and critical race theory were prominent in the State of the State addresses. Mississippi Republican Gov. Tate Reeves is one of the exceptions, with comments on gender and sexuality. There is no room in our schools for policies that attempt to undercut parents and require the usage of pronouns or names that fail to correspond with reality, he said in proposing a Parents Bill of Rights requiring schools to adhere to the will of the parents on such matters.

Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott framed his push for education savings accounts as a way to empower parents and to fight woke agendas and indoctrination. Likewise, West Virginia Republican Gov. Jim Justice voiced support for parents rights by directing school districts to make all curricula available online, where we can see every single thing thats being put into our little kids heads.

In Illinois, Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker spoke out against restricting whats taught in schools, saying it undermines historic investments in education. Its all meaningless if we become a nation that bans books from school libraries about racism suffered by Roberto Clemente and Hank Aaron, and tells kids they cant talk about being gay, and signals to Black and brown people and Asian Americans and Jews and Muslims that our authentic stories cant be told, he said.

Higher Education

College affordability emerged as a top priority among the 20 governors who mentioned higher education, but their proposed solutions differed across party lines. Governors from both parties called for expanded scholarship programs, but only Republicans  from South Carolina, Utah and Virginia  called for tuition freezes. GOP governors were also the only ones to mention repairing aging campus buildings, with proposed investments ranging from $65 million in Nevada to $275 million in Missouri.

New Mexico Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham touted her states program that provides free public higher education to all state residents, and Illinoiss Pritzker pledged another $100 million for scholarships helping to make community college free for eligible students. Others pushed for expanded scholarship programs: Arizonas Hobbs is allocating $40 million to create the Promise for DREAMers Scholarship Program, while North Dakota Republican Gov. Doug Burgum is doubling his states investment in the Native American Scholarship program. Governors in other states, including Montana, Georgia and Hawaii, emphasized the need for expanded scholarships and programs to encourage students to become health care providers.

Several governors proposed using these investments to encourage students to stay in their state for college and ideally, for their careers. Indianas Holcomb pitched a $184 million increase in higher education funding to reward universities for keeping their graduates in careers in our state. After all, Indianas college campuses need to be the epicenters of brain gain  not brain drain! Nebraska Republican Gov. Jim Pillen offered $39.4 million to fund over 4,200 scholarships for Nebraska students attending school in state.

Workforce Development

At least 25 governors across the political spectrum voiced support for improving students career readiness, including through apprenticeships and dual-enrollment programs.

Virginias Youngkin hopes to accelerate dual-enrollment partnerships between high schools and community colleges so that eventually, every child graduates with an industry recognized credential. Kentuckys Beshear announced a $245 million investment to renovate and rebuild career and technical centers in high schools. And Colorados Polis argued for career-connected learning in high school.

Related: Perdue: Dual Enrollment Can Help Fix the High School-to-College Pathway for Students Hit Hardest by COVID-19

Apprenticeships were a large focus, with Iowas Reynolds increasing funding for health care apprenticeships, Missouri Republican Gov. Mike Parson expanding apprenticeships in areas such as information technology and public safety, and Montana Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte doubling the Trades Education Credit. Wisconsins Evers is connecting apprenticeships to other initiatives, including through a $10 million investment in clean energy job training and reemployment.

Early Education

Even as Congress failed to fund early care and early education in recent spending packages, 16 governors from both parties made the early years a priority in their speeches.

Pritzker announced a broad Smart Start Illinois plan to expand access to pre-K and child care, help build new facilities and ramp up home visiting programs for young families. While only Democratic governors  including those in Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and New Mexico  discussed the need for universal pre-K, several Republican governors also advocated for expanding early learning and child care options, particularly better access for kids from low-income families. For example, Missouris Parson is planning to invest $56 million to expand pre-K options for low-income children, and Nevadas Lombardo is providing $60 million for similar efforts.

Governors are also calling for bureaucratic changes: New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul wants to make it easier for eligible parents to access child care assistance, saying, Less than 10% of families who are eligible  are actually enrolled. This is the legacy of a system that is difficult to navigate  by design. That has to change. Similarly, South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem said her state would work with providers to overhaul rules and regulations.

Thirteen governors acknowledged the rise in mental health challenges post-pandemic and the need to expand access to services, particularly for children and teens. Some focused specifically on school-based services, while others supported community-based approaches.

Mental Health

Several Democratic governors called for increasing the number of school counselors, psychologists and social workers, including Kansas Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, who is proposing to expand Mental Health Intervention Teams in schools. In Wisconsin, Evers announced he is investing more than $270 million to allow every district to expand school-based mental health services.

Though largely a priority among Democrats, mental health also came up in a few Republican speeches: Missouris Parson proposed an additional $3.5 million for more youth behavioral-health liaisons, and Ohios DeWine hopes to address the shortage of pediatric behavioral-health professionals and facilities.

While the culture wars and other divisive political issues continue to play out in schools and colleges, it is perhaps encouraging to see significant numbers of state leaders from both parties proposing pragmatic policy responses to teacher shortages, student mental health needs, low reading scores and other systemic challenges facing the nations educators.

Maps by The 74s Meghan Gallagher
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP)  Nebraska lawmakers are considering a bill that would allow teachers and school staff to physically restrain disruptive students and remove them from classrooms without fear of being disciplined, even as critics say physical restraint has been used disproportionately against minority and disabled students.

State Sen. Dave Murman, who introduced the bill, told the Nebraska Legislature's Education Committee on Tuesday that the bill is needed to protect teachers and students, recounting news reports of violent behavior by elementary aged students in several instances across the state.

Friends, we have got to do something here, Murman said. These acts have left several teachers traumatized and looking for a new line of work.

The action comes as the national debate over unruly students and how to handle them has ramped up in recent months. In Arkansas, the governor just signed a bill that expanded its existing restraint law to add that  in addition to teachers  other school staff can also restrain students in some cases. Some states still allow corporal punishment, and in Missouri, a school district in the southwestern region of the state last year reinstituted student spanking as a form of discipline, as long as their parents agree to it.

But other states  including California, Texas, Idaho and New York  have introduced bills this year that would put limits on restraining and sequestering students.

While the Nebraska bill specifically prohibits the use of physical contact to inflict pain or as punishment for a student's behavior, civil liberties advocates oppose the policy, largely out of concern that it would make Black and Native American students and those with disabilities more likely to be removed from classrooms.

That includes Rose Godinez, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska, who said the answer to disruptive students is more funding, resources and training for teachers.

Story continues

It is disheartening to see state senators take another run at passing this misguided bill that could risk kids well-being and educational opportunities, Godinez said. We will oppose this bill every step of the way and will advocate alongside parents, guardians and teachers to protect students rights.

But the measure  which lawmakers have tried over several years to pass  has the support of the state's largest teachers union. Isau Metes, representing the Nebraska State Education Association, said she has herself physically intervened in a fight between students when she was a teacher in Lincoln, knowing she could face discipline for doing so. While she didn't face any reprisal for doing so, she knows of teachers who have been fired for breaking up fights, she said.

The teachers union noted that the Nebraska bill allocates lottery funds to provide behavior awareness and intervention awareness training, including learning how to spot trauma and engage in verbal intervention and de-escalation techniques. It would also require annual reports on school staff's use of physical intervention with students.

School violence is on the rise across the state. Students do not have the ability to cope or self soothe when triggered. Educators do not have the tools to help support their students and ensure safety in the classroom," Metes said. "This bill is about protecting students. I will be blunt with you senators; I can take a punch. I am not in fear for my safety. I am in fear for my students.

Metes and one other person testified in support of the bill, but the measure drew opposition from more than a dozen others, including the Omaha Public School District and the Nebraska Council of School Administrators.

Dunixi Guereca, executive director of the Nebraska-based public schools advocacy group Stand For Schools, agreed with other opponents that the bill is worded so vaguely as to shield teachers who physically restrain students from legal liability. The bill does not define the terms physical intervention or its reasonable use, he said, and it's unclear if the bill would shield a teacher who physically intervenes in a fight between two students after school.

It is simply unnecessary to enumerate these protections in statute, and we fear that putting this language in statute will encourage the use of physical intervention in Nebraska schools, Guereca said.

The Nebraska committee will determine at a later date whether to advance the bill to the full Legislature.
At least one MV Realty customer has questions after the company said it is stopping entering into new agreements.

The realty company has been accused of swindling homeowners into 40-year-old liens across the country, including here in the Miami Valley.

>> RELATED: I-TEAM: MV Realty halts entering into new agreements to address concerns about contracts

In a statement to the I-Team Tuesday, a company spokesperson said, MV Realty has voluntarily temporarily suspended entering into new customers contracts as we work to address the concerns raised by regulators and legislators. The Company remains confident that the Homeowner Benefit Program fully complies with the law and benefits consumers who receive a cash incentive to select MV Realty as their listing agent.

Debbie Chasteen, of Carlisle, has been a MV Realty customer since June. She said the move by the company is not helping those who have already entered into contracts with them.

They need to go back and make them do something with the old contracts also, Chasteen said.

Earlier this month, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost sued the company, making Ohio the fourth state to do so. Ohios lawsuit aims to halt new MV Realty agreements and is the only lawsuit that doesnt mention existing deals.

>>PREVIOUS COVERAGE: I-TEAM: Ohio AG announces lawsuit against MV Realty, founder, broker for misleading customers

The Ohio AGs office did not give the I-Team a direct answer when we asked what their legal action means for more than 700 Ohioans just like Chasteen, who have already signed contracts with the company.

I just want the contract tore up and gotten rid of. And thats my big concern. You know, I just want it gone. You know, its a lot of stress, Chasteen said.

Chasteen said she plans to reach out to the Ohio AGs office to file a consumer complaint about MV Realty. She also said she has reached out to the Florida AG.

The I-Team spoke with Sarah Mancini, an attorney with the National Consumer Law Center, about MVs decision to halt entering into new agreements.

Story continues

>> ORIGINAL REPORT: I-TEAM: Ohio AG announces lawsuit against MV Realty, founder, broker for misleading customers

To see legal challenges being brought by multiple state attorneys general and all of the attention on their practices, it seems like the company is reacting by saying we better stop and and allow these things to play out and see which way its going to go, Mancini said.

She called the move to halt new agreements a huge win for consumers.

I think its a huge win for consumers to have this business practice stop because there are so, so many problems with it and so many people that have not understood what they were getting into, Mancini said.








US Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) arrives for a US Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing to examine the Justice Department on March 1, 2023. STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images

Sen. Ted Cruz pressed AG Merrick Garland over the DOJ's response to protests outside Supreme Court justices' homes.

Garland testified that he ordered more than 70 US Marshals to provide nonstop security to the justices and their families.

Cruz accused Garland and the DOJ of being politically biased.

Sen. Ted Cruz on Wednesday pressed Attorney General Merrick Garland over his response to the protests that erupted outside of several of the Supreme Court justices' homes last spring following a leaked opinion that showed the conservative majority was ready to toss out abortion rights.

The Texas Republican condemned the protestors as rioters and extremists organizing harassment campaigns against the justices and accused Garland of inaction.

"The Department of Justice under this president was perfectly happy to refuse to enforce the law and allow threats of violence," Cruz told Garland during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on oversight of the Department of Justice.

Cruz questioned Garland particularly on whether the DOJ had charged anyone in connection to the protests, pointing to a federal statute that prohibits picketing or parading outside near judges' homes with the intent of influencing them.

Garland, a former longtime federal judge, disputed Cruz's characterization that the DOJ failed to respond to the protests, noting that he took historic steps to protect the justices and their families by ordering more than 70 US Marshals to provide non-stop security to them.

The back-and-forth grew heated as Cruz repeatedly shouted over and interrupted Garland as he tried to answer whether any protestors had been arrested and how the DOJ enforces the statute. Garland responded that the US Marshals' No. 1 priority is to defend the lives of the justices, but isn't aware of any cases that have been brought against protestors.

"Can I answer the question?" Garland said at one point.

"No, you cannot, you have refused to answer the question," Cruz responded.

Story continues

Wednesday's hearing, Garland's first before the 118th Congress, comes as Republicans have widely accused the DOJ and FBI of becoming politicized. Those criticisms heightened after FBI officials searched former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home related to an investigation over his potential mishandling of classified documents. Garland appointed special counsel Jack Smith in November to oversee the probe.

As it relates to culture wars, Republicans have also accused the department of helping tech companies censor conservative voices on their platforms and of showing bias against parents involved in school curriculum fights, anti-abortion groups and churches.

Cruz began his questioning on Wednesday by criticizing the DOJ as politically motivated and claimed that Garland disagreed with the Supreme Court's June 24 ruling, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, that overturned Roe v. Wade.

"Your failure to act to protect the safety of the justices and their families was an obvious product of political bias," Cruz said.

Garland firmly rejected Cruz's criticisms of the DOJ and defended the agency's work and its employees. "I believe the men and women of the department pursue their work every single day in a non-partisan and appropriate way," the attorney general said.

Other Republicans on the committee, including Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, similarly raised concerns about DOJ's handling of the protests outside Supreme Court justices' homes last year.

"It's very clear that they're trying to influence in one way or another those serving on the United States Supreme Court," Lee said. "And yet not one person, to my knowledge, has been prosecuted for such things."

President Joe Biden signed a bill into law last summer that extended security protections to the Supreme Court justices' families amid the protests and after an armed man near Justice Brett Kavanaugh's home was arrested for threatening to kidnap or kill him.

Read the original article on Business Insider
If you're looking for a multi-bagger, there's a few things to keep an eye out for. One common approach is to try and find a company with returns on capital employed (ROCE) that are increasing, in conjunction with a growing amount of capital employed. Basically this means that a company has profitable initiatives that it can continue to reinvest in, which is a trait of a compounding machine. Although, when we looked at TELUS (TSE:T), it didn't seem to tick all of these boxes.

What Is Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)?

If you haven't worked with ROCE before, it measures the 'return' (pre-tax profit) a company generates from capital employed in its business. The formula for this calculation on TELUS is:

Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT)  (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)

0.067 = CA$3.1b  (CA$54b - CA$8.3b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2022).

Thus, TELUS has an ROCE of 6.7%. On its own that's a low return on capital but it's in line with the industry's average returns of 7.1%.

Check out our latest analysis for TELUS

roce

In the above chart we have measured TELUS' prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you're interested, you can view the analysts predictions in our free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us

In terms of TELUS' historical ROCE movements, the trend isn't fantastic. Over the last five years, returns on capital have decreased to 6.7% from 11% five years ago. On the other hand, the company has been employing more capital without a corresponding improvement in sales in the last year, which could suggest these investments are longer term plays. It may take some time before the company starts to see any change in earnings from these investments.

The Bottom Line

Bringing it all together, while we're somewhat encouraged by TELUS' reinvestment in its own business, we're aware that returns are shrinking. Although the market must be expecting these trends to improve because the stock has gained 44% over the last five years. Ultimately, if the underlying trends persist, we wouldn't hold our breath on it being a multi-bagger going forward.

Story continues

One final note, you should learn about the 3 warning signs we've spotted with TELUS (including 1 which is concerning) .

While TELUS isn't earning the highest return, check out this free list of companies that are earning high returns on equity with solid balance sheets.

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
Election judge Marisol Diaz, center, helps a voter feed her ballot into the machine at Lawn Lanes bowling alley in Chicagos 23rd Ward on Feb. 28, 2023. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)

Were not done.

Following Tuesdays balloting, Chicagoans have one more Election Day to get through to determine who will be mayor as well as several races for City Council.

Advertisement

In five weeks, on April 4, voters will decide if former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas or Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson will be Chicagos next mayor, as well as who will win the aldermans seat in several council races. Were here because none of the candidates in those races received more than half of the vote on Tuesday, triggering a runoff election in which the top two candidates face off.

It wasnt always this way.

Advertisement

[ Para leer en espanol, haga clic aqui ]

Chicago used to have municipal primaries and general elections just like we see every two years for either statewide (governor, attorney general, etc.) or national (president) campaigns for office.

But that all changed in 1999 when a new state law went into effect that not only created the two-round structure for Chicago races, it also made municipal elections in Illinois nonpartisan. Thats right, even though every candidate running for mayor since has tried to wear their Democratic Party bona fides like a badge of honor, none of them were officially running as Democrats.

[ [Dont miss] The battle for City Hall is on: Paul Vallas will face Brandon Johnson to become Chicagos next mayor ]

[ [Dont miss] In 4 years, Lori Lightfoot went from breakout political star to divisive mayor of a Chicago beset by pandemic and crime ]

The legislation was passed in 1995 by the Republican-controlled Illinois General Assembly and signed into law by GOP Gov. Jim Edgar. But then-Mayor Richard M. Daley, a Democrat, didnt object.

Many Black politicians saw the move as a coordinated scheme by white Democrats and Republicans to thwart African American mayoral aspirations. At the time, the Harold Washington Party, named after the citys first Black mayor, was a significant third party in municipal elections, and party leaders thought making the city elections fully nonpartisan would hurt their chances.

After the new law went into effect, it certainly didnt hurt Daleys efforts for reelection. He won in 1999, 2003 and 2007 without ever being forced into a runoff.

In 2011, after Daley decided not to run for another term, Rahm Emanuel, the former congressman and chief of staff to President Barack Obama, won in the first round as well.

Chicago finally had its first runoff in 2015 when Jesus Chuy Garcia forced Emanuel into a second round of voting, though Emanuel won.

In 2019, with 14 candidates running for an open seat because Emanuel opted against trying for a third term, Toni Preckwinkle and Lori Lightfoot were the two top vote-getters and made the runoff, with Lightfoot winning.

Advertisement

So here we are again and city history will again be made as Vallas and Johnson participate in the citys third-ever mayoral runoff.
(Allie Phillips)

At her prenatal checkup last week, Allie Phillips was told by her obstetrician that she would need to travel out of state if she wanted to terminate a non-viable pregnancy.

The pregnancy didnt catch her by surprise. Ms Phillips, 28, and her husband had been trying for a baby and were delighted when they found out her daughter would become a big sister.

During an ultrasound last Monday, her doctor first told her that the baby on the way had issues with her kidneys, bladder and amniotic fluid and referred Ms Phillips to a high-risk pregnancy specialist. The diagnosis that followed was even more devastating: Baby Miley had only two heart chambers and suffered from a rare brain defect known as holoprosencephaly.

I just lay there and I stared at the screen because they had the image stopped where her brain was, Ms Phillips tells The Independent. I was just staring at it, trying to understand, What do I do now? Is she going to live?

Miley is not compatible with life, doctors told Ms Phillips. Because Tennesse is among 13 states in the US with a full abortion ban, doctors could not offer resources for Ms Phillips to terminate her pregnancy  even while she waited for an inevitable miscarriage that would only cause her more psychological distress and put her at risk, as well as prolong the fetus suffering.

Healthcare providers told Ms Phillips and her husband that Miley would only deteriorate further the longer she was in the womb. Even if she challenged the 3 percent odds of survival at birth, she would go straight into hospice.

They didnt think waiting to have a stillborn was healthy for me. Physically, mentally, Ms Phillips said as she fought tears. To continue my pregnancy and wait for her to die, thats an awful way to wake up every day. Thinking, Is my baby gonna die today?

Ms Phillips story, which she first shared with her followers on TikTok, has reignited a debate about the dire state of reproductive healthcare in America following the Supreme Courts decision last summer to overturn Roe v Wade.

Story continues

Left with no option but to leave her daughter in Tennessee to access abortion care out of state, Ms Phillips had to go through the overwhelming process of getting quotes from clinics across the country to find an affordable option. Thanks to donations she received through a GoFundMe account to cover the expenses, she will be travelling to New York to say goodbye to Miley.

Amid the challenges, Ms Phillips has also encountered the support of strangers who are following her story. Her TikTok discussing Mileys diagnosis has reached more than 200,000 views and 23,000 comments.

Allie Phillips, 28, and her husband had been trying for a baby and were delighted when they found out her daughter would become a big sister (Allie Phillips)

I will not give birth to Miley for her to gasp for air for 20 minutes

After sharing her story online, Ms Phillips was bombarded with messages accusing her of murdering her baby. Other users condemned her for giving up on Miley. Nothing could be farther from the truth, Ms Phillips says.

Following her ultrasound on 20 February, Ms Phillips was warned that her daughter had some complications but she remained hopeful that doctors would be able to find a treatment.

When her obstetrician told her there was no amniotic fluid in the womb, she tripled her water intake to ensure that Miley would be okay. Ms Phillips looked up a wide range of conditions online that could have explained her babys kidney issues and was ready to undergo any treatment that was needed.

So, when she arrived at the appointment with a high-risk pregnancy obstetrician on 24 February, Ms Phillips was holding onto hope that everything could be fixed.

[The technician] took pictures and looked around at everything, Ms Phillips recounts. I asked about the amniotic fluid and she said, There is some, its not much though.

And I said, Well, at least theres some now, there wasnt any four days ago. I looked at my husband and I was like, Well, see, its a good thing she has fluid. Not for a moment the entire week did I think something was going to be wrong with her heart and brain. I thought, OK, kidneys. Kidneys and fluid. Thats it.

The technician briefly left the room to bring the doctor in, who then pointed at a line in the middle of the babys skull that showed Mileys brain had not split appropriately, Ms Phillips said.

Ms Phillips and her family were excited after finding out about her pregnancy (Allie Phillips)

They showed me that there were only two chambers that had formed when there should be four, she told The Independent.

The baby was the size of a 15-week-old fetus at 19 weeks, and she is not expected to grow any bigger. Her health issues, doctors told their mother, left no place for treatment.

She [told me], Unfortunately, I cant give you any resources on anything here  You would have to look out of state for that, Ms Phillips recounted overcome with emotion. She said, These birth defects  there are no treatments for them right now, theres nothing that I can do. Theres nothing that any doctor can do that would help.

As she was leaving the clinic, Ms Phillips was given ultrasound pictures of Miley.

Earlier this month, she and her husband had taken a snapshot of her grinning five-year-old daughter wearing her Big Sis shirt and holding a board announcing Mileys expected birth.

So little, so sweet. A baby girl we shall meet July 2023, it read.

Just days before the tragic news, Ms Phillips says she had a dream about bringing a perfectly healthy baby girl home.

Ms Phillips was told by doctors that her pregnancy is not viable and will end in a miscarriage (Allie Phillips)

I just came in my room and I lay in my bed and I went to sleep. I tried to convince myself that maybe when I woke up, it was just a bad dream, she told The Independent.

After a discussion with her husband and her parents, Ms Phillips decided to terminate her pregnancy. Both for her and Mileys sake.

If there was a sliver, a tiny, tiny sliver chance, if that doctor said there is a possibility, we would have taken it in a second, Ms Phillips said.

Ms Phillips says that shes also been given unsolicited advice about continuing her pregnancy to strive for the nearly impossible chance that Miley will be alive, even if for just a few hours, after birth. Tennessee has no explicit exemptions in the ban but includes an affirmative defense  meaning the physician must prove that an abortion was medically necessary to save the mothers life or to spare her from irreversible, severe impairment, instead of requiring the state to prove the opposite.

Im not going to give birth to her for her to gasp for air for, what, 20 minutes? she said.

Were not doing exceptions, its abortion for all

Ms Phillips does not wish her situation on anybody, but is proud that her story has reached so many people.

As awful as the situation is, Im glad its restarted a conversation because I was in that group of people that was just outraged when Roe v Wade was overturned, she tells The Independent. I was in the group of people that was outraged. When Bill Lee banned abortions in Tennessee. I have been an advocate for womens rights as much as I possibly can.

In Tennessee, lawmakers approved the abortion ban in 2019, with the law taking effect just 30 days after Roe v Wade was struck down in July 2022. Last week, the states Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti urged Republicans to insert exemptions into one of the strictest bans in the country.

Ms Phillips says that while some people online have been empathetic with the circumstances surrounding her abortion, it is pivotal to ensure abortion rights for all women, regardless of their reasons to seek them.

It gives me an understanding of why, Ms Miley said. This was Mileys purpose. This is why I got pregnant. So this story can be told. And so these laws can change, hopefully.

She added: A lot of people in the comments say, I dont like abortions when people just use them as birth control but I think reasons like this should be accepted. Im like, No, were not doing exceptions, its abortion for all. Abortion is healthcare and they shouldnt be regulating who can and cannot get healthcare.

Also  nobody has been able to give me a single [example of somebody] who actually uses abortions as birth control. Abortions are expensive.

The baby has issues with her kidneys, heart and brain (Allie Phillips)

Ms Phillips says she had that realisation first-hand when trying to find an abortion clinic that offered a price she could afford. She and her mother phoned clinics in Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts and New York to figure out which facility offered the procedure at 20 weeks or longer and at an affordable rate.

The process was exhausting and devastating, Ms Phillips says.

There was a place in Illinois. They said they could get me in tomorrow and it would be $1,500 and I said, Well, you know, thats really short notice. What about next week? she recalled. And she said, Well if you come in next week at 21 weeks, its $2,500. I cannot afford that, thats how much I make a month.

She also had very painful conversations, including one in which she asked whether they would take into consideration that her daughter stopped growing at 15 weeks and charged her accordingly  a glaring reminder of the consequences of politicians decisions over womens bodies.

Ms Phillips eventually found a clinic in New York that offered her an abortion for $700.

If by some magical miracle, she hits a growth spurt over the week and shot up five weeks of development in a few days, then itll be just over $1000, Ms Phillips says. But if she stays at 15 weeks then its around $700.00.

However, she doesnt know whether shell be able to bring Mileys ashes back home with her. The clinic told her that they would send Mileys remains to Tennessee so she can be cremated there, but Ms Phillips might not be able to afford it.

In addition to budgeting for her and her husbands plane tickets, hotel stays and transportation, she says she is also trying to wrap her mind around the paperwork needed to get Miley cremated.

Even then, she is unsure whether Miley, who is only 5oz, can actually be cremated.

If they cremate her and theres nothing to salvage, then you know, I mean, what can you do? Ms Phillips said through tears. I dont know. You know, she doesnt have the tissue and bone structure.

People in the New York and New Jersey area have also reached out offering resources for fetal cremation and are actively trying to help Ms Phillips find something that will work out for her. Still, Ms Phillips says she should not have been put in this position in the first place.

While a bill is in the works to give physicians more room to determine when an abortion is needed to save the mothers life, plenty of gray areas in Tennessees trigger law force women seeking abortions to find solutions on their own.

I really dont wish this on anybody, ever. This isnt something that anybody should have to go through, she added. Not just losing a child that you wanted, but having to work around some stupid a** politicians law because they just care more about forcing women [to have children].
A national restaurant chain that is known for tacos, burritos, nachos and other Tex-Mex favorites has its eyes on the Columbia area.

Tijuana Flats, a Florida-based fast-casual restaurant chain, is looking to aggressively expand its franchise locations in the next three years, according to a news release. That includes an interest in breaking into the Columbia-area market.

Currently, the chain has more than 120 restaurants spread across Florida, North Carolina, Indiana, Virginia and Illinois. Now the company is seeking franchisees to open dozens of new stores across the Southeast in coming years, including in South Carolina.

Specifically, the Tex-Mex restaurant is seeking sophisticated franchise partners with multi-unit experience and the ability to open three or more locations, a release said. The company is offering certain growth incentives to franchisees who sign on by Dec. 1.

This is an opportunity to franchise with one of the boldest brands in the fast-casual restaurant space, Tijuana Flats CEO Joe Christina said in a release. Our goal is to open 50 restaurants (across the Southeast) in the next three years, and we are offering a robust financial model paired with an aggressive incentive program and flexible location opportunities.

With a slogan of Tex-Mex For All, Tijuana Flats has a menu that includes everything from Baja fish tacos to double stack cheesy tacos to a queso blanco carnitas chimichanga and beyond. It also offers desserts such as churro bites and cookie dough flautas, among other treats.

Those interested in franchise opportunities can visit ownaflats.com.

National restaurant brands have continued to point toward the Columbia area for expansion.

For instance, last year Taco Johns, a fast food Mexican chain with more than 400 locations across 21 states, told The State it was seeking franchisees to open stores in the Midlands. Also, California-based Daves Hot Chicken has set its sights on the area. Franchisee Kal Gullapalli recently announced the first Midlands Daves location would be at 4601-A Devine St. in Columbia.
A controversial Texas Senate bill will change its proposed policy to remove a stipulation that would ban all Chinese citizens from buying homes in the state, its author said.

Republican state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, who authored Senate Bill 147, is changing course after having heard concerns about her original legislation. Major changes would ensure the property prohibitions in the bill applied only to foreign governments  not individuals seeking to buy homes, she said.

I have listened to concerns and because of that, the committee substitute will make it crystal clear that dual citizens and legal permanent residents are able to purchase property, she said in a news release. In fact, anyone fleeing these authoritarian regimes will be able to purchase a home.

SB 147, introduced in December, gained support among Republicans like Gov. Greg Abbott for proposing a ban on property ownership by any citizen of North Korea, Iran, Russia or China. In its original form, the bill included houses and residences.

The following may not purchase or otherwise acquire title to real property in this state  an individual who is a citizen of China, Iran, North Korea, or Russia, the bill currently reads.

But, walking back the wording, Kolkhorst said that will no longer be the case. She plans to introduce a variety of changes when the bill reaches committee Thursday, she said in her statement.

Texas State Senator Lois Kolkhorst during a committee hearing on Dec. 15, 2022. (Dylan Hollingsworth / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The changes will denote that the bill wouldnt apply to the purchase of homestead residences and that dual citizens and permanent residents would be completely exempt. The goal of this bill is to legislate common sense safeguards against Russian, North Korean, Chinese, and Iranian authoritarian regimes, she said. It will not apply to those fleeing the tyranny of those governments who seek freedom in Texas. The committee substitute makes important clarifications, so the law targets agents of these adversarial regimes while not harming innocent Texans in pursuit of the American dream.

Story continues

In response to a request for additional comment, a representative for Kolkhorst directed NBC News to the coming public committee hearing.

In the last month, a movement of Asian Americans in Texas has been dedicated to removing SB 147, which many fear could threaten their futures in the state. Some compared the bill to anti-Asian legislation like the Chinese Exclusion Act and alien land laws of the 19th and 20th centuries.

If were here legally, why do we have to get excluded? Chinese Texan and activist Ling Luo asked in February. Youre targeting people without citizenship, but how do you tell who is a citizen? Will we have to hold our passports every day in our handbag?

Luo led hundreds of people as they marched through major cities in Texas, demanding their voices be heard before the bill reached Abbotts desk. In its current form, Rice University political science professor Mark Jones said, its unconstitutional.

They didnt take into account that you have a nontrivial number of legal permanent residents and citizens who also have passports from these countries, he said last month. They also didnt fully take into account the impact that it might have on residential housing or commercial properties.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
A Texas teacher allegedly taped a student to a chair Wednesday because "he wouldn't be still," according to the child's mother.

Charlotte Johnson said her 10-year-old son, Zye, was taped to a chair by his fourth-grade teacher at Crosby Elementary School in Forney, about 30 minutes from Dallas.

"I'm very emotional. I haven't had any sleep," Johnson said. "That's something you don't do to a child."

Zye told his mother his teacher grabbed him by the arm after lunchtime Wednesday and led him to his chair, Johnson said. The teacher enlisted the help of two other students  one to hold him down by his other arm and the other to get some tape, Johnson said. The teacher then taped Zye's body down to his chair, keeping his arms free, she said.

Zye Johnson, 10. (NBC Dallas-Fort Worth)

When the teacher left the class to return the tape, a few of Zye's classmates began hitting him over the head, Johnson said. Zye, who has dwarfism and chronic migraines, put his arms up instinctively so he wouldn't get hit in the face, his mother said.

"My son has dwarfism. Hes 10, but he doesnt look like he is," she said. "He tells me one of the students told him, 'I'm going to slap you as hard as Will Smith slapped Chris Rock.'"

After the teacher returned, Zye freed himself from the tape because he had a headache and went to an area of the classroom designated for students to "cool down." While he was there, the teacher went over and said, "You know I was just playing with you," Johnson said. Zye asked to go to the nurse, whom he told about what happened.

The Forney Independent School District said upon learning of the incident they called the police to conduct an investigation and placed the teacher on administrative leave.

"It was determined that this incident does not meet the elements of the criminal offense of Unlawful Restraint, due to the finding that the student did not have considerable restriction of freedom of movement, as the student removed the masking tape," district spokesperson Kristin Zastoupil said. "There will be no criminal charges filed in this matter."

Story continues

The school district did not identify the teacher and would not confirm if the teacher was fired, but said The teacher is no longer with the district.

Forney ISD sets high standards for our educators, both in classroom instruction and in the fostering of a positive and supportive learning environment for all of our students. The teachers conduct in this situation did not meet those standards, and the District has taken the necessary steps to address that failure and reinforce our expectations, Zastoupil said.

Johnson said it wasn't until the school day was over that she got a phone call from one of the assistant principals about what had happened. Asked why the teacher would do that, she said, the official replied, "He wouldn't be still."

Crosby Elementary School in Forney, Texas. (NBC Dallas-Fort Worth)

"I was upset. I said, 'You mean to tell me she taped him because he would not be still?'" Johnson said. "It really doesnt matter what he did  you dont do that to a child. Hes not an animal. You dont do that and leave him unattended for students to assault him."

Johnson said she believes the teacher should be fired and charged.

"She does not need to be teaching anybodys children. She needs to be arrested for putting my child in harms way to be assaulted by other students," Johnson said.

Zye returned to school the next day to a different class with a different teacher, said Johnson, who said the school district hasn't been in touch with her about the investigation.

"My son was in your care, and youre supposed to protect him from things like this, but it seems youre only worried about the teacher," Johnson said about the school district. "It looks to me youre protecting the teacher and youre not worried about the well-being of my son."

A woman Johnson identified as the teacher did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
LastPass posted an update on its investigation regarding a couple of security incidents last year, and they sound worse than we thought. The hackers infiltrated a company DevOps engineer's home computer by exploiting a third-party media software package. They implanted a keylogger into the software and captured the engineer's master password for an account with access to the LastPass corporate vault. After they got in, they exported the vault's entries and shared folders with decryption keys. The company insisted all sensitive customer vault data, aside from some exceptions, "can only be decrypted with a unique encryption key derived from each user's master password." The company added it doesn't store users' master passwords.

 Mat Smith

The Morning After isnt just a newsletter  its also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.

The biggest stories you might have missed

A solid phone thats probably not worth the upgrade.

Weve already reviewed the Galaxy S23 Ultra which, thanks to a large screen, onboard S-Pen and 200-megapixel camera, is aggressively targeted at power users. For everyone else looking to get a new Android phone, theres the Galaxy S23+ or the S23. We tested the plus model and were impressed by the battery life, screen and, well, all the areas Samsung typically delivers on. But with few meaningful changes, the S23+ isnt a hugely worthy upgrade if youre using an S22 or S21.

Continue reading.

That didn't take long.

Three weeks after introducing the new AI-infused Bing, Microsoft is ready to shove it into a Windows 11 update today. If you're in the Bing AI preview, you'll be able to access all of its new features from the search box in the Windows 11 taskbar. Just imagine a slightly more streamlined version of what we saw with the Bing AI on Edge: In addition to general web searching, you can ask Bing natural language queries, and its intelligent chatbot will reply conversationally.

Story continues

Continue reading.

It's with a slightly smaller battery, but impressive nonetheless.

Realmes 240W phone charging tech was big news last month. Given it's MWC week, today Xiaomi has swiftly responded with a whopping 300W demo, which brought the charging time down to a little under five minutes. The charger is the same size as the 200W equivalent. The phone reached 20 percent in a little over one minute and hit 50 percent in two minutes 12 seconds.

Continue reading.

It promises to release more details in the coming months.

As well as revealing its latest experimental phone, which it envisions to have liquid cooling capabilities, OnePlus announced itll launch its first foldable smartphone in the second half of 2023. In the background at the OnePlus 11 event earlier this month, the company teased a mysterious Q3 2023 launch with what seemed to be silhouettes of devices that fold, but it fell short of saying what exactly they would be.

Continue reading.

Singh has agreed to cooperate with the case against Sam Bankman-Fried.

Nishad Singh, a co-founder of collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has pleaded guilty to US federal fraud and conspiracy charges. Singh, who was FTX's director of engineering, is the third member of Sam Bankman-Fried's inner circle to agree to cooperate with prosecutors in the case against him. Singh admitted to making illegal donations to political candidates and PACs under his name using funds from Alameda Research (FTX's sibling hedge fund and crypto trading firm).

Continue reading.

FromSoftware says it's already in the works.

TMA

Developer FromSoftware has confirmed the rumors circulating since earlier this year: Elden Ring is getting a big chunk of DLC. In an announcement posted on the game's Twitter account, the Japanese developer said an upcoming expansion entitled Shadow of the Erdtree is currently in development.

Continue reading.
To find a multi-bagger stock, what are the underlying trends we should look for in a business? One common approach is to try and find a company with returns on capital employed (ROCE) that are increasing, in conjunction with a growing amount of capital employed. Put simply, these types of businesses are compounding machines, meaning they are continually reinvesting their earnings at ever-higher rates of return. With that in mind, we've noticed some promising trends at British American Tobacco (LON:BATS) so let's look a bit deeper.

Return On Capital Employed (ROCE): What Is It?

For those that aren't sure what ROCE is, it measures the amount of pre-tax profits a company can generate from the capital employed in its business. The formula for this calculation on British American Tobacco is:

Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT)  (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)

0.086 = UK12b  (UK154b - UK18b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2022).

Thus, British American Tobacco has an ROCE of 8.6%. In absolute terms, that's a low return and it also under-performs the Tobacco industry average of 14%.

Check out our latest analysis for British American Tobacco

roce

In the above chart we have measured British American Tobacco's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you're interested, you can view the analysts predictions in our free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

How Are Returns Trending?

British American Tobacco has not disappointed with their ROCE growth. Looking at the data, we can see that even though capital employed in the business has remained relatively flat, the ROCE generated has risen by 50% over the last five years. So it's likely that the business is now reaping the full benefits of its past investments, since the capital employed hasn't changed considerably. The company is doing well in that sense, and it's worth investigating what the management team has planned for long term growth prospects.

Story continues

Our Take On British American Tobacco's ROCE

To bring it all together, British American Tobacco has done well to increase the returns it's generating from its capital employed. Considering the stock has delivered 5.9% to its stockholders over the last five years, it may be fair to think that investors aren't fully aware of the promising trends yet. Given that, we'd look further into this stock in case it has more traits that could make it multiply in the long term.

One more thing to note, we've identified 2 warning signs with British American Tobacco and understanding them should be part of your investment process.

While British American Tobacco may not currently earn the highest returns, we've compiled a list of companies that currently earn more than 25% return on equity. Check out this free list here.

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
A Thiensville police lieutenant is facing two felony charges after allegedly ordering unauthorized ammunition for a Butler-based police supply company using the department's tax-exempt status.

On top of his standard ammunition order for the Thiensville Police Department, Lt. Chad Wucherer included an order for the supply company, Streicher's, and an additional order for ammunition that was being sold to police officers at the department, according to a criminal complaint.

Chad Wucherer was charged Feb. 20 in Ozaukee County Circuit Court with two felonies of misconduct in public office  one for using excess authority and one for inconsistent duty. If convicted, he faces up to seven years in prison and $20,000 in fines.

The alleged misconduct occurred between Jan. 1 2021, and Oct. 31, 2022.

According to the criminal complaint:

On Sept. 8, 2022, another lieutenant at the Thiensville Police Department started an investigation regarding ammunition orders and shipments that had been coming to the department that were not authorized by the village.

As part of his normal duties, Lt. Wucherer was authorized to order ammunition for the Thiensville Police Department. The authorized purchase of ammunition consisted of seven cases and totaled just over $2,250.

At the time, Wucherer was good friends with the sales employees at Streicher's, a Waukesha County police supply company, who told him it was almost impossible to purchase ammunition following a 2020 shortage. One of Streicher's staff members asked Wucherer if he could attach an ammunition order for Streicher's to the Thiensville Police Department's order because the department would receive the ammunition faster and at a discounted rate.

Wucherer, on Jan. 18, 2021, placed an order through the department's account that included ammunition for Streicher's that Thiensville Police Chief Curt Kleppin said "appeared to be significantly more ammunition than what the police department normally received."

Story continues

The order included Thiensville's regular ammunition order and an additional group order of 21 cases of ammunition which was placed through the department order and purchased by individual officers. Another ammunition order of at least 105 cases was also made utilizing the Thiensville Police Department's tax-exempt form, and purportedly signed by Kleppin without his consent.

Streicher's sold the ammunition at a higher profit margin because Streicher's purchased it at the discounted department rate. It's unclear where the ammunition ended up, but some of it was likely sold to law enforcement agencies in Minnesota and Illinois.

The ammunition the officers ordered was stored in Wucherer's office at the police department until the officers paid Streicher's. Wucherer coordinated these efforts using the police department email and while on duty.

Around September 2022, Wucherer sought a roughly $6,900 donation from the Junior Woman's Club of Mequon and Thiensville for various police equipment. He purchased the equipment for about $6,100 and tried to use the remainder of the donation, nearly $750, to balance the department's account. An outstanding balance on the account, totaling around $750, had appeared following the group order ammunition purchase. Women's Club representatives also said they had not been notified of the remaining amount.

The Village of Thiensville that same month became aware of the alleged actions of one of its sworn police officers, according to a press release from the department. The department immediately placed Wucherer on paid administrative leave pending an independent internal investigation by an outside police agency.

Not wanting to interfere with the criminal investigation, the village held off on any permanent action regarding Wucherer's employment until the criminal investigation was complete.

On Feb. 27, Ozaukee Circuit Court ordered the assignment of a new judge to the case after Judge Paul Malloy recused himself, according to online court records. There are no future court dates scheduled as of Tuesday.

Contact Alex Groth at agroth@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @grothalexandria.

Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.

DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get the latest news, sports and more

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Thiensville lieutenant charged with ordering unauthorized ammunition
The GAR Memorial Hall and Museum in downtown Aurora will open a new exhibit called Hidden Warriors: The History of Women in the U.S. Military as part of a celebration of Women's History Month during the First Fridays event this Friday in the city's downtown. (GAR Memorial Hall / HANDOUT)

The First Fridays event in downtown Aurora on Friday evening will celebrate Womens History Month at several participating venues, event organizers said.

The events theme is Women in the Front, which spotlights women who stand up, take charge and inspire, according to organizers.

Advertisement

It is such an honor to be able to theme an evening around women in our community. There are a countless number of amazing women that have helped shape our city, said Marissa Amoni, manager of the Aurora Downtown group which sponsors First Fridays.

Amoni said that about a dozen venues will participate in the Women in the Front theme for First Fridays, which will include special exhibits and feature many women-owned businesses.

Advertisement

First Fridays will include art, music, exhibits and more around the downtown area.

Zen Loft Wellness Center, 6 W. Downer Place, upstairs, will be open with Women, an art exhibit, from 5 to 9 p.m.

Aurora Historical Society, 20 E. Downer Place, will host an exhibit honoring artist and educator Ruth Van Sickle Ford from 6 to 9 p.m.

The GAR Memorial Hall and Museum, 23 E. Downer Place, will open a new exhibit called Hidden Warriors: The History of Women in the U.S. Military to open at 6 p.m. The museum will be open until 9 p.m.

The ArtBar at Two Brothers Roundhouse, 205 N. Broadway, will host Artbart: A Simpsons Show featuring Alexis Patino from 7 to 11 p.m.

Artesan Lofts Art Gallery, 2 S. Stolp Ave., will be open with Blacklight featuring Johnny Felix paintings in addition to a blacklight palette makeup performance by Gina Ginn from G.A.M.E Makeup Supply from 6 to 9 p.m.

Aurora Public Art, 20 E. Downer Place, will continue its third floor exhibit Our Mentors with live music by Melodic at 7 and 8 p.m.

French 75 Gallery and Lounge, 56 E. Galena Blvd., will unveil new paintings from Daniel Mundy and offer a special First Fridays craft cocktail from 5 p.m. to midnight.

Advertisement

Sergio Furniture and Catarinas Aurora, 36 W. Downer Place, will be open with handmade Mexican art until 9 p.m.

Ballydoyle Irish Pub, 28 W. New York St., will feature Tango Comics graphic novel release along with Vizo Arts Gallery featuring Josh Schultz, Ray Gomez, Brian Schab, Francis Penavic and Juan Carlos Baez from 6 to 10 p.m. There will also be live music by the acoustic trio The Downhillers.

Aurora Regional Fire Museum, 53 N. Broadway, will be open from 5 to 8 p.m. and will feature a new mural completed by Aurora Christian students.

The Venue, 21 S. Broadway, will host a suggested donation show with Dave Ramont and Gerald Dowd from 8 to 11 p.m.

Tavern on Broadway, 24 N. Broadway, will feature live music by Ryan Worthy from 8 to 10 p.m.

Altiro Latin Fusion, 1 S. Stolp Ave., will host live Spanish rock from 6 to 8 p.m.

Advertisement

Aurora Tap House, 134 W. Downer Place, will be open with DJ Happy Meal from 9 p.m. to midnight.

Tredwell Coffee, 14 W. Downer Place, will host live music by Duo, Echo and Ransom along with Girl Scout Troop 709 selling cookies and Greg Zilioli with A Call to Shoulders from 5 to 9 p.m.

The Polished Peach Spa, 5 W. Downer Place, second floor, will welcome the public who can enjoy complimentary samples and deals from 5 to 10 p.m.

Unveiled Studio, 5 W. Downer Place, second floor, will offer Pay Your Age boudoir photo micro sessions, for ages 21 and over, with one digital image for the price of your age from 5 to 10 p.m.

Santori Public Library, 101 S. River St., will host Woman Up! featuring live music by Mariachi Sirenas and Magnolia Dance Collective bellydance from 6 to 8 p.m. Girl Scouts will offer crafts at the event, and Empowered Women of the Future Club and the League of Women Voters will have tables providing information.

The Perch, 31 W. Downer Place, third floor, will be open with a craft project and a Historical Spiritual Women Spotlight where people can learn about women who have shaped our understanding of spirituality and faith from 5 to 8 p.m.

Advertisement

Zen Loft Wellness Center and I of the Angeles, 6 W. Downer Place, upstairs, will host an open house and open mic for musicians and poets with Mo Pippy from 5 to 10 p.m.

Amy Mortons Stolp Island Social, 5 E. Galena Blvd., will have a Cheers to Women First Fridays cocktail from 5 to 9:30 p.m.

Endiro Coffee, 29 W. New York St., will be open with live music and an art show from 5 to 9 p.m.

The Cornucopia Tea & Gift Shop, 63 S. Broadway, will host a free tea tasting and more. It will be open until 9 p.m.

Jim Schweizer presents The AI Generation upstairs at 1 E. Benton St. It will look at stable diffusion, current GPT chat models and more from 6 to 9 p.m.

Society 57, 100 S. River St., will be open with cocktails and food plus live music and an art exhibit featuring Gerardo Madrigal from 6 to 10 p.m.

Advertisement

Huge Witch, 31 W. Downer Place, Suite 212, will feature tarot and astrology readings from 5 to 9 p.m.

Pure Skin Solutions, 26 S. Stolp Ave., will be open for exfoliation, music and refreshments from 5:30 to 8 p.m.

Premil, 46 W. New York St., will host a 2k video game tournament, food and more from 5 to 9 p.m. It is $50 to play in the tournament, and spectators are welcome.

The Cotton Seed Creative Exchange, 64 S. River St., will host a pop up with Suki Finds, an art pop-up, raffles and live music from 5 to 9 p.m.

Chupacabra Puerto Rican Kitchen, 31 N. Broadway, will be open with Aroma Roots handcrafted bath and body, soaps, wax melts and more from 5 to 9 p.m.

Wyckwood House Boutique and Cocktail Bar, 80 S. River St., will offer cocktails, shopping and live music by Matthew Ripsch Music plus musician and local artist Lauren Ottley with custom prints from 5 to 9 p.m.

Advertisement

FNBO, 140 S. River St., Suite 112, will be open with light refreshments and an 1819 Madera Designs pop-up from 5 to 9 p.m.

For more information and a map of First Fridays locations, go to www.auroradowntown.org.
The Moselle estate where the murders took place (AP)

Its a case that has captured the nations attention over the past 21 months as South Carolina legal dynasty heir Alex Murdaugh stands trial for the brutal double murders of his wife and son.

Now, jurors are going back to the place where it all began.

On Wednesday, the jury is being taken to the familys sprawling 1,700-acre Moselle estate in Islandton, South Carolina, to see for themselves the crime scene where Maggie and Paul were killed back on 7 June 2021.

They will tour the dog kennels where Mr Murdaugh allegedly ambushed his son in the feed room, shooting him once in the chest and a second time in the head, neck and shoulder with a shotgun.

They will see where, moments after gunning down Paul, the husband and father allegedly turned on his wife Maggie.

They will see where she desperately tried to flee her killer, backing into an ATV under a hangar outside before being shot five times with a semiautomatic rifle.

But thats not all jurors will see.

They will see a place where another mysterious death took place just three years before the 2021 murders.

They will see a snapshot of the powerful and affluent Murdaugh familys life given the $4m property was the place they called home for several years.

And they may see some of the estates wild hogs  whose existence has been an unusually common mention throughout the disgraced attorneys murder trial.

Moselles dark history

Bordering the banks of the Salkehatchie River, 4147 Moselle Road consists of over 1,700 acres of land including a 5,275-square-foot house, a farm, a two-mile stretch of river  and of course the dog kennels.

Before the Murdaughs called Moselle home, the property was tied to another controversial family.

It was the home of Barrett Boulware  a fisherman, suspected drug smuggler and Mr Murdaughs longtime friend and business partner who died in 2018.

An aerial view of the Moselle estate including the kennels and feed room (AP)

He and his father were arrested on drug smuggling charges in 1980 when investigators seized 15 tons of marijuana from a shrimp boat in the Bahamas.

Story continues

The charges were later dropped when a key government witness died.

Boulwares name cropped up during the murder trial when jurors heard that Mr Murdaugh had stolen $750,000 in insurance money from his friend when he was dying of colon cancer.

Murdaugh family home

Alex Murdaugh bought Moselle back in 2013 from Boulwares wife Jeannine Morris Boulware, according to property records.

Mr Murdaugh allegedly bought the entire property for just $5, FITS News reported  a move sometimes used so the seller can avoid paying capital gains taxes.

Moselle was just one of several homes that the high-powered attorney  and alleged finanical fraudster  owned.

The family also had a home in Hampton, South Carolina, as well as a beach home in Edisto Beach.

During testimony from his Mr Murdaughs surviving son Buster Murdaugh, jurors heard how the Hampton home had been their main residence but, after it was damaged in a hurricane, the family made Moselle their main home.

However, jurors have heard how Maggie preferred to stay at Edisto Beach  especially during the summer months.

Buster testified that much of the land on Moselle was actually inaccessible and consisted of swamp land.

1,700 acres and a whole lot of hogs

Throughout the trial, jurors have heard how the propertys 1,700 acres were a hunters paradise with dove fields, deer stands and duck ponds all over the estate.

Mr Murdaugh, Paul and Buster  as well as their friends  would spend a lot of time riding around the estate hunting deer, duck, quail, doves and hogs.

In particular, jurors have heard a lot about the hunting of wild hogs  from the time of day to hunt to the type of guns used.

Several witnesses testified that they roamed the property and caused a nuisance, and that the family  and their friends  would shoot them any chance they got.

Alex Murdaugh looks on as his murder trial nears its end (AP)

One witness even told the court how he had killed around 1,000 hogs in his time in the area (though not just on the Murdaugh estate).

The propertys river also made it ideal for fishing and kayaking.

Mystery buyer

In the months after the murders, Mr Murdaugh put Moselle on the market and it is currently under offer for a $3.9m bid from a mystery buyer.

The property was first listed in February 2022  eight months after Maggie and Pauls murders and five months before Mr Murdaugh was charged with them  under a new name of Cross Swamp Farm.

It was later changed back to Moselle Farm.

According to the listing by the Crosby Land Co. of Colleton County, Moselle consists of 1,772 acres of an unusually diverse habitat with varying forest types and age class distribution.

The landscape includes productive pine plantations, open fallow fields, and mature stands of mixed pine/hardwood, those upland regions give way to the flat bottomland of the Salkehatchie River Basin, it reads.

The property boasts over 2.5 miles of river frontage, offering freshwater fishing, kayaking, and abundant deer, turkey, and waterfowl populations.

The family home was built in 2011 and consists of four bedrooms and 3.5 baths, meaning it could easily be converted into a weekend hunting lodge with the capability to sleep up to 15 people, the listing reads.

This is truly a top-tier property, complete with all the improvements and amenities one would expect from a high-end sporting property with little or no deferred maintenance cost, it reads.

A buyer  said to be a local landowner  put in an offer in June 2022. But the sale was put on hold when Mr Murdaugh was accused of trying to offload his assets to avoid paying up in a string of lawsuits he is facing, prompting a court to freeze his assets.

Three bodies in three years

At least three deaths have now taken place on the Moselle estate.

In February 2018  three years before Maggie and Pauls murders  the Murdaughs long-term housekeeper Gloria Satterfield died in a mysterious trip and fall at the family home.

Satterfield, who worked for the family for more than 20 years, was found at the bottom of the steps leading into the familys home after she was believed to have tripped over the pet dogs.

She never resumed consciousness and died from her injuries three weeks later on 26 February.

At the time, her death was regarded as an accidental fall.

Gloria Satterfield died in a trip and fall at the Murdaugh home in 2018 (Provided)

However, her death certificate cited her manner of death as natural and no autopsy was performed.

Questions have now been mounting around Satterfields death and investigators reopened an investigation into her death in September 2021  days after Mr Murdaughs financial fraud scheme came to light.

Investigators are planning to exhume her body.

As part of his 100 financial crimes charges, Mr Murdaugh is now charged with stealing $4m in wrongful death settlement funds from Satterfields family as part of his decade-long multi-million-dollar fraud scheme.

The jury tour

The tour of the murder scene came at the request of Mr Murdaughs defence attorney Dick Harpootlian who said it would be useful for the jury to see Moselle before they decide the fate of the disgraced attorney.

The jury visit to the grisly scene will take place under tight security with Judge Clifton Newman telling jurors that they cant ask anyone any questions while they are there, including law enforcement, and that they cannot discuss the case with each other during the trip.

The judge also advised them that some things have changed on the property in the aftermath of the murders.

It has been a year and a half or more since June 7, 2021, since the alleged crime occurred. Things have most likely changed. Were in a different season of the year, he said on Tuesday afternoon.

The media has also been banned from accompanying jurors on the trip, though a small media pool is allowed to visit the site once the jury has left.

Judge Newman agreed to the jury visit on Monday following a request from Mr Murdaughs defence attorney Prosecutor Creighton Waters raised an objection that the property has changed in the last 20 months, with trees between the family home and the kennels having grown significantly.

Judge Newman gave the defence a rare win and agreed to arrange the field trip to Moselle.

The dog kennels and feed room where Maggie and Paul were killed (AP)

During the courtroom discussion, Mr Harpootlian also raised concerns around the need for security for the trip after he claimed people had been caught trespassing on the property at the weekend.

He said that Mr Murdaughs brother called law enforcement to remove trespassers from Moselle as he noticed people taking selfies in front of the feed room where the brutal murders unfolded.

There were literally dozens of people at Moselle last weekend trespassing, taking selfies in front of the feed room, he said, condemning the carnival attitude of some members of the public.

After the jury visit, the days proceedings will resume in Colleton County Courthouse with the defence and prosecution arguing the charges for how the jury will deliberate.

Then, jurors will hear closing arguments before they begin deliberations  as soon as Wednesday afternoon.

Ultimately, the same day that the spotlight shines once again on the family home, Mr Murdaugh could find himself with a new, more permanent home  behind bars.
The TikTok app is hugely popular among a younger audience (Peter Byrne/PA) (PA Archive)

It is the rare issue on which Donald Trump, the European Commission and Joe Rogan all agree: something must be done about TikTok.

In recent months, there has been increasing discussion of either limiting or completely banning the short-form video app. Though it is one of the most popular apps ever, politiciers across the world have argued that it has a dark side, and that it is much more dangerous than it appears.

Those concerns relate largely to security and privacy. Opponents argue that TikTok is using its access to peoples phones to gather personal information on them, which could eventually prove useful to the Chinese government.

TikTok itself has always denied that users data is not being protected, or that it is a data-gathering operation on behalf of the Chinese government.

But that has not stopped organisations including the US federal government and the European Commission from banning the app. Both have forbidden employees from installing it, warning that it could be putting the data of users  and the safety of their citizens  at risk.

What are the concerns about TikTok?

Last year, Joe Rogan took an unusual step on his podcast: reading out, at length, the terms and conditions of an app. He noted that TikToks rules allowed it to take certainmration about the device you use to access the platform, including what phones was being used to access TikTok and where from.

The amount of data being collected was vast, as he pointed out, though almost all popular social media apps have very expansive terms and conditions that allow them to gather up data. But TikTok has come into particular criticism in part because of its ownership.

TikTok is owned by Chinese company Bytedance. That means it is a potential threat in at least two ways: that people surveilled by the Chinese government, but it also could grow larger than western competitors such as Instagram and Twitter.

It has proven difficult to tease those two things apart. While politicians have focused on the former, the latter is surely part of the worry too.

Story continues

Where has the app been banned?

Recent bans have been introduced across the US and Europe. Last year, the federal government in the US banned the app from government-issue devices, and most states have followed  then, this week, the European Commission did the same.

There has also been official advice that has stopped short of a ban but has discouraged the use he app. The Dutch government reported to be advising officials not to use the app, and some British politicians have voiced the same worries.

All of them have cited security concerns. Most of the bans have been justified not by security issues that already exist, but by potential ones: the European Commission said the ban was undertaken to protect the Commission against cybersecurity threats and actions which may be exploited for cyberattacks against the corporate environment of the commission, for instance.

Could a more complete ban really happen?

At least now, in the US and Europe, any bans have only covered those who work for government and other political bodies  and they have not expanded beyond that. But they could do.

Donald Trump looked very keen on banning the app as his term drew to a close in 2020, for instance. In the end the app continued to work, and the legal proceedings were brought to a close when Donald Trump left office at the start of 2021, but the app came very near to getting outlawed.

And it has happened, for instance, in India, where the government completely banned the app in 2020. After clashes between India and China over disputed territory, the government completely banned TikTok and 58 other Chinese-created apps.

It has remained banned there ever since. And the country has found alternatives: Instagram Reels was first launched in India, and has proven very popular there, in lieu of TikTok.

What has TikTok said?

The company has repeatedly denied that it users data differently from other social media apps. And it has

When the European Commissions ban was announced, for instance, it said it was disappointed with this decision, which we believe to be misguided and based on fundamental misconceptions.

We have contacted the Commission to set the record straight and explain how we protect the data of the 125 million people across the EU who come to TikTok every month. Were continuing to enhance our approach to data security, including by establishing three data centres in Europe to store user data locally; further reducing employee access to data; and minimising data flows outside of Europe.

In a blog post published a week ago, TikToks general manager of European operations Rich Waterworth said the company would be working on keeping our European community and their data safe and secure, particularly in the context of new regulation. That would include, for instance, minimising the amount of European user data that leaves the region.

Its public response in the US has been much the same. There, too, it has suggested that it functions much the same as other social media apps and stressed that it is looking to add new restrictions that would ensure data stays local.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday voted on party lines to advance legislation that would let President Joe Biden order a nationwide ban on the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok.

The committees 24 Republicans voted to approve the bill, which would give the executive branch authority to issue a ban on the video sharing app, as well as any other app considered a security risk.

The 16 Democrats on the panel voted against the measure, with Ranking Member Gregory Meeks saying he opposed the bill because it would "damage our allegiances across the globe, bring more companies into China's sphere, destroy jobs here in the United States and undercut core American values of free speech and free enterprise.

Members of both parties have called for a ban on the application, which is used by over 100 million Americans and countless more people around the world, citing the companys Chinese ownership, which makes it subject to laws compelling the company to turn user data over to the Chinese government upon request.

More than 30 American states, Canada, and the European Union have separately banned the app from use on government-owned devices, while Mr Biden and the White House have enacted an executive branch-wide ban which gives agencies 30 days to remove TikTok from any federally-owned devices or computer systems.

In response, a company spokesperson said a ban on TikTok in the US would be a ban on the export of American culture and values to the billion people who use our service worldwide.

The bill would still need to be passed by the full House and the Senate before it could be signed into law. Foreign Affairs Committee chair Michael McCaul said he expects the full House to vote on the measure this month.

TikTok has been the subject of a more than two-year review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, an interagency body that approves foreign company operations and transactions in the US. In 2020, the committee recommended that ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok, divest it because of fears it could be used to gather data on Americans and pass it to the Chinese government.

Story continues

Jenna Leventoff, a senior policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, decried the legislation in a statement.

Were disappointed that the House Foreign Affairs Committee voted to approve a bill that would effectively ban TikTok in the United States, in violation of Americans First Amendment rights. We urge legislators to vote no on this vague, overbroad, and unconstitutional bill, she said.

With additional reporting by agencies
REUTERS/Octavio Jones

Protesters raged as conservative trustees installed by Gov. Ron DeSantis at a tiny Florida public liberal arts college successfully voted to abolish the schools diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives during a fiery meeting Tuesday.

The school, New College of Florida, is known as one of the top public liberal art schools in the country, and also as a safe haven for LBGTQ+ students in the state.

But the disintegration of the schools small DEI office is the latest domino to fall in the governors efforts to transform public education in the stateleaving many students and alumni worried that New College is a staging ground for a larger push to limit freedom of speech in education by right-wing politicians nationwide.

I think the shuttering of our DEI office is a major symbolic blow to our campus, Professor Amy Reid, director of the Gender Studies Program, told The Daily Beast on Thursday. Reid also noted she was at least happy to see employees be moved, rather than fired.

But I am concerned about what it means that they are officializing a ban on diversity, equity, and inclusion, which should not be controversial topics, she said.

Protesters outside the Tuesday meeting. REUTERS/Octavio Jones

Through the passing of sweeping laws, support of ultra-conservative K-12 school board members, and rejecting advanced placement course curriculums in African American Studies, DeSantis has been making move after move to squelch discussions of race and gender in all levels of Florida schooling.

When he turned his gaze to New College in January and appointed multiple board members to the small college, many of the student body, staff, and alumni were caught by surprise.

The six new trustees, all either Republican-allied academics or DeSantis cronies, included Christopher Rufo, an outspoken architect of the right-wings fight against Critical Race Theory, a university-level academic framework that acknowledges structural racism in American society.

Wednesdays meeting was the first featuring interim president Richard Corcoran, a DeSantis ally installed by the new trustees after they booted previous president Patricia Okker.

Story continues

The Superyacht Lawyer Claiming He Kicked Off DeSantis New College Takeover

Students, faculty, and even priests took the mic during the public comment portion of the meeting to fiercely criticize the actions the board had taken so far.

Rev. John Dorhauer, president of the United Church of Christ, which helped fund New College in 1960, was especially condemning of the new trustees.

The long arc of history will grind you into dust, he declared during public comment. And [students] will win this battle and you will be remembered for the sycophants you are.

Other opponents of the new trustees dressed in red robes that evoked The Handmaids Talea book about a dystopian Christian theocracy that enslaves womenwhile reading fiery tirades against efforts to change the school.

The room also began to chant Shame on you! at trustees.

Tiny College Hijacked by Woke-Obsessed DeSantis Saddles Up to Fight Back

Later, Rufo helped lead the charge towards a vote abolishing what even he admitted was a small DEI effort by the university.

Then there should be very little resistance to eliminating it, Rufo shot back after he was challenged by student trustee Grace Keenan, who attracted raucous applause from the crowd when she confronted Rufo on the size of the schools DEI initiatives.

The moves, according to research by Bradley Thiessen, the schools chief of staff, would save the cash-strapped school $250,000.

Rufo quickly turned to Twitter to celebrate the end of diversity initiativescausing ire even among staff.

To have one board member crowing on Twitter during the meeting about the demise of DEI is inappropriate, Reid said.

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.
Toll Hits 32 Dead, 85 Injured in Head-On Train Wreck

By Chris Liakos, Heather Chen, Mohammed Tawfeeq and Jennifer Hauser, CNN

(CNN)  Rescue workers are in a desperate search for survivors after a head-on collision between two trains in central Greece killed dozens of people and injured scores.

At least 32 people were killed and more than 85 injured when a passenger train carrying more than 350 people collided with a freight train on Tuesday evening, shortly before midnight, in Tempi, central Greece, near the city of Larissa, the Greek Fire Service said.

We just heard a bang... the (train) car started spinning, before ending up sideways when we managed to exit, one male passenger told Greek public broadcaster ERT.

It was 10 nightmarish seconds with fire, you couldnt see much from the smoke, said a second passenger.

Recovery efforts are underway, with the focus on the first two carriages of the passenger train, the Greek Fire Service said. The death toll is expected to rise.

The passenger train had been traveling from the capital Athens to Thessaloniki, Greece's second-largest city, which is renowned for its festivals and vibrant cultural life. The collision follows a nationwide carnival at the weekend which ended with a public holiday on Monday.

Images on Greeces state-owned public broadcaster ERT showed plumes of thick smoke pouring out of toppled carriages and long lines of rescue vehicles next to them.

Meanwhile, rescue workers with torches searched carriages for survivors as paramedics led shell-shocked passengers from the scene.

The images also showed some surviving passengers arriving in Thessaloniki.

Greek Fire Service spokesman Vassilis Varthakogiannis said 194 passengers had been taken safely to Thessaloniki and 20 people transferred by bus to the city of Larissa. He added that of the 85 people injured, 53 remained in hospital.

At least 150 firefighters with 17 vehicles and 40 ambulances are involved in the rescue operation, Varthakogiannis said.

The Greek railway company, Hellenic Train, said in a press release that there was a head-on collision between two trains: a freight train and train IC 62 which had departed from Athens to Thessaloniki.

Story continues

Authorities said it is still not clear what led to the collision.

Hellenic Train, the main Greek railway company, was acquired by Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane in 2017 and is now fully controlled by Trenitalia. The company operates both passenger and freight transport. The main line on which daily connections are offered is Athens-Thessaloniki.

The-CNN-Wire

 &  2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
BEIRUT (AP)  A Lebanese intelligence chief who has mediated the release of Westerners held in Syria and also acted as a mediator within Lebanon stepped down Wednesday after attempts to extend his term failed.

Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahims term as a head of the General Security Directorate ends Thursday, when he reaches retirement age of 64 in Lebanon. On Wednesday afternoon, he left his office and was replaced by Brig. Gen. Elias Baisary as acting head of the agency.

We will continue the march in different fields to serve Lebanon, Ibrahim said before leaving.

Ibrahim, who headed General Security Directorate since 2011, is known for wide connections with different local, regional and international figures, including the Iran-backed militant Hezbollah group, the Syrian government and Western nations.

A Shiite Muslim, he was tipped to eventually replace longtime Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri who turned 85 in January. When asked by local media whether he intended to replace the speaker, Ibrahim said: May God grant Speaker Berri a long life.

Under Lebanons power-sharing agreement, the country's president has to be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni and the parliament speaker a Shiite. Ibrahim said if offered a ministerial job, he would like to become foreign minister.

Ibrahims term ends at a time when Lebanon has no president since Michel Aoun's term ended in late October, with a deeply divided parliament unable to elect a successor. The country is also without a fully-functional government, with Prime Minister Najib Mikati heading a caretaker Cabinet.

Mikati indicated last week that Ibrahim's term may be extended but no parliament session was held to do this nor has Berri scheduled one.

A rarity in Lebanon, Ibrahim had good ties with Hezbollah, the United States and the international community, making him a key political mediator. At times, he also acted as a diplomatic representative for Lebanon abroad, roles usually outside a top security official's mandate.

Story continues

One of his biggest cases was that of American journalist Austin Tice, missing in Syria since August 2012. The U.S. says Tice is being held by the Syrian government while Damascus denies holding him. Last year, Ibrahim met with U.S. officials in Washington as part of his mediation efforts for Tices release and later went to the Syrian capital of Damascus but did not reach a breakthrough.

In 2019, Ibrahims mediation led to the release of American Samuel Goodwin, who was held for two months in Syria. That same year, Ibrahim mediated the release of Kristian Lee Baxter, a Canadian citizen held in Syrian prisons for almost a year.

Ibrahim was among eight Lebanese officials charged in January by the judge investigating the massive August 2020 port blast in Beirut that killed nearly 220 people. The charges were never specified.
A senior staffer to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy met this week with Micki Witthoeft, the mother of Ashli Babbitt, the woman who was shot and killed by police as she breached a set of doors to the Speaker's Lobby on Jan. 6, 2021. The meeting with Witthoeft occurred outside McCarthy's office, according to multiple sources.

She also met briefly with House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, Republican of Kentucky, this week, Comer's office confirmed.

"Chairman Comer saw Mrs. Babbitt in the hallway yesterday after his testimony on the committee's budget with Ranking Member Raskin and was pleased for the opportunity to exchange hellos," Comer's spokeswoman said.

The brief meetings are the latest in a series of inroads with newly empowered House Republican majority made by Babbitt's mother, relatives of Jan. 6 defendants and even one Capitol riot defendant herself, according to a review by CBS News.

At a Tuesday evening protest event outside the Washington, D.C., jail, Witthoeft said, "We talked to James Comer, we talked to McCarthy's (staffer) and had a lovely chat in the hallway with Clay Higgins," Witthoeft said of the Louisiana GOP congressman. "He prayed with us. He was just so genuine. We look forward to working with him in the future."

At the protest event, Witthoeft also said, "When we speak to these people, they do know there has been an injustice. We're counting on them to step up and do something about it."

McCarthy is already under scrutiny over his recent decision to share exclusive access to some of the over 41,000 hours of Jan. 6 police video with Fox News host Tucker Carlson's team.

Jan. 6 defendant Victoria White of Minnesota allegedly violated a stay-away order from Washington, D.C. by visiting the Capitol building to meet with congressional staff and the D.C. jail in support of some incarcerated Jan. 6 defendants. At a Feb.10 hearing in White's criminal case, prosecutors and court officials argued White had violated pretrial release conditions. After hearing arguments, a federal judge ordered White to request and receive approval from court officials before making any future trips to the Capitol or congressional office buildings. White's defense attorney said her conditions of release did not explicitly bar her from supporting Jan. 6 defendants or traveling to the Capitol.



"I am going to bar visits to the Capitol unless they are approved," Judge John Bates said of White at a recent hearing, according to a transcript of the proceedings obtained by CBS News. "That is a condition that has been imposed on other defendants relating to the January 6th events, and I think that makes sense here as well."

Story continues

Speaking to CBS News, Rep. Byron Donalds, a Republican of Florida, acknowledged meeting with White on Capitol Hill when she visited.

"There are serious issues about how a lot of Jan. 6 defendants have had their constitutional rights violated," said Donalds. "They've been held for extended periods of time."

Other House Republicans have also taken meetings with Jan. 6 supporters and relatives of defendants. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican of Georgia, told CBS News, "We're actually looking at doing oversight of the D.C. jail," where dozens of Jan. 6 defendants have been held in pretrial detention.

Greene said there is a possibility some defendants' relatives could be called as witnesses at a hearing of the House Oversight Committee, a panel on which Greene sits. Greene also said there is consideration of subpoenas for officials with oversight of the jail.

Retired Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonnell, who was injured during the Capitol attack, said it is hypocritical of McCarthy to allow staff to meet with Babbitt's mother. Gonnell told CBS News, "He is creating a narrative that nothing happened. It's a total betrayal of what I risked my life for on Jan. 6."

Efforts to reach Witthoeft were unsuccessful Wednesday. Higgins' office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

During a protest Tuesday by relatives and supporters of Jan. 6 defendants' relatives and supporters outside the D.C. jail, leaders of the protest said they expect to to attend this week's Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) conference in Maryland. Top congressional Republicans, activists and former President Donald Trump are scheduled to speak at the event.

Lawsuit claims dental device damaged patients' teeth

Fisherman captures shocking shark feeding frenzy off Louisiana coast

Gas prices in the U.S. continue to fall since peak in June
OTTAWA (Reuters) - A 31-year-old Toronto man is facing 96 charges related to sexual assault of children in person as well as on social media platforms like Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, police in Canada said on Wednesday.

The charges against Daniel Langdon include 39 counts of sexual assault, 39 counts of sexual interference, as well as allegations of making and possessing child pornography, Toronto Police said in a statement.

Victims were aged between seven and 17. Police have declined to say how many children were targeted or provide information about the victims to protect their identities.

Police allege that Langdon, who they believe was operating alone, used several email addresses and social media platforms, as well as altered photos that made him look younger.

Authorities started working on a child luring and sexual assault investigation last year which led to Langdon's arrest in February.

Police searched his home and recovered child sexual abuse material as well as evidence indicating that he sexually assaulted a seven-year-old child at a Toronto park.

Toronto Police detective Vijay Shetty told a news conference that Langdon was previously charged with possessing and creating child pornography in 2016, but declined to provide more details of that incident.

Langdon appeared in court on Feb. 8 and was remanded in custody, police said. He is scheduled to appear in an Ontario court on Thursday.

The investigation is still ongoing and police believe there are more online and in-person victims across Ontario, Canada's most populous province.

A representative for Langdon could not immediately be located to seek comment.

(Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa; Editing by Josie Kao)
On the outskirts of Accra there are huge electronic waste disposal sites, known locally as Sodoma and Gomorra. Photo by Maniglia Romano/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images

Toxic waste and electronic waste (e-waste) is generated from a wide range of industries  such as health, hydrocarbon or manufacturing  and can come in many forms, such as sludges or gas. E-waste is used electronic items that are nearing the end of their useful life, and are discarded or given to be recycled. If these types of waste arent properly discarded they can cause serious harm to human health and the environment.

This makes the proper disposal of toxic and e-waste expensive. Because of this a market has been created and some companies and independent waste brokers circumvent laws. They disguise toxic waste as unharmful and e-waste as reusable electronics. It is then exported to countries in West and Central Africa where it is often disposed of unethically at dump-sites.

In our recent paper, we show how Western companies and businesses (primarily those in Europe and the US) target countries in the Gulf of Guinea  we covered Nigeria, Ghana, and Cote dIvoire  as a dump for their toxic waste. This, despite the knowledge of the physiological and environmental effects of this waste.

These African countries do not have the facilities to enable the safe disposal of hazardous and toxic waste. And the true contents of the waste are almost always unknown to them. Exporters label unsalvageable electronic goods as reusable. This allows them to circumvent international laws which prohibit the transboundary transport of this waste.

Drawing on examples from Cote dIvoire, Nigeria and Ghana, our paper argues that toxic waste dumping in the Gulf of Guinea amounts to environmental racism. This is a term thats used to describe a form of systemic racism  manifested through policies or practices  whereby communities of colour are disproportionately burdened with health hazards through policies and practices that force them to live in proximity to sources of toxic waste.

Other victims of environmental racism are Native Americans. In 2002 the US Commission for Racial Justice found that about half of this population live in areas with uncontrolled hazardous waste sites.

Story continues

The dumping of toxic waste into Africa, while deliberately concealing its true content, shows that companies know it is ethically wrong. To protect communities within these countries, governments must implement the provisions of the Basel and Bamako Conventions. These conventions classify the transboundary movement of hazardous waste without the consent of the receiving state as illegal.

We also argue that the dumping of hazardous waste must be recognised by the United Nations and its member states as a violation of human rights.

What we found

We focused on three recent case studies of toxic waste dumping in Cote dIvoire, and e-waste dumping in Nigeria and Ghana to illustrate how specific acts of environmental racism happen.

Nigeria and Ghana

We looked at waste dumping in Nigeria and Ghana because they are both identified by the United Nations Environmental Programme as among the worlds top destinations for e-waste. This includes discarded computers, television sets, mobile phones and microwave ovens.

In Nigeria, each month an estimated 500 container loads, each carrying about 500 000 pieces of used electronic devices (many of which cant be used again), enter Nigerias port from Europe, the US and Asia. Similarly in Ghana, hundreds of thousands of tons of used electronics, mainly from Europe and the United States, are delivered in huge containers.

Because the electronics arent properly recycled, this waste has caused huge amounts of pollution to enter the environment. Communities in both countries are also exposed to toxic chemicals such as mercury and lead. Burning e-waste can increase the risk of respiratory and skin diseases, eye infections and cancer for those that work on and live close by.

This is in stark contrast to what happens in the origin countries of the waste. For example, in the United Kingdom electronic waste is required to be appropriately recycled and is barred from incineration and landfills.

Misguidedly, the importation of e-waste to countries like Nigeria and Ghana continues because it generates much-needed revenue. For instance, Ghana is set to generate up to US0 million each year from levies collected from importers of e-wastes. The informal sector is also a source of employment for many poor and vulnerable people. In Nigeria for example, up to 100,000 people work in the informal e-waste sector, processing half a million tonnes of discarded appliances each year.

Cote dIvoire

Cote d'Ivoire serves as a good example to show the secrecy that is inherent in the toxic waste industry and the human and environmental cost of toxic waste dumping.

In 2006 Trafigura, a Netherlands-based multinational oil trading company, didnt want to pay the EUR500,000 (about US0,000) to treat and dispose of its toxic waste in the Netherlands. And so it approached an Ivorian contractor to dispose of over 500,000 litres of toxic waste. They paid the Ivorian subcontractor in Abidjan EUR18,500 (about US,000). The waste was disposed of at over 12 different locations around Abidjan. They claimed the material was non-toxic, hence no need for treatment.

The environmental racism is reflected in the fact that Trafigura knew that the waste was toxic and lied to discharge it in Cote d'Ivoire. Its decision is one of convenience and it is racist because it shows a disregard for African lives.

In the aftermath of the incident, over 100,000 people became sick and 15 people died. According to a 2018 assessment some of the sites are still contaminated.

The Ivorian government entered into a settlement agreement with the Trafigura Group, receiving CFA95 billion (approximately US0 million). This was intended to compensate the state and the victims and to pay for clean-up of the waste. However, some victims havent received compensation. Subsequent bids by victims for compensation have been rejected by a court in Amsterdam.

Moving forward

We recommend that countries in the region implement the provisions of the Basel and Bamako conventions in their entirety. Doing this would ensure that the countries of origin would be active players, monitoring the brokers on their end and ensuring waste is stopped before its exported.

Currently, Nigeria and Ghana havent ratified the Bamako Convention; they must do so. Recipient countries must take the necessary steps to ensure that theyre not used as a dumping ground.

Theres also a need for an international tribunal on toxic waste dumping and related crimes  just like the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia  to pass appropriate retributive justice. And though the Basel convention stipulates that the state can develop laws regarding liability and compensation for the victims, this has not yet resulted in fair compensation for victims.

Finally, it is imperative that Gulf of Guinea countries equip their seaports with technology and trained personnel that can detect hazardous waste.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. The Conversation is trustworthy news from experts. Try our free newsletters.

It was written by: Ifesinachi Okafor-Yarwood, University of St Andrews.

Read more:



The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
More than 400 students from first grade through high school performed Monday at the Black History Showcase at Governors State University in University Park. (John Smierciak)

Members of the Southland College Prep Charter High School Dance Troupe perform a routine called Harlem Tap during a Black History Performing Arts Showcase on Monday at Governors State University in University Park. (John Smierciak)

Student musicians and performers from schools throughout the south suburbs joined forces Monday to present a Black History Performing Arts Showcase, bringing the talents of over 400 youths to the stage at Governors State University in University Park.

An annual event prior to the pandemic, this was the first time the students from Rich Township High School District 227, Southland College Prep High School, Elementary School District 159, Matteson School District 162 and Park Forest-Chicago Heights School District 163 all shared a stage since 2020. It was the fourth time for the showcase, which took the theme this year As One.

Advertisement

Members of the Southland College Prep Dance Troupe perform a modern dance routine Monday during a Black History Performing Arts Showcase at Governors State University in University Park. (John Smierciak)

Johnnie Thomas, superintendent of Rich Township District 227, helped found the event as a celebration of Black history and culture and a way to bring the school districts together.

We are incredibly proud to have collaborated and to showcase our scholars talent and creativity, Thomas said in a news release.

Advertisement

He said the event was organized by a team of dedicated educators who believe in the importance of celebrating and recognizing the contributions of Black Americans throughout history.

The showcase provided a platform for students to display their talent, creativity and passion for the performing arts while also learning about the important role that Black Americans have played in shaping our nation, Thomas said.
By Polina Devitt and Eric Onstad

LONDON (Reuters) - An Indian businessman accused by Trafigura of fraud told the commodity trader he imported Russian nickel and had it processed before rebranding it as Indian to get around financing restrictions, a former Trafigura executive said in an affidavit to a London court.

The document suggests possible ways Russian metal has continued to flow onto global markets despite a host of companies and banks refusing to deal with Russian commodities following the invasion of Ukraine.

The affidavit forms part of a case Trafigura is bringing against Prateek Gupta in London's High Court, alleging "systematic fraud" by Gupta's companies in substituting other materials for nickel Trafigura had bought.

Trafigura said on Feb. 9 that it had booked a $577 million charge relating to the substitutions. The court imposed a $625 million global freezing order on Gupta and his firms on Feb. 8, which Gupta plans to challenge.

A spokesperson for Gupta said: "We have not yet responded to Trafigura's allegations. We are preparing a robust response and that will be made available soon."

Trafigura's then head of nickel trading Socrates Oikonomou said in the affidavit the firm had been buying nickel from Gupta and several of his companies since 2015, but after the conflict in Ukraine erupted in February last year Citi said it would no longer finance deals with Russian metal.

"Citi stipulated that it would only continue to finance the trades if the nickel which was being traded was not of Russian origin," Oikonomou said in his affidavit. Citi declined to comment.

"Mr Gupta indicated in a telephone call that he intended to comply with this requirement."

Gupta later told Oikonomou that he had got around the restriction by having an unnamed partner process nickel imported from Russia into an alloy, the affidavit said.

"The supposed objective behind this was to change the origin of the metal from Russian origin to an Indian (or at least non-Russian) retreated alloy," Oikonomou said in the affidavit.

Story continues

This was a time when "Russian origin material was becoming hard to sell in the market and difficult to obtain financing in respect from banks", he added.

Gupta blamed the unnamed partner for substituting nickel alloy for the high-grade nickel in the Trafigura cargoes, Oikonomou said.

The documents do not make clear the volumes of Russian nickel that was being smelted and rebranded as Indian metal.

After Trafigura began to suspect in October last year that around 25,000 tonnes of metal sold by Gupta's firms may not be high-grade nickel, it scrambled to inspect over 1,000 shipping containers, court documents showed.

Cargoes that Trafigura inspected contained other materials, including carbon steel, worth a fraction of the value of nickel, the documents said.

While there have been scant restrictions imposed by Western governments on Russian metal, banks like Citi and some consumers have said they are no longer dealing with Russian metal.

That does not seem to have impeded however the flow of metal from Russia.

The world's biggest refined nickel producer, Russia's Nornickel, increased nickel production last year by 13.5% to 218,970 tonnes, while overall metal sales revenue dipped 6% to $16.1 billion.

Indian imports of unwrought, non-alloyed nickel from Russia fell 11% last year from 2021 levels to 2,617 tonnes, according to Trade Data Monitor, worth about $65 million based on current prices.

(Reporting by Polina Devitt and Eric Onstad; Additional reporting by Pratima Desai and Sam Tobin; Editing by Jan Harvey)
A collision between a passenger train and a freight train in northern Greece killed at least 26 people and injured at least 85 early Wednesday morning in the country, according to The Associated Press.

At least three cars burst into flames after derailing in the collision that happened about 235 miles north of Athens in Tempe, Greece. Hospital officials said that at least 25 of the injured had serious injuries.

The evacuation process is ongoing and is being carried out under very difficult conditions due to the severity of the collision between the two trains, Fire Service spokesman Vassilis Varthakoyiannis said, according to the AP.

Costas Agorastos, a regional governor of the area, told state television that the collision was very powerful and said it was a terrible night, the news wire reported.

The front section of the train was smashed, Agorastos said. Were getting cranes to come in and special lifting equipment (to) clear the debris and lift the rail cars. Theres debris flung all around the crash site.

A rail operator told the AP that the passenger train, which was traveling north, had about 350 passengers on board when the collision happened.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Tricia Derges, a former state lawmaker and founder of several medical clinics throughout southwest Missouri, was sentenced Tuesday to six years and three months in prison.

The Nixa Republican was found guilty in June of 22 charges  including wire fraud, illegal distribution of controlled substances and making false statements to investigators  related to financial fraud, illegally providing prescription drugs and lying to patients at her clinics. She was also ordered to pay roughly $500,000 in restitution.

Derges, 65, resigned from the Missouri House of Representatives days after a jury found her guilty following a two-week trial at the federal courthouse in Springfield. She was elected in November 2020.

Derges, who rose to prominence in southwest Missouri through her founding and operation of several medical clinics, was found to have fraudulently obtained federal aid money for her nonprofit clinic, lied to patients about "stem cell" treatments that did not contain stem cells and mixed money between the nonprofit, Lift Up Springfield, and her Ozark Valley Medical Clinic locations.

Federal prosecutors say Derges attempted to fraudulently receive nearly $900,000 in CARES Act funds. They say she applied for the government COVID-19 relief funds through her nonprofit for work that was actually being done (and had been paid for) at her for-profit clinics.

More:Missouri lawmaker Tricia Derges found guilty of wire fraud, illegal prescriptions, lying to feds

Derges was also convicted for a pre-pandemic scheme in which prosecutors say she marketed a stem cell treatment that actually utilized amniotic fluid that did not contain any stem cells. Several victims, who received the treatment thinking it was a stem cell treatment, testified at the trial.

Derges, an assistant physician, also wrote electronic prescriptions for Oxycodone and Adderall for patients without conducting in-person evaluations and transmitted them to pharmacies over the internet.

Story continues

At Tuesday's hearing, Judge Brian Wimes settled on the six-year, three-month prison sentence after listening to arguments from federal prosecutor Randy Eggert (who asked for eight years in prison) and Derges' attorney Al Watkins (who asked for probation).

Eggert described Derges as an entitled narcissist who purposefully defrauded others for her own benefit.

"The defendant is entitled to neither mercy nor absolution," Eggert said.

Watkins, meanwhile, described his client as a well-intentioned person who battles several serious physical and mental health problems. Watkins asked for leniency because of Derges' age and lack of criminal history.

"She is not a risk to society," Watkins said. "She is not a risk of re-offending."

Derges also addressed the court, touting the thousands of underprivileged individuals she helped through her clinics. Derges thanked her large family, which includes 26 grandchildren, for its support.

Derges apologized but stopped short of taking full responsibility, saying the mistakes she made in this case were made "unknowingly" and without criminal intent.

Judge Wimes would later say Derges did not display "any level of contrition."

"You can't take that next step to own it," Wimes said.

Wimes acknowledged Derges had performed many good deeds in her life but he said he could not be certain she would not re-offend and he wanted a prison sentence to serve as a deterrent for Derges and others who might commit similar crimes.

"This is just a betrayal of public trust," Wimes said.

The U.S. Sentencing Commission provides a guideline range for how long someone should be sentenced for federal crimes based on the facts of the case and the defendant's criminal history. For Derges, the guideline sentence was between just over seven years in prison and nine years in prison. Judge Wimes, who had discretion to consider outside factors and determine where the sentence should land, opted for a sentence just below the guideline range.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Tricia Derges sentenced to prison time for COVID-19 relief fund scheme
The Home Office logo, seen in Westminster, London. Chris Philp was immigration minister at the time of the deportation flight

In June 2021, Ernesto Elliott  a convicted criminal with a history of knife crime  brutally murdered another man in a frenzied eight-minute attack in broad daylight. Horrified onlookers were left traumatised witnessing the murder, which involved a dispute over stolen goods. Last month, Elliott was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum of 26 years, for this horrific act.

The truth is that Elliott should never have been in the UK when he committed the murder. As a citizen of a foreign country  Jamaica  who had already been convicted of serious crimes, he should have been removed back to his country, as required by long-standing legislation. As immigration minister in December 2020, that is exactly what I tried to do. Living in the UK is not an automatic entitlement and the Government should obviously act to protect its own citizens from dangerous criminals who are not British.

But when the then home secretary and I tried to remove Elliott and dozens of other criminal offenders  including murderers and rapists  Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs objected, together with various celebrities. Actress Thandiwe Newton, model Naomi Campbell and TV historian David Olusoga all said that these criminals should stay here.

Opposition MPs wrote letters, spuriously citing Windrush  even though every person had been checked to ensure no Windrush eligibility, and foreign national offenders have nothing to do with the Windrush issue anyway.

In light of this campaign by the Left and virtue-signalling celebrities, Elliott managed to lodge a successful legal challenge, exploiting generous judicial interpretation of human rights and similar legislation, to prevent his removal from the United Kingdom. Only a handful of the serious criminals ended up being deported on the planned flight that month. So Elliott was free  and then, just a few months later, committed a murder in front of horrified bystanders who could easily have become victims as well. The Labour MPs and celebrities who defended the right of foreign criminals to stay clearly had no thought for the danger our fellow citizens would face, nor for the victims of their original offences.

Story continues

Ive heard from victims who are horrified that perpetrators of sexual offences, including rape and sickeningly violent assaults, have been allowed to stay in this country despite not having citizenship. But confronted with Elliotts deportation flight, the campaigners only wanted to try to score some cheap political points, claiming that removing foreign national criminals is somehow racist. In fact, the vast majority of deportations of foreign offenders are back to European countries, so race has nothing to do with it.

Elliotts flight wasnt even the first time in 2020 that Left-wing opposition arose to the removal of foreign criminals. The same thing happened just months before, when Labour MPs including Sir Keir Starmer, signed a letter objecting to a previous flight. All of these people should now reflect on the terrible impact of their political posturing.

There also needs to be some consideration for the way in which well-intentioned law is very expansively interpreted by the courts  especially law concerning human rights, asylum and modern slavery. This provided a basis for Elliott and other dangerous criminals to persuade judges to prevent their removal.

The Nationality and Borders Act, which became law last year, was partly prompted by such cases and is designed to close some of these loopholes. It was opposed by Labour and Lib Dem MPs in Parliament. More changes may be needed through further legislation currently being considered. It is almost inevitable that these will be opposed by Left-wing politicians and their celebrity friends.

But the first duty of government is to protect the public and properly police our borders. This Government understands that fundamental role, and will always prioritise public safety over foreign criminals. Its a shame that Labour cant say the same. I hope they never get the chance to impose their warped priorities on our country.

Rt Hon Chris Philp MP is minister for crime and policing
WASHINGTON (AP)  The military services are still reviewing possible discipline of troops who refused the order to get the COVID-19 vaccine, defense officials told Congress on Tuesday, and they provided few details on how many of those who were forced out of the military would like to return.

Lawmakers expressed frustration with the news, questioning why service members should still face discipline since the vaccine requirement had been rescinded.

Gilbert Cisneros Jr., undersecretary of defense for personnel, told the House Armed Services personnel subcommittee that some service members who disobeyed the lawful order to get the vaccine  and did not seek any type of exemption  were still going through the review process.

In order to maintain good order and discipline, its very important that our service members go and follow orders when they are lawful, said Cisneros, adding that military services were going through each case to evaluate what should be done.

The vaccine mandate divided Americans and has remained a contentious political issue. More than 8,400 troops were forced out of the military for refusing to obey a lawful order when they declined to get the vaccine. Thousands of others sought religious and medical exemptions.

The Pentagon formally dropped the mandate in January, as a result of legislation signed into law in late December. But a number of discipline cases were pending when the requirement was rescinded.

Cisneros and top officials from the Army, Navy and Air Force told the subcommittee that in some cases troops may have committed other misconduct in addition to the vaccine refusal, so each case was being reviewed.

Whats the point? said Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., the subcommittee chairman. We rescinded the mandate  whats the point of continuing to review the cases?

Banks said that a number of lawmakers were infuriated by the double standard and message you send for rescinding a policy and still punishing them for not taking the vaccine.

Story continues

Lawmakers also pressed the defense officials on whether troops who were discharged were being allowed to return to service.

Erik Raven, the Navy undersecretary, was the only one who provided any estimate, saying that weve had single digits in terms of numbers of individuals who have explored the option of returning to service. It wasn't clear if those individuals had formally sought reenlistment or merely asked about it.

Raven, along with Gina Ortiz Jones, the Air Force undersecretary, and Gabe Camarillo, the Army undersecretary, all told lawmakers that service members can go through the regular process for reinstatement. In most cases they will need to go to a review board to have their discharge status changed, and then they can seek to reenlist. They would have to meet all other enlistment standards.

Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., said he will push to allow those who were unlawfully purged, in my opinion, to be reentered into the military with their full benefits, their back pay, and be granted what they should have been given, which is the chance to serve our United States military.

Any move to provide back pay or other retroactive benefits would have to be addressed through legislation.

Lawmakers also questioned the impact of the discharges on the military, including whether it forced out many pilots. Jones said that only 40 Air Force officers were discharged for refusing the vaccine order, and another 14 opted to retire voluntarily. All the rest were enlisted personnel. Air Force pilots are all officers.

Overall, according to data compiled by the military as of late last year, the Marine Corps leads the services with 3,717 Marines discharged for refusing to follow the vaccine order. There have been 2,041 discharged from the Navy, 1,841 from the Army and 834 from the Air Force. The Air Force data includes the Space Force.

Defense officials have also suggested that in many cases those who refused the order and were discharged were in the very early stages of their military enlistment.
A coalition of 18 state attorneys general is urging veterans and service members scammed by a jewelry dealer to recoup money lost to what the Federal Trade Commission called "illegal financing and sales tactics."

Harris Jewelry, a seller that hawked gems, rings and trinkets at post exchanges across the country on military bases, agreed to pay $34.2 million last summer for "deceptively" adding costly protection plans to service members' purchases and claiming that financing their jewelry would raise the credit scores of troops and their families, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

Now, a group of state-level Department of Justice officials -- some of whom represent states with large military bases -- is encouraging veterans and service members to get their money back before an April 15 deadline, and reminding them that any outstanding debt owed to Harris "is now $0."

Read Next: Marine Corps Axes Elite Scout Sniper Platoons

"Harris Jewelry was well-known in military towns due to salespersons attracting service members with teddy bears dressed in military uniforms, and also for sale of items like the Mom's Medal of Honor," said a statement shared with Military.com by North Carolinas Attorney General Office.

"Due to a court settlement, many Harris Jewelry consumers from 2014 to present are likely eligible for a refund of some money," the statement continued.

Harris Jewelry agreed to close down as part of its FTC settlement. An attorney for the North Carolina Attorney Generals Office told Military.com a version of the statement was shared by the coalition across affected states.

The coalition estimates that more than 47,000 consumers are eligible for recoupment from either Harris Jewelry or its finance company, Consumer Adjustment Corp. Only 10,836 -- roughly 23% of affected consumers -- have filed a claim thus far, according to a statement from the New York Attorney Generals Office -- a statistic that state lawyers find concerning as the looming spring deadline approaches.

Story continues

"Service members have historically been targeted with abusive business practices, in large part because of their steady paychecks, frequent moves, and the extra pressure to maintain financial solidity for military readiness," a statement from the Office of the New York State Attorney General said. "Harris is the latest in a series of cases brought by states attorneys general and federal consumer agencies to fight back against predatory businesses targeting soldiers. It is critical to take the profit out of deceiving those who serve our country."

The states listed in the coalition are California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington and Hawaii.

Harris Jewelry's website, which once boasted of "exceptional customer service" for military personnel and their families, has been repurposed as an information and refund application pit stop. Attorneys in the coalition are urging service members and family members to file a claim -- for "up to $1,000+" -- there, even if they are unsure about their eligibility.

The lawyer from the North Carolina Attorney Generals office said that funds from the July 2022 settlement, $10.9 million of which is for the deceptive purchase protection plans, according to the FTC, have been earmarked for service members affected by the scam.

"If you purchased during that time period, go ahead and file a claim," the attorney said during a Tuesday phone call, adding that many consumers may have had warranties unknowingly added to their purchases.

A statement from the New York office said that if funds are not recouped by the April 15, 2023, deadline, money marked as "overpayments" will go to individual state unclaimed funds. But any unclaimed refunds will go back to the defendants of the settlement -- Harris Jewelry and its financers.

The settlement with Harris revolved around violations of the Military Lending Act, a law meant to protect troops and their families against exploitative sales practices.

According to the FTC, Harris Jewelry told service members that financing jewelry through its outlet would raise their credit scores; the regulatory entity also said the jeweler misrepresented warranties.

"In several instances, the company offered items for sale and gave the false impression that the protection plan was not optional or was required to finance the purchase, when it was in fact optional," the FTC said in a statement last year.

The stores also did not provide written disclosures in its advertisements -- and oral disclosures during the time of purchase -- that fully explained the purchase contract to the federal standard.

Among other requirements outlined in the settlement, Harris Jewelry was ordered to stop collecting millions in outstanding consumer debt, provide refunds, contact consumer reporting agencies to request a cessation of negative credit reports leveled against affected consumers, and shut down completely once those requirements are met.

The statement from the attorneys general urged consumers to contact their state law enforcement agencies if a negative credit judgment was taken against them.

According to the complaint, Harris Jewelry also violated the FTC Act, the Truth in Lending Act, and the Electronic Fund Transfer Act -- other federal regulations that offer additional consumer protections.

In 2021, service members, veterans and their family members accounted for nearly 4% of all fraud, identity theft and other scams reported to the FTC -- a rising statistic that has resulted in hundreds of millions in losses in the last five years.

-- Drew F. Lawrence can be reached at drew.lawrence@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @df_lawrence.

Related: Major Jewelry Retailer to Pay Millions for Duping Troops and Families
Black bunting is seen on Webster Fire Department headquarters Wednesday in honor of Firefighter Paul Cloutier, who died last week.

WEBSTER  Black bunting lines the Webster Fire Department following the passing of Firefighter Paul R. Cloutier, who died suddenly as he was preparing to respond to an emergency call last week.

Cloutier, 52, of Woodstock, Connecticut, was found deceased in his car the morning of Feb. 22.

A family member told authorities that Cloutier was seen a day earlier getting ready to head to Webster for a lake rescue, according to Webster Fire Chief Brian Hickey. Cloutier was a member of the Webster Fire/Rescue Dive Team.

Firefighter Paul R. Cloutier

On the afternoon of Feb. 21, Cloutier was called to an emergency call for a report of two kayaks and a canoe that capsized on Webster Lake, according to Hickey. He never reported to the call.

The chief said he was unsure of the cause of death.

Cloutier was a firefighter in Webster for two years, serving as a diver, available around the clock, according to Hickey.

He also served as a volunteer firefighter for the Muddy Brook Fire Department in Woodstock, where he was lieutenant and president.

On behalf of Webster Fire/Rescue and the Town of Webster, I want to express our most heartfelt condolences to Pauls family and loved ones, Hickey said. This is a terrible loss for them, for his brother and sister firefighters, and for our community. As a firefighter and a friend, Paul was a deeply valued member of our team and always ready to answer a call for help.

No injuries were reported following the emergency at the lake.

Left home responding to a call

Family reported seeing Cloutier leave for the call from his Connecticut home shortly after the 4:20 p.m. call. He was found the following morning slumped over the steering wheel of his pickup truck, said Hickey.

Hickey described Cloutier as a physically strong person without any known illnesses.

The American flag is at half-staff and black bunting decorates the front of the Webster Fire Dept. headquarters Wednesday in honor of the death of Firefighter Paul Cloutier last week.

Cloutier was born and raised in Vermont and moved to Massachusetts in 1989. He was a father of two and was known to often pay visits to his mother, who continues to live in Vermont. He was also an avid scuba diver and hunter.

Story continues

"He truly enjoyed helping others," said Hickey.

Memorial services for Cloutier will be held Saturday at the Muddy Brook Fire Station, starting at 9:30 a.m.

At 10 a.m., a procession will leave the station through Route 169 to Route 197 and then to West Main Street, Dudley to reach Webster.

The procession will then continue through Webster on Main Street, through South and East Main streets. It will come to a final stop at the Webster fire station on Thompson Road, where another service will be held at 10:30 a.m.

Thompson Road will be closed from East Main Street to Hillside Avenue for the duration of the service.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Webster Fire Dept. mourns unexpected passing of firefighter Cloutier
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)  Donald Trump is planning to visit Iowa in mid-March, a first foray to the leadoff caucus state since announcing his 2024 White House campaign.

The former president hinted at an Iowa trip very soon in a radio interview with Des Moines talk show host Simon Conway on Tuesday. A Trump aide confirmed Wednesday that plans were underway for an upcoming appearance, but declined to provide details about the location or date, beyond the middle of this month.

The aide spoken on condition of anonymity to discuss plans that have not been publicly announced.

We're planning something very soon, Trump told Conway on WHO radio. And then we'll be coming back at least a couple of times before the election.

Trump has been notably absent in Iowa, where Republican candidate Nikki Haley, his former U.N. ambassador, and potential rivals Mike Pence, the former vice president, and Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., have visited after a slow start to campaigning in the state.

Some Iowa Republican activists, including Gloria Mazza, chairwoman of the Polk County Republicans, representing Iowa's most populous county, have noted that Trump has stayed away so far. Trump traveled in January to New Hampshire, scheduled to host the first Republican presidential primary next year, and South Carolina, the South's first primary.
OXON HILL, Md. (AP)  The annual Conservative Political Action Conference was once one of the premier gatherings on the GOP campaign calendar  a must-stop for serious contenders testing the waters on presidential runs.

No longer.

Many of the party's best-known likely candidates  from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to former Vice President Mike Pence  are skipping the marquee event kicking off Wednesday as the group grapples with controversy and questions over its place in a movement that remains deeply split over its allegiance to former President Donald Trump.

Adding to the turmoil: A lawsuit filed by an unnamed Republican campaign staffer against Matt Schlapp, chair of the American Conservative Union, which organizes the conference. The suit accuses Schlapp of groping the staffer during a car ride in Georgia before the November election.

Schlapp, who has denied the staffer's account, did not address the allegations against him as CPAC programming began Thursday, but did make a nod to the notable absences.

Theres a lot of chatter in the media about who's here and not here, he said.

Among those bypassing this year's event are congressional leaders and governors, Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel, and several potential presidential prospects, including Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who has been building buzz among some donors.

Hes laser-focused on Virginia and having a good legislative session and now focused on passing the budget, said Jeff Roe, a Youngkin political consultant.

Pence is a longtime CPAC speaker who has not appeared at the conference since he drew the ire of some Trump supporters by resisting Trump's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. In explaining why Pence declined to attend this year, his aides cited a full schedule of events, including a Club for Growth donor summit; a trip to South Carolina, where he will speak at the evangelical Bob Jones University; a speech at the conservative Christian Hillsdale College in Michigan; and a Students for Life of America event in Florida.

Story continues

We had other priorities this week, but I wish them well," Pence told The Associated Press from South Carolina on Thursday. "Thats an important gathering filled with great Americans, and I look forward to returning someday.

The glaring absence of many prominent Republicans this year marks a dramatic change from 2015, the year before the last competitive GOP presidential primary, when CPAC's schedule included nearly all of the major candidates, Jeb Bush among them. The former Florida governor, who is now criticized by many on the right, received a warm reception, even as a small number of activists staged a walkout.

Alex Conant, a longtime GOP strategist, remembers attending his first CPAC as a high school student in the 1990s and being star-struck meeting Newt Gingrich, the Georgia congressman who had just stepped down as House speaker.

I dont think people go there to meet the next generation of leaders. They go to celebrate the last one, Conant said.

Conant returned often as an aide, including when he was working for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a 2016 presidential candidate who was one of a long list of Republicans with a breakthrough moment on CPACs stage over the years.

This time, however, Rubio is absent.

I think CPAC used to be a place where stars could break out. Now its much more the Trump show, Conant said.

This year, Trump has top billing, delivering the conferences headlining speech Saturday evening. He is almost guaranteed to win the event's annual unscientific presidential preference poll of attendees.

Trump, hyping his speech as a monster and urging attendees to vote for him in the poll, said on his social media site: The only reason certain candidates wont be going to CPAC is because the crowds have no interest in anything they have to say.

Also on the schedule are the two other declared Republican candidates: Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and biotech investor Vivek Ramaswamy.

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is also mulling a White House run, is set to speak. Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rick Scott of Florida will appear. Both have recently signaled their intentions to run for reelection instead of vying for the nomination.

The conference schedule features a litany of election deniers who reject findings from judges, election officials and Trump's own attorney general that there was no widespread fraud during the 2020 campaign. They include Mike Lindell, the MyPillow founder who continues to spread election conspiracy theories, and Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who recently called for a national divorce between blue and red states. Kari Lake, the news anchor-turned Arizona gubernatorial candidate who refused to concede after losing last year, will speak Friday night.

Both Greene and Lake are considered potential Trump vice presidential picks.

Activists will also hear from Jair Bolsonaro, the former president of Brazil, whose supporters stormed the countrys Congress, Supreme Court and presidential palace after he refused to accept his defeat in October. The siege bore striking similarities to the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan 6, 2021.

Schlapp said in a statement that CPAC was gratified that all the announced candidates are coming as the conference returns to National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland, just outside of Washington, for the first time since 2020.

When it comes to Presidential politics, talk is cheap. When you formally announce your name, youre real, he said. We have never had such a strong lineup of speakers,. ... CPAC will continue to highlight conservatives and not be a mouthpiece for establishment conservative republicanism.

The Club for Growth, the influential anti-tax group that has clashed with Trump, will hold a competing event, a donor summit in Florida, that is attracting DeSantis, Pence and others. Trump was not invited, underscoring the fierce divide in the conservative movement as some elements strongly back him and others look to move in a new direction.

Since Trump became president, the conference has really been all about him. In 2021, a procession of speakers declared their fealty to the former president as some attendees posed for selfies with a golden statue of his likeness.

That gives little incentive for other candidates to attend.

If youre Ron DeSantis, whats the strategic reason for you to go to a place thats pretty well on the record as just being a Trump fan club? said Ross Hemminger, a former press secretary for the event and former deputy communications director for the ACU.

The group has also increasingly welcomed fringe elements of the party, and that's made some former staff and participants uneasy. And as CPAC has expanded overseas, it's begun hosting autocratic leaders such as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Hemminger said the conferences used be a must-stop for Republican presidential candidates, with so many senators on the program that some had to be relegated to secondary stages. Now, he said, the lineup seems to feature a bunch of like third-string radio talk show hosts."

You just look at it and you think, Oh wow. CPAC used to be such a big deal and now its this, he said. The goal used to be setting the conservative agenda. The goal now is: It doesnt matter how nutty you have to be, you just have to get Donald Trumps attention and make him know that you are willing to make a fool of yourself for him so that you can stay in his good graces.

___

Associated Press writer Meg Kinnard in North Charleston, S.C., contributed to this report.
Two Trump supporters behind a plot to firebomb Sacramentos state Democratic Party headquarters were sentenced to prison Wednesday, but only after sentencing for one was delayed because his attorney asked for the courtroom to be closed over concerns for his clients safety.

Ian Benjamin Rogers, 46, received a nine-year sentence after expressing his remorse for his behavior, which he blamed on a drinking problem that was exacerbated by COVID-19 lockdowns that severely hurt his auto repair business.

I said a lot of stupid and silly things, Rogers told Senior U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer as Rogers family sat in the first row of the courtroom watching. I never seriously meant them in any way. ...

I just want everybody to know how sorry I am.

Ian Benjamin Rogers, 45, and Jarrod Copeland, 37, agreed to plea deals in connection with a plot to blow up the California Democratic Headquarters in Sacramento.

Rogers co-defendant, Jarrod Copeland, 39, received a 54-month sentence after a brief closed hearing. His attorney, John Ambrosio, would not comment afterward on what safety concerns he had or whether Copeland is now cooperating with law enforcement.

Both men were facing sentencing for their role in a bizarre conspiracy to retaliate against President Joe Bidens victory over Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

Copeland, a tool salesman, Army deserter and steroid user who was arrested at his Sacramento apartment in 2021, and Rogers, a Napa auto mechanic who specialized in Jaguar and Land Rover repairs, were indicted by a federal grand jury in July 2021 on charges of conspiracy to destroy a building, possession of destructive devices and machine guns and obstruction of justice.

The two men were accused of planning an attack on the John L. Burton Democratic Party headquarters in downtown Sacramento as revenge for what they falsely believed was a stolen election.

Court documents say law enforcement seized bombs and dozens of firearms  including machine guns  and that the men hoped the attack would ignite what they called a movement they hoped would spur others to action.

Story continues

But Rogers insisted Wednesday he never meant to carry out any of the actions, and said he regretted possessing three illegal firearms and pipe bombs that were among a cache of weapons at his home.

Five improvised explosive devices that federal agents said they seized from the Napa home of Ian Benjamin Rogers are seen in an undated photo accompanying an indictment against Rogers and Jarrod Copeland of Vallejo. The men were charged with plotting to blow up the Democratic Partys headquarters in Sacramento, a bombing they hoped would be the first in a series of politically-motivated attacks, federal prosecutors said Thursday.

He said the weapons were for fun and that he fired them only four times, keeping them in a gun safe most of the time along with the bombs.

The bombs, he said, were made to protect myself and my family from a potential future event, and added that he did not even know if they would have worked.

Rogers spoke after Breyer heard from California Democratic Party Chairman Rusty Hicks, who described the chilling effect the plot has had on party workers and volunteers, and the financial cost the party has borne in upgrading security at its headquarters.

Hicks added that the Democrats have a long history of supporting restorative justice and redemption, and told the judge he did not disagree with the plea bargain worked out that led to the nine-year sentence and a requirement that Rogers undergo alcohol abuse treatment.

Before imposing the sentence, Breyer gave what amounted to a history lesson on the American experiment and lectured Rogers, telling him he has the right to oppose government actions but not to break the law because of his views.

It is an extraordinary experiment, but when there is the threat of violence our country is in danger of failing that experiment.

Breyer noted that he earlier had rejected the plea agreement because of questions about whether Rogers was sincerely remorseful, but said that after Rogers was evaluated by a psychiatrist he was convinced many of Rogers problems stemmed from drinking.

Rogers agreed, choking up at one point as he apologized to his family, and reflected on the damage he has done to his life.

The rest of my life I will have to deal with these issues when I try to get a job or people Google my name, he said, adding, I was a drunk saying things I didnt mean. One last time, Im sorry.

After Rogers was led away, his co-defendant appeared to face sentencing, and the judge said he intended to go along with a plea deal and sentence Copeland to 54 months in prison.

But proceedings were halted after Copelands attorney asked the judge to close the courtroom to the public and press because of concerns for his clients safety.

No, Im not going to close the courtroom, the judge replied, saying the public has a right to see the sentencing.

The sentencing portion of the hearing was opened after a 15-minute closed session, and an emotional Copeland read a prepared statement in which he apologized to Democratic workers he said he knew he had terrified.

Im truly ashamed of myself, he said. I ask for your forgiveness.

Before Rogers and Copeland settled on the plot against the Democratic headquarters at 1830 Ninth St., the men considered other targets, including the Governors Mansion, offices for Twitter and Facebook and Gov. Gavin Newsoms office.

I want to blow up a democrat building bad, Rogers texted to Copeland in January 2021, shortly before Biden was inaugurated and days after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

No attack ever took place, but federal prosecutors described the plot as a serious threat of political violence that included efforts to recruit members of the extremist Proud Boys group to help form a force for guerrilla warfare.

Ambrosio earlier described their plot as merely two friends letting off steam, while Rogers attorney Colin Cooper blamed his clients actions on heavy beer drinking and bloviating by a man who now knows he made a colossal mistake.

Both men accepted plea deals and Rogers had been expected to face sentencing last September until the judge rejected his plea deal because of statements he made to U.S. Probation officials that the judge said showed a lack of remorse.

I feel very bad for putting myself in a bad situation that allowed the government to destroy my life, Rogers said, then added, I accept responsibility for having in my possession illegal weapons and thinking about burning down a building in a drunken state.

Breyer was having no such talk, declaring in a hearing that Rogers regrets he was caught.

I have to say, in 23 years Ive never seen that type of statement, the judge said before refusing to accept the plea deal and ordering a psychiatric exam of Rogers. Ive never seen a defendant come in and say I regret I was caught.

Rogers subsequently wrote a letter to the judge from jail, literally begging for the judge to accept his plea deal so that he has hope of someday being released and returning to his family.

I made a colossal mistake owning illegal firearms, illegal explosives and communicating via text message with my co-defendant, he wrote. At the time, I believed the election was stolen.

At the time, I believed things said by the Trump administration. At the time, I was in a dark place in my life and I was abusing alcohol and acting out, in part, because of it.

I was wrong in my thinking.

The two men were sentenced in Breyers 17th-floor courtroom inside the Phillip Burton Federal Building in downtown San Francisco. The building is named for a longtime Democratic congressman who died in 1983.

The Democratic headquarters building in Sacramento that was the target of the attack is named for his brother.
Tumwater police are looking for four men they believe committed armed robberies on two separate occasions in February, according to a Tuesday post.

The most recent incident occurred at about 11 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 28, at a 7 Eleven at 1022 Crosby Blvd. SW. According to police, three men were photographed in the store before fleeing in a stolen Hyundai vehicle that was driven by a fourth man.

Police believe the men abandoned the vehicle in a nearby parking lot before fleeing in a white Kia vehicle that was also stolen. They reportedly fled south on Mottman Road toward North Ninth Avenue.

Photographs show three men dressed all in black, including ski masks. A fourth man appears to wear a dark sweater with a green design and khaki pants.

A similar robbery occurred at about 4:30 a.m. Feb. 21 at a Chevron at 670 Trosper Road SW. Police allege three men arrived at the store in a Hyundai vehicle that was stolen from Lakewood earlier that morning.

They reportedly fled the scene and then abandoned the vehicle two blocks away on South Second Avenue. Police believe the same men involved in this robbery were involved in the one on Tuesday.

In both cases, police say the suspects stole two vehicles, either a Hyundai or a Kia, by breaking a rear window. After committing a robbery, the suspects reportedly abandon one vehicle nearby.

Anyone with information on the alleged robberies or the men involved can contact the Tumwater Police Department at 360-754-4200 or ddawson@ci.tumwater.wa.us. People also can contact Crime Stoppers of South Sound at 1-800-222-8477.
ISTANBUL (Reuters) -Turkish authorities have fined TikTok 1.75 million lira ($93,000) for not taking sufficient measures to protect users from unlawful processing of their data, the Personal Data Protection Board (KVKK) said on Wednesday.

The fine comes amid growing international concern over the Chinese short video-sharing app and who accesses its user data. Government institutions in Europe and Canada banned the app from staff phones and the United States is discussing a bill giving President Joe Biden the power to ban TikTok.

The KVKK said it had decided to fine the company for "not taking all necessary measures to ensure the appropriate level of security to prevent unlawful processing of personal data."

The data protection authority also said in a statement on its website that TikTok should translate its Terms of Service into Turkish and update its privacy and cookies policy texts in line with the country's regulations.

TikTok said they are looking into the Turkish regulator's fine, adding that they remain committed to providing a safe and protected platform for users.

"Our uncompromising commitment is to provide all users with the peace of mind they deserve by ensuring the safety, security and protection of their personal information - because their trust matters to us," a TikTok spokesperson said.

Turkey has the ninth most users of TikTok in the world, with some 30 million accounts on the social media platform, data from Statista showed.

($1 = 18.8867 liras)

(Reporting by Ezgi Erkoyun; Editing by Toby Chopra and Louise Heavens)
Twitter reversed the suspension of Sen. Mike Lees (R-Utah) personal account on Wednesday afternoon, hours after it was locked for unknown reasons.

Lee appeared to regain access to his @BasedMikeLee account around 2:30 p.m., when users were able to see his Tweets once again.

Thanks to all who assisted in operation #Free@basedMikeLee. Still no explanation from @Twitter as to what happened, Lee tweeted from his personal account.

The account had been suspended earlier Wednesday, with his feed only reading Account suspended, and that Twitter suspends accounts that violate Twitter rules.

Leaving a Senate GOP lunch Wednesday, Lee told The Hill that he wasnt sure why the account got suspended.

Yeah, I just noticed that, he said. No idea why. I checked my email and I checked my direct mentioning function on the Twitter app and I havent received anything. Weird.

While the account was still suspended, Lee Tweeted from his official account that, My personal Twitter account  @BasedMikeLee  has been suspended. Twitter did not alert me ahead of time, nor have they yet offered an explanation for the suspension. My team and I are seeking answers.

Reporters noted that Lee on Wednesday morning tweeted at the Japanese Prime Minister calling for the return of imprisoned Navy Lt. Ridge Alkonis, who is serving prison time for his role in a deadly car crash.

I didnt say anything thats worthy of suspension, so I dont know, Lee added about the tweet in question.

The Hill reached out to Twitter for comment.

Twitter last month briefly suspended the account of Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) after Dainess account displayed an image of him and his wife hunting as the profile picture. The suspension prompted an outcry from Republicans and the account was reinstated later the same day.

On Wednesday, Daines tweeted, Here we go again@Twitter, why is my colleague @BasedMikeLee locked out of his account? #FreeLee

Updated at 2:43 p.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Two Richmond County deputies were arrested Tuesday after an inmate at the Charles B. Webster Detention Center made a report of unnecessary force.

Deputies Gerardo Sanchez Jr., 28, and Joshua Mack Jackson, 21, are charged with simple battery and violation of oath of office.

Deputy Joshua Mack Jackson, 21, is charged with simple battery and violation of oath of office.

The inmate filed an officer grievance and made the report of unnecessary force against deputies on Friday, according to a news release from the sheriff's office.

The detention center Intelligence Division investigated the complaint and found video of two deputies assaulting the inmate Thursday, according to the release.

Deputy Gerardo Sanchez Jr., 28, is charged with simple battery and violation of oath of office.

The case was forwarded to the Richmond County Criminal Investigations Division where a criminal investigation began, according to the release. Warrants were secured on Tuesday and the two deputies were arrested.

Sheriff Richard Roundtree will hold a media conference Wednesday to discuss the incident and the recent arrests of employees that have occurred within the past year, according to the release.

Reward offered:Family of Augusta man killed in shooting offers $10,000 reward for information

Bus crash:Deputies say Richmond County bus driver was responsible for Monday crash

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Deputies charged with assaulting inmate at detention center
The inability of Afghan forces to function independently in the months before the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan is the fault largely of the U.S. and Afghan governments, according to a new report.

It was a mistake to train them to be "a mirror image of U.S. forces, which required a high degree of professional military sophistication and leadership," qualities that the Afghan forces did not have. The report, released Tuesday by the special inspector general for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), points out that the Afghan air force, which was supposed to be "the greatest advantage the force had over the Taliban," wasn't even expected to be self-sufficient until 2030.

Over a period of 20 years, the U.S. invested nearly $90 billion in Afghan security assistance and trained and built up Afghan security forces to help them defend their country against the Taliban.

But those forces crumpled with a speed that surprised everyone, leaving the country in Taliban control the same month as the chaotic, hurried withdrawal by the U.S.

The Afghan security system was one built on contractors and American leadership, and it led to long-term dependencies, according to the report.

"We built that army to run on contractor support. Without it, it can't function. Game overwhen the contractors pulled out, it was like we pulled all the sticks out of the Jenga pile and expected it to stay up," one former U.S. commander in Afghanistan told SIGAR.

After the Doha agreement, which traded the full military withdrawal of the U.S. for the promise of the Taliban never to allow a threat to Americans or their allies from Afghan soil, including by terrorist groups, the morale of the Afghan security forces degraded  Afghan security officials called it "a catalyst for the collapse."

As they saw it, the U.S. was handing the country over to the Taliban as it rushed toward the exit. Despite decades of U.S. training, the Afghan advisers remained inexperienced, and corruption within the forces eroded their capabilities. While Doha limited Afghan forces to a defensive posture, the Taliban took advantage of the offensive by striking supply lines and causing $600 million in damage in 2020, according to the report.

Story continues

Another factor in the surprisingly rapid fall of the Western-backed Kabul government was the drastic drop in U.S. military support after the Doha agreement. Gen. Sami Sadat, a former commander of Afghanistan's Joint Special Operations Command, told SIGAR that "overnight98% of U.S. airstrikes had ceased."

Five months before the U.S. withdrawal on Aug. 30, 2021, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani still did not believe that U.S. troops would leave within a specific timeframe. He thought the U.S. was just trying to affect his behavior, based on his communications with U.S. government officials through unofficial channels. It was only about a month after President Biden announced the timing of the withdrawal that Ghani's inner circle recognized the gaps in the training of the Afghan forces, including a lack of any supply and logistical capabilities, according to the report. Within four months, Ghani had fled the country and the Afghan forces had collapsed.

The report found that nearly $7.2 billion in U.S.-provided aircraft, guns, vehicles, ammunition and specialized equipment including night-vision goggles and biometric devices remain in the possession of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Poor recordkeeping led to a lack of oversight of equipment on the ground, according to the report.

The huge shipment of military aid to Ukraine over the past year has not been plagued by similar examples of malfeasance, but the SIGAR report warns that the risk of equipment ending up on the black market or in the wrong hands is "likely unavoidable." The report points to the Defense Department's difficulty in monitoring U.S. equipment sent to Ukraine  even before Russia invaded a year ago.

During a House Oversight Committee hearing on Tuesday, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Dr. Colin Kahl said the Defense Department had not seen "any evidence of diversion."

"We think the Ukrainians are using properly what they've been given," Kahl testified. The Defense Department has provided Ukrainians with tools like scanners and software to track the equipment the U.S. has provided.

The Defense Department said in a written response to the SIGAR report that while the findings provided "important insights," the department disputed the characterization that the U.S. had not not adequately communicated plans to support Afghan forces after the withdrawal.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot concedes to Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson

Artificial sweetener linked to heart attacks, blood clots and strokes

Inside one school's plan to help kids facing mental health crises
By Douglas Gillison and Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. authorities on Wednesday charged the head of the health care company Ontrak Inc with insider trading, marking the first criminal case involving the use of a special trading plan designed to help shield executives from such charges.

Ontrak Chairman and CEO Terren Peizer sold more than $20 million of Ontrak stock between May and August 2021 while in possession of material non-public negative information related to the company's largest customer, authorities said.

In a statement, U.S. Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite called the charges a "groundbreaking" effort to prevent the misuse of so-called 10b5-1 trading plans. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission also announced civil insider trading charges against Peizer in a parallel action.

Gurbir Grewal, the SEC's director of enforcement, said abuse of 10b5-1 plans "erodes public confidence" and that his agency was ready to bring further cases if necessary.

"It's an area we are definitely looking at and concerned about," he told reporters on the margins of an industry conference on Wednesday.

Peizer's trading arrangement's helped him avoid more than $12.5 million in losses, according to the Justice Department.

David Willingham, an attorney for Peizer, said his client was innocent and that U.S. authorities had disregarded good-faith discussions held "before these cases were filed without any prior notice."

Executives can use trading plans under rule 10b5-1 as a defense against insider trading charges by planning to sell shares in advance at predetermined times.

But the prearranged stock selling programs have come under criticism in response to a growing body of academic research indicating some executives have used them for suspiciously well-timed trading. Federal prosecutors and SEC officials have launched a widespread investigation into potential abuses of such plans, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Story continues

In a recent case, the SEC in September charged Cheetah Mobile Inc's CEO and its former president with insider trading in connection with a trading plan.

The SEC in December voted to make changes to the insider trading programs to address concerns over abuse.

(Reporting by Douglas Gillison and Kanishka Singh in Washington and Chris Prentice in Miami; editing by Diane Craft)
By Valerie Volcovici

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Rural communities and tribal nations lacking access to reliable energy will begin receiving more than $300 million to develop clean and affordable energy sources, the U.S. Energy Department said on Wednesday.

A bipartisan infrastructure law signed by President Joe Biden in 2021 earmarked $300 million for remote communities of fewer than 10,000 residents plus $15 million for a prize competition to help them build capacity for new energy systems.

The announcement means communities can now apply for federal cost-share funding from $5 million to $10 million for single-site demonstration projects and for up to $100 million for multi-community projects to increase energy affordability and build climate resilience.

"The DOE is doubling down on its efforts to ensure every American  especially those in rural and remote areas  can unlock the public health and cost-saving benefits that come with the transition to a clean energy future, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in a statement.

Roughly one of every six Americans lives in rural or remote communities, which tend to grapple with disproportionately high energy bills and unreliable energy service due to their distance from larger transmission systems and low population density.

Lack of reliable energy for tribes and rural communities is often a barrier to economic development.

The funding aims to provide these communities with eligible projects to upgrade electric grid transmission and distribution, modernize existing electric generation facilities and increase energy efficiency.

U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary David Turk announced the availability of funding at the Alaska Federation of Natives' Alaska Day Convention.

The funding will be distributed through nine geographical regions representing different energy access issues, weather patterns and climate impacts. Projects must include plans ensuring that benefits will be spread equitably across affected communities.

(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Howard Goller)
By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee voted on Wednesday along party lines to give President Joe Biden the power to ban Chinese-owned TikTok, in what would be the most far-reaching U.S. restriction on any social media app.

Lawmakers voted 24 to 16 to approve the measure to grant the administration new powers to ban the ByteDance-owned app - which is used by over 100 million Americans - as well as other apps considered security risks.

"TikTok is a national security threat ... It is time to act," said Representative Michael McCaul, the Republican chair of the committee who sponsored the bill.

"Anyone with TikTok downloaded on their device has given the CCP (Communist Party of China) a backdoor to all their personal information. Its a spy balloon into their phone."

Democrats opposed the bill, saying it was rushed and required due diligence through debate and consultation with experts. The bill does not precisely specify how the ban would work, but gives Biden power to ban any transactions with TikTok, which in turn could prevent anyone in the United States from accessing or downloading the app on their phones.

The bill would also require Biden to impose a ban on any entity that "may" transfer sensitive personal data to an entity subject to the influence of China.

TikTok has come under increasing fire in recent weeks over fears that user data could end up in the hands of the Chinese government, undermining Western security interests.

The White House this week gave government agencies 30 days to ensure that TikTok is not on any federal devices and systems. More than 30 U.S. states, Canada and European Union policy institutions have also banned TikTok from being loaded onto state-owned devices.

The fate of the latest measure is still uncertain and faces significant hurdles before it can become law. The bill would need to be passed by the full House and U.S. Senate, which is controlled by Democrats, before it can go to Biden.

Story continues

"A U.S. ban on TikTok is a ban on the export of American culture and values to the billion people who use our service worldwide," a TikTok spokeswoman said after the vote.

The Biden administration did not say whether it was in favor of moving ahead with the bill or not, or answer if it believed Biden has the legal authority now to ban TikTok.

White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said "TikTok poses a problem and an issue - and so we have concerns about that as it relates to Americans' data."

'INSTINCT TO BAN'

Representative Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the committee, said he strongly opposed the legislation but understands concerns about TikTok.

"The Republican instinct to ban things it fears, from books to speech, appears uninhibited," Meeks said, adding the bill would require the administration to sanction TikTok and other subsidiaries of TikToks parent company.

The U.S. government's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a powerful national security body, in 2020 unanimously recommended ByteDance divest TikTok because of fears that user data could be passed on to China's government.

TikTok and CFIUS have been negotiating for more than two years on data security requirements. TikTok said it has spent more than $1.5 billion on rigorous data security efforts and rejects spying allegations. Meeks wants the talks to continue.

Meeks said the bill is "dangerously" broad and would require U.S. sanctions on Korean and Taiwanese companies that supply Chinese companies with semiconductor chips and other equipment because of its broad restrictions on data transfers to China.

The American Civil Liberties Union called on lawmakers to oppose the bill, calling it "a serious violation of our First Amendment rights."

McCaul told Reuters after the vote that he expects the bill would be voted on by the House this month.

TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew is due to appear before the U.S. Energy and Commerce Committee on March 23 after meeting with lawmakers last month on Capitol Hill.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Deepa Babington and Stephen Coates)
From left, Alysa Fox, Jeanina Payne-Baker and Lt. Nancy Mulvihill of the Richton Park Fire Department stand with Chief Mick Smith in the firehouse. " They gave me the opportunity to do what Im good at, Mulvihill said. "Can you do the job? Good. Then youre a firefighter. (Susan DeGrane / Daily Southtown)

In 1991, Nancy Mulvihill was less than a year into her career as a firefighter, when she responded to a church carnival accident in Midlothian. Among those injured in the ride collapse, she found, was her brother.

The first thing my mom said when I told her I was calling from the hospital was, I told you, you were going to get hurt! I had to explain, I was calling about my brother, not me, Mulvihill said.

Advertisement

Like many women from previous generations, Mulvihills mother wasnt comfortable with the idea of her daughter risking her life to save others, or with her doing what was once considered a mans job.

Now a lieutenant and a veteran of 21 years with the Richton Park Fire Department, Mulvihill went on to make her mother proud. In the process, shes opened doors for other women and brought new approaches to handling the pressures of the job. But it wasnt easy.

Advertisement

In the 1990s, if you showed any emotion, you were weak. If they saw you cry, it was, Youre fired. You want to play with the boys, you be a boy, Mulvihill said.

Mulvihill went along with this for a while, but she became aware that internalizing powerful emotions can lead to depression, mental illness and suicide.

She earned multiple advanced degrees, including a doctorate in psychology from National Louis University. While not working for the Richton Park Fire Department, she operates a counseling business aimed at helping firefighters, police and members of the military who suffer from trauma and PTSD.

Richton Park Fire Department Lt. Nancy Mulvihill gets lots of waves and smiles while driving fire trucks, she said. (Susan DeGrane / Daily Southtown)

She also encourages fellow Richton Park firefighters to share their feelings and process emotions related to tragic experiences they face on the job. We dont always go home when shift is up, she said. We stay and talk about it over the kitchen table.

Richton Park Fire Chief Mick Smith and other chiefs preceding him have appreciated the contributions of women, according to Mulvihill. Here, they gave me the opportunity to do what Im good at, she said. They didnt look at me as a woman. It was, Can you do the job? Good. Then youre a firefighter.

Of the departments 38-member firefighting staff, six are women. That 16% portion is notable because women make up only 9% of the fire service workforce nationally, according to 2020 figures available from the National Fire Protection Association.

Richton Park also employs a female fire inspector and female administrative assistant.

Employment of firefighters is expected to grow by 4%, or 28,000 positions, annually through 2031, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. With the U.S. Fire Administration promoting equity, inclusion and diversity in the workforce, numbers of female, LGBTQ and minority firefighters are expected to rise as well.

Advertisement

Diversity brings more points of view to emergency response work, and its better to have firefighters who are representative of the community, Chief Smith said.

For a long time, women havent been appreciated for the things they can bring to the fire service, but theyve shown us you can learn something you didnt know from others, he said. I have a deep respect for all women in the fire service. Ive also tried to foster acceptance for any kind of minority, and in this field, women are a definite minority.

Besides having fought fires, driven firetrucks and led teams responding to fires and other emergencies, Mulvihill has led campaigns to help girls and young women realize you dont have to be a man to do this job, she said.

During a 2017 career fair at Tinley Park High School, she recruited Alysa Fox, who originally intended to be a nurse. She now works as an assistant EMS coordinator for Richton Park.

When a car crashed and hit a light pole in September on Interstate 57, Fox sprang into action along with Capt. Ron Robinson and Lt. Pat Hisel, extricating four people from the wreckage and providing medical care until support arrived from other area fire departments.

The crash victims were successfully transported to medical facilities for treatment. For this, Fox and the others received a unit citation from the Richton Park for Outstanding Service in the Field.

Advertisement

Though Fox has proved she can handle the work, she acknowledged women generally possess less upper body strength than men.

Our bodies are different, but we get the same job done in the end, Fox said. We use more of the strength in our legs, but we can still get things done.

To pass the International Association of Fire Fighters Candidates Physical Abilities Test, prospective firefighters have just 10 minutes and 20 seconds to complete eight grueling tasks following strict protocols.

To start, they must climb stairs for more than three minutes wearing a 50-pound vest representing the weight of fire gear, plus carry another 25 pounds to simulate a bundle of hose for fighting fires in high rise buildings.

For the remaining tasks, they shed the 25-pound bundle but continue wearing the 50-pound vest, dragging a heavy hose, dragging a 165-pound mannequin, using a sledgehammer to demonstrate forcible entry, crawling through a small dark tunnel filled with obstacles, erecting a ladder, and demonstrating their ability to breach a roof.

Jeanina Payne-Baker and Alysa Fox check over medical equipment and supplies in a Richton Park Fire Department ambulance at the firehouse along Sauk Trail. (Susan DeGrane / Daily Southtown)

For Fox, who is small in stature, the vest hung down and made climbing the stairs more difficult, and yet she passed.

Advertisement

Her unrelenting motivation to become a firefighter is shared by others on the department. I just like helping people. I wanted to do something to give back to the community, she said.

But theres much more to the womens service efforts than responding in emergencies. The Rotary Club of Matteson recently honored Fox and Mulvihill for their fire prevention and public education efforts.

Mulvihill  who said I like to plant seeds in the minds of children that they can do anything they want when they grow up  was noted for constantly creating new programs, initiatives and events. Fox was recognized for making sure the village ambulances are fully stocked and prepared for the field.

Thanks to them and their co-workers, students from Richton Park schools frequently tour the fire station at 4455 Sauk Trail Road. The station annually conducts two separate weeklong summer camps for children ages 5 to 12.

Mulvihill isnt the only woman at Richton Park FD to mentor new firefighters, either.

Lieutenant Nancy is our leadership here, but a lot of people consider me the mom of the department, said Jeanina Payne-Baker, firefighter/paramedic. Im passionate about the culture here, our commitment to helping people.

Advertisement

Payne-Baker, who joined Richton Park Fire Department five years ago at age 38, lives in Chicagos Bronzeville neighborhood. She started paying attention to EMTs who responded to calls she placed to Chicagos 911 system regarding her father who was recovering from a stroke.

I relied on 911 heavily. I had no medical expertise, she said. Everyone who responded helped me. They saw what I was trying to do for my dad, and they educated me about what to do when he didnt look right and wasnt breathing right.

Not long after, Payne-Baker was laid off from her job with a nonprofit organization. Hoping to help a friend, she looked into taking a class with an ambulance service and ended up enrolling herself.

After working for the company to see if the work was a good fit, she went on to paramedic school. She completed the necessary ride time with Country Club Hills Fire Department, where she gained the support of a strong mentor who encouraged her to apply for a permanent position at Richton Park.

Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our Subscriber Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy >

Since then, the favorite part of her job, she said, has been the teamwork  being able to problem-solve together. Before rushing in where angels fear to tread, Payne-Baker said, We have a huddle, so we can preplan.

That huddle, which is standard for most departments, may last less than a minute, but it promotes a more successful response and can prevent injuries, the women said.

Advertisement

Smith agreed. The first five minutes of any fire or emergency are the toughest. Thats when so much is unknown, he said. When staff communicate, things go from chaos to organized chaos. As were able to get a handle on each job, it just gets better and better for everyone involved.

Even with more women entering the field, female firefighters still remain a bit of a novelty.

When Alysa and I work together, people always remember us, said Payne-Baker.

I still get a thrill out of the double take people do when they see me driving the truck  people saying, Hey, thats a woman! and the little kids waving, Mulvihill said.

Susan DeGrane is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
An intensive review by U.S. intelligence agencies has found no evidence linking any foreign adversary to the so-called Havana syndrome, according to a newly declassified assessment.

"This is not simply an absence of evidence," a senior U.S. intelligence official told reporters in a background briefing about the findings. "We have a lot of evidence that points the other way."

Intelligence officials said the findings released Wednesday were the culmination of a yearslong effort to verify a longstanding hypothesis that a U.S. adversary, most likely Russia, was responsible for at least some of the mysterious and sudden brain injuries suffered by a small group of American diplomats and spies overseas.

Last year, an interim assessment by the CIA ruled out a global campaign by a foreign government, but said there were two dozen cases for which an attack could not be excluded. Wednesday's findings concluded that even in those cases, there was no evidence pointing to a weapon or any other device used by a foreign adversary or anyone else.

An old American car passes by the U.S. embassy in Havana on May 3, 2022. (Yamil Lage / AFP via Getty Images file)

Starting in late 2016, U.S. diplomats and spies serving in Cuba began reporting bizarre sounds and sensations followed by unexplained illnesses and symptoms, including hearing and vision loss, memory and balance problems, headaches and nausea.

Over the years, around 15,000 U.S. government employees have come forward reporting suspected incidents in more than a dozen countries.

Asked what could have caused the documented brain injuries suffered by some of the employees, the intelligence officials cited pre-existing medical conditions, environmental factors, and an environment in which spies and diplomats perceived that they were under mysterious attack.

The officials were careful to say they were not disputing or dismissing any of the symptoms cited by those who reported them. It remains to be seen what impact the assessment will have on a government-wide effort, mandated by Congress, to provide compensation for people who suffered what had been officially deemed anomalous health incidents.

Story continues

NBC News reported in 2018 that U.S. intelligence officials considered Russia a leading suspect in what some of them assessed to have been deliberate attacks on the diplomats and CIA officers overseas. But in the years since then, the spy agencies failed to develop any evidence pointing to Russia or any other adversary, or any deliberate act by anyone.

Intelligence collected on various foreign adversaries suggested they were confused by the claims and believed it was a U.S. disinformation plot, one intelligence official said.

And further medical analysis determined that there was no coherent set of symptoms.

The Biden administration has come under criticism from lawmakers over its response to the health incidents. Diplomats reporting symptoms have complained that the State Departments bureaucracy has been slow in providing care, evaluation and benefits, and that some senior officials have sometimes shown skepticism about the syndrome.

In November 2021, Secretary of State Antony Blinken named a new diplomat to lead a task force overseeing the response to the Havana syndrome after the previous chief came under sharp criticism and resigned.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Washington  As the number of migrants entering U.S. border custody was spiking in July 2021, posing major operational and political challenges for President Biden's still-young administration, high-ranking officials proposed a drastic measure: making most recent arrivals ineligible for asylum.

The proposal entailed disqualifying migrants from asylum if they entered the U.S. between official ports of entry after failing to seek refuge in other countries, a move at odds with the promises Mr. Biden had made just a year prior to expand access to the U.S. asylum system after years of restrictions under former President Donald Trump.

The sweeping asylum restriction was proposed at a high level at the White House that summer as one of several policy options to curtail illegal border crossings, four former senior U.S. officials told CBS News, requesting anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

But the administration did not move forward with the plan at the time amid opposition from some appointees. Dana Remus, then the White House counsel, warned it could be struck down as illegal, just like federal courts had found that similar Trump administration rules violated U.S. asylum law, the officials said.

Remus, one of the officials said, cautioned that moving forward with the proposal would involve a "high litigation risk" and that the administration would need to sufficiently distinguish its policy from the Trump administration's asylum bans for it to withstand legal scrutiny.

While some appointees said the restriction would deter unlawful migration and help the administration manage the intensifying crisis along the southern border, other administration officials argued such a move would be illegal, trample on the rights of migrants and violate Mr. Biden's campaign promises.

White House counsel Dana Remus, center, listens during a confirmation hearing for Supreme Court Ketanji Brown Jackson before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, March 22, 2022. / Credit: Andrew Harnik / AP

U.S. law gives migrants on American soil the right to request asylum, regardless of how they entered the country. To qualify for asylum, migrants must prove they are fleeing persecution based on their race, nationality, religion, political views or membership in a social group  a high legal threshold.

Story continues

The disagreements over the asylum restriction  and the concerns about its legality  were part of broader rifts within the Biden administration between more progressive appointees who opposed restricting asylum and officials who believed restrictive measures were needed to deter unlawful border crossings.

"There were very divided policy reactions," a senior Biden appointee told CBS News.

Officials in 2021 also clashed over proposals to expel older unaccompanied teenagers amid record arrivals of migrant children; convince Mexico to take back rejected asylum-seekers under a "safe third country" agreement; and resurrecting a version of a Trump administration policy that required migrants to await their asylum hearings in Mexico.

The push to restrict asylum continued within the administration as migrant apprehensions along the southern border hit record levels. Last week, the administration published a version of the asylum restriction, arguing that it is needed to prevent a massive spike in border arrivals once U.S. officials can no longer expel migrants under a pandemic-related migration restriction known as Title 42.

The proposed rule, which would bar migrants from requesting asylum if they enter the country illegally after failing to request refuge in a third country, would in practice allow the government to quickly deport most non-Mexicans and banish them from the U.S. for five years.

After a preliminary 30-day review process open to public comments, officials plan to implement the rule on or before May 11, when the expiration of the COVID-19 public health emergency is set to trigger Title 42's end. The asylum restriction would remain in place for at least two years, with the option to extend it.

The proposed regulation has garnered intense criticism from immigrant rights advocates and many Democratic lawmakers, who say it violates Mr. Biden's promises to overturn his predecessor's border policies and expand protections for asylum-seekers fleeing violence. It has also received some rare Republican backing.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has already vowed to file a lawsuit against the regulation once it is finalized. "The proposed rule is unlawful for the same core reason as the Trump bans: it violates the asylum laws enacted by Congress," Lee Gelernt, the ACLU's lead immigration lawyer, told CBS News.

Luis Miranda, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, said the administration "is confident in the legal authority to implement this rule."

"As a matter of good governance, we take all legal considerations into account before putting any policy forward, and the recent proposed rule reflects those considerations," the White House said in a separate statement.

Current senior administration officials have conceded the asylum restriction was not their first or second "preference" to deal with migration. But they've argued the policy is an emergency measure that is needed amid historic levels of migration in the Western Hemisphere. Without it, they have projected, migrant arrivals along the southern border could spike to 13,000 per day when Title 42 lapses.

Top Biden administration officials have also denied that their proposed asylum restriction resembles Trump administration efforts to severely limit asylum eligibility, saying the policy includes broader humanitarian exemptions, including for unaccompanied children and asylum-seekers in imminent danger.

Immigrants walk along the U.S.-Mexico border barrier on their way to await processing by the U.S. Border Patrol after crossing from Mexico on Dec. 30, 2022, in Yuma, Arizona. / Credit: Qian Weizhong/VCG via Getty Images

Officials have also noted that the Biden administration, unlike the Trump administration, is simultaneously expanding opportunities for migrants to enter the U.S. legally. By barring most asylum cases in between the ports of entry, officials have argued, migrants will be encouraged to apply for these legal systems.

The administration has committed to allowing up to 30,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to enter the U.S. legally each month if they have U.S. sponsors. It is also permitting roughly 20,000 vulnerable migrants in Mexico to request entry at ports of entry through a mobile app on a monthly basis.

In the text of the proposed asylum restriction, the administration sought to distinguish its plan with Trump administration rules that barred migrants from requesting asylum if they crossed the border in between ports of entry or failed to seek refuge in third countries, both of which were declared unlawful by federal courts.

Its proposed policy, the Biden administration argued in its 153-page rule, is "more limited and less categorical" than the Trump asylum bans.

Privately, some Biden appointees acknowledged that the proposed rule is a far-reaching restriction that goes against the detailed promises Mr. Biden made to "restore our asylum laws" during the 2020 campaign. After all, Mr. Biden forcefully noted during one of the debates with Mr. Trump that his rival was "the first president in the history of the United States" to decree that "anybody seeking asylum has to do it in another country."

Asked by CBS News on Wednesday whether the proposed rule goes against Mr. Biden's promises to restore asylum, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said, "I don't think so."

"I think that this rule does not infringe on the jewel that is our asylum system. I believe very strongly in it," Mayorkas said, noting the department will use comments from the public to "shape" the final regulation.

Other appointees disagree on whether the shift is justified, given the unprecedented levels of migrant apprehensions recorded in 2021 and 2022 and the political pressure over the issue from traditional Republican critics, as well as Democratic leaders in cities and states receiving migrants.

"From my sense, everything changed when Democratic mayors started saying 'this is bad,' because it was no longer just [Texas Gov. Greg] Abbott or just right-wing Republican governors complaining, people that you could write off as politically motivated," one former official said.

Another appointee said the regulation is a poor policy move, even if it reduces the number of migrants coming to the southern border.

"It's illegal. To me, it doesn't even matter if it works or not. That's not really the question because we can't do things that are illegal," the appointee said.

Alida Garcia, who worked at the White House as a senior adviser for migration in 2021, said the administration made a "fundamental error" early on by relying on Title 42 to manage migration without sufficiently focusing on building migrant processing capacity along the U.S.-Mexico border.

"It was always going to be hard to revert back to being lawful and adhering to people's rights under U.S. and international law," said Garcia, who now oversees advocacy at FWD.us, a liberal lobbying group. "The lowest common denominator prevailed, because it's the easiest, which is kicking the can on Title 42."

Lawsuit claims dental device damaged patients' teeth

Fisherman captures shocking shark feeding frenzy off Louisiana coast

Gas prices in the U.S. continue to fall since peak in June
By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Senate committee will vote next week on issuing a subpoena for Starbucks Corp Chief Executive Howard Schultz to testify at a hearing on the company's compliance with federal labor law, its chairman Senator Bernie Sanders said on Wednesday.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee also will vote on authorizing the panel to investigate labor law violations by major corporations, Sanders added.

Democrats have criticized Starbucks, saying the company has not bargained in good faith with workers joining unions. Starbucks has said it respects the right of its employees to organize and to engage in lawful union activities and denies wrongdoing.

Schultz last month declined an invitation from 11 senators to testify before the committee on March 9.

"He has denied meeting and document requests, skirted congressional oversight attempts and refused to answer any of the serious questions we have asked," Sanders said of Schultz. "Unfortunately, Mr. Schultz has given us no choice but to subpoena him. A multi-billion dollar corporation like Starbucks cannot continue to break federal labor law with impunity. The time has come to hold Starbucks and Mr. Schultz accountable."

Starbucks did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

After the planned March 8 vote on the subpoena, the committee will hold a hearing the same day on workers' rights to join unions and will feature AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, SEIU President Mary Kay Henry and Teamsters President Sean O'Brien.

Schultz, who rejoined Starbucks as interim CEO in April 2022, will "fully transition" out of the role in March, the Starbucks acting executive vice president and general counsel, Zabrina Jenkins, said in a Feb. 14 letter, writing that "we believe another senior leader with ongoing responsibilities is best suited to address these matters."

Employees at more than 280 out of its roughly 9,000 company-operated U.S. locations have voted to join a labor union since 2021. The union is seeking increased pay and benefits, improved health and safety conditions and protections against unfair firings and discipline.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Will Dunham and Chizu Nomiyama)
UEM Edgenta Berhad (KLSE:EDGENTA) Full Year 2022 Results

Key Financial Results

Revenue: RM2.52b (up 10% from FY 2021).

Net income: RM45.9m (up 9.2% from FY 2021).

Profit margin: 1.8% (in line with FY 2021).

EPS: RM0.055 (up from RM0.051 in FY 2021).

All figures shown in the chart above are for the trailing 12 month (TTM) period

UEM Edgenta Berhad Earnings Insights

Looking ahead, revenue is forecast to grow 4.7% p.a. on average during the next 3 years, compared to a 13% growth forecast for the Construction industry in Malaysia.

Performance of the Malaysian Construction industry.

The company's share price is broadly unchanged from a week ago.

Risk Analysis

It's still necessary to consider the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 1 warning sign with UEM Edgenta Berhad, and understanding it should be part of your investment process.

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 Krishn Kaushik

NEW DELHI (Reuters) -British Foreign Minister James Cleverly raised the issue of tax searches at the BBC's offices in India during a meeting with his counterpart in New Delhi on Wednesday, the minister told Reuters.

In response, Cleverly was "firmly told that all entities operating in India must comply fully with relevant laws and regulations", an Indian government source said.

Last month, India's tax authorities spent three days searching the BBC offices in New Delhi and Mumbai, where they cloned data from the digital devices of some senior employees.

Cleverly did not share details about the conversation with India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar ahead of a G20 foreign ministers' meeting on Thursday.

"The conversations I had with him are best to keep with him. I did raise it," he told Reuters in an interview.

"One of the advantages of having such a strong and professional relationship with Dr. Jaishankar is I am able to bring up, and indeed he brings up with me, some of these sensitive issues. I did raise it with him."

However, he said that the vast bulk of the conversation was about the positive bilateral work.

The hallmark of a positive relationship, he said, "is that you can discuss the sensitive and difficult issues and it doesnt derail us from talking about the really, really positive agenda that we are both hoping to pursue".

Asked if there were concerns about civil liberties in India, Cleverly said: "We want to ensure that values that both our countries feel strongly about are upheld. That means working together on a range of issues."

DOCUMENTARY ON PM

The searches at the BBC's offices in February came after the Indian government reacted angrily to a documentary made by the British broadcaster about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership of the western state of Gujarat during riots in 2002.

However, the government has said that the searches were not related to the documentary, and followed at least 10 tax notices that had been sent to the BBC.

Story continues

Without naming the BBC, Jaishankar last week called the documentary "politics by another means".

"You want to do a hatchet job and say, well you know this is just another quest for truth which we decided after 20 years to put out at this time," he said, adding the timing was not accidental.

Whether or not the election season had started in India, "but for sure it has started in London and New York", Jaishankar said.

The BBC has stood by its reporting for the documentary and said it would cooperate with the tax authorities. It has also said it would not be put off from reporting without fear or favour and that it does not have an agenda.

(Reporting by Krishn Kaushik; Editing by Y.P. Rajesh and Alex Richardson)
Ukraine on Wednesday denied sending attack drones deep inside Russia, after several unmanned aircraft allegedly targeted civilian infrastructure and at least one drone crash-landed just outside of Moscow.

The drones did not cause any injuries or any significant damage, but they breached Russian air defenses on Monday and Tuesday and briefly shut down airspace over St. Petersburg.

The Russian Defense Ministry directly accused Ukraine of carrying out two of the attacks in a post on Telegram.

Mykhailo Podolyak, the adviser to Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelensky, denied the accusations from Moscow.

Podolyak said Kyiv doesnt strike inside Russia territory.

Panic & disintegration processes are building up in [Russia], reflected by an increase in internal attacks on infrastructure facilities by unidentified flying objects, he tweeted.

According to Russias Defense Ministry, two of the unidentified attack drones targeted civilian infrastructure inside the city of Krasnodar and the region of Adygea in southern Russia on Tuesday but lost control and crashed.

On Monday night, unidentified drones targeted the region of Belgorod, which shares a border with Ukraine, and caused minor damage to cars and buildings. At least one drone flew through an apartment window in the capital.

Another drone crashed near the village of Gubastovo, which is about 60 miles outside of Moscow.

On Wednesday, Russias Defense Ministry also said it prevented a massive drone attack on the Crimean Peninsula, which was annexed by Moscow in 2014 and is occupied by Russian forces.

In a Telegram post, Russias Defense Ministry claimed six Ukrainian drones were shot down by air defense systems and four were disabled.

In December, Moscow also accused Ukraine of attacking an airbase with drones inside the Saratov region in the southeastern part of European Russia.

Ukrainian officials did not directly claim responsibility for that attack, which left three Russian servicemen dead, but alluded at the time to consequences of Russian aggression in a cryptic message.

Story continues

Russia has carried out frequent attacks targeting Ukrainian civilian infrastructure and energy grids since October.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A Ukrainian presidential adviser on Tuesday said troops may strategically pull back from the town of Bakhmut, the focus of intense and brutal fighting for the past few months.

Alexander Rodnyansky told CNN the Ukrainian army has not yet pulled out of the city, but Kyiv may soon decide the cost of holding Bakhmut outweighs the benefits.

Our military is obviously going to weigh all of the options, said Rodnyansky, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. So far theyve held the city, but if need be, they will strategically pull back because were not going to sacrifice all of our people just for nothing.

Russian forces have assaulted Bakhmut for months in an attempt to capture the city and gain a foothold in Ukraines eastern Donetsk region.

But Moscow suffered heavy casualties in the battle for Bakhmut. Private mercenary company Wagner Group, led by founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, has thrown waves of soldiers  some of them taken from Russian prisons  mercilessly at Ukrainian defenses.

Prigozhin on Wednesday said Ukrainian forces have not withdrawn from the city and tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers are offering fierce resistance, according to the Associated Press.

Russian forces led by the Wagner Group were able to take the town of Soledar, near Bakhmut, in January through sheer force.

Russias new offensive that began last month has focused on retaking the Donbas, made up of the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Some 300,000 soldiers were mobilized for the renewed effort, but Russian forces have yet to capture any significant territory and have lost a staggering number of tanks and troops.

Taking the town of Bakhmut, while not operationally significant, would be a symbolic victory for Moscow and could be seized on as a marker of success by the Kremlin, which has suffered numerous setbacks in its yearlong war in Ukraine.

Zelensky has previously said he would not hold onto Bakhmut at any cost, and on Wednesday the president said the town was the most difficult for his troops.

Story continues

Russia does not count people at all, sending them to constantly storm our positions, the Ukrainian leader said in a Tuesday address. The intensity of fighting is only increasing.

Rodnyansky said Ukraine has placed defenses around Bakhmut, which would slow any Russian advances in the event of a retreat, and that any withdrawal would not hinder a future Ukrainian counterattack.

Make no mistake  our counteroffensives will be around the corner soon, he told CNN.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Spring doesn't officially start until March 20, but for some Ukrainians the winter's over, or at least the Vladimir Putin winter.

The Russian president tried to use winter weather as a weapon of war, relentlessly attacking Ukraine's energy infrastructure to pierce the citizens' resolve by leaving them in the cold while also cutting off gas supplies to European countries.

And yet, resistance to his invasion remains steadfast, as Ukrainians continue to fiercely defend their country while the European Union stands solidly behind them.

"On March 1, 2023, Putin suffered another major defeat,'' Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted. "Despite the cold, darkness, and missile strikes, Ukraine persevered and defeated his winter terror. Furthermore, Europe has not 'frozen' despite Russian predictions and mockery.''

Zelenskyy warned that Russia may continue to target power plants, but took a moment during his nightly video address to acknowledge getting past some tough days.

"This winter is over,'' he said. "It was very difficult, and every Ukrainian without exaggeration felt this difficulty. But we still managed to provide Ukraine with energy and heat.''

PUTIN ISSUES ALERT: Drone strikes 60 miles from Moscow; Russian death toll surpasses all wars since WWII: Ukraine updates

Developments:

The presidents of China and Belarus, meeting in Beijing, joined in urging a cease-fire and negotiations to bring about a political settlement in Ukraine.

Russias Defense Ministry said several drones were shot down by air defense forces in Crimea, and others were disabled by electronic warfare systems.

People stand by a destroyed Russian tank T-72B decorated with a banner reading "Send money to fight" at Cathedral Square in Vilnius, Lithuania, on March 1, 2023.

Ukraine may pull out of Bakhmut

The situation in and around embattled Bakhmut is "extremely difficult" and Ukrainian forces may withdraw from the eastern city, an aide to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday.

Alexander Rodnyansky said his country's military "would retreat, or they would give up Bakhmut strategically if they believed the costs of holding Bakhmut outweighed the benefits."

Story continues

Ukraines deputy defense minister, Hanna Maliar, said this week reinforcements have been sent to the city, but it's not clear what their role will be.

Bakhmut is considered valuable as a gateway to a swath of the Donbas region, and deadly battles have been fought around it for weeks. The Ukraine military, in its daily update Wednesday on battles in various regions, noted that in Bakhmut "the enemy continues to advance."

Rodnyansky, speaking on CNN International, said that Russian casualties have already surpassed any value taking the city would provide the invading forces, but that such losses appear inconsequential to the Kremlin.

Were not going to sacrifice all of our people just for nothing, he said. He also said modern Western weaponry has begun arriving "late."

"That was the the whole tragedy about it," he said. "We could have started training our troops, preparing our troops, equipping them, sending them to Germany months ago in order to prepare. But now were facing this lag and Russia is trying to exploit that time lag for its own benefit.

Still, Rodnyansky said, the tanks, ammunition, artillery systems and possibly even air power will help Ukraine in coming months.

"Our counteroffensives will be around the corner," he said. "Trust me, they will be very effective."

Finland may join NATO before Sweden after Parliament votes in favor

Finland's Parliament voted overwhelmingly Wednesday in favor of joining NATO, putting the country on track to enter the alliance, possibly ahead of Sweden.

Turkey and Hungary are the only NATO countries yet to approve the inclusion of the two Nordic nations, which requires unanimity. The holdout members are expected to support bringing in Finland, but Turkey objects to Sweden on grounds that it hasn't cracked down on what Ankara considers terrorists and on Kurdish separatists.

Finland and Sweden, both EU members, remained militarily unaligned for decades until Russia's invasion of Ukraine prompted them to revise their stance. NATO leadership has intended to accept them together this year, but Finland -- which shares an 800-mile border with Russia -- may get there first.

Russian official says Kremlin, US discussing strategic offensive weapons

Russia and the United States are discussing strategic offensive weapons through closed channels, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Wednesday. But Ryabkov also told Russia's Interfax news agency "until the United States changes its behavior, until we see signs of common sense in what they are doing in relation to Ukraine, in Ukraine, we see no chance for the decision to suspend START to be reviewed or reexamined."

The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty places verifiable limits on nuclear weapons. The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for reaction to Ryabkov's comments.

Putin formally signed a law Tuesday suspending Russia's participation in parts of the New START. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia will not resume participation in the treaty until there is a change in the "attitude of the collective West."

Battered tanks displayed in Baltics draw supporters of both sides of war

Burnt-out Russian tanks seized by Ukrainian forces are on display in the capitals of the Baltics, and most Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians are expressing support for the Ukrainians defending their homeland. But some of those visiting the tanks are members of the countries ethnic Russian minorities, and they placed flowers and lit candles to commemorate the fallen Russian soldiers and express support for Moscow.

In Estonia, Anatoly Yarkov, 78, showed up to see the tank in Tallinn. The Soviet army veteran said he feels bitter about Ukraine fighting Russia.

Russian tanks are burning again like it happened during the war with the Nazis, Yarkov said. The Russian people always stood against the Nazis, no matter what flag they used. And Im very sorry to see that the Ukrainians arent on our side today.

Russia auditing its war spending

Russia's Federal Treasury said it is auditing spending for the Kremlin's "special military operation" in Ukraine to ensure money is being properly used for personal armor, communications equipment and fuel, treasury chief Roman Artyukhin said Wednesday. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, after meeting with Artyukhin, is to "ensure transparency in the allocation of funds for all needs, so that ... not a single ruble is spent inefficiently." Lawmakers in the U.S. also have called for reviews of spending on the war.

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ukraine Russia war live updates: Ukraine might retreat from Bakhmut
Kuleba listed five major defeats for Putin in the war against Ukraine

Kuleba said that Ukrainians had survived their most difficult winter in history.

"On March 1, 2023, Putin suffered his fifth major defeat since the day of the full-scale invasion  Ukraine defeated his winter terror," Kuleba wrote.

We survived the most difficult winter in our history. We were cold and in darkness, but we were unwavering. The EU has also won, and despite Moscow's mockery, it did not freeze without Russian gas. One piece of advice to Russia: choke on your gas and choke on your missiles.

Kuleba also listed four other major defeats for Putin in the war against Ukraine.

"The first defeat was when we did not allow Putin to paralyze us with fear from the first minutes of the offensive," the minister said.

The second was when we thwarted the Russian blitzkrieg plan. Ukraine did not fall in three days, seven days, a month, or a year. And it will never fall.

Ukraines FM emphasized that Russia suffered its third defeat on the diplomatic front.

"The global coalition supports Ukraine, resolutions, isolation, flow of weapons, sanctions, energy, financial and humanitarian aid to Ukraine," he concluded.

The fourth defeat is Russia's loss of a large number of occupied territories of Ukraine as a result of effective actions and counteroffensives of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and other defense forces.

Read also: Putins aim is to leave Ukraine cold, dark this winter, says Stoltenberg

Kuleba added that Ukraine still has a long way to go before the final victory in the war with Russia, but Ukrainians must believe in victory and work to bring it closer.

In October, Russia began launching massive missile strikes against Ukraine, targeting critical infrastructure. The Kremlin aimed to deprive Ukrainians of electricity, water, and heating during the winter. Representatives of the Ukrainian government and world leaders called such actions of Moscow an attempt at genocide.

Over the past three weeks, power cuts have stopped in Ukraine, and a complete, countrywide blackout was also avoided.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
COVID origins tracing is on US anti-China production line again

By Global Times editorial (Global Times) 08:37, March 01, 2023

Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

The so-called "Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party" recently cobbled together by the US House of Representatives is set to make its debut on Tuesday evening. Holding the first hearing in prime time is mainly out of practical consideration to facilitate the show. It was revealed that the hearing will focus on "security and other threats" related to China. In fact, they have already prepared political "dirt bombs" to attack China.

Just two days before the hearing, on February 26, the Wall Street Journal reported exclusively that the US Energy Department had concluded that "the COVID pandemic most likely arose from a laboratory leak." The report was fewer than five pages and even the Energy Department itself labeled it as being made with "low confidence." Nevertheless it has once again ignited the pile of dead ashes of US' political manipulation of virus origins tracing. As long as "China" is labeled on the package, even if it's trash, it can immediately be "turned into treasure." This is the current political situation in the US.

Just after the hype around the "unidentified flying objects incident" died down a little bit, Washington has begun slandering China, claiming that Beijing could possibly provide "lethal weapons" to Russia. Now, it has brought up the virus origins tracing issue again. The US has almost seamlessly linked its production and supply of anti-China topics. American politicians have become very good at playing such tricks.

It's easy to fabricate rumors but it takes lots of time, energy and resources to refute them, not to mention that the US is using state apparatus to create and spread rumors. They simply do not listen to China's fact-based responses and clarifications. After several rounds, the US society's perception of China has been poisoned once again, which has led to the entire country being kidnapped. This has left the US government with less and less room to maneuver in its China policy, leading to a spiral of escalating tensions in US-China relations.

In the past two years, the virus origins tracing issue has been used by US politicians as an omnipotent political tool that can be brought up at any time to disgust people due to its unverifiable and difficult to disprove nature. To be frank, "low confidence" basically means baseless. It is quite inappropriate that the tracing of the virus origins is carried out by the Energy Department. Its unfounded conclusions have inexplicably attracted a lot of attention, indicating some people have seen the timing to manipulate the issue.

The US has arranged many agencies to conduct so-called "virus origins tracing investigations" at the same time. Currently, only the FBI and the Energy Department believe that the virus is likely from a laboratory leak in China, while four agencies and a national intelligence group still believe that the virus may have a natural origin. There are also some other agencies which have not yet drawn out conclusions. The fact that the US is using its intelligence agencies to conduct origins tracing is evidence that the issue has been politicized.

The US' motive is not pure. Moreover, the US is simply not qualified to carry out the origins tracing alone. The origins tracing of COVID-19 is a serious and complex scientific issue, which should and can only be carried out through global scientific cooperation. China attaches great importance to and actively participates in global traceability scientific cooperation, adhering to the principles of science, openness, and transparency, and has twice invited WHO experts to come to China to carry out traceability cooperation.

In January and February 2021, a WHO-China joint expert team that consisted of both international and Chinese authoritative experts conducted a 28-day investigation and research in China, and released a report on global study of origins of the virus, which reached an authoritative, professional, and scientific conclusion that is by no means matched by anything concocted by the US Energy Department and the FBI.

The US relies on its loud voice and dominance of discourse power to confuse right and wrong on the international stage, but a lie repeated a thousand times is still a lie. On the issue of origins tracing, it is US' turn to open up its suspicious biological laboratories and invite international authoritative experts to investigate.

As we write this editorial, the hearing has not yet started, but we can roughly imagine what kind of scene it will be. From the "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq to the "White Helmets" in Syria, they are all produced on the same assembly line. Historical experience tells the world that no matter how many lies Washington spreads and how many humanitarian disasters it causes, its political elites and media may not even blush. Otherwise, how could this shameful political farce be staged one by one?

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
At least three new aldermen will join the Waukegan City Council in May after a pair of incumbents were ousted in Tuesdays Democratic primary, and there will be a new face on the North Chicago City Council as well.

Jose A. Guzman, who lost four years ago to Ald. Patrick Seger, 2nd Ward, claimed victory Tuesday night with 57.52% of 266 votes cast to Segers 42.48%, according to the unofficial results listed on the Lake County clerks website.

Advertisement

With no Republican primary contest in the 2nd Ward and no independents running in the April 4 general election, Guzman is likely to become the next alderman.

First-time candidate Victor Felix claimed victory over Ald. Roudell Kirkwood, 4th Ward, with 57.56% of 172 total votes to Kirkwoods 43.44%, according to the clerks website. Felix now faces two former aldermen  Republican Harold Beadling and independent David Villalobos  in April.

Advertisement

Ald. Lynn Florian, 8th Ward, claimed victory over former Waukegan Township Highway Commissioner Michael Hewitt with 73.86% of 635 votes to Hewitts 26.14%, according to the clerks unofficial results.

With no Republican or independent opponents, Florian is likely heading to a second term. She said she plans to communicate with her potential new colleagues so they can start working together.

I do not know either of them, Florian said. Im hoping to reach out to learn how we can be collaborative and solve problems.

Ald. Keith Turner, 6th Ward, claimed victory over first-time candidate Brendan Stewart with 59.11% of 582 total votes cast to Stewarts 40.89%, according to the unofficial results listed on the clerks website. Like Florian, Turner has no general election opponent and is likely assured of a second term.

Juan Martinez, a youth advocate for undocumented child immigrants and a mental health professional, claimed victory over Darren Lewis in the 3rd Ward with 78.19% of 259 votes cast to Lewis 28.19%, according to the unofficial results.

With no Republican or independent opponent in April, Martinez is likely to replace retiring Ald. Gregory Moisio. Martinez said he will be reaching out to Moisio to learn as much as he can before April.

In the 7th Ward, Michael Donnenwirth claimed victory over Killian Skaronea with 67.89% of the 246 votes to Skaroneas 32.11%, according to the unofficial results. He now plans to challenge Ald. Felix Rivera, an independent, in the April general election.

Ald. Sylvia Sims Bolton, 1st Ward, was unopposed in the Democratic primary and has no opponent in the April 4 general election. Ald. Edith Newsome, 5th Ward, had no opponent in the Republican primary and none in April.

Advertisement

With no primary in the 9th Ward, incumbent Ald. Thomas Hayes and former Lake County Clerk Robin OConnor, both independents, will compete for the seat April 4.

Coleman Wins in North Chicago

Anthony Coleman, who lost to Mayor Leon Rockingham Jr. in the 2021 mayoral election, will likely be joining the North Chicago City Council. He claimed victory over Ald. Bonnie Mayfield, 2nd Ward, with 54.02% of 174 votes cast to Mayfleids 45.98%. With no general election opponent, he said he is planning to prepare for his new position.

Im going to learn from people who are on the council and from the mayor, Coleman said. I feel real good, real good.

With late arriving vote by mail ballots still outstanding through March 14, the results will not be official until then when they are certified by Lake County Clerk Anthony Vega after all votes are counted.
Tomas Fiala, CEO and owner of Dragon Capital

Russian assets are nationalized slowly, said Fiala.

Read also: Nationalized Zaporozhtransformators debts reach $300 million

I dont see the political will to quickly take away the Russian assets that are in the country. And this helps Russian owners to re-register them to other owners.

According to Fiala, these assets should either be placed under management for the benefit of the state, or nationalized and sold off.

Next week there will be ARMAs contest for Morshynska (owned by Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman, shares frozen), Fiala provided an example.

Read also: SBU seizes assets of Russian businessman who funded Russian aircraft, missile tests

It is strange that this asset has been in ARMA for many months, and now on Feb. 10, a contest for a directing manager is announced, stating that in 12 days one must apply.

Fiala added that "ARMA isnt too open to providing more information (on the matter)."

Read also: Prosecutor Generals Office announces suspicion charges Wagner Group owner Prigozhin

This also raises suspicion that there is already someone with whom they agreed on the transfer (of the company assets), the businessman concluded.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
F-16

According to Kahl, the United States is not currently training Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16s because the process takes about as long as potential deliveries of the aircraft would  18 months, meaning that starting training early doesnt really save any time in that regard. Furthermore, theres no sense for Ukraine to remain focused solely on F-16, as the country could ultimately receive European fighter jets like Tornado, Gripen, or Mirage.

Read also: Biden rules out sending F-16s to Ukraine for now

The official added that the newest variants of F-16 would take 3-6 years to integrate into Ukraines Air Force, while for older models the timeframe would remain below two years.

Kahl said that Ukraine previously made a request for 128 F-16 jets, but U.S. Air Force estimates Kyiv would need 50-80 such aircraft, in long-term perspective.

Read also: Ukrainian and U.S. Air Force commanders discuss supply of F-16s to Ukraine

Finally, Kahl noted that even 36 older F-16s would cost $2-3 billion, meaning they would consume a significant portion of the funds Washington has allocated to support Ukraine throughout 2023. The United States is still assessing if it wouldnt be more sensible to use these resources more effectively by delivering additional Bradley IFVs, 155mm artillery shells, GMLRS munitions, and other military equipment that Ukraine can put to use immediately.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Ukrainian soldier in Bakhmut, February 27, 2023

According to her, Russian troops have concentrated their main efforts around Bakhmut, in an attempt to capture the entirety of Donetsk Oblast.

Read also: Budanov says invaders sending waves of infantry to attack Bakhmut, few armored vehicles used

She clarified that the Commander of Ukraines Ground Forces, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, during his recent trip to Bakhmut, decided to move additional units there.

Read also: As Russia counts losses in thousands at Bakhmut, wounded Wagnerites are left to die  General Staff

Maliar said the decision to hold Bakhmut is purely military, and not political.

Read also: Zelenskyy prepares new weapons wish list for US consideration  media

Decisions are made by the military, who are not guided by political motives, she added.

On Feb. 28, Ukraines General Staff reported that invading Russian forces are focused on the offensive on the Kupyansk, Lymanske, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, and Shakhtarsk axes in Donbas.

Read also: Russias new Donbas offensive is failing, NYT reports

On Feb. 27, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the situation in Bakhmut is becoming ever more difficult, as the Russian invaders systematically destroy every structure Ukrainian troops could use defensively.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Key developments on March 1:

As Western officials continue to voice concerns over China possibly providing deadly weapons to Russia, Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko started a three-day visit to Beijing on March 1, where he met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

His trip comes a few days after China outlined its vision for the "political settlement" of the Russian war in Ukraine, calling for ceasing hostilities and moving to peace talks.

"Today, not a single issue in the world can be resolved without China," Lukashenko told China's state news agency Xinhua before his visit.

Lukashenko and Xi Jinping have issued a joint statement urging for a ceasefire in Ukraine and negotiations about a political settlement of the war.

"Relevant countries should stop politicizing and using the world economy as their tool, and take measures that truly advance a ceasefire and stop the war and resolve the crisis peacefully," Xi said, referring to the U.S. and allies, as quoted by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.

Belarus, which is a co-belligerent in Russia's war, having served as a launching pad for Moscow's attacks on Ukraine, "fully agrees with and supports China's position."

Lukashenko described China's proposal on a political solution to the war in Ukraine as "of great significance to resolving the crisis."

The Chinese foreign ministry issued a 12-point statement outlining the country's vision for ending Russia's war in Ukraine. The document called for ceasing hostilities and resuming peace talks, noting that China will "continue to play a constructive role in this regard." However, it did not specifically say Moscow must withdraw its troops from Ukraine.

Story continues

The Western leaders dismissed the proposal. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz criticized China's peace plan as it does not explicitly include the withdrawal of Russian troops, while U.S. President Joe Biden said the plan would likely only work in Russia's favor.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg cast doubt on China's proposed peace plan for Ukraine, pointing to China's failure to condemn the Russian invasion explicitly.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky responded to China's proposal by saying, "We have our document, our peace formula, which a large number of states has already backed, and we expect further support for it... I think it is important to have one position."

Xi's meeting with Lukashenko also comes amid the U.S. saying there have been multiple reports recently that China may be considering supplying lethal weapons to Russia. The country has not made a decision yet, according to CIA Director Bill Burns.

In an attempt to deter China from going forward with the provision, Biden's administration is making the information public, similar to what it did in the months leading up to Russia's full-scale invasion, Burns told CBS News on Feb. 24.

"If it goes down that road (supplying Moscow with weapons), it will come at real costs to China," U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said last week.

According to Kyrylenko, an estimated total of 1,391 civilians in Donetsk Oblast have been killed since the start of the full-scale invasion, and 3,109 have been injured.

These figures exclude casualty numbers from Russian-occupied Mariupol and Volnovakha, which are currently impossible for Ukrainian officials to establish.
Ukrainian military

Read also: Poland to transfer more Leopard tanks to Ukraine within few weeks, says Polish official

In the extended battle, both sides sent tanks into the fray, rumbling over dirt roads and maneuvering around tree lines, the article reads.

The NYT writes that invading Russian forces moved forward in columns, and the Armed Forces of Ukraine maneuvered in defense, firing from afar or from cover, when the columns of Russians entered their territory.

When it was over, not only had Russia failed to capture Vuhledar, but it also had made the same mistake that cost Moscow hundreds of tanks earlier in the war: advancing columns into ambushes, the reports said.

Read also: Poland to transfer 60 PT-91 Twardy tanks to Ukraine, says Polish PM

Ukrainian drone footage shows hulls of the Russian equipment, blown up by mines, hit by artillery, or destroyed by anti-tank missiles, now strewn across the fields near Vuhledar.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine said Russia lost at least 130 tanks and armored personnel carriers in the battle. Ukrainian losses arent being disclosed.

Ukrainian Lt. Vladyslav Bayak said that a column of tanks becomes most vulnerable after the shooting starts, as drivers panic and try to turn around, driving into landmines.

Read also: Ukraine to see decisive battles in spring, says Ukraines spy chief

Blown-up vehicles then act as impediments, slowing or stalling the column, said Bayak.

At that point, Ukrainian artillery opens fire, blowing up more armor and killing soldiers who clamber out of disabled machines. A scene of chaos and explosions ensues.

According to him, Russian commanders sent armored columns forward due to the lack of other options against well-fortified Ukrainian positions, with little regard for how costly the approach is.

The NYT writes that the lack of experience also hurt the Russians, as many of their most elite units were decimated in previous battles, with their ranks filled with untrained newly drafted soldiers.

Story continues

Read also: Russian invaders refusing to go on offensive in Vuhledar area en masse

According to Ukrainian commanders in Vuhledar, Russia had lost so many vehicles over last week that it changed tactics and resorted to mere infantry attacks in the area.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Ukraines air defence brings down 80% of Russian missiles.

Source: Serhii Naiev, Commander of the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, on Facebook

Quote from Naiev: "At present, the percentage of missiles we shoot down has changed and is currently hovering at 80%. Even more in some cases. Our air defence experts have grown more skilled and competent."

Details: Naive added that Russia keeps changing its tactics and the weapons it deploys in aerial warfare. The Ukrainian Armed Forces analyse every Russian attack and draw conclusions to ensure that the countrys air defence is as robust as possible.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron
Ukrainian defenders use weather forecasts from hydrometeorological units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine while planning, preparing and conducting combat actions  just the way it was during the Kharkiv and Kherson counteroffensive operations.

Source: Press service of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, citing Brigade General Dmytro Hereha, Commander of the Support Forces Command

Quote from Hereha: "During the liberation of temporarily occupied territories in Kharkiv and Kherson oblasts, weather conditions were taken into consideration and helped [us] conduct a counteroffensive.

Due to submitted hydrological information, our warriors were able to arrange reliable bridge crossings over the Oskil, Siverskyi Donets and Inhulets rivers and ensure fast advancing."

Details: Hereha has explained that, for instance, very short-term forecasts are prepared for operations with aircraft and UAVs, bringing vessels into the sea, landing troops, artillery attacks, missile launches, forcing crossings, etc.

Moreover, information about weather conditions is necessary not only for preparing a counteroffensive, but also for planning actions of combat medics in case Russian forces use chemical weapons.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
On 1 March, Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraines Minister of Foreign Affairs, stated that Ukraine prevailed over Russian winter terror, and spoke on five defeats of the aggressor country.

Source: Kuleba on his Facebook page, reports European Pravda.

Quote: "On 1 March 2023, Putin has suffered his fifth defeat since the beginning of the full-scale invasion  Ukraine has prevailed over his winter terror. We have withstood the most severe winter in our history. We were surrounded by cold and darkness, but we were unbreakable," the minister wrote.

He also noted that Ukraine was supported by its partners and this is a victory for the EU too, as "despite Russian gloating, [the EU  ed.] also survived without Russian gas."

He listed the other four defeats of the Russian Federation since the beginning of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

"The first defeat took place when from the very first minutes of the war we didnt let Putin fetter us with fear. The second, when we thwarted their blitzkrieg plan. Ukraine has not fallen, not in three days, not in seven months, and not even in a year. And it will never fall. The third blow was struck upon Russia on the diplomatic front: international coalition supporting Ukraine, resolutions, isolation, the flow of weaponry, sanctions, energy, financial and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. Fourth defeat  the loss of a big chunk of occupied territories of Ukraine due to effective advances and counter-offensives by the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other parts of Defence Forces," Kuleba stated.

He noted that there is still a long way to go to victory, yet "we already know how it is to win".

As reported earlier, the United States of America does not expect significant territorial gains for Russia in the foreseeable future.

Italian intelligence suggests that Russia needs an operational pause in order to get ready for a long-lasting war in the circumstances of Western sanctions.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
Russia has lost 149,890 soldiers, 3,395 tanks, 6,638 armoured fighting vehicles and 4 drones in the war against Ukraine.

Source: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Facebook

Details: Total combat losses of the Russian forces between 24 February and 1 March 2023 are estimated to be as follows [figures in parentheses represent the latest losses  ed.]:

149,890 (+650) military personnel

3,395 (+7) tanks

6,638 (+8) armoured combat vehicles

2,393 (+10) artillery systems

479 (+1) multiple-launch rocket systems

247 (+0) air defence systems

300 (+0) fixed-wing aircraft

288 (+0) helicopters

2,055 (+4) operational-tactical UAVs

873 (+0) cruise missiles

18 (+0) ships/boats

5,257 (+5) vehicles and tankers

230 (+0) special vehicles and other equipment

The data is being confirmed.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
Evgeniy "Dodge" Markarov in eastern Ukraine. UVDA

An Israeli documentary followed Evgeniy "Dodge" Markarov, a Ukrainian drone operator in the Donbas.

One day before it broadcast, the team received a call saying Markarov had been killed.

He'd been philosophical about death in the footage, musing that his life could end at "any moment."

For days, an Israeli documentary team slept, ate, and lived alongside Evgeniy "Dodge" Markarov, a Ukrainian drone operator, as he went about defending his country from Russian attacks.

The footage of the 39-year-old formed a core part of a powerful documentary that was broadcast on Israeli TV last week, showing life on the frontlines of eastern Ukraine's Donbas region.

But a day before it aired, the filmmakers got a painful call.

A source in Ukraine relayed the news that Markarov had been killed by Russian artillery fire.

"He was killed a day before the broadcast," said Itai Anghel, a seasoned war correspondent with UVDA, Israel's leading current affairs TV program, during an emotional conversation with Insider.

"It's difficult because you don't have time to mourn," Anghel continued, adding that the team had to temporarily put emotions aside to work quickly on editing a new version of the film for the following day.

Evgeniy "Dodge" Markarov in the trenches in Ukraine. UVDA

'This life may be finished at any moment'

Markarov, who once worked as a sound technician for rock bands, was not dissimilar to many of the young Ukrainians who rushed to defend their country after Russia invaded last February, risking their lives in the process.

An estimated 100,000 Ukrainians, many of whom had never picked up a weapon before last year, have been killed or wounded during the fighting.

Markarov, who received a Ukrainian military award for his service, had a wife and young daughter. He was described by Anghel as down-to-earth, easy to talk to, and often upbeat.

But Anghel said that Markarov had also long ago come to terms with the fact that he may die in the fighting.

One of the most poignant things about his death was a foreboding statement he gave to the filmmakers.

Story continues

"This life may be finished at any moment, everything may be finished at any moment," Markarov said in the film. "But, I think, maybe in that moment, I will know everything about life."

Anghel said this answer was typical of the soldier, who he came to know well after being embedded with his unit in November last year. Filming largely took place in trenches near Toretsk, which at the time was at the epicenter of the fighting in the region.

"He was sort of a philosopher all the time," said Anghel of Markarov, adding that he now regrets asking Markarov the leading question.

"In a strange way, I almost blame myself for asking it," Anghel said. "I don't have a mystic bone in my body, but when you get such terrible news about him getting killed, you think about everything."

Evgeniy "Dodge" Markarov holding a Ukrainian military award. UVDA

Indeed, when the journalist offered to send him footage from the documentary when it was released, Marakov gave both his cellphone number and several additional numbers belonging to relatives.

"He was like: 'I might not be here, people are dying all over, and my six best friends were killed. So, take the phone number of my father or my mother or my wife,'" Anghel recalled.

Markarov was one of four members of the 5th Separate Assault Regiment who was killed last Wednesday. Insider was unable to verify the number of soldiers from the regiment who have died since the outset of the war.

Anghel said the UVDA team re-edited the documentary in time for its broadcast, adding an 'in-memoriam' section to Markarov, and is in the process of creating an edit specifically for his family.

"It is a comfort [to know] that he would have a legacy," Anghel said.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Three Waukegan High School students surround Piper, a comfort dog available to Waukegan Community Unit School District 60, as she walks into their classroom. (Steve Sadin / Lake County News-Sun)

Class was progressing normally at Waukegan High schools AOEC campus when Dana DiCello walked in with Piper, a comfort dog available to Waukegan Community Unit School District 60.

Three girls quickly came to the front and surrounded the golden retriever, golden Labrador mix.

Advertisement

I love animals, and Im happy when I see him, senior Jennifer Abundio said.

I feel excited every time I see her, added Perla Torres, another senior.

Advertisement

When Michael Dias, another AOEC senior, saw Piper walk into his classroom, he was quick to spend time with her.

I suffer from high anxiety, Dias said. She relaxes me, and keeps me calm.

When a substitute teacher allegedly punched a Jack Benny Middle School eighth grader in the eye in October, Piper was in the classroom the following day to aid students who saw the incident.

She helped calm the students who witnessed it, DiCello, a paraprofessional working with diverse learners, said. It helped the social worker debrief. It helped people open up. It lowers tension in the room. Piper is naturally drawn to people.

Piper, who is DiCellos personal pet, became available to meet needs within District 60 when the school year began in August in Waukegan, from assisting when a crisis occurred like at Jack Benny, or calming students at times of standardized testing.

Dana DiCello walks Piper through the halls of Waukegan High Schools Washington Campus. (Steve Sadin / Lake County News-Sun)

Housed during the day at the high schools Washington Street campus, DiCello said Piper makes one visit a week to the neighboring AOEC campus and spends time with students at Washington Street classes as the need arises. Sometimes, she is generally available.

Along with the scheduled times at those two high school campuses, DiCello said administrators are also working to schedule time at the Brookside campus, which houses the freshmen and sophomores. Juniors and seniors attend the Washington campus.

Flor Carter, the AOEC principal, said AOEC provides an alternative to the traditional comprehensive high school experience, honoring each students inherent unique worth, inspiring them to be better than they thought possible.

Advertisement

As DiCello walked through the halls of the Washington Street campus Tuesday, Piper got students attention as they moved from one class to another. Some stopped to pet her, and others paid attention. Getting students to take their eyes off their phones is always a challenge, officials said.

Every time the kids see her, they stop looking at their phones, DiCello said. You just see their smiles. I love it.

DiCello said Piper, now 2, was originally in training to be a Seeing Eye dog, but became medically unqualified. When she was put up for adoption as a 1-year-old, DiCello was quick to adopt her. She first knew her as an 8-month-old puppy.

Dana DiCello tends to Piper in the comfort dog's office. (Steve Sadin / Lake County News-Sun)

Now officially registered as a therapy dog, Piper comes to school with DiCello. The dog is available when there is a crisis, students have a specific need in a high school classroom or when some other need arises.

He goes into classes with students who have a special need, DiCello said. When we do, the kids smile a lot. It helps kids in stressful situations.

Though the crisis situations are not that frequent, DiCello said when an employee died at an elementary school earlier this academic year, Piper was dispatched to help people there cope with the loss.

Advertisement

Social workers determine when there is a need, she said. It helps calm the situation.

Piper is a comfort dog available to the Waukegan public schools. (Steve Sadin / Lake County News-Sun)

On occasion a student may visit Pipers office, a room with comfortable furniture, muted lighting and a little artwork. One time, DiCello said a boy entered and she was not sure how well it would work.

Even the toughest kid, who you never thought would calm down, does, DiCello said. He was there and the next thing I knew, he was on the floor trying to pet her. It opens up the channels of communication.
The military does not exclude provocations and border shelling by Russian-occupied Transnistria

The head of the Joint Coordination Press Center of the Southern Defense Forces, Natalia Humeniuk, gave the Ukrainian militarys assessment on the situation in Moldova and Transnistria during the national telethon program on March 1.

"The defense forces at the border (will be able to give a proper) response (if there is a) likelihood of threats coming from that direction," she said.

They are not critical at the moment. Were talking about the possible activity of sabotage and reconnaissance groups, or some provocations such as shelling of the state border  those are not ruled out. Were watching closely. Currently, there is no activity on the other side of the border.

Read also: Impossible for Russia to land paratroopers in Transnistria, Ukraine says

She said the number of Russian troops in Transnistria is not enough to open a second front. The occupying forces need support for such actions, but they cannot get it physically, as landlocked Transnitria is surrounded by NATO- and Ukrainian-controlled air space.

"That is why we are seeing more information and psychological operations in Moldova, where they are trying to undermine the socio-political system," Humeniuk said.

On Feb. 9, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukrainian intelligence had intercepted a Russian plan to destroy political stability in Moldova.

On Feb. 20, he said that Moscow was considering a coup d'etat in Moldova, seizing the airport in Chisinau and deploying its military through it.

Read also: Rumors of Ukrainian intervention in Transnistria sow panic in Russian social media

This was later confirmed by new Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean, who also called for the demilitarization of Transnistria and the expulsion of the Russian troops from there.

The head of the Moldovan Security and Intelligence Service, Alexandru Musteata, said that Russia could launch an offensive against Moldova as early as 2023.

On Feb. 28, the so-called Ministry of Defense of unrecognized Transnistria announced a three-month military training campaign.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
As seen from an aerial view, a destroyed Russian T-80 tank, its turret blown upside down, sits on a former frontline on February 27, 2023 in Bogorodychne, in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. John Moore/Getty Images

Ukrainian troops said they recently captured a Russian medic who was forced to operate a tank.

The incident, reported by the New York Times, highlights dysfunction within Russia's military.

Russia continues to face personnel setbacks and high casualties after a year of full-scale war.

Ukrainian soldiers said they captured a Russian medic who had been forced to operate a tank in a recent battle, according to a new report.

The soldiers told The New York Times that the medic had been reassigned to drive the tank during a three-week-long battle near Vuhledar in southeastern Ukraine. Ukrainian officials said it was the biggest tank battle of the war so far and proved to be a decisive victory for Ukraine.

During the battle, Russian forces made similar mistakes to those seen during other moments of Moscow's one-year-long full-scale war, including advancing columns of tanks straight into Ukrainian ambushes and failing to capture territory, the report said.

Russia's tanks have suffered a severe beating in Ukraine, with US officials estimating that Moscow has likely lost half of its main battle tanks since late February 2022. According to Oryx, an open-source intelligence site, nearly 1,800 Russian tanks have been either destroyed, damaged, captured, or abandoned.

Even Russian tank forces long considered to be elite  like the storied 1st Guards Tank Army  have repeatedly been beaten by the Ukrainians in battle and endured heavy casualties.

Meanwhile, the Russian medic's reassignment to the tank highlights separate problems facing Moscow's military. It faces a lack of skilled troops to perform their duties, and oftentimes, it is sending inexperienced and unprepared soldiers to the front lines.

Senior US military officials said in January that Russia was pursuing an unsuccessful strategy of rushing ill-equipped and poorly trained troops to the front lines, where they can fill the gaps within decimated units. Russian forces have also been using prisoners and freshly mobilized to absorb heavy Ukrainian fire like sponges, according to a senior US military official.

Story continues

Ukrainian intelligence has also suggested that Russia's strategy appears to include drafting full-time college students into the military as part of a future mobilization effort, which will reportedly be carried out within the next few weeks.

Russia continues to face various setbacks over a year into the conflict that it started  dealing with unskilled troops, high casualties, and limited resources. Even with no clear end to the conflict in sight, senior Pentagon officials and top US generals have said that Russia has lost the war and will emerge from the conflict as a "shattered military power."

Read the original article on Business Insider
(photo: Canva)

The University of Minnesota Medical School in Duluth received a $750,000 funding injection to launch a new program dedicated to recruiting and supporting Native American medical students in the Upper Midwest.

The funds from the Genentech Innovation Fund will help create and support operations of the Gateways to Medicine and Research Master of Science degree program, which will begin in the Fall of 2023.

The Genentech Innovation Fund was created in 2019 with the goal of awarding creative solutions to improve equity in healthcare.

Dr. Benjamin Clarke, Ph.D., a professor at the medical school and a member of the Grand Portage Band of Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, said the Gateways program has been three years in the making. He participated in a steering committee headed by Dr. Pedro Fernandez-Funez.

If theyre not ready to enter into doctoral programs or medical school right away, this program helps to prepare them, Clarke said of incoming students. Its kind of a stepping stone.

When reaching out to Native American communities, the number of students interested in medical school is pretty small, and it gets even smaller when you ask if the students have done any preparatory work for medical school, Clarke said.

With the help of the Gateways program, Native students not only get experience, but also receive scholarships to cover the full tuition, as well as cultural and learning support.

The Gateways program offers two tracks: a one-year track for medical students interested in health professions and a two-year track for students interested in biomedical sciences.

We try to make sure they cover a lot of the topics theyd see in the first and second year of medical school, Clarke said. So that if they were to get into medical school, theyre academically prepared.

The school also wants to help students build their social credentials and give them a chance to get experience in social service work and community service work, Clarke added.

Story continues

The Gateways program will provide them with these opportunities to shadow physicians and get into the clinic to do some volunteer work, Clarke said.Also, they have a chance to build a network with other Native students so that they can have a community, a comfort zone, which is actually very important.

On the biomedical sciences side, the program would be focused on research and geared toward students working on their Ph.D. The goal is to have the students trained with the skills to study specific health problems that may occur in Native American communities.

Clarke sees the new masters program as a path to getting more Native American representation in hospitals, clinics, labs and medical schools.

There are so few Native physicians out there in the clinics and if somebody reports into the clinic with some sort of health issue, it would be nice to drop as many of the cultural barriers as possible, he said. If you come in and you see a familiar face, sometimes that makes things a little better, and often theyll be able to understand the situation the person may emerge from.

Which is why Native American representation is important in the classroom as well, not just in the student section but at the professor podium, Clarke said, adding that the program has the potential to be a channel for future faculty.

You want to be able to project a Native perspective to all of the medical students because even the non-Native physician will be interacting with Native patients, and they need to know how to communicate with them, he said. They need to know what are the cultural issues and what might be the challenges that a person might face.

The Duluth campus has been training physicians for 50 years with a goal to serve rural populations, both Native American and non-Native. Although the campus ranks second in the nation for graduating Native American physicians, many arent from Minnesota, and the Gateway program aims to change that.

Dr. Pedro Fernandez-Funez, an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences and the Director of the Gateways program, said there is a demand for educational training in rural and Native areas.

Students will have certain experiences, whether its been in rural or being in Native communities, these are the students that end up going home when they graduate and serving those communities, Fernandez-Funez said. Its not only giving opportunities to students, but its actually serving the communities when we train students coming from these certain areas.

Fernandez-Funez came to Duluth about seven years ago and recognized the need for a training program geared toward supporting those very students. He was encouraged by the administration to explore the idea and quickly had the support of the faculty as well.

Genentech came through with a big award and that actually pushed forward the whole process because if people from outside believe in us, we need to make this a reality, he said.

In a year or two, he hopes to share the success stories of students who participated in the program and transitioned to medical school.

There has been a lot of support, not only from our school but other members of the community, Fernandez-Funez said. Were collaborating with one of the hospitals, were starting to collaborate with other regional schools to make sure that students know were here when they are ready to transition to med school and I think everyone has been very welcoming and very embracing of what were trying to do.
BAGHDAD (AP)  The United Nations chief on Wednesday praised Iraq for repatriating citizens detained in neighboring Syria on suspicion of ties to the Islamic State group and pledged international support for the countrys efforts to regain stability and security.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke to reporters during a rare visit to Baghdad, his first in six years, ahead of this months 20-year anniversary of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

The years that followed Saddam's overthrow saw widespread sectarian violence and the rise first of al-Qaida in the region and later, the extremist Islamic State group, which at one point controlled wide swaths of territory, including Iraqs second-largest city, Mosul. We recognize that the challenges Iraq is facing did not arise overnight, Guterres said, speaking at a news conference alongside Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani. They are the product of decades of oppression, war, terrorism, sectarianism and foreign interference.

He praised the formation of Iraq's new government in October, after a yearlong political stalemate, and the country's ambitious and forward-looking reform agenda. He also pledged U.N. support for systematic governance reforms and for measures to address Iraqs looming water crisis, which experts expect to be exacerbated by climate change.

Guterres commended Iraq for repatriating its citizens from northeastern Syria, particularly from al-Hol camp, which holds tens of thousands of women and children  primarily the wives, widows and children of IS fighters  in what human rights groups have described as dangerous and squalid living conditions.

On Sunday, Iraq repatriated some 582 people from the camp to a rehabilitation center near the town of Qayara, south of Mosul.

Guterres described Iraqs actions as an example for the world while noting that many women and children remain stranded in desperate conditions.

He called for implementation of promised measures that would allow members of the Yazidi religious minority displaced by IS attacks to return to their homes in the town of Sinjar and for the central government in Baghdad and Iraq's northern semi-autonomous Kurdish government to reach agreements on contentious budget issues and on a law governing oil and gas deals.

Guterres was to visit the Iraqi Kurdish region's government and in the city of Irbil on Thursday, and meet with Kurdish leaders.
ALEPPO, Syria (AP)  Reuniting children with their missing family has become a top priority in the aftermath of last month's massive earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria, the head of the U.N. children's agency said Wednesday.

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said the Feb. 6 quake that rocked southeast Turkey and parts of northern Syria has compounded existing crises in war-torn Syria.

The first challenge is figuring out if (the) childrens parents are alive in some place, and if they are trying to reunite them, she told The Associated Press, speaking at a school in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo.

Since the quake, the school has been turned into a shelter for families who lost their homes.

In Turkey, Derya Yanik, the minister for family affairs, said Wednesday that more than 1,800 unaccompanied children have been reunited with their families since the quake. Efforts were underway to identify 83 other children and reunite them with family members, Yanik said.

Some of the children who have not been identified were still in intensive care in hospitals in Turkey, she added, and more than 350,000 families had applied to foster children orphaned by the quake.

The Turkey-Syria earthquake killed at least 50,000 people and injured many more, according to the U.N. Tens of thousands still missing and hundreds of thousands homeless. In Syria, at least 6,000 were killed in total, in both government-controlled areas and in the rebel-held territory in the country's northwest. That region in the hands of Syrian rebels is home to 4.6 million people, many of them previously displaced by Syrias war, was hardest hit in Syria,

Aleppo, Syrias largest city and a financial hub before the war, witnessed some of the fiercest fighting in the nearly 12-year conflict that killed at least 300,000 people and displaced half the country's population of 23 million.

The earthquake further destroyed thousands of homes in Aleppo and elsewhere in Syria and decimated infrastructure as medical groups sounded the alarm on possible health crises breaking out in quake-hit areas.

Story continues

We need to make sure that children continue to get their education and that is very difficult, Russell also told the AP.

Almost one month after the quake, many families are still living in schools, mosques, churches, and other makeshift shelters after their homes were destroyed. At the same time, Russel fears that keeping families in places such as the school-turned-shelter in Aleppo for a long period of time could see children fall behind in their education.

UNICEF is holding some classes at such shelters so children don't drop out of school.

We need to make sure that children continue to get their education and that is very difficult, she added.

Also Wednesday, the World Health Organization chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, visited the rebel-held northwest, crossing into Syria from Turkey to follow up on the needs of those affected by the earthquake.

Ghebreyesus visit to Syria was the second after a tour of the northern city of Aleppo last month after the quake.

Even before the earthquake, needs were increasing while international aid was decreasing, Ghebreyesus said at a press conference. I call on the leaders of both sides of the Syrian conflict to use the shared suffering of this crisis as a platform for peace.

___

Associated Press writer Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, and Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed to this report.
CAIRO (AP)  The United Nations on Wednesday condemned the deployment of South Sudanese troops in an area of the disputed region of Abyei, which both Sudan and South Sudan claim.

The U.N. peacekeeping mission in the contested region warned that the deployment of troops in the southern part of Abyei would create untold suffering and humanitarian concerns for civilians in the area.

There was no immediate comment from South Sudanese authorities, and a spokesman for the ruling military in Sudan did not answer a request for comment.

The deployment followed renewed fighting within and around Abyei, said the mission, known as UNISFA. It urged both parties to stop fighting and allow the political process to resolve the lingering crisis.

UNISFA is against any form of unauthorized deployment in Abyei, the mission said.

The mission statement did not elaborate on the fighting. Local media, however, reported that the latest clashes between Nuer and Dinka Ngok tribes in the region grew out of cattle rustling late last month. Citing local authorities, Sudan Tribune news website said at least 18 people were killed and nine were wounded.

UNISFA said it has reinforced peacekeepers in the area and is closely monitoring the situation.

The dispute between Sudan and South Sudan over oil-rich Abyei began when South Sudan gained independence from Sudan following a 2005 peace deal, after decades of civil war between Sudans north and south.

The deal called for both sides to settle the final status of Abyei through negotiations, but it is still unresolved. U.N. peacekeepers were deployed to the region in 2011, the year South Sudan became an independent country.
OVER 60 PRIZES

A Sept. 1, 2006, portrait of Dr. Marilyn Gaston in Potomac, Md., after jointly winning a $100,000 prize for Americans over 60 who devised innovative ways to address tough social problems. Credit - Jahi ChikwendiuAP/The Washington Post,

Jasmine Brown is still in medical school at the University of Pennsylvania, but she has already published a book about medicine: Twice as Hard: The Stories of Black Women Who Fought to Become Physicians, from the Civil War to the 21st Century. Its the culmination of research she started while a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford. She noticed a lack of literature on Black female doctors, and was immediately struck by an oral history by Dr. May Chinn, one of Harlems first Black female doctors. Chinns story resonated with Brown, who, despite being the daughter of engineers, was often discouraged from pursuing a career in science.

Growing up, people were telling me Im not good enoughlike Im Black so that means Im not smart and I wont do well in school, Brown says. Recognizing how powerful it was for me to learn about these women, I wanted to give that hope to other Black girls, other Black people really anybody who has been told for some reason that theyre not capable.

Below are three pioneering Black female doctors profiled in Browns book.

Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler

Crumpler is considered the first Black woman physician in the U.S. She started out as a nurse but physicians she worked with encouraged her to go to medical school and wrote her recommendation letters. She graduated from the New England Female Medical College (now part of Boston Universitys medical school) in 1864.

After graduation, she went down to Richmond, Virginia, to provide medical care for Black people who had just been freed from slavery. She faced many obstacles; as a Black woman, some white pharmacists wouldnt honor her prescriptions. One doctor sneered, The MD behind her name stands for nothing more than Mule Driver.

Story continues

She moved back to Boston, buying a house in Beacon Hill that also served as her medical office, seeing patients regardless of whether they could afford her care. She wrote A Book of Medical Discourses, designed to provide health advice fo Black women who couldnt afford a doctor. Considered the first known medical book written by a Black woman, it covered topics like washing a newborn, treating burns, and managing measles.

Dr. May Chinn

Chinn was one of the first Black female physicians in Harlemin addition to being a talented musician; she played piano with the famous Harlem Renaissance entertainer Paul Robeson. When she graduated from New York Universitys School of Medicine in the 1920s, Black women didnt get into residency programs, so she got a low-paying job as an apprentice to a doctor in Harlem.

She did a lot of house calls, and she would provide care for people who have been turned away from the typical medical institutions, says Brown. There was even a period after Pearl Harbor when the medical institutions refused to see Asian patients, and she would go to their homes.

Chinn would even help Howard University-trained Black surgeon Dr. Peter Marshall Murray perform surgery in patients homes, using the patients bed or even an ironing board, if it was a small childas the operating table. They would use patients ovens to sterilize surgical equipment. When she suspected older patients might have cancer, she took biopsies and snuck them to her white doctor classmates at whats now Memorial Sloan-Kettering who would analyze the samples for her. The hospital eventually hired her and she ran clinics, supervising both white and Black physicians from 1945 until 1976.

Dr. Marilyn Hughes Gaston

Gaston was the first Black woman to direct a major public health agency, when she became the head of the Bureau of Primary Health Care at the United States Department of Health and Human Services in 1990.

In 1986, she published groundbreaking research on sickle cell anemiaa condition that predominantly affects Black Americansfinding that penicillin could be given prophylactically to prevent deadly infections. The study was the result of more than a decade of increased awareness of sickle cell anemia that dates back to 1971, when President Richard Nixon announced a new national health strategy to combat the condition. While some dismissed Nixons efforts as an attempt to win over more Black voters, the subsequent increase in federal grant monies helped doctors like Gaston do research that has increased patients lifespan. Gastons landmark study led to national screening of the disease after lobbying Capitol Hill, says Brown. Forty states went on to adopt sickle cell screening protocols for newborn babies.

At the Bureau of Primary Health Care, she oversaw care for immigrants, the homeless, public housing residents. Gaston rose up to the rank of assistant surgeon general by the time she retired in 2001.
A new in-depth report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction examines the collapse of the Afghan security forces in August 2021  a collapse that occurred despite the expenditure of billions of U.S. dollars and the loss of thousands of American and Afghan lives over nearly two decades.

Since 2002, the United States has allocated nearly $90 billion in security sector assistance to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF), with the goal of developing an independent, self-sustaining force capable of combating both internal and external threats, the report says.

Nevertheless, the Afghan military collapsed in a matter of days once it was on its own. The SIGAR report identifies a handful of short-term factors that led to the sudden failure, including a devastating loss of confidence among Afghan soldiers after the agreement signed by the Trump administration and the Taliban in 2020 signaled that the U.S. was looking for a quick exit, as well as the failure of the Afghan government to take responsibility for its own security ahead of the withdrawal.

But the breakdown in Afghanistan was the product of years of questionable assumptions and futile efforts. The report identified eight long-term factors that made the collapse all but inevitable:

(1) the length of the U.S. commitment was disconnected from a realistic understanding of the time required to build a self-sustaining security sector; (2) no one country or agency had ownership of the ANDSF development mission; (3) advisors were often poorly trained and inexperienced for their mission, while frequent personnel rotations impeded standardization, continuity of effort, and institutional memory; (4) the lack of effective interagency oversight and assessment programs prevented a clear picture of reality on the ground; (5) Afghan corruption eroded ANDSF capabilities; (6) U.S. training, logistics and weapons procurement policies undermined its stated goal of creating a self-sustaining Afghan military; (7) the United States perpetuated pre-existing ethnic and regional tensions rather than achieving stated mission goals of force diversity and unification; and (8) the U.S. and Afghan governments failed to develop a police force effective at providing justice and protecting Afghan citizens from crime.

Story continues

One particularly glaring problem revolved around the use of American contractors to maintain the equipment used by the Afghan military. The U.S. knew that Afghanistan would need to rely on those contractors for years  maintaining the fleet of Blackhawk helicopters would require outside help until at least 2030, according to one Pentagon report  but they were withdrawn along with U.S. forces, guaranteeing the rapid degradation of crucial military capabilities.

We built that army to run on contractor support, retired Lieutenant General David Barno said. Without it, it cant function. Game over ... When the contractors pulled out, it was like we pulled all the sticks out of the Jenga pile and expected it to stay up.

No lessons learned? Inspector General John Sopko says there are plenty of lessons to learn from the U.S. experience in Afghanistan, including the need to establish oversight early and to coordinate the efforts of various parts of the U.S. government.

But Sopko isnt hopeful. Im not super optimistic that we are going to learn our lessons, he told reporters Tuesday. Learning lessons is not in our DNA in the United States, unfortunately.

Like what you're reading? Sign up for our free newsletter.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said on Tuesday that he would provide defendants in criminal cases from the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol with access to thousands of hours of internal security footage of the melee.

McCarthy, who granted Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson exclusive access to the footage last week, also told reporters that he would eventually make what he described as more than 45,000 hours of footage available to all media outlets.

"I'll give it out to the entire country," said the California Republican, who first announced his plan to release security footage days after being elected speaker in early January.

Supporters of Republican former President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, disrupting lawmakers as they worked to certify Democratic President Joe Biden's 2020 election victory over Trump.

The former president continues to make false claims that the election was stolen from him through massive election fraud.

Prosecutors have brought criminal charges against more than 950 people following the assault. Four people died during the chaos, and five police officers died of various causes after the attack.

McCarthy told reporters that Jan. 6 defendants had been able to access some security footage before he became speaker. But he added: "If they need it now, we'd supply that."

A McCarthy spokesman said the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight will work to schedule time for any attorney who represents a defendant and has asked for access.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, the chamber's No. 2 Republican, told reporters that lawmakers would make sure that any public releases would not include sensitive material.

"What gets released is going to obviously be scrutinized to make sure that you're not exposing any sensitive information," Scalise said.

(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
Pushing their way through dead leaves, pine needles and sticks are the leaves of blooms to come. (Sheryl DeVore / Lake County News-Sun)

On a sunny, 43-degree late afternoon at the end of winter, I listened for songs of spring.

I took my usual walk through the neighborhood and past a couple of little wetlands, a pond and some brushy areas. One of the first sounds I heard was the onkalee, three-syllable raucous call of the red-winged blackbird.

Advertisement

Some say since robins can be found year-round in northern Illinois  although in smaller numbers than summer  the red-winged blackbird is the true harbinger of spring. The males are here now, singing and looking for places to set up their territories. Their chorus will grow in the coming days.

Walking toward a pond, I heard Canada geese flying overhead. They were talking to each other, and I could only surmise they were wondering if they should land in the pond where at least another 12 Canada geese were resting.

Advertisement

The geese in the pond gave a few honks that may have sent the ones in flight away. Their honking calls can mean many things, such as declaring their territory, telling intruders to go away and greeting a mate. Youll be hearing lots more honking now at the end of winter as Canada geese look for places to nest and are quite vocal about making sure their mate is protected.

For now, though, they seemed to be reveling in the coming of spring. As lakes and ponds thaw out, ducks and geese can take baths in the now unfrozen water. I heard the Canada geeses wings thumping on the surface of the pond, perhaps a joyous sound, because there was plenty of room to splish and splash in their natural habitat.

Lake County News Sun Twice-weekly News updates from Lake County delivered every Monday and Wednesday By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our Subscriber Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy >

Away from the pond and near a wetland, a song sparrow gave its three short notes followed by a higher buzz, and then ending with a few faster notes. Some song sparrows hang around in Illinois in winter, but when you hear one singing from a wet brushy area, you know breeding season is nigh.

In the wooded area of my neighborhood, a northern cardinal sang its birdy, birdy, birdy song from high in a tree. Living in northern Illinois year-round, cardinals have started advertising for mates and soon you will see less bickering among male and female at the feeder, and tender courtship feeding rituals instead. This time of year, my feeders become a romantic dining spot for the cardinal, who plucks a sweet morsel and offers it to its mate.

Bird song and behavior hearken to spring, but so, too, do the plants. Walking through my yard and the neighborhood, it appears that plants are still dormant. But looking to the sky, I notice the silver maple trees are in full bloom, with their clusters of tiny reddish flowers adding a complementary hue to the blue sky.

Youll need binoculars to see this, but the male flowers have red or yellowish green stamens on the end, while the female flowers look like little red balls on the branches. The flowers are small and petal-less, because they dont need anything but the wind to help pollinate them. Typically, silver maples living close to one another bloom at the same time or within days of one another, so a grove of silver maples can look quite spectacular as winter wanes. They wont get their leaves until much later, but the flowers tell us this is the time of year when humans start searching for signs of spring outdoors.

Though I like to focus on native plants and animals, its easy to get excited this time of year when the first delicate petals of daffodils have pushed their way through the soil. I decided to walk to the mud-luscious yard with my yellow rubber boots to see what else I could find. There were no signs of bloodroot, one of the earliest blooming native wildflowers, but I noticed some yellowish corms just barely peering through dead leaves and sticks, and cannot remember what was growing there.

Of course, we can get more snow, freezing temperatures and ice before winter leaves, but still we have already seen signs of spring, and theres plenty more to come. Every sign, no matter how small, is a promise, and a reminder to get outside every day to see whats new in nature.

Advertisement

Sheryl DeVore has worked as a full-time and freelance reporter, editor and photographer for the Chicago Tribune and its subsidiaries. Shes the author of several books on nature and the environment. Send story ideas and thoughts to sheryldevorewriter@gmail.com
By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday imposed sanctions on individuals and companies that it accused of illicitly generating revenue for the government of North Korea.

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Chilsong Trading Corporation, which it says is used by North Korea to earn foreign currency and collect intelligence; and Korea Paekho Trading Corporation, which is accused of generating funds for the North Korean government since the 1980s by conducting art and construction projects throughout the Middle East and Africa.

OFAC also sanctioned two individuals - Hwang Kil Su and Pak Hwa Song - for helping the North Korean government generate revenue, the Treasury Department said in a statement.

The department said the individuals established a company named Congo Aconde SARL in the Democratic Republic of Congo to earn revenue from construction and statue-building projects with local governments.

Last week, state media said North Korea test-fired four strategic cruise missiles during a drill designed to demonstrate its ability to conduct a nuclear counterattack against what it calls hostile forces.

North Korea's "unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs threaten international security and regional stability," Brian Nelson, Treasury's top sanctions official, said on Wednesday.

"The United States remains committed to targeting the regime's global illicit networks that generate revenue for these destabilizing activities," he added.

Last month, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, standing alongside his South Korean and Japanese counterparts, urged countries to step up enforcement of sanctions against North Korea in response to its latest ballistic missile launch.

North Korea has forged ahead in developing and mass producing new missiles, despite sanctions imposed by United Nations Security Council resolutions that ban the nuclear-armed country's missile activities.

U.S. and South Korean officials recently took part in a tabletop, or simulated, exercise that focused on the possibility of North Korea using a nuclear weapon.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington)
After a six-year investigation, the U.S. intelligence community said Wednesday it's "very unlikely" that a foreign adversary  or secret weapon  caused the rash of auditory and other physical symptoms known as "Havana Syndrome" among hundreds of U.S. employees, mostly overseas.

The formal "Intelligence Community Assessment," according to a declassified version of the report, addresses the theory that U.S. intelligence and diplomatic workers came down with sudden and often debilitating illnesses as the result of targeted energy waves or some other clandestine technology developed by Cuba, Russia, China or another adversary.

It contradicts, at least in part, a preliminary finding by U.S. intelligence officials in February 2022 that a high-tech device shooting pulsed electromagnetic energy or ultrasound waves could be causing at least some of the mysterious and debilitating medical symptoms sickening U.S. spies and diplomats working overseas.

CIA Director William J. Burns and Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence overseeing all 18 U.S. intel agencies, both sought to reassure those who have reported symptoms linked to Havana Syndrome that they are taking their claims seriously. A senior intelligence official said Wednesday that the current total stands at 1,500 or more cases from around the world, including some reported in recent months.

Burns said the CIA had applied its "very best operational, analytic, and technical tradecraft to what is one of the largest and most intensive investigations in the Agency's history."

And, he added, "I want to be absolutely clear: these findings do not call into question the experiences and real health issues that U.S. government personnel and their family members  including CIA's own officers  have reported while serving our country," Burns said in a statement.

More: US spies likely being targeted by energy waves in some 'Havana Syndrome' cases, panel says

Story continues

In this Oct. 3, 2017, file photo, tourists ride classic convertible cars on the Malecon beside the United States Embassy in Havana, Cuba.

What's new in the assessment?

In a message to intelligence officials around the world, Haines said the assessment builds on an interim one last year by the intelligence community, or IC in government parlance, that came to essentially the same conclusion but said more work needed to be done to say so definitely.

"Based on the latest IC-wide effort... I can share with you that most IC agencies have now concluded that it is 'very unlikely' a foreign adversary is responsible for the reported AHls," Haines said, in reference to Anomalous Health Incidents, the formal U.S. government catch-all term for the many reported symptoms of Havana Syndrome.

The intel assessment focused on three areas of inquiry: whether foreign adversaries were to blame, if specific "deliberate mechanisms" were the cause and whether a medical analysis of the cases could help determine why so many people were reporting symptoms. In each of those areas, the majority of the seven intelligence agencies participating in the investigation agreed with the conclusions with "high confidence" while others had only "moderate" or "low" confidence.

The new intel assessment drilled down on the initial cases reported by U.S. officials in Cuba from 2016 to 2018, and found that they  and many others that followed  were "not borne out by subsequent medical and technical analysis," Haines said.

The investigation will continue, Haines noted, as U.S. intelligence agencies "have varying confidence levels because we still have gaps given the challenges collecting on foreign adversaries  as we do on many issues involving them." A separate However, a team of experts at the Pentagon is continuing to investigate the matter.

But without any specific culprit, technology or "unique syndrome" to blame, she added, ''IC agencies assess that symptoms reported by U.S. personnel were probably the result of factors that did not involve a foreign adversary, such as preexisting conditions, conventional illnesses, and environmental factors."

More: CIA rules out hostile foreign power behind medical symptoms known as 'Havana Syndrome'

The U.S. is investigating increased reports of Havana Syndrome among diplomats and government officials.

A more blunt assessment

In a briefing with reporters, two senior U.S. intelligence officials were more blunt, saying investigators looked into every possible scenario, including terrorists, disgruntled U.S. officials and even aliens before coming to the conclusion that no specific entity or technology caused the wide array of symptoms and injuries that were reported in 96 countries beginning in Havana, Cuba in late 2016.

The two officials said the investigation that led to the assessment, led by seven U.S. intelligence agencies they wouldn't identify, was one of the broadest and most intensive ever conducted by the U.S. government. Investigators, they said, literally followed suspected foreign agents around the world for months at a time and even backgrounded their families and workplaces in an effort to find evidence tying the cases to a particular entity or technology.

"There were leads," one of them said. "But every time you followed them up, they dissipated. ... There's nothing there."

What is Havana Syndrome?

The term "Havana Syndrome" was coined after an illness struck people working at the U.S. Embassy in Havana beginning in 2016. Diplomats and staffers reported experiencing severe headaches, ringing in their ears, hearing loss, dizziness, loss of balance and other neurological symptoms.

Many of those who experienced Havana Syndrome reported hearing a loud noise or feeling a sensation of intense pressure or vibration in their head, and pain in the ear or in the head, according to a report by the National Academies of Sciences.

Marc Polymeropoulos, a retired CIA officer, said he first began experiencing symptoms of Havana Syndrome in a Moscow hotel room in 2017.

What's the biggest takeaway from the report?

The senior intelligence officials who briefed reporters tried to walk a fine line between saying the new assessment will stand as the definitive word on the controversial topic, while also leaving the door open to further investigation into what may be causing the cases.

The new findings are sure to generate controversy in Congress, where some lawmakers and other critics already have accused the intelligence community of being too dismissive of the controversy. They cited the wealth of information that has been made public about U.S. spies and other employees having to return home from overseas posts, or even retire, due to documented injuries.

We will seek to ensure the review was conducted with the highest degree of analytical rigor and that it considered all the available intelligence and perspectives, documenting all substantial differences in analysis," said Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, and Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, in a joint statement. They said the committee "will take a skeptical approach and test the assumptions of the IC, as our oversight requires."

Victims groups also immediately pushed back on the findings. Lawyer Mark Zaid, who represents two dozen Havana syndrome sufferers, said that the latest assessment "lacks transparency, and we continue to question the accuracy of the alleged findings."

"What is most important to remember is that there are actual victims and (the U.S. government) must ensure their health & well-being are addressed  without question," Zaid said. "We will continue the fight."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Havana Syndrome' unlikely caused by foreign adversaries, report says
The U.S. Embassy in Havana, Cuba. (Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters)

After a years-long investigation that spanned the globe, the U.S. intelligence community has concluded that it is very unlikely a foreign adversary caused Havana syndrome, the range of debilitating medical symptoms afflicting U.S. diplomats and spies.

In a briefing for reporters on Tuesday, senior U.S. intelligence officials said they could find no credible evidence that any hostile U.S. adversary  including Russia, China or Cuba  even has a weapon capable of causing symptoms of Havana syndrome.

The available intelligence consistently points against the involvement of a foreign adversary, said one senior official. We have a lot of evidence that points the other way.

The new findings  part of an official new U.S. intelligence community assessment  represent the latest effort by the government to explain a perplexing disorder whose symptoms including dizziness, vertigo, extreme fatigue and in some cases even brain injuries, which have been reported by as many as 1,500 U.S. government employees in 96 countries in recent years.

First reported among diplomats and spies serving in Cuba in December 2016 and early 2017  hence the moniker Havana syndrome  the issue was quickly cast by top U.S. officials and much of the media as evidence of likely hostile actions by foreign adversaries, through the use of some unexplained sonic or microwave weapon.

Former President Donald Trumps first secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, called it the result of targeted attacks against U.S. diplomats and withdrew most of the personnel from the newly reopened U.S. Embassy in Cuba.

Then-President Donald Trump signs policy changes he is making toward Cuba on June 16, 2017. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

The reports then spread around the globe, with diplomats and spies serving in China, Austria, Germany, Colombia, Vietnam and elsewhere reporting similar symptoms, leading to reports  widely promoted by mainstream news organizations  that these incidents pointed to a global campaign of harassment or even an act of war, with Vladimir Putins Russian intelligence service identified as the most likely culprit.

Story continues

The reports prompted Congress in 2021 to pass the so-called HAVANA Act (for Helping American Victims Afflicted by Neurological Attacks) to compensate those experiencing the most serious of these symptoms with up to $187,000 in government payments under the assumption that they had been harmed in the course of duty by a hostile attack.

One of the bills sponsors, Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, at the time called on the Biden administration to identify and stop the heartless adversary who is harming U.S. personnel.

But as Yahoo News reported last year in a three-part Conspiracyland podcast, U.S. officials were becoming increasingly skeptical of the idea that any foreign adversary was involved and instead pointed to more likely explanations, including environmental factors, preexisting medical conditions and a social contagion influenced by widespread reporting on the phenomenon.

The new intelligence community assessment essentially validates that idea. Officials cautioned, however, that there was not complete unanimity among the seven U.S. intelligence agencies that participated in the assessment. While most of the agencies endorsed the finding that foreign involvement was very unlikely, three of them had only moderate confidence in the judgment and two said they had low confidence based on collection gaps in the available intelligence.

Needless to say, these findings do not call into question the very real experiences and symptoms that our colleagues and their family members have reported, Avril Haines, director of national intelligence, said in a statement. Officers did exactly what we asked them to do: to take our guidance seriously and report suspicious experiences and symptoms.

At the briefing, one U.S. official stressed the role of environmental factors, such as malfunctioning computer mice or air conditioning systems. The senior U.S. intelligence official also noted that the medical symptoms being reported were diverse and inconsistent, casting doubt on the idea that there was a common cause.

The U.S. Embassy in Havana in 2022. (Yamil Lage/AFP via Getty Images)

The official also noted that as media reporting of Havana syndrome has subsided over the past year, reports among U.S. diplomats and spies experiencing such symptoms have also dropped significantly, suggesting that some, if not many, of the reports may have been influenced by the power of suggestion from news media coverage.

Moreover, the senior official noted that there was increasing evidence that pointed away from the idea of hostile foreign involvement. U.S. intelligence indicated that foreign powers were confused by the reports of Havana syndrome, with some suspecting that the entire issue was being pushed by U.S. intelligence agencies as some sort of foreign plot to embarrass them.

Meanwhile, there were other telling signs. Although the Russian Federation has long been viewed as the most likely perpetrator  based on indications that the Russians had been studying the effects of microwaves on the human brain  U.S. officials could find no sign that it actually possessed such a weapon.

The senior official also said there have been no reports of any Havana syndrome attacks in Ukraine, where the Russians have the most at stake, with no indication of such symptoms being reported by either U.S. or Ukrainian personnel.
A thermonuclear explosion on Bikini Atoll, March 1, 1954. Photo by Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images

Dozens of nuclear tests were carried out by the US in the Pacific between 1946 and 1958.

The largest of these was the detonation of the Castle Bravo device on March 1, 1954.

It was 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb that leveled Hiroshima during World War II.

The US military tested dozens of nuclear weapons in the Pacific in the years following World War II, but none of the blasts compared in size to that of the Castle Bravo test  what a nuclear weapons historian once called "the greatest single radiological disaster in American history."

The Castle Bravo device was the largest nuclear weapon ever tested by the US. On March 1, 1954  exactly 69 years ago Wednesday  the military detonated this bomb at Bikini Atoll, a small coral reef in the Marshall Islands.

The radioactive fallout produced by the blast was much worse than anyone anticipated and was an eyeopening incident that raised questions about the development of atmospheric testing, a nuclear weapons expert told Insider.

Castle Bravo was the first of six weapons to be tested as part of a weeks-long series experimenting with large-yield thermonuclear devices  also known as Operation Castle  that stretched from March 1 to May 31, 1954. The 23,500-pound device caused a mushroom cloud that reached an altitude of 130,000 feet and left a crater that was 250 feet deep and over 6,500 feet wide.

But scientists severely miscalculated the yield, predicting it would only produce an explosive yield of at most six megatons, according to the Brookings Institute. They didn't realize the fusion fuel would have so much of an impact on the bomb's detonation.

The detonation produced an actual explosive yield of 15 megatons, the Department of Defense said in an Operation Castle fact sheet, meaning it was 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb that flattened Hiroshima, Japan, at the end of World War II.

'It got a lot worse'

Castle Bravo also caused a significant amount of fallout that had negative implications for years. Radioactive material fell on residents of the Marshall Islands and was even found in communities thousands of miles away, leading to severe illnesses, and American service members tasked with cleaning up the nuclear tests were exposed to contaminated food and dust, which caused lasting health issues.

Story continues

Photographic print of an atomic bomb at Bikini Atoll in Micronesia, the first underwater test. Dated 1946. Photo by Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

A Japanese fishing vessel that was sailing around 80 miles away from the test site on the day the Castle Bravo device was detonated was exposed to radiation that eventually killed one sailor and left others on board with radiation poisoning, according to the Atomic Heritage Foundation. And nearly 40 US Navy sailors exposed to the fallout suffered skin lesions, the Department of Defense noted.

Whenever the military readied for a nuclear test, it set up an safety zone in preparation for the radioactive fallout that ensued after the device was detonated. But when a bomb produces a greater explosive yield than anticipated, these prior assumptions about safety can be compromised, Hans Kristensen, the director of the nuclear information project at the Federation of American Scientists, told Insider.

"What happened after Bravo, of course, was that a lot of the radioactive fallout was greatly amplified and drifted over a much larger area than it was anticipated," Kristensen said. "Fallout was expected to be significant in any case. But it got a lot worse because of that."

The fallout led to serious health effects among the residents of the Marshall Islands, although its unclear exactly how many people were impacted by testing. The National Cancer Institute found that some cancers in residents who were alive during the years-long period of nuclear testing may be attributed to radiation exposure. Castle Bravo alone was responsible for nearly all of the radiation doses in the country's northern atolls.

A 2019 report by the Republic of the Marshall Islands' National Nuclear Commission said nuclear weapons testing  like Castle Bravo  had a catastrophic impact on the country's environment, and some individuals still fear on a daily basis how their long-term exposure to the radiation might impact their health.

Castle Romeo was the code name given to one of the tests in the Operation Castle series of American thermonuclear tests, beginning in March 1954 at Bikini Atoll Photo by Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images)

"There were real implications for people living on surrounding islands," Kristensen said. "And those consequences have been very severe" and long lasting, he added.

Castle Bravo was a real 'eyeopener'

Despite the devastation caused by Castle Bravo, the US military continued to conducting nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific. Between 1946 and 1958, a total of 67 tests were conducted.

But the incident helped the US  and global community  to realize the grave dangers associated with this particular type of testing, as continued atomic and hydrogen bomb detonations led to increasing concerns about the impact of radioactive fallout.

One year later, in 1955, the United Nations established the Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, which was tasked with monitoring the impact of radiation exposure and helping governments and organizations craft protective measures and evaluate the risk of radiation.

The US, UK, and Soviet Union signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty in 1963, which barred nuclear weapons testing in the atmosphere, in outer space, and underwater. The agreement was the first of several that targeted nuclear weapons during the Cold War era but did not prohibit underground testing. The follow-on Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty was signed in the 1990s.

"It definitely contributed to this realization that atmospheric nuclear testing is perhaps not so smart," Kristensen explained, adding that "this was a real sort of eyeopener, I think, for the global community also. I mean, it was so powerful and devastating that it really helped push that."

Read the original article on Business Insider
The United States will not pull back its support for Ukraine in response to Russia suspending its participation in a key nuclear arms treaty, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Wednesday.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov reportedly said earlier in the day that Russias return to the New START nuclear control treaty depended on U.S. support for Ukraine.

Until the United States changes its behavior, until we see signs of common sense in what they are doing in relation to Ukraine  we see no chance for the decision to suspend New START to be reviewed or re-examined, Reuters reported, citing Interfax.

Price rejected Moscows demand at a press briefing, noting that the U.S. and Russia have exchanged diplomatic communications since Russia suspended its participation in the treaty last month.

Russias willingness to promote instability and use irresponsible nuclear rhetoric endangers every nation on this planet. Russias purported suspension of new START will, at the same time, not stop the United States from continuing to support Ukraine, Price said.

He added that the diplomatic note provided by Russia did not tell us anything we didnt already know from the public statements that have emanated from Moscow.

Russia on Wednesday reportedly delivered formal notification to the U.S. of its position suspending its participation in the New START treaty. That followed an announcement by Russian President Vladimir Putin late last month, during an address marking one year since Moscow began its invasion.

Russia had earlier boycotted previously scheduled meetings with U.S. officials related to the New START agreement  in December 2022 and last month  saying they could not meet with American representatives while they are supporting Ukraine.

The New START treaty, which is set to expire in 2026, is a key agreement that limits the number of strategic nuclear warheads each country holds and allows insight into each others nuclear stockpiles to promote safety and stability. Onsite inspections were suspended because of the pandemic, but they have failed to resume over Russian refusals to engage.

Story continues

U.S. officials condemned Putins announcement as unfortunate and irresponsible, but they added that it was unclear how Moscow would behave under terms of a suspension.

Ryabkov reportedly said Monday that the U.S. and Russia held confidential talks in recent days and that Moscow would remain open to such communication in the future.

We will communicate and exchange information when necessary, Ryabkov said, according to The Associated Press, citing Russian media.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
By Daniel Wiessner

(Reuters) - Republican-led U.S. states have added a new plaintiff to their lawsuit challenging a rule that allows socially conscious investing by employee retirement plans, in a bid to thwart the Biden administration's attempt to wrest the case away from a conservative judge.

The states on Tuesday filed an amended complaint in an Amarillo, Texas, federal court where they had filed the lawsuit in January, adding a business owner who lives in the city, which they said should erase any doubt that the case belongs there.

The Biden administration last month accused the states of "judge shopping" by filing the lawsuit in Amarillo. The only sitting judge there is U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, an appointee of former Republican President Donald Trump. Kacsmaryk's court has become a favored destination for Republicans challenging Biden administration regulations.

The 25 states say a U.S. Department of Labor rule allowing retirement plans to consider environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) factors in selecting investments will jeopardize retirement savings and should be struck down.

The U.S. Department of Justice, which is defending the rule, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The government has said the rule is valid because it still requires retirement plans to put financial considerations ahead of ESG factors.

In a motion to transfer the case last month, the Biden administration said states can only file lawsuits in federal courts located in their capital cities. Texas is a plaintiff in the lawsuit, but the administration said it is only a "resident" of Austin, its capital.

The states on Tuesday said the addition of Alex Fairly, who owns a medical billing negotiation firm and lives in Amarillo, moots the motion to transfer the case.

And the Biden administration does not need to seek a transfer over concerns about Kacsmaryk's partiality, they said.

Story continues

"Any public interest in impartial consideration of cases is protected by statutes requiring recusal if a judge can reasonably be believed to be biased or prejudiced," the states said.

The filings came on the same day that the U.S. House of Representatives voted to repeal the ESG rule. A Senate vote is scheduled for Wednesday, but Republicans are unlikely to muster the votes to overcome a veto by Democratic President Joe Biden.

The Justice Department has moved to transfer at least two other cases brought by Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that were assigned to Trump-appointed judges.

(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Josie Kao)
The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on five companies and individuals for illicitly generating revenue for the North Korean government.

The Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced that it sanctioned three companies and two individuals for financing the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK).

The office said that the Chilsong Trading Corporation was used by the government of North Korea to collect intelligence and earn foreign currency. The Korea Paekho Trading Corporation, according to the release, has also generated funds for the North Korean government since the 1980s by completing art and construction projects for regimes in the Middle East and Africa.

OFAC also sanctioned two individuals, Hwang Kil Su and Pak Hwa Song, for raising funds for the government of North Korea by establishing Congo Aconde SARL, a company that earned revenue from construction and statue-building projects in local governments.

North Korea launched four missiles in a figure-eight pattern last week after the U.S. and South Korea conducted military drills in the region.

The DPRKs unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs threaten international security and regional stability, the Treasurys Under Secretary of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said. The United States remains committed to targeting the regimes global illicit networks that generate revenue for these destabilizing activities.

The European Union, according to the release, also previously designated Chilsong, Paekho, Pak and Hwang for engaging in sanctions evasion and being responsible for supporting the DPRKs nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

According to Wednesdays sanctions, all of the property and interests of those companies that reside in the U.S. will be blocked and must be reported to OFAC. In addition, any entities that are directly or indirectly owned 50 percent or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked, the office said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A leading U.S. Senate Democrat on Wednesday said Denver International Airport CEO Phil Washington has what it takes to "move a big bureaucracy" as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) looks to improve aviation safety, but Republicans questioned his limited aviation experience.

At Washington's nomination hearing, Senate Commerce Committee chair Maria Cantwell, a Democrat, said President Joe Biden's choice must make a "clear commitment" to implement sweeping legislation passed in 2020 to reform how the FAA certifies new airplanes after two fatal Boeing 737 MAX crashes killed 346 people.

Democrats control the Senate by a 51-49 margin and none have publicly opposed Washington's nomination. Cantwell said after the hearing she did not know if Washington had the votes for confirmation.

The FAA has been without a permanent administrator for 11 months, and Washington pledged to continue to implement certification reforms and would "look to accelerate the outstanding things that have not been completed."

"We feel that industry and FAA got too cozy," Cantwell said. She said Washington's experience as a "manager of large organizations with thousands of employees gives you a very good sense of some of the challenges of moving a big bureaucracy."

Senator Ted Cruz, the panel's top Republican, criticized Washington's record at transit agencies and aviation experience.

"President Biden should nominate someone with serious aviation safety experience, which is what the flying public deserves," Cruz said.

Colorado Democratic Senator John Hickenlooper hailed Washington as "not an airline industry insider using this role as a position for the industry to be policing itself."

Democratic Senator Jacky Rosen also said she had concerns about Washington's aviation experience.

The FAA has come under fire after a series of near miss incidents. Acting FAA administrator Billy Nolen said last month he was forming a team of experts to review air safety and will hold a safety summit.

Story continues

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) isinvestigating a series of serious close calls including a nearcollision in January between FedEx and SouthwestAirlines planes in Austin and a runway incursion at New York's JFK Airport.

In January, the FAA halted all departing passenger airline flights for nearly two hours because of a computeroutage, the first nationwide ground stop of its kind since Sept.11, 2001.

"These are serious safety concerns at the FAA," Cantwell said. "It's at an important inflection point, it's got a lot of big challenges."

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by David Gregorio)
By John Kruzel and Andrew Chung

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The skepticism expressed by conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices toward President Joe Biden's move to forgive $430 billion in student debt not only cast doubt on the plan's fate but also signaled trouble ahead for the use of executive power to get things done in his remaining time in office.

Questions posed by the conservative justices during arguments on Tuesday over Biden's debt relief indicated that the conservative-majority court could strike down the plan as an unlawful overreach of executive power.

The conservative justices may apply the exacting legal standard that they have used to undo prior policy actions by Biden - one that could stop him from employing executive power to enact other items on his agenda even as he deals with a divided Congress unlikely to pass legislation he wants.

Republicans control the House of Representatives while Biden's fellow Democrats control the Senate.

"I'm confident that we're on the right side of the law. I'm not confident about the outcome of the decision," Biden told reporters at the White House on Wednesday.

The court is due to rule by the end of June on the legality of the debt relief, which the administration argued was lawful under authority given to the executive branch by the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act, or HEROES Act. That 2003 law authorizes the U.S. education secretary to "waive or modify" student financial assistance during war or national emergencies, in this case the COVID-19 pandemic.

"If it (the court) indicates that it doesn't think the HEROES Act authority extends to loan forgiveness in this context, this would be a signal that the court intends to constrain future applications of aggressive statutory interpretation by the Biden or successor administrations," said Andrew Rudalevige, a professor of government at Bowdoin College in Maine.

Story continues

Such an outcome, Rudalevige added, could have serious consequences for basic governance in Washington.

"If Congress can't or won't step up, and the court won't let presidents do so, what are we left with? Governance by five justices does not seem like good government, either," Rudalevige said, referring to the number of votes needed to win a case at the Supreme Court.

Presidents of both parties have used executive orders and other unilateral steps when Congress has failed to act as they hoped - sometimes tiptoeing to the very edge, or perhaps beyond that, of encroaching on legislative authority.

When Biden was vice president in 2014, then-President Barack Obama remarked that he could bypass congressional gridlock through his executive authority, saying, "I've got a pen, and I've got a phone." Obama did so on immigration and other policies.

Since then, the Supreme Court has moved rightward, particularly since achieving a 6-3 conservative majority in 2020 with Republican President Donald Trump's appointment of Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

The court has repeatedly applied to Biden policies the so-called major questions doctrine, a judicial approach that casts a skeptical eye toward far-reaching action by federal agencies deemed lacking clear congressional authorization.

Its conservative justices already have invoked it to scuttle a pandemic-era residential eviction moratorium, a COVID-19 vaccination-or-testing mandate for large businesses and federal limits on carbon emissions from power plants.

'A GOOD LESSON'

Chief Justice John Roberts said during Tuesday's arguments that policies involving a lot of money and generating a lot of political controversy might be "something for Congress to act on."

"And if they haven't acted on it, then maybe that's a good lesson to say for the president or the administrative bureaucracy that maybe that's not something they should undertake on their own," Roberts said.

Biden's plan, announced last August, would forgive up to $10,000 in federal student debt for Americans making under $125,000 who took out loans to pay for college and other post-secondary education and $20,000 for recipients of Pell grants awarded to students from lower-income families.

In some instances, like Biden's unilateral effort to extend the eviction moratorium, he took executive action following congressional inaction. The same dynamic was at play when his administration unveiled the debt forgiveness policy, according to David Lublin, a professor of government at American University in Washington.

"The program surely reflects Democratic frustration with being unable to do this legislatively and the (legal) challenges reflect Republican desire to challenge Democrats at every turn," Lublin said. "We are in very polarized times."

Lublin said the impact on Biden's future agenda will depend on how the court explains when a president's administration exceeds its authority under a federal statute or the U.S. Constitution.

For example, Lublin said, "If many similar statutes have similar statutory wording, broad or major administrative action may also come under challenge."

"Any of this is more likely to have an impact on Democrats because they are more likely to want to have the government take aggressive action via spending," Lublin added.

Liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, a Biden appointee, raised similar concerns on Tuesday, highlighting a "big-picture" worry about the court making it too easy for people to sue to stop government policies they dislike.

"I'm concerned that we're going to have a problem in terms of the federal government's ability to operate," Jackson said.

(Reporting by John Kruzel and Andrew Chung in Washington; Additional reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Will Dunham)
Yang Feng, founder and CEO of Chinese sci-fi brand Eight Light Minutes Culture, has authored a three-volume book chronicling the evolution of China's science fiction since the founding of the People's Republic of China.

The book is a tribute to the genre and seeks to preserve its stories from slipping into obscurity. Moreover, it celebrates the upcoming 81st World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) in Chengdu, the capital of southwest China's Sichuan province.

Yang Feng, founder and CEO of Chinese sci-fi brand Eight Light Minutes Culture and the chief editor of "Chinese Science Fiction: An Oral History." [Photo provided to China.org.cn]

"In 2016, I had an initial plan to do a book titled 'Dream Pursuer: An Oral History of Sichuan Science Fiction,' which was eventually published in 2017 with help from Xinhuanet's Sichuan branch," Yang told China.org.cn. The book was her company's first publishing project.

Yang and her team compiled the book as a tribute to Chengdu city, which holds significant importance in China's sci-fi history. Chengdu was the birthplace of Science Fiction World (SFW) magazine in 1979, the most popular sci-fi periodical in China, with a circulation of 300,000 copies per issue. Numerous sci-fi writers, including Liu Cixin and Wang Jinkang, found a platform on SFW and achieved great fame. Today, Chengdu is regarded as the sci-fi capital of China and a mecca for Chinese sci-fi enthusiasts.

"Dream Pursuer" won sci-fi publishing prizes at the Chinese Nebula Awards and the Galaxy Awards in 2018, sparking significant public interest. The book's success motivated Yang and her team to do a sequel featuring interviews with other sci-fi figures outside Sichuan province.

However, the project never materialized due to several factors and uncertainties over the next five years, despite the team conducting some interviews. Additionally, during that time, four prominent Chinese sci-fi moguls passed away.

"In December 2021, Chengdu won the bid to host the world's top sci-fi event, Chengdu Worldcon 2023. As we were thinking about how to mark and pay homage to the event, Chengdu Times Press and its studio Another One reached out to support and collaborate with us to bring our vision to life and broaden its reach," Yang said.

The "Chinese Science Fiction: An Oral History" project commenced in 2022, using previously collected materials and interviews conducted since 2019. The team worked tirelessly on it for over six months, overcoming various difficulties, including the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Nearly half of the interviewees were over 80 years old, and three were above 90. Some of them had died, leaving the treasure of their oral history to us. We always felt urgency and anxiety, like we were racing against time," said Yang.

"Some also resided overseas, so communication was challenging, and the pandemic worsened things. The most difficult thing was that the materials provided by interviewees were limited. We had to collect and select historical materials and documents ourselves and then check, cross-examine, verify, and correct them with the help of people who experienced those events," she added.

Yang Feng (L), and several publishers and guests, including Chinese sci-fi heavyweights, present the first volume of "Chinese Science Fiction: An Oral History" at a promotional event held in Chengdu, Sichuan province, Feb. 25, 2023. [Photo courtesy of Eight Light Minutes Culture]

The book's first volume was released in December 2022, consisting of over 400,000 words and 200 pictures.The book spotlights China's seven sci-fi pioneers, including prominent writers Liu Shahe, Wang Jinkang and Liu Cixin, writer and scholar Wu Yan, former top publishers and editors-in-chief of SFW magazines Yang Xiao and Tan Kai, as well as Yao Haijun, current deputy editor-in-chief of SFW and founder of many China's sci-fi events, such as the Chinese Nebula Awards.

"Chinese Science Fiction: An Oral History" illuminates many previously unknown stories and details. For instance, it reveals how publisher Yang Xiao turned a magazine on the verge of bankruptcy into SFW, the world's largest-selling sci-fi periodical. The book also recounts how Wang Jinkang rescued Chinese sci-fi in its darkest days and how "The Three-Body Problem" was initially a completely different story. Also, readers can discover what Liu Cixin plans to write next.

Chen Ling, secretary general of the China Science Writers Association and executive deputy director of the China Science Fiction Research Center, praised the book at its launch ceremony in Chengdu on Saturday as a "vivid historical study that has important social significance and academic value."

The book cover of "Chinese Science Fiction: An Oral History." [Image courtesy of Chengdu Times Press]

Yang aims to publish the last two volumes before the opening of Chengdu Worldcon 2023 in October. The team has already conducted most of the necessary interviews, with the rest beginning in March. The upcoming sci-fi figures to appear include Wang Mailin, Dong Renwei, Wu Xiankui, He Xi, Han Song, Xiao Jianheng, and many more.

Chinese science fiction has boomed in recent years, with successful adaptations like the "Three-Body" TV series, the epic film franchise "The Wandering Earth," and sci-fi books, games, and merchandise. According to a 2022 industry report released on Feb. 18, China's sci-fi industry generated 82.96 billion yuan ($12 billion) in revenue in 2021. However, the industry had to navigate a long and winding road to achieve its current success.

"This book showcases the difficult and brilliant development of Chinese sci-fi from different aspects  It lets us know where it came from, where it may go, and why it can go on from generation to generation," Yang said.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior U.S. Treasury Department official met with Chinese counterparts in Beijing last week, sources familiar with the matter said, reflecting Treasury's continued desire to maintain open channels of communication with China.

Robert Kaproth, a deputy assistant secretary focused on Asia, held technical discussions aimed at improving the ability of both countries to work together on macroeconomic and financial issues and shared global challenges, the sources said.

The visit, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, was a normal working-level visit and not focused on preparing a visit to China by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, they added.

While that visit is on hold for now, Yellen told reporters last week that communication between the world's two largest economies was important for the rest of the world.

Some engagements between Washington and Beijing have been suspended following the downing of a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that floated over the continental United States, leaving the timing of previously planned visits to China by Yellen and Secretary of State Antony Blinken unclear.

Blinken on Wednesday said he has no plans to meet either the foreign ministers of Russia or of China during Group of 20 (G20) meetings in New Delhi this week.

Yellen said she did not have any details on timing of her visit, adding: "I believe we will resume at an appropriate time those discussions."

The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday said it still believes in keeping lines of communication with China open, despite a spike in tensions between the two countries in recent weeks.

"The administrations approach to China has not changed. We still believe it is important to keep the lines of communication open, now more than ever. At the same time, the administration will always do whats required to defend our national security.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
An E-6B Mercury aircraft, which performs functions of an air command point of the US Navy, landed in Iceland on Tuesday, 28 February.

Source: the European Command of the Armed Forces of the USA (USEUCOM) on Twitter, as cited by European Pravda

Quote: "A US Navy E-6B Mercury [aircraft] assigned to the Strategic Command of the US Wing One arrived in Iceland recently, while conducting operations in the USEUCOM area of responsibility. The crew met with the US Ambassador to Iceland Carrin Patman and other diplomatic and military leaders."

The E-6B Mercury is the American military strategic control and communications aircraft as well as a command point of the US Navy. It is also called "judgement day aircraft".

It is used for communication with nuclear submarines of strategic purpose that serve as intercontinental ballistic missiles carriers. These are the submarines of the Ohio class. Each submarine can have up to 24 Trident II D5 missiles, capable of carrying nuclear warheads, on board.

E-6B Mercury was based on the Boeing 707-320 passenger airliner. It is capable of ascending to up to 12.8km, its practical range is 11,760km.

Background:

After the announcement by Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, the Russian Parliament at the sitting on 22 February voted for the law which terminates Russias participation in the New START treaty [a nuclear arms reduction treaty between the United States and the Russian Federation with the formal name of Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms  ed.]

Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General of NATO, called upon Russia to reconsider its decision about the termination of its participation in the START treaty, and Joe Biden, US President, called this decision "a big mistake".

The Russian side blames the US for its decision to terminate the START treaty and promises that it is not going to increase its own nuclear potential due to this.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
By Natalie Grover and Bhanvi Satija

(Reuters) - Novavax Inc's shares plunged to a three-year low on Wednesday, a day after the COVID-19 vaccine maker raised doubts about its ability to remain in business.

The stock fell as much as 28.3% to $6.64, and ended the day down nearly 26%. Its Frankfurt-listed shares slumped nearly 28%.

The company  which has its COVID-19 vaccine as the only marketed product after 35 years in business  on Tuesday flagged significant uncertainty around its 2023 revenue, funding from the U.S. government, and pending arbitration with global vaccine alliance Gavi.

Gavi said it reserves "its rights to recover the advance payments" made to Novavax as part of an Advance Purchase Agreement, in a statement to Reuters, adding that it was unable to comment further due to ongoing legal proceedings.

Novavax's shot, a traditional protein-based vaccine, was pitched as an alternative to those from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech in the hope it would win over skeptics of newer mRNA technology, but manufacturing and regulatory delays led to sluggish uptake in key markets.

In the United States, where the vaccine was authorized in July 2022, only around 80,000 of its shots have been administered, according to government data.

In Europe, the shot was initially given the green light in December 2021. As of Feb. 23, only 219,395 doses had been administered of nearly 13 million distributed in EU/EEA countries, according to data from the European Centre for Disease Control.

The vaccine was also endorsed by UK regulators last year. The Department of Health and Social Care did not immediately respond to a Reuters query on how many doses have been deployed so far.

Novavax, like other COVID vaccine makers, is also gearing up for changes to the way the vaccines are rolled out, with global regulators expecting vaccination campaigns to be conducted once a year, similar to flu inoculations.

Companies will need to update their vaccine each year to match circulating strains. Novavax faces near-term risks as protein-based vaccines take longer to produce than mRNA-based competitors, Novavax CEO John Jacobs has said.

Story continues

Jefferies' analysts said they were lowering Novavax's peak COVID-19 market share to 15% from 25%, and cut their price target on the U.S. stock to $68 from $90. B Riley Securities' analysts also slashed their price target to $10 from $29.

The challenges ahead of Novavax are unsurprising given the very late entry of its COVID-19 vaccine as countries transition to a post-pandemic environment, said Lee Brown, global sector lead for healthcare at research firm Third Bridge.

"While there is the potential for a substantial booster market ... we don't expect Novavax to be a major player in the booster opportunity."

As of last close, Novavax's U.S.-listed shares were down 97% from their February 2021 record high of $331.68.

They fell 93% in 2022, marking their worst annual performance on record.

GRAPHIC: Novavax shares tumble from 2021 peak, https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/buzz/gkvlwlbrdpb/MicrosoftTeams-image%20(4).png

(Reporting by Amanda Cooper and Natalie Grover in London, Amruta Khandekar and Bhanvi Satija in Bengaluru; Editing by Uttaresh Venkateshwaran, Mark Potter and Shinjini Ganguli)
Former Chicago Public Schools (CPS) CEO Paul Vallas is projected to advance in Chicagos mayoral race, putting him one step closer to the citys top office amid backlash to Mayor Lori Lightfoots (D) tenure, according to The Associated Press.

The former CPS CEO needed to be among the top two candidates with the most votes in order to advance to the runoff given the unlikeliness that any one candidate would outright win at least half of the vote on Tuesday.

Vallas last ran for mayor in 2019, though he was unable to make it into the runoff that year, which saw Lightfoot elected.

He leaned into tough-on-crime messaging during the race in an election where public safety was ranked in some polling as a top issue among voters. Hes also backed by the Fraternal Order of Police.

In a sign of the competitive nature of the race, Lightfoot and other candidates targeted Vallas, casting him as a Republican. The Chicago mayor has also targeted him over his position on abortion. Vallas has dismissed the attacks, saying hes a lifelong pro-choice Democrat.

The Chicago mayoral runoff is set for April 4.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
LOS ANGELES  Vanessa Bryant, the widow of late NBA legend Kobe Bryant, has reached an almost $30 million settlement with Los Angeles County over photos taken of the scene of the deadly 2020 helicopter crash, an attorney for the county said.

The settlement is for $28.85 million and resolves all claims involving the county, Mira Hashmall, lead trial counsel for Los Angeles County in the case, said in a statement.

The settlement brings to an end litigation with the county over grim photos first responders took of the site of the Jan. 26, 2020, crash, which were later shown or shared with others.

Image: Vanessa Bryant, center, the widow of Kobe Bryant, leaves a federal courthouse on Aug. 10, 2022 in Los Angeles, Calif. (Jae C. Hong / AP file)

Los Angeles Lakers icon Kobe Bryant, 41; his 13-year-old daughter Gianna Bryant; and seven other people died in the crash in Calabasas, near the Southern California coast, northwest of Los Angeles.

The almost $30 million settlement includes the $15 million awarded to Vanessa Bryant by a jury in August, Hashmall said.

The settlement also resolves all outstanding claims in state court and any future claims by the Bryant children, she said. The couple had three other children.

"We hope Ms. Bryant and her children continue to heal from their loss," Hashmall said. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved the settlement, she said.

Attorneys for Bryant did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday evening.

Image: Emergency personnel at scene of Kobe Bryant crash (Mark J. Terrill / AP file)

Evidence at trial showed that a Los Angeles County sheriffs deputy showed a photo of Kobe Bryants body to a bartender, which prompted an official complaint by another bar patron.

Evidence also showed that firefighters passed around photos with one another at an awards banquet and that others shared them with their spouses.

Kobe Bryant is beloved in Los Angeles. He played his entire 20-year career with the Lakers, and retired in 2016.

Chris Chester, whose wife, Sarah, and daughter, Payton, 13, were killed in the crash, also sued over the photos and the handling of them. The jury in August also awarded him $15 million, and the county agreed last year to pay an additional $4.95 million to settle any other claims.

Story continues

The crash also killed John Altobelli, 56; his wife, Keri Altobelli, 46; their daughter Alyssa Altobelli, 14; and Christina Mauser, 38.

The Altobelli and Mauser families settled with the county for $1.25 million each.

The National Transportation Safety Board said in February 2021 that the helicopter pilots poor decisions and spatial disorientation led to the crash. The pilot, who also died, continued to fly under visual flight rules into instrument meteorological conditions.

The pilot, Ara Zobayan, 50, said he was climbing to get above clouds, according to the NTSB. Instead, the aircraft descended rapidly in a left turn to the ground and crashed.

The pilot should have avoided the weather, and diverted, returned to base or landed it, NTSB member Michael Graham said at the time.
After five and half weeks of testimony, the jury in the double-murder trial of Alex Murdaugh is expected to begin deliberations, possibly as soon as Wednesday afternoon.

Before they do, the 12 jurors and two alternates are visiting the scene of the crime  the dog kennels and feed room at the Murdaugh familys 1,700-acre Moselle estate.

It was there that Mr Murdaugh is accused of brutally murdering his wife Maggie, 52, and younger son Paul, 22, were brutally murdered on 7 June 2021.

Paul was shot twice with a shotgun as he stood in the feed room of the kennels, with the second bullet blowing his brain from its skull.

Maggie was shot four to five times with an AR-15-style rifle a few yards from her son, as she backed into an ATV parked under a hangar.

Mr Murdaugh has pleaded not guilty.

Once they have inspected the site, the jurors will be brought back to Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro.

Judge Clifton Newman is then expected to issue initial instructions to the jury about their deliberations.

Next, the State of South Carolina, led by lead prosecutor Creighton Waters and his team, including the states Attorney General Alan Wilson, will present their closing argument outlining why Mr Murdaugh should be found guilty of the murders.

Mr Murdaughs defence team, led by attorney Dick Harpootlian, will then outline their grounds why the defendant should be found not guilty based on reasonable doubt that he committed the murders.

Judge Newman has not set any time limit on closing arguments, though they are expected to last approximately two hours each. It is unclear if there will be opportunities for rebuttals.

Further jury instructions are likely to then be issued by Judge Newman before they retire for their deliberations.

As with any trial, there are few clues as to how the jury has absorbed testimony from 61 prosecution witnesses, 14 defence witnesses, and six rebuttal witnesses over almost six weeks.

Reporters in the court have described them as attentive throughout the trial.

A unanimous guilty verdict is required for a murder trial, so only one juror needs to believe that the state has not proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
The battle for Bakhmut has revealed a decade-long covert conflict in Russia's armed forces.

On one side, there is the regular Russian military. On the other side, Wagner Group, Russia's most high-profile mercenary outfit.

Wagner was founded by Evgeny Prigozhin, a confidante of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russian generals have hated Prigozhin for years, but things recently came to a head when Prigozhin vocally attacked the leadership of Russia's defense ministry while portraying himself and Wagner as the only competent force fighting in Ukraine.

Prigozhin criticized Russian forces' retreats in Kharkiv and Kherson in the fall of 2022.

The area around the city of Bakhmut in eastern Donetsk Oblast was the only place where Russian forces have managed to slowly advance in recent months, for which Prigozhin has given himself all of the credit.

He was not alone.

Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, warmongering Russian military bloggers, and even the country's Kremlin-controlled so-called "opposition" joined Prigozhin in pillorying the Russian General Staff, including its chief, General Valery Gerasimov.

"Small private armies which don't fit into the power vertical are fraught with future consequences if the situation in Russia were to begin collapsing chaotically," Barabanov said.

"Any organized armed force with discipline, steadfastness of arms, and motivation could make a mess in case of turmoil," the investigative journalist agreed.

The Russian Defense Ministry has pulled other private military contractors closer into its orbit, granting more contracts to their owners, the investigative journalist said. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu even deployed his private military outfit, "Patriot," to the front line.

Any hopes that Prigozhin may have had to challenge Russia's Defense Ministry and General Staff "now seem to have been delusional," the ISW believes.

Story continues

Wagner Group's days as an independent force may be numbered as well.

In late January, Russia's Defense Ministry made another move to overtake Wagner with a decree aimed at establishing "volunteer units" under the ministry.

Because mercenaries are illegal in Russia, the Defense Ministry is the only body authorized to create "volunteer units." The decrees may indicate that the General Staff could take over the Wagner Group by legally subordinating it to its ranks.

"Prigozhin is an outsider, not from Putin's old team. He has always been a servant. A waiter. Putin's chef. And suddenly, he worked his way up and became Putin's favorite," said Romanova. "He has a lot of enemies."
Walmart is closing several stores this year. REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi

The Walmart at 301 San Mateo Blvd. SE is set to close on March 10 after opening in July 1985.

The store has 287 workers who are eligible to transfer to another store, per a Walmart spokeswoman.

The Albuquerque Police Department reportedly had 708 calls to service at or near the store in 2022.

Michael Thomas shopped at the Walmart at 301 San Mateo Blvd. SE in Albuquerque, New Mexico, every week for roughly three years up until six months ago.

He began to see more people stealing items from the store. Sometimes, he saw shoppers physically attacked.

So when Walmart said last month that it would be closing the store, Thomas wasn't surprised.

It's "very sad," he told Insider, because there aren't many retailers with stores in that part of Albuquerque. But it is "expected," he said.

The San Mateo Boulevard store is set to close on March 10 after opening in July 1985, according to Walmart spokeswoman Lauren Willis. The store has 287 employees, all of which are eligible to transfer to another store in the area.

Walmart did not answer questions about whether crime rates at the Albuquerque location were responsible for the decision to close it. But Albuquerque police officers had their hands full with the store in the past year. The Albuquerque Journal reports that 708 calls were made requesting police service at or near the store in 2022.

"There is no single cause for why a store closes," Willis told Insider. "We do a thorough review of how a store performs and weigh many factors before making the difficult decision to close a facility."

She added that the Albuquerque Police Department "has been a great partner and we are extremely appreciative of their efforts to combat crime at this store."

Albuquerque city officials are now looking into buying and repurposing the closing Walmart store. Albuquerque City Council President Pat Davis recently told local media outlet KRQE News that the store and property it sits on could be used for housing, a new grocery store, a pharmacy, or other small businesses.

Story continues

"We're working hard to bring together community leaders, elected officials and Walmart to create a path forward for this property so that it can be a community asset and provide critical access to food and other essentials for the International District." Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller said in a press release. "Investing in a solution that can help fill the void is important and it's key that it be a community-driven decision on what that ultimately looks like."

The Walmart is one of at least eight stores closing soon across five states and the District of Columbia. These closures come months after Walmart President and CEO Doug McMillon warned in December that select "stores will close" if high theft rates didn't slow down.

The San Mateo Boulevard store itself is located in Albuquerque's International District, which has been called by locals the "War Zone" for decades due to high levels of criminal activity.

One former Albuquerque resident who moved in 2020 and asked to remain anonymous due to privacy concerns told Insider that in his three years delivering supplies to the McDonald's inside the Walmart, "I had several incidents occur."

People "tried to break into my truck," he said. "I used to pay a homeless guy to watch my truck when I had no other choice but to go into this store."

He added: "It had a lot of theft and violence. I don't blame them for closing the store."

Is a Walmart near you closing? We want to hear about your experiences. Contact the reporter Ben Tobin by email at btobin@insider.com or on Signal at +1 703-498-9171.

Read the original article on Business Insider
China's latest manufacturing data suggesting more brisk expansion in factory activity has shored up market confidence in a broader economic recovery.

The purchasing managers' index (PMI) for China's manufacturing sector came in at 52.6 in February, up from 50.1 in January, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Wednesday in a statement. This figure marked the strongest level since April 2012.

A reading above 50 indicates expansion, while a reading below 50 reflects contraction.

Thanks to government pro-growth measures and the fading COVID impact, factory production and market activity returned to normalcy at a quicker pace last month, indicating continued improvement in the economic climate, senior NBS statistician Zhao Qinghe said.

Of 21 surveyed industries, 18 saw stable expansion. Zhao especially stressed the sound performance of key industries, including equipment and high-tech manufacturing, and consumer products production.

Breaking down the headline figure, the production index gained 6.9 percentage points from a month earlier to 56.7, suggesting expedited production, and market demand also kept rising as the new orders index reached 54.1, up 3.2 percentage points.

The PMIs for large, medium-sized, and small enterprises stood at 53.7, 52 and 51.2, respectively, all well above the boom-and-bust line. This was the first time small firms saw their PMI returning to positive territory since May 2021.

Market confidence also improved significantly. The business outlook index stood at its best level in 12 months, with the optimism shared by all the surveyed industries, especially the automobile, general equipment, textile, and agricultural product processing industries.

The steadily warming manufacturing sector added to evidence of China's economic resilience, as an array of encouraging figures from rebounding consumption to surging bank loans at the beginning of the year, had already painted a promising picture.

Morgan Stanley Chief China Economist Robin Xing believes China's economic recovery momentum is being sustained as the country's growth-focused policy pragmatism has revived business and job confidence. "We see GDP growth reaching 5.7% in 2023, contributing 40% of global economic growth."

While the prospects are bright, China's economic recovery would be not without challenges.

Wednesday's data showed over 50% of surveyed manufacturing enterprises were still plagued by a lack of orders, which according to Zhao with the NBS, means that insufficient market demand remains a prominent problem and more needs to be done to reinforce the foundation of the economic recovery.

Measures are in the pipeline. According to an earlier State Council executive meeting, China aimed to consolidate and expand the momentum of its economic rebound, accelerate the recovery of consumption, and stabilize foreign trade and investment.

The Chinese economy will see an overall improvement this year, Kang Yi, head of the NBS, said.

With the new-phase COVID response and implementation of various pro-growth measures, factory production and people's normal lives will be restored at a faster pace and the internal economic driving force will continue to gather strength, he added.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) in a new report faults agencies for inadequate intelligence sharing ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, despite some advance knowledge on potential threats.

GAO found that all 10 federal agencies it reviewed picked up information about possible threats in the weeks before Jan. 6, and that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Capitol Police reported identifying threats deemed credible.

However, some agencies did not fully process information or share it, preventing critical information from reaching key federal entities responsible for securing the National Capital Region against threats, reads the 122-page report, which includes a number of takeaways about agency operations leading up to Jan. 6.

The government watchdog calls out the FBI and the Department of Homeland Securitys Office of Intelligence and Analysis (DHS I&A) for not consistently following procedures for tip and potential threat processing because they did not have controls to ensure compliance with policies.

The DHS I&A, Capitol Police and Park Police are also flagged for not consistently sharing all fully developed threat information with relevant stakeholders.

FBI personnel did not follow policies for processing some tips, resulting in them not being developed into reports that could have been shared with partners. Specifically, the FBI did not process all relevant information related to potential violence on January 6.

DHS I&A officials were found to have not processed some open source threats and to have not shared threat info they did obtain to Capitol Police in a timely manner. Personnel, the report notes, told GAO they were hesitant to report on Jan. 6 threats due to scrutiny of reporting of other events in 2020, specifically, surrounding the demonstrations in Portland, Ore., that summer.

GAO also says DHS didnt designate the planned Jan. 6 protests as a National Special Security Event, which the watchdog argues would have upped security measures, and asserts the Capitol Police focused its plans on a manageable, largely nonviolent protest at the Capitol, despite indications that the protesters could be armed.

Story continues

The extensive report also includes details on some of the threats received ahead of Jan. 6. For example, Capitol Police reportedly obtained information that a member of the Proud Boys had recently obtained ballistic helmets, armored gloves, vests, and purchased weapons, including a sniper rifle and suppressors for the weapons and had flown to the capital to incite violence.

In comments provided within the GAO report, the Department of Justice said its assessing the FBIs information processing around Jan. 6, and DHS said it would look at its internal controls and policies on information sharing. Capitol Police said the agency is currently drafting a policy on threat-related information sharing.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Alphabet's Waymo has issued its second round of layoffs this year, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. Combined with the initial cuts in January, the self-driving technology company has let go of 8%, or 209 employees, of its workforce.

The layoffs -- mostly engineering roles -- are part of a broader organizational restructure that follows a "fiscally disciplined approach," according to a Waymo spokesperson. In other words, the company is cutting costs where it can as it continues to develop and deploy its technology. Waymo is on the path to commercialization of self-driving vehicle technology, but the road ahead is long, and the company isn't yet bringing in much revenue to fund its operations.

Waymo's layoffs follow a surge of cuts at Alphabet and Google in January. Alphabet is among many U.S. companies to reduce staff ahead of an impending recession. Some analysts and investors say Waymo's layoffs aren't merely a product of a down market. The company has received serious investment from its parent company, and activist investor TCI Fund Management said in November that Waymo hasn't yet justified that spend.

The news of more layoffs comes the same week that Waymo announced plans to start testing fully driverless vehicles -- meaning with no human safety operator behind the wheel -- in Los Angeles. Scaling its robotaxi service to new cities is key to Waymo's commercialization strategy, and thus, its potential to provide a good return on investment. The company is still likely years out from earning enough revenue to cover its cash burn, though.

Waymo told TechCrunch that the company is in a strong position with a clear path forward and an immense opportunity to seize. A spokesperson touched on Waymo's growing operations in San Francisco and expanded commercial operations in Phoenix as evidence of the company's ability to develop, deploy and commercialize its self-driving technology.
Wells Fargo & Co. is making more adjustments to its branch network in the Carolinas, plans that include closing a Charlotte-area location.

RELATED: Wells Fargo to pay $3.7B over consumer loan violations

The bank will close its branch at 9725 Rocky River Road, located on an outparcel at the Brookdale Shopping Center in northeast Charlotte and less than 5 miles from downtown Harrisburg, according to a recent Office of the Comptroller of the Currency filing. OCC filings showed that Wells Fargo also had plans to shutter two more locations in North Carolina and one in South Carolina.

Wells Fargo spokesman Josh Dunn confirmed to CBJ the Brookdale location will close on May 17 and consolidate with a nearby branch at 5075 North Carolina Highway 49 S. That branch in Harrisburg is about 4.5 miles away from the Brookdale location.

Read more here.

VIDEO: Charlotte Strong: Wells Fargo supports Sustain Charlotte




The first two months of 2023 have seen an uptick in near-collisions involving commercial planes in the U.S.  a sign of potential trouble for an American aviation system that hasnt had a fatal airliner crash in nearly a decade.

In fact, during January and February, commercial jets experienced close calls with other aircraft at a faster pace than they had during all of the previous five years combined, according to a POLITICO review of Federal Aviation Administration data.

From 2018 to 2022, the data show, 23 incidents occurred in the U.S. in which commercial passenger or cargo planes came close to colliding, including four in which the FAA said the aircraft narrowly avoided a crash. (The FAAs data also includes incidents solely involving helicopters or general aviation aircraft, which POLITICO excluded from its analysis.)

But this year has already seen six near-miss incidents involving airliners, including a heart-stopping moment when a FedEx cargo plane came within 100 feet of landing on top of a Southwest Airlines jet that was taking off in Austin, Texas. The most recent incident, Monday night, involved a JetBlue flight and a private plane at Boston Logan International Airport.

The FAA is still reviewing whether the Austin and Boston incidents and a third in Burbank, Calif., fall into the most serious, narrowly avoided category of near-miss.

The agency said Wednesday that this year's other three near-misses represented "a significant potential for collision," a slightly less dire second tier. By comparison, five second-tier incidents involving commercial planes occurred during all of 2022.

Together, those incidents raise questions about the health of an industry whose operations have gone through tremendous upheaval, with Covid-19 sending travel plummeting only to see it surge again last year, according to former safety officials and accident investigators. Concern is already evident on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers are crafting a major overhaul of aviation policy due later this year.

Story continues

It also comes at a time when President Joe Bidens pick to lead the FAA has been stalled due to Republican objections about his relatively sparse aviation background. The nominee, Denver International Airport CEO Phil Washington, finally received a Senate hearing Wednesday.

In recent weeks weve seen several very concerning near-misses that were almost mass fatality crashes, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said at a congressional hearing Feb. 15. He asked Billy Nolen, the acting FAA administrator, What more can be done to make sure the next near-miss doesnt become a horrific tragedy?

In response, Nolen insisted that the national aviation system, including its trained pilots, air traffic controllers and safety standards, is working as designed and that the flying public is safe.



Addressing questions about the Austin incident, Nolen said: It is not what we would expect to have happened, but when we think about how we train both our controllers and our pilots, the system works as it is designed to avert what you say could have been a horrific outcome.

But Nolen has also called a summit that will meet this month to review potentially budding safety threats, asking industry and union representatives to review the FAAs programs and suggest changes. In announcing the summit, Nolen wrote that the agency will also probe internal data and seek to understand why certain safety protocols appear to be not as effective as they once were.

I think its a good time to stop and say: Is there anything were missing and is there anything we can do differently to maintain this high level of safety that weve enjoyed, said Nolen, who is also the FAAs safety chief.

Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) did not seem mollified, telling reporters after the February hearing that the spike of near-disasters shows the system needs to be improved. She said she is concerned that the FAA doesnt have the right technology or personnel in place.

Besides the near-misses, the summit also comes on the heels of a holiday travel meltdown in which Southwest Airlines canceled about 16,000 flights as it struggled to recover from a winter storm, and the FAAs own snafu involving a computer system glitch that forced flights to be grounded nationwide for hours.

A record of safety in jeopardy

A handful of people have died on board commercial airlines over the past decade, including a 2018 episode in which a Southwest Airlines passenger was partially sucked out a shattered window in the skies near Philadelphia. But no fatal commercial airliner crash has happened in the U.S. since July 2013, when a Boeing 777 flown by South Koreas Asiana Airlines struck a seawall and broke apart while landing at San Francisco International Airport, killing three people.

The last fatal crash involving a U.S. airline was in 2009, when a small regional jet operated by Colgan Air on behalf of now-defunct Continental Airlines went down in icy conditions, killing all 49 people on board and one on the ground.

Each of this years incidents is undergoing a separate investigation by both the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board, an independent agency. But the NTSB investigations will likely take over a year to complete. Meanwhile, the uptick of near misses is a warning sign that something may be amiss in the way airlines and the agency that oversees them are functioning, lawmakers, former pilots and former crash investigators said.

This year's near-misses include one Jan. 9 in which air traffic controllers cleared a Boeing 737 to land on a runway in Santa Barbara, Calif., where a vehicle was performing an inspection. Three days later, a vehicle crossing a runway without air traffic control approval at Baltimore-Washington International Airport came within 173 feet of a Boeing 737 that was taking off, the FAA said.

Those two incidents were not previously reported.

On Jan. 13, a Delta Air Lines flight taking off from John F. Kennedy International Airport had to stop to avoid hitting another plane that had crossed 1,000 feet in front of it.

Then came the Feb. 4 near-collision between a FedEx plane and a Southwest jet at Austin Bergstrom International Airport.

In the Austin incident, the FedEx plane was landing during bad weather when its pilot saw the Southwest plane underneath it, said John Cox, a former pilot and former executive air safety chair with the Air Line Pilots Association union. According to the FAA, both planes had been cleared to use the same runway.



A fifth incident occurred Feb. 22, when a Mesa Airlines flight was forced to halt a landing 1.3 miles from the runway at Hollywood Burbank Airport in California. Air traffic controllers had allowed a SkyWest flight to take off from the same runway at the same time, the FAA said.

And on Tuesday, the FAA said it was investigating Monday night's close call in Boston between a JetBlue flight and a private plane, though the agency said it hasn't yet determined how close the planes got to each other.

The FAA said Wednesday that it had classified January's incidents in Santa Barbara, Baltimore and New York as representing "a significant potential for collision," the second most serious tier in its four-class ranking of runway incursions. It has not yet assigned a category to February's close calls in Austin, Burbank and Boston.

The agency said a seventh incident this year that attracted significant media attention, which occurred Jan. 23 in Honolulu, qualified for its third-most serious tier, saying the aircraft had "ample time and/or distance to avoid a collision." In that episode, a United Airlines flight crossed a runway about 2,170 feet in front of a small cargo plane at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport.

The FAA ought to classify the Honolulu, JFK and Austin incidents as serious, said Alan Diehl, a former crash investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, adding that the Austin incident in particular showed what I considered to be questionable controller behavior.

Ted Cruz is right, Diehl said. We were very lucky that were not looking at hundreds of casualties in all three of those incidents.

Some former air safety officials say the problems on display are probably at least partially a result of the pandemic and the way it has reshaped the aviation workforce, for which there isnt necessarily a quick fix.

In 2020 as the pandemic forced air traffic to historic lows, the airline industry shed more than 90,000 jobs through buyouts and incentives for early retirements, reaching a low point of 364,471 full-time employees by that November, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

As flights skyrocketed back toward pre-pandemic levels the industry has raced to meet the demand, hiring more than 100,000 new airline workers over the past two years alone. Now, airline staffing levels have surpassed those even before the pandemic with 473,349 full-time employees as of December 2022, the bureau reported.

I think the American people have been burned a little bit by the failure of our transportation system and the fact that were really going to have to rebuild the human infrastructure in aviation, said Jim Hall, an independent aviation consultant who chaired the NTSB from 1993 to 2001. We lost a whole lot of qualified pilots, mechanics and flight attendants and weve seen how that has impacted aviation in the last 12 to 18 months. What you have going on right now is a retraining of the system.

The FAAs air traffic control staffing, which has been problematic for years in part because of a wave of retirements combined with how long it can take for new hires to complete their training, is a piece of the puzzle as well.

The agency has about 14,000 air traffic controllers nationwide, according to the National Air Traffic Controllers Association union, which declined to comment on the spate of near-misses. In July, NATCA leader Rich Santa told an industry conference that attrition is outpacing controller hiring, even as the demand for flights is surging.

A skills gap across the industry

This mass staff exodus across many sectors of the aviation workforce creates a gap in skill levels that cant be filled purely through new hires, particularly in roles such as pilots and air traffic controllers that require extensive training. To take the controls of a commercial airplane, a pilot must first have had 1,500 hours of flight time. And it can take years for an air traffic controller to be considered fully qualified.

Diehl, the former crash investigator, agreed that the aviation industry is still adjusting to a post-pandemic environment.

We also know that there is a pilot shortage partly because of retirements, Diehl said. Im not saying it was a factor in any of those three incidents. But in general we are seeing an influx of new people and frankly a lowering of new standards.

The FAAs Nolen rejected the notion that workforce issues are contributing to lower standards, noting that the FAA is planning to hire new air traffic controllers and the aviation industry is hiring new pilots to cope with demand.



The industry has done a lot as well as the agency, Nolen said. We are on track to hire 1,500 air traffic controllers this year and well hire another 1,800 air traffic controllers next year. Theres a lot of hiring going on.

But Hall, the former NTSB chair, said a feverish hiring pace doesnt fix any gap in experience. He suggested thats a particularly acute problem when it comes to the increasing push for allowing more industry self-certification that the FAA then simply oversees.

If you dont have the knowledge and expertise to operate the system, youre looking at possible failures that cost lives, Hall said. Both in the cockpit and in the tower, were going to have to pay close attention and support the FAA to rebuild its oversight of the industry and encourage Congress to refocus their oversight on aviation.

Cox said the incidents do not have a common denominator and that absent a common thread, its difficult to target a fix.

He suggested that the NTSB investigations ultimately will prove the best tool at addressing any future changes.

I think right now we need to be patient to get the right answers, not the fast answer, Cox said.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified the name of a former ALPA executive. His name is John Cox.
A dead humpback whale that washed ashore on Lido Beach on Long Island, New York. (Reuters)

Whales are being driven out into the ocean due to climate change and end up in the path of cargo ships carrying goods for online shoppers.

Almost two dozen whales have washed up dead along the US east coast since December, The New York Times has reported.

Increases in online shopping have meant that cargo ships are more frequent in the shipping lanes.

In recent months, 23 whales have washed up dead on the coastline, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Read more: A 1988 warning about climate change was mostly right

Lauren Gaches, of fishing monitoring agency NOAA Fisheries, said: "We're seeing populations of many marine species adapting by moving into new areas where conditions are more favourable.

"Changing distributions of prey impact larger marine species that depend on them. This can lead to increased interactions with humans as some whales move closer to near-shore habitats."

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has seen ship traffic rise by 27% compared to 2019, driven in part by rising levels of online shopping.

Whales have been driven into shipping lanes. (Reuters)

Erica Fuller, of the Conservation Law Foundation, said: "Since 2017, at least 95 critically endangered right whales have been killed or injured by preventable human causes.

"Yet nothing has been done to reduce deadly vessel strikes. Right whales have been on this planet for millions of years and we are at risk of losing this entire species because of bureaucratic red tape.

Read more: Scientists now think they know why whales beach themselves

"That cannot be allowed to continue."

Recent research has shown that whales are also falling victim to microplastic pollution, with blue whales eating up to 10 million pieces of microplastic every single day.

The largest animals ever known to have lived on Earth ingest up to 96 lb of microplastic daily, the study published in the Nature Communications journal suggested.

A man walks past the dead male humpback whale on Long Island on 30 January. (Reuters)

Scientists found the whales predominantly feed 165-800 feet below the surface, a depth that coincides with the highest concentrations of microplastic in the open ocean. Their study focused on blue, fin and humpback whales.

Story continues

The authors combined measures of microplastic concentrations up and down the water column off the coast of California with detailed logs of where hundreds of whales carrying tracking devices foraged for food between 2010 and 2019.

Study co-author Matthew Savoca, a postdoctoral scholar at Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University's marine laboratory on the Monterey Peninsula, said: "They're lower on the food chain than you might expect by their massive size, which puts them closer to where the plastic is in the water.

'Theres only one link  the krill eat the plastic, and then the whale eats the krill."

Humpback whales subsisting primarily on fish such as herring and anchovies ingest an estimated 200,000 pieces of microplastic per day, while those eating mostly krill ingest at least one million pieces.

Fin whales, which feed on both krill and fish, ingest an estimated three to 10 million microplastic pieces per day.

Watch: Thousands of starlings appear to take form of whale
WASHINGTON  Tucked away in a secretive office, a little-known team of government scientists began looking into al-Qaeda and the possibility of a biological weapons attack after terrorists exposed a "gaping hole" in national security on Sept. 11, 2001.

Known simply as the "Z Division," the team was established in the U.S. Department of Energy to help intelligence agencies understand the significance of Soviet nuclear weapons tests. But the 9/11 terrorist attacks would change its mission.

Two decades later, the Z Division finds itself in the middle of a storm as it tries to answer the question that scientists, doctors and ordinary Americans are asking about the roots of the COVID-19 pandemic: How did it happen?

A new classified intelligence report prepared by experts from the Energy Department's national laboratory complex, including scientists in the Z Division, concluded the pandemic likely started from an unintentional laboratory leak in Wuhan, China. The findings have been sent to White House and key members of Congress, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news.

The report has ignited a backlash for the Biden administration from members of the scientific community and elsewhere who are pushing the argument the virus most likely emerged through natural means, such as animal-to-human transmission.

The White House hasnt endorsed the Energy Department's findings, noting that there is still disagreement across the government on the virus origins.

Four agencies within the intelligence community have concluded with "low confidence" that the virus was initially transmitted from an animal to a human, according to a report issued by the Director of National Intelligence in October 2021. A fifth intelligence agency believed with moderate confidence that the first human infection was linked to a lab.

On Tuesday evening, FBI Director Christopher Wray said that the bureau  one of many U.S. intelligence agencies involved in the pandemic outbreak investigation  has assessed that the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic was most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan. Wray told Fox News Bret Baier in an interview that the FBIs work on determining where the pandemic originated is continuing, but many details related to the investigation remain classified.

Story continues

Now, the Energy Department's new assessment, based on unspecified new intelligence, reflects a change of heart for the agency.

The department had said earlier it was undecided on how the virus was transmitted. But even its new conclusions were made with low confidence, meaning the information on which the assessment was based was not reliable enough or that not enough data was available to reach a definitive conclusion.

Epidemic control workers in Beijing, China, walk by a closed shop near a community with residents under health monitoring for COVID-19.

Why is the Energy Department investigating COVIDs origins?

The Energy Department is one of 18 agencies and organization that make up the U.S. intelligence community. The department has a division that specializes in the study of biological weapons.

How did the Energy Department conduct its COVID analysis?

The White House did not respond to questions about the intelligence assessment. But the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal reported that the analysis was done by experts from the U.S. national laboratory complex, including members of the Z Division. Though initially undecided about COVID-19s origins, the new intelligence assessment prompted Department of Energy officials to conclude the virus spread was likely a result of a lab leak.

How did COVID spread? Are these furry creatures to blame for the pandemic? Study finds 'reasonable' origin of COVID

What is Z Division?

Z Division is housed in the Department of Energy's nuclear complex that originated from a 1965 agreement between the CIA and the Atomic Energy Commission.

Under the agreement, laboratory scientists and engineers who helped intelligence agencies understand the significance of Soviet nuclear weapons tests were consolidated into a special projects branch. They analyzed radiological samples from nuclear tests by the Soviets, and later, the Chinese. In the mid-1970s, Z Division started a nuclear proliferation monitoring program that examined the nuclear weapons efforts of India, Pakistan, Israel, South Africa and other nations.

In its heyday, it was really a storied place, especially for understanding of foreign nuclear weapons programs, said Matthew Bunn, a former adviser to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, who now runs the nuclear proliferation program at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

"I would say they're one of the jewels in the crown of U.S. nuclear intelligence, Bunn said.

Bunn described Z Division as more or less the intelligence arm of the Lawrence Livermore National Lab in California because it was responsible not just for having a deep understanding of the technical aspects of nuclear weapons and other threats, but also the top-secret details about the political and organizational aspects of foreign weapons programs and the leaders overseeing them.

So when you had a new ambassador who was going out to a foreign country that had nuclear weapons, you'd send them out to Z Division to get the best briefing on that program, Bunn told USA TODAY.

COVID's origins: Did the coronavirus come directly from animals or was it released from a lab? Top American scientists join call for answers.

How 9/11 changed Z Divisions mission

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, the mission of Z Division changed dramatically along with the rest of Lawrence Livermore Lab, the Department of Energy and the broader intelligence community, according to DOE documents.

On 9/11, Susan Allen, a Z Division molecular biologist and intelligence analyst, was giving a briefing in downtown Washington when word came that a plane had struck one of the Twin Towers, a Lawrence Livermore lab report from 2021 said.

Allen said she happened to pass by the Pentagon and saw the gaping hole caused by the crashed American Airlines flight 77. Allen flew home on Sept. 18. Back at the lab, the report said, she began looking into al-Qaeda and the possibility of a bio-terror attack.

After working with Z Division's Bio team for several weeks, she was assigned to Washington to support the U.S. intelligence community.

The day Allen arrived, news broke of the first reported death from anthrax-laced letters sent to elected officials and prominent members of the media. She spent the next several weeks working 15-hour days to determine the source of the letters, advising the government and inspecting facilities and mail-handling operations, the lab report said.

"You worked as hard as you could all day and into the evening, and then went to the hotel and crashed and got up again the next day and did it all over again," Allen said. "It was satisfying in the sense that you felt like you were doing something of value and having the impact for your country."

In June 2021, the Wall Street Journal reported that Z Division researchers had helped prepare a report on the origins of COVID-19 that concluded that the hypothesis claiming the virus leaked from a Chinese lab in Wuhan is plausible and deserved further investigation, citing people familiar with the classified document.

The Journal said the study was prepared in May 2020 by Lawrence Livermore labs Z Division and that it was drawn on by the State Department when it conducted an inquiry into the pandemics origins during the final months of the Trump administration.

The Journal said the Lawrence Livermore has considerable expertise on biological issues and that its assessment drew on genomic analysis of the SARS-COV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19.

A call for further investigation: Five takeaways from the WHO's report on the origins of the pandemic

What do Americans say about COVIDs origins?

Nearly half of Americans think COVID-19 pandemic was caused by a lab leak in China, according to a Morning Consult poll released Tuesday.

Forty-four percent of U.S. adults polled said they believe the virus spilled from a virology lab in Wuhan, while just 26% believe the virus moved naturally from animals to humans. The share of Americans who believe the lab theory has held steady since June 2021, the pollster said.

Follow Michael Collins on Twitter @mcollinsNEWS and Josh Meyer @JoshMeyerDC

Dig Deeper

Congress to weigh in: House Oversight subcommittee to investigate COVID-19 origins and Wuhan lab funding

Former surgeon general: We'll never know the full truth about COVID-19 origins. Political infighting won't help.

New report: There are at least 500 coronaviruses. We must develop next-gen vaccines now, experts say.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Z Division: Secret team of scientists investigated COVID-19 origins
China EU TikTok (Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

The US is pushing for a potential ban on TikTok, which could see the app outlawed across the country.

It has already been banned from many government employees devices, in the US and elsewhere. And other countries have already instituted their own bans, of the kind that could be introduced in the US.

The bans come amid increasing concern about the privacy and security of the app, which critics argued could be passing personal information to the Chinese government, through its owner Bytedance.

TikTok has argued that it does not share data with the Chinese government and that its data is not held in China. It also disputes accusations that it collects more user data than other social media companies, and insists that it is run independently by its own management.

Despite TikToks claims, many countries around the world remain cautious about the platform and its ties to China. Here are the countries and regions that have implemented partial or total bans on TikTok.

India: India imposed a ban on TikTok and dozens of other Chinese apps, including the messaging app WeChat, in 2020 over privacy and security concerns. The ban came shortly after a clash between Indian and Chinese troops at a disputed Himalayan border killed 20 Indian soldiers and injured dozens. The companies were given a chance to respond to questions on privacy and security requirements but the ban was made permanent in January 2021.

Taiwan: In December 2022, Taiwan imposed a public sector ban on TikTok after the FBI warned that TikTok posed a national security risk. Government devices, including mobile phones, tablets and desktop computers, are not allowed to use Chinese-made software, which include apps like TikTok, its Chinese equivalent Douyin, or Xiaohongshu, a Chinese lifestyle content app.

United States: This week, the U.S. said that government agencies have 30 days to delete TikTok from federal devices and systems over data security concerns. The ban applies only to government devices, though some U.S. lawmakers are advocating an outright ban. China lashed out at the U.S. for banning TikTok, describing the ban as an abuse of state power and suppressing firms from other countries. More than half of the 50 U.S. states also have banned the app from government devices.

Story continues

Canada: After the U.S. announcement, Canada on Monday announced government-issued devices must not use TikTok, saying that it presents an unacceptable risk to privacy and security. Employees will also be blocked from downloading the application in the future.

European Union: The European Parliament, European Commission and the EU Council, three top EU bodies, have imposed bans on TikTok on staff devices. The European Parliament's ban, announced Tuesday, takes effect on March 20. It has recommended lawmakers and staff remove the app from their personal devices.

Pakistan: Pakistani authorities have temporarily banned TikTok at least four times since October 2020, citing concerns that app promotes immoral content.

Afghanistan: Afghanistan's Taliban leadership banned TikTok and the Chinese game PUBG in 2022 on the grounds of protecting youths from "being misled."

Additional reporting by Associated Press
Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Reuters

Over a year into the invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin is in a critical spot.

Initial efforts to force Ukraine to capitulate failed, Ukraine took back much of Russias gains, and, as the conflict drags on, the militarys supplies of everything from tanks to missiles are starting to dwindle. While Ukraine has been able to acquire a variety of modern weapons from the U.S. and Europe, few countries have been willing to do the same for Russia. Iran sends drones and is in discussions to send missiles. There are also allegations of Russian PMCs buying arms from North Korea, but no country with the means to seriously support Russias military has yet done so.

That might be changing. Over the last two weeks, U.S. officials have been claiming that Beijing is planning to supply weapons and lethal aid to Russiaand are considering releasing intelligence to prove it.

China is something of a wildcard at this stage. For the past year of fighting, Beijing has stayed well clear of serious commitment, despite being quick to echo Moscows anti-NATO messaging. The U.S. sanctioned some Chinese companies for providing support to Russian private military companies (PMCs), but there hasnt yet been a concerted effort to materially support Russia. Chinese-made commercial drones and electronics, for instance, flow to both sides with little restriction.

Chinese companies could sell any manner of military technology to Russia, but reports so far indicate interest in two specific purchases: drones and artillery shells.

Lethal Chinese Gifts to Putin Could Spark New Cold War With U.S.

On Feb. 23, Der Spiegel reported that a Chinese company is working to build drones for the Russian military, allegedly to supplement those provided by Iran. The report only specifies the production of 100 drones by April, but, alongside more Iranian deliveries, it could help Russian attacks on Ukraines cities. Russian use of Iranian-made Shahed-131 and 136 drones has declined since the start of year, so another source of similar weapons could increase the size and tempo of attacks. Of course, new types of drones could also challenge Ukraines air defenses if they have new or different capabilities.

Story continues

Most concerning of all, The Washington Post reported on Feb. 24 that China may send 122mm and 152mm artillery shells in the near future. Massed artillery has been one of the core ways Russian forces gain territory, but theyre currently short of shells. While selling more ammunition wont overcome other issues with Russian artillery, like poor accuracy and spotting compared to their Ukrainian opponents, it will still make offensives easier for Russia, and counteroffensives harder for Ukraine.

Walking the tightrope

Chinese support for Russia presents several quandaries on and off the battlefield. Even if they ultimately decide to limit their sales to nonlethal items, like transportation vehicles or communications equipment, it will help Russia overcome some of its key shortages.

But there is a limit to what Beijing can provide. China has their own defense needs and export contracts to fulfill. Transferring large numbers of advanced systems could also harm their position as an arms exporter if they do not perform as advertised in such a well-documented conflict.

Chinese diplomats are also eagerly pushing a 12-point peace plan released on the anniversary of Putins invasion. Beijings efforts to mediate, however, are vague and seemingly contradictory: calls to respect sovereignty, for instance, are at odds with encouraging Ukraine to negotiate away their territory after a violation of their sovereignty.

For NATO members and Ukraine, the offer has led to mixed responses. Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban spoke in support of the plan on Monday, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and French President Emmanuel Macron both expressed an eagerness to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss Beijings proposal.

U.S. officials expressed doubts about how feasible the Chinese plan is, but Zelensky and Macrons positions are easy to understand. From Ukraines perspective, its better to engage with the Chinese perspective on the conflict when possiblerather than take offense at their initial proposal and risk strengthening Beijings case to support Russia.

Putin-Xi Meeting Threatens Chinese Curveball in Russias War

China hasnt yet decided whether to go through with supporting Russia, and there are a few reasons against it. Beijing has a lot to lose if the U.S. and other supporters of Ukraine start to apply the same kinds of financial and diplomatic penalties theyve issued to Russian and Iranian companies. Major Chinese tech companies benefit from access to international markets, and would be deeply harmed by sanctions if they are involved in sales or support to Russia.

President Joe Biden told ABC news that he doesnt anticipate a major initiative to support Russia. If China decides to help Russia, Bidens response will matter. Beijing can always scale its aid up depending on how harshly the international community reacts to initial sales or donations.

China may be rhetorically interested in ending the conflict, but Beijings substantial support for the Russian military ultimately makes the prospects for peace slimmer. Anything that increases Putins confidence that he can continue the war will make him more intransigent as a negotiator, and in turn make it less likely that hed present terms acceptable to Ukraine.

In the meantime, Russian forces will continue to batter Ukrainian soldiers and civilians, and Zelenskys generals will have to figure out the best way to recapture its territory against a better-equipped Russian army.

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.
Finless porpoises swim in the Yangtze River in Yichang, central China's Hubei Province, May 10, 2021. [Photo/Xinhua]

A scientific investigation conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs in 2022 showed that the number of Yangtze finless porpoises has reached 1,249, up 23.42 percent from five years ago, according to a press conference held on Tuesday.

Ma Yi, an official with the ministry, attributed the increase to the 10-year fishing ban in the key waters of China's Yangtze River which was imposed in 2021 with the aim of ecological conservation.

The finless porpoise, known as the "giant panda of the water," is a barometer of the ecological environment in the Yangtze River basin.

Other aquatic bioresources in the key waters of the Yangtze River have also seen a recovery. In 2022, 193 varieties of fish were spotted in the area, marking an increase of 25 varieties from 2020.

The aquatic biodiversity in the Yangtze River basin is still relatively low, said Ma, emphasizing the need for increased efforts to implement the fishing ban and to carry out systematic protection measures for aquatic species in the area.
The chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Kentucky Republican Representative James Comer, has faced pushback after he complained about President Joe Bidens late son Beau Biden not being prosecuted in connection to an investigation into illegal contributions involving Mr Bidens 2008 presidential campaign.

Mr Comer has spent much of his time investigating the business dealings of Mr Bidens other son, Hunter.

The chair appeared on Lou Dobbss programme on Fox Business on Tuesday, complaining about Hunter Biden not yet being charged by the US attorney reviewing his case.

David Weiss, the US attorney for the District of Delaware, was appointed by former President Donald Trump and has been investigating Hunter Biden and his tax affairs since 2018. Prosecutors have also considered pressing charges against him for supposedly lying on an application form for a firearm.

This US attorney had had an opportunity to go after the Bidens years ago, Mr Comer said on Tuesday, according to The Daily Beast. In fact, it was Beau Biden, the presidents other son, that was involved in some campaign donations from a person that got indicted, as well as Joe Biden was involved in some of these campaign donations when he was a senator, and then when he ran for president against Obama.

But nothing ever happened. So I dont know much about this US attorney other than hes had an opportunity to investigate the Bidens before and he chose not to. We all know that hes just been silent for a long time, he added.

Theres enough to indict Hunter Biden now, there was enough to indict Hunter Biden three or four years ago with whats on [his] laptop, he claimed. So for whatever reason, this US attorney hasnt produced very many results.

Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-KY) and Rep. Jim Jordon (R-OH) listen during a hearing (Getty Images)

The campaign donations mentioned by Mr Comer are linked to contributions from Christopher Tigani, a Delaware liquor executive, made during the 2000s, including the 2008 campaign, according to The Daily Beast.

After Mr Tigani pleaded guilty in 2011 to campaign finance charges in connection to a contribution reimbursement procedure, Beau Biden, who was serving as the Delaware Attorney General at the time, recused himself from a state investigation into the donations. He appointed a special prosecutor to lead the probe.

Story continues

The subsequent report stated that 19 lawmakers had unknowingly received straw donations, including both of the Bidens, and no officials were charged.

Although some witnesses made vague references or speculated to the effect that candidates or their agents knew about or suggested reimbursements, investigators did not find credible evidence to support a charge, the report by special prosecutor Norman Veasey stated.

White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield appeared on MSNBCs Morning Joe on Wednesday, saying that on a human level, thats appalling. Its despicable. And frankly, it says quite a lot  none of it good  about James Comer.

Asked by @morningmika about reporting that the House GOP Oversight Chairman lamented that the President's deceased son was never prosecuted, @KBeds responds:



"On a human level, thats appalling. It's despicable. And frankly it says quite a lotnone of it goodabout @JamesComer." pic.twitter.com/FTq0wKcFKV  Ian Sams (@IanSams46) March 1, 2023

Twitter users were also quick to slam Mr Comer.

Eddie Vale, a Democratic operative, called him a sick person.

Former senior Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer tweeted that Jim Comer has a Trumpian blend of incompetence and malice.

Former Republican Florida Representative David Jolly tweeted: Disgraced GOP House Oversight Chair Comer, himself credibly accused of physical violence after a girlfriend revealed his name in paperwork related to abortion services, just complained to Lou Dobbs that Beau Biden wasnt prosecuted before his passing.

Kurt Bardella, a former staffer to a Republican oversight chair and now a Democratic strategist, tweeted: Alexa, what is a soulless, piece of s***?

Comedian and former CIA officer Emily Brandwin added: Theres a special place in Hell for someone attacking a veteran who died from cancer. Scratch that Hell is too nice for this guy.

Republican Congressman James Comer House Oversight Chair bemoans that the Delaware AG didnt prosecute Joe Bidens dead son Beau! How much lower will the GOP go! Where is any integrity and respect? Robert Dunn asked.
Reuters/Mike Segar

Republican Rep. James Comer suggested during a right-wing podcast earlier this week that President Joe Bidens deceased son Beau Biden should have been investigated in connection with a long-settled case on campaign donations from a backer who was eventually indicted.

That suggestion from the newly appointed House Oversight Committee Chairman didnt sit well with White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who called the comments ugly and inappropriate.

This U.S. attorney had an opportunity to go after the Bidens years ago, Comer said on former Fox Business host Lou Dobbs podcast. The high-ranking House Republican then continued: In fact, it was Beau Biden, the presidents other son, that was involved in some campaign donations from a person that got indicted, as well as Joe Biden was involved in some of these campaign donations when he was a senator, and then when he ran for president against Obama.

Comers attempted dig at Beau Biden stems from a 2012 case in which the Presidents son, then the attorney general of Delaware, recused himself. The investigation in question centered around a Joe Biden campaign donor who was illegally funneling contributions to Bidens campaign operation, according to The Washington Post.

But nothing ever happened. So I dont know much about this U.S. attorney other than hes had an opportunity to investigate the Bidens before, and he chose not to, Comer added. We all know that hes just been silent for a long time.

Responding to @ZTPetrizzo's question about James Comer lamenting that Beau Biden wasn't prosecuted, WH press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre calls it "incredibly ugly and inappropriate" before accusing House Republicans of engaging in "political stunts." pic.twitter.com/18A43EGGVd  Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) March 1, 2023

On Wednesday afternoon in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, Jean-Pierre addressed The Daily Beasts question about Comer invoking the presidents now-deceased son.

Story continues

Its completely inappropriate. Its ugly, the comments that he made. It says a lot about the chairman, which is not good, by the way, Jean-Pierre said from the podium. To make the statement that he did is incredibly ugly and inappropriate.

Instead of House Republicans focused on attacking the President and his family, why dont they focus on what the American people put them in office to do, which is to deliver for them, she continued.

The White House press secretary concluded by ripping into House Republicans over their focus on political stunts.

Earlier in the day, White House communications director Kate Bedingfield also said on MSNBC that Coomers remarks were appalling.

Its despicable. And frankly, it says quite a lotnone of it goodabout Jim Comer, Bedingfield said.

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.
Howard University is being sued by a white student who was expelled from its law school. The student accuses the establishment of a hostile environment and racial discrimination.

The post White Student Sues Howard Universitys Law School Over Racial Discrimination After Being Expelled appeared first on Blavity.

Michael Ray Newman, the plaintiff, was awarded a $26,250 annual scholarship to attend the Howard University School of Law in the fall of 2020 but was expelled in September. Newmans lawyer filed a lawsuit on his behalf on Feb. 16 in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, claiming he suffered emotional, mental and economic harm, and asking for over $2 million in compensation.

The lawsuit stems from events that began in 2020 when Newman participated in a public debate and discussion on a professors forum page. After Newman expressed his disagreement with the Black community in a previous GroupMe chat, saying, they believe government solves problems, whereas he saw government only as causing problems, he decided to move the discussion to the forum, as evidenced by court documents.

A white student who was expelled from Howard Universitys law school is suing the historically Black university in Washington, D.C., alleging race discrimination and creating a hostile environment. https://t.co/OMPP3sbGFk  NBC News (@NBCNews) February 28, 2023

The university declines to comment on pending litigation substantively, but the University is prepared to vigorously defend itself in this lawsuit, according to Frank Tramble, a vice president and chief communications officer for Howard. He also asserted that the allegations provide a one-sided and self-serving narrative of the events leading to the end of the students enrollment at Howard.

Story continues

According to Tramble, Newman engaged in a pattern of antagonizing actions against other students at the law school. He gives the death of a law student as an example of how Newman used it to further his views on COVID-19 and the vaccines. He was then expelled for disruptive and harassing conduct, per the universitys rules of conduct.

The lawsuit asserts that Newman also expressed his feelings of being utterly disenfranchised in a Zoom chat box while comparing himself to a Black student attending a school with a majority-white student body. According to the lawsuit, many of Newmans fellow students notified school officials after both incidents and asked for his expulsion; some even voiced concerns about the controversies he started, saying they disrupted their studies.

According to the NY Post, a classmate in January 2021 found and retweeted a July 2020 tweet from Newmans private Twitter account, which presented the infamous photo of the freed slave Gordon, also known as Whipped Peter, posted with Newmans tweet, But we dont know what he did before the picture was taken! the suit alleges. This was after Newman had officially and verbally apologized to his classmates.

Law school dean Danielle Holley and Reggie McGahee, Howards global head of diversity recruiting, met with Newman after student backlash. It is alleged in the lawsuit that Holley accused Newman of racial harassment and suggested he transfer out of the school. One student called Newmans remarks racist, while another said he was terrorizing the students. More than 300 people attended Holleys town hall Jan. 31, 2021, to discuss the controversies surrounding Newman.

Newman, during the town hall, tried to clarify that he had tweeted Gordon to voice support for racial minorities who suffered police violence. In October 2021, Newman was allowed to join a new GroupMe chat, but he was later banned entirely after a Black student accused him of passively-aggressively attempting to insult yet another Black person in this GroupMe due to his comments on Howards lack of diversity and inclusion.

When Newman felt his exclusion was motivated by racial animus, he decided to file a formal complaint of discrimination with the school, as noted by NBC. An attorney who was hired to look into the situation reportedly concluded that the claim of racial discrimination could not be substantiated and closed the case.

Following an investigation into a complaint made by Holley, the university expelled Newman in September. The suit alleges that Newman suffered emotional distress, reputational harm, and allegedly lost employment opportunities and benefits as a result.

The lawsuit also asserted that Newman was a member of the racial minority as a white student at Howard University. The first hearing is set for April 21.
Senate Republicans are trying to put the squeeze on Democrats ahead of an expected vote on legislation next week that would undo parts of a District of Columbia crime bill.

The bill would eliminate most mandatory sentences, lower penalties for a number of violent offenses, including carjackings and robberies, and expand the requirement for jury trials in most misdemeanor cases.

The legislation was unanimously approved by the D.C. City Council, which then overrode a veto by Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser in an overwhelming 12-1 vote.

The GOP-led House passed a resolution of disapproval that would block the implementation of the law. Its that resolution the Senate is expected to vote on next week  and it is likely to pass despite the Democratic Senate majority and the partys usual support for D.C. home rule.

The reasons are a mix of the political and circumstantial.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) is expected to miss the vote as he gets treatment for clinical depression, which narrows the Democratic majority to 50-49.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) says hell vote in favor of the resolution, saying the legislation doesnt make sense to him.

Other Senate Democrats, particularly those like Manchin who face difficult reelection races in red or purplish states in 2024, may vote with him. In the House, 31 Democrats joined Republicans in backing the resolution of disapproval.

If it passes, President Biden will face a somewhat difficult decision. While it is expected that he will veto the resolution of disapproval and argue it is a serious infringement on D.C. home rule  the idea that the District of Columbia has authority in the city and should be able to govern itself  the veto will undoubtedly be used by the GOP in campaign ads and arguments for the rest of the cycle.

And the danger of being a Democrat seen as soft on crime was reinforced Tuesday, when Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot failed to advance from her own reelection primary amid public anger over the issue.

Story continues

Senate Democrats by and large have declined to jump on board to overturn the D.C. bill, given their longstanding support for the Districts self-governance, but Republicans are signaling confidence. They appear to think more Democrats in the Senate than Manchin will be with them on a vote next week.

Why the D.C. City Council against the wishes of the mayor in the same party would be downgrading certain offenses  it just defies common sense, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) told The Hill. I think it will be difficult for anybody [to vote against the resolution] and I think it will be difficult for the president to veto it.

Its no huge surprise that Manchin, who told The New York Times that slashing mandatory minimum sentences makes no sense to him, would vote with the GOP on the issue. His state voted overwhelmingly for former President Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

Other Democrats to watch include Sens. Sherrod Brown (Ohio) and Jon Tester (Mont.), who told reporters in recent days that they are undecided. Both face reelection in 2024 in states won by Trump in 2020.

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), who usually votes with Democrats, is also seen as a gettable vote. A Sinema spokesperson told The Hill that she does not preview votes.

Republicans point to Lightfoot, the latest Democratic officeholder to run into problems over her handling of crime, to argue it will be political trouble for those who effectively vote to back the D.C. City Council.

Paul Vallas, the leading vote-getter on Tuesday in the Chicago vote, ran on a tough-on-crime message and took nearly twice as many votes as Lightfoot.

I think that the mayor of Chicago is probably a case in point, said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.).

The lowering of penalties and other changes has created a tough fence to straddle for Democrats as they overwhelmingly support statehood for the District.

Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), the No. 2 Senate Democrat, told The Hill that while his conference backs home rule powers, members are looking at the bill very closely because they also want this to be a safe city.

The crime issue has touched a nerve in the District over nonstop reports of carjackings and robberies across the city.

Homicides are up 30 percent this year from the same point last year. According to the Metropolitan Police Departments reporting, the District has seen 94 carjackings this year alone, with only 16 of those cases being closed and nine arrests made. Seventy-eight percent of those incidents have involved juveniles.

Everyones going to have to make up their own mind on this and I respect that, said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who noted that he does not support the crime bill on its own. Regardless of where you stand on the underlying issue as to what the D.C. government did, the United States Senate should not be substituting its judgment for the elected representatives for the people of the District of Columbia, especially since almost every Senate Democrat supports D.C. statehood.

While Bowser opposed the councils measure and in early February called for it to consider changes to the minimization of penalties and issues surrounding jury trials, she has urged members of Congress to butt out of city-related issues.

The White House has yet to issue a direct veto threat against the resolution, though it has said that it opposes overruling the newly-passed criminal code.

Congress should respect the District of Columbias autonomy to govern its own local affairs, the White House said in January, adding that it still supports D.C. statehood.

Durbin added that he has no idea if he expects Biden to issue a formal veto threat.

The District was handed home rule powers in 1973, and Congress has not overturned any city-wide enacted bill in more than three decades. Nevertheless, Republicans believe that the vote could put the president in a bind, especially as the crime situation worsens in the city.

I think itll be a difficult vote for anybody who believes in law and order to not be able to impact our capital city that has a higher rising crime rate, Capito said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Gut health is everywhere. From products marketed specifically for gut health to videos with the hashtag #guthealth boasting more than 3.7 billion views on TikTok, the term has become a wellness buzzword  but experts say it's more than that.

Gut health isn't just a trending topic but an important aspect of health that impacts everything from obesity to cancer rates, says Dr. Aditya Sreenivasan, a gastroenterologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York. It can even affect mental health.

"The main reason it's becoming so common is that there's more and more data (and) understanding that what's happening in our gut or the (gastrointestinal) tract is associated with all kinds of much larger health outcomes  more than just what we typically maybe used to think of as GI issues like ulcers, gas bloating or colon cancer."

So, what exactly is "gut health" and why is it so important?

"When people talk about gut health, they're talking about the microbiome at large and its interactions with various bodily processes," says Dr. Shilpa Ravella, transplant gastroenterologist and assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University. She explains that the gut microbiome refers to the "trillions of bacteria, viruses and fungi that live in our intestines."

One of the most important ways the microbiome affects health is through its influence on our immune system, Ravella says.

"What happens is, from birth onto death, our microbiome actually helps to shape our immune system," she explains. "And this is important because we know today that inflammation is very relevant to our health. Low-level inflammation or chronic inflammation is tied to nearly all of our modern disorders. So when you have a gut microbiome that is an imbalance or dysbiosis, you tend to have more of this inflammation coursing through your body."

So while most may think of intestinal track as just a tube where food goes in and out, it's more than that.

Story continues

In a 2020 "60 Minutes" report, CBS News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook spoke to Dr. Jeff Gordon, who has spent decades exploring the mysteries of the bacterial community in our gut and is recognized as "the father of the microbiome."

"(Microbes) help process the food that we consume, but they do a lot more than that. They make vitamins... they're able to produce essential amino acids, they're able to talk to our immune system and help educate the immune system."

In a landmark experiment, Gordon and his team made a lean mouse fatter by giving it the bacteria of a fat mouse, suggesting that part of the cause of obesity might be the types of bacteria that are in the microbiome.

"We see that individuals who are obese have a less diverse microbial community compared to individuals who are lean," Gordon explained.

In 2021, a study found the gut microbiome can possibly indicate whether a patient with rheumatoid arthritis will improve in their condition over time. And research on the connection between a healthy microbiome and heart health, diabetes and other conditions continues.

Products promising gut health benefits are proliferating, including drinks marketed to those looking to support a healthy gut. At the same time, scientists' understanding of probiotic supplements is also shifting. Once viewed as a useful daily dose of commercially manufactured mixtures meant to replicate the healthy bacteria found inside our bodies, now some experts say these products might not be as helpful as once thought.

Security guards stop armed man wearing devil mask from entering Florida strip club

2 faculty members shot at Denver's East High School

Federal Reserve raises interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point
Rats carry diseases and disgust many of us.

Whats troubling is the rat population is exploding in many communities around the state.

These pesky rodents can cause extensive damage to a home, or a car if they crawl up under the hood.

One Boston City Councilor told Boston 25 News rats are the number one reason residents reach out to her office.

Fran Perler has had to turn her Brookline home into a fortress to keep this unwanted company out.

She has spent about $4,000 to put in exclusion barriers to keep rats out. The retired scientist saved money by doing much of the back breaking work on her own. She says it easily could have cost more than $20,000 otherwise.

Her entire neighborhood is dealing with a surging population of rats. My 89-year-old neighbor went to their first floor toilet and a rat had come up through the sewer.

Perler has collected more than 1,000 signatures to try and get the town to increase its response to all these rodents.

This is a problem larger than Brookline, said Perler. Its all over Boston, Somerville, Cambridge, and Newton.

Communities like Worcester and Lowell have also had to deal with this issue. In Plymouth, an elementary school was overrun with vermin.

Construction can be one reason rates migrate.

The pandemic might also have played a role.

Because of COVID people are home and were generating more garbage, explained Perler. A lot of apartment buildings and housing havent kept up with the equipment to manage their solid waste so even if they do have somewhat rodent proof containers, theyre overflowing and are easy entry for rats.

Rats are constantly searching for easy access to food.

At the beginning of the pandemic, when many restaurants closed, the rats which had been feeding off food behind the restaurants went into residential neighborhoods, said Heidi Ricci of the Massachusetts Audubon Society.

She says homeowners can make their property less inviting to rodents by using rodent proof trash containers and otherwise making sure there are no food sources available. The second thing would be to make sure that foundations are sealed.

Story continues

The Audubon Society says residents should not try to poison rats.

Those substances can cause a rat to die slowly, often out in the open, making them easy prey for owls, hawks, and foxes.

These chemicals do not break down quickly, so they remain in the body of the rodent. When the predator consumes the rodent, it is secondarily poisoned and can die from that. This has happened even with a couple of bald eagles in recent years, said Ricci.

Braintree town councilor Elizabeth Maglio wants to stop the problem before it gets out of hand.

Shes proposing a birth control program to stop rats from procreating so rapidly. This is a very affordable, non-toxic, natural, humane way to prevent or at least mitigate the rat population.

A walk around Fran Perlers North Brookline neighborhood shows where rats have dug tunnels and residents have tried to fight back with additional fencing.

The town and area businesses have taken steps too. Some open trash cans have been replaced with enclosed receptacles and electrified chambers that lure rats in have been placed around town.

45 of these boxes are now deployed and 236 rats have been eliminated this way. The boxes also send signals back to public health officials which allows them to isolate hot spots around town.

Still, Perler says more needs to be done. Why should one of my neighbors kids be afraid to go to sleep because they hear rats scratching in the bedroom walls and are afraid theyre going to come thru the wall and bite them?

Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.

Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Reuters

A wave of more than 100 deaths over the past two years at Fort Bragg has rocked the U.S. militarycaused in part by an increasing number of overdoses, says Rolling Stone investigative reporter Seth Harp on this weeks episode of The Daily Beasts Fever Dreams podcast.

The spike is all the more startling given Fort Braggs status as the home of Joint Special Operations Command and the headquarters of the Green Beretsthe beating heart of U.S. black operations, as Harp puts it.

The thing to understand about Fort Bragg is its not just another military base, Harp said. Fort Bragg is a really important place in the national security apparatus of the United States  Thats where the center of gravity has really shifted.

Its tough to pin down exactly whats behind the spate of deathsor even if its higher than averagegiven the amount of secrecy surrounding both the units headquartered at the base and the military apparatus in general.

I have repeatedly asked the military: Can you show me another base where theres been a death toll this high in two years? Harp said. But they have never been able to actually point to a situation or a past occurrence like thisso Im gonna stick with my assumption that it really is unprecedented.

Michigan GOPs New Leader Is a QAnon-Spewing Election Denier

Then, hosts Will Sommer and Kelly Weill unpack the QAnon connections behind newly elected Michigan GOP leader Kristina Karamo, who declared Michigan as ground zero for the globalist takeover of the United States of America.

Im just going to say if I were the globalist overlords, I would probably set my eyes on, I dont know, maybe somewhere like Miami, Weill joked.

Plus, a look into both hosts personal history with the comic Dilbertand its embattled artist, Scott Adams, who sparked a firestorm last week by going on a racist rant and calling Black people a hate group, among other things.

Listen, and subscribe, to Fever Dreams on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher.

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.
Pharmacies Receive Government-Supplied Home COVID-19 Tests

Credit - George FreyGetty Images

COVID-19 rapid tests are easy to takeand then toss. So most people never report their results, which leaves health officials with an incomplete picture of how much virus is circulating and where. The convenience of the at-home tests have made PCR tests, which require a doctors prescription and a lab to run them, much less popular than they were earlier in the pandemic. PCR test results currently make up the bulk of documented case numbers, so the total is always an undercount.



Knowing the true volume of cases helps health authorities direct appropriate resources, including vaccines and treatments, to areas where cases are surging and ensure that there are enough medical personnel to care for sick patients. And it can alert them to increases that could indicate a more virulent or transmissible variant.



Some states have tried to rescue rapid-test results through websites where residents can report their results. In Maryland, for instance, the At-Home Test Report Portal triggers a contact-tracing process for people who report positive results, which in turn provides people with letters to excuse them from work or school.

But more complete data-gathering requires a national effort, which the federal government launched in Nov. 2022. The website MakeMyTestCount.org allows people to anonymously record whether their self-test for COVID-19 was positive or negative. There is a big gap between the amount of testing going on and the amount of data being reported, says Andrew Weitz at the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), a branch of the National Institutes of Health that developed and runs the site.

The site launched quite a bit after the first at-home tests appeared on the market in late 2020. But the whole idea of putting a test for an infectious disease into the hands of the public is still relatively new, says Weitz. Prior to COVID-19, there was no concept for doing testing in the home setting, aside from pregnancy tests, he says. Not having a system in place to collect rapid test readouts was a result of not knowing what approach would work, and not knowing how much adoption at-home tests would get.

Story continues

Read More: Stock Up on Free At-Home COVID-19 Tests While You Can



Results are relatively easy and anonymous to enter. The site does not collect personal information such as name, date of birth, or address (unless people wish to provide it), though it does ask people to enter their age and zip code for more visibility into where the virus is bubbling up. The main hurdle is growing awareness of the sitehow to get people to find out that the site exists and report their results, says Weitz. Since the sites launch, usage has remained consistent and isnt tapering off, which is encouraging. Yet only 55,000 results have been reported: a fraction of the estimated millions of people who have tested themselves.

Getting people to voluntarily take the time and effort to report their rapid-test results has proven challenging. To make the user-experience easier, Weitz says the government is working with rapid test manufacturers to include a QR code or other way for people to link easily to MakeMyTestCount.org. Such visibility to the site might prompt more people report their results. NIBIB is also gearing up to allow state health departments to merge their test result programs with the federal site by embedding MakeMyTestCount.org into the states websites (though some states that practice contract-tracing or exposure notification are hesitant to do so, since those practices require more detailed private information and the federal site is anonymous.)

Ultimately, most Americans will probably need incentives to self-report their results, Weitz acknowledges. Why is someone going to report their result and take the time to do that if they are not getting anything back in return? he says. He and his team are working on some additional features to MakeMyTestCount.org that might encourage more reporting, including a testing diary that would allow people who report multiple test results to see all of their tests in one place. Other possibilities, which are still being considered, include a testing passport with a QR code that could serve as verification of a negative test for any situations that would require it.

Individual states could also encourage more reporting by tying free COVID-19 treatments like Paxlovid for eligible people to self-test reporting. Massachusetts, for example, offers such treatments, via provided health care professionals, for free to people who enroll and report their positive at-home tests.

The government is also exploring other incentives, via insurers or employers, to encourage people to report their results. But Weitz says that while the NIBIB has reached out to insurers, the response hasnt been encouragingagain due to data-sharing issuessince the companies require more personal information to verify the identities of their beneficiaries and the federal program does not.

Other experts believe in a slightly more involved approach. Dr. Michael Mina, chief medical officer at eMed, digital health company that distributes self tests and provides telehealth services, has suggested connecting the tests to telehealth providers, a digital health service that his company provides. Some versions of at-home kits sold in pharmacies already make this possible; they provide a link through which users can connect to a certified health care provider, who watches as the person opens the kit, takes the test, and verifies the result. (People have used these to verify their negative status before entering countries where testing is required, for example.) Tying more of these tests to health professionals would be one way to record more results and provide people with advice on what to do if they are positive.



As the world learns to live with COVID-19, and turns increasingly to self-testing, perceptions about diagnosing infectious diseases at home will have to change. Along with that evolution will come better ways of ensuring that all of the data generated in homes across the country isnt lost to health experts.
For almost two years, Michael Ortiz has been distraught. One decision, which many would usually consider life-saving, ended up costing him his life as he knew it: calling 911.

My moms taking care of her son that is more than 40 years old and shes treating me like Im six months old, changing diapers, Ortiz said as he looked toward the ground.

His lawyers this week sued the city of Hollywood in federal court over use of force, which left Ortiz paralyzed after he was shot by Hollywood police.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, Hunter Shkolnik of Napoli Shkolnik PLLC and Sue-Ann Robinson of Robinson Caddy Law announced Wednesday that they filed a lawsuit against the city and officers involved in firing at Ortiz during a mental health emergency.

Michael Ortiz needed a helping hand but what he got was a bullet to the back, Crump said.

The city referred inquiries on the new lawsuit to communications manager Joann Hussey, who was not available to comment on Wednesday afternoon.

Attorney Sue-Ann Robinson, left, speaks during a press conference discussing the case of Michael Ortiz, center, with the rest of his legal counsel and his mother, Betty Garcia, right, on Wednesday, March 1, 2023, at the Broward Law Office of the Public Defender in Fort Lauderdale.

On July 3, 2021, Ortiz told 911 operators that he had chest pain.

When police arrived at his apartment, Ortiz, 43, went outside naked, threatening to jump from his sixth-floor balcony. Officers described his demeanor as visibly agitated and combative with paramedics.

An officer restrained Ortiz after shooting him with a stun gun. But a struggle followed as police escorted him down the buildings stairs.

Thats when one of the officers pulled out his gun and shot Ortiz, who now must use a wheelchair.

The video tells you everything you need to know about how unjustified this tragedy was, Crump said. Hes naked. Why shoot him?

READ MORE: A naked man was shot in the back and paralyzed. A Hollywood police officer is charged

In 2022, an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Broward County State Attorneys Office found that Hollywood police officer Henry Andrews, 50, was criminally responsible for shooting Ortiz. Andrews was charged with one count of culpable negligence, which can be punishable by up to a year in prison. He is awaiting trial on the charge.

Story continues

Andrews attorney Jeremy Kroll has said that the shooting was an accident and that the officer intended to use his Taser stun gun to subdue Ortiz.

READ MORE: Hollywood officer who paralyzed man intended to use a Taser, not gun, police say

Henry Andrews has been a dedicated public servant for 20 years, Kroll told the Miami Herald Wednesday. In responding to a difficult and chaotic situation, Officer Andrews intended to deploy his taser and mistakenly discharged his firearm. There was absolutely no intent to harm in this case. He and his family continue to have Mr. Ortiz in their thoughts and prayers.

However, Ortizs attorneys argue that the shooting couldnt have been an accident because Andrews Taser was yellow  and was placed on the opposite side of his gun on his duty belt.

Were going to show that this is not negligence, Shkolnik said. This is an excuse that were seeing pop up across the country when innocent people... are getting shot by police. The new excuse is: I made a mistake. I pulled the wrong gun.

Michael Ortiz enters the room while being pushed in a wheelchair by his mother, Betty Garcia, before a press conference discussing his case on Wednesday, March 1, 2023, at the Broward Law Office of the Public Defender in Fort Lauderdale.

Since the incident, Ortiz has racked up about $3 million in hospital bills, Shkolnik said. But the legal team said they dont plan to let the city off the hook by covering his medical costs. They seek multiples of the $3 million and consider naming more defendants as the legal process moves forward.

We just want justice for Michael Ortiz, Robinson said. Hes not asking for anything thats different or better or special. Hes asking for whats appropriate in a case like this.
Quzhou, a city in eastern China and home to southern Confucianism, held an event to promote Confucian culture in Beijing on Friday. It was attended by guests from the Quzhou municipal government, representatives of Confucius' descendants, and foreign envoys from 11 countries.

Confucianism is not just relevant to China, but also to the rest of the world, said Kong Lingli, the 76th generation lineal descendant of Confucius.

The core of Confucianism is to cultivate ones mind, which is the prerequisite of all conduct, Kong said. He said strengthening family education and integrating Confucianism into family values can help young people to set behavioral principles and promote civility in society.

In recent years, the Southern Confucianism Cultural Development Center in Quzhou has engaged in international communication and cooperation through various platforms, and invited young Sinologists from many countries to attend a wide range of activities such as the southern Confucianism research camp, according to Sheng Xiongsheng, director of the cultural development center. The center has also participated in cultural exchanges with other countries such as the Republic of Korea and Malaysia.

Sheng said that, as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic abated and control measures eased, the center will further cooperate with the International Confucian Association and fully leverage Quzhou's role as the southern Confucianism research base to conduct international exchange.

Confucianism has been woven into the fabric of the city and become a part of the citys development, Sheng added.

I think Quzhou needs to be more popular, said Shadi Abuzarqa, minister counselor of the Embassy of the State of Palestine in China. It's very important to transfer this culture to other countries to know more about this good culture.
Matthew Olsen

Justice Department's Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division Matthew Olsen, speaks at a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, on March 16, 2022. Credit - Andrew HarnikAP

The last time Americas intelligence agencies asked Congress to renew one of their most controversial surveillance programs, then-President Trump briefly sided with its opponents before backing down at the last minute. Five years later, an unlikely coalition of MAGA loyalists and left-wing civil liberties advocates may deliver on Trumps initial impulse, and Biden officials are scrambling to save a program they say is vital to U.S. national security.

The White House, Justice Department, and intelligence agencies on Tuesday warned of dire consequences if lawmakers dont reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments Act, which is set to expire by the end of the year. The broad surveillance program allows the National Security Agency (NSA) to collect the communications of foreigners abroad, including from tech firms like Google, Microsoft, Apple and Meta. But it also sweeps up all of their interactions with those inside the country, which has allowed the FBI to routinely search and review the personal data of millions of Americans without obtaining a warrant.

Recent revelations about the FBIs routine use of this trove of data to access Americans communicationsincluding phone calls, emails, and text messageshas led to growing criticism that the program has become a domestic spying tool. Combined with conservative distrust of government security agencies and backlash to what Republicans call the weaponization of government has made it increasingly unlikely that lawmakers will renew the program without demanding a significant overhaul.

National security officials on Tuesday warned that would be a mistake. The stakes are incredibly high, Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen, who heads the Justice Departments national security division, said in a speech at the Washington-based Brookings Institution. Without 702, we will lose indispensable intelligence for our decision-makers and warfighters, as well as those of our alliesAnd we have no fallback authority that could come close to making up for that loss.

Story continues

The full-court press launched by the administration shows just how seriously they take the threat to the program which is set to lapse in December. In a letter sent to Congress earlier Tuesday morning, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines called the reauthorization a top legislative priority for the Biden administration and argued that it has proven invaluable again and again in protecting American lives and U.S. national security over the past 15 years. There is no way to replicate Section 702s speed, reliability, specificity and insight, they wrote. Tuesdays push will be followed by public appeals, with Garland testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday and Haines testifying before the Senate and House Intelligence Committees next week.

Officials on Tuesday pointed to past successes where they say the information gathered through the program saved the lives of U.S. troops, identified foreign spies, foiled cyber plots and neutralized terrorist threats, including the operation that killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri last year. They also outlined hypothetical scenarios, emphasizing the economic and cyber threats posed by countries like China, Russia and Iran, expanding beyond the traditional focus on counter-terrorism.

Section 702 has proven a cornerstone of U.S. national security, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that the White House hoped to engage constructively with the Congress to preserve this essential tool for protecting the United States.

The outcome of this battle to balance national security, oversight, and constitutional protections may define electronic espionage in the post-Trump era just as intelligence reforms in the 1970s defined spying for decades after Watergate.

What is Section 702?

Congress approved FISAs Section 702 in 2008, legalizing a controversial post-9/11 wiretapping program that allowed the government to conduct massive warrantless electronic surveillance of suspected foreign terrorists and their associates. It has renewed the program twice since then. When the programs renewal was last debated in 2017, tech firms including Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Amazon pressed lawmakers to demand reforms, citing privacy concerns.

The NSA routinely shares parts of the raw surveillance data collected under Section 702 with the FBI, CIA, and other national security agencies which can retain them for up to five years. Even though its surveillance has to target foreigners abroad, the program also sweeps up large quantities of communications by Americans, such as calls, emails and text messages.

U.S. national security officials have long defended Section 702 as one of the governments most valuable tools to gather foreign intelligence to foil terrorist and cyber attacks, track spies and identify threats to U.S. troops. The Biden administration began gearing up to make a more aggressive case for its renewal earlier this year.

We have saved lives because of 702, Gen. Paul Nakasone, who heads the NSA and U.S. Cyber Command, said in a speech in January in which he called the program irreplaceable.

Olsen echoed these remarks on Tuesday, listing several hypothetical future scenarios to illustrate where information collected by the program would be critical: tracking down a terrorist network from emails collected from the phone of someone captured on the battlefield or disrupting the scheme of a foreign actor trying to recruit U.S. employees at a semiconductor company to gain access to sensitive U.S. technology.

If Congress doesnt act to reauthorize it, and if 702 expires or is watered down, the United States will lose absolutely critical insights that we need to protect the country, Olsen said.

Why Section 702 is so controversial



The U.S. intelligence community faces much stronger resistance than it did the last time the program was reauthorized in 2018. Several opinions from the secretive FISA Court and government reports in recent years revealed widespread violations by the FBI, including examples where agents seemed intentionally to access Americans data that had been incidentally collected user Section 702. The reports showed how the FBI, which has access to part of the full 702 database, routinely performed so-called backdoor searches for domestic investigations that did not involve foreign intelligence or national security issues.

A 2018 opinion by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) noted the large number of FBI queries that were not reasonably likely to return foreign-intelligence information or evidence of a crime, saying the agencys actions present a serious risk of unwarranted intrusion into the private communications of a large number of U.S. persons.

While its unclear how many Americans communications have been swept up under the program, a report from the Office of the DNI published last April showed that from Dec. 2020 to Nov. 2021 the FBI queried Section 702 data up to 3.4 million times for information about U.S. persons. It was the first year these numbers had been made public since 2013, when the office began recording surveillance statistics. According to the FBI data, at least 1.9 million queries were done as part of an investigation into attempted foreign cyber attacks.

For anyone outside the U.S. government, the astronomical number of FBI searches of Americans communications is either highly alarming or entirely meaningless, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said when the FBI numbers were released last year. Somewhere in all that over-counting are real numbers of FBI searches numbers that Congress and the American people need before Section 702 is reauthorized. Baseline transparency is essential if the federal government wants to hold such sweeping surveillance powers.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Washington Democrat who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, tweeted earlier this month that any FISA reauthorization must include meaningful reforms to protect Fourth Amendment rights.

Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers have rallied around the governments use of a flawed warrant to conduct surveillance of Trump associate Carter Page, which a 2019 investigation by the Justice Departments inspector general found to have at least 17 significant errors and omissions. The warrant was obtained under a different FISA authority, not Section 702a distinction that helped 702 supporters blunt Trumps initial skepticism about reauthorizing the program in 2017.

But now, in the midst of an increasingly polarized debate about the FBI and what some Republicans term the weaponization of the federal government, some have threatened not to renew it at all. I think we should not even reauthorize FISA, which is going to come up in the next Congress, Rep. Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican who chairs the Judiciary Committee, said in a television interview last October.

Biden administration officials on Tuesday tried to assuage the fears on both ends of the political spectrum. While he acknowledged that mistakes that we made cost us with the American people and with Congress, Olsen argued that recent changes were meant to fix compliance issues and build trust in the program. He pointed to reforms adopted by the FBI in 2021, which he said led to a dramatic decrease in the total number of U.S. person queries and a significant reduction in the number of inadvertent queries of 702 data.

But Olsen also warned about the time pressure, noting that while the law is set to expire on Dec. 31, national security officials are pushing lawmakers to commit to renewing it as soon as possible. Otherwise, the impact would be felt immediately, he said.
TikTok must be removed from federal employees phones, amid increasing security concerns  just the latest in a range of bans on the app across the world.

The viral video app has attracted vast numbers of users and set trends in recent years. But it has also led to fears about the privacy and security of those who use it.

It is those worries that have led to bans in the US, where federal agencies have 30 days to delete the popular app, just as in Canada and elsewhere.

Congress, the White House itself and more than half of US states had already banned TikTok amid concerns that China could use its legal and regulatory powers to obtain private user data or to try to push misinformation or narratives favoring China. US armed forces have prohibited the app on military devices, and the European Union's executive branch has temporarily banned TikTok from employee phones.

More than two-thirds of American teens use TikTok, which is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company that moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2020. It has been targeted by critics who say the Chinese government could access user data such as browsing history and location.

China says the bans reveal Washingtons own insecurities and are an abuse of state power.

Here's what to know:

WHAT ARE THE CONCERNS ABOUT TIKTOK?

Both the FBI and the Federal Communications Commission have warned that ByteDance could share TikTok user data with Chinas authoritarian government.

There are also concerns that the company is sending masses of user data to China, in breach of stringent European privacy rules.

Additionally, theres been concern about TikToks content and whether it harms teenagers mental health.

WHO HAS PUSHED FOR TIKTOK RESTRICTIONS?

In 2020, then-President Donald Trump and his administration sought to ban dealings with TikToks owner, force it to sell off its U.S. assets and remove it from app stores. Courts blocked Trumps efforts to ban TikTok, and President Joe Biden rescinded Trumps orders after taking office but ordered an in-depth study of the issue. A planned sale of TikToks U.S. assets was shelved.

Story continues

In Congress, concern about the app has been bipartisan. Congress passed the No TikTok on Government Devices Act in December as part of a sweeping government funding package. The legislation does allow for TikTok use in certain cases, including for national security, law enforcement and research purposes.

House Republicans are expected to move forward Tuesday with a bill that would give Biden the power to ban TikTok nationwide. The legislation, proposed by Rep. Mike McCaul, looks to circumvent the challenges the administration would face in court if it moved forward with sanctions against the social media company.

WHAT DOES TIKTOK SAY?

TikTok has questioned the bans, saying it has not been given an opportunity to answer questions and governments were cutting themselves off from a platform beloved by millions.

Responding to the U.S. announcement, TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter said Monday: The ban of TikTok on federal devices passed in December without any deliberation, and unfortunately that approach has served as a blueprint for other world governments. These bans are little more than political theater.

Additional reporting by Associated Press
Ruben Hopkins, Wisconsin Black Chamber of Commerce CEO and Chairman, is all smiles on Tuesday, March 7, 2023 at the new location of the the Wisconsin Black Chamber of Commerce at 2900 W. Vliet St. The new two-story building that offers 25, 000 foot will undergo renovations and is expected to be open in a few months. The move will allow the chamber to do more training focused on access to capital and business development to grow Black entrepreneurs. The 1923 building once housed a metal fabrication shop and more recently was storage space for a mattress facility.

A former mattress storage facility on Milwaukee's near west side will be the new home of the Wisconsin Black Chamber of Commerce.

The 17-year-old organization purchased the two-story, 25,600-square-foot building at 2900 W. Vliet St. for $400,000, according to the real estate agency Boerke Co.

The chamber had been in the market to purchase a building for some time, and this building became available at the right price, said Ruben Hopkins, the chamber's CEO and chairman.

The new location of the Wisconsin Black Chamber of Commerce at 2900 W. Vliet St. on Tuesday, March 7, 2023. The move will allow the chamber to do more training focused on access to capital and business development to grow Black entrepreneurs. The 1923 building once housed a metal fabrication shop and more recently was storage space for a mattress facility.

The chamber now operates out of a property it rents at 3020 W. Vliet St.

More:'This requires long-term commitment': Northwestern Mutual partners with financial institutions to invest in Black community's future

The move will allow the chamber to do more training focused on access to capital and business development to grow Black entrepreneurs. Hopkins said purchasing the building aligns with what we stand for as a chamber -- to make Black people the largest employer of Black people.

The chamber plans to redevelop the property for its office space and 40% of the facility will be used for business incubators and accelerators.

Ruben Hopkins, Wisconsin Black Chamber of Commerce CEO and Chairman, talks about his plans on Tuesday, March 7, 2023 for the new location of the Wisconsin Black Chamber of Commerce at 2900 W. Vliet St. The new two-story building has 25, 000 foot and will undergo renovations and is expected to be open in a few months. The move will allow the chamber to do more training focused on access to capital and business development to grow Black entrepreneurs. The 1923 building once housed a metal fabrication shop and more recently was storage space for a mattress facility.

The future of the nations economy rests on the revitalization of central cities around the country, Hopkins said adding that Black businesses play a key role in that.

The 1923 building also once housed a metal fabrication shop. The building will not stray away from its manufacturing roots. Two tenants will do light manufacturing building prefab walls and trusses for home construction.

More:African American Chamber of Commerce moving to King Drive co-working space; offices, with help from state grant, set to open in January

The chamber purchased the building with funds from a $5 million grant it received from the governors office. The funding is part of Gov. Tony Evers' $1 billion investment to support small businesses and industries hit hard by the pandemic as well as communities that have been historically unable to access capital or credit to recover. The money comes from the American Rescue Plan Act.

Story continues

The bulk of the $5 million grant will support and seed the chambers initiative to create 3,000 new Black-owned businesses in the state by 2024.

This is more about the example of what can happen when you put funding in the right peoples hands, Hopkins said.

While he didnt disclose renovation costs, Hopkins said the purchase of the underutilized facility will help revitalize the area.

Ruben Hopkins, Wisconsin Black Chamber of Commerce CEO and Chairman, on Tuesday, March 7, 2023 at the new location of the the Wisconsin Black Chamber of Commerce at 2900 W. Vliet St. The new two-story building that offers 25, 000 foot will undergo renovations and is expected to be open in a few months. The move will allow the chamber to do more training focused on access to capital and business development to grow Black entrepreneurs. The 1923 building once housed a metal fabrication shop and more recently was storage space for a mattress facility.

The goal is to bring the building back to a standard that we can operate in in an effective manner, Hopkins said, adding that the building was just sitting there with a bunch of mattresses in it. Now we are going to change that.

La Risa Lynch is a community affairs reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Email her at llynch@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: The Wisconsin Black chamber is moving, sharpens goal of growing entrepreneurs
Everyone knows Snow White, the fair-toned beauty with rosy red cheeks whose 7 dwarf friends aided her in her love story with her Prince. Did you know its speculated the character was inspired by Hedy Lamarr known asthe most beautiful woman in the world. A lesser known fact about Lamarr she reportedly helped create the first prototype for WiFi in 1942. This contribution to the STEM community allows 4.9 billion people worldwide to be connected to each other daily. From the start of her life to after her passing, Lamarrs work is extremely important in the way society functions today.

The brains of people are more interesting than the looks, I think, Lamarr said in an interview from April 1990 with Fleming Meeks at Forbes. People have the idea Im sort of a stupid thing. I never knew I looked good to begin with. The interview tape was lost and finally uncovered in 2016, and featured on PBS American Masters .

Lamarrs interest in STEM started early

Born on November 9, 1914, in Vienna, Austria, Lamarr was known as Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler. As a child, she went to a Berlin acting school, dropping out to begin starring in films at the age of 16. Before the name change, Lamarr performed in German and Czechoslovakian films, and finally to the big screen in Hollywood. Alongside her talent for acting, she had a very intellectual mind, rooted in the influence of her father Emil Kiesler. The two of them would assemble music boxes, instructing Lamarr on how the mechanics worked inside.

I dont have to work on ideas. They come naturally Lamarr said in an interview featured in another American Masters video.

World War II Dinner Parties Provided Useful Education

When she had left Austria, Lamarr was fleeing her husband, Friedrich Mandl . Who reportedly made Lamarr feel like a puppet under his control. At the time of their marriage, Mandl took her to dinner parties with Italian and German weapon engineers because Mandl was an arms merchant, someone who sold military weapons and equipment and associated himself with Nazi businessmen.

Story continues

Hilter and Mussolini were among these men at the dinner parties, bringing extreme distress to Lamarr who was Jewish. Due to her gender, Lamarr did not raise a threat to these men for listening in on their conversations. Maybe one good thing did come from their marriage - Lamarrs knowledge of topics concerning secret radio communications and war-related technologies.

From Tinkering with Music Boxes to Airplanes

After her arrival in the United States in the late 1930s, Lamarr met Howard Hughes - an extremely successful aircraft designer, industrialist and film producer. Called Hollywoods Secret Heartbreaker, Hughes wasnt the man she would desperately fall in love with and marry. But he played an important role as her partner who strongly encouraged her brilliance, making a miniature inventing table in her trailer so she could work in between her filming takes. Lamarrs curiosity about machinery and assembly led her to visit Hughes workshops to study how planes were made. Lamarr aided Hughes mission to create fast airplanes, coming up with the structures of their wings herself.

My friends mothers had aprons on and were cooking for their husbands, Denise Loder-DeLuca, Lamarrs daughter, said in an interview with Juliet Gilden in 2021. They didnt even work, and my mother was telling guys what to do. It was really ahead of her time.

On December 9, 1941, the Declaration of War on Japan was announced. 3 days later, the United States of America Congress declared a state of war with Germany, beginning World War II. As a Jewish woman herself, she was emotionally distraught by the terrors caused by the German Nazis. In 1941, 77 children refugees died by the U-48, a German submarine that sank and damaged boats. Lamarr made use of the knowledge of torpedoes she gathered in Austria to aid the US Navy.

Rejection Never Stopped Lamarr

After being denied by the National Inventors Council for being a woman, Lamarr had to find another way to donate her extreme knowledge to the greater cause. A year prior to the declaration of war, Lamarr met George Antheil , an American composer, self-proclaimed as the Bad Boy of Music in his autobiography. This bad boy was similar to Lamarr, in the aspect that he was intrigued by invention but known for his music. The two worked together to give life to Lamarrs vision of her Secret Communication System, now referred to as frequency hopping.

Lamarr focused on the prevention of American strategies, signals and messages being intercepted by enemies. She made a transmitter and receiver which would block enemies from being able to find the next frequency that calls would be made at. Her wonderful invention was finally patented in 1942.

 Maybe I come from a different planet, who knows , Lamarr said.  But whatever it is, inventions are easy for me to do. 

Lamarrs Work is Used Today

Her work developed into todays Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth systems through Spread Spectrum Technology . This technology uses a large frequency band to spread signals to acquire secure communication. Spread Spectrum gives users privacy, interference prevention, use frequency and time simultaneously, and jamming protection. So, you can thank Hedy Lamarr the next time you use your phone to direct you to a coffee shop, call your long-distance friend, or ask Alexa to tell you about the weather (and for reading this article online).

Gilden asked her daughter Denise the questions, Did she [Hedy Lamarr] talk about the inventions not being acknowledged throughout her life? Did she carry a lot of angst with that? To this, she responded that her mother rarely spoke about it, rather focusing on the time she spent with family rather than focus on her work. Denise had barely known about the invention till people would send her newspaper articles giving credit to Lamarr. l

As of 2022, according to Zippia , only 38% of the world doesnt use the internet. In America, 93% of the population uses the internet. With so many active users, its a true shame that Lamarr isnt acknowledged and praised for her influence. Since passing on January 19, 2000 at age 85, she has been given the name the mother of wifi alongside induction to the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014.

Its up to our generation to make sure that women in STEM are seen, heard and praised for their work. Whether that means taking a deep dive into history or acknowledging the girl sitting next to us majoring in chemical engineering, it is time to give women the credit they deserve for their brains, not just their looks.



This article was written by Sophia Aiello. Sophia is a freshman at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, majoring in Journalism & Electronic Media with a concentration in News. She is involved on campus with The Volunteer Channel's The Morning Jem and Pi chapter of Chi Omega.
A trench near the village of Bisober in Tigray. Eduardo Soteras/AFP via Getty Images

In late October, while a peace deal was being worked out in Egypt's northern Tigray region, Eritrean soldiers massacred more than 300 villagers in Tigray, witnesses and relatives of the victims told The Washington Post.

The war between the Ethiopian government and rebels from Tigray began in November 2020, when Tigrayan fighters seized multiple federal military bases. Thousands of people died before the cease-fire was announced on Nov. 2, and millions had been displaced from their homes.

The witnesses and relatives say that on Oct. 25, Eritrean forces allied with the Ethiopian troops began massacring people in at least 10 villages east of the town of Adwa. The soldiers were angry about losing a battle, the survivors told the Post, and the killings went on for a week. These massacres have not been reported on outside of Tigray, and the survivors waited to share their stories until Eritrean troops began to retreat from Tigray in late January.

The dead include children, elderly priests, and entire families. Among those killed were 92-year-old Gebremariam Niguse, his son, two daughters, a son-in-law, a daughter-in-law, and a 15-year-old granddaughter, Niguse's family said. Eritrean troops entered their village, Mariam Shewito, after Tigrayan forces left the area. The daughter-in-law was shot in front of her five children, the oldest one just 10, relatives told the Post, and the siblings, too scared to leave, spent the night by the bodies of their parents.

Survivors said at least 140 people were killed in Mariam Shewito over the course of three days, with the soldiers going from house to house shooting people and looting items. Satellite images from Planet Labs reviewed by the Post show at least 67 structures severely damaged during the time period witnesses said the massacre took place, while images from Maxar Technologies show what three experts say are military vehicles less than three miles from Mariam Shewito.

Story continues

The United Nations International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia and other human rights groups have documented atrocities committed during the war by Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers and Tigrayan forces, including mass killings of civilians, gang rape, and sexual slavery. One of the women who spoke with the Post said she was willing to talk about the loss of seven of her relatives in a massacre because "we want the world to hear what happened. We want people to know what happened to our families."

You may also like

Jurassic-era insect discovered at Arkansas Walmart

Why space experts want to establish a lunar time zone

The Dilbert debate: Were newspapers right to 'cancel' the cartoon?
Tony Danker, director-general of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI

British businesses must embrace "progressive" values such as net zero and adopt "active diversity and inclusion strategies" if they want to attract Gen Z workers, according to the head of the UK's biggest business group.

Tony Danker, director general of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), will tell a Future of Work conference that young people are increasingly making career choices based on a company's social values, insisting: Its no longer just they work for us  we have to work for them.

In a speech in London, Mr Danker will urge business to be "progressive - with a small p", adding that: Without strong societal values, a central sense of purpose, a commitment to better employee lives, and active diversity and inclusion strategies, you will lose the talent war.

He will say that "younger workers especially are looking for value and purpose in their jobs" and are willing to "challenge" senior leaders on "net zero credentials, commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion, or public advocacy".

Mr Danker will say: "More than ever, it is a competition about values: the values a company holds and the values of work it promotes. Much of this is driven by the different generations now in the workforce, and their expectations of how business should contribute to their own lives and wider society."

There is increasing evidence that Gen Z workers - born from 1997 onwards - are demanding a better work-life balance, fair pay and jobs that provide personal fulfilment. Many are willing to walk away from jobs if their expectations were not met, according to a recent Oliver Wyman survey.

Mr Danker will add: "A lot of this is also about the values we hold as bosses towards employment  its no longer just they work for us  we have to work for them.

The CBI boss will also warn that businesses must pick up the slack of an overstretched NHS in order to keep Britain working and help save 60bn a year.

A shift towards early retirement, greater mental health difficulties, and desire for more flexible working has brought about fundamental change in the labour market that requires a "major rethink" by the Government, he will say.

The speech will warn that businesses need to "lead on preventing illness because the NHS just doesn't have the bandwidth", estimating that employer-led health interventions could reduce the impact of ill-health on the UK workforce by up to 20pc by preventing common physical and mental health risks.

He will also repeat the CBI's call for a "childcare revolution", with more financial support for working parents and flexible working options for mothers and fathers. Reforms are needed in order to reverse a decline in the workforce since the pandemic, Mr Danker will argue.
A Connecticut woman has alleged that her two German Shepherds were shot, beheaded, and skinned after a hunter mistook them for wolves.

The dogs, Cimo and Lieben, were both 10 years old and belonged to the family of Erin Caviola in Ridgefield, Connecticut.

They disappeared in November last year and Ms Caviola has told Fox 5 New York that she thinks they were killed by a Putnam County hunter.

She told News 12 that the dogs were shot on 18 November on property that borders hers, adding that she received a call from an individual on 12 December telling her that the hunter had shared images of the dogs after they had been shot.

This is horrific. It has been absolutely devastating. We dont know how this can happen, to look at these two beautiful animals and do that, she said.

Ms Caviola told Fox 5 that on the morning the dogs vanished, the family noticed that part of the fence surrounding the familys home had been pulled down.

Department of Energy & Environmental Protection officials said they thought a bear was behind the damage, and Ms Caviola told Fox 5 it allowed the dogs to jump over the fence and run off.

In the middle of the night, we had a bear break down part of our fence because we have beehives on our property, and the dogs mustve run out, Ms Caviola told News 12.

Cimo and Lieben (change.org / Justice for Cimo and Lieben)

The family spent weeks searching for the dogs, engaging their community. After almost a month of unsuccessful searching, the individual reached out to Ms Caviola, sharing an image of what seemed to be the remains of the dogs.

The pictures that we got was them posed on the ground, laying there, and you could clearly see that they both had been shot in the chest, she told Fox 5.

The family spent weeks searching for their pets after they disappeared (change.org / Justice for Cimo and Lieben)

The Department of Energy & Environmental Protection was handed the case by the police and Mike Konschak was arrested but it remains unclear what he was hunting for, according to the local Fox affiliate.

When you put an animal to sleep, you can comfort them, Ms Caviola told Fox. This was a little different. Its the act of them being shot and killed but the act of what happened to them after is very concerning to us.

Story continues

In a change.org petition, Ms Caviola argues that Mr Konschak should have his hunting licence revoked and that he be charged with animal cruelty. As of Wednesday, almost 60,000 people have signed.

The family is calling for the man they believe responsible to have his hunting licence revoked (change.org / Justice for Cimo and Lieben)

The petition description states that the dogs were killed in a yard off of Topcrest Lane, connecting to sparse woods that touched their own yard and the yards of many young families, as well as Ridgebury Elementary School in Ridgefield, CT. The man who did this is named Mike Konschak. He forged permission to be hunting on private property in this area as he is from New York.

She said he has been charged with forgery, evidence tampering, and violating hunting rules. Hes set to appear in court on Wednesday.

Parts of the remains have been buried in the familys backyard.

We were hoping to have many more memories from them, Ms Caviola told Fox 5.

Ms Caviola said the individual who called on 12 December said the hunter had visited a taxidermist to have the hides tanned, but that he was rejected because they were dogs.

We confirmed that was them and from that moment on is when an investigation started, Ms Caviola told News 12.

The local outlet reported that Mr Konschaks case is sealed at this time as hes applied for accelerated rehabilitation. Its a probation programme conducted ahead of a trial which lets offenders without a criminal history to have their charges dropped if they finish the programme.

Lawyer Brian Romano represents Mr Konschak, telling News 12 that there is a sealing order on this file. Due to that, Im unable to comment at this time.

Its been very stressful and nothing that we would want any family to go through, which is really why we would like to get this out, Ms Caviola added to the outlet.

Super smart, very affectionate, Ms Caviola said of the dogs. They were very well trained and friendly and just absolute joy that we had in our lives.

According to News 12, there was a tent and a feeder in the area where the pets were shot. A neighbour told the outlet they belonged to Mr Konschak. The owner of the property told the outlet that she had allowed Mr Konschak to hunt on her property for about two decades, adding that comes at times during the hunting season but that she doesnt keep a close eye on him.

The Independent has reached out to the Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection and Mr Romano for comment.
A woman in her 70s was found stabbed to death early Wednesday in a home on Bellcroft Drive in Lake Forest. (OnScene.TV)

A woman in her 70s was found stabbed to death in her Lake Forest home early Wednesday, and investigators arrested her daughter on suspicion of homicide, officials said.

Courtney Baker, 32, who also lives at the two-story home, was interviewed and booked into Orange County Jail, officials said.

Few details were released. Carrie Braun, a spokesperson for the Orange County Sheriff's Department, said a man in his 70s called authorities from the home at 1:50 a.m. with a report of unknown trouble.

When deputies arrived, they found the victim with multiple stab wounds. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

No other injuries were reported. Officials declined to identify the victim or the man who called deputies, who they said is not believed to have been involved in the incident.

Baker was being held in lieu of a $1-million bond, according to jail records.

Investigators have obtained a warrant to search the home, Braun said.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
A former employee of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services has been indicted for fraud, theft, and bribery due to their illicit handling of the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance funds.

>> TRENDING: Man hospitalized after Springfield shooting

In 2020, Congress passed various programs to address the economic crisis that stemmed from COVID-19 shut downs, including the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program.

The PUA program expanded and loosened eligibility requirements for unemployment benefits to financially help more Americans during the pandemic. However, as a consequence, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS), the agency responsible for distributing PUA benefits in Ohio, received an unprecedented number of unemployment compensation claims, a spokesperson for the Office of the Ohio Inspector General stated.

This increase in claims necessitated ODJFS to hire intermittent and temporary contracted workers to process the claims, the spokesperson informed.

ODJFS later discovered millions of dollars of disbursals as fraudulent out of the $7.6 billion given out, the spokesperson claimed. To address the issue, an investigative group was established that consisted of the Office of the Ohio Inspector General, Ohio State Highway Patrol, United States Department of Labor-Office of Inspector General, and ODJFS.

During the investigation, the Office of the Ohio Inspector General found that Donesha Shepard, who was hired by ODJFS to serve as an intermittent customer service representative, improperly accessed and removed the fraud-knowing failure designation.

Her actions allowed ineligible claimants to receive a total of $799,986.

Investigators analyzed telephone and social media records, and discovered Shepard advertised, both by word of mouth and by her Facebook postings, that she could remove, for a fee, the fraud holds or denial-of-benefit designations on PUA claims for ineligible claimants, the spokesperson said.

Story continues

From a review of Shepards Facebook messages, investigators learned that after a payment fee was agreed upon between Shepard and a claimant, Shepard would submit a note in the ODJFS PUA claims system to remove the fraud hold designation on the claim in order for the money to be disbursed, the spokesperson continued.

The investigation showed that the recipients lived near Shepards residence, had familial connections, involved inmates who made digital payments to Shepard, or were connected to Shepard by telephone calls and text messages.

The Hamilton County Grand Jury indicted Donesha Shepard and three others on counts of theft, tampering with records, telecommunication fraud, and bribery.
A top official at a leading US social justice organisation has resigned, after allegations she is a white woman who falsely claimed to have Latina, Arab, and South Asian heritage.

Raquel Saraswati, previously the chief equity and inclusion officer at American Friends Service Committee, has left the group, a spokesperson confirmed to USA Today.

Raquel Saraswati, who is facing public allegations that she misrepresented her background and past associations, has informed us of her intention to separate from the organization, the AFSC told the paper.

The resignation from the group follows multiple allegations that Ms Saraswati misrepresented her ethnic heritage while become a prominent activist and media commentator on Muslim and LGTBQ+ issues.

An open letter earlier this month from anonymous writers accused Ms Saraswati of cultural vulturism and using deceit to obtain appearances as a moderate Muslim commentator on conservative news networks like Fox News and Newsmax.

She established her public-facing career in conservative ciciles in a post-9/11 context rife with anti-Muslim bigotry and the search for token Muslim voices, the letter reads.

Carol Perone, Ms Saraswatis mother, told The Intercept her daughter is white and of German, Italian, and British roots, and is, in her words, as white as the driven snow.

Shes chosen to live a lie, and I find that very, very sad, Mr Perone said, adding, I dont know why shes doing what shes doing.

Another relative also told the site Ms Saraswati is in fact white.

The Independent has contacted Ms Saraswati for comment.

Before being accused of lying about her identity, Ms Saraswati was recognised by the National Organization for Women and Rad Girls for her social justice work, and served on the Philadelphia mayors LGBT affairs commission.

The scandal around the activist is reminiscent of other recent instances, including congressman George Santos, who falsely claimed to be Jewish and related to Holocaust survivors, and Rachel Dolezal, who led a Washington chapter of the NAACP and claimed for years to be Black before being publicly outed as a white woman.
Students look for job during a spring campus job fair in Xining, capital of northwest China's Qinghai Province, March 24, 2021. [Photo/Xinhua]

The Ministry of Education has launched a special campaign to boost employment for new college graduates during the spring recruitment season, according to a notice issued by the ministry on Tuesday.

A record 11.58 million college students are expected to graduate this year, about 820,000 more than last year, according to the ministry.

The ministry has asked administrators of universities and colleges to continue to visit companies to expand employment opportunities for new graduates.

Administrators of departments, teachers and student counselors are also encouraged to visit companies to assist in the effort, the notice said.

For universities that had a below average employment rate last year, administrators should visit more than 100 companies, and deans of departments that saw below average employment should visit more than 10.

Meanwhile, universities are being encouraged to invite more companies to job fairs on their campuses, to hold livestreaming activities promoting jobs and to share opportunities for work with other universities.

Universities should also guide college graduates to think objectively about their individual capabilities and societal demands, choose realistic careers and take action as soon as possible, the notice said.

In addition, special assistance should be given to students from once-impoverished families, as well as those with financial difficulties and disabilities, and school administrators, teachers and counselors should offer them one-on-one guidance, the notice said.

Local authorities are required to establish a special task force on employment for new college graduates, and coordinate resources from different government departments so more public employment resources are geared toward college graduates, it added.
Tesla built a gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada in 2015. Tesla

A Tesla production associate said they loved their job at the Gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada.

They said their work was challenging and inspiring, and rarely directly involved Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

The factory worker described some of the perks of working on the production line at Tesla.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with a Tesla production associate, who left the company late last year. They spoke anonymously to protect their privacy. Their identity and employment have been verified by Insider, and their words have been edited for length and clarity.

Working for Tesla was one of the best jobs that I've ever had.

I've always been the type of person that likes to tinker with things and build things. When I was a kid, my dad would help me take apart hard drives and I always had so much fun with that. Working for Tesla and being able to work on those machines made me want to start pursuing an engineering degree because I realized how much I loved it.

When I started in 2020 as a contractor at the Gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada, the main reason I wanted to work there was for the reliable transportation. Tesla had shuttles for the employees and at that time, I was unable to drive myself to the factory. They also had really good benefits and they were able to offer the level of pay I needed at that point in time.

It was my first time working in a factory and I was really nervous about it. During orientation, they made it sound a lot more scary and dangerous than it was, because in the manufacturing industry there's always a level of risk. I was in the battery module department so I was working on the machines that bond the wires to the battery packs.

Working at Tesla isn't all about Elon Musk

I wish people understood that working at Tesla is not like what you see in the news. I feel like a lot of the news that surrounds Tesla is negative due to our CEO. For example, my mom would send me text messages like, "Your boss did this thing again." And I'd say, "First of all he's not my boss. He's just my CEO."

Story continues

For the most part, we ignored that kind of stuff. We were focused on what the company was built around and less on what our CEO was doing or tweeting. And, at least at the Gigafactory, we didn't see him very much.

The production associate said their work had little to do with Elon Musk. Steve Nesius/Reuters

I was nervous when I first started working at Tesla because of what I'd heard about Elon, but I never personally experienced any of it. Everyone's read the articles saying he sometimes fires people that are right in front of him. But, I think if you're not doing your job or something bad happens, I can understand how he'd react. That's his baby.

I know he is extremely controversial and has said a lot of things that have made people upset, but for our staff, working at Tesla wasn't really about him. A lot of people that worked in the factory were proud of what they did; they were striving for the goal of creating a better, cleaner environment. They also really enjoyed the work. And almost everyone I worked with wanted to own a Tesla because they loved seeing how they were built and being a part of it.

I remember during one of the SpaceX launches, many employees whose shifts were ending decided to stay an extra couple of minutes to gather around a computer monitor and watch it because we were so inspired by what the company was doing.

The Tesla production line was hard work, but there was a lot of opportunity

I would rack up around 14,000 steps per day and sometimes even more on really busy days. The people that pushed carts with supplies could get 20,000 to 30,000 steps and it could be a really labor intensive job. But, you have to figure out how to make it work for you. I liked to listen to podcasts and audiobooks while I worked. My supervisor also gave us flexibility.

He'd say, "If you don't like this, just let me know and we will find an area that suits you better."

The factory worker said they fixed automated machines that bond wires to the EV batteries. YouTube/National Geographic

I'm an introvert so it was kind of the perfect job for me. I was mainly by myself, dealing with my machinery. If I worked with somebody else, nine times out of 10, we were too busy to talk to each other and if we weren't too busy, most of us had very similar interests. We were all a little bit nerdy.

It wasn't always obvious when production picked up because the line was mostly automated and I worked on keeping the machine up and running. Though, there were definitely some very busy days where we could tell we were under a bit of a production boost. You would notice a lot more pings from leads to your supervisor and they'd be like, "Hey, why is that machine down for like five minutes?"

I made a lot of close friends at Tesla. It's a very social place. We'd take trips to Lake Tahoe and we would have little parties or we would go out drinking. I still keep in contact with a lot of my friends from Tesla.

I had to leave relatively recently due to some family issues. I talked to my supervisor recently and asked, "If I came back, what are my chances of getting back on the team?"

Do you work for Tesla or have some insight to share? Reach out to the reporter from a non-work email at gkay@insider.com

Read the original article on Business Insider
State Attorney Monique Worrell defended her offices track record during a lengthy interview Tuesday, saying she was being blamed for a system that was understaffed, underfunded, and ill-equipped to deal with the problems of today.

For months, Worrell has been asking lawmakers to change the juvenile justice system to allow teens to be held for longer periods of time and up to their 21st birthday. The maximum they can be held, even for the most serious crimes, is three months. On Tuesday, Rep. LaVon Bracy Davis filed a bill for the 2023 session including many of her requests.

Still, Worrell called criticism about her not being willing to prosecute more teenagers as adults misguided.

>>> STREAM CHANNEL 9 EYEWITNESS NEWS LIVE <<<

Instead of talking about whether we charge them as a child, or we charge them as an adult, we need to recognize that they are children, she said. We need to fix our juvenile justice system so that it can adequately deal with offenses at any level that are in fact committed by children.

Worrells office charges teenagers as adults at rates far below the state average for many crimes, including murder.

She said prosecutors will walk into her office with their recommendations based on a variety of factors, including the childs history, whether their behavior is escalating, whether theyre a danger to the community, the likelihood their behavior can stop, and how old they are.

Worrell is a longtime advocate of criminal justice reform and has repeatedly called for more resources and focus to be placed on rehabilitating offenders alongside punishing them.

Read: Deputies release minute-by-minute timeline of shootings that killed woman, reporter & girl

While she was prohibited from speaking about many specifics regarding Moses case, she again said her office handled his crimes appropriately, even though only one took place under her watch.

No passes given, there have been no breaks given, she said. Every single case was thoroughly documented, vetted, researched, and there were no issues with any way that any of these cases were handled.

Story continues

Questions have been raised about the circumstances following Moses 2021 arrest  but on the actions of deputies, not prosecutors.

Read: Deputy did not test gun found during Moses 2021 arrest, sheriffs office confirms

The attorney pointed to an armed robbery of an Amazon driver in January as an example of why charging teens as adults only delay when they will return to the street to commit another crime. She said one of the two men was convicted of an adult offense when they were a teenager. The robbery was carried out three months after he was released from a six-year sentence.

Finally, she called on lawmakers to raise prosecutors pay, as the current starting salary in Florida is $55,000. Worrell said the staff she hires stays for a few months to get experience, then switches to a private law firm for at least double that money.

Last year, Gov. DeSantis vetoed her request to fund a daycare in her office, which she planned to set up to incentivize her staff to remain in their positions. She said as of Tuesday, her office had 38 vacancies.

I think that the legislature has just not invested in our system in the way that they should, she said. Im hoping that they will hear this cry for help and that theyll act on it.

Read: Deputy arrested for soliciting minor faces additional child pornography charges, officials say

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.
Screenshot: Lucasfilm

The Mandalorian loves itself a reference, whether its vaunted Star Wars heroes, elements of expanded universes past, or name drops and teases of its producers prior work in the galaxy far, far away. But rarely does the show drop Chekov-style referenceslinking to the past to set up a future to come.



Early in The Apostate, as Din Djarin and Grogu make their way back to the planet Nevarro in the formers new (ish) Naboo Starfighter, we pause on a moment in hyperspace as Grogu gazes out into the stretched stars and lights of FTL travel... but what he sees isnt just starlight.

Read more

Fading out in the background of hyperspace as quickly as they appear, the Starfighter is shadowed by at first one, and then two, and then a whole herd of massive, tentacled creatures that look like massive alien whales. Its the first time in live-action Star Wars weve seen hyperspace used by something organic, and the first time weve seen this kind of creaturebut its not the first time theyve appeared in Star Wars.

Screenshot: Lucasfilm

What Were the Space Whales in The Mandalorian Season 3?

These space whales are called Purrgils and are some of the oldest creatures in the Star Wars galaxy. The size of starships, the sentient beings live in the vacuum of deep space and feed on a gaseous material called Clouzon-36. Although Clouzon-36 was also harvested by the other sentient beings of the galaxy to be refined into hypermatter fuel, this synthesis was a natural byproduct of the Purrgils respiratory systems, making them the rare organic species capable of natural hyperspace travel.

The Purrgils are so ancient that their method of folding space and time and creating simu-tunnels of hyperspeed travel are thought to have inspired the nascent spacefaring beings of the galaxy to develop technology-based hyperspace navigation, sowing the seeds for galactic civilization to exist as we know it today in the Star Wars universe.

Story continues

Screenshot: Lucasfilm

Where Have We Seen the Space Whales in Star Wars Before?

The Purrgils made their debut in the 2016 season two episode of Star Wars Rebels, The Call, where the crew of the Ghost came across a swarm of Purrgils while searching for Clouzon-36 that their Rebel Cell could use to fuel their ships. Helping the swarm feast on the Clouzon gas they needed to surviveafter being hampered by a nearby mining facility harvesting it for fuel synthesisthe young Jedi apprentice Ezra Bridger forged a connection in the Force to the creatures, allowing him to use his abilities to influence the Purrgils into coming to the aid of the Ghost and destroying the mining plant.

All this has a massive payoff two seasons later in Rebels series finale. Battling Grand Admiral Thrawn aboard his Star Destroyer Chimaera over Ezras home planet of Lothal, Ezra used his connection to call on a swarm of massive Purrgil to overwhelm Thrawns forcesas well as transport the Chimaera, with Thrawn and Ezra aboard, into hyperspace, seemingly never to be seen again. Well, that is, until Rebels own epilogue teased that Ahsoka Tanos next adventure would be to travel the galaxy to find Ezra once more.

Screenshot: Lucasfilm

What Do the Space Whales Mean for The Mandalorian and Ahsoka?

The Purrgils appearance in The Mandalorian season three arent necessarily a teaser for things to come in this show, but in another spinoff series: Ahsoka.

When the former Jedi made her live-action debut in the Mandalorian season two episode The Jedi, she made it clear that she was still hunting both Thrawn and Ezra, searching for information about the Grand Admirals whereabouts from his former officers. All these years later with her own spinoff series confirmed, weve since learned that the self-titled Ahsoka will follow her as she, alongside Rebels own Mandalorian, Sabine Wren, attempt to track their former ally. Given the Purrgils connection to Ezras disappearance in the climax of Rebels, Mandalorian sowing the seeds for their appearance to come in the series makes a lot of senseespecially as one of the rare moments of nostalgic cameo-connections the show makes that doesnt immediately bludgeon you over the head with what it means for the wider Star Wars galaxy.





Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, whats next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

More from Gizmodo

Sign up for Gizmodo's Newsletter. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) casually dismissed one of the nations founding principles Tuesday morning, telling those gathered for his annual interfaith breakfast that he cant separate his Christian beliefs from his public duties.

Dont tell me about no separation of church and state. State is the body, church is the heart. You take the heart out of the body, the body dies, Adams said at the main branch of the New York Public Library, where religious leaders from around the city were seated.

I cant separate my belief because Im an elected official. When I walk, I walk with God. When I talk, I talk with God. When I put policies in place, I put them in with a God-like approach to them  thats who I am, he said.

I ... will always be a child of God, and I wont apologize about being a child of God, he added.

The comments elicited a smattering of applause.

At another point in his 25-minute speech, which at times resembled a sermon, Adams asserted that when we took prayers out of schools, guns came into schools.

At another, he took out a yellow sponge from behind his podium to use as a metaphor for people ingesting bad news during the course of everyday life. In an apparent reference to the journalism industry concentrated in New York City, Adams said there were too many people who are professionals at bringing bad news because theres something exciting about bringing bad news to people.

When we took prayers out of schools, guns came into schools.



 NYC Mayor Eric Adams (D) speaking at the New York Public Library interfaith breakfast pic.twitter.com/2GkxKCB5bX  The Recount (@therecount) February 28, 2023

As an elected official, Adams was required to swear to uphold the U.S. Constitution, in addition to New York state laws, when he took his oath of office in January 2022.

Story continues

The Founding Fathers quite famously rejected the idea of religion in government, firmly establishing a secular framework instead. Thomas Jefferson coined the phrase a wall of separation between Church & State in an 1802 letter that became enormously influential on interpretations of the First Amendment.

Related...
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin will take part in a CNN town hall next week amid speculation that he is considering seeking the GOP nomination for president in 2024.

Youngkin will meet with host Jake Tapper on March 9 at 9 p.m. Eastern time to discuss education, a topic that the Virginia chief executive leaned into during his 2021 campaign  and during his time as governor.

During the Town Hall, Governor Youngkin will take questions from a live studio audience, and we will hear directly from parents, teachers, students and stakeholders about education and the issues that matter the most to families in Virginia and across the nation, a CNN release said.

Youngkin, who formerly served as the co-CEO of the private equity firm the Carlyle Group, ran for governor on a platform emphasizing parents role in students education and railing against diversity initiatives that he has called an effort at political indoctrination from the left.

One of his first actions as governor was an executive order to ban public schools from teaching critical race theory, which examines how race has played a role in U.S. laws and institutions and is mostly taught at institutions of higher education.

Youngkin also asked his education secretary last month to look into the Advanced Placement African American studies course that has become the subject of controversy after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantiss (R) administration rejected its use in schools.

Youngkin has been included in some hypothetical 2024 GOP primary polls. He told NBC News in an interview in January that he was humbled by discussion about his potential candidacy, but he did not commit to whether he would run.

The town hall will air during the networks 9 p.m. time slot, which has remained without a permanent host since Chris Cuomo was fired over the role he played in helping his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), during his sexual harassment scandal.

Tapper hosted during the slot from September through the November midterm elections, but a range of different hosts have occupied the hour.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's information regulator said on Wednesday it would look into an official complaint accusing Alphabet Inc's YouTube of illegally collecting data from millions of children.

The complaint lodged by father-of-three Duncan McCann, who is leading the campaign and supported by his employer the advocacy group 5Rights, said the video-streaming platform had broken the newly implemented law by gathering "the location, viewing habits and preferences" of up to 5 million children.

Countries have been wrestling to strike the right balance with legislation that protects social media users, particularly children, from harmful content without damaging free speech.

McCann said in a statement that YouTube should change the design of its platform and delete data it had been gathering.

"It is a massive, unlicensed, social experiment on our children with uncertain consequences," McCann said.

A spokesperson for YouTube said it had taken steps to bolster child privacy with more protective default settings, and made investments to protect children and families by launching a dedicated kids app and introducing new data practices.

"We remain committed to continuing our engagement with the ICO on this priority work, and with other key stakeholders including children, parents and child protection experts," the YouTube spokesperson said in a statement.

Britain's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said it would consider the complaint carefully.

"The Children's code makes clear that children are not like adults online, and their data needs meaningful protections," the ICO's Deputy Commissioner, Regulatory Supervision, Stephen Bonner said in a statement.

Britain's Children's code requires providers to meet 15 design and privacy standards to protect children, including limiting collection of their location and other personal data.

In 2019, YouTube was fined $170 million by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to settle allegations that it broke federal law by collecting personal information about children.

(Reporting by Farouq Suleiman; Editing by Alexander Smith)
During his evening address on March 1, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he held a three-hour long meeting with the leaders of Ukraine's energy companies, lawmakers, and military officials to discuss the stability of Ukraine's energy infrastructure and prepare for next winter.

"Winter is over. It was very difficult, and it's no exaggeration that every Ukrainian felt this difficulty. But still, we managed to provide Ukraine with energy and warmth," Zelensky said.

However, Zelensky warned that the threat to Ukraine's energy infrastructure still remains.

Ukrainian Defense Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate reported on Feb. 27 that Russia is still intent on destroying Ukraine's energy infrastructure.

Since October, Russia has been carrying out missile and drone attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, causing significant damage and numerous casualties.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy convened an extended meeting to discuss Ukraines energy infrastructure with key firms in the energy sector.

Source: President Zelenskyys video address

Quote from Zelenskyy: "Today I convened several crucial meetings. Everyone involved in ensuring the stability of our energy system took part in the energy meeting. The meeting was long: it lasted three hours. The following energy firms [took part]: Naftogaz, Energoatom, Ukrenergo, Ukrhydroenergo, and others. The government, the Office [of the President], the head of the Verkhovna Rada [Ukrainian parliament] energy committee, the military and defence intelligence [also took part].

The winter is over. It was very difficult, and I would not be exaggerating if I say that every Ukrainian has felt that difficulty. But we were able to provide energy and heat for Ukraine.

Yes, there is an ongoing threat to our energy system. But the work [to maintain and protect] the energy system is also ongoing.

We have set out the main tasks to successfully wrap up this heating season. And we have already started preparing for the next one; each of the meetings participants was given their share of work. When we see threats, we find ways to deal with them."

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron






Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, addresses a meeting marking the 90th anniversary of the Party School of the CPC Central Committee and the opening ceremony of its 2023 spring semester in Beijing, China, March 1, 2023. [Photo/Xinhua]

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, on Wednesday called on Party schools to stay true to their founding mission of fostering talent for and contributing wisdom to the Party.

Xi, also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks while addressing a meeting marking the 90th anniversary of the Party School of the CPC Central Committee and the opening ceremony of its 2023 spring semester.

Party schools at all levels should stay committed to their founding mission and make new contributions to building a modern socialist country in all respects and advancing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts, Xi said.

Cai Qi and Ding Xuexiang, both members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, also attended the event.

Xi pointed out that Party schools must focus on the central task and serve the overall interests of the country.

He emphasized the significance of adhering to the right orientation in running Party schools and urged the schools to align their thinking, political stance and action with the CPC Central Committee.

Party schools should closely follow the needs of the Party and give full play to their strengths to cultivate officials needed by the CPC, Xi said, adding they should also offer suggestions and proposals on major issues that the Party needs to study and address.

Noting that nurturing talent for the CPC is the unique value of Party schools which serve as the main channel for educating and training officials, Xi called on Party schools to play an active role in fostering key officials for governance who are capable of shouldering the task of national rejuvenation.

Party schools need to step up the education and training in Marxist theory, with a focus on using the latest achievements in adapting Marxism to the Chinese context and the needs of the times to achieve unity in thought, will and action, as well as enhancing cohesion and forging the Party's soul with the Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, Xi said.

Noting that Party schools are places where leading officials strengthen their Party consciousness, Xi called on Party schools at all levels to guide and help leading officials in adopting the right attitude towards power, performance and career to preserve the political character of Communists.

Xi stressed that leading officials must improve their capabilities in all respects, strive to be highly proficient in their work, and make constant efforts to enhance their professionalism to be more competent in their work as leading officials.

Acknowledging the crucial role of Party schools in contributing wisdom to the CPC, Xi emphasized the need for them to produce more quality output in various domains including the study and interpretation of the Party's new theories, boosting the Party's theoretical innovation and offering suggestions and proposals to the Party and the government.

Party schools are the vital frontier of the Party's ideological work, which must be held in hands of those loyal to the Party and Marxism, Xi said.

Stressing rigorous governance over Party schools and their teaching quality, Xi underscored the key task of building a strong team and demanded strenuous efforts in implementing the strategy of invigorating the schools by developing a quality workforce.

Upholding the Party's overall leadership over the work of Party schools is the CPC's most fundamental experience in running Party schools, Xi said, urging Party committees and governments at all levels and departments involved to take actions to support the development of Party schools.

Chen Xi presided over the meeting. He said Xi's speech fully and deeply expounded the founding mission of Party schools, and serves as a guideline document for the development of Party schools in the new era.

Chen urged Party schools at all levels to thoroughly study and implement the guiding principles of Xi's speech, and to make new advances in their work on the new journey.

The meeting was held via teleconference, with parallel sessions at the executive leadership academies in Pudong, Jinggangshan and Yan'an.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a conference call with heads of Ukraines Security Service, intelligence services, and the military to discuss the situation on the front and in frontline areas.

Source: President Zelenskyys video address

Quote from Zelenskyy: "Today, I also held a long, detailed conference call with those in charge of various state defence agencies. The military, the Security Service, Defence Intelligence, foreign intelligence, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, other government officials, and the Office [of the President].

The situation on all fronts remains under our control. Khortytsia, Tavria, Odesa, North  [commanders of each of these operational-strategic groups of troops delivered] reports on the situation over the past day."

Details: President Zelenskyy noted that in addition to discussing the situation on these various fronts themselves, the meeting participants discussed frontline areas, which are pounded by Russian forces every day and every night: Nikopol and other areas in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Kherson Oblast, parts of Donbas located near the front, Kharkiv and Kharkiv Oblast, and Sumy and Chernihiv oblasts.

Zelenskyy said that people in those areas "are not at the front, but still directly at war" because Russia continues trying to destroy everything they have.

Quote from Zelenskyy: "When our military and all our defence and security forces are preparing for new actions, we also intend for these actions to gradually restore security to those who are now [living] near the frontline.

Every time our flag advances, our people will see more safety  on the territories liberated from the occupation forces; on the territories that will recede further from the front; and in those areas near the border where the defeat of the invading forces will finally restore peace.

I am grateful to everyone who is ready to help our country to continue its [military] actions! I am grateful to everyone in our defence and security forces who are already preparing [for such actions]!"

Story continues

Details: President Zelenskyy also thanked all those who are doing everything they can to ensure that life continues in areas near the front and those that are pounded by Russian attacks: the State Emergency Service, police forces, social and administrative services, local governments, businesses and volunteers.

He also thanked border guards and all other military personnel who are fighting to hold back the enemy forces, destroying their positions and logistics, and bringing Russias defeat closer.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron








The Pittsburgh Penguins played the first game of their annual Dads Trip Tuesday night.

For much of the evening, it seemed like a lot of them would be lucky their fathers didnt send them to bed without dinner.

But despite turning in a largely dishwater-dull performance, the Penguins salvaged a 3-1 victory over a watered-down Nashville lineup at Bridgestone Arena.

Read the full recap from our partners at Sports Now Group Pittsburgh here.

Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts.

Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW

TRENDING NOW:

Teen kidnapped in Cranberry during armed home invasion; Police believe family was targeted Target 11 Exclusive: Man accused of impregnating foster child in McKeesport dies Local mother speaks out after daughters hair allegedly set on fire at Westinghouse Academy VIDEO: Student awarded for reporting gun in local school bathroom DOWNLOAD the Channel 11 News app for breaking news alerts
In a joint meeting of Amherst and Nelson counties board of supervisors described as a historic occasion, officials discussed potentially collaborating on a new shared agricultural complex to serve both jurisdictions and agreed a working group of stakeholders is needed to further explore the idea.

During the Feb. 21 joint meeting in the Amherst County boards meeting room, neither board was ready to commit to purchasing a property in northern Amherst County for a $53 million complex described as the Amherst/Nelson Agricultural Complex. According to a presentation from Mark Smith, of Architectural Partners, a local firm commissioned to prepare a preliminary feasibility study a site close to the Amherst-Nelson line on U.S. 29, the complex could feature an arena, office space and activities that include equestrian sports, weddings, corporate events, hiking, camping and a range of other indoor and outdoor uses.

Tom Martin, the Amherst boards chair, said he could not recall any other time the two boards have met in joint session together and offered a sincere and gracious welcome to the Nelson supervisors. The purpose of the meeting was not only to discuss one specific property but to discuss collaborating in ways that are mutually beneficial to both counties and keeping open lines of communications.

You guys are our friends; youre our neighbors; but more importantly, youre our family, Martin said.

Jesse Rutherford, the Nelson boards chair, said both counties share a lot of things and have helped each other out tremendously in past calamities and emergencies. A good, healthy relationship between the two governing bodies means residents of both counties benefit, Rutherford said.

Amherst and Nelson, you know, we share a lot of things, Rutherford said.

The roughly 250-acre site in northern Amherst that Smith presented a report on is assessed at $953,300, though an actual purchase price will need to be negotiated if the counties move forward, according to the study. Utilities are the heavy lifting for the site, Smith said, and it currently does not have public water or sanitary sewer service.

I know water was a big issue, Smith said, adding of private wells: We feel like you can get enough water for this site.

The site layout includes a 100-square-foot arena with a conference room, kitchen and office space; a 24,000-square-foot equestrian center and cattle barn, a 6,000-square-foot farmers market and warehouse, 15 acres for fairgrounds, a 20,000-square-foot equipment training area, a greenhouse, a 16-cabin campground area and a riding/ATV trail traversing the property, according to the presentation.

Chris Bryant, an advocate for the complex and member of the Amherst farming business community, said the first and most important focus of the proposed facility is to have a centrally located center to provide career and technical education training for both counties highs school students and adults.

These programs will provide skilled training for local jobs. Developing a skilled workforce will attract more business to the areas, Bryant said. There is support from both high schools and as well as both [Central Virginia and Piedmont Valley] community colleges for this program.

The second focus, Bryant said, is to development a center large enough to accommodate crowds for events such as regional fairs, rodeos, livestock shows, sales and others. The proposed property is almost exactly equidistant from the counties two high schools and would allow more focused, intensive and detailed training for Amherst and Nelson youth, he said.

It is conveniently located on a major highway that is visible from the road and offers plenty of room for growth, Bryant said. Both counties need a skilled workforce; both counties want to provide opportunities for residents to acquire job skills and find careers close to home, support future generations and keep the community growing. We all ask: why is everyone going off to college and never come back to Nelson or Amherst County. Its because we dont have a facility to provide skillsets for the jobs that are needed here.

Bryant emphasized the farming communities of Amherst and Nelson arent asking the two boards to fund the $53 million project. The two boards are asked to purchase the property and develop a working group to seek funding opportunities, largely through federal and state sources, Bryant said.

With a business venture of this size, you have to crawl before you walk and walk before you run, Bryant said, adding there is support for the project from local business.

On concerns about Nelson spending taxpayer money on a facility in Amherst, Bryant said residents of both localities would share equal access.

There are no plans to have one county unfairly advantaged over the other, Bryant said. If we hope to attract businesses to the counties we need to be thinking proactively about providing a workforce for those businesses.

Bryant said he grew up in Roseland, graduated from Nelson County High School, lived in Nelson most his life and has operated a business in Amherst County for more than 25 years. He said hes had many conversations from residents of both counties who share in goals to make a living at a job they can be proud of and give back to their respective communities.

There is clearly an opportunity available for us to provide that for the residents of both counties, Bryant told the two boards. Lets try to move forward together with this project.

Amherst Supervisor Claudia Tucker said she feels the countys agricultural community greatly support the potential agricultural complex and asked Nelson supervisors of their take on public support.

Nelson Supervisor Ernie Reed said outside of principal agricultural leaders, he hasnt heard from anyone in Nelson fully supporting the project as a priority.

David Parr, Nelsons supervisor whose West District includes the Piney River community that borders Amherst on Virginia 151, said his experience has been the exact opposite of Reeds in that most of those he speaks with are supportive.

Parr said there have been some misconceptions and misinformation about what the envisioned project is and when he explains it to residents they are supportive.

I might have one in 10 say no, theyre still not interested in it, Parr said. But thats in the West District.

Martin said the two counties have looked into a similar agricultural center in Pittsylvania County that operates on just less than 20 acres. He said he understands the need and fully supports the countys agricultural community but referred to the $53 million plan as grandiose, pie in the sky and asked what the absolute need is.

Martin also questioned why the county would invest money into a site that doesnt have public water and sewer. He said he believes the site kind of went beyond the scope of whats needed.

Rutherford said workforce needs of the combined Nelson-Amherst area is a crucial issue for both boards to work on.

We need that relationship to work on the future workforce, Rutherford said. Is it in a $53 million bite or a $5 million to $10 million bite?

Anything of community value is built through relationships, Reed said of the two boards working together.

Reed, along with Nelson Supervisor Skip Barton has consistently spoken against Nelson participating in a project in Amherst, though he appeared supportive of joint initiatives on career and technical education initiatives.

Using taxpayer money in Nelson County to purchase property in Amherst County, I would not support, Reed said.

When Tucker asked Reed if he would support Amherst County spending taxpayer money in Nelson, Reed said: You know  Im not sure about that.

Barton said he feels the two boards need to concentrate on educational and training opportunities for Amherst-Nelson youth and called the $53 million price tag unacceptable and one he doesnt believe is feasible.

I am reluctant to spend Nelson money in Amherst, Barton said.

Rutherford said the Nelson board recently purchased about 300 acres around Nelsons high school that has water and sewer, high-speed internet and access to U.S. 29, suggesting it as a site location to consider. Amherst supervisors have said they are open to looking at other potential sites.

The money can exist, Rutherford said. The question is what it is that we want, what do we see as being the future and what that site location can look like.

Tucker added: When it comes to getting grants and things of that nature, were much stronger standing as two than we are individually as one.

Amherst Supervisor Jimmy Ayers said the company where he works fights tooth and nail trying to find plumbers, electricians and carpenters, and its beyond hard to find committed workers with talents and certifications to get work done.

I feel a [vocational-technical] center in our region here would benefit us greatly and open up the door for jurisdictions around us to participate in that as well, Ayers said. Is it this site or somewhere else  Im open to that. Its beneficial to come up with a location and a shared center.

Amherst Supervisor Drew Wade said he feels it is in both counties interest to keep working to find a location for an agricultural center of some kind. Amherst Supervisor David Pugh said he hasnt heard much support from residents in his district and said they are concerned about the price tag and lack of public water capacity.

I dont think this is the right spot to do this, Pugh said.

The input of key stakeholders, including representatives from both counties school systems, is key to future dialogue, Martin said. He said the Nelson land near its high school is a topic worth discussing and finding out what the actual needs verses wants are moving forward.

Parr said he feels if another piece of property is looked at the two boards need to focus on backbone needs of what a shared agricultural center can look like.

It got way into the weeds on different things, Parr said of the $53 million plan.

Both boards members expressed agreement the joint conversation is beneficial and worthwhile.

I think we only scratched the surface on ways we can work together, Reed said.
Reflecting on a year of war

This morning marks a year of Putins unnecessary war on Ukraine and yesterday we learned hes also threatening Moldova. Im afraid his danger to the survival of the human race will have to be addressed without remorse at some point. Best if a Russian took care of that rather soon.

Even today there is no threat to Russia from the West. Putin should be looking east as China covets Russias natural resources. Perhaps Xi is playing that card. He will help Russia and the West exhaust themselves by arming Russia. And to demonstrate the power of consistent lying, it appears that most Russians today believe he attacked to protect Russia from Ukraine, a laughable lie turned into a nightmare for an entire country. Beware the liar. Beware Putin. Beware Donald Trump. Beware Fox News.

Since I live very close to the CSX James River railroad line, Im very pleased to note that the Republicans have suddenly discovered railroad safety needs. In the last few years Ive noticed the number of tank cars on that line have increased markedly. Now many of them are carrying liquefied natural gas in the deodorized state. My neighbors and I in and around the town of Gladstone wouldnt even know there was a leak until the gas found a source of ignition. By then its a bit late.

The Ohio rail disaster occurred at least partially because politicians, including Donald Trump, protected the railroad industry from needed safety regulations while those corporations made billions in profits.

I would also like to remind readers that we can express our displeasure of Chinese government actions whenever we are shopping. Look at the label; if it says Made in China, dont buy.

I have stated before that knowledge of history may help prevent repeating the same mistake. I discovered a great example. In the Crimean War (1850s) Russia went to war to steal territory on its southern border. According to Wikipedia it took the then Russian Empire decades to recover from that disastrous war. Sound familiar?

Finally this week Id like to salute the best two Presidents of my lifetime. Both Jimmy Carter and Joe Biden have made me proud. Jimmy Carter avoided war while in office and he alerted us to climate change. His post Presidency period showed a man of action serving all humanity. Joe Bidens Presidential history is still being written but shows great promise. Way to go, Joe.

MIKE TABONY

Gladstone

Some questions for you, Ron

According to Ron DeSantis Florida is the state where woke goes to die. Perhaps a better way of putting it is Florida is the place that history and reality go to die. His objection to an AP Black History course is essentially saying you cant love your country and know its real history at the same time.

But then distorting history is something Southerners know something about. You find it in the notion of the Lost Cause and the characterization of the Civil War as the War Between the States. It wasnt really about slavery, it was simply the brave Southern states resisting the cruel Federal Government. The slaves were well fed, well taken care of, happy folks who had just been lucky enough to immigrate to the US without having to pay for their passage.

And then there is the curious notion that he is going to use anti-woke as a way to win the Presidential election in 2024. Why is a citizen in Minnesota or Oregon going to care about this? Is his campaign slogan going to be the South Will Rise Again? Does DeSantis have any thoughts on Ukraine, the Federal Budget, global warming? Is he running to be the President of only white people?

Of course, distorting history is a big thing these days. We just learned that right after Fox News called the election for Biden that, in the weeks following, viewers stopped watching Fox News in droves. Murdock, Hannity, Carlson and Ingram were in a tizzy, and they concluded the only way forward was to embrace Trumps lie about the election and specifically blame Dominion voting machines. Dominion was not amused and has sued Fox News and with the release of a number of emails it looks like they have a pretty good case.

So, think about, Fox joined Trump to overthrow the government because they had to protect their bottom line. Does it matter to you that you were played and lied to? Their next move is probably to edit the Capital Police tapes to show that the January 6th rioters were roaming the halls of the Capital trying to find Nancy Pelosi and tell her what a good job she was doing. As Thomas Friedman just wrote Fox News is to journalism what the Mafia is to capitalism-same genre, but a morally corrupt perversion of the real thing.

LOUIS HARPSTER

Shipman
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares spoke at Liberty Universitys convocation Wednesday, talking to students about faith, heroes and following Gods purpose for their lives.

The event marked Miyares second visit to campus since October.

As Miyares began his speech, he looked into the crowd and said, One of the things I want to talk to you all about, is what does it mean to answer Gods calling in your life?

He went on to tell the story of how he ultimately decided to run for office.

Before he was elected attorney general in 2021, Miyares, a Republican, served in the Virginia House of Delegates, representing the 82nd District in the Virginia Beach area after being first elected in 2015 and reelected in 2017 and in 2019.

Some people came from Washington, D.C., to meet with him and said he should consider running for attorney general.

I remember having a meeting in a conference room overlooking the ocean and I said, Youre crazy, Miyares told the audience at LU.

He continued to hear from others he respected, and after speaking with his wife, Paige, he decided to go through with it.

Each one of us has a rendezvous with destiny, to answer Gods calling even when it is difficult, Miyares said.

In his talk Wednesday at LU, the attorney general went on to speak about history and heroes.

We have this misnomer in our society of who our heroes are, Miyares said.

We think if you have a name in the back of the jersey or if you can memorize a movie script or read off a teleprompter or youre a celebrity, youre a hero. The real heroes are the quiet heroes, the ones that show up at unique moments.

He shared the story of Barbara Johns, who was 16 when she led a student walkout in 1951 in Farmville to protest segregation, which contributed to the case that culminated in the landmark Supreme Court ruling Brown v. Board of Education.

The event is known as the Moton School Strike, and Johns high school, Moton High, now operates as a museum.

That is what true bravery and courage looks like, when a quiet hero has the strength of a thousand, Miyares said.

He also told students never to adhere the messages of the world that tell them to choose fame over substance or money over faith.

He said there are so many voices on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and the internet begging us to go down a road that actually ends in a dead end.

The reality is its not fame that should be the anchor of your life; it should be your faith, your family and also your friends, Miyares said.

Kristina Smith, a sophomore studying strategic communications and journalism, said she absolutely loved what the attorney general spoke about.

Smith said it was very personal to hear another story of successful immigration as she was adopted from Russia. Miyares is Cuban-American; his mother fled the country in 1965, and he was born in North Carolina.

I just think the overall message was so inspiring, so important and so prominent in todays society, so I really enjoyed it, Smith said.

Sarah Rogers, a sophomore studying government with a concentration in politics and policy, called Miyares speech a very inspirational message on how America is exceptional and how we as Christians need to be able to go into blind obedience to the Lords plans.

I think that his message not only speaks to my heart because I love government ... but also people sitting around me who are not government majors and who really need to understand that we need to be champions for Christ, but also know that the country we live in is something to be preserved, Rogers said.

Miyares said in an interview after his speech that everyone who is a college student is trying to determine what their purpose is.

He said this was the reason for this direction of the speech and also the reason he told the story of Johns.

Miyares said he hopes the students understand three things: dont be afraid to answer Gods call, understand the blessing of being in the United States; and most importantly, have a sense of gratitude.

You have to be willing to answer the call even if it means taking it to places that are uncomfortable, and doing big things even if you dont feel like you are the right person to do it, Miyares said.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the countrys ban on same-sex marriage is not discriminatory, as constitutional freedom of marriage only envisions heterosexual unions.

Asked by an opposition lawmaker at Tuesdays parliamentary budget committee meeting if he thinks a same-sex marriage ban constitutes discrimination, Kishida said: I dont think disallowing same-sex couples to marry is unjust discrimination by the state.

His comment sparked criticism from opposition lawmakers and LGBTQ rights advocates, who questioned whether Kishida was backpedaling to show consideration to members of his party who oppose sexual diversity.

After meeting with LGBTQ representatives last month, Kishida said that he strongly felt the need for discussion, adding that he would consider the voices of the people and in parliament, as well as rulings in several ongoing lawsuits and measures in local municipalities.

Kishida yesterday repeated his position that a same-sex marriage ban is not unconstitutional and denied that he is prejudiced. ...continue reading
The job-hunting season has begun for university students in Japan who are set to graduate next year. Companies began offering job briefings to prospective graduates on Wednesday, in line with government rules.

In Tokyo, students attended a job fair hosted by the employment data site Mynavi Corporation. Some 200 companies took part in the event.

A major non-life insurance firm explained features of its flexible work system, such as allowing employees to simultaneously take on jobs in multiple sections.

In a survey by Mynavi last month, 27.7 percent of responding companies across Japan said they planned to hire more students of humanities and social sciences who will graduate next March, up more than 8 percentage points from the previous year, while 29.8 percent said they planned to hire more science graduates, up nearly 7 percentage points. ...continue reading
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)  As a certified nurse midwife, Cosette Boone has delivered hundreds of Iowa babies to mothers who wanted an alternative to giving birth at a hospital.

For seven years Boones Healing Passages Birth and Wellness Center has operated in Des Moines, the only stand-alone, midwife-led birth center in Des Moines.

At least, it was. The center is shutting its doors, and Boone will deliver her last baby there this month.

It wasnt for lack of patients. Instead, Boone and other midwives say Iowa and the health care industry have stacked the deck against them  despite the growing demand for non-hospital spaces to give birth in the metro.

So, even though Boone has a certificate of need from the state, she is leaving the practice after she couldnt obtain insurance coverage for her facility.

It feels right for me to step away from birth management and what seems like a constant fight to push for change and the right for the consumer to have this paradigm of care as an option, she told the Des Moines Register. There are newer, younger midwives now to carry that on.

The birth center closure comes as other Des Moines-based certified nurse midwives also are saying state laws have stifled competition at the detriment of consumers. Two midwives with the Des Moines Midwife Collective are suing the state for requiring a certificate of need to operate a birth center, saying the process of obtaining one is hugely expensive and designed to fail.

The lawsuit against the Iowa Health Facilities Council, the board that issues certificates of need, asks the court to declare the law requiring the application process unconstitutional.

For clients like Christina Nelson-Johnson, an Ames resident who birthed her second child at Boones center, losing services like it means women will be denied the means to have a more comfortable experience for childbirth.

Arranging a hospital-free birth already was more difficult than it should be because insurers and medical providers view the practice with skepticism, she said.

These spaces arent respected the way they should be, Nelson-Johnson said. The fact its hard to even put insurance through this and that everything has to be out-of-pocket is ridiculous. Because in my experience, it was a better experience.

Im glad Im not having any more children, because I couldnt imagine having another baby with someone else.

Boone, who has worked as a certified nurse midwife in Des Moines since 2001, opened Healing Passages Birth and Wellness Center in 2016.

The facility was in a historic Sherman Hill building her husband, Chaden Halfhill, renovated to house it. The center also was just a few blocks away from local hospitals.

After more than a decade of assisting home births in the metro, Boone wanted to open a standalone birth center to earn accreditation and provide a more affordable option for women. Nationwide, Most insurance companies dont cover home births.

The whole plan was to build a center that Des Moines could be proud of, could be excited about, Boone said.

She obtained a certificate of need in 2011. Iowa law requires the regulatory approval process for new health care facilities that allows competitors to weigh in.

If the state board deems a particular need is already being fulfilled, it will deny that government-issued certificate. But the state determined Boones facility did meet a need and granted the certificate, and Healing Passages Birth and Wellness Center also earned accreditation from the Commission for the Accreditation of Birth Centers.

In 2017, Boone applied to receive facility reimbursement as an in-network provider with Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield. She requested an additional reimbursement that hospital birth centers would receive for their facilities  separate from payments for care provided.

Her request was rejected. In a letter Boone received in 2018 and provided to the Des Moines Register, Wellmark said an internal committee determined the insurer would not expand the network to include birth centers as eligible providers.

Wellmark is committed to protecting the health of parents and their children. That is why we cover access to state-licensed birthing centers staffed by medical professionals who provide safe care to mothers and babies, specific to their labor and delivery needs, Cammy Jenkins, a registered nurse and vice president of health services at Wellmark said in a statement to the Register.

Boone said she believed her accreditation exceeds standards for state licensure. Theres also no licensure process for midwives in Iowa.

Wellmark officials said in the 2018 letter to Boone that the company does contract with certified nurse midwives who provide care in a birth center. However, Boone said, the reimbursement the insurer would have provided would not have been enough to cover the more than $6,000 she charges to provide care for her clients from prenatal to postpartum.

The revenue she generated from that service fee covered operation expenses, such as the salaries for five full-time staff at the center and contracts with independent nurses. Boone sought a facility reimbursement from Wellmark to cover overhead costs of the space.

Boone is disappointed that larger players in the health care industry did not embrace her freestanding birth center as a solution to the lack of maternal health care access in Iowa. The state has seen 41 labor and delivery units close since 2000, according to a recent study.

Its about options and choice in a paradigm of care. I dont understand why it has to be such a fight, Boone said.

Even before she was pregnant with her first child, Nelson-Johnson knew she wanted to give birth in a non-traditional setting.

However, her and her husbands insurance fully covered a hospital birth and they couldnt afford the cost to go elsewhere. So, when her labor started in June 2018 with her daughter, Riley, they drove to the nearest medical center.

The now 37-year-old said her experience birthing at a hospital was uncomfortable. The medical team provided a cascade of interventions, such as doses of Pitocin and pain medication, in an attempt to jump-start her inconsistent contractions, leaving her feeling pressured to manage childbirth on their timeline rather than hers.

Birthing is the most vulnerable thing a person can do, I think, and having safety and feeling safe can make or break an experience, she said.

By the time she was pregnant with her second child three years later, she knew she would not go back to a hospital to give birth. So she reached out to Boone.

The vast majority of births in the United States happen in hospitals, but Nelson-Johnson is among a growing number of women seeking out alternatives for their labor and delivery.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found the national percentage of births taking place at home increased 22% during the early days of the pandemic, rising from 1.03% in 2019 to 1.26% in 2020.

When Nelson-Johnson gave birth to her son Quinn at Healing Passages Birth and Wellness Center in June 2021, she said Boone catered to her needs, giving her the space and the power she needed to make her own choices in her birthing experience.

It will always be a really beautiful moment in my life, and to have shared that with her is incredibly meaningful, Nelson-Johnson said.

With the centers closure, Boone also is stepping away from offering home birth services and plans to instead transition to consultations and programming for women preparing for childbirth. Her new business is called The Willows Song.

Boone said the care provided by independent midwives is different from services offered at a hospital, and treating these services the same will only be a detriment to patients.

We will never be competition to the health care system, she said. Its like comparing McDonalds to the organic store across the street. These are not women who are interested in a hospital birth. If you block a women and she cant have (a) birth center, shell go find a home birth midwife.
More than four years after an Omaha man was shot, killed and sunk in the Missouri River, his killer was sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison after pleading no contest to a reduced manslaughter charge.

On Tuesday, 33-year-old Dalton Dukes was sentenced to 19 years and 11 months in prison for the 2019 killing of Joseph Hellman. Dukes is also serving a 17-year federal sentence after pleading guilty to a methamphetamine conspiracy charge in late 2019.

Dukes was initially charged in 2020 with first-degree murder, use of a firearm to commit a felony and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person. In January, the murder charge was reduced to voluntary manslaughter as part of a plea deal. The other two counts were dropped in exchange for his no contest plea to manslaughter.

According to prosecutors, the killing stemmed from a botched drug deal. In January 2019, Hellman, 37, sold Dukes one pound of methamphetamine in exchange for about $800, iPads and a Michael Kors watch.

Dukes had planned to use the meth to pay off some of his own debts, according to prosecutors, but he quickly realized that it was counterfeit.

On Jan. 29, Dukes went to confront Hellman at a home near 39th and Fort Streets with his girlfriend and other associates. Dukes wanted to pistol-whip and rob Hellman, according to witnesses.

Instead, people in the house at the time heard a scuffle and a single gunshot. Dukes left the home with Hellmans body, drove to an Iowa campground and sunk the vehicle in the Missouri River.

Hellmans body has not been recovered.

At Tuesdays hearing, Dukes attorney Michael Bianchi said these kinds of killings are an unfortunate possibility in the drug trade. Bianchi stated that Dukes had struggled with substance abuse issues since age 12, beginning with alcohol and later morphing into an addiction to meth.

Dukes did not speak at the hearing.

Prosecutors argued that Dukes criminal history, which included convictions for arson and domestic assault, put him at a high risk for re-offense. In a brief statement, Hellmans sister told the judge through tears that her family wants justice.

Im not saying he was the best person in the world, but he was a human being, she said of her brother. This was inhumane.

Judge Russell Derr agreed. In handing down the sentence, he noted that Dukes criminal record was really atrocious.

Dukes will receive 1,097 days of credit for time served. Tuesdays sentence was ordered to run consecutively to the federal sentence, meaning that Dukes will not begin to serve time on this conviction until the other sentence is finished.
Hes been dead for more than 400 years, but most everyone has said or done something in the past 24 hours directly influenced by him. During the final Hawk Talks lecture at Northeast Community College this semester, students, employees and the public are invited to find out how William Shake
Weather Alert

...RED FLAG WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 1 PM THIS AFTERNOON TO 8 PM CDT THIS EVENING FOR WIND AND LOW RELATIVE HUMIDITY FOR PORTIONS OF EASTERN NEBRASKA AND WEST-CENTRAL IOWA... * Affected Area...In Iowa, Monona. In Nebraska, Knox, Cedar, Thurston, Antelope, Pierce, Wayne, Boone, Madison, Stanton, Cuming, Burt, Platte, Colfax, Dodge, Butler, Saunders, Seward, Lancaster, Saline and Jefferson. * Winds...Northwest 25 to 35 mph with gusts up to 50 mph. * Relative Humidity...As low as 20 percent. * Impacts...Any fires that develop will likely spread rapidly. Outdoor burning is not recommended. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... A Red Flag Warning means that critical fire weather conditions are either occurring now, or will shortly. A combination of strong winds, low relative humidity and warm temperatures can contribute to extreme fire behavior. &&
We have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Please use the button below to verify an existing account or to purchase a new subscription.
Nigerias two main opposition parties on Tuesday called for the cancellation of the countrys weekend presidential elections won by Ruling party candidate Bola Tinubu, on the grounds of massive manipulations of the results.

The Nigerian federal electoral body, INEC, crowned Tinubu winner of Saturday presidential poll after partial count of the votes.

Tinudu of All Progressives Congress party captured 37% of the vote, or nearly 8.8 million, while main opposition candidate Abubakar won 29% with almost 7 million. Third-place finisher Peter Obi of the Labor Party took 25% with about 6.1 million. He won most votes in the commercial hub of Lagos State, which houses Africas biggest city.

Both losers however rejected the results and called for a new election to be held. They also slammed delays in the count, and major failures in the electronic transfer of results and accused the ruling party of fraud.

The opposition also asked the head of the INEC to step down.
Qatar and Egypt are studying possibilities to set a joint investment fund, Egyptian Minister of Planning Hala Al-Saeed told Bloomberg Tuesday following the signing of a set of agreements between the two countries to abolish double taxation aimed at boosting investments from the gas-rich Gulf state in Egypt.

Saeed did not provide details about the plans but her comments came as Egyptian authorities are seeking foreign investments from the tiny Gulf country and countries in the region.

Qatar also, according to a statement from the Egyptian cabinet, is looking forward to increasing its investments in the North African country.

In March 2022, Egypt and Qatar agreed on $5 billion worth of investments and partnerships over the coming period. This came within the framework of enhancing bilateral economic and investment cooperation.

In June, the Egyptian finance minister indicated that his country is in talks with Qatar over investments worth $2-3 billion. Qatars investments in Egypt amount to $2.7 billion.

In November 2022, Qatars sovereign wealth fund deposited $1 billion with the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE).
Tunisias top diplomat Nabil Ammar Tuesday said the North African country will not apologize for shocking statements, branded racist by many, made by President Kais Saied against Sub-Saharan migrants.

President Kais Saied sparked an outcry last week after he made extremely hateful and racist remarks against African migrants who arrive in his country on their way to Europe.

The remarks caused an uproar at home and abroad.

In a statement late last week, the African Union Commission condemned Tunisian authorities and provided support for the migrants.

The Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat strongly condemns the shocking statement issued by Tunisian authorities targeting fellow Africans which go against the letter and the spirit of our organization and founding principles, read the statement issued by the AU Commission last Friday.

The recently appointed Foreign Minister Ammar, in an interview with AFP news agency, stressed that Tunis will not apologize for its position on Sub-Saharan migrants. It has been a few days since this happened and it is now necessary to keep a cool head, it is necessary to appease, and the messages of appeasement have already been transmitted by the official channels and others, he told the agency.

No, there is no way we will apologize, we have not harmed anyone, he insisted. For migrants who are legal, there is no problem. For others, we no more want them, he added.

And illegal migrants are called upon to return home but within the respect for their rights and dignity.
Morocco voted in favor of a UN General Assembly resolution last week breaking away with its previous abstentions. Moroccan foreign minister Nasser Bourita said the vote was in favor of the UN charter and in support of the territorial integrity of UN member states as well as in support of the peaceful resolution of conflicts.

Speaking at a presser following talks with Secretary-General of Austrias foreign ministry Peter Launsky, Bourita said that Morocco as a member of the international community views the conflict in Ukraine as an issue that affects global peace and security.

Morocco has never participated and will never participate under whatever form in this conflict, said Bourita in response to allegations spread by some media claiming that Morocco provided weapons to Ukraine.

Every time there is a vote at the UN or its specialized agencies, Morocco abstains unless the vote is for a resolution that deals with the principles of the UN Charter, said Bourita.

In the wake of the outbreak of the Ukraine-Russia war, Morocco had expressed in March 2022 its strong attachment to the full respect of the territorial integrity of UN member states and urged the settlements of disputes by peaceful means, according to the principles of international law.

The Austrian official was part of a delegation led by Chancellor Karl Nehammer on a visit to Rabat at the end of which a joint statement was issued voicing Viennas support for the Morocco-proposed autonomy plan for the Sahara.

As the two countries celebrate the 240th anniversary of their diplomatic ties, Austria joins some 10 EU member states that now consider the autonomy plan as a basis to find a political solution to the regional dispute over the Sahara.
Whither doth this legislative session go?

It looks like the ship is headed downstream to eventual enactment of a broad conservative agenda.

But it's not smooth sailing ahead.

Legislative opponents appear to be left essentially with the option of trying to delay the outcome while perhaps trapping or moderating an item or two.

And that has led to a filibustered legislative session so far.

Talk, run the clock, flip the calendar pages, delay the outcome.

What's changed this year is the departure of a core of independent or less doctrinaire Republican senators who played a big role in shaping the outcome.

However, we don't know these new senators well yet, so maybe there are some independent Republican voices yet to be heard.

Perhaps along with those of a couple of Republican senators who were already there when the newcomers arrived.

The moderating views of John McCollister, Mark Kolterman, Matt Williams, John Stinner and Robert Hilkemann did not all emerge right away.

Their moderation gave them power, and sometimes the opportunity to be the decisive votes on important bills before they were term-limited out of the Legislature this year.

Notably, three of those Republican voices came from outside of Omaha and Lincoln, from as far west as the border with Wyoming.

So it's a little early to try to characterize this Legislature.

Senators sometimes change  the more tempting word is grow  once they've been in the Legislature awhile and fully understand and experience how independent they truly are, free from party and partisanship if they want to be, free from doctrine or dogma, free to arrive at their own judgments.

Free to match the non-partisan description that accompanied their names on the ballot.

This Legislature is essentially evenly split between rural and urban, but the urban voice is divided and the rural voice is largely united and that will matter.

It gives rural Nebraska power at a time when future redistricting will gradually eat away at its strength in terms of numbers.

There seems to be patience in their ranks, at least for now, as some senators run the clock day by day, although Sen. Steve Erdman of Bayard says he's tempted to offer a sine die motion to end the currently dysfunctional session and just go home.

The best early bet is that the conservative Pillen agenda, which focuses on tax reduction, limited government spending and state school aid reform, eventually is going to prevail once the smoke has cleared.

But it might take awhile.

* * *

Not much noticed yet is a pending legislative bill that would open a pathway for citizens to protest and seek prosecution of persons responsible for allowing "obscene materials," including pornography, to be available in public libraries.

It's part of a broader bill, LB441, introduced by Sen. Joni Albrecht of Thurston.

A cannon shot in the culture war already impacting universities, already visible in the approaching 2024 presidential campaign and already on full display in this legislative session.

* * *

Finishing up:

* Sen. Tom Brewer's bill (LB77) to allow concealed carrying of a handgun without a permit or required gun safety training is scheduled for debate in the Legislature on Wednesday, no doubt triggering a filibuster, one of many yet to come.

* A January poll conducted by RMG Research for the Liberty Initiative Fund suggests that 70% of Nebraskans would oppose a proposal to allow Nebraska state senators to serve three consecutive terms rather than being limited to the current two consecutive four-year terms.

* It's always interesting, and instructive, to watch senators making the rounds to touch base and talk with colleagues while the Legislature is in session. Sen. John Fredrickson of Omaha is a freshman senator who appears to have quickly seen the value of that in developing relationships. Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Elkhorn is a veteran senator and legislative leader who is often on the move.

* Sen. Mike McDonnell, a Catholic and a likely candidate for mayor of Omaha, has been denied a seat on the Douglas County Democratic central committee because of his support for pro-life legislation.

* A long time ago, Jim Exon, former governor and former U.S. senator, the man who built a strong and competitive Democratic Party in the state, told me that the party's unwillingness to be a welcoming political home for pro-life supporters as well as pro-choice advocates would lead to its decline in Nebraska.

* And here comes a welcome sighting of March, the last of the five wintry months.

Photos: Prayer rally at Nebraska Capitol marks a year of war in Ukraine
Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers said he felt confident in the arguments made Tuesday before the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of several states challenging a plan to wipe out billions of dollars of student loan debt for borrowers across the country.

Six states, led by Nebraska, sued the Biden administration after the program was announced last year, alleging the education secretary had exceeded the authority granted to him under the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act.

During oral arguments that lasted more than two hours Tuesday, Nebraska Solicitor General Jim Campbell argued the program was unconstitutional because the executive branch had assumed a power not explicitly granted to it by Congress.

Campbell, who led arguments in the case at the district and appeals court levels last year under then-Attorney General Doug Peterson, also asserted the states had met the legal threshold to sue by demonstrating potential damages they would suffer if the court upholds the administrations plan.

Speaking to reporters via Zoom on Tuesday afternoon, Hilgers said the states opposition had nothing to do with whether or not discharge is a good idea, but focused on whether Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona had authority to enact the plan.

Our argument before the Supreme Court was that there was no statutory authorization and that Congress did not permit the secretary (to do) this really massive action without a vote of Congress, Hilgers said.

The administration said the COVID-19 pandemic created an emergency situation that allowed the education secretary to discharge student loans or offer other forgiveness to borrowers under HEROES, which was passed by Congress in 2003.

Hilgers said the Republican-led states that challenged the federal government felt that reading was too broad: It doesnt reference discharge, it doesnt mention cancellation.

Members of Congress who were serving in Washington, D.C., when the HEROES Act was passed said  according to Hilgers  discharge or forgiveness of student loans was not intended, and recent attempts to pass such a measure were unsuccessful.

If allowed to stand, Nebraska and the other states said they would face negative financial impacts. The Nebraska Investment Council, for one, has some investments in student loan-backed assets, which receive income from student loan payments.

That wasnt the focus of oral arguments, however; Campbell asserted the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority, a public corporation that manages student loans and other programs in Missouri, would have its budget slashed by up to 40% if student loans were discharged under the Biden plan.

While the states focused on the impacts to their budgets Tuesday, thousands of Nebraskans and millions of Americans are waiting to learn what will come of the program.

In January, the White House said 154,000 of the 232,100 borrowers in Nebraska who were deemed eligible to receive up to $20,000 in loan forgiveness had been accepted into the program.

Of that amount, 97,000 borrowers in Nebraska were notified that their applications had been sent to loan servicing companies to be discharged before the court-ordered pause, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

Nationwide, nearly 16.5 million of the 26.2 million borrowers who sought debt relief also had their information forwarded to a loan servicer, education department data showed.

Hilgers, asked about what he would say to those who were anticipating receiving forgiveness or having their debts wiped clean, said the states feel the education department was not given permission to use taxpayer money to discharge student loans.

In a statement Tuesday afternoon, Cardona said the Biden-Harris Administration mounted a powerful defense of the program, which it said would provide debt relief to 40 million Americans, most working- and middle-class.

The Department of Justice argued against the lawsuits aimed at denying relief to borrowers, made clear that challengers to the program lack standing to even bring their cases to court, and explained the Department of Educations decades-old authority used by multiple administrations to protect borrowers from the effects of national emergencies, Cardona said in the news release.

The Supreme Court also heard arguments on behalf of two individual borrowers who sued to stop the program last year.

Hilgers hesitated to make a decision about which way the court  which currently has a 6-3 conservative majority  would rule, however, saying he has listened to enough oral arguments to know not to guess the ultimate outcome: Im not in the prediction game.

I will say, though, going into the argument we were very well prepared, he said, adding nothing came up during arguments that the states hadnt considered or anticipated, or that he believed undermined their argument.

Justices are expected to rule on the case sometime before the end of the current term, potentially in late June or early July.

States with the most and least student debt #51. South Dakota #49. Alaska #48. North Dakota #47. Wyoming #46. Wisconsin #45. Nebraska #44. Arkansas #42. Oklahoma #40. Montana #39. New Mexico #38. Texas #36. Kentucky #35. Minnesota #34. Utah #33. Maine #32. Rhode Island #31. Kansas #29. Vermont #27. Louisiana #26. Washington #25. Missouri #24. Pennsylvania #23. Massachusetts #20. Tennessee #19. Michigan #18. Mississippi #16. Arizona #15. South Carolina #13. Colorado #12. North Carolina #11. Alabama #9. Illinois #7. Florida #6. New York #5. Virginia #4. Delaware #3. Georgia #2. Maryland #1. District of Columbia
South Africa: Public purse will be protected during National State of Disaster

Acting Director-General of Government Communication and Information System (GCIS), Nomonde Mnukwa, says government has measures in place to ensure that the public purse is protected from corruption and looting during the National State of Disaster related to the energy crisis.

Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, gazetted the regulations for the state of disaster on Monday following President Cyril Ramaphosas declaration of a National State of Disaster during the State of the Nation Address in February.

Mnukwa said accounting officers in State departments are responsible for making sure that fraud and corruption measures are abided by throughout this period.

Due to the fact that we are the public service and we utilise public funds, we have to have a responsible and accountable public service and on top of that, we have to make sure that we have mitigating measures against possible corruption and fraud during this period.

The accounting officers are responsible for taking steps to ensure that anti-corruption measures are implemented during the emergency procurement. Any procurement that is undertaken during this period must be published and reported to Parliament within the month of expenditure by the accounting officers and authorities, including details of such procurement and reasons for deviation from normal procurement procedures.

We do believe that as government, with these mitigating measures that we putting in place, the coffers of the State will be protected from possible corruption and fraud, she said.

Mnukwa said the regulations also go a step further to ensure that no state funds are misused.

The regulations have a prescript, in terms of the Auditor General, to conduct real time audits and reports on accounts and financial management of all emergency procurement undertaken during the National State of Disaster period, she said.

The regulations

Mnukwa explained that the regulations set out how government will move with increased speed to mobilise its resources to mitigate the impact of severe energy constraints.

The general measures of the regulations are just to ensure that all institutions within the national, provincial and local spheres of government must, for the duration of the declared National State of Disaster - within their available resources - firstly adopt energy saving measures to contain the effects of the disaster and prevent escalation of the electricity supply shortfall.

Secondly, [they must] ensure continuous operation of health services, water infrastructure and other specified essential services and infrastructure including installing alternative energy sources or other measures to provide an uninterrupted power supply, she said.

Mnukwa said the regulations also allow government departments to implement a raft of measures to protect the public interest and ensure that essential services remain delivered.

The continuous provision of services will be achieved through the installation of alternative energy sources, measures to provide an uninterrupted power supply and essential infrastructure being exempted from load shedding schedules.

These exemptions will be undertaken in a manner that does not result in an increased risk of placing the national grid under pressure. The regulations will also enable the release of personnel across the various state organs for the rendering of emergency services and other resources in general, she said.

The gazetted regulations are available at https://www.gov.za/documents/disaster-management-act-national-state-disaster-impact-severe-electricity-supply.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2023-03-01. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
PLA Navy recruitment video gives first official glimpse of China's carrier-based stealth fighter jet

By Liu Xuanzun and Guo Yuandan (Global Times) 08:53, March 01, 2023

A pilot walks toward an unidentified aircraft in a promotional video on carrier-based pilot recruitment released by the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy on February 27, 2023. Observers say it could be China's next-generation carrier-based fighter jet. Photo: Screenshot of the PLA Navy promotional video

The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy on Monday released a promotional video aiming to recruit more pilots for its aircraft carriers, following recent policy changes that will see female cadets and students from civilian colleges and universities participate in the recruitment in 2023 for the first time.

It also gave the first official glimpse at what observers said could be China's next-generation carrier-based stealth fighter jet.

The promotional video, titled "Pursuing Dreams in the Sky Above the Sea," is released as the PLA Navy's annual pilot recruitment procedure started for 2023, the PLA Navy said on Tuesday on its social media account.

In 2023, the PLA Navy will for the first time recruit female carrier-based aircraft pilots and select students outside of military academies for this position, and it will also for the first time hold 15-hour flight tests for the recruits, the PLA Navy said.

At the end of the promotional video, a pilot was given "a new mission with new challenges," after which he walked toward an aircraft.

The camera focused on the pilot, so the aircraft was blurred, but observers were able to tell its clear difference from the PLA Navy's current J-15 carrier-based fighter jet. This comparison can be easily drawn because a J-15 could be seen next to this blurred aircraft in the video.

Despite the blurred frame, the general aerodynamic design of this aircraft shows that it is a stealth fighter jet, Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

The wings of the blurred aircraft are seemingly folded, which is a significant characteristic of being a carrier-based aircraft, Song said.

Although blurred, it is the first time the PLA Navy has officially given the public a glimpse of its next-generation aircraft, observers said.

At Airshow China 2021held in Zhuhai, South China's Guangdong Province in September, Sun Cong, chief designer of the J-15, said at a press conference that good news on the next-generation carrier-based fighter jet would come out later that year.

In October 2021, foreign media outlets reported that a prototype of a carrier-based stealth fighter jet, rumored to be designated the J-35, had made its maiden flight. The reports said the J-35 was developed based on China's second stealth fighter jet, the made-for-export FC-31, with analysts saying it could rival the US' F-35.

Song said that the alleged J-35, which is not confirmed by Chinese military authorities, is expected to operate together with the J-15 to maximize their combat capabilities, just like the US Navy's combination of the F-35C and the F/A-18E/F.

The new fighter jet will likely operate not only on China's third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, but also on the Liaoning and the Shandong, Song said.

After the launch of the Fujian in June last year, experts predicted that the third carrier could make sea trials this year, and the next-generation carrier-based fighter jet will eventually conduct tests with the Fujian's electromagnetic aircraft launch system.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Yeah his career is over.

Reply

Thread

Link

I thought Ketamine was about growing hair and nails, but based upon a quick search....apparently not.

Reply

Thread

Link

Lol you might be thinking of keratin

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Yep, I was wondering like "one of these things is not like the others?"

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Yeah, I got it mixed up with ketones and was like, It's a crime to possibly have diabetes????

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

It's a horse tranquilizer lol

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

marijuana cocaine and ketamine is quite the combo



I'm too scared to do ketamine I feel like I would just drop dead. Same thing with meth and heroin.

Reply

Thread

Link

I never took ketamine myself but I've only ever heard horror stories.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Yeah never ever to meth and heroin. those anti drug psas are hokey but they didnt lie when they said not even once, theyre just too addicting



Im surprised about the popularity of ketamine but I know its being used to treat depression more these days. Im afraid of falling into a k hole lmao

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

A woman I follow on Insta has controlled Ketamine to help with depression and anxiety. I always wonder and cannot wait until microdosing of shrooms is legal

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

yeah i've seen some people take it for depression and apparently it helps a lot. sounds scary though.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

don't know where you are but you can just buy it from headshops in oakland now

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

It's actually quite safe, because it's a horse tranquilizer horses, so it isn't something being cooked at someone's basement. If you don't over do it there's very little risk, it's being tested for depression in humans and the results are good. Personally, I don't like the high because it's very introspective and I prefer more social drugs like molly, but all my friends take it when we go out dancing and they love it.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Could you even imagine if they did this in Hollywood? Goodbye all forms of entertainment.



I was a naive bb when I moved to LA (at 29!), was at a birthday party at a bar/club, went to the bathroom, 2 girls were in a stall (not unusual) and then a little vial came rolling out. I go to get it and be all helpful and then stopped and was like Surprised Pikachu, that's cocaine (or some drug)!!! My friend with me just lol'd. I was a changed woman after that.

Reply

Thread

Link

i don't remember whether i read gay or asshole rumours about him

Reply

Thread

Link

Was he tested randomly?



It's likely this is the end of his career in Korea, right?



If he does have a drug problem I hope he gets the help he needs/wants. Idk anything about him so maybe it was just a wild night.

Reply

Thread

Link

not randomly theres been rumors of a massive investigation into the entertainment industry in koreas drug usage for a while and so far the rumors of who have been hinted at by leaks to the media have beencorrect. lots of sports people rumored to and an idol from one of the big 3 who they gave the nickname L in some media is under investigation. I've been following it for a while because its iteresting watching people wakeup to the fact drugs are just as rife in any countrys entertainment industry as they arein the US.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Does people have any guesses for who L could be?

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

Thank you for explaining this. I was wondering what started the investigation.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Its obvious hes struggling, and iirc hes has chronic issues for a while - its a shame hell just be thrown in jail instead of treated with empathy and given actual help.

Reply

Thread

Link

Strangely, I saw some comments that were rather empathetic when it was just weed and propofol. Like a few the investigation probably saved his life (which they probably did). Some are even saying the doc who prescribed should be investigated because all but the weed are apparently prescription

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

I don't know, mandated treatment is weird to me because you can't make someone want to be sober. I also don't think he should be jailed for the same logic. Why can't they just fine him? I get getting fired from a job for failing a drug test but jail seems crazy

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

God, that is quite a combination. Wasn't he caught with marijuana before? Drugs are serious business in South Korea, I imagine this will massively impact his career.

Reply

Thread

Link

drug use should be decriminalised world wide. its the suppliers that should be punished not the users and addicts. Also rehab should be free and accessible to everyone but sadly wishful thinking

Reply

Thread

Link

Damn, he is a heavy user...



I wonder if his boyfriend also uses?



I was rooting for them, and for him to be a successful openly gay man in Korea, but I don't know if his career can recover from it.



I hope he gets actual support for his addiction and not just legal consequences...

Reply

Thread

Link

Is he openly out or still just hinting about his boyfriend on socials

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

He is not openly out

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Damn his career is completely over. I hope he gets some help if it is an addiction.

Reply

Thread

Link

Thanks for adding 'if it's an addiction' I feel like people are saying I hope he gets help hard stop but drugs stay in your hair for a lonnnggggggg time so it's possible he did these substances weeks or even months apart in different scenarios. Propofol might even be in his hair from a medical procedure. Just a lot of assumptions being made and it sucks he's losing work bc of this backwards thinking about drug use. Not all drug use is addiction!

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Holy shit that it is a lot of substances . Multiple uppers and multiple downers



I hope he can get support.



Edited at 2023-03-01 07:25 pm (UTC)

Reply

Thread

Link

What is propofol?

Reply

Thread

Link

It is an anesthetic and sedative. I believe its what Michael Jackson overdosed on leading to his death

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link
Safety Footwear is Not a One-Size-Fits-All Approach

When selecting footwear, workers should consider multiple factors to ensure their safety.

Success on the job site starts from the ground up. This generally begins with reliable safety footwear. For the past several decades, this footwear was often associated with bulky and heavy steel-toed, leather-shod, rubber-soled work boots. However, thanks to innovations from footwear brands, there are now a myriad of performance and comfort enhancements available in work boots that do not come at the expense of safety.

These advancements are particularly important with the rise in manufacturing, distribution and warehousing jobs, as well as changing and increasingly diverse workforces that have been entering the industry. While other industries have struggled in a post-pandemic environment, factory production in September 2022 was the highest in 14 years. With this changing landscape, the right personal protective equipment is essentialand safety footwear is no exception.

A Changing Landscape

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, employment rates in manufacturing began to skyrocket. In fact, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, approximately 46,000 employees joined this industry between February 2020 to September 2020 despite decreasing employment rates in a majority of other sectors. This was primarily due to the explosion in e-commerce sales during the pandemic, as nationwide shutdowns left many consumers seeking online shopping solutions. Since 2020, the rise in online shopping has persisted and has become an integral part of the consumer experience worldwide. This has created an equally increased need for skilled labor in the logistics and distribution industries.

With this paradigm shift in the way consumers shop, the manufacturing industry will continue to rise as employment in hand laborers and material movers are projected to grow as much as seven percent between 2020 to 2030. Meeting this increased demand necessitates a generation of workers who are new to this industry as well as potentially longer shifts for those continuing to work in this sector. Consequently, the safety and comfort of those working in these labor-intensive industries must be considered. To avoid injuries and fatigue, outfit this workforce with PPE, including safety footwear that will enable success on the job.

This article originally appeared in the March 1, 2023 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.
Oil is the largest commodity in the world, with the global crude oil market in 2022 estimated at $2.7 trillion. This trade is facilitated by both public and private entities and is dominated by traders of all types. Leading oil producers including the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Russia and Iraq deliver oil to consumers like the European Union (EU), with a large part of Europes oil going through the ARA Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp) trade hub.

The ARA region is a highly interconnected network of ports and has been an energy gateway into Europe and a key player in the international oil markets for decades. ARA provides traders with time effectiveness and cost savings thanks to being home to a wide-range of well-developed infrastructure, refineries, petrochemical industry, storage and blending services and transport facilities.

The Port of Rotterdam is the primary crude oil trade hub, the Port of Antwerp hosts a sprawling chemical industry, while the Port of Amsterdams specialty is in logistics and blending with the port being the global hub for blending different grades of gasoline. The oil that is delivered to the Netherlands is either used domestically; refined or used in manufacturing and then exported or re-exported directly to global destinations or to the hinterland.

The manifold benefits offered by the ARA hub--flexibility, availability and diversity of products and logistics--make it an attractive investment hub for other related industries such as biofuels. The pre-existing facilities and interconnections by ARA offer significant logistical advantages for biofuels, with multiple European governments encouraging the use of biofuels or other renewable fuels for transport. Spain, Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands are the top European producers of biofuels. Currently, crop-based biofuels represent only 4.5 percent of the EU's transport energy mix but more than 60 percent of all renewables consumed in transport. Bioenergy currently accounts for 60% of the EUs renewable energy production.

Related: BPs CEO Warns Of Oil And Gas Price Spikes If Energy Transition Is Rushed

Overall, the Port of Rotterdam is estimated to have directly added value of 27.9 and 27.2 billion euros in 2019 and 2020, respectively, with crude and oil products worth 100-150 billion euros traded via Dutch Ports annually. Meanwhile, investments, employment and innovation in different sectors have led to the rise of the so-called Rotterdam effect.

Indeed, Rotterdam handles the largest amount of liquid bulk throughput in Europe. with small tankers able to bring Russian fuel to the Netherlands due to the shallow depth of the channel on the Baltic route from Russia to the Netherlands. But things have not always been this convenient. For a long time, large ships could only travel to Hamburg at high-tide, thereby limiting the flexibility of the port. Rotterdam, however, offers superior flexibility because it can be used as an assembly point whereby fuel is collected from multiple smaller ships then loaded on massive tankers and re-exported elsewhere.

Its interesting to note that the ARA region is not officially recognized despite being one of the most closely integrated and well-known oil trade hubs. Its also surprising that such a huge hub did not arise from government efforts or even purposeful spatial planning but rather grew from a spontaneous fragmented effort by mainly private entities. International corporations later opened offices, research facilities and other offices in the Netherlands and also invested in housing, schools and leisure activities.

Source: The Hague Center For Strategic Studies

ARA Becomes A Less Important Global Oil Hub

Unfortunately for the iconic oil hub, European sanctions on Russian oil are

changing oil trade routes and are likely to make the ARA hub less significant over the long-term. Before Russias invasion of Ukraine, Europe was Russias largest energy export market, with the Port of Rotterdam located in a prime position to handle, use and re-distribute large amounts of fuel.

But starting December 5, 2022, Russian crude oil is no longer acceptable in Europe while Russian oil products were banned from February 5, 2023. Crude flows to ARA have been to the largest possible extent redirected following the bans. Suddenly, the Port of Rotterdam is no longer the main recipient of Russian oil. Imports of Russian oil into Europe decreased in the second quarter of 2022 and have been replaced by increased deliveries from the U.S., Norway and Brazil. Additionally, direct trade routes from Russia to China and India as well as the enhancement of production capabilities of Middle Eastern companies will make it even harder for ARA to remain a key oil trade hub in the long-term. Further, in the short-term, gasoline trade via the Port of Amsterdam is likely to decrease significantly due to the new gasoline standards introduced in the Netherlands. Dutch companies are now required to observe stricter standards when producing and exporting gasoline.

The European diesel market is also facing challenges. Whereas Rotterdams complex refineries have been able to transition from processing heavy sour Russian crude to sweeter crude, replacing Russian Urals with sweeter crudes causes issues with the supply of diesel. Meanwhile, high natural gas prices in Europe especially during the early part of 2022 forced many producers to switch to diesel, further exacerbating the supply squeeze. The EU has been trying to source its diesel from India and also limited volumes from the U.S., putting pressure on their respective domestic markets. This has forced governments across Europe to increase the share of diesel in strategic reserves in expectation of the high prices in 2023.

But its not just Netherlands and ARAs oil trade that are feeling the heat from Russias war. Being an industrial center, trade hub, logistical knot, and bunkering port, the shift from ARA is likely to have knock-on effects on the other activities by negatively impacting the flexibility of industries and increasing production prices.

On a brighter note, the Netherlands is likely to remain an important natural gas hub. After all, natural gas has become a very important energy currency in Europe after ditching Russian oil, and the Netherlands is home to the Title Transfer Facility (TTF), the largest natural gas digital trading platform in Europe.

ADVERTISEMENT

Over the past decades, the Dutch government has made substantial investments and implemented policies that have made the country the key European hub for natural gas.

Indeed, the TTF handled more than 70% of Europes gas trades in 2020.

The Dutch government is also planning to expand its LNG import capacity at the Gate terminal in Rotterdam as well as the EemsEnergyTerminal thus placing the Netherlands in a pole position to also become an important LNG hub given its already extensive gas infrastructure.

By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
While many automakers have been focused on developing battery electric vehicles (BEVs), another green alternative to traditional cars has been gaining momentum  the hydrogen-driven fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV). Green hydrogen has been hailed as the clean fuel of the future in recent years, something that many automakers have considered while developing fuel cell cars. While there has been much talk about the rise of the FCEV, most companies are still in the early development stage. But now, some companies are ready to present their FCEV demonstration models to the public to see how they fare in comparison to the EVs on the market.

Fuel cell electric vehicles work much in the same way as traditional BEVs, running on an electric motor instead of an internal combustion engine (ICE). However, BEVs rely on a battery that needs to be plugged in to recharge, using electricity from the grid. Meanwhile, FCEVs can produce electricity onboard, without the need for charging. This is extremely attractive to car manufacturers looking to increase the range their cars can go without the need to charge, making it easier for consumers to shift from ICE vehicles to green alternatives.

One of the major benefits of hydrogen is that it emits only water and heat, rather than greenhouse gases, into the atmosphere. With governments and energy firms worldwide pumping funds into green hydrogen projects, automakers are increasingly seeing the potential for cars to run on this clean fuel. To make climate-friendly FCEVs, automakers must ensure that the hydrogen they are sourcing is green, rather than grey  derived from natural gas. At present, the cost of green hydrogen is far higher than carbon-emitting alternatives. But as companies invest more in research and development, the price of green hydrogen is expected to fall, much in the same way as was seen in the cost of wind and solar energy as operations expanded.

Despite the significant potential of FCEVs running on green hydrogen, the concept of a fuel cell is still relatively unknown in the consumer market. While most people have heard of BEVs by now, particularly since the Tesla boom, automakers have shared little information about the development of an HFCV fleet with consumers. This is likely due to the multitude of hurdles that still need to be overcome before HFCVs hit the market. For example, the size and weight of a fuel cell that can generate enough electricity to run a car or larger vehicle continue to be an issue.

But some automakers are now taking their innovations to the public, demonstrating that they expect the future of transportation to be broader than just BEVs. In February, Honda announced it would be manufacturing a new hydrogen fuel cell system that it co-developed with GM. This is expected to support the growth of its hydrogen business, with aims of selling 2,000 units of the new system annually by the middle of the decade, and over 60,000 units a year by 2030. Honda expects its next-generation system to be more durable than previous fuel cells, and around two-thirds cheaper than existing options.

Meanwhile, BMW has launched a demonstration fleet of hydrogen cars that use fuel cells from Toyota. Last month, the German automaker unveiled its BMW iX5 Hydrogen, with a top speed of over 112 miles per hour, which is currently being assembled in Munich. The companys CEO believes this is the missing piece in the jigsaw when it comes to emission-free mobility.

Hydrogen is stored in two tanks, which can be refueled in three to four minutes, just like when pumping petrol. This provides the iX5 with a much greater range than most BEVs, at around 313 miles. BMW is planning for the launch of a small initial fleet in 2023  fewer than 100 vehicles, mainly to be employed internationally for demonstration and trial purposes for various target groups.

In addition to Honda and BMW, Toyota and Hyundai are two other major automakers looking to develop their FCEV capabilities to compete with car manufacturers focusing solely on BEVs. While the technology may be lagging behind that of electric batteries, the potential is significant.

Toyota has been investing in its fuel cell technology for over 30 years and introduced its first FCEV to the market in 2014, the Mirai sedan. The new version of the Mirai, launched in 2021, provides an extended driving range of around 650 km, and uses green hydrogen, meaning no polluting emissions. And Hyundai outlined its 'FCEV Vision 2030' in 2018, aimed at acceleratingthe development of a hydrogen society. Hyundai hopes to produce 700,000 fuel-cell systems annually by 2030, including 500,000 units for FCEVs, creating 51,000 jobs in the industry.

While the development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles has lagged behind battery EVs, greater investment in the industry has supported the innovations needed to get HFCVs to the market. With more and more automakers broadening their vision beyond BEVs and investing in hydrogen, we can expect to see several HFCVs within the next decade, offering an attractive alternative to the battery EV.

ADVERTISEMENT

By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Iraqs recent announcement to end its importation of gas within the next three years will be carefully watched by Washington, as it would also mean the end to Iraqs long-running dependence on Iran for gas supplies. In this context, when the U.S.-Iraq War ended in 2011, Washington wanted to keep open the possibility that it could rebuild its influence across the country, albeit in a more subtle way than had gone before. Part of this was to be done through acting essentially as Iraqs lender of last resort, giving money to each new prime minister of Iraq who came asking for it regularly every year. The other part was trying to allow for a gradual weaning off in Iraqs dependence on Iran for gas and electricity supplies - Iraq has historically been dependent on Iran for around 40 percent of its power needs. Washington hoped that by employing these two tactics, the historical broad and deep ties between Iraq and Iran might be reduced and that the U.S. might be able to reassert its presence in Iraq over time.

The problem with the U.S. plan to date has been that Baghdad and Tehran have always known exactly what Washington was up to and has been manipulating it from the start. This was most obviously done in the securing of waivers from the U.S. for Iraq to continue to import gas and electricity from Iran. These waivers were granted to Iraq even after the U.S. had reimposed sanctions on other countries for continuing to deal with Iran after Washington had withdrawn from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in May 2018.

The Iraq method was, and remains, the following: whoever is prime minister of Iraq that year goes to Washington (usually in the summer, as the Iraqis prefer the Washington climate during that period) to ask for a huge amount of money to bail out Iraqs budget. The budget needs bailing out  despite the huge oil and gas resources that Iraq has  principally because of the endemic corruption in the country. In return for the budget bailout and the granting of another short-term waiver to import energy from Iran, the incumbent Iraqi prime minister promises the U.S. president that Iraq will gradually stop using Iranian energy imports for its power grid, as part of a broader initiative to reduce the power of Irans political, economic and military proxies in Iraq. The U.S. then gives Iraq billions more dollars to bail out its budget and also grants it another waiver to import Iranian gas and electricity for a set period (ranging upwards from 30 days). The Iraqis then bank the money and continue to import as much Iranian energy supplies as it was before, if not more.

Related: BPs CEO Warns Of Oil And Gas Price Spikes If Energy Transition Is Rushed

This Baghdad Ballet, as one source in the previous U.S. presidential administration used to call it, saw its fanciest moves under the ultra-smooth Mustafa al-Kadhimi. He had danced the usual dance with the U.S. so well that in May 2020 Washington gave him even more money than before and the longest waiver ever given  120 days  to keep importing gas and electricity from Iran. Once the money had been banked and al-Kadhimi was safely back on home territory, Iraq signed a two-year contract  the longest to date  with Iran to keep importing gas and electricity from it.

The U.S. has many fine qualities but one of them is not tolerance when made to look stupid, so after the new gas and electricity supply deal had been signed between Iraq and Iran, the U.S. let the formidable State Department spokeswoman, Morgan Ortagus, out of her room, and she let fly. Not only was the next waiver to Iraq the shortest ever  30 days  but also at the press conference in which it was announced, Ortagus also let it be known that the U.S. was hitting 20 Iran- and Iraq-based entities with swingeing new sanctions, citing them as being instruments in the funnelling of money to Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) elite Quds Force, which was entirely true. According to Ortagus, the 20 entities were continuing to exploit Iraqs dependence on Iran as an electricity and gas source by smuggling Iranian petroleum through the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr and money laundering through Iraqi front companies, among other sanctions-busting activities, as analysed in full in my last book on the global oil markets. Washington was also extremely concerned that Iraq was continuing to act as a conduit for Iranian oil and gas supplies to make their way out into export markets in southern Europe and, in much greater volume, to Asia, especially China, as also analysed in the book.

In reality, Iraq could end its gas dependence on Iran relatively easily if it really wanted to. Iraqs proved natural gas reserves total around 131 trillion cubic feet (Tcf), the 12th largest in the world, and there may be a lot more as the rate of exploration for gas reserves has not matched that for oil. Most of Iraqs natural gas reserves are associated with oil in large oil fields in the south of the country and there have been occasional encouraging moves towards capturing this gas, rather than by just burning it off at the oil wells. For example, Baghdad signed up to the United Nations and World Bank Zero Routine Flaring initiative - aimed at ending by 2030 the routine flaring of gas produced during the drilling of oil. At the time, Iraq flared the second largest quantity of gas in the world (after Russia)  some 17.37 billion cubic metres (bcm). At around the same time, Iraqs Oil Ministry announced that it had signed a deal with U.S. engineering giant Baker Hughes to capture gas associated with oil from the Gharraf and Nassiriya oil fields.

The first stage of the Nassiriya plan, which would be similar for Gharraf, would involve an advanced modular gas processing solution being deployed at the Integrated Natural Gas Complex in Nassiriya to dehydrate and compress flare gas to generate over 100 million standard cubic feet of gas per (mmscf/d) of gas. The second stage would involve the Nassiriya plant being expanded to become a complete natural gas liquid (NGL) facility that would recover 200 mmscf/d of dry gas, liquefied gas and condensate. All this output would go to the domestic power generation sector, with Baker Hughes stating previously that addressing the flared gas from these two fields would allow for the provision of 400 megawatts of power to the Iraqi grid. The project, if Baker Hughes were allowed to just get on with it, would take around 30 months to be implemented. Similar development plans could then be rolled out for other major gas capture sites, which back in 2018 and 2020 included Halfaya (300 mmscf/d), and Ratawi (400 mmscf/d) in the first instance.

Synergies could then be developed with the only major gas project that has made significant progress in Iraq over the years, the Basra Gas Company (BGC) project, orchestrated by British oil and gas giant, Shell, which owns a 44 percent stake in venture. The BGC was designed specifically to enable Iraq to increase its energy independence and to achieve economic diversification by capturing currently flared gas from the fields of Rumaila, West Qurna 1, and Zubair in the first phase. By 2019/2020, the BGC had reached a peak production rate of 1,035 mmscf/d, the highest in Iraqs history and sufficient gas to generate approximately 3.5 gigawatts of electricity  enough to power three million homes. The BGC is also responsible for currently supplying around 70 percent of Iraqs liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and for enhancing Iraqs export capabilities, which helped the country to become a net exporter of LPG from 2017. Back in June 2022, BGC exported its first semi-refrigerated liquefied petroleum gas shipment, from the BGC Umm Qasr jetty, as part of plans to boost the countrys LPG exports.

By Simon Watkins for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Poland has arisen as one of the worlds most unlikely green energy heroes. Historically, Poland has been a coal stronghold. The country is the ninth biggest producer of coal in the world, and the second biggest in Europe, after Germany. But even this massive coal production cant meet the nations energy needs; Poland is, in fact, a net importer of coal, relying on Russian exports of the high-emissions fossil fuel to meet demand. But just in the last few months, all of that has started to change. Poland, once one of the biggest roadblocks between Europe and its climate goals, is now at the frontlines of green energy addition.

It all started with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The European Unions strategic decision to impose energy sanctions on Russia, starting with coal in the earliest phases, was nothing short of devastating for the Polish people. Six months ago, Polish citizens were queueing in their cars for days to buy enough coal to carry them through the winter. People were sleeping in their cars and toilets had been provided to the campers due to the unusual circumstances brought on by the accelerating energy crisis.

In the end, Europe was spared from its winter of discontent by unseasonably warm weather. But in Poland, the ball was already rolling. An extraordinary push to ease the long-held national reliance on coal was already well underway, with truly amazing results in such a short time span. Poland was able to cut its use of coal and gas while reaching all-time high energy production thanks to a massive boost in renewable energy production.

Most of the rise in renewables came from wind power, which rose by a whopping 21.7% to ultimately provide 11% of total domestic electricity generation  a 50% increase from 2018 levels. Coal use declined by just 2.7%, but any cutback at all stands out as a rare feat in a context where countries all over the European Union were ramping up coal-fired power in response to the mounting energy crisis. While coal is still king in Poland, representing 69% of the energy mix in 2022, its share is shrinking steadily  down from 85% in 2010 and 95% in 2000.

Not only did Polands economy not collapse over the winter, it grew at a remarkably healthy pace. The overall rise in power supplies in turn allowed Poland's heavy industry and manufacturers to sustain high output levels in 2022, and helped Poland's gross domestic product rise by a healthy 4.9% for the year, which was sharply more than the 1.9% expected growth rate of the broader European Union, Reuters recently reported.

Polands drastic increase in renewable energy production is slated to keep on soaring in coming years as the country continues to wean itself off of coal and work toward the European Unions emissions goals. In particular, rapid growth in solar power capacity is expected, Reuters reports, thanks to strong demand from households and small businesses for government-subsidised panels that have already propelled installed photovoltaic (PV) capacity up by more than 2,500% since 2018.

Whats more, Poland is the latest country to jump on the nuclear bandwagon as the zero-emissions energy source gains traction in the 11th hour struggle to avoid catastrophic climate change. Poland has inked a deal with Westinghouse to build the nations first ever nuclear power plant. The contract was finalized just last week, and the first unit is slated to come online in 2032 or 2033, to be followed by five more units to be built every 2-3 years.

Poland will prove to be an important piece of the global energy transition, and could serve as an important test case for other highly coal- and import-dependent countries. But Polands renewables revolution is not just about climate. Its also a critical development in the Wests power struggle against Russia. The countrys ties to Russia have proven difficult to sever, but the easing of Polands historic dependence on Russian imports is an important symbolic shift in a wholly ideological war.

By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com

ADVERTISEMENT

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
While India and China are not part of the price cap coalition, they have been able to drive the price of Russian oil down due to a lack of other buyers.

Russia continues to ship growing volumes of crude to India even as Chinese demand rebounds, a sign Moscow is prioritizing the Indian market.

Russia is now the single biggest supplier of crude oil to India, with the worlds third-largest oil importer snapping up as much cheap crude as it can.

Russia has become the single biggest crude supplier to India over the past year as the world's third-largest oil importer snaps up discounted Russian oil banned in the West.

Russia has been redirecting most of its crude oil exports to China and India since the EU and the G7 announced plans to embargo seaborne oil imports from Russia and set a price cap on the crude if it is to be shipped to third countries using Western tankers and insurers.

China's reopening is set to lead to a jump in oil demand in the world's top crude oil importer, where Russia has always competed with its OPEC+ ally Saudi Arabia. But Moscow isn't giving up the Indian market, either, where it has turned from a negligible supplier a year ago to the single biggest oil supplier now.

China and India aren't abiding by the G7 price capthey seek opportunistic purchases of cheap crude. The West believes that the price cap is benefiting the two large Asian oil importers with bargaining power to negotiate steep discounts from Russia, with traders covering shipping costs. The U.S. and the EU consider the increased leverage of China and India in driving a hard bargain for Russian oil as a success of the price cap policy.

Despite the expected growth in Chinese demand, Russia continues to ship growing volumes of crude to India and sets new records every month.

India imported a record 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude from Russia in January, up 9.2% compared to December, per data from trade sources reported by Reuters. Russia remained the top supplier of the world's third-largest importer, followed by Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and Russian imports accounted for 27% of all 5 million bpd in Indian crude oil imports.

In February, India's imports from Russia continued to riseto an estimated 1.85 million bpd, close to the potential maximum of 2 million bpd, according to Kpler data cited by Bloomberg.

Russia is intent on keeping the Indian market because it is more lucrative, gives sellers more control, and the shipping times from Russia's Western ports are shorter than to China, Viktor Katona, lead crude analyst at Kpler, told Bloomberg.

Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, India was a small marginal buyer of Russian crude oil. After Western buyers started shunning crude from Russia, India became a top destination for Russian oil exports alongside China.

Even after the G7 price cap took effect in early December, India continued to buy large volumes of discounted Russian crude and started importing some of Russia's Arctic crude oil varieties for the first time, taking advantage of cheap Russian cargoes to meet robust demand.

India's fuel consumption is expected to rise by 4.7% in the next fiscal year between April 2023 and March 2024, government estimates showed last month.

India will buy the oil it consumes from "wherever we have to" if the economics are beneficial for the country, Indian Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri told CNBC last month.

"Today we feel confident that we'll be able to use our market to source from wherever we have to, from wherever we get beneficial terms," the minister said.

The U.S. has said it would not sanction India for buying Russian crude. In fact, India's imports of cheap Russian oil fit the West's goal to punish Putin by reducing his oil revenues  a key budget revenue stream  and at the same time keep Russian oil flowing to prevent price spikes.

"Our experts assess that India right now is enjoying the discount of about USD 15 a barrel in the price that it is paying for its imports of Russian crude," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources, Geoffrey Pyatt, told PTI in an interview while on a visit to India last month.

ADVERTISEMENT

"So by acting in its own interest, by driving a hard bargain to get the lowest price possible, India is furthering the policy of our G7 coalition, our G7 plus partners in seeking to reduce Russian revenues."

Also in February, Philipp Ackermann, Germany's Ambassador to India, told local news outlet ANI, "I have made it clear time and again that India buying oil from Russia is none of our business basically that's something that the Indian government decides and if you get it at a very very low price, you know I cannot blame India for buying it."

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
 Flash

Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, some 1,022,727 Chinese tourists came to Laos in 2019, accounting for 21 percent of the total number of tourists. In 2022, 45,249 Chinese visitors came to Laos.[Photo/Xinhua]



Lao tourism authorities anticipate that around 368,000 Chinese nationals will visit Laos in 2023, an increase of 21 percent compared to 2022.

The figure was cited at a meeting of the Department of Tourism Development of the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism last Friday to discuss plans to prepare for the influx of Chinese tourists, Lao National TV reported on Monday.

The Lao government and private sectors are preparing for the arrival of Chinese tourists after it was listed among countries greenlit by the Chinese government for outbound group tours.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, some 1,022,727 Chinese tourists came to Laos in 2019, accounting for 21 percent of the total number of tourists. In 2022, 45,249 Chinese visitors came to Laos.

Director General of the Tourism Development Department, Phonemaly Inthaphome, presented a draft plan on preparations for Chinese tourists which outlined the general situation and future outlook concerning the Chinese tourism market, preparations to welcome Chinese tourists, and the advantages and disadvantages concerning the surge in visitors coming to Laos.

Lao tourism authorities anticipate that around 368,000 Chinese nationals will visit Laos in 2023, an increase of 21 percent compared to 2022.[Photo/Xinhua]

He instructed the Tourism Development Department and related sectors to improve tourism products and transform the tourism industry into a modern and efficient service provider in ways that respond to the needs of Chinese travelers.

The China-Laos railway is a crucial factor in facilitating travel, while in the near future, new flights are planned between Vientiane and several cities in China to provide more routes for Chinese nationals to visit Laos, said the report.

The meeting discussed ways to bolster Laos' reputation as an attractive tourist destination, such as improving facilities, travel within the country, tourist attractions, hotels, restaurants, travel companies, tour guides, gift shops, services and security, as well as streamlining entry and exit procedures.




As the OPEC+ meeting in the first days of February only confirmed the oil group is intent on maintaining its strategy and will avoid sudden and drastic moves, Saudi Arabia was facing a peculiar dilemma with its March 2023 official formula prices. In the weeks before OSPs get usually released, there has been an incessant stream of surveys, opinion pieces and news claiming Saudi Aramco should cut prices into Asia. The oddity of the situation was that there wasnt really any indication as to why formula prices ought to be cut. The cash-to-futures spread of the Middle Eastern Dubai benchmark were tiptoeing in the same place they were a month ago, around $1.20 per barrel, and even more importantly refinery margins were improving as Chinese product exports started to get scaled down after the frenzy of late 2022, a sign of domestic consumption in China slowly but surely bouncing back to pre-pandemic levels. Hence, when Saudi Aramco did issue its March 2023 OSPs, hiking Arab Light into Asia by $0.20 per barrel to a $2.00 per barrel premium to the Oman/Dubai average, the immediate reaction of many market observers was shock and awe, even though the Saudis were following their usual rulebook.

Chart 1. Saudi Aramcos Official Selling Prices for Asian Cargoes (vs Oman/Dubai average). Source: Saudi Aramco.

Whilst there was a lot of expectation that Saudi exports to Europe would increase after the 5 December Russia oil price cap, the opposite happened. After a really strong showing in November, hitting the highest level since the unbeatable all-time high of 1.3 million b/d in April 2020, exports continue to edge downwards. Whilst Saudi Aramco had its reasons to increase formula prices into Europe, after all backwardation did flatten in January, the $2.00 per barrel month-on-month increase for all grades in both Northwest Europe and the Mediterranean might prompt some European buyers to reconsider their Saudi purchases for the time being. Talking of higher prices, OSPs into the United States were also hiked after several months of uneventful roll-overs, with Arab Light, Medium and Heavy all adding $0.30 per barrel compared to February prices. Seeing that the US Gulf Coast has stopped buying Saudi barrels and that the remaining exports are going into PADD 5 refineries that have much more limited options than PADD 3. Related: U.S. Oil Drilling Activity Retreats For Second Week In A Row

Chart 2. Saudi Aramcos Official Selling Prices for US-bound cargoes (vs ASCI).Source: Saudi Aramco.

Generally speaking, there has been a notable discrepancy between the US oil market and the European or Asian markets. WTI remains the only benchmark to remain in contango in its front months, whilst both Dubai and ICE Brent are increasingly widening their month-on-month backwardation. Oddly enough, open interest held in WTI contracts has gone up in the same form and fashion as it had for ICE Brent, however in the case of the former it failed to alter sentiment about the spring months. Moreover, the release of additional 26 million barrels of US SPR stocks, most probably to materialize in April-May, put WTI under a great deal of pressure, meaning that Middle Eastern exporters that send their barrels into the US over the upcoming month are going to see their pricing basis depressed, leading to lower revenues.

Chart 3. ADNOC Official Selling Prices for March 2023 (set outright, here vs Oman/Dubai average). Source: ADNOC.

ADNOC, the national oil company of the United Arab Emirates, has been a little bit all over the place recently. The IPO of its gas business when 5% will be sold for more than $2.5 billion, the appointment of its CEO Sultan Ahmed al Jaber as the head of COP28 climate talks have somewhat overshadowed the companys oil activities which are still going strong. Keeping oil exports around 3 million b/d and maintaining a solid market share in Asia with only very limited exposure elsewhere, ADNOC headed into March 2023 formula prices with the promise of a higher baseline. Murban traded on the ICE Abu Dhabi exchange forms the basis of ADNOC prices and March came in $2.50 higher than last month, setting the OSP at $82.63 per barrel. With the other grades calculated at manually set discounts to Murban, the light sweet Umm Lulu was rolled over at a 0.05 per barrel premium whilst Das was marginally cut to a -$1.45 per barrel discount to the UAE benchmark.

The cheapest Emirati grade, the medium sour Upper Zakum which up until this month has been priced lower than Dubai itself (despite being lighter and sweeter) has become something of a market sensation as Chinese state-owned refiners ramped up purchases to levels barely seen. In both January and February Unipec, the trading arm of Chinas state-controlled refiner Sinopec, bought at least 15 cargoes of the grade on the spot market. As is usually the case with market opportunities that are too good not to exploit, the buying spree pushed spot differentials of Upper Zakum higher and now its spread to lighter grades like Das or Murban is narrowing down, to the extent that the grades April OSP is now above the regional benchmark Dubai.

Chart 4. Iraqi Official Selling Prices for Asia-bound cargoes (vs Oman/Dubai). Source: SOMO.

The vast fleet of Russian tankers sailing into India and pushing Iraqs medium sour exports out of the South Asian country have been giving Iraqi policymakers many sleepless nights. How to react to something that emerged so suddenly yet might remain in place for months if not years? Where could Iraq find new buyers in Asia and at what cost? Judging by February volumes, India and China are buying below 2022 average levels, both taking in some 900,000 b/d. March formula prices reflect these concerns as the state oil marketer SOMO lifted the Asian prices of Basrah Medium and Basrah Heavy by $0.30 and $0.10 per barrel, respectively, so that now their formula prices stand at discounts of -$1.10 and -$5.85 per barrel to Oman/Dubai. For reference, Saudi Aramco increased the formula price of its Arab Heavy grade which is heavier than Arab Medium by $0.50 per barrel from February, highlighting the squeeze on Iraqi export barrels.

Chart 5. Iraqi Official Selling Prices for Europe-bound cargoes (vs Dated Brent).Source: SOMO.

Whilst Asian demand remains an open question for Iraq despite its prices being more competitive than Saudi Aramcos, Europe is gradually waking up to the Iraqi option. Apart from the usual buyers in Greece and Turkey that have long-term contracts for Basrah Medium, the Netherlands started buying sizable volumes of Iraqi crude again, with more than 210,000 b/d departing last month (equivalent to six tankers), the highest monthly reading since September 2018. In a way, this should have happened as Dated Brent, the pricing basis for Iraqi OSPs into Europe, has flipped into a discount to ICE Brent, used by Saudi Aramco. So SOMO is chasing a moving target  when Aramco increases the European price of Arab Heavy by $2.00 per barrel compared to February, the Iraqi state oil marketer does the same for Basrah Medium yet there remains a hefty $3 per barrel difference between the two. Ultimately, Basrah Medium remains cheaper than Arab Heavy, even though its quality is better.

Chart 6. Iranian Official Selling Prices for Asia-bound cargoes (vs Oman/Dubai average).Source: NIOC.

ADVERTISEMENT

For Iran, the likelihood of seeing the JCPOA revived remains close to zero, nevertheless, amidst all the uranium enrichment taking place there are still occasional calls for a comprehensive deal. Amidst all this, Iranian exports continue flowing into China uninterrupted, easily maintaining flows above 1 million b/d. The Iran-China relationship was expected to witness another boost when President Ebrahim Raisi visited Beijing earlier this month, however initial expectations soon simmered down as official communiques were palpably light on energy-related matters. Therefore, it seems that Irans national oil company NIOC will have to continue doing what it has been the past year, maximizing profits against all odds. In terms of pricing, NIOC followed the Saudi lead and increased Iran Light by 20 cents to a $2.00 per barrel premium over Oman/Dubai, mirroring Arab Light, whilst Iran Heavy was hiked by 60 cents to a $0.35 per barrel premium vs Oman/Dubai.

Chart 7. Kuwait Export Blend Official Selling prices, compared with Arab Medium and Iran Heavy (vs Oman/Dubai average). Source: KPC.

As Kuwait continues to struggle with the Al Zour refinery, still having only one train operational out of the three available, the exports of the Middle Eastern Kingdom remain unchanged at 1.75-1.8 million b/d. Traditionally relying on Saudi Aramco pricing directions, the national oil company KPC increased the March 2023 OSP of its flagship Kuwait Export Crude (KEC) by $0.35 per barrel to a $1.40 per barrel premium vs Oman/Dubai. The month-on-month increase is the average of the month-on-month increments of Arab Light ($0.20 per barrel) and Arab Medium ($0.50 per barrel), which makes sense considering that quality-wise its somewhere in between the two. Whilst KPC works towards the full commissioning of Al Zour, it is simultaneously eyeing the possibilities that the shared Neutral Zone between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait might provide. The two major fields that are currently producing there, the offshore Khafji and the onshore Wafra, have a nameplate production capacity of 550,000 b/d, however, currently they are producing barely half of that level as the multi-year hiatus has adversely impacted their potential.

By Gerald Jansen for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
BP, Chevron, and Talos Energy received disappointing results this week from its Puma West-2 appraisal well, Talos said.

The Puma West-2 appraisal well was drilled to a depth of 25,995 feet followed by a sidetrack, which was drilled geologically down-dip to a total depth of 27,650 feet.

While the appraisal wells did encounter hydrocarbons in multiple sands, additional hydrocarbons from a subsequent well or sidetrack are necessary before they consider moving forward with the project. The Puma West 2 wellbore was suspended temporarily with utility to allow for future potential sidetrack opportunities. Drilling data will now be reviewed and analyzed to determine the best path forward.

BP owns a 50% stake in the project and is operator, with Chevron and Talos each holding a 25% stake.

Spudded in October of last year, the well was highly anticipated and followed in the footsteps of the 2021 exploration discovery well on Green Canyon Block 821 just west of BPs Mad Dog field.

BP has plans to increase its GoM production to 400,000 bpd by the middle of this decade.

The U.S. Gulf of Mexico is possibly one of the worlds most mature deepwater basins with significant room left to expand. It boasts some of the lowest emissions per barrel estimates in the world and contributes roughly 15% of all U.S. crude oil, a report from McKinsey & Company said late last year, with the potential to add up to another 2 million bpd by 2040. For oil companies that have pledged net zero emissions targets, the U.S. Gulf is an attractive play.

The Bureau of Ocean Management issued last week a notice for an oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico that will take place this month. The BOEM is offering up 13,600 blocks across 73.3 million acres.

ADVERTISEMENT

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Norwegian oil and gas major Equinor is nearing a deal to buy the UK North Sea assets of Canadas Suncor Energy for around $1 billion, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing sources with knowledge of the matter.

Suncor Energy has a 40% stake in the Rosebank field, operated by Equinor, off the Shetland Islands. Equinor and partners are expected to make a final investment decision on the fields development this year amid increased tax rates for operators in the UK North Sea and strong opposition from environmentalists to the development of Rosebank and other major oil and gas fields in the North Sea such as Cambo.

Suncor, Canadas third-largest energy company, also holds 29.9% in the huge Buzzard field in the UK North Sea. Buzzard is the biggest supplier to Forties, one of the crude grades in the Brent crude benchmark.

Equinor could incur tax losses from the possible acquisition of Suncors assets that could be used to offset future investments in the UK North Sea, according to Reuters sources.

Suncor has already sold its upstream assets offshore Norway. Sval Energi bought Suncor Energys 17.5% ownership in the Fenja field, 30% ownership in the Oda field, and 8 additional licenses in the Norwegian Continental Shelf in August last year.

An Equinor-Suncor deal would come at a difficult time for operators in the UK North Sea, which have seen their tax rates hiked last year after the UK government introduced  and then increased  a windfall tax on operators offshore the UK.

Earlier this week, the new head of trade body Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) warned that the windfall tax, officially known as the energy Profit Levy (EPL), is hitting all companies operating on the UK Continental Shelf, with firms already announcing lower investments and deferring drilling plans.

Commenting on calls for more taxes after Big Oils record profits for 2022, Mike Tholen, OEUKs director of sustainability, said last month, That rate of UK tax is already so high it risks driving companies out of UK waters. All parties have acknowledged that we will need oil and gas for decades to come. So why risk damaging our own secure supplies from the North Sea?

ADVERTISEMENT

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Europes benchmark natural gas prices fell in February for the third consecutive month, extending the monthly losing streak to the longest since 2020, as milder weather, comfortable inventories, and a plunge in demand dragged down prices.

The front-month futures at the TTF hub, the benchmark for Europes gas trading, lost 19% in February, and have slumped by around 40% since the beginning of the year, according to Bloombergs estimates.

On the last day of February, the TTF futures settled at $49.50 (46.67 euros) per megawatt-hour (MWh) in Amsterdam, down by 1.3% on the day.

Last month, the benchmark European price fell below the threshold of 50 euros ($53) per MWh for the first time since August 2021. Prices are now more than 85% down from the record high of 300 euros ($318) per MWh from August 2022. With only March left to go in the winter, concerns about a gas crisis in Europe continue to recede amid mild weather and above-average inventories across the continent.

One year after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Dutch TTF benchmark gas contract is trading more than 40% below pre-invasion levels, Ole Hansen, Head of Commodity Strategy at Saxo Bank, said in a weekly commodities insight last week.

This has been driven by a combination of mild winter weather and, in most cases, a voluntary reduction in demand from consumers and industry, Hansen said.

Apart from a strong pick up in gas demand from China, these developments should see Europe comfortably through next winter as well, he noted.

The European Union managed to beat its target for cutting gas demand this winter, Eurostat data showed last week. According to the data, the EUs winter demand had so far dropped by 19.3% compared to the five-year average, beating the 15% goal it set for itself to help it survive the winter.

ADVERTISEMENT

Natural gas consumption in OECD Europe fell by an estimated 13% in 2022, its steepest decline in absolute terms in history, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its quarterly gas report on Tuesday.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Crude oil inventories in the United States saw another significant increase, with a 6.203 million barrel increase last week, the American Petroleum Institute (API) data showed on Tuesday, bringing the total number of barrels gained so far this year to nearly 59 million barrels.

This week, SPR inventory held steady for the seventh week in a row at 371.6 million barrelsthe lowest amount of crude oil in the SPR since December 1983. But the Biden Administration previously announced that there would be further releases from the SPR in the amount of 26 million barrels after the stockpiles dropped by 221 million barrels last year.

Oil prices traded up on Tuesday in the run-up to the data release. At 12:29 p.m. EST, WTI was trading up $1.80 (2.38%) on the day to $77.48 per barrel, and up nearly $1.50 per barrel from this time last week. Brent crude was trading up $1.54 (+1.87%) on the day at $83.99a weekly increase just shy of $1 per barrel.

U.S. crude oil production stayed at 12.3 million bpd for week ending February 17the highest production rate since last April 2020. U.S. production is still 800,000 bpd lower than the peak production seen in March 2020.

WTI was trading at $76.86 shortly after the data release.

Gasoline inventories fell by 1.774 million barrels after last weeks API data showed the fuel inventories rising by 894,000 barrels. Distillates fell 341,000 barrels after rising by 1.374 million bpd in the week prior.

Inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, increased by 483,000 barrels on top of the 781,000 barrel hike reported last week.

ADVERTISEMENT

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
A man who fled Nebraska in 2017 after he was charged in the rape of a minor in Omaha was taken into custody last week by the U.S. Marshals Service in Houston, according to jail records.

Gabino Vargas-Perez, a 26-year-old immigrant from Guatemala, has been held in the Montgomery County Jail since Feb. 16 and will be extradited to Omaha.

Douglas County prosecutors charged Vargas-Perez with suspicion of first-degree sexual assault of a child in 2017 for the rape of a 14-year-old, the World-Herald previously reported.

After Vargas-Perezs bail was set at $50,000, someone posted the necessary 10%  $5,000  cash bail on his behalf and he left jail on Feb. 21, 2017. He then skipped bail and did not show up for a March 13, 2017, preliminary hearing, reports stated.

At the time he was charged, Vargas-Perez was a 20-year-old former Central High School student and was living in Omaha.

The 14-year-old girl told police that she met Vargas-Perez in fall 2016 and that he told her he was 16, according to previous reporting. Vargas-Perez asked her to come home with him to meet his family, took her upstairs and raped her, she told police.

Under Nebraska state law, it is illegal for anyone 19 or older to have sex with anyone under age 16.

Our best Omaha staff photos & videos of February 2023
Two people were arrested after a pursuit in west Omaha Tuesday morning that reached speeds of more than 100 mph, according to the Nebraska State Patrol.

Around 9:15 a.m., a state trooper attempted a traffic stop on a Jeep Grand Cherokee that was speeding west on West Dodge Road, according to a press release from the patrol. The driver of the Jeep did not stop and sped up, leading the trooper to begin a pursuit near 132nd Street and West Dodge Road.

The driver of the Jeep continued west, reaching speeds over 100 mph before exiting West Dodge Road and turning north onto 168th Street, the patrol said. The driver then turned east onto Blondo Street, at which point the passenger threw a backpack out of the Jeeps window.

The driver then stopped voluntarily at 156th and Blondo Streets, the release said. The driver, a 25-year-old David City man, was arrested on suspicion of flight to avoid arrest, willful reckless driving and possession of a controlled substance. The passenger, a 31-year-old Omaha woman, was arrested on suspicion of tampering with physical evidence.
The approval of the first at-home combination test for influenza and COVID-19 eventually could help people identify those illnesses earlier so they can isolate and consult with a health care provider about potential treatments, two local physicians said Tuesday.

That means Nebraskans may want to consider buying one of the new tests when they become available to keep on the shelf for the fall when the traditional respiratory illness season returns.

Its really helpful and handy during the high respiratory season, said Dr. Renuga Vivekanandan, chief of infectious diseases at CHI Health and Creighton University.

The Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency-use authorization for the combination test Friday. The single-use test, which requires one nasal swab, tests for influenza A and B as well as for COVID-19. People 14 and older can collect the sample themselves. An adult would swab children who are 2 and older. Test results are available within 30 minutes.

Exactly when the tests will become available for purchase by consumers, however, isnt clear.

The FDA authorization came just days after test maker Lucira Health announced that it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company said in a statement that it had anticipated authorization for the test in August. But the agencys approval process became protracted, resulting in high expenditures without new revenue from the combined test kit during the 2022-23 flu season.

But the authorization comes as consumer preference for at-home tests is growing, said Dr. Michael Schooff, primary care medical director for CHI Health Clinic.

Most women today learn they are pregnant by using at-home tests, and most testing for COVID-19 now has shifted to at-home kits. That trend is expected to continue.

As weve learned, there are a lot of folks who would prefer to be tested at home, Schooff said.

The advantage of at-home tests is that they allow people to quickly identify which virus they have. That gives them time to call their provider or set up a telehealth visit early enough in the course of that illness to weigh treatments based on their symptoms and their individual health.

If their symptoms are mild, they may just need over-the-counter medications and some chicken soup to weather the illness, Schooff said. But if theyre older or have heart, lung or immune conditions, they should consider prescription antiviral medications such as Tamiflu for flu or Paxlovid for COVID-19. Both should be started soon after a positive test.

Vivekanandan noted that younger people should consider Paxlovid even if they have mild COVID-19 symptoms. Studies are beginning to indicate the drug can prevent lingering symptoms, or long COVID.

Schooff noted a couple of caveats for home testing. Because the at-home tests arent quite as accurate as the gold standard PCR test, a person who has symptoms but tests negative should isolate and retest in 48 hours. If that person has moderate to severe symptoms, they may want to contact a health care provider and arrange for a PCR test.

Even if a person tests negative for flu and COVID, they may be infected with another infectious virus, he said. In that case, the person should stay home and isolate to avoid infecting others.

For now, the FDA approval of the new test comes as flu season is waning in the U.S. and COVID-19 case counts are lower than they have been in recent months.

Schooff said the Chapter 11 filing suggests the company plans to stay in operation, reorganize its finances and bring the test to the market.

Indeed, the company said in a statement that it had produced the inventory for an anticipated autumn 2022 launch. A company spokesman said in an email that the test maker will communicate its launch timing and pricing at a later date.

Schooff said he has seen reports indicating the tests will cost as little as $70 each and as much as $100.

Thats comparable to what a patient would pay at a clinic, he said. CHIs PCR tests for COVID costs about $80. Adding a flu test tacks on another $20, plus the cost of an office visit if the testing is done in a clinic.

Both physicians said the cost of the tests likely would have to come down for them to be accessible to most people. Ideally, they said, insurers and state and federal programs such as Medicare and Medicaid would help cover the costs.

Schooff said he anticipates that COVID-19 vaccines and tests, many of which were offered at no cost during the pandemic, will remain free or low-cost even after the federal health emergency ends in May, with insurers and agencies covering some costs. The State of Nebraska still has a large stockpile of vaccines from the federal government.

Vivekanandan said other companies likely will follow suit with their own at-home tests, which should help drive down costs.

I predict we will have more home testing for viruses and other infections in the near future, she said.

Our best Omaha staff photos & videos of February 2023
Three men who for years have positively impacted their North Omaha community will be honored through the commemorative renaming of city streets.

Steven L. Mercer, a restaurant owner who dished out legendary fried chicken and hosted neighborhood gatherings. Marshall Taylor, a bookstore owner who worked as an educator and mentor. Bernard E. Turnbo, a child care provider who brought quality education to an impoverished community.

The Omaha City Council approved special street designations for the three men at Tuesdays meeting.

Mercer took charge of his familys restaurant, Time Out Foods, at just 22 years old.

The spot opened in 1969 and for decades has held the unofficial title as one of Omahas best fried chicken restaurants. It was fittingly named the winner of a World-Herald fried chicken food prowl in 2012.

Mercer also managed local band Jam Squad. Through the band and his business, he organized community concerts and developed several scholarships for local high school students.

Steven was a visionary, said Antoinette Russ, a family member. Every time you say Time Out Chicken, youll think of Steve Mercer.

Mercer supported local kids and teens through several scholarship opportunities. It was common for students to burst through the doors of Time Out Foods with report cards in hand, excited to show Mercer their good grades, Russ said.

Time Out Foods closed for nearly five months following Mercers death on Christmas Day 2019. When the restaurants drive-thru window reopened in May 2020, a line of cars stretched into the street.

Now Evans Street from 30th Street to John A. Creighton Boulevard will become Steven L. Mercer Street. Time Out Foods is located just south of Evans on North 30th Street.

While Mercer served legendary chicken, blocks away from Time Out Foods, Marshall Taylor served knowledge.

In 1990, Taylor opened a bookstore on the corner of 33rd and Lake Streets.

Taylor and his wife, Annlattea Annette Green-Taylor, together ran the Aframerican Bookstore, a one-story brick building that has long served as a community hub for meetings and unofficial social work, healing and therapy.

He was not just the owner of a bookstore, Willie Hamilton, leader of Omahas Black Men United, told council members. He was an educator, a community leader. He was someone who you could talk to about your personal problems. He had so much information to share on your history and where you came from.

It was nearly impossible to leave Taylors bookstore without a book handed out by the Air Force veteran, Hamilton said.

Councilwoman Juanita Johnson agreed.

He was very knowledgeable about his community and about the need for the community to gain access to knowledge, Johnson said.

Lake Street from 32nd Street to 33rd Street will be renamed Marshall Taylor Street.

Like Taylor, it has been Bernard E. Turnbos mission to bring quality education to his community.

Turnbo for more three decades has provided child care services through the B.E.T. Learning Academy at 4052 Grand Ave.

Grand Avenue from 40th Avenue to 42nd Street will be renamed Bernard E. Turnbo, Sr. Street.

This is such a great honor to have this street renamed after Mr. Turnbo, Johnson said.

Our best Omaha staff photos & videos of February 2023
LINCOLN  Opponents turned out in force Tuesday to argue against a bill allowing teachers and other school staff to deal physically with violent and disruptive students.

The opposition to Legislative Bill 811 mirrored the response to several past attempts to give teachers more legal backing to use physical intervention with students and more power to remove them from their classrooms.

State Sen. Dave Murman of Glenvil, the Education Committee chairman, said he introduced the measure at the request of the Nebraska State Education Association, the union representing teachers and other school personnel.

He cast the bill as a way to keep teachers from leaving the profession, exacerbating the teacher shortage, while trying to protect the learning environment for all students.

Friends, we have got to do something here, he said at a public hearing on the bill. We have to allow teachers to defend themselves, their students and their hallways.

Isau Metes, speaking for NSEA, said teachers want the ability to use reasonable physical intervention without fear of professional or administrative discipline. She said they also want to get training in how best to handle difficult students, training that is only available in some districts.

She was joined by Ben Welsch, a math teacher at Hastings Senior High School, in supporting the bill. Murman said other teachers were fearful about testifying.

But representatives from nearly 20 groups spoke against the measure. They included administrators and school board officials, parents of children with disabilities and representatives of civil rights, disability rights and child advocacy groups.

They argued that LB 811 would endanger the rights of students, particularly students with disabilities and students of color. They said it would increase the likelihood of school staff using physical interventions without resolving concerns about violence in schools.

We need to stop this bill once and for all, said Edison McDonald, executive director of the Arc of Nebraska. Students and families are tired of being attacked, tired of coming home with finger marks on their necks and tired of feeling threatened.

Shavonna Holman, an Omaha Public Schools board member, said physical interventions lead to an escalation of violence, rather than stopping it. She said such interventions can break a students trust in a teacher, which is important for learning.

Lauren Micek Vargas, executive director of the Education Rights Counsel, said her group already handles cases of children as young as 4 years old who have been physically restrained. She argued that LB 811 would put childrens health and safety at risk by allowing any school staff member to restrain any child.

As introduced, the bill would spell out that teachers and other school staff could use reasonable physical intervention with a student to protect that student or other people from physical injury.

Staff also could use physical intervention to secure items that the student could use to cause injury. But actions used to inflict pain as a penalty for disapproved behavior would not be allowed.

In addition, LB 811 would require administrators to immediately remove a student from a class when requested by a teacher or other school personnel, unless the removal is barred by the students special education plan.

Teachers and other staff would be protected from professional or administrative discipline for using physical intervention or for having a student removed from class.

Other parts of the bill would require behavioral awareness and intervention training for teachers and some other school personnel by the end of the 2026-27 school year. Training costs would be paid with state lottery dollars.

Photos: 2023 Nebraska legislative session
 Flash

In this image from video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry, the Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile blasts off during a test launch from the Plesetsk launch pad in northwestern Russia, March 30, 2018.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday signed a law officially suspending Russia's participation in the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) with the United States.

The law comes into force immediately and the decision to resume Russia's participation in the treaty is up to the head of state, according to the published law.

In his annual address to the Federal Assembly on Feb. 21, Putin said Russia was suspending its participation in, rather than withdrawing from, the New START treaty. He also pointed out the combined strike potential of NATO as Britain and France also have nuclear arsenals that pose a threat to Russia.

A day later, a bill on the New START treaty suspension was unanimously adopted by Russia's parliament and then sent to Putin for his final approval.

The New START, the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty in force between the two nuclear superpowers, can be extended by a maximum of five years with the consent of the two countries. Russia and the United States officially extended the treaty by five years on Feb. 3, 2021.
Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers said he felt confident in the arguments made Tuesday before the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of several states challenging a plan to wipe out billions of dollars of student loan debt for borrowers across the country.

Six states led by Nebraska sued the Biden administration after the program was announced last year, alleging the education secretary had exceeded the authority granted to him under the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act.

Nebraska Solicitor General Jim Campbell argued during oral arguments that the program was unconstitutional because the executive branch had assumed a power not explicitly granted to it by Congress.

Campbell, who led arguments in the case at the district and appeals court last year under then-Attorney General Doug Peterson, also asserted the states had met the legal threshold to sue by demonstrating potential damages they would suffer if the court upholds the administrations plan.

Speaking to reporters via Zoom on Tuesday afternoon, Hilgers said the states opposition had nothing to do with whether or not discharge is a good idea, but focused on whether Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona had authority to enact the plan.

Our argument before the Supreme Court was that there was no statutory authorization and that Congress did not permit the secretary (to do) this really massive action without a vote of Congress, Hilgers said.

The Biden administration said the COVID-19 pandemic created an emergency situation that allowed the education secretary to discharge student loans or offer other forgiveness to borrowers under the HEROES Act, which was passed by Congress in 2003.

Hilgers said the Republican-led states who challenged the federal government felt that reading was too broad: It doesnt reference discharge, it doesnt mention cancellation.

Members of Congress who were serving in Washington, D.C., when the HEROES Act was passed said  according to Hilgers  discharge or forgiveness of student loans was not intended, and recent attempts to pass such a measure were unsuccessful.

If allowed to stand, Nebraska and the other states said they would face negative financial impacts. The Nebraska Investment Council, for one, has some investments in student loan-backed assets, which receive income from student loan payments.

That wasnt the focus of oral arguments, however; Campbell asserted the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority, a public corporation that manages student loans and other programs in Missouri, would have its budget slashed by up to 40% if student loans were discharged under the Biden plan.

While the states focused on the impacts to their budgets on Tuesday, thousands of Nebraskans and millions of Americans are waiting to learn what will come of the program.

In January, the White House said 154,000 of the 232,100 borrowers in Nebraska who were deemed eligible to receive up to $20,000 in loan forgiveness had been accepted into the program.

Of that amount, 97,000 borrowers in Nebraska were notified that their applications had been sent to loan servicing companies to be discharged before the court-ordered pause, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

Nationwide, nearly 16.5 million of the 26.2 million borrowers who sought debt relief also had their information forwarded to a loan servicer, Education Department data showed.

Hilgers, asked about what he would say to those who were anticipating receiving forgiveness or having their debts wiped clean, said the states feel the Education Department was not given permission to use taxpayer money to discharge their student loans.

In a statement Tuesday afternoon, Cardona said the Biden-Harris Administration mounted a powerful defense of the program, which it said would provide debt relief to 40 million Americans, most working- and middle-class.

The Department of Justice argued against the lawsuits aimed at denying relief to borrowers, made clear that challengers to the program lack standing to even bring their cases to court, and explained the Department of Educations decades-old authority used by multiple administrations to protect borrowers from the effects of national emergencies, Cardona said in the press release.

Hilgers hesitated to make a decision about which way the court  which has a 6-3 conservative majority  would rule, saying he has listened to enough oral arguments to know not to guess the ultimate outcome. Im not in the prediction game, he said.

I will say, though, going into the argument we were very well prepared, he said, adding nothing came up during arguments that the states hadnt considered or anticipated or that he believed undermined their argument.

Justices are expected to rule on the case before the end of the current term, potentially in late June or early July.

Our best Omaha staff photos & videos of February 2023
LINCOLN  Students denied option enrollment could attend a private school and have their tuition paid for under a bill in the Nebraska Legislature.

The proposal, Legislative Bill 528, is one of multiple pieces of legislation intended to expand education options for students, including at private and faith-based schools. Like those other bills, LB 528  which was the subject of a hearing before the Legislatures Education Committee on Tuesday  had supporters vouching for the quality of those schools, while opponents argued it would deprive public schools of funding and represent an inappropriate use of state dollars.

State Sen. Ben Hansen of Blair, the bills introducer, said he hopes LB 528 will expand pathways for students to get the education services that best fit them.

I want to create options within optional enrollment, Hansen said.

LB 528 would pay tuition and fees for students to attend private or parochial schools if they are denied option enrollment.

Nebraskas option enrollment program allows students the opportunity to attend schools in a different district from which they reside. Districts are allowed to deny option enrollment requests if they are at capacity or dont have the resources to serve the students needs.

The funding through LB 528 would be distributed via scholarship accounts set by the State Board of Education once an applicant decides against appealing the denial. The amounts offered through the scholarships would be based on the average per-pupil cost of the previous years tuition and fees.

LB 528 does not include a cap on the funding. Hansen said the money would come from the option enrollment funding allocated through the states school funding formula. For the 2022-23 school year, the state allocated more than $125 million for its option enrollment program.

LB 528 is not the only legislation this session that would expand option enrollment, nor is it the only one that would benefit private and parochial schools.

LB 550 introduced by Sen. Beau Ballard of Lincoln, which also had a hearing Tuesday, would expand the states option enrollment program to allow students to transfer schools at any point during the year an unlimited number of times, and allow students to work with the district they select without permission from the district they wish to transfer from.

LB 753, the priority bill for Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of the Omaha area, is the product of a line of unsuccessful Linehan bills seeking to offer tax credits for donations to private or parochial school scholarships.

Many of the same arguments for and against LB 753 emerged during LB 528s hearing. Supporters largely testified about the range of services private and parochial schools provide that public schools do not, particularly for special needs students.

Jon Burt, president of the parochial special education institution Madonna School and Community-Based Services, said when students are denied option enrollment, it often comes down to whether their family can afford private school. In those cases, he argued it was unfair for public school districts to decide whether a student gets the services they need.

The choice is in the wrong spot, Burt said.

Meanwhile, opponents argued that the bill would decrease funding for Nebraskas public schools, and that private and parochial schools can discriminate against students, and thus shouldnt benefit from state programs.

Several opponents objected to the lack of clarity in LB 528s funding mechanisms. A representative from the OpenSky Policy Institute said there is no accountability once a tuition account is created to ensure the money is used for tuition. Hansen said it would be up to the State Board of Education to oversee the funding is used properly.

Committee member Sen. Justin Wayne of Omaha called on opponents to propose solutions to the problems they raised with the bill, arguing that students will be negatively impacted the longer the state doesnt act.

In the meantime, there are kids who cant get services and are stuck, Wayne said.

Public school districts in the Omaha metro area Bellevue Public Schools Bennington Public Schools Douglas County West Community Schools Elkhorn Public Schools Fort Calhoun Community Schools Gretna Public Schools Millard Public Schools Omaha Public Schools Papillion La Vista Community Schools Ralston Public Schools Westside Community Schools
LINCOLN  Gov. Jim Pillen celebrated National Pig Day on Wednesday by sharing memories from his childhood on a hog farm with two classes of urban fourth graders. But he first invited a pair of the students to help him choose a name for the metal pig statue in his office Wednesday. The winning name, chosen from a hat by Lauren Peterson of Lincoln, was Petunia.

It now becomes the official name for the bronze sow that was modeled after a prize-winning one from Pillens farm. The hat held only a handful of choices, culled from more than 200 names offered by visitors to the Governors Office during the past two months.

Pillen took the opportunity to teach the students, from Christ Lincoln Schools in Lincoln and Spirit and Grace Academy in Omaha, about gilts, sows, heifers and cows and the importance of agriculture to Nebraskas economy.

In response to questions, he also told the students that pigs will follow you around if you offer them Oreo cookies, that Cameron the cat  a near constant presence outside the Capitol and local celebrity  does not belong to him and that, growing up, he used to ride pigs on his parents farm when his parents were out of sight.

He then demonstrated his riding technique by climbing atop Petunia and inviting the students to do the same.

Photos: Jim Pillen appoints Pete Ricketts to the Senate
MCLEAN  A 25-year-old man was killed in a crash on Interstate 55 in the southwest part of McLean County, state police said Wednesday.

The crash took place at roughly 1:50 a.m. Tuesday at Interstate 55 southbound at milepost 146, police said.

In a statement, the agency said a preliminary investigation found that a semitractor-trailer had pulled over so that the driver could check the headlights. It pulled back onto the interstate without gaining speed on the shoulder, police said, and the driver of a GMC box truck collided with it.

The driver of the second vehicle, Cory D. Geist of Tucson, Arizona, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The driver of the semitrailer, a 39-year-old Utah man, was charged with violating minimum speed regulations, failure to yield to merging traffic and improper lane usage, police said. Both the driver and a passenger, a 64-year-old Utah man, were uninjured.

Students celebrate Black History Month with spirit week Bloomington High windows BHS students BHS students NCHS students and staff University High School students Normal West decoratiosn Normal Community High School decorations Normal Community students
NORMAL  Mennonite College of Nursing at Illinois State University will host a virtual scholarship symposium from 4-6 p.m. Thursday, March 23.

Registration is open now through March 17.

Nursing professionals, nursing faculty, nursing students, clinical partners, alumni and others will have the opportunity to learn about the scholarly work that is being achieved with many of MCN's collaborating sites.

The event is free and will include opening remarks from Dr. Judy Neubrander, dean; welcome and instructions for breakout sessions and poster presentations; podium presentations; and awards and evaluation.

ISU's Mennonite College of Nursing is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation.

This activity counts for a maximum of 1.75 ANNC RN contact hours. To earn the hours, learners must attend the entire virtual session and complete the required evaluation using the Qualtrics link.

Visit nursing.illinois.edu for more information.

Watch now: 30 photos from the 20 Stars for Life Gala Paul Segobiano, Liz Skinner WW II Vet Paul Petry, Lt. Colonel Jason Carter Mike and Paula Weiland, Joe and Jan Francois Heartland Community College President Keith Cornille, Mary Penn, Shawn Eiker Dan and Subie Kniery Ian King, Derek and Jessica Vogler Garrett VonDerHeide, Brandon Shaffer Ellen, Mark, Jennifer and Mike Rudicil Mary Liebach, Craig Queen, Shannon and Jaime Ganschow Jake and Megan Owens, Shanna and Thomas Phillips Kandi Reeves, Jake Owens, Julie Riley Stay 4 Students Hana Abbed, Alexis Bruun, Gabrielle Kaeb Ravi Duvvuri, Julie Emig Chuck Scott, Cheryl Gaines, Vicky Scott Jenae and Sylvester Davis, Angie and Frank Hoffman Jamie and Rich Zeller, Liz Skinner, Paul Segobiano Lt. David Brown, Lt. Colonel Jason Carter, Specialist Gina Keller, Paul Petry, Lt. Colonel Greg Struve, Art Rodriguez, Sgt. Kevin Keller Paul Segobiano Mike Raikes, Elizabeth Johnston, Matt Strupp Noud Annell, Tricia Braid Peyton Roop, Liv Borchelt, Caleb Wilson, Ally Daskalopoulos Emily Volker, Melissa Blaum, Maggie Lakebrink Cindy and Mark Segobiano Jaime Mahoney, Evy Makris, Zach Morris Jeff Woodard, Paul Segobiano Cheryl Magnuson, Nargis Khokar Jeff Woodard, Julie Emig Mark Segobiano performing the National Anthem Those who serve "Stay 4" Students
100 years ago

March 1, 1923: Standing room was at a premium at the Bloomington High School auditorium on the occasion of the second production of the Rotary Follies of 1923. The demand for an opportunity to witness this notable production, which is under the direction of Ralph S. Freese, has been so great that it has been impossible to satisfy the wants of all, a condition which the committee in charge very much regrets.

75 years agoMarch 1, 1948: A new sporting goods store, Jacks Sport Shop, will open at 222 W. Jefferson St., formerly occupied by Lowers pharmacy. It will be managed by Jack Benedict, a former Illinois State Normal University student and Bloomington resident for the past 15 years. He has built two counters running the length of the store in the center, flanked by display racks and counters on three walls, with storage cabinets beneath; all were made by Benedict out of knotty pine.

50 years agoMarch 1, 1973: The Bloomington Parks and Recreation Teen Club will sponsor trips this weekend to attend the Chicago Auto Show at McCormick Place and to Chestnut Mountain ski resort at Galena. Each trip will be limited to the first 47 high school students who register. The auto show trip will be $7 per student, and the ski trip $23.50 per student.

25 years ago

March 1, 1998: More than 500 people attended the McLean County Republican Central Committee Lincoln Day breakfast, where the featured speaker was U.S. Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. Gingrich, R-Georgia, stressed the importance of keeping children away from drugs and improving their education during a speech at the Interstate Center in Bloomington.

101 years ago: See vintage Pantagraph ads from 1922 Gerthart's Union Gas and Electric Co. Hoover Dr. J.A. Moore Dentists Moberly & Klenner W.P. Garretson W.H. Roland Pease's Candy Thor 32 Electric Washing Machine The Kaiser's Story of the War Ike Livingston & Sons Gossard Corsets Cat'n Fiddle 'Stolen Moments' Case Model X The Johnson Transfer & Fuel Co. The Pantagraph want ads Franklin Motor Car Co. 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' Calumet Baking Powder Mayer Livingston & Co. Newsmarket 'The Emperor Jones' 'California Fig Syrup'

Compiled by Pantagraph staff
Following Tuesdays balloting, Chicagoans have one more Election Day to get through to determine who will be mayor as well as several races for City Council.

In five weeks, on April 4, voters will decide if former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas or Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson will be Chicagos next mayor, as well as who will win the aldermans seat in several council races. Were here because none of the candidates in those races received more than half of the vote on Tuesday, triggering a runoff election in which the top two candidates face off.

It wasnt always this way.

Chicago used to have municipal primaries and general elections just like we see every two years for either statewide (governor, attorney general, etc.) or national (president) campaigns for office.

But that all changed in 1999 when a new state law went into effect that not only created the two-round structure for Chicago races, it also made municipal elections in Illinois nonpartisan. Thats right, even though every candidate running for Chicago mayor since has tried to wear their Democratic Party bona fides like a badge of honor, none of them were officially running as Democrats.

The legislation was passed in 1995 by the Republican-controlled Illinois General Assembly and signed into law by GOP Gov. Jim Edgar. But then-Mayor Richard M. Daley, a Democrat, didnt object.

Many Black politicians saw the move as a coordinated scheme by white Democrats and Republicans to thwart African American mayoral aspirations. At the time, the Harold Washington Party, named after the citys first Black mayor, was a significant third party in municipal elections, and party leaders thought making the city elections fully nonpartisan would hurt their chances.

After the new law went into effect, it certainly didnt hurt Daleys efforts for reelection. He won in 1999, 2003 and 2007 without ever being forced into a runoff.

In 2011, after Daley decided not to run for another term, Rahm Emanuel, the former congressman and chief of staff to President Barack Obama, won in the first round as well.

Chicago finally had its first runoff in 2015 when Jesus Chuy Garcia forced Emanuel into a second round of voting, though Emanuel won.

In 2019, with 14 candidates running for an open seat because Emanuel opted against trying for a third term, Toni Preckwinkle and Lori Lightfoot were the two top vote-getters and made the runoff, with Lightfoot winning.

Now, city history will again be made as Vallas and Johnson participate in the citys third-ever mayoral runoff.

Photos: Chicago mayoral candidates in the 2023 election
Recently, I was one of 1,300 volunteers from around the country to join the Alzheimers Association for their annual Community Leadership Summit in San Diego.

It was energizing to meet other volunteers and learn the various reasons and motivations that bring us together to actively support the mission of the Alzheimers Association. Throughout the conference, the Alzheimers Association emphasized the critical role volunteers play in the success in supporting the 230,000 individuals living with Alzheimers and their families here in Illinois.

My role as a volunteer in Normal is a community educator and Illinois board member.

This year's gathering of community volunteers is important to me because in 2019 I lost my wife to this disease.

The conference gave me a new perspective and appreciation for all the ways volunteers in Normal can support individuals and families impacted by Alzheimer's. As an Alzheimer's Association volunteer, I look forward to doing my part, but more volunteers are needed. I invite other Central, Illinois residents to join me in fighting this devastating disease. Learn more at alz.org/volunteer.

David Myers, Normal
The Institute for Energy Security (IES) has taken note of a roughly 600,000 barrels crude oil consignment that arrived at the Tema port on Friday, 26th February 2023 aboard the vessel MT Theseus, which Bloomberg reports as Russian Oil to be stashed in Ghana as pool of buyers shrinks.



Documents intercepted by the IES suggest that Planton Gas Oil Ghana Limited is the importer, and has requested for a crude oil storage space of approximately 80,000 metric tonne (MT), equivalent to 600,000 barrels from the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), after nominating the facility as the discharge destination.



The IES can confirm that the vessel in question is presently at the Tema port anchorage and has issued notice of readiness (NOR) to the importer, awaiting to berth at either the Single Point Mooring (SPM) system or the Tema Oil Jetty for onward discharge into storage tank(s).



The Institute can also confirm that samples of the crude has been taken for laboratory testing by nominated Inspectors and Agents, with the support of staffs at the TOR facility.



The IES can also confirm that the vessel is free from any interception and is only awaiting clearance from the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) to berth, and start discharge into TORs crude oil tanks.



This the IES finds as troubling given that few days ago, NPA the regulator of the downstream petroleum sector had given a strong indication that should the MT. Tedeus crude oil vessel in question enter Ghana waters it will cause the interception of the cargo. Instead the vessel MT. Theseus sits free, receiving the cooperation of state actors, and likely to discharge into a national oil facility.



More troubling is the fact that Platon Gas Oil Ghana Ltd processing and distribution capacity is a very small, for a size of 80,000 MT crude cargo. The IES finds that between January and December 2022, Platon could on process and distribute just 2,849 MT of Residual Fuel Oil (RFO) and Gasoil, representing just 3.6% of the crude oil consignment under discussion. This raises eyebrows, and the IES is tempted to think that the named receiver of the crude cargo Platon Gas Oil Ltd. is only a frontal.



Ghanaians can recollect that in late December 2022 the Deputy Minister of Energy, Andrew Egyapa Mercer gave another assurance that the Tema Oil Refinery will commence full operation by end of February 2023. Could this crude cargo aboard MT. Theseus be the first parcel of crude for TOR to start full operation, after 2 years of shutdown? Could this crude oil consignment be an extension of governments Gold for Oil Program?



To clear doubts in the minds of Ghanaians and industry watchers, the IES calls on government to speak and clarify issues surrounding the arrival of the crude vessel into the country. Government must let Ghanaians know why it failed to block the vessel as suggested by the boss of NPA Dr. Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, few days before the arrival of the cargo.

















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 Ministry of Education has announced that a total of 492,437 students, representing 91% of the 538,399 candidates who qualified for placement, have been successfully placed as of 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, February 26, 2023.



These students have been assigned to their preferred Senior High and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) schools by the Ministry.



This is an improvement over the 372,721 (69%) placements made through automatic placement a few days ago, the Ministry said.



Felix A. Baidoo, Press Secretary to the education minister, told the media on Sunday that the 119,716 candidates used the self-placement system to choose their preferred school.



He noted that the workers at the National Resolution Centre have been swift in handling the challenges brought to their attention.





Source: rainbow radio









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
 Flash

Starting on Wednesday, Italy's Lombardy region will no longer require people arriving from China by plane to be tested for COVID-19 infections, ending a policy that lasted for two months, Guido Bertolaso, Lombardy's welfare counselor announced on Tuesday.

The announcement coincided with the closure of the region's main COVID-19 prevention center in the Palazzo delle Scintille. The center had been open for 674 days and had administered 2.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine.

Speaking at the closing event on Tuesday, Bertolaso confirmed that "the checks carried out over the last two months are no longer necessary."

Italy introduced the testing regime in late December due to a rise in COVID-19 infections in China. The restrictions were loosened to random checks in late January.

Lombardy is Italy's most populous region and home to the country's financial and fashion capital of Milan. It is a popular destination for Chinese tourists and business travelers.
These last few months, the European Union has intensified its ties with Algeria due to its growing reliance on gas following the war in Ukraine. The European Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson, visited the North African country herself last October and said that Algeria is a trusted supplier.



Other member states, such as France and Italy, have also increased their compliments to Abdelmadjid Tebboune's regime. However, Algiers has become a key ally of Moscow in Putin's war against Ukraine.



Algeria has become the Russian aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean. The Algerian and Russian armies have conducted joint military maneuvers in recent months, including on Algerian territory near the Moroccan border. Similarly, the regime in Algiers is one of the major financiers of Putin's aggression against Ukraine, because it is one of Russia's main clients for arms purchases.



This situation has been denounced both in the United States Congress and in the European Parliament. Following this, on November 16, 17 MEPs sent a letter to Ursula von der Leyen asking for the revision of the association agreement between the European Union and Algeria, which came into force in 2005, because of the growing links between Algeria and Moscow.



This Wednesday, February 23, on the eve of the anniversary of the Russian aggression against Ukraine, the General Assembly of the United Nations met in special session to approve a resolution that calls for Russian withdrawal from Ukraine and demands that Russia "respect the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine.



Nevertheless, the resolution approved by a large majority is not binding. However, it is a good thermometer for measuring the international support for both Russia and Ukraine.



Putin's aggression against Ukraine leaves no room for half measures. Algeria's non-support for the resolution corroborates the close link between Algiers and Moscow.



Algeria is not a reliable partner. The European Union must be consistent in its efforts to support Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression and, therefore, reconsider its partnerships with Moscow's allies. It is nonsense that, on the one hand, we strengthen, with public money, the army of Kiev for its defense and, on the other hand, we intensify ties with the allies of those who attack Ukraine. The revision of the association agreement between the European Union and Algeria is urgent.

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
After launching the TECH4ALL initiative at Mobile World Congress (MWC) Barcelona four years ago, Huawei and its partners shared the latest insights and practices on how technology is enabling digital inclusion and sustainability at a media roundtable on Day 1 of MWC Barcelona 2023.



All of our efforts with the TECH4ALL initiative wouldnt have been possible without taking technology and partnerships as key enablers, said Jeffrey Zhou, President of ICT Marketing for Huawei, in his opening speech.



Since the launch of TECH4ALL, more than 600 schools worldwide, over 220,000 K12 teachers and students in remote areas, unemployed youth, women, and the elderly, and 46 nature reserves have benefited from the TECH4ALL program. Moving forward, we will keep innovating and using technology along with our global partners to build a more inclusive and sustainable digital world for all.



At the end of his speech, Zhou officially launched the TECH4ALL Digital Inclusion special publication, which shares the diverse visions, strategies, and best practices of global experts and partners in 15 stories set out in three sections: Insights, Technology in Focus, and Case Studies. The special publication is now ready to view and download on the Huawei TECH4ALL website.



Click the link to download the Digital Inclusion special publication



Also at the roundtable, representatives from UNESCO and the global NGO Close the Gap explored how technology is helping to boost the digital transformation of education and improve digital skills, especially for underserved groups in remote and rural areas. These include providing connectivity, expanding digital literacy and skills, and supporting STEAM curriculum through projects such as Technology-enabled Open Schools for All, DigiSchool, and DigiTruck.



Digital open schooling models are the manifestation of the digital transformation of school education. Its an open approach to reinventing schooling systems to ensure school education, including knowledge learning, skills development, the fostering of values, and social caring, will be secured both under normal and emergency situations, said Dr. Fengchun Miao, Chief of Unit for Technology and Artificial Intelligence in Education for UNESCO. The UNESCO-Huawei project Technology-enabled Open Schools for All is having a ground-breaking impact on the building and testing of digital open schools in African countries. The project directly covers more than 20,000 students and more than 1 million teachers in Ghana, Ethiopia, and Egypt.



TECH4ALL partner Close the Gap described the value of the DigiTruck in providing free digital skills training for remote communities in Africa.



We have partnered with Huawei to develop and deploy DigiTrucks in Africa to rural and peri-urban communities specifically targeted at preparing the young people in those communities for the digital jobs of the future, said Ngosa Mupela, Business and Investment Manager for Close the Gap.



Under the TECH4ALL initiative, technology is also enabling sustainable management of natural resources and protecting biodiversity. Arno Cimadom from the National Park Neusiedler See-Seewinkel in Austria explored the pivotal role technology plays in wetland conservation, including protecting biodiversity and studying the effects of climate change on ecosystems.



Thanks to the new technology provided by Huawei and its partners, we are now for the first time able to collect sound data 24/7, year-round, simultaneously from more than 60 sites and analyze them via AI-models provided by Rainforest Connection. This makes research and management in difficult-to-access wetland areas more efficient and allows new investigations, said Arno Cimadom, representing National Park Neusiedler See-Seewinkel.



Alongside the media roundtable, the Huawei TECH4ALL booth at MWC Barcelona 2023 welcomes visitors to explore the latest progress in projects running under the initiative and learn about the crucial role that technology and partnerships can have in enabling inclusion and sustainability.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
The Majority Leader in Parliament, Hon. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has said some minority members in Parliament are bent to tagging the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC), Madam Jean Mensa as arrogant.



This he said was due to Jean Mensas inability to appear before the House last week Thursday for a discussion on the new Constitutional Instrument (C.I.) for the 2024 elections.



But the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs said the perception is far from true  explaining that the EC boss has anytime she is absent from the House given a tangible reason for her non-appearance.



The only time she did not appear in Parliament, we called her and she told me she was not in the country due to health-related issues. Can you hold that against somebody? he questioned in an interview with NEAT FMs morning show, 'Ghana Montie'.



"Sometimes you dont understand how people [referring to fellow MPs] react to issues. Some people are bent on creating distrust about the Electoral Commissioner. That is unfortunate, he added.

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
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.
Speaker Alban Bagbin had cause to order retraction of comments and submissions by two Members of Parliament on Tuesday, February 28.



Incidentally, the two MPs were from the main opposition National Democratic Congress and they were ordered to retract statements directed at a common subject, that is Jean Mensah, Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC).



Jean Mensa along with the Chief Executive Officer of the National Identification Authority (NIA), Prof Ken Attafuah and the Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, appeared before the House to defend the sole use of the Ghana Card as proof for registration of new voters.



The NIA, who are in charge of the issuance of the cards have raised logistical constraints which the Minister of Finance has assured is being addressed.



For the EC chair, her submissions were to explain how and why the particular card was chosen for new registrations as per the Constitutional Instrument (CI), the EC has laid before Parliament.



Murtala's unofficial comments attract Bagbin's attention



As the EC boss was making her point, the Member of Parliament for Tamale Central, Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed, could be heard describing her remarks as shameful.



This infuriated members of the Majority Caucus, who were up in arms, demanding that the MP withdraws his comments. This caused some commotion in the House for about a minute.



The Minister for Defence and MP for Bimbilla, Dominic Nitiwul, who was being chastised by the Speaker, for being out of order could be heard saying: Mr Speaker, Im protesting. You cannot invite somebody into your house and insult the person. Mr Speaker why? He is misbehaving too much.



Bagbin then directed his anger at Murtala and told him that his comments were unparliamentary.



Honourable Murtala Muhammed, it has long been ruled in this House that the use of the word 'shame' is unparliamentary the guests we have are here to answer to an invitation by this House. The best we can do is to listen to them.



Again, Honourable Murtala Muhammed, I call on you to withdraw the shame, shame, Bagbin said.



Murtala Muhammed, before withdrawing his comment, argued that his comments were not made through the microphone and thus cannot be recorded as official.



But Bagbin insisted that during meetings of the committees, every comment made is recorded even if it is not made through a microphone.



The action of the Speaker drew him some applause from members of the Majority Caucus.



Edward Bawa put in check by Bagbin



The Bongo MP in speaking on the floor on the same issue, cited a similar instance of disenfranchisement in the neighbouring Ivory Coast where some citizens were segregated for reasons of being non-citizens which situation he claimed created mayhem.



Mr Speaker, on elections matters; consensus is key. Cote dIvoire is just by us here. By virtue of the fact that laws were passed to create the impression that others were not citizens, it created problems in Cote dIvoire.



Afari Gyan handed over to Charlotte, Charlotte gave it to you, this country was in one piece. If this country goes to war, because of this, it will be on your head, he cautioned.



However, the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Bagbin ordered that the particular statement be retracted and expunged from the hansard.



The MP subsequently retracted the statement.







Source: ghanaweb.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
Former President, John Dramani Mahama has made it known his intentions to launch his campaign to lead the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for the 2024 elections.



He announced this on his Facebook page.



Fellow countrymen and women, I will on Thursday March 02, 2023 launch my bid to lead the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to the 2024 elections at the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) in Sokode near Ho, he wrote.



He invited everyone to either join him at UHASs Cedi Auditorium or watch a livestream of the launch on his Facebook page or YouTube channel beginning at 9.00 a.m.



John Dramani Mahama officially picked up nomination forms to run in his partys upcoming presidential primaries. This comes a day after he told some members of the Minority Caucus of his plans to run during a meeting.



Former presidential aspirant , Joshua Alabi picked presidential nomination forms on Wednesday on behalf of former President John Mahama at the NDC headquarters in Adabraka.





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
Dr. Kwabena Duffuor has received the blessings of the executives of the Greater Accra Regional National Democratic Congress (NDC) to begin his nationwide tour in the region.



This comes after he successfully picked up a flagbearership nomination form to contest the vacant position of the party.



Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, a former Minister of Finance, and a former Governor of the Bank of Ghana, has expressed optimism about his chances of winning the flagbearer race of party.



He has also indicated in several interactions that he is the best man to bring Ghana out of its current economic challenges, adding that he once stabilised the economy as minister.



In lieu of that, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor paid a working visit to the regional executives of the NDC in the Greater Accra Region to announce his intentions to run as flagbearer, and to also seek their blessings to tour the region.



Last Thursday, I was so delighted, but at the same time, I was humbled when thousands of our members  grassroots, particularly women, picked up forms and delivered the forms to me, saying that we want you to contest for the flagbearership of the NDC.



It was an honour, but I was humbled. Ive accepted to contest, thats why we are here today. Colleagues, ours is a great party; its a very big party, bigger than the other groups, he said.



In his response, the regional chairman, Nii Ashie Moore, expressed hopes that whoever gets to lead their party will deliver victory for the NDC in 2024.



He was also excited that the candidate had decided to begin his tour in the Greater Accra Region, adding that a win in that region is a decisive one.



You have distinguished yourself to the max. we are one family, this is an internal election. Our target is the NPP. Our target is to maximise the votes of Greater Accra, because we see Greater Accra Region as a decisive region when it comes to politics. When we win Greater Accra, we know we will form the next government.



I pray to the Almighty God that all of you who have put up yourself there to lead our political party, to lead our country, at the end of the day, one of you will be made a flagbearer of our party, he said.



While wishing Dr. Kwabena Duffuor well, he prayed that at the end of the contest, all the factions in the party will work towards unity.



Dr. Kwabena Duffuor's tour of the Greater Accra Region will be the first in a series across the country.

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
President Akufo-Addo has appealed to all political actors in Nigeria to as a matter of importance, seek consensus to address the challenges they are encountering following their national elections held on Saturday 25 February 2023.



According to President Akufo-Addo, happenings in Nigeria have direct implications in West Africa and the entire African continent, and to that end, political stakeholders in Nigeria needed to find an amicable solution to whatever grievances they may have about the 2023 presidential elections.



The President made this call when he addressed members of the diplomatic community at the annual presentation of new year greetings to the Diplomatic Corps at the Peduase Lodge on Tuesday 28 February 2023.



I cannot end today without expressing the solidarity of the Ghanaian people with the brotherly people of our great neighbor, the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as they encounter significant challenges in the ongoing national elections for new national leadership.



I hope that these challenges will be resolved peacefully in accordance with due process and that the will of the Nigerian people will be duly manifested, President Akufo-Addo said.



The impact on the cause of democracy in West Africa and indeed, in the entire continent of Africa by the events in Nigeria cannot be overemphasized. We wish them the best of luck and Gods blessings Akufo-Addo added.



Listen to Akufo-Addo in the attached audio clip below:



Fight against Terrorism



Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, in her address called on the diplomatic community to press upon their respective countries to support efforts of African countries aimed at addressing insecurity challenges on the continent.



I wish to use this opportunity to reiterate the call on the international community to support regional initiatives to compliment the fight against growing threats to peace and security including terrorism, violent extremists attacks, maritime destabilization, and unconstitutional changes in government Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey said.



Dean of the Diplomatic Corps



Dean of the Diplomatic Corps and Ambassador of Burkina Faso to Ghana, his excellency Pingrenoma Zagre, in his remarks commended Ghana as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for contributing to peace and security for a better world.



He also observed that Ghana under the Presidency of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, is to be commended for championing the implementation of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement.



On behalf of the diplomatic community in Ghana, Ambassador Pingrenoma Zagre, conveyed the best wishes of the community to President Akufo-Addo, his administration, family, and the entire population of Ghana.

Source: Asaaseradio









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
James Kwabena Bomfeh has fired salvoes at former President John Dramani Mahama over his comments that seek to downplay the reputation and performance of the Electoral Commission in Ghana.



Former President John Dramani Mahama has expressed reservations over the administration of elections in Ghana compared to that of Nigeria.



On a pre-election tour to Nigeria under the auspices of the West African Elders Forum (WAEF) to monitor the just-ended Nigerian elections, Mr. Mahama extolled the virtues of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) of Nigeria.



He stated how impressed he is with the INEC saying "one thing that has struck me in my pre-election mission in Nigeria for the West African Elders Forum (WAEF) is the confidence all the candidates and parties have expressed in the Independent Electoral Commission. They all testify that INEC has listened and taken their concerns on board".



But, to Mr. Mahama, "unfortunately" he cannot "say same for my Electoral Commission (EC), which was once among the best election management agencies in the world".



"The hostility of the Chairperson of the EC and her other Commissioners to one political party is legendary. How I wish our own EC can inspire the same level of confidence in all its stakeholders. Regrettably, I am not hopeful this will happen when we have an EC that has blatantly spurned all efforts by the National Peace Council to host a meeting between the Commission and the two major political parties, the NDC and NPP," he further said in a Facebook post.



But the former CPP General Secretary, in reply to Mr. Mahama on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' show, stated that the latter should blame himself for the loss of confidence in Ghana's EC.



To him, Mr. Mahama is overdoing his hatred for the Jean Mensa-led Electoral Commission.



"There may have been reduced confidence in Electoral Commission. But which institution in Ghana is free from the loss of confidence, engineered, orchestrated and fueled by you, Mr. former President, you are part of the reason why people have no faith in political office holders; when you say one thing today and tomorrow, you are saying a different thing," he responded.



"INEC has declared results, it's being challenged . . . PDP and Labour Party have held a press conference questioning the INEC results declared. It means they are right?", he added.



James Kwabena Bomfeh, also called 'Kabila', refuted specious claims against the EC asserting that "the confidence in Ghana's Electoral Commission worldwide, not in Africa, is huge. Let's stop stalling it or derailing it. It's not in our interest".



Kabila reproved Mr. Mahama for attacking the EC, stressing "you are a former President. You are respected. That modicum of respect, to retain it, you need to watch your words!"





Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Multifrequency radio light curves of OJ 287 between December 2015 and June 2022 obtained with the Effelsberg telescope. Credit: Komossa et al, 2023

An international team of astronomers has conducted a long-term multi-frequency radio monitoring of a nearby blazar known as OJ 287. Results of the observational campaign, published February 22 on the pre-print server arXiv, shed more light about the behavior of this blazar, especially regarding its radio variability.

Blazars are very compact quasars associated with supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at the centers of active, giant elliptical galaxies. They belong to a larger group of active galaxies that host active galactic nuclei (AGN), and are the most numerous extragalactic gamma-ray sources. Their characteristic features are relativistic jets pointed almost exactly toward the Earth.

Based on their optical emission properties, astronomers divide blazars into two classes: flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) that feature prominent and broad optical emission lines, and BL Lacertae objects (BL Lacs), which do not. Some blazars are high synchrotron peaked (HSP) sources as their synchrotron peak is above 1,000 THz in the rest frame. Observations show that particles are efficiently accelerated up to very high energies (VHEs) in the jets of HSPs, which makes such sources very interesting for astronomers studying extreme blazars.

At a redshift of 0.306, OJ 287 is a nearby highly variable and highly polarized blazar, classified as a BL Lac. It is very bright across the electromagnetic spectrum, exhibiting exceptional bright optical flares, repeating every 1112 years. Recent observations have also detected OJ 287 in the gamma-ray and VHE regime.

Although OJ 287 has been comprehensively studied in the optical/ultraviolet, X-ray and gamma-ray bands, still very little is known about its behavior in the radio regime. Therefore, a group of astronomers led by Stefanie Komossa of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, performed multifrequency radio observations of this source using mainly the Effelsberg 100-m radio telescope in Bad Munstereifel, Germany.

The researchers managed to characterize in detail the radio flux and spectral variability of OJ287, during the observed period between 2015 and 2022, including turn-over frequencies, spectral indices, fractional variability amplitudes and discrete correlation functions (DCFs). The long-term monitoring also allowed them to cover a large non-thermal multiwavelength outburst, which occurred in 20162017, accompanied by strong radio flaring (with peak in February 2017 at a flux density of 10.8 Jy at 32 GHz).

The observations found that deep low-states of OJ 287 repeat every 12 years in the optical and radio bands. Moreover, the results indicate that the two brightest gamma-ray flares in recent years coincide with the sharp rise and re-rise of the recent (20212022) bright radio flare, which suggests a causal connection.

According to the study, the so-called "precursor flare" activity in OJ 287, predicted by the precessing binary model to occur in December 2021, is absent. The astronomers speculated that one of the optical flares in the 2005 light curve of the blazar was driven by binary supermassive black hole activity in the form of a precursor flare preceding the main outburst. Based on the precessing binary model it was predicted that the precursor flare would repeat on December 23, 2021.

"Neither the flare, nor the thermal bremsstrahlung spectrum were observed; neither in 2021 December nor any other time until 2022 June," the researchers wrote.

Based on the collected data, the authors of the paper interpret the big 2016/2017 outburst as the latest of the characteristic semi-periodic double-peaked outbursts that occur in OJ 287. They predict that the next double-peaked outburst should take place between 2026 and 2028.

More information: S. Komossa et al, MOMO VI: Multifrequency radio variability of the blazar OJ 287 from 2015-2022, absence of predicted 2021 precursor-flare activity, and a new binary interpretation of the 2016/2017 outburst, arXiv (2023). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2302.11486 Journal information: arXiv

 2023 Science X Network
 Flash

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on Tuesday blamed the U.S. "miscalculation and wrong policy" for causing the current stalemate on the revival of a 2015 nuclear deal.

Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks in an address to the High-Level Segment of the Conference on Disarmament in the Swiss city of Geneva, Iran's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its website.

If all parties have the "determination and goodwill," the few outstanding issues can be settled without any precondition and within the framework of the previous talks, thus enabling the parties to take the "final step," the top Iranian diplomat was quoted as saying.

The United States needs to have "the will and strength to conclude the lengthy talks," he said, stressing that Iran is ready to continue the talks until the conclusion of an agreement.

Amir-Abdollahian said Iran's nuclear program will remain "peaceful" and Tehran is determined to remain committed to its obligations under the safeguards agreement.

He also warned against any action to be taken during the upcoming meeting of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in March, saying that Iran reserves the right to respond accordingly.

A technical solution is within reach if the IAEA stops its politically-motivated approach, said the Iranian minister.

Iran signed the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), with world powers in July 2015, agreeing to put some curbs on its nuclear program in return for the removal of the sanctions on the country. The United States, however, pulled out of the deal in May 2018 and reimposed its unilateral sanctions on Iran, prompting the latter to reduce some of its nuclear commitments under the deal.

The talks on the JCPOA's revival began in April 2021 in the Austrian capital of Vienna. No breakthrough has been achieved after the latest round of talks held in August 2022.
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Argentina has announced the automatic suspension of poultry exports after discovering a case of bird flu on a chicken farm.

In a statement late Tuesday, the Senasa food health agency said a case of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) had been found in the province of Rio Negro, in an area some 1,100 kilometers (680 miles) south of Buenos Aires.

It was the first case detected in a broiler chicken on an Argentine farm, Agriculture Minister Juan Jose Bahillo said on Twitter, as the world deals with a fierce outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu virus also detected in mammals and recently a few humans.

Senasa said poultry production for domestic consumption will continue, "as HPAI is not transmitted through the consumption of chicken meat and eggs."

Added Bahillo: "Our poultry products continue to be safe for Argentines. The suspension of exports responds to the requirements of international regulations."

Containment measures are being taken to avoid virus spread, the minister added.

In recent weeks, authorities had detected 24 cases of H5N1 in wild birds.

According to official figures, Argentina in 2020 was the world's eighth largest chicken exporter, mainly to China, South Africa and Chile.

Since late 2021, one of the worst global avian influenza outbreaks on record has seen tens of millions of poultry culled, mass wild bird die-offs and a rising number of infections among mammals in several countries.

In Cambodia, an 11-year-old girl fell ill in mid-February with a fever, cough and sore throat, and died from the H5N1 bird flu virus, according to the health ministry there.

Her father also tested positive, but Cambodian health authorities have ruled out human-to-human transmission.

Humans rarely get bird flu, but when they do it is usually from coming in direct contact with infected birds.

 2023 AFP
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

The ground is still hot atop the crater of Paricutinthe first volcano of its kind to have its full life cycle documented by modern science when it erupted 80 years ago.

The surrounding vista in western Mexico encompasses pine-clad peaks of older volcanoes, green avocado orchards and a church tower just peeking above where lava buried it decades ago.

Volcanoes are still being born around the globe and scientists believe another will form in the volcanic field spanning across this region, they just don't know when.

That's why about a hundred geologists, volcanologists and seismologists visited Paricutin last week to mark the anniversary, share experiences and talk about how to prevent disaster.

Paricutin's birth and nine-year eruption were a cornerstone in the study of the relatively small kind of volcano that erupts only once, said Stavros Meletlidis, a Greek researcher at Spain's National Geographic Institute.

The world's most famous volcanos already were thousands of years old when they threw up their catastrophic eruptions: Mount Vesuvius in Italy which buried Pompeii in 79 A.D.; Mount Tambora in Indonesia which killed tens of thousands in 1815.

To witness the origin of a new one is rare. It can start with a peculiar noise.

A deep sound is what Meletlidis remembers hearing in September 2021 before seeing the column of gas signaling the emergence of a volcano on Spain's La Palma island. That was the most recent new volcano to form in a populated area. He and his team had been monitoring it for four years. The eruption was the "last breath" of a process that had begun 10,000 years earlier in the center of the Earth, he said.

Guadalupe Ruiz, 92, remembers hearing such a noise on Feb. 20, 1943, after weeks of small tremors in the western part of Mexico's Michoacan state.

Then, it felt "like water rising underground," and, finally in the following days, it was "like a thunderclap or a kick from a horse" as Paricutin's cone began to form and rocks fell all around, she said.

Ruiz was then a 12-year-old girl in San Juan Parangaricutiro, Mexico, where she and her neighbors thought it was the end of the world. A farmer came running with his hat covered in ash saying that his corn field had opened up.

"They told us it was hell," said Ruiz, her long grey hair in braids.

A team of geologists from the U.S. Department of the Interior and Mexican scientists visited the site 20 times between 1943 and 1945 and summarized the eruption in a report more than a decade later. On that initial day, there was a mild explosion followed by "a small eruptive column carrying dust, and some hot stones arose from this new vent," the report said.

"After about 8 hours of such activity the new volcano began to roar and to hurl out quantities of incandescent bombs with great force," it said. Within six days, it reached a height of 167 meters (548 feet), the report said.

The adults cried, Ruiz recalled.

Curious children tried to get close "to see the lava move, little by little," said Abel Aguilar, motioning like waves with his hand. He was 5 at the time.

The landscape went from a "small and beautiful volcanic monster" to a "desolate and wiped out world" of dying trees and homes filling with ash, wrote Mexican journalist Jose Revueltas, who visited 40 days after the eruption for the Popular newspaper.

When geologists arrived, they consoled the community because they were able to explain what happened andimportantlyprovide work, Ruiz said.

"My dad took the Americans on horseback to see where the fire was coming out and where the little mountain was forming," she said.

Paricutin's lava eventually covered seven square miles (18.5 square kilometers). Its slow advance allowed residents of the surrounding communities to relocate to land donated by the government.

Nobody was killed.

Unlike earthquakes, volcanoes sometimes give people time to react.

In the years leading up to the 2021 eruption on La Palma, clusters of tremors had increased in frequency a week before the eruption. Also, deformities on the surface suggested magma was pushing up. Two days before the eruption there was a strong smell of sulfur in springs monitored by scientists.

The Paricutin volcano is within a volcanic belt that crosses Mexico.

Tremors in recent years including a burst late last year have raised fears that another volcano could appear, said Luis Fernando Lucatero, the local civil defense coordinator. Scientists later confirmed last year's quakes were superficial with no magma rising toward the surface.

The National Autonomous University of Mexico's Geophysics Institute has installed seismographs in key locations to monitor the volcanic field, and trained local leaders to detect other signals.

Denis Legrand, one of the volcanologists on the project, said more equipment and personnel are needed because with the current number of stations some tremors could go unnoticed until it is too late to react.

A year and a half after the Paricutin eruption began, residents of the largest area town of San Juan left in a procession behind the image of their patron saint and rebuilt their town and church elsewhere. The old town was later buried in 50 feet (15 meters) of lava.

While the volcano today draws visitors who bring an important source of income, the buried church is a reminder of what the earth unleashed.

"A volcano give life. It sometimes destroys too," Meletlidis said.

 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Graphical abstract showing the relative size of Dunkleosteus compared to a human figurebefore and after the new calculations. Credit: Russell Engelman/Case Western Reserve University

About 360 million years ago, in the shallow subtropical waters above what is now the city of Cleveland, an armor-plated fish many believed to be up to 30 feet long ruled the seas.

The species Dunkleosteus terrelli was Earth's first vertebrate "superpredator" and lived during the Age of Fishes (Devonian Period)when North America was near the latitude of what is now Rio de Janeiro.

But in nearly 150 years of research since fossilized remains of the prehistoric big fish were discovered on the shores of Lake Erie in 1867, scientists may have made some incorrect assumptions about the size and shark-like shape of Dunkleosteus.

In research published this month, a Case Western Reserve University scientist suggests the length of this prehistoric predator may have been greatly exaggeratedthat it was much shorter and chunkier.

Cleveland mascot and Ohio's top fossil fish

"Dunkleosteus is already a strange fish, but it turns out the old size estimates resulted in us overlooking a lot of features that made this fish even stranger, like a very tuna-like torso," said Russell Engelman, a Case Western Reserve Ph.D. student in biology and lead author on a study published in the journal Diversity in February. "Some colleagues have been calling it 'Chunky Dunk' or 'Chunkleosteus' after seeing my research."

Engelman said he recognizes downsizing the iconic Dunkleosteus may not be welcome news because the big fish "is essentially Cleveland's mascot when it comes to paleontology." (The species even had a Twitter account for a few years). As a native Clevelander, he said he originally had similar feelings.

Most research on Dunkleosteus is based on specimens in the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, which has the largest and highest quality collection of Dunkleosteus remains in the world. Its name honors both a former museum curator (David Dunkle) and a local business owner (Jay Terrell) who discovered the fossilized species.

Dunkleosteus is such a homegrown icon that in 2020, the Ohio General Assembly declared Dunkleosteus terrelli the state fossil fish.

Even so, little research has been done on the fish since the 1930s, Engelman said.

"Without reliable size estimates, not much could be said about Dunkleosteus scientifically beyond 'Look at the big, scary fish!'" Engelman said. "These length estimates were an example of something that just slipped by everyone's notice because it was assumed this fish has been well-studied."

Short head, short body

Most estimates of the species length weren't based on hard evidence, Engelman said.

That's because Dunkleosteus was a type of extinct fish called an arthrodire. Unlike modern fishes, arthrodires like Dunkleosteus had bony, armored heads but internal skeletons made of cartilage. This means only the heads of these animals were preserved as fossils, leaving the size and shape a mystery.

The new study proposes estimating the length based on the 24-inch-long head, minus the snoutconsidered a way to measure that's consistent among groups of living fishes and smaller relatives of Dunkleosteus known from complete skeletons.

"The reasoning behind this study can be summed up in one simple observation," Engelman said. "Short fish generally have short heads and long fish generally have long heads."

Based on that method, Engelman concluded Dunkleosteus was only 11 to 13 feet longmuch shorter than any researcher had proposed before.

'Wrecking balls' of the deep

"Dunkleosteus has often been reconstructed assuming it had a body shape like a shark," Engelman said.

But a shorter body and shape of the body armor also meant Dunkleosteus was likely much chunkier.

"An 11-foot Dunkleosteus is essentially the same weight as a 15-foot great white shark," Engelman said. "These things were built like wrecking balls. The new proportions for Dunkleosteus may look goofy until you realize it has the same body shape as a tuna and a mouth twice as large as a great white shark."

These new size estimates also help put Dunkleosteus in a broader scientific context. Dunkleosteus is part of a larger evolutionary story, in which vertebrates went from small, unassuming bottom-dwellers to massive giants.

"Although the reduced sizes for Dunkleosteus may seem disappointing," Engelman said, "it was still probably the biggest animal that existed on Earth up to that point in time. And these new estimates make it possible to do so many types of analyses on Dunkleosteus that it was thought would never be possible. This is the bitter pill that has to be swallowed, so that now we can get to the fun stuff."

Patricia Princehouse, associate director of CWRU's Institute for the Science of Origins said it was exciting to see the new work.

"This fresh take on the legendary Dunkleosteus 'sea monster' shows there's still lots of brand-new breakthroughs waiting to be discovered in the world of paleontology, even with famous species," Princehouse said. The multidisciplinary institute initiates and conducts scientific research in origins-related sciences and has promoted work undertaken by Engelman and other students.

Engelman conducted his research under advisor Darin Croft, professor of anatomy at the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, who also advises students in biology in the College of Arts and Sciences.

More information: Russell K. Engelman, A Devonian Fish Tale: A New Method of Body Length Estimation Suggests Much Smaller Sizes for Dunkleosteus terrelli (Placodermi: Arthrodira), Diversity (2023). DOI: 10.3390/d15030318
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

A portion of the Mefite D'Ansanto emissions field. Credit: Danilo Galluzzo

At one of the world's largest emission fields of non-volcanic carbon dioxide in southern Italy, researchers have detected a complex variety of seismic tremor signals, captured by a seismic array deployed in the region in the summer of 2021.

In their study published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, Danilo Galluzzo of the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia and colleagues describe three main types of seismic tremor signals over a range of frequencies at the Mefite d'Ansanto gas field.

The analysis could help researchers learn more about the source of the tremor, as well as how the fluid and gas traveling through the area could affect seismic activity along the southern Apennines mountain range.

Several strong earthquakes have occurred in the region, the latest being a magnitude 6.9 event in 1980 that was located 25 kilometers southeast of Mefite.

At this point, "it is not straightforward to establish whether there could be a link between a particular type of tremor and the seismicity of the area," Galluzzo said. "A larger dataset should be collected and further analyses should be performed."

The main gas emission field at Mefite is a roughly circular area of nearly 100 meters, with its most active vent appearing at the surface as a pond of bubbling mud. A wedge of the mantle buried deep below this part of the Apennines is forcing hot hydrothermal fluids upward through shallower layers of limestone and clay sediments where it meets a reservoir of trapped carbon dioxide. Faults and fractures in the buried rock provide pathways for the gas to reach the surface.

The unusual geologic feature has a distinctive sulfurous smell, and the sound of the degassing can be heard from hundreds of meters away. Named after the ancient Italic goddess Mefitis, Mefite was mentioned in Virgil's Aeneid as a passage between the earth and the underworld.

The 2021 seismic array was deployed as part of a larger project called FURTHER (Fluids in the Preparatory Phase of Earthquakes in Southern Apennines), said Galluzzo, "which aims to study the role of fluids in the seismogenic process in the southern Apennines."

In the data collected by the array, the researchers found a persistent low frequency (1.5 3 Hertz) tremor, a persistent intermediate frequency (320 Hertz) tremor with sudden variations in strength, and very high frequency tremor pulses lasting tenths of a second each. The first two types of tremor have shallow sources and are composed of surface waves. The third pulsing type of tremor is a body wave that probably originates 50 to 100 meters below the surface, Galluzzo and colleagues said.

The low frequency persistent tremor may be related to fluid discharge throughout rock conduits to the surface, they note, while the intermediate signal may be related to changes in flow velocities between gas and liquids near the surface, creating a geyser-like effect.

The high frequency pulses create a signal like a drumbeat or a heartbeat, and are similar to seismic recordings from mud volcanoes, the researchers conclude.

Galluzzo said the researchers have plans in the near future to perform similar seismic experiments "to better understand the underground beneath Mefite and in the particular the source of the tremor."

More information: Mario La Rocca et al, Hydrothermal Seismic Tremor in a Wide Frequency Band: The Nonvolcanic CO2 Degassing Site of Mefite d'Ansanto, Italy, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (2023). DOI: 10.1785/0120220243 Journal information: Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Amazon forest. Credit: Dr. Jess Baker, University of Leeds

Deforestation is resulting in reduced rainfall across large parts of the tropics, according to new research.

People living in tropical forest communities have often complained that the climate gets hotter and drier once trees are cleared but until now, scientists have not been able to identify a clear link between the loss of tree cover and a decline in rainfall.

A research team at the University of Leeds combined satellite data of deforestation and rainfall to show that the loss of tree cover in the tropics over the last 14 years was associated with reductions in rainfall.

They estimate that by the end of the century, if the rate of deforestation in the Congo was to continue, rainfall in the region could be reduced by between 8% and 12%, with major impacts on biodiversity and farming, and could threaten the viability of the Congo forests, which are among the world's largest stores of carbon.

Callum Smith, a doctoral researcher in the School of Earth and Environment at Leeds and the lead author in the study, said the investigation provides "compelling evidence" to protect forests from uncontrolled clearing.

He added, "Tropical forests play a critical role in the hydrological cycle through helping to maintain local and regional rainfall patterns. The reduction in rainfall caused by tropical deforestation will impact people living nearby through increased water scarcity and depressed crop yields.

"Tropical forests themselves rely on moisture to survive and remaining areas of forest will be impacted by a drier climate."

Deforestation in Southeast Asia. Credit: Dominick Spracklen, University of Leeds

The research paper, "Tropical deforestation causes large reductions in observed precipitation," is published today (Wed, March 1) in the journal Nature.

The researchers looked at the impact of forest loss in three areas of the tropicsthe Amazon, Congo and Southeast Asiawhich have all experienced rapid land-use changes. The study involved analysis of satellite observations from 2003 to 2017, to identify locations where forests had been cleared. Rainfall data in these areas, also measured by satellites, was compared to rainfall from nearby locations where forests had not been lost.

The study revealed that tropical forest loss caused reductions in rainfall throughout the year, including in the dry season when any further drying will have the biggest ramifications on plant and animal ecosystems. The greatest absolute decline in precipitation was seen in the wet season with up to a 0.6 mm a month reduction in rainfall for every percentage point loss of forest cover.

Writing in the paper, the researchers warn that climate change will lead to increased drought and that will be exacerbated by continued deforestation.

It is believed the loss of tree cover disrupts the process where moisture from leavesthrough a mechanism called evapotranspirationis returned to the atmosphere where it eventually forms rain clouds.

Tropical forests in Southeast Asia. Credit: Dominick Spracklen, University of Leeds

As well as impacting natural ecosystems, a reduction in rainfall would be detrimental to agriculture and hydropower plants. That would have a strong impact both on the healthy functioning of the forests and on local communities.

The research team say, on average, crop yields declined by 0.5% for every 1% reduction in rainfall.

Professor Dominick Spracklen, from the School of Earth and Environment at Leeds who supervised the project, said, "Local people living near deforested regions often report a hotter and drier climate after the forests are cleared. But until now this effect had not been seen in rainfall observations.

"The study shows the critical importance of tropical forests in sustaining rainfall. Although there have been efforts to halt deforestation, the loss of forest cover in the tropics has continued. There needs to be renewed efforts to stop forests being lost and to regenerate lost and degraded areas."

The scientists warn that a decline in rainfall has a negative impact on biodiversity, increases the risk of forest fires and reduces carbon sequestration, where nature removes carbon from the atmosphere and stores it.

More information: Callum Smith, Tropical deforestation causes large reductions in observed precipitation, Nature (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05690-1. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05690-1 Journal information: Nature
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Shiitake mushroom growing on wood. Credit: frankenstoen from Portland, Oregon/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY

Shiitake mushrooms get their name from the same place they often source their nutrientsthe shii tree, a Japanese relative of the oak. These fungi are part of the genus Lentinula, which have evolved to decompose hardwoods on every continent besides Europe and Antarctica.

A new analysis published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences takes a genomic look at Lentinula samples from around the world. By complete sequencing of 24 mushroom genomes, and assembling genomes from 60 existing sequences, this work expands the family tree for Lentinula. Within those samples, this study also tracks the enzymes these fungi use to break down wood, and compares genetic diversity between cultivated and wild shiitake populations.

Lentinula mushrooms are white rot fungi, belonging to an elite group of decomposers that can break down all of wood's componentscellulose, hemicellulose, and the toughest molecule, lignin. Understanding Lentinula genomes and their evolution could provide strategies for converting plant waste into sugars for biofuel production. Additionally, these fungi play a role in the global carbon cycle. As decayers, Lentinula fungi access carbon previously locked away in wood, converting it into their own carbon-rich structures, as well as atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Researchers sequenced 11 samples from AsiaAustralasia and 13 samples from the Americas to trace the evolution of Lentinula species.The Lentinula genus diverged roughly 28 million years ago, when the largest mammal ever, Paraceratherium, still roamed central Asia. Afterward, Lentinula groups evolved further, to four major groups: a lineage in Australasia and L aciculospora, L. raphanica and L boryana in the Americas. Tracing these phylogenetic relationships suggests that the shiitake mushroom, Lentinula edodes, originated in the tropics of the Asia-Australia region. Overall, pangenome analysis showed significantly more genetic diversity in wild Lentinula species compared with farmed cultivars, highlighting a potential conservation threat for wild species.

Sequencing across genomes also provided an opportunity to assess commonalities. The enzymes that Lentinula fungi rely on to decay wood were widely conserved across species. Specifically, many species had very similar plant cell wall degrading enzymes (PCWDEs), including carbohydrate-active enzymes, oxidoreductases, and cytochrome P450s. This includes the species L. raphanica, which has been able to adapt to habitats from Alabama to Brazil, suggesting that the same decay-related enzymes are useful in a wide range of environments.

Collecting and analyzing these samples was a global collaboration that brought together 39 researchers from eight different countries. Genome and transcriptome sequencing were enabled by the Community Science Program (CSP) at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI), a DOE Office of Science User Facility located at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).

More information: Sean Sierra-Patev et al, A global phylogenomic analysis of the shiitake genus Lentinula, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2023). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2214076120 Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

The Tsimane are an indigenous population in the Bolivian Amazon. Credit: Michael Gurven

A team of global experts has discovered new signals of natural selection in humans.

Led by UC Santa Barbara Tsimane Health and Life History Project co-director Michael Gurven, the team studied two populations living in the Bolivian Amazon rainforestthe Tsimane and the Moseten. Previous studies show that these tropical populations are exposed to many parasites and a variety of pathogens; at the same time, the Tsimane rarely suffer from cardiovascular diseases and dementia. This new research suggests that the Tsimane genome has undergone selection for traits associated with immunity and metabolism.

The work adds context on the evolution and specialization of humans around the world, moving beyond a few well-known cases. For example, descendants of Europeans, some Africans, and those of the Middle East can digest lactose into adulthood, which maintains their ability to drink milk past puberty in these populations. The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

According to lead author and Vanderbilt University professor Amanda Lea, "despite the great interest in understanding DNA variants that differ adaptively between populations, it is still difficult to identify and characterize these variants. However, the work is important because we can discover parts of the genome that vary and are important from both evolutionary and biomedical perspectives."

An especially unique part of this research is its origins: a collaboration between the Tsimane Health and Life History Project, and the Tsimane and Moseten communities. For 20 years, the project has included joint work between anthropologists, doctors, Indigenous leaders, community members and local institutions to build a picture of their health and to improve it.

Such trusted partnerships are vital to navigating the ethical landscape around studying DNA in Indigenous populations. In fact, the team has developed a new system for sharing data, one that balances the goals of open science with the need for fairness, equity and Indigenous data sovereignty. It's a way forward for Western science in its efforts to address issues such as lack of diversity in human genome work, and the historical reticence and mistrust many Indigenous populations have with participating in genetic and biomedical studies.

"Most of the research connecting DNA mutations to health has been in European or North American populations," Gurven said of the importance of working with the aborigines of lowland South America. "Groups like the Tsimane have a different history living in a different environment. It is logical that genetic variants unique to the Tsimane do not exist in the most frequently studied populations. Exploring the unique variants and their relationship to health consequences is something we are doing and we are very happy about that."

Using a variety of techniques, they found 21 regions in the genome that swept through the Tsimane population, including key players that affect immune defenses against micro- and macro-organisms, and how fats are metabolized by our cells. They found that immunity-related traits were affected by selection occurring at multiple genetic regions simultaneously (called polygenic selection). They also showed that many genes expressed in blood were related to immune function, and that regulatory genes affected levels of white blood cell counts, blood cholesterol and blood sugar.

One of the surprising results for the researchers was to find , there seems to be a beneficial variants that affect the way in which the Tsimane use energy. Previous research suggested that deleterious alleles in U.S. or European populations, including Apolipoprotein-E4 that increases the risk for Alzheimer's disease, have a muted, or even a positive effect in an environment with many infectious agents and limited energy such as where the Tsimane live. Studying genetic variants that affect immunity, infection risk and cardiometabolic health can greatly advance our understanding of why harmful alleles still exist today.

This project was carried out with the Tsimane, one of more than 35 Indigenous groups in Bolivia. The Tsimane population includes approximately 17,000 people in 90 villages. Blood samples were collected from more than 1,000 people between 2006 and 2015 by the Tsimane Health and Life History Project.

DNA and information on single nucleotide polymorphisms were gathered from the blood samples, and the team identified areas of the genome that underwent positive selection. The researchers used statistical programs and online databases to identify correlations in genetic areas related to immunity. The group also investigated relationships between genotypes (genes) and phenotypes (how those genes are expressed).

In the future, the team plans to explore other ways in which Tsimane genes may differ from those of other populations, such as Europeans. It will also build a rich reference of the Tsimane people using other biomedical techniques, including transcriptomics, metabolomics and microbiome, to connect genetics with health.

More information: Amanda J. Lea et al, Natural selection of immune and metabolic genes associated with health in two lowland Bolivian populations, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2022). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2207544120 Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Example of lynx identification by spots on the inner front leg gathered in Glacier National Park, Montana, USA, summer 2020. We present the same individual at 2 different locations (A, B) and 2 different individuals at different locations (C, D). We adjusted image contrast to enhance markings. Credit: The Journal of Wildlife Management (2023). DOI: 10.1002/jwmg.22383

Glacier National Park is home to around 50 Canada lynx, more than expected, surprising scientists who recently conducted the first parkwide occupancy survey for the North American cat.

The Washington State University-led survey reveals the iconic predator resides across most of Glacier's 1,600 square-mile landscape, although at lower densities than in the core of its range further north.

"The population in the park is still substantial and exceeded our expectations," said Dan Thornton, WSU wildlife ecologist and senior author of the study published in the Journal of Wildlife Management. "Our results suggest the park could provide a much-needed climate refuge for the cats in the future."

Canada lynx are known for their long, black ear tufts and ability to hunt almost ghost-like across the surface of deep snow. Historically, the predator's habitat extended from Alaska and Canada south down into much of the Northern United States. In the lower 48 today, the Canada lynx exists only in several disjunct populations in Maine, Minnesota, Montana, Colorado, Idaho and Washington.

As one of the few, large, protected areas located within Canada lynx range in the contiguous United States, Glacier represents a potentially important lynx stronghold in the northern Rockies. However, despite Glacier's potential importance from a conservation point of view, knowledge of lynx populations within the park is extremely limited.

"Most surveys for lynx happen in the winter when you can use bait to lure the animals to live traps," said Alissa Anderson, a recent WSU master's graduate and first author on the study. "Glacier is sort of unique in the sense that it is a difficult place to survey in the wintertime. There aren't really maintained roads and you can't use snowmobiles. It is extremely difficult to access compared to other areas."

To address this challenge, the WSU researchers decided to see if a camera trapping method they previously tested in Washington could be used to determine the presence and density of Canada lynx in Glacier over the summers of 2018-2021.

For the first part of the study, Anderson and National Park Service scientists set up an array of 300 motion-sensitive cameras about a kilometer apart on hiking trails across much of Glacier, including remote backcountry areas. Their analysis revealed that lynx are distributed not only across most of the park but also at lower elevations, which could prove useful as the climate continues to warm.

"The main question regarding the lynx's survival is climate change," Thornton said. "They are a cold-adapted species that needs deep snow. In Glacier at least, they have a lot of room to move up in elevation as the climate warms."

Another important aspect of the study was a more localized effort the scientists undertook to estimate lynx density in specific areas of the park by identifying individuals based off distinctive coat markings.

"Lynx have pretty subtle markings compared to other cats and only on the inside of their front legs," Anderson said. "So, we set up cameras on either side of the trail to attempt to get pictures of these markings that we could then use to identify individual cats in an area."

Despite the difficulties of poor lighting, image blur, vegetation and other factors, the researchers were able to link approximately 75% of the lynx they photographed to specific individuals. They then combined the results of the park-wide occupancy survey with their density analysis to extrapolate an overall population estimate for Glacier of about 1.28 lynx per 100 square kilometers of terrain.

Moving forward, the researchers hope the survey can serve as a baseline population estimate to help their collaborators with the National Park Service keep tabs on the numbers of Canada lynx in Glacier. Thornton is also continuing to use the methods the researchers proved effective in Glacier to determine the size of lynx populations in other areas. He is currently leading a long-term effort to survey populations of Canada lynx in Washington state, one of the most threatened habitats for the cats in the U.S.

"The methodological contribution of this study is really important in the sense that it gives us a better way to get at the number of individual lynx, which is really important for understanding recovery and how a population is doing," Thornton said. "The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has to develop a recovery plan for the cats so the more information you have on the status of the population the better."

More information: Alissa K. Anderson et al, Canada lynx occupancy and density in Glacier National Park, The Journal of Wildlife Management (2023). DOI: 10.1002/jwmg.22383 Journal information: Journal of Wildlife Management
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Helium is a gas vital for MRI scanners and high-tech industrywhich is suffering from severe supply issues. Now research has identified a new concept in helium gas field formation that will help secure this rare gas for society. Here a tube of helium is seen glowing in the presence of a plasma ball. Credit: Oliver Warr, University of Ottawa; AEL AMS Laboratory.

Research led by the University of Oxford could address the current supply crisis of helium, a vital societal resource. The study proposes a new model to account for the existence of previously unexplained helium-rich reservoirs. The findings, published today in Nature, could help locate untapped reservoirs of accessible helium.

Heliumessential for many medical and industrial processesis in critically short supply worldwide. Production is also associated with significant carbon emissions, contributing to climate change. This study provides a new concept in gas field formation to explain why, in rare places, helium accumulates naturally in high concentrations just beneath the Earth's surface. The findings could help locate new reservoirs of carbon-free heliumand potentially also hydrogen.

Dr. Anran Cheng (Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford), lead author of the study, said, "Our model shows the importance of factoring in the high diffusivity of helium and the long timescales needed to accumulate significant gas quantities, and the fact that the entire geological system acts dynamically to affect the process. This model provides a new perspective to help identify the environments that slow helium gases down enough to accumulate in commercial amounts."

Equipment in the Ballentine Laboratory used for the measurement of helium isotopes in geological samples. Credit: Ian Wallman

Equipment in the Ballentine Laboratory used for the measurement of helium isotopes in geological samples. Credit: Ian Wallman

Where rare helium-rich underground gas fields have been found, they always occur alongside high concentrations of nitrogen gas. Until now, there has been no explanation for this. For the first time, this new study, which also involved the University of Toronto and Durham University, provides an answer.

The research team built a model to account for these helium-rich deposits by (for the first time) factoring in the presence of nitrogen, which is also released from the deep crust along with helium. The authors identified the geological conditions where the concentration of nitrogen becomes high enough to create gas bubbles in the rock pore space.

Such a process can take hundreds of millions of years, but when it happens the associated helium escapes from the water into the gas bubbles. These bubbles rise, because of buoyancy, towards the surface until they hit a rock type that doesn't allow the bubbles through. According to the model, the helium-rich gas bubbles then collect beneath the seal and form a substantial gas field. The nitrogen and helium-rich gases contain no methane or carbon dioxide so tapping them does not release carbon emissions.

When the researchers applied the model to an example system (Williston Basin, North America) using expected nitrogen concentration values, the model predicted the observed nitrogen/helium proportions in real life. The model could help identify areas likely to contain similar helium-rich deposits.

Helium is a $6 billion (5.3 billion) market, with the gas being essential for the operation of MRI scanners, computer chips and fiber optic manufacture, and state of the art nuclear and cryogenic applications. A current global shortage has pushed supplies almost to a crisis point, with prices skyrocketing in recent years. The situation has been escalated by the Ukraine war, since this ruled out helium being supplied from the new Russian Amur plant, planned to supply 35% of the global helium demand.

In addition, almost all helium today is a by-product of methane or carbon dioxide natural gas production. This carries a significant carbon footprint and hinders ambitions to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Together, these reasons mean that identifying alternative, carbon-free sources of natural helium has become critically important.

The model also suggests regions where large amounts of hydrogen gas may accumulate underground, since the radioactivity that generates helium also splits water to form hydrogen. With a global market of $135 billion, hydrogen is used to create fertilizer and to produce many compounds essential for the food, petrochemical, and pharmaceutical industries. Virtually all hydrogen gas is currently produced from coal and natural gas (methane), and this alone accounts for 2.3% of global CO 2 emissions. Hydrogen-rich underground deposits could provide an alternative carbon-free source.

Dr. Anran Cheng (lead author, left) and Professor Chris Ballentine (right) preparing equipment for measurement of helium isotopes in geological samples. Credit: Sarah Hilton

Dr. Anran Cheng (lead author) preparing equipment in the Ballentine Laboratory for the measurement of helium isotopes in geological samples. Credit: John Cairns

Drs. Anran Cheng and Darren Hillegonds (Ballentine Laboratory Manager) preparing equipment for measurement of helium isotopes in geological samples. Credit: John Cairns

Prof. Chris Ballentine (Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford), co-author for the study, notes, "The amount of hydrogen generated by the continental crust over the last 1 billion years could power society's energy needs for over 100,000 years."

Prof. Barbara Sherwood Lollar (Department of Earth Sciences, University of Toronto), co-author, adds, "Much of this hydrogen has escaped, been chemically reacted or used up by subsurface microbesbut we know from studying the gas in deep locations in the subsurface around the world that some of this hydrogen is indeed stored underground in significant quantities."

Prof. Jon Gluyas (Durham Energy Institute/Department of Earth Sciences, Durham University), co-author, states, "This new understanding of helium accumulation provides us with the critical start of a recipe to identify where significant amounts of geological hydrogen, as well as helium, might still be found."

More information: Chris Ballentine, Primary N2-He gas field formation in intracratonic sedimentary basins, Nature (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05659-0. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05659-0 Journal information: Nature
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Reconstruction of a hunter-gatherer associated with the Gravettian culture (32,00024,000 years ago), inspired by the archaeological findings at the Arene Candide site (Italy). Credit: Tom Bjoerklund

Modern humans began to spread across Eurasia about 45,000 years ago, but previous research showed that the first modern humans that arrived in Europe did not contribute to later populations. A new study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution focuses on the people who lived between 35,000 and 5,000 years ago and that are, at least partially, the ancestors of the present-day population of Western Eurasia, includingfor the first timethe genomes of people who lived during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), the coldest phase of the last Ice Age, around 25,000 years ago. The team analyzed the genomes of 356 prehistoric hunter gatherers from different archaeological culturesincluding new data sets of 116 individuals from 14 different European and Central Asian countries.

Climatic refugium or dead end?

Surprisingly, the research team found that populations from different regions associated with the Gravettian culture, which was widespread across the European continent between 32,000 and 24,000 years ago, were not closely related to each other. They were linked by a common archaeological culture: they used similar weapons and produced similar portable art. Genetically, however, the populations from western and southwestern Europe (today's France and Iberia) differed from contemporaneous populations from central and southern Europe (today's Czech Republic and Italy).

The prehistoric human groups that archaeologists refer to as Gravettian were widespread in Europe about 32,00024,000 years ago. Despite sharing several similar cultural traits, Gravettian populations from western and eastern/southern Europe were genetically different. The west Gravettian population (left) survived during the Last Glacial Maximum while the eastern and south Gravettian populations disappeared. Credit: Michelle O'Reilly and Laurent Klaric, inspired by the original work by Benoit Clarys

Furthermore, the gene pool of the western Gravettian populations is found continuously for at least 20,000 years: their descendants who are associated with the Solutrean and Magdalenian cultures stayed in southwestern Europe during the coldest period of the last Ice Age (between 25,000 and 19,000 years ago) and later spread north-eastward to the rest of Europe.

"With these findings, we can for the first time directly support the hypothesis that during the Last Glacial Maximum people found refuge in the climatically more favorable region of southwestern Europe," says first author Cosimo Posth.

The Italian peninsula was previously considered to be another climatic refugium for humans during the LGM. However, the research team found no evidence for this, on the contrary: hunter-gatherer populations associated with the Gravettian culture and living in central and southern Europe are no longer genetically detectable after the LGM. People with a new gene pool settled in these areas, instead.

"We find that individuals associated with a later culture, the Epigravettian, are genetically distinct from the area's previous inhabitants," says co-author He Yu. "Presumably, these people came from the Balkans, arrived first in northern Italy around the time of the glacial maximum and spread all the way south to Sicily."

From Maszycka Cave in southern Poland: a human jaw, bone and antler artefacts from the Magdalenian culture, which was widespread in large parts of Europe between 19,000 and 14,000 years ago. Credit: Agnieszka Susu, Pawe Iwaszko, Dawid Piatkiewicz, Archaeological Museum Krakow

Large-scale genetic replacement

The analyzed genomes also show that the descendants of these Epigravettian inhabitants of the Italian peninsula spread across the rest of Europe about 14,000 years ago, replacing populations associated with the Magdalenian culture. The research team describes a large-scale genetic replacement that may have been caused, in part, by climatic changes that forced people to migrate.

"At that time, the climate warmed up quickly and considerably and forests spread across the European continent. This may have prompted people from the south to expand their habitat. The previous inhabitants may have migrated to the north as their habitat, the 'mammoth' steppe, dwindled," says Johannes Krause, the study's senior author.

Oldest evidence of migration during a climate warming: Male and female skull buried in western Germany (Oberkassel) about 14,000 years ago. Genetically those individuals derived from the south. Credit: Jurgen Vogel, LVR-LandesMuseum Bonn

Furthermore, the findings show that there had been no genetic exchange between contemporaneous hunter-gatherer populations in western and eastern Europe for more than 6,000 years. Interactions between people from central and eastern Europe can only be detected again from 8,000 years ago. "At that time, hunter-gatherers with distinct ancestries and appearances started to mix with each other. They were different in many aspects, including their skin and eye color," says He Yu.

During this time agriculture and a sedentary lifestyle spread from Anatolia to Europe. "It is possible that the migration of early farmers into Europe triggered the retreat of hunter-gatherer populations to the northern edge of Europe. At the same time, these two groups started mixing with each other, and continued to do so for around 3,000 years," Krause says.

Human fossils that were genetically analysed in this study were found on the Dutch coast and dated from about 11,000 to 8,000 years ago. They originally came from Doggerland, a now submerged land under the North Sea, where European hunter-gatherers lived. Credit: National Museum of Antiquities (RMO) modified by Michelle OReilly

"The data we gained from this study provides us with astonishingly detailed insights into the developments and encounters of West Eurasian hunter-gatherer groups," Posth summarizes. "Further interdisciplinary research will clarify which exact processes were responsible for the genetic replacements of entire Ice Age populations."
You are here: World

 Flash

At the invitation of External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar of the Group of 20 (G20) President India, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang will attend the G20 foreign ministers' meeting in New Delhi on Thursday, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning announced here Tuesday.




This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Demonstration in support of Ukraine in Vilnius, March 11, 2022. Credit: Michele Ursi/Shutterstock

In 2008, as part of a "nation branding" exercisean attempt to give a country an easily recognizable identitythe Lithuanian communication specialists came up with the slogan "Lithuaniaa brave country". At the time, the country's political elite were skeptical, but today, they identify with the label almost instinctively. Indeed, the small Baltic country has a population of less than 3 million and is in the borderlands of the EU, yet since 2020, it has stood up to three autocratic regimes: Belarus, China, and especially Russia.

Vilnius on all fronts

It all began in August 2020, when, after Belarus's fraudulent presidential election, which sparked mass protests and violent repression, Lithuania welcomed the leader of the Belarussian opposition Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and thousands of her supporters, fleeing the dictatorship of Alexandre Loukachenko. Tikhanovskaia chose Vilnius as the home of her government-in-exile.

In response, the Loukachenko regime organized an unprecedented migration "crisis" in the region, using state-controlled agencies to give tourist visas to would-be migrants from Africa and the Middle East, housing them in Minsk, and then having them driven to the Lithuanian, Polish and Latvian borders. Those who failed to cross over, suffered violence at the hands of Belarusian authorities.

A year later, in November 2021, Lithuania dared to welcome Taiwan's economic representation under the title "Taiwanese Representative Office" instead of "Tapei", as was the case elsewhere in Europe. This provoked the ire of China, which removed Lithuanian products from custom lists and reduced the level of Lithuanian diplomatic representation in the country. The country's leadership didn't bend.

The February 2022, the Russian invasion of Ukraine did more than shock the Lithuanian society, it sparked fear: after having spent 45 years under the Soviet regime, the Lithuanians readily identify with the Ukrainian victims of Russian atrocities. It also provoked the feeling that it was imperative to show solidarity with the country that had been brutally attacked and to punish its aggressor.

Unprecedented support

In response, Lithuanians welcomed Ukrainian refugees, organized humanitarian aid and raised funds to support the Ukrainian military. The country's faithful prayed for peace, those who spoke Russian telephoned the Russian citizens to explain what was really happening in Ukraine and to incite opposition to the war.

Lithuanians did not act alone: as always, they consulted their allies in NATO and the EU (Lithuania joined both organizations in 2004), but in the Euro-Atlantic circles, Lithuanian officials are among the most vocal and determined.

Lithuania was one of the first countries to close its airspace to Russian planes. The country also fought for strong sanctions against Putin's regime, including stopping the purchase of Russian petrol and gas and closing maritime ports to ships registered in Russia.

In March 2022, the Lithuanian parliament adopted a resolution calling for the United Nations to establish a no-fly zone over Ukraineone of the President Zelensky's urgent demands at the beginning of the conflict. In May, another resolution was adopted, calling the war a genocide and Russia a "terrorist state".

At the beginning of April, after the revelation of atrocities, carried out by the Russian forces, Lithuania expelled the Russian ambassador from Vilnius and withdrew their own ambassador from Moscow. (Around 200 Russian diplomats were expelled from Europe at that time, but unlike in Lithuania, they were not ambassadors.) Lithuania is also one of the countries that started the process to ensure that the Russians, found to be guilty of war crimes, including the leaders, would face international courts.

Some actions were symbolic but nonetheless powerful: the Vilnius Town Hall renamed the road leading to the Russian embassy "Ukrainian Heroes' Street". Throughout the country, authorities removed monuments dedicated to Soviet "liberators" that hadn't yet been removed.

On some occasions, the Lithuanian authorities were even obliged to slow down: on June 17, the country's customs officials stopped some sanctioned Russian goods destined for Kaliningrad, the Russian enclave, that were meant to transit through the Lithuanian territory. Moscow bristled, leading to fears of an escalation. In response, the European Commission put out additional clarifications on sanction requirements and allowed the shipment to take place.

In October 2022, the chief of staff of the Lithuanian armed forces cautioned the government that it would be unable to transfer to Ukraine some of the arms, as they were essential for the defense of Lithuania itself. The army has already contributed the equivalent of 200 million euros of military aid to Ukraine, which represents at least 13% of the annual defense budget.

The sensitive issue of Russian residents

The president's chief national security advisor, Kestutis Budrys, recently underlined the importance of the resilience of the civil society, faced with foreign influence. In his words, some Lithuanians are still vulnerable to conspiracy theories and fake narratives, often constructed by Russia, that must be identified and refuted. While the effort is understandable, there is also a risk that having such a strong official line could encourage self-censorship and silence differing opinions.

Since the Soviet times, the three Baltic countries have welcomed substantial Russian minorities. In Lithuania, they make up less than 6% of the population, compared to 25% in Latvia and 24% in Estonia. They haven't been highly vocal since the beginning of the war, either because they are well integrated or because they do not think it's the right moment to publicly declare their support for the Russian government.

There is also a more recent Russian diaspora, composed of dissidents who settled in these Baltic countries after 2014 and in greater numbers after February 2022. Vilnius has also become the place for the annual gathering of the Free Russia Forum, reuniting well-known adversaries of Putin, like Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kara-Murza, Ilia Ponomarev, Andrei Illarionov, Andrei Piontkovskiy, Mikhail Khodorkovski and many others. This movement is largely supported by the Lithuanian political classes, which cultivate hope for a democratic and free Russia.

Despite the support for Russian dissidents, the situation in Lithuania remains delicate. In September 2022, Lithuanian authorities (like those in Latvia and Estonia) closed their borders to the Russians, fleeing conscription. The logic was simple: there is a willingness to welcome political dissidents and those who oppose the war, but not those whose primary concern is for their own safety.

The responsibility that the Russian citizens bear for the war and the place that the Russian culture should have in public life in Lithuania is also a matter of debate. A group of experts, gathered by the Ministry of Culture, decided to rename the "Russian Theater of Vilnius" as the "Old Theater of Vilnius". Some disagreed with the measure, as the theater was one of the rare places where Russian culture, free of Putin's influence, could be encountered. But the reactions were subdued, as in the case of the decision of the National Opera to "temporarily refrain from public performances of works by Russian authors as culture in Russia is too closely associated with this country's aggressive policy".

The balance between security and freedom is always difficult to establish, as the scholar Mark Neocleous might say. For Lithuania, practically on the frontline of war, it is even more complicated: Russia has become an existential threat, which explains the Lithuanians' desire to "securitize" a growing number of everyday topics. The country's diplomats want to rally more states in defense of democratic values at a European and global level. If this project succeeds, it will create a context in which fundamental liberties will be easier to defendat an international level, and at a national one too.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

The dusky tetraka is the second species to be rediscovered since 2006 in the tropical forests of northeastern Madagascar.

Conservationists were celebrating Wednesday the first sightings in 24 years of the dusky tetraka, a yellow-throated songbird native to Madagascar for which ornithologists had feared the worst.

A expedition to remote regions of the island nation confirmed two recent sightings of the bird.

Scientists also learned something about the petite bird's behaviour that could help explain how it escaped notice for so long, even if it remains extremely rare.

The last documented sighting of dusky tetraka, in 1999, was in the rainforests of northeastern Madagascar, one of the world's most diverse biodiversity hotspots with hundreds of unique vertebrate species.

In December, an international team of researchers led by the US-based Peregrine Fund drove for 40 hours and hiked for half-a-day to the last spot the warbler-like bird had been seen.

Much of the forest, they discovered, had been destroyed and converted to farms for vanilla production, even though the area is officially protected.

After eight days, team member John Mittermeier, director of the lost birds program at American Bird Conservancy, finally spotted one hopping through dense undergrowth on the ground near a rocky river and snapped a photo.

"If dusky tetraka always prefer areas close to rivers, this might help to explain why the species has been overlooked for so long," he said.

More than half of Madagascar's birds -- some 115 species -- are endemic, meaning they are found nowhere else.

'Data insufficient'

"Birding in tropical forests is all about listening for bird calls, and so you naturally tend to avoid spending time next to rushing rivers where you can't hear anything."

Another dusky tetraka located by a second team also spent most of its time in dense vegetation close to a river, presumably looking for insects and other prey in the damp undergrowth.

"Now that we've found the dusky tetraka and better understand the habitat it lives in, we can look for it in other parts of Madagascar," said Lily-Arison Rene de Roland, Madagascar Program director for The Peregrine Fund.

The bird is on the Top Ten Most Wanted Lost Birds list, a collaboration between Re:wild, American Bird Conservancy and BirdLife International, all partners on the expedition.

More than half of Madagascar's birdssome 115 speciesare endemic, meaning they are found nowhere else.

More than 40 of the island's bird species are classified as threatened with extinction on the Red List of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The dusty tetrakaaka Crossleyia tenebrosais not classified for lack of data.

The main drivers of biodiversity loss on Madagascar are forest destruction to make way for agriculture, habitat degradation, invasive species, climate change and hunting.

About 40 percent of the island's original forest cover was lost between the 1950s and 2000, according to earlier research.

 2023 AFP
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

This big boy can be responsible for huge amounts of carbon emissions, simply by eating young vegetation that sprouts after a clearcut and that if left alone, would grow up and store carbon. Credit: Endre Gruner Ofstad

One of the biggest potential single sources of carbon emissions from wooded parts of Norway has four legs, weighs as much as 400-550 kg and has antlers.

That's rightmoose can reduce carbon storage in clearcut sites equivalent to as much as 60 percent of the annual fossil fuel carbon emissions from a region, a new study shows.

"Moose are an ecosystem engineer in the forest ecosystem, and strongly impact everything from the species composition and nutrient availability in the forest," said Gunnar Austrheim, an ecologist at the NTNU University Museum who was one of the study's co-authors. "A grown animal can eat 50 kilograms of biomass each day during summer."

That consumption represents roughly 10 percent of what the Norwegian forest industry itself harvests, he said.

And therein lies the reason why moose can be responsible for such a large additional amount of carbon emissions, said Francesco Cherubini, director of NTNU's Industrial Ecology (IndEcol) Program, and co-author of the paper.

Moose influence vegetation growth and more

Moose like to eat young deciduous trees, like birch, rowan and willow. So the young saplings that would normally sprout in the forest after a timber company clearcuts an area never get the chance to grow.

When saplings grow into mature trees, they bind up CO 2 in their trunks, leaves and roots. Moose essentially gobble up that possible source of carbon storage.

"It was really a surprise to see how much moose can influence vegetation growth, the carbon cycle and the climate system," said Xiangping Hu, a researcher at IndEcol and co-author of the study.

Scientists have known that browsing by large animals like moose could be an unaccounted-for source of additional carbon emissions, but there are very few studies with actual numbers to say precisely how much, Hu said.

Filling in the unknowns in climate modeling

Researchers use computer models to try to predict future climate scenarios, based on current and expected emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses.

That's basically the information we get from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC.

This photo shows just how dramatic the difference is between areas where moose have grazed and have not grazed. Credit: Audun Hageskal/SustHerb project

Most recently, the IPCC said humanity is on track to raise the Earth's average temperate by 2.4 C, which is quite a bit higher than the 1.5 C goal that scientists agree we should aim for.

The challenge is that climate modeling is imperfect. It's getting better, but there are areas where researchers simply don't have enough information yet.

They know there are factors that should be in their climate models, but they simply don't have enough data to include those factors in a realistic way.

The effects of large animals are one of those factors, Cherubini said.

"One of the biggest unknowns that we have in our understanding of the climate system and the carbon cycle is potentially the effect of larger animals, and how they interact with carbon storage in vegetation," he said.

"This study gave us a great opportunity to quantify this effect," he said. "We have some numbers that we can relate to the regional carbon budget, and which actually show the importance of large animals like the moose."

Good for the forest industry, maybe not so good for the climate

The researchers were able to discover the importance of moose on climate as a result of a different, but related study that began in 2008.

At that time, researchers at NTNU and NINA ( the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research) wanted to know what effect moose had on the forest ecosystem after an area had been clearcut. They looked at vegetation regrowth, species diversity and soil nutrient dynamics. Clearcutting is a process where essentially all trees are harvested from an area.

So the researchers set up 47 paired plots in areas that had been clear-cut in the previous three years. One of the plot pairs was fenced off so that moose couldn't browse on the tasty new saplings that naturally spring up after an area has been cut.

The second, nearby plot pair, was open to moose but marked so that researchers could go back year after year to see what happened to tree regrowth and other ecosystem metrics as moose feasted on the vegetation.

What they found was that moose were doing Norway's forest industry a huge favor, Cherubini said.

"So the forest industry prefers coniferous species, they prefer pine, they prefer spruce. So moose to some extent, are helping them because they're reducing competition," by thinning out the deciduous trees and partly pine, leaving the spruce, he said.

Researchers in the SustHerb project, which provided the foundation for the new study, continuously tracked changes in forest diversity and structure as affected by grazing moose. The changes can take years to manifest. Credit: Anders L. Kolstad, NTNU University Museum

Win for the climate, biodiversity and forest management?

The researchers realized they could revisit the plots to study effects on carbon emissions by calculating the differences in aboveground carbon content between browsed and unbrowsed plots.

That enabled them to see potential additional carbon emissions that moose caused by eating deciduous saplings.

Birch and other highly selected deciduous species such as rowan, willow and aspen may also help contribute to the biodiversity of an area, Austrheim said, which moose also affect by removing those species.

So while moose were relatively good for the forest industry, they aren't necessarily that good for the climate or biodiversity.

But there's good news.

Finding a balance

Almost all of Norway's productive forests are harvested using clearcuts.

"These clearcuts provide a lot of good food for moose," Austrheim said. Moose are also very heavily managed in Norway, he said.

"We don't only regulate the amount of animals, we very carefully regulate the proportion of females, males and calves. So there's a stronger management for moose than for most livestock in Norway," he said.

That means it should be possible to find the right balance between moose numbers and how forested lands are managed. That, in turn, could make it possible to limit excess carbon emissions, boost biodiversity and increase forest productivity, the researchers said.

"I think as we get more of an understanding of how all these different things are interrelated, land managers could come up with an optimal plan," Cherubini said. "That could be a much needed win-win solution for climate, for biodiversity and for timber value."

The research is published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences.

More information: John Salisbury et al, Net climate effects of moose browsing in early successional boreal forests by integrating carbon and albedo dynamics, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences (2023). DOI: 10.1029/2022JG007279
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Overview of Cueva de Malalmuerzo. Credit: Pedro Cantalejo

An international team of researchers has analyzed ancient human DNA from several archaeological sites in Andalucia in southern Spain. The study reports on the oldest genome to date from Cueva del Malalmuerzo in southern Spain, as well as the 7,000 to 5,000-year-old genomes of early farmers from other well-known sites, such as Cueva de Ardales.

The Iberian Peninsula plays an important role in the reconstruction of human population history. As a geographic cul-de-sac in the southwest of Europe, it is on one hand considered a refuge during the last Ice Age with its drastic temperature fluctuations. On the other hand, it may have been one of the starting points for the recolonization of Europe after the glacial maximum.

Indeed, previous studies had reported on the genomic profiles of 13,000 to 8,000-year-old hunter-gatherers from the Iberian Peninsula and provided evidence for the survival and continuation of a much older Paleolithic lineage that has been replaced in other parts of Europe and is no longer detectable.

After an organism's death, its DNA is only preserved for a certain period of time and under favorable climatic conditions. Extracting DNA from ancient remains from hot and dry climates is a huge challenge for researchers. In Andalucia, in the south of present-day Spain, climatic conditions are similar to those in North Africahowever, DNA has successfully been recovered of 14,000-year-old human individuals from a cave site in Morocco.

The new study fills crucial temporal and spatial gaps. Researchers can now directly investigate the role of the southern Iberian Peninsula as a refuge for Ice Age populations and potential population contacts across the Strait of Gibraltar during the last Ice Age, when sea-levels were much lower than today.

Human tooth recovered from Cueva de Malalmuerzo. Credit: Pedro Cantalejo

In the right place at the right time

The genetic ancestry of individuals from central and southern Europe who lived before the Last Glacial Maximum (24,000 to 18,000 years before today) differs from the ones who recolonized Europe afterwards. However, the situation in western Europe has not been clear until now due to a lack of genomic data from critical time periods. The 23,000-year-old individual from Cueva del Malalmuerzo near Granada finally adds data from the time when large parts of Europe were covered by massive ice sheets.

The study describes a direct genetic link between a 35,000-year-old individual from Belgium and the new genome from Malalmuerzo.

"Thanks to the high quality of our data we were able to detect traces of one of the first genetic lineages that settled Eurasia 45,000 years ago. Importantly, we found similarities with a 35,000-year-old individual from Belgium whose ancestry we can now trace further to the 23,000-year-old individual from southern Iberia," explains first author Vanessa Villalba-Mouco of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

The individual from Cueva del Malalmuerzo not only links to earlier periods of settlement but also to the hunter-gatherers of southern and western Europe who lived long after the last Ice Age. It also confirms the important role of the Iberian Peninsula as a refuge for human populations during the last Ice Age.

From there, humans migrated northwards and eastwards once the ice sheets had retreated. "With Malalmuerzo, we managed to find the right place and the right time period to trace a Paleolithic human group back to one of the proposed Ice Age refugia. It is remarkable to find such a long-lasting genetic legacy on the Iberian Peninsula, especially since this pre-Ice Age ancestry had long since disappeared in other parts of Europe," adds senior author Wolfgang Haak of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

Rock art from Cueva de Malalmuerzo. Credit: Pedro Cantalejo

More puzzle pieces of human history

Interestingly, the authors did not find any genetic link between the southern Iberian Peninsula and North Africadespite a distance of only 13 kilometers across the Mediterranean Sea, and parallels in the archaeological record.

"In Malalmuerzo, we found no evidence of a genetic contribution from North African lineages, and conversely, there is no evidence of a genetic contribution from southern Spain in the genomes of the 14,000-year-old individuals from the Taforalt cave in Morocco," adds Gerd-Christian Weniger from the University of Cologne. "Why the Strait of Gibraltar was a barrier at the end of the last Ice Age is still one of the unresolved questions of archaeological research in the western Mediterranean region."

The study also includes a number of younger individuals from the Neolithic, a time period when the first farmers arrived in Europe from the Near East. The characteristic genetic ancestry of Anatolian Neolithic groups is indeed detectable in the individuals from Andalucia, suggesting that these early farmers spread over large geographic distances.

"Neolithic people from southern Iberia, however, show a higher proportion of hunter-gatherer lineages. Hence, interaction between the last hunters and the first farmers may have been much closer than in other regions," says co-author Jose Ramos-Munoz from Universidad de Cadiz.

The Iberian Peninsula's special role during the Ice Age still resonates thousands of years later. "Surprisingly, the genetic heritage of Paleolithic hunter-gatherers is still detectable in early farmers from southern Iberia, indicating local admixture between two population groups with very different lifestyles," concludes Vanessa Villalba-Mouco.

More information: Vanessa Villalba-Mouco et al, A 23,000-year-old southern-Iberian individual links human groups that lived in Western Europe before and after the Last Glacial Maximum, Nature Ecology & Evolution (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41559-023-01987-0. www.nature.com/articles/s41559-023-01987-0 Ludovic Orlando, The genomic history of ice-age Europeans, Nature (2023). DOI: 10.1038/d41586-023-00371-z , www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00371-z Journal information: Nature Ecology & Evolution
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Pink-footed geese taking off from the roost. Credit: Jrgen Peter Kjeldsen

As the planet warms, animals that breed in the Arctic are at particular risk. But a new study reported in Current Biology on March 1 offers some encouraging news: in an apparent reaction to pressures along their former migratory route, a population of Arctic geese has rapidly adjusted, forming a new migration route and breeding location almost 1,000 kilometers from their original stomping grounds.

What's more, it appears the new route has caught on with other geese and even birds of other species via cultural transmission (social learning). As such, the new population already has grown to as many as 4,000 individuals.

"It is extremely fascinating to witness such rapid evolution of new breeding grounds and migratory route by a bird species that is regarded as being very traditional in its behavior and site use," said Jesper Madsen of Aarhus University in Denmark. "It gives some hope for 'ecological rescue' at times of very radical environmental changes due to climate change and, more broadly, global change."

"We observe a new distinct population of birds in the making in real time," he added. "This is very rare to observe. The speed of the development is astonishing."

Madsen's team has been studying Norway's Svalbard population of pink-footed geese for more than 35 years. They've kept tabs on their population size and demographic variables, using a systematic marking and resighting program. About 20 years ago, they started getting reports of geese turning up on migration in Sweden and Finland, which were confirmed as members of the Svalbard population.

To learn more, Madsen went to Oulu, Finland, in the spring of 2018 and 2019 with his goose-catching team from Denmark as well as Dutch and Finnish partners. Their hope was to catch and tag some pink-footed geese with GPS tags. They wanted to know where these geese were going, and they got an unexpected answer.

The team with the 'catch of the day' in Oulu in April 2018. Credit: Esko Pasanen

"It was a real surprise to see that half of the marked individuals in Oulu migrated northeast to Novaya Zemlya in north Russia," Madsen says. "From the tagging information we could not only follow their new path but also got indications that females were breeding there. This site is around 1,000 kilometers east of the Svalbard breeding grounds.

"It was also cool to observe that geese from the traditional flyway have turned up on the new route and seemed to have switched. Hence, social learning and following individuals from the new route has been an important phenomenon, which also explains how this development could be so fast."

With their new report, they've now documented an abrupt formation of a new migration route and population for the Arctic geese over the course of 10 to 15 years. The population has grown over time due to successful breeding and high survival rates combined with continued immigration of geese from the old route to the new one.

Their ability to live in Novaya Zemlya has apparently been aided by warming in the area, they say. While the new population is not genetically or demographically isolated yet, they note that it already now qualifies as a separate population.

The new route does have some disadvantages, Madsen says. For instance, it's longer. But they suspect the benefits of the new route and grounds outweigh any downsides. The findings in geese show the importance of social learning on a changing planet, Madsen notes, especially in social animals including birds but perhaps also hoofed ungulates, wolves, and whales.

"At this time, when climate change and other human activities threaten many species, not least the Arctic ones, social learning can be a behavior that can provide advantages to avoid some negative impacts, at least in the short term," Madsen says.

The researchers say they hope one day to observe the geese in their new breeding grounds in Russia. For now, they'll keep an eye on the future development of the new population using GPS-tracking devices and remote sensing of the new environment.

More information: Jesper Madsen et al, Rapid formation of new migration route and breeding area by Arctic geese, Current Biology (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.01.065 Journal information: Current Biology
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Insertion of the Birth-Alert-Tag (BAT) via a specialized applicator into the cloacal opening of a pregnant tiger shark. Credit: Tanya Houppermans / Blue Elements Imaging

Most people find sharks threatening. Who doesn't have an image in their mind of a menacing shark fin racing through the ocean in search of its next meal?

But it is the shark that is threatened.

According to Defenders of Wildlife, a national nonprofit dedicated to protecting imperiled species, 75% of shark species are threatened with extinction and up to 73 million sharks are being killed each year for their fins.

Habitats that were once secure places for sharks to give birth have also been affected. And the fact that sharks have long gestation periods, giving birth to relatively few young, and maturing late in lifecomplicates efforts at repopulation. And that's a problem.

In a new paper published today (March 1) in Science Advances, authors James Sulikowski, a professor at Arizona State University and Neil Hammerschlag, a marine ecologist at the University of Miami, describe a new technology they developed capable of remotely documenting the location and time of birth of shark pups. This type of data will enable scientists to create ways to protect the sharks' most vulnerable habitats, where they give birth.

"If they (the mother sharks) don't have that suitable habitat, then their babies won't be able to grow up. And if babies don't grow up, we have no more sharks and literally, the ocean ecosystem would collapse," explained James Sulikowski, senior Global Futures scientist at Arizona State University and director of the Sulikowski Shark and Fish Conservation Lab at ASU's New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences.

Image of the Birth-Alert-Tag (BAT). Credit: James Sulikowski

The device is making waves in the scientific communityand for good reason.

"We've been trying to do this since we started studying sharks. This is our holy grail. We have really advanced shark science, 20, 30, 40 years," said Sulikowski. "This novel, satellite-based technology will be especially valuable for the protection of threatened and endangered shark species, where protection of pupping and nursery grounds is a conservation priority."

The paper outlines the deployment and results of an intrauterine satellite tag on two highly mobile sharksa scalloped hammerhead and a tiger sharkto detect when birth occurs, leading to its name, birth-alert-tags (BAT).

Here's how BAT works.

First the BAT is inserted into a pregnant shark. The egg-shaped technology is approximately 2 inches long and 1 inch wide. When the shark gives birth, the BAT pops out along with the pups and reaches the ocean surface. Once there, the device switches to transmitter mode sending messages announcing the time and location of the birth. Ultrasound of a pregnant tiger shark showing an embryonic tiger shark; the sharks mouth and teeth are clearly visible. Ultrasounds were used in the study to identify pregnant sharks. Credit: James Sulikowski and Neil Hammerschlag

The BAT has already yielded remarkable results. Where it was once assumed that sand sharks gave birth inland, the scientists have learned that they are most comfortable having their pups in abandoned shipwrecks on the ocean floor.

"It was a total surprise," Sulikowski said. "For most shark species we have no idea where they give birth or how far they must travel to habitats that are essential to their survival."

Once habitats are discovered, efforts will be made to protect those areas, either by creating sanctuaries or expanding areas already set aside for this purpose.

The ultimate goal is to go global with the BAT.

Sulikowski wants to create a worldwide network of shark scientists to determine areas that are important to sharks and figure out how to protect them.

In a new study, researchers used new technologies to remotely document, for the first time in the wild, the location and timing of shark birth. Ultrasounds were used to identify pregnant sharks. During pregnancy in sharks, the entrance to the uterus remains semi-permeable to allow for water exchange between the uterus and outside. So, with the aid of a specialized applicator and guided by the ultrasound, the team inserted a new type of satellite tag through the sharks cloaca (akin to a vaginal opening) and into its uterus, where the tag was then deposit among developing embryonic sharks. Named the Birth-Alert-Tag (BAT), this new satellite tag remained inside the uterus, along with the developing shark pups, until the mother shark gave birth and expelled the newborn pups, along with the BAT, into the surrounding water. The BAT then floated to the surface and transmitted to satellites the location of where the shark birth took place. The first of its kind, the BATs were successfully deployed in a tiger shark and scalloped hammerhead shark, documenting the location birth. Credit: Infographic by Bianca Rangel. Shark by Kelly Quinn / Canvas of the Wild.

Persistence pays off

Sulikowski is enjoying his current success. "We've had every sort of failure that can happen," he said. "We had battery failures. We had firmware failures, we had antenna failures. I felt like giving up multiple times. But thanks to my co-author, Neil Hammerschlag, we kept forging ahead and we didn't give up."

"Honestly, it feels incredible to have created technology that is going to revolutionize the way that we study sharks," Sulikowski added.

More information: James Sulikowski et al, A novel intrauterine satellite transmitter to identify parturition in large sharks, Science Advances (2023). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.add6340. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.add6340 Journal information: Science Advances
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

A, Sunlight exposure decreased the Escherichia coli concentrations to 0 CFU mL1 in all exposed containers over 6 h. B, However, the E coli concentrations in unexposed containers were stable over 6 h. The trends were similar in containers at higher altitudes (Leadville, Colorado, and Evergreen, Colorado) and lower altitudes (Aurora, Colorado). CFU, colony forming unit. Credit: Wilderness & Environmental Medicine (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.wem.2022.10.005

Research shows that solar water disinfection (SODIS) may be just as effective at decontaminating Escherichia coli (E coli) infected water at high altitudes as it is at low altitudes. The results of a new study appearing in the Wilderness Medical Society's official journal Wilderness & Environmental Medicine show promise for improving global access to safe drinking water.

Water can be successfully disinfected through several methods: heat, filtration, chemical treatment, and ultraviolet (UV) light. The use of natural sunlight for solar disinfection of contaminated water effectively inactivates many microorganisms, including bacteria, viruses, protozoa, and fungi.

A team of researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus conducted an experimental study to determine the effect of SODIS on water purification at high altitude (defined as above 2,500 meters) compared to low altitude (below 2,500 meters) among different types of water containers.

"No other published research examining the effectiveness of SODIS at high altitude is available to our knowledge. Adequate access to water, sanitation, and hygiene is a crucial component of human health during emergency situations such as natural disasters and extreme weather events, which are becoming prevalent with climate change," according to lead investigator William Mundo, MD, MPH, School of Medicine and School of Public Health, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, U.S..

A study design previously described in the literature was modified, most notably to evaluate the concentration of E coli colony forming units (CFUs) at multiple time points throughout the required six hours of direct sunlight, as recommended by the World Health Organization.

Compared to control containers with no sunlight exposure, the researchers found that all bacteria were inactivated by six hours. At two hours, bacterial inactivation at high altitude was 1.7-fold greater than at lower altitude, however, at the end of six hours, there were no significant differences between high and low altitude samples.

The study also found that compared with Nalgene bottles, plastic bottles had a 1.4-fold greater decrease in CFUs. No statistical difference in bacterial inactivation was found between plastic bottles and plastic bags.

Co-lead investigator, Kylie Van Hoesen, MD, School of Medicine, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, U.S., commented, "This project highlights how health equity, global health, and wilderness medicine can intersect in the development of research around improving access to safe drinking water across the world in high altitude remote areas."

While the study highlights some early evidence that SODIS may be used at high altitude to create access to clean and safe drinking water, more research is required to investigate if SODIS is effective at disinfecting other organisms at high altitude before studies involving human subjects are developed.

More information: Kylie Van Hoesen et al, Evaluation of Escherichia coli Inactivation at High Altitudes Using Solar Water Disinfection, Wilderness & Environmental Medicine (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.wem.2022.10.005

Provided by Elsevier
Seagrass meadow. Credit: Fee Smulders and Marjolijn Christianen

Seagrass: green leaves swaying in the currents. Fish weave their way through, and sea turtles graze. They're always on their guard, watching out for any encroaching sharks. The seagrass' roots are hidden in the seabed, where they anchor the sand, securing the coastline. The best-kept secret is the amount of carbon these plants store: even more than trees do. But seagrasses are facing a barrage of threats. We urgently need to protect them, and enable the rewilding of the sea.

Marjolijn Christianen, Associate Professor in Marine Ecology, and Ph.D. candidate Fee Smulders explain why this is so important. Marjolijn researches how and where coastal ecosystems can be rewilded, and Fee studies tropical seagrass ecosystems. Together, they've spent years researching seagrass habitats in areas such as the Caribbean, and studying the threats to seagrass meadows.

"Seagrass is unusual because it was initially a terrestrial plant but then evolved back into the sea," explains Fee Smulders. "A seagrass meadow is essentially like a regular grass meadow, but with shoots and leaves attached. There are about 60 different species, and their leaves range in length from a few centimeters to as much as six meters. Lots of fish species live amongst those leaves. For some, such as groupers and the stoplight parrotfish, seagrasses serve as a nursery. They grow up there and head off towards the coral once they reach adulthood. Other species, such as seahorses, live there permanently. There's a huge level of biodiversity."

On top of that, seagrass meadows are extremely important for carbon sequestration, which can help combat climate change. "Planting trees is always given as an example of how to capture carbon," says Marjolijn Christianen. "But sea plants are even quicker and more efficient at doing this. Per m2, seagrass meadows can capture up to twice as much carbon as temperate and tropical forests."

Algae choking seagrass

Seagrass is found all over the world, but it's declining. It even used to grow in the Wadden Sea, but disease and the construction of the Afsluitdijk causeway killed it off. Seagrasses are facing a barrage of threats in all sorts of places, from the Mediterranean to the tropics.

These threats include sewage, soil and fertilizers finding their way into the sea, says Christianen. "Climate change is increasing the frequency of severe storms and heavy rainfall. This causes nutrient-rich water to drain into the sea, where it stimulates the growth of algae. In turn, this reduces the amount of light available to seagrass, which then kills it off."

Meanwhile, coastal regions are also turning into construction sites. Building a harbor, for example, churns up the seabed and has the same effect. "And in the Maldives, hotels have often removed seagrass because tourists don't like it swishing around their toes," says Smulders. "By doing that, the hotels were actually causing problems for themselves because without seagrass there to anchor the sand, you lose your beach. Eventually, the hotel can even lose its own foundations. This has happened on Bonaire, where surf huts sometimes partially collapse into the sea."

Unexpected threats

There's also another, much less obvious big threat to seagrass. It comes courtesy of the sea turtle, which is actually thriving thanks to various conservation projects. It's obviously great that local initiatives such as the protection of nests have led to sea turtle numbers going back up. "It also proves that people have the power to turn things around," says Christianen.

But sea turtles eat mainly seagrass, and in places where seagrass is scarce the turtles are adding to the pressure. "We're getting to the point where the system can no longer restore itself. It's a negative spiral in which turtles are killing their own habitat. We have footage in which we can see up to 30 turtles per hectare hovering over the seagrass meadows. Their grazing habits damage the structure of the seagrass."

This damage is now visible in the Bahamas and Bermuda. "In Bermuda there was a huge meadow that was over-grazed," says Smulders. "As an experiment, we put a cage over a section of the seabed so that the turtles couldn't reach it. We found that the seagrass was already so damaged that it barely grew back anymore. It will do eventually, but it'll take decades. In the meantime any sea turtles there will have starved."

Sea turtles as vloggers

Studying the impact of heavy grazing can reveal the risks to the entire ecosystem if there's no timely intervention to protect the seagrass. A number of turtles have therefore had cameras attached to them as a way of documenting their grazing habits. The cameras were glued to the turtles' shells and fell off after a few hours. They were then collected and the data was analyzed.

"This allows us to look at what exactly a turtle eats, the choices it makes, the times of day it eats, and how it interacts with other animals in the seagrass meadows," says Christianen. "We think these behaviors can give us an insight into the health of the ecosystem as a whole, but this hasn't been researched before. Camera systems have become very advanced. You can use them to find answers to a huge number of research questions. This research will soon be applied to manatees as well. A number of them will be equipped with a temporary camera. They're already known as the vlogging manatees."

Bringing back predators such as tiger sharks is another way of restoring balance to ecosystems that are under threat from overzealous turtles. Sharks influence turtle behavior through what's known as the fear effect. "Although sharks mainly focus on old and sick animals, they also have a significant fear effect," says Smulders.

"It's important to explain this to turtle lovers: our objective is not for the sharks to eat lots of turtles, but for them to help restore a natural interaction. Rather than swimming leisurely around a seagrass meadow and gobbling it all up, they'll just take a bite here and there because they'll be keeping an eye out for the shark. They won't be stripping it bare, which means the seagrass will be better able to recover."

Space for rewilding

Restoration therefore means looking at the entire system, and not just at a single species. It's a delicate balance. To restore natural processes you need to give nature a break and let things develop. "You could see it as a passive form of rewilding," says Christianen. "You're not actually releasing sharks into the sea, you're just creating favorable conditions so that the species comes back of its own accord. The idea is that this process of 'rewilding' restores natural processes."

Another seagrass project closer to home has shown how creating fallow areas is an effective way of giving nature some space. Staff at the University of Groningen and at NIOZ (the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research) are working on reintroducing seagrass on Griend, the nature reserve island in the Wadden Sea. "They started by injecting seeds there," says Christianen.

"Within a few years, the project had grown from a plot of a few square meters into a 650 hectare area of seagrass. Biodiversity also increased by 32% over those four years. That's actually pretty fast. So it shows what a fallow period can do. If you protect something in an area with favorable conditions, it can often restore itself."

Recognizing the value of seagrass

"It's good to raise awareness of the importance of these ecosystems. It prompts governments to talk about it and to release funding," says Christianen. "And with all the projects and threats out there, like an overabundance of nutrients in the sea, we need to consider the effects on seagrass. That's why we need a clearer idea of where seagrass grows, what it needs for it to be able to restore itself, and where there's the greatest potential for rewilding to take place."

These things aren't necessarily known, because until recently no one was paying that much attention to seagrass. It was only in the 1970s that the first studies of seagrass ecology were carried out. "It's also much trickier to carry out research at sea than on land, and that's why we're lagging behind," explains Smulders. "You need a boat, you have to dive and it's more difficult using things under water." Even so, the value of seagrass is gradually being recognized. The first World Seagrass Day is held on 1 March, with the support of the United Nations.

The agreements made at COP15, a conference on biodiversity held in Canada in December 2022, were also a step in the right direction. It was agreed that by 2030, 30% of land and 30% of the sea will be protected by leaving it entirely alone. That's quite a big difference to the current situation in which around 17% of land and 8% of the oceans are protected. "It's a promising step," says Christianen. "However, we still need to look at which areas should be chosen in order to maximize the chances of success."

People protect what they love

Even outside of the areas that will eventually fall under the 30/30 measure, small interventions can sometimes make a big difference. "People need to learn that it's good to see seagrass when they're swimming in the sea," says Christianen. "And also that it's better for boats not to drop anchor in seagrass meadows, just as they would no longer do over coral. Those anchors destroy the roots of seagrass, which then releases the stored carbon. These are simple things, and not very difficult to implement."

People protect what they love, Jacques-Yves Cousteau once said. "That's why we've brought tropical seagrasses to the Netherlands. And not just for scientific research in the greenhouses of Wageningen University & Research. We've also planted seagrasses at Burgers' Zoo in Arnhem. This will give everyone the opportunity to see these lush seagrasses in real life, alongside mangroves and manatees. That kind of exposure raises awareness, which is an important first step in conservation."

"If we clearly articulate how we can protect seagrass, people will feel empowered to do something," says Christianen. "It helps people overcome that sense of helplessness, and we know that taking local action really can combat the impacts of climate change on ecosystems. One example is connecting buildings to the sewer system to prevent discharge into the sea. This helps to keep seagrass healthy, so that it is better able to withstand climate change and continues to store carbon. It's a sort of virtuous circle."

And it's not yet too late. The impact of humans on land is greater than our impact at sea. "The situation at sea isn't yet as severe as it is on land. And there are more opportunities," says Christianen. "We still have lots of scope for preventative measures, and there are a lot of gains to be made."
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

The pathway for the formation of carbonates includes four steps: 1) gaseous species are released from halogens and/or per(chlorate); 2) atmospheric ionization or dissociation occurs; 3) a gas phase reaction occurs between free species (CO2+, CO+) and different oxidants to produce different carbonate species; and 4) carbonates are deposited on the surface materials of Mars. Credit: Science China Press

A joint research team led by Dr. Xiaohui Fu and Dr. Zhongchen Wu from Shandong University, China, proposed a new carbonate formation mechanism in Martian dust activities based on simulation experimental studies.

Carbonates are general products of aqueous processes on Earth. For Mars, carbonate minerals have been considered a sink for an early dense CO 2 atmosphere. Orbital spectroscopic investigations have identified carbonates in a few isolated localities across the Martian surface. Trace amounts of carbonate have been detected in modern global dust both by orbiters and by rovers.

However, their sources and formation mechanisms are still unclear. The team hypothesizes that carbonate could be formed directly in the CO 2 -rich atmosphere by electrochemical processes during Martian dust activities.

To test this, they simulated electrostatic discharge (ESD) under Mars-like atmospheric conditions. Various minerals identified in Martian dust (silicates, Ca sulfates, halogen minerals and (per) chlorate) were exposed to ESD process in a Mars chamber. New generated carbonates were identified by Raman and mid-infrared spectroscopy during ESD reactions with halogenides (NaCl, MgCl 2 , NaBr) and (per)chlorate (NaClO 3 , NaClO 4 ) as starting minerals.

Based on the simulation experiments, they proposed gas-solid heterogeneous electrochemical reactions during dust activities as a new mechanism for Martian carbonate formation. "The formation and the scarcity of carbonate outcrops on Mars still remains a mystery up to now. Unlike the conventional formation mechanisms of carbonates, the solid-gas interactions induced by ESD in Martian dust activities are independent of liquid water," Fu said.

The electrochemical processes resulting from dust activities can remove significant quantities of CO 2 gas from the Martian atmosphere and store it over geological timescales. Atmospheric CO 2 on Mars appears to have solidified as carbonates from at least the early Amazonian to present. "These new exciting results add to the growing evidence that atmospheric CO 2 is solidified as carbonates from at least the early Amazonian to present on Mars," Wu said.

The total amount of CO 2 sequestered by Mars dust activities s in the Amazonia era has been estimated based on the carbonate yield of ESD experiments, which possibly converted ~ 0.56 mbar of CO 2 into carbonate by Martian dust activities in the past 3.0 Ga.

Mars dust activities occur frequently on present-day Mars. They last a very long time and cover large areas of Mars. This study further demonstrates the active chemical interactions are still ongoing on Mars between the surface and the atmosphere. Mars' dust activities play a key role in the evolution of the Mars atmosphere and carbon/chlorine cycles on present-day Mars.

The paper is published in the journal National Science Review.

More information: Wenshuo Mao et al, Solidgas carbonate formation during dust events on Mars, National Science Review (2023). DOI: 10.1093/nsr/nwac293
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Credit: Shutterstock

There are numerous factors that influence public trust in government, one in particular is the relationship with people in power and lobby groups. Some of the recent scandals that have damaged public trust in British politics have related to people with private financial interests having far more access to politicians than we might likeand with people connected to politicians getting special treatment.

Most special advisers, who act as senior advisers to ministers in government, are supposed to wait two years before taking a job lobbying government for a new employer but this rule is rarely enforced.

There is a general sense that the revolving door between politics and the world of lobbying spins a little too fast these days.

In new research, we looked at just how fast by conducting a study on the post-government career moves of 521 former British special advisers who served ministers from 1997 to 2017. The goal was to see how many ended up in corporate lobbying jobs. And indeed, most did.

What is a special adviser?

UK special advisers are powerful political figures in Whitehall. They are senior political staff who are personally appointed by a minister to advise them on policy and politics. They work on temporary contracts and are not classed as civil servantswho are nonpartisan government employees.

The total number of special advisers working in Westminster remains small, but has grown substantially from around 38 under former British prime minister John Major in 1996 to 125 under Boris Johnson in 2022. However, their ability to influence British politics endures even after they leave government so these figures remain important.

From public to private sector

Our study of special advisers found that 31% moved into corporate lobbying after leaving government.

Some went to work for registered lobby firms, which are contracted by various different companies to influence decision makers.

Others got jobs in government relations doing influencing on behalf of internet companies, food and drinks producers and for banking and insurance firms.

Professional lobbying firms have to list themselves on the Register of Consultant Lobbyists but in-house lobbyists employed directly by companies or organizations don't. Almost all special advisers in our sample, irrespective of type of corporate organization they revolved into, work without being registered as a lobbyist in the official registry.

Another 22% went into policy advocacy, taking jobs representing the interests of trade unions, thinktanks and charities or working for organizations dedicated to a specific cause.

Policy advocates are also considered to be lobbyists, despite the fact that they work for different kinds of clients and may have different ideals than corporate types.

Therefore, around 54% of former special advisers revolve into some kind of broadly defined lobbying role after they leave government.

Why it matters

On balance, former special advisers who have since moved into lobbying roles help ensure important causes reach the ears of decision makers. As independent advisory group the Committee on Standards in Public Life recognized, "lobbying is an important and legitimate aspect of public life in a liberal democracy".

But lobbyists have more capacity to influence policy compared to the general public. And that is even more true for people who recently worked in government themselves. They have established political networks, an understanding of the machinery of government and corporate interests backing them. They can use their contacts from their former job to excel in their new role. They may find it easier to get a meeting with a minister of senior decision maker or get them to attend their events, for example.

Lax transparency standards are partly to blame for how quickly many special advisers become lobbyists. It is hard to know who is a lobbyist and who is not.

By improving transparency measures, more people would have faith in the process by which decisions are made and public policies are crafted.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
 Flash

A helicopter with five people on board has been missing in the Philippines' southwestern province of Palawan since Wednesday morning, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) said.

The helicopter operating a medical evacuation flight from Mangsee island located in the far southwest portion of Balabac, a municipality in the province of Palawan, was on its way to Southern Palawan Provincial Hospital in Brooke's Point, when it was reported missing around 9:00 a.m. local time Wednesday, CAAP spokesperson Eric Apolonio said in a text message to Xinhua.

He added that a pilot, a nurse, and a patient with two companions were aboard the helicopter.

The Alouette helicopter, with registry number N45VX, took off at 7:30 a.m. local time to pick up the patient in Balabac town and was expected to arrive at 10:30 a.m. at Southern Palawan Provincial Hospital in Brooke's Point, Apolonio said.

"A search and rescue operation is ongoing," he added.
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

The Williams Flats fire in northeastern Washington state generated a fire cloud, or pyroCb, that injected smoke into the stratosphere on August 8, 2019. A NASA aircraft flew in to investigate. Credit: David Peterson, NRL

Images of vast clouds of wildfire smoke towering into the sky have become all too familiar during the recent years of record-breaking fires across the western United States and elsewhere. Now, a team of atmospheric scientists has demonstrated these plumes have major impacts on the stratosphere and climate. The results were just published in the journal Science.

Big wildfires can send smoke plumes to immense heights. These towering clouds, called pyrocumulonimbus or pyroCbs, are generated when the intense heat of a wildfire triggers a huge thunderstorm that carries smoke into the stratosphere, five to seven miles above the surface.

In 2017, a U.S. airborne mission to study the atmosphere over the remote oceans intersected with smoke from an enormous pyroCb event in the Pacific Northwest. The smoke was so widespread that remote sensing instruments around the globe monitored it for more than eight months. Measurements showed that it and several additional Northern Hemisphere pyroCb events that year dominated contributions of black carbon and organic carbon to the lower stratosphere, outpacing human emissions from vehicles, industry, heating, cooking and agricultural land-clearing. The net effect was to cool the planet.

"Fire-triggered thunderstorms are growing larger and more frequentwitness record-breaking events in 2017, 2019 and 2020," said study co-author Joshua Schwarz of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which led the research. "Their recent impacts on the stratosphere have been impressive."

"We've known that huge fires emit lots of aerosols. But we didn't realize that these aerosols they could be injected so high into the atmosphere," said atmospheric chemist and study co-author Roisin Commane of the Columbia Climate School's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. Commane flew on the long-distance airborne missions over the oceans that captured data about the aerosols.

Scientists are interested in learning more about pyroCbs because their smoke lingers in the atmosphere longer than that from typical fires. The research should also provide insights about the behavior of aerosols from volcanoes, aviation or potential future solar geoengineering efforts.

Critical measurements of these huge clouds have so far been extremely limited because of their highly episodic nature, and the logistical challenges of getting scientific instruments airborne and into the smoke on short notice. As a result, the distribution and duration of smoke from these events is poorly known, as is the overall impact on climate and stratospheric aerosol chemistry, including the ozone layer.

One surprising finding of the study was the discovery of an extremely thick coating of other chemicals on solid black carbon particles generated by wildfires. Scientists are not quite sure how the gunky coating forms, but it seems to be made of organic aerosols and gases that condense on the particles as the smoke plume rapidly rises and cools in the atmosphere, said study co-author Kara Lamb of Columbia's Data Science Institute.

A more recent airborne mission provided direct sampling of hours-old pyroCb smoke from the 2019 Williams Flats fire in northeastern Washington state. Analysis of black carbon from that fire gave researchers more confidence about the conclusions drawn from the 2017 smoke.

The thick coating on black carbon particles, along with their size and mass, was a remarkably stable feature of pyroCb smoke that the researchers realized could be used to "fingerprint" these particles in the lower stratosphere. Using these fingerprints, they re-examined data from a total of 12 previous airborne mission datasets going back to 2006 to estimate long-term pyroCb influences on the lower stratosphere on recent climate.

They found that even in those years with relatively few pyroCbs before the more active fire seasons starting in 2020, the impact of smoke was significant, contributing roughly 20% of all stratospheric black carbon and organic carbon in the lower stratosphere in the previous decade.

"This gave us a reasonable estimate representing the period before things really started lighting up," Schwarz said. "We now recognize pyroCbs' longer term influence on the stratosphere. It's not just an important blip, but a steady state influence that needs to be accounted for."

More information: J. M. Katich et al, Pyrocumulonimbus affect average stratospheric aerosol composition, Science (2023). DOI: 10.1126/science.add3101. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.add3101 Journal information: Science

Provided by State of the Planet
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Washington, D.Cs vibrant civil society means it is one of the national leaders in green construction in the U.S. Credit: Shutterstock

A little over three months after the COP27 climate summit in Sharm-el-Sheikh drew to a close, the global community is no closer to finding a solution to the problem of climate change. The most-attended climate change conference to date has left observers frustrated and disillusioned. What started with the promise of a much-needed focus on environmental justice ended with unambitious commitments muffled by fossil fuel producers and insufficient funds on the table.

Despite the disappointment, there is continued hope in finding a high-level solution to an exceedingly complex problem: the preparations for COP28 in UAE are well underway. In Dubai, governments and international organizations will continue to demand grand, sweeping changes requiring monumental amounts of money and coordination.

But major policies such as a Green New Deal or UN-sanctioned treaties face a perennial struggle to find political support and are notoriously unreliable. Recent failures recall the debacle of the United States' 2017 exit from the Paris Climate Agreement, a legally binding treaty to keep global warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The allegiance of the United States, then-president Donald Trump claimed, was "to Pittsburgh, not Paris."

From Pittsburgh to Paris

In fact, what could have stood out as a cautionary tale about the unpredictability of federal commitment to climate action ended up reminding us that the real action may be off the national stage. In 2017, it took less than a week for the mayors of Pittsburgh and Paris, Bill Peduto and Anne Hidalgo, to issue a joint statement reaffirming the goals of the Paris Agreement. Hundreds of cities in the United States and worldwide have since joined climate pacts such as the "We're Still In" campaign or the Global Covenant of Mayors, supported by philanthropists and politicians.

The willingness of city leaders to take a more significant role in tackling the world's most pressing problems suggests that one way of turning the tide of climate change is to focus on experimentation and innovation from the bottom up. Instead of trying to implement grand plans, cities and communities can continue to lead the way with experimentation.

Do cities deserve such optimism? They do, with a caveat, suggests the example of energy-efficient construction, which I have studied over the past years as a senior research fellow at Stanford University's Civic Life of Cities Lab and a scholar at the University of Chicago's Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation. Green construction is an integral part of the solution to climate change. The built environment accounts for an estimated 40% of carbon emissions in industrialized cities, and the green building industry has rapidly and steadily grown for two decades.

The technology for green buildings already exists, and its widespread application by introducing reasonably high standards for new buildings and retrofitting old ones can make a real difference in the fight against climate change worldwide. Investments in building energy efficiency are at an all-time high. Despite these advances, a COP 27 status report shows that increased CO 2 emissions from new construction has outpaced building energy efficiency. Building greener may not be enough, but green building demonstrates that cities can lead profound changes.

But the overall search for technical solutions does not account for one of the crucial facts of city climate action: not all cities were part of this movement toward green construction right away, and some are still lagging. Smaller, poorer, and more conservatively led cities are unlikely to take climate action. My research suggests that this is not only because of politics or a lack of resources but also because of a lack of a thriving civil society.

Greening from the bottom up

In a new study published in the American Journal of Sociology, I analyzed the uptake of LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), a certification of high energy efficient construction developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, among over 10,000 towns, cities, and villages in the United States. I examined which cities first turned to green construction, and how many of a city's buildings are among the roughly 60,000 that sought LEED certification after 15 years of construction with LEED being an available standard.

I show that cities with a greater presence of nonprofit organizations that are willing to take risks to pursue their social mission made the turn to green construction sooner. Cities with a more robust nonprofit sector also have more energy-efficient buildings in total. Washington, DC, for instance, is among the national leaders of green construction and features a rich population of nonprofit organizations. One of the city's chief sustainability planners told me in 2017 that "the number of LEED buildings is a general benchmark of the impact of the built environment on climate."

Why this strong association? In cities like Chicago, Cincinnati, and San Francisco, it was museums, laboratories, and foundations that paved the way to the first green buildings in the early 2000s. Office buildings, apartment complexes, and retailers followed suit once it became clear that energy-efficient buildings see savings and national recognition. The tangible link between nonprofit organizations and green buildings remains even when considering state and municipal regulatory initiatives to lift environmental standards.

This is not to say that city leaders can simply delegate climate initiatives to civic leaders. Local laws make a big differenceaccording to my analyses, about 10 to 18 additional green buildings per year after city hall passed an incentive or requirement for new buildings to be certifiably green. But legislators mostly approved such policies in cities that already see a lush landscape of green buildings constructed by project owners passionate about sustainability. States and nations, in turn, have learned from successful local regulations of green construction and raised the bar for cities and construction owners behind the curve.

Pushing for carbon neutrality

This finding suggests that initiatives for green building did not originate in international and national policymaking, nor do they originate in the proactive policies of mayors. The key is nonprofit organizations that offer proofs of concept, engaged expert organizations (such as the World Green Building Council or the Urban Sustainability Directors Network) that develop and teach protocols for action, and city administrations that make best practices visible and, when the case is clear, even mandatory.

Cities from New York to Buenos Aires to Copenhagen have been pushing toward carbon neutrality. To get there, we need to encourage the development of a healthy civil society in cities worldwide that have room to experiment and share their experiences. The implication is to support nonprofit organizations and community groups working to address climate change, even if returns to investment are not immediate. It means providing funding and resources to these organizations so that they can take risks and pursue their values.

High-level solutions and grand designs will not fix climate change. Conferences like COP are an essential venue for subnational governments to share best practices. Still, the bulk of the action will have to take place at the interfaces between local governments and the organized citizenry. Our next big idea for how to fight against climate change will not come from COP28's host city Dubai, but from Montreal, Nairobi, Grenoble, or Vienna. For that to happen, our leaders have to take experimentation and innovation from the bottom up and cultivate a vibrant civil society at least as seriously as they do annual negotiations between self-interested nations.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Amphylaeus morosus. Credit: Marc Newman/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY

New Flinders University research gives insights into the fascinating world of Australian native bees, finding that one highly evolved species has been shaped by an unusual battle between male and female offspring numbers.

The article just published in Biology Letters adds another twist to the colorful and varied evolution and ecology of hundreds of native bee species that rely on cooperative colonies to survive often harsh environments.

The bee in focus, Amphylaeus morosus (known as the "Capricious Masked Bee"), is characterized by a social system involving one highly reproductive female "queen" and non-reproductive female "guards," which makes it a model species for studying social evolution in insects.

Ever since the days of Darwin, one of the big biological mysteries has been how sterile workers evolve in cooperative social species; how can genes for sterility persist when sterile individuals have no offspring?

"We now know that problem is largely explained by kin selection, where workers can pass on copies of their genes via brothers and sisters, instead of having their own offspring," says lead researcher, Flinders Ph.D. and entomologist Dr. Lucas Hearn.

But why do sterile workers evolve in some kinds of animals, like ants, bees and wasps, and only rarely in others?

"Part of the answer is the weird genetic system of Hymenoptera (ants, bees and wasps), where females are more closely related to their sisters than to their own babies, but much less related to their brothers.

"If female workers can rear their sisters, instead of their own babies or their brothers, this can provide a genetic 'edge' that favors sterility," he says.

However, it turns out that things are not always this simple.

Upon closer examination of the social bee A. morosus, Flinders University researchers have revealed an intriguing situation where queens, supported by helpful or "altruistic" guards in their nests, lay more offspring, but those extra offspring are always males.

"This is great for the queen, but not so good for the female guards because those extra offspring are her brothers and not closely related," says Dr. Hearn.

"However, the more guards in a population, the more excess males are produced and the less genetic value they have."

This could serve to illustrate the pinnacle of a very long evolutionary pathway which makes it unable to progress to a stage of further social complexity known as "eurosociality," which features nests with a single queen and a number of workers that don't reproduce.

This follows earlier research by Flinders showed that while altruistic guarding behavior in A. morosus can be explained by kin selection, guarding behavior was puzzlingly rare.

"Studying the benefit of these guards within the colony has also revealed unexpected complexity in social behavior that challenges the notion that sociality evolves in a linear and gradual way.

"This latest research provides an explanation for that puzzle, namely altruistic guarding behavior is only rewarding when it is rare. When it becomes common, all the excess male offspring become less valuable," say co-authors Flinders University Associate Professor Mike Schwarz and University of Adelaide Associate Professor Mark Stevens, a senior research scientist at the South Australian Museum.

"The Australian bee Amphylaeus morosus seems to have landed in a 'Goldilocks zone': not too little collective sociality and not too muchjust the right amount," the researchers conclude.

Amphylaeus morosus makes its nests in the broken fern fronds of the rough tree fern Cyathea australis, which are densely spread throughout the Dandenong Ranges and Central Highlands regions of Victoria and more sporadically throughout montane habitats along the east coast of Australia.

It is the only known social species within the highly diverse Colletidae bee family, making it an ideal species to investigate how social behavior in insects first evolved.

More information: Lucas R. Hearn et al, The presence of a guard vicariously drives split sex ratios in a facultatively social bee, Biology Letters (2023). DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2022.0528 Journal information: Biology Letters
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Woodcock in flight. Credit: Jean-Lou Zimmermann

The mainly brown woodcock uses its bright white tail feathers to communicate in semi-darkness, reflecting 30% more light than any other known bird.

These surprise findings, by a team led by an Imperial College London scientist, suggest there is much to learn about how birds that are most active at night or at dawn and dusk communicate.

Birds that are most active during the day often have colorful plumages, which they use to communicate information with each other. Birds that are most active at dawn and dusk or at night ("crepuscular"), such as nightjars and woodcocks, tend to have less showy plumage, as while sleeping during the day they need to be camouflaged to avoid predators.

Rather than using showy plumages, it was thought that birds active during low light conditions instead used sounds or chemicals to communicate. However, many have bright white patches, which could be used in environments with very little natural light for communication if these are reflective enough.

The Eurasian woodcock, Scolopax rusticola, is primarily mottled brown, but has patches of white feathers on the underside of its tail. This means it only shows these patches when raising its tail or during courtship display flights.

SEM image fo the white feather tips. Credit: Liliana D'Alba

However, as they are crepuscular, and so most active during low light, these white patches need to reflect as much light as possible to attract attention. To investigate how they might do this, the team studied the white tail feathers of Eurasian woodcock specimens from a collection in Switzerland.

They used specialized microscopy to image feather structure, spectrophotometry to measure the light reflectance, and models to characterize how photons of light interact with structures inside the feather. They were surprised to find the reflectance measurements showed the feathers reflected up to 55% of light30% more light than any other measured feather. The results are published today in the Journal of The Royal Society Interface.

Lead researcher Jamie Dunning, from the Department of Life Sciences (Silwood Park) at Imperial, said, "Bird enthusiasts have long known that woodcocks have these intense white patches, but just how white they are and how they function has remained a mystery. From an ecological perspective the intensity of the reflectance from these feathers makes sensethey need to hoover up all the light available in a very dimly lit environment, under the woodland canopy at night."

Individual feathers are made of a central stem with protrusions called rami forming the bulk of the structure. The rami are held together by round Velcro-like "barbules."

Optical microscopy image of the white tail region. Credit: Liliana D'Alba

The team found that in the woodcock's white tail feathers the rami are thickened and flattened, which both increases the surface area for light to bounce off, while also making it less likely light will pass between the feather barbs without being reflected.

There are two main ways surfaces are reflective. "Specular" reflection is when light bounces off a smooth surface, like a mirror. "Diffuse" reflectance scatters light rays in different directions. The thickened rami were found to be made up of a network of keratin nanofibers and scattered air pockets. This creates lots of interfaces that can scatter light, increasing the feathers' diffuse reflectance.

Analysis of the feathers showed one final trick up the woodcock's sleeve: the rami and barbules in the white woodcock feathers are arranged to create a venetian-blind-like effect that further enhances the surface area, by sitting at the optimum angle for light reflectance.

Principal Curator of Birds at the Natural History Museum Dr. Alex Bond said, "This research is a brilliant combination of using museum specimens and cutting-edge tools to try and understand this phenomenon. Being able to see whether closely related species or species with similar ecology also had these incredibly white feathers was a key bit of figuring out the story."

More information: Jamie Dunning et al, How woodcocks produce the most brilliant white plumage patches among the birds, Journal of The Royal Society Interface (2023). DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2022.0920 Journal information: Journal of the Royal Society Interface
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Feb. 28, 2023, marks 30 years since the beginning of the Waco siege, the confrontation at a Texas compound that killed around 80 members of the Branch Davidian religious community and four federal agents.

Part of the siege's legacy in popular culture is tied to sensational coverage that has presented the Branch Davidians as a cult. But the tragedy is also a powerful moment in political extremist groups' ideologies. As scholars of domestic extremism, we have repeatedly seen how what happened at the Mount Carmel Center has been used by anti-government groups from the 1990s to today.

51 days on edge

The Branch Davidians, who believe that the apocalypse is imminent in their lifetime, are a splinter group of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Davidians believe that living prophets are given divine gifts of interpretation to lead the members of the church into preparation for the last days. David Koresh, a young man who had taken charge of the small group, claimed to be the final prophet before the end times.

Suspecting that the group was illegally stockpiling weapons, agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearmsalso known as the ATFattempted to execute a search warrant at the Mount Caramel Center on Feb. 28, 1993. They hoped to arrest Koresh on suspicion of weapons violations and allegations of child abuse.

A gunfight ensued that killed four ATF agents and six Branch Davidians, leading to a 51-day siege. Law enforcement isolated the compound from the outside world, and attempts at negotiation failed.

On April 19, in an effort to end the siege, the FBI used tear gas to try to force members out of the compound. A massive fire broke out, and by the end, another 76 Branch Davidians had died, including 25 children. Some of the victims had died of gunshots.

Early questions

Many Americans had watched news coverage of the siege for weeks and were horrified at the loss of life during a government operation. What had happened that last day of the siege, particularly the origins of the fire, was highly contested from the start.

In response to criticism of the federal government, leaders such as then-President Bill Clinton emphasized Koresh's responsibility for the siege's outcome. Attorney General Janet Reno, who had approved the FBI's assault, had no responsibility in the deaths because "some religious fanatics murdered themselves," Clinton said in a news conference.

In 2000, the Department of Justice released a report headed by former Missouri Sen. John Danforth that cleared the government of wrongdoing. Investigators had acknowledged that the FBI used incendiary tear gas canisters but concluded that the Branch Davidians themselves started the fire. This argument was tied to the Branch Davidians' beliefs, and the idea that some may have wanted to fulfill Koresh's prophecies about the apocalypse.

Extremist legacy

However, critics dismissed the report as essentially a cover-up, and some extremists believed that federal law enforcement had deliberately murdered Branch Davidians.

This fear fed into existing conspiracy theories about a "New World Order:" an extremist belief that the federal government plans to destroy personal liberty and eventually confiscate firearms before merging the United States with a global government.

In the 1990s, for example, conspiracy theorist, author and short-wave radio host William Cooper regularly warned his readers and listeners of an eventual "One-World Government."

Shortly after the Waco tragedy, attorney and militia member Linda D. Thompson began to widely disseminate a video called "Waco: The Big Lie," through right-wing talk radio and conspiracy theorists. The video aims to convince viewers that there was a concerted effort to kill residents at the compound, and it became a powerful tool among extremists. Around the same time, unorganized militia movements took off, calling for community defense and strong Second Amendment rights to defend against an encroaching federal government.

Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols carried out the Oklahoma City Bombing on the second anniversary of the Waco fire and cited the siege as justification for their attack, which killed 168 people. McVeigh had even worn a T-shirt that said "FBIFederal Bureau of Incineration" before the bombing.

Another conspiracy theorist who fixated on Waco is Alex Jones, the creator and host of the Infowars website. Today, he is most widely known for claiming that the deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 was a government hoax performed by actors, part of a conspiracy to confiscate firearms. But he launched his programs in the 1990s and has often discussed Waco as an example of the evils of the federal government. In 2000, on the seventh anniversary of what he called "the Waco holocaust," Jones welcomed visitors to a brand new Branch Davidian church on the site in Texas, and later created a video about the siege.

Extremists and Waco today

Waco continues to be a rallying cry for extremism today. To cite one example, Gavin McInnes, the founder of the Proud Boys, has discussed government actions like the Waco siege as an example of government corruption and to accuse it of attacking people of faith whose politics it opposes. A former member has testified that the Proud Boys' participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection was driven by belief in a civil war pitting the federal government against citizens, patriots and nationalists.

What unites many of the groups influenced by Waco is a belief that the federal government is tyrannical and willing to attack citizens while depriving them of liberty, freedom and firearms. The perception of a lack of consequences for the deaths at Waco is perceived, in and of itself, as proof of extremist beliefs.

On the three-decade anniversary, as Americans reflect on the Waco tragedy, we believe it is important to remember the unfortunate loss of lifeand to be vigilant against demagoguery.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

In the ocean, the abundant cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus relies on mixotrophy to survive. Credit: Nature Microbiology (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41564-022-01251-4

Three UCO studies delve into how the Earth's most abundant photosynthetic organisms, marine cyanobacteria, are also able to obtain energy from organic substances, such as glucose

Marine cyanobacteria are the most abundant photosynthetic organisms on Earth, and are responsible for producing a large portion of the oxygen we breathe. Although their main source of energy is through photosynthesis, a process by which they convert CO 2 from the atmosphere into organic matter, depending on certain circumstances they are also able to directly capture organic substances from the environment, such as glucose, and assimilate them as a source of energy.

This is why they are considered mixotrophic organisms, as they have a hybrid way of feeding (light, and organic matter).

With the aim of understanding the certain circumstances that allow cyanobacteria to directly capture organic substances, a research group at the UCO, Adaptations in the Metabolism of Nitrogen and Carbon in Marine Cyanobacteria, has carried out several studies shedding light on how these organisms assimilate and take advantage of glucose, which is the most abundant organic compound in nature.

In a study published in the journal Microbiology Spectrum, the team found that the ability to capture glucose and its effects on metabolism are different between different strains of Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus, which are the two main genera of cyanobacteria.

That is, there are some cyanobacteria that are more effective at capturing glucose, and the use they make of it may also be different, since "marine cyanobacteria in the ocean are able to modulate their metabolism depending on the availability of glucose," explained Jose Manuel Garcia Fernandez, a member of the research group.

Now, one thing is the assimilation of glucose (that is, how they use this organic matter), and another is how they manage to capture it. For this, they use proteins called transporters. These proteins identify glucose in the environment and introduce it into the cell. In an article published in BBA Bioenergetics, in collaboration with the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, the team was able to accurately identify the structure and functions of the Prochlorococcus glucose transporter, which stands out for being able to identify small amounts of glucose around it.

"Future studies," explains Garcia Fernandez, "will allow us to answer the question of which specific parts of this transporter are responsible for having that capacity."

In addition, in research conducted in collaboration with the University of Hawaii and the University of Arizona, published in Microbiology Spectrum, in which they analyzed natural samples during an oceanographic campaign in Hawaii, the team has added three more characteristics to the relationship between Prochlorococcus and glucose.

First, they found that glucose transport is greater during the day than during the night thanks to the availability of light. Second, glucose uptake follows a different circadian cycle than that of other bacteria living in the same area of the ocean. Finally, the team discovered differences in glucose metabolism between surface and at-depth cyanobacteria.

This whole process of glucose assimilation is fundamental for some cyanobacteria, and generates advantages over their competition: they save energy (since it takes a greater effort to transform CO 2 into organic matter than to feed directly on it) and take organic matter from other competing microorganisms around them.

And, although the main energy source of cyanobacteria is sunlight, many live in deep areas where no light reaches, so it is essential for them to capture organic matter to survive. This has been demonstrated recently by researchers at the University of Haifa (Israel), in an article that UCO professor Maria del Carmen Munoz Marin reviewed for Nature Microbiology.

More information: Jose Angel Moreno-Cabezuelo et al, Integrated Proteomic and Metabolomic Analyses Show Differential Effects of Glucose Availability in Marine Synechococcus and Prochlorococcus, Microbiology Spectrum (2023). DOI: 10.1128/spectrum.03275-22 Jose Angel Moreno-Cabezuelo et al, Production, homology modeling and mutagenesis studies on GlcH glucose transporter from Prochlorococcus sp. strain SS120, Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA)Bioenergetics (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.bbabio.2022.148954 Maria del Carmen Munoz-Marin et al, Differential Timing for Glucose Assimilation in Prochlorococcus and Coexistent Microbial Populations in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, Microbiology Spectrum (2022). DOI: 10.1128/spectrum.02466-22 Maria del Carmen Munoz-Marin, Mixotrophy in depth, Nature Microbiology (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41564-022-01251-4 Journal information: Nature Microbiology
Now is the ideal time to have the air inside your home or office tested and the systems that regulate it checked and maintained.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people spend about 90% of their time indoors, where for many the risks to health from exposure to indoor air pollution may be greater than risks from outdoor pollution.

Mold, dust, pet dander and toxic chemicals from cleaning products and off-gassing from carpets or furniture can cause respiratory infections, headaches and fatigue, among other conditions.

Fortunately for owners of homes and businesses in upstate New York, Simons Heating & Cooling offers free indoor air quality testing for residents within a 50-mile radius of the companys Queensbury headquarters.

Simons Air Advice indoor air quality testing machine is equipped with special sensors for detecting bacteria, viruses, carbon dioxide and other hazardous elements. The companys service technicians use this information to recommend solutions tailored for your home.

Air quality is at the top of mind for many residents these days, says Danyan Garcia, marketing director at Simons Heating & Cooling. But we've always been focused on how to make customers air cleaner and more comfortable.

Founded in 2006, Simons is the leading locally owned and family-operated HVAC company in the area. Residential and commercial customers alike have awarded the business a five-star reputation for its honest and dedicated workmanship and service.

The companys full and comprehensive range of HVAC products and services includes blown-in insulation, standby power, water heaters and water treatment, duct and vent cleaning, furnace installation, maintenance and repair.

At a time of increased concern over airborne viruses, Simons is offering a new, enhanced air purification product and service: PlasmaPURE. It is a whole-house air purifier that uses bipolar ionization, much like sunlight in the atmosphere, to neutralize bacteria, mold, odorous gases and off-gassed chemicals. The versatile device has been proven to kill a number of known viruses and can be installed in either forced-air or ductless systems.

Regular cleaning and inspection of HVAC ducts and vents will protect against the circulation of contaminates and extend the overall life of your system. This is especially important in the Upstate New York area due to the longer winter season, when more time is spent indoors and windows are generally kept closed. Cleaning will remove mold and mildew spores, dust, debris, bugs, pet dander, vermin and other contaminates that circulate, therefore making the air in your home or business healthier and safer for people and pets alike.

If you want to ensure that your indoor air is safe and comfortable for your home or business this spring and summer, consider Simons convenient annual maintenance plan. Customers receive discounted labor rates and prices on replacement parts. The plan also includes a precision tune-up, cleaning and safety check of the air conditioning unit and/or furnace, as well as the boiler or mini split system, plus any other equipment that you want covered. The discounts apply to servicing visits during regular and after-hours service calls. The net effect is clean living, savings on utility bills and peace of mind that your systems are taken care of.

To schedule a free air test or estimate on products and services, call 518.507.9106, email support@simonshvac.com or visit simonshvac.com.

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.
BUENA  A vacancy on the Borough Council will remain unfilled after a man was appointed who is not interested in the position, setting off more partisan turmoil.

The council voted Monday to appoint Mark Dixon to fill the vacancy left by former Council member Gina Andaloro.

After the council members voted, they discovered Dixon was not present at the meeting and a person in the audience said Dixon was not interested in the position.

The meeting proceeded without the swearing of Dixon into office, leaving further confusion over how the seat will be filled.

Dixon had been one of three candidates nominated to fill the seat by the local members of the Atlantic County Democratic Committee.

The council is currently made up entirely of Republicans.

Buena to refill Borough Council vacancy after challenge from Atlantic County Democrats BUENA  The Borough Council will refill one of its vacancies with a Democrat after having it

Under state law, the council has 30 days from the date of the vacancy to appoint a replacement, meaning council must hold a special meeting to fill the seat before March 7. If the council fails to fill the seat, the authority to do so reverts to the local members of the Atlantic County Democratic Committee.

Colin Bell, an attorney for the Atlantic County Democrats, sent an email to borough Solicitor Richard Tonetta on Saturday saying Dixon was not interested in the position.

In his email, Bell said he knew another of the Democratic nominees, Ernest Merighi, was interested.

Tonetta said he did not see the email from Bell until after the meeting Monday. He sent an email to Bell on Tuesday saying the council intended to hold a special meeting to fill the seat.

Atlantic County Democratic Chair Michael Suleiman blamed the borough for the difficulty filling the seat, saying borough officials have needlessly complicated a simple process.

This is just madness, Suleiman said Tuesday. It doesnt shine the town in a very good light.

The abortive appointment of Dixon is the latest misstep in filling the vacancy. After Andaloro resigned in January, the council solicited a list of three nominees from the local members of the Atlantic County Republican Party. It ultimately voted Jan. 23 to fill the seat with Richard Giovinazzi, a Republican who had been serving on the borough Land Use Board.

That appointment prompted a challenge from the Atlantic County Democrats, who claimed they had the right to fill the seat due to the history of Andaloros party affiliation.

Gina Andaloro had run with her mother, Council member Pat Andaloro, on the Democratic ticket in the 2021 general election, defeating a Republican incumbent and a longtime council president and defying a red wave that had washed over the state that year. The pair switched parties and joined the GOP at the start of 2023, a decision that would have likely fortified a reelection effort in a borough that leans to the right.

The Atlantic County Democrats noted that Gina Andaloros election on the Democratic ticket gave its local committee members the right to fill the seat under state election law. Borough officials and local Republican leaders agreed and solicited a list of three nominees from the Democrats. The three Democratic nominees were Dixon, Brian Ewan and Merighi.

Despite the agreement on how to fill the seat, tensions grew between the borough and Atlantic County Democratic officials. Upon request from members of the council, Tonetta asked the Atlantic County Democrats for resumes or contact information for the three Democratic nominees. Suleiman told Tonetta resumes were not required under state law and questioned whether the original, Republican nominees for the vacancy had also been asked for resumes, suggesting the Democrats were being held to an unfair standard.

After the council did not nominate a candidate for the position at its Feb. 13 meeting, Tonetta emailed Bell again asking for contact information for the three Democratic nominees. He also inquired whether a Democratic neighbor of one of the council members, who had expressed interest in the position, could be added to the list of nominees.

Aspiring marijuana businesses weigh in on policy at Buena meeting BUENA  Borough officials deliberated on how to administer their new marijuana policy Monday.

The request prompted Suleiman to excoriate Tonetta, accusing him of acting in bad faith to fill the seat. He said the boroughs process for filling the seat was disorganized and it was inappropriate for a member of an all-Republican council to suggest a nominee. He suggested the latter action was illegal.

You are the most blatantly political and partisan town attorney Ive ever had the displeasure of dealing with, and in all my years in the wacky and crazy world of New Jersey politics, thats saying something, Suleiman said of Tonetta in the email.

Tonetta said after the meeting Monday that he stopped engaging with Suleiman after Suleiman insinuated the borough had acted illegally and said it would be appropriate to correspond only with Bell. He dismissed Suleimans criticisms as politically motivated.

Hes taken a political position, and I understand it, Tonetta said.

Borough officials described Suleimans comments as inappropriate. Council President Doug Adams said the boroughs requests of the Atlantic County Democrats were appropriate. He said it was sensible for the all-Republican council to ask for more information about Democratic nominees with whom they were unfamiliar. The previous GOP nominees for the position, Adams added, had been vetted by local Republicans.

I dont think council asking for resumes of three applicants is extraordinary or wrong, Adams said Monday before the meeting.

High school referee involved in hair controversy loses court appeal A high school referee who made a Black Buena Regional wrestler cut his hair during a match i

Adams said the question of whether a nominee could be added to the Democratic list was similarly appropriate. He called the Democrats response to the borough inappropriate and suggested the borough disengage from the conversation.

That wasnt called for, Adams said of the comments Suleiman made about Tonetta.

Suleiman stressed Tuesday that the Atlantic County Democrats had upheld their responsibilities under state law and gave the borough warning that Dixon was not interested in a council position. For the controversy to be averted, Suleiman said the council simply had to select a name.

Enough of the political posturing, Suleiman said.
PLEASE BE ADVISED: Soon we will no longer integrate with Facebook for story comments. The commenting option is not going away, however, readers will need to register for a FREE site account to continue sharing their thoughts and feedback on stories. If you already have an account (i.e. current subscribers, posting in obituary guestbooks, for submitting community events), you may use that login, otherwise, you will be prompted to create a new account.
 Flash

The death toll from the collision of two trains in central Greece on late Tuesday night has increased to 36, while 66 injured people were still hospitalized, including six in serious condition in intensive care units, the Greek Fire Service said on Wednesday.

More than 150 firefighters, including special units, were participating in an ongoing search and rescue operation for survivors in the wreckage, the spokesperson of the Fire Service, Vasilios Vathrakogiannis, told a press briefing.

Efforts are focused on the first three carriages of the passenger train that crashed onto a freight train close to midnight at Tempi municipality, he added. They were engulfed in flames after the collision.

A total of 346 passengers were on board the passenger train, national broadcaster ERT reported, citing the Hellenic Train rail operator.

An investigation into the cause of the accident has been launched, Greek police said.

Greek government spokesperson Giannis Oikonomou expressed the government's condolences for the tragedy and announced a three-day national mourning. From Wednesday to Friday, flags will fly at half-mast on all public buildings and all public festivities will be suspended, according to an e-mailed statement.

Authorities will clarify how the two trains were moving on the same track for many kilometers from different directions, he added.

The passenger train was heading to the port city of Thessaloniki in northern Greece from the capital Athens, while the cargo train had departed from Thessaloniki for Athens.

The president of the train drivers' association, Kostas Genidounias, told ERT that there were shortcomings in the operation of the railways that should be addressed. Electronic traffic control systems warning drivers of dangers ahead had not been working and the Athens-Thessaloniki network run in manual mode, he said.

As Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was travelling to the crash site, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen expressed condolences for the tragedy.

"My thoughts are with the people of Greece after the terrible train accident that claimed so many lives last night near Larissa. The whole of Europe is mourning with you. I also wish for a speedy recovery for all the injured," she tweeted, adding "We stand by your side" in Greek.

The Hellenic Red Cross has called people to donate blood in a central square in the nearby city of Larissa to help the injured.
GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP  The Stockton University Board of Trustees will hold a special meeting Friday to appoint the schools sixth president.

The meeting is scheduled to start at 11:30 a.m. in the Michael Jacobson Board of Trustees Room in the Campus Center.

The three finalists for the job are Frank D. Sanchez, former president of Rhode Island College; Laurence B. Alexander, chancellor of University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff; and Joe Bertolino, president of Southern Connecticut State University, according to Stocktons website.

All three candidates participated in faculty, student and public forums as part of the interview process.

WittKieffer served as the search firm during the process. The company is a national top-ten executive search firm, specifically designed for the nonprofit sector and predominantly within higher education, health care, academic medicine, life sciences and other not-for-profit industries, according to the schools website.

Stockton opens Multicultural Center on Galloway campus GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP  Stockton University on Wednesday reinforced its commitment to diversity 

The universitys Board of Trustees began a national search for a new president in August 2022 following Harvey Kesselmans announcement he would retire as Stocktons president at the end of the 2022-23 academic year.

During his tenure as president, which began in 2015, Kesselman oversaw the universitys return to Atlantic City. In 2018, the schools $220 million Atlantic City campus opened to students. The project was hailed as a game changer for the city and school as the resort tried to diversify its economy.

Prior to his appointment in December 2015, Kesselman served as acting president after President Herman J. Saatkamp Jr. went on medical leave and later resigned amid a flawed deal to purchase the former Showboat casino and open a campus in Atlantic City. The plan imploded over legal complications restricting the Showboats development.

Despite his retirement, Kesselman will remain part of the Stockton family as president emeritus and tenured professor after the new president is selected.
OCEAN CITY  Eustace Mita seems set to roll up his plans and walk away from a proposal for a 325-room hotel on the Boardwalk at Fifth Street, following Mayor Jay Gillians announcement Tuesday that he would not support the proposal.

We are probably going to have to look elsewhere at this point, Mita said.

Last week, his proposal for a high-rise hotel, with an estimated cost of close to $175 million, sent shock waves through the seashore resort.

In a presentation to City Council, Mita described his proposal as a boon to the city, bringing in new tax revenue and a multimillion-dollar payment to purchase the land between a municipal parking lot and the Boardwalk, where there are now sand dunes and a line of beach volleyball courts.

Mita argued the city has been steadily losing hotel rooms over the past two decades, which will eventually starve businesses and restaurants in the Asbury Avenue downtown and along the Boardwalk of customers.

After his presentation at an otherwise quiet February council meeting, there was a flood of comments on social media, many arguing the proposed hotel, if built, would fundamentally change the nature of Ocean City, long billed as Americas Greatest Family Resort.

In a message posted to the city website Tuesday, Gillian said he would not back Mitas plan. He said he spoke with Mita about his concerns.

I told Mr. Mita that while I understand the need for hotel rooms in Ocean City, I cannot and will not support his proposal to the council, Gillian wrote.

Mita said he had heard that council members were also unconvinced.

Im very surprised, Mita said Wednesday. He said his proposal would benefit the citys businesses and residents, and create a beautiful property that would last for generations.

Mita and Gillian are business partners. When Gillian was close to foreclosure in 2021, under about $8 million in debt, he announced the Mita familys investment would keep Gillians Wonderland Pier in operation.

According to Mita, the investment has not made it easier for him to complete projects in Ocean City, but instead much, much harder.

Mita: If Cape May community says no, ICONA plan wont move forward CAPE MAY  If the residents of Cape May do not want a proposed seven-story hotel on the site

Having a business relationship with the mayor of Ocean City, as a developer, is killing me, Mita said.

He cited plans to buy the former Crown Bank office building on Asbury Avenue. The former owner is in bankruptcy. Mita put in a $6.5 million bid with a proposal to create a boutique hotel, but brothers Raj and Yogi Khatiwala took things higher, bidding $6.675 million and acquiring the building.

Mita said Wednesday he did not keep pushing because of the reaction from the public because of his ties to Gillian.

He also said he did not discuss the plans of an Ocean City hotel with Gillian in advance of the council meeting, or with members of council.

Mitas company Icona has multiple hotel properties in the area. He also has a $150 million proposal for a new hotel in Cape May, at the site of the former Beach Theatre across from Convention Hall on Beach Avenue.

The proposal for an Icona Ocean City on the Boardwalk was far from a done deal. The plans would face multiple hurdles, including requiring state permits and local planning approval. But the first step would have been acquiring the land, which is owned by Ocean City.

New owners plan to reinvent former bank property in Ocean City's downtown OCEAN CITY  Raj Khatiwala has about two weeks before he can start work on 801 Asbury Ave., 

The property would need to go out to bid, but Mita expressed confidence that Icona would have been the highest bidder. But without support from the city, the proposal wont get that far.

The mayor and the City Council are in agreement that they dont want the hotel there, Mita said. So far, Council President Peter Madden has only said publicly that council has a responsibility to listen to and consider proposals, and the presentation to City Council was only the start of a long process.

Mita said he wants to find another site in Ocean City, but he did not have a particular property in mind. He said the Fifth Street site was ideal, since it was in front of Ocean City High School and would not block views of residential properties.

The proposed hotel would have taken a decade to turn a profit, he said, especially since it would not serve alcohol in the dry community. Mita said the other Icona hotels would have supported the Ocean City site until it began making enough to recoup the construction costs.

In some ways, his arguments for the Cape May proposal mirror those for Ocean City, citing the beauty of the plans and the loss of hotel rooms in the tourism-dependent community. In both communities, a significant percentage of the number of hotel rooms available in 2000 are now other uses, he said.

One big difference; in Cape May, Icona has asked City Council to designate the site an area in need of redevelopment. He described the former movie theater as the poster child for a redevelopment site and called it the only area in Cape May that could meet that definition.

Ocean City mayor opposed to boardwalk hotel proposal OCEAN CITY  Mayor Jay A. Gillian said Tuesday he is choosing not to support a proposal by l

It is a blighted zone, he said.

Another difference is, he already owns that property.

So far, he has not sought a City Council vote in Cape May. On Wednesday, he indicated he would not have been able to pursue both projects simultaneously.

Youd have to pick one or the other, he said.

There, too, he expected strong support.

Its such a win for Cape May. I cant think of a better win for everybody, Mita said.

Golden Inn in Avalon sells to hotel company The Golden Inn in Avalon, a landmark hotel and conference center on the beachfront, was sold

He said it was sad that the Ocean City project was now unlikely to move forward, not for his plans but for the town. He said the designs proposed for Cape May and Ocean City were created to blend with the historic styles of each community, bringing in other inspirations as well.

Its not like were putting up a box. Theyre magnificent buildings, Mita said.
SEA ISLE CITY  City officials said it is unknown when residents of the Spinnaker South Tower will be allowed back into their units following a deadly balcony collapse Friday.

I believe there were only about five to six occupied units on Friday in the South Tower, city spokesperson Katherine Custer said Tuesday.

Teams are continuing to investigate what caused the buildings eighth-floor balcony to drop onto a worker below while he was on the seventh-floor balcony below.

Jose Pereira, 43, of Philadelphia, was pronounced dead after crews reached his body, which was crushed between the concrete balconies late Friday night.

The first emergency call came in about 2:20 p.m. Crews worked into the night to reach Pereira, closing off several streets and breaching a wall to retrieve him.

Pereira was working for Ferguson Contracting Inc. of Yardley, Pennsylvania, which has not responded to requests for comment.

Worker identified in collapse of Sea Isle City condo balcony SEA ISLE CITY  A Philadelphia man working for a private contractor has died as a result of 

Two other workers sustained minor injuries and were treated at the scene, police Lt. James McQuillen said Friday.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating and says Pereira was performing concrete work on the buildings exterior.

Its unclear exactly what the men were working on and if that work involved repairs to the balconies.

The state Bureau of Housing Inspection performs inspections on the property to ensure its being maintained properly, and that no threat to the health, safety and welfare of its tenants exist, spokesperson Lisa Ryan said Wednesday.

The last cyclical inspection was conducted in April 2022. No open violations exist from this cyclical inspection, Ryan said.

The Spinnakers buildings date to the 1970s, offering an oceanfront view with access to the Promenade and beach.

2 injured, 1 trapped in Sea Isle City balcony collapse SEA ISLE CITY  Two workers were injured and emergency personnel were searching for another 

Immediately following the collapse, the South Towers residents were evacuated. The North Tower was not evacuated, but its tenants with balconies connected to their units are not permitted to use them, Custer said.

We are waiting to hear from the private engineers hired by the Spinnaker regarding the status of the building, Custer said. So far, we have not been told anything new.

The state Office of Regulatory Affairs, which is responsible for monitoring local enforcement of the Uniform Construction Code, has no knowledge of problems or citations issued to the property, Ryan said.
Efficacious alternate remedy is available before the high court under Sec 482 CrPC: Apex court

#NEWDELHI The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday declined to entertain a plea by arrested Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia (in pic) challenging his arrest by the CBI in an alleged case of corruption in now-withdrawn Delhi liquor policy. A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and comprising Justice PS Narasimha told senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing Sisodia, that his client has alternative remedies available before the Delhi High Court and stressed that he must move either the trial court or the high court for the relief he is seeking from the apex court.

The bench also pointed out that this is a case involving the Prevention of Corruption Act and it would not interfere directly, adding that an efficacious alternate remedy is available. It will set a very wrong precedent... Just because an incident occurs in Delhi, we cant entertain it here directly, said the bench. It further pointed out Sisodia is challenging an FIR, challenging remand, seeking bail, all under Article 32. You have remedies before the High Court under Section 482 CrPC, the bench told Singhvi. Singhvi argued that how could they arrest Sisodia when he has appeared on all occasions, and where is the flight risk? However, the apex court declined to entertain the plea.

Cong divided over support

Differences have cropped up between Delhi unit of Congress and the central party over extending support to deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, arrested in connection with alleged corruption in the now-scrapped liquor policy for 2021-22.

Agency acting lawfully

The BJP hit out at the AAP, asserting that the CBI is acting lawfully against the corrupt but it seems that the citys ruling party does not believe in law, Constitution and people.

IANS

Jailed AAP ministers quit

#NEWDELHI Arrested Delhi ministers - deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and and Satyendar Jain - on Tuesday resigned from the cabinet. Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has accepted their resignations.

IANS
A Davenport man has been sentenced in connection with an incident in 2018 that resulted in him being shot by Moline Police.

Steven Dexter Wilson, 30, was shot by officers at 12:35 a.m. on June 22, 2018, according to authorities. Police were investigating a report of a burglary in the 3300 block of Avenue of the Cities when they encountered Wilson. Both he and the officers fired shots, records show, and Wilson was critically wounded.

He pleaded guilty in 2022 to attempted aggravated battery and aggravated discharge of a firearm, according to Rock Island County court records. Two other counts  an armed violence charge and a felony drug possession charge  were dismissed as part of an agreement with the Rock Island County States Attorneys Office.

During a hearing late last week, Judge Peter Church sentenced Wilson to four years in an Illinois prison on each count, but Wilson will serve the sentences concurrently, rather than one after the other, according to court records. He will get credit for the time he has served in jail and also qualifies for day-for-day credit.

Wilson must also serve a year of supervised release at the conclusion of his prison term, court records state.

In the weeks after the shooting, investigators provided an outline of what they say happened between Wilson and the officers.

Wilson was accused of firing a gun into the alley from his residence doorway, then charging toward the officers while armed with the pistol. He struggled with police and was shot after aiming the gun at one of the officers. Two officers fired their pistols during the encounter. One officer did not hit anything. The second officer shot Wilson.

The actions of the two officers who fired their weapons, Lt. Jeremy Weeks and Officer Brett Kopf, were deemed appropriate by then-Rock Island County States Attorney John McGehee.

After last week's sentencing, Wilson was permitted to leave on his own recognizance and may remain free until he reports to prison, records state.

A status hearing is scheduled for March 9, court records state.
Genesis Health System has officially joined MercyOne.

The news was announced Wednesday, following a September announcement that MercyOne and Genesis signed a letter of intent to develop a partnership. With the closing, all interests and operations of Davenport-based Genesis will become part of MercyOne.

In a Zoom meeting Wednesday afternoon, hospital officials said Genesis will retain its name. Officials also ensured that all services, including contraceptive care, would continue at Genesis.

We are excited to welcome Genesis to MercyOne and look forward to shaping a framework to enhance access to personalized, convenient health care across Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois, said Bob Ritz, president and chief executive officer at MercyOne. Together, we are stronger and will deliver the highest quality care and the best patient experience to all those we serve.

The Genesis Health System Board of Directors unanimously selected MercyOne as its choice for a partner after an exploration process that began in December 2021. The Quad-Cities' third-largest employer, Genesis announced late last year that it was looking for a partner that could help expand its services.

At the time, Genesis CEO Doug Cropper and Board of Directors Chair Steven Bahls said the not-for-profit health system was "strong" and the potential move "is about positioning for the future."

Beginning that month, Genesis invited more than 30 health care systems to submit proposals aimed at helping Genesis expand, whether through a merger or acquisition or some other arrangement. Genesis employs 5,100 in the Quad-Cities, behind only the Rock Island Arsenal and John Deere. All existing employees will retain their positions under the MercyOne umbrella, Cropper said.

Wednesday, Cropper said in a news release that the partnership would benefit patients and the workforce as a whole.

As part of MercyOne, Genesis will be able to leverage the skill, talent and scale of national and regional resources while retaining our local leadership and focus, said Cropper. We will deepen our commitment to quality, safety and patient experience and strengthen our workforce retention and recruitment efforts. By joining MercyOne, Genesis will continue our ability to grow, thrive and deliver more integrated care in the region.

In December, Cropper announced his time with the hospital was coming to a close. He will retire on June 1 and will be followed by Dr. Kurt Andersen, chief clinical officer/chief medical officer for Genesis.

Andersen began working at Genesis in 1997 as a resident in the Genesis Quad Cities Family Medicine Residency Program. He has remained a practicing Genesis family physician and has previously served as an executive of Genesis Health Group before his current role.

Cropper has been with Genesis for 15 years this month. He is retiring to serve full-time as a church leader with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Along with his wife, Lynne, the couple will embark on a three-year assignment.

As part of the merger, Genesis Philanthropy and the Genesis Health Services Foundation will continue to serve the Quad-Cities-area communities, according to a news release. Genesis Philanthropy will operate under a new name, the Better Health Foundation, and will be independent from the health system.

Among the commitments made as part of joining MercyOne, Genesis Health System provided the Better Health Foundation with $40 million in funds, ensuring its future as one of the region's preeminent granting organizations, hospital system officials said. The Better Health Foundation will be fully operational on July 1.

MercyOne is a member of Trinity Health, headquartered in Livonia, Michigan. Trinity Health is one of the largest not-for-profit health care systems in the country with 88 hospitals across 26 states. Trinity Health is not affiliated with any Iowa-based entities currently using the name Trinity or Trinity Health.
The first of five men involved in a fentanyl and ecstasy distribution ring has been sentenced to more than 14 years in federal prison for his role in the conspiracy which led to the death of a person to whom the group had sold fentanyl.

During a hearing Sept. 30, 2022, in U.S. District Court, Davenport, Linder Kai Divos, 27, also known as Lindo, pleaded guilty to one count each of possession with the intent to distribute a controlled substance-fentanyl, and felon in possession of a firearm.

During a sentencing hearing held Feb. 21, U.S. District Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger sentenced Divos to 174 months, or 14  years, in federal prison for the count of possession with the intent to distribute a controlled substance, and a concurrent term of 120 months, or 10 years, for the weapons charge. A concurrent prison terms mean that the sentences will be served together.

Divos initially was arrested by Davenport Police on Nov. 1, 2021.

According to the arrest affidavit filed by Davenport Police Officer Ryan Leabo, at 1 p.m. that day, Davenport Police were conducting surveillance at 320 E. 13th St. in connection with a narcotics investigation involving Divos, who also had outstanding warrants for his arrest.

Officers followed Divos to Walmart on Elmore Avenue and there attempted to take him into custody. Divos ran but eventually gave up due to exhaustion.

From his left jacket pocket officers seized a loaded Taurus 9mm pistol.

During a search of Divos residence, officers seized from his bedroom a plastic bag containing 15.5 grams of fake 30mg Percocet pills containing fentanyl. Another plastic bag contained 37.4 grams of the 30 mg fake pills containing fentanyl. The bags contained a combined 564 fake Percocet pills.

Officers also seized two plastic bags, each containing ecstasy pills. One bag contained 23.75 grams of ecstasy pills, while the other contained 73 grams of ecstasy pills. The pills tested positive for methamphetamine.

Officers also seized $2,985 in cash.

Federal authorities took over the case in March of 2022.

Also indicted in the conspiracy are Jordan Thomas Hopper, 24; Austen Michael Thomas, also known as Waynski, and Mitch, 25; Kathan Daniel Wiley, 22; and, Marshall Matthew James Carver, 26.

Hopper pleaded guilty on Tuesday to one count each of distribution of a controlled substance (fentanyl) resulting in death, distribution of a controlled substance (fentanyl) resulting in bodily injury, and conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance. He is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 9.

Carver pleaded guilty Feb. 24 to one count each of distribution of a controlled substance (fentanyl) resulting in bodily injury, and conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance. He is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 9.

Thomas is charged with conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance, distribution of a controlled substance (fentanyl), possession with the intent to distribute a controlled substance (fentanyl), and felon in possession of a firearm. A plea hearing is scheduled for March 7.

Wiley is charged with conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance, and possession with the intent to distribute a controlled substance (fentanyl) resulting in bodily injury. A jury trial is scheduled for April 4.

In her sentencing memorandum, Divos attorney, Federal Public Defender Diane Helphrey, described the mans life.

Divos immigrated to the United States from Liberia to escape the Liberian Civil War. He was primarily raised by his grandmother before he and his mother fled the country, leaving his grandmother in Liberia.

Divos felt the loss of his grandmothers presence, Helphrey wrote, in addition to the other adversities he faced. He and his family resided in a refugee camp for two to three years prior to arriving in the United States. They initially lived on the north side of Chicago before relocating to Rock Island.

As a result of this upheaval Divos experienced violence, loss and general instability in his early life. The family initially fled from war related violence and the grave threat to their security, Helphrey wrote.

However, the circumstances at the refugee camp also exposed him to violence and uncertainty, she wrote. The ultimate transition to the United States presented new challenges. Cultural differences alone were alienating.

Divos was raised by a single mother. He was often bullied in school because he lacked sufficient clothing for a daily change of clothes, Helphrey said. Shy and self-conscious, he had trouble making friends. His mother, facing the same language barriers and cultural differences, had to work to support the family. Divos himself was tasked with caring for his younger siblings.

Divos will receive credit for the time he has served in jail awaiting trial. He must serve five years on supervised release after he completes his prison sentence.

The case is being prosecuted under Project Safe Neighborhoods, a Justice Department initiative instituted in 2001 that brings together law enforcement at all levels to reduce gun violence.
A Davenport teen who is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to stealing a car and fleeing police has been charged in connection with a Davenport shots fired incident that occurred in June.

Riley Eugene Letts, 18, is charged with one count each of intimidation with a dangerous weapon and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Each of the charges is a Class D felony under Iowa law that carries a prison sentence of five years.

According to the arrest affidavit filed by Davenport Police Officer Joel Griffin, at 5:30 p.m. on June 20, 2022, Davenport police responded to the 800 block of West 15th Street for a call of shots fired.

Letts had discharged a Smith & Wesson .357 revolver two times at an occupied vehicle and then threw the pistol under a nearby air conditioning unit.

The pistol was recovered by police and there were two empty casings in the cylinder.

Latent fingerprints belonging to Letts were recovered from the weapon.

Before turning 18, Letts was an adjudicated delinquent with a felony conviction for second-degree theft out of Scott County. The conviction is dated Nov. 12, 2020.

As a convicted felon, Letts is prohibited from possessing a firearm or ammunition.

A warrant was issued for Letts arrest on Feb. 17 and he was taken into custody Monday.

During a first appearance on the charges held Tuesday in Scott County District Court, Magistrate Ryan Beckenbaugh scheduled a preliminary hearing on the charges for March 10.

Letts was being held Tuesday night in the Scott County Jail on a cash-only bond of $10,000.

Letts is scheduled to be sentenced April 13 in District Court after pleading guilty Feb. 10 to one count each of first-degree theft and eluding-speed over 25 mph.

According to the arrest affidavit filed in that case by Bettendorf Police Officer Kevin Hopkins, at 3:25 p.m. Dec. 9, 2022, a 2015 Jeep Cherokee was seen speeding eastbound in the 3000 block of State Street.

The vehicle braked hard when a patrol car pulled up behind it. The vehicle then turned north on Devils Glen Road.

A traffic stop was attempted at Devils Glen Road and Deer Trail Road as the vehicle was traveling in excess of 50 mph in a 35 mph zone.

The Jeep failed to stop for police and sped up before traveling into oncoming traffic and running the red light at Devils Glen Road and Pleasant Drive.

The vehicle was then seen traveling southbound on Devils Glen Road at a high rate of speed. The Jeep then turned onto State Street.

The Jeep then turned into the parking lot of Brennys Motorcycle Clinic at 4426 State Street. The vehicle parked and both occupants fled on foot northbound into the wooded area.

Officers discovered that the Jeep had been reported stolen out of Milan, Illinois.

The passenger was captured and identified Letts as the driver of the stolen vehicle. The Jeep had a Blue Book value of $11,398.

Letts later admitted to police that he was the driver of the vehicle.

First-degree theft is a Class C felony that carries a prison sentence of 10 years. The eluding charge is an aggravated misdemeanor that carries a prison sentence of two years.
The attorney for a woman accused of bilking donors out of more than $37,000 with a fake cancer diagnosis issued a plea of not guilty for her client in a written arraignment filed Tuesday in Scott County District Court.

Madison Russo, 19, formerly of Bettendorf but now of Eldridge, is charged with one count of first-degree theft. The charge is a Class C felony under Iowa law that carries a prison sentence of 10 years or a term on probation.

Russo has waived her right to a speedy trial, according to the written arraignment filed by her attorney, Andrea Jaeger.

Russo is scheduled to make an appearance at 11 a.m. Thursday in District Court.

Scott County Attorney Kelly Cunningham also filed the trial information on Tuesday.

Russo was arrested Jan. 23 by Eldridge Police.

The investigation began after medical professionals looking at her GoFundMe page noticed inaccuracies in the photos she posted and alerted authorities.

Additionally, some of the photos were taken from the social media sites of real cancer patients, police allege.

As of Jan. 19, Russos GoFundMe page had raised $37,303, according to the search warrant filed by Eldridge Police Officer Garrett Jahns. According to the GoFundMe page, Maddies Fight Against Pancreatic Cancer has raised $37,228 from 438 donations.

That page has since been taken down and GoFundMe has reimbursed the donors.

Russo remains free on bond.
Bettendorf High School students are among many participating in a statewide walkout Wednesday in support of Iowa's LGBTQ+ youth and students.

The "We Say Gay" walkout was spearheaded by the Iowa Queer Student Alliance, a youth political group that aims to fight back against what it considers harmful LGBTQ+ legislation. Bettendorf's walkout will take place at 12:30 p.m.

"During this legislative session, we have seen countless bills being introduced that are attacking queer youth in Iowa," according to a Feb. 20 IQSA Instagram post, the group's primary promotion method. "There have been 15 pieces of legislation at least introduced this session that target LGBTQ+ students in Iowa."

The measures have passed through committees and are eligible for debate. On Tuesday, both chambers of the Iowa statehouse considered bills that would ban transgender students from using school bathrooms for the gender with which they identify and limit gender-affirming care.

To some, like 16-year-old Bettendorf junior Binx Hilton, the function of many bills in question are unnecessary.

"There's no K-12 curriculum surrounding it (LGBTQ+ community)," he said. "It can be mentioned and talked about, and definitely should be, but they're not going to be like, 'All right kids, here's the queer unit.'"

Still, Hilton thinks any bill banning LGBTQ-related instruction or classroom content does a disservice to all students' education.

"If there's a gay couple in a picture book and a kid asks, 'Why is there two dads?' A teacher should have every right to explain that two boys (or two girls) can be in love, too, and that's the end of that. Kids understand a lot more than we give them credit for," he said. "I think there's a lot of misinformation and negative connotations to the LGBTQ+ community among high, middle and late elementary-schoolers, just because they don't have the education to build the skills needed to navigate that stuff."

As a transgender student, Hilton also thinks the bills would make LGBTQ+ students feel less safe at school.

"It makes me feel so much more comfortable in a teacher's classroom when I see things like introduction forms that have your name and pronouns, or those little stickers that say 'This is a safe space,' " he said. "There's always a little bit of anxiety for queer, especially transgender people, that something is going to happen to embarrass me or something discriminatory is going to happen."

Several Iowa GOP leaders and others who support the LGBTQ-related bills say discussions on gender identity and sexuality should be up to parents, not schools. A local group, Bettendorf Parents United, also has expressed support for the legislation and related ideology.

Hilton disagrees, saying some young people have disapproving or harmful parents, and others may not be ready to come out to their parents yet. To him, the measures could put transgender students into a "deeper hold of solitude."

"... Where they look for other outlets of validation, which can lead to much more dangerous things, like pornography, online chat rooms with strangers, grooming; all these things are direct outcomes of kids not having the support they need through their process of exploration," he said. "People have to understand that, teenagers especially, will explore. I would not have survived if I had grown up in an environment where I didn't have the ability to explore."

According to 2019 Trevor Project study, LGBTQ+ youth who report having at least one accepting adult in their life were 40% less likely to report a suicide attempt in the past year.

"Regardless if you support transgender people or not, the statistics are there that people will die and will suffer (if the bills pass)," Hilton said. "There are undeniable consequences to legislation like this."

More than 100 Bettendorf school district parents signed a letter in support of LGBTQ+ students, read by Stephanie Bauswell at the Feb. 23 school board meeting.

Other Iowa schools walking out Wednesday include Johnston, Ankeny, Valley, Iowa City, Valley South Woods, Urbandale, Fort Dodge, Storm Lake, East High, Central Academy, Waukee and Marion.

LGBTQ+ people who made history in 2022 A history-making year for LGBTQ+ people Becca Balint Liz Bennett Anthony Bowens Patricia Contreras Emma Corrin Kristin Crowley Ariana DeBose Robert Garcia Ellia Green Maura Healey Karine Jean-Pierre Molly Kearney Tina Kotek Ty Penserga Byron Perkins Kim Petras and Sam Smith Willow Pill Michaela Jae Rodriguez James Roesener Travis Shumake Lia Thomas Amy Schneider
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.
Genesis Hospice has earned a national award for ranking in the top 5% for hospice quality performance.

The Hospice Quality Excellence Award from HomeCare HomeBase recognizes agencies performing at 100% across the organization in seven quality measures.

From our leadership to our support staff to our experts at the bedside, Genesis is enormously proud of our Hospice team, said Glen Roebuck, executive director of Home, Outpatient, and Senior Services for Genesis Health System.

We have offered the most comprehensive services in the region for quite some time. This recognition further illustrates the high level of quality care and compassionate service patients and their families receive when partnering with Genesis Hospice. We are privileged and honored to serve our community through this healthcare ministry.

Specialized types of care include:

 Treating the physical, emotional, and spiritual (holistic) needs.

 Concentrating on making patients comfortable and free of pain.

 Emphasizing that the quality of life is as important as the length of life.

Genesis Hospice serves 11 counties in eastern Iowa and western Illinois, including services at Genesis Medical Center, Aledo. In addition, it provides hospice services in private residences, at local health care facilities and at Clarissa C. Cook Hospice House  the only residential hospice center in Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois.

HomeCare HomeBase is the electronic medical record (EMR) provider for about 40% of the nations hospices.
WHAT WE KNOW: The Colona City Council voted 4-2 to approve using $336,044 in Rebuild Illinois funding for the extension of the Chestnut Drive project on Feb. 13, enabling up to 30 more homes to be built.

WHAT'S NEW: City attorney Jeff Wright informed Acting Mayor Mick Painter several days after the Feb. 13 vote that a majority of all those holding office was needed to approve the project, or five out of eight. On Monday, the project was approved in a 5-3 vote.

Voting no were Aldermen Jessica Cole, 1st Ward; Larry Swemline, 2nd Ward; and Tom Feliksiak, 3rd Ward. Before the vote, Wright said he had confirmed that the city owned the land and that the state allowed Rebuild Illinois funds to be used for the road. During public comments, developer Mike Shamsie said his business model had changed and he was no longer interested in developing the Colona property but would be selling. He also said a previous developer of the subdivision had never been forced to put in improvements.

"I want to get the road done and homes built," he continued, albeit not meaning by himself. "That's best for everybody."

After the meeting, Painter said the city would meet with engineers soon about the project.

"I'm very proud of the City Council for stepping up," he said. He noted a concern of naysayers had been the need for repairs of two bridges. Painter said bridge repairs could be paid for through grants, and the best use for the Rebuild Illinois money is the Chestnut Drive project where there would be a significant return on investment in the form of property taxes once homes are built.

WHAT'S NEXT: During a committee of the whole meeting also held Monday, aldermen endorsed the idea of showing water bills for the Colona Scott Family Park as a line item in expenses. Treasurer Jen Legare noted the city hasn't been charging the resort since the city took over the property. Public Works Director Mike Stephens said a change would help the city account for water loss. The city's auditor also recommended the change at an earlier meeting.
SPRINGFIELD  Nearly $60 million in state grant funding is coming to 118 community parks throughout Illinois, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Wednesday.

Money comes from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources' Open Space Land Acquisition and Development program. The 36-year-old program, commonly called OSLAD, aims to support efforts to beautify communities and develop recreational opportunities. It is funded by a percentage of the state's Real Estate Transfer Tax.

An investment in the outdoors is an investment in the health and well-being of the people of Illinois," said IDNR Director Natalie Phelps Finnie, among the attendees at a news conference in Springfield's Gietl Park. We know that 83% of Illinoisans consider access to outdoor recreational opportunities important for them and their families. We also know that getting outside leads to better overall health.

OSLAD provides funding assistance to local government agencies for their park districts and other outdoor activities. Most recipient governments split the cost with the state, but for 22 communities identified as "economically distressed," 100% of the cost will be covered, officials said. The calculation factors in an area's poverty level and property values.

This year, the program has increased investments in distressed communities, awarding them 25.5% of the funding  up from 4.7% in the previous fiscal year, officials said.

Cook County received the most funding, exceeding $12 million, with one community  the Chicago Heights Park District  qualifying as distressed. In Central Illinois, awards included $300,000 for the Macon County Conservation District, $600,000 for the city of Eureka, $600,000 for the village of Montrose in Effingham County, $600,000 for the Springfield Park District, and several projects in Champaign and Peoria counties.

The OSLAD program has awarded more than $530 million for park projects throughout Illinois since it was established in 1986, officials said.

Undergrad and graduate students at Northern Illinois University Institute for the Study of Environment, Sustainability and Energy had the opportunity to help assist as grant reviewers for this years recipients.

FY2023 OSLAD grant awards

A full list of grant recipients appears below, with distressed communities noted by asterisks.

Alexander County

City of Cairo  $599,500*

Bond County

Kingsbury Park District  $600,000*

Bureau County

Village of Neponset  $596,821*

Village of Tiskilwa  $600,000*

Calhoun County

Village of Hardin  $600,000

Carroll County

City of Mount Carroll  $371,000

Champaign County

Champaign County Forest Preserve District  $400,000

Urbana Park District  $550,000

Clay County

Flora  $299,557

Louisville  $581,881

Cook County

Arlington Heights Park District  $600,000

Chicago Heights Park District  $600,000*

City of Calumet City  $600,000

City of Chicago  $407,269

Forest Preserve District of Cook County  $428,750

Mount Prospect Park District  $600,000

Norridge Park District  $600,000

Palatine Park District  $499,900

Park District of Forest Park  $424,200

Streamwood Park District  $467,081

Worth Park District  $325,000

Village of Brookfield  $600,000

Hickory Hills Park District  $241,700

Skokie Park District  $357,000

Northbrook Park District  $600,000

Westchester Park District  $600,000

Niles Park District  $600,000

City of Palos Heights  $600,000

Morton Grove Park District  $398,000

Oak Lawn Park District  $600,000

Rolling Meadows Park District  $600,000

Lemont Park District  $600,000

McCook Park District  $231,628

Park Ridge Park District  $600,000

Crawford County

Oblong  $598,480.90

DeKalb County

DeKalb Park District  $507,000

Genoa Park District  $102,800

DuPage County

Elmhurst Park District  $340,300

Woodridge Park District  $600,000

Wood Dale Park District  $600,000

Carol Stream Park District  $400,000

Bloomingdale Park District  $300,000

Addison Park District  $600,000

Lombard Park District  $600,000

Downers Grove Park District  $425,000

Itasca Park District  $600,000

Winfield Park District  $600,000

Hanover Park Park District  $600,000

Fox Valley Park District  $600,000

Darien Park District  $600,000

St. Charles Park District  $600,000

Effingham County

Village of Montrose  $600,000*

Greene County

City of White Hall  $242,500

Grundy County

City of Morris  $600,000

Hancock County

Village of Plymouth  $600,000*

Henry County

City of Kewanee  $600,000*

Jasper County

Willow Hill  $372,195.20

Jefferson County

City of Mount Vernon  $429,189*

Jersey County

City of Jerseyville  $600,000

Kane County

Batavia Park District  $600,000

Forest Preserve District of Kane County  $600,000

Hampshire Township Park District  $600,000

Village of South Elgin  $600,000

Geneva Park District  $600,000

Kankakee County

City of Kankakee  $600,000*

Kankakee River Valley Forest Preserve District  $207,750

Kendall County

Kendall County Forest Preserve District  $600

Knox County

City of Galesburg  $224,825

Lake County

Lake County Forest Preserve District  $600,000

Mundelein Park and Recreation District  $400,000

Park District of Highland Park  $600,000

Wauconda Park District  $473,500

Zion  $600,000

Township of Antioch  $599,822.50

Village of Libertyville  $469,000

Deerfield Park District  $600,000

Vernon Hills Park District  $566,465

Village of Round Lake Beach  $580,915

Buffalo Grove Park District  $600,000

Grant Township Highway  $600,000

LaSalle County

City of Marseilles  $600,000*

City of Ottawa  $506,000

Macon County

Macon County Conservation District  $300,000

Macoupin County

City of Benld  $600,000*

Village of Palmyra  $600,000

Madison County

Madison County Mass Transit District  $388,000

Mason County

Havana Park District  $544,121*

McDonough County

Village of Industry  $600,000*

McHenry County

McHenry County Conservation District  $200,000

City of Woodstock  $600,000

Crystal Lake Park District  $600,000

Village of Richmond  $137,390

Village of Algonquin  $600,000

Menard County

City of Petersburg  $173,355

Mercer County

City of Aledo  $600,000

Monroe County

City of Columbia  $600,000

Ogle County

Village of Davis Junction  $600,000

Peoria County

Pleasure Driveway Park District of Peoria  $255,000*

Pleasure Driveway Park District of Peoria  $600,000*

Chillicothe Park District  $600,000

Perry County

City of Pinckneyville  $222,600*

Pike County

Village of Milton  $599,000*

Pulaski County

Village of Olmsted  $600,000*

Rock Island County

City of Rock Island  $347,500*

Sangamon County

Springfield Park District  $600,000*

Scott County

Village of Bluffs  $600,000*

St. Clair County

City of OFallon  $600,000

Will County

Village of Monee  $600,000

Plainfield Township Park District  $377,500

Village of Plainfield  $284,500

Village of University Park  $200,000

New Lenox Community Park District  $600,000

Village of Shorewood  $600,000

Channahon Park District  $300,000

Oswegoland Park District  $600,000

Winnebago County

Village of New Milford  $600,000*

Village of Machesney Park  $506,150

Woodford County

City of Eureka  $600,000

Photos: Chicago mayoral candidates in the 2023 election
A West River company has received a $3.3 million federal grant, which will be used to build a 30,000-square-foot meat processing plant in New Underwood.

The owners of Wall Meat Processing, Ken Charfauros, Janet Niehaus and Tom Fitch were awarded the grant under their new company CNF Enterprises LLC. The new facility, to be called I-90 Meats, will have the capability to process 4,000 head of beef, pork, lamb, and bison annually.

The grant was awarded by the USDA Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program and will cover approximately 20% of the total cost of the facility.

To keep up with demand, Wall Meat, which has a processing facility in Wall and a cutting facility in Rapid City, has been trying to increase its production capacity for some time. Charfauros said they have been over capacity for the last four years.

"The Wall plant is 2,400 square feet, its capacity is about 11 head per week but we are running between 15-20 head per week. So it's over capacity," he said.

The new facility will dramatically increase their overall capacity by 75 head per week and would employ up to 50 workers. Because Wall Meat has been working on plans long before they knew federal funding was a possibility, Charfauros said the timing was perfect for them to be submit a well-constructed grant application.

"We were ready. We had already done our feasibility study, proforma, business plan, we had a location, we had budgetary numbers, a private placement memorandum, and many investor and producer meetings," he said. "We were as ready as anybody could be and we're grateful that we got the award. Now we just have to make sure we do something with it that's meaningful to our producers."

Charfauros said the next step for the project is financial planning.

"We'll need to build a financial team and then of course design and get into the engineering, architecture and soil samples. Then once that is all in place we'll go off on the construction bidding process," he said.

Charfauros said the new facility will be federally inspected which is imperative for future projects.

"It opens a lot of doors. We can go over state lines now or service Ellsworth Air Force Base. The opportunities are endless," he said. "Wall Meats is also working on an internship at the federal level. After 6,000 hours of training, students will walk away with a USDA certificate of completion which allows them to work anywhere."

Charfauros said the company is committed to being involved in meat processing education in the community. The new facility will have a learning center for both processing and production. Charfauros said the processing side of the learning center is an audiovisual display for cutting meat, while the other is a full kitchen to show how to properly prepare meat.

Wall Meat partnered with Western Dakota Tech to host a meat processing course at its Rapid City facility. Charfauros said this is the third semester of the course that seeks to create a career path for butchers in the local industry. He said enrolled students include workers from Dakota Butcher in Rapid City and West Side Meats in Mobridge.

Charfauros said the increased education opportunities would help promote employment of butchers in South Dakota.

"The biggest obstacle in our industry right now is staffing," he said. "In this course we will teach them the business side, food safety, and the art of cutting. We'll provide them the entrepreneurial knowledge to open up their own plant so we can get back to local small business butchers."

Wall Meat is also involved with numerous projects in western South Dakota. Charfauros said they service Meals on Wheels, 24 South Dakota schools, the Club for Boys, and numerous events via their food truck. Local restaurants include Dakotah Steakhouse, Minerva's and The Lodge at Deadwood.

Charfauros said perhaps the most unique partnership is with local Big D convenience stores, where customers can purchase beef in large coolers.

According to Big D Oil Company Regional Manager Brenda Stedjee, locations selling Wall Meat beef include Piedmont, Bell Fourche, Deadwood and three in Rapid City, with another to come in May. She said the operations have been successful, including one location in Piedmont that has sold eight full cows of beef since the Friday after Thanksgiving 2022.

"That's a lot of beef. Even our smaller stores like in Deadwood are doing very well," Stedjee said, attributing the success to a quality product. "All you have to do is taste it and you will know the difference."

Stedjee said she is not after profit in this partnership, she wants to support the community and industry.

"It's crazy how much groceries cost families," Stedjee said. "You're going to buy meat regardless. But if you can go someplace and know the beef is local and that it's good quality, that is a win for everybody."

Charfauros and Wall Meat have come a long way since he was first stationed at Ellsworth Air Force Base 15 years ago. During his drive from Texas, he saw fields of endless cattle.

"All I could think of was how much I wanted to go get a South Dakota steak. The first restaurant I went to I asked, 'Hey, can I get one of those South Dakota steaks?,'" Charfauros said. "And that was not possible then. But now you can go to Dakotah Steakhouse and ask for a South Dakota steak and they'll get one cooked for you."

The grant funds are a small portion of the $1 billion promised by a Biden administration action plan seeking to foster a more competitive meat processing industry by supporting independent companies and increasing their processing capacity.

According to a White House-led economic analysis, the four largest meatpacking companies control 85% of the beef market.
After fleeing war-torn Ukraine a year ago, Evelina Mokrynska and her teenage son, Glieb Mokrynskyi, came to Rapid City. Here, the Literacy Council of the Black Hills is helping them find friendship and community while teaching them to improve their English language speaking and reading skills.

Literacy Council of the Black Hills is looking for more volunteers to serve as tutors to adults who want to improve their English language abilities. The Literacy Councils next tutor training sessions begin March 4.

The 12 hours of training takes place in three sessions -- 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. March 4, and 5 to 7 p.m. March 7 and March 9 in the conference areas at Rapid City Public Library. The suggested cost for the training is $30 for materials.

Anyone interested in tutoring must be 18 or older. Tutors dont have to be bilingual or have previous teaching experience. For more information or to register for the upcoming training, contact literacycouncilblackhills.org/get_involved or litcouncilblackhills@gmail.com or call or text 605-391-0854.

We are looking for volunteers who are interested in literacy and helping others, and everything else we provide training for, said Jenn Utecht, program coordinator.

Students work with tutors to improve their English skills, often to achieve goals such as improving communication with their childrens teachers, or getting a drivers license, a job or understanding health care information. Tutors and students are encouraged to meet at least weekly to work as partners in setting goals.

Literacy Council of the Black Hills research indicates 42% of students want to improve their ability to read to their children and help with homework, and 37% of students want to improve their ability to read health care information.

A lot of times those families dont have support for parents whose kids are in school so tutors can focus on family literacy, Utecht said.

The Literacy Council of the Black Hills is certified to use materials from a national literacy program, ProLiteracy, to train volunteer tutors.

We focus on how to work with adult learners and ESL (English as a second language) learners and learning styles and teaching reading, writing, speaking and listening skills, Utecht said. We also have a time where we practice using the curriculum tutors will use with students.

Utecht said she also provides quarterly tutor talks, which offer support and professional development for tutors, as well as offering them a chance to share ideas about things that are working well as they work with students.

Mentoring refugees

The Literacy Council has served students from nearly 30 countries. Currently, the Literacy Council has 69 students, nearly all of whom are learning English. Thirty-nine percent of the students are from Latin America, 30% are from Asian countries, and within the past 12 months, the number of students who are refugees from Ukraine has risen to 29%.

That is astounding, Utecht said.

At times, we have students who are native English speakers who need support with reading and writing, and other times, we see an influx of English language learners, Utecht said.

The English language learners typically speak some English but want to continue working on fluency, Utecht said.

Its hard to go to a doctors office if you cant speak English. Its hard to navigate life if you cant speak English. Its pretty lonely without it, Utecht said.

Utecht said the Literacy Council currently has 56 tutors. Ideally, Utecht said she would like to have at least 69 tutors so they would be readily available to current and new students. She wants to avoid having to put any students on a waiting list for tutoring.

Because the majority of Literacy Council students are from other countries, tutor training includes cultural sensitivity training, she said.

Especially with refugees, (we talk about) what that might look like and feel like and understanding our immigrants and having sensitivity to the cultures they come from and welcoming them here, Utecht said.

The need for improved literacy skills is not limited to refugees. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 14,504 adults in South Dakota speak English "less than very well." The National Center for Educational Statistics reports that 59,722 adults in South Dakota lack basic prose literacy skills.

Language for a new life

Every Monday night, the Literacy Council offers conversation classes, where students can get to know one another and practice speaking English. The classes were added at the request of students, Utecht said. The classes and tutoring are free.

For students like Evelina and Glieb, who attend classes with Evelinas mother, Nataliia Peters, the classes have helped them build a new community as they strengthen their language skills. Though Evelina and Glieb spoke and understood some English, they had learned British English. Utecht said many students ask for help understanding American English.

It is not the same language (as British English), Evelina said, noting that understanding American slang and remembering American names is challenging.

Nataliia, Evelina and Glieb are all from the city of Nova Kakhovka, Ukraine. Nataliias husband, Ray, is American, and Nataliia became a United States citizen about four years ago. The Peterses lived in Hawaii before moving to South Dakota for its lower cost of living. Nataliia took English as a second language classes in Hawaii, where students learned by listening to programs on a computer. She appreciates the personal interaction she and her family receive here at the conversation classes.

Evelina and Glieb had visited Nataliia in the United States previously but hadnt planned to move here until the Russian aggression against Ukraine started a year ago. Evelina said her husband put her and their son in the car and told them to leave. They escaped Nova Kakhovka 15 minutes before Russian troops shut down the city.

Evelina initially believed shed soon be able to reunite with her husband. Instead, she and Glieb had to leave the country. She drove for three days to western Ukraine in crazy traffic along with others who were fleeing. She and her son then traveled to Budapest, Hungary. Because they had tourist visas, they were able to fly to the United States to be with Nataliia and Ray.

Nova Kakhovka remains occupied by the Russian military. Evelinas husband is in the Ukrainian military and is still there fighting.

Glieb is a freshman at Stevens High School, and he would like to become a physician. Evelina eventually hopes to get a job as a substitute teacher for preschool or kindergarten classes. She also taught some dance in Ukraine.

Tamara Khomich from Nikolaev, Ukraine, left to get away from the war. She moved to South Dakota last summer to live with her daughter. Tamara joined the conversation class five months ago. For Tamara, who speaks Ukrainian, Russian and some German, learning English is helping her communicate with her three teenage grandchildren here who only speak English.

I like the pleasant conversation, Tamara said of the conversation class. We talk different topics about computers, about traditions, how traditions celebrate New Years in different countries. Very interesting. The people in Rapid City is friendly and the teacher in conversation class is friendly and polite and answers our questions.

To help their students acclimate to life in the United States, the Literacy Council staff and volunteers use the conversation class to educate students about laws and regulations in the United States. Utecht said the Literacy Council recently began using an immigration guide with students.

It has different topics that are important for our immigrant friends in the U.S.  how to call 911, different laws about drugs and alcohol. Those are interesting conversations, Utecht said. We talk about sexual harassment in the workplace and the laws we have against that. We talk about topics that will help them understand our laws and our culture so they can be safe.

Students build friendships as they learn together. Last summer, students from the class attended Summer Nights in downtown Rapid City together. Students have an annual picnic to celebrate International Literacy Day, which this year is Sept. 8. They also have a holiday party.

We miss our friends (in Ukraine) and now we see friends here, Nataliia said.
Ravalli County Council on Aging (RCCOA) is celebrating March for Meals by reaching out to community members to increase awareness about the Meals on Wheels program and congregate meals for senior nutrition.

For the Meals on Wheels program each week, 11 volunteer drivers deliver food to 314 community members located between Sula and Florence.

The program provides contact for senior citizens who are lacking often human interaction, said Executive Director Cathy Orr.

Its more than just a meal  there is the connection, the social aspect of it, she said. Some people dont normally see other people, they are pretty much homebound. Relationships develop and it combats isolation.

RCCOA Nutrition Supervisor Danny Groshong agreed that Meals on Wheel is about much more than providing food.

We are checking on their well-being, we may be their socialization for the day, he said. A lot of these people are homebound and dont have other opportunities for socialization. They rely on neighbors, friends and Meals on Wheels drivers to check on them. For some of the people who live in the mountains on either side we might be the only people they see for days.

Groshong often goes to the delivery sites to assess how people are doing.

It hurts my heart sometimes, he said. I can just see their loneliness, it exudes off of them. We do offer congregate meals too but a lot of these folks dont drive, they dont have a way to get to town.

Delivery drivers  two from Victor, three from Stevensville and six from Hamilton  are reimbursed at 50 cents a mile.

It is not a paycheck, it is reimbursement to cover their gas, Groshong said. They are doing this out of the kindness of their heart. They are the contact. We love the people we deliver to because they engage with us and we engage with them.

Part of the socialization aspect of delivery involves checking in on participants' mental health as well, he said.

We check in on them and ask, Are you sad? Do you need anything? Have you been okay? Groshong said. Sometimes theyll tell our driver they havent been able to go shopping and this is the only food theyve had. We know that maybe they need a welfare check or we can call Adult Protective Services. We can be the middleman.

RCCOA Meals on Wheels clients receive meals on different days depending on their address, but they can get multiple meals in one stop if needed.

We deliver in Darby just one day a week, but we can deliver one hot meal and six frozen, Groshong said, adding they try to include as much fresh produce as possible. Im going to Local Bounty in a little bit and they are giving us 30 cases of fresh lettuce. Well send that on to our recipients. We make everything from scratch but having fresh fruit is important and were including grapes and bananas.

Congregate meals are served at 11:30 a.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at the Victor Senior Center and the Stevensville Senior Center; and at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday at the Darby Clubhouse.

Ravalli County Council on Aging is a nationwide nonprofit and the March for Meals celebration commemorates March 1972 when President Nixon signed the amended Older Americans Act of 1965 to include a national nutrition program for seniors 60 years and older. The goal was to help people age with dignity by helping seniors stay independent and healthy by delivering nutritious meals to their door by friendly drivers.

Some people think that because we are called Ravalli County we are a government entity, but we are not, Groshong said. We are funded by donations and grants. We provide these services because of the generosity of the people in Ravalli County, plus the United States government.

He said RCCOA welcomes donations at any time and is doing a pint night on March 23 at Higherground to raise some additional funds (see box).

We are definitely pushing for donations, Groshong said citing the positive impact the nonprofit has made in recent years.

In Fiscal Year 2021, we served 28,193 meals plus 8,568 cases of Ensure (a nutritional shake), he said. Our congregate meals served 8,275 meals. So, in one year, we served a total of 36,468 (meals).

Groshong said he welcomes community members who want to ride along on a Meals on Wheels delivery route. To schedule a ride call 406-363-5690 or email dgroshong@ravalliccoa.org.

Id love to get some people to see what we do and be a part of it even if it is just for a day, he said. It is social and so rewarding. When you go home and even if youre exhausted, or have been crying, someones life in this valley has benefited.
Correction: The original version of this story has been changed to correct that livestock interests testified in support of the resolution.

Sen. Mike Lang has suggested yet another way to convey the message that a majority of Montanas Republican politicians are against wild bison reintroduction in the state.

On Tuesday, the Malta legislator introduced Senate Joint Resolution 14 opposing bison reintroduction at the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge. The resolution argues reintroducing bison to the 1.1 million acres in Eastern Montana would jeopardize critical grazing land for livestock, greatly increase the threat of disease transmission between livestock and wildlife, threaten the livelihoods of ranching families, and impair the State of Montana's management of state trust land.

In proposing the measure to the Senate Fish and Game Committee, Lang called the region one of the wonders of the world, extolled the vast wildlands that hes hiked and hunted since he was a child and referred glowingly to a painting by artist Charles M. Russell of bison crossing the Missouri River, which runs through the refuge. He added hes not against bison as long as they have a place to go and the resources to sustain them.

Testifying in support of the measure, Shelby DeMars, representing United Property Owners of Montana, said bison have direct and severe impacts on rangeland and may transmit disease.

Several livestock interests testified in favor of the bill, including Calli Michaels representing the Montana Wool Growers Association. Michaels said her group isnt against bison, its against improper management of animals on public lands. She compared the issue to wild horses. Every time a proposal is made to reduce the populations, wild horse advocates intervene, she said. As a result, Michaels said public lands have become damaged by overgrazing and weed infestations.

The resolution is the latest volley fired in what has been a long-running battle against bison in Montana.

Most recently in 2021, Gov. Greg Gianforte announced a settlement with UPOM after it filed suit over the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks' release of a bison management plan. Under the settlement, Gianforte said the state wouldnt undertake bison reintroduction on the refuge for 10 years.

The same year, Gianforte signed a bill giving county commissions the power to approve or deny state transplants of wild bison in their counties.

Yet at a national level, the Department of Interior has been working since 2008 to implement a Bison Conservation Initiative.

The DOI is committed to establishing and maintaining large, wide-ranging bison herds, subject to the forces of natural selection, on appropriate large landscapes where their role as ecosystem engineers shape healthy and diverse ecological communities, the agency stated on its website.

The Department of Interior, which oversees the CMR National Wildlife Refuge, already manages about 11,000 bison on 4.6 million acres of public land in 19 herds across 12 states. Last year, the agencys Bison Working Group was supposed to begin to implement a work plan to establish new state-managed, wild, huntable bison herds.

A request for comment from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regarding plans for the CMR was not returned in time for this story.

Several conservation groups spoke against the resolution and in favor of wild bison restoration. Chamois Andersen, of Defenders of Wildlife, said the CMRs 20,800-acre UL Bend Wilderness provides an easy location to fence off to experiment with bison reintroduction. The area has no cattle grazing and is all federally owned land. Should the DOI move ahead with a plan to put bison on the refuge, Andersen said the environmental process would allow everyone a chance to review and comment on the project.

Although not on tribal lands, the Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders Council drafted a plan in 2020 in support of an intertribal bison herd on Montana public lands.

In its findings, the drafters noted the region of the CMR was historically known as the Buffalo Commons in treaties between several Tribes and the U.S. Government, the Missoulian reported in 2021. Those treaties and other court decisions supports the concept of a partnership between the Department of Interior and a confederation of Tribes to establish a bison herd on public lands in Montana.

Then in 2021, the Montana American Indian Caucus sent a letter to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland proposing a multi-tribal plan to restore large herds of wild bison on the Russell refuge, the Missoulian reported.

Darrell Geist, habitat coordinator for the Buffalo Field Campaign, said the refuge belongs to all Americans. But its also the territory of the Blackfeet, the Gros Ventre, the Assiniboine and the Crow, he added. And SJ 14 does not recognize any of these tribes with ancestral ties to the region."

And its our position Montana has a responsibility and duty for caretaking wildlife for future generations, he added. Wildlife jurisdiction is not a one-way ratchet of state supremacy as SJ 14 wrongly claims.

It is estimated that 30 million bison once roamed the Great Plains. Hide hunters and a push to drive Plains Indians to reservations prompted their wholesale slaughter. By 1884, the animals were gone from Montana except for a few in captive private herds. By 1895, roughly 800 bison remained worldwide.

Here on the same landscape where the most egregious wildlife slaughter in history occurred, we have the opportunity to put the last piece on the pyramid of wildlife recovery, said the late Montana conservationist Jim Posewitz in 2011. Not only can we do this for buffalo, but given what weve done to this place, we are obligated to return them.
After the GOP-Legislature's investigation into the judiciary last session was blocked by the courts' finding they had lacked authority to do so, Republicans last Thursday worked to fill that gap.

Senate Bill 490 would provide a scope and use of the Legislature's "investigative powers," an application the Supreme Court found lawmakers needed a legislative purpose to effectuate in 2021.

If passed, the bill would put "any subject related to enacting law, the implementation of enacted law and the expenditure of money appropriated by the Legislature" under the jurisdiction of a potential legislative investigation.

"There's a lot of things that we oversee, the management of state institutions, public agencies, matters concerning administration of existing laws, proposed laws," Hertz told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.

Republican lawmakers in 2021 assembled the Select Committee on Judicial Accountability and Transparency to probe the judicial branch following revelations the Supreme Court administrator had deleted an internal email poll of judges weighing in on proposed legislative. The purpose of the poll was to inform the judicial branch's lobbying arm, which testifies on bills that would affect the courts.

Sen. Greg Hertz, R-Polson, chaired that committee and carries SB 490, one of the recommendations issued by the group. Hertz said he worked with the committee's special counsel, Abra Belke, and Legislative Services Legal Director Todd Everts to shape the bill with consideration of the Supreme Court ruling that stuffed the committee's probe.

The bill also adds language to the laws that lay out the Legislature's subpoena powers to include witnesses and records. It comes with a provision that if a person compelled to produce records neglects or refuses to obey a subpoena, they could be held in contempt but could also ask for a delay to deliver the records. Subpoenas would have to state their legislative purpose, as indicated by the Supreme Court's ruling.

Hertz' bill does not include a penalty for the contempt charge but he told the committee Tuesday he would be open to an amendment that does so.

The bill saw little debate but passed out of committee on a 7-4, party-line vote with Republican support and Democratic opposition.

While Hertz' bill was the product of the committee's examination and backtracking of the controversy with the judicial branch over the last two years, another bill in the House Judiciary Committee sought to pre-empt a future conflict between branches like that of 2021.

Freshman Rep. Lyn Hellegaard, R-Missoula, proposed House Bill 772, which would force judges to recuse themselves if lawmakers involved in a case allege judicial bias. The Attorney General represented the Legislature in its 2021 quarrel with the high court, and under Hellegaard's bill the Attorney General would be able to appoint a new judge if lawmakers seek to disqualify the chief justice.

Hellegaard said her bill would "give guidance if the events of 2021 occur again, when conflict of interest, actual bias and prejudice is lodged against justices when the legislative branch is a party."

Opponents pointed to the vague definitions Hellegaard wrote into the bill, such as conflict of interest defined as "a lack of open-mindedness" or "using the law incorrectly."

"You simply can't do the things that are in (the bill) and maintain constitutional integrity, it just can't occur," said Bruce Spencer, representing the State Bar of Montana. "If you look at the disqualification rules that are already, as a courtesy, placed in the Montana code, they do cover a lot of the situations where you've got real bias as a judge, they've covered it for a long time."

Even the Department of Justice, which has accused the Supreme Court of being self-serving, testified against the bill.

The House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday voted down the bill on a 3-16 vote.
KYIV, Ukraine  How do people raised with a sense of right and wrong end up involved in terrible acts of violence against others?

Thats the human mystery at the heart of 2,000 intercepted phone calls from Russian soldiers in Ukraine. These calls obtained by The Associated Press offer an intimate new perspective on Russian President Vladimir Putins war, seen through the eyes of Russian soldiers themselves.

The AP identified calls made in March 2022 by soldiers in a military division that Ukrainian prosecutors say committed war crimes in Bucha, a town outside Kyiv that became an early symbol of Russian atrocities.

They show how deeply unprepared young soldiers  and their country  were for the war to come. Many joined the military because they needed money. They were told theyd be welcomed as heroes for liberating Ukraine from what Russian officials falsely claim are Nazi oppressors, and their Western backers, and that Kyiv would fall without bloodshed within a week.

The intercepts show that as soldiers realized how much theyd been misled, they grew more and more afraid. Violence that once would have been unthinkable became normal. Looting and drinking offered moments of rare reprieve.

They tell their mothers what this war actually looks like: About the teenage Ukrainian boy who got his ears cut off. How the scariest sound is not the whistle of a rocket flying past, but the silence that means its coming directly for you. How modern weapons can obliterate the human body so theres nothing left to bring home.

This is the story of one of those men, Leonid. The AP couldn't reach Leonid directly but did speak with his mother in Russia. The AP isn't using his full name to protect his family. The AP has no evidence of his individual actions beyond his own testimony.

Leonid became a soldier because he needed money. In the calls, there is an obvious moral dissonance between the way Leonids mother raised him and what he is seeing and doing in Ukraine. Still, she defended her son, insisting he never even came into contact with civilians in Ukraine.

No one thought it would be so terrible, his mother told the AP in January. My son just said one thing: My conscience is clear. They opened fire first. Thats all.

Kill if you dont want to be killed.

Leonids introduction to war came on Feb. 24, as his unit crossed into Ukraine from Belarus and decimated a detachment of Ukrainians at the border. After his first fight, Leonid seems to have compassion for the young Ukrainian soldiers theyd just killed.

Leonid: We shot from the tanks, machine guns and rifles. We had no losses. We destroyed their four tanks. There were dead bodies lying around and burning. So, we won.

Mother: Oh what a nightmare! Lyonka, you wanted to live at that moment, right honey?

Leonid: More than ever!

Mother: Its totally horrible.

Leonid: They were lying there, just 18 or 19 years old. Am I different from them? No, Im not.

The rules of normal life no longer apply.

Unprepared for a prolonged attack, Russian soldiers ran short on basic supplies. One way for them to get what they needed  or wanted  was to steal.

When Leonid tells his mother casually about looting, at first she cant believe hes stealing. But its become normal for him.

As he speaks, he watches a town burn on the horizon.

Such a beauty, he says.

Leonid: Look, mom, Im looking at tons of houses  I dont know, dozens, hundreds  and theyre all empty. Everyone ran away.

Mother: So all the people left, right? You guys arent looting them, are you? Youre not going into other peoples houses?

Leonid: Of course we are, mom. Are you crazy?

Mother: Oh, you are. What do you take from there?

Leonid: We take food, bed linen, pillows. Blankets, forks, spoons, pans.

Mother: (laughing) You gotta be kidding me.

Leonid: Whoever doesnt have any  socks, clean underwear, T-shirts, sweaters.

The enemy is everybody

Leonid tells his mother about the terror of going on patrol and not knowing what or who they will encounter. He describes using lethal force at the slightest provocation against just about anyone.

At first, she seems not to believe that Russian soldiers could be killing civilians.

Leonid tells her that civilians were told to flee or shelter in basements, so anyone who was outside must not be a real civilian.

This was a whole-of-society war. Mercy was for suckers.

Mother: Oh Lyonka, youve seen so much stuff there!

Leonid: Well  civilians are lying around right on the street with their brains coming out.

Mother: Oh God, you mean the locals?

Leonid: Yep. Well, like, yeah.

Mother: Are they the ones you guys shot or the ones  

Leonid: The ones killed by our army.

Mother: Lyonya, they might just be peaceful people.

Leonid: Mom, there was a battle. And a guy would just pop up, you know? Maybe he would pull out a grenade launcher ... Or we had a case, a young guy was stopped, they took his cellphone. He had all this information about us in his Telegram messages  where to bomb, how many we were, how many tanks we have."

Mother: So they knew everything?

Leonid: He was shot right there on the spot.

Mother: Mhm.

Leonid: He was 17 years old. And thats it, right there.

Mother: Mhm.

Leonid: There was a prisoner. It was an 18-year-old guy. First, he was shot in his leg. Then his ears were cut off. After that, he admitted everything, and they killed him.

Mother: Did he admit it?

Leonid: We dont imprison them. I mean, we kill them all.

What it takes to get home alive

Leonid tells his mother he was nearly killed five times. Things are so disorganized, he says, its not uncommon for Russians to fire on their own troops. Some soldiers shoot themselves just to get medical leave, he says.

In another call, he tells his girlfriend that he's envious of his buddies who got shot in the feet and could go home.

A bullet in your foot is like four months at home with crutches, he says. It would be awesome.

He promises to bring home a collection of bullets for the kids. Trophies from Ukraine, he calls them.

His mother says shes waiting for him.

Of course, youll come, his mother says. No doubts. Youre my beloved. Of course, youll come. You are my happiness.

Leonid returned to Russia in May, badly wounded, but alive. He told his mother Russia would win this war.

Timeline: A look at key moments in a year of war between Russia and Ukraine A month-by-month timeline of the war in Ukraine The war in Ukraine that began a year ago has killed thousands, forced millions to flee their homes, reduced entire cities to rubble and has fueled fears the confrontation could slide into an open conflict between Russia and NATO. A look at some of the main events in the conflict. Feb. 24, 2022: Russia invades Ukraine March 2, 2022: Russia takes Kherson, gets stuck near Kyiv March 29, 2022: Russia withdraws from Kyiv, shifts focus east April 2022: Mass graves discovered in Bucha April 9, 2022: Russia strikes train station, killing 52 civilians April 13, 2022: Ukraine sinks Russian missile cruiser May 16, 2022: Ukraine defenders surrender key steel mill May 18, 2022: Finland, Sweden apply for NATO membership June 2022: Western weapons flow into Ukraine June 30, 2022: Russian troops pull back from Snake Island July 22, 2022: Deal struck on grain exports July 29, 2022: 53 killed in missile strike on prison Aug. 9, 2022: Ukraine strikes air base in Crimea Aug. 20, 2022: Daughter of Russian ideologist killed in car bombing Sept. 6, 2022: Ukraine counteroffensive retakes parts of Kharkiv region Sept. 21, 2022: Putin orders mobilization of reservists, stages illegal "referendums" Sept. 30, 2022: Putin claims annexation of 4 regions October 2022: Bridge linking Crimea and Russia attacked November 2022: Russia retreats from Kherson Dec. 5, 2022: Ukraine uses drones to hit Russian targets Dec. 21, 2022: Zelenskyy visits US Jan. 1, 2023: Ukraine kills scores of freshly mobilized Russian soldiers Jan. 12, 2023: Russia claims capture of Soledar Jan. 14, 2023: Russian strike kills 45 in apartment building Feb. 20, 2023: Biden makes surprise visit to Kyiv
" " If you love hot peppers, you're always on the lookout for hotter ones. taboga/Shutterstock

Our tolerance for spicy food runs the gamut. Some of us taste a serrano pepper slice and run for a fire extinguisher. Others would happily drink a full bottle of hot sauce if table decorum allowed it. In fact, some people are so committed to capsaicin (the substance that makes food taste spicy) that they scour restaurants and grocery stores in search of the world's hottest chili peppers.

Capsaicin is a chemical irritant naturally found in fresh peppers. It's responsible for the insane heat level that we may experience when consuming the world's spiciest peppers and hottest hot sauces. In addition to powering spicy foods, capsaicin has been shown to offer health benefits, particularly when used to treat pain or itching. Research also suggests it may alter the expression of genes that would otherwise cause cancer. As such, there may be true value to eating the spiciest peppers in the world, assuming your stomach can take the heat.

Advertisement

But what is the hottest pepper in the world? To determine that, we first need to understand what defines "hot."
Virginias rail workers say that concerns around railroad safety have been growing for years amid cost-saving measures made by railroad companies.

This is not a new problem, this is not a new issue, said Ronnie Hobbs, legislative director for the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers, or SMART, the union that represents train employees through chapters in Richmond and Portsmouth.

Hobbs is based in Portsmouth and works for a subsidiary of two big rail corporations  CSX and Norfolk Southern, the rail corporation involved in the derailing in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 3.

The National Transportation Safety Board has said the crew operating the train got a warning from a detector, but could not stop the train before more than three dozen cars came off the tracks and caught fire.

The Federal Railroad Administration said overheating bearings likely caused at least four other derailments since 2021. Federal regulators on Tuesday urged freight railroads to reexamine the way they use and maintain the detectors along the tracks that are supposed to spot the issue.

Norfolk Southern was once based in Norfolk.

CSX is responsible for the train that derailed in Lynchburg in 2014, which local firefighters said could have been a mass casualty event had the train cars not rolled into the river.

Two key issues have bothered the union for years, Hobbs said, pointing out that the first is the growing length of trains. Hobbs said that freight trains used to run a mile long. But nowadays, he says, the companies are hauling freight on trains that have grown over the years. Longer trains present problems, including bigger risks when they derail.

Trains getting longer

Data on train length is not publicly available, but a 2019 study by a federal watchdog found that train length had grown 25% in the decade prior.

Train companies have endorsed longer trains under the ethos of precision railroading, or the logistics practice of running longer and more regular scheduled train lines in order to offer a better service to shippers.

Unions like SMART claim that trains, which they say can stretch into the miles, have lengthened as a result of rail corporations buckling under pressure from investors.

We used to be the safest mode of transportation, said Hobbs. And now we feel that were being run by the stockholders, and not by the railroaders.

The second issue is staffing. Hobbs said that companies want to run their trains without conductors, which would eliminate one of the two employees on the train. Conductors are responsible for first-responder duties on the train, while engineers actually drive the train from the engine car.

Last week in a statement to The Richmond Times-Dispatch, Sheriee Bowman, a spokesperson for the rail line CSX, disputed that rail companies are not committed to safety, saying the welfare of its employees and the communities where the company operates are the highest priority for CSX.

Bowman said that CSX checks the integrity of its track weekly. The companys tracks run through cities like Richmond, Charlottesville, Lynchburg and Newport News. In the past, several have derailed, including one in downtown Richmond.

The transportation of all of our freight, including hazardous materials, is done in accordance with strict federal regulations and it is important that we are able to operate safely in order to carry out our common carrier obligations. We continue to implement risk-based approaches to safety, while investing in technologies that increase safety and efficiency, read Bowmans statement.

The Association of American Railroads trade group also said the industry has a strong track record of pushing for safety improvements and tough tank car standards to prevent hazardous materials spills.

Local oversight

Virginias trains are primarily regulated by the Federal Railroad Administration. But they are also overseen in part by local agencies, like the State Corporation Commission and the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority.

These state government groups have expressed optimism about the future of rail lines in Virginia, and the safety of current operations.

Were out there every day inspecting track, said Andy Farmer, communications director for the State Corporation Commission. Our staff is traveling all around the commonwealth, doing regular and surprise inspections.

However, legislators say voters have begun to voice concerns about the railroads, including dealing with the nuisance of mile-long trains snaking through their towns. They say that trains back up traffic in urban areas, and can prevent first responders from arriving to the scene of 911 calls.

This year, the union tried to advance a train safety bill through the Virginia legislature. Working with Shelly Simonds, D-Newport News, SMART got a bill to the House floor that would cap the length of trains and mandate two employees on each, but the measure never got out of committee.

Simonds says it was bad timing that her bill never advanced before the train derailment in East Palestine. Since then, a number of state legislatures have considered train safety bills, including Ohios.

Simonds said the rail unions suggested the bill as a basic safety checklist, but it drew resistance from lobbyists in Richmond, who argued that any regulation of the industry should be federal.

I feel like theyre not being heard, said Simonds, in reference to the Virginia rail union. These big railroad companies have been fighting reform since 1910. They need to stop fighting us on safety issues.

From the Archives: The James River James River James River James River James River James River James River James River James River
Richmond police are conducting a death investigation after discovering a man fatally shot in South Richmond on Tuesday morning.

Officers responded to the 6500 block of Holliday Road at about 11:18 a.m. for reports of a shooting.

Police found one man suffering from an apparent gunshot wound, and he was later pronounced dead at the scene, said police.

Police said detectives are not looking for any suspects at this time. The Office of the Medical Examiner will determine the cause and manner of death.

Anyone with information about this death investigation is asked to call Richmond police at (804) 646-6775 or Crime Stoppers at (804) 780-1000.

The Times-Dispatch's 'Photo of the Day'  Jan. 1, 2023 Jan. 2, 2023 Jan. 3, 2023 Jan. 4, 2023 Jan. 5, 2023 Jan. 6, 2023 Jan. 7, 2023 Jan. 8, 2023 Jan. 10, 2023 Jan. 11, 2023 Jan. 12, 2023 Jan. 13, 2023 Jan. 14, 2023 Jan. 15, 2023 Jan. 16, 2023 Jan. 17, 2023 Jan. 18, 2023 Jan. 19, 2023 Jan. 20, 2023 Jan. 21, 2023 Jan. 22, 2023 Jan. 23, 2023 Jan. 24, 2023 Jan. 25, 2023 Jan. 26, 2023 Jan. 27, 2023 Jan. 28, 2023 Jan. 29, 2023 Jan. 30, 2023 Jan. 31, 2023 Feb. 1, 2023 Feb. 2, 2023 Feb. 3, 2023 Feb. 4, 2023 Feb. 5, 2023 Feb. 6, 2023 Feb. 7, 2023 Feb. 8, 2023 Feb. 9, 2023 Feb. 10, 2023 Feb 11, 2023 Feb. 12, 2023 Feb. 13, 2023 Feb. 14, 2023 Feb. 15, 2023 Feb. 16, 2023 Feb. 17, 2023 Feb. 18, 2023 Feb. 19, 2023 Feb. 20, 2023 Feb. 21, 2023 Feb. 22, 2023 Feb. 23, 2023 Feb. 24, 2023 Feb. 25, 2023 Feb. 26, 2023 Feb. 27, 2023 Feb. 28, 2023 March 1, 2023 March 2, 2023 March 3, 2023 March 4, 2023 March 5, 2023 March 6, 2023 March 7, 2023 March 8, 2023 March 9, 2023 March 10, 2023 March 11, 2023 March 12, 2023 March 13, 2023 March 14, 2023 March 15, 2023 March 16, 2023 March 17, 2023 March 18, 2023 March 19, 2023 March 20, 2023 March 21, 2023 March 22, 2023 March 23, 2023 March 24, 2023 March 25, 2023 March 26, 2023 March 27, 2023 March 28, 2023 March 29, 2023 March 30, 2023 March 31, 2023 April 1, 2023 April 2, 2023 April 3, 2023 April 4, 2023 April 5, 2023 April 6, 2023 April 7, 2023 April 8, 2023 April 9, 2023 April 10, 2023 April 11, 2023 April 13, 2023 April 14, 2023
City officials are continuing to implement the Marcus Alert System, a statewide crisis response model meant to reduce Virginians reliance on police officers during behavioral and mental health emergencies.

Lawmakers in 2020 passed legislation named after Marcus-David Peters, a 24-year-old unarmed biology teacher killed amid a mental health crisis in May 2018 by a Richmond police officer. The death, which touched off protests, led to years of grassroots organizing and advocacy for Virginia to rethink law enforcements role in responding to behavioral health emergencies.

Richmond is one of five localities in the system, which diverts emergency calls for mental health issues away from police and to behavioral health professionals. The program started in 2019 in collaboration with the Behavioral Health Authority, Richmond police and the city Department of Emergency Communications.

Calls are handled by the Community Response Team, a trained unit of behavioral health clinicians paired with law enforcement officers who respond to calls. The team operates within the city from 9:30 to 2 a.m. weekdays.

A planning group has been meeting twice monthly since December 2021. Work has focused on collecting input from residents and determining what resources are available.

Many citizens now who might be experiencing a mental health issue or a family member, experiencing one, we would like them to not be afraid to call because of the fear that theyre going to be hurt rather than helped in that process, John Lindstrom, CEO of the Richmond Behavioral Health Authority, told the City Council Public Safety Committee on Tuesday.

Database provides mental health background

In addition to Virginias 988 hotline for mental health emergencies, Richmond also uses a health profile database: a web-based tool that gives 911 dispatchers information about someones medical or behavioral conditions. Lindstrom said that the database is voluntary and can be useful when dispatching members of the Crisis Response Team.

One of the challenges with those kinds of databases is theyre really only available in that locality, said Lindstrom. And emergency calls might come from phone numbers other than the number used to register the profile.

The voluntary database was offered beginning July 2021, and helps dispatchers when they are referring a 911 call to regional call centers, which began operating in December 2021.

Dispatchers transferred 38 calls to the call center from October to December 2022, and Richmonds Crisis Response Team responded to 227 calls for service from August to December 2022.

Those calls of service resulted in a 91% crisis diversion rate, 21 temporary detention orders and two arrests in relation to a domestic matter.

We currently have a number of services identified that all work in tandem with Marcus Alert, Lindstrom said, from 24-hour emergency services through the Behavioral Health Authority to mobile crisis teams, with more in the works.

What is ahead for program

Lindstrom said many parts of the Marcus Alert system are in place. Stakeholders are seeking training in trauma-informed care and response for their crisis response team members.

Richmond has offered crisis intervention training at up to six classes a year, and the Richmond Police Department has received more than a dozen Marcus Alert briefings via daily roll calls at local precincts.

What is next, Lindstrom said, is to increase public awareness of programs, explore funding options for more Crisis Response Team members and conduct ongoing meetings with community stakeholders. The next meeting is March 15.

The law requires that community services boards and behavioral health authorities have a community care or mobile crisis response team in place by summer 2026.

Close VCU student and protester Megan Osborn, holds a sign at the start of a protest at Virginia Commonwealth University to honor and protest the schools silence on the death of graduate Marcus-David Peters, June 22, Richmond, VA. Peters was unarmed and was shot and killed by police last month on Interstate 95/64. Protesters came together at Virginia Commonwealth University to honor and protest the schools silence on the death of graduate Marcus-David Peters, June 22, Richmond, VA. Peters was unarmed and was shot and killed by police last month on Interstate 95/64. The sister of Marcus-David Peters, Princess Blanding speaks at Virginia Commonwealth University to honor and protest the schools silence on the death of graduate Marcus-David Peters, June 22, Richmond, VA. Peters was unarmed and was shot and killed by police last month on Interstate 95/64. The sister of Marcus-David Peters, Princess Blanding speaks at Virginia Commonwealth University to honor and protest the schools silence on the death of graduate Marcus-David Peters, June 22, Richmond, VA. Peters was unarmed and was shot and killed by police last month on Interstate 95/64. Protesters came together at Virginia Commonwealth University to honor and protest the schools silence on the death of graduate Marcus-David Peters, June 22, Richmond, VA. Peters was unarmed and was shot and killed by police last month on Interstate 95/64. Protesters came together at Virginia Commonwealth University to honor and protest the schools silence on the death of graduate Marcus-David Peters, June 22, Richmond, VA. Peters was unarmed and was shot and killed by police last month on Interstate 95/64. Protesters came together at Virginia Commonwealth University to honor and protest the schools silence on the death of graduate Marcus-David Peters, June 22, Richmond, VA. Peters was unarmed and was shot and killed by police last month on Interstate 95/64. Protesters came together at Virginia Commonwealth University to honor and protest the schools silence on the death of graduate Marcus-David Peters, June 22, Richmond, VA. Peters was unarmed and was shot and killed by police last month on Interstate 95/64. Protesters came together at Virginia Commonwealth University to honor and protest the schools silence on the death of graduate Marcus-David Peters, June 22, Richmond, VA. Peters was unarmed and was shot and killed by police last month on Interstate 95/64. (L-R) Protesters Tripp Wiggins and Ulysses Carter chat while walking to VCU presidents office, June 22, Richmond, VA. Protesters came together at Virginia Commonwealth University to honor and protest the schools silence on the death of graduate Marcus-David Peters. Peters was unarmed and was shot and killed by police last month on Interstate 95/64. Protesters march to the presidents office at Virginia Commonwealth University to honor and protest the schools silence on the death of graduate Marcus-David Peters, June 22, Richmond, VA. Peters was unarmed and was shot and killed by police last month on Interstate 95/64. Protesters came together and marched to the presidents office at Virginia Commonwealth University to honor and protest the schools silence on the death of graduate Marcus-David Peters, June 22, Richmond, VA. Peters was unarmed and was shot and killed by police last month on Interstate 95/64. Protesters stand outside the presidents office at Virginia Commonwealth University to honor and protest the schools silence on the death of graduate Marcus-David Peters, June 22, Richmond, VA. Peters was unarmed and was shot and killed by police last month on Interstate 95/64. Protesters stand outside the presidents office at Virginia Commonwealth University to honor and protest the schools silence on the death of graduate Marcus-David Peters, June 22, Richmond, VA. Peters was unarmed and was shot and killed by police last month on Interstate 95/64. Protesters stand outside the presidents office at Virginia Commonwealth University to honor and protest the schools silence on the death of graduate Marcus-David Peters, June 22, Richmond, VA. Peters was unarmed and was shot and killed by police last month on Interstate 95/64. PHOTOS: Protesters March VCU for fatal shooting Protesters came together, June 22, at VCU Compass to speak and march to the presidents office to honor and protest against the university silence on the fatal police shooting of graduate Marcus-David Peters. Peters graduated in 2016 with honors and worked as a resident assistant at VCU. VCU student and protester Megan Osborn, holds a sign at the start of a protest at Virginia Commonwealth University to honor and protest the schools silence on the death of graduate Marcus-David Peters, June 22, Richmond, VA. Peters was unarmed and was shot and killed by police last month on Interstate 95/64. Protesters came together at Virginia Commonwealth University to honor and protest the schools silence on the death of graduate Marcus-David Peters, June 22, Richmond, VA. Peters was unarmed and was shot and killed by police last month on Interstate 95/64. The sister of Marcus-David Peters, Princess Blanding speaks at Virginia Commonwealth University to honor and protest the schools silence on the death of graduate Marcus-David Peters, June 22, Richmond, VA. Peters was unarmed and was shot and killed by police last month on Interstate 95/64. The sister of Marcus-David Peters, Princess Blanding speaks at Virginia Commonwealth University to honor and protest the schools silence on the death of graduate Marcus-David Peters, June 22, Richmond, VA. Peters was unarmed and was shot and killed by police last month on Interstate 95/64. Protesters came together at Virginia Commonwealth University to honor and protest the schools silence on the death of graduate Marcus-David Peters, June 22, Richmond, VA. Peters was unarmed and was shot and killed by police last month on Interstate 95/64. Protesters came together at Virginia Commonwealth University to honor and protest the schools silence on the death of graduate Marcus-David Peters, June 22, Richmond, VA. Peters was unarmed and was shot and killed by police last month on Interstate 95/64. Protesters came together at Virginia Commonwealth University to honor and protest the schools silence on the death of graduate Marcus-David Peters, June 22, Richmond, VA. Peters was unarmed and was shot and killed by police last month on Interstate 95/64. Protesters came together at Virginia Commonwealth University to honor and protest the schools silence on the death of graduate Marcus-David Peters, June 22, Richmond, VA. Peters was unarmed and was shot and killed by police last month on Interstate 95/64. Protesters came together at Virginia Commonwealth University to honor and protest the schools silence on the death of graduate Marcus-David Peters, June 22, Richmond, VA. Peters was unarmed and was shot and killed by police last month on Interstate 95/64. (L-R) Protesters Tripp Wiggins and Ulysses Carter chat while walking to VCU presidents office, June 22, Richmond, VA. Protesters came together at Virginia Commonwealth University to honor and protest the schools silence on the death of graduate Marcus-David Peters. Peters was unarmed and was shot and killed by police last month on Interstate 95/64. Protesters march to the presidents office at Virginia Commonwealth University to honor and protest the schools silence on the death of graduate Marcus-David Peters, June 22, Richmond, VA. Peters was unarmed and was shot and killed by police last month on Interstate 95/64. Protesters came together and marched to the presidents office at Virginia Commonwealth University to honor and protest the schools silence on the death of graduate Marcus-David Peters, June 22, Richmond, VA. Peters was unarmed and was shot and killed by police last month on Interstate 95/64. Protesters stand outside the presidents office at Virginia Commonwealth University to honor and protest the schools silence on the death of graduate Marcus-David Peters, June 22, Richmond, VA. Peters was unarmed and was shot and killed by police last month on Interstate 95/64. Protesters stand outside the presidents office at Virginia Commonwealth University to honor and protest the schools silence on the death of graduate Marcus-David Peters, June 22, Richmond, VA. Peters was unarmed and was shot and killed by police last month on Interstate 95/64. Protesters stand outside the presidents office at Virginia Commonwealth University to honor and protest the schools silence on the death of graduate Marcus-David Peters, June 22, Richmond, VA. Peters was unarmed and was shot and killed by police last month on Interstate 95/64.
A middle school in Chesterfield County canceled a guest speaker event featuring a former white supremacist following community backlash.

Manchester Middle School had scheduled the event for Friday and sent out a parent permission slip late last week.

The presentation, offered through the Virginia Holocaust Museum, would have featured Shannon Foley-Martinez, a former neo-Nazi skinhead. She left the white supremacist movement about 25 years ago, and has since worked to help others remove themselves from far right groups and white supremacy groups.

Foley-Martinez, a former violent white supremacist, has two decades of experience in developing community resource platforms aimed at inoculating individuals against violence-based lifestyles and ideologies, the permission form read.

Some parents and community members criticized the choice of the school, which has a majority-Black student population. Enrollment is 43% Black, 30% Hispanic and 20% white, according to state data.

A Chesterfield County Public Schools spokesman did not answer questions from the Richmond Times-Dispatch regarding the planned presentation.

On Monday, Manchester Middle sent an email to families to announce that school administration canceled the presentation. The email said the school divisions central office leadership approved the speaker.

As mentioned, she was a former white supremacist who tells her story From Hate to Hope, the email read in part.

We believed that the first hand account of how these organizations function would have brought awareness to our students that could have benefited them as they mature and are confronted with these organizations/individuals in society, the message said.

After careful consideration of some feedback that we have received, we have determined that it is not in our best interest at this time to provide this guest speakers session to our students and will not be inviting Ms. Martinez in to speak with our students.

The Times-Dispatch's 'Photo of the Day'  Jan. 1, 2023 Jan. 2, 2023 Jan. 3, 2023 Jan. 4, 2023 Jan. 5, 2023 Jan. 6, 2023 Jan. 7, 2023 Jan. 8, 2023 Jan. 10, 2023 Jan. 11, 2023 Jan. 12, 2023 Jan. 13, 2023 Jan. 14, 2023 Jan. 15, 2023 Jan. 16, 2023 Jan. 17, 2023 Jan. 18, 2023 Jan. 19, 2023 Jan. 20, 2023 Jan. 21, 2023 Jan. 22, 2023 Jan. 23, 2023 Jan. 24, 2023 Jan. 25, 2023 Jan. 26, 2023 Jan. 27, 2023 Jan. 28, 2023 Jan. 29, 2023 Jan. 30, 2023 Jan. 31, 2023 Feb. 1, 2023 Feb. 2, 2023 Feb. 3, 2023 Feb. 4, 2023 Feb. 5, 2023 Feb. 6, 2023 Feb. 7, 2023 Feb. 8, 2023 Feb. 9, 2023 Feb. 10, 2023 Feb 11, 2023 Feb. 12, 2023 Feb. 13, 2023 Feb. 14, 2023 Feb. 15, 2023 Feb. 16, 2023 Feb. 17, 2023 Feb. 18, 2023 Feb. 19, 2023 Feb. 20, 2023 Feb. 21, 2023 Feb. 22, 2023 Feb. 23, 2023 Feb. 24, 2023 Feb. 25, 2023 Feb. 26, 2023 Feb. 27, 2023 Feb. 28, 2023 March 1, 2023 March 2, 2023 March 3, 2023 March 4, 2023 March 5, 2023 March 6, 2023 March 7, 2023 March 8, 2023 March 9, 2023 March 10, 2023 March 11, 2023 March 12, 2023 March 13, 2023 March 14, 2023 March 15, 2023 March 16, 2023 March 17, 2023 March 18, 2023 March 19, 2023 March 20, 2023 March 21, 2023 March 22, 2023 March 23, 2023 March 24, 2023 March 25, 2023 March 26, 2023 March 27, 2023 March 28, 2023 March 29, 2023 March 30, 2023 March 31, 2023 April 1, 2023 April 2, 2023 April 3, 2023 April 4, 2023 April 5, 2023 April 6, 2023 April 7, 2023 April 8, 2023 April 9, 2023 April 10, 2023 April 11, 2023 April 13, 2023 April 14, 2023
Virginia residents are more educated than ever before. According to new data from the Lumina Foundation, 59% of the states working-age adults have earned a college degree, certificate or credential.

The statistic, which comes from 2021, represents a 2-percentage-point increase since Luminas last survey. The increase occurred despite a drop in the total number of college students in the state.

Though enrollment is down, the number of students staying in college and graduating is up.

There are positive effects to having more college grads in a population. College graduates earn more money and are more likely to have health insurance, pay taxes, vote and volunteer. They are also less likely to depend on public assistance.

An educated workforce also is a factor as Virginia competes with other states to land businesses. Virginia consistently ranks among the best states for business, partly because it ranks highly in education. In 2022, CNBC rated Virginia as the third best state for business. The network ranked Virginia second among the states for education, behind only Massachusetts.

Even though the percentage of residents with a college education grew, Virginia fell in the national ranking from fifth to seventh. Other states experienced a faster population growth, propelling themselves past Virginia, education experts said.

The Virginia residents most likely to pursue a college education live in metropolitan areas or near large universities. In the small Northern Virginia city of Falls Church, which has fewer than 15,000 residents, 83% of residents attained an associates degree or more, the most in the state. Arlington County, the city of Lexington, Albemarle County and York County also rank among the localities with the most college-educated residents.

The localities with the fewest college-trained residents are in rural parts of the state. Just 21% of Buchanan County residents have some kind of college education. Sussex County, the city of Emporia and the city of Covington are also among the lowest.

Asian residents are the most likely to have a college degree, with 73% having attained one. That is followed by 55% of white residents, 37% of Black residents and 35% of Latino residents.

All ethnicities have experienced increases in college attainment in the past decade.

The most educated state in the country is Massachusetts, where 62% of residents have some kind of post-high school degree or credential. (Washington, D.C., where 72% of residents have a college education, surpasses every state.)

Virginia slipped from fifth to seventh because Utah (61%) and New Jersey (60%) have experienced faster population growth than Virginia, the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia said.

In recent years, the cost of a college education has increased, and fewer high school grads have chosen to enroll. The number of college students dropped 4% in the past decade to 519,000 last fall.

But the need for college-educated workers is not going away, the Lumina Foundation said. The vast majority of jobs being created require education beyond high school.

SCHEV has set a goal for 70% of Virginia residents to have a college degree, certificate or credential by 2030.

While there are fewer students, more of them are staying in college and graduating. The state has one of the best graduation rates in the country, and the number of degrees awarded has grown.

It is unclear what role migration in and out of the state played, SCHEV officials said. In the past decade, the state has fluctuated between a net-positive and net-negative migration of bachelors degree holders.

Overall, more residents have moved out of Virginia than into the state during that time.

Virginia is known for its colleges, but the state has struggled to keep students here after they graduate. According to a SCHEV study of public colleges in Virginia, 74% of in-state students and 20% of out-of-state students stayed here after graduation.

More students are pursuing short-term workforce credentials, too. Gov. Glenn Youngkin has urged community colleges to better align their offerings to the industry needs of their communities and attract more students.

Virginia needs to continue to pursue efforts to expand educational opportunity to more Virginians and to attract people with education and skills to the Commonwealth, said Peter Blake, director of SCHEV.
The themes of an election-year session of the Virginia legislature can be Wagnerian: seemingly endless, huge, noisy, with several characters navigating elaborate plots and sub-plots while a vast chorus bellows in the background. This year, those themes include taxes, spending and state oversight of electric monopolies. They have blotted out other issues that are no less interesting and, in some respects, more intriguing.

For instance: a proposal, backed by the Virginia Sheriffs Association and the Virginia State Police Association, expanding the statewide use by law enforcement of high-tech cameras, installed along streets and highways, to take photographs of passing vehicles and their license plates. Those images, which would be digitized and retained for 30 days, could be used only in felony investigations, to help police and sheriffs departments locate people who have gone missing or to prevent violence.

These so-called license-plate readers, often used by authorities to nab motorists who run toll roads without paying, speed or make illegal turns, are allowed in most Virginia localities and on private property. Mobile versions are mounted on police vehicles. In one instance, an image of a license plate recorded by a camera on a state police cruiser was instrumental in tracking down the killer of a Roanoke television reporter and videographer in August 2015.

Bills in the House of Delegates and Virginia Senate were quickly moving toward passage in the just-adjourned session  or so it seemed  until early February, the procedural midpoint of the 2023 General Assembly. That was about two weeks before lawmakers were scheduled to return home, where those seeking reelection in newly drawn districts would begin their campaigns in earnest, cranking up fundraising, organizing for primaries and reaching out to voters.

Instead, an unlikely coalition of liberals and conservatives emerged, bound by jitters over increased police power and threats to privacy rights. It all appeared to begin with a simple act: a veteran lawyer-lobbyist, Claire Guthrie Gastanaga, who was not working bills for clients this year, read the legislation  one version of which was sponsored by Bill Wiley, a Republican delegate from the Shenandoah Valley; the other by Lynwood Lewis, a Democratic senator from the Eastern Shore.

Something stood out to Gastanaga, a former chief deputy attorney general and retired executive director of the Virginia wing of the American Civil Liberties Union: The legislation, which she immediately construed as opening the state to mass surveillance, was written into the transportation section of the Code of Virginia, the ever-expanding compendium of state laws. That was because installing the cameras along state roads would require the approval of the Virginia Department of Transportation.

It also meant that the bills would be handled by the transportation committees. These are not panels ordinarily monitored by those on the right and left concerned about the occasionally perilous intersection of law enforcement and individual freedom. Such activists and lobbyists would routinely cluster in the House Courts of Justice and Senate Judiciary committees, which write the criminal laws and vet sitting and prospective judges.

Thrown off the scent  because, in this instance, it was barely detectable  opponents of the House and Senate measures quickly mobilized against the legislation. They paused very briefly, however, to praise the bills advocates, professional and political, for their parliamentary prowess, never mind that similar measures in previous years were routed to the transportation committees.

Rob Poggenklass, a lawyer-lobbyist for the criminal justice reform group Justice Forward Virginia, said his organization pumped out 1,200 emails, urging voters to press lawmakers to vote no.

Gastanaga, in a blog post, identified six groups opposed to the bills. They included the Virginia chapter of the conservative Americans for Prosperity, founded by the members of the uber-wealthy Koch family, major donors to George Mason University, which renamed its law school in 2016 for the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia after a Koch foundation gave GMU $10 million. Two AFP representatives did not return telephone calls seeking comment on the surveillance bills.

Former Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, a conservative arguably without peer and unsuccessful Republican candidate for governor in 2013, wrote in an official opinion that year for the Department of State Police that license plate readers must be used carefully to prevent the harvest of personal information not relevant to a criminal investigation. Put another way: The cops cannot just turn on these cameras, allowing them to run ad nauseam, capturing images that have nothing to do with busting bad actors.

Bipartisan legislation in 2015 to ensure such guardrails  one sponsor was Del. Rich Anderson of Prince William County, now state Republican chairman  was vetoed by Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe after lawmakers rejected what they saw as efforts to weaken it. The Virginia Supreme Court, in a case out of Fairfax County brought by the ACLU, ruled in 2020 in favor of the localitys use of license-plate readers, agreeing that tag numbers on motor vehicles, because they are affixed to bumpers for all the world to see, are not personal data.

In the anxiety-producing setting that is an election year  control of the House and Senate will be decided in November  politicians want to offend as few voters as possible.

That likely explains the initial and lopsided votes in both chambers in support of the Wiley and Lewis bills.

In the House on Feb. 7, the vote on passage was 80-19, with the opponents including such privacy advocates as Speaker Todd Gilbert of Shenandoah, GOP Majority Leader Terry Kilgore of Scott and the Democratic minority leader, Don Scott of Portsmouth. Two weeks later  and four days before adjournment  delegates, having been pelted by the grassroots, completely flipped, voting 73-26 to reject the Senate version. On that second vote, Kilgore aligned with supporters.

But politicians always have friends on both sides of an issue.

And they always like to vote with their friends.
One-time tax rebates are part of the state budget talks that the Senate and House of Delegates hope to resume as early as next week after negotiations broke down late last week over the $1 billion package of tax cuts Gov. Glenn Youngkin is seeking.

House and Senate budget negotiators are still considering a package of tax cuts, but one that looks different than what Youngkin proposed, with one-time rebates instead of a cut in the corporate income tax rate that Democrats had flatly rejected.

Senate Finance Co-Chair Janet Howell, D-Fairfax, said that one-time rebates would provide direct tax relief without draining budget revenues in future years after the current two-year spending plans ends in mid-2024.

I think rebates are definitely on the table, Howell said in an interview with the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Negotiations ended abruptly on Friday night after the Senate balked at a restructured package of tax cuts and one-time rebates that House Appropriations Chair Barry Knight, R-Virginia, had proposed. Knight ended the discussions after Howell and Co-Chair George Barker, D-Fairfax, backed off a proposal he thought they had accepted to allow the assembly to adopt a budget and adjourn only a few days late for the scheduled 46-day session.

Knight acknowledged that he told them he was prepared to leave Richmond without a revised budget and rely instead on the current two-year budget. Doing so would forgo tax cuts, additional spending and other policy changes that could be included in a new spending plan, including allowing all localities to impose a sales tax surcharge to modernize school buildings and settling a fight between Petersburg and Richmond over the right to approve a casino.

Howell and Barker said they had made no commitments, but other Democratic negotiators rejected the tax package on the grounds that it cut too deeply into spending on priorities such as public education, behavioral health and additional pay raises for teachers and state employees, less than a year after lawmakers agreed to a $4 billion package of tax cuts. The Senate negotiating team includes six Democrats and three Republicans in an election year for all 140 assembly seats.

Knight said Monday that the Senate leaders did not commit, but had agreed that the proposed package was a fair compromise. House Speaker Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, expressed disappointment after the Assembly adjourned Saturday with a stop-gap budget, despite what he claimed was an agreement on principle on both tax cuts and spending.

There was no deal, Barker told The Times-Dispatch.

The proposed package would have substituted more than $400 million in one-time rebates for Youngkins proposal to cut the corporate tax rate from 6% to 5%, which would have been lower than the top income tax rate for individuals. Other elements of the proposed package included removing the age limit for exempting up to $40,000 in military retirement income, increasing the interest expense deduction for businesses and increasing the standard deduction for taxpayers who do not itemize deductions on their income tax returns.

The package did notinclude a Youngkin proposal to allow small businesses and self-employed Virginians to deduct up to 10% of qualified business income tax. The stickiest issue was the governors proposal to lower the top individual income tax rate from 5.75% to 5.5%, while potentially structuring the income tiers in Virginias tax code without raising the rate for anyone.

It was a hybrid, Knight said.

The estimated price tag for the package was about $900 million, which would have been close to the $1 billion that Youngkin sought, but in a much different form.

All parties are well aware of where the governor stands, Youngkin spokeswoman Macaulay Porter said Tuesday. Hes been clear that with $3.6 billion in surplus resources, we can cut taxes and invest in key priorities. He looks forward to working with legislators to get this done for Virginia.

Howell, who confirmed on Tuesday that she is not running for re-election, scoffed at the notion that the figure would reach $900 million. Oh come on! she said.

None of the new package of tax cuts would extend beyond the fiscal year that begins on July 1 because Democrats had killed all of the legislation that Republicans had proposed to change tax policies in the state code.

Democratic budget leaders have not supported any attempt to lower the top individual tax rate, which applies to anyone with adjusted gross income of more than $17,000 a year. That covers 84% of Virginia taxpayers, with a wide range in income. A legislative study last fall recommended options to make the state tax code more progressive, or fairer to lower and middle-income taxpayers who pay a higher proportional share of their earnings than the wealthy.

I dont think the Senate would be willing to move on the rates, certainly [not] the corporate tax rate, Barker said, adding that they also are not likely to be supportive of reducing that top rate for individuals.

All thats doing is making the disparity worse, he said.

On spending, Senate Democrats and House Republicans agree on the priorities  K-12 schools and higher education, behavioral health and human services, and public safety  but not on the amount of money that would be available to spend.

We would have had to cut way too deeply, Barker said.

With time running out, the House and Senate agreed to what Howell called a skinny budget that made appropriations in four areas  financial reserves, pension liabilities, cost overruns on capital projects and state aid for education.

The additional $259 million in education aid included additional sales tax revenues and reflected changes in student enrollment, but also attempted to compensate for a $201 million error that the Department of Education made last year in calculating the amount of state funding local school divisions could expect in the new budget.

I think we significantly addressed the error, Barker said.

Now, the question is whether and when the budget conference committee resumes negotiations on a revised spending plan.

That could happen next week, Barker said. Its not all that hard to do.
Gov. Glenn Youngkins Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow announced her resignation Wednesday after the state education department came under fire for errors for its redrafting of K-12 history standards and for miscalculating how much education funding localities would receive from the state.

Youngkin appointed Balow last January after she served two terms as Wyomings state superintendent.

I am particularly proud of the fact that we advanced your agenda for education over the past two successful General Assembly sessions, Balow wrote in her resignation letter to Youngkin.

The letter did not explain her sudden departure, and spokespeople for the governors office and the Virginia Department of Education did not answer questions about the nature of her exit.

In her letter, Balow touted the Virginia Literacy Act, which the General Assembly passed last year, and a state report that claimed state leaders have lowered expectations for students and redefined success for both students and schools.

She also wrote to Youngkin that she is appreciative of the opportunity to continue to serve your Administration as a consultant.

The Virginia Department of Education made a $201 million mistake in calculating state basic aid for K-12 school divisions after the General Assembly adopted a two-year budget and Youngkin signed it last June.

The error failed to reflect a provision to hold localities harmless from the elimination of the states portion of the sales tax on groceries as part of a tax cut package pushed by Youngkin and his predecessor, Gov. Ralph Northam.

The Youngkin administration acknowledged the error, which the Richmond Times-Dispatch first reported in late January, and promised to fix it in the budget.

In a late-January letter to leaders of the General Assemblys money committees, Youngkin expressed frustration with the mistake.

This situation is frustrating for us all and even more so that it came to light after I submitted my proposed budget, the governor said in a letter to House Appropriations Chair Barry Knight, R-Virginia Beach, and Senate Finance Co-Chairs Janet Howell, D-Fairfax, and George Barker, D-Fairfax.

In November, Youngkin also acknowledged omissions and mistakes that the state education department made in its rewrite of the states K-12 history standards, which had caused a public uproar due to several missteps and a reframing of race relations.

Balow apologized for the documents reference to Native Americans as Americas first immigrants.

The state Board of Education, with a majority appointed by Youngkin, in November rejected the revised history standards.

The day after the vote, Youngkin told reporters at a housing conference in Arlington that he had directed the Department of Education from the outset of his administration to make sure that our history curriculum engages on all facets of our history, particularly those that are sometimes hard to talk about.

He added: I have to say that the process to date is one that I think hasnt delivered that. And Im disappointed. I dont think were where we need to be.

The state teachers union, the Virginia Education Association, released a statement Wednesday that criticized Balow and called on Youngkin to appoint an experienced replacement.

The resignation of Superintendent Balow is not unexpected. Her tenure has been marred by a series of scandals, poor judgment, and overall inexperience, the statement read in part. While many mistakes have been made, this is the time to look ahead and do what is right for all of Virginias students.

Balows tenure has also been marked by conflict surrounding transgender youth issues.

The state education department in September proposed new policies that would require parental approval for changes to a students name, nicknames or pronouns used at school.

It would also require students to use school bathrooms that match their birth sex except to the extent that federal law otherwise requires, and would require student participation in school athletics to be based on a students birth sex.

Several bills similar to those provisions died in the states General Assembly session this year.

The education departments proposal garnered more than 71,000 written public comments, all of which must be reviewed before the state superintendent can approve and enact the policies.

Balows resignation announcement comes the week after the state legislature left Richmond as the General Assembly session adjourned Saturday.

The announcement also comes with Youngkin in New York City on Wednesday to meet with Republican donors and political figures. Youngkin could be raising funds for the coming legislative elections, but he has not discounted the notion of running for national office in 2024.

Balow said in her resignation letter that she will work to ensure a smooth transition. Her resignation is effective March 9, the same day that the governor will take part in a nationally televised CNN town hall on education issues.
Delay in Finland, Sweden's NATO approval harms alliance's credibility: Finnish PM

Xinhua) 08:56, March 01, 2023

This photo taken on April 6, 2022 shows a sculpture and flags at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)

Such delay strains NATO's open-door policy and harms its credibility, Marin told Stoltenberg on Tuesday.

HELSINKI, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The delay in the ratification of Finland and Sweden's North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) membership bid harms the alliance's credibility, Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin said here on Tuesday.

"We (Finland and Sweden) would have hoped to become members of NATO already," she said. "Finland and Sweden fulfill all the criteria as it has been mentioned, and we are yet waiting. Of course, this strains the open-door policy of NATO; it's also to do with NATO's credibility," Marin said during a joint press conference with visiting NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin (L) speaks at a press conference with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in Stockholm, Sweden, on Feb. 2, 2023. (Ninni Andersson/Government Offices of Sweden/Handout via Xinhua)

Finland and Sweden jointly submitted their NATO membership bids in May last year. So far, 28 of NATO's 30 current members have ratified the applications. Turkiye and Hungary have yet to formally endorse the two countries' accession.

Stoltenberg reiterated that Finland and Sweden's rapid admission is now the alliance's number one priority. He said that representatives of Turkiye, Finland and Sweden are scheduled to meet at NATO headquarters in Brussels next week. However, this does not guarantee a breakthrough and the final decision rests with Turkiye and Hungary, Stoltenberg said.

Stoltenberg was in Helsinki to attend the annual meeting of SAMAK, the co-operation committee of the Nordic Social Democratic parties.

People take part in a protest in Madrid, Spain, June 26, 2022. (Photo by Juan Carlos Rojas/Xinhua)

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Lopez Obrador says agreement reached with Musk to construct Tesla plant

Mexico City, Mexico  After weeks of speculation, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has confirmed a Tesla plant in Mexico. On Tuesday in a statement, Lopez Obrador announced that the plant will be built in the city of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon .

In his press release, Lopez Obrador said that an agreement was made that the company would be granted the permits to build a plant as long as they guaranteed a regional supply of water for domestic use.

A lack of water in the state has been an ongoing concern due to the increased growth of manufacturing in the state. On Tuesday, the Government of Mexico agreed to grant the permits as long as the plant does not exacerbate the states water supply.

Things went well. We talked yesterday with Mr. Elon Musk, the director of Tesla, and there is an understanding that they are going to dedicate the investment to Mexico and the plant is going to be established in Monterrey with a series of commitments to face the problem of water scarcity. () We understood each other well and the agreement for the benefit of Mexico was good, he said.

I want to thank Mr. Elon Musk who was very respectful, attentive and understood the importance of addressing the problem of water scarcity, he emphasized.

According to Lopez Obrador, the Monday phone conversation was their second in less than a week. On February 24, Musk and Lopez Obrador had their first conversation about the possibility of building an electric Tesla car manufacturing plant in Mexico.

Teslas arrival in Mexico, he said, is good news because it means more investment and jobs which leads to higher wages. A detailed announcement will be made by the directors of the company.
One dies in targeted drug related shooting in Tulum

Tulum, Q.R.  One of two men shot in Tulum Monday has died. The targeted shooting happened in the Tumben Kaa neighborhood. Reports say the shooting was drug related.

The deceased, a 30-something year old man, had just left a drug sales point on Yodzonot Avenue when he and a another man were shot. Tulum police made an arrest in the fatal shooting, managing to capture one male with narcotics and a weapon.

He was located hiding in a vacant lot after police began a foot search. The name of the detained suspect has not been released.
U.S. makes extradition request for recently arrested son of El Chapo

Mexico City, Mexico  The United States has formalized, before the Mexican Government, the request for the extradition of Ovidio Guzman. He is the eldest son of drug lord Joaquin el Chapo Guzman.

The petition has been sent to the Attorney Generals Office (FGR) before the March 5 deadline set by a Mexican judge for the U.S. to present the extradition petition.

Guzman, 32, who was arrested January 5, remains in the Almoloya prison in the State of Mexico. In the U.S., Guzman could face charges of criminal association and drug charges for the distribution of cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana.

The request, which contains the file with the information and evidence collected by the Department of Justice, will be turned over to Judge Gregorio Salazar Hernandez of the Almoloya Criminal Justice Center.
ROCKY MOUNT  A judge denied bond Wednesday for Terry Eugene Michel, the Ferrum man charged in the death of two black Labrador retrievers he reported stolen from Waid Park last month.

During the short hearing in Franklin County General District Court, Judge A.J. Dudley decided against release. He said Michel had red flags citing his reported false reports to law enforcement and the potential of unpredictable behavior.

Michel has been held in Western Virginia Regional Jail following his arrest Feb. 16 in connection to the death of his two black labs, Caleb and Colby. He reported the dogs were stolen Feb. 7 near the entrance of Waid Park by two men in an off-white Jeep Grand Cherokee.

The dogs were found dead Feb. 14 near the 500 block of Carolina Springs Road. The location is approximately 4 miles north of Waid Park.

Rhonda Michel, Terry Michels wife, spoke briefly at the start of Wednesdays bond hearing. She said she was fearful of her safety if her husband were to be granted bond.

Michel led a search for Caleb and Colby after they were reported stolen. She worked closely with the Franklin County Humane Society and other animal advocates in tracking down information as well as raising a $4,000 for their safe return. Many of them were present in the courtroom on Wednesday.

This is more an act of domestic violence directed at his wife, said Cooper Brown, Franklin County commonwealths attorney prosecuting the case.

Aaron Houchens, attorney for the defense, said this is not a case of Terry Michel hurting another person. These were companion animals, he said.

Houchens said Michel had no criminal history, is a military veteran and has no passports so he is not a flight risk. He also said Rhonda Michel didnt have evidence of any threat her husband had made against her.

Houchens requested that Michel be released on a $25,000 secure bond with the assertion that he have no access to firearms and refrain from contact with his wife.
The New Jersey man who was convicted of eluding police on Interstate 81 and fighting officers during his arrest last spring will serve a six-month jail term.

We caught you on your worst day, Botetourt County Circuit Judge Joel Branscom said during Roberto J. Villarreal-Rios plea hearing Tuesday.

On May 12, around 1 p.m., Virginia State Police issued a lookout for an SUV with flashing blue and red lights mounted on its windshield that was towing a white box trailer, Deputy Commonwealths Attorney Gillian Deegan said.

One trooper spotted the southbound vehicle on Interstate 81 near the Troutville Rest Area, activated his lights and sirens and attempted to stop the SUV, Deegan said. But the SVU did not stop.

About five miles south, Deegan said a trooper attempted to pull his vehicle alongside the SUV. The pursued vehicle cut the troopers car off, swerved between lanes and rode along the center line.

Deegan said the driver also threw objects out of the SUVs sunroof. She said that had the troopers not used evasive maneuvers, their vehicles would have been damaged.

Law enforcement deployed spikes twice as the SUV continued south on the interstate, but neither attempt was successful. Deegan said at some point the SUV drove into the median, turned around and began traveling northbound on I-81.

Near the Troutville truck scales, police deployed spikes again, and around the northbound 151 mile marker, the SUV stopped in the middle of the interstate.

Troopers coaxed Villarreal-Rios out of the SUV, which he exited with his hands up. But Deegan said he was flipping off the troopers with his middle fingers raised. He kept his middle fingers up as he laid down on the pavement.

When two troopers attempted to handcuff Villarreal-Rios, Deegan said he rolled over, resisted arrest and struck the law enforcement officers. Only after a taser was deployed was Villarreal-Rios handcuffed.

In the altercation, one trooper sustained a minor injury to his hand, and Villarreal-Rios hurt his face and elbow. He was treated at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital.

Villarreal-Rios was charged with two counts of assaulting a law enforcement officer, six counts of throwing a missile at an occupied vehicle, eluding, reckless driving, impersonating law enforcement, destruction of property and resisting arrest.

After the incident, one of the assaulted officers reported that Villarreal-Rios became more cooperative.

The trooper decided that he was amenable to reducing one assault charge to a misdemeanor.

That charge was amended Tuesday to accommodate the troopers request and was included as a part of Villarreal-Rios plea agreement.

Since the incident, Villarreal-Rios has been psychologically evaluated. His attorney, Jennifer Froeschl, said that medical records show he has a history of mental health struggles that date from his U.S. military discharge.

Froeschl also said Villarreal-Rios had a clean criminal record prior to the May 12 incident. She said he is very apologetic and has been compliant with all of the treatment that hes receiving.

Villareal-Rios, 39, who was in a wheelchair due to a recent foot surgery, pleaded no contest to four charges Tuesday, including two counts of officer assault, one count of throwing a missile at an occupied vehicle and one count of eluding. All other original charges were not prosecuted.

For assaulting one officer, Villarreal-Rios was sentenced to three years of incarceration, suspended after he serves six months in jail.

For assaulting the second officer, Villarreal-Rios was sentenced to 12 months in jail, but all of that time was suspended.

For throwing a missile, he got two years, all of which was suspended, as were the four years he got for eluding.

Villarreal-Rios will report to the Botetourt-Craig Regional Jail on March 9. Once released, he will be placed on supervised probation in New Jersey for five years.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow announced Wednesday that she will resign from her post as head of the state department of education.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin appointed Balow last January after she serving two terms as Wyomings state superintendent. The Virginia Department of Education has come under fire under Balow's leadership for several high-profile mistakes, including errors in its drafting of K-12 history standards and a $201 million error in calculating the state's basic aid to school divisions.

I am particularly proud of the fact that we advanced your agenda for education over the past two successful General Assembly sessions, Balow wrote in her resignation letter to Youngkin. First, we passed and began implementing the Virginia Literacy Act, which I know will have a lasting impact on all students for years to come and be a model for other states. Second, we released the report Our Commitment to Virginians, which is a roadmap for school and student success, and for parents to be their childs most important teacher. And because of our work, many more students will have access to career and technical education courses that better prepare them for the next steps in their lives.

The department made a $201 million mistake in calculating state basic aid for K-12 school divisions after the General Assembly adopted a two-year budget and Youngkin signed it last June. The error failed to reflect a provision to hold localities harmless from the elimination of states portion of the sales tax on groceries as part of a tax cut package pushed by Youngkin and his predecessor, Gov. Ralph Northam.

The Youngkin administration acknowledged the error, which the Richmond Times-Dispatch first reported in late January, and promised to fix it in the budget.

In a late-January letter to leaders of the General Assembly's money committees, Youngkin expressed frustration with the mistake.

This situation is frustrating for us all and even more so that it came to light after I submitted my proposed budget, the governor said in a letter to House Appropriations Chair Barry Knight, R-Virginia Beach, and Senate Finance Co-Chairs Janet Howell, D-Fairfax, and George Barker, D-Fairfax.

In November, Youngkin also acknowledged "omissions and mistakes" that the VDOE made in its rewrite of the states K-12 history standards, which had caused a public uproar due to several missteps and a reframing of race relations.

Balow apologized for the document's reference to Native Americans as "America's first immigrants."

The state Board of Education, with a majority appointed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, in November rejected the revised history standards. Youngkin later expressed disappointment in the document.

Balow's resignation announcement comes the week after the state legislature left Richmond as the General Assembly session adjourned Saturday. The announcement also comes with Youngkin in New York and two days before the governor will take part in a nationally televised CNN town hall on education issues.

Balow said in her resignation letter that she will work to ensure a smooth transition. Her resignation is effective March 9.

This is a developing story and will be updated.
Thank you for reading!

Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading.
Why do juries view crime scenes like the Murdaugh estate?

COLUMBIA, S.C.  Jurors in Alex Murdaughs murder trial will get to see for themselves the rural hunting estate where his wife and son were killed, following in the footsteps of other juries that have viewed crime scenes in cases that captured the nations attention.

Crime scene visits by juries are relatively rare but have occurred in a number of other high-profile prosecutions, including the 1995 murder trial of O.J. Simpson and last years trial of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz.

Murdaugh, the disgraced South Carolina attorney, is accused of killing his wife and son at dog kennels near their home on June 7, 2021, as his career and finances were crumbling. Murdaugh has denied any role in the fatal shootings.

Heres a look at the practice of having juries view crime scenes and some other notable cases:

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A JURY VISITS A CRIME SCENE?

In a criminal trial, both the defense and the prosecution can request that juries view a crime scene and its generally up to the judge to decide whether to approve it. In many cases, it doesnt happen because the trial is taking place years later, so the scene has changed and taking jurors there could provide a false impression of what happened.

In some cases, however, crime scene visits can be useful to give jurors a sense of distance or other physical features that dont come across in photos and other evidence presented in court, said Steven Benjamin, a Richmond, Virginia, defense attorney who is not involved in the Murdaugh case.

It permits a 3D appreciation for what has otherwise been a two-dimensional presentation in court, said Benjamin, a past president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

When jurors are taken to the scene of a crime, they are generally advised not to share their thoughts with one another because deliberations dont begin until both sides are done presenting evidence. The attorneys are typically present but instructed by the judge not to say or point out anything to the jurors, Benjamin said.

What it is not is a scene reenactment, Benjamin said.

WHY DOES MURDAUGHS TEAM WANT JURORS TO GO THERE?

The distance between the kennels where the bodies were found and the home where Murdaugh says he had been napping has been a key component of the trial.

Only 16 minutes passed between when the victims stopped using their cellphones and Murdaugh left the house about 1,100 feet (335 meters) from the crime scene. Defense attorney Dick Harpootlian said the jury must see the sprawling 1,700-acre (690-hectare) property to appreciate the spatial issues.

Prosecutors opposed the visit because the scene has changed significantly in the 20 months since the killings. Trees planted between the Murdaugh home and the kennels have grown taller and thicker over that period  blocking the line of sight they allege would have allowed Murdaugh to see the kennel lights when he says he returned from visiting his mother.

Bill Nettles, a criminal defense lawyer and former South Carolina U.S. attorney who is not involved in the case, said the visit could give jurors a sense of scale to make more-informed decisions about the timeline and other questions  such as whether Murdaugh could have heard the gunshots across the grounds  that have arisen during the trial.

I can see how both sides can benefit from a jury seeing that, Nettles said. In the interest of justice, it is probably a good thing for them to see it.

IN WHAT OTHER CASES HAVE JURORS VISITED THE CRIME SCENE?

The most notable recent example was the sentencing trial for Cruz, who pleaded guilty to killing 14 students and three staff members at Parklands Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

The visit in that case was requested by prosecutors, who said jurors needed to see the scene to understand the horror of what happened. The defense vigorously objected, arguing that taking the jurors to the school would play to their emotions and that photos and videos were sufficient.

The building had been sealed off and left largely untouched  except for the removal of victims bodies and some personal items  before jurors visited last year and retraced the steps Cruz took on Feb. 14, 2018. Inside, they saw bullet holes in walls and shards of glass from windows shattered by gunfire. Large pools of dried blood still stained classroom floors.

Nearly three decades earlier, jurors in the Simpson trial toured the scene where prosecutors alleged that he killed his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. Jurors saw the spot where Nicole Brown Simpson and Goldmans bloodied bodies were found on the walkway leading up to her Brentwood condominium.

Prosecutor Marcia Clark said at the time that taking jurors to see the narrow, confined walkway would show the reason why one person could accomplish this, and how the victims were cornered.

Simpson was acquitted of the killings but was later found liable for the deaths in a civil suit.

In 2003, jurors went to the North Carolina home of novelist Michael Peterson where his wifes body was found at the bottom of a staircase. Defense attorneys argued that Kathleen Peterson had died in a 2001 accidental fall.

They were very curious about how far up they can go up that stairwell, said Raleigh News & Observer reporter Demorris Lee, who went with the jurors, according to a Court TV report. Many of them went up to about the fourth, fifth step and would turn back and look, even wave their hands to see, look behind them to see if they can fall or if they can possibly catch themselves.

That trial ended with Petersons conviction for murder, but a judge later ordered a new trial, and Peterson entered a special plea in 2017 acknowledging prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him of manslaughter.

___

Richer reported from Boston. Associated Press reporter Terry Spencer contributed from Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

___

James Pollard 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.
Dalondo Moultrie is the assistant managing editor of the Seguin Gazette. You can e-mail him at dalondo.moultrie@seguingazette.com .
If you are currently a print subscriber but don't have an online account, select this option. You will need to use your 7 digit subscriber account number (with leading zeros) and your last name (in UPPERCASE).
Foreign worker sheltering lady from the rain (Photos: KJ Kyle for Complaint Singapore/Facebook)

SINGAPORE  Rain is expected to persist over the next four days, according to the Meteorological Service Singapore (MSS). As Singaporeans find ways to shelter themselves against the downpour, a heartwarming act was documented by a netizen on Tuesday afternoon (28 February).

The netizen witnessed a foreign worker assisting an elderly woman as she crossed from one block to another amid a heavy downpour at Serangoon North Avenue 4.

The worker was seen having his lunch when he saw the elderly woman standing on the edge of the void deck. He then proceeded to ask her if she wanted to get to the other block, before using an umbrella to shield her from the rain and accompany her to the next block.

The woman would have needed to go on a long detour to reach the other block, had she taken the sheltered walkway route. The netizen assumed that she was not able to walk a far distance and was therefore waiting for the rain to subside.

The worker is believed to be one of the group of workers working on a new lift for the block, which is undergoing the Housing and Development Board's (HDB) upgrading program.

Plaudits from netizens over kind act

Positive comments have flooded the Complaint Singapore Facebook post over the kind act, with netizens thanking the worker for his kindness and blessing him for making their day.

"God bless him as well as you... for sharing a good side of (people) who need to be appreciated," shared Facebook user Muni Thara.

Another Facebook user Raven Qiu expressed how viewing the photos made her day and wished both parties well.
The day Sen. Joni Albrecht announced the latest abortion-limiting bill, she estimated the legislation would ban 85% of abortions in Nebraska.

The Thurston lawmaker and supporters of the proposal (LB626) repeatedly invoked the figure during a hearing earlier this month.

Some opponents, though, argue LB626 effectively amounts to an abortion ban.

And others have questioned how exceptions listed in the legislation, such as for pregnancies resulting from sexual assault, will work in practice, and whether those exceptions undermine the goal of limiting abortion or create a chilling effect that will prevent women from seeking and receiving critical medical care.

The debate raises the question: What percentage of abortions will the bill actually prevent?

According to various experts, that answer depends on several factors  factors that are likely to be part of the debate as LB626 moves to the full Legislature for consideration. Supporters will need 33 votes to overcome a filibuster promised by opponents. Recent reporting and history indicate it will be a close vote.

The bill

LB626 would ban abortions in Nebraska once embryonic cardiac activity can be detected via ultrasound, which typically happens at about six weeks of pregnancy. This is what Albrecht and others base the 85% estimate on, which draws from Department of Health and Human Services data.

The departments 2021 report on abortions showed that less than 14% of women who received abortions did so at five weeks or earlier in their pregnancies.

However, not all pregnancies result in detectable cardiac activity at six weeks. Its rare for it to happen later, but it is possible, and that could affect the number of legal abortions in the state from year to year. Between 2018 and 2021, the DHHS data shows that six weeks was the most common time abortions took place, making up 15% to 25% of all abortions each year.

The bills opponents argue most women dont realize theyre pregnant before six weeks, and those who do would have limited time to make a decision. Physicians on both sides of the debate said the absolute earliest women can typically find out they are pregnant is at four weeks.

LB626 does provide exceptions for abortions in the case of rape, incest or medical emergencies. Albrecht has repeatedly said the bill aims to stop elective abortions, though the term elective abortion is not used in the legislation, nor is it present in the Nebraska DHHS data.

DHHS does track the reasons women give for receiving abortions. By far, the most common between 2018 and 2021 was contraception failures or no contraception being used, which accounted for roughly 55% to 62% of all abortions each year. Those are the abortions Albrecht said she especially wants to prevent  women who are using abortions as a form of birth control.

Reasons that would presumably count as exceptions under the bill, such as physical health concerns, sexual assault and incest, were less common, ranging from 4% to 6% each year. A bigger portion of women, about 30%, declined to share their reasoning.

Medical emergencies

The number of reported abortions in Nebraska ranged between 2,000 and about 2,400 per year between 2018 and 2021, according to DHHS data. Multiple physicians said there are other medical procedures that effectively terminate a pregnancy but arent considered an abortion and arent included in the data.

Lincoln maternal fetal medicine physician Sean Kenney, who supports LB626, has performed such procedures to save the life of the mother. He said he does not consider such treatment an abortion.

I didnt do an abortion, Kenney said. I saved her life.

Most Nebraska physicians do not perform elective abortions, regardless of their personal opinion on the procedure. In 2021, five physicians performed all of the 2,360 abortions that took place in the state, with just two performing more than 99% of them.

Lifesaving pregnancy terminations are fairly rare, Kenney said. But opposing physicians said the lack of a clear definition for a medical emergency could jeopardize their careers and the health of their patients.

Were all concerned about the terminology within this bill, said Papillion family medicine physician Jenn Harney.

Under LB626, the definition of a medical emergency depends on the reasonable medical judgment of each physician. In general, they would be cases in which treatment is needed to prevent the mothers death, or for which a delay in terminating her pregnancy will create a serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function.

Albrecht has given multiple examples for what conditions could qualify under the bill, not all of which are circumstances in which the mother is in an immediate life-or-death scenario. Examples include cancer treatments or cases in which the fetus has little chance of surviving out of the womb.

Multiple physicians, both in support and against the bill, cited fetal anomalies as one of the more common pregnancy complications that can lead to the discussion of termination, though those cases are still somewhat rare. Fetal anomalies made up roughly 1% of the reasons for abortions each year in Nebraska between 2018 and 2021, according to DHHS.

Albrecht told the Omaha World-Herald that she doesnt want to interfere with a physicians medical judgment in these situations.

But multiple opposing physicians argued that is exactly what LB626 would do.

Omaha and Council Bluffs OB-GYN Maureen Boyle said the threat of losing her medical license would be enough to make her think twice before providing essential medical care if she isnt certain what qualifies as an exception under the bill.

Other physicians expressed similar fears.

How sick do we let people get? asked Omaha OB-GYN Mary Kinyoun.

Under the bill, complaints about potential violations would be reported to DHHS, Albrecht said. If the department does not find evidence of a violation, the complaint is dismissed. If evidence is found, the complaint goes to a hearing before the states chief medical officer and Board of Medicine and Surgery.

Kenney said aside from the two physicians who performed the majority of abortions in Nebraska, the only physicians who should be concerned about the bill are ones who arent doing their jobs correctly.

Several other physicians who support LB626 said they dont believe the bill will change their practice, nor would it make them hesitate to provide essential care.

This bill being in place would not even cross my mind, said Omaha and Lincoln maternal fetal medicine physician Elena Kraus.

Sexual assault

Opponents have also raised concern about the bills sexual assault exception, specifically regarding the level of reporting required for victims to receive an abortion. Some critics have claimed victims would need to file a police report, though Albrecht has said that is not true.

According to Albrecht, a physician would only need to note in writing that sexual assault is the reason for the abortion, and offer the patient victim resources.

However, existing state law may complicate the process, said Mailyn Fidler, an assistant criminal law professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln who has spoken against LB626.

For adult victims, Fidler said Nebraska law requires physicians to report cases of sexual assault that result in an injury. Failing to do so is a misdemeanor. The concern is that an abortion may qualify as an injury resulting from a sexual assault, which would then require the physician to report it, she said.

Unnecessary reporting requirements would add trauma to victims and is emotionally manipulative, according to Omaha psychiatrist and telehealth provider Sharon Hammer.

Were really revictimizing them, Hammer said.

Albrecht said she doesnt believe an abortion would qualify as an injury from a sexual assault if the victim seeks treatment immediately after, which she expects most victims do.

If youre raped, do you not want to go immediately to the hospital? Albrecht asked.

Other opponents have pointed out that sexual assaults go largely unreported, and victims may not feel comfortable disclosing their experience, even to their doctor.

Albrecht said if they dont want to disclose it, they can still receive an abortion in another state.

You have to take it upon yourself, she said.

Mental health

One exception the bill does not include is abortions sought for mental health reasons. The bill specifies that a medical emergency does not include cases when a woman may engage in conduct which would result in her death or in substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function.

Fidler said she suspects that was included to close a loophole allowing mental health exceptions that were included in abortion restrictions that existed before the Roe v. Wade ruling in 1973.

Mental health was listed as the reason for about 3% to 5% of Nebraskas annual abortions between 2018 and 2021, according to DHHS.

Nebraska mental health professionals also have objected to the bill. Omaha psychiatrist and telehealth provider Meghan Sheehan called LB626 barbaric and cruel.

Hammer said women with mental health issues are more likely to encounter pregnancy complications due to physiological stressors that mental illnesses can have on the body. Its unclear whether those would qualify as an exception under the bill.

Hammer and Sheehan took issue with LB626 seemingly ignoring mental health as a medical issue, and said the legislation could trigger more demand for mental health providers who are already in short supply in Nebraska.

Thats just such a big denial of the truth of things, Sheehan said.

Other options

Albrecht acknowledges Nebraska women will still have the option to travel out of state to receive an abortion. Her goal, she said, is to ensure Nebraska does not become a similar destination for other women.

Nebraskas current law bans abortions at 20 weeks past fertilization.

Andi Curry Grubb, executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Nebraska, said the organization works within a collective of five other states, three of which still have abortion access, including Nebraska. If LB626 passes, she said the organization can work within that network to ensure women can still get an abortion.

Were going to continue, as an organization, to do everything we can to help people access care, she said. Everything thats legally allowable to us.

That option will likely be challenging for women with lower incomes. Several opponents argued that the bill and its provisions will still allow wealthier women to access abortions.

If out-of-state options are off the table, opponents have expressed concerns that women will seek out dangerous methods to end their pregnancies. Several critics argued LB626 would ban safe abortions.

Kacie Ware of Omaha made that argument at a Planned Parenthood news conference earlier this month. When she got pregnant as a high school sophomore because of an abusive relationship, she said she went through the courts to obtain access to an abortion without her parents permission. Had the courts denied her that access, she said she would have resorted to dangerous measures instead.

I would have done just about anything to end that pregnancy, Ware said.

Photos: 2023 Nebraska legislative session 010523-owh-new-lege-em01.jpg 010523-owh-new-lege-em02.jpg 010523-owh-new-lege-em04.jpg 010523-owh-new-lege-em05.jpg 010523-owh-new-lege-em06.jpg 010523-owh-new-lege-em65 010523-owh-new-lege-em37 010523-owh-new-lege-em38 010523-owh-new-lege-em49 010523-owh-new-lege-em60 010523-owh-new-lege-em45 010523-owh-new-lege-em39 010523-owh-new-lege-em48 010523-owh-new-lege-em55 010523-owh-new-lege-em59 010523-owh-new-lege-em43 010523-owh-new-lege-em42 010523-owh-new-lege-em50 010523-owh-new-lege-em53 010523-owh-new-lege-em46 010523-owh-new-lege-em47 010523-owh-new-lege-em51 010523-owh-new-lege-em61 010523-owh-new-lege-em64 010523-owh-new-lege-em52 010523-owh-new-lege-em56 010523-owh-new-lege-em62 010523-owh-new-lege-em63 010523-owh-new-lege-em58 010523-owh-new-lege-em44 010523-owh-new-lege-em41 010523-owh-new-lege-em54 010523-owh-new-lege-em36 010523-owh-new-lege-em31 010523-owh-new-lege-em30 010523-owh-new-lege-em32 010523-owh-new-lege-em33 010523-owh-new-lege-em35 010523-owh-new-lege-em24 010523-owh-new-lege-em27 010523-owh-new-lege-em26 010523-owh-new-lege-em28 010523-owh-new-lege-em25 010523-owh-new-lege-em29 010523-owh-new-lege-em23 010523-owh-new-lege-em18 010523-owh-new-lege-em21 010523-owh-new-lege-em15 010523-owh-new-lege-em22 010523-owh-new-lege-em19 010523-owh-new-lege-em16 010523-owh-new-lege-em20 010523-owh-new-lege-em12 010523-owh-new-lege-em09 010523-owh-new-lege-em07 010523-owh-new-lege-em11 010523-owh-new-lege-em08 010523-owh-new-lege-em03 010523-owh-new-lege-em10 010523-owh-new-lege-em03.jpg
SIOUX CITY -- Monday night, East High School's Headliners varsity show choir members were hard at work, rehearsing an intricate, 18-minute long routine that combined multiple songs and elaborate dance moves.

Each swoopy piece of choreography and every harmonic moment had to be absolutely perfect for the "Sing All About It!" Show Choir Invitational, an all-day event, which will be taking place Saturday at the 3200 S. Cypress St. high school.

Currently in its 30th year, "Sing All About It!" invites 15 middle school and high school show choirs from the tri-state area for the chance to compete for an overall grand champion trophy.

A three-time FAME Aspire-nominated competition and 2019 national Aspire-winning contest, "Sing All About It!" is, annually, Sioux City Community School District's largest extracurricular activity.

After all, East Middle School's Sparks and Evolution show choirs as well as the high school's all-male Entourage, treble-voice Prestige choir and the Headliners, winner of more than 50 Grand Champion awards, are slated to perform in exhibition throughout the day.

A family affair

Watching from a distance, Kristan Geary marveled at the energy level of the show choir kids.

"They're not dancing on that stage," she said in amazement. "They're performing a cardio routine up there."

A 1997 East High School graduate, Kristan was involved with show choir and so was her future husband Jason Geary, who graduated from East in 1996.

"I remember I was a (student) choir director one year," Jason said. "You were a bit sassy back then."

"Well, I knew you had a crush on me," Kristan said. "I figured I could get away with it."

The Gearys' three children have also been involved with the show choir program.

Daughter Emma, now a student at Northwestern College, in Orange City, was in the New Sound JV Prep show choir as a freshman and sophomore, and a Headliner during her junior and senior years.

Son Ben, an East senior, is in the show band for all three of the high school show choirs.

"I can be in band practice at school up to six hours a day," Ben, a saxophone player, explained.

That's nothing compared to his sister Adysson's schedule.

A sophomore member of the Headliners, she became involved with show choir at the middle school level.

"My schedule right before a big competition is basically show choir, all day long, plus an extra long practice at night," Adysson said.

This is because a routine's choreography can change at the last minute.

Simpler times

Which wasn't always the case, according to SueAnn Hardin, who was part of the inaugural Headliners class in 1988.

"Show choir routines weren't nearly as elaborate back then," the 1992 East High School graduate recalled. "We had an outside choreographer but it wasn't like it is now."

More connections

Like the Gearys', SueAnn Hardin's children are also show choir members.

Mason Hardin, now a student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, was involved in East's show choirs while sister Joelle, an East sophomore, is currently a part of the treble-voice Prestige choir.

"Headliners was just starting out and there was very little money for the program," SueAnn Hardin said. "All of the moms who sewed would make dresses from a pattern. Since East's school colors were black and orange, there were, unfortunately, a lot of orange dresses."

"While orange dresses made show choir members stand out," she noted, "nobody looks good in orange."

Similar to SueAnn Hardin, Kristan Geary remembered the show choir experience as being a time of fringy costumes and big hairdos.

"There were some ill-advised fashion back in the '90s," Kristan Geary said, groaning at the memory.

Once a Headliner...

In spite of the occasional fashion faux pas, show choir was a memorable time for the Gearys.

"We've never been a traditionally sporty family," Kristan Geary said. "Show choir was always our 'sport.'"

Plus events like "Sing All About It!" required everybody's assistance.

"The dads are called 'Freightliners' because we lug scenery around," Jason Geary said. "Then, there are the wardrobe moms and the makeup moms. Families have been a large part of the show choir experience from the very beginning."

It is a necessity since the costs of the show choir program would be prohibitively expensive without the help of volunteers.

"Our 'Sing All About It!' is the show choir program's biggest event," SueAnn Hardin said. "Every year, it is all hands on deck."

Just like it was from the very beginning, show choir is all about the students who put their energy into a performance.

Early call

"When we have an out-of-town competition, we may be on the bus at 4 a.m. and not be home until 2 the following morning," Adysson Geary said. "If you hadn't already bonded with your fellow show choir members, you will have by the end of the trip."

Joelle Hardin barely knew the names of fellow Prestige choir members. Now, she is considered the "mom" of the group.

"It is so much fun," she said.

Plus performing is a natural adrenaline push.

"I'm only nervous when I'm making my way to the stage," Adysson Geary said. "Then I imagine everything that could go wrong. When that doesn't happen, my stage fright goes away."

Jason Geary said "Sing All About It!" allows everyone to experience East.

"Our show choir kids will be working in the parking lot or showing people to their seats," he said. "They make terrific ambassadors for all of the visiting show choirs."

Even with the time commitment, being a Headliner will always be worthwhile, SueAnn Hardin said.

"I'm still friends with people who I met in show choir," she said. "Once a Headliner, always a Headliner."
SIOUX CITY -- A majority of Iowans are not pleased with the state's new private school tuition assistance law and an even larger proportion oppose the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade last year, according to the results of the sixth annual Morningside Poll of Iowa adults, conducted by the Colonel Bud Day Center for Civic Engagement at Morningside University.

The poll, released Tuesday, also found that a significant majority of respondents favor legalizing recreational marijuana, an even larger majority favor tighter laws on gun sales, and most are not likely to buy an electric car in the future.

The results, unsurprisingly, cleaved along party lines: Democrats were far more likely to favor gun control and Republicans were more likely to give strong approval to the end of Roe v. Wade. Democrats were somewhat over-represented among respondents, with 35.17 percent identifying as a Democrat compared to 30.83 percent identifying as a Republican. 21.17 percent were affiliated with no party and 12.83 percent listed their party affiliation as "something else."

Income levels were apparently a factor in the response to some questions -- respondents making more than $100,000 per year were more than twice as likely as respondents making less than $34,999 per year to strongly favor the overturning of Roe. Individuals making less than $34,999 were nearly five times more likely than those making over $100,000 to say their financial position is much worse than it was five years ago.

Respondents were dissatisfied with both Democratic President Joe Biden and Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, though the president faced a greater degree of disapproval than the governor. Both Republican Sen. Joni Ernst and Sen. Chuck Grassley have approval ratings that are very slightly underwater, according to the poll results.

The following are highlights from the 2023 Morningside Poll, which surveyed 600 Iowa adults on policy, economics, pressing issues of the day and individual politicians:

47.17% strongly oppose the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, and 10.33% oppose it; only 21.67% strongly favor the court's decision, and 12.33% were in favor. 5.83% neither opposed nor favored the decision, and 2.67% didn't know.

39.67% strongly oppose state-funded private school tuition; 12 percent oppose it; 20.33% strongly favor it; 15.83% favor it; 8.67% neither favor nor oppose it; and 3.5% didn't know.

58.33% favor legalizing recreational marijuana in the state; 37.17% oppose it. (Strongly favor or strongly oppose were apparently not an option on this question.) 4.5% didn't know.

42.83% are not likely at all to buy an electric car in the future; 18% are not too likely; 24.5% are somewhat likely; 12.4% are very likely; and 2.17% didn't know.

61% said the laws surrounding the purchase of firearms should be more strict; 27.33% said those laws should be kept the same; 10% said the laws should be less strict. 1.67% didn't know.

31.67% strongly disagreed with changing U.S. border policy to allow more migrants into the country; 16.67 disagree; 19.67% neither agree nor disagree; 18.67% agree; and 10.83% strongly agree. 2.5% didn't know.

11.5% said their personal economic situation is much worse than it was five years ago; 18.33% said they're worse off; 29.67% said they're neither better off nor worse off; 28.17% said they're better off; and 11.17% said they are much better off than they were five years ago.

55.67% disapprove of President Joe Biden's handling of his job, while 42% approve. 2.33% didn't know.

50% disapprove of Gov. Kim Reynolds' handling of her job, while 45.33% approve. 4.67% didn't know.

46.5% disapprove of Sen. Joni Ernst's handling of her job, while 45% approve. 8.5% didn't know.

48.67% disapprove of Sen. Chuck Grassley's handling of his job, while 46.33% approve. 5% didn't know.
DAKOTA DUNES -- North Sioux City's success in attracting and keeping major employers sets an example not just in the Sioux City metro area, but for all of South Dakota, the state's governor said.

Speaking to local business leaders and elected officials after the announcement that the Sioux City metro area once again ranked first in a national trade publication's economic development rankings, Gov. Kristi Noem credited North Sioux City's leaders for their role in helping the area hold on to the top spot by continuing to develop the southeast corner of Union County.

"You have been a bright spot for South Dakota, and I use you as an example every single day. Today should be a day when we all look at what you're doing and how we can replicate it," said Noem, the guest speaker at Wednesday's Siouxland Industrial Roundtable, an event sponsored by the Siouxland Chamber of Commerce and The Siouxland Initiative, the Chamber's economic development division.

The Sioux City Metropolitan Statistical Area ranked first for the fourth straight year in Site Selection magazine's annual rankings for economic development in metro areas with a population of less than 200,000. The Sioux City MSA, which includes Dakota and Dixon counties in Nebraska, Plymouth and Woodbury counties in Iowa and Union County in South Dakota, had 21 new or expanded corporate projects in 2022, eight more than second-place Bowling Green, Kentucky.

It's the 11th time since 2007 the Sioux City metro area has been No. 1 on Site Selection's annual list.

Site Selection defines a qualifying project as meeting at least one of three criteria: a capital investment of at least $1 million, creation of at least 20 new jobs or addition or at least 20,000 square feet of new floor space. Local projects in 2022 were topped by pet food manufacturer Royal Canin, which announced an $185 million expansion at its North Sioux City plant in January 2022.

Site Selection Managing Editor Adam Bruns said companies looking to relocate or expand consider more than a city's location when making construction decisions. Quality of life amenities and the character of a community's people also are major factors, two things Sioux City has in its favor.

"They all come down to a sense of place and a sense of the people in that place. Companies are attracted to people and places they trust," Bruns told the audience gathered at the Dakota Dunes Country Club.

The award comes in the wake of an October announcement from Tyson Foods that the meatpacker would close its Dakota Dunes offices, transferring more than 500 corporate jobs to its headquarters in Arkansas. Tyson is not the first major employer to leave, but as the economic rankings show, the Sioux City metro area's business and industrial climate remains strong, withstanding those major blows and continuing to grow, said Lance Morgan, chairman of The Siouxland Initiative's board of directors.

"What it shows is the strength and resilience of our community," Morgan said.
STORM LAKE, Iowa -- The Storm Lake Police Department is asking for members of the public for assistance in locating a runaway juvenile.

Rosencia Amadus, 15, was reported as a runaway from her Storm Lake home on Saturday and has not been seen since. She is approximately 5 feet tall and 130 pounds and has long black hair and brown eyes.

Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to contact the Storm Lake Police Department at (712) 732-8010 or (712) 749-2525.
NEW YORK  A chunk of weather-beaten flotsam that washed up on a New York shoreline after Tropical Storm Ian last fall piqued the interest of experts who say it is likely part of the SS Savannah, which ran aground and broke apart in 1821  two years after it became the first vessel to cross the Atlantic Ocean partly under steam power.

The roughly 13-foot square piece of wreckage was spotted in October off Fire Island, a barrier island that hugs Long Island's southern shore, and is now in the custody of the Fire Island Lighthouse Preservation Society. It will work with National Park Service officials to identify the wreckage and put it on public display.

"It was pretty thrilling to find it," said Betsy DeMaria, a museum technician at the park service's Fire Island National Seashore. "We definitely are going to have some subject matter experts take a look at it and help us get a better view of what we have here."

It may be difficult to identify the wreckage with 100% certainty, but park service officials said the Savannah is a top contender among Fire Island's known shipwrecks.

Explorers searched for the Savannah for two centuries but did not find anything they could definitively link to the famous ship. The newly discovered wreckage "very well could be" a piece of the historic shipwreck, said Ira Breskin, a senior lecturer at the State University of New York Maritime College in the Bronx. "It makes perfect sense."

Evidence includes the 1- to 1.3-inch wooden pegs holding the wreckage's planks together, consistent with a 100-foot vessel, park service officials said in a news release. The Savannah was 98 feet, 6 inches long. Additionally, the officials said, the wreckage's iron spikes suggest a ship built around 1820. The Savannah was built in 1818.

Breskin, author of "The Business of Shipping," noted the Savannah's use of steam power was so advanced for its time that the May 24, 1819, start of its transatlantic voyage is commemorated as National Maritime Day. "It's important because they were trying to basically show the viability of a steam engine to make it across the pond," he said.

Breskin said a nautical archaeologist should be able to help identify the Fire Island wreckage, which appears likely to be from the Savannah. "It's plausible, and it's important, and it's living history if the scientists confirm that it is what we think it is," he said.

The Savannah, a sailing ship outfitted with a 90-horsepower steam engine, traveled mainly under sail across the Atlantic, using steam power for 80 hours of the nearly monthlong voyage to Liverpool, England.

Crowds cheered as the Savannah sailed from Liverpool to Sweden and Russia, then back to its home port of Savannah, Georgia, but the ship was not a financial success, in part because people were afraid to travel on the hybrid vessel. The Savannah's steam engine was removed and sold after the ship's owners suffered losses in the Great Savannah Fire of 1820.

The Savannah was transporting cargo between Savannah and New York when it ran aground off Fire Island. It later broke apart. The crew made it safely to shore and the cargo of cotton was salvaged, but the Augusta Chronicle & Georgia Gazette reported that "Captain Holdridge was considerably hurt by being upset in the boat."

20 photos of shipwrecks from WWI and WWII 20 photos of shipwrecks from WWI and WWII The Paris II, Kemer, Turkey HMS Majestic, Canakkale, Turkey Sunken barges, Canakkale, Turkey SS Palo Alto, Palo Alto, California Baron Gautsch, Mediterranean Sea Giuseppe Dezza, Rovinj, Croatia Maheno shipwreck, Fraser Island, Australia SS Atlantus, Cape May, New Jersey Helmet Wreck, Palau, Micronesia Goslar cargo ship, Paramaribo, Suriname Higgins landing craft, Lake Mead, Nevada Zibello barge, Gualtieri, Italy HIJMS Nagato Battleship, Marshall Islands USS Arizona, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii German Ship Fritz, Istria, Croatia Nippo Maru Wreck, Chuuk Lagoon, Micronesia SS Thistlegorm, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt Sunken German submarines, Kocaeli, Turkey Hinko Maru warship, Sakaiura Beach, Japan Cinque Terre shipwreck, Bonassola, Italy
New York Mayor Eric Adams, throughout his strange political career, has tended to make a big show out of all his public speeches. As state senator, he ran a prominent Stop the Sag campaign against the youths baggy pants, displaying billboards of sagging jeans across New York. As Brooklyn borough president, he professed his hatred of the citys rodents by means of a high-profile Rat Summit, accompanied by bucket traps and bags of poison pills. The theatrics havent stopped since Adams entered Gracie Mansion last year; theyve arguably only escalated. After controversially denouncing the separation of church and state in a Tuesday speech before an interfaith breakfast, for example, the mayor beseeched his constituents to embrace spiritualityand pulled out a yellow sponge to emphasize the point. You will never be who you ought to be if you carry around a saturated sponge of despair, Adams proclaimed, waving a sponge that had presumably been soaked in despair. You got to wring it out.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Adams just pulled out a sponge on stage and urged the crowd to embrace spirituality and "ring out" their despair.



"You will never be who you ought to be if you carry around a saturated sponge of despair, you got to ring it out," he says. pic.twitter.com/uHF0e2FmDy  Chris Sommerfeldt (@C_Sommerfeldt) February 28, 2023

Plenty of observers were unhappy with Adams blase disregard of a core constitutional clause, but also: What was the deal with that sponge? Hackneyed metaphor aside, its a strange prop to have at an event for whatever reason. Hizzoner had clearly thought this through and packed a sponge before traveling to the interfaith event, because thats a thing you do when youre mayor, I guess. Its a bizarre thing to plan ahead forone line in a speech where you attack secular government and then encourage New Yorkers to overcome spiritual malaise by  squeezing and twisting and shaking out their internal despair? Hey, some might say its still not as weird as the time when he yanked a crack pipe out of a backpack, as state senator.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Heavy-handed political staging is nothing new, of course; Dick Nixons infamous Checkers Speech utilized a fake living-room set and his wifes Republican cloth coat as symbols to get voters to trust the embattled vice presidential candidate. But whats all the odder about Eric Adams stagecraft is just how many unexpected things he holds aloftfrom heat sensors to vegan wraps to For Sale signs to elaborate rat trapsat speeches for events both significant and trivial. Has it worked for him? Well, he did gain prominence as a local pol thanks to his rabble rousing, and hes ridden that to the citys top job. But considering his low approval ratings, it may not be the most fruitful political strategy of the moment.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Lets take a survey of the various props Eric Adams has touted throughout his already-surreal year as actor/mayor.

A napkin with a handwritten, all-caps LIFT THE MANDATES message: From March 2022, a fine example of how Mayor Adams sells his agenda to the press:

.@nycmayor writes on his napkin lift the mandates and holds it up for the press pic.twitter.com/zOUuiYdaCb  David Freedlander (@freedlander) March 7, 2022

Advertisement

Food: The vegan mayor of New York would like you to behold these freshly farmed veggies and these locally baked treats:

Advertisement

Advertisement

A checkered flag: Adams waved the racing symbol during a live PSA against illegal dirt bikes last summer, signaling for a bulldozer to crush almost 100 bikes seized off city streets. A great use of everyones time, to be sure.

Advertisement

Weed gummies: New York state legalized casual marijuana sales and consumption months before Adams was elected, and its difficult to tell how that makes him feel. Its like everyones smoking a joint now, he joked at a press conference last summer. Hes lately taken a more serious tone regarding the plethora of unlicensed dispensaries that illegally sell weed across New York. This is alarming, Adams declared in a December press conference, holding up two bags of pot-infused gummies that were packaged in the style of the Trolli candy brand. We are not going to allow these stores to stay open. To hear it from Adams, hes concerned that unlicensed edibles wrapped with the branding of popular kids foods like Trix cereal could mislead unsuspecting New York youth into consuming something they werent expecting. A fair message, though a bit hard to take seriously while its speaker is flapping around two brightly colored candy packs.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Giant photos of public housing renovations: Looks pretty neat!

Illegal paper license plates: Adams has railed against unlawful car plates for a while now, but maybe he should make sure that members of his own administration arent using them, too.

Advertisement

A portrait of his late mother: This ones actually moving: Right after he was sworn in as mayor on New Years Day 2022, Adams raised high a portrait of his late mother from her 75th birthday, in which her tiara-sporting head is viewed through a brandy snifter. Sandra E. Garcia explained the significance of the photo in the New York Times: The choice to hold that photo while he was sworn in was more than a salute to his mother; it was a knowing nod to the communities that have been sometimes shut out by city government but continue to toil for progress. I wanted everyone to look at that photo and think about their parents and see that we all want the same thing, Mr. Adams said. (No, youre crying.) Its so meaningful to Adams that he carried it with him into the voting booth on Election Day 2021, Garcia noted.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Composting bags and tools: Adams dragged his feet on expanding New Yorks popular-but-underfunded curbside composting system for months. So naturally, when he made a turnaround and embraced the campaign to improve food-waste disposal, he had to make sure city folk knew he was serious about it, this time. So serious that hes showing off compost bags of all sizes, and even clenching a trash picker, when promoting his new composting agenda.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

And check out that bespectacled compost disposal bin mascot in the background:
The runoff to decide the next mayor of Chicago is set, and Americas third-largest city could not have asked for a clearer choice.

On the one hand, Paul Vallas, the hard-line law-and-order candidate who was the head of the citys public school system. On the other, Brandon Johnson, a teacher and organizer with the Chicago Teachers Union who promises to fight the root causes of crime and poverty.

They will be fighting for Chicagoans whose sympathies lie somewhere in betweenvoters who supported outgoing Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who finished third with 17 percent of the vote. Vallas, who took 33 percent of the vote, and Johnson, who got 20, will face off in a runoff election next month.

Advertisement

The contrast between Vallas and Johnson is a familiar one. It looks a little like the recent mayoral contest in Los Angeles, which also featured a white, tough-on-crime candidate who critics said was not really a Democrat and a Black candidate backed by unions and other progressive groups. More broadly, the candidates represent the divide in the urban Democratic coalition about how to respond to rising crime rates. Is crime a problem whose solutions lie with the police department or elsewhere? That is what Chicago voters will decide in April.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

But that comparison understates just how unusual the results in Chicago are. Incumbent mayors who run for reelection rarely lose, and they especially do not lose in Chicago, where Lightfoot is the first mayor there to lose a reelection effort in four decades.

Advertisement

Some of that loss can be put on Lightfoots style. She ran as a reformer, then shut out the press. She lost the support of colleagues and other allies with the same hardheaded demeanor that made her such a promising candidate.

But with Tuesdays defeat, Lightfoot becomes a symbol of something larger: the plight of the pandemic mayor. She will join a long list of big-city mayors to have left office since the summer of 2020, including New Yorks Bill de Blasio, Los Angeles Eric Garcetti, Bostons Marty Walsh, Oaklands Libby Schaaf, Seattles Jenny Durkan, Pittsburghs Bill Peduto, and Atlantas Keisha Lance Bottoms. Two years ago, the New York Times identified a wave of mayoral resignations related to COVID burnout. In January, the Atlantic wrote, What had been one of the best perches in American politics is becoming one of its worst.

Advertisement

The reasons vary, but rare is the mayor who does not show the scars of 2020. The term-limited de Blasio left office with a 37 percent approval rating, and a subsequent congressional run showed that New Yorkers were tired of him. Durkan filed reelection paperwork but decided not to run after Seattles tumultuous 2020. Her house was vandalized after a City Council member led a march to her front door, and she received death threats. Bottoms became the first mayor of Atlanta to serve just one term since the 1970s. Once considered a potential running mate for Joe Biden, Bottoms was exhausted by the protests in 2020 and the subsequent crime surge.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Perhaps the closest analogue to Lightfoot is Pittsburghs Bill Peduto. A well-liked two-term mayor who ran unopposed in the 2017 general election, Peduto found himself in a 2021 primary with a serious challenger on the left, as well as a former police officer sapping his support on the right. He lost by 7 pointsthe first incumbent to lose a reelection bid in Pittsburgh since 1933!

Advertisement

There are exceptions to this rule: Muriel Bowser, of Washington, D.C., cruised to a third term; Dallas Eric Johnson is running unopposed. Minneapoliss Jacob Frey, whose political career seemed to be in serious jeopardy when he was humiliated by a crowd of Black Lives Matter protesters in June 2020, weathered a strong challenge from the left.* (Unlike Lightfoot and Peduto, Frey had no serious opponent to his rightand a ranked-choice voting system that favors moderation.)

For her part, Lightfoot won a nine-way primary in 2019 with 17 percent of the vote. But she had widespread support in the subsequent runoff, beating the well-known local Democrat Toni Preckwinkle in every single one of the citys wards to become the citys first Black mayor since Harold Washington.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Progressives never forgave her for shutting down the subway during the George Floyd protests and even raising the citys drawbridges, giving the Chicago River the look of a medieval moat. The teachers union soured on her after a vicious fight over keeping schools open in 2021. But those moves earned her little quarter on the right, where voters are furious about the 2020 looting, rising crime, and a broader sense that the city has lost its way. Lightfoots robust support on Chicagos Black South Side, which she mostly won on Tuesday, was not enough.

Its tempting to say that this failed class of mayors reflects the one-time shock of the pandemic. Even in the best of times, mayors rarely move on to higher office, and the past three years have been just about the worst of times. But the pandemic wasnt what did in Lori Lightfootit seems almost unfathomable now, but her approval rating was in the high 70s at the start of June 2020, when she had embraced her status as a COVID-era meme, and her seriousness compared favorably to the then presidents shtick. Even though the lakefront had been closed for months.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Instead, it was what happened afterward that got her primariedthe increasingly fraught politics of policing, the sense of a downtown in decline, neglected public services. This may signify the dawn of a more volatile period in mayoral politics. Mayors are tied to the fates of their cities, andbetween crime, high housing costs, falling populations, and impending budget crisesAmericas cities are not in a good way right now. Its going to get worse before it gets better.
Its happened to every driver: Youre completely parked in. Someone wedged their car right in front of yours; someone else pulled up right behind you, so close that your bumpers are nearly touching. Youre facing an impossible parallel-parking extrication. And to top it all off: Paparazzi are watching.

Such was the situation that faced Ben Affleck, star of tabloid and screen, when he returned to his Mercedes after a Dunkin run in Brentwood, California. In front, a blue Altima; behind him, a red sedan. Mere centimeters of space on either side. Ben smoked a cigarette and considered his options. Im a celebrityget me out of here (this parking place), his expression seemed to say.

Advertisement

The press has been, of course, merciless. HELP, MY CARS STUCK!!! screamed the TMZ headline. Another Rough Day for Ben Affleck, groaned the Cut. The king of despair, the post explained, found himself in the nightmarish scenario of attempting to wiggle his Mercedes-Benz out of a parking spot.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

I dont think it was a nightmare at all. I think as Ben Affleck smoked his cigarette, he was not, in any way, bemoaning cruel fate. I think Ben Affleck considers himself, as do all middle-aged dads, a professional parallel parker. I think he was getting ready for his moment to shine.

For in fact, Ben Affleck makes his way out of that space with aplomb. He cuts the wheel right and backs up. He cuts the wheel left and moves forward. Systematically, inch by inch, he escapes from his predicament, carefully but with supreme confidence. Rocking back and forth, always cognizant of the traffic to his left, he delivers a textbook parallel-unparking demonstration. Its all done so masterfully Im sort of surprised he didnt smoke the cigarette afterward. I mean, just look:

Advertisement

Advertisement

Yes, of course he appears to touch both the car in front of him and the one behind him multiple times, as the Cut tsk-tsks. Allow me to roll my eyes and say, Big whoop. Any experienced city driver understands that, when you are parked in like that, you have not only the right but the obligation to deliver gentle taps to the fenders of the cars on either end. If not, how are you ever to get out? City drivers, real city drivers, understand that a few light dings are the price of doing business in the cutthroat world of urban parallel parking. If you dont want a love tap from Ben Affleck, you shouldnt get so close to him in the first place.

Bravo, Ben Affleck. Life is not cruel, as some would have it. Life gives us moments to succeed, indeed to shineand its our job to seize them. On this day, in this car, faced with this task, you showed what you are made of.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court handed down a decision with an unprecedented 54 split. Bittner v. U.S. featured a faceoff between Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the majority, and Justice Amy Coney Barrett in dissentwith Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson breaking with the liberals to give Gorsuch his decisive fifth vote. But it gets even stranger: Jackson was the only justice to join a key section of Gorsuchs opinion endorsing special solicitude for federal defendants due process rights.

Advertisement

What does it all mean? On the surface, not a lot: Bittner is a minor case about civil penalties for people who fail to disclose their foreign accounts to the IRS. Dig deeper, though, and the decision suggests a certain libertarianism in Jacksons jurisprudence that may distinguish her from the two other progressive justices. That trait does not map neatly onto the leftright divide that emerges in so many cases, as Tuesdays ruling demonstrated. Instead, it points toward a skepticism of government power that should cheer civil libertarians across the political spectrum.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Bittner revolved around a provision of the Bank Secrecy Act, or BSA. The statute requires American citizens and residents to file an annual report with the IRS identifying all of their foreign accounts if the money they hold, in aggregate, exceeds $10,000. A person who inadvertently fails to file these reportsa nonwillful infraction, as lawyers call itincurs a penalty of up to $10,000 per violation. Attempted enforcement of the BSA has raised a thorny question: What counts as a violation under the law? The government says individuals incur a $10,000 fine for each foreign account they fail to report. Those facing BSA penalties say they incur $10,000 for each annual report they fail to file.

Advertisement

The difference is important for Alexandru Bittner, the defendant in this case, who holds 272 foreign accounts that he failed to report over five years. (No one claims hes using them illegitimatelyBittner is a dual American-Romanian citizen with a thriving business career in Romania.) If hes fined per report, he owes $50,000. If hes fined per account, he owes $2.72 million.

SCOTUS sided with Bittner on Tuesday, albeit barely. Gorsuchs majority opinion was joined by Jackson along with John Roberts, Samuel Alito, and Brett Kavanaugh. Barretts dissent was joined by Clarence Thomas, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan.

Advertisement

The majority and dissenting opinions dueled over the statutory text, but Gorsuch went a step further, highlighting two other reasons to interpret the BSA narrowly. First, he pointed out that the IRS has taken inconsistent positions on this question: Until 2019, it suggested in guidance documents that the penalty applied to each missed report, not to each unreported account. Then the agency changed its mind. Thats particularly troubling given that many Americans have no idea about their obligations under the BSA, and the government hasnt done much to educate them. U.S. embassies and consulates stopped providing tax consulting for American expatriates a decade ago. The relevant form (which does not create tax liability) isnt even an IRS document; its published by the Treasury Department, and the submission process is totally different from the process for other tax documents. In short, it is very easy for well-intentioned people to run afoul of the BSA.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Which leads to a second reason to reject a broad reading of the law: the rule of lenity. This principle requires federal courts to interpret laws against the government and in favor of defendants when they are unclear or ambiguous. Its typically invoked in the criminal context, but applies to civil fines, too. And, Gorsuch wrote, its especially appropriate here. The rule exists in part to protect the Due Process Clauses promise that laws must provide a fair warning that the common world will understand, he asserted. Here, the governments own public guidance documents supported a more lenient interpretation before taking an about-face. Many qualified accountants shared that view of the law until the IRS decided it was incorrect. If many experienced accountants were unable to anticipate the governments current theory, Gorsuch concluded, we do not see how the common world had fair notice of it.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Notably, only Jackson joined this portion of the opinion. Roberts, Alito, and Kavanaugh refused to sign on, though they joined the rest of Gorsuchs decision. Why? Its not hard to guess. Gorsuch is the courts most consistent proponent of the rule of lenity, sometimes to the conservatives dismay. In 2019s U.S. v. Davis, for instance, Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion striking down a federal law imposing harsh mandatory minimum sentences on certain offenders. Resisting a different interpretation that would spare the lawand preserve the defendants lengthy sentencehe invoked the rule of lenity, declaring that ambiguities about the breadth of a criminal statute should be resolved in the defendants favor. This approach infuriated Kavanaugh, who wrote an acerbic dissent accusing Gorsuch of misapplying the principle. Thomas, Roberts, and Alito joined Kavanaugh in full.

Advertisement

More recently, in 2022s Wooden v. U.S., Gorsuch wrote a mini treatise endorsing the rules expansion. Some decisions suggest that it applies only to grievous ambiguities, he noted, but this grievous business does not derive from any well-considered theory about lenity or the mainstream of this courts opinions. Defendants should not have to prove that a law is severely or hopelessly ambiguous; rather, any reasonable doubt about its scope should be resolved in favor of liberty.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Just as this theory can repel conservatives when applied to violent crime, it can turn off liberals when applied to white-collar offenses and regulatory mandates. Sotomayor joined most of Gorsuchs full-throated support for the rule of lenity in Wooden. Yet when the court released Bittner on Tuesday, Sotomayor was in dissent, along with Kagan. Both justices telegraphed their votes during oral arguments when they suggested that only wealthy tax-dodgers attempting to deceive the IRS could get caught up under the law. Jackson viewed things differently. Realistically, she said, the reporting requirement applies to anybody whos living overseas. Unlike Sotomayor and Kagan, Jackson understood that it isnt just rich business magnates who face punishment under this law, but also working-class expats. And she alone signed onto Gorsuchs application of lenity.

Advertisement

Bittner thus shows how the rule cuts across ideological lines. So does another case lurching toward SCOTUS: Cargill v. Garland, a challenge to the ban on bump stocks, devices that transform semi-automatic rifles to mimic automatic weapons. The government issued a regulation outlawing bump stocks after one was used to kill 60 people in 2017. In January, however, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals invalidated the ban, citing (among other reasons) the rule of lenity. In the coming years, more conservative courts will use lenity in striking down more regulations favored by progressives. Perhaps Sotomayor and Kagan refused to apply the rule here in part because they are wary of its creeping expansion into the administrative state and firearm restrictions.

If thats true, it seems Jackson does not share their fears, just as she does not share their concerns that Bittner will let loaded tax-cheats off the hook. Those few data points we have on the newest justice all point toward a suspicion of government overreach, though its too soon to say how consistently shell apply these views. The one indubitable conclusion so far is that Jackson is not just a liberal but a civil libertarian, and whenever the government seeks to punish a citizen, it should never take her vote for granted.
A debate is erupting in Congress over whether to renew or repeal a law that officials say is vital to combating terrorism, cybercrime, and disruptive foreign espionagebut that others decry as a violation of Americans civil liberties.

The law, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, allows the National Security Agency to intercept the communications of foreigners, even if it means tapping into networks or servers based on U.S. soil, without a warrant.

The existence of this program, known as PRISM, was made public back in 2013 by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Snowdens leaks of highly classified documents, first published in the Washington Post, suggested that the NSAby far the largest U.S. intelligence agencywas monitoring the emails and phone calls of thousands, possibly millions, of Americans.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Subsequent analyses revealed that the program really was aimed at foreigners on foreign soil, but that some Americans did get swept up in the gigantic data-suck. This occurred mainly as an unavoidable consequence of internet technology, though it was sometimes the result of bureaucratic overstepping, not so much by the NSA, but rather by the FBI.

The revelations of FBI abuse have turned many Republicans against the program, in keeping with their general hostility toward the FBI for its investigationswhich they see as politically motivatedof former President Donald Trump.

Unless Congress votes to extend Section 702 by the end of this year, it expires.

The Biden administration is pushing hard for its renewal. This week, Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, sent a letter to Congress urging reauthorization as a top legislative priority and offering classified briefings to anyone who doubts it. Haines will also be testifying, in open hearings, before the House and Senate Intelligence Committees next week.

Advertisement

PRISM had its roots in 2007, when Adm. Mike McConnell, then the NSAs director, was shown a map revealing that, at some point, 80 percent of the worlds digital communications passed through U.S. servers. Digital data travels in packets, which whoosh around the globe as fast as possible. Information travels more quickly along the densest routes. The U.S. hosts the greatest density of internet traffic. Therefore, if, say, a terrorist in Sudan was talking with a terrorist in Pakistan, some of the packets would travel through American servers.

Advertisement

The implications for intelligence-gathering were profound. Ever since digital devices supplanted telephones, radio signals, and microwave transmissions, the NSA had been having a hard time monitoring foreign communicationswhich was, and is, the agencys primary mission. The problem was compounded by the fact that the U.S. had no listening stationsanalog or digitalin areas close to terrorist hot spots. But McConnells map suggested that no such stations were necessary. The NSA could pick up packets of the dialogue right here at home. In some cases, terrorists were using, or communicating with, U.S. email addresses. That made the task easier still.

Advertisement

Advertisement

However, there was a legal obstacle. The FISA Act, which was written in 1978, barred domestic surveillance without court-concurred evidence of probable cause that the target was an agent of a foreign power who would actually be using the places under surveillance and that the eavesdropping would not pick up the communications of an American citizen, permanent resident, or corporation.

The problem was that in the digital age, there are no concrete places of surveillance; cyberspace is everywhere. Nor could the government guarantee that, while intercepting the packets of a cellphone conversation, it might not pick up some innocent Americans chatter.

Advertisement

Advertisement

So, at McConnells urging, President George W. Bush proposed, and Congress readily passed, an amendment to FISA. A key passage, the essence of Section 702, noted that electronic surveillance of an American would not be illegalwould not even be defined as electronic surveillanceif it was aimed at a person who was reasonably believed to be located outside of the United States. Finally, a little-noticed clause allowed the agency to conduct its surveillance with the assistance of a communications service provider. This is what Snowdens leak amplified: that the major service providersSprint, Verizon, Microsoft, Google, and otherswere supplying the data that let the NSA do its spying.

Advertisement

Shortly after the Snowden leaks, President Barack Obama appointed a special commission to investigate the situation. (I tell the detailed story of this commission, and of the origins of Section 702, in my 2016 book, Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War, especially Chapters 11 and 14.) After a four-month investigation, in which they were given clearances to inspect any and all files, the commissioners foundin a 303-page reportno evidence of illegality or other abuse of authority. Regulations laid down strict guidelines for Section 702 surveillance; vast legal teams within the NSA enforced the guidelines; the Justice Department supervised the operation and verified compliance. There would always be the lurking danger of abuse, the commissioners noted, suggesting more than a dozen reforms to keep them from turning real, but for now the popular impression that NSA surveillance is indiscriminate and pervasive was not the case.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

More than that, the commission confirmed the NSAs claim that Section 702 intercepts had impeded or blocked 54 terrorist operations, or 53 of them anyway.

As a result, in 2018, Congress renewed Section 702 with little controversy. Its second renewal is coming up at the end of this year. If Congress doesnt approve an extension, the law expires. Two things have happened since the 2018 extension: one strengthens the programs legitimacy; the other weakens it.

The positive development is that Section 702 is now invoked to track, impede, counter, or capture not only terrorists, but also cybercriminals, spies, and a variety of other dangers to national security. In the coming weeks, the Biden administration will be declassifying several case studies purporting to prove this claim.

Advertisement

However, official audits of the program have also revealed a rise in the incidence of abuse. The NSA stores the raw data collected under Section 702including the incidental data involving Americansfor five years. It can share this data with some other U.S. intelligence agencies, which can make requests by citing names, email addresses, or phone numbers of certain Americans. They are supposed to do this only if those Americans are suspected to be involved with foreign terrorists, spies, cybercriminals, and so forth. But it is widely believedand suspicions have been confirmed in some casesthat the FBI has been invoking its privileges to find dirt on Americans theyve been tracking for criminal cases that have nothing to do with national security, and doing so without going to the trouble of obtaining a search warrant. This practice is known as a backdoor search loopholeand its a violation of the 4th Amendment guarantee against unlawful search and seizure.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

In 2021, according to a report by the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI queried Section 702 data for information about Americans 3.4 million times. Many of those searches involved a single personbut, as Jeff Kosseff, an associate professor at the U.S. Naval Academys cyber science department, wrote in Lawfare, even a fraction of 3.4 million queries is massive and difficult to fairly classify as incidental. 

Advertisement

Kosseff wrote that he supports an extension of Section 702, but only if its revised to impose new restrictions on the FBI and other users of the data. One possible reform would be to require a warrant detailing probable cause before any Section 702 data can be used to investigate an American.

Advertisement

The debate over the future of Section 702 is shaping up to be a clash among three factions: those who want to preserve the law as it is; those who want to reform it along the lines that Kosseff and others have suggested; and those who want to let it expire.

Biden, his relevant cabinet secretaries, and his top aides are pushing for full preservation. The MAGA backers want to let Section 702 die; Rep. Jim Jordan, a stolid Trump supporter and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has called for killing not just Section 702 but the entire FISA Act.

The assumption is that, sometime before the end of the year, Biden will offer enough compromises to soften some of the extremists and bolster the majority of legislators who, whether outspokenly or not, would like to keep the law intact while tightening controls on abusers. The question is whether, in this fractious political climate, any sort of compromise can be reached.
In particular, conservationists from Low Tatras National Park have important comments.

There used to be a dinopark in Bratislava Zoo. (Source: TASR)

Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled

The private company DinoPark, based in the Czech Republic, wants to turn the meadows behind Liptovsky Jan near the famous thermal swimming pool into a theme educational park. Visitors will be introduced to the life of dinosaurs.

Find out more about region of folklore, national parks and modern attractions in our Zilina Region Travel Guide.

Similar parks are operated by the company in the Czech Republic. In Slovakia it has operations in Kosice, and until recently they also operated at the Bratislava Zoo.

They want to open another park in Liptov, choosing the region because of its location in the middle of Slovakia and the high number of visitors. The company wants to invest approximately four million euros in construction.

The company's representatives presented the intention to turn the meadows in Liptovsky Jan into a park in 2022. They also signed a 15-year land lease agreement with the local land association last year.
Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled

The Slovak Spectator talked to ChatGPT, a chatbot software designed by the company Open AI, capable of engaging in dialogue with humans. Although the provided answers are sometimes general and encyclopaedic, there are times the software gives the impression that it is capable of human-like communication.

How does it work? The software reads a huge amount of text available on the Internet and generates fluent and often completely logical answers to questions. Still, it does not mean that it cannot be wrong, as evidenced by talking about a soup when asked about a drink or stating that stork is not considered migratory bird, when in fact it is.

Sometimes the answers seem devoid of any opinion and the software tends to repeat itself. For example, when asked whether Slovakia is really at the heart of Europe, it reiterated the geographic facts it mentioned in previous answers.

The removal of repeating sections and correction of diacritical marks were the only changes made to the answers provided by the software.

Related article

Related article Chatbots can take routine jobs, allowing BSC employees to do more sophisticated work Read more

Hello.

Hello! How can I assist you today?

I was wondering, what can you say about Slovakia as a country?

Slovakia is a country located in Central Europe, bordered by Poland, Ukraine, Hungary, Austria, and the Czech Republic. It has been a republic for 30 years, following the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993.

Since becoming an independent country, Slovakia has undergone significant political and economic changes. It has transitioned from a centrally planned economy to a market-based one, with the privatization of state-owned enterprises and the establishment of a competitive business environment. Today, Slovakia is a member of the European Union, NATO, and the United Nations, and has become an important hub for manufacturing and technology industries in the region.

Despite these achievements, Slovakia still faces some challenges. It has struggled with corruption and political instability in the past, which has hindered its progress towards greater prosperity and integration into the European Union. However, recent efforts by the government to address these issues and improve the country's economy and social conditions have shown some positive results.

Overall, Slovakia is a country with a rich history and culture, and it has made significant progress in the 30 years since becoming a republic. While there are still challenges to be addressed, the country has shown a commitment to improving the lives of its citizens and playing a positive role in the region and the world.

Can you tell me more about the challenges Slovakia is still facing?

While Slovakia has made significant progress in the 30 years since becoming a republic, it still faces some challenges. Here are some of the most pressing issues:

Corruption: Slovakia has struggled with corruption, which has undermined the country's progress towards greater prosperity and integration into the European Union. There have been several high-profile corruption scandals in recent years, which have led to protests and calls for greater transparency and accountability.

Political Instability: Slovakia has experienced political instability in the past, which has hindered the government's ability to implement reforms and address social and economic challenges. The country has also seen a rise in populist and nationalist movements, which have fuelled political polarization and undermined the rule of law.

Economic Disparities: While Slovakia has made significant progress in transitioning to a market-based economy, there are still economic disparities between regions and social groups. Some parts of the country, particularly in the east, have lower levels of economic development and higher rates of poverty and unemployment.

Demographic Challenges: Slovakia is facing demographic challenges, including an ageing population and declining birth rates. This could lead to a shrinking workforce and lower economic growth in the future.

Integration with the European Union: Slovakia is a member of the European Union, but it still faces challenges in fully integrating into the bloc. There are concerns about the country's adherence to EU norms and values, particularly with regards to the rule of law and democratic institutions. This has led to tensions with the European Union and could impact the country's future relationship with the bloc.

Related article

Related article Computer scientist explains how robots see and translators translate Read more

It is said that Slovakia lies at the heart of Europe. Is this true?

Yes, Slovakia is often referred to as the "heart of Europe" due to its central location on the continent.

Slovakia's central location has played a significant role in its history, as it has been a crossroads for trade and cultural exchange between different regions of Europe. The country has been influenced by a variety of cultural traditions, including Slavic, Germanic, and Hungarian, among others.

Today, Slovakia's central location makes it an important transportation hub, with major highways and railways connecting it to other parts of Europe. This has also contributed to the country's economic development, as it has become a hub for manufacturing and technology industries in the region.

So, in summary, Slovakia's location in the heart of Europe has played a significant role in its history and continues to be an important factor in its economy and culture.

If you were to tell me a fun fact about Slovakia, what would it be?
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230228/penta-gone-1107885032.html

Penta-Gone

Penta-Gone

The United States military, with its official budget larger than the next nine countries combined, is quickly running low on weapons after sending over $100 billion in military assistance to Ukraine over the past year.

2023-02-28T23:53+0000

2023-02-28T23:53+0000

2023-04-13T12:45+0000

americas

ted rall

military assistance

ukraine

pentagon

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e7/02/1c/1107883777_0:0:2000:1125_1920x0_80_0_0_a5759d5c75c26a25a84df4996bde0475.jpg

The issue raises the question of whether the US military, ostensibly designed to be able to defeat two major powers at once, has weakened itself significantly in its quest to arm Ukrainians forces.There is also the question of where those weapons will ultimately end up. Multiple media reports over the past year have raised the specter of the weapons entering the black market and potentially being used against America or its allies.It has happened before. After the US armed and trained mujahideen fighters in their fight against the USSR in Afghanistan, some of those weapons and fighters were on the opposing side when the US invaded Afghanistan in 2001. And then it happened again when the Taliban retook the country in 2021, capturing significant caches of US military equipment originally supplied to the former Afghan government.

americas

ukraine

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2023

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

ted rall, ukraine, comic, weapons sent to ukraine, pentagon stock
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230228/report-governments-are-shutting-down-the-internet-more-than-ever-1107883524.html

Report: Governments Are Shutting Down the Internet More Than Ever

Report: Governments Are Shutting Down the Internet More Than Ever

Governments are using internet shutdowns to quell dissent and ahead of elections, school exams, or to prevent the spread of what they say is "misinformation."

2023-02-28T22:57+0000

2023-02-28T22:57+0000

2023-02-28T22:57+0000

world

internet censorship

internet

shutdown

india

myanmar

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/107053/91/1070539103_0:177:3857:2347_1920x0_80_0_0_1bd997805e936fd334726f25ec245098.jpg

According to Access Nows annual KeepItOn report, governments across the world are shutting down the internet more than ever, often in an attempt to squash dissent, limit discussions of controversial subjects, during elections, or as part of a broader strategy to damage infrastructure during military conflicts.The report states that 167 internet shutdowns occurred in 2022, compared to 112 in 2021, 99 in 2020 and 75 in 2019. The leading country, as it has been for the past five years, is India, with 84 shutdowns this year. But other governments are also increasingly using the practice. 2022 marked the first year since tracking started in 2016 that the number of shutdowns outside of India topped 100.Some of the internet shutdowns, 28, included in the report are shutdowns of specific services, like social media sites, and not the entire internet.Many of Indias shutdowns occurred in the Jammu and Kashmir regions, intended to squash protests and unrest in the region. The government has also, according to the report, refused to end shutdowns after being ordered to by the countrys Supreme Court.They are not alone, there were 62 shutdowns that Access Now says were done to quell unrest in areas, the longest coming from Myanmar which has the longest ongoing shutdown, set to exceed 540 days in March. Sixteen of the shutdowns in 2022 were carried over from 2021 and another 16, including the aforementioned Myanmar shutdown that began in 2021, carried over into 2023.One surprising trigger for internet shutdowns is school exams. Authorities implemented eight shutdowns in an attempt to prevent cheating during school exams, including four cases that shut off the internet for the entire country (Algeria, Jordan, Sudan and Syria) and four cases that shut down the internet in three specific regions (Kurdistan in Iraq and Assam and West Bengal in India.)Internet shutdowns do not just affect the protesters or students the government is targeting, but usually affect large swaths of the population indiscriminately, affecting the economy, tourism and daily life.I saved enough money to buy myself a smartphone, and started working as a delivery agent to provide for my family. My income depends on the internet. When the internet is shut down for days on end, I dont make a single rupee, a food delivery driver from Shillong, Meghalaya, India is quoted as saying in the report.The majority of shutdowns were intended to squash dissent and that has made it more difficult for activists and dissidents to fight back against oppressive regimes. In some places, we can only communicate over military-owned telecom operators networks, even when we know it is very risky, a person described in the report as a human rights defender in Myanmar said.While most shutdowns affect the entire population of an area in some way, oftentimes governments target mobile networks specifically to allow wired broadband access to continue. Access Now says this creates a digital divide in poorer countries where only the wealthy elite and some businesses have access to wired internet and the vast majority of activists and lower-class people rely on mobile networks for communications.There have been some technological attempts to enable internet access that cannot be easily shut down by the authorities. Of these technologies, mesh networks show the most promise. Rather than relying on a cellular network, mesh network devices act as nodes passing on information to other devices in that network. With small and cheap enough devices, activists could hide them around an entire city, creating an intranet that would allow communication to continue within the city. If one or more of the devices could connect to a router with an internet connection, it could also act as a waypoint for the rest of the devices and open up the entirety of the internet for devices on the network.But mesh networks have hurdles that must first be overcome to become a viable solution. While devices can be built fairly cheaply, what is cheap in the United States may be harder to obtain in developing or war-torn countries. There is also the issue of trust. If the devices are easily made and reproducible, then it would be trivial for governments to add a few nodes of their own to the network and monitor communications.The technology also isnt that popular in most regions that have the capital to bootstrap the project. Most populations in so-called 'first world' countries arent commonly subjected to government shutdowns and so their populations don't see the need for mesh network devices they may never use. This lack of investment limits the technologys ability to scale.In 2021, Vice Motherboard wrote an article profiling activists who were working on easily deployable mesh network devices that could be made with off-the-shelf products, but the projects website is down and its GitLab page hasnt been updated in two years.If the governments of those countries do decide to implement shutdowns, it may already be too late to spread information about the mesh networks and get them running.While the United States did not shut down the internet in 2023 according to the report, Its government is not above shutting down the internet. In 2011, the Bay Area Rapid Transit System (BART) shuttered its underground wireless network while dealing with protests that erupted after a police shooting, and in 2016 activists at Standing Rock claimed their cellphone signals would mysteriously disappear, interrupting livestreams that were showing police actions against protesters.Still, there are other mesh network projects ongoing, and projects like NYC Mesh not only have been used to provide internet for protesters, the company uses the technology to offer cheaper alternatives to traditional internet service providers.Of course, mesh networks would largely be unnecessary if governments simply stopped shutting down the internet, something Access Now suggests they do. Commit in law, policy, and practice to #KeepItOn at all times, and encourage other states to do the same, the report suggests.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20210215/internet-access-restored-in-protest-hit-myanmar-after-shutdown-watchdog-says-1082078723.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20141223/1016140523.html

myanmar

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2023

Ian DeMartino

Ian DeMartino

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

Ian DeMartino

internet shutdown, mesh networks, india internet shutdown, myanmar, jammu, kashmir internet, censorship
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230228/trump-pledges-to-ban-all-imports-of-essential-goods-from-china-if-elected-in-2024-1107883197.html

Trump Pledges to Ban All Imports of Essential Goods from China if Elected in 2024

Trump Pledges to Ban All Imports of Essential Goods from China if Elected in 2024

In his latest statement on prospective policy if he returns to power, former US President Donald Trump said he would ban all imports of essential goods from China within four years.

2023-02-28T22:27+0000

2023-02-28T22:27+0000

2023-02-28T22:26+0000

world

donald trump

tariff war

china

2024 us presidential elections

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e6/0c/0e/1105465898_0:0:3013:1696_1920x0_80_0_0_f6ea82f6b1d830c9eff13d1d78d53485.jpg

In his latest statement on prospective policy if he returns to power, former US President Donald Trump said he would ban all imports of essential goods from China within four years. His 2024 presidential campaign published a video on Tuesday announcing a plan it said takes a sledgehammer to Globalism with America First trade platform for 2nd term.Trump laid out four parts to his plan, the first of which is a system of universal tariffs on most foreign products, which would be tiered according to how much the country in question devalues its currency.Trump also said he would revoke Chinas Most Favored Nation trade status and adopt a four-year plan to phase out all Chinese imports of essential goods, everything from electronics to steel to pharmaceuticals.What he neglected to mention was that when he pursued a trade war with China during his first term, from 2017 to 2021, it did so much damage to American producers that his administration was repeatedly required to bail out American farmers. A report by the Council on Foreign Relations think tank in late October 2020 noted that 92% of the proceeds from his tariffs on Chinese goods had gone to farmer bailouts, which had reached $61 billion by that time.Trump was voted out of office in November 2020, but has sought to return in the 2024 elections. He was the first Republican to declare his candidacy after the November 2022 midterms and has since been joined by Nikki Haley, a former governor of South Carolina and former US ambassador to the United Nations, and Vivek Ramaswamy, a New York businessman who has achieved acclaim in conservative circles in recent years with a series of books.However, the man many believe poses the biggest challenge for Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, has yet to officially announce his candidacy. However, DeSantis has begun making more appearances at political events around the country, including meeting with local leaders in several northern states and launching a book tour. He does not plan to attend the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland later this week, where both Trump and Haley will be.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230222/xi-urges-politburo-to-push-massive-effort-to-place-china-at-head-of-global-sci-tech-revolution-1107720370.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20221205/from-banana-wars-to-steel-tariffs-trade-spats-that-marred-us-eu-trade-1105061855.html

china

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2023

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

donald trump, china, imports, 2024 us election
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230228/un-cannot-confirm-talks-on-grain-deal-extension-1107881573.html

UN Cannot Confirm Talks on Grain Deal Extension

UN Cannot Confirm Talks on Grain Deal Extension

The United Nations cannot confirm that any direct talks are underway on a possible extension of the Black Sea grain deal, spokesperson for the Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Eri Kaneko told Sputnik.

2023-02-28T20:52+0000

2023-02-28T20:52+0000

2023-02-28T20:52+0000

world

grain

the united nations (un)

extension

black sea

ukraine

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e7/01/07/1106110845_0:169:3043:1880_1920x0_80_0_0_3f0dc9ff8b13b66bbb6b7233d4931068.jpg

Earlier on Tuesday, Reuters reported, citing a Ukrainian government source, that Kiev has sent an appeal to the UN and Turkey to begin talks on extending the deal. The benefits of the deal for global food security are indisputable, she stressed. "The UN is working with all parties for the full implementation and continuation of the Initiative beyond March. Unimpeded exports of grain and fertilizers from Ukraine and Russian Federation are critical," the spokesperson added. In November, the grain deal was renewed for another 120 days. It is now set to expire on March 18, if not extended again. Russia has repeatedly criticized the agreement for failing to ensure unimpeded exports of Russian grain and fertilizer amid Western sanctions.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230210/russia-had-no-opportunity-yet-to-send-food-as-part-of-grain-deal-russian-envoy-to-un-says-1107295656.html

black sea

ukraine

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2023

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

united nations, grain deal extension, black sea initiative, ukraine, eri kaneko
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230228/western-officials-admitted-involvement-in-ukraine-conflict-says-serbian-president-1107884618.html

Western Officials Admitted Involvement in Ukraine Conflict, Says Serbian President

Western Officials Admitted Involvement in Ukraine Conflict, Says Serbian President

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said Western officials, in conversations with him, admitted involvement in the conflict in Ukraine and increasing pressure on Serbia due to Belgrade's refusal to support anti-Russian sanctions.

2023-02-28T23:25+0000

2023-02-28T23:25+0000

2023-04-12T17:05+0000

world

serbia

aleksandar vucic

ukraine crisis

european union (eu)

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e6/08/15/1099834048_0:143:3241:1966_1920x0_80_0_0_8d6ffc95a2c194c8e483372b752e8ccf.jpg

Speaking on Serbian TV channel, Vucic said that due to the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine, conversations with Western representatives have become more demanding and tough, including on the settlement in Kosovo.Vucic said Western officials announced a possible termination of investment in Serbia, withdrawal of already invested capital, shutdown of enterprises and suspension of its European integration if Belgrade remains intractable.The Serbian leader earlier said the West is increasing pressure on his country due to Belgrade's refusal to support anti-Russian sanctions.After the start of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine more than a year ago, the West stepped up sanctions pressure on Russia, which led to an increase in prices for electricity, fuel and food in Europe and the US.Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier said the policy to contain and weaken Russia is a long-term strategy for the West, and sanctions have dealt a severe blow to the entire global economy. According to him, the main goal of the West is to make the lives of millions of people worse. Russia has repeatedly said it will solve all the problems the West creates for it.

serbia

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2023

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, serbia, aleksandar vucic, eu put pressure on serbia, west threatens serbia with sanctions, west uses kosovo to strain serbia
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230301/battle-of-adwa-victory-over-european-supremacy-not-only-for-ethiopia-but-also-for-all-of-africa-1107897887.html

Battle of Adwa: Victory Over 'European Supremacy' Not Only For Ethiopia, But Also For All of Africa

Battle of Adwa: Victory Over 'European Supremacy' Not Only For Ethiopia, But Also For All of Africa

On March 1, 1896, as most of the African continent has fallen into the hands of European colonial powers, the forces of the then Ethiopian Empire ensured a decisive victory against Italian invading army at the Battle of Adwa.

2023-03-01T14:17+0000

2023-03-01T14:17+0000

2023-03-05T11:00+0000

africa

africa in details

east africa

ethiopia

colonialism

battle

russia

italy

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e7/03/01/1107906380_0:149:3024:1850_1920x0_80_0_0_4c19772e00432448bf30b5229470b202.jpg

Today, March 1, 2023, marks the 127th anniversary of the Battle of Adwa, where Ethiopian forces managed to defeat invading Italian troops and secure the independence and sovereignty of the Ethiopian Empire during the New Imperialism period, when European colonizers were scrambling for control of African land and resources. The battle came 11 years after the infamous Berlin Conference of 1884-85 that paved the way for the partition and colonization of Africa.The Battle of Adwa, which was the climax of the First Italo-Ethiopian War, took place in the early morning of Sunday, March 1, 1896, near the town of Adwa, located in Ethiopia's Tigray region. Supported by military equipment from the Russian Empire, as well as by a unit of Russian advisers, the army of Menelik II outnumbered the Italian forces, which were assisted by soldiers from the then-Italian-controlled Eritrea.After Italy's decisive defeat, the colonial power was forced to sign the Treaty of Addis Ababa in October 1896, which formally ended the First Italo-Ethiopian War on terms mostly favorable to the Ethiopian Empire and abrogated the Treaty of Wuchale that had been the core reason of the war. The previous treaty, signed between the Ethiopian Empire and Italy in May 1889, was initially aimed at promoting friendship and trade between the two nations, before Italy later claimed the agreement imposed a protectorate over Ethiopia, triggering a nearly two year-long war.The Battle of Adwa spoiled Italy's ambitious plans to expand its colonial empire in the Horn of Africa and also enforced the recognition of Ethiopia's sovereignty by other European colonial powers in the neighboring territories, in particular France and the United Kingdom, who concluded treaties with Ethiopia as an equal state.The battle became the first time in history when an African nation routed a strong European power since the time of General Hannibal of Carthage (present-day Tunisia), who, having "outsmarted and outdone the Roman army at every battle, besieged Rome itself," according to Haile Larebo, an associate professor at Morehouse College (US), Specialist in African Colonial History.Larebo underlines that the Ethiopian victory at Adwa invalidated the rules of the Berlin Conference of 1884-85 and "challenged the notion that 'might is right,' a doctrine that [had been] ingrained in the Western mind" since the discovery of the so-called New World.Hakim Adi, a professor of the History of Africa and the African Diaspora at the University of Chichester in the UK, says that the battle was a significant "example of an African state defending itself against colonial invasion."Another researcher, Shumet Sishagne, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of History, Christopher Newport University, believes that the convincing Ethiopian victory at Adwa "signified not only the survival of Ethiopian independence, but symbolized also the first major challenge to European imperialism."Symbol of African SovereigntyAdi, a British historian of African descent, stresses that the victory of the Ethiopian Empire against Italy was "extremely important" not only for the East African nations, but also for the pan-African anti-colonialist movement, as it was a victory over the ideology of so-called "European supremacy." He adds that Ethiopia's Emperor Menelik II, who personally led his army during the Battle of Adwa, became very well known throughout Africa as well as throughout the African diaspora all around the globe.Larebo shares a similar point of view. He adds that the victory at Adwa made Ethiopia a "symbolic land for Pan-Africanism, representing African self-respect and independence from European cultural and political domination."The Morehouse College professor adds that Italys sudden attack without prior declaration of war against the Ethiopian Empire in 1935, triggering the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, shocked Black people worldwide. According to Larebo, the pan-Africanist movement and its individual members played a "major role" in the mobilization of public opinion against the "Fascist occupation" and their campaign assisted in maintaining the "integrity and independence of Ethiopia."Sishagne argues that almost all the first generation of leaders of the anti-colonial struggle "trace their political awakening to this Ethiopian inspiration." He insists Ethiopia showed Africans that a "different future, free of European domination," was possible.Russian Empire's Role in Menelik's Adwa VictoryRussia provided assistance to Ethiopia during the First Italo-Ethiopian War and at the climactic Battle of Adwa, which secured Ethiopian sovereignty until Italy's second aggression 40 years later. Speaking about the matter, the two experts acknowledged that the then Russian Empire  which was invited to the Berlin Conference, but did not participate in Europe's colonial activities in Africa  provided Ethiopian Emperor Menelik II with assistance that created the conditions for the final military victory against Italy at Adwa.Prof. Adi points out that the diplomatic alliance between the two emperors of Russia and Ethiopia was "extremely important" for the Ethiopian side, and it gave them the "ability" to defeat a European power such as Italy.Professor Sishagne sees the cooperation between the Russian and Ethiopian Empires from a different angle. He believes the Ethiopians have had a special regard for Russia at the time, largely due to their Orthodox Christian affiliation.Sishagne pointed out that the Russian Empire was the only country that sent a medical team to assist Ethiopians wounded at the battle of Adwa, adding that the establishment of the Menelik II Hospital in 1909, the first in Ethiopia, "owes its creation" to the Russian medical team.Long-Term Consequences of VictoryBoth Professors Adi and Larebo agree that Ethiopia's Adwa victory played and continues to play a significant role in the history and present of Ethiopia and Africa. Larebo believes that Ethiopia "inspired anti-colonialist movements" across Africa and was seen as a "beacon of hope and freedom by those under the yoke of colonialism." Adi adds that although the victory was achieved over a century ago, it's still celebrated as one of the most significant events in the modern history of Africa that Africans, not only on the continent, but even Africans in the diaspora "can be proud of." It's worth mentioning that the Adwa Victory Day is a public holiday in all regional states and charter cities across Ethiopia.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20221026/new-african-generation-has-decided-to-refuse-western-domination-african-activist-says-1102667444.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230220/reinvigorating-pan-africanism-is-critical-ethiopian-pm-says-1107629464.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230207/russians--africans-united-by-common-mentality-says-scholar-1107016839.html

africa

east africa

ethiopia

russia

italy

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2023

Muhammad Nooh Osman https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e4/08/0e/1080170965_2:0:2050:2048_100x100_80_0_0_1de8233c87df0979e7e74f61b6ffacad.jpg

Muhammad Nooh Osman https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e4/08/0e/1080170965_2:0:2050:2048_100x100_80_0_0_1de8233c87df0979e7e74f61b6ffacad.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

Muhammad Nooh Osman https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e4/08/0e/1080170965_2:0:2050:2048_100x100_80_0_0_1de8233c87df0979e7e74f61b6ffacad.jpg

adwa battle, menelik, ethiopia war, wthiopia italy, aswa pan-africanism, aswa pan africanism
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230301/bidens-semiconductor-subsidies-may-turn-into-taxpayer-funded-romp-as-asian-chip-giants-forge-ahead-1107913159.html

Bidens Semiconductor Bid Comes Too Little, Too Late

Bidens Semiconductor Bid Comes Too Little, Too Late

Washington has outlined the details of a $39 billion program of subsidies incentivizing companies to build semiconductor manufacturing capacity in the USA. Could they restore the USs long-lost domestic semiconductor sector?

2023-03-01T17:08+0000

2023-03-01T17:08+0000

2023-03-01T17:30+0000

analysis

chips

microchip

semiconductors

taiwan semiconductor manufacturing company (tsmc)

chipmaker

subsidies

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e6/09/01/1100260807_0:161:3071:1888_1920x0_80_0_0_8c56868051685fe609092d64c4398afa.jpg

The Commerce Department officially opened applications for subsidies for chip manufacturing, outlining the conditions companies will have to meet to get some of the tens of billions in taxpayer money doled out to companies under the CHIPS and Science Act passed last year.Commerce will also be releasing a funding opportunity for semiconductor materials and equipment facilities in the late spring, and one for research and development facilities in the fall, the release added.The department outlined several priorities for the program, including the requirement that companies which receive $150 million or more share their profits with the government, and submit workforce development plans to ensure the recruitment and training of a large, skilled, and diverse workforce, including the provision of childcare for employees and construction workers. Taking note of the Biden administrations ever-present woke agenda, the department also promised special opportunities for minority-owned, veteran-owned, women-owned, and small businesses.In a possible bid to preempt questions about Americas commitment to private enterprise, and questions about how the subsidies package could hurt allies, Commerce promised that the US would coordinate with its partners to support a healthy global semiconductor ecosystem that drives innovation and is resilient to a range of disruptions, from cybersecurity threats to natural disasters and pandemics.An Idea Whose Time Has Come?$39 billion is a lot of money, says Chris Devonshire-Ellis, chairman of Dezan Shira & Associates, a pan-Asia professional services firm with over 30 years of experience under its belt.Ross Feingold, a veteran political risk analyst who has spent over two decades advising clients on investment-related political risks in China and Taiwan, echoes this sentiment, noting that on the face of it, the effort to rebuild an American electronics manufacturing base after decades of outsourcing and decline isnt a bad idea.US Allies Might Grumble, But Asia Will Retain Tech DominanceFeingold believes semiconductor makers among US allies, like South Korea or Taiwan, may take a hit as a result of the US subsidies programs. For example, no doubt and much to the worry of Samsung and TSMC, some of their employees will choose to remain in the US long term and eventually might become US permanent residents or citizens, he noted.Still, the US plans shouldnt be too much of a threat to the Asian giants, the observer believes, since they are so far ahead and so many billions in investment beyond the US commitment, absent some kind of underhanded moves on Washingtons part.Devonshire-Ellis believes the goal of the subsidies isnt strictly to relocate semiconductor production from Asia to the US, but an attempt by Washington to keep the development of even faster chips and processors to themselves and to stop countries like China, Russia and India of having immediate access to the latest improvements.Whether thats something Washington could actually achieve is another story, Devonshire-Ellis noted, since China is also investing in new processing technologies in a big way. It should also be remembered that much of the rare earths, gases and metals used in the next generation of computing are found in Asia, not the US. Even with superior tech, no one can build a house without the basic bricks, he said.Fuzzy DetailsThere are also many details which still need to be ironed out in terms of the subsidies incentivizing role, Feingold says. The observer doesnt expect the profit-sharing aspect of cooperation to be any sort of major disincentive, since companies will likely plan ahead to avoid having to make any outsized payments to the government.At the same time, Feingold notes, non-US companies may have a hard time getting access to funding in light of the increasingly draconian US regulations attempting to decouple China from international chip markets via bans and sanctions.At the same time, the observer noted, big picture-wise, the funding being granted by the CHIPS and Science Act remains just a drop in the bucket compared to whats needed, keeping in mind the estimated cost to build a 2nm chip fab can be tens of billions of dollars.As Asia Times deputy editor David P. Goldman pointed out in a prolific article on the US-China chip war last October, the $50 billion total CHIPS Act offers the equivalent of a meager $8 billion in subsidies per year, while Chinas subsidies to its nascent chip industries are already four times larger, meaning the US effort is the equivalent of bringing a knife to a gunfight.Another problem, Devonshire-Ellis points out, is that the subsidies plan doesnt offer details on the profitsharing threshold for outlays of $150 million or above. This may be to circumnavigate [World Trade Organization] rules which do not support government subsidies in international trade, but could open things up to waste, allowing companies to take the money and run, implying a lot could be wasted or frittered away.Also, there is a risk of China or similar manufacturing countries referring this to the WTO, Devonshire-Ellis noted. China already lodged a complaint in December about US semiconductor chip manufacturers about US export controls. The subsidies could open the US up for further legal trouble under WTO rules, the observer pointed out.Feingold concurs that the subsidies arent strictly following the holy canon of the free market capitalism which Washington and the institutions it controls have preached to the world for so long.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230114/us-japan-agree-to-deepen-cooperation-on-semiconductors-nuclear-energy-1106309597.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230226/frenemy-how-us-deprives-germany-of-strategic-autonomy-and-status-as-industrial-powerhouse--1107807263.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230129/why-we-fight-us-openly-salivates-over-ukraines-vast-untapped-titanium-reserves-1106799343.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230131/really-silly-actions-us-efforts-to-isolate-chinas-tech-sector-will-backfire-expert-says-1106863446.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230109/penny-wise-pound-foolish-us-embargo-driving-china-to-pioneer-own-semiconductor-industry-1106173244.html

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2023

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

microchips, semiconductors, industry, subsidies, us, asia, china, taiwan, south korea, pitfalls
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230301/blinkens-central-asia-trip-was-meant-to-open-a-second-front-against-russia-why-it-failed-1107915046.html

Blinken's Central Asia Trip Was Meant to Open a 'Second Front' Against Russia: Why It Failed

Blinken's Central Asia Trip Was Meant to Open a 'Second Front' Against Russia: Why It Failed

The US secretary of state has completed a two-day tour of Central Asia, traveling to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and meeting with the Kazakh, Uzbek, Kyrgyz, Tajik and Turkmeni foreign ministers in Astana. What was the point of the trip? And why are US options for challenging Russia and China in the region so dim? Sputnik explains.

2023-03-01T19:31+0000

2023-03-01T19:31+0000

2023-03-01T19:49+0000

analysis

antony blinken

us

central asia

kazakhstan

uzbekistan

visit

trip

purpose

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e7/03/01/1107914879_0:160:3073:1888_1920x0_80_0_0_b995ffa5ec2f7177acc81fa9c1a312fb.jpg

Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrapped up a visit to Central Asia on Wednesday, announcing a $25 million aid carrot meant to push countries to diversify trade away from Russia, reiterating US support for sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, and threatening them with the sanctions stick by warning that Washington is watching compliance on anti-Russia sanctions very closely.Were very conscious of the spillover consequences of Russias aggression. Were doing everything we can to minimize them, to mitigate them and create lots of different opportunities for partners here in Central Asia, Blinken said during his meeting with Kazakh Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tileuberdi on Tuesday.Blinken also took a break from regional affairs to take a potshot at China, the other major partner of Central Asia besides Russia, accusing Beijing of trying to have it both ways by rolling out an Ukraine peace plan while simultaneously continu[ing] to fuel the flames of the fire that Vladimir Putin started by refusing to join Washington in its global effort to sanction Moscow into submission.Blinkens travels took him to the Kazakh capital of Astana, and to Tashkent, capital of Uzbekistan.Why These Countries?These two countries are key regional leaders in terms of their economic, raw materials, demographic, military-political and all other potential, says Andrei Grozin, a veteran Central Asia expert at the Moscow-based institute of CIS Countries.The US strategy for Central Asia has revolved around Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan since at least the George W. Bush era, when American Eurasian affairs S. Frederick Starr posited that where the Uzbeks and the Kazakhs go, the rest of the region will follow, Grozin explained in an interview.Tashkent, for its part, is interesting [to Washington] as the regional leader dominating in the demographic sense. About half of the 72-75 million population of Central Asia are citizens of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Grozin said.Carrot and StickThe purpose of Blinkens trip is clear and is centered around the geopolitical circumstances which are currently being observed in the region, says Dr. Stanislav Pritchin, a senior research fellow at the Center for Post-Soviet Studies at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, a leading Moscow-based international relations-focused research center.At the same time, outwardly, the West expresses its readiness to cooperate with the region, to develop some mythical projects which will ultimately allow Central Asian countries to feel more confident in their relations with Russia, the observer said.The problem, according to the academic, is that since the closure of the last US military base in Central Asia in 2014  when US forces returned the Manas airbase to Kyrgyz forces, is that Washingtons arguments urging less cooperation with Russia carry little practical weight. Thats because the West cannot promise the same kinds of economic opportunities, integration projects, or regional security structures.The US strategy of trying to push Russia and China out of the region is an absolutely impossible and fantastical idea, according to Pritchin, because the West simply cannot step into the latter two countries shoes by virtue of geographical and historical realities.Russia and China mean trade  serving as the key trade partners of the countries of Central Asia. Russia and China mean education, social and economic stability, and labor migration, Pritchin stressed. And there is nothing the US can do to challenge this state of affairs apart from immense investments of time and financial resources which Washington does not have.Grozin concurs, pointing out that neither during Blinkens trip nor in State Department releases did Washington offer any kind of large-scale projects which might interest Central Asian countries or sway them away from its regional partners.The academic pointed to Central Asias ties to Russia by the sheer weight of economic ties ($9.3 billion in trade with Uzbekistan, $22.5 billion with Kazakhstan, $3 billion with Kyrgyzstan in 2022, and up to 4 million Central Asian migrant laborers working in Russia). These people would either have to be sent to America, or offered some other markets and means of earning money. Millions of people out of work. Where would the US put them? And thats just one little detail, the observer emphasized.Were talking about established economic ties within the framework of global economic, continental systems which the Americans propose to simply abandon, Grozin said.Grozin estimates rebuilding the established system would cost tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars, and many, many years. Furthermore, some geographic limitations are simply impossible to realign, given, for example, that Kazakhstan exports about 70 percent of its oil to world markets through Russia and the Caspian Pipeline Consortium.Controlled ChaosThe one constant of the US' 30-year strategy in Central Asia has been support for color revolutions, various NGOs associated with the Democracy Institute, USAID, George Soros Open Democracy Foundations and other affiliated structures. However, these tools have not only proven geographically limited (largely to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan), but have failed to bring the expected fruits of bringing anti-Russian, anti-China governments to power and keeping them in power, according to Grozin.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230224/kazakh-energy-firm-suggests-russias-gazprom-build-gas-pipeline-to-china-via-kazakhstan-1107780309.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230210/eu-seeking-access-to-central-asian-resources-to-replace-supplies-from-russia-moscow-says-1107323831.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20221121/why-eus-plan-to-sideline-russia-and-china-in-central-asia-is-sad-joke-1104512055.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20220829/cash-for-chaos-four-times-us-toppled-european--central-asian-governments-using-the-almighty-dollar-1100135800.html

central asia

kazakhstan

uzbekistan

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2023

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

antony blinken, central asia, trip, visit, analysis, explanation, review
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230301/chemical-weapons-provocation-brewing-in-ukraine-anti-war-movement-grows-bakhmut-encirclement-near-1107886012.html

Chemical Weapons Provocation Brewing in Ukraine; Anti-War Movement Grows; Bakhmut Encirclement Near

Chemical Weapons Provocation Brewing in Ukraine; Anti-War Movement Grows; Bakhmut Encirclement Near

Anti-war protests in the US and Europe reveal a restive electorate and Russian specialists signal a potential chemical weapons provocation stirring in Ukraine. 01.03.2023, Sputnik International

2023-03-01T09:11+0000

2023-03-01T09:11+0000

2023-03-01T09:11+0000

the critical hour

radio

ukraine

taiwan

japan

jericho

yuan

shanghai cooperation organisation (sco)

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e7/03/01/1107885866_0:0:1920:1080_1920x0_80_0_0_a3546c9a126c72e85eea79d5d5a7a0c4.png

Chemical Weapons Provocation Brewing in Ukraine; Anti-War Movement Grows; Bakhmut Encirclement Near Anti-war protests in the US and Europe reveal a restive electorate and Russian specialists signal a potential chemical weapons provocation stirring in Ukraine.

Mark Sleboda, Moscow-based international relations security analyst, joins us to discuss Ukraine. Russia specialists signal their fears that chemical weapons provocations may be stirring in Ukraine. Also, the town of Artemovsk (Bakhmut) is nearly encircled and the president of Belarus is visiting China.KJ Noh, writer, teacher, and activist, joins us to discuss China. China continues to push its peace plan for Ukraine as it hosts the president of Belarus. Also, Taiwan is criminalizing "spreading rumors" and Russia is moving towards the yuan and other international currencies.Jim Kavanagh, whose work can be found at Jim Kavanagh's Substack, thepolemicist.net, and Counterpunch, joins us to discuss the antiwar movement. Anti-war protests in Europe over the weekend reveal a restive electorate that is waking up to the danger of nuclear war. Also, Ron Paul has authored a piece in which he posits that the movement is roaring back to life.Dr. Margaret Flowers, activist, and editor of "PopularResistance.org," joins us to discuss domestic politics. The Israeli attack on non-profits has moved to the US as the "Alliance For Global Justice" is being demonetized. Also, anti-China rhetoric is blowing up and the Biden administration is funneling billions for war and neglecting the needs of the electorate.Laith Marouf, broadcaster, and journalist based in Beirut, Lebanon, joins us to discuss the Middle East. International outrage grows and Israeli settlers, protected by the military, rampage in a fury of hate and violence against innocent Palestinians. Also, Russia is supplying advanced military hardware to Iran.Dr. Jack Rasmus, professor of Economics and Politics at St. Mary's College in California, joins us to discuss war-time economics. Dr. Rasmus reviews his predictions for the Ukraine conflict. Also, we discuss how Russia managed to survive the Western sanctions and the growth of alternative economic alliances.Linwood Tauheed, associate professor of Economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, joins us to discuss domestic economics. A Supreme Court case will affect student loan forgiveness.Ted Rall, political cartoonist, and syndicated columnist, joins us to discuss domestic policy. Russia Gate demonstrates the death of Western journalism. Also, a lawsuit against Fox News for defamation moves forward and the antiwar movement seems to be waking up.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.

ukraine

japan

jericho

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2023

Garland Nixon https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e5/02/13/1082125302_0:0:239:239_100x100_80_0_0_d5d43c970b0740f228597fbcdb4ffd66.jpg

Garland Nixon https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.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://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e5/02/13/1082125302_0:0:239:239_100x100_80_0_0_d5d43c970b0740f228597fbcdb4ffd66.jpg

radio, ukraine, taiwan, japan, jericho, yuan, shanghai cooperation organisation (sco), 
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230301/cuba-protests-us-decision-to-grant-asylum-to-cuban-aircraft-hijacker---foreign-ministry-1107886325.html

Cuba Protests US Decision to Grant Asylum to Cuban Aircraft Hijacker - Foreign Ministry

Cuba Protests US Decision to Grant Asylum to Cuban Aircraft Hijacker - Foreign Ministry

MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) - Cuba has strongly protested the actions of Washington that granted asylum to a Cuban who hijacked an Antonov An-2 aircraft to fly to... 01.03.2023, Sputnik International

2023-03-01T01:12+0000

2023-03-01T01:12+0000

2023-03-01T01:12+0000

americas

cuba

amnesty

airplane

hijacking

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e7/03/01/1107886179_0:61:1024:637_1920x0_80_0_0_134a0d385841f867e0a0ae0e1295210c.jpg

In October 2022, Cuban agricultural pilot Ruben Martinez Machado, flying the An-2 aircraft of Cuban air company Empresa Nacional de Servicios Aereos SA (ENSA), did not return to El Cedro airfield after completing his scheduled flight. On the same day, US media reported that the pilot had landed in the US state of Florida. The ministry said that it has requested the extradition of "the perpetrator of this act of air piracy" and the return of the aircraft in four notes verbales, adding that the acts of air piracy are covered by various international conventions ratified by Cuba and the US, and the impunity for this type of crime "sets a negative and dangerous precedent." The ministry noted that Washington encourages and tolerates air piracy to destabilize the situation in the island nation despite the negative consequences of such incidents, and the US government and judicial system become "accomplices" of air piracy and aircraft hijacking.

americas

cuba

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2023

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

cuba, amnesty, airplane, hijacking
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230301/finnish-parliament-approves-bill-on-joining-nato-1107901985.html

Finnish Parliament Approves Bill on Joining NATO

Finnish Parliament Approves Bill on Joining NATO

The Finnish parliament has approved on Wednesday a bill submitted by the government on the country's accession to NATO

2023-03-01T12:27+0000

2023-03-01T12:27+0000

2023-03-01T12:28+0000

military

sweden

finland

nato

nato expansion

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e6/05/14/1095655251_0:0:2833:1594_1920x0_80_0_0_493eddc6a465db16da0b73ade4794ff4.jpg

The bill was approved by 184 votes, seven parliament members were absent, and one abstained. The document will now need to be approved by Finnish President Sauli Niinisto to finalize the ratification of the country's application to NATO at the national level. Finland and Sweden applied for NATO membership in May 2022 following the start of Russia's military operation in Ukraine. By the end of 2022, their applications were ratified by 28 out of 30 NATO member states, with the exception of Hungary and Turkey.The accession process came to a standstill in January 2023 following Quran-burning incidents in Europe, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan saying that Sweden should not count on Ankara's support for its NATO bid. In February, Turkey discussed with other NATO members the possibility of approving Finland's application separately. The talks with Sweden also resumed.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230228/to-veto-or-not-to-veto-sweden-and-finlands-nato-bids-in-limbo-as-turkiye-hungary-mull-pros--cons-1107877919.html

sweden

finland

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2023

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

finnish parliament, accession to nato, finnish accession to nato
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230301/gabonese-anti-francafrique-front-plans-massive-pots-and-pans-protests-against-macrons-visit-1107912569.html

Gabonese Anti-Francafrique Front Plans Massive Pots-and-Pans Protests Against Macron's Visit

Gabonese Anti-Francafrique Front Plans Massive Pots-and-Pans Protests Against Macron's Visit

Gabon is seeing an emerging campaign against an upcoming visit by French President Emmanuel Macron. The Gabonese call for an end to French interference in the affairs of the country and the abolition of the Franc of the CFA franc.

2023-03-01T18:51+0000

2023-03-01T18:51+0000

2023-03-01T18:51+0000

africa

central africa

gabon

democratic republic of the congo

angola

republic of the congo

emmanuel macron

africa insight

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e7/03/01/1107913705_0:0:3073:1728_1920x0_80_0_0_4574c18a584dc86f4a5eb6f2ba6592c8.jpg

Gabon is seeing an emerging campaign against the upcoming visit by French President Emmanuel Macron. The Gabonese are calling for an end to French interference in the internal affairs of the country and the abolition of the African Financial Community franc (the CFA franc) inherited from colonial France.Concerning the sentiments among people in the country, Privat Ngomo, speaker of the Federation of the Civil and Anti-Francafrique Movements of Gabon, has made a few comments on the situation in an interview with Sputnik.Movements against the visit are spreading across the country, rejecting the influence and presence of the former metropole, which is supported by the current government under President Ali Bongo, the activist notes.Ngomo says the way the Gabonese have chosen to show their displeasure with Macron's arrival in the country is a pots-and-pans protest.A pots-and-pans protest (Fr.  concert de casseroles) is a form of public protest which was practised in France by the opponents of the July Monarchy and at the end of the Algerian War of Independence and is popular in Hispanophone and Francophone countries.The campaign is designed to express opposition against the French heritage in Gabon. The protesters want a French military base, the sixth Marine Infantry Battalion located in the capital Libreville and established in 1975, to be closed.Along with the closure of the military base, the protesters are calling for the abolition of the CFA franc and demanding that France not intervene in the internal affairs of Gabon.The protests are not of an anti-French nature, the activist says, adding: "We see the difference between the [ordinary] French people and French officials, which since the 15th century have been plundering Africa, first during slavery, then colonialism, and now neo-colonialism in order to enrich themselves."In Libreville, Macron is going to attend the One Forest environmental summit dedicated to preserving the forests of the Congo river basin.Gabon is the first country on Macron's list to visit along with Angola, the Republic of the Congo, and the DRC.Recently, Macron revealed that the French government was planning to reshape the French military presence in Africa under a "new security partnership" with a minimum of French troops.His statements followed the French troop withdrawal from Burkina Faso this year and Mali in summer last year after deterioration of relations with local governments. At the same time, in countries where a French military presence still exists, people are protesting, demanding the foreign troops get out.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230301/putin-portraits-russian-flags-protests-reported-against-macrons-visit-to-dr-congo-1107904718.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230228/new-french-policy-in-africa-paris-cant-fully-break-from-past-rooted-in-colonialism---experts-1107870217.html

africa

central africa

gabon

democratic republic of the congo

angola

republic of the congo

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2023

Roman Sanin

Roman Sanin

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

Roman Sanin

gabon, libreville, macron, visit, african tour, protests, pots-and-pans
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230301/green-colonialism-greta-thunberg-joins-indigenous-protest-opposing-wind-power-in-norway-1107891465.html

Green 'Colonialism'? Greta Thunberg Joins Indigenous Protest Opposing Wind Power in Norway

Green 'Colonialism'? Greta Thunberg Joins Indigenous Protest Opposing Wind Power in Norway

While starting off as a pure environmentalist, Thunberg transitioned to a jack-of-trades type of activist, campaigning for everything from indigenous communities to trans rights.

2023-03-01T07:57+0000

2023-03-01T07:57+0000

2023-03-01T07:57+0000

viral

environment

europe

norway

greta thunberg

news

scandinavia

wind power

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e5/08/0a/1083567752_0:113:2160:1328_1920x0_80_0_0_ba93a2de002c9d931d3a44200a0b3b2e.jpg

In a rather remarkable turn of events, a massive protest opposing the construction of a wind farm led by Norway's indigenous Sami community was joined by celebrated Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, who ordinarily takes the "green" side of events and is a vocal advocate for ending the world's reliance on carbon-based power and fossil fuels.This time, however, Thunberg astonishingly chose the side fighting the green transition, by chaining herself alongside other activists to a side-entrance of Norway's Oil and Energy Ministry, until numerous police cars arrived to break up the demonstration.When confronted by journalists as to why she was protesting against wind power that she would otherwise be in favor of, Thunberg replied that it was not a question of opposition to wind power, but a human rights violation issue.The wind power plant at Fosen outside the city of Trondheim in Norway has been an arena for hot debates for several decades. The indigenous Sami community has used the mountainous terrain for the winter herding of reindeer ever since the 16th century. However, since the 2000s, Norway's largest wind farm has grown there instead. The protests and lawsuits have been carrying on for almost two decades, culminating in a recent police action against protesters who occupied the Oil and Energy ministrys lobby in downtown Oslo and refused to leave. The activists were carried out one by one, given citations, yet released  only to continue their protest.Norway's Supreme Court in 2021 ruled that the wind farms built at Fosen in central Norway violated Sami historical rights under international conventions, but the over 150 turbines remain in operation more than 16 months later  a situation the Energy Ministry itself described as a legal quandary, pledging to find a solution that would allow the turbines and the pastures to somehow co-exist.This is also the latest in the string of clashes between the Norwegian state and the Sami community, which involve pastures being turned into constructions sites for wind parks and rivers being dammed up for the sake of hydropower.In her heydey, Greta Thunberg shot to international fame and recognition across the world as a 15-year-old teenager by organizing her now famous global Fridays for Future movement, where she would protest outside the Swedish parilament. Basking in the media spotlight and gaining the admiration of politicians that she herself castigated for failing both the planet and the public, Thunberg became an environmentalist sensation and a climate guru of sorts. Ever since then, she has continued to tour the globe, delivering emotional speeches and admonishing world leaders on their failure to properly address the climate dilemma, while receiving countless accolades and trophies, in addition to teaming up with celebrities-turned-environmentalists.Recently, however, Thunberg added the support of indigenous communities across the globe and sexual minorities to her increasingly political and somewhat contradictory repertoir, using catchwords like "colonialism," "feminism," "toxic masculinity" and "trans rights."

https://sputnikglobe.com/20221129/finnish-government-faces-first-ever-lawsuit-over-climate-inaction-amid-backfiring-sanctions-1104806623.html

norway

scandinavia

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2023

Igor Kuznetsov

Igor Kuznetsov

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

Igor Kuznetsov

greta thunberg, environmental activism, wind power, indigenous communities, renewable energy
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230301/iran-hopes-to-sign-new-treaty-on-relations-with-russia-in-2023-ambassador-1107898061.html

Iran Hopes to Sign New Treaty on Relations With Russia in 2023: Ambassador

Iran Hopes to Sign New Treaty on Relations With Russia in 2023: Ambassador

Tehran hopes that a new treaty on relations with Russia will be signed in 2023 to cap preparations for a basic interstate treaty which began back in 2020

2023-03-01T10:32+0000

2023-03-01T10:32+0000

2023-03-01T10:32+0000

russia

russia

iran

treaty

relations

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/106738/00/1067380089_0:97:1024:673_1920x0_80_0_0_8c4b94c8d813255d792f8ec7ca18c331.jpg

"We hope to have this agreement signed by our two governments in 2023," Jalali said in an interview with a Russian newspaper. The ambassador noted that Tehran had already sent a draft treaty to Moscow, adding that the sides are currently conducting a detailed final study of the document. On February 9, Russian Ambassador in Tehran Alexey Dedov told Sputnik that the document would be of strategic importance, but it was essential that the treaty be "solid, balanced and reflect the new realities of bilateral cooperation." According to the diplomat, the treaty will outline the main guidelines for further building of the entire complex of Russian-Iranian relations for the coming decades.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230209/russia-iran-studying-use-of-digital-currencies-for-export-import-operations-1107113086.html

russia

iran

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2023

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

iran's relations with russia, interstate treat, sign new treaty
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230301/jurassic-era-discovery-marks-record-after-rare-insect-discovered-at-arkansas-walmart-1107885144.html

Jurassic-Era Discovery Marks Record After Rare Insect Discovered at Arkansas Walmart

Jurassic-Era Discovery Marks Record After Rare Insect Discovered at Arkansas Walmart

The Polystoechotes punctata (giant lacewing) is the first ever of its kind to be recorded in Arkansas and is the first ever to be recorded in eastern North America in over 50 years after being extirpated due to unknown reasons.

2023-03-01T00:09+0000

2023-03-01T00:09+0000

2023-03-01T00:08+0000

science & tech

entomology

insects

insects

insects

flying insects

science

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/102406/21/1024062178_0:0:4642:2612_1920x0_80_0_0_27ceee12c761592c24d8f2b3b9321c4b.jpg

The recently-identified giant lacewing is an insect that was once widespread across North America until it went extinct by the 1950s. But in 2012, an entomologist named Michael Skvarla went to a Walmart in Fayetteville, Arkansas to pick up milk. On his way into the store he noticed a strange looking insect on the side of the building.Skvarla, who was a doctoral student at the time, believed it to be some kind of common flying insect, however he noticed its massive size and collected the insect.I remember it vividly because I was walking into Walmart to get milk and I saw this huge insect on the side of the building, said Skvarla, who is now the director of Penn States Insect Identification Lab.I thought it looked interesting, so I put it in my hand and did the rest of my shopping with it between my fingers. I got home, mounted it, and promptly forgot about it for almost a decade.Later, when Skvarla began teaching an online course during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, he decided to use his personal insect collection for his curriculum. While teaching, the academic found that his 2012 Walmart insect looked more like a lacewing than an antlion---but this lacewing had a wingspan of a massive two inches.We were watching what Dr. Skvarla saw under his microscope and hes talking about the features and then just kinda stops, Codey Mathis, a doctoral candidate in entomology at Penn State, said.We all realized together that the insect was not what it was labeled and was in fact a super-rare giant lacewing. I still remember the feeling. It was so gratifying to know that the excitement doesnt dim, the wonder isnt lost. Here we were making a true discovery in the middle of an online lab course.Skvarla and his colleagues at the university then performed molecular DNA analysis on the insect. Fayetteville, where the Walmart bug was found, lies in the Ozark Mountains, an area which suspected to be a hotspot for biodiversity. According to Skvarla, the area, which hosts dozens of endemic species, is also understudied compared to other areas with a similar biodiversity such as the Southern Appalachians.This combination makes the region an ideal place for a large, showy insect to hide undetected, wrote Skvarla and J. Ray Fisher of the Mississippi Entomological Museum at Mississippi State University, the co-author of his paper.While giant lacewings have been recorded in Alaska and Panama, they have not been seen in the eastern part of the world for about half of a century.Entomology can function as a leading indicator for ecology, Skvarla said. The fact that this insect was spotted in a region that it hasnt been seen in over half a century tells us something more broadly about the environment.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230208/truly-exciting-discovery-officials-decipher-letters-belonging-to-mary-queen-of-scots-1107061739.html

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2023

Mary Manley https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e6/01/0b/1092187887_0:0:2048:2049_100x100_80_0_0_0c2cc4c84f89aff034cc55bb01fb6697.jpg

Mary Manley https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e6/01/0b/1092187887_0:0:2048:2049_100x100_80_0_0_0c2cc4c84f89aff034cc55bb01fb6697.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

Mary Manley https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e6/01/0b/1092187887_0:0:2048:2049_100x100_80_0_0_0c2cc4c84f89aff034cc55bb01fb6697.jpg

polystoechotes punctata, giant lacewing, rare insect, arkansas walmart, jurassic era, north america
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230301/kiev-urged-to-start-its-own-defense-spending-planning-as-costs-of-arms-shipments-to-ukraine-soar-1107903248.html

Kiev Urged to 'Start Its Own Defense Spending Planning' as Costs of Arms Shipments to Ukraine Soar

Kiev Urged to 'Start Its Own Defense Spending Planning' as Costs of Arms Shipments to Ukraine Soar

The Kiev authorities have been urged to foot the bill for part of the western arms shipments by a top Pentagon official.

2023-03-01T13:48+0000

2023-03-01T13:48+0000

2023-03-01T13:48+0000

ukraine

m1 abrams tank

leopard 2

joe biden

matt gaetz

christine wormuth

world

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e7/03/01/1107901619_0:160:3073:1888_1920x0_80_0_0_39b0e02bafaf2676f57b25fc77117845.jpg

The Kiev regime should begin to cover at least part of the cost of arms shipments it receives, instead of totally relying on an endless supply of free weapons from the West, US Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Celeste Wallander said.Ukraine's authorities havent done any big figure procurement from American companies, Wallander told Congress, adding:Her words came in response to a grilling from lawmakers on February 28 amid concerns about the increasingly steep price tag of continuing to fan the flames of the Ukraine conflict by sending weapons shipments. The US should initiate foreign military sales to Ukraine, Rep. Michael Garcia (R-Calif.) said at a House Appropriations Committee hearing, adding that it would go a long way with American taxpayers.As to the American M1 Abrams tanks promised earlier to Ukraine, the US Army currently does not have any tanks "that could be transferred or sent to Ukraine, Wallander was quoted as saying. The Pentagon official noted that funds previously allocated towards helping Ukraine are "sufficient for current plans." The delivery of US-made Abrams tanks to Ukraine may take up to a year or even more, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said on February 23.US President Joe Biden has vowed to support Ukraine for as long as it takes, despite rapidly depleting stockpiles, with Washington committing more than $31.7 billion in security assistance to support Kiev authorities. Earlier in the year, Germany finally gave in to Washington's pressure and committed to sending 14 Leopard 2A6 tanks to Kiev, after the United States said it would send Ukraine 31 Abrams tanks and eight M88 recovery vehicles. Poland said it could send 14 Leopard 2 tanks, with Kiev's other allies also promising to do their bit.However, the warmongering stance on the part of the Biden administration has been opposed by some politicians within the US Republican Party. In February, a group of GOP lawmakers put forward the Ukraine Fatigue Resolution, urging Washington to end its military and financial aid to Ukraine and calling on all combatants to reach a peace agreement. Russia has repeatedly warned that all arms shipments to Ukraine will only prolong the conflict, and may fall into the hands of terrorists or end up on the black market. In April 2022, Moscow sent a note to NATO member states condemning their military assistance to Kiev after Russia started its military operation in Ukraine. Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that any arms shipments on Ukrainian territory would be "legitimate targets" for Russian forces.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230223/delivery-of-us-abrams-tanks-to-ukraine-may-take-up-to-1-year-or-more---army-secretary-1107750806.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230127/four-reasons-leopard-2s--m1-abrams-will-bite-the-dust-in-ukraine-1106772754.html

ukraine

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2023

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

kiev authorities, to foot the bill, western arms shipments, top pentagon official, us assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, celeste wallander, leopard 2 battle tanks, m1 abrams tank, defense spending planning, us army, does not have tanks that could be transferred, sent to ukraine, ukraine fatigue resolution, end military and financial aid to ukraine
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230301/nato-bid-finnished-helsinki-police-probe-burning-of-erdogan-photo-outside-turkish-embassy-1107901174.html

NATO Bid Finnished? Helsinki Police Probe Burning of 'Erdogan Photo' Outside Turkish Embassy

NATO Bid Finnished? Helsinki Police Probe Burning of 'Erdogan Photo' Outside Turkish Embassy

Turkiye has held up the Nordic nations bid to join the Western alliance for months, citing insufficient action against Kurdish militants Ankara considers terrorists and, more recently, burnings of the Quran by Swedish activists.

2023-03-01T12:20+0000

2023-03-01T12:20+0000

2023-03-01T13:12+0000

world

finland

nato

recep tayyip erdogan

burning

protest

europe

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/106462/78/1064627830_0:0:4016:2259_1920x0_80_0_0_869cf5ecc46d5abe1208cd0a1866f1db.jpg

Helsinki police have launched a preliminary probe into the possible burning of a photo of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a demonstration outside the Turkish Embassy in the Finnish capital on Sunday.Police intervened in the demonstration, which did not receive permission to go ahead from authorities, arresting four individuals, including both Finnish and foreign nationals. The protest was reportedly organized by A-Ryhma, a Helsinki-based anarchist group, and by Kurdistan puolesta, a local pro-Kurdish advocacy group.The protesters, released from custody, have been accused of resisting arrest, harassing an official, and defamation, which in the Finnish Criminal Code is defined as spreading false information or a false insinuation of another person, subjecting that person to contempt, or disparaging another person in any other manner. Defamation is punishable by a fine. However, aggravated defamation, defined as defamation which causes considerable suffering or particularly sufficient damage, may mean a prison term of up to two years.Finnish law has no provisions for the criminal defamation of public officials, the head of state, foreign heads of state, and foreign states symbols.However, Porola said the requirements for punishment may be met if the person in the photo burned is recognizable (in this case, as the image of the Turkish president). The case will be handed over to prosecutors if the preliminary investigation concludes there is grounds for the case to proceed, according to police.Finnish authorities have been on their toes looking out for possible anti-Turkish demonstrations and actions amid fear of a Sweden-style scenario in which the actions of local protesters prompted Ankara to threaten to withhold approval for the countrys entry into the NATO alliance. Last month, Finnish police reported preventing the burning of a Quran at a rally in Helsinki by threatening legal action against protest organizers.In late January, responding to Quran-burning protests, Erdogan warned that Turkiye could make a decision that would shock Stockholm and approve Finlands entry into NATO without simultaneously approving Swedens application. The same month, the Turkish president said Ankara was still waiting for 130 individuals it considers Kurdish terrorists to be extradited to Turkiye from the Nordic nations.Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu reiterated Monday that Sweden has yet to implement all of the steps necessary for Turkeys approval of its NATO membership bid, saying the continued operation of Kurdish Workers Party activists in the country means that at this stage we cannot approve its entry into the alliance.Finnish MPs voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to accept the terms of the NATO accession treaty, with the document now set to be rubber stamped by President Niinisto. Finland and Swedens major political parties overwhelmingly approved applications to join the bloc last May after Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine.Hungary is the only NATO country besides Turkiye which has yet to ratify Finland and Swedens accession bid. Last week, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said his countrys parliament was not enthusiastic about ratifying the protocols, given the shameless lies being spread about Budapest in the two countries, including false allegations about human rights abuses and the rule of law.Political observers told Sputnik that the Nordics NATO bid may be held up for some time, particularly in the case of Turkiye, given that in addition to national pride, the countrys reasons for holding up the vote include national security concerns.Turkiye and Hungarys decision to hold up the Nordic nations accession into the bloc has proven embarrassing to the Biden administration, and stand at odds with US President Joe Bidens claims last week that Russias military operation in Ukraine had caused the NATOization of Finland  and Sweden instead of the Findalization [sic] of NATO.Helsinki and Stockholms push to join the Western alliance breaks with a decades (and in Swedens case centuries) old tradition of neutrality, which allowed both countries to remain non-aligned during the Cold War, and allowed Sweden to stay out of the ruinous wars of the 20th century.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230227/turkish-foreign-minister-says-ankara-still-unable-to-approve-swedens-nato-application-1107840694.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230228/to-veto-or-not-to-veto-sweden-and-finlands-nato-bids-in-limbo-as-turkiye-hungary-mull-pros--cons-1107877919.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230228/finnish-pm-says-delay-in-admission-of-nordics-to-nato-harms-blocs-credibility-1107871939.html

finland

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2023

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, finland, recep tayyip erdogan, nato, membership, alliance, accession
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230301/ni-protocol-deal-shores-up-sunaks-support-among-tory-backbenchers-1107896753.html

NI Protocol Deal Shores Up Sunak's Support Among Tory Backbenchers

NI Protocol Deal Shores Up Sunak's Support Among Tory Backbenchers

The EU refused to re-open talks on the problematic Northern Ireland protocol when pro-Brexit Boris Johnson was British prime minister, but has compromised with his successor as it marches in lock-step with the UK on Ukraine.

2023-03-01T12:29+0000

2023-03-01T12:29+0000

2023-03-01T12:29+0000

rishi sunak

1922 committee

boris johnson

uk

world

ursula von der leyen

european union (eu)

brexit

northern ireland protocol

europe

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e7/03/01/1107900949_0:0:3066:1725_1920x0_80_0_0_411e50009c6d81db85a34cc8034c2068.jpg

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has consolidated support in his own party after striking a deal with the European Union (EU) on the contentious Northern Ireland Protocol.Sunak and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen reached agreement on Monday on the annexe to the UK's 2020 withdrawal agreement from the EU  sweetened by a royal audience with King Charles III at Windsor Castle for the unelected Brussels chief.The so-called Windsor Framework sees the EU drop its insistence on customs checks on goods shipped from the British mainland to Northern Ireland, which remains in the European single market under the protocol on the grounds of maintaining the 1999 Good Friday peace agreement between sectarian terrorist groups. It comes amid greater unity between Downing Street and Brussels than when the UK was still a member of the bloc, as Western nations rush to arm Ukraine in its conflict with Russia. Von der Leyen, who dubbed the PM "dear Rishi" at a press conference, had flatly refused to renegotiate the protocol with his predecessors Liz Truss and Boris Johnson. Conservative peer Robert Hayward, an elections pundit, said the protocol deal was the "first significant event" since Sunak took office. He added that it had put those lobbying for Johnson's return to Downing Street "heavily on the back foot."Parliamentary Defence Committee chairman Tobias Ellwood, a strident opponent of Brexit who has also called for direct British military intervention in Ukraine by sending Royal Air Force fighters to enforce a no-fly zone, hailed the Windsor deal."Our standard of statecraft has moved up a couple of gears," Ellwood claimed. "Bombastic populism may rally a small base but does not appeal to the wider electorate whose support is needed to win elections," he said in a clear jibe at Johnson's election-winning style.Under Sunak, Conservative polling support has slumped to trail the opposition Labour party by more than 20 percentage points.But even Johnson ally and former Brexit opportunities minister Jacob Rees Mogg told his fellow MPs to "calm down and live with the leader weve got"  at least until after the next election.Johnson dropped out of the autumn Tory leadership contest despite winning the nominations of more than 100 Tory MPs  the unusually-high threshold set by the back-bench 1922 Committee which runs the process  and being more popular than Sunak among grass-roots members.He has now thrown his hat into the ring to replace former Norwegian PM Jens Stoltenberg as secretary-general of US-led military bloc NATO, having played a pivotal role in persuading the leaders of France, Italy and von der Leyen's native Germany to arm Ukraine and impose sanctions on Russia regardless of the cost to their own economies.

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2023

James Tweedie https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e4/08/1c/1080307270_0:3:397:400_100x100_80_0_0_7777393b9b18802f2e3c5eaa9cbcc612.png

James Tweedie https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e4/08/1c/1080307270_0:3:397:400_100x100_80_0_0_7777393b9b18802f2e3c5eaa9cbcc612.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

James Tweedie https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e4/08/1c/1080307270_0:3:397:400_100x100_80_0_0_7777393b9b18802f2e3c5eaa9cbcc612.png

uk, rishi sunak, northern ireland, protocol, brexit, eu
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230301/putin-portraits-russian-flags-protests-reported-against-macrons-visit-to-dr-congo-1107904718.html

Putin Portraits, Russian Flags: Protests Reported Against Macron's Visit to DR Congo

Putin Portraits, Russian Flags: Protests Reported Against Macron's Visit to DR Congo

Several dozen protesters holding Vladimir Putin's portraits and waving Russian flags gathered in front of the French embassy in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on Wednesday, 1 March.

2023-03-01T16:20+0000

2023-03-01T16:20+0000

2023-03-01T16:35+0000

africa

central africa

democratic republic of the congo

drc

emmanuel macron

protests

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e7/03/01/1107904379_0:0:3001:1688_1920x0_80_0_0_7fa4796a6fbf9a8aceb949e26ea1347a.jpg

Several dozen protesters holding portraits of Vladimir Putin and waving Russian flags gathered in front of the French Embassy in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on Wednesday, March 1. The demonstrators reportedly chanted the slogan "Macron is a killer, Putin to the rescue!" and unfurled banners reading "Macron is the godfather of DRC balkanization," "Congolese say no to French policy," and "Macron is an unwanted guest in DRC" as photographed and filmed by local media.Bruno Mimbenga, one of the protest organizers, said that the protesters' Russian flags mean that the Congolese "no longer need France, we want to work with reliable partners such as Russia or China." A number of activist groups and movements participated in the protests to oppose the arrival of the French president in the country.The French president will embark on a five-day working trip to African countries "in order to strengthen bilateral ties in the sphere of influence, where competition between Russia and China is increasingly felt," according to an official statement.In Libreville, Gabon, Macron will take part in the One Forest Summit taking place on March 1-2 and dedicated to the protection of equatorial forests. He will then head to Luanda, Angola, to mark the beginning of French-Angolan partnership in agriculture.Afterwards, the French president is planning to visit Brazzaville, Congo, and Kinshasa, DRC, "in order to develop relations in the fields of education, medicine, science, culture and defense," according to the French official statement. On February 27, Emmanuel Macron gave a speech dedicated to France's new policy on Africa, saying that Paris must demonstrate "profound humility" on the continent and open a "new era" in its partnership with African nations due to "unprecedented" and "historic" challenges.

africa

central africa

democratic republic of the congo

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2023

Gleb Chugunov

Gleb Chugunov

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

Gleb Chugunov

democratic republic of congo, kinshasa , protesters, russian flags, russian president vladimir putin, portrait of russian president, french embassy, emmanuel macron, french president emmanuel macron, central africa, african trip, macron's visit
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230301/russia-handed-note-to-us-on-suspension-of-moscows-participation-in-new-start-moscow-1107905853.html

Russia Handed Note to US on Suspension of Moscow's Participation in New START: Moscow

Russia Handed Note to US on Suspension of Moscow's Participation in New START: Moscow

Moscow handed over the note on the suspension of Russia's participation in the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) to the United States on February 28

2023-03-01T13:27+0000

2023-03-01T13:27+0000

2023-03-01T13:27+0000

russia

russia

new start treaty

us

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/106218/88/1062188836_1:0:1247:701_1920x0_80_0_0_a6d95734c9e14500a5047de610b050a6.jpg

"Yesterday we handed over an official note to the US side, in which we stated that that the implementation of the New START provisions is suspended, but at the same time, we will abide by its key provisions  restrictions on the number of such systems," Ryabkov said. The diplomat added that US' statement about a certain plan for Russia on inspections within the framework of the New START appeared too late. On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law that suspends Russia's participation in New START.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230222/biden-on-putins-new-start-pullout-says-confident-they-will-be-able-to-work-it-out-1107721613.html

russia

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2023

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

new strategic arms reduction treaty, suspension of moscow's participation in new start
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230301/scientists-nasas-asteroid-diverting-dart-test-validated-using-kinetic-impact-for-earth-defense-1107918129.html

Scientists: NASAs Asteroid-Diverting DART Test Validated Using Kinetic Impact for Earth Defense

Scientists: NASAs Asteroid-Diverting DART Test Validated Using Kinetic Impact for Earth Defense

A group of five closely related studies have corroborated the accuracy of previous conclusions: when NASA crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid last year as part of an experiment, it altered the rocks course much more than was expected. The method is now seen as the best way to protect Earth from rogue, civilization-ending asteroids.

2023-03-01T22:08+0000

2023-03-01T22:08+0000

2023-03-01T22:07+0000

science & tech

asteroid

asteroid collision

nasa

defense

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e6/09/1c/1101294748_0:228:1041:814_1920x0_80_0_0_0c88b0c84fd39c84fb69514f44ced65d.png

In November 2021, the US space agency NASA launched the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft on a mission to collide with a small asteroid, Dimorphos, which orbits a much larger rock called Didymos. The mission was to test if such impacts could divert an asteroids path enough for it to avoid impacting Earth.According to the five papers published in Nature on Wednesday, the experiment was an astounding success, and diverted Dimorphos orbit much more than they had expected.Their study verified a previous studys conclusion that Dimorphos orbit of Didymos became 33 minutes faster after the impact instead of the 7-minute increase scientists had expected.For weeks after the September 2022 impact, astronomers tracked a plume of debris spewing from Dimorphos, which dragged behind it and gave it a slightly comet-like appearance. Their study found the impact had decreased the asteroids mass by 0.3% to 0.5%, a third paper and a fourth paper found, and the loss of mass affected its momentum, said a fifth one.Dimorphos is not a small asteroid, either, being about 560 feet across, or roughly the height of the Washington Monument in Washington, DC, so the fact that a relatively small spacecraft could affect it so dramatically is promising.Fortunately, an Earth-shattering asteroid isnt expected to pass near Earth for another 100 years, by which time we may have much better deflection abilities than kamikaze spacecraft.

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2023

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

nasa, dart, asteroid-diverting, kinetic impact, earth defense
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230301/senator-cruz-calls-on-biden-to-rethink-us-brazil-ties-after-allowing-iranian-ships-to-dock-1107885678.html

Senator Cruz Calls on Biden to Rethink US-Brazil Ties After Allowing Iranian Ships to Dock

Senator Cruz Calls on Biden to Rethink US-Brazil Ties After Allowing Iranian Ships to Dock

The Biden administration needs to reevaluate the United States ties to Brazil on antiterrorism efforts and impose relevant sanctions after Brasilia allowed Iranian warships to dock in the country, US Senator Ted Cruz said in a statement.

2023-03-01T00:14+0000

2023-03-01T00:14+0000

2023-03-01T00:14+0000

americas

us

brazil

iran

ted cruz

warship

warship passage

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e5/06/12/1083181860_0:63:1201:738_1920x0_80_0_0_a303675d1be95013ced7adf84d458d54.png

On Sunday, two Iranian warships docked in Rio de Janeiro despite pressure from the United States on Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to block them. The docking of Iranian warships in Brazil is a dangerous development and a direct threat to the safety and security of Americans, Cruz said on Tuesday. If the Biden administration does not take action to address the situation, Congress should force them to, Cruz said.The Iranian warships that docked in Brazil were already under sanctions, opening up the port, companies involved in the port and other entities that provided services or accepted payments to sanctions, Cruz said. US antiterrorism laws are designed to protect Americans and are not optional, Cruz added.Earlier reports indicated that the pair of Iranian warships - IRIS Makran and IRIS Dena - were initially declined to port in Rio de Janeiro in late January as the Brazilian president was then due to meet with Biden.Under the Lula government, Brazil has attempted to bolster its standing with Iranian officials despite repeated calls from American officials to tow the same anti-Iranian lines as the US and its allies.US Ambassador Elizabeth Bagley earlier urged Brazilian authorities against allowing the ships to dock as they allegedly "facilitated illegal trade and terrorist activities."

https://sputnikglobe.com/20210711/irans-navy-chief-admits-tehran-sent-warships-to-atlantic-partly-to-annoy-americans-1083362149.html

americas

brazil

iran

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2023

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

biden administration, brazil, iranian tanker, threat, ted cruz,
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230301/senior-russian-diplomat-belarusian-ambassador-to-russia-discuss-cooperation-in-africa-1107892222.html

Senior Russian Diplomat, Belarusian Ambassador to Russia Discuss Cooperation in Africa

Senior Russian Diplomat, Belarusian Ambassador to Russia Discuss Cooperation in Africa

"During the discussion, the officials had an extensive exchange of opinions on relevant issues regarding further strengthening of the Russian-Belarusian comprehensive cooperation in Africa," the ministry said in a statement.

2023-03-01T06:39+0000

2023-03-01T06:39+0000

2023-04-06T10:51+0000

africa

russia

belarus

cooperation

second russia-africa summit

mikhail bogdanov

summit

alexander lukashenko

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/104056/23/1040562300_0:0:2769:1558_1920x0_80_0_0_32d5d20a339ebbfb22afd4a92d65e9a1.jpg

"During the discussion, the officials had an extensive exchange of opinions on relevant issues regarding further strengthening of the Russian-Belarusian comprehensive cooperation in Africa," the ministry said in a statement.The meeting took place at the request of the ambassador, according to the Russian ministry. Relations between Russia and African countries have been actively developing in recent years. In February, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov went on a tour to friendly African countries in preparation for the second Russia-Africa summit in 2023, with Russia seeking closer economic and political ties with the countries from the continent. The ministry said that Bogdanov and Krutoy also discussed the participation of Belarusian President Aleksander Lukashenko in the second Russia-Africa summit in the city of St. Petersburg from July 26-29. During the meeting, Krutoy said that the Belarusian side focuses on strengthening political contacts and stepping up cooperation with the countries of the African continent in all spheres. The Belarusian diplomat expressed his conviction that Minsk, as Moscow's closest ally, would organically integrate into the format of the summit. The sides also exchanged views on the work of the Belarusian side in the business, humanitarian, exhibition, and other segments of the upcoming summit.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230212/russia-and-chad-discussing-creation-of-economic-cooperation-commission-ambassador-says-1107349470.html

africa

russia

belarus

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2023

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-africa summit, russia, belarus, cooperation, mikhail bogdanov, russian foreign ministry
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230301/us-doomsday-plane-capable-of-ordering-world-ending-nuclear-strikes-spotted-in-europe-1107906542.html

US 'Doomsday Plane' Capable of Ordering World-Ending Nuclear Strikes Spotted in Europe

US 'Doomsday Plane' Capable of Ordering World-Ending Nuclear Strikes Spotted in Europe

The US and Russia are the only two countries in the world possessing doomsday planes  a type of airborne command post designed to launch nuclear strikes and survive an enemy nuclear attack.

2023-03-01T13:46+0000

2023-03-01T13:46+0000

2023-03-01T13:47+0000

military

doomsday

us european command (eucom)

deployment

iceland

us navy

strategic weapons

command

navy e-6b mercury jet

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e7/03/01/1107905984_0:1:3639:2047_1920x0_80_0_0_327e595fdf80c8bef083f51abc2ceff8.jpg

United States European Command (EUCOM), the Stuttgart, Germany-based combatant command responsible for US military operations in and around Europe, Turkey and Russia, has tweeted a photo of a US Navy E-6B Mercury airborne command post and communications relay plane which recently landed in Iceland.The planes crew was said to have met with Carrin Patman, the US ambassador to Iceland, as well as unnamed other diplomatic and military leaders.Wing One is the US Navys nuclear command and control wing. Based out of the Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma, the units primary mission consists of receiving, verifying and retransmitting Emergency Action Messages (EAMs) to US strategic forces. In Pentagon jargon, EAMs are messages directing US nuclear forces to launch strikes against enemy targets in conditions of nuclear war. In addition to its ability to deliver launch orders to ballistic missile submarines, the planes can remotely order ground-based operators of Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile silos to launch their payloads.Pentagon planners have also highlighted the EAM network for possible use in the execution of its Prompt Global Strike plans as well. The latter is an ambitious (but highly dangerous) Pentagon initiative cooked up during the Bush II administration envisioning the disarmament of a nuclear-armed adversary and the decapitation of its political and military leadership through the massed launch of conventional ballistic and cruise missiles. Russia responded to PGS through the creation of new advanced hypersonic missiles and other weaponry to convince the Pentagon that any attempt to declaw Russias strategic arsenal would result in unacceptable losses  including the possible destruction of American cities.The US Navy has 16 E-6 Mercury aircraft in its inventory, plus four older Boeing E-4 Nightwatch Advanced Airborne Command Post (AACP) planes.Russia is the only other country in the world operating doomsday planes, with its inventory consisting of three Ilyushin Il-80 (NATO reporting name Maxdome) airborne command and control aircraft built in the 1980s.The US has deployed its doomsday plane to Europe in the past. Last March, an E4-B Nightwatch was transferred from Edwards Air Force Base in California to RAF Midenhall in the UK as part of a fleet of aircraft that accompanied President Biden during last years emergency NATO summit and meetings with European officials.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230226/putin-says-russia-has-to-return-to-discussing-nuclear-potential-of-uk-and-france-1107812774.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20220325/nuke-proof-doomsday-boeing-747-deployed-to-uk-as-joe-biden-attends-nato-summit-in-brussels-1094170818.html

iceland

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2023

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

us, iceland, doomsday plane, european command, e-6b mercury
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230301/us-house-committee-passes-bill-allowing-biden-to-ban-tiktok-nationwide-1107910983.html

US House Committee Passes Bill Allowing Biden to Ban TikTok Nationwide

US House Committee Passes Bill Allowing Biden to Ban TikTok Nationwide

The House Foreign Affairs Committee has passed a bill allowing President Joe Biden to ban TikTok nationwide.

2023-03-01T14:56+0000

2023-03-01T14:56+0000

2023-03-01T15:17+0000

americas

us

tiktok

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e6/0c/08/1105192525_0:160:3073:1888_1920x0_80_0_0_0402ee49ad074a5697ed5f421a3a59b7.jpg

The House Foreign Affairs Committee has passed a bill allowing President Joe Biden to ban TikTok nationwide. The committee voted 24-16 along partisan lines in favor of H.R. 1153, which is intended "to provide a clarification of non-applicability for regulation and prohibition relating to sensitive personal data under International Emergency Economic Powers Act, and for other purposes."The measure will now advance to the full House, where its fate remains uncertain. A ban would require passage by the full House and the Senate before POTUS can sign the measure into law.The debate on the bill, which was sponsored by Republican committee chair Michael McCaul, was opened on Tuesday, but the vote was delayed until Wednesday.The top Democrat on the committee, Gregory Meeks, strongly opposed the legislation, warning that it would "damage our allegiances across the globe, bring more companies into China's sphere, destroy jobs here in the United States and undercut core American values of free speech and free enterprise."Previously, TikTok issued a statement, saying that it would be "unfortunate if the House Foreign Affairs Committee were to censor millions of Americans, and do so based not on actual intelligence, but on a basic misunderstanding of our corporate structure." The company, which has consistently rejected spying allegations, added that it had spent over $1.5 billion on data security efforts.While President Biden has said that he's not sure if TikTok will be banned, the White House gave government agencies 30 days on Monday to ensure that the video-making app is not on any federal devices and systems. A number of US states, as well as Canada and EU institutions have decided to ban the use of Chinese social media application on state-owned devices, citing security concerns.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230301/tiktok-sets-60-minute-per-day-screen-time-limit-for-users-under-18-1107910643.html

americas

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2023

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

biden ban tiktok nationwide, nationwide ban on tiktok, house foreign affairs committee has passed a bill allowing president joe biden to ban tiktok nationwide, bill allowing president joe biden to ban tiktok nationwide,
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230301/us-no-longer-needs-afghanistans-consent-to-use-military-force---white-house-1107917162.html

US No Longer Needs Afghanistan's Consent to Use Military Force - White House

US No Longer Needs Afghanistan's Consent to Use Military Force - White House

The United States will no longer rely on the consent of the previous Afghan government to use military force in the country in light of changing circumstances following the US withdrawal and subsequent rise to power by the Taliban*, the White House said on Wednesday.

2023-03-01T20:50+0000

2023-03-01T20:50+0000

2023-03-01T20:50+0000

americas

us

us military

white house

afghanistan

military force

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e5/09/02/1083775464_0:209:3072:1937_1920x0_80_0_0_8d9e4397d38298d182b82cc3d0e51ba2.jpg

As a matter of international law, host nation consent provided a basis for counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan prior to the withdrawal of US forces, the White House said in a report on legal and policy frameworks for the use of US military force. Absent reliance on consent to use force in Afghanistan, the US has the inherent right to use necessary and proportionate force in self-defense to the extent Afghanistan is unwilling or unable to confront threats to the US emanating from its territory, the White House said. There have been no changes to the domestic law basis for US counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan, the White House noted. Following the US decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, US President Joe Biden said the US remains prepared to use force against terrorist threats in Afghanistan if necessary.The Biden administration rang in the US' Afghan exit on August 31, 2021, as officials with the Afghan government were faced with an onslaught from advancing Taliban forces. In the days that followed, the US-backed government was toppled, with then-President Ashraf Ghani fleeing the country.The complicated and messy US exit came 20 years after the US launched its invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001, weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. At the time, the US explained its move to enter Afghanistan by highlighting that Osama bin Laden had masterminded the attacks, and how the Taliban offered sanctuary to members of al-Qaeda**. However, the Taliban never recognized US assertions that the group had any ties to the 2001 attacks. The US invasion went on to claim the lives of thousands of US soldiers, and more than 100,000 Afghan troops, police figures and civilians caught in the cross-fires.*A group under UN sanctions for terrorism** Terrorist organization banned in Russia and many other countries

https://sputnikglobe.com/20210813/us-must-learn-from-past-mishandling-of-sensitive-info-records-amid-afghan-exit-dod-says-1083599452.html

americas

white house

afghanistan

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2023

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

white house, afghanistan, military force, consent,
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230301/whats-known-so-far-in-the-aftermath-of-greeces-tragic-train-crash-1107917882.html

What's Known So Far in the Aftermath of Greece's Tragic Train Crash?

What's Known So Far in the Aftermath of Greece's Tragic Train Crash?

Many of the victims are believed to be university students who were returning home after an extended weekend to celebrate Carnival, which precedes Lent. The death toll is expected to rise as rescue efforts continue.

2023-03-01T22:40+0000

2023-03-01T22:40+0000

2023-03-01T22:40+0000

greece

accident

accident

rail accident

sputnik explains

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e7/03/01/1107918474_0:160:3073:1888_1920x0_80_0_0_74cb079ab09a94ee7605a2519c2ddb16.jpg

Greeces worst train crash in history occurred Tuesday at 11:24 p.m. local time. The incident involved a freight train and a passenger train carrying more than 350 passengers that collided and derailed. At least 43 people were killed in the crash and more than 70 people were injured.The cause of the fatal head-on collision of two trains in the Tempe Valley near Larissa, Greece, was due to tragic human error, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in a televised address.Flags flew at half-staff in Athens as well as all European Commission buildings in Brussels as a tribute to victims of the crash. The Greek government also declared three days of national mourning regarding the tragedy."It's an unthinkable tragedy. Our thoughts today are with the relatives of the victims," Mitsotakis said at the site of the crash.Station Manager Arrested as Transportation Minister ResignsThe station manager of the Larissa train station testified before a prosecutor and has since been arrested in connection to the incident. He was charged with mass deaths through negligence and causing grievous bodily harm through negligence.The 59-year-old official initially denied any wrongdoing, explaining to investigators that the accident was caused by a possible technical failure, a police official said. However, the same station manager later changed his story, and said he made a mistake and sent the passenger train on the wrong line.Investigators earlier indicated the two trains had been on the same track for many kilometers.At least eight rail employees were among those who were killed in the crash including two freight train drivers and two drivers of the passenger train, Yannis Nitsas, president of the Greek Railroad Workers Union has said.In the wake of the accident, Transport Minister Kostas Karamanlis submitted his resignation, explaining he was stepping down in respect to the memory of the people who died so unjustly. He further stated the railway system the government inherited was not up to 21st century standards."It is what I feel my duty to do as a minimal sign of respect to the memory of the people who died so unjustly and taking responsibility for the timeless mistakes of the Greek state and political system."Unfortunately, our efforts have not been sufficient to prevent such a bad incident. And this is very heavy for all of us and me personally, Karamanlis added.The Greek prime minister later called Karmanlis' decision to step down honorable."Tragic Scenes of the AccidentThe accident has been described to be like that of an explosion as passengers recount the scene as nightmarish."There was panic, for 10, 15 seconds it was chaos, tumbling over, fires, cables hanging, broken windows, people screaming, people trapped, it was two meters high from where we jumped to leave and beneath there were broken iron debris, but what could we do?Rescuers have continued to search for survivors as hospital officials work to identify those who have died. Roubini Leondari, the chief coroner in Larissa said that 43 bodies had been brought to her for examination, and that she would require DNA identification to identify the bodies because they were so badly burned in the accident.Temperatures reached 1,300 degrees Celsius (2,372 Fahrenheit), which makes it even more difficult to identify the people who were in it, a fire service spokesperson said.One parent said he is still trying to find out what happened to his daughter. He said in the last phone conversation he had with her she said, Were on fire my hair is burning.Protests in AthensIn Athens about 1,000 people protested outside the offices of the Hellenic Train, while some threw stones at their windows. Railway workers announced they would attend, which prompted Hellenic Train to announce they would suspend all scheduled trains on Thursday.The union said they had repeatedly requested more permanent staff, more training and upgraded technology which had been ignored.Minor clashes had been reported during demonstrations, with local outlets detailing how police at the site had used stun grenades and tear gas to quell protesters.

greece

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2023

Mary Manley https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e6/01/0b/1092187887_0:0:2048:2049_100x100_80_0_0_0c2cc4c84f89aff034cc55bb01fb6697.jpg

Mary Manley https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e6/01/0b/1092187887_0:0:2048:2049_100x100_80_0_0_0c2cc4c84f89aff034cc55bb01fb6697.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

Mary Manley https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e6/01/0b/1092187887_0:0:2048:2049_100x100_80_0_0_0c2cc4c84f89aff034cc55bb01fb6697.jpg

greece, train collision, tempe valley, larissa, helentic train, athens protests
Geil Elementary School is receiving visits from several special guests this week, all in an effort to encourage students and help develop a love of reading.

The visits are taking place in observance of Read Across America Week, which will formally begin on March 2, the birthday of beloved author Dr. Seuss, and run until March 6. In fact, the entire month of March will feature an increased focus on reading in schools across the nation.

Geils celebration involves bringing in surprise guests to read with students, which second grade teacher Amy Plummer said is a wonderful way to get kids excited about books.

We have invited different guests in to come and read to the kids and foster that love of reading, said Plummer. The more language you can expose kids to, the better. We encourage our kids to read all the time, and when they find a book or a genre or an author that they love, it just lights a fire in them and they want to read, they start craving it.

Many of the guest readers have brought along books that have something to do with their jobs. For instance, students were visited by Gering Fire Chief Nathan Flowers, who read Curious George and the Firefighters.

And our janitor, Mr. Mike, read to the kids yesterday. Mr. Mike also farms, so he got to read the book Grandpas Tractor, said Plummer. Its been fun to see different people from different professions bring in books pertaining to those professions.

Plummer was also excited to share one of her own favorite books with her students, Verdi by Janell Cannon, which helps to show students that grown ups truly enjoy reading as much as kids do. Overall, she said that the guest readers have already had a positive impact on the students enthusiasm for the subject.

Its been great because they ask me first thing in the morning, Whos coming? Whos our special speaker today? Plummer said. Its a nice little motivator for the kids, too.

The second graders were surprised on Tuesday afternoon when a second set of unannounced guests arrived in their classroom. Gering Public Schools Superintendent Nicole Regan and School Board President Brian Copsey dropped in to share snacks and read Dr. Seusss famous Green Eggs and Ham.

Literacy is really important in Gering Public Schools, and we support it in any way we can. So, when were invited to be a part of Read Across America, we want to take every opportunity and show that were engaged with our students in their learning, and it can be fun, too, said Regan.

Regan and Copsey both enjoyed their time with the second graders at Geil and were thankful for the opportunity to spend time with Gerings young readers directly.

This is what its all about, said Copsey. Its always about the kids, and just being able to be in the classroom and see their reactions. So much of what we do is behind the scenes, and being able to interact with them and seeing their joy and helping them out is what keeps the encouragement going for us and keeps us motivated.

Read Across America Week will continue at Geil with special dress up days and even more guest readers, all with the goal of turning students of all ages into lifelong readers.
While debate continues about running a streetcar line from downtown Omaha west to 42nd Street, one Omaha lawmaker pitched a plan Friday to add a second line going north to Eppley Airfield.

Sen. Justin Wayne outlined a vision for a North Omaha line at a hearing before the Legislature's Appropriations Committee. He introduced LB477 to put $100 million of state funds into the proposal.

Wayne said the proposed new line would spur economic development, bring jobs and support affordable housing in some of the city's poorest areas. He said it could transport workers and provide air travelers with a way to get downtown.

Under his plan, the North Omaha streetcar would run north from Farnam Street along 19th Street/Florence Boulevard for about a mile, then jog east to 16th Street and continue north. At Fort Street, it would turn and head east to the airport.

The line would pass the $60 million airport business park that is in the works, using American Rescue Plan Act dollars. Wayne got funding for the park last year, after touting its potential as a major employment center for North Omaha.

On Friday, he said the North Omaha streetcar line would rely on the same type of tax-increment financing that city officials have proposed using for the east-west line.

Tax-increment financing uses the increase in property tax revenues created by a development to help pay for that development, such as by paying for associated infrastructure.

Supporters of the original streetcar plan have argued that the financing method can pay for the streetcar and associated development. Wayne said he is working on legislation that would allow it to pay for construction of affordable housing along the streetcar line as well.

Steve Jensen and Jacquelyn Morrison, who work in Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert's office, both spoke in support of Wayne's proposal.

Jensen said streetcars spur investment in developed urban cores because they decrease the need for parking. That, in turn, means development projects can be done at less cost. He also argued that a streetcar would increase property values along its route.

Morrison said that the increased development can help fund schools and other local needs. Local governments see increased tax revenues when the tax-increment financing period ends.

Stephen Osberg, speaking for the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, also backed the proposal. He said a North Omaha line fits within the chamber's transportation and urban core strategies, which call for providing better access to jobs.

No one appeared in opposition to LB477. The bill does not specify the source of the $100 million. The state is projected to have more than $2.3 billion in its cash reserve fund after the current fiscal year ends June 30.

The original streetcars planned route runs east along Harney Street, then turns north along 10th Street up to about Cass Street near CHI Health Center. The streetcars then would head back south on 10th to Capitol Avenue.

From there, the route would run a couple of blocks east to Eighth Street near the citys riverfront before turning west onto Farnam Street. The cars then would travel to the routes western terminus at 42nd Street near the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

If all goes as planned, the first streetcar vehicles would be delivered to Omaha in July 2025. The streetcar system would open for operation in 2026.

Photos: The business of governing in Nebraska in 2023
Money envy can lead to negativity and struggle in your own life, but there are ways to dig into the cause of your feelings and to start focusing on your own financial goals.
The Statesville Fire Department held its annual awards banquet on Feb. 24 at the Statesville Civic Center, honoring 22 individuals for their achievements over the last year.

Statesville Mayor Costi Kutteh administered the oath of office to those that were hired and promoted in 2022.

New hires: Trey Lagle, Robert Bryden, Chase Anderson and Jesse Church

Promotions: Fire Marshal Pete Morrison, Capt. Matt Thompson, Capt. Danny Fisher, Lt. Zachary Hinson, Lt. Justin Yox, Lt. Tanner Goodin and Battalion Chief Aaron Kennedy

I was pleased to attend the annual awards banquet for the Statesville Fire Department, said Kutteh. As I swore in Robert and the promoted firefighters, I was proud of the commitment and service of these fine individuals. We are one of eight North Carolina cities that are accredited and have an ISO-1 rating. This is a result of the hard work of the Statesville Fire Department.

Also honored were retirees and those that completed Firefighter 1 and Master Firefighter designation in 2022.

Retirees: Firefighter Marshall Spillman and Battalion Chief Joshua Smith

Firefighter 1 designation: Bryan Morris, Coty Brown, Noah Armstrong and Sam Speaks

Master firefighter designation: Brett York, Zachary Hinson, Adam Sparks, Joseph Taylor and Brandon McLain

Fire Chief Andy Weatherman thanked all personnel for their commitment to making the department what it is today and added that their hard work and dedication does not go unnoticed throughout the organization. He highlighted 2022, stating that the department answered more than 5,300 calls for service, trained over and beyond the number of hours required for fire service professionals, broke ground on a new station, and joined 21 other elite agencies to achieve an ISO Class 1 insurance rating in North Carolina.
The Longview School District is preparing for the worst, with early 2023-24 budget estimates showing the district could lose about $6 million between now and 2026.

Patti Bowen, executive director of business services, told the school board Monday a lot could change before that happens, and state legislation could offer more funding by the time the 2023 session ends in April. Nothing is final, she said.

If you look to 2024-25, thats where you begin to see that the revenue is declining compared to the prior year, she said, but the expenditures have incrementally increased.

Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to The Daily News.

School board members expressed concern over the budget forecast, which could see the school districts ending fund balance drop from $10 million next year to $4 million by the end of the 2025-26 school year.

Funding uncertainty

Board member Don Cox noted the states funding is largely tied to enrollment. The state gives about $10,000 per student, so the drop of about 350 students over the course of the pandemic meant a $3.5-million loss. Bowen said they predict enrollment will go up by about 60 students next year.

Theres also an approaching expiration date for the federal funding package given to school districts during the pandemic.

The Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief earmarked $27.7 million to the Longview School District to pay for construction projects, air quality upgrades, learning loss strategies and technology. They have claimed about $12.2 million so far, according to February data from the Washington Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, with plans to use the rest of the money before the deadline.

That package will run dry Sept. 30, 2024, and early budget estimates assume no new revenue streams.

When these extra funds go away, we need to be focusing on that, Cox said. How are we going to make up that loss? How are we going to either attract students or figure out how to avoid layoffs?

Board member Crystal Moldenhauer said they also have to consider that 2024 is when the school operations levy expires, a levy that secures roughly $15 million of revenue.

If the operational levy doesnt pass, she said, That would be catastrophic.

Superintendent Dan Zorn said the district will track the budget closely to avoid the worst-case scenarios.

Weve got two or three years to figure that out, he said. We know that weve got work to do.

The school board has a minimum ending fund balance requirement of 7%, meaning 7% of the budget is put aside for various expenses. By 2025-26, the reserves could drop from about $7.3 million to $4.3 million. With $4.3 million in reserves  assuming no new revenue streams and the same level of staff and services  the district would be well below its target.

Last year, the board passed a $109.8 million budget for the 2022-23 year. A draft budget will be available for public review July 10. The board will adopt the 2023-24 budget Aug. 28.
Cowlitz County commissioners Tuesday approved a resolution stating the boards support for citizens Second Amendment rights and opposition to any laws which restrict those rights.

The resolution acts as a statement of the commissioners position and doesnt take statutory action, said Commissioner Dennis Weber.

Commissioner Rick Dahl said he proposed the resolution to expand one approved in January 2019 in response to Initiative 1639.

The initiative, which Washington voters passed in 2018, mandates background checks for semi-automatic assault rifles and raises the minimum age for purchase and possession of such weapons from 18 to 21. It also establishes storage requirements. The commissioners 2019 resolution states that I-1639 and similar bills restrict the rights of citizens as protected by the U.S. and Washington state constitutions.

Dahl said he wanted to bring forward a broader resolution because the 2019 version is specifically responding to I-1639. The new resolution references the Second, Fourth and 14th Amendments, the state constitution and case law that affirms those rights, he said.

The resolution states the board opposes any state or federal legislation that unconstitutionally infringe upon the lawful rights of residents to keep and bear arms, including the right of a private individual to sell or transfer their legally-owned firearms without undue government burden and free from unreasonable search and seizure.

During a Feb. 15 workshop, Dahl said gun restrictions proposed in federal and state legislative bodies have become broader in what they feel they have the right to do.

I thought it was important, as Ive seen these laws come through and they just keep infringing out further and further, that it was more than just Second Amendment, theyre encroaching on Fourth and 14th, he said. We need to say its not OK.

The Fourth Amendment protects people from unreasonable search and seizure. The 14th amendment includes language stating no state shall make or enforce laws that abridge privileges or immunities of citizens, nor deprive people of life, liberty or property without due process.

Several bills proposed in the state Legislature this session would regulate firearms, including House Bill 1143, which would require people to get a permit to purchase firearms and House Bill 1240, which would prohibit the sale and distribution of certain assault weapons.

Dahl said the resolution was not because of any specific bill but the push on a federal and state level to regulate the rights of gun owners.

I believe these rights are given to us by a higher power and not something government can take away, he said. Theyre overstepping bounds. I think at times you have to say you dont agree. Thats pretty much what this is.

The resolution also affirms commissioners support for the sheriff, in exercise of his lawful discretion and duties.

Dahl said he wanted to include that language to make clear the commission stands behind the sheriffs actions on behalf of this resolution. The resolution does not direct the sheriff not to enforce certain laws.

Sheriff Brad Thurman said he was comfortable with the language.

This is an inherent right of the people. This resolution does not change that, Thurman said. It is in support of the peoples rights to keep and bear arms, so Im in favor of this.

Prosecuting Attorney Ryan Jurvakainen and Chief Civil Deputy Doug Jensen also reviewed the resolution, Dahl said.

During Tuesdays meeting, a handful of citizens spoke in favor of the resolution, and one opposed it as grandstanding and posturing.
The Longview Public Library is hosting its first annual Columbia River Author Festival this spring.

The event is set to feature writers from Southwest Washington and Northwest Oregon and is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 6 at the library. Authors can register to share work at the event, for free, through April 20.

The festival is an opportunity for local self-published and independent authors to share their work with a wider audience. Longview Public Library officials say they hope the annual event will draw attention to the wide array of talented writers in Oregon and Washington.

If you go What: Columbia River Author Festival. When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 6. Where: Longview Public Library, 1600 Louisiana St., Longview Cost: Free to attend and register as an author. Info: 360-442-5300 or www.longviewlibrary.org Register Here

All registered authors will be provided a table to promote their work and an opportunity to do a reading. Registered participants should bring copies of their work and promotional materials.

Authors can promote as many books as theyd like at their table, and there are no limitations on genre or audience. The library aims to share a mix of books from different genres and for varying age groups at the event, staff report.

This story was updated with correct contact and registration information for the Longview Public Library.
iPhone 16 Pros Face ID to be placed under screen: When will Apple release its first foldable smartphone?

March 1, 2023 18:12

Apple will place the Face ID sensors under the screen in next year's iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max smartphones, and it is also known when the company may release its first foldable smartphone, Gadgettendency.com reports, South Korean newspaper The Elec informs, citing its sources in the supply chain.

To provide such a solution, it would be necessary for the smartphone's screen to be transparent, and it would also need to use new packaging technology, as external light would have to pass through the screen and then only reach the relevant camera sensors.

If the current trend continues, Apple may implement Face ID technology under the screen in all iPhone 17 models as early as 2025. And iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max will have a front camera under the screen in 2026.

In addition, there are reports that Apple may release its first foldable smartphone in 2025.

Earlier, reputable insider Ice Universe published a detailed rendering of the iPhone 15 Pro Max based on data in a previously leaked CAD file. From the published photos, it is clear that the iPhone 15 Pro Max will be smaller, but 0.4 mm thicker than the iPhone 14 Pro Max. Also, the edges of this smartphone will become curved, thanks to which the device will be more comfortable to hold.

Also recently, it became known that Apple does not intend to give up the budget series of its smartphones, the iPhone SE, and has already resumed work on the new iPhone of this series. The iPhone SE 4 may go into mass production in the first quarter of 2024. This smartphone will likely be similar to the iPhone 14 in many ways, both in terms of body and 6.1-inch OLED display. "Internal" changes are also likely to be minimal.
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Professor Mercedes Maroto-Valer. Credit: Heriot-Watt University

Decarbonizing the aviation industry by removing fossil fuels is an enormous challenge and requires a "whole systems approach," according to a leading scientist at Heriot-Watt University.

Professor Mercedes Maroto-Valer, deputy principal for global sustainability, made the comments in response to an influential new report from the Royal Society.

Published on Feb. 28, "Net zero aviation fuels: resource requirements and environmental impacts" says there is no single, clear, sustainable alternative to jet fuel able to support flying on a scale equivalent to present day use.

Some of the country's foremost scientists including Professor Maroto-Valer contributed to the study. They explored the resource availability challenges of alternative fuels, as well as likely costs, life-cycle impacts, infrastructure requirements and outstanding research questions across four fuel types, green hydrogen, biofuels (energy crops and waste), ammonia and synthetic fuels (efuels). Batteries were not considered, as aircraft powered solely by batteries are not expected to reach the energy density requirements of long-distance commercial flight by 2050.

While each fuel type has advantages and drawbacks, the findings underscore the challenges of decarbonizing aviation, especially when resources are likely to be in global demand for a range of "net-zero" objectives. For example, producing a sustainable, more eco-friendly aviation fuel capable of meeting current demand from energy crops would require around half of the U.K.'s agricultural land.

Over the last year, the Working Group analyzed and compared different pathways to net zero aviation and the environmental impacts of alternative aviation fuels in the U.K. context.

She said, "Aviation is one of the most difficult sectors to decarbonize and solutions to replace fossil aviation fuel require a multidisciplinary approach. Flying is something we have all become accustomed to but this activity accounts for about 2% of global greenhouse gas emissions. It's clear that if we wish to meet global net zero targets there is an urgent need to explore other options that reduce the impact on the environment while attempt to meet current demand.

"The startling conclusion to come from this study is that there is no clear alternative to existing jet fuel. That is a problem and we have to be realistic in how we overcome this challenge. Research and science will be crucial in addressing this issue and it was an honor to be part of this distinguished group of experts and co-author this Royal Society policy briefing that systematically examines net zero alternatives to jet fuel."

Heriot-Watt is committed to finding solutions to global challenges including climate change. A team of researchers at the University have been developing a cleaner, greener aviation fuel over a number of years.

Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAFs) also form part of the industrial decarbonization research portfolio of the U.K. Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Center (IDRIC), hosted by Heriot-Watt. As Director of IDRIC, Professor Maroto-Valer heads up research embedded in areas of energy intensive industry across the U.K.with more than 60 funded projects that are led by 30 U.K. research institutions and covering a wide range of decarbonization solutions.

Professor Maroto-Valer, adds, "IDRIC works with the industrial clusters that are at the forefront of wide-scale deployment of low carbon technologies, such as hydrogen, direct air capture or biofuels, that are critical for the development of the sustainable aviation fuels identified in this report. Our whole systems approach also addresses key technical, social, economic and policy aspects, and we are investigating some of the challenges discussed in the Royal Society report."

The Royal Society estimates that producing sufficient green hydrogen fuel would require 2.43.4 times the U.K.'s 2020 renewable electricity generation.

They also identify the need for significant research in scaling up net zero fuels, from storage and handling, to environmental impacts including CO 2 and non-CO 2 emissions.

Addressing these challenges requires global coordination, particularly for navigating the transition period between current and future generation aircraft.

"Research and innovation are vital tools for the delivery of net zero," said Professor Graham Hutchings FRS, Regius Professor of Chemistry, Cardiff University, and chair of the report working group. "But we need to be very clear about the strengths, limitations, and challenges that must be addressed and overcome if we are to scale up the required new technologies in a few short decades.

"This briefing tries to pull together those realities, to allow policy makers to understand the future resource implications of today's policy and R&D decisions and to support international dialogue on this global technology transition."

More information: Net zero aviation fuels: resource requirements and environmental impacts: royalsociety.org/topics-policy  zero-aviation-fuels/
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Huawei's pavilion at the Mobile World Congress was by far the biggest and brightest.

Western governments are falling over each other to restrict social media platform TikTok, but Chinese firms are still huge in sectors from smartphones to network equipment and are only looking to grow.

One of the biggest Chinese companies, Huawei, made its ambitions obvious this week at the telecom industry's biggest annual show, the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona.

Its pavilion was by far the biggest and definitely the brightest, with arrays of piercing lights reflecting from polished white surfaces and dazzling floors.

Smartphone makers Xiaomi, Oppo and Honor occupied the most eye-catching stages in the smartphone area, flanking the stand of South Korean firm Samsung, a key rival.

They are seeking to fill the hole left by Huawei, which scaled back its smartphone business in 2020 to concentrate on other sectors like network equipment.

The United States has hugely restricted Huawei's operations and the European Union is trying to do the same, but countries still widely use its products.

"Huawei enjoys a higher market share in Berlin than in Beijing," wrote Danish firm Strand Consult last year, noting that 59 percent of Germany's 5G network equipment was Huawei.

Allowing Huawei to dominate in that way is like giving Beijing a "kill switch" on your communications network, report author John Strand told AFP.

"If it's OK to buy Chinese communication infrastructure, then it should be OK to buy Chinese fighter planes," he added.

Technology allies

Huawei's travails in the United States began under former president Donald Trump, whose anti-China stance has since become orthodox in the US Capitol.

US policymakers view Chinese domination of technology as a key global threat and Huawei has long been the poster child, in part because its interests are so closely allied to Beijing's own aims.

Jacob Gunter of the Germany-based MERICS think tank points out that Huawei built China's first major operating system, got deeply involved in semiconductors, network equipment, phones and is now forging ahead with cloud computing and data centres.

"It's exactly the kind of technologies that Beijing really, really desperately wants," Gunter told AFP.

Xiaomi was among the Chinese firms launching high-profile products at MWC.

As a result, Huawei dodged the kind of humiliating crackdown suffered by others in the tech sectorparticularly video game firms and Jack Ma, founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba.

Although Huawei is largely locked out of the US market, analysts like Strand say the firm has overplayed the effects of this as it was never a major player there anyway.

And it still enjoys a huge slice of business elsewhere in the world.

"They still have a huge catchment area of customers that are not aligning with their requests of the US," said Dario Talmesio of research firm Omdia.

Time and money

Smartphones have not yet been scrutinised in the same way as networks.

Chinese firms are not formally banned from the US market but no major carriers partner with them and their products are not widely sold.

"There are more markets for them to focus on first," said analyst Nicole Peng from Canalys, noting that China was a massive market in itself.

Samsung and Apple consolidated their dominance of handset sales last year, accounting for roughly 40 percent of the market, according to specialist firm IDC.

But Chinese brands Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo made up the other three spots in the top five.

However, all three had a bleak year, with sales slumping dramatically as demand dropped off after pandemic restrictions were lifted.

Peng pointed out that these firms are all young and have not experienced such a slowdown before, so it was unclear how they would weather the storm.

Ben Wood of research firm CCS Insight reckoned it would be a tall order to dislodge Samsung and Apple any time soon.

"They are going to have to spend a lot of money, and they are going to have to spend a lot of time to try and build some brand presence with consumers in advanced economies like Europe," he told AFP.

 2023 AFP
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

When Liu He, a Chinese economist, politician, and "chip czar," was tapped to lead the charge in a chipmaking arms race with the United States, his message lingered in the air, leaving behind a dewy glaze of tension: "For our country, technology is not just for growth it is a matter of survival."

Once upon a time, the United States' early technological prowess positioned the nation to outpace foreign rivals and cultivate a competitive advantage for domestic businesses. Yet, 30 years later, America's lead in advanced computing is continuing to wane. What happened?

A new report from an MIT researcher and two colleagues sheds light on the decline in U.S. leadership. The scientists looked at high-level measures to examine the shrinkage: overall capabilities, supercomputers, applied algorithms, and semiconductor manufacturing. Through their analysis, they found that not only has China closed the computing gap with the U.S., but nearly 80% of American leaders in the field believe that their Chinese competitors are improving capabilities fasterwhich, the team says, suggests a "broad threat to U.S. competitiveness."

To delve deeply into the fray, the scientists conducted the Advanced Computing Users Survey, sampling 120 top-tier organizations, including universities, national labs, federal agencies, and industry. The team estimates that this group comprises one-third and one-half of all the most significant computing users in the United States.

"Advanced computing is crucial to scientific improvement, economic growth and the competitiveness of U.S. companies," says Neil Thompson, director of the FutureTech Research Project at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), who helped lead the study.

Thompson, who is also a principal investigator at MIT's Initiative on the Digital Economy, wrote the paper with Chad Evans, executive vice president and secretary and treasurer to the board at the Council on Competitiveness, and Daniel Armbrust, who is the co-founder, initial CEO, and member of the board of directors at Silicon Catalyst and former president of SEMATECH, the semiconductor consortium that developed industry roadmaps.

The semiconductor, supercomputer, and algorithm bonanza

Supercomputersthe room-sized, "giant calculators" of the hardware worldare an industry no longer dominated by the United States. Through 2015, about half of the most powerful computers were sitting firmly in the U.S., and China was growing slowly from a very slow base. But in the past six years, China has swiftly caught up, reaching near parity with America.

This disappearing lead matters. Eighty-four percent of U.S. survey respondents said they're computationally constrained in running essential programs. "This result was telling, given who our respondents are: the vanguard of American research enterprises and academic institutions with privileged access to advanced national supercomputing resources," says Thompson.

With regards to advanced algorithms, historically, the U.S. has fronted the charge, with two-thirds of all significant improvements dominated by U.S.-born inventors. But in recent decades, U.S. dominance in algorithms has relied on bringing in foreign talent to work in the U.S., which the researchers say is now in jeopardy. China has outpaced the U.S. and many other countries in churning out Ph.D.s in STEM fields since 2007, with one report postulating a near-distant future (2025) where China will be home to nearly twice as many Ph.D.s than in the U.S. China's rise in algorithms can also be seen with the "Gordon Bell Prize," an achievement for outstanding work in harnessing the power of supercomputers in varied applications. U.S. winners historically dominated the prize, but China has now equaled or surpassed Americans' performance in the past five years.

While the researchers note the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 is a critical step in re-establishing the foundation of success for advanced computing, they propose recommendations to the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy.

First, they suggest democratizing access to U.S. supercomputing by building more mid-tier systems that push boundaries for many users, as well as building tools so users scaling up computations can have less up-front resource investment. They also recommend increasing the pool of innovators by funding many more electrical engineers and computer scientists being trained with longer-term US residency incentives and scholarships. Finally, in addition to this new framework, the scientists urge taking advantage of what already exists, via providing the private sector access to experimentation with high-performance computing through supercomputing sites in academia and national labs.

All that and a bag of chips

Computing improvements depend on continuous advances in transistor density and performance, but creating robust, new chips necessitate a harmonious blend of design and manufacturing.

Over the last six years, China was not known as the savants of noteworthy chips. In fact, in the past five decades, the U.S. designed most of them. But this changed in the past six years when China created the HiSilicon Kirin 9000, propelling itself to the international frontier. This success was mainly obtained through partnerships with leading global chip designers that began in the 2000s. Now, China now has 14 companies among the world's top 50 fabless designers. A decade ago, there was only one.

Competitive semiconductor manufacturing has been more mixed, where U.S.-led policies and internal execution issues have slowed China's rise, but as of July 2022, the Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) has evidence of 7 nanometer logic, which was not expected until much later. However, with extreme ultraviolet export restrictions, progress below 7 nm means domestic technology development would be expensive. Currently, China is only at parity or better in two out of 12 segments of the semiconductor supply chain. Still, with government policy and investments, the team expects a whopping increase to seven segments in 10 years. So, for the moment, the U.S. retains leadership in hardware manufacturing, but with fewer dimensions of advantage.

The authors recommend that the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy work with key national agencies, such as the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Energy, and the National Science Foundation, to define initiatives to build the hardware and software systems needed for important computing paradigms and workloads critical for economic and security goals. "It is crucial that American enterprises can get the benefit of faster computers," says Thompson. "With Moore's Law slowing down, the best way to do this is to create a portfolio of specialized chips (or "accelerators") that are customized to our needs."

The scientists further believe that to lead the next generation of computing, four areas must be addressed. First, by issuing grand challenges to the CHIPS Act National Semiconductor Technology Center, researchers and startups would be motivated to invest in research and development and to seek startup capital for new technologies in areas such as spintronics, neuromorphics, optical and quantum computing, and optical interconnect fabrics. By supporting allies in passing similar acts, overall investment in these technologies would increase, and supply chains would become more aligned and secure. Establishing test beds for researchers to test algorithms on new computing architectures and hardware would provide an essential platform for innovation and discovery. Finally, planning for post-exascale systems that achieve higher levels of performance through next-generation advances would ensure that current commercial technologies don't limit future computing systems.

"The advanced computing landscape is in rapid fluxtechnologically, economically, and politically, with both new opportunities for innovation and rising global rivalries," says Daniel Reed, Presidential Professor and professor of computer science and electrical and computer engineering at the University of Utah. "The transformational insights from both deep learning and computational modeling depend on both continued semiconductor advances and their instantiation in leading edge, large-scale computing systemshyperscale clouds and high-performance computing systems. Although the U.S. has historically led the world in both advanced semiconductors and high-performance computing, other nations have recognized that these capabilities are integral to 21st century economic competitiveness and national security, and they are investing heavily."

The paper is being published by the Georgetown Public Policy Review.

More information: Report, part 1 : America's lead in advanced computing is almost gone: gppreview.com/2023/02/28/ameri  ms-and-capabilities/ Report, part 2: America's lead in advanced computing is almost gone: Semiconductor manufacturing: gppreview.com/2023/02/28/ameri  ting-is-almost-gone/

This story is republished courtesy of MIT News (web.mit.edu/newsoffice/), a popular site that covers news about MIT research, innovation and teaching.
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

This photo shows a TikTok app logo in Tokyo on Sept. 28, 2020. In the latest salvo in the battle over the Chinese-owned video sharing app, Beijing says a ban on the use of TikTok by official European Union institutions will harm business confidence in Europe. Credit: AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato, File

The U.S. and Canada issued orders this week banning the use of TikTok on government-issued mobile devices as privacy and cybersecurity concerns about the video-sharing app grow.

TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company Bytedance, has long maintained that it does not share data with the Chinese government and that its data is not held in China. It also disputes accusations that it collects more user data than other social media companies, and insists that it is run independently by its own management.

But many countries remain cautious about the platform and its ties to China. Here are the countries and regions that have implemented partial or total bans on TikTok:

INDIA

India imposed a ban on TikTok and dozens of other Chinese apps, including the messaging app WeChat, in 2020 over privacy and security concerns. The ban came shortly after a clash between Indian and Chinese troops at a disputed Himalayan border killed 20 Indian soldiers and injured dozens.

The companies were given a chance to respond to questions on privacy and security requirements but the ban was made permanent in January 2021.

TAIWAN

In December 2022, Taiwan imposed a public sector ban on TikTok after the FBI warned that TikTok posed a national security risk. Government devices, including mobile phones, tablets and desktop computers, are not allowed to use Chinese-made software, which include apps like TikTok, its Chinese equivalent Douyin, or Xiaohongshu, a Chinese lifestyle content app.

UNITED STATES

This week, the U.S. said that government agencies have 30 days to delete TikTok from federal devices and systems over data security concerns. The ban applies only to government devices, though some U.S. lawmakers are advocating an outright ban. China lashed out at the U.S. for banning TikTok, describing the ban as an abuse of state power and suppressing firms from other countries. More than half of the 50 U.S. states also have banned the app from government devices.

CANADA

After the U.S. announcement, Canada on Monday announced government-issued devices must not use TikTok, saying that it presents an "unacceptable" risk to privacy and security. Employees will also be blocked from downloading the application in the future.

EUROPEAN UNION

The European Parliament, European Commission and the EU Council, three top EU bodies, have imposed bans on TikTok on staff devices. The European Parliament's ban, announced Tuesday, takes effect on March 20. It has recommended lawmakers and staff remove the app from their personal devices.

PAKISTAN

Pakistani authorities have temporarily banned TikTok at least four times since October 2020, citing concerns that app promotes immoral content.

AFGHANISTAN

Afghanistan's Taliban leadership banned TikTok and the game PUBG in 2022 on the grounds of protecting youths from "being misled."

 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Visitors test a SK Telecom VR flight simulator during the Mobile World Congress 2023 in Barcelona, Spain, Monday, Feb. 27, 2023. The four-day show kicks off Monday in a vast Barcelona conference center. It's the world's biggest and most influential meeting for the mobile tech industry. Credit: AP Photo/Joan Mateu Parra

I climbed into the front seat of the air taxi, buckled the seat belt and braced as the aircraft lifted off. The futuristic cityscape of Busan, South Korea, dropped away, and a digital avatar popped up on the windscreen with a message.

I couldn't answer as a wave of motion sickness hit me. The virtual reality goggles combined with motion-simulating seats pitching back and forth and side to side made it feel like I was actually hovering and maneuvering in the air. They also made me so nauseous I had to close my eyes for the rest of the three-minute journey.

Welcome to the metaversesort of.

South Korean company SK Telecom's air taxi mockup was one of the eye-catching demonstrations at MWC, or Mobile World Congress, the world's biggest telecom industry trade show. Tech companies and wireless carriers at this week's expo in Barcelona displayed advancements to connect people and businesses online, increasingly in new virtual reality worlds dubbed the metaverse.

Visitor Mark Varahona also felt woozy after trying the flight experience but is still considering buying a virtual reality headset, the hardware needed to enter any immersive digital universe.

"I was thinking to buy it before coming here. And maybe now I will buy them," he said. "They look quite nice."

The metaverse exploded in popularity after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in late 2021 pronounced it the next big thing for the internet, renaming his social media empire and socking tens of billions into the idea.

He portrayed it as 3D community where people can meet, work and playdoing everything from trying on digital clothes, holding a virtual meeting or taking a trip online.

A visitor tests a GSMA VR simulator during the Mobile World Congress 2023 in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023. After three years of pandemic disruption, MWC, also known as Mobile World Congress, kicked off Monday in Barcelona, Spain, with mobile phone makers showing off new devices and telecom industry executives perusing the latest networking gear and software. Credit: AP Photo/Joan Mateu Parra

But doubts about the viability of the metaverse have been creeping in as the initial hype wears off. Sales of virtual reality headsets in the U.S. slipped 2% by December from the previous year, according to NPD Research. Reality Labs, which makes Meta Quest headsets, posted an operating loss of $13.7 billion in 2022.

Meta has said it plans to hire 10,000 engineers in Europe to work on the metaverse. When asked for an update, the company said, "Our expansion in Europe was always a long-term one planned over a number of years. We remain committed to Europe."

The "metaverse has not gone away," said Ben Wood, principal analyst at CCS Insight. "But I think there's a lot more skepticism about what role it's going to play, particularly in the consumer domain beyond the obvious areas of things like gaming."

The definition of the metaverse has been hard to pin down, adding to the skepticism. It is not the same as virtual reality and its cousin, augmented reality, said Tuong Nguyen, a Gartner analyst specializing in emerging technologies.

"So AR and VR very closely related to the metaverse in the same way that computers are related to the Internet," he said. "Think of it instead as evolution of the Internet, which changes the way that we interact with the world."

So how should SK Telecom's flight simulator be defined?

"Technically, it's not metaverse, but kind of metaverse," said Ken Wohn, a company manager.

South Korea's biggest telecom provider teamed up last year with California's Joby Aviation to develop an electric air taxi service to the country.

A Orange employee dances during a 5G metaverse dance simulation at the Mobile World Congress 2023 in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023. After three years of pandemic disruption, MWC, also known as Mobile World Congress, kicked off Monday in Barcelona, Spain, with mobile phone makers showing off new devices and telecom industry executives perusing the latest networking gear and software. Credit: AP Photo/Joan Mateu Parra

One day the air taxis might operate autonomously, using high-speed 5G wireless connections, Wohn said.

It was a different experience at French wireless company Orange's metaverse demonstration, where users were transported to a futuristic neon-hued technoscape with lightning bolts, giant robots and a falcon carrying a green orb in its talons.

A dancing figure appeared, representing the movements of a real-life dancer wearing motion-capture gear. It was a dazzling display, though what consumer purpose it had was not immediately clear.

Miguel Angel Almonacid, Orange's network strategy director for Spain, said it demonstrates how new 5G networks will eliminate lag for metaverse users watching something happening far away.

The metaverse might be more suited to practical purposes in the workplace, analysts said.

"That's where we'll see traction first because the barriers aren't as high," said Gartner's Nguyen. For example, a worker could use augmented reality glasses to pull up diagnostics or an instruction manual.

Spanish startup La Frontera uses the metaverse to provide virtual meetings with "realistic avatars," Marta Ortiz, a business development executive, said as she guided me through the company's metaverse.

We arrived first on a beach, with boulders, palm trees and a light blue sea. Her avatar appeared, a head and shoulders with disembodied hands hovering in front of her chest. We entered a nearby conference room with a boardroom table, where I used handheld controllers to pick up 3D objects like a toy ray gun and a bottle of Champagne.

Orange worker tests 5G XR digital twin robot control with VR Glasses during the Mobile World Congress 2023 in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, March 1, 2023. After three years of pandemic disruption, the MWC kicked off Monday in Barcelona, Spain, with mobile phone makers showing off new devices and telecom industry executives perusing the latest networking gear and software. Credit: AP Photo/Joan Mateu Parra

Other metaverse applications include training for risky, repetitive or highly detailed procedures, like surgery.

The beach disappeared, replaced by an overturned tanker truck on fire. A fire extinguisher hung in midair. Ortiz told me to grab it with my virtual hand and spray it at the flames, which started to die down.

The virtual world also could be useful for showcasing products too big to move easily, like private jets.

Or they could be too small for humans.

The scene changed to a sci-fi setting, with crimson walls rising up around us, representing the inside of a blood vessel. Reddish-brown doughnut-shaped blood cells floated past, followed by spiky orbs. The blood vessel's wall opened up, exposing pulsing white streaks on a blue background, depicting neurons in a brain.

La Frontera works with pharmaceutical companies to "show how a drug works in the body at a cellular level," Ortiz said. In this case, it was a medicine to treat multiple sclerosis, which attacks brain neurons.

 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is scheduled to unveil the automaker's longterm plan at an investor day in Texas.

Elon Musk will aim to quiet any doubts about Tesla's standing in the electric car race on Wednesday when the serial entrepreneur convenes an investor day.

Invoking his trademark flare, Musk promised to reveal "Master Plan 3" at the gathering, entailing "the path to a fully sustainable energy future for Earth," he said on Twitter in early February.

The event, which will be held at Tesla's factory in Texas, will be webcast at 2100 GMT on Wednesday.

"Since he is making promises for all citizens of the earth, and not only investors, there better be something pretty big," said Jessica Caldwell, an auto industry expert at Edmunds.com.

Caldwell would like to see more clues on how Tesla plans to boost production. Other key watch items include a concrete plan to release a more affordable electric vehicle (for around $25,000), as well as a new vehicle model after the last Tesla launch in 2020.

"He has big ideas. but he has proven that you have to take what he says with a grain of salt," Caldwell said.

Musk "has to be more specific, at least for the short term," Caldwell added.

Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush, wants Musk to spell out more of the plan for Tesla's pickup, the Cybertruck, for which production is due to begin this summer, and for the Semi trucks, which commenced deliveries in late 2022.

Like Caldwell, Ives is keen to hear about the path to a more moderately priced Tesla EV, as well as an update on Tesla's 4680 electric battery format.

Other matters of interest include Tesla's plan for procuring lithium and key raw materials, as well as updates on driver-assistance technology and the state of EV demand.

Musk will need to lay out a "broader strategic roadmap looking ahead," said Ives, in light of "the green tidal wave hitting globally on the shift to EVs."

Rebound on Wall Street

The gathering comes as Tesla attempts to guard its advantage in EVs as it faces intensifying competition in the market.

The growing slate of EV makers includes Chinese groups such as BYD as well as traditional automakers like General Motors, Volkswagen and Stellantis.

There are also lingering questions about the extent of Musk's focus on Tesla at a time when he is also managing Twitter, which the billionaire acquired in late October.

After an ugly 2022, Tesla shares have rallied in early 2023, rising around 67 percent so far this year, a surge that has reestablished Musk as the world's wealthiest person.

"Investors are focused on what can change the narrative to continue the stock's recent rally," Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas said in a note.

Musk previously unveiled the first phase of his "Master Plan" in 2006, which was focused on producing a luxury sport vehicle before more affordable autos.

The second phase included ambitious targets for solar panels, autonomous driving and producing a fleet of Teslas across major vehicle categories.

Musk has been credited with catalyzing a revolution in the global auto industry towards EVs, although he has still not met the significant target he has set for Tesla.

The company's lowest-price vehicle, the Model 3, begins at $43,000 in the United Statestoo pricey for many consumers for a vehicle that had been pitched as aimed at the mass market.

Musk has also missed his own deadlines for a fully autonomous vehicle, with Tesla driver-assistance technology spurring US regulatory probes.

 2023 AFP
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

SpaceXs Starlink service is slowly arriving in Africa, starting with Nigeria and Rwanda. Credit: Wirestock Creators/Shutterstock

It's hard for many of us to imagine a world without instant, limitless internet access. Some have even argued that it should, alongside access to clean water and electricity, be considered a basic human right.

But in fact only 64.4% of the global population as of January 2023 are internet users. Asia and Europe are home to most of the people who are connected.

Africa comes in third. However, accessibility varies wildly across the continent. About 66% of people in southern Africa are internet users. In east Africa the figure is 26%; it is just 24% in central Africa. People in rural areas have far less access than those in the continent's urban areas.

Internet access opens up the world in many ways. It can entertain, educate, enable payments and even bolster democracy.

That's why advances in providing internet access to people in Africa are worth celebrating. In January 2023, the US company SpaceX, which manufactures and launches spacecraft and communication satellites, announced that its Starlink service was available in Nigeria. This was a first for the continent. It has also since become available in Rwanda.

Starlink is a satellite-based internet service. It is set to be rolled out elsewhere on the continent, including the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya and Tanzania, later this year. More coverage is to come in 2024.

This could be an important way to fill Africa's connectivity gaps, which have arisen because of poor digital infrastructure and the high costs of investing in fiber optic cables or mobile phone masts, particularly in rural and remote areas. The United Nations has a strategy for reaching universal access across Africa by 2030, but this won't be possible without innovative approaches.

Starlink is one such innovation. Since all its users are tapping into the same infrastructure, in space, there's less need for erecting mobile phone masts or laying fiber optic cable on land.

What is Starlink?

Starlink is a network of thousands of satellites located close to the Earthabout 550km from the planet's surfacethat provide broadband internet access.

Of course, satellites are already used for internet connectivity. But a traditional internet satellite is a single geostationary object; its position in orbit is fixed in relation to the Earth. These satellites are also located more than 35,000km from Earth, so it takes a long time for the signal to reach the end user. As anyone who has tried to use the internet in a remote area knows, the further a signal travels, the worse it gets, so traditional internet satellites tend to be slow and can be unreliable. They aren't able to adequately support activities like live streaming, online gaming and video calls.

Starlink's Low-Earth Orbit satellites are able to interconnect and relay signals between each other, creating fast, stable internet service. There are also a lot of them: on 17 February 2023, SpaceX said it had launched 3,981 satellites in total, with 3,639 currently operational.

The company can launch its own satellites on demand and update them with the latest technology as required, which it says adds to their reliability.

Much of Africa's internet access is currently being provided through mobile, wireless internetsignals are relayed from land-based towers. This has less coverage and is slower than satellite internet access.

One area of concern when it comes to Starlink is the cost. For example, at the beginning of February 2023, FiberOne, a broadband internet provider in Nigeria, was providing internet with speeds of up to 500Mbps, which is fast. The installation fee was N32,231 (about US$70) and the monthly subscription cost around N100,000 (US$220). Starlink in Nigeria, meanwhile, costs about N276,000 (US$599) once-off for the kit and installation, then charges a monthly subscription fee of about N198,000 (US$43).

Starlink is cheaper in the long term than both fiber optic and mobile internet providers. But can an average rural Nigerian household with a monthly income of less than N28,000 (US$60) afford it? Given that average incomes are similarly low in most rural and remote parts of Africa, there's a risk that Starlink's targeted users on the continent won't be able to use the service.

Research uses

These concerns aside, there's no doubt that faster internet can propel Africa forward. Despite the shortcomings of mobile, wireless internet, it has been credited with greatly advancing Africa technologically. Services like Starlink could fuel even greater growth in several areas. These include education, participation in democracy and governance, disaster risk reduction and mitigation, health, and agriculture.

As a researcher in planetary and space science whose work includes, among other things, the use of satellite data for monitoring and modeling in relation to geology, I am especially interested in the ways these satellites could be used beyond internet access, for tasks like remote sensing and Earth observations. I hope that Starlink's arrival in Africa will help usher the continent into a new phase of technological development.

For example, satellite images can give information on crop yield, helping farmers to make better decisions on irrigation, fertilization and harvesting. They also allow for widespread and effective monitoring of reservoir levels, as well as increasing transparency about how much water is available, thereby providing early warnings of shortages and uniform data among countries with common water sources.

Governments, researchers and industries can buy access to specialized Starlink satellites called Swarm for data they need for these kinds of projects. The sheer number and speed of Starlink's satellites means they can gather a lot of data, quickly, and offer frequent updates. Starlink's arrival in Africa is a great opportunity for the continent's scientists, governments and industries to collaborate.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

The TikTok logo is seen on a cell phone on Oct. 14, 2022, in Boston. The White House is giving all federal agencies 30 days to wipe TikTok off all government devices, as the Chinese-owned social media app comes under increasing scrutiny in Washington over security concerns. Credit: AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File

The United States is ratcheting up national security concerns about TikTok, mandating that all federal employees delete the Chinese-owned social media app from government-issued mobile phones. Other Western governments are pursuing similar bans, citing espionage fears.

So how serious is the threat? And should TikTok users who don't work for the government be worried about the app, too?

The answers depend somewhat on whom you ask, and how concerned you are in general about technology companies gathering and sharing personal data.

Here's what to know:

How are the U.S. and other governments blocking tiktok?

The White House said Monday it is giving U.S. federal agencies 30 days to delete TikTok from all government-issued mobile devices.

Congress, the White House, U.S. armed forces and more than half of U.S. states had already banned TikTok amid concerns that its parent company, ByteDance, would give user datasuch as browsing history and locationto the Chinese government, or push propaganda and misinformation on its behalf.

The European Union's executive branch has temporarily banned TikTok from employee phones, and Denmark and Canada have announced efforts to block TikTok on government-issued phones.

China says the bans reveal the United States' insecurities and are an abuse of state power. But they come at a time when Western technology companies, including Airbnb, Yahoo and LinkedIn, have been leaving China or downsizing operations there because of Beijing's strict privacy law that specifies how companies can collect and store data.

What are the concerns about tiktok?

Both the FBI and the Federal Communications Commission have warned that ByteDance could share TikTok user data with China's authoritarian government.

A law China implemented in 2017 requires companies to give the government any personal data relevant to the country's national security. There's no evidence that TikTok has turned over such data, but fears abound due to the vast amount of user data it collects.

Concerns were heightened in December when ByteDance said it fired four employees who accessed data on two journalists from Buzzfeed News and The Financial Times while attempting to track down the source of a leaked report about the company. TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter said the breach was an "egregious misuse" of the employees' authority.

There is also concern about TikTok's content and whether it harms teenagers' mental health. Researchers from the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate said in a report released in December that eating disorder content on the platform had amassed 13.2 billion views. Roughly two-thirds of U.S. teens use TikTok, according to the Pew Research Center.

Who has pushed for tiktok restrictions?

In 2020, then-President Donald Trump and his administration sought to force ByteDance to sell off its U.S. assets and ban TikTok from app stores. Courts blocked Trump's efforts, and President Joe Biden rescinded Trump's orders after taking office but ordered an in-depth study of the issue. A planned sale of TikTok's U.S. assets was shelved.

In Congress, concern about the app has been bipartisan. Congress passed the "No TikTok on Government Devices Act" in December as part of a sweeping government funding package. The legislation does allow for TikTok use in certain cases, including for national security, law enforcement and research purposes.

House Republicans are expected to move forward Tuesday with a bill that would give Biden the power to ban TikTok nationwide. The legislation, proposed by Rep. Mike McCaul, looks to circumvent the challenges the administration would face in court if it moved forward with sanctions against the company.

The bill has received pushback from civil liberties organizations. In a letter sent Monday to McCaul and Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, the American Civil Liberties Union said a nationwide TikTok ban would be unconstitutional and would "likely result in banning many other businesses and applications as well."

How risky is tiktok?

It depends on who you ask.

U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco has expressed concerns that the Chinese government could gain access to user data.

"I don't use TikTok, and I would not advise anyone to do so," Monaco said earlier this month at the policy institute Chatham House in London.

TikTok said in a blog post in June that it will route all data from U.S. users to servers controlled by Oracle, the Silicon Valley company it chose as its U.S. tech partner in 2020 in an effort to avoid a nationwide ban. But it is storing backups of the data in its own servers in the U.S. and Singapore. The company said it expects to delete U.S. user data from its own servers, but it did not provide a timeline as to when that would occur.

But the amount of information TikTok collects might not be that different from other popular social media sites, experts say.

In an analysis published in 2021, the University of Toronto's nonprofit Citizen Lab said TikTok and Facebook collect similar amounts of user data, including device identifiers that can be used to track a user and other information that can piece together a user's behavior across different platforms. It's valuable information for advertisers.

"If you are not comfortable with that level of data collection and sharing, you should avoid using the app," the Citizen Lab report said.

What are other experts saying?

While the potential abuse of privacy by the Chinese government is concerning, "it's equally concerning that the US government, and many other governments, already abuse and exploit the data collected by every other U.S.-based tech company with the same data-harvesting business practices," said Evan Greer, director of the nonprofit advocacy group Fight for the Future.

"If policy makers want to protect Americans from surveillance, they should advocate for a basic privacy law that bans all companies from collecting so much sensitive data about us in the first place, rather than engaging in what amounts to xenophobic showboating that does exactly nothing to protect anyone," Greer said.

Others say there is legitimate reason for concern.

People who use TikTok might think they're not doing anything that would be of interest to a foreign government, but that's not always the case, said Anton Dahbura, executive director of the Johns Hopkins University Information Security Institute. Important information about the United States is not strictly limited to nuclear power plants or military facilities; it extends to other sectors, such as food processing, the finance industry and universities, Dahbura said.

What does tiktok say?

Its unclear how much the government-wide TikTok ban might impact the company. Oberwetter, the TikTok spokesperson, said it has "no way" of knowing whether its users are government employees.

The company, though, has questioned the bans, saying it has not been given an opportunity to answer questions and that governments were cutting themselves off from a platform beloved by millions.

"These bans are little more than political theater," Oberwetter said.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is set to testify next month before Congress. The House Energy and Commerce Committee will ask about the company's privacy and data-security practices, as well as its relationship with the Chinese government.

 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Attack helicopter flies at sunset

China Military Online) 09:01, March 01, 2023

An attack helicopter attached to an army aviation brigadeunder the PLA 72nd Group Army flies at sunset during a round-the-clock flight training exercise in late February, 2023. (eng.chinamil.com.cn/Photo by Zhang Huanpeng)

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
A carbon filtering system that cleans drinking water at the Spring Hollow reservoir is starting to wear down, elevating levels of a chemical contaminant above the federal governments health advisory.

Recent test results show that treated water from the Roanoke County reservoir had levels of GenX from between 17 and 37 parts per trillion from late-October to mid-December  exceeding the Environmental Protection Agencys long-term recommendation of no more than 10 parts per trillion.

Carbon replacements, due to arrive in mid-March, are expected to bring the concentration back down.

The Western Virginia Water Authority, which operates Spring Hollow as part of a system that provides drinking water to the Roanoke Valley, is continuing to distribute water from the reservoir, although at reduced levels.

Michael McEvoy, executive director of the authority, said the risk to an average customer is low, because the EPAs health advisory is based on a lifetime of consuming two liters of water a day. Levels of GenX are neither excessively high nor prolonged, he said.

But Jamie DeWitt, a professor of pharmacology and toxicology at East Carolina University who has done extensive research on the issue, questioned that rationale.

I dont believe that really aligns with the spirit of a lifetime health advisory, DeWitt said. The concentration in the water should be consistently below the health advisory. Not occasionally below, or sometimes below, but consistently below.

GenX, the trade name for one of more than 6,000 so-called forever chemicals, was first detected in Spring Hollow in early 2020.

Also called PFAS, for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, forever chemicals repel heat and water, making them popular in the manufacture of a wide variety of consumer products. But theres a drastic downside: The manufactured compounds can remain in the environment for generations, and there is growing concern about the health risks they pose.

Last summer, at about the time the EPA health advisory was issued, the water authority began using a granulated active carbon system. The treatment entails running water from Spring Hollow through a filtering process before it is distributed to about 12,800 customers, most of them in Roanoke County.

The contaminant bonds to the carbon, which at first reduced its levels significantly. Tests of the treated water, which in January 2022 had a GenX concentration of 55 parts per trillion, showed a decrease to as low as 1 part per trillion in August.

But the numbers gradually began to rise again, as the carbon lost its ability over time to capture the GenX.

Once able to remove the chemical nearly completely from reservoir water, the filtering system currently has an efficiency rate of about 35%. The most recent test results, from samples taken Dec. 16, showed the level was up to 37 parts per trillion.

The carbon filtering system is just one of several steps the water authority has taken since GenX was first detected.

Since last September, the authority has stopped pumping water into the reservoir from the adjacent Roanoke River, which in recent years has carried GenX-tainted wastewater that was released from an industry about five miles upstream.

And the output from Spring Hollow has been cut by about half, with more water coming from Carvins Cove, a second reservoir that tests show is free of GenX and other forever chemicals.

Some portions of authoritys territory, which includes about 69,000 homes and businesses, can only be served by Spring Hollow.

We want to get the levels below the health advisory, McEvoy said. We just cant right now.

Awareness, concern expand

As Roanoke officials began to deal with the worst contamination in the water authoritys history, they quickly realized they were not alone.

Increased demand for laboratory tests and treatment equipment, created by a growing number of localities across the United States that are encountering PFAS problems of their own, has led to shortages and delays.

The labs are just slammed with people trying to get data and answers to these questions, McEvoy said.

Last October, the water authority ordered replacement carbon units that have yet to arrive. They are expected to be installed in mid-March, and several backups ordered at the same time should last for about a year.

The replacements are seen as a short-term fix to what it considered a rudimentary filtering system. The authority is planning to spend $13.5 million to upgrade the process, which it expects will be needed for the next four years before the GenX levels in the reservoirs untreated water fall below 10 parts per trillion.

Efforts to measure progress have been slowed. Test results of water samples from laboratories, which used to be available in about a month, are now taking twice as long.

Another challenge is figuring out just how much GenX is too much.

While the EPAs health advisory states that exposure to less than 10 parts per trillion does not put people in danger, it does not quantify the risks posed by higher levels.

Safety factors calculated into the recommendation take into account people who might be more susceptible to health problems. And the EPA does not recommend the use of bottled water for those exposed to more than 10 parts per trillion.

Collectively, this suggests that short term consumption is not as relevant as lifetime consumption, McEvoy said.

But when someone is exposed to three or more times the health advisory, as people in the Roanoke region have been, that carries an assumption of increased risk, according to DeWitt, who has published studies on the effects of forever chemicals and served as an external reviewer for the EPA and other government agencies.

Research is ongoing to learn more about the health risks posed by PFAS.

According to the EPA, peer-reviewed scientific studies have shown an increased risk in a number of areas: liver complications; prostate, kidney and testicular cancers; damage to immune systems; increased cholesterol levels; and impacts to pregnant women that include decreased fertility and high blood pressure.

One complicating factor in determining risk is the large number of PFAS and the variety of ways people can be exposed to them.

Since the 1950s, the chemicals have been used in the manufacture of a wide range of products that include nonstick cook wear, waterproof clothing, fast food containers, upholstery, carpets, firefighting foams, paints, cosmetics and dental floss.

Regulatory response

It seems to be taking forever for the federal government to get serious about forever chemicals, critics say.

The EPA currently does not have any enforceable regulations to govern the release of GenX and other PFAS  a move that would add gravitas to its nonbinding health advisories.

More than a year ago, the Biden administration announced plans to impose standards to protect drinking water.

But the government is falling behind on its promises, according to the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit organization that promotes legislation and regulatory action to protect the health of humans and the earth.

Industries will continue to use these chemicals and toxic poisons until we tell them they cant, Scott Faber, the groups vice president of government affairs, said at a press briefing last week.

EWG estimates that more than 200 million Americans are drinking PFAS-contaminated water.

The EPA has said it plans to propose rules as soon as possible. Draft regulations are currently being reviewed internally, and a public comment session will be held after the Office of Management and Budget signs off on the plan. Final rules are expected to be in effect by years end.

Meanwhile, the agency is facing industry pushback.

The Chemours Co., which manufactures GenX and was the source of the contamination in the Roanoke River, has filed a lawsuit that takes issue with the EPAs health advisory.

The case, pending before the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, asserts that the EPAs analysis was flawed. The agency disregarded relevant data and incorporated grossly incorrect and overstated exposure assumptions in devising the health advisory, Chemours said in a news release when the case was filed last summer.

The company has declined to comment on the situation in Roanoke, other than to say it is cooperating in an investigation by the water authority and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.

Last November, the water authority identified the source of pollution as ProChem, a company in Elliston that services industrial water treatment equipment. ProChem was working for Chemours, which was sending equipment from its plant in West Virginia to be cleaned and returned for future use.

ProChem said it was not aware that its process was allowing the chemical to enter a sanitary sewer, which eventually led to its release into the South Fork of the Roanoke River. As soon as it suspected a problem, ProChem terminated its contract with Chemours.

The company says that its subsequent tests at its Elliston facility showed no evidence of GenX that exceed the health advisory.

Levels in the river have also decreased in recent weeks, the authority says, although GenX is still present in water just upstream of the Spring Hollow intake and downstream of a Montgomery County wastewater treatment plant where the effluent entered the river.

Once tests show the river is completely GenX-free, pumping to Spring Hollow will resume.

Local legislation

While calling out the federal government for its slow action in the fight against PFAS, officials with the Environmental Working Group praised some states for implementing their own rules.

In Virginia, a Department of Health workgroup has been in place since 2020, overseeing tests of public water systems across the state and studying ways to impose maximum contaminant levels.

A report from the group published in late 2021 showed that concentrations of GenX at Spring Hollow  which were measured at 57 parts per trillion the previous year  were the highest of any forever chemical detected in Virginia.

After the EPA issued its health advisory in June 2022, and following tests later that year that that showed the contaminant was also in the Roanoke River, concerns grew at the local level.

Two Democratic lawmakers from Roanoke, Del. Sam Rasoul and Sen. John Edwards, introduced bills in the General Assembly.

Rasouls legislation, which would require industries like ProChem to test for forever chemicals when they suspect they may be present in their operations, passed the House and Senate unanimously and now goes to the governor for signing.

A bill from Edwards, which would have required water authorities to promptly notify their customers when a chemical is detected, was tabled by a House subcommittee.

Mark Barker with the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, who has followed the GenX contamination issue closely, says he hopes legislative and regulatory moves will shed more light on the dangers.

GenX was created by Chemours as a replacement for a harmful chemical, perfluorooctanoic acid, also known as PFOA, that is now being phased out, Barker said.

Will we find out one day that GenX is just as bad as PFOA? he asked. Time will tell.
It has been a busy few months for Mirta Martin. As Ferrum Colleges newest president, she is leading an effort to strengthen the school, its student body and increase its connection to the surrounding community.

Martin began her tenure as the colleges interim president Jan. 2. She took over the position after David John resigned from the position in November after serving in the role for five years.

Martin previously served as president of Fairmont State University in West Virginia and at Fort Hays State University in Kansas before that. At Fairmount State she led a $20.5 million turnaround in the universitys finances.

A similar turnaround is what Martin is working for at Ferrum College. Since the pandemic, enrollment at the school has seen a significant drop to less than 900 students. Her goal is to increase that by the fall semester back to around 1,500 students.

I think Ferrum College is a hidden jewel, Martin said. And that is on us, we have not done a good job spreading the message about all that is great about Ferrum College.

Since arriving at Ferrum College, Martin has traveled to high schools throughout the region to promote the college. She has also worked to strengthen connections closer to home speaking at local government meetings and even churches to gain their support in growing the college.

We want to tell the world to come back home, Martin said.

This is a bit of a homecoming for Martin. She lived in the Richmond area for more than 40 years with her husband John before moving to Kansas in 2014 to become the president of Fort Hays State University.

Martin met her husband when they were both freshmen at Duke University. Arriving at the school was something of a miracle for Martin considering the life she came from. She understands the opportunities she was given from her family and especially the teachers that helped in her success.

Born in Cuba, Martin left the island with her grandmother and sister when she was 6. They fled shortly after the Communist revolution led by Fidel Castro.

She packed us up with just the clothes on our back, Martin said. No suitcase and not a penny to our name.

Martins grandmother was able to get safe passage to Madrid, Spain. They left Martins parents and other family members who were unable to leave.

The three of them were able to find a home at a convent in Spain. There Martin said they shared a small room with three beds and a sink.

After years of trying to get the rest of her family out of Cuba, Martins grandmother went to the U.S. Embassy in Spain. They offered to bring them to the United States where they were told they would have a better chance of getting their family out.

Martin said she came to the United States at the age of 15 and didnt speak a word of English. She said her grandmother only knew a few phrases.

While in high school, Martin had to learn a new language while taking classes. That was on top of working several hours in the evening and on weekends to help support her family  sometime only getting a few hours of sleep a night.

My grandmother kept saying to me and to my sister that we were going to go to college, Martin said. I kept thinking how we would be able to go to college if we couldnt make ends meet.

Martin said it was a teacher that helped her navigate her way when trying to figure out applying for college as well as applying for grants and scholarships. It is that guidance she wants to pass on to the students at Ferrum College.

A teacher wrote the check that I attached to my application to Duke, Martin said. That is how I went to Duke University. For her it wasnt very much. For me, it transformed my life.

Martin wants to be a guide to the current and incoming students at Ferrum College. She also praises the faculty and its ability to work with students which is benefitted by smaller class sizes that average 11 students.

This really is a college of opportunity, Martin said.

While her title is interim president, Martin has no plans to leave the college anytime soon. She said she feels called to Ferrum and wants to help it grow and become even more successful.

I did not come here to ensure that Ferrum College survives, Martin said. I came here because I know Ferrum College will thrive.
Authorities would respond to a major train wreck or other disaster in downtown Roanoke by hustling residents and workers as much as 2 miles away from danger, according to a downtown evacuation plan now under final review before public release.

Years in the making, the first-of-its-kind document is expected to be released sometime this year.

It is not a response to the Feb. 3 wreck of a Norfolk Southern Corp. train in Ohio, but it figures in safety plans officials have developed for Roanoke, where the railroad also owns and operates trains on local tracks.

There is a lot of rail traffic that comes through Roanoke that has hazardous materials on it, said Trevor Shannon, battalion chief for emergency management and community preparedness at Roanoke Fire EMS.

The East Palestine, Ohio, incident triggered 11 tank car fires within a populated area, followed by an evacuation order during which crews released and ignited the plastics-making component vinyl choride, creating a gray plume that headlined newspaper front pages and led TV broadcasts. No one has been reported injured or killed.

The railroad industry is generally regarded as the safest transportation option for most goods and federal data show accidents involving hazardous materials are exceedingly rare. But with rails crossing through the heart of many cities and towns nationwide, even one hazardous materials accident could be disastrous, especially in a densely populated area.

Rail unions believe the industry has gotten riskier in recent years after widespread job cuts left workers spread thin.

It raises all kinds of questions, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine told Fox & Friends this week when he was asked whether hazardous materials are too dangerous to transport by rail.

Weve seen it up close and personal the last few days, DeWine said. This is a big, big deal.

About half of the 4,800 residents in the eastern Ohio town of East Palestine and those in the surrounding area, including parts of Pennsylvania, had to evacuate as officials monitored air and water quality following a controlled burn of chemicals released from damaged tank cars. The evacuation order was lifted after the air was deemed safe.

Roanoke region residents and trains have coexisted for more than 170 years. Modern fire departments maintain written incident response plans covering rail, highways, airports and other settings. Agencies in the region have agreements to jointly respond to an incident in any jurisidction and also join forces with state agencies and private contractors.

Officials relied on cooperation agreements to handle a release of chlorine gas at Bedfords sewage plant in April 2022. In another recent incident, a crashed Norfolk Southern train spilled coal into the Roanoke River west of Salem in 2020.

Shannon, the emergency preparedness lead at the city fire department, had no memory of any recent rail incident in the city posing a severe threat to the public. But forces remain prepared, he said, describing the relationship between his agency and Norfolk Southerns regional point person on hazardous materials safety as fantastic.

They havent discussed the Ohio incident yet, but they will, he said.

The big question right now is the lessons learned, Shannon said. We certainly look for a conversation to happen on this.

Chief activities in the realm of preparedness include training, which will include a tank car leak exercise in June; maintenance of equipment, such as foam dispensing trailers useful for fire suppression and vapors control; networking with private-sector environmental contractors; and review and refinement of written response plans.

First responders are equipped to quickly identify the contents of freight cars derailed, toppled or damaged in an incident and can summon hazardous materials crews 24 hours a day, Shannon said. A major incident could require 50 to 75 responders to handle all the needs, he said.

Shannon recommended residents register themselves and their contact information with the citys mass communication system, called Star City Alerts, on the citys website. Something like this shows the importance of it, he said in reference to the Ohio incident.

Officials would use the alert system, social media, traditional media and if needed a public address system to inform residents that an incident has occurred and provide instructions. Officials might seek to evacuate people to between 500 feet and 2 miles away from hazards, he said.

Officials have worked for several years on a downtown evacuation plan expected to be released this year, he said.

Asked to describe a successful evacuation of downtown, Shannon said that would be difficult to do, given a diversity of possible circumstances. I would like to say within a few hours we would have everybody out. It would be a challenge, he said.

Ian Jefferies, head of the Association of American Railroads trade group, said 99.9% of all hazardous materials shipments reach their destinations safely.

According to Federal Railroad Administration data, hazardous chemicals were released during 11 train accidents nationwide last year, out of roughly 535 million miles, with only two injuries reported. In the past decade, releases of hazardous materials peaked at 20 in both 2018 and 2020.

Railroads are the safest form of moving goods across land in the country without question, Jefferies said. But railroads are also working to drive toward zero incidents.

Railroads try to route hazardous materials shipments on the safest path. Most of the worst derailments in recent years happened in rural areas, but in 2013 a derailment in Canada killed 47 people in the town of Lac-Megantic and caused millions of dollars in damage. A 2005 derailment in Graniteville, South Carolina, killed nine people and injured more than 250 after toxic chlorine gases were released.

Hazardous materials account for about 7% to 8% of the 30 million shipments that railroads deliver across the country every year. But because of the way railroads mix freight together, at least a couple cars of hazardous materials can be found on nearly any train besides grain or coal trains.

Railroads are a very safe form of transportation from a standpoint of statistics, said professor David Clarke, who previously led the Center for Transportation Research at the University of Tennessee. That doesnt mean that youre never going to have an accident. That would be unrealistic for any type of transportation to have zero accidents.

Some say thats not enough. An East Palestine business owner and two other residents sued Norfolk Southern in federal court on Tuesday, alleging negligence. Among other things, the lawsuit says the railroad failed to maintain and inspect its tracks and rail cars, failed to provide appropriate employee training, and failed to reasonably warn the public.

Mehdi Ahmadian, who holds a chair in mechanical engineering and directs Virginia Techs Center for Vehicle Systems and Safety, said he wanted to discourage those following the story from concluding fault lies with the railroad. Preliminary investigation pointed to evidence of an axle bearing becoming overheated before the incident, he said.

I have not seen anything that indicates that Norfolk Southern broke any laws relative to the accident that happened in Ohio, Ahmadian said.

In his work, Ahmadian seeks to advance train and track monitoring. Systems are already in place that detect hot bearings and alert the operator of the train and dispatcher. The tracks in downtown Roanoke probably have the technology, he said.

Its been in place for a long, long time, probably more than two or three decades, he said.

Norfolk Southern did not respond to a request for specific information about its Roanoke-area operations, including for a description of the train traffic carrying hazardous materials.

Its media relations department, which communicates with reporters only through email, sent a statement that called employee and community safety its number one priority. The statement said the company prepares for hazardous materials spills, calling them extremely rare.

As a common carrier, Norfolk Southern is required by law to carry a variety of materials used by businesses to manufacture goods, the statement said. Rail cars, which can hold much more material than trucks carrying the same items, are built, maintained and inspected to standards set by the Association of American Railroads and the Federal Railroad Administration.

Greg Regan, president of the AFL-CIOs Transportation Trades Department coalition, said he worries the chances of a catastrophic derailment are increasing because major freight railroads have eliminated roughly one-third of their workers over the past six years. Companies have shifted to running fewer, longer trains and say they dont need as many crews, mechanics and locomotives.

Before those operating changes, Regan said inspectors used to have about two minutes to inspect every railcar. Now they only get roughly 30 to 45 seconds to check each car. Signalmen who maintain rail crossing guards and safety signals along the tracks also have bigger territories, making it harder to keep up with preventative maintenance.

Theyre really just trying to squeeze as much productivity out of these workers as they can, Regan said. And when youre focused on timing and rushing, unfortunately sometimes things can fall through the cracks.

Professor Allan Zarembski, who leads the University of Delawares Rail Engineering and Safety Program, said railroads are continually working to improve safety and prevent derailments.

Railroads are developing new acoustic detectors being placed along tracks to signal if a mechanical bearing is about to fail. Heat sensors also have been in place for years to spot overheating bearings, which is one of the most common causes of an axle failure, Zarembski said.

Railroads and the shipping companies that own tank cars also have been steadily improving them to reduce the chances they will rupture in a derailment.

Railroads also invest about $24 billion per year in maintaining and improving tracks to help prevent problems.
Sen. Janet Howell, D-Fairfax, made it official on Tuesday. She will retire after 32 years in the Virginia Senate, including four as the first woman to lead the powerful Senate Finance & Appropriations Committee.

Howell, 78, is still leading the Senate in negotiations with the House of Delegates for a new state budget, which would be her sixth in four tumultuous years that began with the COVID-19 pandemic. She is the longest serving female legislator in the assembly.

"I always suspected that I would know when it was time to retire," she said in a statement on Tuesday. "That time has arrived. After serving 32 years and accomplishing most of my legislative goals, I am stepping aside. I will not run for reelection but will complete my term."

"My focus has always been on education, from preschool through graduate school, and on helping our neighbors in need," she said. "We have made great progress yet much more must be done."

Howell joins what may be an unprecedented exodus of legislators and institutional knowledge from the General Assembly this year. New legislative boundaries that the Virginia Supreme Court imposed in December 2021 paired dozens of lawmakers in districts with other incumbents, prompting a raft of retirements. Other lawmakers face tough primary challenges or reelection fights in newly drawn districts.

So far five senators and 13 delegates have announced they are not running again. Twelve other delegates are running for state Senate seats.

Some lawmakers think each chamber could turn over a quarter or more of its members before next Januarys session.

Howell, who lives in Reston, has represented the 32nd Senate District, covering parts of Fairfax and Arlington counties, since 1992. This year, she would be paired with Sen. Jennifer Boysko, D-Fairfax, of Herndon, in the 38th Senate District under the new legislative map.

She joins a throng of other senior Senate leaders who will retire this year, including Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw, D-Fairfax, and Senate Minority Leader Tommy Norment, R-James City. The House will lose leaders such as Del. Ken Plum, D-Fairfax, a 44-year legislative veteran who also represents Reston; Del. Rob Bell, R-Albemarle, chair of the Courts of Justice Committee; Del. Kathy Byron, R-Bedford. chair of the Commerce and Energy Committee; Margaret Ransone, chair of the Privileges and Elections Committee; and Roxann Robinson, chair of the Finance Committee.

Howell became the first female chair of Senate Finance in January, 2020, after Democrats gained a majority in the Senate. Her first budget as chair came to a vote that March as the pandemic began in Virginia. It led the assembly to adopt four spending plans in two years as the state adapted to a radically altered economy and unprecedented emergency relief from the federal government.

The two-year budget adopted during a special session last June was her first as leader under divided government, with Republicans controlling the House and the Executive Mansion, with Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

The political divisions were even more intense this year because of the pending elections for all 140 assembly seats. On Saturday, the last day of the scheduled session, the assembly adopted a stopgap spending plan with a handful of must-do appropriations and adjourned, leaving Howell, now co-chair with Sen. George Barker, D-Fairfax, to negotiate a full budget agreement with the House that the assembly could approve in special session.

"Throughout my time in the Senate my husband, Hunt, has supported me in every way," Howell said Tuesday. "Now we want more time together, with a lot of travel!"
Needing to accommodate future court needs, the Hall County Commission decided Tuesday to move forward with plans to build an addition to the Hall County Courthouse.

The board, though, did say it will keep its options open.

Three commissioners, Pam Lancaster, Ron Peterson and Scott Sorensen, are members of the courthouse expansion committee.

Out of three options, the trio recommended the board focus on a courthouse addition.

Before Tuesday's vote, Commissioner Karen Bredthauer said she's concerned about where the money will come from. Remodeling the annex building would probably make more financial sense, Bredthauer said.

Commissioner Gary Quandt said would go along with the idea, but he wants to make sure the board looks at all options for court expansion. He doesn't want to have one plan "rammed down our throat," he said.

Quandt and Bredthauer said they would like to see a common-sense answer to the county's court needs  a solution "that we can afford," Bredthauer said.

Sorensen said Tuesday's action is just the first step in a process that is "long overdue." Some say the cost of construction might come down eventually, but Sorensen is skeptical.

The county needs to get moving on a plan that keeps future expansion in mind, Sorensen said. Building two courtrooms in the annex building isn't enough, he said. Sorensen doesn't plan on being on the commission for 20 years, so the board needs to "do what's right for the people that come after us."

Loren Humphrey, director of buildings and grounds, said none of the commissioners will get everything they want. "But we need to do something," he said.

To handle the need for courtrooms and offices, the board needs to come up with a reasonable design for a project at a reasonable cost, Humphrey said. The project also needs to be designed to handle expansion down the road, he said. In addition to court needs, space is needed to house thousands of documents.

Humphrey said commissioners need to come together and move forward for the sake of the county.

Lancaster pointed out that she initially favored the annex building idea but the three commissioners settled on a courthouse addition. She assured Quandt that nothing is being rammed down the board's throat. All of the commission's actions, she noted, require a majority vote.

The motion to proceed passed on a 5 to 2 vote, with Bredthauer and Jane Richardson voting against it.

Just before that discussion, the board voted to move forward with a possible plan to close Pine Street from Court Street north to First Street.

That street separates the Hall County Administration Building from the block that houses the annex building, the courthouse and the Grand Island office of the state Department of Health and Human Services.

Regional Planner Chad Nabity said closing Pine Street was discussed about 15 years ago. The idea was nixed because at the time, the fire station at Koenig and Pine streets was still operating. Closing Pine would have made it tougher for fire trucks to reach Highway 30 and Second Street. So it didn't make sense to close Pine at the time.

If Pine were closed now, Nabity said it could lead to the installation of a traffic signal at First and Sycamore, which Nabity believes is needed. Right now, traffic numbers don't warrant the light.

The county will work with the city in pondering the Pine Street closure. Important traffic studies will be conducted, Nabity said.

Also at the meeting, Hall County Attorney Marty Klein introduced James Schulte, the new juvenile detention alternatives initiative coordinator. Schulte used to work as a juvenile probation officer for District 10 in Hastings. Before that, he worked in the juvenile chemical dependency program at the Hastings Regional Center. Schulte spent five and a half years in the Navy.
Seven years ago, Tessa Domingus was on parole, living at her moms house on a farm in southeastern Nebraska, no longer using drugs, but isolated and unsettled, feeling the urge to slip back into a life she wanted to leave behind.

She dug out a laminated index card with a name and phone number from the box of belongings shed taken with her from prison. She picked up her phone and dialed.

Destinie Commuso answered, like shed said she would.

Come to Lincoln, said the woman on the other end of the phone. Come tomorrow.

Domingus was serving time on a drug charge when she met Commuso, who helped facilitate a Mental Health Association of Nebraska support group for people in prison.

Years earlier, Commuso had completed drug court, beating a meth addiction that had begun when she was 11 and running drugs for her dad. Shed been in recovery for years, had become a peer specialist for the mental health association, using her experiences to help others.

That day in prison, one of the group exercises had been to write the names and phone numbers of five support people on index cards. Domingus could think of only two  her mom and grandma. Commuso noticed, told her to put her name down, too.

Now out of prison and at her moms urging, Domingus made the call and the 90-minute drive to Lincoln. She was greeted by Commuso and Kasey Parker, executive director of the mental health association, and others in recovery with their own stories of struggle and addiction, recovery and triumph.

These were the peer specialists whod helped her in prison  had shown her, by example, that life held more possibilities than shed dared imagine.

There were all these individuals with similar lived experiences as me and doing really different things with their lives, she said. I knew I could stay off drugs, but I didnt think I could build a life for myself Id be proud of, that would give me purpose, she said.

She felt hope for the first time in prison that day, she said. When she called Commuso and drove to Lincoln, she started turning that hope into reality.

She began volunteering for the association, then working on-call. She was certified as a peer specialist and hired full-time to work at Honu Home, a transitional living home for people recently released from prison.

Today, she knows how to manage the mental health issues shed struggled with from childhood, had used drugs to try to numb their effects for so long.

She's coordinated various programs for the health association and is now overseeing the opening of a second transitional living home in Omaha. She has a husband, owns a home, regained custody of her children and has reestablished relationships with them. She's a grandma now.

But heres the thing: Shes not the only success story to walk through the doors of Honu Home.

This house is full of these stories, she said. We get to watch this (change) with everyone around us.

***

The turtles that grace the walls of Honu Home  the stuffed animals that loiter on the furniture, the porcelain centerpiece that graces a table, the real ones living in a giant fish tank  mean something to those who live and work in the space.

Like its name  Honu means turtle in Hawaiian  theyre a reminder of a philosophy that guides them.

You can retreat into your shell, but you must venture out. Recovery  like the turtle  is slow, but it will move you forward.

Honu Home's longtime director Alan Green used the turtle metaphor to help Parker when her anxiety nearly overwhelmed her, back when the two were starting something new.

In 2001, Parker worked for an agency that got a federal grant to help people who had dealt with their own mental health or substance abuse issues, who had survived trauma and the effects of growing up in poverty have a voice in policy-making and community-based services.

In 2005, they hired Green as director of the mental health association and Parker began working for him the following year, eventually succeeding Green as executive director. The association offers a variety of programs using peer specialists, including a respite home for people in crisis, which Parker decided to call Keya House (the Lakota word for turtle), that opened in 2009.

In 2015, the mental health association got a state grant through a new program to help people leaving prison, part of a Legislative prison reform effort.

Honu Home opened soon after, a five-bedroom house in a southeast Lincoln neighborhood for people on parole or supervised probation, or who have been released after finishing their sentences.

The mental health association supplements the state grant and state housing payments with other funding, allowing residents to stay longer than the state will pay for housing.

Thats not enough time for some of our people to get on their feet, Parker said.

Two years after Honu House opened, theyd outgrown that space and moved to their current home near 56th Street and Pioneers Boulevard, which can house 20 people.

The demand is great, but Parker believes they offer the kind of services and support important to help people leaving prison.

Last year more than 1,400 people were released from prison, according to state corrections records.

Though the number of eligible inmates paroled dropped from 78% to 58% between 2018 and 2020, the number of people released on supervised probation has increased 70% in the last decade, according to a 2023 report by the Crime and Justice Institute on the states prison overcrowding crisis.

The report recommended, among other things, greater residential housing support. A bill in the Legislature would create baseline health and safety standards for such homes, require inspections, track program use, outcomes and expenses.

Parker testified in favor of the bill, and said for-profit homes cropping up in Lincoln and Omaha often dont comply with basic fire and safety codes and require too many people to live together, often with little to no supervision and programming.

Those homes have become an issue for city officials facing requests from the groups for zoning waivers to allow 10 or more people to live in the homes.

It makes me very angry, she said. We, as a nonprofit, get funding from parole and probation but we have programs, therapists - that money is being put back in their care, not in somebody's pocket.

***

Honu House is designed for those who want to be there and live their lives differently, not because someone is telling them to stay there, Parker said.

They have employment specialists on staff to help residents find jobs, and outreach workers to help find housing when theyre ready to leave, and if they need other services, Honu Home will connect them.

Peer specialists help them overcome the barriers they face coming out of prison.

And there are many: housing, transportation, accessing health care, simply reacclimating to a world that  for people who've been in prison a long time  has changed.

Theres a room with food from the Lincoln Food Bank, and staff teaches residents how to cook meals on a slim budget. Theyve taught people incarcerated for much of their lives how to drive. They show them how to be good neighbors. They help them learn to navigate smart phones and the internet.

Commuso said as peer specialists who've experienced much of the same kinds of trauma, poverty, mental health issues or substance abuse, they are in a good position to help others.

"People sit in (the trauma). We use our experience to help them move forward."

Everyone at Honu Home gets their own room and a key so they can lock it  something particularly important for people coming out of prison where theres been no privacy, Parker said.

Shes had people cry when shes handed them a key, those whove told her theyve never had a bed other than a mattress on the floor.

When they get to experience a place that is safe, where they can lock their own doors and its clean . . . they see an example of how it can be better for them, Parker said.

And they deserve that.

Photos: Prayer rally at Nebraska Capitol marks a year of war in Ukraine
Editors Note: This op-ed was distributed by Capitol News Illinois on behalf of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute. The opinions expressed in this article are the authors own.

Im teaching a class on statesmanship at Southern Illinois University this spring and one of my recurring themes is that statesmanship can take place not only on national and international stages but also in city councils, schools boards, and state legislatures.

Statesmanship, at its essence, is the determination of leaders to look to the long term and a disposition to take difficult and politically unpopular actions to advance the public good.

Illinois state budget cries out for statesmanship.

Its important to note that there has been substantial fiscal progress in Illinois over the past several years. In late February, S&P Global, a top global rating agency, raised Illinois long-term credit rating to A- from BBB.* This represented the seventh upgrade the state has received from a rating agency in less than two years. S&P Global cited the states accelerating repayment of its liabilities, rebuilding its budget stabilization fund to decade highs, and a slowing of statutory pension funding growth.

This is positive and most budget experts agree that Illinois fiscal future is better than it has been in some time. However, this is a low bar.

The state still faces formidable budgetary challenges. If the economy weakens significantly, todays surpluses will be quickly transformed into deficits. The states long-term pension challenges remain enormous, and Illinoisans continue to want more state services than they are willing to pay for.

In my discussions with members of the Illinois General Assembly, I often hear that there is more bipartisan cooperation in Springfield than the public assumes but that this cooperation largely occurs on narrow issues.

On budget policy, there is a familiar and dispiriting pattern. The majority party examines revenue estimates, tallies up spending requests, and assembles a budget that satisfies as many in its party as possible while remaining in balance, at least on paper. The minority party typically sees the budget not as opportunity to present an alternative vision but as an opening to criticize the majority.

It would be inspiring and important if a small group of Democratic and Republican lawmakers formed a bipartisan Future of Illinois caucus that worked thoughtfully and diligently on a long-term budget plan. This group would carefully examine the medium- and longer-term budget outlook and probe revenue projections and spending programs. It would not just cut and paste ideas from past budget cycles but contemplate major reforms of taxes and spending. It would honestly frame alternatives for Illinois voters.

This Future of Illinois project could accomplish two significant things: generate substantive and creative fiscal proposals and establish a habit of bipartisan cooperation on large issues.

The group might begin its deliberations by reviewing a recently issued report by the Civic Federation that persuasively argues that a successful fiscal plan for Illinois should eliminate structural budget deficits for the foreseeable future, reform pension funding, and set a goal of Illinois achieving an AA credit rating in five years.

How would the public react to this budget caucus? Would members get a hearing? Would they get a primary opponent for the impertinence of working with members of the other party?

I dont know. However, I can make this modest pledge. They will be invited to the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute for a public event and offered a platform to present their ideas and explain the states fiscal predicament.

Paul Simon understood that sound and future-oriented budget policy was the foundation of successful governance. Anything worthwhile requires sacrifice. The worst course is drifting, he once wrote. Policymakers, he said, should be builders of the future, not simply custodians of what we inherited from the past.
WM Policy, a government relations, research, education, and public engagement arm of Weedmaps, stated in a cannabis lounge study that: "Consumption lounges are especially important for those unable to legally consume cannabis in their residence, such as those living in federally-subsidized housing or in rental units that prohibit cannabis consumption. Along with economic benefits, lounges also serve as a means of destigmatizing cannabis use, minimizing illegal public consumption, and reducing public consumption-related arrests."

Jeff Doherty, Carbondale Councilman, considers cannabis consumption lounges a social benefit for the city.

"Cannabis consumption is legal in Illinois and Carbondale but with restrictions on where it can be consumed. Many people who do not control property that allows its consumption, who prefer a designated facility, or who may be visiting the community benefit from the presence of the lounge. Further, they may prefer to socialize in a cannabis smoking lounge just like going to a bar or a coffeehouse," Doherty said.

Despite the fact that there are so few places to consume cannabis, the sale of the legal drug in Carbondale has returned $44,575 in Cannabis Excise Tax last year.

"In addition, the city receives the revenue from the regular 1% sales tax and the 2.5% home rule sales tax from the sale of those products. The sales tax revenues are not listed for specific businesses but you can get an idea from what 3% produces to what 3.5% would provide," Doherty said.

Though, as Doherty notes, consumption lounges would not provide significant revenues directly, tax revenue generated by the dispensaries would presumably go up if Carbondale residents had more options to legally consume cannabis which lounges would provide.

Though Sesser does have a cannabis consumption lounge, the Luna Lounge, would Carbondale residents drive those 35 miles to consume their cannabis? Additionally, there is a lounge in Harrisburg called Three Mile Hideaway, but that's a 40 mile drive from Carbondale.

There was talk over the past few years that the Consume Cannabis Dispensary would also be offering a lounge space, but when, or if that will happen is anyone's guess.
The information below was from Pauline Gardiner who died Oct. 3, 2007, two months after her 100th birthday. She was a great lady and respected by all. In later years the top story of the building mentioned below was destroyed by fire, and what you see today is only half of the building that existed in the days that this report speaks of.

Im 90 years old and it was an old building when I was a teenager. Its history is an interesting part of Grand Towers past as it was built in 1892 from stone that came from the quarry at Red Town, at the north end of the city. It was known all my life as the drug store, but today it houses the Mississippi River Museum.

Pauline Gardiner's report is as follows:

"This building was built by Doctor Charles D. Gardiner and the Knights of Pythias Lodge. The lodge occupied the upper story and was responsible for that part of the building including the roof. They were given a 99-year lease from Dr. Gardiner as they had no claim to ground.

Mrs. Pauline (Ashman) Gardiner remembered her mother-in-law, Dr. Gardiners wife, speak of a gentleman by the name of Lott who assisted the doctor as a registered pharmacist in the store. The doctor was very busy making calls and practicing medicine over a wide area of the farming community. He traveled by horse back when the roads were too muddy for a buggy. His office was in a back room of the store.

Mrs. Clara Bell Gardiner, wife of Dr. Gardner, studied pharmacy and took her examination at Cairo, and received her certification.

In 1925 or near that time, Doctor Gardiner sold the store, (not the building) to a Mr. Cochran. He defaulted after six months and left in the middle of the night. The doctor and his wife had to assume management again. Their son Charles Jr. was between jobs and they ask him to help them out and he accepted their terms in 1926. Charles Jr. married Pauline Ashman in 1927 and she joined him in the store in 1930.

In October 1929 marked the stock market crash and the beginning of the Great Depression. Business declined to a point it was hard to survive, Then came the threat of World War II and, of course, our entry into it Dec. 7, 1941. This changed retail business. Many items were not available, and we added jewelry, toys, and gift items at Christmas time to increase sales.

We had a flood in 1943. Before the river crested, we had six inches of water over the main floor. We moved the entire inventory higher on the shelves and even raised the freezer and saved the ice cream. In 1944 we had another flood which filled the basement and crested an inch or two beneath the main floor.

After the end of World War II in 1945 many households needed appliances, We were offered the franchise for Frigidaire and Maytag. Sales were good until most everyone was supplied, and then over all, business declined.

On Nov. 27, 1965, stock and fixtures were auctioned at a two-day sale. The building was sold to the Masonic Lodge as they were meeting in the same lodge room the Knights of Pythias (who had disbanded) had used. The order of the Eastern Star used the first floor."
Investigators are seeking two people who allegedly assaulted an Orangeburg restaurant worker Monday.

This worker was assaulted over what was said to be an ill-tasting drink, Orangeburg County Sheriff Leroy Ravenell said in a release.

This couple is out of control if this is all it takes to act this way, he said.

Around 1:30 p.m., a video camera at Ruby Tuesdays caught footage of two people allegedly attacking a server as she was outside on break.

The server told investigators she asked a customer how a situation could be remedied after he complained about a drink.

She then went outside after each passed foul language at each other, the release said.

The footage allegedly shows the male customer assaulting the employee first, then the female customer.

If anyone has any information on the identity of the subjects, they are urged to call the Orangeburg County Sheriffs Office at 803-534-3550.
The City of Orangeburg is one step closer to annexing University Village into the city limits.

City council gave unanimous approval to second reading of the annexation ordinance during its council meeting last week. Three readings are required.

The citys planning to annex two University Village at South Carolina State University properties located at 100 University Village Drive and 400 University Village Drive. They cover a total 5.87 acres.

The university does not own the properties.

Once annexed, University Village will also be included in the citys fire district without needing to pay an annual fire contract. The apartments will also be part of the citys trash pickup schedule.

Assistant City Administrator John Singh said water and sewer rates will be reduced for the properties, if they are annexed.

Its currently under the law enforcement jurisdiction of the Orangeburg County Sheriffs Office, but that will change once the apartment complex gets officially annexed into the city limits.

Councilman Richard Stroman asked Orangeburg Department of Public Safety Director Charles Austin Sr. if the agency will need to hire more officers as a result.

Under present circumstances, were going to make adjustments to accommodate the situation, Austin said.

He noted that the sheriffs office responded to a total of nine calls there last year.

The property manager for the two properties, Robyn Perrineau-Kendrick, said that the apartments house 279 full-time students enrolled at S.C. State University.

We want to bring this law enforcement and the safety of the students together, Perrineau-Kendrick said.
(TBTCO) - Bo Y te cho biet, trong 7 ngay qua, ca nuoc a ghi nhan 2.653 ca mac Covid-19 moi, trung binh 379 ca mac moi/ngay, ay la tuan co so ca mac cao nhat tu au nam en nay, ca nuoc ang o cap o dich 1 - mau xanh.
Two out-of-state drivers died in separate head-on crashes on Tuesday, the Wyoming Highway Patrol reported.

Idaho resident Sean Boyle was driving east on Wyoming Highway 28 when a commercial vehicle crossed the center line and hit him head on.

A semi-truck was headed west when it crashed into Boyles GMC Safari, the statement said. It happened near milepost 42 in Fremont County at 11:40 a.m.

One unidentified person was injured.

There was severe wind, snow and blowing snow when the crash occurred; the roads were icy and snow-covered. Boyle was wearing a seat belt at the time.

Four hours later, an Iowa man was killed on Route 18.

Jon McMullen Chung, 54, was near milepost 10 in Niobrara County when he crashed head-on into a pickup.

A Chevy Impala was headed east when it crossed the median and went into the westbound lane of traffic, the statement said. The Impala crashed into a Dodge Ram.

Driver inattention and driver fatigue are being considered as factors.

The roads were dry, and the weather conditions were clear. Chung was wearing a seat belt at the time.

Two unidentified people were also injured.

Boyle and Chung are the 27th and 28th deaths on Wyomings roadways in 2023. In comparison, there were 12 in 2022, 17 in 2021, 11 in 2020 and 18 in 2019.

Many of this years driving deaths have involved out-of-state drivers who just dont understand our fast-changing road conditions in the midst of a particularly extreme winter, Wyoming Highway Patrol spokesperson Jeremy Beck said last month.

The 15 states with the most snow-related driving fatalities States with the most driving fatalities related to snow & ice 15. Colorado 14. Oregon 13. New Hampshire 12. Nebraska 11. Iowa 10. Montana 9. Wisconsin 8. Michigan 7. South Dakota 6. Maine 5. Vermont 4. Minnesota 3. Wyoming 2. North Dakota 1. Alaska 15 states with the most snow-related auto fatalities
MONTE VISTA, Colo.  Emma DeHerrera stood in front of a classroom of chemistry students.

It was a February day, her second month as Monte Vista High Schools chemistry teacher, her first teaching job.

The students sat organized around black resin tables with a sink in the middle.

DeHerrera, 23, was already stressed about joining the southern Colorado school halfway through the year. She was still trying to gauge her students knowledge of complex chemistry, and it was clear that some of them werent grasping the concepts.

She noticed cheating on a stoichiometry worksheet.

As she spoke to the class, a girl in the back glared at her, rolling her eyes. Furious, the girl refused to work.

DeHerrera, short with soft eyes, a round face and a quiet but strong energy, walked back to the girls table, behind which a rainbow periodic table of elements stretched from floor to ceiling.

Is everything OK over here? she asked.

No.

Is something wrong? DeHerrera said.

Yeah.

Whats wrong? she asked.

Well, I dont like you, the girl said.

The insult hit DeHerrera, but she kept her cool.

Im not here to be your friend, Im here to be your teacher, DeHerrera said gently. But I want to support you the best way I can. So what can I do to help you?

I just dont like you, the student replied loudly as students from DeHerreras next class filtering in. I dont know what it is. I just dont. I cant learn from you.

DeHerrera pulled the student and her friend into the hallway, where they repeatedly attacked her personality. The student and her friend told DeHerrera they didnt like her vibe.

The educator held back, offering support instead of snap replies.

Late for their next class, DeHerrera offered the student and her friend a hall pass, but they refused and walked away.

DeHerrera returned to a classroom now filled with kids who had heard and seen the incident.

She started her class as she always does by asking her students to share the good things going on in their lives. She took attendance, keeping a straight face and trying to avoid signs that the personal attacks were weighing on her.

But the emotions and the hurt were welling up, and DeHerreras head was spinning.

She stepped out of the room.

***

DeHerrera could be a portrait for one of the most challenging issues in public education right now: Teachers are leaving schools, both in Wyoming and around the country, at an alarming rate.

Young, talented, passionate and committed to her students, DeHerrera has thought about quitting, too, another casualty of an American school system that many educators say shows little regard for teacher mental health and well-being, a school system that can chew up and spit out teachers with little regard for the time and energy they devote to their students.

Across the country, there are stories of teachers who are burned out and leaving the profession, pushed out by stress, exhaustion and waning support. Neither the Mountain West nor Wyoming are immune. A study released last year by a University of Wyoming researcher in partnership with the Wyoming Education Association found that roughly two-thirds of Wyomings teachers would quit if they could.

But DeHerrera hasnt. The reasons behind that, including some of the novel work being done at her rural Colorado school district, may offer a way forward for Wyoming and other states grappling with an impending education crisis.

***

Numbers can lie.

The ones that track teacher retention and attrition, which is when teachers leave the profession, do not.

They paint a distressing picture.

Every year, 8% of K-12 public school teachers in the U.S. leave the field, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, though that figure was last updated in 2015.

A more recent estimate by federal education researchers found that 10% of teachers in Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota quit teaching between the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 school years. (For comparison, the teacher attrition rates for Singapore, Finland and other countries that typically rank near the top of global education are around 3% to 4%.)

Other estimates have found even higher turnover. Historically, teachers have left the field at higher rates than many other professions.

Yet years-old attrition rates fail to capture the brewing exodus among teachers.

In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, more than half of educators are considering leaving the profession earlier than planned, according to a 2022 survey by the National Education Association.

Another report from the National Education Association concluded that the gap between teacher openings and hiring has widened since 2017, with quitting the overwhelming cause of teacher losses.

Across the U.S., at least 36,000 teaching positions are open. On top of that, there are at least another 163,000 underqualified teachers, an analysis by researchers at Kansas State University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign found.

Teacher attrition and inadequate staffing have a tangible impact for schools, students and their families. Numerous studies show that teacher turnover harms student achievement and increases costs for school districts.

Wyomings teacher challenges are less clear but still worrying.

It is difficult to pin down exactly how many teachers serve the more than 90,000 students in Wyomings public K-12 system.

Some Department of Education data shows anywhere from around 7,700 to 8,100 teachers in the state. The departments annual report to the Legislature counted roughly 5,800 teachers in Wyoming in the 2021-2022 school year.

Editor's note This is the first of a two-part series examining teacher attrition and retention in Wyoming. Part one explores the reasons behind the growing problem of teacher shortages. Part two, which will publish in March, will examine potential solutions from Colorado's Monte Vista School District.

Education department figures show a statewide attrition rate of around 8% for Wyomings public schools.

A rough analysis by Scott Thomas, the dean of the UW College of Education, using Department of Education data pegged the states teacher attrition rate at approximately 11%.

Thomas told the Legislatures Joint Interim Education Committee last year that the state loses around 825 teachers each year. Wyoming school districts replace more than half of those, but that leaves a chronic shortage of 325 teachers for the states schools.

According to the Department of Educations annual report, teacher staffing has reached its lowest point in the last decade. And the 5,800 teachers recorded by the department are 1,015 fewer than the states school funding model is supposed to support.

Its not much of a stretch or much of a slippery slope for me to imagine scenarios where half of [teachers] leave in the next 5-10 years, Mark Perkins, the education researcher behind the UW teacher attrition study, said. Im not really sure what the threshold of alarm is for policymakers. At what point is it going to be so obviously bad for teachers that youre going to do better?

Though the data may be imperfect, it is clear that teachers are leaving. Schools across the state report open positions going unfilled. Some have been forced to bring back retired teachers or long-term substitutes to fill the voids left by those fleeing the profession.

Some lawmakers and education officials have pointed to the need for better teacher recruitment, including growing the number of graduates from UWs College of Education. But enrollment in the College of Education has declined, with fewer young people interested in teaching.

At its core, Thomas said, Wyomings teacher crisis largely comes down to one thing  retaining teachers.

If you cut attrition in half, you wind up actually having a surplus of teachers, he said.

***

Jacie Schumacher taught in southern Wyoming schools for more than a decade.

Like DeHerrera, she is young, passionate about teaching and good at it.

Only Schumacher quit teaching last year.

Her decision had been building for a while. Schumacher put all of herself into teaching. Finally, she was no longer willing to sacrifice herself and her family for work that was becoming increasingly difficult with little support or appreciation.

While Schumacher emphasizes that the money she now makes as a project manager allows her and her husband to comfortably afford child care, she comes back to the lack of support when discussing the reasons teachers are leaving.

School boards and administrators create an environment where teachers feel unsupported and unappreciated, and they put more and more stress on teachers, Schumacher said.

Teachers report school leaders who monopolize their time with things like professional training and recess duty, leaving them with no planning periods. They endure administrators who do not intervene in poor student behavior, who bend to the will of angry parents and who try to buy satisfaction rather than showing teachers genuine appreciation.

Teachers jobs have also worsened as schools have been transformed into battlegrounds consumed by debates over issues like library book bans.

Schools and children have become political pawns, Schumacher said.

Once revered, teachers now find themselves under attack as parents and politicians increasingly become suspicious of the curricula, teaching methods and materials that schools use. Those on the outside often assume the worst, but teachers join the profession because they care about children, Schumacher said.

Qualified and skilled teachers are leaving. They are leaving en masse, and there is not a pool of extremely experienced qualified teachers waiting to swoop in and take these positions. Theres just not, she said. We are at a precipice right now. We can either change it, or its gonna go off the deep end  and it already is. Thats whats so frustrating is [teacher attrition] is so fixable. Most of this is fixable, but were just not willing to do it.

Amid the toxic climate around schools, Schumacher pointed to the need for greater support from administrators. She argued that school leaders need to listen to teachers.

Ask teachers. They will tell you, she said.

Successful administrators are not in their office. They are talking to their teachers, Schumacher said. They are supporting their teachers by being in their classroom.

***

Wyoming doesnt have to look far from its border to find a possible path forward.

The University of Denvers Center for Rural School Health and Education works with Monte Vista and other school districts in Colorados San Luis Valley to improve the health of students and staff. Like Wyoming, the region is largely rural and holds deep ties to agriculture.

In 2013, Elaine Belansky, the director of the center, visited every middle school principal in the valley, asking them to rank their health concerns for students.

Mental health was among the top three.

Then in 2019 the group interviewed teachers and students to help the valleys communities create a road map for improving student mental health.

The school leaders, staff and community members advising the project realized that they needed to prioritize the mental health of educators before they could ever meet the needs of students and families. They needed to start wellness initiatives and create policies that placed teachers, alongside students, at the center of schools.

That is foundational, Belansky said. We have to take care of teachers before we can take care of students and families.

Belansky recalled the interviews with teachers.

I remember them saying that what they really wished was that they felt appreciated and acknowledged and seen for what they did, Belansky said. My takeaway from the findings of those focus groups is that they wanted no-cost solutions. They want their principal to acknowledge them and celebrate them and value them.

DeHerrera and other teachers in Monte Vista said that small signs of appreciation matter  snacks in the administrative office, a Sonic drink from another teacher, a principal peeking into a classroom, a word of encouragement.

Bring me a donut. I will take it. Itll make my day, said Jenny Owsley, a second grade teacher at Monte Vistas Bill Metz Elementary and an aspiring principal. Thats what matters. Thats meaningful.

***

Ask any teacher about the issues within their profession and inevitably money will come up.

By any objective standard, the pay is low for the work that teachers do. Society asks them to educate the next generation while serving as de facto child care for the majority of the work week. Some teachers pay for their own teaching supplies, others work late or on the weekends to keep up with their job.

No teachers, no child care, and life and the economy grind to a halt.

DeHerrera was shocked the first time she saw her paycheck: Beginning teacher salaries in Monte Vista School District start at $36,008, significantly less than those of Sublette County School District No. 1 or Natrona County School District.

Yet, money is not the reason why teachers across the country are leaving the field, research suggests.

The RAND Corporation, a nonpartisan public policy research group, surveyed public school teachers in 2021. Stress topped the list of their reasons for quitting, with teachers citing stress at nearly double the rate of insufficient pay.

Tellingly, the majority of teachers the RAND researchers surveyed went on to take jobs of equal or lesser pay, and three in 10 moved to jobs that had no health insurance or retirement benefits.

One research paper published in the 1990s compared teachers stress to that of police officers, said Keith Herman, a professor of school and counseling psychology at the University of Missouris College of Education and Human Development.

Hermans recent research has focused on teacher stress, mental health and well-being.

We talk about chronic stress as being occupational burnout, Herman said. When you reach that level of burnout, we know youre much more likely to already have decisions about leaving the profession. Theres also a strong correlation between burnout and depression, anxiety and other mental health issues. The stress has an accumulating negative impact on teachers well-being and health.

A body of research closely links teacher attrition with burnout, job satisfaction and teacher well-being more generally, including studies that show burnout and job satisfaction are significant predictors of teachers plans to quit.

Perkins Wyoming-specific study revealed that teachers with higher levels of anxiety and depression were more likely to want to quit teaching, while teachers who scored higher on metrics of well-being were less likely.

Nearly two-thirds of the Wyoming teachers Perkins surveyed said that their mental and emotional health made them think about quitting.

Research also connects teacher attrition to support from school and district leadership and the communities they serve.

Perkins study showed that Wyoming teachers who felt like they had less professional and community support were more likely to want to leave the profession.

Hermans research and multiple other studies suggest that a teachers well-being is linked in part to how administrators lead their schools, communicate their expectations and support teachers.

In turn, administrators who help manage student behavior, build positive relationships with educators and show teachers appreciation improve the odds that their teachers will stay in the profession, research shows.

The voices of teachers and this evidence reinforce the ongoing work in Monte Vista School District.

As Monte Vista aims to stem its own attrition, school leaders are spending time in classrooms. They are creating forums to hear from teachers and then listening to them, emboldening teachers to make more decisions and even allowing them to create their own classes.

Solutions Journalism This story was produced through a grant from the Solutions Journalism Network.

More recently, the districts schools have been working with a private foundation to build teacher wellness rooms, complete with massage chairs, ping-pong tables and coloring books.

And administrators and teachers still find the time to do the little things that show their appreciation for educators.

All are low-cost solutions that require little, if any, state investment.

All are actions that Wyomings schools could take.

***

As DeHerrera left her classroom after the episode with the student, she turned next door, pulling in Chris Vance, Monte Vista High Schools physics and robotics teacher.

Vance asked if she needed to go for a walk and get some space.

I dont know, she said, her tears nearing the surface.

DeHerrera knew that incidents between students and teachers werent all that uncommon, but it was the first time she had had a significant conflict with a student. And the personal barbs bit, unleashing all of her stress about making sure her students were learning, about being a good teacher.

DeHerrera and Vance were still getting to know each other a few weeks into her tenure, so they walked to Loree Harveys classroom at the end of the hall.

Harvey, Monte Vistas life sciences teacher, taught DeHerrera when she was a student in the district, and the two had a good relationship.

She hugged DeHerrera, the new teachers tears now falling.

Harvey understood exactly what DeHerrera was going through. She, too, had been on the other end of the students animosity.

Harvey could see the distress and the questions beginning to circulate in DeHerreras mind. She knew how hard DeHerrera was working to be a good teacher.

DeHerrera worried that she hadnt handled the incident well, but Harvey reassured her that she was doing everything right.

Its not you, Harvey said.

She said that the student was pressing DeHerrera to see what her reaction would be.

You can do everything right and still have trouble with a kid, Harvey said. Not because of anything you say or do, but because of the place the student is in.

The one who had attacked DeHerrera would eventually figure it out, she said.

Harvey had experienced her own trials over nearly two decades of teaching and time in the restaurant industry handling angry guests.

She shared an example.

While teaching in Monte Vistas middle school, Harvey had a student who targeted her. They were nasty and unreasonable, disrupting class and picking fights with her, generally making her life difficult.

Why is this happening? Theres no reason this should be happening, she thought.

Harvey could find nothing she was doing to trigger the students behavior.

A few years later she bumped into the same student. It was as if everything had never happened. They were kind and thanked Harvey as they updated her about their life.

She reminded DeHerrera that high school students were still developing into the people they would become, and she told her not to hold in the things that they said and did.

Theyre not real people yet, Harvey told DeHerrera.

The talk eased DeHerreras mind. She felt more confident in her decisions.

But she still had lingering thoughts.

Maybe she wasnt cut out to teach.

DeHerrera didnt know it yet, but down the hall, school leaders were putting into action a novel plan to keep teachers.

The second part in this series will explore the solutions being developed in Monte Vista and what they could mean for Wyoming.

PHOTOS: Inside a rural school that's found ways to keep its teachers Retention solutions Retention solutions Retention solutions Retention solutions Retention solutions Retention solutions Retention solutions Retention solutions Retention solutions Retention solutions Retention solutions Retention solutions Retention solutions Retention solutions Retention solutions
CHEYENNE  House Democrats and members of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus voted to cut off discussion of bills Monday evening, killing Chloes law, a bill championed by the State Freedom Caucus Network that aimed to ban gender-affirming treatment for minors in Wyoming, along with eight other bills.

Monday was the last day for legislation to make it out of Committee of the Whole in their second chamber  the place where they are first debated on the Senate and House floors.

The Senate side cleared out all but two bills that were scheduled for discussion on Monday. Speaker of the House Albert Sommers aimed to reciprocate the work of lawmakers across the hall and get through the entire list of bills that had been set for the body to consider that day.

I made it clear to House members that we would stay in session until midnight to hear all of the Senate Bills on General File, Sommers said in a Tuesday statement. Although many voted to continue tackling bills slated for discussion, the Freedom Caucus joined Democrats to stop debate, ensuring a number of bills still waiting to be debated would not be considered.

House Majority Floor Leader Chip Neiman, a Hulett Republican and ally of the far-right Wyoming Freedom Caucus, made the motion to adjourn with nine bills left on the general file list. Besides Chloes law, other bills that werent considered include a property tax relief bill, a school crosswalks appropriations bill and two bills taking aim at environmental, social and governance investing.

Its not unusual for debate on bills in the Committee of the Whole to be cut short, some lawmakers said. Two legislators of vastly different political orientations  Jackson Democrat Mike Yin and Midwest Republican and Freedom Caucus ally Rep. Bill Allemand  agreed that at some point, it just becomes difficult for lawmakers to make good policy decisions because of fatigue. As Allemand put it, At eight oclock at night, youre not making good law.

I will say that I think the biggest reason for ending consideration of bills on general file earlier is just that weve debated all of the important issues for the state of Wyoming already, Yin said.

Of the Senate files that we got, I was satisfied that the most important bills had gotten covered.

Speaker Pro Tempore Clark Stith, who voted against the motion to adjourn, said he had hoped to debate "Chloes law" and Senate File 136, a property tax relief bill, and thought it feasible to get through the list of legislation.

The number of Senate bills that came over to the house was not a crushing number. We could have gotten through everything, he said.

National pile on

The tensions around one of the bills that died on Monday were unique.

Late last week and over the weekend, national voices piled onto speaker Sommers for his decisions to hold some bills back or refer them to certain committees that were less favorable to their survival. Among those who took shots at Sommers were State Freedom Caucus Network President Andrew Roth and Wyomings Rep. Harriet Hageman.

On Friday, Roth posted a photo of Sommers on Twitter and highlighted three bills that had stalled in the House. The State Freedom Caucus Network  a Washington, D.C.-based organization that aims to establish state freedom caucuses across the country  officially partnered with the hard-line conservative Wyoming Freedom Caucus in early January.

One of the bills that Roth mentioned in his tweet would have created an education savings account to fund private and homeschool education in Wyoming. Another would have banned classroom instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation in certain grades. These two bills both cleared the Senate but were never considered for introduction in the House.

The last bill  Chloes law  aimed to outlaw gender-affirming medical treatments for minors and died on Monday when the House voted to adjourn before discussing the bill. At this point, the three bills are moot.

Hageman retweeted Roths post on Saturday, saying that the bills were about protecting our children.

In Congress, Im fighting for these very issues. I hope the Wyoming legislature will do the same.

Sommers did allow Chloes law to move forward, unlike the other two bills. But he came under fire for referring the legislation to the House Appropriations Committee rather than the House Labor and Health Committee where such bills are typically considered.

The speaker has said that he set up the Appropriations and Revenue committees with seasoned legislators who may be more equipped to assess emotional bills without letting outside pressure interfere with their decisions.

I rely on those bodies to scrutinize weighty legislation because they understand the repercussions of legislation on Wyomings citizens, Sommers said in a statement he issued on Sunday. These two committees are led by four chairmen and other pillars of the Legislature. The members of Appropriations and Revenue are workhorses who use their experience to critically examine tough issues without letting rhetoric and intimidation get in the way.

Revisions and maneuvers

The Wyoming Freedom Caucus rebelled against Sommers decision to send Chloes law to the Appropriations Committee, given that the panel was unlikely to favor the bill. (Rep. John Bear, chairman of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, described it to the Star-Tribune as a kill committee.) Members attempted and failed to refer the bill to a different panel.

The House Appropriations Committee added extensive amendments to the bill and gave it a do not pass recommendation, meaning that it could still be debated and voted upon on the floor, but that it would automatically go to the bottom of the list of bills for the House to consider. Bills at the bottom of that list are at greater risk of running out of time before the body can get to them.

Cheyenne Republican Sen. Anthony Bouchard, sponsor of Chloes law, said on Tuesday that he wasnt particularly disappointed that the bill met its end on Monday since it had been changed extensively in the House Appropriations Committee.

It was dead when it came out of committee. It was gutted, Bouchard told the Star-Tribune.

The Wyoming Freedom Caucus mirrored that stance in a Tuesday statement it posted on Facebook.

If the body truly wanted to protect children from butchery, more members would have supported our early efforts to pull and re-refer HB144 to a different committee before it was gutted by the House Appropriations committee, the statement said. The WYFC does not believe in patting ourselves on the back for supporting do-nothing legislation with a good title.

Speaker Pro Tempore Stith pointed out that, if Chloes law had made it past Committee of the Whole, lawmakers who didnt like the Appropriations Committee amendments could have tried to remove them on the floor.

The whole floor could have adopted new amendments to restore it to its original condition, if a majority of the floor had wanted to do that, Stith said, adding that he personally would have been happy to vote for the bill as amended.

Bear, the Wyoming Freedom Caucus chairman, said in a text to the Star-Tribune that there were not enough votes in the House to change the amendments.

PHOTOS: Opening day of the 67th Wyoming Legislative Session 67th Wyoming Legislative Session begins 67th Wyoming Legislative Session begins 67th Wyoming Legislative Session begins Rep. Jeanette Ward 67th Wyoming Legislative Session begins 67th Wyoming Legislative Session begins 67th Wyoming Legislative Session begins 67th Wyoming Legislative Session begins 67th Wyoming Legislative Session begins 67th Wyoming Legislative Session begins 67th Wyoming Legislative Session begins 67th Wyoming Legislative Session begins 67th Wyoming Legislative Session begins
Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow announced Wednesday that she will resign from her post as head of the state department of education.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin appointed Balow last January after she serving two terms as Wyomings state superintendent. The Virginia Department of Education has come under fire under Balows leadership for several high-profile mistakes, including errors in its drafting of K-12 history standards and a $201 million error in calculating the states basic aid to school divisions.

I am particularly proud of the fact that we advanced your agenda for education over the past two successful General Assembly sessions, Balow wrote in her resignation letter to Youngkin. First, we passed and began implementing the Virginia Literacy Act, which I know will have a lasting impact on all students for years to come and be a model for other states. Second, we released the report Our Commitment to Virginians, which is a roadmap for school and student success, and for parents to be their childs most important teacher. And because of our work, many more students will have access to career and technical education courses that better prepare them for the next steps in their lives.

The department made a $201 million mistake in calculating state basic aid for K-12 school divisions after the General Assembly adopted a two-year budget and Youngkin signed it last June. The error failed to reflect a provision to hold localities harmless from the elimination of states portion of the sales tax on groceries as part of a tax cut package pushed by Youngkin and his predecessor, Gov. Ralph Northam.

The Youngkin administration acknowledged the error, which the Richmond Times-Dispatch first reported in late January, and promised to fix it in the budget.

In a late-January letter to leaders of the General Assemblys money committees, Youngkin expressed frustration with the mistake.

This situation is frustrating for us all and even more so that it came to light after I submitted my proposed budget, the governor said in a letter to House Appropriations Chair Barry Knight, R-Virginia Beach, and Senate Finance Co-Chairs Janet Howell, D-Fairfax, and George Barker, D-Fairfax.

In November, Youngkin also acknowledged omissions and mistakes that the VDOE made in its rewrite of the states K-12 history standards, which had caused a public uproar due to several missteps and a reframing of race relations.

Balow apologized for the documents reference to Native Americans as Americas first immigrants.

The state Board of Education, with a majority appointed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, in November rejected the revised history standards. Youngkin later expressed disappointment in the document.

Balows resignation announcement comes the week after the state legislature left Richmond as the General Assembly session adjourned Saturday. The announcement also comes with Youngkin in New York and two days before the governor will take part in a nationally televised CNN town hall on education issues.

Balow said in her resignation letter that she will work to ensure a smooth transition. Her resignation is effective March 9.
Wyoming homeowners can now apply for federal pandemic assistance for up to three months of future mortgage payments.

As part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, Wyoming got $50 million in funding from the U.S. Department of the Treasury to help homeowners struggling from the economic impacts of Covid-19.

The Homeowner Assistance Fund, which is overseen by the Department of Family Services, aids qualifying homeowners with a number of housing-related costs. Originally, that was limited to past debts, though  like mortgage and property tax delinquencies, late utilities bills or even overdue homeowner association fees.

But the Homeowner Assistance Fund has been getting fewer applications than expected, Korin Schmidt, director of the Department of Family Services, said in a Monday news release.

As of Thursday, the Homeowner Assistance Fund had distributed a total of $8 million in federal money to 976 applicants. Thats about 16% of the $50 million available to Wyoming.

According to Schmidt, its not that the need isnt there, but that a lot of the homeowners that barely getting by dont have any eligible outstanding debts  especially late mortgage payments.

Wyomings number of mortgage delinquencies is low. Our mortgage partners estimate under 5,000 for the entire state, and many of those are working with their lenders on more long term solutions that may not be available to them if they accept (Homeowner Assistance Fund) dollars, Schmidt said in the release.

To open up the program to more people, qualifying homeowners can now also apply for help with up to three consecutive months of forward mortgage payments.

We have heard from many Wyomingites that the (Homeowner Assistance Fund) Program has missed helping a segment of homeowners who pay their mortgage first but are significantly struggling to pay groceries, utilities and other bills, Schmidt said in the release.

To qualify, an applicant must own a home in Wyoming (including on the Wind River Reservation), and occupy that home as their primary residence.

Applicants must also demonstrate that theyve experienced a COVID-related financial hardship  like loss of income, unexpected expenses and so on.

Funding is only available for households that earn less than or equal to 150% of the annual median income in their county. In most parts of the state, thats around $85,000 a year. A list of area median incomes is available on the Department of Family Services website.

Households can only be awarded Homeowner Assistance Fund money once, so prior recipients arent eligible for help with forward mortgage payments.

Visit www.dfs.wyo.gov/haf to apply. To assist with applications, the Department of Family Services has also contracted with a call center thats open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 1-888-WYO-HAFP.

Residents applying for mortgage assistance cant have any other existing liens on their properties, and they cant plan to sell their homes within six months of receiving money from the Homeowner Assistance Fund.

The Department of Family Services recommends that homeowners connect with their mortgage lenders about lowering or pausing payments before applying to the program.

Any applicant that is more than $17,000 behind on their mortgage, or believes cant continue making payments, must seek some sort of housing counseling before they can receive help from the Housing Assistance Fund.

Of the $8 million in Homeowner Assistance Fund given out so far, about $7.7 million went toward paying off mortgage delinquencies, $270,000 went toward utility fees, $71,000 toward late property taxes, $21,000 for late homeowner association dues and another $5,000 toward homeowner insurance bills.

The money wont be around forever; American Rescue Plan Act funds have to be spent by the end of the 2025.
Telecoms provider Flow will increase prices next month.

In a notice to its customers on Wednesday, Flow said the 3.5-per cent increase in its Internet and cable packages will come into effect on May 1.

Another notice was sent to customers with multiple cable boxes via e-mail on Wednesday.
T&T rap legend Make It Hapn (Rayon Bernando) is back in the lab creating new music.

Anybody and their mama that followed the local hip hop scene in the early 2000s knows Make It Hapn is rap royalty.

The Diego Martin-born MC had a ubiquitous flow that earned him snaps and standing ovations everywhere he went, from the quad at The University of the West Indies (UWI), St Augustine campus to spoken word exposes and open mic nights across the island.
CHAGUANAS nightlife is said to be declining as random crimes increase, with food vendors and bar operators calling yesterday for better arrest rates to stop repeat criminals.

Once booming mostly as a result of plentiful fast food options, the Chaguanas Main Road is still a go-to for doubles and gyros but now shows much less activity after dark than in years past.
MANILA, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Filipinos have become concerned over the enhanced military alliance and strategic partnerships between the Philippines and the United States to build collective security with regional allies Australia and Japan.

Many have been gripped by fear of danger brought by an increased flurry of activity among the allied militaries, including more extensive joint military exercises involving an enormous number of American troops in the Philippines, which is at the center of the Indo-Pacific region.

Expanding the 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) sites in the Philippines has alarmed experts. The four new locations, on top of the five existing bases, will allow the U.S. military to deploy its troops, weapons, and equipment in Philippine military bases.

Experts believed the U.S. ulterior goal is clear and simple -- preserving U.S. dominance in Asia even at the cost of provocation and even war, from which the Filipinos, who will be caught in the crossfire, will suffer the most.

"Participating in any war does not serve our national interest. We must never allow our territory to become a launch pad for an offensive attack against another state," former Philippine presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in his column published in the Daily Tribune.

Echoing Roque's remarks, Mario Ferdinand Pasion, director of the Phil-BRICS Strategy Studies, said that expanding the EDCA sites in the Philippines will put the country in danger.

Pasion said the Philippines must learn from the countries destroyed by U.S. military occupation and interference, such as Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, and Iraq.

"Almost all unconstitutional, anti-democratic, and chaos-resultant regime changes all over the world have been orchestrated by the United States and its allies or both through their obedient local military in that country," Pasion added.

Rigoberto Tiglao of the Manila Times warned that allowing more U.S. military presence in the Philippines "endangers" the Philippines' national security and economy, and that a strengthened EDCA might bring "severe economic backlash."

"Filipinos must ponder whether the nine EDCA sites and the EDCA are beneficial or detrimental to the Philippines," said Anna Malindog-Uy, senior research fellow of the Global Governance Institution and vice president of external affairs of the Asian Century Philippines Strategic Studies Institute.

"The Philippines should also denounce and move toward the abrogation of the EDCA and, by extension, the Visiting Forces Agreement, revisit and subject the Mutual Defense Treaty to a public debate to determine if we still need such a military treaty with the United States or not," she added. 
During an Easter Sunday break from my column, I was forcibly struck by the disconnect between the official messages about Easter from those clothed with high constitutional authority and the grim reality on the ground.

Many persons would have been engaged in pleasurable activities over the Easter weekend. However, the country remains gripped by fear of violent crime, in respect of which the official messages have long ceased to be comforting or inspiring. How can it be otherwise when, in addition to rampant murder, we are frequently confronted with the results of brutal home invasions?
R&A CPAs: R&A CPAs won the best of accounting award for providing superior service; one of just 44 accounting firms across the U.S. to achieve the distinction. ClearlyRateds Best of Accounting Award winners have proven to be industry leaders in service quality based entirely on ratings provided by their clients. On average, clients of 2022 Best of Accounting winners are 70% more likely to be satisfied than those who work with non-winning firms. R&A received satisfaction scores of nine or 10 out of 10 from 90.4% of their clients, significantly higher than the industrys average of 50% in 2022. Their 86.4% Net Promoter Score was more than double the industry average of 39% in 2022.

University of Arizona Eller College of Management: The University of Arizona Eller College of Management has named Kent McClelland, chairman and CEO of Shamrock Foods Company, as the 2023 Eller College of Management Executive of the Year. McClelland, the third-generation leader of the family-owned and -operated company founded in 1922, joins the likes of former honorees such as Cathy Engelbert (Deloitte), Fredrick W. Smith (FedEx) and Howard Schultz (Starbucks).

As the guiding force behind the 100-year-old company, McClellands focus and foresight have led to continuous innovation and exponential company growth. His leadership, customer-centric business practices and emphasis on geographic expansion and brand penetration have evolved the company into the national leader its recognized as today.

Affirm Wealth Advisors: Affirm Wealth Advisors earned the Ameriprise Client Experience Award for 2022.

Affirm Wealth Advisors was recognized for its ability to consistently deliver personalized, goal-based advice and exceptional client service. Award recipients earned an overall client satisfaction rating equal to or greater than 4.9 out of 5.0 and maintained stellar business results.

University of Arizona: The University of Arizona has earned a spot on Forbes list of Americas Best Large Employers, placing at No. 257 out of 500 employers and No. 28 in the education subcategory.

The University of Arizona has nearly 16,000 employees, with 55.7% identifying as female and 24.7% identifying as Hispanic or Latinx.
Its astounding that the Bronte sisters  Emily, Charlotte and Anne  ever wrote anything.

Bronte, now on stage at Scoundrel and Scamp Theatre, makes it clear what a struggle it was to be a woman in the Victorian era. They were not expected to write, go to a library or even read. Marriage was the only option, and that wasnt a great one  basically you are owned by your husband.

To make life harder for the sisters, they lived in an isolated part of England with their clergyman father, were always on the edge of poverty, and death and despair was all around them.

Yet, those sisters created masterpieces (originally published under male pseudonyms): Jane Eyre by Charlotte, Wuthering Heights by Emily, and Annes The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

Bronte, penned by English playwright Polly Teale, takes us into the home the women shared with their father and brother and jumps back and forth in time. We see them as children making up stories and games that fuel their vivid imaginations, as young women bitter about their sexs lot in life, and as successful authors.

The Scoundrel and Scamp production, directed with a sure hand by Bryan Rafael Falcon, has a solid cast. Dawn McMillans Charlotte slipped right into the role of the bossy big sister; Allison Akmajian made Emilys suppressed rage and desire palpable; and Myani Watson shone as the self-righteous Anne. Hunter Hnat, who rarely disappoints, played several roles, including the drunken brother, Branwell. Tony Capriles principal role was as the father, Patrick, but he took on a number of other characters, giving them all distinction.

The trouble with this play is the script. Skipping back and forth in time made the story convoluted and confusing. Elizabeth Falcon was tasked with playing characters from the womens novels, who appeared to underscore what the women were writing. You know, the free-spirited Catherine from Wuthering Heights, the mad Mrs. Robinson from Jane Eyre. The device was overwrought and kind of annoying. Although the Bronte family was fascinating, this over-long play never made us care much about them.

That said, this production was packed with energy and talent. That almost made up for a weak script.

It runs through Saturday, March 11, at Scoundrel and Scamp, 736 N. Fifth Ave., in the Historic Y.
Hey kids! If youre old enough to read this sentence, you really need to check out this weekends Tucson Festival of Books.

Its made for you!

Take Saturday morning on March 4. At 9 oclock, meet in front of the University of Arizona Bookstore and be part of a parade.

The Story Book Parade will be led by a bunch of fully costumed characters from our favorite books. You can follow them from the bookstore to the festivals special area for kids, and it only gets better after that.

If you have to bring your parents, tell them the two most popular areas of every book festival are the Children and Teens Area and Science City  where you can launch rockets, look through telescopes and play with creepy bugs.

If your parents still need a little convincing to get out of the house, make sure you let them know the childrens festival is the most prestigious gathering of childrens authors in the United States.

This years authors include National Book Award winner Sabaa Tahir and Newberry Award authors Lois Lowery, Katherine Applegate, Linda Sue Park and Donna Barba Herrera.

If youre a fan of the Construction Site series, Sherry Dusker Rinker and AG Fold will be there, too.

Bring your big brothers and sisters! There are fun things for them to do in the Teen Activity Tent, and there is a Teen Author Stage featuring authors of books for young adults.

For a full schedule of stuff going on in the Children and Teen areas, have your parent go to the book festival website: tucne.ws/ctauthorsked.

Dont forget about Science City at the east end of the UA Mall, where you can get your hands dirty, in a good way. You can tell mom its educational!

Its like a gem show for kids, with hands-on stuff to do. The College of Science will be there to show how things work. You can meet some desert animals, learn about mushrooms, play with prisms, and see how sunlight can be turned into electricity to play on your Kindle.

You can find all of the Science City details at tucne.ws/scicity.

Wait! One more thing! Theyll be there all day Sunday, March 5, too!
HELSINKI, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Hungary calls for a United Nations (UN) investigation into the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines, which American investigative journalist has claimed were destroyed by the United States, reported Helsinki Times on Tuesday.

The Nord Stream pipelines, which connected Russia to Germany, were deliberately destroyed in September 2022, contributing to Europe's energy dependence on the United States and prompting European countries to support the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine, according to the Finnish daily.

The sources provided by journalist Seymour Hersh showed that the explosives were deployed in June 2022 by U.S. Navy divers on the pretext of the BALTOPS 22 NATO exercise and were detonated with a remote signal sent by a sonar buoy three months later.

One of the sources told Hersh that the plotters knew the secretive operation was an "act of war." Some in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and State Department warned that the action would be a political nightmare if it is disclosed.

After China demanded the United States "explain itself to the world" over the claims, Hungary is now calling for a full and proper investigation by the UN.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has described the attack as a "scandalous" act of terrorism, insisting that the truth must be uncovered, and it should be of utmost international importance, according to Helsinki Times.

Depending on the outcome of the investigation, Hungary believes that the investigation could have significant political, economic, and legal implications for the countries involved, said Helsinki Times. 
A migrant died in Border Patrol custody after being apprehended with a hurt ankle. A statement on the incident gives little details on how the man died, other than saying he acted in a combative and agitated manner before his death that agents suspect was related to the ingestion of drugs.

Border Patrol agents at the Ajo station apprehended seven undocumented migrants about 39 miles outside of the Lukeville port of entry on Jan. 13 at 11 a.m., according to a Feb. 27 statement from Customs and Border Protection.

The statement gives the following account:

One of the migrants, a Mexican national, injured his ankle while trying to elude the agents. Agents requested medical assistance, and an agent certified as an Emergency Medical Technician came by helicopter to treat the man.

The agent conducted two medical evaluations, and during the second, noticed increased bruising and slight swelling on the mans foot.

Agents transported the group to a CBP facility for processing, then to the Ajo Border Patrol Station in Why. The injured migrant was accompanied by the EMT as they went over rough terrain and mountain roads, arriving at the station around 3:15 p.m., where the man was evaluated by other medical personnel.

The man said the pain in his ankle extended up his leg to his pelvis and there was swelling. The medical personnel recommended the man be transported to the emergency room for x-rays and further evaluation. He initially said he didnt want additional medical treatment and signed a patient medical refusal form. Later, the man reportedly changed his mind and requested additional medical care.

While the migrant was waiting to be transported to the hospital, he told an agent he felt like vomiting. Over a trash can, he stuck his finger in his mouth to induce vomiting but did not.

Agents handcuffed the migrant, with his hands in front, to transfer him to the Abrazo Buckeye Emergency Medical Center in Buckeye. While he was in the rear passenger seat of the Border Patrol pickup truck, he reportedly became agitated and began to kick the inside of the vehicle.

The agent stopped at the State Route 85 immigration checkpoint, 35 miles north of the Ajo Station, for assistance from other agents, and two other agents reported the man was acting in a combative and agitated manner while sitting in the back seat.

He was grasping the front of his T-shirt and appeared to be sweating. The agents suspected the mans behavior may have been related to the ingestion of drugs, the statement said. They offered him water and tried to calm him down while calling for emergency medical services from the Ajo Border Patrol Station. As well, the supervisory agent called 911, but by that point the migrant had calmed down, and the agent said they no longer needed emergency medical services.

The man told the agent he was OK, and they headed toward the hospital about 59 miles away.

They got to the hospital about an hour later, at nearly 6:30. The agents said the man had been calm the remainder of the trip and thought he was sleeping, but when they went to wake him, he was unresponsive and pronounced dead shortly after.

The Maricopa County Medical Examiners Office performed an autopsy on Jan. 15. The cause of death and toxicology report are pending further investigation.

One pending autopsy case at the Maricopa County Medical Examiners Office says a man named Martin Peraza-Perez, 34, was in Border Patrol custody the day he died on Jan. 13.

A man with that same name and age was convicted of unauthorized re-entry into the country on or around July 25, 2022. He had been previously removed from the country three times and had also been convicted in Maricopa County Superior Court on a 2013 felony of marijuana transport and/or sale, according to a complaint in the case.

CBPs Office of Professional Responsibility is investigating the Jan. 13 incident.
Arizonans are not entitled to know the names of jurors deciding criminal cases.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a claim by the publisher of the Cochise County Record that the public has a First Amendment right to know the names not only of who is sitting on a jury but also of those being considered to serve.

The justices provided no reason for declining to consider the case.

That leaves in place a 2022 decision by the Arizona Supreme Court rebuffing the claim by publisher David Morgan that if judges want to shield juror names from the public, they first have to make specific findings, case by case. Instead, the presumption remains that juror names are not public, but that judges in Arizona  again, on a case-by-case basis  may release the names.

There was no immediate response from Morgan.

A 2007 law says juror names shall not be released unless specifically required by law or order ordered by the court.

A dozen years later, judges in two criminal trials in Cochise County decided to use innominate juries, meaning one where jurors are publicly identified only by number but whose names are provided to the parties.

In both cases, the public was permitted to attend jury selection and the trials. But the judges refused the request by Morgan and Terri Jo Neff, who writes for the Arizona Independent, to disclose the names publicly.

Justice Ann Scott Timmer, writing the 2022 Arizona Supreme Court ruling, said there are potential negative effects of jurors having their names available for publication. She rejected claims that denying the information interferes with the publics ability to ensure trials are conducted fairly.

Anyone can sit in the courtroom during a criminal trial and observe the juror screening process, including voir dire examinations, she said, referring to the part of the process where prospective jurors are questioned by attorneys about their backgrounds and potential biases.

Timmer said they can observe when an attorney challenges a prospective juror for cause, meaning some specific bias or reason.

Accessing jurors names would not significantly add to the publics ability to assure itself that voir dire is fairly conducted or to check the courts in disregarding established standards for jury selection, she said.

Gregg Leslie of the First Amendment Clinic at the Arizona State University College of Law, representing Morgan before the U.S. Supreme Court, told the justices there are prior U.S. Supreme Court rulings that make it clear the publics right to access criminal trials is not limited to simply sitting in the courtroom.

A proper review of this courts prior First Amendment right of access cases demonstrates that access to information is at the heart of the right, Leslie said. The scrutiny that the Arizona Supreme Court recognized as part of the right cannot logically include complete secrecy of the identities of those involved in the process.

But the Arizona Attorney Generals Office argued successfully there were good reasons for the U.S. Supreme Court to stay out of the fray and leave the lower court ruling intact.

Regrettably, tribunals  judges and juries alike  are subject to attack and intimidation by one or the other side of our increasingly polarized and caustic political climate and society in general, wrote Jeffrey Sparks, deputy solicitor general for the Attorney Generals Office.

Sparks said judges know that when they seek the job.

Jurors, however, are compelled upon pain of legal retribution to take on the role, he said.

Arizonas decision to protect jurors both during and after their service services the overarching goal of fairness in criminal proceedings by assuaging trepidatious jurors legitimate fears of the consequences of participation in the public arena, he said.
Lou at 104 passed away peacefully, one month shy of his 105th birthday. He was preceded in death by his wife Antoinette (Toni) and his oldest son Louis. Lou was born in Astoria Queens, NY and was the 4th of 8 children. In 1939 he and the love of his life Toni took a three year course and they both became registered nurses. They married in 1942. As many proud Americans, Lou joined the Army in Dec. 1942 during WWII and went through training at Ft Dix, NJ. He was shipped to the Pacific Theatre, where he received Battle Campaign Awards for the Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea and finally Southern Philippine's during the initial Liberation. During these Campaigns, his Colonel was so impressed with his hard work and abilities, he was transferred to the position of supervisor as a Surgical Technician for the Operating Room. He remained in theatre during the rest of his enlistment. He left for Japan with the Army Occupation Forces and remained in Osaka until his Honorable Discharge from Service in Dec. 1945. Lou and Toni resided in Bayshore, NY and together raised their two sons Lou and Cliff. Eventually following their sons to Tucson. Lou and Toni were an integral part of Cliff & Denise's success at Fortunato's Deli. In Nov 2020 Cliff and Denise sold their business, took Lou with them to a retirement community in Mesa, AZ to enjoy his last days. He is survived by his son Cliff (Denise), his grandchildren Anthony (Claudia), Joseph, Steve (Samantha), two great-granddaughters Rory & Remi. Also, very special to him were all his nieces and nephews. We want to thank Hospice of the Valley for always being there for him. We also want to thank the Watermark at Morrison Ranch Memory Care Unit in Gilbert, AZ. In lieu of flowers please donate to the charity of your choice. A Mass will be held on: Friday March 3, 2023 at 10:00 AM: St. Pius X Catholic Church, 1800 N Camino Pio Decimo Tucson, AZ 85715 Interment follows at: All Faiths Cemetery, 2151 Avenida Los Reyes Tucson AZ 85748 Arrangements made by: Avenidas Funeral Chapel, Avondale, AZ 85323.
PHOENIX  A bid to kill home rule in 19 cities was defeated Tuesday when two Republican senators who represent some of those areas refused to go along.

But Sen. Justine Wadsack, R-Tucson, who has been leading the charge because she is unhappy with Tucsons system of electing council members, told Capitol Media Services she already is working on changes she believes will overcome their objections. And it would do it in a way that her SCR 1023 would be narrowed to save their home cities from losing their charters  and then affect only two largely Democratic cities.

That, in turn, would provide the necessary 16 votes  all Republican  to have the measure clear the Senate.

As crafted, her proposal seeks to repeal a section of the Arizona Constitution dating back to the first days of statehood that allows voters in cities to adopt their own charters. These essentially are mini-constitutions, setting out how they are set up and allowing the city councils and voters to adopt their own laws on matters of local concern.

One of those local laws that the Arizona Supreme Court has held is within the sole purview of charter cities is how to elect council members.

Tucson, acting under that authority, has created a modified ward system, where candidates are nominated by each party from each of the six districts. But the general election determines who gets to serve.

More to the objection of Wadsack and many Republicans, that means that Tucson, with its 2-1 Democrat edge, ends up with a council composed only of Democrats. In fact, the current council has no Republicans.

Eliminating the citys charter would leave Tucson and all cities with one of two options: elect all council members on an at-large basis or have a district system where only residents of that district get the last word on who is elected.

But when the measure came up on the Senate floor Tuesday, Wadsack found herself two votes short.

Sen. T.J. Shope, R-Casa Grande, told Capitol Media Services he could not support a measure that would open the door to voters statewide abolishing charter cities. And he said it has to do with the area he represents.

Casa Grande, being a charter city, is something I believe they have a right to do, he said. And Shope said that residents there are doing the things they believe are in the best interests of the community.

They just exercised their rights as a charter city to institute term limits on the city council as well as adjusting the term length of the mayor, he said.

But Shope said his mind  and his vote  could be changed if smaller cities like Casa Grande got to keep their charters.

That would mean imposing some sort of population figure, having the measure void charters only in the largest cities. And Wadsack said she is looking at using 500,000 as the dividing line.

Shope said he sees nothing inherently wrong with treating cities differently based on the number of people who live there.

We have population thresholds for all sorts of things, he said.

Wadsack said this isnt political. She said that other cities could grow to that size and forfeit their charters.

Mesa will be there shortly, she said.

The other Republican who voted against the measure is Sen. Ken Bennett, R-Prescott, whose city also has a charter.

Bennett did not comment on his decision. But Wadsack said she is drafting her change so Bennett agrees with what would be the final bill.

Sen. Priya Sundareshan, D-Tucson, said putting SCR 1023 on the ballot in 2024  it has to get approval as a constitutional amendment  is asking the voters to make a direct attack on local control.

This undermines the ability of citizens to establish their own form of local government, she said. This is an attempt to ensure when the Legislature passes state preemptions and repressive policies that they apply to every single charter city.

No date has been set to resurrect and reconsider the measure.

If it is approved in the Senate it still needs approval of the Republican-controlled House before being placed on the ballot.

As a constitutional amendment the governor has no say.
More snow and rain are expected in California as many across the state work to recover from back-to-back bouts of winter weather that knocked out power to thousands and deteriorated road conditions.

Another 12 to 24 inches of snow could fall over the mountains of Southern California Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service, but the heavy snow will taper off later in the day.

A blizzard warning remained in effect across the Sierra Nevada mountains early Wednesday and the region could see accumulations up to 6 feet.

"Blizzard conditions will make for dangerous to impossible travel this morning before subsiding this afternoon. There continues to be potential for avalanches in some mountain ranges," the weather service said.

This comes as many areas in California have been walloped with significant amounts of snow in recent days, an unusual occurrence for a state that's unaccustomed to harsh winters. Palisades Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada saw 38 inches of snow in a 24-hour period, while Soda Springs, the Central Sierra Snow Lab and Homewood Mountain were each lashed with 36 inches.

The winter weather is impacting utility systems in the state, which tallied more than 88,000 homes and businesses in the dark early Wednesday, the tracking site PowerOutage.us showed.

The storm is also bringing up to 0.75 inches of rain across the coasts and valleys of Southern California Wednesday and up to 2 inches in the mountains and foothills. As temperatures drop and rain hits the ground, black ice is forecast to be a significant concern in some higher elevations, the weather service in Los Angeles said. Wind gusts up to 60 mph are possible in mountain areas and gusts up to 50 mph are possible in lower elevations, the local weather service added.

The system will slowly move into the Four Corners region by late Wednesday and will continue to track across Arizona and New Mexico into Thursday. The region could see 5 to 10 inches of snow in lower elevations and up to 2 feet in isolated areas across higher elevations.

As the series of storms that have dropped snow in the West head east and clash with record warm temperatures, they will create a threat for severe weather through the end of the week.

The area from the far northeastern corner of Texas to the Tennessee Valley, including Memphis, Huntsville, Alabama and Little Rock in Arkansas are under a slight risk, Level 2 of 5, for severe storms Wednesday. The main threats there are large to very large hail, some tornadoes and damaging winds.

Eastern Arkansas, northern Alabama, northern Mississippi and much of Tennessee could see rain fall at rates of 1 to 2 inches per hour, with totals between 2 and 4 inches.

And for Thursday, a severe thunderstorm outbreak looks to be taking shape across the Southern Plains and South, according to the Storm Prediction Center. The main concerns are possible strong tornadoes, widespread damaging winds and flash flooding.

Snow leaves many stranded across California

As the snow has been piling up in California, mountain roads across San Bernardino County became impassable, leading to a local emergency declaration as residents became stranded while low on supplies and food.

Goodwin's Market, a grocery store in the small community of Crestline, resorted to using a plow truck and tractor to help a semitruck hauling supplies navigate through the snowy mountain roads Tuesday so it could deliver much-needed supplies, according to a post on its Facebook page.

The shipment was imperative to the store because it contained essential items like deli meats, produce and bread, some of which the store had run out of, Michael Johnstone, vice president of Goodwin's Market, told CNN.

"We stocked up pretty heavily before the storm hit," Johnstone said, adding the supply began to run low as roads deteriorated.

As the snow continued to fall, staff and customers were forced to ditch their vehicles to reach the store.

"We have had staff hike in from three to four miles away to get to the store to serve people to make sure people get fed," Johnstone added. "We had a lot of walk-in traffic. I've never seen this many people walking the streets."

To the north, in Sacramento, about 50 bus passengers were stranded Tuesday night after their trips were canceled or delayed because heavy snow had shut down highways, according to Daniel Bowers, who heads the city's emergency management office. Passengers were headed to Nevada, Oregon and Washington, Bowers told CNN affiliate KCRA.

Passenger Barbara Frederick was trying to get to Oregon, but she had been stranded at the Sacramento station since the weekend.

"It's horrible," Frederick told KCRA. "I have to delay the signing of my house because I'm purchasing a home. I'm delaying work. I'm delaying everything. My life is completely on hold."

The city collaborated with the American Red Cross to provide stranded passengers with blankets and other needs, and contacted a local restaurant to offer hot meals, the station reported.

The-CNN-Wire
JACKSON, Miss.  The air-conditioning gave out as students returned from summer break last year to Jim Hill High School in Jackson, Mississippi, forcing them to learn in sweltering heat. By Thanksgiving, students were huddling under blankets because the heat wasnt working.

Along the way students dealt with broken showers in locker rooms, plumbing issues and a litany of other problems in the nearly 60-year-old school building.

Theres been times weve been cold, theres been times weve been hot, said Mentia Trippeter, a 17-year-old senior. Theres been times where it rained and it poured, weve been drowning. We go through it  we go through it, man.

Like other schools serving low-income communities across the country, Jim Hill has long dealt with neglected infrastructure that has made it harder for students to learn. So when Jackson Public Schools received tens of millions of dollars in federal COVID relief money, it decided to put much of the windfall toward repairing heating and plumbing problems, some of which temporarily caused the school to switch to remote learning.

For poorer school districts, deciding what to do with that money has involved a tough tradeoff: work on long-term academic recovery or fix long-standing infrastructure needs.

All told, the federal government has allocated $190 billion in pandemic relief aid to help schools recover  more than four times the amount the U.S. Education Department spends on K-12 schools in a typical year, and with few strings attached.

An Associated Press analysis of school district spending plans from across the country found that the poorest districts in each state are far more likely than the richest districts to spend emergency relief funds on upgrading their buildings or transportation systems.

Jacksons academic needs are no less pressing. The majority of students in the district learned virtually for a year and a half during the pandemic and math test scores plummeted by the equivalent of over a full years worth of learning, according to Harvard and Stanfords Education Recovery Scorecard. But school officials didnt want to miss a rare opportunity to fix infrastructure issues  some of which date back decades.

William Merritt, the school districts chief of staff, said the funds gave the district the ability to provide our students with tools that other students in well-to-do districts have.

The data in APs analysis came from education market research firm Burbio, which reviewed how more than 6,000 districts across the country, representing over 75% of the nations public school students, planned to spend their federal relief money. The data covered the final and largest round of federal aid to schools, totaling $122 billion.

The AP found that school districts with the highest percentage of children living in poverty  the poorest 20% of districts in each state  were more than three times as likely as the wealthiest school districts to dedicate money to the construction of new buildings or classrooms. School districts with high levels of poverty were also more than twice as likely to include money for facilities repairs.

The poor districts are doing it because theyre chasing after emergencies, said Mary Filardo, executive director of the 21st Century School Fund.

Infrastructure is a prime example of long-standing inequities in school funding. While affluent districts can rely on local tax revenue to pay for major improvement projects such as installing state-of-the-art heating and ventilation systems, poorer districts that cannot often spend more money over time on short-term fixes.

In Texas, the Victoria Independent School District is also grappling with competing infrastructure needs and pandemic recovery. It plans to spend half of the $28.4 million it received in the last round of relief funds on academics, teacher retention and student supports that include social-emotional behavior specialists.

But the other 50% of the money is devoted to improving air quality, such as updating ventilation systems. Superintendent Quintin Shepherd says hed love to spend more on counselors and less on fixing broken air conditioners, but theres no way kids can learn safely in a classroom thats 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

We got into education to improve educational outcomes and life expectations. Its a hard position to have to make these impossible decisions, Shepherd said.

Some have argued the money shouldnt be spent on infrastructure projects, which can take years to complete and often with with no immediate benefit to students. But the government only required 20% of the emergency relief funds to be spent addressing learning loss.

In Jackson, officials chose to spend over half of the $109 million the district received in the last round of federal funding on fixing the facilities in schools like Jim Hill.

The schools principal, Bobby Brown, said the money spent on infrastructure needs is very necessary  although not enough to address decades of inequity in the majority Black school system.

As you listen to the students, and them having generations of families that have similar experiences, Brown said, this also sheds light on the types of investment that we have  or the lack of investment that we have in communities where people look like us.
Hows it growing folks?! In todays Here Weed Go! episode, host Eddie Celaya looks at the cannabis-only special election in Oklahoma coming up on March 7, 2023.

For those not in the know about cannabis in the Sooner State, heres a little background:

Although you probably wouldnt guess it, Oklahoma is home to the most dispensaries per capita of any state in the union. And its not even close.

Known as the "Wild West of Weed," by some estimates, there are more dispensaries (more than 2,000) currently operating in the state then there are gas stations.

Thats a lot for a state with just a medical marijuana program. And although nearly 10% of Oklahomans hold a medical card, thats only about 350,000 patients.

As you might be able to tell, thats a lot of store fronts and cannabis product for a relative few patients.

As a result, a lot of that pot has found its way into the underground black market in-state and elsewhere. That's what gives Oklahoma its other cannabis-derived nickname: "The Black Market Capitol of Marijuana."

Now, after a back-and-forth with the courts and state government, State Question 820, which would implement an adult-use recreational program in the state, is up for a state-wide special election.

To help get a better perspective of whats going on on the ground out there, Ive brought on two guests, Anna Codutti, a journalist with the Tulsa World, and dispensary operator Arshad Lasi of the Nirvana Group.

We touch on why State Question 820 is on its own special election ballot, what state politicians and medical industry stakeholders are saying about the initiative, and how likely voters are to pass a measure that would make Oklahoma the 22nd state to legalize recreational marijuana.

MORE INFO

For more content on cannabis in Oklahoma, visit the Tulsa World: https://tulsaworld.com/search/?sd=desc&l=25&s=start_time&f=html&t=article%2Cvideo%2Cyoutube%2Ccollection&app=editorial&nsa=eedition&q=cannabis

For more info on the Nirvana Group: https://www.nirvana-dispensary.com/

For more Here Weed Go! content, including past podcast episodes, the Here Weed Go! newsletter and access to the official social media pages: https://linktr.ee/hereweedgo
PHOENIX  Every single member of the Arizona Senate voted Tuesday for a measure that will shield their addresses and other personal information from the public as elected officials are increasingly subjected to threats and protests at their homes.

Several Republican senators described being targeted either by protesters or vandalism. That included Sen. J.D. Mesnard of Chandler, who said that he was woken up last year by a call from his neighbor, who said his home had been vandalized and the neighbor said we think it was meant for you.

Mesnard told colleagues he went outside to find the neighbors home spray-painted with really nasty words that were  I wont repeat what they were, but they were really messed up. And among them was JD is blah. 

The measure adds members of Congress, the state Legislature and officials elected to statewide office to the address confidentiality program that already keeps the personal information of police officers, judges, prosecutors or former public officials secret. A separate confidentiality program that protects the addresses of domestic violence and sexual assault victims is overseen by the secretary of states office.

SB 1061 is sponsored by Republican Sen. T.J. Shope of Coolidge, who spoke about how he has been unnerved by protesters, including on the opening day of this years legislative session in January, when within minutes of arriving at a newly elected lawmakers home he was surprised to see that he was tagged in a Tweet identifying him and the new lawmaker as being at that persons house, with the address included.

And as has been mentioned several times, we sign up for this stuff, Shope said.

But our families in many cases came later, or kids came later and things like that, he continued. So thank you all for working on this with me and well continue to work on it as we move to the House.

Shope had promised to change the measure to address several flaws before the Senate vote. But that did not happen.

One big problem he acknowledged is that state lawmakers are required to live within their districts. And having their address publicly available is the only way that can be verified by both constituents and challengers.

When the measure was being weighed earlier by a committee, Shope had said he could handle that issue by requiring the secretary of state to verify a candidates residency, something that is not currently required and is not in the version that was approved by the Senate.

He also said he was considering extending the protections to local elected officials.

Threats against public officials have happened with regularity in recent years, with noted examples being the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, where Republican board members faced protests outside their homes and threats of violence after the 2020 election that saw former President Donald Trump lose in Arizona.

Those changes, too, never were incorporated into the Senate-passed bill.

Finding the address of an official elected to state office is fairly easy, since it must be listed on forms they file when they decide to become a candidate.

Although Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs has not been asked if she backs the measure, protesters gathered often at her Phoenix-area home after the 2020 election she helped oversee as secretary of state. Troopers with the Department of Public Safety were assigned to ensure she and her family were safe.

The measure does more than shield a public officials home address. Also hidden would be their home telephone number, personal photograph, directions to their home or photographs of their personal vehicle.

No Democrats spoke in support of the measure Tuesday, but all supported it and some spoke of their backing during the committee hearing.

GOP Sen. Justine Wadsack of Tucson said she wholeheartedly supported the measure and thanked Shope for proposing it. Wadsack said shes been confronted at her home several times.

I would really like to have the privacy so that I can fight with vigor and fight for the people that I represent, but not have to do so in fear, Wadsack said.
RAMALLAH, March 1 (Xinhua) -- A Palestinian man died of wounds sustained during an Israeli army raid on a refugee camp near the West Bank town of Jericho on Wednesday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

The Palestinian liaison office of security coordination with Israel informed the ministry that Jamal Hamdan, 22, died hours after he was shot by Israeli soldiers in the Aqabat Jabr refugee camp, the ministry said in a press statement.

Palestinian witnesses said heavy clashes broke out in the refugee camp between dozens of Palestinians and the Israeli soldiers who stormed the camp.

The Israeli military confirmed that one Palestinian, who was shot while fleeing the scene, died on the way to a hospital while three others were arrested during the raid. It accused the arrested Palestinians of being behind the killing of an Israeli citizen near Jericho a few days ago.

The tensions have been running high between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since January, leading to the killing of 65 Palestinians and 13 Israelis so far this year, according to official Palestinian and Israeli figures. 
Clint McKinney has been in the restaurant business for some 40 years, working in Kansas and Texas before coming to Oklahoma about a dozen years ago.

But his newest concept, which opened last year at the north edge of downtown Broken Arrow, is the first concept to which he has wanted to affix his own name.

I wanted to give Broken Arrow something it didnt have, McKinney said. I wanted to take the sort of foods people grew up with and give them all some new, modern twists. It took us about 16 months to develop the menu, to have one that would embody that new modern approach I wanted.

McKinneys Modern Dining recently opened on the ground floor of the new Brio apartment complex in downtown Broken Arrow. The restaurant shares space with Toast, the breakfast-brunch restaurant that McKinney purchased from original owner Ben Buie in 2017.

Toast was located in the heart of Broken Arrows Rose District and was linked to another, more dinner-oriented concept, Franklins Pork & Barrel. McKinneys decision to move north was two-fold.

We basically ran out of space, he said. Space to expand the restaurant, spaces for parking, everything. Also, Im not much of a barbecue guy and wanted to rebrand Franklins to something different.

Then the people with the Brio approached us, and it seemed like the perfect place for what I wanted to do, McKinney said.

Toast and McKinneys Modern Dining share a kitchen and bar area, but efforts are made to the distinguish the two. Toast, which operates from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., serves its customers in the north end of the space, where the decor is more casual; McKinneys customers are shown to the south side of the dining area, with its white tablecloths and slightly more sedate decorations.

Executive chef and general manager Stephen Reshetar said one of the challenges has been to find ways to maintain each concepts distinct identity, while at the same time creating a back-of-the-house structure that will make how the two restaurants operate more efficient.

Reshetar, whose career has ranged from working the restaurants at Pennsylvanias Peddlers Village resort to fine dining and corporate chef jobs in Colorado and New Mexico, was hired to help bring McKinneys Modern Dining to fruition.

Delays in construction due to the COVID-19 pandemic kept moving the opening date, and Reshetar was considering moving to Denver.

I told Clint Id help him out for another month, Reshetar said. Then the previous chef was let go, and Clint offered me that job, as well.

Both McKinney and Reshetar want to use as many locally sourced ingredients as possible at McKinneys Modern Dining, and Reshetar said a new menu is likely to debut in a few weeks.

Were wanting the menu to be more seasonally oriented, he said.

The dinner menu when we visited included a half-dozen pasta dishes, a trio of steaks, along with such staples as an airline chicken breast, pork chops and pan-seared salmon, along with a collection of appetizers, soups, salads and sandwiches.

The specials for the evening were another pasta-forward creation, beef stroganoff, along with a seed-crusted halibut. My companion chose the halibut ($42), while I went with the braised short ribs ($26). We also ordered the Mexican street corn dip ($13) as an appetizer.

The corn dip has a cream cheese base, thick and mildly tangy, with corn kernels and flecks of red and green  we guessed mild peppers, as they added no heat to the dish. The extremely generous portion, which could have served four people easily, was served with flour tortilla chips dusted with a mild chili seasoning.

The seeds that made up the halibuts crust were a mix of fennel and tiny mustard seeds, which added a slightly smoky, slightly bitter edge to the perfectly cooked fish. It was served atop a corn puree that was wonderfully smooth, and whose natural sweetness balanced the seed crust well, and accompanied by grilled asparagus. My companion was more than pleased with the dish.

The short rib, braised in red wine and finished with house-made demi-glace, was fork-tender and clinging to just enough fat to keep the meat moist. Thin strips of tobacco onions topped the dish. It came with a mound of excellent mashed potatoes and sauteed green beans.

Our server, Scott, paced the meal perfectly. He tried to tempt us with the dessert choices, which include cheesecake and a chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream, but we had to take a rain check on the sweet stuff.

We returned to sample some items from the lunch menu, which are also available for dinner: the McKinneys Steak Soup ($15) and the Bang Bang Shrimp ($14).

Lots of places offer something called Bang Bang shrimp, but at McKinneys, the focus is more on the shrimp than the bang. The order included four jumbo shrimp coated in the thinnest of tempura batters and fried perfectly. Small dollops of the orange bang-bang sauce were there to play off the sweetness of the shrimp with a sharp note of spice. The citrus-laced slaw of napa cabbage, red onion and red bell pepper was crisp and refreshing.

The soup was a deep brick-red broth that could have been de-fatted a bit more efficiently, but the meats (filet and rib-eye, according to the menu) and vegetables such as carrots were tender, and with the mound of mash potatoes in the center of the bowl, it took on a stew-like quality that was satisfying.

My only complaint is that I was given a small teaspoon for the soup  which took me a little while to find, as it was at the bottom of the bowl. No doubt the young man running food out to tables didnt realize what had happened when he set the bowl on the table.

McKinney is hoping to expand McKinneys Modern Dining to other locations; he said he was scouting a place in Tahlequah. He has plans to put in a market place next to the Broken Arrow location that would offer grab-and-go meals, as well as ingredients and pantry staples for the residents of the Brio apartments above the restaurants.

And again, were going to make it as local as possible, he said. We want to feature products people in Broken Arrow made and sell.
Almead Stutts knows all too well that it takes a village to keep a small business such as Stutts House of Barbecue going for three decades.

The members of that village include not just the customers who have been enjoying Ms. Stutts pit barbecue, buttermilk pie and Southern hospitality since she first opened in 1993, but also the friends and colleagues who have pitched in to help Stutts run her restaurant in good times and bad.

On Sunday, March 5, Stutts House of Barbecue, 2021 E. Apache St., will celebrate its 30th anniversary by going back in time.

From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday only, all sandwiches and barbecue dinners will be sold at 1993 prices, when sandwiches were $2.75, and a three-meat combo with St. Louis-style ribs would set you back $7.65 (in modern days, those items are $6.25 and $14.99, respectively).

I just want the people of Tulsa to know that we so appreciate all the love and support theyve shown us over the years, Stutts said. I know we sell people food, but we really try to give them a little something extra  a little bit of joy. If someone leaves here, and they have a smile on their face, then weve done the best thing we can do.

A native of Bolden, Mississippi, Stutts came to Tulsa in 1967, where she soon found a job at Wilsons Barbecue, for many years a north Tulsa landmark.

I did other jobs as well, but I would always check on Mr. Wilson and ask if he needed help, and hed say, You know I can always use your help, she recalled. Over time, Stutts became the restaurants manager, which she said, And that meant you ended up doing everything.

She was out doing errands one day when she noticed people moving items out of a small building that had been home to a succession of other barbecue joints, and she asked the owner about leasing the vacated space.

The propertys owner tried to dissuade her from getting into the barbecue business.

He told me, Youre a lady, and this job is just too hard for a woman to do, Stutts said. So I asked him, what was so hard about it? He started telling me this and that, and I told him I was already doing all those things now for Mr. Wilson.

She recalled hearing that, when she did finally open her restaurant in January 1993, there were those in the community taking bets on how long she would be able to stay in business.

Most people said I would close after three months, Stutts said. The person who told me this, his name was Johnny Mayes, I asked him what was his bet. He told me, I didnt take any bet. Youve got a good product here, and youre going to do well.

Mayes would also come often to the restaurant near closing time, to be there when Stutts and her staff would close up for the night, to make sure they would all get on their way to their homes safely.

Over the years, Ive had all kinds of people who have really helped me, and always just when I needed help, she said. I truly believe that God put these people in my path for a reason.

Stutts has a list of these people, including Malvin McDuffy and Dianna Mitchell, who more or less took over running Stutts House of Barbecue after she had heart surgery.

I was sure I was going to have to close down, because I knew I wouldnt be able to work for the longest time, she said. And that worried me, because the kind of pit we have was grandfathered in when I opened. If I shut down and had to reopen, Id have to do all kind of things to get it up to todays codes.

But Malvin and Dianna, they said, Youre not closing this place down  well keep it open for you, Stutts said. There was no way I could pay them what they were worth to me, but they always said they were happy to help out.

Some of these good Samaritans, whom Stutts calls her Roses, have places of honor on the walls of the restaurant. Others are people whose names she knows by heart, such as Audrey Garland, Donna Adams, Pepe Johnson and a gentleman she knew only as Mr. Ronnie, along with customers who come by weekly for a sandwich or a dinner.

I get to know them so well that when I dont see them too often, I try to check up and see if theyre doing all right, Stutts said.

For Almead Stutts, its all a part of tending the village that has grown up around her and her restaurant.

I know Im running a business, but its not all about making money, she said. Its about making people happy. I want to share some of the joyful spirit we have here.
Jerry Cantrell at Tulsa Theater

Twenty-five years ago, Jerry Cantrell named his debut solo album (Boggy Depot) after the spot in Oklahoma where his father was raised. Cantrell, the founder, guitarist and co-vocalist of Alice in Chains, will perform Saturday, March 4 at Tulsa Theater.

For tickets to Tulsa Theater events, go to tulsatheater.com.

Country, Western swing, punk at Cains

Cains Ballroom has country, Western swing and punk (Sex Pistols, anyone?) roots. The historic venue will be filled with music from all three genres this week.

The Josh Abbott Band will perform Friday, March 3 and Bob Wills Texas Playboys will play a sold-out show Saturday, March 4. On Sunday, March 5, the Toronto-based punk band PUP is co-headlining a tour stop with Joyce Manor, a California punk band.

PUP is touring in support of its critically acclaimed and Juno Award-nominated album The Unraveling of PUPTheBand, followed by the groups first live LP.

For tickets to Cains Ballroom events, go to cainsballroom.com.

Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey returns

Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey is playing reunion shows Friday, March 3 and Saturday, March 4 at Low Down, 108 N. Detroit Ave.

Beginning in Tulsa in 1994 as a funky octet with MCs and horns, JFJO became an instrumental trio in 1999, a quartet in 2007 and expanded to a 9-piece ensemble in 2011.

Celebrating a 20th anniversary in 2014, the band returned to the trio setting with two critically loved albums, one of which (Millions: Live In Denver) sold out its International Record Store Day Release.

Now in a 29th year as a band, JFJO has returned to the trio lineup of Reed Mathis (bass & guitar), Brian Haas (piano) and Jason Smart (drums).

For tickets and information, go to jfjo.com.

Hulett Collection feature Deakins

Sir Roger Deakins, perhaps best known as the Academy Award-winning cinematographer of Blade Runner 2049 and 1917, will have a show of his photographs, titled Roger Deakins: Byways, on display beginning Saturday, March 4, at the Hulett Collection, 1311 E. 15th St.

A reception for Deakins and his wife, James Ellis Deakins, who collaborate together on the popular Team Deakins podcast, will be held that evening from 5 to 8 p.m.

The Tulsa exhibit is only the second time Deakins photography has been shown in North America. The exhibition will be on display through April 29, 2023.

Deakins has earned international acclaim for his diverse and expansive body of work, which has earned 13 additional Academy Award nominations, as well as five BAFTAs. Throughout his film career, Deakins has continued to pursue his love of still photography, finding unique aspects of new landscapes, as well as his fascination with the English seaside.

Prior to the exhibits opening, Hulett will take part in a discussion with Tulsa filmmaker Sterlin Harjo, titled Clips and Conversations in a members-only event Thursday, March 2, at the Bob Dylan Center, 116 E. Reconciliation Way, and will take part in a book-signing for the book Byways at 7 p.m. Friday, March 3, at Magic City Books, 221 E. Archer St.

NatureWorks show and sale

One of the top wildlife arts shows in the country returns to Tulsa, as NatureWorks presents the 2023 NatureWorks Art Show, Saturday and Sunday, March 4-5, at the Tulsa Marriott Southern Hills, 1902 E. 71st St.

Art lovers can browse paintings, sculptures and wooden carvings by more than 30 of the top wildlife, Western and landscape artists across the United States. Among those participating this year are Tulsa area artists Josh Stout and Christopher Westfall, along with this years Featured Artists, Jason Lee Tako and Raymond Gibbey, and Encore Artists Amy Lay and Chris Wilson.

Proceeds from sales of art works at the show help fund NatureWorks efforts to preserve and protect the states natural landscape and wildlife.

Hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday. natureworks.org/art-show.
ADDIS ABABA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Experts have called on African countries to bridge the existing technological gap across the continent so as to facilitate the energy transition.

The suggestion was made during the Fifth African Science, Technology, and Innovation Forum high-level policy dialogue on emerging energy technologies that gathered a panel of African and UN experts on Feb. 26-27, the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) said in a statement late Monday.

The experts called for a deep overhaul of Africa's approach to energy issues to break the vicious cycle of outdated technologies, respond more efficiently to electricity needs and speed up economic development.

"Our current challenge is to get heads of state to adopt a joint, green hydrogen policy by the end of this year," a UNECA statement quoted Francis Sempore, executive director of the ECOWAS Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency, as saying.

He said green hydrogen in West Africa may sound utopian now, but so did the ECOWAS leaders' decision to adopt a regional policy on renewable energy in 2013. Yet it has become unthinkable for a country not to have solar energy in its energy mix.

According to the UNECA, the case of Niger, where the forum was held in a hybrid format, is a stark illustration of the contradictions that the region and the rest of the African continent are experiencing presently.

In addition to its immense energy potential with a mix of solar, hydroelectric, and wind, the country has some 90 million tonnes of coal, 953 million barrels of oil, more than 24 billion cubic meters of natural gas, and one of the largest reserves of uranium in Africa, according to Saidou Madougou, professor at the Abdou Moumouni University in Niamey, the capital of Niger.

In 2022, however, access to electricity only benefited 16 percent of the country, and 6 percent in rural areas. Biomass (fuelwood) presently covers more than 87 percent of household energy needs in a country where 200,000 hectares of land are lost to desertification every year, the UNECA said.

According to the UNECA, in order to increase Africa's energy production capacity, policymakers will have to act at multiple levels. They would need to ensure their countries have enough know-how for the use of renewables; set up special mechanisms to attract investments in renewable energies and create capacity for research.

Linus Mofor, a UNECA senior environmental affairs officer, urged Africa to bridge its technological gaps by initiating a conversation between countries in the priority areas of intervention and strengthening scientific and technological research.

"We also need to consider how we finance innovation: while we need to challenge African governments to invest themselves, we also need to keep in mind that few governments have financial scaling capacity. Then again, energy access can increase incomes by up to 39 percent," said UNECA Director for Technology, Climate Change and Natural Resources Management Jean Paul Adam.

The Fifth African Science, Technology and Innovation Forum, which was held in Niamey, ahead of the 9th African Forum on Sustainable Development, was jointly organized by the UNECA, UNESCO, the African Union (AU) Commission and the Department of Science and Innovation of South Africa.

Discussions aimed to consider how science, technology and innovation can support African efforts to achieve an inclusive and green recovery from multiple crises and the integrated and full implementation of the AU's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Agenda 2063. 
A campuswide assignment has left Diego Hernandez with a lot to think about.

A freshman at TRAICE Academy, Hernandez and every other student at his school participated in a living museum Tuesday afternoon, presenting on a notable event or person in honor of Black History Month.

The first year that the north Tulsa alternative school has hosted such an event, the gym was packed with students answering questions from classmates, parents and community members about a range of cultural touchstones, including Prince, Vanessa Williams, the Tulsa Race Massacre, the Million Woman March, Wilma Rudolph and in Hernandez case, slain civil rights activist Medgar Evars.

Its an eye-opener, Hernandez said. I was never taught this in my other classes. This is the first time Ive had this introduction.

Located in the former Lindsey Elementary School building at 2740 E. 41st St. North, TRAICE Academy is a placement-based alternative site for middle and high school grades. Students are enrolled based on recommendations from the districts Discipline Review Committee and are there for a minimum of nine weeks.

TRAICE is the acronym for Tulsa Resource and Adolescent Intervention Center of Excellence.

There is a misconception about TRAICE because were an alternative school, event organizer and school librarian Michelle McCane said. I just hope  that people can see that theyre just kids like everywhere else and there are some amazingly talented students here who just needed a different environment.

Learning about accurate history is giving you something. Its not taking anything away and these kids have showcased that.

Students were able to pick their presentation topic and were encouraged to select a person or event that was not covered in class. For junior Darius Woods, that meant a chance to dig in a little deeper about the first president he remembered seeing in office during his lifetime, Barack Obama.

I was 4 years old when he first got elected in 2008, Woods said. Now Im starting to understand whats going on in that White House. Him being the first African-American man in that position and to have the say-so over the whole country woke me up to the possibility that I could do that one day.

Featured video:
After a Tulsa man admitted he failed to report a murder and lied to police when questioned, he received a sentence of time already served in connection with the fatal 2020 shooting of another man.

The sentence comes after both prosecutors and Stephon J. Thompson signed off on a plea agreement Nov. 9 in Tulsa federal court that called for him to plead guilty to one count of misprision of felony in exchange for the stipulated time-served sentence.

Thompson, 39, had originally faced first-degree murder charges in state and federal court in connection with the fatal Oct. 14, 2020, shooting of Lionell Rivers, 52, at Rivers home in the 200 block of East 52nd Street.

Police arrested both Thompson and Clarence Holmes, 40, the day after Rivers was found dead in his garage from two gunshot wounds to his chest and stomach area.

Tulsa County prosecutors filed first-degree murder charges against Thompson and Rivers in connection with Rivers death.

But Thompsons state charges were dropped March 15, 2021, and refiled in federal court after it was determined he was a member of a tribal nation and the case met the filing requirements under the U.S. Supreme Courts landmark McGirt decision.

A federal grand jury charged Thompson on April 7, 2021, with one count of first-degree murder in Indian Country and one count of causing death by using and discharging a firearm.

Federal prosecutors in July filed a reduced charge of misprision of felony in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma. Thompson was released from federal custody on April 7, records show.

Meanwhile, Thompsons co-defendant, Holmes, pleaded guilty Nov. 8 in Tulsa County District Court to a reduced charge of first-degree manslaughter in exchange for a five-year prison term in his state case.

One day later, Thompson pleaded guilty in federal court to misprision of felony.

In his plea, Thompson admitted to traveling with Holmes to Rivers home about selling some car rims.

While there Clarence Holmes shot and killed Lionel Rivers, Thompson wrote. I did not report this to the police and in fact lied to the police when they questioned me about the murder.

The charge carried a maximum statutory sentence of not more than three years imprisonment and a fine of not more than $250,000.

Thompson was initially jailed on an unrelated misdemeanor warrant Oct. 15, 2020, after a police began surveilling a neighboring home believed to be Holmes residence.

Thompson initially told police that he was at his girlfriends home the evening Rivers was shot, according to a court affidavit filed in relation to an arrest warrant request.

But after reviewing Thompsons phone records, police determined he was lying.

While interviewing Thompson a second time, he told investigators that he drove Holmes in his girlfriends car to Rivers home the evening of Oct. 14, 2020.

While there to look at Rivers rims, Thompson said he left Holmes and Rivers in the garage, who then began arguing.

Thompson told police he then heard two gunshots before he and Holmes left the residence about 10 minutes later.

Featured video:
Traci Manuel, English teacher at Tulsas Booker T. Washington High School, was just named 2023 Oklahoma Teacher of the Year at an announcement at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City.

Beginning July 1, Manuel is expected to assume full-time Teacher of the Year duties, traveling across Oklahoma for speaking engagements as an ambassador for teachers throughout the 2023-24 school year, encouraging others to enter and remain in the profession.

During Wednesdays ceremony, each finalist offered remarks.

Manuel shared her long, non-traditional path to becoming a Tulsa classroom teacher, which included stops as a long term substitute teacher, then teaching assistant, then parent facilitator.

But first she shared how her own childhood struggles in school led her into a career to help and educate others.

She was so determined to overcome her difficulties that she studied in the library each day rather than eating lunch with her high school friends.

Despite those efforts, a school counselor told her during her senior year; There are no options for you, there are no plans for you  and Im sorry to tell you that.

As you can imagine, I was broken, discouraged and ready to throw in the towel as a young teen, Manuel said.

Then a mentor teacher named Jo Bright told her not to accept anyone elses judgment or discouragement. She offered her no sympathy, only encouragement.

Encouragement in daily calls, encouragement to take ACT test prep classes and also to volunteer at a north Tulsa boys and girls club so she herself could encourage younger students.

Manuel credits the encouragement of Jo Bright and also from her own mother, father and grandmother for getting her into and then through college out of state.

She returned to Tulsa to begin her career because she was bound and determined to help students in her hometown who are lagging in academic achievement measures.

She shared how hard-won her success has been, Because someone told me what I could not achieve, like they do many of our urban and rural students. But they can and will achieve.

This path for me has been all that has made the difference in my teaching career. I stand today, full-circle, teaching at Booker T. Washington  the place that at the end of the road, told me what I could not do. Manuel said. I said to my students and I say to them every day, we will have high expectations and we will achieve every goal that is set in front of you. I will accept nothing less of you.

So, I tell all educators today and tomorrow that we have to push our children.

She closed her remarks by singing a part of her schools hymn: Youre a symbol of light for many a youth by pointing the way to lifes best.

The Oklahoma Teacher of the Year program is coordinated through the office of Oklahomas State Superintendent of Public Instruction, and is part of the National Teacher of the Year Program sponsored by the Council of Chief State School Officers.

Teacher of the Year finalists are selected by a cross-section of leading educators, lawmakers and civic leaders representing all regions of Oklahoma. A state selection committee reviews finalists nominations and videos of their classroom teaching and conducts finalist interviews to recommend the winner.

The 2022 Oklahoma Teacher of the Year, Rebecka Peterson, will continue touring Oklahoma until July.

Other local finalists were Kelsee Arnold, who teaches Gifted and Talented students at Broken Arrows Spring Creek and Aspen Creek elementary schools; Julie Cryer, band teacher at Jenks Middle School; and Rexanne McCrary, language and composition and English teacher at Union High School.

From the surrounding area were finalists William Peeper, history teacher at Cushing High School and Julie Osburn, who teaches at Pryors Lincoln Elementary School.

Finalists from elsewhere in the state were: Marcy Boudreaux-Johnson, reading intervention teacher at Deer Creek Public Schools; Emily Boyett, speech-language pathologist at Edmond Public Schools; Steven Smith, high school art teacher at Lawton Public Schools; Alona Whitebird, high school social studies teacher at Moore Public Schools; Tenille Mehl, school counselor at Noble Public Schools; and Rob Bradshaw, orchestra instructor at Norman Public Schools.

Peterson, the current state teacher of the year, wasnt present at Wednesdays ceremony because she is in Washington, D.C., vying for 2023 National Teacher of the Year, but a recorded video message from her was played at the ceremony before the winner was announced.

She shared how her own life was forever altered by public school teachers when she and her family arrived as immigrants when she was a very young child. She received encouragement as she learned English, recognition and praise for her advanced math skills and later inspiration to enter the teaching profession as a math teacher.

Teachers, my message to has and always will be, Thank you, she said. As a child, I learned from you, believed in you and walked alongside you. I still do. I love who I am when Im in the classroom, when Im part of your collective. It is the honor of my lifetime to walk with you and to walk for you. As the words my heart carries with me: [spoken first in Persian] In the end, maybe were all just walking each other home.

Featured video:
A north Tulsa church has beaten out the state of Oklahoma and city of Tulsa in efforts to secure federal funding for a study that includes looking at the possible removal of a portion of Interstate 244.

The U.S. Department of Transportation announced Tuesday that it was awarding a $1.6 million grant to the North Peoria Church of Christ to support a planning study of the removal of the part of I-244 that forms the north leg of the Inner Dispersal Loop through the historic Greenwood District and to establish a community land trust.

The Rev. Warren Blakney, senior pastor at the church, said he was overwhelmed after hearing the news.

It is just amazing to us that we were able and fortunate enough to get this grant for our community and for the efforts that we are trying to do toward Greenwood, Blakney said.

The project is one of 45 nationwide receiving a total of $185 million in funding as part of the U.S. Department of Transportations new Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program.

Transportation should connect, not divide, people and communities, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement. We are proud to announce the first grantees of our Reconnecting Communities Program, which will unite neighborhoods, ensure the future is better than the past, and provide Americans with better access to jobs, health care, groceries and other essentials.

The program, a byproduct of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, provides technical assistance and funding for communities planning and construction projects that aim to reconnect neighborhoods back together by removing, retrofitting or mitigating transportation barriers such as highways and railroad tracks, according to a Department of Transportation news release.

The department said it prioritized applications from economically disadvantaged communities, especially those focused on equity and environmental justice, and that demonstrated strong community engagement and stewardship, and would catalyze shared prosperity in its development and job creation.

Blakney said a number of people from the community, including North Peoria Church of Christ members state Reps. Regina Goodwin and Kevin Matthews, came together last year to assist with the grant application.

He said removal of a portion of the highway would free up 30 acres for redevelopment, permit expansion of the historic Greenwood business district and make the area easier to access.

The Department of Transportation said the funds for the Tulsa project will be used to support the planning study of the partial removal of I-244, which bisects the Greenwood neighborhood and acts as a physical and social barrier between the predominately Black community in north Tulsa, historic Greenwood Avenue and downtown to the south in Tulsa.

The project study will focus only on the north leg of the IDL. Some estimate that 3,000 homes and 500 businesses were removed by the construction of the north leg of the loop around downtown.

The project will also establish a community land trust to facilitate long-term redevelopment of the parcels in a way that benefits Greenwood and North Tulsa residents, in particular residents who had their home unjustly acquired below market value through eminent domain when the highway was built.

The application provides a compelling depiction of how a historic Black neighborhood in Tulsa suffered the punishing effects of urban renewal and the building of I-244, according to a U.S. Department of Transportation fact sheet provided with the news release.

Meanwhile, the Oklahoma Department of Transportation reacted with a release of its own.

We are disappointed that the ODOT and city of Tulsa partnership Reconnecting Communities grant proposal was unsuccessful, ODOT said in its release. ODOT will be reaching out to the U.S. Department of Transportation seeking input and comments about our grant application.

While ODOTs grant application  a joint effort with the city of Tulsa and Indian Nations Council of Governments  did include a call for completing a high-level feasibility analysis of removal of the highway, it was as part of a long-term or 30-plus year plan.

State officials said in their news release that any contemplation of a potential closure of the interstate should only be in a long-range planning context.

Since 2005, the state has spent $245 million in taxpayer funds on improvements and maintenance of the Inner Dispersal Loop, ODOT said in its release.

Such an initiative (removal of the highway) would need to consider multiple issues, including impacts to the highway and local street system, necessary upgrades to other facilities, access to Downtown Tulsa, and potential alternative routes, the state agency said.

ODOT noted that efforts it has already undertaken with the city of Tulsa to make I-244 more visually appealing and to improve neighborhood walkability included providing space for murals on retaining walls and underpasses as well as completing the Pathway to Hope, a $5 million walking path connecting Greenwood Avenue and John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park.

Greenwood Chamber of Commerce President Freeman Culver called the award a great opportunity, so long as existing businesses are protected.

I think it is a great opportunity for the city, a great opportunity for north Tulsans, a great opportunity for the Black community, said Culver.

We just have to come up with a plan that can help stabilize the businesses that are already here, he said. Wed love to see that come down, he added, referring to the highway.

The north leg of the IDL, built in the 1960s, carries an average daily traffic load of up to 73,800 vehicles per day, according to ODOTs application for the award.

Blakney said the process other communities have used to administer funds when going through a highway removal process will be studied.

So we are going to look at some of those things, and then we will figure out the best way to administer the funds here as we look at other models in other states, Blakney said.

He said he did not have a target for when the highway would be removed, if that were to occur.

We werent looking at 30-plus years, Blakney said. I think the others were a time frame that were sooner than 30 years, referring to similar efforts in other communities.

Goodwin said she was absolutely elated.

Understand this was a community effort, community driven,  grass roots, the state lawmaker said.

What we seek is that the very folks that work and play in this community, particularly in the Greenwood area that is impacted, that they have a say in terms of how the community functions, Goodwin said.

We dont want this to be a planning grant that is symbolic, she said. We want this to be a planning grant that is implemented.

Featured video:
OKLAHOMA CITY  Gov. Kevin Stitt on Tuesday issued an executive order aimed at increasing transparency of state contracts with outside vendors.

Stitt ordered his administration to complete purchasing audits of all state agencies, create a fraud protection unit related to government purchasing and issue monthly reports about sole-source contracts that dont go through a competitive bidding process.

The order comes after Stitt and his administration have come under fire for several state contracts inked with private businesses.

Stitts order also comes as the Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency has been asking questions about state purchasing and contracts in preparation for an upcoming evaluation on agencies exemptions from competitive bidding requirements.

The state may have to repay the federal government at least $653,000 in misspent pandemic relief funds earmarked for education after Stitts administration and Secretary of Education Ryan Walters entered into a no-bid, single-source contract with ClassWallet. Attorney General Gentner Drummond is investigating state actors to determine who is responsible for the misspent federal relief funds. Stitt and Walters have said ClassWallet is to blame.

The Tourism and Recreation Departments now-defunct contract with Swadleys Bar-B-Q spurred a criminal probe, an audit and a state lawsuit. Swadleys was the only business to bid for the contract to operate restaurants in some state parks.

Both deals have elicited criticism from state lawmakers and the general public amid calls for greater government transparency. The incidents led lawmakers to file bills this year to increase transparency of state contracts and limit the governors power.

Lawmakers also approved having LOFT, a fiscal watchdog agency, dig into agency exemptions from competitive bidding requirements. LOFT was the first state entity to raise questions and concerns about the tourism departments contracts with Swadleys.

LOFT first encountered concerns about compliance with the State Purchasing Act last year during our evaluation of the Department of Tourism, Director Mike Jackson said in a statement. Our most recent workplan ... includes an evaluation of exemptions to the States Central Purchasing Act. We look forward to presenting that report and related findings early this April.

In a news release, Stitt said he wants all state agencies to be responsible with public funds and deliver the best services for Oklahomans.

My administration is committed to transparency and accountability with taxpayer dollars, Stitt said.

In the order, Stitt directs all state agencies, except those specifically exempted in state law, to comply with the Central Purchasing Act that details rules for government procurement and state contracts.

The states Central Purchasing Division oversaw $839 million in state contracts last year, Stitt wrote in the order. He said he has tasked his administration with reviewing the Central Purchasing Act to find ways to improve its implementation.

The governor also reminded state agencies that although public bidding requirements in the Central Purchasing Act were temporarily relaxed during the COVID-19 pandemic, those emergency measures are now over.

Stitt also renewed a prior executive order that places a moratorium on nonessential state travel and requires state agency heads to get approval from one of his Cabinet secretaries for nonemergency purchases greater than $25,000.

Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs Director Joel Kintsel has previously argued Stitts order demanding approval of agencys nonemergency purchases is illegal. In recent months, Kintsel has refused to comply with the decree.

Stitts order also:

Calls for evaluating agencies internal purchasing procedures;

Eliminates the ability of agencies to request an exemption from the Central Purchasing Act and competitive bidding requirements;

Requires the Central Purchasing Division to issue monthly reports showing all government transactions conducted by direct purchase orders;

Mandates the state purchasing director phase out all direct purchase orders by 2024; and

Directs the state purchasing director to form an advisory committee made up of representatives from entities that are exempt from the Central Purchasing Act to find solutions to meet their contracting needs.
OKLAHOMA CITY  State officials will conduct a review of government vehicles, Gov. Kevin Stitt announced Tuesday.

The review could pave the way for Oklahoma to pare down the number of vehicles in the states fleet.

Oklahoma has 10,800 vehicles in its fleet. Of those, 7,955 are considered underutilized because they are driven less than 12,000 miles per year, according to a news release from Stitts office.

Were always looking for ways to make government more efficient while being good stewards of taxpayer dollars, Stitt said in the release. This initiative will cut down on unnecessary resources and hold our agencies to even higher standards.

John Suter, the states chief operating officer, said his office will work with state agencies to find efficiencies within the fleet.

Three years ago, Stitt signed an executive order requiring all state agency heads to submit to his administration details about the make, model, year and mileage of most government vehicles.

Its unclear how this review is different from what the governor called for in 2020. Stitts office did not respond to a question seeking more information on that point.
OKLAHOMA CITY  The Oklahoma Senate on Tuesday passed a bill that would lock in daylight saving time.

Senate Bill 7 by Sen. Cowboy Blake Stephens, R-Tahlequah, passed by a vote of 44-3 and heads to the House for consideration.

The sun is certainly shining bright in the state of Oklahoma this morning, Stephens said. Senate Bill 7 would lock the clock on daylight saving time, giving us one hour additional in the evening in the winter months.

Under daylight saving time, clocks are set forward one hour in the spring and back and hour in the fall, returning to standard time.

Advancing clocks by one hour during warmer months means it gets dark later.

Stephens said his measure is contingent on Congress passing the Sunshine Protection Act, which would make daylight saving time permanent.

In the past four years, there has been a monumental movement to lock the clock in America on daylight saving time, Stephens said. Now, 19 states have passed legislation to lock the clock in their respective states.

Passage of the measure puts Oklahoma in the drivers seat when Congress passes the Sunshine Protection Act, he said, adding that people will not have to change their clocks twice a year.

Daylight saving time starts March 12 and ends Nov. 5.

He said the change has several benefits, including reducing crime, increasing the quality of life and boosting the economy and tourism.

Sen. Carri Hicks, D-Oklahoma City, was one of the three no votes. She said she got a lot of constituent pressure to vote no.

The American Medical Association advocates for locking in standard time, she said.

In closing, Stephens thanked the members for tolerating his passion for locking in daylight saving time.

Like my daddy says, Hurry up son. We are burning daylight.

Featured video:
OKLAHOMA CITY  In the Oklahoma Legislatures continued targeting of Oklahomas transgender residents, a Senate panel passed a bill on Wednesday that would ban the use of public money for gender-affirming care for transgender people in the state.

The panel also passed a separate bill that would also ban lewd acts in public places.

The Senate Appropriations Committee passed Senate Bill 129 by Sen. David Bullard, R-Durant, by a vote of 14-6. The measure now moves to the full Senate for consideration.

Bullard said the measure would prohibit public funds from paying any part of a persons transition from one sex to another. According to the bill itself, it would apply to any medical or surgical treatment including but not limited to physicians services, inpatient and outpatient hospital services, or prescribed drugs.

You cannot cure gender dysphoria with a knife, Bullard said.

Many physicians who provide care for transgender people in the state work for hospitals that receive state funding.

Bullards measure would not prohibit public funds for care after the transition process, he said.

The bill says it would not apply to treatment for depression or anxiety or for treating issues with delayed or precocious puberty and would not apply to services for people born with ambiguous, incomplete or both male and female genitalia.

Bullard said the measure, which was presented as a committee substitute, would not apply to private pay or private insurance.

A day earlier, the House of Representatives passed and sent to the Senate HB 2177, which addresses the same issues, and sent it to the Senate for consideration.

Another bill on the issues, Senate Bill 613, by Sen. Julie Daniels, R-Bartlesville, passed the Senate two weeks ago.

In arguing against Bullards bill on Wednesday, Sen. Julia Kirt, D-Oklahoma City, said it limits access to care and medical expertise for all ages of Oklahomans.

This limits the ability to serve patients effectively, and it limits the ability for people to receive the care they need, Kirt said.

Sen. Carri Hicks, D-Oklahoma City, said the measure would further the physician shortage the state is experiencing.

In other business, the panel also passed Senate Bill 503, also by Bullard, which would prohibit lewd acts in public. The measure is believed to be aimed at some drag shows.

It passed by a vote of 15-5. The measure now heads to the Senate floor for consideration.

The measure defines a public place as an area or space that the general public may access and may participate or take part in any event without payment for admission.

It applies to parades, shows, concerts, plays, or any other activities where a minor could witness lewd acts or obscene material.

The bill describes lewd acts as any sexual behavior imitating sex or sexual acts, groping, indecent exposure of genitalia or sexual paraphernalia, display of replicas of genitalia, sexually touching oneself or someone else, or convincing or forcing someone else to sexually touch or observe sexual behavior.

Violators would be guilty of a felony, and the measure also would allow for civil suits for violations of the act.

We are ensuring and making sure that minors and people who dont want to see those things in public places dont see them, Bullard said.

Senate Minority Leader Kay Floyd, D-Oklahoma City, said that from her research and understanding, this is a nationwide platform for a certain party to push this agenda.

I am not aware of that, Bullard said.

Sen. Michael Brooks, D-Oklahoma City, said the issue was manufactured about nine months ago.

This is a culture war distraction from what really matters at the Capitol, Brooks said.

Hicks said she was very concerned that the measure would limit free speech.

Kirt asked whether the measure applied to how people dressed.

Bullard said it could apply if the clothing exposes genitalia or other parts of the body.

Under questioning by Sen. Kevin Matthews, D-Tulsa, Bullard said the measure also could apply to dancing.

I like to dance, Matthews said. I just hate for someone to subjectively decide I get a felony for the way I dance.

Featured video:
Two bills with the potential to greatly affect Oklahomas economic development tactics died a lonely death in a House of Representatives Committee on Tuesday.

House Bills 1378 and 1379, by Rep. Tom Gann, R-Inola, would have barred government officials from signing nondisclosure agreements, commonly known as NDAs, and complicated the process for creating tax increment financing districts, or TIFs.

Both have become common in large-scale economic development projects, among them several the state has tried to land in Ganns House district, which includes the MidAmerica Industrial Park.

The two bills failed in the House General Government Committee for want of seconds to do-pass motions offered by Chairman Kevin West, R-Moore. The silent rejection of Ganns attempts to open up the states business negotiations occurred days before an unnamed automaker is to decide whether it will locate a $5.5 billion plant at MidAmerica.

Gann opposed the previously failed Project Ocean, which offered more than $700 million worth of incentives for an electric vehicle battery manufacturing facility that went elsewhere, because of the secrecy surrounding it and his general opposition to most incentive programs. He fought the creation of a TIF district because they do not require a vote of the people.

On Tuesday, he referred to Project Ocean as an 18-month ordeal.

HB 1378 would have barred state employees from making NDAs, while HB 1379 would have instituted new rules for TIF districts, including the requirement that voters in the affected jurisdictions make the final decisions on their creation.

The Gann bills were just two of dozens hustled through House committees on Tuesday ahead of a Thursday deadline for measures to be heard in the chamber of origin. Others of note that passed include:

HB 2414, by Rep. Ronny Johns, R-Ada, which includes a long list of charter school reforms suggested by the Epic Charter School scandal.

HB 2696, by Rep. Gerrid Kendrix, R-Altus, which would expand the number of public officials who could request an investigation by the state auditor and inspector. Similar legislation passed in the last Legislature but was vetoed by Gov. Kevin Stitt.

HB 1349, by Rep. Scott Fetgatter, R-Okmulgee, which would create a nine-member governing board for the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority.

HB 1843, by Rep. Del Kerbs, R-Shawnee, which would transfer enforcement of certain laws related to prescription benefits from the Insurance Department to the Attorney Generals Office. Several members of the committee said companies targeted by the laws have largely ignored them and that the Insurance Department does not have the clout to get offenders attention. The bill was one of several consumer-friendly insurance and health care measures advanced in committees on Tuesday.

Featured video:
Local patients and their company queue up to consult doctors at Peltier General Hospital in Djibouti City, Djibouti, on Feb. 28, 2023. Early in the morning, about 20 people suffering from cataract gathered at two mobile eye treatment centers at Peltier General Hospital in Djibouti City, the capital of the Red Sea country, to register and have examinations before a Chinese medical team conducted surgery for them.(Xinhua/Han Xu)

DJIBOUTI CITY, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Early in the morning, about 20 people suffering from cataract gathered at two mobile eye treatment centers at Peltier General Hospital in Djibouti City, the capital of the Red Sea country, to register and have examinations before a Chinese medical team conducted surgery for them.

Idriss, a 65-year-old man, arrived at the hospital at 7:00 a.m. He had learned earlier that a Chinese medical team would perform cataract operations for free in Djibouti, so he came to the hospital early to check and make an appointment for the surgery.

Starting last Wednesday, seven medical staff from China's Shanxi Eye Hospital began operations on people suffering from cataract to help them regain sight.

According to Liu Jianting, an ophthalmologist and leader of the Chinese medical team, they will stay in Djibouti for about a month to complete about 400 surgeries.

His team belongs to a medical aid program jointly run by the Chinese health administrations and the GX Foundation, a non-profit and non-governmental organization registered in Hong Kong, China, to provide free cataract surgeries to patients in the recipient countries.

Shanxi Province in northern China will send medical teams in batches over the next few years to perform about 6,000 free cataract surgeries in Djibouti.

Located in the Horn of Africa region, Djibouti has a tropical climate with long hours of sunshine and strong ultraviolet rays. The climatic conditions, combined with the poor level of medical care and people's living standards, make cataract one of the main causes of blindness among Djiboutians.

Many of the patients have been denied treatment for years due to the lack of sufficient professional ophthalmologists.

According to Liu, the patients have been delayed in receiving treatment, and their condition was getting worse, with many also suffering from multiple corneal diseases. "The situation here is much more serious than we had previously thought."

Bilyamine, a 20-year-old university student in Djibouti, has been suffering from cataract for six years due to improper use of medication. Before the surgery, he could only see books close to his eyes.

He told Xinhua that he had planned to travel to neighboring Ethiopia for the surgery, but the plan had been deterred because of the high cost of travel and surgery.

Accompanied by his mother, Bilyamine took several long bus rides to the hospital to have the surgery.

"With the help of Chinese doctors, my vision could return to normal," said the young man, with gauze wrapped around his eyes after the surgery. He expressed his gratitude to the Chinese doctors.

Ibrahim Hamoud Ibrahim, a retired ophthalmologist from this hospital, came to help examine patients for the free surgery program. About 10 years ago, he worked with the then Chinese medical team to treat more than 500 local patients.

"As a witness, all I can say is that I am grateful to the Chinese medical team, and I hope the project will go smoothly and look forward to more Chinese doctors to help the people of Djibouti," Ibrahim said.

Wang Haitao, another ophthalmologist with the Chinese medical team, was on his second medical aid mission to Africa. He said he was happy for his patients when he saw them regain their sight.

Wang said one patient came over to celebrate with a high five immediately after he found out he could see clearly after the surgery. "Though I didn't understand his language, I could see how happy he was." 

A local patient steps out of a mobile operation room after her cataract operation at Peltier General Hospital in Djibouti City, Djibouti, Feb. 28, 2023. Early in the morning, about 20 people suffering from cataract gathered at two mobile eye treatment centers at Peltier General Hospital in Djibouti City, the capital of the Red Sea country, to register and have examinations before a Chinese medical team conducted surgery for them.(Xinhua/Han Xu)

A local patient of cataract waits to consult a doctor at Peltier General Hospital in Djibouti City, Djibouti, on Feb. 28, 2023. Early in the morning, about 20 people suffering from cataract gathered at two mobile eye treatment centers at Peltier General Hospital in Djibouti City, the capital of the Red Sea country, to register and have examinations before a Chinese medical team conducted surgery for them. (Xinhua/Han Xu)

Members of a Chinese medical team perform eye checkup on a local patient at Peltier General Hospital in Djibouti City, Djibouti, Feb. 26, 2023. Early in the morning, about 20 people suffering from cataract gathered at two mobile eye treatment centers at Peltier General Hospital in Djibouti City, the capital of the Red Sea country, to register and have examinations before a Chinese medical team conducted surgery for them.(Xinhua/Han Xu)

A member of a Chinese medical team performs eye checkup on a local patient before his cataract operation at Peltier General Hospital in Djibouti City, Djibouti, Feb. 28, 2023. Early in the morning, about 20 people suffering from cataract gathered at two mobile eye treatment centers at Peltier General Hospital in Djibouti City, the capital of the Red Sea country, to register and have examinations before a Chinese medical team conducted surgery for them.(Xinhua/Han Xu)

Members of a Chinese medical team perform cataract operation on a local patient inside a mobile operation room at Peltier General Hospital in Djibouti City, Djibouti, Feb. 26, 2023. Early in the morning, about 20 people suffering from cataract gathered at two mobile eye treatment centers at Peltier General Hospital in Djibouti City, the capital of the Red Sea country, to register and have examinations before a Chinese medical team conducted surgery for them.(Xinhua/Han Xu)
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond (left) terminated a contract with Reggie Whitten (right) and another attorney's firm who represented the state in legal action against opioid manufacturers. "While your efforts under the Contract have certainly succeeded in enriching yourselves far beyond what you deserve, those efforts have fallen far short of delivering the results that Oklahomans are entitled to receive," Drummond wrote.
TikTok Vietnam will support small and medium enterprises and cooperatives in the digitalization of promotion campaigns for products of the national One Commune-One Product (OCOP) program. The commitment is part of a cooperation agreement signed on Tuesday between TikTok Vietnam and the Trade Promotion Center for Agriculture under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Under the agreement, TikTok will expand training courses to improve the digital transformation capacity for enterprises and cooperatives participating in the OCOP program in Ninh Binh, Thanh Hoa, Thai Nguyen, Thua Thien-Hue, and Lam Dong Provinces. It will also reactivate hashtag #DacSanVietNam on its platform to promote interactions between sellers and buyers. The diversification of trade promotion forms, including promoting products on digital platforms, is considered indispensable to contribute to expanding markets, boosting the access to buyers, and increasing economic efficiency. Nguyen Minh Tien, director of the Trade Promotion Center for Agriculture, said the center and TikTok will not only focus on food and agricultural products but also unlock the potential of typical products featuring local culture to serve tourism development. TikTok will join forces with the Trade Promotion Center for Agriculture and the Vietnam E-Commerce and Digital Economy Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade to pilot the digitalization of some traditional craft villages and support the promotion of Vietnams folklore and handicrafts on its platform. Nguyen Lam Thanh, a representative of TikTok Vietnam, said TikTok will help improve digital capacity for content production, promotion, and marketing for agricultural trade promotion centers and enterprises taking part in the OCOP program. The OCOP program, initiated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in 2008, is meant to help develop the economy in rural areas and implement the national target program on new-style rural area building, according to the Vietnam News Agency. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!

TikTok Vietnam will support small and medium enterprises and cooperatives in the digitalization of promotion campaigns for products of the national One Commune-One Product (OCOP) program.

The commitment is part of a cooperation agreement signed on Tuesday between TikTok Vietnam and the Trade Promotion Center for Agriculture under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Under the agreement, TikTok will expand training courses to improve the digital transformation capacity for enterprises and cooperatives participating in the OCOP program in Ninh Binh, Thanh Hoa, Thai Nguyen, Thua Thien-Hue, and Lam Dong Provinces.

It will also reactivate hashtag #DacSanVietNam on its platform to promote interactions between sellers and buyers.

The diversification of trade promotion forms, including promoting products on digital platforms, is considered indispensable to contribute to expanding markets, boosting the access to buyers, and increasing economic efficiency.

Nguyen Minh Tien, director of the Trade Promotion Center for Agriculture, said the center and TikTok will not only focus on food and agricultural products but also unlock the potential of typical products featuring local culture to serve tourism development.

TikTok will join forces with the Trade Promotion Center for Agriculture and the Vietnam E-Commerce and Digital Economy Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade to pilot the digitalization of some traditional craft villages and support the promotion of Vietnams folklore and handicrafts on its platform.

Nguyen Lam Thanh, a representative of TikTok Vietnam, said TikTok will help improve digital capacity for content production, promotion, and marketing for agricultural trade promotion centers and enterprises taking part in the OCOP program.

The OCOP program, initiated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in 2008, is meant to help develop the economy in rural areas and implement the national target program on new-style rural area building, according to the Vietnam News Agency.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
India imposed by far the highest number of internet shutdowns in the world in 2022, internet advocacy watchdog Access Now said on Tuesday, as the country topped the list for the fifth successive year. Out of 187 internet shutdowns globally recorded by Access Now, 84 took place in India, including 49 in Indian- administered Kashmir, the New York-based digital rights advocacy group said in a report published on Tuesday. "Authorities disrupted internet access at least 49 times in Kashmir due to political instability and violence, including a string of 16 back-to-back orders for three-day-long curfew-style shutdowns in January and February 2022," the watchdog report added. Kashmir has long been a flashpoint between India and archrival Pakistan, which claim the region in full but rule only parts. In August 2019, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi scrapped the autonomy of the Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir, splitting it into two federally administered territories. The government has since regularly imposed communications restrictions on the region on security grounds, which rights groups have condemned and described as measures to quash dissent. Militants have battled India's rule in Kashmir for more than three decades. The South Asian country blames Pakistan for stoking the revolt. Islamabad denies the claims. Although India once again led the world in internet shutdowns, 2022 marked the first time since 2017 that there were fewer than 100 shutdowns in the country, the watchdog said. Ukraine was second on the list, with the Russian military cutting access to the internet at least 22 times after Russia started their military campaign in Ukraine on Feb. 24 of last year. "During Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine, the Russian military cut internet access at least 22 times, engaging in cyberattacks and deliberately destroying telecommunications infrastructure," the watchdog said in its report. Ukraine was followed on the list by Iran where authorities imposed 18 internet shutdowns in 2022 in response to demonstrations against the government. Nationwide anti-government protests erupted in Iran last fall after the death of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini in police custody on Sept. 16 last year. Amini was arrested in Tehran by the morality police for flouting the hijab rules, which require women to entirely cover their hair and bodies. She died while in custody.

India imposed by far the highest number of internet shutdowns in the world in 2022, internet advocacy watchdog Access Now said on Tuesday, as the country topped the list for the fifth successive year.

Out of 187 internet shutdowns globally recorded by Access Now, 84 took place in India, including 49 in Indian- administered Kashmir, the New York-based digital rights advocacy group said in a report published on Tuesday.

"Authorities disrupted internet access at least 49 times in Kashmir due to political instability and violence, including a string of 16 back-to-back orders for three-day-long curfew-style shutdowns in January and February 2022," the watchdog report added.

Kashmir has long been a flashpoint between India and archrival Pakistan, which claim the region in full but rule only parts.

In August 2019, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi scrapped the autonomy of the Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir, splitting it into two federally administered territories.

The government has since regularly imposed communications restrictions on the region on security grounds, which rights groups have condemned and described as measures to quash dissent.

Militants have battled India's rule in Kashmir for more than three decades. The South Asian country blames Pakistan for stoking the revolt. Islamabad denies the claims.

Although India once again led the world in internet shutdowns, 2022 marked the first time since 2017 that there were fewer than 100 shutdowns in the country, the watchdog said.

Ukraine was second on the list, with the Russian military cutting access to the internet at least 22 times after Russia started their military campaign in Ukraine on Feb. 24 of last year.

"During Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine, the Russian military cut internet access at least 22 times, engaging in cyberattacks and deliberately destroying telecommunications infrastructure," the watchdog said in its report.

Ukraine was followed on the list by Iran where authorities imposed 18 internet shutdowns in 2022 in response to demonstrations against the government.

Nationwide anti-government protests erupted in Iran last fall after the death of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini in police custody on Sept. 16 last year. Amini was arrested in Tehran by the morality police for flouting the hijab rules, which require women to entirely cover their hair and bodies. She died while in custody.
I am delighted to be in a country so dear to France to mark the 50th anniversary of our diplomatic relations and the 10th anniversary of our strategic partnership, Olivier Becht, Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade, Economic Attractiveness, and French Nationals Abroad, attached to the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, wrote to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on the occasion of his visit to Vietnam. What a joy to be here in Vietnam, Becht said. This year will see a series of economic, cultural, and scientific events which will demonstrate the strong bond both countries share, he stated. Promoting economic cooperation This relationship is based on our long-standing cultural and historical ties, embodied by French nationals of Vietnamese descent and French nationals living in Vietnam. It is also based on a close alignment between our respective local government bodies, with, for example, the next conference on decentralized cooperation in Hanoi this April. Our institutional relations are solid. This was evident in the deep and congenial discussions enjoyed during Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinhs visit to Paris in November 2021, as well as the visit to Hanoi of the President of the French Senate, Gerard Larcher, in December 2022. There is room to improve our economic relationship. And that is what I have come to tell the Vietnamese authorities and other economic stakeholders with whom I will have the honor of meeting during my visit. These include, among others, Vietnamese investors, who are aware of Frances economic attractiveness, and representatives from French businesses in the country, 300 of which are registered at the France-Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry employing some 45,000 people, including subsidiaries of French groups, focusing on the Asian markets. Sharing common interests On Thursday I will be in Ho Chi Minh City, where I will take part in a major event, the Asia-Pacific Forum of the French Foreign Trade Advisers, along with 500 managers from companies across the region. I will make clear Frances vision for relations across the region. We are a proud partner of ASEAN, which is essential to regional stability. Strengthening our engagement with Vietnam is key to realizing our ambitions, as it is a critical Indo-Pacific and ASEAN country. The country is seeing remarkable growth that brings transformations: in 2022, the Vietnamese economy grew faster than at any point in the last quarter-century, driven by a strong industrial sector. Our common interests extend beyond the Indo-Pacific. France has key expertise to support the myriad transitions Vietnam faces: energy, demographic, environmental, and digital. During my visit, I look forward to affirming the great achievements of French companies in Vietnam. These are none better exemplified than by Sanofi, for example, in the health sector, which has been in Vietnam for 70 years and employs more than 1,000 people. I encourage ongoing projects, like Hanois metro and wholesale market and the EDF gas-fired power plant in Son My 1, as well as a host of other exciting, related ventures. I will not forget our 8,000 or so French citizens living in Vietnam, who have been through difficult times with the COVID-19 pandemic. I look forward to meeting with our elected consular representatives, representatives of French associations, and the pupils and teaching staff of the French Lycee in Hanoi. The French citizens in Vietnam are a vibrant and dynamic community, contributing actively to exchange and collaboration on economic, cultural, academic, and scientific fronts. Let us harness this potential and together realize a brighter common future. Olivier Becht's visit to Vietnam from February 28 to March 2 is part of the activities to celebrate the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations and the 10th anniversary of the strategic partnership between France and Vietnam. The visit aims to strengthen cooperation between France and Vietnam, reaffirm France's strategic importance in the Indo-Pacific region, as well as strengthen France's economic presence in the Indo-Pacific region. On Tuesday, Becht met with Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien and visited urban railway line No. 3 in Hanoi. He was scheduled to meet Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung, and vice-chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee Duong Duc Tuan on Wednesday. On Thursday, he will attend the Asia-Pacific Forum of the French Foreign Trade Advisers, meet the vice-chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, and visit Sanofi Factory. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!

I am delighted to be in a country so dear to France to mark the 50th anniversary of our diplomatic relations and the 10th anniversary of our strategic partnership, Olivier Becht, Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade, Economic Attractiveness, and French Nationals Abroad, attached to the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, wrote to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on the occasion of his visit to Vietnam.

What a joy to be here in Vietnam, Becht said.

This year will see a series of economic, cultural, and scientific events which will demonstrate the strong bond both countries share, he stated.

Promoting economic cooperation

This relationship is based on our long-standing cultural and historical ties, embodied by French nationals of Vietnamese descent and French nationals living in Vietnam.

It is also based on a close alignment between our respective local government bodies, with, for example, the next conference on decentralized cooperation in Hanoi this April.

Our institutional relations are solid. This was evident in the deep and congenial discussions enjoyed during Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinhs visit to Paris in November 2021, as well as the visit to Hanoi of the President of the French Senate, Gerard Larcher, in December 2022.

There is room to improve our economic relationship. And that is what I have come to tell the Vietnamese authorities and other economic stakeholders with whom I will have the honor of meeting during my visit.

These include, among others, Vietnamese investors, who are aware of Frances economic attractiveness, and representatives from French businesses in the country, 300 of which are registered at the France-Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry employing some 45,000 people, including subsidiaries of French groups, focusing on the Asian markets.

Sharing common interests

On Thursday I will be in Ho Chi Minh City, where I will take part in a major event, the Asia-Pacific Forum of the French Foreign Trade Advisers, along with 500 managers from companies across the region.

I will make clear Frances vision for relations across the region. We are a proud partner of ASEAN, which is essential to regional stability.

Strengthening our engagement with Vietnam is key to realizing our ambitions, as it is a critical Indo-Pacific and ASEAN country. The country is seeing remarkable growth that brings transformations: in 2022, the Vietnamese economy grew faster than at any point in the last quarter-century, driven by a strong industrial sector.

Our common interests extend beyond the Indo-Pacific. France has key expertise to support the myriad transitions Vietnam faces: energy, demographic, environmental, and digital.

During my visit, I look forward to affirming the great achievements of French companies in Vietnam. These are none better exemplified than by Sanofi, for example, in the health sector, which has been in Vietnam for 70 years and employs more than 1,000 people. I encourage ongoing projects, like Hanois metro and wholesale market and the EDF gas-fired power plant in Son My 1, as well as a host of other exciting, related ventures.

I will not forget our 8,000 or so French citizens living in Vietnam, who have been through difficult times with the COVID-19 pandemic. I look forward to meeting with our elected consular representatives, representatives of French associations, and the pupils and teaching staff of the French Lycee in Hanoi.

The French citizens in Vietnam are a vibrant and dynamic community, contributing actively to exchange and collaboration on economic, cultural, academic, and scientific fronts. Let us harness this potential and together realize a brighter common future.

Olivier Becht's visit to Vietnam from February 28 to March 2 is part of the activities to celebrate the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations and the 10th anniversary of the strategic partnership between France and Vietnam. The visit aims to strengthen cooperation between France and Vietnam, reaffirm France's strategic importance in the Indo-Pacific region, as well as strengthen France's economic presence in the Indo-Pacific region. On Tuesday, Becht met with Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien and visited urban railway line No. 3 in Hanoi. He was scheduled to meet Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung, and vice-chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee Duong Duc Tuan on Wednesday. On Thursday, he will attend the Asia-Pacific Forum of the French Foreign Trade Advisers, meet the vice-chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, and visit Sanofi Factory.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
The 5th International Exhibition and Conference for Horticultural and Floricultural Production and Processing Technology in Vietnam, or HortEx Vietnam 2023, kicked off in Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday after a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19. The three-day exhibition, set to take place until Friday, is being held at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Center in District 7. HortEx Vietnam is the largest professional meeting place in Southeast Asia for businesses and experts in the vegetable, flower, and fruit industry. Participating businesses will have the opportunity to meet and discuss directly with potential customers as well as enhance promotion and export activities for this promising market. Visitors at the 5th International Exhibition and Conference for Horticultural and Floricultural Production and Processing Technology in Vietnam. Photo: Hong Van / Tuoi Tre The exhibition attracts professionals, buyers, and visitors from Vietnam and countries from the region and around the world. It helps Vietnamese businesses access advanced technology in the world and expand their export market. Kees van Baar, the Netherlands Ambassador to Vietnam, welcomed visitors to the exhibitions European Pavilion by hosting a special ceremony on Wednesday. Vietnam is an agricultural country with great potential for development to become a major player of horticultural and floricultural products," he said. The Netherlands is delighted to support Vietnam in achieving its goals in this sector." This year, HortEx attracts nearly 200 exhibitors from 25 countries and territories, including the Netherlands, the U.S., Germany, Italy, Belgium, Spain, Thailand, Singapore, New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, and Vietnam, including the national pavilions of the Netherlands, Turkey, and Vietnam. The Netherlands is the 'partner country' for HortEx Vietnam 2023, with a record number of 33 exhibitors who showcase the best of Dutch agricultural technologies, innovations, and expertise. After the United States, the Netherlands is the biggest exporter of agricultural produce in the world. The Netherlands' agricultural sector exports some 65 billion (US$69.1 billion) worth of agricultural produce annually, according to government data. It is a global leader in cut and bulb flowers and ornamental plants, and one of the world's major commercial floral trading centers. They are also advancing intelligent greenhouses and cultivation systems for different climate conditions using intelligent software and sensors, which monitor plant growth, the threat of disease outbreaks, and water intake. Visitors at the 5th International Exhibition and Conference for Horticultural and Floricultural Production and Processing Technology in Vietnam. Photo: Hong Van / Tuoi Tre In addition to displaying products and technology at the booths, HortEx Vietnam 2023 also attracts specialized visitors with many activities taking place in parallel at the exhibition such as: Seminars and Symposium; Export Forum; The Grower Talks  Sharing Experience among Growers; Business Connection Program; International Flower and Fruit Exhibition. HortEx Vietnam 2023 expects to welcome about 8,000 trade visitors. Horticulture and floriculture are some of the most promising sectors of the Vietnamese economy and, according to experts, Vietnam has the potential to become one of the worlds largest flower exporters. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!

The 5th International Exhibition and Conference for Horticultural and Floricultural Production and Processing Technology in Vietnam, or HortEx Vietnam 2023, kicked off in Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday after a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19.

The three-day exhibition, set to take place until Friday, is being held at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Center in District 7.

HortEx Vietnam is the largest professional meeting place in Southeast Asia for businesses and experts in the vegetable, flower, and fruit industry.

Participating businesses will have the opportunity to meet and discuss directly with potential customers as well as enhance promotion and export activities for this promising market.

Visitors at the 5th International Exhibition and Conference for Horticultural and Floricultural Production and Processing Technology in Vietnam. Photo: Hong Van / Tuoi Tre

The exhibition attracts professionals, buyers, and visitors from Vietnam and countries from the region and around the world.

It helps Vietnamese businesses access advanced technology in the world and expand their export market.

Kees van Baar, the Netherlands Ambassador to Vietnam, welcomed visitors to the exhibitions European Pavilion by hosting a special ceremony on Wednesday.

Vietnam is an agricultural country with great potential for development to become a major player of horticultural and floricultural products," he said.

The Netherlands is delighted to support Vietnam in achieving its goals in this sector."

This year, HortEx attracts nearly 200 exhibitors from 25 countries and territories, including the Netherlands, the U.S., Germany, Italy, Belgium, Spain, Thailand, Singapore, New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, and Vietnam, including the national pavilions of the Netherlands, Turkey, and Vietnam.

The Netherlands is the 'partner country' for HortEx Vietnam 2023, with a record number of 33 exhibitors who showcase the best of Dutch agricultural technologies, innovations, and expertise.

After the United States, the Netherlands is the biggest exporter of agricultural produce in the world.

The Netherlands' agricultural sector exports some 65 billion (US$69.1 billion) worth of agricultural produce annually, according to government data.

It is a global leader in cut and bulb flowers and ornamental plants, and one of the world's major commercial floral trading centers.

They are also advancing intelligent greenhouses and cultivation systems for different climate conditions using intelligent software and sensors, which monitor plant growth, the threat of disease outbreaks, and water intake.

Visitors at the 5th International Exhibition and Conference for Horticultural and Floricultural Production and Processing Technology in Vietnam. Photo: Hong Van / Tuoi Tre

In addition to displaying products and technology at the booths, HortEx Vietnam 2023 also attracts specialized visitors with many activities taking place in parallel at the exhibition such as: Seminars and Symposium; Export Forum; The Grower Talks  Sharing Experience among Growers; Business Connection Program; International Flower and Fruit Exhibition.

HortEx Vietnam 2023 expects to welcome about 8,000 trade visitors.

Horticulture and floriculture are some of the most promising sectors of the Vietnamese economy and, according to experts, Vietnam has the potential to become one of the worlds largest flower exporters.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Yaron Mayer, Ambassador of Israel to Vietnam, visited Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper's headquarters in Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday. As Vietnam and Israel are celebrating the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations, the latter wishes to commemorate this milestone by educating the Vietnamese people about the two nations' cooperation in areas of education, agriculture, innovation, culture, and people-to-people exchanges, while also enhancing chances for expanded commerce and cooperation, Ambassador Mayer said. Editor-in-Chief of Tuoi Tre Le The Chu expressed his joy at observing the development of the friendship between Vietnam and Israel during the past 30 years. Tuoi Tre might serve as a bridge between the two nations, Chu said. The daily is willing to work with the Israeli Embassy in Vietnam on projects and events including youth networking, intercultural exchanges, and other chances for development by disseminating knowledge about Israel's people, culture, and nation. Chu added that Ho Chi Minh City is particularly interested in high-tech agriculture and that Israel is a powerful nation in this area. The city has planned trips to study Israel's agricultural model, and the program to send students there for training and to work in high-tech agriculture has been quite successful. Le The Chu, Editor-in-Chief of Tuoi Tre newspaper, wishes Ambassador Yaron Mayer a successful tenure in Vietnam. Photo: Huu Hanh / Tuoi Tre Young Vietnamese people are welcomed in Israel for both study and travel, according to Ambassador Mayer. In addition to boosting the two nations' respective images to draw in reciprocal tourists, the ambassador expects that a direct flight between Vietnam and Israel will soon be available. Chu is also looking forward to a direct flight between the two nations. He suggested that Israel make it easier for Vietnamese tourists to travel there by offering favourable visa policies. Vietnam is a close partner of Israel, according to Ambassador Mayer, who has intended for the two nations' relationship to prosper in the future. In December of last year, Tuoi Tre hosted its annual Pho Day celebration in northern Nam Dinh Province, in which Ambassador Mayer took part. Ambassador Mayer told Chu that the event was a great success and that all of the pho dishes were delicious. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!

Yaron Mayer, Ambassador of Israel to Vietnam, visited Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper's headquarters in Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday.

As Vietnam and Israel are celebrating the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations, the latter wishes to commemorate this milestone by educating the Vietnamese people about the two nations' cooperation in areas of education, agriculture, innovation, culture, and people-to-people exchanges, while also enhancing chances for expanded commerce and cooperation, Ambassador Mayer said.

Editor-in-Chief of Tuoi Tre Le The Chu expressed his joy at observing the development of the friendship between Vietnam and Israel during the past 30 years.

Tuoi Tre might serve as a bridge between the two nations, Chu said.

The daily is willing to work with the Israeli Embassy in Vietnam on projects and events including youth networking, intercultural exchanges, and other chances for development by disseminating knowledge about Israel's people, culture, and nation.

Chu added that Ho Chi Minh City is particularly interested in high-tech agriculture and that Israel is a powerful nation in this area.

The city has planned trips to study Israel's agricultural model, and the program to send students there for training and to work in high-tech agriculture has been quite successful.

Le The Chu, Editor-in-Chief of Tuoi Tre newspaper, wishes Ambassador Yaron Mayer a successful tenure in Vietnam. Photo: Huu Hanh / Tuoi Tre

Young Vietnamese people are welcomed in Israel for both study and travel, according to Ambassador Mayer.

In addition to boosting the two nations' respective images to draw in reciprocal tourists, the ambassador expects that a direct flight between Vietnam and Israel will soon be available.

Chu is also looking forward to a direct flight between the two nations.

He suggested that Israel make it easier for Vietnamese tourists to travel there by offering favourable visa policies.

Vietnam is a close partner of Israel, according to Ambassador Mayer, who has intended for the two nations' relationship to prosper in the future.

In December of last year, Tuoi Tre hosted its annual Pho Day celebration in northern Nam Dinh Province, in which Ambassador Mayer took part.

Ambassador Mayer told Chu that the event was a great success and that all of the pho dishes were delicious.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific has announced a giveaway of 8,800 air tickets for Vietnamese visitors to travel to the island. Within the framework of the World of Winners campaign sponsored by the Airport Authority of Hong Kong, 500,000 free air tickets will be given to tourists around the world to travel to Hong Kong. Cathay Pacific will offer 80,000 round-trip tickets to tourists in Southeast Asia, including 8,800 free tickets for Vietnam. The World of Winners is designed to promote the Hello Hong Kong campaign by the Hong Kong Tourism Board, aimed at attracting tourists back to the island after COVID-19 travel restrictions were lifted. In Southeast Asia, the campaign will be rolled out in phases, starting with Thailand, Singapore, and the Philippines on March 1, 2, and 3, followed by Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Cambodia on March 15, 16, 17, and 18. To join the campaign, participants must be a Cathay member. During the campaign period, members must visit Cathay Pacific's campaign website, sign in using their Cathay membership details, and answer three questions correctly. Each member may submit one entry only. The winners will be announced on the campaign website. I am confident that visitors will enjoy a unique and unforgettable travel experience when they return to this vibrant city with Hong Kong's diverse culture and immersive tourism offerings," said Raymond Chan, regional director for Southeast Asia of the Hong Kong Tourism Board. Aside from the campaign, Hong Kong also offers interesting experiences and attractive incentives for visitors. At least one million Hong Kong Goodies vouchers will be given away to visitors, including free drinks at participating bars, restaurants, and hotels or coupons for transportation, dining, shopping, and visits to local attractions. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!

Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific has announced a giveaway of 8,800 air tickets for Vietnamese visitors to travel to the island.

Within the framework of the World of Winners campaign sponsored by the Airport Authority of Hong Kong, 500,000 free air tickets will be given to tourists around the world to travel to Hong Kong.

Cathay Pacific will offer 80,000 round-trip tickets to tourists in Southeast Asia, including 8,800 free tickets for Vietnam.

The World of Winners is designed to promote the Hello Hong Kong campaign by the Hong Kong Tourism Board, aimed at attracting tourists back to the island after COVID-19 travel restrictions were lifted.

In Southeast Asia, the campaign will be rolled out in phases, starting with Thailand, Singapore, and the Philippines on March 1, 2, and 3, followed by Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Cambodia on March 15, 16, 17, and 18.

To join the campaign, participants must be a Cathay member.

During the campaign period, members must visit Cathay Pacific's campaign website, sign in using their Cathay membership details, and answer three questions correctly.

Each member may submit one entry only. The winners will be announced on the campaign website.

I am confident that visitors will enjoy a unique and unforgettable travel experience when they return to this vibrant city with Hong Kong's diverse culture and immersive tourism offerings," said Raymond Chan, regional director for Southeast Asia of the Hong Kong Tourism Board.

Aside from the campaign, Hong Kong also offers interesting experiences and attractive incentives for visitors.

At least one million Hong Kong Goodies vouchers will be given away to visitors, including free drinks at participating bars, restaurants, and hotels or coupons for transportation, dining, shopping, and visits to local attractions.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
SYDNEY, March 1 (Xinhua) -- In 2022, 40 cases of data breaches have affected over 5,000 Australians in the second half of the year, up by 67 percent from the 24 incidents reported between January and June, according to an official report released on Wednesday.

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner noted in its last Notifiable Data Breach Report that five of the cases hit over 1 million Australians, compared with one in the previous period.

"Cyber incidents continue to have a significant impact on individuals. Thirty-three of the 40 breaches that affected over 5,000 Australians were caused by cyber incidents," the report said.

From July to December 2022, 497 breaches were notified, registering a 26-percent increase from 393 in the first half of the year. Malicious or criminal attacks accounted for 350 notifications.

The health industry reported 71 cases -- the highest number of data breaches among all sectors, followed by finance with 68 breaches.

The report also noted that 88 percent of the breaches involved contact information, such as an individual's name, home address, phone number or email address.

"We saw a significant increase in data breaches that impacted a larger number of Australians in the second half of 2022," said Australian Information Commissioner and Privacy Commissioner Angelene Falk.

"Cybersecurity incidents continue to have a significant impact on the community and were the cause of the majority of large-scale breaches," she noted.

The commissioner called on organizations to be vigilant as large-scale compromises of personal information may lead to further attacks.

"As personal information becomes increasingly available to malicious actors through breaches, the likelihood of other attacks, such as targeted social engineering, impersonation fraud, and scams, can increase," she added.

In the second half of 2022, several data leaks broke out in Australia, with a gigantic volume of personal information compromised.

Optus, Australia's second-largest mobile network operator, said in September that a cyberattack had exposed the data of up to 10 million current and former customers, with 2.8 million people significantly affected.

In October, Australian health insurance provider Medibank reported that some 200 gigabytes of data, including names, addresses, Medicare numbers, and phone numbers of its customers, were stolen by hackers. 
Key Insights

Using the 2 Stage Free Cash Flow to Equity, China Aviation Oil (Singapore) fair value estimate is S$1.04

With S$0.97 share price, China Aviation Oil (Singapore) appears to be trading close to its estimated fair value

China Aviation Oil (Singapore)'s peers seem to be trading at a higher discount to fair value based onthe industry average of 76%

Today we will run through one way of estimating the intrinsic value of China Aviation Oil (Singapore) Corporation Ltd (SGX:G92) by taking the expected future cash flows and discounting them to today's value. We will take advantage of the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model for this purpose. There's really not all that much to it, even though it might appear quite complex.

We would caution that there are many ways of valuing a company and, like the DCF, each technique has advantages and disadvantages in certain scenarios. If you still have some burning questions about this type of valuation, take a look at the Simply Wall St analysis model.

View our latest analysis for China Aviation Oil (Singapore)

The Method

We use what is known as a 2-stage model, which simply means we have two different periods of growth rates for the company's cash flows. Generally the first stage is higher growth, and the second stage is a lower growth phase. To begin with, we have to get estimates of the next ten years of cash flows. Where possible we use analyst estimates, but when these aren't available we extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the last estimate or reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years.

A DCF is all about the idea that a dollar in the future is less valuable than a dollar today, so we discount the value of these future cash flows to their estimated value in today's dollars:

Story continues

10-year free cash flow (FCF) estimate

2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 2031 2032 Levered FCF ($, Millions) US$107.5m US$169.6m US$95.5m US$61.7m US$46.7m US$39.1m US$34.8m US$32.4m US$30.9m US$30.2m Growth Rate Estimate Source Analyst x1 Analyst x1 Analyst x1 Est @ -35.44% Est @ -24.23% Est @ -16.38% Est @ -10.89% Est @ -7.04% Est @ -4.35% Est @ -2.47% Present Value ($, Millions) Discounted @ 8.8% US$98.8 US$143 US$74.2 US$44.0 US$30.6 US$23.6 US$19.3 US$16.5 US$14.5 US$13.0

("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)

Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF) = US$478m

The second stage is also known as Terminal Value, this is the business's cash flow after the first stage. For a number of reasons a very conservative growth rate is used that cannot exceed that of a country's GDP growth. In this case we have used the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield (1.9%) to estimate future growth. In the same way as with the 10-year 'growth' period, we discount future cash flows to today's value, using a cost of equity of 8.8%.

Terminal Value (TV)= FCF 2032  (1 + g)  (r  g) = US$30m (1 + 1.9%)  (8.8% 1.9%) = US$448m

Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= US$448m ( 1 + 8.8%)10= US$193m

The total value, or equity value, is then the sum of the present value of the future cash flows, which in this case is US$671m. To get the intrinsic value per share, we divide this by the total number of shares outstanding. Compared to the current share price of S$1.0, the company appears about fair value at a 7.1% discount to where the stock price trades currently. Valuations are imprecise instruments though, rather like a telescope - move a few degrees and end up in a different galaxy. Do keep this in mind.

dcf

Important Assumptions

We would point out that the most important inputs to a discounted cash flow are the discount rate and of course the actual cash flows. Part of investing is coming up with your own evaluation of a company's future performance, so try the calculation yourself and check your own assumptions. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at China Aviation Oil (Singapore) as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 8.8%, which is based on a levered beta of 1.156. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business.

SWOT Analysis for China Aviation Oil (Singapore)

Strength

Currently debt free.

Weakness

Earnings declined over the past year.

Dividend is low compared to the top 25% of dividend payers in the Oil and Gas market.

Opportunity

Annual earnings are forecast to grow faster than the Singaporean market.

Current share price is below our estimate of fair value.

Threat

Paying a dividend but company has no free cash flows.

Next Steps:

Although the valuation of a company is important, it shouldn't be the only metric you look at when researching a company. The DCF model is not a perfect stock valuation tool. Rather it should be seen as a guide to "what assumptions need to be true for this stock to be under/overvalued?" For instance, if the terminal value growth rate is adjusted slightly, it can dramatically alter the overall result. For China Aviation Oil (Singapore), we've put together three essential aspects you should look at:

Risks: Every company has them, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for China Aviation Oil (Singapore) you should know about. Future Earnings: How does G92's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with our free analyst growth expectation chart. Other High Quality Alternatives: Do you like a good all-rounder? Explore our interactive list of high quality stocks to get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing!

PS. The Simply Wall St app conducts a discounted cash flow valuation for every stock on the SGX every day. If you want to find the calculation for other stocks just search here.

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
The transaction further bolsters BearingPoints sustainability practice and offers clients an extended range of services

AMSTERDAM, March 01, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--European management and technology consultancy BearingPoint announced it has acquired the sustainability consulting practice of Korkia, a Helsinki-based investment and advisory company. Korkia offers clients a wide range of services to address the challenges of sustainable development and has been active in this field for several years.

With the transaction, a team of highly qualified experts will join BearingPoint and complement BearingPoints offering in the field of renewable energy, resource industries and low emission traffic. Korkias sustainability and growth team is focusing on clients in the Public Sector, Consumer Goods and Retail as well as in the Utilities and Transport segments.

Kiumars Hamidian, Managing Partner BearingPoint, said: "I am delighted to welcome the sustainability team of Korkia to the BearingPoint Family. They have a strong and proven expertise in helping clients in sustainability and growth topics. With this acquisition, we are continuing to implement our growth plans in the sustainability market."

After the acquisition of Paris-based I Care Consultants in 2022, this is the second significant step by BearingPoint within 12 months to grow its sustainability team. "We see a strong demand from our clients in this field. The combined sustainability practice of BearingPoint and Korkia will deliver a comprehensive suite of services to support clients on their sustainability journey," said Kiumars Hamidian.

"Korkias expertise in the sustainability field is a perfect fit  strategically and culturally - for BearingPoint and will enhance our already excellent skills in those areas. The team will join our Finish practice but of course support all our clients across Europe from the first day on," said Eric Conway, Regional Leader of the GROW region (Finland, Sweden, Norway, Italy, The Netherlands, UK, and Ireland) at BearingPoint.

Story continues

"The consulting team will have a bright future under Bearing Points ownership. They have excellent resources to support the development and growth of the business. We will keep on focusing on renewable energy and keep moving on the same track we have been for the last few years," Pauli Maenpaa, CEO at Korkia, concludes.

About BearingPoint

BearingPoint is an independent management and technology consultancy with European roots and a global reach. The company operates in three business units: Consulting, Products, and Capital. Consulting covers the advisory business with a clear focus on selected business areas. Products provides IP-driven digital assets and managed services for business-critical processes. Capital delivers M&A and transaction services.

BearingPoints clients include many of the worlds leading companies and organizations. The firm has a global consulting network with more than 13,000 people and supports clients in over 70 countries, engaging with them to achieve measurable and sustainable success.

For more information, please visit:

Homepage: www.bearingpoint.com

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/bearingpoint

Twitter: @BearingPoint

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230228006039/en/

Contacts

Press contact

Mike Kronfellner

Global Director Marketing & Communications

Telephone: +49 89 540337070

E-Mail: mike.kronfellner@bearingpoint.com
Conservationists are celebrating a bumper year for barn owls in Northern Ireland.

Some 24 chicks fledged from eight known breeding pairs  a 500% increase in chicks from 2021  according to Ulster Wildlife.

The figures are contained in the nature conservation charitys 2022 barn owl report.

Two new nest sites were also discovered in Co Down, helping to boost the birds fragile population in Northern Ireland, which is estimated to be fewer than 30 breeding pairs.

Ulster Wildlife said barn owls badly affected in 2021, when a wet spring and hot summer resulted in a poor breeding season.

Senior conservation officer Katy Bell described the latest numbers as very positive.

After a troubled 2021, we are delighted to see the fortunes of barns owl changing and their numbers doing well, she said.

Every time we think the population is increasing, we lose some of our breeding pairs, so this years news is very positive.

Barn owls need a number of things to survive: plenty of wildlife-friendly habitat on farms with enough small mammals to eat, places to nest and roost as well as climatic stability.

All of these factors play a part in their success and a big part of our work to help this species recover is advising landowners and farmers on habitat improvements and putting up artificial nest boxes.

It is great to see this paying dividends in 2022, providing a welcome boost for our small and struggling barn owl population.

Barn owls require areas of rough grassland, wild field margins and wild bird cover in order to hunt for small mammals, like mice and rats, taking refuge there.

Last year, the charity carried out 34 landowner visits to advise on ideal barn owl habitat and erected 20 manmade nest boxes in suitable locations to replace the loss of natural nesting sites in barns, old buildings and tree cavities.

During the summer, volunteers monitored 76 nest boxes across the countryside for signs of barn owl activity, such as regurgitated pellets and whitewash droppings, as well as surveying 11 potential new breeding sites.

Story continues

Ms Bell said there is potential in 2023 to build on the success of the barn owl conservation work.

We want to find more nest sites, support more landowners and nest-minders, create a network of habitats and nest boxes and ultimately help protect and expand our population of barn owls, she said.

Sightings of these elusive birds are really important to help target our efforts so we would encourage anyone to get in touch.

Barn owl sightings can be reported online at ulsterwildlife.org/barn-owl using the charitys new sightings database.
COLOMBO, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lankan Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena sought investments from Indonesia in industries such as pharmaceuticals, electrical appliances and solar batteries as many incentives have been offered to foreign investors, according to a statement sent to media on Wednesday.

According to the statement released from the prime minister's office, Indonesian ambassador Dewi Gustina Tobing called on the prime minister on Tuesday and expressed her country's willingness to finalize a preferential trade agreement with Sri Lanka.

Quoting the ambassador, the statement said Indonesia's Eximbank had agreed to grant credit facilities for bilateral trade with 85 percent guarantee by the Asian Development Bank and the remaining percentage by Sri Lanka.

The statement said several pharmaceutical companies are willing to export essential medicines to Sri Lanka under that credit line.

The prime minister said that Indonesian industries like aluminum, rattan furniture and batik could transfer the latest knowhow to the Sri Lankan industries.

"The discussion also explored the future cooperation not only on trading but also on partnerships or joint ventures by investing in Sri Lanka. In this case, it will supply the Sri Lankan domestic market and utilize the position of Sri Lanka as an economic hub in the region," the statement said. 
HA NOI  The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has warned against the unbridled growth of durian trees in the Mekong Delta, Southeast, and Central Highlands regions.

The call comes as durian prices hit an all-time high in recent months.

The Department of Crop Production cautioned that the unchecked expansion of durian cultivation areas, disregarding planning and guidelines, could result in unforeseen consequences such as oversupply.

According to the department, several farmers have already uprooted coffee and pepper trees, converted rice fields to durian orchards, and even planted durian trees in areas with unsuitable soil and ecological conditions. These practices could ultimately impact the productivity and quality of Vietnamese durian.

In November 2022, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development issued a directive about sustainable durian and passion fruit production development.

The Department of Crop Production said that it was necessary to change the thinking of farmers towards production following the planning.

Instead of increasing the area and output, the department said it was better to standardise the production process from cultivation and harvest to processing, transportation and distribution to develop brands and increase the added value. Policies would be raised to promote the linkage between farmers and enterprises to establish the durian value chain.

Vietnamese durian has been officially exported to the Chinese market since July 2022, which helped Vietnam earn US$421 million from durian export in 2022, up 137 per cent against 2021.

The price of durian has increased sharply since then.

In early 2023, the price of this fruit skyrocketed to set a historical record of around VN200,000 per kg. Although cooling down, the price was still at a high level.

According to Tra My, the head of the Provisional Vietnamese Business Association in China, the Chinese market was increasingly demanding in terms of product quality, adding that the focus must be placed on ensuring the quality of durian.  VNS
HA NOI  It is critical to promote digitalisation in the traceability of farm produce as Viet Nam aims to build a transparent, multi-value integrated agriculture sector.

Nguyen Quoc Toan, director of the Centre for Digital Transformation and Agricultural Statistics under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, spoke at a forum held in Ha Noi on Tuesday with the support of the Australia Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR).

Toan said traceability is one of the eight key issues in the digital transformation of the sector.

Digitisation in agricultural product traceability requires the engagement and coordination of all parties, from State management agencies to enterprises, cooperatives and farmers, he said, adding that the State management in this issue aims to meet requirements of international integration, improve transparency and accountability for the sector, and increase farmers interests.

According to Toan, Viet Nam currently has around 19,000 cooperatives, 14,200 enterprises and 7,500 processing facilities in the agricultural sector, along with about 9,400 supermarkets and markets, which constitutes the Big Data part of the sector.

Therefore, the traceability of agricultural products must be holistic and specific, he stressed.

Vietnamese farm produce is now present in nearly 200 countries and territories worldwide and increasingly affirming their prestige and position in the international market. Ensuring quality, food safety and transparency of origin was a must-do for Viet Nam to move towards a multi-value integrated agriculture sector, in which digitalisation played an important role.

Mai Quang Vinh, chairman of Vietnam Digital Economy Cooperative Alliance, said that it was very easy to create a QR code for one product and it took users only a few seconds to have the information about the product. However, there would be a loophole if the management was not tight enough which paved the way for mixing with poor-quality products.

Huynh Tan at, deputy director of the ministrys Plant Protection Department, said that promoting digitalisation in the traceability of farm produce would not only protect the interest of farmers, cooperatives and enterprises but also contribute to building brands, thereby building a transparent and multi-value integrated agriculture industry.

at said that the department has built a national database on planting area codes and export packing facilities. Planting areas and packing facilities must comply with the requirements of import markets to be granted codes.

Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuc, chairwoman of AutoAgri Software Technology Company, said traceability should be developed in the direction of connection, interconnection and concentration. The application of digital technology in traceability must be flexible and appropriate to each location and each plant.

Data in agriculture is specific to each region so it must be flexible in the application of digital technology, she said. Ministries and localities needed to launch innovative programmes in the field of agricultural digital transformation.

In addition, policies must be raised to encourage farmers, cooperatives and enterprises to apply digitalisation in traceability, she said.  VNS
People at grassroots express hopes for top meetings

09:11, March 01, 2023 By ZHAO SIYUAN ( China Daily

It was a chilly and snowy morning in early February, and worried that villagers suffering from high blood pressure might lose their balance and slip in the snow, Gao Jie, the only physician in the village of Tongchuan in Hebei province, started his busy workday with home visits and health checks.

About a three-hour drive from Beijing, the village has been relying on Gao's steady service for 24 years.

Ahead of the two sessions in early March  the meetings of China's top legislature and top political advisory body  China Daily reached out to ordinary people like Gao in different sectors of society to hear what they expect from the top-level meetings.

Gao's daily health check service aims to cover as many villagers as possible, since most of them still refuse to see a doctor unless obvious symptoms start to develop.

Many young people in rural areas are seeking better career opportunities in cities, so it might be difficult to find someone willing to take over from him in his retirement, said Gao, 50.

Asked what he expected from the two sessions, Gao said he would like to see preferential healthcare policies that would help rural areas win back young talent from cities.

"It would be nice if my fellow villagers can get taken care of at our clinic, instead of going to faraway cities for medical service," said Gao.

Feng Xiaotao is one example of a young person going against the prevailing trend of heading to major cities. He returned to his hometown of Miaowa, a village in Luoning county, Henan province, to take over running an orchard from his father.

Feng has big ideas and big plans for the orchard, and he wishes to reach out to as many customers as possible, way beyond the number that could be reached through the traditional and small-scale agricultural business model pursued by his father.

With help from the local government, he set up a cooperative that over 20 local households have signed up for so far. The cooperative provides a wide range of support to its members, including purchases of agricultural goods and expanding online sales.

Feng, who regards himself as a "new farmer" connecting technology and trends, said he wants to see greater publicity given to preferential policies related to the employment of young people in rural areas.

Meanwhile, in Zhejiang province, the nation's export and import hub, people are also thinking about how they can expand their business opportunities, by winning more orders in the global marketplace.

Those sentiments echo the findings of a recent survey conducted by China Daily and its 10 global media partners, showing that economic topics are receiving worldwide attention in the run-up to the two sessions.

More than 20 percent of the survey's around 8,000 respondents chose GDP growth as their most-watched China-related topic, followed by trade.

As the world keeps its focus on the second-largest economy's post-pandemic performance, Zhejiang has started warming up for what looks like a robust year for business.

This confident outlook is reflected by the round-the-clock operations at Yanwen Express, a Hangzhou-based company that helps importers and exporters with cross-border logistics.

Cong Zheming, the company's manager, said it processes millions of courier receipts every day.

Since the Chinese New Year holiday, the company has been handling 30 percent more cargo than at the end of last year, Cong added, pointing out that the rising volume of cargo being handled by the company is an indication of the increasing optimism of many of its customers.

Cong said he hoped to see pro-business policies unveiled at the two sessions.

"I hope the government can introduce policies that take the corporate sector's needs into account so that everyone can proceed with their business planning with confidence," said Cong.

Spring is also a busy season for college graduates. An offline job fair, the first of its kind in Beijing after the pandemic, offered more than 3,000 vacancies in early February.

Li Zixuan, who is trying to secure a human resources position, said she had to think about more than just a job in order to have a decent life in a megacity like Beijing.

As one of the millions of college graduates diving into the competitive job market, Li, a postgraduate student at China University of Mining and Technology, said she would welcome policies such as housing subsidies that would help make the life of newcomers a bit easier in the nation's big cities.

While some people are eager to live in Beijing, others are moving out, such as 87-year-old Ye Shounan, who left the city he had been living in for decades to move to an affordable nursing home in Sanhe, a city in neighboring Hebei province.

The nursing home, operated by Yanda International Health City, is a trial project aimed at serving retirees in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei.

While Ye and his peers said they were satisfied with the daily care and medical services offered at the nursing home, Li Haiyan, Yanda's vice-president, said the country's wellness industry, which is still in its early stages, is not yet ready for a rapidly aging society.

To provide better service to elderly people, Li said there should be policies to help increase the number of skilled care workers.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
KUALA LUMPUR, March 1 (Xinhua) -- A Malaysian fisheries department boat was reportedly missing on Wednesday with search and rescue efforts being launched to locate the vessel and its four crew members, authorities said.

The vessel, belonging to the Johor state fisheries department, could not be contacted and failed to be traced after heading out to sea at 12:45 p.m. Tuesday, Johor state's maritime director Nurul Hizam Zakaria said in a statement, adding that search and rescue efforts had been launched at 8:00 p.m. on the same day.

The country's Agriculture and Food Security Minister Mohamad Sabu said that search-and-rescue operations have since commenced with the help from Singapore and Indonesia.

"Search-and-rescue operations are being led by the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency and involve our marine police, Singapore's police operations command center, and Indonesia's national search and rescue body," he said. 
Journalist Nguyen Bong Mai has recently inspired many people in Ha Noi with her photo exhibition titled Dam Song Mot Cuoc oi Ruc Ro (Dare to Live a Brilliant Life), which features her journey throughout Viet Nam to gather information and images on traditional costumes of ethnic groups.

The journey was made in 99 days, between February 2 and June 6, 2022. Mai drove herself through 10,000km, 44 provinces and 80 villages. She has collected images of 55 costumes of 35 ethnic groups.

Le Huong chats with Mai on the journey and its results.

How did you come up with the idea of the journey? Why did you decide to travel alone rather than in a team?

I think women are limited by too many prejudices. Whatever they want to do may be frowned at and people will say: you cannot do this, cannot do that.

I want to prove that women can do everything provided that they want to. Nothing can bind them: money or time.

I joke that this journey is my journey to quit my children. I have raised up my children for the past 20 years alone. Now I think I rely on my children too much. My children told me: you can get married once more so that we dont have to worry about you anymore. It means that they are worrying for me now and I may hinder them to do things. So Im trying to live independently from my children.

My next purpose is that in five years, I can take a trip around the world. At that time, I and my two children will be three independent people.

Did you find any difficulties during the trip?

Actually, I was fairly lucky. I did not find any obstacles at all. I learnt how to fix my car when it breaks. I learnt when to start driving and when to stop to avoid difficult situations. A week ahead of the journey, I practised how to film, put data in the computer, recharge the devices. But I failed to do those tasks in the first week of the journey as things did not happen as I expected. I had too many things to pay attention to, not only those tasks.

Why have you chosen traditional costumes to focus on?

I have chosen ethnic culture to focus on, and I narrowed it down to womens costumes. I read books for three months before going and marked out the map I should follow.

Each detail in a traditional costume has its own meaning. For example, Dao Tien ethnic group embroiders a dog on their costume. They have handed down a legend saying that when the first people of the group moved from China to Viet Nam hundreds of years ago, they forgot to bring along a white scarf, which was very important to women. They asked a dog to swim back to get the scarf. Then, they embroidered the dog image on the costume to pay tribute to the dog.

You may see a bun of hair on the heads of women of the Si La group. The bun is passed down to women of the next generation as a treasure. No one can touch the bun, only the women themselves.

Pa Di women wear a scarf on top of their heads.

If I did not spend time to learn, I would never know.

Inside the Mong group, there are five different sub-groups. Each of them has different costumes.

Phu La people in ien Bien wear different costumes to Phu La people in Lao Cai Province.

I advise people who want to go throughout Viet Nam like me that they should start from the south up to the northern mountains. Because many interesting things will be found in northern mountains. The trip will get more and more interesting.

You have met many people? Who impressed you the most?

Every person I met on the journey brought a valuable story. I have chosen some stories, some people to feature in the photo exhibition.

Im a Buddhist, so I believe in fate. I believe that Mua, a 9-year-old paralysed girl of the Mong ethnic group in Ha Giang was waiting for me in her poor house. No one had come to rescue her in the past 10 years. When I was taking photos of her brother at the door, I heard voices of a girl from the empty house. I stepped in and found out she was there lying alone in a chair. The room was smelly as she could not move to the restroom. Their parents were working in the field. The first sentence she asked me: Who you are? I understood that she had no trouble with her brain and she just could not move.

There are many unlucky children even in our city. Yet I believe my fate led me to meet Mua. Her mom gave birth to her when she was only 17, and lacked proper knowledge to take care of the baby. Mua got a fever and convulsions at 10 months old and then could not move. The family is so poor and they have not been able to take Mua to the hospital to check up.

I have called for support for Mua. ong o Hospital has committed to offer free treatment and meals for Mua and her mom. The treating process may take very long, several years, depending on Muas efforts and her familys efforts as well, until she can move properly. Doctors will combine both eastern and western medicine to treat her disease. Her brain has not been damaged, according to doctors.

I have set up a fanpage on Facebook titled Cung Mua Khon Lon (Growing Up with Mua) so that people can follow and support her. I will let the hospital host the charity fund. Ill help spread Muas story. I hope many more people support her during the process.

Please tell me about your next plan!

I plan to publish two books later this year. A book on traditional costumes with sketches, not photos like those in this exhibition. The producing team includes very young people of my daughters age. I want them to look at traditional culture from their young angles. They have the right to create things from materials I have.

The second book will be on my journey. There are many incidents that I want to share: the process to learn more about myself and about human love that I received during the trip.

I will release them in August, near my birthday.

After this costume project, I will start on traditional music melodies. I have collected 49 folk melodies during the trip. VNS
HA NOI  Viet Nam has always paid attention to protecting legitimate interests of foreign investors, including Samsung, National Assembly (NA) Chairman Vuong inh Hue told Park Hark Kyu, President and Chief Financial Officer of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., of the Republic of Korea (RoK).

During his reception for Park in Ha Noi on Tuesday, the top legislator highly valued the business results of Samsung's subordinate companies in Viet Nam, and congratulated its successes in the Southeast Asian nation.

He affirmed that the government and relevant agencies of Viet Nam have paid special heed to removing difficulties and obstacles, and considering proposals of Samsung through periods.

The NA Chairman spoke highly of Samsungs investment and development of supporting industrial partners in its ecosystem in Viet Nam; and the establishment of a R&D centre in the capital city Ha Noi. He suggested the firm continue to invest and develop semiconductor technology in the country.

Hue expressed his hope that Samsung will continue to pour long-term investment in the country, affirming that the Government of Viet Nam always focuses on improving the business and investment environment and enhancing competitiveness, and creates the most favourable conditions for investors to do business in Viet Nam.

Regarding the global minimum tax rate of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Hue affirmed that relevant agencies of Viet Nam have been proactively studying the issue, thus bringing it into the country's law, especially accelerating the revision of the Law on Corporate Income Tax.

He emphasised a number of principles when completing the legal framework and reviewing additional incentives for investors, saying that Viet Nam must comply with OECD's global minimum tax commitment to ensure the publicity, transparency, and fairness.

For his part, Park said Samsung has overcome all difficulties since 2008, proving that with the active cooperation of Viet Nam, Samsungs investment in the Southeast Asian nation was a sound decision.

The RoK firms export turnover reached about US$65 billion in 2022, and its accumulative investment in Viet Nam has amounted to $20 billion, he said.

Samsung has inaugurated its Research and Development Centre (R&D) worth $220 million in Viet Nam, Park said, adding that the firm will make every effort to develop it into a global development centre.

The Vietnamese NA and Government have built a good investment environment, and Samsung can continue to achieve successes through its long-term investment in Viet Nam, Park said.

Samsung will do its best to contribute as the largest and long-term investor in Viet Nam, he stressed.  VNS
Van Nguyen

Fishing is what used to keep Nguyen Thi Ngas family afloat during the Mekong Deltas flood season in the southern province of An Giang.

We always filled buckets with fish, but now there are very few, said the 44-year-old woman with a sigh. Money earned from selling the catch is barely enough to raise her three children and pay their tuition.

As climate change, upstream hydropower dams and intensive agriculture threaten traditional farming and fisheries in the Mekong Delta, women like Nga are struggling to find stable alternative livelihoods. Experts highlight their traditional gender roles and limited education and capital as hindrances to their ability to break free from a vicious cycle of vulnerability and precarity.

The rice fields in Nhon Hoi Commune, where Ngas family live, used to be full of fish migrating from upstream during the flood season that lasts from September to November every year.

In 2000, the wild freshwater fish catch in An Giang stood at 91,270 tonnes, according to the country's General Statistics Office, but 21 years later, that number has plummeted to 14,800 tonnes, driving thousands of fisherfolk out of their traditional livelihood.

Those in the fishing industry are not alone. From upstream down to the coast, farmers of the Mekong Delta have been grappling with climate change. Rising temperatures and sea levels have increased production costs, decreased productivity and killed certain types of breeds and plants, according to Le Anh Tuan, deputy director of the Research Institute for Climate Change under the Can Tho University.

The risks are compounded by human activities, like the construction of dikes for intensive rice farming that resulted in the loss of floodplains and, consequently, a drop in fish populations, said Tran Anh Dung, director of An Giang Province's Fishery Department. Floodplains are a feeding zone for fish with an abundance of nutrients as well as a shelter for juveniles against predators.

But the impacts of the many hydropower dams along the Mekong River are even more concerning than climate change, said Tuan. River-borne sediments get trapped behind upstream dams starving the river of nutrients and contributing to a fish stock collapse in the region.

We cant immediately adapt to the sudden loss of sediment or do anything about the sudden change in water flow. The sediment flow in the Mekong River is affected by hydropower dams release of water, which operators decide based on the electricity demand, he said.

Over the years, residents have tried different ways to adapt to the changing climate, with mixed results. They have shifted from double to triple cropping, switched from rice to shrimp farming, and turned to other job sectors or migrated to the southeastern region where factory work is in high demand.

However, the adaptation capability varies by gender. Tuan said men generally have more liberty when opting for migration to cope with climate change than women, who are often burdened with traditional caregiving roles.

Adapting to uncertainties

Bui Thi Dung, a resident of An Phu District, has been fishing since she was a teenager. Now at the age of 57, she still goes out at 1am to catch fish during the flood season.

Life used to be a lot easier for her when she had a husband and two children and made VN400,000-500,000 (US$17-21) a day from fishing. But things go harder after she lost her husband and daughter to an illness. When fish stocks started dwindling in the region, her son was forced to seek work far from home.

I dont have the option to retire because I simply cant afford it, said the woman, who now earns about VN100,000 ($4.20) a day during the flood season.

Rural residents like Dung, whose livelihoods depend on the river, are some of the most severely impacted by the combined threats of hydropower dams and climate change. Despite this, their voices are often not heard in decision-making processes.

Poor women in the Mekong Delta are never consulted about the planned location for hydropower dams and the impacts on their life, researcher Tuan said.

Residents have been noticing the unusual water flow in the river and the decline in the fish population, but their limited access to information has left them in the dark about the causes.

Dung, Nga, and other women interviewed for this story believe that overfishing is to blame for the dwindling numbers of fish. However, the General Statistics Office figures show that the number of fishermen in the province has actually plummeted in recent years.

Still, overfishing is a real issue because of declining floodplain areas caused by dike developments for rice intensification, according to Dung, the provinces Fisheries Department official.

Researcher Tuan said: When the affected communities are not fully aware of the problems root causes, there is no chance of participation in the decision-making process.

This lack of participation puts vulnerable communities, including women, in increasingly precarious situations where all they can do is to react to, rather than influence and prepare for, decisions made from above, according to the researcher.

An Giang Province has established protected areas, limiting fishing activities and supporting residents in shifting to other livelihoods as solutions to dwindling fish stocks. The authorities aim to reduce the residents' sole dependence on fish catch and promote aquaculture farming, which is expected to ensure food security and alleviate poverty in the region.

As a result, the total aquaculture area in An Giang grew from 1,300 hectares (ha) in 2000 to 2,000ha in 2021. The provinces aquaculture production increased more than sixfold in the same period, from 80,156 to 507,436 tonnes.

Despite nearly 30 per cent of those working in An Giang's fisheries in 2016 being women, many face barriers to transitioning to aquaculture farming.

A study on women in aquaculture has highlighted challenges such as a lack of expertise and experience and limited access to capital and technical support. In Viet Nam, gender stereotypes and the perception of men as the primary breadwinners and decision-makers of the family also limit women's participation in farm work.

According to Dung, the fishery official, the transition from fishing to aquaculture in An Giang has been limited by the lack of access to land and capital. As a result, many locals have turned to breeding eels and frogs, which can be fed with small fish or shrimp caught from rivers or rice fields. However, more lucrative species like catfish require significant capital to raise successfully.

Those most affected by the capital barrier are often the poorest households, who cannot afford to invest in large-scale aquaculture or rent land, Dung said.

Migrants' dreams crushed

The Mekong Delta, Viet Nam's renowned "rice bowl," is currently facing a crisis, leaving its farmers to adapt to keep their heads above water continually. The delta's residents are grappling with many challenges, including sea level rise, land subsidence, increasing salinity, and shifting water regimes.

Many are stuck in a precarious position, unsure whether to stay or leave their hometown. Both options carry their own set of challenges.

Two years ago, Nga and her husband moved 300 kilometres away to ong Nai Province to find jobs, seeking a more secure and stable life. But as the COVID-19 crisis hit, migration put them into a difficult situation.

Life in the city was even harder, Nga said, adding that she struggled to find work as company orders plummeted due to the pandemic. Nga then worked in the informal sector before eventually joining the mass exodus of workers returning home in 2021 as the lockdowns halted local life.

ang Thi Phuong, a 33-year-old resident of Phu Hoi Commune, found life in the city difficult too. She found a job at a phone accessory production company in District 7 in HCM City, making VN7-8 million in daily eight-hour shifts plus four hours overtime.

After getting married and having her first child, the job no longer suited Phuong.

My day was completely occupied with unpaid care work at home.

According to Nguyen Phuong Tu, visiting research fellow at the University of Adelaide, traditional care roles put many female workers in precarious situations.

Their care duties make it hard for women to meet the intensive working requirements and follow strict disciplines in the manufacturing industries, Tu said.

Low wages, high living costs and lack of equal access to public services in destination localities are also factors driving female migrant workers out of the job market, according to the researcher, who has conducted research projects on labour law, precarious employment, law and social change, and gender in Viet Nam since 2014.

Many find that it is not worth it when they work on very low wages and pay high childcare fees. So they would rather quit the job and stay home to look after their children, which means they have to rely on their husbands income or other sources while uncertain about their future job prospects, she said.

Tu points out that while jobs in manufacturing industries can help families lift themselves out of poverty, they are unstable and vulnerable to external shocks, as has become clear during the past few years since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Like Nga, Phuong decided to return to her hometown in An Giang during lockdown in 2021. Now she works part-time in the market selling fish and works part-time in a hair salon in the morning to earn extra money.

The Mekong Delta region has the highest out-migration rate in the country, which stood at 44.8 out of 1,000 in 2019. Some 1.3 million people have migrated from the Mekong Delta in the last decade, and An Giang accounted for nearly a third.

In Phu Hoi Commune, official statistics show that about 35 per cent of households have at least one family member working far from home in industrial factories in other localities, such as Binh Duong, ong Nai, and HCM City.

Walking across the small villages along the Hau River, it is not rare to catch sight of households consisting of only older adults as their children have migrated.

While remittances and the transfer of goods can contribute to rural development and the welfare of families, external shocks such as COVID-19 and the recent drop in global demand can leave migrant workers and their families in a precarious position.

For many women like Nga and Phuong who have not reaped the benefits of migration, the uncertainties in rural and urban settings have placed them in a vicious cycle of vulnerability.

The only way I have to adapt is by spending less, Nga said.  VNS

This story was produced with support from Internews Earth Journalism Network.
HA NOI  Viet Nam has become Norway's largest seafood consumer in Southeast Asia with a total import output of about 50,000 tonnes last year.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung uc Tien revealed the data at a seminar Viet Nam  Norway: co-operation opportunities in aquaculture and seafood export held on Tuesday afternoon in Ha Noi.

Tien also said in May 2021, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Norway and Viet Nam, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries of Norway and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Viet Nam already signed a Letter of Intent with aims to strengthen and develop co-operation in the marine aquaculture industry.

However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the two countries have not been able to implement cooperation activities according to the content of the Letter of Intent, he said.

The seminar was a great opportunity for the two sides to discuss, exchange and concretise cooperation opportunities mentioned in the Letter of Intent, specifically in large-scale marine aquaculture and and seafood industry, he said.

Speaking at the seminar, South-East Asia director of the Norwegian Seafood Council Asbjrn Warvik Rrtveit said in Viet Nam, 86 per cent of the population eats fish or seafood at least once a week, and the country has some of the highest seafood consumption in the world with 37kg per person.

Last year, Viet Nam imported a total of 55,207 tonnes of seafood from Norway which was an increase in volume of 8 per cent, and a increase in value of 52 per cent. The most important products contributing to these numbers is salmon, mackerel and red king crab, he said.

Growth is not only important to the Norwegian seafood industry but is also extremely important for the Vietnamese seafood industry, he said.

Therefore, he hopes that the two countries can work together at both Government and business levels, to further increase the export of seafood for mutual benefits, he said.

There are more than 10 major Vietnamese importers of Norwegian seafood at the moment, directly contributing to those impressive numbers, he said.  VNS
ATHENS  At least 26 people were killed and another 85 injured after a collision between two trains caused a derailment near the Greek city of Larissa late on Tuesday night, authorities said.

A fire services spokesman confirmed that three carriages skipped the tracks just before midnight after the trains  one for freight and the other carrying 350 passengers  collided about halfway along the route between Athens and Thessaloniki.

"At least 26 people have been found dead so far," spokesman Vassilis Vathrakogiannis told a press conference, adding that efforts to rescue people still trapped were still ongoing.

"Eighty-five people were injured and transported to nearby hospitals."

Greek media are calling the crash the "worst train accident that Greece has ever known".

About 150 firefighters and 40 ambulances were mobilised for the response, according to the Greek emergency services. Cranes and mechanical personnel were also deployed to try to remove debris and right overturned vehicles.

"The majority of passengers have been taken to safety," Vathrakogiannis said.

"The operation to free trapped people is underway and is taking place in difficult conditions, due to the seriousness of the collision between the two trains," he added.

According to public television station ERT, one of the train cars caught fire after the collision and several people were trapped inside.

'Stained with blood'

One passenger named Lazos told the newspaper Protothema that the experience had been "very shocking".

"I wasn't hurt, but I was stained with blood from other people who were injured near me," he said.

On the local media site Onlarissa, a young woman said through tears that the train "was stopped for a few minutes when we heard a deafening noise".

Another clearly shaken passenger told Skai television that "the windows suddenly exploded. People were screaming and were afraid."

"Fortunately, we were able to open the doors and escape fairly quickly. In other wagons, they did not manage to get out and one wagon even caught fire," he added.

An emergency government meeting was organised after the crash, and Greek health minister Thanos Plevris has gone to the scene while interior minister Takis Theodorikakos supervises the response from a crisis management centre.

According to Skai, the region's governor, Kostas Agorastos, announced that "more than 250 passengers were transferred to Thessaloniki by bus".

The two hospitals near Larissa have been requisitioned to accommodate the many injured, according to the fire services, while military hospitals in Thessaloniki and Athens are also "on alert" in case they are needed.  AFP
Lee Chong Min, founder and managing partner of CMIA Capital Partners Singapore, and Nina Yang, CEO of Surbana Jurong (SJ), shared their interest in developing a high-tech agricultural eco-urban area in Ho Chi Minh City.

Min and Yang explained at a meeting with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh that the total investment could reach $1.1 billion for the eco-urban area, located in Cu Chi district. Min said he hoped the Vietnamese government would approve the adjustment of planning and the investment policy, officially allowing CMIA to be named the investor and developer.

Vietnam wants $25 billion of foreign capital in its agriculture sector by the end of the decade

At a previous MoU ceremony attended by CMIA and SJ and leadership of Cu Chi Peoples Committee, investor representative Ken Chan said the area would include functional locations for food processing and logistics, and expect to bring about a turnover of $2 billion annually and more than 50,000 jobs.

With our capacity and experience, we believe that this project will bring about a new motivation for developing Cu Chi and Hoc Mon districts as the first such high-tech area in Vietnam, Chan said.

Prime Minister Chinh said that Vietnam welcomed CMIA and SJ and was committed to supporting the investors. The government also directed the building of synchronised transportation projects to connect Cu Chi district and nearby Binh Duong province to boost the districts socioeconomic growth.

Once the venture is officially approved, it will contribute to realising the target of attracting $25 billion of foreign investment in the agricultural sector by the end of the decade. The target is part of a draft strategy for international cooperation in agriculture and rural development, which was unveiled earlier in February at a special conference.

As part of the strategy, policymakers will focus on improving Vietnams agricultural sector; strengthening partnerships, and building a stronger image of farmers and rural areas.

Speaking at the conference, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan emphasised the increasingly important role of international cooperation in the context of globalisation and integration, which contributes to attracting foreign-invested capital.

In the first month of 2023, Vietnam attracted five foreign-invested projects in agriculture with a registered capital of $5.43 million. In 2022, the figure was $80 million, which is deemed a tiny contribution to the total foreign-invested capital inflow of $27.71 billion for the country.

Additionally, there are a number of shortcomings that the country must urgently address to realise its goal. Truong Hung, vice chairman of the board at Nutifood, told VIR that the agricultural sector still consists of barriers that delay capital from overseas.

Enterprises are concerned about the lack of a skilled labour force, which is limited in its professionalism and language ability. Although they offer high salaries, recruitment is difficult, Hung said. The current poor logistics system will cause inconvenience for delivering agricultural products, simultaneously pushing up the selling prices of products. I have made business trips to visit many countries and territories in the region, and I have seen that the expenses for storing and transporting agricultural products are higher than those in Thailand and Singapore, due to the incomplete logistics infrastructure.

He complained that many provinces such as Long An, Can Tho, Vinh Long are focusing on fostering industry via expanding industrial park planning. This is a waste of fertile soil source for the agricultural sector, Hung said.

In late 2022, the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development built a plan to increase the effectiveness of foreign cooperation in the agricultural sector. The project emphasised the importance of developing a concentrated material area, land expansion, and the building of criteria to filter high-quality investors. The institute also proposed to revise legal requirements to allow foreign-invested enterprises to directly buy agricultural products from farmers, instead of buying via intermediate parties.

The pride of agricultural backbone Vietnams agriculture has reaped many achievements last year. Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan writes about how the sector will continue sailing forward in the new year.
After several months of assessments, earlier in February the Ministry of Transport (MoT) reported to Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha on the possibility of transferring Thanh Son and Bien Hoa military airports into dual-use for civil activities, and proposed to add these airports into official planning.

Last September, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh established a research and evaluation team to look at the feasibility of converting Thanh Son and Bien Hoa airports, referred to as Working Team 1121.

Deputy Minister of Transport Le Anh Tuan said that based on the research results, the units have proposed to supplement the planning of the two airports in the master plan for the development of the system for 2021-2030, with a vision to 2050.

Thanh Son, a military airport in the south-central province of Ninh Thuan, could see 1.5 million passengers annually by 2030 and three million by 2050, while the Bien Hoa airbase in the southern province of Dong Nai is aiming to reach five million passengers this decade, and 10 million passengers a year by 2050.

Currently, the peoples committees of both provinces are looking to convert these two airports under the public-private partnership (PPP) method to submit to the prime minister for consideration, said Tuan.

If approved, the national airport network will be planned under the hub-and-spoke model, with two main hubs in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Vietnam expects to have a total of 30 airports by 2030, with 14 for international flights and 16 airports for domestic only. In addition, the draft plan still keeps the Haiphong international airport project at Tien Lang district, which was approved in 2011.

The assessment of the working team has been deemed positive, and the MoT has received proposals from 10 localities to add new airports into the national master plan (see box).

The main purpose of Working Team 1121 was to determine the needs and models of civil aviation, and preliminary assess technical factors on the possibility to build an airport. The MoT emphasised that the assessment results thus far are only preliminary and do not meet fully the requirements to establish any airport.

The MoT has directed the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam and relevant units to support localities that have proposed to supplement new airports in the planning, and preliminarily assess the possibility of establishing such airports.

Another important task of Working Team 1121 was to study and revise PPP ventures at existing airports in Son La, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Quang Nam, Lam Dong, and Can Tho provinces to submit to the government for consideration.

As of February, only four of the six localities have completed plans on private investment engagement and exploitation of the airports. The MoT is gathering the opinions of the working team as a basis for localities to complete procedures.

Deputy Minister Tuan said, Due to the complexity and progress of implementing the projects, the MoT proposes to the prime minister to consider an extension of the deadline for reporting research results by localities.

Based on working results, the MoT has received opinions from nine out of 10 localities on issues surrounding new airport planning. In particular, Son La Peoples Committee proposed adding Na San airport to the planning system and converting Moc Chau airport into a specialised airport to develop tourism.

Dang Quoc Khanh, Secretary of Ha Giang Party Committee, said that in order to exploit the potential and strengths of the locality, the transport system there needs breakthrough development.

Besides developing the road system connecting to the highways in the region, the construction of an airport in Ha Giang is essential to ensure both economic development and national defence and security, Khanh said.

Pham Huu Son, general director of Transport Engineering Design Incorporated, said the need for planning transport infrastructure for the socioeconomic development of localities is justified, and that these localities have huge potential to develop the aviation market.

However, in order to ensure the feasibility of the planning, it is necessary to continue to study, survey, and evaluate closely the economic and technical factors, said Son.

Construction kicks off at Tan Son Nhat International Airport T3 The construction of the third terminal at Tan Son Nhat International Airport is expected to be completed within 24 months and run pilot operations in late 2024.

Korean Air allowed to fly to Lam Dong Korean Air  the flag carrier and the biggest airline of the Republic of Korea (RoK) - has been permitted to operate irregular flights carrying passengers between Incheon and Lien Khuong airport in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong from January 4-24.

Task force to push construction of Long Thanh International Airport Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has asked for the establishment of a government task force led by Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha to supervise and speed up the construction of Long Thanh International Airport.

Contractors concerns over Long Thanh Airport's largest bidding contract Interested contractors are concerned about the practicability of the largest bidding contract for Long Thanh International Airport due to the tight construction deadline.
SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile (Wuling), manufacturer of Chinas bestselling electric vehicles (EVs), is to work with TMT to roll out budget cars. The Wuling HongGuang Mini EV will be assembled at TMTs factory in Van Lam district in the northern province of Hung Yen, with a capacity of 30,000 vehicles per year. The model will officially receive orders and have its selling price revealed in the next few months.

Budget e-vehicle plans could provide VinFast competition

TMT said it has the exclusive authority to manufacture, assemble, and distribute the EV models in Vietnam and that Wuling would support its manufacturing by providing auto parts to ensure quality and delivery. The Mini EV will be a new option within the lower price range of many Vietnamese customers because of its small size, stylish appearance, and flexible space with four seats.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, TMT chairman Bui Van Huu said that the company hoped to make a breakthrough with the introduction of the Mini EV, to launch the segment in Vietnam and make it simpler for people to own environmentally friendly and secure vehicles.

The model is a battery-powered car that has been manufactured by Wuling since 2020. In January 2022, sales in China passed 500,000 units, becoming the best-selling EV in that country.

The Mini EV boasts features including air conditioning, power windows, a stereo system, and storage compartments. Standard safety features include anti-lock brakes, tyre pressure monitoring sensors, and rear parking sensors. Early models do not include a driver airbag, but later models reportedly will.

After success in China, Wuling EVs entered Indonesia in 2022 as an early strategy to dominate the Southeast Asian market. Wuling cars sold there are assembled on-site with a localisation rate of up to 40 per cent. The automaker included an in-car voice assistant in Indonesia and priced the minicar in the range of $16,000-20,000, targeting the countrys middle-class looking for a second vehicle.

In Vietnam, in August 2021, the Wuling Mini EV was imported by Thai Hung Company in the northern province of Thai Binh under temporary import for re-export and for research and development of EVs.

Vietnams current top car company VinFast was established in 2019, and by 2021 it had completely shifted production to EVs. Its models are aimed at the mid-range and luxury segments, while Wuling is positioned in the low-cost segment and is currently deemed to have the cheapest price in the world for e-cars.

VinFast holds a great advantage as its charging stations cover all cities, provinces and national highways across the country. VinFast also boasts deeper and wider promotional and incentive machines.

It is difficult for Chinese cars to convince the higher customer segment because the initial price positioning is already very low, and over time it will not be able to improve quickly even though there are now models that are as expensive as European or Japanese cars, said Nguyen Van Thiet, a dealer in Hanoi.

It took nearly 10 years for Vietnamese people to be convinced to purchase models like the Zotye Z8 T700, BAIC Beijing X7, and Brilliance V7, thanks to their strong design and features. The Wuling HongGuang may be a much more difficult sell, he added.

Thiet pointed out the Mini EV does not yet have a fast charging feature, meaning it could take around nine hours to fully charge. The car is only suitable for families with a parking space and with short travel distances during the day, and those who can charge overnight.

Vietnam is becoming an attractive destination for foreign automobile manufacturers. During 2021-2022, Cevo from South Korea unveiled plans for a mini EV to sell in Vietnam about $5,000, but so far, no partners have been finalised.

A series of other big brands of the Chinese auto industry such as Chery and BYD are also currently exploring plans to cooperate with Vietnamese enterprises to produce such cars.

The key aspect of producing EVs is the infrastructure system of dealers, maintenance facilities, and charging stations. But currently, even top brands like Hyundai and Kia do not have a network of charging stations in Vietnam, making market entry complex.

VinFast stands alone in current e-car arena The domestic e-vehicle market in Vietnam is showing signs of taking off, but some foreign manufacturers may be slow to latch onto what could be an attractive market.

Efforts needed to encourage travellers to use e-vehicles A legal framework, support policies and a concerted infrastructure system are needed to encourage people to switch to using electric vehicles, according to Director of VinFasts charging station development centre Vu Thang.
The transaction is expected to result in a modest regulatory capital benefit to Citi.

Citi and UOB first announced the transaction in January 2022 as part of a broader sale agreement covering consumer banking across Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia, though excluding the banks institutional businesses. Sales in Malaysia and Thailand were completed on November 1, 2022.

Citi and UOB first announced the transaction in January 2022 as part of a broader sale agreement.

Since announcing intentions to exit consumer banking across 14 markets in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Mexico as part of its strategic refresh, Citi has signed sales agreements in nine markets and has now closed sales in six markets including Australia, Bahrain, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand, in addition to Vietnam.

The group previously announced wind-downs of Citis consumer business in China and Korea, and the wind-down of its overall presence in Russia is in progress.

Citi Asia Pacific CEO Peter Babej said, Todays announcement is positive for our customers, our colleagues and our firm. Citi remains deeply committed to Vietnam, and we will invest further to support institutional clients locally and across our global network. We thank former employees and customers for their commitment and support, and wish them continued success.

Citi Legacy Franchises CEO Titi Cole said, The completed sale of our consumer business in Vietnam puts us one step closer to delivering on our divestiture mandate as part of the firms strategy refresh. We are confident that our former employees have a bright future at UOB, and we look forward to seeing them thrive.

PVcomBank and Vemanti Group sign inclusive digital banking cooperation agreement On March 21, the PVcomBank and Vemanti Group from the US signed a cooperation agreement on developing and providing a digital banking platform tailored for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME).

Citi named among top 50 FIEs in Vietnam Citi was among the winners at the 21st Golden Dragon Awards ceremony that was jointly held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Vietnam Economic Times magazine in Ho Chi Minh City on April 8.
HCM City  Dutch enterprises have suggested Ho Chi Minh City improve its investment environment, develop transport infrastructure and connectivity, hold trade promotion activities, fight climate change and improve its urban living environment.

Chairman of the municipal Peoples Committee Phan Van Mai (R) and Dutch Ambassador to Vietnam Kees van Baar. (Photo: VNA)

They made the suggestions during a dialogue with the citys leaders chaired by Chairman of the municipal Peoples Committee Phan Van Mai on February 28.

Chairman of the Dutch Business Association Vietnam Phuc Nguyen advised the city to accelerate administrative reforms to create favourable conditions for Dutch investors to do business there.

Dutch firms also proposed the municipal authorities deal with traffic congestion, especially on roads connecting with seaports and nearby cities and provinces; control air and noise pollution and flooding as well as develop a green and friendly environment.

Dutch Ambassador to Vietnam Kees van Baar said apart from capacities of dealing with challenges in climate change, flooding prevention, environment and wastewater treatment, Dutch enterprises have advantages in hi-tech, digital transformation in logistics, transport infrastructure, green and renewable energy.

According to the diplomat, the city needs to have sustainable planning schemes to improve living quality and better serve citizens.

Mai expressed his belief that construction of several urban railway routes will be completed before 2035. The city will focus on the development of green and circular economy, digital transformation and logistics, he said, adding that there remained room for bilateral cooperation in digital transformation.

HCM City always welcomes investors and aims to become a hub of economy, services, logistics, digital transformation and innovation, he said, therefore, the city's leaders always listen to feedback from the business community and are committed to taking practical actions to address any obstacles faced by investors, thus creating the best possible conditions for Dutch businesses to invest in the city.

The dialogue took place at a time when Vietnam and the Netherlands are celebrating the 50th founding anniversary of diplomatic ties. The Netherlands is not only an important partner of the city in climate change but also its biggest European trade partner and investor.

Last year, two-way trade between HCM City and the Netherlands hit 1.6 billion USD. The Netherlands is the fifth biggest investor in the city with 183 projects worth over 5 billion USD.

Dutch firms plan to invest in shipbuilding and logistics projects Many Dutch groups have the intention to invest in shipbuilding and logistics projects in Vietnam to help the Southeast Asian country become a logistics centre and international freight forwarding hub.
TOKYO, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Japan's benchmark Nikkei stock index closed higher Wednesday as robust Chinese manufacturing data bolstered investor sentiment with machinery-linked issues here outperforming.

The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average gained 70.97 points, or 0.26 percent, from Tuesday to close the day at 27,516.53.

The broader Topix index, meanwhile, added 4.53 points, or 0.23 percent, to finish at 1,997.81.

Local brokers said the market mood was buoyed by China's manufacturing purchasing managers' index Wednesday showing that the world's second-largest economy's manufacturing activity in February grew at the fastest pace in a decade.

According to China's National Bureau of Statistics, the manufacturing purchasing managers' index soared to 52.6 in February, compared to median economists' forecasts for the index to reach 50.5, market analysts here highlighted.

"The figure came out stronger than expected, and this shows the resilience of the Chinese economy that impacted the Japanese market," Koichi Fujishiro, a senior economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute, was quoted as saying.

As the data and expectations for manufacturing activity to continue to expand in China, domestic machinery-oriented issues were snapped up.

These included construction machinery manufacturer Komatsu rising 2.9 percent and Hitachi Construction Machinery leaping 4.4 percent.

Nikkei heavyweight Fanuc and fellow industrial robot maker Yaskawa Electric both found favor on the data, advancing 2.1 and 4.3 percent, respectively.

Semiconductor issues were also in demand, with chip-testing equipment maker Advantest closing up 2.3 percent, while chip-manufacturing equipment maker Tokyo Electron ended 1.8 percent higher.

But heavily-weighted component Fast Retailing, operator of the Uniqlo clothing store chain, weighed on the market, retreating 1.1 percent.

Drugmakers were also sold, with Chugai Pharmaceutical down 2.1 percent and Daiichi Sankyo slipping 1.5 percent.

Shipping firms also came under pressure, with Nippon Yusen dropping 1.7 percent, while Mitsui O.S.K. Lines lost 1.5 percent.

By the close of play, machinery, nonferrous metal and iron and steel-linked issues comprised those that gained the most.

The turnover on the third trading day of the week came to 2,788.33 billion yen (20.54 billion U.S. dollars). 
Most of the investment is coming from existing companies, but some are new to Vietnam, said Guido Van Rooy, the groups executive director.

We want to come to Vietnam because our customers have a presence here. We have already provided some services and want to build a facility in Ho Chi Minh City, said Henk Jan Jonge Poerink, senior vice president global operations of BESI.

A Dutch delegation met with Ho Chi Minh City's authorities on February 28

According to DBAVs Orange Business Book, Climate Fund Managers plead to invest approximately $190 million to create energy from waste, treat and reuse wastewater, and supply clean water. Meanwhile, Damen Song Cam Shipyard is building plans to invest an additional $25 million in Haiphong City.

It is estimated that the total accumulated investment from the Netherlands to date is $5 billion.

The economic powerhouse of Ho Chi Minh City is considered a focal point for Dutch investment. The vast majority of DBAV's members hold offices in the city or the surrounding provinces.

Dutch businesses have much expertise to offer in terms of electric vehicles (EVs) and EV charging. However, Ho Chi Minh City needs to provide policy support to make EV adoption feasible, such as a rapid build out of charging stations and offers of parking incentives, priority access to city centres, and toll-free transit for EV drivers, said Phuc Nguyen, DBAV's vice chairman.

To create a favourable investment environment, he suggested extending visa exemptions to 30 days for citizens from all EU member countries, solving the issues of work permit applications and renewals for expats, and leveraging technology to enhance administrative procedures.

He also urged the city to invest in transportation infrastructure, improve air quality, and control the noise, all while incentivising environmentally friendly measures such as energy-efficient buildings, recycled packaging, and eco-friendly materials.

FrieslandCampina steadfast in nourishing a better planet Dutch-backed FrieslandCampina is pursuing sustainable development as one of its key drivers to success in Vietnam, with its own sustainability strategy embracing four key priorities.

Netherlands to help Vietnam with smart city development Vietnam is pushing on ambitious plans to develop smart cities towards green and sustainable growth with the assistance of the Netherlands, heard a seminar jointly held by the Ministry of Construction and the Dutch Embassy in Vietnam in Hanoi on March 29.
Hoang Van Tang, CEO of Development Investment Construction JSC (DIG), unveiled that despite continual decreases in the stock price amidst unfavourable market conditions, the company is maintaining its plan to issue 100 million shares to existing shareholders at a proposed price of $6.50 apiece.

On February 28, the ticker was closed at around $5.90, falling about 80 per cent compared to its peak in January 2022.

In its initial plan, DIG envisaged selling 100 million shares at $13 each.

The capital hike plans of many firms have changed due to the unfavourable stock market conditions

After the ticker price was pulled down following the general market trend, the companys management decided on raising the sale volume to 150 million shares at approximately $8.70 apiece, before scaling the volume down to 100 million shares again with a price of $6.50 each.

The company aims to use the total proceeds approximating $65.2 million from stock issuance to feed its Long Tan urban resort project based in the southern province of Dong Nai.

Besides the sliding ticker price, DIG also saw less upbeat business results in 2022 as the company counted just $83 million in revenue and $8.5 million in pre-tax profit, equal to 38 per cent and 10 per cent of the full-year revenue and profit targets respectively.

Another major challenge for DIG  as well as other real estate firms  at this time are the legal bottlenecks that cause projects to slow. Finalising procedures alone is very time-consuming, which leads to missed opportunities, said Tang.

To fast-track their plans, many firms have considered lowering ticker prices, reducing stock volumes, or presenting feasible plans on capital usage to convince shareholders.

Meanwhile, Tuan Huynh, CEO of Cienco4 (C4G), said that in the third quarter last year, C4G temporarily postponed its stock issuance plan due to market factors.

Currently, the company has resumed its stock sale and is seeking State Securities Commission (SSC) approval to issue more than 112 million shares to existing shareholders at a 2:1 ratio with a value of $4.30 apiece.

If successful, C4Gs charter capital will reach $146.5 million from nearly $97.7 million currently.

Capital supplementation is crucial at this point. The company will use part of the proceeds to pay for subcontractors and suppliers while simultaneously enriching our working capital, said Huynh.

On March 10, Vietnam Container Shipping JSC (VSC) will present its plan to issue more than 121 million stocks to existing shareholders at a 1:1 ratio and a proposed face value of $4.30 apiece.

If successful, the companys charter capital would be doubled to surpass $97.8 million.

VSC would use part of the proceeds to acquire a ruling stake in a seafood firm based in Haiphong, and the remainder to complement its capital sources.

Several other companies have postponed their capital hike proposals, including Lam Dong Pharmaceutical JSC and Thu Duc Housing JSC. They have also unveiled plans to resume the stock issuance process and submit them at the general shareholder meetings this year.

To fast-track their plans, many firms have considered lowering ticker prices, reducing stock volumes, or presenting feasible plans on capital usage to convince shareholders.

According to an SSC executive, the body welcomes businesses stock issuance plans after they transparently complete the necessary procedures.

The legal documents have been relaxed, allowing firms to issue shares below the face value. More importantly, they need to present viable issuance and capital usage plans that are approved by their shareholders, said the executive.

Securities firms falling short of business plans Securities firms are witnessing gloomy business results in the year to date due to unfavourable market developments.

Power price hike on the cards in Vietnam Despite Electricity of Vietnams (EVN) intention to increase energy rates to rebalance its budget for 2023, the status of coal-fired power does not yet seem to be declining.
Sanofis recently-built warehouse in Long An province applies modern tech in its operations, Photo: Sanofi

Remy Rioux, CEO of the French Development Agency (AFD), last week came to Vietnam to discuss the energy transition here. Vietnam has a strong ambition in terms of energy and low-carbon transition, and I am honoured and proud of the partnership we have built with Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) over 20 years, he said, while confirming AFDs commitment to provide the expertise and financing that Vietnam needs under the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP).

The experience of Vietnam, EVN, and its public banks will be useful in preparing for a new financial pact to be announced by the President of France in Paris in June, he added.

The AFD has been operating in Vietnam since 1994 and has financed almost 100 projects for a total of 2.3 billion ($2.44 billion) in various sectors, including energy, transport, infrastructure, and agriculture.

The JETP will mobilise an initial $15.5 billion of public and private finance over the next 3-5 years to support Vietnams green transition. Public financial contributions, including those of the AFD, will be made available to the tune of $7.75 billion.

Vietnam has promised to expand renewable energy with measurable goals, limit the use of fossil fuels, and reduce annual emissions from the electricity sector by 30 per cent.

Besides the public sector, the surge in French business investment in Vietnam indicates a positive sign in a brightening outlook for the domestic economy. Energy company GreenYellow in November successfully acquired the domestic subsidiary of Qair  a French independent renewable energy producer  as well as 70 per cent stake in Binh Dinh solar farm, a 49.5MWp asset on Vietnams central coast. The acquisition highlights its commitment in the Vietnam and Southeast Asian market, where GreenYellow operates more than 250MWp of renewable energy projects.

The following month, CMA CGM Air Cargo, the cargo airline division of the CMA CGM shipping group, was reportedly seeking a flight licence in Vietnam. The French corporation has invested in Vietnam since 1994 through its joint-venture partnership with Sowatco and Mitsui on the VICT Terminal in Ho Chi Minh City. Patric Bergamini, vice president of business development at CMA CGM, emphasised that the company was dedicated to helping Vietnams economic growth and providing logistical solutions.

According to the France-Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI France Vietnam), Vietnam is an attractive business environment with a consistent track record of high performing economic and market growth, as well as ample workforce of young and skilled labourers.

Its business-friendly policies stand out among its Southeast Asian country peers and encourages a healthy influx of foreign capital, CCI France Vietnam said, adding that many French companies have chosen to set up in Vietnam for its domestic market and/or to support their regional development.

Indeed, Vietnam benefits from an ideal strategic location in the heart of ASEAN, close to major Asian markets. Its coastline, with direct access to the worlds main maritime routes, offers favourable conditions for trade, CCI France Vietnam said.

In January, French Trade Minister Olivier Becht told Nikkei Asia that the country would encourage businesses to spread their operational bases to Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, in an effort to reduce their supply chains exposure to China.

Becht proposed moving semiconductor and component manufacturing to ASEAN and several African nations, which he considers to be geopolitically stable, as well as Europe. Specifically, he wants to persuade businesses in important sectors like semiconductors and medicines to relocate their manufacturing facilities and broaden their pool of vendors.

As of January 20, the newly-registered capital, capital contributions, and capital from stake acquisitions involving French investments reached $3.77 billion for 662 valid projects, according to Vietnams Ministry of Planning and Investment.

Nicolas Warnery, French ambassador to Vietnam, told VIR that the milestone anniversaries of France-Vietnam relations this year is a good opportunity to look back and assess what the two countries have accomplished in trade and investment and reflect on ways to further develop our economic exchanges.

As the Vietnamese economy is getting increasingly sophisticated, many French companies are starting to see Vietnam as a base to design new products or conduct research and development. Others also set up offices to support the countrys digitalisation and tap into its pool of IT talent, Warnery said.

The CCE APAC 2023 Forum will be held on March 1-3 at the Intercontinental in Ho Chi Minh City, and will allow French companies to better understand the framework of the Asia-Pacific economic space. Nearly 500 executives will be at the event to connect and exchange their thoughts. There will be some major conferences and workshops on topics such as the energy transition, corporate social responsibility, digital healthcare disruption, and new payment and financing platforms, among others.

Numerous French entrepreneurs and corporations have set up successful companies in Vietnam over the years, including Vergers du Mekong, Annam Gourmet, Aden Services, Saint Honore, LOreal, and Sanofi.

Vietnam boosts fisheries cooperation with France, promotes agricultural potential Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan worked with leaders of the Ministry of Agriculture, Agrifood, and Forestry of France during Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinhs official visit to the European nation.
At the launch of the 2023 Whitebook from the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (EuroCham) earlier in February, development of seaport access was among the top discussions.

Investors seek seaport access improvements

Hans Kersten, vice chairman of EuroChams Transportations and Logistics Sector Committee, said they highly appreciate the Ministry of Industry and Trades plans for improvement of Vietnams logistics performance index, which has addressed most of the current concerns in the sector.

However, we want to focus more on the two critical areas of infrastructure access to the main ports and the development of quality distribution and logistics centres, Weber said.

Connectivity between Lach Huyen International Gateway Port in the northern port city of Haiphong and beyond should be improved further with focus on inland waterway development, railroads, and highways to the surrounding provinces. The access channel to Go Gia in Cai Mep should also be upgraded to allow larger vessels.

The sector committee represents dozens of companies interested in Vietnamese seaports and logistics, such as Bollore Logistics, Maersk, Logwin Air, DHL, FM Logistic, and Dextra Transport, among others.

Frances CMA-CGM has meanwhile sent a document to the Vietnamese government, proposing the implementation of maritime and logistics infrastructure. In particular, the company expects support at all levels for the Gemalink phase 2 expansion at Cai Mep-Thi Vai, plans for Lach Huyen International Gateway Seaport, and inland depot projects in southern regions of Vietnam.

CMA-CGM has funded port infrastructure in Vietnam since 1994, under joint ventures with Sowatco of Vietnam and Mitsui&Co of Japan.

Similarly, FM Logistic is expanding here. Last year it set up a 20,000 sq.m urban distribution centre in the southern province of Binh Duong as part of a new strategy for this decade. The French supply chain operator aims to double its revenue to 3 billion ($3.18 billion) by 2030 by focusing on omnichannel supply chain services, urban logistics, automation, and sustainability.

Like EuroChams businesses, other investors are facing challenges in their seaport investment plans. For instance, My Thuy International Port Joint Venture Company, the investor of the an international seaport costing around $619 million in central Quang Tri province, has suffered from delays since it officially kicked off two years ago because of problems in development of connections to and from Quang Tri Industrial Park. The investor has also not been handed over some land for project implementation.

At a meeting on February 21 with Quang Tri Peoples Committee, a representative of the company said, We are completing design documents to submit for approval. However, the current problems include investment resources, annual operating, and maintenance costs.

My Thuy is one of many seaports in Vietnam facing problems related to access infrastructure. According to the Vietnam Maritime Administration (VMA), Vietnam now has 45 seaports, several inland container depots, and major logistics centres. However, the country still lacks infrastructure connecting such complexes.

Economist Nguyen Duc Kien said the number of true seaports is very few. We have more berths than ports. Cai Mep-Thi Vai seaport in southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau province has no connecting railroad. And in Haiphong, Lach Huyen International Gateway Seaport has been developed but also lacks a connecting railroad.

Seaports play an increasing role in a countrys economic development. According to the VMA, more than 90 per cent of Vietnams imports and exports are transported by sea. In 2022, Vietnam recorded around $732 billion in total imports and exports  the first time Vietnam surpassed the target of $700 billion. Because of growing trade, other foreign players have engaged in building and exploiting seaports in Vietnam, including PSA from Singapore, APMT from Denmark, Hutchison Port Holding of Hong Kong, Mitsui O.S.K from Japan, and Wanhai Lines from Taiwan.

Mediterranean Shipping Company, the worlds largest container shipping company, is also interested in cooperating with Vietnam International Maritime Corporation in developing the $6 billion Can Gio Transshipment Port in Ho Chi Minh City. A pre-feasibility study of the venture is being carried out and is expected to be submitted to the Ministry of Planning and Investment in the next month or two. The investors expect to kick off the project next year and complete it in 2027.

More opportunities are there for potential investors. Vietnam is estimated to need funding of around $13 billion in seaport infrastructure by 2030 to improve the handling of container goods from the current 24 million TEU a year to 30-40 million.

Quang Ngai invests in seaport infrastructure The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of the central coastal province of Quang Ngai has proposed the provincial Peoples Committee and central agencies pay more attention to investment in infrastructure at local fishing ports.

Seaport ventures to rake in new funds The Ministry of Transport this month submitted a report requesting approval to implement the master plan for Vietnams seaport system for the 2021-2030 period.

Seaport and logistics advances get European flavour Vietnam is seeking European experiences and support in developing seaport and logistics infrastructure projects, with opportunities available for investors who are showing increased interest in the Southeast Asian market.
However, according to Minister Dien, the trade office must prioritise five goals in order to enhance the efficacy of trade promotion and increase exports.

The first goal will be to comprehend any policy changes in the host country swiftly, especially regional market policies, and offer suitable responses at both the national and corporate levels.

Second, the office should conduct research, suggest solutions, and increase the quantity and variety of commodities for export. This can be helped by cooperatively procuring raw materials for domestic industries.

Thirdly, it is vital to improve business-to-business ties between local and international companies. It will do this by encouraging domestic firms to participate in areas such as high-tech investment and assisting businesses in expanding their investment partnerships.

The fourth area to focus on will be the creation of a database for each sector that will serve as a learning resource for future generations of Vietnamese investors and businesses seeking international partnerships. According to Minister Dien, Vietnam should encourage industry groups and import-export companies to use briefings as a means of disseminating market knowledge to increase trade promotion. "Such information can assist municipalities, organisations, and enterprises in orienting their production and operations in light of the market's forecasted problems until the end of the year," he said.

Finally, the trade office should establish connections with businesses in various localities to arrange visits by international trade firms to Vietnam to tour high-growth areas for agriculture and manufacturing. Dien proposed that organisations and enterprises maintain continuous and close touch with foreign market situations and foreign Vietnamese transactions to promote and highlight the potential advantages of Vietnamese products. "Businesses may assist in promoting a product and help clients experience it directly at the embassy of the host nation," he said.

According to the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency (Vietrade), under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Vietnam's processed goods are currently exported to more than 180 countries and territories, with numerous billion-dollar export categories, such as seafood exports with a $10 billion/year turnover.

Vu Ba Phu, director of Vietrade, speaking at a conference on trade promotion last month, stated, "The world's major import and consumption markets, such as the United States, the European Union, and China, are raising criteria on sustainable practises for products, which include social, environmental, and economic aspects across the entire supply chain".

According to Phu, Vietnam's processed goods continue to export primarily raw materials through informal channels, despite the country's high level of competitiveness, and are "under strenuous market rivalry" from nations within ASEAN, Asia, and China, which is the primary customer of Vietnamese businesses.

Specifically, changes in consumer behaviour have had a detrimental impact on Vietnamese exporters, particularly the worldwide trend giving preference to plant-based protein sources as an option over animal-based protein sources, resulting in a rise in demand for such goods.

EU-Vietnam trade pact still contains vast future benefits Europe and Vietnam are looking to the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement as a way to deepen bilateral trade and investment cooperation with a focus on a greener economy and more sustainable development.

World Logistics Passport inaugurates its Hanoi Hub World Logistics Passport (WLP), a global effort founded in Dubai that aims to facilitate global commerce, has added Vietnam to its increasing list of hubs and allies.
Singapore  Singapores Senior Minister of State for Communications and Information Janil Puthucheary on February 28 told the countrys parliament that new applications of 5G technology will be used this year in its three projects on electric vehicle manufacturing, river cleaning and security surveillance.

A 5G-enabled electric unmanned surface vessel for river cleaning and inspection. (Photo source: Weston Robot)

Puthucheary said that measurements by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) confirmed that Singapore's first two 5G standalone networks have reached 95 per cent nationwide outdoor coverage, ahead of a 2025 target for nationwide coverage.

Thus, Singaporean Ministry of Communications and Information (MIC) will focus on supporting the industry to tap on 5G's capabilities to enhance their operations and service offerings.

Specially, more than a hundred 5G-enabled robots are being deployed to transport materials to vehicle manufacturing cells at a factory of the Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Centre in Singapore

The 5G technology will allow for real-time data transmission between the automated control system and the robots. It will reduce labour-intensive activity, enhance workers' safety and allow them to take on higher-value roles, Puthucheary said.

According to MIC, the partnership between IMDA and Hyundai is considered as "the world's first 5G-enabled built-to-order electric vehicle factory".

In another new project, 5G-enabled electric unmanned surface vessels will be used for river cleaning and inspection in a partnership between IMDA and Weston Robot.

Currently, river cleaning is done manually from petrol-fuelled boats. Each boat produces as much as 20 tonnes of carbon a year and costs 6,000-12,000 SGD (4.450-8.900 USD) a year to maintain.

The electric vessels can run autonomously and use video analytics to detect and clear rubbish outside of the pre-programmed paths. They will also reduce carbon emissions by 80% compared to the gasoline boats.

The MCI said the electric unmanned vessels will improve workplace safety and reduce the need to work for long hours under the sun. A single operator at a command centre will also be able to pilot multiple electric vessels.

The other project is that developed by IMDA and Mind PointEye, in which 5G artificial intelligence-enabled sentry robots and patrolling vehicles are used for security surveillance. Security guards will be able to monitor locations remotely using video analytics that provide real-time push notifications of threats.

IMDA launched the 5G Innovation Programme with an investment of 30 million SGD in 2021 to accelerate adoption and commercialisation of enterprise 5G solutions. Seven 5G projects have received grants under the programme, including the latest three.

Vietnam encourages Singapore to contribute at IPs Vietnam and Singapore are furthering their ties in green infrastructure including industrial parks with smart solutions featured by concrete initiatives.
The interview came after the Swiss government published its Southeast Asia Strategy on February 15 that defines Switzerlands objectives for 2026 within ASEAN and with each of the 11 countries in the region.

Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha met with Switzerlands Minister of Economic Affairs, Education, and Research on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year. Photo by VGP

In its plan for Vietnam, the strategy states, "Switzerland is working towards the conclusion of an FTA as a way of further improving the conditions for business and countering the existing discriminatory treatment of Swiss companies as opposed to those based in the EU."

The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) group's four non-EU countries, namely Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, constitute a population of 14 million people and the worlds ninth-largest trader in goods and the fifth largest in services.

Explaining what was meant by discriminatory treatment, the spokesperson for SECO that is responsible for FTA negotiations between Switzerland, the EFTA, and other countries said, We would like to emphasise that Vietnam does not intentionally treat Swiss companies in a discriminatory manner. The differences in treatment are a logical consequence of the preferential relations that the EU has with Vietnam that Switzerland does not yet have.

Since the EU-Vietnam FTA came into force, the majority of bilateral trade between Vietnam and the EU is liberalised and Vietnam further committed to abolish the remaining tariffs gradually on almost all imports from the EU within a 10-year period. This puts Swiss exporters at a competitive disadvantage compared to their main EU competitors, he further explained.

The strategy branded Vietnam the most dynamic economy in Southeast Asia and an increasingly important partner for Switzerland. The bilateral trade volume tripled in just six years before the pandemic, and Swiss direct investment in Vietnam doubled during the same period.

Maienfisch said, Switzerland and Vietnam look back on a tradition of strong bilateral relations and close economic ties. In 2022, our bilateral trade reached over $2.3 billion. Switzerland is also an important foreign investor in Vietnam. Swiss companies present in the nation have invested over $1.3 billion up to 2021 and created more than 17,000 jobs locally.

In addition, it can be mentioned that Vietnam is a priority country for Switzerlands economic development cooperation, which promotes market-oriented and reliable economic framework conditions and strives to enhance the private sectors competitiveness and market access, he added.

SECOs Maienfisch admitted that the strong economic relations between Switzerland and Vietnam are, however, not supported by an FTA.

"Therefore, the conclusion of an FTA with Vietnam remains a priority for Switzerland and the other EFTA States. It would strengthen our economic and commercial relationship, offer new export opportunities for our respective economic operators, and promote investment in Vietnam," he said.

The FTA negotiations between Vietnam and the EFTA started in 2012 and had passed 16 rounds by 2018 when they stalled. Several high-ranking meetings between the two sides have occurred since, reaffirming the strong political will to conclude the FTA at the earliest possible time. As yet, no substantial progress has been made.
Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)

Brussels  Vietnam can take part in the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform (ECESP) to make use of Europes initiatives and experience in this regard, according to ECESP Vice President Cillian Lohan.

By joining the ECESP, Vietnam can also set up relations with the parties to the platform to support the development of its circular economy, Lohan told the Vietnam News Agency on the sidelines of the annual ECESP conference held in Brussels on February 27 and 28.

According to the recent Circularity Gap Report, the world consumes about 110 billion tonnes of materials each year and wastes over 90 per cent, while only 7.2 per cent is circular.

Arnaud Schwartz, head of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) Sustainable Development Observatory, said circular economic activities havent been popular in the world, but they are being promoted to become the main trend of the future economy. The circular economy is an environmentally friendly one in which natural resources are renewable, metal resources sustainable, and overexploitation avoided.

To do that, it is necessary to produce goods from durable and repairable materials and can be used for a long time before they are recycled, he noted.

Launched in March 2017 as a joint initiative of the European Commission and the EESC, the ECESP has developed strongly and served as a model of reference for enterprises. It gathers a number of climate and sustainable development initiatives helping members achieve all the Sustainable Development Goals.
The Economic Opportunities and Advancement Corp. announced Tuesday it will not reopen Waco Charter School for the 2023-24 school year, citing declining enrollment and attendance projected to cause a nearly $1 million deficit within two years.

EOACs board of directors voted to return the charter effective July 31, but the school at 615 N. 25th St. will finish out the year and summer school as normal, Executive Director Dorothy Marstaller said.

Susan Copeland, a 30-year member of EOACs board who saw the charter schools beginnings, said the school opened in 1996 to address overcrowded and inadequate elementary schools serving the 76707 ZIP code, a somewhat low-income area.

According to EOACs open-enrollment proposal prior to formation, the school was forecast to have an initial enrollment of 180 students in the north central area of the city who were educationally disenfranchised during Waco Independent School Districts racial integration in the preceding decades.

Waco Charter School was among about 20 schools chartered statewide in 1996, the first year of Texas charter school initiative. In Waco, it was followed two years later by Rapoport Academy, which has since grown to three campuses. Emma Harrison Charter School in East Waco also opened in 1998 and the next year became the first charter school in Texas to have its charter revoked, with state officials citing financial mismanagement and other issues.

Other charter schools in Waco include Premier High School, Harmony Science Academy and Harmony School of Innovation.

Marstaller said enrollment has declined since the pandemic, as it has for many schools, and with districts paid based on average daily attendance, the small charter schools revenues are unable to keep up with regular operating expenses. Over the last two school years, Waco Charter Schools attendance has dropped more than 20%, and auditors project a deficit of $1 million within two years if the EOAC continues the schools operation as it is, according to a press release announcing the closure.

Based on a trending decline of enrollment and student attendance, we believe it is in the best interest of the children, parents, EOAC and the community to cease operation of the charter school at the end of this school year with a commitment to manage the transition as smoothly as possible for all concerned, board President Ben Perry said in the press release.

The cause of the attendance drop is unknown even to the Texas Education Agency, Marstaller said. She said the schools auditor shared that several other charter schools they audit are also seeing a large decline in enrollment, but no one knows where the students are moving.

Marstaller said the schools current enrollment is about 170 prekindergarten to fifth grade students. According to the Texas Education Agencys student enrollment reports, it had 223 students during the 2020-21 school year and 215 in 2017-18.

Marstaller said though the school is currently financially stable, the rate at which attendance is declining is not sustainable and EOAC must act in the long-term interest of all its programs.

EOAC, a nonprofit, was chartered by the state in 1966, formed to carry out on the local level a range of initiatives, including job training, rental/home assistance and education efforts, targeting poverty under the federal Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. EOAC operates a range of programs, some in partnership with local governments.

Whats next for students, teachers

The schools closure will not leave the area once again with inadequate elementary school coverage. Copeland said she is happy that Waco ISD now operates Dean Highland and Provident Heights elementary schools nearby. She said parents will have the choice as to where they send their students, some absorbing into nearby schools and some selecting schools that siblings already attend.

Waco ISD spokesperson Alice Jauregui said students who reside in the districts attendance zones would need to follow the normal registration process.

We would welcome these students into our schools and would be happy to provide a campus tour to parents to help provide a smooth transition, Jauregui said.

Waco Charter School will work with TEA to provide a list of available schools to the community, Marstaller said.

Its our intention to work with the families to do that, she said. Were also going to work with our employees, find possible job fairs and other avenues to help them.

In the face of a widespread teacher shortage, Marstaller said she has no worries the charter schools 35 highly qualified teachers and staff members will easily find jobs.

Our teachers have years of experience. Theyre good teachers, Marstaller said. I just feel like the surrounding districts are going to snatch them up.

She said the timing of the announcement allows teachers and parents both time to find the best opportunities and make the best decisions on how to move forward. She also said EOAC has other positions, such as in its Head Start program, that support staff could fill.

It was very difficult decision for the board of directors but they felt like ending it at this particular time would be in the best interest of the staff to give them an opportunity to transition, Marstaller said. And because EOAC has other programs its important that we look out for them as well.

Copeland said the board did not take the decision easily at all, and it was an emotional one to make. However, she said the school blossomed out of an idea and it has been fun to see it grow over the last 26 years.

Its done an amazing job at filling a need in the community.  Were just really proud of the kids, the families, the teachers and staff. Theyve done such a great job and were really proud of the work that s been done in that school, Copeland said.
Tuesday marked 30 years since the deadly federal raid at the Branch Davidian compound outside Waco that led to further tragedy.

The Feb. 28, 1993, warrant service by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms at Mount Carmel ended in the deaths of four ATF agents and six Branch Davidians, and kicked off a standoff that ended in a fire April 19, 1993, that killed 76 more people, including some 25 children.

In an annual remembrance, ATF agents had already placed a wreath of white flowers at the Waco Peace Officer Memorial in downtown Wacos Indian Spring Park by 10:30 Tuesday morning. Members of an ATF Special Response Team stood next to the wreath at parade rest during the hours ATF agents were at the Branch Davidian compound attempting to serve a search warrant 30 years ago. Every 10 minutes a new group of agents marched up to the wreath and changed positions with those who had been standing with it.

As we pass the 30th anniversary, soon there will be no one left in the agency who was there that day, said Fred Milanowski, special agent in charge of the ATF Houston Field Division. So, it is very important for the younger agents to carry forward the remembrance.

Milanowski said he has been the special agent in charge in Houston for seven years. He attends the wreath-laying every year, and Tuesdays turnout was the largest number of agents and alumni who have attended in a long time, he said.

Our agents came without malice 30 years ago to serve a search warrant signed by a federal magistrate on the Branch Davidians, and four of them (agents) died that day, Milanowski said. No one in law enforcement gets up in the morning wanting or expecting what happened that day.

Another 28 agents were injured in the 2.5-hour shootout that unfolded before a cease fire gave way to weeks of standoff, according to an account on the ATF website.

That was a tragic day for the agency, and we promised we would never forget those who died and those who were wounded, Milanowski said.

The agency holds a remembrance ceremony in Waco every year on Feb. 28, he said. Some years, the turnout is bigger than others, he said.

This year, the Waco Police Department provided a color guard, and we had a guest speaker who was there that day, Milanowski said.

Agents also played a recording of the national anthem as the Waco Police Department color guard marched out with the American and Texas flags and two officers carrying ceremonial rifles.

Mount Carmel

Outside of town, Tuesday brought the sound of birds chirping, a high of 86 degrees and a light breeze to 1781 Double EE Ranch Road, a stark contrast to the cold and rainy weather that accompanied the tragedy there 30 years before. If passersby were not looking too closely at the big black gate that reads The Branch on the outside, they may never have even noticed the unsuspecting plot.

A handful of visitors wandered the grounds of the Branch Davidian compound Tuesday afternoon, commemorating the 30-year anniversary of the ATF raid.

Not much is left behind of the original compound. An old swimming pool that once was tucked behind the main building now remains one of the only surviving pieces of foundation full of green water. Near the pool is a concrete hole in the ground with a sign that says Vault where mothers and children were gassed.

The site now features a stone memorial inside its gates honoring the Branch Davidians who lost their life in the siege and fire. Visitors are also welcome to visit a one-room chapel decorated with memorabilia on the grounds where a speaker was giving a presentation and selling merchandise Tuesday.
BARCELONA, Spain, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese mobile operators have been quick to adopt 5G technology and are reaping the benefits, Magnus Ewerbring, the chief technology officer (CTO) for Ericsson's Asia Pacific region, told Xinhua on Tuesday.

Chinese operators have been quick to adopt the technology and applied to and benefited their communities, said Ewerbring, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, adding that China had built up 5G networks with "very good coverage."

"For five years everything has gone along very well in China. All three national operators have developed very well and are now providing 5G services. We are happy to support these activities," added the CTO.

In January, Ericsson announced a new collaboration with China Mobile to jointly launch two energy-efficient 5G sites in east China's Jiangsu province and southern province of Guangdong. The move is in line with China's pledge to become carbon-neutral before 2060.

"It's a long way to 2060, but I think the goals are achievable, and I think the industry is now very much focused on it. I think mobile operators will play an important role here for society as a whole. By providing connectivity, society can be more efficient," said Ewerbring.

"By upgrading your network step by step, and making sure you have modern equipment out there, you can significantly reduce your energy needs. That will help reduce your carbon footprint," said the CTO.

He added that operators could make substantial savings by having the latest hardware and software.

"There's such great potential to bring connectivity to people, to enterprises, to be able to more efficiently do things, and I think Asia in general and China are good examples," Ewerbring said. 
On this version of Hot off the Wire:

 Conservative justices holding the Supreme Courts majority seem likely to sink President Joe Bidens plan to wipe away or reduce student loans held by millions of Americans. Chief Justice John Roberts led his conservative colleagues Tuesday in questioning the administrations authority to broadly cancel federal student loans because of the COVID-19 emergency.

 The head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says he doesnt want any stigmas attached to the Ohio community where a train derailed and spewed toxic gases three weeks ago.

 Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a bill suspending the last remaining nuclear arms treaty with the United States.

 China is pushing back at renewed suggestions the COVID-19 pandemic could have been the result of a lab leak, saying it has been open and transparent in the search for the virus origins.

 The Federal Aviation Administration says a JetBlue pilot had to take evasive action while landing at Bostons Logan International Airport when another aircraft crossed an intersecting runway.

 A former FTX executive is pleading guilty to conspiracy and wire fraud charges as part of a deal to cooperate with federal prosecutors building their case against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.

 The death toll has risen to at least 63 in the migrant tragedy off Italys southern coast after rescue crews recovered several more bodies.

 The White House is giving all federal agencies 30 days to wipe TikTok off all government devices, as the Chinese-owned social media app comes under increasing scrutiny in Washington over security concerns.

 The man credited with inventing the cellphone 50 years ago is optimistic that future advances in mobile technology can transform human lives. But Martin Cooper also is worried about the risks smartphones pose to privacy and young people.

 The Transportation Security Administration is looking to hire more than 400 new air marshals.

 The Mexican president says that electric car company Tesla has committed to building a plant in the industrial hub of Monterrey in northern Mexico.
The private developer purchasing Fairfield Lake State Park and the surrounding land plans not only to develop the property into a gated community of multimillion dollar homes, but also to sell water from the lake to the parched Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.

At a Monday hearing of a subcommittee of the state House Appropriations Committee, a Texas Parks and Wildlife official raised alarms about the impact that could have on the lake, warning that the water level could drop significantly.

When that happens, with my modeling, this lake is no longer the lake as we knew it, said Parks and Wildlife Commission chair Arch Beaver Aplin III.

At the same hearing, lawmakers also pushed Parks and Wildlife officials to explain why the department didnt act sooner to save Fairfield Lake State Park. And a representative of the developer flamed those officials for the way theyve handled the negotiation process.

I think the issue is we have negotiated in good faith, earnestly, and the favor wasnt returned, said Blake Beckham, an attorney for developer Todd Interests.

The 1,800-acre park in Freestone County, about an hours drive east of Waco and partway between Houston and the Metroplex, has been open to the public for nearly 50 years. But the state has never owned the land. Instead, the state leases the park property from the power company Vistra Corp., which is selling a total of 5,000 acres including the park and lake.

Private developer Todd Interests, based in Dallas and run by Shawn Todd, plans to transform that property into a high-end neighborhood. Vistra notified the state in February that the park lease was being terminated. The park officially closed to the public on Tuesday.

The fight is moving to the state legislature as advocates call on lawmakers to do what they can to keep the park open.

We want to expand the system, said Luke Metzger, the executive director of Environment Texas, an advocacy group. We cant allow it to contract.

He was among about eight people, including a lawmaker and Texans with ties to Fairfield, gathered inside the state Capitol on Tuesday to oppose the parks closure. They held signs calling for the park to be saved.

Youre paving paradise to put up a parking lot, read one sign made by Corrine Wilder, who grew up on the park when her father served as superintendent.

State lawmakers and residents have balked at the loss of a state park, especially in the centennial year of Texas state park system. While Parks and Wildlife officials say theyre now prepared to purchase the property, that would require Todd Interests to step back from its under-contract deal. Some lawmakers have said the state shouldve moved to buy the land sooner, in order to avoid this scenario.

The situation has set off a fierce debate about property rights and public access to the outdoors, particularly after state Rep. Angelia Orr, who represents the eastern part of McLennan County, filed a bill seeking to use eminent domain to obtain the park land.Water rights

Todd Interests plans for the property are not public, and owner Shawn Todd has mostly stayed of the public eye during the park saga.Aplin, the Parks and Wildlife Commission chairman, said during Mondays hearing that the developer had shared during conversations his plans to modify the water rights on Fairfield Lake and sell water to the Metroplex.

North Texas faces a growing need for water. The region is projected to see a water shortage of 423 billion gallons per year by 2070. Currently, the water in Fairfield Lake  which is a reservoir that was constructed in the 1960s and used to cool Vistras former power plant  cannot be piped off property and sold.

Aplin said that Todd indicated to him that his plan is to sell the currently authorized 14,000 acre-feet to the parched Metroplex. And, according to Aplin, taking that much water out of the lake would have devastating effects on the reservoir.

The agencys model says that it reduces the acreage from 2,047 acres of water to 1,200 acres of water. The modeling says it changes the shoreline from 26.8 miles of shoreline to 12.5 miles of shoreline, Aplin said. Our modeling says its not the lake that we see now.

Beckham, the attorney and Todd Interests representative at the hearing, declined to confirm or deny the developers plans with the lake water or with the property as a whole. Those plans are private, he said.

Im sure the people buying lots dont want to have an empty lake in front of their house, Beckham said at the hearing. Nobody at Todd Interests is stupid. Were gonna be good stewards, were gonna be conservationists. But our ultimate plans are, number one, undetermined at this time, and theyre confidential.

Negotiations

While Beckham wouldnt talk about Todd Interests plans for the park property, he did criticize Parks and Wildlife officials handling of the negotiations.

He said first that the state had ample opportunity to buy the property from Vistra before Todd Interests even stepped on the scene. State lawmakers have also raised this concern, the Star-Telegram previously reported, and asked why Parks and Wildlife didnt buy the property when Vistra first started talking about selling in 2018. (Parks and Wildlife officials have said the department didnt have enough funding at the time.)

Once Todd Interests entered a contract for the property, Parks and Wildlife officials had conversations with the developer about potentially stepping away from the property and letting the state step in.

Beckham told lawmakers that those negotiations were difficult and haphazard. He also accused Aplin specifically of demanding that Todd Interests walk away from its deal.

We were told to walk away from our contract rights, Beckham said. Thats not supposed to happen in Texas.

Aplin pushed back on that, saying that he was making an ask, not a demand.

Both Beckham and Aplin said Todd Interests made offers to sell portions of the property to the state, but Aplin said those offers were unreasonable. Aplin described one offer from Todd Interests where the state would pay $50 million and give the developer 250 acres, in exchange for the developer walking away from the deal.

The negotiations between Todd Interests and Parks and Wildlife officials have ended, Aplin said. And by the time of the hearing, it wasnt clear if Todd Interests would be open to restarting any type of talks.

Rep. Dustin Burrows, a Republican from Lubbock, questioned Beckham on this. Your door is closed, is that what youre telling us?

Yes, Beckham answered. But a moment later, he added to his answer. Shawn Todd and Todd Interests has great respect for the governor and for the state, and if there needs to be further talks, we will show up.

Burrows accused Beckham of saying two different things.

No, I told you the same thing, Beckham replied. If somebody wants to talk to us, well talk.

Burrows pushed Beckham again, asking if it would be a waste of time to have that conversation at this point. Beckham repeated that the developer would sit down the governor or other state leaders.

Okay, so the doors still open to buying yalls interest, Burrows said.

Ive said what I need to say, Beckham replied.

For now, Fairfield Lake State Park is closing to the public. State lawmakers said at the hearing that theyre still hopeful that something can be done to return it to a publicly accessible space.
CERESCO  It would be fair to say that The Legendary Red Rooster is the best restaurant in Ceresco. But this week, voters will get the chance to decide if its tops in Lincoln, too.

On Feb. 17, Ceresco residents and Red Rooster supporters flooded the 1400 KLIN text lines to nominate the restaurant for the radio stations annual Munch Madness tournament, which selects 64 restaurants in the Lincoln area to be placed in a March Madness-style bracket. Listeners vote for their favorites at klin.com, and the winners move on to the next round.

The Red Roosters inclusion in Munch Madness was spurred by Ceresco residents in the Ceresco NE Community Board Facebook group who thought it would be good for the community to have its new restaurant featured in the tournament.

Jack Mitchell, the host of KLINs LNK Today with Jack and Friends morning show, said Red Rooster submissions steadily flowed in as soon as nominations opened during the Feb. 17 broadcast.

Once a restaurant received enough nominations, it was added to the bracket. Mitchell said The Red Rooster met that threshold after about 45 minutes.

They were one of the first restaurants in where we were like, Okay, weve got enough, Mitchell said. We continued to get texts nominating them for, I think, five days after that.

We kept saying, Ceresco, call off the dogs. Youre good, youre in, he said.

The Red Rooster received a 15 seed  fair for a new restaurant making its first appearance in the Munch Madness tournament. In the first round, The Red Rooster will tangle with two-seed Indian restaurant The Oven. The vote begins on the morning of Thursday, March 2.

In the first 11 years of the Munch Madness tournament, it was broken up into separate categories with burger joints or pizza spots competing against each other. This years bracket is the third in which all flavors of restaurants are included in one 64-restaurant bracket.

Mitchell said the performance of restaurants from Lincolns surrounding communities in the tournament can be hit or miss. Sometimes restaurants like The Red Rooster receive a huge push for nominations but dont do as well in the first round.

But he said a restaurant in Eagle won one of the brackets several years ago, and the now-closed HoneyCreek Restaurant in Waverly won the breakfast bracket once, too.

So there is a precedent from places outside of Lincoln winning it, Mitchell said.

The Legendary Red Rooster owner Ron Tegtmeier thanked Ceresco residents for supporting the business and helping the restaurant secure a Munch Madness berth. He said hes excited about the pride the village has in the restaurant.

The amount of support Ive gotten from the community has been phenomenal, Tegtmeier said. It seems like Ceresco is behind me 100%.

The Red Rooster opened in October of last year in the building formerly occupied by Swanson Ford.

Tegtmeier also noted that very few of the restaurants in the bracket are new restaurants, and many are old staples.

Mitchell said while making a March Madness bracket out of local restaurants is a fun idea, the tournaments intent is to spread the word about small businesses in the Lincoln area.

The absolute bottom line is we hope we are helping out these restaurants and these small businesses by just making people aware of them, Mitchell said. I would hope that The Red Rooster gets some people from Lincoln that didnt know about it and had never been there and want to try it out.

Munch Madness voting began on Wednesday with the first four matchups in the brackets Northwest region. The Red Roosters showdown with The Oven is part of that regions second four competitions, making Thursday its voting day. Voters will have to register on klin.com, where they will place their votes.

The previous days results will be shared each day on LNK Today until a champion is crowned. The winner will receive kitchen equipment from tournament sponsor Nebraska Prep Equipment.

The big question is, does Mitchell think The Red Rooster has a shot?

Against The Oven, itll be close, he said. I would make The Oven a slight favorite, but not by much. Its just going to come down to how much they get out to vote for The Red Rooster.
The body of a Wahoo man was found amid the wreckage of a single-vehicle crash in Saunders County on Tuesday morning.

The crash is believed to have occurred at 10:33 p.m. Monday, when a Chevy 1500 pickup truck that was northbound on Nebraska 109 left the road near the east edge of Cedar Bluffs. The truck went into the left ditch, then became airborne over County Road X, striking a tree on private property before flipping and coming to a rest several hundred feet north of County Road X, the Saunders County Sheriffs Office reported.

Saunders deputies were called to the scene at 11:47 a.m. Tuesday when the wreckage was discovered and found the body of Jedd Lofgren, 36, of Wahoo. Lofgren, who the Sheriffs Office says was the sole occupant and driver, was ejected from the truck.

Cedar Bluffs Fire and Rescue assisted deputies at the crash scene.

Cedar Bluffs is about 50 miles west of Omaha.
WAVERLY  Earlier this month, a well house south of Waverly collapsed after a valve burst and filled the building with water.

On Feb. 4, the Lancaster County deputies responded to a call about a building spilling water near 127th Street and Alvo Road. Waverly public works staff arrived at the scene to find the citys Well No. 7 well house filling with water.

The building was built of water-tight cement blocks without rebar, and the water filled to about five feet high, according to Waverly Public Works Director Tracey Whyman, before the buildings east wall gave out. The roof caved in next.

Workers struggled for hours to find a way to shut off the water supply to the building, City Administrator Stephanie Fisher said at the Feb. 14 Waverly City Council meeting.

All of the valves to turn it off are buried under dirt, and it was dark outside, she said.

Fisher said the well had been out of service since 2021 because the wellhead had decomposed to the point that it was supplying insufficient water to the city. The well itself was turned off, Fisher said, but a water service line to the building had not been closed. A pipe elbow broke on Feb. 4, and water gushed from the service line.

The unfortunate part, Fisher said, was that the city had been working with engineering firm Olsson to rehabilitate the well, and they had submitted a final design for approval to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services the day before the incident.

The location of the well lies within Lancaster Countys corridor protection area for the future East Beltway, meaning the city will likely find a new location for Well No. 7. Mayor Bill Gerdes said the citys insurance will cover the replacement of the building regardless of where it is located. Fisher said some of Olssons plans for the well will be applicable at a new site.

So we arent completely starting at square one, but we are going back, she said.

The materials of the wellhouse still remain at the fenced-in site on Alvo Road.
WEDNESDAY, March 1, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- For decades, people turned to cigarettes in times of stress. Now, a preliminary study hints that young people are using vaping in the same way.

The study, of nearly 2,000 U.S. teenagers and young adults, found that those who vaped nicotine or marijuana were more likely to report anxiety, depression or suicidal thoughts. In fact, a majority of vapers said they'd suffered anxiety or depression symptoms in the past week, while over half had contemplated suicide in the past year.

The findings leave open the chicken-and-egg question.

"One of the challenges is in teasing out the cause and effect," said Loren Wold, a professor in the Colleges of Nursing and Medicine at Ohio State University.

Many of the young people surveyed explicitly said they'd started vaping to deal with depression -- including one-third of those who vaped marijuana.

That's worrying, Wold said, since no one would consider vaping a healthy coping strategy.

Wold, who was not involved in the study, was lead author on a recent report from the American Heart Association (AHA) on the physical health consequences of vaping during adolescence.

There's still a lot to learn, as vaping is a relatively new phenomenon, Wold said. But it's clear there are shorter-term effects, including inflammation in the airways, blood pressure spikes and increased stiffness in the arteries.

So young people who vape could be "setting themselves up for heart and lung disease," Wold said.

What's "intriguing" about the new findings, he said, is that they link vaping to mental health.

The research is to be presented at an AHA meeting in Boston. Studies released at meetings are generally considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

But the results are the latest in a line of work raising concerns about the "epidemic" of vaping among young Americans.

In 2022, over 2.5 million U.S. kids reported vaping, according to the nonprofit Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. And many were not just experimenting: Almost half of high school students who vaped said they did it on most days.

Vaping devices work by heating a liquid that produces a "vapor," allowing users to inhale nicotine or THC (the active ingredient in marijuana). But while vaping does not involve smoke, it's not benign.

Kids are still getting hooked on nicotine, and being hit with the harms of that drug (or THC), which can include effects on brain development. Plus, Wold said, the liquids in vaping devices do not -- contrary to popular belief -- produce "harmless water vapor."

When heated, those liquids actually churn out over 1,000 chemicals, he said. Whether those exposures can directly affect kids' mental health is not yet known.

The new findings are based on an online survey of 1,921 teens and young adults, ages 13 to 24. A majority said they had vaped in the past month, including 830 who said they'd vaped both nicotine and THC.

Overall, 70% of THC-only vapers said they'd had anxiety issues in the past week, as did over 60% of those who vaped nicotine or both drugs. That compared with around 40% of participants who'd never vaped.

Meanwhile, over half of all vapers had struggled with depression symptoms in the past week, versus one-quarter of nonvapers. Some -- 20% to one-third -- said depression had driven them to try vaping.

It's not clear why they thought it might help, but Wold said he suspects industry marketing is partly to blame: Kids are regularly exposed to vaping images and messaging on social media, in ways that portray it as "cool" or a way to enjoy life.

Dr. Rose Marie Robertson, deputy chief science and medical officer for the AHA, is the senior researcher on the study.

She pointed to the "broad view" -- the fact that kids today are distressed by many things, from violence to the divisiveness in civil discourse. And they need help in dealing with that, so they do not turn to substances, she said.

When it comes to vaping itself, Robertson said the problem needs to be tackled from various angles. One is regulation.

"We advocate for public policies that we have data to demonstrate will help prevent kids from taking up vaping -- things like eliminating flavored tobacco products," Robertson said. "Flavors are a big part of the reason that many kids begin to vape."

In cases where kids are already vaping, schools could potentially step in to offer help in kicking the habit. Unfortunately, Robertson said, many schools lack the resources.

Instead, she noted, students caught vaping are often suspended from school -- which may only worsen the situation.

As for parents, Wold said it's important that they talk to their kids about the dangers of vaping. And if their child is already vaping, he added, that's an opportunity to ask why -- and possibly find out they're dealing with mental health issues.

More information

Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids has more on vaping.

SOURCES: Rose Marie Robertson, MD, deputy chief science and medical officer, American Heart Association, Dallas; Loren E. Wold, PhD, professor and assistant dean, biological health research, College of Nursing, and professor, physiology and cell biology, College of Medicine, Ohio State University, Columbus; presentation, Feb. 28, 2023, American Heart Association's Epidemiology, Prevention, Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health Scientific Sessions, Boston
WATERLOO  A Waterloo firefighter pulled a man out of the swollen Cedar River near downtown Wednesday afternoon.

Details werent immediately available, but authorities said the man jumped into the river, which is running swift and high with recent rain and snowmelt, from the area of the Mullan Avenue bridge.

The current carried the man downstream, and firefighters and police officers raced to catch up to him.

At some point, the man went under a log jam in the river and emerged out the other side, said Battalion Chief Bill Beck with Waterloo Fire Rescue.

Rescue workers deployed an inflatable rapid deployment craft, which was battered around by the rough waters. Firefighters on board attempted to grab the man as he passed, but he was out of reach, Beck said.

J.D. VanDyke, an inspector for the fire department, heard the call on his radio and headed for the river.

Downstream from the 11th Street bridge, VanDyke entered the river and snatched the man. Beck waded in and the two pulled him ashore.

Rescue workers performed CPR on the man on the recreational trail running next to the river. He was loaded into an ambulance and taken to a hospital. His condition wasnt available.

VanDyke was examined at the scene and returned to duty after warming up.
WATERLOO  Filene Research Institute, an independent cooperative finance think tank based in Madison, Wisconsin, has selected Veridian Credit Union to lead a Racial Economic Equity Incubator in Waterloo.

Its one of eight incubators Filene is organizing across the U.S. in collaboration with Urban Strategies, Inc. and Native Women Lead to close the racial wealth gap. The Veridian-led incubator will focus specifically on closing gaps in homeownership and access to consumer lending with existing community partners in Waterloo, including Iowa Heartland Habitat for Humanity, 24/7 BLAC and House of Hope.

Credit unions  members of whom represent 18-22% of U.S. households  can play an important role in the push for racial equity by providing equitable, accessible and inclusive financial products to U.S. families, said Josh Sledge, senior director of incubation at Filene Research Institute.

Designing with  not for  communities of color is critical for ensuring products and policies are non-extractive. REE Incubator partnerships and the insights that come from their work will create a roadmap for others seeking to create lasting, structural change from the ground up.

According to the Federal Reserves 2019 Survey of Consumer Finance, white households hold 86.8 percent of overall wealth in the country, though they accounted for only 68.1 percent of households in the survey. By comparison, Black and Hispanic households hold only 2.9 and 2.8 percent of wealth, respectively, while accounting for 15.6 percent and 10.9 percent of the U.S. population respectively.

Veridian has historically worked with each participating organization individually to provide staff, funding and other resources for various programs.

We know that homeownership is one of the most significant tools allowing consumers to maintain financial stability and achieve long-term financial success, said LeKeisha Veasley, Veridians community inclusion strategist. The Cedar Valley is fortunate to have several strong organizations and passionate leaders working to address racial disparities in homeownership and access to credit. That gives us a great opportunity to coalesce our efforts for efficiency, effectiveness, and a chance at making a replicable recipe that could also be impactful in other communities.

Incubator participants will explore new and existing strategies in programs like Iowa Heartland Habitat for Humanitys Blueprints, 24/7 BLACs Project HOME and House of Hopes Driving Hope, as well as study other ways to move the needle in advancing economic equity. The REE Incubator is expected to take place over the next two years.

Photos: Waterloo West Girls' State Basketball vs. Ankeny Centennial Waterloo West vs Ankeny Centennial state basketball Waterloo West vs Ankeny Centennial state basketball Waterloo West vs Ankeny Centennial state basketball Waterloo West vs Ankeny Centennial state basketball Waterloo West vs Ankeny Centennial state basketball Waterloo West vs Ankeny Centennial state basketball Waterloo West vs Ankeny Centennial state basketball Waterloo West vs Ankeny Centennial state basketball Waterloo West vs Ankeny Centennial state basketball Waterloo West vs Ankeny Centennial state basketball Waterloo West vs Ankeny Centennial state basketball Waterloo West vs Ankeny Centennial state basketball
ROYERSFORD, Pa.  Continued misbehavior by teen customers has led the Chick-Fil-A restaurant in Pennsylvania to ban anyone under 16 from eating at the restaurant unless accompanied by an adult.

In a Feb. 22 post on its Facebook page, the Chick-fil-A off Buckwalter road announced the new policy and listed four major reasons for its implementation.

"Often on Saturdays and days when schools are off, we have school-age children visiting the restaurant without their parents. Usually, these children and teens are dropped off for several hours at a local bounce park and groups of them then walk over to our restaurant," the post explained.

That bounce park is Urban Air Trampoline and Adventure Park.

"When groups of unaccompanied children and teens visit our restaurant, the following unacceptable behaviors often occur:

"Volume: They are loud, and their conversation often contains a lot of explicit language. We are a family-friendly restaurant where this is not tolerated.

"Mistreatment of property: Food and trash are often thrown around and left on the tables, chairs, and on the floor. Tables and restrooms are vandalized. Decorations are stolen.

"Disrespect of employees. Employees are laughed at, made fun of and treated rudely. Employees are cursed at and ignored when they ask the children and teens to either change their behavior or leave.

"Unsafe behaviors also occur walking through the parking lot and drive-thru lanes."

Saying it wants to create a "comfortable and safe environment" for its customers, management posted that "we cannot allow this to continue. As a result, to dine in our restaurant, anyone under the age of 16 is required to be accompanied by an adult. If not accompanied by an adult, they may come in to purchase food, but must take it to go."

The managers apologized to teens who have visited and behaved appropriately: "Due to the numerous extreme behaviors of many of your peers, we must make a blanket rule covering anyone under the age of 16."

The post, which had more than 700 comments as of Monday evening, told parents they do not blame them.

"Children and teens are learning to navigate the world free from supervision and often push the boundaries. We simply can't let them push those boundaries anymore at our restaurant. We encourage you to talk to your children and ask about behaviors they have seen and perhaps participated in," the post concluded."

The top 10 fast-food restaurants for customer satisfaction 1. Chick-fil-A 2. Jimmy John's 3. Domino's 4. KFC 5. Chipotle 6. Panera Bread 7. Pizza Hut 8. Starbucks 9. Arbys 10. Five Guys
MEXICO CITY, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Tuesday accused the U.S. State Department of "interfering" in the internal affairs of other countries.

"There is currently more democracy in Mexico than in the United States," the Mexican president said at his regular daily press conference.

On Monday, the U.S. State Department issued a statement that the United States "supports independent, well-resourced electoral institutions." The statement followed an opposition march Sunday against reforms proposed by Lopez Obrador's administration to the nation's autonomous election body, including reducing its budget and electoral officials' salaries.

By issuing the statement, said Lopez Obrador, Washington showed it continues to cling to the 200-year-old Monroe Doctrine, which espouses U.S. domination over the Western Hemisphere.

The doctrine makes the United States "feel like it's the government of the world," he said. 
WASHINGTON  Conservative justices holding the Supreme Court's majority seem ready to sink President Joe Biden's plan to wipe away or reduce student loans held by millions of Americans.

In arguments lasting more than three hours Tuesday, Chief Justice John Roberts led his conservative colleagues in questioning the administration's authority to broadly cancel federal student loans because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Loan payments that have been on hold since the start of the coronavirus pandemic three years ago are supposed to resume no later than this summer. Without the loan relief promised by the Biden plan, the administration's top Supreme Court lawyer said, "delinquencies and defaults will surge."

Republican-appointed judges on lower courts so far blocked the plan. It did not appear to fare any better with the six justices appointed by Republican presidents.

Biden's only hope for being allowed to move forward appeared to be the slim possibility, based on the arguments, that the court would find Republican-led states and individuals challenging the plan lacked the legal right to sue.

That would allow the court to dismiss the lawsuits at a threshold stage, without ruling on the basic idea of the loan relief program that appeared to trouble conservative justices.

Roberts was among the justices who grilled Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar and suggested the administration exceeded its authority.

Three times, the chief justice said the program would cost a half-trillion dollars, pointing to its wide impact and hefty expense as reasons the administration should have gotten explicit approval from Congress. The program, which the administration says is grounded in a 2003 law that was enacted in response to the military conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, is estimated to cost $400 billion over 30 years.

"If you're talking about this in the abstract, I think most casual observers would say if you're going to give up that much  money, if you're going to affect the obligations of that many Americans on a subject that's of great controversy, they would think that's something for Congress to act on," Roberts said.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh suggested he agreed, saying it "seems problematic" for the administration to use an "old law" to unilaterally implement a debt relief program that Congress declined to adopt.

Neither justice seemed swayed by Prelogar's explanation that the administration was citing the national emergency created by the pandemic as authority for the debt relief program under a law commonly known as the HEROES Act.

At another point, though, Kavanaugh suggested the program might be on firmer legal ground than other pandemic-related programs that were ended by the court's conservative majority, including an eviction moratorium and a requirement for vaccines or frequent testing in large workplaces.

Those earlier programs halted by the court were billed largely as public health measures intended to slow the spread of COVID-19. The loan relief plan, by contrast, is aimed at countering the economic effects of the pandemic.

Prelogar and some of the liberal justices sought several times to turn the arguments back to the people who would benefit from the program. The administration says 26 million people have applied to have up to $20,000 in federal student loans erased under the plan.

"The states ask this court to deny this vital relief to millions of Americans," she said.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor said her fellow justices will be making a mistake if they take for themselves, instead of leaving it to education experts, "the right to decide how much aid to give" people who will struggle if the program is struck down.

"Their financial situation will be even worse because once you default, the hardship on you is exponentially greater. You can't get credit. You're going to pay higher prices for things," Sotomayor said.

Speaking on the eve of the arguments, Biden said, "I'm confident the legal authority to carry that plan is there."

The president announced the program in August. Legal challenges quickly followed.

Nebraska and other states that sued say the 20 million borrowers who would have their entire loans erased would get a "windfall" leaving them better off than before the pandemic.

The national emergency is expected to end May 11, but the administration says the economic consequences will persist.

In addition to the debate over the authority to cancel student debt, the court is confronting whether the states and two individuals whose challenge also is before the justices have the legal right, or standing, to sue.

Parties generally have to show that they would suffer financial harm to have standing in cases such as this. A federal judge initially found that the states would not be harmed and dismissed their lawsuit before an appellate panel said the case could proceed.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the three liberal justices in repeatedly questioning Nebraska's Campbell on that issue. But it would take at least one other conservative vote to form a majority.

Among those in the courtroom Tuesday was Kayla Smith, a recent graduate of the University of Georgia, who camped out near the court the night before in order to get a seat. Biden's plan would lift a burden for her mother, who borrowed more than $20,000 in federal student loans to help Smith attend college.

"It just seems kind of messed up that college is the expectation, higher education is the expectation, but then at the same time, people's lives are being ruined," said Smith, 22, who lives in Atlanta.

A decision is expected by late June.
LOS ANGELES  Emergency crews in California scrambled Wednesday to shuttle food and medicine to mountain communities stranded by back-to-back winter storms that dumped so much snow, some residents can barely see out their windows.

In San Bernardino County east of Los Angeles, around-the-clock plowing is underway but it could take more than a week to reach some areas, said Dawn Rowe, chair of the county's board of supervisors. Residents are dealing with as much as 7 feet of snow, and sheriffs' authorities have conducted 17 rescue operations to help off-roaders and skiers. Emergency crews are trying to reach residents who need assistance.

In Crestline, the entire roof of Goodwin and Sons Market collapsed Wednesday. Officials raced to salvage food that residents sorely need from its shelves.

Rowe said no one was injured.

"We know that roofs are starting to collapse," she said. "There are other businesses that will likely be affected by the weight of the snow."

The county set up a hotline for residents dealing with issues such as frozen pipes, roof problems and food shortages. The San Bernardino Mountains are a major tourism and recreation destination but also home to a large year-round population in small cities and communities around lakes and scattered along winding roads. About 80,000 people live either part- or full-time in the communities affected, said David Wert, a county spokesman.

Reprieve was on the way, with much of California expecting drier weather on Thursday. A key mountain section of Interstate 5, a major north-south highway, reopened Wednesday afternoon following closures due to snowy conditions, while blizzard warnings expired in the Sierra Nevada further north.

Anthony Cimino, a 51-year-old retiree, said he's been snowed in for about a week in the mountain community of Running Springs. He finally managed to clear his decks, but not for long.

"I woke up this morning and there was another two-and-a-half feet on them," he said. "It was kind of like Groundhog Day."

Grocery shelves were running bare of some items, like bread, and were low on eggs and milk Tuesday. Cars remained buried under snow and roads closed.

At David and Kelli Gora's home in Big Bear Lake, the snow on the roof is now touching the snow on the ground. They shoveled a small area to let their dogs go outside but are mostly hunkered down.

"We've been through some big storms  but this is just unreal," David Gora said. "I've never seen anything like it anywhere."

Recent storms across the country delayed travel, shuttered schools and overwhelmed crews trying to dig out of the snow and repair downed power lines. More than 60,000 customers were without power Wednesday morning in Michigan, which is still recovering from ice storms, and about 105,000 customers were in the dark in California, according to PowerOutage.us.

Historic snowfall, ice and cold temperatures brought much of Portland, Oregon, to a standstill, trapping drivers on roads and highways, paralyzing government services and leading to at least two suspected hypothermia deaths.

Forecasters warned a new, powerful weather system will affect most of the lower 48 states this week. Six to 12 inches of snow could fall in upstate New York, Vermont and New Hampshire, meteorologist David Roth said.

The next, larger weather system was expected to spread across much of the country Thursday, and areas such as the lower Mississippi Valley and Tennessee Valley could see heavy rain, thunderstorms and some flash flooding. The high temperatures could top 100 degrees across far south Texas, and windy, dry conditions would make for a critical risk of wildfire in parts of the Southwest for the next few days, the weather service said.

Record high temperatures were expected Wednesday along the Gulf Coast and into the Ohio Valley while the southern Plains to the mid-South braced for possible tornadoes Thursday, according to the National Weather Service.

In Southern California, two mountain highways opened and the California Highway Patrol began escorting residents back up to their homes. Anyone who ventures up from the Los Angeles area to play in the snow should take two weeks' worth of food and supplies in case they get stuck, Rowe said.

Northwest of Lake Tahoe, on the California-Nevada border in the Sierra Nevada, an avalanche struck a three-story apartment building Tuesday evening, according to the sheriff's office. No injuries were reported.

Yosemite National Park postponed its planned Thursday reopening indefinitely.

The heavy snow was expected to end in California on Wednesday afternoon after an additional 1 to 2 feet falls, the weather service said. In Arizona, snow began falling Wednesday morning as the storm moved east and was poised to dump as much as 2 feet of snow in northern Arizona by Thursday morning.

Erin Irwin used a shovel and snow blower to clear her driveway in Flagstaff. This is the 12th snow day her three children  ages 11, 14, and 16  have had since January.

"You would think my older kids would love it. I think they're all pretty much over it. They don't even want to play outside anymore," Irwin said. "The puppy is the only one who still loves the snow."
During the Great Depression, when food was scarce across the country, men incarcerated at the Anamosa State Penitentiary grew the vegetables and fruit they ate behind bars. They raised hogs, cattle and poultry, collected eggs and even made milk, cheese and ice cream.

Prison farms in Iowa and across the country not only supplied food for incarcerated people but they were the first prison vocational programs outside prison walls.

The state now is considering selling more than 4,000 acres of farmland surrounding Iowa prisons and other residential facilities to raise an estimated $32.7 million. About one-third of the land is near the Anamosa prison, and likely includes a farm on the National Register of Historic Places.

The parcel, called Farm No. 1, Iowa Men's Reformatory, was added to the National Register in 1992 and has 10 buildings, including limestone barns, a slaughter house, dining hall, granary and a root cellar from the early 1900s.

"They are gorgeous as a little cluster, a little community, of the prison life," said Beth DeBoom, a Cedar Rapids historic preservation advocate, after seeing photos of the buildings. "The time traveler in me was drawn to those photos and what was there once upon a time. I just don't know how that bodes for the future."

If the buildings were torn down "it would be a terrible loss," she said.

Farm No 1 Iowa Mens Reformatory NR (002) by Gazetteonline on Scribd

In a 68-page report, Virginia-based consulting firm Guidehouse recommends a host of ways Iowa could save money from reducing duplication of computer software to demoting local community-based corrections boards.

The consultant says the Iowa departments of Corrections and Health and Human Services own more than 4,700 acres of farmland near prisons and residential facilities, such as the Independence Mental Health Institute. Much of that land is rented out to other farmers, which brings in income of $1.7 million a year.

Guidehouse suggests Iowa sell 4,073 acres to generate $32.7 million in one-time cash the state could use to fund other operations, including changes to community-based corrections.

"Inmates employed have declined over the years given the increased technical requirements for farm operations and advanced machinery used," the report states. "For (calendar year) 2020, only 8.36 inmates were employed (FTE), a 28% decrease from the year prior. To be eligible for the program, an inmate must be low risk, and this also leads to high turnover as this population is often eligible for parole."

The consultant advises Iowa maintain buffer zones around the prisons and residential facilities of between 50 acres to 200 acres.

The Anamosa State Penitentiary, with soaring walls made by offenders from limestone quarried at Stone City, also is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The prison, Iowa's oldest still in operation, was the site of a March 2021 attack by two prisoners who killed correctional Officer Robert McFarland and nurse Lorena Schulte as part of a failed escape plan. The Corrections Department recently decided to move all maximum-security offenders out of the Anamosa prison.

The Gazette last week asked the Corrections Department several questions about the proposed land sale, including:

 Would the state require the farmland be used for farming or could buyers develop it (with any needed zoning changes)?

 Are the proposed buffers large enough for safety if there were housing developments or retail areas on the former farmland?

 Does this proposal leave enough room to build a new Anamosa prison in the same area?

The agency did not answer those questions by Friday afternoon.

Selling the farms

It's not the first time Iowa has considered selling the prison farms.

A 2002 report by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau said selling all the land or just the rented portions could boost the state's general fund. But there were downsides, including limiting opportunities for offender employment and reducing "land that is currently available for future prison expansion or replacement of existing facilities."

Iowa farmland values were averaging more than $9,000 an acre in November, up from about $7,200 in 2012, according to Progressive Farmer.

The $8,000-per-acre average price factored into the Guidehouse report does not account for costs associated with selling the land, such as real estate commissions, surveys, advertising and legal costs.

The report recommends selling 1,245 acres near the Anamosa prison.

It's unclear from the proposal which state-owned farmland would be sold, but there are at least three major agricultural swathes near the prison, Jones County Assessor's records show. This includes Farm No. 1 west of the prison complex and the State of Iowa Reformatory Dairy north of the prison.

What to do with farm buildings

If the state sells Farm No. 1, the future owner would have no restrictions on what it could do with the buildings, despite the National Register designation. That means the buildings could be torn down.

DeBoom thinks the farm buildings could be repurposed into shops or housing since the area is close to a residential area in Anamosa. There are state and federal grants available to restore National Register buildings.

Bruce Perry, president of Preservation Iowa, said he'd like every historic building to be preserved, but it doesn't always make sense.

"My suggestion would be that in some way this story is documented," he said about the history of prisoners raising their food. "If the prison farm buildings were to go away, but there is a series of plaques and kiosks that would tell the story of what that was like."

Counties with the highest diabetes rate in Iowa Counties with the highest diabetes rate in Iowa #25. Emmet County #24. Clayton County #23. Floyd County #22. Taylor County #21. Webster County #20. Marshall County #19. Louisa County #18. Muscatine County #17. Tama County #16. Black Hawk County #15. Pottawattamie County #14. Cass County #13. Monona County #12. Des Moines County #11. Decatur County #10. Montgomery County #9. Clinton County #8. Lee County #7. Appanoose County #6. Woodbury County #5. Buena Vista County #4. Crawford County #3. Wapello County #2. Wayne County #1. Clarke County
KYIV, Ukraine  Drones that the Kremlin said were launched by Ukraine flew deep inside Russian territory, including one that got within 60 miles of Moscow, signaling breaches in Russian defenses as President Vladimir Putin ordered stepped-up protection at the border.

Officials said the drones caused no injuries and did not inflict significant damage, but the attacks Monday night and Tuesday morning raised questions about Russian defense capabilities more than a year after the country's full-scale invasion of its neighbor.

Ukrainian officials did not immediately take responsibility, but they similarly avoided directly acknowledging responsibility for past strikes and sabotage while emphasizing Ukraine's right to hit any target in Russia.

Though Putin did not refer to specific attacks in a speech in the Russian capital, his comments came hours after the drones targeted several areas in southern and western Russia. Authorities closed the airspace over St. Petersburg in response to what some reports said was a drone.

Also Tuesday, several Russian television stations aired a missile attack warning that officials blamed on a hacking attack.

The drone attacks targeted regions inside Russia along the border with Ukraine and deeper into the country, according to local Russian authorities.

A drone fell near the village of Gubastovo, less than 60 miles from Moscow, said Andrei Vorobyov, governor of the region surrounding the Russian capital.

Pictures of the drone showed it was a small Ukrainian-made model with a reported range of nearly 500 miles but no capacity to carry a large load of explosives.

Russian forces early Tuesday shot down another Ukrainian drone over the Bryansk region, local Gov. Aleksandr Bogomaz said.

Three drones also targeted Russia's Belgorod region on Monday night, with one flying through an apartment window in the capital, local authorities reported. Regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said the drones caused minor damage to buildings and cars.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Ukraine used drones to attack facilities in the Krasnodar region and neighboring Adygea. It said the drones were brought down by electronic warfare assets, adding that one of them crashed into a field and another diverted from its flight path and missed its intended target.

Russia's state RIA Novosti news agency reported a fire at the oil facility, and some other Russian reports said two drones exploded nearby.

While Ukrainian drone strikes on the Russian border regions of Bryansk and Belgorod have become a regular occurrence, other strikes reflected a more ambitious effort.

Some Russian commentators described the drone attacks as an attempt by Ukraine to showcase its capability to strike deep behind the lines, foment tensions in Russia and rally the Ukrainian public. Some Russian war bloggers described the raids as a possible rehearsal for a bigger, more ambitious attack.

Andrei Medvedev, a commentator with Russian state television who serves as a deputy speaker of Moscow's city legislature and runs a popular blog about the war, warned that the drone strikes could be a precursor to wider attacks within Russia that could accompany Ukraine's attempt to launch a counteroffensive.

"The strikes of exploding drones on targets behind our lines will be part of that offensive," Medvedev said, adding that Ukraine could try to extend the range of its drones.

Russia hawks urged strong retaliation. Igor Korotchenko, a retired Russian army colonel turned military commentator, called for a punishing strike on the Ukrainian presidential office in Kyiv.

Another retired military officer, Viktor Alksnis, noted the drone attacks marked the expansion of the conflict and criticized Putin for failing to deliver a strong response.

Also on Tuesday, authorities reported that airspace around St. Petersburg, Russia's second-largest city, was temporarily closed, halting all departures and arrivals at the main airport, Pulkovo. Officials did not give a reason for the move, but some Russian reports claimed that it was triggered by an unidentified drone.

The Russian Defense Ministry said it was conducting air defense drills in western Russia.

In another development that fueled tensions across Russia on Tuesday, an air raid alarm interrupted the programming of several TV channels and radio stations in several regions. Russia's Emergency Ministry said in an online statement that the announcement was a hoax "resulting from a hacking of the servers of radio stations and TV channels in some regions of the country."

Meanwhile, satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press appeared to show a Russian warplane in Belarus that Belarusian guerrillas claimed to have targeted as largely intact.

Tuesday's high-resolution images from Planet Labs PBC showed no immediate signs of damage to the Russian A-50 early warning and control aircraft after what Belarusian opposition activists described as an attack on the Machulishchy air base Sunday outside the Belarusian capital of Minsk.

Belarusian activists supporting Ukraine alleged that the aircraft was seriously damaged. Russian and Belarusian officials did not comment on the claims.
The board said the 78-year-old prisoner still lacks insight into what caused him to shoot the senator and presidential candidate in 1968.
 Ufa artist Zalia Kudasheva painted the painting Repentance dedicated to the beginning of the NWO.

In the painting you can see the executed Saddam Hussein and Muammar Qaddafi, as well as the inhabitants of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, who personify the atomic bombing of the Americans. Behind Slobodan Milosevic, the women of Syria are depicted, and in the center of the picture in front of the procession is a man with a kneeling knee and an American flag on a T-shirt, which vaguely resembles American President Joe Biden.

According to the new owner of the painting, who bought the work, Repentance is a symbol and a signal for all generations.

We must remember that this war did not begin today or a year ago, and the history of US wars and invasions in the picture reminds us all of the lessons of history. Russia not only learned these lessons well, but also prepared homework, but not everyone likes our answers , said the new owner of the painting (he asked not to be named).

While the painting will remain in Russia. When the US elections begin, the canvas will be handed over to the next president of America, as a reminder that this picture should not have a continuation of the plot and new victims.

WtR
A survivor of six heart attacks and a brain tumor, a grumpy bear of a man, whom has declared Russia as his new and wonderful home. His wife is a true Russian Sweet Pea of a girl and she puts up with this bear of a guy and keeps him in line. Thank God for my Sweet Pea and Russia.
Weather Alert

.Warming temperatures this weekend will bring renewed snowmelt and streamflow rises, especially for snow covered terrain below about 7000 feet. Creeks that brought impacts this past week are likely to be problematic again and potentially reach higher levels, especially by late Sunday. ...FLOOD WATCH FOR SNOWMELT REMAINS IN EFFECT THROUGH MONDAY MORNING... * WHAT...Flooding caused by snowmelt continues to be possible. * WHERE...Portions of California and western Nevada, including the following areas, in California, Greater Lake Tahoe Area, Lassen-Eastern Plumas-Eastern Sierra Counties and Surprise Valley California. In western Nevada, Greater Lake Tahoe Area, Greater Reno-Carson City-Minden Area and Mineral and Southern Lyon Counties. * WHEN...Through Monday morning. * IMPACTS...Creeks and streams will be running high and fast. Low-water crossings may be flooded. Minor mainstem flooding along the Susan River, Forks of the Carson River, and the East Walker River below Bridgeport Reservoir cannot be ruled out. Anyone participating in outdoor recreation this weekend should use caution as water will be running high, fast, and potentially out of banks for some creeks and streams. The water will be extremely cold as well, quickly causing shock. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS... - http://www.weather.gov/safety/flood PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... 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. &&
(CNN)  The European Parliament on Tuesday banned TikTok from staff devices over cybersecurity concerns, meaning the Chinese video-sharing app is now barred in all three of the EU's main institutions.

"In view of cybersecurity concerns, in particular regarding data protection and collection of data by third parties, the European Parliament has decided, in alignment with other institutions, to suspend as from 20 March 2023, the use of the TikTok mobile application on corporate devices," it said in a statement.

The parliament also "strongly recommended" that its members and staff remove TikTok from their personal devices.

TikTok, which is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, told CNN "it's disappointing to see that other government bodies and institutions are banning TikTok on employee devices with no deliberation or evidence."

"These bans are based on basic misinformation about our company, and we are readily available to meet with officials to set the record straight about our ownership structure and our commitment to privacy and data security. We share a common goal with governments that are concerned about user privacy, but these bans are misguided and do nothing to further privacy or security," a spokesperson said in a statement.

"We appreciate that some governments have wisely chosen not to implement such bans due to a lack of evidence that there is any such need."

Last week, the European Commission announced it was banning TikTok from official devices, citing cybersecurity concerns.

A senior EU official in the European Council told CNN that the General Secretariat of the Council, the body that assists the permanent representatives of the EU's 27 countries based in Brussels, "is in the process of implementing measures similar to those taken by the Commission."

"It will be uninstalling the application on corporate devices and requesting staff to uninstall it from personal mobile devices that have access to corporate services," the official added. "The Secretariat continuously keeps its cybersecurity measures under review in close cooperation with the other EU institutions."

The European Commission said last week their decision to ban TikTok applies only to devices overseen by the EU's executive branch.

"This measure aims to protect the Commission against cybersecurity threats and actions which may be exploited for cyber-attacks against the corporate environment of the Commission," it said in a statement.

A TikTok spokesperson told CNN in a statement at the time that it had contacted the commission to "set the record straight and explain how we protect the data of the 125 million people across the EU who come to TikTok every month."

Previously, TikTok had disclosed to European users that China-based employees may access EU user data. The company also recently announced plans to open two new data centers in Europe.

Agencies ban

TikTok is facing similar scrutiny across the Atlantic.

On Monday, the White House directed federal agencies to remove TikTok from all government-issued devices within 30 days, with few exceptions.

The move added to growing efforts by the United States to clampdown on the app amid renewed security concerns.

US officials have raised concerns that the Chinese government could pressure ByteDance to hand over information collected from users that could be used for intelligence or disinformation purposes. As CNN has previously reported, independent security experts have said that type of access is a possibility, though there has been no reported incident of such access to date.

Brooke Oberwetter, a TikTok spokesperson, called the ban "little more than political theater."

"The ban of TikTok on federal devices passed in December without any deliberation, and unfortunately that approach has served as a blueprint for other world governments," Oberwetter said in a statement.

"We hope that when it comes to addressing national security concerns about TikTok beyond government devices, Congress will explore solutions that won't have the effect of censoring the voices of millions of Americans."

China also hit back at the decision Tuesday, with a Foreign Ministry spokesperson accusing Washington of "generalizing the concept of national security" and "unreasonably suppressing enterprises of other countries."

The Canadian government announced a similar ban on TikTok from official electronic devices on Monday.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 1)  Darryl Yap, director of the controversial films Maid in Malacanang and Martyr or Murderer that show the perspective of the Marcos family on the events the led to the 1986 People Power Revolution, said his movies are not historical revisionism but historical rectification.

They always claim that there is historical revisionism. I always correct them when I say it's historical rectification, Yap told CNN Philippines The Final Word on Tuesday.

Martyr or Murderer is about the Marcos family's story before and after the People Power Revolution and their perspective on the killing of former Senator Ninoy Aquino. In his previous interviews, Yap said the film revolves around the heaviest accusation against the Marcoses.

Maid in Malacanang has sparked backlash from the victims of martial law, academe, and organizations that fought the dictatorship of former president Ferdinand Marcos Sr. The Carmelites Monastery in Cebu has slammed the portrayal of nuns in "Maid in Malacanang," describing a scene in the movie as "malicious" and an "attempt to distort history."

But Yap said he just showed what happened.

You know, Im not a political analyst, Im a director, a writer. So I just wrote about what happened with the Marcos family, he explained.

Asked if he consulted historians and researchers for Martyr or Murderer, Yap said he had a 30-man research team, some from Morocco and Boston and others who are non-Marcos supporters.

He also explained that the film is based on the perspective of Sen. Imee Marcos and former first lady Imelda Marcos, and he does not perceive the late President Marcos as a dictator.

Para po sa akin (for me), when I was reading all the script, it was very hard to believe that he was a dictator. I dont see him as a dictator, I just see him as a very, very stiff leader, he explained.

During martial law, over 11,000 people fell victim to summary execution, torture, and other human rights violations, according to the Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act.

Amnesty International estimates that 70,000 people were imprisoned and 34,000 were tortured during martial law.

RELATED: Martial law survivor to Marcos: No need for apology, acknowledge abuses under father's time

Yap encouraged Filipinos to watch all the movies about the 1986 People Power Revolution featured in cinemas this March.

"Oras de Peligro" will be shown in local cinemas on March 1, simultaneous with "Martyr or Murderer."

"Oras de Peligro" features a fictional family living in the slums who dealt with the murder of a family member under the hands of corrupt policemen days before the People Power Revolution.


US update - PromarkerD licensing negotiations

Perth, Mar 1, 2023 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Proteomics International Laboratories Ltd ( ASX:PIQ ) advises that it is in the closing stages of finalising the detailed terms of its Exclusive Licence Agreement with Sonic Healthcare USA for use of the Company's PromarkerD predictive test for diabetic kidney disease in the United States.



Proteomics International Managing Director Dr Richard Lipscombe said the relationship between the two organisations continues to strengthen. "Whilst the process of finalising the terms of the Exclusive Licence Agreement has taken the parties past the 28 February expiry date in the binding letter of intent [ASX 31 January], both organisations have already committed substantial resources towards a successful roll-out of PromarkerD across the USA and are still working actively together to achieve this."



The parties signed a binding and exclusive letter of intent in August to enter into an Exclusive Licence Agreement for the PromarkerD predictive test [ASX 9 August]. The Company will update the market once the Exclusive Licence Agreement has been signed.





About Proteomics International Laboratories Ltd





Proteomics International Laboratories (ASX:PIQ) is a wholly owned subsidiary and trading name of PILL, a medical technology company at the forefront of predictive diagnostics and bioanalytical services. The Company specialises in the area of proteomics - the industrial scale study of the structure and function of proteins. Proteomics International's mission is to improve the quality of lives by the creation and application of innovative tools that enable the improved treatment of disease.


Amadeus Basin Farmout Update

Brisbane, Mar 1, 2023 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Central Petroleum Limited ( ASX:CTP ) ( C9J:FRA ) ( CNPTF:OTCMKTS ) refers to its announcements regarding the Peak Helium farmout transaction.



The conditions precedent satisfaction date for the Peak Helium farmout is currently 28 February 2023. Central has been in contact with the Northern Territory Government and communications have demonstrated good progress in achieving governmental approval for the entry of Peak Helium into the joint ventures for EPs 82, 112 and 125. The parties have accordingly agreed an extension to 31 March 2023 in order to satisfy remaining conditions precedent.





About Central Petroleum Limited





Central Petroleum Limited ( ASX:CTP) is a well-established, and emerging ASX-listed Australian oil and gas producer. In our short history, Central has grown to become the largest onshore gas producer in the Northern Territory (NT), supplying industrial customers and senior gas distributors in NT and the wider Australian east coast market.

Central is positioned to become a significant domestic energy supplier, with exploration and development plans across 180,000 km2 of tenements in Queensland and the Northern Territory, including some of Australia's largest known onshore conventional gas prospects. Central has also completed an MoU with Australian Gas Infrastructure Group (AGIG) to progress the proposed Amadeus to Moomba Gas Pipeline to a Final Investment Decision.

We are also seeking to develop the Range gas project, a new gas field located among proven CSG fields in the Surat Basin, Queensland with 135 PJ (net to Central) of development-pending 2C contingent resource.
It took a while for Diane Evans-Prior to find her path in life, which included a short period of majoring in beer and darts.

The new dean of Central New Mexico Community Colleges nursing school comes from a family of nurses, so thats the field she always assumed she would pursue. However, she once was a radio disc jockey in Casper, Wyoming, (KQLT, Quality 103.6. Not a huge audience.) so she tried journalism for a time.

Evans-Prior did eventually make her way back to nursing, got licensed and spent eight years as a bedside nurse in Albuquerque. But her real calling, it turns out, was the education of others.

Nursing education is absolutely my passion, Evans-Prior says.

She credits CNM with giving her opportunity after opportunity, starting with hiring her as an instructor in 2001 after she had just gotten her masters degree and was a novice when it came to teaching.

More than two decades later  last July  Evans-Prior ascended to dean of the newly reorganized nursing program, housed in whats now called the School of Nursing & Patient Support.

She says one of her signature achievements was helping to form a consortium in 2013 in which community colleges and universities across New Mexico share a common curriculum. That means a student in Tucumcari, for example, doesnt have to leave home to earn a bachelors degree in nursing. A statewide curriculum means financial savings for students and a boon for rural areas that desperately need hometown health care workers to stay.

If they (students) leave small communities to go to Silver City, or UNM or NMSU, they often dont go back, Evans-Prior says.

And, it turns out, the consortium had unexpected benefits during the pandemic. Resulting personal and professional relationships allowed nurses to move quickly and figure out how to respond in an emergency, she says.

So we were able to crowdsource and really pick the hive mind and spread out the work that needed to be done because we were used to working together, Evans-Prior says. Its not even that were used to working with each other. Its our culture.

As dean, what are your goals for the reorganized nursing school?

This is really an investment in growth by the college. With nursing programs, specifically, were always under internal and external pressures to grow because the need is so great, nationally and locally. Nursing & Patient Support officially became its own school (in the) fall term. One goal is getting the dust to settle. Once the additional pieces go into place, well be ready to announce more.

Do you foresee difficulty attracting more nursing students?

We do have a good nursing pool. We need more because were trying to grow industry, and were trying to grow Albuquerque. We have an aging community. Our younger population is showing decline, so this is going to be a challenge for us. Recently, in a survey about best states for nurses, New Mexico ranked really high. (Editors note: The survey by Wallethub ranked New Mexico the third-best state for nurses.) Factors included cost of living, housing availability, walkability. We in New Mexico have a reputation of doing an awful lot with very limited resources and doing it really, really well.

What do you do to relax?

A lot of volunteer work right now. Im board chairman for the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing, which is the national accrediting agency. I really spend a lot of time with family  my son and daughter and my husband. Im very, very crafty. I just started recently making dioramas and small three-dimensional art things. I like the exacting detail, and I like that its nonverbal. For me, thats a resetting time.

Whats a difficult lesson you have had to learn?

How to say no. That ones always one that we struggle with because of the culture of patient care. Sometimes no is the kindest thing you can say to someone. Whenever I have to tell someone no, I usually try to give them a choice. Like, I cant give you this, but I can give you this or this. So if you have to shut down one thing, you want to open something else.

What was your first job?

I worked in a costume shop. Then they realized I had no sewing skills and was really bad at ironing, so it was a really short job. It was a fun place to work, but I do not know how to iron a Shakespearean collar.

What has made you successful?

Ive probably never been the quietest voice. I have always (said), Hey, can we do this better? Why dont we do it this way? Hey, this is a cool thing, lets try that. My employers have generally embraced that, but here at CNM not only was it embraced, but it was encouraged and facilitated.

Whats the environment like for new nurses?

Theyre entering the profession in a climate where health care  was changed with the pandemic and with social media. Some environments are very, very hard because theres just so much anger. Patients are angry, families are angry, co-workers are angry. People are impatient. Weve been on this high-energy, do it, do it, do it, and now that were on the other side, were still saying do it, do it. Were out of the panic mode, but its still impacting us. While the crisis has dipped, our hospitals are still at  capacity, with RSV, COVID and flu.

Any regrets?

I have moments that I wish I had done differently, but I am who I am because of my sum total of experience, and that includes screwing up. Adult learners learn best by breaking things. They have to make it their own. They have to roll up their sleeves and get into it. Theyll learn more by making mistakes than by doing something right 100 times.
With Walmarts forthcoming closure creating a massive void in Southeast Albuquerques grocery landscape, local officials say they are hoping to buy and redevelop the property.

City, state and Bernalillo County officials announced Tuesday they are cobbling together resources to acquire the store at 301 San Mateo SE, citing its importance to International District residents.

In a series of statements included in a news release from Mayor Tim Kellers office, officials referenced the potential for a transformative project and community asset that might include food, and perhaps even housing. But they laid out no specifics, saying the community should help set the vision.

Keller spokeswoman Staci Drangmeister said the redevelopment process remains in step one, given that officials learned only a few weeks ago that the store was closing.

It is preliminary, but we want residents in the area to know we are getting started now, she said in an emailed response to Journal questions.

The vision may include another grocery store, though any such project would likely entail partnering with an outside operator as the city did with Downtowns Silver Street Market.

Whatever happens at 301 San Mateo is also at least partially up to Walmart, which owns the site. The company did not respond to a Journal inquiry late Tuesday, but a real estate broker who has worked with Walmart said the property is not now on the market.

They havent made a decision, Bob Feinberg, senior vice president and principal of Colliers International Albuquerque, said, citing recent conversations with the company. Its not for sale; its not for lease (now).

However, Drangmeister said the company is planning to sell for an unknown price through a process open to all buyers.

They did indicate that they are interested in talking to the city about possible city purchase as part of the process, she said.

State Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez and state Rep. Janelle Anyanonu, Albuquerque Democrats, each expect to provide $1 million in state capital outlay funding toward a purchase, according to the news release.

Officials are also closely watching state legislation that would allow the citys Metropolitan Redevelopment Agency, which works with the private sector on revitalization efforts, to provide a larger economic incentive to such projects as the Walmart redevelopment.

The retail giant announced Feb. 8 that it would shutter the San Mateo store on March 10.

Journal staff writer Matthew Narvaiz contributed to this report.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP)  A specialized team of wildlife managers has killed 19 wild cows in the Gila Wilderness in southwestern New Mexico as part of a contested project to rid the area of the unauthorized animals.

The three-day operation used a helicopter and high powered rifles to take out the cows in a rugged area where federal officials and environmentalists say the animals have been trampling stream banks, damaging habitat for other species and ruining water quality.

The U.S. Forest Service had estimated there were as many as 150 of the unauthorized cows in an area along the Gila River.

The agency said Tuesday that searches were conducted with the naked eye and through thermal imagery. The crew spotted significant numbers of elk, deer, javelina and even rabbits  but no additional cattle were found following the operation.

The carcasses will be left in the forest to decompose and the Forest Service plans to monitor the area.

Ranchers had opposed the project, saying rounding up the animals and removing them would have been a more humane way to clear them out of the wilderness. They accused the Forest Service of violating its own policies, but a federal judge denied their request to sideline the project, saying the cows were indeed feral and the Forest Service had the authority to kill them.

Gila Forest Supervisor Camille Howes said a combination of ground-based and aerial removal efforts since October 2021 have substantially reduced the feral cattle population.

We are committed to removing these feral cattle as safely, efficiently, and humanely as possible to ensure a Gila Wilderness that is safe and resilient for generations to come, she said in a statement.

She also said the Forest Service is committed to working with the ranching community and will coordinate with permittees to remove any branded cattle from areas where theyre not supposed to be.

Ranchers have said fewer people are maintaining fences and the rural neighbors who used to help corral wayward cows are gone. Some have left the business because of worsening drought, making water scarce for cattle, and skyrocketing costs for feed and other supplies.

Increased use of public lands  including hunting and hiking  also has resulted in knocked-down fences, the ranchers said. Elk, too, are to blame for damaging fences meant to keep cows in check.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham even weighed in on the fight over the Gilas wild cows, saying last week that the federal government needed to do a better job of listening to residents.

The Forest Service on Tuesday reiterated its position that killing the cows was the most efficient and humane way to deal with this issue.
The U.S. Supreme Court this week declined to hear arguments from New Mexico landowners who sought to overturn a state high court ruling last year that allows public access to streams and rivers that flow through private property.

Justices on Monday rejected a petition seeking a review of the New Mexico Supreme Court ruling supporting the publics right to access state waterways for recreational purposes.

In rejecting the petition, justices cut off efforts by private landowners to limit access by fishermen, boaters and other recreational users.

One of the property owners who sought the Supreme Court review said Tuesday the issue remains far from resolved.

This isnt going to end here, I can tell you that, said Dan Perry, owner of Chama Troutstalkers LLC, one of the petitioners who sought the review. There are many legal things I can do.

Perry, who owns a ranch on the Chama River about 2 miles south of Chama, said his property value has declined significantly as a result of public access to his property.

I believe now that, under the Fifth Amendment, that the state of New Mexico has taken my private property rights from me, so I probably have a cause of action to sue for the loss in value of my property, he said.

Landowners may also seek a change in the states Constitution protecting private property rights, he said.

Perry said he has invested significant amounts of money to improve trout populations and the riparian environment on his two-mile section of the Chama River, which has been damaged by public access.

Perry and other landowners argued in their petition to the U.S. Supreme Court that the state decision represented an illegal taking by the government.

U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., cheered the U.S. Supreme Court decision as a victory for the public.

Every New Mexican has a right to enjoy our public streams  its in our state constitution and its what Ive spent years fighting for in our state courts, Heinrich said in a written statement issued Tuesday.

Last year, the New Mexico Supreme Court reaffirmed this right, Heinrich said. Now the United States Supreme Court has effectively reaffirmed it, too, by ending the appeal brought by those who tried to privatize our waters for the benefit of wealthy landowners with out-of-state ties.

New Mexicos highest court ruled last year that a Game Commission rule was unconstitutional that allowed landowners to restrict access to waterways that flow through their properties.

That ruling marked a victory for kayaking and fishing groups and a defeat for landowners who saw the rule as key to protecting private property rights.
Nobody wants to kick a small child out of school.

Although some argue that doing so may be the best thing for the safety of those around them, proponents of a bill making its way through the Roundhouse argue that suspensions and expulsions have lasting repercussions, and that focusing on other strategies is the better way forward.

It creates a negative self-image for the children, Early Childhood Education Secretary Elizabeth Groginsky said of expulsions and suspensions of very young students, noting they can impact dropout rates or students being held back a grade. Thats why getting upstream with good professional development and other supports helps create safe places and healthy places.

Senate Bill 283, sponsored by Sen. Harold Pope Jr., D-Albuquerque, would prevent schools from expelling some pre-kindergartners through second graders and limit suspensions, with a couple exceptions. For example, the bill wouldnt apply to a student who unlawfully brought a gun on campus.

If passed, the measure wouldnt go into effect until 2024. Schools would also begin reporting more data on the number of suspensions and expulsions.

Some students are disproportionately kicked out of school, Groginsky pointed out.

There were 942 suspensions and expulsions last school year among kindergartners through second graders, according to state Public Education Department data.

Most of them  563  were Hispanic students, a proportion that more or less reflects the population of all New Mexico public school students. Over 800 instances were among male students, and 415 were among students receiving special education.

Only one student was expelled, a department spokesperson said.

More support for students, Groginsky said, could include work thats already been put in motion. Last year, the PED announced an initiative to provide teacher training in restorative practices and in January facilitated such training with teams from 12 schools.

Some have expressed concerns about the bill, arguing the safety of others also needs to be considered, like when a student is biting or otherwise harming another.

Sen. Gay Kernan, R-Hobbs, also worried that the bill didnt do more to address the root causes of student behavioral issues.

This is about identifying children that need help, providing the training to teachers to be able to do that, and were not doing that, even in this bill, she said during a Senate Education Committee meeting earlier in February. Im conflicted, because I want children to be safe.

The bill is up for consideration by the Senate Judiciary Committee, but as of Tuesday hadnt been scheduled. Before then, the education committee passed it without its recommendation.
Virgin Galactics mothership, VMS Eve, and the VSS Unity spaceship have reunited at Spaceport America in southern New Mexico for a final round of ground and flight tests before the companys long-awaited commercial space service begins this spring.

Its been more than 18 months since the two ships last flew together in July 2021, when company founder Sir Richard Branson joined a Virgin Galactic crew on a flight into suborbit from Spaceport America. Since then, both ships have undergone lengthy maintenance upgrades and enhancements to improve vehicle durability and reliability before initiating tourist flights to space for paying passengers.

But with all modifications now complete, Eve returned to the skies in mid-February for flight tests over the Mojave Desert in California, where Virgin Galactic is headquartered.

And, on Monday, the company flew the mothership back to New Mexico, where it will once again join the Unity spaceship for combined flight tests in the next few weeks, the company announced in an earnings conference call with investors Tuesday afternoon.

It is great to see our mothership back in the skies, and we are thrilled to have VMS Eve rejoin spaceship Unity back home at Spaceport America, company CEO Michael Colglazier said in a statement. With our enhancement program complete and validation flights underway, we remain on track to launch commercial service in the second quarter of 2023.

Whats next?

Virgin Galactic crews will first conduct a series of ground tests with both vehicles before combining them in joint flight, whereby the mothership carries the Unity to about 50,000 feet. At that point, the rocketship breaks away from Eve and fires up its motors to shoot into suborbit, allowing passengers to float for a few minutes in microgravity and view the Earths curvature before returning to Spaceport America.

Those joint flights will start with a glide test, whereby Unity will just float back down to ground after breaking away from Eve.

Following that, well conclude the validation process with a powered flight to space with a Virgin Galactic crew, Colglazier told investors. Then, we expect to commence commercial service in the second quarter, beginning with a research flight for the Italian Air Force and then passenger service.

The company originally planned for the maintenance hiatus to last just six to eight months, with commercial operations expected to start in mid-2022.

It took longer than originally planned, but weve now completed the enhancements, Colglazier said. That will serve us well for many years ahead.

The upgrades are designed to make the vehicles more robust for rapid turnaround between flights, potentially allowing Eve and Unity to shuttle paying passengers to suborbit on monthly flights, although it might take some time to reach that pace of activity, Colglazier said.

Well get a couple flights under our belt first, he said. We see the path to monthly flights as achievable in short order. Well work out the kinks and learn to turn the ships around on a regular basis.

Thats critical for Virgin Galactics long-term financial solvency. Its been bleeding cash for years through investment in research and development and building operational infrastructure while generating little or no revenue.

Earnings report

In its latest earnings report, the company announced a $151 million net loss in fourth-quarter 2022. That drove total losses last year to $500 million, up from a $353 million loss in 2021.

And the company will continue burning through cash as it builds out its new rocket production factory in Arizona, where it expects to begin assembling a next-generation fleet of Delta class spaceships to eventually ramp up commercial service to 400 or more flights per year.

The Delta rockets, however, wont start flying paying passengers to space until at least 2026, and in the meantime, the company must rely only on Eve and Unity to generate revenue from tourist flights.

Still, Virgin Galactic currently has a backlog of nearly 1,000 booked passenger reservations, with customers paying $450,000 per seat.

And for now, the company has a lot of money on hand to continue financing operations, said Chief Financial Officer Doug Ahrens.

Our balance sheet remains strong, with $980 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, Ahrens told investors.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 1)  Before Dolly de Leon received international recognition for her role in the critically acclaimed film Triangle of Sadness, she had to find other sources of income just to be able to continue acting.

Despite the challenges she faced, she did not stop pursuing her passion.

Speaking to CNN Philippines on Wednesday, De Leon admitted she thought of giving up many times.

But instead of quitting, what I decided was to see if I can still do other things, so that I can still continue doing what I love which is acting because I knew if I quit acting I would be miserable, she said.

The Filipina thespian bagged the best supporting actress at Sweden's Guldbbage Awards and at the Los Angeles Films Critics Association Awards. She also made history after being nominated in the same category in the Golden Globe Awards and the British Academy Film Awards.

Prior to these achievements, De Leon said she got used to the culture that women in the film industry got fewer opportunities than men.

Now that she is at the stage of her career where she has more freedom, De Leon said she is more careful in choosing projects.

Im not getting any younger and I do have a 10-year-old (daughter), and I would like to spend more time with her, the actress shared. I can choose now and I dont have to break my back working all the time.

De Leon, who earlier won FAMAS Best Supporting Actress for "Verdict," disclosed she will soon fly to the United States to shoot two movies, one of which is directed by three-time Oscar nominee Paul Feig, and the other with Jason Schwartzman.

She also has two Cinemalaya entries and two other projects soon to be released: Keys to the Heart and Salome.

Asked about the overall state of the Philippine film industry, De Leon said it stands a good chance if exposed to the global stage.

But support from the government will be vital for this, she added.

There are still so many beautiful stories that we have, she said. Given the position that we are at now, it would give them a chance for their voices to be heard, so its a very exciting time to work in the Philippines.
In theory, it makes sense: Allow retirees to keep receiving their full pension, but come back to work to fill the front-line ranks of everything from police officers to social workers.

In practice, it simply doesnt shake out that way.

New Mexico found that out the hard way two decades ago: Double-dipping encourages experienced people to leave (exacerbating staffing shortages); those who do return to work go back to their higher-up positions, not to the empty front-line jobs (a successful EEOC complaint filed years ago ensured Albuquerque police retirees landed behind desks, not on the streets); and the next generation of employee leaders end up discouraged with no way to advance.

In 2010, our House and Senate repealed double-dipping, 65-3 and 35-6, respectively. The Fiscal Impact Report from that years successful Senate Bill 207 said that, under double-dipping, unemployment remains high in the state and state employees may feel low morale and perceive a ceiling for advancement because retirees return to top-level positions.

The policy is also a budget-buster. The FIR in 2010 projected the repeal would save millions for state employers, as well as the general and PERA pension funds.

Senate Bill 124, House Bills 64, 65, 227 and other double-dipping legislation are well-intentioned, wrong-headed attempts that will reduce, not shore up, staffing. Our public employers and lawmakers would do better to incentivize delayed retirement, publicize the availability of such things as the Law Enforcement Protection Fund for longevity and retention bonuses, and finally establish pipelines with our universities and colleges for next-generation employees.
Theres no question that organized retail crime is having a detrimental impact on the bottom line for New Mexico businesses, especially small ones. This cowardly crime also means higher prices for New Mexican consumers  its time to crack down on organized retail theft.

 Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, Jan. 30 news release

Our governor was channeling every retail business owner and every law-abiding customer in the state when she announced her support of House Bill 234, which will target the plague of theft rings that send folks out to steal $499.99 over, and over, and over again.

Because there are no six degrees of separation between New Mexicans and this criminal scourge; Journal employees alone have watched thieves push carts of alcohol out of drug and grocery stores, haul armloads of clothing and tools out of big-box retailers. Our readers share similar tales of retail criminality going unchecked. And it has become routine for local law enforcement to announce tactical operations after the fact that net double-digit arrests and thousands of dollars worth of stolen property.

State Attorney General Hector Balderas made the case for HB 234 last year, saying it is more profitable now to go and steal from our local retailers than it is to sell drugs and guns in New Mexico. He told KRQE-TV whats occurring is you have major drug dealers sending out armies of shoplifters into these retail centers, and theyre stealing these goods and exchanging them for fentanyl and other drugs.

So it is heartening that so far, our state lawmakers are listening and voting to finally protect our businesses and our consumers. As Terri Cole, president and CEO of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce says, employees are scared and employers feel helpless.

HB 234, sponsored by Albuquerque Democrats Marian Matthews, Natalie Figueroa, Antonio Maestas and Speaker Javier Martinez, has been honed to focus on aggregating the crimes so these repeat shoplifters are charged with felonies, not misdemeanors, and on the coordinated and planned gang element of the crimes. Martinez says no one is going to get tagged for stealing five candy bars. Its (targeted at) the guy stealing five drills from the Home Depot on Coors and I-40, only to drive across to the Eubank Home Depot and steal another five drills and flash a gun as hes walking out of the store at someones grandma, probably a woman of color who is working for $12 an hour.

The bill is headed to the House floor, where it deserves swift passage. Ditto for the Senate.

The governor has made it clear she sides with business owners and consumers on this one, that no one should feel scared and helpless in the face of rampant retail theft. Her news release said a 2021 report from the Retail Industry Leaders Association detailed the total estimated economic impact of stolen sales in New Mexico at $819.8 million.

Lets get HB 234 to her desk and take back our retail operations, for N.M. business owners and consumers.
Several miles of northbound Interstate 25 will be down a lane until noon today while crews work on installing new signs along the road between Algodones and Santa Fe, according to the New Mexico Department of Transportation.

The single-lane closure will run between mile posts 264, at the Cochiti exit at N.M. 16, and mile post 267 at the Waldo exit between 10 a.m. to noon.

NMDOT and Mountain States Constructors Inc. are handling the installation.

For updated information, drivers can call 511 or visit www.nmroads.com.
Minority- and women-owned STEM Boomerang LLC  a company that creates connections between science, technology, engineering and mathematics professionals, companies and colleges  received job training incentives from the state to skill up 40 employees and hire executives to create recruitment strategies for growing STEM jobs.

The company, which received $48,000 in funds from the Job Training Incentive Program, is one of nine companies in February to receive funds for skilling up workers across a variety of industries. The money totaled nearly $870,000, and the awards came following a JTIP board meeting in February.

JTIP, one of the New Mexico Economic Development Departments incentive programs for growing businesses, primarily focuses on aiding businesses with money for classroom and on-the-job training for newly-created jobs in expanding or relocating businesses for up to 6 months, according to EDD.

The program got its start in 1972 with help from the New Mexico Legislature, and JTIP reimburses 50% to 75% of employee wages, giving companies the breathing room to expand faster.

Its exciting to see so many new companies taking advantage of JTIP, EDD Secretary Alicia Keyes said in a statement. It has become such a powerful tool for growing our economy throughout the state. Weve found that we can not only help businesses grow, but with a little creativity, JTIP can be used to expand the workforce and support New Mexicos high-potential industries in new and innovative ways like the program at STEM Boomerang.

The other eight companies which received JTIP funds in February range from manufacturing to aircraft and food distributors. They are as follows:
SANTA FE  Legislation advancing quickly at the Capitol would ask New Mexico voters to establish a statewide school board and remove the Public Education Department from the governors control.

The state Senate on Wednesday adopted the proposal, Senate Joint Resolution 1, on a 36-1 vote, sending it on to the House.

The action comes as the Public Education Department endures a revolving door of leadership changes. Just last month, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, appointed her fourth public education secretary in a little over four years.

Senate President Pro Tem Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, said the proposal adopted Wednesday isnt aimed at any particular governor.

But she said the state once had just three statewide school superintendents in a 40-year period, before the education department was moved directly under the governor. Voters approved the change in 2003.

I think this is a way to get back to that stability, Stewart said of the new proposal.

She jointly sponsored Wednesdays measure with Republican Sen. Steven Neville of Aztec.

The lone no vote came from Sen. Bill Tallman, D-Albuquerque.

Opponents say the proposed amendment would inject more politics, not less, into education policy.

Terri Cole of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce noted to lawmakers earlier this week that the state just went the opposite direction in utility regulation, turning the elected Public Regulation Commission into an appointed body to address a daily cocktail of dysfunction.

But the proposed amendment drew little dissent before the Senate.

I think this is a great way to revamp our system, Neville said.

Under the proposal, voters in 2024 would be asked to amend the Constitution to create a state school board that would set education policy and appoint a superintendent of public instruction to manage the Public Education Department.

The board would have 10 elected members and five appointed by the governor. All would serve staggered, six-year terms.

The governors appointees would face some restrictions. No more than three could be from the same political party, no more than two from the same county, and one would have to be a tribal representative.

They couldnt be removed except for wrongdoing or failure to carry out their duties.

The board would start operations in 2027.

The resolution now goes to the House, with just over two weeks left in the session. The governors approval isnt required for proposed constitutional amendments, which instead go before voters.
Instagram Celebrity

The 'Scream' actress is grateful as Jennifer Aniston and Lisa Kudrow turn up despite 'a horribly rainy day' when she receives Hollywood Walk of Fame honor.

Mar 1, 2023

AceShowbiz - Courteney Cox still keeps close contact with Jennifer Aniston and Lisa Kudrow. Best known as Monica Gellar in the classic 1990s sitcom "Friends" alongside Jennifer Aniston as waitress Rachel Green and Lisa Kudrow as masseuse Phoebe Buffay, the 58-year-old actress was "not surprised" at all that her co-stars turned up for the ceremonial occasion upon receiving the honour of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Monday, February 27.

"I have some pretty loyal friends Yes, it is a horribly rainy day, but I'm lucky to have great friends and I'm not surprised they all showed up, but it just is very sweet to see them. [This star] just means that, you know, I made it. It just means that I'll be here forever and that feels really good and sad at the same time," she told ExtraTV.

Jennifer and Lisa - who also starred alongside David Schwimmer as Ross Gellar, Matt LeBlanc as Joey Tribbiani, and Matthew Perry as Chandler Bing on the series - each got up to make a speech about their former co-star, with Jennifer joking that it "couldn't have been" 30 years since they first met.

She said, "I think that it was just wishful thinking that Ross and Rachel would get married and I would become Rachel Gellar. It's...you know..we're very honoured to be here today to speak on behalf of you as your co-workers, your friends, your family, your sisters and that's happened since we've known you for a very long time."

Lisa chimed in, "And that's happened since we met almost 30 years ago!" Jennifer added, "No no, that's a typo! Are you sure?! Well, anyway, to be friends with Courteney is to be family with Courteney. From the beginning, she was immediately inclusive, warm interested in everything about you and I was really nervous to meet her because I was a huge fan."

"I just didn't know what she was gonna be like when we got to meet her. From the very beginning, she made it clear that it was an ensemble. This was the friendship show. She instilled into all of us to support one another and to love one another. Actors need to support one another, not compete with one another and that has really stuck with me."

Lisa added, "It was Courteney doing that which set us up to become one of the closest and most supportive casts in the history of television."

As the 2750th celebrity to receive a star on the LA tourist spot, the "Scream" actress joins the likes of screen icons Marilyn Monroe and Judy Garland on the walk as well as fellow sitcom actors such as "I Love Lucy" icon Lucille Ball, "Bewitched" star Elizabeth Montogomery, and co-star Jennifer Aniston.

You can share this post!
AP Celebrity

The socialite, who was closely associated with late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, claims that she 'was so disoriented and diminished that she was unable meaningfully to assist in her own defense, much less to testify' during trial.

Mar 1, 2023

AceShowbiz - Ghislaine Maxwell is set to appeal her sex trafficking conviction by saying she was held in such a brutal jail while on trial she was unable to mount an effective defence. The 61-year-old disgraced socialite, languishing as inmate 02879-509 at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tallahassee, Florida, after being sentenced to 20 years for sex trafficking and grooming underage girls for her late paedophile partner Jeffrey Epstein, will reportedly state she was held in "inhumane" conditions while trying to fight for her freedom in court.

Her lawyer Arthur L Aidala, who is also representing Harvey Weinstein in his appeal against his conviction in New York, said in a statement on Tuesday, February 28, "By the time of trial, (Maxwell) was so disoriented and diminished that she was unable meaningfully to assist in her own defense, much less to testify."

Court papers are expected to argue Maxwell was subjected to "sleep deprivation," "malnourishment" and living with "vermin in her cell" amid "deplorable conditions," according to Page Six. Maxwell's appeal documents, which are expected to run to hundreds of pages, must be filed by the end of Tuesday at the federal court in New York where she was found guilty last January following a trial.

Her lawyer said last month Maxwell had been "so mistreated during her period of incarceration" that it "violated so many of her constitutional rights to defend herself." He added, "She was malnourished. And yet she's supposed to sit for a trial (with her) life on the line In the United States of America, anyone who's accused of any crime should not be abused by the US government the way she was abused."

In previous legal filings Maxwell's lawyers said while awaiting trial in New York she was "withering away" to a "shell of her former self." They claimed her hair was falling out and she was being forced to scrub showers as punishment, while Maxwell said every dinner she was given melted to plastic in the microwave.

She has also said she was kept awake by a torch being shone in her face every 15 minutes and stated the water in prison was brown with pollution. Maxwell is also thought to be set to use her appeal to repeat her claim that a juror in her case, Scotty David, "concealed" the fact they had experienced childhood sexual abuse and used it to persuade the other jurors of her guilt.

She was held in Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Centre during her trial, the same jail where Epstein was found dead aged 66 in 2019 from an apparent suicide, before being transferred to Tallahassee after her conviction, where she is working six hours a day at the library to pass time.

You can share this post!
Disney+ Movie

Disney is attacked by racist Twitter users, who accuse the studio of being 'too woke' by having black actors play originally white characters in some of its latest movies.

Mar 1, 2023

AceShowbiz - Yara Shahidi has just made her debut as Tinkerbell in "Peter Pan & Wendy", which trailer has been made available online. Instead of celebrating the diversity, some racist Twitter users slammed Disney for the casting decision.

The angry critics accused the studio of being "too woke" by having black actors play originally white characters in some of its latest films. This is after Disney also cast Halle Bailey to star as the titular character in its upcoming live-action musical "The Little Mermaid".

"So instead of giving POC their own movies or making new movies with POC characters, they decided to just make white characters Black for some reason?" one of the critics wrote on Twitter. Another sarcastically tweeted, "Who's rooting for Paris Hilton to play Pocahontas? Come on guys."

A third exclaimed, "Not my Tinkerbell." A fourth user slammed Disney, "see now i understand when people say disney is too woke or trying to be. a black tinker bell?" Echoing the sentiment, someone else claimed, "At this point Disney isn't doing it for diversity it's just a marketing ploy to get peoples attention."

"I just feel like Dove Cameron would've been PERFECT but go off sis," another opined, while someone asked, "Why does every side character have to race swapped to black these days?" To this question, one person replied, "to show people like you that not everyone will look like you & that's okay."

Someone also shut down the online trolls as saying, "Tinkerbell isn't black' and fairies aren't f**king real so now what?"

"Peter Pan & Wendy" also stars Alexander Molony as Peter Pan, Ever Anderson as Wendy Darling, and Jude Law as Captain Hook among others. It is directed by David Lowery from the script he co-wrote with Toby Halbrooks.

Based on J.M. Barrie novel and the 1953 animated classic, it follows Wendy Darling, a young girl afraid to leave her childhood home behind, who meets Peter Pan, a boy who refuses to grow up. Alongside her brothers and a tiny fairy, Tinker Bell, she travels with Peter to the magical world of Neverland. There, she encounters an evil pirate captain, Captain Hook, and embarks on a thrilling and dangerous adventure that will change her life forever.

The fantasy movie will open in U.S. theaters on April 28.

You can share this post!
Instagram/Facebook Celebrity

The 48-year-old Bravo star and her 32-year-old boyfriend made their romance Instagram official in January, but fans quickly labeled the reality star 'predator.'

Mar 1, 2023

AceShowbiz - Larsa Pippen has finally spilled the details of her relationship with Marcus Jordan. In a new interview with Tamron Hall, the former wife of Scottie Pippen talked about dating Michael Jordan's son despite knowing Scottie and M.J. didn't get along.

In the Tuesday, February 28 episode of "The Tamron Hall Show", the 48-year-old reality star explained why she decided to pursue a romance given the fact her ex-husband has a feud with M.J. "That's how Scottie feels. He has a right to the way he feels," she told Tamron, "I personally don't really care about what other people ... I live my truth, I'm happy."

Larsa later emphasized she never "planned" to date Marcus but it's something that "just happened" since they continued to hangout in the same social circle. "You know, I feel like I live my truth. I'm happy. I feel like we get along. He's my best friend," she shared, "Yeah, I feel like we have a lot in common. I didn't plan it [dating Marcus] like that. It wasn't like it was planned like that. I think we were just together a lot with our friends and it just so happened."

"Everyone's fine. When you're an adult, your parents just want to see you happy," so "The Real Housewives of Miami" cast member shared, noting she's received his folks' blessing. "We've spent holidays together. We're in a great place."

Tamron then asked Larsa what her former husband thinks of her relationship, to which she responded, "Do you feel like you should ask your ex about your future love interest?" She further elaborated, "The only conversations we have are based on our kids. I don't ask him who he's dating, he doesn't ask me who I'm dating."

"As long as my kids are happy ... my kids love Marcus. We travel together, my kids really enjoy spending time with him," the Illinois native noted. "I feel like I'm in a great place and that's the most important thing."

Elsewhere during the interview, Larsa also addressed backlash over her 16-year age gap relationship with Marcus. "Age doesn't determine your level of maturity," the Bravo fan favorite explained.

Larsa and Marcus, who first sparked romance rumors in September last year, made their love Instagram official in January by posting a photo of her posing with her beau in front of a giant floral arrangement in the shape of M.J.'s iconic No. 23 jersey.

After making their love Instagram official, Larsa often posted photos of the couple. However, fans apparently were not happy seeing the loved-up posts, with one labeling the Bravolebrity "predator."

Despite the backlash, it's reported that Larsa and Marcus are planning on having a baby together. "Larsa is 48 years young, and she wants to have another child, before it's too late," a source spilled to Media Take Out, "Larsa visited a fertility doctor and she still has enough eggs to have a successful pregnancy."

You can share this post!
NBC TV

The Egyptian-American broadcaster, who also co-hosts 'Today with Hoda and Jenna', has sparked concerns among fans because she has been absent from live airways since February 17.

Mar 2, 2023

AceShowbiz - Hoda Kotb's absence from "Today" and "Today with Hoda and Jenna" has been explained. The Egyptian-American broadcaster's colleague Craig Melvin revealed on Wednesday, March 1 that she has been absent because she's dealing with "a family health issue."

"As for Hoda, we know some of you are wondering how she's doing," Craig divulged. "We can tell you, Hoda's OK. She's got a family health matter she's been dealing with."

Hoda has been absent from live airways since February 17. While she didn't offer more details about her leave, the journalist took to her Instagram account to share a picture with "Choose Hope" written on it. Alongside the February 27 post, she simply left two red heart emojis.

Fans have since flooded the comments section with questions. "Today show just isn't the same without you! I hope you're OK," one fan said. Meanwhile, another replied, "But boy if they are letting you go  people are going to drop like flys [sic] watching Today. We Love Hoda!"

Someone added, "Hope everything is OK Hoda. You are missed." One other, meanwhile, assumed that she was expanding her family after adopting daughters Haley Joy (6) and Hope (3) in February 2017 and April 2019, respectively. "Did you get another baby, Hoda? This is usually what happens when you go missing for 2 wks," the fan wrote. "Sure hope, it's something good."

You can share this post!
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 28)  Adamson University has confirmed the death of one of its students, John Matthew Salilig, who was reported missing on Feb. 18.

"It is with great sorrow that we confirm the untimely passing of one of our students last Feb. 18, 2023 after the report of his disappearance," the university said in a statement on Tuesday.

"We are one with his family and friends in grieving this unexpected and unfortunate loss," it added.

Authorities have yet to confirm the cause of the 24-year-old chemical engineering student's death.

But the Laguna Provincial Police Office said the victim attended the initiation rites of the Tau Gamma Phi (Triskilion) fraternity in Binan on the day he went missing.

The police report said Salilig's body was exhumed from a lot in Brgy. Malagasang 1-G in Imus City, Cavite on Tuesday.

The local police said the persons of interest include a 21-year-old student and 14 unidentified male suspects.

The university said it has launched its own investigation on the matter.

The university said it has launched its own investigation on the matter.
Wastewater can provide clues about a communitys infectious disease status, and even its prescription and illicit drug use. But looking at sewage also provides information on persistent and potentially harmful compounds, such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), that get released into the environment. Now, researchers in ACS Environmental Science & Technology Letters report an unexpected source of these substances in wastewater systems  toilet paper.

PFAS have been detected in many personal care products, such as cosmetics and cleansers, that people use every day and then wash down the drain. But not many researchers have considered whether toilet paper, which also ends up in wastewater, could be a source of the chemicals. Some paper manufacturers add PFAS when converting wood into pulp, which can get left behind and contaminate the final paper product. In addition, recycled toilet paper could be made with fibers that come from materials containing PFAS. So, Timothy Townsend and colleagues wanted to assess this potential input to wastewater systems, and test toilet paper and sewage for these compounds.

The researchers gathered toilet paper rolls sold in North, South and Central America; Africa; and Western Europe and collected sewage sludge samples from U.S. wastewater treatment plants. Then they extracted PFAS from the paper and sludge solids and analyzed them for 34 compounds. The primary PFAS detected were disubstituted polyfluoroalkyl phosphates (diPAPs)  compounds that can convert to more stable PFAS such as perfluorooctanoic acid, which is potentially carcinogenic. Specifically, 6:2 diPAP was the most abundant in both types of samples but was present at low levels, in the parts-per-billion range.

Then, the team combined their results with data from other studies that included measurements of PFAS levels in sewage and per capita toilet paper use in various countries. They calculated that toilet paper contributed about 4% of the 6:2 diPAP in sewage in the U.S. and Canada, 35% in Sweden and up to 89% in France. Despite the fact that North Americans use more toilet paper than people living in many other countries, the calculated percentages suggest that most PFAS enter the U.S. wastewater systems from cosmetics, textiles, food packaging or other sources, the researchers say. They add that this study identifies toilet paper as a source of PFAS to wastewater treatment systems, and in some places, it can be a major source.

The authors acknowledge funding from the Hinkley Center for Solid and Hazardous Waste Management.
Chargeup, the company building Indias first FiNeTech platform (Finance-Network-Technology Platform) in the EV sector, recently appointed former Meta Executive and ex-CTO, Vodafone, Satish Mittal as its Chief Digital Officer. In his new role, Satish will be responsible for furthering the technology, digital, and partnerships initiatives for the brand.

Satish has joined Chargeup at a time when the company is on an aggressive growth trajectory. The company recently raised Pre-Series A1 funding and is looking at expanding its services to 20 new cities and power 50,000+ drivers. Chargeup is also forging high-value partnerships with leading enterprises in their respective domains and building advanced climate-tech solutions to support the Government of Indias plans in the sustainable mobility arena.

Satish has worked with several renowned companies in India and abroad in leadership positions. This includes his stints as CTO, of Global Enterprise with Reliance Communications, SVP and CTO at Vodafone Business Services, and Lead Mobile & Connectivity Partnership at Meta by Facebook. With over 30 years of industry experience, Satish is set to lead Chargeup in not only building meaningful collaborations but also accelerating the companys rate of growth.

Speaking about this, Varun Goenka, Founder and CEO, Chargeup, said, Satish is an industry expert with strong credentials in the Indian as well as international tech domain. His expertise in forging business partnerships, and in-depth knowhow of the most advanced technologies such as IoT, AI, Metaverse, and data analytics will enable Chargeup to continuously enhance its path-breaking FiNeTech platform capabilities and drive growth for the brand as well as the valued partners that Chargeup works with. We are looking forward to a fruitful association.

Adding further, Satish Mittal, Chief Digital Officer, Chargeup, said, India is entering a new era of clean mobility, and enterprises like Chargeup are at the forefront of building the ecosystem that will enable electric mobility to thrive in the country. The FiNeTech platform has evolved rapidly in recent times, and they have already developed innovative partnerships and established an EV energy service network that will go a long way in popularizing EVs in India. My aim is to contribute my tech insights and identify as well as implement partnerships that can further the mission of Chargeup.

Satish Mittal is BTech honors graduate from REC, Kurukshetra, and also has an Executive MBA degree from the SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR). He is doing his doctoral study on the impact of social media on MSMEs from 2020-2022 at the SP Jain School of Global Management. As an industry expert, he has been on the Board of Studies for SVKMs NarseeMonjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS) wherein he shares his know-how as an industry expert with future entrepreneurs and business leaders.
Cholayil Private Limited, the parent company of household brands such as Medimix and Cuticura announces the appointment of Anupam Katheriya as the new Chief Executive Officer. Anupam brings over 2 decades of experience in the consumer goods industry having served in leadership positions at multinationals like Heinz, Nestle and Emami. At Cholayil, which is amongst Kerala's most famous and respected Ayurvedic families practicing Ayurveda for generations, Anupam will be spearheading the aggressive growth and diversification plans of the company across its portfolio of brands.

Cholayil Private Limited is growing rapidly and has doubled its turnover in the last 4 years. The appointment of new CEO is in the direction of making the company 1000 Cr. plus in the next 4-5 years. Apart from soaps, the company is present in several categories including Face Wash, Body Wash, Hand Wash, Body Lotion, Talc, Deodorant etc. The company has a global footprint with a presence in more than 35 countries across the world.

Speaking on the new appointment, Pradeep Cholayil, Chairman and Managing Director, Cholayil Private Limited, said, "We at Cholayil have always focused on building teams that bring in fresh perspectives and help us push the envelope of how we think about our business today from a family run business to a professional one. We welcome Anupam onboard to lead Cholayil and our illustrious portfolio of diverse brands. In his past roles across leading consumer goods companies, he has a proven track record of building strong brands in large categories. We want to become a wholistic personal care company and we are confident that with his wide experience, Anupam will help us grow our omnichannel brand presence and help take our purpose forward across various consumer touchpoints. We aspire to achieve a 1000 Cr. turnover in the near term for which we are investing in our brands, people, processes and infrastructure. Anupam will enable the growth by identifying the right financial sources and lead business transformation.

The newly appointed Chief Executive Officer - Cholayil Private Limited, Anupam Katheriya said, " Cholayil has strong equity and base in Ayurvedic and natural products and has potential to scale-up as we contemporize our offering further and reach out to newer segments. Amongst our portfolio of brands, Medimix is truly a symbol of trust and quality for more than 50 years now. It is indeed a great opportunity and honor for me to add value to the portfolio of brands and take them to newer heights. I truly admire the vision of the management for future growth and the way each brand needs to be transformed into a larger personal care brand. We have aggressive plans for making this company as 1000 Cr. in the near term. Cholayil is well-positioned for growth, and I am excited to unlock the Companys significant potential for our consumers, employees, investors and other stakeholders.

Anupam is an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad and Delhi College of Engineering. Anupam has been a recipient of multiple prestigious industry awards such as the PITCH Best CMO Awards 2022, ET Brand Equity Brand Disruption Awards, recognized as one of the Top 60 CMOs 22 in India, amongst many others.
Keeping up with its tradition for the fourth time, FoxyMoron, a part of Zoo Media Network, the full-funnel digital creative agency for Passpass Pulse, Indias no. 1 candy from DS Group launched its annual campaign for World Compliment Day. As part of this campaign, Passpass Pulse is lauding exceptional brands that are the pulse of young India. They made grand gestures by complementing brands on billboards and also entered into a sweet Twitter exchange since modern brands today tend to engage in clever, humorous, and unconventional banter. The campaign #PulseOfCompliments was created and conceptualized by the artistic minds at FoxyMoron. The campaign turned heads and garnered admiration for brands by complimenting them with quirky billboards from Passpass Pulse for six notable brands namely, Dominos, Dunzo, Airtel, boAt, Zomato, and Radio Mirchi with unconventional and clever copy, that went live on 28th Feb. These billboards not only kept up with their yearly Compliment Day tradition but also featured clever and good-natured thank-you messages.

In addition to this, Passpass Pulse amplified this over Twitter and spread positivity in a fun engagement with several remarkable brands such as PVR Cinemas, EaseMyTrip.com, SugarCosmetics, Licious, Hero MotoCorp, Orion India, Yatra, BookMyShow, Wow Momos, Zepto, Flipkart, Baskin Robbins, Tim Hortons, Truly Madly, etc by starting a chain of compliments amongst brands. This created an aura of positivity and goodwill coursing through the community, resulting in a lot of social media buzz and positive responses. By combining OOH billboards and social media amplification, this campaign integrated the online and offline experience and made the flagship campaign even more impressive by going BIG.
A new survey conducted by Matter Communications in the US reveals consumers are making purchase decisions based on influencer content. The data shows 81% of respondents have either researched, purchased or considered purchasing a product or service after seeing friends, family or influencers post about it.

According to the survey, 69% of respondents are likely to trust a friend, family member or influencer recommendation over information coming directly from a brand. Consumers want authenticity from the influencers they follow, gravitating toward those that create relatable, original content or provide credible expertise.

While the US market can be quiet different from that of India, the influence of influencer marekting is growing exponentially. However, influencer marketing, a key component driving the creator economy, faces multiple issues, including the pestering problem of fake followers.

The creator economy faces various challenges and pitfalls, including dealing with algorithm changes, creating original and engaging content, monetizing their content, handling brand deals and sponsorships, and dealing with negative feedback or backlash, points out Ayushi Arora Gulyani, Founder & CEO, Media Corridors.

To overcome these challenges, she adds, creators need to focus on creating high-quality content, building authentic relationships with their audience, staying up-to-date with industry trends, diversifying their revenue streams, and being transparent with their audience.

There are many things to be aware of while selecting profiles for influencer marketing, warns Sociowash Co-founder Pranav Agarwal. According to him, with new technologies there are many new fraudulent behaviours that one needs to be aware of.

Another challenge, he adds, is that there are different types of influencers and they are categorized very vaguely, which is why it's hard to determine who the suitable influencer match will be.

He cites a 2021 report which showed that 56% of brands say it is fairly difficult to find the right agent of influence while 22% state it is very difficult.

This is easy to tackle as you can easily reach out to professionals who know how to differentiate and identify authentic influencers and to match them to the right brand. Pitfall that marketers might face is that in influencer marketing there is no way to find a clear-cut ROI. But this can be dealt with by being clear on how you are measuring performance. For example it could be brand awareness or track performance indicators like impressions and views on a website, he adds.

Rubeena Singh, Country Manager, India and MENA, AnyMind Group, feels that though social media is a part of most peoples everyday lives, many accounts suffer from the reality of having many fake followers.

Many individuals aspire to reach the same heights as their ideal influencers. They want the same lively engagement, widespread attention, and, not least, those colossal follower counts. But using these giant influencer accounts as your yardstick might be a little misleading. You might want to check how many fake followers your favored accounts have. Platforms are often under fire for their fake followers' reputations and for allowing users to buy their followers. One of the significant issues is the need for recognition of the work of content creators. Many micro and nano creators find it difficult to monetize their content due to the lack of support from large companies and platforms. Furthermore, many platforms are plagued by plagiarized content, which can affect the legitimacy of the content, she says.

In terms of tackling these issues, she explains, one of the significant steps is to encourage collaboration between content creators and platforms.

This will help to build a system of trust, allowing creators to be appropriately recognized for their work and enabling platforms to identify and remove plagiarized content. Additionally, platforms should invest in technologies such as machine learning and natural language processing to detect fake followers, plagiarism, and other malicious activities. The creators should take advantage of the growing platforms and resources available, allowing them to diversify their income streams and make their work more sustainable, Rubeena Singh adds.

Hashtag Orange Founder Mukesh Vij, lists out the several challenges and pitfalls faced by the creator economy, which is built on the success of independent content creators and influencers:

Oversaturation: With the rise of social media, anyone can become a content creator or influencer. This has led to an oversaturation of the market, making it difficult for creators to stand out and for brands to find the right partners. Monetization: Many creators struggle to monetize their content effectively. Advertising revenue and sponsorships are the primary sources of income for many, but they can be unreliable and difficult to secure. Intellectual property: Creators often have to navigate complex intellectual property issues, such as copyright and trademark infringement. This can be particularly challenging in the digital world, where content can be easily shared and repurposed. Burnout: The pressure to constantly create and publish content can take a toll on creators, leading to burnout and a decline in quality.

To address these challenges, Mukesh Vij suggest that creators can take several steps, such as:

Niche down: Creators who specialize in a specific niche are more likely to attract a loyal following and stand out from the competition. Diversify revenue streams: Creators should explore multiple revenue streams beyond advertising and sponsorships, such as merchandise sales, affiliate marketing, and crowdfunding. Protect intellectual property: Creators can protect their work by registering copyrights and trademarks and monitoring the use of their content online. Prioritize mental health: Creators should take steps to avoid burnout, such as setting boundaries around work hours and taking breaks when needed.

In addition, he adds, brands can play a role in supporting creators by being transparent about their expectations and working with creators who have built authentic audiences.

ASCI Guidelines

It is in this context that the recent guidelines , issued by the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) for influencers, should be analysed. How these guidelines will impact the influencer marketing field in India?

The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) issued new guidelines for influencers, which require them to disclose any sponsored content and avoid making misleading claims. These guidelines, according to Mukesh Vij, are expected to have a significant impact on the influencer marketing field in India in several ways:

Increased transparency: The new guidelines require influencers to disclose any paid partnerships, which will improve transparency and help audiences make informed decisions about the products they choose to buy. Better quality content: The guidelines will likely encourage influencers to create better quality content that is not misleading and offers value to their audience. Enhanced credibility: By complying with the guidelines, influencers can build greater credibility and trust with their audience and brands. Decreased fraudulent practices: The guidelines may help to reduce fraudulent practices, such as buying fake followers and engagement, as influencers who do so would be in violation of the guidelines. More accountability: The guidelines make influencers accountable for their actions and content, which will likely deter unethical practices and ensure responsible behavior.

The new guidelines, adds Mukesh Vij, are a positive step towards regulating influencer marketing in India and promoting responsible and ethical practices among influencers.

The recent endorsement guidelines released by the government so far have had a positive impact on the influencer marketing field in India and will continue, says Rubeena Singh. In the long run, she adds, the rules, which include a prohibition on making misleading endorsements, may cause concern and confusion among brands and influencers initially. She, however, is certain that in the long-run, as the industry matures, it will foster building trust and benefit all stakeholders  consumers, creators, and brands, she .

According to Ayushi Arora Gulyani, these guidelines for influencers in India will have a significant impact on the influencer marketing field. The guidelines require influencers to disclose any material connections with brands, clearly identify their sponsored posts, and not make any false or misleading claims about products or services. This will bring more transparency and accountability to the influencer marketing industry, benefiting both consumers and brands.

The Department of Consumer Affairs issued guidelines to regulate misleading promotional content made by influencers in order to curb the circulation of any misinformation, says Pranav Agarwal. According to him, it has been observed that content labeled as a paid promotion or #ad does not perform as well as an authentic review performs. Furthermore, the fee for such a violation is the same across all influencer categories (macro, micro, and nano), which may deter aspiring nano-influencers.

Affiliate marketing

Will authenticity boost affiliate marketing through influencers?

Authenticity is a key factor that can boost affiliate marketing through influencers, says Ayushi Arora Gulyani. If influencers have a genuine connection and trust with their audience, their recommendations for products or services can be more effective in driving sales. However, it is important for influencers to disclose their affiliate partnerships and be transparent with their audience, she adds.

Mukesh Vij agrees that authenticity is a critical factor in boosting affiliate marketing through influencers. Authenticity refers to the degree to which an influencer's content is perceived as genuine, honest, and trustworthy by their audience.

According to him, some reasons why authenticity can boost affiliate marketing through influencers:

Builds trust: Authenticity is key to building trust between the influencer and their audience. When an influencer's content is perceived as genuine and honest, their followers are more likely to trust their recommendations and make a purchase based on their referral. Increases engagement: Authentic content tends to be more engaging and relatable to the audience. Enhances reputation: Authenticity helps to build an influencer's reputation as a trusted source of information, which can lead to increased brand loyalty and repeat purchases. Improves conversions: When an influencer's content is authentic and genuine, it can lead to a higher conversion rate for affiliate marketing. This is because their audience is more likely to trust their recommendations and make a purchase based on their referral.

Overall, Vij adds, authenticity is a critical factor in boosting affiliate marketing through influencers. By partnering with authentic influencers, brands can build trust with their audience, increase engagement, enhance their reputation, and ultimately drive more conversions through affiliate marketing.

Rubeena Singh points out that authenticity plays a significant role in affiliate marketing through influencers. By being open and honest about the products they are promoting, influencers can gain the trust of their followers and better promote the products they are affiliated with. This can lead to better conversions, higher ROI, and overall success with affiliate marketing.

Pranav Agarwal feels that influencer marketing and affiliate marketing were previously thought to be completely separate entities, but they are in fact interrelated. Influencers' authenticity and transparency are valued by audiences. With increased authenticity, audiences are more likely to trust and purchase the products, he adds.

According to him, brands are recognising the value influencers can bring to their brand. Influencers being relatable share a review answering questions their audience relates to, often giving demonstrations, and adding Calls To Actions when talking about a brand. They guide and help their community through the whole consumer process, they do all of this in an authentic, organic way. Brands are now seeking more long-term partnerships with influencers and favouring performance-based deals; this is where influencer marketing overlaps social commerce. he adds.

Vinay Pillai, Head of Clout and Head of Strategy, Pocket Aces, states that at present affiliate marketing is non-transparent. According to him, creators are just trusting brands to provide the sales and revenue numbers basis which they get the revenue share. They dont have any standardized tracking tools or dashboard to track the sales which can improve transparency between the brand and the creator, motivating more creators to pick affiliate marketing as a way to monetize. This will also give creators an understanding of how much they are able to contribute to the brand numbers, he adds.

The role of micro-influencers

In an influencer marketing campaign, micro-influencers play a crucial role.

Micro-influencers are the future of influencer marketing for brands, states Pranav Agarwal. They have a tight-knit community and a better understanding of their audience, allowing brands to connect on a more local and regional level. Followers in these communities have cult-like loyalty and really listen to what influencers recommend, resulting in a positive ROI. This increases brand trustworthiness and gives them the opportunity to become the brand's face. As a result, micro-influencers are already an important part of marketing campaigns.

According to Vinay Pillai, in the marketing and sales funnel (AIDA), there is awareness, consideration, and then intent to buy the product. The mega influencers help drive awareness about product launch/ its new features or benefits. The target audience of the brand who actually consider buying the product is primarily driven by the mid-size creator where they talk in detail about the brand, its product features and uses in a daily life scenario. This is followed by the micro influencers, who people trust at a local level, and have a more focused TG. Its their recommendations about specific products/brands that can actually drive the intent. Therefore, micro-influencers can be crucial to any brand that wants value for money with its marketing efforts, Vinay Pillai adds.

Once brands pick the right creator with good engagement, theyll be able to reach out to varied target audiences through different categories of micro-influencers. With this they can test what TG of the audience is visiting their website and actually purchasing the product. Secondly, micro-influencers can be a great way for brands to try influencer marketing by engaging in barter deals, to see what the ROI they are getting in terms of impressions and sales post the campaigns. Micro-influencers can even be willing to create content directly for the brand as an asset for their page, says Pillai.

Micro-influencers are increasingly becoming a crucial component in influencer marketing campaigns, says Ayushi Arora Gulyani. They have a smaller but more engaged audience, and are more cost-effective than macro or celebrity influencers. They also have a more niche focus, making it easier for brands to target specific audiences and achieve higher engagement rates.

Micro-influencers are an integral part of any influencer marketing campaign, maintains Rubeena Singh. According to her, they have the potential to create significant reach and engagement for brands and often have a much more genuine audience than macro-influencers. They are often seen as more reliable and trustworthy than prominent influencers because they can provide more personal and genuine content. As a result, they have the potential to create more authentic relationships with their followers and even convert followers into customers for brands.

Image credit: Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

(Tomorrow: Part 2 will analyse the future of influencer marketing in India, virtual influencers, etc.)
Healthcare and marketing are two terms that are rarely used together. While the healthcare sector is often perceived as a group of doctors and medical professionals working with almost a charitable intent. On the other hand, marketing is all about building a brand and boosting the bottom line.

Public Media Solution breaks this clutter by offering healthcare marketing services to doctors, hospitals, pharmacists, suppliers, and everyone working in the countrys healthcare sector. Known for its branding and marketing consultancy, the company ventured into healthcare marketing not more than two years ago.

Ravinder Bharti (Ravi), the founder and CEO of Public Media Solution, built a team of skilled marketers and branding professionals to handle the digital assets of doctors and healthcare institutions of all scales. From smaller clinics to multispecialty hospitals, Public Media Solution has built a portfolio of multiple clients operating (and now thriving) in a sector that isnt known for its marketing abilities.

Boosting A Cardiac Hospitals Turnover To 55 Crores per month

Ravi and his team of marketers have built several targeted marketing campaigns to boost their clients revenue, the most successful venture being with a noted cardiac hospital. India has been struggling with heart-related diseases for several years, with more and more patients falling prey to issues like heart attacks and cardiac arrests.

A chain of cardiac care facilities struggled with reaching out to its audience and spreading awareness about cardiac health. Despite having centers in multiple Indian cities, the hospital intended to make quality cardiac care available to tier 2 and tier 3 cities.

Understanding the medical institutions problem, Public Media Solution created an extensive marketing campaign comprising traditional and new media. As a good chunk of the Indian population living in tier 2 and tier 3 cities is still an active consumer of traditional media, the marketing company decided to reach them accordingly.

This resulted in a boost in the number of consultations and queries received by all facilities across the country. From online leads to offline visits, the marketing company gave the medical institution the traction it was looking for. After the successful implementation of the campaign, the cardiac hospital managed to increase its monthly turnover to 55 crores.

Helping An Orthopedic Hospital Touch The 1 Crore Milestone per month

Another fruitful healthcare marketing venture of Public Media Solution involves an orthopedic hospital struggling with limited reach. The institution had a hard time reaching its target audience and making them aware of its services.

Considering this issue, Ravi and his team ran an extensive local SEO campaign to target the audience residing in the same city. The content marketing team focused on creating organic and engaging content equipped with SEO-friendly keywords. While the hospitals website was enhanced to crawl better on SERPs (search engine results pages), its Google Business Profile was optimized for local traction.

A few months of targeted marketing campaign allowed the orthopedic hospital to increase its monthly turnover to 1 crore, helping the organization reach a new milestone in its journey of offering ortho care.

Conveying The Essence Of Homeopathy

Homeopathy often receives flak and is overshadowed by conventional allopathy. This affects genuine and skilled homeopathy doctors who have dedicated years being trained in the alternative science. Another feather in the cap of Public Media Solution is the campaign it created for a noted homeopathy doctor in Pune.

Despite his clinics popularity, the homeopathy specialist struggled to convince the masses about the inherent benefits of homeopathic treatment. Keeping the doctors impressive track record as the base, Ravis team created a digital marketing and PR campaign to convey the essence of homeopathy. The focus of this campaign was to market the doctors services and make people aware of homeopathys relevance today.

Numerous events were organized and covered by leading media houses, where the doctor discussed the efficacy of homeopathic treatment and how it ensures the physical and mental well-being of patients. Extensive local and national coverage, coupled with organic content marketing across multiple platforms, helped the homeopathy doctor to clock in a monthly turnover of 60 lacs. Due to the message being conveyed effectively, the doctor and his clinic started receiving inquiries and consultation requests regarding the treatment of multiple diseases.

Pushing The Marketing Envelope

Along with handling the digital assets of his clients in the healthcare sector, Mr. Ravinder Bharti intends to leverage the overall marketing landscape of the country. Considering marketing to be an art more than a science, he wishes his team to explore new horizons by catering to sectors that arent traditionally associated with marketing.

Doctors need to pay their bills, and hospitals need to be kept in tune with the modern trends. Although providing medical care should be the utmost priority of the healthcare sector, sustainability should be a close second. Our healthcare marketing services help us tap into the potential skilled doctors in our country have, helping them ensure that their patients lead healthy and happy lives, concludes Ravi.
Shefali Khalsa has resigned from her position as SBI's head of brand, corporate communications, and CSR.

She spent over 4 years working with SBI. In the Indian insurance marketing sector, she is widely recognised as a thought leader. She holds a management degree and has spent close to two decades working in the intricate Indian marketing business across firms, regions, and functions. Her career spans over 17 years and is primarily in banking and financial services. She has experience working with companies including HDFC ERGO, HDFC Bank, and TATA Teleservices, as well as consulting firms and the telecom industry. Her next move is unknown as of now.
But Galileo is celebrated today not as much for his engineering talent as for the suffering he endured in support of an unpopular scientific theory. Because it was Galileos work with telescopes in the early 17th century that lent critical support to the theory of heliocentrism, the idea that the earth revolved around the sun and not the other way around. As with his telescope technology, Galileo was not the first to propose the heliocentric theory: that distinction belongs to Nicolai Copernicus. Yet Copernicus, a Polish mathematician, was well aware of the personal risk of disseminating his ideas and delayed their publication for many years. Copernicus major work, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, was published only shortly before his death at age 70 in 1543.

Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa, Italy in 1564. And while he was a physicist and mathematician of some note, Galileo was as much a practical mechanic as he was a grand theorist; indeed it was his tinkering with convex and concave lenses that gave him the tools to leave his lasting mark on the world. As a skilled inventor of early working telescopes, he did not design the worlds first telescope, but he was the first to make them powerful enough for scientific use. In fact, the word telescope (derived from the Greek roots skopein, to see, and tele for far) was coined in 1611 to describe one of Galileos first instruments. For the accomplishments that flowed from his pioneering work, he has been described by many as The Father of Modern Physics; Albert Einstein even went so far as to name him The Father of Modern Science.

Like many of our awards this year, this wasnt a difficult decision. In fact, this may be one of those unusual cases where the recipient of an award in some ways outshines its namesake. To understand why that might be so, you need to understand a bit more about why we chose to name the award after the Italian scientist Galileo, what he represents to the history of science and how his experience compares with Wakefields.

As the year draws to a close, all of us at the Age of Autism are very pleased to honor Dr. Andrew Wakefield. As weve reported here many times during the past year, Dr. Wakefield has been the subject of a remarkable and unprecedented campaign to discredit his work and character, most notably in a show trial that is still underway in London, in hearings of the General Medical Council. In the face of extraordinary attempts to silence him, Wakefield has stood up to these attacks with grace and determination and has continued his research and clinical work on behalf of children and families suffering from autism. That makes him our first Age of Autism Galileo Award recipient.

Galileo, by contrast, was an aggressive advocate for the truth as he saw it. He used his telescope to provide clear visual evidence that the sun occupied the center of the solar system. He then published his evidence fearlessly in the prime of his life, starting while in his 40s. And although for a while he obtained the approval of the Vatican to publish some of his work, he was eventually forced to spend most his later life defending himself and his findings. For as the significance of his observations for the prevailing Catholic orthodoxy became increasingly clear, Galileo was derided as a heretic, denounced publicly and finally given an ultimatum: renounce your theory or else. In 1633, he was put on trial by the "Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Universal Inquisition", known today as the Roman Inquisition, and convicted of heresy. Barely escaping prison, Galileo spent the rest of his life under house arrest, where he died nearly ten years later.

The many parallels between the Roman Inquisition and the Wakefield Inquisition are uncanny. Like Galileo, Wakefield came to autism both as a practical man and a scientist; his initial involvement in autism was simply in response to a group of parents who approached him as a specialist in pediatric gastroenterology. They told him, Our children are not defective, they are sick and Wakefield listened. Also like Galileo, Wakefield didnt originate the idea that vaccines might play a role in autism, but has become the most prominent developer of the idea. As Galileos telescopes allowed him to discover the moons of Jupiter, so did Wakefields use of new ways of seeing, in this case an endoscope to see into a childs intestines, allow him to discover a distinctive gut pathology in autism. He named what he saw autistic enterocolitis, and it was a finding that quite literally turned the brain-centric view of autism upside down. But this was no ordinary finding, for Wakefields specific challenge to the orthodox view of autism science made him a target for the medical establishment. He published his first major work in the prestigious journal The Lancet, where the editor Richard Horton had full awareness of its controversial potential. But when the controversy turned too hot to handle, Horton lost his nerve and in a perfidious betrayal that history should remember (see John Stones wonderful essay on Horton (HERE)), Horton turned on Wakefield.

Thanks to Hortons perfidy, and again like Galileo, Wakefield now finds himself on trial for his license to practice medicine in front of the General Medical Council (GMC). And although the GMC might defend the validity of its allegations, it is plain to all who have followed the case closely that the trumped up charges hold little merit. Still, the outcome of the proceedings lies in considerable doubt, for Wakefield has not been subjected to these months of review on the basis of any actual medical misconduct (not surprisingly, no parent with whom he worked supports the GMCs case). Quite clearly, and again like Galileo in the face of the Roman Inquisition, the offense for which Wakefield is really on trial is heresy. And whenever an Inquisition has begun to confront the conflicts between religious orthodoxy and inconvenient evidence, one can never predict how the High Inquisitors will render their judgment. The only thing we can predict is that a process like the Wakefield Inquisition is always more concerned with appearances than justice.

Wakefields heresy comes at a particularly difficult time for the medical profession that has placed him on trial. The twin pillars of its quest for the causes of human disease, germs and genes, have failed for years to explain the scourge of chronic disease: a scourge that has replaced infectious disease as the main public health problem of the developed world. In the face of a simmering disquiet over what has become an increasingly embarrassing scientific failure, it has become ever more important to the professions high priests to distract attention from the crumbling bulwarks of their belief system and take action to defend the tools and targets of those pillars: the germ theory of disease that was medicines greatest contribution to human civilization and provided its two principle tools, vaccines and antibiotics; and the genetic model of human disease that has been medicines great hope to succeed germ theory and the precious disease targets such as autism that it hopes to explain. Seen in this context, Wakefields heresies have been unusually threatening because they operate on both fronts: they compete with the genetic explanations of autism with a causal model that threatens to tarnish the heroic triumphs of germ theory.

So like Galileos compelling work in support of heliocentrism, Wakefields dual challenge to vaccine development and autism science has evoked a strong response from the highest levels of authority. In Wakefields case, his prosecutors have determined not only that he must be shown to be wrong, he must also be punished. That means his work on autism (as well as others doing supportive work) must be stopped while he must also be stripped of his credentials as a member of the medical profession. The modern punishment for heresy may not include death, but it can be exile and excommunication.

Casting the treatment of Wakefield as a religious response is the only way to make sense of the behavior of the medical establishment over the last several years. If it were not so serious, its escalating absurdity would begin to resemble farce. One example is the latest defense of the ever-expanding childhood immunization program. Instead of embracing the importance of improving vaccine safety, the programs defenders have now declared that the temple of the sacred program must never be defiled, and certainly must not be subjected to conventional safety research. So the obvious research project of comparing the total health outcomes in vaccinated vs. unvaccinated individuals has been rejected not merely as too expensive, now it simply must not be done. In the Orwellian logic of the CDC, such studies in humans would be prospectively unethical and retrospectively impossible.

Lets be frank here. This is an epistemological obscenity: Its not just that we dont know some very basic things about the safety of the sacred program, we also cannot know and should not seek to know. This stance should offend even the most skeptical scientists. Still, the farce continues.

In the meantime, there remains a body of published evidence that must be dealt with. And for this, since the retraction of every published study is well-nigh impossible (some of Wakefields less courageous co-authors famously retracted the interpretation of the Lancet paper, but they couldnt retract the evidence) there is only one answer left. Nullify the source of the heresy itself. Practically speaking, when establishment voices can no longer claim the absence of causal evidence, the fallback position must be that there is no credible evidence linking vaccines and autism. Removing credibility from the evidence requires that the high priests get personal: they must mount a systematic attack on the personal reputations and integrity of scientists who pursue and publish heretical lines of investigation.

And this is why, decades after Stalin and Mao, we now have the travesty of a 21st century show trial in London, the Wakefield Inquisition. Its also why the passionate call on a U.K. parents' web-site, Cry Shame, is so deeply correct.

I wouldnt in any way diminish the importance of Galileo, but in an interesting way, Wakefields steadfastness in the face of adversity outshines the man in whose name we honor him. For, although Galileo finally agreed to recant his support for heliocentrism, Wakefield has never buckled under the pressure. Instead he has stuck to his guns and continued to fight for families with autism. Supported by private funding, his research work has continued (stay tuned for some more blockbuster results next year). And along with the terrific medical team at Thoughtful House, courageous doctors like Arthur Krigsman, Bryan Jepson and Doreen Granpeesheh, he also continues his clinical practice.

In the meantime, the heresy trial staggers onward towards its uncertain conclusion; the GMCs verdict may well come shortly in the New Year. But our judgment at the Age of Autism is clear. Andy Wakefield represents the very best of the scientific tradition. He has persevered in the face of obstacles that would have stopped lesser men in their tracks. He has published continuously and fearlessly. He has pushed important research projects forward despite countless attempts to declare the work irrelevant, the issues settled. He has dealt with opposing evidence with the professional spirit of a scientist while also following the advice of Karl Popper that he who gives up his theory too easily in the face of apparent refutations will never discover the possibilities inherent in his theory. Along the way, he has unfailingly represented the issues in autism and the best principles of the scientific method with dignity and restraint. Most important of all, he has refused to be intimidated.

For all this and more, we would like to honor Dr. Andrew Wakefield with our first Galileo Award. And like so many others in our community, I feel proud to call him my friend. Lets be sure to stand behind him in the uncertain times ahead.



Mark Blaxill is Editor at Large for Age of Autism.




Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 1)  The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) has joined the search and rescue efforts for an air ambulance that went missing in Palawan on Wednesday.

The PCG said on Facebook that it deployed its BRP Malabrigo "to respond to an alleged helicopter crash" in the waters between Brooke's Point and Balabac town in Palawan.

The Alouette helicopter operated by Philippine Adventist Medical Aviation Services was transporting a patient from Mangsee island, located in the far southwest portion of Balabac, to Brooke's Point.

The chopper left Southern Palawan Provincial Hospital in Brooke's Point at 7:30 a.m. to pick up the patient. It was expected to return to the hospital at 10:30 a.m., according to the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP).

CAAP said on board the helicopter with registry no. N45VX was the pilot, a nurse, the patient, and two companions.

The PCG said the air ambulance was last contacted at around 12:10 p.m., 35 nautical miles east of Balabac.

This is a developing story.
Henrik Ibsen wrote Enemy of the People in 1882. In this new edition from Skyhorse Publishing, Robert Kennedy Jr lays bare how "science" (including you, Dr. Fauci) has fought so hard against iconoclasts whose work questions their ironclad conclusions. Perhaps science has always been just like the religion it was purported to supplant? The recent train derailment in E. Palestine, Ohio dovetails with Kennedy's foreword perfectly. In 2010, Mark Blaxill wrote, "From The Roman to the Wakefield Inquisition," about Dr. Wakefield's brutal treatment by the GMC. His crime? Listening to distraught parents of autistic children and using his medical knowledge to make a hypothesis. The concept of the hypothesis has been eradicated in most circles. "A hypothesis is an assumption, an idea that is proposed for the sake of argument so that it can be tested to see if it might be true."

BUY THE BOOK HERE.



DOWNLOAD THE KINDLE EDITION HERE.



Thank you to Skyhorse Publishing for bringing this 141 year old story back to life. And death.

###

From Amazon:



Environmentalist, activist, and attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr. contributes a foreword to this Skyhorse edition of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsens renowned 1882 play.

Regarded as one of the foremost playwrights of the nineteenth century, Henrik Ibsen tells the story of the idealist Doctor Thomas Stockmann, the medical officer of a recently opened spa in a small town in southern Norway, who finds that the water is seriously contaminated. He notifies members of the community and initially receives support and thanks for the discovery. Threatened by the possible impact of such a revelation, his brother, the town mayor, conspires with local politicians and the newspaper to suppress the story and pressure Dr. Stockmann to retract his statements.

At a public meeting, an attempt is made to keep Dr. Stockmann from speaking, but he launches into a tirade condemning the corruption of the town and the tyranny of the majority. Finding his speech offensive, he is shouted down by the masses and reviled as "an enemy of the people."

In his foreword, Kennedy alerts readers to the undeniable fact that the persecution of those who tell uncomfortable truths, which Ibsen described over one hundred years ago, continues to this day and is as relevant now as ever. We face environmental deregulation and degradation, politicians in lobbyists pockets, attacks on facts that are agreed upon by reputable scientists, corporate funded and controlled research, and attempts to impede and suppress whistleblowers. The battle continues and Kennedy joins Ibsen on the front lines.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 1)  The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has junked a motion for reconsideration to reverse the dismissal of the disqualification case against Sen. Raffy Tulfo in the May 2022 national elections.

In a statement on Wednesday, Comelec spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco said the Commission en banc found no valid reason to reverse the order of the poll bodys first division, which dismissed the petition seeking to disqualify Tulfo, who ranked third in the Senate race.

Julieta Licup Pearson, who claimed to be the legal wife of Tulfo, filed the petition dated March 4, 2022.

According to the resolution, which was promulgated on Feb. 28, the petition neither argues that the evidence on record is insufficient to justify the Assailed Order nor that the ruling arrived upon by the Commission (First Division) is contrary to law.

Further, the Commission en banc pointed out that it no longer has jurisdiction over a disqualification case against Tulfo, who is not a sitting member of the Senate after having already been proclaimed as Senator on 18 May 2022 and taken his oath of office on 22 June 2022, pursuant to Article VI, Section 17 of the Constitution, the statement read.

The poll body noted that jurisprudence has established that the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) assumes exclusive jurisdiction over all election contests relating to members of the Senate.

Pearson previously lodged a bid to cancel Tulfos certificate of candidacy due to misrepresentation as the then-senatorial candidate named Jocelyn Tulfo as his wife.

The second division of the Comelec dismissed it because whoever the spouse of a candidate is not material to whether they can run for office.
Zhu Lin into second round in Monterrey WTA tournament

Xinhua) 09:16, March 01, 2023

MONTERREY, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese fifth seed Zhu Lin swept Hungarian Anna Bondar 6-4, 7-6(4) in the first round of the WTA 250 event in Monterrey, Mexico on Monday.

"Now, my goal is to step in the top 8 of the Grand Slam. Hopefully, I can keep playing well and try to win more titles. Let's see what will happen in the week," Zhu said.

The 29-year-old won her first-ever WTA Tour singles title at the WTA 250 Thailand Open at Hua Hin, Thailand early this month.

Zhu will meet Canadian Marino Rebecca in the round of 16.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 1)  The use of face masks indoors or outdoors is no longer required in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong officially lifted its mask mandate on Wednesday, saying this is part of the city government's bid to "return to normalcy" three years into the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Hong Kong has already built up a strong immunity barrier, coupled with the enhancement of prevention and treatment capacities of the healthcare system and the handling capacity of society as a whole. The risk posed by COVID-19 to local public health has apparently altered," the Hong Kong government said in a press release on Tuesday.

"Citizens will no longer be required to wear masks mandatorily onboard a public transport carrier, or in a specified public place (including both indoor and outdoor areas), as well as in premises regulated under the Prevention and Control of Disease," it added.

Speaking to CNN Philippines, the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (HKETO) said the lifting of the mask mandate shows a clear message for everybody and to anyone in the world that Hong Kong has fully reopened.

"We are also sending a clear message to our Filipino friends that Hong Kong now welcomes everybody with open arms," HKTEO Deputy Director Daniel Chan said.

Chan added that there are different tourism promotional activities that Filipinos can be part of.

These include the "World of Winners" campaign of the Airport Hong Kong Authority to attract 500,000 visitors this year.

"With the removal of the mask mandate and with many events we are organizing in the Philippines - be it trade, tourism, or cultural exchanges - for sure this will welcome more Filipino travelers to Hong Kong for whatever purpose," Chan said.
As Russias unprovoked attack on Ukraine enters its second year, theres growing dissent, particularly among the American Right, about our commitment to support Ukraine. No one wants a confrontation with Russia, or to risk another Vietnam. We have bigger security concerns from China. Moreover, its not as if Ukraine is a flourishing democratic republic. It's a sputtering one, really. In 2021, Ukraine was listed as the 122nd least corrupt country (Mexico was the 124th). A year into the war seems like a good time to review these objections and make a sober analysis on whether its worth the billions of dollars weve already pledged and will pledge to support Ukraine.

Its clear who the good and bad guys are in this war. If Russias evolving casus belli of NATO expansion, Nazis, biolabs, and killer mosquitoes, seem like desperate alibis of a thief, its because even some Russians dont like to face the real reasons for war. No one actually believed NATO posed a threat to Russia. The key trigger for Putin is that Ukraine is moving towards a freer society. Putin sees this as harmful to his vision of a revitalized Soviet Union. Ukraine recently fought not one but two revolutions to oust a Kremlin lackey as president. They also have free speech, free elections, and a free press. Freedom and people with autonomy are a threat to Putins power. Thats why he imprisons and poisons businessmen and activists that get too powerful. If conservatives angst against social justice warriors stems from what they perceive as SJWs willingness to use slander and obfuscation to silence others views, then Putin is a social justice warrior on steroids, using FSB thugs, cruise missiles, and armies.

His armys efforts to russify occupied Ukraine are evidence of this. As one Russian soldier said to a Ukrainian, I will beat the Ukrainian out of you. The kidnappings, mass graves, torture chambers, rapes, and book burnings, all reveal that Ukraine wasnt a physical threat to Russia, but an ideological one. Not an ideology that breeds violence, but one thats in the nascent stage of rejecting obedience to Motherland Russia. A parallel can be found in history. In the 1930s, Stalin launched his manmade famine to cleanse Ukraine of everything Ukrainian because of what he saw as pockets of capitalism. The similarities are uncanny.

The world is better without Russias army pillaging Eastern Europe. All Americans who care about freedom should want to see Russia defeated. Even with this, is it enough to warrant our lethal and humanitarian aid? There are plenty of injustices in the world. I dont believe its our job to be the worlds policeman and social worker. We shouldnt be moved by pure emotion, even under horrific circumstances. The question is whether it falls under the responsibility of the American government.

There are good reasons to believe the chance of direct conflict with Russia rises substantially if Russia wins in Ukraine. Putins ambition has always been to restore Russian greatness he saw associated with the USSR. All his actions -- centralizing power, the invasion of Georgia, the annexing of Crimea, to name a few -- make sense if you view it through this paradigm. If Putin swallows Ukraine, it puts Russia in close proximity to former Soviet states, many of which are now members of NATO. If Putin were to attack any of them, it would trigger Article 5 and force the U.S. to respond militarily. At present, I dont believe Putin would challenge NATO. But a lot of that deterrence is dependent on political willpower, which can change rapidly with new administrations. The only way Putin wins in Ukraine is if the West appeases him -- this would further convince him of the efficacy of brute force. A freshly appeased Putin, coupled with apologetic leadership, might convince him he can get away with further territorial or political expansion -- just like every other appeased dictator in history.

If one thing is consistent about Russian history its that unprovoked attacks on neighbors seem integral to it. And if theres one thing we know about dictators, it is that they need an other to fight in order to prevent their downfall, especially when times are tough. Even if Russia wins, it will not be in good shape. Feeling the shaky ground; drunk on the hubris of victory; and sensing a fractured West; it seems much more likely Putin turn to his one blunt instrument of force than any fundamental character transformation. In this world, the European continent seems like a fuse hovering over an open flame.

Short of full-scale war, Russia will undoubtedly canonize nuclear blackmail as a diplomatic tool, something that Russia state-controlled media already does almost on a nightly basis. But the difference is if Russia wins in Ukraine, they will come to the conclusion that it actually works, (something that wont be lost on rogue states like Iran and North Korea). It is hard not to see Putin taking advantage of this, along with his all too familiar subversive activity. European countries, freshly wounded, will likely bend.

This shouldnt be viewed exclusive of our other major security concern, China. China would love to replace U.S.-backed international order. If Ukraine loses, that order is undermined, and the China model looks more attractive to countries around the world. Almost certainly they will leverage the precarious situation in Europe with their Russian ally to gain opportunities in the Pacific. This is supported by the fact that China has considered giving lethal aid to Russia. It makes the likelihood of China invading or blockading Taiwan more likely. The stakes are much higher when the U.S. and NATO have two major security threats to worry about. Our resolve will be put severely in question. It is now known that Americas shameful withdrawal of Afghanistan played into Putins calculation when deciding to invade Ukraine. If support for Ukraine folds, it is hard not to imagine Xi wont come to a similar conclusion. Conversely, if Russia is defeated, Xi is sent a strong message.

Dissenters that exaggerate the corruption of Ukraine and minimize how bad Russia is dont have a leg to stand on. These newly minted fiscal hawks shriek of the deficit when in fact Ukrainian support is costing us a small fraction of the budget. How much more will we spend over years and decades in the event of a second Cold War? A small amount to destroy the conventional capabilities of a pariah state, while not placing a single American in harms way, seems like a wise investment.

One lesson that should be learned from the war is how weak authoritarian states are. Over 20% of Russians dont have running water. The Russian army has hardly achieved a single major tactical victory. The only thing standing in the way of complete Ukrainian victory is political will and clear strategic goals. The valor of the Ukrainian army and its people, armed with the buoyant thought that freedom will never be snuffed out in their country, should steel our resolve. There is always a risk of escalation. But as Ronald Reagan said when speaking of the Soviet Union, every lesson of history suggests the greater risk lies in appeasement.

Image: Ministry of Defense of Ukraine
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 1)  The Japanese Embassy in Manila has clarified that there are no discussions yet on possible joint patrols in the South China Sea among Japan, the Philippines, the United States and Australia.

In a statement sent to CNN Philippines, the embassy said the leaders of Japan and the Philippines agreed in improving defense engagements.

"Both leaders welcomed deepening defense engagements through the participation of the Japan Self-Defense Forces in the Philippines-US joint exercises and committed to further enhancement of defense exchanges through JP-PH-US trilateral dialogues," the embassy statement said.

RELATED: Marcos: Gov't eyeing 'stronger' tripartite alliance with US, Japan

Tokyo added that so far, no talks have been held yet on the possibility of joint patrols with their allies but they are ready to cooperate with their partners to promote maritime law enforcement in the Indo-Pacific region.

"As of now, there is no specific plan or discussion about the alleged "joint patrol" among JP, PH, US, and AUS," the embassy added. "Japan will explore the possibility of cooperating with partners to reinforce Maritime Domain Awareness and the maritime law enforcement in the Indo-Pacific."

RELATED: PH, Australia exploring joint patrols in West PH Sea

In an interview with Reuters, Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel Romualdez said that Australia and Japan may join the proposed joint patrols in the South China Sea between Manila and Washington.

"Meetings have already been set and probably we may have the Japanese and the Australians join in," Romualdez told Reuters.

"They would like to join in for joint patrols to make sure that there's the code of conduct and there's freedom of navigation," the envoy also said.

Romualdez added that a joint patrol between the four countries is still an idea under discussion.

PH-US joint patrols in West PH Sea 'on the table'

In an interview in January, Romualdez said joint maritime patrols between the Philippines and US was on the table in the face of increasing geopolitical tension in the region.

"We will continue to improve that [military] alliance including the joint patrols if we need to do that, but as I've said the cooperation between the Philippines and the United States is very solid," Romualdez pointed out..

"We are looking at all possibilities in terms of enhancing our capabilities," he said. "Joint patrols is like the VFA (Visiting Forces Agreement), we have joint exercises, joint patrols will be part of that agreement with the US, we will let you know when the patrols will take place, but it's on the table."
Time was when we could look at our political differences and see those differences as just a wrinkle in the cloth of society. We could look at our religious variances as mere quirks -- most people recognized God in one way or another. No more. Something really dreadful is happening. We are not experiencing ordinary variations in opinion; were experiencing war in every area of our society. We can no longer agree to disagree and expect our society to be there when we wake up in the morning. Weve slid into a Tolkeinesque nightmare deep in the mines of Moria. There is a way out, but were going to have to fight the Balrog to get there.

One of the first principles of warfare is know your enemy. Who (not what) is this Balrog? The Democrat party? -- key Democrats, those with the loudest, most influential voices, have largely succumbed to the temptations of power and unrestrained sex, to the easiness of dreaming up their own set of values -- ones they can easily excel at -- tolerance, inclusiveness, and diversity. The leadership of that party completely believe that the end justifies the means  any means at all, including the killing of babies, the undoing of the family, the wrecking of businesses, the destruction of an economy, the demolition of a childs education, to say nothing of cheating to win elections.

I recall the introduction C.S. Lewis wrote for his novel The Screwtape Letters. In that essay he discusses the concept of Satan, the Father of Lies. He addresses a misconception that has plagued humanity from the get-go -- that Satan is Gods arch-nemesis, Gods equal antagonist, but Lewis points out something about the archangel-gone-bad -- that Satan, for all his ill-gotten power, for all his beauty (Yes, Satan is beautiful.), for all his brilliance, is still just a creature. God, on the other hand, created all the heavens and the earth, as well as all the angels. No other entity is the equal of the three members of the Trinity. We must remember that so as not to become despondent.

The problem is a logical one; if Satan is Gods opposite (but equal) opponent then Satan could have none of Gods attributes. The opposite of life is death. The opposite of omniscience is no mentality at all, a vast and hopeless stupidity. The opposite of infinite strength is no power of any kind. Satan could have no intelligence, no strength, no attractiveness, no honesty, no life. God is omniscient, omnipotent, beautiful, truthful, and completely outside of time and space. Satan is merely an angel, a created being, far beneath God in all attributes. Yes, hes smart, crafty, capable (but not infinitely so), beautiful (the most beautiful of all the angels). He will live forever, but he did have a beginning, unlike God, Who always has been, and Satans eternity will be spent alone in Revelations Lake of Fire.

My point is this: God is perfection, Satan is a mere creature who has run amuck. His arrogance has blinded him to the impossibility of his rebellion succeeding, and were caught right in the middle of his final, last-ditch offensive.

What we are seeing is evil so strong that its almost bubbling up out of the ground. The pivotal evidence is the way we are treating children. The Left likes to talk about systemic racism, but I argue that what were truly seeing is systemic, Satanic, child abuse. If we dont rip children limb-from-limb from the womb (and sell their body parts), we raise many of them in households where they are ill-fed, ignored by parents too busy to really pay attention, and too secular to take them to church. We send them off to government schools that have failed horridly (A third of our children cannot read at grade level, then we lock them out of their schools, where they at least had friends. Then we have stuck them with an overload of questionable vaccines, and now we have allowed sexualization at an alarming pace culminating in the schools getting involved in grooming young children for sex with adults and, even worse, sexual mutilation without parental consent. This is not just human evil. Weve gone back to the time of Baal and Moloch, idols that demanded human -- i.e. child -- sacrifice.

It's largely a spiritual problem. One of my Bible college students described a recent Christian youth conference where one of the speakers explained that God was a sexual being with male sex organs, and He wanted us to be sexual too. Whoa. The church, Im afraid, is as much infected as the schools. Some churches teach that health and wealth will be ours if we cough up enough money. Some teach that we can suck a dead persons spirituality out of his/her grave and appropriate it for our own use. But how many bother to teach what Jonathan Edwards taught in his famous sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God? I cant imagine that our Maker is not angry with us right now.

Yes, I think were face-to-face, as was Gandalf, with the terrifying Balrog. Hes taken the appearance of power-hungry government officials, of liberal schoolteachers, of money-hungry doctors and pharmaceutical companies. He looks like militant Islamic fanatics, like pimps and child rapists. He looks like the drug-infested, the slovenly, the lazy. It is interesting that there doesnt seem to be one particular group organizing all this Satanic nastiness -- though it is also fascinating that the Democrat agenda lines up well with the demonic. How many pro-life Satanists are there? How many against euthanasia? How many anti-gay, anti-molesters are also in the Satanist camp? I would venture there are none. There are communists (a Satanic system if there ever was one), anarchists, racists, college professors, media people, medical folk, corporate giants, and those indulging a variety of perversions -- and theyve all sold their souls simultaneously creating a perfect storm.

A society can only stand so much chaos, so much evil. We cant really help the rest of the world, but we should have the ability as American citizens to correct our itinerary and do away with this many-headed monster that is about to eat us alive. Because this is such a multifaceted problem it has to have many concurrent solutions. We -- millions of us -- have to start locally and small. We can invite friends over to see documentaries like Dinesh DSouzas 2000 Mules. We can show up for school board meetings -- over and over and over again, as necessary. We can file lawsuits, write letters to the editor, go to church -- one that will actually teach something true. We can join or form conservative groups, start a school or homeschool our children. We can learn our history, start a prayer group, talk to people and stand up for what we know is right. We will have to expect to offend some people, but its either that or we, our children, our grandchildren will live (if they live) in abject misery. Look at the misery that is already overwhelming our kids -- a recent study of teenage girls found that 30% had contemplated suicide.

It's no longer a matter of you have your truth and I have mine. That nonsense is over. And if we dont get on the stick and straighten out our thinking and our actions, we will be over. Its going to take much more than just winning an election, and given the Lefts willingness to cheat, that might not even be possible anymore. Gandalf faced the Balrog by himself, and had to sacrifice himself -- in a Christ-like fashion -- all alone. We dont have to do that. We have each other. We have God. We have the Constitution. Lets do this.

Deana Chadwell is an adjunct professor and department head at Pacific Bible College https://pacificbible.edu in southern Oregon. She teaches writing, logic, and literature. She can be contacted at dchad_02@charter.net.

Image: PxHere
Lately Ive been lost in thought, lamenting the diminishing presence of Black women in Donald Trumps America First movement. In doing so, its impossible to think about the movement without the now pop-culture-laden Candace Owens rearing up our thoughts. She was formerly a commanding presence as a Black woman in support of President Donald J. Trump. But I will be frank and reveal that Candace Owens lost me very early in my Trump journey.

I was fortunate enough to first come across Owens in a clip where she declared racism is not a problem in America, only to later read up on her and discover that she had been the victim of race-related threats, threats that prompted her to team up with the NAACP, file a lawsuit, and score just under forty-thousand dollars in damages. Apparently, racism is a problem for her when theres a monetary windfall in her favor.

Even though I found myself in agreement with a great deal of what she espoused, the disingenuous racism remark left a bad taste in my mouth. I always considered Owens an opportunist who was as much out to promote herself as the agenda of the American right, and upon hearing that Trump had removed her from his circle of trust, I was not at all surprised.

Is racism a problem in America? Yes, I do assert that it is. For those, such as myself, who set out with a plan to succeed are we hindered by racism? No. Nothing of value is easily obtained in America, no matter your race, gender, or any other demographic. Like it or not, we exist in an exhaustive daily grind that can sometimes undo us. Only the strongest and most fit will survive and prosper. But I refuse to embrace the mindset that racism is not a problem and would never approach the masses of Black Americans with such sentiment. Racism in America is indeed a problem. Can it hinder you? No. Not in todays America. It cannot. I encounter it more often than Id like, and more than one might imagine, if you are not Black. But certainly not every day or even close to every day and it most certainly does not hinder me.

As for President Trump, he has already proclaimed that he seeks to heal the divide and that those who have been forgotten will no longer be forgotten in his new America. I seek nothing more than for him to live up to that promise as the future unfolds, but lets first get past the muck and mire of the globalist, New World Order tyranny. From there well be free to re-examine and heal our challenges as a new nation.

Owens uploaded a video on her You Tube channel, commenting on her fall from Trumps graces. She first noted that President Trump only pays attention to mainstream media, and not that of alternative media. This could not be further from the truth. Its evident that Trump clearly understands the gravity of the alternative media. In recent weeks, he has even begun to re-truth Anon-ers on Truth Social. The MAGA movement has been built upon and is maintained and flourishes via alternative media sources. President Trump does not ignore alternative media outlets to give attention exclusively to the mainstream media. Even newcomers within the movement understand that Trump must still address the mainstream media in order to remain relevant to the masses who have yet awakened. So, he reacts to and addresses damning reports from the mainstream media. To assert that he is out of touch with the alternative media movement only serves to lift the skirt of Candaces own ignorance with respect to the grinding wheels of the movement. That, or she simply needs to grasp at straws and declare anything at all about Trump to make clean her descent from his circle.

In an additional affront, Candace has gone on to assert that President Trump is Vengeful, Paranoid, and lacking in humility. and this unsavory conclusion is reached because he merely possesses the discernment and presence of mind to sever communications with her.

Are we to believe that the most powerful man in the world can decide to keep people in his circle who do support him, his aspirations, and challenges? Is President Trump sensitive about who is in his corner? Can he be salty and dismissive? Im sure he can be. But hell garner no resentment from his many supporters. With the weight of the entire world on his shoulders. You dont get to be where President Trump is unless you surround yourself with people who are loyal and on the same page. If there is indeed paranoia, Im sure its quite warranted. Hes got daggers pointed at him from every direction, from those who were former allies, or pretended to be. It is Candace herself who lacks humility. She is steeped in self-aggrandizement, and is keen to speak with headstrong fervor, but lacking in a spirit that requires muted reflection.

Candaces verbal assault on President Trump originated when she diligently pressed him on the failures of the COVID vaccines. Yet it appears that she simply wasnt familiar enough with the grassroots elements of MAGA. Many within the movement have agreed that if Trump had advised his supporters to refrain from getting the vaccine, the pharmaceutical and globalist establishment would have escalated the spread of the patented man-made virus, and blamed Donald J. Trump for the deaths of millions. Their plan was to delay the vaccine altogether.

Keep in mind that until Trump initiated Operation Warp Speed, it was reported that an effective vaccine would take an entire decade or more to fruition, leaving us with the ravages of a destroyed global economy, meaning the collapse of businesses, joblessness, homelessness, broken families, mental illness, suicide, drug and alcohol addiction, and the overall destruction of what Americans value most in their day-to-day lives, only to be then coerced into the nefarious Great Reset in order to pacify their despair. Instead, by swiftly introducing the vaccine, its been the opinion of many that this is why Donald Trump now boasts that hes saved millions of lives. Which, as the aforementioned scenario never came to pass, he did.

Because Trump stood his ground in support of Operation Warp Speed, Candace pushed to the point of insult and lost his favor. Upon losing his favor he was suddenly deemed out of touch.

Today Owens is uploading lighthearted videos urging American women to give up yoga pants as their go-to for casualwear. Like everyone else, shes got an opinion ranging from the Kardashian clan to casualwear. Nothing wrong with this. But pop-culture utterings remain a far cry from a voice that had the potential to move beleaguered masses. She attracts non-thinkers, the same Americans who remain glued to mainstream media and dont have a clue with regard to the globalist onslaught corrupting and destroying our nation.

Owens has become a diminished Black presence in the America First movement who will not be missed.

Janet Walters Levite

Truth Social: @JanetLevite

ladylevite@aol.com

Image: Gage Skidmore
There's recently been a lot of loose talk about the looming possibility of a global great power conflict being foreshadowed by the Russia-Ukraine War. Of particular concern is the quality of American readiness  or the lack thereof.

We were warned back on January 17, 1961, when outgoing President Dwight D. Eisenhower referenced the "Military-Industrial Complex" as an independent force within our nation. If anybody could've been an expert on that subject, it was he. As in most aspects of our government's operations, achievement is not often measured by actual results, but by the amount of money appropriated. Outfits such as Boeing and General Dynamics have long been sucking up a huge amount of the federal budget.

Next to frigates, destroyers are just about the most expendable type of warship. But now we have the stealth destroyer USS Zumwalt...which cost about 4 billion dollars to construct. Yeah, it's hard to locate with radar, but still, it's way too expensive to throw into harm's way. A classic demonstration of this dilemma concerned the WW2 Japanese super-battleship Yamato. Yeah, it had 18-inch guns  but it went out to sea only once, before they realized how dangerous things were. For the rest of the war, it was kept close to the Japanese shore.

Some pundits warn that aircraft carriers are obsolete for the same reason: too many eggs in one basket. For example, our newest carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, cost $12.8 billion to construct plus $4.7 billion in research and design. Meanwhile, we are seriously short of the manpower necessary to put enough boots on the ground to actually make a difference in a real conflict  largely due to non-competitive military pay and benefits when compared to other lines of work. Conscription as a back-up has become fairly obsolete. Our military is now so technologically sophisticated that conscripts can't be adequately trained within their compulsory time of service...but "lifers" can be trained, long before they retire.

One may think radio-controlled drones are now the cutting edge of war-fighting technology, but a Croatian immigrant to America named Nikola Tesla published an article in the June 1900 issue of Century magazine that accurately described such technology. This was three years before the Wright Brothers. Drones, however, are nowadays quite significant, as they are both effective and fairly cheap. Imagine a window left open at the Kremlin, which allows a small drone to enter and then seek and destroy ol' Vladimir. Just hypothesizing.

Though sabers are being rattled all over the world, there is little true enthusiasm for a major conflict. The problem is that there are few, if any, convenient escape routes from the battlefield available to the various regimes pounding the table. Any reasonable cost-benefit analysis would conclude "don't do it." This is roughly the scenario, laced with profound dread, that preceded the first World War...yet history teaches us that it wasn't a sufficient deterrent.

What is not mentioned enough is that, in conventional war, the advantage tends to be with the defense. I learned this while reading about the Battle of the Bulge, AKA the Third Reich's last gasp in WW2. The Yanks and the Brits started taking serious casualties only once they turned around and went on the offensive. This seems to at least partially explain Ukraine's numerical success thus far.

Then, of course, there's the nuclear issue. What prevailed during the Cold War remains in place. Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) effectively kept the Soviets and the USA from going to blows...directly. Yeah, proxy wars were fought, but we're all still here to talk about it.

What is scary about Russia and China is not actually their military capabilities, but rather their lack of internal political conflict. They are dictatorships and are thus devoid of the constraints imposed by the need to constantly maintain public support. Hitler and his ilk relished their opponents being "flabby democracies."

Back to the Cold War. We spent decades under the threat of nuclear annihilation. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, I remember being in algebra class when the teacher announced that she was not giving us a homework assignment...since we may not be on Earth tomorrow. At least one student shrieked. A neighbor, just up the street, had a fallout shelter built beneath his driveway. Being structurally unsound, it collapsed and left a huge crater that kept cars from getting into and out of the garage.

What's in store for us? Of course, it's a crap shoot. But I will continue to rely on the normal human tendency to try to avoid catastrophe. The real danger, as mentioned, is the continuing existence of powerful dictators. Some countries are still tightly controlled by such vicious fiends...but some are fortunately not able to project much in the way of destructive force. North Korea and Iran can be added to Russia and China, just to round things out. Oh, yeah, there's also Venezuela, but it's mostly just capable of sending out streams of political refugees.

Technology has long aided totalitarian despots. Hitler was a pioneer in the use of amplified public address equipment to mesmerize enormous outdoor audiences. Nowadays, the "surveillance state" is rendered more protected from organized dissent than it ought to be. But there are limits. Radio Free America was a serious challenge during the Cold War. Cell phones and the internet are making sort of a dent in today's world.

Image via the Department of Defense.
The attorney who prosecuted a 26-year-old child-molester has been suspended by Los Angeles D.A. George Gascon. "Hannah" Tubbs, the convicted child-molester, started calling himself a woman only after DNA evidence linked him to a previous crime, according to law enforcement sources.

Shea Sanna, who had been the lead prosecutor for part of the case, was suspended after being accused of misgendering and "deadnaming" Tubbs, who, speaking of deadnaming, is now also accused of beating Michael Clark to death with a rock in a wooded area in Kern County.

Unbelievable. At least I wish it were.

Perhaps if the Unabomber had identified as a female and a prosecutor had subsequently "misgendered" or "deadnamed" him, his case would have been thrown out and the guilty prosecutor disbarred.

Sanna claims that jailhouse phone calls show that Tubbs was attempting to use gender identity to game the justice system. This accusation apparently made others in Gascon's office uncomfortable, which led to Sanna's suspension.

Sanna, however, stated: "I was suspended for speaking out against the Gascon Administration. Misgendering Tubbs while informing them that they were being played is just their excuse for the suspension."

Tubbs has a lengthy criminal history in California  and Idaho  under his given name, James Tubbs, and allegedly began identifying as female after being arrested in connection with a 2014 child molestation case in which he pleaded guilty to attacking a 10-year-old girl in a Denny's bathroom stall. Gascon's office sought to have Tubbs, now 27, placed in a juvenile facility because he had committed that crime prior to his 18th birthday.

Sanna says that, shortly after sending a tweet critical of former Gascon adviser Alisa Blair's handling of a different case, he discovered he was the subject of a complaint filed on Blair's behalf. He told Fox News Digital, "So it wasn't when I first 'misgendered' Tubbs. [Blair] did it in retaliation. Part of it, the reason why I'm suspended, is because I called out Tubbs to the administration and said I have recordings of him making up the name, gaming the system, joking about it and the date that it was made up. And I had reports where he's referring to himself as a 'grown ass man.'" Not a "trans woman."

Fox News Digital had previously obtained jailhouse recordings of Tubbs explicitly admitting that it was wrong to attack a little girl but gloating over the light punishment he had received. He reportedly boasted that nothing would happen to him after he pleaded guilty, due to the well known leniency with which Gascon treats juvenile defendants. Tubbs even laughed at the possibility that he wouldn't have to go back to prison or even register as a sex offender.

(The Fox News story, from which I gleaned much of the information informing this post, dutifully refers to the convicted child-molester, accused murderer, and alleged "trans woman," as "her." I can't do that.)

Image via Pexels.
Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler wrote that former President Donald Trump is not responsible for the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

On Feb. 3, 2023, a Norfolk Southern train derailed in East Palestine. About 38 cars derailed, and a fire ensued, damaging 12. Several of them carried vinyl chloride, a hazardous chemical shown to cause liver cancer.

The Biden administration's response to the incident has received criticism after transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg took weeks to visit East Palestine. President Joe Biden has yet to go.

White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates blamed Trump for the train derailment.

"Congressional Republicans and former Trump Administration officials owe East Palestine an apology for selling them out to rail industry lobbyists when they dismantled Obama-Biden rail safety protections as well as EPA powers to rapidly contain spills," he told USA Today.

On ABC's "The View," host Joy Behar blamed Trump voters for the incident.

"I don't know why they would ever vote for him, for somebody who, by the way, he placed someone with deep ties to the chemical industry in charge of the EPA's chemical safety office. That's who you voted for in that district. Donald Trump, who reduces all safety," she said.

In his analysis, Kessler wrote that the regulatory changes made during the Trump presidency are not responsible for the train derailment in East Palestine.

"From our analysis, none of the regulatory changes made during the Trump administration at this point can be cited as contributing to the accident," Kessler wrote.

Kessler noted that in 2017, the Trump administration repealed an Obama-era policy that would have required electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) brakes on long trains. The Biden administration has made no effort to reinstate the policy. The train that derailed in East Palestine did not have ECP brakes.

Therefore, according to Kessler, the policy's repeal in 2017 had a "minimal" impact on the incident.

Kessler determined that by the time the train's crew activated its emergency braking system, the train had already derailed.

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) chair Jennifer Homendy also dismissed claims that Trump was responsible, explaining that ECP brakes would not have prevented the derailment.

This means even if the rule had gone into effect, this train wouldn't have had ECP brakes.  Jennifer Homendy (@JenniferHomendy) February 17, 2023

Kessler also cited a 2020 Trump rule that extended the time a freight train could park with its air brake system depressurized before requiring a new brake inspection. He concluded that the rule's implication in the accident was "unclear," writing that there "is no determination yet that the braking system played a role in the accident."

Regarding the number of crew present, the Trump administration withdrew a proposal in 2019 that required two crew members on all trains. Kessler noted that the derailed train had two crew members and a trainee on board.

Kessler analyzed other Trump-era reversals like minimum rail safety requirements, recurring safety audits, and deregulation of ethylene oxide, finding that Trump's decisions minimally impacted or had no impact on the East Palestine train derailment.

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.
In January, Janet Yellen and a host of Democrats warned American citizens that the U.S. had hit its debt limit. The Treasury Department would have to jump through hoops to pay bills, and in June the nation would default on its $32 trillion albatross deficit. The media and others said the blame for such a disaster would fall squarely on congressional Republicans shoulders if they didnt raise the limit. From CNN:

The Treasury Department said Friday the US could default on its debt as soon as June, setting up one of the first major battles on Capitol Hill after Republicans took control of the House. The US will reach the debt limit on January 19 and then extraordinary measures will need to be taken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wrote in a letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. She said that the Treasury Department will pursue those measures, but they will only last a limited amount of time. It is unlikely that the government will exhaust its cash and the extraordinary measures before early June, though she said there is considerable uncertainty around that forecast, Yellen wrote. She urged lawmakers to act in a timely matter to increase or suspend the debt limit.

But in the same breath, Janet Yellen in late February bragged that she would be giving $10 billion to Ukraine. We are handing out money to Ukraine like candy. From where do they think they get this money? Not once have I seen Yellen tell Biden, Zelensky, or anyone else that were on the verge of catastrophic default. See this headline from Breitbart: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen Says U.S. Will Provide $10B to Ukraine in Coming Months.

In December, the Democrats had control of the House and the Senate, and with the help of some idiot Republicans, passed a huge spending bill that had to come almost entirely from borrowed money. Yet Yellen and Biden didnt tell the Democrats that they should increase the debt limit before they committed to that spending. Nope, they cheered for the spending. Did they just want a campaign issue? Seems like it.

Biden and Yellen keep boasting about how great the economy is because of Bidens policies  so why do they think college graduates are too broke to pay back their loans? Why hasnt Yellen demanded that the students start paying back the money since that costs the government billions each month in reduced cash flow? Where is the demand that colleges control their costs?

I havent seen where Yellen paused new student loans since we have hit our credit limit.

Why hasnt Yellen demanded that Biden enforce immigration laws since the open borders policy obviously costs billions each month. Where is that money coming from since Biden hasnt seemed to ask for appropriations?

Why hasnt Yellen put a moratorium on projects that havent yet started?

Why did Yellen travel to Ukraine since we are out of money?

They sure love to politicize and address crises as theyre unfolding, but never do they seek to implement policies that prevent such doom.

Are they lying to get an unlimited credit line? Biden, Schumer, and the other Democrats have voted against raising credit limits multiple times in the past.

Why isnt the media calling out Democrats for their blatant hypocrisy? The answer is they dont care. They also want unlimited spending and dont care how much that harms the current and future generations.

No wonder the public doesnt trust the media and other Democrats  theyre the party of destruction.

Image: Free image, Pixabay license, no attribution required.
A little known, though highly controversial, Islamic teaching is back in the news. According to a Feb. 21, 2023 report, Diyanet, Turkey's highest religious (and therefore Islamic) institution

opened a special section on its fatwa website about earthquakes and answered the question of "Can children of earthquake victims be adopted?" The fatwa stated that it is not right for foster families to treat adopted children like their own children and that "there is no barrier to marriage between the adopter and the adopted child." The fatwa mounted criticism on social media and many public figures reacted against the Diyanet's response. Journalist Fatih Altayl also reacted to the Diyanet's fatwa on his Twitter account, saying: "We understand that you are really perverts, but what are you doing in an institution like the Diyanet? Perverts. Go into the porn industry. Don't pollute the institution established by (founder of modern Turkish Republic) Ataturk to give people proper religious knowledge with your perverted imagination."

Diyanet responded by opening a lawsuit against the journalist for "insulting our presidency and its employees with derogatory expressions."

The controversy amounts to this: Islam bans adoption, and Islam's clerics, as they often do, are trying to find a loophole. Rather than adopt, a man may "marry," concluded Diyanet, a destitute child of his choosing, and that is halal  a win-win for all involved, and in keeping with Islam's ban on adoption.

This ban is more prevalent, and negatively impacts more lives, than might be assumed. In fact, just one week after the above report from Turkey appeared, on Feb. 27, 2023, Coptic Solidarity, which focuses on the plight of Christian minorities throughout the Middle East, especially Egypt's indigenous Copts, launched an "online grassroots campaign" dedicated to arguably the most infamous adoption-related case in modern times in the Muslim world.

Nearly five years ago, a Coptic priest heard cries emanating from inside his empty church. He discovered a newborn baby boy, apparently abandoned by a mother who had borne him out of wedlock. The priest entrusted the babe to a childless couple from his congregation. Considering that they had for nearly 30 years been praying for a child, they joyously embraced the boy as their own and baptized and named him Shenouda, a popular Coptic name.

For the next four years, everything went well. Shenouda became the pride and joy of his adoptive parents' lives. Seeing him as a "gift from God," they spared no care or expense on his upbringing.

Then the Egyptian state learned about this otherwise happy development and seized the four-year-old child from his loving parents' arms and sent him to an orphanage.

As with Turkey's Diyanet, although adoption is illegal in Egypt, there are state-approved ways  loopholes  for families to take custody of orphan children. In this case, however, the primary argument used by the state against Shenouda's adoptive parents' legal attempts to reclaim the boy revolves around religion. Because Islam teaches that every human is born as a sort of prototypical Muslim (until his parents conform him to their own religion), and because the religious identity of Shenouda's biological parents is unknown, he must, therefore, be considered Muslim, and entrusting Muslim children to non-Muslim parents is strictly forbidden.

Since being transferred to an overcrowded and underfed orphanage, the child was "returned" to  that is, forced into  Islam. He was issued a birth certificate marked "Muslim" under religion and stripped of his formerly Christian name and given an acceptable Muslim one, Yusuf.

Meanwhile, logic suggests that Shenouda was born to a Christian mother  or at least to a mother who thought Christians would best know how to raise her unwanted child. Otherwise, why abandon the babe in a church?

Such are the unknown casualties of Islamic law. Whether destitute children from earthquake-ravaged regions must be turned into "spouses" before they are taken care of in Turkey, or whether destitute orphans must be stripped away from loving adoptive parents because they are "infidel" Christians, here is yet another example of human suffering in the name of sharia.

Note: If you'd like to make your voice heard concerning the child Shenouda, click here and join the Coptic Solidarity petition.

Raymond Ibrahim, author most recently of Defenders of the West, is the Distinguished Senior Shillman Fellow at the Gatestone Institute and the Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

Image: RawPixel/U.S. Forest Service.
I received an email from a South African friend today, infuriated at his countrys destruction at the hands of his own governments ideology and incompetence. This was not hyperbole. In fact, the power grid is on the verge of complete collapse, which will leave people without food or water, and, when combined with South Africas decay in all other areas, may lead to civil unrest on a scale that could trigger a full civil war.

As a predicate to this post, its important to note that, since 1994, when the all-white government finally ended, all South Africas presidents have come from the African National Congress, a communist front group. Its also important to note that South Africa, although in chaotic fashion, has been bowing down before green colonialism. As I use it, that phrase means that economically fragile countries destroy their energy infrastructure to suit the climate delusions coming from affluent western nations.

Image: South Africa chaos in 2022. YouTube screen grab.

Now, all those communist and green chickens are coming home to roost in a terrible way (hat tip: Instapundit):

South Africa is on the verge of collapse amid rolling blackouts and warnings a total power grid failure could lead to mass rioting on the scale of a civil war. Western embassies including the United States and Australia have advised their citizens in the country to stock up on several days worth of food and water and be on high alert during extended blackouts sweeping the country. South Africas President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a national state of disaster on February 9 in response to the record electricity shortage, which has seen state-owned power company Eskom institute rolling blackouts  dubbed load shedding  lasting up to 12 hours in some cases.

This tweet from Joel Pollak focuses on Cape Town, which is a city that the WEF has commended for going green:

What load shedding in South Africa  looks and sounds like: Urban Square, Century City mall, Cape Town, South Africa, 4:07 a.m., February 15, 2023. The electricity from Eskom, the state-owned power company, cuts out, and then the private generators kick in. Credit: @joelpollak pic.twitter.com/XhMYvWnMlb  Joel Pollak (@joelpollak) February 15, 2023

The U.S. is taking the situation very seriously:

The US Embassy this month advised citizens to maintain 72-hours worth of supplies at home by stockpiling non-perishable food, three litres of drinking water per person per day, and medicines and first aid supplies. It comes after the US government last month warned its stakeholders in South Africa to prepare for a total collapse of the power grid, tech publication MyBroadband reported.

A Twitter thread from @#zombieland, who describes himself as living within South Africa, spells out what happened. Its long but, if youre interested, its worth reading in its entirety because we in America are going down the same socialist pathway when it comes to handling our human and natural resources.

The Biden administrations infrastructure plan does nothing to shore up essential infrastructure. Instead, as happened under Obama, its all about green. Water plans, roads, railways, and bridges are being left to decay. Meanwhile, the equity agenda may be behind the near misses plaguing our airports, which will inevitably lead to a disastrous crash.

Our electric grid isnt hardened against EMP attacks or domestic terrorism, and the green push means our aging systems are being put under enormous stress. Meanwhile, rather than buffing up nuclear power and other reliable fossil fuel, were turning to unreliable wind and solar to power all those electric vehicles leftists are demanding must dominate our roads within a decade. Leftist states are already having rolling blackouts, and Texas (Texas!) collapsed under an ice storm.

Our trains arent dead, but theyre dangerous. Theyre falling off their tracks on an increasingly regular basis, despite carrying important goods and dangerous chemicals. East Palestine is Exhibit A, but its happening all over.

Our societal collapse is also a slo-mo reflection of South Africa. In major American cities, our police are defunded and demoralized, and crime is growing at an exponential rate. This video from St. Louis exemplifies criminals confidence, although you need a strong stomach to watch.

With the Democrats having deliberately broken our economy, which they did to destroy Trump and wipe out the more conservative middle class, the number of people dependent on the government for sustenance is growing. Its augmented by the young people who have simply dropped out.

Our military is becoming a joke. Our weapons supply is swiftly depleted with no apparent replenishment plans. Meanwhile, the troops are being downgraded and demoralized through carefully applied racial and sexual policies.

Youll recognize in the following thread everything that plagues the United States. Were just not quite as far down the road yet.

2. [Part 1: Intro]



South Africa is a beautiful country and home to many unique languages and cultures, such as the Afrikaner (or Boer). We have a base load of around 70 million people, access to both sea and land trade and are considered a great tourist destination.  #zombieland (@k9_reaper) February 28, 2023

4. [Part 2: The wasteland]



Buckle up.  #zombieland (@k9_reaper) February 28, 2023

6. * Sewage treatment works - more than half are offline. And those are working, aren't effective. https://t.co/GrZfs9aEvN  #zombieland (@k9_reaper) February 28, 2023

8. * Electrical grid - by now, most of you know that South Africa is going through "load shedding". Where the government turns off large parts of the electrical grid in order to avoid grid collapse. https://t.co/25AIThjJwu



This leads to every possible issue imaginable.  #zombieland (@k9_reaper) February 28, 2023

10. * Almost every single state run enterprise (SOE), is defunct. They're literally the spitting image of Zimbabwe. ESKOM - our only power producer - is dead in the water. Averaging a 50% or less power output. https://t.co/EdUrAAYqZA  #zombieland (@k9_reaper) February 28, 2023

12. * Our rail is dead. 1/4 of our freight, gone in not even 5 years. But it's worse now.. the rail just isn't there anymore. It's gone. Stolen. Every piece of available track, copper cable and scrap metal - gone. https://t.co/uzSzjWFeE2

https://t.co/isflc68nDH  #zombieland (@k9_reaper) February 28, 2023

14. Working roads, what's that?  Our roads are basically just one giant pothole and nothing else. I don't want to repeat it, but our roads have collapsed. At some stage, they even ran out of tar to facilitate repairs. https://t.co/IEND13orNBhttps://t.co/MjqKdPQLNt  #zombieland (@k9_reaper) February 28, 2023

16. City Power - our biggest grid repairer - is almost non operational. They also no longer do Nightshift due to attacks on employees and lack of funds. They've also used up their budget for the year. https://t.co/xGYlNoWAnf  #zombieland (@k9_reaper) February 28, 2023

18. [Part 3: Societal collapse]



This is why we are where we are.  #zombieland (@k9_reaper) February 28, 2023

20. Looting is our national sport. Trucks are targeted (guerilla warfare style) and stopped on uphills. Objects are then placed behind the wheels so that the driver cannot escape. Looting then begins. https://t.co/cZfcrINHRuhttps://t.co/2cIU3F0quS  #zombieland (@k9_reaper) February 28, 2023

22. Crime. Read 



1 rape every 10 minutes.

80 murders every 24 hours.

3 - 4 kids murdered every 24 hours.

Average of 70 hijackings a day.

Average of 2500 home invasions every 24 hours.

At least 4 - 5 CIT heists every week. pic.twitter.com/HWPvw9xGxE  #zombieland (@k9_reaper) February 28, 2023

24. Societal collapse has led to the US government issuing a warning to international travelers in SA - stock up prepper style on food and water. https://t.co/6XaYMjbdsu  #zombieland (@k9_reaper) February 28, 2023

26. Every other day, a coordinated attack takes place on our water, power and comms infrastructure. Water lines are targeted, sub stations stripped out and cellphone tower batteries stolen. pic.twitter.com/Fh0wmlcmGm  #zombieland (@k9_reaper) February 28, 2023

28. There are 30 million people in this country, all receiving some form of a government grant. Our population? A grand total of 60 million. God help us. The grant for supporting children is somewhere around R500 ($28). The poor are basically being paid to have kids.  #zombieland (@k9_reaper) February 28, 2023

30. EWC and NHI. Expropriation Without Compensation - where the government takes your land and gives it to the "previously disadvantaged". NHI is basically a national health insurance thing where you use the government as a medical aid. All of this will be in play, soon.  #zombieland (@k9_reaper) February 28, 2023

32. Take some barbed wire and throw it on the ground - that's our borders. Further adding to societal issues as the undocumented hoardes swarm in. YouTube videos made by my friend, @JacquesBroodryk on behalf of @afriforum.https://t.co/RxEn0VDLeChttps://t.co/hqfEOXmPnx  #zombieland (@k9_reaper) February 28, 2023

34. [Part 4: Final outcome]



Mass unrest, decay into oblivion and public uprisings.. that will be the end of SA. Sounds bleak.. I know. But there is hope, check the next Tweet.  #zombieland (@k9_reaper) February 28, 2023

36. Institutions such as @afriforum and @solidariteit - community focused places that want only the best for our beautiful land. Communities will pull through, but only if they prepare accordingly. Normalize the discussion around the collapse of SA.. don't get eaten.  #zombieland (@k9_reaper) February 28, 2023
Treat human life as anything less than sacred, and humanity is rapidly dehumanized.

Canada's MAiD, like all medical homicide programs, is the metaphorical foot in the door, an obstinate wedge, breaking the seal of a once-closed divider. Or we call it what it is (genocide), and MAiD is like an axe-wielding Jack Nicholson in The Shining.

For context, in 2016, the year "assisted suicide" became legal, the number of MAiD deaths was 1,018. Five years later, the 2021 data showed that number at 10,064. This is a rounded 889% increase. (This datum hails from a government report on the program, which can be accessed here.) But there was also something else that stood out about the 2021 tally, entirely unsettling: it was the first year that MAiD executioners were legally permitted to kill those whose death was not likely to occur in the "foreseeable" future. They label this group as "non-RFND." In 2021, those deaths accounted for 2.2% of the total number.

Two days ago, Harbingers Daily published a report by David Fiorazo, which opened with this passage:

A Canadian Parliamentary committee is recommending lawmakers legalize euthanasia for sick and disabled children or those in Canada's child welfare system. They think those whose deaths are what they consider "reasonably foreseeable" should be able to end their own lives. Even more horrific is the fact they want children to make the decision without parental consent.

So, if we are to take any cues from historical precedent, we know that if passed, we've got about five years until leftist lawmakers legalize the murders of children without a "reasonably foreseeable" death, even if (and when) the youngins lack parental consent. Seeing as mainstream American leftism is not yet there, I'd love to have a groupthink Democrat with a moral superiority complex explain how it would "never" go that far here, then start the timer and watch in real time as the left drifts farther and farther left.

LifeNews pulled an excerpt from the lawmakers' report, which noted that the government and colluding medical establishment should consult the parents of the potential minor MAiD candidate "where appropriate," but "ultimately", the child knows best. See the text below:

That the Government of Canada establish a requirement that, where appropriate, the parents or guardians of a mature minor be consulted in the course of the assessment process for MAID, but that the will of a minor who is found to have the requisite decision-making capacity ultimately take priority.

From Thomas Paine's best known work, "Common Sense":

Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promote our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher. Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one[.]

Undoubtedly, we find ourselves afflicted by governments operating in their worst state, evidenced by the resolute push toward genocide, due in no small part to leftists and their psychopathic ideas. Without fail, the medical establishments of the Western world welcome in leftism, which ushers in eugenics and eventually state-sponsored murder.

Gee, if only we had historical examples to which we could refer...

Image: Free image, Pixabay license, no attribution required.
Between marches and AMLO's elf, the U.S. wants El Chapo's son to go north. This is from Reuters:

The United States asked Mexico's government to extradite Ovidio Guzman, son of jailed drug boss Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, so that he can face criminal charges in a U.S. court, two Mexican government sources told Reuters on Monday.

The young Guzman was captured a few weeks ago. He was allegedly running the family business, and that's why we want him up here. This is a bit about the young man some call "El Chapito":

Ovidio is one of four children El Chapo had during his relationship with Griselda Lopez in the 1980s and 90s. The oldest of them, Edgar, was killed in a cartel shootout in 2008. El Chapo also has other children from his previous marriage and from his subsequent relationship with Emma Coronel, who is also in jail in the US. Ovidio's older brother, called Joaquin after his father, is still on the run. Both brothers have been indicted by a US court on charges of conspiracy to distribute cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana.

Will Mexico comply with the request? I would think so. I don't believe that the Lopez-Obrador government wants another family member escaping from prison. It would be very embarrassing for a Mexican president calling for hugs rather than bullets.

So the countdown begins, and time will tell if one Chapo sees the other Chapo up here.

PS: Check out my blog for posts, podcasts and videos.

Image: PxHere.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 1)  President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim have agreed to boost security cooperation and trade ties following their bilateral meeting in Manila on Wednesday.

Anwar  who is in the country for a two-day official visit  said his administration will be "more than happy" to strengthen its multisectoral collaboration with the Philippine government.

"Our defense and security ties are also strong and growing. We share common borders and to an extent quite porous," Anwar said during a joint press conference with Marcos in Malacanang. "Therefore, the collaboration needs to be further enhanced."

This was echoed by Marcos, who bared that the two governments agreed to hold joint initiatives and meetings to combat "transnational crimes and terrorism."

Aside from political matters, the two leaders said they also discussed investment exchanges  particularly focusing on the halal industry, agriculture, food security, and the digital economy.

"The president [Marcos] and I also agreed that both countries should intensify efforts to increase the volume of trade and investments. We had a very good beginning but there is no excuse why we can't further increase both," Anwar stressed.

Anwar is first head of government to visit the Philippines since Marcos took office last year.

Meanwhile, Marcos also took the time to thank the Malaysian executive for making the trip, as he highlighted the same visions of the neighboring nations.

"Prime Minister [a]nd I had a cordial and productive discussion on Philippines-Malaysia bilateral cooperation, reaffirming our two countries' desire to revitalize relations," the Philippine leader said.




An elementary schoolteacher has established a new low by casting his 6th-grade pupils in a perverse skit to play out his "personal interpretation" of racial injustice in America.

Ethan Hooper, age 28, had parents in an uproar over separating children on the basis of their skin color in the classroom and then directing the white children to act subservient and to bow down to their black classmates.

The classroom lesson became the talk of the school when film footage of the event was uploaded on the social media site TikTok. There wasn't any mistaking the teacher or the location: Howard Middle School in Orlando, Florida.

It didn't take long for many parents to recognize their own children in the unauthorized film footage and accuse Hooper of using their children as "political props." Hooper was swiftly placed on an administrative leave of absence, according to a school source quoted by the Florida News outlet.

Hooper apparently wasn't shy about casting himself in the classroom exercise, which he proudly took ownership of, titling the lesson plan "POV: Point of View."

Hooper went far beyond instructing white pupils to bow and scrape before their black classmates. (The black children were also fed snacks by the white pupils.) Hooper, a self-identified supporter of "Critical Race Theory" (CRT  big surprise) took aim at Gov. Ron DeSantis's effort to prevent tax dollars from funding the highly controversial and racially charged curriculum.

Supporters of Gov. DeSantis would not miss the irony of Hooper's absurd and distorted attempt to discredit the proposed legislation, pointing to the necessity to better examine the outlandish material  including CRT  being taught in public schools.

Book-burning was the message Hooper conveyed to the children. This narrative was played out by the teacher running around the classroom and dramatically snatching books from children's hands, saying: "I'm gonna start banning these books right away." Harry Potter was among many of the books to become airborne  and ended up on the opposite side of the classroom.

The true nature of the proposed CRT legislation may never reach the ears of the adolescents. Hooper would be loath to present anything but the woke version  rendering the actual content of the legislation irrelevant in his classroom. This is a national "POV" from the majority of teachers in the public-school system.

Hooper may be more inclined to better understand the legislation now that his performance has been met with a flurry of complaints from both parents and taxpayers. He would actually get a lesson as to why DeSantis finds CRT material "offensive to the taxpayer." The governor claims that taxpayers "would be asked to fund teaching kids to hate their country and to hate each other."

The other objection from the governor is shared by top historians who are concerned that students will be misguided in their understanding of American history. "CRT ... analyzes and interprets American history and government primarily through the narrow prism of race," Gov. DeSantis said at a media conference. "As such, it distorts, rather than illuminates, a proper and accurate understanding of our nation's history." More importantly, "[i]t's also based on false history," DeSantis added.

Part of the sad fallout from Hooper's lesson plan is the vulnerability of the children who were supportive of their teacher's efforts. And they defended him. "We all agreed to it," one 6th-grader said who participated in the skit. "He didn't do anything wrong."

The sweet sentiment is that of a child who fails to realize that the teacher took advantage of the vulnerability of children. They can't be expected to understand that the teacher was engaging in not a lesson plan, but rather a propaganda campaign that subjected the children to a humiliating exercise  whether they were bowing or on the receiving end of the bows. (Some of the children were instructed to get on their knees.)

Now that he's on leave, Hooper has had the advantage of hindsight, claiming that the lesson plan was intended as something "in good fun." He's apologized profusely for upsetting parents and the school administration. "I am deeply apologetic toward the students and parents of those involved. ... I want to be an example to them."

Hooper does deserve credit for labeling the skit "POV: Point of View," which clearly sums up the intellectual integrity of the classroom exercise  and which proved to be worse than a waste of taxpayer dollars.

Image: Howard Middle School.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine triggered a lot of goodwill in the United States for the battered country on the frontiers of Europe, but Ukraine's leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, is a different story.

Instead of doing all he can to increase U.S. support for Ukraine, he's doing a heckuva job to reverse it.

His latest statement was to browbeat the U.S. into giving more  and more  to Ukraine. Seems the $46 billion already sent was not enough.

In response to a reporter's question at a press conference on the Feb. 24 anniversary of the invasion about falling popular support in the U.S. for the Ukraine war, Zelensky had this to say to those Americans:

[T]hat percentage of Americans as you've mentioned is increasing, I can tell them only one thing: If they do not change their opinion, if they do not understand us, if they do not support Ukraine, they will lose NATO, they will lose the clout of the United States, they will lose the leadership position that they are joined of the world. They are joined for a very fair reason. They will lose the support of a country with 40 million, with millions of children. Are American children any different from ours? Don't Americans enjoy the same things as we do? I don't think we are that different. nd I'm very happy we have bipartisan support, but we keep hearing those messages from time to time and very dangerous. There are political leaders that are elected by people and if this issue is raised, those political leaders need to be responsible and cautious because people are looking at them. Who wants a third world war? Would anyone risk, would anyone be willing accept that risk? The U.S. is never going to give up on the NATO member states. If it happens though that Ukraine due to various opinions and weakening and depleting of assistance loses, Russia is going to enter Baltic states, NATO member states, and then the U.S. will have to send their sons and daughters exactly the same way as we are sending [their - may be translation error] sons and daughters to war, and they will have to fight, because it is NATO we are talking about and they will be dying, God forbid, because it's a horrible thing. I would like to thank all of the American people that are supporting Ukraine, the Congress, the president, the TV channels, the journalists, and everyone who has been supporting us.

That doesn't seem like much of a pitch to gain support for the war as he's perimetered it out.

Let's go back to how this situation evolved: prior to the invasion, Zelensky had a monster at his border and prepared no significant defense or deterrence.

He publicly insisted that the Russians wouldn't dream of invading when even the CIA openly warned him that it was coming.

His nation wasn't a member of NATO, because Germany said it is too corrupt.

He's now got a full blown war on his hands yet refuses to negotiate with Russia, which in its mind has legitimate security concerns, historic claims on the region, and a still wounded psyche following the breakup of the USSR. No negotiations whatsoever  just total victory or nothing, as if he had the resources to achieve that.

Russia actually made a pretty reasonable suggestion prior to the invasion: that Ukraine pledge not to join NATO and stay neutral, which has worked out well for countries such as Austria, but Zelensky was headstrong in insisting that Ukraine's sovereignty would be negated if that happened.

He seemed to be convinced that NATO would bail his country out even without a membership card, and well, under Joe Biden, it has, so now that he's got the U.S. on his string (the rest of NATO other than the U.K. is insignificant and nearly useless), he's demanding even more.

And his demands aren't about to stop. Anyone who opposes them is going to bring the U.S. into a world war, so such people need to "change their opinions," and never mind the matter of his acting like a little dictator to us, let alone any prospect of him cleaning up his act.

The entire press conference can be viewed and heard here  notice the gentle and conciliatory tone Zelensky employs to the skeptical Romanian journalist, concerned about the costs of the war and bordering Romania's role in it, which has been largely to host refugees.

That's in sharp contrast to his browbeating tone directed against ordinary Americans.

He's shown similar ingratitude toward Elon Musk, which I wrote about here.

Do something nice for him, and watch the insults eventually come.

Instead of yelling at ordinary Americans for not wanting to get into an extended war, or even a nuclear conflict with Russia, which are the issues here, he ought to be taking a good look at himself and start doing things that might raise his support from Americans.

Where are his open books about all the money spent so that Americans can see whether this massive amount of U.S. aid has been spent on defense or wasted on consultant contracts and crony pocket-lining?

Where's his transparency on the Hunter Biden affair, where cash was shoveled out to Joe Biden's drug-addicted son in exchange for influence with "the big guy"? What of the reports that the records were destroyed?

Explain why he's so interested in associating with the Beautiful People, from Vogue photo shoots to reports like this.

So apparently Olena Zelenska, wife of Ukrainian President Zelensky, spent 40.000 during a 1-hour visit to a store in Paris on Avenue Montaigne while visiting France to plead for more financial support for Ukraine.....

 pic.twitter.com/Qvd0OqYlT8  Richard (@ricwe123) February 28, 2023

Maybe he can tamp that stuff down for a little while to get the war over with before his wife goes shopping?

Why is he unwilling to negotiate with Russia? The weak guy in any conflict is normally always willing to negotiate.

More to the point, why is his government still so undemocratic and worse still, so corrupt?

TIPP Insights has an excellent, must-read analysis on why American support for Ukraine is falling based on this, and a string of other matters, noting:

The average American who cannot place Ukraine on a map or has to work two jobs to keep his family afloat does not want to be held responsible for a conflict that occurred 5,000 miles away. Drawing false equivalencies between the likes of American and Ukrainian children  to drive home another emotional, conscience factor of support will likely fail. Most Americans believe that the sooner the fighting stops, territorial integrity issues aside, the killing and the suffering will cease. The end of the war could also mean more affordable gas and groceries  a possibility that millions of Americans would wholeheartedly welcome. Beltway politicians and the media may not care about the hidden costs of the Ukraine war, but the average American does. The tide will further shift with GOP presidential candidates sounding the alarm on how the U.S. government is spending more resources in Ukraine and less in East Palestine or the southern border.

That's about the essence of it as far as popular sentiment goes. TIPP Insights warns that American support for Ukraine has limits, and those limits are being reached at this point, with public support going downward. They point out that Zelensky repeatedly attempts to scold Americans into supporting his government based on a "conscience" argument, attempting to tell us we are moral degenerates if we don't support his way of doing the extended war.

We still see no negotiations. We still see a fountain gusher of money flowing outward to Ukraine even as Americans suffer the Biden economy and watch as the territorial integrity of the U.S. goes unprotected with his open border.

Now we hear that we are the bad guys if we don't keep shelling out for Ukraine, even if that pipeline we are shelling out through is full of holes, and we don't see a lot of progress in Ukraine as a result.

Might Zelensky start doing things differently if the $46 billion in aid isn't good enough for his grand dreams? That never occurs to him.

Humility doesn't seem to be in his game, and he's got a lot to be humble about.

Good luck winning that American support with these kinds of arguments. The more he talks, the sooner the day comes when the U.S. aid spigot shuts down.

Image: Screen shot from Townhall video via YouTube.
On a rocky outcrop high above the Mulde River in the small town of Colditz in Saxony, Germany, sits the massive Colditz Castle. Once the former residence of kings of Saxony, this fortress was turned into a maximum security prisoner-of-war camp during World War 2 for incarcerating incorrigible Allied officers who had repeatedly attempted to escape from other camps. The castles location above the hills coupled with its impenetrable stone walls made the Germans believe that Colditz offered no hope for escape. They were wrong. A surprising number of inmates managed to sneak out of this prison.

Colditz Castle. Photo: SKOMP46866/Wikimedia

Colditz Castle was originally built during the 11th century as a hunting lodge for the King of Saxony, and served as the residence of the noble House of Colditz for the next several centuries. After suffering damage in the early 16th century from a major conflagration that consumed a large part of the town, the castle was rebuilt in the Renaissance style. The castle was expanded in the late 17th century by then owner, King Augustus the Strong of Poland, into the 700-room-strong structure that we see today. In the early 19th century, Frederick Augustus III, Elector of Saxony, turned the castle into a workhouse to feed the poor, the ill, and persons who had been arrested. Later, the castle became a mental hospital for the incurably insane, a role in which it stayed until 1924. When the Nazis gained power, the castle was converted into a political prison for communists and dissidents. After World War 2 broke out, the castle became a POW camp called Oflag IV-C (officer prison camp 4C).

The Germans regarded Colditz Castle as a prison from which escape was impossible. This thousand-year-old fortress stood in the heart of Hitler's Reich, six hundred kilometers from the nearest enemy camp. Its outer walls were two meters thick and the cliff on which it was built had a sheer drop of seventy-five meters to the River Mulde below. The Germans decided that only the most difficult prisoners will be held thereinmates who had previously attempted to escape from other prison camps, and those who were generally known to make trouble. But herding all the troublemakers together in one place proved to be an embarrassing mistake.

If you put a lot of naughty boys together, they egg each other on and pretty soon, your house is on fire, said historian Ben Macintyre. This is what happened at Colditz: it developed its own culture of defiance.

Officers pose with a dummy inmate which they could hold up during head counts to cover for a fellow prisoner who escaped. Photo: IWM

More than 300 escapes were attempted from Colditz Castle during the five years it served as a POW camp, of which some thirty got away clean. Prisoners called them the home runs. Most were recaptured, brought back to the prison and thrown into solitary confinement as punishment. The head of security, Reinhold Eggers, was a good natured fellow, who dealt with the escapees in a light-hearted way. He would take photographs of the prisoners' disguises, often instructing them to re-enact their attempts, and take photographs of their escape paraphernalia and display them in the castles Escape Museum. These escapees became a regular feature of Das Abwehrblatt, a weekly magazine for German POW camps.

So many attempts to escape were being made that the prisoners had to establish a sort of escape committee with escape officers coordinating the various groups so they would not ruin each other's escape attempts.

One of the most famous escapes was executed by British officer Airey Neave. One night after a theatrical production, Neave and an accomplice got themselves under the floor of the theater through a trap door, ran along an access tunnel, and got inside a German guard house after picking the lock on the door. There, they exchanged their clothes with fake German uniforms and walked out of the front door. They walked across the moat, down a little path, past the barracks, and climbed over the wall and got out. They made it safely to Switzerland.

A failed escapee demonstrates for the prison photographer how he attempted to escape.

The shaft of an escape tunnel located below the chapel. Photo: Johnny Saunderson

Another brazen escape was by a French aristocrat named Pierre Mairesse-Lebrun. Leburn got an accomplice to catapult him over the fence when the guards were not looking. After landing on the other side, Lebrun ran up the hill, while being shot at by the guards. He walked about 70 miles to the nearest station, stole a bicycle, then cycled along the autobahn and miraculously managed to smuggle himself across the border into Switzerland.

Other attempts were not as successful, but they did make great stories, especially those by British RAF officer, Dominic Bruce, who made a record seventeen attempts to escape from various POW camps, including several attempts from Colditz Castle. Known as the medium-sized man because of his small stature, Bruce once hid himself inside a wooden tea chest and after it was stowed away on the third floor, Bruce used a file to cut open the chest and then using a 40-foot rope made of bed sheets rappelled down the sides of the castle to make his escape. Before he left, he scribbled a message across the wall of the storeroom with a piece of chalk: The air in Colditz no longer pleases me. See you later! He was recaptured a week later trying to stow aboard a Swedish ship in Danzig.

The tea chest used by Dominic Bruce to escape from Colditz. Photo: Dominiclagan/Wikimedia

Tunneling was another favorite activity among the inmates. There was one period when, in fact, there was something like six different tunnels being built, Ben Macintyre told CBC.

One of the longest tunnels was dug by the French. It began at the top of Colditz's clock tower, descended two floors of basement cellars, then went horizontally underneath the wooden floor of the chapel, with several more vertical descents until the tunnel was 28 feet below the ground. The tunnel was just 6 feet away from the edge of a cliff before they were discovered. The tunnel had electric lighting along its whole length and ventilation system. They even rigged up a telephone system as an early warning network, so that if the German guards appeared, they could warn the tunnelers.

Perhaps the most ambitious escape plan involved building a glider with the intention of launching off from the roof of the castle and flying across the river Mulde. The glider was the brainchild of two British pilots, Jack Best and Bill Goldfinch. The audacious idea was supported by other inmates including glider expert, Lorne Welch, who reviewed the stress diagrams and calculations. The prisoners tore up floor boards and bed slats and every other piece of wood they could obtain to build the glider. Control wires were made from electrical wiring taken from unused portions of the castle. Prison sleeping bags made of cotton were used to skin the glider, and German ration millet was boiled and used to seal the cloth pores. The completed glider had a wingspan of 32 feet and fuselage of 19 feet. It weighed 109 kg. The glider was kept hidden in the castles attic, but before it could be used to facilitate a dramatic escape, the war ended and the castle was liberated.

The only known photo of the original Coldlitz Glider. Photo: IWM

The escape stories from Castle Colditz have inspired many books and television dramas, including several board games and video games. There is even a Melbourne-based music band named Colditz Glider.

Today, much remains of this wartime castle, which was refurbished and restored during the early 2000s to recreate the castles appearance as it was prior to World War II. Visitors to the castle can see the escape tunnels dug by the prisoners, the forged papers and false uniforms. There is also a replica of the glider.

In 2012, a radio-controlled, full-sized replica of the Coldlitz glider was built and flown unmanned. It made it safely across the river and landed in a meadow 180 meters below.

References:

# Ben McIntyre on Colditz: "The reality of Colditz is much more interesting than the black-and-white moral fable", History Extra

# From tunnels to gliders, WW II prisoners tried everything to escape Colditz Castle, CBC
Recent reports bring to light claims that stolen Activision data is currently on sale on the dark web. The security breach that made this data available to hackers happened last year. Now the hackers responsible for the breach are putting up the stolen data for sale.

Those affected by the security breach are mainly Activision employees. Their personal information such as names, email addresses, phone numbers, and private addresses was revealed after this breach. According to the available reports, this hack revealed over 20,000 employee records.

If that figure is correct, then the data breach impacted more than the already known 13,000 Activision workforce. This security compromise is a big issue and a threat to employee data protection. But, Activision claims that the security breach is not serious.

Stolen Activision data mainly comprises employee personal data

In December 2022, Activision got hit by a security breach. This gave away some personal information about the gaming companys employees. The hackers responsible for this breach claimed that they pulled it off using the Activision content delivery network on the Azure platform.

Advertisement

To get Activision employee data, the hacker made use of a process that is known as smishing. This is simply an SMS phishing campaign that aims at making the target reveal their personal information. Sadly, an HR employee at Activision fell for this shady trap, hence revealing the personal information of other workers.

Through this means, the hacker made away with the personal data of over 20,000 employees. Now, these employees face the threat of their information getting into other wrong hands. This is because the hacker is currently offering this data to users of a certain hackers forum.

Activision has now come out to say that no employee data was stolen during this security breach. The company is still yet to respond to the hackers threatening to sell the stolen data. This is despite some cybersecurity researchers gaining access to the Activision employee data up for sale on the dark web.

These researchers claim that the hackers stole more than employee data. Information on upcoming games such as marketing material was also stolen in this security breach. Activision says that such marketing data isnt important and assures its customers that their personal information remains intact.
A few months ago, the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 series was launched globally, along with the Galaxy S flagship series. Following this launch event, the laptop series made its way to some regions for purchase, while leaving out other areas. But now, this new laptop series from Samsung is finally available in India via the companys official retail store.

Samsung fans in India can now purchase any laptop from the Galaxy Book 3 series. All options are available on the Samsung official website in India with trade-in offers. The features and pricing of all laptops in this series place them in the flagship category.

So if you live in India and have a flexible budget, you can check out the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 series. Even if you do not have a flexible budget, there are payment pays that you can work with. Samsung also offers benefit deals with purchasing any Galaxy Book 3 series laptop.

Samsung Galaxy Book 3 series specifications and price in India

This series is made up of four laptops, each coming with different specifications and features. The highest model in this series is the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra and it packs all the best features. Below it is the Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 with its massive 2-in-1 screen display.

Advertisement

Next is the Galaxy Book 3 Pro which comes with two screen size options. The Galaxy Book 3 360 is the base model of this laptop series. All four options come with a similar design language that stands them out from the competition.

For their specifications, the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra comes with a 16-inch touchscreen display. It also uses the 13th Gen Intel Core i9-13900H processor and 32GB RAM capacity. This laptop comes with 1TB and also features the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 graphics processor.

The Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 comes with a 16-inch touchscreen convertible display. There are two processor options on this laptop, the Intel Core i5-1340P and the Intel Core i7-1360P 13th Gen processors. It also packs 16GB worth of RAM and optional 512GB or 1TB storage capacities.

Moving down the ladder is the Galaxy Book 3 Pro which comes with two screen size options. It comes with either a 14-inch or a 16-inch touchscreen display for buyers to choose from. This laptop entry comes with two processor options, the Intel Core i7-1340P and the Intel Core i7-1360P from the 13th Gen series.

Advertisement

Lastly, the Galaxy Book 3 360 comes with a 15-inch touchscreen display. It also features two processor options, the Intel Core i5-1340P and the Intel Core i7-1360P, both from the 13th Gen series. The Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360, Galaxy Book 3 Pro, and Galaxy Book 3 360 all come with the Intel Iris Xe graphics processor.

These laptops retail at 114,990 Rupees ($1391) for the base model and 281,990 Rupees ($3412) for the Ultra model. All options in the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 series run on Windows 11 Home and bring cross-device connectivity features. Additionally, they all come with the Graphite colour as standard on all models. Samsung fans in India can now head over to the companys official website and place an order for any of these laptops.
Google Fi has dropped US Cellular as an official network partner. T-Mobile is now the only supported network for the Google-owned MVNO (mobile virtual network operator). US Cellular may still be accessible through roaming on Google Fis Extended Network, though.

When Google launched its MVNO service in 2015, it relied on T-Mobile and Sprints networks for providing wireless services to its customers. The company added US Cellular as its third network partner in the following year. With the merger of T-Mobile and Sprint in 2020, Google Fi users once again had only two network options two choose from. Google didnt bother adding more options. Instead, it is now trimming the list to just one carrier.

The company hasnt officially announced this change yet. But its customer support recently told users that support for US Cellular has been dropped. US Cellular is no longer an official network for Google Fi, but may still be accessible through roaming on our Extended Network, Google Fi customer support responded to a user query (via). The MVNO has also discontinued its dialer code for manual switching to the carrier.

What this means for users is that they will not be able to manually choose a network. T-Mobile is the only option. Earlier, Google Fi would not only let users manually select a network but also automatically switch to the best possible wireless signal between T-Mobile and US Cellular in areas where both networks are available. That automatic switching isnt available anymore either.

Advertisement

Thankfully, Google Fi is still offering access to US Cellular when T-Mobile isnt available. You will also be able to connect to the former network when roaming internationally without incurring any additional charges. But when both networks are available, you will automatically fall to T-Mobile, even if US Cellular has a better signal. You can check Google Fis coverage map here to see where its 4G, 5G, and Extended Network are available.

Google Fi recently made its phone plans more attractive

Google Fi is dropping support for US Cellulars network less than a year after it announced a price cut. In April last year. the MVNO reduced prices of its phone plans by up to $10 per month depending on the number of lines. It also added new perks to make its service more attractive to prospective customers. Users get more high-speed data, hotspot tethering, and support for additional data-only SIMs. It remains to be seen if Google Fi adds a new network partner in the future.
Samsung is rolling out the One UI 5.1 update to the Galaxy Z Flip and Galaxy S21 FE in the US. The rollout began recently and may take a few days to reach all eligible users across the nation. The new One UI version has already been rolled out to these phones in most international markets.

The Galaxy S21 FE started getting the One UI 5.1 update in Europe around the same time as the Galaxy S22 series and the latest Samsung foldables. Users in the US, meanwhile, got an update with only the February security patch a couple of weeks back. The story was the same for the regular Galaxy S21 models. The new One UI version was missing for all of them. Last week, the Korean firm released One UI 5.1 for the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21+, and Galaxy S21 Ultra stateside. The FE model has now joined the party too.

As of this writing, Samsung is pushing the big update to the carrier-locked variants of the Galaxy S21 FE in the US. We can confirm the rollout on Comcast and Verizon networks. Users on other carriers should also get the update within the next few days. The factory-unlocked units shouldnt be left behind for much longer either. The new firmware build number for the phone is G990USQU4EWAI (carrier-locked units). The firmware version for the unlocked variants may vary slightly but they will get the same goodies.

Speaking of goodies, this update contains plenty. While the security patch remains on February 2023 (the March patch isnt available yet), One UI 5.1 brings a host of new features and improvements to your Galaxy device. As Verizon mentions in its release notes, the update brings enhancements to the Camera, Gallery, Wallpaper, Widgets, Samsung Internet, multitasking, and more. Bixby Text Call now supports English, while Samsung Notes allows remote collaboration via Google Meet.

Advertisement

Galaxy Z Flip is also getting One UI 5.1 in the US

All of these goodies and security enhancements are also rolling out to the first-gen Galaxy Z Flip in the US. Samsung is currently updating the LTE model of the original Flip to One UI 5.1. The update comes with firmware versions F700USQU5IWB1 (carrier-locked) and F700U1UEU5IWB1 (unlocked). It should soon be available for the Galaxy Z Flip 5G as well. As usual, you can go to Settings > Software update and tap on Download and install to check for updates manually. This is probably the last major update for the Galaxy Z Flip. It will not get Android 14.
In an effort to reduce its reliance on Taiwan and outcompete China in chip manufacturing, the Biden administration has launched the CHIPS for America funding program worth $39 billion. The programs objective is to establish the US as the primary choice for leading chip manufacturers, with numerous cutting-edge logic fabrications and DRAM manufacturing facilities set up by the decades end.

Authorized under the CHIPS and Science act, the Biden administration has divided the program into several rounds of funding opportunities. The first opportunity, which opens for applications on March 31, 2023, will focus on constructing, expanding, or modernizing commercial facilities for the production of current-generation, leading-edge, and mature-node semiconductors.

Strict guardrails in place

To ensure that the companies use the funding efficiently and for the right purposes, the government has put guardrails in place. Firstly, companies cannot use the funding for stock buybacks or to pay out dividends. Secondly, payments will be tied to meeting specific milestones to ensure that funding is used in a way that aligns with the programs vision for success. Finally, companies requesting more than $150 million in funding will need to provide childcare for their construction and factory workers and share part of their profits with the government if they make more than projected.

While the first round funding opportunity focuses on commercial facility construction, the program will introduce additional funding rounds in the spring and fall to increase investment in chip-making materials and research facilities. With Samsung and TSMC already onboard to establish factories across the US, the CHIPS for America funding opportunity is a vital step in boosting the US semiconductor industry and contributing to economic recovery and national security.

Advertisement

Todays Notice of Funding Opportunity is a crucial step to unleashing the promise of the CHIPS and Science Act to create good-paying jobs right here at home and end our dangerous dependence on semiconductors manufactured abroad, said Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ).
Samsungs One UI 5.1 rollout continues today with the update reaching the Galaxy A52 5G and the Galaxy Tab S7 series. The new One UI version has already been rolled out to dozens of other flagship and mid-range models, including the Galaxy S22 series, Galaxy Z Fold 4, Galaxy A53 5G, and the Galaxy Tab S8 series.

The Galaxy A52 5G seems to be initially picking up One UI 5.1 in Asia. As of this writing, Samsung hasnt updated its update tracker to reflect the rollout. But a user sent screenshots to SamMobile showing that the phone is getting the big update in the UAE. The new firmware build number for the phone in the region is A526BXXU2EWB1. The rollout should soon cross boundaries to other markets, including the US. The One UI 5.1 update should also be available for the 4G-only Galaxy A52 in the coming days. Note that the 4G model wasnt released in the US.

For users with a Galaxy Tab S7 or Galaxy Tab S7+, the One UI 5.1 update arrives with firmware version T***XXU2DWB2 (via). Those asterisks (*) will change according to your model and connectivity variant (Wi-Fi or cellular). Samsung is already pushing the release widely in Europe and South Korea. The update should go global very shortly. The Galaxy Tab S7 series arrived in the US too. As said earlier, the Korean firm has already released One UI 5.1 for the Galaxy Tab S8 series. By the looks of it, The Galaxy Tab S7 FE is the next in the pipeline. We will keep you posted.

One UI 5.1 brings tons of goodies to Galaxy devices

One UI 5.1 is the latest iteration of Samsungs Android-based custom software. Debited with the Galaxy S23 series last month, the new version brings enhancements to the Camera, Gallery, Samsung Internet, Samsung Notes, Widgets, Wallpapers, Bixby Text Call, and multitasking features. The Galaxy A52 5G and Galaxy Tab S7 are also getting the February security patch with this release. It fixes more than 50 vulnerabilities, including a few critical ones.

Advertisement

All of these new features and security enhancements will reach Galaxy A52 5G, Galaxy Tab S7, and Galaxy Tab S7+ users around the world within the next few weeks. As usual, the firmware version will vary depending on the model and market, but the content will largely remain unchanged. You can check for updates manually from the Software update section in the Settings app of your Galaxy device.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 1)  President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is pushing for the use of biofertilizers in the agriculture sector as the government seeks to lessen the importation of fertilizers.

During his meeting with agriculture officials on Tuesday, Marcos admitted that local producers are totally dependent on petroleum-based fertilizer, which is costly for farmers.

Now, we are going to introduce biofertilizer to our farmers and teach them how to use it," he said. "And hopefully, this will ease our concerns when it comes to the supply of fertilizer. And we can fully control the availability of biofertilizer."

The president said the shift will not immediately mean farmers would stop relying on non-organic fertilizers, such as urea.

There will still be a mix But, we will lessen our dependence on importation when it comes to fertilizer supply, he explained.

In a statement, the Presidential Communications Office said the Department of Agriculture conducted trials on biofertilizers, which can be produced locally.

During his state visit to China, Marcos also secured deals with Chinese producers to lower the prices of fertilizers.




(ANSA) - ROME, MAR 1 - Italy's foreign population stood at just over 6 million at the start of 2022, marking a rise of 88,000 over the previous year according to the 28th annual report on migration presented by the ISMU Foundation in Milan on Wednesday.

Irregular immigrants accounted for 8.4% of the total foreign population, down from 519,000 at the start of 2021 to 506,000 last year. The drop is due to progress made in the amnesty for undeclared foreign workers launched by Italy in 2020, the ISMU report said.

Some 242,000 permits of stay were issued in 2021 according to ISMU estimates, more than twice the number issued in 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic stemmed the number of arrivals.

Roughly 6 in 10 foreigners came from outside the European Union, with the largest population groups as of 1 January 2022 represented by Moroccans (408,000), Albanians (397,000), Chinese (291,000) and Ukrainians (230,000).

Sea arrivals to Italy in 2022 rose by 55.8% to 105,129 over the previous year, with 20,542 arrivals coming from Egypt, 18,148 from Tunisia and 14,982 from Bangladesh. (ANSA).


TEL AVIV - Clashes between protesters and police are taking place in numerous cities in Israel on the "day of disruption" in protest against the reform of the justice system wanted by the right wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu. The initiative - that takes place at the same time that the Knesset examines provisions that are part of the reform - has planned a long series of protests (even in front of the homes of members of Parliament representing the majority party in government), road blocks and strikes at job sites and schools across the country with the slogan "Israel will not become a dictatorship".



The main incidents are taking place in the center of Tel Aviv, where approximately 4,000 protesters - who continue to repeat the word "democracy" - blocked the Shalom train station area. Following orders of the Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, agents are scattering protesters by force with squibs, police agents on horseback and also with water cannons.



As the situation worsens on the ground, the left wing members of the opposition abandoned the on-going debate at the Knesset in Jerusalem and are converging toward Tel Aviv to join protesters. Other protests are planned for the evening in front of Netanyahu's residence in Jerusalem.



"The right to protest is not equivalent to the right to anarchy", affirmed Netanyahu commenting some incidents taking place since this morning in many Israeli streets. "We cannot accept violence against police agents or the obstruction of various streets and flagrant violations of the laws of the State", added the Prime Minister.



"Netanyahu: the only anarchy is the one generated by a government that is out of control", replied the opposition centrist leader Yair Lapid, who then blamed the Premier for having nominated Itamar Ben Gvir, of the extreme right party Otzma Yehudit (Hebrew power) Minister of National Security.



"The person who allowed Ben Gvir to play with explosives knew fully well that there would have been an explosion". But at the Knesset Netanyahu's reply was immediate. "We've understood that there are people here who are directing the anarchy. The name of this person is Yair Lapid. This person - according to the Premier - is trying to create a crisis of power. He wants a Constitutional crisis to return to the voting booths".




ROME, 1 MARCH - The total number of victims of the collision of two trains in Greece has gone up to at least 40 people, many other passengers are still missing, according to the Greek state TV ERT. While many wounded are in critical condition, ERT stated that between 50 and 60 persons are still missing. According to rescue workers, cited by the Greek media, the wounded are approximately 130. Among those hospitalized in intensive care at the Larissa hospital, six are between the ages of 20 and 25, reports the ERT website.



Roubini Leontari, the chief physician at Larissa Hospital, declared to local media that 35 bodies recovered from the wreck in Tebi, near Larissa "at this time they are at the morgue while the transfer of more bodies continues. Some bodies were completely carbonized and are unrecognizable, for the most part it is young people".




Carrie Johnson recalled her fear over black cab rapist John Worboys planned release from jail as she spoke in support of the campaign to keep Joanna Simpsons killer behind bars.

British Airways captain Robert Brown bludgeoned his wife Ms Simpson to death with a claw hammer in their family home in October 2010 as their two young children cowered in a playroom.

The killer was acquitted of murder but admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and is due to be freed from prison on licence later this year.

Joanna Simpson (Thames Valley Police/PA)

Mrs Johnson joined Ms Simpsons mother, Diana Parkes, on Wednesday at the launch of a campaign aimed at urging Justice Secretary Dominic Raab to intervene to block Browns automatic release.

She spoke of her ordeal at the hands of Worboys after he was jailed indefinitely in 2009, with a minimum terms of eight years, and gave evidence against him at his trial.

Speaking on Wednesday evening at Westminster Chapel in central London, she said: I remember Hetti (Barkworth-Nanton, Ms Simpsons close friend) and Diana describing themselves as sitting ducks, powerless to do anything, and I knew that feeling from my own experience.

When I found out the taxi cab rapist John Worboys was due to be released much earlier than we thought, with no explanation as to why, I remember feeling really scared.

Carrie Johnson and Joanna Simpsons mother Diana Parkes in Westminster for the launch (Kirsty OConnor/PA)

Mrs Johnson described the case as another instance in which the law was badly letting the victims down and failing to do its job to protect women.

But she added that, having campaigned for a judicial review of the Worboys case which led to him being kept behind bars, she believed there was hope for change.

She urged Mr Raab to intervene, saying: Surely, common sense must prevail.

Mrs Parkes has warned that Brown will be very bitter when he enters the community, having lost his job, his high earnings and his children, who she says never want to see him again.

Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie at the launch (Kirsty OConnor/PA)

She said on Wednesday: Most of his life before prison has been stripped away and he wont be able to contain his anger and will seek revenge.

The 83-year-old grandmother described the killing as a life-changing tragedy which has altered my whole familys life forever, leaving my grandchildren, aged nine and 10, without a loving and caring mother.

Former prime minister Boris Johnson made a surprise appearance alongside his wife at the event, where speakers also included shadow domestic violence minister Jess Phillips, former Home Secretary Priti Patel and former Justice Secretary Robert Buckland.

Ms Phillips has also thrown her weight behind the campaign, saying it was unfathomable that Brown, with his history of domestic violence, would be let out of prison.

Carrie Johnson, Priti Patel and Jess Phillips in Westminster (Kirsty OConnor/PA)

The Queen Consort is among others who have supported Mrs Parkes wider campaign to tackle violence against women, previously citing her as the inspiration behind her work with domestic abuse victims.

Camilla called last year for more action to address violence against women when she appeared alongside Ms Parkes at Clarence House for Womans Hour and BBC Breakfast.

The Justice for Joanna campaign urges supporters to write to their local MP asking them to put pressure on (Justice Secretary) Dominic Raab to take this case seriously and do the right thing  for Jo, for her family, for all women and girls.

Robert Brown (Thames Valley Police/PA)

Mr Raab has invited Mrs Parkes to meet with him next week to discuss the case, which he says he will be reviewing carefully.

Brown, who believed he was stitched up by a prenuptial agreement with 46-year-old Ms Simpson, was cleared of murder by a jury at Reading Crown Court in May 2011.

He was sentenced to 24 years for manslaughter and a further two years for an offence of obstructing a coroner in the execution of his duty.

The Ministry of Justice has been contacted for comment.
A detective who withheld information from Sheku Bayohs partner after he died while being detained by police has told an inquiry that race played no role in his actions on that day.

Detective Inspector Graeme Dursley led Police Scotland officers on the delivery of the initial death messages to the 31-year-olds family, and the searches of properties.

The inquiry in Edinburgh, which has so far cost almost 10.5 million, is investigating the circumstances of the trainee gas engineers death in Kirkcaldy on May 3 2015, and whether race was a factor.

Sheku Bayoh who died in police custody in May 2015 (PA)

Mr Dursley previously told the inquiry of his regret after he and a colleague decided not to tell Mr Bayohs partner Collette Bell that he was in police custody when he lost consciousness on the day he died.

Mr Dursley, who joined the police in 1996, told the inquiry: I would hate for the public to think that me as a police officer or the team that Im working with would have done anything different on that day because Mr Bayoh was black.

He said if race did play a factor with other officers involved you would want to get that dealt with and youd want to get that person.

Mr Dursley told the inquiry that, while he was protective of the police, that would not impact upon his ability to investigate.

Although Im saying Im a police officer, I love the police and everything like that, I have also investigated police officers, he said.

The officer withheld information from Sheku Bayohs partner Collette Bell, the inquiry heard (Andrew Milligan/PA)

I also know theres not good police officers, thats why Im saying you keep an open mind and if there is something that they have done that was wrong, I would be more than happy to arrest a police officer.

If the circumstances dictated, I would do that.

He also told inquiry he could have handled the situation better.

The officer, a detective sergeant at the time of Mr Bayohs death, told senior counsel Angela Grahame KC on Wednesday that on reflection there were improvements that could have been made.

The 44-year-old detective said: I think the biggest thing is the liaising and the updating of the family, is the biggest thing for me.

Being accurate and providing them information I think sooner. Thats the biggest thing.

Detective Inspector Colin Robson (Screengrab/PA)

Chief Inspector Colin Robson, 43, began his evidence on Wednesday afternoon. He was the duty senior investigating officer on the day Mr Bayoh died and arrived at the scene at about 7.24am, minutes after an alert was raised on the police radio.

Mr Robson, who was a detective inspector in May 2015, said he very quickly realised somebody was on the ground when he arrived at Hayfield Road where Mr Bayoh was detained and said the father-of-two did not appear to be moving when he arrived.

The inquiry heard he was told the knife, which Mr Bayoh had been in possession of, had been found and police batons were also at the scene. He instructed that these should be recorded and collected.

He said when he first arrived at the scene, he was under the impression we didnt need to preserve them in situ and the matter had concluded and that it was the appropriate thing to do.

Officers took the pictures of the items on their personal mobile phones, which he described as a culture because of difficulties getting other cameras to the scene at the time, and said he initially thought that the police would soon be leaving after Mr Bayoh had been taken into police custody.

But Mr Robson later told the inquiry: The knife and the equipment should have been left in situ, and if I had my time again that would have been the case.

The inquiry, before Lord Bracadale, continues.
Disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell has lodged an appeal against her sex-trafficking conviction  claiming victims had faded, distorted and motivated memories.

The 61-year-old was found guilty by a jury of luring young girls to massage rooms for paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein to molest between 1994 and 2004.

She was sentenced to 20 years in prison at the federal court in the Southern District of New York in June last year.

In a filing with the second US circuit court of appeals in Manhattan on Tuesday night, Maxwell outlined her reasons for lodging her appeal, which her lawyers have said are based on errors by the trial court and the US government, who brought the charges against her.

Maxwell was convicted of trafficking young girls for paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein to abuse (US Department of Justice/PA)

She has called for her conviction and the underlying indictment to be thrown out, or failing that, a new trial or a re-sentencing.

Maxwells attorneys said in the filing: The government prosecuted Ms Maxwell as a proxy for Jeffrey Epstein.

It did so to satisfy public outrage over an unpopular non-prosecution agreement and the death of the person responsible for the crimes.

In its zeal to pin the blame for its own incompetence and for Epsteins crimes on Ms Maxwell, the government breached its promise not to prosecute Ms Maxwell, charged her with time-barred offenses, resurrected and recast decades-old allegations for conduct previously ascribed to Epstein and other named assistants, and joined forces with plaintiffs attorneys, whose interests were financial, to develop new allegations out of faded, distorted, and motivated memories.

Maxwells attorneys outlined a number of issues she will be using as grounds for appeal  including her prison conditions leaving her unable to meaningfully assist in her own defence case during the trial.

The former socialite also argued the US government breached a non-prosecution agreement by bringing the charges against her  claiming the agreement immunised Maxwell for these offences.

Maxwell has been incarcerated since July 2020, despite numerous attempts from her defence counsel to have her released on bail (TalkTV/PA)

Jurors heard prosecutors describe Maxwell as dangerous during her three-week trial in December 2021, and were told details of how she helped entice vulnerable teenagers to Epsteins various properties for him to sexually abuse.

But her attorneys argued she did not have a fair trial after it emerged one of the jurors, Scotty David, had failed to disclose he had been sexually abused.

Her lawyers also argued the court had refused to correct the jurys misunderstanding of elements of the charges  meaning Maxwell was convicted of crimes with which she was not charged.

Maxwell has been incarcerated since July 2020, despite numerous attempts from her defence counsel to have her released on bail.

Epstein was found dead in his cell at a federal jail in Manhattan in August 2019 while he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges.

The death was ruled a suicide.
Kate Forbes has hit back at her SNP leadership rival Humza Yousaf, who appealed to fellow candidates not to abandon the partys progressive agenda.

Ms Forbes, who is Finance Secretary, said she agreed with Mr Yousafs comments that the policies were key to the SNPs success in recent years.

The leadership hopeful is competing against Mr Yousaf, the Scottish Governments Health Secretary, and former community safety minister Ash Regan to replace Nicola Sturgeon as the next first minister.

And when asked for her response to Mr Yousafs comments, she said: I agree with him.

However, she said her proposals were not at all a shift away from those progressive party ideas.

She told the PA news agency: I think it is very progressive to believe in the inherent dignity and humanity of every human being in Scotland and to ensure that when they need care, and when they need medical assistance, they can access that free at the point of need.

If were serious about eradicating poverty, which I am, if were serious about reinvesting in our public services, which I am, then we need a growing an prosperous economy.

You cannot eradicate poverty and reinvest in our public services at the level that we need to if we dont have a growing and prosperous economy.

This is about profits with purpose. Its about a growing economy with a view to reducing poverty in Scotland and reinvesting in our public services.

Ms Forbes spoke to journalists as she visited the Highland Home Carers in Inverness on Wednesday.

Scottish National Party leadership candidate Humza Yousaf said it would be foolish to abandon the SNPs progressive agenda. (Andrew Milligan/PA)

On Tuesday, Mr Yousaf told PA that he believed in a wellbeing economy and appealed to his leadership rivals to support the policies that have taken the partys support to dizzying heights.

He said: I believe in a wellbeing economy. I believe of course in economic growth, but not for its own sake, in order to make sure that peoples living standards increase, to make sure we can pay people properly so they can withstand the shocks of things like the Tory cost-of-living crisis.

I would say to any of my colleagues in the leadership race that the SNP has managed to gain support to dizzying heights because of the progressive agenda that we have.

I think it would be foolish to abandon that.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 1)  The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on Wednesday reported that the oil spill in waters off Oriental Mindoro has expanded to six kilometers long and four kilometers wide.

The slick, which the PCG described as black and thick with a strong odor, was located near Balingawan Point in Naujan, Oriental Mindoro.

It said oil dispersants have been sprayed in the area after the Marine Environment Protection Unit observed black and thick oil in the collected water samples.

The PCG also confirmed that MT Princess Empress, the tanker that capsized on Tuesday due to engine trouble, has completely sunk.

MT Princess Empress was transporting 800,000 liters of industrial oil from Bataan to Iloilo when it drifted toward Balingawan Point due to rough sea conditions.

The coast guard said it will form a crisis management committee as the oil spill assessment and response operation continues. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) previously said it was also monitoring the situation.

Aside from BRP Melchora Aquino, the PCG said it will also deploy BRP Habagat to serve as a marine pollution platform.

Calls for action

A marine life conservation coalition called on the government to urgently act on the oil spill that would negatively impact food security specifically in the fisheries sector.

Protect VIP, a group that seeks to conserve the Verde Island Passage (VIP), said the oil slick may not only hinder the growth of marine life in the area but also affect the livelihoods of local fishermen.

We are calling on the government to expedite clean-up operations to minimize the damage and allow the people who depend on the riches of the sea to resume their normal activities, it said.

The group claimed that at least 2 million Filipinos, including fisherfolk and those in the tourism industry, rely on the biodiversity and resources of VIP, which has been called the center of the center of shore fish biodiversity.

In a statement, Greenpeace Philippines also urged the government to end its dependence on fossil fuel as part of its commitment to environmental protection and hold to account oil, coal, and gas corporations.

The fossil fuel industry must pay for their businesses direct impacts on our environment, as well as the massive loss and damage resulting from the impacts of the climate crisis, said Greenpeace Philippines campaigner Jefferson Chua.

Fossil fuel corporations are morally obligated to make the shift to renewable energy sources  and, based on their record profits last year, have more than enough capacity to do so. We demand that these companies acknowledge the danger they are putting us in, pay climate reparations, and stop further expansion of their toxic operations, he added.
Michael B Jordan was praised for his journey from man to god as he was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame.

The US actor and director said he was humbled and grateful to be receiving the honour, and acknowledged what the moment represented for the black community.

Jordan began his career under the direction of Ryan Coogler in the 2013 film Fruitvale Station, and the pair went on to work together multiple times, including on Marvels blockbuster franchise, Black Panther.

Coogler also directed Jordan in two of the Creed films and produced the recent third instalment, Creed III, which was Jordans directorial debut.

Michael B Jordan at a ceremony honouring him with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP)

Both Coogler and Jordans Creed III co star, Jonathan Majors, gave remarks at the Walk of Fame ceremony in Los Angeles on Wednesday.

In a poetic speech, Majors compared Jordans journey to the 12 labours of Hercules, saying he dealt with it with a mythic effort and a god-like integrity.

At the end (of the Hercules myth) he goes 12 rounds and the gods come down and they take him to Mount Olympus, and he transforms from man to deity from, temporary to eternal, he said.

Today, brother, you go from man to god. You sit amongst Olympus.

Jordan praised both Coogler and Majors in his own speech, as well as thanking his family and reflecting on his own professional journey.

Im extremely humbled and grateful to be here, he said.

Its not lost on me on how special this moment is and what this represents to our community. So, from the bottom of my heart, I want to say thank you.

Growing up in Newark, New Jersey, the idea of receiving an honour like this was like a dream. But Ive always been a dream chaser and never been afraid of hard work.

Addressing Coogler, he continued: To say I appreciate you, Ryan, would be an understatement. My gratitude to you for believing in me is never ending.

I want to say thank you to my brother, Jonathan Majors, for joining me on this crazy journey, supporting me here today, getting me all teary-eyed.

It was a true honour to watch you and your genius every day from behind the camera, and in a way, you made it harder for me to hop in front of the camera and sock you in the face every once in a while.

He added: When youre constantly on a journey, (you) very rarely stop and smell the roses and take in the moments.

Im always moving on to the next thing (with) this fleeting feeling of time slipping away from me.

For the first time in a really long time, Im taking this moment in. Thank you.

Aside from his extensive body of work, Jordan has been recognised as an industry leader invested in bringing social change to Hollywood through his work and philanthropy.

Michael B Jordan has been praised for his philanthropy (Ian West/PA)

In 2016, he launched Outlier Society, a cutting-edge production company focused on bringing an eclectic and inclusive line-up of diverse stories and voices to market.

In 2019, with the support of the Obama Foundation and My Brothers Keeper, he launched the Outlier Society Fellowship, to help create more opportunities for under-represented backgrounds or communities.

Along with social justice organisation Color of Change, Jordan also launched the #ChangeHollywood initiative in July 2020, which began a roadmap to invest in anti-racist content and authentic black stories and talent.

He was named one of Time Magazines 100 Most Influential People of 2020, as well as Peoples Sexiest Man Alive in the same year.

Awarded in the category of Motion Pictures, Jordans star is the 2,751st on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

It is located at 6201 Hollywood Boulevard.
A frustrated care worker who will lose 147 in wages in order stay at home with her disabled child while teachers are on strike, said her daughter is upset by the change to her school routine.

Children are again missing lessons as many schools around Scotland closed on Wednesday for the second day in a row as members of the NASUWT and Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) unions walked out in the latest national strike action.

Michaela Lillysue, a 33-year-old care worker from Scotland, says she will lose 73.50 a day to stay at home and care for her child who has ADHD and a motor disorder.

Michaela Lillysue, a 33-year-old care worker from Scotland, who said she will be losing her wage of 73.50 a day to stay at home and care for her child who has ADHD and a motor disorder (Michaela Lillysue)

I have a child with disabilities and being out of school doesnt help her as it causes her upset as her normal routine is not there, she told the PA news agency.

She added that, as a care worker, she does not get a good rate of pay and cannot strike like teachers across the UK because of a duty of care for the patients she is caring for.

Ms Lillysue said: As a single parent, if the schools are on strike and I cant get childcare, I cant work, so I lose out on pay and Im not working (Tuesday or Wednesday) which is seven hours of a days work I lose out on.

The only childcare I have is my mum, but she also looks after my nana, so some days she cant look after them due to my nanas needs, as my daughter has high needs too.

I will just have to try to pick up extra shifts to make it up.

Brian Thompson, a 69-year-old driving instructor from Montrose, Scotland, is also finding it really difficult after he cancelled 12 driving lessons due to the strikes, losing 270 in earnings.

Driving instructor Brian Thompson, who had to cancel driving lessons to look after his 11-year-old granddaughter (Brian Thompson)

Mr Thompson is caring for his granddaughter while her mother works during the day.

He worries that he will not have any way to catch up on the driving lessons that have been missed.

Mr Thompson told PA: Most people have certain days where they can take a lesson; the kids at the school, theyll have free periods, or theyve got days at their college where theyre not able to take a lesson. So thats restricted.

Some of the people at college just manage maybe a Tuesday and Thursday in the evening, but thats already booked up.

So, Ive got no way of catching back up with these lessons unless I get a cancellation offer from one of the other students. But again, it all depends on what their timetables are.

Mr Thompson is finding it difficult to sympathise with the teachers who are striking.

He said: I would almost like to say Im sympathetic to the people that are striking, but I am not striking for a wage rise, and Im paying the same bills as everybody else.
Energy suppliers must be ready to pass on cuts to wholesale energy prices to consumers, Grant Shapps is set to warn.

The Energy Secretary is expected to use a speech at Chatham House in London to put suppliers on notice as he sets out his aim of ensuring the UK has amongst the cheapest wholesale electricity prices in Europe.

It comes as Downing Street indicated measures that could see households face a 20% hike in energy bills from April are being kept under review, with the energy price guarantee cap set to rise from 2,500 a year for the typical property to 3,000 in April.

The creation of the new Department for Energy Security and Net Zero at the start of February came amid fresh commitments from the Government about a new drive towards greater energy independence amid the backdrop of the war in Ukraine.

In his speech, Mr Shapps will link the need to achieve net zero to overall energy security, calling them two sides of the same coin.

He will stress the importance of making the most of our position as a world leaders in renewables and nuclear technology, pointing out that homegrown sources of energy will shield households from the worst excesses of the volatile global fossil fuel markets.

Families have seen the impact on the pounds in their pockets of (Russian President Vladimir) Putins illegal march on Ukraine a year ago  and it has opened the worlds eyes to just how vulnerable we are to tyrants like him, he will say.

Working towards this overarching goal of cheaper wholesale electricity will mean we will be powering Britain from Britain, increasing our energy security and independence  the kind of independence that comes from having the four biggest wind farms off our shores.

Mr Shapps, taking aim at Extinction Rebellion and other climate activists, will say: Energy security and tackling climate change are ultimately two sides of the same coin.

And it will be this  not the eco-extremists like Extinction Rebellion causing disruption and dismay  that will have people voting with their feet as they see the benefits of achieving net zero.

The speech comes after Mr Shapps met with US energy secretary Jennifer Granholm for the first time this week.
Teachers in the Midlands and eastern regions of England will strike on Wednesday in a long-running dispute over pay.

It is the second day of regional walkouts by the National Education Union (NEU) after teachers took strike action in the north of England on Monday.

The NEU has estimated that around 200,000 members across England and Wales will strike over three days of action this week, with the majority of schools expected to either restrict access to pupils or fully close.

Picket lines will be mounted outside schools in the East Midlands, West Midlands and eastern regions in England on Wednesday, and rallies are due to be held in Birmingham, Cambridge, Leicester and Nottingham.

Further strikes by teachers are planned across Wales, the south of England and London on Thursday.

Last week, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan invited the teaching unions to formal talks on pay, conditions and reform on the condition that this weeks walkouts were suspended.

Ms Keegan has called the unions decision not to suspend the regional strikes hugely disappointing.

But Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney, joint general secretaries of the NEU, have accused the Government of burying its head in the sand as they claim underfunded pay increases have pushed the profession to its limits.

They said: We reiterate once again that we are willing to enter negotiations at any time. Teachers want to be in the classroom, not the picket line.

The Education Secretary needs to withdraw her unnecessary pre-conditions and get around the negotiating table.

(PA Graphics)

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders union NAHT, said: While its difficult to predict the exact impact of strikes in schools this week, there is likely to be significant localised disruption.

School leaders will be considering what approach to take for those schools affected, based on their individual circumstances and risk assessments.

He added: It is very disappointing that the Government has not been more willing to act to prevent strikes by bringing something of substance to the table for discussion. For all the hours of talks we have conducted thus far, they have not offered any tangible move on pay, which is what is required.

Mary Bousted, centre, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, joins members at a rally in central Manchester on Tuesday (PA)

Further national strikes by NEU members in England and Wales are planned for March 15 and 16.

On February 1, the first day of walkouts by NEU members, the majority of state schools in England were forced to shut their doors to some pupils.

Some 44.7% of schools in England were open but with restricted attendance on February 1 and 9.3% were closed, Department for Education data suggested.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: The impact of this weeks strikes will likely be similar to that of the national strike on February 1, when the majority of schools were partially open but there was still significant disruption.

He added: There is an overwhelming sense of frustration among school leaders that so little progress has been made in the last month in terms of resolving the industrial dispute.

The lack of urgency from the Westminster Government compared to the administration in Wales is notable and dispiriting. Its time to dial down the rhetoric and engage in serious negotiations.

Schools across Scotland face more closures on Wednesday as members of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) and NASUWT unions embark on their second day of national strike action this week in a row over pay.

It comes after EIS members took three days of targeted strike action in four areas represented by key politicians, including First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, last week, and it also follows national strike action involving several unions in January and late last year.
The NHS in England will miss key targets for recovery of the health service, including treating people for cancer, MPs have said in a damning report.

The cross-party Public Accounts Committee said the plan for tackling Covid backlogs, set out by NHS England and the Government last year, was already falling short and was based on over-optimistic assumptions about low levels of Covid and minimal pressure on the health service this winter.

The report said: NHS Englands three-year recovery programme for elective and cancer care is very ambitious, relies on innovative but relatively untested approaches, and is already falling short of expectations in its first year.

Waiting times for cancer treatment are especially worrying. In the first five months of the recovery period the proportion of people receiving timely cancer treatment has decreased.

(Peter Byrne/PA)

Only 62% of cancer patients were treated within 62 days of their urgent referral by a GP, when performance should be 85%.

It is now clear that the target to reduce the number of people waiting for more than 62 days following an urgent GP referral to the pre-pandemic level will not be met by March 2023.

It is also clear that, for elective care, the planned route to increasing activity to 129% of pre-pandemic levels by 2024/25 is unachievable.

The report said that being so off track means more patients are left waiting too long, and added that cancer waiting times are at their worst recorded level.

It also criticised a dearth of advance planning to ensure the NHS has enough staff and enough capacity for extra diagnostic tests and treatments  much of which was already needed before the Covid-19 pandemic.

MPs said that, for the recovery plan to succeed, the capacity of adult social care must improve so people can be discharged from hospital in a timely way.

In addition, there needs to be more clarity on how large the workforce needs to be and how long it will take to reach these levels through sufficient domestic training.

(Jeff Moore/PA)

NHS England has committed to publishing an NHS workforce plan by April 2023.

Labour MP Dame Meg Hillier, who chairs the Public Accounts Committee, said: Despite a significant cash injection meant to begin to help the recovery from the pandemic, the NHS is in full-blown crisis and all the metrics are going in the wrong direction.

On the evidence we have received the NHS will not achieve the targets in its recovery plan, and that means health, longevity and quality of life indicators will continue to go backwards for the people of this country.

That is simply shameful, and totally unacceptable in a nation as wealthy as ours.

Sir Julian Hartley, chief executive of NHS Providers, said: Trust leaders are working extremely hard to tackle the backlogs and have made remarkable progress towards eliminating 78-week waits by April given the mounting pressures they face.

However, a very tough winter, the impact of industrial action and vast workforce shortages are just some of the challenges threatening to undermine these efforts.

The Government opening talks with all striking unions will be key to resolving pay disputes and averting more strikes.

The national workforce plan, which needs to be fully funded by the Government, should also go some way to address staff shortages and equip the NHS with the resources it needs.

(Jeff Moore/PA)

Sir James Mackey, national director of elective recovery at NHS England, said there were a number of factual errors in the materials produced by MPs.

He added: The milestones set out in the plan, published just over a year ago, were based on widely shared and agreed assumptions about low prevalence of Covid.

Even though there have been much higher levels of Covid, NHS staff hit the first milestone, virtually eliminating two-year waits, and have made significant progress on the second by cutting the number of 18-month waits by over a quarter in the last month  facts that have been ignored in this release.

On cancer, thanks to the efforts of the NHS, record numbers are coming forward for checks, allowing staff to do the clinically correct thing by prioritising the most urgent cases  the health service cannot help those who do not come forward.

As ever, we need the public to know that the NHS is there for them and people should continue to come forward for the care they need if they have health concerns.

Liberal Democrat health spokeswoman Daisy Cooper said: The public has lost all faith in the Conservative Government and can now see that its targets simply arent worth the paper theyre written on.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokeswoman said the NHS has already made strong progress in tackling the Covid backlogs, adding: We are working to reduce the 62-day cancer backlog  which has fallen 9% since peaking in 2020  but we know there is more to do.

We have opened 92 community diagnostic centres that have delivered over three million tests, scans and checks to detect cancer and other conditions as early as possible, with 19 more opening this year.
Remains have been found in an area of woodland following a major search for Constance Martens two-month-old baby.

Hundreds of officers from the Metropolitan Police and Sussex Police, as well as search and rescue volunteers, scoured 90 square miles of land near Brighton over the course of two days in search of the infant.

On Wednesday evening, Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford told reporters a babys remains had been found close to where Marten and her partner Mark Gordon were arrested on suspicion of child neglect on Monday.

The pair had been avoiding police for several weeks and were detained by officers on Stanmer Villas in the city, but the child was not with them  sparking a widespread search in the Sussex undergrowth.

Helicopters, sniffer dogs, drones and thermal imaging cameras were all deployed during the two-day operation.

As the investigation continued, police became more concerned the child had come to serious harm and the couple were eventually rearrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter.

Confirming the discovery at Sussex Police headquarters, DS Basford said: It is my very sad duty to update this afternoon, police officers searching a wooded area close to where Constance and Mark Gordon were arrested, discovered the remains of a baby.

Constance Marten was arrested in Brighton on Monday (Greater Manchester Police/PA)

A crime scene is in place and work at the location is expected to continue for some time.

This is an outcome that myself and that many officers who have been part of this search had hoped would not happen.

I recognise the impact this news will have on many people who have been following this story closely and can assure them that we will do everything we possibly can to establish what has happened.

DS Basford said a post-mortem examination would take place in due course.

Marten and Gordon refused to divulge information on the location or welfare of the baby while they were held in custody, leading to the extensive search operation.

Detectives said they had found a babys remains on Wednesday (Jordan Pettitt/PA)

Detectives were granted a 36-hour custody extension by Brighton magistrates earlier on Wednesday.

After a car belonging to Marten, 35, and Gordon, 48, was found on fire abandoned next to the M61 in Bolton on January 5, police began a lengthy search for the couple.

Inquiries revealed Marten, who comes from an aristocratic family with royal connections, had given birth recently  possibly one or two days before the incident  and had not been assessed by medical professionals.

Greater Manchester Police established the family had left the car and the motorway safely.

They used taxis to first travel to Liverpool, then Harwich in Essex, and on to east London, before arriving in Sussex on January 8.

Gordon and Marten were rearrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter on Tuesday (Greater Manchester Police/PA)

The couple avoided detection by only making payments in cash, hiding their faces on CCTV and often moving around at night or in the early hours of the morning.

At around 9.30pm on Monday, a member of the public  who recognised Marten and Gordon from media appeals  dialled 999 after spotting the pair withdrawing cash at a convenience store in Hollingbury Place.

Officers arrived at the scene and detained the couple six minutes later.

CCTV footage from just before they were caught appears to show Gordon, who served 20 years in a US jail for rape and battery, limping and using a large stick to walk.

Throughout the time the couple were missing, police appealed to them to get their baby medical attention, and raised concerns that the family had been sleeping rough in freezing temperatures.

The area searched by officers for Constance Martens baby (PA Graphics)

Both Martens parents made public pleas through the media, and police offered a 10,000 reward for information leading to the couple being found.

The Sun reported that Marten and Gordon used Brighton food bank last Wednesday, but did not ask for baby supplies  which were available  and did not have the baby with them.

They also did not buy any baby supplies from a convenience store shortly before they were arrested.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has faced fresh calls to scrap death trap smart motorways.

Labour MP Sarah Champion highlighted figures suggesting 79 people have been killed on such roads.

Around 10% of Englands motorway network is made up of smart motorways.

They involve various methods to manage the flow of traffic, such as converting the hard shoulder into a live running lane and variable speed limits.

But there have been long-standing safety fears following fatal incidents in which vehicles stopped in live lanes without a hard shoulder were hit from behind.

Ms Champion, whose Rotherham constituent Jason Mercer was killed on a smart motorway in South Yorkshire in 2019, told the House of Commons: To date, 79 people have been killed on smart motorways.

Last January, the Government said it would pause their rollout.

Claire Mercer, whose husband Jason was killed on a section of smart motorway on the M1, near Sheffield (Danny Lawson/PA)

The Prime Minister said smart motorways are unpopular because they are unsafe. We need to listen to drivers and stop with the pursuit of policies that go against common-sense.

Since then three new schemes have gone live with three more expected shortly.

Prime Minister, especially during a cost-of-living crisis, how do you justify pushing ahead with these death trap roads?

Mr Sunak replied: Safety on our roads is our absolute priority and we will do everything we can to make sure drivers do feel safe.

Last year, we in fact paused the rollout of smart motorways not already in construction while we consider the data and next steps.

In the meantime, weve committed almost 900 million for safety improvements across the entire network.

In January 2022, the Government paused the expansion of motorways where the hard shoulder is used as a permanent live traffic lane.

This was to enable five years of data to be collected to assess whether they are safe for drivers.

Also on Wednesday, the Commons Transport Select Committee heard that a sticking-plaster approach has been used to try to improve smart motorways.

AA president Edmund King told MPs its costing something like 900 million for National Highways to install additional emergency refuge areas (ERAs), stopped vehicle detection technology and more signs.

He described the roads as a system that was brought in on the cheap to try and save money but has put lives at risk and also congestion at risk.

He went on: That is one example of really poor policy over the years, and theres just been this sticking-plaster approach.

Can we make it slightly better? Can we put in a few more ERAs? Can we put in a bit more technology even though that technology is not working?

The decision should have been made 10 years ago to stop this nonsense.

Drivers hate driving on smart roadways.

Its an example of patching up rather than having this real vision of what you want from the road network.
Scientists believe they have uncovered the earliest insects to be covered in pollen, dating back to around 280 million years ago.

Palaeontologists in Russia discovered fossil remains of ancient earwig-like insects, known as tillyardembiids, in a lagoon near the village of Chekarda, about 1,600km from Moscow.

These tillyardembiids, which hail from the Paleozoic era from around 542 to 250 million years ago, were found covered in pollen from seed-producing, non-flowering plants known as gymnosperms.

This was long before flowering plants became more common, sometime between 100 to 50 million years ago.

Tillyardembia fossil with enlarged area showing pollen attached to its body (Alexander Khramov/Russian Academy of Science)

The scientists said their findings, published in the journal Biology Letters, predate the earliest known pollen-covered insects by 120 million years.

They also believe the behaviour of these tillyardembiids could be seen as a precursor to insect pollination.

Dr Alexander Khramov, a senior researcher at the Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Science in Moscow, told the PA news agency: Our discovery sheds light on the early evolution of insect pollination.

It provides direct, smoking-gun evidence of pollen dispersion by Paleozoic insects.

Dr Khramov and his colleagues found a handful of extinct tillyardembiids with pollen preserved on their heads, thoraces, legs and abdomens.

He said fossils such as these are rare to find.

Dr Khramov told PA: To uncover them (the tillyardembiids), palaeontologists like me split the rock with a hammer.

The insect-bearing rocks of Chekarda were deposited at the bottom of an ancient lagoon about 280 million years ago, in the early Permian period (the last period of the Paleozoic era).

This was a time when ambers with insect inclusions did not exist.

It was really unexpected to discover that pollen could be preserved on body surfaces of Paleozoic insects flattened in the rock.

The researchers said that judging by the pollen composition, the tillyardembiids only ever visited a narrow range of host plants.

While recent fossil discoveries suggest insect pollinators and gymnosperms may have co-evolved  long before the appearance of flowering plants  the experts said it is impossible to say for certain whether tillyardembiids were pollen consumers or contributed to pollination.

Dr Khramov said: Tillyardembiids had wings, so they could disperse pollen more effectively.

We cannot go back in a time machine to observe whether these insects did pollination work or not.

Even if they pollinated ancient gymnosperms all day round, there are no ways to prove it with certainty by means of palaeontology.

Who knows, maybe they simply gobbled up pollen, and plants did not benefit from it?

Anyway, what we could say for sure is that tillyardembiids visited quite a narrow range of plants and carried their pollen in large amounts.

So I do not see why they could not have been pollinators.
Search for aristocrats baby continues amid fears child may have come to harm

An urgent search for the baby of aristocrat Constance Marten and her partner Mark Gordon is continuing amid police fears the child may have come to harm.

The pair were further arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter on Tuesday after being stopped in Brighton on Monday following several weeks of avoiding the police, but the baby was not with them.

A member of the public, who had seen media reports about the couple, phoned 999 after seeing them withdraw cash from a convenience store in Hollingbury Place shortly before 9.30pm.

Officers arrived six minutes later, with Marten and Gordon being detained at nearby Stanmer Villas and arrested on suspicion of child neglect.

Since then, more than 200 officers have been searching an area of seven miles by 13 miles for the baby, from where the couple were last sighted to where they were arrested  including allotments and woodland.

(PA Graphics)

Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford said police still hoped to find the child safe and well, with a helicopter, sniffer dogs, thermal imaging cameras and drones being used in the search.

However, confirming Marten and Gordon had been re-arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter, Mr Basford said police had to consider the possibility the baby had come to harm.

He said officers had received no information about the welfare or location of the child since the pair were detained.

Mr Basford said: We have had a significant period of time in custody facility with both Constance and Mark.

Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford and Superintendent James Collis speaking to the media outside Roedale Valley Allotments, West Sussex (Jordan Pettitt/PA)

At this time we have not furthered that information, which has now obviously led to the position where we feel that the risk is getting so great that we now have to consider the possibility that the baby has come to harm.

I can now confirm that they have been further arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter and that they remain in custody at police stations in Sussex.

The baby was not with them and we have not found the baby as yet.

The lengthy police search for Marten, 35, and Gordon, 48, began on January 5 when their car was found on fire abandoned next to the M61 in Bolton.

Inquiries revealed Marten had given birth recently  possibly one or two days before the incident  and had not been assessed by medical professionals.

Greater Manchester Police established the family had left the car and the motorway safely.

Mark Gordon and Constance Marten walking through Flower and Dean Walk near Brick Lane, east London (Metropolitan Police/PA)

They used taxis to first travel to Liverpool, then Harwich in Essex, and on to east London, before arriving in Sussex on January 8.

The couple avoided detection by only making payments in cash, hiding their faces on CCTV and often moving around at night or in the early hours of the morning.

Mr Basford said officers are looking into footage shared online of Gordon seen with a stick before he was arrested, adding that there was sufficient intelligence to suggest the pair had spent most of their time in outdoor open spaces while avoiding police.

He conceded the cold weather meant that officers had to be open to the investigation not ending in the way we would like.

The baby was born in early January and has had no medical attention since then, with its parents sleeping rough in freezing temperatures much of the time.

Mr Basford said police are yet to locate items bought by Marten and Gordon at Argos on January 7, adding: We would still say we are actively looking for those.

Police search teams in Brighton (Jordan Pettitt/PA)

Martens father said it was a huge relief that his daughter had been found but it was very alarming that her baby remains missing.

Napier Marten told the Independent he loves his daughter but it would have been far better if she and Gordon had handed themselves in earlier.

Marten, who is from a wealthy aristocratic family, was a promising drama student when she met Gordon in 2016.

Since then the couple have led an isolated life and, in September, as Martens pregnancy progressed, began moving around rental flats.

Gordon served 20 years in prison in the US for rape and battery committed when he was 14.

It is unknown if their baby was full-term or has any health issues.

In an appeal a week ago, Shereen Nimmo, director of midwifery for Barts Health NHS Trust, urged the couple to bring the baby in for checks.

She said: Youre putting your baby at risk by not accessing medical care, so its really important that you come and see a midwife, doctor or another healthcare professional as soon as possible.

Please do the right thing for your baby and go to your nearest healthcare facility so my caring colleagues can take care of you and your baby. All we want to do is help you.

Anyone who may be able to assist in the search for the baby is urged to contact 999.
A major search for the missing two-month-old child of Constance Marten and Mark Gordon has ended in tragedy as police announced they had found the remains of a baby.

Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford from the Metropolitan Police, who led the investigation, told reporters that remains had been found in a wooded area.

The couple were arrested on Monday in Brighton after avoiding police for more than seven weeks but were without their child.

Search teams have been scouring a 90-mile square area of the Sussex countryside (Jordan Pettitt/PA)

They refused to tell police where the baby was, sparking a massive hunt across a wide area of the Sussex countryside.

More than 200 officers and specialist search teams scoured the area around Stanmer Villas, where the couple were finally caught after a tip-off from a member of the public.

They were arrested on suspicion of child neglect, and later on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter.

The couple remain in custody after police were granted a 36-hour custody extension by Brighton magistrates.

Constance Marten (Greater Manchester police/PA)

Speaking to reporters at Sussex Police headquarters on Wednesday evening, Mr Basford said: It is my very sad duty to update this afternoon, police officers searching a wooded area close to where Constance and Mark Gordon were arrested discovered the remains of a baby.

A post-mortem examination will be held in due course.

A crime scene is in place and work at the location is expected to continue for some time.

This is an outcome that myself and that many officers who have been part of this search had hoped would not happen.

I recognise the impact this news will have on many people who have been following this story closely and can assure them that we will do everything we possibly can to establish what has happened.

Mark Gordon (Greater Manchester Police/PA)

Marten, 35, who comes from an aristocratic family with royal connections, first went missing with boyfriend Gordon, 48, when their car was found abandoned and on fire at the edge of the M61 on January 5.

From there they travelled around the country by taxi, avoiding police by paying for everything in cash, covering their faces while on CCTV and moving locations frequently, often after dark.

They were finally arrested in Brighton on Monday, minutes after a member of the public tipped off police, but their baby was not with them.

The Sun reported that they used a Brighton food bank last Wednesday, but did not ask for baby supplies  which were available  and did not have the infant with them.

They also did not buy any baby supplies from a convenience store shortly before they were arrested.

A major search operation was sparked when Marten and Gordon were arrested without their baby (Jordan Pettitt/PA)

CCTV footage from just before they were caught appears to show Gordon, who served 20 years in a US jail for rape and battery, limping and using a large stick to walk.

Throughout the time the couple were missing, police appealed to them to get their baby medical attention, and raised concerns that the family had been sleeping rough in freezing temperatures.

Martens parents made public pleas through the media, and police offered a 10,000 reward for information leading to the couple being found.

Once they were arrested a massive search operation was launched, with officers from the Met and Sussex Police and London Search and Rescue Service combing the area where they had last been seen.

They used helicopters, sniffer dogs, thermal imaging cameras and drones as well as hundreds of investigators on the ground.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 1)  Police have served a search warrant on the vehicle of one of the suspects in the alleged hazing that killed a 24-year-old chemical engineering student of Adamson University.

According to Binan, Laguna Chief of Police Lt.Col. Virgilio Jopia, the warrant was presented to Gregorio Cruz, the owner of the vehicle that carried John Matthew Salilig to a vacant lot in Imus, Cavite, where the chemical engineering student was buried.

Nag-serve na kami ng search warrant sa bahay ng isa sa mga suspek para kunin yung sasakyan na pinagsakyan ng victim, at yung paddle na ginamit,Jopia said.

[Translation: We served a search warrant at the house of one of the suspects to retrieve the car that carried the victim.]

Jopia said a witness statement led them to the vehicle, which was used to carry the victim to Imus from Binan, Laguna following the initiation rites.

The vehicle was also where the victim passed away, he added.

According to the Laguna police, they have identified 18 persons of interest.

Police said six of these individuals have been invited for investigation, while two have been arrested for obstruction of justice.

Among those arrested was the father of one of the suspects, and another who was present during the initiation rites.

They interfered with the investigation and they tried to conceal the evidence na find out natin sa ating investigation kaya inaresto sila for obstruction of justice, police said.

[Translation: They interfered with the investigation and they tried to conceal the evidence that we found in our investigation. We arrested them for obstruction of justice.]

Jopia said they are now awaiting the results of the autopsy on the victims body conducted Tuesday night.

Authorities said it is likely that Salilig succumbed to his injuries.

The victim, who was almost unrecognizable, was positively identified by his brother, they added.

Police revealed that the person who led authorities to the discovery of the body was a member in the fraternity.

Yung isa doon pinaka-presidente nila. Siya yung nagturo kasi kasama siya sa naglibing sa Imus, Cavite kaya natin natagpuan, Jopia revealed.

[Translation: One of them is the president. He was the one who led us to the grave because he was among those who buried the victim in Imus, Cavite that's why we found it.]

Meanwhile, Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla has ordered the National Bureau of Investigation to conduct its own investigation into the alleged hazing death of Salilig.

DOJ Assistant Secretary Mico Clavano said the agency condemns any violation of the Anti-Hazing law.

However, we will await any case that will be filed before our prosecutors," he said. "Rest assured, any forthcoming case will undergo diligent evaluation."

Clavano stressed that if theres probable cause with reasonable certainty of conviction,  a new standard in filing cases in court  they will prosecute the case until the perpetrators of this crime are finally brought to justice.

A witness told authorities that Salilig was beaten at least 70 times during the initiation rites of the Tau Gamma Phi fraternity in Binan.

His body was found on Tuesday, Feb. 28, over a week after he was reported missing.

Adamson University said it is conducting its own probe into the incident and has been cooperating with the authorities on the matter.

RELATED: Adamson confirms death of missing student

Meanwhile, Tau Gamma Phi expressed grief at the passing of Salilig and vowed to ensure that those who will be found responsible will be dealt with accordingly.

Let the wheels of justice take its due course," it said in a statement. "May all Triskelions strictly adhere to laws of the land as responsible members of the community and as a fraternity in particular."

RELATED: Senators condemn death of Adamson student, seek perpetrators' arrest

CNN Philippines correspondent Anjo Alimario and digital producer Mariel Celine Serquina contributed to this story.
A mother and father are to be sentenced for killing their 16-year-old disabled daughter in what will be the first court hearing in Wales to be televised.

Kaylea Titford, who suffered from spina bifida, was found dead at her home in Newtown, Powys, in October 2020 after her parents allowed her to become morbidly obese.

Her mother, Sarah Lloyd-Jones, 39, admitted manslaughter by gross negligence last year, while her father, Alun Titford, denied the charges and was found guilty after a trial last month.

Alun Titford (Andrew Price/PA)

The teenager weighed 22st 13lb with a BMI of 70 at the time of her death, and her body was discovered inside her bedroom in conditions described as unfit for any animal.

A jury of eight men and four women convicted Titford after being shown pictures during the trial at Mold Crown Court in North Wales of the squalor and degradation Kaylea had been forced to endure.

The evidence showed how the teenager, who had been wheelchair-bound and dependent on others for her care, was left to lie in soiled clothing and on filthy bed linen and puppy training pads.

She died after suffering inflammation and infection from ulcerations caused by obesity and immobility.

Emergency service workers, who were called to the house on October 10, described feeling sick due to an unbearable rotting smell in her room.

Kaylea was described as funny and chatty by school staff (Family Handout/PA)

When her body was examined maggots were found which were thought to have been feeding on her body in the final days of her life.

Titford claimed at trial that Lloyd-Jones was responsible for Kayleas care, and when he was asked why he had let his daughter down so badly, the removals worker said: Im lazy.

Kaylea attended Newtown High School, where she was described by staff as funny and chatty, but she did not return after the coronavirus lockdown in March 2020.

The couple are to be sentenced at Swansea Crown Court before High Court Judge Mr Justice Griffiths, whose sentencing remarks will be broadcast to the public on TV and online.

It will be the first hearing in Wales to be filmed since the law was changed to allow cameras into criminal courts for the first time last year.

A bed used by Kaylea Titford (Heddlu Dyfed Powys Police/PA)

The sentencing at the Old Bailey in London of Ben Oliver, who pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of his grandfather, David Oliver, was the first case in England or Wales to be televised in July last year.

The move, which came after a 20-year campaign by BBC News, ITN, Sky News and the PA news agency, was intended to help the public get a better understanding of how sentencing decisions are taken and improve transparency in the justice system.

Coverage is restricted to the part of the proceedings when a judge hands down sentences and gives his reasons, with no view of defendants, victims, jurors, lawyers or witnesses.

Footage will be broadcast with a short time delay to avoid transmitting any violent or abusive reaction in the courtroom.
Tom Kerridge says it is his priority to ensure that all under-privileged children receive free school meals.

The TV chef said such benefits should be part and parcel of education, and called for the children of households on Universal Credit to be given free school meals.

Kerridge, who received free school meals himself as a child, also criticised MPs who voted against such measures, while benefiting from subsidised food in the House of Commons.

The TV chef said it is his priority to ensure that all under-privileged children receive free school meals (Steve Parsons/PA)

Speaking to the Daily Mirror, he said: The priority for me is making sure everybody has a school meal. It should be part and parcel of education.

We already know that these kids are from the most vulnerable parts of society.

If theyre not getting a free school meal theyre probably being sent with no lunch or a packed lunch.

That lunch doesnt tick any of the boxes of nutritional values, of sustainability, in terms of child growth, health, nutrition.

Kerridge is known for his appearance on shows including Great British Menu, MasterChef and Saturday Kitchen.

He also has his own series How to Lose Weight For Good and Top Of The Shop, both for the BBC.

Kerridge has previously called for the Government to commit to expanding eligibility for free school meals, alongside major UK supermarkets and fellow celebrity chef Jamie Oliver.

It comes as Mayor of London Sadiq Khan unveiled a scheme to offer all primary kids in the capital free meals from September.

Commenting on Mr Khans scheme, Kerridge told the Mirror: The reality is we have people that go to work, that have full-time jobs, perhaps even two jobs, who still have to qualify for Universal Credit, who are using food banks.

They arent lazy. These are people who are really struggling.
FILE - Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Duke and Duchess of Sussex visit the track and field event at the Invictus Games in The Hague, Netherlands, Sunday, April 17, 2022. Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, have been asked to vacate their home in Britain. Frogmore Cottage, located on the grounds of Windsor Castle west of London, had been intended as the couples main residence before they gave up royal duties and moved to Southern California. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

LONDON (AP)  Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, have been asked to vacate their home in Britain, suggesting a further fraying of ties with the royal family amid preparations for the coronation of his father, King Charles III.

Frogmore Cottage, on the grounds of Windsor Castle west of London, had been intended as the couple's main residence before they gave up royal duties and moved to Southern California. The Sun newspaper reported that Charles started the eviction process on Jan. 11, the day after the publication of Harry's explosive memoir Spare.

We can confirm The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been requested to vacate their residence at Frogmore Cottage, a spokesperson for the couple said in statement.

Disclosures Harry made in Spare deepened the rift between him and his family. The book included his account of private conversations with his father, and his brother, Prince William.

After they left Britain, Harry and Meghan had said Frogmore Cottage would remain their base when they visited the U.K.

In September 2020, a spokesman announced the couple had repaid 2.4 million pounds ($3.2 million) in British taxpayers money that was used to renovate the home when they were working members of the royal family.

The money fully covered" the cost of the renovation, the spokesman said.
Even if the Supreme Court rules in favor of Bidens student loan forgiveness, borrowers may not see immediate relief depending on what action the court orders.

The court has two options if it doesnt overturn loan forgiveness. One would require continued proceedings in lower courts, delaying relief to borrowers, while the second option would provide immediate forgiveness.

That adds another layer of uncertainty for the millions of borrowers who may be confused about what to do with their student loans. Further complicating matters is that, although the court could issue a decision as early as March, experts dont expect a ruling until late May or June.

If the Court finds plaintiffs have no standing, then they would vacate the injunction in the Texas case and lift the stay in the 8th Circuit case, and remand for further proceedings. This was just at the preliminary injunction stage, so there will potentially be further stages and further arguments, Jeffrey Dubner, the deputy legal director at Democracy Forward, said in a media scrum after oral arguments on Tuesday.

Or, the Court could direct the courts below to dismiss the case altogether.

A sign calling for student loan debt relief is seen in front of the Supreme Court as the justices are scheduled to hear oral arguments in two cases involving President Joe Biden's bid to reinstate his plan to cancel billions of dollars in student debt in Washington, U.S., February 28, 2023. REUTERS/Nathan Howard

If plaintiffs have no standing

One issue before the court is if the parties challenging the debt relief plan lack standing, or the right to have their grievances heard.

In the 8th Circuit case, Biden v. Nebraska, the Department of Justice argues that the state of Missouri lacks standing to sue based on potential harm the forgiveness program may bring to the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority (MOHELA), a loan servicer in the state, because MOHELA is a separate entity from the state and harm to MOHELA is not harm to the state of Missouri.

The Texas case, Department of Education v. Brown, was filed by two student loan debtors  one who doesn't qualify for forgiveness and another who qualifies for partial cancellation. They argued that the Education Department needed Congressional approval to adopt its plan and that they were improperly denied the opportunity to comment on its provisions. But to have standing, they need to show a specific harm if forgiveness is granted and they get no or partial relief.

If the justices rule these cases lack standing and remand for further proceedings as Dubner said, debt relief won't be automatic and borrowers would have to wait for the cases to go through the lower courts for fact discovery.

Advocates previously brought up how these cases rushed through the judicial process to the Supreme Court without fact-finding in the lower courts.

Weve skipped through every step of the normal judicial process  no finding of fact by a trial court  to a rapid and hasty rush to get this policy in front of a conservative Supreme Court, Mike Pierce, a former senior regulator, attorney, and executive director of Student Borrowers Protection Center (SBPC), said at a town hall.

WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 28: Student loan borrowers and advocates gather for the People's Rally To Cancel Student Debt During The Supreme Court Hearings On Student Debt Relief on February 28, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images for People's Rally to Cancel Student Debt )

If the Supreme Court dismisses the cases

The court has an alternative option that would have an immediate impact on borrowers if it rules in favor of loan forgiveness. If the court dismisses both cases, then the Education Department can proceed to process approved applications and reopen the loan forgiveness application website portal.

In October, the Education Department previously said that borrowers should receive debt relief "in a matter of weeks" after completing the form, and expected to process the majority of claims by mid-November.

More than 26 million people applied for cancellation in the few weeks the loan forgiveness application was available. Over 16 million of those applications were fully approved by the Education Department before it stopped accepting applications in the wake of the lawsuits.

More than 40 million borrowers are eligible for its student debt relief plan, according to White House projections.

What borrowers should do now

As a result of the litigation, President Biden extended the payment pause on federal student loans until June 30. If litigation has not been resolved by then, payments will begin 60 days after that.

In the meantime, borrowers should go to the Federal Student Aids (FSA) website to make sure their accounts have updated contact information and to find out who their loan service provider is. Their servicer may have changed since the beginning of the pandemic when forbearance was enacted.

Borrowers should also beware of scammers. The only portal to apply for student loan forgiveness is on the FSA website, which is currently not accepting applications. If you receive an email claiming to be your new loan servicer, verify that information on the FSA website before providing any information.

Borrowers should also hold off on consolidating to private loans, which would make them ineligible for Biden's student loan forgiveness if upheld and the one-time adjustments to account payment histories to help borrowers get closer to qualifying for forgiveness under income-driven repayment plans. That rolls out over the spring and summer.

Ronda is a personal finance senior reporter for Yahoo Finance and attorney with experience in law, insurance, education, and government. Follow her on Twitter @writesronda

Read the latest personal finance trends and news from Yahoo Finance.

Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Flipboard, and LinkedIn
Andrew Tate (Getty)

Andrew Tate sought the backing of two right-wing politicians from his prison cell in Romania to help fight rape and trafficking allegations, wiretaps of phone calls have claimed.

Transcripts of the phone calls were submitted to court by Romanian prosecutors and claim that Tate tried to recruit Romanian politicians George Simion, president of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians, and Diana Iovanovici-Sosoaca, a prominent critic of Covid restrictions, to back him.

Tate apparently instructed two associates to tell Mr Simion and Ms Iovanovici-Sosoaca that supporting him would be very good for their careers, according to one transcript.

Police officers escort Andrew Tate, center, handcuffed to his brother Tristan Tate, to the Court of Appeal in Bucharest (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

So make it clear to them: You will get a lot of votes when Tate says you took their side, Tate said in the call on January 28, according to documents.

The calls were made between January 28-31, according to prosecutors, about a month after Tate was detained.

Mr Simion denied Tate contacted him and told Reuters that he would not publicly support the social media influencer if he was asked to.

While a spokesperson for Senator Iovanovici-Sosoaca said the wiretapped conversations were lies designed to attack her.

Tates lawyer and prosecutors have not commented on the matter.

One call transcript shows Tate telling an associate to release party clips on social media that he said showed at least one of his alleged trafficking victims dancing in Bucharest.

Yes, put them everywhere and say, This girl says she is kidnapped when she is not kidnapped, Tate said according to the exchanges.

Youre saying you want me to discredit them, have social media pull hard, yes? the associate asks. Yes, screw them, Tate replies.

The transcripts appear in Romanian in the court document and were translated back into English by Reuters.

Tate, 36, was accused alongside his brother Tristan Tate, 34, of recruiting women and subjecting them to acts of physical violence and mental coercion, allegations both men deny.

The two brothers have been detained in Romania since December 2022. A Romanian court this week rejected an appeal by Andrew Tate against the continuation of his detention, ruling he should remain in custody until 29 March.
Senator Bernie Sanders joined a rally with progressive lawmakers and hundreds of student loan borrowers outside the steps of the US Supreme Court on 28 February demanding that the nations high court preserve President Joe Bidens plan to cancel higher-education debts for millions of Americans.

In America, we have 45 million Americans, young people, drowning in student debt, the progressive senator from Vermont told the crowd.

And I have talked to people all over this country who literally delay having a family, cant have any kids, they cant afford a car, they cant afford to have a middle class life because theyre drowning in this student debt, he added. In America, you shouldnt have to face financial ruin because you want a damn education.

The nine Supreme Court justices heard oral arguments in a pair of cases from Republican attorneys general and a conservative activist group challenging the presidents plan to eliminate up to $20,000 in federal student loan balances for eligible Americans.

More than 40 million borrowers are eligible for up to $10,000 in canceled higher education debts, or up to $20,000 for borrowers that relied on Pell grants, under the administrations plan. Roughly 20 million people are eligible to have their debts canceled completely, according to the White House.

Roughly one in five Americans hold a piece of the $1.7 trillion in federal student debt, a figure that has exploded over the last decade alongside growing higher education costs. Millions of Americans also continue to tackle accrued interest without chipping away at their principal balances years after graduating, or have been forced to leave their colleges or universities without obtaining a degree at all while still facing loan repayments.

More than half of those 45 million people have $20,000 or less to pay off, while roughly one-third of all borrowers owe less than $10,000, according to the Federal Reserve. Seven percent of people with federal debt owe more than $100,000.

Those eligible for relief under Mr Bidens plan include borrowers who earn up to $125,000, or $250,000 for married couples.

Roughly 26 million have already applied for relief through the plan, and more than 16 million were approved, according to the White House.

(Getty Images for People's Rally)

Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bob Menendez and US Representatives Cori Bush, Judy Chu, Maxwell Frost, Ilhan Omar, Pramila Jayapal, Ayanna Pressley, among others, also joined the rally outside the court on Tuesday.

In her remarks, Senator Warren accused the nations high court of playing politics and warned against an extremist court exploiting an opportunity for millions of Americans to have a little racial justice, a little economic justice, a little opportunity to build more secure futures going forward.

Black women have the largest student debt burdens, graduating with an average debt of $37,558, compared to $31,346 for white women, according to a 2020 analysis by the American Association of University Women.

Senators Warren and Sanders also recently signed on to a letter with several Democratic colleagues urging the Education Department to take immediate action to strengthen protections for students enrolled in postsecondary programmes that saddle students with unaffordable debt and provide low financial returns.

We believe it is critical for students, families, and student support professionals like school counselors to have easy access to information indicating which institutions set high tuition rates, enroll students in low-quality programs with little payoff, and capture large amounts of federal student aid while failing to produce student outcomes, the senators wrote.
Student debt relief advocates gather outside the Supreme Court in Washington on Monday ahead of arguments over President Biden's loan forgiveness program. (Patrick Semansky / Associated Press)

Oral arguments before the Supreme Court on Tuesday in a much-watched student loan forgiveness case, Biden vs. Nebraska, pitted two of the conservative majoritys beloved legal doctrines against one another.

The case for striking down President Bidens program, which would forgive about $400 billion in federal student loan obligations, turns on the courts recently minted major questions doctrine. That doctrine, whose legal provenance is questionable and whose contours are still very much being worked out, holds that for major questions of vast economic or political significance, the court requires a clear statement of congressional intent rather than deferring to executive branch interpretations of the law.

In this case, given the undeniably large price tag of the forgiveness, the justices could employ their novel doctrine to find that the secretary of Education lacked the authority to forgive up to $20,000 in federal loan obligations per debtor.

The Biden administration did so under a provision of the Heroes Act authorizing the president to waive or modify any provision of the student loan program in the case of an emergency. The Trump administration used that provision to suspend loan repayment obligations at the height of the COVID contagion. The program at issue took the further step of broad forgiveness to realize Bidens campaign promise to reduce American student debt, which exceeds even our total credit card debt.

But the courts right wing has a dilemma. It became clear during the arguments that perhaps the strongest point in the Biden administrations favor concerns legal standing, another matter close to the conservatives hearts. The court has insisted on strictly policing the constitutional requirement that the federal judiciary may hear only those cases in which the plaintiff has sustained an injury in fact  a concrete, particular harm.

Here that restriction is very much in play. Biden vs. Nebraska was brought by six Republican attorneys general who oppose student loan forgiveness for political reasons. Thats fine, but they still need to demonstrate an injury in fact. And none of the states seems to have sustained any sort of injury from student loan forgiveness: Whats it to them if the federal government doesnt want its $20,000 back from any given borrower?

Missouri attempted to craft a standing argument based on its own Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority, known by the acronym MOHELA, which could at least potentially lose revenue due to loan forgiveness. The trouble is that MOHELA was set up as an independent corporation with its own power to sue and be sued, and it isnt a party to this lawsuit. In fact, Missouris relationship with MOHELA is contentious enough that it couldnt get documents from the agency without filing the state equivalent of a Freedom of Information Act request.

The courts conservatives hold dear the basic legal principle that (barring a few exceptions not relevant here) a litigant has no standing to redress harms to a third party. As the Biden administration argues, that would lead to such expansive results as allowing banks to sue anyone who financially harms their borrowers.

Interestingly, the court has emphasized that both standing and the major questions doctrine are driven by the separation of powers. Standing constricts the judicial branchs power, keeping it from encroaching on policy questions reserved for the political branches. And the major questions doctrine limits the power of the executive branch, preventing it from making big decisions that Congress hasnt expressly authorized.

As many critics have noted, the major questions doctrine conveniently serves the courts broader agenda of trimming the wings of the administrative state. But to invoke that doctrine, the conservatives have to get around the issue of standing  which they have promoted as crucial to keeping their own branch in check.

The fault lines in Tuesdays arguments were familiar. The courts three progressives seemed inclined to uphold the program  with Justice Elena Kagan offering a particularly forceful defense of the forgiveness as clearly authorized by Congress  while the six conservatives sounded eager to use the major questions doctrine to strike it down.

But several lines of questioning seemed to probe the possibility that the three liberals could peel off two members of the conservative wing to hold that the challengers lack standing, which would make the case go away. Justice Amy Coney Barrett is a potential recruit to that cause based on her questions.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson had a particularly elegant line of questioning that emphasized the separation-of-powers underpinnings of both standing and the major questions doctrine, suggesting the court should maintain the same fidelity to the principle across the board.

The case thus comes down to whether the court will choose to stretch standing to strike down what it sees as an expansive exercise of administrative power for a purpose that, perhaps not coincidentally, Republicans disfavor.

The oral argument suggested that the progressives will be the standing hawks in this case while the conservatives will more likely strive to get to the merits and strike down the program. The result of this cerebral battle of legal doctrines could be a very real and rude surprise to the millions of Americans promised needed relief.

Harry Litman is the host of the Talking Feds podcast. @harrylitman

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Fear not your Shakespearean ambitions. It worked for Colin Firth and Judi Dench in 1998's "Shakespeare in Love." (Miramax Films / Universal Pictures)

It is completely possible to live a fulfilling existence under the quiet oppression of mediocrity. Most people do, and it's fine. There's plenty of perfectly enjoyable TV, perfectly acceptable literature, perfectly OK music out there. If you're not already worried about it, don't worry about it!

Then there are the humanities majors. These are the people who couldn't tolerate the idea of business school but somehow ended up with a sales job anyway, and who, while working quietly at the computer, decided most NFT art is unbelievable garbage and that ChatGPT is already boring. We are discussing you today.

This week, the New Yorker published a long expose on the steep decline in humanities enrollment over the last decade at American universities. STEM  science, technology, engineering and mathematics studies  now prevails.

There is a strong chance that the quiet English degree-bearer in your life has already read the piece by Nathan Heller, who rousted several bewildering quotes from top-level Harvard academics. Famed literary professor Stephen Greenblatt mused that watching "Better Call Saul" might be a "contemporary form of very deep absorption of the kind comparable to literary study." The dean of undergraduate education, Amanda Claybaugh, claims that while teaching "The Scarlet Letter," some of her students "were really struggling to understand the sentences as sentences  like, having trouble identifying the subject and the verb."

Seems clear enough what's happened to the English department. The republic of letters has fallen under a sustained assault by prestige TV and the immediacy of the iPhone; we dwell now in the empire of almighty statistics, where inputs and outputs rule.

Heller reports that the study of English and history at the U.S. collegiate level has fallen by a third and humanities enrollment is down 17% over the last decade. Humanities enrollment is also down globally. Increasingly heavy student debt loads have made creative-writing classes an extravagance.

It's a strange feeling to be an endangered species. I was an English major at the University of Missouri, where, in one of the miracles of the American way of life, I attended humanities classes where farm kids and St. Louis frat brothers got bludgeoned with healthy slugs of Homer, Cervantes, Hildegard of Bingen and the Quran.

I was  I told myself  going to become a fiction writer after graduation. (It should be clear to you now that I immediately didn't.) Professional exile is the predominant experience of English majors today, who live like passport-holders from an ailing nation on a long-term visa  you have a book in you, but it's not clear it will ever come out. According to statistics from the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, humanities graduates tend to land in the same mix of business, office management, sales and education jobs as other majors. A large number end up in management. (We all have a touch of the dark side in us.)

In fact, apart from highly technical fields like engineering, the salaries of humanities graduates tend to run pretty close to average. The stats seem to show that as long as you pick up a bachelor's degree in anything, you're likely to end up much better paid than a mere high school graduate, which is indicative of other problems with our whole setup.

But these are all just objective measurements of whether it's valuable for a 19-year-old from a small town in Missouri to study Hannah Arendt's "Eichmann in Jerusalem," or to understand what W. E. B. Du Bois meant by "double consciousness," or to feel the breath leave your chest after the sublime final line of the "Iliad," which I can still recall two decades later: And so the Trojans buried Hector breaker of horses.

The immeasurable value in encountering any of these writers  or spending time with any serious creative, intellectual or spiritual work  comes from cultivating the radical subjectivity that is our birthright as humans, the burden we carry for all time. Observation, testing and replication can and will build faster jets, better medicines or more capable AI. But where do rights come from? Whose history should be taught about the founding of the United States? What's good prose, and who's just a blowhard trying to show off? What immortal fire connects Johnny Cash with Kendrick Lamar?

You don't need to be an English major to ask any of these questions. You just need to be a seeker. But the humanities can help you look.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Niara Thompson couldnt shake her frustration as the Supreme Court debated President Joe Bidens student debt cancellation. As she listened from the audience Tuesday, it all felt academic. There was a long discussion on the nuances of certain words. Justices asked lawyers to explore hypothetical scenarios.

For Thompson, none of it is hypothetical. A student at the University of Georgia, she grew up watching her parents struggle with student loans and will graduate with about $50,000 of her own student debt.

It felt like people who could never understand why we would want something like this, she said. I wanted to be like, Yall dont understand. Yall are focusing on this, but theres people out here who are struggling to find food for their families.

Much of the discussion in Tuesdays hearing centered on whether states had the legal right to sue over Biden's student loans plan. But the justices also were scrutinizing whether Biden had the authority to waive hundreds of billions of dollars in debt without the explicit approval of Congress, which decides how taxpayer money is spent.

Its not unusual for Supreme Court cases to hang on legal technicalities, even in cases of great public interest. Yet to borrowers following Tuesdays arguments, it felt isolating to hear such a personal subject reduced to cold legal language.

Opponents of the plan to wipe away debt held by millions of Americans have denounced it as an insult to those who have repaid their debt and to those who didnt attend college.

Thompson was among a few dozen borrowers who camped out in drizzle overnight to get seats at the court for Tuesday's hearing. Some of the court's liberal justices sought several times to turn the arguments back to the people who would benefit from the program, pointing out their need for relief. In response, conservatives asked if those who passed up college should pay for those who borrowed money to attend.

For Thompsons family, years of payments hang in the balance. Student loan payments have been on hold since the start of the pandemic, but they are set to restart 60 days after the court cases resolve  regardless of the outcome.

Thompson and her father are each eligible for $10,000 in relief, she said. It would move her a step closer to financial stability, Thompson said, and it would eliminate the rest of her dads loans.

It just hurt my feelings a bit, she said of Tuesdays arguments. I just want better for us, you know?

The mood inside the court  quiet and ceremonious  was a contrast to the atmosphere outside as dozens of activists rallied in support of cancellation. Crowds chanted and listened to speeches from members of Congress, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

Advocates took to the podium to share stories about family sacrifices and life milestones deferred because of heavy student debt.

Ella Azoulay, a 26-year-old who lives in Washington, visited the rally to join the push for debt relief, which she calls a family issue. A 2018 graduate of New York University, Azoulay has $40,000 in student debt, while her dad has more than $400,000 taken out on behalf of her and her two siblings.

I cant really think about my future without thinking about this huge debt, she said. My dad has no plans to retire. Hes in his 60s and he has said for my whole life that he will never be able to retire. And thats really upsetting to hear.

During the hearing, liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor said it would be a mistake for her fellow justices to take for themselves, instead of leaving it to education experts, the right to decide how much aid to give people who will struggle if the program is struck down.

Others justices also have shown a grasp of borrowers' plight. Justice Clarence Thomas, the court's staunchest conservative, has written about the crushing weight of his own student loans, which he paid off after reaching the nation's highest court.

Kayla Smith, 22, joined Thompson at the overnight campout for a seat inside the court. A recent graduate of the University of Georgia, she also felt the discussion missed the bigger picture.

Smiths mother borrowed more than $20,000 in federal Parent Plus loans to help her pay for college. Smith sees it as the result of a broken system that forces people into debt for a shot at social mobility.

They were focused on small, minuscule details, Smith, of Atlanta, said of the justices. I even saw some of them laughing during the hearing, which was odd to me because peoples lives are being affected. Its not a laughing matter to us, at least. ___

The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
(AFP)

Danish legislators have voted to abolish a springtime public holiday in order to use the savings and boost defence spending, despite harsh criticism from the opposition, trade unions and the countrys bishops.

In a 95-68 vote, the 179-seat Folketing approved the centrist coalition governments Bill to scrap Store Bededag, or Great Prayer Day, that falls on the fourth Friday after Easter. Some 16 legislators were absent.

Savings from the holidays scrapping are estimated at around three billion kroner (353 million) annually.

The ruling coalition of the Social Democrats, the centre-right Liberals and the centre Moderates is seeking to achieve the Nato target of spending 2% of gross domestic product on defence by 2030, in part as a response to Russias invasion of Ukraine.

In Denmark, where political consensus is the norm, both the left and right-wing opposition united to heap scorn on the governments move.

Opposition legislators called the Bill foolish, crazy and totally wrong but failed to agree on calling a referendum on the issue.In Denmark, 60 legislators can demand a plebiscite.

Stop the thief, Karsten Honge, a member of the Socialist Peoples Party, said during a three-hour parliamentary debate.The government is ordering people to work one day more.

Several legislators expressed concern that getting rid of the holiday will complicate negotiations later this year between employers and trade unions about wages and working conditions.

In Denmark, the government traditionally stays away from these matters.

Workers in Denmark currently have up to 11 public holidays; the figure is lower in years where Christmas and New Year fall on weekends.

The loss of the holiday - created more than 300 years ago when a Danish bishop merged several minor holidays - has triggered a backlash throughout the country of nearly six million where more than 73% of the population belong to the State Lutheran Church, although fewer than 3% of people are regular churchgoers.

Trade unions launched an online petition that gathered nearly 500,000 signatures, while Denmarks 10 Lutheran bishops spoke of a breach of trust.

The government controls 89 seats in parliament and is supported by four legislators representing the semi-independent Danish territories of Greenland and the Faroe Islands.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 1)  The Supreme Court (SC) has affirmed the Commission on Audit (COA) ruling disallowing the grant of over 15 million allowances and incentives to Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) employees for 2009 and 2010.

In a verdict uploaded recently, the SC denied PhilHealths petition challenging COAs notices of disallowances (NDs) to PhilHealth Regional Office IV-A on the grant of various benefits totaling 15.2 million.

The high court ruled that the recipients must return the amounts regardless of whether or not they received them in good faith.

State auditors previously issued the NDs, covering transportation allowance, project completion incentive, and educational assistance allowance paid to regular and contractual employees.

The COA said some of the grants were irregular expenditures since contractual workers are not entitled to benefits enjoyed by government employees. It added that the others were in violation of the 2009 and 2010 General Appropriations Acts.

The high court agreed, saying the transportation allowance and project completion incentive were contrary to the provision in the job order contracts that the only compensation due to the contractor was the daily rate agreed upon.

It added that there is no law or issuance from the Department of Budget and Management allowing for the educational assistance given to regular employees.

The only exceptions are if such recipients can show that the amounts were genuinely given in consideration of services rendered, or the return is excused based on undue prejudice, social justice considerations, and other bona fide exceptions as may be determined by the Court on a case-to-case basis, the SC said in a press release.

None of the exceptions apply to the present case, it added.

The court also said the approving and certifying officers are likewise liable to return the disallowed amounts.

Good faith cannot be appreciated in favor of the PhilHealth Board of Directors and the approving authorities because they had knowledge of the irregularity of the benefits since disallowances of the same nature had been previously issued, it explained.
Learning the restaurant business on the fly, four sisters had a dream when they opened an Afghan cafe in Boise.

Four years later, they have a success story  and a mission.

Sunshine Spice Bakery and Cafe, 6911 W. Fairview Ave., is transforming into a full-blown Idaho brand. It will open a second location at 220 N. 10th St., says Homeyra Shams, who owns and operates the business with her sisters Bahar, Narges and Khatera. The downtown destination could debut by late spring or early summer  depending on renovations to the space, which is the old office of the architect who works with them.

The sisters plan to keep expanding. Brimming with confidence, they hope to open a new Sunshine Spice Cafe every two years, Homeyra Shams says. Meridian, Eagle. Maybe, like, McCall. Sun Valley. Because we do have customers that drive (from) that far away to come to our cafe, and they always ask us, When are you going to open a location at their place.

Sunshine Spice Bakery and Cafe specializes in Afghan/American fusion baked goods, teas and coffees.

Saffron inspiration

The original Sunshine Spice Cafe opened in December 2019 with a menu of baklava and breads, cookies and tarts, teas and coffees. Sunshine spice is a nickname for saffron, an exquisite ingredient in Afghan, Iranian and other cuisines. All four sisters were born in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Working as a team, they have earned a die-hard clientele. Sunshine Spice Cafe boasts a nearly perfect rating from its 220 Google reviews: 4.9 out of 5.0. A typical compliment? Ive been several times and each time has been absolutely delicious, a recent commenter gushed. The baked goods are stunning and taste great, and so do the drinks. I wish it was bigger, only because it can be hard to get a table on busy days.

Sunshine Spice Cafe received an unexpected dose of praise and publicity in early 2022 when Khatera Shams was nominated for a James Beard Award in the Outstanding Baker category. It was a big surprise, Homeyra Shams admits, describing it as a big deal for the sisters and restaurant.

In February, Food Network star Guy Fieri stopped by Sunshine Spice Cafe while filming an episode of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, which he revealed on Instagram. Because restaurants arent supposed to share any details in advance, Shams politely declined to comment about the show.

What she will talk about is the future  and goals for Sunshine Spice Cafe.

Khatera Shams was a semifinalist in the Outstanding Baker category of the 2022 James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards.

Small cafe

The new location will be a cafe but  unlike on Fairview  not a bakery. Its a modest-sized spot  with room for maybe a dozen diners, she says, and additional seating outside. It will be, like, a small front section of a cafe, Shams says. It doesnt have a kitchen.

She plans to work at the new cafe while her sisters keep baking and serving customers on Fairview Avenue. Food will be transported downtown, although Homeyra will handle final decorative touches such as applying a dusting of powdered sugar or raspberries to tarts. And although the menus will be similar, hot foods will be available downtown only for a few hours each day  probably 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., she says.

And once that new cafe has hit its stride? It will be time to focus on expansion ambitions again.

As soon as that is successful, we will open more, Homeyra says. So almost, like, every city in Idaho  and maybe in (the) future ... other states.
Twitter briefly suspended the personal account of US senator Mike Lee after the Utah Republican appeared to the threat the prime minister of Japan over a detained US Navy serviceman.

My personal Twitter account  @BasedMikeLee  has been suspended, Senator Lee wrote from his official account on Tuesday. Twitter did not alert me ahead of time, nor have they yet offered an explanation for the suspension. My team and I are seeking answers.

My personal Twitter account  @BasedMikeLee  has been suspended. Twitter did not alert me ahead of time, nor have they yet offered an explanation for the suspension. My team and I are seeking answers. pic.twitter.com/1llVm4fVu3  Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) March 1, 2023

The Independent has contacted Twitter for comment.

Earlier in the day, Mr Lee wrote multiple messages to Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida on his personal account regarding detained US Navy lieutenant Ridge Alkonis.

"Hand Lt. Alkonis over to U.S. custody immediately," one tweet read.

"If you dont hand him over in the next seven hours, a series of conversations will begin tomorrow to inform Americans of how poorly youre treating our military personnelnot just Ridge Alkonis, but all 55,000 U.S. forces in Japan," another said.

Youve made your choice, the senator later wrote. I hope youre ready for some conversations on the Senate floor that youre not likely to enjoy. This issue isnt going away, and neither am I.

The Independent has contacted Senator Lee for comment.

The @BasedMikeLee account was later restored on Wednesday.

Thanks to all who assisted in operation #Free@basedMikeLee, the senator wrote. Still no explanation from @Twitter as to what happened.

Lieutenant Alkonis was sentenced to three years in prison for causing a fatal car crash in 2021.

Senator Lee has previously accused social media sites including Twitter of bias against conservatives, after Facebook tagged one of his posts about alleged voter fraud in the 2020 election and added additional fact-checking infromation.

The tag to me sounds a whole lot more like state-run media announcing the party line rather than a neutral company, as it purports to be, running an open online forum, Mr Lee said in 2020 during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. This kind of editorializing insulates people from the truth and it insinuates that anyone concerned about voter fraud must be crazy.

In fact, Twitter may be biased in the opposite direction. A University of Pennsylvania study in 2022 found that the site gives greater visbility to conservative news.

A study from MIT, Yale and the University of Exeter that same year found that Twitter does in fact suspend more Republicans than Democrats, but thats likely because they are more likely to spread false or misleading information that violates the social networks terms of service.
TEMPE, Greece (AP)  Rescuers searched late into the night Wednesday for survivors amid the mangled, burned-out wrecks of two trains that collided in northern Greece, killing at least 43 people and crumpling carriages into twisted steel knots in the country's deadliest rail crash.

The impact just before midnight Tuesday threw some passengers into ceilings and out the windows.

My head hit the roof of the carriage with the jolt," Stefanos Gogakos, who was in a rear car, told state broadcaster ERT. He said windows shattered, showering riders with glass.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called the collision of the passenger train and a freight train a horrific rail accident without precedent in our country, and pledged a full, independent investigation.

He said it appears the crash was mainly due to a tragic human error, but did not elaborate.

The train from Athens to Thessaloniki was carrying 350 passengers, many of them students returning from raucous Carnival celebrations. While the track is double, both trains were traveling in opposite directions on the same line near the Vale of Tempe, a river valley about 380 kilometers (235 miles) north of Athens.

STATIONMASTER ARRESTED; MINISTER RESIGNS

Authorities arrested the stationmaster at the trains last stop, in the city of Larissa. They did not release the mans name or the reason for the arrest, but the stationmaster is responsible for rail traffic on that stretch of the tracks. He is due to appear before a prosecutor Thursday to be formally charged.

Transportation Minister Kostas Karamanlis resigned, saying he was stepping down as a basic indication of respect for the memory of the people who died so unfairly.

Karamanlis said he had made every effort to improve a railway system that had been in a state that doesn't befit the 21st century.

But, he added, When something this tragic happens it's impossible to continue as if nothing has happened.

The union representing train workers announced a 24-hour strike for Thursday, while protests by left-wing groups broke out in Athens late Wednesday.

WRECKAGE MAKES RESCUE EFFORTS DIFFICULT

Emergency workers used cranes and other heavy machinery to move large pieces of the trains, revealing more bodies and dismembered remains. The operation was to continue overnight, with firefighters proceeding painstakingly through the wreckage.

Its unlikely there will be survivors, but hope dies last, said rescuer Nikos Zygouris.

Larissa's chief coroner, Roubini Leondari, said 43 bodies had been brought to her for examination, and would require DNA identification as they were largely disfigured.

Most (of the bodies) are young people, she told ERT. They are in very bad condition."

Greeces firefighting service said 57 people remained hospitalized late Wednesday, including six in intensive care. More than 15 others were discharged after receiving treatment.

More than 200 people who were unharmed or suffered minor injuries were taken by bus to Thessaloniki, 130 kilometers (80 miles) to the north. Police took their names as they arrived, in an effort to track anyone who may be missing.

Hellenic Train, which operates all of Greece's passenger and cargo trains, including those that collided, offered its "heartfelt condolences" to the victims' families. The company belongs to Italy's state railways.

Eight rail employees were killed in the crash, including the two drivers of the freight train and the two drivers of the passenger train, according to Greek Railroad Workers Union President Yannis Nitsas.

The union called the one-day strike to protest what it said was chronic neglect of Greeces railways by successive governments.

Unfortunately, our long-standing demands for staff hirings, better training and above all use of modern safety technology always end up in the wastepaper basket, it said in a statement.

PASSENGERS SAY TRAIN CRASH WAS LIKE AN EXPLOSION

A teenage survivor who did not give his name to reporters said that just before the crash he felt sudden braking and saw sparks  and then there was a sudden stop.

Our carriage didnt derail, but the ones in front did and were smashed, he said, visibly shaken. He used a bag to break the window of his car, the fourth, and escape.

Gogakos said the crash felt like an explosion, and some smoke entered the carriage. He said some passengers escaped through windows but that after a few minutes, crew members were able to open the doors and let people out.

Multiple cars derailed and at least one burst into flames.

Temperatures reached 1,300 degrees Celsius (2,372 Fahrenheit), which makes it even more difficult to identify the people who were in it, fire service spokesperson Vassilis Varthakoyiannis said.

A man who was trying to ascertain the fate of his daughter, who was on the train, saying he had a harrowing phone conversation with her before she was cut off.

She told me, Were on fire. ... My hair is burning, he told ERT, without giving his name.

GREECE GOES FROM CARNIVAL TO MOURNING

Many of the passengers were students returning to Thessaloniki from Carnival, but officials said but no detailed passenger list was available. This year was the first time the festival, which precedes Lent, was celebrated in full since the start of the pandemic in 2020.

The government declared three days of national mourning from Wednesday, while flags flew at half-staff outside all European Commission buildings in Brussels.

Visiting the accident scene, Prime Minister Mitsotakis said the government must help the injured recover and identify the dead.

I can guarantee one thing: We will find out the causes of this tragedy and we will do all that's in our power so that something like this never happens again, Mitsotakis said.

Tuesday's was Greece's worst rail crash since 1968, when 34 people were killed in a crash in the southern Peloponnese region.

Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou broke off an official visit to Moldova to visit the scene, laying flowers beside the wreckage.

Pope Francis offered his condolences to the families of the dead, in a message sent to the president of the Greek bishops conference on his behalf by the Vaticans secretary of state,

Condolences poured in from around the world, including neighboring Turkey, Greece's historic regional rival. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed sorrow and wishes for a speedy recovery for those injured, his office said.

Despite the frosty relations between the two NATO allies, Greece's leadership had called Erdogan last month following a massive earthquake that killed tens of thousands in Turkey.

In Athens, several hundred members of left-wing groups marched late Wednesday to protest the train deaths. Minor clashes broke out as some protesters threw stones at the offices of Greece's rail operator and riot police, and set dumpsters on fire. No arrests or injuries were reported.

___

Paphitis reported from Athens, Greece. Derek Gatopoulos in Athens and Patrick Quinn and David Rising in Bangkok contributed to this story.
Missing aristocrat Constance Marten has been detained with her partner Mark Gordon after 53 days on the run with their newborn baby, who remains missing.

As the police conduct an urgent search for the missing two-month-old infant, the pair have now been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter by gross child negligence.

The case of the 35-year-old aristocrat makes for one of the more unusual police investigations. The former heiress to the multi-million pound Crichel House in Dorset, became estranged from her family after she began dating convicted sex offender Mr Gordon.

However, with access to a significant amount of cash from her wealthy background she and Gordon were able to evade authorities for almost two months before being arrested by Sussex Police on a residential street in Brighton.

Crichel House has featured in films and was once used as a school (Toby/Geograph/CC BY-SA 2.0)

The once-promising actress was also the victim of a Nigerian cult, The Independent revealed, and according to friends, hasnt been the same since.

Martens father, Napier Marten, told The Independent of his immense relief that his estranged daughter had been found but said he feared for her baby.

But what was life like inside the elaborate country house Marten grew up in before splitting from her family?

The former Tatler Magazine it girl lived an heiress lifestyle involving parties, travelling and a sprawling mansion in the England countryside.

Its believed that Marten spent her early years on the 100 million 5,000-acre Crichel Estate near Wimborne, Dorset. The land is home to Crichel House  a 17th Century listed property that sold for an estimated 34 million in 2013 when Mr Marten gave up his fortune and moved to Australia.

Martens family has close connections to the royal family. Her father was a page to the late Queen Elizabeth II and her grandmother, Mary Anna Marten OBE, a playmate to Princess Margaret whose godmother was the late Queen Mother.

Parish church of St. Mary on the grounds of Crichel Estate (Chris Downer/Geograph/CC BY-SA 2.0)

Marten, who was born in 1987, and her brothers, Maximilian, 34, and Tobias, 31, spent their younger years at the mansion. The family moved in in 1960 following the estates end as a school until 1940.

The immensely large property, which provided the backdrop to Gwyneth Paltrow's 1996 film, Emma, boasts 25 rooms, a ballroom and a wine cellar and overlooks a crescent-shaped lake.

American billionaire Richard L Chilton later bought the property for more than 30 million, inheriting its 100 workers and more than 150 other properties that came with the estate.

At the time of the sale, his spokesperson said: In purchasing Crichel House, Mr Chilton, who has a rich history of preserving and restoring some of the finest architectural houses in the United States, is excited to restore and preserve its architectural integrity.
Katy Perry was left angered and saddened by a recent American Idol season 21 audition.

On Sunday (26 February), standing before judges Perry, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan, mattress salesman Trey Louis performed Stone by Whiskey Meyers.

After the 21-year-olds soulful rendition of the 2016 song brought the three judges to their feet, Bryan lauded his perfect voice, comparing it to that of Grammy-winning artist Chris Stapleton.

Why are you doing Idol? the Country Girl singer asked.

So American Idol, number one, is kinda where people that I enjoy make it, Louis explained.

Number two is, as I said before, Im from Santa Fe, Texas. In May 2018, a gunman walked into my school.

With his voice trembling, he continued: I was in art room one. He shot up art room two, before he made his way to art room one.

Trey Louis on American Idol (American Idol / YouTube)

Lost a lot of friends. Eight students were killed; two teachers were killed, and its just really been negative, man. Santa Fe has had a bad rap here since 2018.

Breaking down in tears, Perry held her head in her hands.

Our country has f***ing failed us! she yelled in between sobs. This is not ok. You should be singing here because you love music. Not because you had to go through that f***ing bulls***.

You didnt have to lose eight friends! she said. I hope that you remind people that we have to change because, you know what? Im scared too!

Richie added: We have tolerated this for so long, for too long. Its become a norm.

Weve gotta change. And I hope you can just lead. Can you do me that favour? Perry asked the contestant.

For myself, for my school, for you? You got it. Yes, maam, yes, maam, Louis responded.

The three then announced in unison: Youre going to Hollywood!

The 2018 Santa Fe shooting was considered the third deadliest high school shooting in the countrys history at the time.

Dimitrios Pagourtzis, who was 17 at the time, is the accused shooter who killed 10 classmates and teachers and wounded 13 others.

Nearly five years later, Pagourtzis has yet to stand trial as hes remained mentally incompetent to do so, according to the Galveston District Attorneys Office.
What youre saying is now were going to give judges the right to decide how much aid to give them instead of the person with the expertise and the experience, said Justice Sonia Sotomayor during Tuesdays oral arguments.

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two unprecedented cases  Biden v. Nebraska and Department of Education v. Brown  to determine whether President Joe Bidens student loan debt relief program would prevail.

This comes months after The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit issued an injunction halting forgiveness nationwide, leaving many borrowers in limbo about what will happen with their student loans.

Student loan borrowers and advocates gather for the Peoples Rally To Cancel Student Debt During The Supreme Court Hearings On Student Debt Relief on February 28, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Peoples Rally to Cancel Student Debt )

In August 2022, Biden announced a plan to eliminate up to $20,000 in federal student debt for borrowers who received a Pell Grant and up to $10,000 for borrowers who did not receive the grant to help citizens combat financial hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic. To qualify, an individual has to make less than $125,000 or the total household income must be less than $250,000, as theGrio previously reported.

During Tuesdays oral arguments, Justice Sonia Sotomayor condemned the six GOP lead states for putting the fate of millions of borrowers in the hands of the Supreme Courts nine justices.

Sotomayor noted that while 50 million students will benefit from Bidens student loan forgiveness plan, the injunction means that they are going to continue to suffer from this pandemic in a way that the general population doesnt.

She added, What youre saying is now were going to give judges the right to decide how much aid to give them instead of the person with the expertise and the experience  the secretary of education  whos been dealing with educational issues and the problems surrounding student loans.

In the Biden v Nebraska case, states contend that their economies will be greatly impacted by the student debt forgiveness program.

Nebraska Solicitor General James A. Campbell, one of the attorneys representing the states, called the student loan debt forgiveness program unlawful and alleged that no statute authorized Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to create it.

He added that Cardonas actions were unprecedented and that the HEROES Act, which grants the secretary authority to waiver or modify a statute governing the federal student financial aid programs in the wake of a disaster or emergency, has never been used to eliminate student debt before.

President Joe Biden delivers remarks regarding student loan debt forgiveness in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Aug. 24, 2022. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona joined. (Photo by Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Sotomayor challenged Campbells statement and said Congress anticipated that the HEROES Act would be used for debt cancellation.

Why would you think that Congress didnt intend under the HEROES Act to permit cancellations of debt if a national emergency required it, she asked.

Campbell asserted that the states would suffer financial injury due to Bidens initiative; however, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson disagreed. The newest justice told the attorney that he did not present sufficient evidence to support that claim.

On the contrary, the government asserts that these states lack standing because they have not presented a case in which they have suffered harm.

U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar, the attorney who represents the federal government, asked the court to reject the states arguments.

She also stated that Cardona acted within his authority under the HEROES Act when he proposed a plan to eliminate student debt for eligible borrowers amid the COVID-19 pandemic and that Congress authorized his plan because it was deemed essential.

The attorney also claimed that the states would not suffer financial harm from the governments actions.

However, the conservative justices were not entirely convinced that the Biden-Harris administration had justified invoking the HEROES ACT to create a loan forgiveness plan for borrowers.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh pushed back while speaking with Prelogar and was skeptical that the language in the HEROES Act authorized Cardona to eliminate student debt for some borrowers.

So, that leaves us with a situation that I think weve seen before  an old statute with kind of general language  Congress specifically considering the present issue repeatedly but not, as you acknowledge, he said.

Student loan borrowers and advocates gather for the Peoples Rally To Cancel Student Debt During The Supreme Court Hearings On Student Debt Relief on February 28, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Peoples Rally to Cancel Student Debt )

He added the Biden administration created a massive new program that was not permitted under the HEROES Act.

Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin told theGrio that he believes the Republican-led states lack standing.

I hate the pendulum where we are in our country right now. And when something works for all Americans, that its still being hijacked and or held hostage for partisan reasons, he said.

Jonathan Miller, chief program officer at Public Rights Project, told theGrio that these suits were filed against the Biden administration solely as a political stunt.

The pushback is all political. They dont want the Biden administration to get the success and the win of the debt cancellation. And so theyre trying to get the courts to strike it down, he said.

Woodfin believes that if Bidens student debt forgiveness program is permitted to move forward, Black Americans will be positively impacted.

[They wont] have to choose between being a homebuyer and paying student loans. Between being able to start a family and paying student loans, he said.

Woofin added, This debt cancellation is a shot at a greater equity in our country.

At this time, the Biden administrations efforts to provide relief for millions of Americans is on hold while the nine justices debate their arguments.

TheGrio is FREE on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku and Android TV. Also, please download theGrio mobile apps today!

The post What you should know about Supreme Court hearings on the fate of student loan debt relief appeared first on TheGrio.
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP)  Even for the Thunder Bay area, a perilous swath of northern Lake Huron off the Michigan coast that has devoured many a ship, the Irontons fate seems particularly cruel.

The 191-foot (58-meter) cargo vessel collided with a grain hauler on a blustery night in September 1894, sinking both. The Irontons captain and six sailors clambered into a lifeboat but it was dragged to the bottom before they could detach it from the ship. Only two crewmen survived.

The gravesite long eluded shipwreck hunters.

Now, the mystery has been solved, said officials with Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary in Alpena, Michigan.

A team of historians, underwater archaeologists and technicians located the wreckage in 2019 and deployed remotely controlled cameras to scan and document it, Superintendent Jeff Gray said in an AP interview. The sanctuary plans to reveal the location in coming months and is considering placing a mooring buoy at the site. Officials have kept the find secret to prevent divers from disturbing the site before video and photo documentation is finished.

Video footage shows the Ironton sitting upright on the lake bottom, hundreds of feet down  remarkably preserved by the cold, fresh water like many other Great Lakes shipwrecks, Gray said.

No human remains were seen. But the lifeboat remains tethered to the bigger vessel, a poignant confirmation of witness accounts from 128 years ago.

Archaeologists study things to learn about the past. But its not really things that were studying; its people, Gray said. And that lifeboat ... really connects you to the site and reminds you of how powerful the lakes are and what it must have been like to work on them and lose people on them.

In this image taken from video provided by the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, the bow of the Ironton is seen in Lake Huron off Michigan's east coast in a June 2021 photo. (Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary via AP)

The search and inspections involved a number of organizations, including Ocean Exploration Trust, founded by Robert Ballard, who located the sunken wreckage of the Titanic and the German battleship Bismarck.

We hope this discovery helps contribute to an element of closure to the extended families of those lost on the Ironton, and the communities impacted by its loss, Ballard said. The Ironton is yet another piece of the puzzle of Alpenas fascinating place in Americas history of trade, while the Thunder Bay sanctuary continues to reveal lost chapters of maritime history.

Nearly 200 shipwrecks are believed to rest within or nearby the boundaries of the sanctuary, which includes the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center in Alpena and some 4,300 square miles of northwestern Lake Huron.

Several factors made the area a shipwreck alley for more than two centuries, until modern navigation and weather forecasting reduced the danger, said Stephanie Gandulla, the sanctuarys resource protection coordinator.

The late 1800s was a busy period for Great Lakes commerce. Thousands of schooners, or sailing ships, and hundreds of steamers hauled cargo and passengers between bustling port cities such as Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland.

The sanctuary area was something of a maritime highway cloverleaf. Vessels cruised to and from Lake Huron and Lake Michigan through the nearby Straits of Mackinac. Others ranged northward to Lake Superior, fetching iron ore for steel mills from mines in Minnesota and Michigans Upper Peninsula.

Its where the upbound and downbound shipping kind of crossed each other, Gray said. Busy intersections are where most accidents happen.

The weather was notoriously unstable  dense fog, sudden storms. Islands and submerged reefs lurked.

In this image taken from video provided by the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, the bowsprit of the Ironton is seen in Lake Huron off Michigan's east coast in a June 2021 photo. (Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary via AP)

On the fateful night, the Ironton and another schooner barge, the Moonlight, were being towed northward from the Lake Erie town of Ashtabula, Ohio, by a steam-powered ship  a common practice then, much as a train engine pulls freight cars on a railroad. They were bound for Marquette, a port city on Lake Superior.

The steamer broke down in heavy Lake Huron seas around 12:30 a.m. the morning of Sept. 26. The Ironton and the Moonlight disconnected their tow lines and drifted apart, with the Ironton crew setting sails and firing up its engine. It veered off course and ran into the Ohio, a freighter loaded with 1,000 tons of flour, about 10 miles off Presque Isle, Michigan.

The Ohio soon foundered, its crew of 16 rescued by the Moonlight. The Ironton stayed afloat more than an hour before going down.

Newspapers quoted William Parry as saying he and two other Ironton sailors bobbed in the heaving lake for about 30 minutes until another steamer, the Charles Hebard, showed up. Parry struggled aboard as the Hebard lowered a lifeboat with several of its crew.

They picked up the other two Ironton men. But a wave overturned the craft, flinging everyone into the water. Hebard crewmen tossed lines and pulled all to safety except Ironton mate Ed Boswick, who couldnt muster the strength to hold on.

Its a powerful, tragic story, Gandulla said.

So fierce was the gale that it claimed yet another schooner, the William Home, farther west on Lake Michigan. Six of seven crew members died.

Staffers with the sanctuary, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, took a sonar survey in the area of the Ironton-Ohio collision in 2017. They detected two images on the lake bed, one later identified as the Ohio. The other was a more recent shipwreck.

It took two more years to track down the Ironton several miles away. Ballards organization provided an autonomous surface vehicle designed for seafloor mapping. After days of searching, it spotted a figure that later was confirmed as the Ironton.

In this image taken from video provided by the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, a lifeboat is tethered to the Ironton seen in Lake Huron off Michigan's east coast in a June 2021 photo. (Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary via AP)

A high-resolution scan in 2021 provided more details. The vessel is largely intact, Gray said. Its masts point skyward, with rigging and ropes tied to spars and lying on deck. The robotic camera also showed the lifeboat tied to the ships stern.

The sanctuary awaits federal and state permits to plant the buoy, anchored by weights of up to 3,000 pounds (1,360 kilograms), on the lake floor. Divers could attach their boats to the floating device and head down to explore the long-lost craft.

Then we get to share it with the rest of the world, Gray said, and try to protect it so our grandkids can enjoy these sites the same way that we do today.

___

Follow John Flesher on Twitter: @JohnFlesher
Jerretta Sandoz, right, discusses the Los Angeles Police Protective League's proposals to stop sending officers to more than two dozen types of 911 calls during a news conference in Los Angeles, Wednesday, March 1, 2023. Sandoz is vice president of the league. (AP Photo/Stefanie Dazio) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

LOS ANGELES (AP)  The Los Angeles Police Departments rank-and-file union is proposing that someone other than police respond to more than two dozen types of 911 calls in a bid to transfer officers' workload to more serious crimes. The move is part of a national trend aimed at limiting situations where armed police officers are the first to respond.

The proposal announced Wednesday by the Los Angeles Police Protective League lists 28 kinds of 911 calls where other city agencies or nonprofit organizations would be sent first. The calls range from mental health situations, quality-of-life and homeless issues, problems at schools and welfare checks, to certain non-fatal traffic collisions, parking violations, trash dumping, loud parties, public intoxication and panhandling.

The league said officers would respond if the situation becomes violent or criminal in nature, but only after the initial call goes to another agency or an affiliated nonprofit.

Police officers are not psychologists. We are not psychiatrists. We are not mental health experts. We are not social workers, doctors, nurses or waste management experts, Debbie Thomas, one of the unions directors, said Wednesday during a news conference. I do believe that many people think we should be all those things but we are not. We should be focused on responding to emergencies, saving lives (and) property, and of course, engaging in community policing.

Cities including San Francisco, San Diego and New York  as well as Los Angeles  have already implemented programs where clinicians are either paired with officers or work in civilian teams to respond to 911 calls involving someone who is having a mental health crisis.

The changes came amid a closer look at law enforcement in the U.S. in the wake of George Floyds killing by Minneapolis police in 2020. That included looking at how police handle mental health and other calls that don't include violence or criminality.

The Los Angeles proposal comes during the unions contract negotiations with the city and amid activists pleas for reducing or eliminating armed responses to certain situations. The City Council and the mayor's office will be involved in the final decision about the proposal, the union said.

Activists have long called for Los Angeles police to stop responding to certain mental health calls, minor traffic collisions and encounters in homeless encampments, pointing to times when officers have fatally shot people during the response.

The LAPD and the mayor's office did not immediately have comments on Wednesday. Mayor Karen Bass promised during her campaign to create a public safety office that did not include the LAPD.

Hugh Esten, a spokesperson for City Council President Paul Krekorian, said the union's proposal will be given serious consideration as city officials work to ensure that sworn personnel are deployed where they are truly needed and that unarmed responders address those situations where an armed response is unnecessary.

With decreased staffing during the COVID-19 pandemic, the union said its proposal would free up officers to respond to more important calls  such as violent crime  and allow cops to engage in more community policing to build better relationships with the city's residents.

Other cities have also experimented with similar models, such as Portland, Oregon, where unarmed public support specialists take reports on things like vehicle break-ins and bike thefts.

In 2021, the LAPD launched a pilot program to divert some mental health calls to service providers. The department also started dual-response teams that pair officers with clinicians in situations involving mental health crises and people experiencing homelessness, as well as domestic violence and abuse.

Also in 2021, the LAPD stopped responding to minor traffic crashes; a deputy chief at the time said the change would eliminate officers responding to roughly 40,000 calls a year.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 1)  Lawmakers have condemned the suspected hazing death of a college student, and urged authorities to bring those responsible to justice.

Senate President Juan Miguel "Migz" Zubiri was among those who expressed dismay over what happened to John Matthew Salilig, whose death was confirmed by Adamson University on Tuesday.

"I urgently call on our law enforcement to immediately hunt down and arrest the suspects behind the death of John Matthew Salilig, and ensure that they are dealt with using the full force of our Anti-Hazing Law," Zubiri said in a statement on Wednesday.

Authorities have yet to confirm the cause of the 24-year-old chemical engineering student's death.

The Laguna Provincial Police Office said the victim attended the initiation rites of the Tau Gamma Phi (Triskilion) fraternity in Binan on Feb. 18, the day he went missing.

Zubiri called out the "barbarian perpetrators" responsible for the act, and said they "should all rot in jail for the rest of their lives."

"The culture of secrecy in the guise of fraternal 'brotherhood' is abhorrent, and each and every single person involved  from those who planned, those who participated, even those who were just present but did nothing to stop the hazing  should be thrown in jail as well," Zubiri said.

"Under our law they are all responsible," he added.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez offered a reward of 500,000 for anyone who can provide information that will lead to the arrest of those involved in the hazing incident.

It is important that we take a proactive step to help our law enforcement agencies bring criminals to justice, Romualdez said.

He added that the reward is to encourage individuals to coordinate with the authorities in investigating the hazing incident.

Romualdez also condemned the gruesome killing, stressing a loss of life is not acceptable in a civilized society like ours.

Sen. Risa Hontiveros shared the same sentiment "in the strongest terms," adding that the full extent of the law should be enforced against all responsible, including those who had knowledge of the incident.

"Dapat panagutin silang mga walang awang pumatay kay John Matthew at nagbaon sa kanyang bangkay pagkatapos ang napabalitang initiation rites," she said.

[Translation: Those responsible for the cruel death of John Matthew and for burying his body after the reported initiation rites should be held responsible.]

Sen. Jinggoy Estrada also urged authorities to round up all those involved and privy to the case and hold them accountable to the law.

A report from the Cavite Provincial Police Office said a body was found in the morning of Feb. 28 buried in a vacant lot in Imus, Cavite. The body was identified as Salilig's by his brother.

Police said there are 15 suspects in the college student's death.

Sen. Joel Villanueva also denounced the incident, describing it as disheartening since he's also a fraternity member.

"Nakakapanlumo po bilang miyembro ng Tau Gamma Phi dahil hindi po ito parte ng paniniwala at ipinaglalaban ng fraternity," he stressed.

"Nananawagan po tayo sa ating mga kapatid sa Tau Gamma Phi fraternity, sa pamunuan ng Adamson University at mga awtoridad na siguruhing mapapanagot sa batas at mabibigyan ng katarungan sa ilalim ng Anti-Hazing Act of 2018 ang mga sangkot dito," Villanueva added.

[Translation: As a member of Tau Gamma Phi, this is upsetting because this is not part of the belief and mission of the fraternity. I call on the Tau Gamma Phi fraternity, the Adamson University administration, and the authorities to punish those responsible under the Anti-Hazing Act of 2018.]

Sen. Nancy Binay expressed dismay over schools, administrations and law enforcements as they fail to seriously check and monitor organizations that continue to practice the traditional initiation rites.

Until now  kahit meron ng RA 11053  naririyan pa rin ang vicious cycle of physical abuse, at ibang forms of abuse  tapos ngayon, gusto uli nating ibalik ang ROTC na kilala sa ganyang practices, Binay said.

[Translation: Until now  although there is RA 11053  there is still a vicious cycle of physical abuse, and other forms of abuse  then now we want to revive the ROTC that is known for those kinds of practices.]

Sen. Win Gatchalian said it was important to stay vigilant until the case is resolved.

"While the Adamson University has initiated its investigation and the Tau Gamma Phi's Triskelion Council of Imus City has vowed openness to collaborate with the bereaved family, it is crucial that we stay vigilant until justice is served and those involved are held fully accountable," Gatchalian said.

Sen. Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa, meanwhile, said school fraternities should keep an eye on their ranks.

"I am not for banning fraternities but yung [the] fraternities themselves should police their ranks and the school administration is very crucial kasi [because] the police cannot be around every square inch of the territory," he told a forum.
Coyote sightings are on the rise this time of year as breeding season gets underway.

For Jason Nally, the Bluegrass regional coordinator for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, his office regularly sees an uptick in phone calls in late February and early March.

During that time, these animals are much more territorial and much more interested in maintaining their space, Nally said.

Generally speaking, coyotes prefer to avoid contact with humans. That said, its not unheard of to encounter one while out walking your dog, especially in the early spring, when they show up in new places, Nally said.

When a chance encounter does occur, sometimes the animals can feel threatened, Nally said.

A coyote is viewing that dog as a potential threat to its territory. They dont seem to be predatory in nature in that the coyote is trying to eat the dog, Nally said.

Heres what to know about how to keep your pets safe this time of year as coyote activity heats up.

How to protect your pets from coyotes

According to Nally, small dogs can sometimes be targeted as prey by coyotes, but typically most of the attacks that we see on small dogs, theyre either defensive or territorial. They dont consume the animal.

While the state agency doesnt maintain a database of coyote attacks on pets, in more than 10 years with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife, Nally reports getting only a handful of calls about them.

I would typically receive a call every couple of years about a coyote that has attacked an unattended dog. I wouldnt say that it is incredibly common, but it does happen, Nally told the Herald-Leader. Cats and small dogs can be seen as prey, but most of the attacks on medium- to larger-sized dogs appear to be in response to the coyote defending their territory, fighting over a food source or protecting its pups.

If you are out walking your dog in an area where you know coyotes have been spotted, Nally advises keeping your dog on a really short, brightly colored leash.

If you do see a coyote, and frightening the animal away doesnt work, pick up your pet and hold it in your arms. Coyotes are much less likely to pose a threat to a human, Nally said.

Outdoor cats or dogs left unattended in backyards could also be a target for coyotes, Nally said.

Nally calls coyotes opportunistic omnivores. While they mostly eat small rodents, they have a sweet tooth. Your backyard strawberries or watermelon vine could also be a draw for them, he said.

Some of the things that people dont think about are bird feeders, Nally said. Bird feeders will also attract rodents  If youve got a food resource, that opportunistic omnivore is going to move in and try to exploit that.

To a coyote, Nally said humans are wallpaper in their world. Were a familiar presence to them, especially as theyre pushed into urban areas in search of food, but coyotes generally prefer to have little to do with humans.

They typically dont want to interact with us much at all. They try to generally avoid us, unless theyre being intentionally fed, Nally said.

This is why Nally encourages the public to help coyotes maintain that healthy level of fear while still respecting the species.

Its really important that you make that encounter with them not pleasurable. You want to yell at it. You want to make a big scene  You want them to go those bipedal mammals are crazy! Nally said.

How to identify coyotes

According to Nally, the biggest difference between the coyote and another backyard canine critter, the fox, is size. Adult foxes are typically less than 20 pounds, while coyotes can easily surpass 30 to 40 pounds, he said.

The red fox has a characteristic red coat, black feet and a white-tipped tail. Gray foxes are typically gray with a reddish brown underbelly and a black-tipped tail.

Coloration for coyotes, by comparison, can vary widely, meaning size is probably your best bet for telling them apart from foxes when viewed at a distance.

Asked for an estimate of the size of Kentuckys coyote population, Nally said his agency generally focuses population studies on animals that are threatened, rather than abundant and stable.

Coyotes are abundant in every county in the commonwealth, but for the most part stay hidden. Trail cameras are a great way for homeowners to see what types of wildlife inhabit their property, Nally said.

How can I have a nuisance coyote removed?

If you find yourself dealing with a coyote thats lost its fear of humans, you can turn to a licensed wildlife control operator or trapper to have the animal relocated somewhere else.

The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife maintains a running list of professionals online.

Do you have a question about critters in Kentucky for our service journalism team? Wed like to hear from you. Fill out our Know Your Kentucky form or email ask@herald-leader.com.
A couple based in Mississippi recently welcomed a rare set of quintuplets, which included four identical girls.

Haylee and Shawn Ladner welcomed their five children on 16 February at Wiser Hospital for Women and Infants at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC).

As noted by UMMC, all babies were delivered by Caesarean section, with Haylees first daughter, Adalyn Elizabeth, born at 9:19am. She then welcomed Adalyns three sisters: Everleigh Rose at 9:20 am, Malley Kate at 9:21am, and Magnolia Mae at 9:22 am. At 9:23 am, the four girls were joined by their brother, Jake Easton.

Dr Rachael Morris, an associate professor of maternal foetal medicine who delivered Haylees babies, said this pregnancy was quite rare.

She had a quintuplet pregnancy with four identical females. Reports of spontaneous quintuplets vary but are about 1 in 60 million, she explained during a press conference, per WJTV. There are very few reports of identical quadruplets in the literature to date. Reported incidence is 1 in 10 to 15 million pregnancies. There is only one other report of this combination in the literature from 2018.

Before welcoming their five children, the couple struggled with conceiving a child and Haylee had experienced a miscarriage. The pair then tried intrauterine insemination, a procedure done to treat infertility.

During that process, one of the fertilised eggs divided in four ways which resulted in identical quadruplet girls and one boy, according to UMMCs report.

Dr Morris recounted how Haylee was first admitted to the hospital on 11 January so doctors could pay close attention to the pregnancy. There was a labour and delivery room for use along with a care team that included 30 specialists in neonatology and neonatal nursing.

Dr. Mobolaji Famuyide, chief of the Division of Newborn Medicine, also recalled in UMMCs report what preparation her team did before the birth.

A daily schedule was in place for the entire duration of her stay in the hospital, and team members were willing and happy to be called in even if this happened at 2 a.m., she said. There were five warmers and two rooms ready for the babies, and several neonatologists, neonatal nurse practitioners, fellows, nurses and respiratory therapists ready every day. We were ready for weeks for this birth.

When the time came for Haylee to decide who was going to deliver her baby, she said that a friend told her about Dr Morris.

The OBGYN nurse called me in a few days and set up an appointment for us to see her, she said. It has been the best decision we have ever made. Shes absolutely wonderful, and we adore her.

Shawn agreed with the sentiment and expressed how he and his spouse couldnt be more pleased about connecting with Morris.

All our concerns, all our worries weve had about the delivery, she acknowledged them and explained how they would care for those issues, he said, per UMMC. Weve felt like weve been cared for the best we possibly could be.

Speaking with WAPT at the press conference, Haylee opened up about her fertility treatments and referred to her children as her miracle babies.

I didnt think I would ever get the chance to be a mother of even one baby, so now that I am getting to be a mother to five she said.

Shawn also explained their shock when discovering that they were having five children, recalling: The doctor said, I never seen this before. That is something you dont want them to say, and he went to explain that instead of it being twins like we thought, it was a possibility that we were having five.

During the press conference, Haylee shared an update about her babies now: Theyre thriving, and were looking forward to the day when they can come home. They are the greatest blessing of my entire life.

The Independent has contacted Haylee and Shawn for comment.
President Biden at the Ukrainian presidential palace in Kyiv on Feb. 20. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via Getty Images)

Nearly 7 in 10 registered voters (68%) now say President Biden is too old for another term, according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll  and more Democrats agree (48%) than disagree (34%) with that assessment.

The survey of 1,516 U.S. adults, which was conducted from Feb. 23 to 27, underscores the central challenge facing the oldest president in American history as he gears up for a likely reelection bid  and the difficult position his age is putting his party in.

For Democrats, the problem is not Bidens performance in office; they overwhelmingly approve (77%) rather than disapprove (20%) of how the 80-year-old is handling the job.

Registered voters who are Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents also say they would prefer to renominate Biden for president (47%) rather than someone else (34%)  a reversal from the latter part of last year, when a plurality of Democrats repeatedly said they would prefer someone else. The 47% who now say they would rather nominate Biden is the highest number since November 2021.

Yet despite viewing Biden favorably, many Democrats seem wary of what comes next. Asked in June 2020 how concerned they were about Joe Bidens health and mental acuity, just 28% of Democrats said they were either somewhat (10%) or very concerned (18%); the other 72% said they were either slightly (28%) or not at all concerned (44%).

Today, more than two and a half years later, the combined number of somewhat or very concerned Democrats has risen 12 points to about 40%, while the combined number who are slightly or not at all concerned has fallen by the same amount, to about 60%.

This shift likely reflects Bidens increasing age and related fears about how it might affect his chances in 2024.

The Yahoo News/YouGov poll suggests that Democrats have reason to worry. A majority of registered voters (56%) now agree that there is an age at which somebody is too old to be president (up from 50% in June 2020), and 45% choose 80 or younger as the age they consider too old for the job.

Among independents  the key voting group that often decides elections  60% say someone can be too old for the presidency, and a majority (54%) set that threshold at 80 or younger.

Former President Donald Trump speaks at the New Hampshire Republican State Committee's annual meeting on Jan. 28. (Scott Eisen/Getty Images)

After being informed that Joe Biden would be 82 at the start of his second term and 86 at the end of it  a fact that Republicans are sure to bring up frequently in 2024  a full 68% of registered voters and 71% of independents say the president is too old for another term.

Just 46% of independents (and 45% of all registered voters) say the same when told Trump would be 78 at the start of his second term and 82 at the end of it.

Likewise, only 39% of independents (and 46% of all registered voters) say theyre either somewhat or very concerned about Trumps health and mental acuity. In contrast, 68% of independents (and 65% of all registered voters) say theyre either somewhat or very concerned about Bidens physical and mental condition. This is despite the fact that Biden was recently deemed quite healthy by the White House physician.

Possibly as a result, more Americans (42%) now say Trump "has the competence to carry out the job of president" than say the same about Biden (35%). The last time Yahoo News and YouGov asked this question, in August 2021, the share who said Biden had the competence to serve as president was 11 points higher than it is today (46%).

Regardless of how much they favor the presidents policies or personality, Democrats seem keenly aware of this conundrum  which likely explains why just 41% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters say that Biden would be the Democratic Partys strongest nominee for president in 2024.

The catch is that when asked specifically about other possible candidates  none of whom will run if Biden opts in  Democrats dont actually see any of the alternatives as stronger than the president.

If forced to choose between Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for the nomination, more than twice as many Democrats and Democratic leaners say they would pick Biden (53%) over Harris (24%). And if Joe Biden does not run for reelection, nearly half say they would rather see someone else as the nominee (49%) than Harris (36%).

When it comes to electability, these Democratic voters may have a point. Simply swapping Harris's name for Biden's as the Democratic nominee does not improve the party's standing in various general-election matchups.

While 45% of registered voters say they might or would definitely support Biden if he were the Democratic nominee, slightly fewer (43%) say they might or would definitely support Harris. The number who say they would definitely support Biden (31%) is significantly larger than the number who say they would definitely support Harris (25%).

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. (Carlo Allegri/Reuters)

Pitted against Trump, Harris (42%) performs slightly worse than Biden (43%), and she garners even less support (40% to Bidens 42%) against Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Biden currently trails both potential Republican nominees by 2 percentage points; Harris trails Trump by 3 and DeSantis by 5.

The vice president is nonetheless the most popular answer (25%) among Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters when asked which of seven high-profile candidates they would rather see as the Democratic nominee if Joe Biden does not run for reelection. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders all register at 12%; Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren (8%), Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar (5%) and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (5%) are stuck in single digits.

Tellingly, the second most popular answer after Harris is not sure (21%).

__________

The Yahoo News survey was conducted by YouGov using a nationally representative sample of 1,516 U.S. adults interviewed online from Feb. 23 to 27, 2023. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification and current voter registration status. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondents most recent answer given prior to March 15, 2022, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (32% Democratic, 27% Republican). Respondents were selected from YouGovs opt-in panel to be representative of all U.S. adults. The margin of error is approximately 2.7%.
U.S. Atty. Martin Estrada, with L.A. Mayor Karen Bass to his left, announces the arrest of suspect Jaime Tran last month in the shooting attacks on two Jewish men near synagogues in Los Angeles' Pico-Robertson neighborhood. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

A man charged with the hate-motivated shootings of two Jewish men in Los Angeles was on the FBI's radar before the attacks, Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore said.

In the year before the shootings, Jaime Tran had been charged with carrying a loaded firearm and was investigated after threatening and racist messages were sent to former dental school classmates, according to court records and interviews.

How Tran slipped through the FBI's threat-tracking system despite suggestions that he posed a considerable, and perhaps deadly, danger remains under investigation by the FBI, said Moore and other officials.

LAPD officers on horseback patrol along Pico Boulevard to increase their presence in the wake of the Pico-Robertson shootings. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

In a departure from local law enforcement leaders' usual reluctance to publicly question the actions of federal agencies, Moore made his remarks at a Los Angeles Police Commission meeting on Tuesday.

"He was on the radar, if you will, of our FBI partners in what we call a 'Guardian lead' because of hate-fueled remarks or emails that he was sending to former classmates of a dental school which he was attending," Moore said.

Moore said that Tran, 28, had been the "subject of mental health evaluations and was and has been suffering from mental illness through the years."

The chief said that Tran shot the two Jewish men, who survived, with a handgun and also had a rifle on him when arrested in Cathedral City on Feb. 16.

"How he came into the possession of that rifle as well as the handgun, given his mental health condition, is the subject of our continued investigation," Moore said.

Investigators believe the weapons were acquired outside of California, the chief said. Tran told investigators that he got the guns in Arizona.

"Was everything done?" Moore said. "The FBI is continuing to evaluate and go back over their efforts these last few years in regards to interplay with him and ensuring everything was done that could be done."

The FBI's Guardian Threat Tracking System documents potential terrorist threats and suspicious incidents, assigns them for follow-up investigation and issues alerts about potential threats or suspicious activity.

According to two law enforcement sources who were not authorized to speak on the record, at least two Guardian reports about Tran were generated before the shootings.

According to one of the sources, the Guardian reports can be of limited use, since the actions they document often do not rise to criminal acts.

While this is an ongoing investigation and prosecution, the Chief is correct that Guardian leads were generated, shared with the appropriate partners and investigated. The leads did not result in federal charges," Laura Eimiller, a spokesperson for the FBI's Los Angeles office, said in a statement. "The information generated did assist law enforcement in apprehending Mr. Tran within hours of the attacks and, potentially, stopping further acts of violence."

Brian Levin, director of Center for the Study for Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino, said there seems to have been a structural failure in Tran's case.

"The Guardian system had no sentry in the box. This assailant was well on the radar screen of authorities, and nothing was done," Levin said. "How was it possible that Tran was able to gain access to firearms, given his pending criminal trial on a gun possession and the antisemitic threats?"

Elat Market customers stop to watch LAPD officers pass by on horseback through the Pico-Robertson neighborhood. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Tran told investigators after his arrest that he had searched on Yelp for a kosher market to target Jewish people in the first shooting near Shenandoah and Cashio streets in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood. The victim, in his 40s, was shot in the back while walking to his vehicle on Feb. 15.

The next morning, about a block away, Tran allegedly shot a man in the arm as the man was walking home.

Both victims wore black jackets and head coverings indicating their Jewish faith.

Within hours of obtaining images of Tran's Honda Civic, LAPD major crimes investigators identified him and discovered his history of antisemitic threats.

Federal prosecutors charged Tran with two counts of hate crimes for allegedly targeting and shooting the two Jewish men. He faces a maximum sentence of life without parole.

Federal and local authorities first became aware of Tran's hate-filled diatribes last year.

According to the federal complaint charging Tran with the shootings, Tran was expelled in 2018 from a dental school. Law enforcement sources identified the school as UCLA.

In late 2022, a former dental school classmate received repeated calls and texts from Tran.

Identified as M.N.H. in the complaint, the man, who is Jewish, told investigators that Tran sent him "numerous threatening and antisemitic voicemails and text messages."

One of the messages said, I want you dead, Jew," according to the complaint.

In November, Tran emailed dozens of former classmates at the same dental school.

In one email, Tran wrote: That Persian/Iranian Jew of the Class of 2020 made up a fake, bs disease (COVID)."

Beverly Hills Police Chief Mark Stainbrook told The Times that Tran made some of the threats to an individual in Connecticut and that Southern California law enforcement officials reached out to agencies there.

The person in Connecticut and another person who received threatening messages from Tran did not wish to pursue criminal charges, according to two law enforcement sources who were not authorized to discuss the investigations.

But the two cases brought Tran to the FBI's attention, the sources said.

In both cases, while the language and threats were blatantly racist, they did not rise to a crime because there was no violence involved, according to one of the sources.

It is unclear why the threats did not result in more action from the FBI given Tran's documented history of mental illness and the firearm charge against him.

On July 3, someone spotted an armed man sitting on a bench near the engineering building on the Cal State Long Beach campus, according to the Los Angeles County district attorneys office.

According to prosecutors, Tran told officers that he was carrying the loaded weapon for protection. He was charged with felony possession of a loaded firearm on a school campus.

Tran was due to appear at a pretrial hearing in late February. Records show he was released without posting any bond.

In charging Tran with the gun crime, L.A. County Dist. Atty. George Gascon said his office had not been aware of Tran's prior hate-related actions, and that Tran did not have a criminal history.

Gascon said no one informed the prosecutor in the gun case about Tran's threats to former classmates and that prosecutors never received a request to charge Tran with the threats  all of which could have led to some intervention, including rescinding Tran's bail or obtaining a plea deal that included mental health services.

"The dots were never connected for us," he said. "This is the first time I am hearing this was on the FBI's radar."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
The initiative aims to boost post-pandemic traveller numbers (Getty Images)

Taiwan has unveiled plans to pay tourists to visit.

Taiwans premier Chen Chien-jen announced the scheme at a news conference last week, outlining that his government aims to welcome at least six million tourists this year and 10 million annual visitors by 2025.

The new initiative aims to boost post-pandemic foreign tourists after they fell to under 900,000 in 2022, compared to 11.8 million in 2019.

Half a million tourists will be offered 5,000 New Taiwan dollars (136), while 90,000 tour groups will receive 20,000 New Taiwan dollars (544).

Tourism Bureau Director-General Chang Shi-chung has explained that tourists will only receive the financial incentive after their arrival in the country, and its set to be distributed at promotional opportunities throughout the year.

The money will be given out through multiple tourism promotion events this year, rather than giving it all out at once, Mr Chang said, highlighting: As such, not all international tourists would receive it.

International tourists who are given NT$5,000 will not receive it until they arrive, Mr Chang added.

The money will be loaded up on a payment card and it can help contribute to travel costs.

It will be stored in an electronic ticketing card, which can be used to pay for food, accommodation and other travel expenses during their time here, Mr Chang said.

Its expected that both domestic and international travel agences will be provided with additional incentives to help improve Taiwan tourism.

The sharp decline in visitor numbers is due to Covid restrictions and Taiwans border only fully reopening in October 2022.

Chairman of the High-Quality of Travel Association, Ringo Lee, said: Compared with nearby countries, we are relatively late in reopening the borders for international tourists and have fewer means to conduct international tourism marketing.
By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee voted on Wednesday along party lines to give President Joe Biden the power to ban Chinese-owned social media app TikTok, in the latest setback for the popular video sharing site.

Lawmakers voted 24 to 16 to approve the measure to grant the administration new powers to ban the ByteDance-owned app - which is used by over 100 million Americans - as well as other apps considered security risks.

Democrats on the committee opposed the bill, which was sponsored by Republican committee chair Michael McCaul.

TikTok has come under increasing fire in recent weeks over fears that user data could end up in the hands of the Chinese government, undermining Western security interests.

The White House this week gave government agencies 30 days to ensure that TikTok is not on any federal devices and systems. More than 30 U.S. states, Canada and European Union policy institutions have also banned TikTok from being loaded onto state-owned devices.

The fate of the latest measure - which give Biden new powers to order a TikTok ban - is still uncertain and faces significant hurdles before it would come law. The bill would need to be passed by the full House and U.S. Senate, which is controlled by Democrats, before it can go to Biden.

"A U.S. ban on TikTok is a ban on the export of American culture and values to the billion people who use our service worldwide," a TikTok spokeswoman said after the vote.

McCaul told Reuters after the vote that he expects the TikTok bill will be taken up on the floor "fairly soon" and voted on by the full House this month.

Representative Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the committee, said he strongly opposed the legislation because it would "damage our allegiances across the globe, bring more companies into China's sphere, destroy jobs here in the United States and undercut core American values of free speech and free enterprise."

The U.S. government's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a powerful national security body, in 2020 unanimously recommended ByteDance divest TikTok because of fears that user data could be passed on to China's government.

TikTok and CFIUS have been negotiating for more than two years on data security requirements. TikTok said it has spent more than $1.5 billion on rigorous data security efforts and rejects spying allegations.

Meeks said McCaul's bill is "dangerously overbroad" and would require U.S. sanctions on Korean and Taiwanese companies that supply Chinese companies with semiconductor chips and other equipment because of how broadly restrictions would apply on data transfers to China.

The American Civil Liberties Union also urged Congress not to ban TikTok, saying it would violate the free speech rights of millions of Americans.

Last month, Biden said he was not sure if Washington would ban TikTok.

TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew is due to appear before the U.S. Energy and Commerce Committee on March 23.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Deepa Babington)
British foreign minister James Cleverly has raised the issue of tax raids on the BBCs offices in India during a meeting with his Indian counterpart in Delhi.

Mr Cleverly is in India for a G20 meeting of foreign ministers that India is hosting, and held bilateral talks with Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Wednesday ahead of the main G20 programme on Thursday.

The three-day-long raids of BBC offices last month were described as surveys by the Indian tax authorities, and came just weeks after the British broadcaster aired a documentary that was critical of Indias prime minister Narendra Modi.

Indian news agency ANI reported that Mr Cleverly was firmly told that all entities operating in India must comply fully with relevant laws and regulations.

UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly brought up the BBC tax issue with EAM S Jaishankar today. He was firmly told that all entities operating in India must comply fully with relevant laws and regulations: Sources  ANI (@ANI) March 1, 2023

The Indian government had criticised the two-part BBC documentary, which assessed Mr Modis relationship with Indias Muslims, as a propaganda piece. It included a previously unseen UK government report finding Mr Modi directly responsible for the circumstances around the 2002 Gujarat religious riots, in which more than 1,000 people  many of them Muslims  were killed.

The BBC defended its work and said that its film adhered to the highest editorial standards. It said Mr Modis party was offered the chance to respond in the documentary but it declined.

Mr Cleverly said to ANI in an interview that though he had not watched the documentary, the BBC functions independently of the government.

I didn't see documentary but I've seen reactions among the Indian diaspora in the UK and here in India. The BBC is an independent organisation and separate from government. I enjoy a strong personal relationship with Dr Jaishankar, he said.

I didn't see documentary but I've seen reactions in UK & India. BBC is an independent organisation & separate from govt. I enjoy a strong personal relationship with Dr Jaishankar...relationship b/w UK-India growing stronger by the day:UK Foreign Secy on BBC documentary on PM Modi pic.twitter.com/NLsen7ngXR  ANI (@ANI) March 1, 2023

He added that he hoped that the relationship between the UK and India would grow stronger by the day.

In a separate statement on Twitter, Mr Jaishankar said that the two had reviewed the progress of their relationship and exchanged views on the global situation as well as the G20 agenda.

Began the morning with a bilateral meeting with Foreign Secretary @JamesCleverly of the UK.



Reviewed the progress in our relationship since our last discussion. Noted in particular the commencement of the Young Professional Scheme. pic.twitter.com/R3aUvX1U4Z  Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) March 1, 2023

There was no mention of Mr Cleverly raising the issue of the BBC raids.

The government and Mr Modis ruling BJP party have previously said the tax raids were not related to the BBCs documentary, yet at the same time a spokesperson said India was only open to organisations if they did not spew venom.

After the surveys were completed, the tax authorities accused the British broadcaster of tax evasion and non-compliance with its previous notices.

Last week the British government offered a limited defence of the broadcaster in parliament after an opposition party brought an urgent question on the matter  a full week after the raids began. Then, foreign office minister David Rutley said: "We stand up for the BBC.
"We've obviously been responsible for two world wars last century, and they've left a lot of scars and an imprint on our DNA," director Edward Berger says of the German people. (Jennifer McCord / For The Times)

When Edward Berger talks about the impulse to make the World War I saga All Quiet on the Western Front, he says he can speak only as a German filmmaker adapting a classic German novel (by Erich Maria Remarque) about the horrors a Germany-waged battle inflicted on its youth. Something in him wanted to add to an international conversation about wars fruitlessness.

Weve obviously been responsible for two world wars last century, and theyve left a lot of scars and an imprint on our DNA, Berger says. Unfortunately, war seems to be a never-ending topic.

Berger shies from making comparisons between his film and the situation in Russian-invaded Ukraine, but it hit home for him what world his movie was being released into when he saw a post on German photographer Wolfgang Tillmans' Instagram page juxtaposing 2022 images of Ukraine and those from Belgium in 1916, pictures Berger himself had used as research. You couldnt tell which year it was, says Berger of Tillmans provocative link. The burned tree stumps, the trenches, the muddy fields and soldiers. They were interchangeable. It just keeps repeating itself.

Bergers film, which he co-wrote, includes its own visual take on the gruesome grind of war  an opening sequence that coldly shows the system that turns a dead soldier's bloodied uniform into the new kit that wide-eyed protagonist Paul (Felix Kammerer) will wear as the next innocent charging into battle.

The war machine became a big theme, how it eats up these kids, Berger says, so we tried to find an equivalence in the images. How the machine recycles life, and life becomes meaningless. Within days, their souls die.

Berger asked his composer, Volker Bertelmann, to reflect that in the music too. I told him to destroy the images, not to sentimentalize, the director says. Whats the sound inside Pauls stomach? What came back was a score marked by a booming, sulfuric war call played on a heavily amplified harmonium. Adds Berger, You hear the inside of the pump, and it became this theme of taking your last breath. Its the feeling of the war machine.

A contrast to that violent churn was essential to Bergers vision too, so he also sought what he calls pockets of peace alongside or in between the muck and blood, whether its the sounds of birds or the silent poetry of a beautiful countryside. It was important to me to create a feeling of what were destroying, he says. If its only loud and muddy, you become blind and deaf. The goal was to look at these images and get melancholic.

With budgetary constraints putting a premium on rigorous preparation, Berger storyboarded everything with trusted cinematographer James Friend in advance, holing up in a hotel room as they covered walls with drawings and acted out battle scenes with an iPhone. By the end they had a 300-page image bible. Then, in the midst of shooting, as doubt crept into Bergers mind about the task at hand  especially when battle-filming days took their toll  the collaboration proved more than strictly artistic. Sometimes I was really crushed, and I saw myself sinking in the mud, and [James] was very helpful, saying, You know what, lets just concentrate on one shot at a time.

That one shot, in fact, applied to how they filmed battle scenes: sticking to what their main character sees in the thick of combat. Normally, you would probably shoot with three, maybe four cameras to capture everything, but we thought, if we have four cameras, whose perspective is it? Berger says. We wanted to give you the feeling that you are with this kid. So we shot everything single camera. And any wide shot was created only to make Paul feel lost, lonely.

Getting one sequence right especially gnawed at him: the solitary, devastating, real-time killing of a French soldier in a crater, what Bergers 17-year-old daughter confirmed for him was of singular dramatic importance. My kids are utterly uninterested in which movie Im doing next, but when I mentioned All Quiet, my daughter said, I just read it in school. You have to make it. I cried seven times. And this crater scene, its the best scene in the book, Berger recalls. Its the heart of the movie, its so moving.

What was budgeted to be a four-minute sequence, however, when rehearsed ran at 11 minutes. When his assistant director asked him to simplify it, or else it would take up four days of filming, says Berger, I had to choose which ear [to listen to], because in the other was my daughter saying, This is the best scene. Luckily, I listened to my daughter. And Felix put so much into every shot, he cried for four days straight. He carries the scene.

Even later, when the editor wanted to shorten it, Berger insisted it stay long and anguished, a German filmmaker letting moviegoers know his perspective on the consequences of destruction. I wanted the audience to go through it with him and be utterly mortified by it. I knew we would betray the soul of the book if we took shortcuts.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.


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.
Marysville, CA (95901)

Today

Mainly sunny. High 73F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

A few clouds. Low 48F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph.
(CNN)  India imposed the highest number of internet shutdowns globally in 2022, a new report has revealed, in what critics say is yet another blow to the country's commitment to freedom of speech and access to information.

Of 187 internet shutdowns recorded worldwide, 84 took place in India, according to the report published Tuesday by Access Now, a New York based advocacy group that tracks internet freedom.

This is the fifth consecutive year the world's largest democracy of more than 1.3 billion people has topped the list, the group said, raising concerns about India's commitment to internet freedom under its current Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"The responsibility of Indian states for the majority of shutdowns globally is impossible to ignore and a deep problem on its own," the report said. "Authorities in regions across the country are increasingly resorting to this repressive measure, inflicting shutdowns on more people in more places."

Nearly 60% of India's internet shutdowns last year occurred in Indian-administered Kashmir, where authorities disrupted access due to "political instability and violence," according to the report.

In August 2019, the BJP revoked the autonomy of the Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir and split it into two federally administered territories, bringing the region under greater control of New Delhi. The unprecedented decision sparked protests and the government has frequently restricted communication lines since, a move rights groups say is aimed at quashing dissent.

Apart from Jammu and Kashmir, authorities in the states of West Bengal and Rajasthan imposed more shutdowns than other Indian regions in response to "protests, communal violence and exams," according to the report.

India has the world's second largest digital population, following China, with more than 800 million internet users. The internet has become a vital social and economic lifeline for large swathes of the population and connects the country's isolated rural pockets, with its growing cities.

The disruptions "impacted the daily lives of millions of people for hundreds of hours in 2022," the report said.

Concerns in India

The Access Now report comes at a time when India's commitment to freedom of speech and expression is under increasing scrutiny.

In January, the country banned a documentary from the BBC that was critical of Modi's alleged role in deadly riots more than 20 years ago. Indian tax authorities raided the BBC's offices in New Delhi and Mumbai in the weeks that followed citing "irregularities and discrepancies" in the broadcaster's taxes.

But critics of the government were not convinced, instead calling the raids "a clear cut case of vendetta" and accused the BJP of intimidating the media.

Last week, police in New Delhi arrested a senior opposition politician for allegedly "disturbing harmony" after he misstated the Prime Minister's middle name, a move Modi's critics likened to "dictatorial behavior."

In recent years, the government has repeatedly justified blocking internet access on the grounds of preserving public safety amid widespread fears of mob violence.

While the country was in the middle of its general election in 2019, with more than 900 million people eligible to vote, some Indians were denied access to the internet for days at a time as they prepared to cast their ballots.

Authorities said the blocking was "a precautionary measure to maintain law and order," leading many critics to question India's grand exercise in political freedom during the world's largest election.

During a nearly year-long protest by angry farmers in 2021 over controversial new pricing laws, the Indian government blocked internet access in several districts after violent skirmishes broke out between demonstrators and police.

Some individual shutdowns have been challenged in the courts, and there is an effort to change the country's laws to make such blackouts more difficult to impose.

Rest of the world

Last year saw more internet shutdowns worldwide than ever before, Access Now said, prompting the group to raise fears of "digital authoritarianism" as governments continue the trend.

Apart from India, other countries that saw internet shutdowns last year include Ukraine, Iran and Myanmar.

During Russia's invasion of it neighbor Ukraine, the Kremlin cut internet access at least 22 times, according to Access Now, engaging in "cyberattacks and deliberately destroying telecommunications infrastructure."

The Iranian regime responded to protests ignited by the death in custody of 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa Amini by imposing 18 shutdowns -- a move Access Now called "a further escalation of its repressive tactics."

Myanmar, which in 2021 saw the junta remove its democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, saw seven internet blackouts, according to the report. The Southeast Asian country continues to be rocked by violence and instability, while many are grappling with shortages of fuel, food and basic supplies

The "military persisted in keeping people in the dark for extended periods, targeting areas where coup resistance is strongest," the report said.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "India, worlds largest democracy, leads global list of internet shutdowns"
Jain was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate for his alleged involvement in a money-laundering case in May last year

New Delhi: After the Supreme Court refused to entertain Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodias plea seeking bail and asked him to move the high court on Tuesday, Mr Sisodia and his jailed Cabinet colleague Satyendar Jain resigned from their posts. The resignations of the two ministers were swiftly accepted by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Mr Sisodia, who heads 18 of 33 departments in government of Delhi-NCT, was arrested Sunday following eight hours of questioning by the CBI in an excise policy case. He moved a bail petition in the Supreme Court, which has asked him to approach the Delhi high court first. The AAP has decided to move the high court now.

Mr Jain was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate for his alleged involvement in a money-laundering case in May last year. The former health minister has been in Tihar Jail ever since he was arrested by the ED. After Mr Jains arrest, Mr Sisodia was allocated the formers health portfolio over and above the ones he was already handling.

Mr Sisodia, who also holds the crucial finance portfolio, was arrested by the CBI for alleged corruption in the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped liquor policy for 2021-22 in the national capital. His arrest holds immense significance as it has come at a time when the Delhi government is in the process of presenting its annual budget.

Before the duos resignation, the Delhi government had a total of six ministers, with Mr Sisodia alone handling 18 portfolios. Gopal Rai, Kailash Gahlot, Imran Hussain and Raj Kumar Anand are the other ministers.

AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said that two new ministers would soon be inducted into the Arvind Kejriwal Cabinet. He, however, refused to elaborate on who could be the new faces in the Delhi Cabinet. There are chances that till the new ministers are inducted, the portfolios held by Mr Sisodia could be distributed between Mr Gahlot and Mr Anand. A highly placed source said that Mr Gahlot could also present this years budget of the Delhi government.

In the Supreme Court, a bench comprising Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice P.S. Narasimha refused to entertain Mr Sisodias petition. The bench said: We are not inclined to entertain the petition under Article 32 at this stage. The bench observed that just because the incident has happened in New Delhi, Mr Sisodia cannot come to the apex court directly as he has his remedies before the trial court concerned as well as the Delhi high court.

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Mr Sisodia, questioned the need to arrest the AAP leader, saying that policy decisions were taken at different rungs and, moreover, no money was recovered. He also said that the lieutenant-governor was also part of the policy decision in regard to the excise policy.

Mr Singhvi urged the court to grant relief while questioning why there was any need of arrest. He also said Mr Sisodia was not a flight risk and in the past had appeared before the CBI for questioning. As the apex court observed that it would not entertain the plea at this stage, Mr Singhvi withdrew it.

Hitting out at the AAP, the BJP described it as a party of cut, commission and corruption, and said its leaders, Mr Sisodia and Mr Jain, should have resigned from the Cabinet much earlier when the graft allegations against them had come to light. Senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said people who claimed to be the flag bearers of the fight against corruption have ensured governance that increases the number of alcohol users in Delhi.

Without naming any party, Mr Prasad said he thought cut and commission was the legacy of only one political party. But today, I must say that 3C -- cut, commission and corruption -- also applies for Kejriwals party, Mr Prasad said, and added that AAP leaders have defamed the anti-corruption agitation led by Anna Hazare.

They should have resigned earlier. Jain has resigned several months after his arrest and Sisodia should have resigned at the time when the allegations against them came out, the former law minister said, addressing a press conference. He described the liquor scam case in Delhi as a fixed textbook case of corruption, he said that the BJP will raise the issue in every corner of the country.

BJP MP Manoj Tiwari said the repercussions of the probe into the Delhi excise policy case will soon reach the mastermind. In a tweet, he said: Satyamev Jayate No relief from Supreme Court... Liquor minister will reveal all secrets and the repercussions of the investigation will also reach the mastermind.

Taking potshots at the BJP, the AAP labelled the saffron party a washing machine for leaders facing scams, rape cases and murder charges in the wake of the arrest of Mr Sisodia in the excise policy case. In a poster shared on its official Twitter handle, the AAP posted a list of leaders, who were embroiled in various cases before joining the BJP, and referred to them as satisfied customers who got the special bonus of No CBI-ED raids.

The ruling party in Delhi also called the BJP the favourite washing machine of sinners, or Paapiyon Ki Pasand Bhajpa -- Washing Machine Bhajpa. Sharing another document titled Equality Before the Law? on Twitter, the AAP mentioned the names of Narayan Rane, Suvendu Adhikari, Himanta Biswas Sarma, among others, who were facing various charges, but the probe was apparently stopped after they joined the BJP.

Last year, Mr Sisodia had alleged that he was offered the chief ministerial post if he joined the BJP along with some MLAs. He also claimed that he was told that the CBI and ED cases against him would be scrapped if he accepted the offer.
It is not so much the unity of parties as the unity of various forces in society that will eventually matter

The tumultuous welcome the Bharat Jodo Yatra received right through its five months sprang from its needle-sharp focus on the issues of opposing communal politics and the need to deal effectively with the crisis caused by unemployment and high prices in ordinary peoples lives. And yet, generally speaking, the non-Congress parties, mostly caste-based regional outfits, were left cold by BJY, even if some gain by keeping the BJP at bay.

These parties mostly seem in a hurry to go back to business as usual. Their leaders seem to regard the BJY as an unremarkable event and look to get back soonest into the rhythm of jod-tod ki rajniti -- the politics of alliances and alignments against the BJP, state-wise. This is done in the name of Opposition unity, which is elevated to the level of high democratic principle, supposedly to ward off the aggressive advance of the communal agenda.

However, life has shown that the Index of Opposition Unity (IOU) in elections that psephologists exalt doesnt hold as a theorem in a country like India, as behind each voter lurks a sociological factor, such as caste. In a Uttar Pradesh Assembly election not long ago the Congress and Samajwadi Party both suffered when they struck a deal, and each fared worse than in the previous election when they had not joined forces. This is because the social bases of the two parties remained incompatible, and dashed the hopes of their leaders.

In India, the IOU principle works well only in exceptional circumstances, like the time after the Emergency when the non-communist Opposition parties merged to form the Janata Party. In one stroke, the many parties of the Opposition gave up their personalities and programmes, so that in every constituency, especially in northern and western India, there was a single Opposition candidate to challenge the Congress, and there was no splitting of the Opposition vote.

This is the much-talked-about one against one principle. The Congress was routed in the 1977 election as a result, and the Janata Party was grandly victorious. But the JP government collapsed in no time. The many deep contradictions among JPs several constituents couldnt remain hidden for long. Switch back to today. It is amply clear that the one against one principle just cant be worked. In fact, in various states the regional parties have mostly grown at the Congress expense, not the BJPs. Until three decades ago the Congress was a hegemonic presence across India, and the regional parties combined happily with the BJP and its earlier Jan Sangh to oust the Congress from its perch, despite the saffron partys Hindutva credo.

Basically, this means if the Congress does well in states where the local parties are entrenched, it will be at the expense of the regional party. The regional parties are likely to be as wary of the Congress as of the BJP, no matter what they say. The DMK in Tamil Nadu is somewhat of an exception, and its no surprise it had given the BJY and Rahul Gandhi an enthusiastic response.

The current outlook of the secular Opposition parties, whose influence is largely confined to their respective states, is perhaps best exemplified by the recent remarks of Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, though many regional leaders have also lately amplified on the charms of Opposition unity in one form or another.

Mr Kumar noted the BJY had been quite successful but it was time for the Congress to take appropriate decisions, and if these were taken the BJPs tally in the 2024 Lok Sabha election could be driven down to less than 100.

The Congress 85th plenary session in Raipur under its new president Mallikarjun Kharge was just days away when the Bihar CM spoke. We now have the Congress response from Raipur: that the party will work for the unity of secular forces just as it had done to bring about the Congress-led UPA secular government in 2004-14 (that had important positive contributions to its name, which have almost wholly been lost now, including the average rate of growth of around seven per cent per annum in a 10-year period -- a record for a country with a democratic form of government).

The meaning is clear enough. The Congress is in no mood to cede the leadership of any anti-BJP government to a regional party, though that may well be the aspiration of leaders of several secular parties, not excluding Mr Kumar. Its also reasonably certain that no leader of a regional party can be Prime Minister without the backing of either the BJP or the Congress.

All this is on paper, of course. It has to be clearly understood that it is irrelevant for any party to declare that it will be the leader of one or another front. Leadership has to be earned. That is the lesson to be taken from the experience of parties in the inter-war period in Europe when the fight was fiercest against fascism, with fascism winning. The anti-fascist parties bickered.

It was not understood that only that party can be leader which works the hardest in shaping a popular front or a united front. The situation at present is indeed dire, and the following quotation from George Orwells famous book 1984 serves to illuminate the situation: Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute.

Some regional parties are fighting the BJP politically. The Congress combat is ideological and simultaneously political. That is the difference, and the BJP understands this only too well and will fashion strategies accordingly to win over the less sturdy on the secular side.

For the Congress to signal seriousness of enterprise, it must prepare a concrete blueprint of action on the ideological, political, social and economic fronts. It is not enough to make declaratory statements or emotive appeals, as during the BJY or at the Raipur plenary. It can work wonders to lead by example.

If the Congress can actually implement some ideas of its action blueprint in the three states that it governs, the results will carry conviction with ordinary Indians. If the key Opposition party can announce that it will endeavour to have a dalit Prime Minister, the hopes of many sections of the hard-working but deprived people can be ignited. It is not so much the unity of parties as the unity of various forces in society that will eventually matter. Hard campaigns and struggles to keep hopes alive will be the key.
by card. Lazzaro You Heung-sik *

The Prefect of the dicastery for the Clergy, former bishop of Daejeon, the first Korean in a position of leadership in the Roman Curia recounts his encounter with Christianity as well as the mission and challenges facing priests today. In the preface, Pope Francis writes: "We need to listen to the bold witness of the Churches of the East."

Milan (AsiaNews) - The discovery of Christianity while attending a Catholic school, his baptism at the age of 16, the importance of the figure of Saint Andrew Kim in his own life. But also his own ministry as a priest and bishop in Korea, his surprise at being called by Pope Francis to work in the Roman Curia, the challenges for the priesthood and the Church today: These are the topics that Card. Lazarus You Heung-sik - the 71-year-old Prefect of the Dicastery for the Clergy and the first Korean to head a Vatican dicastery - addresses in the book "Come la folgore viene da Oriente" (Like the thunderbolt from the East), which lands today in Italian bookshops published by Edizioni San Paolo.

The book - the result of a dialogue with Don Francesco Cosentino - is introduced by a preface by Pope Francis, who expresses his gratitude to Card. You for this book and for his service to the Church. "With his amiable and affable manner," writes Francis, "he allows us to grasp the fruits of a faith sown in the land of the martyrs and germinated with simplicity thanks to the joyful witness of a living Church."

"We all need this light that comes from the East," the Pope continues, "We need to listen to the daring witness of so many sisters and brothers who, with enthusiasm and despite many sufferings, have welcomed Jesus with open arms just as old Simeon did, welcoming the preaching of St Andrew Kim and of many missionaries who have spent their lives for the joy of the Gospel. We need to "decentralise", making a journey to the East and putting ourselves in the school of a spiritual and ecclesial way of life that can reinvigorate our faith. And we need to remember that, even in hardship and darkness, like the thunderbolt the Lord comes. And he wants to illuminate our lives'.

From the book - full of stories by Card. You about episodes of his own life in Korea - we publish below a short excerpt in which, recalling an episode from the years of his own formation, the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Clergy speaks about the theme of the missionary vocation of every baptised person.

In Korea, even those who choose the path of the priesthood are called to serve in the military. I did 32 months and was sent to a dangerous area, almost on the border with North Korea.

There, of course, there was no Sunday Mass. I started to ask myself questions about my identity as a Christian and about attending Sunday Mass; I had to find a way, but eventually I also started to think: what does it mean to be a Christian after all? When am I a Christian? First and foremost when I live the Gospel of the Lord. And so, with much courage, I went to the higher military authority to ask permission for some of us to meet on Sunday, to have a meeting on the Word of God. It was granted and we started with four of us, in a corner of the refectory. We could not celebrate Mass, but we did a liturgy of the Word. And those four became five, then ten. And eventually, at Christmas of that year, twenty people received Baptism.

For me it was another great sign of the presence of Jesus in my life; he had not presented himself in special or religious circumstances, but while I was going through an experience such as military service, in a place that was not very peaceful, with few comforts, without even being able to celebrate Sunday Mass. Yet once again I had been met in the Word and that weekly liturgy had brought others closer to the faith, had been an instrument of evangelisation.

Perhaps it is also necessary today to ask ourselves some questions about the liturgies we celebrate and whether the number of Masses we schedule then corresponds to an opportunity to really get to know the Lord closely, whether they are a privileged way to discover faith or a habit, whether they convey the living Word of the Lord that touches life or are reduced to a repetition, just to satisfy a precept. Christianity is not about satisfying a cultic and moral obligation, it is first of all letting oneself be reached, questioned and touched by the Word of the Lord.

And even in this experience, a concrete sign through which to "live the Word" was important. We were marching through the night and for many kilometres, with our rucksacks on our shoulders. I saw that one of my companions was very tired and I offered to carry his rifle too, which was quite heavy; a little later, in a moment of pause, that friend asked me how it was that everyone was tired and dejected and I, on the other hand, was happy. Of course I was tired too, but perhaps my faith and my encounter with Jesus gave me the strength to be inwardly serene, and this also showed on the outside. I told that person about Jesus and he too received Baptism. When others see our joy as Christians, they too are infected with this joy.

* Prefect of the Dicastery for the Clergy
by Arundathie Abeysinghe

President Ranil Wickremesinghe tried to stop labour action by labelling transport services as essential. Some analysts believe work stoppage failed because many employees went to work for fear of losing their job. Trade unions now threaten a broader strike, affecting all sectors.

Colombo (AsiaNews)  Several trade unions (TUs) representing mostly power, petroleum, water and ports sectors held a one-day strike today across Sri Lanka.

Unions represent workers employed by the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC), Postal Services, the Government Medical Officers' Association (GMOA), and the Ceylon Teachers' Union (CTU).

Several academics and many government bank employees joined the work stoppage to protest rising electricity fees and income taxes, part of the measures imposed to get a bailout loan from the International Monetary Fund.

Some analysts view the strike as a failure since many employees reported to work anyway.

On Monday, President Ranil Wickremesinghe tried to stop the planned strike by signing a decree declaring several services as essential, like ports, airports, passenger transport, including the provision and maintenance of facilities.

Some public and para-public employees showed up for work wearing black clothes and bands.

Colombo Port has launched a massive 24-hour work to rule campaign from 7.00 am today with the participation of 9,000 employees representing 40 trade unions, said Samantha Jayaratna, Gunapala Karunaratna and Udaya de Silva, representing the Colombo port unions.

Hence, loading and unloading of goods in eight ships halted, but Today was a one-day match, but if the government doesnt withdraw the tax reduction, it will be a test match starting on March 8, they emphasised ironically.

It is estimated that the government lost billions of rupees in revenue due to the disruption of activities at the port of Colombo.

At some public sector banks, notices were displayed, indicating that they were on strike today, while several shops in Colombo and Gampaha districts were closed.

Some public sector employees spoke to AsiaNews about the situation. We are on sick leave today as decided by our TU leaders, said Nadeesha Sandaruwani, Sampath Alagiyawanne and Ranjith Colonne.

The government might take drastic action against us, but how can we work today when almost all employees are on strike? In certain offices, there is a work-to-rule campaign. Currently, we struggle to live with our meagre salary, so how can we live, if we lose our jobs?

For Ranjan Jayalal, Trade Union Alliance convenor, There was no point in issuing an emergency gazette notification, stating that the services of the above sectors were essential as these services were essential already.

As long as the government does not listen to us and attempts to stop the TU action, we will break the law," he explained.

Sources in the unions representing workers at the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation and the Ceylon Electricity Board added that, If something happened to fuel distribution and power supply, the government should take full responsibility.

Employees will carry out breakdown services and manage power stations for only one hour today and will go for more stringent strike action next week, if the government does not reverse its arbitrary tax policies, warned Jagath Wijegunawardana, Ceylon Petroleum Corporation union convenor.

Otherwise, he added, We will go for a wider general strike with the participation of all citizens. Sometimes, the entire country may come to a standstill with next weeks strike.

According to some economic analysts, todays strike failed, falling short of expectations; in many areas, schools were open as usual despite a drop in student attendance.
Police use water cannons and tear gas cannons. Scores of peaceful protesters are arrested during the national day of disruption. Israels prime minister and National Security minister call for zero tolerance towards "anarchists". Tensions run high in the Knesset committee reviewing the judicial reform bill designed to limit the powers of Israels supreme court. Now the bill goes before the whole parliament.

Jerusalem (AsiaNews)  Police charged and fired tear gas at crowds in the streets of Tel Aviv today, arresting scores of protesters who oppose a controversial bill to reform Israels justice system that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet are trying to push through.

The proposed judicial reform is fuelling tensions across the country with the authorities opting for an iron fist against peaceful protesters resulting in some demonstrators being injured during the confrontation.

Prime Minister Netanyahu and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir have, for their part, described the protest as anarchy.

Launching a national day of disruption, protesters called for road blocks and occupying railway tracks, as well as strikes at schools and workplaces. The motorway connecting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, the countrys two main cities, was also blocked.

For its part, police responded with extreme harshness, using water cannons to disperse the crowds.

In the Knesset, Israels parliament, the Law and Justice Committee passed the contentious bill for its first reading. Outside, the proposed reform continued to generate criticism and attacks, with some saying that it will turn the country into a dictatorship".

Avichai Mandelblit, a former attorney general, slammed again the bill, saying that country is experiencing a regime coup.

Another bill is also before the Knesset and will likely raise tensions and lead to further confrontation.

If approved the bill, which is spearheaded by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, leader of the Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Strength or Jewish Power) party, would impose the death penalty on people convicted of terrorism, which would end up being used in particular against Palestinians.

Following events last week in Huwara, where settlers attacked Palestinians, Ben-Gvir kept quiet. Now, as protests break out in Israel, he is calling for zero tolerance towards anarchists, i.e. Israelis protesting today, including 26 who were arrested.

Prime Minister Netanyahu gave Ben-Gvir his full support, backing his action against anti-government protests.

During the confrontation, the police detained several people, dispersing the others with water cannons. In one video, a group of police officers are seen wrestling with a single protester before one of them kneels on his neck, putting the latters life at risk.

Brothers in Arms, a group of reservists, spoke out against the arrest of two former soldiers of the elite Sayeret Matkal. Their arrest symbolises exactly what is happening here: Sayeret Matkal is in custody, and Netanyahu is a prisoner of Ben Gvir, the group said in a statement.

In the Knesset, committee pushing through the reform has approved the bill that would limit the power of Israels Supreme Court to reject laws if it deemed them unconstitutional.

Opposition members boycotted the committee, while some were ejected for objecting to the rushed vote before it went before the whole parliament.

Opposition MKs were especially incensed by committee chairman Simcha Rothman for limiting debate. This is a regime putsch! fumed Yisrael Beytenu Yulia Malinovsky before leaving the committee room.
Today's headlines: Hundreds of cases of poisoned schoolgirls in Iran; Clashes between Indian army and Kashmiri militants; Japanese foreign minister skips G20 meeting in India; Burmese military junta continues to demolish civilian homes; For Orthodox Patriarch Kirill the Donbass is an 'outpost of the Russian world'.

UNITED STATES-CHINA

According to the FBI, the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic can most likely be traced back to an accident in a government laboratory in China. Beijing denies that the disease spread from a bacteriological centre in Wuhan - where the disease first appeared - and accuses the US of circulating defamatory news.

IRAN

In recent months, hundreds of Iranian schoolgirls have suffered mild attacks of poisoning. The illnesses emerged to coincide with protests over the death of the young Kurdish girl Mahsa Amini while she was in the custody of the Morality Police. The poisonings are suspected to be the work of religious groups opposed to female education.

INDIA

Indian soldiers killed two Kashmiri militants yesterday in a 12-hour clash in a village south of Srinagar. The manhunt was triggered after the killing of a Hindu security guard in another within the region. Kashmir has been the scene of conflict between the central government and pro-Pakistani separatist and Islamist groups for decades.

JAPAN

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi will skip the G20 meeting in Delhi today and tomorrow, and will be replaced by his deputy. Conflicts over Russia's war on Ukraine risk scuppering the meeting. Instead, Hayashi will attend a meeting of the Quad, the dialogue forum between the US, Japan, India and Australia, on 3 March.

MYANMAR

The Burmese junta demolished more than 100 homes in Mandalay, the country's second largest city, in recent days. The military justified the eviction of the residents by claiming that the houses were on state land. Since the coup in February 2021, the UN estimated that the army has evicted 50,000 people, destroyed 38,000 homes and created 1.1 million displaced people.

RUSSIA

Patriarch Kirill met in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow with a group of young sportspeople from the Donbass, a region he called the 'outpost of the Russian world', thanks to the sponsorship of the Orthodox foundation 'Save Childhood'. He has been working in the Donbass since last June to organise Church hospitality for children and young people from Ukraine.

UZBEKISTAN

President Mirziyoyev promised 'not to close down the media', despite the fact that 'they have proposed it to me', as he said while visiting a new school in the Kaskadar region. He assured that 'we like the breath of freedom, even if it is sometimes difficult, but I have not heard any protests from the people about being a closed country'.
The Aspen Choral Society is pictured performing last year at Carbondales Thunder River Theatre. Later this month, ACS will bring its spring program, Illuminare, to the Carbondale theater, as well as Glenwood Springs High School and The Arts Campus At Willits. Illuminare will take place March 17-19; the program combines music, movement and lighting for an immersive experience.
Aspen High School and other schools at the local public school district campus are reportedly in "secure" mode today following another threat.
Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.
Chinese NGO helps patients regain vision through cataract surgeries in Djibouti

Xinhua) 09:42, March 01, 2023

Leung Chun-ying (2nd L), vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and chairman of the GX Foundation, Djiboutian Prime Minister Abdoulkader Kamil Mohamed (2nd R), Djiboutian Minister of Health Ahmed Robleh Abdilleh (1st R), and Chinese Ambassador to Djibouti Hu Bin (1st L) cut the ribbon during the launching ceremony of a health project in Djibouti City, Djibouti, Feb. 27, 2023. GX Foundation, a non-profit and non-governmental organization registered in Hong Kong, China, kicked off here Monday a project that aims to offer cataract surgeries to patients and help them regain vision in the Red Sea nation of Djibouti. (Xinhua/Han Xu)

DJIBOUTI CITY, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- GX Foundation, a non-profit and non-governmental organization registered in Hong Kong, China, kicked off here Monday a project that aims to offer cataract surgeries to patients and help them regain vision in the Red Sea nation of Djibouti.

The foundation renewed its memorandum of understanding with the Djibouti Ministry of Health to extend their cooperation until 2027, under which up to 6,000 cataract surgeries are to be offered for free to local patients over the next few years.

Speaking at the launching ceremony, Leung Chun-ying, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and chairman of the foundation, said the foundation hopes to use the Cataract Blindness Elimination Project to fully demonstrate the contribution of Chinese non-governmental organizations (NGO) in international humanitarian aid.

Leung believed that the project would deepen the friendship between China and Djibouti and bring bilateral exchanges and cooperation to a new height.

In his speech, Djiboutian Minister of Health Ahmed Robleh Abdilleh paid tribute to the excellent cooperation between Djibouti and China in the field of health.

Abdilleh said cataracts are one of the leading causes of blindness in Djibouti and have a significant impact on socioeconomic development. Thanks to the support of the foundation, the country can carry out various activities of cataract screening and surgery to significantly reduce the rate of blindness.

The medical aid project is implemented by the foundation and the Health Commission of Shanxi Province in northern China. The province will send medical teams in batches over the next few years to perform about 6,000 free cataract surgeries in Djibouti using two mobile eye treatment centers provided by the foundation.

The foundation, established in 2018, aims to provide international medical and public health humanitarian assistance to countries along the Belt and Road. The name GX is derived from the Chinese word "Gong Xiang," meaning "sharing."

GX Foundation renews its memorandum of understanding with the Djibouti Ministry of Health in Djibouti City, Djibouti, Feb. 27, 2023. GX Foundation, a non-profit and non-governmental organization registered in Hong Kong, China, kicked off here Monday a project that aims to offer cataract surgeries to patients and help them regain vision in the Red Sea nation of Djibouti. (Xinhua/Han Xu)

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
(CNN)  Last Thursday, Thai investigative police raided a condo in the suburbs of Bangkok  the hideout of an alleged drug smuggler who had been on the run for months.

The man, who went by the name Jimin Seong, was described to police as a good looking Korean man, with wavy hair and smooth skin.

But appearances can be deceiving.

The suspects real name is Saharat Sawanjaeng, police said in a news release on Friday. The 25-year-old, a Thai national and Bangkok resident, had attempted to reinvent himself as a Korean man by changing his name, his haircut and undergoing multiple plastic surgery procedures until his face had completely changed, said the release.

Before and after photos provided by the police show a dramatically different look, with earlier photos bearing little immediate resemblance to the man pictured afterward.

Sawanjaeng has been wanted since last year for allegedly importing more than 2,500 grams and 290 tablets of MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy or molly, into Thailand. He is allegedly a major source of the drug spreading in Bangkok and the capital citys surrounding area, said the release.

However, he had seemingly vanished  until police received rumors of the drugs being traced back to a Korean dealer, prompting their investigation.

After his arrest, Sawanjaeng allegedly confessed to having worldwide connections, sourcing drugs from the dark web and making transactions through Bitcoin, said the release.

He spoke very little Korean, but wanted to live in South Korea because he was bored of life in Thailand, he reportedly told police.

Photos of the raid show Sawanjaeng surrounded by police in the apartment before being led away with his hands restrained. He is being charged with importing and illegally distributing a category 1 drug into Thailand  both offenses carrying a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

His actions impacted national security and the general publics safety by causing the drug to become widespread in public, the release added.

Like most of Southeast Asia, Thailand has traditionally had strict laws against drug use and trafficking  but it has taken several steps in relaxing rules in recent years.

One major legal amendment in 2017 changed the maximum punishment for selling drugs from the death penalty to life imprisonment. A more sweeping set of amendments came in 2021 to emphasize prevention and treatment over punishment for small-scale drug users.

Most notably, Thailand became the first country in Asia to decriminalize cannabis last year, with cannabis cafes and smoke shops quickly popping up across the country.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Thai drug dealer disguised himself as a Korean man using plastic surgery, police say"
Hyundai introduced the third generation of its i10 city car in 2019, and four years later, it announced the facelifted version for it at the beginning of March 2023.

The smallest member of Hyundai's family is the i10. This small city vehicle is based on the same platform as the Kia Picanto and tries to get a slice of the segment competing against French and Italian cars in Europe and against Japanese brands in India and Asia. So, to keep it fresh in front of its customers, the Korean automaker improved the pocket-sized hatchback and even gave it an N Line, which was inspired by the performance N-badged Hyundais.

On the front fascia, the 2023 i10 sported a new grille that incorporated the LED daytime running lights, with three oblique lines for the N Line and four horizontal blocks for the rest of the range. Furthermore, the bumper looked different between these two siblings, with the sportier one featuring a broad grille extended to the lower lip spoiler flanked by horizontal scoops, while regular i10s had fake vertical vents that hosted the fog lamps.

The interior of the facelifted version of the Hyundai's small-sized vehicle featured a wide, dual-screen display on the dashboard, with a touchscreen atop the center stack for the infotainment system and a TFT for the instrument panel. There was new fabric upholstery on the refreshed i10, depending on the trim level. Like its predecessor, the 2023 version offered enough room for four adults and a small trunk behind the flat-folding rear bench seat.
Photo: Buell

Naturally, most of the big names of the industry will be there, but also the ones aspiring to become so. One particular company from this latter group, Buell Motorcycles, has been a constant presence at Daytona these past few years, and 2023 will be no exception.Earlier in February, Buell showed off its latest bike, the so-called Super Cruiser. Based on the 1190 and modified with the help of Roland Sands Design, it was an exciting sight for those fortunate enough to get a first-hand look at it. Sadly for the rest of us, experiencing it in the flesh was almost impossible, as the thing was presented during a private event in Long Beach, California.But now you should know that the Daytona Bike Week is the place where Buell will show the Super Cruiser in front of a live audience for the first time.The Super Cruiser is described by Buell itself as not necessarily a brand new motorcycle, built from the ground up, but the good-old 1190 with several modifications, including when it comes to steering angle and rake. The wheels, tires, and brakes are modified as well, and there are some changes to the things chassis too.What came out at the end of this modernization process is the fastest, coolest cruiser on the market. The bike tips the scale at 450 lbs (204 kg), making the 175 hp generated by the V-Twin engine even more capable of quickly spinning the 17-inch wheels.The pre-order books for the Super Cruiser are already open, and theres a $50 deposit required if you plan to get in line as a potential Super Cruiser owner. Buell advertises this bike as being a 2025 model-year machine, so theres probably a lot of waiting to be done before becoming the actual owner of one. Also, the final price of the two-wheeler is not known.Aside for the Super Cruiser, the motorcycle maker will bring to the Daytona Bike Week the 1190 SuperTouring. It too is planned for production no sooner than 2025, but when it gets here it should be the world's fastest adaptive motorcycle. What that means is that if you need to, you can convert it from street to track bike in under an hour.The rest of the Buell current lineup will also be present at the Daytona event, namely the Hammerhead and 1190 SX. They will not come as we know them, but with slight changes that have to do with new carbon bodywork, new tires, and fine-tuning of the throttle.


Updates on the condition of the occupants in the crash are yet to be provided.





Among American car enthusiasts and collectors, an orange 1969 Dodge Charger donning 01 decal on the sides is a sight to behold. However, like all things nice, the real General Lee cars arent as available as wed all love them to be. Over the years, their numbers have been falling. The very few that exist are in small numbers and various states of disrepair.On Sunday, another replica General Lee  car was crossed off the list of survivor cars after it was involved in a crash on the highway in Missouri. According to Western Taney County Fire, along with Taney County Ambulance District and Hollister PD in Missouri, the famed car crashed on the 165 Highway Sunday afternoon. Two casualties were rushed to hospital.Pardon me for being callous, but it looks like a fitting end for the Charger (those whove watched the show understand why). As someone put it on Reddit, you can almost hear Waylon Jennings say, them Duke boys got themselves in a real predicament this time.The Dukes of Hazzard Show aired on CBS in the late 70s and early 80s and followed the escapades of two cousins Bo (John Schneider) and Luke (Tom Wopat). Their run-ins with the local Police Department of the fictional county of Hazzard jolted them into stardom legends.An estimated 309 units of General Lee cars were built for The Dukes of Hazzard (1979-1985) action comedy television show. Actor John Schneider argues they were 329. Another 26 units were developed for the 2005 remake series.In September 2021, another General Lee car owned by The Dukes of Hazzard actor John Schneider, in the show, was destroyed by Hurricane Ida after a tree fell on a store and crashed the famous vehicle parked nearby.On Sunday, Western Taney County Fire posted photographs of General Lee's crashed car on Facebook. The images show extensive damage on the front end of the famous classic car. According to authorities, the incident was a single-vehicle crash, and the vehicle had two occupants.
EV

SUV

Remember the Dacia Manifesto concept showcased last autumn in time for the 2022 Paris Motor Show? To some, it looked like a poor mans futuristic (yet cheaply built) desert racer with a sustainabletwist, while for others, it felt like it opened a new world of cool ideas for outdoor adventures. In the end, it probably just wanted to reveal the budget brands bigger ambitions going forward, which have both to do with overlanding road trips as well as electrified mobility.After all, alongside there was also the entire range of models brimming with the marques new identity, and going for eco designs plus special edition prowess . Now, a few months later, the French-owned Romanian brand continues to push forward with its new authentic yet sustainable ethos, with their first-ever full hybrid, and now also with more adventurous series-production thoughts. Interestingly, they are not necessarily focused on the Old Continent but rather on the right-hand-drive island dwelling across the English Channel.So, after we recently found out the Jogger Hybrid has a very competitive price and an extensive list of standard kit in the United Kingdom , there is more good news for this market of major interest. Dacias strong alignment with the outdoors is further highlighted with the introduction of the new Extreme grade for the Sandero Stepway hatchback, Duster, and Jogger cross-SW models, along with a fresh range of InNature accessories.The new Extreme trim is the top grade on Sandero Stepway and acts as a replacement for the Extreme SE versions of the Jogger and Duster. It features a unique Cedar Green body shade contrasted by Copper Brown details, a striking topographical pattern on the sides, as well as Brilliant Black details on the shark fin antenna and new 16-inch (Sandero Stepway plus Jogger) or 17-inch (Duster) alloy wheels. Moving inside, the topographical pattern and Copper Brown highlights return, while a fresh MicroCloud upholstery also makes its debut.Additionally, the Sandero Stepway and Jogger now feature standard Extended Grip while the latter can also take advantage of the first accessory launched with the all-new InNature range. It is called Sleep Pack and, obviously, it is a foldable, removable double bed (with a 190 by 130 cm/74.8 by 51.18-inch mattress) that helps with on-the-go camping necessities. The mobile bedroom accessory will become available during the second quarter of the year while the Extreme order books just opened, with on-the-road prices of 16,745 (around $20,230 for Sandero Stepway), 19,445 (around $23,490 for Jogger), and 19,695 (approximately $23,792 for Duster ).
(CNN)  An Israeli-American citizen was killed in the occupied West Bank as tensions in the region continued to ratchet up after a weekend of violence.

Elan Ganeles, 27, was shot dead on Monday evening in what Israels Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency service described as a terror attack on a highway between Jericho and the Dead Sea.

The attack took place on Route 90, north of the Beit HaArava Junction, the MDA said. The location is normally peaceful and on one of the main routes for Israelis to visit the Dead Sea.

Ganeles was visiting Israel for a friends wedding and lived in the United States, friends of his told CNN on Tuesday. His synagogue in Connecticut said he would be buried in Israel on Wednesday.

Steve Charter, the manager of a Hebrew language program Ganeles attended, told CNN on Tuesday that Ganeles was a really nice guy, a gentleman  the type of guy you want your daughter to date. Charter said Ganeles attended the five-month course at Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu in 2015 before joining the Israeli army.

After he completed his army service, he returned to the United States to study at Columbia University, Charter said.

He wanted to celebrate his friends wedding, see his friends and go back to America, added Michael Landau, a friend of Ganeles from the Hebrew program. He was on his way to see a friend when he got murdered.

Landau said Ganeles was aware of the security situation in Israel and the West Bank but did not appear to be worried about it. He lived here in the past so he understands the situation, Landau said. He never expressed any concern about the fact that something was going on.

The US State Department confirmed an Israeli-American citizen had been killed, and said it was extremely concerned by the events of this weekend and the continuing violence in Israel and the West Bank.

Ganeless death came after a mob of Israeli settlers went on a rampage Sunday in Huwara, south of Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, killing one Palestinian, beating others with metal bars, and stoning a Palestinian fire engine after burning several homes.

Those attacks followed the fatal shooting of two Israeli brothers earlier on Sunday in Huwara, days after a massive Israeli military raid into Nablus in search of wanted militants left at least 11 Palestinians dead.

State Department spokesman Ned Price on Monday reiterated the US condemnation of the killings of Israelis over the weekend and the violence by settlers against Palestinians.

We appreciate Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu and President [Isaac] Herzogs statements calling for a cessation of vigilante violence. We expect the Israeli government to ensure full accountability and legal prosecution of those responsible for these attacks, in addition to compensation for the lost homes and property, Price said. These events underscore the fragility of the situation in the West Bank and the urgent need for increased cooperation to prevent further violence.

An Israel Defense Forces official condemned Sundays attacks by Israeli settlers as acts of revenge and terror, and said the IDF was sending three additional battalions to the area to try to deescalate the situation.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "US citizen killed in West Bank as Israeli-Palestinian tensions rise"
A civilian disaster becomes a military triumph

Photo: BAE Systems

Photo: Dale Coleman

A bizarre-looking airplane with a purpose

Photo: RAF Archives

An underappreciated all-time great British jet

Photo: Grahame Hutchison

Never mind that the whole square vs. round window theory was not the only smoking gun, as many believed. Outside of the handful of admittedly tragic and preventable accidents at the hands of Comet 1, the British Military also flew an upgraded version with distinction.But not in its standard airliner form, of course. This is the story of the Hawker Siddeley Nimrod, a maritime patrol aircraft that wasn't afraid to moonlight as a bomber, a torpedo plane, or anything else the RAF desired.Based on all the negative publicity the de Havilland Comet 1 receives to this very day, you'd think the British would be keen to try and erase the jet from history. But in fact, the opposite was the case. In response to finding that the Comet 1's outer skin could rupture after continuous takeoffs and landings, work began on redesigns that would one day bear the RAF the Nimrod.Items like a thicker outer skin, redesigned exterior windows, and replacing the Comet 1's relatively inefficient Halford Ghost turbojet engines for four Rolls-Royce Avons were just the highlights of items changed in an attempt to remediate the image of the airliner before Boeing and the Americans could usurp it.In the end, the ultimate evolution of the Comet airliner, the Comet 4, had a remarkably less dramatic service history than the Comet 1. But sadly, the American Douglas DC-8 and the Boeing 707 did all the things the Comet 4 could do, just faster, more efficiently, and without the media baggage. This meant, if not for a Royal Air Force request for a new maritime patrol aircraft in the early 60s, the Comet family would have faded away for good.The two final civilian Comet 4C airframes manufactured would become the basis for a project de Havilland's successor company Hawker Siddeley initially called the Maritime Comet, or Type HS 801. Work on the design began at a place that hallowed ground for British av-geeks. That being the Woodford Aerodrome in Woodford, Greater Manchester, U.K.In the same building that spawned the Avro Lancaster, Lincoln, Tudor, Vulcan, and Shackelton, the Maritime Comet shed its civilian skin and ditched its Avon turbojets for even more efficient Rolls-Royce Spey turbofan engines. The extra fuel efficiency could be the difference between life and death at the low altitudes these aircraft tend to fly at.The first Nimrod MR1 took to the air on May 23rd, 1967. A production order for 46 airframes was placed at this time, with the first examples entering service in October 1969. Resist the urge to chuckle at the Nimrod's silly name. It's only in antiquated North American English that the word connotates a dull or dim-witted person.Somehow, the Hawker Siddeley Nimrod does manage to look dopey or Dumbo-adjacent when looking at it from the front. The reason for this appearance is a nose section bursting at the seams with electronic warfare sensors, a magnetic anomaly detector used to sniff out enemy submarines, and an ASV Mk 21 radar also used by the Avro Shackelton the Nimrod was meant to replace.If you think the standard Nimrod looks wacky, the bespoke airborne early-warning (AEW) variant with its bulging radar looks even stranger. Along with all the new avionics hardware, an internal bomb bay is perhaps the most notable feature of the Nimrod.Under-wing pylons on which bombs or missiles could be mounted meant the Nimrod could be armed to the teeth, especially for a lowly patrol aircraft. The Nimrod's dedicated anti-submarine variant, the R1, has all this equipment optimized for its very specific but critically vital role.By the mid-1970s, the Nimrod MR2 upgrade path was ready for implementation. Thirty-five airframes were selected for this upgrade package, including provisions for in-flight refueling as well as provisions for more weapons.Amazingly, Nimrods even carried AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles during the Falklands War. The prospect of a lumbering ex-airliner achieving an air-to-air kill warms our hearts. Although, no records indicate a shoot-down of this nature ever took place.For over 40 years, the Nimrod in all its forms followed the RAF wherever it went around the globe. Be it the Falklands, Operation Desert Storm, the War on Terror, and even civilian search and rescue operations closer to friendly soil, the Nimrod served far more admirably than its mildly offensive given name would make it sound like.To think the Nimrod is genetically linked to perhaps the most controversial airliner ever to see service is just another one of those classic British comeback stories. But alas, the good times couldn't roll on forever. The last of the Hawker Siddeley Nimrods in service with the Royal Air Force were retired by the summer of 2011 in favor of new American jets.As a fitting silver lining for how awful Comet 1's reputation once was, the Nimrod served phenomenally well. It'd be inaccurate to say that Nimrod's accident record was flawless. One accident killed 14 crew on board in 2006 when a fire after an in-flight refueling caused the aircraft to crash in Kandahar, Afghanistan, during a reconnaissance flight. But compared to its very earliest ancestor, the Nimrod's reputation far exceeds its forbearers.So, as the Britts rely more and more on American hardware these days, take solace in knowing it wasn't always this way. Back in the day, Great Britain used to manufacture some pretty awesome airframes. The Nimrod is proof-positive of this.
EV

Stellantis ill-advised decision will have negative repercussions throughout the region and supplier network. It will disrupt lives, uproot families, and leave communities struggling to find economic drivers to pay for schools, roads and other services. https://t.co/axpckShkjB  UAW (@UAW) February 28, 2023

The move, instigated by a costly transition from producing internal combustion vehicles to EVs, will likely boil over into a painful strike during the national contract talks scheduled with the UAW (United Auto Workers) union over the summer, Reuters reported The Belvidere plant has a long history in Illinois. It started production in 1960, developing several Plymouths and Dodge cars. It boasts about 5 million square feet of space. By 1977, the then Chrysler Corporation changed the plant to focus on front-wheel-drive products.The UAW sent a stern warning on Tuesday, saying the move by the auto company to idle the plant won't go uncontested. According to the Union Vice President, Rich Boyer, the company decided to shut down the plant out of corporate greed. He vowed to highlight these to the community, workers, taxpayers, and consumers."This economic dislocation is a choice made by Stellantis to reap even higher profit," he emphasized.According to Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares, the shift to electrification is 40% more expensive than developing ICEs. Passing the increased production costs to consumers will harm the automaker since they won't afford new cars.The CEO said the company is searching for solutions for its Belvidere facility , which has no new car to build. The last Jeep Cherokee unit rolled off the factory's assembly line on Tuesday.With the shift to electrification becoming more real daily, auto manufacturers are making hasty moves to stay afloat and reap benefits in the new market. Consequently, the focus now shifts from efficiency to affordability.Tavares has been vocal about keeping electric vehicles affordable for the consumer. In 2021, during a Detroit online event hosted by Automotive Press, he emphasized that staying affordable while developing new electric car technology requires the automotive market to focus on cost reduction (even though it's 40% more expensive).The Americanmarket is currently experiencing a price war between auto manufacturers  which is incidentally beneficial to consumers. In January, Tesla slashed EV prices in the United States and Europe, sometimes more than 20% off the sticker price, to fight off competitors.New entrants in the U.S. market, VinFast, slashed lease prices on their VF 8 City Edition Model to be at par with legacy automakers in the territory.Stellantis CEO told reporters that the company's recent efforts are a global issue, not a Belvidere issue.
Xiaomi customers claim that MIUI 14, a highly anticipated operating system update, breaks down Android Auto in their cars.The reported behavior seems to be different, but in every case, Android Auto is no longer working as expected. Before the update, the app was running properly.Some users claim Android Auto no longer launches when the mobile device is connected to the head unit. It happens with both wired and wireless connections, and so far, no workaround has been discovered.Others figured out that the wired version of Android Auto still launches with a Xiaomi phone running MIUI 14 as long as its unlocked. Once the device is locked, Android Auto freezes . In some cases, the screen starts flashing after the phone is locked and unlocking it brings things back to normal.The error seems to indicate very aggressive battery management settings. As such, the Android Auto process is suspended, eventually causing the interface and the connection between the phone and the head unit to freeze.The workaround isnt necessarily the most convenient, especially when driving at night. The phone screen must stay on, but users can configure the display dimming from settings. This way, the screen would no longer use the full brightness level when its no longer in use.MIUI 14 was released last week with improvements for Xiaomi phones. The parent company plans to deliver the update to its entire lineup in the coming weeks and months. As such, chances are the Android Auto issues would become more widespread, especially if no fix is developed in the meantime.As per its typical approach, Google is currently looking into bug reports. The process is currently in the early stages, and the company can't share any timing information on the release of a patch. Users who are struggling with the error can try out the aforementioned solution, though it doesnt seem to work for those running Android Auto wirelessly.The rollout of a fix can't happen overnight. And Google is now seeking help from the Android Auto community. The company is requesting users to share phone logs, so if youre struggling with the same error, make sure you chime in with the requested information. Don't hold your breath for an imminent release of a patch, though.Xiaomi has so far remained tight-lipped on the error, but given its only happening after the update to MIUI 14, the operating system is clearly the one to blame. The bug was reported on Android Auto version 8.6 and newer. The most recent stable release is Android Auto 8.9, while the newest beta is 9.0. All are experiencing the same load issues after the update to MIUI 14.The issue is only impacting Xiaomi devices regardless of the car brand and model.
EV

Photo: Volkswagen

The German carmaker first presented the ID.3 in 2019, when it unleashed it as the spearhead of the ID. family of electric vehicles. Sales started the following year, and since then, the breed has grown to include no less than six different models, which combined sold over 600,000 units.A large portion of that number is, of course, owed to the ID.3, and as the oldest VWon the market, its only natural for it to get the first upgrade. It did so this week, when the 2023 iteration was presented.Because this is such an important moment for the Wolfsburg-based company, we thought to give you a visual comparison between the now-old ID.3 and the new one. A bit of warning, though, if you were expecting significant changes in design, forget it. There are differences, of course, but they are so minor they can be easily overlooked.Well start up front, where novelties, although minor, are the most numerous. Although it may not show it from afar, the new ID.3 sets itself apart from the previous iteration through a somewhat milder design, most noticeable thanks to the (slightly) redesigned front fender.Another major change can be seen further up, where the instantly recognizable black strip fitted until now beneath the windshield and above the hood is gone. This approach makes the different elements of the car look better tied together and gives the impression the hood is now longer. That feeling is further enhanced by the recessed sections at the sides of the big chunk of metal.The rest of the front end is basically the same as before, with the grille-less nose holding to each side the squinting headlights and the big white-on-black Volkswagen logo in the middle.At the back, the differences are even more undistinguishable, with just minor modifications performed on the two-part tail lights.For the new iteration of the ID.3 , Volkswagen will offer a choice of new colors of which only one, the Dark Olivine Green, displayed on the presentation model (check the attached gallery), was made public so far.Its hard to notice any differences in terms of design at the interior as well. Sure, some materials are new (and, above all, sustainable and animal-free), but you basically get the same layout as before, with the 5.3-inch driver display behind the multifunctional steering wheel (same shape for that one) and a 12-inch center display to handle navigation, media, calls, and vehicle settings.There are absolutely no changes when it comes to battery and electric motor options, and Volkswagen does not say when sales of the refreshed ID.3 will begin. Production will start this fall and will expand from the current assembly sites in Zwickau and Dresden to Volkswagens main facility in Wolfsburg.
Photo: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo

Photo: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo

Photo: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo

Photo: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo

PHEV

ICE

ABS

Photo: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo

EV

Photo: ST/John/Ray Johnson/edited by autoevolution

BEV

Although I always loved station wagons, I bought the BMW minivan because it was the most affordable plug-in hybrid family car I could find back in 2020. This time, I thought I could buy a hybrid station wagon to carry my dogs around on the weekends and travel with my family every once in a while. The problem was finding a ride that could do all that with the budget I had: half of the money I would get with the sale of the 225xe. I had other plans for the other half and was not willing to invest too much money in a vehicle that I would not use that much.I wanted a frugal car  one that was easy on me when it came to refueling  but no hybrid could fit the bill. I also wanted something powered by gasoline. Although one of my automotive-writing mentors loved diesel engines, I could not follow his guidance on that one. I find the smoke, the smell, and even the noise these mills make repulsive. I could probably cope with all that if diesel engines could burn ethanol or another kind of fuel, but they cant.To be honest, Scania developed an additive that allowed its trucks to burn ethanol in Brazil. Sadly, it seems the idea did not catch up. Despite that, I always used ethanol to fill the fuel tank when I lived in Brazil, but that is not an option here in Portugal. This renewable fuel does not interfere with the greenhouse effect because it uses the carbon already in the atmosphere. Fossil fuels are an issue because they increase the amount of carbon, which is what worsens the natural heating phenomenon Earth developed to host life.Portugal loves diesel vehicles, which left very few gasoline options among the ones I could afford with the requirements I set. Eventually, I gave in to diesel vehicles, especially after I learned some station wagons that I liked could carry seven passengers, such as the Volvo XC70 and the Mercedes-Benz E-Class. Most of them had more than 300,0000 kilometers (186,411 miles) on the odometer and were powered by that fuel.After about one month of searching for a vehicle, I was exhausted. My wife works in a neighboring city, and I had to drive her to work in her car so that I could keep it to take my kids to school and pick them up later. Obviously, she also needed a ride back home. We only escaped beating our personal fuel consumption record because she drives a Suzuki Ignis Hybrid  what a fantastic little carI eventually found a blue diesel E220 with 299,000 km on the clock that was the best option until that point. My youngest son protested. He didnt like the station wagon and wanted me to buy something else. I proposed a deal: if we did not find anything better in a quick search, the E220 would be our new family car. He accepted it.My wife asked me what would be nice for us, and the Opel Zafira immediately came to my mind. It was not so big that it would not fit my garage or Portugals narrow streets. It was also roomy enough to carry the dogs, and the two extra seats it could have would be handy to drive my parents or my mother-in-law around when they visited us. Miraculously, my wife found an ad for a gorgeous 2002 Zafira with 165,000 km (102,526 mi). It looked great in the pictures, so I scheduled to see it the following day.When I arrived at the store, I could not believe how good the Zafira looked. It was almost as new, and the explanation was a careful previous owner who had the minivan since it really left the dealership lot. The car would not need new tires as the Mercedes : all four were recent, from the same brand and model, and were in great shape. I drove it a bit just to confirm it was as pristine as it seemed and sealed the deal.Driving it back home, I realized I had gone from a 5-year-oldto a 21-year-oldvehicle with no electric assistance whatsoever. It hasand airbags, but none of the digital nannies that people are getting used to nowadays. It may sound like terrible business, something you would only do if you badly needed the money, but it brought back some feelings and impressions I had long lost with more recent cars.The first vehicle I ever bought was a 1978 Fiat 147, a close relative to the European 127. It was (and must still be) as old as me. Apart from an electrical glitch I eventually fixed, it was a reliable little thing that I ultimately sold to my then-brother-in-law. He used it for a while and also traded it, but tried to buy it back a few years later. I believe he still knows the person who owns it.This is just a tale of how long ICE vehicles last. With proper maintenance, you can keep them for ages. I chose my 225xe because I wanted a plug-in hybrid that still had its battery pack under warranty. There were cheaper options around, such as the Opel Ampera (Chevrolet Volt) , but it only carries four people and has a small trunk. Above all, I did not want to risk buying a new battery pack should it fail. People still miss how crucial that is.Several usedcar buyers are learning it the hard way. Just check those facing BMS_u029 with the Model S. The first Model X was delivered in September 2015, so it is also nearing the end of its battery pack warranty, which means we will soon see similar codes in the Model X, Model 3, and Model Y, in that order. When that happens, the owners of used units of those EVs will face bills between $15,000 and more than $20,000 to replace these battery packs.Teslas are not the only EVs facing this aging problem. Nissan started delivering the LEAF in 2010, and I wrote about cases of new battery packs sold by dealerships for $35,000  with evidence. Some people manage to pay less by using battery packs from crashed cars. Sadly, that will not be an option for everyone.Buying any vehicle with a battery pack no longer covered by the manufacturer is a risky business, regardless of whether it is a PHEV or a. Even hybrid-electric vehicles (HEVs) can have issues if they do not work without a high-voltage accumulator. Depending on how old these vehicles are, their battery packs can cost more than they do. Ideally, you should always go for a new component with recently-manufactured cells. A used one will have a shorter life.That should never happen with a used ICE vehicle because you can overhaul its most expensive component: the engine. A used battery pack will still be costly because of demand, which comes both from cars and houses. An accumulator no longer suitable for automotive use can still work well as a stationary energy storage device. Even after it crosses the point of no return, it is an essential source of raw materials. That is why some people say we will never see a classic EV. Yes, some electric cars from the early 1900s survived, but electronics and software may still prove these folks right.A former boss used to say he loved how analogical his Mercedes-Benz 190 felt. I thought he was old-fashioned and attached to the past, but now I get him, especially when living in computer on wheels times. People could fix a car with a screwdriver and patience. Nowadays, you cant even replace brake pads without proper tooling and the automakers scanner. Although Rich Benoit managed to bring a Tesla Model S from the dead with patience and a lot of work, it would probably be more difficult with the hardware and software issues the company has been facing more recently.My BMW leasing included maintenance services, so I would always take the car to a dealer to solve anything. It had LED headlights and taillights, so I would never have to change a lamp. As much as I owned both cars, the Zafira gives me more opportunities to know it more thoroughly than the BMW ever did. I can repair it myself, even if I may prefer some stuff to be in the hands of more competent mechanics than I am.In my search for an impeccable car, I did not think I would want to improve it, and that was a mistake. The old stereo is original, and it works as intended for the time, but I am so used to Android Auto and Spotify that I caught myself wondering about installing a modern sound system. If the car were in worse shape, Id do that in the blink of an eye. As it is, I feel sorry to modify it. Ironically, thats because I found a car exactly as I wanted.Ill probably come up with more realizations as time goes by driving my Zafira. I have only just begun to deal with it. However, the feeling that I am one of the last people able to buy a 21-year-old vehicle that still runs as well as my car is a bittersweet sensation. We may soon experience a profound change in car ownership that I intend to write about soon. When all vehicles need a battery to work, I fear only new ones will make the cut. Too bad if you cant afford one.
EV

ICE

impressed

Toyota and Tesla have had a long relationship since Tesla bought the NUMMI car factory from the Japanese carmaker in 2010. The transaction's terms essentially made Toyota a Tesla investor, and the Japanese used this partnership to develop the second-generation RAV4in 2011. The car was jointly developed in California, with Tesla supplying the electric drivetrain components. That was a good team effort, and Toyota sold 2,500 units of the RAV4 EV in California.Had Toyota kept its stake in Tesla and deepened the partnership, the automotive history could've looked a lot different. Still, Toyota sold its stake in Tesla in 2017 and pursued its own EV projects, culminating with the failed bZ4X crossover launched in 2022. Besides its bad habit of losing the wheels, the bZ4X also had a disappointing performance. Part of its problems were caused by theplatform it is built on. Toyota calls it e-TNGA, but it's the TNGA with a battery and an electric motor. The Japanese carmaker even assembles it on the same production line as other TNGA vehicles.It's unclear why Toyota's CEO Akio Toyoda resigned in January, and his words were more puzzling than explanatory. "The new team can do what I can't do," said Toyoda. "I now need to take a step back in order to let young people enter the new chapter of what the future of mobility should be like." Could it be because he wanted to make more electric vehicles and couldn't convince the board, or because he opposed EVs and the board forced him to resign? No one but Toyoda knows that.The new CEO Koji Sato will take over on April 1, and he has already hinted at a change of strategy. While Sato pledged to continue developing hybrid and hydrogen propulsion systems, he also talked of an overhaul of Toyota operations, with EVs as the most urgent matter. At the end of January, Toyota announced it was working on a new automotive platform developed exclusively for electric vehicles. The new architecture will not be ready until 2026, but it's an important step forward versus re-heating the e-TNGA soup.New reports show that Toyota decided to develop the new architecture after engineers and executives witnessed a Tesla Model Y teardown. The American EVshocked Toyota staff and triggered a tectonic shift in the company's strategy. Although the Model Y looks unchanged, it was completely overhauled underneath. The teardown revealed that Toyota's manufacturing prowess was ages behind Tesla's. Despite its expertise in electrification, which goes back to the first Prius hybrid in 1997, Toyota has lost this competition."Taking the skin off the Model Y, it was truly a work of art," one Toyota executive who analyzed the Model Y told Automotive News. "It's unbelievable."Tesla oversimplified the Model Y manufacturing thanks to using megacastings, thus eliminating hundreds of parts. The structural battery also contributed to the overall efficiency. One Toyota estimate shared with Automotive News shows Tesla cut down up to 220 pounds (100 kg) while improving efficiency and slashing costs. That's when Toyota executives realized they needed a new platform designed from the ground up.But Toyota needs a lot more than matching Tesla in manufacturing efficiency. Given enough money and time, we're sure Toyota could produce electric vehicles at the same level as Tesla. It has money, but time is of the essence. And it lacks another essential ingredient: the mindset. Toyota needs a cultural change to accomplish that. It's a long way from Toyoda's claims in 2020 that Tesla "is not making something that's real" to the cultural revolution that Toyota needs to get to Tesla's level.
Photo: Honda

Photo: Honda

Photo: Honda

Self-proclaimed "the most competitive open-wheel racing series on the planet," INDYCAR requires a serious pace car to lead the pack. Honda didn't waste any time. In the sport where "best time wins" is the supreme argument, Honda introduced its first pace-setting model in 2006.The most powerful Type R to date, the 2023 INDYCAR is simultaneously the most muscular Honda model ever sold on the U.S. market (accounting for production series only). After intense testing sessions and microscopically accurate adjustments (true to Japanese strictness and precision standards), the new thrill-inducing Civic achieved higher responsiveness, comfort, and overall driving excitement ratings.The new vented hood, formed from lightweight aluminum, shelters a very performant version of Honda's award-winning K20C1 engine. The two-liter powerplant puts out 315 horsepower (319 PS) at 6,500 rpm and 310 lb-ft of torque (420 Nm, best served between 2,600-4,000 rpm).With that crankshaft GPA in store, the 2023 Civic Type R punches high in its class (two-liter, inline four cylinders, turbocharged induction): 157.8 hp/liter (159.98 PS/liter), up from the previous generation's 153.3 hp (155.42 PS).The redesigned turbo spools a maximum of 25.2 psi of boost to up the horsepower, torque, and throttle response ratings. The air intake has been revised for better flow, and the exhaust brags with a straight-through design and an active valve.Honda claims the turbocharger's efficiency is due to several revisions in the size, shape, and number of turbine blades. These mechanical augmentative measures allow the forced-induction generator to build pressure "in a wider range and more efficiently."In good old-fashioned motorhead heritage, a six-speed manual controls and distributes the engine output to the front wheels. Honda engineers installed a high-rigidity lever into an upgraded shift gate to optimize gear changes (which also benefit from improving the rev-matching technology).A stiffer chassis (with a longer wheelbase and wider front and rear tracks) tandems with a retuned dual-axis strut front and multilink rear suspension for increased stability and handling.Critically, for complete driver control, the Civic Type R Pace Car is fitted with a Honda Performance Development (HPD) brake package. In plain gearhead English, this is "competition rotors, racing pads, stainless steel brake lines." Four-point racing harnesses have been added to keep whoever's behind the wheel in their place (that would be behind the wheel).The ruffian Civic Type R packs an exclusive pace car lighting system to tame the single-seat missiles. Honda graphics (refer to the gallery for details) puts the artist's touch on transforming the 2023 Honda Civic Type R into a race-starter NTT INDYCAR SERIES Pace Car.However, Honda isn't just a flashy, colorful appearance in the 2023 INDYCAR SERIES season. The Sunday inaugural race raises the curtain on a season with the right tools to provide an action-packed show. The Japanese company is putting the sustainability stamp on the competition by developing the V6 hybrid 2.2-liter turbo engines for the 2024 race cars.100% renewable race fuel will power the 2023 speed-chasing events. Mandatory use of alternate race tires with a green sidewall will expand to all street circuit races. Besides the technicalities, INDYCAR SERIES fans look forward to seeing more records fall than last year.Two-time champion Will Power aims to improve his all-time-best pole position record of 68. Scott Dixon wants his name on a seventh Astor Challenge Cup to tie legend A.J. Foyt in the sport's hall of fame. Helio Castroneves is on track (pun absolutely intended) for a fifth Indy 500 victory.The emblematic race offered a few historic feats in the 2022 season  and hopes are high to see them challenged this year: fastest pole speed in history  234.046 mph/376.661 kph, Scott Dixon), fastest front row in history (average of 233.643 mph/376.012 kph), and fastest starting field in history (231.023 mph/371.795 kph average speed).For the sake of impossibly fast statistics, let's drop one final record that fans would love to see (live and in slow-motion) broken in 2023: the 2022 finish at the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix. Scott Dixon edged Scott McLaughlin by .1067 of a second  the smallest 1-2 gap on a street circuit race in INDYCAR SERIES history.
Electric Vehicle

kW

kWh

Its highly unusual for a legacy carmaker to revamp its signature model after two and a half years on the market. In the case of Volkswagen, this is almost unheard of. Volkswagen usually sticks with long production cycles for its main vehicles, and modifications are almost non-existent throughout their lives. The ID.3 is different, though, as it is probably the most criticized Volkswagen model in history.The software problems are probably the worst part, but ID.3 owners have also bashed the German carmaker for many other issues. From interior materials to design choices and poor implementation of features, the ID.3 has annoyed its owners from day one. Volkswagen says the revamped model was tuned based on customer feedback and specifically names improved material quality as the headline. Nevertheless, theres no word about the finicky touch controls being replaced by physical buttons or at least illuminated from behind to be visible at night.As weve seen in previous teasers and spy pictures, the design has been slightly tweaked with a new front bumper, which also promises to improve aerodynamics. Theres a new light signature front and rear, with two-part taillights extending into the tailgate for the first time. The interior has been enhanced with softer materials, while the Artvelours Eco recycled material is used throughout. This contains 71% recycled plastics that would otherwise be disposed of as waste.The most important changes have been operated to the user experience, with Volkswagen mentioning the revamped menus with the latest software version. An intelligentRoute Planner is the new addition, offering more information about charging options. Most importantly, the ID.3 now supports Plug & Charge, meaning the vehicle authenticates itself and starts charging when the charging cable is plugged in. This is similar to how Tesla and the Supercharger network work.The ID.3 now supports DC fast charging up to 170, as opposed to 120 kW before. Its a nice improvement, shortening the charging time to 30 minutes from 5% to 80%. The previous model needed 35 minutes to charge from 10% to 80%. Nevertheless, faster charging speed is only possible with the bigger 77-battery installed in the Pro S models. The Pro models having a 58-kWh battery still charge at 120 kW, which is a bummer.Apart from revamped driving assist systems, there are no other changes underneath the surface to grant ID.3 the right to call itself the second generation of the model. Volkswagen is assembling the ID.3 in Germany at its factories in Zwickau and Dresden. Starting in autumn 2023, the electric compact will also be built at Volkswagens main plant in Wolfsburg. Its also when the refreshed model will begin shipping to customers.
Contributing columnist Jose Gaspar is a news anchor/reporter for Telemundo Bakersfield and KGET. Email him at elcompa29@gmail.com. The views expressed here are his own.
The volume of roll-on, roll-off freight traffic from Dublin Port to the UK was down by 17.8pc last year, compared to pre-Brexit levels.

Trade in steel, alcohol and other products in the Republic could be displaced to Northern Ireland as a result of this weeks Windsor Framework, hauliers say.

The Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA) warned that imports of timber, concrete and even cornflakes will be subject to stricter rules and higher costs in Dublin and Rosslare ports than they are in Belfast, leading to a competitive disadvantage for the country.

I just hope this State has Plan B, IRHA president Eugene Drennan, president of the Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA), told an Oireachtas committee yesterday.

Steel out of Wales should be coming into Rosslare, really. It can now flow freely as a product into Northern Ireland: no tariff, no quota, different Vat regime. Where are we going to shop for steel?

The Windsor Framework ends more than three years of tussles over the practical workings of a protocol to the UKs 2019 EU exit deal that kept Northern Ireland in the EU single markets for goods and part of the UKs customs union.

The deal, agreed by the EU and UK on Monday, includes reduced checks for trusted traders (now open to British firms), customs exemptions for parcels, flexibility on Vat rates and minimal controls on food bound for the Northern Irish market.

Will the Windsor Framework be enough for the DUP?

Hauliers say it could lead to the loss of sea routes from Irish ports to England and to more expensive products for Irish consumers, and have called for similar easements for goods that are likely to remain on the island of Ireland.

The trusted trader scheme that is extended now in the protocol, ease of movement is built into it, and we dont have that here. Of course its going to have implications, Mr Drennan said.

Freight traffic to the UK from Rosslare is already down 36% since 2021, when the EU-UK trade deal came into effect.

The volume of roll-on, roll-off freight traffic from Dublin Port to the UK  the most common way of transporting goods  was down by 17.8% last year, compared to pre-Brexit levels.

At the same time, direct routes to Europe have risen dramatically.

Hauliers say a significant amount of freight is already coming from England via the much longer Scotland-Northern Ireland shipping route, to avoid extra checks in Dublin and Rosslare.

But Glenn Carr, commercial director for Iarnrod Eireann, which operates Rosslare Europort, said some trade might come back down south as a result of the protocol deal.

There was probably a disproportionate [amount of] traffic using the Belfast route, he told the Oireachtas EU affairs committee.

He said there should be more of an alignment in the North now with processes in Dublin and Rosslare, including red lanes and green lanes for different products.

Separately, Mr Carr mentioned ongoing issues with car part deliveries into Rosslare from the UK due to more complex customs requirements post-Brexit. Every morning there are garages waiting for delivery of their car parts, he said.

Mr Drennan and the IRHA are demanding risk-based rather than reactive checks on goods coming into Irish ports, as well as better-connected computer systems and a public-private body to monitor Irish-UK trade.
Businesses reluctant to abandon relationships established during period of trading difficulties

New food and drink supply chains rapidly established amid trading difficulties between Great Britain and Northern Ireland are not expected to vanish overnight under the Windsor Framework.

Aiming to modify problematic elements of the Northern Ireland Protocol, the framework has been broadly welcomed by representatives from the food and grocery sectors.

Controls on products of animal origin traded between GB and NI has been one of the key areas of contention around the protocol, leading to the DUP collapsing Stormont over a year ago.

Firms on both sides of the Irish Sea were unprepared for the introduction of new customs declarations between GB and NI in the wake of Brexit, with many exiting the NI market.

And, while welcoming any easing of trade friction and bureaucracy if the framework is adopted, firms may be reluctant to abandon their new supply partners.

It was such a disruption to the business when we had to make all that change, said Patricia Gilbert, co-owner of Ballylagan Organic Farm.

I would suspect a lot of businesses in Northern Ireland have had to find alternative supply chains and might find some of those supply alternatives are actually working better for them.

If youve now built up a relationship over a number of years with a continental supplier or maybe a supplier down in the south of Ireland, why would you change back?

Will the Windsor Framework be enough for the DUP?

Stakeholders are still getting into the nitty-gritty of the framework, with retailer and wholesaler Musgrave among those working through the detail.

It is essential that businesses are given time, certainty and stability to adapt to these new arrangements, said a Musgrave spokesperson.

Simon Roberts, CEO of Sainsburys, said: We welcome the positive news. This means that our customers in Northern Ireland will once again be able to access the full range of products as customers in Great Britain and at the same great prices.

Neil Johnston, director of the NI Retail Consortium, said: Early reports suggest that the new plan scraps almost all checks on goods crossing between GB and NI. This would be welcomed by retailers; however, we need to see the detail of the agreement and then we will need to see if it actually works in practical terms.

Businesses need clarity and certainty as soon as possible. It is vital that any proposals prevent excessive paperwork and cost.

Northern Ireland Food and Drink Association executive director Michael Bell said the priority is to secure a durable, negotiated solution maintaining frictionless trade.

It will take time to fully analyse the document and understand implications for our members, but, on first reading, the Windsor Framework looks substantial and balanced and represents the kind of pragmatic, practical solutions that we have been urging, he said.

Ulster Farmers Union president David Brown commended the EU and UK negotiators on reaching agreement, particularly proposals to lift the ban on plants and seeds traded between GB to NI.

Other issues such as livestock movements, veterinary medicines, plant-protection products and grain for livestock feed still require a technical solution, he said.

Through improved engagement and constructive discussions, we want to see solutions found that deliver for those impacted by these challenges.

Ballylagan Organic Farm, Straid

I havent quite got the will at the minute to suddenly go back to getting everything from GB, said Patricia Gilbert, co-owner of Ballylagan Organic Farm.

Non-homegrown supplies into the farms small shop collapsed virtually overnight when many GB suppliers suddenly realised they would have to complete complex, multiple customs declarations across small mixed loads.

Patricia scrambled to find new suppliers for fruit and veg, dairy, meat and other lines containing animal products such as honey, chocolate and biscuits. The Netherlands has become a key supplier and trade has increased with the Republic of Ireland.

Welcoming the Windsor Framework, she said: I do believe that if this goes through and does what we believe its going to, it leaves Northern Ireland in a very advantageous position, particularly for manufacturing companies, which still have the route into Europe.

Having spent two years establishing new suppliers, Patricia is not prepared to simply revert to GB traders. However, she has already heard some GB suppliers are hopeful they will be able to send products of animal origin to NI shops again through the Trusted Trader Scheme.

And there are disadvantages from sourcing beyond the UK.

The thing about buying in from Europe is were at risk from fluctuating exchange rates. If the rate suddenly went the other way, I would have to go back and look at GB suppliers. Then there are transportation and product costs to take into account.

Ballylagan Organic Farm's shop

Arcadia Delicatessen, Belfast

Celebrating 90 years in business at the start of February, Arcadia Delicatessen has weathered war, troubles, a global pandemic and economic mayhem.

It has also survived the NI Protocol, with the business at one point fearing it wouldnt even be able to bring in cheeses from Great Britain.

It wasnt as bad as all that, but the popular Lisburn Road deli has faced a tiresome burden of paperwork, lost some suppliers and had to bulk buy from others.

Laura Brown, who operates the business with her husband, Mark, has welcomed the Windsor Framework.

Basically, anything that reduces friction and paperwork is good, she said.

Any time we bring in a pallet from England, weve had to fill out supplementary declarations. Were a very small team, with less staff than we need at the minute anyway, and it just adds an admin burden.

A couple of small companies decided they didnt have the time or staff to trade with Northern Ireland, including the English supplier of a best-selling speciality biscuit line.

Hopefully this will mean the supply chain is much easier and well be able to get those things in, said Laura.

Arcadia has been placing bigger orders to minimise supplementary declarations, while some suppliers have been setting higher minimum orders.

But then that brings its own problems, because were a small business and we dont have the storage for larger orders, she said.

Hopefully we can just go forward and do what we do best. Were just a small family business, supplying our own customers in our own area.

Arcadia recently celebrated 90 years in business

Deli Lites, Warrenpoint

Many NI manufacturers have picked up new business post-Brexit when companies trading here faced issues around shipping some food produce from GB to NI.

Henderson Group stepped in to supply meat products to Sainsburys, while Boots and M&S began sourcing sandwiches from Deli Lites and Around Noon respectively.

Deli Lites CEO Brian Reid has been a vocal supporter of the advantages around having access to both the GB and EU markets, which the Windsor Framework aims to maintain.

We have the advantage of access to both markets, and that is a fantastic opportunity, he said.

For that to be removed, it would put us at a great disadvantage.

Access to both markets had resulted in Deli Lites contract to supply sandwiches to Boots stores in NI, replacing the retailers previous GB suppliers, he said.

And new business drove the creation of 45 new jobs at its Milltown Industrial Estate factory as part of a 4.3m investment in 2021 supporting growth in EU and global markets.

The protocol has helped us win business we wouldnt have otherwise, because of those advantages. Weve also been getting more enquiries and business that we wouldnt be getting if we didnt have that access.

Without access, it will make things more difficult for us and other food and drink producers. It will add complexities that are not there currently, and companies will be forced to rethink their exporting strategies.
Empty fruit and vegetable shelves at an Asda in east London (PA)   Yui Mok

Iceland executive chairman Richard Walker said he expects the current fruit and vegetable shortage to be back to normal in a couple of weeks and asked customers to bear with us, were trying our best.

Mr Walker told Kay Burley on Sky News: If customers could bear with us, were trying our best but you cant obviously stockpile fresh fruit and veg. Ultimately this is about the weather in Morocco and Spain, which are the areas where a lot of these tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuces, peppers come from.

Obviously at Iceland were famous for frozen, and frozen sales of vegetables are up 25%. But unfortunately you cant freeze lettuce or tomatoes or cucumber. So it only solves part of the problem.

You can see from the pictures there are empty shelves but it will be back to normal in a couple of weeks, Im sure.

Asked what retailers were doing to protect consumers from further similar shortages, Mr Walker replied: Well, this is climate change. Were talking about adverse weather in Morocco, snow and frost which has hampered their ability to grow these products.

Theres only so much we can do and the Government can do and it would be great if we had more domestic UK production of these products but that requires heating in greenhouses which obviously, given where wholesale energy prices are, is exceptionally expensive at the moment.

Food and farming minister Mark Spencer held a video meeting with representatives from UK supermarkets on Monday, aimed at finding out what they were doing to get shelves stocked again and how the UK can avoid a repeat of the current situation.

Consumers continue to face buying restrictions on certain fresh produce items such as tomatoes (Alamy/PA)   Alamy Stock Photo

Mr Spencer said he had asked retailers to look again at how they work with farmers to further build preparedness for these unexpected incidents.

Consumers continue to face, at best, buying restrictions on certain fresh produce items such as tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers or even bare shelves as retailers grapple with supply problems.

On Monday Lidl became the latest supermarket to introduce buyer limits, but stressed it continues to have good availability across the majority of its stores.

Last week Tesco and Aldi began limiting customers to three units of tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers as a precautionary measure, while Asda is also limiting customers on lettuce, salad bags, broccoli, cauliflower and raspberries.

Morrisons has set a limit of two items per customer across tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and peppers.

Food and farming minister Mark Spencer held a video meeting with representatives from UK supermarkets (PA)   Aaron Chown

Environment Secretary Therese Coffey said last week that British consumers should eat more turnips instead of imported food.

The National Farmers Union (NFU) said shortages of some fruit and vegetables in UK supermarkets could be the tip of the iceberg.

Deputy president Tom Bradshaw said a reliance on imports has left the UK vulnerable to shock weather events.

Soaring energy bills exacerbated by the war in Ukraine have also put off some UK vegetable growers, he added.

He said the UK has hit a tipping point and needs to take command of the food we produce amid volatility around the world caused by the war in Europe and climate change.
Pierce Brosnan pictured with a member of staff at the Ballycastle pub (Photo: The Diamond Bar Facebook)

Pierce Brosnan was spotted in a Ballycastle pub on Tuesday while shooting his new film.

On Tuesday, the Diamond Bar posted a photo of the star posed for a photo with a member of staff. They captioned it: Thanks for stopping by Mr Bond.

Mr Brosnan was sporting a long wig, shabby overcoat and scarf, which raised some eyebrows with commenters.

One eagle-eyed fan joked Thon boy Brosnan needs a good haircut! However, this was cleared up when the bar confirmed the actor was in costume for his new film Four Letters of Love.

He is currently shooting for the upcoming supernatural romance on the north coast.

The storyline is based on an international best-selling novel by Irish author Niall Williams. Brosnan and Helena Bonham-Carter, alongside Irish actor Gabriel Byrne, will play parents of the main characters, played by up-and-coming actors Fionn OShea and Ann Skelly.

This was the second time fans spotted Mr Brosnan out and about in Ballycastle. He had also been spotted at the Salthouse Hotel in Ballycastle.

Posting to social media, the hotel wrote: Reservation for Bond James Bond. We had the pleasure of welcoming Mr Pierce Brosnan to stay and dine at the hotel last night. We wish him all the best in his new movie.
A gallery which closed for the winter and spring amid funding challenges will reopen next month with a fascinating exhibition exploring 80 years of 20th century art.

Decades: The Art of Change 1900-1980, will open at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern Two) in Edinburgh on April 29, more than six months after the venue shut.

The free exhibition of 100 works will take visitors through six rooms at Modern Two and will feature artists ranging from the likes of Henri Matisse, Andre Derain and Piet Mondrian to Ben Nicholson, Fernand Leger and Eduardo Paolozzi.

Modern Two closed last October following the Barbara Hepworth exhibition amid the cost-of-living crisis and rising energy costs, as part of its ongoing recovery from the financial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Work by Piet Mondrian will feature in the show (National Galleries of Scotland/PA)

Sir John Leighton, director-general of the National Galleries of Scotland, said: National Galleries of Scotland is delighted to reopen Modern Two with an exhibition that celebrates the strength of the national collection.

Featuring a fascinating range of works by many of Scotland and the worlds greatest artists, Decades: The Art of Change 1900-1980 encourages visitors to think about how art can both reflect and change the way we see the world around us.

We welcome you to join us on a voyage of discovery through 80 years of bold artistic achievement.

The Rose and the Lacquer Screen, by FCB Cadell will be on show (National Galleries of Scotland/PA)

The gallery said that each chapter of the exhibition speaks of a particular moment from across the 20th century, when artists rebelled against the previous generation, creating works which came to characterise a period.

Two new acquisitions, by Scottish Colourists FCB Cadell and JD Fergusson, which have been donated by private owners, will feature in the show.

Work by Francis Bacon, Joan Eardley and Bet Low, created both during and immediately after the Second World War, will also be on display, while from the 1960s there will be pieces by the likes of Bridget Riley and Duane Hanson whose Tourists sculpture will be on show.

Meanwhile, the Keiller Library in the gallery will focus on the motif of the hand in Surrealist art and writing, drawing on works by artists like Man Ray, Edith Rimmington and Salvador Dali, from the national collections world-class holding of Surrealist books and archive material.
As Matt Hancock battles claims that he rejected advice on coronavirus testing, attention is also turning to the source of the story  journalist Isabel Oakeshott, who was handed the messages by the former health secretary while she worked on his Pandemic Diaries memoir.

Allies of Mr Hancock have accused her of breaching a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), after the Daily Telegraph splashed on its front page the allegations based on more than 100,000 WhatsApp messages.

It is not the first time a row over confidentiality agreements or NDAs has emerged in Westminster. Nor is Ms Oakeshott, currently a TalkTV presenter, a stranger to high-profile political rows.

A vehement lockdown critic, as well as a Brexit backer, the journalist has often been at the centre of some of the most memorable stories and scandals of the past decade.

It was her unauthorised biography of David Cameron, written with Conservative donor Lord Ashcroft, that contained allegations linked to the former prime minister and a dead pigs head.

Before that as a Sunday Times journalist, she was involved in breaking the story that saw former Liberal Democrat cabinet minister Chris Huhne jailed for eight months in 2013 for lying about a speeding ticket.

She was forced to defend her reporting after Vicky Pryce  who made the story public after was she asked to take the penalty points  also ended up being given an eight-month sentence.

Most recently, Ms Oakeshott was embroiled in a row over millionaire Brexit backer Arron Banks and his alleged links with the Kremlin, after acting as ghost-writer on his The Bad Boys Of Brexit book  a diary account of the unofficial leave campaign.

During the pandemic she is said to have attended a barbecue with her reported partner and Reform UK leader Richard Tice that saw Tory MP Bob Seely apologise for failing to follow lockdown advice.

In 2019, she denied that her relationship with Mr Tice was linked to her reporting on leaked cables from Britains US ambassador Sir Kim Darroch, which prompted his resignation over remarks about Donald Trump.

Matt Hancocks Pandemic Diaries were published last year (PA)   Yui Mok

Lord Bethell, who appeared on BBC Radio 4s Today programme to defend his former government colleague, said: I think Isabel is a terrific journalist. Shes not a very good friend.

Ms Oakeshott is now facing an allegation that she breached an NDA to help break the Hancock story.

The PA news agency has contacted her, while Biteback Publishing  which published Mr Hancocks pandemic book  declined to comment.

Writing in the Telegraph, she said: Theres no secret about how I came to be in possession of this communications treasure trove. The common thread is Matt Hancock, the former health secretary.

Throughout the pandemic, he used the messaging service WhatsApp to communicate with colleagues practically every minute of every day. Following his resignation in June 2021, he downloaded the records from his phone and shared them with various people, including me.

I was helping him to write his book about the crisis, and we drew heavily from the material to reconstruct his day-by-day account. Suffice to say there was plenty of important material left over.

Questions about NDAs at Westminster are another matter that have often been linked to sexual harassment scandals by politicians and whether such legal agreements are being abused.

Back in 2019, Theresa Mays government announced plans to tighten the rules around confidentiality clauses and NDAs in workplaces to prevent them being used to stop victims reporting harassment or discrimination.

That came after allegations regarding the behaviour of retail tycoon Sir Philip Green and his use of the legal tool.

The Daily Telegraph newspaper has been contacted about the claim by Mr Hancock, whose spokesman has said allegations the then minister rejected clinical advice on care home testing was flat wrong because he was told it was not currently possible to carry out the tests.
Jay Blades has become the first chancellor of Buckinghamshire New University (BNU) and received an honorary doctorate for his significant contribution to furniture-making and crafts and community work during an investiture ceremony.

The Repair Shop host, 53, was a student at BNU before becoming a broadcaster and social entrepreneur, which saw him receive an MBE for services to craft.

Blades left school at 15 with no qualifications but got back on track studying for a degree in criminology and philosophy at BNU from 2001, where his dyslexia was identified and supported.

Jay Blades (Matt Fowler/PA)

He later found fame on the BBC restoration programme The Repair Shop  which sees members of the public take worn out family heirlooms to be restored by a team of experts.

TV presenter and furniture restorer Blades said BNU is woven into his history and DNA and always feels like coming home when talking about being invested as the universitys inaugural chancellor.

He added: Once I arrived at BNU, things totally changed for me for the better because I had a purpose and focus. The university supported my studies and gave me the confidence and self-belief to kickstart my life and career.

BNU creates community champions, and thats what they did for me because I started my first charity back then. When I got my degree it created a power in me that was just unbelievable, and it hasnt stopped.

So to become the first chancellor for a university thats shaped the person I am today, and on top of that to receive an honorary doctorate, is a real wow moment. And I know that together BNU and I are going to achieve amazing things.

I made life-long friends from lots of different courses at BNU and today some of them are working with the biggest companies in the world. It all started at BNU and Im really excited to see what current students go on to achieve.

Jay Blades also received an honorary doctorate (Matt Fowler/PA)

Following his graduation from BNU, Blades co-founded the Out Of The Dark charitable social enterprise that recycled and revamped furniture to train, educate and employ young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

On Wednesday, he received an honorary doctorate for his community work supporting vulnerable and disadvantaged group during an investiture ceremony at the Wycombe Swan theatre which included RAF trumpeters performing a fanfare to mark Blades formal investiture as university chancellor.

The processional music was also specially created by members of the RAF Central Band under the direction of the RAFs principal director of music, Wing Commander Morrell.

Vice chancellor of BNU, Professor Nick Braisby, said: The university is greatly honoured that Jay has agreed to become the universitys inaugural chancellor and that Jay himself so strongly identifies with the universitys mission recognising the role we played in his own professional and personal development.

Jays support of the university is a ringing endorsement of our ability to transform lives by supporting all students to reach their full potential.

Jay Blades and Professor Nick Braisby at BNU (Nick Fowler/PA)

I look forward to working closely with Jay in the years ahead, not least as we work with the furniture industry to create new educational opportunities, building on the unique industrial heritage of High Wycombe and Buckinghamshire.

I know that our students will be inspired by Jays example as they similarly seek to make a real difference to their communities, to society and in their chosen careers.

Blades is now working with the university to develop furniture-related programmes and more than 570 students have benefitted from the Jay Blades Thrive Bursary since September, which sees the university support students from low-income families and areas of high deprivation in Blades honour.

Maggie Galliers, pro-chancellor and chair of BNUs council, said: Jay is forever driven by aiming high and making a positive impact, and the way he inspires and helps others to be ambitious for their futures really chimes with what we stand for at BNU.

Today our university community celebrates Jays many achievements as we look forward to all that lies ahead during his chancellorship.

The then-Prince of Wales with Jay Blades during a special episode of The Repair Shop as part of the BBCs centenary celebrations (Ian West/PA)   Ian West

Blades has starred in The Repair Shop since its launch in 2017.

Last year, a special one-off episode to mark the BBCs centenary saw Blades and the repair team visit the King, when he was still the Prince of Wales, at Dumfries House in Scotland.

During The Repair Shop: A Royal Visit, the monarchs bracket clock and a piece made for Queen Victorias Diamond Jubilee by British ceramics maker Wemyss Ware were all fixed.

In May 2022, Blades was made an MBE for his work in promoting heritage craft and restoration in the UK.
A judge has criticised the PPS for opting to prosecute a man who sexually assaulted two schoolgirls in magistrates court rather than Crown court.

Maximus Grigorenko (40) brandished a knuckle-duster when he drunkenly groped two girls in Bangor last year.

District Judge Mark Hamill said while the jail sentences totalling eight months for Grigorenko may be criticised by the public, he had made his views on this attack "crystal clear".

He told Newtownards Magistrates Court he was astounded at the outset and continued to be astounded that the case was not elevated to the Crown court, where the maximum sentence is 14 years.

It should have been in the Crown court all day long, declared Judge Hamill.

He stressed he was not allowed to refuse jurisdiction, adding the people who are going to be criticised in this situation are the PPS.

Grigorenko, with an address at Central Avenue in Bangor, appeared at court via video link from jail. He had entered guilty pleas to two counts of sexual assault, including one on a child under 13, and to possessing a knuckle-duster in public.

He was given four months on each count of sexual assault, which are to be served consecutively, as well as a five-year sexual offences prevention order and being put on the sex offenders register for five years.

A prosecuting lawyer said police were called to Queens Parade in Bangor on July 3 last year following reports that a male with a knuckle-duster had approached two girls.

When officers arrived, they found an intoxicated Grigorenko holding the knuckle-duster above his head and took him into custody.

The girls, who were aged 12 and 14, told police he had ran his hands down their backs and groped their bottoms.

Defence counsel Conan Rea revealed Grigorenko had been in custody since the incident, submitting that the guilty pleas are perhaps the most positive feature to the case.

District Judge Hamill said it was clear the PPS directing officer had looked at the nature of the somewhat innocuous mechanics of the assaults and worked backwards from there, describing that approach as completely wrong.

He contended that the PPS should have worked from the proposition "that this was in public, a drunk man approaching two children while brandishing a weapon on the street in Bangor".

Im stunned at the prosecution taking this to the Magistrates Court, constrained by sentencing powers and the maximum of six months, Judge Hamill added.
Stephen Byrne, who stole just over 46,000 from Beggs and Partners plumbers merchants

Two men who fleeced more than 170,000 from their respective employers have avoided jail.

Lawrence John Scullion (44), a senior administrator who swindled 125,000 from the Housing Executive, was given a 20-month jail sentence suspended for three years at Newry Crown Court on Wednesday.

In a separate case at Craigavon Crown Court today, 49-year-old van salesman Stephen Byrne (pictured), who stole just over 46,000 from Beggs and Partners plumbers merchants, was given at two-year jail sentence, also suspended for three years.

Scullion, from the Andersonstown Road in Belfast, pleaded guilty to a single count of fraud by abusing his position of trust within the Housing Executive. He transferred a total of 125,603 to himself over a 12-year period from May 2009 to June 2021.

Byrne, from Markville, Portadown, admitted a single count of theft from Beggs and Partners. He stole 46,131 from January 2017 to January 2020.

Judge Mark Reel said Scullion had worked for the Housing Executive for more than 20 years before his protracted frauds were exposed.

Scullion had first started gambling in a works outing, but by 2009, he was in the grip of addiction. His theft began when a person who was being paid housing benefit for their temporary accommodation moved address, and Scullion started having the benefit paid into his account.

When caught, it was found that he was not funding a lavish lifestyle, but instead was using the cash to gamble and pay household bills.

Judge Reel revealed that, according to reports, Scullion also took out multiple payday loans, borrowed money from relatives and used the fraudulently obtained 200 weekly housing benefit to fund his addiction.

He had initially gambled at the bookmakers beside his office and then online, using five separate online accounts. At one stage, he took out a 10,000 loan, but lost all of it to gambling.

Throughout the 12 years of fraud, Scullions wife knew nothing of his addiction or financial mismanagement as he intercepted the mail to hide letters warning of legal repercussions.

The judge said there was documented evidence to support the fact that Scullion had been in financial dire straits throughout that time, as well as a psychiatric report supporting the contention that he suffers from a pathological compulsive gambling disorder.

Judge Reel said that on one hand, Scullion took a significant amount of money out of the public purse when he was in a position of trust, and that without detection, the fraud may still be operating.

However, he also noted Scullion had a chronic gambling addiction who, having been at rock bottom, is attempting to rebuild his life and is trying to save his marriage. Judge Reel added that jailing him would have a detrimental effect on his family.

He said although the custody threshold has been passed, the pathological addiction amounted to an exceptional circumstance which justified him suspending the 20-month sentence.

Meanwhile, Craigavon Crown Court heard that Byrne had sold his matrimonial home to repay the cash he had taken from Beggs and Partners.

Judge Lynch outlined how Byrne had been a van sales/delivery man for the plumbers merchants when a customer highlighted suspicious activity in his account. This triggered an internal audit which uncovered the fraud.

Byrne confessed to the managing director that he had been taking money to fund a gambling addiction.

During a meeting with the owner in November 2019, Byrne was tearful and confirmed that the figures were accurate. He resigned in January 2020.

Judge Lynch said that since the offences came to light, Byrne has been able to halt his gambling addiction and expressed his shame, embarrassment, remorse and regret over the offending.

The judge said the thefts were a significant breach of trust, and while Byrne was in a position to fully repay the money, one cannot buy ones way out of serious criminal activity, but nevertheless thats a factor the court must take into account.
A woman who sent pictures of an aborted foetus to a politician has been fined 400.

Louise McFarland, of Lansdowne Road, Newtownards, admitted a charge of improper use of a public electronic communications network by sending a grossly offensive message.

A prosecutor said that a politician was greatly distressed after receiving messages that included photographs of an aborted foetus on May 6 last year.

Ards Magistrates Court heard one of the messages said: You may have been elected but I am very sad about your moral standards, ending with you really have a wicked heart.

A prosecutor told an earlier court hearing that the defence had enquired about a caution being administered, but the victim was not happy with that.

A defence lawyer said McFarland had never intended to cause any harm or distress and offered to apologise directly to the injured party through the police.

The lawyer provided character references to the court and said the defendant is very hard-working.

The defence said McFarland had a previously clear record and was a lady of impeccable character.

District Judge Mark Hamill told the court that he took a very serious view of the case, as it was either an attempt to intimidate a local elected representative or to cause distress to that local elected representative.

Sentencing the 28-year-old today (Wednesday), Judge Hamill said there is no shortage of keyboard warriors who send all sorts of stuff out to the ether without regard for the consequences.

He told the solicitor: If your client wants to engage in a political debate, there are other ways of doing it. This was completely improper and completely distressing to the victim in this case who is entitled, as your client is, to their own views on this most sensitive of subjects.

As well as the 400 fine, McFarland was bound over for two years in the sum of 1,000.
At West Winds Primary School in Newtownards its all aboard for a journey into the imagination as its school library has found a new home in a repurposed double-decker.

Principal Niall Manogue said the idea was formed as a way of celebrating the schools 50th anniversary.

We were looking for a project that we could take on as a community to help celebrate that, said Mr Manogue.

Wed given up our last classroom in the school as a learning support class, so we were looking for somewhere to house our library.

I was having a conversation at the school gates with a couple of dads. One of them used to work for Translink and the other was a metal worker.

"Id been at a conference and heard another principal talk about converting an old bus into a library. I suggested the idea and they both said: Lets do it.

The Incredible Book Eating Bus

We managed to get a little funding from the West Winds Development Association to purchase the bus. Then it was a nine-month process of stripping it out, cleaning it up and putting all our books in it, he added.

Dozens of parents, children, teachers, classroom assistants and caretakers all helped to transform the bus.

We had some there with buckets and mops and paintbrushes and then we had folk doing more specialised things, so a whole team effort has allowed us to provide what we think is a fantastic resource and something the children love.

The school also received a grant from the UK-based Foyle Foundation  which supports school libraries  with the organisation also supplying a number of new books .

To complete the project, the school came up with a new design to celebrate the vehicles new chapter in its life.

In Northern Ireland you always find someone who knows someone, and one of our teachers mentioned that her husband works with the brother of childrens writer and illustrator Oliver Jeffers, Mr Manogue said.

So we approached him to see if it would be possible to use some of his work and he happily agreed.

The Incredible Book Eating Bus

The bus has been branded The Incredible Book Eating Bus, as a nod to one of Jeffers books, The Incredible Book Eating Boy.

We will be talking to the children about where reading can take you, said Mr Manogue.

We dont want to lose that love of stories and the idea that books can take you anywhere your imagination lets you.

I cant think of a better place to be talking about those journeys. Its perfect.

It still has a drivers seat and steering wheel, though the bus cant be moved anywhere.

And weve disconnected the bell to avoid temptation; libraries are supposed to be quiet places, after all.

But the children love coming out here.

Library time is now the highlight of their week.

The school also has plans to make the facility available to the wider community, including holding adult literacy classes on board in partnership with the local further education college.

We want to show beyond the West Winds that, as a school and as a community, were serious about reading and helping the children fall in love with books.
A landlord is considering a legal challenge against Belfast City Council for refusing an application for a student-type House of Multiple Occupation (HMO) licence in the Holyland area of south Belfast.

HMOs, which landlords lease out to three or more tenants from different addresses, have become increasingly controversial, with some arguing they have negatively affected communities and led to anti-social behaviour, in places like the Holyland and Stranmillis where landlords rent houses to undergraduates.

At the recent council licensing committee meeting, elected representatives refused an application for a new licence to operate a HMO an apartment in Fitzroy Avenue.

The licence was refused on the basis of overprovision, as recommended by council officers.

The applicant previously had an HMO licence on the property which expired on August 14, 2019.

The decision will mean the flat will have to be reduced from a three person to a two person apartment.

The council said on April 12, 2019, a reminder letter was sent to the landlord informing him of the need to apply to renew the licence.

A council report states: An inspection of the property took place on the July 5, 2019, in anticipation of an application being submitted. The managing agent was in attendance during the inspection, however, the council did not receive an application to renew the licence.

The council policy states that amongst five considerations the council may only grant a licence if it is satisfied that the granting of the licence will not result in overprovision of HMOs in the locality.

The council report states: On the date of assessment, January 4 this year there were a total of 1,112 licensed HMOs in the policy area Botanic, Holyland, Rugby.

This equates to 46.16% of the total dwelling units of 2,409 within the policy area. Which in turn exceeds the 30% development limit as set out.

HMO licence renewal cannot be refused on the basis of overprovision of such properties in an area, but new licences can be refused on this basis.

While the council policy is that HMOs should not account for more than 30% of any area, in reality many streets well exceed this, with some in the Holyland reaching over 90%.

At the licensing committee, elected representatives heard the landlord believed his HMO licence on the property had been renewed in 2019 until 2024.

A council report stated: Officers have examined the relevant records and have found no evidence of advice being provided to the letting agent confirming that the owner was covered regarding the HMO licensing of the accommodation.

Further, officers confirmed that the council only received an HMO licence application on September 27, 2022, which is over three years after the previous licence expired on August 14, 2019.

The landlord told the licensing committee it was galling that his property would be disqualified after spending so much on it, and said the matter involved an administrative hiccup.

The managing agent for the landlord told the licensing committee: Whilst ignorance of the law is no excuse there are instances of reasonable excuse being accepted when legislation is not being followed to the letter of the law.

He added: The doorstop conversation with your advisor did say to me that the licence would not be a problem.

It may have been a misunderstanding between him or I or a lack of information or training as far as HMOs are concerned, given that they were going through a transition between NIHE and BCC at the time.

As the Planning Committee were about to make the decision, he asked for a deferral so he could review the paperwork further and lodge a further appeal.

Elected members did not defer, and unanimously decided to refuse the application.

The landlord has a right to appeal to the County Court within 28 days of formal notification of the decision.

The council could not confirm whether an appeal had been lodged.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shakes hands with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak during their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Nov. 19, 2022 (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP/PA)

The Russian invasion of Ukraine was a key factor that helped Rishi Sunak secure his Brexit deal, government insiders believe.

The last year has seen the UK government build bridges with capitals across Europe as the West banded together to oppose Russian aggression.

As old tensions over Brexit dissipated, the outbreak of war on the edge of Europe also concentrated the minds of EU leaders on what was important, opening up a new willingness to solve the problem of the Northern Ireland protocol once and for all, sources say.

It was one of a number of elements that helped the prime minister deliver a shock Brexit deal that impressed even some headline Brexiteers in his own party.

Parts of the Tory party even believe the Windsor Framework, and the feeling they have got Brexit done, is the secret weapon that will help them win the next election despite Labours massive lead in the polls.

Another factor that smoothed the talks was the lack of a deadline.

Much had been made of the looming anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

President Biden was thought unlikely to want to visit the UK with the issues around the Northern Ireland protocol still unresolved.

But all those involved took the attitude that the deal would get done when it got done.

That did not mean that there were no nervous moments, however.

Senior members of the government were spooked by noises coming out of a summit in Munich last week. At that stage they genuinely believed an agreement could be in peril.

The government had cleared part of its diary to seal the deal last week.

"I'm over the moon" - PM Rishi Sunak visits Coca Cola factory in Lisburn

The president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen was even due to fly to the UK on Saturday. That was pulled, however, then hastily rearranged for Monday when it emerged a deal could be signed. Controversially, her planned meeting with the King was also reinstated, despite claims No 10 risked politicising the monarchy.

Sovereignty issues, based around the idea of getting consent for Northern Ireland politicians on future EU rules, proved to be the trickiest part of the talks over the last few months.

UK government officials came up with the idea of the Stormont brake, believed to have been the big breakthrough that unlocked a final deal with Brussels.

But officials were still haggling over final details at 2am on Monday morning, thrashing out agreement on a long list of export declarations.

A source close to the negotiations said: These things are gradual discussions that continue into the small hours in windowless buildings, with dubious sandwiches with needless amounts of egg involved.

On the day the deal was done some of the officials involved went to bed at 3am.

The source added: People who have been saying this deal was done two weeks ago should speak to our spouses. It's not been sitting there finished.
A group of Green Party councillors launched a renewed proposal for the facility, to help save the lives of some of our most vulnerable.

In recent months there has been a spate of drug-related deaths on the streets in the city centre, and a total of almost 350 drug-related deaths in Belfast from 2017 to 2021.

Last year John Walsh, Belfast City Council (BCC) chief executive, told this newspaper that the establishment of an overdose prevention centre (OPC) in the city should be explored.

Due to the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, this cannot legally happen as things stand and a special legal dispensation would need to be granted in order for a OPC to be lawful.

A motion proposed by Green Party NI leader Mal OHara and his colleague Brian Smyth last week, states: In the absence of a local Assembly to deliver reform and innovation that can save vulnerable lives, this council will act as a civic leader by requesting our city solicitor and chief executive to engage with partners and to lobby Belfast Trust, PSNI, the Departments of Health and Justice and the attorney general to make the case for special dispensation.

Sinn Fein, the SDLP, Alliance Party, People Before Profit and UUP all voted for the motion, and so whilst no party voted against it, the DUP abstained, meaning it went through unopposed rather than unanimously in favour.

Ulster Unionist representative John Kyle also noted that some legislative change would be needed around the implementation of and OPC and said that thought needs to be given to where the facility would be located.

Alliance Party councillor Micky Murray added that he would like to make an amendment so that relevant agencies dealing with drug use and poverty in the city can help draft proposals around what this centre will look like, and urge multi-year funding for Complex Lives  a new initiative to help homeless people and vulnerable people with addictions  which will help the group to recruit and maintain staff to work on this strategy.

Cllr Mal O'Hara said: "I am delighted that my motion on an Overdose Prevention Centre has achieved support at Belfast City Council tonight.

"While there is a long way to go on the establishment of a centre like this, it is an important milestone tonight. Other local authorities across these islands are moving forward on the establishment of these centres. Belfast now joins that group.

OPCs already exist in 16 countries around the world. Anyone who has been in Belfast will have seen vulnerable people and drug debris in the city.

"A centre such as this can reduce the level of drug debris, making it safer for workers, visitors and communities.

"More importantly, a centre such as this can save lives. With Northern Ireland doubling our drug deaths in the last decade and new records of deaths in 2021, it is more urgent than ever that we establish one of these. If we want to create a cleaner, greener and fairer Northern Ireland, then we need an overdose prevention centre."

A spokesperson for the charity Extern, which works with people with addiction issues, said it would welcome the establishment of an overdose prevention centre in Belfast.

The rise in drug-related deaths within Belfast city centre and beyond in recent years has shown that we must find a way in which those managing problem drug use can be supported in a safe, stable environment, they said.

Extern supports people with problematic drug use within Northern Ireland and has been at the forefront of calling for new approaches to tackling the issues which sadly contribute to the loss of so many lives every year. This includes the creation of a dedicated overdose prevention facility.

As well as helping to save lives, overdose prevention facilities can have a positive impact on local communities by ensuring that less drug paraphernalia such as used needles are discarded in public spaces.

The creation of an overdose prevention facility in Northern Ireland requires significant support from policymakers and politicians to make this a reality. We would therefore welcome any moves which can advance this discussion, with the ultimate aim of saving lives and making communities safer.

Back in October of last year, then Health Minister Robin Swann was asked about introducing an OPC here. He pointed out it would be illegal under the law, but added: I am aware of discussions and proposals on this issue in both Scotland and the Republic of Ireland, and my Department is watching developments closely.

We will continue to monitor the evidence in respect of effective interventions and develop new proposals, within the wider legislative framework, as appropriate.
The SDLPs Patsy McGlone has said that a number of farmers in Northern Ireland are experiencing issues claiming their 600 energy support payment.

Earlier in the month, the British governments Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said that all homes in Northern Ireland should have received their one-off payments by mid-February.

Those who pay their bills by direct debit received the 600 directly in their bank accounts while other customers were sent vouchers  all of which have now been distributed.

Once received the vouchers have to be redeemed by the end of March.

But Mr McGlone, who is his partys rural communities spokesperson, said that farmers who only have access to a business account for their banking have been unable to avail of the scheme.

He has raised the issue with BEIS after being contacted by constituents who have been affected.

The Mid Ulster politician said: I have been contacted by a number of farmers in the area who are concerned that they could not access their long-awaited 600 energy support payment because they do not have an active personal bank account.

"The farming community had to wait longer than others to avail of this payment and this latest issue has left many worrying that they will not receive the payment at all.

Like everyone else in the North, the farming community has suffered as a result of spiralling energy costs, with farmers having to pay increased costs to run their homes and operate their businesses. This is a difficult time for many people struggling as a result of the cost of living emergency and its important that people are not blocked from getting the support they need.

I have made direct contact with the BEIS on behalf of those affected and have called for them to urgently change the scheme so that farmers who have a sole bank account for domestic and businesses purposes can receive the payment without being unfairly penalised. I have also spoken with energy suppliers and the Ulster Farmers Union who are aware of this issue and am hopeful of seeing a quick solution so that farmers receive the money they are entitled to.

An online portal opened this week to help 28,000 households gain access the one-off 600 energy support payment.

Most households have already accessed the payment through their electricity supplier.

But an estimated 28,000 households without a direct relationship to a domestic electricity supplier have so far also missed out.

These include park home residents, people living in care homes and households who get their energy through a commercial contract.

They will now be able to apply for the payment via an online portal, for a telephone helpline for those without access to the internment.

The money includes a 400 payment as part of a UK-wide support scheme and an additional 200 in recognition of Northern Irelands dependence on home heating oil.

The online portal can be found here.

A government spokesperson said: We know this is a difficult time for farmers - the Government has covered around half of the typical households energy bill this winter. The support put in place by the government is unprecedented with significant complexities, and there are separate schemes for households and businesses, designed to meet widely differing needs.

The EBSS Alternative Funding is a novel mechanism but it is only possible to apply using personal bank account details. Applicants are free to open a personal bank account in order to apply and receive the support theyre entitled to.
Windsor deal worth having, but isnt taking back control, says Boris Johnsons Brexit negotiator

Senior Tory Brexiteer David Frost has begrudgingly backed Rishi Sunaks post- Brexit deal with the EU to reform the Northern Ireland Protocol , but said it was a bitter pill to swallow.

It comes as splits emerged in the DUP over whether to accept the deal and return to powersharing at Stormont, with unionist hardliner Sammy Wilson criticising key parts of the compromise.

Lord Frost, Boris Johnsons former Brexit negotiator, said the changes agreed by the PM and EU Commission were all worth having  but claimed the government was overclaiming the merits of the agreement.

The deal leaves a slightly amended protocol and EU law in place in Northern Ireland and the EU has agreed to change its own laws so that they bite less tightly, the Tory peer wrote in The Telegraph.

That is worth having, but it isnt taking back control, he added. Indeed, it may entrench the protocol superstructure rather than weaken it  [The protocol] is slightly amended but remains in place, and EU law remains supreme in Northern Ireland.

Lord Frost said his criticism doesnt mean the deal shouldnt go ahead, but added: It leaves the government still only partly sovereign over all its territory. Just as in 2019, that is a bitter pill to swallow.

It comes as Sammy Wilson, a senior DUP MP, said the so-called Stormont Brake  part of the deal which gives Northern Ireland the power to reject changes to EU goods rules  is not really a brake at all.

Mr Wilson told Times Radio that it was the UK government that had final say over whether Stormont could veto any future law  predicting ministers would be reluctant to do so because of fears of retaliatory action from the EU.

I think it will have to be used on lots of occasions, though I suspect to be fairly ineffective, Mr Wilson said on the break, before adding: We will not have a knee jerk reaction to this deal. We have got to give it real consideration.

Will the Windsor Framework be enough for the DUP?

DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson reportedly pointed out disparities between the UK and EU interpretations of the deal as he met Tory MPs in European Research Group (ERG) last night.

But the unionist party is said to split between members in the Assembly keen to restore power-sharing and the MPs who are more hardline. DUP officials told Politico it could be weeks or even months before they reach a verdict on whether to return to Stormont.

The deal on offer is probably at the upper end of realistic expectations, a unionist source told The Times. But there are lots of unrealistic expectations within the party as well.

Mr Sunak is understood to have told the 1922 committee of Tory backbenchers last night that there was a spectrum of views within the DUP over whether to support the team  as he again urged that the unionist party is given time and space.

Mark Francois, the chairman of the ERG, said it could take as long as a fortnight for the Tory Brexiteer group to carry out its own legal audit of the deal.

The prime minister is not prepared to make any changes to his landmark deal as he stares down the DUP and critics and on his own backbenches.

No 10 said that the government believed it had secured the right deal for all parties, while Northern Ireland Office minister Steve Baker warned last night: This is the deal ... there is not a different deal available.

Read more Despite major EU concessions, protocol deal is not what Rishi Sunak has claimed

Mr Johnson has been urged to put up or shut up over the deal, after he was said to be considering joining any revolt of Eurosceptics. But several MPs told The Independent they expected a rebellion to be limited to 20 of the staunchest hardliners at the most.

One senior Tory MP told The Independent: Boris needs to stop playing games and realise this is all over. Its time to be magnanimous and embrace the fact its a really good Brexit deal.

Allies of Mr Johnson told The Times he would not oppose Mr Sunaks deal because it would look silly rebelling with only 10 to 15 people.

 The Independent
Colum Eastwood has pressed Rishi Sunak on investment for Northern Ireland following the agreement on the Windsor Framework.

The Prime Minister had previously said the arrangement would make Northern Ireland the most exciting economic zone in the world due to the provinces access to both the EU single market and the UK market.

At Prime Ministers Questions on Wednesday, the SDLP leader asked the Mr Sunak if his government commit to investing in infrastructure and higher education provision to maximise that benefit?

He also told Mr Sunak it was great to hear the conversion that the Prime Minister has had on the benefits of the single market in a dig at the Tory MPs stance on the EU.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood challenges Rishi Sunak on investment

Mr Sunak replied that he believed the Windsor Framework would mean that Northern Ireland could attract more investment from private parties and the government, but a step in that journey would be for Stormont politicians to get back to work.

I think it [the Windsor Framework] delivers on what he [Mr Eastwood] wanted, which is to ensure that we do protect Northern Irelands businesses and the supply chains that they have and I can give him that commitment.

He and I both want to see more investment in Northern Ireland, not just from the government but from the private sector. This agreement will unlock that investment. But critically a step on that journey is to have a re-formed Executive, something I know everyone in this house would like to see, Mr Sunak added.

The DUP, which had refused to re-form an Executive at last Mays Assembly elections in a protest against the Protocol, says it needs time to look over the new deal.

Meanwhile, the Framework has prompted indignation from some Scottish MPs. Scotland voted remain in the 2015 referendum.

Sunak claimed Scotland has a "very special status" due to its place in the United Kingdom after he was challenged over his Brexit deal for Northern Ireland.

SNP MP Joanna Cherry (Edinburgh South West) said: "The Prime Minister has boasted that his new Brexit deal puts Northern Ireland in an unbelievably special position because it will have access to both the UK and the EU markets, and he said this makes it the world's most exciting economic zone.

"So my question for the Prime Minister is this: If there can be a very, very special status for the province of Northern Ireland, why can't there be a very, very special status for the nation of Scotland?"

The Prime Minister replied in the Commons: "There is a very special status for the nation of Scotland and that's inside our United Kingdom."
Families across England are finding out which secondary school their child will be joining this September (PA)   Liam McBurney

There are signs that fewer children are gaining places at their first choice of secondary school in a number of areas in England, a survey suggests.

Hundreds of thousands of families across England are finding out which secondary school their child will be joining this September, on what is commonly known as National Offer Day.

Early indications from a PA news agency survey of local authorities suggest that a youngsters chances of winning a place at their preferred school varies significantly depending on where they live.

The survey, sent to councils across England, excluding London, suggests that a number of local authorities have seen a fall in the proportion of children receiving their first choice compared with last year.

Early figures, from 33 councils which provided comparable data, show that 18 have seen a decline in the proportion of pupils getting their first preference, 14 have seen a rise and one has seen no change.

Among the areas where high proportions of pupils have obtained their first preference are Wiltshire, where 95.05% got their top choice, and Wakefield where 93.6% also were offered their first pick.

In comparison, in Liverpool, only 67.2% of children got their first preference, while in Birmingham 71.68% got their top choice.

Englands school system has been put under pressure in recent years as a population bulge has been moving into secondary schools.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders union NAHT, said: This can be an anxious time for families. Choosing the right school and securing a place there is a huge moment in a childs life and not everyone will get their first choice today.

There is extra pressure on secondary admissions this year as the pupil population bulge that has been moving through primary schools is currently hitting secondary schools. Many schools are particularly oversubscribed, especially in certain areas of the country.

He added: Until the Government creates a national strategy to guarantee there are enough school places for every child in England, the annual anxious wait for families will continue.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: The number of pupils in secondary schools has been rising in recent years and is expected to continue to do so through to 2025.

It is therefore very likely that there will be more pressure on secondary school places this year and next. This pressure will be most keenly felt by schools that are already oversubscribed.

Official data shows that, last year, 83.3% of pupils were offered their first choice of secondary school  which was up slightly on 81.1% in 2021.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: The vast majority of families will be offered a place at one of their preferred schools and most will be offered their top place.

We have already created over one million school places in the last decade  the largest increase in school capacity for at least two generations.

We have also announced nearly 530 million to provide both primary and secondary places needed for 2023, and 940 million for places needed for 2024 and 2025.
The number of parking tickets issued by private companies in Britain soared by 24% in the second half of 2022 (Jonathan Brady/PA)   Jonathan Brady

The number of parking tickets issued by private companies in Britain soared by 24% in the second half of 2022.

A record 5.7 million tickets were handed out between July and December, analysis of Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) data by the PA news agency found.

That is an average of around 31,000 every day and is up from a total of 4.6 million during the same period in 2021.

Each ticket can be up to 100, meaning the total annual cost to drivers could exceed 1.1 billion at the current rate.

(PA Graphics)   PA Graphics

Private parking businesses have been accused of using misleading and confusing signage, aggressive debt collection and unreasonable fees.

In July 2022, the Government withdrew a long-awaited code of practice aimed at eradicating some of the sectors worst actions following a legal challenge by parking companies.

The DVLA figures show the number of records obtained from the agency by companies chasing car owners for alleged infringements in private car parks such as at shopping centres, leisure facilities and motorway service areas.

They do not include car parks run by councils.

RAC Foundation director Steve Gooding said: If only the rest of the economy was booming like the private parking sector, perhaps wed all be feeling more prosperous.

Private parking looks set to be a billion pound-a-year business, if it isnt already, with demands for up to 100 a time being sent out to drivers at the rate of more than one every three seconds.

Theres widespread agreement that the Government should be setting up a regulatory framework for the industry, but it is nearly four years since the relevant law was passed.

These numbers surely suggest that whats needed is action now.

The code of practice, which was due to come into force across Britain by the end of 2023, stated that the cap on tickets for some parking offences should be halved to 50.

The withdrawal pending a review of charges could lead to a further delay in its implementation.

A Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities spokeswoman said: We are determined to create a new private parking code of practice which will bring in a fairer system with motorists interests at its heart.

Were working with industry and consumer groups to introduce the code as quickly as possible.

Some 184 parking management businesses requested vehicle owner records between July and December.

ParkingEye was the most active, buying 1.1 million records.

The DVLA charges private companies 2.50 per record.

The agency says its fees are set to recover the cost of providing the information, and it does not make any money from the process.

 Here are the number of vehicle keeper records obtained from the DVLA by parking management companies in the second half of every year since 2017:

2017: 3.4 million

2018: 3.5 million

2019: 4.3 million

2020: 3.0 million (affected by the coronavirus pandemic)

2021: 4.6 million

2022: 5.7 million
The Princess of Wales delighted a seven-year-old girl who presented flowers to her when she visited the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards for their St Davids Day parade.

Little royal fan Elsi-Haf Cunningham presented Kate with the flowers during the parade at Combermere Barracks in Windsor on Wednesday.

Her mother, Krystal Cunningham, 59, said her daughter will remember the experience for the rest of her life.

She told the PA news agency: It was a very proud moment. She absolutely loves the royal family but has only ever seen Kate on TV.

It was a big moment for her, she was a bit nervous but she was very proud to do it.

The flowers were a bit heavy, thats why I carried them over initially.

Kate attended the procession with her husband the Prince of Wales for the first time since he took over from the King as the regiments Colonel.

On arrival, the royal couple were greeted by marching bands before William gave a speech to rank and file soldiers where he said the Welsh Guards banter had helped him get through his own time in the regiment.

He told them: I am both honoured and delighted to be standing here in front of you today as your new Colonel.

Kate is presented with flowers by a young girl in traditional Welsh costume (Alastair Grant/PA)   Alastair Grant

At the same time, Im sorry that my father couldnt be here with us today to say farewell, but I know he would talk of his fierce pride and admiration for you all, and of his own sadness to be moving on from an appointment he held so dear since 1975.

While they may not have been my easiest or driest days in the Army, my memories with the Welsh Guards Sniper Platoon Salisbury Plain are some of my best.

Another key milestone in my life was also shared with the Welsh Guards, this time in the jungles of Belize as I received my A-level results over the Bowman Radio.

Many of you will know the feeling of being in the jungle; youre incredibly hot, continuously soaking wet and with nowhere to hide from potentially horrendous results, it could have been a really bad day!

Ultimately though, it was the camaraderie, the togetherness, and of course the banter of the Welsh Guards that got me through that period, and its a time I look back on fondly.

The Prince of Wales watches the march past during the St Davids Day parade (Andrew Matthews/PA)   Andrew Matthews

He finished the speech with the regiments motto, Cymru am byth, Welsh for Wales forever.

The couple then took part in the annual tradition of presenting handmade leeks to officers and soldiers to wear on their chests.

Officers and soldiers then distributed them among the ranks.

The parade finished with brass bands playing Welsh anthem Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau, followed by God Save The King, before William took the royal salute.

The royal couple later sat for an official photo with the Prince of Waless company before they met families from the regiment as well as members of the 5th Royal Australian regiment who are in the UK helping to trai the Ukrainian army.

Nine-year-old Thomas Lucas performed a back flip for Kate as she met families.

Thomas Lucas performed a back flip for Kate (Andrew Matthews/PA)   Andrew Matthews

He said: It was actually quite nerve-wracking because I didnt really land it but she was impressed.

His father, Sergeant Gareth Lucas, said it was typical behaviour for his son who is non-stop.

Megan Davis, who travels from Swansea every year to attend the parade, said she was impressed Kate sang the Welsh national anthem in Welsh during the parade.

She said: I was looking to the right and then she was shaking my hand. She was very sweet.

I could see her singing the anthem like they have done at the Six Nations rugby.

Major Gregory Sergeant, from the 5th Royal Australian regiment, said: William presented me with a leek and just asked me how the trip is going for me.

It was humbling, I have never met a royal before.

Our units birthday is on St Davids Day so naturally we reached out to the Welsh Guards and they invited us to the parade today. It was a true honour.
The UKs continued participation in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) will depend on the actions of Strasbourg judges, Dominic Raab suggested.

The Justice Secretary insisted the Governments current position was to remain within the convention, but he said he was not able to guarantee that forever and a day.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman has stated that her personal view is to withdraw from the convention, which has been blamed for frustrating efforts to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.

On Monday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told MPs: The UK is and will remain a member of the ECHR.

But at a Lords committee on Wednesday, Deputy Prime Minister Mr Raab said that while the Governments position was to stay a state party to the convention, he did not rule out a change.

If youre asking me whether we are committed, forever and a day, to staying in the ECHR, the answer is thats not a commitment that were able to make. And that depends a little bit on the court.

The ECHR is a Council of Europe convention and pulling out of it would put the UK at odds with the vast majority of countries in the continent.

Mr Raab said he was frustrated that there is any suggestion of moral equivalence with countries such as Russia by being in a dispute over the ECHR.

But Mr Raab told the Lords Constitution Committee: We feel more not less committed to the Council of Europe as a result of Brexit. I think weve shown our European credentials in relation to Ukraine, what we do in Nato.

Its not a question of rejecting Europe. In fact, I actually see the Council of Europe as an opportunity, not just in terms of the court, but some of the other work they do  for example, raising fair trial standards  a good opportunity to show we can be an even stronger European neighbour.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman (Danny Lawson/PA)   Danny Lawson

Ms Braverman has previously stated that her personal position is ultimately we do need to leave the European Convention on Human Rights, even though that is not government policy.

In response, Mr Raab told peers: A fundamental principle of the ECHR and a quintessentially British right is to express yourself freely.

Downing Street has insisted there are no plans to withdraw from the ECHR, following speculation the Prime Minister could do so if his small boats crackdown faces legal opposition.

The Government is expected to set out further plans for new laws to tackle the problem of migrants crossing the English Channel.
Holyroods circular economy minister Lorna Slater accused the Scottish Secretary of trying to sabotage the Scottish Governments deposit return scheme (Jane Barlow/PA)   PA

Scottish Secretary Alister Jack is trying to sabotage Scotlands deposit return scheme, the minister charged with introducing the initiative has insisted.

Lorna Slater hit out as a row erupted over whether the Scottish Government had sought an exemption from Westminster from the Internal Market Act for the scheme  which is due to come in from August.

Mr Jack insisted no request for this had been received, saying: Should such a request be received, it will be considered by the relevant Whitehall departments.

Hinting that an exemption may not be granted, Mr Jack stressed that bar for these is very high.

But SNP and Green MSPs insisted the Scottish Secretary had misled the Commons on the issue, and should be sacked by the Prime Minister.

Meanwhile, in a statement to MSPs at Holyrood, the circular economy minister Lorna Slater insisted the Scottish Secretarys comments were nonsense and not true.

She said the Scottish Government had been seeking an exemption for the scheme since July 2021  adding that the issue was raised at a meeting with officials in November 2022 and with ministers in January this year.

The continued failure of ministers in London to make a decision meant Deputy First Minister John Swinney wrote to the UK Government in January, Ms Slater added, saying in response the Treasury had been explicit in saying the UK Government is working on this very question.

Scottish Secretary Alister Jack insisted no formal request has been made for the deposit return scheme to be exempted from the UK Internal Market Act (Victoria Jones/PA)

Hitting out at the UK Government, Ms Slater said: I have to be straight with the chamber, for the Secretary of State for Scotland to now claim that no such request has been made is not true.

She accused the Scottish Secretary of shifting and changing his position on the matter, saying: First we hadnt asked. Then we hadnt formally asked. Then it wasnt a ministerial request. All nonsense.

Declaring that the deposit return will go ahead in August as planned, the Green politician said: We have this Scottish Parliament using its devolved powers to tackle the scourge of litter on our streets.

On the other, we have Alister Jack attempting to sabotage the scheme as part of his effort to undermine devolution and Scottish democracy.

The deposit return scheme will see shoppers pay a 20p deposit when buying a drink in a can or bottle  with this money returned when the empty containers are brought back for recycling (Andrew Matthews/PA)   PA

Other politicians called for Mr Jack to either quit or be sacked, with the SNPs Fiona Hyslop saying the Scottish Secretary had deliberately misled the Westminster Parliament.

She added: As such, the Prime Minister has no option but to sack him.

Scottish Greens environment spokesperson Mark Ruskell said: Alister Jack has clearly and shamefully misled the UK Parliament into thinking the Scottish Government had not sought an exemption from the Internal Market Act by telling falsehoods when nothing could be further from the truth.

There is a trail of evidence, which as Scottish Secretary he must have been fully aware of, proving this to be quite the opposite.

The row over the whether the Scottish Government has sought an exemption erupted as Ms Salter told Holyrood that 664 drink producers representing over 90% of the total volume of drinks containers sold in Scotland each year had registered to take part in the scheme by the end of February deadline.

But opposition MSPs, who have called for the introduction of the scheme, which will see consumers asked to pay a 20p deposit for every drink they buy in a glass or plastic bottle or in a can, to be delayed.

Tory MSP Maurice Golden said the deposit return scheme had been falling apart for months, as he accused Ms Slater of trying to pick a fight with the UK Government over the issue of an Internal Market Act exemption.

This is a desperate attempt to shift blame for a home made shambles, he added.

He said small producers had been appalled by the Scottish Governments plans, adding that the minister was desperately spinning the sign up numbers.

Mr Golden said that barely 16% of total producers operating in Scotland had registered for the scheme.

Ms Slater did not comment on that, but said that drinks companies from global brands to small craft breweries and distilleries had registered.

She urged those firms who have not yet registered to do so, saying this could still be done despite the deadline having passed, adding this would allow them to continue to supply their very excellent products into the Scottish market.
A major search for the missing two-month-old child of Constance Marten and Mark Gordon has ended in tragedy as police announced they had found the remains of a baby.

Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford from the Metropolitan Police, who led the investigation, told reporters that remains had been found in a wooded area.

The couple were arrested on Monday in Brighton after avoiding police for more than seven weeks but were without their child.

Search teams have been scouring a 90-mile square area of the Sussex countryside (Jordan Pettitt/PA)   Jordan Pettitt

They refused to tell police where the baby was, sparking a massive hunt across a wide area of the Sussex countryside.

More than 200 officers and specialist search teams scoured the area around Stanmer Villas, where the couple were finally caught after a tip-off from a member of the public.

They were arrested on suspicion of child neglect, and later on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter.

The couple remain in custody after police were granted a 36-hour custody extension by Brighton magistrates.

Constance Marten (Greater Manchester police/PA)   GMP

Speaking to reporters at Sussex Police headquarters on Wednesday evening, Mr Basford said: It is my very sad duty to update this afternoon, police officers searching a wooded area close to where Constance and Mark Gordon were arrested discovered the remains of a baby.

A post-mortem examination will be held in due course.

A crime scene is in place and work at the location is expected to continue for some time.

This is an outcome that myself and that many officers who have been part of this search had hoped would not happen.

I recognise the impact this news will have on many people who have been following this story closely and can assure them that we will do everything we possibly can to establish what has happened.

Mark Gordon (Greater Manchester Police/PA)   GMP

Marten, 35, who comes from an aristocratic family with royal connections, first went missing with boyfriend Gordon, 48, when their car was found abandoned and on fire at the edge of the M61 on January 5.

From there they travelled around the country by taxi, avoiding police by paying for everything in cash, covering their faces while on CCTV and moving locations frequently, often after dark.

They were finally arrested in Brighton on Monday, minutes after a member of the public tipped off police, but their baby was not with them.

The Sun reported that they used a Brighton food bank last Wednesday, but did not ask for baby supplies  which were available  and did not have the infant with them.

They also did not buy any baby supplies from a convenience store shortly before they were arrested.

A major search operation was sparked when Marten and Gordon were arrested without their baby (Jordan Pettitt/PA)   Jordan Pettitt

CCTV footage from just before they were caught appears to show Gordon, who served 20 years in a US jail for rape and battery, limping and using a large stick to walk.

Throughout the time the couple were missing, police appealed to them to get their baby medical attention, and raised concerns that the family had been sleeping rough in freezing temperatures.

Martens parents made public pleas through the media, and police offered a 10,000 reward for information leading to the couple being found.

Once they were arrested a massive search operation was launched, with officers from the Met and Sussex Police and London Search and Rescue Service combing the area where they had last been seen.

They used helicopters, sniffer dogs, thermal imaging cameras and drones as well as hundreds of investigators on the ground.
Time is of the essence to resurrect the Stormont Assembly and seize economic opportunities, the Sinn Fein president has said.

Mary Lou McDonald was speaking as the DUP continues to consider a deal struck between the UK and EU to address unionist concerns around Brexits Northern Ireland Protocol.

The DUP has it will consider the Windsor Framework, with no timescale yet given on when it may decide to go back into the Assembly.

Sir Jeffrey Donaldsons party has been refusing to take part in devolved government for the last year in protest against the protocol.

Ms McDonald said her party is currently actively preparing for the return of the Assembly, describing her MLAs as anxious to get back to work.

She emphasised that time is of the essence.

She added: We know that we face very, very big challenges, economically, socially, in terms of public service provision.

We also know theres big opportunities as well for the North of Ireland and the opportunities are coming at us now.

Were satisfied that the agreement struck does essential things. It ensures there will be no hardening of the border on our island.

The team is here and every single one of us is aware we have a big job to do. Were very, very anxious to get back to work, none more so than Michelle ONeill, and we await and look forward to the time when she will lead the executive as a first minister.

However, DUP MLA Gordon Lyons responded by accusing Sinn Fein of welcoming economic opportunities from a protocol deal brought at the insistence of Sir Jeffreys party.

Gordon Lyons (Liam McBurney/PA)   Liam McBurney

He also said Sinn Fein vice president Michelle ONeill should apologise for having previously called for the EU to rigorously implement the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The only reason Sinn Fein or any other party in Northern Ireland is offering views on the Windsor Framework is because of the determination and action of the Democratic Unionist Party, he said.

It is notable that all of those who have been quick to welcome the framework without significant scrutiny are the same parties who told us that the protocol could never be reopened and that the European Union would never agree to fresh negotiations.

He added: We will take time to fully scrutinise both the political and legal texts to assess whether this framework meets our seven tests and whether it restores Northern Irelands place within the United Kingdom.

The intention behind the efforts to bring forward this framework however has been to resolve problems which many people denied even existed.

Sitting alongside Ms McDonald at a press conference at Stormont, Ms ONeill described the economic potential of this moment as enormous and an opportunity not to be missed.

She added: Now we find ourselves on the other end of this negotiation, there is enormous potential for us now, a potential that must be grasped.

Michelle ONeill said the timing presents opportunities not to be missed (PA)   Liam McBurney

I rarely find myself agreeing with the British Prime Minister, but I do think that the opportunity we now have of access to both markets has to be grabbed on to with both hands, and there is no time to waste because were about to attend in Washington DC a number of events that will be to celebrate St Patricks Day, but as you all know, thats about encouraging investment here, thats about the economic potential of here.

We have in quick succession a deal being done on the protocol, we go to the States next week to celebrate St Patricks Day, very quickly in the aftermath of that comes the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

The economic potential for us here is enormous and this is a moment not to be missed.

Ms ONeill said that over the last 24 hours she has been speaking with people, including the business community, and says they have given the deal a cautious welcome so far, and want to examine the detail.

But that should not delay the formation of an executive, thats where we all should be today, thats where were focused on and thats the message we believe the public at home want to hear, she said.

They want to hear when the executive is going to be formed, they want to hear how were going to tackle together, all of the parties, the huge financial situation that we have ahead of us.

All the executive parties need to be working together in this time to secure maximum advantage for the people we represent collectively here, and there should be no more delays in all of that.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, left, shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a welcome ceremony held at the Great Hall of the People, in Beijing, on Wednesday, March 1, 2023 (CCTV via AP/PA)   Uncredited

The presidents of China and Belarus joined in urging a ceasefire and negotiations to bring about a political settlement to the Ukraine conflict.

The joint call came in a meeting in Beijing between Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Russia, and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.

That amounted to an endorsement of a Chinese 12-point peace proposal issued on Friday that calls for the territorial integrity of all countries to be respected.

The proposal does not say what would happen to the regions Russia has occupied since the invasion or give details on how the peace process should proceed, and has failed to gain much support.

The core of Chinas stance is to call for peace and encourage talks  and for the legitimate security concerns of all countries to be respected, Mr Xi was quoted as saying by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.

In a clear reference to the US and its allies, he added: Relevant countries should stop politicising and using the world economy as their tool, and take measures that truly advance a ceasefire and stop the war and resolve the crisis peacefully.

Belarus fully agrees with and supports Chinas position and proposals on a political solution to the Ukraine crisis, which is of great significance to resolving the crisis, CCTV quoted Mr Lukashenko as saying.

China has long had a close relationship with Mr Lukashenko, and following their talks, the two leaders oversaw the signing of a raft of cooperation agreements in areas ranging from agriculture to customs enforcement and sports.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, right, and Chinese President Xi Jinping review the honour guard during a welcome ceremony held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing (CCTV via AP/PA)   Uncredited

However, the Belarussian leaders trip also illustrates the depth of Beijings ties to Russian leader Vladimir Putin and his allies.

China says it is a neutral party in the conflict and has maintained contacts with the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has cautiously welcomed Beijings involvement, but said success would depend on actions not words.

Despite that, China says it has a no-limits friendship with Russia and has refused to criticise Moscows invasion, or even to refer to it as such.

It has accused the US and Nato of provoking the conflict and of fanning the flames by providing Ukraine with defensive arms, while also condemning sanctions levelled against Russia and entities seen as aiding its military effort  including Chinese companies.

China has maintained what it calls normal trade relations with Russia, and US officials have warned recently that it is considering sending military assistance to Moscow.

Beijing has called the US allegations a smear campaign and said it is committed to promoting peace talks.

Mr Lukashenkos government has strongly backed Moscow and allowed Belaruss territory to be used as a staging ground for the initial invasion of Ukraine a year ago. Russia has maintained a contingent of troops and weapons in Belarus and the two neighbours and allies conducted joint military drills.

This stance left Mr Lukashenko even more isolated in Europe, where his country faces sanctions from the European Union over both its role in the war and his repression of domestic opposition.

Mr Lukashenko has been Belaruss only president since the position was created in 1994. He brutally suppressed 2020 protests over his disputed re-election in a vote that the opposition and Western countries regarded as fraudulent.
Firefighters collect a body from the scene of the clash in Tempe, north of Athens (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)   Giannis Papanikos

Rescuers searched for survivors on Wednesday in the mangled, burned-out wreckage of two trains that slammed into each other in northern Greece, killing at least 43 people and crumpling carriages into twisted steel knots in the countrys deadliest rail crash.

The impact just before midnight on Tuesday threw some passengers into ceilings and out of the windows.

My head hit the roof of the carriage with the jolt, Stefanos Gogakos, who was in a rear car, told state broadcaster ERT. He said windows shattered, showering passengers with glass.

Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called the collision of the passenger train and a freight train a horrific rail accident without precedent in our country, and pledged a full, independent investigation.

Rescuers stand near debris of the trains after the collision (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)   Giannis Papanikos

He said it appears the crash was mainly due to a tragic human error.

The train from Athens to Thessaloniki was carrying 350 passengers, many of them students returning from raucous celebrations for the pre-Lent festival of Carnival.

While the track is double, both trains were travelling in opposite directions on the same line near the Vale of Tempe, a river valley about 235 miles north of Athens.

Authorities arrested the stationmaster at the trains last stop, in the city of Larissa.

Debris from the trains lies on the rail lines after the collision (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)   Giannis Papanikos

They did not release the mans name or the reason for the arrest, but the stationmaster is responsible for rail traffic on that stretch of the tracks.

Transportation minister Kostas Karamanlis resigned, saying he was stepping down as a basic indication of respect for the memory of the people who died so unfairly.

Mr Karamanlis said he had made every effort to improve a railway system that had been in a state that doesnt befit the 21st century.

But, he added, When something this tragic happens its impossible to continue as if nothing has happened.

Greeces prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, second left, accompanied by transport minister Kostas Karamanlis, left, visits the scene of the crash (Dimitris Papamitsos/Greek Prime Ministers Office via AP)   Dimtiris Papamitsos

On Wednesday, rescuers turned to cranes and other heavy machinery to start moving large pieces of the trains, revealing more bodies and dismembered remains.

Larissas chief coroner, Roubini Leondari, said that so far 43 bodies had been brought to her for examination, and would require DNA identification as they were largely disfigured.

Most (of the bodies) are young people, she told ERT. They are in very bad condition.

Vassilis Polyzos, a local resident who said he was one of the first people on the scene, said both trains were completely destroyed.

Firefighters and rescuers look for bodies in the wreckage (AP Photo/Vaggelis Kousioras)   Vaggelis Kousioras

There were many big pieces of steel, he said.

Rescuer Lazaros Sarianidis told ERT that crews were very carefully trying to disentangle steel, sheet metal and other material that was twisted together by the crash. It will take a long time, he said.

Greeces firefighting service said 57 people remained in hospital late on Wednesday, including six in intensive care.

More than 15 others were discharged after receiving initial treatment.

More than 200 people who were unharmed or suffered minor injuries were taken by bus to Thessaloniki, 80 miles to the north.

Police took their names as they arrived, in an effort to track anyone who may be missing.

Eight rail employees were among those killed in the crash, including the two drivers of the freight train and the two drivers of the passenger train, according to Greek railroad workers union president Yannis Nitsas.

Emergency workers found several bodies dozens of feet away from the carriages, ERT reported.

A teenage survivor, who did not give his name to reporters, said that just before the crash he felt sudden braking and saw sparks  and then there was a sudden stop.

Our carriage didnt derail, but the ones in front did and were smashed, he said, visibly shaken. He used a bag to break the window of his car, the fourth, and escape.

Mr Gogakos said the crash felt like an explosion, and some smoke entered the carriage. He said some passengers escaped through windows but that after a few minutes, crew members were able to open the doors and let people out.

Multiple cars derailed and at least one burst into flames.

Temperatures reached 1,300 degrees Celsius, which makes it even more difficult to identify the people who were in it, fire service spokesperson Vassilis Varthakoyiannis said.

A man who was trying to ascertain the fate of his daughter, who was on the train, said he had a harrowing phone conversation with her before she was cut off.

She told me, were on fire  my hair is burning,' he told ERT, without giving his name.

Many of the passengers were students returning to Thessaloniki from the Carnival celebrations, but officials said no detailed passenger list was available.

This year was the first time the festival was celebrated in full since the start of the pandemic in 2020.

The government declared three days of national mourning from Wednesday, while flags flew at half-mast outside all European Commission buildings in Brussels.

Visiting the accident scene, Mr Mitsotakis said the government must help the injured recover and identify the dead.

I can guarantee one thing: We will find out the causes of this tragedy and we will do all thats in our power so that something like this never happens again, he said.

Tuesdays was Greeces worst rail crash since 1968, when 34 people were killed in a crash in the southern Peloponnese region.

Greek president Katerina Sakellaropoulou broke off an official visit to Moldova to visit the scene, laying flowers beside the wreckage.

Pope Francis offered his condolences to the families of the dead, in a message sent to the president of the Greek bishops conference on his behalf by the Vaticans secretary of state.

The pontiff sends the assurance of his prayers to everyone affected by this tragedy, the message said.

Condolences poured in from all over the world, including neighbouring Turkey, Greeces historic regional rival.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed his sorrow and his wishes for a speedy recovery for those injured, a statement from his office said.

Despite the frosty relations between the two Nato nations, Greeces leadership had called Mr Erdogan last month following a massive earthquake that killed tens of thousands in Turkey last month.

In Athens, several hundred members of left-wing groups marched late Wednesday to protest over the train deaths.

Minor clashes broke out as some protesters threw stones at the offices of Greeces rail operator and riot police, and set rubbish bins on fire. No arrests or injuries were reported.
Firefighters and rescuers operate after a collision in Tempe near Larissa city, Greece (Vaggelis Kousioras/AP/PA)   Vaggelis Kousioras

Greek police say the stationmaster in the city of Larissa has been arrested following the train crash that left at least 38 people dead.

A police statement identified the suspect only as a 59-year-old man. Another two people have been detained for questioning.

Fire Service officials said 36 people were killed and at least 85 were hurt after multiple train carriages derailed and at least three caught on fire after the crash just before midnight near Tempe, some 235 miles north of Athens.

Visiting the accident scene, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that the government must help the injured recover and identify the dead.

I can guarantee one thing: We will find out the causes of this tragedy and we will do all thats in our power so that something like this never happens again, Mr Mitsotakis said.

On Wednesday, the government declared three days of national mourning, while flags flew at half-staff outside all European Commission buildings in Brussels.

Greeces Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, second right, accompanied by transport minister Kostas Karamanlis, left, looks the debris after the collision in Tempe (Dimitris Papamitsos/Greek Prime Ministers Office via AP/PA)   Dimtiris Papamitsos

Rescue crews illuminated the scene with floodlights before dawn on Wednesday as they searched frantically through the twisted, smoking wreckage for survivors.

Survivors said several passengers were thrown through the windows of the train carriages due to the impact.

They said others fought to free themselves after the passenger train buckled, slamming into a field next to the tracks near a gorge about 235 miles north of Athens where major highway and rail tunnels are located.

There were many big pieces of steel, said Vassilis Polyzos, a local resident who was one of the first people on the scene. The trains were completely destroyed, both passenger and freight trains.

A crane operator, firefighters and rescuers work the scene of a collision in Tempe, about 235 miles north of Athens, near Larissa city, Greece (Vaggelis Kousioras/AP)   Vaggelis Kousioras

He said dazed and disoriented people were escaping out of the trains rear cars as he arrived.

People, naturally, were scared  very scared, he said. They were looking around, searching; they didnt know where they were.

The trains crashed just before the Vale of Tempe, a gorge that separates the regions of Thessaly and Macedonia. Costas Agorastos, the regional governor of the Thessaly area, told Greeces Skai television the two trains crashed head on at high speed.

Firefighters operate after a collision in Tempe near Larissa city (George Kidonas/InTime News/AP)   George Kidonas

Carriage one and two no longer exist, and the third has derailed, he said.

Rescuers wearing head lamps worked in thick smoke, pulling pieces of mangled metal from the carriages to search for trapped people.

Others scoured the field with flashlights and checked underneath the wreckage. Several of the dead are believed to have been found in the restaurant area near the front of the passenger train which was carrying hundreds of people.

Smoke rises from trains as firefighters and rescuers operate after a collision near Larissa city, Greece, early on Wednesday (Vaggelis Kousioras/AP)   Vaggelis Kousioras

The evacuation process is ongoing and is being carried out under very difficult conditions due to the severity of the collision between the two trains, Fire Service spokesman Vassilis Varthakoyiannis said.

Hospital units used to treat burn victims had been alerted in the area, he said, adding that dozens of ambulances were involved in the rescue effort.

It was a very powerful collision. This is a terrible night its hard to describe the scene, Mr Agorastos earlier told state-run television.

Officials said many of the passengers on board the Athens to Thessaloniki train had been students returning home after celebrating Carnival over the long weekend.

This is a terrible tragedy that is hard to comprehend, said Deputy Health Minister Mina Gaga. I feel so sorry for the parents of these kids.

A passenger walks on a road after the train collision in Larissa city, Greece (Vaggelis Kousioras/AP)   Vaggelis Kousioras

The front section of the train was smashed were getting cranes to come in and special lifting equipment to clear the debris and lift the rail cars. Theres debris flung all around the crash site.

Government officials said the army has been contacted to assist in the rescue.

The possible cause of the collision was not immediately clear. Two rail officials were being questioned by police but had not been detained.

Passengers who received minor injuries or were unharmed were transported by bus to Thessaloniki, 80 miles to the north. Police took their names as they arrived, in an effort to track anyone who may be missing.

A train carrying hundreds of passengers collided with an oncoming freight train in northern Greece, killing and injuring dozens passengers (George Kidonas/InTime News/AP)   George Kidonas

A teenage survivor who did not give his name told reporters that just before the crash he felt a strong braking and saw sparks and then there was a sudden stop.

Our carriage didnt derail, but the ones in front did and were smashed, he said, visibly shaken.

He added that the first car caught fire and that he used a bag to break the window of his car, the fourth, and escape.

Rail operator Hellenic Train said the northbound passenger train from Athens to Thessaloniki, Greeces second-largest city, had about 350 passengers on board.

Officials said the army had been contacted to assist.

Hellenic Train, which has added high-speed services in recent years, is operated by Italys FS Group, which runs rail services in several European countries.
Election officials declared ruling party candidate Bola Tinubu the winner of Nigerias presidential election early on Wednesday, with the two leading opposition candidates already demanding a revote in Africas most populous nation (Ben Curtis/AP)   Ben Curtis

Election officials declared ruling party candidate Bola Tinubu the winner of Nigerias presidential election early on Wednesday, with the two leading opposition candidates already demanding a revote in Africas most populous nation.

The overnight announcement was likely to lead to a court challenge by his main opponents Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi. Mr Abubakar also finished second in the last vote in 2019, then appealed against those results before his lawsuit ultimately was dismissed.

On Tuesday, the two leading opposition parties had demanded a revote, saying that delays in uploading election results had made room for irregularities. The ruling All Progressives Congress party urged the opposition to accept defeat and not cause trouble.

Supporters of presidential candidate Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress celebrate the victory of their candidate in the presidential elections at the Partys campaign headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria (Ben Curtis/AP)   Ben Curtis

Mr Tinubu received 8,794,726 votes, while Mr Abubakar came in second with 6,984,520. Mr Obi, the third place finisher, got 6,101,533 votes, according to the results announced live on television by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

The announcement came after 4am, but celebrations had already started late on Tuesday at the ruling partys national secretariat where Mr Tinubus supporters had gathered in anticipation of his victory.

None of the others matches his record, said Babafemi Akin as he chatted excitedly about the prospects of a Tinubu administration. I am sure he will do well.

Election officials declared ruling party candidate Tinubu the winner of Nigerias presidential election with the two leading opposition candidates already demanding a revote in Africas most populous nation (Ben Curtis/AP)   Ben Curtis

The parties now have three weeks to appeal against results, but an election can be invalidated only if it is proven the national electoral body largely did not follow the law and acted in ways that could have changed the result.

The Supreme Court of Nigeria has never overturned a presidential election, though court challenges are common, including by outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari, who doggedly fought his past election losses for months in vain.

Observers have said Saturdays election was mostly peaceful, though delays caused some voters to wait until the following day to cast their ballots.

Many Nigerians had difficulties getting to their polling stations because of a currency redesign that resulted in a shortage of bank notes.

The president-elect thanked his supporters in the capital, Abuja, after his victory was announced and struck a reconciliatory tone in a message directed at his political adversaries.

I take this opportunity to appeal to my fellow contestants to let us team up together, Mr Tinubu said. It is the only nation we have. It is one country and we must build together.

Mr Tinubu, 70, is the former governor of Lagos state, home to Nigerias megacity of the same name. However, he lost the state in Saturdays election to Obi, who drew a strong following among younger voters eager for change.

The tightly contested election has redrawn Nigerias electoral geography and produced results that are significantly different from those of past polls, with this being the first time that a president takes office with less than 50% of the vote and where four candidates won over a million votes, say analysts.

Mr Tinubu will have to strive to win the support of the larger majority who preferred one of the other candidates, particularly the youth, the Christian groups that were opposed to his Muslim-Muslim ticket and Igbos in the south east who again feel denied the presidency, said Nnamdi Obasi, senior adviser on Nigeria for the International Crisis Group.

From the onset, Mr Tinubu will have to contend with challenges to his legitimacy, so he will need to ensure an inclusive government and focus firmly on rebuilding national cohesion, he added.

Mr Tinubu clinched victory in part because the opposition vote was split and because his party had the strongest push to get people out to vote, said Amaka Anku, Africa director at the Eurasia Group consultancy.

Nigerias current president, Muhammadu Buhari, congratulated his successor in a statement on Wednesday, but said the election was not perfect.

Of course, there will be areas that need work to bring further transparency and credibility to the voting procedure. However, none of the issues registered represents a challenge to the freeness and fairness of the elections, he said.

The West African regional bloc, known as ECOWAS, called on political parties to appeal to their supporters to exercise maximum restraint and refrain from using provocative language, which would only exacerbate political tensions, divisiveness, and violence at this critical stage, said the group in a statement.
The town of Bakhmut, the site of the heaviest battles with the Russian troops, Donetsk region, Ukraine (Yevhen Titov/AP/PA)   Yevhen Titov

Ukraines military could pull back from the key eastern stronghold of Bakhmut, an adviser to the Ukrainian president said on Wednesday, amid a relentless Russian offensive.

Our military is obviously going to weigh all of the options. So far, theyve held the city, but if need be, they will strategically pull back, Alexander Rodnyansky, an economic adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, told CNN.

Were not going to sacrifice all of our people just for nothing.

The town of Bakhmut, the site of the heaviest battles with the Russian troops (Yevhen Titov/AP/PA)   Yevhen Titov

The battle for Bakhmut, in Ukraines eastern Donetsk region, has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance as defenders hold out against relentless shelling and waves of Russian troops taking heavy casualties in a months-long campaign to capture it.

Mr Rodnyansky noted that Russia was using the best troops of the Wagner Group, a private military company led by a rogue millionaire with longtime links to Russian President Vladimir Putin, to encircle Bakhmut.

Recent drone footage shows the scale of devastation in the city, while Mr Zelensky has described it as destroyed.

Meanwhile, one of Mr Zelenskys top advisers, Mykhailo Podolyak, denied on Wednesday that Ukraine had used drones to attack Russian territory following Russian official statements that Ukraine had targeted infrastructure deep inside Russia.

Ukrainian servicemen who were wounded at the battlefield wait to leave the field hospital near Bakhmut, Ukraine (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP/PA)   Evgeniy Maloletka

Ukraine does not strike on the territory of the Russian Federation. Ukraine is waging a defensive war with the aim of de-occupying all its territories, Mr Podolyak wrote on Twitter, suggesting the targeting of Russian infrastructure was the result of internal attacks.

Ukraines western allies have discouraged Ukraine from attacking targets in Russia proper to avoid escalation of the conflict, and Mr Podolyaks statement could reflect an attempt by Kyiv to maintain a degree of deniability in view of those Western concerns.

In the past, Ukrainian officials have stopped short of claiming responsibility for attacks in Russia, but also insisted that Ukraine has the right to strike any target on Russian territory in response to its aggression.

Asked about Mr Podolyaks denial, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, We dont believe it.

(PA Graphics)   PA Graphics

Pictures of one drone that fell near the village of Gubastovo, less than 100 kilometres (60 miles) from Moscow, showed it was a small Ukrainian-made model with a reported range of up to 800 kilometres (nearly 500 miles), but no capacity to carry a large load of explosives.

In the Russian Bryansk region, local Governor Aleksandr Bogomaz said in a Telegram post that Russian forces had shot down another Ukrainian drone on Tuesday. Officials said the drones caused no injuries and did not inflict any significant damage.

Russias Defence Ministry said Wednesday it prevented a massive drone attack on Crimea. According to Russian state media, six drones were shot down by air defense forces, while four more were disabled by electronic warfare systems.

In Ukraine, at least nine civilians were killed and 12 others were wounded across the country on Tuesday, the Ukrainian presidents office reported on Wednesday morning.

Fierce fighting continued in the eastern Donetsk province, with the cities of Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Vuhledar, along with 17 other towns and villages, coming under intense Russian shelling.

Shelling does not stop along the entire front line, the presidential office said in a regular update.

In the countrys easternmost Luhansk province, regional Governor Serhiy Haidai said that the Ukrainian military blew up a warehouse in Russian-held Kadiivka on the site of a factory where Russian forces were storing trucks packed with ammunition.

The Russian army attempted to break through Ukrainian defences in Bilohorivka and near Kreminna, but the Russian attack was repelled, Mr Haidai said.
Reuniting children with their missing family has become a top priority in the aftermath of last months massive earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria, the head of the UN childrens agency said on Wednesday.

Unicef executive director Catherine Russell said the February 6 quake that rocked south east Turkey and parts of northern Syria has compounded existing crises in war-torn Syria.

The first challenge is figuring out if (the) childrens parents are alive in some place, and if they are trying to reunite them, she told the Associated Press, speaking at a school in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo.

Since the quake, the school has been turned into a shelter for families who lost their homes.

In Turkey, Derya Yanik, the minister for family affairs, said on Wednesday that more than 1,800 unaccompanied children have been reunited with their families since the quake.

Efforts were underway to identify 83 other children and reunite them with family members, Ms Yanik said.

Some of the children who have not been identified were still in intensive care in hospitals in Turkey, she added, and more than 350,000 families had applied to foster children orphaned by the quake.

The Turkey-Syria earthquake killed at least 50,000 people and injured many more, according to the UN with tens of thousands still missing and hundreds of thousands homeless.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus visits a hospital in western Syria (AP Photo/Omar Albam)   Omar Albam

In Syria, at least 6,000 were killed in total, in both government-controlled areas and in the rebel-held territory in the countrys north west.

That region in the hands of Syrian rebels is home to 4.6 million people, many of them previously displaced by Syrias war, was hardest hit in Syria,

Aleppo, Syrias largest city and a financial hub before the war, witnessed some of the fiercest fighting in the nearly 12-year conflict that has killed at least 300,000 people and displaced half the countrys population of 23 million.

The earthquake further destroyed thousands of homes in Aleppo and elsewhere in Syria and decimated infrastructure as medical groups sounded the alarm on possible health crises breaking out in quake-hit areas.

We need to make sure that children continue to get their education and that is very difficult, Ms Russell also told AP.

Almost one month after the quake, many families are still living in schools, mosques, churches, and other makeshift shelters after their homes were destroyed.

At the same time, Ms Russell fears that keeping families in places such as the school-turned-shelter in Aleppo for a long period of time could see children fall behind in their education.

Unicef is holding some classes at such shelters so children dont drop out of school.

We need to make sure that children continue to get their education and that is very difficult, she added.

Also on Wednesday, the World Health Organisation chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, visited the rebel-held north west, crossing into Syria from Turkey to follow up on the needs of those affected by the earthquake.

Mr Ghebreyesuss visit to Syria was his second after a tour of the northern city of Aleppo last month after the quake.

Even before the earthquake, needs were increasing while international aid was decreasing, Mr Ghebreyesus said at a press conference.

I call on the leaders of both sides of the Syrian conflict to use the shared suffering of this crisis as a platform for peace.
The evidence is already all around us

By now, readers will be familiar with the sight of empty fruit and veg shelves in UK supermarkets. Or, if not empty, at least sparce. The formerly mundane ingredients which make up a mixed salad  greens, cucumbers, and tomatoes  are now prized food items that are rather difficult to get hold of.
Office Holidays/Wikimedia Commons

Many people may not be aware, but there are two Independence Days in America. Of course, the first is July 4th, when America freed itself from British rule. However, the second is a day many people dont know about called Juneteenth. Juneteenth is the day when enslaved people in Texas found out they were free. Typically celebrated on June 19th, Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021.

President Abraham Lincoln released the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 during the Civil War, which said that the three million enslaved people living in Confederate states were free. However, it wasnt until 1865 that General Gordon Granger rode into Galveston, Texas, and announced that enslaved people were now free, much to the surprise of the enslaved people in Texas. Here are some interesting facts about Juneteenth that you may not know.

The news of freedom arrived two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

Technically, the Emancipation Proclamation freed enslaved people in 1863. However, enslaved people in Texas didnt find out about it until 1865, two years later. From the Unions perspective, the 250,000 enslaved people in Texas were already free, but none of them knew it, and no one rushed to tell them.

There are numerous theories on why Texas didnt enforce the Emancipation Proclamation.

Back in those days, news traveled slowly. For example, it took Confederates soldiers in western Texas over two months to learn that Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox. Still, theres been a struggle to explain the 30-month gap between the Emancipation Proclamation and enslaved peoples freedom. This gap led to speculation that some Texans may have suppressed the announcement.

Other theories say that the original messenger was killed to stop the information from being relayed or that the federal government delayed the announcement on purpose to get one more cotton harvest out of the enslaved people. However, the real reason may be that Lincolns proclamation wasnt enforceable in the Confederate states before the war ended.

The freedom announcement urged freed people to stay with their owners.

When he arrived in Texas, General Granger read General Order No. 3, which read,

The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.

What came after the freedom announcement is known as the scatter.

Most freedmen and women didnt want to stay with their enslavers, even if they would get paid. Some were leaving while General Granger made the announcement. What came after is known as the scatter, where big groups of formerly enslaved people left Texas to find their family or other places where theyd be welcomed in northern states or Canada.

Everyone wasnt freed instantly.

Texas is a relatively large state, and General Grangers order was slow to spread. Historian James Smallwood says that many enslavers purposefully hid the information until after the cotton harvest, and some hid it beyond after the cotton harvest. In July 1867, there were two different accounts of enslaved people being freed. There was also a report of a Texas horse thief, Alex Simpson, who enslaved people were only released after he was hanged in 1868.

With freedom came other issues.

Texas enslavers werent too enthusiastic to part with what they felt was their property despite the announcement. Many freed people were beaten, lynched, or murdered when they tried to leave. Susan Merritt, a former enslaved person, recanted, They would catch [freed slaves] swimming across [the] Sabine River and shoot them."

There were limited opportunities for celebrating.

When freed people tried to commemorate the first anniversary of the freedom announcement the following year, they were met with a big problem. Segregation laws were multiplying, so there werent any public places they were allowed to use. In the 1870s, formerly enslaved people raised $800 to buy 10 acres of land, which they named Emancipation Park. This park was the only public park and swimming pool in the Houston area in the Houston area open to Black people until the 1950s.

Juneteenth celebrations faded for decades.

Juneteenth celebrations declined during the Jim Crow era. Then came the civil rights movement of the 1960s and the Poor Peoples March, planned by Martin Luther King Jr. This march was purposefully scheduled to overlap with the date of Juneteenth. This march brought Juneteenth back to the foreground. When participants took the celebrations back to their home states, the holiday was reborn.

Texas was the first state to make Juneteenth a state holiday.

In 1980, Texas regarded the holiday as worthy of statewide recognition, becoming the first state to do so.

The Juneteenth flag has lots of symbolism.

The Juneteenth flag is packed with meaning, just as the flags designer L.J. Graf intended. The colors red, white, and blue match the American flag to signify that the enslaved people and their descendants were American. The star in the middle symbolizes Texas, while the bursting star represents freedom and a new people.

As Juneteenth traditions spread around the United States, different places put their own spin on celebrations. For example, the holiday is usually celebrated in southern states with readings, oral histories, and barbecues. Other states serve Marcus Garvey salad in honor of the Black nationalist. Rodeos have also become a part of Juneteenth celebrations in southwest states. Concerts and parades are typical celebrations across the country.

Juneteenth is a day where Black people celebrate the freedom of their ancestors and remember the struggles they endured. Sadly, enslaved people in Texas didnt learn of their release until two years later, but they would be glad to know that their descendants are still celebrating the holiday decades later.
Susi Pudjiastuti, owner of Susi Air (right), speaks to reporters in Jakarta, March 1, 2023.

The supply of essential goods in Indonesias restive Papua region has been disrupted in recent weeks as a regional airline halted nearly 70% of its flights after one of its pilots was taken hostage by separatist rebels last month.

On Wednesday, Susi Pudjiastuti, owner of Susi Air, said many pilots are scared to fly because pilot Philip Mehrtens was taken hostage on Feb. 7.

The number of daily flights in Papua has dropped to between five and 15 from between 30 and 40, she said at a news conference in Jakarta.

I, as the founder and owner of Susi Air, apologize to the people of Papua, the local government, and Susi Air customers in Papua whose flights have been disrupted, she said.

The presence of Susi Air is very significant in Papua and now with this incident  its sad, were also at a loss. Because we also transport fuel, transport food, transport all kinds of things needed, bring sick people for treatment, bring government programs for the advancement of Papuan society.

Susi said her airlines presence in Papua is vital in transporting fuel, food, and medicines to remote areas.

These pioneering routes are determined by the government to be flown and are 65% subsidized by the government, so the tickets are very cheap, only 250,000 rupiah ($16), Susi said.

Members of the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) last month released videos where the group said it would kill pilot Mehrtens, a New Zealand national, if government security forces came for them. The rebels demanded independence from Indonesia in exchange for releasing the hostage.

Authorities have sent a negotiation team to secure Mehrtens release, but Jakarta recently said it would not rule out a military operation to rescue him.

The New Zealand government said it was cooperating with Indonesian authorities to ensure the pilots safety.

Wamena riot victims demand compensation

In a separate development, a soldier was killed and two others were injured when suspected separatist rebels ambushed a military patrol in Papuas Yahukimo regency on Wednesday, a provincial military spokesman said.

Soldiers patrolling on motorcycles were intercepted and shot by gunmen, resulting in an exchange of fire, Col. Herman Taryaman said.

Meanwhile, the families of victims of a deadly Feb. 23 riot in Wamena, in the highlands regency of Jayawijaya, are demanding 5 billion rupiah (U.S. $327,720) for each person who died and 1 billion rupiah ($65,500) for each of those who were injured in accordance with traditional customs, said Arim Tabuni, a relative of one of the victims.

Twelve people were killed after security forces opened fire to quell rioting after rumors circulated that a child had been kidnapped, police said. Police said two people who died suffered arrow and stabbing injuries.

Papua police chief Mathius Fakhiri said 16 officers who were on duty during the riot had been investigated by the internal affairs division, adding 13 people who were arrested during the riot have been released.

We do not want the arrest of the 13 individuals to be used as an excuse by some people to take action that may result in casualties, he said.

Papua, in Indonesias far-eastern region, is home to a decades-old insurgency that has heated up in recent years.

The region, in the western half of New Guinea island, is notorious for human rights abuses committed by members of the Indonesian police and security forces. Armed separatist Papuan rebels have been accused of committing atrocities against civilians.

In 1963, Indonesian forces invaded Papua  like Indonesia, a former Dutch colony  and annexed the region.

Six years later, only about 1,000 people voted in the United Nations-sponsored referendum, called a sham by locals and activists. The U.N. accepted the vote, essentially endorsing Jakartas rule.
Benny Wenda (left), chairman of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua, is pictured with Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka in Nadi, Fiji in this photo released on Feb. 22, 2023.

Indonesia has protested to Fijis government after the prime minister of the Pacific island country met with a Papuan leader in a morale boost for the regional independence movement.

Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka, who was elected in December, also said he would support Papuan membership in a U.N.-recognized organization of Melanesian nations. Fijis previous government and Papua New Guinea for a decade have blocked such a membership bid to maintain good relations with Indonesia, a source of foreign aid for both nations.

The meeting between Rabuka and Benny Wenda, who from exile in London heads an umbrella group of Papuan organizations that seek independence from Indonesia, took place at a summit of Pacific island leaders in the Fijian town of Nadi last week.

On Tuesday, Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said Indonesia had sent a diplomatic note to Fiji.

Indonesia expressed deep disappointment over the Fiji PMs meeting with someone who unilaterally claimed to represent the Papuan people in Indonesia, he said.

The archipelago nation of 270 million people is a rising Southeast Asian power that reaches into the South Pacific region and says it is on track to be the worlds fourth-largest economy by 2045. The United States and Australia are seeking closer security ties with Indonesia to counter Chinas influence in the region.

Rabukas social media accounts posted a photo of a smiling Rabuka, wearing a traditional string bag emblazoned with the Morning Star flag  an emblem of the Papua independence movement that is banned in Indonesia  meeting with Wenda.

Rabukas Twitter account said he would support the United Liberation Movement for West Papua, of which Wenda is chairman, because they are Melanesians.

The Papua region is better known as West Papua among people in Pacific island countries.

A peaceful independence movement and an armed insurgency have simmered in the region  which makes up the western half of New Guinea island  since the early 1960s when Indonesia took control of the territory from the Dutch.

Documented and alleged killings and abuses by Indonesian military and police, from the 1960s until the present day  along with impunity and the exploitation of the regions natural resources and widespread poverty  have fueled local resentment of Indonesian rule.

Deploying aid and technical assistance to small island states scattered across the Pacific ocean, Indonesia has in recent years sought to neutralize criticism from some of those nations of its rule in Papua.

Jakartas assistance is small relative to long-standing donors such as Australia but still significant for economically lagging island nations. In Fiji, Indonesia recently funded the U.S. $1.9 million reconstruction of two boarding school dormitories after a tropical cyclone destroyed them.

Fiji is the biggest recipient of Indonesias aid [in the Pacific] along with Papua New Guinea, Hipolitus Wangge, a researcher at Australian National University, told BenarNews. Its something that cannot be easily thrown away.

Rabuka, in his Twitter statement, said he was more hopeful that Wendas group could get full membership of the Melanesian Spearhead Group that comprises Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and Front de Liberation Nationale Kanak et Socialiste  the indigenous Kanak independence movement in French-ruled New Caledonia. Indonesia is an associate member.

The meeting between Rabuka and Wenda was significant, analysts say, because Fiji, under the 16-year rule of former Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, gave short shrift to the Papuan independence movement  one of the many obstacles to its goals of gaining international recognition and legitimacy.

Its definitely morale boosting for West Papuans because Fiji and Papua New Guinea have been the roadblocks, said Cammi Webb-Gannon, coordinator of the West Papua Project at the University of Wollongong in Australia.

She said Melanesian Spearhead Group membership would give the independence movement more clout because theyd be acknowledged by a regional political grouping as the legitimate representatives of West Papuans.

Wenda didnt immediately respond to a BenarNews request for comment.

According to the Fiji Sun newspaper, he said, give us full membership so that we can sit down with Indonesia and the Melanesian leaders to find a solution to the conflict between Indonesia and Papuans.

Vanuatu, a bastion of support for Papuan independence from Indonesia, is likely to push hard for progress on Papuan membership when Melanesian Spearhead Group leaders meet in July in Vanuatus capital Port Vila, said Tess Newton Cain, a Pacific analyst at the Griffith Asia Institute.

Indonesia, meanwhile, is likely to lobby Papua New Guinea and Fiji vigorously to keep Wenda and his organization out.

They will come under a lot of pressure between now and when the leaders meet, to vote against accepting that membership, Newton Cain told BenarNews.

Dandy Koswaraputra in Jakarta contributed to this report.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. (left) and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim review an honor guard during a welcoming ceremony at Malacanang Palace in Manila, March 1, 2023.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said he discussed the South China Sea dispute with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in Manila on Wednesday, and the two favored a multilateral approach to arriving at a resolution.

Manila and Kuala Lumpur both have overlapping claims with Beijing over the waterway and have had to deal with assertive Chinese incursions in their exclusive economic zones.

As immediate neighbors, the Philippines and Malaysia recognize the importance of maintaining peace and security in our region, Marcos said in a statement after an hour-long meeting with Anwar, who was on his first visit to the country as prime minister.

As such we agreed to continue our cooperation on political and security matters, rekindling the joint commission meetings and joint initiatives to combat transnational crime and terrorism, Marcos said.

Anwar later told reporters that he and Marcos agreed that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations regional bloc should take center stage in resolving the South China Sea dispute.

I shared President Marcos concern that due to the complexity and sensitivity issue, we should try and engage and take the position at the multilateral level between ASEAN so that we have a comprehensive approach and achieve an amicable resolution to this outstanding problem, he told reporters.

ASEAN members Brunei and Vietnam also have claims to the waterway that overlap with China. While Indonesia does not regard itself as a party to the dispute, Beijing claims historic rights to parts of the sea overlapping Indonesias exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

200,000 refugees in Malaysia

AS ASEAN members, the two leaders also discussed the situation in post-coup Myanmar.

Marcos noted that both countries are founding members and have ASEAN centrality embedded into our regional outlooks.

We have thus resolved to support development and peace building initiatives within this group including the importance of achieving a resolution to the situation on Myanmar, Marcos said.

Myanmars military toppled an elected government on Feb. 1, 2021, jailing opponents and attacking and killing members of opposition groups. The junta has reneged on an ASEAN five-point consensus as a roadmap to return to peace and democracy.

Anwar noted the unrest in Myanmar was adversely affecting his country, due to the huge number of refugees exceeding 200,000 people now in Malaysia.

He said the Myanmar issue cannot be considered as purely internal because its affecting the security and welfare of the region.

Closer to home, Marcos and Anwar noted the peace-building efforts in the southern Philippines, where Malaysia played a crucial role in a pact that led to the creation of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao .

We have recognized the great contribution that Malaysia has made to the peace process in southern Philippines and we hope that this support that they have shown over the past few years will continue  to contribute to the success of the peace process, Marcos said.

Anwar pledged that his nation would continue to assist the Bangsamoro people through what he called capacity-building programs.

Before departing on Thursday, Anwar is scheduled to lay a wreath at the grave of the Philippines national hero, Jose Rizal, and attend a public lecture at the state-run University of the Philippines.

Jojo Rinoza and Basilio Sepe in Manila and Iman Muttaqin Yusof in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.
Amphibious Assault Vehicles carrying U.S. and Philippine troops head toward the beach during Kamandag 6, a joint military exercise in Zambales province, northwest of Manila, Oct. 7, 2022.

A Philippine governor whose province is believed to be among four new locations chosen to host U.S. troops at military bases did not hold back in stating his opposition to the reported decision, during testimony before the Senate on Wednesday.

Filipino defense and security officials also testified at the hearing but they all refused to reveal the names of the locations of the bases when grilled with questions about them.

During his testimony Gov. Manuel Mamba of Cagayan, a province at the northern tip of Luzon island that directly faces Taiwan, said he believed his jurisdiction had been selected under a newly expanded bilateral military deal with the United States but that he had not been notified.

Please do not ram into our throats what is not acceptable to us, Mamba told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing chaired by Sen. Imee Marcos, the sister of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Cagayan in the past had hosted large-scale joint military training exercises, said Mamba who argued that if China attacked Taiwan, his province would be directly affected if American troops were deployed there.

He said he had told off American diplomats, including defense attaches from the U.S. Embassy who visited him when he previously opposed live-fire joint military exercises in his province. Mamba claimed they had dangled possible investments in Cagayan, but that he stood his ground.

We will have sleepless nights. We are the closest and we would be hit in case that happens, Mamba said, referring to a feared Chinese invasion of Taiwan, which Beijing considers a renegade province.

As governor, Mamba said he was looking out for the welfare of the people of Cagayan, and that should only rest on commerce and trade.

We do not want to be an enemy to any country, nor do we want to be used to threaten any country. We will defend the Philippines from any enemy even with sticks and stones, but we will not be fodder to a fight that is not our own, Mamba testified.

Solutions to regional tensions will only end badly for us not involved in this show of might between two superpowers. The only military forces we want in Cagayan are members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, he said.

When Imee Marcos asked Defense Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. whether rising tensions in the Taiwan Strait were the key reason for why the four additional bases would be located in the northern Philippines, he responded: I cannot categorically answer the question.

Sen. Marcos said she echoed Mambas sentiments because other local government units had told her that they were also not consulted. The Marcos clan is from the northern Ilocos region, which is also in northern Luzon.

The Philippines once hosted the largest American bases in Southeast Asia until they were shut down when their lease was not extended in the early 1990s.

Still, the country remains a strategic location for U.S. interests, including the free flow of trade and commerce in the contested South China Sea.

Cagayan is a relatively short distance from Taiwan, which hosts some 150,000 Filipino migrants, the third largest contingent of foreigners there.

Both Taiwan and the Philippines also have overlapping claims in the South China Sea, along with China, Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei.

The flurry of discussions about U.S. basing here comes amid fears that China could attack Taiwan in the next few years. One American general recently predicted that war was likely to break out in 2025.

The new bases available to Washington fall under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, signed in 2014 as a supplement to the Visiting Forces Agreement. Signed in 1999, the VFA is a bilateral pact providing legal cover for large-scale joint military exercises between the U.S. and Philippines.

Analysts had said that allowing the Americans greater access to more military facilities in the Philippines was likely in preparation for a potential invasion of Taiwan by China.

During the same hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Risa Hontiveros, a lawmaker from the opposition, hit out at China for its repeated aggression against its smaller neighbors, including the Philippines.

While she said that support by the international community was welcome, Manila now finds itself trapped between two superpowers.

Let me just emphasize that we should not allow ourselves to be trapped in between two warring powers, the two hegemons  the U.S. and China  but instead focus our efforts on building multilateral partnerships that could provide for joint patrols and training of our troops, she said.

A broader coalition is a better coalition.
Chinese doctors' dedication, skills lauded in Sierra Leone

Xinhua) 10:04, March 01, 2023

A Chinese doctor checks a patient at the Sierra Leone-China Friendship Hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on Feb. 27, 2023. The 23rd batch of the Chinese medical team in Sierra Leone has received praise from local patients and health authorities for their dedication to the country's medical service. The current team is about to wrap up its one-year mission, during which they received more than 23,000 patients and carried out over 600 surgeries. (Xinhua/Xu Zheng)

FREETOWN, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The 23rd batch of the Chinese medical team in Sierra Leone has received praise from local patients and health authorities for their dedication to the country's medical service.

Speaking to Xinhua in an exclusive interview on Monday in Freetown, the country's capital, Karim Kabineh, dean of the Sierra Leone-China Friendship Hospital, said he is deeply touched by the team's hard efforts over the past year.

"They are always on call wherever and whenever they are, and the quality of their work should be praised," said Kabineh, who is also a renowned otolaryngologist in Sierra Leone.

The current team is about to wrap up its one-year mission, during which they received more than 23,000 patients and carried out over 600 surgeries.

According to Kabineh, Sierra Leonean hospitals have been long plagued by a shortage of stable water and electricity supplies, which has posed a huge challenge for the medical staff to perform their duties.

"Sometimes when a power outage occurred, the air conditioner was not working, and doctors have to work in a swelter. Yet, I saw them taking care of the patients despite sweating," Kabineh added.

"Some of the doctors bring their personal equipment from China to facilitate the work, while some have to use their spare time to undertake extra duties, and you could always feel their passion," he told Xinhua.

Kabineh hailed Chinese medical teams' cooperation with their local counterparts to help the country curb the spread of COVID-19 in the last three years, describing the role they played in the fight against the virus as "very important".

Kabineh pointed out that by imparting medical skills to local medical staff, making donations of medical supplies, and handling a lot of complicated surgeries, the medical teams from China have helped the hospital become one of the most prominent medical establishments over the past decades.

Liu Meng, an emergency physician of the Chinese medical team, told Xinhua that he is immensely impressed by the respect that Sierra Leoneans have for knowledge, and many local doctors have been trained by Chinese doctors.

"We also carried out a lot of first-aid training in remote communities and schools, which was warmly welcomed by students and residents. They listened attentively and acted accordingly," Liu said.

"Working with my counterparts here also let me learn a lot about their culture, good manner, and attitude toward learning," he told Xinhua.

Memunatu Conteh, a Sierra Leonean patient, said the hospital has a good reputation because of the Chinese doctors and local staff, "that is why I am here. I am grateful for what they have done."

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
The word zodiac isnt used in the Bible, but the Bible does refer to astrologers, astronomers, and others who studied the stars. There is a difference between astronomy and astrology. Astronomy is the science of observing and understanding celestial bodies, such as stars or the moon, for things such as navigation, seasons, time-keeping, and more. Astrology is a pseudoscience that attempts to predict future events or examine how the celestial bodies affect people and their identities and relationships.

When God created the earth, he set the stars in the sky on the fourth day, proclaiming, Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth. And it was so. God made two great lights  the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good (Genesis 1:14-18).

Throughout Scripture, there is mention of those who study the stars. Some of the mention is bad, some is good, and some is more neutral. For example, studying the stars to track time or seasons or to get across the ocean to a distant land doesnt seem to be sinful in any way. But studying and interpreting these stars and then divining or predicting things to come is akin to idolatry, witchcraft, and fortune-telling, which are identified as sinful and detestable in the eyes of the Lord. They are included in occult practices that God condemns.

As God tells His people in Deuteronomy 18:10-12, Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord; because of these same detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you.

This goes back to the notion of idolatry that God expressly forbids in the Ten Commandments, noting we should have no other gods that we worship besides Him (Exodus 20:3-6). The Hebrew word used here for worship is abad, which means to serve or submit to.

Just as God doesnt want us bowing before statues of Baal or Asherah (2 Kings 23:4), he also doesnt want us heeding the directives of stars (and astrologers) in order to decide whether to do one thing or another.

We are to listen to and heed God and God only.

Photo credit: Unsplash/Aaron Burden
Mary receives praise and honor for being the mother of Jesus. And, of course, Jesus is known by Christians to be Gods son, conceived by the Holy Spirit. What about the third member of Christs earthly family, a major presence at Jesus birth? We know from reading the gospels that Joseph was Jesus legal father, who played a strong but silent role at the nativity. In later gospel narratives, Joseph is a man barely mentioned. He is not with Mary at Christs crucifixion. So, where was Joseph when Jesus died?

What Do We Know about Joseph?

In Matthew 1:18-25, we learn the story of Joseph, the legal father of Jesus. Joseph hears the startling news that his betrothed girlfriend is pregnant. Since Joseph has never had relations with Mary, he concludes that she must have been unfaithful to him.

As Sketches of Jewish Social Life explains, a first-century Jewish engagement was as binding as marriage. Hence, Mary could be convicted for committing adultery, and Old Testament law declared adultery punishable by stoning (Leviticus 20:10). Knowing that the only other socially acceptable option was to divorce Mary quietly, Joseph plans to do just that.

However, an angel appears and assures him that the Holy Spirit conceived Marys baby. Joseph accepted the angels message and his loyalty and supported Mary through her pregnancy and childbirth. His actions showed he was a good man, worthy of being Christs earthly father figure.

After Jesus birth, Joseph takes Mary and the baby, and they flee to Egypt to escape King Herods decree to kill all baby boys (Matthew 2:13-18). Herods decree came after hearing the Magis report that a king of the Jews was born recently (Matthew 2:1-3).

The gospels also tell of the holy familys return to Nazareth at a later, safer time (Matthew 2:19-23). Coming home, Joseph and Mary must have faced raised eyebrows from their neighbors. The townspeople would remember Marys mysterious pregnancy and Josephs willingness to marry her. Josephs taking his family back to their hometown of Nazareth shows he was a mature man who didnt care what his neighbors thought of him.

Following Jewish law, Joseph and Mary take baby Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem for his purification rights (Luke 2:22-23). The family meets a devout, elderly man named Simeon who is overjoyed to have lived to meet the promised Messiah:

Simeon blesses them and says to Mary, This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too (Luke 2:34-35, emphasis added).

In the last sentence, Simeon prophesies that Mary will experience great joy and heartache as the mother of the Savior Jesus. Joseph is not directly addressed by Simeon, although Scripture says, The childs father and mother marveled at what was said about him (Luke 2:33).

On a later trip to the temple in Jerusalem during Passover, Mary and Joseph realize on the way back home that they forgot to bring Jesus with them. When His parents return to the temple to retrieve their son, they find him with teachers, listening and teaching. Mary asks Jesus, Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you. Jesus answers, Why were you searching for me? Didnt you know I had to be in my Fathers house? Jesus knows His real Father is God. There is no recorded comment from Joseph in this narrative (Luke 2:39-52), which is characteristic of him.

Jesus appears to be Mary and Josephs firstborn child, and His brothers and sisters are mentioned in several gospel narratives. When Jesus performs his first miracle of turning water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana, He goes to the wedding with his mother and his brethren and his disciples (John 2:1-5). Mark 3:21 explains what happened after Jesus had performed some notable miracles and teaching: When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, He is out of his mind. In this story, someone in the gathered crowd notifies Jesus that His mother and brothers have has arrived and are looking for Him. Jesus responds: Who are my mother and my brothers? he asked. Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does Gods will is my brother and sister and mother (Mark 3:31-35).

Jesus does not mention having a father in these Bible stories of His ministry. Perhaps it would have confused listeners, since he routinely talked about His heavenly father in these discussions. It may also be true that Joseph was no longer in Jesus life. In a Christianity.com article, Annette Griffin writes, These conspicuous absences of His father Joseph in Scripture suggest that Joseph died before Jesus public ministry began.

How Old Was Joseph When He Married Mary?

Mary and Joseph most likely began their marriage at young ages, appropriate for the culture of ancient Israel. Jewish girls aged 12 to 15 were often promised to eligible young men aged 18 or 19. The couples young ages accommodated the girls reproductive cycle and the boys mastering a skill with which to support a family. We can assume that Joseph and Mary were at these tender ages.

Sketches of Jewish Social Life explains that an engaged couple was considered bound as though they were already married. However, families didnt let engaged couples be alone at any time before their wedding night. Traditional Jewish families arranged marriage for their sons and daughters within family clans to protect property ownership and religious faith. This explains why Joseph and Mary could trace their ancestry to King David (Luke 3:23-38, Matthew 1:1-16).

Where is the Last Mention of Joseph in the Gospels?

A confused set of people in Jesus hometown mention Josephs name for the last time in the gospels.

Sometime after Jesus fed the five thousand, he spoke about being the bread of life. Confused, some people said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? (John 6:42). The locals find it difficult to believe that this man from humble roots is the Son of God.

A similar response happens in Matthew 13. Returning to Nazareth, Jesus began preaching, and people were surprised. They said, Where did this man get this wisdom and these deeds of power? Is not this the carpenters son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all this? (Matthew 13:54-56). This speech suggests Joseph was alive at this time. Or, at least his death was recent enough that everyone thought of him when someone mentioned the carpenter. After this mention, Joseph is absent from the story. Since scholars believe Jesus ministry lasted two to three years, it could well be that he had passed away by the time Jesus went to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.

In fact, the gospels account of the crucifixion seems to confirm he was no longer around.

Was Joseph Dead When the Crucifixion Happened?

There is no mention of Joseph at Christs crucifixion. Before His death on the cross, Jesus looks down on his beloved mother Mary in the small crowd and confirms that she will be taken care of in the future:

When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, Woman, here is your son. Then he said to the disciple, Here is your mother. And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home (John 19:25-27).

In those days in ancient Israel, as in many cultures today, women were taken care of by their husbands. A widow was fortunate if she had children to protect and provide for her in her husbands absence. This is why Luke 7:11 emphasizes that a widow had lost her only son before Jesus raised that son from the deadthis dead son was her sole social security.

The fact that Jesus asked the disciple he loved (maybe John himself) to care for His mother suggests that Joseph was no longer alive to care for Mary.

So, the answer to our question, where was Joseph when Jesus died? seems to be that he had passed away. However, his legacy as the man who took Mary as his wife despite the social stigma, who supported his wife and children, has left an important impact on Christian tradition.

When Did Joseph Become a Saint?

Joseph was made a patron saint of the Roman Catholic Church in 1870 by Pope Pius IX. Joseph was also given sainthood in the Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox Churches. Catholic tradition refers to Joseph as the quiet man who gradually gained recognition and was honored as the patron saint of fathers of families, manual workers, and all who desire a holy death.

In an apostolic letter, Pope Francis dedicated the year 2021 to the memory of Joseph. The pope wrote, Each of us can discover in Joseph  the man who goes unnoticed, a daily, discreet, and hidden presence  an intercessor, a supporter and a guide in times of trouble. St. Joseph reminds us that those who appear hidden or in the shadows can play an incomparable role in the history of salvation.

Photo Credit: GettyImages/olegkalina

Betty Dunn hopes her articles help you hold hands with God, a theme in her self-published memoir Medusa. A former high school English teacher and editor, she works on writing projects from her home in West Michigan, where she enjoys woods, water, pets, and family. Check out her blog at Betty by Elizabeth Dunning and her website, www.elizabethdunning-wix.com.
India has been able to mark its presence in both the human and livestock vaccine domain, thanks to rigorous research undertaken by government institutes and private vaccine manufacturers. Vaccines made by Indian companies have taken the country to newer heights and were lauded by the rest of the world as well, during the pandemic for India's capacity to deliver vaccines to many nations in urgent need of jabs. We take a historical glance at Indias steady growth and prowess in the vaccine manufacture and research sphere since the 19th century, catering to inoculations for humans and livestock alike.

India has been at the forefront of vaccine research and manufacturing in the world. During COVID-19, companies such as Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech, among others, were able to come up with vaccines that proved to be game changers in Indias healthcare system. Meeting over 60 per cent of the worlds demand and supplying over 2.4 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines and having a repository of over 50 indigenous vaccines, Indias vaccine story is truly remarkable.

Dr Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare and Chemicals & Fertilisers, Government of India, during an event in Pune last year, said that India had supplied vaccines to 100 countries and provided drugs to 150 countries during COVID-19. He added, As we go forward, there is an urgent need for strengthening private-public sector partnerships across the vaccine manufacturing value chain.

The Indian Vaccine Saga: 1978-2023

In the 19th century, efforts were made to replace variolation (a method of inoculation first used to immunise individuals against smallpox with material taken from a patient or a recently variolated individual) with vaccination, setting up vaccine institutes, trials of cholera vaccine and the discovery of the plague vaccine. The early 20th century saw the setting up of more vaccine institutes and the challenges associated with the expansion of smallpox vaccination and typhoid vaccine trials.

The post-independence era saw private players enter the arena. India saw the launch of the Expanded Programme for Immunisation in 1978 and Universal Immunisation Programme in 1985. It may be noted that till 1850 India used to import vaccines from Britain. Logistical issues and an increase in demand prompted the establishment of research institutes and manufacturing facilities in the country. During the early 19th century, some research activities were conducted in Bombay (now Mumbai) and animal experiments for lymph were conducted in Madras (now Chennai).

The outbreak of cholera in Bengal prompted Dr Waldemar Haffkine, a Ukrainian-French bacteriologist known for his pioneering work in vaccines, to visit India and conduct trials in Agra where its efficacy was proven. In 1896, plague broke out in India which prompted Dr Haffkine to conduct research at a two-room set up in Grant Road, Mumbai, that led to the development of the first vaccine in India. In 1899, the laboratory was known as Plague Laboratory, renamed in 1905 as Bombay Bacteriological Laboratory and renamed the Haffkine Institute in 1925.

In the early 20th century, India had four vaccines namely for cholera, smallpox, plague and typhoid. Pasteur Institute of India, Coonoor, is one of the pioneer institutes in India in the production of Anti Rabies Vaccine (dog bite vaccine) and DPT vaccine (triple antigen against diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus) for the Expanded Programme of Immunisation of the Government of India. This institute started functioning as Pasteur Institute of Southern India on April 6, 1907 and was officially opened by Sir Arthur Lawley, Governor of Madras, on April 25, 1907.

Later, on May 1, 1948, the BCG Vaccine Laboratory was established in Chennai and is now working under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of the Government of India. The laboratory manufactures freeze-dried BCG vaccines for the control of childhood tuberculosis and tuberculous meningitis in children and supplies to the Expanded Programme of Immunisation (EPI) of the Government of India and other needy medical faculties/ hospitals.

Enter Serum Institute

India saw a revolution in vaccine manufacturing with Dr Cyrus Poonawalla founding the Serum Institute of India (SII) in 1966 to manufacture life-saving immuno-biologicals. India which was facing a vaccine shortage in the country and used to import at high prices saw several life-saving biologicals being manufactured at prices affordable to the common man and in abundance. India became self-sufficient in Tetanus Anti-toxin and Anti-snake Venom serum, followed by the DTP group of vaccines and then later on MMR (Measles, Mumps and Rubella) group of vaccines. Today, the company has more than four indigenously manufactured vaccines.

During the same time, Bharat Immunologicals and Biologicals Corporation (BIBCOL), a Government of India undertaking, started manufacturing oral polio vaccines in bulk in 1966. Hyderabad-based Dano Vaccines & Biologicals introduced Tetanus Vaccine  DanoTT in 1985.

Shantha Biotechnics launched the Hepatitis B vaccine, Shanvac-B, the first recombinant health product in India. Founded by Dr K I Varaprasad Reddy in 1993, Shantha was one of the first Indian biotechs to create a recombinant product, obtaining World Health Organisation (WHO) prequalification for its Hepatitis B vaccine in 2002.

During the same year, Bharat Biotech International Ltd (BBIL) started its operations with Dr Krishna M Ella and Suchitra Ella returning from the US to set up a company dedicated to creating innovative vaccines and bio-therapeutics. Revac-B, an indigenously made genetically-engineered vaccine for Hepatitis-B, was launched in Hyderabad by Bharat Biotech International in 1998. Revac-B was marketed by Ahmedabad-based Intas Pharmaceuticals.

In the same year, Ghaziabad-based BiO-Med unveiled Typhoid Polysaccharide Vaccine, the first indigenously manufactured Vi antigen typhoid vaccine. It was manufactured as per Indian Pharmacopoeia.

Human Biologicals Institute (HBI), a division of Indian Immunologicals Limited (IIL), rolled out the first vero cell culture rabies vaccine in 2000. This is being marketed under the brand name Abhayrab. Post 2000, a number more vaccines were indigenously manufactured. BiO-MED in 2004 produced India Haemophilus Type B Conjugate vaccine (Peda Hib) and Meningococcal Polysaccharide vaccine Group A, C, Y & W135 (Quadri Meningo). Peda Hib is indicated for the prevention in children from six weeks to five years of age, of invasive diseases caused by Haemophilus influenzae type b e.g. Meningitis, cellulitis, epiglottitis. Quadri Meningo vaccine is recommended for children above 18 months of age as routine immunisation in endemic areas.

2006 saw HBI manufacture vaccines such as the DPT vaccine  AbhayTAG, Tetanus Vaccine  AbhayTOX and Recombinant Hepatitis B  Elovac B. SII in 2007 launched its indigenously manufactured low-cost Haemophilus influenza type b conjugate vaccine under the brand name HibPRO in India. BBIL developed BioHib, Haemophilus Influenzae Type b (Hib) vaccine in India, and Comvac 4-HB, a tetravalent combination vaccine. Bio-Med in the same year unveiled Botulinum Toxin Type A (Boto Genie). This is a potent neurotoxin complex which causes relaxation of muscles, marked reduction in gland secretory activity and silencing of nociceptor function on its absorption.

The following year saw BiO-Med unveil the commercially available Typhoid Vi Conjugate vaccine (Peda Typh) that is indicated for active immunisation against Salmonella typhi in infants of the age of three months, children and adults. Cadila Healthcare introduced the H1N1 vaccine in 2010 marketed under VaxiFlu-S, the first indigenous vaccine against swine flu. It was followed by SII indigenously developing an intranasal vaccine, Nasovac, for preventing H1N1 infections.

In 2011, BiO-Med developed its own Meningococcal Polysaccharide vaccine Group A & C (Bi Meningo) that is used to protect against cerebrospinal meningitis and other diseases caused by Neisseria meningitidis (Group A & C).

BBIL in 2013, launched the world's first clinically proven typhoid conjugate vaccine Typbar-TCV, a fourth-generation vaccine against typhoid disease. Typbar was the first vaccine in India to get a WHO-GMP prequalification certificate. BBIL also developed the oral rotavirus vaccine, ROTAVAC, the first indigenously developed Rotavirus vaccine in 2015.

The following year saw New Delhi-based Panacea Biotec announcing the launch of Tetravalent Vaccine Easyfour-TT for active primary immunisation and booster dose against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP) and Haemophilus Influenzae Type B(Hib).

2017 saw Zydus Cadila indigenously develop, manufacture and launch Indias first vaccine against H1N1 - Vaxiflu-S. Besides, Panacea Biotec launched the world's first fully liquid whole cell Pertussis (wP)-based Hexavalent Combination Vaccine, EasySix. BiO-MED also unveiled the latest Technology (Ultracentrifugal purified) Vero cell-based Rabies vaccine for Human use (Sure Rab) in the same year. It also launched the Varicella vaccine (Bio Pox) the following year.

Ankleshwar-based Chiron Behring Vaccines announced the re-launch of a purified chick embryo cell (PCEC) vaccine manufactured at its WHO pre-qualified facility in Ankleshwar, Gujarat as ChiroRab in 2019. In the same year, BBIL launched Rotavac 5D used in the prevention of rotavirus diarrhoea, the worlds first and only liquid formulation with the lowest dosage form.

In 2020, SII announced the launch of Indias first indigenously developed pneumococcal vaccine  PNEUMOSIL. This vaccine was launched through a collaboration spanning over a decade between the Serum Institute of India, PATH and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

COVID-19 shots

COVID-19 opened new avenues for Indian vaccine manufacturers and in 2021, BBIL launched Covaxin, India's first indigenously manufactured COVID-19 jab, developed in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) - National Institute of Virology (NIV). This was followed by Ahmedabad-based pharma firm Zydus Cadila receiving the Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for ZyCoV-D the worlds first Plasmid DNA Vaccine for COVID-19. The needle-free drug has been developed in partnership with the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India under the Mission COVID Suraksha and implemented by BIRAC.

The year 2022 saw many indigenous vaccines being launched in India. Starting with SIIs cervical cancer vaccine CERVAVAC, it was followed by BBIL unveiling iNCOVACC, the worlds first intranasal COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine has been developed in collaboration with Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance (BIRAC). Hyderabad-based Biological E (BE) in the same year announced the publication of Corbevax, the indigenously produced RBD-protein subunit vaccine.

Pune-based Gennova Biopharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Emcure Pharmaceuticals, has announced that its mRNA vaccine  GEMCOVAC-19 - received the Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) from the office of the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI).

GEMCOVAC-19 is the very first mRNA vaccine developed in India and the only third mRNA vaccine to be approved for COVID-19 in the world. Ahmedabad-based Cadila Pharmaceuticals developed a novel three-dose recombinant nano-particle-based rabies G protein vaccine.

Way to go

2023 will see the launch of vaccines for Hepatitis A (Hep A) and Measles and Rubella (MR) by Hyderabadbased Indian Immunologicals Limited. Besides human vaccines, the company is also working on multiple animal vaccines projects such as Foot Rot (Sheep), Canine 10-in-1 (Dog), MegaVac- KeC (Dog), Lumpy Skin Disease (Cattle), Mastitis (Cattle) 4 in 1, gE deleted IBR marker vaccine (Cattle). Biotech startup Mynvax, incubated at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru, has developed an adjuvant subunit-based vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 which is now ready for pre-clinical trials.

The Technology Development Board (TDB), Ministry of Science & Technology is supporting Hyderabad-based startup Sapigen Biologix for the development and commercialisation of two novel vaccines  Intranasal COVID-19 Vaccine and RTS, S Malaria Vaccine. Under the agreement signed, TDB and Bharat Biotech have pledged the support of Rs 200 crore each to create a continuous corpus of Rs 400 crore for the development and commercialisation of the two novel vaccines. The company intends to produce 100 million doses/annum of intranasal COVID-19 vaccine by April 2023 and 15 million doses/ annum RTS, S Malaria vaccine by the end of April 2025.

The future

Traditional vaccines have an upper hand having fewer side effects and Indian vaccine manufacturers have struck the right chord while dealing with the manufacture of indigenous vaccines. As compared to the mRNA COVID vaccines that have side effects, indigenous vaccines like Covaxin are known to have lesser or no side effects.

The Department of Biotechnology has taken steps to curb the COVID-19 threat and as Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology, Dr Jitendra Singh rightly points out that India will make significant investments in R&D to develop a roadmap for the design and delivery of vaccine development for a future pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic was an urgent wake-up call and developing the right vaccines at the right time is what Indian vaccine manufacturers need to look up to.

The Union Minister of Science & Technology Dr Singh rightly said, "India was able to develop four COVID-19 vaccines while the whole world was struggling to make even one and contributed to the global fight against COVID-19 by providing vaccine to several countries, under Vaccine Maitri initiatives." Dr Singh also mentioned that while efforts are still on to uncover findings about COVID-19 and the epidemiological models, India is ready to invest in future challenges.

Sanjiv Das

sanjiv.das@mmactiv.com
Fortunately, times are changing; mentalities are changing. Women, themselves, are breaking the glass ceiling, pushing boundaries, and innovating for the sake of womanhood. Also, there has been a growing acceptance of women's health issues and a reduction in the stigma associated with discussing them. This has led to more open conversations and an increased demand for products that cater to women's health needs.

The rise in the femtech market can be attributed to a combination of increased awareness, technological advancements, investment, and a growing demand for women's healthcare solutions.

In the last 6-7 years, women have become aware of the benefits of tracking and monitoring their health as technology has advanced to enable more accurate and personalised health solutions. The femtech market has seen a surge in growth and investment in the past few years, with the global femtech market projected to reach from $18 billion in 2019 to $60 billion by 2027.

Femtech has also gained greater recognition in the healthcare industry, with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other organisations recognising the importance of addressing women's unique health needs. As a result, there has been a growing focus on developing and promoting femtech solutions to improve women's health outcomes and overall well-being.

With the increasing prevalence of smartphones and wearable technology, it has become easier to track and monitor various health metrics, such as menstrual cycles and fertility, leading to the development of new femtech products. The main types of femtech are devices, software, services, and others. Devices refer to a wide range of tools and products that are used for women's health improvement, consisting of wearable devices, treatment devices, and others. Software is used in female technological products for women's wellness and women's healthcare. Services include medical services that are used in women's healthcare, which are therapy services used in wellness and healthcare. The end-users of femtech include direct-to-consumers (D2C), hospitals, fertility clinics, surgical centres, and diagnostic centres for applications in reproductive health, pregnancy and nursing care, pelvic and uterine healthcare, general healthcare and wellness, and others.

Indian women show increased interest in femtech

In India, femtech is still a relatively new industry, but it is rapidly gaining popularity and attracting investment. According to a report by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industries (FICCI), the Indian femtech market is expected to grow to $4 billion by 2024, with a CAGR of 12.9 per cent. The report highlighted that there has been a significant increase in the number of femtech startups in India, with many of them focused on addressing women's health issues such as menstrual health, fertility, maternal health, sexual wellness, and mental health.

Several Indian femtech startups have gained traction and have attracted significant funding. For instance, companies such as Bengaluru-based Plackal, whose app Maya that helps women track their menstrual cycle and ovulation, has raised over $10 million in funding, while BabyChakra, an online platform that connects parents with paediatricians and other child care services, has raised over $17 million.

Jaya Rebello, Managing Director, Collab Function, Founder of Indias first and only dedicated platform (www.gwhic.com), which puts the spotlight on womens health through innovation and femtech, says, Currently, we are noticing that the most successful femtech companies are built by founders who stepped up to fill a gap based on their personal experience. Startups like Niramai and Newmi are built by founders who witnessed someone close to them suffering, which motivated them to start building a service. Another major motivation for Indian women founders in femtech is their understanding of how womens health has systematically suffered and the negative impact it has had on women.

Jaya Rebello says that the vision of serving women better is leading to femtech innovations and services. In the future, we expect to see a higher number of younger Indian women entering the femtech startup space and new solutions and services being developed for smaller cities and rural markets. These entrepreneurs will not only widen the scope of femtech, but will also bring its benefits to the masses. We also foresee that these women entrepreneurs will make the best use of resources available e.g., today, India has over 100 credible, active, and very accessible entrepreneur incubators, offered by government, academic institutions, corporate, and global leadership, and business networks.

Women consist of 45-50 per cent of the Indian population, which is a sizeable number. Womens health issues are more in number due to the complex reproductive system. Therefore, it is but natural that the femtech market will grow  especially, as more effective solutions to specific problems become available, as more women become aware that there are solutions available, and of course as more funds become available in the market making these solutions accessible to the women. With an array of such products, service delivery around those will also blossom, says Veena Moktali, Director, Periwinkle Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

Periwinkle Technologies is addressing cervical cancer mortality among women. As prevalent methods such as lab-based pap smear or HPV DNA tests, naked eye visual examinations, colposcope- and smartphone-based examinations all had dependence on trained or expert personnel and special facilities, the screening for cervical cancer did not happen to the desired extent. The loss-to-follow up was high due to a greater number of days needed to get a result. Hence the mortality rates in India were among the highest in the world. We saw the pain, the trauma, and the stigma that the women had to face when diagnosed with cervical cancer. Thats when we decided we wanted to help change this situation and Smart Scope CX was born, says Veena Moktali.

Smart Scope CX has apparently benefitted lakhs of women across 15 states of India so far, with more and more states onboarding every year. With the ability to provide a single-visit result, immediate triaging with the help of a remote expert, and reducing the turn-around-time to treatment, she says that the companys Smart Scope CX is the perfect solution to screen 70 per cent of the eligible population by 2030 to meet the goal set forth by WHO. The company is taking its success in India to Africa and other international markets in the future.

Considering the healthcare needs of 40 crore Indian women, we have a lot of work to do. Looking at the positive response for our product and the impact it is creating, we are also venturing into new geographies. We want to change cancer screening programmes for the better. I think there is a lot of opportunity for the femtech industry to grow. With changing times, I am sure femtech is going to represent a large part of the market, envisions Veena Moktali.

Handling Menopause Blues

Slowly there has been a wake up to addressing Menopause  a natural biological process that marks the end of a woman's reproductive years  as a serious health concern in women. It typically but can also occur earlier or later. Menopause, which occurs between the ages of 45 and 55 or earlier, can cause a range of physical and emotional changes in women, some of which may have long-term effects. In some women, it could just be hot flashes or night sweats, for others it could be far more serious requiring Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT). Reduced oestrogen levels can lead to bone loss, which can increase the risk of fractures and osteoporosis and also bring about changes in cholesterol levels posing a risk of heart disease.

Elda Health, a Bangalore-based femtech startup that focuses on providing digital healthcare solutions for women, offers a mobile app that provides users with access to personalised healthcare services and information related to women's health. The app offers a range of features, including the ability to book appointments with gynaecologists, access to health tips and information, and the ability to track menstrual cycles and ovulation. The app also offers teleconsultation services, allowing users to consult with healthcare professionals remotely.

Swathi Kulkarni, Co-Founder & CEO, Elda Health, says that her startup is seeing significant progress with their services. According to her, With 55,000 menopausal women enrolled at Elda Health, we have seen significant patterns of existing health issues, physical & psychological impact of untreated menopausal symptoms. Post treatment we noticed improved quality of life. 100 per cent of Elda women were either suffering menopause silently and alone or had failed attempts of seeking help from their health care providers, family and friends before they enrolled into our programmes.

So, people now are cognizant of the serious implications of menopause in women. Sujata Pawar, Co-Founder of Thane-based Avni, a feminine-care and hygiene startup, recently announced that her company has successfully reached more than 55,000 Indian menstruators, since its inception in April 2021. The femtech brand plans to serve an additional 1,50,000+ clients in fiscal 2023-24 with its range of menstrual hygiene products that are skin friendly, environmentally friendly, and chemical free at the same time.

PeeSafe, founded in 2013 by Vikas Bagaria and Srijana Bagaria, in response to the lack of public toilets and poor hygiene conditions in India, launched their first flagship product as a toilet seat sanitizer spray that is designed to disinfect public toilet seats and prevent the spread of germs and bacteria. The company has since expanded its product line to include other personal hygiene products such as menstrual cups, intimate washes, hand sanitizers, and face masks. PeeSafe has received recognition for its innovative products and commitment to hygiene. The company has won several awards, including the Women Entrepreneurship Award by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, and has been featured in various media outlets. In addition to its focus on hygiene, PeeSafe is also committed to social causes. The company partners with non-profit organisations to provide menstrual hygiene products to underprivileged women and girls in India.

Not Just Menstruation

Menstruation, as said before, is just one aspect of a womans health. Many Indian women experience reproductive health issues, such as PCOS, endometriosis, and infertility. Malnutrition, mental health issues, chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease, osteoporosis, and cancer are ailments that are coming to notice in the last years as the Ministry of Women and Child Development are constantly rolling out initiatives to address them. From raising awareness, early detection of chronic diseases, to optimum care, the country is witnessing progress in all these areas.

Infertility is another attention demanding health concern in women. The consequences of in-fertility have serious implications on a marriage. Divorces, apparently, are increasing citing womens inability to bear a child. Hence, this space needs more quality interventions. Gitanjali Banerjee is the founder of a social impact startup venture, Fertility Dost.

According to Gitanjali Banerjee, the startup is Indias first web-based platform to focus on couples undergoing infertility. The startup, as fertility facilitators, aims to handhold the patient through their infertility to pre-conception and pre-treatment preparation, to pregnancy and post-pregnancy phase. The startup is committed to empower its users with the right tools and create a good decision-making environment for child birth.

But these efforts are miniscule compared to the problems that exist. Breast cancer is the most common cancer among Indian women, with an estimated incidence rate of 39 per 100,000 women per year. Other common cancers in Indian women include cervical cancer (14 per 100,000 women per year), ovarian cancer (3.2 per 100,000 women per year) and colorectal cancer (3 per 100,000 women per year). To tackle such incidence rates, the country needs more Niramais, more Periwinkles, and many more in healthcare diagnostics and preventive women healthcare interventions.

The needle need not always point towards larger problems. Simple issues like oral problems specific to women can have a product. For example, Frimline Private Limited, a health and consumer goods company, recently launched its Dente91 She, which is claimed to be the first ever toothpaste in India specially crafted for women. As women, throughout their lifespan, from puberty to menopause, women go through hormonal changes, making them susceptible to oral issues such as gingivitis, caries, and hypersensitivity, Frimline formulated Dente91 She toothpaste specially to address oral issues of women.

To get an idea of other spaces where femtech products can be developed, Frost & Sullivan rolled out a new report that identified 10 lucrative growth opportunities in Womens Healthcare by 2030. With the requirement to deliver health equity for 4.3 billion women globally, the analysis highlights Women in Transition Symptoms Management & Holistic Care as an untapped high-growth potential market.

In conclusion, we can only say that womens health is finally getting its share in digital health. The femtech industry is currently made up of at least 200 startups globally, which is hardly a number. Yes, there are several challenges to overcome. Funding, mentorships, finances  hassles are plenty. Supporters of femtech, however, state that collaborations, partnerships of different strengths can make this market flourish while women get their due share of wellness and care.

Anusha Ashwin
To achieve the national goal of malaria elimination by 2030

Malaria No More (MNM) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Department of Health & Family Welfare, Government of Odisha to eliminate malaria from the state. The tripartite partnership also included Prayatna, a grassroot organisation that is the implementing and fiduciary partner of the MNM India programme of Malaria No More.

MNM has been supporting the Government of Odisha since 2018 to strengthen the state's malaria control and elimination programme, offering technical, strategic, implementation, advocacy, and innovation support. This new MoU marks the strength of the existing partnership between MNM and Government of Odisha, with an extended partnership period of 5 years.

Over the next 5 years, MNM seeks to build on and enhance the previous MoU by expanding operational geography to cover additional parts of Koraput and Malkangiri  two of the most malaria endemic districts of the country.

The extended partnership will also focus on integration of newer tools and innovative technology, including advanced data reporting, management, and analysis tools; strengthening of inter-sectoral and inter-departmental coordination for a concerted and collaborative effort; and improving entomological capacity of the state.

Additionally, the MoU will aim to include and integrate the malaria burden diagnosed and treated in the private health sector (both formal and informal) with the official reported burden. The private sector tends to address a significant proportion of malaria cases; thus this exercise will help ascertain the true burden of malaria in the state.
The rise in the femtech market can be attributed to a combination of increased awareness, technological advancements, investment, and a growing demand for women's healthcare solutions. BioSpectrum interacts with Navneet Kaur, Founder & CEO, Femtech India, about the evolution of the femtech sector in the country.

How is the femtech industry evolving in Asia? Can you share a few market trends and future growth predictions?

The femtech industry is poised for tremendous growth and has demonstrated unprecedented progress over the past years. The Asia Pacific femtech market is expected to progress with a Compounded growth rate of ~13 per cent over the forecasting years leading to 2028. Despite the COVID and lock-down related headwinds, the industry recorded a massive ~70 per cent jump in the Southeast Asian markets. Countries like India, Thailand, and Singapore have demonstrated massive growth in the post-COVID scenario. While these disparities can surely be bridged soon, I am quite confident that markets such as India, Singapore, and Thailand will flourish and apps and tracking devices will take a front seat.

What are the driving factors in femtech and which among the Asian countries do you see more femtech companies coming up?

While it is difficult to attribute the growth to any one driver, a combination of multiple factors will push the growth. For instance, the Indian market has been favouring lots of pro-women policies that are ably being supported by the State and Central Government. This is enabling women entrepreneurs to explore newer opportunities to seize the tax benefits, mentorship opportunities, and seed funding offers. In a similar vein, countries like Singapore and Thailand are also fostering growth. Also, the digital wave and the increased dependence on gadgets are also making it easy to launch products and services in the electronic space. Trackers and apps are emerging to be the favourites.

Do you see more women entrepreneurs and startup enthusiasts foraying in the femtech space? If so, what is the support they receive in establishing their business?

This is the golden era of innovation. Several women entrepreneurs are perfecting their ideas and concepts and knocking on the doors of opportunities. What might be missing is that these aspiring entrepreneurs need guidance and mentorship to kick things off. With that intent in mind, Femtech India has started a series of mentorship programmes that are available both in the online and offline setup. We are collaborating with industry partners who have expertise in finance, consulting, medical, and legal backgrounds. As a woman entrepreneur, I feel this is the least we can do for other women entrepreneurs to empower femtech in India.

How do you see Indian women making a mark in the femtech industry?

Indian women have already created an indelible mark in the space. The post-COVID landscape is proof of the pudding. With the prevalence of women entrepreneurs who have been dominating the ecosystem, the increased discussion about femtech products, and services is already at its peak. I feel the best is already here. It is just onwards and upwards from now.

What kind of challenges do women entrepreneurs have to face and overcome in the femtech vertical?

Perhaps, funding being in the nascent stages in the femtech space might be the largest hurdle. It is about time that we collectively make the ecosystem more robust and prove that womens healthcare and the femtech space at large are lucrative and are poised towards remarkable innovation and growth. We at Femtech India are taking several steps to create more awareness about the space. With the aim of getting more startups to get funding, we are looking to partner with leading investors in the womens health space.

Anusha Ashwin
Following the declines experienced in 2020 that resulted in a 4.4% drop in premium volumes, the global Long-Term (Life) Insurance industry demonstrated resilience, by achieving significantly higher growth of 9.9% in 2021, with a marginal 0.2% contraction expected in 2022. Much of this recovery can be attributd to the InsurTech-driven simplification of Life Insurance products, part of the focus on customer centricity following Covid-19-driven changes in consumer expectations. Crucially, this trend is driving greater accessibility in terms of policy requirements and understandability, as well as the development of simplified offerings provided via non-traditional channels, and boosting penetration in underserved markets.

Insight Surveys latest South African Long-Term Insurance Industry Landscape Report 2023 carefully uncovers the global and local Long-Term Insurance market, based on the latest information and research. It describes the key global and local market trends, innovation and technology, drivers, and challenges, to present an objective insight into the South African Long-Term Insurance industry and its future.

In 2022, the InsurTech market was expected to continue to expand rapidly, with a predicted compound annual growth rate of 25.9%, to reach a total value of $165.4bn in 2032. This expansion can be largely attributed to the collaboration between InsurTechs and major industry players, to digitalise, automate, and simplify Insurance processes. This is also aimed at enabling the embedding of Life Insurance products with everyday consumer products, and the distribution of these products via popular consumer channels, such as online retailers.

Graphics by Insight Survey Source: FutureMarketInsights

Globally, there has been a rapid emergence of new and innovative trends and products focusing on consumer simplicity and accessibility. This includes the utilisation of accelerated underwriting, to offer products that do not require a medical examination, as well as the emergence of pay-as-you-go Life Insurance models that help to penetrate previously underserved markets.

In terms of the South African market, paradoxically, as consumer needs evolve and become more complex, demand for simple, quick, and easily understandable Life Insurance products is increasing. As consumer expectations grow for personalised products, clear pricing, and simple digital platforms, Insurance players are responding with the launch of demystified accessible products, accompanied by understandable policy wording and marketing.

For example, major local player, Hollard, launched its Hollard Life Select Policy, as part of its strategy of expanding Long-Term Insurance to the broader South African market. Touted as a no-frills Life Insurance policy, this product has less than 100 permutations, down from 3600 in previous versions. It has also been designed to accelerate the application process and assist advisors in explaining the product to consumers via simple policy wording and marketing material.

Interestingly, the launch of this product was also accompanied by an education drive, aimed at informing consumers about the importance of Life Insurance. The policy itself is also designed to address specific consumer pain points and barriers, including extended application processes, complex policy wordings, gaps between premiums and perceived value, and general financial illiteracy, thereby contributing to its expanded appeal.

Similarly, Sanlam and MTNs recent partnership with the aYo Insurtech platform is also aimed at extending the accessibility of Life Insurance to underserved populations, not only in South Africa, but across the African continent. This partnership is designed to provide easier access to Sanlams products, especially amongst consumers with previously limited access via traditional distribution channels, thereby enabling the company to significantly expand its market on the continent.

Additionally, further demonstrating the role of InsurTech in product simplification, Mr Price Money, in partnership with local InsurTech company, Root, launched its new Life Matters product, specifically marketed as a simplified Life Insurance option. This simplification includes the removal of the requirement for a medical examination when signing up, an application process that only requires consumers to answer a limited number of questions, and immediate activation.

The simplification and enhanced availability of traditionally complex, inaccessible Long-Term Insurance products are revolutionising the market, by enabling local players to expand into previously underserved markets. This is increasingly being achieved through partnerships with InsurTech companies that provide the technological expertise necessary to design, develop, and launch simplified products catering to broader South African consumer segments.

The South African Long-Term Insurance Industry Landscape Report 2023 (123 pages) provides a dynamic synthesis of industry research, examining the local and global Long-Term Insurance industry (including the impact of Covid-19) from a uniquely holistic perspective, with detailed insights into the entire value chain  from market size, industry trends, latest innovation and technology, key drivers and challenges, to a detailed competitor and product analysis.

Some key questions the report will help you to answer:

What are the current market dynamics (overview, market environment, and key regional markets) in the Global Long-Term Insurance industry?

What are the latest news and developments in the South African Long-Term Insurance industry, as well as the current market dynamics (overview, market environment, and key industry statistics)?

What are the latest Global and South African Long-Term Insurance industry trends (including Insurtech), innovation and technology, drivers and challenges?

How did South African Long-Term Insurance companies perform in 2022?

What is the latest company news for each South African Long-Term Insurance player, in terms of products, services, new launches, and marketing initiatives?

What is the latest marketing and advertising news for each of the key Long-Term Insurance players?

Please note that the 123-page report is available for purchase for R45,000 (excluding VAT). Alternatively, individual sections can be purchased from R17,500 (excluding VAT). For more information, please email info@insightsurvey.co.za or call our Cape Town office on (021) 045-0202 or Johannesburg office on (010) 140- 5756.

For more details and a full brochure: South African Long-Term Insurance Industry Landscape Report 2023

About Insight Survey:

Insight Survey is a South African B2B market research company with more than 15 years of heritage, focusing on business-to-business (B2B) and industry research to ensure smarter, more-profitable business decisions are made with reduced investment risk.

We offer market research solutions to help you successfully improve or expand your business, enter new markets, launch new products, or better understand your internal or external environment.

Our bespoke Competitive Business Intelligence Research can help give you the edge in a global marketplace, empowering your business to overcome industry challenges quickly and effectively, and enabling you to realise your potential and achieve your vision.

From strategic overviews of your businesss competitive environment through to specific competitor profiles, our customised Competitive Intelligence Research is designed to meet your unique needs.

For more information, go to www.insightsurvey.co.za
This week I catch up with Emma King the founder and managing director of The Friday Street Club, an award-winning creative marketing and communications agency.

Emma King. Source: Supplied.

What do you enjoy most about your industry?

I love that we can combine strategic thinking and creativity in everything we do. And I also love the people in the industry, and particularly the incredible people in my team, who are clever, creative, funny, kind and brave.

What is a typical workday for you?

It sounds like a cliche, but every day really is different. We work with lots of clients across lots of industries, and we do different things for each of them. So, for example, here are some of the things I have been up to in the last week or so:

Developing the annual strategy for a local soda brand to grow in South Africa, as well as building their sales and their brand in the USA.

Launching a luxury Italian kitchen brands Cape Town showroom during Art Fair Week with a collaboration with a local artist.

Brainstorming and developing the branding for a new luxury hotel linked to a global chain that will be opening here next year.

Developing the positioning for a new vegan product range.

I am also planning a photographic art exhibition; pulling together a few new business pitches; wrapping up our end of year financials and more.

Describe your career so far.

I studied Fine Art and English Literature at UCT, combing my two passions of visual creativity and writing. I then went to the UK and after a few random odd jobs, started as a receptionist in a PR company. I had no idea what PR was, but it looked glamourous and I thought it had something to do with magazines which sounded fun.

Ten years later I had worked my way up through several PR agencies in London, working on some global brands, including heading up the Cathay Pacific Airlines press office and also spending time on the ground in Nigeria and Ghana managing campaigns for Guinness. I came back to Cape Town about 10 years ago, worked in a few PR and ad agencies and then founded The Friday Street Club  and here we are today!

What are you currently streaming/reading/listening to?

I always listen to podcasts when I am driving around and am currently switching between true crime ones like Crime Junkies and nerdy history ones like The Rest is History. My favourite one was from last year or so called Sweet Bobby  a mad tale of someone being catfished for over a decade. I always have a book on the go, and at the moment Im into dark, grim detective series  currently I am reading the JD Kirk series about a miserable Scottish detective.

What's your favourite gif?

This one always makes me laugh, because I feel like I am always doing this (even if its just inside my head).

Who inspires you?

My mom. She is an incredible woman, a leading scientist in her day working with fresh water ecosystems. She taught me to be brave and ambitious in my career; to aim high; and to look at ways in which to bring about positive change and impact in the way that I live and operate the business.

What did you want to be when you were a child?

A horse riding teacher, a helicopter pilot or an artist. I also wanted to fly and tried to make some wings out of leaves stuck together with sellotape, so clearly I wasnt very sensible.

Give three pieces of advice for young people who want to enter this industry.

Embrace what makes you YOU. Dont try to change and be like everyone else  the things that make you unique and different are what makes you special.

Social media can be the make or break of a career or job application. In creative and marketing industries, its a chance to showcase what you can do and who you are, and can set you apart from all the other boring CVs that get submitted  curated Instagram feeds (that arent just a million selfies), blogs, creative content development, skills with video editing and more can all be used to show what you can bring to a company, especially if you are starting out and dont have an extensive CV or portfolio of client work to show. And remember that most prospective employers will check our your feeds before hiring, so make sure that you are representing your best self  we have dropped people from our recruitment processes after seeing them be rude, racist or nasty on their personal social media platforms.

Be eager and interested in everything, especially when you are starting out in your first role. Good companies support and promote those who show they are keen to jump in, get their hands dirty and be part of the team.

Has it all been worth it?



Hell yes!
Plant genetics company GDM has applied for registration in South Africa of 13 soy plant varieties after the country approved the use of a new GMO seed technology, according to company executives on Monday, 27 February...

Source: manfredrichter via pixabay.com Pixabay]]

GDM is based in Argentina but derives most of its sales in neighbouring Brazil, where that same technology has been in use since 2014.

The expectation is that three of the 13 materials be pre-launched this year, as the firm hopes to bolster its South African business and prepare incursions throughout the region.

"Our target is that by 2027 more than 50% of the area planted with soybeans in South Africa contains our genetics," said Thiago Schwonka, the company's Africa, Asia and Europe business leader.

Tackling food insecurity

GDM's strategy reflects a recent push by African governments to tackle food insecurity by attracting plant genetics firms.

Schwonka said that while South Africa is the only African nation that recognises the intellectual property of autogamous, or self-fertilising plants, other countries are keen to modernise their patent laws and join the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV).

All the 13 materials GDM plans to register in South Africa feature Bayer's INTACTA RR2 PRO GMO seed technology, designed to help soy plants resist caterpillars and the glyphosate weed-killer.

South Africa's approval of that technology came in 2021, GDM said.

Joao Schechtel, GDM's product placement supervisor, noted much of South Africa's soy is used as cattle feed during the dry months of winter. He said corn remains South Africa's main crop, but added farmers may grow soy planting in corn areas because corn production costs are rising.

GDM also plans to launch non-GMO wheat seeds in South Africa shortly. By 2027, it wants to achieve a 20% share of the wheat seed market there, the executives said.
In 2022, it was reported that 47% of South African women were recorded as economically inactive. This means that almost half of the working age women in South Africa are out of labour force compared to 35,6% of their male counterparts.

Whilst many women in South Africa are facing poverty and unemployment while balancing family responsibilities and various hardships, there are organisations that aim to support them in rising above their circumstances, such as getting the education needed to earn sufficiently or to learn how to start a business.

One such organisation is Colours of a Kind, a leading female-based empowerment accelerator and non-profit company that seeks to change this story for as many women as possible.

Providing the opportunity to women from disadvantaged communities to learn the skills needed to work within the local fashion and textile industry, Colours of a Kinds goal is to boost employment opportunities, encourage entrepreneurship and to promote financial independence.

This ethos is aligned with the principles behind International Womens Day, which falls on 8 March 2023. Recognising this day began in the early 1900s and still seeks to highlight the social, economic and cultural challenges that impact so many women, while commemorating history and uplifting women, striving towards gender equality.

Celebrate progress and success of women

Colours of a Kind graduate, Sindisiwe Phafuli

With this years International Womens Day in mind, its important to celebrate progress and success like that of Colours of a Kind graduate, Sindisiwe Phafuli.

Like so many women with a child to support, Phafuli was not working and did not have enough money to study fashion.Colours of a Kind sponsored Phafuli with education and mentorship and enabled her to begin working in fashion, enabling her to provide more for her son, and to dream of opening her own boutique someday, dressing local celebrities and cabinet ministers.

Were so proud of Sindisiwe, she is living the vision of Colours of a Kind and inspiring others to do their best, says General Manager of Colours of a Kind, Jackie Vorster. Our graduates have sound business skills to take their professional journeys forward. Once you give a woman the opportunity to learn and show her how to operate in a place of business, it opens doors for her.

Financial independence is crucial

The SETA accredited Colours of a Kind Accelerator Programme offers students a unique and fully sponsored opportunity to complete a one-year General Education and Training Certificate in the Clothing Manufacturing Process at the Fashion Institute of Garment Technology by the Cape Town College of Fashion Design. Graduates, like Phafuli, are then assisted through internship employment at the Colours of a Kind Creative Studio or with finding a job in the fashion industry. Support is also available for them to start their own fashion brands or businesses within their own communities.

Vorster believes that financial independence is crucial in the widespread upliftment of women in South Africa and believes that there are great opportunities within the textile and fashion industry with it being the second largest industry in Africa. [4]Its an exciting sector, ripe for new talent as it shifts towards a more environmentally, socially and economically inclusive future. Helping women to succeed here is part of that and is at the core of Colours of a Kind.

The organisations primary goals are to empower women from disadvantaged communities and to offer mentorship and employment opportunities including outsourcing of sewing work to graduates, creating ongoing, professional growth.

This year we have expanded into our own production studio, to upskill our interns and to continue to provide a supportive and creative space for women, Vorster concludes.

Colours of a Kind has to date assisted over 100 women to progress professionally into the fashion and textile industry. Colours of a Kind also offers tax deductible options for corporate sponsorship, and the availability of boutique products to support their graduates.
According to a recent judgment from the Labour Appeal Court (LAC), when concluding settlement agreements with former employees, employers must actively preserve their rights to enforce restraint of trade undertakings, and other important protections.

On 21 February 2023, the LAC handed down judgment in which it found that a CCMA settlement agreement disposed of an employer's rights in terms of a restraint of trade agreement concluded with a former employee. Webber Wentzel represented the employee in this matter before the CCMA, the Labour Court and ultimately the LAC.

The appellant before the LAC referred an unfair dismissal dispute to the CCMA. The parties settled the dispute at the arbitration, and (with the assistance of legal representatives) concluded an agreement recording the terms of the settlement. The parties drafted and concluded an annexure to the CCMA's standard form settlement agreement, which annexure was to be attached to, and read with, the CCMA's standard form agreement.

In February 2022, the employer brought an urgent application to the Labour Court, in an attempt to interdict the employee from breaching a restraint of trade agreement entered into between the parties in 2010. The essential dispute between the parties before the Labour Court was the meaning and consequence of the full and final settlement clauses contained in the settlement agreement concluded at the CCMA (ie. in the CCMA's standard form settlement agreement and the annexure thereto), and whether the settlement agreement disposed of the restraint of trade agreement between the parties. The settlement agreement contained two important clauses stating that the agreement was concluded in full and final settlement of all claims which the parties may have against each other, including whether such claims arise from contract, delict, operation of law, equality, fairness or otherwise.

The employee argued that the restraint of trade agreement had been disposed of, with the effect that the employer was prohibited from enforcing the restraint. The employer, on the other hand, argued that it had not waived its rights in terms of the restraint agreement, and that the settlement agreement was only meant to cover those matters that were specifically referred to the CCMA.

The Labour Court found in favour of the employer, and granted the interdict sought on the basis that the employee was in breach of the restraint of trade agreement.

The employee applied for, and was granted, leave to appeal against the judgment and order of the Labour Court. In overturning the judgment of the Labour Court (and ordering that the employer pay the employee's costs) Davis JA, writing for a unanimous bench held as follows:

the full and final settlement clause in the annexure attached to the settlement agreement extended beyond the specific dispute referred to the CCMA;



the clause specifically provided for any claims the parties may have against each other whether such claims arise from "contract, delict, operation of law, equality, fairness or otherwise". None of these causes of action were relevant to the specific issues which had been referred to the CCMA;



the settlement agreement was specifically constructed by the parties, who chose the express words which they considered would represent the purpose they had in mind in reaching a settlement agreement;



it was clear that the employer was aware that the employee may not adhere to the restraint agreement and there was the possibility that the employer's proprietary interest would be infringed since the employee had already been dismissed. A sensible interpretation of the meaning of the full and final settlement clause could not be confined to the specific claims which were referred to the CCMA; and



if the employer was concerned about the protection afforded to it under the restraint agreement, it should have carved out an exclusion so that the restraint of trade agreement continued to be operative despite the conclusion of the settlement agreement.

It was on this basis that the LAC ordered that the appeal be upheld with costs. The principle extends beyond restraint of trade agreements and employers may wish to exclude various undertakings previously given in the employer's favour when concluding settlement agreements with employees, depending on the circumstances of the case. For example, employers should seek to preserve their rights in terms of confidentiality agreements and intellectual property agreements to ensure that a former employee does not claim that the settlement agreement disposed of these rights.

The judgment should act as a cautionary reminder to employers (and legal representatives) in relation to the wording of settlement agreements, and particularly those concluded at the CCMA or bargaining council (using or in conjunction with the pro forma settlement agreements of those fora). Parties to settlement agreements have to at all stages remain mindful of what it is that the settlement agreement seeks to resolve and whether, or to what extent, specific rights or obligations should be carved out.
The Walt Disney Company Africa, together with its project partners USAID, the US State Department and WildlifeDirect are pleased to announce that brand new episodes of Team Sayari will premiere on National Geographic Wild (DStv 182, Starsat 221) this March. Following a successful launch and enthusiastic reception, viewers can look forward to more adventures in the natural world with episodes premiering on the channel every Saturday at 1pm (CAT) / 2pm (EAT) from 4 March 2023.

Team Sayari

The first of its kind, this authentic African childrens programme aims to encourage viewers to engage in conservation of Africas vast biodiversity and natural resources. Led by the programmes goals to inspire curiosity, ignite positive behaviour change and nurture environmental champions, studio hosts Mysha Hodson (15), Marita Lucas (14), Shanah Manjeru (16), Railey Mwai (12) and Adarsh Nagda (14) commence each episode in the Sayari Basecamp where a gigantic tree, with a textured trunk named Funzi imparts knowledge about the environment and gives the team various challenges on which to embark.

Young field presenters from across the continent Thandolwethu Fani (15), Khahliso Khojane (15), Sabrina Kilumanga (11), Atule Mazane (14) Christian Mekhi (11), Toluwanimi Olaoye (13) and Sheilah Sheldone (14) visit the wild to meet African experts to learn about our environmental challenges and be inspired to reduce their impact, protect and restore nature. Along the way, they provide viewers with the knowledge of how to protect the natural world, in a fun way.

Team Sayari

When the series returns, the brand-new episodes will continue to showcase fascinating insights, facts and adventures throughout our natural world. For instance, Team Sayari learns how animals, from the cheetah to the tortoise, are built for speed and how this helps them survive in the wild. They discover that the more you learn about snakes, the more you realize that they are incredible creatures worthy of our respect and protection. Our youth also learn that, bursting with wildlife and filled with mysteries to be solved, our oceans are one of the most amazing habitats on Earth, that need to be protected, as well as many other intriguing discoveries.

Team Sayari fun in Sayari basecamp

Alongside the television production, an outreach programme, run by WildlifeDirect is currently underway across East Africa, extending the reach of the series into rural communities through the Nature Positive Kids Outreach program targeting 10,000 children in 200 schools. Additionally, a call for conservation project proposals to all participating schools will be rolled out in Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania on 3 March to mark this years World Wildlife Day and to incentivise schools to embrace the environment. An exciting digital extension, the Team Sayari web-based app, will soon be available, providing digital extensions of the programme, fun activities and even more ways to engage with the natural world.

Team Sayari hosts with WildlifeDirect team

Team Sayari is the result of a collaborative effort between National Geographic, The Walt Disney Company Africa, USAID, the US State Department and WildlifeDirect. This successful, innovative, edutainment TV series is produced by Kenyan Production Company, White Rhino Films and aims to celebrate, encourage and inspire the next generation of environmental champions to interact with, preserve, and safeguard the environment and natural resources.
Raymond Joseph is suing former chief operating officer of the National Lotteries Commission Phillemon Letwaba for defamation.

Former Chief Operating Officer of the National Lotteries Commission (NLC), Phillemon Letwaba has been ordered to pay punitive legal costs to veteran freelance journalist Raymond Joseph (pictured above) / GroundUp

Raymond Joseph, who has spearheaded GroundUp s investigation into the National Lotteries Commission (NLC), has sued former NLC chief operating officer Phillemon Letwaba for R600,000, claiming he impaired his dignity and reputation.



s investigation into the National Lotteries Commission (NLC), has sued former NLC chief operating officer Phillemon Letwaba for R600,000, claiming he impaired his dignity and reputation. Letwaba is opposing the action but failed to file his discovery affidavit, in defiance of a court order granted in November last year.



Joseph applied for summary judgment against Letwaba.



Judge James Lekuleni adjourned the summary judgment application until April, but ordered Letwaba to pay Josephs legal costs on a punitive scale because Letwaba has wasted the courts time.

Former chief operating officer of the National Lotteries Commission (NLC) Phillemon Letwaba has been ordered to pay punitive legal costs to veteran freelance journalist Raymond Joseph for ignoring deadlines to file papers in a legal action in which Joseph is suing him for defamation.

Western Cape High Court Judge James Lekuleni granted the costs order this week after Letwabas lawyers sought an adjournment of the defamation matter, claiming he had appointed new attorneys who knew nothing about the case.

However, Josephs advocate Deneys van Reenen pointed out that a court order granted in November last year, giving Letwaba 10 days to file a discovery affidavit, had been served on both Letwaba personally and his new attorneys that same month.

After this was ignored, Josephs lawyers set the matter down for hearing before Judge Lekuleni this week, asking for default judgment against Letwaba for R600,000 for impairment of dignity and reputation.

Advocate Thato Rakatane, for Letwaba, asked the court for an indulgence and an opportunity to oppose judgment being granted.

Judge Lekuleni put Letwaba on terms to file his discovery affidavit in compliance with the November order by 13 March.

He adjourned the matter until 11 April and ordered Letwaba to pay Josephs costs on an attorney and client scale.

Joseph is a GroundUp freelancer who has written more than 100 articles exposing corruption in the NLC.

Joseph, in his court application, says Letwaba defamed him during an interview on Newzroom Africa, alleging that he and his family had benefited from lottery money.

Letwaba claimed that the journalist was embittered because the commission had put a stop to his funding.

Joseph has denied this, and says Letwaba defamed him.

In his summons, served in November 2021, Joseph has included a transcript of the interview done with journalist Stephen Grootes in which Letwaba claimed that he had been targeted by him for five years just because one individual who is the major beneficiary of the NLC decided to declare war against the NLC.

Letwaba claimed that more than 12 organisations linked to Joseph were no longer receiving lottery funds and suggested Joseph was attacking him because of this.

Joseph says that neither he nor any of his family members had ever applied for or received a lottery grant, the allegations were untrue, and they were designed to inform the public that he could not be believed.

They were understood by the reasonable audience to mean that I knowingly breached journalistic ethics, was a vengeful and malicious journalist, and had embarked on an untruthful campaign against him and the commission, he said.

Letwaba, at the last minute, filed a notice to defend the summons, arguing that his utterances were true and in the public interest. He then missed deadlines to file further papers and documents disclosing the basis of his defence.

Joseph, in an affidavit which came before Judge Lekuleni, accuses Letwaba of using every possible measure to delay the litigation and of being extremely reluctant to answer his claims.

He said while this dragged on, his entire livelihood was at stake because it was dependent on his reputation as an honest and unbiased journalist.

Being a veteran journalist, I have always regarded myself as tough and willing to take some abuse. However, the brazen accusations of dishonesty caused me extreme embarrassment and hurt, he said.

Letwaba is also suing GroundUps editor and Joseph for defamation. He issued summons in 2019, but the case appears to be at a standstill.

This article was originally published on GroundUp.
Applications have opened for the third cohort of Google's Black Founders Fund for Startups in Africa and Europe. The company has committed $4m to support eligible Black-founded startups in 2023.

Recipients of the Black Founders Fund 2022 | Image source: Google Africa Blog

Startups operating and headquartered in Africa or having a legal presence on the continent are eligible to apply for the Black Founders Fund. Other eligibility criteria for startups that wish to apply are that the business should be benefiting the Black community or that early-stage startups have Black founders or diverse founding teams.

The startups should be building for Africa and the global market, have the growth potential to raise more funding, create jobs and generally be making measurable impact.

Upon selection, the startups will receive up to $150,000 equity-free cash awards and up to $200,000 per startup in Google Cloud credits, support in the form of training, and access to a network of mentors to assist in tackling the challenges unique to each startup. The applications for the third cohort will close on 26 March 2023.

Startups are a critical driver of innovation, economic growth and social progress, especially in Africa and the support that the selected startups will receive will go a long way to unlock the potential and promote growth in the African tech ecosystem and the next generation of African tech entrepreneurs. We encourage all eligible startups to apply, says Folarin Aiyegbusi, head of startup ecosystem, Google Sub-Saharan Africa.

Following the successful completion of two cohorts of the Black Founders Fund, the programme has supported a total of 110 Black-owned startups across Africa. Sixty growth-stage startups were selected and supported through the programme last year in Africa.

Africa has a growing population with one in three Africans estimated to be under 35 by 2050. The continent presents a huge opportunity for startups to provide innovative solutions for the growing market. It is also estimated that by 2025, the African Internet economy will have the potential to add up to $180bn to Africas GDP

By funding Black founders, Google is promoting job creation and wealth generation in the continent. The Black Founders Fund programme for startups not only provides funding but also hands-on support, connections and resources to help founders build solutions that are relevant to the African economy.

Applications for the 2023 Black Founders Fund for Startups can be found here.
In the wake of another rate hike and on top of ongoing loadshedding, high fuel prices and a generally gloomy economic outlook, South Africa's myriad small and medium enterprises (SMEs) face serious headwinds. The right connectivity solution is a key success factor in overcoming these challenges in an ever connected world within which they operate.

Makgosi Mabaso

In our experience, many SMEs are starting 2023 in a crisis of confidence. While theres no doubt there is a real basis for their anxiety, the key to succeeding in these difficult conditions is to have the best possible connectivity solutions at a cost-effective rate, says Makgosi Mabaso, managing executive: home and business solutions. Digital, connected ecosystems can enable SMEs to compete with even big corporates on equal terms and access new markets. Mabaso explains that the current landscape was the inspiration behind Telkoms Back 2 Business deals that have been carefully crafted with the needs of SMEs in mind.

Typically, SMEs overspend on digital solutions because offers are usually bundled in a way that supports the vendors bottom line, not how to service their customer base effectively. We are turning that mindset on its head by enabling SMEs to access products and services aligned with their business goals and budget, and that will deliver real value, she adds.

Telkom Businesss innovative approach to helping SMEs succeed needs to be seen in the broader context of the South African economy, which has failed to create jobs and economic inclusion.

Globally, SMEs are seen as the engine of growth and create the majority of jobs. In Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, for example, SMEs create 60-70% of employment up to 60% of GDP. By contrast, despite making up 98.5% of the economy, South African SMEs only contribute 28% of the jobs, according to a report by the Small Business Institute.

Digitalisation is one of the ways in which our entrepreneurs can grow their businesses and so create stable jobs - and its vital for the countrys future that they do so, she argues. Back 2 Business is our contribution, giving SMEs a solid foundation for a year of growth - against the odds.

Need help connecting your business?

Telkom Business wants to support businesses to improve their daily operations at any level through business-specific deals and business-focused value propositions. Whether youre an entrepreneur on the move or looking to connect your entire office, Telkom Business will guide you to get your business up and running with products that align with your business needs, whilst considering the SA economy climate.

To find out more about Telkom Business, please visit www.telkombusiness.co.za
The Anti-Defamation League, who say on their website that the notion that Palestinians and Jews "could coexist in one happy state" is "ludicrous," condemned Dilbert creator Scott Adams on Monday as a "full on racist" for making similar comments about whites and blacks.



"Adams' remarks about the Black community are flat out racist and should be condemned by all, period," ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said on Twitter. "I believe in counsel culture so I hope he'll apologize and work to educate himself, but he seems to be doing the exact opposite."





Adams' remarks about the Black community are flat out racist and should be condemned by all, period. I believe in counsel culture so I hope he'll apologize and work to educate himself, but he seems to be doing the exact opposite. https://t.co/WHtTgvqQhl  Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) February 28, 2023



The ADL said in a guide for pro-Israel activists on their website that the idea of "bi-nationalism" (Jews and Palestinians sharing one state) in Israel "is unworkable given current realities and historic animosities" and amounts to "nothing less than an indirect attempt to bring about an end to the State of Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish people."



"With historically high birth rates among the Palestinians, and a possible influx of Palestinian refugees and their descendants now living around the world, Jews would quickly be a minority within a bi-national state, thus likely ending any semblance of equal representation and protections," the ADL said. "In this situation, the Jewish population would be increasingly politically  and potentially physically  vulnerable."



"It is unrealistic and unacceptable to expect the State of Israel to voluntarily subvert its own sovereign existence and nationalist identity and become a vulnerable minority within what was once its own territory," the ADL continued.



"Moreover, as Israeli analyst Yossi Klein-Halevi has argued, 'the notion that Palestinians and Jews, who can't even negotiate a two-state solution, could coexist in one happy state is so ludicrous that only the naive or the malicious would fall for it.'"







Adams comments were actually a lot more tame as he simply recommended whites move to neighborhoods where they feel safe and are not surrounded by people who don't think it's "okay to be white."



Israel, which the ADL lobbies for, regularly bulldozes Palestinians' homes and moves Israeli settlers from places like New York into their properties.





If I dont steal it, someone else is going to steal it.



An Israeli settlers attempt to justify a forcible takeover of a Palestinian home in Sheikh Jarrah in occupied East Jerusalem has sparked anger online after it was caught on camera. pic.twitter.com/V9PSrlXeIL  Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) May 3, 2021



Incidentally, the ADL lists "It's Okay to be White" as a "hate symbol" on their website.







Adams responded to Greenblatt's comments during his livestream on Tuesday.







"It's very clear when to see it drawn out that there's a race-baiting industrial complex," Adams said. "Today it's stretched into I'm anti-Semitic."



"The reason things are tense, racially, is that the public is being sold a non-stop narrative of white people being enemies and the cause of all discrimination and white supremacy and all that stuff," Adams said. "The media is the problem."



Adams said on Twitter that Greenblatt should watch his interview with Hotep Jesus "and consider an apology after you educate yourself."





Sounds like you missed the context. Check out my interview with Hotep Jesus on YouTube and consider an apology after you educate yourself. https://t.co/XXZ44uzwzN  Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) February 28, 2023







Follow InformationLiberation on Twitter, Facebook, Gab, Minds and Telegram.
If the Voice fails despite his positive intervention, he would be free to blame the prime minister for any strategic, tactical or rhetorical missteps  and there have been a few  since the debate began with a vengeance last year. Dutton deserves credit for keeping his side united since last May. Unity is important. It is not everything. Leadership matters more, as does courage. Perhaps Dutton was spooked by David Littleprouds fate when a majority of Nationals MPs made clear to their leader they would not tolerate a Yes from the party as he desired. National MPs made it clear to their leader David Littleproud that they would not tolerate supporting a Yes vote. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen The Nationals occupy different territory to the Liberals, whose great strength has been their ability to appeal to the middle ground. There is no future in denying that ground has shifted. Set aside for now the continuing reluctance to adapt to the reality of climate change, where the review of nuclear energy as an option is seen even by some of its advocates as another stalling tactic which will never happen, along with the completely bonkers plan to recycle Tony Abbott into the Senate, and consider the issue of gender where tin-eared responses cost Liberals so dearly in 2022.

There was a heaven-sent opportunity after Alan Tudge announced his resignation to show they got it. Yet the next day, deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley could not bring herself to say to Patricia Karvelas on Radio National that it would be a good idea if the preselectors of Aston chose a woman. Nor could she bring herself to say that it would also be a good idea if Dutton chose a woman to replace the disgraced Tudge on his frontbench. It took a few days before the leadership let it be known that maybe it would be best if the preselectors went for a woman. Then incredibly, Dutton opted to recycle David Coleman into his shadow ministry instead of giving another woman a go, perhaps newly elected MPs Jenny Ware from NSW or Victorias Zoe McKenzie. Wanting more detail on the Voice is legitimate  even people of goodwill want more and Dutton tapped into the public mood by calling for it  but it is neither possible nor feasible to know every last detail before the referendum.

Wanting more information about the Voice is legitimate but it is not feasible to know every detail before the referendum. Credit: Lisa Visentin There is still time for all, including the prime minister, to get both messaging and content right. Even so, it will require a leap of faith for many people to vote Yes, then for them to trust parliament to get it right. It would be peak arrogance for the Coalition to insist on a No vote, in the face of such overwhelming support for Yes from religious, business, ethnic, sporting and community groups. NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet and Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff have seamlessly supported the Voice, yet federally there seems to be a wilfully stubborn refusal to respond to the tremors which have left the Liberals dysfunctional in so many states and territories. According to one leading moderate, it would be pretty f---ing offensive if Dutton said No because he feared upsetting his conservative base or wanted to dog whistle to an ageing, declining membership.

Generally, moderates like Dutton. They say he is a good, reasonably normal person with a good office and hope he will end up doing the right thing. They fear he wont because he has been hog-tied by the conservatives. He resents the insinuation, insisting to accusers that he runs his own show. To Duttons credit, he has not sought to silence Voice advocates, such as Bridget Archer (pictured). Credit: James Brickwood However, according to one high-ranking Liberal, 95 per cent of the partys membership and 85 per cent of the parliamentary party would oppose the Voice. And therein lies his problem. To his credit, Dutton has not sought to silence Voice advocates such as Andrew Bragg, Bridget Archer or Russell Broadbent. Nor should he try. He would be lighting a bonfire in the party room. He is said to be keen to get more moderates into federal parliament, including NSW Treasurer Matt Kean.

Kean, now in a bromance with Dutton, would add considerable heft to the moderates. However, if the NSW state government is re-elected, which is still possible despite the internal chaos, Kean wont run for the federal seat of Bradfield. It is now held by Paul Fletcher, who falls into the pale, stale, male category of candidate, who will lose if he runs again. Polling still shows Labor with comfortable leads. Labors private research reports voters believe Albanese is performing much better than they had expected. The Liberals private polling shows Scott Morrison has inflicted considerable damage on the Liberal brand and that he remains a drag in NSW. Dutton is travelling badly in Victoria. Some Liberals fear the opposition will perform a once-in-a-century feat and lose Aston to the government at the April 1 byelection. Both sides concede voters are continuing to cut Albanese some slack. Voters give him credit for restoring Australias standing internationally and  so far  for his handling of the economy, where many believe he is responding conscientiously to problems not of his creation. Some Liberals fear the opposition will perform a once-in-a-century feat and lose Aston to the government at the April 1 byelection.

Dutton could struggle to convince voters to punish the government, although it has given him a couple of early free kicks. Firstly, the timing enabled the Liberals to choose Roshena Campbell, a former Age columnist, without a preselection, which Dutton had feared would be won by the only male candidate  and no, that was never going to be Josh Frydenberg whose mindset remains Kooyong or bust. Secondly, they opened up debate on superannuation and other sensitive taxes. Putting the superannuation changes beyond the next election and limiting them to balances above $3 million, thereby creating another dilemma for Dutton, was smart policy and smart politics. But Albanese then had to close off debate about imposing a capital gains tax on the family home after Treasurer Jim Chalmers initially failed to do so but did later. Loading Good on Chalmers for trying to end the tyranny of rule-in rule-out questions from sunset to sunrise, designed to trap politicians into making unequivocal promises which then bind them to doing nothing, but provides lucrative fodder for the media and the opposition.

Dutton will campaign hard on the spectre of other broken promises, the cost of living, and cuts to infrastructure projects which affect Aston. Loading Labor will emphasise the local connections of its candidate, Mary Doyle, and remind voters of its initiatives on cheaper childcare, medicines and fee-free TAFE places. Tellingly, they will be encouraged to send a message to the Liberals that they need to do better than Dutton. Broadbent warns it will be very, very difficult to retain Aston, telling me:That mountain may be too hard to climb. A narrow victory for the Liberals, which most expect, will provide a reprieve. Another smart woman will get to sit on the backbench. An emphatic win would unnerve the government and could herald a comeback for Dutton, encouraging him to forget his heartland and go after Labor seats like Holt and Bruce in Victoria or in the Hunter Valley in NSW.

Defeat would doom that plan and him. The Opinion newsletter is a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform your own. Sign up here. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ More from our award-winning columnists The sum of us: According to research, Australians are becoming dumber when it comes to financial literacy. Can you answer these five money questions? And if you cant, what should you do? - Jessica Irvine
Police tracked a suspect in an alleged shooting by following his footprints through freshly fallen snow in Bloomfield early Tuesday, police said.

Around 12:45 a.m. on Tuesday, the Bloomfield Police Department received a call that a bullet had flown through a home on Allen Street. Investigators the on scene found a single bullet had gone through a bedroom window and through a bedroom wall before becoming lodged in an adjoining bathroom, according to police.

Police canvassed the area and found a 9mm shell casing in nearby Pershing Park, where they spotted freshly fallen footprints in the snow. The prints led them to a home on East Harold Street and the alleged shooter, 18-year-old Devonte Pipkin Jr., police said.

After obtaining a search warrant, investigators found 100 rounds of ammunition and a fully loaded Glock 19 stolen out of Vermont with an extended ammunition magazine. The firearm had an aftermarket accessory that converted it into an automatic firing weapon, police said.

Pipkin was charged with illegal possession of a machine gun, illegal discharge of a firearm, carrying a pistol without a permit and second-degree reckless endangerment. He was being held in lieu of an $800,000 bond, police said.
Warner Russell was a larger-than-life figure to younger reporters in a newsroom where cigarette scorched cork floors were emblematic of a time in Sydney of an intense circulation war between afternoon newspaper rivals, The Sun and The Daily Mirror.

Warner Russell was a commanding presence in The Suns police rounds room where copy boys competed for a cadetship, the first stepping stone in a reporting career. They hoped he would look favourably upon their efforts in monitoring and logging the activities of police, ambulance and fire brigade services via radio receivers mounted in a cubicle in a corner of the room.

There was an air of mystery about Warner Russell, who was a commanding presence at The Sun.

While they waited for their career break, Russell regaled them with tales and sage advice from his own exploits as a reporter. He would regularly write job applications to the editors of many of the worlds most famous newspaper mastheads.

Not because he expected job offers but merely for the experience of receiving the inevitable rejection letters typed on letterheads carrying the names of those illustrious newspapers. Following mentor Russells example, I wrote to a number of august journals only to be shocked to receive among the rejection letters a job offer from The Press in Christchurch.
Phone and DNA evidence allegedly linking Rajwinder Singh to the murder of a Queensland woman led police to extradite him to Australia, a court has been told.

Singh, 38, appeared in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday afternoon, flanked by two custody officers, after arriving on a flight from India just after 1pm.

Toyah Cordingley was found dead on Wangetti Beach in north Queensland the day after she was reported missing.

Queensland police applied for Singh to be extradited as they suspect he murdered Toyah Cordingley, 24, in far north Queensland in October 2018.

Her body was found in sand dunes after she took her dog for a walk on Wangetti Beach, north of Cairns.
In November 1916, digger James Leslie Robinson was a stretcher bearer and ambulance driver during the chaotic and bloody Battle of the Somme.

At just 20 years old, he was a long way from his home in Brunswick in Melbournes north.

The diary of James Robinson offers a vivid insight into life on the western front. Credit: Justin McManus

In his diary, which has been discovered in a Melbourne warehouse 107 years later, Robinson writes of watching mates being maimed and killed, and of seeing dugouts strewn with skulls.

Near the town of Flers, which came under heavy attack in battle, he describes being up to his neck in mud and under fire for four hours. And then the Germans start lobbing deadly gas canisters.
In her written defence, Wilkinson does not dispute that the central defamatory claim of rape was conveyed, with a caveat that she does not admit that Lehrmann was identified by the broadcasts. Lehrmann was not named by Ten or News Corp, but Lehrmanns lawyers argue his identity would have been known to his political associates, friends and family, and the publications invited readers and viewers to speculate and search for third-party commentary online. Brittany Higgins with Lisa Wilkinson as she takes the stage at the Womens March 4 Justice at Parliament House in March 2021. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen Wilkinsons lawyers say she does not know and cannot admit that the applicant [Lehrmann] was reasonably identified by any viewer of the first matter on 15 February 2021. They add that they have sought particulars of identification from Lehrmann ... and those particulars have not been sufficiently supplied. However, Wilkinson admits that if Lehrmann was so reasonably identified by any viewer on 15 February 2021, the first matter carried an imputation that Lehrmann raped Brittany Higgins in Parliament House in 2019.

If the case proceeds to trial and all defences are considered, Federal Court Justice Michael Lee, who is presiding over the case, will need to decide whether Wilkinsons legal team has proven the rape took place on the balance of probabilities, that is, it is more likely than not that it did. Loading In a criminal trial where the liberty of an accused hangs in the balance, the prosecution is held to a much higher standard and must prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt. Lehrmann was named in the media on August 7, 2021, after he was charged with one charge of sexual intercourse without consent. He pleaded not guilty to the charge. His trial was aborted in October last year due to juror misconduct and the charge was later dropped altogether amid concerns about Higgins mental health. Lehrmann has always maintained his innocence.

Lawyers for Wilkinson say in her written defence that Lehrmann was given multiple opportunities to respond before the first matter was broadcast, including two emails. Each such approach ... was timely, fair and reasonable, but despite that, Lehrmann elected not to respond at all, the defence says. An allegation of recklessness made by Lehrmann against Wilkinson in his statement of claim is baseless, unjustified, unsupported by any fact and should be withdrawn, her lawyers say. Naming journalists as respondents to a defamation case does not mean they will be liable personally for any damages award. Ten and News Corp would cover any such order. Wilkinsons lawyers also seek to rely on the defence of qualified privilege, which relates to publications of public interest where a publisher has acted reasonably.

They say Wilkinson is an experienced, accomplished and careful journalist of more than 40 years experience who has interviewed 10 Australian prime ministers and various other world leaders, reported from disaster zones, and reported on live breaking news on a daily basis. The lawyers set out Wilkinsons sources and add that to Wilkinsons knowledge, extensive fact checking of the allegations made by Higgins was undertaken for some weeks by Network Ten including senior lawyers, senior news and current affairs executive Peter Meakin, and The Projects head of longform feature stories. Wilkinson understood that there was a consensus amongst those persons and Wilkinson that Higgins was a credible witness, the defence says. The defence adds that Wilkinson at all relevant times understood that Network 10 employed an expert legal team with experience in pre-publication advice, including defamation and contempt. Lehrmanns lawyers refer in his statement of claim to Higgins evidence in the ACT Supreme Court last year suggesting Wilkinson and Maiden were fighting so that, come Walkleys time, who could claim what, in an apparent reference to the timing of the release of the stories in 2021.
One of Sydneys most colourful business identities has again hit the headlines following the arrest of his daughter and police raids on his home and property development firm Toplace.

Jean Nassif, whose Sydney company once attracted the moniker dodgy developer in comments made under parliamentary privilege, first emerged as a prominent public figure in the building and construction sector four years ago.

Jean Nassif, who runs property development company Toplace, with his wife Nissy.

At present, the 54-year-old is staying in rural Lebanon despite being sought as a key witness by an upper house inquiry probing alleged impropriety at the Hills Shire Council over decisions relating to Toplace developments. Nassifs company has built large apartment complexes across Sydney, including at Castle Hill and Canterbury.

In 2019, Nassif gave his wife Nissy a canary yellow Lamborghini worth almost half a million dollars. A viral video of the gift exchange emerged while Toplace was locked in a stalemate with Parramatta City Council over a residential development for which it dug three basement levels without approval. Nassif famously said, Congratulations, Mrs Nassif. You like?
Queenslands health department has written off almost $200 million worth of expiring rapid COVID-19 tests it ordered for a dumped schools plan.

The regular Queensland Audit Office report on health services also revealed outpatient services and ambulances were being hampered by reduced capacity to meet growing demand.

The audit office noted Queensland Health had investigated options for using the RATs to maximise benefits before expiry. Credit: Justin McManus

Auditor-General Brendan Worralls report noted a large supply of rapid tests amassed on behalf of other government agencies was based on the expectation they would be needed by all students and teachers.

However, a shift in the governments eventual 2022 back-to-school strategy at the height of the states first wave meant tests were required only for teachers and students who developed symptoms.
In March 2021, the city began to raise concerns about the financials of the WACA pool  the jewel in the crown of the deal. Loading The city would not commit to the pool until a business case was presented, with concerns that ongoing running costs would far outweigh the $25 million it had vowed to chip in. At the time, the premiers office accused the city of unnecessarily delaying the deal. In July 2021, the business case presented to council anticipated it would cost the city $126 million to run the pool over the 40-year life of the facility.

This prompted Zempilas and the city to cap its commitment at $25 million and place operational responsibility on the government. McGowan, in response, said the City of Perth had failed the local community. In return, Zempilas said the premier had spat the dummy. Since then, Zempilas  or any representative from the City of Perth, for that matter  has been a glaring absence at major city deal press conferences. In March 2022, Zempilas was absent from the premiers press conference with Prime Minister Scott Morrison when they revealed $200 million cost blowouts to the causeway bridge and the ECU campus.

WAtoday understands Zempilas felt most aggrieved when the council was not invited to the announcement of an Aboriginal cultural heritage centre on the foreshore in Perths CBD. The City of Perth is not providing funding for the project  but it is being built on city land. The ECU city campus and causeway bridge snubs confirmed, in Zempilas mind, that the government was purposefully not inviting him to events where the City of Perth should be represented. He said the city had provided funding to the causeway bridge project through a $10 million contribution to the Perth transport plan, outlined in the city deal. Its not about invitations. Its not about photo opportunities. Its not about wearing hard hats and vests and carrying shovels. Its about recognition of the citys support for the city deal, he told Radio 6PR.

Saffioti disagreed that any city money had been spent on the bridge. She was adamant the citys $10 million contribution was being spent on the Roe Street upgrades and those upgrades alone. Loading So with no city money being spent on the bridge, Saffioti said it made sense the city didnt get an invite to Wednesdays media event. Weve got protocols in relation to events, whether they be sod-turning, and the protocols rest around funding contributions in normal cases, or when maybe the city or council has done more than its fair share in preparing for the project, she said. On the citys logo appearing on project signage, Saffioti didnt have an answer, but said she wasnt worried about it and was more focused on getting the bridge built.

The city deal is not the only arena where Zempilas and the government have butted heads. An auditor-general report into the Perth parking levy, released last month, opened up a whole new can of worms. In June last year, Saffioti also intervened in the relocation of a Northbridge homeless services provider which Zempilas and the city did not support. Is Basil really a threat to WA Labor? Casting a long shadow over this kerfuffle is the rumour that Zempilas will be the leader of the Liberal party at some point within the next decade.

No one could tell this masthead how true these rumours are, and Liberal party sources speaking on the condition of anonymity said any move to parachute Zempilas into a winnable blue-ribbon seat would likely be met with resistance from those branches. Zempilas himself has ruled it out in the near-term. On Wednesday, he said it was his intention to run for mayor during the October local government elections and vowed to serve the full four-year term if he won. Regardless, he may lose that election, and its not out of the realm of possibility for him to backflip on his public statements entirely  so the rumour mill continues to turn. Its a rumour the government is taking seriously enough. During a question in parliament last month from Liberal leader Libby Mettam about the Perth parking levy, a Labor backbencher quipped that Zempilas would be the next leader of the party.

To restrict his public profile makes sense on paper, from a Labor strategists point of view, in the lead-up to the 2025 election  though this strategy is failing spectacularly. Loading The public spat is resulting in Zemplias profile as a genuine politician growing even more. In a more immediate issue for Labor, Zempilas is one of the few voices of opposition in WA that can get cut-through in the face of McGowans super-majority of parliament. Zempilas initially began his mayoral role with three media jobs across radio, print and TV.

He dumped his morning radio gig on Triple M in September last year, but remains affiliated with Channel Seven, and still has his meandering top 10 musings published in The West Australian every Friday. Last week, his entire column was a politically charged look at 10 ways the government could better spend the Perth parking levy. Saffioti and McGowan both rejected suggestions that they had a poor working relationship with Zempilas. McGowan pointed out that he spoke to him at an event last week. Practically besties. They say nothing is wrong, but its clear by McGowan and Saffiotis actions that while theyre happy to build bridges to the city, theyre also happy burning them.
Laiskodat, who wants to extend the new hours beyond Kupang and across the province after the pilot program in its administrative centre, said only senior high school students, aged 17 and 18, would be subject to the changed timetable and not those in junior high. The decision to have class begin before dawn, though, has been met with criticism from Catholic education leaders and the Indonesian Teachers Union Federation, which said it had canvassed the views of parents and teachers. Students play outside at a school in Kupang, West Timor. Credit: Getty Images It turns out that many parents disagree with this policy, the responses vary from the safety factor of the child when going to school, difficult transportation in the morning, and the readiness of parents at home such as providing breakfast, and various considerations for childrens health, said Retno Listyarti, chair of the teachers federation expert body. She pointed to learning development being affected by students due to lack of sleep.

Sleep is very important for the body. During sleep, the body will repair itself, both physically and mentally, so that we feel refreshed and energised when we wake up and are ready for activities. This is important and necessary for children who are growing up to the age of 18, she said. Loading The government has justified the policy by comparing it to the early starts of Islamic boarding schools, whose students rise for the call to prayer at dawn. It also equated the timing to the hours worked by vendors in markets who often begin work at 3am. With many students making their own way to school, provincial ombudsman Darius Beda Daton, however, has also urged the governor to reconsider the new policy for safety reasons. [Parents] objections are that this policy has not been largely explained to schools and parents and students, he told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age on Wednesday.

If they have to be at school by 5am, it means they have to wake up by 4am and parents should make preparations by 3am. Another point is there is no public transport available in Kupang by 4.30am. Security is the issue too for the children if they are in the streets that early. Loading We have given suggestions to the provincial education office that this policy must be comprehensively assessed by inviting all education stakeholders and discuss it with school committees, the police and transportation office must also be involved in the discussion. At the schools in Kupang where students have arrived before dawn since Monday, it has been a challenging transition. One senior student said classes hadnt actually started until 6am, instead they had done marching exercises and been addressed by the principal until then.

Usually I wake up around 5.30am but now I have to wake up at 4am. Its difficult, the student said. Loading [The principal] said it made us more effective in learning, the brain is in better quality in the morning to accept school subjects, to learn more disciplines. Most of [my family] oppose the policy. They think if it is to improve discipline, we can still implement the 7am school time and improve all the programs. Marselinus Tika, a chemistry teacher at SMAN 6 school in Kupang, one of those in the pilot program, would also prefer a later start because he and his wife, who also works, have two children, aged seven and three. He said teachers were worried about students walking to school in the early hours of the morning and were hoping buses would be provided but he could also see the governors point of view.
Hartford City Council member and mayoral candidate Nick Lebron resigned from a position with the commission and complained in a letter that the district leadership is more concerned with political patronage than providing water and sewer services across the Capitol Region.
BENGALURU (Reuters) -India's Bajaj Finserv said on Wednesday it has received the market regulator's license to start its mutual fund business.

Bajaj Finserv Mutual Fund, with Bajaj Finserv Asset Management as investment manager, will soon offer mutual fund products including equity, debt, and hybrid funds in the active and passive segments, Bajaj Finserv said in a regulatory filing.

"A resurgent India, rising investor confidence and digital access to financial services is leading to high adoption of mutual funds," said Sanjiv Bajaj, chairman and managing director of Bajaj Finserv.

Inflows into Indian equity mutual funds jumped nearly 72% to 125.47 billion rupees ($1.52 billion) in January, their highest in four months, offsetting some heavy selling by foreign investors, data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India showed last month.

Nimesh Chandan is chief investment officer at the mutual fund.

Bajaj Finserv is a holding company for financial services businesses including non-bank lender Bajaj Finance. Both firms are listed on the blue-chip Nifty 50 index.

Also Read What is a regulatory sandbox? BS Number Wise: The increasing dominance of bank-owned mutual funds Kerala govt launches scheme to reimburse tech license cost to startups From industry icon to defaulter: How Venugopal Dhoot lost his empire The reason you must hold on to equity funds despite turbulence in 2023 TVS Motor records 1.97% decline in sales at 276,150 units in February Divgi TorqTransfer Systems IPO receives 12% subscription on first day Migsun Group to invest Rs 706 cr in high-street commercial project in Delhi NCLAT dismisses plea challenging insolvency against Avantha Power Adani Group secures $3 bn credit from sovereign wealth fund: Sources

($1 = 82.4250 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Chris Thomas and Anuran Sadhu in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
Honda Cars India on Wednesday reported a 15 per cent year on year dip in sales in the domestic market at 6,086 units in February.

The company had sold 7,187 units in the domestic market in February 2022, Honda Cars India Ltd (HCIL) said in a statement.

Exports declined to 973 units last month as compared with 2,337 units in the year-ago period, it added.

"Our sales performance in the month of Feb'23 has been as per our plan towards seamless transition of our models to new emission norms," Honda Cars India Director Marketing and Sales Yuichi Murata said.

The company is currently gearing up for the launch of the new City, he added.

"We are confident that it will generate new excitement and appealing options for customers," Murata noted.
Indian telecom operators have surpassed the three- year 5G network rollout target given to them within six months and now the government is making efforts to enhance adoption of 5G applications across various key segments, a senior government official said here.

Department of Telecom Additional Secretary VL Kantha Rao told PTI at "India Evening" event on the sidelines of Mobile World Congress 2023 that the government has hosted over 50 companies at the India pavilion and the delegation is here to showcase indigenously-developed 4G and 5G technology stack.

"When the spectrum was allocated to telecom service providers for 5G rollout, we gave a minimum rollout obligation saying that within one year they have to cover a few cities within three years, a few towns and so on and so forth. I'm glad to say that in the first six months of 5G rollout, they have surpassed all the targets that we have given them for the next three years," Rao said.

He said the rapid rollout of the 5G network in India shows that telecom service providers in India have seen the opportunity of 5G.

"They have set up more than one lakh sites in 350 towns. They have even announced that by the end of this year they will cover majority of the towns in the country. So this is a big plus for the rollout of 5G services in India," Rao said.

Both Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have been rolling out a 5G network across the country. However, debt-ridden Vodafone Idea is awaiting fund raise post which it will infuse capital for rolling out 5G services.

Also Read New telecom bill may clarify on insolvency norms for stressed firms: Report Draft Telecom Bill: What does it say, why there is controversy over it Draft telecom Bill: Trai opposed to regulation of OTT platforms Draft Telecom Bill: Centre to take spectrum back if telcos fail to pay dues Implementation of caller name display should not be mandatory: Telcos' body Hiring resumes in Indian IT sector after months-long slowdown amid layoffs MG Motor India Feb sales fall 7% to 4,193 units, to ramp production Bajaj Auto sales dip 11% in Feb to 280,226 units on account of export woes FRL fails to get revival plan, lenders to decide further course of action Silicon Valley veteran Dan Rosensweig joins upGrad's board of directors

Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has said that state-owned BSNL will start 5G services by April 2024.

Rao said that more than rolling out 5G services for consumers, it is very important that there is a rollout of 5G use cases for industry, education, health, agriculture and all the other sectors because 5G is not just about faster video download or watching movies.

"It is also about enterprise solutions. A lot of industries can ride on 5G. We have a set of 100 5G use cases documented and circulated to most of the stakeholders. We have been requesting ministries and private sector industry to adopt these 5G use cases. That is the next challenge and we are working very hard on that," Rao said.

Talking about the developments at Mobile World Congress 2023, he said the very fact global telecom industry body GSMA has recognised India's leadership under the government leadership award shows the kind of public-private sector partnership happening in India.

He said GSMA has recognised the way both the government and the industry are working together in developing telecom products in India to supply to the rest of the world.

"The latest example is that the 5G stack is now fully developed in India, ready to be deployed and ready to be exported to any part of the world. We have also developed an end-to-end 4G stack. We have tested it for about 1 million calls and recently upgraded to 10 million calls.

"And now we have a mature 4G stack that is getting deployed in India and also other parts of the world. The 5G stack story is what we have come here to tell the world," Rao said.

He said that global players are showing interest in partnering with Indian technology companies.

"I was visiting one of the Indian companies (at MWC). They said that the biggest chipmaker of the world has come to the stall and tried to find out what kind of chips are being made in India and whether they can work with the Indian chip design team in developing the future chips. This is a big compliment to the Indian design work that is happening," Rao said.

He said that the government is encouraging design making by adding the DLI (design linked incentive) component to the PLI (production linked incentive) component.

" In PLI, we have added the DLI of additional incentive of 1 per cent to be given. More and more design-based companies are coming into the scheme. This is how the Indian government is able to support a large ecosystem of tech startups and innovators in India, especially in the telecom sector," Rao said.
Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd (IRCTC) and HDFC Bank on Wednesday announced a partnership to launch a co-branded travel credit card.

Known as the IRCTC HDFC Bank Credit Card, the co-branded card is in a single variant and is available on NPCI's Rupay network.

This is the third tie-up of IRCTC after State Bank of India and Bank of Baroda.

The card will provide exclusive benefits and maximum savings on bookings of train tickets booked through the IRCTC's ticketing website and through IRCTC Rail Connect app, HDFC Bank Group Head (Payments, Consumer Finance, Digital Banking and IT) Parag Rao told reporters here.

Additionally, he said, IRCTC HDFC Bank Credit cardholders will enjoy an attractive joining bonus, discounts on bookings and access to the several executive lounges at railway stations across the country.

Commenting on the association, IRCTC chairman and managing director Rajni Hasija said the co-branded card offers exclusive access to newly opened lounges available at most of the major railway stations.

Also Read What is credit score? Why is it important? IRCTC Q2 PAT up 43% YoY to Rs 226 crore, revenue from operation rises 99% Samsung forays into finance, launches credit card with Axis Bank and Visa Tokenisation to interest rates: All about RBI's new credit card rules Want to close or cancel your credit card? Here's a step-by-step guide Tata Motors vehicle sales accelerate by 3% at 79,705 units in February McDonald's north and east to partner NGOs for hiring 1,500 people by 2025 Swiggy, Zomato flag 'misinterpretation' of bike-taxi ban order by Delhi RTO Tata Consumer says still in talks with Bisleri Int'l for majority stake Kia India YoY sales increases by 36% in February at 24,600 units

The credit card will help to streamline online transactions and at the same time offer benefits as well as experience to customers, she added.

Meanwhile, HDFC Bank's internet banking site and mobile app faced an outage on Tuesday leaving customers clueless for a few hours. This happened on a day when most customers were supposed to receive their salaries.

Taking to Twitter, many users said they were unable to carry out any transactions for over two hours, while others complained of being logged out of the app repeatedly.

In December 2020, the RBI had barred HDFC Bank from issuing new cards and introducing new digital initiatives after repeated instances of technological outages at the lender, which is the market leader in the credit cards segment.

The RBI action came after the bank's customers faced a number of incidents of outages in Internet banking, mobile banking, and payment utilities over the past two years. Rivals ICICI Bank and SBI Cards seized the opportunity to narrow the gap with HDFC Bank.

The action against HDFC Bank was followed by a ban on new card issuances by Mastercard and American Express due to their failure to adhere to data localisation rules.
Not just the tech industry but layoffs have also hit other verticals and now, leading footwear and apparel brand Nike has laid off several employees who took to professional networking platform LinkedIn to share their plight.

Most job cuts affected Nike recruiters who said that they have been laid off.

Nike, however, did not comment on the social media posts about these job cuts.

The employees posted on LinkedIn after Nike announced the resignation of Ratnakar Lavu, the top technology executive at the company.

Jordan Ingram, senior talent acquisition partner at Nike, said it was hard for him to find the words.

"Like many other amazing people lately, I was laid off from Nike yesterday. If you have followed me or worked with me at all, you know how much I love my career and what I get to do. #SeniorTechRecruiter I take serious the opportunity to change people's lives, and there is no greater joy then being able to love your job and the company you work for," Ingram posted on LinkedIn.

Also Read EPAM sacks around 100 Indian employees, revokes offer letter of others 12k Facebook employees may lose jobs amid 'quiet layoffs', says report Amazon layoffs in India may be higher than other tech majors: Report Where did big tech and startups go wrong on hiring? No employee was sacked, all resignations were voluntary: Amazon India PVR Inox to add 200 screens each year; expects double-digit growth in FY24 IRCTC partners with HDFC Bank to launch co-branded travel credit card Tata Motors vehicle sales accelerate by 3% at 79,705 units in February McDonald's north and east to partner NGOs for hiring 1,500 people by 2025 Swiggy, Zomato flag 'misinterpretation' of bike-taxi ban order by Delhi RTO

"I am open to work, and I need to be working for my family," he added.

Reports also surfaced late last month that one of Vietnam's largest shoe manufacturers for major brands such as Nike and Adidas plans to cut at least 6,000 jobs due to poor orders.

Frank P, another talent recruiter team member, posted: "Type, delete, type, delete. As I try to find the words to say I was #laidoff yesterday from #nike. Like many talented and truly amazing people, I am now #opentowork."

"Despite this unexpected life event, I am excited for a new door to open as this one has been closed. I am looking for a new role and would appreciate your support," Frank wrote.

Natalie Rincon, a product designer, said she was impacted by the layoffs at the company.

"It has been an amazing two years working alongside talented individuals, but I plan on using this time to recharge and refresh before diving back into the job search. Moving forward, I am excited to explore new opportunities in the field of product design and would love to connect with fellow designers and individuals who have been affected by layoffs," Rincon added.

--IANS

na/vd


The NCR-based realty firm has acquired the land parcel, measuring 36,583 sq metres, from a private firm. The Migsun Group is planning to invest Rs 706 crore in a nine-acre high-street commercial project at a newly acquired site in Rohini's Sector-22 in New Delhi.



The company said that the total cost of the project, including the acquisition and development, will be Rs 706 crore. It added that it might purchase additional Floor Area Ratio (FAR) to meet future demands. Migsun will develop a total built-up area of 6.3 acres on the site and expects to deliver the project within three years.



The company develops various affordable housing, premium, and commercial projects in Delhi, Ghaziabad, Noida and Greater Noida. It has delivered more than 40 projects in Delhi-NCR and developed more than 20 million sq ft of land in different pockets of the territory. Yash Miglani, Managing Director, Migsun Group, said, This land acquisition will help us strengthen our presence in North Delhi. Rohini is one of the rapidly growing commercial real estate markets in Delhi-NCR, and we thought this was an opportune time to tap into this lucrative market and give consumers a high-street retail experience.

Also Read ISRO successfully launches 200th 'RH-200' Rohini sounding rocket Centre considering 100% WFH across all SEZ units, says Piyush Goyal DESH Bill: Commerce dept may scrap concessional corporate tax provision E-registration of property promises freedom from long queues, touts Residential real estate sales to lag commercial in FY23: CRISIL NCLAT dismisses plea challenging insolvency against Avantha Power Adani Group secures $3 bn credit from sovereign wealth fund: Sources Layoffs hit Nike, impacted workers share personal experience on LinkedIn PVR Inox to add 200 screens each year; expects double-digit growth in FY24 IRCTC partners with HDFC Bank to launch co-branded travel credit card



Last November, the firm acquired 26 acres of land in Lucknow for Rs 220 crore to develop a residential and retail project at a cost of Rs 2,000 crore. Most of its commercial projects are in Ghaziabad and Greater Noida. The company has also expanded its base and launched retail and residential projects in tier-2 cities.

It also acquired real estate developer Ansal's stake in Ansal IT City Park (SEZ) Tech Zone, and later bought HDFC's 37 per cent stake in the zone for about Rs 50 crore, to take full control of the SEZ.
Five children died due to respiratory infection at different hospitals in Kolkata in the last 24 hours, an official said on Tuesday evening.

The deaths were reported amid fears of adenovirus infection, but doctors were not sure whether these fatalities could be linked to it.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee held an emergency meeting on the evolving situation, following which the government issued a series of directives and announced a 24x7 emergency helpline -- 1800-313444-222.

All paediatric acute respiratory infection (ARI) clinics will operate at the medical college and hospitals (MCHs), district hospitals and sub-divisional hospitals, among others, round the clock, the directive said.

To curb the problem of patient referrals, it said that "no paediatric ARI cases shall be referred without the knowledge of the concerned MSVP/Superintendent of the hospital".

It also directed the hospitals to ready ventilators and other logistics to deal with the situation.

Also Read As mercury plummets, increase in patients with respiratory problems Covid-19 infection increases risk of severe blood clots for one year: Study One in 20 people suffer long-term effects of Covid-19, says study Coronavirus: Study sheds light on origins of SARS-CoV-2 variant Omicron Research shows how SARS-CoV-2 virus creates severe Covid-19 causing toxin Sisodia's portfolios given to Gahlot, Anand till new ministers' appointment Severe cold wave conditions return in HP, 'yellow' warning issued Haryana court convicts 2 pharma company senior executives, awards jail term Fire breaks out at laboratory in JNU due to shot circuit, no casualties Avg max temp in Delhi for Feb in 2023 3rd highest in 63 yrs: Official data

ASHA workers and other health workers will be sensitised on the alert signs of such infections, it said, stressing on raising awareness about the use of masks, and protection of children from crowds and public places.

"Regular training on critical care of paediatric ARI cases will be organised by authorities concerned," the directive said.

Five paediatric hubs -- Dr BC Roy Post Graduate Institute of Paediatric Sciences, Calcutta National MCH, North Bengal MCH, Bankura Sammilani MCH and Malda MCH, which were prepared to deal with such situations during the pandemic, will supervise the 'spoke' hospitals, it said.

"All the five children died due to pneumonia. We are still waiting for the test report on a nine-month-old to confirm whether she died due to adenovirus," an official told PTI.

Of the five children, two were undergoing treatment at the Kolkata Medical College and Hospital, while three others were being treated at the Dr BC Roy Post Graduate Institute of Paediatric Sciences, he said.

Over the last weekend five more such deaths were reported in the state, he added.

Children in the age group of 0-2 are considered most vulnerable to the infection. Older children are less susceptible to the virus, doctors said, maintaining that most of the cases are treatable at home.

In children, adenovirus usually causes infections in the respiratory and intestinal tracts.
A recent study on the level of awareness of medical termination of pregnancy has claimed that one of every three women it interviewed did not consider abortion as a health right or were unsure of it.

The survey by the NGO Foundation for Reproductive Health Services India (FRHS India) also claimed 32 per cent of respondents were unaware of abortion as a legal right and that 95.5 per cent of Indian women were uninformed of the existence of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Act, 2021.

FRHS India, which provides clinical family planning services in the country, recently released the findings of its study on the level of awareness of the MTP Act and practices related to safe abortion.

The study was conducted by the FRHS in Delhi, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

"The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act was modified 1.5 years ago but abortion-seekers are still unaware of the changes brought about in the Act. We found that even service providers (doctors) in Rajasthan were unclear about the shift in the gestational age from 20 to 24 weeks," Debanjana Choudhuri, primary researcher and director of programmes and partnerships at FRHS India, said.

Even after five decades, approximately 95.5 per cent of Indian women are uninformed of the existence of the MTP Act, which gives access to safe abortion services, Choudhuri claimed.

Also Read Now, all women are entitled to safe and legal abortion: Supreme Court What is the significance of the SC ruling on abortion law? Like US, Mexico faces a state-by-state differences over abortion US FDA finalises rule allowing women to get abortion pills via mail-order US Judge strikes down 1931 law criminalising abortion in Michigan Mumbai jumps to 37th place globally in price growth in luxury housing Important to build infrastructure that is futuristic, says PM Modi Domestic airlines expected to fly back into profitability next FY: CRISIL EAM Jaishankar holds wide-ranging talks with Russian counterpart Lavrov AIIMS, Delhi, to provide medical coverage for G-20 ministers meet

The study said it is "worrying" that 99 per cent of women in India did not know the laws have changed. "Also, the MTP Act 1971 amendment is unknown to 95 per cent of frontline healthcare providers (FLWs) or ASHA workers who are the initial point of contact for women," Choudhuri claimed.

According to the report, in a number of states, a majority of frontline healthcare providers were even unaware that the Act has been amended.

Frontline healthcare workers were also unaware of the upper limit of pregnancy up to which MTP is legal in India, it claimed.

Ashutosh Kaushik, chief executive officer of FRHS India, said, "The MTP Act amendment allows greater autonomy to women but lack of awareness among abortion seekers and healthcare service providers is causing a hindrance in bringing the needed change. Abortion is a basic human right, and FRHS strongly believes in 'children by choice, not chance'. For this to be successful, the government needs to deploy mass awareness activities in urban and rural areas."



The study claimed that 99 per cent of women in India did not know the laws that allow abortion up to 24 weeks 'for special categories of women', up from the existing 20-week gestation period.

Less than one-third of women in every state but Uttar Pradesh (43 per cent) had ever seen, read, or heard a message about a safe abortion, it added.

According to 56 per cent of married women and 36 per cent of single women, religious views influence one's decision to use MTP services, the study said.

It said more than two-thirds of married women look to frontline health workers as the main source of information for pregnancies or abortions. Around 50 per cent of unmarried women mostly rely on social media, while nearly 33 per cent rely on teachers as the key source of information.

FRHS India recommended creating awareness, sensitisation, and capacity-building efforts at the district and sub-district levels among abortion seekers and healthcare service providers.

It can be achieved by introducing the public to the amendment through numerous seminars and orientations, it said.

Also, a multifaceted strategy can be used that includes the engagement of community and religious leaders to reduce the obstacles to access the services, the study said.
By Praveen Paramasivam

CHITTOOR, India (Reuters) - India's Andhra Pradesh state has launched an investigation into what caused a fire at the factory of Apple supplier Foxlink that led to the collapse of part of the building and disrupted production, a government official said on Wednesday.

Foxlink's plant, which makes charging cables for iPhones in the southern state, was engulfed in a massive fire on Monday, but there were no casualties. The fire department has said much of the fire safety equipment at the factory was not functional.

The factories department, which is responsible for ensuring the safety and welfare of workers in the state, has launched an investigation.

The department is "investigating the fire accident at Foxlink factory and, over the next couple of days, is looking to probe how the fire happened," Ramakrishna Reddy, deputy chief inspector of factories, told Reuters.

Reddy added that his initial assessment was there were no immediate worker safety concerns as only a few employees had to be taken to hospital for first-aid after they reported dizziness following the incident.

Also Read Apple supplier Foxlink unlikely to resume full India ops for 2 mths: Report Apple supplier Foxlink halts production at Indian facility after fire Apple supplier Foxlink says working to resume production after India fire Tata Group in talks with Apple's Taiwanese supplier for assembling iPhones In shift away from China, Apple adds a new iPhone 14 supplier in India Adani reduces contracted electricity supply capacity of Haryana discoms Court defers passing order on Gorantla's bail plea in excise policy case Bill Gates praises India's connectivity infrastructure, digital networks India ranks 2nd in total number of data breaches exposed in 2022: Report BJP has more than half of total income declared by 8 national parties: ADR

Foxlink on Wednesday said it is investigating the cause of the fire and "working hard to resume production".

The incident has raised supply chain concerns for the U.S. tech giant Apple, given Foxlink was a "key supplier" in India, Reuters has reported.

(Reporting by Praveen Paramsivam; Writing by Arpan Chaturvedi; Editing by Aditya Kalra and Kim Coghill)
At a joint meeting, on Feb. 23, of the Tolland Board of Education and Town Council, the proposed budget for the towns schools was discussed and questions were asked.

Superintendent Dr. Walter Willett had proposed a $44.2 million in January that was adopted by the board.

Willett said salaries, benefits, utilities, and insurance are the main drivers of the increase of 5.96% over the current year  with insurance, at $1.2 million, as the largest.

The main drivers of the budget are really the things that there is really not much discussion or control over, Willett said, adding that the current budget has frozen spending in some accounts, and is very lean, as is the proposal.

Two positions, a part-time kindergarten teacher and a full-time social worker, who were funded by grants this year, have been rolled into the proposed 2023-24 budget.

Willett said the plan is to also use Educational Reserve Fund monies to acquire educational technology initiatives for grades six and nine.

The superintendent said personnel reductions in the proposal include 1.5 full-time paraprofessionals, 1 full-time educational technology teacher, 1 full-time TMS interventionist, 1 full-time financial accountant, and a part-time speech language pathologist. Additional reductions include OPEB, legal services, and furniture and fixtures.

Its a budget that has been done responsibly, and its a budget that was deeply impacted by circumstances that are really beyond control of the board, Willett said.

Town Council Chairman Steve Jones asked for an update on combining financial services for town operations and the school system to save costs.

Director of Finance Lisa Hancock said that a grant for that has been put on hold, so the town hasnt been able to go forward with that process.

Some of the research that I did showed some of the costs regarding the financial systems, but not much has been done, she said, adding that combining services doesnt always result in savings. The financial system alone would have been over a quarter of a million dollars just to be able to bring the Board of Education and town into one system.

Resident Renie Besaw said the increases are too much for residents.

The increase that you are proposing it is unrealistic. Not good. I would never support this. Its way to expensive for the taxpayers to live here already. I think you need to find ways to make it less, Besaw said.

Resident Heather McCann said that her family moved to Tolland for the schools, but that services have seemed to drop in recent years.

You had a lot more to offer a few years ago, McCann said. We used to offer more programs and services. Some of our senior elected officials children also benefited from them when they were enrolled. The cuts in recent years have resulted in under-funding our schools.

McCann said that single working parents are now regretting their decision to live in Tolland, because children are not receiving resources through the schools that they once did.

Willett said he thinks schools, in general, are still recovering from the pandemic, which throws off some items in the budget, but that eventually, they will recover.

I dont think were out of this pandemic blip here for a while, he said. I think were going to see the learning impacts result in higher special ed. designations and other things for at least a few years.

Town Manager Brian Foley said that in March he will present the total budget, including Board of Education, town government, and capital improvements, and a public hearing will take place.

The towns budget referendum is set for May 2. For more information, visit www.tollandct.gov.
A Delhi court on Tuesday granted bail to five accused in a corruption case related to the Delhi government's now-scrapped new excise policy.

Special Judge M K Nagpal, who on Monday sent former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia to CBI custody, granted relief to five accused noticing that the agency took a conscious decision not to arrest them.

The five accused, including two former excise department officials Kuldeep Singh and Narender Singh and businessman Sameer Mahendru, were earlier granted interim bail by the court after they appeared before the judge in pursuance to the summons issued to them.

The court also granted bail to Gautam Mootha and Arun Pillai.

"During the period of investigation, sufficient time and opportunity were available to the IO (investigating officer) of the case to arrest all the applicants or any of them. But the IO had taken a conscious decision not to arrest any of the applicants and had charge-sheeted them before this court without arrest," the judge said.

He noted that no allegations were made against the applicants that they did not appear in response to the summons or notices issued to them by the investigating officer for joining the probe or that they did not cooperate.

Also Read CBI files first charge sheet in Delhi excise scam case; Sisodia not named Delhi excise policy scam: ED conducts raids at 38 places across country Delhi excise policy scam: CBI issues notice to KCR's daughter K Kavitha Excise scam: Court extends judicial custody of four accused till Jan 7 Sisodia, other accused destroyed excise-scam evidence, alleges BJP SC directs to provide Z-plus security to Mukesh Ambani, family members Latest news LIVE: Domestic LPG cylinder price hiked by Rs 50 in Delhi S Jaishankar holds talks with counterparts from Brazil, Turkey, Mauritius Delhi LG launches portal for quick licencing of eating establishments We're with onion farmers, says Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde in Assembly

The judge put several conditions on the accused, including that they shall not leave the country without prior permission of the court and that they shall not tamper or attempt to tamper with evidence of this case in any manner.

"They shall not influence or attempt to influence the witnesses of this case in any manner. They shall join the pending investigation of the case if required by the IO/HIO at any point of time, and they shall also cooperate with the IO/HIO in this regard," the judge said.

Two accused, Vijay Nair and Abhishek Boinpally, were earlier granted bail by the court.

The accused had appeared before the court in pursuance to summon issued by the court after taking cognizance of the CBI charge sheet filed against the seven accused. Some of the accused in the case are currently in judicial custody in a related case lodged by the Enforcement Directorate.


Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also arrived in India on Tuesday. Lavrov will also attend Raisina Dialogue 2023. Besides Lavrov, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DSA) Under Secretary General Li Junhua has also arrived. Over the next two days, Delhi will host the G20 Foreign Ministers' meeting. It will be attended by the foreign ministers of almost all the G20 countries. Very few, including Japan, will give it a miss. According to the external affairs ministry, the foreign ministers of Brazil (Mauro Vieira), Mauritius (Alan Ganoo), Turkiye (Mevlut Cavusoglu), Australia (Penny Wong), and the International Labour Organisation Sherpa Richard Marc Samans have already arrived in New Delhi for the meeting.



US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock are among those likely to arrive after the dinner on March 1. Earlier, China confirmed that its Foreign Minister Qin Gang would attend the meeting on March 2. However, Japan's Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi would skip the summit due to "domestic parliamentary engagements". South Korea will also send a junior minister to the meeting.



Foreign Minister S Jaishankar is also expected to meet several foreign ministers for bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the event. Apart from the main event, New Delhi will also host a meeting of foreign ministers of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or QUAD nations. These are India, the United States, Australia and Japan. However, the likely absence of Hayashi now cast a shadow on this meet.

Also Read A gastronomic journey through the North far removed from convention With new hotel brands, ITC checks in with 'house of brands' model China may soon be supplying arms to Russia, warns Antony Blinken Live: PM Modi unveils the logo, theme and website of India's G20 Presidency US President Joe Biden visits Kyiv ahead of Russia-Ukraine war anniversary Artificial sweetener linked with increased heart attack, stroke risk: Study Why stereotypical portrayal of Asok the IITian in Dilbert escaped criticism Centre suspends FCRA licence of think tank CPR amid I-T searches Domestic LPG cylinder price hiked by Rs 50 from today; details here UK Foreign Secretary in India, to launch scheme for young professionals

What is on the agenda?

On March 1, a state dinner will be held at 7 pm at Taj Palace on Sardar Patel Marg. Later, on March 2, two sessions will be held on "Strengthening Multilateralism and Need for Reforms, Food and Energy Security, Development Cooperation" and "Counter-Terrorism: New and Emerging Threats".



However, Lavrov is expected to make a statement on the causes and "masterminds" of geopolitical problems. Also, the Russian news agency TASS on Tuesday reported that Moscow would present an "unbiased picture" of the Nord Stream pipeline explosions. Lavrov has accused the US of being involved in the blasts. Josep Borrell, foreign affairs chief of the European Union (EU), earlier said that he would present a "strong picture" to Russia on its "blatant violation of international law and UN charter".



Special arrangements in place According to a report by The Hindu, officials and diplomats think that a joint statement will be difficult to arrive at due to divisions between the G7 grouping and the Russia-China combine.

Wednesday's dinner is going to take place at the Taj Palace. According to a report by News18, the menu will have a special focus on millet foods as India is celebrating the International Year of Millets. Rajesh Wadhwa, the executive chef, has asked his team to make "food less spicy and focus more on flavours".
Officials from India and Oman on Wednesday discussed various issues related to bilateral air services.

In a series of tweets, the civil aviation ministry said a bilateral air services meeting was held between the Omani and the Indian delegations in the national capital.

While the Indian delegation was led by civil aviation secretary Rajiv Bansal, the Omani side was led by Naif Ali Al-Abri, the President of Civil Aviation Authority Oman.

"The delegations included specialists in air transport and air navigation to address issues related to updating of the air transport agreement, development of air routes and space, & expanding the number of flights between the two nations," the ministry said in a tweet.

Details about the bilateral air services agreement could not be immediately ascertained.
Realty firm Migsun Group on Wednesday said it has acquired 9 acre land parcels at Rohini in the national capital for Rs 265 crore to develop a high-street retail project.

"We have purchased land located at Sector 22 in Rohini from Yogi Raj Promoters Pvt Ltd," Migsun Group MD Yash Miglani told reporters here.

Migsun Group has entered into a share purchase agreement with Yogi Raj Promoters, which owns this 9-acre land parcel, he added.

The company will fund the land acquisition cost through internal accruals.

"We will develop a high-street retail project on this land, comprising 1 million square feet area. There is no commercial projects in and around Sector 22, Rohini," Miglani said.

The company might purchase an additional Floor Area Ratio (FAR) to increase the size of the project.

Also Read ISRO successfully launches 200th 'RH-200' Rohini sounding rocket Delhi govt suspends recognition of DPS Rohini for violating fee hike norms Delhi L-G inaugurates DNA testing facility at Rohini for POCSO cases M3M India buys 1.3-acre land in Gurugram for Rs 200 cr commercial project Godrej Properties buys 60-acre land in Chennai to develop housing project India ranks 2nd in total number of data breaches exposed in 2022: Report BJP has more than half of total income declared by 8 national parties: ADR Nearly 39% of global knowledge workers to go hybrid by 2023-end: Report UK Foreign Secretary raises IT searches at BBC offices with Jaishankar Twitter faces major outage globally again, users report issues with tweets

Miglani said the company intends to develop small retail shops in this project to bring down the overall ticket size.

He said the company would retain the leasing right of this project to ensure that investors gets good rental income.

"Rohini is one of the rapidly growing commercial real estate markets in Delhi-NCR, and we thought that this was an opportune time to tap into this lucrative market and give consumers a high-street retail experience," Miglani said.

Migsun Group has developed many residential and commercial projects in Delhi, Ghaziabad, Noida, and Greater Noida.

It has delivered more than 40 projects in Delhi-NCR and developed more than 20 million sq ft of land in different pockets of the territory.

With revival in the housing demand after the second wave of the Covid pandemic, real estate developers are buying land on outright basis and also entering into joint development agreements (JDAs) to develop projects.
By A. Ananthalakshmi and Mei Mei Chu

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Gentari, the clean energy arm of Malaysia's state oil firm Petronas, sees India and Australia as its key markets for growth and expects to tap more financing to meet its ambitious targets, its chief executive told Reuters.

Petronas launched Gentari as a separate entity in June, aiming to build renewable energy capacity of 30-40 gigawatts and produce up to 1.2 million tonnes per year of hydrogen by 2030 in Asia Pacific.

It also plans to establish 25,000 public charging points for electric vehicles.

In an interview on Wednesday, Chief Executive Officer Sushil Purohit said India and Australia will be primary markets for growth in the near term in all fields of operation.

Both countries have provided the right policies to facilitate projects, while Malaysia also has a lot of potential, he said, adding growth could come from acquisitions and organically.

Also Read Nations must regulate, invest in clean energy to bring down costs: Report CPPIB, Petronas, Arcelormittal among 13 to bid for NTPC's green energy unit Deeptech battery startup Log9 raises $40 million, aims global footprint Karnataka, Gujarat make most progress in clean energy transition: Report India's economy already 10% more energy efficient than G20 average: IEA World inspired by India's efforts in water conservation: Shekhawat WHO warns tourists to avoid wet markets to avert human bird flu risk Delhi bike taxi ban puts Swiggy and Zomato delivery partners in a fix Business leaders must focus on sustainability, respect nature: Piyush Goyal NSE gets Sebi nod to launch WTI crude oil, natural gas futures contracts

"In terms of expansion, we will seek to collaborate with companies in different markets. If there is a good strategic fit for us, we would look at that as an opportunity for us to buy into the company or acquire the company in totality," Purohit said.

Petronas, like other oil majors, is ramping up investments in clean energy as part of its net zero carbon emissions goals.

The state-owned company has said it would allocate 20% of its overall capital expenditure for decarbonisation projects and cleaner energy solutions from 2023 to 2026.

Petronas planned capital expenditure of 60 billion ringgit last year.

Gentari's home base of Malaysia still require polices and incentives that encourage private investments in the sectors, Purohit said, adding that the firm intends to invest strongly in the Southeast Asian nation.

Last month, Gentari purchased Australian renewables firm Wirsol Energy, which has solar and battery energy storage systems. Gentari declined to disclose the price of the purchase, but one source put the enterprise value of the deal at A$1 billion.

In 2019, before Gentari's formation, Petronas acquired Singapore-based solar energy company Amplus Energy Solutions which has projects in India, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

Purohit said Gentari will seek out new investors for particular projects or countries to support its rapid growth plans.

"The capital requirement would be quite large. And that's the reason we need to go out and get also funds from outside," he said, without specifying an amount or time frame.

(Reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi and Mei Mei Chu; Editing by Martin Petty)
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday held separate bilateral talks with his counterparts from Brazil, Turkiye and Mauritius with a focus on the agenda of the G20 foreign ministers' meeting and the Ukraine conflict.

The foreign ministers of the three countries are in Delhi to attend the crucial G20 meeting on March 1 and 2.

On his meeting with Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira, Jaishankar said the momentum in the bilateral relations, especially in the economic and energy domains figured in the talks.

"Delighted to host FM Mauro Vieira of Brazil this evening. As G20 Troika members, discussed the issues coming up at the Foreign Ministers' Meeting," he said on Twitter.

"Took note of the momentum in our bilateral relations, especially in the economic and energy domains," Jaishankar said.

He further said it was agreed to strengthen multilateral cooperation, including in the UN, BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-Chins-South Africa) and IBSA.

Also Read Jaishankar consults Ethiopian FM to reinforce ties in education, trade Jaishankar discusses Ukraine, G20 and UN reforms with Russia's Lavrov Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan warns Greece over 'harassment' of Turkish jets Jaishankar meets Turkish FM after Erdogan's neutral Kashmir reference Bolsonaro denounces violence after supporters storm Brazil's govt buildings Delhi LG launches portal for quick licencing of eating establishments We're with onion farmers, says Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde in Assembly 5 children die of respiratory infection in Kolkata, Mamata chairs meeting Sisodia's portfolios given to Gahlot, Anand till new ministers' appointment Severe cold wave conditions return in HP, 'yellow' warning issued

The IBSA (India, Brazil, South Africa) is a tripartite grouping aimed at promoting cooperation among the three countries.

On his talks with Turkiye foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Jaishankar said they discussed the G20 agenda, the Ukraine conflict and bilateral cooperation.

In the meeting, Cavusoglu conveyed his government's appreciation for India's help after the country was hit by a devastating earthquake.

India launched 'Operation Dost' to extend assistance to Turkiye as well as Syria after various parts of the two countries were hit by a devastating earthquake on February 6 that killed over 30,000 people.

"Welcomed FM @MevlutCavusoglu of Trkiye in New Delhi for #G20FMM. Appreciated his warm words for #OperationDost and all personnel involved. Discussed the G20 agenda, the Ukraine conflict and our bilateral cooperation," Jaishankar tweeted.

Jaishankar said he discussed with the Foreign Minister of Mauritius Alan Ganoo the robust development partnership and multilateral cooperation.

"Started my meetings on #G20FMM sidelines with FM Alan Ganoo of Mauritius. Value Mauritius' participation in G20. Reiterated our commitment to Neighborhood First, SAGAR & Forward Africa policies," Jaishankar said in a tweet.

"Discussed our robust development partnership and our strong multilateral cooperation," he added.

While Brazil and Turkiye are members of G20, Mauritius is not part of the bloc.

A number of foreign ministers of non-G20 countries, including that of Sri Lanka, Mauritius and Bangladesh, are also attending the meet following India's invitation as guests.

While the visiting dignitaries will be welcomed at a gala reception on March 1, the crucial deliberations on various challenges will be held on March 2



The G20 or Group of 20 is an intergovernmental forum of the world's major developed and developing economies. The members represent around 85 per cent of the global GDP, over 75 per cent of the global trade, and about two-thirds of the world population.

The grouping comprises Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the UK, the US and the European Union.
Ahead of attending the G20 Foreign Ministers' meeting, the UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly will be meeting his counterpart External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Wednesday as they are expected to discuss progress on the UK-India 2030 Roadmap that aims to bolster the two countries' ties in defence and security, trade and investment.

He's visiting India to attend the G20 Foreign Ministers' meeting here and to mark a new scheme allowing young Brits and Indians to live and work in each other's countries for up to two years, which was announced by the Home Secretary earlier this week.

During a visit to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Delhi on Wednesday, the Foreign Secretary will mark the opening of the Young Professionals Scheme, an ambitious new partnership between the UK and India which allows up 3,000 Brits and 3,000 Indians a year the right to live and work in the other country for up to two years, the British High Commission said.

The Foreign Secretary will also announce the creation of the UK's first Tech Envoy to the Indo-Pacific region, who will boost ties with India as a priority. This envoy is the second of its kind to be announced by the UK (after the appointment of a Tech Envoy to the US in late 2020) and demonstrates its commitment to the region and tech-diplomacy.

The new Tech Envoy role will boost the UK's status as a science and tech superpower. The envoy will work with partners in the region on areas of shared interest, including setting global technology standards and helping to solve challenges through innovative technology.

Foreign Secretary Cleverly said: "India is a hugely important partner to the UK and the deeper ties we are forging now will help to grow the UK economy and boost our industries for the future. This landmark migration scheme will enable the brightest and best in both our countries to benefit from new opportunities.

Also Read Jaishankar congratulates James Cleverly on becoming UK's Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar meets British counterpart Cleverly, discusses Ukraine war Jaishankar speaks to British foreign secretary Cleverly on bilateral ties Want India to play active part in world befittting its economic heft: UK EAM Jaishankar interacts with counterparts of four countries on Day 3 in NY Top headlines: Tata- Bisleri talks, IBA mulls 5-day week for bank employees Vice President Dhankar calls upon young minds to think out of the box Priority for tourism through development of Banavasi: Karnataka CM Bommai Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrives in India for G20 meeting TMS Ep379: GDP slowdown, fake websites, textile stocks, Jan Vishwas Bill

"India is also an emerging global leader on technology and there are immense opportunities for better collaboration between us in this sector. That is why we will be sending our first Tech Envoy to the Indo-Pacific region, to maximise the tech expertise of both countries."

India has the world's third highest number of tech unicorns and startups, with 108 startups gaining the unicorn status of a private company valued at over $1 billion. This announcement illustrates the UK's clear commitment to boosting partnerships in India and across South Asia.

On Thursday the Foreign Secretary will attend the G20 Foreign Ministers meeting to work with partners to advance global efforts on food and energy security, climate change and development. He will also continue to call Russia out at the G20 and work with partners to mitigate the global impacts of Russian aggression in Ukraine.

If the war were to end today, the effects of the exacerbated food insecurity would still run into 2027.

The Foreign Secretary will also address an India-Europe business event in the capital where he will reaffirm the UK's commitment to conclude a Free Trade Agreement with India.

With more links than almost any country in the Indo-Pacific region, the UK-India trading relationship is already worth 34 billion pound, growing by 10 billion pound in one year.

--IANS

vg/dpb
UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly on Wednesday raised the issue of tax searches at BBC offices in India with his Indian counterpart S. Jaishankar.

The issue was raised during their bilateral meeting, as per reports citing an interview with Cleverly, who is in India to participate in the two-day G20 Foreign Ministers meeting, which began here on Wednesday.

Last month, income tax authorities had conducted "survey operations" at BBC offices in New Delhi and Mumbai.

The searches came after the Indian government had reacted strongly against a BBC documentary on post-Godhra incident riots in Gujarat in 2002, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the state's Chief Minister.
India has emerged as a leading country with a holistic and comprehensive water resources management and the world, in particular the developing countries, is inspired by this and is seeking New Delhi's help in addressing such issues, Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat has said.

They (the world community) are amazed to see (the steps being taken by India in water conservation and resources management), Shekhawat, the Union Jal Shakti Minister, told PTI in an interview.

The Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Jodhpur is here to attend the World Water Week event being held in person by the World Bank after a gap of three years and attended by more than 400 global experts on water-related issues.

In his keynote address at the event, the minister presented some of the crucial steps taken by India in this field in the last few years.

In a bilateral meeting, Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources from Ghana, Cecilia Abnea Dapaah, sought assistance from India in addressing the challenges they are facing on water-related issues.

India inspires all of us, Shekhawat quoted Dapaah as saying, adding that he received similar feedback from other delegates and participants of Monday's meeting.

Also Read Pratibha Patil's husband Devisingh Shekhawat dies of heart attack in Pune Himalayan Fritillary among 29 new threatened species in India: IUCN 110 mn rural households in India now have access to tap-water connection J'khand govt launches water conservation scheme with over Rs 467 cr outlay International nature conservation agency announces new Green List sites WHO warns tourists to avoid wet markets to avert human bird flu risk Delhi bike taxi ban puts Swiggy and Zomato delivery partners in a fix Business leaders must focus on sustainability, respect nature: Piyush Goyal NSE gets Sebi nod to launch WTI crude oil, natural gas futures contracts Firms hiring foreigners in Singapore to verify educational qualifications

On Tuesday, the minister travelled to Knoxville in Tennessee to get a first-hand experience of the assessment of the safety management of dams, and the integration of water resources, being undertaken by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), the source of inspiration for a similar project, the Damodar Valley Corporation in West Bengal and Jharkhand.

Shekhawat said that the Indian government, after the recent passage of the Dam Safety Act, earnestly started working on the safety of dams. He added that in the last five years, India, in association with the World Bank, has taken significant successful steps towards the safety, management, and repair of dams, making it the world's largest rehabilitation and improvement programme involving 700 dams.

India has taken a leadership role in this field and is not far behind, Shekhawat said. He noted that it is at par with the world's best practices on flood forecasting.

Given the global challenges faced in the field of water resources management, Shekhawat said there is a need to have a unified, comprehensive and integrated approach towards this.

During his meetings here, the minister said officials agreed that the World Bank and India should collectively advocate water-related issues.

Responding to a question, Shekhawat said that steps are being taken to ensure that water availability does not pose a challenge in India's path of becoming a developed country by 2047, a vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

India, aiming to become a USD 5 or USD 10 trillion economy and a developed nation by 2047, has to work earnestly to ensure the necessary and adequate water availability. We have started working in that direction from now onwards, Shekhwat said.
Also Read

Marks & Spencer to turbo charge growth rate in India, open one store/month

Wipro salary cut for Turbo freshers raises alarm bells for Elite candidates

HAL gets LoI for 9 helicopters from Indian Coast Guard; stock rallies 7%

Hindustan Aeronautics told to conduct Aero India 2023 in February

Hindustan Aeronautics' Dhruv choppers to get monitors to dodge obstacles

DoT to call OTT players, telcos to discuss usage charges, revenue sharing

Policy decisions see a disconnect as regulators remain headless

Domestic cooking gas prices rise by Rs 50, at highest level since Feb 2014

Coal production increases by 15% to 784 mn tonnes during Apr-Feb 2022-23


Addressing the Confederation of Indian Industrys (CII) session of India Europe Business and Sustainability Conclave, Goyal urged world leaders to recognize that everyone must contribute their fair share in improving energy efficiency, in achieving green goals by transitioning and helping other nations transition to green growth to make the world a better place to live in. Developed and developing countries must have different goals and timelines while being sensitive to each other's needs, potential goals and roadmap towards sustainability, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said on Wednesday.



He reiterated India's commitment to ensuring that sustainability and inclusive growth defined India's growth story. The minister urged all business leaders to focus on sustainability and ensure that all actions respect nature. India's partnership with the UK and the EU is significant in the global effort to make the planet safer and greener, the minister said.



The government will only be able to play the role of an enabler and that it would be business and people at large who would have to adopt practices that lead to sustainable development. If we accept this as a global responsibility, a shared commitment for a better world, we can do wonders. We need speed and we need to scale up our efforts for a sustainable world, the minister added. The minister also said that to a large extent the climate crisis was created by high levels of consumption and waste generation and only a collective effort would help combat the climate crisis and achieve sustainable growth.
Indian Institute of Technology-Madras on Wednesday inked a pact with Denmark in the presence of Danish Crown Prince Frederik Andre Henrik Christian to take up research projects on next-generation fuels and energy systems under the 'Indo-Danish Green Strategic Partnership'.

Besides the Danish Crown Prince, senior representatives of IIT Madras, Denmark Minister for Climate, Energy and Utilities Lars Aagaard, Ambassador of Denmark to India Freddy Svane and Tamil Nadu industries department, Additional Chief Secretary S Krishnan were present during the signing of the agreement between IIT Madras and the Denmark government.

As part of the deal, four projects were launched under the Indo-Danish Green Strategic Partnership and they are expected to accelerate technology development through industry-academia government partnerships, collaborations with global partners to develop technology solutions among others.

"Today, Denmark is paving the way for investments in new technologies. We see great potential in sharing mutual knowledge with India and its bright engineers, which can help in implementing these technologies," Aagaard was quoted as saying in a press release.

Tamil Nadu has identified 15 offshore locations to establish wind turbines. Denmark is collaborating on a plan to establish the first offshore wind farm in Tamil Nadu, he said.

On the collaboration with Denmark, Krishnan said: "Today, we are on the cusp of an important relationship between Tamil Nadu and Denmark - in the areas of clean energy, and how to tackle climate change. Tamil Nadu continues to be a leader in renewable energy."



"More than 50 per cent of the installed capacity in Tamil Nadu are from renewable energy sources with potential for expansion in wind, solar and green hydrogen," he added.

Also Read IIT JAM 2023: How to apply, eligibility criteria, registration and more IIT Madras launches electric racing car; mulls driverless vehicle by 2025 IIT Madras, Australian univ to launch 'Australia-India Centre for Energy' Fifa World Cup: Australia beat Denmark reach Round of 16, Tunisia shock FRA Danish Crown Prince Frederik Andr Henrik Christian in India for 4-day visit CGBSE class 12 exams commence today: Check full update here JEE Main Final Paper 2 Answer Key: How to Download, calculation process UGC NET Phase 2 exam today for phase 2 subjects: Guidelines and Details NEET PG admit card 2023 released: Check Steps to download and other details SSC CGL Tier 1 scorecard 2022 releasing today: Check details here

In another development, Denmark-headquartered multinational company Danfoss said it would take up joint work on drinking water for coastal regions using renewable energy in association with IIT Madras.

The association between Danfoss and the premier technical institution is to promote cooperation in engineering education and scientific research.

Danfoss India President Ravichandran Purushothaman exchanged documents with IIT Madras Dean (Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research) professor Manu Santhanam on the occasion, the release said.
Chinese scientists develop full-color inkless printing technology

Xinhua) 10:07, March 01, 2023

HANGZHOU, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- When light hits many ordered structures in subtle objects, reactions such as refraction, diffuse reflection, and diffraction will occur, resulting in structural colors, such as the wing hues of insects and birds.

A Chinese research team from Westlake University has drawn inspiration from the phenomenon and developed full-color inkless printing technology.

In a study recently published in the journal Nature Communications, the research team has developed a composite film composed of ultra-hard ceramic materials and used an ultrafast laser to fabricate micro-nano structures on the film's surface, providing a new idea for the industrial application of inkless laser color-printing technology.

The annual global sales of printers have reached hundreds of millions. The widely used inkjet or laser color printers require a lot of ink or toner. The ink contains volatile harmful substances such as lead, cadmium, and mercury. The toner releases small particles that can be absorbed by the human body, causing harm to the environment and human health.

The structural color, however, features long durability and high resolution and is environmentally friendly, according to the study. It is hence becoming an attractive technique in many applications. But there are problems in these applications, such as narrow color gamut, limited materials, and easy fading.

The research team developed a novel "paper," a composite ceramic film about 110 nanometers thick, one thousandth the thickness of a human hair.

The film has three layers. The bottom layer is gold-like titanium nitride, which acts as a reflective layer to block light and increase brightness. The intermediate layer is a high-loss aluminum-titanium nitride dielectric, which can regulate the absorption of natural light. The top layer is aluminum oxide.

When an ultrafast laser is applied to the surface of the aluminum-titanium nitride, an additional transparent thin film of aluminum oxide is formed, which, together with the aluminum-titanium nitride, regulates the natural light absorbed.

The team applied the laser to the film and controlled the energy or scanning speed of the laser to change the thickness of the aluminum oxide film and the aluminum-titanium nitride film.

After the thickness changes, the natural light will form specific reflected colors through the complex interference effect between the three layers, thus forming different colors.

Using various techniques, researchers performed a material analysis of the laser-colored areas and confirmed that the observed colors were from the laser-induced oxide layer, said the study.

The technology can achieve full-color inkless printing with high speed and high resolution, presenting nearly 90 percent of the standard RGB, better than current mainstream laser coloring technology.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)


An eminent five-member jury, chaired by former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) deputy governor S S Mundra, picked the CEO of the largest private sector bank of the country as the winner. The other jury members were Vice Chairman and CEO of HDFC Limited Keki Mistry, Ican Investment Advisors Chairman Anil Singhvi, Aditya Birla Sun Life Asset Management Company MD and CEO A Balasubramanian, and former MD and CEO of Bank of Baroda P S Jayakumar. Mistry, however, recused himself from the deliberations around group concern HDFC Bank. Sashidhar Jagdishan, managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO) of HDFC Bank, has been chosen as the Business Standard Banker of the Year 2022, as the lender continued its strong performance under his leadership while successfully navigating through technology-related challenges.



Jagdishans journey in HDFC Bank started in 1996 as a manager in the finance function. Known to his colleagues as Sashi, Jagdishan took charge of HDFC Bank on October 27, 2020, after his illustrious predecessor Aditya Puri demitted office upon attaining the age of 70 years  the maximum age for a CEO in a private sector bank according to the Reserve Bank of Indias norms. The banking regulator had approved Jagdishans appointment for a three-year period, after which he will be eligible for an extension. He will turn 58 this month.



In a rare gesture, Jagdishan apologised to the bank customers after the RBI action and went on a war footing to plug the gaps. By the end of 2021-22, satisfied with the banks efforts, the banking regulator decided to lift all the bans  a testimony of his leadership during a crisis, which was also noted by the jury. His initial days as CEO were not smooth. Just after a month of appointment, in early December of 2020, the banking regulator barred HDFC Bank from on-boarding new credit card customers and launching new digital products due to repeated outages of the banks mobile and internet banking platforms. The regulatory action was a big blow to HDFC Bank, the largest credit card issuer in the country.

Also Read HDFC Bank targets nearly Rs 1-trillion deposit mop-up every quarter Canara Bank wins 'Banker's Bank of the Year Award 2022' for India BS Banker of the Year Award: High-powered Jury meets today to pick winner First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC explored offer for Standard Chartered Business Standard's BFSI Insight Summit kicks off today Credit rated Indian banks can move over to IFRS 9: S&P Global Ratings What Axis Bank's acquisition of its consumer biz means for Citi's customers Axis Bank completes acquisition of Citibank India's consumer business Indian Banks Association considers 5-day work week for bank employees Indian Bank ties up with Toyota Kirloskar Motor to offer vehicle financing



For financial year 2021-22, the period under review for the award, HDFC Bank reported an 18.8 per cent increase in its net profit to Rs 36,961.3 crore, backed by an 11 per cent increase in net interest income to Rs 72,009.6 crore. The bank maintained a net interest margin of 4.0 per cent. Gross non-performing asset ratio, one of the best among Indian banks, declined to 1.17 per cent from 1.32 per cent in 2020-21. Average return on assets (ROA) was 2.03 per cent, and return of equity was 16.9 per cent. HDFC Bank continued to register a strong financial performance, augmented shareholders value, and growth ratios are impressive despite a much larger base. Jagdishan navigated the bank smoothly through the technology challenges it was facing when he took over the reins, jury chairman Mundra said. This is also a recognition of his leadership skills, Mundra added while congratulating Jagdishan.



Prior to his appointment as MD and CEO of HDFC Bank, Jagdishan was the strategic change agent of the bank in addition to overseeing the functions of finance, human resources, legal & secretarial, administration, infrastructure, corporate communications and corporate social responsibility. HDFC Bank, which commanded 11.2 per cent of the loan market share and 9.5 per cent in deposits by the end of 2021-22, is the most valued lender in the country with over $100 billion market capitalisation. With over 70 million customers and 6,300 branches, the bank had a business close to Rs 30 trillion by the end of FY22  second to the behemoth State Bank of India.

A chartered accountant by profession, Jagdishan completed his graduation in Science with specialisation in Physics. He also holds a Masters degree in Economics of Money, Banking & Finance from the University of Sheffield, UK.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is wrapping up a brief tour of Central Asia in Uzbekistan before heading to India for what is expected to be a contentious Ukraine-dominated meeting of foreign ministers from the Group of 20.

Blinken met Wednesday in Tashkent with senior Uzbek officials a day after warning his counterparts from all five Central Asian nations about the dangers posed by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Speaking before talks with Uzbekistan's acting foreign minister, Blinken said he believed the United States and Central Asia share concerns about Ukraine, although the former Soviet states have toed a delicate line when it comes to condemning Russia for the war.

"I think there was a tremendous sense of both common challenge and common purpose among the C5+1 countries, Blinken said in reference to Tuesday's meeting in the Kazakh capital of Astana among him and the foreign ministers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

In those talks, Blinken repeatedly referred to US support for the five countries' sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence in a not-so-subtle warning to the former Soviet republics that Russia's value as a partner has been badly compromised by its year-old war against Ukraine, another ex-Soviet state.

Acting Uzbek Foreign Minister Bakhtiyor Saidov thanked Blinken for US support for his country and its neighbours. I want to underline that we share common priorities for a prosperous, stable and peaceful Central Asia, he said.

Also Read G20 foreign ministers' meeting to kick off in Delhi today; all details here Antony Blinken to travel to India on March 1 to participate in G20 meeting India is an invaluable partner: US State Department on Jaishankar-Blinken Israeli-Palestinian tensions test US diplomacy as Antony Blinken visits US State Secy Blinken accuses Russia of 'land grab' referendums in Ukraine The cashless economy: Sweden's switch to digital tells a cautionary tale China poses an 'existential' threat: US lawmakers at Congressional hearing About 15.5 mn children in US infected with Covid since onset of pandemic Pakistan has no food for its poor but purchases weapons, shows report Fiery Greece train collision kills 26, injures at least 85, says official

None of the five Central Asian nations, traditionally viewed as part of the Kremlin's sphere of influence, have publicly backed the Russian invasion. Yet none of them have condemned it and all of them passed on a chance to do so again last week when they abstained in a vote at the UN General Assembly on the first anniversary of the war.

Blinken was later to see Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev before leaving for New Delhi, where he will attend a two-day meeting of the foreign ministers from the Group of 20 largest industrialised and developing countries, including China and Russia.

The G-20 talks come as tensions have soared between the US and Russia and between the US and China over Russia's war in Ukraine and Chinese assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific. All three countries are competing fiercely to outdo each other in influence, particularly at venues like the G-20.

The US and its Western allies in the G-20 will be pushing for the group to adopt a firmer position on the war, while Russia and China will likely be pressing for broad endorsement of a Chinese peace proposal for Ukraine that Beijing unveiled last week. That plan has been largely dismissed by the West.

A meeting of the G-20 finance ministers in India last week ended without consensus on Ukraine.

The last time the group's foreign ministers met in Bali, Indonesia, in 2022 Blinken held extensive talks with China's then-foreign minister, Wang Yi, that led to a summit in Bali between President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Xinping in November.

Wang, who has since been promoted, met with Blinken last month on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in Germany, the first high-level talks since the US shot down a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon and Blinken postponed a much-anticipated trip to Beijing.

Those discussions ended with no sign of progress on improving relations, which have been further strained by US allegations that China is considering supplying with Russia with lethal military supplies for use in Ukraine, and renewed suggestions that the COVID-19 pandemic could have been the result of a Chinese lab leak.

Blinken said Tuesday in Astana that the Biden administration will not hesitate to impose sanctions on Chinese companies that support Russia's war effort.

China can't have it both ways when it comes to the Russian aggression in Ukraine. It can't be putting forward peace proposals on the one hand while actually feeding the flames of the fire that Russia has started with the other hand, he said.

US officials have been tight-lipped about the prospects for Blinken sitting down with new Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang or Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in New Delhi. They say only that there are no such talks planned. But all three will be present in the Indian capital.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian blamed the US "miscalculation and wrong policy" for causing the current stalemate on the revival of a 2015 nuclear deal.

Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks in an address to the High-Level Segment of the Conference on Disarmament in the Swiss city of Geneva, Xinhua news agency reported, citing a statement released by Iran's Foreign Ministry on its website on Tuesday.

If all parties have the "determination and goodwill", the few outstanding issues can be settled without any precondition and within the framework of the previous talks, thus enabling the parties to take the "final step", the top Iranian diplomat was quoted as saying.

The US needs to have "the will and strength to conclude the lengthy talks", he said, stressing that Iran is ready to continue the talks until the conclusion of an agreement.

Amir-Abdollahian said Iran's nuclear program will remain "peaceful" and Tehran is determined to remain committed to its obligations under the safeguards agreement.

He also warned against any action to be taken during the upcoming meeting of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in March, saying that Iran reserves the right to respond accordingly.

Also Read Iran to uphold nuke commitments, if sanctions removed: Iranian atomic chief Iran ready to take final steps for nuke deal if red lines respected: FM Iran to send delegation to Vienna for talks with IAEA, says FM Abdollahian Decision to withdraw from Iran nuke deal great strategic blunder: Official Iran to receive $7 billion of its frozen foreign exchange assets from US Oil prices rise as China factory gains boost demand outlook for fuel South Korean prez calls Japan 'partner' in tackling economic challenges Renjen, Subramaniam to be members of US President's Export Council World Bank assures support to Sri Lanka's development reform programme China says it's been open and transparent over origin of Covid-19

A technical solution is within reach if the IAEA stops its politically-motivated approach, said the Iranian minister.

Iran signed the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), with world powers in July 2015, agreeing to put some curbs on its nuclear programme in return for the removal of the sanctions on the country. The US, however, pulled out of the deal in May 2018 and reimposed its sanctions on Iran.

The talks on the JCPOA's revival began in April 2021 in the Austrian capital of Vienna. No breakthrough has been achieved after the latest round of talks held in August 2022.

--IANS

int/sha
Nepal has welcomed more than 1,20,000 tourists in the first two months of this year, the Himalayan nation's tourism department said on Wednesday, with Indians accounting for the highest numbers of arrivals in February.

Nepal has witnessed a dramatic surge in tourist arrivals with many countries easing their travel restrictions since the Covid-19 pandemic broke out more than three years ago.

It has welcomed 128,329 tourists by air during the first two months of 2023, according to the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB).

In February alone, the country welcomed 73,255 foreign tourists, a whopping 270.6 per cent rise compared to the same month last year, the NTB said.

The highest number of tourists last month were from India, with 18,401 arrivals, according to the NTB.

The US is the second highest tourist-generating market for Nepal as 7,887 tourists visited the country in February 2023, the NTB said.

Also Read Indian Embassy, Nepal govt sign MoUs for projects in education, healthcare DU UG Merit List 2022 released: Here's how to download simulated merit list Indo-Nepal border sealed for 72 hours ahead of general elections in Nepal 17.9 mn people set for national and provincial elections in Nepal on Sunday Nepal plane crash: At least 68 dead, rescuers search for 4 missing persons List of the countries that have implemented partial or total ban on TikTok Alembic Pharma gets USFDA approval to market generic cancer drug FBI chief Wray confirms Covid-19 originated from lab incident in Wuhan Antony Blinken wraps up Central Asia tour before G20 talks in India The cashless economy: Sweden's switch to digital tells a cautionary tale

With China allowing its citizens to travel abroad, its effect has been seen in Nepal's tourism sector, NRB director Maniraj Lamichhane said.

In February 2023, 2,266 Chinese tourists visited Nepal, compared to 205 Chinese tourists who visited the country during the same period last year.
Canara Bank is quoting at Rs 285.7, up 2.2% on the day as on 12:49 IST on the NSE. The stock is up 32.18% in last one year as compared to a 4.9% gain in NIFTY and a 41.81% gain in the Nifty Pharma index.

Canara Bank is up for a third straight session in a row. The stock is quoting at Rs 285.7, up 2.2% on the day as on 12:49 IST on the NSE. The benchmark NIFTY is up around 0.67% on the day, quoting at 17419.15. The Sensex is at 59342.26, up 0.64%. Canara Bank has added around 0.21% in last one month.

Meanwhile, Nifty Pharma index of which Canara Bank is a constituent, has added around 0.8% in last one month and is currently quoting at 3658.35, up 2.3% on the day. The volume in the stock stood at 42.63 lakh shares today, compared to the daily average of 81.61 lakh shares in last one month.

The benchmark March futures contract for the stock is quoting at Rs 287.6, up 2.4% on the day. Canara Bank is up 32.18% in last one year as compared to a 4.9% gain in NIFTY and a 41.81% gain in the Nifty Pharma index.

The PE of the stock is 5.57 based on TTM earnings ending December 22.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News
Unsubscribe to continue

This is a subscriber only feature Subscribe Now to get daily updates on WhatsApp
Maruti Suzuki advanced 1.15% to Rs 8,725 after the car major said that its total sales rose 5.04% to 172,321 units in February 2023 as compared with 164,056 units in February 2022.The sales of passenger vehicles increased by 10.09% to 147,467 units, while sales of light commercial vehicles fell 8.28% to 3,356 units in February 2023 over February 2022.

The company's total domestic sales advanced 10.77% to 155,114 units, while total exports contracted 28.37% to 17,207 units in February 2023 over February 2022.

The shortage of electronic components had a minor impact on the production of vehicles, mainly in domestic models. The company took all possible measures to minimise the impact. The company said in statement.

Maruti Suzuki India is engaged in the manufacture, purchase and sale of motor vehicles, components, and spare parts (automobiles).

The company's consolidated net profit surged 129.6% to Rs 2,391.50 crore on 25.5% jump in net sales to Rs 27,852.60 crore in Q3 FY23 over Q3 FY22.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News
The domestic equity barometers traded with moderate gains in morning trade. The Nifty traded above the 17,400 level. Metal shares snapped its three days falling streak.

At 10:26 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 300.98 points or 0.51% to 59,263.10. The Nifty 50 index added 102.60 points or 0.59% to 17,406.55.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.79% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index advanced 1.04%.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 2,309 shares rose and 787 shares fell. A total of 139 shares were unchanged.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth Rs 4,559.21 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs), were net buyers to the tune of Rs 4,609.87 crore in the Indian equity market on 28 February, provisional data showed.

Economy:

India's GDP or gross domestic product slowed to 4.4 per cent in the October-December quarter 2022, primarily due to a 1.1 per cent contraction in manufacturing, along with weaker private consumption demand and government expenditure, according to the second advance estimates released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) on Tuesday.

Also Read Indices trade with decent gains; metal stocks in demand Indices trade sideways, metal stocks shine Sensex slips 136 pts, metal stocks lose shine, VIX climbs over 4% Benchmarks trade with minor gains; Nifty above 18,100 Sensex adds 153 pts, metal stocks tumble Benchmarks edge higher in early trade; breadth strong SGX Nifty indicates lower opening Market slides for 8th day; Nifty holds 17,300 Quick Wrap: Nifty Media Index records a surge of 2.46% Indices tumble for 8th day; Sensex slides 326 pts

For the full financial year 2022-23, the National Statistics Office (NSO) has retained the growth estimate at 7 per cent in the second advance estimates. According to the first advance estimates released last month, the GDP growth was pegged at 7 per cent for 2022-23. In financial year 2021-2022, India's economy grew at 8.7 per cent.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Metal index advanced 2.85% to 5,419.05, snapping its three days declining streak. The index slipped 6.11% in past three trading sessions.

Adani Enterprises (up 9.25%), APL Apollo Tubes (up 4.57%), Hindustan Copper (up 3.29%), Jindal Steel & Power (up 3.02%), National Aluminium Company (up 2.81%), Hindalco Industries (up 2.76%), Welspun Corp (up 2.66%), Hindustan Zinc (up 2.37%), Vedanta (up 1.79%) and Tata Steel (up 1.68%) edged higher.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Hinduja Global Solutions (HGS) rose 0.23%. The company announced it has completed the acquisition of 100% stake in TekLink International Inc for $58.8 million. TekLink International Inc. is a full-service financial planning and analytics service provider to over 60 clients across multiple industries, including consumer products, retail, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing & distribution, utilities, and high tech.

Power Grid Corporation of India fell 1.82%. The company announced that it has been declared as the successful bidder under tariff based competitive bidding (TBCB) for establishing an inter-state transmission system in the state of Gujarat. The project involves "establishment of Khavda Pooling Station-3 (KPS3) in Khavda RE Park on build, own operate and transfer (BOOT) basis.

Natco Pharma advanced 0.35%. The pharma company announced the launch of Pomalidomide capsules in Canada, the first generic alternative to Pomalyst brand in the country approved by Health Canada. Pomalidomide is used in combination with Dexamethasone and Bortezomib for the treatment of adult patients with multiple myeloma.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News
Veteran Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin on Wednesday jumped to the top of the latest ICC Men's Test Bowling Rankings, replacing England pacer James Anderson.

Ashwin claimed the top spot after taking six wickets in India's emphatic victory over Australia in the second Test in New Delhi.

Anderson dropped to second place after England's stunning loss to New Zealand in the Wellington Test.

The 36-year-old Ashwin first claimed the top honour among Test bowlers in 2015, and has returned to the top spot on several occasions since then.

Ashwin bagged big wickets in India's win in Dehli, removing Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith in the same over of the first innings before returning to pick up Alex Carey for a duck.

The off-spinner was at it again in the second innings, picking up three of the top five while his spin-bowling accomplice Ravindra Jadeja rattled through the rest of the Australia batters from the other end.

Also Read India 14/1 at lunch on Day 3, need 101 runs to win against Australia Kohli completes 25,000 runs in int'l cricket; 6th batter to touch landmark Top-order worries remain as India eye another win in Pujara's 100th Test Death by Spin: Australia's struggle against turning ball in first two Tests India beat Australia by six wickets in second Test to go 2-0 up in series Border Gavaskar Trophy, 3rd Test: Kuhnemann picks 4, Lyon 3; India tops 100 Border-Gavaskar Trophy: Kohli set to play 200th international match at home Ignoring Agar for Nagpur Test was Australia's big mistake: Harbhajan Singh Death by Spin: Australia's struggle against turning ball in first two Tests India beat Australia by six wickets in second Test to go 2-0 up in series

Ashwin has an opportunity to extend his latest stay in the No.1 spot in India's remaining two Tests on home soil in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy



Ashwin is the third No.1 Test bowler in as many weeks, after Anderson replaced Australia captain Pat Cummins at the summit last time around. The trio continue to make up the top three bowlers in the latest rankings.

Anderson is now five rating points behind Ashwin, who remains on 864 points.

Jadeja's 10 wickets in the second Test against Australia also sees him move up the bowling rankings into eighth spot,



Jadeja and Ashwin occupy the top two positions in Test All-Rounder Rankings.

England's Joe Root is the other big mover in the all-rounder rankings, up two spots to eighth.

Root's return to top form in Wellington also sees him leapfrog Travis Head and Babar Azam into third position in the MRF Tyres ICC Test Batting Rankings.

Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith remain first and second respectively among Test batters.

New Zealander Tom Blundell is a new arrival in the top 10, rising four places to seventh after he helped the Black Caps to their famous follow-on victory by one run in the second Test against England.

England young gun Harry Brook continues his meteoric rise up the batting rankings after another superb century, climbing 15 places to draw level with Virat Kohli in 16th.
Tracer, the leader in brand protection and brand success, today announced the acquisition of Mad Power Technologies, a firm that provides AI and machine learning services with expertise in data capture and modeling, data engineering and advanced analytics, and cloud-based application delivery. Located in Madeira, Portugal, Mad Power Technologies will be the global Center of Excellence for Tracer AI and Data Science, extend Tracers European expansion, and accelerate customer support across Europe.

Digital scamming, brand misuse and phishing have become increasingly pervasive across all geographies, as sophisticated networks of bad actors seek to take advantage of businesses and their customers through online fraud and brand infringement, said Rick Farnell, CEO of Tracer. The acquisition of Mad Power Technologies provides a team of seasoned AI experts, developers and analysts to accelerate our pace of innovation and expansion into EMEA markets. Customers of all sizes across the globe are telling us that legacy brand protection offerings lack innovation and aren't keeping up with the needs of their business. With our modern human-in-the-loop (HITL) AI approach, we are innovating to meet the current and future needs of the global market and delivering world class business outcomes for the time to trace (TTT), time to recommend (TTR) and time to take down (TTTD) instances of online brand misuse. We will continue to invest in our Tracer platform as we set the standard for brand success.

Tracer to Establish Center of Excellence for AI and Data Science

With the Mad Power acquisition, Tracer has established a Center of Excellence (CoE) for AI and Data Science in Madeira, Portugal, to continue developing talent in AI and software development. The CoE for AI and Data Science will accelerate Tracers product innovation for HITL AI and machine learning including computer vision, natural language processing and sentiment analysis. Tracer will also establish its global Academy Training Program in Portugal, which will enable the company to train technology talent in the fields of AI, data science and software engineering. Since the launch of the partnership between Mad Power and Tracer, the CoE has onboarded 60 new employees dedicated to technology innovation.

The CoE for AI and Data Science will accelerate Tracers ability to process and analyze massive volumes of data across digital channels to prevent brand misuse, uncover market insights and accelerate brand success. Across traditional Web2 and emerging Web3 channels, brands today face a growing number of sophisticated digital threats. Failure to identify and mitigate risks quickly can lead to copyright and trademark infringements, brand impersonation, digital counterfeiting and other types of brand misuse.

The companys flagship product, Tracer Protect, is the first-of-its-kind SaaS platform that leverages HITL AI and machine learning to continuously trace, analyze and mitigate brand misuse across global Web2 and Web3 channels. By incorporating human judgment at key decision points, the Tracer Platform enables continuous improvement to the platforms AI and machine learning models and algorithms.

To learn more, visit the website or build your customized Tracer Analysis and brand misuse report.

Additional Resources

Follow Tracer on LinkedIn

Follow Tracer on Twitter



About Tracer

Tracer accelerates Brand Success for the worlds most-loved brands, including four of the top five most valuable global businesses. In todays landscape of highly sophisticated digital threats and hyper-competition, the stakes have never been higher for businesses to identify risks and opportunities across the evolving digital universe. The Tracer Platform mitigates digital brand misuse to preserve authentic customer interactions and uncovers new categories of dynamic market insights to fuel better business decisions. TracerAI technology continuously captures and filters data from thousands of global Web2 and Web3 digital sources, including domains and websites, marketplaces, social media, mobile apps and app stores, search engines, NFT marketplaces, metaverse environments, Web3 domains and more. TracerAI applies a suite of advanced, human-in-the-loop AI and machine learning approaches to analyze and correlate instances of brand use and misuse across this digital landscape. This allows businesses to see the unseen and control the use of their brand online, improving brand integrity to increase customer loyalty and satisfaction. The platforms market-leading Tracer Protect product for online brand protection provides real-time monitoring and analysis of IP and copyright infringement, fraud, brand impersonation, digital and digital-plus-physical counterfeiting and other forms of brand misuse. This enables businesses to prevent brand misuse before it has a chance to damage their brands. For the highest level of security for valuable domains, Tracer Registrar provides enterprise-grade corporate domain registration and management so businesses can protect their brand for the long-term from the start. Built on more than a decade of real-world brand protection experience, the Tracer Platform yields rapid infringement detection with market-leading accuracy, leading to vastly faster time to detection and enforcement.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230228005572/en/
Archive Apr 2023 (68) Mar 2023 (139) Feb 2023 (119) Jan 2023 (129) Dec 2022 (133) Nov 2022 (131) Oct 2022 (134) Sep 2022 (127) Aug 2022 (135) Jul 2022 (132) Jun 2022 (138) May 2022 (136) Apr 2022 (128) Mar 2022 (138) Feb 2022 (127) Jan 2022 (132) Dec 2021 (136) Nov 2021 (150) Oct 2021 (155) Sep 2021 (155) Aug 2021 (184) Jul 2021 (170) Jun 2021 (168) May 2021 (168) Apr 2021 (169) Mar 2021 (179) Feb 2021 (153) Jan 2021 (161) Dec 2020 (155) Nov 2020 (152) Oct 2020 (160) Sep 2020 (158) Aug 2020 (169) Jul 2020 (173) Jun 2020 (169) May 2020 (165) Apr 2020 (164) Mar 2020 (144) Feb 2020 (116) Jan 2020 (118) Dec 2019 (113) Nov 2019 (105) Oct 2019 (124) Sep 2019 (122) Aug 2019 (125) Jul 2019 (125) Jun 2019 (116) May 2019 (124) Apr 2019 (117) Mar 2019 (123) Feb 2019 (108) Jan 2019 (125) Dec 2018 (125) Nov 2018 (122) Oct 2018 (124) Sep 2018 (114) Aug 2018 (127) Jul 2018 (124) Jun 2018 (114) May 2018 (130) Apr 2018 (123) Mar 2018 (128) Feb 2018 (114) Jan 2018 (126) Dec 2017 (123) Nov 2017 (121) Oct 2017 (121) Sep 2017 (116) Aug 2017 (119) Jul 2017 (108) Jun 2017 (116) May 2017 (110) Apr 2017 (111) Mar 2017 (119) Feb 2017 (109) Jan 2017 (108) Dec 2016 (113) Nov 2016 (116) Oct 2016 (118) Sep 2016 (120) Aug 2016 (112) Jul 2016 (111) Jun 2016 (125) May 2016 (111) Apr 2016 (112) Mar 2016 (121) Feb 2016 (114) Jan 2016 (114) Dec 2015 (119) Nov 2015 (117) Oct 2015 (125) Sep 2015 (124) Aug 2015 (103) Jul 2015 (125) Jun 2015 (131) May 2015 (123) Apr 2015 (129) Mar 2015 (133) Feb 2015 (125) Jan 2015 (135) Dec 2014 (134) Nov 2014 (129) Oct 2014 (144) Sep 2014 (127) Aug 2014 (130) Jul 2014 (143) Jun 2014 (131) May 2014 (137) Apr 2014 (139) Mar 2014 (134) Feb 2014 (128) Jan 2014 (141) Dec 2013 (140) Nov 2013 (136) Oct 2013 (145) Sep 2013 (146) Aug 2013 (147) Jul 2013 (151) Jun 2013 (141) May 2013 (150) Apr 2013 (149) Mar 2013 (151) Feb 2013 (133) Jan 2013 (160) Dec 2012 (154) Nov 2012 (157) Oct 2012 (165) Sep 2012 (145) Aug 2012 (161) Jul 2012 (170) Jun 2012 (162) May 2012 (169) Apr 2012 (162) Mar 2012 (162) Feb 2012 (156) Jan 2012 (169) Dec 2011 (157) Nov 2011 (178) Oct 2011 (182) Sep 2011 (170) Aug 2011 (178) Jul 2011 (174) Jun 2011 (157) May 2011 (158) Apr 2011 (164) Mar 2011 (172) Feb 2011 (162) Jan 2011 (177) Dec 2010 (171) Nov 2010 (169) Oct 2010 (182) Sep 2010 (179) Aug 2010 (184) Jul 2010 (190) Jun 2010 (189) May 2010 (198) Apr 2010 (185) Mar 2010 (210) Feb 2010 (195) Jan 2010 (212) Dec 2009 (225) Nov 2009 (209) Oct 2009 (215) Sep 2009 (202) Aug 2009 (230) Jul 2009 (269) Jun 2009 (252) May 2009 (241) Apr 2009 (256) Mar 2009 (254) Feb 2009 (255) Jan 2009 (214) Dec 2008 (204) Nov 2008 (252) Oct 2008 (268) Sep 2008 (304) Aug 2008 (210) Jul 2008 (251) Jun 2008 (206) May 2008 (203) Apr 2008 (202) Mar 2008 (204) Feb 2008 (195) Jan 2008 (212) Dec 2007 (179) Nov 2007 (189) Oct 2007 (179) Sep 2007 (176) Aug 2007 (209) Jul 2007 (155) Jun 2007 (135) May 2007 (106) Apr 2007 (120) Mar 2007 (138) Feb 2007 (77) Jan 2007 (70) Dec 2006 (63) Nov 2006 (70) Oct 2006 (67) Sep 2006 (70) Aug 2006 (61) Jul 2006 (56) Jun 2006 (44) May 2006 (60) Apr 2006 (53) Mar 2006 (45) Feb 2006 (38) Jan 2006 (42) Dec 2005 (46) Nov 2005 (54) Oct 2005 (60) Sep 2005 (46) Aug 2005 (86) Jul 2005 (43) Jun 2005 (47) May 2005 (52) Apr 2005 (39) Mar 2005 (29) Feb 2005 (26) Jan 2005 (12)
The Governor called for the strict implementation of anti-ragging and anti-harassment laws in the medical colleges with a special focus on protecting the students, especially women.(Image Source: Twitter)

HYDERABAD: Taking serious note of Dr D. Preethi's suicide, Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan on Tuesday asked the Vice Chancellor of the Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences for a detailed report on the standard operating procedures in place to deal with incidents of harassment and ragging.

In a letter, the Governor termed Dr Preethis death as "terrible", calling for a thorough inquiry from all possible angles to ascertain the truth. Besides the SOPs, the Governor also sought details on CCTV cameras, grievance redressal cell, evaluation of the feedback from medicos and their working conditions.

The letter also mentioned that precious time was lost in shifting the victim to NIMS Hospital. It suggested that instead, super speciality experts and advanced medical equipment should have been moved to the MGM Hospital for treatment.

The Governor called for the strict implementation of anti-ragging and anti-harassment laws in the medical colleges with a special focus on protecting the students, especially women.

She also suggested the strengthening of the grievance redressal mechanism and the creation of a student counselling cell, headed by the HoD of the psychiatry wing, in each medical college.

The letter mentioned that the Governor directed the vice chancellor to create better awareness among the medicos and the faculty about effective strategies to prevent such unfortunate incidents in future.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at a joint news conference with Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins Screen Capture

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Wednesday that Russia should withdraw troops from Ukraine to make peace talks possible.

BERLIN, GERMANY - MARCH 01: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Wednesday that Russia should withdraw troops from Ukraine to make peace talks possible.



Speaking at a joint news conference with Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins, Scholz reaffirmed Germanys support for Ukraine, and urged Russia to take steps for peace.



It is clear Russia attacked Ukraine, and Russia is the country that needs to do something now, he said.



(Russia) needs to undertake a step forward so that peace will become possible, and what is necessary is the withdrawal of troops, he added.





Asked about Ukraines warnings of a possible new Russian offensive and Kyivs request for more weapons and ammunition, Scholz promised continued military support.



We do our utmost that Ukraine receives everything that it needs to defend itself, he said.



Well make sure that the production of ammunition is stepped up. For the weapons we supplied ourselves, but also for weapons that were transferred from Eastern Europe, he continued.



This will remain an ongoing task. As weve always said, we're going to support Ukraine as long as it is necessary.

AA/Berlin
Workers seen fixing the hoardings for the ensuing Global Investors Summit at AU Engineering College grounds in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday. (P. Narasimha Murthy/DC)

Visakhapatnam: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy will arrive in Visakhapatnam on Thursday evening to inaugurate the two-day Global Investors Summit the next day.

The state government has made all arrangements for the summit, which is expected to bring together prominent dignitaries from different industries around the world. The summit will be a platform for investors and industrialists to announce their investment plans in Andhra Pradesh, which has emerged as India's fastest-growing state.

The inaugural session of the summit on Friday will feature keynote addresses by Union ministers Nitin Gadkari, and Piyush Goyal. Industrial captains participating in the summit from India include Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director, Reliance Industries Ltd; Gautam Adani, chairman, Adani Group; K.M. Birla, chairman, Aditya Birla Group; Hari Mohan Bangur, chairman, Shree Cement Ltd.; Sajjan Jindal, chairman, JSW Group; Sanjiv Bajaj, managing director and CEO, Bajaj Finserv; and Naveen Jindal, chairman, Jindal Steel and Power Ltd.

After the inaugural session, there will be panel discussions involving all essential sectors. G.M. Rao, chairman, GMR Group; Sajjan Bhajanka, chairman, Century Ply Boards; Sumant Sinha, chairman and managing director, Renew Power; Puneet Dalmia, managing director, Dalmia Bharat Group; Cyrill Gutsch, founder and CEO, Parley for Advisors Oceans; Craig Cogut, founder and CEO, Pegasus Capital; Martin Eberhard, co-founder and former CEO, Tesla Inc.; Satya Tripathi, secretary general, Global Alliance for a Sustainable Planet; and Arjun Oberoi, executive chairman of Oberoi Group; will discuss opportunities offered by Andhra Pradesh.

On March 4, the second day of the summit, industrialists and AP government will sign memoranda of understanding for setting up industrial units in the state in different sectors. Dr Suchitra Ella, founder and chairman of Bharat Biotech; will speak on disease prevention and Dr Satish Reddy, chairman of Dr Reddy's Laboratories, will talk on the revolution in pharmaceutical research and development.

There will be several industry-focused sessions, such as a discussion on Andhra's role in India's tech and data edge led by Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Union minister of state for electronics and IT; and a conversation on how Andhra can power India's sea trade by Sarbanand Sonowal, Union minister of ports, shipping, and waterways.

The GIS 2023 is expected to be attended by delegates from over 40 countries, making it a truly global platform for businesses to explore investment opportunities in Andhra Pradesh.

The summit will focus on "Advantage Andhra" and its impact on India's modern economy. The sessions will include discussions on sustainable development, India's tech and EV revolution, and India as a gateway to southeast Asia.
Well, it took Geely Philippines long enough. About two years after we said they needed a sub-compact crossover to penetrate the local market...
The chief complaint of farmers is that the government was offering them meagre compensation, when compared to market prices. ( Representational Image: DC)

Hyderabad: With the state due for elections later this year, the state government has put on hold land acquisition for infrastructure projects, including the Hyderabad regional ring road (RRR) and master plans in municipality areas, due to stiff resistance from landowning farmers.

Concerned by the mounting opposition, the government has directed revenue officials in districts not to proceed with land acquisition until further orders, sources said, adding that the government may not take up any project for which land is to be acquired.

After severe opposition from farmers during public hearings for the RRR project land acquisition in Siddipet, Medak, Sangareddy and Yadadri in December 2022, hearings and surveys in Bhongir, Choutuppal, Ibrahimpatnam, Kandukur and Chevella have been put on on hold.

The chief complaint of farmers is that the government was offering them meagre compensation, when compared to market prices.

Besides the RRR issue, the governments plan to revamp existing master plans or lay out new master plans for 91 municipalities and corporations also ran into a roadblock due to the intense agitation programmes launched by farmers and backed by opposition parties in Kamareddy, Jagtial and Nirmal.

The Centre has been repeatedly writing to the state government to hand over land and deposit its 50 per cent share for land acquisition for the RRR project. Despite five letters being written to the Chief Secretary in the past three months, the lack of response indicates that the government is not keen to undertake land acquisition in the election year, even as it allocated Rs 500 crore for the same in the state Budget.

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), which is executing the RRR project, estimated land compensation at Rs 5,170 crore for the 162-kilometre northern part of the RRR.

In a written reply to the Lok Sabha on January 2, the Union minister of road transport and highways, Nitin Gadkari, informed that the state government is yet to deposit its 50 per cent share. He added that as such, the Centre was unable to issue a notification under Section 3D of the National Highways Act,1956, for acquiring the land.
Over seven decades, Mattinson put together an incredible resume including dozens of titles that have impacted generations of moviegoers. He was also one of the few remaining people who could say that theyd worked directly with Walt. In a 2020 interview, Mattinson remembered those early days at the studio when he would, each Friday, cash a check on Walts behalf so the boss would have some spending money for the weekend.

Mattinson was born in San Francisco on May 13, 1935. As a child, his mother took him to the San Francisco Orpheum Theatre where he saw Pinocchio for the first time. It was an experience that would serve to shape the rest of his life.

I was six years old and I decided I was gonna work at Disney, Mattinson said in a video celebrating 65 years at the company. It was the quality of what they did. I say that from Pinocchio these are drawings that are coming to life. If you want in-depth characters, it had to be Disney. Thats why I wanted to be there.

In 1945, the Mattinson family moved to Los Angeles. As Mattinson explains to fellow Disney legend Eric Goldberg in the video linked below, after graduating from Notre Dame High School, his mother told him he needed to find a job. Always a fan of drawing and of the work being done at Disney, he asked his mother to drive him to the studio where he planned to apply for a job. She obliged, dropped him off, and said shed be back in an hour.

A genial security guard called Pappy told Mattison that he wasnt allowed onto studio grounds without an appointment, but that the young man could wait in Pappys booth for Mrs. Mattinson to return. While they waited, Pappy asked Mattinson to have a look at the portfolio hed brought with him. Impressed with what he saw, the guard called into the studio and got Mattinson a meeting which ended with a job offer in the Disney mailroom. Within six months and with no formal art training, Mattinson began working as an in-betweener on Lady and the Tramp.

Mattinson was later promoted by Marc Davis, one of Disneys Nine Old Men, to assistant animator on Sleeping Beauty and filled the same role on One Hundred and One Dalmatians.

During a 2020 interview, when asked about what he learned while working with the Nine Old Men, Mattinson recalled some advice he was given by Davis when working on Sleeping Beauty, He said to me, Just remember, 25% of it is the doing it, the rest of it, the 75%, thats the thinking about it before you animate or do anything.

After Dalmatians wrapped, Mattinson began working with another of Disneys Nine Old Men, Eric Larson. The two worked closely for the next 12 years and were involved with Walt Disneys Wonderful World of Color tv series as well as the feature films The Sword in the Stone, Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book, and The Aristocats.

After finishing an in-house training program, Mattinson became an animator and worked on the films Robin Hood and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger, Too. His work caught the eye of Frank Thomas, another of the Nine Old Men, who asked him to help storyboard The Rescuers.

In much the same way that a bold and unsolicited action of Mattinsons landed him a job at Disney back in 1953, an equally bold and unsolicited act got him his first directing gig thirty years later. After listening to a Disneyland Records Christmas album, Mattinson came up with the idea for Mickeys Christmas Carol. He sent a copy of that album, along with a note outlining his pitch, to studio head Ron Miller.

The following day, Mattinson was summoned to meet with Miller. He nervously headed to the bosss office fearing he had overstepped, but was pleased to find out that Miller liked his idea and wanted to make it a reality. Mattinson was assigned to direct and produce the featurette, which has become a perennial holiday classic. The success of that film landed him the gig of producer and co-director on The Great Mouse Detective.

I enjoyed direction, Mattinson once said. But I found, actually, it was more fun to do the drawings. You know whats the fun part of it? Getting into that world. When youre sitting down and taking a little stick-figure character and starting to think what his world is like, where hes going, what hes gonna do, what are they feeling at this moment? Youre trying to get inside this characters mind. Thats the main thing; its about characters.

In the 1990s, Mattinson was a member of the story team on renaissance classics including Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Tarzan, and Mulan.

Mattinson continued working full-time at Walt Disney Animation Studios into the new century, filling the role of story supervisor on the 2011 feature Winnie the Pooh and 2007 Goofy short How to Hook Up Your Home Theater. More recently, he served as a story consultant on Big Hero 6 and Strange World.

In 2003, when asked to reflect on half a century at Disney, Mattinson said, I mean, 50 years is a long time, but I still feel like that 18-year-old kid that came here back in 53, you know? I never feel like Ive gotten old. In 2008, the Walt Disney Company officially recognized Mattinson as a Disney Legend, although his status had long since been cemented as one of the studios all-time greats.

The biggest thing is having fun, Mattinson once said. Ive always found that through all those pictures Ive worked on if youre having fun working on it, it will come across.

After learning of his passing, Mattinsons friends and colleagues have been paying tribute to the animation legend.

Oscar-winning Disney director Don Hall said, For almost 30 years, Ive had the privilege to work alongside Burny Mattinson, from Winnie the Pooh to Big Hero 6 to, most recently, Strange World. I have marveled at his artistry, enjoyed his good humor, and sat enraptured by his stories of Disney history. At 18 years old, he followed his dream of working at Walt Disney Animation Studios, and for almost 70 years he lived that dream every day, inspiring all of us who had the good fortune to follow in his footsteps. I love him dearly.

Eric Goldberg recalled, Burny was low-key, charming, inventive, and superbly gifted as a draftsperson and a storyteller. His storyboards were beautifully acted and wonderfully atmospheric, which I first encountered when I joined the studio for Aladdin. The more I saw of his work, the more I became in awe of his breadth of talent. I value his cheerful friendship and lasting inspiration to me and so many other animation artists. He will be missed, but not forgotten.

Other Disney colleagues, like Marlon West and Stephen Anderson, also posted tributes on social media:

The Walt Disney Service Awards, October 23, 2018. I was celebrating my 25th year. Burny Mattinson, standing with myself & Michael Giaimo, was being honored for his 65th. No one will surpass his years as a Disney artist. A legend and a gentleman. pic.twitter.com/VEy7KFQhnf  Marlon West (@marlonw) February 28, 2023

They say Dont be sad its over. Be happy it happened. I loved every second of knowing this beautiful man. Ill miss you, Burny. pic.twitter.com/QSf0RUBZ8d  Stephen Anderson (@stevehatguy) February 27, 2023

Mattinson is survived by his wife, Ellen Siirola; his son, Brett Mattinson, and his wife, Kelly, and their two children; and his daughter, Genny, her husband Larry Ellena, and their two children.
Taiheiyos Jiangnan-Onoda suspends cement business in Nanjing, China

ICR Newsroom By 01 March 2023

Taiheiyo Cement Corp announced that its consolidated subsidiary Jiangnan-Onoda Cement Co Ltd has decided to suspend the cement manufacturing and sales business in Nanjing City, China.



The competitive environment in China has become increasingly challenging due to the technical advances in local capital and the expansion of the scale of its production base. Therefore, Taiheiyo Cement has decided to suspend the operations of Jiangnan-Onoda Cement to focus on the policy set out in the groups 23 Medium-Term Management Plan. The plan, which dates from May 2021, et out the basic policy for overseas business and the "construction of a new business portfolio in the Asian region", especially in Southeast Asia, in addition to considering the groups portfolio.



Taiheiyo Cement Corp owns 88 per cent of Jiangnan-Onoda Cements capital.



In the FY21-22 (ended 31 March 2022), Jiangnan-Onoda Cements net sales profit reached JPY708,201m (US$5181.9m). Operating profit reached JPY46,701m. The profit attributable to the parent company was JPY28,971m. The consolidated financial results forecast for FY22-23 indicates a net sales profit of JPY810,000, an operating profit of JPY4000m and a loss attributable to the parent company of JPY26,000m.







Published under
Officials said the state government will pitch in Rs 6 lakh, while Rs 2 lakh will be given from the mayor's fund, after the same was decided at an all-party meeting convened by mayor Gadwal R. Vijayalakshmi on Tuesday. (File Photo: Twitter @GadwalvijayaTRS)

Hyderabad: The GHMC announced an ex gratia of Rs 8 lakh for the family of four-year-old M. Pradeep, who was mauled to death by stray dogs in Amberpet on February 21.

Officials said the state government will pitch in Rs 6 lakh, while Rs 2 lakh will be given from the mayors fund, after the same was decided at an all-party meeting convened by mayor Gadwal R. Vijayalakshmi on Tuesday.

Besides the Rs 8 lakh, the mayor announced she would give her one-month honorarium of Rs 65,000, deputy mayor M. Srilatha Reddy would contribute Rs 32,500, while 17 corporators will give their monthly salary of Rs 7,800 each.

Further, an all-party committee will be formed to ensure such an incident does not recur, the mayor said.

She said that to curb the stray menace, 20 vehicles will be added to the current fleet of 30 vehicles and that the number of sterilisations would be increased from 100 to 450. She also instructed sanitation staff to ensure there was no delay in clearing garbage, as it attracts strays.
Over 40,000 Syrian refugees return from Turkiye after quake: Turkish minister

Xinhua) 10:28, March 01, 2023

ANKARA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Nearly 42,000 Syrian refugees in Turkiye have voluntarily returned to their homeland following the massive earthquakes that caused tremendous destruction in the region, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Tuesday.

The Syrians, who were affected by the deadly quakes on Feb. 6 and "lost their home, children and relatives" in southern Turkiye, have been returning to their country, the minister told reporters at a press conference in southern Hatay province.

Turkiye hosts nearly 3.5 million Syrian refugees who fled their country after a civil war erupted in 2011. Nearly half of the refugees have been taking shelter in southern Turkiye which was heavily hit by devastating quakes.

The Turkish government last year banned Syrian refugees with temporary protection permits to make roundtrips between the two neighboring countries to encourage a thorough return to their homeland.

The government has loosened move-around travel restrictions for refugees after the quakes, allowing them to go and stay up to six months in Syria before coming back to Turkiye.

More than 46,000 people have died in Turkiye and Syria since 7.7- and 7.6-magnitude earthquakes struck the Turkish southern province of Kahramanmaras on Feb. 6.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
The polls can be seen as a triangular fight for Telangana, mainly as a battle of personalities 1 among K.T. Rama Rao of the BRS, Bandi Sanjay of the BJP and A. Revanth Reddy of the Congress. (DC Image)

Hyderabad: If Telangana state Chief Minister K. Chandra-shekar Rao was not one of the most strategically shrewd politicians in India, perhaps deserving peerage with BJPs Chanakya, Amit Shah, the battle for the Telangana Assembly elections would have been a straightforward fight  with the incumbent Chief Minister seeking a third term based on his performance, and the Opposition seeking to counter his campaign with his purported failures.

Alas, the state elections to be held later this year are anything but straightforward  notwithstanding reports of a possible early dissolution of the Assembly, which are likely moot, and improbable.

The polls can be seen as a triangular fight for Telangana, mainly as a battle of personalities  among K.T. Rama Rao of the BRS, Bandi Sanjay of the BJP and A. Revanth Reddy of the Congress  given that Chandrashekar Rao seeks to throw his hat in the national politics ring.

Firstly, the incumbent TRS party is now gone and has been replaced by one renamed BRS  a regionally-focussed party has been replaced by a nationally-aspiring one.

Chandrashekar Rao has not hidden his ambition to play a key role in Delhi even in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls by driving unity between non-BJP parties. He has aspirations bigger than to merely continue as Chief Minister  and will, in some probable scenarios, play a crucial role in national politics from next year.

This leaves an unspoken vacuum in state politics  which is where the fight for 2023 really lies.

People prefer a presidential showdown campaign for the electoral battle in Telangana state, too, like most others, but given unique factors in their parties, the cult war is subterranean, and on the surface, the campaign looks and feels like a confrontation among the

BRS, Congress and the BJP.

No secret that KTR is BRS CM candidate

The three potential Chief Ministerial candidates are hardly closeted. In the ruling party, it is no longer a secret that if the BRS wins the next elections, sooner or later, scion and minister, and party working president, Rama Rao is the CM candidate. The last time a crescendo was achieved for a campaign for him, the Etala Rajender episode took place, and the moves were shelved.

Recently, the chorus is back in the ruling party. In the last four days, Rama Rao addressed three back-to-back public meetings in Bhupalapally, Hanamkonda and Siricilla, in which senior party leaders, including Kadiam Srihari, T. Rajaiah, S. Madhusudhana Chary and Gandra Venkata Ramana Reddy, addressed him as the "future CM". On his part, Rama Rao gracefully reciprocated with folded hands.

BRS senior ministers Talasani Srinivas Yadav and Ch. Malla Reddy are also frequently addressing Rama Rao as the next Chief Minister. While this was stopped after the Chief Minister warned party leaders in 2020, the lack of an angry diktat now is being read as tacit approval.

Barring two interventions, Chandrashekar Rao also stayed away from the recently held Assembly session, letting his son handle all matters, questions and handling of the House. As the chorus picks up, the clear role divide becomes apparent - Chandrashekar Rao focuses ever more on national politics and Rama Rao held two Cabinet sub-committee meetings in the last week, which took major decisions on the distribution of house sites for poor and mopping up state government revenues through various regularisation schemes.

Short of asking for votes for Rama Rao as the Chief Minister candidate, the BRS has regularised the popular opinion that the time has come for the coronation of the prince. But they are reluctant to declare it openly, and thus, all the signalling and hints.

In the camp of the principal challenger, the Congress, PCC president A. Revanth Reddy has mounted his most direct assault for supremacy in Telangana state politics. Even as seniors in the party with long-standing clout act as a check and balance, Revanth Reddy, styling himself increasingly in the mould of late Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, is showering welfare promises.

While the promises are mounted in the rhetoric of what Sonia Amma Rajyam will bring, or what a government whose larger leadership will be in the hands of Rahul Gandhi will mean, Revanth Reddy is seen by most people as the de facto Chief Minister candidate of the Congress. And his padayatras are increasingly showcasing that the party is powering its campaign on the appeal of his persona.

But as with any national party, the public stance is the party will first try to come to power and then the legislators, and high command, will take the decision later.

In the BJP too, like in the Congress, there is no Chief Minister face for the campaign, but there is little doubt in the public mind that it is the party's state president and Karimnagar MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar who has fuelled the party to such an electoral might, and is indeed the leader because of whom people are increasingly inclining towards the BJP.

While the BJP has perfected a template for winning elections, it has not yet convincingly defeated any non-Hindi regional party to wrest power. The BJP's visceral disdain for promoting strong leaders ahead of the polls can be detrimental to its bid for power in Telangana.

But while dissidents in the party tried several times, the leaks from the Sunday meeting of senior party leaders with home minister Amit Shah left little for speculation  with the party's high command fully backing Sanjay as the steward for its ship for the electoral storm.

While a Sanjay-led BJP believes that a campaign of Hindutva fervour, showcasing the BRS as an appeasing force under the pressure from the Owaisi-led MIM is a sure ticket to power, with issues like renaming of cities, love Jihad, neglect of Hindus, besides corruption, set against the nationalist and clean image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi; the Revanth Reddy-led Congress believes in the spirit of Telangana agitation, failed aspirations and welfare programs covering all segments would be the right recipe to dislodge the strongly entrenched BRS.

Without a de jure declaration, the battle royale for Telangana 2023 has now become a strange case of Chandrashekar Rao clearly eying Delhi, and three undeclared Chief Ministerial candidates.

And as ever with personality battles juxtaposed against political canvases, it will be fascinating at the very least.
The Professional Photographers Of East Tennessee announced Tuesday the election of Betsy Bird to the board of directors.

"Ms. Bird brings a strong background in professional photography, marketing, branding and training with her to the board," officials said.



We are blessed to have Betsy Bird join the Professional Photographers of East Tennessee board. She is a great addition, reliable and well-spoken, with leadership skills that educate, empower and elevate our members," said Colby McLemore, president of PPETN. Her business skill has helped push my business further into the 21st century.



Ms. Bird owns Ride the Sky Equine Photography, a horse and equestrian photography business based in Chattanooga. She specializes in high school equestrian seniors, horse portraits and equestrian business branding photography. She is a certified professional photographer with the organization Professional Photographers of America. "The CPP designation is held by fewer than 2,500 photographers nationwide and is a hallmark of consistency, technical skill, artistry and professionalism," officials said.

Learn more about Betsy Bird and Ride the Sky Equine Photography at ridetheskyequine.com.



I am happy to be joining the board of the Professional Photographers of East Tennessee. PPETN offers so many educational opportunities for photographers to build their skillset when it comes to their photography and their business, said Ms. Bird. I look forward to continuing to grow PPETN into the destination organization for serious professional photographers in the east Tennessee area.
Through the 'Haath Se Haath Se Jodo' campaign, Congress was trying to expose the failures of both the BJP government at the Centre and the BRS government in Telangana, AICC Telangana state incharge Manikrao Thakre. (File photo: @OfficeOfThakare)

Hyderabad: AICC Telangana state incharge Manikrao Thakre and Nalgonda MP N. Uttam Kumar Reddy launched a door-to-door campaign as part of Haath Se Haath Jodo in Kodad of Suryapet district.

Speaking on the occasion, Thakre recalled how Sonia Gandhi despite massive hurdles and opposition from within the party granted statehood to Telangana. However, Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao destroyed the dream of Telangana. He said through the 'Haath Se Haath Se Jodo' campaign, Congress was trying to expose the failures of both the BJP government at the Centre and the BRS government in Telangana.

Uttam Kumar Reddy alleged that the BJP and the BRS had a secret pact and were trying to project Congress as a weak party. However, the Congress has a strong presence in all 34,000 polling booths in the state.

Uttam Kumar Reddy said none of the promises made by the Chief Minister in the last eight-and-a-half years was fulfilled.

"Nearly 40 lakh people in Telangana state were jobless, including nearly 25 lakh qualified youth registered with the Telangana State Public Services Commission. The KCR govt failed to provide jobs or honour the promise of giving an unemployment allowance of Rs 3,016 to jobless youths. Similarly, against 22 lakh homeless families, not even 22,000 received the promised 2-BHK houses," he said.

He said that while the BJP government was misleading the people by using the titles like Atmanirbhar Bharat or Make In India, the BRS government was cheating by using names like 'Rythu Bandhu', 'Dalit Bandhu' or 'Kalyana Laxmi'. In reality, he said, the welfare schemes did not reach the common people. Lakhs of farmers are still waiting for their crop loans up to Rs. 1 lakh to be waived off as promised by the Chief Minister 2018.

Similarly, the career of lakhs of students has been ruined as the BRS government did not clear Fee Reimbursement dues or deposit scholarship amount, he added.
Cleveland State Community College is offering a flexible way to help students get ahead. This spring, students can choose from a variety of short-term classes that are flexible to anyones schedule.



Whether you are new to college or a continuing student, short term classes help you get ahead and step closer to achieving your academic goals, stated Cate Green, MEd, dean of Enrollment Management at Cleveland State.



These short-term classes are condensed to seven weeks with the option to take classes online or in-person. Classes are full credit courses that are offered from March to May. The spring semester classes start March 15.



The following courses are available to choose from:



Active Directory

Business Communications

Cloud Essentials

Commercial Refrigeration Systems

Cultural Geography

Early American Literature

Early Humanities

Fundamentals of Communication

Human Anatomy/Phys II

Introduction to Legal Process

Introduction to Music

Introduction to Philosophy

Introduction to Programming and Logic

Leadership Development Studies

Linux LPIC-1

Modern American Literature

Modern United States History

Modern World History

Modern World Literature

Penetration Test/Network Defns

Precalculus Trigonometry

Principles of Microeconomics

Religions of the World

Route Surveying

Walking for Fitness



For more information, call 423-473-2321 or visit mycs.cc/shorterclasses.
Morning Pointe Senior Living campuses across the Southeast will celebrate A World of Wellness as the theme for March 2023.



The purpose of the theme is to focus on whole-person wellness, said Amanda Baushke, Morning

Pointes vice president of life enrichment. This includes exercise, nutrition, spirituality, socialization,

intellectual stimulation and much more.



For example, Morning Pointe of Greeneville, Tennessee, and Morning Pointe of Powell, Tennessee are hosting wellness fairs. Morning Pointe of Athens, Tennessee; Morning Pointe of Danville, Kentucky; and Morning Pointe of Louisville, Kentucky, are running drumming sessions for residents with drum sticks and yoga balls. And Morning Pointe of Lexington-East, Kentucky, is hosting a health talk, a food demo and a wellness clinic.



As a senior living company, we focus on our residents wellness every day, and we are pleased to make this even more of an emphasis as we involve our greater communities this month, said Greg A. Vital, Morning Pointe co-founder and president.
Students living in the Westside who attend the Construction Career Center will soon have new gear to prepare them for a future in the industry. The board of commissioners for the Chattanooga Housing Authority voted Tuesday to establish a scholarship in memory of their late colleague, Jim Sattler.

Commissioner Sattler was involved in the construction and development industry throughout his career and retired as chief financial officer from EMJ. He served on the board of commissioners for several years prior to his death last month and was active in civic and faith-based efforts throughout his life.

Funds will be used to provide everything from work boots and gloves to knee pads and construction hats for students attending the construction academy. AGC of East Tennessee president Leslie Gower noted that the CHAs funding will be matched with funding from members of the AGC. We know the importance of having the right tools to do the job and having proper equipment for our students is equally important. Were grateful for this ongoing commitment and the relationship with the Chattanooga Housing Authority. Together, were building a foundation for the future of our industry.

CHA executive director Betsy McCright said, Once the students graduate from the construction career center, they will have a general contractors license which will allow them to gain employment. We hope that our construction team will hire some of the students to work in the community theyve called home. Once employed, the students will be able to move out of public housing and will be on their way toward self-sufficiency. Ending generational poverty and building wealth will finally be attainable for these students. Nothing would please Jim more.


The Center for Responsible Citizenship will host Chief Judge Jeffery Sutton to speak at Lee University on Local Solutions to the Courts Deepest Questions on Friday, March 17.

Judge Sutton serves as the chief circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He is the author of several recent books on federalism, including Who Decides?: States as Laboratories of Constitutional Experimentation and 51 Imperfect Solutions: States And The Making of American Constitutional Law.

Judge Suttons lecture will consider the role of states and local government in the federal structure, highlighting the importance of decentralizing many of the legal and moral questions faced in American courts today. This offering continues the CRCs 2022-2023 theme of Institutions & Inheritance, considering the place of political institutions in conserving tradition while orienting a communitys growth and development.

The lecture is open to the public and members of the Cleveland community are encouraged to attend. His lecture will take place at 5:30 p.m. in the Humanities Building Lecture Hall (Room 104) on Lees campus.

We are privileged to have Chief Judge Sutton join us at Lee University, said Dr. Mark Scully, assistant professor of political science. Aside from his important work on the bench, Judge Suttons scholarly contributions enrich our understanding of public law, especially the important opportunities that state and local governments provide for beneficial legal and political diversity, practical political experimentation, and individual liberty. My students that read 51 Imperfect Solutions gained a nuanced understanding of the rich political and legal possibilities that our federal legal system creates, possibilities which have yet to break through legal and political academia.

Lees Center for Responsible Citizenship hosts interdisciplinary reading groups, lectures, workshops, and symposia to cultivate conversation about what the elements of a healthy community really are. These conversations are essential in a time where political life is so frequently lacking patience, deliberation, and charity. said Dr. Thomas Pope, professor of political science and CRC director. The CRC recasts political life as a framework of dialogue, mores, and institutions that help us understand what it means to pursue the good life, together.

For more information about the Center for Responsible Citizenship, or to learn how you can support its programming, please email crc@leeuniversity.edu.
4/15/2023



Ruffner Art Advisory announced Jim Collins' last show featuring new sculptures. This show will focus on new and unique Watchers, Mr. Collins' iconic image. The show will be on Thursday, ... more
The City Council voted on Tuesday to send a letter to Governor Bill Lee urging that small amounts of marijuana be de-criminalized.

The resolution was sponsored by Council members Demetrus Coonrod and Jenny Hill.

Two members passed instead of voting Yes or No.

The letter says:

Dear Governor Lee:

Tennessee Code Annotated  39-17-418, which is attached currently, makes it an offense for any person to possess or distribute a small amount of marijuana not in excess of one-half (1/2) ounce in Tennessee as a general matter of state law. President Biden's decision to pardon Americans convicted of simple marijuana possession under federal law has also urged changes in this law and similar laws in other states in a recent press release from the White House on October 6, 2022, urging all Governors to do the same with regard to state offenses, which is also attached.



This new press release announces a Presidential pardon for all prior federal offenses of simple possession of marijuana, and the United States Attorney General has been directed to develop an administrative process for the issuance of certificates of pardon to eligible people who were previously convicted under Federal law.



The Chattanooga City Council is aware that the governing bodies of Memphis and Nashville have previously adopted legislation to not arrest or prosecute citizens for simple possession of marijuana in small amounts less than one-half (1/2) ounce although the general state law makes it a criminal offense. President Biden has urged all governors to do the same with

regard to state offenses under statutes like T.C.A.  39-17-418. President Biden has stated that

sending people to prison for possessing marijuana has upended too many lives and incarcerated

people for conduct that many states no longer prohibit. Criminal records for marijuana possession

have also imposed needless barriers to employment, housing, and educational opportunities, and

while white, and Black and brown people use marijuana at similar rates, Black and brown people

have been arrested, prosecuted, and convicted at disproportionate rates.



Please consider the action taken by President Biden in this state and continue to regulate important limitations on trafficking, marketing, and under-age sales of THC and CBD

consumption which are currently allowed based on certain percentages under Tennessee law.



The City Council is also aware that Tennessee recently enacted a minimal expansion of its medical marijuana law. The law took effect May 27, 2021, and it slightly enlarges the medical

conditions for which persons may possess a very limited amount of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).



Previously, Tennessee law allowed only those diagnosed with intractable seizures or epilepsy to possess a limited amount of medical cannabis oil. The new measure allows individuals who have the following medical conditions to possess CBD oil containing less than 0.9% of THC:

 Alzheimers disease;

 Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS);

 Cancer, when such disease is diagnosed as end-stage or the treatment produces related wasting illness, nausea and vomiting, or pain;

 Inflammatory bowel disease, including Crohns disease and ulcerative colitis;

 Epilepsy or seizures;

 Multiple sclerosis;

 Parkinsons disease;

 Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome

(AIDS);

 Sickle cell disease.



The patients diagnosed with a qualifying condition must have a letter from a doctor licensed to practice in Tennessee attesting to the patients qualifying medical condition, specifying the specific condition, and stating that conventional treatments to address this condition have been ineffective. The law also creates a commission to study the possibility of future medical marijuana legalization. The commission is to prepare recommendations for how best to establish an effective, patient-focused medical marijuana program in Tennessee and include proposed legislation in its recommendations.



The Chattanooga City Council supports review of our current state laws and enabling any taxing authorization for CBD products which are sold legally in Tennessee provided that specific taxes are provided to pay for persons who purchase such products similar to the current alcohol taxes which are imposed on those sales in this state. The City Council would request your guidance and help on developing uniform legal requirements for possession, sales, and taxation on all THC,

CBD, and small amounts of marijuana in this state which are uniform with all contiguous states to Tennessee.



The City Council for Chattanooga has considered this action and has urged this response by Resolution which was passed during a public meeting on ________________________, 2023.
The Photographic Society of Chattanooga will present Tom and Pat Cory on Thursday, March 16 at 7 p.m. at the St. John United Methodist Church, 3921 Murray Hills Dr. in Chattanooga.The Corys are semi-retired nature and travel photographers who have been members of PSC for many years. For 35 years they led photography tours throughout the United States, Europe, Latin America and the Pacific Rim. They have spent extensive time in Iceland, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and the Faroe Islands.In addition to their travels, they have published three photography books and had their work featured in numerous publications such as Outdoor Photography, Nature Photographer, the PSA Journal and Sierra Club Calendars.The Corys presentation will be, Creating Images with Emotional Impact.The presentation will begin at 7 p.m. Visitors are always welcome.Boot Camp will begin at 6 p.m., with Richard Smith discussing, Getting the Color RightLightroom Tools for Controlling the Colors in an Image.For more information, call 423-344-5643 or e-mail Mary Jane Fish at president@chattanoogaphoto.org. For more information about the Photographic Society of Chattanooga, visit https://chattanoogaphoto.org.
People get tired of hearing about Shelby Countys education woes. To be fair, Nashville also gets to be in the discussion frequently. Why cant we fix Memphis-Shelby County Schools?

There are a variety of factors that impact a public school system. Past performance, funding, safety, class size, school and district leadership, quality of educators, instructional days, lack of vision, and family and community support are among the most obvious. Until district leadership and community leadership unite around an unwavering commitment to student achievement it will continue to be a challenge to change the direction of Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

How do you measure success in Memphis-Shelby County? You should measure it the same way you measure every other school or system in the state. We cannot expect any less from any student in any school in our state. If you expect less from students, you will get less from students.

How do you make progress in education? in the words of my friend Mike Petrilli, You start with an expectation that every single child in every class will know and do more tomorrow than they did yesterday. He was echoing the abandoned phrase of soft bigotry of low expectations.

As a candidate for President, George W. Bush said: Is it unfair to hold disadvantaged children to rigorous standards? I say it is discrimination to require anything lessthe soft bigotry of low expectations. Some say that schools cant be expected to teach, because there are too many broken families, too many immigrants, too much diversity. I say that pigment and poverty need not determine performance. That myth is disproved by good schools every day. Excuse-making must end before learning can begin. We have fallen back into the trap. In the process, we have given up on students, teachers, schools, and our ability to meet these academic challenges. I refuse to give up.

It starts with a reality check. We cannot be happy--nor should we be happy---with the academic performance in Memphis-Shelby County Schools. The 110,780 students there deserve our best.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools showed some of the countrys sharpest declines in math and reading scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Then on the state exam TCAP, 9 percent of students in the state-run Achievement School District, 22 percent of MSCS students, and 36 percent of Tennessee students demonstrated proficiency in English. In Math, 6 percent of students in the state-run Achievement School District, 13 percent of MSCS students, and 30 percent of Tennessee students demonstrated proficiency.

Those numbers must improve, or it will not just be criticism of the Memphis-Shelby County Schools ability to help students progress, it will be more unwanted state legislation aimed at Shelby County by the Tennessee General Assembly. As much as we cannot be happy with the results in Shelby County, the state-run district is an even greater failure and disgrace.

The Tennessee Department of Education has identified Memphis-Shelby County Schools as a Best for All District. What does that even mean? State education leadership should explain the selection and criteria used for that selection. While they are at it, they should try and explain and defend the ASD test scores.

Two Shelby County leaders, Rep. Tom Leatherwood, and Rep. Antonio Parkinson have both called for an end to the Achievement School District. They should ask questions about ASD test results and get an explanation from state officials. When will we ever hold somebody at the state accountable for this failure and waste of tax dollars? It was tried, it failed, and we should have pulled the plug years ago.

Memphis matters. And it matters not only for the state, it matters for hundreds of thousands of children and families in Shelby County. Children from low-income families face more barriers, and we cannot extend the poverty cycle to another generation because of missed education opportunities. Currently, because of a lack of academic progress, children will have substantially reduced earnings in their future work careers, including material deprivation, diminished life prospects, and financial hardships.

Leadership in Memphis-Shelby County Schools must create an environment to prepare students for life beyond the classroom. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Legal Defense Fund describes a school-to-prison pipeline as funneling of students out of school and into the streets. They describe the cycle as depriving children and youth of meaningful opportunities for education, future employment, and participation in our democracy.

Educators are passionate about providing opportunities for all students. Teachers will work alongside parents and community leaders when they understand they are free from threats by a vindictive school system making them fear for their own livelihoods. When parents, educators, and faith and community leaders speak up it will make a difference for students.

Parents need to demand more from their children. Parents need to become engaged. Education is crucial for children to escape poverty and have a better life. Parents must require more from their elected school board. The school board needs to hold its Director of Schools accountable. Right now, they are searching for a new director. The school board needs to listen to teachers and parents.

We cannot afford any more overpaid, self-serving, advocates for the status quo, who only pander to local political whims. Shelby County needs an education leader that tackles the challenges of literacy, numeracy, and college and career readiness. They need a leader who can create a sustainable foundation by equipping the community, educators, and staff with the necessary information and tools to succeed while meeting academic requirements and fiduciary responsibilities.

Memphis should matter to all of us. Dont give up on Shelby County. Roughly 11% of students in public schools in Tennessee attend school there. Memphis is a great city with unlimited possibilities. It will take state and local officials, families, educators, faith, and community groups working together to address this great challenge in education. No more excuses. When you get the right people involved in the education system it will be a better future for Memphis and Tennessee. If not now, when?

JC Bowman

Executive Director of Professional Educators of Tennessee
Perfect Match star Francesca Farago fiercely defended herself against accusations that she had a boyfriend while filming the reality TV dating show, and she clarified her relationship timeline with Jesse Sullivan. Heres when Farago said she met Sullivan and whether their relationship overlapped with the new Netflix show.

Francesca Farago and Jesse Sullivan | Tommaso Boddi/Stringer/Getty Images

Perfect Match star Francesca Farago defended herself against accusations of having a boyfriend while filming the reality dating show

Farago has been on multiple reality dating shows, including Too Hot to Handle and Love Is Blind: After the Altar. She went looking for love again on Perfect Match, where she dated other reality star singles, including Dom Gabriel, Damian Powers, and Abbey Humphreys.

Farago is currently in a relationship with Jesse Sullivan, a TikTok star who mostly uses his platform to document his experience as a trans man and the parent to his child, Arlo. Sullivan also starred in the documentary My Transparent Life.

Since Perfect Match started airing, Faragos fellow contestant, Savannah Palacio, accused her of having a boyfriend during filming. Perfect Match was filmed in 2022, and Farago revealed on the Past Your Bedtime podcast that she started dating Sullivan in July 2021. She has since claimed on TikTok that they didnt officially get together until the show was over (per Insider), despite celebrating their one-year anniversary as a couple in July 2022.

Perfect Match star Francesca Farago revealed the timeline of her relationship with boyfriend Jesse Sullivan

In June 2022, Farago appeared on an episode of the Past Your Bedtime podcast. She described her relationship timeline with Sullivan, including when they met and officially started dating.

In June 2021, Farago hosted a TikTok live event for Pride Month. Sullivan and his child participated as trailblazers. The couple met over Zoom for a few days of rehearsals while Farago was in Mexico and Sullivan was in Los Angeles.

Right when I saw him in rehearsals, I was like damn, who is this? Farago said. I remember running around the house in Mexico, and Id be like, I think I found my new boyfriend!

They didnt get to spend time together in person until Farago returned to LA in July 2021. It kind of went pretty quickly. I feel like I asked you to be my boyfriend like a week after we met, she said. And then I got stuck in Canada for four months so we were doing long distance.

Sullivan added, Basically, yeah, like a week after we met, she was like, Do you wanna be my boyfriend? I was like, Hell yeah, I wanna be your boyfriend!

The couple revealed their favorite things about each other

Farago and Sullivan also shared their favorite things about each other on the podcast.

My favorite thing about you is that you are, like, freakishly kind. And you love the people around you, youre so giving and caring, Sullivan told the Perfect Match star. When I first met you, I was like, almost gonna be kind of scared of you, because look at you. And youre not like that, youre just a little gummy bear on the inside. Its so cute.

I think youre a gummy bear as well, Farago said.

I think we both are, Sullivan agreed.

I feel like my favorite thing about you is youre the sweetest person Ive ever met. Youve always been so so so nice to me, Farago told her boyfriend. The way you are with Arlo is just so freaking cute. I dont know, we just have like, these little like, inside kind of cute things that we do, and I just feel at home with you. I dont know how to describe it, its just the best feeling.
During The Bachelor 2023 Week, 6 Jess Girod was upset about not yet receiving a 1-on-1 date. As the weeks go by, receiving alone time with the Bachelor only becomes more important. When Jess brought up her concerns with Zach, however, he wasnt exactly understanding. Former Bachelor Nick Viall recently called out Zachs behavior, and many fans of the show arent happy either.

[Warning: The Bachelor 2023 Week 6 spoilers ahead.]

Jess Girod and Zach Shallcross; Nick Viall | ABC/Craig Sjodin; John Wolfsohn/Getty Images

Jess Girod began to spiral during The Bachelor 2023 Week 6. After Ariel and Charity had 1-on-1 dates in Estonia, she was the only remaining contestant who hadnt had a solo date (with the exception of Greer, who was quarantined after contracting coronavirus (Covid-19).

During a group date after party, Jess brought up her concerns about the other women progressing with Zach during their 1-on-1 dates. In my perspective, I was waiting for that 1-on-1 to open up more, she told the Bachelor. I felt a lot of pressure coming into tonight because I feel like you havent seen all of me yet.

Zach was less than understanding. You keep bringing up like its about a 1-on-1 and Im  Im feeling so confident about us, and then its about a 1-on-1. What am I missing? he asked.

Jess added that a 1-on-1 is a big deal, to which Zach only responded with Mhm. He then said that he isnt feeling confident with Jess, and she chose to leave the show. Im not going to beg for you, Jess told the Bachelor.

Former Bachelor Nick Viall sides with Jess Girod over Zach

Former Bachelor Nick Viall expressed his feelings about Zachs behavior on Twitter. Thats 2 weeks in a row now Zach was a total d*** to one of the women. Its literally all about the one on one. Zach knows that. He made Jess feel like she messed up for expressing a valid concern, Nick wrote.

In another post, Nick added, Zach is acting like the guy who gets mad at his girlfriend for not letting him know she wanted validation on her birthday. Nick isnt the only person who is siding with Jess after The Bachelor Week 6. Jess has received support from quite a few fans since departing the show.

Jess wasnt wrong. Having a one-on-one IS critically important to the progression of a relationship. And pretending otherwise is complete bulls***, a Reddit user wrote. Zach gets very cold very quickly. Hated watching his conversation with Jess. Youre potentially getting engaged to someone, and youre upset she wants a few hours with you alone? another fan added.

Zachs behavior toward Greer in the previous week was also questionable

This isnt the first time Zachs behavior hasnt sat right with viewers. In the previous episode, Zach and Greer had a conversation via iPad that was very off. Zach was quarantined due to having coronavirus, and Greer told him she could relate to how he felt. She had previously contracted the illness during Q4 of her sales job.

Zach appeared irritated by the comparison, telling Greer her experience wasnt the same as him having coronavirus while trying to find love. Bachelor Nation had mixed feelings about the conversation, but plenty of fans sided with Greer.

The Bachelor Season 27 airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

For more on the entertainment world and exclusive interviews, subscribe to Showbiz Cheat Sheets YouTube channel.
Police detained Mahila Congress leaders who tried to lay siege to Pragathi Bhavan at the Goshamahal police station on Tuesday. (Photo: Twitter: @SunithaRao_M)

Hyderabad: Police detained Mahila Congress leaders who tried to lay siege to Pragathi Bhavan at the Goshamahal police station on Tuesday. Led by state Mahila Congress president Sunitha Rao, the group was demanding a proper investigation into the suicide of Dr. D. Preethi by a sitting judge and a fast-track court.

The women leaders had been holding a demonstration at Gandhi Bhavan since Monday before about a dozen of them decided to protest at the CMs camp office. They tried the avoid being spotted by the police but to no avail.

Sunitha Rao alleged that there was an increase in cases related to crime against women. " Cases like rape of minors, sexual assault and ragging, besides cases of trafficking were on rise. Where is CM KCR and his Bhajana mandali ministers and police officers. Are they sleeping in Bangaru Telangana," Sunitha Rao asked.

Former MP V. Hanumantha Rao demanding tough punishment for the culprits in the Dr Preethi case urged the government to deploy police in civilian clothes on university campuses to curtail ragging. He asked why there was a delay in carrying out the death sentence of Marri Srinivas Reddy, who had raped and murdered three minor girls in Hajipur village in Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district. "The victim's families are awaiting justice," he said. "Only tough punishment like death penalty will act as a deterrent."
In this image provided by Cornell University, Ray Halbritter, left, representing the Oneida Indian Nation, speaks during a ceremony in the Sage Chapel to repatriate ancestral remains from the university to the Oneida Indian Nation, Tuesday, Feb, 21, 2023, in Ithaca, NY. Cornell University has returned ancestral remains to the Oneida Indian Nation that were inadvertently dug up in 1964 and stored for decades in a school archive.
The Feb. 1 issue of the Cherokee Phoenix features NFL official and Cherokee Nation citizen Jerod Phillips on the front-page of the newspaper. The Cherokee Phoenix publishes a newspaper twice per month and is currently offering veterans and at-large citizens free subscriptions through special funding.
February 24th marked the one-year anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine. In order to understand the current humanitarian needs there, we talked with Martha Holley Newsome, President and CEO of Medical Teams International. MTI is a faith-based health humanitarian agency that has been on the ground since the beginning of the conflict.

How is Medical Teams International involved in the humanitarian response in Ukraine?

As devastating as this conflict has been over the past year, Ukrainians have inspired the world through their strength, unity, and resilience. Medical Teams International has worked alongside Ukrainians and Moldovans to provide life-saving medical care and mental health support to refugees, displaced people, host communities, and first responders. We are doing this by increasing access to health care for conflict-affected local populations and displaced people. We also support a local partner (100% Life Kryvyi Rih) to run mobile medical teams, and work with community-based organizations to run two free pharmacies. A key focus of our work right now is providing mental health and psychosocial support to adults, children, and volunteers affected by the crisis.

How many Ukrainians are displaced, and how many are in need of humanitarian assistance in the country?

The unprecedented impact of this conflict and the resulting displacement are still reverberating throughout the region and beyond. The lives of nearly 44 million people have been impacted, with over 6 million internally displaced. An estimated 7.8 million refugees were forced to flee into neighboring countries. Something I remind people of is how similar the Ukrainian middle-class lifestyle is to our lives in the U.S. It would be like Americans being forced to abandon everything at a moments notice and leave our lives, homes, and businesses behindwith no promise of return. This war has been utterly devastating for millions of people. The sheer scale and shock of how it happened is hard to comprehend.

Early in the crisis, I was able to visit the border area between Ukraine and Moldova and meet with several refugees who were fleeing into neighboring areas. Shell-shocked was a very appropriate term for how these women, children, and men felt as they were seen by our health workers in refugee centers.

Is mental health a significant issue with both Ukrainians and first responders?

Those impacted by this war have had to deal with significant stressors. Many had to leave their homes and social networks; others directly experienced the war in their towns and lived through incredibly distressing events. Volunteers are experiencing secondary trauma from hearing the stories of others and witnessing the harm that has come to their country. It was all simply unfathomable before the invasion. Almost everyone living in urban areas is experiencing constant air raid alarms and the anxiety of worrying that an explosion may hit in their city at any moment. The Ukrainian people are living in constant fear, grief, and dread, with little hope of a quick end to this war.

What is the nature of the mental health care support you provide?

We provide individual counseling and group therapy for different target groups such as children, adults affected by the conflict, or volunteers. Our team also conducts a variety of social awareness-raising activities to help people understand how their bodies are responding to distressing events and to try to reduce stigma, so that people will be more willing to seek care if they need it.

One of the reasons we are focusing on mental health is because the Ukrainian health system was strong before this crisis, but it didnt have the full capacity to meet the overwhelming mental health needs resulting from the conflict. We have stepped in to help fill that gap and offer support to local health systems and their practitioners, as well as first responders who experience secondary trauma from what they are seeing and hearing.

How difficult is it to provide mobile medical care in this context?

The conflict has caused many health care workers to flee to other locations in Ukraine or to other countries as refugees. We are working with local partners to run mobile medical teams in areas previously taken by the opposing forces. These areas have damaged and destroyed health facilities, leftover unexploded landmines and other explosives that create dangerous transport routes, and not enough health care workers. The people left there are mostly elderly people with chronic medical conditions and mobile teams can only reach so many people in a day. With no operating airports, some of these regions take more than two days to reach by train.

How are Ukrainians coping in the middle of winter with rolling blackouts and destroyed power systems?

The Ukrainian utilities companies have worked hard to try to restore power as much as possible to keep people warm through winter. In more rural areas and where the damage is too great, people have either fled to other locations or are relying on wood stoves or other more traditional heating sources. In response to the damage done by missile strikes on Ukrainian power systems, Medical Teams and our partners have distributed over 100 generators, blankets, and non-food items to health facilities in the two regions where we are working (in Eastern and Southern Ukraine).

How can the public continue to help?

Prayer is so critical. We must keep praying for a cessation of this conflict. Pray for leadership in both countries to make empathetic and wise decisions to reduce suffering. We also ask for ongoing generosity. Costs are very high in a conflict of this size and magnitude. The price of insurance in a war zone and the cost of purchasing and transporting medicines and supplies remains formidably high.

We must also realistically prepare for the long-haul. There is no quick fix or easy ending. In crises like these, and in other hotspots around the world (Syria, Tigray, Colombia), we need patience and continued compassion to care for our brothers and sisters around the globe who are suffering. Those who have been devastated by this conflict and its continued rippled effects need to know we will stand with them indefinitely.

The Better Samaritan blog is produced by the Humanitarian Disaster Institute at Wheaton College, which offers a M.A. in Humanitarian & Disaster Leadership and a Trauma Certificate. To learn more and apply, visit our website

Martha Newsome is the President & CEO of Medical Teams International, a global health and humanitarian organization. She has spent the last 30 years of her life dedicated to serving the health needs of others. In her current role, Martha leads more than 1,500 international staff as they restore health to three million people through medical and dental care, disaster response, humanitarian aid and community health programs. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Wheaton College and a Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins University. Martha and her husband live in Portland, Oregon and have two grown children.
Two weeks ago, I flew nearly 5,000 miles from Rome to Kentucky to witness a revival, something I have prayed for, for years. As someone who left my homeland of Brazil to serve in Italy as a missionary for the past decade, I have continually asked God to make himself known again across the continent.

The videos I watched, the stories I heard, and the time I spent myself at Asbury University, led me to believe that what God had done in Asbury was not for Asbury alone. True revivals always spread, and one of the reasons I had come to believe this was an authentic move of God was from what I had seen and learned from one of the humble leaders now shepherding this one.

Back at a student chapel at Asbury Seminary in 2016, David Thomas, a local UMC pastor, shared about a trip to an island off the coast of Scotland to interview 11 eyewitnesses who had experienced the Hebrides Revival:

They described something more essential: a kind of spiritual posture that was found among some who were the catalytic corea spirit of urgency and audacity, an attitude of brokenness and desperation, a manner of prayer that could be daring and agonizing. These friends in the Hebrides referred to it as travailing prayer, like the Holy Spirit groaning through us, they said, like a woman  in labor, like Paul in Galatians 4:19 travailing as if in the pangs of childbirth that Christ might be formed in you.

Thomas went on:

And  ever since I looked into the eyes of those people who once saw what you and I so long to see, Ive become convinced that the real beginnings, the true native soil of awakening is the plowed-up hearts of men and women willing to receive the gift of travail.

It was the first time I heard someone putting into words what I and other friends have been experiencing as we prayed for Europe in recent years. Thomas compared it to a groaning, like the one in Exodus 2:23, when the enslaved Israelites cried out to God.

Thomas believes that revival cannot be manufactured; instead, it is God intervening, and God intervenes as a response to people who are crying out to him, often through travailing prayer. This, says Thomas, is not the only thing we do. But it is the first thing, and it is the most important thing.

I believe that what we saw the past weeks in Asbury will lead to a deeper hunger for the presence of God and an outcrying of even more voices, joining those of ours that long for revival in Europe. Look at history! Revivals rarely stay put.

Article continues below

My prayer journey

The seed for my own prayers for revival began during a difficult period for me. I had been struggling with anger for years. These outbursts felt awful, specifically because the people who would suffer the most were my two sons and husband.

Seven years ago, a friend recommended Bruce Wilkinsons book The Freedom Factor. In it, Wilkinson asks his readers to list every person in their lives that they had not fully released forgiveness for. I wrote down 27 names. Then one by one, armed with the conviction that Jesus had fully forgiven me, I forgave each one.

To my utter surprise, after releasing forgiveness, I had a fresh hunger for God. I spent hours in my room in prayer and worship, unable to do anything else.

I started praying night and day for a revival among the student generation in Europe. The only thing was, the idea of a revival was completely new to me. I literally had to Google what is revival and history of revivals to try to understand what was happening and what I had been praying.

When I prayed specifically for Europe, I started to experience a different kind of prayer a type of intercessory prayer. This travailing prayer had few words; instead, I mostly wept and groaned. At other times, it looked like crying and laughing. The experience felt weird.

But, at the same time, I knew I was yielding to whatever the Spirit was leading, and the words of Paul in Romans 8:26 finally made sense to me: We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.

As I later learned, travailing prayer was strongly linked with the idea of birthing, where the Spirit is birthing something, bringing forth life, as Maxie Dunnam describes in The Intercessory Life: A Missional Model for Discipleship. It is a form of intercession that releases the power of the Holy Spirit to give birth to something ongoing, redemptive, reconciling, and healing in people.

Months into my prayer journey, I found out that I was not alone in offering travailing prayer for Europe. In October 2020, Elisabeth Pesonen, an Australian living in Finland, experienced this type of prayer when YWAM leaders visited Slovenia and she began to pray for the central European country.

In February 2021, Benedicte Mella from Norway, the director of Onething Europe, visited our home, and when she began interceding for Norway, she experienced a similar visceral prayer, mostly through tears, groaning, and shouts of Norway! Norway!

Article continues below

As I began to pray regularly with Elisabeth, Benedicte, and others representing different parts of the continent, travailing prayer also offered us the ability to connect with God at a visceral and intimate level. Rather than praying in our second language (English), we could address God from the heart in a way that transcended words.

From Asbury to Europe, and the rest of the world?

We had prayed for revival in Europe. So why did we see this revival in the States as a possible answer to our prayers?

Back in my days of researching revival, I found instances where revival had broken out in one place and then spread to another. (Within several days of reports coming from Asbury, neighboring universities had already reported revivals of their own.)

The 1904 revival in Wales touched India, Korea, China, America, and Scandinavia in an era without flight, internet, or social media. The Moravian revival in 1727 had a deep impact on John Wesley, who led the 18th-century revival in the Church of England that gave birth to Methodism. This movement of God also crossed the ocean to the US with George Whitefield, who became an instrumental figure in the First Great Awakening.

As soon as my ministry partners and I heard what God was doing in Asbury, we wanted our European students to learn the news. So, 24-7 Prayer and Revive Europe hosted a Zoom call the first week of the revival so they could hear from the students who had led worship or participated in worship during the revival.

Now, at the student movement I lead, Revive Europe, we are praying and rethinking our entire year in light of what God has done in Asbury. How can we steward what he has done in the US so students here in Europe can also be a part of a move of God?

Josh Green, the UK 24-7 Prayer youth director, has also experienced travailing prayer and serves a part of the world where young people are harder and harder to find at church.

Hearing about Asbury is music to our ears, he said. Just this past October, at our 24-7 Prayer Gathering in Belfast, we were crying out for God to spark a prayer movement in young people once again.

Even as the fire of the revival has already impacted both sides of the Atlantic, it is also touching the rest of the world.

In a matter of days after the Asbury revival started, people from China, Kenya, Brazil, Lebanon, and other European nations had traveled to Kentucky, eager to experience God and awaken something similar in their own countries.

Article continues below

Since returning from Kentucky, Ive spoken with the organizers of the Arise Asia conference, which is bringing together over 1,500 students from all across Asia this July. They too had visited Asbury in person and have been praying about how to steward what they have seen in the different Asian countries.

In 2024, the Lausanne Movement will convene leaders from every nation in Seoul at the 4th Lausanne Global Congress. Two others from the nine-member program team (of which I am a part) also visited Asbury. The team has been in preliminary conversations of how the movement God has started in Asbury might impact next years Global Congress.

The saying goes that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. But Asbury professors repeatedly told us that this revival should be the opposite: what happens at Asbury should not stay in Asbury.

Instead, they called for the revival to go across campuses, churches, streets, and society. In their own words, If it doesnt get to the streets, if it doesnt get to the nations, it didnt get where it was meant to be.

It is my longingand a longing of many othersthat what happened in Asbury will indeed not stay in Asbury but will touch the global church for Gods glory.

Whats happening at Asbury is not everything but it is something, and right now we need something to shock the system so that this generation can experience for themselves the life-changing power of God, wrote the founder of 24-7 Prayer International Pete Greig. We need repentance and holiness. We need the kind of outpouring of the Spirit on campuses that can incubate and detonate a new generation to preach the gospel with greater confidence, fight injustice with greater defiance, and transform society with greater intelligence.

A new focus

Since returning from Asbury, my prayer life has already begun to shift.

Im no longer praying that God would intervene and start a fresh movement of God in this generation, because I believe he already has. Instead, my prayer is that I and countless other leaders whom God is raising in the global church would have the eyes to see what he is already doing and to steward this well.

May what God started in Asbury come to the full fruition of his intended purposes. I praise him for giving the global church a seed of what potentially could become one day a global revival in this generation. This seed needs to be watered and stewarded in a very healthy way, and we must give God all the glory like the leaders in Asbury modeled.

Article continues below

This process may take years or decades, but I believe that what God has started in Asbury will touch nations. As one Asbury professor reminded us from Hughes Chapel, Prayer is what got us in this room, and prayer is what is going to carry it out of here.

Sarah Breuel is the director of Revive Europe and serves on the board of directors of the Lausanne Movement.
Bishop Scott Jones isnt the first United Methodist bishop to join the Global Methodist Church since the theologically conservative denomination launched in May, but his exit from the UMC has arguably caused the greatest stir.

Thats partly because of the unique position his family holds in Methodism and the extreme center position he had staked out within the United Methodist Church.

For some, it also casts a different light on his retirement, just days before he joined the GMC, as head of the Texas Annual Conference where about half of its churchesmore than any other conference in the United Methodist Churchlikewise left the denomination.

The Jones family is truly one of the first families of Methodism in our church, said Will Willimon, a retired United Methodist bishop and a professor of the practice of Christian ministry at Duke Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina.

Willimon added, This family has been a family of leaders of our church, and its such a shock to have one of the members of the family leading churches out of our church.

Jones late father, S. Jameson Jones, Jr., was president of the Iliff School of Theology in Denver and then dean of Duke Divinity Schooltwo United Methodist schools.

His brother, L. Gregory Jones, now the president of Belmont University, previously served as dean of Duke Divinity School, arguably Methodisms premier seminary.

And one of his three children, Arthur Jones, is senior pastor of a United Methodist Church: St. Andrew United Methodist Church in Plano, Texas, which is currently negotiating to leave the UMC.

Both Arthur Jones and Greg Jones declined to be interviewed for this article.

So when you talk about family involvement, there is a lot of that, Bishop Jones said, who after seminary got his Ph.D. in religious studies from Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

He wrote his dissertation on the history of biblical interpretation and John Wesley, one of the founders of Methodism, because, he said, I recognized that how Christians interpret the Bible is the most controversial question in Christianity today.

That question is at the heart of a controversy that has haunted the United Methodist Church for decades and has led to the current split: whether to ordain and marry LGBT Christians.

In 2020, delegates to the global UMCs General Conference were expected to consider a proposal to split the denomination, but the meeting was subsequently delayed three times due to the pandemic. After the third pushback to 2024, the Global Methodist Church, which is against ordaining LGBT clergy and marrying same-sex couples, split from the United Methodist Church earlier this year.

Joneswho pastored several congregations in Texas and taught at the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University before he was elected bishop in 2004had previously positioned himself in what he calls the extreme center, a phrase he said he first encountered in The Economist.

He wanted to convey how Methodist doctrine holds in tension things other Christians may see as contradictory, such as evangelism and social action.

After reaching out to the magazine to make sure it wasnt trademarked, Jones said, he wrote it into the title of his 2002 book United Methodist Doctrine: The Extreme Center, his social media presence and his website.

Methodist doctrine is conservative in some ways and liberal in other ways; it occupies the extreme center and is totally opposed to the dead center, he explained in his 2008 book, Staying at the Table: The Gift of Unity for United Methodists, in which he argued the debate over homosexuality was a symptom of deeper disagreements, including Christology, ecclesiology and authority of Scripture.

Alongside essays from a diverse group of United Methodist leaders, he wrote that he believed the denomination should not split.

Now, years later, I realized that my hope and my dream turned out not to be possible because the church has in fact, split this last year, Jones told Religion News Service. But it was a desire to try to do whatever I could to hold it together and point the way forward. It just didnt work.

It didnt work, he said, because some church leaders and regional conferences have taken action to oppose the denominations official stance barring LGBT members from ordination and marriage.

These doctrinal and moral disobedience questions have made it hard to keep the idea that we really are a church following the same Book of Discipline, he said.

In June, after more than 18 years as a bishop, he announced he was retiring from the United Methodist Church. But, Jones said, he thought he might have a few more years of good service to Christ and wanted to go where he was most needed.

In the meantime, he said, he continued helping churches in the Texas Annual Conference discern whether to remain United Methodist or join the Global Methodist Church, recording videos, writing articles and leading decision-making processes. Either was a great option, he said.

I think God has a great future for the United Methodist Church. God also has a great future for the Global Methodist Church, and people needed to decide which place could they best serve Christ, he said.

On vacation for the last few weeks of December, he said it was time for his own discernment.

On the last day of 2022, nine days after his retirement, he joined The Global Methodist Church as an elder and bishop in the fledgling denomination.

The move touched a nerve with Methodists.

The Rev. Keith Boyette, who heads the Global Methodist Church as its transitional connectional officer, said in a statement at the time that the GMC was rejoicing over Gods good grace to us, calling Jones a tremendous blessing to the new denomination.

Boyette told RNS he commends Jones for creating a fair playing field for churches and clergy to discern whether to stay in or leave the United Methodist Church, though he understands others might be critical.

The Rev. David Donnanpastor of Glennville Methodist Church, a Global Methodist congregation in Glennville, Georgiapenned a blog post titled, Why Scott Jones is a Bigger Deal than You Think.

By moving he is demonstrating how his views align better in the Global Methodist Church. This (is) more than any person moving. This is the extreme center poster child himself moving out, Donnan wrote.

Others were skeptical of the timing.

In his own post, which came in the form of a satirical video on his Picklin Parson YouTube page titled Dear Bishop: What Took You So Long?, the Rev. Stan Copeland of Lovers Lane United Methodist Church in Dallas said he wasnt surprised.

Copeland had already raised the alarm about Jones and two other bishops he said had provided promotion and support to the Global Methodist Church, all the while being paid by the UMC.

The Texas Annual Conference, once one of the strongest conferences in the UMC, has lost 302 of its nearly 600 churches since 2019, according to United Methodist Church data. That doesnt happen if a bishop is presenting neutral information, Copeland said.

Jones then retiredwith benefits, Copeland stressedbefore joining the new denomination himself.

I think when he wrote those books, he really believed in an extreme center, but hes extreme right of center now, he said.

Boyette said Jones had been part of the 2020 gathering that produced a statement outlining a vision for what became the Global Methodist Church, but they had not discussed any potential role for the bishop within the denomination until after Jones retired.

The bishop was very insistent on observing those appropriate boundaries, said Boyette.

Jones maintains he provided a process that allowed clergy and local churches to make a genuine discernment.

And I provided high quality, accurate information that helped people see what was going on, he said. For example, I said the United Methodist Church is going to be moving in a progressive direction over the next several years. The only question is how far will it go and how fast? I was criticized for telling people that, but I believe its the truth.

Jones and Bishop Mark Webb, who left the United Methodist Church just before him, are tasked with overseeing all the congregations in the Global Methodist Church  about 1,100, as of mid-January.

A third retired United Methodist bishop, Bishop Emeritus Mike Lowry, had joined the new denominations Transitional Leadership Council ahead of its launch.

The Global Methodist Churchs nine provisional annual conferences and districts are now holding convening gatherings. By the time its three Texas conferences  Mid-Texas, Great Plains and Eastern Texasfinished meeting earlier this month, Jones said they had ordained about 120 new clergy and received a number of United Methodist clergy, who can transfer their credentials to the new denomination.

Its difficult to build something from scratch, the bishop said, but he believes the Global Methodist Church has a lot of potential.

Its exciting to be in a community of people who are focused on worshipping passionately, loving extravagantly and witnessing boldly. I love that mission statement and look forward to being a part of it, he said.

At the same time, he wishes the best for the denomination that was his home for so long.

They can reach people that the Global Methodist Church will never reach, and thats a good thing.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning. (Photo: Twitter)

BEIJING: Beijing accused Washington on Wednesday of harming its own credibility after a top US intelligence official said his agency believed the pandemic "most likely" caused by a laboratory incident in Wuhan, China.

FBI Director Christopher Wray told Fox News on Tuesday that the Bureau has now assessed the source of Covid-19 was "most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan."

Chinese officials have angrily denied the claim, calling it a smear campaign against Beijing.

"The United States once again stirs up the laboratory leak theory, which will not discredit China, which will further lower its own credibility," foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a regular briefing on Wednesday.

Wray's comments come after a report earlier this week said the US Department of Energy had determined that a leak from a Chinese lab was the most likely cause of the Covid-19 outbreak.

The department's findings are significant because it works with a network of national laboratories, including some that do advanced biological research.

But other agencies within the US intelligence community believe the virus emerged naturally in the world.

In Tuesday's interview, Wray also accused the Chinese government of trying to stall US efforts to investigate the causes of the pandemic.

"The Chinese government... has been doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate the work here, the work that we're doing, the work that our US government and close foreign partners are doing," Wray said.

"And that's unfortunate for everybody."

At Wednesday's press briefing, Mao reiterated a longstanding and unsubstantiated Chinese claim that the virus could have escaped from the US military research lab at Fort Detrick, Maryland.

"The US should respect science and facts, cooperate with the World Health Organization as soon as possible, invite international experts to conduct traceability research in its country, and share research results with the international community," she said.

The scientific community sees it as crucial to determine the origins of the pandemic in order to better fight or even prevent the next one.
M.I.A. talks faith in Jesus, the problem with Black Lives Matter, being a victim of 'cancel culture'

Rapper M.I.A. recently shared more details about her widely reported conversion to Christianity, saying she found Christ while on a trip to the Caribbean after being "canceled" for her critiques of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam, most known by her rapper name M.I.A. and for the hit 2008 song "Paper Planes," joined conservative commentator Candace Owens on her Daily Wire show "Taboo" for an interview released last week.

Even before George Floyd's death in 2020 sparked nationwide protests that enabled the continued mainstream growth of the BLM movement, M.I.A has not shied away from criticizing the movement for not highlighting the plight of people groups persecuted in other countries. The 47-year-old has been known for making comments that spark controversy in an effort to advocate for peace and stability in her native Sri Lanka.

"You cannot define things by race," the rapper told Owens. "If one people are oppressed in one place and another people is oppressed in another place, it's still oppression.  And if you identify the oppressor, which is what the whole BLM thing is, ... we're discussing oppression, and there are valuable conversations to be had."

Although she was born in London, her family moved back to their native Sri Lanka when she was baby as her father fought against Tamil oppression. When she was 10, her family fled to London as refugees.

M.I.A. shared her concern for the Tamil people of Sri Lanka, who have been undergoing oppression for decades. She stated that in 2009, toward the end of the Sri Lanka Civil War, the Sri Lankan government evacuated all foreign media, foreign politicians and mediators and bombed the head office of the BBC in the South Asian country.

She said 400,000 Tamil people were forced onto a strip of beach over a mile long, where tends of thousands were killed in a "no fire zone." M.I.A. appears to have been citing information from the film "No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka." The Sri Lankan government has denied responsibility for the killing of up to 70,000 citizens toward the end of the civil war.

"From 2009 to today, which is [2023], we've had to grovel at the [United Nations] as a victim.  They're torturing us in the prisons, they're raping these people, and we're still in refugee camps. You know, it's been 13 years.  Nothing has been done. No one has been tried, convicted [or] held accountable," M.I.A. said.

Even with her advocacy for the citizens of her native country, she says the media and society have labeled her as "anti-black" and "racist" for criticizing BLM for excluding other oppressed people groups in their coalition.

"I was called anti-back. And that was really another weird thing because my work from day one has been to include the other voices outside of America, and that could be anywhere," she said. "It could be Africa. It could be in Asia, where there's 30 million slaves today."

She claims that other brown Asian people were employed to "gaslight" as Indian girls wrote "all these hit pieces" saying she was "anti-black."

"[E]verybody pushes a falling fence as the saying goes," she said. "[A]nd they're all like, Oh, am I is this terrible person, and even though she's my kind, I'm happy to denounce her, because I support BLM, you know, and she's terrible."

M.I.A. contends "cancel culture" made her out "to be this racist person."

"I was like, 'who's at the bottom of that?' There are so many different people this could be. That made me look into it even more.  I was like, 'well, you have this elite class [of] black elites. And then you have poor black people in America, who are controlled by the same mass media narrative as everybody else  white people and the Hispanics  you know, they're all in it together."

"Right now, it's confusing because the Vice President [Kamala Harris] is Tamil.  She's Tamil and black. So that's another thing.  We're not allowed to talk to each other because I'm Tamil and you're black. And you have to be in your experience and your narratives and I have to be in my experience, in my narrative. But we cannot have conversations."

She said her faith has played a massive role in her life ever since she had an encounter in 2016 where she saw what appeared to be the image of Jesus during a vision while on a trip to the Caribbean.

The rapper said that while making the video for her 2016 song "Borders," which has shots of her walking on water, she found a shirt that read "Jesus sad" instead of "Jesus said."

"And just straight off to that video, and then the whole BLM thing happened, and I got canceled, then I went to the Caribbean that Christmas," she explained. "And I had this vision, and then it just like turned my creative world upside down for about five years."

The rapper said she was staying in a place that had limited Wi-Fi. But, to her surprise, she received a text that said: "you're going to die."

"It was like a threat. And then suddenly, I started feeling very ill. And I believed it.  And then, I just thought, 'that's fine.' 'I've lived the life that I wanted and understood things.' And I was kind of happy with what I'd done. And so, I just surrendered and I was like, 'OK, that's fine.' And if that was my time, 'that's fine,'" M.I.A. recounted.

"And just when I thought that  I had a vision of Jesus Christ. First of all, when I say that, my vision of Jesus wasn't wimpy looking.  He didn't look like He was starving and had been hung on a cross for days. He looked really strong. And it was the strongest thing I've ever seen," she continued.

"And I [once thought], 'wow, I do not believe in Jesus or Christianity. And I don't believe that this person is going to save anyone. This person is a concept.  This figure is not going to save humanity.' You want God to be like this insane concept or angel illustration, which no one can even perceive how to illustrate. You cannot draw a man and say, 'that's God. He's going to bring salvation.' But then, when I saw the vision, I was like, 'I totally believe it.'"

M.I.A. said that although she always liked philosophies behind some religions like Hinduism, she never thought she would ever be into Christianity because "it's way more simplified as a concept and doesn't make you think that your mind and your body and breath and all of the things can work together to achieve something."

"It's kind of like, shocking, but [Jesus is] who I saw, you know, and it's very stereotypical, like a man in a white robe," she said. "I wasn't ready to embrace this concept during the time of the BLM discussion."

"What it taught me is that don't blanket hate for white people and blanket hate for Americans and don't blanket hate," she continued.

In December, M.I.A. responded to critics of her newfound faith.

"The fact that the biggest backlash in my career and life I'm facing after saying 'Jesus is real' is such a revelation to me," she tweeted. "People who control these apps rather me be a bad girl, then a good one."
Mississippi bans sex-change surgeries, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones for minors

Mississippi became the latest state to ban minors from obtaining sex change operations as the list of states banning the controversial procedures is now around a half-dozen.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican, signed into law the Regulate Experimental Adolescent Procedures Act Tuesday, also known as House Bill 1125. The Republican-controlled Mississippi Senate previously approved the bill in a 33-15 vote, and the Republican-controlled Mississippi House of Representatives supported it in a 78-30 vote.

While the Senate vote came down along party lines, four Democrats in the House joined their Republican colleagues in supporting the measure.

"At the end of the day, there are two positions here," Reeves said in a statement. "One tells children that they're beautiful the way they are. That they can find happiness in their own bodies. The other tells them they should take drugs and cut themselves up with expensive surgeries in order to find freedom from depression. I know which side I'm on. No child in Mississippi will have these drugs or surgeries pushed upon them."

The bill declares that "a person shall not knowingly provide gender transition procedures to any person under eighteen (18) years of age." It defines "gender transition procedures" as the prescription of "puberty-blocking drugs," "cross-sex hormones" or "gender reassignment surgeries."

The bill was opposed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi, which sent a letter last week requesting Reeves veto the bill.

"This is a devastating development for transgender youth in Mississippi and heartbreaking for all of us who love and support them," ACLU of Mississippi LGBTQ Justice Project Staff Attorney McKenna Raney-Gray said in a statement. "This care was already too difficult to access across the state for transgender people of any age, but this law shuts the door on best-practice medical care and puts politics between parents, their children, and their doctors."

The bill's passing comes as concerns persist about the long-term impacts of sex-change operations and hormonal interventions on minors and adolescents struggling with gender dysphoria.

The American College of Pediatricians, which describes itself as "a national organization of pediatricians and other healthcare professionals dedicated to the health and well-being of children," has identified "osteoporosis, mood disorders, seizures, cognitive impairment and, when combined with cross-sex hormones, sterility" as side effects of puberty-blocking drugs.

Side effects of cross-sex hormones, as listed by the American College of Pediatricians, include "increased risk of heart attacks, stroke, diabetes, blood clots and cancers across their lifespan."

Gender reassignment surgeries, which involve the removal and/or creation of synthetic body parts to align a person's sexual organs and physical appearance with their stated gender identity, come with irreversible effects.

Chloe Cole, an outspoken detransitioner who once identified as a member of the opposite sex but no longer experiences gender dysphoria, filed a lawsuit against the medical providers who provided her with puberty-blocking drugs, cross-sex hormones and a double mastectomy.

While Cole alleges that doctors told her "the distress she experienced because of her gender dysphoria would resolve as she transitioned," she said her "distress always came back worse" following a burst of "initial relief" that occurred after "each phase of transition."

Cole claims that her double mastectomy, which occurred at age 15, caused her to experience suicidal thoughts and a deteriorating state of mental health. As an 18-year-old, Cole now has "deep emotional wounds, severe regrets, and distrust for the medical system."

Mississippi's House Bill 1125 provides a course of action for people to sue violators of the law as long as such a lawsuit takes place within 30 years of the cause of action. Those who violate the new law can have their "license to practice medicine in the State of Mississippi revoked pursuant to action taken by the Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure."

Other states have implemented bans on the procedures, including Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, South Dakota and Utah.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Department of Family and Protective Services Commissioner Jaime Masters have issued opinions characterizing the performance of gender reassignment surgeries and hormonal interventions as a form of child abuse.

A poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports last month found that 58% of respondents at least somewhat approve of "legislation making it illegal to perform sex-change surgery on minors."
Police rescue 40 children kidnapped by Ugandan man posing as Christian charity leader

NAIROBI, Kenya  Police in Uganda have arrested two people in connection with the kidnapping of 40 Christian children lured by a Muslim posing as the leader of a Christian charity offering free education, sources said.

In Arua, in northwest Ugandas West Nile Sub-Region, initial investigations alleged that 27-year-old Siraji Sabiri, a Muslim, had lured the children to a hotel with promises of school scholarships and was possibly planning to sell them to a rebel militant group in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Police rescued 40 children from the hotel on Feb. 2.

A pastor in Arua first learned of the alleged scam from church members who told him a Christian organization was registering children for scholarships for a school in Luwero District, in central Uganda. Sabiri is a resident of Wakiso District, near Luwero.

So parents made use of the opportunity to register for the offer of such scholarships, said the pastor, whose name is withheld for security reasons. On Feb. 2, an elder of mine informed me of many children from the church in a Continental Hotel in Arua town in West Nile Sub-Region. I got concerned and rang the police to check on the children, because I was not involved in the whole process.

Officers rushed to the hotel, where they found the children ages 5 to 16 and learned that they had been booked on a bus heading to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the pastor said. Interrogations revealed that the leader, Sabiri, was not a Christian but a Muslim.

The man had disguised himself as a Christian, hence he was able to register over 40 children in the name of offering them bursaries, yet with the intention of selling them to the ADF [Allied Democratic Forces] in Congo, the pastor told Morning Star News.

Alice Akello, who as city commissioner of Arua is in charge of all government forces in the district, said she was surprised to find children as young as 5 years old at the hotel and asked Sabiri where they were going.

At first Sabiri said he was taking the children to Al-Rahman Islamic Primary and Secondary School in Bombo, Luwero District, Akello said. After a lengthy interrogation, it was discovered that there was no school of such a name existing.

Akello ordered the arrest of Sabiri, who traveled about 475 kilometers (295 miles) to northwest Uganda from Wakiso District to allegedly carry out the scheme, and the recovery of the children, she said.

Also arrested in connection with the case was Salima Geriya, a 28-year-old Muslim woman who appeared in court in Arua and was remanded to jail along with Sabiri. Charges were pending as police searched for more alleged accomplices.

Had the abduction succeeded, the pastor said, the effect on the church and local community would have been devastating.

I appeal to the whole body of Christ in Uganda to be vigilant towards strangers who come in the name of helping children, he said. We thank God for rescuing our children.

The abduction was the latest of many instances of persecution of Christians in Uganda that Morning Star News has documented.

Ugandas constitution and other laws provide for religious freedom, including the right to propagate ones faith and convert from one faith to another. Muslims make up no more than 12 percent of Ugandas population, with high concentrations in eastern areas of the country.
School district rescinds approval of After School Satan Club, cites policy violation

A Pennsylvania school district reversed its decision to allow The Satanic Temple-sponsored After School Satan Club to use its facilities, citing a violation of the school board's policies and threats that have impacted the safety of students and staff.

Superintendent Jaime Vlasaty of the Saucon Valley School District in Leigh Valley rescinded approval of the club following a threatening voicemail message the district received last Tuesday.

The threatening voicemail reportedly expressed disapproval of the club. As a result of the message, the school closed last Wednesday.

According to a Monday message from the superintendent published on the district's Facebook page, the perpetrator responsible for the voicemail was arrested by the police in North Carolina and is currently in custody.

The Feb. 20 initial approval for the club to meet at a local middle school sparked a week of controversy for the school district.

In a Friday email to community members, republished by Leigh Valley News, Vlasaty said the After School Satan Club failed to meet the requirements cited in School Board Policy 707. The policy allows outside organizations to use the school's facilities so long as they do not interfere with the district's educational operations. Vlasaty's email didn't elaborate on how the club violated the policy.

"As a result of this violation, the educational programming and activities of the District [have] been significantly impacted and it has caused unequivocal disruption to the District's daily operations," Vlasaty wrote.

"Our community has experienced chaos. Our students, staff and teachers have had to endure a threat to their safety and welfare," she continued. "The gravity of feelings of instability, anxiety and fear have been profound."

The superintendent called on the school district community to "eliminate threatening, hateful and divisive language and behavior" and to make a "commitment [to] supporting our students and reinforcing the values of our community."

"I firmly believe that we can create a safe and inclusive environment within our District where everyone is respected and valued no matter their opinions and beliefs, but we must first model this within our homes, our community and with one another."

In a separate statement to Leigh Valley News, June Everett, a minister in The Satanic Temple in Colorado and campaign director for the After School Satan Club, said the Pennsylvania club was to be the first of its kind in the state.

Everett stressed that the club does not worship Satan but supports individual rights over "tyrannical authority."

The After School Satan Club at the Pennsylvania school district was supposed to meet on March 8, according to the outlet. Fliers promoting the club reportedly advertised that the group was open to children ages 5-12 and that students from other districts could attend meetings if they had a permission slip.

Vlasaty and The Satanic Temple did not immediately respond to The Christian Post's request for comment.

Vlasaty defended her decision to rescind approval for the club at a school board hearing on Tuesday, where about a dozen community supporters of the After School Satan Club challenged her decision as a violation of constitutional rights. The superintendent said that the club's advertisements violated policy by not clearly communicating that "the activities are not being sponsored by the school district," according to The Morning Call.

"After the district received evidence that advertisements, social media posts and the like violated this policy, I made the decision to rescind," she was quoted as saying at the board meeting.

Although the advertisements named The Satanic Temple and Reason Alliance as sponsors, they didn't expressly state that the club was not sponsored by the school.

Vlasaty also condemned the vitriol directed at her by those in the community who opposed the initial decision to approve the club.

"I received messages stating that I should not be around children, that I am woke, that I am spineless, that I disregard the Constitution, that I worship Satan, that I should be ashamed to call myself a mother, that the lessons that I teach my children should be called into question, and that my two small children and I should burn in hell," she said.

As CP reported, The Satanic Temple filed a lawsuit last April after another Pennsylvania school district voted down a request to form an After School Satan Club at the Northern Elementary School.

The Dillsburg-based Northern York County School Board rejected the request in an 8-1 vote. In an April 19 video clip shared by the York Daily Record, parents can be seen applauding after the board voted down the club.

The mother who suggested the formation of the After School Satan club believed it would serve as a secular alternative to the Joy El Christian club, which operates in nine of 16 county school districts and offers off-campus activities.

Mathew Kezhaya, general counsel for The Satanic Temple, told CP at the time that the lawsuit concerned whether the school district discriminated against the group.

Kezhaya claimed that the school told the group to remove the word "Satan" to improve its chances of approval and that the superintendent voiced concerns about the club prompting "public backlash."

"This is direct evidence that the government improperly considered the popularity of the club's communicative activity when determining whether the club should be entitled to equal access to government property," Kezhaya said.

"The First Amendment prohibits a government from considering the popularity of communicative activity when determining whether to facilitate that communicative activity on equal terms with other, similarly situated, groups."
Teen, 21-year-old man indicted for murder of Memphis pastor

A 15-year-old teen and a 21-year-old man were indicted by a grand jury Tuesday for the daylight murder of the Rev. Autura Eason-Williams who led Capleville United Methodist Church in Tennessee.

In a statement from the Shelby County District Attorneys Office, officials announced that 15-year-old Miguel Andrade and 21-year-old Eduard Rodriguez-Tabora were indicted by the grand jury on two counts of first-degree murder and especially aggravated robbery.

Police said Eason-Williams, 52, was fatally shot in the driveway of her home in Whitehaven during a carjacking just after 4 p.m. on July 18, 2022. Friends say she was on her mobile phone with a colleague when she was attacked.

Officials said one count of first-degree murder is due to the premeditated killing of Eason-Williams, while the second count was filed because she was killed during the perpetration of a robbery.

The Shelby County DAs Office requested a $1 million bond for Rodriguez-Tabora at the preliminary hearing on Oct. 19, 2022, but he remains in custody even though his bail was granted.

Andrade posted his $200,000 bond and he is now out on bail.

A date has not yet been set for trial but Assistant District Attorney Forrest M. Edwards of the Crime Strategies and Narcotics Prosecution Unit is expect to prosecute the case.

In October, it was revealed that the pastors family was divided on whether Andrade should be tried as an adult.

The pastors oldest child, Ayanna Hampton, argued against prosecuting teenagers as adults, saying her mother, who was a child advocate, would have opposed it.

I feel like its wrong to use her death to advocate for something that she would absolutely disagree with, Hampton said at a press conference in July. My mother was a visionary leader; I do not want us to miss the opportunity to envision the improvements we can make to our juvenile justice system so that we are not convinced that we have to send children to adult prison for them to suffer the proper consequences that will fit their crime.

She argued that it would be better if minor suspects remain in the juvenile system with supportive services provided to them.

If you cant try them the way you are supposed to in juvenile court that means you need to fix your court. That means that you need to improve your system, she said. So justice for me is not just about these kids, its about every single child.

Eason-Williams widower told News Channel 3 that he speaks for several of his sisters-in-law and other family members when he said the teenager responsible for his late wifes death should be prosecuted to the fullest.
Collins' amendment aims to protect military service members' right to worship

A new amendment has been introduced to the National Defense Authorization Act for the fiscal year 2021 that seeks to protect the religious freedom rights of service members amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The amendment proposed by Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., the only military chaplain serving in the 116th Congress, would prevent the Department of Defense from issuing any guidance, order, or regulation restricting service members attendance at religious services or gatherings if similar guidance does not exist for other gatherings.

This amendment will guarantee that our men and women in uniform are able to freely exercise the very freedoms they fight to protect each and every day, Collins, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve who is also a candidate for U.S. Senate, said in a statement

The amendment comes after the U.S. Navy issued an order that critics said banned troops from attending indoor religious services during the pandemic but allowed them to gather at house parties.

The Navy ultimately clarified its guidance last week, stressing that in-person worship is now permissible as long as measures are taken to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Collins applauded the decision.

While we can all agree that the health and safety of our troops is critical during the ongoing public health crisis, singling out religious gatherings while allowing other activities and unrestricted social gatherings to take place is unlawful, Collins said.

Collins, along with Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., sent a letter to Defense Secretary Mark Esper on July 1, demanding a meeting with him and other military officials by the end of the month. The lawmakers want to discuss the steps that need to be taken to protect the religious freedom of our service members.

The lawmakers voiced concerns about the mixed messages they have received from Pentagon officials over the past month.

They also expressed concerns over the actions taken by military officials in response to complaints from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a secular legal organization that often pressures the military branches to enforce a strict separation of church and state.

Given the years-long record of the DoDs actions in contradiction with federal law protecting religious liberty, it is clear to us that the DoD has either willfully ignored or is unaware of its obligations to protect the religious freedom of its service members, the lawmakers said in the letter.

Despite the several letters members of Congress, legal organizations, and faith groups have sent the DoD explaining its obligations, we continue to witness failures to correctly apply Federal law protecting the religious freedom of our brave men and women in the military.

The lawmakers demanded explanations of the comprehensive policies and training concerning religious freedom the Army mentioned in a June letter to the members of Congress, the decision-making process regarding the militarys response to MRFF complaints, and the Navys recent order on worship services.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, also wrote a letter to Esper on June 9 asking him to protect religious freedom within the Defense Department. Cruzs letter came amid reports that the Army has censored military chaplains and hampered their ability to provide religious services during the coronavirus pandemic.

Unfortunately, DOD and the Army have been hindering chaplains' efforts to send messages of hope and faith through a series of extremely concerning infringements on military chaplains' free exercise rights, Cruz wrote in his letter. We write to urge you to ensure that DOD complies with the religious freedom mandates of the Constitution and to ask you to issue clear guidance that strongly protects religious freedom within the DOD.

This week, Cruz introduced language into the Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act that would require that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act be taught to all commanders, chaplains and judge advocates, according to The Military Times.

Efforts among House Republicans to secure religious freedom for service members began two months ago, when a group of 20 lawmakers, including Collins and Lamborn, wrote a May 14 letter to Esper urging the Pentagon to stand up for the religious liberty of Christian service members in the wake of criticism from MRFF.

MRFF issued a series of complaints about the public expressions of religion by military chaplains.

One of the incidents the lawmakers letter touched on included that of Col. Moon H. Kim, who serves as the senior chaplain at U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys in South Korea. Kim sent an email to nearly three dozen of his chaplain colleagues that included the PDF of a John Piper book called Coronavirus and Christ.

That did not sit well with the MRFF, which demanded action in response to Kims email suggested he should be court-martialed.

After mentioning that Kim was being subject to a review that could harm his career and reputation, the members of Congress maintained that Kim should not and cannot be disciplined for his email.

The lawmakers also opposed the removal of Facebook videos featuring military chaplains either encouraging service members to engage in prayer or offering a simple message of encouragement. The videos were subsequently removed in response to MRFF's complaints.

Im always very surprised when we see military commanders immediately jumping through hoops whenever the MRFF contacts them. And for whatever reason, when we raise issues of religious liberty, they have a tendency to want to fight us for a while, Hiram Sasser, an attorney at the First Liberty Institute, a legal group that defends the First Amendment rights of service members, told The Christian Post.

I dont know if thats just happenstance or if for some reason, the leadership of the Pentagon is more sympathetic to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. But for whatever reason, the Department of Defense seems to respond very, very favorably to that organization. We usually have to fight really hard in order to get our victories.

Throughout the May 14 letter, the concerned lawmakers referred to guidance released by the Army Chaplain Corps on the publicization of religious or spiritual content via social media. This guidance gives the Army Chaplain Corps broad latitude to use diverse means of social media to broadcast religious services, messages, and educational materials.

The guidance also prohibits the Army from instituting content-based restrictions on religious speech absent a compelling government interest.

Army policy does not prohibit evangelizing or proselytizing so long as they are communicated in a manner avoiding appearance of official Army/DoD endorsement or promotion of the particular religious viewpoint or group, the guidance states.

The MRFF also sent a complaint demanding that Lt. Col. David McGraw face punishment for hosting Sunday Christian Porch Preaching from the balcony of his apartment building at U.S. Army Garrison Stuttgart, Germany for several weeks.

After the MRFF complaint, McGraw apologized to residents of Kelley Barracks for holding Sunday worship services from his military housing balcony.

The members of Congress argued that Lt. Col. McGraw should be allowed to continue his Sunday morning preaching and hymn-singing immediately.

Reacting to the Navys move to allow service members to attend indoor services, Sasser said it's important to give the Navy credit.

Sasser said that when First Liberty raised the issue, the Navy took it seriously and they had some good people at the top.
Elon Musk taking on 'danger' posed by woke AI  including tool created by company he co-founded Emergence of politicized ChatGPT 'not what I intended at all,' Tesla CEO says

Elon Musk is reportedly putting together a research team to combat what he has termed the deadly threat of woke artificial intelligence.

Musk, 51, has contacted a select group of artificial intelligence researchers in recent weeks about forming a new research lab to develop an alternative to ChatGPT, according to The Information.

In December, the founder of PayPal, Tesla, SpaceX and other ventures warned about the potential risks in the rise of AI tools like ChatGPT, which Musk tweeted as one example of training AI to be woke.

The danger of training AI to be woke  in other words, lie  is deadly  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 16, 2022

According to the report, Musk  who recently regained his title as the worlds richest man  is hoping to recruit a number of top AI researchers, including Igor Babuschkin, who worked at the DeepMind AI unit for Google parent company Alphabet.

Its a reversal of sorts for Musk, who co-founded OpenAI, the company which created ChatGPT, as he now seeks to build a competitor to a company of his own making.

When Grit Capital CEO Genevieve Roch-Decter tweeted about the irony of Musks warnings about AI posing one of the biggest risks to civilization after he co-founded OpenAI, Musk responded that such a development was never his intention.

OpenAI was created as an open source (which is why I named it Open AI), nonprofit company to serve as a counterweight to Google, but now it has become a closed source, maximum-profit company effectively controlled by Microsoft, he replied. Not what I intended at all.

Speaking virtually at the World Government Summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, earlier this month, Musk issued another warning about the urgent need to regulate AI.

One of the biggest risks to the future of civilization is AI, said Musk. But AI is both positive or negative  it has great promise, great capability but also, with that comes great danger.

Musks warnings are far from new: as far back as 2017, Musk said he hoped the still-nascent OpenAI would help minimize the dangers that AI technology poses on humans as a species.

While pledging to help prevent the world from becoming a real-life "Terminator" film, Musk conceded even then that OpenAI has the cards stacked against it.

"Maybe there's a five to 10 percent chance of success," he said at the time.

His dire predictions sparked somewhat of a backlash from AI experts like Toby Walsh, an AI professor at the University of New South Wales, who said that Musk made an alarmist remark.

"There's a healthy research community working on ensuring that these machines won't pose an existential threat to humanity," Walsh said. "I expect they'll have worked out precisely what safeguards are needed by then."

Subbarao Kambhampati, who teaches computer science at Arizona State University, also described Musk's statements as alarmist. Kambhampati said Musk is likely thinking about a "super-intelligence take-over" situation involving AI, which he described as "far-fetched" in an interview with Inverse.

For his part, Musk has offered solutions to any potential domination of economic activity by AI: the Tesla CEO told the World Government Summit in Dubai in February 2017 that humans must become part machine to be able to interact and keep up with ever-evolving forms of technology, or risk irrelevance.

Musk raised the scenario of mass employment as AI could begin to supplant human work in more and more jobs. As machine-learning and robotics technology improve, "There will be fewer and fewer jobs that a robot can't do better, he said.

The key to keeping humans competitive, Musk added, is "a closer merger of biological intelligence and digital intelligence.

Humans, according to the billionaire, must close the gap: "It's mostly about the bandwidth, the speed of the connection between your brain and the digital version of yourself, particularly output."

Musk might have had that biological upgrade in mind when he founded Neuralink, a medical device company that is reportedly designing a tool to not only "read" from neural activity but "write" signals into the brain.

At that time, Musk said that the technology was placed inside a monkey's brain and that the animal was able to control a computer through its thoughts. He aspired to have it implanted in a human being by the end of 2019.

That goal was ultimately revised in December when Musk announced he expects Neuralink to successfully develop a wireless brain chip and begin human clinical trials on such a device by mid-2023.

The reason I created Neuralink long-term as a risk mitigation for digital super-intelligence, in that if we are able to effectively achieve symbiosis with digital intelligence, then  the collective human will is better able to steer things in the direction that wed like, or even with benign AI, at least go along for the ride, he told The Babylon Bee in a December 2021 interview.

Were already at this point partially a cyborg  in that our phones and computers and applications are a digital extension of ourselves at this point.
NYC Mayor Eric Adams says it was a mistake to take prayer out of public schools

Just over a year after creating his Office of Faith-Based and Community Partnerships, New York City Mayor Eric Adams urged faith leaders to boldly exercise their faith in the public square and said it was a mistake for the U.S. Supreme Court to ban school-sponsored prayer in public schools.

Speaking at his annual interfaith breakfast at the New York Public Librarys reception hall on Tuesday, Adams said that by confining the exercise of faith to houses of worship, society, in general, is being denied its power as a force for good.

When I was growing up in South Jamaica, Queens, I was learning how to box and every time I would get in the ring, I would lose the fight. And my trainer [would] say, Eric, the problem is you leave your best fight in the gym, and you're supposed to take it into the ring with you.

And that is what has happened to many of us. The synagogue is the gym. The church is the gym. The Sikh temple is the gym. The mosque is the gym. You are there for training. You are not there to leave your best worship in the gym, Adams insisted.

He noted that many social ills challenging communities today could be alleviated by people leading a more faith-filled life.

We would not have a crisis of domestic violence. ... When we took prayers out of schools, guns came into schools. So the reflection point of today, when we do an analysis of these annual coming-together, is to state, Are we leaving our best fight in the gym? Are we finding ways to really take what we took in the gym and bring it into the real fight? Adams asked.

In 1962, the Supreme Court ruled in Engel v. Vitalethat school-sponsored prayer in public schools violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment.

The case was triggered by a dispute over a 22-word nondenominational prayer recommended to school districts by the New York Board of Regents that said: Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our Country.

Though the practice of the prayer was voluntary, and students could be excused from the prayer with a written request from their parents, when The Union Free School District in New Hyde Park, N.Y., adopted the recommendation some parents, including Steven Engel, argued that it was a violation of the First Amendment.

Adams argued that pushing faith out of the education system has helped to fuel despair people increasingly struggle with every day.

We became so modernized that our new response is to act like we don't see the despair that people are experiencing every day. Weve become so hip, so cool, so Instagram-ish, so Facebook-ish, so Twitter-ish, that we have TikToked our way out of the humanity that we've always known, he said.

And then we say to ourselves  this is what I find interesting  we say to ourselves, What's wrong with these children? What's wrong with these kids? Let me tell you something about being a child, children look for indicators that are they moving in the right direction? You ever see your baby when all of a sudden, they're doing something wrong, and they look over and peep at you and to see what's going on? Now, when they peep over to see if they're doing something wrong, the parents are doing the same thing. We have abandoned the role of what it is to be a parent.

We need to build children, that's better for our world. And we have to be honest about that, Adams said.

And it means instilling in them some level of faith and belief.  Don't tell me about no separation of church and state. State is the body. Church is the heart. You take the heart out of the body, the body dies. I can't separate my belief because I'm an elected official. When I walk, I walk with God. When I talk, I talk with God. When I put policies in place, I put them in with a God-like approach to them, he added. That's who I am. And I was that when I was that third grader, and I'm going to be that when I leave government. I am still a child of God and will always be a child of God, and I won't apologize about being a child of God. It is not going to happen.

Adams who identifies as Christian with no specific denomination, credited God and the faith community for his rise to become mayor.

I'm here because of the faith-based institution. You do not take this journey on your own. I strongly believe in all my heart, God said, I'm going to take the most broken person and I'm going to elevate him to the place of being the mayor of the most powerful city on the globe, the mayor said.

He could have made me the mayor of Topeka, Kansas. He could have made me the mayor of some small town or village somewhere. He stated that, I'm going to take this broken child, this individual who is the epitome of the mistakes a human being can make in a lifetime, and I'm going to elevate him to the most important city in the country, he added. That's only God. That's not man. That's only God. And so today, we proclaim that this city, New York City, is a place where the mayor of New York is a servant of God.

While Adams insists that he will not separate his faith from his work, his speech on Tuesday raised concern among some activists like NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman.

We are a nation and a city of many faiths and no faith. In order for our government to truly represent us, it must not favor any belief over another, including non-belief, Lieberman said in a statement reacting to the mayors speech.

It is odd that Mayor Adams would need a refresher on the First Amendment. After all, he has sworn to uphold the Constitution more than once, first as a police officer, later as a state representative, and then last year upon becoming mayor. The very opening passage of the Bill of Rights makes clear that church and state must be separate, she said. On matters of faith, the Mayor is entitled to his own beliefs. On the Constitution, he must uphold his oath.

In a statement to The New York Times, Fabien Levy, a spokesman for Adams, noted that all the mayor was saying in his speech is that faith guides his actions.

As the mayor said before an interfaith group comprising hundreds of representatives from a multitude of religions, you cant remove the heart from the body, Levy said. The policies we make as an administration are rooted in the mayors belief in the creator.

Others, like Gilford Monrose, executive director of the New York City Office of Faith-Based and Community Partnerships, and lead pastor of the historic Mt. Zion Church of God 7th Day, praised the mayor after his speech for helping to highlight the importance of the faith community in the life of the city.

I really want to thank Mayor Adams for his commitment to the faith community, Monrose said. Very important to understand ... we dont want to be a city that is a soulless city. [Its] not just about buildings, but about people.
Revival at Kentucky college faces hurdles from school leadership, moves worship off-campus

Students at a Kentucky college who tried to organize a revival worship service in the wake of the Asbury University revival found themselves at odds with school officials over meeting rules.

A group of 15 students began holding a gathering at the campus of Union College of Barbourville last Friday, with their impromptu worship soon swelling to around 150 students.

As the meeting was began, according to Fox 56 in Lexington, faculty informed the students that they could not hold the gathering at the school student center.

When the gathering grew considerably and began to include non-students, officials said they could hold the service at the student center, provided they did not include non-students.

The organizers of the revival event declined these terms by Union leadership and decided to move their worship off campus to the local streets instead.

One unnamed student interviewed by Fox 56 explained that school officials just kept harping about a process and said meeting organizers were not even aware before any of this that there even was a process.

We knew there was a process for starting clubs and such, but in our eyes, we didnt see this as any different as 10 to 15 of us going to the library to study, said the student.

Another student who talked with Fox 56 said those at the gathering definitely would like to continue something like this on campus, adding that they have talked about maybe starting a club, one where we can do something like worship once a week or gather together and pray.

For its part, Union President Marcia Hawkins released a statement last Friday in which she explained that the college is committed to providing a welcoming for all, regardless of religious affiliation or belief.

All proposals for ministry or religious work on campus are accepted by the Office of Spiritual Life, stated Hawkins. It is this office, under the direction of our campus minister, that reviews requests to determine how we can support the activity, whether with materials, signage, space, advertising, or other resources.

Regarding last weeks worship gathering, Hawkins explained that students were advised to visit the campus minister to let him know what they were hoping to do.

They were advised of the process to follow by both the Dean of Students and the College President, and both volunteered to go with the students to meet with the campus minister, she continued.

The students chose not to follow the advice.

Founded in 1879, Union College is presently affiliated with The United Methodist Church, the second-largest Protestant denomination in the United States.

Earlier in February, students at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky, began to hold spontaneous and continuous worship at their campus after a scheduled chapel service had concluded.

The Asbury revival event, which eventually saw thousands of attendees, including many non-students and people from around the world, has garnered international attention and led to similar gatherings at other schools and churches nationwide.
Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson thinks he redeemed himself. Hes wrong.

After being riddled with guilt for years over his sins as a teenager, Dwayne The Rock Johnson (arguably Hollywoods highest-paid actor) made amends. We are told that he was able to redeem himself. A video posted online shows him returning to the scene of the crime and buying up hundreds of Snickers bars, giving them to the store, and telling them to give them away to anyone who was tempted to steal.

Before making amends, he said three times in one interview that he wanted to redeem himself for his theft. The media loved it, saying that he was indeed making things right.

Is that true? Can we balance the scales of justice by doing good works? Millions would say a big amen, that its certainly the right thing to do. This is because doing religious works (or good works) is the basis for their religion. After all, wasnt this what Zacchaeus did in the Bible?

Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold (Luke 19:8).

Actually, its not. Zacchaeus wasnt trying to redeem himself. He was redeemed the moment he put his faith in Jesus. His righting past wrongs was done as an act of gratitude for Gods forgiveness. It was what Scripture calls fruit of repentance (Luke 3:8). It was evidence that he had just been saved:

And Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:9-10).

It was evident that Dwayne Johnson wasnt trusting in the Savior. Instead, he was trusting in his own attempt to redeem himself, something the Bible says cannot be done:

"Those who trust in their wealth

And boast in the multitude of their riches,

None of them can by any means redeem his brother,

Nor give to God a ransom for him  For the redemption of their souls is costly,

And it shall cease forever  That he should continue to live eternally,

And not see the Pit" (Psalm 49:6-9).

If Dwayne Johnson bought the entire store and gifted it to the owner, it wouldnt make things right. Paying off the victim from whom weve stolen doesnt work in criminal court, and it certainly wont work on Judgment Day. If a one-time monetary payment for theft was able to satisfy God, how would we redeem ourselves for adultery, fornication, blasphemy, or lying? How would we make things right for the sin of lust  which Jesus said is adultery of the heart (Matthew 5:27-28)?

Good works dont cover our sins in the slightest. A multimillionaire giving $500 to a store may impress the media, but it doesnt impress God. Any payment we try to make for sin is an abomination to Him (Proverbs 21:27). Yet millions deceive themselves by pacifying their guilty conscience with what the Bible calls dead works (Hebrews 6:1).

Good people and Heaven

On a cold winter morning way back in 1979, I sat in the back seat of my neighbors car as they kindly drove me to work. The husband had heard me speak at a service club about Christianity and drug prevention earlier that week. To my surprise, he suddenly asked, Ray, good people go to Heaven. Bad people go to Hell. Where does the average person like me go?

I explained that the Bible teaches that in Gods eyes, no one is good (Mark 10:17-20). Not one. Despite that, most people will say that they are morally good (Proverbs 20:6). That is probably humanitys most prevalent deception. Perhaps the second is to admit that they have moral failings but believe that if they do good, it will balance the scales on Judgment Day.

There was once a hardened criminal who had murdered a number of people. As he faced the judge, he had a twofold defense. The first was that all of the victims were prostitutes. He maintained that he had done society a favor. In other words, his crime wasnt serious. The second line of defense was that even though he was guilty of the crimes, he had been involved in a number of good works during his life. He had often given to charities, and he never hesitated to help others. He said that he hoped the judge would take into account all the good that he had done and, because of that, let him go.

What a delusion!

No legitimate judge will free a murderer because he has done good things. His good works are irrelevant. Thats how justice works. If doing good things doesnt justify us in mans court, it certainly wont justify us in Gods court on Judgment Day. So, how do we awaken the person who is deceived into thinking that their works will justify him before God? I have found the following to be effective.

Most of humanity doesnt see sin as being a serious crime against God. They believe that they make mistakes or have moral failures. After all, nobodys perfect. However, the Bible gives us something to show us differently. It says that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). In other words, God is paying us in death for our sins. It is like a judge who gives the death sentence to a flippant murderer. He says, Im giving you the death sentence. This is your wages. This is what youve earned. That sentence shows the criminal his crime was serious.

Sin is so serious to a holy God that Hes given every one of us the death sentence, capital punishment. In other words, our death will be evidence to us that God is deadly serious about sin  even if were not. Death is an arresting officer with a divine summons in his hand. And God isnt going to withdraw that summons just because a guilty rich man slaps $500 on a counter. The payment was infinitely greater than that. It took the agonizing death of the perfect Lamb of God to redeem us from the curse of the Law. It is in Jesus alone that we are sheltered from death and from Gods wrath.
Why so much outrage over the burning of an LGBT Pride flag?

They called it a night of rage. But outside the charred walls of Buffalos CompassCare, pro-lifers could barely get the national media to call it anything. Like the string of domestic firebombings across Wisconsin, Oregon, Colorado, Tennessee, and Washington, the blown-out windows, graffiti, and trashed offices were barely a blip on network news. Its been quite a contrast to the extensive coverage a single burned flag in New York is getting. But then, thats the power of the Pride.

The incident thats grabbing headlines happened in the wee hours of Monday morning. According to security footage, a woman parked her SUV, walked over to a rainbow flag hanging outside SoHos Little Prince restaurant, pulled out a lighter, and set the flag on fire. An employee working late inside saw the flames and called 911. Although the residents on higher floors had to be evacuated, no one was injured. There were, however, cracked windows and external damage, especially to the outside landscaping.

Its disgusting, restaurant owner Cobi Levy said. His staff, he told the press, is shaken and scared. These kinds of acts are desperate acts committed by people who are consumed with hate and filled with hate, thundered Eric Bottcher, a local councilmember. The New York Times and other major newspapers descended on the scene, interviewing sympathetic neighbors and calling for the suspect to face the harshest penalties.

Within 24 hours, an investigation had been launched by NYPDs Hate Crime Task Force and a replacement flag  larger than the one that proclaimed Make America Gay Again  had already been hung.

The all-hands-on-deck response was quite a contradiction to what more than 100 churches and pro-life groups have experienced over the last seven months from the FBI, which waited six of those months just to list the attackers on its Most Wanted website. Not a single arrest has been made in CompassCares case. In fact, the federal government has been so indifferent to the crimes that several pro-life groups have resorted to launching their own private investigation.

Meanwhile, in the Big Apple, Bottcher celebrated the LGBT movements resilience. Our resolve is only strengthened when acts like this happen, Bottcher told the community at a special ceremony to replace the colors on Tuesday. We are standing up in the face of this hate and reasserting our pride in ourselves and our community. Thats why we hung the flag again. Little Prince posted a photo of the new flag with one word: Defiant.

I want to be clear right off the bat: While theres an obvious discrepancy in how the two sides have been treated by the media and law enforcement, no one is defending this womans actions. Respect for other peoples property  whether its a ministry or a drag bar  ought to be a reasonable expectation of every American. Theres no excuse for lawlessness in any form or against any person. That said, the hysteria over what happened in SoHo is a powerful illustration of where we are as a nation, and ignoring it only primes the pump for more hypocrisy.

There are plenty of double standards at play here, not the least of which is the excessive significance the legacy media assigns to victims of their pet political causes, while more than 100 pro-life ministries, churches, and pregnancy care centers sit smoldering in the ashes of a similar hatred, virtually ignored. Imagine if this woman had set fire to an America flag. Would the press race to the scene and mourn the lack of national pride across their platforms? Of course not, because in this age of identity politics, weve gotten to the point where setting fire to a rainbow flag is a hate crime and burning Old Glory is self-expression.

Frankly, the fact that a single act of arson can make national news is astonishing in an age when mobs can burn down entire cities with the ruling classs blessing. During the George Floyd riots of 2020, torching federal buildings, courts, city property, and private businesses wasnt violence, the Left said. It was justice  the kind that major Democratic figures publicly embraced.

It wasnt even two years ago that Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., told the masses that if there wasnt a guilty verdict in the Floyd murder case, then  we got to not only stay in the street, but we have got to fight for justice. Party leaders, like then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, defended Waters call to arms, saying she should not have to apologize for inciting violence. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., flat-out called for unrest, while liberal city leaders from Portland to Chicago linked arms with anarchists, even going so far as to sue federal officials who tried to restore law and order.

At the time, the soon-to-be vice president of the United States, Kamala Harris, also endorsed the mobs, telling Stephen Colbert, Theyre not going to stop  This is a movement  And everyone, beware  Theyre not going to let up. And they should not, and we should not.

Protestors, emboldened by Democrats, went on an anti-American rampage, toppling statues, defacing monuments, spraypainted historic buildings, and destroying private property, racking up more than $1 billion in damage across the country  the most expensive riot spree in U.S. history. And yet this, the burning of a single LGBT flag, is war in America.

The irony is hard to miss. At a time when liberal ideologues argue against prosecuting anyone for anything, a woman destroying a rainbow flag faces double the punishment under New Yorks hate crimes statute, which not only penalizes crimes but motives too. But what about the motives of the arsons in Buffalo? Where was the demand for hate crimes in cities where ABORT THE CHURCH and DEATH TO CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM were spraypainted across houses of worship?

If youre starting to believe double standards are Americas only standards, youre not alone. When burning our flag is protected speech, and a banner of sexual fanaticism is untouchable, weve passed the point of absurdity as a nation. And yet, these are the lessons our children have been taught: you can kneel for the national anthem but not refuse to wear a rainbow.

Now the bitter fruits of that indoctrination are everywhere. Today, more of Generation Z identifies as LGBT (20%) than feels proud to call America home (16%). Is it any wonder that society treats the Pride flag with a reverence it used to reserve for the country that gave activists the right to fly it in the first place?

In 1989, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the criminal penalties for burning a U.S. flag, Justice John Paul Stevens lamented in his dissent, [The American flag] is more than a proud symbol of the courage, the determination, and the gifts of nature that transformed 13 fledgling Colonies into a world power. It is a symbol of freedom, of equal opportunity, of religious tolerance, and of goodwill for other peoples who share our aspirations.

It does not represent the views of any particular party, and it does not represent any political philosophy, Chief Justice William Rehnquist insisted. The flag is not simply another idea or point of view competing for recognition in the marketplace of ideas. The value of its unifying power, the four dissenting justices argued, cannot be measured.

Thirty-four years later, that unity is being tested as never before. Weve become a people determined to wave our own flags, so comfortable in our factions that were trampling our countrys ideals  the same ideals that laid the foundations of self-expression the Left worships today. But if America has any hope of healing these deep divides, of ending these uncivil wars, the solution is returning  not to what divides us, but to what connects us. A national identity found, not in a spectrum of colors, but in three: red, white, and blue.

Originally published at The Washington Stand.
Picasso and Magritte lead the 20th/21st Century Art London evening sales

Christies first 20th/21st evening sale series of 2023 achieved a total of 167,814,400 / $202,216,352 / 190,301,530 and set new auction records for seven artists, including Michaela Yearwood-Dan, Tyler Hobbs, Wolfgang Paalen and Caroline Walker

On 28 February in London, the first 20th/21st Century Art auction series of the year featured important works by major Impressionist, Modern, and Post-War and Contemporary names, as well as pioneering female artists of the Surrealist movement, including Leonora Carrington, Dorothea Tanning and Remedios Varo. The 20th/21st Century: London Evening Sale realised 128,952,500 / $155,387,763 / 146,232,135, followed immediately by the 22nd edition of The Art of the Surreal Evening Sale, which totalled 38,861,900 / $46,828,590 / 44,069,395. Together they saw sell-through rates of 89 per cent by lot and 91 per cent by value, taking the evenings combined total to 167,814,400 / $202,216,352 / 190,301,530. Seven artists set auction records across both sales, including Michaela Yearwood-Dan, Oscar Dominguez, Tyler Hobbs and Caroline Walker. The diverse group of works, the majority never seen at auction before, exemplified the purpose of Christies signature 20th/21st category: to bring contemporary voices into dialogue with those of earlier generations, said Giovanna Bertazzoni, vice-chairman, 20th/21st Century Art Department. Jussi Pylkkanen and Veronica Scarpati took bids from clients globally  in the saleroom, through phone banks and online via Christies LIVE  with 59 per cent from Europe, the Middle East and Africa, 28 per cent across the Americas and 13 per cent in Asia.

20th/21st Century: London Evening Sale The top price of the night was achieved by Pablo Picassos Femme dans un rocking-chair (Jacqueline), which depicts his second wife and muse Jacqueline Roque. Painted in 1956, it belongs to what the British art historian John Richardson described as lepoque Jacqueline. It is her image, he wrote, that permeates Picassos work from 1954 until his death, twice as long as any of her predecessors. Its sale achieved 16,892,000 just weeks before the 50th anniversary of Picassos death, which Christies will commemorate throughout 2023.

The second highest-achieving lot of the sale was Paul Cezannes LAqueduc du canal de Verdon au nord dAix, which was painted in 1882-83  a period in the artists career when he began to move away from the spontaneous, broken touch of the Impressionist technique to embrace a more structured style of painting. Having been held in the same family collection for more than 100 years, it sold for 7,159,500. Also offered for sale for the first time in over a century was a deeply personal portrayal of Gordina de Groot by Vincent van Gogh. Painted in the small village of Nuenen in 1885, it cruised past its high estimate before selling for 4,842,000 to a bidder in the room.

Open a larger version of this image Liu Ye (b.1964), The Goddess, 2018. Acrylic on canvas. 23 5/8 x 17  in (60.1 x 45 cm). Sold for 3,102,000 on 28 February 2023 at Christies in London

Open a larger version of this image Michaela Yearwood-Dan (b. 1994), Love me nots, 2021. Oil, acrylic, ink, embroidery and gold leaf on canvas. 78 x 59 1/8 in (200 x 150 cm). Sold for 730,800 on 28 February 2023 at Christies in London

The sale also set a cluster of new auction records for young female painters. Making its auction debut, Michaela Yearwood-Dans two-metre-high canvas Love me nots (2021) opened the sale and sparked vigorous international bidding before selling for 730,800. Cristina Banbans La Fatiga Que Me Das (You Exhaust Me) (2019) also set a new artist record at 163,000, as did Caroline Walkers 2013 The Puppeteer, which saw multiple telephone bidders pursue it to 693,000, more than triple the high estimate.

The Art of the Surreal Evening Sale Leading the sale was Rene Magrittes lyrical gouache Le retour (circa 1950), which features a dreamlike variation on one of the artists most poetic motifs, loiseau de ciel, or sky-bird. Last seen publicly when auctioned by Christies in 2004, the gouache sold for 6,129,000 and set an artist record for the medium. Also offered were Magrittes Souvenir de voyage (1958), which fetched 5,556,500; Le masque de la foudre (1965-66), achieving 4,482,000; and an untitled collage from 1927, which more than doubled its high estimate, realising 882,000.

Open a larger version of this image Rene Magritte (1898-1967), Le retour, circa 1950. Gouache on paper. 11 5/8 x 16 3/8 in (29.6 x 41.7 cm). Sold for 6,129,000 on 28 February 2023 at Christies in London

Souvenir de voyage was the top lot of a group of works from an important San Francisco Bay Area collection (which realised a total of 20,787,800 / $25,044,914 / 23,568,980), built over more than two decades and inspired by a formative trip to Mexico  the Surrealist place, par excellence, according to Andre Breton. Other collection highlights included Oscar Dominguezs Machine a coudre electro-sexuelle (1934-35), which sailed past its high estimate to realise a record 4,602,000; Yves Tanguys Le lourd palais from 1930, which more than doubled its low estimate at 819,000; and Wolfgang Paalens 1938 Taches solaires, setting another artist record of 756,000. Also offered by Paalen was Pays interdit (1936-37), selling to a telephone bidder for 504,000.

The collection also included important works by leading women artists of the Surrealist movement, among them Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington, who both sought refuge in Mexico in the early 1940s following the outbreak of war in Europe. Varos Retrato del Doctor Ignacio Chavez (1957) achieved 3,882,000, while Carringtons 1968 Lepidoptera soared above the high estimate before realising 579,600.
Jonathan Wilkinson, minister of Natural Resources, attended the Chamber of Commerce Leaders Luncheon on Tuesday at the Slovak Legion, where he spoke of environmental concerns, the economy and announced funding for a First Nation initiative.
We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on!

Go to form
This blog covers software patent news and issues with a particular focus on wireless, mobile devices (smartphones, tablet computers, connected cars) as well as select antitrust matters surrounding those devices.
Spare Time Pizza

General Tso Pizza is the star of Spare Time Pizza Jumping right with this one  the pizza at Spare Time Pizza is incredible. On my recent visit, I ordered a tray of its Sicilian Style with onions, a half tray of its General Tso Pizza and a mixed fried vegetables basket. First, the tray of Sicilian: the crust was light and crispy, the sauce had a great flavor, the cheese was perfectly melted, and the finely chopped onions pulled the whole tray together. The star of the meal was the half tray of the General Tso Pizza. The light and crispy crust was topped with cheese, and then on top of the cheese was a mixture of stir-fried chicken, broccoli and onions in the General Tso sauce. Combining two takeout classics made for a delicious and memorable slice of pizza. Since having this culinary creation, the thought of when I can go back has crossed my mind several times. In addition to the General Tso, Spare Time also offers Chicken Bacon Ranch; Chicken Wing; white with your choice of ham, broccoli or tomato; Luau (ham and pineapple); and pagach during Lent. Spare Time offers more than just pizza. You can also order wings and boneless (13 sauces and two dry rubs); classic apps such as fried vegetables, mini tacos and french fries; burgers; sandwiches; and hoagies. In addition to the Spare Time Pizza, Back Mountain Bowl does have a bar called the 11th Frame Lounge.

Hit a strike at Valley Bowling Lanes' snack counter Editors note: Over the next few weeks, Food for Thought will highlight the food offerings at our areas bowling alleys. It was a full house on a recent Wednesday night at Valley Bowling in Childs, Carbondale Twp. The crowd was there for the bowling. I was there for the food. The snack counter at Valley Bowling has a full menu featuring pizza, wings (with 28 sauces to choose from), hoagies, burgers, quesadillas and fried favorites. Items from the snack bar are available for dine-in and takeout, according to the menu. This being my first visit, I ordered a few items from the menu: personal pizza with pepperoni and sausage, a soft pretzel (they are my weakness) and a new menu item called Tater Kegs. The tasty pizza was crispy, cheesy and reminded me of the pizza served at the Orange Bowl at the Wyoming Valley Mall back in the day. The Tater Kegs were the bomb. These amped-up tater tots were filled with cheese, bacon and chives. It was like eating a loaded baked potato in each bite. Overall, the food from the Valley Bowling Lanes Snack Counter is like bowling a 300. I will have to travel back up the line to bowl a few frames and try more of the snack counter's delicious offerings.
Wilkes-Barre, PA (18701)

Today

Partly to mostly cloudy. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 79F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies this evening will give way to cloudy skies and rain overnight. Low 56F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
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
This content has been supplied by a commercial partner.

As the climate crisis deepens, we are seeing many UK charities looking to align their investment portfolios with the Paris Agreements goals to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees, ideally to 1.5 degrees. In doing so, they are often working towards achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.

Its part of a wider shift we have observed within the sector to bring investments in line with charitable aims, spurred in part by the Butler-Sloss case, in which the High Court ruled that Paris-aligned investment policies are permissible under charity law. The Charity Commission has also been focusing on responsible investing more broadly, issuing updated draft guidance to provide clarity for trustees on how to balance their financial and ethical goals.

The relevance of climate risk

From an investment perspective, trustees seem to be recognising the potential impact of climate risk on their portfolio returns, as well as related opportunities. The importance of measuring and tracking progress towards net-zero is also moving up the global regulatory agenda.

The Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) has set out recommendations for company disclosures on climate risk, which have been backed by more than 120 governments and regulators, and over 3,900 organisations to date. The TCFD has also issued specific guidance to financial institutions, including asset owners, to disclose their degree of alignment to the Paris goals.

But what does a Paris-aligned portfolio mean in practice, and how can charity investors assess their progress? Here, we discuss the reality of measuring a portfolios temperature, and how it could potentially be used to inform a portfolio strategy.

Building a Paris-aligned portfolio

There is no standard definition of a Paris-aligned (or net-zero) portfolio or how to achieve one, but various investor-led initiatives offer guidance and support in this space.

For example, the Paris Aligned Investment Initiative (PAII) has devised the Net Zero Investment Framework 1.0, which suggests investors should take a two-pronged approach:

To decarbonise portfolios in way that is consistent with achieving global net-zero emissions by 2050, and To increase investment in climate solutions.

The Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative endorses the PAIIs methodology, as well as the Science-Based Targets Initiative for Financial Institutions and the Net Zero Asset Owner Alliance Target Setting Protocol, which have similar aims.

An essential part of setting a net-zero strategy is assessing where a portfolio currently stands in relation to a net-zero pathway, including both current and projected emissions, to gauge what action you might need to take. Again, there is no standard way to do this. There are various metrics available, with a sliding scale of sophistication: some are relatively simple, such as looking at the percentage of portfolio companies that have set science-based net-zero targets. Others consider the gap between a portfolios current emissions intensity and a net-zero pathway, or compare them to a financial benchmark, such as the MSCI AC World index. These add more complexity, as there are different benchmarks and methodologies used to calculate carbon intensity.

Implied portfolio temperature rise

One approach that appears to be gaining traction is to calculate a portfolios implied future temperature rise. Unlike carbon intensity metrics, which are based on backward-looking reported emissions data for each investment held, an implied temperature rise metric is based on a forward-looking projection of each holdings carbon emissions, and importantly, also considers any emissions reduction targets.

This data is then aggregated into an overall increase in temperature, which gives an indication of the portfolios current trajectory in relation to meeting the Paris goals. Essentially, this metric aims to show what the level of global warming would be if the world had the same emissions profile as your portfolio. It can therefore be a useful indicator of whether action is needed to improve it.

Forward-looking temperature metrics offer a simple and intuitive way to assess, and track, a portfolios alignment with climate goals. They have the added benefit of being easy to communicate to stakeholders. By incorporating companies net-zero targets, they allow a focus on expected future outcomes rather than current outputs. For this reason, we have seen examples of Paris-aligned portfolios still investing in carbon-intensive companies, on that basis that there are clear emissions-reduction plans in place.

Caution needed

That said, some caution is needed. Temperature metrics are based on projections, which could be sensitive to change, so any figure should be treated with a degree of tolerance. There are also challenges around the availability and comparability of data. Not all companies disclose emissions in the same way, if at all, which means estimates are used instead  scope 3 emissions, or supply-chain emissions, can be particularly challenging to calculate with accuracy. Similarly, not all companies have set net-zero targets, or indeed realistic ones.

Climate-related data is a highly evolving space, and frameworks like that of the TCFD are helping move disclosures in the right direction. As asset owners and managers increasingly request company disclosures and targets, and engage and challenge companies on them, their quality and accuracy are expected to improve.

Could charity investors leverage this approach?

A temperature metric can give visibility on a portfolios direction of travel in relation to climate goals, and help inform decisions around how to achieve them. With less than 10% of companies in the MSCI AC World Investable Market index having an implied temperature rise of 1.5 degrees or less, and less than half aligned to a 2-degree rise as of September 2021, it is likely that some action will be required.

Looking at each holdings contribution to the overall temperature rise can help you identify any problem areas that you may need to address. There may be outliers that are skewing the results, where net-zero plans are not robust enough. Given the margin of uncertainty, however, its important to complement this with other metrics, as well as fundamental analysis, to gain a more comprehensive view. This might include assessing a companys financials, management quality, strategy and commitment to carbon reduction. It can also be helpful to stress test a company under different climate scenarios to build a deeper understanding of its potential pathway.

Armed with this information, charity investors can then decide if they need to adjust their portfolio allocation to better support decarbonisation  either by increasing exposure to companies on a credible path to net-zero, or reducing those that are not. Temperature metrics can also highlight areas where voting and engagement could be used to influence change. Investors can use their voice to communicate expectations around necessary action, set targets and timeframes, and hold companies accountable for their progress.

Can Paris-aligned portfolios have real-world impact?

Many charities are looking to use their investments to support their wider mission and the real-world impact they are making through their core activities. However, while decarbonising a portfolio may reduce exposure to climate risk from an investment perspective, that alone wont change global emissions. Simply divesting from high carbon emitters does not necessarily spur them to change (although if enough investors starve them of capital, they may be forced to adapt to avoid becoming stranded). And even a net-zero portfolio wont be immune to the effects of climate change, which will likely impact all companies and sectors to some extent regardless of their own level of emissions.

One of the more direct ways to help reduce global emissions is to invest in companies providing solutions to climate change  from renewable energy to sustainable food production and farming, from protecting biodiversity and forests to sustainable transport and buildings. Funding climate solutions that can help facilitate the net-zero transition is an essential component of a Paris-aligned strategy.

Using your voice and influence as an investor, by engaging regularly and strategically with company management, may also drive real-world change over time. This doesnt only apply to the heavy emitters  in reality, most companies need to take some action to reduce emissions. And by prioritising Paris alignment and pushing the need for climate reporting up the global agenda, investors can incentivise companies to disclose and ultimately reduce their own climate risks.

Olivia Lewis is a private banker, charities & not-for-profits, and Joseph Pigott is a climate change specialist, at Barclays Private Bank

Charity Finance wishes to thank Barclays Private Bank for its support with this article

The Charity Finance Yearbook is the ultimate reference source for charity finance professionals. Produced by the Charity Finance editorial and research team it includes updates, advice and trends on accounting and audit, VAT and taxation, investment strategy, responsible investment and finance, risk, funding, performance and governance, law and regulation, HR and pensions, IT and property. Purchase online here. is the ultimate reference source for charity finance professionals. Produced by the Charity Finance editorial and research team it includes updates, advice and trends on accounting and audit, VAT and taxation, investment strategy, responsible investment and finance, risk, funding, performance and governance, law and regulation, HR and pensions, IT and property.
A prediction that Muslim international development charities income will increase sixfold over the next 30 years to 4.4bn is over optimistic, an umbrella body has said.

This week, a report by think tank the Ayaan Institute identified 1,026 Muslim charities NGOs and with a collective income of 708m, with general donations accounting for 73% of this.

These charities have increased their income by 37% (192m) from 2017 to 2020 and the report predicted that this could rise to 4.4bn by 2051, based on an income growth rate of 20% every four years.

Muslim Charities Forum (MCF) chief executive Fadi Itani told Civil Society News the researchs projections were over optimistic, as most growth in income has been driven by responses to natural and manmade disasters in recent years.

But he said the general growth of Muslim aid charities identified in the report should be celebrated.

Most of the growth we have seen in the Muslim charities sector is a result of many disasters both man made and natural ones around the world from Syria, Yemen, the flood in Pakistan and recently the [Turkey-Syria] earthquake, he said.

The growth is good thing but the cause of it is not, as it is leading the organisation into more firefighting mode instead of strategic long intervention abroad and here in the UK.

Sectors income could be even bigger

According to the report, the combined annual income for the charities in 2020 was 708m.

The largest 20 charities generated 76% of this income, with the top 10 accounting for 62%.

If all of the mosques, prayer venues, and individuals collecting Zakat were grouped with these charities that Muslim giving in the UK would easily exceed 1bn a year in 2020, the report estimates.

The information in this report shows just how seriously Muslim communities take their religious obligations to help the poor and needy around the world. It is in the divinely ordained rituals and obligations of Islam that we find the greatest expressions of Ummah solidarity, the report reads.

Good news stories about Muslim charities are rare

The report states that positive news stories about the Muslim charity sector are rare as they are often overshadowed by the negative linking of charitable aid to crime, terrorism, and extremism.

It reads: That negativity is also often perpetuated by groups with an anti-Islam or anti-Muslim political or racist agenda. Those negative stories can lead to investigations by the Charity Commission and restrictions on charity banking services.

Good news stories about Muslim charities, and their impact on beneficiaries, or the Muslim community as generous donors involved in caring for others and acts of kindness, are rare.

Last year, Itani told Civil Society News that banking issues Muslim charities faced were getting deeper due to de-risking practices.

These practices are enforced on the accounts of clients at risk of money laundering or counter-terrorism, and can cause their bank accounts to be frozen or slow down payments.

He said it makes organisations feel as if there is a hidden discrimination against certain charities because of their names, the areas they work in.

Fadi Itani: Growth of sector should be celebrated

Itani told Civil Society News: It is not surprising to learn more about the generosity of the British Muslim community despite all the obstacles the community and its charities face, and this is a positive story that should be celebrated.

Thanks to the generosity of the community, raising funds for good causes is never the challenge for Muslim charities.

The real challenge is leaving a long-lasting impact that works to eradicate poverty, is sustainable and protects the environment from further climate change. This is something which we have been working hard to encourage charities to focus on.

Bond: Muslim aid charities are one of the major success stories of the UK sector

Stephanie Draper, chief executive of NGO umbrella body Bond, said: We welcome this report from the Ayaan Institute which is a testament to the hard work of Muslim humanitarian charities in the UK. These figures demonstrate the dedication of the UK Muslim community to those in need of support.

The growth in the scale of Muslim humanitarian charities has been one of the major success stories of the UK sector over the past twenty years.

Often starting out as grassroots community groups, they are now a fundamental part of the response to conflict and poverty, not just in Muslim countries but in the UK as well.

sign up to receive the Civil Society News daily bulletin here . For more news, interviews, opinion and analysis about charities and the voluntary sector,
Love146 UK, a charity that supported asylum-seeking children, has announced its closure due to insurmountable gaps in its funding.

The charity said in a statement that it is being forced to file for insolvency because of the incredibly difficult economic climate it finds itself in.

It said that gaps in funding from commissioned services, grants and donations meant it could not continue its operations.

The charity provided support to unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, including those housed in hotels by the Home Office, and its mission was to end child trafficking through prevention education and survivor care.

Majority of income came from government grants

According to its accounts ending 31 March 2022, the charitys total income was 600,360. This is a slight decrease of 4.5% on the year prior which sat at 627,910.

Its income almost doubled from 2020 to 2021, from 349,180 to 627,91.

Some 316,252 of this income came from 13 government contracts, which accounts for 52% of its total income for that accounting year, with most of the rest coming from fundraising.

The charity employed 10 people and had four trustees.

Love146 reported having 285,555 in reserves at the end of financial year March 2022, which is more than three months in operational costs (171,813).

However, it noted its operational costs for the next financial year were expected to rise, so expected three months' worth of reserves would be 217,909 for the year ending March 2023.

Its latest accounts read: The trustees have confirmed that the major sources of grant funding are committed and that the delivery of the activities can be adjusted to ensure that any remaining guidelines around Covid-19 can still be applied as necessary.

Furthermore, the trustees are confident that costs will only be incurred to the extent that income is secured. The trustees are confident that the charity has adequate resources to continue operating for the foreseeable future and, for this reason, the trustees continue to adopt the going concern basis in preparing the accounts.

Incredibly proud of everything Love146 UK has achieved

Love146 wrote that it was proud of all it has achieved since it started operating in the UK in 2011.

The charity's statement reads: The wellbeing and safe transition of the young people supported by Love146 UK will be our number one priority over the following days and weeks.

We are incredibly grateful for the thousands of generous donors and partners whove made this work in the UK possible over the years. Your support will have a lasting impact  you have changed the lives of young people and provided them with safety and security.

Love146, which has counterparts in the United States and Philippines, are distinct legal entities that will continue operating.

Civil Society News contacted the charity for comment but did not receive a response.

sign up to receive the Civil Society News daily bulletin here . For more news, interviews, opinion and analysis about charities and the voluntary sector,
NW China's entrepreneurs eye growing opportunities

Xinhua) 10:34, March 01, 2023

LANZHOU, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- As soon as the snow stopped falling in northwest China's Gansu Province in mid-February, 44-year-old Geng Shengchen was impatient to fly to Zhejiang Province, one of the country's main production areas for fresh tea leaves and a "battlefield" for Chinese milk tea merchants.

"As the milk tea economy gradually recovers, there's been a rush on the buying of tea leaves recently," Geng said.

Geng is the founder of Fundosa, a milk tea brand in the city of Lanzhou, capital of Gansu, that has been well received among locals and tourists alike for its global flavors.

Geng noted that his milk tea products have special ingredients such as fermented glutinous rice and highland barley, which, he believes, represent the local traditional food culture. Other raw materials from all over the world can also be found in the company's milk tea, showing the brand's cultural fusion.

To serve his consumers high-quality products, Geng used to travel to various food markets across the country to look for the best ingredients. However, his frequent journeys were interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and his decreased orders cast a shadow over his career ambitions to promote a creative drink culture.

As China has optimized its COVID-19 response in light of the evolving pandemic situation, Geng has not only regained confidence in his business, but he has seen more fierce competition in the sector.

The sales volume of Fundosa milk tea has returned to the same level as seen in 2019, and more franchised outlets are in the works and are expected to open this year, Geng said.

Chen Junzhang, 33, an entrepreneur from the Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County of Gansu Province, is also preparing for the upcoming peak season.

Chen is nostalgic about his hometown. After graduating, he returned to Tianzhu determined to sell local agricultural specialties such as white yak meat and fungus on e-commerce platforms.

"Something different happened this year," Chen said. He used to have to make great efforts to persuade consumers to buy his products, but this year, merchants across the country have flocked to him seeking cooperation.

Chen has received many cooperation proposals, but it is a project to develop white yak wool products that has most drawn his attention.

"Some international suppliers have cast their eyes on the rare wool, and I want to seize the opportunity to expand the market," Chen said.

During the weeklong Spring Festival holiday this year, the sales revenue of China's consumption-related sectors rose 12.2 percent from last year's figure for the same holiday period, data from the State Taxation Administration shows.

The vigorous consumption market is igniting the enthusiasm of more assertive entrepreneurs, including those who are still completing their education.

In the student start-up center at Lanzhou University, 53 out of 105 entrepreneur teams have launched businesses in the field of science and technology.

"Research teams at the university are transforming their academic achievements into practical uses, which will have promising prospects following the economic revival," said Deng Yubo, the general manager of a services company at the start-up center.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
The Skyfall missile developed by Russia is alleged to have an immense range which has been unheard of until now. It is designated as the 9M730 Burevestnik or Petrel based on the NATO code name. Russian media released images of it getting assembled in workshops.

Russia Develops Gamechanger Skyfall Cruise Missile

The Burevestnik missile allegedly has by a nuclear power plant that is exotic and intakes air like jet engines based on the claimed specifications. Supposed to have a special warhead and unlimited flying distance at Mach 0.9-1.0 that loiters until it attacks the Target, reported Bulgarian Military.

Western experts thought such a technical innovation was beyond the reach of Russian military technology when Vladimir Putin made these claims in 2018. It's not the same tune as the US spooks are monitoring what Moscow is cooking up in its newest tests regarding the Burevestnik. It might be reaching combat readiness earlier, causing concern, notes CNBC.

Truth of the Burevestnik's Immense Range

The exact way Russian engineers came up with allowing the exotic propulsion of the long-range cruise missile is yet to be revealed. A type of gas-phase nuclear rocket engine that utilizes air in the atmosphere to enable controlled combustion, unlike rocket engines.

The temperature of the mini reactor is always kept low by air. A catch is that the reactor will melt if it's not in high-speed flight or cooled off. Air keeps the reactor from meltdown, so it keeps flying to do that.

Read Also: Ukrainian Forces Face Highly Trained Wagner Mercenaries in Bakhmut

Experts on nuclear tech like Mr. Valentin Gibalov and military expert Mr. Alexander Goltz remarked the Burevestnik or Petrel is equipped with a rocket motor using solid fuel in starting stages of the flight, per Military Today.

Such a cutting-edge motor that outclasses western military tech is objected to due to atmospheric contamination and designed with a sealed reactor that keeps air from contact with the inner core resulting in minimal radioactivity.

Skyfall Dubbed as Flying Reactor

A military expert Alexei Leonkov from a magazine considers the Petrel a vengeance weapon against enemies of the Federation. He added it would be icing on top after ICBM warheads cause devastation to the enemies of Moscow in their lands. The Burevestnik will be the clean-up to demolish anything left after the initial attack and leave nothing alive, added Alexei Leonkov in Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

The missile has a database and navigation system to guide its flight. All objects are recorded in the memory to autonomously guide them with no human intervention that adjusts how high it flies too. While in flight, the computer optimizes how to approach targets without getting shot down.

The West has yet to develop such an arcane weapon system, but no information is intimidating to Moscow's adversaries. Even the US claims it will be completed by 2025, but the Kremlin has done tests. In 2019, an anomalous explosion was noticed on the north coast of Russia.

By 2020, some details disclose that it was successful but no complete reports. Several European countries have verified the data that nuclear radiations were increased and were artificial too.

Russia has now developed its next-gen Skyfall cruise missile with an advanced mini-nuclear reactor that allows immense range, unlike conventional missiles.

Related Article: Russia's Kh-101 Missile Diverts Radar Using Radio Flares

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
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.
President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness plan, which the conservative majority has long criticized, will be scrutinized by the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

There is profound skepticism that the program will ever go into force. However, it has stalled since October, when the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a temporary stay, allowing qualifying debtors to cancel up to $20,000 in debt, according to NBC News.

Two parties with outstanding student loan debt, Myra Brown and Alexander Taylor, and six states, including Missouri, have petitioned the court to hear their cases.

Advocates of the student loan forgiveness plan held a rally outside the US Supreme Court before the arguments were presented. One demonstrator carried a poster reading, "Student loan debt cancellation is not illegal!" USA Today reported.

On Tuesday, a group of Republican-controlled states will move the Supreme Court to halt the Joe Biden administration's plan to cancel federal student loans. The states argue that the federal government overstepped its bounds when the president established a plan to forgive up to $20,000 in federal student loan debt.

Read Also: US Marshals Service Suffers Major Ransomware Breach

How Does The Student Loan Forgiveness Plan Work?

Individuals with annual incomes of less than $125,000 or families with annual revenues of less than $250,000 would have their $10,000 in federal student loan debt canceled under the debt forgiveness proposal revealed in August. As per an AP News report, Pell Grant applicants, who are often poorer, would get $10,000 in debt forgiveness.

For students, this means that their student loans had to have been issued before July 1. The Biden administration asserts that 20 million borrowers would have their debt wiped out under the proposal and that 43 million borrowers will get some debt forgiveness.

Around 26 million Americans have sought debt relief, with 16 million having their applications granted, costing close to $400 billion over the next three decades, per the Congressional Budget Office.

Related Article: Lindsay Clancy Case Update

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
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.
The Missourians Opinion section is a public forum for the discussion of ideas. The views presented in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Missourian or the University of Missouri. If you would like to contribute to the Opinion page with a response or an original topic of your own, visit our submission form
In a Dominion Voting Systems deposition, Fox Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch admitted that several Fox News commentators promoted false assertions that the 2020 election had been rigged.

Murdoch's comments were made public in a court document related to Dominion's $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox News. Rupert Murdoch denied in his deposition that the Fox News Channel collectively supported the false claims that then-candidate Trump used to win the presidency.

However, Murdoch admitted that his hosts Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro, Maria Bartiromo, and the late Lou Dobbs spread the fallacy that the presidential election had been rigged, CNN reported. Murdoch remarked that, as for the Fox News presenters' public stances on the election, "some of our hosts were endorsing it."

The Fox Corporation chair noted that he "would have liked" Fox News to be "stronger in denouncing it, in hindsight." The court document indicated Rupert Murdoch called several of Trump's campaign promises for the 2020 election "bulls**t and damaging."

The unsealed complaint reveals Murdoch's role in Fox News' editorial direction and the Trump 2020 campaign. The records state that Rupert Murdoch sent Jared Kushner, the top adviser to former President Trump and his son-in-law, "confidential" Fox information on Biden's commercials, together with "debate strategy," but that he refused to aid Donald Trump's campaign on election night when Fox News was the first network to announce that President Joe Biden won the poll in Arizona.

Read Also: Prisoner Kills Fellow Inmate

Fox News Credibility in Trouble

In March of 2021, Dominion filed a lawsuit against Fox News in Delaware. According to a report published by GMA News, the 24-hour news giant allegedly pushed bogus accusations of Donald Trump that its vote-counting machines rigged the election.

Fox News has denied any intent to defame. It argues that the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech protects it since it was merely reporting on Trump's accusations and not endorsing them.

The First Amendment makes defamation cases challenging in America, but the lawsuit may hurt the right-wing network financially and reputationally. The Dominion lawsuit highlights that Fox News presenters and management knew their claims were false.

Dominion submitted a briefing last month that revealed several Fox News executives and personalities, including Tucker Carlson, denouncing ex-POTUS Donald Trump's fraudulent election allegations in private, Axios reported.

Related Article: Ronna McDaniel Pushes Unity in GOP

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
United States President Joe Biden's student loan plan could cause big issues, particularly for citizens suffering under the pressure of student debt, if it is not approved.

The first day of hearing for the Democrat's planned program is marred with a feeling of hope but also worries. One resident, Ambalika Williams, the national director of the student advocacy group Organizing at Rise, has nearly $10,000 in student loans.

Joe Biden's Student Loan Program

The approval or disapproval of the program would determine whether or not her entire debt will be forgiven or if it stays. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court justices will hear arguments representing the culmination of a long-standing political and constitutional clash.

The situation has left more than 40 million student loan borrowers in limbo, including Williams, who now worries that she may have to delay her plans to buy a new home if her student debts are not forgiven.

In a statement, Williams said that if the student loan plan is not approved, she will be forced to make difficult financial decisions. The 33-year-old from Washington, DC, added that she had already paid to bring her debt down from an original $40,000, as per CBS News.

The two cases that the Supreme Court justices will handle have forced Biden's student debt program to a complete standstill. The plan aims to provide up to $20,000 in student debt relief for each borrower in the United States. Before the plan was frozen, the administration had already approved 16 million applications out of roughly 26 people who applied.

By now, many of those borrowers would have had their debts forgiven if there were no legal challenges in the way, said the executive director of the student debt activist group WeThe45Million, Melissa Byrne.

On Tuesday, she said that the fact that people even have to think about what to do means that they are stressing about a situation that they do not have to. Byrne was in the Supreme Court monitoring the case hearings. She argued that borrowers were daily experiencing anxiety and pain over the hiatus that the lawsuits had caused.

Read Also: Ransomware Breach Targets US Marshals Service

Legal Challenges of the Plan

According to BBC, some legal experts have expressed their concern about the challenges that the cases and other potential future legal situations would cause for Biden following his 2020 presidential campaign pledges.

A professor at Fordham Law School, Jed Shugerman, said that the situation was "doomed," adding that Biden chose to trek down an "obviously flawed path" that he said was expected to be struck down by the Supreme Court. He noted that the Biden administration has run out of time in the last four years to push through anything similar to the student loan program.

During the hearing, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar argued that Biden's debt relief is allowed under the Heroes Act of 2003. The legislation gives the secretary of Education the necessary authorization to lift the difficulties that federal student loan recipients could face due to national emergencies, said CNBC.

Related Article: Florida Student Knocks Teacher's Aide Unconscious

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Scientists studied asteroid samples believed to be key ingredients for life brought to Earth from outer space. The asteroid in question is Ryugu, which was found to be orbiting the sun between Earth and Mars and is believed to contain many of the building blocks for life.

The recent study, published on February 23 in the journal Science, is one of the first looks at asteroid samples from this particular cosmic object.

Key Ingredients for Life

The samples were brought back by Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft in 2020, which was only the second time that a spacecraft successfully brought back a portion of an asteroid. The first Hayabusa mission, conducted in 2010, brought back dust from the Itokawa asteroid.

However, that particular incident only had micrograms of samples that resulted from a failure of the spacecraft's collection system. In comparison, Hayabusa2 could gather and return more than five grams to our planet for scientists to analyze and study, as per Live Science.

After scientists analyzed a small portion of the Ryugu sample, they discovered that the carbon-rich asteroid also had molecules that are vital ingredients for all known life. This includes 15 amino acids, known to be the building blocks of proteins.

While the molecules are not alive, they are found in all life, causing scientists to call them "prebiotic." Based on previous studies of meteorites found on our planet, researchers know that space rocks can sometimes contain prebiotic molecules. However, those that have fallen through the atmosphere could also harbor these compounds because of contamination.

Furthermore, it needed to be clarified whether or not the molecules on these asteroids could survive on the cosmic object's surface or only deep inside its body. Hiroshi Naraoka of Kyushu University, Japan, said that Ryugu's uppermost surface grains could protect organic molecules.

Read Also: Why was SpaceX's Crew-6 Mission Launch Called Off?

Building Blocks of Life

The study's findings suggest that asteroids across the solar system are potentially spreading the building blocks of life. Scientists also theorize that the organic materials they found on Ryugu could predate even the solar system's formation, according to Phys.org.

The team made their conclusions partly after analyzing the ratio of various oxygen isotopes inside the Ryugu samples. These are forms of oxygen atoms with different masses due to the differing number of neutrons in their nuclei.

This, together with the researchers' analysis of the grains' sizes and mineral composition, led them to suggest the samples' ancient origin and that they were likely transported outwards to the far regions of our solar system, where they eventually came together to form the asteroid.

The asteroid Ryugu is a primitive carbonaceous cosmic object considered a rocky remnant following the solar system's formation roughly 4 billion years ago. Naraoka noted that the molecules found on the asteroid could have been transported throughout our solar system, dispersing as interplanetary dust particles after being ejected from the asteroid's uppermost layer due to a variety of factors, including impacts, said Gizmodo.

Related Article: Can Solar Panels in Space Fight the Climate Crisis?

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Password management company LastPass, which was hit by two data breaches last year, has revealed that data exfiltrated during the first intrusion, discovered in August, was used to target the personal home computer of one of its devops engineers and launch a second successful cyberatttack, detected in November.

The threat actor involved in the breaches infected the engineer's home computer with a keylogger, which recorded information that enabled a cyberattack that exfiltrated sensitive information from the company's AWS cloud storage servers, LastPass said in a cybersecurity incident update Monday.

The company had divulged information about the data breaches last year; the update reveals for the first time that the same threat actor was responsible for both breaches.

The first intrusion ended on August 12 last year. However, LastPass now says that the threat actor was actively engaged in a new series of reconnaissance, enumeration, and exfiltration activity aimed at the company's the cloud storage environment from August 12 to October 26, 2022.

The observed tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), as well as the indicators of compromise (IOCs) of the second incident were not consistent with those of the first. While proximal in terms of timeline, it was not initially obvious that the two incidents were directly related, LastPass said in its update. There has been no activity by the threat actor after October 26, the company added.

The developer whose home computer was infected with the keylogger was only one of four devops engineers in the company who had access to the decryption keys of encrypted Amazon S3 buckets.

LastPass engineer's master password stolen

"The threat actor was able to capture the employee's master password as it was entered, after the employee authenticated with MFA, and gain access to the devops engineer's LastPass corporate vault," LastPass said.

The threat actor then exported the native corporate vault entries and content of shared folders, which contained encrypted secure notes with access and decryption keys needed to access the AWS S3 LastPass production backups, other cloud-based storage resources, and some related critical database backups.

The use of valid credentials made it difficult for the company's investigators to detect the threat actor's activity.

In the first intrusion, in August, a software engineers corporate laptop was compromised, allowing the threat actor to gain access to a cloud-based development environment and steal source code, technical information, and certain LastPass internal system secrets, LastPass CEO Karim Toubba said in a blog addressed to customers.

No customer data or vault data was stolen during this incident, as LastPass did not have any customer or vault data in the development environment.

Stolen data used to gain access in second breach

We declared this incident closed but later learned that information stolen in the first incident was used to identify targets and initiate the second incident, Toubba said.

During the first incident, the threat actor was able to access on-demand, cloud-based development and source code repositories of 14 out of 200 software repositories.

Internal scripts from the repositories  which contained company secrets and certificates as well as internal documentation including technical information that described how the development environment operated  were also accessed by the threat actor.

In the second incident, the threat actor used the information stolen in the first intrusion to target a senior devops engineer and exploit vulnerable third-party software to install a keylogger, Toubba said.

The threat actor leveraged information from the keylogger malware, including the engineer's credentials, to bypass and ultimately gain access to cloud backups. The data accessed from those backups included system configuration data, API secrets, third-party integration secrets, and encrypted and unencrypted customer data, the company said.

The threat actor also accessed devops secrets including information used to gain access to cloud-based backup storage. Access to a backup of the LastPass multifactor authentication (MFA) and federation database that contained copies of the companys authenticator seeds, telephone numbers used for MFA backup, as well as a split-knowledge component (the K2 key) used for LastPass federation, was also gained by threat actor, LastPass said.

The identity of the threat actor and their motivation is unknown. There has been no contact or demands made, and there has been no detected credible underground activity indicating that the threat actor is actively engaged in marketing or selling any information obtained during either incident, LastPass said.

Remediation actions taken

There have been several steps that LastPass has taken to strengthen its security in the wake of the incidents. We invested a significant amount of time and effort hardening our security while improving overall security operations, the CEO said.

Some of this included assisting devops engineers with hardening the security of their home network and personal resources, rotating critical and high privilege credentials, and enabling custom analytics that can detect ongoing abuse of AWS resources. LastPass says it has have millions of users and more than 100,000 businesses as customers.










Known vulnerabilities, compromise of legitimate package, and name confusion attacks are expected to be among the top ten open source software risks in 2023, according to a report by Endor Labs.

The other major open source software risks, according to the report, include unmaintained software, outdated software, untracked dependencies, license risk, immature software, unapproved changes, and under/oversized dependency.

Almost 80% of code in modern applications is code that relies on open source packages. While open source software is the bedrock of modern software development, it is also the weakest link in the software supply chain, Endor Labs said in its report.

Since open source software comes as-is, without warranties of any kind, any risk of using it is solely on the users. This makes selection, security, and maintenance of these open source dependencies crucial steps towards software supply chain security, the report said.

The Endor Labs report covers both operational and security issues associated with open source components that can lead to compromise of systems, enable data breaches, undermine compliance, and hamper availability. The report features contributions from 20 industry experts, including CISOs from HashiCorp, Adobe, Palo Alto Networks, and Discord.

Top three open source security risks

Known vulnerability, according to the report, is the top risk associated with open source software. This risk occurs when a component version contains vulnerable code, accidentally introduced by its developers. If a known vulnerability is exploited by a threat actor, it could compromise the confidentiality, integrity or availability of the respective system or its data, the Endor Labs report said.

CVE-2017-5638 in Apache Struts that caused the Equifax data breach, and CVE-2021-44228 in Apache Log4j also known as Log4Shell are examples of known vulnerabilities.

To avoid the risk of known vulnerabilities, Endor Labs suggests that regular scan of open source software should be conducted and organizations should prioritize findings to optimize resource allocation.

Compromise of legitimate package is the second biggest risk that open source software contain. Attackers may compromise resources that are part of an existing legitimate project or of the distribution infrastructure to inject malicious code into a component. For example, hijacking the accounts of legitimate project maintainers or exploiting vulnerabilities in package repositories. The SolarWinds cyberattack was a result of a compromise of a legitimate package.

The third biggest open source software risk is name confusion attacks, in which an attacker creates components whose names resemble names of legitimate open source or system components (typosquatting), suggest trustworthy authors (brandjacking) or play with common naming patterns in different languages or ecosystems.

To avoid this risk, organizations need to check code characteristics both before and after installation hooks, check the project characteristics such as source code repository, maintainer accounts, release frequency, number of downstream users, etc, the report said. An example of this risk is the Colourama attack, which was a typosquatting attack on the legitimate python package called Colorama that redirected Bitcoin transfers to an attacker-controlled wallet.

Top three operational risks

Along with the top security risks that the open source software contain, the Endor Labs report also analyzed the top operational risks that they can pose.

Unmaintained software or when a component or component version is not actively developed anymore leading to patches for functional and security bugs not being available is the top operational risk that open source software pose, according to the report.

In this case, the patch development will have to be done by downstream developers, resulting in increased efforts and longer resolution times. During that time, the system remains exposed.

Outdated software  not to be confused with unmaintained software  is another big risk for open source software. This refers to a project that may be using an old, outdated version of a component, even though newer versions exist.

If the version of a component used is far behind the latest releases of a dependency, it can make it difficult to perform timely updates in emergency situations. Older version of a component may also not receive the same level of security assessment as recent versions.

If a new version is syntactically or semantically incompatible with the current version in use, application developers may require significant update or migration efforts to resolve the incompatibility, the report said.

The third biggest operational risk with open source software is untracked dependencies. This occurs when the project developers are not aware of a dependency on a component at all, either because it is not part of an upstream components software bill of material, or because software component analysis (SCA) tools do not detect it, or because the dependency is not established using a package manager.

Developers must evaluate and compare SCA tools for their capability to produce accurate bills of materials, the report said.

Risks associated with open source software increasing

As the use of open source is increasing over the years, the risk it poses is also being highlighted by other cybersecurity firms. At least one known open source vulnerability was detected in 84% of all commercial and proprietary code bases examined by researchers at application security company Synopsys.

In addition, 48% of all code bases analyzed by Synopsys researchers contained high-risk vulnerabilities, which are those that have been actively exploited, already have documented proof-of-concept exploits, or are classified as remote code execution vulnerabilities.
Nigeria's opposition parties call for fresh elections, citing fraud and other discrepancies as the ruling party takes the lead. The People's Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party argued that the results of the elections were manipulated, demanding that a new election be organized.

The claim comes as Bola Tinubu, the candidate for the ruling party, was leading with roughly 40% of the vote based on data that officials have so far released.

Nigeria's 2023 Election

In a statement, the electoral commission, which is continuing with the release of the results, said that the opposition parties should take their complaints and file them in court. The PDP and the Labour Party became critical of the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) regarding how it handled the electronic voting system in the country.

The chairman of the Labour Party, Julius Abure, said that he was demanding for the "sham of an election" to be canceled. He and his colleagues were calling on Inec to conduct fresh elections within the timeframe provided under the electoral act, as per BBC.

On top of the two opposition parties, the small African Democratic Congress (ADC) also supported the call for fresh elections. On the other hand, Tinubu's campaign team called out the demands and condemned the opposition parties' attempt to undermine the electoral process.

In a statement, he said that lawmakers did not have any moral right to enjoy the fruits of victory if they were not prepared to accept the shock of defeat. He faced off against the PDP's Atiku Abubakar and the Labour Party's Peter Obi.

Officials have released the final tally of votes from 20 of the nation's 36 states, placing Abubakar in second place, with roughly 30% of the total votes. On the other hand, Obi came in third with nearly 24% of the total votes.

Read Also: Russia-Ukraine War Update

Plagued by Controversies

In a joint statement, the opposition parties said they would no longer be part of the ongoing collation process in the capital Abuja. According to CNN, officials added that the situation has caused them to lose confidence in the electoral body Chairman Mahmood Yakubu.

The parties said they were calling on the international community, claiming the election results were heavily doctored and manipulated. Controversies have hounded the recent Nigerian elections, and some members of opposition parties walked out of the collation center on Monday as results were being announced.

Furthermore, several observers, including the European Union, have argued that the country's election needs to catch up to expectations due to a lack of transparency. In a statement, a joint observer mission of the International Republican Institute (IRI) and National Democratic Institute (NDI) said that the process fell short of the expectations of Nigeria's people.

The election included roughly 90 million Nigerians eligible to vote, many of whom were hoping that a new leader would do a much better job tackling various issues, including insecurity, economic malaise, and growing poverty that citizens have been suffering from, said Al Jazeera.

Related Article: King Charles' Wife to be Crowned Queen Consort

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Hong Kongs Hang Seng Index leapt higher after Chinese PMI readings were much better than expected amid hopes that the worlds second-largest economy might stoke global growth.

Hang Seng Index, HSI, China PMI, AU GDP, JP PMI, Caixin, NPC - Talking Points

The Hang Seng Index jumped on improving business confidence

The PMI readings were consistently higher across different segments

Currencies and APAC equities were quiet. Will a rally in HSI lift sentiment?

Trade Smarter - Sign up for the DailyFX Newsletter Receive timely and compelling market commentary from the DailyFX team Subscribe to Newsletter

Hong Kongs Hang Seng Index (HSI) broke the spell of bearishness today after a series of Chinese PMI numbers came in much better than expected.

Mainland Chinese indices also gained but to a lesser extent. The rest of APAC equities have had a quiet day so far as have most currency pairs.

The US Dollar is marginally weaker despite another uptick of a couple of basis points across the Treasury yield curve.

Chinese manufacturing PMI for February was 52.6, which beat forecasts of 50.6 and 50.1 previously. This is the highest result since April 2012. Non-manufacturing PMI was 56.3 rather the 54.9 estimated and the composite PMI was 56.4 against 52.9 prior.

The Caixin manufacturing PMI, a survey of smaller Chinese firms, also registered a solid beat of 51.6 instead of the 50.7 anticipated.

After losing 9.9% in February, todays run-up of over 3.5% presented a welcome relief for Hang Seng bulls ahead of the Nation Peoples Congress that is due to begin this weekend.

There are hopes for the announcement of several initiatives to promote growth in the Middle Kingdon. The Chinese Renminbi posted small gains on the data.

Elsewhere, Australian 4Q quarter-on-quarter GDP came in at 0.5% rather than the 0.8% forecast and against the previous 0.7% that was revised up from 0.6%.

Annual GDP to the end of December was 2.7% as anticipated revealing more upward revisions to prior quarters. The prior read was 5.9%. AUD/USD initially dipped below 67 cents but recovered after the Chinese PMI data.

Jibun Bank Japan manufacturing PMI was also released today, coming in at 47.7 against 47.4. USD/JPY and the Nikkei 225 were little changed.

Wall Street finished slightly lower, and futures are indicating an opening to the cash session to be close to where they left it.

Gold and crude oil have got a small boost again from the easing of the US Dollar in the Asian session.

Looking ahead, the data map today is quite congested with several CPI and PMI readings alongside US manufacturing ISM data. There will also be plenty of speakers from the ECB, BoE and the Fed to markets twitchy.

The full economic calendar can be viewed here.

Recommended by Daniel McCarthy Traits of Successful Traders Get My Guide

Hang Seng Index (HSI) TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

The Hang Seng roared higher today as it approached the 10-day simple moving average (SMA) A break above it might indicate that some short-term bullishness may evolve.

The bounce comes after it was unable to penetrate below the 200-day SMA and that could continue to provide support near the recent low of 19664.

Further, support may lie at the prior lows of 19338 and 18917. The 100-day SMA is near the latter and might lend support.

On the topside, resistance could be near the 21- and 55-day SMAs in the 20750  20930 area.

Chart created in TradingView

--- Written by Daniel McCarthy, Strategist for DailyFX.com

Please contact Daniel via @DanMcCathyFX on Twitter
The United States Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against a Louisiana chemical maker on Tuesday, with federal officials alleging that the company has caused cancer risk in a nearby minority area.

The company, identified as Denka Performance Elastomer LLC, manufactures synthetic rubber, emitting the carcinogen chloroprene in high concentrations that authorities argue are unacceptable risk of cancer to nearby communities. Particularly, children are vulnerable to the effects of the chemical as there is an elementary school only half a mile away.

Cancer Risk in Minority Community

While the plant has, over time, reduced its emissions, the Justice Department argued that it still presents "an imminent and substantial endangerment to public health and welfare." The department, which filed the lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), argued that these dangers include elevated cancer risks.

In a statement, EPA Administrator Michael Regan said that Denka Performance Elastomer LLC has not yet moved far or fast enough to reduce emissions sufficiently or to ensure the safety of the people in the surrounding community, as per Fox News.

Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said that every community, regardless of its demographics, should be able to breathe clean air and drink clean water. She added that they were seeking to stop the chemical maker's dangerous pollution of the environment.

The Department of Justice's lawsuit demands that Denka eliminate dangerous chloroprene emissions. It is the latest move of President Joe Biden's administration to target pollution in an industrial corridor found near New Orleans that many call "Cancer Alley." Lately, the White House has prioritized environmental enforcement in communities facing heavy burdens resulting from long-term pollution.

The EPA said last year that it observed evidence of Black residents facing a higher risk of cancer from the chemical plant's waste. State officials ignored the problem, causing the pollution to remain high for an extended period.

Read Also: Severe Storms, Tornadoes Slam US States

Exposure to Harmful Chemicals

While the Japanese company did not immediately respond to requests for comments regarding the issue, a spokesperson in September said that advocates were describing a crisis that "simply does not exist," according to the Associated Press.

The company manufactures wetsuits, laptop sleeves, orthopedic braces, and automotive belts and hoses. The chemical produced, chloroprene is a liquid raw material used to create the base material and is spread into the air from various places within the facility.

The lawsuit comes as air monitoring consistently shows that long-term chloroprene concentrations in Denka's immediate surroundings are up to 15 times those recommended for a 70-year exposure.

The EPA prepared a Toxics Release Inventory that showed minority groups made up 56% of the communities that were living near toxic sites, including refineries, landfills, and chemical plants. Adverse effects of such exposure include chronic health problems, such as asthma, diabetes, and hypertension.

Activists in the nearby areas of the Denka plant have long argued that the facility was a danger to St. John the Baptist Parish residents. The Department of Justice, in support of this claim, said that the plant's chemicals exposed thousands of residents to lifetime cancer risks that are multiple times more than what could be considered acceptable, said The Hill.

Related Article: Joe Biden's Student Forgiveness Plan Faces Supreme Court Justices

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
At some point in the far-distant future, parliamentary historians with wild eyebrows may pore over dusty volumes of Commons records and surmise that Rishi Sunak shamelessly bluffed his way through PMQs today.

That he spent much of his time ducking and weaving in between Sir Keir Starmers questions, while goading his opponent with shamelessly prepared wisecracks. And, to some extent, the wizened chin strokers would be correct. But that would not tell the full story.

What they may fail to appreciate is that this was a PM plainly relishing the job. We have, lately, become accustomed to the sight of Tories moping around the Commons beset with worries. But here was Mr Sunak bustling like a wide-eyed Labrador, his tail waggier than a windscreen wiper in a downpour.

Similarly, his backbenchers were woofier than theyve been in many a week. Its clear from the mood in Westminster at the moment that the Prime Ministers heroics over his Brexit deal have earned him that most precious commodity: authority. At least for now.

'Sunak spent much of his time ducking and weaving in between Sir Keir Starmers questions, while goading his opponent with shamelessly prepared wisecracks'

'This was a PM plainly relishing the job. We have, lately, become accustomed to the sight of Tories moping around the Commons beset with worries'

Mr Sunaks afternoon was helped by Sir Keir Starmers decision to focus on the cost of living crisis. I say helped because economics is not Sir Keirs strong suit.

Whenever he gets on to budgetary matters, his face becomes drawn and wracked with uncertainty. A learner driver terrified hes about to have a prang.

Believe me, as someone who spent many a restless night tossing and turning before a maths test the next morning, I know a fellow struggler when I see one.

Sir Keirs opener concerned Labours outlandish prediction that Britain was on course to be poorer than Poland by 2030. Shocking, he honked. He made a wisecrack about Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, the 1980s TV drama about working-class men having to seek work in West Germany. Unfortunately, few MPs got the reference. Oh dear. Politics is a young persons game these days.

Rishi seemed happy to discuss fiscal matters with his opponent. Unlike Sir Keir, hes never happier than in the company of numbers. He was, after all, a dreaded banker. Just think of all those mind-numbing hours he must have spent staring at spreadsheets.

The PM mocked Labours close ties to the unions and teased Starmer about his trip to Davos in January to hobnob with the cossetted business elite. A rare journey out of North London, Rishi quipped. An old Boris joke. Still, it never fails to raise a cackle.

'Mr Sunaks afternoon was helped by Sir Keir Starmers decision to focus on the cost of living crisis. I say "helped" because economics is not Sir Keirs strong suit'

The Cream of Camden was unrepentant about schmoozing pinstriped City types. Apparently, they now all consider Labour to be the party of business. In fact, he said, theyd been telling that to Sir Keir at all these power breakfasts he and his Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves had been going to recently. Presumably at these meetings its Rachel who does all the talking.

The pair briefly swapped insults about windfall taxes on energy firms. None of their exchanges, though, were really going anywhere. Still, Conservative backbenchers seemed to delight in watching their man enjoy himself.

When Starmer moved on to the subject of housing, Rishi completely ignored him and launched an attack instead on Labours plan to ban new energy developments in the North Sea, denouncing the policy as bad for security and bad for the economy  just like the Labour Party! The Tory benches roared.

Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle nonetheless reminded Sunak that the question had, in fact, been about housing. But the intervention made no difference to Tory MPs. The PMs soundbite had hit the target. Moooorrre! they yelled.

It was only when Starmer reached his last question that he broached the latest Matt Hancock hoo-ha  over care homes during Covid. Sir Keir wanted assurances that the pandemic inquiry would have the resources to conclude its work by the end of the year.

End of the year?! If previous inquiries are any indicator, well be lucky to have it by the end of the century.
Last week, I answered the most burning questions men have about women and sex.

This week, we get to be the inquisitors.

Here, straight from the horses mouth (and the latest, most reputable research) are the things women want honest answers to.

Lets start with the most requested answer of all

One study has suggested that men actually enjoy foreplay more than women. British relationship expert Tracey Cox , reveals how men really feel about sex (stock image)

1. Do you enjoy foreplay?

Hmmm  this ones a little hazy. Its one of those questions where the research and reality seem worlds apart.

Lots of women continually complain that they dont enjoy sex fully because their male partners rush through foreplay (the bit they enjoy) to get to intercourse (the bit men enjoy).

Research tells a different story.

One study suggested men enjoy foreplay more than women with one third of the male participants wanting it to last longer than 30 minutes. A tenth of the men surveyed said theyd happily linger there for an hour or more.

A Canadian study found women would like an average of 19 minutes of foreplay while men wanted 18. Another found men who engaged in extended foreplay experienced fewer sex problems.

Some of the men I spoke to claimed women think men hate foreplay but thats not actually the case. The issue is that it tends to be all one-sided.

'What foreplay usually means is us doing stuff to her,' one man said. 'If both of you make an effort and it switches back and forth, foreplay is just as enjoyable as intercourse.'

2. Is it true that youre so obsessed with sex, you think about it every seven seconds?

Its an amusing sex myth but no. Seriously, how would men get anything done if they were having 57,000 sex thoughts a day.

There has never been any research to back this up.

Some think it stems from an often-cited Kinsey Institute study which asked men and women how often they thought about sex a day.

Fifty four per cent of men said every day or several times a day, 43 per cent said a few times per week or just a few times a month and four per cent said less than once a month. (Nineteen per cent of women ticked the every day or several times a day box, 67 percent a few times per week or month and 14 percent said less than once a month.)

How this got exaggerated into every seven seconds is anyones guess.

A more recent (and more accurate) statistic on this comes from Ohio University. Researchers gave a group of 18-25 year old students counters and asked them to click every time they had a sexual thought.

Tracey Cox has asked men to answer the 9 questions all women want to know about

The average man clicked 19 times a day  around once every hour and a half. To put that into perspective, they also recorded how often they thought about food and that got 18 clicks a day.

Also bear in mind these were young college students with raging libidos and time on their hands. How much a married man with two kids and a demanding job thinks about sex is quite another story.

3. Whats the biggest sexual turn-off for men?

As with women, who answered the same question for last weeks column, there are plenty of contenders for this list.

The most popular answers include:

Going down on her and finding she smells. (Poor personal hygiene is always near the top of the list.)

Being lazy/expecting me to do all the work/acting like I should be so grateful to be allowed to sleep with her, thats enough.

Acting like my penis is fragile  just grab it!

Being squeamish about semen.

Expecting me to be satisfied with the same old boring sex for years on end.

Getting upset if I dare to ask for something new.

Hiding her body.

Not reciprocating oral sex.

Making nasty comments about penis size.

Refusing to take her T-shirt off in bed.

Women who were body confident, playful, experimental and non-judgemental topped the biggest turn-ons list.

4. Must we deep-throat for it to be good oral sex?

Absolutely not. But hell get a nice psychological kick if you try.

Almost all the nerve endings for the penis are in the glans (the head) and the frenulum (the stringy piece of skin on the underside of the penis where the shaft meets the head).

5. How do you really feel about the way a vagina looks? A lot of women feel pressure to look a certain way  the way vaginas look in porn since its often our only reference. We want to look pink rather than purplish and have lips that match, with the inner lips neatly tucked inside the outer. But vaginas come in all shapes, sizes and colour variations and  having seen a few up close and personal during oral sex  men can vouch for that. After researching and polling men of all ages and walks of life, I can report the following. Do men judge your vagina like its in a beauty contest? No. Do they care if the lips of your vagina protrude or are crinkly rather than neat and uniform. No. A Reddit thread asking men if they cared what a womens vagina looked like, echoed this mans sentiment, over and over. 'Never once have I been less attracted to a woman because of the sight of her vagina.' Advertisement

The shaft is the least sensitive of all. So, deep-throating - taking his penis deep into your mouth  feels less intense than focusing on the head, not more.

There is no physiological reason why it feels good, its a gimmick.

Some men love it because its very common in porn (so men are used to seeing it) and it makes you appear utterly uninhibited and very experienced if you do it. It also appeals to men who are turned on by making women submissive: if shes prepared to do something that makes her gag, she must really be into me. (Yep, lets not think too much about this one. Or this comment, Seeing her willing to take it all the way in to please a man is a powerful feeling.)

Theres also the perception, of course, that if she gags, he must have a really big penis.

Most men dont expect it or ask for it. But if you wanted to give it a try, they certainly arent going to say no.

The most common position, if you did want to try, is to lie with your head hanging off the edge of the bed, with him either standing or kneeling by the side of it. Use your hands against his hips to control the depth.

I reiterate again, though: it really isnt necessary, very few women do it and you can easily give an outstanding, knee-trembling BJ without it.

6. How much control do you have over your erections?

In some instances, not much.

A lot can depend on how closely packed his nerve endings are. Men with smaller penises are highly sensitive because the nerve endings are more concentrated - the slightest stimulation might cause him to become erect.

Nearly all men, particularly young men, experience nocturnal penile tumescence (youll know it as morning wood). Waking up with an erection is usual and a sign of a healthy blood and nerve supply to the penis rather than the result of an erotic dream about your best friend.

(It also means, if hes experiencing any problems getting an erection with a partner, the issue is almost certainly psychological not physical).

There is evidence that erections can also be a case of mind over matter. One influential study suggests men who can control their erections are also able to control other emotions.

7. Do different vaginas feel drastically different? A unanimous yes to this one! Heres a sample of the most universal comments: Some vaginas feel wetter, others warmer. Some women feel deeper, some tighter. Every girl Ive slept with feels different. Some are impossible to penetrate, others you slip in easily. Lots of men said theyre able to feel more difference using their fingers than with a penis. Any woman whos had a man think theyve penetrated when his penis is nestled between their thighs knows this is the case. Body type did appear to play a role in how her vagina feels  thinner women reportedly had less fleshy vaginas, for instance. (Anecdotal evidence: theres no research to back this up.) Despite most men saying some vaginas did feel very different than others, most also agreed their partners lubrication and grip could alter dramatically in the same sex session. Asked if theyd know if it was their partners vagina when blindfolded, most admitted the answer is no. Advertisement

There are things men can do to stop an erection happening: distraction, changing position (the way hes sitting could be stimulating his penis) and taking a cold shower.

Though the sensible solution is probably to accept it is what it is, conceal it as best as possible and wait for it to disappear.

The average man has eleven erections a day and between three and five during the night.

Many are the result of friction  things inadvertently rubbing against it - and unrelated to sex or arousal.

8. Pubic hair: all off or ungroomed?

Preference for styling of pubic hair is highly personal and very much depends on age.

About half of all young women in the US and UK remove all their pubic hair; about half of all young men shave their testicles and trim their pubes.

Younger men mainly expect women to be hair-free and its what theyre used to seeing on porn.

Older men are more divided in their views. Lots dont like all the hair removed because it reminds them of a prepubescent girl.

While letting it all go wild and completely untouched does appeal to a certain type of man ('Hair traps the smell and I love the way she smells'), the over-whelming consensus was this...

So long as its trimmed and tidy, most men dont really care.

9. Can you tell if were faking it?

Men consistently overestimate how much they can tell if a woman is faking  nearly always thinking weve had a real orgasm when we havent.

Interesting when only 25 per cent of women say theyve never faked one!

Are we such great actors he really cant tell? Im sure its a factor. But the reality is there is no physical way to tell if a woman has had an orgasm.

Nearly all men ejaculate semen while having an orgasm. (I say nearly because the process of ejaculation and orgasm are separate and it is possible to experience one without the other, so even thats not definitive proof.)

Theres no female equivalent of this. Some women get a red rash on their chest when they orgasm and experience clitoral sensitivity but not all.

Some men say they can feel the vaginal contractions that accompany orgasm if they are inside them, but thats only if theyre strong and noticeable (they often arent).

A lot of women go very still when theyre just about to orgasm, but others

The men who adamantly claimed they could spot the lie, did agree they needed to know their partner well in order to know for sure.

'When she pushes me away from her, I know its real. Shes over sensitive afterwards.

'She over-acts and it all happens a little too fast when shes faking. Its usually also when shes tired and stressed and says yes to sex just to please me.'

When I suggested to the men I spoke to that they might be over-estimating their ability to know for sure, the answer was universally, Oh but I do know. Even if you dont believe me.'
She raised eyebrows when she detailed her children's unusual names

The mom, who fell pregnant at 14, has 12 biological kids and one adopted son

Veronica Merrit, from New York, revealed 12 of her children's unique names

A mom-of-13 has raised eyebrows after revealing her 12 biological children's unusual names.

Veronica Merritt, from New York, has 12 biological children and one adopted child, and has become well known on social media for sharing an inside look at her life as a mother-of-13, which involves spending three hours on preparing dinner, driving around in a school bus, and color-coding their clothes.

Most recently, the mom shared the names of her 12 biological children on her TikTok account and set social media users into a spin.

In a viral video, which amassed more than 1.7 million views, Veronica detailed the names of her kids.

Veronica Merritt, from New York, with 12 biological children and one adopted kid revealed her children's unusual names that sent social media users into a spin

The mother (top row, second from right) has become well known on social media for sharing an inside look at her life as a mother-of-13

She began by revealing that her nine-year-old son is named Marvelous Artymis

She shared the biological names of her children and followed with Martayla Annastasia (left), eight, and Dash Orion (right), 13

She captioned the clip, 'I'm 37, here are the names and ages of my 12 biological kids,' before sharing the unique names.

The mom began with revealing her oldest daughter's name was Victoria Adrianna, who is 22-year-old.

Then she revealed her other children's names were Andrew Vincent, 18; Adam, 16; and Mara Annalise, 15.

And then the names became slightly more unusual, with Dash Orion, 13, followed by 12-year-old Darla Annmarie.

Marvelous Artymis, nine, followed, and next were eight-year-old Martalya Annastasia, six-year-old Amelia Annabelle, and four-year-old Delilah Arianna.

The mom-of-12 finished off by revealing three year-old Donovan Oliver, and her youngest child, 10-month-old Modi Alexander.

'I had to make an update because we had a birthday... plus last time I accidentally wrote the wrong middle name for Darla,' she added in the caption of the viral video.

'I know their names I swear - just easily distracted and must have hit the wrong auto fill word.'

Then she revealed her other children's names were Adam (right), 16, and Mara Annalise (left), 15

The mom-of-12 revealed three year-old Donovan Oliver (right), and her youngest child, 10-month-old Modi Alexander (left)

The names became slightly more out there with 12-year-old Darla Annmarie (left) followed by Andrew Vincent (right), 18

She also revealed she had a four-year-old daughter named Delilah Arianna (left) and a six-year-old daughter named Amelia Annabelle (right)

Social media users were quick to share their thoughts, with opinions on the unique names divided.

Many people on the video-sharing platform criticized the mother for her choices.

'Some of those kids are going to hate you for those names,' one person said.

Another social media user wrote with skull emojis: 'Marvelous Artymis? Dash Orion?'

'Marvelous is going to be bullied for that name,' someone else added.

'Like they got worse, then better, then worse again,' a fourth person said.

One social media user added: 'Marvelous Artemis sounds like a Dr. Seuss character.'

'That's just too many,' another person commented.

Many people on the video-sharing platform criticized the mother for her choices

And while some social media users hit out at the mom, others praised her for choosing such unique names.

'Beautiful children and beautiful names,' one person said.

'Love their names,' one user added.

Another person said: 'They've got majestic names.'

Someone else wrote: 'The names! Love! Go you!'

And while some social media users hit out at the mom, others praised her for choosing such unique names

Veronica previously made headlines in September 2022 when she revealed she and her daughter were expecting at the same time.

Her oldest child, Victoria, welcomed her first baby, a little girl named Maddie, and she said it was 'pretty cool' to be pregnant at the same time as her mom, who gave birth to a baby boy eight weeks earlier.

'It was pretty cool and our kids can be besties,' she told Truly recently, with Veronica adding, 'I think it's fabulous, I think it's so cute that they're gonna grow up together.

'Being pregnant at the same time as my daughter isn't something that I ever thought was gonna happen, but I think it's pretty cool.'

Veronica previously explained to The Sun that she became pregnant for the first time when she was just 14 years old.

Victoria was born in 1999 and five years later, she and her first husband welcomed their son Andrew, who is now 17.

After they divorced, she married her second husband, 38-year-old Marty, and they went on to have eight more children together.

She expanded her family once again, but this time, it was her daughter who gave birth - just two months after she did. The mother-daughter duo are seen with their kids

Veronica previously explained to The Sun that she became pregnant for the first time when she was just 14 years old (pictured), welcoming Victoria in 1999

After getting divorced, she married her second husband, 38-year-old Marty, and they went on to have eight more children together

She's now parents to Adam, Mara, Dash, Darla, Marvelous, Martayla, Amelia, Delilah, Donovan, and Modi

Her oldest child, Victoria (pictured), 22, said it was 'pretty cool' to be pregnant at the same time as her mom

They're now parents to Adam, Mara, Dash, Darla, Marvelous, Martayla, Amelia, Delilah, Donovan, and Modi. She also recently adopted a son named Michel.

According to Veronica, she can't take birth control because she suffers from kidney disease and it makes her too sick.

'I have kidney disease and lost my kidney last year,' she told the outlet back in August.

'Some of the children were planned, but I can't take hormonal birth control because my illness means I am prone to blood clots.'

She also recently adopted a 16-year-old son named Michel (pictured)

Veronica explained to Truly that being a mom to 13 kids involves spending three hours on preparing dinner, driving around in a school bus, and color-coding their clothes

She said she has also received some backlash from people on the internet, who have slammed her for having so many children

The family lives in a nine-bedroom fixer-upper home that they bought for $20,000, and Veronica drives her kids around in a school bus

While speaking to Truly, Veronica admitted that the family is often met with stares from strangers when they're out in public - who will say things like, 'Wow you have your hands full,' or, 'Are they all yours?'

She has also received some backlash from people on the internet who have slammed her for having so many children.

'I get a lot of mixed reactions on my TikTok and Instagram. A lot of them are super supportive, but there's a lot of negativity as well,' she admitted.

'There's a lot of hate for pretty much no reason. We're really nice people and if people took the time to get to know us, they would know that.'
A survivor of the Michigan State University shooting has shared a heart-breaking diary entry about being caught up in the tragedy.

Marcy Creevy posted a clip to TikTok to read the harrowing extract about her experience on the MSU campus earlier this month.

The student, 19, made it clear that she was not sharing the insight 'for sympathy' but instead did not want 'to let evil win.'

Gunman Anthony McRae killed three people and wounded five more on February 13 before fatally shooting himself after an hours-long manhunt at the university.

Marcy Creevy posted a clip to TikTok to read the harrowing extract about her experience on the MSU campus earlier this month

The student made it clear that she was not sharing the insight 'for sympathy' but instead did not want 'to let evil win'

In the TikTok video, which has so far been viewed more than 5.3 million times, Marcy sits alone in her room in an MSU sweater.

She speaks to camera as she begins: 'I am really not sure how to start this video, I really don't know what to say but I wanted to get on here and use the platform that I have.'

The student then picks up her diary in which she documented the events that happened at the campus on February 13.

Marcy shares: 'I'm not looking for sympathy or anything like that, I'm just trying to share my story about what I went through because the sad truth of it is that maybe it could educate or help someone in the future if they have to go through what we had to go through that night.'

Opening the diary she reads how she had been studying on the second floor of the university's Union building from around 8pm.

She reads: '20 minutes later, the room I was in illuminated with red and blue lights. I peered out the window thinking maybe there was just a minor accident. I went back to my study area, picked up my phone and saw a text from my best friend Hailey that read "don't go outside."

'I went back to the window and looked down further to see cops on the lawn with their rifles pointing at the building I was in.'

Marcy continues: 'I heard a woman scream "shooter" and run down the hallway. You know when you can hear the fear in someone's voice - it was just like that, screaming bloody murder...

The 19-year-old shared extracts from her diary in which she documented the events that happened at the MSU campus on February 13

Opening the diary, she reads how she had been studying on the second floor of the university's Union building from around 8pm

'From there my fight or flight kicked in. I still can't comprehend how my body knew exactly what to do while all my heart wanted to do was cry, scream and break.

'I turned the lights off, ran to the other room, shut the doors and turned those lights off.

'Four others appeared from the other room and that's when I told everyone to get behind the wall and under the table.'

Marcy said that she immediately thought of her family. She pulled her phone out, wanting to call her mom 'to hear her voice,' but said she did not want to make noise.

The youngster begins to get emotional as she reveals: 'I was completely frozen, I felt empty - not scared, nothing.'

She said she comforted the others in the room and repeatedly told them 'we're going to be okay, I promise you, please just trust me.'

Marcy, who begins fighting back the tears in the clip, perseveres: 'I realized I needed to do something. I checked my phone to see my dad's first text which read "be smart, always give yourself an out."'

She said she then began barricading the doors. 'I stood up... I ran to the doors of the room and began pushing a table. At that point I heard a deep man's voice yelling from the hallway - the shooter.'

The student tried to remain level-headed: 'I sat there still calm planning on what I was going to do when the shooter entered. My first thought was that I would play dead - this is what my mom always taught me.

Marcy's voice wavered and her eyes filled with tears before she apologized and temporarily cut off the camera

In her video, Marcy concluded: 'The past 12 pages have encapsulated my story, but the past 12 pages will never encapsulate the emotions behind it'

She said the group eventually took refuge at a restaurant across the street where Marcy called her parents, staying on the phone with them for the next hour

Marcy posted the video alongside a caption that read: 'Everyone has a story, this is just part of mine and it's okay to wear your emotions on your sleeve'

'But then I thought to myself he would actually have to shoot someone first if I could play dead.'

Marcy's voice wavers and her eyes fill with tears before she apologizes and temporarily cuts off the camera.

She returns and reads: 'Knowing myself and how I face violence I was going to defend as hard as I could - my mom would have hated me for that, to defend and fight back rather than thinking extremely tactically.'

Marcy goes on: 'At that point the doors started to have banging on them. "No one move," I said. We all assumed it was the cops coming to find us but from the stories I've heard and watched I wasn't going to move or speak until I physically saw a cop in front of us.

'Flashlights appeared on the wall in front of us. A man turned the corner and his flashlight hit our faces. [He said]: "I got kids, I got some, I have seven."

'Another cop appeared around the corner... he was stern but he was scared - I just knew it.'

Speaking about finally seeing the police officers, she said: 'That's when I lost it. It was as if I had been holding my breath for the last 22 minutes. As if I wasn't taking anything in. And when I raised my hands above my head, I could finally breathe again.'

Marcy said that the group were escorted out by armed police officers who were lining the stairwells but when they reached the outside the students just ran.

She said the group eventually took refuge at a restaurant across the street where Marcy called her parents, staying on the phone with them for the next hour.

Anthony McRae, 43, opened fire at Berkeley Hall before shooting at MSU Union, killing three students and leaving four students in critical condition

Police walk around Berkey Hall after the shooting on the Michigan State campus in East Lansing, Michigan

Marcy concluded: 'The past 12 pages have encapsulated my story, but the past 12 pages will never encapsulate the emotions behind it.

'And that's okay because there are six others that were physically right there with me and thousands of others whose lives will be forever changed - yet we're all still right there, altogether.

'I will not let an evil person take away from the place that I call home. I will never let the evil win.'

She posted the video alongside a caption that read: 'Everyone has a story, this is just part of mine. And it's okay to wear your emotions on your sleeve.'

During the MSU shooting, gunman Anthony McRae, 45, strode into an academic building named Berkey Hall at 8.18 pm, blasting indiscriminately at the occupants.

Two people died at the scene and three others sustained serious injuries.

Police descended in response to a torrent of urgent 911 calls but the killer had already left the premises, heading west out of the building and skulking along campus roads as he hunted for his next victims.

Less than 15 minutes later, gunshots were reported at the MSU Union building, a popular spot for students to eat, drink and study just a 10-minute walk from Berkey Hall.

One more person was killed at the MSU Union and two more were injured.

McRae terrorized the campus for a total of nearly four hours but killed himself before police were able to get to him.

Two of McRae's victims have been named as Alexandria Verner and Brian Fraser. The family of the third victim have asked for their name not to be published.
Meghan Markle was 'hugely disappointed' by life in the royal family and as a 'global superstar' she 'hated being told what she could and could not do', a new book has claimed.

The Duchess of Sussex, 41, who is currently living in her $14 million mansion in California having stepped back from royal duty, held misconceptions about what life in The Firm would be like, according to an insider.

Writing in his new book Gilded Youth, royal biographer Tom Quinn explained he had spoken to a 'Kensington Palace staffer who remembered Meghan well', who said she was stunned by the reality of life in the family.

The insider claimed: 'I dont think in the whole of history there was ever a greater divide between what someone expected when they became a member of the royal family and what they discovered it was really like.'

'She was a global superstar but was being told what she could and could not do, what she could and could not say. She hated it.'

Meghan Markle was 'hugely disappointed' by life in the royal family and as a 'global superstar' she 'hated being told what she could and could not do', a source has claimed

Writing in his new book Gilded Youth, royal biographer Tom Quinn claimed a source told him Meghan was 'dazzled' by the worldwide fame being a 'princess' would bring - but shocked she was 'never first' in the pecking order

Meanwhile another person claimed the Duchess was 'dazzled' by the worldwide fame being a 'princess' would bring, but was shocked that she was 'never first in the pecking order.'

A third source said Meghan likes to 'mix exclusively' with celebrities, adding she was unhappy being treated as 'a servant of the people' and not a star.

The Duchess claimed in her bombshell Oprah interview that she 'never looked up her husband online' when they first started dating and knew little about the British Royal Family growing up.

And in their Netflix documentary, Meghan claimed she knew nothing about her future beau's lifestyle and even had to Google the British national anthem.

She admitted that she repeatedly practiced the patriotic rendition of 'God Save The Queen', which she had taught herself online, before joining the royal family.

She also said that 'the wave is not a thing', claiming that she wasn't trained to move her hand any special sort of way - but jokingly added she didn't want to flail her hands 'like an American'.

It comes after a royal expert claimed Meghan was 'surprised and disappointed' that Prince Harry 'had very little money'.

Royal author Tom Bower appeared on GB News earlier this month, where he spoke to the MailOnline's Dan Wootton about the couple's early relationship.

Discussing the Duchess' misconceptions about the Royal Family, the author - who wrote the 2022 book Revenge: Meghan, Harry and the War Between the Windsors - described the former Suits actress as 'money-obsessed'.

Meghan was 'surprised and disappointed' that Prince Harry 'had very little money', royal expert Tom Bower claimed. Pictured: the couple in the grounds of Kensington Palace after their engagement was announced in November 2017

The expert said: 'Her great surprise and disappointment was that Prince Harry had very little money.

'She had imagined he would be worth hundreds of millions, if not billions, and she is having to make up for it now.'

Describing how the couple could not afford their current lifestyle as working members of the Royal Family, the expert added: 'She wants to ride in the big Cadillacs, the private jets on command.

'At the moment she needs to scrounge for those sorts of things.'

Elsewhere in the interview, Tom claimed that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's attendance at the coronation has the potential to 'ruin' the coronation and 'overshadow' King Charles.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are expected to be invited to the Coronation on May 6, despite the fallout from Harry's explosive memoir Spare.

While they were still senior working royals, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were mostly funded by King Charles' Duchy of Cornwall estate.

Following the couple's decision to leave the Firm, it was reported Charles' 1.2billion Duchy of Cornwall estate paid his youngest son around 2.3million-a-year on average.

However, the couple said this sum covered 95 per cent of their office expenditure.

The remaining five per cent of their annual income came from the taxpayer-funded 82m annual Sovereign Grant, which is handed to the most senior members of the royal family.

The 2.4million refurbishment of Frogmore Cottage on the Windsor estate was also paid for by this pot, which Prince Harry has since repaid.

When they announced they were stepping down as working royals, the couple pledged in a statement that they wanted to become 'financially independent while continuing to support Her Majesty The Queen'.

Months later, the couple signed a deal with Netflix and included their explosive six-part documentary series. It was reported the couple were paid up to 88m for the show, which landed on the streaming service last December.

In December 2020, it was reported the couple had signed a 30m podcast deal with Spotify to host their own shows as part of Archewell Audio.

In their explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey in March 2021, Prince Harry said he had to rely on his inheritance in the wake of Megxit.

He said: 'I've got what my mum left me. Without that, we wouldn't have been able to do this.'

Harry is also reported to have inherited around 20million from his mother, Princess Diana, who died when he was 12. The Queen Mother also left him up to 7million.

Meanwhile, Meghan has a reported personal fortune of 4million, mainly from her acting work and property in Canada.

Before quitting the series to move to the UK, Meghan was reportedly paid $50,000 for every appearance in Suits and went on to star in more than 100 episodes.

In his book Meghan: A Hollywood Princess, royal biographer Andrew Morton - who penned Diana: Her True Story - claimed Meghan started charging 15,000 for every speaking engagement following her UN speech in March 2015.

Describing how Meghan's 'price tag rose' in line with her celebrity status, the author claims she signed with the elite talent agency Kruger Cowne - which represents Cher, Elle Macpherson and Goldie Hawn - around this time.

Gilded Youth by Tom Quinn published by Biteback, price: 15
A woman, who hated her large forehead, has undergone an impressive hair transplant in a bid to regain her confidence.

Sonja Van Den Berg, 33, from Rotterdam in the Netherlands, always felt self conscious about her hairline worrying about windy days blowing her locks back and revealing her forehead.

She decided to do something about her insecurity once-and-for-all and she visited a clinic in the Netherlands to get a hair transplant which would lower her hairline on her forehead.

The procedure cost her almost 2500 and she was so delighted with the results that she decided to set up her own company to help others gain the confidence they need.

Sonja Van Den Berg, 33, from Rotterdam in the Netherlands, who hated her large forehead, has undergone an impressive hair transplant in a bid to regain her confidence

She is now the founder of Beauty Gainz a company which offers all-inclusive hair transplant trips to Istanbul and Turkey.

This transplant gave her the ability to wear her hair in many new ways and she doesn't have to worry about covering her forehead when it gets windy.

During the procedure follicles were extracted from the back of her head which was shaved and individual hairs are were removed.

Then the grafts were placed into tiny cuts made elsewhere in the scalp to promote hair growth.

Sonja said: 'It's funny how something so subtle can make such a big difference. Honestly, I feel a little sad that I didn't know about the procedure earlier.

'Finally, I can wear my hair in ways and styles that I wasn't comfortable with before my hair transplant, and when it's windy outside I don't feel the need to hide my forehead when the wind blows my hair.

She decided to do something about her insecurity once-and-for-all and she visited a clinic in the Netherlands to get a hair transplant which would lower her hairline on her forehead

The procedure cost her almost 2500 and she was so delighted with the results that she decided to set up her own company to help others gain the confidence they need

A line was drawn on Sonja's forehead to indicate her were her new hairline will be after the procedure

During the procedure follicles were extracted from the back of her head which was shaved and individual hairs are were removed

What is a hair transplant and how does it work? A hair transplant is a procedure to move hair to an area that's thin or bald. It's cosmetic surgery therefore it is only available in private clinics. In the UK it can cost anywhere between 1,000 and 30,000, depending on the extent of hair loss. The procedure: Follicular unit transplantation A thin strip of skin with hair is removed from the back of your head and divided into hair grafts The grafts are placed into tiny cuts made in the scalp The site where the hairs are taken is closed with stitches Follicular unit extraction The back of the head is shaved Individual hairs are removed 1 by 1 The grafts are placed into tiny cuts made in the scalp You'll have lots of tiny scars, but they will not be very noticeable Source: NHS Advertisement

'I'm also looking forward to swimming in the summer because I don't have to worry about when I dive into the pool and my forehead being more exposed when I get out of the water.

'I never expected this much interest but it's nice that I am able to help women who share the same insecurity that I had.

'There are also some negative comments from people who ask me why I don't just get bangs or tell me just to accept who you are.

'However, it's about what makes me happy and if I can help other people to feel more confident then it makes me double as happy.'
Japan's birth rate hit a new record low in 2022, dropping below 800,000 for the first time since authorities began to record the statistic in 1899, prompting lawmakers to take action.

The data released on Tuesday showed that the total number of births in the Asian nation dropped by 5.1% to 799,728. In a 2017 government forecast, officials said they were anticipating births to fall below 800,000 only starting in 2033, a full decade from now.

Japan's Declining Birth Rate

Experts believe that changes to Japanese citizens' lifestyles following the coronavirus pandemic and a growing trend of people getting married later in life or not at all are some of the factors that have exacerbated the country's declining birthrate.

In a statement, an official of the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare said that many complex factors were involved in the issue. These include financial instability among the nation's younger generation and fewer social encounters between residents, as per Japan Today.

A senior researcher at the Japan Research Institute, Takumi Fujinami, said that the birth rate drop in 2022 was more or less caused by the decline of marriages in 2020 following the COVID-19 onset. This is because the first children are usually born two years after a couple gets married.

Fujinami noted that, in particular, women are less willing to have children than men. This, alongside the economic and employment environment, has caused the burden that women carry to increase, including in areas such as childrearing.

The recent data showed that the approximate number of births in Japan was estimated to be roughly 770,000, excluding children born to foreign parents. The numbers include figures for Japanese nationals living internationally and foreigners living within the Asian nation.

Read Also: Nigeria 2023 Election Update

Supporting World's Third Largest Economy

Authorities are worried about the declining birth rate because, in the future, this would mean a smaller workforce and fewer taxpayers who will sustain the nation in the future. Japan, the third largest economy in the world, has the highest proportion of elderly citizens worldwide, according to Yahoo News.

On Tuesday, a deputy chief cabinet secretary, Yoshihiko Isozaki, said that they recognized the birth rate issue putting Japan in a critical situation. He added that his understanding of the situation was that various factors came together and prevented the people from realizing their hopes for marriage, childbirth, and childrearing.

The Japanese government has continuously tried to bolster the labor force and support children and their families to increase the population and help the economy recover. Officials have encouraged more women to work and ordered more immigrants to be accepted.

Japanese authorities have allocated roughly $35.3 billion from the government's fiscal 2023 budget to support a new agency, which would be dedicated to children and their families. The agency will lay out its child and childrearing policies later in June.

On the other hand, a member of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Narise Ishida, suggested that the country's declining birth rate and marriage rate was because of the people's lack of "romantic ability."

The issue became even more apparent when Prime Minister Fumio Kishida used harsh language in recently addressing parliament. He said that the nation was on the verge of being able to function as a society. He said that the country was in a "now or never moment," said Al Jazeera.

Related Article: Elizabeth Holmes Theranos Case Update

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Security footage shows the moment a shoplifter is deterred from stealing products from the shelves of Boots - after an in-store tannoy tells them they're being 'watched'.

The clip, shown on Channel 4 News on Tuesday, showcases the live security systems used at branches of Boots across the country, which alert potential shoplifters that their actions are being recorded - via the live audio broadcasts.

A teenage boy, wearing a grey hooded tracksuit, is seen by a team in the company's central CCTV hub - based in Beeston in Nottingham - pulling out a carrier bag from his pocket.

He then proceeds to take products from the shelves and put them in the bag.

Scroll down for video

The guards monitoring the store then speak directly to him - warning him he's on video camera.

Ryszard Majer, Security Operations Specialist for Boots, explains: 'We put a message in to say the store's being watched and that the store's being recorded.'

'He then hears that, takes the products out and puts them back on the shelf, acknowledges the camera to say "Yeah, you got me" and then leaves the store without incident.'

Other messages at Boots stores across the country include: 'Put the items back and leave the store. You have been recorded. The police will be contacted'.

In 2021, Boots announced that it was opening a CCTV Monitoring Centre at its headquarters in Beeston in a bid to keep staff safe when tackling potential criminals.

The hub has 18 screens which can display live CCTV feeds from over 1,000 Boots stores across the UK. Security operatives working in the hub then partner with staff members in store and the police to respond to crimes as they're happening.

The deterrents aim to reduce violent altercations between staff and the criminals targeting them.

Smile, you're on video camera! A potential shoplifter is spotted by the Boots' CCTV hub scanning products to steal in a Nottingham branch of the store

A security team watching from a new CCTV hub then broadcasts deterring messages at potential thieves

The new technique aims to deter shoplifters in the middle of their crimes

The teenager, wearing a tracksuit, gets out a carrier bag before scanning the shelves

After realising the tannoy announcement is referring to him, he calmly put the items back. He then glances up at the CCTV camera before walking out empty-handed

An inquest this week heard how a shoplifter who was held face down at a branch of Sainsbury's for more than 30 minutes died of injuries sustained during his detention.

In January 2019, Ramunas Paskauskas, 43, was held by two security officers in a training room at the supermarket in Spalding, but he became confused about what was happening due to a language barrier.

When Mr Paskauskas started being threatening and aggressive, in part due to the alcohol he had consumed, he was restrained on the floor.

The inquest at the Myle Cross Centre, in Lincoln, heard the guards, who had little training in restraint, lowered him to the floor but he continued to be aggressive and so they restrained him in a prone position, face down.

They were then assisted by Sainsbury's staff who had no training in the technique at all.

Mr Paskauskas' health deteriorated and he died at Lincoln County Hospital. The medical cause of death was multi-organ hypoxic/ischaemic injury, respiratory and cardiac arrests and restraint in the prone position.

A jury which considered the evidence during the inquest last week reached a conclusion of death by misadventure.
Former mummy blogger Clemmie Hooper is facing a midwifery misconduct hearing - three years after she confessed to trolling other influencers on a gossip forum.

The mother-of-four, 38, from Kent, once boasted 700,000 followers on Instagram and had partnered with brands such as Mothercare and Boden on sponsored posts.

But in 2019, Clemmie - who worked part-time as a midwife - came off social media after her account on Tattle Life, a website devoted to discussing influencers, was exposed.

Clemmie is currently facing a Fitness To Practise Committee Substantive Hearing with the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

The medical body confirmed to MailOnline that the mother's hearing began yesterday and will conclude on March 8.

Clemmie Hooper, 38, from Kent, once boasted 700,000 followers on Instagram and appeared on This Morning to dish out pregnancy and labour advice at the height of her fame

It is not currently known if the allegations of misconduct are in relation to her posts on the gossip website.

However, outraged social media users - including author and podcaster Kelechi Okafor - called for Clemmie to face a misconduct hearing at the time.

In November 2019, Clemmie wrote on her Instagram Stories that she had made an account on the forum in an attempt to defend herself from criticism.

She wrote: 'Earlier this year, I became aware of a website that had thousands of comments about my family and I.

'Reading them made me feel extremely paranoid and affected me much more than I knew at the time.

'I decided without telling anyone else that I would make an anonymous account so that this group of people would believe I was one of them, so that I could maybe change their opinions from the inside to defend my family and I.'

Clemmie continued: It became all consuming and it grew bigger than I knew how to handle.

'When the users started to suspect it was me, I made the mistake of commenting about others. I regret it all and am deeply sorry - I know this has caused a lot of pain.'

Clemmie (centre) pictured with her daughters Anya Rose (right), Marnie (left), Ottilie and Delilah (middle)

Clemmie quit social media following the backlash over her Tattle life account but occasionally appears on her husband's Instagram account. Pictured with Simon in September 2022

A post by the user Alice in Wanderlust shows her claiming that she is not 'MOD' (mother of daughters/ Clemmie) where she also causes Clemmie's husband a 'class A tw**t'

Though Clemmie never publicly confirmed her username, other members of the gossip site Tattle became suspicious when the profile 'Alice in Wanderlust' began posting from the same location as Clemmie, including Mauritius, and defending Clemmie.

One post by the user Alice in Wanderlust accuses mummy blogger Candice Brathwaite of social climbing, being 'aggressive' and using her 'race as a weapon'.

Just two months before, Clemmie had invited Candice onto her podcast to discuss her traumatic birth experience and how she developed life-threatening sepsis following an emergency C-section.

Meanwhile, another post written by Alice in Wanderlust questioned the state of mummy blogger Bethie Hungerford's marriage - prompting the social media star to demand an apology from her former friend.

What's more, another post branded Clemmie's husband Simon - who has remained on Instagram and now boasts 850,000 followers - a 't**t', before denying the profile was set up by Clemmie.

Posting a statement online, Clemmie revealed the trolling she had experienced led her to set up the account, initially to defend herself, but in an effort to cover up her identity when other users began suspecting who she really was, she began posting negative comments about others

'Undoubtedly I got lost in this online world and the more I became engrossed in the negative commentary, the more situation escalated. Engaging in this was a huge mistake, she added. I take full responsibility for whats happened and I am just so sorry for the hurt I have caused to everyone involved including my friends and family.

Clemmie branded fellow blogger Candice Brathwaite (pictured) 'aggressive' and accused her of 'using race as a weapon' in Tattle posts. The social media star had appeared on Clemmie's podcast just weeks before

Following Clemmie's confession, her influencer husband said he was 'angry and sad' to learn about his wife's anonymous profile and said he had 'no idea' that she had secretly been writing about her peers online.

Describing himself as in a 'cr** position', Simon said he wished she had spoken to him first, and while he made it clear that he was not defending her, but that he has 'seen what three years of being attacked online can do to someone'.

Former blogger Clemmie sky-rocketed to fame when she began documenting her life as a midwife and mother to daughters Anya Rose, Marnie, Ottilie and Delilah on blog Gas & Air, before releasing two books.

During the height of her fame, Clemmie also appeared on This Morning where she shared her pregnancy and labour advice with viewers.

Speaking to Grazia in 2021, Candice Brathwaite said it had been 'painful' reading the posts on Tattle.

Describing how it was a 'knock to her confidence', the mother-of-two explained: 'I step into this arena as a minority, you know. I wasnt called chubby, I wasnt called ugly, I was spoken about based on something I cannot change. That was a bitter pill to swallow.'

MailOnline has contacted Clemmie for comment.
Posting a video they advised commuters just to 'keep running' for their bus

Public transport is notoriously irritating, either you wait a long time for it to turn up or you've just missed it.

One London bus driver however, has shared some sage advice for commuters when trying to catch the bus.

Posting a hilariously savage top tip on TikTok, the driver known as @model_icandi, told Londoners exactly what they needed to do to make the bus wait for them.

She explained that if the driver is waiting for you and you start running, then you must not stop or else they will close the doors and drive off because it looks like you're 'changed your mind'.

A London bus driver has taken to TikTok to share a top tip for commuters when they are trying to catch a bus

'Top tip of the day, if you are down the road and you want a bus, especially a London bus, and that bus driver is waiting for you, don't stop running.

'Keep running for your bus.'

She ended by warning that if you hesitate: 'They will close the doors and go.'

While this may seen simple if harsh it does sound like reasonable advice because that bus driver has decided to wait for you.

One commenter agreed, saying that if you stop, you're sending the message that you don't need the bus anymore.

'It's giving, "I'm not interested". It's giving "I changed my mind",' they wrote.

Model_icandi replied: 'Definitelyyyyyyyyyyyyy. Its giving, "Oh I thought it was the 159 but it's the 59.'

If slightly savage the driver told people to keep on running if they notice that a bus driver has decided to wait for them, otherwise they will close the doors and drive off

The video has already racked up over 1,200 views and users have been quick to share their opinions and experiences.

One follower from Milton Keynes said: 'in Milton Keynes even if you're running like Mo Farrah they look at you through the mirror as they drive off. fs even cut up traffic to do it as well'

Others however agreed and one person posted: '100% keep running especially if you going skl and forgot your oyster'

While another exclaimed: 'I mustve legged it for my bus the other day for the driver to just isolate the bus as soon as I jump on.'

And a fourth added: 'Ah lie wicked drivers'

The video has racked up over 1,200 views and users have commented to share their thoughts, with some remaining unconvinced that drivers will actually wait for them

Buses if you can catch them are a great way to travel and this advice comes after a woman pledged to travel from the south of England to Scotland by buses last month.

Emily Turner, a writer and podcast host from London, has documented her travels from her home city of London to Edinburgh on Twitter, where thousands of people have followed her journey.

She revealed her mission to travel between the two cities would take three days, involve 16 buses - all of which had to be part of the 2 local government bus programme.

Taking to Twitter to discuss the journey, Emily revealed that she was planning to spend no more than 35 in total on buses, and added that she had pre-booked a train to travel home from Edinburgh on Sunday night. She also noted that she loves buses, and has wanted to undertake such travels 'for years'.

Before even stepping foot on her first bus, the writer and host of the Roundel Round We Go podcast, about the London Underground, starting gaining followers who were keen to follow her almost 400-mile trek.
Princess Diana's nieces Lady Amelia and Eliza Spencer have shared a behind-the-scenes glimpse of their time in Milan for fashion week.

The 29-year-old society beauties are following in the footsteps of their older sister, Lady Kitty Spencer, who has forged a career in modelling after becoming a firm fixture on the London social scene.

The twins have been seen making a string of appearances during fashion month in various cities.

Amelia and Eliza, who are both signed to Storm Model Management, both posted snaps as they enjoyed a dinner in Italy and posed with designers in glamorous outfits.

The sisters, who often coordinate their outfits but chose completely different looks for the occasion, posed for a few snaps with Andrea Santoni, the founder of Italian shoe brand Santoni.

Princess Diana's nieces Lady Amelia and Eliza Spencer have shared a behind-the-scenes glimpse of their time in Milan for fashion week

The sisters shared a host of snaps on Instagram as they lapped up the Italian city during the fashion week

Lady Amelia opted for a smart scarlet oversized suit with glittering bronze heels, while Lady Eliza donned a black bodycon floor length dress with yellow heels.

While the sisters didn't coordinate their outfits, they did wear their hair in an identical style, sweeping their blonde locks into a sleek ponytail.

Earlier this month, the twins made their modelling debut at London Fashion Week.

Amelia and her twin sister strutted on the Josh Birch Jones Catwalk at the CityWide Celebration show.

The beauty's dazzled in show stopping floor length gowns and they oozed confidence walking the runway.

Josh Birch Jones, the youngest ever member of the British Fashion Council, unveiled his Autumn Winter 2023 collection at Dartmouth House.

Lady Amelia looked incredible in a emerald green one shoulder sequin dress which featured a side split.

Her ensemble was completed with silver strappy heels and her blonde locks were swept back into a low bun.

The twins, who often coordinate their outfits, opted for different ensembles for the event in Milan this week

The two sisters appeared to sit down to enjoy a lavish dinner with the designer after they posed for snaps

The models glam makeup enhanced her flawless complexion and was completed with a smokey eye shadow look.

Lady Eliza wowed in a floor length caped black gown which was embellished in colourful rhinestones.

The royals blonde locks were also swept back off her face in a low ponytail and her glam makeup complimented her dewy complexion.

The sisters grew up with their father and mother Victoria Aitken in Constantia but spent significant time in the UK after their parents split and Charles moved back to the family's seat, Althorp.

They have two half-sisters and half-brother from their father's second and third marriages, and half-brother from their mother's second marriage.

Lady Amelia (right) and Lady Eliza (left) wowed in semi sheer ensembles at Milan Fashion Week last week

The twins changed for the Alberta Ferretti fashion show, with Eliza donning a stylish aquamarine catsuit, while her sister wore an elegant white trouser suit

In 2021, the pair were hailed by society bible Tatler as among the hottest and most elegant socialite siblings from across the world who are used to moving in the same circles as supermodels, aristocrats and royals.

They were ranked among others as one of the most glamorous sets of twins on the elite social scene.

The sisters have an unbreakable bond as twins, with Lady Amelia telling Tatler she and Lady Eliza have always been close and are 'very similar'.

'We love doing the same things and share the same friends,' she said. 'You're guaranteed to have a best friend there always  you can't really compare it to anything else.'
A nursery worker has revealed the common things parents say when they drop their children off and what they really mean - including trying to disguise illness as teething.

Louisa Anne Stokes, 28, from London shared a clip on TikTok where she poked fun at parents for their irritating remarks.

Under the username @loula_94x, the nanny and nursery worker explained how she can spot when a parent is fibbing a mile away.

Louisa acted out the things that parents have previously said to her when dropping their child off for the day.

Nursery worker Louisa Anne Stokes, 28, has revealed what parents always say. Posting on TikTok, she shared a clip of how she wishes she could respond

She also slipped in how she would love to respond to them if given the chance.

Louisa revealed that she can tell when a child is secretly sick because parents will often say: 'Just wanted to let you know, they've had an upset tummy all night, um, and they've had a really high temperature.

'It's just teething, just teething, nothing else.'

To which the 28-year-old would love respond with: 'Your child's four... they're not teething. Please take them home so they don't spread it round.'

Louisa acted out the things that parents have previously said to her when dropping their child off for the day

Next Louisa addressed when parents allow their children to bring their valuables to nursery.

Acting out a typical conversation she said parents say: 'Hi, I'm just dropping them off.

'They do have their only teddy that they will only sleep with at night... don't lose it because if you lose it, they won't be able to sleep ever again.'

Louisa wished she could respond: 'Please stop bringing valuables into nursery.

'There's 40 children in this class. The teddy's not coming home with you.'

Then she acted out how some parents will send their children to nursery in their best and most expensive clothes.

She said: 'So, um, I'm just dropping off Delilah. She's got an all-white Gucci set on.

Louisa addressed when parents allow their children to bring their valuables to nursery. Acting out a typical conversation

'She cannot get any dirt on it because this outfit cost more than your wages.'

The nursery worker said she would love to reply: 'We have paints and pens and crayons and dirt and sand. Take the outfit off.'

Finally, the most irritating of all is when it comes to potty training and parents don't pack enough spare underwear.

Louisa acted out the parent and said: 'So I thought we could potty train. I've put one pair of pants in their tray, there's no spare clothes.'

Looking awkward Louisa would like to respond with: 'No accidents. No accidents on their first day of potty training.'

Louisa hilariously honest video clearly resonated with many and racked up a huge 57,400 views and more than 5,000 likes.

Many other nursery workers loved Louisa's clip and were quick to share their support and stories.

Many other nursery workers loved Louisa's clip and were quick to share their support and stories, with one describing how a child outed his parents

One said: 'Public announcement to all parents: we can smell the calpol you gave your child this morning'

Another shared: 'i had a boy have diarrhoea and when we ohone mum she came and said to us yh well its fine hes had diarrhoea for 3 days already so its fine he can stay'

A third agreed with Louisa and posted: 'Yes yes yes yes !!! This is the truth X'

And a fourth explained: 'we had a boy be sick then go "I was sick when I was having my breakfast" fully outed his parents'

However, for just as many nursery workers loving the clip, there were just as many parents on the defensive.

However, for just as many nursery workers loving the clip, there were just as many parents on the defensive with one explaining how she has put her baby's name on their teddy

Someone tried to argue: 'You still have to pay for your childs nursery days even if theyre off sick'

Another explained: 'Sorry to jump on but my son is four and he is 100% teething lol. His back molars have legit just came through'

A fourth added: 'I only take a teddy in for my baby because it smells like home and the nursery suggested it as long as it has a name on.'
Sometimes I wonder if I could sue for having been at the receiving end of misleading information in my teens.

Back then, I was assured by magazines and movies, books and friends that I'd know 'true love' when I encountered it.

I thought that my heart would beat faster, skies would clear to blue, I'd dance down high streets without getting run over by traffic and the whole wide world would start looking surprisingly like a rom-com set. Forty years down the line, 20 of them in comfortable cohabitation with the father of our two kids, and it's Yeats to whom I look for a quieter kind of romantic wisdom.

I'm now 'old and grey and nodding by the fire'. He wisely wrote that true love is not about fleeting beauty, but rather the soul, its sorrows and even a partner's 'changing face'. I am in step with Emma Thompson for claiming we must take the notion of romantic love 'with a massive pinch of salt'. The Oscar winner, 63, who has been married to actor Greg Wise for 20 years, says: 'Long-term relationships are hugely difficult and complicated. If anyone thinks that happy-ever-after has a place in our lives, forget it.' She means that fuzzy fairy tale so many fall into blindly, and I agree.

For two decades, I penned an agony column where the words 'soulmate' would appear in every second missive, and I would frequently start my reply with the crushing assertion that I don't believe in soulmates.

Mariella Frostrup: Anyone can meet a stranger in a bar and feel a palpitation, but holding that same hand 40 years on and marvelling at how much you've survived together is, for me, the definition of true love

I think the hardest job we have is to translate early lust, physical and mental, into lasting love  this is something far less instinctive but it is what cements you together and carries you through the trials and tribulations of life.

What I believe in is choice, chemistry and then loyalty, forgiveness, tolerance, kindness, respect and the ability to step beyond your own desires in order to fulfil someone else's. Last week, I was widely mocked for admitting that I schedule sex, as advised by a wise therapist friend who told me that making intimacy a regular date may sound 'unromantic' but is far better than hoping for spontaneity to propel you when familiarity sets in. What author Caitlin Moran describes in her unique vernacular as the 'maintenance 's**g'.

I won't apologise or feel embarrassed to admit that's how I stop the physical side of my marriage from falling by the wayside.

It's a perfect example of the difference between romanticising a relationship by expecting desire to remain fixed and constant, or electing to work on desire that fluctuates, because you love someone.

Of course, we all need the memories and remnants of early lust to draw on when those primitive desires seem out of reach, but we also need the self-discipline to accept our choices and make the best of them, not look constantly to greener pastures. Real love changes shape and form over years together, and sometimes needs a helping hand to get it back on track, while romantic love, left to its own devices, just fizzles out and leaves us empty-handed.

Despite the assertion that the best things in life are free, I beg to disagree. The best things in life are the things you earn for your efforts, and top of that list is a good relationship.

Anyone can meet a stranger in a bar and feel a palpitation, but holding that same hand 40 years on and marvelling at how much you've survived together is, for me, the definition of true love. That is no accident.

TRUE ROMANCE DOESN'T WITHER  IT'S IMMORTAL

Lady Antonia Fraser, 90, best known for her historical biographies, has been married twice and has six children. She lives in London.

Towards the end of a dinner party to celebrate the opening of a new Harold Pinter play, I was disappointed not to sit next to the playwright himself.

He looked full of energy, with black curly hair and pointed ears like a satyr.

Before I left, I went over to him. 'Wonderful play, marvellous acting, now I'm off.'

He looked at me with his amazing, extremely bright black eyes. 'Must you go?' he said.

Lady Antonia Fraser, 90, best known for her historical biographies, has been married twice and has six children. She lives in London

It was January 1975 and I was married with six children. I thought of home, taking the children to school the next morning, doing the supermarket shop

'No, it's not absolutely essential,' I said.

Now, nearly 50 years on, I consider this the supreme romantic moment of my life. We were the last guests to leave at 2.30am when Harold, also married with a child, gave me a lift home.

I offered him coffee. I actually gave him champagne.

He stayed until 6am with extraordinary recklessness, but of course the real recklessness was mine.

The wedding of Harold Pinter and Lady Antonia Fraser at Kensington Register Office Harold Pinter and Lady Antonia Fraser

We embarked on an affair that resulted in 33 happy years together  28 of them married.

The romance never wavered.

When we first moved in together, he filled the house with flowers: arrangements in the hallway, the drawing room, his study, my study and the bedroom.

Throughout our relationship, he wrote me poems on yellow notepaper and I have kept them all.

After Harold's death in 2008, I was touched to find in his desk almost every note or message I had written him over our married life.

So, as much as I admire Emma Thompson, I do not agree with her that 'romantic love is a myth'.

Neither do I believe that romantic love necessarily withers, replaced by the humdrum reality of married life.

I have always been intensely romantic  since early childhood. The trouble with romantics is that they tend to gravitate towards other like-minded people in the end.

My first husband, Tory MP Hugh Fraser, was dashing rather than romantic.

I was 23 when we met at a New Year's ball and he was wearing a kilt. (Now a kilt is a very romantic thing.)

I admired his cavalier nature, his high spirits, his essential decency and kindness.

I even admired his detachment, although his lack of emotional intimacy  he once told me he preferred families to individuals  was with hindsight probably what doomed us.

I was happy in our marriage. We went on to have six children (I now have 20 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren)  but I suppose, deep down, I had always been looking for romance.

The magnetism between Harold and me was just that. Far from diminishing over time, I believe romantic love is immortal.

I STORMED OUT IN ROWS  BUT COULDN'T STAY ANGRY FOR LONG

BARBARA TAYLOR BRADFORD OBE, 89, best-selling novelist, was married to her film producer husband, Bob, for 56 years until his death in 2019. She lives in New York.

I don't agree that there is no such thing as romantic love. But, being fair, I think we can also call it instant sexual attraction.

Two people see each other across a room, they want to get to each other as quickly as possible, they meet, make a date or even leave together. Finally, they end up where they want to be: in bed together.

BARBARA TAYLOR BRADFORD OBE, 89, best-selling novelist, was married to her film producer husband, Bob, for 56 years until his death in 2019. She lives in New York

The magnetism between Harold Pinter and me was true romance. Far from diminishing over time, it never wavered - Lady Antonia Fraser

It's afterwards that the tricky part starts. They get to know each other, discover if they are compatible and, if not, eventually part. If someone is lucky, as I was with my husband Robert Bradford, then romantic love grows into a genuine abiding love.

We met on a blind date in London in 1961, and I was instantly smitten with this handsome, extremely charming man.

We were married for 56 years and it was a wonderful marriage. We shared our dreams, our ambitions, I helped him every way I could with his career as a movie producer and he managed my career, turning me into the big-name writer that I am today.

PODCAST PICK: THE BEST AUDIO SHOW TO LISTEN TO NOW Ruthies Table 4 Baroness Ruth Rogers, or Ruthie, co-founded Italian restaurant the River Cafe in London in 1987. Now she invites you to join her and a famous guest at Table 4 as they share their memories of food. Guests share hilarious stories such as Victoria Beckham reflecting on what the Spice Girls ate during their heyday and Dame Judi Denchs admission that she bunked off school to avoid eating Yorkshire puddings and treacle. Advertisement

If you're with a man who pleases you, who loves you, who takes care of you, who listens to you, then that's a great bonus in your life. It was in mine.

Mind you, we had our disagreements, and we each sometimes stormed out of the room alone. But pretty soon I always thought, 'Oh what the hell, it doesn't really matter', and I'd return to the room and talk to him normally. Bob did the same. That's the power of love.

If you meet a man who fulfils so many other desires in you, you don't really miss the romantic love which brought you together in the first place.

When Bob died suddenly and unexpectedly in 2019, I was devastated. I have realised over these last few years how much he loved me, how much I loved him.

He was my best friend, my champion, my guiding light in my career, the husband who never missed an anniversary, who came home with gifts of jewellery, flowers, a book he knew I wanted to read. Beautiful expressions of romantic love that still lingered 58 years since our eyes first met and he walked across the room to sit next to me.

Barbara Taylor Bradford's A Man Of Honour (HarperCollins) is out now.

I'VE NEVER FELT ROMANTIC ABOUT MY HUSBAND

JULIE BURCHILL, 63, columnist and author, has been married three times and lives in Brighton.

I can't bear Emma Thompson  but I do find her useful as a kind of 'contra-barometer'. Whenever I'm not absolutely certain what I think about an issue (admittedly pretty rare) I Google her opinion and, sure enough, my own thoughts instantly crystallise as the polar opposite of what she believes.

So I was slightly unsettled to find myself nodding at her assertion that 'romantic love is a myth'. Because I'm not a romantic person at all; I've never believed in The One, more The Queue  you work your way through the people you fancy for as long as you're attractive enough to get them, and, when the music stops, you stick with the one you're with.

JULIE BURCHILL, (pictured) 63, columnist and author, has been married three times and lives in Brighton

I've never married for romantic love, either; my first husband was my best mate but the sex was dull (five years), my second husband was great in bed but too pessimistic to make a great partner (ten years) and with my third husband (a whopping quarter of a century), I've been fortunate enough to experience the best of both lust and friendship.

But it's never been romantic with Dan  I associate romance with soppiness, and neither of us is soppy.

Of course, familiarity is the enemy of excitement, but if you're lucky, friendship and lust can change into something far better than soppy old romance anyway.

If I think of a couple who 'work', the Prince and Princess of Wales come to mind. There's something attractively brisk about them. In public, they rarely touch  unlike the ghastly Sussexes, high on their own supply of amour fou.

I can't help suspecting that Thompson's bossy finger-wagging is a case-specific issue. I do believe that 'normal' people can experience romantic love that turns into lifelong devotion.

But in general, the idea of romance always gave me what youngsters call The Ick; I never day-dreamed of getting married as a girl, but of getting divorced. I was such a strange, sophisticated adolescent that my parents' devoted marriage and indeed the very stability of my home life made me feel suffocated  I wanted to live a tempestuous, torrid life, like the women I read about in my favourite book, Valley Of The Dolls. And, to some extent, I did.

So for professional show-offs such as Emma and me, yes, lasting romantic love may well be an impossible dream  because what mere mortal can ever compete with the fascinating creature in the looking glass?

ROMANCE IS TAKING THE RUBBISH OUT EVERY THURSDAY

AUTHOR Jessica Fellowes, 48, lives with her husband Simon, 64, and their 12-year-old son in Oxfordshire.

If you'd asked me in my 20s, I'd have said Emma Thompson sounded like an embittered older woman.

Romantic love, or the quest for it, was a pretty major occupation for me at the time.

But now in my 40s, and having been with my husband for 18 years, I feel rather more pragmatic. Those dizzying endorphins of early romantic love are necessary to bring two people together, but they overpower rational thoughts. Romantic love is dangerous when it is given transcendent qualities: 'He/she makes me feel like this, ergo they must be The One!'

AUTHOR Jessica Fellowes, 48, lives with her husband Simon, 64, and their 12-year-old son in Oxfordshire

This is when we see friends skip off down the road with someone completely unsuitable, and all we can do is wait for them to come back, hearts broken.

Experience has taught me that a romantic spark can be felt with any number of people. Often it comes down to timing. 'Forget Mr Right,' said Ruby Wax. 'Where's Mr Right Now?'

When I met my husband, there was giddiness and romance, sitting up into the night talking, planning a life together.

There were lots of reasons for us not to get together, too: he'd been married before, there were children, and, at 31, I felt too young for the situation.

We broke up a few times  those rational thoughts getting in the way  but in the end, romance won out.

Yet we also recognised in each other a fundamental kindness and seriousness to commit and make it work.

It has been, I believe, those qualities that have kept us going, more than romantic affinity.

That's not to say romance isn't part of it. It's just that romance is shown in small, kind gestures: by taking the rubbish out every Thursday, or bringing cups of tea to bed with the papers. I buy my own flowers, put it that way.

But seeing my husband means I'm home, and for me, that's the most romantic feeling of all.

TEN YEARS ALONE, I MAKE ROMANTIC GESTURES TO MYSELF

VERONICA HENRY, 59, is divorced with three grown-up sons and lives on the North Devon coast with her miniature Schnauzer, Zelda.

The irony of being a romantic novelist who has been single for nearly ten years  no, not even a quick fling  is not wasted on me. How can I possibly write about happy endings if I don't have any romance in my own life?

But the truth is, I am probably the most romantic person I know  it's just that at 59 I no longer pin the notion on having an 'other half'.

VERONICA HENRY, 59, is divorced with three grown-up sons and lives on the North Devon coast with her miniature Schnauzer, Zelda

I certainly don't think romantic love is a dangerous myth. So many wonderful, creative things are inspired by the search for romantic love  books, films, music, fashion. And the downside has a huge impact, too.

Think of all the break-up songs, the make-up songs.

True, there's nothing like the dopamine hit of falling head over heels, but that intoxicating cocktail isn't always sustainable. Sometimes you have to accept the magic is gone, and you are better off apart. If that does happen, all is not lost. These days, I recognise that the most important love of all is love of yourself.

Without that, nothing works, but it's up to you to make yourself feel loved by spoiling yourself from time to time.

That's why these days I make grand romantic gestures to myself. I buy myself flowers, or indulge with a steamy bubble bath and fresh bed linen  I don't care if I'm sliding between the sheets on my own, I still wallow in the luxury.
The two things that scare me most about going to the U.S.? Guns  and tipping. When I went to New York in December, every interaction was grimly transactional, from the man who handed me a trolley at the airport to the cab driver who got very lost trying to find my hotel.

Then, when I went down to the cool, street-level cafe of said hotel, I was asked to load a 20 per cent tip when I tapped to pay for a takeaway americano. I hadnt even sat down!

I refused and the hot beverage was delivered with icy rage. Fine by me. It was my small protest against being guilt-tripped at every turn  the custom that makes daily life in the U.S. an anxious minefield of microaggressions. Or even macro.

I remember being chased down Fifth Avenue by a waiter shouting: why had we left only a 20 per cent tip?

Problem is, what happens in America doesnt stay in America.

When staying at a smart hotel, slip the concierge a big fat note or two as you arrive, never as you leave, whisper your name, and let the good times roll (File image: A tip jar)

The clammy-making culture of adding a large gratuity on top of something that youve already paid for has now arrived on our shores  in a new and particularly insidious form.

Several online retailers who use the Shopify payment system have introduced the option to add a chunky tip on top of your basket total at checkout.

Online boutiques Verry Kerry (high-end kimonos) and Saint and Sofia (womenswear), and Kewbz (games and puzzles) all offer lucky punters the option to show their support for the team.

Nestled between address and delivery choices, these neat tick boxes, starting at 5 per cent and going up to a whopping 20 per cent (with calculated totals beside each one), make tipping seem like a natural addition to the purchasing process. Theres even a button where you can enter a custom amount to show you really, really care.

Casually browsing on Saint and Sofia, I add a pair of dinky suede ankle boots to my basket, but baulk when the sizeable 244 price tag jumps by 48.80 if I plump for a 20 per cent thank you, internet tip. Are they mad?

At this point, I just want to stress I have a horror of meanness. Its up there with being rude to waiters as a toxic tell of being badly brought up.

When I went to New York in December, every interaction was grimly transactional, from the man who handed me a trolley at the airport to the cab driver who got very lost trying to find my hotel (Stock image: 20 notes being squeezed by a tape measure)

I have an automatic tip added to my Deliveroo account and I always tip after hair and nail appointments. But there is a difference between a gratuity to show gratitude for really good service and the U.S. beast of tipping.

There, employers have long expected customers to pay their workers wages direct, as many are paid so poorly they almost live on tips alone. In 16 states, the minimum pay for an employee on a tipped wage is a mere $2.13 (1.75) per hour. In the UK, the minimum living wage for over-23s is 9.50 but many rely on government benefits to survive. Both here and in the U.S. then, we have systems that subsidise businesses to underpay their staff.

A pointless tip on your online order doesnt help the team; it simply encourages bosses not to pay their staff properly. I think we should resist it.

The reason I love all-inclusive resorts and used to take my kids to Beaches in Jamaica was because you were not allowed to tip. So you could really relax, especially when we were leaving.

In Japan, if you leave a tip, they come running down the street after you . . . to return the money they think youve forgotten.

Its fine for Screwfix to ask if I want to round up my payment for a micro-donation to charity. But I resent being asked to pay more online as a test of my generosity to strangers, whove shown me no great personal service.

I hope this doesnt become ingrained in our culture but I worry weve passed the tipping point (sorry) already.

Finally, Ill leave you with a tip the writer Giles Coren learnt from his father Alan. When staying at a smart hotel, slip the concierge a big fat note or two as you arrive, never as you leave, whisper your name, and let the good times roll.

My husband tried it once in Cartagena, Colombia, and the concierge said, I can provide anything  and I mean ANYTHING  you need, sir. Hmm.
Crown Princess mette-marit of Norway put on a glamorous display this evening as she attended a lavish reception in London.

Mette-Marit, 49, donned a shimmering navy gown to join her husband, Crown Prince Haakon, also 49, at the Norway Night networking reception at Lindley Hall in Britain's capital.

Proving to be the Queen of colour coordinating, the mother-of-three teamed her dazzling dress with navy heels and a matching clutch bag.

Featuring a drop hem and ruffled three-quarter sleeves, the fashionable maxi dress boasted statement shoulder padding.

Looking effortlessly elegant, Mette-Marit completed her look with a smattering of glamorous makeup, while keeping her curly hair down.

Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway put on a glamorous display this evening as she attended a lavish reception in London with her husband Prince Haakon (pictured together)

Mette-Marit, 49, donned a shimmering navy gown to join her husband, Crown Prince Haakon, also 49, at the Norway Night networking reception at Lindley Hall in Britain's capital

Letting her statement gown do all the talking, the princess opted to forgo any glittering accessories for her outing tonight.

Her husband Haakon, who is heir to the Norwegian throne, looked equally sophisticated in a navy suit and pink tie.

The royal couple were pictured on stage during the reception, each holding notes thought to be for delivering a speech.

Mette-Marit donned a pair of silver-framed glasses when joining her husband on stage.

The couple's visit aims to promote an increased business sector with a focus on green industrial transition, innovation and energy alongside a promotion of Norwegian literature and music.

Proving to be the Queen of colour coordinating, the mother-of-three teamed her dazzling dress with navy heels and a matching clutch bag

Featuring a drop hem and ruffled three-quarter sleeves, the fashionable maxi dress boasted statement shoulder padding

Looking effortlessly elegant, Mette-Marit completed her look with a smattering of glamorous makeup, while keeping her curly hair down

Letting her statement gown do all the talking, the princess opted to forgo any glittering accessories for her outing tonight

Haakon is heir apparent to the throne of Norway. Despite being older, his sister Princess Martha Louise of Norway is fourth in line to the throne due to Norway's succession rules.

Mette-Marit was born a commoner, to farmers in Norway and was a single mother by the time of her engagement to Crown Prince Haakon in 2000.

She became Crown Princess after the couple's marriage in 2001. Mette Marit has spent her reign championing humanitarian projects while joining official visits.

Her first official appearance was at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony at Oslo City Hall on December 10, 2000, following the announcement of the couple's engagement on December 1.

Her husband Haakon, who is heir to the Norwegian throne, looked equally sophisticated in a navy suit and pink tie
A hair stylist from Sydney dubbed the 'Aussie Rapunzel' thanks to her metre-long hair has shared her simple solution for banishing oily roots and dandruff, and it promises to leave you with sleek and shiny locks for days.

The 23-year-old, who is called Sophie but goes by the name the 'Aussie Rapunzel', said once a week she dilutes half a cup of apple cider vinegar in 1.5 litres of water.

She then puts this in a spray bottle and sprays it all over the top of her hair, concentrating on her roots and scalp before washing her hair as normal.

Scroll down for video

A hair stylist from Sydney dubbed the 'Aussie Rapunzel' thanks to her metre-long hair has shared her simple solution for banishing oily roots and dandruff (Sophie pictured)

Sophie said you simply need to mix half a cup of apple cider vinegar with 1.5 litres of water and then spray it through your hair, before leaving for 10 minutes and washing off (pictured)

Sophie wrote on Instagram: 'Mix half a cup of apple cider vinegar with 1.5 litres of water.

'Apple cider vinegar balances the pH level of your scalp and acts as a clarifying agent to remove product buildup and oils leaving you with super shiny, glossy hair'.

She added: 'Doing this will contribute to the overall health and shine of your hair.

'I sprayed it onto my roots and ends and left it on for 10 minutes before washing my hair as normal. Try this next time you wash your hair and thank me later'.

Hundreds who saw Sophie's post were quick to comment and said they'd try it themselves.

'I tried this and it's absolutely amazing,' one person wrote.

'Omg this is unreal. So bright,' another added.

A third wrote: 'Saving. Definitely trying this'.

Previously, Sophie (pictured) shared the three secrets that help keep her metre-long hair looking thicker, including switching hairbrush, applying oil to the ends of your hair and at-home head massages

Previously, Sophie shared the three secrets that help keep her metre-long hair looking thicker.

The first thing she said she did was she switched her hairbrush in order to 'eliminate as much breakage as possible'.

'I switched from a thick, styling brush to a thin, bristle brush,' Sophie said.

She favours Tangle Teezer's Wet Brush ($25.50), which can be used on both wet and dry hair.

The next thing the 23-year-old did was apply oil to the ends of her hair whenever she brushed it.

'That way your hair is hydrated and it will glide over any knots and eliminate hair pull and breakage,' Sophie said.

Finally, the Aussie Rapunzel indulges in regular at-home head massages as this not only contributes to hair growth, but it also helps with hair regrowth, which is 'really important when you want to make your hair thicker and fuller'.
An Aussie fitness guru has impressed her fans with low-carb, high-protein wraps which only require one ingredient to make.

Amy Lee, from Melbourne, spent about $1.50 to put the recipe together, using just one cup of red lentils to make three homemade wraps.

The cookbook author mixed raw lentils with water, soaked them together for three hours then blended the mix to make a simple batter and cooked it on a pan.

She said the gluten-free dish is the perfect recipe to prepare at the beginning of the week as the wraps can be stored in the fridge or freezer and used as part of a meal prep plan.

Lentils have been dubbed an 'accessible superfood' due to their range of health benefits, low cost and wide availability.

Aussie fitness guru Amy Lee has impressed her fans with low-carb, high-protein wraps which only requires one pantry ingredient to make

The cookbook author mixed raw lentils with water, soaked them together for three hours then blended the mix to make a simple batter and cooked it on a pan. She made three wraps from the mixture and filled them with a variety of toppings, including salmon, chickpeas, sweet potato, cucumber, tofu and salad

'You need these delicious one-ingredient wraps. They're high-protein, gluten free and low-calorie,' Amy said.

She instructed her followers to add one cup of raw lentils to a blender with two cups of water and soak the combination for three hours.

When the three hours is up, the ingredients should blend together easily to make a smooth batter.

The foodie said a thin layer of batter should then be poured onto a pan and cooked for a few minutes on each side.

She made three wraps from the mixture and filled them with a variety of toppings, including salmon, chickpeas, sweet potato, cucumber, tofu and salad.

Amy endorses a 'sustainable approach to eating more wholefoods', and often shares healthy and tasty treats and recipe that are high-protein, sugar-free and full of superfoods.

She said lentils make a great ingredient because they are budget-friendly, usually costing around $5 per kilogram.

Research suggests the protein-rich ingredient can reduce the risk of cancer, heart-disease and diabetes, improve heart health, aid digestion and manage blood-sugar levels.

The fitness star said any type of lentil can be used for the recipe, and those who want added nutrients can add extra veggies such as spinach.

Recipe: One-ingredient wraps 1. Add one cup of raw lentils to a blender with two cups of water and soak them together for three hours 2. When the three hours is up, blend the ingredients together to make a smooth batter 3. Pour a thin layer of batter onto a pan and cook for a few minutes on each side 4. Fill the wraps with any ingredients you like 5. Store them in the fridge or freezer (Source: amyleeactive) Advertisement

'I have made them several times with different colour lentils such as green, yellow, sometimes I throw in extra spinach for more vitamins,' she said.

She explained the wraps have a 'mild nutty flavour from the lentils', but you can add seasonings like salt and garlic powder for extra flavour.

'You can fill these wraps with any savoury or sweet toppings that you desire,' she said.

Foodies loved the budget-friendly and healthy recipe.

'Wow, will make,' one man said.

'Lentils and water? This looks great, I love wraps. Definitely want to try,' another wrote.
Courteney Cox has responded to a viral story from Prince Harry's recently published memoir, 'Spare.'

In 2016, the Duke of Sussex "gobbled" magic mushrooms at the house of the 'Friends' star, according to the tell-all book.

Courtney Cox Reacts to Prince Harry's Memoir Claims

In a fresh interview with Variety before her induction onto the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Monday, Courtney Cox stated that the prince remained at her house but disputed that he "passed out" after using psychedelics.

"I'm not saying there were mushrooms! I definitely wasn't passing them out," as per Cox.

Per The Independent, Prince Harry stated in Spare that he was invited to stay at Cox's residence by a friend of a friend who first indicated the actor was unavailable.

Prince Harry then recounted visiting Will Arnett at her home, who indulged him in doing "the voice" from The Lego Batman Movie, in which he stars.

Courteney Cox remembered that Prince Harry stayed with her for a "few days" following the Duke of Sussex's claim that he used magic mushrooms at her residence. The 38-year-old royal father of two stated in his explosive memoir Spare that after consuming magic mushrooms, he hallucinated that a trash can was speaking to him.

Prince Harry stated that while staying at the actress' residence, he spotted a box of mushroom chocolates in the refrigerator and chose to eat them before consuming tequila. She said, "I have not read the book. According to what I have heard, it is rather entertaining. Nonetheless, I have been contacted about it."

After staying with his buddy Thomas's girlfriend, the group "moved for whatever reason" and ended up at Courteney Cox's home, who was a friend of the girlfriend and "had more room." Yet, he stated that Courteney Cox suddenly "appeared" and began "inviting people over" for a party. The exploits of the Duke as a "party prince" have been widely documented throughout the years, as per Daily Mail.

Appearing on American actor Dax Shepard's podcast in 2021, Prince Harry smiled as he recounted his notorious Las Vegas party trip, during which images of him in his underwear were released to the media.

During a game of strip billiards in his VIP room, he was seen wearing only a necklace as a nude woman crouched behind him during a wild weekend in Las Vegas in 2012. The Duke is scheduled to meet with a Hungarian-Canadian physician who was previously threatened with arrest for using a "spiritual" psychedelic substance to treat patients to explore Courteney Cox's discovery.

Read Also: Madonna's Brother Antohy Ciccone Cause of Death

Prince Harry's Recovery

On Saturday, Gabor Mate will join Prince Harry to discuss "living with loss, and the significance of personal healing," followed by a live Q&A. Prince Harry's selection of Dr. Mate to assist with the promotion of his memoir is more evidence of his interest in therapeutic recovery; he has previously described his experience with therapy.

The event, organized with Prince Harry's publishers Penguin Random House, will occur on Saturday, March 4, at 5 p.m. It comes at a difficult moment for the Sussexes, whose reputation in the United States has plummeted since the publication of Spare a month ago, and who must now decide whether to attend Charles' coronation.

According to a study by Redfield & Wilton for Newsweek, Prince Harry's popularity has decreased by 48 points and Meghan's by 40, giving them net approval scores of -10 and -17, respectively.

While Prince Andrew is still seen badly following the settlement of his New York civil suit against his sex accuser Virginia Roberts outside of court, his net approval rating is -2, with 26% of Americans approving of him and 28% disapproving.

Related Article: Camilla Parker Bowles To Officially Be 'Queen'

@YouTube

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
She dubbed this as 'wild' and 'absolutely nuts'

Brooklynn said some venues don't have their own bathrooms

Canadian expat was surprised by the Aussie cafe bathrooms she's seen

A Canadian expat has shared two 'wild quirks' about Australia she's noticed since moving Down Under.

When dining out at a cafe, Brooklynn, who's living in Brisbane, noticed some venues don't have their own bathrooms - something she finds 'absolutely nuts'.

'You go for a coffee in the morning and you have your coffee and subsequently you have to go to the bathroom,' she said.

'They may or may not have access to a bathroom in the general area, so they give you a key with a giant spoon on it.

'And then you have to walk a million miles and there might be like a shared, tiny little bathroom that's neglected and kind of dirty that you have to do your business in.'

Scroll down for video

Canadian expat Brooklynn (pictured), who's living in Brisbane, noticed some Australian cafes don't have their own bathrooms

Poll Have you ever been to an Aussie cafe that doesn't have its own a bathroom? Yes No Have you ever been to an Aussie cafe that doesn't have its own a bathroom? Yes 797 votes

No 197 votes Now share your opinion





Brooklyn said some may not consider this to be 'that big of a deal' but she personally thinks 'it's wild' and looked shocked in a TikTok video.

'Coming from Canada, that's odd,' she said.

The second thing she's noticed while exploring Down Under is how 'gorgeous' the women are.

The short clip has since been viewed more than half a million times, leaving both Aussies are other expats baffled about the bathroom comment.

'Girl which Australia are you in?? I've never eaten anywhere that does not have a toilet,' one person wrote in the comments.

Another added: 'I'm in Melbourne and I've never experienced the first problem.'

'All us Aussies have no clue what you're talking about with the bathroom thing,' a third added.

'They may or may not have access to a bathroom in the general area, so they give you a key with a giant spoon on it,' she said

On the other hand, some viewers weren't surprised after having experienced the same thing before.

'Yes the walk of shame with the giant spoon,' one person wrote.

'Fellow Canadian living in Aus! I get SO anxious knowing most cafes don't have toilets near by. One thing I find super strange as well,' another added.

Another agreed and said: 'Haha. I'm from England. Been in Australia 17 years and still not adjusted to the giant spoon and key! Any cafe with a proper toilet gets extra points.'

It follows after another Canadian living in Australia revealed the five culture shocks that 'blew her mind' and why cockroaches are the 'scariest' part of living in the country.

Last month Canadian expat Ioana (pictured) revealed the five culture shocks about Australia that 'blew her mind' and why cockroaches are the 'scariest' part of living in the country

In a video posted on TikTok, she detailed how Australia differs to what she's used to in Montreal

Ioana has lived in Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales during her time Down Under, and was surprised most by the outrageous rental prices, 'balanced' portion sizes and coffee culture.

In a video, the expat detailed how Australia differs to what she's used to in Montreal.

At the start of her three-year stint in Melbourne, Ioana was shocked when she first saw the rental prices and described Australia's housing market as 'crazy unaffordable'.

'I thought they [the prices] were monthly, um no, they're weekly,' she said.

'The base price in Melbourne is like $500, $600, $700 a week. It's insane and that blew my mind,' she continued.

'I'm from Montreal where sometimes you could get places as low as $600 a month.'

Currently Ioana lives on the Gold Coast and claims rent 'isn't much cheaper' there now compared to Melbourne.

What are five culture shocks about Australia? 1. High rent prices 2. Balanced portion sizes 3. The coffee and cafe culture 4. No tipping at restaurants 5. Going barefoot 'everywhere' Source: @ioanaonthecoast/TikTok Advertisement

Next, when dining out at a cafe for brunch she noticed the portion sizes are much smaller and 'less gross' compared to the food served in Canada.

'I actually had reverse culture shock when I went back home a month ago because I had breakfast in Montreal and this is literally what they served me,' she said, sharing an image of a huge breakfast of eggs, bacon, cheese, beans and toast.

'I didn't even get the whole breakfast in the photo, it's just slathers in sauce and sugar and super disgusting. I also had four pieces of toast in the corner there. No one should be eating that much food.'

To compare, the young expat also included a second photo of an egg bagel she had for breakfast in Australia recently.

'As you can see, it's a lot more balanced,' she said.

She also described as Aussie coffee as 'some of the best coffee' she's ever had.
An Australian mum has gone from being fired at eight months pregnant not knowing what her future held to running a successful jewellery business that brings in more than $2.3million a year.

Nikki Kelly, from Brisbane, has sold more than 45,000 handmade jewellery pieces through her business Kellective by Nikki in six years.

The mum-of-three told Kidspot she started the accessory brand after she was made redundant from her corporate job when she was 35 weeks pregnant with her first child.

Nikki had to abandon her plans for a blissful maternity leave and come up with a plan for how she and her husband, Scott, were going to deal with living on one income with a newborn.

From the stress, Kellective by Nikki was born and the mum started hand making simple, delicate jewellery from home which has since turned into a multimillion-dollar company.

Brisbane mum Nikki Kelly (pictured) has built a multimillion-dollar jewellery empire after she was fired from her job at 35 weeks pregnant

Nikki has sold more than 45,000 handmade jewellery pieces through her business Kellective by Nikki in just six years

Just weeks before Nikki was set to go on nine months maternity leave from her bank job she was dealt a devastating blow.

She joked it 'wasn't a great day at work' when she was told she'd have to 'reapply for jobs in a new structure'.

Being eight months pregnant, Nikki wasn't a desirable candidate for new positions and had a 'sinking feeling' four weeks later on her last day leaving with no job to come back to.

'There was no morning tea, or good lucks my manager even asked me one day, 'Are you still here?',' she said.

'My dreams of relaxing with my new baby were on the other side of the overwhelm that I just couldn't see past.'

After spending eight years building a network at the company, Nikki feared she would have to start again from scratch all while dealing with a newborn baby.

Nikki had to abandon her plans for a blissful maternity leave when she was made redundant from her corporate job weeks before giving birth

Nikki was stressing about applying for jobs and affording day care to give her time to build a career again as, originally hailing from the UK, she had no family support in Australia.

She decided she would be a stay-at-home mum rather than dealing with the 'anxiety and guilt' of not being able to hit the ground running in a brand new job.

Coming from a 'creative family', Nikki came up with the idea of starting a jewellery business and worked out she needed to bring in $200 a week to be able to work and look after the new baby from home.

She started making key rings and worked day and night to get the business off the ground all while being a mum to a newborn.

Scott worked shift work with five days on and five days off when he was able to take the load of Nikki but she said the days he wasn't there 'never seemed to end'.

She would work around nap times and often until the wee hours of the morning to fulfil orders.

Through the stress, she came up with the idea for a jewellery brand she could run from home while looking after her new baby. She started handmaking keyrings from her kitchen table

The mum-of-three now has a second commercial studio and a team of ten staff to run Kellective by Nikki and doesn't let business get in the way of important events with her kids

In the six years since, Nikki's hard work has paid off and she is fronting a million-dollar business all with three kids under six.

'I'm a bit like a walking hurricane. Everything around me is always just chaos and I must admit, I'm addicted to that chaos. I'm so grateful for my team who work with me for their patience and understanding through it all,' she said.

Kellective by Nikki sells stunning and simple jewellery pieces for the whole family with lines for both men and kids.

There are also personalised pieces for customers to get matching jewellery adorned with their name or the name of a loved one as well as a vegan leather backpack.

Running her own business gives her the freedom to take time off for her kids without the stress of worrying about what a boss might think

Kellective by Nikki offers stunning and simple jewellery for the whole family with lines for both men and kids as well as personalised pieces and a vegan leather backpack

The business has expanded from Nikki making jewellery on her kitchen table to a home studio and now she has a second commercial studio with team of ten staff members including Scott.

Nikki said she doesn't let the business get in the way of attending important events with her kids like school morning teas, getting awards at assemblies or kindy dance recitals.

Running her own business gives her the freedom to take time off for her kids without the stress of worrying about what a boss might think.

During school holidays, Nikki and some of her team members bring their kids into the office.

She makes sure to buy things for them to play with and even gives them small jobs like putting stickers on envelopes to keep them amused during the day.

Nikki said she 'can't express' how much she values making her team feel like their family are welcome and not a burden.
A Queensland woman has recounted the terrifying moment her home was engulfed in flames after her Kmart air fryer suddenly exploded.

Lexi posted to TikTok that the appliance, which she had owned for three years, 'was not in use or turned on' at the time it caught fire.

'My partner was in the house and escaped,' Lexi said in her video.

'We have no home now, and our stuff is damaged but he's alive.'

Damage to the rental property was so bad that the couple were forced to leave just 72 hours after the incident and have been staying with friends.

Lexi, from Queensland, said her Kmart air fryer exploded when it wasn't in use and set fire to her house. She and her partner are now temporarily without a home

'My partner was in the house at the time and he did what he could to try and stop the fire and then made the call to leave and call triple-0, and thank goodness he made that decision...' she said.

'It was less than a minute before he couldn't see anything in the house and the floors were very slippery because of the ash, so you can see on the roof it's very black - that's on the whole front section of our house.

'The smoke has reached all the way back and is on every single thing, the ash is on everything in the back of the house.

'Everything is black.'

Lexi said the air fryer wasn't turned on when it suddenly exploded. Picture: TikTok @leximeiwan

@leximeiwan Replying to @Taylah Ive picked this comment because its the top one - no shade  friends im not attacking your air fryer  Im hoping you will have a refresher conversation with your fam, your housemated etc on what to do in the event of a fire.  I also now get unlimited use of that emoji. Love your homeless, shoeless friend. xx #fire #housefire  original sound - 

Lexi said she had owned the Kmart 5.3 litre air fryer, which is rated 4.9/5 stars from 133 reviews online, for several years without any issues.

'I had my air fryer for three years and nothing had happened until Thursday,' she said.

She said the incident had been an opportunity to remind and inform others of the importance of 'proper fire protocol' should there be an electrical fire in the home.

Recounting the 'trauma' she and her partner Max had endured from the accident, Lexi said he hadn't 'slept since that day'.

Lexi said she had owned the Kmart 5.3 litre air fryer, which is rated 4.9/5 stars from 133 reviews online, for several years without any issues. Picture: Kmart

She said the incident had been an opportunity to remind and inform others of the importance of 'proper fire protocol' should there be an electrical fire in the home. Picture: Kmart

Lexi said the house was left in an uninhabitable condition, forcing her and Max to leave the property within 72 hours of the traumatic event.

They have been crashing with mates since, 'relying solely on (their) friends' good nature'.

'Get out of the house, your belongings, your stuff, is not as important as you are to your loved ones,' she said.

Kmart has been selling the 5.3L air fryer since 2019 with no similar incidences reported.

Kmart has reached out to Lexi and is looking to receive the product sample to get more information.

A Kmart spokesperson said: 'At Kmart, the safety of our customers and team is our number one priority. We are taking this report extremely seriously and are looking into this customers experience with our quality team.'

'We have reached out to this customer directly so that we can begin a proper investigation and offer our support.'
A renter has been left baffled after finding a 'bizarre' gadget on the bottom of a kitchen cupboard in her new home.

The woman, from Brisbane, shared photos of the round contraption - which had two spiked blades on one side - and asked social media users to help solve the mystery.

Some offered outlandish answers, before it was revealed the object was a jar opener.

A Brisbane renter was baffled by a strange object screwed to the bottom of her kitchen cabinets in her new home before people online revealed it to e a jar opener

The opener can grab hold of any lid when wedged between the two sides. The blades provides grip and a simple twist will release the lid

'Just moved into a new place and have this stuck to the bottom of the cupboard. Does anyone know what this could be?' the woman asked in a post,

One guessed: 'Looks a like part of the turning shelf like lazy Susan and the rest went elsewhere.'

Poll Did you know what the renter's contraption was? Yes No Did you know what the renter's contraption was? Yes 216 votes

No 373 votes Now share your opinion





But several others soon confirmed the item was a jar opener.

'I've got one and works really well,' one woman said, while another called the gadget the 'best thing ever'.

The opener can grab hold of any lid of a jar or bottle when wedged between the two angled sides - whether it's factory-sealed, child-proofed or even screwed on too tightly.

The blades provides grip and a simple twist will release the lid.

It if often used by people with mobility issues, arthritis or weak hands and is designed to be fitted to the bottom of a kitchen cabinet to save bench space.
A woman who paid just 3.09 for 24 items from Morrisons that were close to their use-by dates has revealed how she was branded 'shameful' by one M&S customer.

Jo Meola, 42, from Bedford, Bedfordshire, was so impressed with the contents of her box from the UK supermarket that she rushed to share it with like-minded savvy shoppers on a budgeting Facebook page.

The food package - bought through the Too Good To Go app - is filled with products that are close to their sell-by and use-by dates.

However, while most people were impressed with Jo's haul, one woman criticised her for buying what she described as 'out of date food'.

The critic wrote: 'I wouldn't dream of sending children to school with bad food, that's asking for trouble. I'd rather go without myself than give that to children.

A woman who paid just 3.09 for 24 items from Morrisons (above) that were close to their use-by dates has shared how she was branded 'shameful' by one M&S customer

'There's a difference between bad food and budget rubbish. I buy our food from M&S but wouldn't buy going out of date food, that's totally not acceptable, never heard anything so shameful in my life.'

In her original post, Jo wrote: 'Collected my Too Good To Go Morrisons grocery magic box tonight and this is what was included.

'I do this once a week and it sorts out snacks/lunch bits for my five-year-old at school, lunches for others in house and items towards our dinners all week - cost me 3.09.'

Followers of the page quickly jumped to Jo's defence after the critic's comment.

One wrote: 'How rude and judgemental. If you can't say anything nice then simply say nothing.'

Another said: 'Wow! You know those dates are usually recommended dates only, it does not mean that the food is bad, just that the supermarkets have to sell by that date or throw it away, have you ever seen the figures?

'The sheer amount of good edible food thrown away everyday? Especially in our so-called first world country, I am soooo glad you have the money to buy all yours from M&S, but many out there don't, especially single working parents that get very little government help, or carers like myself, being able to buy so much fresh veg and fruit at such a low price enables people to feed their kids good healthy food, rather than only processed stuff, which by the way means they get trolled for not feeding their kids properly! The only shame here is this comment!'

Jo, who also has three stepchildren, said she was surprised by the negative comment, adding: 'It's unacceptable in this current climate to shame people.

Jo Meola (pictured), 42, from Bedford, Bedfordshire, was so impressed with the contents of her box from the UK supermarket that she rushed to share it with like-minded savvy shoppers on a budgeting Facebook page

However, while most people were impressed with Jo's haul, one woman criticised her for buying what she described as 'out of date food'

In her original post, Jo wrote: 'Collected my Too Good To Go Morrisons grocery magic box tonight and this is what was included.'

'We are in a situation where, no matter which walk of life we come from, we could all do with help and support and this is what my post aimed to do.'

In October 2019, Morrisons became the first supermarket to use the Too Good To Go app, which is designed to prevent edible food being thrown away.

Since then it has prevented 1,000 tonnes of food waste and 2,500 tonnes of CO2e being emitted.

Using the app, customers can get a Magic Bag containing at least 10 worth of unsold fruit, veg, deli and bakery products for 3.09.
A relationship expert has shared the five different types of dater, and why knowing your relationship type will help you to find lasting love.

Louanne Ward, from Perth, highlighted five types of person when dating, including the Parent, the Captain, the Love Enthusiast and the Nourisher.

Louanne said 'your dating personality has influenced every relationship you've been in, as well as being your point of attraction'.

She posted on Instagram: 'Just by knowing your default personality, you're far more likely to find long-lasting love'.

A relationship expert has shared the five different types of dater, and why knowing your relationship type will help you to find lasting love (Louanne Ward pictured)

THE PARENT

The first type of person in a relationship is the Parent.

'This single is often the strong one and it can feel like your partners don't have your back,' Louanne said.

This type of person in a relationship often seeks out someone to look after or 'parent' - but they can end up feeling drained when that person doesn't look out for them in return.

THE SEE-SAW

The second type, Louanne highlighted, is the See-Saw.

This type is 'either pedal to the metal or slamming on the brakes', she said.

'Things might start off great, but then they lose interest quickly and want to move on.'

This personality type can be frustrating to date because you never know where you stand with them and then it feels like they have lost interest.

Louanne (pictured) highlighted the five different types including the Captain, the Love Enthusiast, the Nourisher, the Parent and the See-Saw

THE CAPTAIN

Captains are the type As of the dating world.

Louanne explained 'whether it's subconscious or not, they love to take the lead and achieve their goals'.

The Captain will often not let a relationship detract their from their main goals, whether those goals are career or personal based.

THE LOVE ENTHUSIAST

Fourth on Louanne's list is the Love Enthusiast.

While you might think this is the best type of person to be in a relationship with, in fact the opposite can end up being true.

'Despite its name, this can actually leave you with a broken heart time after time and often presents itself through the form of people-pleasing,' Louanne said.

This type of person doesn't always say what's on their mind, which can lead to negative situations down the track.

Previously, Louanne shared the two types of men you'll come across when dating who will never commit - and revealed why they are so toxic if you're looking for long-term love

THE NOURISHER

Finally, Louanne said one popular dating type is the Nourisher.

'Do you somehow seem to attract people who seem to have their act together but somehow you end up having to "fix" them?' Louanne said.

The Nourisher loves to look after and help people, but are actually far better off going for someone who actually does have their act together.

Poll What type of dater are you? The Parent The Captain The See-Saw The Love Enthusiast The Nourisher What type of dater are you? The Parent 38 votes

The Captain 39 votes

The See-Saw 33 votes

The Love Enthusiast 34 votes

The Nourisher 70 votes Now share your opinion





Previously, Louanne shared the two types of men you'll come across when dating who will never commit - and revealed why they are so toxic if you're looking for long-term love.

She said the player and the perpetual bachelor are the two types of man you need to be able to identify in order to steer clear of.

The reason why is because both will most likely end up breaking your heart by moving on to someone else.

'Ladies, there's a difference between a player and a perpetual bachelor,' Louanne said.

'The player is usually a charismatic, confident, well-dressed guy who has been blessed with good looks.'

But, she added, you shouldn't be fooled by these good looks, as the player is 'all about conquest, make no mistake about that'.

'He's just about the hit it and quit it,' she said.

'So once they've got what they want, they generally won't stick around for very long.'

Even worse, Louanne added, such man are 'quite proud' of the reputation they have earned as a player and they may even 'wear that label like a badge'.

When it comes to the perpetual bachelor, Louanne said they are entirely different kettle of fish.

'These guys are usually successful, good-looking, they've never been married or that was a long time ago,' Louanne said.

On the flip side of this, this type of man will have 'many relationships' and 'happily date somebody for a short period of time'.

'When you ask them about marriage, they might say "oh yeah I'd like to do that sometime in the future",' Louanne said.

'But they are single by choice. And then never commit for a long period of time.'
Britons will die younger and in poorer health because the NHS is failing to recover quickly enough from the pandemic, a damning report by MPs warns.

The service is unlikely to hit key recovery targets for routine operations and cancer care despite a significant injection of extra cash, the Public Accounts Committee reveals.

The cross-party group highlights poor workforce planning and says there are not enough staff and scanners to rapidly tackle record waiting lists of 7.2million people.

Its report notes the first year of NHS England's three-year recovery programme is already 'falling short of expectations', with a detrimental impact of people's quality of life.

Around 7.2million patients in England remained stuck in the backlog in December (red line) about one in eight of the population. More than 400,000 have queued for at least one year (yellow bars)

NHS cancer data for December shows that just six in 10 started treatment within two months from an urgent GP cancer referral (red line), leaving 5381 (blue line) patients waiting more than 62 days for cancer care

This is because bosses made 'over-optimistic' assumptions, including that there would be low levels of Covid and minimal adverse effects from winter pressures, it adds.

The Committee has now expressed serious doubts that the wider NHS recovery plan will be achieved on time and describe waiting times for cancer treatment as 'especially worrying'.

Committee chairwoman Dame Meg Hillier, a Labour MP, said: 'Despite a significant cash injection meant to begin to help the recovery from the pandemic, the NHS is in full blown crisis and all the metrics are going in the wrong direction.

'On the evidence we have received the NHS will not achieve the targets in its recovery plan, and that means health, longevity and quality of life indicators will continue to go backwards for the people of this country.

'That is simply shameful, and totally unacceptable in a nation as wealthy as ours.'

Committee chairwoman Dame Meg Hillier, a Labour MP, said: 'Despite a significant cash injection meant to begin to help the recovery from the pandemic, the NHS is in full blown crisis and all the metrics are going in the wrong direction'

The report says cancer waiting times are at their 'worst recorded level' and NHS England will not meet its first cancer recovery target.

Put word WOMAN back into health advice, NHS told: Doctors and nurses among 1,400-strong petition demanding U-turn on woke, gender-inclusive language Here are some examples of the woke language changes that have engulfed NHS communications. Some of these examples have been taken from national NHS communications while others are used by individual hospitals Advertisement

Some 85 per cent of people who have been urgently referred by their GP and have cancer confirmed should start treatment within 62 days.

But in the first five months of 2022/23, only 62 per cent of patients met this target, with 11 per cent of patients being treated more than 104 days after an urgent referral - at least twice as long as they should be made to wait.

Delays reduce survival chances and can make treatment more expensive and less effective.

NHSE set a recovery target that the weekly count of patients waiting over 62 days would recover to the pre-pandemic level by March 2023.

And in July 2022 the Chief Executive of the NHS wrote to all NHS trusts stating that cancer care was a critical priority for the rest of the year.

However, in evidence to the Committee at the end of November, NHS England acknowledged that this first cancer recovery target would be missed.

The recovery plan also stated that activity levels would recover to pre-pandemic levels early in 2022/23.

But between April and August 2022, elective activity - non-emergency treatment - was at just 95 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.

It is 'clear' that the further aim of increasing activity to 129 per cent of pre-pandemic levels by 2024/25 is 'unachievable', the report adds.

MPs said that, for the recovery plan to succeed, the capacity of adult social care must improve so people can be discharged from hospital in a timely way.

In addition, there needs to be more clarity on how large the workforce needs to be and 'how long it will take to reach these levels through sufficient domestic training'.

There are currently 133,000 vacancies within the health service and NHS England has committed to publishing an NHS workforce plan by April 2023.

The Department of Health has allocated 14billion to NHS England from 2022/23 to 2024/25 specifically to recover elective and cancer care.

The Autumn Statement 2022 committed an additional 3.3billion in 2023/24 and 2024/25 to the NHS budget as a whole, and health service bosses told the Committee this would be sufficient for the NHS to deliver its key priorities.

However, NHS England has opted not to produce a detailed costed version of its recovery plan to show how it expects all of the 14billion to be spent.

Sir Julian Hartley, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts, said: 'Trust leaders are working extremely hard to tackle the backlogs and have made remarkable progress towards eliminating 78-week waits by April given the mounting pressures they face.

HM Treasury data shows the NHS annual budget. In 2020/21, the NHS was given 129.7billion of core funding for its usual services, which was topped up with an extra 18billion to help with the pressures from the pandemic. For 2021/22 the Treasury said the health service received 136.1billion pounds of core funding, as well as 3billion to help with the Covid recovery. The health service has been allocated 151.8billion for 2022/23 and 157.4billion for 2023/34. The Autumn Statement topped up these figures by 3.3billion each

The NHS spends around 150billion-a-year, of which just under 43 per cent is spent on staff wages. Graphic shows: A pie chart of Department of Health and Social Care revenue spending on the NHS (left) in 2019/20 and areas where expenditure is seen to have been wasted (right)

'However, a very tough winter, the impact of industrial action and vast workforce shortages are just some of the challenges threatening to undermine these efforts.

'The Government opening talks with all striking unions will be key to resolving pay disputes and averting more strikes.

'The national workforce plan, which needs to be fully funded by the Government, should also go some way to address staff shortages and equip the NHS with the resources it needs.'

Sir James Mackey, national director of elective recovery at NHS England, said: 'This release includes a number of factual errors and, sadly, fails to acknowledge the significant progress made by NHS staff on the Elective Recovery Plan despite record pressures seen across the health and care system.'

A Department of Health and Social Care spokeswoman said the NHS 'has already made strong progress in tackling the Covid backlogs', adding: 'We are working to reduce the 62-day cancer backlog  which has fallen 9 per cent since peaking in 2020  but we know there is more to do.

'We have opened 92 community diagnostic centres that have delivered over three million tests, scans and checks to detect cancer and other conditions as early as possible, with 19 more opening this year.'
Federal health advisers have backed a world-first RSV vaccine made by Pfizer paving the way for it to be approved for Americans over 60 years old.

The panel of advisers to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) voted seven to four, with one abstaining, that the shot was effective and safe in preventing lower respiratory tract disease caused by RSV in the over-60s.

But they also called for more data from Pfizer on severe outcomes recorded in high-risk groups. Concerns were raised earlier this month that the shot could cause Guillain-Barre syndrome, a potentially deadly complication that can also cause crippling pain, muscle weakness and paralysis.

The FDA is scheduled to decide whether to approve the vaccine in May, but typically follows the recommendations of its experts. Other shots are in the pipeline including one made by British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline.

There is no vaccine available for RSV, a common winter bug that is particularly dangerous in the old who have weaker immune systems. It kills roughly 14,000 older adults in the US every year.

An FDA panel has voted that the shot was safe and effective in preventing lower respiratory tract disease caused by RSV in the over-60s (stock image)

Dr Daniel Feikin, a respiratory disease consultant who voted in favor of the vaccine, said: 'I think the primary endpoint was clearly met here.

'[But] its disappointing we dont have more data on the high-risk groups and severe outcomes.'

Experts on the panel had previously asked Pfizer to provide more safety data on their RSV vaccine because of the Guillain-Barre syndrome cases.

The company has agreed to the review but said that the reactions could be due to other factors such as medical treatment.

In the phase three clinical trial involving more than 20,000 people who got the vaccine, two individuals developed the syndrome.

One recovered in three months and the other in six.

Concerns have also been raised that the shot made by GSK could cause Guillain-Barre syndrome.

Other companies including Johnson and Johnson, Moderna and Merck are also working on RSV vaccines.

It is estimated that the jabs could earn between $5 and $10billion annually, according to analysts.

Much of Tuesday's meeting centered on two cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare neurological reaction, diagnosed in two people out of about 20,000 who received Pfizer's shot.

Pfizer said the cases could have been due to other medical factors.

But the FDA said the reaction is 'an important potential risk' and would need to be closely tracked and studied if the vaccine is approved.

Guillain-Barre syndrome occurs when the body's immune system mistakenly attacks some of its nerve cells, sometimes causing paralysis that typically is temporary.

Panelists who voted against the vaccine's safety profile cited the two cases.

'I think we need to do everything we can to make sure that vaccines are safe before we send them out to the public,' said Dr. James Hildreth, an infectious diseases expert at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee.

In phase three clinical trials, Pfizer's vaccine was 66.7 percent effective in preventing RSV-related lower respiratory tract illness with over two symptoms, and 85.7 percent effective against illness marked by over three symptoms.

Meanwhile, GSK's vaccine was 82.6 percent effective in preventing lower respiratory tract disease in people aged 60 and over, and 94.1 percent effective in preventing severe disease.

For most healthy people, RSV is a cold-like nuisance.

But for the very young, the elderly and people with certain health problems, it can be serious and even life-threatening. The virus can cause infections deep in the lungs, triggering pneumonia.

Efforts to develop RSV vaccines suffered a major setback in the 1960s when one experimental shot was shown to worsen infections in children.

But public interest in a potential shot peaked last fall amid a surge of cases among babies and older adults.
Grieving families of loved ones who died from Covid and critics of No10's handling of the pandemic today accused Matt Hancock of lying about the care home testing shambles during the earliest days of the pandemic.

Leaked WhatsApp messages revealed Sir Chris Whitty recommended testing 'of all going into care homes'.

But Mr Hancock  who resigned from his role midway through the virus crisis after being caught having an affair with a married aide  didn't follow the guidance, claiming that it 'muddies the waters', according to leaked messages obtained by The Telegraph.

Mr Hancock today dismissed claims that he ignored advice, with his spokesperson saying they were 'flat wrong'. He was told during a meeting that it was 'not currently possible' to carry out the tests at the time due to capacity issues, it is claimed.

Jean Adamson, whose father died in a care home in April 2020, said she was both 'appalled' and 'sickened' by the damning revelations but added: 'I am not surprised at all'.

Meanwhile, one campaign group revealed that it would back 'an immediate police investigation into criminal negligence and misconduct in public office', if there was enough evidence. Social media users  including Piers Morgan and other critics of No10's handling of the outbreak  also accused him of 'criminal negligence'.

Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK said: 'There needs to be an immediate and serious police investigation in parallel with the inquiry.' Another grieving relative, who wished to stay anonymous, told MailOnline they would 'fully support' anyone seeking to go down the legal route.

Sir Chris Whitty (left) told then health secretary Matt Hancock (right) there should be testing for 'all going into care homes'

In one message on April 14, Mr Hancock said Sir Chris had finished a review and recommended 'testing of all going into care homes, and segregation whilst awaiting result'. Mr Hancock described it as 'obviously a good positive step'. However, the investigation said he later responded to an aide: 'Tell me if I'm wrong but I would rather leave it out and just commit to test & isolate ALL going into care from hospital. I do not think the community commitment adds anything and it muddies the waters'

CARE HOME DEATHS: Data from the Office for National Statistics shows there were more than 40,000 fatalities in care homes that involved Covid in the first two years of the pandemic. Nearly 18,000 of these occurred between mid-April and mid-August, before guidance was published stating that all of those going into homes from the community should be tested

Jayne Connery, of Vulnerable Care, said: 'The elderly residents that lost their lives, need answers.'

Labour and Lib Dem rounded on Mr Hancock's bold claim that he put a 'protective ring' around the sector at the height of the pandemic, describing it as a 'sham' that 'could not be further from the truth'.

Official stats show more than 43,000 care home residents died from the virus during the first two years of the unprecedented crisis.

Mr Hancock oversaw the hugely contentious policy that allowed untested hospital patients to be discharged into care homes at the height of the first wave  seen as the defining factor behind the huge death toll in the sector.

Ms Adamson, one of the founding members of Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, told GMB: 'This just provides further evidence, confirms what we suspected and feared all along  that the then Health Secretary Matt Hancock lies his way through.

'He was more focused on meeting his targets at the time, rather than the welfare of our most vulnerable members of society.

'And as a result of his decisions, his inaction, tens of thousands of elderly people died in care homes.

'So I just feel absolutely sickened and disgusted by these revelations.'

She added: 'We have always been seeking the truth and so desperate for lessons to be learned to prevent further loss of life and that's what we've always been focused on.

'However, whilst these untruths are being peddled, we can't even hope to learn lessons because there has been this lack of transparency from the very outset.

'My father, among tens of thousands of other care home residents, were lambs to the slaughter.

'And Matt Hancock has really treated us with contempt. He had this foray into the Jungle, bleating on about forgiveness and wanting to make things right.

'But this man is yet to actually show a heartfelt apology.

'It's all about him and his image that he's trying to rehabilitate. But he's shown no compassion and treated us with the utmost disrespect.'

In response to the leaked messages, shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said: 'The claim that the Government threw a "protective ring" around care homes during Covid has proven to be a sham.

'They ignored the Chief Medical Officer and people died.

'How many lives could have been saved?'

Liberal Democrat health and social care spokesperson Daisy Cooper said: 'These messages lay bare the chaos at the heart of the Government during the pandemic, and the mistakes that led to countless lives being needlessly lost.

'Matt Hancock's claims to have thrown a protective ring around our care homes could not be further from the truth.

'It's almost a year ago that a court ruled that the government unlawfully discharged people from hospitals into care homes without testing.

'But bereaved families are still no closer to having justice and the truth. They deserve answers through the official Covid inquiry, so we can learn lessons and save lives.'

Pointing to the Telegraph investigation, which will run for days, Piers Morgan said: 'So Hancock blatantly lied, as I've always believed.

'He didn't put a ring around care homes like he claimed, he ignored expert advice and turned them into death traps. This is criminal negligence.'

The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group said: 'We'd back an immediate police investigation into criminal negligence and misconduct in public office.

'If there's enough evidence, he needs to face charges.'

MailOnline has not seen the full WhatsApp exchanges, leaked to The Telegraph, so cannot confirm the context behind them.

But the messages suggest Mr Hancock rejected guidance from Sir Chris, telling an aide it just 'muddies the waters' if all care home admissions are tested for Covid, and introduced mandatory testing only for those coming from hospitals.

The 'lockdown files' investigation also contains:

Claims that officials couriered Jacob Rees-Mogg a Covid test for one of his children while there was a shortage;

Mr Hancock telling former chancellor George Osborne, then-editor of the Evening Standard, 'I WANT TO HIT MY TARGET!' as he pushed for favourable front-page coverage.

Discussing Mr Hancock's messages on Good Morning Britain, Jean Adamson (pictured), whose father died in a care home in April 2020, said: 'I am appalled, quite frankly. Sickened. But I am not surprised. I am not surprised at all'

The leaked texts also include exchanges between the former Health Secretary and then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who revealed he was going 'quietly crackers' about the UK's shortage of test kits

Isabel Oakeshott, who has described lockdowns as an 'unmitigated disaster', said she was releasing the messages because it would take 'many years' before the end of the official Covid inquiry, which she claimed could be a 'colossal whitewash'.

'That's why I've decided to release this sensational cache of private communications  because we absolutely cannot wait any longer for answers,' she said.

In one message on April 14, Mr Hancock said Sir Chris had finished a review and recommended 'testing of all going into care homes, and segregation whilst awaiting result'.

Mr Hancock described it as 'obviously a good positive step'.

Matt Hancock was warned it was 'inhumane' to impose restrictions on visiting care homes and elderly were at risk of 'just giving up' due to being isolated for so long, leaked messages show The messages show Health Secretary Matt Hancock advised against any sudden changes to the visiting rules, as the government sought to improve its monthly targets Advertisement

However, the investigation said he later responded to an aide: 'Tell me if I'm wrong but I would rather leave it out and just commit to test & isolate ALL going into care from hospital. I do not think the community commitment adds anything and it muddies the waters.'

Official guidance, which was published on April 15, set out that all those discharged from hospitals into care homes would be tested  but the Government would 'move to' testing those going into care from the community.

However, it was not until August 14 that the document was updated to require care home admissions from the community to be tested.

In the first two years of the pandemic, care homes in England logged 43,256 deaths involving Covid. Nearly 18,000 of these were logged between mid-April and mid-August  before homes were instructed to test all new admissions.

Mr Hancock told the Health and Social Care Committee in June 2021 that 'sadly the biggest route of Covid into care homes is through the community'.

And in his pandemic diaries, serialised by the Daily Mail in December, Mr Hancock claimed hospital discharges were not to blame, and instead pointed the finger at infections being 'brought in from the wider community, mainly by staff'.

A spokesman for Mr Hancock said the former health secretary is 'considering all options' in response to the leak, with a source close to him saying: 'She [Ms Oakeshott] has broken a legal NDA (non-disclosure agreement). Her behaviour is outrageous.'

The spokesman said: 'Having not been approached in advance by the Telegraph, we have reviewed the messages overnight.

'The Telegraph intentionally excluded reference to a meeting with the testing team from the WhatsApp. This is critical, because Matt was supportive of Chris Whitty's advice, held a meeting on its deliverability, told it wasn't deliverable, and insisted on testing all those who came from hospitals.

'The Telegraph have been informed that their headline is wrong, and Matt is considering all options available to him.

'This major error by Isabel Oakeshott and the Telegraph shows why the proper place for analysis like this is the inquiry, not a partial, agenda-driven leak of confidential documents.'

Mr Hancock last night delivered a speech at The NFT Gallery in Mayfair, London, during a fundraising event for CARE International UK's humanitarian appeal for Ukraine

The WhatsApp leaks also lay bare divisions between Mr Hancock and social care minister Helen Whately (pictured today), who said she was concerned about the Government's policy of discharging NHS patients into care homes to free up capacity

Matt Hancock and Boris Johnson, then Health Secretary and Prime Minister, pictured during a visit to Bassetlaw District General Hospital on November 22, 2019

The leaked texts also include exchanges between the former Health Secretary and then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who revealed he was going 'quietly crackers' about the UK's shortage of test kits

A crisis in testing and PPE turned care homes into 'warzones' in late March 2020, as the nation was plunged into lockdown. Pictured, a woman visiting her grandmother in isolation during the pandemic

The Government introduced mandatory testing for people going into care homes from hospital, but not from the community (Pictured: Boris Johnson holds a coronavirus meeting on February 28, 2020, attended by Sir Chris Whitty, second from right, and Matt Hancock, right)

Isabel Oakeshott, who has described lockdowns as an 'unmitigated disaster', said she was releasing the messages because it would take 'many years' before the end of the official Covid inquiry, which she claimed could be a 'colossal whitewash'

The spokesman for Mr Hancock said 'the Telegraph story is wrong', arguing that 'instead of spinning and leaks we need the full, comprehensive inquiry'.

'It is outrageous that this distorted account of the pandemic is being pushed with partial leaks, spun to fit an anti-lockdown agenda, which would have cost hundreds of thousands of lives if followed. What the messages do show is a lot of people working hard to save lives,' the spokesman said.

'Those who argue there shouldn't have been a lockdown ignore the fact that half-a-million people would have died had we not locked down.

'And for those saying we should never lock down again, imagine if a disease killed half those infected, and half the population were going to get infected  as is happening right now with avian flu in birds. If that disease were in humans, of course we'd want to lockdown.'

He continued: 'The story spun on care homes is completely wrong. What the messages show is that Mr Hancock pushed for testing of those going into care homes when that testing was available.

Jacob Rees-Mogg 'had a Covid test for one of his children couriered to his home amid a shortage', according to leaked messages Mr Rees-Mogg had the test organised by then Health Secretary Matt Hancock's special advisor, just two days after the director of NHS Test and Trace was forced to give 'heartfelt apologies' to anyone who couldn't get a test due to shortages, according to leaked messages Advertisement

'The full documents have already all been made available to the inquiry, which is the proper place for an objective assessment, so true lessons can be learned.'

Declining to comment directly on the leaks, a Government spokesman said: 'We have always said there are lessons to be learnt from the pandemic.

'We are committed to learning from the Covid inquiry's findings, which will play a key role in informing the Government's planning and preparations for the future.'

Pat McFadden, shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, told Sky News: 'We were told at the time that the Government was putting a protective ring around care homes.

'The stories this morning suggest that protective ring wasn't there  that people were being allowed to go into care homes that could have been positive, contrary to the advice of the Chief Medical Officer at the time.

'What we've got to do is get to the bottom of it, get to the truth of it.

'Because if that did happen, it looks like a pretty major breach early on in an area where we knew elderly people were vulnerable.'

Justin Madders, shadow minister for employment rights, pointed to Mr Hancock's exclamation of 'I WANT TO HIT MY TARGET' of 100,000 tests per day  in a message to George Osborne in April 2020.

He said: 'This confirms what we suspected at the time that he wanted a good headline, ignoring professional advice, ignoring what was happening in care homes, it was all about him.'

Professor Karol Sikora, a world-renowned oncologist, tweeted that 'these revelations should surprise nobody'.

'Policies more about Hancock's PR than reducing all-cause mortality,' he said.

TalkTV presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer said the messages show that decisions weren't made based on following the science, but instead based on 'politicians' ego, on their careers and reputations' and even their 'likes on Twitter'.

Carol Vorderman said the investigation 'makes for shocking reading'.

'The many thousands of care home deaths which might easily have been prevented, the school closures, face masks, the casual nature of it all,' she said.

The WhatsApp leaks also lay bare divisions between Mr Hancock and social care minister Helen Whately, who said she was concerned about the Government's policy of discharging NHS patients into care homes to free up capacity.

She also urged action on PPE supplies to social care which were 'all over the place' in April, with problems continuing into May.

Ms Whately also warned Mr Hancock in June 2020 that nearly 100 care homes were refusing to test their staff for the virus over concerns they would need time off work.

Reports also claimed that Mr Hancock's adviser arranged for a personal test to be couriered for fellow top Tory Jacob Rees-Mogg's child at a time of national shortage

As he battled to meet his own target of 100,000 coronavirus tests per day, the investigation shows Mr Hancock texted his former boss George Osborne to 'call in a favour'.

The investigation also revealed that senior Conservative Jacob Rees-Mogg had a Covid test couriered to his home during a testing shortage.

In September 2020, an aide messaged Mr Hancock to say the lab had 'lost' a test for one of the then-Commons leader's children, 'so we've got a courier going to their family home tonight'.

He added: 'Jacob's spad (special adviser) is aware and has helped line it all up, but you might want to text Jacob.'

As he battled to meet his own target of 100,000 coronavirus tests per day, the investigation shows Mr Hancock texted his former boss George Osborne, who was editor of the Evening Standard from 2017 to 2020, to 'call in a favour'.

Mr Hancock said he has thousands of spare testing slots which is 'obvs good news about spread of virus' but 'hard for my target' as he asked for front page coverage.

Mr Osborne responded: 'Yes  of course  all you need to do tomorrow is give some exclusive words to the Standard and I'll tell the team to splash it.'

The then-health secretary later added: 'I WANT TO HIT MY TARGET!'

Mr Hancock later clashed with Mr Osborne, when in November 2020 the former Chancellor urged the Government to make testing its 'absolute number one priority'.

In a text following the interview, Mr Hancock questioned the comments and said 'mass testing is going v well'.

But Mr Osborne said: 'No one thinks testing is going well, Matt.

'If I wanted a test today I cant get one, unless I fake symptoms  and [name redacted by The Telegraph] is still waiting test results from 3 weeks ago ([name redacted by The Telegraph] went private in the end).
FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday confirmed the agency's assessment that a laboratory mishap in Wuhan, China was the probable source of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a Fox News interview, Wray made his first public remarks on the FBI investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, saying that the agency has evaluated "for quite some time" that the COVID-19 origin is "most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan," as reported by CNN.

Wray noted that China has been doing everything to "thwart and obfuscate" actions to determine the COVID-19 Origin.

His COVID-19 Lab Leak Theory remarks follow the US Department of Energy's "low-confidence" evaluation that COVID-19 most likely came from a laboratory leakage in China.

Read Also: Japan's Birth Rate Woes

US Government Has No Conclusion Yet

John Kirby, the White House's national security spokesperson, said on Monday that the US government has not come to a final decision and agreement on the causes of the coronavirus pandemic, per Reuters.

Wray's statements have so far been met with silence by the Chinese authorities, who previously denied COVID-19 Lab Leak Theory. US authorities were undecided on the coronavirus origin, but they have not decided that the lab-leak theory is the most likely explanation, per an earlier HNGN report. Most of the US intelligence community still thinks that COVID-19 either came up on its own in the wild or that there isn't enough information to conclude one way or the other.

The COVID-19 Lab Leak Theory was also deemed "extremely unlikely" by the World Health Organization (WHO), according to a study that China cited.

As a result of widespread criticism, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has urged for a fresh investigation, claiming that "all hypotheses remain open" and need additional research, per the BBC.

Related Article: COVID-19 Vaccination Latest Findings

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
It was the bombshell claim that saw ex-Health Secretary Matt Hancock accused of 'criminal negligence'.

Leaked WhatsApp messages revealed Sir Chris Whitty recommended testing 'of all going into care homes'. But Mr Hancock didn't follow the guidance, claiming that it 'muddies the waters'.

In response to today's damning allegations in The Daily Telegraph, Mr Hancock hit back at claims that he rejected Sir Chris' advice.

A key meeting on the same day of the text concluded it was 'not possible' to carry out the tests at the time, the MP's spokesperson claims.

Here, MailOnline lays bare what was said about care homes and testing by who and when.

Leaked WhatsApp messages revealed Sir Chris Whitty recommended testing 'of all going into care homes'. But Mr Hancock didn't follow the guidance, claiming that it 'muddies the waters'

In August 2020, the Government finally releases updated care home guidance which requires all new admissions to care homes from the community to be tested

The scale of mortality in care homes also laid bare long-standing problems with care home provision. Data from the Office for National Statistics shows there were more than 43,000 fatalities in care homes in England and Wales that involved Covid in the first two years of the pandemic

February 25, 2020

Public Health England publishes its 'Guidance for social or community care and residential settings on Covid-19'.

'This guidance is intended for the current position in the UK where there is currently no transmission of Covid in the community,' it says.

'It is therefore very unlikely anyone receiving care in a care home or the community will become infected.'

Later in the same document, the guidance reads: 'Facemasks are only recommended to be worn by infected individuals when advised by a healthcare worker, to reduce the risk of transmitting the infection to other people.

'It remains very unlikely that people receiving care in a care home or the community will become infected.'

March 3, 2020

The Government publishes its coronavirus action plan.

'Health and social care services will work together to support early discharge from hospital, and to look after people in their own homes', it says.

'We will implement a distribution strategy for the UK's stockpiles of key medicines and equipment (for example, protective clothing). This will cover the NHS/HSCNI, and extend to social care and other sectors as appropriate.'

The role of social care provision is 'central to contingency planning', the action plan also urges.

'Social care providers should remain in contact with local commissioners and resilience partners, review their business continuity plans and continue to practise proper infection control and good respiratory hygiene practice.'

March 17, 2020

NHS hospitals are instructed to urgently discharge the thousands of in-patients medically fit to leave into adult social care, in order to free up beds and support those with acute healthcare needs.

It is also announced that Covid testing would begin being rolled out to NHS staff with symptoms.

One day earlier, Boris Johnson, the then prime minister, urged the public to stop non-essential contact and travel.

March 23, 2020

The UK enters its first national lockdown in response to the Covid pandemic.

'You should not be meeting family members who do not live in your home', Mr Johnson announces.

'We are buying millions of testing kits that will enable us to turn the tide on this invisible killer,' he says.

March 27, 2020

At a televised daily briefing, Michael Gove  standing in for the prime minister  announced Covid tests for healthcare workers would be rolled out over the next week.

Sir Simon Stevens, chief executive of the NHS, also said the tests for NHS employees would start with critical care doctors and nurses and other intensive care staff, as well as those in emergency departments, ambulance services and GPs.

But the service would only be expanded to include those in social care as testing volumes increased, he said.

At a televised daily briefing on March 27, 2020, Michael Gove  standing in for the prime minister - announced Covid tests for healthcare workers would be rolled out over the next week

On April 2, 2020, Government guidance setting out restrictions on care home visiting is published. The guidance said 'family and friends should be advised not to visit care homes, except next of kin in exceptional situations such as end of life.' It added: 'alternatives to in-person visiting should be explored, including the use of telephones or video, or the use of plastic or glass barriers between residents and visitors'

April 2, 2020

A week after entering the first lockdown, Government guidance setting out restrictions on care home visiting is published.

The guidance said 'family and friends should be advised not to visit care homes, except next of kin in exceptional situations such as end of life.'

It added: 'Alternatives to in-person visiting should be explored, including the use of telephones or video, or the use of plastic or glass barriers between residents and visitors.'

Up to a maximum of five symptomatic care home residents can be be tested in order to confirm an outbreak.

Care homes are told 'negative tests are not required' for new admissions from hospital.

April 14, 2020

Texts between Matt Hancock and his advisors reveal Sir Chris Whitty warned there should be 'testing of all going into care homes'.

Isabel Oakeshott, who has described lockdowns as an 'unmitigated disaster', said she released the WhatsApp messages because it would take 'many years' before the end of the official Covid inquiry. Ms Oakeshott helped Mr Hancock write his book, 'Pandemic Diaries' released in December 2022

In one WhatsApp message, Mr Hancock told his advisers: 'Chris Whitty has done an evidence review and now recommend testing of all going into care homes, and segregation whilst awaiting result. This is obviously a good positive step & we must put into the doc.'

An aide then responded that he had sent the request 'to action'.

But later the same day, Mr Hancock messaged again saying he would rather 'leave out' a commitment to test everyone entering care homes from the community and 'just commit to test & isolate ALL going into care from hospital'.

He added: 'I do not think the community commitment adds anything and it muddies the waters.'

April 15, 2020

The Government publish its 'Covid-19: Our Action Plan for Adult Social Care', outlining that care homes with known outbreaks are allowed to test everyone with symptoms.

Testing also becomes mandatory for everyone admitted to care homes from hospitals, regardless of symptoms.

This is not necessary for all admissions from the community, guidance says.

'Institute a policy of testing all residents prior to admission to care homes', it said. 'Begin with all those being discharged from hospital.'

Between March 17 and April 15, around 25,000 people were discharged from hospitals into care homes.

It is still not known how many had Covid at the point of discharge.

April 28, 2020

In a televised daily briefing, updated guidance for Covid testing in care homes is announced.

Mr Hancock says: 'We will be rolling out testing of asymptomatic residents and staff in care homes in England.'

He adds: 'This will mean anyone who is working or living in a care home will be able to get access to a test whether they have symptoms or not.'

However, this daily amount of care home tests is capped at 30,000 to be shared between staff and residents.

The Telegraph's investigation claims chief medical officer Professor Sir Chris Whitty told the then-health secretary in April 2020 there should be testing for 'all going into care homes'

Mr Hancock oversaw the hugely contentious policy that allowed untested hospital patients to be discharged into care homes at the height of the first wave  seen as the defining factor behind the huge death toll in the sector. Pictured, Mr Hancock with then Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, visiting Bassetlaw District General Hospital on November 22, 2019 in Worksop

May 15, 2020

In response to questions at a daily briefing, Mr Hancock says: 'Right from the start, it's been clear that this horrible virus affects older people most. So right from the start, we've tried to throw a protective ring around our care homes.'

He added: 'We set out our first advice in February and as the virus grew we strengthened it throughout.'

May 18, 2020

When questioned on his claim the government threw a 'protective ring' around care homes, Mr Hancock told the House of Commons: 'We absolutely did throw a protective ring around social care.'

He added: 'Not least with the 3.2billion worth of funding we put in right at the start, topped up with 600million worth of funding on Friday.'

May 11, 2020

The Department of Health and Social Care announces that out of around 400,000 care home residents, just 45,000 had been tested by health protection teams for Covid.

To date, around 140,000 test kits had been sent to care homes, it also said.

June 4, 2020

The UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) releases an article on the impact of Covid on the care home sector.

It recommends further work must be done to assess the true scale of the impact.

'There needs to be greater understanding of the number of deaths in care settings, considering the increase in overall deaths as well as those recorded as involving Covid', it said.

It also urges the government to publish further information on levels of Covid testing and hospital discharges into care homes 'during the stages of the pandemic'.

June 7, 2020

All adult care homes are now able to access home testing kits for all residents and asymptomatic staff through the Care Home Testing digital portal.

In May, the service was initially rolled out to care homes whose primary clients are older people or those with dementia.

July 3, 2020

The Department of Health and Social Care publish its independent report: 'Vivaldi 1: Covid care homes study report'.

It identifies higher levels of the virus among care staff, particularly among temporary staff who work in multiple care settings.

The study also suggested care home staff may be at increased risk of contracting the virus, which they may then pass on to others if they have no symptoms.

July 6, 2020

New guidance requires all care home staff to be given coronavirus tests every week. Residents should be tested every 28 days, it says.

The new strategy follows advice from SAGE and the 'Vivaldi 1: Covid care homes study report', the Government say.

July 29, 2020

The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee publishes its independent report: 'Readying the NHS and social care for the Covid-19 peak'.

It concludes: 'Discharging patients from hospital into social care without first testing them for Covid was an appalling error.'

The report recommends the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England should 'develop procedures so that all patients deemed fit to leave hospital are safely discharged into settings in a way which limits the spread of Covid'.

On May 18, 2020, Mr Hancock told the House of Commons: 'We absolutely did throw a protective ring around social care, not least with the 3.2 billion worth of funding we put in right at the start, topped up with 600 million worth of funding on Friday'

August 14, 2020

The Government releases updated care home guidance.

It requires all new admissions to care homes from the community to take PCR tests before arrival.

October 15, 2020

As local Covid alert levels  or tiers - are introduced on October 14, care home guidance also changes.

In 'medium' or tier 1 level alert areas, a maximum of two family members are allowed to visit care homes. They must be the same two visitors each time.

Visits in areas with 'high' or 'very high' levels are only allowed in 'exceptional circumstances' including 'end of life'.

November 4, 2020

Prior to a second national lockdown beginning on November 5, the Government also updates its guidance on visiting care homes.

It said: 'Care home providers, families and local professionals should work together to find the right balance between the benefits of visiting on wellbeing and quality of life, and the risk of transmission of Covid to social care staff and vulnerable residents as we enter national restrictions.'

Options for safe care home visits in line with the guidance could include visits using Covid-secure visiting areas or pods with floor to ceiling screens, visits at windows, outdoor visits with one other person or video call virtual visits, it advised.

December 1, 2020

Ahead of the transition to the new tier system in December 2020, amended guidance is published.

It says: 'Visiting should be supported and enabled wherever it is possible to do so safelyin line with this guidance and within a care home environment that takes proportionate steps to manage risks.'

For all visits, appropriate PPE to be worn and social distancing between visitors, residents and staff should always be maintained.

Indoor visiting may go ahead but should be limited to 2 people and visitors must also live in a tier one area.

January 5, 2021

A third national lockdown begins and the Government publishes new 'Stay at Home' guidance.

'Visits to care homes can take place with arrangements such as substantial screens, visiting pods, or behind windows,' it says.

'Close-contact indoor visits are not allowed. No visits will be permitted in the event of an outbreak.'

The Government introduced mandatory testing for people going into care homes from hospital, but not from the community (Pictured: Boris Johnson holds a coronavirus meeting on February 28, 2020, attended by Sir Chris Whitty, second from right, and Matt Hancock, right)

January 12, 2021

Up to two consistent visitors are allowed for outdoor and 'screened' visits.

Government advises care homes that visits in exceptional circumstances such as end of life, 'should always been enabled'.

March 8, 2021

Care home residents in England are allowed to receive indoor visits from one consistent person, as lockdown restrictions begin to be eased.

The visitor must test negative prior to each visit, wear PPE and avoid close contact.

'Hand-holding is allowed but named visitors will be asked to avoid any closer contact', the guidance says.

But visiting will still be suspended during local outbreaks in individual homes.

April 12, 2021

Further changes to Government guidance come into force, which permits care home residents to receive two regular visits.

They can also be accompanied by babies and toddlers, who no longer count towards the limit.

Visitors must still test prior to each visit and wear PPE.

May 17, 2021

The number of regular indoor visitors each resident is allowed is expanded to five.

A maximum of two visitors will also be allowed at any one time or on any given day.

Announcing the restrictions, minister for care, Helen Whately said: 'The measures we have taken during this pandemic have always been to protect our most vulnerable, but I have heard first-hand from those living and working in care homes how difficult the restrictions have been.

'The new guidance allows more family and friends to reunite and reduces the need to self-isolate, which I know many have found incredibly challenging.

'As we turn the tide on this cruel virus I want to make visiting as normal as possible by the summer, and this is an important step on that path.'

July 19, 2021

Visiting restrictions on care homes are lifted, leaving no limit on the number of people allowed to see residents in indoor visits. There is also no limit on the number who can visit in a single day.

Named visitors and residents are still advised to keep physical contact to a minimum.

Handholding is acceptable if hand washing protocols are followed, the guidance says.

Close physical contact like hugging presents a higher risk but will be safer between individuals who have had both Covid vaccines.
Families of care home residents who died from Covid today claimed they were appalled but not surprised at bombshell claims that Matt Hancock rejected advice to test people entering care homes.

Leaked WhatsApp messages show Chris Whitty, the Government's chief medical officer, insisted there should be testing for 'all going into care homes'.

But the disgraced ex-Health Secretary did not follow the guidance  instead telling advisers it 'muddies the waters'.

Mr Hancock today said claims he ignored Sir Chris were 'flat wrong', arguing texts given to The Daily Telegraph as part of an investigation called The Lockdown Files offered a 'distorted account' of reality.

A spokesman for the MP, who resigned from his role after being caught having an affair with a married aide, claimed capacity issues meant it was 'not possible' to carry out the tests at the time.

Jean Adamson, whose father died in a care home in April 2020, told Good Morning Britain she felt 'sickened and disgusted by these revelations'.

Ms Adamson, a founding member of Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, added: 'This just provides further evidence, confirms what we suspected and feared all along  that the then Health Secretary Matt Hancock lies his way through.

Sir Chris Whitty (left) told then health secretary Matt Hancock (right) there should be testing for 'all going into care homes'

In one message on April 14, Mr Hancock said Sir Chris had finished a review and recommended 'testing of all going into care homes, and segregation whilst awaiting result'. Mr Hancock described it as 'obviously a good positive step'. However, the investigation said he later responded to an aide: 'Tell me if I'm wrong but I would rather leave it out and just commit to test & isolate ALL going into care from hospital. I do not think the community commitment adds anything and it muddies the waters'

CARE HOME DEATHS: Data from the Office for National Statistics shows there were more than 40,000 fatalities in care homes that involved Covid in the first two years of the pandemic. Nearly 18,000 of these occurred between mid-April and mid-August, before guidance was published stating that all of those going into homes from the community should be tested

KEY CLAIMS OF THE LOCKDOWN FILES INVESTIGATION A fresh cache of 100,000 text and WhatsApp messages leaked to the Daily Telegraph by the ex-journalist who ghost-wrote Hancocks pandemic diaries claimed: Matt Hancock rejected the Chief Medical Officers call to test all residents going into English care homes for Covid

A minister in Mr Hancock's department said restrictions on visitors to care homes were inhumane but residents remained isolated many months on

Mr Hancocks adviser arranged for a personal test to be couriered for Jacob Rees-Moggs child at a time of national shortage

Mr Hancock told former chancellor George Osborne, then-editor of the Evening Standard, 'I WANT TO HIT MY TARGET!' as he pushed for favourable front-page coverage

Mr Osborne warned Mr Hancock that 'no one thinks testing is going well' in late 2020

Then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, revealed he was going 'quietly crackers' about the UK's shortage of test kits Advertisement

'He was more focused on meeting his targets at the time, rather than the welfare of our most vulnerable members of society.

'And as a result of his decisions, his inaction, tens of thousands of elderly people died in care homes.

'So I just feel absolutely sickened and disgusted by these revelations.'

MailOnline has not seen the full WhatsApp exchanges, leaked to The Telegraph, so cannot confirm the context.

Rishi Sunak today urged people not to focus on 'piecemeal bits of information', in response to the trove of more than 100,000 WhatsApp messages being handed to the Daily Telegraph.

The Prime Minister defended the official inquiry as the 'right way' to scrutinise the handling of the pandemic.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called the saga an 'insulting and ghoulish spectacle' and called on the Prime Minister to ensure the Covid inquiry, which has already cost 85million, is completed by the end of the year.

Messages were leaked by journalist Isabel Oakeshott who was handed them by Mr Hancock while she worked on his Pandemic Diaries memoir, which was serialised by the Daily Mail in December.

Ms Oakeshott, who has described lockdowns as an 'unmitigated disaster', said she was releasing the messages because it would take 'many years' before the end of the official Covid inquiry, which she claimed could be a 'colossal whitewash'.

'That's why I've decided to release this sensational cache of private communications  because we absolutely cannot wait any longer for answers,' she said.

A spokesman for Mr Hancock said the former minister is 'considering all options' in response to the leak, with a source close to him saying: 'She's broken a legal NDA [non-disclosure agreement]. Her behaviour is outrageous.'

The spokesman said: 'Having not been approached in advance by the Telegraph, we have reviewed the messages overnight.

'The Telegraph intentionally excluded reference to a meeting with the testing team from the WhatsApp. This is critical, because Matt was supportive of Chris Whitty's advice, held a meeting on its deliverability, told it wasn't deliverable, and insisted on testing all those who came from hospitals.

'The Telegraph have been informed that their headline is wrong, and Matt is considering all options available to him.

'This major error by Isabel Oakeshott and the Telegraph shows why the proper place for analysis like this is the inquiry, not a partial, agenda-driven leak of confidential documents.'

The spokesman for Mr Hancock said 'the Telegraph story is wrong', arguing that 'instead of spinning and leaks we need the full, comprehensive inquiry'.

'It is outrageous that this distorted account of the pandemic is being pushed with partial leaks, spun to fit an anti-lockdown agenda, which would have cost hundreds of thousands of lives if followed. What the messages do show is a lot of people working hard to save lives,' the spokesman said.

Discussing Mr Hancock's messages on Good Morning Britain, Jean Adamson (pictured), whose father died in a care home in April 2020, said: 'I am appalled, quite frankly. Sickened. But I am not surprised. I am not surprised at all'

'Those who argue there shouldn't have been a lockdown ignore the fact that half-a-million people would have died had we not locked down.

'And for those saying we should never lock down again, imagine if a disease killed half those infected, and half the population were going to get infected  as is happening right now with avian flu in birds. If that disease were in humans, of course we'd want to lock down.'

He continued: 'The story spun on care homes is completely wrong. What the messages show is that Mr Hancock pushed for testing of those going into care homes when that testing was available.

'The full documents have already all been made available to the inquiry, which is the proper place for an objective assessment, so true lessons can be learned.'

Health minister Helen Whately, whose texts were also leaked by The Telegraph, today said the importance of testing was 'never in doubt' but added 'tough decisions about prioritisation had to be made'.

She said: 'Even in those early days, the UK Government and colleagues in my department were clear, testing would be crucial.

'That is why the former secretary of state, the Right Honourable member for West Suffolk [Matt Hancock] set ambitious testing targets to drive a true step change in the quantity of tests because he knew testing would be a vital lifeline until the vaccines could be developed and proven safe and effective.'

She added: 'The importance of testing was never in doubt and there was full agreement on that in every part of Government, from the chief medical officer to the health secretary to the prime minister.

'But in a situation where we had the capacity to test at most a few thousand each day, tough decisions about prioritisation had to be made, decisions that were taken on the best public health advice available.'

Official stats show more than 43,000 care home residents died from the virus during the first two years of the unprecedented crisis.

Matt Hancock was warned it was 'inhumane' to impose restrictions on visiting care homes and elderly were at risk of 'just giving up' due to being isolated for so long, leaked messages show The messages show Health Secretary Matt Hancock advised against any sudden changes to the visiting rules, as the government sought to improve its monthly targets Advertisement

Mr Hancock oversaw the hugely contentious policy that allowed untested hospital patients to be discharged into care homes at the height of the first wave  seen as the defining factor behind the huge death toll in the sector.

Ms Adamson added: 'We have always been seeking the truth and so desperate for lessons to be learned to prevent further loss of life and that's what we've always been focused on.

'However, whilst these untruths are being peddled, we can't even hope to learn lessons because there has been this lack of transparency from the very outset.

'My father, among tens of thousands of other care home residents, were lambs to the slaughter.

'And Matt Hancock has really treated us with contempt. He had this foray into the Jungle, bleating on about forgiveness and wanting to make things right.

'But this man is yet to actually show a heartfelt apology.

'It's all about him and his image that he's trying to rehabilitate. But he's shown no compassion and treated us with the utmost disrespect.'

Meanwhile, one campaign group revealed that it would back 'an immediate police investigation into criminal negligence and misconduct in public office', if there was enough evidence.

Social media users  including Piers Morgan and other critics of No10's handling of the outbreak  accused him of 'criminal negligence'.

Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK said: 'There needs to be an immediate and serious police investigation in parallel with the inquiry.'

Another grieving relative, who wished to stay anonymous, told MailOnline that they would 'fully support' anyone seeking to go down the legal route.

And Jayne Connery, of Vulnerable Care, said: 'The elderly residents that lost their lives need answers.'

Labour's shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said: 'The claim the Government threw a "protective ring" around care homes during Covid has proven to be a sham.

'They ignored the Chief Medical Officer and people died. How many lives could have been saved?'

Liberal Democrat health and social care spokesperson Daisy Cooper said: 'These messages lay bare the chaos at the heart of the Government during the pandemic, and the mistakes that led to countless lives being needlessly lost.

'Matt Hancock's claims to have thrown a protective ring around our care homes could not be further from the truth.

'It's almost a year ago that a court ruled that the government unlawfully discharged people from hospitals into care homes without testing.

'But bereaved families are still no closer to having justice and the truth. They deserve answers through the official Covid inquiry, so we can learn lessons and save lives.'

The leaked texts also include exchanges between the former Health Secretary and then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who revealed he was going 'quietly crackers' about the UK's shortage of test kits

In one message on April 14, Mr Hancock said Sir Chris had finished a review and recommended 'testing of all going into care homes, and segregation whilst awaiting result'.

Mr Hancock described it as 'obviously a good positive step'.

However, the investigation said he later responded to an aide: 'Tell me if I'm wrong but I would rather leave it out and just commit to test & isolate ALL going into care from hospital. I do not think the community commitment adds anything and it muddies the waters.'

Official guidance, which was published on April 15, set out that all those discharged from hospitals into care homes would be tested  but the Government would 'move to' testing those going into care from the community.

However, it was not until August 14 that the document was updated to require care home admissions from the community to be tested.

In the first two years of the pandemic, care homes in England logged 43,256 deaths involving Covid. Nearly 18,000 of these were logged between mid-April and mid-August  before homes were instructed to test all new admissions.

Mr Hancock told the Health and Social Care Committee in June 2021 that 'sadly the biggest route of Covid into care homes is through the community'.

And in his pandemic diaries, Mr Hancock claimed hospital discharges were not to blame, and pointed the finger at infections being 'brought in from the wider community, mainly by staff'.

Mr Hancock last night delivered a speech at The NFT Gallery in Mayfair, London, during a fundraising event for CARE International UK's humanitarian appeal for Ukraine

The WhatsApp leaks also lay bare divisions between Mr Hancock and social care minister Helen Whately (pictured today), who said she was concerned about the Government's policy of discharging NHS patients into care homes to free up capacity

Matt Hancock and Boris Johnson, then Health Secretary and Prime Minister, pictured during a visit to Bassetlaw District General Hospital on November 22, 2019

The leaked texts also include exchanges between the former Health Secretary and then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who revealed he was going 'quietly crackers' about the UK's shortage of test kits

A crisis in testing and PPE turned care homes into 'warzones' in late March 2020, as the nation was plunged into lockdown. Pictured: A woman visiting her grandmother in isolation during the pandemic

The Government introduced mandatory testing for people going into care homes from hospital, but not from the community (Pictured: Boris Johnson holds a coronavirus meeting on February 28, 2020, attended by Sir Chris Whitty, second from right, and Matt Hancock, right)

Isabel Oakeshott, who has described lockdowns as an 'unmitigated disaster', said she was releasing the messages because it would take 'many years' before the end of the official Covid inquiry, which she claimed could be a 'colossal whitewash'

During Prime Minister's Questions today, Sir Keir told the Commons: 'We don't know the truth of what happened yet.

'There are too many messages and too many unknowns, however families across the country will look at this and the sight of politicians writing books portraying themselves as heroes or selectively leaking messages, (it) will be an insulting and ghoulish spectacle for them.'

He asked: 'The Covid inquiry has already cost the taxpayer 85million and hasn't heard from a single Government minister yet. So can the Prime Minister assure the House no more delays, that the inquiry will have whatever support it needs to report by the end of this year?'

Mr Sunak stressed there was a legal process to follow, that the inquiry was independent, and it was important to 'let them get on and do their job'.

Jacob Rees-Mogg 'had a Covid test for one of his children couriered to his home amid a shortage', according to leaked messages Mr Rees-Mogg had the test organised by then Health Secretary Matt Hancock's special advisor, just two days after the director of NHS Test and Trace was forced to give 'heartfelt apologies' to anyone who couldn't get a test due to shortages, according to leaked messages Advertisement

He added: 'Rather than comment on piecemeal bits of information, I am sure he will agree with me the right way for these things to be looked at is the Covid inquiry.'

Pat McFadden, shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, told Sky News: 'We were told at the time that the Government was putting a protective ring around care homes.'

He added: 'The stories this morning suggest that protective ring wasn't there  that people were being allowed to go into care homes that could have been positive, contrary to the advice of the chief medical officer at the time.

'What we've got to do is get to the bottom of it, get to the truth of it.

'Because if that did happen, it looks like a pretty major breach early on in an area where we knew elderly people were vulnerable.'

Justin Madders, shadow minister for employment rights, pointed to Mr Hancock's exclamation of 'I WANT TO HIT MY TARGET' of 100,000 tests per day  in a message to George Osborne in April 2020.

He said: 'This confirms what we suspected at the time that he wanted a good headline, ignoring professional advice, ignoring what was happening in care homes, it was all about him.'

Professor Karol Sikora, a world-renowned oncologist, tweeted that 'these revelations should surprise nobody'.

'Policies more about Hancock's PR than reducing all-cause mortality,' he said.

TalkTV presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer said the messages show that decisions weren't made based on following the science, but instead based on 'politicians' ego, on their careers and reputations' and even their 'likes on Twitter'.

Carol Vorderman said the investigation 'makes for shocking reading'.

'The many thousands of care home deaths which might easily have been prevented, the school closures, face masks, the casual nature of it all,' she said.

The WhatsApp leaks also lay bare divisions between Mr Hancock and social care minister Helen Whately, who said she was concerned about the Government's policy of discharging NHS patients into care homes to free up capacity.

She also urged action on PPE supplies to social care which were 'all over the place' in April, with problems continuing into May.

Ms Whately also warned Mr Hancock in June 2020 that nearly 100 care homes were refusing to test their staff for the virus over concerns they would need time off work.

Reports also claimed that Mr Hancock's adviser arranged for a personal test to be couriered for fellow top Tory Jacob Rees-Mogg's child at a time of national shortage

As he battled to meet his own target of 100,000 coronavirus tests per day, the investigation shows Mr Hancock texted his former boss George Osborne to 'call in a favour'.

The investigation also revealed that senior Conservative Jacob Rees-Mogg had a Covid test couriered to his home during a testing shortage.

In September 2020, an aide messaged Mr Hancock to say the lab had 'lost' a test for one of the then-Commons leader's children, 'so we've got a courier going to their family home tonight'.

He added: 'Jacob's spad [special adviser] is aware and has helped line it all up, but you might want to text Jacob.'

Commenting on the claim, Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: 'This is yet more evidence that it's one rule for Conservative ministers and another for everyone else.

'The Covid inquiry must look into reports Conservative ministers were able to get priority access to tests at a time of national shortage.'

As he battled to meet his own target of 100,000 coronavirus tests per day, the investigation shows Mr Hancock texted his former boss George Osborne, who was editor of the Evening Standard from 2017 to 2020, to 'call in a favour'.

Mr Hancock said he has thousands of spare testing slots which is 'obvs good news about spread of virus' but 'hard for my target' as he asked for front page coverage.

Mr Osborne responded: 'Yes  of course  all you need to do tomorrow is give some exclusive words to the Standard and I'll tell the team to splash it.'

The then-minister later added: 'I WANT TO HIT MY TARGET!'

Mr Hancock later clashed with Mr Osborne, when in November 2020 the former Chancellor urged the Government to make testing its 'absolute number one priority'.

In a text following the interview, Mr Hancock questioned the comments and said 'mass testing is going v well'.

But Mr Osborne said: 'No one thinks testing is going well, Matt.

'If I wanted a test today I cant get one, unless I fake symptoms  and [name redacted by The Telegraph] is still waiting test results from 3 weeks ago ([name redacted by The Telegraph] went private in the end).
It was the bombshell claim that saw ex-Health Secretary Matt Hancock accused of 'criminal negligence'.

Leaked WhatsApp messages revealed Sir Chris Whitty recommended testing 'of all going into care homes'. But Mr Hancock didn't follow the guidance, claiming that it 'muddies the waters'.

In response to today's damning allegations in The Daily Telegraph, Mr Hancock hit back at claims that he rejected Sir Chris' advice.

A key meeting on the same day of the text concluded it was 'not possible' to carry out the tests at the time, the MP's spokesperson claims.

But  like with most of the key decisions at the heart of the pandemic  the truth is not simply black or white.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock presented Covid testing data on May 4 2020 at a Downing Street press conference. The graph shows the testing capacity per day across the UK

Mr Hancock (pictured at the Downing Street briefing on May 4 2020) claimed victory in the race to hit his 100,000 Covid tests a day by April 30

Health minister Helen Whately (pictured in the Commons today), who worked alongside Mr Hancock during his time as Health Secretary, today said overseeing the response in care homes during the pandemic was 'extremely difficult'

On April 14, the day of Mr Hancock's WhatsApp exchange with special adviser Allan Nixon, only 20,000 tests were being carried out every day in England.

At the time, there was a huge shortage of kits amid a global rush to secure supplies and labs were lacking viral chemicals and supplies to process swabs.

Senior health insiders feared they would fail to ramp up their capacity to hit 100,000 a day by the end of April, the ambitious pledge made by Mr Hancock himself.

Universities and private companies were roped in to drastically boost capabilities.

Then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson compared it to adopting a 'Dunkirk' approach to Covid testing, by enlisting 'small ship' labs to rapidly boost the number of swabs that could be processed.

The effort appeared to pay off, with Mr Hancock claiming he'd hit the target by the end of April, labelling the feat as an 'incredible achievement'.

However, he later faced a wave of condemnation for including tens of thousands of tests that had only been sent out to homes and hospitals  even though they had yet to be used, returned and processed.

'Appalled and sickened... but not surprised at all': Fury of Covid families as WhatsApps 'show Matt Hancock rejected Chris Whitty's care home Covid testing advice before 43k died' Discussing Mr Hancock's messages on Good Morning Britain, Jean Adamson (pictured), whose father died in a care home in April 2020, said: 'I am appalled, quite frankly. Sickened. But I am not surprised. I am not surprised at all' Advertisement

The UK's mass lateral flow scheme, which cost the Government 2billion a month at the height of the pandemic, didn't fully come into play until 2021.

So, faced with limited supplies, ministers were forced to ration who got tests during the early stages of the pandemic.

Initially, Covid PCR tests were reserved for those had symptoms and had travelled to the UK from a country experiencing an outbreak.

Such swabs, which take up to three days to process, were then rolled out to frontline NHS staff with symptoms in March 2020.

In April, this was expanded to care home residents with symptoms, those admitted to care homes from hospitals and staff working in the homes.

It wasn't fully rolled out for other members of the community being admitted to care homes until August, four months after Sir Chris' original advice.

By this point, however, tests had ramped up to around 150,000 a day.

Health minister Helen Whately, who worked alongside Mr Hancock during his time as Health Secretary, today said overseeing the response in care homes during the pandemic was 'extremely difficult'.

She told the Commons: 'I should mention that selective snippets of WhatsApp conversations give a limited and at times misleading insight into the machinery of Government at the time.

'That is why the Covid inquiry is so important, so we have the right preparations in place to meet future threats and challenges.'

She added: 'The importance of testing was never in doubt and there was full agreement on that in every part of Government, from the chief medical officer to the health secretary to the prime minister.

'But in a situation where we had the capacity to test at most a few thousand each day, tough decisions about prioritisation had to be made, decisions that were taken on the best public health advice available.'

Government data shows there was capacity for around 26,000 people across the UK to have a PCR test in early April 2020, rising rapidly to above 120,000 by the end of the month.

Sir Chris Whitty (left) told then health secretary Matt Hancock (right) there should be testing for 'all going into care homes'

In one message on April 14, Mr Hancock said Sir Chris had finished a review and recommended 'testing of all going into care homes, and segregation whilst awaiting result'. Mr Hancock described it as 'obviously a good positive step'. However, the investigation said he later responded to an aide: 'Tell me if I'm wrong but I would rather leave it out and just commit to test & isolate ALL going into care from hospital. I do not think the community commitment adds anything and it muddies the waters'

CARE HOME DEATHS: Data from the Office for National Statistics shows there were more than 40,000 fatalities in care homes that involved Covid in the first two years of the pandemic. Nearly 18,000 of these occurred between mid-April and mid-August, before guidance was published stating that all of those going into homes from the community should be tested

Between April 21 and 30, when both PCR capacity and test data is first available for, there was capacity for 663,222 tests and only 390,088 were taken.

This suggests that there were more than 270,000 excess tests that month that could have been used in care homes in April alone.

Even more tests were available in the following months, with 1.4m PCR tests going unused in May, rising to 3.2m in June, official figures suggest.

Data from the National Audit Office shows that around 25,000 people were discharged from hospitals to care homes between mid-March and mid-April, while the number of residents entering care homes from the community is not logged.

But there are only 440,000 people living in care home in the UK  suggesting that there was sufficient capacity to test all those returning to the homes from hospitals and moving into care homes.

Matt Hancock was warned it was 'inhumane' to impose restrictions on visiting care homes and elderly were at risk of 'just giving up' due to being isolated for so long, leaked messages show The messages show Health Secretary Matt Hancock advised against any sudden changes to the visiting rules, as the government sought to improve its monthly targets Advertisement

It comes after bombshell WhatsApp messages, obtained by The Telegraph show that Sir Chris called for everyone entering care homes to be tested for Covid.

On April 14, Mr Hancock said: 'Chris Whitty has done an evidence review and now recommends testing of all going into care homes, and segregation whilst awaiting result. This is obviously a good positive step & we must put into the doc'.

However, Mr Hancock U-turned later that day. He said: 'Tell me if I'm wrong but I would rather leave it out and just commit to test & isolate ALL going into care from hospital. I do not think the community commitment adds anything and it muddies the waters.'

The Telegraph reported that his messages make 'it clear that he had decided to ignore the advice'.

But while Mr Hancock 'was supportive' of the guidance from Sir Chris, he was 'told it wasn't deliverable' at a meeting later that day, so instead 'insisted on testing all those who came from hospitals', according to the MP's spokesman.

It is unclear what factors would have made swabbing all residents going into care homes 'undeliverable'.

However, some had to be earmarked for those with symptoms, those in hospital and NHS staff and their families.

But Professor Alan McNally, director of Birmingham University's Microbiology and Infection Institute who helped set up the Milton Keynes Lighthouse Lab, told the BBC Radio 4's World at One that while capacity was limited on the specific date of April 14, when Sir Chris gave his advice, it was known that testing was going to be significantly ramped up in the coming weeks.

'I would find it very difficult for anyone to say that they were not aware of the fact that by the end of April, the testing capacity would have exponentially increased from where it was on April 14,' he said.
There are surprising and potentially carcinogenic chemicals in toilet paper sold in the US, a new study suggests.

Researchers from the University of Florida found evidence of the chemicals in toilet paper sold all over the world and in sewage sludge samples from eight wastewater treatment plants in Florida.

PFAS - or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances - are synthetic chemicals that last thousands of years and have been linked to testicular and kidney cancers.

Some manufacturers add PFAS when turning wood into pulp, and the chemicals remain in the final paper product.

This is not the first time PFAS have been detected in toilet paper. Last year, scientists found high levels of fluorine in four major brands.

University of Florida scientists found diPAP, one type of PFAS,

Lead study author Dr Timothy Townsend said: 'To see this one signature chemical, which weve already seen before in the sewage sludge, also turn up in the toilet paper certainly indicated that this is another source that we need to be thinking about when it comes to . . . limiting the amount of PFAS that gets into the environment.'

When toilet paper is flushed, forever chemicals seep into the sewer system.

In addition to certain cancers, PFAS have been linked to myriad other conditions including liver failure, thyroid disease, asthma, and reduced fertility.

PFAS are most commonly found in cosmetics and other personal care products, stain-resistant coatings on carpets and upholstery, pesticides, and firefighting foam.

The Florida research team, led by Dr Townsend, an expert in environmental engineering at the University of Florida, collected toilet paper rolls sold in North, South, and Central America; Africa; and Western Europe and collected sewage sludge samples from U.S. wastewater treatment plants.

Then, they extracted PFAS from the paper and solid sludge in sewage and analyzed them for 34 chemical compounds. The most prevalent among them was a chemical known as disubstituted polyfluoroalkyl phosphates (diPAPs), precursors that can transmute into other, more carcinogenic PFAS.

The researchers said: Our results suggest that toilet paper should be considered as a potentially major source of PFAS entering wastewater treatment systems.

What ARE 'forever chemicals'? 'Forever chemicals' are a class of common industrial compounds that don't break down when they're released into the environment. Humans are exposed to these chemicals after they've come in contact with food, soil or water reservoirs. These chemicals  known more properly as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS  are added to cookware, carpets, textiles and other items to make them more water- and stain-repellant. PFAS contamination has been detected in water near manufacturing facilities, as well as at military bases and firefighting training facilities where flame-retardant foam is used. The chemicals have been linked to an increased risk of kidney and testicular cancer, and damage to the immune system, as well as birth defects, smaller birth weights, and decreased vaccine response in children. Advertisement

The researchers then combined their results with data from other studies that measured PFAS levels in sewage and per capita toilet paper use in several countries. They concluded that toilet paper contributed about four percent of diPAPs in the United States and Canada, 35 percent in Sweden and up to 89 percent in France.

The study said: Despite the fact that North Americans use more toilet paper than people living in many other countries, the calculated percentages suggest that most PFAS enter the U.S. wastewater systems from cosmetics, textiles, food packaging or other sources.

This study identifies toilet paper as a source of PFAS to wastewater treatment systems, and in some places, it can be a major source.

Their findings were published Tuesday in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters.

The relatively low numbers in the US can be attributed to other sources of PFAS in wastewater, such as cleansers and home cleaning supplies, which also leak directly into wastewater systems.

PFAS are a class of about 12,000 man-made chemicals that have been used in industry and consumer products worldwide since the 1940s, specifically to make products that are resistant to heat, water, and stains.

Surveiling sewage for health threats is nothing new. The Covid pandemic spurred a massive expansion in wastewater monitoring due to its usefulness in flagging emerging variants and case trends.
A bird flu strain that claimed the life of a schoolgirl in Cambodia has evolved to better infect human cells, in a worrying sign.

Scientists on the ground who made the discovery said the finding 'needs to be treated with the utmost concern'.

They added that there were 'some indications' the virus had already 'gone through' a human and picked up the new mutations before infecting the girl.

The 11-year-old girl, from Prey Veng province, last week became the first victim of H5N1 in 2023. Her father has also tested positive for the virus but has not developed symptoms.

A worker catches chickens at a market in Phnom Penh on February 24, 2023. The father of an 11-year-old Cambodian girl who died earlier in the week from bird flu tested positive for the virus, health officials said

A young girl from Prey Veng in Cambodia (shown on map) died from the H5N1 bird flu this year. She was infected with the virus in mid-February and is the nation's first case since 2014

Like all flus, the virus is spread primarily through droplets in the air which are breathed in or get into a person's mouth, eyes or nose

Dr Erik Karlsson, who led the team at the Pasteur Institute of Cambodia that decoded the genetic sequence of the girl's virus, warned that it differed from that taken from birds.

He told Sky News: 'There are some indications that this virus has gone through a human.

'Any time these viruses get into a new host they'll have certain changes that allow them to replicate a little bit better or potentially bind to the cells in our respiratory tract a little bit better.'

But he added that the virus was yet to fully adapt to humans, saying it was fundamentally 'still a bird virus'.

Dr Karlsson said the new mutations were unlikely to have occurred in the girl, but probably existed in a 'cloud' of viruses with random genetic changes inside birds.

The strain in its current form is unlikely to cause a major outbreak. Widespread transmission would require a mutation that allows it to bind to a receptor found on cells in the nose.

CDC says it's in a 'posture of readiness' over H5N1 in Cambodia The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said it is in a 'posture of readiness' with several vaccine and drug candidates in the works. Advertisement

Genetic testing revealed that the girl had caught the 2.3.2.1c strain of H5N1, which is endemic to wild birds and poultry in Cambodia.

This differs from the 2.3.4.4b type that has spread rapidly around the world and infected many birds and mammals, but Dr Karlsson said this was no reason to downplay the threat.

He added: 'This was zoonotic spillover [of a virus infecting a new species] and needs to be treated with the utmost concern.'

Calling on the world to keep monitoring the virus, he said: 'Something may be happening here in Cambodia and something may be happening on the other side of the world in South America, but we don't really know what could cause the problem tomorrow.'

H5N1 has a human mortality rate of around 50 percent. There have only been around 870 cases among people ever, globally.

The 2.3.4.4b strain has devastated the world's bird population over the past year.

More than 15million animals have been struck down and killed by the virus itself, while governments have collectively culled more than 200million worldwide to curb the virus' spread, including 58million in the US alone.

Health experts work during spray disinfectant at a village in Prey Veng province Cambodia - where a father has been diagnosed with bird flu

Before the cases in Cambodia, only one case of H5N1 in humans had been detected this year. Cases in humans have been rare in recent years

The fresh outbreak of bird flu cases in humans in Cambodia has led to fears a new Covid-like pandemic could be on the horizon

The pathogen has already jumped from birds to mammals, sparking fears that it is now one step close to spreading in humans  a hurdle that has so far stopped it from triggering a pandemic.

Health authorities in Cambodia say there is no evidence that the virus is spreading between people yet, suggesting the daughter and father caught the virus from the same source - likely an infected bird.

On Monday, Or Vandine, the country's health secretary, said investigations were still ongoing and while human-to-human spread was unlikely, it could not be ruled out entirely yet,.

She said that we should 'wait' for the conclusions of experts probing the cases.

Bird flu outbreak: Everything you need to know What is it? Avian flu is an infectious type of influenza that spreads among birds. In rare cases, it can be transmitted to humans through close contact with a dead or alive infected bird. This includes touching infected birds, their droppings or bedding. People can also catch bird flu if they kill or prepare infected poultry for eating. Wild birds are carriers, especially through migration. As they cluster together to breed, the virus spreads rapidly and is then carried to other parts of the globe. New strains tend to appear first in Asia, from where more than 60 species of shore birds, waders and waterfowl head off to Alaska to breed and mix with migratory birds from the US. Others go west and infect European species. What strain is currently spreading? H5N1. So far the new virus has been detected in some 80million birds and poultry globally since September 2021  double the previous record the year before. Not only is the virus spreading at speed, but it is also killing at an unprecedented level, leading some experts to say this is the deadliest variant so far. Millions of chickens and turkeys in the UK have been culled or put into lockdown, affecting the availability of turkeys and free-range eggs. Can it infect people? Yes, but only 860 human cases have been reported to the World Health Organization since 2003. The risk to people has been deemed 'low'. But people are strongly urged not to touch sick or dead birds because the virus is lethal, killing 56 percent of people it does manage to infect. Advertisement

The deceased girl in Cambodia had her infection begin as a fever, cough and sore throat six days before her death.

She was taken to a children's hospital in Phnom Penh, the capital  around 100km (62miles) away. She died on February 22.

Her father also tested positive for the virus  but had no symptoms  and has since tested negative.

It is possible that the 49-year-old, from Prey Veng province, had also handled infected birds.

That is how his young daughter, who has not been named, is thought to have gotten ill.

She was Cambodia's first human case since 2014.

None of the 29 others who were swabbed for the highly pathogenic virus were infected, results showed.

Yesterday the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said it was ramping up its pandemic preparedness in response to the threat.

The agency said it was in a 'posture of readiness' with several vaccine and drug candidates in the works.

National testing capacity was also being built-up in case the H5N1 strain spills over into people.

In the UK, health authorities say they have started modeling scenarios for a bird flu pandemic in response to the threat.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has described the situation in Cambodia as 'worrying' in a noticeable shift in rhetoric.

Earlier this month the agency had assessed the threat of bird flu to humans as 'low'. But the WHO says it may reconsider that status based on the latest update.

Dr Sylvie Briand, the WHO's director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, told reporters they were considering the shift.

She said: 'The global H5N1 situation is worrying given the wide spread of the virus in birds around the world and the increasing reports of cases in mammals including humans.'

Concerns over bird flu jumping to humans were raised this month after cases also emerged in mammals including mink and sea lions.

This brings the virus one step closer to infecting and spreading among humans.

Bird flu viruses typically have a harder time spreading in humans because the mortality rate is so high and the infection can kill so swiftly, meaning people die before they have a chance to pass it on.

Professor Francois Balloux wrote on Twitter this week that avian flu is a 'serious concern'.

But he said that although human-to-human transmission occurs, it isn't happening anymore at the moment than it did before, and 'by far the most likely scenario for H5N1 is that nothing happens right now'.

Bird flu infections in people are rare.

However, they can happen when enough virus gets into a person's eyes, nose, mouth or is inhaled.

People with close or prolonged unprotected contact (not wearing respiratory and eye protection) with infected birds or in places where sick birds, their mucous, saliva or feces have been contaminated may be at greater risk of infection.

But it is unlikely that a human could catch the virus from eating poultry or game birds because the disease is heat-sensitive, meaning the meat won't contain the virus as long as it is properly cooked.

An infected bird may appear lethargic, stop eating, have swollen body parts, and cough and sneeze. Other birds might die suddenly without any symptoms.

The symptoms in humans are high fever (often above 100 F), a cough, sore throat, muscle aches and a general feeling of malaise.

Additional early symptoms could include pain in the abdomen and chest and diarrhea.

It can quickly develop into serious respiratory illness, including shortness of breath and difficulty breathing and pneumonia. People may also suffer an altered mental state or seizures.
Over 2million people were asked to shield during the pandemic even though the Government's top advisors had told the Prime Minister it was not 'very effective'.

The revelations suggest clinically 'extremely vulnerable' patients may have been cruelly and unnecessarily isolated from loved ones for months.

Sir Patrick Vallance, the Chief Scientific Adviser, said in a WhatsApp message in August 2020 that implementing the measure had not been 'easy or very effective'.

And Professor Sir Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer, added that he would personally 'think twice' about following shielding guidelines himself, unless it was to protect the NHS  which was not the main objective.

Boris Johnson raised the prospect of giving over-65s 'a choice' between shielding from the virus or taking what he hoped would be an 'ever-diminishing risk' of living a more normal life.

Sir Patrick Vallance (right), the Chief Scientific Adviser, said in a WhatsApp message in August 2020 that implementing the measure had not been 'easy or very effective'. And Professor Sir Chris Whitty (left), the Chief Medical Officer, added that he would personally 'think twice' about following shielding guidelines himself, unless it was to protect the NHS  which was not the main objective

The then prime minister compared over-65s' risk of dying from Covid to that of 'falling down stairs', adding: 'And we don't stop older people from using stairs.'

But, despite reservations, ministers still reintroduced shielding nationally during subsequent national lockdowns.

In the worst affected parts of the country that were placed under local lockdowns, many effectively shielded for most of the pandemic.

The discussions come from leaked WhatsApp messages taken from the phone of then health secretary Matt Hancock and seen by the Telegraph.

They also reveal Mr Hancock rejected Sir Chris' advice to test for Covid all residents going into English care homes, meaning some may have taken the virus in with them, fuelling deadly outbreaks.

KEY CLAIMS OF THE LOCKDOWN FILES INVESTIGATION A fresh cache of 100,000 text and WhatsApp messages leaked to the Daily Telegraph by the ex-journalist who ghost-wrote Hancocks pandemic diaries claimed: Matt Hancock rejected the Chief Medical Officers call to test all residents going into English care homes for Covid

A minister in Mr Hancock's department said restrictions on visitors to care homes were inhumane but residents remained isolated many months on

Mr Hancocks adviser arranged for a personal test to be couriered for Jacob Rees-Moggs child at a time of national shortage

Mr Hancock told former chancellor George Osborne, then-editor of the Evening Standard, 'I WANT TO HIT MY TARGET!' as he pushed for favourable front-page coverage

Mr Osborne warned Mr Hancock that 'no one thinks testing is going well' in late 2020

Then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, revealed he was going 'quietly crackers' about the UK's shortage of test kits Advertisement

A message from the CMO early in April 2020 - about a month into the pandemic - said that there should be testing for 'all going into care homes'.

But Mr Hancock did not follow the guidance, telling his advisers that it 'muddies the waters'.

Instead, he introduced guidance that made testing compulsory only for those entering care homes from hospital.

Prior to the guidance, care homes had been told that negative tests were not required even for hospital patients.

The guidance stating that those coming in from the community should be tested was eventually introduced on August 14.

Between April 17 and August 13, 2020, a total of 17,678 people died of Covid in care homes in England.

Lindsay Jackson, spokesperson for Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, said: 'The failure to protect care homes led to thousands of unnecessary deaths, like my mum's, and meant hospitals became even more overwhelmed and even longer lockdowns were required to prevent further loss of life.

'The consequences of this could not be more horrific and there needs to be an immediate and serious police investigation in parallel with the inquiry.'

Christina McAnea, general secretary of the union Unison, which represents care home workers, said: 'Lives were needlessly lost because ministers effectively abandoned staff and residents.

'Many care workers had to make their own safety kit from bin bags, couldn't access testing for months and were pressured into coming in when they should have been off work with Covid.

'The government is to blame for this disaster.

Boris Johnson raised the prospect of giving over-65s 'a choice' between shielding from the virus or taking what he hoped would be an 'ever-diminishing risk' of living a more normal life

The shielding guidance was designed to protect people who were most at risk from getting the virus (stock)

'Staff, care home residents and their families paid an unacceptable price. Lessons must now be learned through the independent public inquiry.'

The shielding guidance was designed to protect people who were most at risk from getting the virus.

When it was first introduced in March 2020, it told 'extremely vulnerable' people that they should not leave the house at all other than for medical appointments. This was in place for certain cancer patients, organ transplant recipients and others.

Those affected were advised to socially distance from other members of their households, including sleeping separately and cleaning shared bathrooms after every use.

While the measures were loosened as time wore on, the prolonged isolation affected people's psychological well-being.

More than a third of those who were shielding reported a deterioration in mental health, according to the Office of National Statistics.

The discussion between Mr Johnson and his advisers came on August 9, 2020, just over a week after the Government had lifted national shielding guidance for the first time.

The policy was reintroduced across the country in November 2020 during the second lockdown, and then again nationally for the first three months of 2021.

The comments about care home testing by Sir Chris were discussed on April 14, 2020, the day before the Government published its 'Covid 19: adult social care action plan'.

In a WhatsApp conversation about its finer details, Mr Hancock told his advisers: 'Chris Whitty has done an evidence review and now recommend testing of all going into care homes, and segregation whilst awaiting result. This is obviously a good positive step & we must put into the doc.'

However, by the end of the day Mr Hancock appeared to have changed his mind  and he requested the removal of the commitment to begin testing admissions from the community.

In one message, Mr Hancock said: 'Tell me if I'm wrong but I would rather leave it out and just commit to test & isolate ALL going into care from hospital.

'I do not think the community commitment adds anything and it muddies the waters.'

Mr Hancock later told the health and social care select committee that 'the strongest route of the virus into care homes, unfortunately, is community transmission, so it was staff testing that was most important thing for keeping people safe in care homes'.

An independent report by the Department of Health and Social Care has also found that there was 'potential exposure to Covid-19 in care home settings' from factors including 'new admissions from the community'.

The WhatsApp messages also show comments by the social care minister, Helen Whately, where she warns that restrictions on visitors to care homes are 'inhumane'  months before they were finally lifted.

She later warned Mr Hancock that the elderly were at risk of 'just giving up' because they had been isolated for so long.

Mr Hancock said in his book, Pandemic Diaries, that the 'tragic but honest truth' at the start of April was that 'we don't have enough testing capacity'.

In the first two years of the pandemic, there were more than 40,000 Covid deaths in care homes in England.

Helen Whately, who is now health minister, yesterday told the Commons the leaked messages give a 'limited' and misleading view of the Government's decision-making around care homes during the pandemic.

Labour said the Government's promise to throw a protective ring around care homes was proven false by the more than 100,000 WhatsApp messages.

Responding to an urgent question in the Commons, Ms Whately stressed the situation in care homes was 'extremely difficult in the pandemic', adding: 'The importance of testing was never in doubt and there was full agreement on that in every part of Government, from the chief medical officer to the health secretary to the prime minister.

'But in a situation where we had the capacity to test at most a few thousand each day, tough decisions about prioritisation had to be made, decisions that were taken on the best public health advice available.'

Shadow health minister Liz Kendall, who asked the urgent question, said: 'Throughout the Covid pandemic, ministers repeatedly claimed they threw a protective ring around England's care homes and always followed the evidence and scientific advice, but WhatsApp messages from the former health secretary revealed in today's Telegraph suggest nothing could be further from the truth.'
Headaches and feeling sick are the common signs of brain tumours doctors warn about.

But hearing voices, having blurry vision and suddenly losing interest in your hobbies are just some of the lesser known symptoms.

After astrologer and TV personality Russell Grant, 71, shared his battle with brain cancer, MailOnline shares some of the stranger signs of tumours.

Hearing voices, getting blurry vision and suddenly losing interest in your hobbies are some of the lesser known symptoms of brain tumours

Hearing voices

Hallucinating voices and hearing random sounds can sometimes indicate a mental health condition.

But it could also be a brain tumour.

Auditory hallucinations, as they are known, can be caused by brain tumours that are both cancerous and benign.

These hallucinations can happen if the tumour is located in the temporal lobe, the part of the brain which processes sound, understands language and encodes memory.

READ MORE: Russell Grant details brain cancer battle as he praises medics who removed his tumour during 5-hour op Advertisement

It can also happen if the tumour is pressed against a nerve which sends signals from the ear to the brain.

The NHS advises anyone who experiences hallucinations that make you see, hear, smell, taste or feel things that appear real but are not, to seek medical help.

Being clumsy

Tripping over, losing your balance and dropping things is also a potential sign of a brain tumour.

It can happen if a tumour forms on the brain stem, where your brain connects to the spinal cord.

As a result of its location, it could cause you to become clumsy and have trouble walking.

This is because it can interrupt the communication between the brain and the rest of the body.

Research carried out by Kings College London and led by Dr Suzanne Scott, a senior lecturer in health psychology, found many sufferers dismiss a lack of balance.

The study of 39 brain cancer sufferers found many thought losing balance and getting 'clumsy' was just a part of getting older.

If a tumour forms on the brain stem, where your brain connects to the spinal cord, it could cause you to become clumsy and lose your balance

Loss of interest in hobbies

Deciding to give up a hobby doesn't necessarily mean you have got a brain tumour, but suddenly losing interest in your favourite could potentially be a warning sign.

As many as one in three people with a brain tumour experience a personality change, according to the Brain Tumour Charity.

When a tumour grows it can put pressure on the other healthy cells around it.

If a tumour develops in the frontal lobe, which controls your emotions and personality and behaviour, you can even start acting strangely.

But it is important to catch these symptoms early.

Only 40 per cent of brain cancer patients live more than a year after diagnosis and only 20 per cent survive five years, data suggests.

Forgetfulness

Forgetting to do everyday tasks like locking the door and turning off the oven may be hallmark signs of Alzheimer's.

But forgetfulness could also be a sign of a brain tumour.

Because many areas of the brain work to store and recall different types of memories, it is hard to pinpoint how different brain tumours will affect people's memory, according to the Brain Tumour Charity.

The charity explains that forgetfulness is more likely to be experienced if the tumour is in the frontal or temporal lobes of the brain, which is where memories are stored.

As many as one in two people experience memory difficulties caused by a brain tumour or its treatment, the Brain Tumour Charity says.

Ear or tooth pain

Toothache or a pain in your ear is not something you ignore.

But, in rare cases, it could be a sign of something more serious, including a tumour.

A tumour can stop parts of the brain from working normally and, depending on its position, it can cause ear problems and tooth pain, according to cancer charity Macmillan.

An acoustic neuroma is a benign brain tumour that can cause toothache. This type of tumour can also be responsible for hearing loss, according to the NHS.

You could experience ear pain and hearing difficulties if the tumour is pushing against your cranial nerves located at the back of your brain, the charity says.

A tumour can stop parts of the brain from working normally and depending on its position, it can cause ear problems and tooth pain, according to cancer charity McMillan. this can cause ear pain and tooth ache

Blurry vision

Getting blurred vision or sight that comes and goes, even when you are wearing your glasses, could be a sign of a brain tumour.

If the brain tumour puts pressure on the optic nerve, your vision can be drastically affected, experts say.

You may even notice your start to get more clumsy and bump into things, especially if you lose your sight out of the corners of your eyes.

It could make you knock into objects on your left or right side if you lose your prereferral vision.

Blurred vison, floating shapes and tunnel vison can also be signs of a brain tumour, according to Cancer Research.
Ministers knew there was no 'robust' evidence to include children in the rule of six, new leaked messages reveal.

Helen Whately, a key figure at the Department of Health at the time, said that she wished under-12s could be exempted from the controversial Covid policy.

Appealing to her boss Matt Hancock to push for a change, she said: 'It would make such a difference for families and there isn't robust rationale for it.'

The then-Health Secretary responded: 'They don't want to go there on this.' He then clarified that 'they' referred to No10.

The bombshell texts were handed to The Daily Telegraph as part of an investigation called The Lockdown Files.

Responding text messages, Mr Hancock, said Downing Street 'don't want to go there on this', referring to the rule of six implemented in September 2020

In the message sent on October 11, 2020, the minister for adult social care, Helen Whately, said: 'It would make such a difference to families and there isn't a robust rationale for it. Now is a really good chance to show we have listened'.

Messages published already show that Sir Chris Whitty recommended testing 'of all going into care homes'.

But Mr Hancock didn't follow the guidance, claiming it 'muddies the waters'.

Ms Whately and Mr Hancock discussed the issue over text, just as No10 was drawing up Covid preparation plans for the winter of 2020/21.

Ms Whately, social care minister, asked Matt Hancock if the rule of six could 'loosen on children under 12' in tier one.

In the message sent on October 11, 2020, she said: 'It would make such a difference to families and there isn't a robust rationale for it. Now is a really good chance to show we have listened'.

Isabel Oakeshott (pictured above with Mr Hancock), who has described lockdowns as an 'unmitigated disaster', said she released the WhatsApp messages because it would take 'many years' before the end of the official Covid inquiry. Ms Oakeshott helped Mr Hancock write his book, 'Pandemic Diaries' released in December 2022

Mr Hancock said he did not disagree but responded that Downing Street 'don't want to go there on this'.

Referencing similar curfew measures, he added: 'They don't want to shift an inch.'

The rule was first introduced in September 2020 across England to prohibit social gatherings of more than six people.

In Scotland and Wales such gatherings were also outlawed  but children under 12 were exempt.

Downing Street then implemented stricter versions later in the year during the tier system, and second and third lockdowns in November 2020 and January 2021.

The rule was widely criticised for the impact it may have on children's mental health.

Critics also warned it prevented some kids from spending time with grandparents and other extended family.

Criticising the original move, Anne Longfield, the children's commissioner, said: 'Children have fewer health risks from Covid and yet they have suffered disproportionately from the nation's efforts to contain the virus.

'Unless the government acts now, Covid is in danger of becoming an inter-generational crisis, with the impact of the economic fall-out on parents determining the future prospects of their children.'

But officials said an age threshold would make enforcement too difficult for police officers.

The messages were leaked by Isobel Oakeshott, the journalist employed as a ghostwriter for Mr Hancock's pandemic 'diaries'.

Friends of the politician today said he was considering legal action to prevent the further disclosure of messages he considered 'stolen'.
Rishi Sunak is urgently reviewing his private exchanges with Matt Hancock today after the former health secretary's WhatsApp account was leaked.

A Whitehall source said action was being taken after the Daily Telegraph obtained 100,000 messages exchanged during the Covid crisis.

The unprecedented leak is likely to extend to dozens of ministers and officials who worked with Mr Hancock.

He came under fire from bereaved families after messages were released suggesting he had rejected official advice to test all residents going into care homes  a claim he hotly disputes.

The messages were leaked by Isobel Oakeshott, the journalist employed as a ghostwriter for Mr Hancock's pandemic 'diaries'.

Rishi Sunak is urgently reviewing his private exchanges with Matt Hancock today after the former health secretary's WhatsApp account was leaked. A Whitehall source said action was being taken after the Daily Telegraph obtained 100,000 messages exchanged during the Covid crisis

The unprecedented leak is likely to extend to dozens of ministers and officials who worked with Mr Hancock

Friends of the politician today said he was considering legal action to prevent the further disclosure of messages he considered 'stolen'.

A spokesman said: 'She's broken a legal non-disclosure agreement. Her behaviour is outrageous.'

Downing Street suggested the information commissioner could investigate whether the leak breached data protection laws. Mr Hancock was also facing questions about why he had entrusted the sensitive material to Miss Oakeshott, who opposed Covid lockdowns.

A Whitehall source described the decision as 'staggering', adding: 'Why would you hand all of your messages to someone who has a track record of turning people over and who was bitterly opposed to the policies you were responsible for?

'It was idiotic and it was lazy  it looks like he just couldn't be bothered to do the work needed for his so-called diaries himself.

'The worst thing is that many of them were not his messages to give. All sorts of people, some of them quite junior, are now having their private thoughts splashed across the papers. It is not right  that's why we have laws against it.'

The Daily Telegraph today indicated it would publish exchanges between Mr Hancock and Mr Sunak, who was chancellor during the pandemic.

Downing Street confirmed Mr Sunak discussed government policy via WhatsApp. But a source said he was 'very cautious' about the messages he sent.

The investigation suggested England's chief medical officer Professor Sir Chris Whitty told the then-health secretary in April 2020 that there should be testing for 'all going into care homes'.

Mr Hancock described it as 'obviously a good, positive step'.

But the exchanges, from April 2020, suggested Mr Hancock ultimately rejected the guidance, telling an aide the move just 'muddies the waters'. He introduced mandatory testing only for those coming from hospitals rather than the community.

Allies of Mr Hancock said that was because a lack of testing capacity meant it was not possible to check everyone entering a care home.

KEY CLAIMS OF THE LOCKDOWN FILES INVESTIGATION A fresh cache of 100,000 text and WhatsApp messages leaked to the Daily Telegraph by the ex-journalist who ghost-wrote Hancocks pandemic diaries claimed: Matt Hancock rejected the Chief Medical Officers call to test all residents going into English care homes for Covid

A minister in Mr Hancock's department said restrictions on visitors to care homes were inhumane but residents remained isolated many months on

Mr Hancocks adviser arranged for a personal test to be couriered for Jacob Rees-Moggs child at a time of national shortage

Mr Hancock told former chancellor George Osborne, then-editor of the Evening Standard, 'I WANT TO HIT MY TARGET!' as he pushed for favourable front-page coverage

Mr Osborne warned Mr Hancock that 'no one thinks testing is going well' in late 2020

Then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, revealed he was going 'quietly crackers' about the UK's shortage of test kits

Covid gurus Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance warned that shielding wasn't 'very effective' at start of pandemic - yet policy affecting 2.2m Brits wasn't dropped until April 2021 Advertisement

His spokesman said: 'These stolen messages have been doctored to create a false story that Matt rejected clinical advice on care home testing. This is flat wrong.'

In the Commons, care minister Helen Whately told MPs that reports had failed to mention that a meeting on testing capacity  on the same day as Mr Hancock's message  found it would be impossible to test everyone going into care homes.

She said an email was sent that day saying the department could 'press ahead straight away' with the testing of people being discharged from hospital into care homes and then press ahead 'as soon as capacity allows' with wider testing.

Jean Adamson, whose father died in a care home in April 2020, told Good Morning Britain she felt 'sickened and disgusted' by the revelations.

'He was more focused on meeting his targets at the time, rather than the welfare of our most vulnerable members of society,' she said.

'And as a result of his decisions, his inaction, tens of thousands of elderly people died in care homes. So I just feel absolutely sickened and disgusted by these revelations.'

Miss Oakeshott defended her decision to publish the emails, saying the public deserved to know the truth now, rather than wait for a public inquiry that could take years and might result in a 'whitewash'.

But former health minister Lord Bethel, an ally of Mr Hancock, accused her of betrayal, saying she was 'not a good friend'.

The peer said the public deserved the full truth from the public inquiry, rather than a version based on 'a few scrappy WhatsApps'.

A spokesman for Mr Hancock said: 'It is outrageous that this distorted account of the pandemic is being pushed with partial leaks, spun to fit an anti-lockdown agenda, which would have cost hundreds of thousands of lives if followed. What the messages do show is a lot of people working hard to save lives.

'The full documents have already all been made available to the inquiry, which is the proper place for an objective assessment, so true lessons can be learned.'
Children were ordered to wear face masks in schools after Boris Johnson was told the issue was 'not worth an argument' with Nicola Sturgeon.

The then Prime Minister went ahead with the controversial policy despite England's Chief Medical Officer saying there were 'no very strong reasons' to do so.

Mr Johnson's administration had already decided that masks would not be worn in schools and they had been excluded from guidance on mask wearing.

But the World Health Organization recommended on August 21, 2020 that children aged 12 and over should wear masks in situations where they could not maintain social distancing.

And Ms Sturgeon, the Scottish first leader, then announced the compulsory wearing of face masks in corridors and communal areas in secondary schools north of the border on August 25.

Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish first leader, then announced the compulsory wearing of face masks in corridors and communal areas in secondary schools north of the border on August 25

On the same day, one week before schools in England were due to reopen, Mr Johnson asked for advice on whether they were necessary in England.

Sir Chris Whitty, the CMO, appeared ambivalent when asked for his opinion in a WhatsApp group for senior advisors and officials, leaked messages reveal.

He wrote: 'No strong reason against in corridors etc, and no very strong reasons for,' before adding: 'So agree not worth an argument.'

Lee Cain, Mr Johnson's director of communications, questioned why Downing Street would 'want to have the fight on not having masks in certain school settings' while Simon Case, the permanent secretary for Covid who was promoted a week later to Cabinet Secretary, said 'nervous parents will freak out' if children are wearing masks in Scottish schools but not English ones.

KEY CLAIMS OF THE LOCKDOWN FILES INVESTIGATION A fresh cache of 100,000 text and WhatsApp messages leaked to the Daily Telegraph by the ex-journalist who ghost-wrote Hancocks pandemic diaries claimed: Matt Hancock rejected the Chief Medical Officers call to test all residents going into English care homes for Covid

A minister in Mr Hancock's department said restrictions on visitors to care homes were inhumane but residents remained isolated many months on

Mr Hancocks adviser arranged for a personal test to be couriered for Jacob Rees-Moggs child at a time of national shortage

Mr Hancock told former chancellor George Osborne, then-editor of the Evening Standard, 'I WANT TO HIT MY TARGET!' as he pushed for favourable front-page coverage

Mr Osborne warned Mr Hancock that 'no one thinks testing is going well' in late 2020

Then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, revealed he was going 'quietly crackers' about the UK's shortage of test kits

Covid gurus Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance warned that shielding wasn't 'very effective' at start of pandemic - yet policy affecting 2.2m Brits wasn't dropped until April 2021 Advertisement

The following day the Government announced that secondary school children returning to class in September in areas subject to local lockdown would be required to wear face masks in corridors and communal areas where social distancing was difficult to maintain.

The guidance at the time applied to a third of a million pupils in secondary schools in Greater Manchester, parts of Lancashire, West Yorkshire, and Leicester.

In other areas in England, schools were given the power to 'recommend' face mask be worn in communal areas.

The revelations come from leaked WhatsApp messages taken from the phone of then health secretary Matt Hancock and seen by the Telegraph.

Sir Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific adviser, said it made 'logical sense' for children to wear masks in corridors and communal areas 'where crowding cannot be avoided' but Mr Johnson replied: 'The trouble is that the current guidance specifically excludes schools. God knows why.'

Mr Johnson added: 'In order to allow schools to require face coverings in any part of the school we will now have to do a u turn.'

Nick Gibb, the minister for school standards, had only that morning told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that 'masks are not necessary for staff or pupils'.

The next day Sir Gavin Williamson, the then education secretary, said on the radio that ministers 'always listen to the best scientific and medical advice' and concluded that masks were an 'extra precautionary measure'.

The guidance was extended in February 2021 recommending the use of face masks in 'all indoor environments', including classrooms in secondary schools.

The guidance was withdrawn in May 2021 and then reintroduced again in January 2022 to combat the surge of the omicron variant and withdrawn again a fortnight later.

Writing on Twitter at the time of the August 2020 U-turn, Katherine Birbalsingh, headteacher of a school in north west London, warned: 'Masks mean mayhem.'

And Prof Russell Viner, the then president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said the policy 'could spread the virus more' because children would be touching their face in readjusting their mask.

The revelations come from leaked WhatsApp messages taken from the phone of then health secretary Matt Hancock and seen by the Telegraph

Other messages reveal over 2million people were asked to shield during the pandemic even though the Government's top advisors had told the Prime Minister it was not 'very effective'.

The revelations suggest clinically 'extremely vulnerable' patients may have been cruelly and unnecessarily isolated from loved ones for months.

Sir Patrick said in a WhatsApp message in August 2020 that implementing the measure had not been 'easy or very effective'.

And Sir Chris added that he would personally 'think twice' about following shielding guidelines himself, unless it was to protect the NHS  which was not the main objective.

Boris Johnson raised the prospect of giving over-65s 'a choice' between shielding from the virus or taking what he hoped would be an 'ever-diminishing risk' of living a more normal life.

The then prime minister compared over-65s' risk of dying from Covid to that of 'falling down stairs', adding: 'And we don't stop older people from using stairs.'

But, despite reservations, ministers still reintroduced shielding nationally during subsequent national lockdowns.

Mr Hancock also appears to have rejected Sir Chris' advice to test for Covid all residents going into English care homes, meaning some may have taken the virus in with them, fuelling deadly outbreaks.

A message from the CMO early in April 2020 - about a month into the pandemic - said that there should be testing for 'all going into care homes'.

But Mr Hancock did not follow the guidance, telling his advisers that it 'muddies the waters'.

Instead, he introduced guidance that made testing compulsory only for those entering care homes from hospital.

The guidance stating that those coming in from the community should be tested was eventually introduced on August 14.

Between April 17 and August 13, 2020, a total of 17,678 people died of Covid in care homes in England.

Lindsay Jackson, spokesperson for Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, said: 'The failure to protect care homes led to thousands of unnecessary deaths, like my mum's.'

The shielding guidance was designed to protect people who were most at risk from getting the virus.

When it was first introduced in March 2020, it told 'extremely vulnerable' people that they should not leave the house at all other than for medical appointments.

Those affected were advised to socially distance from other members of their households, including sleeping separately and cleaning shared bathrooms after every use.

While the measures were loosened as time wore on, the prolonged isolation affected people's psychological well-being, with more than a third of those who were shielding reporting a deterioration in mental health, according to the Office of National Statistics.

The Government announced that secondary school children returning to class in September 2020 in areas subject to local lockdown would be required to wear face masks in corridors and communal areas where social distancing was difficult to maintain. The guidance at the time applied to a third of a million pupils in secondary schools in Greater Manchester, parts of Lancashire, West Yorkshire, and Leicester. In other areas in England, schools were given the power to 'recommend' face mask be worn in communal areas

Other WhatsApp messages show social care minister Helen Whately warned that restrictions on visitors to care homes were 'inhumane'  months before they were finally lifted.

She later warned Mr Hancock that the elderly were at risk of 'just giving up' because they had been isolated for so long.

Mr Hancock said in his book, Pandemic Diaries, that the 'tragic but honest truth' at the start of April was that 'we don't have enough testing capacity'.

Helen Whately, who is now health minister, yesterday told the Commons the leaked messages give a 'limited' and misleading view of the Government's decision-making around care homes during the pandemic.

She added: 'in a situation where we had the capacity to test at most a few thousand each day, tough decisions about prioritisation had to be made, decisions that were taken on the best public health advice available.'
South Africa: Deputy President Mabuza's term comes to an end

This story has been published on: 2023-03-01. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has described the State Visit by his Ugandan counterpart, President Yoweri Museveni, as a building block to strong political and economic relations between the two countries. This State Visit has reinforced the firm political and economic relations between our two countries. By deepening these relations, we ai... See more
Policy lends hand to heritage brands

By YANG FEIYUE (China Daily) 10:53, March 01, 2023

SHI YU/CHINA DAILY

Laozihao seen as key to promoting culture, boosting consumption

The evolution of consumption in China has created both great opportunities and challenges for time-honored  or heritage  brands, which are known as laozihao in Chinese.

Some have evolved into outstanding representatives of distinctive tradition and culture in their regions of birth, attracting tourists and playing an increasing role in the consumer market. However, many others are struggling to adapt to changing times.

The Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the National Cultural Heritage Administration issued a policy notice in January suggesting that market players and other related parties tap into the history and culture of laozihao to boost consumption.

The hope is that this will lead to more creative products being developed and that consumers will be able to better appreciate the heritage and cultural essence of time-honored brands.

The Ministry of Commerce said that the policy's ultimate goal is to respond to consumption trends nationwide and better cater to public demands.

Stronger support

Authorities will increase the protection of more than 12,000 historical artifacts owned by approximately 1,100 nationally accredited laozihao, according to the policy.

Land use rights and tax support will be given to laozihao with lengthy histories for them to open museums to display artifacts that reflect socioeconomic changes over time. The brands will also be encouraged to stage events and activities to help pass on their traditions, and to create new venues for consumption.

Moreover, efforts will be made to push forward the construction of a digital laozihao museum that will preserve and display the developmental histories of brands through e-books, pictures and videos.

Traditional blocks and clusters of ancient architecture will be advised to set up facilities that showcase local laozihao elements to reflect commercialization and folk customs, the notice stated.

At the same time, authorities will help time-honored brands make inroads in the international market through major events such as the China International Import Expo, the China International Consumer Products Expo and the China International Fair for Trade in Services.

The notice clarified specific objectives and policy initiatives to strengthen the brands' efforts to explore their historical and cultural resources and stimulate consumption, said Pan Helin, co-director of the Digital Economy and Financial Innovation Research Center at Zhejiang University's International Business School.

"Currently, China is at a key point of consumption recovery, and it would be very efficient and effective to grow laozihao (influence)," Pan said.

He added that the relaxation of COVID-19 control policies has accelerated the resumption of social activity and has provided an outlet for people's pent-up desire to go out and shop.

Therefore, efforts to tap into the history and culture of time-honored brands come at an opportune time.

"The initiatives will promote the release of pent-up consumer demand by improving buyers' experiences."

They will also put laozihao in a key position to drive a short-term surge in regional tourism and demand, which will give rise to positive feedback between the brands and regional consumption, according to Pan.

"The deep integration of laozihao with historical and cultural resources will help the brands further explore their value and enhance the global influence of Chinese culture while stimulating sales," he explained.

He suggested that laozihao maintain a balance between tradition and modernity while finding ways to innovate. Furthermore, digitalization can be used to present insights into a brand's business operations and craftsmanship so that buyers can better appreciate them.

Livestream potential

Industry insiders also hailed the call to host laozihao carnivals and shopping festivals and help brands perform better on online platforms.

Many are already making their presence known on the internet.

During the nationwide Double 11 shopping festival last year, 50 time-honored brands reported sales exceeding 10 million yuan ($1.4 million) each on major e-commerce platforms like Taobao and JD, while 15 brought in 100 million yuan.

During the New Year holiday, online consumption of laozihao products rose by 30 percent year-on-year, the Ministry of Commerce reported.

Goubuli, a company in Tianjin renowned for its buns, has started livestreaming its products, which has endeared it to consumers.

The company has also learned to tailor production to demand via online data analysis.

On Jan 10, historical brands in Zhejiang province, including rice dumpling maker Wufangzhai and Zhufu Copper Art, saw their products snapped up during a livestream on Taobao.

Zheng Yongbiao, deputy director of Hangzhou's business bureau, said that livestreaming can fully empower laozihao enterprises, tap their potential in the expanding consumer market and boost consumption.

The city has 500 laozihao accredited at the provincial level and 90 at the national level.

"All of them are the best products to drive consumption," said Ding Huimin, secretary-general of the Chinese laozihao e-commerce alliance.

Ding said her organization will endeavor to include more time-honored brands in livestreams to display their craftsmanship and culture "in an interesting and trendy way".

Shang Xiping, president of the major domestic retailer Wangfujing Group, said the success of relatively few laozihao brands means there is still plenty of potential to be tapped in overall development nationwide.

He stressed that brands must retain their core competitiveness and cultural identity.

"They have their own formulas for success, which they can use to create new avenues of consumption to meet the cultural demands of young people," Shang said.

Renowned brands should consider systematic reform, product innovation, packaging design, cooperation with other brands and livestream promotions to boost business, experts said.

"They will gain renewed vigor after fully tapping their existing technology and adapting to the new market environment," he said.

The Wangfujing Group will continue working with time-honored brands in various fields and develop a series of distinctive goods that take young consumers' consumption habits into consideration, while helping spread laozihao culture, he said.

Driving consumption

With the development of the digital economy, consumption of Chinachic goods  the trend of consuming domestic products  has been growing, said Liu Tao, a researcher with the market economy research institute at the Development Research Center of the State Council, China's Cabinet.

Time-honored food, clothing and daily necessity brands that have adapted to consumer trends through changes to their technology and business models have become important drivers of consumption, Liu added.

Liu Shuai, an assistant researcher with the macroeconomic research center at the Chinese Academy of Fiscal Sciences, believes that making brand history and culture available online will play a positive role in expanding areas of consumption such as pedestrian streets and will help boost domestic demand.

Experts concurred that laozihao should take advantage of the opportunities presented by the new policies to develop an accurate understanding of customer needs and adjust product design, function, packaging and positioning according to feedback.

Shu Jueting, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Commerce, said efforts will continue to be made to push for laozihao to fall in line with national consumption development, roll out new products and services, and create new sites for consumption.

"So that shoppers can experience the customs of different regions when they buy time-honored brands and experience the charms of the traditional culture," she said.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
TikTok said on Wednesday that it is creating a mechanism that would enable parents to block their teenagers from seeing material with particular terms or hashtags on the short-form video platform.

ByteDance, the Chinese technology firm that owns the video-sharing platform TikTok, is under increasing investigation for its ties to the Chinese government and the security of its users' information.

The popular app has been prohibited on government-issued mobile devices in the United States, Canada, and other countries for reasons of national security.

The European Commission also banned TikTok from its official devices due to security concerns, per a previous HNGN report.

TikTok has been criticized for failing to adequately protect young users from harmful material.

TikTok stated in a blog post that the app is working with parents, youth, and civil society groups to build the parental control function, according to Reuters.

Together with these updates, the company also announced the arrival of tools to assist customers to control their app use. TikTok said that accounts belonging to individuals under the age of 18 would have an automatic time restriction of one hour per day.

The firm said that parents may now restrict their children's access to TikTok on certain days of the week.

A study published in December by the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) discovered that it takes fewer than three minutes after creating a TikTok account for users to encounter information connected to suicide, and around five more minutes to discover a group advocating content concerning eating disorders, CNN reported.

Read Also: Greece Train Crash Update

TikTok Slapped With Fine in Turkey

In related news, Turkey's Personal Data Protection Board (KVKK) announced on Wednesday that TikTok had been fined 1.75 million lira (about $93,000) for failing to safeguard its users from the illicit usage of personal data.

The KVKK said it fined the company for "not taking all necessary measures to ensure the appropriate level of security" to deter illegal processing of users' data, per CNA.

TikTok has said they are reviewing the penalties levied by the Turkish authority.

Related Article: Elon Musk Backs 'Dilbert' Creator's Racist Statement



@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Advertisement

Britain has a new cheapest campervan just in time for this summer - and it's almost half the price of the previous most-affordable camping vehicle.

With 'staycationing' becoming far more common since the pandemic restricted overseas travel in 2020, holidaymakers have in recent years been splashing out huge sums on campervans to enjoy vacations a little closer to home.

But Dacia now has a solution that will save thousands of pounds.

That's because the Romanian budget brand will shortly launch a 'Sleep Pack' option for its 17,000 seven-seat Jogger estate that provides a fold-out double bed in the back.

The cheapest campervan in Britain: Dacia has announced a Sleep Pack, which is a 50kg crate that can be installed in the boot of the Jogger family car and folds out into a double mattress. The accessory will cost in the region of 1,200

The Dacia Jogger is already the cheapest seven-seat family car in Britain, with the 2022 newcomer starting from 17,145. At that price tag, it dramatically undercuts rival MPVs

Prices for the Jogger start from 17,145 in the UK, making it by far the most affordable seven-seat family car in showrooms today.

And Dacia has now confirmed it will also become the cheapest camping vehicle with an accessory that will cost around 1,200 when it becomes available in Britain in time for the summer holidays.

The budget-friendly car maker calls it a 'mobile bedroom' rather than an all-out campervan.

While the price of the Sleep Pack hasn't been rubberstamped for the UK, it will cost 1,400 in France where it launches initially.

Dacia says the new Jogger Sleep Pack 'turns the Joggers spacious interior into a mobile bedroom in minutes'. It will go on sale in France initially but should be available in the UK before the summer holidays

 Slide me  When you want to turn the Jogger from a practical family motor into a camper, owners simply remove the two rearmost seats (pictured left) and in their place install the Sleep Pack unit via the boot compartment

In the morning, the mattress can be quickly folded away into the storage compartment before the occupants set off on their next adventure or head home

The camping pack will only boost the popularity of the new Jogger. Dacia says it sold 2,832 examples in just nine months since its official launch in 2022, resulting in a retail market share of 14.5%

This will 'turn the Joggers spacious interior into a mobile bedroom in minutes,' the car company declares.

The accessory is a 220-litre transportable storage box that weighs less than 50kg, meaning it can lifted in and out of the back of the family car with reasonable ease.

Our Dacia Jogger review There's an age-old saying: you get what you pay for. And in terms of the Dacia Jogger, 17,145 lands you the cheapest seven-seat car in Britain today. To put its budget-busting price into perspective, the Jogger costs around half the next most-affordable model on sale that can transport as many people at any given time. It sounds like an incredible deal, doesn't it? But will its cut-down price mean you get half the car? And can it really be considered as an alternative to a traditional people-carrying multi-purpose vehicle? We decided to find out by putting the budget-friendly family motor through its paces. > Read our in-depth Dacia Jogger review

When you want to turn the Jogger from a practical family motor into a camper, owners simply remove the two rearmost seats and in their place install the Sleep Pack unit via the boot compartment.

Once the occupants reach their desired holiday spot, they need to fold the rear backrests forward and fold out the contents of the box.

This takes two minutes and results in a 190cm by 130cm mattress that should comfortably sleep two adults.

With the bed folded out, the Jogger's relatively high roofline provides around 60cm of vertical space, so there is ample space to move around without clanging your head against the headliner.

In the morning, the pack can be quickly folded away before setting off on another adventure.

The box also provides storage space for sleeping bags and a couple of large rucksacks.

If more sleeping space is needed, a smart tent is also available that can be connected to the Joggers open boot door, while blackout blinds for all windows offer some privacy.

The accessory is due to be available to order later this year and can be added to the price of a new Dacia Jogger, or bought from the after-sale accessory pack and added at any time separately.

With the cheapest Jogger costing just over 17,000 and the pack ringing in at around 1,200, the total price for the two-person campervan will start in the region of 18,345.

How does that compare to what's on the market today?

The current cheapest two-person camper is Volkswagen's Caddy California, which costs between 32,209 and 38,558 depending on specification.

That means the Jogger and Sleep Pack option is around half the price.

Britain's most popular new campervan is the larger VW California, which starts at an eye-watering 60,398 - that's more than three times the price of the Jogger estate, though it does sleep up to four (two adults and two children) and has a built-in kitchen.

The Jogger (left) and Sleep Pack will be the most affordable two-person campervan, starting in the region of 18,345. The current cheapest two-person camper is VW's Caddy California (right)

Volkswagen's Caddy California costs between 32,209 and 38,558 in the UK, depending on specification. However, it does have more features, including a pop-up roof and a slide-out cooking area

As you can see from this image, the VW has a more spacious interior and bigger double bed setup, but it will cost twice as much as the Jogger and isn't as practical for use as a daily family car

Other brands offer camping solutions for the conventional cars with the addition of official roof tent accessories. This Mini example is expensive. At 2,400, it's twice the price of the Dacia Sleep Pack

The Dacia option also significantly undercuts a number of camping solutions for conventional cars offered by rival brands.

For instance, Mini sells an official roof tent for its Countryman SUV, though these cost a whopping 2,400.

Dacia's Jogger has recently been named the nation's 'Best Large Family Car' at the UK Car of the Year Awards 2023.

Having arrived in showrooms only last year, the Jogger has already found favour with UK car buyers, the brand says.

Last year, the model recorded 2,832 sales in just nine months since its official launch, resulting in a retail market share of 14.5 per cent.

The result firmly put it in the top three ranking models within its segment.
A North Korean defector who was sold in China as a sex slave for $200 is slamming cancel culture and woke ideologies she compares to North Korea

Yeonmi Park, 29, says she 'escaped hell' in Asia only to find a different kind of hell waiting for her in the United States

Park, whose new book 'While Time Remains' comes out next week, said students at Columbia University claimed victim status and looked for oppression points

A woman who defected from North Korea and was at one point sold as a sex slave in China for $200 is slamming cancel culture and woke ideologies in the United States.

Yeonmi Park, 29, who left North Korea as a child and was human trafficked as a teen says she 'escaped hell' in Asia only to arrive in the U.S. and find a different kind of hell awaiting her.

ADVERTISEMENT

Park, whose new book 'While Time Remains' comes out on February 14, said she was shocked to see how students at her alma mater, Columbia University, claimed victim status.

'They were in Manhattan, living in the freest country you can imagine, and they're saying they're oppressed? It doesn't even compute,' Park told The New York Post, stating she believes a cultural revolution may be imminent.

'I was sold for $200 as a sex slave in the 21st century under the same sky. And they say they're oppressed because people can't follow their pronouns they invent every day?' the woman said.

Yeonmi Park, 29, who left North Korea as a child and was human trafficked as a teen says she 'escaped hell' in Asia only to arrive in the U.S. and find a different kind of hell awaiting her

Park, whose new book 'While Time Remains' comes out next week, said she was shocked to see how students at her alma mater, Columbia University, claimed victim status

Three years after she graduated from Columbia University with a degree in human rights, Park is sharing concerns over red flags she found at her alma mater

Park is one of just 200 North Koreans currently living in the United States.

In 2022, the woman officially became a U.S. citizen, eight years after her family moved to the States.

Since escaping North Korea in 2007 the woman has become a target for Pyongyang.

Park has been censured in her homeland and labeled as a 'poisonous mushroom' and a 'human rights propaganda puppet.'

She has responded to those statements, saying she's glad to have Kim's regime 'feel threatened' by her voice.

This time, however, it's not North Korea the woman is raising red flags over.

Three years after she graduated from Columbia University with a degree in human rights, the woman is sharing that she found similar concerning signals in the U.S.

'I escaped hell on earth and walked across the desert in search of freedom, and found it,' Park writes in her book. 'I don't want anything bad ever to happen to my new home  I want us  need us  to keep the darkness at bay,' she says.

ADVERTISEMENT

This is a photo of Yeonmi Park as a little girl in North Korea

Three years after she graduated from Columbia University with a degree in human rights, the woman is raising red flags about cancel culture in the U.S.

Park believes the situation is more dire than it would appear.

'I need your help to save our country, while time remains,' she writes in the book.

This isn't the first time she has shared her beliefs regarding the woke policies.

In 2015, in her debut novel, Park compared the environment at Columbia University to that of North Korea.

Park described the school as 'pure indoctrination camp' and said she she thought she was going to learn how to think critically but was instead 'forced to think' a certain way.

The woman also said she believes most students at the elite university are 'brainwashed like North Korean students are.'

'I never understood that not having a problem can be a problem,' Park said.

'They need to make injustice out of thin air or a problem out of nowhere, because they haven't experienced anything like what other people are facing in the world,' she continued.

Park is also the author of 'In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom'

She started attending Columbia University, pictured, in 2016 and said she thought she was going to learn how to think critically but was instead 'forced to think' a certain way

Park said she is concerned about the country and the road ahead for people like her five-year-old son who she shared with her American ex-husband.

The North Korea defector says things like race essentialism and identity politics in the United States worry her greatly.

In North Korea, citizens are divvied up by their bloodlines into 51 classes.

The classes are determined by whether or not their blood is 'tainted' by whether or not their ancestors were 'oppressive,' according to Park.

While the U.S. doesn't do that exactly, she does see similarities.

'That's how the regime divided people. What an individual does doesn't matter. It's all about your ancestors and the collective,' she said.

ADVERTISEMENT

'They say white people are privileged and guilty and oppressors,' Park said.

'This is the tactic the North Korean regime used to divide people. In America it's the same idea of collective guilt. This is the ideology that drove North Korea to be what it is today  and we're putting it into young American minds.'

Park is one of just 200 North Koreans currently living in the United States

The North Korea defector, seen here with actor Olivia Munn, says things like race essentialism and identity politics in the United States worry her greatly

In her new book, she says she hopes Americans are able to respond quickly before things are too late.

'I really don't think that we have that much time left,' Park warned.

She also warned of what she believes may be an impending cultural revolution due to cancel culture.

'Of course, we're not putting people in front of a firing squad in America now, but their livelihoods, their dignity, their reputations, and their humanity are under attack. When we tell people not to talk, we're censoring their thinking as well. And when you can't think, you're a slave  a brainwashed puppet.'

'Already all our mainstream institutions have the same ideology that North Korea has: socialism, collectivism and equity. We are literally going through a cultural revolution in America. When we realize it, it might be too late.'

Doing everything she can to help the country has become a top goal for the woman who was born in Hyesan, North Korea and grew up under Supreme Leader Kim Jong-il.

'I thought Kim Jong Il was a god who could read my mind,' she said in an interview in 2018. 'I thought his spirit never dies, and I never thought he was a normal human being.'

ADVERTISEMENT

An estimated 3.5 million North Koreans died of starvation in the first five years of her life and she says the Kim regime even banned words like 'famine' and 'hunger.'

Park said she remembers searching for cockroaches to eat on the way to school, calling conditions incredibly bleak.

'I really don't think that we have that much time left,' Park warned, saying she believes the situation is more dire than people realize

'Darkness in Hyesan is total,' Park writes in her second book. 'It's not just the absence of light, power, and food. It is the absence of dignity, sanctuary, and hope.'

She continues, writing, 'darkness in Hyesan is  watching your parents and neighbors hauled away by police for the crime of collecting insects and plants for their children to eat.'

The girl's family eventually planned a way out after her father was arrested and sentenced to hard labor for trading fish, sugar, and metals to make ends meet.

'I didn't escape in search of freedom, or liberty, or safety. I escaped in search of a bowl of rice,' she writes.

Park and her mother finally escaped North Korea at 13 after her sister had fled.

The women were forced to cross the Yalu River into China and eventually ended up in the hands of human traffickers where they were sold into sex slavery.

Park finally broke free and traveled through the Gobi Desert to Mongolia. She then made her way to South Korea and was granted citizenship.

The woman was also reunited with her sister seven years after they were separated.

Their father died shortly after he managed to escape to China, however.

His death prompted the woman to 'step into a different life: one dedicated to human rights, and improving the lives of people suffering under tyranny. A life of meaning. A life that would make my father proud.'

ADVERTISEMENT
A high school teacher told her students Nintendo characters have different sexual and gender identities as she claimed Mario is gay while Princess Peach is a 'massive lesbian.'

Remy Elliott, who is employed by the New York City Department of Education, made the comments in a presentation to students during a Gay Straight Alliance after-school club meeting.

In a video uploaded to her TikTok account, she reshared the powerpoint, alleging Princess Daisy is 'hella bisexual, polyamorous' while Luigi is a 'demisexual dude.'

Elliott, who has over 81,000 followers and identifies as bisexual, has since deleted the videos and made her profile private.

She is certified under the name Jeremy William Elliott and currently teaches 9th grade at the DOE though previously taught younger grades, Fox News reports.

New York City Department of Education teacher Remy Elliott, pictured, gave a presentation to her students explaining the different genders and sexual identities of Nintendo characters

A screengrab from her TikTok from the presentation in which she called Princess Daisy 'hella bisexual' while Luigi was a 'demisexual dude'

'So the GSA for the school that I teach at decided to do a PowerPoint night, and I decided to combine two of my favorite interests into one,' she said in the original clips.

'This is dubiously assigning genders and sexualities to classic Nintendo characters.

'Yoshi is a trans man. He is just living his best life with Berto, and his top surgery turned out amazing.

'No scars whatsoever. We love that for him.

'Of course, that means that Berto is an ace trans girl.'

Top surgery is the removal of breast tissue as a woman transitions into a man.

She continues onto call Princess Peach a 'massive cis lesbian' with an attraction to Princess Daisy.

Meanwhile Daisy is described as 'hella bisexual, polyamorous... and she will ask out right in front of you.'

Elliott continues: 'Mario came out so long ago that most people forgot and he probably marched at Stonewall and he low-key says some transphobic stuff, but he means well.'

She adds: 'Next up is Luigi.

'Luigi is totally a demisexual dude, but he just calls himself queer because it's like too confusing.

'He has big bi-wife energy.

Mario, left, 'came out so long ago most people forgot,' while 'Princess Daisy is described as 'hella bisexual, polyamorous and she will ask out right in front of you'

Luigi, left, is identified as a 'demisexual dude' who 'just calls himself queer' while Princess Peach, right, is a 'massive cis lesbian' says Elliott

'Trans? Trans. And it's probably bisexual, but like, doesn't think about it too much because if you don't think about it, it's not a problem.'

'Demisexuality' refers to people who only feel sexual attraction to another person if they form a strong emotional bond or connection with them first.

She goes onto call Toad 'a pre-transitioned trans girl.'

'She already has a whole new wardrobe with thigh highs and skirts for when she comes out,' Elliot says in the clip.

In other clips the teacher revealed she had spoken to her school's assistant principal about how to tell her class she is polyamorous.

Polyamory refers to people who engage in multiple romantic or sexual relationships.

In one video seen by Fox News, she said she prides herself on 'being a teacher who is very open about her life.'

Toad, left, is a 'pre-transitioned trans girl,' says Elliott who has recently invested in thigh highs and skirts while Yoshi is described as a trans man who just had 'amazing' top surgery. Top surgery is the removal of breast tissue as a woman transitions into a man

Elliott frequently uploads videos to TikTok in which she discusses conversations she has with her students

In other clips she discusses whether or not to talk to her classes about the fact she is polyamorous, meaning she has multiple sexual and romantic partners

'And one of the things I'm very open about is my sexuality,' Elliott explained.

'I have a trans flag, a bi[sexual] flag, a non-binary flag all on my desk at my work. But there's one thing I'm not open about, and it's being poly[amorous].

'I don't know how to handle that conversation, because while I know that the kids are more accepting of things like homosexuality, bisexuality, all of that, polyamory is not in the conversation.'

She added she didn't like feeling as though she was 'lying' to her students.

After speaking with her administrators, they agreed it would be appropriate for Elliott to speak to her students about her relationships.

She went on to lash out at 'conservatives' who were not having such open discussions with children.

She said: 'This is not a conversation that conservatives are having at all. They've decided like, you can't do this at all, there's no place for it.

'And that just shows such a lack of thought and care. They're not understanding of the people. They're children as people and where they're at.'

When contacted about the Nintendo publication, Elliott told Fox News digital that 'the slides you mentioned were created in jest for the sake of humor.'

She added: 'It's also strange to point out that they have genders and sexualities, as being a cisgender heterosexual man is in fact a gender and sexual orientation.'

'As part of my DOE employment, despite being primarily hired as an English Teacher, teaching our established and vetted sex education curriculum was not only something I was hired for, it was something I was trained and qualified in.'

She added that she only ever spoke of her personal life 'within reasonable limits.'

Dailymail.com reached out to Elliott and the New York Department of Education for comment.
One of Australia's most famous sex workers revealed she's had worse experiences with men in her personal life than when she worked as a high-class escort.

Amanda Goff, 49, said she has suffered more trauma using her real name than during the ten years she spent as 'Samantha X'.

Ms Goff started working as an escort when she was in her late thirties but decided to leave the sex industry last year in a bid to reclaim her life.

She told Daily Mail Australia the financial and emotional support she received from clients meant she was finding it hard to date as a 'normal' woman.

'As Amanda, I've been sexually assaulted a few times, stalked, harassed, had to get restraining orders and been emotionally and physically abused,' she said.

'But as Samantha, I had nothing but clients who were polite, respectful and genuine. Some of them have become good friends.'

Amanda Goff, 49, (pictured) said she has experienced more trauma as Amanda than the ten years she spent working in the adult industry under the moniker 'Samantha X'

Ms Goff (pictured with her dog) told Daily Mail Australia that the financial and emotional support she received from clients meant she was finding it hard to date as a 'normal' woman

Ms Goff admitted she was 'so out of touch' when it came to navigating the dating world as Amanda because she had enjoyed so much power as Samantha.

'With a client, there's established boundaries, mutual respect and communication before you even meet up. There's no feeling of being used,' she said.

'Men I've gone on dates with think I'm going to be this intimating, experienced woman who is overtly sexual.

'They assume that I'm an expert, that I'm into swinging. But in reality I'm nervous.

'I'm actually very traditional and old-fashioned.'

When Ms Goff worked as an escort she became comfortable with the 'snapshots of intimacy' she experienced with her clients.

Now, she worries about being ghosted and striking the right balance between promiscuity and having clear boundaries - just like any other woman.

'I do miss the connection. Maybe I should hire an escort,' she joked.

After leaving escorting last year, Ms Goff worries about being ghosted and striking the right balance between promiscuity and having clear boundaries - just like any other woman

Ms Goff said she can understand why women make the choice to be an escort, but is wary of glamourising the job - which she says does have its dangers

'Now that we're all connected by technology we're actually less connected than we've ever been. We treat each other as if we're disposable.'

Ms Goff said she can understand why women make the choice to be an escort, but is wary of glamourising the job - which she says does have its dangers.

'To be an escort you have to be mentally strong and have a lot of life experience. This job is not for the faint-hearted,' she said.

Before her life as a a sex worker, Ms Goff said she didn't have any boundaries, was afraid of offending a man or a date, and didn't know how to say no.

'No is a full sentence, it's important that woman know that,' she said.

She said the dire state of the dating world is also down to men, revealing many had admitted to her they 'don't know how to act around women anymore'.

'They don't want to be accused of sexual harassment, some of them are too scared to even look at women these days, they're losing their role in society,' she said.

On Monday night Ms Goff invited sex workers to share their experience of the industry with her Instagram fans.

One woman admitted she felt safer doing FSSW (full-service sex work) in a legal brothel than walking home alone at night.

The woman explained that sex work felt safer than when she worked a corporate job where men would make advances or send her inappropriate messages.

Ms Goff agreed that she had more 'scary situations' as Amanda, than Samantha X.

Ms Goff became a high-class escort when she was in her late thirties but decided to hang up her stilettos last year in a bid to reclaim her life

'People feel uncomfortable at that truth, that somehow it's comforting to think sex work is some dangerous scary sin,' she said.

'But the man most likely to kill you is your husband.'

For now, Ms Goff will focus her energy on several upcoming projects, including mentoring, an upcoming novel and an eight-part series based on her life.

'I don't know how to be Amanda. I've lost the art of going on a normal date,' she said.

'I love men, they are very simple creatures living in a very complicated world. I love being a woman and embracing my femininity - but do it for yourself, not for men.'
Hidden from ordinary Russians, Vladimir Putin and his gymnast lover Alina Kabaeva live like a tsar and tsarina with their children, a new investigation claims.

The report by the Proekt independent media group reveals their secret life at a forest palace in Valdai, where Kabaeva had her own luxury 'wooden mansion', 250 miles north-west of Moscow.

The children are 'underage' - which is why Proekt has not disclosed information about the possible heirs of the Russian president, including their number and gender.

'However, we will tell you where they are hiding,' the publication says.

There have been previous rumours that Putin, 70, and Kabaeva, 39, share several children.

Yet their offspring have never been revealed to Russian voters, nor do the despot and the former Olympian admit to being a couple.

New pictures show the inside of the Putin hideaway for the first time, it has been claimed

A dining room is seen inside a mansion that is understood to belong to Vladimir Putin and his secret wife

A study inside the mansion understood to belong to Putin and secret wife Alina Kabaeva

Startling revelations have emerged about how Vladimir Putin and his gymnast lover Alina Kabaeva (pictured together at an event at the Kremlin) live, hidden from ordinary Russians, like a tsar and tsarina with their children

'In the course of this investigation, Proekt journalists have established many facts about the relationship between the Russian president and his mistress, all of which seem to have been copied from medieval history books.'

The wealth and property empire allegedly accrued by Putin and his lover has never been made public, but it is believed to be vast.

A key home of the secret first family is the Valdai residence, which is surrounded by a VIP settlement and where they are guarded by the elite FSO security service, the report says. New pictures show the inside of the Putin hideaway for the first time.

The 'royal residence' at Valdai began to be constructed 'almost immediately after Putin came to power' at the turn of the millennium. The despot demanded that it would be styled 'like St Petersburg', meaning in the lavish manner of the Russian tsars.

'In 2013, Putin officially divorced [former first lady] Lyudmila, but he never stopped loving Valdai. It was here  at first, apparently, in the same ''golden'' house  that he brought his new mistress [Kabaeva].'

The report states: 'He later built a new wooden mansion for Kabaeva and her children. It is located about 800 metres from the ''golden'' house. Construction of the house for Kabaeva began in 2020.'

It goes on: 'In 2021, a boat dock was built near Kabaeva's house.

'From it, one can take a boat across a small canal to a huge, classic palace park laid out on a 28-hectare plot. These lands were once the site of a tree nursery, where seedlings of conifers were grown to restore the national park.

'Located about the same distance from Putin's and Kabaeva's houses is a huge spa complex with a solarium, a cryo chamber, a 25-metre swimming pool, a hammam, a sauna, a mud room, massage baths, cosmetology and dentistry areas.'

The investigation says there is a 'constant presence of children in the residence'.

'In the summers of 2020 and 2021, a small karting track was set up on the site of the former helipads. And right next to the residence, a large children's playground in yellow and blue was erected deep in the woods between 2016 and 2020.'

Putin uses his 'personal armoured train' to travel to his lakeside hideout.

'For this reason, a secret, guarded station was built near his residence,' said Proekt.

Satellite images shared by the publication purportedly show the properties and the nearby station. Similar private stations for Putin have been built at his residence in Sochi and Novo-Ogaryovo, near Moscow.

As previously reported, a Pantsir-1S air defence system was installed in the nearby village of Yashcherovo after Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

The report reveals how Kabaeva has a retinue of 'chaperones' who care for her every need, some of whom are her relatives who earn vast sums in companies owned by Putin's cronies and oligarchs.

A dining room with a glass table and golden chairs is seen inside the mansion understood to belong to Putin and Kabaeva

Vladimir Putin's alleged palace in Valdai, Russia, where a new report says he spends time with his secret family

'Located about the same distance from Putin's and Kabaeva's houses is a huge spa complex with a solarium, a cryo chamber, a 25-metre swimming pool (pictured), a hammam, a sauna, a mud room, massage baths, cosmetology and dentistry areas,' the new report says

An aerial view of a station near the mansion, which the report claims was built to allow Vladimir Putin to travel to the region and the lakeside hideaway in secret

'Putin's vassals provided a royal life for Alina Kabaeva and her children, while secret services hid the existence of this family from the rest of the country.'

Proekt also alleged that despite his hatred of the West, the Russian president has benefited from an 'inconspicuous Cypriot company' which the report describes as 'the key element in a multi-stage scheme to enrich Vladimir Putin'.

It says the owner of the firm is merely a 'figurehead' to divert attention from Putin himself, adding: 'The president loves money so much that he manages to make millions even on the vices of Russians, which he, as head of state, is supposed to fight against.

'Very soon millions of dollars would start flowing through this company, and its owner would therefore have to become a rich and famous businessman.

'He wouldn't actually become one, though.

'The fact is that he is a figurehead who uses his name to conceal the real owner of these millions: Russian President Vladimir Putin.'

Among the developments achieved by this company was Putin's 1billion clifftop palace, complete with a pole-dancing boudoir and vineyard, at Gelendzhik on the Black Sea.

Among Kabaeva's properties is reported to be a penthouse in the Royal Park residential complex in Sochi.

The report claims it is 'the largest apartment in Russia' and 'became the brightest diamond in [a] necklace of real estate  a 2,600 sq. m. apartment with a swimming pool, a movie theatre, a patio and its own helipad on the roof'.

The added: 'The royal scale of the purchase as well as the regal name of the residential complex seem to hint at the special status of the person who was to live in this luxury. The status of this person is indeed special.

'She is the uncrowned queen of Russia, the secret concubine of President Putin and the alleged mother of his children.

An image from Google Maps shows the purported location of what the report says is Vladimir Putin's secret lakeside residence in Russia's Valdai region

A second mansion is seen near the main mansion, believed to be Alina Kabaeva's house in Valdai. She is understood to be Vladimir Putin's secret wife

The probe also claims to have gone further than ever to prove they have secret children. One picture is said to confirm that a Swiss team - which assisted at the birth of one of their children - visited Moscow in 2019.

A trio of doctors was seen at a parade on May 9, 2019, on Red Square, Proekt reported.

The investigation claims all worked at the elite St Anna's Clinic in Lugano, Switzerland, where Kabaeva - an Olympic gold medal-winning rhythmic gymnast -was believed to have given birth in 2015.

The Swiss medics were given VIP tickets to the Red Square event as a thank you outing, the publication says.

The report asked: 'How did Swiss doctors, who came to Moscow for several days, end up in the VIP stand closed to all outsiders?

'The answer to this question is quite simple. These Swiss women had important and secret merits before the Russian leadership.

'They were Kabaeva's personal midwives and doctors who assisted in the birth of her children.'
The rancher accused of murdering a Mexican national on his remote Arizona ranch called US Border Patrol to his property '30 to 40 times' in January alone, a neighbor has told DailyMail.com.

Agents visited George Kelly's land so often they even had a key to the property so they could let themselves in.

Kelly, 73, was arrested and charged with murder after allegedly shooting Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea dead on January 30.

Kelly, who lives less than a mile from the border fence in Kino Springs, Arizona, had called Border Patrol at around 2:30pm the same day to report he had seen a group of men running through his property and that he had been 'shot at'.

George Kelly, 73, says he was defending his land in Arizona when a group of up to 10 Mexican migrants ran through it on January 30, firing shots and carrying backpacks and radios, prompting him to fire back and kill Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea (right)

When Kelly arrived at court in Nogales he said he had no idea what to expect as he had never been in a similar situation

Kelly's 170-acre ranch in Kino Springs is a stone's throw from the border. He told police he was having lunch with his wife when he heard gunshots on January 30. He went to the porch with his gun, and says he fired warning shots while watching a group of men run through the trees

Kelly has insisted in court that he has been plagued by gangs of alleged drug smugglers on his land and, on the day in question, shot 'over' a group of men seen on his land before finding Cuen-Buitimea dead hours later.

Both Kino Springs and Kelly's sprawling 169-acre property are deemed to be 'high traffic' and 'high crime' areas by Border Patrol, DailyMail.com has learned.

The area is part of the Tucson Border Patrol Sector which covers 262 miles of the southern border and saw more than 20,000 migrant 'encounters' in January  an increase of 14 per cent on January 2022.

A man who lives next to the gated entrance of Kelly's property and asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the case said: 'They're on his property 30 or 40 times a month.

'Border Patrol, they have keys to his property  his gate. So it's very common for them to be here.'

Another neighbor, a woman who lives a street back from the entrance to Kelly's property, said there had been a large Border Patrol operation just a few days before the shooting.

She said: 'I know a few days before this happened, there was a lot of activity with Border Patrol. They were rushing through the streets.

Kelly's sprawling property, while remote, is located in a region that is deemed 'high traffic' and 'high crime' areas by US Border Patrol. Pictured: The entrance to the rancher's land

When DailyMail.com visited shortly after the shooting, evidence of migrants could be seen close to the main road

The road was littered with pieces of clothing and other items presumably left behind by border crossers

The land near Kelly's property is known for 'high crime' levels and drug-trafficking gangs

'About 9pm at night, a tow truck went in there with another car that had been here earlier  that was a few days before [the shooting].

'I did see Border Patrol, sheriffs. It started about 6pm and they were parked on the corner here outside my house. Then they went down that way [towards Kelly's home].

'I don't know how many people were involved.'

The man added: 'The helicopter was here for an hour and a half, flying about half a mile from here over there [Kelly's house].'

Kelly and his wife Wanda have lived in Kino Springs, a small town of fewer than 150 residents, 12 miles and a 30-minute drive from the busy border city of Nogales, since 2002.

According to a sale listing, they use the property as a livestock farm and own a herd of Texas Longhorn cattle, as well as several horses.

Exclusive DailyMail.com photos illustrate the remoteness of the area  and its proximity to the border fence.

When DailyMail.com visited shortly after the shooting, evidence of migrants could be seen close to the main road, including bundles of clothing left lying in the dirt.

Speaking during an evidentiary hearing on Friday, Detective Jorge Ainza admitted the area around Kelly's ranch was known for 'high crime' levels and drug-trafficking gangs.

Detective Ainza said: 'Both Kino Springs and Mr Kelly's property are high traffic areas.'

In court last Wednesday, a judge agreed to convert Kelly's $1million cash bond to a surety bond, which will allow him to use his 170-acre ranch to get out after nearly a month in custody

Kelly's wife Wanda, 74, turned up at court in Nogales wearing exactly the same colors as her husband

Kelly's ranch in Arizona where he says he fired warning shots from his porch

Kino Springs only 12 miles and a 30-minute drive from the busy border city of Nogales

He told the court that a Border Patrol officer he had interviewed, Agent Layugan, had told him Kelly had repeatedly called agents to his property and agreed when he was asked if a second agent, Agent Dugane, had been called to the home before.

Kelly's lawyer, Brenna Larkin, said in court: 'He has been out to the ranch before. He has encountered armed people. He's encountered both handguns and rifles.

'Agent Dugane also stated the area where Mr. Kelly lives is in a high crime area.

' He said especially recently that there has been an increased amount of drug trafficking in that area. Most of that drug trafficking is done by mules  usually people carrying large backpacks.'

Kino Springs and Nogales are both part of the Tucson Border Patrol Sector, which maintains a large field office in Nogales.

Like the neighboring Yuma sector, it has struggled to deal with increasing numbers of migrants crossing illegally  with records for January showing a 14.1 per cent increase.

Family members were able to raise nearly $350,000 on Christian crowd fundraiser GiveSendGo

According to Border Patrol figures, 20,222 people were caught crossing the border in the area in January while 22,137 were picked up in December  a 40 per cent increase on the previous year.

Kelly, who was being held on a $1million bond at the Santa Cruz County Detention Center, until last week, has not commented on the case, except to say he didn't know what to expect as he had never been in such a situation before.

His wife Wanda, 74, also declined to comment when contacted by DailyMail.com.

He was released from custody Thursday on a $1million surety bond secured by his ranch after family members were able to raise nearly $350,000 on GiveSendGo, which claims to be a 'Christian' alternative to GoFundMe, after the mainstream crowdfunder took his original fundraiser down.

Shannon Pritchard, who set up the fundraiser wrote: 'It is a tragedy that a simple farmer, who should be protected by the government has been abandoned and had to defend himself.

'That is bad enough,' added Pritchard. 'But the government that caused this, now wishes to persecute him.

Pritchard called the decision to prosecute 'purely political.'

'This will ruin the remaining years of this gentleman's life, through no fault of his own...This man should not have to spend a night in jail.'

Kelly is due in court on Monday next week for his arraignment.

Border Patrol referred questions about the case to the Santa Cruz Sheriff's Department and rejected a FOIA request asking for the number of calls made by Kelly to their agents between January 2022 and January 2023 citing 'privacy concerns and possible law enforcement sensitivity.'
Piles of confidential documents containing the personal details of ANZ customers have been found thrown in a skip bin on a busy street by someone walking by.

Scott Collins, 26, was walking near Armadale Central Shopping Centre, in Perth's south-east, when he noticed the papers overflowing from the bins which were being used in renovations.

He said they included bank statements, letters and internal communications that showed customer account numbers, personal details, emails, phone numbers and transaction histories.

'I was just coming from work... I managed to find these documents floating down the street,' he told 9News.

'If these were mine I would be outraged... Anyone could have found these.'

Scott Collins found bundles of the documents 'floating down the street' after they were discarded whole in a skip bin (pictured)

The bins were filled with debris after the local ANZ branch close its doors and the office was being cleaned out ready for another tenant.

'These banks make billions in profit and they can't afford a shredder... they've obviously learnt nothing form the Optus and Medibank data breaches,' he said.

Mr Collins said that the next nearest branch was now 20 minutes away which was particularly difficult for elderly residents in the area.

Under new Australian legislation introduced in late 2022 , companies which repeatedly fail to protect customers' private data can be fined up to $50million.

'When Australians are asked to hand over their personal data they have a right to expect it will be protected,' Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said.

'It's not enough for a penalty for a major data breach to be seen as the cost of doing business,' he added.

A spokesperson for ANZ said the bank has strict processes in place for discarding private information including locked bins and shredding services.

It is not known why the procedure wasn't followed with these documents.

ANZ Managing Director, Retail, Katherine Bray said ANZ 'takes the security of our customers' information and our obligations under the law seriously'.

'When we close a branch we have strict processes in place to securely dispose of ANZ documents, including those that contain customer information.

'This process is closely supervised by our staff and includes a detailed inspection of the premises.

'We are sorry this has occurred and are urgently investigating to understand what has happened in this instance.'

It's understood ANZ has now recovered the documents and has contacted those customers involved.
A breakfast TV show reporter visited one of Australia's richest suburbs - mocking wealthy residents about whether they can still afford luxury cars, boats and overseas holidays as super rules are changed.

Thousands of Aussies with more than $3million in superannuation will no longer get generous tax concessions under a new plan announced by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday.

The PM and his Treasurer Jim Chalmers confirmed their plans to double the tax rate for contributions to 30 per cent, up from 15 per cent, for 80,000 Australians, with the changes expected to come into effect on July 1, 2025.

The top 0.5 per cent of Australians, with more than $3million in retirement savings, are more likely to live in upmarket postcodes like Double Bay, a ritzy suburb in Sydney's east which is often referred to as 'Double Pay' because of its wealth.

The superannuation changes were still a hot topic on breakfast television on Wednesday, where Today show reporter Lara Vella reported live from the 'beautifully manicured streets' of Double Bay.

She repeatedly sledged residents throughout the segment, some of them to their faces and was egged on by program hosts Karl Stefanovic and Sarah Abo.

Today show reporter Lara Vella (pictured) took the streets of Double Bay on Wednesday

'It's tough out here on the streets of Double Bay this morning,' Vella began.

'The community, they're counting their pennies, they're counting the stacks of $100 bills that they have strategically placed throughout their penthouses and mansions in case of a rainy day because this is basically class warfare.

'And let's face it, no one likes it when the rich are the targets, do they?'

Vella took to the streets to find out how Double Bay locals were feeling.

'People are very despondent. They're going to be ordering less coffee now and they're not sure how they're going to get through their day,' a coffee shop barista said.

Vella quipped: 'How will they pay for their almond lattes?'

The barista replied: 'They're going to have to sell some of their properties.'

One Double Bay man joked to Lara Vella he may be forced to sell his boat, his daughter's favourite

Today show hosts Karl Stefanovic and Sarah Abo also poked fun of residents in the ritzy suburb

Vella even brutally rejected a local when she told her she was a middle income earner.

'No, I don't want to talk to you,' she said, turning away from the woman who appeared shocked at the interaction.

A middle-aged man was asked whether he would have to sell his second Mercedes.

'It's the boat, it's my daughter's favourite,' he joked.

The average annual income Double Bay is $176,577, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics' personal income data for 2019-20.

Homeowners fork out an average of $3,000 a month in mortgage repayments, according to the 2016 Census.

'There are going to be so many tough conversations had around solid marble dining room tables this morning, aren't there?' Vella continued.

'Are they going to have to sell the second or third Mercedes, maybe even downgrade to an Audi or a VW.'

'You know, the winters in Whistler aren't not going to pay for themselves. It's tough.'

Lara Vella (pictured) pondered how Double Bay residents will still be able to afford their luxury cars, boats and overseas holidays under the sweeping reforms

Stefanovic and Abo were in stitches back in the studio as Vella ended the segment by mocking a passer-by 'on her way to yoga.'

'It's not easy,' Stefanovic joked.

Vella was inundated with praise for her brutal segment on the superannuation saga from viewers tired of the spiel from politicians.

'Good job, thanks for injecting a touch of reality to this superannuation overblown fiasco,' one viewer tweeted.

Another added: 'Well done for seeing this issue for what it is. A basic measure to stop the wealthiest Australians getting an undeserved tax concession.'

a third 'It did more to put perspective on the superannuation issue than all the other coverage I've seen. If I see one more interview with a Liberal politician propagating lies.'

But not all viewers saw the funny side.

'How dare you ridicule people who live in Double Bay. They also pay a s**t load of tax paying for things like Medicare/Welfare,' one wrote.

Double Bay falls with the electorate of Wentworth, which the Liberal Party lost at the last election to independent Allegra Spender.

Labor has never held this seat.
Advertisement

A range of incredible images have been chosen as winners of the National Geographic Traveller Photography Awards 2023.

From astonishing photographs of deer roaming the woodland to a child running underneath a shower of water, the images across a number of categories depict the beauty of wildlife and everyday human interactions.

Other winners include a Joyous image of two women speaking to each other through a small window and a swarm of fish in the deep ocean.

Pat Riddell, editor of National Geographic Traveller, said: 'These winners reflect some of the very best images taken around the globe. From the underwater world of the Indian Ocean to wildlife in Richmond Park and the delicacy of the ice fields in Greenland, the images are full of drama, intimacy and warmth.'

These are the images that are among the winners of this year's National Geographic Awards:

A photograph from Serge Melesan's victorious Portfolio category, a turtle swims along the seabed of the Mayotte lagoon with vast ocean filling the background. Melesan says his work is designed to show locals that the wildlife nearby to their homes requires protection from overpopulation

Among the winners is this photograph taken by Ed Hasler of a stag roaming a woodland in Richmond Park, south west London, shortly after sunrise in October. The picture saw Ed Hasler win the Wildlife category. He said: 'Eventually this stag moved into position, with his fur catching the warm glow from the sun'

This joyous image of two women speaking to each other through a small window, taken by Renato Granieri, was named at the Grand Prize and People category winner. It shows Mariama Turay (left) and Marah Hawaengage (right), who are two eco-guards who help to protect chimpanzees in Sierra Leones Loma Mountains National Park. Judges said of the photograph: 'We love the authenticity of shared laughter; the vibrancy of the colours juxtaposed against the white wall'

Taken by Serge Melesan, this winner of the Portfolio category shows a lionfish in its natural habitat. The picture was taken in Mayotte, in the Indian Ocean, between Madagascar and the coast of Mozambique. Malesan said: 'I call Mayotte the lost paradise. People always talk about Fiji, French Polynesia, Seychelles, but Mayotte is still unknown'

This image of a woman preparing food, taken by Simon Urwin, came out victorious in the Food category of the National Geographic awards

From astonishing photographs of deer roaming the woodland to a child running underneath a shower of water, the images across a number of categories depict the beauty of wildlife and everyday human interactions. Picture taken by Richard Quirke
The possibility of a secession from the city of Atlanta became a little more likely this week as the affluent area of Buckhead continued its attempt to peel off from the crime-ridden inner city.

Two bills that would allow Buckhead to secede passed a Republican-led Georgia Senate committee Monday and could be up for a floor vote as soon as today.

If both chambers of the legislature approve the bills, and they are subsequently signed by Governor Brian Kemp, residents of Buckhead - the 24-square-mile area on the edge of Atlanta - would be able to vote in the November 2024 election about whether to leave Atlanta and form their own city.

The move faced initial opposition last year, when former Georgia Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan put the kibosh on the effort, sending the secession bill to a committee comprised solely of urban Democrats who opposed the effort.

But the state's new Lieutenant Governor, Burt Jones, is a backer of the measure. The effort is still expected to face resistance in the House.

Buckhead is one of the most expensive zip codes in the US, with mansions lining the streets and glossy shopping centers downtown

Crime in Atlanta has surged over the last several years, prompting the Buckhead population to seriously consider seceding from the troubled inner city

According to Fortune, a spokesperson for Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said that City Hall 'will continue to work with the Senate to put an end to this legislation before it has disastrous consequences.'

In 2021, Bill White, the CEO of Buckhead City, pushed for the suburb to 'divorce' itself from Atlanta.

'We are living in a war zone in Buckhead. Shooting and killings, it just never ends,' he told Bloomberg.

BUCKHEAD, GEORGIA: ONE OF THE NATION'S WEALTHIEST ZIP CODES Buckhead is known as Atlanta's commercial and residential district, famed for its high-rise buildings and shopping centers, hotels and mansions. The neighborhood is a historically wealthy district and was once ranked the ninth richest zip code in the country with a median price of homes of $1,460,595, according to Forbes. American suburban luxury home in Buckhead, Atlanta Bloomberg named Buckhead the 20th richest zip code in the nation in 2011, when the average household net worth there was $1,353,189. The average household income was $280,631. Because of this, Buckhead is often called the 'Beverly Hills of the Southeast,' in reference to the upscale city in California. Buckhead is also known to have a few notable residents, including Georgia Republican Kelly Loeffler. Loeffler was among the wealthiest members of Congress until she lost her seat in January of 2021. In 2009, she and her husband spent more than $10million on a European-style mansion named Descante in the Buckhead neighborhood. Source: Bloomberg Advertisement

White, who officially filed to secede from the city in June of 2021, previously slammed Atlanta city leadership, including former Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, accusing her of ignoring soaring crime in Buckhead and presiding over a demoralized and underfunded police department.

White hopes the suburb, where the average home costs $1.4million, will be able to secede in order to take public safety in their own hands.

The breakup would mean Atlanta proper would have about 90,000 fewer citizens - a population decrease of one-fifth.

It would also mean an approximate loss of 38% of its tax revenue, which could in turn impact Atlanta's credit rating.

The affluent residents of Buckhead have grown weary of seeing members of their own community suffer gunshot wounds, home invasions and murders.

Although rumblings about a potential split from Atlanta have gone on for years, the Buckhead split has gained traction in recent years due to ongoing concerns about crime.

The homicide rate in Atlanta climbed last year to 161 - the highest number since 1996. That figure was up from 157 in 2020 and 99 in 2019.

Burglaries, shoplifting and carjackings also rose significantly in the southern city.

The secession proposal would, like all divorces, taken assets into consideration.

Under the presented legislation, Buckhead City would be allowed to acquire Atlanta park land within its boundaries for a mere $100,000 per acre, despite an acre in the neighborhood commanding 10 times that amount

Atlanta would also be required to either split all assets outside its city limits with the proposed Buckhead City borders or sell them and split the proceeds.

Georgia's legislature has historically allowed unincorporated areas around Atlanta to vote for their own cities for about 20 years.

However, in that time, it has allowed just one vote to leave - the wealthy small city of Stockbridge, where subdivision residents rejected secession in 2018.

In 2021, the last time the proposal to leave the city was sent to the state legislature, an estimated 80 percent of the community was planning to vote in favor of the separation.

Buckhead's population is 73.5 percent white and 23.9 percent black. This compares to the wider Atlanta population, which is 50.7 percent black and 38 percent white, according to census data.

The suburb encompasses 24 square miles and the White says the Atlanta Police Department isn't cutting it. After the recent murder of Kenon Jennings on August 7, the citizens of Buckhead are pushing harder to separate their suburb

If the suburb succeeds, it will be the first Georgia city to break from an existing one. It is estimated that 54 to 62 per cent of Buckhead citizens were pro-annex in 2021
An advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hinted on Wednesday that the Ukrainian military could opt to withdraw soldiers from the vital stronghold of Bakhmut as Russia continued its onslaught to take the city.

Alexander Rodnyansky, an economic adviser to President Zelenskyy, told CNN that the Ukrainian military will consider all options, as reported by AP News.

"So far, they've held the city, but if need be, they will strategically pull back. We're not going to sacrifice all of our people just for nothing," the Ukrainian official said.

In a months-long operation to seize Bakhmut in Ukraine's Donetsk area, defenders have resisted Russian fire and suffered considerable fatalities in the Russia-Ukraine war.

Rodnyansky said that Russia is attempting to surround the city with the help of the Wagner Group's elite forces. Yevgeny Prigozhin, a renegade tycoon with strong ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, heads the private military group infamous for its ruthless methods.

Read Also: FBI Director Backs COVID-19 Lab Leak Theory

The Russian mercenary army commander, who has spent months trying to take Bakhmut and the neighboring communities, claimed on Wednesday that Ukraine is providing stiff opposition to Russia's plans to encircle and seize Donetsk, according to CNBC.

Yevgeny Prigozhin refuted claims in Russian media that Ukrainian government troops had been given orders to withdraw from Bakhmut. He said that Ukraine was instead using all available resources to defend the city, which Russia refers to as "Artemivsk."

Russia Hit by Drone Strikes

One year after the start of the Russia Ukraine war, Russia faces a new threat in the form of a rash of drone strikes, prompting President Vladimir Putin to request border patrols be bolstered.

The Russian defense ministry reports that three drones were shot down on Tuesday; one fell within 100 kilometers (60 miles) southeast of Moscow, while the other two were shot down in southern Russia, per Al Jazeera.

Officials restricted the airspace above St. Petersburg in reaction to what some sources suggested was a drone.

Related Article: Russia Allegedly Has Skyfall Cruise Missile





@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
A mound of toilet paper has been allegedly set ablaze in a supermarket almost burning it to the ground as the owner praised staff and customers for 'saving the store'.

CCTV captured the large stack of toilet paper rolls bursting into flames at a Spudshed store in Perth's Innaloo on Monday night - with police charging a 13-year-old girl over the incident.

The vision showed shoppers and staff making a mad dash to the blaze with fire extinguishers in a desperate bid to put the flames out.

They pulled toilet rolls and flammable items away from the blaze while others sprayed the area with foam as flames leapt up to the ceiling.

Customers were seen running out of the store to escape the fire and the smoke.

The vision showed shoppers and staff rushing to the blaze with fire extinguishers in a desperate bid to put the flames out (pictured)

Staff and customers pulled toilet rolls and flammable items away from the blaze while others used multiple fire extinguishers as flames leapt up to the ceiling (pictured)

The fire was finally put out after a 15-minute fight.

The franchise store's owner and founder Tony Galati was grateful to his staff and customers' quick thinking and said he would thank them personally.

Franchise owner and founder Tony Galati (pictured) was grateful to his staff and customers' quick thinking and said he would thank them personally

'Every fire extinguisher in the store was used, about 15 or 16 ... customers and staff were just grabbing them,' he told Perth Now.

'Quick thinking by the staff saved [the store]. It could have been a lot worse and people could have gotten hurt.

'They are heroes ... I'm grateful to the staff and customers, it could have been a lot worse.'

Mr Galati estimated it would cost $50,000 to fix the damage done to the store.

A St John WA spokeswoman said two ambulances examined some who were in the store for smoke inhalation and burns but no one was taken to hospital.

The building was significantly damaged by the fire but there were no major structural problems (pictured, the Spudshed store at Innaloo)

The building was significantly damaged by the fire but there were no major structural problems caused by the incident.

The shop lost a lot of stock and a section of it had to be cleared out.

'Thank God we got through and virtually 12 hours later we are still trading - it could have been a disaster,' Mr Galati told 7News.

Western Australian police told Daily Mail Australia a 13-year-old girl has been charged with one count of criminal damage by fire.

She will front the Perth Children's Court on March 23, 2023.
Two students at the centre of a wild protest that shut down a Malcolm Turnbull speech at his old university have been suspended - but claim they are the victims.

Deaglan Godwin and Maddie Clark received bans from the University of Sydney after Turnbull, who was invited for the uni's Law School alumni speaker series, was forced to do his speech online.

After an investigation the university ruled that Ms Clark, 22, and Mr Godwin, 23, 'violated Turnbull's freedom of speech' and 'made him and other students afraid'.

Mr Godwin was suspended for a semester and Ms Clark, who previously received a warning for protesting a pro-life stall on campus, was suspended for a year.

Both recently held positions on the university's student representative council.

Turnbull was interrupted by shouting, chanting and shrieking protestors led by Ms Clark and Mr Godwin, who blasted the former PM and minders with a megaphone last September.

Deaglan Godwin (pictured top right) and Maddie Clark received bans from the University of Sydney after Malcolm Turnbull (pictured, centre) , who was invited for the uni's Law School alumni speaker series, was forced to do his speech online

After an investigation Sydney University ruled that Ms Clark, 22, and Mr Godwin (pictured top left), 23, 'violated Turnbull's freedom of speech' and 'made him and other students afraid'

'How dare you come here?' Mr Godwin shouted at the bemused Turnbull before telling him to 'f*** off back to Wentworth' and his audience to 'f*** off back to Mosman'.

At the protest Mr Godwin vowed: 'We will never let a former Liberal Prime Minister come here on campus and speak to students who hes f***ed over so much'.

Unable to be heard over the megaphone and chanting, even with a microphone, Turnbull shrugged and appeared embarrassed.

Eventually NSW police had to be called.

They barricaded the entrance to the annex and Turnbull's speech was switched to an online platform.

As Turnbull departed, protesters shouted at him: 'Malcolm Turnbull, blood on your hands!'

Both Ms Clark and Mr Godwin have since claimed in personal social media posts that their suspensions are intimidation of activists and that their protest was nothing out of the ordinary.

'I believe this response from the university is an extreme one and intimidation towards activists on campus,' Ms Clark wrote.

'Our protest was nothing more than what Malcolm Turnbull would have been used to in Question Time.

'Yet, for momentarily disrupting his address to a Law Society event, we were penalized.

'The university says they support freedom of speech, but that freedom only extends to the political views they agree with.'

Ms Clark claimed her pro-life protest against a stall on campus by Life Choices was valid to protect the rights of pregnant women.

She also claimed supporters of the stall were seen giving Nazi salutes.

'Myself and others protested the Life Choices stall because the ideas Life Choices promote are discriminatory,' she said.

'They are used to promote misogynistic views and clamp down on our rights. We wanted to show other students who were on campus that the bigoted views of Life Choices would not be left unchallenged.'

Mr Godwin claimed his suspension is 'nothing but a blatant attempt by university management to intimidate student activists'

Ms Clark claimed in a social media posts that her suspension is intimidation of activists and that their protest was nothing out of the ordinary

Mr Godwin claimed his suspension is 'nothing but a blatant attempt by university management to intimidate student activists'.

He also described the university's internal investigation as 'a kangaroo court'.

'This sets an awful precedent that students do not have any real freedom of speech on campus,' Mr Godwin said.

'However, multi-millionaire ex-Prime Ministers can be invited onto campus, and when mildly annoyed by protests, use their connections to discipline student unionists.'

The pair, in a co-written opinion piece in 9 newspapers, claimed they 'never intended to shut down the event' and detailed the reasons they protested his appearance at Sydney uni.

These include Turnbull's involvement with Axiom Forest Resources, which logged the Solomon Islands; his career with investment bank Goldman Sachs; and his policies as Prime Minister including the robo-debt scheme.

'These decisions affected the lives of workers, students and other citizens, and they are decisions that should not be forgiven or forgotten now that Turnbull is out of office.'

They disputed the university's finding they had violated Turnbull's freedom of speech and vowed that even with the same penalties, they'd repeat the protest.

'How could a few students with a megaphone possibly have as loud a voice as Turnbull? We simply dont have the avenues available to a former prime minister with book deals and speaking tours.'

Ms Clark (pictured left) was suspended by Sydney University for a year after protesting Mr Turnbull's appearance and also picketing a pro-life stall at the university

They pointed out that after the protest Turnbull was given a platform in national news outlets to label those who interrupted his speech as 'fascist bullies'.

Ms Clark and Mr Godwin said Sydney university had informed them they can protest but 'must do so in a reasonable manner'.

They pointed to how many significant protest movements in history were considered disruptive.

Both Ms Clark and Mr Godwin will appeal the decision by the university.

A spokesperson for the University of Sydney said it has 'never suspended a student for simply protesting' and understands the action has 'consequences' for our students.

'We do take action if someone involved in a protest may have breached our policies or the law.

'This includes damaging property, creating safety risks, disrupting activities so they cannot go ahead or harassing others.

'Similarly, we take action against those harassing or causing damage or safety risks to protesters.

'Protests may be rowdy and spirited, but they cannot interfere with the rights and freedoms of others.

'We consider attempts to shut down speakers who have been invited to our campuses to participate in an exchange of views and ideas as contrary to our Charter of Academic Freedom and Freedom of Speech, which defines the core values of our University in these matters.'

Daily Mail Australia approached Malcolm Turnbull, Maddie Clark and Deaglan Godwin for comment.
A man whose girlfriend was pulled over for a defected car called out the policeman for having tyres 'as bald as a baby's bottom'.

Declan Ryan and his girlfriend were driving in Epping, north Melbourne, on Saturday when they were pulled over by highway patrol and handed a defect notice for their modified Ford.

Mr Ryan shared a short video on Monday showing the confrontation which he captioned 'Vic Police need to practice what they preach'.

The clip started with Mr Ryan telling the officer his rear passenger tyre is worn.

'Right on the inner (tyre)  they're bald, mate,' he said.

'It's on the (thread) indicators, mate, and the inside is a bald as a baby's bottom.'

Declan Ryan found a policeman's rear tyres were bald (above) after he and his partner were pulled over for car defects

He then walked to check the rear driver tyre and found it was also unroadworthy.

'This one's bald too, mate. Before you hand out defects, maybe check your own car,' he said.

Mr Ryan said he owns a tyre business and was able to quickly spot the police car's defect.

'I do tyres for a living, so I knew our tyres were good,' he told news.com.au.

The viral clip has been viewed more than 600,000 times with hundreds of commenters calling Mr Ryan a 'legend'.

'Glad to see someone who is showing them their car is not roadworthy but in a respectful way,' one person commented.

'I mean at least he actually is checking it unlike in some videos, the cops go mental,' another said.

'Ladies and gentlemen, we got him,' a third wrote.

A fourth said: 'He's been doing skids on overtime.'

Mr Ryan told the officer (above) 'before you hand out defects, maybe check your own car' after finding two bald tyres on the police vehicle

Victoria Police said Mr Ryan's partner, who was driving the Ford, was given a defect notice but wasn't fined.

They said the car didn't meet guidelines for minimum ground clearance, had wheel and tyre modifications and an air filter that wasn't properly secured.

'During the incident, the male passenger made several comments about the police vehicle,' it said.

'The tyres of that vehicle were inspected and have since been replaced.'
Patrick Stokes, an Associate Professor in Philosophy at Deakin University, in Victoria, made a joke in reference to the recent changes to super announced by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday

A philosophy professor who joked about quitting his job because he has '$2,999,999' in superannuation has been forced to explain the gag after Aussies embarrassingly thought he was being serious.

Patrick Stokes, an Associate Professor in Philosophy at Deakin University, in Victoria, made the joke in reference to the recent changes to super announced by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday.

Mr Albanese confirmed Australians with more than $3million in their super funds would see their contribution tax rate double to 30 per cent, up from 15 per cent, from July 1, 2025.

Around 80,000 people are expected to be impacted by the change with the average super balance in Australia sitting at a measly $150,000.

'Just hit $2,999,999 in my super account and now I've lost all incentive to work for a second longer, our national prosperity be damned. You have only yourselves to blame, Australia,' Dr Stokes tweeted.

Dr Stokes joked he'd stop working as he had $2,999,999 in his super fund

The professor also joked he'd been given a secret elixir to grant him an extra 300 years of life - but people still believed he was being serious

'I'm just someone who has worked hard, saved up, and wants to enjoy a dignified retirement and also discovered a secret elixir that grants me an extra 300 years of life. We're all the same, really.'

Despite his joke about the magical potion, his super sarcasm wasn't well received by some Aussies who astonishingly believed he was being serious and took the chance to criticise his apparent show of wealth.

'I reckon 3mil is a pretty dignified retirement fund. How long are you planning to live? Most people work hard mate, few accrue that kind of money - wake up to yourself,' one replied.

'It's so hard to be an "upper middle class" fella, with more wealth in your super than 99.5% of fellow Australians, these days,' said another.

Many Aussies didn't understand the joke and took the opportunity to criticise Dr Stokes' apparent show of wealth

One person told the professor to 'suck it up'

Another Twitter user told Dr Stokes to 'stop your bleeding heart story' while another said 'suck it up'.

'Congrats Patrick, you have done well. You will have a dignified retirement. Perhaps you should have built up your wife's super to offset the future changes. You could also think about the people not as fortunate as yourself and who's paying for your tax concessions,' another said.

A dumbfounded Dr Stokes was then forced to clearly state his tweet was just a bit of fun.

'Good evening to the non-trivial number of people who apparently think I actually have $3m in superannuation,' he tweeted.

'I literally claimed in my "sob story" that I had a magic longevity potion and 97 children and yet I am *still* getting tweets that assume it is an actual complaint.'

He did admit, however, that academics do receive 'pretty big' superannuation.

He also said he believed the changes were 'entirely reasonable' and if he did have millions stashed away, he'd be happy to pay more tax.

In Tuesday's announcement, Mr Albanese stressed that the 15 per cent concessional tax rate would continue to apply for the 99.5 per cent of Australians with less than $3million in retirement savings.
A pregnant woman has copped a backlash after challenging a $500 fine she received for parking in a disabled car spot while grocery shopping.

The woman, who is 28 weeks' pregnant, was at the Eastgate Shopping Centre in Bondi Junction, Sydney, searching for a 'parents and prams' parking spot.

She explained in a post shared to the Eastern Suburbs Mums Facebook Group that no 'parents and prams' spots were available on the Coles level of the car park so she decided to park her car in a disabled space instead.

'I needed to go one morning... not feeling well... without much time to buy some groceries and I couldn't find any pregnant parking (on level 3),' she wrote.

'I thought I was allowed to park at the disability ones (I hope they don't expect a pregnant woman to be carrying her groceries to the end of the parking lot).

Other mothers labelled her 'entitled' and criticised the woman for wanting to contest the fine (stock image)

The mum-to-be was subsequently fined $587 for parking in a disabled space without a permit and asked fellow mums if it was 'worth going to court'.

She claimed the fine was expensive and could use the money to buy things for her unborn baby, Yahoo News reported.

'I applied to explain the situation thinking they would understand but they got back to me saying they still need to fine me.'

But other mothers were unsympathetic to the pregnant woman's plight, labelling her 'entitled' for asking.

'Absolutely no point taking it to court. To park in a disabled parking spot you need a disability permit,' one person commented.

'Being pregnant doesn't make you disabled,' another person wrote.

'I actually can't believe you're asking this. It's so entitled,' another person added.

The woman parked at Eastgate shopping centre carpark (pictured) and was fined $587 for parking in a disabled space without a permit

The woman, who is 28 weeks' pregnant, decided to park in a disabled car space after she struggled to find a 'parents and prams' parking spot close to Coles (stock image)

A fourth person wrote: 'Disabled people need those spots for sooo many reasons. And if you haven't noticed, they are often full!!'

Eastgate shopping centre car park, which is co-owned by Waverly Council, has a total of eight 'parents with prams' spots located on level four and five.

Poll Should the woman's fine be reversed? No, she should not have parked in a disabled space Yes, it's okay because she's pregnant Should the woman's fine be reversed? No, she should not have parked in a disabled space 378 votes

Yes, it's okay because she's pregnant 10 votes Now share your opinion





'Parents with prams' car spaces are provided courtesy of the owners of the property to help customers who are generally regarded as less mobile, according to NRMA.

While car park management could ask someone without a pram, or infant, to vacate a parent parking spot, its not enforceable by law.

However, drivers are not permitted to stop or park their vehicle in a parking area designated for people with disabilities without a permit.

Parking in a disabled car spot without a permit carries a maximum penalty of $2,200 - but is usually dealt with by way of an on-the-spot fine of $587 plus one demerit point.

Women experiencing pregnancy complications should consult their doctors to see whether they are eligible for a temporary parking permit.
A JetBlue pilot had to take 'evasive action' while landing at Boston's Logan International Airport when another aircraft crossed an intersecting runway, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

The close call occurred at 7pm Monday when the pilot of a Learjet 60 took off without clearance as a JetBlue flight was preparing to land on an intersecting runway, according to the FAA's preliminary review.

The FAA is investigating just how close the two aircraft came, but flight data tracking service Flightradar24 said Tuesday that a preliminary analysis put the aircraft approximately 530 feet (160 meters) apart.

An air traffic controller instructed the pilot of the Learjet to line up and wait on one runway while the JetBlue flight landed on another, the FAA said in a statement.

'The Learjet pilot read back the instructions clearly but began a takeoff roll instead,' the FAA said. 'The pilot of the JetBlue aircraft took evasive action and initiated a climb-out as the Learjet crossed the intersection.'

A JetBlue pilot had to take 'evasive action' while landing at Boston's Logan International Airport when another aircraft crossed an intersecting runway

The JetBlue flight landing in Boston was arriving from Nashville, Tennessee, according to Flightradar24. Meanwhile, the Learjet 60 was heading to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

One terrified passenger recalled the near collision that that most people onboard were oblivious.

'I was on this plane. Totally terrifying - I dont think most people knew what happened but it was clear what must have occurred,' Adam Johnson wrote on Twitter.

JetBlue Airways said it is cooperating with investigators in the Logan near miss.

'On Monday, February 27, JetBlue flight 206 landed safely in Boston after our pilots were instructed to perform a go-around by air traffic controllers,' the airline said in a statement. 'Safety is JetBlue's first priority and our crews are trained to react to situations like this.'

The close call occurred at about 7pm Monday when the pilot of a Learjet 60 (similar to the one above) took off without clearance

The FAA is investigating just how close the two aircraft came, but flight data tracking service Flightradar24 said Tuesday that a preliminary analysis put the aircraft approximately 530 feet. Pictured: the Boston Logan International Airport

The close call at Logan is the latest near miss involving commercial aircraft in the past few months. There was one at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York in January, a second in Austin, Texas, in February and a third off the coast of Hawaii in December.

The near miss from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport on February 4 occurred when a FedEx plane nearly landed on top a Southwest jet bound for Cancun, Mexico filled with passengers.

According to reports, the Southwest flight was given the OK to take off but took too long.

Audio revealed how a FedEx pilot landing his jet urgently told a Southwest jet to abort its take off so they didn't crash into each other. Quick-thinking pilots on the cargo plane were forced to swiftly make a go-around, narrowly avoiding a collision.

A FedEx cargo plane nearly crashed into a departing Southwest flight on February 4 at the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas

The near-crash came just one month after a similar close call was averted at John F. Kennedy International Airport on January 13 when an American Airlines plane crossed a runway while a Delta Airlines' Boeing 737 plane was preparing for takeoff.

The Delta flight was traveling at 115mph down a runway at the New York's airport at around 8.45pm when an air traffic controller noticed that the American Airlines flight to the UK crossed from an adjacent runway right in front of the departing plane, ABC 7 reports.

Air Traffic Control had told the American Airlines flight to cross 'runway 31L at Kilo' but instead crossed runway 4 Left at Juliet, crossing directly in front of the departing Delta flight.

The Delta pilot was forced to abruptly brake, traveling another 661 feet before he came to a complete stop with just 1,000 feet to spare before the plane would have T-boned the American Airlines Boeing 777, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a preliminary statement.

It was then forced to return to the gate, and did not takeoff again until the next morning, while the American Airlines flight arrived in the UK on time.

That near collisions prompted the FAA Administrator Billy Nolen to say earlier this month that he was putting together a team of experts to review airline safety.

The Delta flight was traveling at 115mph down a runway at the New York's airport at around 8.45pm when an air traffic controller noticed that the American Airlines flight to the UK crossed from an adjacent runway right in front of the departing plane. Pictured: the near crash at John F. Kennedy International Airport on January 13

The sting of near crashes first started on December 18 when 20 people have been injured in a mass emergency onboard a Hawaiian Airlines flight from Arizona after it encountered severe turbulence.

Passengers were nearing the end of their seven-hour flight from Phoenix to Honolulu when many were thrown out of their seats.

It was confirmed that 11 people were seriously hurt, including several children and a 14-month-old baby. Nine others suffered from minor injuries and from those seven decided to take the bus to hospital for further treatment

Several passengers could be seen wearing neck braces after being slammed into the ceiling of the aircraft in which they were traveling on December 18
House Judiciary Committee Republicans have launched a probe into the rape and murder of a 20-year-old autistic woman by an alleged MS-13 gang member who was arrested at the US-Mexico border as an unaccompanied minor.

Criticizing the Biden administrations' 'open border policies,' US Reps. Jim Jordan and Tom McClintok demanded the Health and Human Services Department answer for the death of Kayla Hamilton, of Aberdeen, Maryland.

Police said she was raped and stangled to death on July 27, 2022, with police arresting a 17-year-old undocument boy last month for the murder, noting that he is suspected of being a member of the deadly MS-13 gang.

A letter penned to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra on Tuesday by the GOP reps expressed outrage that the suspect had been arrested when crossing the border, but was released to the custody of his aunt in Frederick, Maryland, 45 miles west of Baltimore.

'The Biden administration's open border policies have created vulnerabilities that criminal aliens and gangs member exploit to the detriment of American citizens,' Jordan and McClintock wrote.

Kayla Hamilton, 20, of Aberdeen, Maryland, was allegedly raped and killed by a suspected MS-13 gang member, who was previously arrested at the border as an unaccompanied minor

US Reps. Jim Jordan (left) and Tom McClintok (right) are now demanding the Health and Human Services Department's refugee office answer why the suspect was released in Maryland to the custody of his aunt despite the red flag of his alleged gang affiliation

The Aberdeen Police Department said Hamilton had just moved into the city to live with her 22-year-old boyfriend before her gruesome murder, which also came just three days after her birthday.

Officers had been called to a mobile home at the Rancho Estates for a suspected cardiac arrest victim, but instead found Hamilton's body.

The Aberdeen Chief Medical Examiner said she died by strangulation, and detectives found DNA at the crime scene matching the 17-year-old suspected gang member, who has yet to be named.

He was arrested on January 15, 2023, in Edgewood, with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement noting that he was listed in El Salvadorian records as a member of the MS-13 gang, Fox News reports.

Tammy Nobles, Hamilton's mother, said she was heartbroken by the tragedy that befell her autistic daughter and confused as to why the suspect was allowed to be anywhere near her.

'We have to process losing her, but we also have to process what happened to her,' she told Fox

She added that she was proud of her daughter for moving out to live independently, and called for the maximum sentence available for the suspect, asking officials not to try him as a minor.

Nobles also demanded answers as to why the suspect was arrested and released to his aunt when caught crossing the border illegally.

'I don't know where he came from. I don't know how he got here or how he ended up being in the same area as her,' she said.

Tammy Nobles, Kayla Hamilton's mother, said she was heartbroken by her daughter's death and wanted answers about the circumstances involving the suspect

Nobles told police her daughter (right), who is autistic, wanted to live independently and had recently moved in with her boyfriend and celebrated her 20th birthday before her death

Police said the young woman was raped and then strangled to death

That's the key question Jordan and McClintock are asking to the HHS's Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is charged with the care and placement of minors caught by the US Customs and Border Protection.

The GOP reps are requesting HHS deliver all information regarding the teen's case, including his family reunification packet and all documents provided by the border agencies that apprehended and processed the suspect.

Jordan and McClintock also demanded HHS offer a detailed explanation on how it verified the suspect's age, his relationship to his aunt, and his status as an MS-13 gang member.

The congressmen said Becerra had until March 13 to deliver the requested material.

HHS did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment.

Along with the letter, Jordan slammed Biden directly in a tweet criticizing his alleged inaction amid reports of the border crisis' impacts.

Summing up the news, Jordan wrote: 'Unaccompanied alien minors working brutal jobs across the country. MS 13 gang member kills Maryland woman. Fentanyl being smuggled across the border.

'But for some reason, Joe Biden continues to ignore the border crisis.'

The GOP's outrage in the case comes as the number of migrants caught illegally crossing the southern border has reportedly hit one million in less than four months into the fiscal year - and is on pace to smash records.

As of last Friday, there have been a total of 1,008,217 migrant encounters at the southern border since October - the start of the fiscal year - multiple Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Fox News reports.

The CBP sources said there are early indications that February's numbers are down and could come in under 150,000 compared to last February which hit 166,000 migrant encounters. But there's a concern that numbers could pick up again in the spring, which often happens, with record-breaking crossings.

There have been a total of 1,008,217 migrants caught illegally crossing the border in less than four months into the fiscal year 2023, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sources are reporting. Pictured: Asylum-seeking migrants walk past a barbed wire fence

The number of migrants crossing over the US southern border since January 2021

Republicans, who took back control of the House of Representatives in 2022, have already started to examine how to address the border crisis.

In his State of the Union address, Biden addressed the situation, referring to it as a bipartisan problem.

'America's border problems won't be fixed until Congress acts,' Biden said.

Biden has been heavily criticized for his inaction on the issue.

Last week, the Biden administration announced a new rule that would automatically make illegal immigrants who passed through another country without claiming asylum ineligible for asylum in the US.
The San Francisco radio DJ who vanished last week shared that he was experiencing mysterious brain issues just hours before he went missing from his home.

Jeffrey 'JV' Vandergrift, 54, told listeners about his health issues, saying doctors were looking into something that may have 'reignited' old infections.

'The body and the pain and all that stuff, I can handle. What it's doing to my brain I could never describe to you,' he said Thursday morning during his show.

Less than 24 hours later, Vandergrift was reported missing after he was last seen at his home on King Street around 10pm.

After he vanished, fans pointed out that the Wild 94.9 host had edited an Instagram caption to use past-tense language and thanked fans for their years of love and support.

The San Francisco radio DJ who vanished last week shared that he was experiencing mysterious brain issues just hours before he went missing from his home

Jeffrey 'JV' Vandergrift, 54, told listeners about his health issues, saying doctors were looking into something that may have 'reignited' old infections

'The body and the pain and all that stuff, I can handle. What it's doing to my brain I could never describe to you,' he said Thursday morning during his show

After he vanished, fans pointed out that the Wild 94.9 host had edited an Instagram caption to use past-tense language and thanked fans for their years of love and support

During his Thursday show, the radio DJ said he had been working with his medical team to address his concerns.

Vandergrift said doctors had even recently offered him experimental medications or surgeries to address the issues.

'The stuff I've been going through in my brain that they're trying to figure out. Ugh,' he told Wild 94.9 listeners.

He didn't go into more detail but in 2021, the DJ had been diagnosed with Lyme disease, according to a post he made at the time.

At the time, he took a short break from his show to focus on his health.

The unearthed comments on his health come just hours after his coworkers said Vandergrift has not used his credit cards or phone since disappearing.

His friends from the radio station described the situation as 'incredibly worrisome.'

The officials did not directly mention the Instagram post that has raised major red flags, but it is one of the biggest causes for concern.

The August 2022 Instagram post had originally been a celebration of National Radio Day, but was edited to thanks his fans for a 'wonderful life.'

'Thank you for a wonderful life-filed w joy, laughs, pain & struggle. It's been a great journey. Your support & prayers meant the world,' the caption now reads.

As of Tuesday, officials with the San Francisco Police Department said there is no indication of foul play at this time but he is still described as 'at risk.'

During his Thursday show, the radio DJ (left) said he had been working with his medical team to address his concerns

'The stuff I've been going through in my brain that they're trying to figure out. Ugh,' he told Wild 94.9 listeners

Vandergrift said doctors had even recently offered him experimental medications or surgeries to address the issues

He didn't go into more detail but in 2021, the DJ had been diagnosed with Lyme disease, according to a post he made at the time

The unearthed comments on his health come just hours after his coworkers said Vandergrift has not used his credit cards or phone since disappearing

His friends from the radio station described the situation as 'incredibly worrisome'

San Francisco police have asked the public for their help in locating the man who has been missing for almost a week.

Officials have described Vandergrift as 'at risk' and are urging anyone who may have information on his disappearance to come forward.

In a recent statement, Wild 94.9 said they are continuing to 'pray for better news.'

'As you know, our own JV has been missing since Thursday night and was officially reported missing this past Friday by the SFPD,' 94.9 said in a statement posted to their social media accounts.

'Since that time, there has been no trackable activity on his cell phone. There has also been no activity on his credit cards or any other banking records.

'These updates are obviously incredibly worrisome, though we continue to hope and pray for better news,' the post continued.

Fans are now supporting Vandergrift's coworkers and family as they have left a small display of candles, flowers, and signs outside the iHeart radio station building in the Bay Area.

'Bring JV home,' reads one sign.

'We love you, JV,' states another.

Officials have described Vandergrift as 'at risk' and are urging anyone who may have information on his disappearance to come forward

Supporters have gathered outside of the iHeart radio station building in San Francisco to show their support for Vandergrift's family and coworkers

Vandergrift was last seen at his home in the 200 block of King Street in the Bay Area just after 10pm after making an edit to the caption of his final Instagram photo, posted in 2022

Listeners were the first to point out that the post the startling edits to the Instagram post that has sparked major concern. The photo had originally been shared as a celebration of National Radio Day according to his Twitter account.

The DJ or someone who had access to his account had edited the caption to thank his fans for their support and used past-tense language, causing many to worry for his safety and mental health.

The post's original caption read: 'It's #NationalRadioDay I know, who gives a fart!!? Been at 94 since 94. Wow, that's a long time!! Super grateful for each of you who have been on this journey w me.'

Since editing the caption and going missing, the comments section has since turned into a place for his fans and loved ones to send him love in hopes he may see it.

'Dear JV. You are loved. We are all praying for you and thinking about you,' wrote one person.

'We are all praying for you and thinking about you. Sometimes it's nice to just get away and clear our minds but we are worried about you,' said a commenter.

'JV.. listen to your listeners. We've been listening to you since the 1990's. Now it's your turn to listen to your listeners. You are so loved!! We still need 40 plus years of listening to you on the radio ! Praying for your safe return back to your family,' wrote another fan.

'Hey buddy, come home. We miss you and love you brotha. At least let us know you're safe,' said another person.

The San Francisco Police Department is asking for help locating Vandergrift

This is the Instagram post whose captioned was changed, sparking concern

Vandergrift works at Wild 94.9 in San Francisco, California

Listeners have also been showing support to Natasha, who has been silent on social media since his disappearance five days ago as supporters have flooded her pages to share messages of support.

'Sending prayers and wishes your way for JV's safe return, Natasha. We love you both,' one person wrote under Yi's most recent photo, posted before her husband went missing.

'Praying JV is back soon ! He's a good guy with a good heart and needs all the love and good energy his way,' said another.

'Natasha- hang in there. I hope you can feel the arms of the bay wrapped around you,' wrote one person.

'We love you and JV, and I'm disgusted by the audacity of anyone who can leave critical comments on your page knowing everything you're going through right now,' the person continued.

Yi, a playboy style model and actress, has two million followers on Instagram.

Before he seemingly stopped using Instagram in 2022, Vandergrift had shared dozens of photos of his wife and them together.

Supporters have flooded Yi's pages to share messages of love for the wife of the DJ

Vandergrift and Yi tied the knot in 2006 after three years of dating and later renewed their wedding vows in 2017

Listeners have also been showing support to Natasha, who has been silent on social media since his disappearance five days ago

Vandergrift, seen here with his wife Natasha, in a photo posted to Instagram

Vandergrift and Yi tied the knot in 2006 after three years of dating and later renewed their wedding vows in 2017.

The couple quickly joined together for various projects, including the production of their shows, the Dog House Comedy Show.

On YouTube, the couple runs a successful joint account with more than 10,000 followers. Some of their videos have raked in hundreds of thousands of views.

Vandergrift is described as a white male, 6'0', 180 pounds, bald, and brown eyes.

Police say he has several tattoos including ones on his arms and above his right ear and was last seen wearing black sweatpants.
A young Aussie tourist has narrowly avoided having to pay a whopping $89,000 medical bill after a seemingly innocuous bite from a cat left her needing to get a number of rabies shots.

Tasmanian woman Sarah Lancaster was on holiday in Nicaragua when she was bitten by her hostel's pet cat.

Despite her friend cleaning the wound with water, nobody in the hostel was able to verify to Ms Lancaster that the animal was vaccinated against rabies.

Fearing the cat may have the deadly disease, Ms Lancaster reached out to Australian health authorities, who implored her to seek treatment.

'I was playing with the cat and it was pawing at me when it suddenly bit my left pointer finger. It was like a scratch with a puncture wound,' Ms Lancaster said.

'I was really worried. Rabies is 100 per cent fatal, so even if there was like 0.1 per cent chance of getting it, in my mind it was better to just eliminate that.'

Sarah Lancaster (right) was holidaying in Nicaragua with friends when she as bitten by a cat

Ms Lancaster was bitten by this cat pictured in her hostel, potentially exposing to rabies - a disease that has a high fatality rate if not immediately treated

Rabies Safety Tips For Travellers Heading Abroad - Enquire about rabies vaccinations at least one month before travel. Determine whether reliable health facilities can be found at your destination - Avoid close contact with wild and domestic animals, however cute they look, particularly when travelling with young children - Avoid feeding, petting or interacting with monkeys, even in temples or locations where this may be encouraged - Steer clear from tourist attractions that involve animals such as cat cafes or dancing bears - If bitten, seek medical treatment immediately, even if you have been vaccinated for rabies. Wash all bites and scratches with soap and running water Source: 1Cover Advertisement

Rabies is vaccine-preventable but must be treated within seven days and before symptoms appear. Thousands of people die from the virus each year.

On the advice of health authorities, Ms Lancaster immediately abandoned her travel through Central America to find the nearest hospital that could provide treatment for the cat bite.

Failing to find any hospital with the appropriate vaccinations in Central America, her insurance company 1Cover booked her a flight to the US.

'1Cover wanted me to get the prophylaxis as soon as possible and as this was not possible in Nicaragua they flew me and a friend to Florida where I could get the shot,' Ms Lancaster said.

The Tampa hospital was the closest option for her to receive a post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), a preventative treatment for rabies.

Ms Lancastar received the first of four set of shots within hours of arriving in the US.

But the shots came with a hefty price tag of $US20,000 each - equating to $29,839 in Australian dollars.

Ms Lancaster needed to receive the first three sets in the US before she could fly home to Australia for the final round.

In total, the rabies treatment in the US cost her $US60,000, or roughly $A89,000 on current conversion rates.

'I couldn't believe the price of the shots. I definitely would not have been able to pay out of my own pocket,' she said.

Ms Lancaster (right) checked into a US hospital to receive post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), a preventative treatment for rabies

Ms Lancaster was lucky enough to have taken out travel insurance before her trip with the entire $A89,000 bill picked up by 1Cover.

Travel insurance provider 1Cover recommends avoiding animals while overseas.

'Talk to your doctor before you go and find out what type of vaccinations may be required as this could save you a huge amount in medical fees,' 1Cover spokeswoman Natalie Smith warned.

'Take precautions around animals, no matter how cute and friendly.'
A glamorous lawyer who allegedly falsified a $150 million construction contract has been banned from contacting her high-profile property developer dad as she's released on $2.6 million bail.

Ashlyn Nassif, 27, faced Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court on Wednesday charged with fraud after four family properties, including her famous father Jeans home and office, were raided yesterday.

Mr Nassif, who is in Lebanon, posted a supportive message to his daughter on Instagram over the top of a video of a child playing on a beach.

'To my daughter, NEVER forget that I love you. I hope you believe in yourself as much as I believe in you,' the message read.

'When life try's (sic) to knock you down, I will ALWAYS have your back. I can't promise to be here the rest of your life, but while (sic) I can promise is that I will LOVE YOU the rest of mine.'

Though aimed at his daughter's legal woes, the video is a frequently reposted reel that does not depict Nassif and was not created by the real estate tycoon.

Glamorous lawyer Ashlyn Nassif (pictured) has spent the night behind bars after being charged with fraud offences on Tuesday before a court appearance on Wednesday

Nassif is pictured leaving Surry Hills Police Station on Wednesday after being granted bail

Ashlyn Nassif, the managing lawyer of EA Legal Pty Ltd, appeared dishevelled in a pink top and black pants as she faced court from a cell in Surry Hills Police Station.

Magistrate Greg Grogin told Nassif her family was in the court room, with Nassif grinning and waving at the screen, her handcuffs jingling around her wrists.

Moments later, her smile was wiped away after Magistrate Grogin added that there was also several members of the media in the gallery to report on the case.

The court heard Nassif, who runs EA Legal Pty Ltd, allegedly submitted fake sales contracts for Castle Hill's Skyview apartments, in the city's northwest, sometime between September 15 and December 8, 2021.

Police will allege Nassif knowingly falsified documents so the development would meet a $10.5 million pre-sale condition, which allowed it to qualify for a $150 million Westpac loan for the build.

The documents at the centre of the allegations relate to three buildings at the Old Castle Hill Road site.

There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by anyone else at the firm or among her family.

Requesting Nassif's bail, her lawyer Stephen Stanton told Magistrate Grogin it was conceded in the facts that his client received no financial benefit from the alleged fraud.

The lawyer did not answer questions from reporters as she walked to a car parked outside

Nassif's father Jean shared this post on his Instagram on Wednesday afternoon

Nassif spent hours being questioned by police on Tuesday after her business and three other properties were raided by police

Magistrate Grogin noted that Nassif has no criminal record, is of good character and is a lawyer of the supreme court of NSW, but described the allegations as 'serious' and of a 'planned and sophisticated' nature.

Prosecutors did not oppose bail and it was granted but the magistrate ordered strict conditions to mitigate concerns she could interfere with witnesses or fail to show at court.

Under the conditions, Magistrate Grogin said Nassif must surrender her passport prior to release, fork out a $2.6 million surety and is banned her from contacting 24 people - one of whom is her father.

She must also live with her mother in Concord, report to Burwood Police Station every day between 8am and 8pm, abide by a 9pm to 6am curfew.

She must not enter or approaching any airport or Australian departure point.

Leaving Surry Hills Police Station on Wednesday, Nassif did not answer questions from reporters as she walked to a car parked nearby.

Early on Tuesday, NSW Police executed search warrants on four properties, including her father Jean's home and business.

Nassif was subsequently questioned for hours after attending Sydney's Day Street police station before she was later charged.

Mr Nassif is in his home country of Lebanon where he is reportedly recovering from a medical procedure.

According to her law firm's website, Nassif 'heads up EA Legal and is a key advisor of one of Australias largest construction and property development companies as well as private investors and developers'

Property developer Jean Nassif has left Australia for rural Lebanon, informing an inquiry committee just days before the parliamentary inquiry into the alleged impropriety of councillors in the Hills Shire Council (pictured with his wife Nisserine Nassif)

A NSW Police statement said the raids occurred at businesses in the Sydney CBD, Concord and Chiswick about 9.30am on Tuesday.

Nassif then handed herself in to police, was arrested, charged and refused bail.

She has previously worked as a property developer at her father's company and is a principal of her own law practice,

According to the firm's website, EA Legal 'is a multi-disciplinary law firm specialising in property, planning, construction, commercial and estate law'.

In the 'meet the team' section, Nassif describes herself as 'a key advisor of one of Australias largest construction and property development companies as well as private investors and developers'.

'Ashlyn has earned the trust and respect of many established companies and individuals by helping through their complex real estate transactions, property developments, financing and commercial transactions,' the bio reads.

'Ashlyn believes in sharing with those in need and is a member of various charitable organisations.'

She also notes she is a committee member of the Property Council of Australia and lists her hobbies as 'reading, travelling, going to the beach and spending time with family'.

Nassif is next due before court on March 15.

Jean Nassif gained prominence in 2019 after giving his wife Nisserine 'Nissy' Nassif (pictured) a $480,000 yellow Lamborghini for Valentine's Day

Jean Nassif gained prominence in 2019 after giving his second wife Nisserine 'Nissy' Nassif a $480,000 yellow Lamborghini for Valentine's Day.

In 2019, Mr Nassif uploaded a video of him presenting the luxury vehicle to the mother of his children with the comment, 'Congratulations Mrs Nassif you like?'

While the flamboyant property developer has been in Lebanon, he missed attending a NSW parliamentary inquiry into the alleged impropriety of local councillors.

The inquiry is into the Hills Shire Council in the city's north-west and the alleged role councillors played in property developments.

Nassif recently wrote to the committee to inform them that he is in a remote part of Lebanon where he's originally from until March and therefore unable to attend the inquiry, asking for it to be postponed if his evidence was needed.

In the letter, Mr Nassif denied any wrongdoing and said he had 'not met any of the current councillors of the Hills Shire Council'.

'I am not aware if they support my developments. I am not aware if they are more or less supportive of my development than the previous councillors.'

Mr Nassif strenuously disputed Castle Hill MP Ray Williams' claims that he paid large sums of money to elect new councillors to The Hills Shire to support his future development applications.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping met with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close friend of Vladimir Putin, on a Wednesday state visit amid Western warnings against military help for Putin's war in Ukraine.

Official meetings between the two heads of state started after Xi Jinping and Alexander Lukashenko met each other in Beijing's Great Hall of the People on Wednesday, per Belarusian news agency Belta, as reported by CNN.

It is Xi Jinping and Alexander Lukashenko's first in-person encounter since the two presidents decided to elevate their nations' relations to an "all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership" in September, off the cuff of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Uzbekistan. Vladimir Putin also attended the event.

At the meeting, Xi Jinping noted that parties should abandon any "Cold War mentality" and construct a "balanced, effective and sustainable European security architecture," according to CNA.

After Russia invaded Ukraine, China's connections to Moscow have come under some scrutiny.

Read Also: North Korea's Food Crisis

China Maintains Neutrality in the Russia-Ukraine War

The Chinese government has publicly professed its neutrality in the crisis, but US officials have said that China has supplied Russia with nonlethal help and may potentially supply lethal weapons, per The Hill.

China denies aiding Russia, and US officials have warned Beijing that providing military assistance would have repercussions.

The Russia Ukraine war has been going on for more than a year, and early this month China proposed a ceasefire to bring a stop to the fighting. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has signaled that he is receptive to the idea.

Lukashenko has been a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin for a long time, and he has also kept good relations with the Chinese government.

Before the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine began in February last year, the Belarusian government permitted Russian forces to congregate on its soil.

Related Article: Kyiv Troops May Pull Back From Bakhmut





@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Two Code Pink protesters interrupted the early moments of the first primetime Congressional hearing on the dangers of the Chinese Communist Party Tuesday night.

A woman and then a man were tossed out of the committee meeting, which included testimony from two former Trump officials, ex-National Security Advisor H.R. McMcMaster and Deputy National Security Advisor Matthew Pottinger, as well as Chinese human rights activist Tong Yi and Scott Paul, the head of the Alliance for American Manufacturing.

The women held up a sign that read 'China is not our enemy,' while the man held up a similar hand-drawn sign, doing so upside-down, that said, 'Stop Asian Hate.'

'I should not have told him his sign was upside-down, I guess,' remarked the committee's Chairman Mike Gallagher, a Wisconsin Republican, getting the hearing back underway once security removed the two anti-war activists.

Later, the protesters got commended by Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, an ally of progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders, noting that it 'takes guts to come into the halls of power with a dissenting view.'

A Code Pink protester delivers an opening statement being delivered by former Trump official, ex-National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster (left) in the opening moments of the special House committee on China meeting Tuesday night

A Code Pink activist is escorted away by Capitol Police after interrupting the opening moments of the House Select Committee on the strategic competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party Tuesday night

A Capitol Police officer escorts out a demonstrator from Code Pink after he interrupted the first public hearing of the House Select Committee on the strategic competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party

'When we listen to people who question the very existence of the committee, we show by example what makes the United States of America different than Communist China,' he added.

The hearing marked the first gathering of the House Select Committee on the strategic competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, which was signed into creation by Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

The first meeting covered a variety of topics, including a number of present threats presented by China - for example, the country's role in the fentanyl trade and the spy balloon - and potentially horrific future problems, like a war over Taiwan.

The usual partisan divide wasn't on prominent display Tuesday night.

'It's frankly long overdue that we put together a committee like this,' commented Rep. Darin LaHood, an Illinois Republican, 'The CCP fears more than ever is Republican and Democrats working together to expose the malign activities of the CCP.'

The committee's top Democrat, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, noted at the top of the hearing that 'we must recognize that the CCP wants us to be fractious, partisan and prejudiced' urging his colleagues to stay professional and additionally not engage in anti-Asian hate.

'We have no quarrel with the Chinese people or people of Chinese origin,' he said.

He also said the U.S. had no appetite for war.

'I should not have told him his sign was upside-down I guess,' remarked the committee's Chairman Mike Gallagher (pictured), a Wisconsin Republican, getting the hearing back underway once security removed the two anti-war activists

Witnesses at Tuesday night's hearing included (from left): Scott Paul, President of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, Tong Yi, Chinese human rights activist, former National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster and former Deputy National Security Advistor Matthew Pottinger

'We do not want a war with the PRC. Not a cold war, not a hot war. We don't want a clash of civilizations. But we seek a durable peace,' he said.

McMaster testified that he believed to avoid a war with China 'peace through strength still works.'

'It's important for us to demonstrate the strength necessary to convince Xi Jinping, leaders in that party and leaders in the People Liberation Army that they cannot accomplish their objectives with the use of force,' the former Trump official said.

Strengthening American allies in the region is one way to do so, McMaster also noted, saying it was 'immensely encouraging' to see Japan doubling its defense budget.

McMaster also testified that a number of Asian countries are cozying up with the U.S. due to Xi's rhetoric and behavior.

'We really need to thank Xi Jinping because he's really helping us,' McMaster said. 'I think it is becoming clear to countries in that region it's not a choice between Washington and Beijing, it's a choice between sovereignty and servitude.'

A video on China is played at the top of the first House hearing for the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Tuesday night

Witnesses Scott Paul (left), the president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, and human rights activist Tong Yi (right) talk during Tuesday night's hearing on the Chinese Commnunist Party

Pottinger, who previously testified before the January 6 committee, said he believed the 'most important vulnerability of all' for the Chinese was Xi's fear of the Chinese people.

'I think one useful statistic to keep in mind is that China is spending more on its military than the rest of Asia combined and yet that number is still smaller that the amount that Xi Jinping is spending on his domestic security apparatus to surveil and oppress his own people,' Pottinger said. 'It really is fear of his own people.'

Tong's story fit that narrative, as she explained how as a young activist she was thrown in a forced labor camp and withstood brutal living conditions.

'In the labor camp the food was poor and we worked 12 hours a day, technically illegal under Chinese law. I protested and for that the camp authorities organized other inmates to beat me up,' she recalled.

Tong eventually smuggled a note out to her mother, who alerted Western media outlets about her imprisonment, which improved her conditions.

Pottinger said that other vulnerabilities of the Chinese Communist Party include Xi losing access to the U.S.'s capital markets and American technology.

He also warned that apps like TikTok gave China a leg up because it could allow the Communist Party to manipulate the American information flow.

'If TikTok is permitted to continue operating in the United States ... it gives the Chinese Communist Party the ability to manipulate our social discourse, the news, to sensor and suppress or to amplify what tens of millions of Americans see and read and experience and hear through their social media app,' Pottinger said. 'It's not just dances and kid stuff, it's becoming a major source of news for a generation of Americans.'

Pottinger also explained China's role in the current flood of fentanyl coming over the U.S. southern border.

The former Trump national security official explained that previously Chinese fentanyl was coming into the U.S. via the mail, but that was cracked down upon during the last administration.

Now the chemicals used to make fentanyl are coming from China and getting into the hands of the Mexican cartels.

'The best that you can say is that the Chinese Communist Party is practicing malign neglect and allowing the business to continue,' he noted.

He said the CCP could stop this business but so far hasn't done so.

More broadly, Alliance for American Manufacturing President Scott Paul spoke of the decades-long trend of U.S. companies moving manufacturing to China and China's goal to dominate in key sectors.

'The economic policies of the Chinese Communist party represent a clear and present danger to the American worker,' he warned.

McMaster was asked at the hearing what message the Chinese Communist Party was trying to send with the recently downed Chinese spy balloon.

'They'll take everything that they can get, and they've been used to over time to complacency and I think the message is that we are intending to continue a broad range of surveillance activities,' McMaster said. 'The balloon, I think, is in many ways a metaphor for the massive effort at espionage.'

McMaster also suggested it was a bad sign for what's to come.

'And then when you combine that though, with the massive buildup of Chinese strategic forces, nuclear forces, I think that's a cause for concern,' he said. 'And then you combine that with Xi Jinping talking about preemptive war, that's an even greater cause for concern.'

'So I think the balloon is important to look at, but I think placing the balloon in context I think is perhaps more important,' he added.

While the U.S. government elevating the so-called lab leak theory to being the possible way the COVID-19 pandemic got its start, only one lawmaker dedicated a question to it.

Rep. Jim Banks, an Indiana Republican, asked if there was a chance that the Wuhan lab was involved in bioweapons research.

'We know for certain that the Chinese military is involved in research in coronaviruses. We know that they were experimenting using U.S. technology by the way, to work on chimeric viruses, that is ones that have been engineered. We know that the Chinese military had been involved in trying to develop vaccines for coronaviruses,' answered Pottinger. 'So this is an area there is still a great deal of information that is yet to come out that will show there was an enormous amount of interest.'
A former care home next door to an elite private school will be converted into a 32-bed mental health hospital despite protests from parents.

Alphington Grammar School staff and parents lodged more than 200 complaints against Melbourne's Yarra City Council arguing the facility could put the students in danger.

But on Tuesday, the council voted unanimously in favour of opening the medical facility, saying it will be 'low-risk' and 'exclude patients who display emergency psychotic behaviours'.

School principal Dr Vivianne Nikou told the Herald Sun she worried students and parents will experience anxiety over the opening.

Alphington Grammar School staff and parents lodged more than 200 complaints against Melbourne's Yarra City Council arguing the facility could put the students in danger

'This is a facility with patients that need our care and understanding, but the facilities are right on the boundary.

'It's not that we want to stigmatise mental health because there wouldn't be a principal that hasn't recognised the increase in generalised anxiety disorders and mental health issues amongst our student body and the staff.

'But we've got a school right next door. How do we deal with the issues that are going to affect the school if the patients are allowed to walk through the school on a redundant piece of road that leads to nowhere but a rather drastic fall into the river?'.

Speaking at the Tuesday's meeting she added: 'Sub-acute patients can turn into acute patients very swiftly.

The hospital will house up to 30 inpatients and will also provide services for day patients (stock image)

'Students in primary school particularly are at a highly impressionable age, and interactions with strangers can be very detrimental to their own psychological development.'

The school caters for 520 students from prep to Year 12 with fees of up to $20,000 for Australians and $39,000 for International students.

The hospital will house up to 30 inpatients and will also provide services for day patients.

Councillor Anab Mohamud, the chairwoman of Tuesday night's planning meeting, argued there was a 'high demand' for support.

'I do want to reiterate that we're talking about members of the community  that could be our kids, our parents, our loved ones, and these are sub-acute patients who do need services in our community,' she said.

The facility will be run by HealtheCare, a private provider.

Their parent company Australian Unity bought the site in December for $14.75 million.

The hospital will exclude those with a primary diagnosis of substance abuse, and cater for patients fighting post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression.
A left-wing think tank run by Greens advisers demanded a crackdown on superannuation tax concessions only weeks before the Labor government made an announcement.

Ben Oquist, who was former Greens leader Bob Brown's chief of staff, was the executive director of The Australia Institute for seven years until July.

He is also married to Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young.

Mr Oquist's successor Richard Denniss was a senior strategic adviser to Mr Brown before being appointed executive director.

The Australia Institute on February 3 argued the 15 per cent concessional tax rate for super contributions cost $52.6billion a year and was set to surpass the annual aged pension bill.

'New research shows the cost to the federal budget of generous superannuation tax concessions is now on par with the cost of the entire aged pension, and greater than the total cost of the entire NDIS in 2022-2023,' it said.

'The annual cost of super tax concessions ($52.6b) is on par with the value of the entire age pension program ($55.3b).'

A left-wing think tank once run by a former Greens adviser demanded a crackdown on superannuation tax concessions only weeks before the Labor government made an announcement (former Australia Institute executive director Ben Oquist is pictured with his wife, Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young)

The Australia Institute unsurprisingly welcomed Labor's announcement on Tuesday, even though Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (pictured) promised no changes to superannuation ahead of the May 2022 election

Treasurer Jim Chalmers and his assistant Stephen Jones on Tuesday released a Tax Expenditures and Insights Statement with very similar lines.

'The revenue foregone from superannuation tax concessions amounts to about $50 billion a year,' they said.

'The cost of these concessions is projected to exceed the cost of the Age Pension by 2050.'

The government statement also addressed the cost of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

'Since coming to government, we've been upfront about the challenges facing the economy and the budget,' it said.

'We inherited a trillion dollars of debt as well as growing spending pressures in defence, health, aged care and the NDIS.'

The Australia Institute unsurprisingly welcomed Labor's announcement on Tuesday, even though Prime Minister Anthony Albanese promised no changes to superannuation ahead of the May 2022 election.

'Today's announced changes to super tax concessions by the Prime Minister and Treasurer are a welcome step towards fairness and sustainability for Australia's retirement income system,' it said.

Mr Oquist's successor Richard Denniss (pictured) was a senior strategic adviser to Mr Brown before being appointed executive director

But Mr Denniss said Labor needed to do more.

'The expensive and inequitable tax breaks for multi-million dollar super accounts should have been retired long ago,' he said.

'While this is a great first step, more reform is needed to ensure fairness and sustainability in Australias retirement income system.'

The Australian Institute has for 15 years been a campaigner against the 15 per cent concessional tax rate for super contributions that debuted in 2006 under Liberal treasurer Peter Costello.

Mr Oquist was executive director from 2015 to 2022 and in June 2015 had tweeted his support to Greens senators Richard Di Natale, the party's former leader, and Rachel Siewert for pushing for a review into superannuation tax concessions.

'Positive move from Richard Di Natale and Senator Siewert: progressive pension reform good & superannuation tax review essential,' he said.

In April 2021, he tweeted a Guardian article on a report by The Australian Institute on superannuation that noted, 'Men receive "oversized" benefit from major tax concessions.'

The Australia Institute released a 2014 report by Matt Grudnoff about the super perks that was titled, 'A super waste of money'.

'Not only are super tax concessions becoming a burden on the budget, but it is clear that they are being used more and more as a way for high income households to avoid tax rather than as a retirement income support measure,' it said.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers this week released a Tax Expenditures and Insights Statement with very similar lines to an Australia Institute media release from early February

Labor's former shadow treasurer Chris Bowen had, in 2015, complained about the cost of the super contribution concessions but the ALP hadn't announced any formal policy proposal until this week.

Previous Labor prime ministers Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd hadn't changed the super tax policy when Wayne Swan was treasurer, with Dr Chalmers as a senior policy adviser.

The Australia Institute has a slogan - 'We change minds.'

Labor is proposing to end the 15 per cent concessional tax rate for super contributions for the 80,000 Australians - or 0.5 per cent of the population - with more than $3million in retirement savings.

Mr Oquist and Mr Denniss aren't the only heads of The Australia Institute with Greens connections.

Founder Clive Hamilton, a professor who was executive director from 1993 to 2008, ran as a Greens candidate in the Higgins by-election of December 2009 in Melbourne's inner-east.

That was sparked by the political retirement of Mr Costello, the treasurer who introduced the 15 per cent concessional tax rate for super.
Former Health Secretary Matt Hancock rejected the Chief Medical Officer's call to test all residents going into English care homes for Covid at the start of the pandemic, leaked messages show.

Sir Chris Whitty told him there should be Covid testing for 'all going into care homes' - one of a set of 1,000 text and WhatsApp messages leaked by a former journalist who was the ghost writer of Mr Hancock's diaries.

But Mr Hancock's WhatsApp messages revealed he did not follow the guidance, instead telling advisers it 'muddies the waters'.

The leaked texts also include exchanges between the former Health Secretary and then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who revealed he was going 'quietly crackers' about the UK's shortage of test kits.

On the morning of June 4, 2020, Mr Johnson sent a message saying: 'Its all about testing. Thats our Achilles heel. We cant deliver a sensible border policy or adequate track and trace because we cant test enough.

Sir Chris Whitty (left) told then health secretary Matt Hancock (right) there should be testing for 'all going into care homes' but this guidance was rejected, leaked messages reveal

A crisis in testing and PPE turned care homes into 'warzones' in late March 2020, as the nation was plunged into lockdown

'Did we go to the Germans for those kits that Angela Merkel was offering? What is wrong with us as a country that we cant fix this?'

In two follow-up messages, Mr Johnson said Mr Hancock's department 'had months and months' to sort the issue, before adding: 'I am going quietly crackers about this'.

Mr Hancock responded: 'Dont go crackers. We have test capacity enough to do this. We now have the biggest testing capacity in Europe.

'The problem is the false negatives - so the medics are against releasing from self isolation (whether for quarantine or T&T) with a nagative (sic) test. No-one in the world releases from quarantine with a negative test.

'I went back to CMO and pushed this. Ill send you the note he sent me.'

The Government introduced mandatory testing for people going into care homes from hospital, but not from the community.

Mr Hancock is 'considering all options' in response to journalist Isabel Oakeshott's leak of more than 100,000 WhatsApps she received while working on his Pandemic Diaries book.

'She's broken a legal NDA. Her behaviour is outrageous,' a source close to the former health secretary said.

Mr Hancock denied the 'distorted account' with a spokesman alleging the messages leaked by journalist Ms Oakeshott after she worked on his Pandemic Diaries memoir have been 'spun to fit an anti-lockdown agenda'.

The spokesman said: 'Having not been approached in advance by the Telegraph, we have reviewed the messages overnight.

'The Telegraph intentionally excluded reference to a meeting with the testing team from the WhatsApp. This is critical, because Matt was supportive of Chris Whitty's advice, held a meeting on its deliverability, told it wasn't deliverable, and insisted on testing all those who came from hospitals.

'The Telegraph have been informed that their headline is wrong, and Matt is considering all options available to him.

'This major error by Isabel Oakeshott and the Telegraph shows why the proper place for analysis like this is the Inquiry, not a partial, agenda-driven leak of confidential documents.'

It comes as Mr Hancock was accused of 'putting social care on the altar to be slaughtered' after 20,000 elderly residents in homes died of Covid in the first wave.

Matt Hancock and Boris Johnson, then Health Secretary and Prime Minister, pictured during a visit to Bassetlaw District General Hospital on November 22, 2019

The leaked texts also include exchanges between the former Health Secretary and then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who revealed he was going 'quietly crackers' about the UK's shortage of test kits

In his pandemic diaries, serialised by the Daily Mail last year, Mr Hancock claimed hospital discharges were not to blame and instead pointed the finger at 'infections were brought in from the wider community, mainly by staff'.

A set of 100,000 text and WhatsApp messages have been leaked to the Daily Telegraph by a former journalist Isabel Oakeshott, who was the ghost writer of Mr Hancock's diaries.

Ms Oakeshott, who has described lockdowns as an 'unmitigated disaster', said she was releasing the messages because it would take 'many years' before the end of the official Covid inquiry, which she claimed could be a 'colossal whitewash'.

"That's why I've decided to release this sensational cache of private communications - because we absolutely cannot wait any longer for answers," she said.

The messages reveal how the politician sent out tens of thousands of Covid tests to hit his 100,000 daily target, even though he knew many would not get used, the Telegraph reported.

A minister in his department said restrictions on visitors to care homes were 'inhumane', but residents remained isolated many months on.

Reports also claimed that Mr Hancock's adviser arranged for a personal test to be couriered for fellow top Tory Jacob Rees-Mogg's child at a time of national shortage in September 2020.

An aide messaged Mr Hancock to say the lab had 'lost' the original test for one of the then Commons leader's children, 'so we've got a courier going to their family home tonight'.

He added: 'Jacob's spad (special adviser) is aware and has helped line it all up, but you might want to text Jacob.'

The Government introduced mandatory testing for people going into care homes from hospital, but not from the community (Pictured: Boris Johnson holds a coronavirus meeting on February 28, 2020, attended by Sir Chris Whitty, second from right, and Matt Hancock, right)

And as he battled to meet his own target of 100,000 coronavirus tests per day, the investigation shows Mr Hancock texted his former boss Mr Osborne to 'call in a favour'.

Mr Hancock said he had thousands of spare testing slots which is 'obvs good news about spread of virus', but 'hard for my target' as he asked for front page coverage.

Mr Osborne responded: 'Yes - of course - all you need to do tomorrow is give some exclusive words to the Standard and I'll tell the team to splash it.'

The then health secretary later added: 'I WANT TO HIT MY TARGET!'

Meanwhile, a crisis in testing and personal protective equipment turned care homes into 'war zones' in March 2020 as the nation was plunged into lockdown.

Weeks later, Mr Hancock was ridiculed for saying the Government had 'tried to put a protective ring around our care homes' from the start of the pandemic.

The leaked WhatsApp messages show how Sir Chris demanded in April 2020 'testing of all going into care homes'.

After initially supporting the guidance, Mr Hancock then appeared to change his mind, telling aides: 'I would rather leave it out and just commit to test & isolate ALL going into care from hospital.

Reports also claimed that Mr Hancock's adviser arranged for a personal test to be couriered for fellow top Tory Jacob Rees-Mogg's child at a time of national shortage

As he battled to meet his own target of 100,000 coronavirus tests per day, the investigation shows Mr Hancock texted his former boss George Osborne to 'call in a favour'.

'I do not think the community commitment adds anything and it muddies the waters.'

The messages put Mr Hancock under further pressure after he was accused of 're-writing history' with his pandemic diaries.

In his entry for April 2, written retrospectively, Hancock acknowledged that those leaving hospital would not be tested, but claimed care homes were given clear guidance on isolation.

He said: 'The tragic but honest truth is we don't have enough testing capacity to check anyway. It's an utter nightmare, but it's the reality.

'Under the circumstances, we must make sure that anyone going from a hospital into a care home is kept away from other residents.

'I hope this message filters through and is followed.'

Mr Hancock disputes the 'distorted account' and a spokesman alleged that the messages leaked by the journalist have been 'spun to fit an anti-lockdown agenda'.

The spokesman said that 'instead of spinning and leaks we need the full, comprehensive inquiry'.

They added: 'It is outrageous that this distorted account of the pandemic is being pushed with partial leaks, spun to fit an anti-lockdown agenda, which would have cost hundreds of thousands of lives if followed. What the messages do show is a lot of people working hard to save lives.

'The story spun on care homes is completely wrong. What the messages show is that Mr Hancock pushed for testing of those going into care homes when that testing was available.

'The full documents have already all been made available to the inquiry, which is the proper place for an objective assessment, so true lessons can be learned.'
A senior Labor politician who says he is proudly Aboriginal by birth and later underwent an 'initiation' ceremony now claims he never brought his ancestry 'into the public arena'.

Kyam Maher, South Australia's Attorney-General and Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, has brushed off questions about research purported to show he has no Indigenous forebears.

Mr Maher has for at least the past seven years boasted about his Aboriginality and has been photographed wearing face paint and the traditional red headband of an initiated Anangu man.

Genealogical researchers for the Dark Emu Exposed website recently completed a family tree for Mr Maher going back up to six generations and found no Aboriginal ancestors.

Each line of Mr Maher's family was traced to European immigrant men and women who were born in Ireland, England or Germany and came to Australia in the 19th century.

South Australian Attorney-General Kyam Maher says he is Aboriginal but now claims he never brought his ancestry 'into the public arena'. He is pictured left wearing a traditional headband with senior Anangu lawman Murray George and South Australian premier Peter Malinauskas

Mr Maher, who has ignored questions from Daily Mail Australia and others about his heritage, was grilled about his silence in an interview on ABC Radio Adelaide last Friday.

Morning presenter David Bevan asked Mr Maher if he was going to respond to 'challenges' about his identity during a discussion on South Australia's First Nations Voice Bill.

'No, no I'm not, David,' Mr Maher said.

Bevan: 'You're not going to?'

Mr Maher: 'No'.

Bevan: 'You're not going go dignify them?'

Mr Maher: 'Absolutely not.'

Bevan: 'Are you going to sue?'

Mr Maher: 'Umm, I'm just not going to dignify... it has been exceptionally disappointing some of the things in a whole range of areas we've seen some of this debate descend into.'

Mr Maher, who is also South Australia's Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, has ignored repeated requests to answer questions about his Indigenous ancestry. Mr Maher, pictured wearing face paint, says he underwent initiation as an Anangu man on South Australia's APY Lands

Bevan then said given that Mr Maher and Premier Peter Malinauskas had spoken about his ancestry, 'doesn't it follow that you should be open to questions about that, as unpleasant as it is?'

'It's not something I've brought into the public arena, David,' Mr Maher said. 'It's others who have brought it in.'

Mr Maher appears to have first publicly spoken of having Aboriginal bloodlines about 2015, when he revealed his mother Viv had recently discovered she had Indigenous ancestors from western Victoria.

'Our family includes Indigenous heritage but for two generations it's not something families discussed a lot,' he told NITV.

'It's only later in life my mum became acquainted with her heritage. It's not something that played an active role in my growing up but it's something that I'm very proud of.'

'Aunty' Viv Maher, a social worker and advocate, died in 2017.

One obituary stated: 'Later in her career, Viv found and acknowledged her Aboriginal heritage through a male forebear of hers married to an Aboriginal Tasmanian woman.'

'The name of that "wonderful woman" was unrecorded, Viv said.'

Genealogical researchers for the Dark Emu Exposed website have recently completed a family tree for Mr Maher going back six generations and found no Aboriginal ancestors. Mr Maher is pictured with Aboriginal elders while wearing the traditional red headband of an Anangu 'wati'

Last year Mr Maher repeated he had Tasmanian Aboriginal ancestry and 'it's always been known in my family that we have Aboriginal heritage.'

Daily Mail Australia, which has obtained a copy of Mr Maher's family tree, is not suggesting he has no Aboriginal ancestry, only that research has not identified any.

Mr Maher has often been described as the first 'initiated' Aboriginal man to be appointed an attorney-general in the nation's history.

Daily Mail Australia understands he underwent some sort of initiation ceremony in South Australia's remote Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara region, known as APY Lands, about July 2020.

Mr Maher was born in Papua New Guinea and grew up in Mount Gambier in South Australia's south-east, about 1,500km from the APY Lands in the state's north-west.

In June 2021, Mr Maher, a 50-year-old father-of-three, was quoted telling CityMag he was 'initiated on Yungkunjara [Yankunytjatjara] country in regional South Australia'.

In March last year when Mr Maher was sworn in as Attorney-General a Nine News report described him as 'the first initiated Aboriginal man in that position in Australia's history'.

Mr Malinauskas was quoted saying: 'That is a big deal.'

Two of the South Australian APY Lands' most senior elders have now come forward to say Anangu initiation would normally only take place after years of cultural education. One of them is Trevor Adamson (pictured)

The precise location of Mr Maher's initiation cannot be disclosed for cultural reasons but he appears to have posted pictures of himself camping in the desert about the time of the ceremony.

Two of the APY Lands' most senior elders have come forward to say such an initiation would normally only be performed after years of cultural education.

What defines whether a person is Aboriginal The accepted definition for an Indigenous person in Australia includes three components. First, they must to be of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent. They also need to self-identify as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person and be accepted as such by the community in which they live. Roger Karge, editor of the Dark Emu Exposed website, cited the three-part definition in calling for Kyam Maher to prove his Aboriginal ancestry. 'That's the definition,' Roger Karge said. 'When someone comes along and says I recognise I'm Aboriginal, my mum and dad think I'm Aboriginal, other people recognise I'm Aboriginal, therefore I am - but the genealogy is not there - well the onus is on this guy to prove it. 'Working class Aboriginal people have to do it to get their kids in TAFE but how come the highest law maker in South Australia doesn't have to do it?' Advertisement

Donald Fraser, a respected Pitjantjatjara elder who has been a leading figure on APY Lands for decades, wrote to Mr Maher last year asking for further details of his initiation.

Mr Fraser, a former chair of the APY executive board, is still waiting for a response to his letter.

'Tjilpis (local elders) are concerned by public statements made by you and repeated by the SA Premier Peter Malinauskas that you are an initiated Anangu wati,' Mr Fraser wrote.

Mr Fraser referred to Mr Maher being regularly photographed wearing a traditional red headband, which Daily Mail Australia has been told Mr Maher donned when visiting remote communities.

Wearing such a headband on APY Lands signifies a man is recognised as a wati.

'Tjilpis wish to meet with you urgently on-Lands to discuss this situation, ascertain the state of your cultural knowledge, and if appropriate set out a program of training and cultural induction should it be the case you genuinely wish to become a wati in our culture,' Mr Fraser wrote.

Mr Fraser's correspondence was accompanied by a cover letter from Trevor Adamson, an APY executive board member and former chair from the Pukatja community.

'I understand... Kyam is being called to account under Anangu Lore,' Mr Adamson wrote of the initiation ritual.

Mr Adamson said Murray George, the senior APY lawman, had tried to call Mr Maher to 'underscore the gravity' of the situation.

'Kyam is to telephone Mr Fraser to arrange to attend the Lands to sit with a select select group of tjilpi senior watis,' Mr Adamson wrote.

Mr Adamson told Daily Mail Australia he was 'really frustrated' with Mr Maher's lack of communication with senior Aboriginal men on APY Lands.

If Mr Maher considered himself a wati, he should regularly be attending APY Lands to address Aboriginal 'business', Mr Adamson said.

Research conducted by the Dark Emu Exposed website traced Kyam Maher's ancestors back to England, Ireland and Germany. One of his mother's grandfathers was William Pratt (left) and one her great-grandfathers was William Kellam (right)

Mr Fraser told Daily Mail Australia he too was frustrated Mr Maher had not responded to his concerns about the initiation ceremony.

'It's not a fight, it's just sorting it out and helping him to understand,' he said. 'He needs to listen and understand - that's all we want.'

Rex Tjami, another prominent APY player and one of the men involved in Mr Maher's initiation, told Daily Mail Australia he could not discuss the ceremony but it was done properly.

Roger Karge, the scientist behind Dark Emu Exposed, says he was commissioned to conduct research into Mr Maher's genealogy by 'interested Aboriginal people and associated organisations'.

Mr Karge has not received a response since he wrote to Mr Maher in late January to report the findings of research into his parents' ancestry.

'We are genealogical and historical researchers and we have been commissioned by a number of third parties to provide the family trees and genealogy of Mr James Maher and his late wife Viv Maher,' Mr Karge wrote.

Genealogical research conducted by the Dark Emu Exposed website found no Aboriginal ancestors in Mr Mahers family tree. Mr Maher is pictured with his parents Viv and James

'Specifically, we were commissioned by interested Aboriginal people and associated organisations to determine if James and Viv Maher were of Aboriginal descent...

'Our research appears to show that, based on the publicly available records, that neither Mr James Maher, nor his late wife Viv Maher, appear to be of Aboriginal descent.

'We could identify no ancestors, in either of their family trees, who were of Aboriginal descent.'

Mr Karge then asked Mr Maher if he wished to make any comment on his findings or suggest any corrections to more than 200 pages of supporting documents.

The amateur historian said the private or unrecorded adoption of an Aboriginal child into Mr Maher's family line could still mean he had Indigenous ancestry.

A relationship out of wedlock between one of Mr Maher's ancestors and an Aboriginal person could also have produced a child who was incorporated into the family.

'You've always got to allow for that,' Mr Karge said.

Australians seeking Indigenous-specific grants, Centrelink assistance, employment or access to school scholarships and university courses can be asked to prove their Aboriginal heritage.

The first of three criteria for a person to be considered Indigenous in Australia is that they actually be of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent.

They also need to self-identify as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person and be accepted as such by the community in which they live or formerly lived.

Last month Mr Maher introduced a First Nations Voice Bill which he said would provide 'a body that is chosen from Aboriginal people, by Aboriginal people' to advise South Australia's parliament.

Those who seek to vote in the Voice or stand for election must be a 'First Nations person', according to the Bill.

The legislation uses the standard three-part criteria to define a First Nations person but also provides a definition for someone being 'of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent'.

'A person will be taken to be of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent if the person is biologically descended from the persons who inhabited Australia or the Torres Strait Islands... before European settlement,' it states.

Australians will this year face a referendum to change the Constitution and introduce a similar Indigenous Voice to advise federal parliament.
An Australian dad misplaced his $1million dollar Lotto ticket and had his entire family looking for it after realising he'd won.

The Dubbo West resident held one of the four division one winning entries in the Monday & Wednesday Lotto draw 4264 on Monday.

'Would you believe I lost the ticket at first,' the Dubbo West man told an official from The Lott on Tuesday morning.

'I had everyone looking for it. As it turns out, it was in my wallet the entire time!

'I can't believe it! I will share this win with my children and go on a trip with my partner!

'I've been playing for several years and the most I've won is $1,000! 'Thank you so much.'

Soon after realising he had won, the Dubbo West man misplaced the ticket and has his entire family looking for it (stock image)

The winning entry was purchased at the Dubbo West Post Office.

Owner Lea Callan said they were excited to have sold their first division one winning entry.

'We couldn't believe it! We thought the news might've been a hoax email,' he said.

'Our team and our customers are so excited.'

Winners who have lost their lucky ticket are still able to claim their prize, even if they're not a registered player.

The Lott recommends customers fill out its lost and damaged ticket form if they believe they've had a win on a missing ticket.

The dad plans to take his partner on a trip (stock image of a man in a blue shirt)

The player will need to provide as much information as they can remember about the entry including where it was purchased, how they paid and how many games they bought.

The winning numbers in Monday & Wednesday Lotto draw 4264 on Monday, 27 February, were 10, 36, 39, 26, 16 while the supplementary numbers were 29 and 11.

Across Australia, there were four division one winning entries in Monday & Wednesday Lotto draw 4264  three in New South Wales and one in Western Australia.
An anti-spying law that could jeopardise Press freedom faces major challenges in Parliament today.

The National Security Bill puts journalists investigating serious scandals at risk of being jailed for up to 14 years if their activities are deemed to assist foreign intelligence agencies.

It would also have the effect of deterring insiders from coming forward, it is feared, and mean that important stories such as the Mail's expose of bullying and sexual harassment of women in the Royal Navy would never see the light of day.

Ministers insist the media is not the intended target of the legislation and have tried to allay concerns by making it clear reporters will not be targeted for 'unwittingly' helping hostile states.

But politicians and lawyers as well as news publishers believe the changes do not go far enough to protect the free Press.

Lord Black has warned that the wide definitions used in the draft legislation 'could potentially criminalise one of the core functions of journalism: reporting on leaks

The National Security Bill would also have the effect of deterring insiders from coming forward, it is feared

Today senior peers will launch attempts to ensure that bona fide journalists are shielded from the effects of the law, which is meant to bring the Official Secrets Act into the era of hi-tech espionage.

One amendment will be tabled by media executive Lord Black of Brentwood and has powerful cross-party support from Labour's Lord Stevenson of Balmacara, Tory former leader of the Lords Baroness Stowell of Beeston and non-affiliated Lord Faulks, chairman of the Independent Press Standards Organisation.

It would add to the Bill the defence that 'the person ... was acting with a view to publication of material by a recognised news publisher'.

Lord Black has warned that the wide definitions used in the draft legislation 'could potentially criminalise one of the core functions of journalism: reporting on leaks... about governments, organisations and companies'.

Baroness Stowell, who chairs the Lords communications committee, warned: 'We must not legislate in a way that risks journalists not legitimately exposing serious failings or wrongdoing by government or public servants.'

Separately, Green Party peer Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb will try to protect journalists by specifying that only those following orders from a foreign power should face prosecution under the law.

Her amendment, signed by leading barrister Lord Pannick KC, states that an offence will only take place 'if the conduct... is instigated by or under the direction and control of a foreign power'. Downing Street said the amendments would be considered carefully.

A Home Office spokesman said: 'We have a proud tradition in this country of upholding the freedom of the press. Indeed, it is our obligation to ensure journalists are able to carry out their genuine activity independent of state involvement.'

'The National Security Bill is about ensuring our world class law enforcement and security services have the tools and powers they need to tackle modern threats. The offences in the Bill target harmful activity by states, not whistleblowing or public interest journalism activities.'
It has played a key part in the crowning of monarchs for more than 700 years. Now the Coronation chair  one of the countrys most precious and rarely seen pieces of furniture  is getting a makeover ahead of the enthronement of King Charles III on May 6.

And, astonishingly, it is still revealing its secrets as restoration experts discover unseen details.

The King will be crowned in the chair, which was commissioned in around 1300 by Edward I to house the Stone of Scone.

Made of oak and originally covered in gold leaf with elaborate decorations of coloured glass, it would have looked as if it were made of solid gold.

Known to have been decorated by Edward Is master painter with patterns of birds, foliage and a king, the chair is considered an unparalleled surviving example of medieval art  although its back is scarred with graffiti from the 18th and 19th centuries.

The 700-year-old Coronation chair is getting a makeover ahead of the enthronement of King Charles III on May 6

The Coronation chair at Westminster Abbey in London, which is being restored ahead of the upcoming coronation of King Charles, pictured in 1953 at the late Queen Elizabeth II's crowning

Queen Victoria depicted sitting in the famed Coronation chair in Westminster Abbey during her enthronement in 1837

One tourist scored P. Abbott slept in this chair 5-6 July 1800 on the seat. A bomb attack in 1914  believed to be by suffragettes  knocked a small corner off. Westminster Abbeys conservators are using sponges and swabs to clean it and are stabilising the gilding.

They believe they have found a previously overlooked part of a figure, perhaps the toes of a king or saint, on the back.

Krista Blessley, Westminster Abbeys paintings conservator, described her pride at helping to conserve an historic object central to the life of the nation, saying: Its a real privilege to work on the coronation chair.

Its so important to our countrys history and in the history of the monarchy, and its really unique as a conservator to work on something thats part of a working collection and still used for the original function it was made for.

The Coronation of King George V on June 22, 1911, three years before the outbreak of the First World War

A depiction of King Edward II sat in the Coronation chair in 1308, side-by-side with his wife Isabella of France

Save the date notices for the coronation are expected to go out to guests this week with official invitations to follow in April.

And while the guest list has been slashed from the 8,000 who attended the late Queens Coronation in 1953 to 2,000, there is one area the King has expanded.

For centuries, convention dictated that no other crowned Royals should be present at the Coronation of a British monarch because the sacred ceremony is intended to be an intimate exchange between the monarch and their people in the presence of God.

But as part of his plan to bring the ceremony up to date, King Charles has decided to move on from the 900-year-old tradition by inviting his crowned friends, including European royals and rulers from Arab states.

Foreign monarchs will be invited to King Charless Coronation in an historic break with a longstanding Royal tradition

A source said: Inviting the King of Jordan (left), the Sultan of Brunei, the Sultan of Oman and the Scandinavian royals  who are all friends of Charles  will be a good bit of soft power and diplomacy.' Pictured: The King and Queen of Jordan at Queen Elizabeth's funeral

A source told The Mail on Sunday that tradition is being overhauled in the name of diplomacy, saying: I believe the rule began because a Coronation is meant to be a monarchs private event with God.

At the Queens Coronation there were no crowned monarchs, only the protectorate rulers like the Queen of Tonga. Its been a tradition for centuries.

The source added: Inviting the King of Jordan, the Sultan of Brunei, the Sultan of Oman and the Scandinavian royals  who are all friends of Charles  will be a good bit of soft power and diplomacy.

Another well-placed source said: You can expect the guest list for the Coronation to more closely resemble that of a royal wedding than the Coronation 70 years ago.
As the dust settles on Rishi Sunaks vaunted Brexit deal, it is increasingly apparent that it could genuinely be a landmark achievement.

When it comes to any major change in the vexed politics of Northern Ireland, its wise not to declare victory too soon.

But the fact that the Unionists have not already rushed to protest suggests the Windsor Framework may yet be a considerable triumph for Mr Sunak.

Through diplomacy and strength of vision he appears to have changed the political weather  not just here but in Brussels, too.

Where once there was relentless hostility over Britains decision to leave the EU, he has overseen his own version of detente.

Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak holds a Q&A session with local business leaders during a visit to Coca-Cola HBC in Lisburn, Co Antrim, in Northern Ireland

Crucially, the framework frees trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the tangle of red tape it was ensnared in, without conceding sovereignty.

The revised protocol means the province should be able to reap all the benefits of the European single market, while also unleashing a wave of investment and enjoying unfettered trade within the UK.

True, sticking points remain. There are questions over the role of the European Court of Justice in the arbitration of disputes. This is something the DUP is naturally suspicious of. Its leaders are understandably poring over the deals small print to expose any potential traps.

The DUP is hardly synonymous with the concept of compromise, but knowing when to accept victory is a crucial political skill. The revised agreement undoubtedly cements Northern Irelands place within the UK.

The deal vindicates Boris Johnsons threat to unilaterally scrap the protocol. That focused minds in Brussels and got the EU around the negotiating table.

The shooting of a policeman in Omagh last week by Republican terrorists also served as a vivid reminder of the danger of ignoring sectarian passions 25 years after the Good Friday Agreement. There are still those on both sides of the divide who seek to return the province to its troubled past.

Its too soon to put out the bunting but first impressions are that Mr Sunak has pulled off a seemingly impossible feat.

He must now take that momentum and use the same skills to tackle the other mountainous problems facing the country.

His first task is to turbocharge Brexit. So far our attempts to exploit our regained freedoms for the national good have been distinctly half-hearted, not buccaneering.

Mr Sunak is visiting Northern Ireland to sell the Windsor Framework deal secured with the European Union

The PM could start by axing the six-point hike in corporation tax to 25 per cent (its 12.5 per cent in the Republic of Ireland). If the Government is sincere in its claim that it is trying to stimulate growth, then such a ruinous charge on business defies belief.

READ MORE: Tears from 'Brexit hard man' Steve Baker as he hails PM's Northern Ireland deal Advertisement

He could also use some of the unexpected 30billion Treasury windfall to cut personal taxation, putting more money into peoples pockets and encouraging them to spend.

Next, he should deploy the formidable grasp of detail and political courage that helped him clear the final Brexit obstacle when confronting the small boats crisis.

Public concern about illegal immigration is sky-high and tackling it must be near the top of his agenda. More cordial relations with the EU could improve co-operation against people-smuggling gangs.

The PM must also get on the front foot when dealing with the striking unions, NHS backlogs and the stultifying scourge of wokery that poisons public life.

Since entering No10, Mr Sunak has proved himself credible and competent. His bold opposition to gender reforms has seen off Nicola Sturgeon in Scotland.

And there is no genuine affection among voters for untrustworthy Sir Keir Starmer, who holds no belief that he wont change in the name of political expedience.

With the Tories miles behind in the polls, the time for complacency is long gone. But there is a chance the Windsor Framework could be a turning point in their fortunes.
FBI Director Christopher Wray confirmed the agency's conclusion that the COVID pandemic was probably the result of a lab leak in Wuhan, China.

Commenting for the first time on Tuesday about the FBI's judgment, Wray reiterated his agency's initial findings from 2021, adding that the Chinese government has allegedly worked to undermine the damning results.

'The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan,' Wray told Fox News. 'Here you are talking about a potential leak from a Chinese government-controlled lab.'

Wray's comments come as the White House continues to struggle to come to a 'consensus' on how the virus originated despite a Energy Department probe coming to the same conclusion as the FBI.

FBI Director Christopher Wray commented for the first time that the FBI concluded that COVID originated from a lab in Wuhan, China

Wray said the virus was likely the result of a lab leak and that the Chinese government has worked to undermine his agency's work

The FBI first came to the conclusion in 2021, saying it had 'moderate confidence' that the pandemic that gripped the world was a result of an accidental leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Wray said the work was conducted by top experts in the FBI and US government who specialize in monitoring potential outbreaks.

'The FBI has folks, agents, professionals, analysts, virologists, microbiologists, etc, who focus, specifically, on the dangers of biological threats, which includes things like novel viruses like COVID, and the concerns that in the wrong hands some bad guys, some hostile nation state, a terrorist, a criminal, the threats that that could pose,' Wray said.

'So here, youre talking about a leak at a Chinese government-controlled lab that killed millions of Americans, and thats precisely what that capability was designed for.'

Despite the FBI's conclusion, Wray added that Beijing has continuously tried to undercut the US government's work.

'I will just make the observation that the Chinese government, it seems to me, has been doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate the work here, the work that we're doing, the work that our US government and close foreign partners are doing, and that's unfortunate for everybody,' he told Fox.

One such case occured earlier this week when China's foreign ministry pushed back at the Energy Department's analysis that the outbreak likely originated with a leak from a Chinese research lab in Wuhan.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning accused unnamed parties of trying to smear or vilify China  even amid continued calls for China to provide full access to information from its Wuhan facility.

'Certain parties should stop rehashing the "lab leak" narrative, stop smearing China and stop politicizing origins-tracing,' she said during a press briefing Monday

She talked up Chinese cooperation with investigating agencies, although in 2021 China rejected a World Health Organization effort to hold a second phase of its investigation. The group has denied abandoning its inquiry amid China's obstacles.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning blasted what she termed 'politicization' of theories on the origins of COVID-19, after an Energy Department analysis that pointed to possibility of a leak from the Wuhan lab

Virologist Shi Zheng-li - nicknamed the 'Bat Lady' - is pictured in the lab. She hunted down dozens of deadly COVID-like viruses in bat caves and studied them at the WIV

On Sunday, the Energy Department, which maintains a group of national labs, joined the FBI in the possibility of a lab leak as the possible origin of the virus  although it reached the conclusion with 'low confidence' as numerous other agencies back a traditional spread originating in the environment.

The Energy Department's report revealed it reversed its previous position and has used new research to conclude that the COVID-19 virus most likely leaked from a Chinese research lab.

The new conclusion was issued in an update to a 2021 document prepared by the director of National Intelligence and was recently provided to White House lawmakers, the Wall Street Journal reported.

While the Energy Department joined the FBI in saying the virus likely spread from a lab in Wuhan, four other agencies are still said to favor the 'natural spillover' theory that the virus escaped via an animal at a nearby meat market.

Two agencies, one of which is the CIA, are yet to declare a definitive position.

The Energy Department's change of tune is important because the agency is known for its expertise as it oversees various US laboratories, some of which carry out biological research.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre defended infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, following a report of an Energy Department analysis that points to a Wuhan lab leak as the origin of COVID-19

With the mixed conclusions coming from US agencies, the White House on Monday was forced to admit the lack of a consensus.

'There is not a consensus right now in the U.S. government about exactly how it started. There's just not an intelligence community consensus,' said national security spokesman Adm. John Kirby.

Kirby got hit with a series of questions about the report, which pointed to the lab leak as a likely source  even as other agencies attributed the pandemic to a virus that mutated in the environment.

Kirby pointed to that lack of agreement, even as the White House defended infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci's blasts against conspiracy theories and refused to say how the US might act against China if the theory that its labs were responsible holds up.
Space junk - no one wants it, but humanity has to be responsible for its own mess.

NASA and other government departments recently called for the creation of new space rules that would support the space industry and future commercial space stations and moon settlements, as well as regulate space junk/debris.

The FCC previously approved a new satellite deorbiting rule in 2022 that would give the space industry a better chance to grow, though there was some pushback on the matter.

New Space Rules For Future Missions

NASA deputy administrator Pam Melroy mentioned in a live-streamed meeting with other government departments with the National Space Council's (NSpC) users' advisory group (UAG) that the council should consider recommending a "fast refresh of space regulations" to avoid future barriers to space exploration, per Space.com.

The NSpC's users' advisory group consists of representatives from industry, education, and non-profit ventures, per The White House. The group provides advice and recommendations to the NSpC on matters related to space policy and strategy in government policies, laws, regulations, and international practicals across the civil, commercial, international, and national security space sectors.

Melroy added that NASA is not a regulator and is not their role in the space industry concerning the planned commercial space stations that would succeed the ISS in the 2030s. As such, the space agency is not responsible for all the activities on a commercial space station.

Read More: Microsoft Offers Windows 11 Updates To Unsupported PC Users Accidentally

The UAG is not enthusiastic about following another set of regulations. According to the group's statement on the matter, too much regulation can be stifling, while agreeing that too little could also be just as harmful.

As such, NASA and other government departments urged the UAG's members to prioritize making regulation recommendations to the NSpC.

The UAG will likely convene several more times before the 2024 federal election cycle. However, a White House official stated it's too early to predict what the group would recommend to the NSpC.

International Compliance With The Outer Space treaty

Unfortunately, the participants in the space industry are not as keen on following a new set of space regulations that could help the industry to thrive. Most countries capable of reaching space signed on to the UN's Outer Space Treaty that governs international space activities, as well as prohibiting military activities on celestial bodies and stationing WMDs in outer space, per the Arms Control Association.

However, the treaty itself was created in the 1960s - a time when space agencies dominated space-related activities. It is only recently that commercial companies like Amazon and SpaceX are taking an interest in reaching space.

However, countries like China are violating this treaty with practices like letting rockets (or their debris) fall back to Earth uncontrolled. Russia is also to blame for violating the treaty with its anti-satellite test in orbit in 2021, which created space debris that nearly hit the ISS.

Related Article: FCC Approves New Satellite Deorbiting Rule, Says Previous Guideline Is 'Too Long'
Teacher's union boss Randi Weingarten had a meltdown outside of the Supreme Court and screamed about how it's 'not fair' that the courts are blocking student debt relief.

Weingarten, 65, gave a passionate speech on Tuesday in support of Joe Biden's $10,000 debt relief program, which has been stalled in state courts fighting it. The plan is estimated to cost taxpayers $400billion over the next three years.

'Frankly, and this is what really pisses me off,' Weingarten said. 'During the pandemic, we understood that small businesses were hurting, and we helped them, and it didnt go to the Supreme Court to challenge it. Big businesses were hurting, and we helped them, and it didn't go to the Supreme Court to challenge it.

'All of a sudden, when its about our students, they challenge it, the corporations challenge it, the student loan lenders challenge it. That is that not right, that is not fair, and that is what we are fighting as well when we say cancel student debt. This is about the people, and it is about the people's future, and it is about all of your futures.'

Following a series of legal challenges, including from six GOP states, the nine justices will hear arguments for Biden's plan to eliminate up to $20,000 in individual federal student loan debt, which could cost taxpayers as much as $400billion.

Randi Weingarten, 65, said it 'pisses me off' that pandemic stimulus provided to small businesses was not challenged, but student debt is. 'Frankly, and this is what really pisses me off,' Weingarten said

'During the pandemic, we understood that small businesses were hurting, and we helped them, and it didnt go to the Supreme Court to challenge it. Big businesses were hurting, and we helped them, and it didn't go to the Supreme Court to challenge it. All of a sudden, when its about our students, they challenge it'

The plan, which Biden announced in August, would forgive $10,000 in student loans for those making less than $125,000 and married couples making less than $250,000 jointly. That forgiveness would go up to $20,000 if the borrower received a Pell grant, which aids students from low-income families.

'Today, my Administration argues our case for student debt relief in the Supreme Court,' tweeted President Biden. 'This relief is critical to over 40 million Americans as they recover from the economic crisis caused by the pandemic. We're confident it's legal.'

A ruling from the Supreme Court puts more on the line than student loans. If the nation's highest court decides that Biden's executive action is unconstitutional, it could give more power to states' legal challenges against federal policymaking.

Republicans immediately denounced Biden's order as unfair to those who didn't go to college and would need to help pay through taxes for the forgiveness plan  or to those who have already paid off their loans or never took out loans.

On the other hand, some activists said that the plan didn't go far enough, claiming that all student loan debt should be wiped clean.

'This is about the people,' Weingarten said on Tuesday. 'And this is about the people's future. And this is about all of your futures.'

The plan, which Biden announced in August, would forgive $10,000 in student loans for those making less than $125,000 and married couples making less than $250,000 jointly. That forgiveness would go up to $20,000 if the borrower received a Pell grant, which aids students from low-income families

Following a series of legal challenges, including from six GOP states, the nine justices will hear arguments for Biden's plan to eliminate up to $20,000 in individual federal student loan debt, which could cost taxpayers as much as $400billion

Six Republican-led states challenged President Biden's proposal, claiming that the administrative process needed to go through a proper comment and response period and also claims that it was an overreach.

The 6-3 conservative majority will give the final say on the matter after it worked its way up through the court system.

Biden's legal basis for trying to cancel a portion of student debt is a 2003 law known as the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act, better known as the HEROES Act.

Implemented after the September 11, 2001, terror attack, the law was intended to keep service members from being worse off financially while deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Now extended, the law allows Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to grant relief in times of national emergency - in this case, COVID-19.

The White House argues that ending the national emergency doesn't change its legal standing for canceling student loan debt because COVID-19 affected millions of borrowers who might have fallen behind on their loans during the pandemic.

Activists are asking for all student debt to be canceled. 'This is about the people,' Weingarten said on Tuesday. 'And this is about the people's future. And this is about all of your futures'

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders (pictured) also spoke at the event

'The economic impact of the pandemic is still real,' Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said while concurrently insisting the pandemic is over. 'We're trying to help people get back on their feet.'

According to their legal brief, the states argue that the proposal seeks 'breathtaking and transformative power' by relying on 'a tenuous and pretextual connection to a national emergency.

Student loan borrowers have been thrown into a year of uncertainty.

Biden's announcement for forgiveness in August also came with him declaring the last extension of student loan deferment due to the COVID-19 pandemic, saying that people would need to resume regular payments on January 1, 2023.

The president, however, decided to extend the moratorium until the summer, when the Supreme Court's term typically ends, and an opinion must be issued on the case.

Since the program launched, 26million borrowers have applied for the relief despite its limbo status.

The White House continues to insist that its approach is legally sound.
At the time, he claimed he was embarrassed and was trying to protect his family

Boston darling Ben Affleck has been slammed by his hometown paper as a 'white liberal' who hides the 'truth about racism' years after he censored the fact he is a descendant of slave owners out of embarrassment.

Affleck's past was brought up by The Boston Globe's Columnist Renee Graham in the opinion piece 'Ben Affleck and white liberals discomfort with Black history' published on Tuesday.

Graham recalled the 50-year-old's 2014 'Finding Your Roots' episode that aired on PBS which excluded a clip when the actor found out about his slavery roots.

She slammed Affleck's instinct to protect his family by asking producers to remove the clip and claimed he 'silently [endorses] a white supremacist history of this nation.'

'Instead of reckoning with a truth that has tainted the marrow of this nation  long before it was a nation  for more than four centuries, Affleck chose to protect his small piece of the white purity myth,' Graham wrote.

Ben Affleck was slammed as a 'white liberal' who hides the 'truth about racism' by The Boston Globe after he made a mistake years ago

The now 50-year-old appeared on 'Finding Your Roots' in 2014. The episode excluded a clip when the actor found out about his slavery roots

Affleck, who is a high-profile campaigner for liberal causes and former resident of Massachusetts, asked PBS producers to cut the clip about his family history because he was severely embarrassed, DailyMail.com first revealed in 2015.

'It gives me kind of a sagging feeling to see, uh, a biological relationship to that. But, you know, there it is, part of our history,' Affleck said in the cut segment, according to Graham.

Affleck later issued a grieving apology when a transcript of the cut clip came to light.

'After an exhaustive search of my ancestry for Finding Your Roots, it was discovered that one of my distant relatives was an owner of slaves,' he wrote on social media in 2015.

'I didn't want any television show about my family to include a guy who owned slaves. I was embarrassed. The very thought left a bad taste in my mouth.'

The actor then went on to explain his reasoning for withholding the information and the need to protect his family.

'It's important to remember that this isn't a news program. Finding Your Roots is a show where you voluntarily provide a great deal of information about your family, making you quite vulnerable,' he explained.

'The assumption is that they will never be dishonest but they will respect your willingness to participate and not look to include things you think would embarrass your family.'

About eight years later, Graham mentioned Affleck's grieving mistake and claimed not owning up to history only sets the country back.

'Honest conversations about this nations origin story are now met with derision and backlash,' Graham wrote. 'With each move away from the truth we drag it along and what remains unspoken and unresolved weighs this nation down.'

While the Globe article claims Affleck has 'discomfort' with Black history, the actor didn't express this.

Affleck later issued a grieving apology when a transcript of the cut clip came to light

The slave owner in Affleck's family tree was identified by the actor as 'Benjamin Cole' of Georgia, an ancestor on his mother's side. Pictured: Ben Affleck and his former Freedom Rider mother Chris Anne, seen in Los Angeles in 2014

Some people were outraged to read Affleck's past was being brought up years after the contention was already resolved.

'When closest allies start getting attacked, you know you're dealing with those who will just NEVER be satisfied. Professional, perpetual victimhood,' one person wrote on Twitter.

The slave owner in Affleck's family tree was identified by the actor as 'Benjamin Cole' of Georgia, an ancestor on his mother's side.

His mother, Chris Anne, was featured in the show, not because her ancestor benefited from indenture, but because she had been a Freedom Rider.

A spokesperson for Affleck wasn't immediately available for comment.
Australia is famed worldwide for its coastal lifestyle but just two of our beaches have made it into an influential annual list of best beaches based on reviews by travellers.

And despite its tourist pull and name recognition, the sweeping coastline of Bondi Beach did not make the cut on TripAdvisor's Best of the Best Beaches for 2023 list released on Wednesday.

Instead, Cable Beach in Broome, Western Australia and Manly on Sydney's northern beaches, were the Australian strips of sand to crack the top 15 list.

Travel website TripAdvisor analysed tens of millions of reviews submitted by millions of global travellers over the past 12 months.

The online travel site looked at the quality and quantity of ratings for beach experiences to compile the top 15.

Famous for its 22km stretch of white sand and sunset camel rides (pictured), Cable Beach in Broome, Western Australia landed at third best beach in the world on TripAdvisor's influential list

Manly Beach in Sydney, New South Wales ranked 13, with one TripAdvisor user claiming 'Bondi takes all the credit and attention but Manly is equally good'

Cable Beach was ranked the third best beach in the world.

Its 22km stretch of white sand facing out to the Indian Ocean is famous for its stunning sunsets and iconic shoreline camel rides.

Manly Beach in Sydney ranked 13, with one TripAdvisor user claiming 'Bondi takes all the credit and attention but Manly is equally good'.

Baia do Sancho on the volcanic island of Fernando de Noronha, 350km off the coast of Brazil, was crowned best beach in the world - climbing six places from last year.

The beach is only accessible by a series of steep ladders and steps and is famous for its turquoise water, white sand and exotic array of wildlife including dolphins, rays, turtles and crabs.

Eagle Beach in Aruba in the Caribbean, came in second place and is praised for its clear water, white sand and for being the widest beach in the area.

Reynisfjara Beach in Vik, Iceland, was fourth and is world-famous for its black sands and imposing rock formations - a striking backdrop used in Game of Thrones.

Baia do Sancho (pictured) on the volcanic island of Fernando de Noronha, 350km off the coast of Brazil, was crowned best beach in the world - climbing six places from last year

Eagle Beach in Aruba, Caribbean, came in second place, praised for its clear water, white sand and for being the widest beach in the area (pictured)

Reynisfjara Beach in Vik, Iceland, (pictured) was fourth and is world-famous for its black sands and imposing rock formations

Hawaii's Kaanapali Beach (pictured) on the island of Maui scraped into 10th spot

TripAdvisor describes it as 'a beach like no other' which should be admired from the coast as its water is freezing and its waves can reach up to 40metres.

Grace Bay Beach in Turks and Caicos came in at fifth place, Praia da Falesia in Portugal's Algarve region in sixth, and Radhanagar Beach on India's Havelock Island in seventh.

Closing the top 10 list was Spiaggia dei Conigli on the Italian island of Lampedusa in eighth place, Varadero Beach in Cuba in ninth and Hawaii's Kaanapali Beach, on the island of Maui scrapping into 10th spot.

The online travel site also ranked the top 10 best beaches in the South Pacific, with seven Australian beaches making the list.

Cable Beach in Broome, Manly Beach in Sydney and Emily Bay on Norfolk Island claimed the top three spots, followed by Mooloolaba Beach on Queenslands Sunshine Coast.

Four Mile Beach at Port Douglas, Queensland, ranked sixth, while another Queensland beach - Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island - came in at seventh.

Turquoise Bay in Exmouth, Western Australia was the last Aussie beach to claim a spot, coming in at ninth on the list.

Seven Australian beaches made TripAdvisor's top-10 list of best beaches in the South Pacific, with Cable beach in Broome, Manly Beach in Sydney and Emily Bay on Norfolk Island (pictured) claimed the top three spots

Head of Editorial at TripAdvisor Sarah Firshein said this year's list comprised of some 'delightful surprises' and reflected the community's desire for experiences.

'As a huge beach fan myself, I know the impossible-to-resist allure of sunshine and turquoise water - and certainly, there's plenty of that on this year's list,' Ms Firshein said.

'In addition to the much-loved beaches of the Caribbean, the South Pacific and Hawaii, our community is really looking to kick up their experiences, even exploring cooler destinations like Reynisfjara Beach in Iceland.

'So whether you're looking to pack a windbreaker or a swimsuit, our list has something for a wide range of travellers - and it might even convince the most ardent beach sceptics to embrace some time on the sand.'
A former social care minister warned Matt Hancock that visitor bans in care homes during the Covid pandemic were 'inhumane', leaked WhatsApp messages reveal.

Helen Whately voiced her opposition at the strict visitor rules in residential homes to the then-Health Secretary in October 2020.

She urged against rules which prevented 'husbands seeing wives' as large swathes of England moved into Tier One restrictions, The Telegraph reports.

She continued to press the case of the elderly to Hancock after the rest of England went into a second lockdown in November that year, advising there was a risk many vulnerable people would 'just give up'.

Matt Hancock is 'considering all options' in response to Isabel Oakeshott's leak of more than 100,000 WhatsApps she received while working on his Pandemic Diaries book.

'She's broken a legal NDA. Her behaviour is outrageous,' a source close to the former health secretary said.

Helen Whately voiced her opposition at the strict visitor rules in residential homes to the then-Health Secretary in October 2020

The messages show Health Secretary Matt Hancock advised against any sudden changes to the visiting rules, as the government sought to improve its monthly targets

The MP denied the 'distorted account' with a spokesman alleging the messages leaked by journalist Isabel Oakeshott after she worked on his Pandemic Diaries memoir have been 'spun to fit an anti-lockdown agenda'.

Restrictions to visitors in care homes were not lifted until July 2021, well over a year after the country first became mired in Covid restrictions.

In order to reduce the spread of coronavirus, care home facilities were closed to outsiders in March 2020, although it took a week for the visitor ban to be written into official guidance.

As a result, many elderly and vulnerable residents endured months without seeing their loved ones, including spouses.

Ms Whately approached Hancock with her concerns about the curb on visitors in a WhatsApp message from October 12, 2021.

She wrote: 'I'm hearing there's pressure to ban care home visiting in tier 2 as well as tier 3. Can you help? I really oppose that.

'Where care homes have Covid-secure visiting, we should be allowing it. To prevent husbands seeing wives because they happen to live in care homes for months and months is inhumane.'

A few days after the messages were sent, the new Tier One restrictions - the most relaxed of the four tiers - were introduced in a large part of England. The rule meant care home residents could only have two regular visitors.

Care home residents living in higher tiered areas were barred from any contact with visitors, except in extreme or end-of-life scenarios.

Most restrictions in care homes were not lifted until July 2021, well over a year after the first lockdown began

The restrictions were later evened out across England on November 5, 2020, when the second lockdown began.

In subsequent messages, Ms Whately insisted that the government needed to look at its policy for visitors, with a 'risk of lives lost through old people just giving up as well as Covid'.

In response, Mr Hancock advised against making any sudden changes as the government sought to improve its end of month targets, adding: 'Yes on visiting but only after a few weeks.'

Other leaked messages seemingly showed Mr Hancock rejected the Chief Medical Officer's call to test all residents going into English care homes for Covid at the start of the pandemic.

Mr Hancock's representatives have vehemently pushed back against this 'distorted' impression saying he was 'supportive of' Whitty's advice but was told it was 'undeliverable' but insisted on testing those coming from hospitals.

Sir Chris Whitty told him there should be Covid testing for 'all going into care homes' - one of a set of 1,000 text and WhatsApp messages leaked by a former journalist who was the ghost writer of Mr Hancock's diaries.

But Mr Hancock's WhatsApp messages revealed he did not follow the guidance, instead telling advisers it 'muddies the waters'.

The leaked texts also include exchanges between the former Health Secretary and then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who revealed he was going 'quietly crackers' about the UK's shortage of test kits.

On the morning of June 4, 2020, Mr Johnson sent a message saying: 'It's all about testing. That's our Achilles heel. We can't deliver a sensible border policy or adequate track and trace because we can't test enough.

Sir Chris Whitty (left) told then health secretary Matt Hancock (right) there should be testing for 'all going into care homes' but this guidance was rejected, leaked messages reveal

'Did we go to the Germans for those kits that Angela Merkel was offering? What is wrong with us as a country that we can't fix this?'

In two follow-up messages, Mr Johnson said Mr Hancock's department 'had months and months' to sort the issue, before adding: 'I am going quietly crackers about this'.

Mr Hancock responded: 'Don't go crackers. We have test capacity enough to do this. We now have the biggest testing capacity in Europe.

'The problem is the false negatives - so the medics are against releasing from self isolation (whether for quarantine or T&T) with a nagative (sic) test. No-one in the world releases from quarantine with a negative test.

'I went back to CMO and pushed this. I'll send you the note he sent me.'

The Government introduced mandatory testing for people going into care homes from hospital, but not from the community.

It comes as Mr Hancock was accused of 'putting social care on the altar to be slaughtered' after 20,000 elderly residents in homes died of Covid in the first wave.

Matt Hancock and Boris Johnson, then Health Secretary and Prime Minister, pictured during a visit to Bassetlaw District General Hospital on November 22, 2019

The leaked texts also include exchanges between the former Health Secretary and then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who revealed he was going 'quietly crackers' about the UK's shortage of test kits

In his pandemic diaries, serialised by the Daily Mail last year, Mr Hancock claimed hospital discharges were not to blame and instead pointed the finger at 'infections were brought in from the wider community, mainly by staff'.

A set of 100,000 text and WhatsApp messages have been leaked to the Daily Telegraph by a former journalist Isabel Oakeshott, who was the ghost writer of Mr Hancock's diaries.

Ms Oakeshott, who has described lockdowns as an 'unmitigated disaster', said she was releasing the messages because it would take 'many years' before the end of the official Covid inquiry, which she claimed could be a 'colossal whitewash'.

'That's why I've decided to release this sensational cache of private communications - because we absolutely cannot wait any longer for answers,' she said.

The messages reveal how the politician sent out tens of thousands of Covid tests to hit his 100,000 daily target, even though he knew many would not get used, the Telegraph reported.

Matt Hancock has hit back at what he says is a 'distorted account' on his handling of care home testing in the pandemic that has been 'spun to fit an anti-lockdown agenda'.

A spokesman for the former health secretary said: 'It is outrageous that this distorted account of the pandemic is being pushed with partial leaks, spun to fit an anti-lockdown agenda, which would have cost hundreds of thousands of lives if followed. What the messages do show is a lot of people working hard to save lives.

'The full documents have already all been made available to the inquiry, which is the proper place for an objective assessment, so true lessons can be learned.

'The story spun on care homes is completely wrong. What the messages show is that Mr Hancock pushed for testing of those going into care homes when that testing was available.

'Instead of spinning and leaks we need the full, comprehensive inquiry, to ensure we are as well prepared as we can be for the next pandemic, whenever it comes.'
A theatre in London has issued a trigger warning to its audiences because the show involves 'the handling of a cooked egg'.

The Young Vic Theatre in London warned audiences about several themes in their upcoming revival of Zinnie Harris's Further Than The Furthest Thing.

In the first stage of its advice to theatre-goers, the Young Vic said the production would contain 'strong language, themes of climate displacement and xenophobia, and depictions of pregnancy and infant homicide'.

The theatre also warned about themes of mental illness, death, 'implied suicide' and sexual violence.

However, in the final piece of advice on the theatre's website it reads: 'This show involves the handling of cooked egg.'

Actress Paola Dionisotti in 2000 as Mill Laverello in Further Than The Furthest Thing, in which she handles cooked eggs

The trigger warning issued by the Young Vic Theatre in London

It added that there is a warning for anyone with an egg allergy because 'cooked eggs are handled during the show'.

Last year it was found that university bosses had slapped trigger warnings on more than 1,000 texts, including works by Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Dickens over 'challenging' content.

Further Than The Furthest Thing is set on a remote volcanic island in the middle of the Atlantic where a community has lived undisturbed for centuries.

When one of the inhabitants brings an outsider to the island their way of life is changed forever.

Based on real events on the island of Tristan da Cunha, Jennifer Tangs interpretation of Zinnie Harriss award-winning play is a story of a community haunted by its past and under threat from a modern world in crisis.
A furious small business owner has slammed Bunnings for wiping out family-run stores after the hardware giant announced it was massively expanding its range of pet products.

Bunnings will expand its pet merchandise range from a few hundred items, including dog beds and kennels, to 1,000 products across its national network by late March.

The move is likely to be a boon for Aussie pet owners, with the warehouse chain already popular for its convenience, affordable price and even for the $3.50 sausage sizzles.

However, business owners have accused Bunnings of ruining the industry, and experts have warned big box stores have an unfair legal advantage over small businesses in the 'war' for customers.

Emmanuel Devo's family have owned Junction Pet's Pantry in Sydney's Bondi Junction since the 1970s but it is now set to close within four weeks.

'The problem with all these big companies is they're reducing industry diversity,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

'We used to have more suppliers that offered more specialty products.'

Bunnings will expand its pet merchandise range from a few hundred items, including dog beds and kennels, to 1,000 products across its national network by late March (stock image)

Bunnings' latest move is likely to be a boon for Aussie pet owners, with the warehouse chain already popular for its convenience, affordable price and famous Saturday sausage sizzles

Emmanuel Devo's family have owned a pet store in Sydney's Bondi Junction since the 1970s but it is now set to close within four weeks

'Now they don't have enough small stores to sell special items to so those products just become unavailable.

'You have to sell specialty products, you have to give people a reason to come into your store. Companies like Amazon offer free delivery options, we can't compete with that.

'They have these systems that rip off employees in exchange for offers, like free delivery.

'They have the illusion of cheapness.'

His cousin Spiros Gial has also seen his small business collapse recently.

Mr Gial's family owned a shop in Maroubra since 1952 but have now been bought out by developers after a long legal battle.

'These shops used to buy you property, now it's hard to make ends meet,' he said.

Consumer experts have also warned that the expansion of so-called big box stores could spell trouble for small retailers.

Andrew Terry, Professor of Business Regulation at the University of Sydney Business School, told Daily Mail Australia: 'When Bunnings comes to town, it's bad news for local businesses.

Junction Pet's Pantry has been in Sydney's Bondi Junction since the 1970s but will close within weeks

Several consumer experts have also warned that the expansion of so-called big box stores could spell trouble for small businesses

'The local firms look to our laws to protect them but the reality is that they aren't there to protect small businesses. They are there to enhance consumer welfare and competition and this allows firms like Bunnings, Coles and Woolworths to thrive and get more customers.

'Bunnings has done very well with its sausages on Saturdays and they are very smart with their market research. They know what to do for their market and brand.

'It used to be that small businesses would be open longer and would have that personal relationship with customers. However, now you have extended shopping hours and special deals and promotions from the big brands.

'At the end of the day, the market is war. It is a war for customers and they want to win that war. It's all about competition and by introducing 1,000 new pet lines, Bunnings wants to win.'

His comments were echoed by several other experts, who called on the government to ensure there was more protection in place for small businesses against expanding behemoths like Bunnings.

Sharon Latour, an international consumer and marketing consultant said the Australian market favours larger firms.

'The way that the Australian market is structured favours the large brands like Bunnings as the business expansions are paired with large real estate investments and it, unfortunately, means that smaller privately owned brands get pushed out of the market.

'The cost of doing business and the taxation scheme for smaller businesses is stifling for all industries in Australia, which is why our manufacturing is dying and our hospitality businesses are closing by the dozens every day.

'There needs to be a reform to allow smaller businesses to breathe a bit and be able to compete, otherwise, we will keep seeing the Bunnings of the world take entire sectors.

'Is the future of Australia large businesses and chains? The amount of 'for lease' signs in all major cities certainly points to that.'

However, some have suggested that the pet industry will adapt and thrive in light of the Bunnings expansion.

Anthony Ramsey, president of the Pet Industry Association of Australia, believes pet retailers are under less threat than they fear.

Though the move is likely to be a boon for Aussie pet owners, there are fears it could pit the huge chain against smaller specialty pet stores

'It is not surprising Bunnings has decided it wants a piece of the $13 billion pie that is the Australian Pet Industry.

'The roll out of large corporate businesses operating chain stores and online only pet product retailers has already seen a significant reduction of the number of independent pet businesses over the past 15 years.

'Those that have survived have done so because of their points of difference, being their service, advice, range, quality of products and the instore retail experience. It is highly unlikely Bunnings will compete with these types of businesses that are already so good at what they do.

'I'd imagine Bunnings will target the consumer that already shops in large big box chain stores not independents. Independent pet business also have the ability to sell families the pets themselves, be it a budgie, puppy or kitten, guinea pig, lizard or fish.

'This is a further string to the bow of many independent pet stores and an that corporate business will never be able to compete against specialised pet retailers.

'All in all, while I can appreciate the concerns some businesses may hold seeing Bunnings enter the pet industry, I genuinely believe they have far less a threat to their business than they may think.'

Graeme Samuel, former head of the ACCC, also said that pet companies have less to fear than they think.

Bunnings boss Mike Schneider (pictured) said the new direction is in line with ballooning pet ownership over the last three years

He said: 'It's all horses for courses. Small businesses will adapt, they always have. Consumers will have to weigh up if they want to pay a bit extra for a more personal service or if they would rather pay less for convenience and ease.

'There will always be a baker's shop or a butcher or grocer's near these chains that will be popular.

'That's the trick with these places. They know that customers who want a more personal touch will come to them, whereas some people will want the ease of places like Bunnings.'

This is not the first time Bunnings has been accused of shutting down smaller businesses.

In 2015, a GDC Advisory forecast blamed Bunnings and other big box retailers for a collapse in the number of hardware stores in Australia.

The forecast suggested the number of hardware stores in Australia would fall from 20,920 to 14,050 over the next 10 years, with 6142 independent retailers set to close by 2024.

Speaking at the time GDC Advisory director Geoff Dart said Bunnings, as well as Woolworths and Mitre 10, were intensifying competition.

New products on offer at Bunnings will include food and toys for dogs, cats and birds which will sit in a 40-square-metre selling space.

Bunnings boss Mike Schneider told Daily Mail Australia the expansion wasn't necessarily bad news for small businesses.

'Pets is a really exciting growth category, and we believe there's ample room in the market for larger operators and speciality providers,' he said.

'The role of pets is becoming increasingly important for many Australians, and we're looking forward to joining the range of businesses that cater to pet lovers to offer customers even more choice.'

Mr Schneider said the new direction was in line with ballooning pet ownership over the last three years.

Bunnings has allowed pets into its stores since 2015 as long as they are carried, secured on a lead or in a shopping trolley.
Building will be sold at auction on March 7 to be redeveloped by a new owner

Building will be sold at auction on March 7 to be redeveloped by a new owner

Greek immigrant owner Nicholas Fotiou, 91, ran the store since buying it in 1959 with his brother John

Olympia Milk Bar on Parramatta Road in Stanmore on Sydney's inner west is a neighbourhood legend

Advertisement

The building housing a beloved milk bar frozen in time for six decades is up for sale after its elderly owner moved into a nursing home.

Nick Fotiou ran the Olympia Milk Bar in Sydney's inner west and barely took a day off after buying it with his brother, John, in 1959 - even as the building crumbled around him.

As the streetscape of Parramatta Road in Stanmore changed around him, the Greek immigrant suited up in his apron and served milkshakes, tea, and burgers.

However, the building fell into disrepair and Mr Fotiou refused all offers to help maintain it even as the local council tried to force him out over safety concerns.

Nick Fotiou ran the Olympia Milk Bar in Sydney's inner west and barely took a day off after buying it with his brother, John, in 1959 - even as the building crumbled around him

What's left of the two-storey shopfront will be sold at auction on March 7, with its front boarded up and covered in graffiti and posters advertising music gigs

Olympia finally closed in early 2021 when its defiant owner moved into a nursing home aged 91.

What's left of the two-storey shopfront will be sold at auction on March 7, with its front boarded up and covered in graffiti and posters advertising music gigs.

Raine & Horne Commercial advertised the 214sqm building as a 'rebuild or redevelopment opportunity', despite it being listed on the NSW Heritage Register.

'The zoning and building controls allow for a multitude of uses and redevelopment options. The property will appeal to a wide range of owner-occupiers, investors, and builders/developers,' the ad read.

The property, which is being sold by the Public Trustee on Mr Fotiou's behalf, is expected to fetch between $600,000 and $1 million.

While the shopping strip is now unrecognisable, hardly anything changed inside since the shop was fitted out in 1939.

Owner Nick Fotiou has been a constant presence on Parramatta Road in Stanmore in Sydney's inner west, but has now moved into a nursing home

Even as the streetscape of Parramatta Road in Stanmore changed, the store stayed the same

Decades-old posters lined the walls, including for 1970s band The Street, and the shelves were stocked with old boxes of chocolate bars and drink cans.

Mr Fotiou would emerge from the shadows to take orders and process payment on an ancient cash register.

Lights in the milk bar were always turned off, and Mr Fotiou lived above the shop and was reluctant to speak about his private life.

He refused to quit even as dust collected on the antique decorations and mould started appearing - or when the ceiling caved in.

The building became so decrepit that the local council, after a long battle, closed him down in 2018 until repairs were taken out.

But the elderly proprietor refused to be hurried, and insisted he was able to carry on and fix the asbestos, rodent problem, and leaky ceiling at his own pace.

The decrepit building has been decaying for many years and is now boarded up

While the shopping strip is unrecogniseable barely anything changed inside since the original Olympia he bought was fitted out in 1939

Mr Fotiou would emerge from the shadows to take orders while hunched over the bar and process payment on an ancient cash registe

Decades-old posters lined the walls, including for 1970s band The Street, and the shelves were stocked with old boxes of chocolate bars and drink cans

He even briefly reopened in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic.

'I've had troubles and troubles and troubles,' Mr Fotiou told the Sydney Morning Herald in 2018 of his struggle to keep the place open.

'Slowly, slowly, slowly... But not to rush me. How long it will take, no idea,' he said in broken, heavily Greek-accented English about his plans to restore his shop.

The shop had legions of fans, including a 4,500-strong Facebook page, but the proud owner refused all offers of help to fix it.

'He talked like he is planning to do the repairs himself,' one person wrote on the page during a 2017 effort to avoid the council shutdown.

'Without prompting he admitted his ladder is not safe to use when he is alone. I strongly discouraged him from getting up there.

'When I asked him if he would accept money to assist with repairs like a grant or a gift with no strings attached, he said, "I tell you what I told the council, I want my customers to come back".'

Olympia had legions of fans, including a 4,500-strong Facebook page, but the proud owner refused all offers of help to fix it

All he allowed was some temporary, and ultimately fruitless, work the patch up the ceiling

Mr Fotiou bought the building with his brother John in 1959, and the property retains its original fitout dating back two decades before that (pictured is the interior)

Known as Dr Death or Dracula because lights in the milk bar are always turned off, Mr Fotiou lives above the shop and is reluctant to speak about his private life (pictured is the milk bar)

All he allowed was some temporary, and ultimately fruitless, work to the patch up the ceiling.

Now the milk bar is boarded up, and Mr Fotiou has finally accepted the end of an era and moved into a nursing home.

The NSW Heritage Register describes the milk bar as 'of historical significance as evidence of the development of commercial leisure related activity along this section of Parramatta Road from 1912'.

Originally a pool hall, it reopened as a milk bar in 1939 and has kept its name and furnishings since then, including a coloured terazzo saying 'Olympia' on the floor.

The Olympia featured in at least one novel, two songs, several artworks, was the subject of a radio documentary.

Any redevelopment of the shop would have to meet strict requirements to keep its wealth of history as intact as possible.

Some photos provided by Eamon Donnelly, taken for The Milk Bar Book.

The Olympia has featured in at least one novel, two songs, several artworks and been the subject of a radio documentary
Lori Lightfoot claimed she was treated unfairly during her failed re-election bid for mayor because she is a woman of color, not for her failure to curb Chicago's soaring crime rate.

Lightfoot, the first black woman and openly gay mayor of the Windy City, is now also the first Chicago mayor in 40 years to lose a re-election after trailing behind in third place with only 17.1 percent of votes as of Wednesday morning.

Throughout her term, she has been criticized for her soft-on-crime approach, which has led to massive increases in violence in the city, which is up 52 percent from last year and more than 100 percent from 2021.

But despite the record high crime on the streets of Chicago, the ousted mayor said in her concession speech that she was 'grateful that we worked together to remove a record number of guns off our streets, reduce homicides and started making real progress on public safety.'

Lightfoot has previously attributed the fierce backlash against her to sexism and racism, with the exiting mayor now suggesting the same goes for her defeat.

Following her concession speech, a reporter asked her if she was treated unfairly because of her race and gender, with Lightfoot answering: 'I'm a black woman in America. Of course.'

Meanwhile, Republicans slammed the ousted mayor, saying the primary reason she lost was because of crime, with US Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeting: 'Lori Lightfoot. Crime doesn't pay.'

Democrat Mayor Lori Lightfoot lost her re-election bid over criticisms of her soft-on-crime approach amid a steady spike in violence. Pictured: Lightfoot at her election night rally on February 28

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot pauses during her concession speech during an election night party for the mayoral election Tuesday, February 28

Paul Vallas (left) and Brandon Johnson (right) are headed for the run-off election in April

Chicago residents made their choice on Tuesday, with Lightfoot only getting 17.1 percent of the votes, less than half of the leading candidate

Many joined Greene on Twitter, saying that with Lightfoot gone, they hope peace can finally be restored in the Windy City.

Former Georgia state Rep. Vernon Jones tweeted: 'Chicago's Mayor Lori Lightfoot, just got the FOOT! Other Democrat mayors with run-away crime in your cities, take note. Even liberals are tired of being unsafe.'

Jonathan Turley, a criminal defense attorney and FOX News contributor added: 'There is hope for my home city yet. Lori Lightfoot is out.

'The greatest potential improvement for the city since 1900 when the direction of the Chicago river was reversed.'

Lightfoot faced a tough race against eight candidates, including Paul Vallas, a former Chicago Public Schools CEO and budget director, who received 33 percent of the votes so far.

Brandon Johnson, a member of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, won second place and will join Vallas in the run-off election scheduled for April 4.

With 94 percent of the votes in, Vallas secured his place in the run-off election with more than 172,000 votes so far, with Johnson earning more than 103,000 votes.

Johnson was able to beat Lightfoot, who fell behind with less than 87,000 votes.

Speaking to her supporters on Tuesday night, Lightfoot said: 'Obviously, we didn't win the election. But, I stand here with my head held high and my heart full of thanks.'

'You will not be defined by how you fall. You will be defined by how hard you work and how much you do for other people,' she added.

'I will be rooting and praying for the next mayor of Chicago.'

Lightfoot also touted her administration's supposed work to stomp out crime and curb shootings, but the leading candidate, Vallas, said the city needs actual change.

Championing his message of returning law-and-order to the city, Vallas told his supporters: 'We will have a safe Chicago. We will make Chicago the safest city in America.

'Public safety is a fundamental right of every American. It is a civil right, and it is the principal responsibility of government.'

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, at podium, holds hands with her spouse, Amy Eshleman, as she concedes the election in the mayoral race on February 28

Lightfoot's critics took to Twitter to emphasize that she lost the election due to her failures to stomp out crime in the Windy City

Lightfoot made history as the first black woman and openly gay person to be mayor of Chicago. She has come under immense fire, however, for her soft-on-crime approach and her war with teachers in the city while focusing on festivals in the city

Back in October, Lightfoot (above) was blasted when she went on TikTok to promote a citywide karaoke contest while crime continued to run rampant in the Windy City

Lightfoot's comments over her loss harkens back to when she controversially stated that a bulk of her criticism stems from the fact that she is a black woman.

In 2021, Phil Ponce, of WTTW, said: 'In recent months, there have been questions raised about your temperament and your reaction to criticism  a (Chicago) Tribune editorial used the term irascible  how much of this do you think might have to do with the fact that you're a woman and specifically a black woman?'

In response, Lightfoot said, '99 percent of it.'

Asked to elaborate, Lightfoot said, 'Look at my predecessors. Did people say that Rich Daly held tea sessions with people that he didn't disagree on? Ron Emmanuel was a polite guy who was a uniter?

'No. Woman and people of color are always held to a different standard. I understand that. I've known that my whole life.'

As crime continued to soar through the last years of her term, Lightfoot was heavily criticized for promoting other matters than public safety, including a citywide karaoke contest and dancing in the street during a festival.

Lightfoot first faced intense backlash after she joined calls from Democratic mayors in 2021 to cut the budget of police departments, a movement that also resulted in officers quitting the force and violent crime to spike.

The embattled mayor then committed to a U-turn, opting instead to 'refund the police' and hire more officers, but the move has done little to curb crime.

According to the Chicago Police Department's latest report, rapes have shot up by 16 percent so far this year compared to the same time in 2022.

Robberies are also up 13 percent, with aggravated battery and burglaries both up 11 percent.

Theft in the windy city is up 31 percent, and vehicle thefts, specifically, have soared up 143 percent.

Homicides and shooting incidents were the only category to see decreases, falling by 18 percent and 8 percent, respectively.

While overall violent crime is up 52 percent from the same time last year, it's up 102 percent when compared to 2021.

Surveillance footage caught the moment a man in a red jacket followed a woman in a black-and-white checkered jacket into a building on September 24 as crime continued to rise

Chicago's Magnificent Mile has seen vacanies soars as customers and stores have been victimized by theives in recent years

Ultimately, there was a 59 percent increase in murder citywide when comparing the 9th week of 2023 to the same time-period four years ago, which is right when Lightfoot was heading to a runoff with Toni Preckwinkle.

The four-year change also shows a 27 percent increase in robbery, 31 percent increase in theft and a massive 270 percent increase in the number of motor vehicle thefts.

In addition to rising crime - Lightfoot has overseen vacancy rates of nearly 30 percent after flagship stores on the Magnificent Mile bailed.

Huge brands like Macy's, Old Navy, Banana Republic, Gap, Uniqlo and Timberland have all fled large premises since Covid shutdowns and ensuing riots.

Some of the stores were also victims to the series of mass looting incidents that plauged major cities in 2021 and 2022.

Many were driven away by soaring crime and violence, with the vacancy rate on the once tony shopping strip rising 10-fold since 2016, when it sat at just 3.6 percent, to the current 30.1 percent vacancy rate.

The Magnificent Mile's vacancy rate was under five percent just six years ago, according to NBC Chicago.

Lightfoot (pictured third from right) faced a crowded primary field. She needed to win an outright majority or at least finish top two to force an April runoff

Vallas and Johnsons' histories working with schools in the city is playing to their advantage in the race after Lightfoot went to war with teachers over returning to teaching full-time in person.

'We know that the safest place for kids to be is in-person learning in schools. We've got to get the teachers union to get real and get serious about getting back into in-person learning,' she said in a January 2022 interview.

After casting his ballot on Tuesday morning, Vallas, 46, told reporters: 'The city clearly is in crisis and people want a crisis manager who can come in and focus on getting things done.'

This year, the teachers union has endorsed Lightfoot rival Brandon Johnson, a Cook County commissioner and former Chicago teacher and union organizer.

Earlier this week, Chicago inmates claimed they were being pressured to illegally vote in the mayoral election.

The inmates, some accused of murder, argued guards at Cook County Jail were pushing them to cast their ballots - despite some being registered in a different jurisdiction.

They claimed the guards were receiving orders from higher up and were 'just doing what I'm told' when confronted over the move.

It was feared the illegal move could have propelled Lightfoot back into office after she languished at 13 percent in the polls in the run-up to election night.
It housed 730 people since opening in February last year

The QLD govt won't renew the lease for the Wellcamp base

The Queensland government has decided not to renew the lease for the taxpayer-funded Wellcamp Covid quarantine facility when it expires next month.

The 1,000-bed facility located near Toowoomba west of Brisbane was opened in February 2022 to quarantine international arrivals entering the country.

It only housed 730 people in that time and cost taxpayers more than $220million in construction and running costs.

For the first few months after it opened, it housed an average of 30 guests per week.

A spokesperson for Queensland's deputy premier Steven Miles confirmed the base would be ditched by the state government when the contract ends next month.

'The facility remains available until the end of the current lease and following that, its future use will be determined by Wagner Corporation,' the spokesperson told the ABC.

The Palaszczuk government will ditch the Wellcamp Covid quarantine facility (pictured) that cost taxpayers $220million

They added that because of the centre's location its 'other uses' in the future were not 'straightforward'.

The facility was constructed by the family-owned Wagner Corporation on private land also owned by the Wagner family.

The Palaszczuk government gave the Wagner Corporation $48.8million to build the facility.

Health minister Yvette D'Ath defended the decision by the Palaszczuk government to build the centre in a press conference on Tuesday.

'Wellcamp is a really important facility that we needed to commit to,' she explained.

Ms D'Ath suggested that the state was forced to build the base due to a lack of support from the Morrison government when it came to quarantining overseas arrivals during the height of the pandemic.

'The Commonwealth at the time did nothing to help us with quarantining people who were at risk of having Covid, which would have meant Queenslanders would have been exposed to Covid prior to our community getting vaccinated,' she said.

'We did what we needed to do.'

The Palaszczuk government used the centre to house overseas arrivals during the height of the pandemic. The government gave the Wagner Corporation $48.8million to build the facility (pictured, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk)

The 1,000-bed facility has housed 730 people since it began operations in February last year. On average, about 30 people stayed at the base per week shortly after it opened

Wagner Corporation chairman John Wagner said the base would be used to house workers from the agriculture sector once the lease with the state government ended.

'We're dealing with a number of (agricultural) operators who are desperate for accommodation forworkers,' he said.

'Some of these abattoirs just can't find accommodation for their workers that they bring into the country.'

Mr Wagner said he didn't expect the state government would renew the 12-month lease once it expired.

He added that the corporation intends to leave the facility where it is for the 'long-term'.

Since the cessation of Covid restrictions, the base has been used to temporarily house flood victims and Ukrainian refugees.
The White House is putting its foot down toward removing TikTok from federal devices.

The Biden administration recently announced it is giving a month for government agencies to remove TikTok from federal devices and systems.

The announcement follows Congress' decision to ban the app in December amid national security concerns that the app's parent company, ByteDance, could give the Chinese Communist Party access to user data, per CBS News.

White House TiKTok Removal Deadline Details

The White House mentioned in an exclusive report to Reuters that it gave all government and federal agencies 30 days to ensure they do not have TikTok or any of its sister apps from the company or ByteDance on devices and systems. They are also required to prohibit internet traffic from reaching the company, per a statement from Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young.

Although CNN's report mentioned there are a few exceptions to the ban, agencies must include in contracts that the application in question cannot be used on devices and must cancel any contracts that necessitate the app's use.

Young's statement stated that a federal or government agency could retain its use of TikTok if the app's use is for law enforcement activities, national security interests and activities, and security research. However, the agency's head or designee of the agency head must grant the exception themselves to allow their employee to continue their job in specific agency programs or operational actions covered by the exception categories.

Read More: Hacker May Have Leaked Activision Employee Data and Upcoming Game Details

However, should there be an alternative approach to an activity that previously required TIkTok, no exception will be given. Regardless, for a government or federal employee need to use TikTok, they have to fill out a form that asks them to fill out the following information:

Date of approval

Exception category

Description of the circumstances under which the exception applies

Exception period

Risk mitigation actions to be taken to prevent access by a covered application to sensitive data

Young's statement follows the passing of a bill that required federal agencies to remove TikTok from their devices and systems in December.

Other Countries Following Suit

The US is not the only country concerned about the national security risks TikTok may introduce. Recently, Canada is banning the popular social media app from all government-issued mobile devices following their review of the app.

The country's review determined that the app's collection methods could result in users becoming vulnerable to potential cyberattacks - a finding that necessitated a ban.

TikTok did not take the news lightly. According to company spokesperson Danielle Morgan, the company is disappointed with the decision of Canada's Federal Chief Information officer since there were no specific security concerns cited.

Canada joins the US and other countries that have decided to implement a partial or complete ban on TikTok due to national security concerns. These countries include India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Indonesia, per Make Use Of.

Related Article: Canada to Ban TikTok from Government-Issued Devices
A Woolworths shopper has made an alarming discovery inside a bag of grapes when she found a highly-venomous redback spider hidden amongst the fruit.

Lani Neil had just bought a punnet of black seedless grapes from Woolworths in Redbank Plains, an hour south of Brisbane, on Saturday when she spotted the spider wandering around in the middle of the bag.

Ms Neil said the arachnid was in the middle of spinning webs when she made the discovery just as she was leaving the store.

She took to Facebook to vent about the situation and blasted the local Woolworths for not taking her calls.

'WARNING I just bought a punnet of black seedless grapes from the Redbank Plains (Mountainview) store and found a live redback spider in them,' Ms Neil wrote.

'Tried to call the store multiple times and no one answered. (I don't live nearby so I can't just pop in).'

Ms Neil took the situation to Facebook, posting her concerns directly to the Woolworths page

The redback spider was found hidden amongst the grapes by Ms Neil at Woolworths' Redbank Plains store (pictured)

A former produce manager from an unspecified Woolworths store commented on the post, noting that unwelcome guests like Ms Neil's redback spider were not an uncommon sight.

'We would, on occasion, find spiders in the grapes. I once opened a box of bananas to find a live snake amongst them,' he said.

'Back in my day we used to put signs on stock, such as grapes, telling people to use common sense and wash them before consuming to avoid instances such as this.'

Female redback spiders, which have the distinct red stripe down their back, are feared throughout Australia because of their potent venom.

A bite from a female can cause serious illness however there have been no deaths since the 1950s when an antivenom was introduced.

Woolworths was quick to respond to her worrying post, reassuring Ms Neil it was on the case.

After posting the shocking find online, other shoppers described similar incidents

'We take reports like this seriously and we'll look into this with our team,' the supermarket said.

Ms Neil responded to a number of trolls on the post after some thought she was asking for the supermarket to destroy its entire grape supply.

'I don't think it'd be too much to ask that someone checks out the remaining punnets before people buy them,' she wrote.

Woolworths reiterated its commitment to safety when asked by Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday how it planned to prevent similar incidents.

'We take food safety very seriously and work closely with our suppliers to ensure precautions are taken on-farm,' a Woolworths spokesperson said.

'We're in contact with this customer and have requested further information so that we can look into this with our growers.'

A redback spider typically poses no threat of biting humans unless they interfere with its web

Ms Neil said the arachnid was in the middle of spinning webs when she made the discovery just as she was leaving the store.

Although it's rare to get bitten by a redback, interfering with their environment and web can lead to the spider becoming defensive and biting intruders.

Reaching into a bag of grapes and touching the redback's web could've potentially resulted in a bite for Ms Neil, which would then require a trip to the hospital for a dose of antivenom.

Redback bites commonly include varying levels of pain around the wound, sweating, nausea, vomiting and muscle aches.

The venom from a redback bite affects the nerves of its victim by depleting neurotransmitters and disabling neural pathways.

There have been no recorded deaths from a redback bite since 1956, the year the antivenom was created.
Legally Australians are considered adults at 18, but a new report has said Aussies aren't truly grown up until they are 28, and they're not old until they're 77.

Modern society has also led to the 'rise of the individual', and wealth is no longer solely defined by the 'great Australian dream' of home ownership, the report from finance company AMP and demographer Bernard Salt said.

In 1950 there were just three stages of life: children aged 0 to 12, adults 13-60, and the old, aged 61 to 69 - which was the average life expectancy at the time.

By 1990, the concept of being a teenager - 13 to 19 - was firmly established, 20 to 64 was the adult bracket and Australians were considered old from age 65.

But in 2023 there are six stages to the average life: childhood (0-12), adolescence (13-28), adulthood (29-55), a 'lifestyle' period from 56-64, the retirement era from 65-76, and with old age not typically kicking in until 77, Mr Salt said.

Australians are considered adults at 18, but a new report has said Aussies aren't truly grown up until they are 28. Pictured is a young woman who in between adolescence and adulthood

The adolescent period includes the extra time spent in education or training for higher skilled jobs, while the lifestyle period includes a time many spend combining work and leisure in semi or early retirement.

The study said that while social change is usually slow to take effect, sometimes there are events that produce huge shifts.

'The introduction of No-Fault divorce in 1975 freed many Australians from the burden of unhappy marriages,' it said.

The superannuation guarantee introduced under Paul Keating's Labor government in 1992 was designed to assure Australians of dignity and a level of independence in retirement.

In 2023, there are six stages to the average life, compared to just three in 1950 (graph pictured)

Demographer Bernard Salt said 'Our grandparents died at 61, 62 in the 1950s and 1960s', but Australians today live far longer, as the graph shows

The report goes on the say that one of the most important social shifts has been the rise of the individual.

'In a direct comparison between the way Australians live in 2023 with the way we lived 60 years ago in 1963 it is evident that that there is now more "alone time" across the lifecycle.'

The research also found that home ownership rates have fallen from 73 per cent in 1966 to 63 per cent today.

Mr Salt said people still want home ownership, but the 10 per cent fall in the numbers who do own their own homes or have a mortgage 'gives people freedom to make other choices.

'To put money into superannuation, to build up a nest egg and to respond to unforeseen circumstances,' he said.

A new report said Australians are now not really old until they're 77. Pictured is a woman in her 70s

The introduction of a 'retired' group into the stages of life cohort addresses Australians' increasing concerns with what they want to do after work, said Mr Salt.

'Our grandparents died at 61, 62 in the 1950s and 1960s,' he said.

'The whole idea of retirement planning was not an issue because you died before you actually qualified for the age pension at 65.

'So, we're dealing with new concepts that are moving  there is no frame of reference that goes back 50 years.'

With greater life expectancy due to healthier lifestyles and modern medicine, Mr Salt said how societies and individuals prepare and fund retirement is 'relatively new'.

'So if policymakers are struggling to grapple with it, it may be because they haven't appreciated the significance of it, but also because there's no corporate memory.'

The demographer said that Australians' focus on home ownership in the middle of the 20th century brought 'a sense of security' to diggers returning from war who had grown up during the Great Depression

'Getting married, having kids, buying a house, holding a steady job were values that shaped the times

'Whereas current day Australians have a range of objectives which includes home ownership, it also includes the pursuit of options like how and where we work, in how and when we form relationships and in how we choose to live our lives,' he said.

The research found that home ownership rates have fallen from a high of 73 per cent in 1966 to 63 per cent today (pictured)

But Mr Salt said though many things have changed dramatically since the 1960s, 'What has not changed is the value of health, of personal relationships, of family, of the ideal of provisioning for children, of helping grandchildren.

'These things are eternal. They are human. This is the reason why we pursue security through wealth and why we have pursued these things in the past.

'Wealth however grand or modest enables us to live the lives we want to live, to benefit those we love, to support those we care about, both now and into the future.

'That is what it means to be "wealthy",' he said.
Has worked in a cafe in Byron Bay since 2014

A British woman who has lived in Australia for 11 years is facing deportation after her visa was denied because her employer sold the business she works for.

Belinda Checkley, 36, first came Down Under as a backpacker in 2012 on a working holiday visa and 'instantly' fell in love with Byron Bay.

After a three-month stint working on a farm, Ms Checkley studied hospitality management before getting a job in the New South Wales tourist town and working her way up to cafe manager.

But in 2018, the cafe changed ownership, causing her visa to be cancelled.

Despite more than 20,000 people signing a petition for the Brit to stay in Australia, Immigration Minister Andrew Giles has not intervened, meaning she is due to be deported in less than a week.

Belinda Checkley, 36, first came Down Under as a backpacker in 2012 on a working holiday visa and 'instantly' fell in love with Byron Bay

Ms Checkley and her partner Julian, who is Australian, now face a move overseas as her temporary bridging visa is due to expire on Tuesday.

She says she's built a 'beautiful life' in Byron Bay and has 'no life' back in the UK.

'I have worked hard to build a secure future and my goal has been to obtain permanent residency.

'It has been a long journey - one filled with countless personal, emotional and financial sacrifices  to work within the Australian immigration system,' her change.org petition explains.

After six years happily living in Australia, in 2018 she was told her visa had been rejected. She later found out her migration lawyer had filed the application on her behalf and hadn't done the paperwork correctly.

She found a new lawyer and filed her appeal with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT).

After a three-month stint working on a farm, Ms Checkley studied hospitality management before getting a job in the New South Wales tourist town and working her way up to cafe manager

At the same time, Ms Checkley was beset with personal tragedy when her partner took his own life.

'This was an unimaginably painful experience and it is something that will be with me forever,' she explained.

'The magnitude of love and support that I received from my incredible friends and members of the local community was a clear testament to the fact that this beautiful town is truly my home'.

While working through her grief, Checkley faced a further setback when her employers sold the cafe she was working at.

This lead to the immediate cancellation of her visa.

'I appealed this unique set of circumstances to the Department of Immigration,' she explained

'My case rose to the level of Ministerial Intervention  to be personally reviewed by the Minister of Immigration himself.

'So for another two full years  during the pandemic - I lived, worked hard, and waited anxiously for an outcome.

'Then this past Christmas, I got one: My appeal, too, was rejected by the Department of Immigration without further review.

'I was informed there was no option to apply for any alternative visa while still living in Australia.

'And I had three months to prepare for my deportation. Once outside Australian borders, I would be legally barred from re-entering the country for the next three years.'

Ms Checkley is now appealing for public support to stay, with many Byron Bay locals speaking out in support of her place in the community

Ms Checkley is now appealing for public support to stay, with many Byron Bay locals speaking out in support of her place in the community.

'I've given 11 years of my life to this country. To face rebuilding my life after years of hard work and dedication is surreal and unfathomable,' she explained.

'I'm a hardworking, law-abiding and productive member of Australian society. I work in an industry desperate for talented and reliable staff.

'I've proven myself again and again and sacrificed so much just to call this place home. My only crime is that I was not born here.

'I came, like so many of us still in Byron Bay, as a backpacker in my 20s. I loved it and have never left. I'm now 36 years old, settled down, and trying to begin my own family with my partner who grew up here.

'I have no life back in the UK. It's a cold and distant memory.'

Her case has parallels with those of the Murugappan family from Sri Lanka who won the support of the township of Biloela, and the Green family from Scotland who had also been in Australia for a decade but were denied a visa due to changes of employer.

In both cases, significant media attention saw those families allowed to stay.
A female hunter, who had boasted about killing and skinning a husky, has plead no-contest to animal cruelty.

Amber Rose Barnes, 36, of Martin City, Montana, was given a six-month deferred sentence. As part of her punishment, she is required to attend a hunting safety class and she won't be able to use her hunting rifle during this time frame.

She was hit with charges in October after boasting about the killing in September on Facebook, where she claimed to have taken down a small wolf.

Barnes was trolled by thousands at the time as people immediately noticed the animal she had killed was a Siberian husky pup.

Amber Rose Barnes, 36, of Martin City, Montana, was given a six-month deferred sentence for animal cruelty charges. As part of her punishment, she is required to attend a hunting safety class and she won't be able to use her hunting rifle during this time frame

She was hit with charges in October after boasting about the killing in September on Facebook, where she claimed to have taken down a small wolf

During the hearing, she then defended her actions.

'During this time, safety was my top priority this animal was growling howling and coming at me like it was going to eat me.

'Yes I made a mistake...either way yes I would still have shot it because it was aggressive and coming directly for me!' she said.

Barnes avoided being charged with a hunting violation - because 'the incident did not involve an animal under the agency's jurisdiction', confirmed The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

Barnes provoked fury online when she posted a series of graphic images of herself with the lifeless pup online.

Along with a collage of five shots of herself with the dead dog, she wrote, 'So this morning I set out for a solo predator hunt for a fall black bear however I got the opportunity to take another predator wolf pup 2022 was a great feeling to text my man and say I just smoked a wolf pup #firstworld #onelesspredatorMT.'

Barnes had ventured into Flathead National Forest in Doris Creek, sixty miles south of Glacier National Park that morning looking for a black bear when she came across what she believed to be a wolf.

Barnes (pictured with her boyfriend) provoked fury online when she posted a series of graphic images of herself with the lifeless pup online

In one especially gruesome picture, Barnes posed with the Husky sprawled in her flatbed truck as she smiles striking the lifeless head of the dog and gripping her rifle.

Even once her error had been identified, Barnes defended her actions and told her Facebook audience she would kill the dog again.

Barnes' partner Frank Tallent also leapt to her defense at the time as the online mob descended and dubbed her the 'Montana butcher.'

'Mistakes happen big f***ing deal,' he wrote.

'Ya my girl friend was out hunting and shot a f *****g dog that was dumped out in the woods.'

The deceased puppy turned out to be one of nearly a dozen Husky pups that had been abandoned in the woods.

Barnes did have an valid hunting license when the incident occurred

Many of the puppies had parvovirus, an often deadline disease for dogs.

In the aftermath of the shooting, authorities worked to determine whether Barnes had a license to hunt wolves, which she said she did.

The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks later confirmed to Fox News that Barnes had purchased the appropriate license.

In Montana, wolf hunting is legal with a license. An individual is allowed to legally kill or trap 20 wolves a season.
A man has died after a workplace incident in a warehouse south of Brisbane.

NCA Newswire understands a fibreglass pool fell on the man and crushed him inside of a company warehouse in Beaudesert, around 85km south of Brisbane City.

He sustained critical injuries from the incident that he was not able to recover from.

Police were called to an address on Doug Sullivan Court after the man suffered critical injuries.

'Emergency services were called to a Doug Sullivan Court address just after 10am in relation to a workplace incident where the man was declared deceased,' a police spokesman said.

'No other patients were assessed at the scene,' a Queensland Ambulance spokesman said.

Police are assisting Workplace Health and Safety Queensland's investigation and a report will be prepared for the coroner.
A woman kept as a slave in a suburban Melbourne home has been accused of telling demonstrable lies by a defence lawyer as the couple convicted over her enslavement launch an appeal.

In 2021, Kumuthini Kannan and her husband Kandasamy Kannan were convicted of enslaving a vulnerable Tamil woman in their Mount Waverley home between 2007 and 2015.

Ms Kannan is serving at least four years of an eight-year sentence while Mr Kannan is serving at least three of a six-year sentence.

The woman, now aged in her 60s, said she had to work up to 23 hours a day doing housework, taking care of the couple's children and was restricted from going outside the house or mixing with other members of Melbourne's Tamil community.

On Tuesday, Ms Kannan's lawyer Dermott Dann told the Court of Appeal the woman had given contradictory evidence and told a 'significant and demonstrable set of lies' about her treatment.

He said she did indeed go outside the house after being pictured at Crown Casino, Arthurs Seat, Ballarat and other areas, did not work extreme hours and mixed with other members of the Tamil community.

Kandasamy Kannan (pictured) has launched an appeal

Kumuthini Kannan (pictured) was tried alongside her husband

There were claims the woman was paid less than $3.40 a day but Mr Dann said she was 'completely all over the place' when asked about that.

She first lived with the Kannans for six months each in 2002 and 2004 before returning on a 30-day tourist visa in 2007.

She was rushed to hospital in July 2015 after she collapsed, suffering untreated diabetes and sepsis.

The couple had a joint trial, however, Mr Kannan's lawyer Colin Mandy suggested his client should have been tried separately because the scope of the trial changed and inadmissible evidence was heard by a jury.

He was concerned claims against Ms Kannan were automatically conflated with her husband.

However, prosecutor Patrick Doyle SC said both were part of an ongoing deception from the moment she arrived in Australia and kept it going until the woman was hospitalised.

He said the couple went to 'great lengths' to hide the woman's true identity to avoid detection.

A decision on the appeal against their convictions and sentences will be made at a later date.
A biochemist in Miami Beach is facing multiple charges after authorities arrested him on multiple counts of allegedly drugging and sexually battering several women in his luxury condo.

Jeremy Bittner, 41, was arrested on Monday on several counts of sexual battery, false imprisonment and possession of a controlled substance.

The charges are connected to three incidents beginning in 2022, involving several alleged victims who describe the haunting behavior of a man they believed to be an upstanding professional.

Each of the alleged incidents happened at Bittner's luxury condo, The Waverly, on the west side of Miami Beach.

'The way I would categorize him is, is an individual who victimized at least three women. He has caused pain and suffering that will last for the remainder of their life I'm sure,' said Miami Beach spokesperson Ernesto Rodriguez.

Jeremy Bittner, 41, being brought up on charges in Miami on Tuesday afternoon for three alleged rape or attempted rapes of women he lured to his Miami Beach condo

He is 'a dangerous man who's been taken off of our streets,' he continued. 'Thankfully these women were brave enough to come forward...ultimately our goal is to ensure that this man stays behind bars.'

The department believes there may still be other women out there who were victims of Bittner's behavior and are encouraging them to come forward.

One woman, 47, told investigators she had been sexually battered by Bittner on January 30, 2022, according to arrest reports.

The woman said she'd met Bittner in April or May of 2020 and considered him a friend as she understood him to be married at the time.

He later told her that he and his wife had separated. After that, when they were hanging out, he attempted to have sex with her and she refused his advances.

On the day of the alleged incident, Bittner asked the woman to come over and have a drink, but she said that when she arrived, he was smoking crack and snorting cocaine and proceeded to offer her ecstasy.

She said no to the drugs, but accepted a glass of wine, which was when she said she began to feel drowsy, as though he had potentially drugged her drink.

Bittner then allegedly sexually battered her as she tried to get him off.

'Due to her altered state, believed to be the result of being drugged, she was unable to defend herself,' reads the arrest report.

The woman was eventually able to fight Bittner off and left his home.

The biochemist told detectives that the sexual activity was consensual and denied drugging the woman.

The police reports also include a second alleged victim, a 25-year-old woman, who claims to have been sexually battered by Bittner in late October of 2022.

The woman traveled to Miami Beach from Rome, Italy - where she lives - after searching for a place to rent in Florida and being contacted by Bittner, who offered her a room in his apartment for $1,500 per month.

After arriving in Miami, Bittner picked her up at the airport and took her back to his place, where she saws she saw a table in the living room covered with drugs.

The young woman said Bittner took cocaine and soon became physically violent.

He yanked her head and grabbed a gun, telling her to 'go along with the program,' according to the report.

Bittner then grabbed her by the neck and pushed her onto his couch, where he removed her clothing and sexually assaulted her.

The woman said she attempted to fight him off but was unsuccessful.

She was eventually able to contact an acquaintance who came to pick her up.

Bittner told detectives that this too had been a consensual encounter.

Bittner, a biochemist, had been married until recently, when he separated from his wife

He lived at the Waverly South Beach, a luxury condo building on the west side of Miami, where young women who lived in the building said he liked to hang around always for a little too long

Bittner's arrest report includes a description from one of the young women of the alleged serial rapist becoming violent with her after she went back to his apartment

A third alleged victim told detectives that she was drugged and sexually battered by Bittner on February 4 of this year.

The 34-year-old woman said she was in her condo in the same building waiting for the elevator when she was approached by Bittner. The pair chatted and exchanged numbers.

He later sent her a text asking her if she wanted to have drinks, which she agreed to.

She went to his condo, where he offered her cocaine, which she declined. He made her a vodka mixed drink, which she drank a small amount of when she began to feel 'extremely relaxed.'

The arrest reports indicate that Bittner at one point forcefully poured liquid into her mouth. Her next memory was waking up on his couch as Bittner grabbed her by the throat.

After she left, Bittner texted the woman photos he took of her while she was passed out on his soda.

The woman later produced a video on her phone of her confronting Bittner and asking why he'd drugged her.

She told him she didn't want to be drugged, to which he replied: 'Then why did you let yourself?'

A neighbor who was alarmed by Bittner's arrest told NBC 6 that he 'was always kind of like lurking around, always stays in the elevator a little bit longer, wants to talk to you in the elevator that kind of thing.'

'He did rub me the wrong way, he did like follow me and I was kind of worried if he lives in the building, so I can't believe it.'

Judge Mindy Glazer of the Miami-Dade court system (left) and Jeremy Bittner in a suicide prevention vest (right), appearing in court on Tuesday February 28, 2023 following his arrest

A shot of the arrest scene at The Waverly in Miami Beach. Bittner was arrested Monday on a number of charges pertaining to three alleged instances of sexual battery

Exterior shot of The Waverly SoBe off of 14th street on the city's west side

Bittner of South Beach scene in his Twitter profile picture. He told the judge he could not afford a lawyer because he lost his job in September

One woman, who didn't want to be identified, said she and some others in the building would see Bittner at odd hour of the day with women they presumed were escorts.

'Wonder what took so long,' she said referring to law enforcement taking action against Bittner.

He is currently being held without bond in the Miami-Dade jail.

Bittner told the judge he was let go from his job at the end of September last year, to which the judge responded that she does not believe he qualifies for a public defender.

The state requested a bond of $1million.
One of the men was stabbed 'multiple times' in the head

Two men were stabbed in Homebush in Sydney's west

A man has been stabbed 'multiple times' in the head while another has been struck in the shoulder following a fight with a group of men in Sydney.

Police and paramedics were called to Park Rd in Homebush, in the city's west, about 12.35pm over reports of a brawl.

One man, 48, was found with 'significant' stab wounds to his head, while the other man, 20, had a shoulder wound.

Two suspects - believed to be aged in their 20s and 30s - fled the scene in a Silver Volvo.

One man was stabbed 'multiple times' in the head while another was stabbed in the shoulder on Park Rd in Homebush (pictured)

The victims 'suffered serious bleeding due to their injuries', according to NSW Ambulance Inspector Dominic Wong

Police initially provided first aid to the men before paramedics arrived and controlled the bleeding.

The men were taken to Westmead Hospital in a serious but stable condition

A NSW Police spokesperson confirmed to Daily Mail Australia that four people were involved in the altercation that led to the stabbings.

'Officers attached to Auburn Police Area Command located two men suffering stab wounds,' the spokesperson said

Police were called to Park Rd over reports of a brawl and confirmed that four men were involved (stock image)

One of the suspects is described as being of Asian appearance, of slim build and wearing dark clothing.

The other is described as being of Asian appearance, of a solid build, wearing a black hat and pink shoes.

'Police have established a crime scene and commenced an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident,' the spokesperson added.

Anyone with information into the incident is urged to contact police or Crime Stoppers.
The campaign is called 'We Love Good Beer'

Australian surf champion Mick Fanning jokes about being attacked by a shark as he promotes his beer in a comical new ad celebrating diversity by featuring faces from nearly every section of Aussie society.

Balter Brewing Company, founded in 2016 by Mick Fanning and fellow surf champions Joel Parkinson, Josh Kerr and Bede Durbidge, launched the new campaign called 'We Love Good Beer' to celebrate the seventh anniversary of the brand's signature XPA beer.

The ad is a showpiece of diversity, featuring a wide range beer drinkers including elderly lawn bowlers, members of the LGBTQIA+ community and migrants from a wide-range of ethnicities.

Members of the large cast each sing comical lines in a crowded pub before coming together to sing in unison, 'Balter beer is for everyone.'

Balter Brewing Company launched a comical new campaign called 'We Love Good Beer' featuring a diverse cast of beer drinkers from nearly every section of Aussie society (pictured)

Mick Fanning stars and makes a joke about sharks during the ad's musical number while raising his beer glass.

'And for every time I don't see a shark at the beach,' Fanning sings.

The 41-year-old's joke references his famous encounter of fighting off a great white shark during the final round of the 2015 J-Bay Open surfing competition in South Africa.

Footage released by the World Surf League (WSL) showed the sharks fin emerge from the water before following Fanning as he paddled out of the shallows.

The shark knocked Fanning off his board - which he tried to use as a shield to stop the predator from biting him - before punching the shark in the back.

The three-time world champion is again seen at the end of the ad telling a fellow beer drinker: 'I still love sharks.'

Balter Brewing co-founder Stirling 'Stirls' Howland said the ads are more like 'extremely short documentaries' showcasing the diverse range of palates and people the beer brings together.

'Beer shares a lot of qualities with a good host - they are both approachable, thoughtful, and value character over currency,' Stirls wrote on the brand's website.

Surfing champion Mick Fanning stars in the ad and jokes about his famous encounter with a great white shark

The shark knocked Fanning off his board during an event in South Africa in 2015 - which he tried to use as a shield to stop the predator from biting him - before punching the shark in the back (pictured)

'Above all, both help to bring a wide range of people together.

'Seven years on we've seen these founding values come to life through a beer and brand that connects with a diverse range of palates and people, and these new ads simply celebrate that.

'So they're not really ads, they're more like extremely short documentaries, and our hope is that everyone in Australia feels a sense of connection through good beer.'

The full-length ad shared on Balter Brewing's YouTube channel has received more than 57,000 views.

In 2019 beverage goliath Carlton & United Breweries bought the Gold Coast-based craft brewing company for an undisclosed amount.

It is understood Balter Brewing sold for somewhere between $150million and $200million - netting Fanning a profit of $4million.
The man suspected of murdering Queensland woman Toyah Cordingley is set to face an extradition hearing in Melbourne after a 'determined' and 'meticulous' four-year police investigation led to his extradition from India.

Rajwinder Singh is at Melbourne Magistrates Court where Queensland police are applying to extradite him north on Wednesday to be questioned over Ms Cordingley's murder four years ago.

The 24-year-old woman's body was found in sand dunes after she took her dog for a walk on Wangetti Beach, north of Cairns, in October 2018.

Rajwinder Singh arrives at Melbourne Magistrates Court in Melbourne on Wednesday

Toyah Cordingley (pictured) was just 24 when she was found dead in a shallow grave in sand dunes at Wangetti Beach in October 2018

Mr Singh touched down at Melbourne Airport with a police escort on a Qantas flight from New Delhi about 12.40pm on Wednesday before being whisked away to the court.

Detective Inspector Sonia Smith said the 38-year-old's extradition is the culmination of a 'determined' and 'meticulous' effort to bring justice for Ms Cordingley and her family by police.

'We have been determined to find answers for Toyah's family and the work of all involved has been meticulous since that terrible day in October 2018,' she said in a statement.

'It has been a long journey, including the announcement of the reward for information, $1 million - the largest in Queensland's history, back in November last year.

'Our thoughts, and I know those of the tight-knit community of Cairns have always been and will continue to be with Toyah's family.'

Mr Singh, a local nurse and an Australian citizen, boarded a flight to India hours after Ms Cordingley's body was found in 2018, leaving his wife and three children behind at their Innisfail home.

Toyah had driven to Wangetti Beach, north of Cairns, to walk her dog. She never returned home

Then federal assistant minister to Attorney-General Amanda Stoker issued an arrest warrant to Indian authorities for an unnamed suspect in the case in May 2021.

The Queensland government then offered a record $1 million reward for information leading to Mr Singh's capture in November 2022 with three police flying to India to follow up on any leads.

Mr Singh was then arrested by Indian police in New Delhi about one month later before an Indian magistrate ordered his extradition to Australia.

'Together with other Australian agencies we have continued to work closely and respectfully with Indian authorities to pursue justice for Toyah and her family,' Det Insp Smith added.

'The relationship the QPS has with Australian and other law enforcement agencies again demonstrates the importance of partnerships internationally.'

Det Insp Smith said the $1 million reward hasn't been issued yet, but it will be 'fully considered' following due diligence.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she was thankful a police investigation had led to Mr Singh's extradition and a chance for justice.

'It has been phenomenal to track this person down in India and to do the extradition here,' she told reporters in Rockhampton.

'And hopefully it will give Toyah's family a sense of comfort to know that the police did everything within their means for justice.'
Dish Network's multi-day network and service disruption that began on Friday has finally been linked to a ransomware attack.

According to Bleeping Computer, this massive outage affected Boost Mobile, Dish.com, the Dish Anywhere app, and other Dish Network-owned and -operated websites and networks.

Dish Warns Of Potential Dangers Following The Breach

During the operator's earnings call on February 23, Dish executives disclosed that the firm had encountered a network disruption.

Dish Network initially attributed the network and service interruption to VPN problems, but memo to the company's employees stated otherwise.

Dish discovered that the outage was brought on by a cybersecurity incident following an assessment by outside consultants and cyber-security specialists.

As stated in a Tuesday SEC filing, the company claimed that it immediately informed the appropriate law enforcement agencies of the incident.

The business continued by saying that the information filed related to its expectations for its capacity to contain, evaluate, and address the ransomware assault.

Additionally, it included information about how the ransomware assault affected the corporation's staff, clients, operations, and financial outcomes.

Moreover, the business stated in the SEC filing that Sling TV, Dish satellite TV, and its wireless and data networks are still in operation.

Dish Network also revealed that the hackers stole data from its compromised networks potentially containing personal information, but failed to clarify if it belonged to its employees, customers, or both.

However, Variety notes, there have been issues with Dish's internal communications, customer call centers, and internet sites.

Despite this, according to the filing, Dish is actively working to restore the impacted systems and is making good progress.

In the meantime, Dish boldly advertises at the top of the webpage that "We are experiencing a system issue that our teams are working hard to repair."

Read More: Dish's Boost Infinite Beta Plan Has Been Launched for $25 a Month

Reports Say That The Attack Targeted VMware ESXi Servers

Dish Network did not identify the ransomware gang responsible for the incident, but according to information cited by Bleeping Computer, the attack was carried out by the Black Basta ransomware operation.

It can be remembered that prior to the DIsh Network cyberattack, Black Basta has also compromised Boost Mobile.

Additionally, many sources told BleepingComputer that the incident happened in the early morning of February 23.

It was found that the attackers were accessing the company's Windows domain controllers and then encrypting VMware ESXi servers and backups.

However, there has been no confirmation of this information, and no ransomware group has taken ownership of the attack.

Several emails asking for more information about the outage and the ransomware attack that caused it have not received a response from Dish Network.

"The security of our customers' data is important to us, and if we learn that information was compromised, we'll take appropriate steps and let any impacted customers know," Dish reassures customers and employees.

Sadly, Dish Network staff also claim that they have been kept in the dark about what is going on and that the corporation has not given them much information.

Related Article: Disney Networks Have Returned To Dish Customers Following 'Tentative' Deal Creation
Three Kansas City officers were shot during a standoff as the officials warned the city is dangerous for policing.

The unidentified officers were serving a search warrant on the 2300 block of Blue Ridge Boulevard at around 9.30pm when they were shot while breaching a door, Chief Stacey Graves told KMBC.

Graves confirmed the officers knocked and announced their presence before breaking down the door. They were instantly met with gunfire and fled to self-transport themselves to the hospital in stable condition.

Mayor Quinton Lucas condemned the shooting while emphasizing the dangers of being an officer in the crime-ridden city.

'Weve been reminded too much lately in Kansas City how dangerous police work can be,' Lucas tweeted. 'I am praying for a full recovery for our three officers injured this evening and that everyone on duty gets home to their families safely.'

The officers are expected to survive their injuries and it is unclear if they struck the suspect before going to the hospital.

A police standoff occurred following the shooting and no arrests were made as of 2am EST on Wednesday, according to the news outlet.

This is a developing story.

Three Kansas City officers were shot during a standoff as the officials warned the city is dangerous for policing. Pictured: University Health where the officers are being treated

The unidentified officers were serving a search warrant on the 2300 block of Blue Ridge Boulevard at around 9.30pm when they were shot while breaching a door

The officers are expected to survive their injuries and it is unclear if they struck the suspect before going to the hospital
A student activist has been left fuming after missing out on Mardi Gras celebrations because of a court order banning her from entering the CBD.

Cherish Kuehlmann, 23, was prohibited from being within two kilometres of Sydney's Town Hall after being arrested following a rowdy protest at Martin Place.

She was leading the student-organised rally which called for an immediate end to the current rental crisis facing Australia, before she was approached by police.

Ms Kuehlmann was arrested outside her Eastlakes home at midnight on February 18 before being charged with 'aggravated trespass', including strict bail conditions which restricted her from entering the city.

Sidnie Sarang, Ms Kuehlmann's defence lawyer, told the Downing Centre Local Court the bail conditions are severe for a fine-only offence.

Cherish Kuehlmann (pictured) was charged with aggravated entering of closed lands for her involvement in a student-organised housing rally earlier this month

'Not only does it hamper her work, it hampers her entire livelihood,' she said.

'Part of her job description is to liaise with different stakeholders and organise protests and rallies, and represent the interests of students.'

'She's already missed the Mardi Gras parade. I am already worried about what she will miss out on this year,' Ms Sarang added.

The bail conditions have been in place for two weeks, Ms Kuehlmann said outside court.

Magistrate Clare Farnan dispensed with her bail on Wednesday.

The magistrate told the court she 'didn't understand' why NSW Police had imposed bail given Ms Kuehlmann had no criminal history and due to the nature of her charge.

Activists from National Union of Students gathered outside the court on Wednesday morning calling for the charges to be dropped (pictured)

Ms Kuehlmann (pictured, right) was arrested at midnight outside her Eastlakes home on February 18

'I would not consider a fine-only offence to be a serious offence,' the magistrate said.

'She can continue to engage with activism, which is her democratic right.'

Ms Kuehlmann, a UNSW student council education officer, was the only person to be arrested at the rally.

She said outside court that she was singled out because she was leading chants and speakers on the megaphone.

'NSW Police wanted to set the precedent that they can restrict students from attending and organising further protests,' Ms Kuehlmann told reporters.

'They're always trying to wind our rights back.'

Ms Kuehlmann's defence lawyer voiced concerns the 'onerous' bail conditions were causing her to miss out on both her work and personal life such as celebrating at Mardi Gras (pictured, party-goers at Sydney Mardi Gras 2023)

The 23-year-old (pictured) said outside court on Wednesday she is 'glad' the magistrate dispensed her bail which 'limited her right to protest'

The bail conditions impacted her right to lawfully protest as well as her personal life, the student activist said.

'I'm glad that the magistrate can say that it actually was intended to limit my right to protest and my freedom of political expression,' she said.

'Not very often is there justice in the justice system but today was a victory.'

The matter will return to court on October 25.

Ms Farnan noted that Ms Kuehlmann intends to plead not guilty.
She says project is over budget and behind schedule

One of Australia's biggest infrastructure projects is 'way over budget and way behind schedule' and has been treated like 'a strange vanity project', according to federal Transport Minister Catherine King.

The $14.5billion Inland Rail project, designed to establish a rail link between Melbourne and Brisbane, is under construction through regional Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.

The project will complete Australia's national rail network and include 600 kilometres of new track.

But an unreleased independent review recently identified 'significant concerns' with the project, and Ms King told the National Press Club on Wednesday the report made for 'gripping reading'.

Blaming the Morrison government for losing sight of the project's goals, Ms King said the Inland Rail project served as a 'damning indictment' of its former administrators.

A scathing review has warned the $14.5billion Inland Rail project (pictured) is set to run billions over budget

'The previous government, I think, lost sight of (its goals). They didn't see it as a project that had those goals,' she said.

'Under my predecessor, frankly, I think the project became something of a strange vanity project for him. And now Inland Rail, it is way over budget and it is way behind schedule.'

Former Nationals leader Michael McCormack was transport minister under the Morrison government.

Ms King said the government was finalising a response to the Inland Rail's independent review, prepared by former Sydney Water chief executive Dr Kerry Schott, and would respond to its findings 'soon'.

The Inland Rail project, which began in 2018, was originally due to cost $4.7 billion but, experts have warned, could end up costing more than $20 billion by its due date in 2027.

But Opposition transport spokeswoman Bridget McKenzie said the major rail investment had potential to 'benefit all Australians' and Ms King should concentrate on delivering it rather than criticising it.

'Rather than talking down the Inland Rail and calling it a vanity project, the minister should be constructively working through the complex decisions for the next stages of the project,' Ms McKenzie said.

Ms King also used her National Press Club address to warn other transport links in Australia had been 'neglected for too long' and could make Australians vulnerable to being cut off from vital freight.

Transport Minister Catherine King (pictured) has blamed the former Morrison government's poor management of the project for its cost blowouts and delays

Some Australian rail networks had been forced to close up to 20 per cent of the the time, she said, while others faced heightened risk from natural disasters.

'The transcontinental rail line, the Stuart Highway, the Carpentaria Highway, the South Coast Highway in WA, and the main west rail line out of Sydney  all are vital transport links and all are rated at high risk,' she said.

'These routes struggle to cope at the best of times. As the climate changes we will see more and more disruptions.'

But rather than commit to undertaking more transport projects to build capacity, Ms King warned some investments may need to be cut to rein in costs and prioritise limited resources.

The Inland Rail project is intended to link Melbourne to Brisbane through regional areas, which requires 600km of new track

She said an upcoming review of Infrastructure Australia would create a smaller, 'targeted' list of project priorities with stricter planning and assessment criteria.

Australia did not have enough workers to complete ongoing infrastructure projects, Ms King warned, with a current shortfall of 94,000 workers that was expected to grow to 112,000 workers by September.

'This shortage is particularly felt in relation to engineers, surveyors, project managers and labourers amongst many others,' she said.

'Without getting too political, we have to work out which projects are actually deliverable, and which were just political window dressing.'
Tens of thousands of teachers across the Midlands and eastern England, as well as many more in Scotland, are striking today in a long-running dispute over pay.

It is the second day of regional walkouts by the National Education Union (NEU) after teachers took strike action in the north of England on Monday.

The NEU has estimated that around 200,000 members across England and Wales will strike over three days of action this week, with the 'majority of schools' expected to either restrict access to pupils or fully close.

Picket lines will be mounted outside schools in the East Midlands, West Midlands and eastern regions in England on Wednesday, and rallies are due to be held in Birmingham, Cambridge, Leicester and Nottingham.

Further strikes by teachers are planned across Wales, the south of England and London on Thursday.

(front, left to right) Dr Patrick Roach general secretary of National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT), NASUWT National Official for Scotland Mike Corbett, and Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) general secretary Roz Foyer, with teachers on the picket line outside St. Andrew's RC Secondary School, in Glasgow

Signs on the picket line outside St. Andrew's RC Secondary School, in Glasgow, where teachers are taking strike action in a dispute over pay

Scottish union warns of more strike action A second teaching union in Scotland has warned its members could take more strike action if the long-running pay dispute is not resolved. Children are again missing lessons as many schools around the country are closed on Wednesday for the second day in a row as members of the NASUWT and Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) unions walked out in the latest national strike action. It follows national strike action involving several unions in January and late last year. The EIS, which also staged 16 days of rolling strike action from mid-January into early February and three days of 'targeted' walkouts last week, has announced a new 20-day wave of rolling strikes between March 13 and April 21. The NASUWT has not announced any further strike dates, however Mike Corbett, its national official for Scotland, said there is 'certainly potential' for more walkouts, though members would be 'reluctant' to disrupt exam season. Speaking on a picket line outside Rosshall Academy in Glasgow, he told the PA news agency: 'Our strike action programme was up to and including today and I suppose our action committee probably hoped that that would be enough and we would have resolved the dispute by now, but it doesn't look like we have, so our action committee will meet again and review where we're at. 'We do have a programme of action short of strike action in schools at the moment so that's there still to try and put pressure on employers to come to a resolution to the dispute. 'Certainly there's potential for more strike action, obviously in a secondary school like the one we're standing outside we've got exam season coming after Easter, and we would be reluctant I think to disrupt exam season, disrupt exams and the pupils' potential achievements.' Under the latest offer announced by Scottish Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville last month, teachers earning up to 80,000 would have a 6% pay rise from April 2022, and then another 5.5% from the start of the 2023 financial year. Mr Corbett said an 'improved offer' is needed to resolve the dispute, and if the union receives an offer it feels is a 'significant improvement', this will be put to members for them to decide on. Advertisement

Last week, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan invited the teaching unions to 'formal talks on pay, conditions and reform' on the condition that this week's walkouts were suspended.

Ms Keegan has called the union's decision not to suspend the regional strikes 'hugely disappointing'.

But Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney, joint general secretaries of the NEU, have accused the Government of 'burying its head in the sand' as they claim underfunded pay increases have 'pushed the profession to its limits'.

They said: 'We reiterate once again that we are willing to enter negotiations at any time. Teachers want to be in the classroom, not the picket line.

'The Education Secretary needs to withdraw her unnecessary pre-conditions and get around the negotiating table.'

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders' union NAHT, said: 'While it's difficult to predict the exact impact of strikes in schools this week, there is likely to be significant localised disruption.

'School leaders will be considering what approach to take for those schools affected, based on their individual circumstances and risk assessments.'

He added: 'It is very disappointing that the Government has not been more willing to act to prevent strikes by bringing something of substance to the table for discussion. For all the hours of talks we have conducted thus far, they have not offered any tangible move on pay, which is what is required.'

Further national strikes by NEU members in England and Wales are planned for March 15 and 16.

On February 1, the first day of walkouts by NEU members, the majority of state schools in England were forced to shut their doors to some pupils.

Some 44.7% of schools in England were open but with restricted attendance on February 1 and 9.3% were closed, Department for Education data suggested.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: 'The impact of this week's strikes will likely be similar to that of the national strike on February 1, when the majority of schools were partially open but there was still significant disruption.'

He added: 'There is an overwhelming sense of frustration among school leaders that so little progress has been made in the last month in terms of resolving the industrial dispute.

'The lack of urgency from the Westminster Government compared to the administration in Wales is notable and dispiriting. It's time to dial down the rhetoric and engage in serious negotiations.'

Schools across Scotland face more closures today as members of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) and NASUWT unions embark on their second day of national strike action this week in a row over pay.

It comes after EIS members took three days of 'targeted' strike action in four areas represented by key politicians, including First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, last week, and it also follows national strike action involving several unions in January and late last year.

Teachers stand on a picket line outside Glendale Primary school during another strike today

Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) general secretary, Roz Foyer (right), with teachers on the picket line

Teaching staff and NEU members attend a rally on Tuesday in Leeds

It comes as a second teaching union in Scotland today warned its members could take more strike action if the long-running pay dispute is not resolved.

The EIS, which also staged 16 days of rolling strike action from mid-January into early February and three days of 'targeted' walkouts last week, has announced a new 20-day wave of rolling strikes between March 13 and April 21.

The NASUWT has not announced any further strike dates, however Mike Corbett, its national official for Scotland, said there is 'certainly potential' for more walkouts, though members would be 'reluctant' to disrupt exam season.

Speaking on a picket line outside Rosshall Academy in Glasgow, he told the PA news agency: 'Our strike action programme was up to and including today and I suppose our action committee probably hoped that that would be enough and we would have resolved the dispute by now, but it doesn't look like we have, so our action committee will meet again and review where we're at.

'We do have a programme of action short of strike action in schools at the moment so that's there still to try and put pressure on employers to come to a resolution to the dispute.

'Certainly there's potential for more strike action, obviously in a secondary school like the one we're standing outside we've got exam season coming after Easter, and we would be reluctant I think to disrupt exam season, disrupt exams and the pupils' potential achievements.'

Under the latest offer announced by Scottish Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville last month, teachers earning up to 80,000 would have a 6% pay rise from April 2022, and then another 5.5% from the start of the 2023 financial year.

Mr Corbett said an 'improved offer' is needed to resolve the dispute, and if the union receives an offer it feels is a 'significant improvement', this will be put to members for them to decide on.

The Association of Headteachers and Deputies in Scotland (AHDS) also cancelled its planned participation in further strikes after a majority voted in favour of accepting the deal.

Ms Somerville has said the disruption to young people's education is 'completely unacceptable'.

Speaking on Wednesday, she said: 'All parties want to see a resolution to this pay dispute and an end to disruption to children and young people's education.

'The Deputy First Minister and I had useful talks with union colleagues yesterday.

'I am very pleased that more talks will take place today, where we will continue to look at options for compromise.'
A man has died in hospital after reportedly being shot at his home in Scotland.

Police said officers were called to an address at Nairn Road, Greenock, at around 1.15am on Tuesday.

On arrival they found a 37-year-old man seriously injured. He suffered gunshot wounds, the BBC reports.

He was taken to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow but died a short time later.

Police have said that they will be treating the death as suspicious and a report will be submitted to the procurator fiscal.

A man has died in hospital after being found seriously injured at a property in Scotland

Police said officers were called to an address at Nairn Road, Greenock, at around 1.15am on Tuesday

Chief Insp Damian Kane, local area commander for Greenock, said: 'Obviously this man's death is devastating for his family and very concerning for the wider community.

'Please be assured that we have additional high-visibility patrols in the area and should anyone wish to speak to officers and would encourage them to do so whilst respecting cordons that are in place.

'We appreciate that there may be raised tensions in the area, but again, my officers are there to reassure the community and can be approached by anyone with any concerns they may have following the incident.'

He added that the force was carrying out door-to-door inquiries and gathering CCTV footage from the surrounding area.

Detective Superintendent Cameron Miller added: 'Our investigation is still at an early stage.

'Today, and over the coming days, there will be significant police activity with both uniform and detective officers present within the local area as well as specialist forensic teams, carrying out inquiries into this death.

'We are keen to hear from anyone who was in Nairn Road or the immediate vicinity around 1.15am who may have seen anything suspicious or anyone who has any information relating to this incident.

'If anyone has dash-cam footage from the street or surrounding area during that time I would urge them to come forward.

'Anyone with information that may assist officers with their investigation can get in touch with police by phoning 101.

'Please quote reference number 0151 of Tuesday February 28 2023 when calling.

'If for any reason you do not wish to speak to police directly, information can be passed anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.'
A mother and father are to be sentenced for killing their 16-year-old disabled daughter in what will be the first court hearing in Wales to be televised.

Kaylea Titford, who suffered from spina bifida, was found dead at her home in Newtown, Powys, in October 2020 after her parents allowed her to become morbidly obese during lockdown.

Her mother, Sarah Lloyd-Jones, 39, admitted manslaughter by gross negligence last year, while her father, Alun Titford, denied the charges and was found guilty after a trial last month.

The teenager weighed 22st 13lb with a BMI of 70 at the time of her death, and her body was discovered inside her bedroom in conditions described as 'unfit for any animal'.

A jury of eight men and four women convicted Titford after being shown pictures during the trial at Mold Crown Court in North Wales of the 'squalor and degradation' Kaylea had been forced to endure.

Kaylea died after suffering inflammation and infection from ulceration, arising from obesity and immobility

The bedroom of Kaylea Titford. Her room was said to be dirty and cluttered, with bottles of urine and a chip fryer with drips of fat down the side, as well as a full cake in a box

The evidence showed how the teenager, who had been wheelchair-bound and dependent on others for her care, was left to lie in soiled clothing and on filthy bed linen and puppy training pads.

She died after suffering inflammation and infection from ulcerations caused by obesity and immobility.

Emergency service workers, who were called to the house on October 10, described feeling sick due to an 'unbearable' rotting smell in her room.

Alun Titford was found guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence

Her mother, Sarah Lloyd-Jones, 39, previously admitted the same charge

When her body was examined maggots were found which were thought to have been feeding on her body in the final days of her life.

Titford claimed at trial that Lloyd-Jones was responsible for Kaylea's care, and when he was asked why he had let his daughter down so badly, the removals worker said: 'I'm lazy.'

Kaylea attended Newtown High School, where she was described by staff as 'funny and chatty', but she did not return after the coronavirus lockdown in March 2020.

The couple are to be sentenced at Swansea Crown Court before High Court Judge Mr Justice Griffiths, whose sentencing remarks will be broadcast to the public on TV and online.

It will be the first hearing in Wales to be filmed since the law was changed to allow cameras into criminal courts for the first time last year.
China sent 25 warplanes and three warships towards Taiwan this morning, the island's Defense Ministry said, as tensions remain high between Beijing and Taipei's main backer Washington.

Taiwan's ministry said it spotted 19 of those planes crossing into Taiwan's air defense identification zone (ADIZ) while the three ships were continuing to operate in the Taiwan Strait.

Taiwan responded by scrambling its fighter jets, dispatching ships, and activating coastal missile defense systems to 'closely monitor and respond'.

Similar incursions are staged by China on a near-daily basis, part of what are termed 'gray zone' tactics, aimed at intimidation and wearing down Taiwans equipment, exhausting its personnel and degrading public morale. Those also include cyberwarfare and disinformation campaigns, along with a relentless drive to deprive Taiwan of diplomatic allies.

But now Taiwan has responded by upgrading its fleet of 141 F-16 fighter jets and has ordered 66 more of the planes from the U.S., as tensions ramp up even further between Beijing and Washington.

Taiwan's ministry said it spotted 19 Chinese planes crossing into Taiwan's air defense identification zone today. Pictured: Chinese PL-10 fighter jet

The three Chinese ships were continuing to operate in the Taiwan Strait. Pictured: A Chinese warship takes part in the multinational exercise near Karachi, Pakistan, February 13, 2023

Taiwan responded by scrambling its fighter jets, dispatching ships, and activating coastal missile defense systems to 'closely monitor and respond' around the Taiwan Strait

As well as the aircraft, Taiwan has also purchased a range of other weaponry from its U.S. allies. Last September, the country spent $1.1 billion in the deal that included Sidewinder surface-to-air and air-to-air missiles.

The island nation will also extend its mandatory term of military service for all males from four months to one year.

Despite the incursion from China, the aircraft did not cross the sensitive median line of the Taiwan Strait, which previously served as an unofficial barrier between the two sides but which China's air force has been flying over on an almost daily basis since staging war games near Taiwan last August.

No shots have been fired and the Chinese aircraft have been flying in Taiwan's ADIZ, not in its territorial air space.

The ADIZ is a broader area Taiwan monitors and patrols that acts to give it more time to respond to any threats.

The democratically elected Taiwanese government has repeatedly offered talks with China, but says the island will defend itself if attacked and that only the Taiwanese people can decide their own future.

Relations between Beijing and Washington, Taiwan's primary ally and source of defensive weaponry, have spiraled over Chinas actions toward the island, trade, technology and the South China Sea.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled a visit to Beijing last month after the U.S. shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the U.S. east coast, drawing furious protests from China.

Taiwan has responded by upgrading its fleet of 141 F-16 fighter jets (pictured) and has ordered 66 more of the planes from the U.S

Planes from the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) air force fly in formation

Taiwan will extend its mandatory term of military service for all males from four months to one year. Pictured: Two soldiers lower the national flag in Taipei, Taiwan, July 30, 2022

At a press conference Blinken said that the high-altitude surveillance craft seen flying over the continental United States near South Carolina 'created the conditions that undermine the purpose of the trip.'

China claims Taiwan as its own territory to be brought under its control by force if necessary, and has been rapidly expanding its military to meet that challenge should it arise.

In memos and testimony, top U.S. officers have called for heightened preparations, saying China sees a shrinking window for action and may move on Taiwan within a few years.

China says it prefers peaceful unification between the sides, but the Taiwanese public overwhelmingly favors the current state of de-facto independence.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled a visit to Beijing last month after the U.S. shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon, pictured March 1, 2023 in Uzbekistan

Then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (sixth left) visited Taiwan in August last year

Wednesday's incursions were relatively modest by recent standards. During China's National Day weekend in 2021, Beijing dispatched 149 military aircraft southwest of Taiwan in strike group formations.

In August, in response to a trip to Taiwan by then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, China staged war games surrounding the island simulating a blockade and fired missiles over it into the Pacific Ocean.

Along with ordering new hardware from the U.S., Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen has been pushing for a revitalization of the domestic defense industry, including producing conventionally powered submarines.
Ukraine is suspected to have struck a major Russian air base in Yeysk after massive explosions at the site, in yet another attack deep behind Moscow's frontlines.

Russian war channel Rybar admitted a hit on Telegram, claiming it was by a Ukrainian long range Tu-141 Strizh drone.

Ukrainian sources also claimed the strike at the military airfield in Krasnodar region, and a picture appeared to show an explosion. 'Residents assume that it could even be missiles hitting the airfield,' said one account.

Russian officials have denied a strike but locals reported two loud explosions.

Then black smoke was seen billowing from the airfield which is a base for strike aircraft used against Ukraine in Vladimir Putin's war.

Ukraine is suspected to have struck a major Russian air base in Yeysk after massive explosions, in yet another attack deep behind Moscow's frontlines. Pictured: Flames appear at an airport in Yeysk, in southern Russia on the sea of Azov

Pictured: The Yeysk airfield, southern Russia, is seen in this file photo before it was attacked

One local news group carried a message saying: 'Something exploded twice, and there was fire. There was an explosion at the airfield,' stated Rybar channel, admitting a Ukrainian attempt on the Yeysk base.

'According to preliminary data, a Tu-141 Swift UAV was struck down. There was a strike on the territory of the base but none of the aircraft were hit.

'However, this attack is unlikely to be the only one. With a high degree of probability, attempts will continue.'

The Russian authorities failed to agree on the cause of the explosions in Yeysk, which is on the Sea of Azov. One account said grass was being burned.

Another from local official Roman Bublik said there had been 'military drills'. One more report said that nothing had happened.

The scale of damage in Yeysk was unclear.

Among the warplanes stationed here are Sukhoi Su-34 bombers.

Ukraine has this week increased its attacks on Russia.

On Tuesday the airspace around St Petersburg was abruptly closed after a flying object - a suspected long range drone - was reported in the vicinity.

Nothing was found but there were also attacks reported on Belgorod, Tuapse, and the Republic of Adygea.

Another came within 60 miles of Moscow, signalling breaches in Russian defenses, as President Putin ordered stepped-up protection at the border.

Officials claimed the drones caused no injuries and did not inflict any significant damage, but the attacks on Monday night and Tuesday morning raised questions about Russian defence capabilities more than a year after the country's full-scale invasion of its neighbour.

Ukrainian officials did not immediately take responsibility, but they similarly have avoided directly acknowledging responsibility for past strikes and sabotage while emphasising Ukraine's right to hit any target in Russia.

Although Putin did not refer to any specific attacks in a speech in the Russian capital, his comments came hours after the drones targeted several areas in southern and western Russia, and after authorities closed the airspace over St. Petersburg.

Also on Tuesday, several Russian television stations aired a missile attack warning that officials blamed on a hacking attack.

The drone attacks targeted regions inside Russia along the border with Ukraine and deeper into the country, according to local Russian authorities.

Pictured: A Ukrainian combat drone that crashed near Moscow, close to the the Voskresensk gas compressor station in the Kolomensky district of #Moscow Oblast, in what is the first known attack on Russia's capital since the start of Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine

A drone fell near the village of Gubastovo, less than 60 miles from Moscow, Andrei Vorobyov, governor of the region surrounding the Russian capital, said in an online statement. The drone did not cause any damage, Vorobyov said, but it likely targeted 'a civilian infrastructure object.'

Pictures of the drone showed it was a small Ukrainian-made model with a reported range of up to 500 miles, but no capacity to carry a large load of explosives.

Russian forces early Tuesday shot down another Ukrainian drone over the Bryansk region, local Gov. Aleksandr Bogomaz said in a Telegram post.

Three drones also targeted Russia's Belgorod region on Monday night, with one flying through an apartment window in the capital, local authorities reported.

Regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said the drones caused minor damage to buildings and cars.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Ukraine used drones to attack facilities in the Krasnodar region and neighboring Adygea.

It said the drones were brought down by electronic warfare assets, adding that one of them crashed into a field and another diverted from its flight path and missed a facility it was supposed to attack.

Russia's state RIA Novosti news agency reported a fire at the oil facility, and some other Russian reports said that two drones exploded nearby.

While Ukrainian drone strikes on the Russian border regions of Bryansk and Belgorod have become a regular occurrence, other strikes reflected a more ambitious effort.

Some Russian commentators described the drone attacks as an attempt by Ukraine to showcase its capability to strike deep behind the lines, foment tensions in Russia and rally the Ukrainian public. Some Russian war bloggers described the raids as a possible rehearsal for a bigger, more ambitious attack.

News of the strike on Wednesday in Russia came as Putin's forces carried out relentless attacks on the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut on Wednesday in their quest for a breakthrough in the year-long war.

However, one US official predicted few short-term territorial gains for Russia.

Bakhmut had a population of about 70,000 before the war but has been ruined during months of fighting as a focal point of Russian assaults and determined Ukrainian defence.

'The enemy continues to advance in the direction of Bakhmut. He does not stop storming the city of Bakhmut,' the Ukrainian military said in a morning briefing.

A Russian takeover of the small mining city would open the way to seizing the last remaining urban centres in the industrial Donetsk province.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in a video address late on Tuesday, said the battle for Bakhmut was 'most difficult' but its defence was essential.

'Russia in general takes no account of people and sends them in constant waves against our positions, the intensity of the fighting is only increasing,' Zelenskiy said.

Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said Russian forces had driven a wedge between two villages north of Bakhmut, Berkhivka and Yahidne, in their bid to surround the city.

'This breakthrough on Bakhmut's northern flank poses a clear threat to us,' he said in comments posted on social media.

Although most of the Russian attacks were focused on Bakhmut and other towns and villages in Donetsk, the Ukrainian military said its forces had repelled 85 Russian attacks on different sections of the front line over the past day.

An MLRS, Multiple Launch Rocket System, based on the BM-21 "Grad" fires a rocket, near the frontline, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Donetsk region, Ukraine February 27

A Ukrainian armoured personnel carrier rides in Chasiv Yar, the site of the heaviest battles with the Russian troops, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Monday, February 27

Reuters news agency said it was not able to verify battlefield reports.

Russia's state-run RIA news agency released a video clip it said showed Russian Su-25 fighter jets roaring over Bakhmut.

'We are glad they are ours,' says a man in the clip identified as a fighter of the mercenary Wagner Group, adding the jets helped them 'psychologically'.

Ukrainian aircraft launched three strikes on areas of concentration of Russian forces, the Ukrainian military said in a statement on Tuesday night.
As the boy sucks on the vape he coughs while the mother chuckles

Disturbing footage shows a mother laugh as her baby is given a vape

Disturbing footage has emerged online showing a baby boy being given a vape to suck on while his young mother laughs at his distress.

Multiple videos show the infant coughing after inhaling the toxic vapour, sparking furious demands for the child to be removed from the mother.

In one clip, a woman is heard saying, 'Want to try?' while holding up the vape before pressing it to the child's lips and making the boy inhale.

The child is seen squirming as he coughs and splutters with the women looking on giggling at his reaction.

After being made aware of the videos, NSW Police went to a home in Kempsey, on the Mid North Coast to check on the welfare of the 10-month old.

Multiple videos have surfaced online of a mother forcing her baby to inhale a vape. The mother in the clips is seen laughing as the boy coughs and splutters from the smoke

NSW Police continue to investigate the incident.

Daily Mail Australia understands the boy has since been taken to hospital for checks.

Horrified social media users were aghast at the footage and slammed the mother.

'That's so sad,' one person commented.

Another wrote 'Fu***** disgusting behaviour, as a mother myself I don't know how people can do this to their babies.'

A third said: 'Every baby deserves a parent but not every parent deserves a baby.'

But the boy's mother lashed out at the criticism of her parenting style in an extraordinary foul-mouthed Facebook rant.

'Every c*** got the hide to sit there and talk about me and my child take a look in yas own backyard,' the mother wrote.

'You ain't perfect either so keep that mouth going you ain't scary, you're nothing but bums'.

The boy's mother then took to social media to defend her actions saying no one is perfect in a foul-mouthed tirade

The incident comes as the number of poisonings from vapes in children under four rose alarmingly in the last year.

The NSW Poisons Information Centre received 213 calls about exposure to e-cigarettes and liquids in this age bracket in 2022, compared with 127 the previous year.

Symptoms recorded from these calls include nausea, vomiting, coughing fits, an increased heart rate, loss of consciousness, and in some cases, seizures.

Genevieve Adamo, a senior specialist in poisons information for NSW Poisons Information Centre previously told ABC News a lot of calls were due to toddlers putting the vapes to their mouths out of curiosity, 'as children do'.

'They say, "oh the kid has picked it up and put it in their mouth like a dummy",' she said.

Last year the National Health and Medical Research Council released a report on e-cigarettes which showed vapes can contain hundreds of dangerous chemicals found in cleaning products, nail polish remover, weed killer and bug spray.

This is found in the vapour, which is made up of various chemicals such as heavy metals - even if it is labelled 'nicotine free'.
Shamima Begum said she wanted to kill herself following the death of her young daughter - and only didn't take her life because she was pregnant with her third child.

The ISIS bride, 23, last week lost a bid to reverse the decision to revoke her UK nationality, but has vowed to appeal the verdict to try and allow her to return to Britain.

Just last year, it emerged that Begum told a journalist the death of her three children 'doesn't make me feel sad'.

However, on the latest episode of the controversial BBC podcast series, The Shamima Begum Story, she described the loss as feeling like 'my entire world collapsed'.

Begum, who was just 15 when she signed up to join the terror group with two friends from Bethnal Green in east London in 2015, spoke of her experience as ISIS began to lose its stranglehold on Raqqa.

Shamima Begum said she wanted to kill herself following the death of her young daughter - and only didn't take her life because she was pregnant with her third child.

The ISIS bride, 23, who last week lost a bid to reverse the decision to revoke her UK nationality, preventing her from returning to Britain, spoke of the difficulties of raising her family during fighting in Syria

Shamima Begum on the loss of her daughter 'She was my world, she was my reason for living through everything, through ISIS and my husband's abuse. 'She just kept me going. I was living for her, I wasn't living for anyone else but her. 'So when she died it was like my entire world just collapsed around me. 'It's hard to go from being a mother who has to wake up and do all these things for her kids to waking up and not having anyone who needs you. 'The only reason I didn't kill myself was obviously because I was pregnant with my second son. If I had not been pregnant I would have taken my life.' Advertisement

The heavily pregnant mother, along with husband Yago Riedijk and their two children made a beeline for Baghuz, the last stronghold of the jihadist group.

However, they quickly ran out of money and supplies, and in their desperation, often had to stay in guesthouses with women sleeping in corridors and children spreading diseases.

Begum's own son and daughter became increasingly malnourished and both died as infants.

Speaking of her daughter on today's podcast, Begum said: 'She was my world, she was my reason for living through everything, through ISIS and my husband's abuse.

'She just kept me going. I was living for her, I wasn't living for anyone else but her.

'So when she died it was like my entire world just collapsed around me.

'It's hard to go from being a mother who has to wake up and do all these things for her kids to waking up and not having anyone who needs you.

'The only reason I didn't kill myself was obviously because I was pregnant with my second son. If I had not been pregnant I would have taken my life.'

After fleeing the UK in 2015, Begum married a 23-year-old ISIS fighter just ten days after arriving in Syria, where she remains in a camp in the north of the country.

Her British citizenship was revoked on national security grounds by the former home secretary Sajid Javid shortly after she was found, nine months pregnant, in a Syrian refugee camp in February 2019.

Just last year, it emerged that Begum told a journalist the death of her three children 'doesn't make me feel sad'

Shamima Begum on her efforts to escape fighting in Syria 'It was so hard because at that point I knew and everyone else knew there was nowhere else to run. 'This [Baghuz, the final stronghold of the jihadist group] was the last place, there was no Plan B. 'We either die here or we get out. And people were trying to leave the entire time. 'My son and daughter had died I was really depressed. 'I didn't want to get up anymore I didn't want to get up and run from the bombs and the fighting I just wanted to slide down and die. But my husband kept pushing me to get up and go. 'From sunrise to sunset we were walking and I was heavily pregnant at that time and I was severely malnourished as well. 'We didn't know where we were walking we were just following the person at the front until we finally met these soldiers.' Advertisement

Begum brought a challenge against the Home Office at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC), where her lawyers argued she should be allowed to return to Britain on the basis she was 'a victim of child sex trafficking'.

However, the Home Office defended the decision by saying the security services 'continue to assess' that she poses a risk to the UK.

Last week, she lost a fresh legal challenge against the removal of her citizenship, with judges ruling that while there was a 'credible suspicion' that Ms Begum was trafficked to Syria for 'sexual exploitation' this was not enough for her appeal to succeed. Her lawyers have vowed to appeal the ruling.

She was backed this week by the Government's terror watchdog, Jonathan Hall KC, who argued that British woman should be able to return to the UK from Syria.

In a speech in King's College London, Mr Hall said the British Government's policy of removing citizenship and limiting assistance it will give to British citizens in Syria, is 'at a crossroads'.

He said the risk ISIS pose has changed and that the UK is now 'under the spotlight' as other countries begin to repatriate their citizens.

On today's podcast episode, Begum recalls the chaos of having to keep moving towards Baghuz as fighting intensified.

'It was so hard because at that point I knew and everyone else knew there was nowhere else to run,' she said.

'This was the last place, there was no Plan B. We either die here or we get out. And people were trying to leave the entire time.

On the latest episode of the controversial BBC podcast series , The Shamima Begum Story, she described the loss as feeling like 'my entire world collapsed'

Shamima Begum on seeing a severed head 'I didn't see the blood on the street, I hadn't noticed it. 'Apparently they had done the execution in the street, then put the heads in the trash bags and just left them under the staircase. 'My husband wanted to freak me out I guess because he knew I'd never seen anything like this. I was shocked but I just didn't know what to say. 'I had seen beheading videos but it's not the same as seeing it in real life. I still can remember the smell, it was very strong. 'I was holding my daughter in my arms at the same time, thinking that I need to protect her from this, but there's nothing I can do. 'It just made me sink into myself more and more.' Advertisement

'My son and daughter had died I was really depressed.

'I didn't want to get up anymore I didn't want to get up and run from the bombs and the fighting I just wanted to slide down and die. But my husband kept pushing me to get up and go.

'From sunrise to sunset we were walking and I was heavily pregnant at that time and I was severely malnourished as well.

'We didn't know where we were walking we were just following the person at the front until we finally met these soldiers.'

ISIS were spreading rumours at the time that the Kurdish and Arab forces would torture anyone they captured, the podcast reports.

Begum explained how she told her husband: 'I would rather be beaten and tortured and raped than die for these people.'

The episode also references her comments in 2019, when she said she was 'not fazed' by the sight of a severed head in a bin bag.

Quizzed on her remarks again by the BBC, Begum said: 'I didn't see the blood on the street, I hadn't noticed it.

'Apparently they had done the execution in the street, then put the heads in the trash bags and just left them under the staircase.

'My husband wanted to freak me out I guess because he knew I'd never seen anything like this. I was shocked but I just didn't know what to say.

'I had seen beheading videos but it's not the same as seeing it in real life. I still can remember the smell, it was very strong.

'I was holding my daughter in my arms at the same time, thinking that I need to protect her from this, but there's nothing I can do.

'It just made me sink into myself more and more.'
Nishad Singh is among the associates of Sam Bankman-Fried who agreed to cooperate with authorities in the former FTX CEO's case. Singh himself has already pleaded guilty to charges of fraud and conspiracy.

Another FTX Executive Pleads Guilty

Following in the actions of fellow FTX executives Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang who pleaded guilty to fraud charges, Singh did so with six criminal counts including wire fraud, commodities fraud, securities fraud, money laundering, as well as campaign violations.

Along with a filing that shows the former executive receiving a $543 million loan from Alameda Research, he also admitted to using the funds from the crypto trading firm to make illegal donations to political candidates under his name, according to Engadget.

US attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams stated that the guilty plea underscores once again that the crimes at FTX were vast in scope and consequence. He added that it "rocked our financial markets" with the multi-billion dollar fraud.

Singh's lawyers expressed that the defendant was "deeply sorry" for the role he played in the billions worth of fraud. He claims to want to make things right with the victims, as well as accept responsibility for his actions.

As part of his plea deal, the former executive's cooperation will help with the case against Sam Bankman-Fried with charges regarding the scheme of using billions of customer funds to make political donations, as well as use it for personal spending.

The cooperation could help with reducing Singh's maximum prison sentence of 75 years, given that the same day he pled guilty, the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed civil complaints against the former FTX associate.

Read Also: Judge Says Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried's Bail Could be Revoked

The Beginning of the Downfall of FTX

The cryptocurrency firm filed for bankruptcy after finding that there was $8 billion missing from its accounts, which has also affected other firms in the market. Ultimately, Bankman-Fried still pleaded not guilty but will be facing revised charges in the next months.

However, Singh admitted to knowing about how Alameda Research and FTX were misusing customer funds, and that he helped create the software code that allowed the Bankman-Fried to perform fraudulent activities, according to The New York Times.

The engineer assigned false dates to several transactions to make it appear like FTX's revenue back in 2021 was higher by $50 million. He also admitted to lying about his actions to auditors, as well as taking $6 million worth of company funds for personal use.

Reports say that around $93 million were contributed to political campaigns by FTX employees as well as others who were associated with the firm. Although, many names were used only to circumvent limits on individuals and companies.

Starting from the 2020 election, the firm gave almost $9.7 million mostly to PACs, particularly with the Democratic Party. There was also the $1.1 million to the LGBTQ Victory Fund Federal PAC and another million to a PAC that "appeared to be affiliated with pro-L.G.B.T.Q. issues."

Related: Top FTX, Alameda Executives Involved in Sam Bankman-Fried Case Plead Guilty to Fraud
Tory Eurosceptics could take two weeks to decide whether to back Rishi Sunak's new Brexit deal for Northern Ireland.

The ERG bloc of Conservative MPs has convened a 'star chamber' to sift through the legal text the PM has thrashed out with the EU.

But a meeting of the group last night was told the team is likely to take at least a fortnight to analyse the Windsor Framework - meaning that key votes could happen before it reaches a conclusion.

The lack of any immediate pushback from the Tory Brexit wing is a significant boost for Mr Sunak, as the DUP considers whether to get on board with the plans and resume powersharing at Stormont.

The premier has warned unionist leader Jeffrey Donaldson, who was a guest at the ERG meeting, that the package cannot be renegotiated, and will go ahead regardless of whether he approves.

It would bring Northern Ireland back under UK tax rules, wipe out most checks in the Irish Sea, and introduce a 'Stormont Brake' on new EU laws.

But DUP chief whip voiced serious doubts about the agreement this morning, dismissing the brake as a 'delaying mechanism'

There are also claims that Boris Johnson has decided he will not oppose the blueprint - but a source close to the ex-PM denied that, saying he is 'still studying and reflecting on the governments proposals'.

Rishi Sunak (pictured on a visit to Northern Ireland yesterday) received a warm reception as he addressed the powerful Tory 1922 Committee last night

The ERG bloc of Conservative MPs headed by Mark Francois (left) has convened a 'star chamber' to sift through the legal text the PM has thrashed out with the EU. Mr Sunak has warned unionist leader Jeffrey Donaldson (right), who was a guest at the ERG meeting, that the package cannot be renegotiated

Former Brexit negotiator Lord Frost has questioned how much fundamental change has been achieved.

Mr Sunak received a warm reception as he addressed the powerful Tory 1922 Committee last night, telling the MPs: 'If I had stood here a few months ago and told you that we would get the EU to reopen the treaty text and rewrite it, you would have thought that I had had more than a Coca-Cola.'

The PM also warned his critics that failure to back his Northern Ireland Brexit deal could see the Conservatives hammered at the next election.

Failing to settle the long-running saga would mean 'voters will begin to doubt our ability to deliver' any political change, he said.

Mr Sunak insisted the DUP will be given 'time and space' to study the detail of the Windsor Framework. There are likely to be a series of votes to implement the deal, although the timings are unclear.

The comments were echoed outside the meeting by Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker, who said: 'This [deal] is what is available... it really wouldn't be sensible to drop it and go back on it.'

The ERG met separately after the 1922 session, with chairman Mark Francois saying: 'We hope to have something within around about a fortnight, but if it takes longer than that, then it takes longer than that.'

Former Levelling Up Secretary Simon Clarke added: 'It takes time. It is a complex process. There have been improvements but there are also big questions, that's why we need the experts.'
Chinese state media has warned Elon Musk he risks damaging his relationship with China after the Twitter CEO responded to posts about the origins of the coronavirus.

Last week, Musk replied to a tweet speculating whether 'Dr. Anthony Fauci funded the development of COVID-19', citing research at a Wuhan lab.

Musk said: 'He did it via a pass-through organization (EcoHealth).'

The Global Times tabloid posted on social media that Musk risked 'breaking the pot' of China, an idiom meaning 'biting the hand that feeds you'.

Musk's electric vehicle company Tesla has a factory campus in Shanghai and the Chinese market accounts for about 40% of sales.

Elon Musk this week regained his spot as the richest man on earth after a Tesla stock boost

Musk responds on Twitter to a post asking whether Fauci funded the development of Covid

The CCP's tabloid, which runs under the party's flagship paper The People's Daily, snapped back at Musk for spreading a 'conspiracy theory that slanders China'.

The paper said that while American scientists and virologists 'despise' their politicians, under the 'instigation of right-wing conservatives' the 'matter' [of Covid's alleged leak from a Wuhan laboratory' was 'continuing to ferment in the US public opinion field'.

The extended post suggested the US Department of Energy had 'cooperated' with political forces 'hostile to China', with US media to 'advertise a conspiracy theory about the origin of the coronavirus'.

It continued, suggesting Musk had moved closer to right-wing forces in the US, showing 'a tendency to endorse these right-wing conservative values'.

The world's richest man also made an apparently sarcastic remark last week in response to the US Energy Department's conclusions.

Musk has been critical of Fauci in the past.

The allegations made against Fauci are nonetheless unfounded.

Musk wrote in December last year: 'My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci'.

Interest in the origins of the coronavirus was stoked last week when the Department of Energy in the United States, which is responsible for a network of national research labs, said the most likely scenario was that Covid began in a Chinese laboratory.

The Department concluded with 'low confidence' the pandemic started with a lab leak.

This followed similar findings by the FBI in 2021, reportedly issued with 'moderate confidence'.

The Chinese government, as well as many foreign researchers, has strongly denied that the coronavirus originated in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

But the theory that a virus starting with bats, moving to an intermediary species and being passed on to humans has lost some support.

A translated part of the post from the Global Times, a Chinese daily and state-affiliated media

Elon Musk responds to a post suggesting the US Dept of Energy concluded Covid most likely arose from a lab leak. The Dept concluded this with 'low confidence'

In November last year, sources told Reuters Tesla had plans for exporting made-in-China electric vehicles to the United States and Canada.

The US-based company was reportedly evaluating whether Model 3 and Model Y EVs could be sold in North America this year.

Sales of Chinese-made Teslas rose 18% in January 2023, a 10% climb year-on-year.

The Chinese market is Tesla's second-largest but sales have reportedly started to dry up as competition grows among retailers.
The Ukrainian military unit had a flag with message: 'Boris Johnson's Unit'

A Ukrainian military unit named after Boris Johnson has been wiped out by Russia's Wagner troops in the besieged city of Bakhmut, the mercenary group claimed today.

A Wagner commander claimed the 24th Mechanised Brigade was defeated in intense fighting in Bakhmut, as Kremlin forces try to encircle Ukrainian troops there.

Wagner troops posted video online showing a Ukrainian flag and trophies inside a cellar that had been used by Kyiv's forces.

On the flag, a message read: 'Boris Johnson's unit. Boris Johnson.'

The former prime minister is a hero in Ukraine for galvanising the West to support Kyiv after Vladimir Putin launched his invasion. He has been repeatedly praised by the nation's president Volodymyr Zelensky.

Wagner claimed they found that the Ukrainian military unit had a flag with message: 'Boris Johnson's Unit'

Former PM Boris Johnson during his visit to Kyiv in August 2022

The Wagner troops posted video showing a Ukrainian flag and trophies inside a cellar that had been used by Kyiv's forces

A Wagner commander claimed in a video: 'The Johnson unit was holding a large stronghold in the woods [in Bakhmut].'

'When they were hit, a flag like this was found,' he said, showing Mr Johnson's name on the material.

Ukraine has not confirmed whether its 24th Mechanised Brigade, which has been fighting in Bakhmut for months, has been defeated.

Members of the unit earlier took part in peacekeeping missions in Kosovo and Iraq and in international Nato command and staff exercises codenamed Peace Shield.

Moscow's troops are continuing their relentless attacks on the small mining city in eastern Ukraine in their bid to capture it and encircle defending forces.

Bakhmut had a population of about 70,000 before the war but has been ruined after months of fighting, being the focal point of Russian assaults and Ukrainian defence.

'The enemy continues to advance in the direction of Bakhmut. He does not stop storming the city,' the Ukrainian military said in a morning briefing.

A Russian takeover would open the way to seizing the last remaining urban settlements in the industrial Donetsk province.

Zelensky, in a video address late on Tuesday, said the battle for Bakhmut was 'most difficult' but its defence was essential.

Ukrainian soldiers ride a self-propelled howitzer, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, near Bakhmut on Monday

Bakhmut had a population of about 70,000 before the war but has been ruined during months of fighting as a focal point of Russian assaults and determined Ukrainian defence

'Russia in general takes no account of people and sends them in constant waves against our positions, the intensity of the fighting is only increasing,' Zelensky said.

Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said invading troops had driven a wedge between two villages north of Bakhmut, Berkhivka and Yahidne, in a bid to surround the city.

'This breakthrough on Bakhmut's northern flank poses a clear threat to us,' he said in comments on social media.

Although most Russian attacks were focused on Bakhmut and other towns and villages in Donetsk, the Ukrainian military said its forces had repelled 85 Russian attacks on different sections of the front line over the past day.
A yob who broke into the I'm A Celebrity castle in Wales and bragged that ITV needed to 'beef up their security' has admitted beating up his girlfriend's neighbour in a parking row.

Darryl 'Taffy' Tipton launched his unprovoked attack against Robert Edwards, punching him in the face after being asked not to block a driveway with his car.

Mr Edwards suffered a cut elbow during the scuffle with the bearded 34-year-old in October last year, a court heard.

Unemployed Tipton, of Colwyn Bay, North Wales, admitted assault and was sentenced to a 12-month community order by magistrates in Llandudno on Monday. He must also pay a 120 and 100 in compensation.

In 2021 prankster Tipton broke into the I'm a Celebrity set at the Gwrych Castle near Abergele while the show's stars were evacuated during Storm Arwen.

Darryl Tipton (pictured) punched his girlfriend's neighbour during a row over parking. The 34-year-old had previously bragged about breaking into the set of I'm A Celebrity in Wales

Tipton, left, admitted assault and was sentenced to a 12-month community order by magistrates in Llandudno on Monday

In 2021 Tipton broke into the I'm a Celebrity set at the Gwrych Castle near Abergele while the show's stars were evacuated during Storm Arwen. Pictured are I'm a Celeb hosts Ant and Dec

Security staff and production workers had 'to run for their lives' and were 'blown off their feet' as 70mph winds battered the 19th century fort.

The dangerous weather prompted ITV bosses to can two live weekend shows of I'm a Celeb, which were replaced with compilation clips looking back at previous series.

Tipton was one of two people to break into the evacuated set, bragging that it had been as easy as popping into Tesco.

He spent 90 minutes wandering around the camp, filming where the stars slept.

Speaking to The Sun at the time, Tipton boasted: 'ITV need to beef up their security.

'We were able to wander around for about 90 minutes before we were apprehended.

'There were a few guards around but we waited until they had gone. Once we got in we were able to find our way around quite easily.'

The duo of intruders reportedly managed to sneak past the show's six-tier security system, which reportedly included bulletproof detection Armadillo robots, and took photos of the entire camp.

Weather woes: The castle had been taking a weather battering with gale force winds and driving rain bringing down tree branches and safety signs

Tipton and another intruder bragged about spending 90 minutes exploring the ITV set while staff and stars had been evacuated

He even boasted that ITV needed to 'beef up' its security after he sneaked into the set and filmed where celebrities slept

Storm Arwen ripped the set apart, blowing off roofs and tearing down fencing. The weather forced ITV bosses to cancel two live weekend episodes of the show

On Monday, prosecutor James Neary told magistrates Tipton's victim and his wife had lived at their home for 22 years and never had any problems until Tipton started visiting a neighbour.

On the day of the attack Tipton had parked his car partly across their driveway and was asked not to do so.

But Mr Neary said the defendant punched Mr Edwards in the face and the victim cut his elbow when he fell. According to Mr Edwards the assault was 'totally unprovoked'. Tipton had been convicted of a similar offence in 2019.

Defence solicitor Simon Sargent claimed there had been an argument and Tipton 'momentarily' lost his composure and hit Mr Edwards.

'He does regret his actions. He does accept his behaviour was unacceptable,' the lawyer added.

Tipton had been in custody before appearing in court. As well as his community order and fines, Tipton was also ordered to complete 15 days rehabilitation.
READ MORE: Thor the walrus resurfaces in Iceland after he was spotted in UK

Creel Fisherman took photos of the creature on a rocky outcrop on Monday

A huge walrus has been spotted basking in the sunshine off the coast of the Isle of Mull in the Inner Hebrides, Scotland.

A local creel fisherman Lorn MacRae spotted the hefty sea mammal hauled out on a rocky outcrop called Cairn Na Burgh Beag - a small island which forms part of the Trenish Isles, which is off Mull's north west coast.

He reported his incredible sighting to the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust (HWDT) - who called the walrus 'massive', after encountering the animal on Monday.

HWDT, a marine charity which have been collecting sightings reports off Scotland's west coast for over 25 years, said this is the first report of a walrus in their database making it a significant record for the region.

Mr MacRae said: 'It was a surprise to see the walrus hauled out, the Atlantic grey seals seemed to be giving it a wide berth.'

A fisherman spotted a huge walrus (pictured) basking in the sunshine off the coast of the Isle of Mull in the Inner Hebrides, Scotland

Fisherman Lorn MacRae reported his sighting to the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust (HWDT) - who called the walrus 'massive', after encountering the walrus (pictured) on Monday

Walruses are rarely seen in Scottish waters but there have been several reports of them being sighted in the UK.

Over the festive period, a large male walrus - known as Thor - was spotted in Yorkshire. Prior to that sighting he had been reported in the Netherlands and off the coast of France.

However, Thor the walrus was last recorded in Iceland last Friday, so for the Mull sighting to be him he would have had to have made an 'incredible journey'.

HWDT have asked anyone who sees walruses in the area to report it on their tool Whale Track and send in photos. They say that reporting sightings of this walrus will allow them to 'monitor the movement and health of the animal and add to the understanding of marine life off Scotland's coasts'.

Sadie Gorvett, HWDT's education officer, said: 'Reporting through Whale Track provides us with vital data on the species in our seas, helping monitor the different species.

'Through Photo-ID, we can find out more about the animals life, monitoring its movements and health.

'We don't have walrus as a specific species in Whale Track as it is such a rare sighting, however people can report it using the category "other" and put the species in the comments section.'

The charity said that while the sighting was 'exciting' concerns over welfare are raised when walruses are hauled out in more populated areas.

They also said it is important to maintain a 'safe and respectful distance' of over 328ft (100m), not to remain in the vicinity of the animal for more than 15 minutes and limit the numbers who are watching the creature.

Over the festive period, a large male walrus - known as Thor (pictured) - was spotted in Yorkshire. He had also been seen in the Netherlands and off the coast of France

Molly Gray, from British Divers Marine Life Rescue, said: 'We ask that everyone behaves sensibly and responsibly in response to the news of another Walrus in the area, and we advise giving the animal a very wide berth to avoid disturbing it.

'Walruses travel long distances and have rest stops to recover and regain energy before moving on again, and being disturbed by people being too close or noisy will impact its chance of survival. If you are concerned about the animals welfare please contact BDMLR on 01825 765546 (option 1).'

HWDT added that it was unclear why that in recent years there are more reports of walruses in more southern areas - and they can only find the cause with further long-term monitoring.

They asked that if members of the public spot a walrus, or whale, dolphin, porpoise or basking shark in Scottish seas, to please report it.
The Cockney accent has moved from east London to Essex as a younger generation of Londoners no longer speak in rhyming slang and instead adopt elements of dialects from around the world, researchers say.

Cockney rhyming slang is a dialect historically spoken in the East End of London with famous phrases such as 'Ruby Murray' (curry), 'Donald Duck' (luck) and 'bottle and stopper' (copper).

Famous names known for their Cockney accent include actors Michael Caine, Danny Dyer and American actor Dick Van Dyke, famed for his Cockney accent in Mary Poppins.

Researchers have looked into how the accent has evolved - and relocated over the years.

Amanda Cole, a lecturer in sociolinguistics at the University of Essex told The Times: 'What is now considered by many to be an Essex accent is actually very similar to Cockney.'

Left is actor Danny Dyer who is known for his Cockney accent and right is TOWIE's Amy Childs known for her Essex accent

Other famous names known to speak in the Cockney accent include American actor Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins

Michael Caine, known for his distinctive Cockney accent

Historical photo of East London - pictured is Hackney Wick

The streets of Hackney, East London, in the 1990s - Cockney rhyming slang is a dialect historically spoken in the East End of London

People on the beach at Clacton, Essex, circa 1925. Researchers have studied whether the Cockney accent moved to Essex

TIME FOR A ROSIE LEE BREAK! TEST YOUR COCKNEY RHYMING SLANG Brown bread - dead

Butcher's hook - look

Dog and bone - phone

Adam and Eve - believe

Trouble and strife - wife

Ruby Murray - curry

Donald Duck - luck

Bottle and stopper - copper

Bobby Moore - sure

Merry-go-round - pound

A ppl es and pears - stairs

Rosie Lee - tea

Didgeridoo - clue Advertisement

A 2011 study by then professor of sociolinguistics at Lancaster University Paul Kerswill found people in the capital had begun to speak 'multicultural London English' - which he said combined elements of Cockney with dialects from around the world.

Dr Cole said this led to the belief the dialect was dying.

But Dr Cole has spent the last six years trying to understand if the Cockney dialect has moved to Essex with people who relocated there and if young people have adopted it.

She said her grandparents were some of many who were relocated by local authorities to Essex in the post-war period.

And her research has included interviewing middle-aged people who lived on the Debden estate.

'The way that they spoke was indistinguishable from 20th-century accounts of Cockney in East London,' she added.

'This included pronouncing 'three' as 'free'; not pronouncing the 'h' in 'home', pronouncing the 'I' in words like 'milk' as a vowel sound so that it sounds like 'miwk'; saying 'ink' instead of 'ing' in words like 'something' and 'nothing', so they'd become 'somefink' and 'nufink'.'

She added: 'Young people in Debden still speak very similarly to Cockney.'

Rhyming slang originated in the 1840s, with a Cockney defined as someone who was born within the sound of Bow bells at St Mary-le-Bow.

It is thought the phrases were popularised by travelling salesmen, who either invented them as a game or else as a way to confuse locals.

Experts have previously said the changing face of society has made the phrases obsolete - with the new generations popularising their own sayings.
Oregon is considering giving its vast homeless and low-income population $1,000 in no-strings-attached cash.

The bill was proposed last month by woke State Senator Wlnsvey Campos - who was among those calling to abolish the police in the summer of 2020 when the city of Portland was besieged by protesters - and Rep. Khanh Pham.

The bill is not the first of its kind - similar experiments have been carried out in other Democratic cities like Chicago, Tacoma and Gainesville, despite their gargantuan price tag.

The Oregon payments would last until January 2026 and cost the city at least $14.6million-a-month based on current homeless figures.

In reality the cost would be even higher - the bill also proposes that any household spending more than 50 percent of monthly income on rent should also be eligible.

Homeless tents on the sidewalk in Portland, Oregon. The state's homeless population has soared over the last few years amid civil unrest and divesting in police

Senate Bill 603, which would give homeless and low-income residents of Oregon $1,000-a-month

According to the legislation put forward last month, 'payments may be used for rent, emergency expenses, food, child care or other goods or services of the participant's choosing.'

The bill is currently being debated in Oregon's State Senate Committee.

The bill would require a study on those who receive the payments, broken down among certain demographics, such as race, veteran status and risk of domestic violence.

A similar program was implemented in Vancouver B.C. in Canada in 2018, with homeless participants receiving $7,500 each, and Stockton, California, where employment figures among recipients rose.

More controversial schemes are being looked at in Palm Springs, where any transgender and non-binary residents who also meet the poverty threshold may be eligible for monthly payments of $900. The new pilot program will have $200,000 set aside for allocation after a unanimous vote by the Palm Springs City Council earlier in 2022.

Oregon has experienced high levels of homelessness for several years, especially in areas like Portland where up to 700 tent camps have taken over sections of the city.

The bill was proposed last month by woke State Senator Wlnsvey Campos (left) and Rep. Khanh Pham (right)

State Senator Campos was among those calling to abolish the police in the summer of 2020 when the city of Portland was besieged by protesters

The state has also been trying to tackle increased drug use and trafficking after it passed a law decriminalizing street drugs last year.

Poll Do you want guaranteed income payouts to hard-up people in your county? Yes No Not sure Do you want guaranteed income payouts to hard-up people in your county? Yes 72 votes

No 799 votes

Not sure 38 votes Now share your opinion





The state Health Authority ruled that the legislation had 'failed' just seven months after it went into effect.

A national report released late 2022 showed the number of people experiencing homelessness across the U.S. has been relatively steady since 2016 despite the Coronavirus pandemic.

The report also showed that the number of people sleeping on the streets in Oregon has spiked.

There were 582,462 people sleeping on the streets nationally during a single night in January 2022, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development  up 0.3% from 2020.

Point-in-time counts aim to provide a snapshot of who is sleeping on the streets on any given night, and they are often taken as an undercount.

In Oregon, there were 14,655 people, an increase of 22.5% since 2020, according to the federal data.

Other Democratic cities including Tacoma, Washington and Gainesville, Florida, are trying out the payments, with handouts ranging from $250-$1,000 per month.

Cook County in Chicago has started doling out $500 to more than 3,250 residents in a year-long pilot, one of the nation's largest to date.

From Tacoma to Gainesville, local administrations are trying out guaranteed payouts to poor households in the region of $250-$1,000 per month

Los Angeles residents signing up for a chance to join the city's guaranteed $1,000 monthly payouts. To qualify, households had to earn less than $96,000 and not receive any other government handouts

The trials are popular and beneficiaries say the money helps families put food on the table, reduce stress, pay education costs, and overcome daily hurdles, such as being able to buy a car to commute to work.

But they're also proving controversial. In some cases, they single out specific groups, like transgender Californians.

Advocates have even said they're inspired by the Black Panther armed Marxist group or are reparations for historic racism.

In recent years, the policy has won over Silicon Valley mavens, including former Twitter boss Jack Dorsey, who funds pilots and warns that automation and AI could leave millions of people unemployed and unleash social chaos.

Supporters of the policy say it lifts poor Americans out of poverty and allows them to be entrepreneurial, but critics say they're a wrongheaded socialist idea that fuels inflation, raises taxes, hurts the poor and deters people from working.

The public supports UBIs by a 61-27 percent margin, a YouGov survey this month said. DailyMail.com readers are less convinced  92 percent of them are opposed. There's still time to vote in our poll.
A so-called 'TikTok riot' has forced a school to scrap plans to enforce new rules on a 'gender neutral' PE kit and a ban on girls wearing skirts.

Police were called to the Warriner School in Banbury, Oxfordshire, on Friday to break up a 'disturbance' and the school was forced to close for the day after students rebelled against the rules.

The school has since backed down, saying it had reversed its decision to enforce a gender-neutral uniform policy.

The Warriner said there will be no changes 'without further consultation involving the whole school community', as it was 'concerned about any further disruption to school and students being able to continue their studies'.

On the school's website, Dr Annabel Kay, the executive headteacher, apologised for 'under-estimating the strength of feeling on this issue' and 'not properly engaging or consulting with all parents and students'.

Videos appeared showing students protesting in the school grounds, with one pupil wearing a skirt over their trousers

Following the protest, Warriner School released a statement on its website saying 'there will be no changes to uniform policy without further consultation'

The Warriner School is a co-ed secondary in Banbury, Oxordshire, with 1,500 pupils aged 11 to 18

She added: 'We fully respect the rights of students to protest and we want to hear the voices of young people in a safe and constructive manner.

'Our intention was, and remains the case, to be inclusive, supporting and empowering all our students equally and with respect.

READ MORE: Revealed: The TikTok videos urging pupils to take part in school riots sweeping the country and giving advice on how to emulate rebellions against new rules on uniforms and unisex toilets Advertisement

'We have listened to our students and we are committed to engaging further on our uniform policy, and on other future policy changes, with both parents and students in a constructive and positive manner.'

Staff sparked the row after sending a letter home to parents informing them that from September, all pupils would be 'required to wear black tailored trousers' and a 'gender neutral Physical Education Kit'.

Female students would be banned from wearing skirts to school from September, and during summer months all students would be made to wear knee-length black shorts.

In the letter, assistant headteacher Lotty Keys, said the reason behind the decision was to 'promote inclusivity and further support and empower our students with our values of equality and respect'.

'This was a decision made because, unfortunately, there is still a challenge by a lot of our female students wearing their skirts to our desired appropriate length,' it said.

'Students who roll skirts to an inappropriate length are sending out the wrong social message in their choice of style - they seem to feel they need to conform to a certain image, in order to fit in with friendship groups.

'We feel this has no place in an educational setting and for this reason we are introducing trousers for all students.'

But this prompted furious students to stage a mutiny against the new rules, with dozens of parents backing them.

Videos appeared on social media platforms showing scores of students protesting in the school grounds, with one pupil wearing a skirt over their trousers.

One pupil claimed Friday's trouble was a 'riot more then a protest, with lots of damage being done to the school site and property'.

One parent said their child, who has autism, was severely 'shaken up' and had to 'barricade themselves inside their classroom' alongside other pupils to stay clear of the protests.

The mother said that girls had been 'upset' by the letter and thought the school's leadership 'could have gone about it better'.

She added that the 'protests were not the correct way to handle it, they got out of hand.'

A pupil at The Warriner School, who wished not been named, told the Banbury Guardian: 'Personally I disagree with the new uniform rules as why should boys be able to wear shorts if girls can't wear skirts?'

Upset parents have claimed the change in uniform will punish girls at the school for the actions of a minority.

They have also argued that the changes are an expense that parents do not need 'forcing' upon them during a cost of living crisis.

MailOnline found messages on TikTok which show pupils asking how they could replicate a protest at their school

One mother, Jenny, said: 'The children have arranged this themselves without parent influence, the teachers are supervising them, and the police are on site now as well.

'As a parent, I'm extremely proud of the way the students are conducting themselves today, they are being peaceful, respectful, and keeping high spirits.

'The change of uniform was put across as saving money for the parents and as being gender neutral and inclusive for all the students, but there was no consultation, and that is what smarted the parents'

'It feels like they are punishing girls for wanting to be girls, and that doesn't feel inclusive.

'There are a handful of girls that roll their skirts up, but that has been the way since I was at school in the 1980s, but why punish the entire female student body for the sake of a handful of girls?'

Another parent said he 'will not be acknowledging your school uniform update and my daughter will continue to wear skirts and other female clothing to school.

He called the letter 'nonsense' and 'anti-female' and demanded that the teachers at the school organise a meeting with parents and reverse the decision 'along with an apology for the incredibly hurtful letter'.

Lesley Southam, who has a daughter in year 10, said: 'I think they've taken away the girl's choices - they're penalising the girls.'

Thames Valley Police confirmed they had 'received a report of a disturbance' at the school at 9.10am on Friday morning and officers attended to 'ensure the safety of students and staff'

'No arrests were made,' the force said.

Following the protest on Friday morning, the school was forced to send an email to parents asking parents to collect their children after being advised by the police.

It said: 'We have made the very difficult decision to close the school today. If you are able to please come and collect your child, please do immediately.;

A number of 'TikTok protests' have continued to rock Britain's schools, with children in Southampton, Blackpool and Essex staging demonstrations in the past 24 hours that were posted on the platform.

The demonstrations appear to be arranged over apps popular with youngsters, such as TikTok and Snapchat, with some clips attracting millions of views.

MailOnline found videos with comments from pupils at other schools, asking how they could emulate the protest at theirs, amid fears the trend is sweeping the nation.

The trend prompted the Department for Education to release a statement, saying it was 'concerned' by the spate of school protests.

Its spokesman said: 'We are concerned at the reports of disruption and will be in touch with all schools and local authorities to ensure they are supported at this time.

'We will always back headteachers to take the action required to maintain calm and supportive classroom environments as they are best placed to work with their teachers, parents, pupils and local communities when developing and implementing policies.'

The Warriner School and TikTok have been contacted for comment.
Shamima Begum will ultimately be allowed back into Britain, the Government's terror watchdog said today.

Jonathan Hall KC, the reviewer of terrorism legislation, said he has a 'hunch' that the UK will in time decide to repatriate current and former British citizens from Syria.

He told Times Radio: 'I'm not just looking at Shamima Begum, I'm looking at the numbers who are currently in camps who are either UK citizens, and there are some of them, or people who used to be UK citizens and have been deprived, and we know that there are about 60 children who are UK-linked, slightly fewer than that (are) women and an unknown number of men.

'I'm looking at the position now when our allies  France, Australia, Sweden and Germany  are slowly bringing back their citizens and I'm just posing the question whether or not the UK is going to be a complete outlier.

'I'm posing the question: Is the UK really in such a bad position compared to our allies that we can't in time absorb these individuals as well?'

Shamima Begum will 'ultimately' be allowed back into the UK, the Government's independent reviewer of anti-terrorism legislation predicted today

Mr Hall added that he has a 'hunch' that 'ultimately' it is going to happen.

'If it's going to happen, particularly bearing in mind the fate of children, probably better to do it now than wait even more years,' he said.

'If she was to be brought back in it wouldn't be saying anyone approves of what she did.

'It would be saying, taken as a whole, is the UK so much worse off than other countries that we have to leave our UK-linked individuals there?'

Mr Hall said he understands people wanting to see 'vengeance' and 'punishment' in relation to British citizens who joined ISIS.

'It makes my blood boil to think about what people did and I can really understand why the Shamima Begum case in particular has really become about her and her morality  or her lack of morality  whether she is lying now etcetera,' he said.

The barrister said several years ago there was a risk that allowing all British jihadis to return at once would overwhelm the system, but that now it was different.

'You can already see people talking about Europe's Guantanamo and if it was only Britain who had its UK-linked individuals in camps you can immediately imagine people trying to make a propaganda effort saying Britain's Guantanamo,' he said.

Mr Hall also backed Ms Begum's return in a speech at King's College London on Monday evening.

Jonathan Hall KC said he has a 'hunch' that the UK will in time make the political decision to repatriate current and former British citizens from Syria

Ms Begum was 15 when she travelled from Bethnal Green, east London, through Turkey and into territory controlled by the so-called Islamic State group in 2015, before her citizenship was revoked in February 2019.

She has been locked in a legal battle ever since and last week the 23-year-old lost her latest challenge against the decision to strip her of her British citizenship on national security grounds.

The Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) found there was a 'credible suspicion that Ms Begum was recruited, transferred and then harboured for the purpose of sexual exploitation'.

But the tribunal said this did not prevent the then-home secretary Sajid Javid from removing her citizenship.

Ms Begum, whose case has prompted huge debate, is one of an estimated 60 British women and children held by Kurdish authorities in Syria who have no means of leaving without the Government's co-operation.

In his speech, Mr Hall said the UK's 'strategic distance' policy of removal of citizenship, limited consular assistance and funding of Kurdish detaining authorities is 'at a crossroads'.

He said that the risk posed by IS has changed and that, as repatriations by other European countries have picked up, the UK is 'under the spotlight'.

Mr Hall acknowledged the concerns about the risk IS-supporting Britons could pose but also argued that decisions need to be made and this could come 'sooner than expected through US and allied pressure, Turkish military activity, court rulings, or natural disasters such as the recent earthquake'.

Mr Hall has warned of the risk of creating a 'British Guantanamo' at the camps in Syria where some British jihadi brides are currently living

He added: 'Compared to men, women are less likely to have travelled for the purpose of fighting; are less likely to have played battlefield roles; may well have had less autonomy in being able to leave; and now make up the majority of those UK-linked individuals detained.

Teen boys are being used as sex slaves to impregnate ISIS women at Syrian detention centres Advertisement

'Women with children may also fear child protection measures being taken against them by Western states, mitigating against further terrorist engagement on return.'

By contrast, former Home Secretary Priti Patel argued Begum should not be brought back to the UK.

When asked about the case at a Policy Exchange event in Westminster last week, she said: 'It is very difficult and we are an outlier, but we are an outlier for good reason, and those reasons include the threat to our own citizens and the threat to our country.'

Having seen the 'security and intelligence behind some of these decisions', she added: 'As much as it may be uncomfortable for some, as long as someone is a threat and an individual is a threat to our country, and a threat to our citizens, I think it's right that they are not brought back here.

'I just believe that we have to do everything we can to protect our country.'

She also said the 'implications' of bringing someone like Begum back to the UK and the resources required if that were to happen would be 'absolutely phenomenal'.
A furious motorist has accused a council of painting a disabled bay around his car - before fining him 650 for parking in it.

Paul Cooper left his BMW in a residents' bay near his home in Merton, south-west London, on September 18.

But when he returned on October 6, the 42-year-old was shocked to discover his car was then in a disabled bay that had been extended in his absence - and that he'd been stung by five 130 penalty charge notices for leaving it there without a blue badge.

Merton Council insisted it had warned residents about the bay extension and said it 'cannot be responsible' for Mr Cooper not 'reading signs notifying residents of work'.

He accuses Merton Parking Services of damaging the back of his vehicle while its workers extended the disabled bay, something the council denies.

Paul Cooper, from Merton in south-west London, left his BMW in a residents' bay near his home on September 18. But when he returned on October 6 he discovered it had been painted into a disabled parking bay - and he had been fined 650

Mr Cooper claims he parked in a residents' bay correctly on September 18, and the work to extend the disabled bay took place in his absence

Merton Council said it had alerted residents to the work to extend the bay and that it 'cannot be responsible' for Mr Cooper (pictured) not 'reading signs notifying residents of work'

Mr Cooper claimed the council confirmed the bay extension took place on September 26, with officials telling him it was impossible to mark a space under the car as the kit used to paint it could not go under the vehicle.

But the 42-year-old branded this 'utter nonsense' and claimed it was clear from photographs that a machine had not been used and that someone had 'leant under' his BMW to paint the lines by hand.

'The council say that the paint from the old lines could not be removed without inflicting damage to my vehicle, and the back of my vehicle is completely ruined,' he told the BBC.

He added that a neighbour had told him the bay was painted while his car was parked there and that it has been 'unfair'.

'I've lost patience,' Mr Cooper said in a lengthy post on Facebook. 'This simply unacceptable.'

Merton Council has since refunded Mr Cooper all but the initial penalty charge notice. But it refutes the accusation that it damaged his car.

A council spokeswoman said: 'We have fully investigated Mr Cooper's claim that a disabled parking bay was extended underneath his car while it was parked in a non-disabled bay, and later allegations his car was damaged in the process of new lines being painted.

Mr Cooper also accused council workers of damaging his car to paint lines underneath it - something Merton Council refutes

He claimed the lines of the new parking bay (pictured) were painted by hand

'Mr Cooper left his car parked in the same spot, in a parallel road to his home, for a number of weeks without visiting it or updating himself on the work to be carried out.

'Merton Council cannot be held responsible for him not reading signs notifying residents of the work, and efforts were made to get in contact with him during the weeks his car was parked.

'Despite Mr Cooper's admitted knowledge and understanding of the PCN appeals process, he made the decision to pay the fines issued, which is a legal admission the contraventions occurred.

'However, at our discretion, we have decided to refund all but the initial PCN.'
TikTok is not the only social media platform the UK is finding faults on.

The country's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) recently received a complaint from a charity group against Alphabet's YouTube for allegedly unlawfully gathering data on children.

The UK previously enacted a law that guides how the country's data protection rules apply to digital services aimed at children, per Bloomberg.

YouTube Child Privacy Violation Complaint Details

YouTube is facing a complaint from campaigner Duncan McCann, who says that the site is gathering data about the videos children watch, where they are watching them from, and what device they are using to watch them, per the BBC.

He added that plenty of children watch YouTube videos on family devices, where the data YouTube allegedly collected can be gathered by default because it is not registered as a children's account.

While McCann is acting in a personal capacity, he does work for the campaign group 5Rights Foundation, a group that championed the ICO's Children Code.

The code states that companies must provide high levels of privacy for children by default and not use design features that encourage them to give more data about them.

Breaking the code, which the UK government enacted in 2020, penalizes lawbreakers as much as 4% of a company's annual global revenue.

Read More: [RETRO GAMING] Do You Remember the MS-DOS Game Theme Hospital?

When asked about YouTube's management, McCann said that he'd make the company reform its data-gathering policy in such a way that it doesn't collect and process any unnecessary information.

"The best way to ensure that they are only collecting the data of adults who are properly consenting would be to have a process where adults can sign in to the tracking, recommendation systems, profiling, targeted ads," McCann said.

He also mentioned that he believes that "a minority" of users would choose to do so.

Meanwhile, the ICO mentioned it would consider the complaint from McCann to protect the country's children.

Stephen Bonner, a deputy commissioner at the ICO, said that the agency expects children's data to be protected online and that it would take action if that is not the case.

YouTube isn't the target of a formal investigation yet.

YouTube's Response On The Complaint

Although YouTube's press team in the UK has yet to respond to inquiries about the complaint, the BBC reports that the company had invested in protecting families, including treating all children's content as though children were viewing it, even on an adult's account.

A spokesperson mentioned that YouTube is committed to continuing its engagement with the ICO on the protection of children's data, along with key stakeholders, including children, parents, and child-protection experts.

The company had been through this road before in 2019. At the time, the Federal Trade Commission fined YouTube $170 million for violating the Children's Privacy Law - $136 million to the FTC and $34 million to New York, per the FTC's announcement.

The social media platform also reminds people that it offers a separate children's app called YouTube Kids that provides a "supervised experience" that requires parental consent, though 89% of the UK's children use YouTube's main app to watch videos in 202, per regulator Ofcom.

Related Article: YouTube Music Officially Welcomes Podcasts On The Platform
A couple who were sick of traffic jams have swapped their Kent semi-detached home for a nine-bed French chateau that was half the price.

Heidi and Anthony Muir were growing increasingly annoyed with the constant queues of cars blocking the roads near their Kent home every weekend.

They sold their 600,000 four-bedroom semi in the village of Allington, near Maidstone, Kent, and swapped it for a 370,000 grand French chateau and its surrounding grounds.

The nine-bedroom estate in central France that served as a French Resistance headquarters during the Second World War has featured three times on Channel 4 show Grand Designs before they bought it.

Now, Heidi, 55, and Anthony, 53, have started their new lives in the 19th century chateau, called Chez Jallot, where they are running a bed and breakfast business.

Heidi and Anthony Muir (pictured with their three children after selling their Kent house) were growing increasingly annoyed with the constant queues of cars blocking the roads near their Kent home every weekend, so they sold their 600,000 four-bedroom semi in the village of Allington, near Maidstone, Kent

They swapped their Kent home for a 370,000 grand French chateau and its surrounding grounds

The nine-bedroom estate in central France that served as a French Resistance headquarters during the Second World War has featured three times on Channel 4 show Grand Designs before they bought it. Pictured: A bedroom in the chateau

The bedroom features an ensuite bathroom with a copper bathtub (pictured)

The couple, who have three grown-up children together, have no regrets.

Heidi explained: 'It was always a bit of a hopeful wish to live in France, and never in a million years did we think we would actually end up living here.

'We had always lived in Kent; Anthony comes from Walderslade and I came from Stockbury. We'd lived in our house in Allington for almost 30 years.

'It was actually my grandmother's from the late 1930s, so the house was always in our family, but we decided to make the move to France last year.

Heidi added: 'We were looking for a holiday home, really, but decided to broaden our search and started looking at forever homes.

'We remember watching Chez Jallot on Grand Designs in 2004 and really admired former owners Doug and Deni Ibbs.

'We love Maidstone, we loved our house, we really did like the area and the kids had a great time at school and everything.

'But what made our decision was the developments that were starting around the Allington area - the roads just couldn't cope.'

Heidi explained that 'thousands' of new homes were being built in the area, which was exacerbating the problem of traffic on local roads.

She said: 'The main London Road going into Maidstone was gridlocked most weekends, so this was one of the main factors of why we just wanted to change our lifestyle a little bit.

'There are thousands of new houses being built in the area - not hundreds but thousands.

'Roads are already congested and in the coming years the road systems will only get worse.'

Now the couple's children - 25-year-old Bronwyn, 22-year-old Ewan and Toby, 21 - have all fled the nest, the Muirs decided to take the plunge and begin anew in mainland Europe.

Now, Heidi, 55, and Anthony, 53, have started their new lives in the 19th century chateau, called Chez Jallot, where they are running a bed and breakfast business

The Muirs sold their four-bedroom, two-bathroom, semi-detached home in Allington for 600,000 and, with that money, bought the far larger chateau (pictured) and B&B business in the central French Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, for 370,000

The nine-bedroom estate in central France that served as a French Resistance headquarters during the Second World War. Pictured: The restored chateau with a kitchen and dining area

The entire main house, which sleeps ten, can be hired for 450 euros (395) per person, which includes breakfast and a two-course evening meal with half a bottle of wine per head. Pictured: The dining area

The distinctly French manor house boasts four large guest rooms, the master bedroom, loft space with the potential for another three to four bedrooms, two adjoining gites with two more bedrooms apiece

However, they are supported in running the chateau by their Shitzus Poppy and Coco.

The Muirs sold their four-bedroom, two-bathroom, semi-detached home in Allington for 600,000 and, with that money, bought the far larger chateau and B&B business in the central French Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, for 370,000.

The distinctly French manor house boasts four large guest rooms, the master bedroom, loft space with the potential for another three to four bedrooms, two adjoining gites with two more bedrooms apiece as well as a living area and kitchen.

The entire main house, which sleeps ten, can be hired for 450 euros (395) per person, which includes breakfast and a two-course evening meal with half a bottle of wine per head.

The two pet-friendly, self-accommodating gites are available for a maximum of six people, from 100 euros (88) per person, and suites in the chateau range in starting prices of between 95 euros (83) and 150 euros (132) per person.

The chateau has been featured three times on Channel 4 home-improvement show Grand Designs and was originally constructed around the year 1870, after Monsieur Jallot returned to the country from Paris, where he had been part of the reconstruction of the capital under President Napoleon III.

During the Nazi occupation of France in the Second World War, when France was initially split into the northern occupied territory and the southern free territory, Chez Jallot sat close to the dividing borderline.

It served as a headquarters for French Resistance forces, who trained volunteers at the chateau and harboured parachutists, aircrew and escapees - with up to 70 people living on the property at one time.

In July 1944, Nazi German troops searched the property and set it ablaze.

The main building was left derelict for more than 70 years before English couple Doug and Deni Ibbs bought the property in 2004 and built it up from the remaining shell of the house.

In July 1944, Nazi German troops searched the property and set it ablaze. The main building was left derelict (pictured) for more than 70 years before English couple Doug and Deni Ibbs bought the property in 2004 and built it up from the remaining shell of the house

The chateau has been featured three times on Channel 4 home-improvement show Grand Designs and was originally constructed around the year 1870. Pictured: The lounge and dining area of the chateau

The chateau in central France features nine bedrooms

The Muirs sold their four-bedroom, two-bathroom, semi-detached home in Allington for 600,000 and, with that money, bought the far larger chateau and B&B business in the central French Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, for 370,000

The distinctly French manor house boasts four large guest rooms

Heidi, who was made redundant from her management job in 2021, and avid cyclist Anthony, who left his job at the multi-sport activity venue Cyclopark in Gravesend, Kent, now share the running of their B&B business. Pictured: The kitchen and dining area

Heidi added: 'It was just four walls, because the house was burnt down in the war by the Nazis. When the Ibbs bought the house as a complete derelict shell they did it up.

'So we've been very lucky that we've not had to do all that hard work that was already done all for us.'

Heidi, who was made redundant from her management job in 2021, and avid cyclist Anthony, who left his job at the multi-sport activity venue Cyclopark in Gravesend, Kent, now share the running of their B&B business.

As part of their visa, the couple have to complete 200 hours of compulsory French lessons.

'When we have French guests it's a little tricky to understand them so we're grateful for Google Translate whilst we're still learning the language,' Mrs Muir admitted.

'The lessons are fantastic, obviously, because our French is a little limited but there's a lot of English-speaking people around where we live.'

And though the couple concede that it is difficult living so far from their three children, they are just an hour-and-a-half drive away from Limoges airport, which offers flights to seven different destinations across the UK.

The couple also admit they miss their friends and family in England - as well as chunks of cheddar cheese.

'We also chose France as it's only an hour-and-a-half flight from here to England so it's really quick and simple to get back to the UK to see our children,' Heidi added.

'The lifestyle over here in France is very different to the UK. The French have a lunch break from midday to two pm every single day; so that's difficult to get used to.

'And despite the impressive selection of cheese in France, we do often miss a chunk of cheddar. Also everything's closed on a Sunday so it's like going back to those old-fashioned times.

'But once we stepped foot in this house, we instantly knew it was the house that we wanted.

'It's just so peaceful and quiet out here. It's very well known for walking holidays. It was a life-changing move that we do not regret.'

'However, I would say to anyone thinking of doing what we did to definitely do your homework.

'Make sure you visit lots and lots of houses because there are a lot of hidden things you don't think about. If you want a different lifestyle then I would encourage anybody to make the leap.'
Anxious parents today faced a nail-biting wait to find out if their child had been offered their preferred secondary school place after a number of online portals crashed.

Hundreds of thousands of families across England are discovering what secondary school their child will be joining this autumn, on what is commonly known as National Offer Day.

But some parents have taken to social media to slam councils running the allocations after a series of websites - including in Leicestershire, Reading and Warwickshire - were plagued with technical issues.

Reading Council said a 'critical incident' had been declared after experiencing a technical fault with its Parent Portal and described it as 'a national issue'.

They said: 'Please note the Parent Portal for secondary school admission results is currently down.

But some parents have slammed local council websites, which have been plagued with technical issues, including in Leicestershire, Warwickshire and Reading

'This is a national issue and has been logged as a critical incident.'

In Leicestershire, some said they had checked the portal 'several times' to find out whether their child had received their first choice of secondary school, but no results were displayed. The issue was later resolved.

A county council spokesperson said: 'Following a technical issue this morning, parents can now access the online portal to see information about their child's secondary school place.

'We apologise for any inconvenience that may have been caused.'

Meanwhile, a Warwickshire County Council spokesperson said they were 'aware that some parents and carers have had problems with links to our website today' and apologised to those affected.

They added: 'However, our parent portal system itself is working well and we've had over 1,000 places accepted before 10am this morning.

'We'd like to reassure any parents or carers that these technical difficulties will not affect their school offer and they have until 15 March to accept their place.'

Some local council websites were plagued with technical issues, including Warwickshire and Reading Councils

Some parents reacted to their children's secondary school places, with some rejoicing that they had been offered their first choice.

Others were not as jovial and vowed to appeal the decision after their child did not get their first choice

Parents also used social media to react to the placements, with some rejoicing that they had been offered their first choice.

One said: 'Good luck to all kids receiving their secondary school places today, my daughter got first choice she's happy so we are happy.'

Another commented: 'Stressful morning with a happy outcome: my eldest got her first choice of secondary school.'

A third parent posted: 'Woken up to an email saying that P has been offered a place at our first choice secondary school. Very excited, a little relieved, but mostly still in denial that my baby is off to secondary school!'

However, others were not as jovial and vowed to appeal the decision, with one parent saying her child had been given his third choice, a 40-minute walk away from their home.

The parent said: 'Waiting for my youngest get up, to tell him he didn't get his 1st or 2nd choice secondary school.

'1st choice is the closest school (10 min walk), and no roads to cross. The school he is going to - a 40 minute walk, several major roads to navigate. Let the appeals process start.'

England's school system has been put under pressure in recent years as a population bulge has been moving into secondary schools.

It comes as a report found the majority of secondary schools in England do not prioritise poorer children in their admissions policies.

Some families are 'priced out' of oversubscribed schools due to higher property prices around the school as local pupils are often given priority, according to research by the University of Bristol.

Only a small minority of secondary schools prioritise pupils eligible for Pupil Premium support, which is linked to free school meals and used as a measure of disadvantage, when they are oversubscribed, the analysis has found.

England's school system has been put under pressure in recent years as a population bulge has been moving into secondary schools.

The report, which was funded by the Nuffield Foundation, suggests that using geographical location in school admissions policies can 'establish or reinforce segregation' across neighbourhoods as more affluent parents have the resources to 'buy admission to popular schools' through the housing market.

The majority of secondary schools in England are academies or free schools, which allows them to set their own admissions criteria for allocating places when oversubscribed, independent of the local authority.

A Department of Education spokesperson said: 'The vast majority of families will be offered a place at one of their preferred schools and most will be offered their top place.

'We have already created over one million school places in the last decade  the largest increase in school capacity for at least two generations. We have also announced nearly 530 million to provide both primary and secondary places needed for 2023, and 940m for places needed for 2024 and 2025.

'Last year, 94.4% of applicants for a secondary school place received an offer from one of their top three choices, while 83.3% were offered their first-choice secondary school.'
A church leader in New Zealand has blamed Cyclone Gabrielle, which caused widespread devastation across the North Island, on the wrath of God.

Self-styled 'apostle' Brian Tamaki said last month's deadly weather struck his country because of pornography, abortion and gay rights.

While delivering a sermon, the Destiny Church founder admitted to doing online research into the pornography habits of those impacted by the extreme weather.

Citing statistics he found on Pornhub, he said some of the cities hit by the cyclone - Gisborne and Hastings - have the 'highest number of porn watchers in the country'.

'Don't hate me for this,' Tamaki said. 'I see the perversion that is linked to bad weather. So I hopped on [to the Pornhub website]' he told his followers. He claimed he was 'shocked' by his discovery, but insisted: 'By the way, I don't watch porn.'

Self-styled 'apostle' Brian Tamaki (pictured in August last year) has said last month's deadly Cyclone Gabrielle struck New Zealand because of pornography, abortion and gay rights

'That city in there, Hastings and Gisborne, has the highest number of porn watchers in the country and it's one of the biggest averages per capita in the world,' he said, according to a report on Tamaki's sermon in the New Zealand Herald.

'And they're the biggest watchers on the porn site of gay porn. I know! And I closed it and thought, I can't do this in church, I can't say this publicly.'

Despite that, he continued his search so that 'people can see the truth'. 'Please, stop watching porn, New Zealand. It's getting us in trouble,' he pleaded.

The Destiny Church is a fundamentalist Christian pentecostalist movement, headquartered in Auckland, and is politically aligned with the far-right.

It was founded in 1998, and has since grown notorious through its position against gay rights, its patriarchal views, and its calls for a return to biblical conservative family values, in an otherwise generally liberal-minded country.

The church - which at one point had up to 5,000 members - has been labelled as a cult by some news outlets in the country.

Tamaki was slammed for his comments, and also mocked.

Gisborne mayor Rehette Stoltz said his comments were 'laughable', the New Zealand Herald reported, as well as 'disappointing' and 'unhelpful'.

'We have families struggling after losing their homes and their livelihoods and a much-loved community member lost his life,' she said. 'In true Kiwi style, the rest of NZ have mucked in and supported us every step of the way.'

Stoltz said the church leader was wasting his time 'researching' on Pornhub, and instead said she would be happy to send him details about where he could donate towards charity efforts helping in the recovery of the storm-struck regions.

Cyclone Gabrielle hit New Zealand's North Island on February 12 and battered roads and bridges, left tens of thousands without power across an area that makes up a third of the country.

At least 11 people were killed, and police are still searching for 4 missing people.

More than 6,000 were missing in the immediate aftermath of the storm with communications disrupted in many areas, but that number has fallen in the wake of recovery efforts. A national state of emergency, only the third declared in the country's history, will continue in cyclone-hit regions.

Severe weather again hit the North Island on Friday, with heavy rain prompting more evacuations in Hawke's Bay, one of the regions hardest-hit by Gabrielle.

Storms triggered flash floods and evacuation warnings in and around Auckland, the nation's largest city with a population of around 1.6 million.

Cyclone Gabrielle hit New Zealand's North Island on February 12 and battered roads and bridges, left tens of thousands without power across an area that makes up a third of the country. Police are still searching for 4 missing people

The Waiohiki bridge over the Tutaekuri River is washed away on February 14, 2023 in Napier, New Zealand, as the nation is battered by Cyclone Gabrielle

The Herald noted that Tamaki had made similar comments in 2016, when he blamed both the Kaikoura earthquake - which happened that year - and the earlier devastating 2011 Christchurch earthquake on 'gays, sinners, and murderers'.

His comments were labelled as 'ridiculous' and 'pathetic' by officials at the time.

Former Prime Minister John Key said at the time: 'The facts of life are New Zealand is a seismically prone country, with a number of very well identified fault lines.

'We've been a bit unlucky I think, clearly those plates are moving around a bit. It's nothing to do with people's sexuality. I mean, it's just madness.'
A shoplifter who was held face down at a branch of Sainsbury's for more than 30 minutes died of injuries sustained during his detention, an inquest heard.

Ramunas Paskauskas, 43, was held by two security officers in a training room at the supermarket in Spalding, but he became confused about what was happening due to a language barrier.

When Mr Paskauskas started being threatening and aggressive, in part due to the alcohol he had consumed, he was restrained on the floor.

The inquest at the Myle Cross Centre, in Lincoln, heard the guards, who had little training in restraint, lowered him to the floor but he continued to be aggressive and so they restrained him in a prone position, face down.

They were then assisted by Sainsbury's staff who had no training in the technique at all.

Ramunas Paskauskas, 43, died after being detained by two security officers in a training room at the Sainsbury's in Spalding (pictured)

The supermarket guards (stock image), who had little training in restraint, lowered Mr Paskauskas to the floor and restrained him in a prone position, face down

Mr Paskauskas' health deteriorated and he died at Lincoln County Hospital. The medical cause of death was multi-organ hypoxic/ischaemic injury, respiratory and cardiac arrests and restraint in the prone position.

A jury which considered the evidence during the inquest last week reached a conclusion of death by misadventure.

The jury foreman said: 'On January 8, 2019, Ramunas Paskauskas was detained for attempted theft at Sainsbury's store in Spalding. The detention was within a training room at the store.

'During the detention Mr Paskauskas became erratic and his behaviour escalated to become threatening and aggressive, exacerbated by the alcohol consumed and his confusion over the situation and language barrier.

'The two security persons applied restraint, lowering Mr Paskauskas to the ground, however, his conduct remained aggressive and he was then retrained in the prone position, face down.

'Up to three Sainsbury's parties assisted in the restraint. There was a total period of restraint in the prone position of greater than 30 minutes.

'Whilst restraint was provided in a manner to counter the resistance being displayed by Mr Mr Paskauskas, the security team had little training and experience of applying physical restraint or recognising the risks associated. The Sainsbury's persons had no training in these matters.'

They added: 'The deceased died as a result of the injuries sustained during this restraint period. The deceased met his death on January 8, 2019 at Lincoln County Hospital, Greetwell Road, Lincoln.' Mr Paskauskas was born in Lithuania on April 27, 1975 and was living in Spalding at the time of the incident.

A Sainsbury's spokesperson said: 'We supported the police and coroner on this matter and acknowledge that this case has now concluded. Our thoughts are with Mr Paskauskas' friends and family.'
Doctors warned hospital bosses that a nurse could be harming premature babies at least eight months before she was removed from work, a court heard yesterday.

Dr Ravi Jayaram told the trial of Lucy Letby, 33, that he and his colleagues repeatedly asked senior managers to investigate the unexpected deaths and collapses of infants on the Countess of Chester Hospital's neo-natal unit.

But they were told it was 'very unlikely anything was going on' and were urged not to 'make a fuss', he said.

Dr Jayaram, a paediatrician who makes regular appearances as an expert on television, said consultants raised concerns at least twice, in October 2015 and February 2016.

Manchester Crown Court was told they also asked for a meeting with the directors of medicine and nursing at the hospital, but they were ignored for three months and nothing was done.

Doctors warned hospital bosses that a nurse Lucy Letby (pictured) could be harming premature babies at least eight months before she was removed from work, a court heard yesterday

Dr Ravi Jayaram (pictured) told the trial of Lucy Letby, 33, that he and his colleagues repeatedly asked senior managers to investigate the unexpected deaths and collapses of infants on the Countess of Chester Hospital's neo-natal unit

Dr Jayaram said he found Miss Letby (pictured) doing 'nothing' when Baby K's chest wasn't moving and oxygen levels were dropping

Two more babies were murdered and another six attacked before Letby was eventually taken off the neo-natal unit in June 2016, it is alleged.

Dr Jayaram, whose TV appearances include on ITV's This Morning and the BBC's One Show, said he wished, with hindsight, that he had 'bypassed' managers and gone straight to the police.

'We had significant concerns from the autumn of 2015, we escalated concerns,' Dr Jayaram said. 'They were on the radar of someone as senior as the executive director of nursing as far back as October 2015.

'As clinicians we put our faith in the system, in senior management to escalate concerns and investigate them.

'The initial response was, "it's unlikely that anything is going on, we'll see what happens." We said, "Okay," against our better judgement in retrospect.'

Dr Jayaram said concerns were flagged a second time, in February 2016, after he allegedly interrupted Letby tampering with the breathing tube of a very premature baby girl, known as Baby K, causing her collapse.

He told the court he felt 'extremely uncomfortable' when he realised Letby was alone with the tot because an 'association' had already been made with the nurse and the unexpected deaths and collapses of infants.

When he instinctively went to check on Baby K, he found Letby stood next to her incubator but 'doing nothing' even though her oxygen levels were dropping and she had begun to collapse, Dr Jayaram claimed.

He told jurors that he and his colleagues raised concerns a second time, but they were ignored.

'We flagged up again to the medical director and the director of nursing that we had concerns,' Dr Jayaram said. 'My colleague, Dr Stephen Brearey, requested a meeting with them. They didn't respond to that for another three months.

'We were stuck because we had concerns and didnt know what to do.

'In retrospect I wish we had bypassed them (managers) and gone straight to the police. We by no means were playing judge and jury at any point but the association (with Letby) was becoming clearer and clearer. We were in an unprecedented situation.

'Eventually, we reached a point in June 2016 when we said something has got to change, but thats not for me talk about now.'

Dr Jayaram admitted he failed to confront Letby, make a note of his suspicions in Baby K's medical notes, or put in a formal report or complaint. But he insisted hospital management were aware of he and his colleagues' concerns.

Ben Myers KC, defending, suggested to the medic that the doctors were 'grown adults' who could have gone to the police at any point.

But Dr Jayaram said: 'We were beginning to get a reasonable amount of pressure from senior management at the hospital not to make a fuss. In retrospect, we were all grown-ups and we should have stood up and not listened.'

Mr Myers suggested Dr Jayaram 'did nothing' despite being suspicious of Letby.

'I resuscitated Baby K,' he replied. 'The truth of it is, we were thinking the unthinkable, We did not want to believe it. We did add it to our list of concerns we wanted to raise with hospital management. If ever I was in that situation again I would have no hesitation in bypassing the correct lines of communication.'

The alleged attempted murder is said to have taken place at 3.50am during a night shift at the Countess of Chester Hospital's neonatal unit two hours after the baby was born prematurely in February 2016.

Cross-examined by Ben Myers KC, prosecuting, Dr Jayaram said: 'My reasons for walking in were not based on clinical indications that she Baby K might be at risk of acute deterioration'.

When he agreed that his earlier suspicions about Letby had crossed his mind when seeing her in the nursery, the barrister put it to him: 'You'd got her then!'

Dr Jayaram replied: 'No, because I'd never seen her doing anything'.

He went on to explain that senior medics on the unit had wanted senior management to investigate the association between Letby's presence and the fact that 'more and more of these events were happening'.

'We wanted to have this investigated objectively in an appropriate way. We were unclear how we could have that investigated in an appropriate way.

'There was absolutely no evidence that we could prove anything because that's not our job as doctors.

'As a group of consultants we had experience or knowledge of unusual events, and there was one particular nurse associated with them'.

Asked whether he should have confronted Letby since he suspected she had done something to K on purpose, he replied: 'Absolutely not. It's not my job to do that. It's my job to deal with the baby'.

He rejected Mr Myers' assertion that if the incident had happened as he was telling the jury, and as he had previously told the police, he would have confronted her.

The paediatrician had not written a Datix report on the incident because he didn't think that was the right way to proceed.

Dealing with the issue of a colleague who might be harming babies was 'unfortunately not something we're taught at medical school'.

Furthermore, he had not anticipated that several years later 'I would be sitting here talking to you'.

Dr Jayaram gave evidence at Manchester Crown Court (pictured) on Tuesday where the case continues

He told Mr Myers how his paediatric colleague, Stephen Brearey, had been the first to raise the concerns of senior medics on the unit.

'We tried our best to escalate our concerns to senior management. We took it to senior executive level.

'The concerns were raised by Stephen Brearey before this incident and in the February before or after this we raised them again.

'We had really significant concerns from the autumn of 2015 and we raised them with the executive director of nursing.

'As clinicians we put our faith in senior management as to how it could be investigated. The initial response was to carry on and see what happens.

'We flagged it up again in the February to the medical director and the director of nursing.

'My colleague Dr Brearey asked to have a meeting. They didn't respond to that for another three months. In retrospect we wish we'd bypassed them and gone to the police'.

Letby, of Hereford, denies the murder of seven babies and attempted murder of ten others between June 2015 and June 2016.

The case continues.
A leaked message from Matt Hancock's aide-turned-lover Gina Coladangelo has sparked questions over whether there was a Department of Health celebration at the height of Covid lockdown.

The huge cache of messages obtained by the Telegraph reportedly includes one sent by Ms Coladangelo on May 1, 2020, seemingly to a group of officials.

Hailing that the government had 'smashed' its target for boosting Covid testing capacity, she said: 'Drinks cold in the fridge at DH. Feel free to open them before we are back.'

Ms Coladangelo - at that point a non-executive director at the department - added an emoji of two beer glasses clinking.

Mr Hancock gave the daily Covid briefing in Downing Street that evening, and the message was seemingly sent while it was still under way.

Sources close to the ex-health secretary said he was not present but 'people had a drink at their desk in a socially distanced way, after they hit a major target'.

They insisted there was 'no evidence of any parties in the department'.

The huge cache of messages obtained by the Telegraph includes one sent by Ms Coladangelo on May 1, seemingly to a group of officials

Mr Hancock gave the daily Covid briefing in Downing Street that evening, and sources say he was not present when some staff 'had a drink at their desk in a socially distanced way'

A government spokeswoman did not respond to the specific question, but said: 'We have always said there are lessons to be learnt from the pandemic.

'We are committed to learning from the Covid inquiry's findings, which will play a key role in informing the government's planning and preparations for the future.'

At the time no social gathering was allowed unless it was 'essential for work purposes'.

The Metropolitan Police issued fines over the notorious 'BYOB' gathering in Downing Street on May 20, 2020. However, the May 1 event is not thought to have been considered by police or in Whitehall's Sue Gray report.

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said: 'These messages raise a number of questions about the conduct of Conservative Ministers during lockdown, including whether there was even more drinking and partying going on than is already known about.

'There cannot be one rule for them and another rule for everyone else.

'The families of those who lost their lives during the pandemic deserve the truth.'

Lib Dem health spokeswoman Daisy Cooper said: 'These revelations look like yet another insult to the sacrifices the British public made throughout the lockdowns.

'The allegation that another illegal gathering may have been covered up is hugely concerning. Rishi Sunak must ensure that these revelations are investigated without delay - with no stone left unturned.

'The Conservative Government has lost all credibility with years of sleaze stories coming out.'
Ministers are hoping to win over potential Brexit deal critics by promising that it will unlock billions of dollars of investment by US firms into Northern Ireland

Ministers are said to have revealed that corporations are willing to pump cash into Ulster if the Stormont Assembly and its power-sharing executive resumes.

But this would mean the Democratic Unionist Party would have to accept the Windsor Framework, Bloomberg reported.

Its 'Stormont Brake' that gives local politicians a veto over new EU trade laws relies on the assembly sitting for the first time since February 2022.

Companies including Google, Facebook, AirBnB and Twitter already have extensive European operations in Dublin.

The prospect of investment leading to jobs is a carrot being waved in front of the DUP to win over any wavering MPs.

Rishi Sunak has already wielded the stick by suggesting he will move ahead with other parts of the Windsor deal even without their approval.

Last month US ambassador to the UK Jane Hartley said that a deal would be a 'huge opportunity' for investment in Northern Ireland.

Carrot: Ministers are said to have revealed that corporations are willing to pump cash into Ulster if the Stormont Assembly and its power-sharing executive resumes.

Stick: Rishi Sunak has suggesting he will move ahead with other parts of the Windsor deal even without the DUP's approval.

The DUP will take its time to consider the substance of the Windsor agreement rather than the Government's 'spin', the party's chief whip Sammy Wilson said.

Sinn Fein president Mary-Lou McDonald today said: 'All eyes will be on the north of Ireland, and the question it seems to us, for people in politics is, what do you want the world to see?

'Do you want them to see a vista of opportunity and positivity or not. We want these opportunities for every community and all of our people and we hope that our colleagues from other parties are in that same state of mind.'

'Perhaps the biggest reform that we need now in this moment is a bit of reformed thinking among some.

'The idea for example that endlessly you can meander along in a state of limbo is not politically real. The world doesn't work like that.

'If I had a magic wand, which sadly I don't have, but if I did and could wish for one thing, I would wish for that level of realism to dawn.

'Because you have whole generations of people who are relying on people like us, elected people in this room and beyond, to actually do the right things, make the right moves and seize all of those opportunities.'

Welcoming the deal on Monday, President Biden said that the deal was an 'essential step to ensuring that the hard-earned peace and progress of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement is preserved and strengthened'.

He said: 'I am confident the people and businesses of Northern Ireland will be able to take full advantage of the economic opportunities created by this stability and certainty, and the United States stands ready to support the region's vast economic potential.'

Sinn Fein president Mary-Lou McDonald (right) today said: 'All eyes will be on the north of Ireland, and the question it seems to us, for people in politics is, what do you want the world to see?

Tory Eurosceptics could take two weeks to decide whether to back Rishi Sunak's new Brexit deal for Northern Ireland.

The ERG bloc of Conservative MPs has convened a 'star chamber' to sift through the legal text the PM has thrashed out with the EU.

But a meeting of the group last night was told the team is likely to take at least a fortnight to analyse the Windsor Framework - meaning that key votes could happen before it reaches a conclusion.

The lack of any immediate pushback from the Tory Brexit wing is a significant boost for Mr Sunak, as the DUP considers whether to get on board with the plans and resume powersharing at Stormont.

The premier has warned unionist leader Jeffrey Donaldson, who was a guest at the ERG meeting, that the package cannot be renegotiated, and will go ahead regardless of whether he approves.

It would bring Northern Ireland back under UK tax rules, wipe out most checks in the Irish Sea, and introduce a 'Stormont Brake' on new EU laws.

But DUP chief whip voiced serious doubts about the agreement this morning, dismissing the brake as a 'delaying mechanism'

There are also claims that Boris Johnson has decided he will not oppose the blueprint - but a source close to the ex-PM denied that, saying he is 'still studying and reflecting on the governments proposals'.

The DUP will take its time to consider the substance of the Windsor agreement rather than the Government's 'spin', the party's chief whip said.

Sammy Wilson declined to say whether that would take days or weeks, telling Times Radio: 'As long as it takes us to, first of all, look at the substance of the deal rather than the spin which the Government has given.

'We'll be going back to the Government. We've already identified a whole range of things that the Government has claimed will happen, which we now know won't happen because we've looked at the EU's explanation of it.'

The DUP will not 'have a kneejerk reaction' to the deal, he added.
Greta Thunberg was carried away by police officers yet again today during a protest on Oslo against a wind farm that has been built on indigenous land in Norway.

The Swedish climate activist had joined indigenous Sami protesters in blocking access to the Norwegian foreign ministry on Wednesday to protest against wind turbines that are still in place on reindeer herding land, despite a court ruling.

Police started to break up the demonstrations by physically carrying away members of the group, who were protesting against the use of wind turbines on reindeer herding land in the Fosen region of western Norway.

Thunberg was carried off by two police officers while she was blocking a door at the finance ministry, pictures and video from the scene showed.

The turbines are still in operation despite a landmark ruling more than a year ago by the Norwegian Supreme Court that the project violated the right of Sami families to practise their culture of reindeer husbandry.

Greta Thunberg was carried away by police officers yet again today during a protest on Oslo against a wind farm that has been built on indigenous land in Norway (pictured)

The Swedish climate activist (seen being carried by two officers) had joined indigenous Sami protesters in blocking access to the Norwegian foreign ministry on Wednesday to protest against wind turbines that are still in place on reindeer herding land, despite a court ruling

The protest began last Thursday when a handful of Sami activists, dressed in their traditional blue and red clothing, occupied the entrance hall of the energy ministry.

A growing number of activists - mainly teenagers - then began blocking access to other ministries this week, gradually expanding to more official buildings.

They were joined by Sweden's Greta Thunberg on Sunday. 'This fight is important because it is about human rights being violated,' she told broadcaster TV2.

The campaigners are demanding the removal of wind turbines from reindeer pastures on Sami Indigenous land in central Norway.

An indigenous minority of around 100,000 people spread over the northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia, the Sami have traditionally lived off reindeer herding and fishing. They have a history of being the victims of discrimination.

Norway's highest court unanimously ruled that the expropriation and operating permits for the construction of the 151 turbines were invalid. However, it gave no guidance on what should be done with the turbines, which were already operating.

The Norwegian authorities have so far held off taking action and ordered further assessments, hoping to find a way that the turbines and Sami people can coexist.

Thunberg, for many a global standard-bearer of the campaign to end the world's reliance on carbon-based energy, was later released along with other activists who had also been detained.

She also joined the protests in Oslo on Monday. Its supporters argue that a transition to green energy should not come at the expense of Sami rights.

Reindeer herders say the sight and sound of the giant wind power machinery frighten their animals and disrupt age-old traditions.

Pictured: Greta Thunberg is seen moments before being picked up by two Oslo police officers

Thunberg was carried off by these two police officers while she was blocking a door at the finance ministry, pictures and video from the scene showed

Pictured: Greta Thunberg is seen third-left, sitting outside Norway's Energy Ministry to protest against wind turbines built on land traditionally used to herd reindeer, in Oslo, on February 28

Norway's Sami musician and activist Ella Marie Haetta Isaksen talks to Norway's Oil and Energy Minister Terje Aasland as young climate protesters from the 'Nature and Youth' and 'Norwegian Samirs Riksforbund Nuorat' groups block the entrance of Norway's Energy Ministry to protest against wind turbines built on land traditionally used to herd reindeer, in Oslo, on February 28

A Norwegian Sami protester poses in traditional clothes as young climate protesters from the 'Nature and Youth' and 'Norwegian Samirs Riksforbund Nuorat' groups block the entrance of Norway's Energy Ministry on Tuesday

Greta Thunberg (third-left) attends a demonstration against the Fosen wind turbines not being demolished, which was built on land traditionally used by indigenous Sami reindeer herders, outside Norway's Ministry of Oil and Energy, February 27

The energy ministry has said the turbines present a legal quandary despite the supreme court ruling and is hoping to find a compromise, but that it could take another year to make a new decision in the Fosen case.

Activists on Tuesday said they had raised close to $100,000 in recent days to help individual demonstrators pay police fines.

Activist Ella Marie Haetta Isaksen told Norwegian broadcaster NRK that they were 'escalating another couple of notches. We have said we will shut down the state of Norway, department by department'.

Norway's energy minister cancelled a trip to Britain because of the protests.

Oil and energy minister Terje Aasland 'has chosen to reprioritise his calendar and will therefore not travel to the UK as planned', his office said.

He was due to take part in a two-day visit starting on Wednesday with the Norwegian crown prince and his wife. The ministry said that Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt will replace him.

On Tuesday, Mr Aasland spoke to the activists, saying the government will make a 'new decision' on the wind farm, but he could not give any specifics 'until we have a sufficient knowledge basis for it'.

That infuriated the activists who said in a statement that 'our will to fight is only growing after Terje Aasland's visit with the same empty words as always'.

This is not the first time Thunberg has been carried off by police. In January, the 20-year-old Swede was twice detained by officers at a protest over the expansion of a coal mine in the western village of Lutzerath.

Pictures of her being carried went viral on social media, with many commenting on her sanguine expression as she was lifted and carried away by three body-armour clad officers in a muddy field.

Norway's western Fosen region has a series of six onshore wind farms, that were commissioned in 2018 to 2020. There are 278 wind turbines across the six sites, making it Europe's second larges onshore windfarm (the first being in Sweden).

It more than doubled Norway's capacity for wind power generation.

Greta Thunberg was seen smiling as she was carried away by riot police officers for the second time in three days while protesting at a coal mine in Germany in January

The Norwegian Supreme Court found that the Fosen wind farm project (pictured in 2021, file photo) violated the right of Sami families to practise their culture of reindeer husbandry

The Sami live in Lapland, which stretches from northern parts of Norway through Sweden and Finland to Russia, while a few hundred live in the US and in Ukraine.

They once faced oppression of their culture, including bans on the use of their native tongue, and still face discrimination today.

Today, the nomadic people live mostly modern lifestyles but still tend reindeer, with around 10 percent of the Sami connected to reindeer herding as of 2007.

Today, it is estimated that there are around 100,000 Sami people in total, with Norway being home to the highest number of the indigenous group.
A boyfriend accused of murdering a baby has blamed the boy's mother for the horrific injuries that left the child with eyes so swollen he could not open them.

Jacob Lennon was 15-month-old when he was taken to hospital from the family home in Putney, southwest London, with serious head injuries in August 2019.

A post-mortem examination found injuries consistent with horrendous long-term abuse. Jacob 'looked like a panda' because he had dark bruises under them, the Old Bailey has heard.

Jake Drummond, 33, denies murdering Jacob and a further charge of wounding the baby with intent in relation to earlier injuries, which include one caused to the genitals with a sharp object.

Mother Louise Lennon, 32, denies causing or allowing the death of a child and cruelty to a child.

Jacob Lennon was 15 months old when he was taken to hospital from the family home in Putney, south-west London, with serious head injuries on 26 August 2019

Jake Drummond, 33, denies murdering Jacob and a further charge of wounding the baby with intent in relation to earlier injuries, which include one caused to the genitals with a sharp object

Giving evidence Drummond said the fatal injuries must have been caused by Lennon.

'I'm not to blame for it. I did not touch him.'

His barrister Anne Whyte asked: 'There was no other adults in the flat, so who else could have caused the injuries?'

Drummond replied: 'The only way I can see is that Louise did it herself.'

Asked if he had seen her be violent to her son before, he said he had seen her grab his ears but nothing else.

He said he had woken up at 6am on August 27, 2019, and heard a loud bang.

'I jumped out of bed and I ran into the room next door,' he told the court.

'When I jumped up Louise was awake, she seemed wide awake. At the time I didn't pay much attention to it.

Louise Lennon, 32, denies causing or allowing the death of a child and cruelty to a child

'She had put him in the cot the night before, but when I found him he was lying on the floor in front of the cot.

'I ran in, picked him up, felt he was limp, and ran into Louise's bedroom.

'I saw his lips were turning blue so I told her to call 999.'

He said the operator then advised they perform CPR on Jacob, which he did.

Lennon then went to the hospital with Jacob, where he died at 7.22am.

Drummond said that on the previous Friday Lennon had sent him images of some bruising to Jacob's head, and said she had purchased some Aloe Vera cream.

He said: 'I was really worried about it, that's why I kept telling her to seek medical attention.

He said he next visited the flat on August 24, 2019.

'He was laying on the sofa and she had a cold compress on his head. I asked how he had been and she told me he was fine he was just very tired.'

During this period Drummond had been prevented from seeing his two daughters by their mother Julie Sanders.

On August 26, the day before Jacob's death, he attended a police station and accepted a caution for harassment of Ms Sanders.

He was also questioned about violence towards Ms Sanders, which he denies.

'I was very upset I was not seeing my daughters. It was a big problem for me not seeing them.

'I was very upset, I actually cried a few times because I was missing my daughters, just looking at their pictures really got to me.'

Giving evidence Drummond said the fatal injuries must have been caused by Lennon (pictured)

He told the court that Lennon cooked him a sausage casserole, his favourite meal, on his return from the police station because of the day he had had.

He said: 'Jacob was lying on the sofa in a nappy with a cold compress on his head.

'It seemed like he was in and out of sleep. Louise was sat on the sofa next to him smoking a spliff.'

He said he was taking more cocaine than usual at this time as a 'coping mechanism' to make him 'happier'.

He said Lennon was drinking and smoking cannabis every day.

That night he went out to take cocaine and play games with a friend, which he said had made him calmer, before returning later in the evening.

He said he went to bed at 2am that night, despite phone evidence that shows activity from him and Lennon until 3.38am.

Drummond told the court he sent the messages before he went to bed and they must have been received later because of bad signal.

Drummond, of no fixed address, denies murder and causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

Lennon, of Ingrave Street, Wandsworth, denies causing or allowing the death of a child and child cruelty.

The trial continues.
A young man is fighting for his life in hospital after being stabbed on a bus in Oxford Street in central London last night - as police hunt a 'middle eastern' suspect.

The 25-year-old victim was left critically injured after being attacked at around 10.20pm, Metropolitan Police said, adding that they are trying to locate his next of kin.

The suspect in the case was described as of middle eastern appearance, aged in his mid-20s, with black curly hair and a beard.

He left the bus in the company of an unidentified woman before they headed off towards Oxford Circus tube station.

Detective Chief Inspector Michael Dougall, of the Met's RTPC, said: 'At this early stage it appears the victim sustained his injuries as a result of blunt force.

Forensics officers work inside a police cordon on Oxford Street after a man was stabbed last night

Forensic investigators work the scene of a stabbing in Oxford Street in central London

READ MORE: Interactive map reveals EVERY London murder of 2022 with grim tally of 106 victims Advertisement

'But, however the injuries were inflicted, we now have a young man critically ill in hospital and we are appealing for information.

'I would like to thank those people on the bus who have already come forward, but we also need to trace where these people went after they left the bus.

'Anyone driving along Oxford Circus or Regents Street with any dash cam footage, please check the footage for the people described.'

Photos taken this morning showed a 94 double-decker bus cordoned off by police tape while forensic investigators worked the scene.

A spokesperson for the Met earlier said the force was called to reports of a man stabbed on board a bus on Oxford Street.

'Officers attended and found a 25-year-old man critically injured.

'He was taken to hospital by the London Ambulance Service where he remains with life-threatening injuries.

'A crime scene is in place and parts of Oxford Street remain closed to traffic.

'Additional officers are in the area. There have been no arrests and enquiries continue.'

Anyone with information is urged to contact the Met via 101 and quote the reference CAD 7103/28Feb.

The latest knife attack came just one day after three teenagers were rushed to hospital following a triple stabbing in the east of the capital.

Police and the London Ambulance Service were called to Popeyes takeaway in Romford where the brawl had erupted at about 5.30pm on Monday, according to The Sun.

The report claimed a group of boys in hooded coats were seen before a fight broke out with punches, people being thrown to the floor and others using chairs to hit with.

Three teenagers aged 15, 16 and 17 were found with stab wounds, not thought to be life threatening.

Photos taken this morning showed a 94 double-decker bus cordoned off by police tape while forensic investigators worked the scene

The 25-year-old was left critically injured after being attacked at around 10.20pm, Metropolitan Police said (Pictured: Scene on Wednesday morning)

Figures released in December showed the Met Police responded to 13,405 incidents involving knives in just 12 months.

Between October 2021 and June 2022, 49,991 non-fatal crimes using knives were recorded across England and Wales, according to crime survey data released by the Office for National Statistics.

This is equivalent to 136 incidents every single day.

In that period, knife offences recorded by the Metropolitan Police increased from 10,605 to 11,232, to a rate of 125 incidents per 100,000 population.
From left, actresses Kim Da-mi, Jeon So-nee, director Min Yong-keun and actor Byun Woo-seok pose during a press conference for the film, "Soulmate," in Seoul, Tuesday. Courtesy of NEW



By Kwak Yeon-soo



"Soulmate" is an endearing love letter to female friendship with two stunning performances by Kim Da-mi and Jeon So-nee. The two actresses, who co-star as best friends in the film, show that the bond of female friendship can be stronger than romantic love.



Director Min Yong-keun manages to combine elaborate elements of a coming-of-age work with drama and romance while demonstrating an understanding of women's relationships.



He revealed that he initially turned down directing "Soulmate" because he wasn't sure if he could depict the complexities of female friendship.



"One thing that really struck me was the story of friendship that stands the test of time and distance. While adapting the screenplay, I interviewed a lot of women. Since there are a lot of women in my family. I was able to learn about friendships and the inflection points they go through," he said during a press conference for the film, Tuesday.



Adapted from the Chinese film of the same title, "Soulmate" follows the lives of two friends. One is Mi-so (Kim), a free-spirited girl who rides a motorcycle and works part-time as a bartender while attending high school. The other is Ha-eun (Jeon), a risk-averse, well-behaved student who is afraid of heights.



Despite their differences, the two have been best friends since 1998. Then a handsome boy named Jin-woo (Byeon Woo-seok) turns up and complicates their friendship. The film then takes a unique turn, following not romance but female friendship.





A scene from the film, "Soulmate" / Courtesy of NEW
Storm Juliette hit Mallorca on Sunday and brought blizzards and cold weather

Mallorca has been covered with snow and rescue teams have been deployed

Mallorca was hit by a record 13 feet of snow - its heaviest snow fall since 1985 - during a winter storm that has wreaked havoc on the island, it emerged today.

The Spanish holiday island, known for its sun-drenched beaches, has been covered with snow and rescue teams have been deployed to evacuate residents who have been stranded in their homes due to the storm.

Storm Juliette hit Mallorca on Sunday and brought blizzards and cold weather to the Balearic island.

A record 13 feet of snow accumulated in the Serra de Tramuntana mountain range by Tuesday evening - the heaviest snow fall since 1985. Spain's meteorological agency AEMET described the sheer volume of snow as 'extraordinary'.

Dozens of roads remain closed due to the heavy snow fall and more than 3,000 people are without electricity.

Mallorca was hit by a record 13 feet of snow - its heaviest snow fall since 1985 - during a winter storm that has wreaked havoc on the island.

The Spanish holiday island, known for its sun-drenched beaches, has been covered with snow

A van stops after skidding on a snow-covered road close to the mountain village of Valldemossa on the Spanish Balearic island of Mallorca on Monday

This picture shows the mountain village of Valldemossa covered in snow, on Monday

Military emergency units from Spain's mainland arrived in Palma today with snow ploughs and heavy equipment and are working with local agencies to clear the roads, which are covered with snow and fallen branches.

Hundreds of trees have fallen onto the roads, making them impassible, after 117 km/hr winds hit the island on Monday and Tuesday.

While the Serre de Tramuntana mountain range was blanketed with a record 13ft of snow, more than 3ft fell in other areas of Mallorca within 24 hours.

Storm Juliette also caused flash flooding in some areas including the town of Pollensa, with 51 houses flooded due to the heavy rainfall.

More than 3,000 residents on the island are still without electricity after the winter storm damaged 20 high voltage lines. The snow storm led to power cuts in dozens of towns including Valldemossa, Alaro, Vilafranca and Port d'Alcudia.

The sheer volume of snow has also forced the closure of up to 19 roads in the Serra de Tramuntana region.

Yesterday, AEMET warned the coastal regions in northern Mallorca will be hit with 55mph winds and 26ft waves.

The snow is expected to subside from Mallorca on Wednesday and move towards mainland Spain.

Two people walk down a snow-covered street in the mountain village of Valldemossa during a heavy snow-fall, on the Spanish Balearic island of Mallorca on Monday

Snow and fallen branches covers a road in the Serra de Tramuntana mountains in Mallorca on Tuesday

Workers remove fallen branches and trees after a heavy snow in Serra de Tramuntana mountains in Mallorca on Tuesday

However, there remain yellow coastal warnings in place in the northern parts of the island as there are 9ft waves expected on the coast.

The storm is expected to cause low temperatures and strong cold winds across the country and Balearic Islands until Thursday, AEMET said on Monday.

Elsewhere in Europe, hundreds of people in Croatia were stuck in their cars on Monday after a snowstorm halted traffic and cut off parts of the country.

The sudden change in the weather over the weekend after a period of warm and balmy days also snarled up traffic in neighbouring Serbia and Bosnia.

The weather left areas in western Serbia without power and cut railway traffic to neighbouring Montenegro.

Workers remove fallen branches and trees after a heavy snow in Serra de Tramuntana mountains in Mallorca on Tuesday

A woman walks down a snow-covered street in the mountain village of Valldemossa during a heavy snow-fall on Monday
A 'buy now pay later' firm promoted by social media influencers and reality TV stars is set to introduce late fees for shoppers within weeks.

Klarna, which has been supported by the likes of Love Island star Molly Mae, is rolling out penalty payments in the UK from March 16.

It will mean customers who miss payments will be hit with a 5 late fee, in a move debt experts fear could be a 'real problem' for struggling families.

Klarna has insisted customers will not be unfairly stung, with the firm adding it has set up a new financial support service to help those who 'fall behind on payments get back on track'.

'Buy now pay later' allows consumers to buy products on credit and pay for them at a later date, or split over several payments.

Molly Mae (pictured) is among the social media influencers to have promoted Klarna online

The schemes can help families to pay for essentials when used responsibly - but critics have raised concerns about how easily people can rack up debt using them.

Klarna previously didn't issue any penalties for late fees in the UK. Instead, customers' credit scores could have been affected.

Alex Marsh, head of Klarna UK, said: 'Not charging fees feels customer-friendly, but we're worried it drives the wrong behaviour and our data now shows that a total absence of late fees actually leads to less favourable outcomes for customers: with less reason to pay on time, customers are more likely to fall behind.

'It's like a city with no parking tickets; it sounds great, but in practice turns out to not be so great.'

Klarna already has similar fees in place in other countries, including Belgium and the Netherlands.

The new UK scheme will now see shoppers being given a seven-day grace period, with a minimum of four reminders being sent before the first penalty fee is issued.

Klarna said customers will not receive more than two fees charged per order, so if multiple payments were missed, shoppers couldn't be charged more than 10.

No further fees will be charged for those who miss two payments, with late fees being capped at 25 per cent of the cost of the order on lower value purchases. No interest will be charged on missed payments.

Klarna claimed a YouGov survey found 75 per cent of British customers were more likely to pay on time if there was a late fee.

But debt expert Sara Williams, who works at Debt Camel, has warned the introduction of penalty charges could push struggling families over the edge.

Klarna said it will be introducing a financial support scheme to help customers who fall behind on their payments - and that it will cap penalty fees

'Klarna's big selling point has always been no interest and no late fees,' she told The Sun.

'Many people use Klarna for a lot of small purchases, sometimes of essentials.

'Adding a 5 late fee per purchase to these will be a real problem for people who are already struggling.'

However, James Daley, managing director at Fairer Finance, said he was 'pleased' the new fees had been introduced.

'Used responsibly, late fees provide an important deterrent as well as a reminder that buy now pay later is a form of credit and needs to be taken seriously as a loan,' he added.

The changes come amid concerns a financial watchdog over how 'buy now pay later' firms, advertised by social media influencers, could be misleading consumers by failing to warn them of the risk of debt.

The warning by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) came after supermarket Iceland was criticised for 'exploiting' customers after they announced its own interest-free loan options which it claimed would help shoppers amid the cost-of-living crisis.

The FCA claimed companies could be committing a criminal offence over misleading and harmful adverts by failing to warn of the risks of taking on debt they cannot afford to repay, the FCA has said.

Love Island star Molly Mae (pictured) is among the influencers who were previously paid to promote Klarna to their followers

The warning comes after supermarket giant Iceland announced its own interest-free loans options last year that it claimed would help shoppers with their food shop amid the worsening cost-of-living crisis

Social media influencers such as Love Island's Molly Mae - who has 7.4 million followers on Instagram - have advertised the 'buy now pay later' schemes on social media without including risk warnings.

In an Instagram post in August 2022, Molly Mae shared a photo of herself in sportswear with '@klarna ad' in the caption, yet there didn't appear to be a warning to her millions of followers about the risks of taking on debt.

The FCA raised concerns over financial adverts on websites and social media, including 'influencers' promoting such products, that could be breaching regulatory rules.

Klarna's new late fee scheme brings it in line with other major buy now, pay later schemes, with Laybuy and Clearpay already charging a 6 late penalty.

Klarna said it will use fees collected to fund its customer recovery programme, set to launch later this year.

It will see the finance firm offering to waive 50 per cent of the balance owed by eligible customers who have slipped behind on payments, instead of bailiffs being called in.

The firm is also introducing an autopay feature on its Pay in 30 days scheme, so customers can set payments to be automatically taken from their account.
An 18-month-old girl is lucky to be alive after a mystery infection, that a GP thought was 'just a cold', put her into a coma for three days as her body threatened to 'shut down'.

Melbourne parents Lyndal and Ben MacArthur shared the harrowing story of how their baby daughter Hadley contracted a new deadly strain of the Invasive Group A Streptococcus virus, better known as Strep A, late last year.

Ms MacArthur recounted the nightmare experience in a lengthy Facebook post and expressed the hope it would 'spread some awareness in what to look out for and the early warning signs of this awful, life-threatening bacterial infection'.

She says Hadley who had just started daycare, began suffering a persistent fever, which Panadol couldn't quell on November 4 last year.

A GP reassured Ms MacArthur that despite Hadley having a very red throat 'she most likely had a virus' and the anxious parents should monitor her but wait for it to pass.

Melbourne parents Lyndal and Ben MacArthur shared the harrowing story of how their baby daughter Hadley (pictured) contracted a new deadly strain of the Invasive Group A Streptococcus virus, better known as Strep A , late last year

Ms MacArthur, however, said that 'this time it just felt different' and although Hadley seemed to be her normal self for the rest of the afternoon at around dinner time her fluid and food intake dropped markedly and she began vomiting.

The couple called the Victorian Virtual Emergency Department (VVED) - a 24-hour public telehealth service - and a paediatric doctor 'took one look at Hadley via video call and told us to call an ambulance'.

'I actually believe that if Hadley had been put to bed that night they would have found a dead baby in the morning,' VVED doctor Loren Sher told Channel Seven.

The family arrived at Monash Children's Hospital just after midnight and in the early hours Hadley seemed to improve and was eating and drinking again.

What are the telltale signs of Strep A? Invasive group A streptococcal disease may be difficult to distinguish from a viral infection. However the below signs are the things to watch out for. Serious bacterial infection may be detected if the below signs persist, there are multiple symptoms or they are extreme in nature. Signs to watch out for in children include: -Fever - Sunburn-like rash (scarlet fever rash, which may be subtle or florid), - Cold or mottled limbs - Limb pain, not wanting to walk - Poor feeding - Abdominal pain - Vomiting - Lethargy - Throat infection Advertisement

However, by mid morning the next day Hadley was experiencing severe diarrhea and had grown irritable, confused and sleepy even as fluids were pumped into her.

'We noticed her hands and feet went very cold and purple and her chest went a purple mottled colour with her capillary refill test at about 8-10 seconds,' Ms MacArthur said.

'It was getting harder for her to breathe.

'Her heart was not coping and her body was shutting down. She was critical.

'Her little body had gone into severe septic shock from what they thought was some kind of bacterial infection in her blood.'

With Hadley's blood pressure plummeting, and her fingers and toes discolouring rapidly the decision was made to put the distressed child into a coma and intubate her in intensive care.

'What we thought was going to be 15 minutes of waiting, ended up being over two a half hours,' Ms MacArthur said.

'You could hear the machines and various alarms going off loudly in the other room and lots of people moving around, our hearts sank to the floor. We will never forget it.

'Going back into that room was the most difficult thing we have ever done.

'We walked into a scene that no parent should ever have to experience, our little angel had numerous tubes and wires attached to her.

'And the sound of the ventilator is something that will forever stick with us.'

Doctors told the couple they had almost lost Hadley but she had stabilised.

'It was two weeks of ups and downs, she had complication after complication,' Ms MacArthur said.

A particular area of concern was Hadley's left leg and foot which suffered reduced blood flow and will need future surgeries and rehab.

The couple called the Victorian Virtual Emergency Department (VVED) - a 24-hour public telehealth service - and a paediatric doctor 'took one look at Hadley via video call and told us to call an ambulance'.

The couple (pictured) called the Victorian Virtual Emergency Department (VVED) - a 24-hour public telehealth service - and a paediatric doctor 'took one look at Hadley via video call and told us to call an ambulance'

'Our little fighter defied all odds and is here with us today,' Ms MacArther said.

'She is smiling and giggling again and despite the issues with her left foot, is still determined to get back to her pre-sickness standing and learning to walk.'

Step A is a bacteria found in the throat and skin and commonly causes sore throats.

However, it can turn into a severe infection known as invasive group A streptococcal disease or iGAS, which poisons the blood.

Melbourne University senior lecturer in bacteriology Mark Davies said a new variant of strep A, M1UK, had been recently discovered in the UK.

The new strain, which increases the rate of scarlet fever and iGAS, has been detected in Australia.

'We do need to be vigilant... in relation to the identification of any variants that we see entering into Australia,' Prof Davies told Seven News.

Invasive Step A cases in Australia have skyrocketed from 224 cases in 2021 to 1182 in 2022.

Warning signs of invasive group A streptococcal disease include vomiting, fever, shortness of breath and a rapidly spreading skin infection.

Ms MacArthur urged other parents to be vigilant if their children show these signs.

'Parents are told its just a virus, which it can present as very early on,' Ms MacArthur said.

'But the hospital staff told us they would rather parents present multiple times than have it be too late.

'And remember, you know your kid best and you can ALWAYS advocate for them if youre worried.'

'We are just so glad we trusted our gut instincts, as they were right and also had professionals around us that didnt dismiss our concerns.'
The review comes after parents raised concerns about sex education lessons

A Scottish syllabus has been blamed for a school's sex education lessons that saw a drag queen guest tell pupils there were 73 genders.

Other class topics that stunned parents included teachings on oral and anal sex, sex-change operations and how skin grafts can be used on an artificial penis.

Another teacher is also said to have had to teach pupils in Year 7 and 8 how to masturbate.

The disquiet over the lessons at Queen Elizabeth II High School in Peel, Isle of Man, has sparked in independent review after children were left 'traumatised'.

One parent told MailOnline the lessons had appeared to have stemmed from the island taking on the Scottish sex education syllabus.

He said: 'No-one can understand why the Scottish suggestions have been taken on like this.

An independent review has been launched into Queen Elizabeth II High School in Peel, Isle of Man

'There have been ten to 11-year-olds taught about how to make a penis from skin on a forearm.

'You can't have children going into a biology lesson and be told there is male and female and then go into another and be told there are 73 genders.

'This sort of thing is not appropriate for that age.'

The review of the school's personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) curriculum, led by the island's government, comes after parents raised concerns.

It includes a drag queen teaching the children some of whom were as young as 11, that there are 73 genders.

When a pupil said 'there's only two', the drag queen made the child leave the classroom.

The concerns centre around the 'graphic, disproportionate, indecent presentation' of sexual acts and gender identities

Eliza Cox, vice-chairman of Marown Parish Commissioners, told Energy FM on the island: 'A lot of children are just too traumatised to even talk to their parents. As a parent, you dont know what children are being taught.'

A petition, addressed to the school's head teacher, has been started by parents calling for an 'immediate investigation' into the lessons.

It reads: 'We consider the attendance of a "drag queen" in class and alienating students clearly confused about the information discussed during this session wholly inappropriate.

'How, who and why was this guest speaker permitted to discuss gender issues to an inappropriate child audience by an inexperienced and untrained adult?'

The Isle of Man government has said it has launched an independent review to gain an understanding of what has taken place.

It comes after the island introduced a new relationships and sex education (RSE) curriculum in September.

Charlotte Clarke, the school's head teacher, said: 'Having viewed a video which is currently circulating on social media relating to the schools RSE curriculum and its delivery, we are concerned that there could be a number of inaccuracies with the information being shared.

'Given the concerns being raised, and in order to be open and transparent, we requested an independent review into the situation.

'As such I am happy to take part in the independent review which is being deployed by the Department of Education, Sport and Culture and would encourage our community to avoid speculation at this time.'

A spokesperson for the Department for Education added: 'Schools must make sure all content they use is factual and age-appropriate, and engage with parents so they are aware of what their children are being taught.

'We will write to all schools this term to emphasise the rights of parents to see teaching materials being taught to their children in schools.'
Police investigating the death of a mother-of-three who was shot multiple times have raided the home of her estranged husband.

Rebecca Bliefnick, 41, was found dead in her home by a family member on February 23, after they became concerned that she had not collected her three children from their school in Quincy, Illinois.

Officers swooped on a house on Hampshire Street at 8am on Wednesday, just a mile away from Rebecca's property on Kentucky Road.

Her husband, Tim Bliefnick, 39, lives at the location, and it is understood that the pair were undergoing divorce proceedings.

Sources say that business developer Bliefnick was 'very cooperative' with officers, and handed over his keys to the home, which he rents, and his car.

Rebecca Bliefnick, 41, was found dead in her home by a family member on February 23, after they became concerned that she had not collected her three children from their school in Quincy, Illinois

Sources say that Bliefnick (pictured right at the property on Wednesday morning) was 'very cooperative' with officers, and handed over his keys to the home, which he rents, and his car

Bliefnick was stopped by officers outside of the property, and taken to a relative's house following the conversation with officers, according to Muddy River News.

Quincy Police confirmed that they raided the home, and a person was 'temporarily detained', then subsequently released.

They stressed that no arrests have been made in connection with the murder, and they have not submitted an arrest warrant.

Rebecca's estranged husband does not own the property which was raided, and it is unclear who was detained by police.

Concerned family members raised the alarm after Rebecca, a nurse, failed to collect her three sons from school.

Officers responded to her home at 3.32pm and have remained on site since, removing evidence from the property.

Police Chief Adam Yates said that such a violent crime is 'rare' in the small town, which has only 40,000 residents.

In a statement, the police department said: 'There were no injures reported during the service of the warrant. As part of the warrant service, an individual was temporarily detained in the 2000 block of Hampshire and released.

Her husband, Tim Bliefnick, 39, (right) is listed as living at the property along with several others, and it is understood that the pair were undergoing divorce proceedings.

Bliefnick was stopped by officers outside of his home, and taken to a relative's property following the conversation with officers, according to Muddy River News

Rebecca's estranged husband does not own the property which has been raided, and it is unclear who was detained by police

'The information learned and evidence gathered over the last six days has led us to this point in our investigation.

'During a criminal investigation it is not unusual to obtain and serve numerous search warrants for a variety of reasons. Search warrants are a normal part of the investigative process.

'Our detectives will allow the information and evidence to guide them as they continue to investigate.

'The Adams County Sheriff's Office and Adams County Ambulance Service assisted with the service of the search warrant.

'It is important to remember that all individuals are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.'

Authorities previously said that they have eight detectives working on the case, as friends and family of Rebecca shared a 'Justice for Becky' image, with the police department number on.

Rebecca and Tim are understood to have married in 2009, but at the time of her death were going through divorce proceedings though nothing was finalized.

The couple have three sons together, but were living separately at the time of her death, with court records showing their split was filed in February 2021.

Rebecca (pictured left) with a friend in a Facebook post

Officers swooped on a home on Hampshire Street at 8am on Wednesday, just a mile away from Rebecca's home on Kentucky Road

Adams County Medical Examiner did not immediately respond when contacted by DailyMail.com for a request for comment.

Police confirmed that they were keeping an open mind, appealing for additional witnesses and have not ruled anyone out as a suspect.

In a statement Police Chief Yates said that the investigation is 'difficult' and they 'take time', before promising that 'an incredible amount of work is going on behind the scenes.'

He added: 'The Quincy community has not experienced a crime of this magnitude since early 2019. All death is tragic; the circumstances of Ms. Bliefnick's murder are incomprehensible.

'Our community is shaken, on edge and they want answers. The members of our police department dedicate their lives to protecting the members of our community.

'When a crime like this occurs, it becomes our mission to ensure there is justice for the victim and a restored sense of security for our residents.

Officers responded to her home at 3.32pm and have remained on site since, removing evidence from the property

Rebecca and Tim are understood to have married in 2009, but at the time of her death were going through divorce proceedings though nothing was finalized

'We have only one chance to get it right. Ms. Bliefnick deserves our best and that is exactly what we intend to give her.

'We are fortunate to live in a community where violent crime such as this is rare. When it happens, it is devastating.

'Nothing I say here tonight will put our community at ease. Making an arrest in this case is the only way to do that. We are working very hard to make that happen. This investigation is our highest priority.

'Again, offer my condolences to Ms. Bliefnick's family and friends. May God be with them, her and with the investigators seeking justice on her behalf.'

Anyone with information is encouraged to call the Quincy Police Department at 217-228-4470. If you prefer to remain anonymous, you can submit a tip through Quincy Regional Crimestoppers 217-228-4474.
A youth education boss has warned against getting black and white ID photos after realising she 'looks like Rose West' on her Costco membership card.

Adele Prendergast was stunned to see the likeness of the notorious serial killer staring back at her when a staff member passed over her card featuring a headshot taken seconds earlier.

The black and white image shows the 37-year-old in thick-rimmed glasses and messy hair sporting a 'smirk' - that she admits looks just like a police mugshot of West.

Mother-of-two Adele says she told the staff member 'you've made me look like Rose West' but claims the 'serious' employee simply said 'tough, there's nothing I can do'.

She's since revealed she spent a year wondering if she actually looked like the murderer every time she handed the 12-month membership card in to gain entry to the store.

Adele Prendergast (right) was stunned to see the likeness of the notorious serial killer (left) staring back at her when a staff member passed over her card featuring a headshot taken seconds earlier

The crimes of Rose and Fred West The Wests, who lived at their Gloucester home from 1972 until their arrests in 1994, regularly took on lodgers in the property, which was also home to ten of their children. To supplement their income, Rose would solicit to both men and women in one of the upstairs bedrooms, while Fred would watch through peep holes. Rose was convicted of 10 murders and is one of just three female prisoners serving a whole life tariff. Her husband, Fred, confessed the killings in 1994 and committed suicide while on remand at HMP Birmingham a year later. The victims include Heather West (their daughter), 16, Alison Chambers, 16, Shirley Robinson, 18, Juanita Mott, 18, Shirley Hubbard, 15, Theresa Siegnethaler, 21, Lucy Partington, 21, Carol Ann Cooper, 15, Lynda Gough, 19, Rena Costello (Freds ex-wife), 27, Charmaine West (Freds daughter), 8, and Anne McFall, 18. Fred is believed to have also killed 15-year-old Mary Bastholm, although her remains have never been found. Advertisement

The founder of a financial education firm posted a TikTok video a fortnight ago revealing the unfortunate image.

Now she's urging anyone getting ID photos or membership cards to watch out for black and white images and to 'get dolled up' to avoid her embarrassment.

Adele, from Shotts, Lanarkshire, Scotland, said: 'Anyone that knows Rose West knows the exact picture I'm talking about. Where she looks straight at the camera.

'I think it's because of my glasses when you see them in black and white. I just look deadpan and there's nothing behind my eyes. We both have the same smirk too.

'I said to [the worker] 'you've made me look like Rose West and she just said 'there's nothing I can do about it'. I asked if I could retake and she said 'no'. She was so serious and just said 'tough'.

'Luckily I'm not a vain person at all and I just thought it was really funny that that's who I looked like. It doesn't get any worse. You wouldn't want people to think you look like her.

'For our job we need full safety disclosures to be around children and here I am looking like old Rosie.

'I laughed every time I handed it in for the staff to check it was me. I was questioning if I actually look like her. I couldn't wait to cut it up after a year.

'Passport photos, this and anything where you have to look straight at a camera aren't pretty and you're not getting dolled up to go to Costco.

'I'd tell people to get their passports in colour and get their eyelashes done and their hair all nice with a bouncy blow dry to make sure they look nice in it. I've learned my lesson.'

Despite Adele wishing she'd have been able to take another shot, she says she understands Costco can't 'promote vanity' by giving people the chance to retake shots multiple times.

Despite Adele wishing she'd have been able to take another shot, she says she understands Costco can't 'promote vanity' by giving people the chance to retake shots multiple times

Her Facebook post captioned 'big shout out to Costco for managing to make me look like Rose West' has attracted more than 100 reactions and almost 50 comments.

Rose West collaborated with husband Fred West in the murder and torture of multiple women in the 1970s and 1980s and is still in prison.

Adele says she's pleased she doesn't look like West on her most recent Costco card as she has longer hair now.

Costco's policy on them taking more than one image for membership cards is unclear although it's believed some staff members allow it.

Costco declined to comment.
Robert F. Kennedy's assassin Sirhan Sirhan is set to appear again in front of a parole board hearing today as he pleas to be released despite California Governor Gavin Newsom overturning the boards decision last year.

It will be the second time in two years that he has appeared in front of a parole board and the 16th time overall.

Nearly two years ago, a California parole board voted to free Sirhan, but the decision was later overturned by the governor.

Even if the board at a federal prison in San Diego County rules that Sirhan is suitable for release a second time, his lawyer, Angela Berry, said she does not expect it to change Newsom's mind because of his 'affinity for R.F. Kennedy,' who he has cited as a political hero.

She said this is the reason she is also turning to the courts. The parole board hearing comes nearly six months after Berry asked a Los Angeles County judge to reverse Newsom's denial. The case is ongoing.

Pictured: Sirhan Sirhan arrives for a parole hearing on August 27, 2021, in San Diego, California

Pictured: Sen. Robert F. Kennedy lies on the floor of the Ambassador Hotel after being shot

Newsom rejected Sirhan's bid for freedom in 2022, saying that he remains a threat to the public and has not taken responsibility for a crime that changed American history.

He overruled two parole commissioners who had found that Sirhan was no longer a risk. Among other factors, Newsom said the Christian Palestinian who immigrated from Jordan has failed to disclaim violence committed in his name, adding to the risk that he could incite political unrest.

The ruling split the Kennedy family, with RFKs widow, Ethel Kennedy, and six of Kennedy's nine surviving children opposing his parole.

Kennedy's daughter Kerry said in January last year that she is 'deeply grateful' to Newsom for rejecting Sirhan's request to be paroled.

In an interview with Good Morning America, Kerry said: 'This is a man who has shown no remorse, who has shown no ability to take responsibility for his crime and he is a current danger to the people of California and to our country.'

Berry has said the 78-year-old, who has spent more than 54 years in prison, is not a danger to society and should be released. She said that will be the main point she and Sirhan will make to the board.

'They found him suitable for release last time and nothing has changed,' Berry said. 'He's continued to show great behavior.'

In a 3 1/2-minute message played during a news conference held by Berry in September, Sirhan said he feels remorse every day for his actions. It was the first time Sirhan's voice had been heard publicly since a televised parole hearing in 2011, before California barred audio or visual recordings of such proceedings.

'To transform this weight into something positive, I have dedicated my life to self-improvement, the mentoring of others in prison on how to live a peaceful life that revolves around nonviolence,' he said. 'By doing this, I ensure that no other person is victimized by my actions again and hopefully make an impact on others to follow.'

Pictured: California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks in Sacramento, California on January 10, 2023

Kerry Kennedy, the daughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy, said in January 2022 she was grateful that Governor Gavin Newsom rejected Sirhan Sirhan's attempt at parole

Sirhan shot Kennedy moments after the U.S. senator from New York claimed victory in California's pivotal Democratic presidential primary in 1968. He wounded five others during the shooting at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

Sirhan was originally sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted to life when the California Supreme Court briefly outlawed capital punishment in 1972.

He was denied parole 15 times until 2021, when the board recommended his release.

Sirhan's younger brother, Munir, has said he can live with him in Pasadena, California, if he is paroled. Sirhan has waived his right to fight deportation to his native Jordan.

Berry filed a 53-page writ of habeas corpus asking the judge to rule that Newsom violated state law, which holds that inmates should be paroled unless they pose a current unreasonable public safety risk. Recent California laws also required the parole panel to consider that Sirhan committed the offense at a young age - 24 - and that he is now an older prisoner.

Berry is challenging the governor's reversal as an 'abuse of discretion,' a denial of Sirhan's constitutional right to due process and as a violation of California law. She also alleges that Newsom misstated the facts in his decision.

Pictured: Sirhan Sirhan, right, accused assassin of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, with his attorney Russell E. Parsons in Los Angeles in June 1968

Pictured: Sirhan Sirhan at a parole hearing on February 10, 2016, at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego

When the California Parole Board in January 2022 recommended that Sirhan should be considered for parole, one of RFK's sons, Robert Kennedy Jr., supported the recommendation.

Governor Newsom wrote an op-ed for The Los Angeles Times to explain his decision to overrule.

He said: 'Kennedy's assassination not only changed the course of this nation and robbed the world of a promising young leader, it also left his 11 children without a father and his wife without a husband.

'Kennedy's family bears his loss every day. Millions of Americans lost a unifier in a time of national turmoil and grief, just nine weeks after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and four-and-a-half years after the murder of Kennedy's brother, President John F. Kennedy.'

Parole commissioners found Sirhan suitable for release 'because of his impressive extensive record of rehabilitation over the last half-century,' Berry said. 'Since the mid-1980's Mr. Sirhan has consistently been found by prison psychologists and psychiatrists to not pose an unreasonable risk of danger to the public.'

During his parole hearing, Sirhan called Kennedy 'the hope of the world'. But he stopped short of taking full responsibility for a shooting he said he does not recall because he was drunk.

'It pains me ... the knowledge for such a horrible deed, if I did in fact do that,' Sirhan said.

Six of RFK's nine surviving children signed a letter publicly pleading with the Parole Board and Newsom not to grant Sirhan's parole.

'As children of Robert F. Kennedy, we are devastated that the man who murdered our father has been recommended for parole,' the letter began.

'We adamantly oppose the parole and release of Sirhan Sirhan and are shocked by a ruling that we believe ignores the standards for parole of a confessed, first-degree murderer in the state of California.'

The siblings directly called on Newsom to reject the parole and insisted that they 'intend to challenge' Sirhan's release 'every step of the way'.

The panel's decision was based in part on several California laws that had come in since he was denied parole in 2016 - the 15th time he'd lost his bid for release.

Los Angeles County prosecutors did not object to his parole, following District Attorney George Gascon's policy that prosecutors should not be involved in deciding whether prisoners are ready for release.

The decision had a personal element for Newsom, a fellow Democrat, who displays RFK photos in his official and home offices. One of them is of Kennedy with Newsom's late father.

Newsom has previously reflected on the gravity of having Sirhan's fate in his hands, saying it was an emotional issue that echoed back to the turbulent '60s and reopened memories many want to forget.

Sirhan now has a heart condition and has survived prostate cancer, Valley fever and having his throat slashed by another prisoner in 2019, his lawyer, Angela Berry, said.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman has expressed her concern after police recorded a 'hate incident' at a school after pupils caused 'slight damage' to a copy of the Quran when it fell on the floor.

West Yorkshire Police became involved after a Year 10 boy, who is said to be autistic, was told by friends to bring in a copy of the Muslim holy book as a forfeit for losing a video game.

It was then damaged after apparently being dropped, causing some damage to the pages.

False rumours the book had been burnt prompted concern among parents and local leaders, who discussed the incident with police during a meeting at the local mosque.

All four pupils at Kettlethorpe High School in Wakefield, West Yorkshire were suspended and the police informed.

A source close to Suella Braverman questioned whether the police response was 'proportionate'

Officers found there had been only 'minor damage' to the Quran during the prank and that no crime had been committed.

However, it was recorded as a 'non-crime hate incident', a designation the police use to record those not meeting the criminal threshold.

Headmaster Tudor Griffiths said there had been 'no malicious intent' but the pupils' actions were 'unacceptable' because they 'did not treat the Quran with the respect it should have'.

A source close to Ms Braverman told The Times: 'These are very concerning reports.

'The home secretary is clear that the police response should always be proportionate and consider the welfare of young children as a priority over any perceived insults.'

Humanists UK called the decision to suspend the boys 'horrendous' and said the school had allowed itself to be 'pressured into excessive disciplinary action by a religious group'.

West Yorkshire Police said: 'We are aware of local and national concerns following an incident at Kettlethorpe High School in Wakefield last week.

West Yorkshire Police said: 'We are aware of local and national concerns following an incident at Kettlethorpe High School in Wakefield last week'

'Police were made aware on the evening of Thursday, 23 February, of an incident that had occurred at the school earlier that day.

'Initial enquiries confirmed that minor damage was caused to a religious text.

'We have recorded a hate incident, but from our enquiries are satisfied that no criminal offences were committed.

'A report was also made of a malicious communications offence in relation to threats being made to a child in connection with this incident.

'A suspect was identified, who was also a child, and they were given words of advice by an officer.

'We are continuing to liaise with the school and our neighbourhood officers are conducting additional reassurance patrols in the area.'

The school is ten miles from Batley Grammar School, which was the focus of parent protests in 2021 after a teacher was suspended for showing his pupils an image of the prophet Muhammad.
The retail giant joined firms including Amazon and Microsoft in warning about the AI's usage

The firm gave the warning ahead of plans to introduce the tech into its day-to-day work

In a leaked memo, Walmart has warned staff not to share information with AI-systems like ChatGPT

Walmart has joined a growing number of industry leaders in warning its workers not to share company secrets with artificial intelligence phenomenon ChatGPT.

In an internal employee memo, the retail giant cautioned staff over the risks of the tech after it 'noticed activity that presented risk to our company'.

ChatGPT has the ability to continually learn via data input from across the world, leading to fears it could leak private information about how top firms operate.

Despite concerns about its risks, Walmart Global Tech, the company's technology and software engineering branch, added in the memo that it was planning to introduce the AI system in its day-to-day operations.

'We've since taken the time to evaluate and develop a set of usage guidelines around generative AI tools and are now opening ChatGPT for usage within the Walmart network,' it said.

Walmart has issued an ominous warning about the dangers of ChatGPT leaking confidential company data

ChatGPT, created by tech firm OpenAI, is able to continually learn and produce data sets based upon the information put into it by users

The memo, which was first reported by Insider, is the latest iteration of ChatGPT's rise to prominence since it was released less than six months ago.

After it took the internet by storm, recording over a million users in its first week, the tech and its future versions have been increasingly touted for use in the workplace.

But while the eye-opening system is showing promise in fields including finance and research, its untamed potential has also been called into question - including earning a passing grade on top law school exams.

After the Walmart memo came to light this week, a spokeswoman noted that the company was still assessing how best to utilize the prodigious tech.

'Most new technologies present new benefits as well as new risks,' she said.

'It's not uncommon for us to assess these new technologies and provide our associates with usage guidelines.'

Among the new rules to stop Walmart employees from misusing the technology includes avoiding inputting 'any sensitive, confidential, or proprietary information'.

Staff should also steer clear of including 'business process, policy, or strategy' in their AI requests, alongside personal information about customers or clients.

'Putting Walmart information into these tools risks exposure of the company's information, may breach confidentiality, and may significantly impact our rights in any code, product, information, or content,' the memo added.

'Every associate is responsible for the appropriate use and protection of Walmart data.'

Walmart has become the latest firm to warn its workers over ChatGPT's potential risks. Pictured: CEO Doug McMillon

Microsoft announced a 'multi-year, multi-billion-dollar investment' in ChatGPT, while it joined a growing number of industry titans to caution staff about the tech. Pictured: CEO Satya Nadella

Amazon has also warned employees about the risks of using the AI system, while also introducing it into its operations such as selling ChatGPT-written novels. Pictured: Amazon CEO Andy Jassy

Walmart's leery usage of ChatGPT comes after several other industry leaders advised staff to be careful with the system, even while introducing it to the workforce.

Last month, Amazon issued a stark warning to its staff about the dangers the tech.

The self-learning tech reportedly rocked the company after it successfully answered complex interview questions for a software coding position at the firm.

And after the data set successfully mimicked internal Amazon data, one of the firm's lawyers cautioned employees not to share any internal codes or confidential information with the software.

'This is important because your inputs may be used as training data for a further iteration of ChatGPT, and we wouldnt want its output to include or resemble our confidential information (and Ive already seen instances where its output closely matches existing material),' the lawyer added, according to Insider.

The company's online bookstore also stole headlines this month after it began selling hundreds of books written by ChatGPT, leading to fears among authors that their craft will be turned into a commodity.

Despite recently announcing a new 'multi-year, multi-billion-dollar investment' into ChatGPT's parent company OpenAI, Microsoft also warned employees to be careful.

The firm told staff that they were allowed to use the AI system at work, so long as they don't offer up 'sensitive data'.
Alex Murdaugh's double murder trial jury were this morning escorted to his hunting estate to see the exact spot where his wife and son were executed in a rare and 'risky' move reminiscent of OJ Simpson's trial.

The 12 jurors and two alternates were loaded into three transport vans with blacked-out windows and were guarded by a convoy of cop cars as they made the half-hour trip from the Colleton County courthouse to Moselle, South Carolina.

Judge Clifton Newman rode in a pickup truck driven by Colleton County Sheriffs Office Captain Jason Chapman. Chapman testified on the first day of the trial as one of the first cops on the scene the night of Maggie and Paul's murders.

The outing comes at the request of Murdaugh's defense attorneys who told the judge the visit would would allow jurors to see 'how small the feed room is (where Paul was killed)' and understand its location in relation to Maggie's body.

The visit lasted an hour and 15 minutes and jurors will now hear closing arguments before being sent out to reach their verdict.

The 12 jurors and two alternates were loaded into three transport vans with blacked-out windows and were guarded by a convoy of cop cars as they made the half-hour trip from the Colleton County courthouse to Moselle, South Carolina

Murdaugh leaving court at the end of Tuesday evidence. Following the jury visit the trial is set to hear closing arguments

Maggie, Paul, Alex and Buster Murdaugh with their dog Bubba in a new family photo obtained by DailyMail.com

Crime scene visits by juries are relatively rare but have occurred in a number of other high-profile prosecutions, including the 1995 murder trial of O.J. Simpson.

Legal experts warned the move was 'a big risk'. On the one hand it could garner sympathy for the alleger killer by showing jurors where his family lived - but they may also see that it was possible him to have committed the murders.

Lori Murray, a South Carolina criminal defense attorney, told DailyMail.com: 'The defense wants the jury to be able to use all their senses to take this crime scene in.

'It's one thing to have pictures and graphs but quite another to be there in person. At the crime scene, the jury can see the house, the expanse of land, and the kennels.

Nearly three decades earlier, jurors in the OJ Simpson trial toured the scene where prosecutors alleged that he killed his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman

'They can judge just how close these two murders occurred and the distance from the house and perhaps instead of seeing the murders, they'll hear Alex's and John Marvin's words and see where a family lived.

'Or they'll see how clearly possible it was for one person, Alex, to commit these murders. A big risk for the defense.'

The jury were seen walking the narrow path between the kennels where Paul was blasted with a shotgun and the lean-to where Maggie was killed with a rifle.

One juror was spotted standing inside the feed room looking up at the doorway which has been the subject of gruesome testimony. Paul's brains and blood were splattered up the door after his head was blown off by buckshot.

Judge Newman was with them, standing still, looking down. He was in street clothes. Some of the deputies on watch while the jurors tour are some of the key witnesses in the case, including Detective Laura Rutland, who sat in on Murdaughs first interview with South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) agent David Owen in the early hours of June 8, 2021.

They were parked that night in SLED Special Agent Owens SUV to get out of the rain.

The jury spent the bulk of their time at the kennels and the shed where Maggie and Paul were killed. Towards the end of the visit, the jury were taken to the main house for a view of the exterior. They were not allowed inside.

Judge Newman warned the jury they are not to confer with each other or ask questions of anybody at the scene. 'If you have any questions you can only ask me,' the judge said last night.

The lawyers joined the jurors on the half-hour trip to the estate

Cops outside the courthouse this morning as the jurors were loaded up for the trip to Moselle

The Jury heading to 4147 Moselle Rd, the site of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh's murders

A convoy of vehicles heads down the back road behind the Colleton County courthouse

A blacked out van was seen leaving the courthouse on Wednesday morning

Cops wait outside the courthouse this morning as the jury were loaded into three vans for the trip to Moselle

Defense attorney Dick Harpootlian requested that law enforcement secure the property beforehand because 'literally dozens of trespassers' have been mobbing the grounds to take selfies.

He told the judge that the jury needed to be protected from the 'carnival atmosphere' of trial enthusiasts who have been at the estate throughout the trial.

Cops descended on the estate yesterday in anticipation for a jury visit in the afternoon, but the final witness ran on too long and the trip was delayed until this morning.

Lead state prosecutor Creighton Waters objected to the jury outing, arguing the estate looked different than it did in 2021 and said a visit might require additional testimony from the state.

Nearly three decades earlier, jurors in the Simpson trial toured the scene where prosecutors alleged that he killed his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman.

Jurors saw the spot where Nicole Brown Simpson and Goldman's bloodied bodies were found on the walkway leading up to her Brentwood condominium.

Prosecutor Marcia Clark said at the time that taking jurors to see the narrow, confined walkway would show 'the reason why one person could accomplish this, and how the victims were cornered.'

Simpson was acquitted of the killings but was later found liable for the deaths in a civil suit.

The State says Murdaugh first blasted Paul twice with a shotgun in the feed room of the kennels before shooting Maggie with a .300 Blackout rifle yards away.

Jurors have heard gruesome evidence of how Paul's brain was blown out the back of his head by a close range blast of steel buckshot from a 12-gauge shotgun.

Maggie was shot at least four times, with bullet wounds to her thigh, wrist, torso and head. The final shot was fired into the back of her head as she lay face down on the ground when she was already dead.

Law enforcement officers, fire department and members of the court entering the property Tuesday at 4147 Moselle Rd, the site of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh's murders

Law enforcement officials and fire department personnel lock down the entrance to the kennels on Tuesday

Maggie's body was found a few yards to the right of a doghouse, while Paul's was by the doorway at the end of the kennels

Murdaugh claims he was at the main house watching TV at the time the State says Maggie and Paul were shot dead

Lead state prosecutor Creighton Waters objected to the jury outing, arguing the estate looked different than it did in 2021 and said a visit might require additional testimony from the state. Overgrown vegetation is seen covering the driveway of the main entrance to the estate

During his testimony, Murdaugh floated his own theory of who committed the murders, saying he believed that vigilantes killed his wife and son in revenge for Paul's drunken boat accident which killed a 19-year-old girl.

He said Paul had been attacked and threatened after the wreck in which Mallory Beach was killed in February 2019.

Jurors today heard further argument from the State's forensic pathologist Dr Ellen Riemer who refuted the defense expert's two-shooter theory.

Defense pathologist, Timothy Palmbach, yesterday argued that the exit wound to the back of Paul's head was, in fact, an entrance wound. He theorized that the muzzle of the shotgun was pressed against the 22-year-old's head.

Palmbach stated that the force of the gasses from the shot would have forced blood, brains, fragments of skull and pellets back out through the entrance wound, covering the shooter.

He claimed that the shooter would have been at the very least blinded by the blood and possibly injured by fragments of skull and pellet in the blowback.

State pathologist Riemer said that if the 12-gauge shotgun had been pressed against the back of Paul's head the damage would have been so catastrophic his eyes would have been blown out of their sockets.

The feed room (right) where Paul was killed at the end of the row of dog cages at the kennels

Maggie was shot dead a few yards to the right of the dog house by the lean-to while Paul was shot dead inside the feed room of the kennels (back right)

The quail pen stands against the wooden wall under the lean-to which was struck by a round from the .300 Blackout rifle that killed Maggie

The kennels at the 1,800-acre Murdaugh hunting estate around a half-hour drive from the courthouse where his double murder trial is taking place

The main house at the hunting estate where Murdaugh claims he was watching TV at the time the State says Maggie and Paul were shot dead. The main house is around 400 yards away from the kennels

She said the entry wound was below the 22-year-old's left ear and that the buckshot pellets passed out of the back of his head.

Riemer told jurors: 'I know what you saw was absolutely awful but the damage would have been a lot worse. The sides of his head would have gone, his entire face would have been split open, because there's no way all of that gas expansion could have occurred and not caused fractures of these delicate bones in the face, his forehead was even still there.'

Riemer told jurors that despite the horrific injuries that they had seen in the photos of Paul's head - his brain was totally severed from his skull - these would have been far worse had the gun been pressed against the back of his head.

'I understand that this was probably like the most severe thing you have ever seen and you probably can't imagine that the damage to the head could be any worse,' the pathologist said.

'But a contact shotgun wound to the head with the associated gas expansion to the skull would not have you know - his face was basically intact - we would have heard about tears of the skin and his eyes would have been displaced from the orbital bones. The orbital bones were intact.'

Buster Murdaugh arrives with his girlfriend Brooklynn White and followed by Alex's sister Lynn

Buster Murdaugh and his girlfriend Brooklynn White arrive with Alex's sister Lynn and brother John Marvin on Tuesday

Riemer was called to the stand as a rebuttal witness Tuesday after the defense rested its case Monday.

The defense pathologist Palmbach yesterday told jurors that Paul's killer would have been incapacitated after firing into the back of his head.

Palmbach explained that 'the explosive release of the gas trapped in [Paul's] cranium' would have forced blood, tissue, brain matter, fragments of skull and shot pellets back out through the entry wound, covering the shooter.

'I think the shooter is, at least for some brief period of time, kind of out of it. It's not as if they can instantly suffer that, run to where the rifle is, pick that up and within any reasonable time period engage in an effective assault, shoot straight and make hits,' the pathologist said.

'I believe the individual who shot first, probably with blood in his eyes and maybe been injured, would have taken some degree of time to recover.'
Namyang Dairy headquarters located in southern Seoul / Newsis



By Anna J. Park



Activist fund Tcha Partners Asset Management has launched a Namyang Dairy shareholder campaign urging the dairy company to take active measures to protect minority shareholders' rights.



According to Tcha Partners' proposals sent out the company boards earlier this week, the activist fund urged the firm to buy back 50 percent stakes of both common shares as well as preferred shares  worth 191 billion won ($144 million) in total  at the price of 820,000 won per share.



It is the price that Hahn & Co. agreed to pay per each stock, when the private equity firm signed a stock purchase agreement in May 2021 to acquire a 55.7 percent stake of the dairy company from the firm's founder and former Chairman Hong Won-sik.



"The proposal urging the firm to buy back the 190 billion won worth of common and preferred shares aims to provide an opportunity for exit to minority shareholders, who had been excluded from the stock purchase agreement of the firm's management rights in 2021," the activist fund's letter reads.



The activist fund, which owns a 3 percent stake in the dairy company, also called on the company to carry out a stock split of its preferred shares, in order to prevent delisting of them from local stock markets. Tcha Partners also urged the firm to pay out dividends of 20,000 won per common share and 20,050 won per preferred share.



Market watchers are paying attention to how the fund's shareholder campaign moves would affect the current entanglement involving Namyang founder Hong family and Hahn and Co. unfolds.



Since the private equity firm signed the deal to purchase the majority stake of Namyang Dairy at the price of 820,000 won per share in 2021, both sides have been mired in legal battles over management rights of the firm during the past two years.



Hahn and Co. won in both the trial and appellate courts in Sept. 2022 and Feb. 2023, respectively, and it's been somewhat evident that the private equity fund would finally succeed at holding the controlling stake and the management right of the company.



Yet, as the activist fund pointed out that the 820,000 won per share that Hahn and Co. pledged to pay to buy the controlling stake is too low, claiming that 1,160,000 won is appropriate, considering the dairy firm's net value. As the activist fund vowed to play a check against the private equity fund, in addition to the dairy company's management, it remains to be seen how the situation surrounding the dairy firm would develop in the future.



"It's not always the case that a company's values ameliorate, just because a private equity fund gets to take the hold of the firm," the activist fund explained. "The checks and balances against the private equity firms are also necessary for protecting the rights of minority shareholders," the fund highlighted.


For help and support, contact the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline on 988

The family of a schoolboy who was relentlessly bullied and then killed himself on the first day of sophomore year has won a $5million payout from a Connecticut town.

Bartlomiej 'Bart' Palosz, 15, shot himself after more than four years of vicious taunting in the Greenwich public school system - despite filing more than 25 bullying reports between 2009 and when he died in August 2013.

Bart was shoved into lockers, kicked, punched, pushed down stairs and pelted with trash by his fellow students in a brutal tirade that teachers at Western Middle School were 'aware of.'

Teachers would often have to intervene during the bullying sessions - and court filings revealed that 'observations recorded reflected multiple incidents in every year of middle school, including name-calling, teasing, property theft and physical violence.'

There were instances where he needed stitches because the intense bullying left him with gashes on his head.

Bartlomiej 'Bart' Palosz, 15, shoved into lockers, kicked, punched, pushed down stairs and pelted with trash by his fellow students in a tirade which teachers at Western Middle School were 'aware of.' He killed himself in August 2013

Lawyers say that administrators and staff within Greenwich public schools 'repeatedly failed' to keep Bart safe. His family filed a lawsuit two years after his death - which they are now only just settling.

He spent three years at Western Middle School being bullied, before moving to Greenwich High School. The pattern of bullying was reported to his new school by his counselor in November 2012.

A decade after Bart killed himself, his family will receive $5million from the town of Greenwich. The defendant tried to have the suit dismissed under the 'doctrine of sovereign immunity' but this was rejected by judges in 2018.

In the months before his death, Bart took to social media in a series of daunting posts, alluding to his desire to kill himself.

On July 9, 2013, a month before he died, Bart wrote: 'I notice if I sound sad I'm normal and if I act happy, cheerful and "normal" there is a high chance that I will try to poison myself, cut myself, commit suicide, or jump in front of a truck :)'

He added: 'I have come to the conclusion my ski is too thick to be cut, but I will keep trying.'

On June 7, 2013, he wrote: 'Goodbye forever my good friends, goodbye I regret nothing. I have chosen to go with three people's advice and kill myself. I just wish it was faster.'

One social media friend responded to Bart at the time, writing: 'The people's advice? I'm pretty sure it wasn't advice but the fact they wanted to be d**ks. Don't kill yourself, your going to off yourself because of a little bump in the road?'

Bart's family have now received a $5million payout, a decade after his death

He spent three years at Western Middle School being bullied, before moving to Greenwich High School. The pattern of bullying was reported to his new school by his counselor in November 2012

On August 16, 2013, just a week before he shot himself dead, Bart told his friends which song he would like to get buried to. One person responded to the post: 'Ok.'

He also wrote about shotguns - asking his online friends how to use it.

Following the lawsuit settlement, the Palosz family said in a statement: 'Bart was a kind and wonderful boy who should never have had to endure the daily torment he experienced at school.

'We brought this lawsuit to speak up for Bart and for other vulnerable victims of school bullying in Greenwich and elsewhere.

'It is our deepest hope that this lawsuit will change how the Greenwich school system responds to bullied students so that there will be no more needless and tragic deaths.'

Jennifer Goldstein, an attorney representing the Palosz family, said: 'This case is important not only because it vindicates Barts right to be protected from bullying but also because Connecticut courts repeatedly rejected the towns claim that it had immunity and could not be held liable for failing to protect students who are bullied in school.'

This comes just weeks after a New Jersey schoolgirl Adriana Kuch, 14, killed herself after a video went viral of her being kicked and bullied in the Central Regional High School hallway.

Adriana killed herself sometime after 10.46pm on February 2, 2023. The bullies who'd attacked her were threatening to go after her boyfriend next, and had bombarded her with harassing messages all day.

She killed herself two days after being ruthlessly taunted about the attack on social media.

For help and support, contact the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline on 988.

Greenwich High School hosted a prayer vigil service for Bart Palosz on September 10, 2013
A young female student who refused to enter an arranged marriage was brutally murdered by her uncle with a metal spike in her chest in a suspected 'honour killing,' a court has heard.

Somaiya Begum was found with the 11cm-long 'Bradawl' tool - a sharpened metal woodwork implement - stuck in the right side of her chest.

Prosecutors allege the 20-year-old's uncle, Mohammed Taroos Khan, used the tool to kill her.

The biomedical student had been living with her grandmother and another relative at the time of her death due to a court-mandated Forced Marriage Protection Order after attempts by her father to force her 'by threat of violence' to marry her cousin from Pakistan.

Prosecutors say Khan had attended the three-bedroom property, in Bradford, West Yorkshire, on June 25 last year where he killed Somaiya in a 'traumatic' attack.

Somaiya Begum, 20, was found with the 11cm-long 'Bradawl' tool - a sharpened metal woodwork implement - stuck in the right side of her chest

Forensic officers and sniffer dogs were seen search for evidence at Miss Begum's home at Binnie Street last July

Jurors at Bradford Crown Court were told Khan 'bundled' her body up and made online searches for 'rubble bags', before disposing of her body 'like rubbish' on wasteland.

Somaiya's body was found at Carter Gate Works, Bradford, just a mile from her home, on July 6 'infested with maggots' and 'partially decomposed'.

Khan was initially arrested following her disappearance, and after being charged, he asked police to explain how prison sentences for 'manslaughter' and 'murder' differed. He has since pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice by disposing of her body and destroying her phone, found in a nearby smouldering bin.

Mr Karl Pitter KC, prosecuting, said: 'On Saturday 25th June 2022, at around 3.30 pm, Somaiya Begum sent final messages to her close companion and school friend. Not long after that, her telephone was to cease meaningful use.

'That coincided with the arrival of her uncle, the Defendant, Mohammed Taroos Khan at her home address in the minutes afterwards. The signs indicate that she had met her traumatic death following a violent attack in her home, the nature of which was demonstrated by a metal spike which had become embedded in her back.

'She was then bundled up and away before her body was dumped and left to rot and decompose on wasteland like rubbish such that she was not recognisable.

'The prosecution say the defendant was responsible for her death, such that he is guilty of murder. That is before he went on to attempt to dispose of her body.'

A police cordon was put in place around Fitzwilliam Street in Bradford following the discovery of Somaiya Begum's body on July 6

Mr Pitter said Somaiya was living in Bradford with another uncle and her grandmother at the time of her death. He said that Khan's attitude was 'similar' to his brother, meaning he was also prohibited from going to the home, valued at roughly 110,000.

But on June 25, he told the court that Khan visited the address three times during the afternoon in his Mitsubishi Space Wagon vehicle and had contacted Somaiya.

Mr Pitter said he had got a set of keys cut for the home and went to the home about 3.50 pm, 'minutes after the final messages were sent from Somaiya's telephone'.

He told the court: 'Whilst the prosecution cannot say precisely when Somaiya was killed, you can conclude that something significant had happened around or shortly after that point because there was no apparent further communication between Somaiya and anyone else after that time.

The prosecutor said Khan was observed by Somaiya's uncle at the property at around 6.30 pm after he walked through the home's 'normally locked front door'.

Mr Pitter went on: 'The prosecution say that he was at that point making his plans to finally dispose of her body and his subsequent actions. CCTV footage, witness evidence and analysis of his telephone seized are indicative of him attempting to clean up and hide what he had done.'

'Shortly after 5 pm the defendant began to make searches online for large, 1-tonne capacity, rubble bags including at the B & Q store.

'We say that was him considering a way to move and dispose of her body.'

Mr Pitter said he then travelled to Carter Gate Works industrial yard, in Bradford, where he had living quarters, before returning to Binnie Street at 5.29 pm.

He went on: 'The CCTV footage showed him opening a door to a container. He can be seen to be wearing gloves at the time. He the reversed his car up to the container entrance, however the door was positioned in such a way as to obscure what he was doing from the CCTV camera.'

Somaiya's body was found on the industrial site several days later by police on July 6, with a postmortem examination showing signs of 'trauma and assault.'

Mr Pitter said: 'There was some evidence of potential damage to the structure of her neck.

'In addition, a metal spike of about 11 cm in length, was found embedded in the right side of her chest puncturing her lung in such a way that it indicated that it was caused prior to her death.'

Mr Pitter said: 'It may be that as part of it he advances issues in relation to the family's culture and religion which may have been the misguided justification to kill her.

'We suppose in the context of the inappropriately named 'honour killing'. Whatever his motive, because it was him, even if others, as he may seek to say, were involved, it was not honourable.'

Zafar Ali KC, defending, told the jurors there will be times in the trial when they will be 'utterly sickened' by what they hear, including 'the terrible way (Miss Begum's) body was just dumped like rubbish'.

Mr Ali said: 'No-one could deny that the attack on Somaiya on June 25 last year was both terrible and unforgivable'.

But the barrister told the jury: 'Mohammed Taroos Khan accepts that Somaiya Begum, his niece, was murdered but he did not murder her. He knew nothing about the death until after Somaiya had been killed.'

Mr Ali said his client had been 'summoned' to Binnie Street 'to dispose of her body'.

Khan who had been first arrested following Somaiya's disappearance was re-arrested on July 6, and charged with murder.

He denied being responsible for killing Somaiya, but later accepted disposing of her phone and body.

The trial, which is expected to last three weeks, continues.
Business owners are fleeing Portland in droves amid a pronounced rise in crime and homelessness, officials in the Democratic stronghold have revealed.

Public data shows that since the pandemic, more than 2,600 downtown businesses have filed changes of address with the U.S. Postal Service to leave their downtown ZIP codes.

Several big-name employers, such Umpqua Bank, have been among the mass exodus, carried out by owners who have taken issue with the rising crime levels and homelessness - and the city's failure to address it.

Once hailed as the 'crown jewel of the West Coast' for its trendy art and food scenes, The City of Roses has been in peril since 2020, largely due to efforts to defund police and lax bail reform laws that leave little to no deterrent for increasingly brazen criminals.

Local leaders are now sharing their strategies for solving the crime and livability issues, as they threaten to spill over into bordering counties, where the court of public opinion is generally more conservative.

PORTLAND: Business owners are fleeing Portland in droves amid a pronounced rise in crime and homelessness, officials in the Democratic stronghold have revealed. A major issue in Portland is how accessible the drugs are

Several big-name employers, including Umpqua Bank, have closed amid the mass exodus, carried out by owners who have taken issue with the rising crime levels - and the city's failure to address it

'Each area has different challenges, but what we're seeing in the metro area is absolutely rising crime,' Washington County District Attorney Kevin Barton told Fox News of Portland's crime wave, which, similar to other Dem-led cities such as San Francisco and Chicago, began during the pandemic.

But while crime in the smaller, more suburban Washington and Clackamas counties has started to level off - due to officials like Barton filing charges and making arrests - crime in Portland has persisted, a crucial difference that Barton says is illustrated by Portland's still-worsening crime rate.

The city is also in the midst of a homeless crisis that has confounded local officials, with several stores forced to permanently shutter due to break-ins now common due to rampant crime, making the businesses no longer financially viable.

This past December, a Portland retail store for the popular clothing brand Rains was forced to shut after being broken into 15 times over the course of just two months.

To residents wondering why the Rains store is no more, a searing note on the front door reveals all with 'unrelenting criminal behavior' and 'escalating safety issues for our employees' to blame.

Nike, whose HQ is in nearby Beaverton, also had to close a long-standing community store for weeks because shoplifting was so out of control, and iconic ice cream shop Salt & Straw last week threatened to move its headquarters out of Oregon.

The store's owner Marcy Landolfo put up a notice on its window explaining her decision to close.

'Our city is in peril. Small businesses (and large) cannot sustain doing business in our city's current state. We have no protection, or recourse, against the criminal behavior that goes unpunished.

'Do not be fooled into thinking that insurance companies cover losses. We have sustained 15 break-ins  we have not received any financial reimbursement since the 3rd,' Landolfo wrote.

Local leaders are now sharing their strategies for solving the crime and livability issues, as they threaten to spill over into bordering counties, where the court of public opinion is generally more conservative

The city is also in the midst of a homeless crisis that has confounded local officials, with several stores forced to permanently shutter due to break-ins now common due to rampant crime, making the businesses no longer financially viable

When the store was broken into in October, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler promised the city was going to come up with a plan to help out business owners who had been targeted and needed assistance to repair their shops.

'Paying for glass that's great, but that is so surface and does nothing for the root cause of the problem, so it's never going to change,' Landolfo said.

Since 2019, shortly before the city elected a progressive, new DA amid calls to defund the police after the death of George Floyd, a net 2,692 businesses in Portland's bustling Downtown area filed changes of address with the U.S. Postal Service to leave their ZIP codes,

The five ZIP codes encompassing the neighborhood - 97201, 97204, 97205, 97208 and 97209 - are each among the top 10 metro-area ZIP codes with the greatest net loss of businesses between 2019 and October 2022, signifying the city's struggles.

While the numbers don't necessarily indicate the movers got up and left the city altogether, they still point to a fundamental issue fueling the mass migration - soft-on-crime guidances implemented by Multnomah County DA Mike Schmidt.

This Portland, Oregon, clothing shop was one of many to permanently shutter in recent months after facing 15 break-ins that left it in financial struggles

'Small businesses (and large) cannot sustain doing business in our city's current state. We have no protection, or recourse, against the criminal behavior that goes unpunished. Do not be fooled into thinking that insurance companies cover losses. We have sustained 15 break-ins... we have not received any financial reimbursement since the 3rd,' the note read

Portland currently has more than 700 homeless encampments across the city within less than 150 square miles

In recent years Portland has also experienced a surging murder rate. Last year 90 homicides were recorded in the city, shattering the previous record of 66

Rising crime and homeless camps that have spread from downtown and into the suburbs are pushing out businesses and residents

While crime persists in his county, rates are tapering off in neighboring Washington and Clackamas counties, officials told Fox this week.

'The increases that we're seeing are nothing like the increases that we're seeing in our neighbors,' Barton said. 'Public safety is failing in Multnomah County.'

Crime in Multnomah County, a more populated, progressive region, increased 9 percent last year amid its county seat Portland's continued crime woes, causing public safety officials in different parts of Oregon to decry the city's sad state.

With a crime rate of 66 per one thousand residents, Portland has one of the highest crime rates in the US, compared to communities of comparative sizes.

One major issue fueling the city's slow recovery is how accessible drugs are becoming. People can pay as little as $1 for a fentanyl pill, compared to a year ago, where dealers would charge up to $20.

The flood of drugs on the city streets has resulted in a pronounced rise in homelessness and open-air drug use, often carried out at one of the more than 700 tent-laden encampments that have sprouted across the city the past two years - to which despairing police officers last month said they see 'no end in sight'.

Washington County District Attorney Kevin Barton says that while crime in his neighboring county has started to level off, crime in Portland has persisted, a crucial difference that Barton says can be blamed on a difference in bail reform laws

Last month, police seized rainbow fentanyl from a Portland motel room as part of a major drug trafficking sting. The suspect is believed to be part of a ring responsible for bringing large amounts of the narcotic into the state.

Despite yielding more than two kilograms of rainbow-colored fentanyl packaged and ready to be given to people on the streets, as well as 393 grams of crystal meth and 49 grams of cocaine, the raid is feared to be just the tip of the iceberg, as drug use and theft remains rife, and instances of violence continue to plague citizens.

Many have blamed the city's sad state on lax bail reform laws implemented by Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt, which officials in neighboring Clackamas County say have pushed out countless businesses and residents.

Clackamas County commissioner Ben West told Fox this week that Portland 'is a hollowed out shell of what it used to be.'

'Businesses are fleeing and people are leaving for greener pastures.'

Like Barton's Washington County, West's Clackamas also reported arrest rates more than twice as high as Multnomah County's, which has been headed by Schmidt since 2020.

Clackamas County 'does things differently,' West said, citing how his staff prioritizes police funding and prosecuting suspects.

A man on his knees smokes fentanyl on the street. The city is littered with tents, partially concealing people doing drugs before curling over in a trance-like state

Schmidt, an outspoken progressive and police critic, came into office during the height of the riots in the summer of 2020 and promptly enacted a policy decriminalizing most riot-related offenses.

Schmidt ran as a progressive and won 77 percent of the vote just days before George Floyd's killing in Minneapolis in May 2020.

Now, nearly three years later, the city where coastal valleys provide the perfect climate for the delicate pinot noir grape and where the liberal lifestyle was sent up in the TV comedy Portlandia has become unrecognizable, overrun by drug addicts and homeless individuals.

Fed up with the city's failure to failure to dissuade repeat offenders, and 2020 efforts to defund their department, hundreds of police officers have since retired or quit Portland's embattled force, adding to the disparity between the two counties.

Kristin Olson, a local trial attorney in the city where a majority voted to decriminalize hard drugs in 2020, blamed the city's woes on Schmidt, who just ten days into his tenure Schmidt announced how his office would decline to prosecute protesters over the majority of misdemeanor charges they were being arrested for - including criminal trespass, disorderly conduct, and interference with a police officer.

PORTLAND: Clutching a pipe to smoke the deadly drug, a man is seen flopped over next to a suitcase and backpack. Cops in Portland have admitted they see 'no end in sight' for the crisis

'What's happening is with our de-carceration and elimination of bail culture, we've got all these people running around,' Olson told Fox News. 'And it's really scary because we also have this anti-police culture.'

Law enforcement, meanwhile is desperately trying to cut off major illicit distributors of the drug trade coming from Mexico, as a swathe of incidents continue to grab headlines.

Just last month, one man, down on his knees, was photographed smoking fentanyl as another held the crushed deadly drug inside a heated tinfoil - before inhaling the vapor through a tube.

Kristin Olson, a local trial attorney in the city where a majority voted to decriminalize hard drugs in 2020, blamed the city's woes on its DA

Sidewalks in the city are often littered with tents, partially concealing people smoking and injecting drugs, before they curl over in a trance-like state.

Clutching a pipe to smoke the deadly drug, another addict was seen flopped over on himself next to a suitcase and backpack.

Lieutenant Christopher Lindsey of Portland Police, who believes the numbers in his city are only going to climb, said there were 156 overdose deaths in 2022 - compared to 135 in 2021 and 80 in 2020.

He told KATU: 'It has gotten massively worse. Just as an example, a year ago when I was in the position a fentanyl pill would go anywhere from 10 to 20 dollars a pill. A year later people are paying one to two dollars a pill.

'I am worried. I am concerned that it could get worse. I'm not saying that it is going to get worse but if you look at the trend it's been getting worse for a few years now and I don't see any end in sight.'

Hundreds of tent cities have popped up on the sidewalks in the city, where addicts often sit to take a hit and 'zombie' out in full view of families and children passing by

Two people are slumped in the doorway of a building. 'It has gotten massively worse', says Lieutenant Christopher Lindsey of Portland Police

PORTLAND: One man in a wheelchair slumps. People can pay as little as $1 for a fentanyl pill, compared to a year ago, where dealers would charge up to $20

Ballot measure 110 was passed in 2020, decriminalizing possession of hard drugs. It is blamed for transforming downtown Portland into an open-air drugs market. Results of the ballot showed the east-west divide, with eastern counties rejecting the measure

A man slumps on the sidewalk in downtown Portland, Oregon

Multnomah County counted 6,633 people as experiencing homelessness on the night of January 26, 2022. Homeless statistics can be hard to verify as individuals will move around each day. Pictured: a homeless person in Portland in October

A line of campers are stationed along a road where homeless people are staying (pictured: Portland homeless camp in October)

Of the 6,633 people counted as homeless, 3,611 were living on the street and in homeless encampments, and an additional 2,222 people were sleeping in the city's shelters

Portland currently has more than 700 homeless encampments across the city. The rise in homelessness has also led to increase crime in the city

Multnomah County, where Portland is located, counted 6,633 people as experiencing homelessness on the night of January 26, 2022. Homeless statistics can be hard to verify as individuals will move around each day.

Of the 6,633 people counted as homeless, 3,611 were living on the street and in homeless encampments, and an additional 2,222 people were sleeping in the city's shelters. A further 800 more were in transitional housing.

The rise in homelessness has also led to an increase crime in the city.

It is understood that there were some 93 homicides in Portland in 2022. The city police department's data is yet to confirm this number however, only releasing statistics up until October of this year identifying 82 murders.

This number would set a new record for murders in 2022, up from the previous year's record of 88 in 2021. This smashed past the murder rate in 2020, where there were 57 homicides in comparison.

In a recent incident, someone pointed a gun at a Salt & Straw employee's head, according to civic advocate Thomas Lauderdale who sent an email to two dozen community leaders in Portland City Hall, Multnomah County and Oregon's congressional delegation.

Other incidents have also happened near the headquarters, including a fire at an RV parked near the business which resulted in power loss.

Some of the most charming, trendy and expensive neighborhoods of the Pacific Northwest city are now overrun with tent cities crowding residential sidewalks and littered with trash

Dilapidated RVs are used by homeless people throughout the city, and are often spotted parked near encampments.

The Democratic city has one of the most deserted downtowns in the United States as soaring crime rates and homelessness are scaring away both locals and tourists.

Portland currently has more than 700 homeless encampments across the city within less than 150 square miles, and the ordeal has also led to skyrocketing crime in the area.

And some of the most charming, trendy and expensive neighborhoods of the Pacific Northwest city are now overrun with tent cities crowding residential sidewalks and littered with trash - and the issue is scaring away both locals and tourists.

Portland City Council rushed to refund the police last November after defunding them by more than $15 million in 2020. Officials voted to add $5.4 million to the force's budget.

When the police was defunded in 2020, the Portland Police Bureau suffered through a rash of retirements and resignations.

Crime in Multnomah County, a more populated, progressive region, increased 9 percent last year amid its county seat Portland's continued crime woes, causing public safety officials in different parts of Oregon to decry the city's sad state
A nightmare nanny has been sentenced 25 years to life after killing a four-week-old baby by 'violently shaking' and 'squeezing him' before 'throwing him down on the bed' and eating lunch while he lay dying.

Victoria Fox, 40, was hired by an unnamed couple from Singapore who had flown the deranged babysitter to San Diego to care for their son Phoenix while they attended the surrogate birth of their twins.

Phoenix was the couple's 'miracle child' conceived after the couple secured a surrogate in the hope of providing a sibling for their eldest son.

But at just four-weeks-old, Phoenix suffered a horrific and tragic end in August 2021 when left with Fox, NBC San Diego reported.

Victoria Fox, 40, has been sentenced 25 years to life after killing a four-week-old baby by 'violently shaking' and 'squeezing him' before 'throwing him down on the bed' and eating lunch while he lay dying

'Phoenix died within a day or so of his injures,' San Diego County Deputy District Attorney Ramona McCarthy told the outlet.

'He suffered an extreme head trauma, extreme subdural hemorrhaging and a fractured femur, however, what he died from was the result of blunt force trauma.'

Fox remained stony faced as she appeared before the court saying through her public defender that she was 'deeply sorry.'

The twisted babysitter wore a plain white sweater and had her hair pulled back as she tried to hide behind the barricade of the court room.

She remained emotionless throughout her sentencing.

The couple had rented an Airbnb in San Diego and brought their eldest son, a nanny and Phoenix with them to wait for the birth.

With two young children and twins on the way the couple decided to hire a second nanny to lighten the load and according to court documents Fox was the clear choice.

Fox had been fully vetted, her references thoroughly checked before she was hired and even spent a few days with the family before Phoenix had been left alone with her.

According to the San Diego Union Tribune, Fox told investigators that at about 2.30am Phoenix woke up and was crying.

He was still crying about a half-hour later, which started to shift Fox's mood who reportedly 'grew upset.'

The court heard that Fox had also told investigators that she'd been tired before she violently tried to stop the infant's crying.

Phoenix was thrown on the bed, squeezed harder than she'd ever squeezed a child and shook before being thrown a second time onto the bed.

In text messages over the course of several hours, Fox told Phoenix's mother that the boy was not eating much and was suffering from gas pains.

At about 2 pm Fox asked the mother what time she'd be home. Alarmed, the mother rushed home.

The baby was limp, his lips were blue, and he was barely breathing, the court heard.

Fox insisted the boy had been dehydrated and that medical treatment wasn't necessary, prosecutors said.

After Phoenix's death the couple learned that the 'stellar' recommendations they'd received from Fox had been a lie.

'There's no question that it sends a chilling effect to parents in our community,' said McCarthy.

'Phoenix died within a day or so of his injures,' San Diego County Deputy District Attorney Ramona McCarthy said

The twisted babysitter wore a plain white sloppy joe and had her hair pulled back as she tried to hide behind the barricade of the court room

After Phoenix's death the couple learned that the 'stellar' recommendations they'd received from Fox had been a lie, the court heard

The parents issued this brief written statement to the court. It was read aloud by McCarthy: 'On behalf of our late son Phoenix, my wife and I want to thank the incredible support we have received from all investigating officers and the Prosecutors Office.

'We think of Phoenix every day and this horrific event still affects us as a family deeply.

'We hope this sentence means no other family or child will experience what we have been through at the hands of Ms. Fox.'
Conservatives are rejoicing that Chicago's notorious soft on crime mayor spectacularly lost her reelection bid in Windy City on Tuesday night.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot scraped just 17 percent of the vote in the race for City Hall, forcing a run off between Paul Vallas, a former schools CEO and Brandon Johnson, a Cook County commissioner on April 4.

This made Lightfoot the first elected Chicago mayor to lose a reelection bid since 1983, when Jane Byrne, the citys first female mayor, lost her Democratic primary.

Lightfoot, the first black woman and first openly gay person to lead the city, won her first term in 2019 after promising to end decades of corruption and backroom dealing at City Hall.

But opponents blamed Lightfoot for an increase in crime that occurred in cities across the U.S. during the pandemic and criticized her as being a divisive, overly contentious leader.

Among those leading the chorus of celebration was controversial Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene who tweeted: 'Lori Lightfoot. Crime doesn't pay.'

Many joined Greene on Twitter, saying that with Lightfoot gone, they hope peace can finally be restored in the Windy City.

Former Georgia state Rep. Vernon Jones tweeted: 'Chicago's Mayor Lori Lightfoot, just got the FOOT! Other Democrat mayors with run-away crime in your cities, take note. Even liberals are tired of being unsafe.'

Jonathan Turley, a criminal defense attorney and FOX News contributor added: 'There is hope for my home city yet. Lori Lightfoot is out.

'The greatest potential improvement for the city since 1900 when the direction of the Chicago river was reversed.'

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich chimed in saying: 'Mayor Lori Lightfoot of Chicago coming in third in her bid for a second term is an encouraging sign that things can get bad enough for citizens to defeat the machines. Maybe Baltimore City is next.'

'The bad news for Lori Lightfoot is shes no longer Mayor of Chicago. The good news is she can go spend time someplace safer, like Ukraine,' said Fox News personality Jimmy Failla.

While movie star and comedian Rob Schneider contributed: 'I will remember Lori Lightfoot as a tyrant yelling and threatening her constituents on the street to go back indoors'

'She is proof that Voting for just anybody with a D next to it, has consequences Glad even liberal Chicago said ENUF!' the Deuce Bigelow star added.

Lightfoot's critics took to Twitter to emphasize that she lost the election due to her failures to stomp out crime in the Windy City

Democrat Mayor Lori Lightfoot lost her re-election bid over criticisms of her soft-on-crime approach amid a steady spike in violence. Pictured: Lightfoot at her election night rally on February 28

On Facebook, one Chicago resident wrote: 'Glad the garbage is out, Chicago needs a change, I just hope for a city where we can feel safe.'

Another wrote: 'The good people of Chicago, and these other fine American cities deserve better. Shes to soft on crime, and drove businesses and residents out. She didnt get along with police, teachers unions, and citizens, and businesses.'

While another struck a different chord highlighting systematic problems in Chicago.

'A new mayor wont stop the crime unless some real systemic change is implemented to the underserved neighborhoods. Stop and frisk and the national guard wont fix it! There is a new breed of criminal out here now!' a local resident wrote.

On the official Chicago Reddit page in a thread titled: 'Was Lori Lightfoot a bad mayor?' Many pointed to Lightfoot's handling of the Covid-19 lockdown, such as closing certain parks but not closing others.

'Some of her lockdown decisions absolutely defied explanation. Parks and beaches closedbut Montrose Dog Beach open,' wrote one user.

Paul Vallas (left) and Brandon Johnson (right) are headed for the run-off election in April

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, at podium, holds hands with her spouse, Amy Eshleman, as she concedes the election in the mayoral race on February 28

Others questioned her handling of the anti-police protests caused by the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020, including believing a conspiracy theory that a bus loaded with ANTIFA protesters was en route from Indiana.

'Was the ANTIFA bus conspiracy created by the looters so they could loot? Or was it that people knew all the police were somewhere else (they did not know about ANTIFA) so they looted?' a user pondered.

Speaking on Fox & Friends hours after Lightfoot's defeat was confirmed, resident Diana Dejacimo said that she didn't know anyone who voted for the incumbent.

Dejacimo explained that in December, she was held at gunpoint amid the violence in the city.

'I believe that people have just had enough. My message has been go out and change. Regime change is the only way we're going to fix this, and I think this was a loud and clear message that this woke agenda is not working for Chicago,' she told the network.

Rita DiPietro, who lives downtown, said she supported Lightfoot in 2019. But she voted for Vallas on Tuesday, saying she was impressed by his detailed strategy to address public safety.

'The candidates all talk about what theyd like to do,' she told the Associated Press. 'This guy actually has a plan. He knows how hes going to do it.'

Back in October, Lightfoot (above) was blasted when she went on TikTok to promote a citywide karaoke contest while crime continued to run rampant in the Windy City

Lindsey Hegarty, a 30-year-old paralegal who lives on Chicagos North Side, said she backed Johnson because 'he seemed like the most progressive candidate on issues like policing, mental health' and public transit.

Speaking to supporters Tuesday night, Lightfoot called being Chicagos mayor 'the honor of a lifetime.'

'Regardless of tonights outcome, we fought the right fights and we put this city on a better path,' Lightfoot said. She told her fellow mayors around the country not to fear being bold.

Lightfoot's comments over her loss harkens back to when she controversially stated that a bulk of her criticism stems from the fact that she is a black woman.

In 2021, Phil Ponce, of WTTW, said: 'In recent months, there have been questions raised about your temperament and your reaction to criticism  a (Chicago) Tribune editorial used the term irascible  how much of this do you think might have to do with the fact that you're a woman and specifically a black woman?'

In response, Lightfoot said, '99 percent of it.'

Asked to elaborate, Lightfoot said, 'Look at my predecessors. Did people say that Rich Daly held tea sessions with people that he didn't disagree on? Ron Emmanuel was a polite guy who was a uniter?

'No. Woman and people of color are always held to a different standard. I understand that. I've known that my whole life.'

As crime continued to soar through the last years of her term, Lightfoot was heavily criticized for promoting other matters than public safety, including a citywide karaoke contest and dancing in the street during a festival.

Lightfoot first faced intense backlash after she joined calls from Democratic mayors in 2021 to cut the budget of police departments

Lightfoot first faced intense backlash after she joined calls from Democratic mayors in 2021 to cut the budget of police departments, a movement that also resulted in officers quitting the force and violent crime to spike.

The embattled mayor then committed to a U-turn, opting instead to 'refund the police' and hire more officers, but the move has done little to curb crime.

According to the Chicago Police Department's latest report, rapes have shot up by 16 percent so far this year compared to the same time in 2022.

Robberies are also up 13 percent, with aggravated battery and burglaries both up 11 percent.

Theft in the windy city is up 31 percent, and vehicle thefts, specifically, have soared up 143 percent.

Homicides and shooting incidents were the only category to see decreases, falling by 18 percent and 8 percent, respectively.

While overall violent crime is up 52 percent from the same time last year, it's up 102 percent when compared to 2021.

Favorite Paul Vallas thanks supporters at his election night event in Chicago

At his victory party, Vallas noted that Lightfoot had called to congratulate him and asked the crowd to give her a round of applause.

In a nod to his campaign promise to combat crime, he said that, if elected, he would work to address public safety issues.

'We will have a safe Chicago. We will make Chicago the safest city in America,' Vallas said.

Johnson on Tuesday night noted the improbability that he would make the runoff, considering his low name recognition at the start of the race.

'A few months ago they said they didnt know who I was. Well, if you didnt know, now you know,' Johnson said.

He thanked the unions that supported him and gave a special shout-out to his wife, telling the crowd, 'Chicago, a Black woman will still be in charge.'

Chicago residents made their choice on Tuesday, with Lightfoot only getting 17.1 percent of the votes, less than half of the leading candidate

Lightfoots loss is unusual for mayors in large cities, who have tended to win reelection with relative ease. But its also a sign of the turmoil in U.S. cities following the COVID-19 pandemic, with its economic fallout and spikes in violent crime in many places.

Public safety has been an issue in other recent elections, including the recall of a San Francisco district attorney who was criticized for progressive policies.

The pandemic also may shape elections for mayor in other cities this year, such as Philadelphia and Houston, where incumbents cannot run again due to term limits.

There are clear contrasts between Vallas and Johnson.

Vallas served as an adviser to the Fraternal Order of Police during its negotiations with Lightfoots administration.

He has called for adding hundreds of police officers to patrol the city, saying crime is out of control and morale among officers sunk to a new low during Lightfoots tenure.

Vallas opponents have criticized him as too conservative to lead the Democratic stronghold.

Lightfoot blasted him for welcoming support from the police unions controversial leader, who defended the Jan. 6 insurrectionists at the Capitol and equated Lightfoots vaccine mandate for city workers to the Holocaust.

Johnson received about $1 million from the Chicago Teachers Union for his campaign and had support from several other progressive organizations, including United Working Families.

Chicago's Magnificent Mile has seen vacanies soars as customers and stores have been victimized by theives in recent years

The former teacher and union organizer has argued that the answer to addressing crime is not more money for police but more investment in mental health care, education, jobs and affordable housing, and he was accused by rivals such as Lightfoot of wanting to defund the police.

Johnson has avoided the word 'defund' during the race, and his campaign says he does not want to cut the number of police officers.

But in a 2020 radio interview, Johnson said defunding is not just a slogan but 'an actual real political goal,' and he sponsored a nonbinding resolution on the county board to redirect money from policing and jails to social services.

Lightfoot accused Vallas of using 'the ultimate dog whistle' by saying his campaign is about 'taking back our city,' and of cozying up to the president of the Fraternal Order of Police, whom she calls a racist.

A recent Chicago Tribune story also found Vallas Twitter account had liked racist tweets and tweets that mocked Lightfoots appearance and referred to her as masculine.

Vallas denied his comments were related to race and says his police union endorsement is from rank-and-file officers.

He also said he wasnt responsible for the liked tweets, which he called 'abhorrent,' and suggested someone had improperly accessed his account.

Lightfoot touted her record of investing in neighborhoods and supporting workers, such as by increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

She also noted that the city had navigated unprecedented challenges such as the pandemic and its economic and public safety fallout to protests over policing.

Asked if she was treated unfairly because of her race and gender, Lightfoot said: 'Im a black woman in America. Of course.'

Vallas, who has led school systems in Chicago, New Orleans and Philadelphia, lost a 2019 bid for mayor. This time, he was laser-focused on public safety, saying police officers who left the force under Lightfoots administration will return if hes elected.

The other candidates were businessman Willie Wilson, Chicago City Council members Sophia King and Roderick Sawyer, activist JaMal Green and state Rep. Kambium 'Kam' Buckner.
The Houston Police Department passed its investigation into the former Biden official accused of stealing luggage from airports on to the FBI after new charges were raised by a Tanzanian fashion designer in the city.

Sam Brinton, formerly a nuclear waste expert with the Department of Energy, was implicated in another after Asya Khamsin saw pictures of them wearing what appeared to be her unique clothes she lost in a bag that went missing at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in 2018. He also appeared to have stolen and worn her jewelry that was in the bag.

Khamsin spotted the clothes amid the ongoing coverage into Brinton, and reported the theft to Houston Police in December. It remains unclear why the investigation was referred to the FBI.

Brinton was fired from the DOE last month after being charged with felony theft for stealing luggage from numerous airports across the country.

First hired to the department to much last summer, Brinton's appointment was met with much fanfare and was touted by the Biden administration as being the first openly non-binary official to hold a high-ranking position.

Houston PD did not respond to DailyMail.com requests for comment.

Brinton attended The Trevor Project TrevorLIVE NYC on June 11, 2018 in an outfit that Khamsin said resembled her outfits that went missing with her luggage in March 2018

Khamsin shared photos on her social media of her designs compared to what Brinton was seen wearing after her luggage with the clothing was stolen from an airport in Washington, DC

Khamsin claimed that Brinton has been seen wearing her custom-made outfits on several occasions since her luggage went missing five years ago.

The fashion guru, based in Houston, shared side by side photos of herself wearing one of her outfits next to a photo that surfaced of Brinton in what she believed is the same one.

Since then, numerous photos have surfaced showing Brinton wearing what appear to be several of Khamsin's one-of-a-kind outfits.

The patterns, though similar, sit differently on Brinton and there has been no proof that the items are the same - and it is unclear if they got them altered.

'When I googled him, I saw my outfits on him,' Khamsin told KRIV last week.

'I googled everything, and I saw my clothing, jewelries, blouses,' she said. 'The collection with the same prints. Maybe he liked the designs and this and that, but why? I don't know how he got my clothes.'

'It's custom-made. She does it all herself,' her husband, Alkhag Khamsin said. 'There is no label.'

She explained that when the bag was stolen she was on the way to a fashion show, and that she was devastated when she lost the pieces and was unable to show them.

'I was crying the whole week because I didn't do the fashion show, and that is in my blood,' Khamsin said. 'We tried to look through the [surveillance] camera. I think we found the bag was on the machine there, but it disappeared. We didn't know who took it.'

In July, Brinton was caught on surveillance allegedly stealing someone's luggage when traveling through Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas which had nearly $4,000 worth of clothing, jewelry and makeup, Fox News reported

Fashion designer Asya Khamsin accused President Biden's fired non-binary nuclear waste guru Sam Brinton of wearing her custom-made outfits that vanished with her luggage in 2018

Sam Brinton (pictured left at the Starbucks in West Hollywood) appeared to be wearing Brinton's one of a kind designs

Earlier in February, Brinton walked out of a Minnesota court after a preliminary hearing on luggage theft charges for the other thefts. Brinton could face up to five years in prison and/or a $10,000 fine if found guilty.

According to the complaint, Brinton removed a tag from a woman's luggage and walked out with the bag at Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport on September 16. The items inside were appraised at $2,325.

American Airlines later confirmed that Brinton had not checked a bag on their flight from Washington DC. When the victim was shown footage of Brinton with the suitcase, she confirmed that it was her luggage. Brinton was ordered not to have any contact with the victim.

The judge referred to Brinton as Mx Brinton. Mx is a common gender-neutral title for non-binary people who do not wish to have a gender referred to in their title.

Independent photojournalist Rebecca Brannon recorded Brinton exiting the court. They ignored reporter's questions including, 'Why would you want some ladys dirty clothes?'

Another reporter asked if Brinton was there to have a job interview with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz's administration.

Another asked if they had visited 'the Larry Craig restroom,' a reference for former Republican Senator Larry Craig who was arrested for lewd conduct in a bathroom at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in 2007.

Brinton was contacted by investigators and lied initially saying they had not taken the bag. They later admitted to the crime but claimed it was an accident.

They also said that they had left the woman's clothing in a hotel room in St. Paul, however no clothes were ever recovered.

In a separate incident, Brinton is accused of stealing a different woman's luggage from Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas.
'We urge the U.S. side to respect science and facts, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters in Beijing on Wednesday

U.S. Energy Department and FBI share similar conclusions, but other intelligence agencies have different theories, including natural transmission

'No credibility whatsoever' says China after FBI Director Christopher Wray told Fox News that the origins of COVID came from 'a potential lab incident in Wuhan'

China denounced comments made by FBI Director Christopher Wray on Wednesday for his agency's assessment that a leak from a laboratory in the central Chinese city of Wuhan likely caused the COVID pandemic, a claim China said had 'no credibility whatsoever.'

'The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan,' Wray told Fox News.

'Based on the poor track record of fraud and deception of the U.S. intelligence community, the conclusions they draw have no credibility whatsoever,' Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning fired back to reporters in Beijing.

'...We urge the U.S. side to respect science and facts.'

China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning denounces FBI Director Christopher Wray's comments as not credible. Wray told FOX News that the agency now believes COVID probably originated from Wuhan lab leak

FBI Director Christopher Wray commented for the first time that the FBI concluded that COVID originated from a lab in Wuhan, China

Despite the FBI's conclusion, Wray added that Beijing has continuously tried to undercut the US government's work.

'I will just make the observation that the Chinese government, it seems to me, has been doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate the work here, the work that we're doing, the work that our US government and close foreign partners are doing, and that's unfortunate for everybody,' he told Fox.

Wray said the work was conducted by top FBI and US government experts who specialize in monitoring potential outbreaks.

'The FBI has folks, agents, professionals, analysts, virologists, microbiologists, etc, who focus, specifically, on the dangers of biological threats, which includes things like novel viruses like COVID, and the concerns that in the wrong hands some bad guys, some hostile nation state, a terrorist, a criminal, the threats that that could pose,' Wray said.

'So here, you're talking about a leak at a Chinese government-controlled lab that killed millions of Americans, and that's precisely what that capability was designed for.'

Wray said he couldn't share many details of the agencys assessment because they were classified.

In addition to the FBI, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that the U.S. Energy Department had assessed with low confidence that the pandemic resulted from an unintended lab leak in China.

Four other agencies - and a national intelligence panel - still judge that the pandemic was likely the result of natural transmission, and two are undecided.

With the mixed conclusions coming from US agencies, the White House on Monday was forced to admit no definitive answer as to the pandemic's origins.

'There is not a consensus right now in the U.S. government about exactly how it started. There's just not an intelligence community consensus,' said national security spokesman Adm. John Kirby.

Kirby pointed to that lack of agreement, even as the White House defended infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci's blasts against conspiracy theories and refused to say how the US might act against China if the theory that its labs were responsible holds up.

The virus was first identified in Wuhan in December 2019 before spreading around the world and killing nearly 7 million people.

Wray said the virus was likely the result of a lab leak and that the Chinese government has worked to undermine his agency's work

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning blasted what she termed 'politicization' of theories on the origins of COVID-19, after an Energy Department analysis that pointed to possibility of a leak from the Wuhan lab
A man's parents waited 50 minutes for paramedics to arrive as their son lay dying at Sheffield's Meadowhall Shopping Centre, an inquest has heard.

Steven and Elaine Bennett had to watch in agony as first-aiders at Boots battled to keep Mark Bennett alive with CPR during the wait.

Mark, 38, who had developed venous thromboembolism (VTE) as a result of immobility following an injury to his foot, was pronounced dead at the scene when medics arrived on April 14 last year.

An inquest at Sheffield's Medico-Legal Centre heard yesterday how Mark was struck down with the condition just 10 days after a fall at a London Underground station.

Mark, who had an IT career specialising in Apple and Microsoft products, was taken to Meadowhall by his parents for a day out while he was recovering from his fall.

Mark, 38, had developed venous thromboembolism (VTE) as a result of immobility following an injury to his foot

As they waited outside Boots, Mark called his dad from inside, saying: 'Dad, come quick, I feel funny.'

Giving evidence at the inquest, Steven Bennett said: 'I couldn't see him and the next thing I knew he was in one of the aisles - he had already collapsed.

'He had staff all around him and they were giving him CPR, the staff were tremendous. Boots staff phoned for a paramedic straight away but were told it could be half an hour.

'I shook my head in disbelief at that point but they actually took 50 minutes. I always wonder if they had turned up earlier whether they could have saved his life.'

The tragedy unfolded on April 4 outside boots at Sheffield's Meadowhall Shopping Centre

Describing his son, Steven added: 'He was a very caring character - he had a lot of time for people. He was a very intelligent young man. He was very sensitive and had a lot of empathy for people. He was hard-working and methodical in his thinking. He was a very nice person to know.'

Coroner Stephen Eccleston heard how on 10 days earlier on April 4 Mark tripped on some steps at a Tube station and landed 'awkwardly', injuring his right foot.

A&E doctor Akash Mittal, who treated Mark at London's Royal Free Hospital in the early hours of April 5, told the inquest Mark's foot showed signs of a fracture and tissue damage and had a an air cast boot fitted to the foot.

However, crucially, it was decided that Mark posed no risk of developing deep vein thrombosis and so blood-thinning drugs were not prescribed.

While Mark was recovering at his parents' home in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, he complained of pain at the back of his leg.

He attended Grimsby's Dianna, Princess of Wales Hospital, however, an orthopedics doctor diagnosed 'minor swelling' and recommended a further assessment three weeks later.

The inquest was told that during his assessment at hospital in London Mark was scored as posing 'zero' risk of developing VTE when measured against a scale known as the Plymouth VTE Risk Score.

However, Dr Mittal admitted that since news of Mark's death emerged he had changed his practice, 're-emphasising' the risks that injuries such as Mark's posed.

The inquest continues.
Khayali was among four ISIS militants jailed over horrific beheading of hikers

An ISIS fanatic who was sentenced to death over the gruesome beheading of two Scandinavian hikers in Morocco has hanged himself inside his prison cell.

The body of convicted terrorist Abderrahim Khayali, 36, was discovered by guards at the prison in Oujda, a city in northeast Morocco, on Tuesday morning.

Khayali was among four convicted ISIS militants jailed and sentenced to death in 2019 over the horrific murders of Norwegian Maren Ueland, 28, and 24-year-old Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, from Denmark, in Morocco's High Atlas Mountains.

The group's suspected ringleader Abdessamad Ejjoud and two others - Younes Ouaziyad and Rachid Afatti - had filmed themselves beheading the two hikers inside their tent in December 2018 before posting the horrific footage online in a case that shocked the world.

Khayali had left his fellow ISIS fanatics before they murdered the two women, who had been on a backpacking trip. He claimed during his trial that he had left 'out of regret'.

Danish student Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, and Norweigan woman, Maren Ueland, 28, were found beheaded in Morocco's High Atlas Mountains in December 2018

Khayali (seen on the right in this video grab) appeared alongside the three killers in a video in which all four pledged allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in front of a black and white ISIS flag

Abdessamad Ejjoud (right), an underground imam, confessed during a 2019 trial to beheading one of the women and Younes Ouaziyad (centre), the other, while Rachid Afatti (left) had videoed the murders on his mobile phone.

Khayali, who had tried to help the militants flee, had also appeared alongside the three killers in a video in which all four pledged allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in front of a black and white ISIS flag.

He was originally sentenced to life in prison but the sentence was changed to execution after he appealed.

Ejjoud, Ouaziyad and Afatti were also sentenced to death by firing squad for beheading the two hikers in 2019. The court also handed jail terms to 19 people convicted as accomplices.

During their trial, the four ISIS fanatics had said, 'May God forgive us' while one added: 'There is no God but Allah' when the judge asked them for their final statements before giving his verdict.

The sentencing marked the first time since 1993 that Morocco has handed out the death penalty.

Although the death penalty remains legal in Morocco, executions are rare. The last execution was in 1993 of Mustapha Tabet, a once powerful Casablanca police commissioner, convicted of raping and abusing hundreds of victims.

There have been no executions since then because of a moratorium, and the issue of capital punishment is a matter of political debate. This means killers Ejjoud, Ouaziyad and Afatti remain behind bars.

During the trial of the ISIS militants, Helle Petersen, the mother of Danish victim Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, told the court in a letter: 'The most just thing would be to give these beasts the death penalty they deserve.'

A portrait of Louisa and Maren are seen at a makeshift memorial among flowers and candles, in Town Hall Square in Copenhagen, Denmark, 28 December 2018

Between 500 and 1000 people from Maren Ueland's hometown walked in a torch lit parade in Bryne, Norway, 21 December 2018. The march was held to honour Maren Ueland from Norway and Louisa Vesterager Jespersen from Denmark, who were beheaded in Morocco

Lawyer Khalid Fataoui, on the verge of tears, also read passages in which Louisa described how her life has been ruined by her daughter's death.

'I cry all the time when I think of her. My daughter and her (friend) Maren had dreams and were taken in the most terrible way,' the letter said.

The three killers of the women were 'bloodthirsty monsters', the prosecution said during the trial, pointing out that an autopsy report had found 23 injuries on Jespersen's decapitated body and seven on that of Ueland.

Ejjoud, an underground imam, had confessed at a previous hearing to beheading one of the women and Younes Ouaziyad, a 27-year-old carpenter, the other, while Rachid Afatti, 33, had videoed the murders on his mobile phone.

Khayali, a plumber, had accompanied the three killers but left the scene before the murders.

Coming from modest backgrounds, with a 'very low' level of education, the ISIS fanatics lived for the most part in low-income areas of Marrakesh.

During the trial, Jespersen's lawyers accused authorities of having failed to monitor the activities of some of the suspects before the murders.

The brutal killings could have been spared had authorities heeded information on the behaviour of street vendor Ejjoud, they said.

The alleged ringleader, who had been convicted for trying to join IS in Syria, was released early from prison in 2015 and went on to meet former inmates and other individuals without checks by authorities, attorney Khaled El Fataoui said.

The lawyer claimed police had been informed of the activities of the group of men but failed to act.

Lawyer Houssine Raji added the four main ISIS fanatics met in Koranic schools run by cleric Mohamed al-Maghraoui, which had been shut in 2010 under a court decision but ordered reopened in 2012 by the justice minister.

Investigators said the 'cell' was inspired by IS ideology, but Morocco's anti-terror chief insisted the accused had no contact with the jihadist group in conflict zones.

Following the trial in 2019, the court also sentenced a Swiss-Spanish convert to Islam, Kevin Zoller, to 20 years in prison. Prosecutors said he had links to the men who orchestrated the women's killings and direct contact with IS members in Syria via the encrypted messaging service Telegram.

Another Swiss man was sentenced to 10 years in prison, convicted on charges including 'deliberately helping perpetrators of terrorist acts' and training terrorists, the state-run news agency MAP said at the time.

Morocco has been largely spared deadly jihadist acts since attacks in Casablanca that killed 33 people in 2003 and one in Marrakesh in 2011 that left 17 people dead.
Dermot Murnaghan signed off at Sky News for the last time by referencing the Will Ferrell comedy film Anchorman.

The broadcaster, 65, who has spent nearly 16 years at the news channel, said 'stay classy, planet Earth', similar to the phrase Ferrell uttered in the movie as the titular character Ron Burgundy.

In the movie, 1970s newsreader Burgundy always signs off saying: 'I'm Ron Burgundy, you stay classy, San Diego.' At the end of the movie, he and female co-anchor Veronica Corningstone, played by Dead To Me actress Christina Applegate, get their own cable news show and tell their viewers at the end: 'You stay classy, planet Earth'.

In another memorable scene, Burgundy gets into a competition with Corningstone as he repeats his phrase so he can be the one to sign off their news show on KVWN Channel 4.

Murnaghan's last remarks as a Sky News Tonight newsreader last night also drew laughter and claps from his co-workers.

Dermot Murnaghan signed off at Sky News for the last time by referencing the Will Ferrell comedy film Anchorman

Will Ferrell and Christina Applegate in the hit comedy film The Anchorman

He said: 'Finally, as the saying goes, some news about me. After 15 years this is my final programme for Sky News, the best organisation in the UK, which you already know for its coverage and analysis and also its dedicated, inventive, hard-working staff, so many of whom have become close friends.

'And I want to say thanks to you all for putting up with me and supporting me so resolutely through elections, resigning prime ministers and monarch's funerals but of course, my greatest thanks goes to you, the viewers.

'You make Sky News, you are Sky News, your engagement, encouragement and feedback have been invaluable over my time here.

'I hope that I've managed to serve you well. It has been an absolute privilege. Thanks for making this career so worthwhile.

'I leave you with - always wanted to do this - a last look at the headlines, there they are.'

Murnaghan showed the audience his news notes before throwing them from his desk, and adding: 'You stay classy, planet Earth, goodbye.'

Before joining Sky News, Murnaghan presented ITV's News At Ten and the BBC Ten O'Clock News - now known as BBC News At Ten - as well as Channel 4 News.

Murnaghan has also hosted the BBC's quiz programme Eggheads, which is now led by Jeremy Vine. He has also presented Sky News At Ten and Murnaghan, a talk show similar to Sophy Ridge On Sunday on Sky News, before his last role at the station as a newsreader on Sky News Tonight.

Before joining Sky News, Murnaghan presented ITV's News At Ten and the BBC Ten O'Clock News - now known as BBC News At Ten - as well as Channel 4 News

During his time, he has covered big events such as the announcement in September of the death of the Queen outside Buckingham Palace, the 2019 general election, the funeral of Prince Philip and the 2020 US presidential election.

He began his career as a trainee reporter at local newspapers before joining Channel 4 as a researcher. He later became a reporter for the broadcaster's The Business Programme.

After a brief stint in Switzerland to present the European Business Channel, Murnaghan returned to Britain to host the business segments on The Channel 4 Daily, a new breakfast show by Channel 4.

He then made the move to ITV in the early 1990s, where in 1997 he broke the news of the death of Princess Diana.

The prolific journalist switched broadcasters again in the early 2000s, joining BBC Breakfast as one of the lead presenters from 2002 to 2007. He was also a regular fixture on the six o'clock and ten o'clock news.

He moved to Sky News in October 2007, where he has remained until his final show this week.
Influenza on the rise in multiple regions across China, dominated by H1N1 virus

(Global Times) 10:56, March 01, 2023

The spread of influenza has continued to show an upward trend in multiple provinces across China with outbreaks of influenza A (H1N1) virus being reported at many schools in several areas.

Statistics from the Chinese National Influenza Center (CNIC) show that the positive rate of influenza virus continued to rise in both southern and northern provinces during the seventh week of 2023, which is consistent with the usual peak of influenza in the winter and spring.

According to the CNIC's weekly report on influenza released on February 23, the influenza A (H1N1) virus accounted for 71 percent of the total samples of the influenza virus, making it the most prevalent strain.

The Zhejiang Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Zhejiang CDC) announced on its official WeChat account on Tuesday that influenza outbreaks have occurred at schools in multiple cities across the province with H1N1 being the predominant virus.

The Zhejiang CDC noted that as H1N1 has not been prevalent in the province for nearly three years, the local population is generally susceptible to the virus due to low vaccination rates. Since China downgraded its COVID-19 management on January 8, the increased flow of people and gatherings have also made it easier for the virus to spread, according to the Zhejiang CDC.

Moreover, the Zhejiang CDC stated that during the transition from winter to spring, when influenza is prevalent, the risk of cluster outbreaks in crowded areas persists.

The most recent monitoring data from Beijing indicate a clear increase in the intensity of seasonal influenza epidemic activity, with the number of influenza-like cases growing by 78 percent last week compared to the same period in 2019.

The Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control (Beijing CDC) released statistics on Monday indicating that among the prevailing influenza viruses, influenza A has overwhelmingly become the dominant virus, with influenza A (H1N1) accounting for 64 percent and influenza A (H3N2) accounting for 35 percent. Influenza B, on the other hand, only accounts for 1 percent.

Zhang Daitao, Director of the Institute for Infectious and Endemic Disease Control at Beijing CDC, explained that the prevalence of influenza typically peaks in December and then declines, with small fluctuations before the epidemic ends in the following spring.

However, this year is unique as the intensity of the influenza epidemic and infection rates have remained low for the past three years, resulting in a decreased immune level among the population, said Zhang.

Zhang added that with the beginning of the new semester for college, middle, and primary school students in the city, the flow of personnel has increased, gatherings have become more frequent, and influenza activity has shown an obvious rise in intensity.

The Shandong Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the influenza epidemic trend in Shandong is similar to that of previous years, with H1N1 remaining the dominant influenza A type, accompanied by a smaller proportion of H3N2 virus type.

Wang Xin, a doctor in the Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine Department at Jinan Central Hospital in Jinan, Shandong, cautioned that while healthy individuals who contract the flu can develop antibodies and recover within a week or two, people with weakened immune systems may develop severe illnesses.

Zhang also emphasized that high-risk groups, including children under the age of 5, elderly individuals, and those suffering from chronic diseases or weakened immune systems, should closely monitor their physical condition if they contract the flu and seek medical attention if the disease worsens progressively.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)








By Anna J. Park







One of the key areas that Korean banks are lagging behind global financial firms is corporate governance.







Along with the country's complex regulations, a less-than-effective system of checks and balances has been cited as a key factor resulting in the undervaluation of stocks issued by Korean financial institutions compared to their earnings performances. A series of financial accidents that occurred over the past few years further highlights the structural weaknesses of local banking groups in terms of governance.







Against this backdrop, financial authorities have placed top priority this year on strengthening internal control systems at financial institutions and improving corporate governance. In order to achieve the goal, both the Financial Services Commission (FSC) and the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) recently launched a taskforce to overhaul the system of checks and balances overseeing lenders. The FSC is Korea's top financial regulator that maps out financial policies. The FSS, which is under the technical control of the FSC, is a watchdog that supervises financial firms and implements policies.







Revisions to the Act on Corporate Governance of Financial Companies will also be ready by the end of March. The revisions are expected to include a clause that imposes on CEOs the responsibility of taking appropriate measures to prevent financial accidents. The boards of directors of financial companies will also be responsible for supervising management to exercise internal control measures.







The series of actions follow President Yoon Suk Yeol's emphasis made in January that the government needs to make efforts to improve corporate governance at financial firms.







"Banks provide services that serve a public function. Therefore, the government has an interest in the fair and transparent governance of banks," Yoon said on Jan. 30.







The FSC is currently looking into the corporate governance and internal control systems of global financial companies, while also examining related laws and practices in advanced global markets to come up with its own measures.







"In order to secure rationality and transparency in executive leadership and appointment processes, the FSC will overhaul the internal control systems and corporate governance of financial companies," FSC Chairman Kim Joo-hyun said in response to the president policy directive.











Korea's financial groups operate under a unique corporate governance system, which does not necessarily fit global standards. For instance, it has become somewhat customary for the heads of major financial groups to serve at least three terms, as seen in the case of Hana Financial Group's former head Kim Jung-tai, who led the lender for 10 years.







The extended tenure was partially attributed to a close relationship between the heads of financial groups and their boards of directors. This tight relationship also resulted in the board's weakened supervisory function over the heads of financial institutions. Korea's corporate laws and systemic structures also fall short of granting effective supervisory powers to boards of directors.






A lawyer has been warned not to climb any tree in Northamptonshire after he scaled one in a protest to try and save it from being chopped down.

Paul Powlesland climbed up the threatened tree on Tuesday to prevent it being felled by developers. His demonstration - played out on Twitter - began in a bid to try and save a line of old lime trees known as The Walks in Wellingborough, Northants.

And after spending most of the day 30ft in the air he eventually came down, only to be arrested and told that one of his bail conditions was to avoid going up any tree in the county.

He Tweeted: 'Thanks to @NorthantsPolice for cheering me up by giving me the hilariously ridiculous bail condition of 'Not to climb any tree in Northamptonshire.'

In a reference to 19th century poet John Clare, who became known for his celebration of the English countryside and his sadness at its ruin, he said: 'John Clare would be proud!'

A Northamptonshire Police spokesperson said: 'One of the protestors has been arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass after he refused to leave the site and climbed a tree.'

Lawyer Paul Powlesland up the tree in Wellingborough, Northants

Mr Powlesland slammed the emergency service response - saying 12 police officers and a fire engine had been sent to keep an eye on him, despite his conviction his protest was lawful.

Mr Powlesland says the trees - which are between 80 and 100 years old and form a green walkway into the market town - are covered by Tree Protection Orders (TPOs) so their destruction is illegal.

The felling is to make way for the creation of a dual carriageway on the A509 and the widening of a roundabout as part of the 1 billion Stanton Cross development.

Local Save Our Trees protestors attempted to halt the felling throughout last week with four arrested last Wednesday for blocking a lorry from accessing the site.

But many of the trees have already been chopped up and are now lying in piles at the scene.

'Barrister in Trees' Mr Powlesland is the founder of Lawyers for Nature and uses his legal skills to try and save environmentally sensitive sites from destruction.

He was brought in by local campaigners in a bid to save the leafy avenue - much loved by locals.

Mr Powlesland Tweeted video and images of himself up the tree on Tuesday, saying he felt he was left with no choice as the authorities were not listening to him.

While up the tree he was arrested by the officers on the ground below him.

Some of the tweets in the thread he shared about the incident on Tuesday

He said: 'I'm doing this to prevent a gross abuse of power. Northants Police are facilitating the felling of the trees. I want to save these beautiful trees.

'I'm staying here as long as it takes. I have never been arrested before but this is one of the most outrageous cases that I have come across because these trees have a TPO (tree protection order) on them.

'The advice that I have given is that the exemptions being used to fell the trees do not exist.

'I consider the felling of the trees is not lawful. I'm trying to stop a criminal act.'

Some of the tweets in Paul's thread - he claimed he had climbed up the tree to 'prevent the illegality'

Plans for the creation of a dual-carriageway on the A509 around Wellingborough Embankment, including a widening of London Road, were approved by the old Wellingborough Borough Council in 2008.

The Stanton Cross development to the east of Wellingborough includes 3,650 new homes, alongside industrial and retail space worth 1.5m and is being overseen by a consortium of developers including Vistry and Bovis Homes.

The trees are covered by Tree Preservation Orders, but the planning permission that has already been granted apparently overrides this as the developers are legally allowed to reroute major utilities including gas.

Mr Powlesland said locals had no idea the trees were to be felled until a few weeks ago.

After being instructed, he scrutinised the legality of the matter and travelled to Wellingborough to try and talk to developers and police on the ground.

But he said he had no joy and officers were trying to move protestors on - leading him to take drastic action and quickly climb the nearest tree.

Mr Powlesland Tweeted: 'At this point I had a choice: to allow these beautiful trees to be illegally and unnecessarily felled, or to climb one of them to prevent the illegality.

'Before I knew it, I was scrambling up the tree and seeing the perplexed expression of the police far below me.

'It's absolutely freezing today, but I intend to remain up here to prevent the illegal felling of these trees.

'So far the work has stopped, which is good.'

Jonathan Hornett, of Wellingborough Eco Group, said: 'It's a chainsaw massacre of our history and more importantly our environment. Wellingborough is trees.

'When you come into Wellingborough you have tree-lined avenues at every entrance but we don't have that anymore because of this senseless vandalism.'

North Northamptonshire Council has assessed the works to be undertaken by the developer and says they are satisfied that the removal of the trees is 'authorised activity in relation to the necessary utility related works sited in the area.'

A statement added: 'By virtue of the fact that the developer is lawfully implementing a planning permission that includes the modification of road junctions including the London Road roundabout, has the appropriate permissions to enter the highway along with a statutory undertaker exemption, the council has no grounds upon which to prevent the planned works or removal of trees necessary to implement their permission from taking place.

'North Northamptonshire Council is therefore bound by the planning permission already granted by the former Borough Council of Wellingborough and is unable to prevent the removal of the trees.

'The council is committed to working collaboratively in supporting the continued development of Stanton Cross and will seek to secure a binding commitment from the developer to replace all trees lost as a part of these necessary road infrastructure works.'

A meeting is due to take place today between local officials and Mr Powlesland in a last bid to save the remaining trees.
Laughing gas Nitrous Oxide is as easy to buy from some corner shops as a loaf of bread, an investigation has claimed.

Cannisters of the chemical compound - which is also known by the slang 'Nos' - are used by some to give themselves a half-minute high.

It is legal to use in medical settings as well as kitchens but it is against the law to sell it for recreational use.

But - as the government mulls over making regulations of its sale stricter - an investigation has found it for sale in corner shops.

Sky News probed a list of shops reported to West Midlands Police suspected of selling nitrous oxide.

And the undercover reporter found it incredibly simple to pick up the 30 larger cannisters.

Sky News probed shops reported to West Midlands Police suspected of selling nitrous oxide

The undercover reporter found it incredibly simple to pick up the 30 larger cannisters

Sky detailed: 'Our reporter walked up to the counter of the first shop and asked for a canister. The woman replied, "Yes, which one? The big one?".

'She leaned down to pick up a canister bigger than a hairspray can from below the counter, popped it in a shopping bag, and offered a receipt for our 30 purchase.

'The next shop we entered took us through a door in the back to their stack of nitrous oxide canisters. They asked us to hand them our rucksack and they put the canister inside, no questions asked.

'The shops didnt ask how old we were or what we intended to do with the nitrous oxide, every shop added in a packet of party balloons which are commonly used to inhale the gas.'

Doctors have warned of a 'terrifying' epidemic following a rise in patients suffering 'life-changing' nerve damage and even paralysis after inhaling the gas- which can starve users of the vital B12 vitamin and oxygen.

Users breathe in the colourless substance through balloons or cannisters - which cost just 25 for industrial-sized containers - causing a feeling of euphoria, relaxation and dissociation from reality.

But the government is expected to make the sale and possession of the drug illegal - a move that will be welcomed by some of its victims - after medics warned that its rising popularity has seen a spike in serious complications, including spinal cord damage and even death, with dozens of lives claimed in Britain over the past decade.

(Stock Image) Concerns have grown over the use of so-called 'hippy crack' and the litter and anti-social behaviour associated with it

In Southgate, north London, local officers have repeatedly come across large piles of the supersized canisters in public spaces

How dangerous is laughing gas? Nitrous oxide (N20), commonly known as laughing gas or nos, is an anaesthetic gas It is used recreationally using metal canisters and whipped cream chargers The gas dissolves into the bloodstream quickly, reaching the brain in seconds The effects, which include laughing and minor hallucination are strong but short-lived Nitrous Oxide prevents oxygen from reaching the blood, causing a rapid heartbeat and tingling limbs The gas is relatively low risk but oxygen starvation can be fatal in severe doses Gas being released from its canister can cause freezing temperatures of -40C which can cause frostbite on skin or internally when inhaled directly from the canister Source: Drug Science Advertisement

Meanwhile, thousands of small silver cannisters used to carry the gas are often seen dumped on roads or in parks, contributing to environmental pollution.

Under the Home Office's proposal, only those with a 'legitimate excuse' for possessing the drug would avoid prosecution - including those who use it in catering equipment such as whipped cream machines, or for legitimate pain relief.

It comes after last year saw much larger cans containing hundreds of litres of gas gain popularity, with four skips' worth being cleared-up after Notting Hill Carnival in central London over the August bank holiday.

One West Midlands user Musa - not his real name - spoke to Sky News about the impact it has had on his life.

He was rushed to hospital after he woke up in the night to go to the toilet and fell to the floor.

Musa was using large canisters of nitrous oxide, almost on a daily basis.His MRI scan shows he's developed a spinal cord abnormality, and doctors can't yet tell when or to what extent this will repair.

He told Sky: "This could be a permanent thing. It's messed up my life. I've got dreams and ambitions,

He added that buying laughing gas canisters from corner shops is as easy as buying a loaf of bread.

Dr Mark Ellul, a specialist registrar in neurology in Liverpool, claimed youngsters are coming into hospital with 'severe and long-lasting' damage after using the drug.

According to the European Union drugs monitoring agency EMCDDA, the recreational use of nitrous oxide is on the rise in Europe among young people, producing worrying numbers of poisonings. Pictured, a woman on TikTok warns of the risks of doing 'balloons'

Dutch become first in the world to outlaw possession of laughing gas A drug known as 'hippy crack' is banned in the Netherlands in a world first. Since January 2023, the gas nitrous oxide has been illegal to buy, sell or own except for legitimate uses in medicine and catering. In the UK it is the second most commonly misused substance after cannabis among 16 to 24-year-olds, but only possession with intent to supply is currently illegal. The Home Office is considering a stricter ban. Inhaling the gas can induce heart attacks, fainting, nerve damage, vitamin deficiency, anaemia and weakness in the legs. Dutch road safety campaigners say it has also played a role in 1,800 accidents across the country over the past three years. Nitrous oxide users buy the gas in small metal canisters, sold legally to dispense whipped cream. But they then empty the gas - known in Dutch slang as 'nang' - into balloons and inhale it. Announcing the decision, State Secretary for Health, Welfare and Sport Maarten van Ooijen said: 'The recreational use of nitrous oxide leads to enormous health risks.' Advertisement

Nos can starve the body of a crucial vitamin and oxygen, which can lead to life-changing nerve damage and suffocation.

Official figures show the number of young people in England and Wales using the drug has soared 50 per cent in the last decade.

Just six per cent of the millennial generation, who were aged 16 to 24 a decade ago, reported taking the drug, compared to nine per cent of the Gen Z age group.

At least 45 people have died after taking the drug since 2010, with many more hospitalised.

Dr Nikos Evangelou, a neurologist at Nottingham University Hospital, tweeted that there is an 'epidemic' of spinal cord and nerve damage due to nitric oxide. 'Terrifying to see paralysed young people from laughing gas canisters,' he said.

The phenomenon was 'almost unknown' last year but medics now see cases weekly, Dr Evangelou said.

Dr David Nicholl, a consultant neurologist at University Hospital in Birmingham, took to TikTok to share concern about the 'epidemic'.

'This stuff is dangerous. Seven years ago, this was a neurological rarity, even a couple of years ago I was seeing cases maybe once a month, now I'm seeing them every week,' he said.

Dr Nicholl urged medics to ask young patients with unexplained neurological symptoms whether they use nitrous oxide and where they get it, so suppliers can be reported.

He called for the age limit for buying nitrous oxide canisters  which cost just 25 compared to 50 a year ago  to rise to 25.

Dr Ellul previously told The Guardian that his team treats one case every few weeks.

He said: 'Most are young people, and many were previously unaware that the substance could be harmful. In some cases the effects can be quite severe and long lasting.'
Donald Trump continued to rage at Rupert Murdoch Wednesday following the release of stunning internal messages in the Dominion lawsuit  saying the billionaire longtime newsman should get out of the business, and defending prime-time hosts who aired election fraud conspiracies in their slots.

The fresh attack follows the release of an explosive deposition and internal Fox News emails as part of the ongoing lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems, including one expressing Murdoch's thoughts to a company exec on diminishing Trump after his supporters attacked the Capitol on January 6.

'We want to make Trump a non person,' Murdoch wrote.

That came amid a series of messages released as part of court filings that show top Fox executives and on-air talent criticizing and even ridiculing some of the unsubstantiated theories of election fraud that were being put on air by Trump allies.

In another email, Murdoch called Trump's election fraud claims 'bulls*** and damaging.'

He said in the deposition that on-air hosts endorsed 'stolen election lies.'

Former President Donald Trump blasted Fox Corporation co-chairman Rupert Murdoch, whom he has known for decades, and said he and 'MAGA Hating Globalist RINOS should get out of the News Business'

Trump, who is now seeking to reclaim the White House, continues to stand by the claims, despite a series of courts ruling against election challenges by him and his allies.

'If Rupert Murdoch honestly believes that the Presidential Election of 2020, despite MASSIVE amounts of proof to the contrary, was not Rigged & Stollen, then he & his group of MAGA Hating Globalist RINOS should get out of the News Business as soon as possible, because they are aiding & abetting the DESTRUCTION OF AMERICA with FAKE NEWS,' Trump wrote.

Then Trump came to the defense of unnamed 'patriotic' Fox hosts, who brought on guests including lawyer Sidney Powell to promote election conspiracies even while other primetime hosts said they thought she was crazy.

'Certain BRAVE & PATRIOTIC FoxNews Hosts, who he scorns and ridicules, got it right. He got it wrong. THEY SHOULD BE ADMIRED & PRAISED, NOT REBUKED & FORSAKEN!!!' Trump wrote on his Truth Social site.

In a new legal filing in Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion suit against Fox, Murdoch said some of his hosts aired the 'false notion' of a stolen election, but defended the company overall.

'Not Fox, No. Not Fox. But maybe Lou Dobbs, maybe Maria [Bariromo], as commentators.'

Asked about host Jeanine Pirro, Murdoch responded: 'I think so.'

Asked about Dobbs, he responded: 'Oh, a lot.' And he said Hannity did 'a bit.'

Murdoch also said he 'suggested or urged' Dobbs be fired because he 'was an extremist,' although internal emails reveal top executives were concerned about losing viewers amid Trump's attacks and following its decision to call Arizona for Joe Biden  a move that infuriated Trump supporters.

'I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing it, in hindsight,' Murdoch said of the fraud claims that the top-rated cable network aired repeatedly.

Murdoch, in a deposition as part of a Dominion lawsuit, named hosts including Jeanine Pirro who aired the false notion of a stolen election

Murdoch called fired host Lou Dobbs an 'extremist'

In another email, Murdoch told former House Speaker Paul Ryan, who serves on a Fox board of directors, that host Sean Hannity had 'been privately disgusted by Trump for weeks, but was scared to lose viewers.'

Murdoch also would not say that host Tucker Carlson endorsed election fraud, though he said it was 'wrong' for Carlson to have My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell on the show on January 26, 2021, to make false accusations against Dominion without pushing back on them.

Dominion is seeking damages in a defamation suit for claims about its voting machines that aired on the network.

Fox in court has said it was airing fraud charges raised by a political figure  the president  and that its coverage enjoys First Amendment protections.

In a statement to DailyMail.com Tuesday, a Fox spokeswoman said: 'Dominions lawsuit has always been more about what will generate headlines than what can withstand legal and factual scrutiny, as illustrated by them now being forced to slash their fanciful damages demand by more than half a billion dollars after their own expert debunked its implausible claims.

'Their summary judgment motion took an extreme, unsupported view of defamation law that would prevent journalists from basic reporting and their efforts to publicly smear FOX for covering and commenting on allegations by a sitting President of the United States should be recognized for what it is: a blatant violation of the First Amendment.'
JPMorgan Chase is fighting attempts by lawyers to question its CEO Jamie Dimon under oath in litigation over the bank's decision to retain Jeffrey Epstein as a client for 15 years.

At the same time, the investment bank has agreed this week for one of its chief executive lieutenants to be deposed under oath.

According to court filings lodged on Tuesday, the bank argued that said Dimon was not an 'appropriate deponent'. But they instead agreed to find a date in March for a deposition of Mary Erdoes.

Erdoes is one of the bank's top executives - and is currently the head of JPMorgan's asset and wealth management division - where sex offender financier Epstein was a client.

And according to the FT, JPMorgan also agreed to have Mary Casey interviewed by lawyers. She worked as a private banker in the period before Epstein was dropped.

Last month, lawyers begged the court to get JPMorgan to hand over documents which they believed would detail Dimon's alleged complicit communications. Those are said to explain why he decided to retain Epstein as a client, despite his allegations of salacious human trafficking.

The bank are attempting to block lawyers grilling the CEO Jamie Dimon under oath in litigation over JPMorgan's ties to Jeffrey Epstein

Mary Erdoes, Chief Executive Officer of J.P. Morgan Asset Management. Sex offender financier Epstein was a client under her department

This comes just months after a new lawsuit launched by the US Virgin Islands' attorney general accused JPMorgan Chase of 'turning a blind eye' to the horrific sex crimes committed by Jeffrey Epstein.

But now, the lender is claiming that Dimon is 'not relevant' to the US Virgin Islands' case. They added: 'he was not involved in any decisions regarding Epstein's account'.

JPMorgan declined to comment when asked by DailyMail.com.

In the suit, USVI AG Denise George accuses Chase of 'knowingly providing and pulling the levers through which recruiters and victims were paid.' The complaint was filed in Manhattan District Court.

George goes on to allege that Chase ignored the truth surrounding Epstein, such as his 2008 conviction in Florida for procuring a child for prostitution, in order to keep him as a client, reports The New York Times.

The bank kept Epstein as a client between 1998 and 2013 before finally cutting ties.

For years, the secretive financier was based out of his private island, Little St. James in the Virgin Islands. He was found dead in 2019 in his jail cell in Manhattan while awaiting trial on sexual abuse of minors and trafficking charges. The official cause of death was suicide.

The new lawsuit explicitly states that Epstein used his home on Little St. James for his sex crimes. In June, Epstein's former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years prison for trafficking minors for sex.

Epstein first became a client at Chase in 1998. There have been numerous reports since his death that the bank's executives sought to keep Epstein on board due to his connections with some of the richest people in the world.

The bank kept Epstein as a client between 1998 and 2013 before finally cutting ties. The disgraced financier died by suicide while in jail over sex trafficking minors

One section of the lawsuit reads: 'Human trafficking was the principal business of the accounts Epstein maintained at JPMorgan.'

AG George said that the suit was part of an 'outgoing effort' to bring accountability to those who helped facilitate Epstein's actions.

The complaint goes on to accuse Chase of concealing 'wire and cash transactions that raised suspicion of a criminal enterprise whose currency was the sexual servitude' of young girls.

The damages being sought by the US Virgin Islands are unspecified in the lawsuit.

In January, another banker was accused of 'personally observing ' Jeffrey Epstein abusing young women, according to a victim's lawsuit filed against JP Morgan.

Jes Staley, 66, resigned as chief executive of UK bank Barclays in November 2021 after the bank said it was 'disappointed' with the outcome of a report into his links to the convicted sex offender.

He has now been named in a lawsuit filed by one of Epstein's victims, a woman known only as Jane Doe 1.

She is suing JP Morgan, where Staley was chief executive until 2013 and had Epstein as a client. The lawsuit, filed at Manhattan federal court, alleges that Staley was aware of Epstein trafficking women and witnessed him abusing them.

According to the FT, the new court filings on Tuesday contained claims that Staley was personally involved in the decision to keep Epstein on as a client in 2008.

This occurred after the financier was arrested for soliciting a minor in Florida, according to lawyers.

The lawyers cited an internal JPMorgan exchange in which it was noted: 'Jes Staley conferred with Stephen Cutler and the decision was made to keep him . . . as a client.'

Cutler, who was part of JPMorgan's general counsel at the time, was 'also included in at least one rapid response meeting related to new information regarding Epstein's human trafficking'.
Teachers have launched a crackdown on so-called 'TikTok protests' rocking Britain's schools after student rebellions have wreaked havoc over the past week.

At one school in Greater Manchester, students are being forced to queue outside before being 'searched' to check they have their 'learning resources ready'.

The Kingsway School in Stockport, Greater Manchester, has come under fire, with some parents claiming it has 'more rules than Strangeways'.

Videos taken from outside the school appeared to show huge queues of pupils stood outside after the new rules were enforced on Monday.

It comes amid a spate of protests against rules breaking out at schools across the country in recent days.

They appear to have been arranged over apps popular with youngsters, such as TikTok and Snapchat, with some clips attracting millions of views.

Children were seen queuing outside Kingsway School in Stockport, Greater Manchester, on Monday

A new 'search' policy introduced at the Kingsway School in Greater Manchester has sparked outrage from pupils and parents

As videos of protests are posted on the platform, MailOnline found comments from pupils at other schools, asking how they could emulate the protest at theirs, amid fears the trend is sweeping the nation.

The trend prompted the Department for Education to release a statement, saying it was 'concerned' by the spate of school protests.

TikTok has teams closely monitoring the situation to ensure content uploaded complies with their community guidelines.

An assessment by TikTok found that most of the content shows pupils taking part in peaceful protests which do not violate the platform's policies, according to a spokesperson.

The protests sweeping the nation are largely over changes to school rules, including uniform and toilet policies.

One concerned parent whose child attends the Kingsway School likened the new, strict 'search' policies to 'a military operation'.

The Kingsway School in Stockport, Greater Manchester, has come under fire, with some parents on social media claiming it has 'more rules than Strangeways'

But the school has pushed back, saying the 'firm approach' has been 'very well supported' by families.

It added that delays to the queues on Monday were down to students either needing to retrieve equipment from their bags or waiting to be provided with the correct uniform.

In a previous letter to parents, the school said that from February 27, pupils would be met by 'senior leaders' at the gates to 'ensure they have everything they need'.

Concerned parents reported that bags were searched and that the rules had 'gotten out of hand'.

READ MORE: Revealed: The TikTok videos urging pupils to take part in school riots sweeping the country and giving advice on how to emulate rebellions against new rules on uniforms and unisex toilets Advertisement

Meanwhile, a 'TikTok riot' on Friday even forced a school to scrap plans to enforce new rules on a ' gender neutral' PE kit and a ban on girls wearing skirts.

Police were called to the Warriner School in Banbury, Oxfordshire, on Friday to break up a 'disturbance' and the school was forced to close for the day after students rebelled against the rules.

The school has since backed down, saying it had reversed its decision to enforce a gender-neutral uniform policy.

The Warriner said there will be no changes 'without further consultation involving the whole school community', as it was 'concerned about any further disruption to school and students being able to continue their studies'.

On the school's website, Dr Annabel Kay, the executive headteacher, apologised for 'under-estimating the strength of feeling on this issue' and 'not properly engaging or consulting with all parents and students'.

She added: 'We fully respect the rights of students to protest and we want to hear the voices of young people in a safe and constructive manner.

'Our intention was, and remains the case, to be inclusive, supporting and empowering all our students equally and with respect.

'We have listened to our students and we are committed to engaging further on our uniform policy, and on other future policy changes, with both parents and students in a constructive and positive manner.'

Staff sparked the row after sending a letter home to parents informing them that from September, all pupils would be 'required to wear black tailored trousers' and a 'gender neutral Physical Education Kit'.

Female students would be banned from wearing skirts to school from September, and during summer months all students would be made to wear knee-length black shorts.

Videos appeared showing students protesting in the school grounds, with one pupil wearing a skirt over their trousers

Following the protest, Warriner School released a statement on its website saying 'there will be no changes to uniform policy without further consultation'

The Warriner School is a co-ed secondary in Banbury, Oxordshire, with 1,500 pupils aged 11 to 18

In the letter, assistant headteacher Lotty Keys, said the reason behind the decision was to 'promote inclusivity and further support and empower our students with our values of equality and respect'.

'This was a decision made because, unfortunately, there is still a challenge by a lot of our female students wearing their skirts to our desired appropriate length,' it said.

'Students who roll skirts to an inappropriate length are sending out the wrong social message in their choice of style - they seem to feel they need to conform to a certain image, in order to fit in with friendship groups.

'We feel this has no place in an educational setting and for this reason we are introducing trousers for all students.'

But this prompted furious students to stage a mutiny against the new rules, with dozens of parents backing them.

MailOnline found messages on TikTok which show pupils asking how they could replicate a protest at their school

Videos appeared on social media platforms showing scores of students protesting in the school grounds, with one pupil wearing a skirt over their trousers.

One pupil claimed Friday's trouble was a 'riot more then a protest, with lots of damage being done to the school site and property'.

A parent said their child, who has autism, was severely 'shaken up' and had to 'barricade themselves inside their classroom' alongside other pupils to stay clear of the protests.

The mother said that girls had been 'upset' by the letter and thought the school's leadership 'could have gone about it better'.

She added that the 'protests were not the correct way to handle it, they got out of hand.'

A pupil at The Warriner School, who wished not been named, told the Banbury Guardian: 'Personally I disagree with the new uniform rules as why should boys be able to wear shorts if girls can't wear skirts?'

Upset parents have claimed the change in uniform will punish girls at the school for the actions of a minority.

Lesley Southam, who has a daughter in year 10, said: 'I think they've taken away the girl's choices - they're penalising the girls.'

Thames Valley Police confirmed they had 'received a report of a disturbance' at the school at 9.10am on Friday morning and officers attended to 'ensure the safety of students and staff'

'No arrests were made,' the force said.

Following the protest on Friday morning, the school was forced to send an email to parents asking parents to collect their children after being advised by the police.

The Kingsway School said in a statement: 'The Kingsway School has asked families to support their children to be prepared for learning which will ultimately have a positive impact on school life.

'This firm approach has been very well supported by our families with the vast majority of pupils arriving on Monday with the correct equipment and ready to learn. This is a necessary step to improving achievement and behaviour in the longer term.

'There were supervised queues outside school yesterday until approximately 8:45am, because children were being asked to show that they had their learning resources ready as they entered the building; some children had to retrieve it from their bag causing a delay.

'Additionally, children who did not have what they needed were being provided with equipment and uniform which slowed the process. This queuing will reduce as preparedness becomes second nature to our children - an essential skill for life.'

The Warriner School has been contacted for comment.
Megyn Kelly has mocked NBC Today show's Savannah Guthrie following her hasty departure from co-hosting duties after she tested positive for Covid-19 during their morning broadcast.

A bemused Kelly questioned whether anyone was even testing for the disease at this stage, commenting on the grip it still seemingly has on the 'left.'

'All of it is such a perfect indication of how the left, and especially the left in New York, continues to live,' she said during her SiriusXM podcast.

'I mean, at this point, seriously? Is anyone still even testing for Covid?

Guthrie was forced to exit the Today show mid-broadcast on Tuesday after testing positive for Covid-19, while questions continue to swirl about the whereabouts of co-host Hoda Kotb - who had been off air for the seventh day in a row, at the time.

Megyn Kelly has mocked NBC Today show's Savannah Guthrie following her hasty departure from co-hosting duties after she tested positive for Covid-19 during their morning broadcast

Kelly took a swipe at the broadcaster saying: 'There's zero chance NBC is not requiring all booster.

'This is reportedly Savannah's third bout of Covid, and I guarantee you she's had all the vaccines and the boosters because you won't be able to go into 30 Rock without them,' said Kelly.

'I don't test for Covid anymore. Who's testing for Covid still?

'It's amazing to me. These guys are leftists and it's amazing to me to see how the leftists still live under the grip of Covid.'

When explaining what happened to Guthrie, Kelly noted beloved weatherman Al Roker slowly walking off-camera in what appeared to be an attempt to social distance.

'I got dollars to donuts that [Al] Roker's there with an N95 tomorrow all day on set,' she quipped.

Despite appearing on the show for the first 30-or-so-minutes, viewers were left with questions when 51-year-old Guthrie suddenly disappeared with no explanation after a commercial break.

Her co-host Sheinelle Jones - who was sitting close beside Savannah for the half hour that she was on-set - later explained that she 'wasn't feeling great' so she decided to take a Covid-19 test, which came back positive.

'It has been an interesting morning for us,' Jones, 44, said during the broadcast.

Kelly took a swipe at the broadcaster saying: 'There's zero chance NBC is not requiring all booster'

Savannah Guthrie tested positive for Covid-19 - forcing her to make a surprise exit from the Today show on Tuesday morning

Despite appearing on the show for the first 30-or-so-minutes, viewers were left confused when 51-year-old Guthrie suddenly disappeared with no explanation after a commercial break

Her co-host Sheinelle Jones - who was seated close to Guthrie - later explained that she 'wasn't feeling great' so she decided to take a Covid-19 test, which came back positive

Savannah's illness comes as her longtime friend and co-host Hoda Kotb remained off-the-air for the seventh day in a row

'Savannah left early, she wasn't feeling great, so she took a Covid test. It came back positive.

'As soon as we found out, she rushed home to rest up. So Savannah, we love you, wishing you a speedy recovery.'

Willie Geist (seen on the show on Tuesday morning) ended up stepping in for Guthrie, who has had had COVID twice before this - first in January 2022 and again in May 2022

Willie Geist stepped in for Guthrie, who has had Covid twice before - the first in January 2022 and again in May 2022.

Guthrie was not the only vital member of the Today show who was missing - Kotb, 58, had been noticeably absent from the show for more than a week.

Her last appearance on-air was on February 17, although she was featured on a pre-taped episode of Today with Hoda and Jenna, alongside Jenna Bush Hager, on February 20.

People were also quick to notice that she failed to release an episode of her weekly podcast, Making Space.

The TV personality has not yet publicly revealed her reason for being away.

The mother-of-two has continued to post on her Instagram account during her absence, regularly sharing inspirational quotes.

Kotb, 58, has been absent for more than a week but the TV host has not yet revealed her reason for being away

Kotb was featured on a pre-taped episode of Hoda and Jenna, alongside Jenna Bush Hager, on February 20, but has been absent since

Last month, a study found that people who haven't had jabs for Covid may have longer immunity than those who have.

Fierce debate about whether natural or vaccine-induced protection is better raged throughout the pandemic, with research producing mixed results.

The debate has become more complicated as time has gone on because so many people have both been exposed to the virus and had their shots.

The latest study, from Israel, followed more than 500 people who had either just caught the virus or had recently received two jabs between 2020 and 2021.

Participants were tracked for up to a year and given regular blood tests measuring their antibody levels and strength of protection.

While those who were vaccinated had higher levels of antibodies initially, they dropped off much sharper than in the natural infection group.

After six months, the prior-infection group also had 'stronger' antibodies - a measure of how well they bind to Covid's spike protein when the virus enters the body.

Experts said the 'jury is still out' on which type of immunity is better, but almost all scientists agree that a combination of vaccine and natural protection is the best.

Research led by experts from the Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, Israel, has shown people who have had Covid but never been vaccinated have longer lasting immunity than those who were double-jabbed but never been infected

The study, led by the Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, only looked at antibodies, which is one part of the complex immune response to Covid.

Immunity also involves T-cells and other white blood cells that are harder to measure but can provide longer lasting protection, especially against severe outcomes.

The research was also carried out when the original Wuhan and Alpha strains were dominant in Israel, so the findings may not necessarily reflect immunity against later variants like Omicron.

Vaccinating five to 11-year-olds against Covid won't 'make much difference' because most have natural immunity Giving healthy primary school children Covid jabs is pointless because most have already had the mild Omicron strain and recovered, a scientist has claimed. No10's vaccine advisory panel is expected to make an announcement on jabbing five to 11-year-olds this week. Currently only children in that age group who are clinically vulnerable to the virus, or who live with a relative who is, are being offered a Covid vaccine. However, with other countries like the US and most of the EU already approving jabs for over-5s, there has been pressure on the UK's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) to follow suit. But Professor Paul Hunter, an infectious disease expert from the University of East Anglia, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme it was 'past the point' where jabbing children aged five to 11 would 'make much difference'. His comments were backed by an Office of National Statistics report today, which estimated nearly three-quarters of 8 to 11 year olds already had Covid antibodies as of January 10. Healthy children face a vanishingly low risk of severe illness from the virus, with only six healthy children dying of the virus in England's first year of the pandemic. And two doses of a jab offer as little as 10 per cent protection against catching the antibody-resistant Omicron variant, UK data suggests. Advertisement

But a study by Maccabi Healthcare and Tel Aviv University in Israel last August also found that natural immunity was better at preventing infection from the Delta variant  by up to 13 times.

In the latest study, none of those who were infected originally became re-infected during the study and those who were jabbed did not get the virus afterwards, suggesting both had high levels of immunity throughout.

The experts recruited 130 people who were infected between March and November 2020 and did not go on to get vaccinated by April 2021.

They also studied 402 people who got their second jab in late 2020 but had never had an infection.

Israel led the world with its vaccine rollout at the time.

The experts measured antibody levels in patients' blood stream immediately after infection or the vaccines, and did follow-up tests after six months.

The researchers also measured antibody avidity - how well the infection-fighting proteins attach to the target virus.

Those who were vaccinated initially saw a higher level of antibodies as well as higher avidity.

But after six months, the 'never-Covid' group saw both measures fall to lower levels than the unvaccinated cohort.

Meanwhile, those who were infected saw their antibody levels fall more gradually.

Avidity actually appeared increased after six months, although the researchers cannot explain why.

The findings are due to be presented to the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases conference in Lisbon, Portugal, in April.

Writing in the study, the researchers said: 'While the number of antibodies decrease with time in both Covid recovered (but never vaccinated) patients and vaccinated (but never infected) individuals, the quality of antibodies increases following infection but not after vaccination.'

They said future research should look into whether people infected with previous variants still have greater protection against Omicron.

Dr Carmit Cohen, an epidemiologist at the Sheba Medical Center who led the report, said: 'With the omicron variant vaccinated individuals are better protected from severe disease.

'I think that the most interesting people to follow up now are those who have recovered from the earlier variants and have then been reinfected by, and recovered from, infection with the Omicron variant.

'Hypothetically, these individuals should have very high antibody performance against most variants.'

Independent experts said the 'jury is still out' on whether natural immunity offers stronger protection against the virus.

Israel led the world with its vaccine rollout at the time, jabbing 11 per cent of the population by December, when the UK had only just started rolling out first doses to the most vulnerable

Professor Danny Altman, an immunologist at Imperial College London, said: 'This is a study that impinges on some of the difficult unknowns we're all grappling with in human immunology studies at this stage in the pandemic.

'While the view from other studies is of a better quality of response as assessed by B cell receptor breadth and affinity maturation through vaccination, this study, conversely, reports something described as improved antibody numbers through immunity after infection.

'Definitely a work in progress with consensus needed and more to be done.

'In terms of consensus on the quality, quantity and durability of protective immunity following spike exposure through infection, vaccination, or hybrid exposure, the jury is still out.'

Dr Julian Tang, a clinical virologist at the University of Leicester, said: 'Generally, natural infection generates a broader and longer-lasting set of immune responses to all the viral antigens  so this is not really surprising.

'After all, our immune systems have evolved over several million years to deal with all types of pathogens  so I would expect natural immunity to outperform any vaccine-induced immunity over the longer term.'
A Belarusian minister said he was afraid Russia would annex his country after invading Ukraine shortly before his sudden death last year, Finland has revealed.

Vladimir Makei, the former foreign minister of the country, which is closely allied with Russia, died in November at 64. No official cause of death was given.

Now Finland's foreign minister Pekka Haavisto has told of how he spoke to Makei after Russian president Vladimir Putin illegally proclaimed that Russia had annexed four regions in Ukraine - Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson - on September 30.

In an interview with the Finnish tabloid newspaper Iltalehti, published today, Haavisto said Makei, who had held his ministry position since 2012, was 'very worried about whether Belarus would be the fifth'.

The Finnish politician said he found Makei's concerns noteworthy because from the outside, officials in Minsk appeared to be firm supporters of Russia 'in every way', according to the Iltalehti report.

Vladimir Makei, former foreign minister of Belarus, which is closely allied with Russia, died in November last year at 64. No official cause of death was given. Now, his Finnish counterpart has said he expressed fears his country would be annexed by Russia

While Belarus has not directly been involved in the 12-month invasion of Ukraine, its autocratic leader, Alexander Lukashenko, allowed Moscow's troops to use his country as a launchpad for the initial attack on February 24, 2022.

Belarus has also allowed Russia to use its land for military drills and has threatened Ukraine with a response should Belarusian territory come under attack, in what some analysts feared was the groundwork for a false flag assault to pave the way for the country to enter the conflict.

Haavisto said when discussing Russia's potential ambitions, sweat began dripping from Makei's forehead, and that he said you cannot predict who would next find themselves in the sights of Putin's imperialistic ambitions.

Last week, a group of journalists released a report that appeared to suggest Makei's concerns were not unfounded.

The document claimed they had received leaked presidential documents that showed Russia was allegedly planning to annex Belarus and absorb it into the Russian Federation by the year 2030.

The secret dossier, reportedly dated to the summer of 2021, was called 'Strategic Goals of the Russian Federation in Belarus' and set out three possible approaches  short, medium and long-term  to annexing Belarus, a piece of 'historical Russia'.

The medium-term plan would see Belarus formally become part of Russia as early as 2025, while the long-term plan gives a time frame of seven years from 2023.

The plans were reportedly drawn up by Russia's Presidential Directorate for Cross-Border Cooperation - a governmental division established by Putin in 2018 - and were obtained by Yahoo! News and German outlet Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko shows an invasion map of Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to Lukashenko during a meeting at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow on February 17

If verified as authentic, the documents would confirm that Putin has ordered Russia's intelligence services and armed forces to prepare to annex yet another country, even as his armies struggle to make significant gains in Ukraine.

But the despot's desire to take control of Belarus as well as Ukraine would hardly come as a surprise, and would suggest Makei was right to be concerned.

Haavisto said he was in contact with Makei from the start of the war because he wanted to understand what Belarus was thinking about Russia and its invasion.

'It is worth following, because even though Belarus's support seems very active, there is some kind of reservation,' he told the tabloid.

He pointed out how Belarus had stated it supported Russia in every way while not actually joining the conflict as an interesting contradiction.

'It gives a double message, which is quite interesting, and at least Belarus has not yet joined the most active hostilities across the border,' he said.

Makei himself was the subject of a report last week, which claimed the Belarusian politician killed himself just days after he returned from a meeting with Kremlin officials in Armenia.

According the independent Belarusian media outlet Nasha Niva, which cited four unrelated sources, Makei's friends said he was 'painfully upset by the collapse of the course he was leading'.

Lukashenko had wanted to replace his chief diplomat, who had served for over a decade. As Lukashenko has grown increasingly close to Putin, it is understood that Makei wanted to strengthen his country's relationship with the West.

'Recently, he has been denied personal attention [from Lukashenko],' a colleague of Makei's is quoted anonymously in the report. 'It was very perceptible to him.'

Another said that the minister understood his position was coming to an end, and that he felt increasingly 'unnecessary' and 'out of place'.

The report claims Makei had said seven months before his death: 'I don't remember who said it, but if you are going to be executed, then it is better to be executed for loyalty than for treason.'

It added that those close to him do not believe he was murdered.

Lukashenko attended his funeral on November 29. The dictator was seen in photographs standing over his open casket, squeezing his arm.

Moscow did not send Makei's Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov to the funeral.

Lukashenko meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing today

The revelation from Finland's foreign minister came as Lukashenko told his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping that his country 'fully supports' Beijing's proposals for ending the Ukraine war when the two leaders met today.

The state visit to the Chinese capital by Lukashenko - a staunch ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin - comes after Beijing published a position paper on Moscow's war in Ukraine, insisting it is a neutral party and calling for dialogue.

Western countries have criticised China for failing to condemn Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, while Beijing has reacted furiously to recent claims by the United States and Nato that it may be contemplating arms transfers to Russia.

The position paper was met with scepticism from Ukraine's allies, while Russia acknowledged the proposal but said the conditions for a peaceful resolution of the conflict were not in place 'at the moment'.
Rapper Travis Scott has insisted that the nightclub punch-up NYPD cops were called to was all a misunderstanding after a 'great show', despite being seen snapping at a DJ, punching a sound engineer in the face and throwing a fan's phone to the ground.

Scott performed with Don Toliver, who has a weekly spot at Club Nebula, in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Videos show the pair performing to a packed crowd at the Times Square hotspot. They'd played another show earlier in the night at Irving Plaza.

At 3.25am, cops were called to the scene amid reports that Scott attacked a sound engineer.

'There was also a verbal dispute at that location that ended in $12,000 worth of damage to equipment. At this time, no warrant is issued, and the suspect is not being sought. However, that may change,' a spokesman told DailyMail.com.

Reps for Scott insist it was all a misunderstanding.

Scott performed with Don Toliver, who has a weekly spot at Club Nebula, in the early hours of the morning. Videos show the pair performing to a packed crowd

'There have been discussions with the venue who confirmed this was a simple misunderstanding that was resolved in minutes. The show was great and never missed a beat.

'This has the earmarks of a cash grab but will be resolved and all those with an agenda will be held accountable

'Travis and our team already working with law enforcement to resolve and get to the truth,' a source said.

His attorney, Mitchell Schuster, added in a statement: 'While this is clearly a misunderstanding being blown out of proportion by clickbait and misinformation, we are actively working with the venue and law enforcement to resolve and set the record straight.

'We are confident our client will be cleared of any wrongdoing.'

But witnesses filmed Scott - who is known for his hot temper - snapping at a DJ for turning down the sound earlier in the night.

He was seen yelling 'back the f*** up!' in footage obtained by TMZ.

Scott had turned the music up too high which caused a distortion. The DJ was trying to fix it when he snapped at him, according to the witnesses.

Once he realized he was being filmed, he also slapped the phone out of a fan's hand.

Scott is shown on February 16 in Houston, Texas. He is yet to comment on the nightclub incident

The crowd at Nebula last night, a popular music hotspot in Times Square

Police sources say Scott then punched a man with a 'closed fist' to left side of the face and damaged a video screen and speaker as he made his way out of the club.

Scott is still facing multiple lawsuits over the deaths of 10 people at his 2021 Astroworld concert.

Hundreds more were injured at the event, where the rapper was accused of whipping the crowd into a frenzy. He insisted he did 'everything he could' to save the people who died. Scott was previously arrested for inciting riots at other shows.

Scott, who shares two children with Kylie Jenner, has not yet commented on the incident.

He and Kylie broke up again in January after spending the holidays together.

A source close to Jenner told DailyMail.com of the latest incident at the nightclub: 'Traviss anger issues are not anything new and were a huge part of why Kylie and he broke up.

'She is such a peaceful and quiet person, and he was the opposite. She could not handle it anymore.'

'He has exploded on several occasions and anyone who knows him knows about his temper.

'This is not anything new and no one is surprised to learn that he got himself into this mess.'

The rapper had performed earlier in the evening with Don Toliver at a show at Irving Plaza.

They then took over the DJ booth at Nebula as part of its weekly Tuesday night party.

It's unclear if this latest incident will have any bearing on the civil lawsuits he is facing.
An Insulate Britain protester glued his face to the road as climate change activists brought rush-hour 'chaos' to the heart of the country's financial sector, a court heard.

Matthew Tulley, 44, Ben Taylor, 38, George Burrow, 68 and Anthony Hill, 72, blocked traffic between Bishopsgate and Wormwood Street in the City of London on October 25 2021.

The protest caused 'gridlock' in the capital's financial district and disrupted the journeys of thousands of commuters, London's Old Bailey heard.

Describing the carnage Sergeant Robert Payne, of City of London Police, told the court: 'I have never seen the junction like that. It was absolutely gridlocked. It was chaos. That junction is paramount to the City of London. It was like I've never seen it.'

Prosecutor David Matthew told jurors the defendants had all been part of Insulate Britain, which had been 'blocking roads' for 'some weeks' and had been 'attracted' to the City of London due to the area's 'importance'.

Protesters blocked one of the key roads in City of London, which is used by buses and commuters, London's Old Bailey heard. Pictured are Insulate Britain activists on October 25, 2021 during the demonstration

'In the middle ages it had walls all around it. It has been the heart of the country's financial sector,' he said. 'It has its own police force, the City of London Police.

'The importance of the area attracted Insulate Britain's attention.'

Tulley, of Holmfirth, West Yorkshire, glued his face to the concrete, Mr Matthew said.

The prosecutor added the area was a 'big bus route' and that between 5,600 and 8,500 passengers were affected by Insulate Britain's antics.

'There is nothing wrong with protest,' Mr Matthew said. 'There is nothing wrong with trying to get your point across. But even if it is done in a non-violent way, there are limits to what you can do.

'You can imagine the diversions and the effect that those diversions would have had on other parts of the road network.'

Sgt Payne added the junction where the protest took place was one of the main routes in the district.

He described seeing a 'line of protesters' sitting across the north-south lanes, armed with banners.

Activists armed with banners sat in the road, causing gridlock across the City of London (pictured)

'One protester had glued their face to the road. That was the main risk of harm to an individual at the time,' he added.

'A number of protesters had glued their hands or bodies to different carriageways.'

Insulate Britain has demanded a national programme to insulate all homes by 2030.

Taylor, of Bury, Lancs, Tulley, Burrow, of Kendal, Cumbria and Hill, also of Kendal, all deny causing a public nuisance.

The trial continues.
A California teacher was arrested on child porn charges after he allegedly planted a hidden recording device in an all-gender restroom near the school's swimming pool.

Siu Kong Sit, 37, a math teacher at Beckman High school in Irvine, was taken into custody at the school on Monday after it was revealed that he had been secretly recording students while they were in the bathroom.

Sit was charged with possessing or manufacturing child pornography, burglary and two misdemeanors, according to the Irvine Police Department.

Sit's alleged predatory behavior was discovered after a contracted maintenance worker found the secret recording device in the bathroom.

It was turned over to school administrators, who alerted the police.

Investigators found' images of several victims' on the recording device and are in the process of trying to identify more victims that may have been secretly exposed.

Siu Kong Sit, a 37 year-old math teacher at Beckman High School in Irvine, California, has been arrested for allegedly planting a secret recording device in a unisex school bathroom near a swimming pool

A photo shows the high school's 'All Gender Restroom.' A contracted maintenance worker at the school found the secret recording device in the bathroom

Further details of the 'recording device' have not been shared, but the charges Sit is facing suggest it was used to take pictures or videos.

It is unclear if all the victims were students, or if they may have been teachers and also administrative staff.

Sit, a Santa Ana resident, was booked into the Orange County Jail. His bail was set at $20,000, online court records show. It is unclear if he has retained an attorney at this time.

As of Wednesday morning, there was nothing about the teacher's arrest on the school's website.

When DailyMail.com reached out to Beckman High School they were unavailable for comment.

A letter sent out to parents from Superintendent Mark E Johnson said: 'Yesterday, our school community was confronted by a difficult matter regarding alleged on-campus criminal misconduct by an employee at Beckman High School.

'Yesterday morning, staff found what appeared to be recording devices disguised as smoke alarms in each of the two unisex restrooms located on campus, near the pool deck at Beckman High School.

Beckman High said it was cooperating with police, and that a private firm had been hired to sweep for further possible recording devices

'Upon finding the devices, administration immediately contacted Irvine Police Department (IPD). IPD began investigating the situation, trying to determine the owner of the device through forensic analysis.'

The letter continued: 'Last night, IPD informed us that they obtained evidence linking these devices to a Beckman employee.

'At this time, we can confirm that IPD arrested the employee, and he is currently in custody.

'Additionally, TUSD has placed the employee on indefinite administrative leave, and will run its own investigation in coordination and parallel with IPD.

'At this time, the District does not know any specific details related to the functionality of the video recording devices, how long the devices were in the restrooms, or any information related to content that may have been recorded.

'We realize that this is unsettling, and we believe strongly that sharing this information with our community as soon as possible is required, given the circumstances.

'Counselors are available for any students or staff who need to talk to someone. Additionally, we want to offer our assurances that we will continue to cooperate with law enforcement as they conduct their investigation and to confirm that the ultimate actions taken will be based on facts and the law.

'While we cannot comment on any specifics, as the investigation is ongoing, any educator misconduct will be dealt with to the maximum extent possible, under applicable rules for due process related to disciplinary action.

'Please know that Beckman staff inspected each restroom on campus, and no similar devices were discovered.'

Johnson added that a private firm had also been contracted to do a further sweep for devices.
gettyimagesbank



By Yi Whan-woo



The centuries-old preference for sons over daughters has been diminishing in Korea amid growing awareness of gender equality as well as the rapid population decline witnessed in recent years. The latest data on the sex ratio at births shows such preferences are apparently no longer the case here.



Released by Statistics Korea, Wednesday, the data showed that 104.7 baby boys were born for every 100 baby girls in 2022.



The year 2022, according to the stats agency, falls within the balanced sex ratio of 103 to 107 boys for every 100 girls at birth.




Mexico's Defense Department said the men were traveling on a pick up truck that failed to stop and crashed before soldiers opened fire

A sixth victim was shot at least two times and remained hospitalized as of Wednesday

Gustavo Suarez, a 21-year-old American, was among five men shot dead by the Mexican military in Nuevo Laredo on Sunday

A 21-year-old American has been named as one of five men shot dead by the Mexican military in the northern border town of Nuevo Laredo.

Gustavo Suarez and seven other men were returning from a night out clubbing when the pickup truck they were traveling in was shot early Sunday morning.

The other fatal victims have been identified as Gustavo Perez; Wilberto Mata; Jonathan Aguilar; and Alejandro Trujillo.

A sixth victim, Luis Gerardo, was shot at least two times and remained in serious condition at a local hospital.

Alejandro Perez told Univision that he saw one of the soldiers shoot and kill his brother, Gustavo Perez.

'We told them that we were not carrying anything, we did not have firearms,' he said.

Residents provide comfort to the father (sitting on the ground) of Gustavo Suarez, an American man who was among five young men shot dead by the Mexican military on Sunday in the northern border town of Nuevo Laredo

An agent with the attorney general's office walks near the bodies of two of the five young men who were shot dead by the Mexican Army in Nuevo Laredo on Sunday. The Defense Department said soldiers had heard gun shots and had ordered the driver of a pickup truck to stop before he lost control and crashed into a parked vehicle

A civilian kicks a Mexican soldier during a violent confrontation Sunday after five young men were killed by the military

Alejandro Perez also revealed that the soldiers forced him into making a videotaped confession in which he stated that the group was responsible for being fired on.

'They said that if I wanted to live, to say they we were at fault,' he said.

Nuevo Laredo Human Rights Committee director Raymundo Ramos told DailyMail.com on Wednesday that 12 soldiers were present during the shooting and that four have confessed to having fired their weapons. However, none of the soldiers have been taken into custody.

Mexico's Defense Department released a statement Tuesday and said that the soldiers heard gunshots and approached the pickup truck that had no license plates and no lights.

The driver of the vehicle is said to have accelerated 'in a brusque and evasive way.'

Alejandro Perez told Univision that the soldiers spared his life by forcing him into making a videotaped confession in which confessed that the group was responsible for being shot at by the military. His brother, Gustavo Perez, was among the five men who were shot dead by the soldiers

Gustavo Suarez's father lunges at a soldier during a confrontation between civilians and the military after his 21-year-old son and four other young men were killed. A sixth victim was shot at least twice and remains hospitalized

A soldier aims his rifle at a civilian during a confrontation in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, after the military killed five men and wounded another

The speeding pickup truck then crashed into a stationed vehicle and the soldiers started shooting when they heard the crash.

The military did not say if they thought the loud impact of the accident, was a gunshot.

A police report obtained by The Associated Press indicated that driver failed the soldiers' orders to come to a full stop.

Three of the bodies were found in the vehicle and two were on a sidewalk.

The border town killings sparked a violent confrontation between friends and family members and soldiers.

Video footage recorded by a bystander showed Suarez's father charging at a soldier while the military was trying to remove the pickup truck from the scene.

A melee ensued with two soldiers being viciously attacked by the civilians. One of the servicemen was repeatedly kicked while lying on the ground next to the pickup. At one points multiuple shots were fired, sending people running for cover, but it was unclear who had fired them.

A civilian hurls an object at the military during a protest in Nuevo Laredo after five people were killed by soldiers Sunday

The father of an American man killed by the Mexican military fights a soldier in Nuevo Laredo

Nuevo Laredo is dominated by the Cartel del Noreste (Northeast Cartel), an offshoot of the old Zetas cartel. Soldiers and marines have frequently come under fire from heavily armed cartel gunmen in Nuevo Laredo.

The city has also been the scene of human rights violations by the military in the past.

In 2021, Mexicos navy said Monday it turned 30 marines over to civilian prosecutors to face justice in the cases of people who disappeared during anti-crime operations in Nuevo Laredo in 2014.

Marines were accused of rounding up supposed suspects, some of whom were not heard from again. Through 2018, dozens of people disappeared in Nuevo Laredo.

Under Mexican law, military tribunals can hear only cases that involve violations of military code. Offenses against civilians must be tried in civilian courts.

The Defense Department said the case had also been referred to military prosecutors for investigation of any possible violation of military codes.
Scotland should bring in a brand new currency within months of going independence because it is 'not credible' to keep Sterling, an SNP leadership hopeful said today.

Ash Regan struck a notably different stance to official party policy as she stepped up her campaign to succeed Nicola Sturgeon.

But rival Humza Yousaf was quick to dismiss the idea, saying it risked undermining the 'trust' of the public.

Unionists said it would 'set alarm bells ringing' as the SNP's separatist ambitions do not 'stand up to the slightest scrutiny'.

Currency has long been one of the key issues in the independence debate.

Publishing a paper on the issue last year, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said Scotland would move to a new currency - but that the transition would take time.

Ash Regan struck a notably different stance to official party policy as she stepped up her campaign to succeed Nicola Sturgeon

One of the main tasks facing the incoming SNP leader will be to attempt to revive fading hopes of holding another referendum - with polls showing solid support for staying in the UK

The country would be required to set up a central bank, which she said would happen on the first day after an independence vote.

However, the country would have to continue to use sterling for some time after that.

Ms Sturgeon told journalists it would be 'irresponsible' to set out a timetable for a move to the new currency.

There have been warnings that Scotland would need to adopt the euro if it wanted to rejoin the EU after splitting from the UK.

But Ash Regan said today that it would take just months to move to a Scottish currency.

'I think Scotland cannot be credible independently if we're at the mercy of another country's currency and we're not able to control that,' she told ITV Border.

'I think we need to be moving to our own currency as soon as it's practical.'

Pushed on a timescale she said the switch could happen 'a couple of months' into independence.

'If I become the leader, I am going to start working on what steps we can take now, while we are not independent, in order to build the infrastructure which would let us move to a Scottish currency within months of becoming independent,' she added.

Asked if Scotland currently has the powers to set up a central bank, Ms Regan said: 'I'm going to look to see what steps we can take under the devolution settlement, but I'm very clear we would need to get that infrastructure in as soon as possible.'

One of the main tasks facing the incoming SNP leader will be to attempt to revive fading hopes of holding another referendum - with polls showing solid support for staying in the UK.

Mr Yousaf said the people of Scotland 'will not trust us if we come up with schemes which I think lack credibility'.

Pamela Nash, chief executive of Scotland in Union, said: 'Policy ideas like this will set alarm bells ringing in the ears of people and businesses right across the country.

'Never mind a fag packet, this policy would leave space to spare on a postage stamp.

Leadership rival Humza Yousaf was quick to dismiss the idea, saying it risked undermining the 'trust' of the public

'The SNP's vagueness and deception on the currency questions was one of the principle reasons Scotland rejected separation in 2014, but these proposals are even more incredible.

'None of this stands up to even the slightest scrutiny.

'This kind of messaging may play well among some parts of the SNP membership, but all of these candidates should remember they are competing to be the First Minister for all of Scotland.'
Ukraine today admitted it may have to withdraw its troops from Bakhmut as Russia pursued a bloody, months-long offensive to capture the besieged Ukrainian city.

Vladimir Putin's forces are continuing their relentless attacks on the small mining city in eastern Ukraine in their bid to encircle the defending forces and force them to surrender or withdraw.

If successful, this would give Putin his first major victory in more than half a year and open the way to the capture of the last remaining urban centres in the Donetsk region.

And now, Alexander Rodnyansky, an economic adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, admitted Ukrainian troops might pull back from the city.

'Our military is obviously going to weigh all of the options,' Rodnyansky told CNN. 'So far, they've held the city, but if need be, they will strategically pull back. We're not going to sacrifice all of our people just for nothing.'

Ukrainian servicemen of the 80th Brigade fire targets from a mobile howitzer outside of Bakhmut, Ukraine, on Tuesday

Ukrainian servicemen of the 80th Brigade prepare to fire targets from a mobile howitzer outside of Bakhmut on Tuesday

Ukrainian serviceman of the 80th Brigade is seen on duty in a mobile howitzer outside of Bakhmut on Tuesday

The battle for Bakhmut, in Ukraine's Donetsk region, has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance as defenders hold out against relentless shelling and waves of Russian troops taking heavy casualties in a months-long campaign to capture it.

Rodnyansky noted that Russia was using the best troops of the Wagner Group to try to encircle the city, while Zelensky accused Moscow of throwing waves of men into Bakhmut with no regard to their lives.

Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, a rogue millionaire with longtime links to Putin, said on Wednesday that he so far had seen no signs of a Ukrainian withdrawal from the city. He claimed that Kyiv has in fact been reinforcing its positions there.

'The Ukrainian army is deploying additional troops and is doing what it can to retain control of the city,' Prigozhin said. 'Tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers are offering fierce resistance, and the fighting is getting increasingly bloody by day.'

Recent drone footage shows the scale of devastation in the city, while Zelensky has said it has been 'destroyed.'

Flames and smoke rise into the sky from blazing buildings while constant gunfire and explosions ring out from within the city's crumbling walls.

Thousands of residents remain inside the ruined city from a pre-war population of around 70,000.

'It is frightening indeed,' said a middle-aged man bundled in a coat and woolly hat on the steps of his apartment block.

'I can hardly move my legs - they barely move - from the stress of the situation,' he said. 'As long as my home is intact and I am not hurt, I will stay here.'

Vladimir Putin's forces are continuing their relentless attacks on the small mining city in eastern Ukraine. Pictured: Ukrainian soldiers near Bakhmut on Tuesday

Ukrainian servicemen of the 80th Brigade are on duty outside of Bakhmut, Ukraine, on Tuesday

A Ukrainian soldier is seen inside the mobile howitzer just outside of Bakhmut on Tuesday

An elderly woman stands in her backyard after shelling in Chasiv Yar, near Bakhmut on Tuesday

The battle for Bakhmut, in Ukraine's Donetsk region, has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance as defenders hold out against relentless shelling and waves of Russian troops taking heavy casualties in a months-long campaign to capture it

The area around Bakhmut has been the one part of the front where Moscow has made substantial gains during a winter offensive that has seen what both sides describe as the bloodiest fighting of the war.

'Russia in general takes no account of people and sends them in constant waves against our positions, the intensity of the fighting is only increasing,' Zelensky said in an overnight address, describing the fighting in Bakhmut as 'most difficult' but its defence as essential.

After losing extensive territory in the second half of 2022, Russian forces have been replenished by hundreds of thousands of reservists.

Kyiv, for its part, has stuck mainly to defence over the past three months, hoping Russia's assault will exhaust Moscow's forces before Ukraine launches a counter-attack with new weapons promised by the West.

Fighting near Bakhmut has been led by Wagner, which has recruited tens of thousands of convicts from prisons. Its boss Prigozhin has accused the regular Russian army brass of treason for inadequately supplying his men.

A view of the town of Bakhmut, the site of the heaviest battles with the Russian troops, in the Donetsk region

Vladimir Putin's forces are continuing their relentless attacks on the small mining city in eastern Ukraine

Bakhmut has been left destroyed as a result of the heavy shelling by Russian forces

Wagner received an apparent show of Kremlin support on Wednesday when Russia's rubber-stamp lower house of parliament, the State Duma, discussed extending censorship laws to include a 15-year jail sentence for those who discredit 'volunteer formations'.

'This initiative will protect everyone who today is risking their lives to ensure the security of the country and our citizens,' Duma chairman Vyacheslav Volodin wrote on social media. 'The punishment for violators will be severe.'

In Ukraine, at least nine civilians were killed and 12 others were wounded across the country on Tuesday, the Ukrainian president's office reported Wednesday morning.

Fierce fighting continued in the eastern Donetsk province, with the cities of Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Vuhledar, along with 17 other towns and villages, coming under intense Russian shelling. 'Shelling does not stop along the entire front line,' the presidential office said in a regular update.

In the country's easternmost Luhansk province, regional Gov. Serhiy Haidai said that the Ukrainian military blew up a warehouse in Russian-held Kadiivka on the site of a factory where Russian forces were storing trucks packed with ammunition.

The Russian army attempted to break through Ukrainian defenses in Bilohorivka and near Kreminna, 'but the Russian attack was repelled,' Haidai said.
This is the moment two 'stupidly reckless' people on a moped narrowly avoided being hit by a 70mph train by inches riding through red lights at a level crossing.

Network Rail released dramatic CCTV footage of the incident near Littlehampton, West Sussex, which police said should make clear the 'dangers of misusing level crossings'.

The red lights were flashing and its barriers were down for several seconds before the moped arrived at the crossing last Tuesday.

The rider steered on to the wrong side of the road to avoid the first barrier, and passed over the tracks moments ahead of a Southern train.

It caused the driver of the Brighton to Southampton service to make an emergency stop.

The moment two 'stupidly reckless' people on a moped narrowly avoided being hit by a 70mph train by inches riding through red lights at a level crossing near Littlehampton, West Sussex on February 21

The incident happened at Toddington crossing at 3.09pm on February 21.

Network Rail route director Lucy McAuliffe said: 'We came very close to having two deaths on our railway, and a train driver living with the memories of that.

'We try to make our network as safe as possible but we do need people to work with us by paying attention to red lights and barriers.

'We need to track these people down and make sure they know the consequences of their actions.'

Inspector Emma Boulton of British Transport Police (BTP) said: 'This is some of the most stupidly reckless behaviour on a level crossing I have seen in my entire career.

'These riders blatantly ignored the red light in front of them and were just split seconds away from a truly catastrophic collision, which I have no doubt would have had fatal consequences.

'This footage should serve as a very explicit reminder to everyone of the dangers of misusing level crossings.'

The incident happened at Toddington crossing at 3.09pm on February 21

The rider steered on to the wrong side of the road to avoid the first barrier, and passed over the tracks moments ahead of a Southern train

Southern's health, safety and security director Samantha Facey said: 'This video beggars belief. Today we could be talking about a double death with all the misery and heartache that would cause the bikers' families and friends.

'And think of our driver: no-one should have to be put through this trauma and none of our passengers should find themselves put at risk in this way.

'Sadly, we've also seen a rise in young people trespassing on the railway. It's an incredibly dangerous place, so please, please, please keep off the tracks.'

The British Transport Police have asked anyone with information about the incident to contact them by texting 61016, quoting log 411 of 21/02/23.
A Russian-born Swiss doctor died four days before she was unveiled this week as the medic who helped deliver Putin's 'secret children'.

Dr Natalia Thiebaud Kondratieva, 63, was named as the head of the medical team who attended the birth of Putin's children with reported 'gymnast lover' Alina Kabaeva, 39.

She died in Switzerland on 24 February, the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The cause of death was not announced but it is known she had been in the care of cancer specialists. A death notice indicated she was cremated the day after her death.

On Tuesday she was named by Proekt independent media as the obstetrician who had been with Kabaeva for the birth of at least two Putin children in 2015 and 2019.

The Kremlin leader has not revealed the existence of any children with Kabaeva to the Russian people.

Natalia Thiebaud, the Soviet-born midwife who died on the anniversary of the invasion

Putin awards Alina Kabaeva with 'For Merit to the Fatherland' order in 2005 in Moscow

Natalia Thiebaud pictured in scrubs and a face mask in an undated photo

A picture on Red Square dated 9 May 2019 shows Thiebaud with two other Swiss medics who flew to assist at the birth of one Kabaeva child around this time.

READ MORE: Belarus minister said he feared Putin would annex his country after Ukraine shortly before his sudden death last year, Finland reveals Advertisement

Those seen with the medic are neonatologist Petra Caterina Maria Donati-Genet and nurse Stella Ghizelu.

All are from Clinica Sant'Anna in Lugano where Kabaeva was reported to have earlier had another child, in 2015.

But it was Thiebaud who ultimately confirmed Putin's alleged lover was in Lugano giving birth.

The Proekt report said: 'How did Swiss doctors, who came to Moscow for several days, end up in the VIP-stand closed to all outsiders?

'The answer to this question is quite simple.

'These Swiss women had important and secret merits before the Russian leadership.

'They were Kabaeva's personal midwives and doctors who assisted in the birth of her children.

'It was Thiebaud and other staff at Clinica Sant'Anna who helped Kabaeva give birth in Lugano in 2015.'

And it was Thiebaud who alleged the baby belonged to Vladimir Putin.

Still, there are rumours Putin and Kabaeva have at least one more child.

Image shows nurse Natalia Thiebaud near the clock tower in Red Square, Moscow

Natalia Thiebaud looked to confirm the rumours that Putin and Kabaeva shared children

Proekt's report looked into the Russian leader's personal life and lavish residences.

It also introduced the 'gymnast' whose affairs with Putin have been rumoured since 2008.

And it connected the dots, revealing how Putin and Kabaeva live in luxury with their children at a 'royal residence' in Valdai, between Moscow and St Petersburg.

For years, the story remained secretive, with claims denied and a newspaper shut down that year for reporting they were engaged.

While it had been claimed that Kabaeva had been in the care of Clinica Sant'Anna staff during her pregnancy, the obstetrician had not been named.

It is unclear if she knew she would be named before her death.

A death notice published by her partner Giorgio Grandini did not state her role in the birth of Putin's children.

But the medic Paola Rodoni Cassis, wife of the Swiss foreign minister, was thanked in her death notice.

Putin's residence in Valdai, a town in Novgorod Oblast in the north of Russia

An interior shot of the Valdai residence Putin is reported to spend time in

Another interior shot at Valdai provides an insight into Putin's secretive personal life

Thiebaud had lived long-term in Switzerland.

On social media in 2020 she posted a message which appeared to allude to her knowing Putin.

'He is one and only Papa for all of Mother Russia!!!!,' she wrote.

'Thank you for not forgetting me.'

Eleven days before her death, Thiebaud took over as head of a company called JERINA MEDICAL SA on the resignation of Grandini.

Thiebaud was a friend of Lidiya Slutskaya, wife of Russian pro-Putin nationalist politician Leonid Slutsky.
A Juilliard-educated former piano prodigy claims that she is being evicted from her Boston retirement home after applying for rental subsidy - and that her landlords are using her unruly Collies as scapegoats.

Ann Karnofsky, 79, moved to Fairview Estate in 2016 and did not have a lot of money so decided to apply for rent subsidy. She claims that the manager at the time told her people who apply for it 'can cause problems.'

Hawthorn, which owns the property, was then accused of dragging their feet with the subsidy paperwork, and the former child star was forced to file complaints with the attorney general's office and the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.

Karnofsky told the Boston Globe: 'It was pretty obvious they were biased against anyone who receives a subsidy.'

Ann Karnofsky, 79, is being evicted from her Boston retirement home after applying for rental subsidy - and believes that her landlords are using her unruly Collies as a scapegoat

Hawthorn Senior Living, the company that owns Fairview Estates, charge $2,895 a month for a studio and $3,395 for a one bed in the building Karnofsky lived in

However, months after she received the reduced rent subsidy, Karnofsky was unceremoniously told she had to get rid of her two dogs - Flash and Blaze.

Flash and Blaze stand by her side to keep her balance, since Karnofsky has severe vertigo.

Judge Diana Horan ruled in housing court that the elderly woman must get rid of the dogs. And because she wouldn't remove them, the judge said she had to go too.

She will be kicked out of the apartment on April 30, just days after she turns 80.

Hawthorn Senior Living, the company that owns Fairview Estates, charge $2,895 a month for a studio and $3,395 for a one bed in the building Karnofsky lives in.

She was a child prodigy on the piano and studied at the famous Juilliard School in New York, before becoming a music history teacher at various universities.

Hawthorn claims the dogs knocked a resident, 89, to the ground and also surrounded another elderly resident who was walking her own dog. Karnofsky denies the allegations.

Months after she received the reduced rent subsidy, Karnofsky was unceremoniously told she had to get rid of her two dogs - Flash and Blaze

Hawthorn claims the dogs knocked a resident, 89, to the ground and also surrounded another elderly resident who was walking her own dog. Karnofsky denies the allegations

Lew Finfer, a community organizer for Massachusetts Action for Justice, said that he believes the reason she's being removed is not because of the dogs - but instead because of the subsidy.

He told the Boston Globe: 'The real reason for this is retaliation for her using her rights to make complaints' to state officials.'

Hawthorn has denied the claims - and insist that the only reason she is being kicked out is because of her uncontrollable dogs. The company offered her multiple opportunities to address the concerns, they claim.

Adam Bryan, a spokesman for Hawthorn, said: 'When these concerns were not addressed and it was clear that the dogs continued to pose a risk to other residents, we had no choice but to take legal action.

'While this was the right step to support the safety of our community, we are nonetheless saddened by the outcome.'

Flash and Blaze stand by her side to keep her balance, since Karnofsky has severe vertigo

She will be kicked out of the apartment on April 30, just days after she turns 80
Chicago's incumbent Mayor Lori Lightfoot lost her re-election bid on Tuesday, with vote totals showing that two of her rivals will face each other in a runoff ballot on April 4.

The tough on crime candidate, Paul Vallas, 69, a former public schools chief in the Windy City and Philadelphia who ran unsuccessfully for Chicago mayor in 2019, secured the top spot, taking 34.9 percent of the vote.

Brandon Johnson, a Cook County commissioner and an organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union, secured the other spot in the runoff race, taking 20.2 percent of votes. Lightfoot clocked in around 17 percent of the vote, eliminating her from the running.

The Chicago race is technically non-partisan, but every candidate identifies as a Democrat in the heavily left-leaning city.

Polls showed public safety is by far the top concern among residents of the third-largest US city.

The tough on crime candidate, Paul Vallas, 69, a former public schools chief in the Windy City and Philadelphia who ran unsuccessfully for Chicago mayor in 2019

Brandon Johnson, a Cook County commissioner and an organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union, secured the other spot in the runoff race, taking 20.2 percent of votes

Democrat Mayor Lori Lightfoot lost her re-election bid over criticisms of her soft-on-crime approach amid a steady spike in violence. Pictured: Lightfoot at her election night rally on February 28

The city's police union is backing Vallas while the teacher's union is behind Johnson.

Former President Barack Obama's chief strategist David Axelrod described the race between Vallas and Johnson as the battle between the 'candidate of the Fraternal Order of Police' and the 'candidate of the Chicago Teachers Union,' reports the Chicago Sun-Times.

Axelrod described Vallas' campaign as 'brilliant' and 'disciplined' thanks his being 'monomaniacal' on the issue of violent crime.

'[Johnson] is the candidate of the Chicago Teachers Union and, if he is elected, he will owe it to the Chicago Teachers Union.  The question is, do you want a mayor who is entirely beholden to the union,' Axelrod added in his interview.

Vallas' rivals sought to paint him as a Republican thanks to his endorsement from the city's confrontational police union.

Just last week the same union hosted likely GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis at an event in Illinois, reports ABC Chicago.

'I wholeheartedly agree with Governor Pritzker that there is simply no place in Chicago for a right-wing extremist like Ron DeSantis, and I am disappointed in FOP leadership for inviting him to speak to officers,' Vallas said in distancing himself from the Florida governor.

Lightfoot had blasted him for welcoming support from the police unions controversial leader, who defended the Jan. 6 insurrectionists at the Capitol and equated Lightfoots vaccine mandate for city workers to the Holocaust.

The 2023 campaign has tested Democratic messaging on policing in the U.S., three years after widespread protests following the police murder of George Floyd and months after Republicans sought to bludgeon Democrats over the issue in the 2022 midterm elections.

There were more than 800 murders in Chicago in 2021, the most in a quarter-century. The homicide rate dropped 14 percent in 2022 but remained nearly 40 percent higher than in 2019.

Vallas' campaign website asserts the city has been 'surrendered' to criminals, and he has vowed to hire more officers and increase community patrols, as part of a 14-point plan to defeat crime that's listed on his website.

In a TV ad targeting Lightfoot titled 'Out of Control' saw the candidate call the incumbent's leadership style 'combative.'

'Paul Vallas. Crime and your safety is his top priority,' the narrator says in the TV spot.

In a recent interview, Vallas attributed Chicago's spiraling crime to 'the abandonment of a community based policing strategy.'

Brandon Johnson, right, listens to homeless advocate Aleta "Englewood Barbie" Clark at a homeless encampment under a major interstate freeway on the eve of the mayoral election

A recent Chicago Tribune story also found Vallas Twitter account had liked racist tweets and tweets that mocked Lightfoots appearance and referred to her as masculine

While Johnson's first ad was titled 'Better.'

'Brandon Johnson has a plan to make Chicago safer, grow Chicago businesses and create jobs. Brandons plan will improve public schools for all of our kids. For mayor, Brandon Johnson is better for Chicago,' the narrator says.

Vallas' focus on safety put him at the top of most polls, though Lightfoot has attacked him for telling an interviewer in 2009 that he was 'more of a Republican than a Democrat.'

A recent Chicago Tribune story also found Vallas Twitter account had liked racist tweets and tweets that mocked Lightfoots appearance and referred to her as masculine.

Vallas denied his comments were related to race and says his police union endorsement is from rank-and-file officers.

He also said he wasnt responsible for the liked tweets, which he called 'abhorrent,' and suggested someone had improperly accessed his account.

At a mayoral forum in January, Vallas said that all of the problems caused on Chicago's train system was due to 'crime, crime, crime.' He also said that the system was 'facing a catastrophic financial crisis.'

At the same forum, Johnson attributed the problems on the train system on reliability and that a 'more collaborative' effort was needed to fix the problems on the transit network.

In a recent advertisement, Lightfoot accused Johnson of wanting to 'defund the police.' The ad cited a 2020 appearance in which he described the slogan as a 'real political goal' in the wake of the Floyd protests.

As a mayoral candidate, Johnson has responded by saying he wants to spend more resources on programs such as mental health treatment but does not intend to cut the police budget.

Rita DiPietro, who lives downtown, said she supported Lightfoot in 2019. But she voted for Vallas on Tuesday, saying she was impressed by his detailed strategy to address public safety.

'The candidates all talk about what theyd like to do,' she told the Associated Press. 'This guy actually has a plan. He knows how hes going to do it.'

Lindsey Hegarty, a 30-year-old paralegal who lives on Chicagos North Side, said she backed Johnson because 'he seemed like the most progressive candidate on issues like policing, mental health' and public transit.

A graph showing the split of votes after the Chicago mayoral election on Tuesday

At his victory party, Vallas noted that Lightfoot had called to congratulate him and asked the crowd to give her a round of applause.

In a nod to his campaign promise to combat crime, he said that, if elected, he would work to address public safety issues.

'We will have a safe Chicago. We will make Chicago the safest city in America,' Vallas said.

Johnson on Tuesday night noted the improbability that he would make the runoff, considering his low name recognition at the start of the race.

'A few months ago they said they didnt know who I was. Well, if you didnt know, now you know,' Johnson said.

He thanked the unions that supported him and gave a special shout-out to his wife, telling the crowd, 'Chicago, a Black woman will still be in charge.'

The other candidates were businessman Willie Wilson, Chicago City Council members Sophia King and Roderick Sawyer, activist JaMal Green and state Rep. Kambium 'Kam' Buckner.

Far from being an outlier, the nations third-largest city is just the latest Democratic stronghold where public safety has become a top election issue.

In San Francisco, progressive District Attorney Chelsea Boudin was ousted in a recall election last year that was fueled by frustration over public safety.

In Los Angeles, two Democrats running for mayor debated how to deal with rising crime rates and an out-of-control homelessness crisis.

In New York City, voters elected Eric Adams as mayor, elevating a former city police captain who pledged to fix the department and invest more in crime prevention.

And in Philadelphia, candidates running for mayor this year are debating how to curb gun violence.
Members of the Senate Judiciary grilled Attorney General Merrick Garland over the rise of fentanyl-related deaths, the federal prison policy for transgender inmates and got assurances that politics won't influence the Hunter Biden probe.

Wednesday's appearance before the committee put Garland in the hot seat on a range of controversial issues that the Justice Department intersects with, from mandatory minimum sentences to the treatment of prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) asked Garland: 'What is our policy when it comes to allowing a male prisoner to be transitioned into a female prison?'

Senators grilled Attorney General Merrick Garland about prison policies, crime, and the Hunter Biden probe during a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing

Garland told him that all matters are handled on a 'case-by-case' basis, not categorically.

Graham asked, 'Are you concerned that if a biological male is sent to a female prison, that could be a risk with female prisoners?'

'Every person in prison has to be dealt with dignity and respect,' he told Graham.

'That determination of the safety questions you're talking about have to be made individualized basis, not categorically.' Graham asked him to provide any Bureau of Prisons policy on the matter.

Another senior Republican, Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, asked Garland about the Hunter Biden probe. He noted at the top that he had to leave the investigation in the hands of the U.S. Attorney in Delaware, a Trump holdover, to insulate it from the appearance of interference.

But Grassley wanted to know if the US Attorney would need sign-off from Biden-appointed officials to charge an alleged crime in another jurisdiction, such as California or Washington, D.C.

'I have pledged not to interfere with that investigation, and I have carried through on my pledge,' Garland told him.

Garland appeared for the first Senate oversight hearing by the panel in more than a year

Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo. and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas (right) prepare to press Garland

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., asked about prison policies for 'allowing a male prisoner to be transitioned into a female prison?'

Garland said the Hunter Biden probe was being shielded from influence

Concerning U.S. Attorney David Weiss, 'He has full authority to make those kinds of referrals that you're talking about.'

The attorney general acknowledged it 'would be a national security problem' if President Biden's son had been receiving previously undisclosed payments from another country in an attempt to influence policy.

'If it's an agent of a foreign government asking someone and paying someone to do things to support that foreign government in secret, yes, I definitely think that would be a national security problem,' Garland said.

Panel chair Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Illinois) raised the issue of mass shootings in his opening statement, a day after Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was defeated in her primary in Chicago. 'More than 6,800  6800  Americans have died from gunfire in the first two months of this year. There have been at least 94 mass shootings, more than one every single day this year in America,' he said.

Said Graham: 'I think there's a feeling of this country that we're losing control of our streets. That crime is increasing, and the world is [full of] very dangerous people and people don't feel safe anymore.'

'So 106,000 people died from drug overdoses, 70,000 from fentanyl last year and it's getting worse. The leading cause of death for Americans age 18 to 40 is fentanyl poisoning. What are we doing?' Graham asked.
A terminally ill father who devoted his final months to tirelessly campaigning for a change in the law on assisted dying has passed away aged 75, his family have announced.

David Minns, who was diagnosed with blood cancer in 2020, died at home in Suffolk on February 13.

Mr Minns campaigned for laws to introduce medically assisted dying in the UK for those with terminal illnesses near the end of life. Assisted dying is currently illegal in England and Wales.

Paying tribute, his wife Sue and son Matthew, said he will be remembered as a 'loving husband, father, grandfather, dear brother and keen sportsman who touched the lives of so many.'

David Minns, who was diagnosed with blood cancer in 2020, died at home in Suffolk on February 13

Mr Minns campaigned for laws to introduce medically assisted dying in the UK for those with terminal illnesses near the end of life

Mr Minns was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a bone marrow cancer, and an associated condition called amyloidosis in 2020 as his daughter Katie was dying of sarcoma, a soft tissue cancer. Since her death in 2021, he has spoken to newspapers and broadcasters, as well as MPs, about the need for a safe, compassionate assisted dying law for the UK.

A statement from his wife Sue and son Matthew said: 'David will be remembered as a loving husband, father, grandfather, dear brother and keen sportsman who touched the lives of so many.

'He was devoted to caring for his daughter Katie as she died, all the while dealing with his own diagnosis. He spent the past year fighting for an assisted dying law, knowing that any change would not come in time for him. As he said when meeting his MP, 'I know this won't happen for me. I'm doing it for you and your family'.

'David died at home, as he wished, but his final hours, days and weeks were not what he wanted.

David was 'keen sportsman' who enjoyed running, rowing and other sports

'He received excellent care and support from NHS and hospice services, but still he suffered, just 18 months after watching Katie die in terrible pain.'

They added: 'We have been traumatised by the events leading up to David's death and are determined to continue his fight. We are more certain than ever that the law on assisted dying absolutely must change, so that other terminally ill people can be given the option David was so cruelly denied.'

Ellie Ball, Deputy Director of Communications at Dignity in Dying, said: 'We are deeply saddened by David's death and extend our heartfelt condolences to Sue, Matthew and their loved ones.

'It has been a privilege working with David to give his powerful words a platform, shining a light on the unbearable suffering that his family and many others have endured under the current law.

'In his passionate yet gentle way, David spoke truth to power, exposing the cruelty and inequality of the UK's ban on assisted dying and making a persuasive case for change.

'He knew he would not personally benefit from his own campaigning, but he has helped bring us closer than ever before to a law that gives dying people like him and Katie the choice, compassion and protection that is sorely lacking at the moment.

'David will be remembered fondly and we look forward to supporting his family to continue his legacy.'

In the last year, Mr Minns spoke with former Health Secretary and his own MP Matt Hancock.

Mr Hancock said: 'I'm incredibly saddened to hear of David's death. I had the pleasure of getting to know David  a constituent  through his passionate campaigning on assisted dying. David's powerful testimony made me reflect on the question, 'When death is imminent and the pain is insufferable, would I want the choice about how to die?'

'David was both brave and inspirational. He was a fighter whose spirit will live on through this campaign.

'My thoughts are with David's family and friends at this difficult time.'
A Bolivian man has been rescued after being stranded on his own in the Amazon for 31 days, where he was forced to eat insects and worms to stay alive.

Jhonatan Acosta, 30, was found last Saturday after exactly a month on his own in the Baures municipality in the southwest of the vast South American rainforest. He became separated from his friends during a hunting trip.

Acosta said he collected water in his boots and was forced to drink his own urine to stay alive.

If confirmed, this could make Acosta one of the longest-ever lone survivors to make it out alive from the Amazon rainforest.

Following his miraculous rescue, Acosta said he is now going to give up hunting and dedicate his life to making music for God.

Jhonatan Acosta walks with the help of a rescuer. He was missing since January 25, 2023

Acosta had to receive medical treatment after he was rescued from his 31 day stint in the Bolivian Amazon

A search and rescue party are pictured looking for Jhonatan Acosta while he was lost in the Amazon

'It helped a lot to know about survival techniques: I had to consume insects, drink my urine, eat worms. I was attacked by animals,' he told Unitel TV.

The Bolivian said he came face to face with jaguars whilst stranded alone, and said he resorted to eating tree roots to make it through the ordeal.

But when the skies dried up, he had to drink his own waste.

'I asked God for rain,' Acosta recounted. 'If it hadn't rained, I would not have survived.'

Disoriented, he had walked about 40 kilometers (25 miles) in search of civilisation, Acosta said, but soon discovered he was going around in circles.

Exposed to the elements at night, he said he was bitten by all sorts of different creatures.

Acosta was reported missing by his family at the end of January. He had been on a hunting trip with four friends in the Amazon rainforest but got separated from the party on January 25.

Although he was missing for so long, his friends and family never gave up hope that they would see him alive again.

Jhonatan Acosta poses with a manchette before he went missing on January 25, 2023

Acosta was taken to hospital to be treated for dehydration and was 'very skinny'

Sure enough, a month after he went missing, people looking for him heard him shouting 'Please, get me out of here!'

Acosta said that he had heard their voices near the area where he was lost and was desperate to attract their attention.

At first, the people looking for him thought that it was another member of the search party asking for help, but they quickly realised this was not the case when they saw a disheveled Acosta.

At first, they were afraid, according to local media, because he looked very different to the man who had disappeared a month beforehand and he had a shotgun in his hands.

Jhonatan was reportedly greeted with shouts of joy and firecrackers in the town of Baures on the Saturday night, exactly a month after going missing.

A source told local media: 'We always had faith. Unfortunately, he was not with a machete or a knife and his shotgun was broken, but somehow he was feeding. Thank you all very much.'

His younger brother, named as Horacio Acosta, told local media: 'On Saturday we were with the [indigenous] Ayoreos [people] and with people who came to help us. There were about 17 of us. We looked in the lake and on land.

'There were four people from the town who found him, at first they were afraid of approaching him, but they found him... I was on the other side of the mountain, and we had to meet for lunch, but we were at the ranch, and we saw a person come running and they told us that they had found my brother. And then he walked out.'

A group of people went looking for Jhonatan Acosta after his disappearance

Following his miraculous rescue from the rainforest, Acosta said he is now going to give up hunting and dedicate his life to making music for God

Horacio said it was 'a miracle', adding: 'The truth is that I felt happy, relieved, very blessed. It is a miracle. We have to take advantage of this life opportunity that has been given to the whole family. We have to be united, be more together. Everything we've been through isn't pretty.'

Acosta was taken to hospital to be treated for dehydration and was 'very skinny'.

He told local media that he was on the verge of losing hope when he was found.

Horacio said: 'My brother wants to go to the mountains and he wants to say goodbye. He is going to dedicate himself to making music for God. He is not going to hunt again. He promised that he was going to make music for God and I think he is going to keep it.'

In another well-known case in Bolivia, Israeli adventurer Yossi Ghinsberg survived three weeks in the Amazon in 1981, a feat which inspired a movie called 'Jungle' starring Daniel Radcliffe.

In Brazil, pilot Antonio Sena survived 38 days in the Amazon after crashlanding in 2021. The following year, two brothers aged seven and nine were rescued after spending 25 days lost in the Brazilian part of the rainforest.




Senior trade officials of South Korea and China discussed ways Wednesday to enhance exchanges and cooperation on supply chains, bilateral trade and investment and to create favorable business circumstances, Seoul's trade ministry said.







The discussions were made during a meeting between South Korea's Deputy Trade Minister Jeong Dae-jin and Li Fei, China's assistant minister of commerce, in Seoul, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.







It was the first high-level trade talks between the two neighboring countries since June 2019.







During the meeting, Jeong asked for China's cooperation to stabilize supplies of raw materials, parts and other items and to help South Korean companies do business "under predictable circumstances," the ministry said.







He also called for China's active role in expediting follow-up negotiations on service and investment fields under their Free Trade Agreement.







The Chinese official said his country will actively make efforts to help ensure South Korean firms' stable business management in China and to resolve their difficulties, according to the ministry.







Bilateral trade hit an all-time high of US$310.4 billion last year, up 3 percent from a year earlier, government data showed. (Yonhap)






A court has banned a 53-year-old man from touching every parking meter in Liverpool.

All of the city's devices are not off-limits to Nicholas Brennan for two years after he was convicted of theft.

Specifically, he has been told not to 'touch' or 'interfere' with any of Liverpool's parking meters.

The court order came after he was caught stealing from one of the machines in William Brown Street, Liverpool, and convicted for it.

Brennan was issued a Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO) by justices at Liverpool Magistrates' Court, which confirmed the ban.

Banned: Nicholas Brennan, 53, can no longer touch any of Liverpool's parking meters for two years, following a court order imposed by magistrates

It comes after Brennan was convicted of stealing from one parking meter in William Brown Street, Liverpool (stock image)

Community Policing Sergeant Charles Cottier, of Merseyside Police, said: Offences against parking meters carry an enormous burden to the taxpayer which is unacceptable.

For Liverpool City Council alone it is estimated to cost more than 100,000 per annum to repair damage to these machines.

Your Local Policing team has recognised this, and the CBO granted today against Brennan reflects his disregard for others. Should he breach the order then he could be imprisoned.

Elsewhere, a lawyer has been warned not to climb any tree in Northamptonshire after he scaled one in a protest to try and save it from being chopped down.

Paul Powlesland climbed up the threatened tree on Tuesday to prevent it being felled by developers. His demonstration - played out on Twitter - began in a bid to try and save a line of old lime trees known as The Walks in Wellingborough, Northants.

And after spending most of the day 30ft in the air he eventually came down, only to be arrested and told that one of his bail conditions was to avoid going up any tree in the county.

He Tweeted: 'Thanks to @NorthantsPolice for cheering me up by giving me the hilariously ridiculous bail condition of 'Not to climb any tree in Northamptonshire.'

And referencing the poet, he added: 'John Clare would be proud!'

A Northamptonshire Police spokesperson said: 'One of the protestors has been arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass after he refused to leave the site and climbed a tree.'
Desperate parents crashed websites today as one in three children missed out on their preferred secondary school in some areas - as a 'critical incident' was declared amid the chaos.

Families across England have been discovering what secondary school their child will be joining this autumn, on what is commonly known as National Offer Day.

But a survey has suggested fewer children are gaining places at their first choice in a number of places in England.

Early figures indicate that in some parts of the country, more than a quarter of families have missed out on their first choice - rising to nearly two in five pupils in some London boroughs.

Findings from a survey of local authorities show, of the 68 councils that provided comparable data, 39 (57 per cent) have seen a fall in the proportion of pupils getting their first choice compared with last year, while 25 (37 per cent) saw a rise and four (six per cent) experienced no change.

Some parents have slammed local council websites, which have been plagued with technical issues, including in Leicestershire, Warwickshire and Reading

One expert believes this is due to the rising number of pupils, causing secondary schools to become oversubscribed.

In London, meanwhile, as many as three in 10 children missed out on a place at their top choice of secondary school.

The number of applications in the capital fell slightly this year, with families leaving London due to different 'working patterns' attributed to the decrease.

Overall, 69.78 per cent of pupils who applied to start at a London secondary school this autumn received an offer from their first preference, compared to 69.95 per cent last year, figures show.

Across the capital, 92,641 pupils applied for a secondary school place - a 0.03 per cent decrease on last year.

London Councils, which collated the figures, said application numbers were affected by a number of reasons 'including varying pressures on different schools and local authority areas'.

It added: 'Other important factors include migration changes, such as families moving due to changes in their circumstances and working patterns, along with the localised effect of the UK leaving the EU in some areas.'

It comes as some parents have today taken to social media to slam councils running the allocations after a series of websites were plagued with technical issues. Including Reading Council's whose website said a 'critical incident' had been declared.

Early indications from a PA news agency survey of local authorities suggest that a youngster's chances of winning a place at their preferred school varies significantly depending on where they live.

The survey, sent to councils across England, excluding London, suggests that a number of local authorities have seen a fall in the proportion of children receiving their first choice compared with last year.

Early figures, from 33 councils which provided comparable data, show that 18 have seen a decline in the proportion of pupils getting their first preference, 14 have seen a rise and one has seen no change.

In Liverpool, only 67.2 per cent of children got their first preference, while in Birmingham 71.68 per cent got their top choice.

Some local council websites were plagued with technical issues, including Warwickshire and Reading Councils

Among the areas where high proportions of pupils have obtained their first preference are Wiltshire, where 95.05 per cent got their top choice, and Wakefield where 93.6 per cent also were offered their first pick.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders' union NAHT, said: 'This can be an anxious time for families. Choosing the right school and securing a place there is a huge moment in a child's life and not everyone will get their first choice today.

'There is extra pressure on secondary admissions this year as the pupil population bulge that has been moving through primary schools is currently hitting secondary schools. Many schools are particularly oversubscribed, especially in certain areas of the country.'

Parents in Leicestershire said they had to check the portal 'several times' to find out whether their child had received their first choice of secondary school, but no results were displayed. The issue was later resolved.

England's school system has been put under pressure in recent years as a population bulge has been moving into secondary schools.

A county council spokesperson said: 'Following a technical issue this morning, parents can now access the online portal to see information about their child's secondary school place.

'We apologise for any inconvenience that may have been caused.'

Meanwhile, a Warwickshire County Council spokesperson said they were 'aware that some parents and carers have had problems with links to our website today' and apologised to those affected.

They added: 'However, our parent portal system itself is working well and we've had over 1,000 places accepted before 10am this morning.

'We'd like to reassure any parents or carers that these technical difficulties will not affect their school offer and they have until 15 March to accept their place.'

Some parents reacted to their children's secondary school places, with some rejoicing that they had been offered their first choice.

Others were not as jovial and vowed to appeal the decision after their child did not get their first choice

Parents also used social media to react to the placements, with some rejoicing that they had been offered their first choice.

One said: 'Good luck to all kids receiving their secondary school places today, my daughter got first choice she's happy so we are happy.'

Another commented: 'Stressful morning with a happy outcome: my eldest got her first choice of secondary school.'

A third parent posted: 'Woken up to an email saying that P has been offered a place at our first choice secondary school. Very excited, a little relieved, but mostly still in denial that my baby is off to secondary school!'

However, others were not as jovial and vowed to appeal the decision, with one parent saying her child had been given his third choice, a 40-minute walk away from their home.

The parent said: 'Waiting for my youngest get up, to tell him he didn't get his 1st or 2nd choice secondary school.

'1st choice is the closest school (10 min walk), and no roads to cross. The school he is going to - a 40 minute walk, several major roads to navigate. Let the appeals process start.'

England's school system has been put under pressure in recent years as a population bulge has been moving into secondary schools.

It comes as a report found the majority of secondary schools in England do not prioritise poorer children in their admissions policies.

Some families are 'priced out' of oversubscribed schools due to higher property prices around the school as local pupils are often given priority, according to research by the University of Bristol.

Only a small minority of secondary schools prioritise pupils eligible for Pupil Premium support, which is linked to free school meals and used as a measure of disadvantage, when they are oversubscribed, the analysis has found.

England's school system has been put under pressure in recent years as a population bulge has been moving into secondary schools.

The report, which was funded by the Nuffield Foundation, suggests that using geographical location in school admissions policies can 'establish or reinforce segregation' across neighbourhoods as more affluent parents have the resources to 'buy admission to popular schools' through the housing market.

The majority of secondary schools in England are academies or free schools, which allows them to set their own admissions criteria for allocating places when oversubscribed, independent of the local authority.

A Department of Education spokesperson said: 'The vast majority of families will be offered a place at one of their preferred schools and most will be offered their top place.

'We have already created over one million school places in the last decade  the largest increase in school capacity for at least two generations. We have also announced nearly 530 million to provide both primary and secondary places needed for 2023, and 940m for places needed for 2024 and 2025.

'Last year, 94.4% of applicants for a secondary school place received an offer from one of their top three choices, while 83.3% were offered their first-choice secondary school.'

Did your child miss out today? Email jamie.phillips@mailonline,co.uk
It's unclear if he had a prior criminal record, or how he obtained his weapon

Missouri AG Andrew Bailey told DailyMail.com the shooting is further proof of St. Louis' crime problem

Missouri's Attorney General says the callous daylight murder of one homeless man by another in St. Louis on Monday proves the 'urgent need' to address the city's escalating violent crime problem.

Deshawn Thomas, 23, is in custody on first degree murder charges for shooting dead David Saldana on Monday at 10am outside a busy downtown office building.

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner has filed first degree murder charges against him.





But her office is yet to disclose whether he has a criminal record or if he was on bond at the time of the murder, like the suspect who ran over a 22-year-old volleyball player, causing her to lose both her legs.





Missouri AG Andrew Bailey, who is fighting to oust Gardner from her position, told DailyMail.com on Wednesday the incident is further proof of the problem.

'This incident further demonstrates the immediate need to address violent crime in St. Louis,' he said, as Thomas appeared in court.

The gunman callously loaded his gun then fired one shot at the homeless man's head before fleeing

The 23-year-old was presented in shackles and a jail jumpsuit.

He was held without bond, and will return to court on March 8.

The court heard that he is also homeless, and has mental health issues.

Gardner's office declined to give details when asked for his record including whether or not he was on bond at the time of the shooting, instead deferring any questions to Missouri's courts.

Cameras were not allowed inside the courtroom today, despite requests.

The harrowing shooting terrified residents who are also begging officials to do more to stop the escalating crime.

'This is broad daylight! Have we seen enough? We cant sugarcoat this any longer. Its time for STL do some soul searching.

Missouri AG Andrew Bailey (left) is fighting to oust St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner (right) from her position. He says her soft-on-crime approach is creating victims rather than protecting them

'Our elected leaders do NOT have a handle on this,' said one.

Deshawn Thomas, 23, is in custody for the shooting. He appeared in court on Wednesday and was held without bail

It is the latest incident in a string of the violent crimes in St Louis, which has the fourth highest murder rate in the country.

Gardner is facing growing calls to resign over the number of repeat offenders committing violent crimes in the city.

In February, repeat offender Daniel Riley struck Janae Edmonson with a car, pinning her to the ground.

The teen volleyball player has now lost both of her legs.

Bailey said he should have been in prison instead of behind the wheel.

'Instead of protecting victims, Circuit Attorney Gardner is creating them. The driver of the speeding vehicle, Daniel Riley, should never have been in that car.

'He is a dangerous gunman who should have been in jail.'
New York City has agreed to pay more than 300 Black Lives Matter protesters $21,500 each after they were zip-tied, hit with batons and pepper-sprayed during a 2020 demonstration.

The protesters took to the streets on June 4, 2020, to protest the police-involved murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis 10 days earlier, when they say members of the New York Police Department boxed them in and prevented them from leaving in a practice known as 'kettling.'

Officers wielding batons then swung at the protesters and hit them with pepper spray, before restraining hundreds of the demonstrators with plastic zip ties for violating a citywide curfew.

If a judge approves the settlement filed in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday, the New York Times reports, it would be one of the highest ever awarded per person in a class action case for mass arrests.

In total, the city could spend between $4million to $6million on the settlement.

This is the moment a riot broke out at a June 2020 Black Lives Matter protest in the Bronx, with the NYPD now agreeing to pay $21,500 to each of around 300 protesters kettled during the demonstration

Another image of the clash showed cops and protesters tussling close to a car. The NYPD has admitted flouting its own rules on how to handle protesters

Protesters took to the streets in the Bronx on June 4, 2020, to protest the police-involved killing of George Floyd

Members of the NYPD are pictured preparing for the protesters as they made their way down 136th Street

According to the lawsuit, obtained by DailyMail.com, protesters were marching down the Mott Haven section of the Bronx on June 4, 2020, when police surrounded them on 136th Street between 7pm and 7.30pm  ahead of a citywide curfew at 8pm.

That came in response to looting and riots that swept New York in the wake of Floyd's killing by Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin.

A report at the time said that cops heaved their bikes into protesters, while another group of officers emerged at the top of the street and started charging down the hill, pushing protesters into the advancing group of bike cops.

Soon, the lawsuit says, 'police indiscriminately struck protesters with batons, threw them to the ground and sprayed them with a chemical agent.'

Videos posted online also showed police pushing protesters and arresting legal observers and even medical staff in the early days of the COVID pandemic.

At one point, a video posted by Human Rights Watch showed police body slammed a woman to the ground and surrounded protesters with their batons before striking those on the outskirts.

People could be heard in the video shouting: 'We're getting maced,' and telling police officers: 'You're going to kill someone.'

These tactics, the lawsuit argued, were approved directly by city leaders like then-Mayor Bill de Blasio and former Police Chief Terence Monahan who spoke out openly against the protests that caused widespread looting and destruction of property.

Together, they tried to 'suppress the protests with well-orchestrated operations corralling and violently arresting the protesters,' the suit claims.

'Many protesters were left injured and bleeding. Some protesters fainted, or lost consciousness and went into convulsions.'

By doing so, the lawsuit alleged, the NYPD violated the protesters' First Amendment right to freedom of expression as well as their Fourteenth Amendment rights to equal protection of the laws.

The plaintiffs also raised state-law claims for false arrest; assault and battery; denial of medical care; infliction of emotional distress; negligent hiring, training and supervision; and excessive detention.

'We had every right to protest, yet the City of New York made an explicit statement that day that the people of the Bronx are at will to be terrorized,' Samiera Sierra, one of the protesters who sued the city said in a statement to the Times.

A police officer climbed over the cop cars while wielding their batons, a Human Rights Campaign investigation found

A protester is pictured here being surrounded by officers at the protest on June 4, 2020

A protester at the Bronx demonstration is pictured with a flag saying 'Breathe', likely a reference to George Floyd's cry of 'I can't breathe' as he was murdered by Derek Chauvin 10 days earlier

A subsequent report from the Human Rights Campaign found the cops acted in a way that was 'unprovoked and without warning, whaling their batons, beating people from car tops, shoving them down to the ground and firing pepper spray in their faces.'

But the kettling strategy was broadly defended at the time by Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Dermot Shea, who said it was needed because the protesters were defying curfews set after looters ransacked parts of Manhattan.

Shea also claimed the Bronx protest was organized by 'outside agitators,' and de Blasio said, 'There was a specific pre-announced threat of violence, and then people appeared at the protest with weapons and gasoline.

'It is absolutely incumbent upon the police to make sure that does not proceed, because we won't tolerate violence,' he said.

No gasoline or weapons were ever recovered from the scene, though, and the lawsuit claims 'no justification exists for the brutal and indiscriminate force used against Plaintiff and other peaceful protesters.'

And those who were arrested eventually got their cases dismissed.

A man in a scarf raises his fist during protests in the Bronx during June 2020, which will now likely result in a $4-6 million settlement paid by the NYPD to kettled protesters

Others are seen protesting and offering help for anyone who'd been tear-gassed, as well as other items to make protesters more comfortable

New York City will now pay those protesters $21,500 under the proposed settlement agreement, as well as $2,500 to each class member who was given a Desk Appearance ticket and all 'reasonable attorneys fees and costs.'

The lawyers are seeking an additional $2.5million for those fees, according to court documents obtained by DailyMail.com.

They described the agreement to the Times as 'historic,' noting that the highest amount paid per person in a case of mass arrests was previously in 2010, when a federal judge awarded $18,000 per person to demonstrators arrested during a 2000 protest near the World Bank and International Monetary Fund buildings in Washington DC as part of a $13.7million settlement.

Lawyers said that while around 330 people were eligible to receive the payments, as many as 90 have already settled with the city in separate complaints.

Others may have decided to file separate claims against he city, especially those who reported more severe injuries.

The settlement is expected to be finalized in October, according to the Gothamist, with victims likely receiving compensation before the end of the year.

Meanwhile, the New York Police Department said its policies and training for large-scale demonstrations have been revised, based on internal reviews and recommendations from three outside agencies that investigated police actions following the 2020 mass protests.

'The NYPD remains committed to continually improving its practices in every way possible,' the department said in a statement to the Times.

It went on to say that the 2020 protests were 'a challenging moment for the department as officers who themselves were suffering under the strains of a global pandemic did their utmost to help facilitate people's rights to peaceful expression, all while addressing acts of lawlessness, including wide-scale rioting, mass chaos, violence and destruction.'

DailyMail.com has also reached out to the Police Benevolent Association for comment.
Teachers' union boss Randi Weingarten has been eviscerated by online critics after her 'hysterical meltdown' outside the Supreme Court in Washington D.C.

An impassioned Weingarten, 65, gave a speech in support of Joe Biden's $10,000 student debt relief program, which has been stalled in state courts fighting it.

If it goes through its estimated cost to taxpayers will be $400 billion over the next three years - an incensed Weingarten seemingly 'breaking down' at the notion that anyone could possibly challenge it.

Her visceral reaction to the block has sent Twitter users into a flurry many commenting on how 'horrible' the emotional display was.

Teachers' union boss Randi Weingarten, 65, has been eviscerated by online critics after her 'hysterical meltdown' outside the Supreme Court in Washington D.C.

'The lack of self-awareness is what gets me about these people. Who told Communist John Denver that she should be a public speaker?' radio host Jesse Kelly commented.

Actor Dean Cain joked: 'Colors on the sign a coincidence, I'm sure.'

'I can only imagine this video cuts off seconds before Randi Weingarten goes full on crazy cat lady, and starts throwing cats at people on the steps of the Supreme Court,' entrepreneur Kevin Dalton wrote.

Talk show host Joe 'Pags' Pagliarulo declared, 'what a horrible person.'

'Why does anyone listen to her?' National Review contributor Pradheep Shankar tweeted.

'When they have nothing solid to stand on, they just shout and bully, hoping you'll give them what they want to stop the hysteria,' Conservative writer Chad Felix Greene commented.

One user took a swipe at Weingarten for her past support in shutting down schools during the coronavirus pandemic.

'Imagine if she was this passionate about getting kids back to in person learning,' they said.

Weingarten belted out her disappointment noting the stark contrasts seen between businesses and students and the help they're being offered post-pandemic.

'Frankly, and this is what really pisses me off,' Weingarten said.

'During the pandemic, we understood that small businesses were hurting, and we helped them, and it didn't go to the Supreme Court to challenge it.

'Big businesses were hurting, and we helped them, and it didn't go to the Supreme Court to challenge it.'

The 65-year-old union boss went on to say that students appear to be dismissed when it comes to support.

Her visceral reaction to the block has sent Twitter users into a flurry many commenting on how 'horrible' the emotional display was

'All of a sudden, when it's about our students, they challenge it, the corporations challenge it, the student loan lenders challenge it,' she said.

'That is that not right, that is not fair, and that is what we are fighting as well when we say cancel student debt.

'This is about the people, and it is about the people's future, and it is about all of your futures.'

Following a series of legal challenges, including from six GOP states, the nine justices will hear arguments for Biden's plan to eliminate up to $20,000 in individual federal student loan debt, which could cost taxpayers as much as $400billion.

The plan, which Biden announced in August, would forgive $10,000 in student loans for those making less than $125,000 and married couples making less than $250,000 jointly.

That forgiveness would go up to $20,000 if the borrower received a Pell grant, which aids students from low-income families.

'Today, my Administration argues our case for student debt relief in the Supreme Court,' tweeted President Biden.

'This relief is critical to over 40 million Americans as they recover from the economic crisis caused by the pandemic. We're confident it's legal.'

A ruling from the Supreme Court puts more on the line than student loans. If the nation's highest court decides that Biden's executive action is unconstitutional, it could give more power to states' legal challenges against federal policymaking.

Republicans immediately denounced Biden's order as unfair to those who didn't go to college and would need to help pay through taxes for the forgiveness plan  or to those who have already paid off their loans or never took out loans.

On the other hand, some activists said that the plan didn't go far enough, claiming that all student loan debt should be wiped clean.

'This is about the people,' Weingarten said on Tuesday. 'And this is about the people's future. And this is about all of your futures.'

The plan, which Biden announced in August, would forgive $10,000 in student loans for those making less than $125,000 and married couples making less than $250,000 jointly. That forgiveness would go up to $20,000 if the borrower received a Pell grant, which aids students from low-income families

Following a series of legal challenges, including from six GOP states, the nine justices will hear arguments for Biden's plan to eliminate up to $20,000 in individual federal student loan debt, which could cost taxpayers as much as $400billion

Six Republican-led states challenged President Biden's proposal, claiming that the administrative process needed to go through a proper comment and response period and also claims that it was an overreach.

The 6-3 conservative majority will give the final say on the matter after it worked its way up through the court system.

Biden's legal basis for trying to cancel a portion of student debt is a 2003 law known as the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act, better known as the HEROES Act.

Implemented after the September 11, 2001, terror attack, the law was intended to keep service members from being worse off financially while deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Now extended, the law allows Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to grant relief in times of national emergency - in this case, COVID-19.

The White House argues that ending the national emergency doesn't change its legal standing for canceling student loan debt because COVID-19 affected millions of borrowers who might have fallen behind on their loans during the pandemic.

'The economic impact of the pandemic is still real,' Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said while concurrently insisting the pandemic is over. 'We're trying to help people get back on their feet.'

According to their legal brief, the states argue that the proposal seeks 'breathtaking and transformative power' by relying on 'a tenuous and pretextual connection to a national emergency.

Student loan borrowers have been thrown into a year of uncertainty.

Activists are asking for all student debt to be canceled. 'This is about the people,' Weingarten said on Tuesday. 'And this is about the people's future. And this is about all of your futures'

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders (pictured) also spoke at the event

Biden's announcement for forgiveness in August also came with him declaring the last extension of student loan deferment due to the COVID-19 pandemic, saying that people would need to resume regular payments on January 1, 2023.

The president, however, decided to extend the moratorium until the summer, when the Supreme Court's term typically ends, and an opinion must be issued on the case.

Since the program launched, 26million borrowers have applied for the relief despite its limbo status.

The White House continues to insist that its approach is legally sound.
Alex Murdaugh's prosecutor today told jurors the legal scion 'is the kind of person for whom shame is an extraordinary provocation' and faced with financial ruin which his 'ego couldn't stand ... he became a family annihilator.'

Prosecutor Creighton Waters said Murdaugh, 54, faced a 'gathering storm' of financial and reputational devastation which drove him to kill Maggie and Paul at the family's hunting estate in Moselle, South Carolina, on June 7, 2021.

Drawing his closing argument to a dramatic end, Waters said Murdaugh was facing legal action that 'could not only potentially ruin him but expose the reality of what he had been doing for years.'

'Nobody knew who this man was,' he told the court, after laying out the lies Murdaugh had told while embezzling millions from his prestigious family law firm and the lies he told to cops after the killings.

Waters concluded his speech with the fervent plea to the jury: 'This defendant has fooled everyone, everyone. Everyone who thought they were close to him he's fooled them all and he fooled Maggie and Paul too and they paid for it with their lives. Don't let him fool you too.'

Alex Murdaugh today glared at the prosecutor as he ended his closing argument with a fervent plea to jurors, urging them: 'Don't let him fool you to'

Prosecutor Creighton Waters said Murdaugh, 54, faced a 'gathering storm' of financial and reputational devastation which drove him to kill Maggie and Paul at the family's hunting estate in Moselle, South Carolina, on June 7, 2021

Maggie, Paul, Alex and Buster Murdaugh with their dog Bubba in a new family photo obtained by DailyMail.com

The emphatic ending came after more than three hours of argument in which the prosecutor outlined how Murdaugh had been confronted on the day of the murders over $792,000 that had gone 'missing' from his law firm. He had stolen more than $10m from clients and partners.

Three days after the killings he was due in court for a hearing in the lawsuit over his son's drunken boat crash that killed a teen girl two years earlier.

The family patriarch, Randolph III, would die of cancer three days after the murders. Murdaugh had continually turned to him for massive loans and the pair were close.

Compounding this, Waters said Murdaugh's 20-year opioid habit was spiraling, his pill purchases 'escalated' in March, and reminded jurors that on the defendant's own admission, 'withdrawals would make him do anything, anything to get rid of them.'

Waters ended his argument, urging jurors not to be conned by 'the master liar.'

Waters told jurors: 'Nobody knew who this man was. He avoided accountability his whole life, he had relied on his family name, he had a powerful family, he carried a badge and used that in authority, he lived a wealthy life - but now finally he was was facing complete ruin.

'His father who he idolized - who I worked with on occasion - was dying, his son was facing charges for the boat case, he was facing a civil action that could not only potentially ruin him but expose the reality of what he had been doing for years, he had an opiate addiction, his life was about to be altered, he couldn't live for that - he's the kind of person for whom shame is an extraordinary provocation.

'His ego couldn't stand that and he became a family annihilator.'

The prosecutor concluded by asking jurors: 'On behalf of the State of South Carolina I ask you to return a verdict of guilty against the defendant Richard Alexander Murdaugh for the murder of his wife Maggie and son Paul.'

The defense will tomorrow morning put forward its final rebuttal in the trial that is in its sixth week at the Colleton County courthouse in Walterboro.

Waters summarized a raft of evidence from more than 60 witnesses to outline how Murdaugh was motivated to kill his wife and son because of his financial crimes and the lawsuit over the boat case.

He told jurors that the legal scion came from a legal dynasty which had wielded immense power over Colleton and Hampton counties over three generations. But that he was faced with a predicament that he believed violence was the only answer.

Alex Murdaugh arrived at court today greeted by a protestor waving a 'justice coming soon sign' as he arrived for the final showdown in his double murder trial to hear closing arguments before the jury are sent to reach their verdict

The Murdaugh clan, including his surviving son Buster, Buster's girlfriend Brooklynn White, Murdaugh's brother John Marvin and sister Lynn, arrive at the courthouse Wednesday

Buster Murdaugh stares down the barrel of a camera as he arrives with his girlfriend Brooklynn, his aunt Lynn and uncle John Marvin

Murdaugh's lawyers Maggie Fox, Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin arrive at the courthouse Wednesday

Reverend Raymond Johnson of Myrtle Beach watched on with his placard, telling DailyMail.com he 'wants to see justice done ... a wife and son have been torn from their family and community'

Murdaugh is flanked by sheriff's as he arrives at the court Wednesday morning

Waters said Murdaugh had lied to his clients, his colleagues, friends and family, and had continued lying to police throughout the investigation. Denying he was ever at the crime scene until the last days of his trial.

The prosecutor said: 'On June 7, 2021, at the Moselle property in Colleton County, Maggie Murdaugh and Paul Murdaugh were brutally and maliciously murdered at the kennels by Alex Murdaugh.

'Paul suffered two shotgun blasts, Maggie suffered five Blackout rifle wounds and after an exhaustive investigation there is only one person who had the motive, who had the means, who had the opportunity to commit these crimes and also whose guilty conduct after these crimes betrays him.

'The defendant was the one person who was living a lie, the defendant was the one person on whom a storm was descending, and the defendant was the only person whose own storm would mean consequences for Maggie and Paul.'

'The pressures on this man were unbearable and they were all reaching a crescendo the day his wife and son were murdered by him,' Waters told the court.

'The hounds were at the gate,' the prosecutor said. 'He was living a lie.'

The defense argue it is simply not believable a 'loving' husband and father would so brutally murder his wife and son.

Murdaugh, who faces 30 years to life in prison if convicted, took the stand last week to claim vigilantes furious about his son's fatal boat wreck killed the pair.

The alleged killer also admitted that he was at the kennels moments before Maggie and Paul were butchered after a video shown earlier in the trial proved he was there.

In his police interviews he had claimed he only ever saw them at the kennels when they were lying dead on the ground after he got back from visiting his ailing mother.

He admitted lying to cops but said this was because his opioid addiction made him paranoid around cops.

Media outside the courtroom Wednesday as anticipation for the closing arguments reached fever pitch, with members of the public lined up outside from the early morning

The case has drawn intense media coverage given the family's immense judicial and political power in and around Colleton County, where the trial is taking place. For decades until 2006, family members served as the leading prosecutor in the area, and Murdaugh was a prominent personal injury attorney in the state

Legal pundit Nancy Grace is seen outside the courtroom Wednesday

Murdaugh last week told a new story to jurors, claiming he was at the kennels but left about a minute after the video taken by Paul at 8.45pm which places him at the murder scene.

He said he went back up to the main house, around 400 yards away, before leaving to go and visit his mother in Almeda, around a 15-minute drive.

The prosecutor said Maggie and Paul had already been shot dead by this time and that all of his subsequent activity, including missed calls and texts to Maggie, calls to friends and colleagues, and the visit to his mother, were to 'manufacture an alibi.'

Murdaugh called 911 at 10.06pm after arriving back at Moselle.

The legal heir was interviewed by cops three times, once right after the killings, for a second time three days later and finally on August 11. Each time he claimed he was never at the kennels.

Waters played those interviews for the jurors again today, telling them: 'Look how easily he [lied].'

Waters began his closing argument by laying out what motivated Murdaugh to kill his family.

Waters said Murdaugh is a 'person of singular prominence and respect in this community, but he's also a person who's been able to avoid accountability for all of his life.

'While he was outwardly giving the illusion of wealth and a very lucrative law practice, some bad land deals exacerbated by the (2008) economic recession led to some financial problems.

Murdaugh is escorted into the court for the final showdown in his trial Wednesday

Jurors this morning visited the estate after the defense requested they get a better understanding of the crime scene. Holes are seen in the glass of the feed room where Paul was blasted twice with a shotgun

Maggie's body was found a few yards to the right of the doghouse while Paul's was in the doorway of the feed room at the kennels (far right)

The feed room where Paul was blasted twice with buckshot from a 12-gauge shotgun

A hole though one of the window panes at the feed room of the kennels where Paul died

Maggie's body was found a few yards to the right of the wooden doghouse in front of the lean-to, Paul's body was discovered in the doorway of the feed room at the kennels which is behind the doghouse in this photo

The jury were seen walking the narrow path between the kennels where Paul was blasted with a shotgun and the lean-to where Maggie was killed with a rifle. Press were only allowed on the scene after the jury had left

'He had some big cases in 2011 and 2012 and all of his colleagues thought that had taken care of things ...

'But the defendant became so addicted and so dependent on a velocity of money, that the millions of dollars in legal fees that he was receiving was not enough so he started to steal.'

But Murdaugh was stealing from his clients, like Hakeem Pickney - a quadriplegic whose case earned Murdaugh more than $4m in fees in 2011. He stole around a million from Pickney's settlement.

Waters said Murdaugh stole more than $4.5m from the sons of his housekeeper Gloria Satterfield, who died in a fall at his home in 2018.

Tony Satterfield had asked the defendant where the money was following publicity that a settlement had been reached. Murdaugh palmed him off. Waters said that unlike some of his cases 'he took all of the money, he took every bit of it.'

In several cases the alleged killer was stealing money from new clients to pay back the ones he had already stolen from.

'All of things are coming to a head and his finances are falling apart,' Waters said.

'During this time when he's earning millions of dollars and stealing millions of dollars he's also borrowing millions of dollars from wherever he can, the bank, his partners, his father,' Waters said.

'And this slow burn was continuing and continuing until the boat crash happened in February 2019 and that changed everything that set in motion things that were going to happen, because of the criminal and civil charges related to that case.'

Law enforcement cars and vans to transport the jury are seen on the driveway at the entrance to the kennels on Wednesday morning

Murdaugh's defense attorneys leave the Murdaugh property following the jury visit this morning

Defense attorney Dick Harpootlian arrives at the courthouse this morning

A protester wearing a shirt that reads 'Don't Trust Your Soul to No Backwoods Southern Lawyer' outside the Colleton County courthouse

At the time of Paul's death, Murdaugh was facing a lawsuit over allowing his son to drive his boat under the influence of alcohol when 19-year-old Mallory (left and right) was killed in February 2019. Murdaugh told cops Paul and Maggie had been killed in revenge for the accident

Photos of the Murdaugh boat, the Sea Hunt, taken by investigators after Paul's drunken boat wreck in February 2019

Pictured: Paul (right) walking with the group of friends to the yacht on the night of the crash

Mark Tinsley, the attorney for 19-year-old Mallory Beach's family who was killed in Paul's drunken boat wreck, testified he was seeking $10m from Murdaugh personally.

A hearing on disclosure of finances in the boat case was scheduled for June 10. But the murders three days before meant it never went ahead.

After sitting through more than a month of testimony, jurors this morning visited the family's hunting estate to see the exact spot where Murdaugh's wife Maggie and son Paul were shot dead.

The legal heir arrived at court later greeted by a protestor holding a placard which said 'justice is coming soon.' Reverend Raymond Johnson of Myrtle Beach watched on with his placard, telling DailyMail.com he 'wants to see justice done ... a wife and son have been torn from their family and community.'

Prosecutors have argued that Murdaugh committed the murders in an effort to generate sympathy at a time when his life was collapsing amid allegations that he had stolen huge sums from clients and his law partners, partly to feed a drug habit. They have painted him as a serial liar throughout the trial.

The case has drawn intense media coverage given the family's immense judicial and political power in and around Colleton County, where the trial is taking place. For decades until 2006, family members served as the leading prosecutor in the area, and Murdaugh was a prominent personal injury attorney in the state.

In addition to the murders, Murdaugh has been charged with dozens of financial crimes, including an alleged scheme to have himself killed so that his older son, Buster, could collect a $10 million insurance payout. During the trial, Murdaugh admitted to stealing from clients and his law firm.

Murdaugh's lawyers have sought to portray him as a loving family man who, while facing financial troubles and suffering from a years-long addiction to opioids that led him to lie and steal, would never harm his wife and child.

Last week Murdaugh testified that he had lied about his whereabouts on the night the killings, changing his account after the jury was presented with video evidence placing him at the scene minutes before investigators say the murders occurred.

The hanger and dog kennels at the Murdaugh Moselle property on Wednesday in a photo taken after the jury visited the crime scene this morning

The hose at the kennels which jurors have heard much about in evidence. First responders said the scene was wet and that the bodies of the victims were saturated with water as well as blood, despite the fact it had not rained yet that night

A bullet hole from an assault rifle is seen on Wednesday in the quail pen at the estate, yards away from where Maggie was killed

The main house at the sprawling 1,800-acre estate. Murdaugh claims he went back up to the main house moments before the State says Maggie and Paul were shot dead

A plant pot painted with a snowman and the name 'Buster,' Murdaugh's sole surviving son, was seen on the porch during the jury's visit Wednesday

A bike outside the front of the property which jurors visited Wednesday morning. The court has heard Maggie would often ride a bicycle down to the kennels, while Paul would drive the 400 yards

The side of the house where the gun room is at the Murdaugh Moselle property on Wednesday

The Jury heading to 4147 Moselle Rd, the site of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh's murders

Cops outside the courthouse this morning as the jurors were loaded up for the trip to Moselle

The lawyers joined the jurors on the half-hour trip to the estate

Murdaugh said he lied to investigators about his alibi that night because of paranoid thoughts tied to his drug habit and because he did not trust the police.

Earlier the 12 jurors and two alternates were loaded into three transport vans with blacked-out windows and were guarded by a convoy of cop cars as they made the half-hour trip from the Colleton County courthouse to Moselle, South Carolina.

Judge Clifton Newman rode in a pickup truck driven by Colleton County Sheriff's Office Captain Jason Chapman. Chapman testified on the first day of the trial as one of the first cops on the scene the night of Maggie and Paul's murders.

The outing comes at the request of Murdaugh's defense attorneys who told the judge the visit would would allow jurors to see 'how small the feed room is (where Paul was killed)' and understand its location in relation to Maggie's body.

The visit lasted an hour and 15 minutes and jurors will now hear closing arguments before being sent out to reach their verdict.

Crime scene visits by juries are relatively rare but have occurred in a number of other high-profile prosecutions, including the 1995 murder trial of O.J. Simpson.

Legal experts warned the move was 'a big risk'. On the one hand it could garner sympathy for the alleger killer by showing jurors where his family lived - but they may also see that it was possible him to have committed the murders.

Lori Murray, a South Carolina criminal defense attorney, told DailyMail.com: 'The defense wants the jury to be able to use all their senses to take this crime scene in.

'It's one thing to have pictures and graphs but quite another to be there in person. At the crime scene, the jury can see the house, the expanse of land, and the kennels.

'They can judge just how close these two murders occurred and the distance from the house and perhaps instead of seeing the murders, they'll hear Alex's and John Marvin's words and see where a family lived.

'Or they'll see how clearly possible it was for one person, Alex, to commit these murders. A big risk for the defense.'

The jury were seen walking the narrow path between the kennels where Paul was blasted with a shotgun and the lean-to where Maggie was killed with a rifle.

Maggie's body was found a few yards to the right of a doghouse, while Paul's was by the doorway at the end of the kennels

Murdaugh claims he was at the main house watching TV at the time the State says Maggie and Paul were shot dead

The feed room (right) where Paul was killed at the end of the row of dog cages at the kennels

Maggie was shot dead a few yards to the right of the dog house by the lean-to while Paul was shot dead inside the feed room of the kennels (back right)

The quail pen stands against the wooden wall under the lean-to which was struck by a round from the .300 Blackout rifle that killed Maggie

The kennels at the 1,800-acre Murdaugh hunting estate around a half-hour drive from the courthouse where his double murder trial is taking place

One juror was spotted standing inside the feed room looking up at the doorway which has been the subject of gruesome testimony. Paul's brains and blood were splattered up the door after his head was blown off by buckshot.

Judge Newman was with them, standing still, looking down. He was in street clothes. Some of the deputies on watch while the jurors tour are some of the key witnesses in the case, including Detective Laura Rutland, who sat in on Murdaugh's first interview with South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) agent David Owen in the early hours of June 8, 2021.

They were parked that night in SLED Special Agent Owen's SUV to get out of the rain.

The jury spent the bulk of their time at the kennels and the shed where Maggie and Paul were killed. Towards the end of the visit, the jury were taken to the main house for a view of the exterior. They were not allowed inside.

Judge Newman warned the jury they are not to confer with each other or ask questions of anybody at the scene. 'If you have any questions you can only ask me,' the judge said last night.

Defense attorney Dick Harpootlian requested that law enforcement secure the property beforehand because 'literally dozens of trespassers' have been mobbing the grounds to take selfies.

He told the judge that the jury needed to be protected from the 'carnival atmosphere' of trial enthusiasts who have been at the estate throughout the trial.

Cops descended on the estate yesterday in anticipation for a jury visit in the afternoon, but the final witness ran on too long and the trip was delayed until this morning.

Lead state prosecutor Creighton Waters objected to the jury outing, arguing the estate looked different than it did in 2021 and said a visit might require additional testimony from the state.

Nearly three decades earlier, jurors in the Simpson trial toured the scene where prosecutors alleged that he killed his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman.

Jurors saw the spot where Nicole Brown Simpson and Goldman's bloodied bodies were found on the walkway leading up to her Brentwood condominium.

Prosecutor Marcia Clark said at the time that taking jurors to see the narrow, confined walkway would show 'the reason why one person could accomplish this, and how the victims were cornered.'

Buster arrives with his aunt Lynn, followed by his girlfriend Brooklynn and uncle John Marvin

Buster Murdaugh arrives with his girlfriend, aunt and uncle on Wednesday

Buster Murdaugh arrives at the courthouse under a police escort Wednesday

A sheriff escorts Murdaugh into the court as droves of photographers wait outside the court

Buster, Paul, Maggie and Alex Murdaugh on a family vacation in Lake Keowee in May 2021 - a month before the killings

Simpson was acquitted of the killings but was later found liable for the deaths in a civil suit.

The State says Murdaugh first blasted Paul twice with a shotgun in the feed room of the kennels before shooting Maggie with a .300 Blackout rifle yards away.

Jurors have heard gruesome evidence of how Paul's brain was blown out the back of his head by a close range blast of steel buckshot from a 12-gauge shotgun.

Maggie was shot at least four times, with bullet wounds to her thigh, wrist, torso and head. The final shot was fired into the back of her head as she lay face down on the ground when she was already dead.

During his testimony, Murdaugh floated his own theory of who committed the murders, saying he believed that vigilantes killed his wife and son in revenge for Paul's drunken boat accident which killed a 19-year-old girl.

He said Paul had been attacked and threatened after the wreck in which Mallory Beach was killed in February 2019.
A new US intelligence assessment claims it is unlikely a foreign adversary is responsible for the mysterious cluster of symptoms known as 'Havana syndrome', according to a new report.

The assessment casts doubt on the popular theory that directed energy weapons were involved in the phenomenon, two intelligence officials who are familiar with the findings told the Washington Post on Wednesday.

Named for the Cuban city where US embassy personnel first reported cases in 2016, Havana syndrome has since afflicted hundreds of officials at US facilities around the world, with symptoms including headaches and cognitive issues.

The new assessment, which has not yet been publicly released, combines the findings of seven US intelligence agencies, and follows comments from a State Department official that no 'outside causality' of Havana syndrome had been identified.

Five of the agencies determined it is 'very unlikely' a foreign power is responsible for Havana syndrome, whether through deliberate attack or as an unintentional side effect of some form of electronic surveillance, according to the Post.

The mysterious aliment is named for the US embassy in Havana (above) where the first cases were reported in 2016, and hundreds of people have since reported symptoms

After US officials and embassy staff reported hundreds of cases in nearly 70 countries, new reports of Havana syndrome declined sharply starting in early 2022

Of the other two agencies, one described the foreign adversary theory as merely 'unlikely' and the other declined to render a determination.

Though descriptions vary widely, sufferers of Havana syndrome often describe hearing unsettling, unidentified noises accompanied by intense feelings of pressure in the head, followed by headaches and cognitive symptoms lasting for months, or longer.

Despite six years of investigations, scientists, physicians and government officials have been unable to determine the cause of the symptoms.

However, some have speculated they are the result of microwave or other types of directed energy attack from a foreign power, perhaps during attempts to gather information remotely from electronic devices.

Russia is the foreign power that has been most often accused of being responsible for the phenomenon, although there has been no evidence to back up those claims.

After US officials and embassy staff reported hundreds of cases in nearly 70 countries, on every continent except Antarctica, new reports of Havana syndrome declined sharply starting in early 2022.

The new intel assessment, which reviews approximately 1,000 cases of such 'anomalous health incidents,' casts doubt on the theory that a foreign power is responsible for the ailments.

According to the Post, the assessment cites evidence including cases where there was no 'direct line of sight' to affected personnel who reported symptoms inside US facilities.

What is 'Havana Syndrome'? The mysterious illness that started in the US embassy in Cuba and causes memory and hearing loss The problem has been labeled the 'Havana Syndrome,' because the first cases affected personnel in 2016 at the U.S. Embassy in Cuba. At least 200 cases across the government are now under investigation. People who are believed to have been affected have reported headaches, dizziness and symptoms consistent with concussions, with some requiring months of medical treatment. Some have reported hearing a loud noise before the sudden onset of symptoms. Countries its been reported in: Cuba, United States, China, Russia, Vietnam, Austria, Germany, Serbia, United Kingdom, Georgia, Poland, Taiwan, Australia, Colombia, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan Symptoms include: -hearing loss -severe headaches -memory issues -dizziness -brain injury Advertisement

A review of geolocation data and forensic information also produced no evidence of adversaries present during the incident, or of directed energy beams being deployed, the assessment found.

As well, the assessment found no evidence that foreign leaders, including in Russia, had knowledge of, or had authorized, energy beam attacks on US personnel.

The assessment also examined whether any adversary even possessed an energy beam device capable of causing the reported symptoms.

Of the seven agencies, five determined that it was 'very unlikely,' while the other two said it was 'unlikely.'

The new findings contradict a report last year from a panel of independent experts convened by the intelligence community, which found that pulsed electromagnetic energy 'plausibly explains' the symptoms of Havana syndrome.

As well, a 2020 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine found that microwave energy, specifically directed, pulsed radio-frequency energy 'appears to be the most plausible mechanism in explaining these cases.'

The new assessment does not find plausible evidence supporting any other theory for the symptoms, which remain a frustrating mystery for officials.

Over the years, explanations for the sounds and symptoms associated Havana syndrome have included exposure to pesticides, cricket noises, ultrasonic signals, and mass psychogenic illness.

Despite the ongoing mystery, last year the State Department began paying out six-figure compensation payments to current and former staff and their families who claimed to have suffered from the ailment.

State Department personnel with 'qualifying injuries' were granted payments of between roughly $100,000 and $200,000 each, under the terms of the HAVANA Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law in 2021.

About 20% of the total number of victims are or were employed by the State Department. Almost all the others were employed by the CIA or the Department of Defense, which have their own medical policies.
Researchers have announced the discovery of 'magnificently preserved' shipwreck hundreds of feet below the surface of Lake Huron - in a particularly perilous stretch of water just off the Michigan coast.

Video footage shows the 191-foot Ironton - lost in September 1884 - sitting upright on the lake bottom - 'remarkably preserved' by the cold, fresh water like many other Great Lakes shipwrecks over the years.

Making the find in an area of the Great Lake dubbed by seafarers as 'Shipwreck Alley', officials from the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary Wednesday remarked on the discovery's importance, revealing the boat's location had long confounded shipwreck hunters for well over a century.

The US cargo ship met an abrupt end one blustery night in 1894, colliding with a grain hauler before sinking in the lake's frigid waters.

Only two of the ship's crew survived after a lifeboat carrying its captain and six seamen was was dragged to the lake floor before they could detach it from the sinking ship. Their final resting place long eluded officials from the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, who had known of the boat's fate for years.

Scroll down for video:

In this image taken from video provided by the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, the bow of the Ironton is seen in Lake Huron off Michigan's east coast

'The discovery illustrates how we can use the past to create a better future,' Jeff Gray, Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary superintendent, said in a statement shortly after officials were filmed pulling out portions of the ship Wednesday.

Citing 'cutting-edge technology' used by members of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) and the Ocean Exploration Trust nonprofit to make the discovery, Gray said the discovery not only will prove important to those already aware of the ship's fate, but to the history of the state and its majestic Great Lakes.

'We have not only located a pristine shipwreck lost for over a century, we are also learning more about one of our nation's most important natural resources,' said Gray, referring to the five lakes that form the largest fresh surface water system on earth.

'This research will help protect Lake Huron and its rich history,' the marine-life expert added.

A team of historians, underwater archaeologists and technicians located the wreckage in 2019 and deployed remotely controlled cameras to scan and document it, Gray added in an interview of the recently uncovered schooner barge, which was being pulled by a steam ship when it sank on September 26, 1894.

However, after the leading ship's engine failed shortly after midnight, crew members cut the tow line to avoid a potential collision - leaving the Ironton's seven-man crew suddenly adrift in the open water.

Only two of the ship's crew survived after a lifeboat carrying its captain and six seamen was was dragged to the lake floor before they could detach it from the sinking ship. Their final resting place long eluded officials 'for over 120 years.'

In this image taken from video provided by the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, a lifeboat is tethered to the Ironton seen in Lake Huron off Michigan's east coast. the lifeboat remains tethered to the bigger vessel, a confirmation of witness accounts from 128 years ago

'Ironton's crew found themselves suddenly adrift in the dark and at the mercy of Lake Huron's wind-blown seas,' the NOAA said in their own statement, before going on to cite the crew's intrepid efforts to right the vessel, which had been carrying cargo across Lake Michigan.

'Under the direction of Captain Peter Girard, they fought to regain control of the ship, firing up the vessel's auxiliary steam engine to help set the struggling ship's sails.'

Despite those efforts, the Ironton soon found itself in the path of another wooden hulled Great Lakes freighter, the SS Ohio.

The Ohio, a steamer that had been carrying 1,000 tons of grain, would then strike the Ironton, causing both ships to sink at an alarming rate of speed.

Jeff Gray, Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary superintendent, announced the discovery in a statement on Wednesday that touted the historical significance of the find

While both vessels were fatally damaged, all 16 members of the Ohio's crew managed to escape on lifeboats after nearby ships rescued the sailors, according to the records kept by the NOAA.

The Ironton, however, still adrift, moved out of sight of the responding ships, leaving the sailors to their fate. Two of the men managed to survive the ordeal after securing a separate life boat, the NOAA said.

The ship would lay undisturbed on the lake's floor for more than 132 years, before officials from the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary came across a few pieces of the Ohio in 2017.

The discovery helped officials eventually hone in on the location of the Ironton, after a mapping expedition carried out by the Ocean Exploration Trust - an organization founded by deep-sea explorer Robert Ballard, who found the remains of the Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic in 1985, and the wrecked German battleship Bismarck in 1989.

A team of historians, underwater archaeologists and technicians would then deploy remotely controlled cameras to scan and document the area in 2021.

A team of historians, underwater archaeologists and technicians located the wreckage in 2019 and deployed remotely controlled cameras to scan and document it, Gray added in an interview of the recently uncovered schooner barge, which was being pulled by a steam ship when it sank on September 26, 1894.

'As the project came to its final days, the team had successfully mapped a large section of the search area, but Ironton remained undiscovered,' the NOAA said.

'The researchers expanded the search area. Persistence and determination were rewarded when the sonar returned an image from the lakebed of an unmistakable shipwreck - and one that matched the description of Ironton.'

The Associated Press obtained details of the discovery ahead of the announcement.

With the mystery now solved, officials with Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary plan to reveal the exact location in the next few months, and is considering placing a mooring buoy at the site in the meantime to ward off other seafarers.

Officials have kept the find secret to prevent divers from disturbing the site before video and photo documentation is finished.

Officials have kept the find secret to prevent divers from disturbing the site before video and photo documentation is finished

No human remains were seen. But the lifeboat remains tethered to the bigger vessel, a poignant confirmation of witness accounts from 128 years ago.

'Archaeologists study things to learn about the past. But its not really things that we're studying; it's people,' Gray said. 'And that lifeboat ... really connects you to the site and reminds you of how powerful the lakes are and what it must have been like to work on them and lose people on them.'

Founder of the Ocean Exploration Trust Robert Ballard said: 'We hope this discovery helps contribute to an element of closure to the extended families of those lost on the Ironton, and the communities impacted by its loss.

The Ironton is yet another piece of the puzzle of Alpenas fascinating place in Americas history of trade, while the Thunder Bay sanctuary continues to reveal lost chapters of maritime history.

Nearly 200 shipwrecks are believed to rest within or nearby the boundaries of the sanctuary, which includes the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center in Alpena and some 4,300 square miles of northwestern Lake Huron.

Nearly 200 shipwrecks are believed to rest in the stretch of water - known as Shipwreck Alley - where the Ironton was found, which includes the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center in Alpena and some 4,300 square miles of northwestern Lake Huron

Several factors made the area a 'shipwreck alley' for more than two centuries, until modern navigation and weather forecasting reduced the danger, said Stephanie Gandulla, the sanctuary's resource protection coordinator.

The late 1800s was a busy period for Great Lakes commerce. Thousands of schooners, or sailing ships, and hundreds of steamers hauled cargo and passengers between bustling port cities such as Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland.

The sanctuary area was something of a maritime highway cloverleaf. Vessels cruised to and from Lake Huron and Lake Michigan through the nearby Straits of Mackinac. Others ranged northward to Lake Superior, fetching iron ore for steel mills from mines in Minnesota and Michigans Upper Peninsula.

'Its where the upbound and downbound shipping kind of crossed each other,' Gray said. 'Busy intersections are where most accidents happen.'

The weather was notoriously unstable - dense fog, sudden storms. Islands and submerged reefs lurked.

On the fateful night, the Ironton and another schooner barge, the Moonlight, were being towed northward from the Lake Erie town of Ashtabula, Ohio, by a steam-powered ship - a common practice then, much as a train engine pulls freight cars on a railroad. They were bound for Marquette, a port city on Lake Superior.

The steamer broke down in heavy Lake Huron seas around 12:30 am the morning of September 26. The Ironton and the Moonlight disconnected their tow lines and drifted apart, with the Ironton crew setting sails and firing up its engine.

It veered off course and ran into the Ohio, a freighter loaded with 1,000 tons of flour, about 10 miles off Presque Isle, Michigan.

The Ohio soon foundered, its crew of 16 rescued by the Moonlight. The Ironton stayed afloat more than an hour before going down.

Newspapers quoted William Parry as saying he and two other Ironton sailors bobbed in the heaving lake for about 30 minutes until another steamer, the Charles Hebard, showed up. Parry struggled aboard as the Hebard lowered a lifeboat with several of its crew.

They picked up the other two Ironton men. But a wave overturned the craft, flinging everyone into the water. Hebard crewmen tossed lines and pulled all to safety except Ironton mate Ed Boswick, who couldnt muster the strength to hold on.

'It's a powerful, tragic story,' Gandulla said.

So fierce was the gale that it claimed yet another schooner, the William Home, farther west on Lake Michigan. Six of seven crew members died.

Staffers with the sanctuary, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, took a sonar survey in the area of the Ironton-Ohio collision in 2017.

They detected two images on the lake bed, one later identified as the Ohio. The other was a more recent shipwreck.

It took two more years to track down the Ironton several miles away. Ballards organization provided an autonomous surface vehicle designed for seafloor mapping. After days of searching, it spotted a figure that later was confirmed as the Ironton.

The high-resolution scan in 2021 provided more details. The vessel is largely intact, Gray said. Its masts point skyward, with rigging and ropes tied to spars and lying on deck. The robotic camera also showed the lifeboat tied to the ships stern.

The sanctuary awaits federal and state permits to plant the buoy, anchored by weights of up to 3,000 pounds on the lake floor. Divers could attach their boats to the floating device and head down to explore the long-lost craft.

'Then we get to share it with the rest of the world,' Gray said, 'and try to protect it so our grandkids can enjoy these sites the same way that we do today.'
Another video posted to TikTok purportedly shows a school police officer kneeling on a student's neck after the protest turned violent Tuesday

Video shows the moment a campus security guard tried to detain a student as another child jumps in to wrestle the school official and the spray is deployed

An anti-racism protest at a Southern California high school escalated as a safety officer deployed pepper spray during a scuffle at Indian Springs High School

Video and photos from an anti-racism protest that turned violent at a Southern California high school show a school security officer kneeling on a student's neck.

The incident took place Tuesday around 11.30am at the Indian Springs High School in San Bernardino during a scheduled 'peaceful protest' involving students.

According to school officials, the group became 'unruly' and refused requests from faculty to return to class, prompting a security officer to deploy pepper spray on the group.

Video shows the moment an unidentified teacher grapples with a student outside of a classroom as security officers stand by and other students attempt to break up the altercation.

Students were holding a 'peaceful walk-out' at the high school over calls to remove 'racist staff and educators,' according to a post made by one of the organizers.

Video and photos purportedly from an anti-racism protest that turned violent at a Southern California high school show a school security officer kneeling on a student's neck

This is the unidentified teacher who grapples with a student outside of a classroom as security officers stand by and other students attempt to break up the altercation

'My personal encounters with him [the teacher] have included verbal assault, sexual harassment, discrimination based on race and religion, bullying, as well as the push of political beliefs with consequences if not complied with,' said Gyhana Woods, a student.

Woods said she and and a friend made plans for the protest over ignored reports to school administrators regarding everything from discrimination to verbal assault to discrimination.

Woods in her post alleged that the protest only turned violent after the unidentified staff member from the video attacked a student.

'The protest turned violent after one of our staff assaulted a student,' Woods wrote.

'From there, 4 other innocent arrests were made as well as an entire group of CHILDREN being pepper sprayed with no medical attention,' she said.

The student said the majority of students were able to stay 'on the right track' even after the altercations involving the teacher and pepper spray incident.

Woods included numerous photos and videos from Tuesday's walk-out and said they serve as proof of the peaceful nature of the students and how violent things became.

In one of the videos, a student can be heard speaking to the crowd, advocating for the group to use their voices and fight back against 'racist' teachers.

Another picture allegedly shows a school security guard kneeling on a student's neck. Neither the student nor the officer have been identified.

'This story still deserves to be heard to reach kids facing these same struggles. I hope we all find peace and realize that by the grace of God our fight continues to finalize our message,' Woods continued.

'School should be a safe space, not a battlefield,' she wrote.

This is the post made by student Gyhana Woods, sharing her side of the story

Another angle of the moment students are tackled by school security officers at Indian Springs High School in San Bernardino

This is Indian Springs High School in San Bernardino, California where a 'peaceful protest' turned violent Tuesday afternoon

Another video posted to social media shows the moment a student is locked into an altercation with a teacher as security officers stand by.

The pair argue back and forth before the teen appears to swat the teacher's phone away, prompting the adult to throw up his hands.

Other children then step in and it is unclear whether they are trying to get in on the action or break up the fight.

The security guards seen in the first several seconds stand by behind the educator.

Another video angle shows the moment pepper spray was deployed during the fight between the students and the teacher.

In that clip, posted to Instagram by Everything San Bernardino, one security guard tackles a teen as the crowd screams.

The videos have now prompted outrage from the community, both on the side of the students and in support of the security officer's actions.

In total, school district officials said two students were sent to the nurse's office for examination and there were no further injuries.

The high school was put on a Secure and Hold status for just over an hour until 12.30pm when authorities reevaluated the situation and deemed there were no additional safety concerns.

District representatives told KTLA they planned to bring in additional personnel and police officers Wednesday.

Officials also said they are investigating the claims made against the teacher that prompted the protest.

This is the moment an altercation broke out between a teacher and a student at the San Bernardino high school Tuesday during a protest

The pair argue back and forth before the student appears to swat the teacher or faculty members phone away, prompting the adult to throw up his hands

Another view of the altercation between the student and the teacher at the high school

DailyMail.com reached out to the San Bernardino Police Department who confirmed the matter is being resolved internally within the district and the School Police Department.

In a statement to local media outlets, Maria Garcia, Communications Officer for the San Bernardino Unified School District said they are working with students and staff.

'We have plans to give students opportunities to dialogue with each other and staff so they can express their viewpoints in a manner that is constructive and conductive to greater understanding,' said Garcia.

'We discourage students from engaging in non-peaceful protests because they disrupt teaching and learning and can have negative, unintended consequences,' she continued.
The wife of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson has joined the campaign to keep Joanna Simpson's husband, who bludgeoned her to death with a hammer within earshot of their children, behind bars.

Speaking this evening, Carrie Johnson said allowing the release of the former BA pilot just 13 years into his 26-year-sentence would be 'a real failure in our system'.

Robert Brown, 59, battered estranged wife Ms Simpson to death with a claw hammer in 2010 after she filed for divorce following years of abuse.

He is due for automatic release in November after serving 13 years for manslaughter.

Mrs Johnson was joined by politicians including former Home Secretary Priti Patel and former Justice Secretary Robert Buckland, who called on ministers to block Brown's release.

(L-R) Priti Patel, Hetti Barkworth-Nanton, Carrie Johnson and Joanna Simpson's mother Diana Parkes discuss the campaign to keep killer Robert Brown behind bars in Westminster on Wednesday

Ms Parkes (centre) has received the backing of former PM Boris Johnson's wife Carrie (left) and is also supported in her campaign by her friend Hetti Barkworth-Nanton, chief of trustees at domestic violence charity Refuge

Joanna Brown, 46, was bludgeoned to death by her BA pilot husband in 2010, within earshot of their children

Mrs Johnson spoke bravely of her own experience in campaigning for black cab rapist John Worboys to remain in prison, after he drugged her when she was only 19.

She was drugged after he picked her up in his black cab after a night out with friends.

She blacked out and says she does not know what happened, but does not believe she was assaulted.

She was one of 14 women to give evidence against him in court, and later waived her right to anonymity to campaign against his proposed release.

Mrs Johnson said she had learned about Brown's proposed release after meeting Mrs Parkes and Joanna's friend Hetti Barkworth-Nanton at an event at Buckingham Palace last year, organised by the Queen Consort.

Ms Simpson's mother Diana Parkes fears Brown still poses a risk to her family and to the public, and has called on Dominic Raab to block his release.

Mr Raab this week agreed to meet personally with Ms Parkes about the case.

She said: 'I remember Hetti and Diana describing themselves as feeling like "sitting ducks", totally powerless to do anything.

'I knew that feeling from my own experience, when I found out that taxi cab rapist, John Worboys, was due to be released from prison much earlier than expected, with no explanation as to why.

'I won't go into the details of that case but it was a similar injustice, a similar circumstance where the law was badly letting victims down and failing to do its job to protect women.'

Ms Parkes has learned Brown will be classed as a 'critical public protection case', meaning he has been assessed as posing a very high risk of serious harm.

Such offenders require high levels of monitoring after their release, but the Probation Service has warned it is struggling to cope with 'unmanageable workloads'.

His Majesty's Chief Inspector of Probation, Justin Russell, said this month that staff shortages were 'severely' affecting the service's ability to manage offenders, including 'those who pose a serious threat to the public'.

She today met with former Home Secretary Priti Patel alongside Mrs Johnson and friend and chair of of trustees at domestic violence charity Refuge, Hetti Barkworth-Nanton, as part of her push to keep the killer in prison.

Mrs Parkes, 84, fears former British Airways pilot Brown could threaten her family, and that he may pose a continued danger to women if he is released.

Airline pilot Robert Brown battered his estranged wife Joanna Simpson to death with a claw hammer within earshot of their two young children. Pictured: Joanna Simpson with her children Katie and Alex

Robert Brown, now 59, is due to be released this November after serving just 13 years of his 26-year-sentence

Ms Parkes is calling on Justice Secretary Dominic Raab to 'do everything in his power' to prevent the release of Brown

Speaking previously, Ms Parkes said: 'Mr Raab has the power to review this case and help prevent the release of Brown in November. It is surely so clear that this would be the right thing to do. I hope and pray he will see sense and help me and my family.'

Former lord chancellor and solicitor general Sir Robert Buckland KC has said he is 'deeply concerned' about the case, and called on the Ministry of Justice to protect the public from dangerous offenders.

Ms Simpson, 46, had filed for divorce from Brown after enduring years of abuse, harassment and intimidation.

He is said to have threatened to kill her with a knife three years prior to the attack.

In October 2010, Brown drove to her home in Ascot, Berkshire, armed with a hammer and bludgeoned her at least 14 times, before wrapping her body in plastic sheeting and burying it in a grave he had previously dug in woodland in Windsor Great Park.

He was charged with murder and prosecutors argued the killing was a premeditated attack, but Brown said he had been suffering from 'severe stress' and 'abnormality of mental function' which had impaired his self-control.

The jury at Reading Crown Court acquitted him of murder and he was given a 26-year sentence for manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility, which he had already admitted.

Mrs Simpson, 46, had filed for divorce from Brown after enduring years of abuse, harassment and intimidation

In October 2010, Brown drove to her home in Ascot, Berkshire, armed with a hammer and bludgeoned her at least 14 times, before wrapping her body in plastic sheeting and burying it in a grave he had previously dug in woodland in Windsor Great Park

Mrs Simpson's mother Diana Parkes (pictured) fears Brown still poses a risk to her family and to the public, and has called on Dominic Raab to block his release

Ms Parkes, who raised her daughter's children, has called for Brown, 59, to serve the full 26 years. She said: 'There is a chronic shortage of probation officers, so how can he possibly be allowed out when no one can guarantee how he'll be monitored? The reoffending statistics are alarming.

'I am calling on our Justice Secretary, Dominic Raab, to do everything in his power to prevent yet a further injustice by releasing Robert Brown early.'

Ms Simpson's friend Hetti Barkworth-Nanton has also called for Brown's release to be blocked.

She said: 'This man is a dangerous misogynist who has shown no evidence of remorse. He subjected Jo to years of abuse, stalking and coercive control before he killed her. Dominic Raab has the power to stop this release.'

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: 'This was an appalling crime and our thoughts remain with Joanna Simpson's family and friends.

'Mr Raab will do everything in his power to keep the most dangerous offenders behind bars and has pledged to give this case his closest personal attention.'

Mrs Parkes and Mrs Barkworth-Nanton set up the Joanna Simpson Foundation to help children affected by domestic violence. The charity has received support from the Queen Consort, who has campaigned to highlight the threat of domestic abuse.
Terminal 1 of Incheon International Airport is filled with travelers, Wednesday. Yonhap



South Korea reported 12,291 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday amid a gradual slowdown in the pace of infections.



The figure is slightly higher than the previous day's 10,817 cases, but 785 cases lower compared with a week ago. The virus has been spreading more slowly despite the removal of the indoor mask mandate late last month.



Of Wednesday's total, 24 cases were from overseas, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). The country added 11 deaths, bringing the death toll to 33,988, and the number of critically ill patients stood at 145, down from the previous day's 164.



The total caseload so far came to 30,526,012.



Amid the downward trend, South Korea lifted a requirement for travelers from China to take PCR tests after their arrival here Wednesday. A PCR test refers to a polymerase chain reaction test for COVID-19.



But the pre-arrival test requirement will remain in place until March 10 to monitor the effect of the eased restrictions.



On Tuesday, 129 out of 2,591 inbound travelers from China took the post-arrival test and two of the 129 foreigners who came for short-term stays tested positive, the KDCA said.



The rate of COVID-19-positive people among arrivals from China came to 1.6 percent Tuesday, far lower than the accumulated rate of 5.6 percent from Jan. 2 through Tuesday, the health agency said.



South Korea had required travelers from China to show negative COVID-19 test results before boarding flights to the country and to take an additional PCR test within the first day of their entry since early January amid a surge in COVID-19 infections in the neighboring country.



But China's situation has since stabilized and South Korea has been lifting restrictions one by one.



On Feb. 11, South Korea resumed issuing short-term visas for Chinese visitors, and China also restarted the issuance of short-term visas for South Koreans on Feb. 18. (Yonhap)


Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz revisiting his angry grilling of Attorney General Merrick Garland onstage at the CPAC Conference  accusing him of arrogance and calling him 'complicit' with Supreme Court abortion protesters.

He said Cruz can beat conservative boogeyman Dr. Anthony Fauci when it comes to arrogance.

'Garland looks at you like: "How dare you ask me a question."'

The crowd of conservative activists cheered a Cruz's takedowns of the nation's top law enforcement officer when the exchange was played on the big screen.

Cruz tore into Garland for the failure to arrest protesters who gathered outside the homes of Supreme Court justices after the leak of the Dobbs decision indicating the conservative court would overturn Roe v. Wade.

'Its clear from that hearing that Merrick Garland's political staff had written one sentence [saying] this is your political talking point.'

Merrick Garland agrees with the protesters. He doesnt like the dobbs decision

Hes perfectly willing to be complicit with a left wing violent mob threatning the lives and families of the justices

tore into Attorney General Merrick Garland in angry diatribe at a Senate oversight hearing for having done 'nothing' to arrest protesters outside Supreme Court Justices' homes.

Cruz made the claim during a speech and questioning where he said the Justice Department had been 'politicized to the greatest extent Ive ever seen in this country.'

He referenced protests that were organized outside the homes of Supreme Court Justices following the extraordinary leak of the draft opinion in the Dobbs case that revealed the justices were planning to strike down Roe v. Wade.

'You did nothing! The Department did nothing,' he scolded Garland at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday. 'You again sat on your hands and did nothing.'

It came in a hearing where senators pressed Garland on issues ranging from trans prisoners to fentanyl.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) tore into Attorney General Merrick Garland, shouting questions during an oversight hearing where he demanded protesters outside Supreme Court Justices' homes be charged. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-MO, (left), pressed him on the charging of a conservative activist and accused the Department of anti-Catholic bias

'When rioters descended on the homes have six Supreme Court justices night after night after night. You did nothing,' Cruz lectured Garland, a former judge on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals who Barack Obama nominated for the Supreme Court.

'Your failure to act to protect the safety of the justices and their families was an obvious product of political bias,' Cruz told him.

'When the Dobbs draft was leaked, I did something no attorney general in the history of the Department had ever done before,' Garland told him. 'For the first time in history, I ordered the United States Marshals 24/7 to defend every residence of every justice,' he said.

He said there were now 70 U.S. Marshals providing security protection. The 6-3 conservative court ultimately overturned Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs decision.

'Have you brought a single case against any of these protesters threatening the justices?' Cruz asked him.

'Senator, you asked me whether I sat on my hands and quite the opposite,' Garland said, as Cruz repeatedly interrupted him. 'The answer is no,' Cruz interjected.

'Why are you unwilling to say no? The answer's no, you know it's no. I know it's no. Everyone in this hearing room knows it's no. You're not willing to answer a question. Have you brought a case under the statute, yes or no?'

Wednesday's hearing featured tense testimony by Garland under questioning by Cruz and Hawley

Republicans pressed Garland on the arrest of Mark Houk and brought up the FBI raid during his arrest. He faced federal assault charges after an altercation with a Planned Parenthood escort outside an abortion clinic

'As far as I know we haven't,' allowed Garland. 'What we have done is defended the lives of the justices.'

'You spent 20 years as a judge, and you're perfectly content with justices being afraid for their children's lives,' Cruz told him.

'Can I answer the question?' Garland pleaded.

'They do make the decision of whether to make an arrest,' Garland said of Marshals on the scene  before Cruz promptly changed topics.

Then Cruz switched to the topic of Mark Houk, who he described as a 'pro-life activist, a sidewalk counselor' who 'had an altercation with someone who allegedly interfered with his son's personal space and threatened his son and he pushed him.'

'If you're a pro life activist, what can you expect? Well, in this instance, according to Mr. Houk's wife, two dozen agents clad in body armor and ballistic helmets and shields and a battering ram showed up at his house pointing rifles at his family.'

Cruz and other senators featured an image posted by Houk's wife during the hearing. She has described the arrest on Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson's show. He pushed Garland on whether it was a priority to prosecute people firebombing pro-life abortion crisis centers.

He said it was a priority to 'investigate and find the people who are doing those fireballs.'

Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) also brought up the Houk case.

Houk was found not guilty last month of charges of intimidation outside an abortion clinic after the altercation with a Planned Parenthood patient escort.

'Does your Department have a problem with anti-Catholic bias?' Hawley asked him.

'I just suggest to you that that is a disgraceful performance by your justice department had a disgraceful use of resources,' said Hawley.

'The children were screaming they feared for their lives,' he said, saying Garland was 'happy to deploy [long guns] against Catholics and innocent children.'

Garland did not offer details, saying: 'The FBI has said they don't agree with your description ... of how many agents, of the agents who were there and what their roles were,' he said.

Cruz also brought up the Jan. 6 probe of former President Trump and the Hunter Biden investigation.

'I believe you very much want to indict Donald J. Trump,' he told Garland, despite his repeated statements of trying to stand back and avoid interference. He has appointed special counsels in both matters.

He accused DOJ of leaking information about the Hunter Biden probe as a 'predicate' for indicting Trump and demonstrating impartiality and prove the department is 'even-handed.'

Then he asked that the Hunter probe not focus on the president's son's battles with addiction, and focus instead on 'connections to his father and potential public corruption. That is the matter of public concern.'

He asked Garland to commit to examining the 'public corruption aspect' and 'not simply scapegoat Hunter Biden as an individual.'

The repeated accusations of bias come after Democrats howled for years about the Trump Justice Department under AG Bill Barr, who issued a summary of the Mueller report that Democrats said downplayed findings of potential obstruction of justice identified in the report.

Earlier in the hearing, members of the Senate Judiciary grilled Attorney General Merrick Garland over the rise of fentanyl-related deaths and the federal prison policy for trans inmates Wednesday, and got assurances that the Hunter Biden probe won't influenced by politics.

The appearance put Garland on the hook for a range of controversial issues that the Justice Department intersects with, from mandatory minimum sentences to the treatment of prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) asked Garland: 'What is our policy when it comes to allowing a male prisoner to be transitioned into a female prison?'

Garland told him that all matters are handled on a 'case-by-case' basis and not categorically.

Graham followed up by asking, 'Are you concerned that if a biological male is sent to a female prison, that could be a risk with female prisoners?'

Senators grilled Attorney General Merrick Garland about prison policies, crime, and the Hunter Biden probe during a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing

'Every person in prison has to be dealt with with dignity and respect,' he told Graham. 'That determinations of the safety questions you're talking about have to be made individualized basis, not categorically.' Graham asked him to provide any Bureau of Prisons policy on the matter.

According to a Bureau of Prisons policy statement from 2022, 'In deciding whether to assign a transgender or intersex inmate to a facility for male or female inmatesthe agency shall consider on a case-by-case basis whether a placement would ensure the inmates health and safety, and whether the placement would present management or security problems.'

Another senior Republican, Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, asked Garland about the Hunter Biden probe. He noted at the top that he had to decided to leave the probe in the hands of the U.S. Attorney in Delaware, a Trump holdover, as a way to insulate it from the appearance of interference.

But Grassley wanted to know if the US Attorney would need sign-off from Biden-appointed officials to charge an alleged crime in another jurisdiction, such as California or Washington, D.C.

That might allow for the pursuit of corruption that Republicans have been alleging based on emails from Hunter's infamous laptop.

'I have pledged not to interfere with that investigation and I have carried through on my pledge,' Garland told him.

Garland appeared for the first Senate oversight hearing by the panel in more than a year

Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo. and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas (right) are preparing to press Garland

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., asked about prison policies for 'allowing a male prisoner to be transitioned into a female prison?'

Garland said the Hunter Biden probe was being shielded from influence

He said of US Attorney David Weiss, 'He has full authority to make those kinds of referrals that youre talking about.'

Panel chair Sen. Richard Durbin raised the issue of mass shootings in his opening statement, a day after Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was defeated in her primary in Chicago. 'More than 6,800  6800  Americans have died from gunfire in the first two months of this year. There have been at least 94 mass shootings more than one every single day this year in America,' he said.

Said Graham: 'I think there's a feeling of this country that we're losing control of our streets. That crime is increasing, and the world is [full of] very dangerous people and people don't feel safe anymore.'

'So 106,000 people died from drug overdoses, 70,000 from fentanyl last year and it's getting worse. The leading cause of death for Americans age 18 to 40 is fentanyl poisoning. What are we doing?' Graham asked.
King Charles loves Harry. That is a given. No, more than a given, actually.

I remember the look of genuine pride on his face when he joined Harry at his inaugural Invictus Games in London in 2014, visibly marvelling at what a feat his often under-estimated younger son had managed to pull off. 'My dear boy' he beamed adoringly, as he clapped him on the back.

But Charles is not just a father, he is a king.

And I know from numerous conversations with royal insiders in recent months that he feels he owes it to his country to act as a monarch, regardless of the repetitive family drama.

Which is why, as I understand it, he has backed bold moves to 'evict' his son and his family from their Frogmore Cottage home.

King Charles loves Harry. That is a given. No, more than a given, actually. But Charles is not just a father, he is a king

As I understand it, [Charles] has backed bold moves to 'evict' his son and his family from their Frogmore Cottage home (Pictured: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in Frogmore Cottage)

It is a risky decision and one that the Sussexes' coterie of media defenders have already seized upon in their efforts to paint the duke and duchess as victims of a protectionist and remorseless institution (although how they square this with the fact the pontificating couple have made clear they see their future in the US, thereby leaving an entire house empty for more than 11 months of the year, is anyone's guess).

There is no doubt that the timing of the move  days after the publication of Harry's controversial and damning memoir, Spare  appears to suggest it was an act of retribution.

And there are certainly many in the royal household who will smile with satisfaction at seeing the back of the 'disloyal duo', as some refer to them.

Indeed, as I reported on Saturday there is still a great deal of ill will 'boiling over' at Buckingham Palace at the couple's behaviour in recent months and neither the King nor the Prince of Wales are in any mood to pander to Harry's tantrums.

But Charles is not a vindictive man and despite being deeply hurt at much of what he understands his son had said about him and his wife (he still hasn't read Harry's memoir and has no intention of doing so), I am told that this move was a while in the planning.

The Royal Family, you see, have something of a housing crisis.

Not the kind of crisis faced by so many of the king's subjects, it has to be said.

More the fact that they have a surfeit of grand houses and not enough people to justify their existence as lavish private homes  except, oddly, for Windsor, which is proving to be a bit of a bottleneck.

The problem has been sparked by the Prince and Princess of Wales's decision to move their family out of their substantial Kensington Palace apartment and onto the Royal Family's Berkshire estate.

If the Crown Estate's decision to pull the plug on Harry and Meghan's lease at Frogmore Cottage (pictured) is both a practical and financial one, it is also a move that could seriously backfire

For now they are in Adelaide Cottage, a not immodest residence by anyone's standards but with just four bedrooms (not even one for the nanny) they are living cheek-by-jowl.

As one familiar with their situation tells me: 'The kids go to playdates at houses far bigger and grander than theirs.'

A first-world problem admittedly, but one that would be solved if, say, a 30-room, seven-bedroom property such as Prince Andrew's Royal Lodge became free.

If, of course, he could be persuaded to 'downgrade' to five-bedroom Frogmore Cottage instead, a move he is said to be fiercely resisting. Who knows where this merry-go-round of mansions will end?

But if the Crown Estate's decision to pull the plug on Harry and Meghan's lease is both a practical and financial one, it is also a move that could seriously backfire.

Not only will it add another log onto Harry and Meghan's pyre of alleged injustices against them (and surely enough beef for another chapter of any forthcoming book) it severs, once and for all, any physical ties the couple have with the UK.

And because they will no longer benefit from the ring-fence of security that Windsor affords them, the duke and duchess will inevitably argue  no doubt through court cases and 'friends' briefing the media  that any future visits to Britain for them and their children are infinitely more complex now.

They could stay with family or friends but, let's be honest, they have fallen out with so many people that this isn't even a realistic option on the table.

It begs the question as to whether Charles will ever see his grandchildren again?

More immediately, it also now gives Harry and Meghan the perfect excuse not to attend the coronation.

For while they have apparently been given until early summer to pack up their stuff and move out, it's not as if the welcome mat is being dusted off.

Read more from Rebecca English on Mail Plus here.
A man stole an empty American Airlines bus at JFK Airport and drove it 20-miles through three New York City boroughs before being ensnared by police.

Burshawn Quildon, 43, who was eventually arrested in downtown Brooklyn, was heard asking NYPD officers as he was brought into custody: 'I'm going to jail, right?'

The hijacking happened at around 1.30am on Wednesday morning and saw him take the bus north into Queens, before crossing into Manhattan and traveling south along the east side of the island before entering Brooklyn via the Brooklyn Bridge.

Nobody was injured in the process and the bus appeared unscathed when it was eventually brought to a stop.

Burshawn Quildon, 43, was arrested after taking an American Airlines bus on a 20-mile long joyride through Queens, Manhattan and Brooklyn

Quildon allegedly stole the bus at around at 1.30am on Wednesday night but was seen by an airport employee, who called the police. The bus was eventually brought to a stop after he entered Brooklyn from Manhattan

Quildon got inside the bus, which was left in a parking lot with its engine running, soon after 1am, but was seen by an airport employee who followed him and called 911.

'At approximately 1:20 a.m., Port Authority Police received a report of stolen an American Airlines bus. The bus was stolen out of Lot 12 at John F. Kennedy International Airport,' a spokesperson for the Port Authority Police told DailyMail.com.

Police eventually spotted him driving the bus south through Manhattan and stopped him moments after he had crossed the Brooklyn Bridge, they told the New York Post.

Quildon, from Brooklyn, has been charged with grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property. He has nine prior arrests, including robbery, marijuana possession, assault and transit fraud

Police said Quildon first joined the Van Wyck Expressway and Grand Central Parkway in Queens before crossing into Manhattan and driving along FDR Drive into Brooklyn, where he was finally pulled over on Cadman Plaza West

They said Quildon first joined the Van Wyck Expressway and Grand Central Parkway in Queens before crossing into Manhattan and driving along FDR Drive into Brooklyn, where he was finally pulled over on Cadman Plaza West.

Quildon, from Brooklyn, has been charged with grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property. He has nine prior arrests, including robbery, marijuana possession, assault and transit fraud.

Police have said Quildon was on probation at the time of his arrest for a domestic-robbery in 2015. They told the Post that he 'is known to the department' and has a background of mostly domestic violence.
One of Britains most senior policemen has been referred to a watchdog for allegedly describing the bulk of rape complaints as regretful sex.

Former Scotland Yard acting commissioner Sir Stephen House is said to have made the comments to a Home Office adviser conducting a review into rape cases.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) confirmed it was assessing a referral regarding comments made by a former senior Metropolitan Police officer in January last year.

Sir Stephen, who was deputy commissioner at the time before becoming acting commissioner three months later, emphatically denied using the phrase and said he found it abhorrent.

The claims come ahead of a major review into the Mets culture conducted by Baroness Louise Casey, following a string of scandals and allegations of institutional misogyny.

Sir Stephen House, who was Acting Met Commissioner following the sacking of Dame Cressida Dick is alleged to have made the comments to a Home Office adviser during a meeting at Scotland Yard in January 2022

The former top officer is alleged to have made the comments to Professor Betsy Stanko, who was appointed by the Home Office to conduct a review into increasing the number of rape cases making it to court

The alleged comments were made to Professor Betsy Stanko, who was leading Operation Soteria Bluestone, a review aimed at increasing the number of rape cases that make it to court. Professor Stanko, formerly head of evidence and insight at the Mayor of Londons Office for Policing and Crime, alleges Sir Stephen made the remarks at a meeting with top officers at Scotland Yard in January last year to discuss her projects findings.

It felt as if he [Sir Stephen] was trying to minimise what the problem was, not taking it seriously, she told Channel 4 News. He used terms to describe  or a term to describe  what he thought the bulk of the rape complaints were, which was the term regretful sex.

She said she had also heard the phrase used by officers in other forces and understood it to indicate that the victim in a sexual assault case had been mistaken.

She added: [The phrase means] that that fault line of forcible sex, which is rape, was not crossed because it must have been confusion. The problem was about confusion, not about the facts or the evidence that could have been collected if one was trying to investigate a rape.

Sir Stephen became acting commissioner last April following Dame Cressida Dicks resignation.

He remained at the helm of Britains biggest police force until last September, when Sir Mark Rowley became permanent commissioner.

It is alleged Sir Stephen made the comments during a meeting at Scotland Yard, pictured

Last night Sir Stephen told Channel 4: I categorically deny using the phrase regretful sex.

These are not words I have ever used in relation to rape or sexual assault and the reason I am so certain that I did not say this is because I simply do not believe it; I find the phrase abhorrent. Rape is a truly horrific crime and I, and many other colleagues, have strived to improve the service victims of rape receive; of course there is still much more to do.

He welcomed an IOPC probe into the claims, adding: As a public servant and as a father of two daughters I find this characterisation of me to be deeply upsetting, and colleagues who know me know how untrue it is.

Scotland Yard deputy commissioner Lynne Owens confirmed the force had referred the matter to the IOPC. A spokesman for the watchdog said: We will carefully assess the referral to decide what further action may be required from us.

Sir Stephen had been leading a review of productivity in policing for the National Police Chiefs Council, but last night the Home Office said he would step back from this role. A Home Office spokesman said: Rape and sexual offences are among the most traumatic of crimes, and it is vital that victims know they will be taken seriously and their allegations investigated thoroughly.

The row comes as the Met is urgently reviewing all staff members who have had allegations of sexual assault or domestic abuse made against them in the last decade following the scandal of elite firearms officer David Carrick, who carried out a 17-year campaign of rape and sexual assault against at least a dozen women.
At least 40 people are confirmed dead with more than a dozen still missing

Sickening CCTV footage has revealed the moment two trains collided in Greece in a horror smash that killed more than 40 people in the country's worst rail tragedy.

Two carriages were crushed and a third engulfed in fires as hot as 1300 degrees C when a passenger train and a freight train smashed into each other head-on late Tuesday near the central city of Larissa, on a route plagued by years of safety warnings.

The security camera clip showed a huge fireball rising hundreds of feet into the air immediately following the brutal impact, sparking the blaze that reduced two entire carriages to smouldering wreckage.

The fire department had earlier increased the death toll to 47, adding that 57 people were still hospitalised, six of them in intensive care, while several were missing.

'Everything shows that the drama was, sadly, mainly due to a tragic human error,' Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis - who is seeking re-election this year - said in a televised address.

He said it was a 'terrible train accident without precedent' in Greece which would be 'fully' investigated.

The statement came as a station master responsible for overseeing the stretch of railway near Larissa was arrested and charged with negligible homicide, while the country's transport minister Kostas Karamanlis resigned.

A still from grainy CCTV footage shows the moment the colliding trains burst into flame

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis visits the site of a crash, where two trains collided, near the city of Larissa, Greece, March 1, 2023

Debris of trains lie on the rail lines after a collision in Tempe, about 376 kilometres (235 miles) north of Athens, near Larissa city, Greece, Wednesday, March 1, 2023

Firefighters and rescuers operate after a collision in Tempe near Larissa city, Greece, Wednesday, March 1, 2023

Greek transport minister Kostas Karamanlis reacts with horror at the scene of the train crash. He resigned on Wednesday afternoon

'I've never seen anything like this in my entire life,' said one rescue worker, emerging from the wreckage. 'It's tragic.'

The accident left a tangled mess of metal and shattered glass in a field.

Many kicked through windows to escape the inferno in the stricken carriages where temperatures reached 1,300 degrees C. Others were flung up to 40 metres out of their seats on impact.

'There was panic... the fire was immediate, as we were turning over we were being burned, fire was right and left,' said Stergios Minenis, a 28-year-old who jumped to safety.

'Windows were being smashed and people were screaming... One of the windows caved in from the impact of iron from the other train,' another passenger, who escaped from the fifth carriage, told Skai TV.

In some cases, passengers are being identified from body parts, volunteer fireman Vassilis Iliopoulos said, warning that the death toll would rise.

Seventeen biological samples have been collected from remains, and from 23 relatives seeking a match, the police said.

'It was the train of terror,' Pavlos Aslanidis, whose son is missing along with a friend, told reporters.

Hopes of finding anyone still alive in the wreckage more than 34 hours later appeared slim.

'It will be very difficult to find survivors, due to the temperatures that developed in the carriages,' 40-year old rescuer Constantinos Imamidis said.

'This is the hardest thing, instead of saving lives we have to dig out bodies.'

Many of the victims were thought to be university students returning home after a long holiday weekend, and officials said the death toll was expected to rise further. Scores were injured.

The transport minister had visited the site of the crash just hours before tendering his resignation. Images showed him holding his hands up to his face in disbelief and horror at the scene.

'When something so tragic happens, we cannot continue as if nothing had happened,' Karamanlis said in a public statement.

As Greece sought to process the tragedy, railway workers nationwide walked off the job on Thursday, saying successive governments had ignored repeated demands to improve safety standards.

Meanwhile in Athens, police were forced to fire tear gas at a sea of protesters throwing rocks at the offices of the railway's operating company, Hellenic Train.

A picture taken with a drone shows firefighters and rescue crews working to extricate passengers from trains after a collision near Larissa city

Pictured: Rescuers operate at the site of a crash, where two trains collided, near the city of Larissa, Greece, March 1

The crash occurred as the passenger train emerged from a tunnel (pictured). The cause of the deadliest rail crash in Greece in decades remains unclear but the PM said it was likely 'tragic human error'

Crushed wagons are seen by the tracks after a train accident in the Valley of Tempi near Larisa

Students take part in a protest following a deadly train accident on February 28, 2023, near the city of Larissa, central Greece where 38 people died, outside the Hellenic Train headquarters, in Athens, on March 1

People light candles and lay flowers outside of the railway station of Larissa to pay tribute to the victims of a train accident in the Tempi Valley near Larissa, Greece, March 1, 2023

This photograph taken on March 1, 2023, shows a slogan sprayed onto a glass window translating into 'Murderers-revolution now' as protesters escape tear gas during a demonstration following a deadly train accident on February 28, near the city of Larissa, central Greece

The passenger train, carrying more than 350 people, had been travelling from Athens to the northern city of Thessaloniki.

Government spokesman Yiannis Economou said the two trains were left running on the same track for 'several kilometres'.

But train unionists said the station master was likely a scapegoat as the safety shortcomings of the Athens-Thessaloniki railway line had been known for years.

In an open letter published last month, train staff said track safety systems were incomplete and poorly maintained.

A safety supervisor had resigned last year, warning that infrastructure upgrades pending since 2016 were incomplete and that train speeds of up to 200 kilometres (124 miles) an hour were unsafe.

The president of the train drivers' union Kostas Genidounias told AFP from the scene that the accident 'would have been avoided if the safety systems were working'.

Health Minister Thanos Plevris said most passengers were 'young people', with the train carrying many students returning to Thessaloniki after a long holiday weekend.

Rescuers operate next to debris of a train, after a crash near the city of Larissa, Greece, on March 1, 2023

At 4am UK time it was reported the death toll had risen to 29. This number was later revised to say that 38 people had been killed. It could still rise further

The collision between a freight and passenger train occurred near Tempe, some 380 kilometres (235 miles) north of Athens, and resulted in the derailment of several train cars. Pictured: A crane operator, firefighters and rescuers work the scene of the deadly train crash on Wednesday morning. As dawn broke, the full scale of the devastation became clear

The site of a crash, where two trains collided, is seen near the city of Larissa, Greece, March 1, 2023

'It was a nightmare... I'm still shaking,' 22-year-old passenger Angelos told AFP.

'Fortunately we were in the penultimate car and we got out alive. There was a fire in the first cars and complete panic.

'The collision was like a huge earthquake.'

'I was stained with blood from other people who were injured near me,' a passenger named Lazos told the newspaper Proto Thema.

Some 150 firefighters and 40 ambulances were mobilised for the response, according to Greek emergency services.

Crews were still struggling to lift one of the smashed carriages, lying on its side, to enable a search inside, Iliopoulos said.

'My thoughts are with the people in Greece this morning,' tweeted the head of the European Council, Charles Michel.

'Shocked by the news and images of the collision of the two trains,' he added.

Neighbouring Albania, Italy, Serbia and Turkey were among states to send condolences, as did China, the United States, France, Russia, Ukraine, Germany, and the Vatican.

Nicosia said two Cypriots were among the missing.
A Maryland man who says he was banned from his favorite local bar for 'being old and white' has claimed that staff previously tried to drive him away by playing obnoxious 'head-banging' music while he ate.

Neal Glessner, 52, is suing Dan's Restaurant and Taphouse in the small town of Boonsboro over allegations of discrimination. But he's now filed an amendment, highlighting how he's been 'treated poorly' by employees in the past, and allegedly driven by the venue with obnoxiously-loud and aggressive music.

Owner Charlotte Aufdem-Brinke, however, told DailyMail.com that 'alt-rock' is as hardcore as the music gets - and in fact ballads from Taylor Swift and chart-topping Lizzo are often played in the establishment.

The full-blown culture war erupted after a bartender allegedly threw Glessner and his friend out on February 18, 2022 because he's an 'old, white man.' The bar said that it was in fact because of his 'disruptive behavior' towards staff.

Now, Glessner alleges that days before the head-to-head confrontation on February 18, he was dining with friends at the establishment when the music in the dining room suddenly changed.

Neal Glessner, 52, is suing Dan's Restaurant and Taphouse in the small town of Boonsboro over allegations of discrimination. But he's now filed an amendment, highlighting how he's been 'treated poorly' by employees in the past

Owner Charlotte Aufdem-Brinke says there were 'repeated occurrences of disruptive behavior against members of our team' which caused the initial ban. In response to the 'head-banging' music allegations, she blasted them as 'utterly asinine'

After paying their $100 check, he claims that the music became 'very loud and obnoxious' and speakers started pumping out 'head-banging music.'

The self-proclaimed old white man said that the music choice made him feel 'very uncomfortable' - and he and his friends were unable to continue the rest of their conversations over the racket.

Glessner said that the disruptive music at 8.30pm was 'an obvious and obnoxious act to force them to leave the establishment.'

The lawsuit states: 'Moments after paying the check, the quiet background music in the dining room changed to very loud and obnoxious head-banging" music.

'This made Plaintiff and his guests very uncomfortable and also made it impossible for his group to continue to their conversations. After the group felt that they were forced to leave, they all discussed how poorly the staff treated them and how the loud music was an obvious and obnoxious act to force them to leave.'

Speaking to DailyMail.com, owner Aufdem-Brinke said: 'Needless to say, Mr. Glessners latest accusations are utterly asinine, and his behavior is becoming more farcical with each passing day.'

She made clear that the bar has an eclectic playlist tailored to a diverse clientele - including modern hits and bangers from the 80s and 90s like Aerosmith and the Lemonheads.

Neal Glessner claims that in a separate instance, he felt very uncomfortable and forced out of the restaurant because they 'purposely' started playing head-banging music to kick him out

The bar and restaurant in the small Maryland town says they play an eclectic song list tailored to a diverse clientele - including modern hits and bangers from the 80s and 90s like Aerosmith and the Lemonheads

The owner added that her playlist is 'hardly the headbangers ball that Mr. Glessner describes in his filing. She said: 'I'd say alt-rock is about as hardcore as we get in the dining room.'

Mike Skinner, who is the manager accused of making the initial 'old, white' comment which kickstarted the local culture war, said: 'Also, if there were people at the bar, as he admits there were, we can't control what they decide to play on the jukebox.

'I don't recall this "head banging music" thing occurring that night at all but even if it did the jukebox is open to everyone. Maybe one of our customers was a metalhead?

'They could have played whatever music they wanted, jukebox is open to everyone.'

In response to the amended filing, the restaurant's owner said they are going to host a promotion this weekend where customers can help select their playlist.

Glessner previously stated in the lawsuit that he would often spend at least $500 a week at the local restaurant before he was ceremoniously banned.

Manager Skinner verbally barred Glessner and his friend from the premises and called the police, in a clip caught on bodycam footage.

The full-blown culture war erupted after a bartender at Dan's Restaurant and Taphouse (pictured) allegedly threw Glessner and his friend out on February 18, 2022 because he's an 'old, white man.' The bar said that it was in fact because of his 'disruptive behavior' towards staff

The owner added that her playlist is 'hardly the headbangers ball that Mr. Glessner describes in his filing. She said: 'I'd say alt-rock is about as hardcore as we get in the dining room'

Charlotte Aufdem-Brinke opened the tavern in 2012 with her now ex-husband Daniel

Mike Skinner (pictured), the manager who was working at Dan's at the time, verbally barred Glessner and his friend from the premises and called the police, in a clip caught on bodycam footage. Although not captured in the clip, the lawsuit claims he said: 'All of you old white men act like you own everything. Just get the f*** out. Neither of you are welcome here'

He allegedly exclaimed to Glessner's friend Joseph Michael - who just so happened to be the Deputy State's Attorney just appointed Judge - 'You old, white people act like you own everything. Get the f*** out of here!'

The pair had been complaining about waiting 40 minutes for a to-go order.

In the unearthed bodycam footage, Michael is heard said: 'I'm happy to go... but I just need to know if I'm banned or not?'

The manager Mike Skinner responds: 'Yes, you are banned. You are not allowed to come back in here.'

Although not captured in the footage, Glessner alleges the manager continued: 'All of you old white men act like you own everything. Just get the f*** out. Neither of you are welcome here.'

The ordeal has sparked a proxy war in the sleepy town. On Saturday, a group of a dozen protesters - headed by Shaun Porter - stood outside the restaurant, with signs that read: 'Old White Men's Lives Matter' and 'It Is Okay To Be White.'

And the group held a large red sign, reading: 'No Soup For You!! No Old Farts!!!' along with a reference to the 'Soup Nazi' from comedy show Seinfeld.

The battle between the opposing sides has also spewed online. Dozens of locals in the small town have got involved, giving their opinion, while both the plaintiff and defendants give status updates nearly daily.

Dan's Restaurant and Taphouse has sparked a culture war in the small town of Boonsboro, Maryland, after a bartender allegedly threw a customer out because he's an 'old, white man'

The group held a large red sign, reading: 'No Soup For You!! No Old Farts!!!' - a reference to the 'Soup Nazi' from comedy show Seinfeld

Skinner, the manager, gawked at the small number of protesters who rallied against his place of work, while owner Aufdem-Brinke bragged that business has never been better.

She also claims that the fallout from the ban has been a 'coordinated personal attack against our business.'

The restaurant's reviews have now been bombarded with 'fake' reviews - both good and bad - as the issue created a stir on social media.

Meanwhile Porter, one of Glessner's main supporters, has been updating his followers in a series of dramatic monologues and rabble-rousing recordings from the protest, posting them on YouTube.

According to the lawsuit, since being banished from the restaurant, the plaintiff 'has become aware of approximately a half-dozen other white men who have been barred from Dan's for otherwise inexplicable reasons.'

Glessner said that he has suffered - and will continue to suffer - 'irreparable economic loss, humiliation, embarrassment, mental and emotional distress, and strain on relationships' following the ordeal.

Charlotte Aufdem-Brinke opened the tavern in 2012 with her now ex-husband Daniel.

Bodycam footage showed the moment that Neal Glessner and his friend Joseph Michael were banned from the restaurant

The ban and lawsuit have created a proxy war in the small Maryland town. Protesters came out in their small forces on the weekend, with posters rallying against the restaurant

Previously speaking to DailyMail.com, Glessner added: 'There is a deep chasm in our typically tight-knit community. Regretfully, Dan and Charlotte Aufdem-Brinke are trying to paint me as an angry racist who is willfully acting to dismantle their business with what they term "a frivolous, baseless lawsuit." This couldn't be further from the truth.

'While I do feel Dan and Charlotte discriminated against me because of my age and race and have sufficient evidence to prove this in a federal court of law, they have an undeniable history of mistreating and discriminating against many others in our community due to age, race, and political affiliations.

'While it is easy for the owners to say that they insist their team members and guests be treated with respect by employees, you need look no farther than the social media posts of the restaurant's management and staff to see the hate-filled speech and "get-even" attitudes on their personal accounts. Clearly their insistence on respect is little more than an empty promise.

'Shame on Dan and Charlotte for condoning this kind of behavior and defending it now. As owners of a well-known establishment in our town, is it not the Aufem-Brinkes' moral and ethical responsibility to respect everyone equally, not just those whom they deem "worthy"?

'I do not want to continue the negative back-and-forth that is tearing our wonderful community apart. More divisiveness in our community is not what we need.'

Glessner's legal team did not respond for comment on the additional filing.
Ron DeSantis said he had to take on Disney because of its increased push of so-called ESG activity, including 'injecting sexuality' into its child-focused content.

The Florida governor claimed in a Wall Street Journal op/ed published Tuesday evening that 'old-guard' Republicans aren't up to the task of tackling what he claims is an epidemic of 'woke ascendancy' within corporate agendas.

DeSantis, who is poised to kick off a presidential run, signed a new law on Monday that dissolves the Reedy Creek Improvement District. The district was a self-governing, tax-exempt 40-square mile area encompassing the entire Walt Disney World Resort, as well as residences where employees and their families live.

The act was a culmination of DeSantis' year-long war with Disney, starting in March 2022, when he signed the Parental Rights in Education bill, dubbed the Don't Say Gay bill, which restricted the teaching of sexual orientation and gender identity in schools for children kindergarten through third grade.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said in an op/ed published Tuesday evening that 'old-guard' Republicans are not up to the task of taking on 'woke' corporations

It comes the day after he signed a new law that gives him power to control Reedy Creek Improvement District, which is the area encompassing the entire Walt Disney World Resorts

Then-Disney's CEO Bob Chapek released a statement after the bill became law condemning it, launching the battle between the Republican-led state and one of its biggest employers.

'When corporations try to use their economic power to advance a woke agenda, they become political, and not merely economic, actors,' DeSantis wrote in his op/ed.

'In such an environment, reflexively deferring to big business effectively surrenders the political battlefield to the militant left,' he continued. 'Having private companies wield de facto public power isn't in the best interests of most Americans.'

DeSantis and Florida's first lady Casey DeSantis confirmed reports in an interview that aired Monday that they got married at Walt Disney World in 2009.

The couple admitted the 'irony' now that DeSantis is in a cultural battle with the 'woke' corporation.

The denunciation of Disney's engagement in this sort of corporate activism comes amid the GOP's increased vitriol toward environmental, social, and governance (ESG) responsibility and investing.

Republicans claim that it is not the job of corporations to push political agendas.

They also insist that the effort was created by liberals putting social pressure on companies to take a stand on issues that have nothing to do with their operations or else be canceled or boycotted.

'The question many people asked me after the Disney face-off was: Why would a company like Disney tarnish its family-friendly brand, built up over almost 100 years, by publicly aligning itself with the fringe left's agenda to limit the rights of parents to have a say in what is taught to very young children?' DeSantis wrote.

'The answer lies in how the left has pressured big companies like Disney to use their power to advance the woke political agenda,' he added.

DeSantis blasted Disney for its 'plans to inject sexuality into its programming for children.' Pictured: A grab from Disney's 2022 Pixar film Lightyear featured a same-sex kiss

A character from Disney's animated show Strange World is voiced by Daily Show contributor Jaboukie Young-White as what's been heralded as Disney's first openly gay character (bottom right)

In March 2022, Disney announced that its staff members would no longer use 'gendered greetings' like 'boys and girls' or 'ladies and gentlemen'

The Florida governor also said that two major factors are adding to why corporations increased their ESG activity: an emergence of 'woke' employees who want their employer to reflect their values and 'woke CEOs' using their position to exert influence.

'[G]roups of employees at some corporations want their employer to reflect their own political values. Such employees aren't a majority, but they are loud and militant,' DeSantis claimed.

'Executives often try to placate these employees, without success. Instead, such gestures embolden the entitled employees to presume that their employer will fall into line in the next political battle.'

He alleged: 'The inmates soon run the asylum.'

DeSantis said that outside of these instances, corporations are becoming increasingly power-hungry.

'A traditional corporate executive may have power within the company, but a woke CEO can use the corporate bully pulpit to exert influence over society,' he detailed. 'This is especially true amid the push for environmental, social, and governance responsibility in corporate America.'

'ESG is a way for the left to achieve through corporate power what it can't get at the ballot box.'

While DeSantis says that his administration in Florida is focused on 'age-appropriate' education, 'Disney executives were seen on videos boasting about the company's plans to inject sexuality into its programming for children.'

DeSantis doesn't want to keep the legislative agenda of establishment economic conservatives, including tax breaks and corporations' subsidies to promote a free market.

'But policies that benefit corporate America don't necessarily serve the interests of America's people and economy,' he wrote.

'In this environment, old-guard corporate Republicanism isn't up to the task at hand.'

According to DeSantis, Disney is one of the largest culprits of this increasingly 'woke' agenda.

This agenda includes an increase in LGBTQ characters in their cartoons. The movie Lightyear included a scene where a lesbian couple kissed, and a new animated show Strange World heralded Disney's first openly gay character.

DeSantis officially took control of Disney's Reedy Creek Improvement District in a move that will give him the power to select the board and force them to pay $700million debt and start paying taxes from now on.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday that DeSantis is 'playing political games' by stripping Disney's Reedy Creek of its status as a tax-exempt area.

Ron DeSantis signed the bill Monday that will move to dissolve the current Reedy Creek board and overhaul the entire formerly self-governing district where Walt Disney World sits

DeSantis celebrated with the stroke of his pen, marking the Disney 'corporate kingdom coming to an end' as he vowed to make the company pay its fair share of taxes.

HOW WILL REEDY CREEK CHANGE NOW DESANTIS IS IN CHARGE? Reedy Creek will officially dissolve on June 1, 2023 and be renamed to the he Central Florida Tourism Oversight District with the signing of the new legislation on Monday This legislation amends the current Reedy Creek Improvement District charter established in 1967. This will:  End Disney's self-governing status, which included control of infrastructure such as roads and buildings in the area.  Impose Florida law on the area that has been operating independently for more than 50 years  Prevent Disney from receiving preferential treatment  End exemption from Florida Fire Prevention and Building Code  Stop Disney from skirting state regulatory reviews and approvals  Require Disney to pay taxes  Ensure Disney will also pay $700 million in debts  Ensure transparency in the district  Prevent leftist leaders in Orlando from raising local taxes Advertisement

The Sunshine State now has power over the formerly self-governing, special tax-exempt district encompassing Walt Disney World Resort, established in 1967.

'Disney loses self-governing status, the State of Florida is the new sheriff in town,' he said at a press briefing Monday. 'Buckle up  there's a lot to get done.'

DeSantis is kicking off a book tour as his memoir The Courage to Be Free: Florida's Blueprint for America's Revival hits shelves on Tuesday amid rumors he could launch a 2024 presidential campaign soon.

The new law signed Monday, DeSantis said, essentially makes sure that Disney does not get any special treatment that other theme parks in the state are not receiving.

He said that the establishment of Reedy Creek in the 1960s created an 'unhealthy' relationship where Disney and Florida's government were 'attached at the hip.'

Previously, Reedy Creek Improvement District was able to act with the same authority as a county government, making its own rules and governing itself.

Now, DeSantis is taking power back from Disney to announce the appointment of a five-member board on Monday to oversee the nearly 40-square mile area in Orlando.

'I got a lot on my plate; I can't be running this from the governor's office,' DeSantis said. 'So, we've created a state governing board that is going to be responsible for governing this area.'

'They've got a lot of work to do,' he added. 'They know what our vision is. OK, yes, Disney no longer has its own government, but you've got to ensure that all of these laws are applied, you've got to ensure the debt is paid, you've got to ensure the fair share of taxes are paid.'

Florida first lady Casey DeSantis said in an interview that aired Monday that she likely wouldn't bring her children back to Disney 'until things change a little bit over there.'

Walt Disney World sits on grounds governed by Reedy Creek, which, until Monday's bill was signed, functioned as its own little government, taking care of roads, providing fire services, and handling building codes and water and waste collection.

Reedy Creek Improvement District was established in 1967, giving the area self-governing power and exempting it from normal state taxes. The nearly 40-square mile vicinity included Walt Disney World and the resort, as well as residential areas where hand-picked employees of the park and their families live

Ron and Casey DeSantis discussed the 'irony' in a Monday interview of getting married at Walt Disney World as the Florida governor is now in an ongoing battle with the 'woke' corporation

The board was previously always dictated by landowners within the district, creating a system that the rest of the state felt was unfair.

READ MORE: Casey DeSantis says Ron looked like Tom Cruise in his white Navy uniform Ron DeSantis wore his white Navy officer uniform for their wedding in September 2009 Advertisement

The new board, however, is composed of businessmen, lawyers and school board members from across the state. They are scheduled to meet for the first time next Wednesday.

DeSantis said one of the priorities is ensuring that first responders are properly compensated in the district.

Reedy Creek, which will officially be dissolved on June 1, is also getting a new name  the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District.

'How do you give one theme park its own government and then treat all the other theme parks differently?' DeSantis questioned during his press conference on Monday.

'Disney is gonna be treated like Sea World is treated, or like any of these others,' he added. 'And that's really the fair thing to do.'

'So I'll be signing the bill momentarily and that will officially end the self-governing status here in Central Florida for Disney.'

Shortly after his remarks, DeSantis signed the bill on-camera surrounded by those who will be serving on the new board.

The new board's chairman is Martin Garcia, a Tampa-based businessman who served as the campaign manager for Trump impeachment lawyer Pam Bondi in her successful 2010 run for Florida attorney general.

The remaining four members are Sarasota County School Board member Bridget Ziegler, former Clearwater Mayor Brian Aungst, central Florida attorney Michael Sasso and businessman Ron Peri.

The first phase of Walt Disney World is shown under construction in 1969, two years after the Reedy Creek Improvement District, where the resort sits, was established in the state of Florida
Georgia's governor threw cold water on Buckhead's push for city status on Wednesday, citing how granting residents of the affluent Atlanta neighborhood such a request could violate state law.

In a memo airing those concerns, Governor Brian Kemp slammed the effort that would see the Goober State's capital split into two separate municipalities - one rich and one markedly more poor - as both far-fetched and ill-advised.

Questioning the legality of such a guidance, Kemp pointed out the proposed Buckhead City would trigger a 'possible widespread default' of bonds provided by the state, leading to a potential financial crisis.

Aside from reconfiguring the way debt is handled across Atlanta and Georgia in general, Kemp also revealed that supporters of the secession have failed to discern whether students in the proposed city could enroll in Atlanta Public Schools.

The proposed jurisdiction would sit outside Atlanta's city limits - one of several discrepancies pointed out by Kemp's office in the Wednesday memo.

Georgia's governor Brian Kemp threw cold water on Buckhead 's push for city status on Wednesday, citing how granting such a request could violate state law

The proposed jurisdiction would sit outside Atlanta's city limits - one of several discrepancies pointed out by the state's governor in a Wednesday memo

The notice, signed by Kemp's executive counsel, constrained nearly a dozen questions about the constitutionality of the campaign, which has yet to make its way to his desk but was passed a Republican-led Georgia Senate committee Monday - and could be up for a floor vote as soon as tomorrow.

The somewhat minor victory came with the blessing of Georgia's Lt. Gov. Burt Jones - though both bills, Senate Bills 113 and 114, are expected to face resistance in the House.

As that day rapidly approaches, Kemp issued a memo making clear that his office believes fellow Republicans spearheading the measure amid Atlanta's continued crime woes have not properly calculated the realities of what may come with the proposed city.

The response serves as the first time Kemp's office has raised alarms about the breakaway push this year, and could lead Senate leaders to delay the vote set for ahead of a critical legislative deadline.

Kemp's office penned 11 legal questions in total, including the aforementioned query regarding the eligibility of students in the proposed city, which would be predominantly white and see Atlanta's official population cut by more than 90,000 - or 20 percent.

'If students are not able to remain in the Atlanta Independent School System, are Fulton County schools able and equipped to manage the influx of students that would then be added to their rolls?,' Kemp executive counsel David Dove asked in the memo, which listed senators Mike Hodges and Bo Hatchett as recipients.

Buckhead is one of the most expensive zip codes, with mansions lining the streets and glossy shopping centers sparkling downtown

The boundaries of their proposed new city - which would become Atlanta's tenth most populous hub if approved - is seen above, with Buckhead shaded in blue

'Without thoughtful consideration,' Dove added, 'these bills, together, may retailor the cloth of governance for Georgia's municipalities in ways that will ripple into a future of unforeseen outcomes.'

Other 'questions' outlined by Kemp's office concerned various subjects including taxes, municipal bonds, the 'possible widespread default that might occur' as a result of the fission.

Dove added that supporters of the plan have failed to think through whether students in the new city - a 24-square-mile section of the northern edge of the city - would still be able to enroll in Atlanta Public Schools despite the municipality's location outside Atlanta's limits, and whether students currently attending school in Atlanta in the Buckhead neighborhood will be made to move.

Dove further expressed concern about what happens to state -owned property - including public parks - that Buckhead City may not purchase, creating Atlanta 'islands within Buckhead.'

The rep went ask state senators if they have made any plans regarding policing in both areas, if Buckhead is indeed granted cityhood.

'Are such properties subject to Buckhead or Atlanta policing? How will this impact safety? How can these considerations be resolved without quarrel?,' Dove asked.

Crime in Atlanta has risen this year. More than 100 murders have occurred since the start of the year, up from the 98 from the same period last year. A total of 577 shooting incidents have happened this year and 656 people have become shooting victims this year

The holes cited by Kemp's office in the campaign to grant Buckhead cityhood echoed qualms detractors have aired since the proposal began gaining traction last year.

The move almost instantly was met with opposition, when former Georgia Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan sent the secession bill to a committee comprised solely of urban Democrats to oppose the effort.

However, the Buckhead City movement has since earned a powerful backer in Burt Jones, the state's new lieutenant governor and State Senate president, spurring supporters to renew their calls for secession, largely due to the crime and rising rates of homelessness seen currently being seen across their city.

Buckhead's population is 73.5 percent white and 23.9 percent black. This compares to the much more diverse population of Atlanta, which is 50.7 percent black and 38 percent white, according to census data.

The suburb encompasses 24 square miles and the White says the Atlanta Police Department isn't cutting it. After the recent murder of Kenon Jennings on August 7, the citizens of Buckhead are pushing harder to separate their suburb

Supporters of the movement - largely Republican senators who live outside Atlanta such as Majority Whip Randy Robertson, Brandon Beach, Greg Dolezal, Matt Brass, Lee Anderson, Marty Harbin, Billy Hickman and Carden Summers - have cited seceding from the troubled inner city as a solution for well-off residents troubled by a recent spate of headline-grabbing incidents.

Calls became more pronounced last week, after a 23-year-old homeless man was indicted for the December stabbing death of a 77-year-old Grandmother outside her home in Buckhead.

The woman, identified as Eleanor Bowles, was found dead with 'multiple lacerations' on December 10 in the detached garage next to her home on Paces West Terrace home.

Calls became more pronounced last week after Antonio Brown, a 23-year-old homeless man (pictured), was indicted for the December stabbing death of a 77-year-old grandmother outside her Buckhead home while attempting to steal her Lexus, seen at right

Bowles' Buckhead home, which is worth nearly $800,000, where she was knifed to death

The woman, identified as Atlanta senior Eleanor Bowles (left), was found dead with 'multiple lacerations' on December 10 by her son Michael (right)

Antonio Brown, 23, is now being charged with the woman's death, after police say he was attempting to steal her 2021 Lexus when he ran into the woman before attacking her.

Days later, Bowles' son found his mother's savaged body upon returning home for the holidays, sparking intense debate over whether a secession could solve the city's crime woes.

That said, detractors argue that the plan would only further the disparity between Atlanta's richest and its most disenfranchised, dealing irrevocable damage to the city's image as a vibrant, urban hub of economic opportunity.

Crime in Atlanta has surged over the last several years, prompting the Buckhead population to seriously consider seceding from the troubled inner city

Commenting on Kemp's memo Wednesday, State Sen. Jason Esteves, a Democrat who represents parts of Atlanta, said the questions poised by governor bolsters his argument that the proposed breakaway measures are 'at best half-baked.'

'I remain committed to fighting for a united Atlanta,' he said, 'and I hope my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will take the Kemp administration's concerns to heart and put a stop to the dangerous "Buckhead City" legislation.'

According to Fortune, a spokesperson for Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said that City Hall 'will continue to work with the Senate to put an end to this legislation before it has disastrous consequences.'

In 2021, Bill White, the CEO of Buckhead City, pushed for the suburb to 'divorce' itself from Atlanta.

'We are living in a war zone in Buckhead. Shooting and killings, it just never ends,' he told Bloomberg.

BUCKHEAD, GEORGIA: ONE OF THE NATION'S WEALTHIEST ZIP CODES Buckhead is known as Atlanta's commercial and residential district, famed for its high-rise buildings and shopping centers, hotels and mansions. The neighborhood is a historically wealthy district and was once ranked the ninth richest zip code in the country with a median price of homes of $1,460,595, according to Forbes. American suburban luxury home in Buckhead, Atlanta Bloomberg named Buckhead the 20th richest zip code in the nation in 2011, when the average household net worth there was $1,353,189. The average household income was $280,631. Because of this, Buckhead is often called the 'Beverly Hills of the Southeast,' in reference to the upscale city in California. Buckhead is also known to have a few notable residents, including Georgia Republican Kelly Loeffler. Loeffler was among the wealthiest members of Congress until she lost her seat in January of 2021. In 2009, she and her husband spent more than $10million on a European-style mansion named Descante in the Buckhead neighborhood. Source: Bloomberg Advertisement

White, who officially filed to secede from the city in June of 2021, previously slammed Atlanta city leadership, including former Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, accusing her of ignoring soaring crime in Buckhead and presiding over a demoralized and underfunded police department.

White hopes the suburb, where the average home costs $1.4million, will be able to secede in order to take public safety in their own hands.

The breakup would mean Atlanta proper would have about 90,000 fewer citizens - a population decrease of one-fifth.

It would also mean an approximate loss of 38% of its tax revenue, which could in turn impact Atlanta's credit rating.

The affluent residents of Buckhead have grown weary of seeing members of their own community suffer gunshot wounds, home invasions and murders.

Although rumblings about a potential split from Atlanta have gone on for years, the Buckhead split has gained traction in recent years due to ongoing concerns about crime.

The homicide rate in Atlanta climbed last year to 161 - the highest number since 1996. That figure was up from 157 in 2020 and 99 in 2019.

Burglaries, shoplifting and carjackings also rose significantly in the southern city.

The secession proposal would, like all divorces, taken assets into consideration.

Under the presented legislation, Buckhead City would be allowed to acquire Atlanta park land within its boundaries for a mere $100,000 per acre, despite an acre in the neighborhood commanding 10 times that amount

Atlanta would also be required to either split all assets outside its city limits with the proposed Buckhead City borders or sell them and split the proceeds.

Georgia's legislature has historically allowed unincorporated areas around Atlanta to vote for their own cities for about 20 years.

If both chambers of the legislature approve the bills, and they are subsequently signed by Governor Brian Kemp, residents of Buckhead - the 24-square-mile area on the edge of Atlanta - would be able to vote in the November 2024 election about whether to leave Atlanta and form their own city.
A homeless Georgia man accused of stabbing a grandmother to death at her home in one of Atlanta's wealthiest suburbs was indicted for murder last week.

Antonio Brown, 23, was charged with 12 counts spanning from murder to armed robbery after the death of Eleanor Bowles in the suburb of Buckhead.

The 77-year-old Bowles was found dead in her garage by her son Michael as he returned home to stay with her for the holidays. It is believed Bowles walked in on Brown while he was trying to steal her Lexus SUV.

In a statement after her death, Michael said he was pleased the process of seeking justice for his mother was underway, but lamented that his mother 'should have been safe in her home. If she wasn't safe, no one is.'

The indictment comes as Buckhead has been exploring the possibility of seceding from greater Atlanta, as rampant crime from the city center has worked its way north into the ritzy suburb.

Antonio Brown, 23, was indicted for the murder of Eleanor Bowles at her Atlanta home

Bowles, 77, was found stabbed to death in her garage by her son Michael in December

Brown was indicted on four counts of felony murder, one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, armed robbery, burglary in the first degree, theft by taking robbery, theft by taking, abuse of an elder person, and possession of a knife during the commission of a felony.

On the day of the Murder on December 10, it is believed Brown committed a robbery a local liquor store while intoxicated. He allegedly attempted to buy a bottle of vodka, but when refused by store employees snatched the bottle and fled.

He then is said to have made his way to the gated community where Bowles lived about a half-mile from the liquor store.

Brown is suspected of entering the neighborhood on foot, but police are still unclear about how he made it past the community's security.

From there he allegedly entered Bowles' garage, which is detached from her house, and tried to make off with her Lexus RX 350 sometime between 11:30am and 12:30pm, according to the Atlanta Constitutional Journal.

Police suspect Bowles surprised Brown during the attempted theft. They said she was found with 'multiple lacerations.'

Brown was arrested two days after the incident, after security footage from Bowles' driveway showing him was circulated.

Son Michael said finding his mother murdered was a traumatizing experience.

'I was on my way to visit her for the holidays and got to her a few hours too late,' he told FOX 5. 'Finding her like that is something that will be with me forever. What happened to her was her worst nightmare. It's most people's worst nightmare.'

Police released this photo of a man believed to be Antonio Brown as he enters Bowles' Lexus

Bowles' Buckhead home, which is worth nearly $800,000, where she was knifed to death

Ellen Bowles pictured with her son Michael Bowles, who discovered her dead in her garage

Bowles' murder was just one of the latest frightening crimes which has led residents of Buckhead to consider seceding from Atlanta.

Residents first voiced the notion of secession from the rest of Atlanta in 2008, after a newsletter was circulated proposing that the move could reduce residents' taxes by 50 percent.

The motion largely fizzled, but was rekindled again in 2021 as a means of curbing violent crime which was growing in the area.

'We are living in a war zone in Buckhead,' secession advocate and Buckhead resident Bill White told Bloomberg at the time. 'Shootings and killings, it just never ends.'

But the movement was dealt a blow this week after Governor Brian Kemp expressing concern over prospect of secession, saying it could be in violation of a number of Georgia laws.

Kemp's administration submitted about a dozen questions about the constitutionality of secession, and cautioned the move could 'ripple into a future of unforeseen outcomes.'

That setback came just after the movement experienced a major victory Monday when a Georgia senate committee approved the secession bills which allowed discussion of the movement to move on to the full senate.

Georgia's senate is set to vote on Thursday about whether or not to put secession on 2024 ballot.

Ellen dances with her son Michael. She was described as 'kind, precious, funny, loving' on a GoFundMe page set up in her honor

Bowles was a mother of two, and was characterized as 'kind, precious, funny, loving' on a GoFundMe page set up in her honor.

Described as a fierce lover of animals, all proceeds from the fundraiser are being donated to the Atlanta Humane Society.

Her son Michael said in a statement he was dedicating himself to make sure his mother's death spurned action against violent crime.

'I am committed to getting the word out about this outrageous tragedy. And I want everyone to understand that none of us are safe,' he said. 'I hope that people read this story and understand this, and then maybe we can all collectively effectuate some change. I will carry that message with me forever, for mom.'
Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson supported his wife Carrie at an event in Westminster last night.

The Johnsons were together at a campaign launch yesterday evening for killer BA pilot Robert Brown to be kept behind bars.

Speaking to the audience, Carrie said allowing the release of the former BA pilot just 13 years into his 26-year-sentence would be 'a real failure in our system'. She described how she had experienced a 'similar injustice' over black cab rapist John Worboys.

Robert Brown, 59, battered estranged wife Joanna Simpson to death with a claw hammer in 2010 after she filed for divorce following years of abuse. He is due for automatic release in November.

Mrs Johnson was joined by politicians including former Home Secretary Priti Patel and former Justice Secretary Robert Buckland, who called on ministers to block Brown's release. And Boris was there to support her and the cause too.

It is the first time the former Tory leader has been seen in public following the leak of 100,000 WhatsApp messages between government ministers and public health advisors during the coronavirus pandemic.

Former prime minister Boris Johnson with his wife Carrie Johnson in Westminster, London, for the launch of a campaign to prevent release of Robert Brown.

The couple left the event together last night

Mr Johnson was supporting his wife Carrie at a campaign event yesterday evening

Boris' sister Rachel was also at the event to support her sister-in-law

Mrs Johnson said she had learned about Brown's proposed release after meeting Mrs Parkes and Joanna's friend Hetti Barkworth-Nanton at an event at Buckingham Palace last year, organised by the Queen Consort.

Ms Simpson's mother Diana Parkes fears Brown still poses a risk to her family and to the public, and has called on Dominic Raab to block his release.

Mr Raab this week agreed to meet personally with Ms Parkes about the case.

His Majesty's Chief Inspector of Probation, Justin Russell, said this month that staff shortages were 'severely' affecting the service's ability to manage offenders, including 'those who pose a serious threat to the public'.

She today met with former Home Secretary Priti Patel alongside Mrs Johnson and friend and chair of of trustees at domestic violence charity Refuge, Hetti Barkworth-Nanton, as part of her push to keep the killer in prison.

Mrs Parkes, 84, fears former British Airways pilot Brown could threaten her family, and that he may pose a continued danger to women if he is released.

It came as pressure grows on Matt Hancock over his text messages.

Boris Johnson, who steered the UK through the majority of the pandemic, features in some of the WhatsApp exchanges along with the then Health Secretary - who was later forced to resign for breaking his own lockdown rules when his affair was revealed.

Journalist Isabel Oakeshott shared the huge trove of messages with The Telegraph after receiving them while ghostwriting Mr Hancock's book, Pandemic Diaries.

They have exposed serious questions about the way that some decisions were made, including in relation to face masks, care home testing and shielding.

The Johnsons leave the event, with Carrie hugging a friend

Mr Johnson claps at the event last night

Mr Johnson was pictured at the launch of a campaign to prevent release of Robert Brown.

Mr Hancock is said to be 'considering all options' in response to Isabel Oakeshott's leak of more than 100,000 WhatsApps.

'She's broken a legal NDA. Her behaviour is outrageous,' a source close to the former health secretary said.

Leaked messages seemingly showed Mr Hancock rejected the Chief Medical Officer's call to test all residents going into English care homes for Covid at the start of the pandemic.

Mr Hancock's representatives have vehemently pushed back against this 'distorted' impression saying he was 'supportive of' Whitty's advice but was told it was 'undeliverable' but insisted on testing those coming from hospitals.

Sir Chris Whitty told him there should be Covid testing for 'all going into care homes' - but Mr Hancock's WhatsApp messages revealed he did not follow the guidance, instead telling advisers it 'muddies the waters'.

The message show that Sir Chris demanded in April 2020 'testing of all going into care homes'.

After initially supporting the guidance, Mr Hancock then appeared to change his mind, telling aides: 'I would rather leave it out and just commit to test & isolate ALL going into care from hospital.

'I do not think the community commitment adds anything and it muddies the waters.'

Mr Hancock denied the 'distorted account' with a spokesman alleging the messages leaked by journalist Ms Oakeshott after she worked on his Pandemic Diaries memoir have been 'spun to fit an anti-lockdown agenda'.

The spokesman said: 'Having not been approached in advance by the Telegraph, we have reviewed the messages overnight.

'The Telegraph intentionally excluded reference to a meeting with the testing team from the WhatsApp. This is critical, because Matt was supportive of Chris Whitty's advice, held a meeting on its deliverability, told it wasn't deliverable, and insisted on testing all those who came from hospitals.

'The Telegraph have been informed that their headline is wrong, and Matt is considering all options available to him.

'This major error by Isabel Oakeshott and the Telegraph shows why the proper place for analysis like this is the Inquiry, not a partial, agenda-driven leak of confidential documents.'
Members of Korea Refugee Rights Network, including a lawyer with Advocates for Public Interest Law, the legal representative of two Russian men who filed a complaint calling on the Ministry of Justice to nullify its non-referral decision on their refugee applications, speak during a press conference after a court ruling at Incheon District Court, Feb. 14. Newsis



By Ko Dong-hwan



The Ministry of Justice in Korea said, Wednesday, it decided to appeal a recent ruling by a local court in favor of Russian men seeking refugee status after fleeing the military draft in their home country that has been engaged in a war against Ukraine.



Three Russians had sought asylum in Korea, but the ministry rejected their requests, prompting them to file complaints against the Incheon Immigration Office. On Feb. 14, the Incheon District Court ordered the immigration authority to review refugee applications submitted by two of the Russians, while dismissing a complaint filed by another man who was in a similar situation.



The ministry said it cannot accept as refugees the two Russians who had won the legal case, due to the precedent it would leave on the country's immigration office and set an example for future asylum seekers to Korea.



The ministry said that if the two Russians, aged 34 and 38, were granted refugee status, it will attract many other asylum seekers fleeing from conscription in their own countries.



The ministry said its decision was based on past rulings by the country's Supreme Court and legal standards of international judiciary circles, which stated that refusals of conscription cannot constitute the sole ground for acknowledging refugee status.



The three Russians arrived at Incheon International Airport last September after the Russian government started conscripting civilians to fight in Ukraine. They filed for refugee status at the immigration office at the airport. The justice ministry, which oversees the country's immigration affairs, rejected them, saying they were seeking asylum simply to overcome financial hardships, which is not a legitimate reason to be granted refugee status.



The Russians filed a lawsuit to nullify the ministry's decision. During the legal process, they had been living inside the airport for over four months.



Judge Lee Eun-shin at the Incheon District Court, who oversaw the case, said the Russians could be persecuted if they return to their home country for refusing to be conscripted. He said they need be examined further by the justice ministry through a more careful vetting process to decide whether Korea should allow them to settle here.



The ministry has placed the two Russians at the immigration office support center at Yeongjong Island in Incheon to let them prepare for further legal steps.


A California couple is suing a fertility clinic claiming that doctors mistakenly transferred an embryo that tested positive for a deadly cancer gene  and then tried to cover it up.

Melissa and Jason Diaz have filed a suit against the Huntington Reproductive Center in Pasadena over the fiasco.

They say they used the facility to ensure genes they carried predisposing them to certain types of cancers would not be passed on to any future children.

But when Dr. Bradford Kolb implanted an embryo in Melissa in January 2021, it carried a gene that would predispose their child to a deadly stomach cancer. The couple's one year-old son will now need to have his stomach removed when he is 15, according to the lawsuit.

The couple only found out about the mix-up when they tried for another child a year later, the lawsuit says, after asking for details of their remaining embryos.

A handwritten note sent to them is said to have revealed the clinic's error, which the Diaz's say staff subsequently tried to hide.

It is the second time the clinic has been sued in as many years, after a same-sex couple filed a suit claiming they only wanted sons but had a daughter via surrogate.

Melissa and Jason Diaz are suing the Huntington Reproductive Center in Pasadena after doctors implanted an embryo that had tested positive for a deadly cancer gene

According to the lawsuit, obtained by DailyMail.com, both Melissa and her husband carry genes that predispose them to certain types of cancer.

Melissa carries the BRCA-1 gene, which predisposes carriers to breast and ovarian cancer, while Jason carries the CDH-1 gene, which carries an elevated risk for stomach cancer.

He only found out about the mutation in the summer of 2018 when he developed diffuse gastric cancer and was forced to undergo a gastrectomy  under which the stomach is completely removed  when chemotherapy did not work. The surgery prevents patients from digesting food normally and causes chronic gastrointestinal pain.

Neither Jason nor Melissa wanted their future child to suffer from these conditions, the lawsuit filed in California Superior Court on Wednesday claims, and they wanted to 'achieve their dreams of parenthood without subjecting their child to the stomach cancer Jason and his family members had endured.'

They decided to use the Pasadena branch of the Huntington Reproductive Center, the suit says, because it advertised 'state-of-the-art' embryology labs and 'remarkable lab personnel of highly rained and dedicated embryologists.'

Dr, Bradford Kolb is named as a defendant in the suit for implanting the wrong embryo

Its website also claims Kolb is 'known for helping to develop and implementing cutting-edge technologies in the genetic screening of embryos.

'From the beginning, they expressly advised HRC Fertility, its employees and Dr. Kolb that they sought IVF with pre-implantation genetic testing to avoid having a child with Jason's CDH-1 mutation for hereditary diffuse gastric cancer,' the lawsuit says.

The couple ultimately worked with the staff to create five embryos, only one of which did not carry either mutation.

Doctors then transferred that embryo in August 2020, but Melissa miscarried.

Eager to try again, the Diazes then asked their IVF coordinator at the clinic to arrange for the implementation of a male embryo they said carried the breast cancer mutation, but not the stomach cancer mutation. They figured it was a safe choice, according to the lawsuit, because men are significantly less likely to develop breast cancer.

Kolb transferred the embryo on January 8, 2021 and Melissa gave birth to a baby boy in September, after which, the suit says, Jason's family threw a party for the couple to celebrate 'eliminating the CDH1 mutation from the Diaz family line' believing they had 'broken the curse that had doomed other family members to cancer and early death.'

But, according to the suit, Kolb did not transfer a male embryo without the stomach cancer gene because 'unbeknownst to Plaintiffs, no such embryo actually existed.'

It claims the IVF coordinator misrepresented the testing results and arranged for the transfer of an embryo carrying the CDH1 mutation.

The baby boy, now 1 years old, now has more than 80 percent chance of developing stomach cancer.

The suit says the couple thought they were implanting an embryo that had tested positive for a gene carrying a predisposition for breast and ovarian cancer, but not for stomach cancer

It claims the couple (pictured here in an undated photo) only found out about the mix-up when they wanted to have a second child

In a news conference on Wednesday, Melissa and Jason expressed their disappointment with the clinic.

'We went through the difficult and expensive process of IVF so we could spare our children what Jason has had to endure,' she said. 'We still cannot believe that after all we did... our baby has the same genetic mutation we thought we escaped.

'He's just such a happy baby and to know the hurt in front of him  that he has to face for something we tried to prevent  it crushes me.'

Jason, who saw two of his aunts die of stomach cancer, added that the results were his 'greatest fear.

'I wouldn't want anyone on Earth to experience this type of pain, and now I will be forced to watch my own son  my own flesh and blood  go through this.'

'Every day my heart is hurting for my baby boy knowing the pain and challenges he has ahead of him.'

According to the suit, the child will inevitably need to undergo a gastrectomy, but they hope to delay the surgery until after he is finished developing because removing the stomach before then could result in lifelong physical and cognitive impairments.

But even if the child can delay surgery until adulthood, he will likely suffer from pain, discomfort and possible chronic diarrhea.

The couple are not suing for the wrongful implantation, but rather for an alleged cover up

Melissa and Jason are now requesting damage for their 'unimaginable mental anguish' and for future lost wages and medical bills

The couple, though, are not suing the clinic for the wrongful implantation  instead they allege a cover up on the part of the fertility clinic, which they claim misled them even after their child was born.

The lawsuit claims that the facility 'concealed that its processes and procedures are insufficient to prevent such grave errors.'

It notes that the couple were happy with their baby boy from September 2021 through July 2022, when they decided to try for another child.

At that point, Melissa asked their new IVF coordinator to send over the report on embryos created at the facility so they could decide which, if any, of them they wanted to transfer.

The report, a copy of which is included in their complaint, contained a handwritten note saying the embryo that had been transferred was positive for the stomach cancer mutation.

Shocked, Melissa wrote back immediately, asking the coordinator to clarify if the embryo they had transferred carried the CDH1 gene, but the coordinator did not respond, according to the suit.

One week later, she wrote to the facility again, saying she and her husband had been 'so stressed thinking of what our son will go through because of this genetic mutation.

'Can you please double check that this is the correct report for our embryo? Is there any way this could be a mistake?' she asked the IVF coordinator, who again allegedly did not respond.

Eventually, the lawsuit says, the couple received a call from someone at the HRC facility who admitted that there had been an error and called the family in for a 'sit-down.'

The suit notes that their son now has an 80percent chance of developing stomach cancer

Dr. Kolb (pictured) was previously sued for wrongfully implanting a female embryo into a surrogate for a gay couple that wanted a son

Melissa then again asked for a copy of her medical record at the time, the clinic allegedly sent over another copy of the embryo report without the handwritten note  effectively removing evidence of which embryo had been transferred.

The lawsuit concludes: 'Neither HRC Fertility nor Dr. Kolb ever informed Melissa and Jason that it was possible that they would transfer an embryo with the CDH1 mutation.

'This error is not a material risk inherent to any aspect of IVF, including the transfer procedure. Instead, this is the type of error that could only occur through a series of intentional, willful, knowing and/or reckless acts.'

Melissa and Jason are now requesting damage for their 'unimaginable mental anguish' and for future lost wages and medical bills.

HRC Fertility told DailyMail.com in a statement that 'we empathize with this family's situation'.

'The patients associated with the case sought genetic testing and genetic counseling outside of HRC Fertility, and with an outside party; they wished to have a male embryo transferred, which we carried out according to the familys explicit wishes and in accordance with the highest level of care,' the statement said.

It added that the clinic 'stands by the professionalism and expertise of our medical staff and pride ourselves on adhering to the highest standards for patient care, patient records, results and testing at all our locations.'

DailyMail.com also reached out to Jinxin Fertility, a fertility company in China that owns the facility, for comment but did not receive a response.

The facility and Dr. Kolb were previously been sued by a gay couple who claim the doctors wrongfully implanted a female embryo into their surrogate rather than the male embryo they had picked out.

In November, a California judge dismissed the negligence claim brought by Albert and Anthony Saniger, NBC 4 Los Angeles reported, and said they would have to shore up their breach of contract cause of action for it to remain in the lawsuit.

But the judge ruled they had provided enough details in their suit to support their claims for fraudulent concealment violations of the unfair competition law and Consumer Legal Remedies Act.

A sixth allegation of medical malpractice was not challenged by the defense.

The lawsuit is now set to be heard in November.
A 31-year-old woman died after she had a liposuction at a clinic located in a mall in the eastern Venezuelan city of Cumana.

Ana Rosa Mavarez fell ill after undergoing the minimally invasive procedure at the Marina Plaza Ambulatory Surgery Unit on Saturday night.

Mavarez, mother to an eight-year-old girl and 11-year-old boy, was rushed to a medical facility, where she was pronounced dead early Sunday morning.

Authorities arrested Dr. Alexander Larrochelle, who reportedly operated on Mavarez, after he visited a local police station to provide a statement Sunday.

Ana Rosa Mavarez was confirmed dead Sunday after undergoing a liposuction at a clinic in Venezuela

Ana Rosa Mavarez, a 31-year-old mother-of-two, died after she had a laser liposuction at a clinic in Cumana, Venezuela. Authorities took into custody Dr. Alexander Larrochelle

Dr. Larrochelle will be held for up to 45 days while investigators go over their findings.

The surgeon performed a lipolaser on Mavarez, her mother, Petra Rivero, told news portal El Pitazo.

Mavarezs condition worsened Dr. Larrochelle used a laser to break down fat cells and tighten loose skin.

Petro said her daughter complained about severe pain and was not given medicine to treat the discomfort.

She added that Mavarez had her own lipo pump at the facility to reduce the swelling, but that one of the nurses declined to use it.

A Venezuelan mother-of-two died last weekend after she had a laser liposuction at a clinic located in a mall in the eastern city of Cumana

Ana Rosa Mavarez leaves behind an 11-year-old son and eight-year-old daughter

Mavarez began convulsing around 10pm and was not intubated until 12:30 am when Dr. Larrochelle showed up at the clinic.

Rivero said that death certificate showed her daughters time of death as 11 pm, and that Dr. Larrochelle and the staff tried to convince the family into thinking that she was still alive.

The family searched all of Cumana for an ambulance to transport Mavarez to another hospital, but where unable to do so because none of the ambulances were equipped with oxygen.

Mavarez was eventually transferred to a clinic at 4:30 am. Doctors admitted her into the facility without vital signs and confirmed her death.

I am going to fight for my daughter, because she was not an animal. And just as it happened to my daughter, it has happened to many, Rivero said. And it's going to keep happening if they don't retaliate with that bum. That's a butcher shop they have there.
The White House on Wednesday tore into Republican Rep. James Comer's 'ugly' and 'despicable' claims that President Joe Biden's dead son Beau should have been indicted alongside a Delaware man who violated campaign finance laws.

Comer, who chairs the powerful House Oversight Committee, appeared on a podcast Monday with conservative commentator Lou Dobbs.

During the episode of The Great America Show with Lou Dobbs, he talked about the case of Christopher Tigani, a Wilmington owner of a beer distributor who was sentenced to two years in federal prison for campaign finance violations in 2012.

Tigani donated cash to the senior Biden and was investigated by U.S. Attorney David Weiss, the same U.S. attorney who is supervising the federal investigation into Hunter Biden over his taxes.

Beau Biden, then Delaware's attorney general, recused himself from Tigani's case, as he had donated to his father.

Beau Biden died of Glioblastoma in 2015. His father frequently brings him up in speeches, especially when he talks to Americans about healthcare.

The White House on Wednesday tore into Republican Rep. James Comer's 'ugly' and 'despicable' claims that President Joe Biden's dead son Beau should have been indicted alongside a Delaware man who violated campaign finance laws

Comer suggested in a podcast interview Monday that Beau Biden (left), who had served as Delaware's attorney general, should have been probed in connection to a campaign finance case of a donor to then Vice President Joe Biden (right)

'This U.S. attorney ... had an opportunity to go after the Bidens years ago. In fact, it was Beau Biden, the president's other son, that was involved in some campaign donations from a person that got indicted as well,' Comer told Dobbs. 'But, you know, nothing ever happened. So I don't know much about this U.S. attorney other than he's had an opportunity to investigate the Bidens before and he chose not to.'

'We all know that he's just been silent for a long time,' Comer added.

A special prosecutor's report later said that there was no evidence the Bidens were aware of Tigani's fraudulent campaign reimbursements, The Washington Post reported.

Comer's comments come as he's been vocal about using his power at the helm of the Oversight Committee to investigate 'Biden family influence peddling.'

The GOP-led committee plans to look into Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings in Ukraine and China.

During an appearance on Morning Joe Wednesday, White House communications director Kate Bedingfield called Comer's allegations about Beau Biden 'appalling.'

'It's despicable. And frankly it says quite a lot - none of it good - about Jim Comer,' she said. 'I think for the American people to hear something like that from Congressman Comer, they'll assess what that says about him. I would say what that says about him is pretty despicable.'

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called Comer's comments about the late Beau Biden 'incredibly ugly and inappropriate' during Wednesday's press briefing

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre echoed the sentiment during Wednesday's briefing.

Jean-Pierre called it 'completely' inappropriate and said it showed Republicans wanted to do 'political stunts.'

'And it's ugly, the comments that he made, and it says a lot about the chairman, which is not good by the way. To make the statement that he did, is incredibly ugly and inappropriate,' the press secretary said.

'Here's what I would say, instead of House Republicans focusing on attacking the president and his family, why don't they actually focus on what the American people put them in office to do, which is to deliver for them,' she added.

Jean-Pierre said the results of the midterms - which were underwhelming for the Republicans, despite the GOP getting narrow control of the House - showed that Americans wanted to see both parties working together.

'They want to see Congress working for them. That's what they want to see,' she encouraged.

A request for comment from Comer's office has yet to be returned.
He was hired as a creative advisor to the firm, founded by his friend Marc Benioff

Salesforce are paying Matthew McConaughey $10million a year to serve as a creative advisor but in January fired 8,000 workers in order to cut costs.

McConaughey, who appeared in a Super Bowl commercial for the software company last year and is a friend of billionaire CEO Marc Benioff, is receiving compensation of cash and equity, according to report this week from the Wall Street Journal.

Salesforce is San Francisco's largest private employer and hired nearly 30,000 employees from the start of 2020 until the end of last year.

But in January it announced it would lay off 10 percent of its workforce due to over-hiring, according to Benioff, who said he took 'full responsibility' for the decision.

Salesforce is paying Matthew McConaughey $10 million a year to serve as the its creative advisor. He starred in a Super Bowl ad for the company last year (pictured)

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, who is a friend of McConaughey, justified cost-saving layoffs last month by saying the actors salary pales in comparison with his total payroll

'It's an unfortunate part that you have to say goodbye to folks who, in many cases, are your friends and you have relationships with,' he told the WSJ in an interview in January.

'But, ultimately, the success of the business has to be paramount.'

Salesforce paid McConaughey $5 million to star a Super Bowl ad last year which featured the actor in an astronaut suit aboard a hot-air balloon.

Last year McConaughey spoke about his appearance in the commercial during an interview with Variety.

He didn't mention the payout but said he hoped the ad would encourage his fans to better their world. He even said he was picky about which brands and companies he was willing to endorse, as he wanted them to align with his values.

He said: 'I hope they go, 'Look, what McConaughey and Salesforce is saying, is there is a problem in society today. Our relationship with each other, our relationship with the environment is fragile, man.

'We got a lack of trust, we got a lack of fairness. We got a lack of sustainable innovations. We have a lack of values.''

The actor also claimed during an interview with Variety last year that he was picky about which brands and companies he was willing to endorse, as he wanted them to align with his values

When asked about the expense of hiring hiring McConaughey, Benioff told the WSJ that his salary and compensation paled in comparison with his company's 70,000-person payroll.

McConaughey's remuneration was significant enough that it required a green light from the Salesforce compensation committee.

He also claimed that he had no involvement in brokering the deal between the Hollywood actor and the tech giant.

After an executive retreat in February the CEO prepared a year long strategy as to how he would cut costs an cause a shift in company culture. They addressed the situation in a memo to employees published on a Slack channel, and described to the WSJ.

In a proposed strategy plan said they wrote: 'Wellness culture overpowered high performance culture during the pandemic'.

As part of the new strategy the company would rank employees based on metrics, including how much money salespeople brought in. Those in the bottom 5 percent would be systematically dismissed.

They also eliminated perks including a day off each month and baristas, according to the report. The company cut ties with what was known as the Trailblazer Ranch, where employees enjoyed activities like hiking and yoga.

Benioff said he over-hired during the pandemic, which is part of the reason the company had to layoff 10 percent of its workforce

But his employees reacted vehemently to the proposed changes, forcing Benioff to drop the ranking and dismissal plans within days.

He said his workers 'made a very passionate case that that is not a culture that they want to bring to Salesforce'.

Benioff had once been known for referring to staff as 'ohana' or family. 'Layoffs are always hard,' he told the WSJ.

'You can continue to keep a company going with excess employees, but it's not healthy for the company,' he added.

'If you don't have a performance culture, and you don't operate the company with that kind of efficacy, you're not doing anybody any favors.'

In January the business-software provider said that 'the environment remains challenging and our customers are taking a more measured approach to their purchasing decisions.'

Salesforce hired aggressively during the first two years of the pandemic as companies purchased products in order to pivot to remote work. The company also acquired the popular work message application Slack at the time.

The company's stock has plummeted nearly 46 percent in the last year.
FIU began teaching students about 'white oppression' in the summer of 2020

Florida International University in Miami adopted a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) program that teaches students that the US was built on a system of 'white supremacy' while also training them in left wing protest tactics.

The radical DEI program was revealed thanks to a Sunshine Law records request from Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow Chris Rufo.

Rufo, a conservative activist, claimed in a blog post that starting with the police murder of George Floyd in May 2020, officials at the school began issuing statements 'condemning the United States as a system of "white supremacy."'

He goes on to say that the school went on to hold discussion programs that was segregated along racial lines. The result of those discussions was to teach students that 'blackness is inherently noble, and whiteness inherently corrupt.'

The school also published materials that instructs students how to prepare for protests. 'Bring a bandana to cover nose and mouth,' one such piece of literature reads. Another section reads: 'Download a messaging app that has end to end encryption.'

Florida International University in Miami adopted a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) program that teaches students that the US was built on a system of 'white supremacy'

In 2022, it was announced that Florida International University received a little over $77 million in public money

In 2022, it was announced that Florida International University received a little over $77 million in public money.

The use of DEI programs in hiring has caused controversy more widely. Critics say that favoring underrepresented groups is unfairly detrimental to others, while proponents say such efforts are needed to help give traditionally marginalized groups equal footing.

At FlU, college officials justified the use of racially segregated meetings as a means to help people of color to heal and 'discuss the unique impacts of systemic racism,' Rufo alleges.

After the Black Lives Matter protests of the summer of 2020, the college went on to publish an 'Inclusive Language Guide.' Words that were considered taboo according to the guide included 'husband,' 'wife,' 'mother,' 'father,' 'she' and 'he.'

Acceptable replacements included 'spouse,' 'parent,' as well as 'they/them.'

Rufo, a graduate of Harvard Extension School, describes the content of the programs being offered by FIU as 'pure left-wing activism.' He accuses the school of promoting the Black Lives Matter movement and of describing life in the United States as a system of 'power, privilege and oppression.'

Trans and non-binary as well black people are defined as the oppressed and Christian holidays are 'cultural imperialism.'

Official literature put out by the school is causing controversy

Last month Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced plans to block state colleges from having programs on diversity, equity and inclusion, and critical race theory

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis would gain more influence in the state's public university system, and majors involving gender studies or critical race theory would be eliminated if a bill filed this week wins support from the Republican-controlled legislature.

The new measure, which largely reflects a legislative agenda announced by DeSantis in January, would also ban consideration of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in hiring of faculty.

It would require each institution's board of trustees to approve hires, giving DeSantis greater influence over those decisions because the governor appoints a significant number of board members.

The wide-reaching legislation represents a new front in the Republican war against the 'woke' agenda many conservatives believe liberals are trying to push on public education across the country.

DeSantis, who is expected to launch a presidential bid after Florida's legislative session ends this spring, has positioned himself as a leader in that fight.

'In Florida, we will build off of our higher education reforms by aligning core curriculum to the values of liberty and the Western tradition,' DeSantis said in January.

The legislature, which has a clear Republican majority, convenes for its regular session in March.

Asked about the bill on Friday, a spokesman for the governor, Jeremy Redfern, said DeSantis would decide whether to sign it after seeing a final version passed by lawmakers.

Academics, free speech advocates and students condemned the measure. Jeremy C. Young, senior manager of free expression and education at the writers' organization PEN America, tweeted that it would be the 'central battleground for the soul of higher education.'

'It would virtually end academic freedom, shared governance and institutional autonomy at all Florida colleges and universities,' Young said in a statement in February.

Florida's public university system includes 12 universities with an enrollment of more than 400,000 students.

Last month, Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott told state agencies and public universities that such practices violated labor laws. The University of Texas system's board of regents on Wednesday said it had paused all new DEI policies in its hiring.

The Florida bill would also prohibit spending on programs or campus activities that promote DEI and what it calls 'Critical Race Theory rhetoric.'

Programs required for compliance with federal regulations and some other assistance programs would be exempted.

The measure states that general education core courses taught at public universities 'may not suppress or distort significant historical events or include a curriculum that teaches identity politics, such as Critical Race Theory, or defines American history as contrary to the creation of a new nation based on universal principles stated in the Declaration of Independence.'

Critical race theory is an academic concept that asserts that racism is woven into the US legal system and ingrained in its primary institutions.
Top Democrats said their goal is to 'just stop stupid stuff' and 'put people over politics' as they took their first pass at a strategy for trying to take back the House in 2024.

In their year issues conference, House Democrats will huddle together and hear from top brass over the next few days as they lay out an agenda for fighting back against Republican control and teeing themselves up to take back the House in 2024.

'We have 18 seats that Republicans are in that President Biden won in 2020, and so we have an incredible opportunity right there,' Rep. Suzan Del Bene (D-Washington), chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), told reporters at the conference in Baltimore, Maryland.

Republicans currently hold power in the House with a four seat majority.

'We want to make sure that people see what the Republicans are - what their message is which is extreme. It is not focused on the needs of the American people.'

Democratic House Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York said that he and McCarthy 'agree to disagree strongly on a whole host of issues, but try not to be disagreeable for the good of the functioning of the institution and the country'

'When Republicans gain control, what's one of the first things they did? They use significant resources of their committee staff and attention, time of their members to hold a congressional hearing about Twitter. So that's a contrast we'll be drawing,' said Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus, said.

Lieu said the 'stupid stuff' included blocking a national abortion ban and making sure Congress increases the debt limit.

'The idea that we're going to be lectured by the people who consistently crashed the train whenever they've held power is ridiculous,' added Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, saying that 25 percent of the nation's debt was accumulated during Donald Trump's presidency.

Jeffries frequently made use of some favorite Democratic buzzwords - 'extreme MAGA Republican.'

The Democratic leader was asked about his relationship with Speaker Kevin McCarthy, which so far has been cordial despite their differences.

'When Republicans gain control, what's one of the first things they did? They use significant resources of their committee staff and attention, time of their members to hold a congressional hearing about Twitter. So that's a contrast we'll be drawing,' said Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus

He said that he and McCarthy 'agree to disagree strongly on a whole host of issues, but try not to be disagreeable for the good of the functioning of the institution and the country.'

'However, one of the areas where we will strongly disagree is around the irresponsible effort by extreme MAGA Republicans to hold our economy hostage and risk a default on our debt that would be catastrophic for the American people.'

McCarthy and President Biden are at loggerheads as Republicans insist on budget cuts in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. President Biden is expected to release his budget next week.

Asked if McCarthy qualified as an 'extreme MAGA Republican,' he said: 'The extreme MAGA Republicans are in control right now of the United States House of Representatives, and thats a bad thing for the American people.'
Sen. Charles Grassley said at a Wednesday hearing with Attorney General Merrick Garland that more than a dozen 'whistleblowers' have provided 'potentially criminal' information about Hunter Biden to the FBI.

The Republican from Iowa told Garland - who was testifying on Capitol Hill for the first time this year - that the Justice Department must review the president's son, who was subject to a federal probe involving tax matters and a potentially false statement on a form for a gun purchase.

'Recent lawfully protected whistleblower disclosures to my office indicate that the Justice Department and FBI had at one time over a dozen sources that provided potentially criminal information relating to Hunter Biden,' said Grassley, who has a long record of dealing with whistleblowers in the Senate.

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) said at a Senate hearing more than a dozen 'whistleblowers' brought forward information about Hunter Biden

It came during a tense hearing where Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) blasted Garland for the failure to arrest abortion rights protesters outside the homes of Supreme Court justices.

'The alleged volume and similarity of information would demand that the Justice Department investigate the truth and accuracy of the information,' he said, reading from a prepared statement with questions for the AG.

'Accordingly, what steps has the Justice Department taken to determine the truth and accuracy of the information provided? he asked Garland. 'Congress and the American people have a right to know,' he intoned.

Grassley and other panel members know that Garland can't comment in detail on ongoing investigations, but used the hearing to get public commitments, nonetheless.

'I have pledged not to interfere with that investigation,' Garland told Grassley, 89, who was reelected in November to an 8th term.

When he took office, Garland kept Delaware US Attorney David Weiss, a Trump-holdover, in place to insulate the probe from appearances of a conflict of interest in an investigation of the president's son.

Grassley wanted to know if the US Attorney would need sign-off from Biden-appointed officials to charge an alleged crime in another jurisdiction, such as California or Washington, D.C.

Senate Judiciary Committee member Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) shouts questions at U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland

Grassley tried to get AG Merrick Garland to say the US Attorney in Delaware would have the ability to bring charges in other jurisdictions

Several senators brought up Hunter Biden at the hearing, although the event encompassed housing of trans prisoners, crime, and fentanyl

Garland spent hours fielding hostile questions from Republicans who accused him of bias despite what he said were efforts to stand back from charged probes

The question hinted at other potential areas of a probe that could involve public corruption  allegations Grassley and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) made in a report and letter including 220 pages of bank records days before the November elections.

'I have pledged not to interfere with that investigation, and I have carried through on my pledge,' Garland told him.

'I promised to leave the matter of Hunter Biden in the hands of US Attorney for Delaware,' Garland told Grassley.

Grassley asked Garland flat-out whether Weiss had 'sought permission of another US Attorneys Office, such as in the District of Columbia or California, to bring charges?' and whether or not it was denied.

'I dont know the answer to that,' Garland told him.

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz also brought up the Hunter Biden investigation, in an angry question period where he accused Garland and the Justice Department of bias in the review of Trump over January 6 and classified documents.

'I believe you very much want to indict Donald J. Trump,' he told Garland, despite his repeated statements of trying to stand back and avoid interference. He has appointed special counsels in both matters.

He accused DOJ of leaking information about the Hunter Biden probe as a 'predicate' for indicting Trump, demonstrating impartiality, and proving the department is 'even-handed.'

Then he asked that the Hunter probe not focus on the president's son's battles with addiction, and focus instead on 'connections to his father and potential public corruption. That is the matter of public concern.'

He asked Garland to commit to examining the 'public corruption aspect' and 'not simply scapegoat Hunter Biden as an individual.'

The gun investigation relates to Hunter Biden's attestation on a 2018 handgun purchase form not to be 'an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance.'
Rishi Sunaks deal has been hailed as finally getting Brexit done. However, ANDREW PIERCE has discovered worrying differences between what Downing Street claims  and what the EU asserts...

CLAIM: Northern Ireland politicians will be able to block new EU laws

REALITY: The PM said they would be able to do this using a device called the Stormont Brake. The British team shrewdly ensured the brake can be pulled only if the DUP has returned to power-sharing in the Northern Ireland assembly  an incentive for the DUP to agree to return to government. But in its own document on the agreement, the EU says the brake can be deployed only against amendments and updates to existing laws, rather than new legislation from Brussels.

And then, only when the amended or replacing EU act, or a part of it, significantly differs in scope or content from the previous one and... would have a significant impact specific to everyday life.

In other words, as the EU says, it is to be used only in the most exceptional circumstances and as a last resort.

What is more, if a law is rebuffed using the brake, the EU can retaliate by submitting a claim to the British government for any perceived financial loss. Who would arbitrate on that figure?

Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and European Commission Ursula von der Leyen announced the newly-agreed deal this week

CLAIM: Deal removes Irish Sea border

REALITY: Border checks will be reduced for goods sent from Britain to Northern Ireland, rather than eliminated, as the PM suggested. This will be achieved by the use of green lanes with minimal checks for goods destined to remain in the Province and red lanes with customs for those heading for the Republic of Ireland or on to other EU countries.

It is true checks will be cut to five per cent by 2025. And the EU says goods from Britain that stay in Northern Ireland will see an unprecedented reduction in checks. Crucially, however, it adds there is not a full eradication. One Tory MP said: Sounds to me like there is still a border in the Irish Sea.

Importing British goods freely into Northern Ireland has been problematic up to now

CLAIM: The ban on sausages is over

REALITY: Under Boris Johnsons original protocol rules, a number of food products deemed high-risk by the EU  including fresh sausages  were banned from entering Northern Ireland. Now, sausages  along with seed potatoes, sandwiches, trees and medicines  will be among British goods freely available in the Province following the deal.

The flipside of this is the introduction of Not for EU labels on food products sold in Northern Ireland. From October prepacked meat and fresh milk have to be labelled in that way, with labelling of other goods being rolled out by July 2025. The Government says it will provide financial support for the change. In other words, taxpayers will pay.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt says any VAT or excise duty changes will apply to all of the UK as a result of the deal

CLAIM: VAT or excise duty changes will apply to all of UK

REALITY: So said Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who voted to Remain, at Mondays Cabinet meeting to discuss the Windsor framework. But was he exaggerating the scale of the victory? The Treasury will be able to apply reduced VAT rates only to goods supplied and installed in immoveable property that cannot be taken across the Irish border. In other words, solar panels, heat pumps, wind turbines and so on. Brussels and London are to work on a list of other goods that might qualify because they wont enter the single market.

And while Northern Ireland will now abide by the Treasury decisions on alcohol duty there is a sharp sting in the tail. The rate will never be allowed to go below the EU minimum.

As for state aid, EU subsidy laws will still apply to Northern Ireland even after the deal.

The EU text says the Windsor deal neither modifies nor restricts the imposition of EU state-aid rules in the Province. Any subsidy that has an effect on trade between Northern Ireland and the EU will be subject to EU rules. Which means the UK will be blocked from subsidising certain industries in certain circumstances.

Imports will now face less red tape as a result of the 'green lane' route into Northern Ireland

CLAIM: Customs red tape will be slashed

REALITY: British goods staying in Northern Ireland will use a green lane, which will require less paperwork and fewer physical checks.

Only firms who are in a trusted trader scheme can use the green lanes and not all companies are eligible. Goods for the Republic or other EU countries will use a red lane and be subjected to regular customs and strict EU rules.

CLAIM: We changed the original Protocol

REALITY: Brussels disagrees robustly with this assertion by the PM. The Windsor Framework, says the EU, has been fully carried out within the framework of the Withdrawal Agreement, of which the Protocol is an integral part.

Meanwhile, manufacturing in Northern Ireland will still be controlled by EU laws. While British sausages can now be sold there, any local butcher who wants to make their own will still be subject to the full panoply of EU regulations.

What about the European Court?

The European Court of Justice will remain ultimate arbiter of EU law in Northern Ireland, not least because there are so many areas of trade and life where EU laws apply. So, a foreign court will continue to rule in a sovereign nation.
Matt Hancock is considering legal action against the co-author of his Covid diaries after she leaked a huge cache of his private messages.

The former health secretary was at the centre of a growing political storm following the unprecedented leak of 100,000 WhatsApp messages, which is likely to see the release of private discussions involving dozens of ministers and officials.

Mr Hancock came under immediate fire from bereaved families after messages were released suggesting he had rejected official advice to test all residents going into care homes  a claim he hotly disputes.

The messages were leaked by journalist Isabel Oakeshott, who was a ghostwriter on Mr Hancocks pandemic diaries.

Friends of Mr Hancock last night said he could take legal action to prevent the further disclosure of messages he considers to have been stolen.

The messages were leaked by journalist Isabel Oakeshott, who was a ghostwriter on Mr Hancocks pandemic diaries. Pictured together at the book launch on December 5

The former health secretary was at the centre of a growing political storm following the unprecedented leak of 100,000 WhatsApp messages, some of which are recreated here

A spokesman for Mr Hancock said he was considering all options, adding: Shes broken a legal non-disclosure agreement. Her behaviour is outrageous.

Downing Street suggested the Information Commissioners Office could investigate whether the leak breached data protection laws.

Mr Hancock was also facing questions about why he entrusted the sensitive material to Ms Oakeshott, who was a well-known opponent of the Covid lockdowns.

The data watchdog last night said the leak raised fresh questions about ministers use of WhatsApp but said it was not launching an investigation into the data breach at this stage, citing journalistic exemptions in the public interest.

Ms Oakeshott defended her decision to publish the emails, saying the public deserved to know the truth now, rather than wait for a public inquiry which could take years and might result in a whitewash.

But former health minister Lord Bethell, an ally of Mr Hancock, accused her of betrayal, adding that the public deserved the full truth from the public inquiry, rather than a version based on a few scrappy WhatsApps.

Matt Hancock leaves 10 Downing Street after a daily press briefing in May 2020, followed by Gina Coladangelo his then-aide and now partner

A spokesman for Mr Hancock said: It is outrageous that this distorted account of the pandemic is being pushed with partial leaks, spun to fit an anti-lockdown agenda, which would have cost hundreds of thousands of lives if followed. What the messages do show is a lot of people working hard to save lives.

Rishi Sunak said the public inquiry into Covid was the right way to establish the truth about the handling of the pandemic.

One Whitehall source described Mr Hancocks decision to entrust Ms Oakeshott with sensitive information as staggering, adding: Why would you hand all of your messages to someone who has a track record of turning people over and who was bitterly opposed to the policies you were responsible for? It was idiotic and it was lazy  it looks like he just couldnt be bothered to do the work needed for his so-called diaries himself.

The Daily Telegraph yesterday indicated it would publish exchanges between Mr Hancock and Mr Sunak, who was Chancellor during the pandemic. The Prime Minister is understood to have reviewed his exchanges with Mr Hancock yesterday to establish what might be revealed.

Downing Street confirmed that Mr Sunak does discuss government policy via WhatsApp. But a source said he was very cautious about the messages he sends.

Jean Adamson, whose father died in a care home in April 2020, told Good Morning Britain she felt sickened by the revelations.

He was more focused on meeting his targets at the time, rather than the welfare of our most vulnerable members of society, she said. And as a result of his decisions, his inaction, tens of thousands of elderly people died in care homes.
The mother of one of four boys suspended after 'accidentally' dropping a copy of the Quran says he has been left 'absolutely petrified' after receiving death threats.

West Yorkshire Police recorded a 'hate incident' at Kettlethorpe High School after pupils caused 'slight damage' to a copy of the Quran when it fell on the floor.

The Year 10 boy, who is 14 and autistic, was told by friends to bring in a copy of the holy book as a forfeit for losing at the video game Call Of Duty.

It was then reportedly dropped, causing some damage and scuffing to the pages. All four pupils involved in the incident at the West Yorkshire school were suspended and the police informed.

Officers investigating the incident found there had been only 'minor damage' to the Quran during the prank and that no crime had been committed. It was recorded as a 'non-crime hate incident', a designation the police use to record incidents that dont meet the criminal threshold.

Headmaster Tudor Griffiths said there had been 'no malicious intent', but the pupils' actions were 'unacceptable' because they did not treat the Quran 'with respect'

False rumours that the Koran had been burnt or destroyed prompted concern among Muslim parents and community leaders, who discussed the incident with police and the headmaster at a hastily arranged meeting at the local mosque.

In a video shared widely on social media, the mother of the 14-year-old was filmed apologising to members of the local community for the damage as she revealed he has been left 'petrified' by death threats.

She said: 'He didn't have any malicious intent, but he's a very, very silly 14-year-old boy.'

She described his actions as 'incredibly disrespectful' but said he was 'utterly mortified' and 'very, very apologetic and very remorseful'.

She continued: 'He is beside himself. He's very, very sorry.

'He has received death threats, he has received threats that he will be beaten up if he goes back to school. He's absolutely petrified.'

The mother added that her son sometimes found it difficult to understand social situations.

Headmaster Tudor Griffiths said: 'We would like to reassure all our community that the holy book remains fully intact and that our initial enquiries indicate there was no malicious intent by those involved.

'However, we have made it very clear that their actions did not treat the Koran with the respect it should have, so those involved have been suspended and we will be working with them to ensure they understand why their actions were unacceptable.'

The copy of the Quran dropped by the boys, showing a page that has been smudged slightly

A slight tear can also be seen on the cover of the book after it was taken into the school

Mr Griffiths called the incident 'a very sad day' and raised the prospect of 'more consequences' for those involved, adding: 'We understand exactly the sensitivity and the fragility and the concern that has been expressed by the Muslim community in particular and we are wanting our pupils to understand and learn from that.

'We don't wish to see young people escalating the matter and taking the law into their own hands - that's dangerous for everyone concerned.

'We want to ensure that if people have concerns they talk to adults and parents and we share that information so we can do what we need to do... where everyone has an understanding of what is acceptable and not acceptable.'

Vowing the incident would 'never happen again', he added: 'Rest assured, this is a very serious matter and we have acted quickly... and we will continue to investigate and explore what has gone on. If more consequences have to follow that will be the case.'

West Yorkshire Police said: 'We are aware of local and national concerns following an incident at Kettlethorpe High School in Wakefield last week'

Inspector Andy Thornton told the meeting, that the slight damage to the Quran was 'not a criminal matter' but should prompt 'longer learning' and increased 'awareness around all faiths'.

Meanwhile, Home Secretary Suella Braverman raised concerns today about the police's involvement in the incident.

A source close to Mrs Braverman said: 'These are very concerning reports.

'The Home Secretary is clear that the police response should always be proportionate and consider the welfare of young children as a priority over any perceived insults.'

The group Humanists UK called the decision to suspend the boys 'horrendous' and said the school had allowed itself to be 'pressured into excessive disciplinary action by a religious group'.

The categorisation of the case as a 'hate incident' by the police was criticised by the Free Speech Union.

A source close to Suella Braverman questioned whether the police response was 'proportionate'

Toby Young, its general secretary, said that if any data had been recorded about the boys it should be wiped.

He added that because the school had said there was no 'malicious intent' the recording was inconsistent with rules set by the College of Policing, the national standards body.

The new rules require there to be a motivation of prejudice or hate before police make recordings that can show up years later on enhanced criminal records checks.

The change was introduced last July in what was widely seen as a victory for free speech.

Mr Young wrote: 'We are hard pressed to imagine a sequence of events more likely to chill public debate and freedom of expression than recording this episode as a "hate incident" and attaching that data to the children's records, in spite of the absence of any malicious intent.'

West Yorkshire Police said: 'Initial enquiries confirmed that minor damage was caused to a religious text.

'We have recorded a hate incident, but from our enquiries are satisfied that no criminal offences were committed.

False rumours that the book had been burnt prompted concern among Muslim parents and local leaders, who discussed the incident with police at the local mosque (stock image)

'A report was also made of a malicious communications offence in relation to threats being made to a child in connection with this incident.

'A suspect was identified, who was also a child, and they were given words of advice by an officer.

'We are continuing to liaise with the school and our neighbourhood officers are conducting additional reassurance patrols in the area.'

Non-crime hate incidents are 'any non-crime incident which is perceived, by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by a hostility or prejudice', according to police guidance.

The school is ten miles from Batley Grammar School, which was the focus of parent protests in 2021 after a teacher was suspended for showing his pupils an image of the prophet Muhammad, which is against Islamic teaching.
President Yoon Suk Yeol delivers a speech during a ceremony to commemorate the 104th anniversary of March 1 Independence Movement Day at Yu Gwan-sun Memorial Hall in Jung District, Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap



Yoon extends olive branch to mend ties with Tokyo



By Nam Hyun-woo



President Yoon Suk Yeol extended another olive branch to mend relations between South Korea and Japan, saying Tokyo has "transformed from a militaristic aggressor into a partner" during his March 1 Independence Movement Day speech, Wednesday.



"Now, more than a century after the March 1 Independence Movement, Japan has transformed itself from a militaristic aggressor of the past into a partner that shares universal values with us," Yoon said during a ceremony to commemorate the peaceful protest that took place in 1919 to resist Japan's colonial rule.



Yoon said the trilateral security cooperation between Seoul, Tokyo and Washington to counter North Korea's nuclear threats was one of the fields in which the two countries are working together to address global challenges, adding that South Korea should "stand in solidarity with countries sharing universal values."



"This spirit of solidarity and cooperation is the same spirit that called for our nation's freedom and independence 104 years ago," Yoon said.



In his speech, which lasted slightly over five minutes, Yoon did not make any remarks that could be interpreted as a demand for Japan's apology for its past actions.





President Yoon Suk Yeol and first lady Kim Keon Hee wave Korea's national flag during a ceremony to commemorate the 104th anniversary of March 1 Independence Movement Day at Yu Gwan-sun Memorial Hall in Jung District, Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap



This contrasts starkly with the Independence Movement Day speech made by Yoon's predecessor, Moon Jae-in, in 2018, calling on Japan to issue an apology as a "perpetrator" of "crimes against humanity."



Since Yoon took office in May last year, he has been making efforts to mend ties between the two countries, holding multiple summits with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.



In line with this direction, Yoon also did not mention pending bilateral issues, such as compensating Korean victims of Japan's wartime forced labor.









The forced labor issue is one of the key reasons that the two countries' relations deteriorated in recent years. In 2018, separate rulings by Seoul's Supreme Court ordered Japanese firms to compensate 15 Korean victims, but no payments have been made yet, causing bilateral relations to chill during the past five years.



However, since the inauguration of the Yoon administration, Seoul and Tokyo have held several rounds of working-level consultations on ways to resolve the forced labor issue, and the South Korean government dropped hints at a plan last month to compensate the victims through its own public foundation, instead of using funds from Japanese companies, despite outcries from some victims.



However, Japan has yet to show any progress in whether it will allow its companies to donate to the South Korean foundation or make repentant gestures. Due to this, South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin said on Feb. 13, "We have urged Japan to make political decisions in sincere response (to South Korea's efforts)."



Against this backdrop, Yoon's speech is interpreted as another conciliatory gesture to Japan and indirect pressure to influence Kishida's political decisions.



"During his speech, Yoon clearly stated his direction in terms of South Korea-Japan relations, but did not tap into delicate pending issues," said Jin Chang-soo, the director of Sejong Institute's Center for Japanese Studies.



"Yoon seems to have decided not to mention the forced labor issue, because the working-level negotiations are ongoing and Yoon's detailed remarks on this issue during the Independence Movement Day speech may become an unnecessary influence on the negotiations. With daunting domestic tasks and diplomatic challenges surrounding him, a detailed commentary on pending issues may become an additional burden for Yoon."



Although Yoon mentioned the importance of the trilateral security cooperation between Seoul, Tokyo and Washington to counter the North's nuclear threats, he did not call for Pyongyang's denuclearization nor stressed his "audacious initiative" of engaging North Korea in the speech.





President Yoon Suk Yeol shakes hands with main opposition Democratic Party of Korea Chairman Lee Jae-myung during a ceremony marking the 104th anniversary of March 1 Independence Movement Day at Yu Gwan-sun Memorial Hall in Seoul, Wednesday. Korea Times photo by Seo Jae-hoon
One of Australia's all-time favourite racegoers - 'Fairy Floss Girl' - has fallen on hard times.

Karly Tsivoglou set the internet alight when she was snapped by Daily Mail Australia enjoying some fairy floss at Melbourne's Oaks Day Day in 2016.

The photos went viral across the country - with KIIS FM Kyle Sandilands gushing the then teenager was 'hotter than Selena Gomez'.

On Wednesday, the now 24-year old appeared in the Moorabbin Magistrates' Court after failing to comply with a good behaviour bond she received for a series of dishonesty matters.

'Fairy Floss Girl' Karly Tsivoglou (above) was snapped chowing down on fairy floss while at the Melbourne Ladies Day by Daily Mail Australia in 2016

Now aged 23, Karly Tsivoglou is seen leaving the Moorabbin Magistrates' Court on Wednesday

Karly Tsivoglou leaves court on Wednesday

Appearing alongside a Victorian Legal Aid lawyer, the court heard Tsivoglou had been charged with one count of handling stolen goods, five counts of obtaining property by deception and one charge of theft.

The incidents happened in March 2021, while Melburnians were in the grip of one of the longest Covid-19 lockdowns on the planet.

The court heard Tsivoglou made admissions to the crimes in January last year through the court's diversion program.

Under Victorian law, diversion plans are often handed down to first-time offenders and are designed not to impact on a person's life going forward.

Under the diversion plan, Tsivoglou was not required to formally plead to the charges and instead simply made admissions to the charged offences.

She was released on a 12-month bond on the provision she provided an apology to the court by January this year.

Tsivoglou was charged by police after failing to supply the court with that apology, which saw her hauled before the court again charged with breaching the order.

The breach meant Magistrate Steven Raleigh was forced to sentence Tsivoglou again over her initial crimes.

Her lawyer told Mr Raleigh Tsivoglou had fallen on tough times after her parents split up.

'She's had unstable housing arrangements since her parents split up ... the letter went to a previous address where her partner lived,' her lawyer said.

The court heard Tsivoglou claimed she simply did not receive the court correspondence in the mail and had promptly provided the letter of apology upon learning of the breach.

Tsivoglou (pictured with her son, Apollo) was launched to internet stardom after her fairy floss pics in 2016 but has recently fallen on hard times

Karly Tsivoglou said nothing as she made her way to her BMW and drove away

Karly Tsivoglou - aka Fairy Floss Girl - was charged with dishonesty offences

Magistrate Raleigh took just seconds to discharge her original diversion, allowing Tsivoglou to walk free without a blemish on her record.

'You've been punished enough,' he said.

Dressed in a long brown puffer coat, Tsivoglou said nothing as she made her way to a white BMW and drove away.

Tsivoglou previously told Daily Mail Australia she was 'happy' to appear in the news each Melbourne Cup.

'I'm happy with that,' she said.

Tsivoglou said she and her friend Alice Woodfall 'had a few glasses of champagne, put a few bets on and just enjoyed the sun' at the races and had no idea about her internet stardom until the next morning.

'I woke up this morning with so many messages and screenshots of the photos! I was honestly shocked!' she said at the time.

'My social media accounts have been going crazy all morning!'

Tsivoglou said she'd received her share of compliments at the races but was shocked by the number of people 'professing their love' once her photos went viral.

'A few people claimed they were in love with me,' she said.

'But both Alice and I were getting a lot of positive compliments throughout the day.'

Tsivoglou said she and her friend Alice Woodfall (pictured together at Ladies Day) had received their share of compliments at the races but was shocked by people 'professing their love' once she viral

Tsivoglou (above) became known as 'Fairy Floss Girl' after she was snapped snacking at Ladies Day in 2016

From then on, Tsivoglou regularly shared photos of nights out and poolside holidays to her social media.

However, her online presence has taken a turn in the last few years with the new-mum focusing on her little boy.

Pictures show the mother-son duo enjoying arts and crafts, days at the beach and bath-time.

But Tsivoglou still does manage to get in the occasional glamorous snap.

Almost every year at Melbourne Cup time Sandilands brings up Tsivoglou's memorable pictures.

Tsivoglou (above) still manages to sneak in glamorous photos online among her family snaps

The former social media star's snaps have taken a drastic turn in the last few years with glamorous photos swapped for snaps of her time with her son, Apollo (above)

Tsivoglou (above) said she had no idea about her internet fame until the morning after the races

'She looks amazing, she's got cotton candy hanging out of her mouth... it's all happening,' he said at the time.

'She's kinda like a Selena Gomez looking girl,' Jackie O said.

'But hotter,' Kyle added.

The Sydney radio host brought up the 'Fairy Floss Girl' again in a November, 2020, segment about the Melbourne Cup's most iconic moments.

'God, I can't remember,' his co-host 'Jackie O' told him. 'Why was that so memorable?'

Kyle defensively shot back: 'Because she was a beautiful brown girl. She was just gorgeous. She was hoeing into that big fairy floss stick.'
Properties for sale achieve their maximum price on day nine of being on the market, new research reveals.

They were typically sold at 2 per cent above the asking price on that day, according to the research by HomeOwners Alliance.

It is the equivalent of raising an extra 5,000 on an averagely priced property.

Properties for sale achieve their maximum price on day nine of being on the market

The data, collected from more than 6,500 estate agents' branches throughout England and Wales, found that the eventual price paid for a property steadily decreases with time.

After 30 days on the market, sellers typically accept 99 per cent of their original asking price.

And after 90 days - or three months - this drops to 95 per cent.

Similarly, agents whose average selling time was seven days or less achieved only 97 per cent of their asking price.

The best time to sell to achieve the maximum selling price is between eight to 14 days after going on the market, HomeOwners Alliance said.

With the average home in Britain currently changing hands for around 290,000, these few percentage points could equate to thousands of pounds for sellers.

Selling in nine days will mean the owner would exceed their asking price.

However, the amount by which they fall short of their asking price increases significantly the longer the property is on the market.

After one month, the price drop is 3,200 off the asking price, while the drop deepens significantly to 15,400 if the property is on the market for more than three months.

After a home has been on the market for one month, it typically sells for 3,200 less than the asking price

Paula Higgins, of HomeOwners Alliance, said: 'There is an optimum length of time to have your property on the market, and we can now show that that is nine days.

'Properties sold more quickly than this don't achieve their full value because they are sold too quickly.

'At the other end of the scale, properties which are listed for a number of weeks see their values drop steadily, particularly after they have been listed for over a month.'

Achieving above asking price will depend on the type of property you are selling and whether the original price is correct

There are a host of factors that ultimately determine when a property sells, including whether it has been priced correctly in the first place.

Alex Lyle, of Richmond estate agents Antony Roberts, said: 'The best, or most motivated, buyers come through the door first and it's true that the quality of applicant and volume of viewings tend to diminish over time.

'We'd agree with nine days but achieving above asking price will depend on the type of property you are selling and whether the original price is correct.

'No one pricing strategy fits all; the closer the gap between buyers' perceptions of where a property's value lies and the initial asking price, the greater the prospects for a positive reaction from buyers.'
READ MORE: See NASA's Artemis rocket launch to the moon

The European Space Agency (ESA) wants to give the moon time zones as humans are set to work and eventually live on the lunar surface.

The idea has been floating around since last year, but the ESA and international partners are moving forward to establish 'a common lunar reference time' that would be accepted by all spacefaring nations.

For now, a moon mission runs on the time of the country operating the spacecraft.

The team looking into lunar time is debating whether a single organization should set and maintain time on the moon, but they are investigating a technical issue.

Clocks run faster on the moon than on Earth, gaining about 56 microseconds each day and ticking occurs differently on the lunar surface than in lunar orbit.

Perhaps most importantly, lunar time will have to be practical for astronauts there, noted the space agency's Bernhard Hufenbach.

The European Space Agency wants to set up time zones on the moon that all spacefaring nations will accept as humans are traveling back to the lunar surface in the next coming years

The news comes as several nations are looking to launch lunar missions, particularly the American space agency.

NASA is eyeing 2025 for when it will put human boots back on the moon - the first time in more 50 years.

This is part of the Artemis program, which completed the first phase late last year.

The upcoming portion is Artemis II, which will send NASA astronauts around the moon in 2024.

'This will be quite a challenge,' with each day lasting as long as 29.5 Earth days, Hufenbach said in a statement.

'But having established a working time system for the moon, we can go on to do the same for other planetary destinations.'

The conversation of creating a specific time for the moon was brought up last year during a meeting at ESA's ESTEC technology center in the Netherlands.

European space officials said an internationally accepted lunar time zone would make it easier for everyone, mainly as more countries and even private companies aim for the moon and NASA gets set to send astronauts there.

The team looking into lunar time is debating whether a single organization should set and maintain time on the moon. NASA completed the first phase of its Artemis mission in December (pictured)

NASA had to grapple with the time question while designing and building the International Space Station, fast approaching the 25th anniversary of the launch of its first piece.

While the space station does not have its own time zone, it runs on Coordinated Universal Time, or UTC, which is meticulously based on atomic clocks.

That helps to split the time difference between NASA and the Canadian Space Agency and the other partnering space programs in Russia, Japan and Europe.

Jorg Hahn, ESA's chief Galileo engineer and also advising on lunar time aspects, said: 'Interoperability of time and geodetic reference frames has been successfully achieved here on Earth for Global Navigation Satellite Systems; all of today's smartphones are able to make use of existing GNSS to compute a user position down to meter or even decimeter level.

'The experience of this success can be re-used for the technical long-term lunar systems to come, even though stable timekeeping on the Moon will throw up its own unique challenges  such as taking into account the fact that time passes at a different rate there due to the Moon's specific gravity and velocity effects.'
When it comes to birds of a feather flocking together, flamingos are no exception.

A new study suggests the birds form cliques of like-minded individuals and tend to spend time with others whose personality is similar to their own.

Scientists at the University of Exeter and the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) analysed the personalities and social behaviour of Caribbean and Chilean flamingos.

The study revealed the complex nature of flamingo societies and could help in the management of captive flocks.

Dr Paul Rose, from WWT and Exeter's centre for research in animal behaviour, said: 'Our previous research has shown that individual flamingos have particular "friends" within the flock.

When it comes to birds of a feather flocking together, flamingos are no exception. A new study suggests the birds form cliques of like-minded individuals and tend to spend time with others whose personality is similar to their own

'In this study, we wanted to find out whether individual character traits explain why these friendships form.

Flamingos with bright pink plumage are more likely to fight over food than their paler rivals, study shows - READ MORE The brightest pink flamingos are more aggressive than their pale rivals when it comes to fighting over food, according to a new study Advertisement

'The answer is yes  birds of a feather flock together.

'For example, bolder birds had stronger, more consistent ties with other bold birds, while submissive birds tended to spend their time with fellow submissive flamingos.'

Researchers assessed the personality of the birds by measuring consistent individual differences, such as aggressiveness and willingness to explore.

Fionnuala McCully, now at the University of Liverpool, who collected data for the study during an MSc Animal Behaviour course at the University of Exeter, said: 'Like humans, flamingos appear to carve out different roles in society based on their personality.

'For example, we observed groups of aggressive birds which attempt to dominate rivals and tend to get in more fights.

'Meanwhile, the role of submissive birds may be more complex than simply being lower down the pecking order  they may be using a different approach to get what they need.

'The various different personality groups provide social help to their members, for example by supporting each other in the many squabbles that take place in flamingo flocks.'

The researchers found that in the Caribbean flamingos, birds of a certain personality type had a particular role within the group overall, but this was not found in the Chilean flock.

While the reasons for this are unclear, the experts suggest it is possible that a larger study of wild birds would find such a pattern.

Dr Rose said: 'Our findings need further investigation, both to help us understand the evolution of social behaviour and to improve the welfare of zoo animals.

'It is clear from this research that a flamingo's social life is much more complicated than we first realised.'

The findings, published in the journal Scientific Reports, are based on observations of captive flamingos at WWT Slimbridge.
Advertisement

Incredible satellite images show how toxic algal blooms now grow in at least 12.1 million square miles (31.47 million square kilometres) of ocean, thanks to human activity.

A study from researchers at the Southern University of Science and Technology in China found that the total area affected by phytoplankton growth has increased by 13.2 per cent since 2003.

When nutrients from fertilisers, sewage, air pollution and livestock manure find their way into water sources, phytoplankton will feed on their nutrients and grow.

The researchers also found that rising sea temperatures have increased the frequency of algal blooms over this last two decades, as warmer waters increases the length of the blooming season.

They wrote: 'Many algal blooms are beneficial, fixing carbon at the base of the food chain and supporting fisheries and ecosystems worldwide. However, proliferations of algae that cause harm, termed harmful algal blooms, have become a major environmental problem worldwide.'

Incredible satellite images show how toxic algal blooms now grow in at least 12.1 million square miles (31.47 million square kilometres) of ocean, thanks to human activity

A study, from researchers at the Southern University of Science and Technology in China, has found that the total area affected by phytoplankton growth has increased by 13.2 per cent since 2003

An algal bloom is a rapid increase in the population of algae in an aquatic system, and can occur in freshwater as well as marine environments.

WHAT IS AN ALGAL BLOOM? An algal bloom is a rapid increase in the population of algae in an aquatic system. The phenomenon can occur in freshwater as well as marine environments and can cause discolouration of the water, turning it yellow, red or bright green. Some algal blooms result from an excess of nutrients which cause growth in algae and other green plants. With more nutrient food available, the bacteria increase and use up the dissolved oxygen in the water. When oxygen content decreases, many fish and aquatic insects cannot survive, resulting in a dead area. Algal blooms composed of phytoplankters known to naturally produce biotoxins are often called Harmful Algal Blooms, or HABs. Advertisement

Blooms can cause discoloration of the water at surface level, turning it yellow, red or bright green, as can be seen in the new satellite images.

They are often the result of eutrophication - when bodies of water become enriched with nutrients like phosphates and nitrates, which provide food for algae and other green plants, allowing for their growth.

The phytoplankton become harmful when they use up all the dissolved oxygen in the water, leading to the suffocation of fish and aquatic insects, which in turn become nutrient sources themselves.

Some types of algae also produce biotoxins which can have severe impacts on wildlife, and contribute to these 'dead zones' where aquatic life cannot survive.

For the study, published today in Nature, scientists used 760,000 images taken by NASA satellites from 2003 to 2020 to calculate the global ocean area covered by algae each year and bloom frequency.

They then compared this data to sea surface temperatures (SSTs) as well as how much the temperature changes per metre, or the 'spatial SST gradient'.

A large difference in temperature between two adjacent areas in the ocean, or large spatial SST gradient, can indicate poor water circulation.

This is because hotter water is less dense than colder water and reduces the sinking in the natural 'conveyor belt' motion of the currents.

As a result, nutrients are less evenly distributed through the water column, and phytoplankton is able to grow in areas where they are highly concentrated, generally those closer to the surface.

Large differences in temperature between adjacent areas of ocean can also cause turbulence and bring up more nutrients from deeper waters to further encourage algal growth.

The maps showed that coastal phytoplankton blooms have increased by 1.53 million square miles (3.97 million square kilometres) over the observed period.

In 2020, they covered 8.6 per cent of all global ocean area.

The researchers also found that rising sea temperatures have increased the frequency of algal blooms over this last two decades, as warmer waters increases the length of the blooming season

The maps showed that coastal phytoplankton blooms have increased by 1.53 million square miles (3.97 million square kilometres) over the observed period. Pictured: Spatial distribution of annual average bloom count based on satellite images

The average annual number of blooms observed was also found to increase by 59.2 per cent between 2003 and 2020 - the equivalent of 2.19 per cent each year.

This rising bloom frequency correlated significantly with ocean temperature, suggesting that 'bloom-favourable seasons in these temperate seas have been extended under warmer temperatures'.

Bloom frequency also increased with the spatial SST gradient in many areas, including California, the Gulf Steam and the Canary Current.

This suggests that the weak ocean currents caused by rising sea temperatures contribute to the growth of algae.

Around China, Iran, Vietnam and the Philippines, the researchers also noted an increase in fertiliser usage over the study period, which likely contributed to the upswing in phytoplankton.

The same could be said for the intensified aquaculture industry in Finland, China, Algeria, Guinea, Vietnam, Argentina, Russia and Uruguay.

The average annual number of blooms observed was also found to increase by 59.2 per cent between 2003 and 2020, the equivalent of 2.19 per cent each year. Pictured: Annual average bloom frequency and total global bloom-affected area from 2003 to 2022

Bloom frequency also increased with the spatial SST gradient in many areas, including California, the Gulf Steam and the Canary Current. This suggests that weak ocean currents, that can be brought on by global warming, contribute to the growth of algae. Left: Global patterns of trends in spatial SST gradient from 2003 to 2020. Right: Global patterns of trends in SST from 2003 to 2020

The researchers hope that their maps and data will help increase understanding the mechanisms that drive and dissipate coastal phytoplankton blooms.

This may inform policymakers assess the risk of harmful algal blooms and that decide on strategies to help reduce their occurrence.

'Many blooms are beneficial, particularly in terms of their positive effects on ecosystems as well as on wild and farmed fisheries,' the authors wrote.

'The results here can also contribute toward policies and management actions that sustain those beneficial blooms.'
This week, skygazers across the UK have been dazzled by the Northern Lights, with the light displays reaching as far south as Cornwall.

But our photos of the auroras from here on Earth pale in comparison to a snap taken by an astronaut on board the International Space Station (ISS).

Josh Cassada, who launched to the ISS back in October, shared a stunning photo of the Northern Lights on Twitter.

In the image, the edge of the ISS can be seen in front of a jaw-dropping view of green swirls, dancing over the stars.

The photo spoke for itself, with Cassada simply captioning it 'absolutely unreal' on Twitter.

Josh Cassada, who launched to the ISS back in October, shared a stunning photo of the Northern Lights on Twitter

From their position on the ISS, astronauts are treated to a unique view of our planet that most people will never have the chance to see.

The ISS orbits Earth at a height of around 250 miles, meaning the space station makes around 16 trips around Earth every single day.

From their position on the ISS, astronauts are treated to a unique view of our planet that most people will never have the chance to see. Pictured: Josh Cassada

Several impressed viewers replied to Cassada's photo, with one calling it 'one of the most stunning shot Ive ever seen.'

'Sooo winner of best photo,' another added, while one replied: 'well that['s] just blown my socks off.'

While commonly visible from the Arctic and Antarctic Circles, the Northern Lights rarely grace the night sky any further south.

However, stargazers as far south as Kent and Cornwall experienced them too this week.

The vibrant colours are the result of an eruption of charged particles from the sun, called a coronal mass ejection (CME), interacting with the Earth's atmosphere.

When the charged particles of a CME react with the oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere, they emit green and red lights that appear as spirals, flickers and 'curtains' in the sky.

If it is really strong, these phenomena can be visible further away from the North and South poles.

On Sunday and Monday night, there were sightings across southern England, as well as Northern Ireland, south Wales and Norfolk.

This was largely due to two CMEs, which erupted on February 24 and 25 respectively, and collided with the Earth's atmosphere two days later.
It was a plan more akin to a blockbuster movie script  crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid to divert the space rock off course.

Remarkably, though, NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) actually had a Hollywood ending, as new research confirms the mission was a smashing success.

The US space agency's refrigerator-sized satellite managed to shave 33 minutes off the orbit of a 520ft-wide (160m) asteroid known as Dimorphos when it careered into it at 14,000mph (22,000km/h) in September last year.

That is nearly five times greater than predicted and more than 25 times the change in orbital period required for the mission to be considered a success.

Dimorphos orbits a much larger 2,550ft-wide (780m) object called Didymos 6.8 million miles from Earth.

Success! NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) actually had a Hollywood ending, as a new study has confirmed the blockbuster movie script mission was a smashing success

The US space agency's refrigerator-sized satellite managed to shave 33 minutes off the orbit of a 520ft-wide (160m) asteroid known as Dimorphos when it careered into it at 14,000mph (22,000km/h) in September 2022. Pictured is a view of the ejecta from the Hubble telescope

Before impact, the time taken for the moonlet Dimorphos to make one circuit of its sibling was 11 hours and 55 minutes, but now it takes 11 hours and 22 minutes.

'The change in its orbit was greater than what many of us, myself included, had expected,' said DART mission lead Andrew Cheng, of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland.

WHAT WAS DART? DART was the world's first planetary defence test mission. It involved crashing a spaceacraft into the small moonlet asteroid Dimorphos, which orbits a larger companion asteroid called Didymos. This was done to slightly change Dimorphos' orbit. The moonlet is about 525 feet in diameter, and although it doesn't pose a danger to Earth, NASA wanted to measure the asteroid's altered orbit caused by the collision. Post-impact observations from Earth-based optical telescopes and planetary radars measured the change in Dimorphos' orbit around Didymos. Before impact, the time taken for the moonlet to make one circuit of its sibling was 11 hours and 55 minutes, but now it takes 11 hours and 22 minutes. This demonstration of planetary defence will inform future missions that could one day save Earth from a deadly asteroid impact. Advertisement

'The DART kinetic impact was highly effective for deflecting the asteroid Dimorphos.'

Researchers say understanding how DART's impact changed the orbit of the moon sheds light on how this approach might be able to provide a defence system against potential space rock collisions with Earth.

Estimations of just how much the momentum of Dimorphos was changed are revealed in five new scientific papers, all published in Nature.

Cristina Thomas and her colleagues at Northern Arizona University established that Dimorphos' orbital period was reduced by around 33 minutes.

They concluded: 'o serve as a proof-of-concept for the kinetic impactor technique of planetary defense, DART needed to demonstrate that an asteroid could be targeted during a high-speed encounter and that the target's orbit could be changed.

'DART has successfully done both.'

Experts at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, meanwhile, sought to reconstruct the impact.

They also described in detail the location of the impact site, revealing that it was between two boulders, one of which was grazed by the spacecraft as it made contact with the moon.

DART was launched in November 2021 with the aim of knocking a space rock off course as part of an experiment in planetary protection.

It was the world's first test of a kinetic impact mitigation technique, using a spacecraft to deflect an asteroid that poses no threat to Earth, and modifying the object's orbit.

On September 26 last year at 19:14 ET, DART intentionally crashed into Dimorphos, the asteroid moonlet in the double-asteroid system of Didymos.

Two days after DART's collision, astronomers Teddy Kareta and Matthew Knight captured the vast plume of dust and debris blasted from the asteroid's surface with the SOAR telescope at NSF's NOIRLab's Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory.

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test was launched last November ahead of a year-long journey to crash into the small asteroid Dimorphos, which orbits a larger one called Didymos

Hubble Space Telescope and a worldwide network of citizen science telescopes also took stunning images of plumes of debris that shot up to 930 miles (1,500km) into space within the first three hours.

Scientists believe that between 0.3 to 0.5 per cent of the moonlet's mass was ejected into space from the impact.

Jian-Yang Li and colleagues at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson analysed observations of this ejecta plume captured by the Hubble Space Telescope.

They said the speed of at which this debris was ejected may help to explain the momentum change caused by the impact.

Separate Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory researchers also found that the orbital velocity of Dimorphos reduced after the impact.

A space rock the size of Dimorphos (shown) could cause continent-wide destruction on Earth, while the impact of one the size of the larger Didymos would be felt worldwide

Dimorphos orbits a much larger 2,550ft-wide (780m) object called Didymos (pictured) 6.8 million miles from Earth

Cheng and his colleagues said the transfer of momentum from the DART spacecraft to Dimorphos was increased by the recoil from ejecta streams produced by the impact.

Around two to three weeks after impact, the main dust tail then fanned out and faded, giving experts a look at what happens when space rocks collide.

Although the asteroid posed no threat to Earth, the hope is that the mission's concept could work as a strategy for defending our planet against future threats from space.

A space rock the size of Dimorphos could cause continent-wide destruction on Earth, while the impact of one the size of the larger Didymos would be felt worldwide.

NASA has previously emphasised that the asteroids pose no threat to our home planet, but they were chosen because they can be observed from ground-based telescopes here on Earth.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is launching a mission in 2024 that will send a probe to Dimorphos and Didymos to study the pair in greater detail.
Engineers have developed a flexible robot that enters the rectum to 3D print living cells on damaged organs, eliminating the need for patients to 'go under the knife.'

The University of South Wales Sydney team designed the miniature robotic arm to directly deliver 'bioink,' made of gelatin, collagen, human cells and other materials, onto the surface of internal organs and tissues.

The proof-of-concept device, known as F3DB, features a highly maneuverable swivel head that 'prints' the bioink, attached to the end of the arm, all of which can be controlled externally.

The research team said that with further development, and potentially within five to seven years, the technology could be used by medical professionals to access hard-to-reach areas inside the body via small skin incisions or natural orifices.

The new robotic arm eliminates the need for open surgery

The miniature robotic arm enters the human body through the rectum or the mouth

The lead researcher Dr Thanh Nho Do said in a statement: 'Existing 3D bioprinting techniques require biomaterials to be made outside the body and implanting that into a person would usually require large open-field open surgery which increases infection risks.

'Our flexible 3D bioprinter means biomaterials can be directly delivered into the target tissue or organs with a minimally invasive approach.'

'This system offers the potential for the precise reconstruction of three-dimensional wounds inside the body, such as gastric wall injuries or damage and disease inside the colon.'

The robot features a three-axis printing head mounted onto the tip of a soft robotic arm, which consists of soft artificial muscles to let the arm move in three directions, similar to desktop 3D printers.

The device is also designed with hydraulics, allowing the arm to bend and twist.

And the arm can be customized to any length, and its stiffness is finely tuned using different types of elastic tubes and fabrics.

The printing nozzle can be programmed to print pre-determined shapes or operated manually where more complex or undetermined bioprinting is required.

In addition, the team utilized a machine learning-based controller, which can aid the printing process.

To further demonstrate the feasibility of the technology, the UNSW team tested the cell viability of living biomaterial after being printed via their system.

Researchers designed the arm to be customizable, allowing users to make it as long or stiff as needed

The robotic arm is maneuvered to the damaged tissue, piercing it with the needle attached to its head

The robot administers bioink that is made of a variety of materials like collagen, gelatin and human cells

Experiments showed the cells were unaffected by the process, with most continuing to be alive post-printing.

The cells grew for the next seven days, with four times as many cells observed one week after printing.

The engineers also demonstrated how the F3DB could perform various functions as an all-in-one endoscopic surgical tool.

This, according to the team, would be ideal for removing certain cancers, especially colorectal cancer - the third most common cancer death worldwide

The nozzle of the F3DB printing head can be used as an electric scalpel to the first mark and then cut away cancerous lesions.

The robot features a three-axis printing head mounted onto the tip of a soft robotic arm,

Engineers showed that the robot can print different shapes to repair the damaged organs or tissue

Water can also be directed through the nozzle to clean any blood and excess tissue from the site simultaneously.

At the same time, faster healing can be promoted by the immediate 3D printing of biomaterial directly while the robotic arm is still in place.

The team tested the robot on a pig's intestine, which showed promising results.

The ability to carry out such multi-functional procedures was demonstrated in a pigs intestine.

The next stage of development for the system, which has been granted a provisional patent, is in vivo testing on living animals to demonstrate its practical use.

The researchers also plan to implement additional features, such as an integrated camera and real-time scanning system to reconstruct the 3D tomography of the moving tissue inside the body.
They wait for fish to swim into their open mouths, using half-eaten food as bait

Scientists say this was inspired by the 'tread-water' feeding technique of whales

A 13th century mythical beast is described as luring fish into its jaws by vomiting

The hunting technique used by a sea monster in a Norse myth may have been inspired by that of real whales, a study has found.

Accounts from the 13th century say that the 'hafgufa' creature lured fish into its stationary mouth by emitting an irresistible perfume and vomiting its food.

Scientists at Flinders University in Australia noticed that this is reminiscent of a whale feeding technique that was recorded for the first time in 2011.

The enormous marine mammals open their jaws at right angles and wait for fish to swim inside, and may entice them in by ejecting their half-eaten prey.

It is now thought that ancient sailors who described the hafgufa had merely misinterpreted a whale feeding frenzy.

The hunting technique used by a sea monster in a Norse myth may have been inspired by those of real whales, a study has found. Pictured: Illustration of aspidochelones from around 1250

Accounts from the 13th century say that the 'hafgufa' creature lured fish into its stationary mouth by emitting an irresistible perfume and vomiting its food. Pictured: A digital reconstruction of a humpback whale trap feeding

As the feeding behaviour was discovered so recently, marine biologists initially assumed it had only just evolved in whales.

WHAT IS 'TREAD-WATER' FEEDING? 'Tread-water' feeding is a technique used by whales that was first recorded in 2011. The enormous marine mammals open their jaws at right angles and wait for fish to swim inside, before clamping them shut. They may entice them further by ejecting their half-eaten prey out their mouths in the process. It is effective because the fish believe the cavernous area they have entered is a place of safety, rather than a cunning trap, and since also been observed in humpback whales. Advertisement

However, when maritime archaeologist Dr John McCarthy decided to look back at tales of Norse sea monsters, he noticed similarities.

He said: 'It struck me that the Norse description of the hafgufa was very similar to the behaviour shown in videos of trap feeding whales, but I thought it was just an interesting coincidence at first.

'Once I started looking into it in detail and discussing it with colleagues who specialise in medieval literature, we realised that the oldest versions of these myths do not describe sea monsters at all, but are explicit in describing a type of whale.

'That's when we started to get really interested. The more we investigated it, the more interesting the connections became and the marine biologists we spoke to found the idea fascinating.'

Manuscripts of Icelandic myths which include hafgufa date from the 13th century to the 18th century, and often also mention kraken and mermaids.

One Norwegian account from King Hakon Hakonsson said the beast 'looked more like an island than a fish' with a gaping mouth 'no more or less wide than a large sound or fjord'.

It gives a 'great belch' when it goes to feed, emanating a 'a great deal of food' and causing fish to 'rush in in their numbers'.

However, a sea creature that appeared in medieval texts from as early as the 2nd century, dubbed the 'aspidochelone', was described to hunt in a similar manner.

'Tread-water' feeding is a technique used by whales that was first recorded in 2011. The enormous marine mammals open their jaws at right angles and wait for fish to swim inside, before clamping them shut. Pictured: Diagram of humpback engaged in tread-water feeding

Up until about a decade ago, whales were mainly thought to capture their prey through lunge feeding.

This is when they consume a large quantity of food and seawater after pushing themselves forward with great force.

The mammals then use their baleen filter-feeding system, which allows them to get rid of any excess water by acting like a giant sieve.

While they also use other techniques to catch prey, like bubble-netting, none were similar to those used by the mythical creatures.

This changed when a pod of Brydes whales were observed at the surface of the water in the Gulf of Thailand in 2011, staying perfectly still and with their gaping jaws poking out.

Scientists described this technique as 'tread-water feeding', where the hungry whales wait for unassuming prey to swim into their mouths before clamping them shut.

It is effective because the fish believe the cavernous area they have entered is a place of safety rather than a cunning trap, and since also been observed in humpback whales.

A sea creature that appeared in medieval texts from as early as the 2nd century, dubbed the 'aspidochelone', was described to hunt in a similar manner to hafgufa. Pictured: Depiction of the aspidochelone feeding from Icelandic Physiologus, circa 1200

As well as vomiting up predigested food, some accounts say that both the hafgufa and aspidochelone emit a scent that attracts fish towards their jaws.

A description of the latter states: 'When it is hungry it opens its mouth and exhales a certain kind of good-smelling odor from its mouth, the smell of which, once the smaller fish have perceived it, they gather themselves in its mouth.

'But when his mouth is filled with diverse little fish, he suddenly closes his mouth and swallows them.'

When zooplankton and small fish eat phytoplankton plants, they release dimethyl sulphide, a chemical which has a distinctive, cabbage-like odour.

Research has suggested that hungry whales are actually attracted to this smell, so there is potential that it would accompany tread-water feeding.

The authors wrote: 'It seems entirely possible that that the now-proven association between feeding whales and the smell of dimethyl sulfide was interpreted by early mariners as a scent or perfume released by the whales themselves.'

However, they add that the scent may just be a different interpretation of their deliberate ejection of food to draw in more prey.

As well as vomiting up predigested food, some accounts say that both the hafgufa and aspidochelone emit a scent that attracts fish towards their jaws. Pictured: An illustration of Aspidohelunes from the Bern Physiologus

Researchers are not sure how long rorquals, like humpback and Brydes whales, have been utilising tread-water feeding.

If only recently, it could be the result of increased competition for food thanks to growing whale populations.

The humpback was brought to the brink of extinction in the 1960s, with just a few hundred surviving in the wild as a result of commercial whaling.

However, conservation efforts and the introduction of the Endangered Species Act saw its population almost totally recover by 2015, to more than 25,000.

Pictured: Tread-water feeding behaviour of Brydes whales (B. edeni) in the upper Gulf of Thailand

Another possibility is that modern whale-monitoring technologies are now making it easier to spot rarer behaviours.

Yet the discovery of similarities with mythological sea creatures, published this week in Marine Mammal Science, suggests otherwise.

Research co-author Dr Erin Sebo said: 'The question of how long whales have used this technique is key to understanding a range of behavioural and even evolutionary questions.

'Marine biologists had assumed there was no way of recovering this data but, using medieval manuscripts, we've been able to answer some of their questions.

'The behaviour described in medieval texts, which seemed so unlikely, is simply whale behaviour that we had not observed but medieval and ancient people had.'
Scientists reveal evidence of the flu's origin - a fish that lived 600 million years ago.

A team from the University of Sydney scoured a genetic database of fish for an influenza-related virus, uncovering one in the intestine of a Siberian sturgeon.

In comparing the genetic sequence of the virus in the sturgeon with those of all known influenza viruses, the team found that it closely matches the predicted sequence of the ancestor of these viruses.

The study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, states that the family of influenza viruses that infect humans 'first emerged in aquatic animals.

The team notes that the virus in the sturgeon is not the same form as the original, it is 'what you would expect the real ancestral form to have looked like,' Mary Petron, the lead author, told New Scientist.

A new study claims the flu originated from a fish 600 million years ago. This stems from the team finding an influenza-related virus in the intestine of a Siberian sturgeon

Petrone hypothesized that the flu began at sea due to previous work in 2018 that found hagish can have it.

Hagfish are eel-shaped, slime-producing marine animals.

Using the influenza-like virus from the hagfish, Petron and her team found the virus in sturgeons is a 25 percent match in genetic similarity.

'Understanding the evolution of the flu virus is really important because it could give new insights into its ability to jump between hosts, and help with detecting the next virus with pandemic potential,' Patron told New Scientist.

The study comes as the world monitors a bird flu strain spreading in Cambodia.

The strain in its current form is unlikely to cause a major outbreak. The widespread transmission would require a mutation that allows it to bind to a receptor found on cells in the nose.

The study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, states that the family of influenza viruses that infect humans 'first emerged in aquatic animals'

However, Wednesday, it was revealed that the virus, H5N1, has evolved to infect humans.

Last week, an 11-year-old girl from Prey Veng province became the first victimof H5N1 in 2023.

Her father has also tested positive for the virus but has not developed symptoms.

Dr Erik Karlsson, who led the team at the Pasteur Institute of Cambodia that decoded the genetic sequence of the girl's virus, warned that it differed from that taken from birds.

He told Sky News: 'There are some indications that this virus has gone through a human.

'Any time these viruses get into a new host they'll have certain changes that allow them to replicate a little bit better or potentially bind to the cells in our respiratory tract a little bit better.'

But he added that the virus was yet to adapt to humans fully, saying it was fundamentally 'still a bird virus'.




Senior diplomats of Korea and India on Wednesday discussed ways to strengthen cooperation on economy, advanced business sectors and the overall bilateral ties, Seoul's foreign ministry said.







The discussions were made during a meeting between Korea's Second Vice Foreign Minister Lee Do-hoon and India's Secretary of the Ministry of External Affairs Saurabh Kumar held in India, as Lee is in the South Asian country to attend a Group of 20 meeting, according to the foreign ministry.







During the talks, Lee called for continued joint work to boost cooperation on trade, investment, supply chains and infrastructure, and asked for India's support for South Korean firms operating there.







He also stressed Seoul's commitment to deepening strategic ties and communications with India as key partner nations in the region, the ministry said.







Kumar voiced hope for a stronger bilateral relationship, as the two sides have been working more closely on economy, science, advanced technology, the arms industry and various other fields.







Korea and India celebrate the 50th anniversary of forging diplomatic ties this year. (Yonhap)


A cab to the airport at 4am. Endless lines at security. And at the end of it all, a cramped, stuffy plane ride.

Its easy to feel that theres no romance left in travel, but across Europe there has been a shift in thinking, a new vision for how we travel: a series of overnight train routes connecting cities as distant as Paris and Vienna, Hamburg and Stockholm.

There are numerous advantages to hopping on a train rather than queuing for a flight. Besides the clear environmental benefits, theres also the fact that boarding a train in one city, sipping a glass of cheer as it eases its way into the night and waking in the heart of another place, has enduring appeal for incurable romantics.

UK-based operator Byway has become a one-stop shop for these slow travel enthusiasts, offering tailor-made trips across the continent, with sleeper services, hotels and connections all included, making what could be a logistical headache utterly seamless. Travellers even get a dedicated WhatsApp contact for any queries.

In 2016, Austrias national rail operator, OBB, took on old German rolling stock. And since then, for anyone with the inclination to romanticise their journey, its Nightjet services have become the perfect way to travel across Europe.

First-class destination: Joe Minihane takes a slow travel route from London to Paris via Brussels, Frankfurt and Vienna (pictured) with the UK-based tour operator Byway

One of its most idyllic trips connects Viennas Hauptbahnhof station with Pariss Gare de lEst, a 14-hour ride which leaves the Austrian capital as night falls and arrives in the 10th arrondissement in time for a mid-morning espresso and croissant.

If youre planning an entire European jaunt with your feet firmly on the ground, Byways route to Vienna first delivers you to Brussels via the Eurostar.

In the Belgian capital theres time for rocket-fuel-strength coffee in the delightful Kaffabar, just a ten-minute stroll from Midi station, before boarding the Deutsche Bahn Ice high-speed train to Frankfurt for three hours of dreamy contemplation as the Low Countries glide by.

Thats all before a night in the hip 25 Hours Hotel, a short hop from the main station (its bar also serves up some of the best Israeli mezze this side of Jerusalem). The following morning, the route from Frankfurt to Vienna passes through eastern Germanys brooding pine forests, allowing thoughts to drift to Gothic fairytales.

It may take much longer than flying, but thats the point. Travel like this is the apotheosis of the journey being more important than the destination  and its far more enjoyable than marvelling at the clouds from 39,000ft.

And when darkness descends, a good book and the chance to stretch your legs and grab a glass of wine from the dining car proves far more preferable to the mid-air urge for a gin and tonic in a plastic cup.

By the time you arrive in Vienna you feel a sense of achievement in having come so far without taking to the skies.

Vienna is a city made for flaneurs  those who love aimless walking  an art seemingly lost in the age of the smartphone. So following a superb dinner at Filipino restaurant Lolo & Lola, and a night spent sleeping off the days train ride in the opulent Josefshof am Rathaus Hotel, its time to head to Innere Stadt, the old town.

Joe recommends visiting Mumok, Vienna's home of cutting-edge modern art

Above is Amalienbad, Vienna's stunning Art Deco indoor swimming pool

Joe says you must stroll through the Swiss Gate of Hofberg palace in Vienna

This area is chock full of some of Europes best-preserved architecture, and ripe for a mornings exploration. Stroll through the Swiss Gate of Hofburg palace, past the spires of St Stephens Cathedral, and take the time to look up and marvel. Throw in scrambled eggs at the delightful Kleines Cafe and youve got the makings of the perfect start to the day.

The good news is that Viennas walkable centre and excellent U Bahn and tram system mean you can squeeze in plenty more before the 7.40pm departure to Paris.

Take your pick from world-class art galleries, such as the Albertina and Mumok, the citys home of cutting-edge modern art, and youll still have time for a swim at Amalienbad. This spectacular example of Art Deco architecture, replete with glass roof, is a 15-minute U Bahn ride from the centre, Stephansplatz. Dating to the early 1920s, when Viennas local government went on a fabulously idealistic building spree, its pool and saunas are the ideal way to ease off the day and ready yourself for your cross-continental journey.

All Nightjet tickets arranged by Byway come with access to Austrian Railways lounge at Vienna Hauptbahnhof. Sitting high above the concourse, it looks out on to the huge departure board, its distant destinations adding to the excitement. There are trains to Rome, Berlin and Prague  but its the train to Paris thats calling.

In the Austrian capital, Joe boards a Nightjet sleeper train headed for Paris

Pictured is one of the Couchettes cabins on a Nightjet train

Joe explores the colourful streets of Montmartre in Paris (pictured), before heading back to London on the Eurostar

TRAVEL FACTS This three-night trip from London to Brussels, Frankfurt, Vienna and Paris, including hotels and sleeper service, costs 806pp based on two travellers sharing a room (byway.travel). Advertisement

A guard takes your ticket and ushers you into your berth, which is your own space for the duration of the trip. Here youll find three spacious seats and a wash basin, with three bunks that can be folded down by staff once you decide its time to turn in.

As the train thunders out of the Austrian capital and you stretch out your legs, its impossible not to feel as if youve stepped out of time into a more languid way of getting from A to B.

The wide, cosy beds and the motion of the train clattering along help lull you to sleep. And when you wake and pull open the blinds on to the vineyards of France, theres still an hour or so to sip coffee and devour fresh bread and cheese before pulling into Gare de lEst. Youll then have plenty of time for a walk around the artistic district of Montmartre before catching the Eurostar back to London.

It may be a slower way to get around, but seeing Europe like this, all booked and without any hassle, feels like the perfect way to step back in time  with all the convenience of the future.

The jet-free way to explore the cream of Europe

Those who want to explore more of central Europe can take OBBs overnight service from Austrias Graz to Berlin, which runs via Vienna.

In just under 15 hours it then makes its way through Czech Republic and Poland before finally swinging west into Germany.

These are the same cars youll find on the Vienna-to-Paris Nightjet train, with options ranging from a basic couchette to a private berth with your own shower.

Youll be offered a glass of sparkling wine as you board and a continental breakfast before pulling into Berlin Hauptbahnhof, one of Europes finest railway stations. Sleeper cabins cost from 120pp (nightjet.com).

Overnight trains arent just about avoiding flights. Belmonds luxury Orient Express between Paris and Venice is a five-star hotel on wheels, featuring three restaurants and an invitation for passengers to dress to impress.

With a four-course dinner, continental breakfast and lunch served as you wind your way south, this is about as opulent as train travel gets. The Art Deco cabins come with full-sized beds and concierge service. Costs from 3,530 for a cabin based on two sharing (belmond.com).

A flight-free epic journey between London and Sicily can be tailored depending on whether you love arts and culture, food or are travelling with children.

It takes a series of trains from London to Rome via Paris and Turin.

You then board the spectacular sleeper service to Palermo  it is loaded on to a ferry to travel across the Strait of Messina.

Take a slow ride around the island on local services before heading north from Syracuse in Sicily and then on to Milan. The 14-day trip costs from 1,813pp (byway.travel).

Gilded glamour: A suite on the Orient Express, 'a five-star hotel on wheels'

Europes coolest new overnight service operates between Hamburg and Stockholm, travelling north via Odense and Copenhagen before crossing over to Malmo. Operated by SJ, Swedens national train carrier, this is a great way to get into the heart of Scandinavia without having to fly. Services have been timed to coincide with Deutsche Bahns high-speed Ice trains, meaning you can make connections to and from Berlin, Frankfurt and Cologne.

The latter is well connected with Brussels for Eurostar services to and from the UK.

Second-class sleeper compartments start from 132pp (sj.se).

Czech Railways offers an overnight service from Prague to Zurich  heading west to Frankfurt before turning south to Switzerland. Taking 14 hours, its a joint operation, teaming up with OBB Austrian Railways and Germanys Deutsche Bahn.

Theres the promise of new rolling stock and more comfortable beds this year.

A private, single sleeper starts from 120pp (cd.cz).

Overnight services arent just about exploring mainland Europe. The Caledonian Sleeper service from London to Scotland has been fully revamped, with improved cabins and a revamped restaurant car.

You can choose to head to Glasgow, Inverness or  for some of the best views  Fort William.

On this route youll wake up overlooking the majestic Loch Lomond and have the chance to view the wild expanse of Rannoch Moor as well as the dazzling Munros of the Highlands.

Caledonian Sleeper starts from 345 for a double cabin for one, rising to 410 for two (sleeper.scot).
The popular Spanish holiday destination of Lanzarote is sticking to its guns in its bid to 'desaturate' the island from too many tourists and become less dependent on British visitors.

Island president Maria Dolores Corujo says the authority has no intention of changing its mind amid claims that the new approach is already damaging Lanzarote's image, and that other islands are struggling with the approach.

She has also accused opposition councillors from the Popular Party of scaremongering and joining in a 'disinformation campaign'.

'We are going to continue to promote the debate on the limits to growth even though they try to gag us with the ghost of fear of damage to the image of Lanzarote,' she insisted.

Ms Corujo's comments also came as the director of the Spanish Tourist Office in the United Kingdom insisted the country would not 'discriminate by type of visitor'.

The popular Spanish holiday destination of Lanzarote (pictured, file photo) is sticking to its guns in its bid to 'desaturate' the island from too many tourists and become less dependent on British visitors, despite some fears that the plan could damage the island's image

Manuel Butler told MailOnline that while Spain's 'travel industries need to work together to address the challenges of mass tourism,' the country's main focus was on 'becoming a more sustainable and competitive tourism destination'.

Lanzarote's island government has yet to reveal details of how the desaturation will be done but one major holiday hotspot on the island, which is part of the Canaries off the coast of northwestern Africa, has already started to prepare its own plans.

Famara on the northwest coast of Lanzarote is a massive tourist hotspot because of its scenic beauty and sandy beach which attracts surfers from all over the world.

But locals say it is a classic example of saturation, with environmentalists describing it as a 'red dot on over-tourism' on the island map.

Residents, business owners, ecologists, clubs and associations have just held the first in a series of meetings to 'propose solutions to the overcrowding of parts of the beach' and the town in general.

They were joined by the island government's environment minister, Elena Solis.

Discussing the current situation in the resort, the meeting agreed that 'Famara is saturated, there are too many people, cars and rubbish.'

They also agreed there were too many vehicles, including caravans and motorhomes, and too many cars driving around looking for spaces.

They also quoted 'uncivil behaviour' and an absence of a tourist strategy among the shops, restaurants and surf schools.

Olaya Gracia, from Ecologistas en Accion (Ecologists in Action), said everyone was aware that there was a problem and that it was not about going 'against each other' but about putting things in common.

And Carmen Portella, from the organisation Desert Watch, said: 'The situation is unsustainable and is getting worse.' And she added: 'You have to sacrifice people, not nature, which is already sacrificed enough.'

Ideas which might be considered at future meetings include limiting access to the beach road and more protection for the natural park area.

Lanzarote's president Dolores Corujo sparked widespread controversy last month when she declared the island was saturated and wanted to change its approach to tourism.

Lanzarote island president Maria Dolores Corujo (pictured second-right) says the authority has no intention of changing its mind amid claims that the new approach is already damaging Lanzarote's image, and that other islands are struggling with the approach

Lanzarote's island government has yet to reveal details of how the desaturation will be done but Famara (pictured, file photo) - a holiday hotspot on the island which is part of the Canaries off the coast of northwestern Africa - has already started to prepare its own plans

This stance, she said, would mean aspiring to receive fewer tourists, 'with greater spending in the destination so that they generate greater wealth in the economy as a whole' - in other words, attracting more upmarket tourists.

As more than half of the island's visitors come from the UK, it would be necessary to adopt 'a diversification strategy to reduce dependence on the British market.'

Growth was therefore expected in the French, Italian, Dutch and peninsular markets which would have a direct impact on the increase in tourist spending at the destination. Many people took this to mean Lanzarote was fed-up with having so many British tourists who don't spend as much as other nationalities.

Opposition councillors have criticised the island's government, called the Cabildo, and say the president's remarks are damaging Lanzarote's tourism image.

Others say 'nothing will happen' as it has been talked about before.

A member of the political party Podemos Canarias said Dolores Corujo probably had no inclination as to the outcry her remarks would generate, describing it as 'an announcement which could forever change the way our people earn their bread.'

But the island president says opposition parties like the Popular Party are 'spreading fear which doesn't exist', including within the British market.

And she said the plans for desaturation should be welcomed, not opposed, because they would improve the tourist offering on the island, not detract from it.

'The great challenges of Lanzarote involve limiting tourism growth as a step prior to a process of decrease which makes it possible to reduce the accommodation offer while maintaining, and even improving, the income produced by those who visit the island,' she said.

'The Balearic Islands, the Costa del Sol or Barcelona are constantly in the news for their attempts to limit the growth of the number of vehicles associated with tourism, rationalise the arrival of cruise ships or control the growth of vacation rentals without generating any reputational crisis in the issuing markets.

On the contrary, that a destination makes an effort to guarantee its conservation is always good news for those who visit it,' said Dolores Corujo.

'We are going to continue to promote the debate on the limits to growth, even though they try to gag us with the ghost of fear of damage to the image of Lanzarote and regardless of whoever is, the only viable model has to be based on social and environmental sustainability.'

Meanwhile, Manuel Butler, Director of the Spanish Tourist in the UK, told MailOnline: 'Spain is a socially inclusive destination and we do not discriminate by type of visitor. It is true that our travel industries need to work together to address the challenges of mass tourism, not just in Spain but around the world, to achieve a model which is more responsible and mitigates the environmental footprint.

'For Spain, our strategy is focused on becoming a more sustainable and competitive tourism destination which addresses seasonal and geographical challenges, supports local industries and jobs and helps preserve local heritage and culture.

'It is true that a few destinations in Spain are putting in measures to encourage more responsible tourism behaviour, but ultimately, we are proud to be a welcoming country that is open to visitors from all different backgrounds and walks of life.'

On Monday, it was reported that a move to snub 'budget' British tourists in search for 'upmarket' holidaymakers is causing misery for residents in Mallorca and Ibiza who are now forced to live in vans because of soaring prices.

Famara (pictured, file image) on the northwest coast of Lanzarote is a massive tourist hotspot because of its scenic beauty and sandy beach which attracts surfers from all over the world. But locals say it is a classic example of saturation, with environmentalists describing it as a 'red dot on over-tourism' on the island map

Locals from the Balearic islands said they had been left wondering how they would 'survive' and afford to rent or buy properties amid increasing prices that have been driven by a shift towards upscale tourists who can afford more expensive properties.

'People are now looking at how to survive,' Rona Pineda, 32, who shares a two-bedroom apartment with a couple in Mallorca, told Bloomberg. 'If you have a normal salary, it's very difficult to find a place to live nowadays.'

The comments came after the director of tourism for Mallorca, Lucia Escribano, last year declared her industry chiefs 'are not interested in having budget tourists from the UK' - as the island attempts to rebrand itself from a destination for cheap drinks and beach parties by limiting the number of UK tourists.

Escribano recently said that she had been misquoted, with tourism bosses in Palma insisting that they were looking forward to welcoming a record number of Brits.
Things have already ended on bad terms for MAFS stars Lyndall Grace and Josh White less than a month after their post-show fling was exposed.

The pair, who hooked up at a cast wrap party before reuniting in Perth for a secret rendezvous, are 'no longer on speaking terms', sources have confirmed.

Josh, 40, is said to have ended things after discovering Lyndall, 27, had a 'secret boyfriend' she hadn't told him about.

He learned about her other relationship after flying out from Sydney to spend the Australia Day weekend with her in late January.

Their brief romance and subsequent break-up was described to Daily Mail Australia by one cast member as 'messy AF' from the start.

Things have already ended on bad terms for MAFS stars Lyndall Grace (left) and Josh White (right) less than a month after their post-show fling was exposed

The pair reportedly couldn't keep their hands off each other when they first hooked up at a post-finale party at the Ivy in Sydney in December.

Their behaviour apparently left their fellow cast members 'shocked'.

'Lyndall and Josh were all over each other in front of everyone, and it was really uncomfortable to watch,' a MAFS participant said.

'They were so caught up in the moment they didn't even care who was watching.'

Their late-night pash became more serious when Josh decided to take things to the next level by flying to Perth to meet Lyndall for a secret rendezvous.

The pair, who hooked up at a cast wrap party (pictured) before reuniting in Perth for a secret rendezvous, are 'no longer on speaking terms', sources have confirmed

Josh, a Sydney-based advertising director who was paired with sex-obsessed hairdresser Melissa Sheppard on MAFS, planned a romantic weekend with accountant Lyndall from January 26 to 29.

The pair thought they had covered their tracks, but one of Lyndall's close friends eventually worked out what was going on.

This friend reached out to Josh and asked him why he'd travelled across the country to be with her knowing she was 'in a long-term relationship' with another man.

This was news to Josh, who had no idea Lyndall was dating somebody else.

Josh, 40, ended things after discovering Lyndall, 27, had a 'secret boyfriend' she hadn't told him about. (He is pictured returning to Sydney on January 29, having cut short his trip to Perth)

'Josh was heartbroken as he was under the impression Lyndall was single. She completely led him on,' said a source.

'He was on the first flight back to Sydney and not f**king happy one bit. They spoke for hours every day leading up to this holiday and she didn't mention it once.'

The insider added that when the other MAFS cast members found out what went down in Perth, they were all 'really, really angry'.

'It has caused a lot of tension and drama within the group, and Lyndall and Josh are no longer on speaking terms. It's a complete mess,' they said.

'Lyndall wanted to keep the whole thing on the down-low - which is funny because she actually told some of the cast about it all on a night out in Perth.'

Lyndall and Josh's doomed love affair was reportedly what prompted intruder bride Tayla Winter to label her the 'biggest bully' in a rogue social media post.

'Lyndall, you're the biggest bully I've ever met... The amount of hurt you have caused many people is damaging and dangerous,' Tayla said in a since-deleted Instagram post on February 9.

'I'm hoping people get to tell their truth and the real story is heard sooner rather than later,' she added.

'Be kind people and not only in front of a camera, behind closed doors.'

Lyndall and Josh's doomed love affair was reportedly what prompted intruder bride Tayla Winter (pictured) to label her the 'biggest bully' in a rogue social media post

'Lyndall, you're the biggest bully I've ever met... The amount of hurt you have caused people is damaging and dangerous,' Tayla said in a since-deleted Instagram post on February 9

Daily Mail Australia was first to reveal Josh and Lyndall hit it off and 'couldn't stop pashing' during a wild night at Ivy Pool with several of their castmates.

The pair kissed on December 17 - the day after filming the reunion - when several MAFS participants went for a night out at the swanky Sydney venue.

'Things started when he told her he really liked her and felt like kissing her, and she said, "Well, go on then,"' the source said.

'After [the kiss], they would spend hours on the phone with each other every night and just got to really know each other that way.'

Lyndall didn't make any effort to hide their romance and told a handful of co-stars about it during a MAFS meet-up in Perth on New Year's Eve.

Josh and Lyndall kept their tryst a secret from Channel Nine and production company Endemol Shine Australia.

'A lot of [the MAFS] crew were stunned their hook-up became so serious so quickly,' one bride said, adding the fling had 'left a sour taste' in some people's mouths.

Melissa, Josh's on-screen ex-wife, was apparently 'the last one to hear about it, and boy was she not happy,' the insider added.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Lyndall, Josh and Channel Nine for comment.

Things didn't work out between Lyndall and Cam on the show and they split before the finale
Emmerdale viewers will see Paddy Dingle plan to take his own life in devastating scenes, as he reaches rock bottom after a battle with depression.

And, ahead of the episodes being broadcast on Thursday, actor Dominic Brunt has revealed he had to 'shake off' the affect of filming the hard-hitting episodes, after working with charities The Samaritans and Andy's Man Club to research the role.

In recent weeks viewers have seen Paddy's mental health slowly deteriorate after he split from his cheating wife Chas, even leading him to vanish from the village for several weeks after sleeping with his ex Mandy.

On Tuesday, viewers saw Paddy finally return to the village after several weeks away, and in the coming scenes they'll see him go about his day, saying veiled goodbyes to his friends and family as he plans to end his life.

As he vanishes from the village once again, his father Bear discovers a suicide note, and it's a race against time to find Paddy before it's too late.

SPOILER: Emmerdale star Dominic Brunt has revealed he had to 'shake off' the effect of filming Paddy's deteriorating mental health, as he prepares to take his own life in upcoming scenes

Speaking to MailOnline and other media ahead of the episodes, Dominic explained he learned about the storyline well in advance from producers, as they planned to plant little hints at Paddy's deteriorating mental health.

He said: 'The mechanics of how it was going to work and who was being involved and the scale of it, and it kind of transcends the normal storylines that were normally given.

'I think the only time I've had something like this before was when when Aaron came out, and it mattered to people.

'I remember an uncle that was kind of that you know that generational kind of bigotry that's there and he watched it and went yeah, I understand that.'

'I was hoping that this story might do that that it might actually make a difference and normalize talking.'

Dominic added that he felt a 'huge responsibility' to try and get the storyline right, and heavily researched in preparation for filming.

He continued: 'Whether it's been through Andy's Man Club, or doing my own research and it's been incredible. And not only is it been inspirational, but it's been pitch black, dark, and it's made me appreciate what I have, which I feel I have.

'Mental fortitude and, and my life kind of sails along here, you know. Then I'll kind of look after myself if I'm busy, I'll cut out alcohol and caffeine and I'll walk the dogs and I'll make sure I get plenty of sleep.

Heartbreaking: In upccenes viewers will see Paddy go about his day, saying veiled goodbyes to his friends and family as he plans to end his life

'But speaking to people, where life has hit them so hard from left field, they're nobody's asked for this. It's been really shocking and as I said before everyone that's come through the other side of it has always said I'm glad I spoke to someone. I'm glad I talked. Talking saved me.'

'And yeah, it's been it's blown the top of my head off. It's really been incredible, really.'

Dominic added that after everything that Paddy has endured in recent years, it was easy to see how he would have reached such a dark point, and particularly how many men still 'suffer in secret.'

He added that he after filming each day he had to mentally escape to protect his own wellbeing.

'I couldn't let myself even open a little door to the to the Black dogs that these people experience,' he said.

'The journey there and the curve w as so clear that it was it was almost easy to do. However, the the emotion that that you had to visit had to be shaken off almost immediately.

Heartbreaking: Dominic added that after everything that Paddy has endured in recent years, it was easy to see how he would have reached such a dark point

'And I felt supported. But I've got an hour's drive home. I get the radio back on and make sure I get some sleep that night and and and and I'm not suffering like that. I'm a stupid actor with the script in the hand.

'It didn't touch the sides for me and because I know what it's like for someone to really, really go through that. So yes, I felt fine. Sorry that was a long way round answering that question. But yeah, I'm fine.'

Dominic added that even in the wake of his suicide attempt, Paddy will need as much support as possible, and it will be a long road until he recovers.

Emmerdale worked closely with The Samaritans and Andy's Man Club to portray the storyline sensitively, and producer Laura Shaw told MailOnline it will tie into the soap's upcoming all-male episode.

Coming soon: Producer Laura Shaw also told MailOnline that the storyline will tie into the soap's upcoming all-male episode

The episode, which airs on March 9, sees the men of the village gather in the Woolpack to discuss their struggles.

She revealed: 'Marlon's desperation to get his best friend to talk. He has a bit of a lock-in at the Wolfpack with a few of the other men in our village with the aim to get the men all talking.

'So the episode, it's an all male cast, it's filmed entirely in one set and it's basically just a whole episode where our men just just talk.

'There's no stunts, there's no affairs, there's no big huge explosive reveals. Each just men talking about whatever they're feeling or thinking.

'It's as simple as that, but when you watch it, it's probably one of the most powerful episodes we've ever done, too.'

If you have been affected by this story, you can call The Samaritans for free on 116 123, email them at jo@samaritans.org.

Emmerdale airs Paddy's heartbreaking struggles on Thursday March 2, and Friday March 3 at 7pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
Padma Lakshmi has a new project this month.

On Wednesday the 52-year-old Top Chef star was talking about a healthy way to snack.

The iconic philanthropist and food expert is working with KIND at the KIND Secret Farmers Market. 'Each door unlocks an act of KIND-ness,' she wrote on her Insta Stories.

The star - who was seen walking her dog last week - was educating and providing people access to nutrition from real, whole, recommended foods.

Popping up in New York on Tuesday and Wednesday, the KIND Secret Farmers Market 'invites locals to shop free of charge for fresh, whole ingredients,' per a press release.

New work: Padma Lakshmi has a new project this month. On Wednesday the Top Chef star was talking about a healthy way to snack

Time to eat: The iconic philanthropist and food expert is working with KIND at the KIND Secret Farmers Market

For the first time ever, the pop-up is traveling to a second market and will open in Houston on March 11.

In collaboration with KIND, Lakshmi curated exclusive dishes for the NY pop-up including Butternut Squash Toasties topped with pecans, pomegranate and serrano chiles, Lentil Salad on leaves of endive and Fruit & Almond Bites.

The TV star flaunted her toned physique while donning a form-fitting black top and belted slacks.

She wore her hair down and added pink toned makeup with gold necklaces for her glam.

The Indian-born star, who has notably published six books throughout her career thus far, was seen with her dog last week.

Padma opted for a minimalistic makeup look as she guided her pup, Divina, with a long, blue leash.

She rescued the friendly chihuahua back in 2020, and opened up on A Little Late With Lilly Singh about bringing the addition into her family, revealing, 'I've never had a pet before.'

The TV personality later expressed, 'But, you know, my kid's an only child, and I wanted to do something for her that would make her happy...She's so sweet. She does tricks.'

Fresh veggies: She was educating and providing people access to nutrition from real, whole, recommended foods

Yummy: Popping up in New York on Tuesday and Wednesday, the KIND Secret Farmers Market 'invites locals to shop free of charge for fresh, whole ingredients,' per a press release

When the talented TV personality is not on set of the hit Bravo competition show, or working on her own docuseries titled Taste The Nation, the beauty is focused on raising her 12-year-old daughter, Krishna, whom she shares with ex, Adam Dell.

Padma was previously married to novelist, Salman Rushdie, who was notably injured in a stabbing that occurred last year in Buffalo by an, 'Iranian government sympathizer.'

The former couple had tied the knot in 2004, with their divorce being finalized three years later in 2007.

When talking about her style choices to Forbes earlier last year, the mother of one explained that, 'My Indian heritage very strongly affects my fashion sense.'

She added, 'A lot of my jewelry and accessories are from India, so are all my beautiful embroidered cashmere shawls.'

The star, who was discovered as a model when she was a senior in college, further expressed to the publication, 'Im very connected to my heritage both in every other way but also through my taste and tendencies in the way I dress.'

Padma recently celebrated her 52nd birthday last Fall during a Hawaiian getaway, and admitted that, 'I feel better at this age than I have at any age prior. I dont mind being my age.'

After enjoying modeling for years, the talented beauty entered the television scene, and became host and a judge on the hit Brave competition series, Top Chef, since its second season.

Her role has earned Padma an Emmy nomination, and success in publishing. She has penned in total six books, including two cookbooks and a children's novel titled, Tomatoes For Neela.

Adorable companion: For the first time ever, the pop-up is traveling to a second market and will open in Houston on March 11. In collaboration with KIND, Lakshmi curated exclusive dishes for the NY pop-up including Butternut Squash Toasties topped with pecans, pomegranate and serrano chiles, Lentil Salad on leaves of endive and Fruit & Almond Bites. Seen last week in NYC

Talented: After enjoying modeling for years, the talented beauty entered the television scene, and became host and a judge on the hit Brave competition series, Top Chef

Top Chef has entered its 20th season this year, and in celebration of the milestone, will be hosting a World All-Star competition that is set to air next month on March 9.

Padma discussed the upcoming season during an interview with Gotham Magazine published earlier this month, and gushed, 'Its very exciting. I had so much fun filming it.'

'Its also a very elevated competition because, right off the bat, the only chefs that are competing have already won their respective seasons of Top Chef or come in as finalists.'

The star added that, 'were taking finalists and winners from 11 different versions around the world and seeing how they do on a world stage. And not only are they from all over the world, but theyre also at the top of their game.'
Snezana Wood spared no expense for her 17-year-old daughter Eve's Year 12 formal last week.

The former Bachelor star hired a celebrity makeup artist for Eve's beauty prep, and also gave her a $4,000 Prada clutch to bring to the school dance.

She shared a gallery of photos to Instagram on Tuesday of her daughter getting ready for the event.

The teenager was attended to by Tahlia Jayde, who lists herself online as an 'international makeup artist'.

Hiring a top makeup artist can cost more than $125 an hour.

Snezana Wood spared no expense for her 17-year-old daughter Eve's Year 12 formal last week. The former Bachelor star hired a celebrity makeup artist for Eve's beauty prep, and also gave her a $4,000 Prada clutch to bring to the school dance

The gallery included photos of Eve hamming it up for the camera before her formal, alongside her mother and three sisters, Charlie, Willow and Harper.

They were joined by Lizzie Waley, the CEO of Sundae Body, a brand that creates cruelty-free beauty products.

Eve, who was just nine years old when she was featured with her mother on The Bachelor in 2015, dressed to the nines for her high school formal in a glittering longline dress with white strappy sandals.

She posed for photos in the family's living room before the big dance, which her proud mum later shared on Instagram.

'Last night was our little Vivi's Year 12 formal' Snezana wrote in the caption.

The teenager was attended to by Tahlia Jayde (left), who lists herself online as an 'international makeup artist'. Hiring a top makeup artist can cost more than $125 an hour

Her stepdad Sam Wood was equally proud of Eve, sharing similar photos with the caption: 'Just wow! So proud of the young woman you're becoming.'

Several of the Woods' famous friends commented on the photos, with footy WAG Bec Judd writing: 'Stunning!!!'

Eve soft-launched her modelling career earlier this month when she tagged a popular bikini brand in one of her Instagram posts.

The talented teen looked every inch the professional model as she posed in the Vinca-Savoca bikini by the Aussie label Triangl.

The Instagram gallery included photos of Eve hamming it up for the camera before her formal, alongside her mother and three sisters, Charlie, Willow and baby Harper (left)

In March last year, Snezana revealed her daughter was working towards a career in fashion when the two attended Melbourne Fashion Festival.

Sharing a photo of the pair, Snez wrote: 'Mother-daughter date night with @eve.vict who is working towards a career in fashion is absolutely killing it.'

The teenager's Instagram bio listed her as a 'model' at the time, but this has since been updated to 'digital creator'.

Proud mum Snezana shared a gallery of photos on Instagram of the 17-year-old in a glittering longline dress with white strappy sandals

Eve soft-launched her modelling career earlier this month when she tagged a popular bikini brand in one of her Instagram posts

Snezana also shares daughters Willow, three, Charlie, two, and baby Harper with her husband-of-four-years Sam Wood.

Eve is Snezana's daughter from her first marriage.

The Woods met on The Bachelor in 2015 and remain one of the franchise's success stories, alongside Tim Robards and Anna Heinrich.

Sam is responsible for the highly successful fitness program 28 by Sam Wood.
A former Married At First Sight star charged over his alleged involvement in a boiler room scam syndicate has made a surprising request before a Queensland court.

Daniel Phillip Webb was committed to stand trial on two charges of fraud following a hearing at Brisbane Magistrates Court in 2021.

Mr Webb, who rose to fame as one of the grooms on season six of the popular reality show, is alleged to have pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars dispersed by one of the companies linked to the cold-call scam syndicate.

Brisbane District Court on Tuesday was told Mr Webb wished to vary his bail conditions to travel overseas to Mexico for his brother Sam's wedding.

The court was told he was restricted in applying for a passport under his current bail obligations.

Daniel Phillip Webb was committed to stand trial on two charges of fraud following a hearing at Brisbane Magistrates Court in 2021

District Court Judge Paul Smith noted Mr Webb had previously travelled overseas and had no breaches of bail.

Judge Smith said Mr Webb's proposed itinerary would need further approval from the Director of Public Prosecutions.

'I'm inclined to make the draft order and place it on the file,' he said.

Mr Webb, who rose to fame as one of the grooms on season six of MAFS, is alleged to have pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars dispersed by one of the companies linked to the cold-call scam syndicate

Judge Paul Smith granted the variation on the condition Webb have his travel itinerary approved by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Crown before he departs.

Conditions seven and eight of Mr Webb's bail agreement will be varied to read that he cannot apply for a passport or travel internationally with the newly added exception of Mexico during April 2023 only.

Mr Webb's matter will return to court at a later date.

Brisbane District Court on Tuesday was told Mr Webb wished to vary his bail conditions to travel overseas to Mexico for his brother Sam's wedding

The court was told he was restricted in applying for a passport under his current bail obligations

Police allege the boiler room scam, which included multiple people other than Mr Webb, would cold call victims and offer investments in products that did not exist.

It is alleged the scammers ran a call centre, referred to as a 'boiler room' by police, involving sales people pressuring unsuspecting victims to invest money thinking they would make good returns.

Companies linked to the investments would allegedly disappear and result in investors losing their money.

It is alleged the syndicate duped more than $20million from hundreds of victims in 2013 and 2014.
A source said Madonna visited him in his final months ahead of his passing

Cicconi had a rocky relationship with his sister, who he criticized in the past

Madonna had paid a visit to her late brother Anthony Ciccone prior to his death at the age of 66, in the final months of his life.

The 64-year-old musical icon, an insider told People, and her relatives, including six other siblings, shared a 'complicated relationship' with Anthony amid his long battle with addiction, and were present 'as he declined these past few months' prior to his death February 24.

The insider said that 'family members including Madonna visited him while in his rehab facility' and 'were all there for him' amid the difficult time.

The source added, 'Madonna supported him in every way she could when he was willing to take the support.'

Madonna, who was born in Michigan to Catholic parents, grew up in the suburbs of Detroit with five siblings, the eldest of whom was Anthony, born two years before her in 1956.

Details: Madonna, 64, had paid a visit to her late brother Anthony Ciccone prior to his death at the age of 66, in the final months of his life, sources told People Tuesday. She was pictured earlier this month in LA

RIP: Anthony Ciccone, who died February 24, shared a 'complicated relationship' with his relatives amid his long battle with addiction

Although she moved to New York in 1978 to pursue dance and embarked on what was going to be a hugely successful career, he stayed largely in Michigan, working on and off for their father, before falling victim to alcoholism and homelessness.

Madonna's brother-in-law Joe Henry, who is the husband of her sister Melanie Ciccone, announced Anthony's passing in a statement.

'My brother-in-law, Anthony Gerard Ciccone, exited this earthly plane last evening. I've known him since I was 15, in the spring of our lives in Michigan so many years now gone,' he said. 'Anthony was a complex character; and god knows: we tangled in moments, as true brothers can.

'But I loved him, and understood him better than I was sometimes willing to let on.'

Henry added: 'But trouble fades; and family remains - with hands reached across the table. Farewell, then, brother Anthony. I want to think the god your blessed mother (and mine) believed in has her there, waiting to receive you. At least for today, no one shall dissuade me from this vision.'

Like Madonna, Cicconi also spent time in New York in his 30s in the late 1980s.

Carolina Gengo, 59, who dated him at the time, described him in a positive light: 'He was a lost soul trying to find his way but he was a good person.

'He had books everywhere, that was all he really had. He was into reading about life and philosophy,' said Gengo. 'And he wanted to sit around and talk about it.'

Cicconi pictured as a young man in a warm tribute to him posted by his brother in law on Saturday

Madonna had known about her brother's plight and repeatedly offered to help by paying for him to go into rehab. She is pictured here in during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

'He talked about what it was like being the brother of Madonna, he didn't like being known as the brother of Madonna', she said.

Gengo recounted one occasion when on his birthday his sister's assistant called to ask how much money he wanted as a gift. That, she said, alienated him.

After some years of sleeping rough under a bridge in Michigan Madonna's family said they would reincorporate estranged Anthony in 2017.

It came after for years he suggested publicly that his family had turned their backs on him. 'I'm a zero in their eyes; a non-person, an embarrassment,' he told the Daily Mail in 2011.

'If I froze to death, my family probably wouldn't know or care about it for six months.'

Ciccone said at the time that he had been living under a river bridge in Michigan with a sleeping bag and his sole companion, another unhoused person named Michael.

Ciccone said he had been among the homeless in the ski resort of Traverse City since losing a job at his father's vineyard and winery six miles away.

His father and stepmother own a vineyard about 20 miles north of where Anthony would sleep rough, under Union St. bridge in Traverse City.

Helping hand: 'Madonna supported him in every way she could when he was willing to take the support,' a source told People

Memories: Madonna took to social media with a memorial for her brother, saying he 'planted many important seeds' in her life

'My family turned their back on me, basically, when I was having a hard time,' he said. 'You think I haven't answered this question a bazillion times  why my sister is a multi-bazillionaire and I'm homeless on the street? Never say never. This could happen to anybody.'

He said it made him angry when some thought it funny that the brother of such a famous star should end up living under a bridge. He was adamant at the time that he wanted none of her money  whether it was offered or not.

'I'm not looking to get a free handout because of my sister,' he said. 'I'm not looking for any publicity.' He instead relies on the generosity of soup kitchens run by local churches for food.

Ciccone, who claimed he once worked in Alaska's fishing industry and as a photographer's assistant in New York, said in 2011 he was doing odd jobs and collecting bottles and cans from people's dustbins.

Madonna had known about his plight, and repeatedly offered to help by paying for him to go into rehab. His father also offered to give him his job back if he got professional help.

He had not always been receptive though: 'My family seem to think rehab is some kind of magic panacea for life's ills,' he once said.

Nonetheless things appeared to look up for Cicconi after a stint in rehab in 2017 and his reintegration to family life.

Karen McCarthy, a founder of rehab clinic Dann's House, confirmed his stay, telling the Sunday People: 'Anthony loved it at Dann's House for quite a while, and made significant improvements in his life while he was with us.

'Dann's House does good work with people who are vulnerable. We've seen tremendous, positive results.'
As the old saying goes, never work with children or animals.

And a Love Island star learned that lesson the hard way on Tuesday when she was attacked by a pair of ostriches during a photo shoot in the Australian Outback.

Millie Fuller, 29, shared a video on Instagram of the moment one of the long-necked animals decided to take a swing at her while she was posing for the camera.

The clip, which she captioned 'dumb ways to die,' showed her modelling a white dress and bush hat as she stood on the red sand.

As she walked away from the ostriches, one of them broke away and followed Millie.

Love Island star Millie Fuller (pictured) was attacked by a pair of ostriches during a photo shoot in the Australian Outback earlier this week

Millie, 29, shared a video on Instagram of the moment one of the long-necked animals decided to take a swing at her while she was posing for the camera

The two-metre-high creature then spread its wings and tried to run Millie down, knocking her in the back.

The video ended with an alarmed Millie turning on the animal and pushing it away.

She wrote in the caption of her video: 'This ostrich gaslit me into thinking we were friends, so this hurt my feelings more than anything.'

Friend and followers were quick to comment on Millie's post.

The clip, which she captioned 'dumb ways to die,' showed her modelling a white dress and bush hat as she stood on the red sand

The two-metre-high creature then spread its wings and tried to run Millie down, knocking her in the back. The model pushed the creature away

One fan said she thought Millie was 'done for'

'I honestly thought you were done for,' one concerned fan wrote.

'Oh gosh, I would be s**tting myself,' another added.

One follower was unsure whether the video was faked, commenting: 'Haha, at the start, I thought it was staged until I watched it again.'

Millie rose to fame on Love Island Australia in 2018.
Jennifer Aniston discussed her battle with insomnia in a new Instagram advert this week,

The 54-year-old Friends star is the face of Seize the Night & Day, 'an integrated educational campaign' that serves to illuminate how insomnia affects people during the day as well as at night - and drew on her own experiences.

In the 15-second-long clip the actress said, 'If I don't have a good night's sleep the day is just a walking punishment.'

'Everything's an effort and my thoughts aren't very clear,' she stammered as she chatted to the camera.

It comes after the actress broke down in tears as she watched longtime friend Courteney Cox receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Monday.

New campaign: Jennifer Aniston discussed her battle with insomnia in a new Instagram advert this week

Jennifer looked typically gorgeous and youthful with her blonde hair styled in an off-center part as it fell over her chest.

She wore a long-sleeved, dark green v-neck sweater and a pair of light wash jeans.

Her face was lightly made up as she highlighted her blue eyes with mascara and metallic shadow,

Seize the Night & Day is a venture by Idorsia Pharmaceuticals and its official Instagram account reads, 'Were taking back our nights & days to help put insomnia to bed.'

Aniston first joined forces with the initiative back in January 2022 and it was announced in a press release.

The statement began, 'Idorsia Ltd (SIX: IDIA) and Idorsia Pharmaceuticals, US Inc. today announced its partnership with award-winning actor and director/producer Jennifer Aniston to launch Seize the Night & Day, an integrated educational campaign aimed at revealing insomnias dual impact that affects both nights and days.'

It continued, 'The national initiative sheds light on the reality of insomnia for the millions of Americans living with this very real, but often overlooked medical condition.'

Social media share: The 54-year-old entertainer took to Instagram to share a snippet of an advertisement for the brand

Then it was noted that 'Idorsia and Jen have forged a multi-year collaboration with the shared goal of informing, inspiring and empowering people to take the first steps towards quality sleep through education, actionable information and community support.'

An excerpt on the website reads, 'If youve ever struggled with sleep, chances are its impacted both your nights & your days.

'But even if youre familiar, there may be more to insomnia than you realize - like what goes on in your brain at bedtime. Knowledge is power, people, so lets get smart about sleeplessness.'

On the site, Jennifer also appeared in another ad that humorously showed her bickering with a sleep app after it failed to help her doze off.

The Hollywood fixture opened up about her nocturnal struggles back in 2022: 'My challenges with sleep began many years ago  so its such a priority for my overall health.

'If I dont get a good nights sleep, my next day is really difficult. In working with Idorsia, I hope that we can all start prioritizing sleep health and have different conversations around trouble sleeping.'

In the 15-second-long clip the Friends alum said, 'If I don't have a good night's sleep the day is just a walking punishment'

Jennifer and goddaughter Coco Arquette, 18, were sitting side-by-side in the audience as mom Cox received a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame this week.

It came as she continues to promote her latest movie, Scream VI, which opens on March 10.

At one point Aniston seemed to break down in tears as she listened to a speech, then clapped away as Coco looked on.

Cox, 58, was officially immortalized along the iconic boulevard with a newly-minted star on Monday, making her the 2,750th person to be bestowed with the honor.

Also there were Lisa Kudrow, 59, Courteney's friend Laura Dern, 56, and her long-time partner Johnny McDaid, 46.

Emotional moment: It comes after the actress broke down in tears as she watched longtime friend Courteney Cox receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Monday

'We're very honored to be here today to speak on your behalf as your co-workers, your friends, and your family, your sisters,' Jennifer said to audience members, according to ET Online. 'And that's happened since we've known you for a very long time.'

'It's been that way since we met almost 30 years ago,' Lisa said before Jennifer chimed in with the joke: 'No, not 30 years ago. That's a typo.'

'To be friends with Courteney is to be family with Courteney. She is responsible for all of that. From the beginning of when we met her, she was immediately inclusive, warm, loving, interested in everything about you,' Jennifer continued.

The duo also recalled their first time meeting Courteney, and joked she was the most famous out of all her Friends co-stars.
U.S. Department of Defense Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder is seen answering a question during a daily press briefing at the Pentagon in Washington on Feb. 28 in this captured image. Yonhap



The United States and South Korea agree on the need to further strengthen U.S. extended deterrence, a U.S. defense department spokesperson said Tuesday, also reaffirming U.S. commitment to deploying strategic assets to South Korea on a rotational basis.



The remarks from Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder come after the countries held a Deterrence Strategy Committee Table-Top Exercise (DSC TTX) aimed at enhancing their joint deterrence against North Korean nuclear threats.



"We did conduct a successful discussion in regards to various approaches on the alliance deterrence posture and response posture in the face of the DPRK's evolving nuclear and missile capabilities," the department press secretary said of the table-top exercise held here in Washington last week, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.



"Coming out of that tabletop exercise, both sides agreed on the need to continue to strengthen extended deterrence, including through robust consultative mechanisms in crisis communication, as well as information sharing and joint planning and execution," he added.



Ryder, however, said he had nothing to announce when asked about future plans.



Cho Tae-yong, South Korean ambassador to the U.S., said on Monday that the countries have agreed to hold follow-up exercises in the near future.



The Pentagon spokesperson also declined to comment when asked if the U.S. planned to deploy more strategic assets to South Korea in the wake of unprecedented North Korean missile tests.



Still, he highlighted security commitments made by U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin during his trip to Seoul late last month.



"You have heard our senior leadership to include Secretary Austin highlight the fact that we will be on a rotational basis, deploying strategic assets into the region and to South Korea in support of extended deterrence," he told the press briefing. "But I don't have any specifics to provide."



North Korea launched 69 ballistic missiles last week, marking a new record of ballistic missiles fired in any given year. Its previous annual record was at 25. (Yonhap)


Teen Mom star Ryan Edwards' wife Mackenzie has filed for divorce and has been granted a restraining order against him, USWeekly reports.

Edwards, 31 is wanted by police in Tennessee in connection with allegations he stalked Mackenzie - and his partner of six years filed divorce papers on Monday February 27, was granted the restraining order and temporary custody of their two young children.

The former couple wed in 2017 after meeting at a gym in Chattanooga, Tennessee. They are now parents to son Jagger, four, and daughter Stella, three.

Edwards is also father to son Bentley, 14, with Maci Bookout, 31, who he was seen with on the MTV series 16 & Pregnant.

This comes it was reported by the US Sun that authorities filed warrants against Edwards on Thursday which comes less than two weeks after Edwards, 35, was arrested February 10 in connection with harassment of Mackenzie.

Teen Mom star Ryan Edwards' wife Mackenzie has filed for divorce and has been granted a restraining order against him, USWeekly reports

Embattled: Edwards, 31 is wanted by police in Tennessee in connection with allegations he stalked Mackenzid

In his arrest, Edwards was also charged with violating an order of protection, and possession of drug paraphernalia and a controlled substance.

In his arrest, Edwards - was also charged with violating an order of protection, and possession of drug paraphernalia and a controlled substance.

Edwards was subsequently taken into custody and held on a bond of $5,000, the outlet reported.

Prior to Edwards' arrest, he took to social media with a picture of Mackenzie topless, captioning the image, 'If you guys have never seen a spineless s*** this is one.'

He added: 'They take your money sleep with anything that looks at them. But they must have a wife to [sic]. God what a joke. It's sad really.'

Following the social media post, Mackenzie, 26, reported to the police multiple instances of domestic violence Edwards has been involved in since they wed in 2017.

Mackenzie told police Edwards 'punched holes in the walls and doors' and held her up by her 'neck to the wall' during a fight last month.

Mackenzie told authorities that Edwards threw her 'down in hallway and said if he could not have me no one could' and 'opened [his] pocket knife' and put it to her 'back like he was going to kill' her.

Happier times: The former couple wed in 2017 after meeting at a gym in Chattanooga, Tennessee. They are now parents to son Jagger, four, and daughter Stella, three

Father: Edwards is also father to son Bentley, 14, with Maci Bookout, 31, who he was seen with on the MTV series 16 & Pregnant

She said that the entire incident played out in front of their children.

'I tried to leave, he smashed my phone, took my car keys,' Mackenzie said, adding that a co-worker contacted the authorities in the wake of the incident.

Mackenzie told police that a week later, Edwards was violent with her again. She said that Edwards 'came into bedroom where [she] was laying down ... pretending like he's going to punch [her] face' while yelling at her.

She said that after Edwards broke the bed she was lying in at the time, she 'went to get [her] kids and leave,' but he wouldn't let her.

She said Edwards 'threw [her] down in [the] living room' and 'threw menthol nicotine in [her] eyes.'

Mackenzie was granted a temporary protective order.

Edwards, Mackenzie, and his parents were terminated from the show Teen Mom OG in 2021 following an incident with Bookout and her spouse, Taylor McKinney (pictured), according to The Sun

His issues with drugs were subsequently chronicled on the network's popular series Teen Mom.

Edwards in March of 2018 was arrested in connection with a probation violation on a previous drug conviction, after which Bookout obtained a restraining order against him.

He was subsequently arrested later that year after he was arrested with heroin in his possession, eventually serving a three-month prison stint in connection with the incident.

Edwards, Mackenzie, and his parents were terminated from the show Teen Mom OG in 2021 following an incident with Bookout and her spouse, Taylor McKinney, according to The Sun.
Angelina Jolie shared her new interview with Bibi Aisha - the young woman whose shocking 2010 cover on Time Magazine lifted the veil on the plight of many women in Afghanistan.

The Maleficent star, 47, sat down to speak with Bibi, 30, for another Time story - which she shared to her Instagram on Tuesday - where they discussed how she overcame being horribly mutilated by her husband under Taliban rule.

When Aisha was 14, her father promised her in marriage to a Taliban fighter to pay a debt. She was handed over to his family who abused her and forced her to sleep in the stable with the animals.

When she attempted to flee, she was caught and her nose and ears were hacked off by her husband as punishment. 'They abused me every day. I didnt have any rights,' Bibi told the Hollywood star, recounting how she then ran away, but was eventually sent back.

She made international headlines in 2010 when she appeared on the now-iconic cover of Time magazine with a gaping wound in the center of her face where a nose should be.

Candid talk: Angelina Jolie shared her new interview with Bibi Aisha - the young woman whose shocking cover of Time Magazine lifted the veil on the plight of many women in Afghanistan

Overcoming: The Maleficent star, 47, sat down to speak with Bibi, 30, for another Time story where they discussed how she overcame being mutilated by her husband under Taliban rule

Bibi had since underwent 31 surgeries and told Angelina she plans on becoming a nurse so that she can 'help people.'

'This is my goal. I want to become a nurse to help people. Ive had 31 surgeries, which means I have a lot of experience in the medical world. I want to help people who are hurting and say to them, if I could get through my darkest hours, you can.'

Bibi started out the interview recalling her tragic story and how she was mutilated by her husband and other Taliban members after her failed escape attempt.

'My so-called husband came by and took me to the mountains. They tied my hands and my feet. And they cut my first ear, and then another ear and then my nose. And then he said, "We dont care about you. We want to leave you here to die."'

Despite being left for dead in the mountains, Bibi survived and was eventually brought for treatment to an American military base.

'They treated me like a family member. They saved my life. Someone in America accepted my case and said they would do my surgery.'

'I spent nine months in a shelter. I had no idea what would happen to me. And suddenly TIME magazine came to me and took my picture. They opened the door for me.'

Angelina interjected: 'It caused outrage of course, because people saw what was done. And then we are now, many years after, at seeing those same people that harmed you are in charge of the country. And all that we then learned and were outraged about, we know is happening every day.'

Brutal reality: Bibi made international headlines in 2010 when she appeared on the now-iconic cover of Time magazine with a gaping wound in the center of her face where a nose should be

Tragic tale: Bibi recounted her tragic tale, recalling how when she was 14, her father promised her in marriage to a Taliban fighter to pay a debt. She was handed over to his family who abused her, and when she attempted to flee, she was caught and her nose and ears were hacked off by her husband as punishment

Looking to help others: Bibi had since underwent 31 surgeries and told Angelina she plans on becoming a nurse so that she can 'help people'

Outrage: 'Many years after those same people that harmed you are in charge of the country. And all that we then learned and were outraged about, we know is happening every day,' Angelina stated

Bibi then stressed the importance of education: 'It's very important, education. My grandmother told me "Someone can take everything away from you, but one thing they can't take away from you is knowledge."'

The new interview comes after Angelina's visit to Iraq. The Oscar-winning actress posted several images to her Instagram page earlier this month from the war-torn country.

'An emotional day with my friend @Nadia_Murad, who I was honored to spend the day with in Sinjar in Iraq,' began the mother of six, who had tears in her eyes in the images.

The Salt star said that her Nobel Price laureate friend Nadia is doing so much through Nadia's Initiative to help the Yazidi people and other communities. The people in Sinjar are recovering after struggling through 'conflict and genocide,' noted Jolie.

'She took me to the home she grew up in Kocho village,' began the ex-wife of Brad Pitt.

She added her pal took her to her old school where ISIS militants separated women and men before enslaving and mass murdering them.

The red carpet favorite added that 'many are still missing and the fight for justice continues.'

Her hashtags included one for Yazidi genocide.'
Married At First Sight star Rhyce Power has been mocked online for being unable to pronounce the term 'breast augmentation'.

The 32-year-old, who rose to fame as the 'hot brother' of MAFS bride Jessika Power, found himself tongue-tied during an Instagram Q&A on Tuesday after a follower asked why his partner Taylor Peters recently underwent surgery.

'Taylor got a breast anaugment [sic]. So, she got a boob job,' the heavily tattooed OnlyFans model confidently replied.

The video was later re-shared by Instagram 'snark' account Dutch Minty, prompting fans to poke fun at Rhyce's bizarre attempt at saying 'augmentation'.

'I listened to that so many times for laughs now I can't even think of the correct word,' one person joked.

Married At First Sight star Rhyce Power (pictured) has been mocked online for being unable to pronounce the term 'breast augmentation'

'He says it so confidently, I think that's the real word!' another added.

Rhyce was an instant hit with fans of Married At First Sight when he made his debut on the Channel Nine show back in 2019.

He went on to parlay his 15 minutes of fame into an OnlyFans career, which saw him rake in $15,000 per month selling raunchy content.

The 32-year-old brother of MAFS bride Jessika Power found himself tongue-tied during an Instagram Q&A on Tuesday after a follower asked why his partner recently underwent surgery. 'Taylor got a breast anaugment [sic] . So, she got a boob job,' he confidently replied

However, many fans may struggle to recognise him these days thanks to his hulking new physique, shaved head and dramatic face tattoos.

Among his inkings is a tattoo of an AK-47 on his forehead, the word 'power' under his eye, the number 13 above his eyebrow, and an upside-down cross on his temple.

Rhyce announced his engagement to Taylor in July 2021.

The video was later re-shared by Instagram 'snark' account Dutch Minty , prompting fans to poke fun at Rhyce's bizarre attempt at saying 'augmentation'

Rhyce was an instant hit with MAFS viewers when he was a guest at his sister Jessika's wedding in 2019 (left). But fans may struggle to recognise him these days thanks to his hulking new physique, shaved head and dramatic face tattoos (pictured right earlier this week)

Rhyce's fans were understandably shocked by the news, given that he had never introduced Taylor as his girlfriend on Instagram before.

His sister Jessika told Daily Mail Australia at the time she was overjoyed to welcome Taylor into the Power family.

'I'm very happy for my brother and Taylor. I've known his intentions for some time and I'm so overjoyed to see her say yes,' she said.

'I'm very pleased to welcome Taylor into the family and I hope they both have a happy and healthy future together.'

Taylor, a Queensland-based eyelash technician, went 'Instagram official' with Rhyce in May 2021, uploading a photo of the tattooed couple kissing at a restaurant.
The Mormons Are Coming

Rating ****

Home Greek Home

Rating **

The Scottish missionary James Chalmers was known to the tribes of New Guinea, who struggled with his name, as Tamate.

To his friend, the author Robert Louis Stevenson, he was one of the unreturning brave. The two men explored the South Seas together, and the writer described Chalmers as, the most attractive, simple, brave and interesting man in the whole Pacific.

In April 1901, Tamate and his protege Oliver Tomkins sailed in a steam launch to Goaribari Island in Papua New Guinea, to preach the Christian gospel. They were met on the shore by a war party, who promised them a feast.

As they walked to the village, the two Europeans were clubbed to death. A Papuan companion who survived said the mens bodies were cooked with sago and eaten. Tamate and Tomkins were the main course of their own welcome feast.

Back then, being a missionary was a dangerous business. Today, the worst fate awaiting a young evangelist is mortal embarrassment.

The Mormons Are Coming (BBC2) followed a group of earnest youngsters, aged 18 to 25, as they prepared at a training centre  not in the U.S., where The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was founded, but in Chorley, near Manchester

Sarah Moore (pictured, second left), presenter of Money For Nothing and winner of the Beebs Great Interior Design Challenge, was creating a bolthole for herself, far away from the ills of British society, on the island of Skiathos  where Mamma Mia was filmed

It was hard not to cringe for Sister Cooper and Elder Cook, both barely out of their teens, as they accosted members of the public in shopping centres and tried to interest them in Mormon Bible studies.

The Mormons Are Coming (BBC2) followed a group of earnest youngsters, aged 18 to 25, as they prepared at a training centre  not in the U.S., where The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was founded, but in Chorley, near Manchester.

CUNNING PLAN OF THE NIGHT: Retired detectives on The Girl In The Box: The Kidnapping Of Stephanie Slater (C5) told how they smuggled a forensics team into a suburban house to search for clues. In white overalls, the investigators carried ladders, to look like decorators. Crafty. Advertisement

Their chances seemed doomed from the moment they attended a workshop on how to achieve normal and natural interactions with non-Mormons.

For most of them, this was their first time away from home on their own. There was so much to discover  the Americans among them had never slept under duvets before.

They were not permitted alcohol, tea, coffee or any unsupervised contact with the opposite sex . . . not even normal and natural interactions. And to ensure they blended in with the Chorley locals, the girls wore modest dresses and the boys were never seen without neatly knotted ties.

Long hair on males was also prohibited, except for Jesus, who smiled down from a portrait in every room. The Lord wasnt wearing a tie either. Im not convinced He was actually a Mormon.

All the young missionaries were perfectly aware that their studied naivety made them easy targets for mockery, but they were armoured by their faith. And, really, it isnt surprising to learn that their statistical chances of a good job and a happy marriage are far better than average.

The truth is that, if its so odd in Britain now for young people to stay sober, respect their parents and believe in marrying for life, perhaps society does need saving from itself.

Sarah Moore, presenter of Money For Nothing and winner of the Beebs Great Interior Design Challenge, was creating a bolthole for herself, far away from the ills of British society, on the island of Skiathos  where Mamma Mia was filmed.

Home Greek Home (More4) charts her sunny trials at a tiny seaside house that she bought, sight unseen, over the internet for 100,000 during lockdown. Despite the fact it is not a very good idea, she said, my heart is telling me its a fantastic opportunity.

A platoon of local builders were helpfully tearing down walls and carting away the roof and doors. The worry is whether theyll come back to install new ones.

With an outdoor toilet and a single room downstairs, the place is tiny. But one of the builders revealed his mother grew up there . . . with her parents and 12 brothers and sisters. Mamma mia, there they go again.
Former Neighbours star Madeleine West would love to make a return to the iconic Australian soap.

Appearing on Studio 10 on Wednesday, the actress, 42, said she was super keen to reprise her roles as Dee Bliss and villain Andrea Somers on the show when it returns to Amazon after it was axed last year.

'Look, I'm putting it out there but if the opportunity was there. I'd love to, I didn't have the opportunity to take part in the finale I was doing the Predatory Podcast which took quite a toll,' she said.

'I didn't get a chance to come back and wrap up Dee and nut bag Andrea. So if the opportunity is there, I'm on Ten, I'd be there in a heartbeat!'

West starred on the show from 2000 to 2003 and on-off from 2017 to 2020.

Former Neighbours star Madeleine West would love to make a return to the iconic Australian soap. Pictured as Dee Bliss with on-screen husband Toadie (Ryan Moloney)

It comes after Amazon Freevee and Fremantle announced seven more characters will be moving back to Ramsay Street for the much-anticipated revival of Neighbours.

Production is set to commence later this year.

Annie Jones (as Jane Harris), Rebekah Elmaloglou (as Terese Willis), Georgie Stone (as Mackenzie Hargreaves), and Tim Kano (as Leo Tanaka) will reprise their roles as series regulars, after the show was axed by Australia's Network 10 last July.

Returning in guest roles are Ian Smith (as Harold Bishop), April Rose Pengilly (as Chloe Brennan), and Melissa Bell (as Lucy Robinson).

They will be joined by Neighbours icons Stefan Dennis, Alan Fletcher, Ryan Moloney, and Jackie Woodburne, as previously announced.

'I didn't get a chance to come back and wrap up Dee and nut bag Andrea. So if the opportunity is there, I'm on Ten, I'd be there in a heartbeat!'

West starred on the show from 2000 to 2003 and on-off from 2017 to 2020

The continuation of the long-running soap series follows the finale in 2022, which was watched by millions of adoring fans.

The series will air for free on Amazon Freevee in the UK and US and will include streaming rights to thousands of episodes from previous seasons. The series will stream on Prime Video in Australia, New Z

A new series of Neighbours will begin filming in Australia this year and will see the likes of Stefan Dennis, (Paul Robinson) Alan Fletcher, (Dr. Karl Kennedy), Ryan Moloney, (Toadfish) and Jackie Woodburne, (Susan Kennedy), reprising their leading roles.

In November, it was announced that Neighbours had been saved just four months after its final episode aired in July.

Moloney, who played Toadie on the long-running series, told The Kyle and Jackie O Show at the time that production will begin in 2023.

A new series of Neighbours will begin filming in Australia this year and will see the likes of Stefan Dennis, (Paul Robinson) Alan Fletcher, (Dr. Karl Kennedy), Ryan Moloney, (Toadfish) and Jackie Woodburne, (Susan Kennedy), reprising their leading roles

'We start shooting again next year, early in the year,' Ryan told hosts Kyle Sandilands and Brittany Hockley.

'And then it'll be on air on [Channel] 10 first, in Australia, at the end of the year. Then it'll be on Amazon Freevee worldwide.'

The soap had been axed in March after 37 years on the air when the UK's Channel 5 pulled out as an international broadcast partner.
Jordan North has revealed he has his 'sights set' on taking over from Greg James to host BBC's Radio 1 Breakfast show.

The affable presenter, 33, joined Vick Hope as co-host of the station's new Drivetime show in 2021, three years after originally signing on to front their Sunday morning Greatest Hits.

On top of that, he recently landed a regular slot on the new series of Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway and is fronting BBC fitness challenge show Go Hard Or Go Home.

But ambitious Jordan has revealed he's not done yet, admitting he's 'got a plan' to climb the ladder and eventually take over from his 'best mate' Greg, who has been hosting the show since 2018.

He told The Sun: 'Being on the radio really is a privilege. It genuinely is the best job in the world. There isn't a day I go on air with Vick and we don't have a laugh.

Ambition: Jordan North has revealed he has his 'sights set' on taking over from Greg James to host BBC's Radio 1 Breakfast show

'Yeah, I've got a plan, I do want to do the breakfast show. Not right now as Greg is my best mate and he is absolutely smashing it, but I do want to do breakfast one day.

'It's always going to be in the back of your mind that one day you are going to have to leave, that you won't be in the job forever.

'You would be stupid to think you are fine and you have years left, as you might not get your contract renewed.'

Summarising, he ensured he was 'really happy' with the show at the moment and hoped that the bosses would keep him for 'a bit longer' as long as the figures keep up.

Jordan's admission comes after he had to apologise to BBC Radio 1 listeners last month after swearing while presenting his popular afternoon show, which goes out live.

In the awkward blunder, he was left red-faced after mangling his words while reading an otherwise straightforward message about the general public's preferred choice of bedding, sent in by one his listeners.

Commenting on the message, Jordan said: 'For me, its fitted s**ts,' before quickly acknowledging the on-air gaffe.

Attempting to atone with a hasty apology, he added: 'Oh god, sorry, sorry , I apologise, I am so sorry. I meant to say sheets.'

Success: The affable presenter, 33, joined Vick Hope as co-host of the station's new Drivetime show in 2021, three years after originally signing on to front their Sunday morning Greatest Hits

Best mate: But ambitious Jordan has revealed he's not done yet, admitting he's 'got a plan' to climb the ladder and eventually take over from his 'best mate' Greg, who has been hosting the show since 2018

Co-host Hope, 33, managed to see the funny side and could be heard chuckling in the background, before offering her own opinion on fitted sheets.

'They are really annoying,' she joked.

North appeared as a cover presenter on Radio 1 from 2014.

Four years later was announced as the new host for the station's Greatest Hits show on Sunday mornings and in 2020 became the new regular 11am-1pm weekend host on BBC Radio 1.

He was also the main cover presented for Nick Grimshaw and Scott Mills before moving to Drivetime following the departure of Grimshaw in September 2021.

Speaking of his Drivetime slot at the time, he said: 'I am absolutely chuffed to be making the move over to Radio 1 daytime and even happier to be working alongside Vick.

'Grimmy is a Radio 1 legend so we definitely have big shoes to fill but will work extremely hard to make sure afternoons on Radio 1 still sound superb.

'I am super excited to get started and look forward to this next chapter with Vick and the rest of my Radio 1 family.'
Actress Shirley Henderson and director Johan Renck are the latest people to leave the project Dune: The Sisterhood, in what an HBO Max spokesperson attributed to 'creative changes' on the prequel series.

The departure of Henderson and Renck from the project comes months after creator Diane Ademu-John left the prequel series to the popular franchise as a showrunner in October.

An HBO Max spokesperson told Deadline that as the series 'has entered a pre-scheduled hiatus' - which had been scheduled to avoid filming during winter - 'there are some creative changes being made to the production in an effort to create the best series possible and stay true to the source material.'

The network said Renck 'has completed his work on the series and a new director will be brought on' and that 'through mutual agreement, Johan is moving on to pursue other projects.'

Henderson 'will be exiting the series and will no longer be playing Tula Harkonnen,' the network said.

The latest: Actress Shirley Henderson and director Johan Renck are the latest people to leave the project Dune: The Sisterhood, in what an HBO Max spokesperson attributed to 'creative changes' on the prequel series

Renck, who won a pair of Emmys for his efforts on the HBO limited series Chernobyl, had been slated to direct the initial two episodes of Dune: The Sisterhood, and executive produce the pilot.

The Swedish filmmaker, 56, said in a since-deleted Instagram post in November that production had began on the project in Budapest, the outlet reported.

Renck's auteur-styled direction clashed with what HBO had in mind for the project, as the streaming service did not want to deviate from the general tone of Dune director Denis Villeneuve's work.

It was not immediately clear if any of the material shot by Renck will be used in the finished product.

The outlet noted that when Ademu-John (who remains an executive producer on the prequel) left the series last fall, it had a major impact on production, as remaining showrunner Alison Schapker had to reconfigure the project on the fly amid significant rewrites to the material.

Ademu-John in 2021 had stepped in for ex-co-showrunner Jon Spaihts, who left the job to write the screenplay for the movie Dune: Part Two in 2019.

The network announced the casting of Henderson last October along with news Emily Watson would portray Valya Harkonnen, Deadline reported at the time.

The show will be set 10,000 years before the events depicted in Frank Herbert's epic 1964 novel Dune.

Leads: The network announced the casting of Henderson last October along with news Emily Watson would portray Valya Harkonnen; Watson seen September 22 in NYC

10,000 years: The show will be set 10,000 years before the events depicted in Frank Herbert's epic 1964 novel Dune

Order: HBO Max issued a straight-to-series order for Dune: The Sisterhood in June 2019, though development was significantly altered during the COVID-19 pandemic

The show will follow Valya and Tula, who have risen to power in the Sisterhood, a secret organization of powerful women. The series is expected to chart their rise to power as they 'combat forces that threaten the future of humankind, and establish the fabled sect known as the Bene Gesserit.'

The Bene Gesserit are a group of women 'whose extraordinary mastery of body and mind allow them to expertly weave through the feudal politics and intrigue of The Imperium.'

Dune: The Sisterhood is based on the 2012 novel Sisterhood of Dune by Brian Herbert (son of original Dune author Frank Herbert) and Kevin J. Anderson.

HBO Max issued a straight-to-series order for Dune: The Sisterhood in June 2019, though development was significantly altered during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Original Dune movie writer Spaihts was originally set to create the series, with Villeneuve attached to direct the pilot episode.

Author Brian Herbert, Byron Merritt and Kim Herbert serve as executive producers for the Frank Herbert estate, while author Kevin J. Anderson serves as co-producer.

Watson was most recently seen in the 2022 movie God's Creatures, and she also stars in the upcoming The Legend of Ochi.

Henderson, best known for voicing Babu Frik in 2019's Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, also starred in 2022's See How They Run as Agatha Christie.

Red carpet: Watson was most recently seen in the 2022 movie God's Creatures, and she also stars in the upcoming The Legend of Ochi; seen in 2011
Courteney Cox strolled hand-in-hand with her longtime beau Johnny McDaid as she headed to a taping of Jimmy Kimmel Live! in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

The 58-year-old Friends icon has been on the promotional trail for her slasher movie Scream VI and in a recent interview she denied Prince Harry's claims that he took magic mushrooms at her home.

In his memoir, Spare, the Duke of Sussex wrote that he hallucinated that a bin was speaking to him after taking magic mushrooms.

Harry said that while he was staying at the actress' home, he spied a box of mushroom chocolates in a fridge and decided to eat them before washing them down with tequila.

Yet while Courteney confirmed that the royal had visited her home, she insisted that drugs weren't taken on the premises.

Cute couple: Courteney Cox strolled hand-in-hand with her longtime beau Johnny McDaid as she headed to a taping of Jimmy Kimmel Live! in Los Angeles on Tuesday

Speaking to Variety, Courteney called Harry 'a really nice person', adding: 'He did stay here for a couple of days  probably two or three.

'Im not saying there were mushrooms! I definitely wasnt passing them out.'

She added: 'I havent read the book. I do want to hear it, because Ive heard its really entertaining. But yes, its gotten back to me about it.'

In Spare, Prince Harry wrote that he took mushrooms while staying at Courteney's house in 2016, when he was visiting LA with a 'two good mates' - one of whom was 'dating a woman who lived' there.

'As a Friends fanatic, the idea of crashing at Monicas house was highly appealing,' he wrote, adding that the actress was out of town 'on a job' so wasn't staying in the home when they first arrived.

However, he wrote that Courteney then 'turned up' out of the blue and began 'inviting people over' for a party. It was during that gathering that he spotted the 'black diamond mushroom chocolates' in the Friends star's fridge and quick 'gobbled' several of them.

'I remember after a time standing up and wandering back into the house to use the loo,' he continued, adding: 'Beside the toilet was a round silver bin, the kind with a foot pedal to open the lid. I stared at the bin. It stared back. Then it became... a head.'

He continued: 'I stepped on the pedal and the head opened its mouth. A huge open grin. I laughed, turned away, took a p***. Now the loo became a head too. The bowl was its gaping maw, the hinges of the seat were its piercing silver eyes. It said, "Aaah."'

Out and about: The 58-year-old star has been on the promotional trail for Scream VI and in a recent interview she denied Prince Harry's claims that he took magic mushrooms at her home

Claims: In his memoir, Spare, the Duke of Sussex wrote that he hallucinated that a bin was speaking to him after taking magic mushrooms at the actress' home

Yet Courteney's focus wasn't on Prince Harry but on her rocker boyfriend as she headed to the Jimmy Kimmel taping.

She glowed while strolling with Snow Patrol star Johnny, a Northern Irish musician, who has written for such acts as Pink and Ed Sheeran.

In addition to showing off her impressively svelte torso in a sleek fossil grey top, the actress looked fitter than ever in high-waisted jeans that hugged her every curve.

Meanwhile her man, who she has dated on-and-off since 2013, stayed warm against the wintertime chill by layering a black leather jacket over a cozy-looking sweater.

An old Friends poster was hung nearby in honor of Courteney, who could be spotted graciously signing autographs for fans as she approached the studio.

Courteney is the only star of the first Scream movie to remain with the franchise all the way up to the new film.

Her ex-husband David Arquette, whom she first became an item with while making the original Scream in 1996, was in the first five pictures before he was killed off.

Publicity rounds: The Friends icon was headed to a taping of Jimmy Kimmel Live! ahead of the release of her upcoming slasher movie Scream VI

The look: Showing off her impressively svelte torso in a sleek fossil grey top, she emphasized her vertiginous legs by slipping into a set of high waisted jeans

Meanwhile: Johnny, who has been with her since 2013, bundled up against the wintertime chill by layering a black leather jacket over a cozy-looking sweater

Details: Although they repaired their romantic relationship they never got engaged again, though Courteney has suggested marriage is not entirely off the table

Spotted: An old Friends poster was hung nearby in honor of Courteney

Meanwhile Neve Campbell, who became a boldface name through the slasher series, declined to be in Scream VI because of money.

Neve revealed in an interview with Deadline last year that she had turned down an offer to return for Scream VI because she felt her pay was insufficient.

'As a woman I have had to work extremely hard in my career to establish my value, especially when it comes to Scream,' she said.

'I felt the offer that was presented to me did not equate to the value I have brought to the franchise,' the 49-year-old actress explained.

She had thus far been inextricably associated with the franchise, which has grossed over $744 million cumulatively worldwide.'

Courteney has consequently had to make a Scream movie without Neve for the first time, and in a new Variety interview she said of the experience: 'I missed working with her, but Im going to support whatever she feels is right.'

Over the course of their romance Johnny and Courteney were briefly engaged but never tied the knot, calling off the engagement in 2015 when they temporarily split.

Although they repaired their romantic relationship they never got engaged again, though Courteney has suggested marriage is not entirely off the table.

Last January she talked to People about the prospect of marrying Johnny, saying: 'I don't know. I'm definitely not opposed to it. I just don't think about it.'

Fan service: Courteney could be spotted graciously signing autographs for her admirers as she approached the studio

She and Johnny were kept apart for nine months by the COVID-19 lockdowns, when he was in the UK and she in the US, but they reunited in December 2020.

'I've learned that love is precious. As I've gotten older, I've realized that,' she said, reflecting on how the pandemic forced them to stay separate.

She showered praise on Johnny's various attributes, including that he is 'a great listener. And I've never met someone more patient. He's a great advice-giver. I love his heart, his intentions. His morals.'

Courteney added: 'He's extremely talented and obviously musical, but he's a poet and a writer. He's just so smart, and I find that really sexy. And then he is gorgeous.'
Snoop Dogg jetted into Sydney on Tuesday to continue the next leg of his I Wanna Thank Me Tour around Australia.

The American hip-hop legend, who is well known for his love of cannabis, smoked a roll-up cigarette as he exited his private jet to make his way to an awaiting car.

Snoop, 51, dressed for comfort in a grey tracksuit for the flight.

He also wore a blue bandana, grey headphones and a large gold and diamond necklace.

After getting off the plane, the Drop It Like It's Hot star continued to puff away on the rollie as he stopped to take photos with fans waiting for his arrival at Sydney Airport.

Weed-loving rapper Snoop Dogg smoked a roll-up cigarette as he jetted into Sydney on a private jet on Wednesday

The American hip-hop legend, who is well known for his love of cannabis, wore a blue bandana and grey headphones as he puffed on the rollie

Snoop is known for his love of marijuana and revealed in a 2013 Twitter Q&A that he smokes up to 81 blunts per day.

In 2015, the rap artist launched his own platform called Merry Jane, a lifestyle media site that serves as an information hub for everyone interested in weed geared towards the occasional to the daily smoker.

Snoop's arrival in Sydney comes after the rapper was accused of groping one of his backup dancers during his Perth show on Monday night.

While performing on stage, Snoop shot fake bills from a money gun and touched one of the dancers named Nicole as she swung around a pole.

Speaking to 2DAY FM's Hughesy, Ed & Erin on Wednesday, Nicole praised Snoop as a 'true professional'.

'It's just having fun and entertaining the crowd. He's the coolest person, super laid back and he just wants to entertain the people like we all do,' she said.

'It's an amazing time every time I perform with him. He is a true professional.'

Snoop, 51, dressed for comfort in a grey tracksuit for the flight

Snoop is known for his love of marijuana and revealed in a 2013 Twitter Q&A that he smokes up to 81 blunts per day

After getting off the plane, Snoop stopped to take photos with fans waiting for his arrival at at Sydney Airport

Snoop opened his Perth set at 9.30pm with a video of himself smoking a joint at his hotel and asking the crowd what he should wear

Snoop opened his Perth set at 9.30pm with a video of himself smoking a joint at his hotel and asking the crowd what he should wear.

He will play two shows in Sydney at Qudos Bank Arena on Wednesday, March 1, and Thursday, March 2.

The I Wanna Thank Me Tour marks his first time performing Down Under since he headlined the Big Day Out festival in 2014.
Bindi and Robert Irwin have released a blooper reel made up of unused footage from one of their wildlife videos filmed at Australia Zoo.

The pair joked with one another while demonstrating Rex the blue-tongued lizard.

Robert showcased his funny side as he joked about the shape of the lizard, but older sister Bindi did not appreciate his tone.

'They have small little legs, a stumpy little tail,' Robert said as he held Rex.

Bindi took issue with the 'mean' description of the reptile.

Bindi and Robert Irwin have released a blooper reel made up of unused footage from one of their wildlife videos filmed at Australia Zoo

Robert laughed and quickly backpedalled to appease Bindi, adding: 'But they are still very, very cute.'

Bindi suggested her brother could instead have said blue-tongued lizards have 'sweet little legs' and an 'elegant' tail.

Robert continued with his description of the lizard, saying he 'gets around like a big, chunky fat snake' in the wild.

'Could you never describe me?' Bindi playfully interrupted.

Robert went on to say the lizard's colours 'are pretty drab', which prompted his sister to chastise him yet again.

The pair joked with one another while demonstrating Rex the blue-tongued lizard

'Wow, just one blow after another. Poor thing,' Bindi said. Robert laughed it was just a 'roast session for Rex'.

'We love all blue-tongued lizards equally,' he added. 'All bodies are beautiful, Rex!'

Fans were quick to praise the Irwins for their cheeky sense of humour.

'This is absolutely hilarious!' one fan wrote, while another added. 'Oh my gosh, you guys are too cute.'

Robert showcased his funny side as he joked about the shape of the lizard, but older sister Bindi did not appreciate his tone

'The fun banter gave me out loud laughs I badly needed while dealing with aftermath of a hurricane. Thanks you two!' another said.

It comes just weeks after Bindi shared a heartfelt tribute to her parents, Steve and Terri Irwin, on the 31st anniversary of their engagement.

She posted an adorable photo of the couple clad in their trademark khaki uniforms as they posed at Australia Zoo with their pet dog.

'Best friends. Soulmates. True love. The most incredible parents,' Bindi wrote.
Korea Aerospace Industries CEO Kang Gu-young, fourth from left, smiles as he speaks to members of the Black Eagles, the flight display team of the Korean Air Force, at the exhibition hall of the Avalon Airshow at Avalon Airport, near Geelong, Australia, Wednesday. Courtesy of Republic Of Korea Air Force



'Geopolitical climate reshapes global arms procurement market in favor of Korea'



By Jung Min-ho



GEELONG, Australia  A recent deal to export 18 FA-50 domestically-developed light attack fighters to Malaysia has paved the way for Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) to create other stories of success as it aims to continue to expand its global reach.



The next goal of the nation's sole jet maker this year is to win the preferred bidder status for Egypt's project to locally produce jet trainers and lightweight fighters in collaboration with a foreign company, KAI CEO Kang Gu-young told reporters at its promotion booth set up for the Avalon Airshow here Wednesday.



KAI will be the company's first foray into Africa's military aircraft market if it inks a contract to export more than 100 T-50 Golden Eagle planes, a family of its supersonic jet trainers and light combat aircraft, over rival bidders such as China's L-15 and Italy's M-346.



"Egypt's strategic geographic location (between the northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia) would then open many other doors of opportunity," Kang said.



KAI's ultimate objective is to export its aircraft to the United States, a market for the world's greatest jet makers. That would elevate KAI's status and provide momentum for its next vision of becoming a key player in the international aerospace industry, Kang added.





This photo provided by Korea Aerospace Industries shows two FA-50 light combat jets.
An Australian reporter dubbed the 'world's hottest news anchor' while covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has debuted a jaw-dropping new look.

Sarah Williamson, a newsreader for American conservative network Newsmax in New York City, chopped off her platinum blonde locks and unveiled a blunt bob haircut in an Instagram post on Tuesday.

The stunning 33-year-old showed off her dramatic makeover to her 17,800 followers on Instagram and vowed to never grow her hair out again.

'I will never go back to having long hair,' she captioned he post.

Several of her fans raved over her new look with mostly positive comments.

Sarah Williamson, a newsreader at American conservative network Newsmax, chopped off her platinum blonde locks and unveiled a blunt bob haircut in an Instagram post on Tuesday

'Omggg I love it!' one fan wrote.

Sarah left Israeli news channel i24 News in 2021 and relocated to New York City to begin working for Newsmax.

The network is known for its right-wing perspective and has gained popularity in recent years due to its unwavering support of former president Donald Trump.

The stunning 33-year-old showed off her dramatic makeover to her 17,800 followers on Instagram and vowed to never grow her hair out again

Several of her fans and followers raved over her new look, with mostly positive comments

It comes after Sarah slammed Australia's lockdowns during the Covid pandemic.

The reporter shared a post to Instagram saying 'brainwashed' Aussies were 'living in a totalitarian society'.

'I never thought I would say this... I'm not proud to be Australian at the moment, considering the mindset of the government and the majority of the people living inside the country. I'm sorry,' she wrote.

When she's not reporting on geopolitical conflicts, Sarah works as a model

'I'm well aware I'm about to receive a barrage of abuse by brainwashed Aussies. I'm sorry you feel this way,' she continued. I'm sorry you live in a totalitarian society.'

When she's not reporting on geopolitical conflicts, Sarah works as a model.

She has even appeared in a major campaign for an Israeli footwear brand.
Advertisement

Pedro Pascal and Rosario Dawson led the star-studded arrivals at the premiere for the highly-anticipated third season of The Mandalorian at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood on Tuesday.

The Chilean-born hunk, 47, plays the title character in the Star Wars spin-off created by actor/filmmaker Jon Favreau, who was also present for the big night.

Pascal and Dawson hit the red carpet with a number of their co-stars, including Carl Weathers, Bill Burr and Amy Sedaris.

Season three will premiere on Disney+ on March 1 with episodes released on a weekly basis.

Pascal cut a preppy figure as he tied a mustard cardigan around the shoulders of his pastel yellow button-up shirt.

Big night: Pedro Pascal and Rosario Dawson led the star-studded arrivals at the premiere for the highly-anticipated third season of The Mandalorian at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood on Tuesday

He slipped on some flared pants and a pair of large, square glasses frames for a retro touch.

To complete the look, Pascal threw on some black patent leather shoes and brushed his brunette hair back off his face.

During a recent premiere of Jimmy Kimmel Live, the actor was relatively tight lipped about divulging plot details for season three.

'I will say, there will be more Mandalorians. A lot of them big epic battle. Plural maybe,' he teased.

Pascal plays the titular character, who is a devoted bounty hunter that hails from Mandalore, who has been charged with the care of a creature named Grogu, a.k.a. Baby Yoda.

When asked about the beloved and adorable character, Pascal teased, 'He's been very good he's still learning. Teaching. Protected. Protecting.'

Pascal also joked, 'I think if I say any more I'll be replaced, not just as The Mandalorian, but as a human being in life.'

Dawson showed off her chic pixie cut while modeling and orange and black striped dress.

It belted at the waist and flowed to the floor with slight ruffles at the knee.

The actress, 43 - who plays Ahsoka Tano, who is of the humanoid species Togruta and a former Jedi Padawan - layered up with a cropped black blazer.

While posing for photos, Dawson ran into WWE star Mercedes Mone.

They got playful for the cameras as they each showed off Mercedes' Woman's IWGP belt that she won at Battle In The Valley earlier this month.

Preppy: Pascal cut a preppy figure as he tied a mustard cardigan around the shoulders of his pastel yellow button-up shirt

Retro: He slipped on some flared pants and a pair of large, square glasses frames for a retro touch

Leading man: Pascal plays the titular character, who is a devoted bounty hunter that hails from Mandalore, who has been charged with the care of a creature named Grogu, a.k.a. Baby Yoda

Pals: Pedro and Katee posed for a sweet snap together

Beaming: Pedro signed devoted fans Star Wars accessories at the huge event

Chic: Dawson showed off her chic pixie cut while modeling and orange and black striped dress

Fun: While posing for photos, Dawson ran into WWE star Mercedes Mone

The actress, 43 - who plays Ahsoka Tano - layered up with a cropped black blazer

Playful: They got playful for the cameras as they each showed off Mercedes' Woman's IWGP belt that she won at Battle In The Valley earlier this month

Casual-cool: Showrunner Favreau kept it casual-cool for the occasion in a navy blue blazer and dark wash jeans for the special occasion

Carl Weathers - who plays Greef Karga - wrapped up with a fun patterned scarf over a black blazer and slim fit jeans

Mercedes also stars in The Mandalorian as Koska Reeves, a human female Mandalorian who belongs to the Nite Owls.

Showrunner Jon Favreau kept it casual-cool for the occasion in a navy blue blazer and dark wash jeans for the special occasion.

Carl Weathers - who plays Greef Karga - wrapped up with a fun patterned scarf over a black blazer and slim fit jeans.

Comedian Bill Burr looked stylish in a navy blue suit while posing for photos with wife of 10-years, Nia Renee Hill.

He plays Migs Mayfeld, who is an ex Imperial sharpshooter- turned-mercenary.

Amy Sedaris looked pretty in a ruffled pink dress styled with a sparkly silver purse. She is seen on screen as Hangar 3-5 manager, Peli Motto.

Ming-Na Wen - who plays female bounty hunter, Fennec Shand - beamed for shutterbugs in a classic black blazer.

Aisha Tyler looked effortlessly cool in a patch-covered blue blazer and skintight black vinyl pants.

Katee Sackhoff showed off her sculpted arms in a gorgeous sheer sleeveless gown covered in crystals and sequins.

She posed for glamour shots with co-star Emily Swallow, who stunned in a figure-hugging velvet dress with a sparkly side cut-out.

Sackhoff plays the legendary Mandalorian, Bo-Katan Kryze, while Swallow plays the faceless Mandalorian tribe leader, The Armorer.

Seth Green hit the red carpet with his gorgeous wife Clare Grant, who he married back in 2010.

The Austin Powers star, 49, rocked a cool leather jacket over a The Mandalorian shirt.

Omid Abtahi - who plays scientist and clone engineer, Doctor Pershing - took a page out of co-star Bill Burr's book by choosing to wear a stylish blue suit.

Spiffy: Comedian Bill Burr - who plays Migs Mayfeld - looked stylish in a navy blue suit while posing for photos with wife of 10-years, Nia Renee Hill

Pretty in pink: Amy Sedaris looked pretty in a ruffled pink dress styled with a sparkly silver purse. She is seen on screen as Hangar 3-5 manager, Peli Motto

Beaming: Ming-Na Wen - who plays female bounty hunter, Fennec Shand - beamed for shutterbugs in a classic black blazer

Cool factor: Aisha Tyler looked effortlessly cool in a patch-covered blue blazer and skintight black vinyl pants

Dazzling: Katee Sackhoff showed off her sculpted arms in a gorgeous sheer sleeveless gown covered in crystals and sequins

Stunning: She posed for glamour shots with co-star Emily Swallow, who stunned in a figure-hugging velvet dress with a sparkly side cut-out

Roles: Sackhoff plays the legendary Mandalorian, Bo-Katan Kryze, while Swallow plays the faceless Mandalorian tribe leader, The Armorer

Glam: Katee opted for a glam makeup look with a swipe of nude lipstick while beaming beside pal Pedro

Plus one: Seth Green hit the red carpet with his gorgeous wife Clare Grant, who he married back in 2010

Big fan: The Austin Powers star, 49, rocked a cool leather jacket over a The Mandalorian shirt

Dapper: Giancarlo Esposito - who plays Imperial governor and the show's main antagonist, Moff Gideon - looked dapper in a blow fedora worn with a black bow tie and matching suit

Trendy: Omid Abtahi - who plays scientist and clone engineer, Doctor Pershing - took a page out of co-star Bill Burr's book by choosing to wear a stylish blue suit. Kim's Convenience star Paul Sun-Hyung Lee also picked out a blue suit for the big night

Family affair: He brought along two of his four daughters, Syrlucia Esposito and Ruby Esposito

Beaming: The stars of the series posed for a group snap on the red carpet

New: They then took to the main stage to discuss the latest series

Happy: Pedro couldn't stop smiling before the screening

Funny: He then posed beside a character from the film with a baby Roda photobombing

Smiling: The co-stars had a laugh at the launch event in Hollywood

Kim's Convenience star Paul Sun-Hyung Lee also picked out a blue suit for the big night.

Giancarlo Esposito - who plays Imperial governor and the show's main antagonist, Moff Gideon - looked dapper in a blow fedora worn with a black bow tie and matching suit.

He brought along two of his four daughters, Syrlucia Esposito and Ruby Esposito.

The third season will continue the adventures of Pascal's title character and young Grogu, a.k.a. Baby Yoda, with Mando revealing he's returning to his home planet of Mandalore to clear his name.
Brandi Glanville did not attend the reunion for season 1 of The Traitors, following allegations of her involvement in 'two lewd incidents' during the filming of Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip in January.

Host Andy Cohen addressed Glanville's absence on Tuesday's reunion, saying she was 'unfortunately not able to join us tonight' but not giving any further details.

Glanville's, 50, absence was reportedly due to the ongoing investigation regarding alleged inappropriate incidents with Caroline Manzo, 61, on RHUGT set, which caused producers to send Brandi home, according to People.

'Brandi wanted nothing more than to attend The Traitors reunion. It has been one of Brandi's favorite projects,' a rep for the star told the publication.

'Brandi has been prohibited from sharing her side of the story and in turn, people have only heard unsubstantiated versions. Brandi maintains her innocence and vehemently denies any wrongdoing,' the rep added.

Absent: Brandi Glanville, 50, did not attend the reunion for season 1 of The Traitors, following allegations of her involvement in 'two lewd incidents' during the filming of Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip in January; Pictured 2019

MIA: Andy Cohen addressed Glanville's absence on the reunion, saying she was 'unfortunately not able to join us tonight' but not giving any further details; Pictured in a still from the show

Inappropriate: Her absence was reportedly due to the ongoing investigation regarding alleged inappropriate incidents with Caroline Manzo on RHUGT set, which caused producers to send Brandi home; Manzo pictured 2022

Glanville competed for $250,000 in terrifying challenges on The Traitors, which was filmed before RHUGT.

Season 1 of The Traitors, including Tuesday's reunion, is available to stream on Peacock.

Earlier this month it was reported that the reality TV star allegedly showed 'inappropriate behavior' towards co-star Caroline, with insiders later claiming Glanville also made a sexual remark to one of the show's producers, causing executives to believe she was 'behaving erratically' according to Page Six.

The incident with Manzo reportedly involved Glanville touching her 'in the breast and genital areas' while off-camera in a bathroom, during the filming of the Housewives spin-off in Morocco, with two other cast members present.

The other incident - which took place shortly after the alleged situation with Manzo - involved Glanville 'loudly' asking one of the show's producers by name 'Do you want to f*** me tonight?' in front of a room of other cast members.

Following the claims of her being sent home due to her behavior, Glanville appeared to respond, as she tweeted: 'Check your sources people!!!!' with a laughing feces emoji.

Meanwhile sources further revealed that Glanville and the producer she allegedly propositioned are 'old friends' and that he/she took the reported remark as a joke and did not want to get her in trouble.

However, the incident became a 'source of concern' after the interaction with Manzo came to light.

Vehemently denies it: 'Brandi has been prohibited from sharing her side of the story and in turn, people have only heard unsubstantiated versions. Brandi maintains her innocence and vehemently denies any wrongdoing,' a rep for the star told People

Missed out: 'Brandi wanted nothing more than to attend The Traitors reunion. It has been one of Brandi's favorite projects,' the rep shared of the show, now available to stream on Peacock

Execs decided the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum should be taken off set the next day, and moved her to a hotel away from the rest of the cast.

Manzo started expressing her discomfort about the alleged bathroom incident the next morning, according to insiders.

Glanville was put on a plane home the next day, before filming for the third installment of Ultimate Girls Trip had wrapped. Manzo was reportedly moved to a hotel that day to, 'get her out of the situation,' and she returned to America on January 27.

The group of Housewives were all partying while filming at a private home in Morocco for the fourth season of Ultimate Girls Trip when the alleged incident occurred on January 25.

Sources say Glanville had been drinking alcohol before the incidents, and 'appeared to be drunk', and that she and Manzo had at least four tequila shots each and started making out.

Glanville 'stuck her tongue down' Manzo's throat, according to sources close to Manzo, but Glanville insiders denied that, revealing that after the alleged touching incident, Manzo said, 'Ive been kissed by women before, but Ive never kissed back [until this evening].'

However those close to Manzo revealed she has no memory of saying that.

Shortly thereafter, Glanville, Manzo, Alex McCord and a fourth Ultimate Girls Trip cast member are said to have gone to the bathroom together.

Incident: The incident with Manzo reportedly involved Glanville touching her 'in the breast and genital areas' while off-camera in a bathroom, during the filming of the Housewives spin-off in Morocco, with two other cast members present

Proposition: The other incident - which took place shortly after the alleged situation with Manzo - involved Glanville 'loudly' asking one of the show's producers by name 'Do you want to f*** me tonight?' in front of a room of other cast members; Pictured in a RHUGT still

Mystery: Following the claims of her being sent home due to her behavior, Glanville appeared to respond, as she tweeted: 'Check your sources people!!!!'

Sources allege that Glanville locked the bathroom door and, 'pinned Caroline against the wall' before the alleged incident.

Sources also claimed that Glanville ultimately realized Manzo was uncomfortable by the situation and unlocked the door for Manzo to leave.

While there doesn't appear to be any video of the incident, since it happened in the bathroom, the mics of cast members were live so there are reportedly audio recordings, which crew members are said to have found, 'disturbing.'

Sources added that Manzo asked to address the incident on camera with the rest of the cast - which includes Camille Grammer, Vicki Gunvalson, Eva Marcille, Phaedra Parks and Gretchen Rossi - on January 26.

Last week Shed Productions and Peacock issued a joint statement which confirmed they are investigating the alleged incident.

The joint statement read, 'The safety and security of cast and crew while shooting is extremely important and we take all reports seriously. In this situation, production immediately launched a comprehensive review and is taking appropriate action.'

The first season debuted in 2021 featuring a trip to Turks and Caicos featuring Bravo favorites Luann de Lesseps, Teresa Giudice, Kyle Richards.

The second season was filmed in Massachusetts and debuted last summer, featuring Eva Marcille, Jill Zarin, Brandi Glanville, Vicki Gunvalson, Phaedra Parks, Tamra Judge, while the third season was filmed in Thailand but has not aired.

Important: Shed Productions and Peacock issued a joint statement which read, 'The safety and security of cast and crew while shooting is extremely important and we take all reports seriously. In this situation, production immediately launched a comprehensive review and is taking appropriate action'; Glanville pictured 2022
Married At First Sight star Martha Kalifatidis has shared more photos of her newborn baby boy as she updates fans on her postpartum journey.

The 34-year-old and her fiance Michael Brunelli announced on Monday night they had welcomed their first child into the world.

Despite many fans speculating the child would be called Giuseppe, the couple announced his name was Lucius.

Sharing a black-and-white photo of the infant to Instagram on Wednesday, Martha wrote: 'We just wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone who has messaged and commented kind words about Lucius!

'We're just chilling and enjoying our lil' bubble, but we will be back with the baby spam soon.'

Married At First Sight star Martha Kalifatidis has shared more photos of her newborn baby boy (pictured) as she updates fans on her postpartum journey

The 34-year-old and her fiance Michael Brunelli announced on Monday night they had welcomed their first child into the world

Despite many fans speculating the child would be called Giuseppe, the couple announced his name was Lucius

Friends and fans flocked to the comments to congratulate the couple on their new bundle of joy.

Business owner Sonya Driver commented: 'Guys enjoy the bubble. You dont owe anyone your time or pics. Sending you so much positive energy and love. Your happiness is a bucket filler.'

While a fan said: 'Awwww baby soak in the love and the time alone with him before all the wogs come to visit, I do not miss those days.'

Martha first shared the news with her over 600k followers by posting an adorable photo of the newborn in his crib at the hospital.

'Lucius Brunelli. He's here, he's perfect,' she wrote alongside the image of the newborn wrapped in a baby blanket.

In the comments below the post, Michael, 32, clarified how to pronounce the child's name, writing, ''LOO-SHUS', if you're wondering'.

The couple were inundated with congratulations from their famous friends.

The couple were inundated with congratulations from their famous friends

'Yes hair!!! I'm gonna SQUISH, CONGRATULATIONS BOTH OF YOU!!!!' wrote Kayla Itsines, commenting on the child's thick black mane.

'Oooooo my gosh hi hunni,' commented Chloe Szep, while Nadia Bartel added, 'Awww little man is here!! biggest congrats'.

Brittany Hockley chimed in with 'Congrats guys!!' and Abbie Chatfield wrote: 'Congrats!!!'

'Congratulations! He's beautiful,' wrote Jesinta Campbell while Roxy Jacenko added, 'Awwww so cute'.

The baby's name is a surprise as many believed Martha had leaked the name of her son earlier this month.

She posted to Instagram Stories to reveal the baby will have a classic Italian name, as well as sharing a page from a photo album that was made at her baby shower at the weekend which appeared to name the child.

Martha's mother Mary had written in the book: 'Dearest, Giuseppe, you are my first grandchild.'

She added at the end, 'Love you Giuseppe. Can't wait to meet you'.

The baby's name is a surprise as many believed Martha had leaked the name of her son earlier this month

Fans were prepared for Martha's big announcement as she revealed she was heading to hospital on Sunday night

In photos shared to Instagram, Martha showed off a little onesie for her son, as well as her designer luggage packed in the back of her car

Giuseppe is the Italian equivalent of the name Joseph, and Martha revealed she had chosen a name from Italy as that is where the baby was conceived.

This led many to believe that the baby would in fact be named Giuseppe, but Martha and Michael have opted for Lucius instead.

Fans were prepared for Martha's big announcement as she revealed she was heading to hospital on Sunday night.

In photos shared to Instagram, Martha showed off a little onesie for her son, as well as her designer luggage packed in the back of her car.
One of the world's most plastic women has disavowed her former lifestyle after embarking on a medical journey to reverse her extreme surgeries.

Social media star Mary Magdalene, 30, said she wasted 'hundreds of thousands of dollars' on partying and plastic surgery, but is now giving it all up after having a spiritual awakening.

The Mexican-born model, whose real name is Denise, admitted to drinking too much and said she was 'never going back' to the 'depressing train wreck' she was before.

Mary has been in hospital for the last few weeks fixing her botched size-38J breasts after one exploded, and is also underdoing a labiaplasty after having her vagina expanded in an illegal procedure that almost killed her.

'Depressed and drunk and humiliating myself and having no respect for myself and letting people constantly violate me?!' she wrote on Instagram.

'The past two years my spirit became totally destroyed, I lost my mind, ran through hundreds of thousands of dollars on nothing, I almost destroyed my whole life!'

Surgery-addict Mary Magdalene (pictured) has disavowed her former lifestyle after embarking on a medical journey to reverse her extreme plastic surgeries

The 30-year-old model is pictured during a wild bender in Hollywood last year. In a post this week, Mary admitted she was a 'train wreck' during this period

The OnlyFans star then lashed out at some of her followers who have tried to encourage her to return to her outlandish ways.

'Anyone who truly gives a shit about me will be happy and encouraging a positive change, not encouraging behaviours that were destroying me,' she said.

She added: 'I would've ended up offing myself if I did not change!'

Mary also claimed she'd been exploited by nightclubs and various friends while out drinking and partying.

'I'm not trying to blame the world for my problems,' she explained. 'I knew better. I knew alcohol and the environments I put myself in never felt right to me, my gut was telling me it was wrong.'

'The past two years my spirit became totally destroyed, I lost my mind, ran through hundreds of thousands of dollars on nothing, I almost destroyed my whole life!' she told fans this week

Mary's wild ways caused all sorts of trouble for her over the last few years.

During a wild weeks-long bender in a West Hollywood Airbnb last year, the star was charged $13,000 for allegedly damaging the property.

Police were also called to the apartment to perform a welfare check after fans became concerned when Mary was filming herself snorting poppers and drinking heavily on Instagram.

She was also rushed to hospital twice around that time after a tattoo on her breast became infected and wounds from illegal butt injections she'd had started to rot after she'd patched them up with superglue and sticky tape.

In June, Mary was thrown off an American Airlines flight after staff claimed that she appeared intoxicated.

Mary was often spotted partying and drinking in Hollywood and Miami over the last few years

During a wild weeks-long bender in a West Hollywood Airbnb last year, the star was charged $13,000 for allegedly damaging the property

Police were also called to the apartment to perform a welfare check after fans became concerned when Mary was filming herself snorting poppers and drinking on Instagram

Although Mary denied the claims and said she'd been discriminated against due to her voluptuous appearance, footage later emerged showing her drinking in the terminal.

The former stripper and escort became Internet-famous in 2018 after getting an illegal procedure to create 'the world's fattest vagina'.

Despite the surgery earning her a place in the record books, it almost killed her.

'I almost died during the procedure. I had to get two blood transfusions,' she said.

'The doctor said I was losing so much blood, and turning very pale. He thought I was going to die.'

Over the years, her surgeries have included a brow lift, fat transfers, multiple nose and boob jobs, veneers, liposuction, BBLs on top of butt implants, porcelain veneers and more

The 30-year-old has almost died multiple times from illegal botched surgeries and infections

Mary recently had illegal 'under the table' silicone butt injections after being refused further BBLs from doctors. She then sealed the wounds with superglue and sticky tape

Mary grew up in a strict religious family, and as a child was forbidden from even watching kids' shows like Disney's That's So Raven.

She rebelled at age 12 when she became sexually active and started doing drugs.

'Twelve, thirteen were the wildest years of my life,' she said.

'I was doing lines of cocaine. I was going to school drunk, this and that, in grade seven and eight.'

By 17, Mary was working as a stripper, but she is now an OnlyFans performer after going viral on Instagram and TikTok thanks to her extreme surgeries.

'Luckily, because of [OnlyFans] I was able to stop dancing and escorting, which was making me depressed, so now I'm blessed enough to just live off that,' she said.

She had her first boob job at age 21 in Mexico by a local dentist, which was botched.

The model is pictured before and after her extreme plastic surgery transformation

Mary grew up in a strict religious family, and as a child was forbidden from even watching kids' shows like Disney's That's So Raven

Over the years, her surgeries have included a brow lift, fat transfers, multiple nose and boob jobs, veneers, liposuction, BBLs on top of butt implants, porcelain veneers and more.

Last year, she had a fourth nose job to create a 'Barbie nose', along with cat-eye surgery and eyebrow implants.

As many of her surgeries were illegal, Mary travelled all over the world from Colombia to Russia to get different procedures done.

She almost died multiple times and at one point her buttocks started 'rotting' after she had illegal butt injections, which she sealed with superglue.

Her breast implants were size 38J, but she'd been increasing them gradually with expanders, which is a small port in the implant that allows it to be 'filled' via a needle.

Last month, one of the implants finally burst, leaving Mary with a uniboob.

In another instance, she was unable to close her mouth due to a lip lift and botched lip fillers.
Nicole Kidman's niece Lucia Hawley has signed with major talent management agency Chic Talent after she landed a new plum gig as a red carpet reporter for the E! network.

The company shared the good news on Wednesday, welcoming Hawley to their stable of stars.

Lucia looked dazzling in a number of promotional photos for her new role at 7Bravo.

'Incredibly excited to announce the signing of [Lucia]to our roster,' they announced via their Instagram page.

'Lucia is the new host of the iconic Live from E! red carpet coverage for 7Bravo.'

Nicole Kidman's niece Lucia Hawley has signed with major talent management agency Chic Talent after she landed a new plum gig as a red carpet reporter for the E! network

Lucia is the daughter of Antonia Kidman, a former television presenter-turned-lawyer who is the sister of Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman.

Her grandfather was Antony Kidman, the late Australian psychologist and academic, who died from a heart attack in 2014 at age 75.

The signing comes days after Lucia explained why she shouldn't be labelled a 'nepo baby' despite her enviable showbiz connections.

As the new face of Live From E!, the aspiring journalist will attend the biggest events in Australia, interviewing celebrities and reporting on the hottest fashion moments.

While some may accuse Lucia of using her 'nepo baby' connections to further her media career, she insisted she worked hard to land her 'dream job'.

'I've been working towards this,' she told The Sunday Telegraph.

The company shared the good news on Wednesday, welcoming Hawley to their stable of stars

The term 'nepo baby', short for 'nepotism baby', stems from a recent article published by New York magazine calling out U.S. celebrities who used their famous parents and relatives to build their careers.

Among those named were Jaden Smith, the son of actors Will and Jada Pinkett Smith; Zoe Kravitz, the daughter of rock star Lenny Kravitz and actress Lisa Bonet; and Maya Hawke, whose parents are actors Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke.

While the phenomenon is nothing new, the term 'nepo baby' has become an increasingly popular term to describe it.

In her interview, Lucia did admit her mother's work as a TV presenter was beneficial for her career, but only because it taught her 'perspective' rather than opening doors.

Lucia is the daughter of Antonia Kidman, a former television presenter-turned-lawyer who is the sister of Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman

'Having a mum who had been in the industry, through osmosis you gain that perspective and understanding and I think that's been one of the biggest things that has helped in preparing me for this role, just having watched her and how she has carried herself through everything,' she said.

Lucia previously covered the ARIA Awards for 9Honey when she was employed as an Associate Producer, a role she held from October 2021.

According to her LinkedIn, before joining Nine she was employed as a production assistant at McAvoy Media for eight months.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts from the prestigious University of Sydney, where she majored in socio-legal studies.
Bill Burr and his wife Nia Hill attended the premiere of The Mandalorian's third season, which was held at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood in Tuesday evening.

The 54-year-old performer and his spouse appeared to be enjoying their time at the event, during which they posed for a photo on the star-studded red carpet.

The comedian, who previously voiced his support for Gina Carano after she was fired from the series, portrayed Migs Mayfeld during the program's first and second seasons.

Burr looked sharp in a navy blue jacket and matching pants during the premiere.

The King of Staten Island cast member offset the dominant tone of his outerwear with a stark white shirt and leather shoes.

Showing up: Bill Burr and his wife Nia Hill attended the premiere of The Mandalorian's third season, which was held at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood on Tuesday evening

Hill showed off her toned arms while wearing a form-hugging pink dress at the event.

The comedian's wife added elements of shine to her look with a pair of reflective high-heeled shoes.

Burr made his debut as Migs Mayfeld during the first season of The Mandalorian.

The comedian had previously become the target of criticism from Star Wars fans for speaking poorly of the franchise during various past podcast appearances and interviews.

However, he was eventually convinced to appear on The Mandalorian by both his wife and the program's creator Jon Favreau, which led to his casting as Mayfeld.

The character first appeared in an episode from the show's first season entitled Chapter 6: The Prisoner, during which his character dropped Grogu, also known as Baby Yoda.

Burr went on to receive a significant amount of fake criticism from fans for Mayfeld's actions during the episode.

The performer later reprised his role during the show's second season in an episode entitled Chapter 15: The Believer.

Starting off strong: Burr made his debut as Migs Mayfeld during the first season of The Mandalorian

Not a fan: The comedian had previously become the target of criticism from Star Wars fans for speaking poorly of the franchise during various past podcast appearances and interviews

Back for more: The performer later reprised his role during the show's second season in an episode entitled Chapter 15: The Believer

The comedian spoke about working on The Mandalorian during an appearance on The Last Laugh podcast, during which he expressed that, although he was not a fan of Star Wars, he greatly enjoyed collaborating with the show's crew.

He remarked that filming the show 'ended up being this amazing experience...It was really, really fun in the way that they shot it.'

Burr also commented that he was particularly impressed by the way that director Rick Famuyiwa planned out his episodes of the show.

The performer stated that 'the way he shot it I was just like, "Oh wow, this isn't your dad's Star Wars."'
Courteney Cox shared a touching story about her late father Richard Lewis Cox on Tuesday while promoting Scream 6 on Jimmy Kimmel Live on ABC.

The 58-year-old actress was congratulated by Jimmy, 55, for getting a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame on Monday and he also apologized for not going to the ceremony that was attended by his wife Molly, 44.

'My wife comes home last night, "Oh my god, you've got to hear what happened." Will you tell the story about the time you decided to give up?,' Jimmy said.

'Well, my dad thought I should give up, really. What happened was, I hadn't worked in a long time. And I only had enough money to live about two weeks. I mean, really eat, like that was it,' Courteney said.

'So I was talking to my dad and he was like, ''CeCe'', that's my nickname, ''You need to come home. It's a long fall from Los Angeles to Birmingham [Alabama] and this is time to pack it in. And you are a salesman, you're a damned good salesman. You need to do what you do best,' she continued.

Touching story: Courteney Cox shared a touching story about her late father Richard Lewis Cox on Tuesday while promoting Scream 6 on Jimmy Kimmel Live on ABC

'What did he want you to sell?,' Jimmy asked.

'Sell swimming pools,' the Friends star replied.

'Swimming pools?,' Jimmy asked incredulously.

'That's my dad's business. By the way, I am pretty good at that,' Courteney said.

'I knew I had that as a fallback. I was like, ''Dad.'' The next day I got a call saying the audition I'd gone on for Family Ties, I got the part as Michael J. Fox's girlfriend for the last two years,' Courteney said of the lucrative role from 1987 to 1989.

Courteney said her father loved Hollywood movies, televisions shows and action movies.

Jimmy then played a clip showing Courteney after she shared the story about her father at the Walk Of Fame ceremony.

'I also want to thank my beautiful sisters, Dottie and Virginia, for showing up for me today, flying in here. My mom would have loved this so much, but my dad was obsessed with television...,' Courteney said before she was interrupted by an unexpected burst of water falling from above.

Water sign: 'I also want to thank my beautiful sister, Dottie and Virginia, for showing up for me today, flying in here. My mom would have loved this so much, but my dad was obsessed with television...,' Courteney said before she was interrupted by an unexpected burst of water falling from above

Late father: Courteney shared a throwback photo of herself with her late father Richard in June 2021 on Instagram

Long fall: 'So I was talking to my dad and he was like, ''CeCe'', that's my nickname, ''You need to come home. It's a long fall from Los Angeles to Birmingham [Alabama] and this is time to pack it in. And you are a salesman, you're a damned good salesman. You need to do what you do best,' she shared on the ABC talk show

Hit show: 'The next day I got a call saying the audition I'd gone on for Family Ties, I got the part as Michael J. Fox's girlfriend for the last two years,' said Courteney shown in a 1989 still from the NBC show with Michael as Alex P. Keaton

'Sorry, dad,' Courteney quipped at the time.

'Wow, if that isn't a message from the pool business above, I don't know,' Jimmy said

'It's true,' Courteney said.

'One person who is very intuitive, she really kind of is crazy intuitive, she immediately went, ''That's her father'',' Courteney said.

Jimmy also subjected Courteney's line of scented candles to a test by a baby on TikTok who smells candles.

She also played a game of Extreme Indoor Balloon with Jimmy in which they hit a balloon in a living room setup.

Jimmy barely won the silly game despite a valiant effort by Courteney.

Scream 6 will open in theaters on March 10.

Jimmy also subjected Courteney's line of scented candles to a test by a baby on TikTok who smells candles.

Liked it: The TikTok baby approved of Courtney's CeCe line of scented candles
When Rebel Wilson announced her proposal to fiancee Ramona Agruma last week, she thanked Disney CEO Bob Iger in her Instagram post, as it turns out, for a good reason.

The 42-year-old actress appears on The Drew Barrymore Show in a new episode airing Thursday, March 2, with clips from the episode surfacing.

She popped the question to Agruma at the Disneyland resort in Anaheim, though she revealed in the episode that she actually reached out to Iger for special permission to pop the question at the beloved resort.

'He's the big, big boss and I thought, "Well, if he says yes, then it was meant to be, and I was meant to propose that day at Disneyland,' Wilson said, adding Disneyland was, 'the most magical proposal place on Earth.'

'I had to get special permission to get a special area roped off and get the topiary trees in and, you know, I had a violinist playing like Disney classics, and it was very, really romantic,' she added.

Engaged: When Rebel Wilson announced her proposal to fiancee Ramona Agruma last week, she thanked Disney CEO Bob Iger in her Instagram post, as it turns out, for a good reason

Reached out: She popped the question to Agruma at the Disneyland resort in Anaheim, though she revealed in the episode that she actually reached out to Iger for special permission to pop the question at the beloved resort

Couple: 'He's the big, big boss and I thought, "Well, if he says yes, then it was meant to be, and I was meant to propose that day at Disneyland,' Wilson said, adding Disneyland was, 'the most magical proposal place on Earth'

Wilson revealed she had never been engaged before and she wasn't sure how to actually go about it.

'She said yes. And I was like, "Do I get down on one knee? What do I do?" And I was like, "I may as well," so I got down on one knee,' Wilson said.

'And then she was like, "What are you doing?" And goes, "Well, you cant be the only one on your knee,' so she got down as well,"' Wilson said, as Drew said, 'because she's a giver not a taker.'

'It was just beautiful and she said yes and then I was like, "OK, great!," Wilson said.

Wilson said she was, 'so overwhelmed' by the moment that, after going on a new ride at Disneyland, she needed some time to compose herself.

'Afterwards we went on a ride, this new ride they had, and I kind of collapsed afterwards. Because Id never been engaged before, or proposed to, or proposed. So it was such a huge thing in my life,' she continued.

'I literally collapsed on the floor for five minutes. And then I go, "OK, Im good. Lets get churros and move on,"' Wilson joked.

The couple went public with their relationship in June 2022, and Disney played a role in that as well, specifically in Wilson's Instagram announcement.

Giver: 'And then she was like, "What are you doing?" And goes, "Well, you cant be the only one on your knee,' so she got down as well,"' Wilson said, as Drew said, 'because she's a giver not a taker'

Overwhelmed: Wilson said she was, 'so overwhelmed' by the moment that, after going on a new ride at Disneyland, she needed some time to compose herself

'I thought I was searching for a Disney Prince but maybe what I really needed all this time was a Disney Princess,' Wilson said with the hashtag #loveislove.

The couple welcomed their first child via a surrogate in November, which Wilson announced on Instagram as well.

'Beyond proud to announce the birth of my first child, Royce Lillian, born this past week via surrogate,' she began.

'I can't even describe the love I have for her, she's a beautiful miracle! I am forever grateful to everyone who has been involved, (you know who you are),' she added.

'This has been years in the makingbut particularly wanted to thank my gorgeous surrogate who carried her and birthed her with such grace and care. Thank you for helping me start my own family, it's an amazing gift. The BEST gift!!' she added.

'I am ready to give little Roycie all the love imaginable. I am learning quicklymuch respect to all the Mums out there! Proud to be in your club,' she concluded.

Wilson is coming off a pair of films released in 2022, Senior Year and The Almond and the Seahorse.

She will next be seen in Verona, where she plays Lady Capulet, which is in post-production and is based on the true love story that inspired William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet.

Princess: 'I thought I was searching for a Disney Prince but maybe what I really needed all this time was a Disney Princess,' Wilson said with the hashtag #loveislove

Child: The couple welcomed their first child via a surrogate in November, which Wilson announced on Instagram as well
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley looked sensational as she arrived at Saint Laurent's Paris Fashion Week show on Tuesday.

The model, 35, flashed her black underwear in a sheer burgundy maxi dress, which she teamed up with a matching leather jacket.

She added inches to her enviable frame with coordinating heels, while donning a pair of oversized black sunglasses.

Rosie accessorised with a pair of gold earrings and caused onlookers to gawk and point as she made her way inside the venue.

The runway veteran wore her glossy blonde tresses in a middle parting and flawlessly applied a full face of make-up to accentuate her natural beauty.

Emerging: Rosie Huntington-Whiteley looked sensational as she arrived at Saint Laurent's Paris Fashion Week show on Tuesday

Hot stuff: The model, 35, flashed her black underwear in a sheer burgundy maxi dress, which she teamed up with a matching leather jacket

It comes after Rosie made a very loved-up appearance alongside fiance Jason Statham at the Burberry Autumn/Winter 2023 fashion show at Kennington Park during London Fashion Week.

The couple looked lovingly at each other before Rosie planted an affectionate kiss on his cheek.

Rosie and Jason, who have son Jack, five, and daughter Isabella, 12 months, arrived hand-in-hand at the star-studded event.

The model looked incredible in a black halterneck bodysuit, teamed with trousers with a belt which cinched in her waist.

Jason, 55, cut a casual figure in a cool black jacket, teamed with cargo trousers and sporty trainers.

Rosie recently spoke of her longing to return to her home county of Devon after living in celebrity enclave Malibu, California for years.

She and Jason sold their Malibu mansion for $18.5 million to move back to south-east London in early 2021.

Rosie was born in Plymouth before moving to market town Tavistock, also located Devon, and she admits that part of the world is still her favourite.

Out of this world: She added inches to her enviable frame with coordinating heels, while donning a pair of oversized black sunglasses

Wow! Rosie accessorised with a pair of gold earrings and caused onlookers to gawk and point as she made her way inside the venue

In an interview with Great British LIFE, she said: 'I'm a country girl at heart. I spend a lot of my time living in LA which is lovely. I spend a lot of time in other major cities too.

'There might be the glamour and fun to enjoy in a city but the real beauty is in the countryside and especially in my home county where the people are so nice and ready to volunteer smile for no particular reason.

'The country air smells so fresh and I still love to see the sheep, the pigs, the ducks, chickens and, of course, the horses.

'Whenever I am here and I really don't like to be away for very long, I just find it all so relaxing and lovely. It is home to me.'

Despite being engaged since 2016, Rosie and Jason are in no hurry to rush their wedding preparations.

Welcoming their son, Jack, a year after her beau got down on one knee, Rosie told ET in 2018 that the wedding wasn't a 'huge priority.'

She said: 'We're looking forward to that time. It's also not a huge priority for us; we're so happy.

'I think it will be fun to do it when the baby's grown up a bit and he can be involved in the wedding.'
Ukrainian servicemen operate an American-made 155-millimeter M777 towed howitzer at their position in the Kharkiv area, Ukraine, July 28, 2022. EPA-Yonhap



By Nam Hyun-woo



The U.S. Department of Defense confirmed that Washington has been in discussions over the sales of ammunition to the United States by a Korean non-government industrial defense company, as Seoul maintains the position of withholding provision of lethal weaponry to Ukraine.



U.S. Department of Defense spokesperson Martin Meiners told Voice of America, Tuesday (local time) that, "the U.S. government has been in discussions about the potential sales of ammunition to the United States by the Republic of Korea non-government industrial defense base."



The comments came after Korea's Ministry of National Defense spokesperson said, "A Korean company is in discussions with the U.S. defense department over exporting ammunition." He was responding to a question about the ministry's stance regarding the Ukrainian Ambassador's recent request for Korea to provide lethal weapons to help in its fight against invading Russian forces.



Ambassador Dmytro Ponomarenko on Monday expressed Kyiv's hope that the Korean government can find a solution that will enable it to provide lethal weapons to Ukraine, specifying that his country needs NATO's 155-millimeter standard artillery shells.



In November last year, the U.S. imported 100,000 rounds of 155-millimeter shells from Korea in order to make up for the shortage of 155-millimeter ammunition inventory in the U.S. in the wake of its support for Ukraine. At that time, Seoul specified a prerequisite that the end user of the ammunition should be the U.S.



Seoul has been maintaining its position against any weapons being direct supplied to Ukraine, but instead has been focusing on humanitarian aid and reconstruction support. However, calls from Western countries have been growing for Seoul to play a more active level of support to Ukraine, and the U.S. reportedly expressed its intention to make additional purchases of Korean ammunition, recently.



With the U.S. appearing to make additional purchases for a similar purpose, the U.S. defense department spokesperson did not mention whether the ongoing discussions are related with Ukraine-bound support, Voice of America reported.



"We will not discuss specific numbers or timelines related to production capacity or inventory. We will not discuss specific equipment before it is announced," Meiners was quoted as saying.


Family Guy star Patrick Warburton has hit out of critics of the animated show, stating that he will 'no longer' apologise for being one of the voice actors.

Patrick, 58, voices Joe Swanson on the sitcom, a paraplegic police officer who suffers with impotence and incontinence.

He has appeared on the controversial show since its launch in 1999 and despite his own mother condemning the series, he revealed that he thinks critics are just 'taking themselves too seriously.'

Patrick told Fox News: 'I used to apologize for being on Family Guy, and I apologise no more because this world is a horrible native satire.

'Everybody takes themselves too seriously, and I think in many ways become an overwhelming mess. But we need humor in our lives, and we need love and humor, acceptance. It's all rather simple.'

Hitting out: Family Guy star Patrick Warburton has hit out of critics of the animated show, stating that he will 'no longer' apologise for being one of the voice actors

The TV series tells the story of endearingly ignorant Peter Griffin and wife Lois, who live in Quahog with their children, Meg, Chris and Stewie.

Baby Stewie is something of an evil genius baby who can't stand his mother and wants to destroy the world.

Naturally, the family own a the talking dog called Brian.

Despite receiving generally positive reviews and good ratings, the show has come under fire for its use of offensive jokes including racial humor and violent, gory, and disturbing images.

One of the show's main critics is The Parents Television and Media Council (PTMC), an American group that advocates for what it considers to be responsible, family-friendly content across all media platforms.

Patrick's mother Barbara is a member of the group and in 2011 she confessed that she wanted her son to quit the show because she thinks he offends God by acting in it.

She said of the show: 'The wrong messages are out there and thats my main concern. Shows like these are leading toward the destruction of morality nothing seems sacred any more.'

She described her son as a 'compassionate, wonderful, caring and sincere person', as well as calling him 'an amazing father and son'.

Role: Patrick, 58, voices Joe Swanson on the sitcom, a paraplegic police officer who suffers with impotence and incontinence

But not only does her motherly love go as far as complaining about her son's job, but Barbara admitted she had never actually watched an episode of the hit sitcom.

Speaking to the Destin Log, she added: 'I have highly encouraged him to quit the show, but it hasnt been very successful yet. I have always adored people in this industry who turn down roles because of their convictions, but Patrick isnt one of those people.

'Its a dichotomy that we have where he wants to do shows and work with people that offend God. I dont want to offend God.'

The PTMC previously filed a formal complaint of indecency to the Federal Communications Commission to protest that the show makes fun of Christianity, homosexuality and other topics.

They were particularly offended about one episode which featured 'bestiality, orgies and babies eating sperm'.

When asked about the complaint, Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane said: 'Thats like getting hate mail from Hitler. Theyre literally terrible human beings. Ive read their newsletter, Ive visited their website, and theyre just rotten to the core.

'For an organisation that prides itself on Christian values  I mean, Im an atheist, so what do I know?  they spend their entire day hating people...'

Change: In 2020 Mike Henry (left) stepped down from voicing Cleveland Brown after two decades with YouTuber Arif Zahir (right) taking over the role

Advocate: Mike stepped down as he and a number of animated shows committed to casting actors of colour to voice non-white roles

While the Family Guy cast have often hit back at critics they did address concerns raised when a number of animated shows committed to casting actors of colour to voice non-white roles.

In 2020 Mike Henry stepped down from voicing Cleveland Brown - a black neighbour and friend of the Griffin family - after two decades in the role.

He tweeted at the time: 'It's been an honor to play Cleveland on Family Guy for 20 years. I love this character, but persons of color should play characters of color. Therefore, I will be stepping down from the role.'

YouTuber Arif Zahir took over the role, saying: 'Mike, you created something truly special and I promise I will do my absolute best to honor your legacy.'
Victoria Beckham's fans have showed their humorous side by poking fun at the designer's latest snap, as she teased her upcoming Paris Fashion Week show on Tuesday.

The designer shared a stunning image of Drew Barrymore in a green satin hooded robe to promote her runway show on Friday.

But many fans were quick to note that the look was akin to the hooded robes worn in the Hulu series The Handmaid's Tale, as they shared their reactions to the outfit in the comments.

Victoria's promotional image showed Drew in a green satin hood and a matching robe, with the ET star's look featuring a scarf emblazoned with the designer's name.

Her caption announced her fashion show would take place on Friday, and she offered her thanks for Drew for posing for the image.

Coming soon! Victoria Beckham's fans have showed their humorous side by poking fun at the designer's latest snap, as she teased her upcoming Paris Fashion Week show on Tuesday

Spitting image! Many fans were quick to note that the look (left) was akin to the hooded robes worn in The Handmaid's Tale (right)

Many fans were quick to note an amusing resemblance to the subjugated women known as Handmaids in the series, who don red robes and white bonnets as second-class citizens of a dystopian society.

One wrote: 'Is this the Handmaid's Tale collection?' while another added: 'I thought this was an AD for a new green handmaid's tale!'

A third commented: 'Is it me, or does she look like Drew Barrymore meets The Handmaid's Tale? Beautiful colour though.'

'Drew of Beckham... Handmaid's Tale,' one fan posted.

One user added: 'The colour is out of this world divine and Drew is a goddess, but the handmaid's tale vibe.'

'I love you Drew, but why do you look like a character from the Handmaid's Tale series,' a fan also commented.

It comes after Victoria and her husband David celebrated their son Cruz's 18th birthday, as the family enjoyed a lavish meal together.

Anticipated: The designer shared the image to promote her upcoming show at Paris Fashion Week on Friday (pictured in a recent Instagram post)

Sound familiar? Many fans shared their reactions to the outfit in the comments, along with the amusing comparison

Glam: The snap showed Drew Barrymore (pictured) in one of Victoria's creations, as she confirmed the date of her Paris show, March 3

Victoria gushed: 'We can never celebrate you turning 18 enough! We love you so much @cruzbeckham'.

Cruz was flooded with well-wishes from his family to mark his birthday on Monday as his parents took to Instagram to share a series of throwback clips of the teen singing and gushed that he was 'their everything'.

The montage showed Cruz performing at different ages as well as snaps of the family enjoying holidays together throughout the years.

His parents also sneaked in a few more embarrassing memories from his childhood, with him donning Elvis costume as well as practising cart wheels.

Victoria, who also shares sons Brooklyn, 23, Romeo, 20, and 11-year-old daughter Harper with her husband, captioned the video: 'Happy Birthday Cruzie!! We all love you so much and are so proud of the incredible young man you have become.

Adding: 'You are our everything. Happy 18th superstar'.

David also shared the video penning: 'Happy 18th Birthday to our baby boy to the most amazing boy with the most amazing energy and the biggest heart x we are so proud of you and we love you so much Cruzie'.

'We love you': It comes after Victoria and her husband David celebrated their son Cruz's 18th birthday, as the family enjoyed a lavish meal together

Last year the birthday boy reportedly signed to Tap Music, who previously managed Dua Lipa and a range of other big names including Ellie Goulding and Lana del Ray.

A source told The Sun: 'The fact that such a well-established and successful management company has taken on Cruz proves there is faith that he is the real deal.

'Everyone has been really impressed with what they have heard so far and he is working hard to develop his songs.

'His parents' fame means there are big expectations and he has a lot to prove. But the most important thing is that everyone insists his voice is better than his mum's.'
Susanna Reid was forced to change outfit last minute on Good Morning Britain on Wednesday after suffering from two wardrobe issues.

The television presenter, 52, had only minutes to spare before going live, when her director informed her the pink dress she had chosen was blending into the background.

Susanna then slipped into a red dress, but had a new outfit mishap when the second dress 'gaped open' at the chest.

She was forced to rely on a quickly sewn on button to secure the ensemble and ensure she was covered up sufficiently.

As she read the news, Susanna had her dress held together while someone from the wardrobe team pinned the front.

Awkward: Susanna Reid was forced to change outfit last minute on Good Morning Britain on Wednesday after this number gaped at the cleavage - it was held in place with a pin

Oh dear: Earlier, the television presenter, 52, had only minutes to spare before going live, when her director informed her the pink dress she had chosen was blending into the background

Oh no! Susanna then slipped into a red dress, but had a new outfit mishap when the second dress 'gaped open' at the chest

Funny: Susanna joked she didn't want to do an Aubrey Plaza, who grabbed headlines when she arrived at the Screen Actors Guild Awards in a daring gold gown on Sunday night that barely contained her cleavage

Susanna joked she didn't want to do an Aubrey Plaza, who grabbed headlines when she arrived at the Screen Actors Guild Awards in a daring gold gown on Sunday night that barely contained her cleavage.

Susanna revealed: 'I had a bit of an outfit, wardrobe crisis this morning. I put an outfit on that seemed to blend into the background, so the director with two minutes to spare said, 'Is there anything else in your wardrobe?'

'So, at two minutes to six, nipped into the wardrobe, found this, didnt realise it needed a bit more buttoning up. It was a last minute cover-up job!'

Her co-star Ed Balls added: 'Ive never ever read a news headline from the autocue while simultaneously trying to unzip you from the back!'

Susanna later took to her Instagram to praise the styling team for helping her navigate the wardrobe mishaps in time for the show.

She wrote: 'QUICK CHANGE! All hail the amazing styling team @gmb. Todays red dress @lipsylondon, donned 2 minutes before the headlines at 6am, and with a button sewn on by @hollyslater while I was in the studio.

' Swipe to see the moment @ 5.58am that I realised I had to change out of a @lkbennettlondon dress which mirrored the backdrop!

'The wardrobe department are a huge part of the success of tv programmes and deserve massive credit for their skills'.

It comes after Susanna revealed that there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes before viewers see her appear on ITV's Good Morning Britain on weekdays at 6am.

She offered a rundown of what an average day looks like for her during an interview with The Sunday Times magazine, which begins with a 3.40am wakeup call from her alarm clock.

Susanna revealed that she gives herself five minutes in bed to check through her emails and the days' headlines before getting up to begin her day.

The mother of three said that the start of her day is quite rushed as she throws on a coat over her pyjamas and brushes her teeth before getting into the car, which has been sent to take her to the studio.

The time in the car is put to very good use, as she gets caught up to speed on the newspapers and briefs of the interviewees due on the show that day.

Susanna also takes time to look over the stories that the researchers and producers have been putting together overnight.

She explained that the most important document she looks over on the journey is what's known as the Grid, which gives timings and key points for the show.

Susanna admitted that it is 'a lot' to take in during the 25 minute car journey from her house to the studio at London Television Centre, in west London.

Confessing she loves her early schedule, Susanna said: 'My three boys split their time between myself and my ex. The brilliant thing about my job is that so much of my working day is when they're still sleeping and I'm already at home by the time they're back from school or work.'

Once in the studio, Susanna sits down to have her hair and make-up done by a professional, while having her first coffee of the day at 4.25.

She said during this time she also continues catching up on any reading for the show.

Susanna added that she is then joined by the overnight editor for the show as well as her co-presenter for that particular day.

Grateful: Susanna later took to her Instagram to praise the styling team for helping her navigate the wardrobe mishaps in time for the show

Morning Susanna! Susanna revealed that there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes before viewers see her appear on ITV's Good Morning Britain on weekdays at 6am

Schedule: The television presenter, 52, has offered a rundown of what an average day looks like for her during an interview with The Sunday Times magazine, which begins with a 3.40am wakeup call from her alarm clock

Her co-stars are Richard Madeley, Ed Balls, Rob Rinder, Martin Lewis, Ben Shephard or Adil Ray.

She joked just like Bruce Forsyth used to say, they are all her favourites.

Susanna doesn't manage to eat before the show but revealed that she does try and sneak in some sliced apple and sunflower-seed butter during the adverts.

Once the cameras stop rolling, Susanna heads home and tries to sleep for a couple of hours before getting up for lunch.

She said that she tries to have a healthy option such as grilled fish and veg.

In the evening, Susanna unwinds by cooking a homemade meal for her sons, which she said is often something like lasagne or a roast.

However this time isn't for total relaxation, as she is usually receiving new briefs and catching up with her editor about the next day's programme.

While her lifestyle works perfectly now, Susanna admitted she worries about what it will be like when her sons leave home.

Early start: Susanna revealed that she gives herself five minutes in bed to check through her emails and the days' headlines before getting up to begin her day

She said: 'My mornings are intense with the adrenaline of live news, so switching off is hard. I'm perfectly happy with my own company  I talk to people all day, I have a terrific team and I love my close-knit family.

When the boys leave home, I know that's going to be challenging.'

Susanna said she finishes her day with some easy watching TV - 'nothing gruesome' and enjoys having a bath to relax before switching off the lights at 10pm.

Good Morning Britain is on weekdays from 6am on ITV1 and ITVX
Andy Serkis has admitted that he almost 'did not consider' doing the role of David Robey in Luther: The Fallen Sun as it was 'one of the darkest parts' he has ever been offered'.

The Hollywood actor, 58, appeared on Good Morning Britain on Wednesday where he was sharing all about the much anticipated movie alongside Idris Elba.

Serkis, who hails from Ruislip in West London, revealed that he wanted to take a shower when he first read the script as he began to understand the darkness of his character.

Best known for his role as Gollum in Lord Of The Rings, Andy stars in the film as David Robey, a tech billionaire using surveillance technology to 'manipulate and kill civilians'.

Speaking to GMB's Susanna Reid and Ed Balls on Wednesday morning, Andy started by saying: 'It's so well directed. For people who loved the TV series, this is on an elevated, bigger scale of that.'

Star: Andy Serkis has admitted that he almost 'did not consider' doing the role of David Robey in Luther: The Fallen Sun as it was 'one of the darkest parts' he has ever been offered'

Role: The Hollywood actor, 58, appeared on Good Morning Britain on Wednesday where he was sharing all about the much anticipated movie alongside Idris Elba (pictured as David Robey)

Chat: Serkis, who hails from Ruislip in West London, revealed that he wanted to take a shower when he first read the script as he began to understand the darkness of his character

He added: 'When I first read the script I literally wanted to have a shower.

'It was one of the darkest parts I've ever been offered and I did almost consider not doing it.

'What's brilliant about Neil Cross and the writing, is that he makes the villains in Luther about [us].

'Very very real, and around the corner, under the bed - it's in our lives. This one in particular, is about the horror that is the internet. The power of the internet and someone like David Robey, the character that I play, manipulates people using that.

'He's a master of surveillance, he's used to manipulating people, he's sort of an observer of people because he can't connect with humanity and so he observes them It's very frightening and Neil Cross' writing is brilliant at doing that.'

Andy went on further, adding: 'What was exciting, [is that] I've played a number of dark characters before, and I just thought, is this what I want to do right now?

'It was so current and so important as a debate about the internet, and how we've given our souls over to it really.

Character: Best known for his role as Gollum in Lord Of The Rings, Andy stars in the film as David Robey, a tech billionaire using surveillance technology to 'manipulate and kill civilians'

Actor: Speaking to GMB's Susanna Reid and Ed Balls on Wednesday morning, Andy started by saying: 'It's so well directed. For people who loved the TV series, this is on an elevated, bigger scale of that'

'Dark role': Andy went on further, adding: 'What was exciting, [is that] I've played a number of dark characters before, and I just thought, is this what I want to do right now?'

Killer: The film, was released across the UK in cinemas on February 24 and will arrive on Netflix on March 10, follows the detective as he escapes from his maximum-security prison to capture a cyber psychopath and serial killer, played by Andy

Style: Andy wore a purple patterned bomber jacket and a black turtleneck for the Wednesday morning appearance at a later appearance at BBC Radio 2

Fans: He took the time to sign memorabilia for some of his most popular films and TV shows for fans stood outside Broadcasting House

'How we've given our lives over to it and [how we're happy] to know we're being surveilled 24/7 through our laptop cameras, through our phones and David Robey my character, just knows how to use that.

'The villain is us, we've accepted it.'

Finally, when asked if his new role has encouraged him to put down his phone, Andy confessed: 'It hasn't and that's the thing, we're all addicts, that's the point! We've become slaves to them [phones].'

The film, was released across the UK in cinemas on February 24 and will arrive on Netflix on March 10, follows the detective as he escapes from his maximum-security prison to capture a cyber psychopath and serial killer, played by Andy.

Good Morning Britain weekdays from 6am on ITV1 & ITVX.
Lily Collins reveals she'd 'love to have a family' with her fiance Charlie McDowell.

The actress, 33, offers a rare insight into her marriage with the American film director and screenwriter, 39 as she channels her inner Audrey Hepburn for a striking cover shoot for Harper's Bazaar.

Lily talks about the joy of starring in Emily In Paris, what it's like to work with her husband and why she is finding fulfilment behind the camera as well as in front.

The Netflix star, who lives up to her character Emily's fashion status by modelling an array of chic outfits, details if any baby plans are on the horizon after tying the knot with Charlie in 2021.

'Of course, I'd love to have a family. So there's the personal, the work, there's the blending of the two It's always a juggle, but I want it to be  I want to be able to do all the things I enjoy. The key thing is finding out what makes sense for us,' she says.

New interview: Lily Collins reveals she'd 'love to have a family' with husband Charlie McDowell and says Emily In Paris has made her take more risks in life as she channels Audrey Hepburn

Plans for the future: The actress, 33, offers a rare insight into her marriage with the American film director and screenwriter, 39

Lily jokes there were times when she forgot her now-husband Charlie was her fiance while working together on set of 2021 Windfall.

The actress played the wife of a wealthy CEO, with the couple coming to their holiday home to discover a burglar.

Of working alongside Charlie, she says: 'It was quite seamless because Charlie treated all the cast the same way  he's very much an actor's director. There were times I forgot he was my fiance, because we had such a creative rapport.'

Lily goes on to talk about the success of Emily In Paris, which has catapulted her fame and been a huge Netflix hit.

And the screen star says the titular character has changed her life in more ways than one - from her fashion choices to her outlook.

She says: 'Emily is a constant optimist, so it's a lovely, familiar feeling playing her. I think having her in my life has really helped me I like that she's unapologetically herself.'

'I take new risks because of Emily, whether that's with colour palette, texture, print or shape  she helps me branch out and try new things.'

And Lily does just that in the photoshoot as she slips into a strapless pencil dress with evening gloves and a net fascinator - with her brown hair and winged eyeliner emulating the iconic Audrey Hepburn.

Wow: Lily slips into a strapless pencil dress with evening gloves and a beret- with her brown hair and winged eyeliner emulating the iconic Audrey Hepburn

Confidence: Lily goes on to talk about the success of Emily In Paris, which has catapulted her fame and been a huge Netflix hit

Glamour: The screen star says the titular character has changed her life in more ways than one - from her fashion choices to her outlook

On why she accepted the Emily in Paris role, Lily reveals: 'A lot of the work I'd been doing was less 'pop culture', more left-of-centre, quietly confident material, so I wanted to find something that was grounded in the world of romantic comedy  but it had to be the right thing.'

Lily also hit back at Emily In Paris critics after the series was initially hit with skepticism.

Stunning: Lily Collins stars on a special Harper's Bazaar UK digital cover

The first series received a mix reaction from some viewers who claimed it used 'unfair; and 'outdated' stereotypes of French people.

'I think the fact it's gone on for three seasons means enough people are loving it to binge on it and even if you want not to like it, you're probably bingeing too!',' she says.

'When we went back to film the second season, people would just come up to us on the street and say, "Thank you for the show  thank you for making us smile".'

The debut season of Emily In Paris premiered in October 2020.

At the beginning of 2022, season three and four of the popular rom-com series were renewed.

Variety reported that the two seasons were concurrently in production in September 2022.

Seasons one to three are currently streaming on Netflix, and the fourth installment will reportedly be released at the end of 2023.

Exciting: The debut season of Emily In Paris premiered in October 2020. At the beginning of 2022, season three and four of the popular rom-com series were renewed
Chloe Lattanzi has tearfully admitted she still feels her late mother Olivia Newton-John's presence - and channels it through meditation.

The 37-year-old actress told A Current Affair on Wednesday evening when she's feeling doubtful, she often 'talks' to her famous mother who passed away tragically at the age of 73 after a decades-long battle with cancer.

'I talk to her everyday. She's always there and her energy is on my body,' she told host Allison Langdon.

Chloe added her mother's strength helped her deliver a heartfelt eulogy at her State Funeral in Melbourne on Sunday.

'I felt my heart beating out of my chest and I didn't think I could do it,' Chloe recalled. [But] as soon as I stepped up there, I felt my mum inside of me.

Chloe Lattanzi has tearfully admitted she still feels her late mother Olivia Newton-John's presence - and channels it through meditation. Pictured

The 37-year-old actress told A Current Affair on Wednesday evening when she's feeling doubtful, she often 'talks' to her famous mother who passed away tragically at the age of 73 after a decades-long battle with cancer. Chloe is pictured with Olivia's husband John Easterling

'My body felt the energy and it was supernatural. The love in the room carried me through that.'

An emotional Lattanzi was assisted by her husband James Driskill as she walked on stage and broke down in tears at Hamer Hall in Melbourne.

'I stand here before you so desperately wanting to feel strong and confident and speak eloquently, but the truth is I feel like a little girl lost without her mother,' she began.

'She was my safe space, my guide, my biggest fan and the earth beneath my feet. I know she is here standing beside me and within me. I can hear her voice.'

Lattanzi went on to say her mother was the 'perfect example of a life truly lived' even though her life was tragically cut short by cancer.

Chloe added her mother Olivia Newton-John's (left) strength helped her deliver a heartfelt eulogy to her at her State Funeral in Melbourne on Sunday

'My mum could find the beauty in everything,' she said.

'I loved our snuggles. I would crawl into bed with her late at night even until I was 20 years old. I loved the way she smelled. Nothing felt safer to me. I loved writing music and singing with her and how she would always notice if I was slightly off key.

'I loved how she loved fully and completely. And I know that she would want me to tell each and every one of you how grateful she was for each individual special relationship.'

Newton-John died on August 8, 2022, at the age of 73 after a long battle with cancer.

She was diagnosed with cancer three times in 1992, 2013 and for a final time in 2017.
Stranger Things is set to hit London's West End.

The upcoming play - called Stranger Things: The First Shadow - is set 20 years before the first series of the Netflix sci-fi phenomenon.

The 2023 production will follow existing characters Jim Hopper, Bob Newby and Henry Creel when they were younger.

The new play is written by series writer and co-executive producer Kate Trefry and directed by The Crown's Stephen Daldry with co-director Prima Facie's Justin Martin.

On Wednesday, the producers said the play will open in 1959 in Hawkins as a young Hopper's car fails to start, Newby's sister does not take his radio show seriously and Joyce Maldonado tries to graduate and leave.

New play: Stranger Things: The First Shadow - which is set 20 years before the first series of the Netflix sci-fi phenomenon -is set to hit London's West End (pictured David Ha

Exciting news! The 2023 production will follow existing characters Jim Hopper, Bob Newby and Henry Creel when they were younger (pictured creators Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer and series writer and co-executive producer Kate Trefry)

Teasing the new play, the producers said a new student, Creel arrives, and his family find 'a fresh start isn't so easy... and the shadows of the past have a very long reach'.

They teased that the beginning of Stranger Things 'may hold the key to the end'.

Matt and Ross Duffer, who are the creators of the Netflix series, said: 'You will meet endearing new characters, as well as very familiar ones, on a journey into the past that sets the groundwork for the future of Stranger Things.

'We're dying to tell you more about the story but won't - it's more fun to discover it for yourself. Can't wait to see you nerds in London.'

It is produced by Netflix and Sonia Friedman Productions as the Duffer Brothers act as creative producers.

Sonia Friedman, whose company produced the hit play Harry Potter And The Cursed Child, said London will host the 'incredible story' for now.

A 'world class creative team' has built on the Duffer Brothers 'boundless imagination to dream up an unbelievably exciting theatrical event for our audiences'.

Greg Lombardo, VP Live Experiences for Netflix said: 'Stranger Things has captured the imagination of fans around the world and we are incredibly thrilled to expand this exciting universe with Netflix's first live stage production.'

Plot: On Wednesday, the producers said the play will open in 1959 in Hawkins as a young Hopper's car fails to start, Newby's sister does not take his radio show seriously and Joyce Maldonado tries to graduate and leave (pictured Jamie Campbell Bower as Henry Creel)

Exciting: The creators teased that the beginning of Stranger Things 'may hold the key to the end' (pictured Bob Newby)

During the streaming giant's series - which has run for four seasons - police chief Hopper was played by David Harbour, Sean Astin took on the role of Radioshack manager Newby and Jamie Campbell Bower and Raphael Luce portrayed Creel.

Fans can register for ticket access to Stranger Things: The First Shadow - which is based on an original story by the Duffer Brothers, Harry Potter And The Cursed Child writer Jack Thorne and Trefry - here www.strangerthingsonstage.com.

Details of when tickets will go on sale in the spring will be announced next month. The play will open in late 2023 at the Phoenix Theatre in London.
Denmark's Crown Princess Mary and Prince Frederik are currently touring India.

And on Wednesday, Mary, 51, was welcomed at an event with a bindi.

The Danish royal was a guest at the 25th anniversary celebrations of Grundfos, the largest pump manufacturer in the world.

Mary looked sensational in a tailored blazer as she leaned forward and received the honour, which also represents the third eye which provides perception beyond ordinary sight.

Mary wore her brown hair in gentle waves for the occasion, and completed her look with a faultless makeup palette, allowing her beauty to shine through.

Denmark's Crown Princess Mary and Prince Frederik are currently touring India. And on Wednesday, Mary, 51, was welcomed at an event with a bindi

The Danish royal was a guest at the 25th anniversary celebrations of Grundfos, the largest pump manufacturer in the world

Mary looked sensational in a tailored blazer as she leaned forward and received the honour, which also represents the third eye which provides perception beyond ordinary sight

It comes after Mary comforted a proud mother on the safe arrival of her child.

The stylish royal made the trip during an appearance at the India-Denmark: Partners for Green and Sustainable Progress conference in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Mary spoke with medical professionals at the All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and also gave her time generously to the patient.

It comes after Mary comforted a proud mother on the safe arrival of her child

The stylish royal made the trip during an appearance at the India-Denmark: Partners for Green and Sustainable Progress conference in New Delhi on Tuesday

Mary opted to wear a colourful coat that featured abstract designs and a crimson lapel for the occasion.

Her brunette locks were worn straight and Mary donned a subtle makeup palette befitting of her style status.

So keen is Mary's eye for fashion that a public vote twice named her the World's Most Stylish Royal, ahead of the Duchess of Cambridge, Queen Letizia of Spain and Queen Rania of Jordan.

The late Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld once described Mary and Kate Middleton as 'royal sisters' thanks to their strikingly similar appearance and comparable taste in clothes.
Love Island has been hit by more than 300 Ofcom complaints over 'toxic' behaviour from the female stars.

Last week, Will Farmer and Shaq Muhammad were left in tears after the Casa Amor antics were aired on the big screen for Movie Night.

The broadcasting watchdog released their weekly figures on Wednesday. where it was revealed a total of 337 viewers had got in touch to complain.

266 of those were for Thursday's show which saw a heartbroken Shaq reduced to tears after his on-screen partner Tanya Manhenga went off with another competitor, Martin Akinola.

Meanwhile, farmer Will Young sobbed after the women jumped to the defence of Jessie Wynter when he kissed another cast member while in Casa Amor - but none of the women condemned Martin.

Love Island has been hit by more than 300 Ofcom complaints over 'toxic' behaviour from the female stars

Distraught: Last week, Will Farmer and Shaq Muhammad were left in tears after the Casa Amor antics were aired on the big screen for Movie Night

For the episode on 23rd February, a day prior to Movie Night, there were 71 complaints, with most getting in touch with the regulator over Olivia Hawkins' behaviour to Kai Fagan.

Olivia, 27, pulled Kai, 24, for a chat to ask him directly why he didn't name her as most untrustworthy during the Knowing Me, Knowing You challenge.

During the tense scene, the actress said: 'You picking Claudia was a bit of a cop out and it confirms you are quite fake and for me I'd much rather you just said Olivia this is why I don't think she's genuine rather than water under the bridge.

An unimpressed Kai said: 'Liv listen, I can't be ar**d with this conversation, I said Claudia because I can't be ar**d with beef, I'm trying not to bite because i don't want confrontation'

He added: 'But if you are saying Kai this and Kai that then I'm done with it see you later,' as he stormed off.

In addition, Ron was ridiculed and made to feel he was in the wrong for appearing to encourage his fellow male contestants to give new arrivals in Casa Amor a chance.

After the episodes aired, the show became embroiled in the 'toxic femininity' row after viewers of the controversial ITV reality series have been left fearing for the mental health of male stars.

Some fans accused the girls of hypocrisy for celebrating their 'sisterhood' but misbehaving in the same way as the men.

Anger: Twitter was full of furious commenters after the feud, angry at Tanya's behaviour and that she made him cry

Oh dear: The broadcasting watchdog released their weekly figures on Wednesday. where it was revealed a total of 337 viewers had got in touch to complain (pictured Olivia Hawkins)

Tanya, 22, Olivia and Australian Jessie Wynter, 26, are widely considered the ringleaders in the villa.

Yet the women, led by Jessie, were shown to have done the exact same thing in the villa.

This year's female line-up has been branded the most 'manipulative and toxic' in the history of the show.

One male viewer said: 'I've never complained to Ofcom but I have tonight. Emotional abuse and bullying isn't a joke  Tanya and Olivia need talking to.'

A female viewer wrote on Twitter: 'I never thought I'd be siding with the men. Some of these women are toxic,' while another tweeted: 'Toxic femininity at its finest.'

Another wrote: 'This women empowerment is too toxic for me. It doesn't hurt to be self-aware, babe. And a bunch of you need to look in the mirror.'

An ITV spokesman said that contestants are trained in inclusive language and behaviour, creating safe spaces and being a good ally.

Love Island continues on ITV2 and ITVX at 9pm.
She's expecting her third child with husband Jordan Banjo next month.

And Naomi Banjo took to Instagram on Wednesday to share a pregnancy update as she nears her April due date - sharing that she and the Diversity dancer are 'so excited'.

The expectant mother admitted that she has been struggling with SPD (symphysis pubis dysfunction) recently, a condition which often affects pregnant women.

SPD can cause pain and discomfort in the pelvic area, lower abdomen, back, groin, perineum, thigh and leg.

Reaching out to her 185K followers, Naomi asked for help and advice as she shared that she has been left 'in agony' during the night with the pains.

Pregnancy update: Jordan Banjo's pregnant wife Naomi reached out to fans for advice on Wednesday with agonising night pains as she shared an update ahead of welcoming their third child

The couple are already parents to children Cassius, four, and Mimi, three.

And sharing a sweet snap of herself and Jordan in the post, Naomi shared that it was taken just days before they discovered that she was pregnant.

Admitting that the pregnancy has been her quickest of all three, the brunette questioned where the last eight months have gone.

She penned: 'I cant believe we can actually say we are having a baby next month!! Whattttt! where has time gone! Probably the quickest pregnancy of my life. I remember this pic having no idea that in just a few days we would find out we were expecting our 3rd baby!

'And here we are just over a month away. feels magical and we are soo excited! Im so ready now! '

But adding that it hasn't been smooth sailing, she detailed the agonising pelvic pain that she has been experiencing over the last weeks.

Continuing: 'Although Im crazy tired having been up all night in pelvic pain! Please someone give me some tips other than a pregnancy pillow etc how do I support SPD during the night.

'Im in agony and its keeping me awake, any secret tips I can try Id be soo grateful. p.s hospital / doctors etc are aware and have given me strong medication but Im not keen on taking it. It makes me really sick and Im very much a just ride it out kinda girl butttt I am struggling and its getting to me now.'

Soon to be: The pair are expecting their third child next month

Whirlwind: Admitting that the pregnancy has been her quickest of all three, the brunette questioned where the last eight months have gone

WHAT IS SPD? Symphysis pubis dysfunction refers to symptoms you feel when the joint between your left and right pelvic bones (pubic symphysis) allows for more movement than usual

People who are pregnant are most likely to feel pain from this joint. If youre pregnant, your pelvic area may hurt during pregnancy, while youre in labor and after youve had your baby

SPD pain usually goes away a few months after giving birth, with mothers given options to manage the pain rather than remove it

Information from Cleveland Clinic.com Advertisement

SPD pain usually goes away a few months after giving birth, with mothers given options to manage the pain rather than remove it.

When a woman is pregnant, the body produces a hormone called relaxin, making the ligaments in the joint between left and right pelvic bones more relaxed, meaning it can move around more and cause increased pain.

Sports injuries can also cause this pain as pelvic joints are affected during the accident.

Naomi and Jordan learned that they were to welcome their third child in 2022, sharing the joyous news with a sweet social media post.

And it seems that no more children are on the radar for the couple at the moment, as Jordan underwent a vasectomy last month.

Naomi filmed Jordan walking tenderly back to his car after the reversible procedure a - which cuts the tubes that carry a man's sperm to prevent pregnancy.

Naomi was heard laughing as Jordan flashed what seemed to be a slightly forced smile before she asked him if he was OK, to which he nervously replied 'yep'.

When Naomi then asked him if he was sure everything was OK, he said 'yes, positive' before insisting that the procedure wasn't 'bad'.

Laughing, he explained: 'The pain's not the problem. The problem is when you're so scared you have a nipple instead of a penis between your legs and then the nurse tries to tape it to your stomach, but there's not much to tape so she basically places a piece of tape over it.'

Looking slightly pained, Naomi then said: 'In you get hun,' as Jordan very carefully lowered himself into the car.
China's population fell by 850,000 in 2022 but 'labor resources still abundant'

(Global Times) 11:01, March 01, 2023

Children guess lantern riddles in Yangpu District, east China's Shanghai, Feb. 5, 2023. People celebrate the Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar, with various traditional customs across the country. Photo: Xinhua

China's population had fallen by 850,000 in the year of 2022, with the national population growth rate being minus 0.6 per thousand, the country's National Statistics Bureau announced on Tuesday.

Demographers whisked away negative mood on the declining numbers, saying that it is time to improve the quality of the population to make out for the decrease in births.

China recorded a 1.41 billion population by the end of 2022, a decrease of 850,000 compared with last year. The country witnessed a birth rate of 6.77 per thousand, whilst a death rate of 7.37 per thousand, which makes the birth rate of minus 0.6 per thousand, the bureau said on Tuesday.

Last month, the bureau announcedthat the population in the Chinese mainland recorded negative growth for the first time in 61 years.

Cai Fang, former deputy director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said during a seminar on Sunday that there's no need to be pessimistic about the decline in birth rate. It is time for China to create conditions to improve the quality of the population to make out for the decrease, and to replace factor inputs with productivity.

He believed that the declining population, along with COVID-19, exerted a certain impact on the country's consumption. He suggested to fairly and more effectively distribute labor forces, elevate the income of those with low salaries, and expand wide equal access to basic public goods among the public.

Cai believed that the remaining 900 million population of labor age can not only supply the labor force, but also act as the basis of China's consumption market.

Li Daokui, a prominent Chinese economist, also said at the third China Population and Development Forum in February that there are a series of misunderstandings and misinterpretations in the economic circle and even broader society. Such views as "aging affects aggregate economic demand," "working-age population keeps decreasing" and "aging affects social innovation vitality" do not stand up to scrutiny.

Studies by Li's team have shown that although the country's total population has reached its peak and the peak of total labor force participation has long passed, China's total human resources will continue to grow before 2040 and will remain stable from 2040 to 2050 thanks to increasingly levels of both health and education.

Wang Pingping, a senior official from National Statistics Bureau said in January that although the population declined in 2022, China still has 1.4 billion people and the population dividend and vast market advantage still exist. The country still owns huge labor resources, as population within labor ages amounts to 900 million.

The official said that the population dividend started emerging as the education level of this group is improving. In 2022, the average education span for people aged between 16-59 reached 10.93 years, an increase of 0.11 compared with that of 2021.

Cai suggested that the government should also pay more attention to the support of the aging group, as the population within labor age is shrinking whilst the retired group is expanding.

This changed proportion has fundamentally changed the rationale behind our social security system, said Cai, noting that the pay-as-you-go mechanism behind the current social security system may not work with the emergency of the new population trend, thus the pension system needs a new design.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Constitutional Court of Korea/ Korea Times file



The Constitutional Court has upheld the constitutionality of the law requiring military service for men born to Korean parents temporarily staying overseas before they can renounce their Korean citizenship.



According to legal sources Wednesday, all eight Constitutional Court judges rejected a 23-year-old man's petition questioning the constitutionality of the Nationality Act forcing conscription on people in his situation.



The man was born to Korean parents in the United States while they were studying there. He held dual Korean and U.S. citizenships, and his application to renounce his South Korean nationality in 2018 was rejected.



Under the Nationality Act, a man born in a foreign country to Korean parents with no intention to obtain permanent residency in that country must first fulfill his military duty before being allowed to renounce his Korean citizenship.



The man argued that the definition of intention to obtain permanent residency status was ambiguous. However, the Constitutional Court ruled that the particular clause in the Nationality Act is necessary to prevent men with dual citizenship from renouncing their Korean passport to dodge mandatory military service.



The court added that the clause wasn't so ambiguous that it would cause law enforcement agencies to make arbitrary decisions.



"Without the Nationality Act, there would be no way to impose a duty to fulfill military service when a man renounces his Korean citizenship on the pretext of his birth in a foreign country," the court said.



The Constitutional Court has also unanimously rejected another man's claim of unconstitutionality of the Nationality Act's clause forcing men to have a permanent address in a foreign country in order to renounce their South Korean citizenship.



The court said there is no ambiguity to the clause on a foreign address, as the man claimed. The court also said attempts to renounce citizenship without an overseas home to avoid duties can infringe on the basic principles of existence and maintenance of the nation. (Yonhap)




Cindy Crawford looked every inch the supermodel as she posed in a variety of incredible looks for Vogue Arabia's March edition.

The beauty, 57, commanded attention in a figure-hugging purple dress for one stunning shot before changing into a chic strapless black number.

She wowed in the purple sequin number which had sexy sheer detailing over her cleavage to show off her ample assets and perfect curves.

Cindy posed with her hands in her hair which was styled into perfect bouncy waves and sported a radiant makeup look complete with a pop of dark red lip.

For her black dress look she oozed sophistication in the mini which featured statement gold buttons and was styled with a sunhat.

Stunning: Cindy Crawford looked every inch the supermodel as she posed in a variety of incredible looks for Vogue Arabia's March edition including a purple sequin dress

Work it: The beauty, 57, also commanded attention in a chic strapless black number with statement gold buttons

Another look saw her flashing some leg in a tweed grey skirt and jacket which was teamed with tights and pointy stilettos.

She donned a bright red strapless number for a different shot and held a matching scarf around her while working her best angles.

For another which was the cover she showed off her incredible figure in a skimpy black bodysuit and tights and was adorned with pearls.

She looked fantastic in the trio of images as she posed up a storm in the tight outfit which was teamed with glamorous fur heels.

A second cover image, showed Cindy sporting a leather biker jacket slung over her shoulders, while she sported a red lip and a pair of diamond drop earrings.

During her chat with the publication she opened up about her future continuing to be bright in modelling and how ageing shouldn't be a barrier to her career.

She told the publication of attitudes towards ageing in various industries: 'What I don't want to do is be part of that message that's telling women of a certain age, ''You got to hang it up now.''

'Like, why? I don't believe in a season of invisibility.'

Sizzling: She donned a bright red strapless number for a different shot and held a matching scarf around her while working her best angles

Pins: Another look saw her flashing some leg in a tweed grey skirt and jacket which was teamed with tights and pointy stilettos

Commanding attention: Another shot from the spread showed her in a chic black jacket and skirt covered in red question marks

Speaking candidly with Syrian American journalist Hala Gorani, Crawford also reflected on the decisions she made during the length of her career along with the advice she shared with her children Kaia, 21, and Presley Gerber, 23, when they started modeling.

Revealing she took the reins very early in her career, Cindy explained: 'I was doing Vogue and Revlon and then I did Playboy, and people couldn't understand why I would risk that. I gave up getting paid in order to have control, so that I have approval of every image.'

During the chat she also discussed her new documentary out later this year that tells the story of the Eighties-era supermodels.

The show will track the incredible rise of Naomi Campbell, Cindy, Linda Evangelista and Christy Turlington in '80s and '90s.

She said: 'Two weeks ago, we were all on set, shooting together. It's been a long time since the four of us were together in front of the camera and it was amazing.

'In a weird way, it was like no time had passed and, in another way, we also were fully our adult selves.'

It comes after last week Cindy showed off her dance moves as she celebrated her 57th birthday on Monday.

The longtime supermodel took to Instagram to thank her admirers for their birthday wishes and explained that her gratitude for 'living another year' increases with age.

In a short and fun stop-motion video, Cindy looked radiant in a plunging white dress that almost touched the floor.

The ageless beauty twirled around her flowing dress against a white backdrop under a birthday sign.

The Covergirl wrote in the caption, 'I always loved celebrating other people's birthdays but haven't been that big on celebrating my own - since my 3rd-grade bowling/pizza party.'

Cindy continued, 'But as I get older, I realize the importance of acknowledging my gratitude for life and living another year. I'm blessed to get more time to learn and grow and love and evolve. Thanks for all the birthday love.'

Crawford, married to Rande Gerber, wore her luscious brunette locks in her signature blowout style.

Cindy's husband, Rande, also appeared on Instagram to share a throwback video of their relationship.

The short video documented intimate family moments and special times over the years.

He captioned the video, 'Because this makes me smile, I had to post again. Real life with my girl from DeKalb, Illinois.. Happy birthday Cindy IU.'

At 57, Cindy is still going strong, proving age is just a number as she regularly posts workout photos and sexy snaps as she did last week on valentines day in a short silk nightgown.

The former cover girl said she stays fit by working out with weights and machines several times weekly.

Crawford has said hiking is one of her favorite exercises and has been spotted walking with friends in and around Malibu.

The Vogue cover model has said hiking is a time when she can exercise and catch up with pals.

Sensation: For another which was the cover she showed off her incredible figure in a skimpy black bodysuit and tights and was adorned with pearls

Glowing: A second cover image, showed Cindy sporting a leather biker jacket slung over her shoulders, while she sported a red lip and a pair of diamond drop earrings

Crawford officially retired from modeling but continues to pose occasionally for various publications.

The former House of Style host is also an entrepreneur.

She created her skincare line, Meaningful Beauty, in 2004 and often promotes it on her Instagram feed.

The proud mom said that now that she's in her 50s, she focuses more on wellness than fitting into skinny jeans.
Lorraine Kelly hit back at an internet troll who took to social media to comment on her appearance on Wednesday.

The TV presenter, 63, took the insult on the chin as she responded with a witty joke, with fans lauding her as they assured to 'take no notice'.

Writing that she 'needs a makeover,' the Twitter user described the presenter's hair was 'awful', suggesting she cut it shorter.

But noticing the post and deciding to respond, Lorraine clapped back that she didn't want to change her look - jesting that she resembles Wilson The Volleyball from Castaway with a shorter do'.

'I really think Lorraine needs a makeover hair is awful Im surprised no one has mentioned this time for a short cut Lorraine,' wrote the user.

Fighting back: Lorraine Kelly hit out at an internet troll who slammed her appearance on Wednesday

Taking it well: The TV presenter took the insult on the chin as she responded with a witty joke, with fans lauding her as they assured to 'take no notice'

As Lorraine quote tweeted the post and replied: 'Well good morning Cathy - only problem - when I have short hair I look like Wilson from Castaway  (if you know you know)'.

The look she referenced is that of an iconic ball with a red face-like shape printed on it from 2000 American survival drama film - with the outline resembling a stick-up hairstyle.

But as Lorraine was quick to laugh it off and make a joke, many fans were unimpressed with the nasty comment.

'Wow. Nasty person. You look fab,' wrote one follower.

As another raged: 'I don't think you should bother responding Lorraine. You look fab btw, but I'm so sick of women being reduced to judgement on their appearance and not their skills and general awesomeness'.

But as one fan asked what business it was of anyone else, the original user replied: 'Well actually its everyones business when she is presenting a show. Our opinions matter'.

It comes as Lorraine took some time off of her daytime TV show last week while battling a 'hideous bug'.

Ranvir Singh was filling in for Lorraine during her absense and told viewers that she was 'still recovering' after coming down with a 'hideous bug'.

Makeover: 'I really think Lorraine needs a makeover hair is awful Im surprised no one has mentioned this time for a short cut Lorraine,' wrote the user

Joke: As Lorraine quote tweeted the post and replied: 'Well good morning Cathy - only problem - when I have short hair I look like Wilson from Castaway  (if you know you know)'

Twins? The look she referenced is that of a ball with a red face-like shape printed on it from 2000 American survival drama film - with the outline resembling a stick-up hairstyle

During the morning of TV on Wednesday, Kate Garraway informed viewers of the last-minute line-up change and praised Ranvir for agreeing to step in and host the morning chat show.

Announcing the news, Kate explained: 'Usually at this point in the show we'd be chatting to Lorraine but I think in almost a first in her 30 year plus history, she's actually gone home, she's not well.

'She's got a bug! We're wishing you well Lorraine. Ranvir is to the rescue, she's on her way in.'

Taking to Twitter, Lorraine revealed that she had been sent home after being 'suddenly attacked by a hideous bug'.

She shared her disappointment as she admitted she had been looking forward to interviewing guest Adam Lambert but couldn't due to fears of 'infecting' him.

She wrote: 'When you have to be sent home from work early in the morning because you are suddenly attacked by a hideous bug and were looking forward to interviewing @adamlambert THAT! Beyond disappointed but imagine if I had infected him !!!!!!'
Following her romantic getaway to Mexico with boyfriend Brandon Davis, Spring Breakers alum Ashley Benson stepped out solo for dinner at West Hollywood hotspot Craig's on Tuesday.

The 33-year-old Anaheim native rocked a pair of glossy black boots with a matching motorcycle jacket over a black tube top and blue skinny jeans while toting a brown snakeskin bucket bag for her outing.

Ashley - who had Apple's old-school headphones on - wore minimal make-up and gave her platinum blonde locks a boost with hair extensions.

Benson also carried a bottle of Fiji Water into the trendy restaurant before meeting up with friends.

The Ash fragrance founder - who boasts 33.6M social media followers - later Instastoried a snap at her VIP table with socialite Isabella Davis Rickel and Craig's owner Craig Susser.

Solo mission: Spring Breakers alum Ashley Benson stepped out for dinner at West Hollywood hotspot Craig's on Tuesday

Missing from Ashley's side was the 43-year-old oil heir, whom she's been dating for a few months.

Benson was pictured passionately kissing Brandon while vacationing in Mexico, but she did not include any snaps of him.

The Angry Neighbors actress - who did share a black bikini snap - has clearly not gone 'Instagram official' with Davis yet.

'They have a lot of mutual friends and are both super fun and very social people,' a source close to the couple told People last month.

The grandson of industrialist Marvin H. Davis - who notoriously called Lindsay Lohan 'firecrotch' in 2006 - was previously romantically linked to The O.C. alum Mischa Barton, socialite Brittny Gastineau, and hotel heiress Paris Hilton.

Twice-rehabbed Brandon has a substantial rap sheet, having been arrested for battery, cocaine possession, and a DUI in the past.

Meanwhile, Ashley previously dated Bay Area rapper G-Eazy and Her Smell co-star Cara Delevingne.

Benson has several upcoming projects including playing Cara in Marnie Dickens' six-episode drama Wilderness (co-starring Jenna Coleman and Oliver Jackson-Cohen), which streams on Amazon Prime Video later this year.

Wilderness - based on B.E. Jones' 2019 novel - centers on a young British couple whose dream holiday becomes a nightmare as heartbreak turns into fury and revenge.

Casually clad: The 33-year-old Anaheim native rocked a pair of glossy black boots with a matching motorcycle jacket over a black tube top and blue skinny jeans while toting a brown snakeskin bucket bag for her outing

Hydration: Ashley - who had Apple's old-school headphones on - wore minimal make-up and gave her platinum blonde locks a boost with hair extensions

Heading inside! Benson also carried a bottle of Fiji Water into the trendy restaurant before meeting up with friends

'We love you!' The Ash fragrance founder - who boasts 33.6M social media followers - later Instastoried a snap at her VIP table with socialite Isabella Davis Rickel (R) and Craig's owner Craig Susser (L)

Oil heir: Missing from Ashley's side was her boyfriend Brandon Davis (R, pictured January 4), whom she's been dating for a few months

Picturesque setting: Benson was pictured passionately kissing Brandon while vacationing in Mexico, but she did not include any snaps of him
Bianca Gascoigne has revealed she has called her baby daughter Blake Sunshine.

The reality personality, 36, announced the news with a gallery of sweet snaps of her cradling her first born along with the name announcement.

The snap revealed that Bianca and her partner Aaron Wright have had their daughter's name illuminated in lights on her nursery wall above Blake's cot.

The former Celebrity Big Brother star was wearing a white chiffon robe with feathery cuff sleeves, while she kept her look glam with perfect hair and make-up.

In the caption, she wrote 'Our little Blake Sunshine.'

Name reveal: Bianca Gascogine has revealed she has called her baby daughter Blake Sunshine

Blake Sunshine: The snap revealed that Bianca and her partner Aaron Wright have had their daughter's name illuminated in lights on her nursery wall above Blake's cot

It comes after Bianca shared that she had to take her newborn baby girl back to hospital for a blood spot screening on Saturday.

She took to Instagram to share a video of her latest trip to hospital with her baby, revealing her concern.

The former Big Brother star wrote: 'Took the little lady to hospital to have her blood spot checks today. I wanted to cry when they did it.'

Newborn blood spot screening involves taking a blood sample from a newborn's heel to find out if they have any of the nine rare health conditions.

The tests can help ensure early treatment to improve newborn health and prevent disability and death.

Later, Bianca posted a picture of her Baby's uncle Regan taking a picture of her in an adorable dinosaur costume.

Prior to this, Bianca took to Instagram on Friday to share a sweet snap of her newborn baby girl.

She gave birth to Baby B, who is her first child, at The Portland Hospital in London.

Love: The reality personality, 36, announced the news with a gallery of sweet snaps of her cradling her first born along with the name announcement

Glam: The former Celebrity Big Brother star was wearing a white chiffon robe with feathery cuff sleeves, while she kept her look glam with perfect hair and make-up

In the post, Bianca leaned over her baby's hospital crib, donning a stylish pink and black patterned jumpsuit, with her has blonde hair scraped into a bun.

She held a colourful soft toy above her sleeping baby, who is already snuggled up with a large monkey teddy.

She captioned the post: 'I can't believe you're mine.'

The TV personality's fans and friends were quick to congratulate the star.

Former Hollyoaks actress Ciara Janson Zelmerlow penned: 'You did it girl! So many congratulations'.

Geordie Shore's Chloe Ferry kept it simple writing: 'Congrats'.

Dancer Vitto Coppola equally shared his excitement writing: ' Congraaaaaaats' with three heart-eye emojis.

'I wanted to cry when they did it!' Bianca shared that she had to take her newborn baby girl back to hospital for a blood spot screening on Saturday

Adorable: Later, Bianca posted a picture of her Baby's uncle Regan taking a picture of her in a sweet dinosaur costume

New mother: It comes after Bianca took to Instagram on Friday to share a sweet snap of her newborn baby girl

This post comes after Bianca took to Instagram on Thursday to share the happy news, posting a reel documenting her daughter's arrival.

Captioning the post, she wrote: '20/02/23 You are perfect Baby B.'

The reel showed Bianca in the midst of her labour in the hospital, along with a glimpse of her lavish birthing suite.

She then included several snaps taken moments after her daughter was born, showing her newborn nestled in a cot and wrapped in a pink blanket, and a glimpse of her brother Regan holding his niece for the first time.

Bianca first shared that she was expecting her first child with Arron back in August, posting a hilarious snap with her boyfriend that recreated the poster for the romantic comedy Knocked Up.

It comes after Bianca shared with fans a picture of her 'basic' nursery in January, saying she thought it looked 'basic' as she had 'left it so last minute'.

Showing off the white bedroom set and grey carpeting in the room, she told fans: 'We finally have baby furniture. I've left it so last minute. Obviously she's coming next month but I'm really impressed.'

Precious: The TV personality posted a reel documenting Baby B's arrival at The Portland Hospital in London

'Obviously that's the wardrobe and that's the chest drawers. I've actually got to move that so changing has got to be a bit more easy access.'

She added at the time: 'There's the cot and yeah I know it's so basic at the moment but it will all come together and my mum was like you know, saying I've left everything last minute as per usual, but we will get there.'

Bianca and Arron, who confirmed their romance in December 2021, have been friends for 14 years and announced they were expecting a baby in February 2023.

The couple celebrated their one year anniversary on August 7 with a romantic trip to Paris.
Ekin-Su Culculoglu wowed in a busty corset during her recent Maldives getaway as she shared another photo from the trip on Wednesday.

The Love Island winner, 28, looked sensational as she posed for photos on the beach after her boyfriend Davide Sanclimenti dismissed claims the pair had got engaged on the holiday.

She made sure to turn heads in the plunging black number that she paired with a black mini skirt.

Ekin-Su styled her brunette hair into wet-look beachy waves and flashed a smile for the camera while the sun set behind her.

Alongside the snaps shared to Instagram, she penned: 'Watch more sunsets than Netflix.'

Stunning: Ekin-Su Culculoglu, 28, wowed in a busty corset during her recent Maldives getaway as she shared another photo from the trip on Wednesday

Ekin-Su's post comes shortly after Davide dismissed claims that he proposed, after fan speculation grew during their recent Maldives stay.

The former Love Island winner, 28, admitted it's still early days since the pair have only known each other for six months.

But in an exclusive interview with MailOnline, he did reveal he wouldn't be opposed to getting down on one knee after the two year mark.

Fresh from a romantic holiday with his partner, Davide gushed about how the pair had 'such a nice time' and felt they could 'fully relax' amid their jam-packed schedule.

The boohooMAN ambassador said: 'I feel like it's been the first two weeks where we could relax ourselves. No work, no commitments. Just time for me and Ekin, time for good food and sun.

'Because after the show, there's always been someone from my side or from Ekin's side and we could never have time for ourselves, you know, quality time.'

During the idyllic trip, the couple sparked engagement rumours as they posed for very loved-up snaps in front of a stunning orange sunset.

Fans were quick to take to the comments section to admit they thought the pair were announcing some big news with the very romantic post.

Glowing: The Love Island winner made sure to turn heads in the plunging black number that she paired with a black mini skirt

'Let's be realistic... ' Ekin-Su's post comes shortly after Davide Sanclimenti dismissed claims that he proposed, after fan speculation grew during their recent Maldives stay

But Davide has thrown cold water over any guesswork, reminding fans he only met Ekin-Su last summer and that they're still learning new things about each other.

He said: 'Even if we are so close, the reality is that we know each other since only six months so it would be nice to see at least a two year relationship before you commit for life.

'This is what I always will delight with fans to understand, that even if everything is perfect, it seems a dream, you need to be realistic.

'And before you get engaged for life, I think it would be wise to wait two years at least, you know, so you can discover more about the other person.'
Fresh off her double win at the SAG Awards, The White Lotus star Jennifer Coolidge teamed up with Everything Everywhere All At Once directing duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert for a tokusatsu-style shoot for the directors issue of W Magazine.

In it, the Boston-born 61-year-old donned designer clothing and channeled over-the-top sci-fi characters like Barbarella, Queen of Outer Space, and Miss Piggy from Pigs in Space.

The Daniels handpicked Jennifer to star in the cover spread - dubbed 'Coolidge vs. Haute Squad 5: Attack on Neo Runway City - Jennifer Reborn' - and coincidentally all three attended Emerson College.

'Tokusatsu/sentai/kaiju stories were always inspiring to us as kids because of how tangible it all felt,' Kwan gushed via Instagram.

'Can't believe we got to finally play in that world with the one and only Jennifer Coolidge.'

Taking over the world! The White Lotus star Jennifer Coolidge teamed up with Everything Everywhere All At Once directing duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert for a tokusatsu-style shoot for the directors issue of W Magazine

The feeling was mutual for Coolidge, who said working with the 35-year-old filmmakers 'felt like I was getting together with little kids.'

'They were like these sort of child prodigies who are super, super smart and just super creative. I've never been asked to do a shoot like this,' the Shotgun Wedding funnywoman marveled to the mag.

'I have weapons, take down small cities, pick up cars and throw them. I don't know if I will ever be this surprised again. It was one of the best things I have ever been involved in.'

Jennifer has impressively amassed an Emmy Award, Golden Globe Award, two Critics Choice Awards, and two SAG Awards for her memorable portrayal of the rich and lonely Tanya McQuoid in the HBO hit show - which has been renewed for a third season.

'I feel bad for [Tanya], because she didn't know what she was made of. She didn't have that kind of faith in herself,' Coolidge reflected.

'Sometimes these scary things happen in life. And then you find out, in like two seconds, that you are a survivor and that you can really pull through for yourself, sometimes in a way that you never believed you could. But then, of course, it didn't quite end up going my way in the end, did it?'

Last Sunday, the Elf Cosmetics partner shared a touching tribute to her 'amazing parents' during her acceptance speech for outstanding performance by a female actor in a drama series at the 29th Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles.

'They had this incredible gift. It was impossible for them to lie. They just couldn't do it. Never, they just never lied,' Jennifer explained onstage the Fairmont Century Plaza.

Hi-ya! In it, the Boston-born 61-year-old donned designer clothing and channeled over-the-top sci-fi characters like Barbarella, Queen of Outer Space, and Miss Piggy from Pigs in Space

Alma mater: The Daniels (pictured February 13) handpicked Jennifer to star in the cover spread - dubbed 'Coolidge vs. Haute Squad 5: Attack on Neo Runway City - Jennifer Reborn' - and coincidentally all three attended Emerson College

Kwan gushed via Instagram: 'Tokusatsu/sentai/kaiju stories were always inspiring to us as kids because of how tangible it all felt. Can't believe we got to finally play in that world with the one and only Jennifer Coolidge'

'They were like these sort of child prodigies!' The feeling was mutual for Coolidge, who said working with the 35-year-old filmmakers 'felt like I was getting together with little kids'

The Shotgun Wedding funnywoman marveled to the mag: 'I have weapons, take down small cities, pick up cars and throw them. I don't know if I will ever be this surprised again. It was one of the best things I have ever been involved in'

'The school principal came to my first grade class and said that I needed to be called to the office. And I went to the office and she said, "Your father is here." My father was sitting there and saying "Yeah, Jenny, we have to go." And the principal said, "Jennifer, get well," and I didn't know what that meant.'

Coolidge continued: 'And then I got in the car with my dad and he was driving and he said, "I'm never going to tell a lie again, but we're going somewhere really cool." I swear to God, seeing Charlie Chaplin for the first time, and having that experience  it's my love of film, it's my love of actors, all of that came from my first grade.'

The Watcher scene stealer also thanked The White Lotus creator, saying: 'Mike White, you can give money to friends...and people like money. But the best gift you can give to someone is to change their perspective. And that's what Mike White did for me.'

Jennifer currently plays psychic TV medium Judy Romano in Christopher Landon's dismally-reviewed haunted house comedy We Have a Ghost, which just topped Netflix's top 10 most-streamed movies.

Coolidge will next reprise her role as manicurist Paulette Parcelle in Legally Blonde 3.

The Best in Show alum is also set to voice Aunty Peggy in John D. Eraklis and Tara Nicole Whitaker's long-delayed animated musical Pierre the Pigeon-Hawk.

Renewed for season three! Jennifer has impressively amassed an Emmy Award, Golden Globe Award, two Critics Choice Awards, and two SAG Awards for her memorable portrayal of the rich and lonely Tanya McQuoid in the HBO hit show

'It was impossible for them to lie': Last Sunday, Coolidge shared a touching tribute to her 'amazing parents' during her acceptance speech for outstanding performance by a female actor in a drama series at the 29th Screen Actors Guild Awards
Harry Styles contributed to a new tradition at his concerts last week when he helped a fan come out to her parents.

During his tour stop in Melbourne, Australia, on February 24, the 29-year-old pop star and occasional actor paused the proceedings after spotting fan with a sign.

In a viral video shared to social media and reposted by Storyful, Harry paused his concert mid-show to chat with the fan, who was named Fauve.

Although there wasn't much of a secret left after he addressed her and her mother, who was standing next to her, as well as her father, who was in a different section, Harry still performed a quick song-and-dance number to celebrate the fan coming out.

This isn't the first time Harry has helped a fan come out at concerts, as he previously helped fans in the process during shows from 2021 and 2022.

Harry Styles, 29, helped a fan come out to her parents at a concert in Melbourne, Australia, on February 24, according to a viral video reposted by Storyful

Harry was dressed vibrantly for the show with a pink-and-orange striped shirt decorated with sequins, along with a contrasting white collar.

He complemented the shirt with a pair of hot pink leather pants.

While addressing the fan, Harry said he had never heard the name 'Fauve' before, though she or her mother shouted back that it was a 'French name.'

'Very sophisticated!' he replied, before sharing her sign with the rest of the massive audience.

'Fauve's sign says, "Help me come out. My mum's next to me, and dad is level 2, section 41," he read.

'I feel like I could help,' Harry added modestly, adding, 'I feel like she might know' in response to Fauve's smother Lisa.

'I mean, I've just said it and it's on the screen.'

Harry, who has helped fans come out in recent years and to announce other major life events, asked, 'Would you like us to go through out Love On Tour coming-out process?'

Colorful: Harry was dressed vibrantly for the show with a pink-and-orange striped shirt decorated with sequins, along with a contrasting white collar and pink leather pants

'Fauve's sign says, "Help me come out. My mum's next to me, and dad is level 2, section 41," he read. 'I feel like I could help,' Harry added modestly

'This is the first time we're taking this Down Under, so prepare yourselves,' he said. 'Everything's gonna be upside down!'

Then Harry's band supplied him with some 'coming-out music,' which turned out to be a funky disco-inflected groove.

'Are you happy with the music? This suits the occasion?' he said as he checked in with Fauve.

'Let's go! Let's go! Let's go, let's go, let's go!' he shouted out to the rhythm of the music while raising his hands to pump up the audience before he turned around and gyrated on stage at the climactic moment.

'Fauve is out!' he said at the conclusion of the short number. 'It's done!' he added as he pumped his fist triumphantly.

'You rise to the heavens of freedom, Fauve!' he shouted after the display. 'Enjoy yourself!'

While speaking to Storyful, the person who filmed the encounter noted that it was her friend who brought the sign along to get Harry's attention, though she presumably kept it secret until it was time to hold it high.

Harry's display on tour preceded a report in Us Weekly in which a source claimed that his ex-girlfriend Olivia Wilde was 'ready to date again.'

The Insider claimed she had devised new expectations for future relationships after their split in November 2022.

The actress is now 'making it clear shes available, and she isnt looking for anything less than an amazing guy.'

Making it official: Then Harry's band supplied him with some 'coming-out music,' which turned out to be a funky disco-inflected groove. 'You rise to the heavens of freedom, Fauve!' he shouted after the display. 'Enjoy yourself!'

Moving on: Harry's display on tour preceded a report in Us Weekly in which a source claimed that his ex-girlfriend Olivia Wilde was 'ready to date again.' The actress is now 'making it clear shes available, and she isnt looking for anything less than an amazing guy'; seen February 5

Nothing to see: In an Esquire profile from Wednesday, Harry's Don't Worry Darling costar Chris Pine again confirmed that Harry didn't spit on him at the Venice Film Festival, though he admitted that the viral video made it look as if he did; seen August 31

On Wednesday, Harry's fans also got some clarity on the controversy that erupted during his film Don't Worry Darling's premiere at the Venice Film Festival thanks to an interview that his costar Chris Pine did with Esquire.

During the video interview, Pine confirmed that Harry never spat on him, as some obsessive fans came to believe after viewing video of the two interacting at the premiere.

'Harry did not spit on me,' Pine said emphatically. 'Harry is a very kind guy. I was on the plane and were flying back from Venice having a great time on the plane and my publicist wakes me up and says, "We have to craft a statement on what happened in Venice."

He admitted that, from the video's angle, 'It did look, indeed, like Harry spit on me,' but he clarified again that, 'He didnt spit on me.'
Advertisement

Jourdan Dunn, Halsey and Lisa Rinna led the stars attending the Paco Rabanne show during Paris Fashion Week on Wednesday.

It marks the first fashion show by the brand since its creator Paco Rabanne died on February 3 aged 88.

Jourdan, 32, showcased her figure as she donned a black leather bralette while attending the Paco Rabanne show during Paris Fashion Week on Wednesday.

The model turned heads as she arrived at the event in a dark purple leather jacket which she left open to highlight her toned midriff.

The garment also featured a red beaded detail while Jourdann also wore a pair of matching trousers.

Stars: Jourdan Dunn, Halsey and Lisa Rinna led the stars attending the Paco Rabanne show during Paris Fashion Week on Wednesday

Wow: Jourdan, 32, showcased her figure as she donned a black leather bralette and purple leather jacket

Adding height to her frame with a pair of black open-toed heels, the star complimented her outfit with a pink handbag.

Letting her tresses fall loose around her shoulders, Jourdann completed her look with a pair of sunglasses.

Halsey showcased her sense of style as she slipped into a silver sleeveless midi dress that highlighted her incredible figure.

The hitmaker also wore a matching headcarf with a sequinned detail and boosted her frame with a pair of matching heels.

Also carrying a gold clutch bag, Halsey showed off her array of tattoos as she posed for the cameras.

Wearing her locks in an updo, the star accentuated her natural beauty with a light palette of makeup.

Lisa Rinna opted for a silver blazer and matching mini skirt that featured a deep red floral print.

The former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star also sported a pair of black boots and carried an orange, grey and red striped handbag.

Flawless: The garment also featured a red beaded detail while Jourdann also wore a pair of matching trousers

Trendy: Also in attendance at the show was Romeo Beckham's girlfriend Mia Regan who opted for a black sleeveless midi dress

Radiant: Tina Kunakey opted for a black long-sleeved mini dress which she wore uner a sheer plastic cover up

Styling her locks into a sleek updo, Lisa also wore a pair of chunky black-rimmed sunglasses.

Also in attendance at the show was Romeo Beckham's girlfriend Mia Regan who opted for a black sleeveless midi dress.

The model also wore black leather boots and drew attention to her look with a matching choker.

Tina Kunakey opted for a black long-sleeved mini dress which she wore uner a sheer plastic cover up.

The star, who is the wife of actor Vincent Cassel, donned black heels and wore her locks in a ponytail.

It was announced earlier this month that Paco Rabanne had died in Brittany, France.

The eccentric icon, whose real name was Francisco Rabaneda y Cuervo, used metal, plastic and paper to create his space-age designs, which led to him being dismissed as 'the metal worker' by Coco Chanel.

The designer - who was rarely seen in public after retiring in 1999 - was nicknamed 'Wacko Paco' and claimed to have lived multiple lives. Among them he said he was a Parisian prostitute during the reign of Louis XV and Tutankhamun's killer.

He believed he was 78,000 years old, had met God on multiple occasions, been visited by aliens, and had sex with the Earth.

Legend: Jean Paul Gaulthier cut a casual figure in a black coat and matching scarf and a pair of blue jeans

He also predicted in 1999 that Paris would be destroyed later that year when the Russian space station Mir crashed to Earth.

'I have always had the impression of being a time accelerator,' he wrote in typically enigmatic style for a retrospective at Antwerp's fashion museum, MoMu, in 2016.

'Of going as far as is reasonable for one's time and not indulge in the morbid pleasure of the known things, which I view as decay.'

He was born in 1934 shortly before the Spanish Civil War. His father, a Republican colonel who was a commander of the Guernica garrison, was shot dead by Francoist troops.

His mother worked as the chief seamstress at Cristobal Balenciaga's first fashion house in the Basque country in Spain before moving the family to Paris.

In the French capital, the young Rabanne started making sketches for Dior and Givenchy in his spare time from his architecture degree, and then worked at a concrete producer for ten years.

But his passion for design could not be dulled and he began making jewellery for luxury brands before starting his own fashion house in 1966.

The bold stylist was branded the 'enfant terrible' of the fashion world when his debut runways showcased his innovative designs, using unconventional materials.

Show: The event was to showcase the fall-winter designs from the brand's ready-to-wear collection

His show brought immediate fame and notoriety when he stunned the audience with '12 Unwearable Dresses', his models dancing barefoot down the catwalk in outfits made of sharp metal.

His stardom reached further heights when in 1968 he designed the iconic green Barbarella outfit worn by Jane Fonda in the eponymous film.

After the media furore around his own line, Rabanne signed a deal that year that brought him under the ownership of the Barcelona-based Puig family, heavyweights in the fashion and fragrance industry.

He also dressed Audrey Hepburn, Mia Farrow and Francoise Hardy during the height of his fame.

He famously dressed global superstar Lady Gaga in outfits made entirely of paper for her 2011 appearance at the MTV Europe Music Awards.

Designer Paco Rabanne, who shocked the fashion world with his daring and unwearable runway looks in the 1960s, died aged 88 in Brittany on February 3

It marked his entry into perfumes that would see his name become synonymous with cologne, ultimately even eclipsing his fame as a designer.

A statement shared on his official Instagram account said: 'The House of Paco Rabanne wishes to honour our visionary designer and founder who passed away today at the age of 88.

'Among the most seminal fashion figures of the 20th century, his legacy will remain a constant source of inspiration.

'We are grateful to Monsieur Rabanne for establishing our avant-garde heritage and defining a future of limitless possibilities.'
A high-profile Nine Network star has stuck the boot into The Project as viewers call for the Ten show to be axed for airing a lewd joke about the crucifixion of Jesus.

The left-leaning current affairs program is under fire after gay comedian and cabaret performer Reuben Kaye joked on Tuesday's show he admired Jesus Christ because 'I love any man who can get nailed for three days straight and come back for more'.

Co-host Sarah Harris laughed at the joke, which went to air uncensored during the live broadcast, but her Muslim colleague Waleed Aly looked shocked.

The backlash from Muslims and Christians was swift and brutal, forcing the two presenters to issue a grovelling on-air apology on Wednesday.

But this apology didn't go down well with Omar Slaimankhel, who last year became the biggest winner in the history of The Block with his mate Ozman 'Oz' Abu Malik.

A high-profile Nine Network star has stuck the boot into The Project as viewers call for the Ten show to be axed for airing a lewd joke about the crucifixion of Jesus. The news program is under fire after gay comedian Reuben Kaye (left) joked on Tuesday he admired Jesus Christ because 'I love any man who can get nailed for three days straight and come back for more'

The backlash from Muslims and Christians was swift and brutal, forcing co-anchors Waleed Aly (left) and Sarah Harris (right) to issue a grovelling on-air apology on Wednesday

This apology didn't go down well with Omar Slaimankhel (left), who last year became the biggest winner in the history of The Block with his mate Ozman 'Oz' Abu Malik (right)

Slaimankhel accused Harris of hypocrisy for laughing at the off-colour joke only to apologise for it 24 hours later when she realised some viewers found it offensive.

He posted a screenshot on Instagram of the pair's stony-faced apology, and wrote: 'She was pissing herself laughing and now wants to apologise.'

Slaimankhel also called The Project 'trash TV' for giving a platform to an anti-religious comedian like Kaye.

Meanwhile, Aly and Harris' on-air apology seems to have done little to stem the tide of criticism from members of the Christian and Muslim communities - who are already planning protests at Channel 10's headquarters.

The show's social media posts are being spammed with the hashtags #CancelTheProject and #BoycottTheProject in what is a seemingly organised effort.

Slaimankhel accused Harris of hypocrisy for laughing at the off-colour joke only to apologise for it 24 hours later when she realised some viewers found it offensive (left). He also called The Project 'trash TV' for giving a platform to an anti-religious comedian like Kaye (right)

The show's social media posts are being spammed with the hashtags #CancelTheProject and #BoycottTheProject in what is seemingly an organised effort

Addressing the inappropriate joke on Wednesday, Aly began: 'During an interview last night, our guest told a joke which we know was deeply and needlessly offensive to many of you.

'We want to acknowledge the particular offense that caused our Muslim viewers but especially our Christian viewers.

'Obviously I understand just how profound that offence was.'

Harris, who had burst out laughing after the joke, then joined in.

'Live TV is unpredictable and when this happened in the last few moments of last night's show, it took us all by surprise, there wasn't a lot of time to react in any sort of considered way,' she said.

Aly insisted it took the program's producers and panel by surprise.

'It's fair to say we weren't expecting a comment like that to be made,' he said.

'We wouldn't normally broadcast a comment like that. We acknowledge the offense it caused and more than that we're sorry.'

Harris (left), who had burst out laughing after the joke, backpedalled on Wednesday by saying, 'It took us all by surprise, there wasn't a lot of time to react in any sort of considered way'

The joke was met with major backlash on social media.

'What a disgusting joke about Jesus, and The Project team just giggled and did not say anything. So offended by your inaction,' one viewer wrote.

Another said: 'Actually a filthy joke about Jesus. I'm all for being who you wanna be, but that's too far.'

Poll Did the joke go too far? Yes - religion should be off limits No - it's just a joke Did the joke go too far? Yes - religion should be off limits 2451 votes

No - it's just a joke 742 votes Now share your opinion





A third said: 'Interesting to see Waleed's reaction to that joke! He knew it was inappropriate! Project is so desperate these days!'

But others thought the lewd gag was hilarious.

One person said: 'I can't believe Rueben Kaye just said that on national, prime-time television. What an icon!'

Other positive comments included, 'I nearly pissed myself,' and, 'That was gold, the best thing on The Project in months!'

Kaye is known for his crude humour which he combines with singing and all-around showmanship in his comedy shows.

He is embarking on a national tour set to feature an array of jokes centered around touchy subjects sexuality and racism.

'I want to poke the bear,' he said. 'I'm so thickly spread around this country that I might as well be systemic racism.'
After glamming up for the Costume Designers Guild Awards on Monday, two-time Emmy nominee Christina Ricci unveiled her latest cover for Harper's Bazaar Taiwan.

The 43-year-old former child star - who boasts 5.7M Instagram/Facebook followers - captioned her post on Wednesday: 'Me and my evil twin wearing hats for my favorite [photographer] Nino Munoz.'

Christina donned designer clothing selected by stylist Sarah Gore Reeves for the spread, and she relied on hairstylist Stephen Beaver and make-up artist Allan Avendano to get her ready for her close-up.

'I deliberately took different types of jobs and played many different roles until the effort was enough to overwhelm my impression of being stereotyped,' Ricci told the mag translated from Chinese.

'When the whole world is crazy about the news of two generations of playing the same stage [in Netflix's Wednesday], not knowing it was once the hardest tag to take off Christina Ricci's drama career.'

Two-time Emmy nominee Christina Ricci unveiled her latest cover for Harper's Bazaar Taiwan

The 43-year-old former child star - who boasts 5.7M Instagram/Facebook followers - captioned her post on Wednesday: 'Me and my evil twin wearing hats for my favorite [photographer] Nino Munoz'

The Cali-born, New Jersey-raised actress was referring to having played Wednesday in two Addams Family films (1991 and 1993) as well as Nevermore Academy botany teacher Marilyn Thornhill/Laurel Gates in Tim Burton's spin-off series Wednesday.

The Netflix binge-watching hit - starring Jenna Ortega, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Gwendoline Christie - was officially renewed for a second season on January 6.

On Monday, Christina turned heads in a plunging Raisa Vanessa dress selected by stylist Cristina Ehrlich for the 25th Annual Costume Designers Guild Awards in Los Angeles.

Ricci attended the festivities alongside her hairstylist-turned-second husband Mark Hampton with whom she has 15-month-old daughter Cleopatra.

The Harley Quinn & The Joker: Sound Mind actress knew the Welshman as far back as 2017 when he coiffed her then platinum-blonde bob for her cover story in Net-a-Porter's The Edit.

Christina is also mother to nine-year-old son Frederick from her six-year marriage to dolly grip James Heerdegen, which ended acrimoniously in 2020.

Ricci will next reprise her role as ruthless nurse Misty Quigley in the second season of Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson's time-hopping drama Yellowjackets, which premieres March 26 on Showtime.

The Independent Spirit Award nominee will voice Kit and her alter ego Ivana Viktimm in Paul McComas and Holly Trasti's animated feature drama, Unplugged.

Christina will also play Dr. Dresden Corliss in Michael Ryan's sci-fi heist flick The Dresden Sun, which will be distributed by VMI Worldwide.

Glam! Christina donned designer clothing selected by stylist Sarah Gore Reeves for the spread, and she relied on hairstylist Stephen Beaver and make-up artist Allan Avendano to get her ready for her close-up

Ricci told the mag translated from Chinese: 'I deliberately took different types of jobs and played many different roles until the effort was enough to overwhelm my impression of being stereotyped'

Last sighting! The Cali-born, New Jersey-raised actress turned heads in a plunging Raisa Vanessa dress selected by stylist Cristina Ehrlich for the 25th Annual Costume Designers Guild Awards in Los Angeles on Monday
President Yoon Suk Yeol and first lady Kim Keon Hee, third from right, sing the national anthem during a ceremony marking the 104th anniversary of the March 1 Independence Movement at the Memorial Hall of Yu Gwan-sun in Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap



President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday called Japan a "partner" in tackling security and economic challenges as he marked the anniversary of the nation's 1919 independence movement against Japanese colonial rule.



Yoon made the remark in his first address marking the March 1 Independence Movement at the Memorial Hall of Yu Gwan-sun, named after the national hero who died in prison at age 17 after taking an active part in the movement for independence from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule.



"Now, a century after the March 1 Independence Movement, Japan has transformed from a militaristic aggressor of the past into a partner that shares the same universal values with us," Yoon said.



"Today Korea and Japan cooperate on issues of security and economy. We also work together to cope with global challenges."



Yoon's speech came as Seoul and Tokyo have been negotiating a solution to the issue of compensation for Korean victims of Japanese forced labor during World War II. The issue has long been a thorn in bilateral relations and Yoon has sought to resolve the dispute, including through several meetings with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.



In his speech, Yoon emphasized the importance of trilateral cooperation among South Korea, the United States and Japan.









Under Yoon, the three countries have resumed various trilateral activities in an effort to jointly tackle the threat of North Korea's nuclear weapons program.



"The trilateral cooperation among the Republic of Korea, the United States and Japan has become more important than ever to overcome the security crises, including North Korea's growing nuclear threats and the global polycrisis," he said, referring to South Korea by its official name.



Yoon also warned the nation against repeating the mistakes of the past, saying the loss of sovereignty to Japan was a result of its failure to properly prepare for a changing world.



"We must gather our wisdom to seek ways to overcome the crises facing us: the global polycrisis, North Korea's nuclear threats and severe security environment, and an increasingly fragmented and polarized society," he said.





President Yoon Suk Yeol gives a speech marking the 104th anniversary of the March 1 Independence Movement at the Memorial Hall of Yu Gwan-sun in Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap
Advertisement

Kim Kardashian showed off her incredible hourglass figure in new snaps shared to her Instagram page late on Wednesday morning.

The 42-year-old reality TV dynamo sizzled as she modeled a new black string bikini from her second SKIMS collection which she has called 'game-changing swimwear designed for more than the water.'

The Keeping Up With The Kardashians veteran wore her black hair down as she was seen in a gray concrete outdoor shower.

The ex-wife of Kanye West carefully accessorized her swimsuit look as she had on a yellow gold belly chain with a cross pendant.

And the entrepreneur also had on a diamond encrusted chain anklet as she made her best supermodel poses to push the bathing suit that sells for $72.

Showering in her swimwear: Kim Kardashian showed off her incredible hourglass figure in new snaps shared to her Instagram page late on Wednesday morning

Haute look: The 42-year-old reality TV dynamo sizzled as she modeled a new black string bikini from her second SKIMS collection which she has called 'game-changing swimwear designed for more than the water'

Kim wore her raven hair down over her bare shoulders and had on nude makeup as the focus was on her very toned figure that included a tiny waistline and impressive abs.

The day before Kardashian was seen exercising very hard in a gym for two hours.

The jet-setter was working out with heavy weights in a gym after returning from a trip to Europe where she modeled fashion.

The star bent her back - and not her legs - while she pulled up a weight that said 80 Iron Grip on one side.

The reality star was flaunting the stunning results of her workout routine as she modeled the same tank top with leggings.

The Skims founder also shared she was working out with her personal trainer, CrushIt app founder Senada Greca, 40, for two hours.

The ex of SNL vet Pete Davidson added she was working off her 'jet lag' after being in Europe for the Dolce & Gabbana show and to shoot her series The Kardashians.

'Nothing like a 2 hr workout w Senada Greca to get my jet lag back on track,' she wrote over one of the photos.

Shower time with sunglasses on: The Keeping Up With The Kardashians veteran wore her black hair down as she was seen in a concrete outdoor shower

'Finishing off strong is the best feeling ever to check a good workout off of the daily schedule,' she shared.

Last week she had on a bra top while training with Senada. 'I mean look at these gainz we've been making,' was written across the Instagram story.

Earlier this month, Senada, posted a photo of the two, praising The Kardashians star for her diligence.

'The hardest working woman in the room!' she said.

'Yes you heard that right! Its my honour to be training with Kim and to see the person that she truly is: hard working, dedicated, consistent and caring,' she said.

'She puts in the work for 2 hours and never complains even when I push her past what she would think are her limits.

A good reflection: The ex-wife of Kanye West carefully accessorized her swimsuit look as she had on a yellow gold belly chain with a cross pendant

From the side: And the entrepreneur also had on a diamond encrusted chain anklet on as she made her best supermodel poses to push the bathing suit

All covered up at the end of the series: In this image she has a sheer wrap covering her thong briefs

'I know the strength that lays within her, and now, together, were working on Kim stepping into her strength.

'So excited about this journey.'

Kim responded to the praise, writing, 'Im so excited for our journey. Stepping into strength with you.'

On Monday Kim took to Instagram to show off her enviable figure and chic ensemble after visiting Dolce & Gabbana in Milan, Italy.

The star shared a carousel of images showing off a cream-colored co-ord made of leather belts that she wore to the opening of the luxury retailer's flagship store.

Workout queen: On Tuesday the mother of four said she worked out for two hours every morning with a trainer and weights. 'Finishing off strong is the best feeling ever to check a good workout off of the daily schedule,' she shared

While in town for Milan Fashion Week, the SKIMS founder sported a nude buckled cropped motorcycle jacket and a matching miniskirt as she posed in front of her own billboard image.

To match, she also paired the stylish outfit with knee-high, leg warmer-style boots of the same color and material.

In the caption of her post, she wrote: 'I love you Milan!' I had to stop by the store to see the collection in stores since it just all arrived!'

'What a surreal dream come true,' she added. 'And thank you all for coming to say hi to me there!'

She continued: 'I love you Domenico and Stefano for making my dreams come true'.

The entrepreneur also shared four videos at the end of her post that panned around a large group of fans crowing the entire alley to meet and greet Kim herself.
Molly-Mae Hague's older sister couldn't contain her smile as she headed out and about with baby Bambi on Wednesday.

Zoe, 26, who's four years Molly's senior, took to Instagram to share a sweet snap of her pushing the newborns pram.

She looked effortlessly chic in a black trench coat from PrettyLittleThing which she donned over a beige sweatshirt and leggings.

Zoe, who has served in the Royal Army Medical Corps, opted for a pair of crisp white trainers and a black New Balance cap for the outing.

She toted her belongings around in a Louis Vuitton crossbody bag and styled her long blonde tresses poker straight as she penned: 'Auntie Duties'.

'Auntie duties': Molly-Mae Hague's older sister couldn't contain her smile as she headed out and about with baby Bambi on Wednesday

Out and about: Zoe, 26, who's four years Molly's senior, took to Instagram to share a sweet snap of her pushing the newborns pram

It comes after Molly shared a sweet tribute to her boyfriend Tommy Fury on Sunday night following his fight against Jake Paul in Saudi Arabia.

The influencer, 23, assured that there was 'never a doubt' in her mind as she cheered on her boxer beau from afar after he finally reigned victorious over the YouTube star.

While she was ever the doting support and even broke down into tears following the win, the new mother couldn't bear to watch Tommy in the ring - staying away from the TV until the result.

Staying back in the UK with their newborn daughter Bambi, four weeks, the Love Island star was joined by her sister Zoe and pals Maura Higgins, Ellen Graham and Stephanie Lam for a watching party.

But she wasn't actually present for the fight itself, as her sister shared a clip of Molly-Mae taking shelter in her bedroom while the others watched the clash.

Tommy took on Jake in the highly-anticipated professional fight, taking the win as the pair made it through all eight rounds to a judges vote.

The new dad was the rightful winner in the end - with the judges calling the fight 76-73, 76-73, 74-75 in his favour - but with a point deduction and a knockdown against his name, it was far from plain sailing.

Proving she was backing him all the way, Molly-Mae took to Instagram to share a gushing tribute with her 7.3M followers.

'Never a doubt in my mind': It comes after Molly penned a sweet victory tribute to beau Tommy Fury on Sunday after he defeated Jake Paul in the ring - but doesn't tune in to see the clash

Bursting with pride: She assured that there was never any question who would win while sharing a proud snap to her 7.3M Instagram followers

Posting a snap where she shared a kiss with Tommy and cradled their daughter Bambi, she penned: 'The pressure that was on this boys shoulders.. I will never ever know how he dealt with it.

'Never been more proud of anyone in my life. GET HOME TO US OUR CHAMP,' continued the PrettyLittleThing Creative Director.

Sharing another snap of her beau with his winning belt, Molly-Mae added: 'Never a doubt in my mind'.

But when fight time came, the blonde beauty couldn't bring herself to watch her boyfriend take punches from Jake, instead quietly relaxing with daughter Bambi in her bedroom.

Zoe, Maura, Ellen and Stephanie all gathered in Molly-Mae's living room to watch the fight, filming their relieved reactions as the judges result was revealed, all jumping up and down for joy.

But showing what her sister was up to while her boyfriend was crowned champ, Zoe then shared a video as she walked through the house - turning the camera to a quiet Molly-Mae as she nervously sat with Bambi.

The influencer appeared overcome with emotion as her pals bombarded the room to deliver the good news.

Tommy's thoughts weren't far from home either, as the boxer dedicated his fight to Molly-Mae and their daughter.

Support squad: Staying back in the UK with their newborn daughter Bambi, the Love Island star was joined by her sister Zoe and pals Maura Higgins, Ellen Graham and Stephanie Lam for a watching party

Can't watch: But she wasn't actually present for the fight itself, as her sister shared a clip of Molly-Mae taking shelter in her bedroom while the others watched the clash

Girls night: The pals enjoyed a spread of sweet and savoury treats as they gathered to watch the fight

Judges' vote: The new dad was the rightful winner in the end - with the judges calling the fight 76-73, 76-73, 74-75 in his favour - but with a point deduction and a knockdown against his name, it was far from plain sailing

Breaking down into tears of joy after the fight, he gave his two girls an emotional shoutout while admitting that the victory was a weight lifted.

Speaking directly after the fight, Tommy said: 'For the past two and a half years this is all that consumed my life. Broken rib, denied access and everyone thought I was running scared.

'Tonight I made my own legacy. I am Tommy Fury. I want to dedicate this fight to my new baby girl Bambi at home and my Mrs. I love you and I cant wait to see you. This fight was for you. This belt is for you Bambi I love you.'

He went on to add: 'I had a dream and a vision I would win this fight. No one believed me. Now I can stand up and everyone can take note. Its my first main event at 23 years old. I had a world of pressure on me and I came through.

'This to me is a world title fight. This was my dream and this was my destiny. This was my fate. I want to thank Saudi Arabia for having me. I love you all for having me and for turning out. You guys we did it. We did it.'

There was another sweet nod to his family at home during the fight, as Tommy had his daughter's name stitched into his shorts in gold lettering, and over the front of his robe.

While the logo of Molly-Mae's fake tan brand, Filter, was printed on his team's jackets and merchandise as a sponser.

The boxer is sure to be looking forward to getting home to Molly-Mae and Bambi, who the pair welcomed just one month prior, before the new dad had to jet off.
The Rock Show will go on... just not right away.

Blink-182 was set to start their world tour later this month. Now, they have postponed the first 11 dates - all of the March and April shows - due to drummer Travis Barker's finger injury.

Mark Hoppus, 50, Barker, and Tom DeLonge, were set to kick off their reunion tour on March 14 in Lima, Peru. The trio have not played together as a band in a decade.

However, Barker, 47, underwent surgery for an injury to his ring finger he sustained while practicing for the tour in early February and then re-injured a few weeks later.

DeLonge, 47 shared a video to Instagram announcing the postponement.

The Rock Show: Blink-182 has postponed the first 11 dates of their massive world tour due to Travis Barker's finger injury

All the Small Things: They will play the postponed dates in South America and Mexico in 2024 instead

'Hey everyone, it's Tom DeLonge from Blink-182 here,' he said. 'I wanted to say I'm so sorry to everyone down in South America that we couldn't be there.

'This has been something we have been aiming to do for so long, and we worked so hard and we just had one of those freak accidents that nobody saw coming,' he continued.

'Travis needs to go in and have surgery on his finger and we have to get that well and we have to get that strong before we can do anything else,' he added, 'this is just so sad.

'These were the biggest shows we ever played in some of the most important places in the world. For a band this is the pinnacle of our career was coming down and playing for you guys, so I really want you to know that we are devastated and we are planning to come back,' he said.

DeLonge revealed that his band will play the festivals they were scheduled for in 2024.

'We are going to get Travis better and we are going to come down, the three of us together, and we are going to rock with you... Blink-182 loves you and we will see you soon,' he concluded.

Barker underwent surgery on his busted ring finger on Wednesday.

He posted social media snaps in a hospital gown, hairnet and mask with an IV in his arm as he prepared to undergo surgery.

Dammit: Barker, 47, underwent surgery on the finger he injured twice on Wednesday

Not now: The band hasn't toured together since 2014 and will resume their planned show dates in early May

All of this: Blink-182 shared a video on Tom DeLonge's Instagram announcing the postponed dates

He shared the health update to his 7.9 million followers on Instagram and captioned it: 'Surgery tomorrow', with an emoji of hands praying.

In the post, Travis showed a video of him getting his finger pulled and pushed in different directions to try and get it back to normal.

It appeared that he had a doctor arrive at his home who was discussing the pain of his finger.

Another snap showed Travis in an all-black ensemble holding his taped-up hand to his face, protecting it from further damage.

He also pictured his finger up close, with his tattooed hand held out to display the break at the top of his knuckle.

His wife Kourtney replied to the post with a series of prayer hands and heart emojis.

He previously tweeted on February 8: 'I was playing the drums at rehearsals yesterday and I smashed my finger so hard I dislocated it and tore the ligaments.'

The postponed Blink-182 world tour will now kick off on May 4 in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Bella Thorne shared the cover of Flaunt's issue on her Instagram account on Wednesday.

In the photo, the 25-year-old actress showed off a significant amount of skin while wearing a very revealing outfit during a photoshoot.

The performer, who recently attended Milan Fashion Week, also shared her excitement about the upcoming wide release of her new film, Divinity, in a short message that was shared in her post's caption.

Thorne covered her upper chest with a thick strand of fabric that reached across her breasts while posing for the shot.

The Disney Channel alum also donned a stylish black jacket and a pair of shorts that showcased her toned legs during the photoshoot.

Fashionable: Bella Thorne shared the cover of Flaunt Magazine's January issue on her Instagram account on Wednesday

She loves the look: The actress has a habit of modeling black strappy clothes

The social media personality accessorized with several pieces of jewelry and wore a pair of high-heeled shoes that exposed the front portions of her feet.

Her gorgeous hair cascaded onto her shoulders and contrasted well with the dark tone of her clothing.

Thorne also expressed her excitement about Divinity being picked up for distribution by Utopia in her post's caption.

She penned a short statement that partially read: 'Looking forward to u all getting to experience this incredible film soon!'

According to Deadline, the actress was first attached to the project in April of last year.

The movie is set in the distant future and is centered on a pair of brothers who attempt to stop a mogul from making an immortality serum available to the public.

In addition to Thorne, other performers in the feature include Stephen Dorff, Scott Bakula and Karrueche Tran.

Stephen Soderbergh served as one of the Eddie Alcazar-directed movie's producers.

Building hype: The performer also shared her excitement about the upcoming wide release of her new film, Divinity, in a short message that was shared in her post's caption; she is seen at its premiere in January

Divinity premiered during the Sundance Film Festival, which took place last month.

The movie has received mixed reviews from critics and it currently holds a 55% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

According to Variety, Utopia and Sumerian acquired the feature's worldwide rights last month.

The media outlet reported that the movie would be released theatrically this coming fall, and a specific premiere date will be announced in the near future.

Thorne previously spoke about the movie's production during an interview with Flaunt, where she remarked that she greatly enjoyed her time on the project's set.

'There wasn't a script, so it was just going off of Eddie's words, and I thought that that was a really interesting way to work. I had never done that before,' she said.

The performer expressed that she was excited to take on the challenge of appearing in a dystopia-themed movie.

'I have definitely done my fair share of sci-fi. I had never done something super dystopian like this, and that was a change for me for sure,' she said.

Thorne also stated that she was interested in taking on more roles behind the camera in the future.

'I do want to do a lot more directing. I am studying and always learning...I'm definitely really interested in all the creating process,' she stated.
Amanda Holden looked incredible as she attended the press night of Sheridan Smith's Shirley Valentine, with her mum on Wednesday.

The TV personality, 51, cut a stylish figure in a black cut out midi dress as she posed with her glamorous mum Judith on the red carpet.

Amanda draped a smart long jacket over her shoulders and elevated her frame in a pair of pointed toe coordinated heels.

She toted her belongings around in a black croc print clutch and styled her long blonde tresses in luxurious waves as they cascaded past her shoulders.

Meanwhile the Britain's Got Talent stars mum Judith looked effortlessly chic in a silk blue blazer and matching trousers.

Girls night: Amanda Holden looked incredible as she attended the press night of Sheridan Smith's Shirley Valentine, with her mum on Wednesday

Dressed to impress: The TV personality, 51, cut a stylish figure in a black cut out midi dress as she posed with her glamorous mum Judith on the red carpet

The beauty kept casual in a chunky pair of black trainers as she carried a large matching bag.

She completed her evening look by tying a white patterned neck scarf around her neck as she posed for photos with Amanda.

Also in attendance was actress Claire Sweeney, 51, who looked sensational in a dark denim jumpsuit which she cinched in at the waist with a matching belt.

She added inches to her frame in a pair of black boots and toted her belongings around in a matching shoulder bag.

The Brookside star wrapped up warm in a large beige fur jacket and accessorised with a chunky silver cross necklace.

She styled her long blonde tresses in loose waves as they cascaded past her shoulders as she posed for photos at the star-studded event.

Claire couldn't contain her smile as she hugged old pal Con O'Neill, 56, who looked smart in an all black ensemble.

Meanwhile, Gary Lucy cut a dapper figure in a navy suit which he donned with a pink open collar shirt.

Stunning: Amanda draped a smart long jacket over her shoulders and elevated her frame in a pair of pointed toe coordinated heels

Posing up a storm: She toted her belongings around in a black croc print clutch and styled her long blonde tresses in luxurious waves as they cascaded past her shoulders

Glamorous: Meanwhile the Britain's Got Talent stars mum Judith looked effortlessly chic in a silk blue blazer and matching trousers

Incredible: She completed her evening look by tying a white patterned neck scarf around her neck as she arrived with Amanda

High spirits: Also in attendance was actress Claire Sweeney, 51, who looked sensational in a dark denim jumpsuit which she cinched in at the waist with a matching belt

Stylish: She added inches to her frame in a pair of black boots and toted her belongings around in a matching shoulder bag

Looking good: The blonde beauty accessorised the zip front one piece with a chunky silver cross necklace

The actor, 41, rocked a designer dark scarf around his neck as he attended the evening with his mum.

Rupert Everett braved the cold in a dark jacket, blue winter hat and scarf as he posed on the red carpet.

Sheridan Smith kicked off her 15-week stint in Shirley Valentine at the Duke Of York theatre in London last week.

The 41-year-old has so far received rave reviews and standing ovations for her performance in Willy Russell's one woman play.

Shirley Valentine, which was also made into a 1989 movie with Pauline Collins, is a one-woman-show which tells the story of a working class housewife from Liverpool.

The play is the joyous, life-affirming story of the woman who got lost in marriage and motherhood, the woman who wound up talking to the kitchen wall whilst cooking her husband's chips and egg.

But Shirley still has a secret dream. And in her bag, an airline ticket. One day she may just leave a note, saying: 'Gone! Gone to Greece.'

Shirley Valentine is written by Willy Russell, directed by Matthew Dunster, designed by Paul Wills, with lighting design by Lucy Carter, sound design by Ian Dickinson for Autograph and is produced by David Pugh.

Chic: Claire styled her long blonde tresses in loose waves as they cascaded past her shoulders

All smiles: Claire couldn't contain her smile as she posed with old pal Con O'Neill, 56, who looked smart in an all black ensemble

Pals: The pair were seem beaming as they hugged each other outside the theatre

Dapper: Meanwhile, Gary Lucy cut a dapper figure in a navy suit which he donned with a pink open collar shirt.

Family night out: The actor, 41, rocked a designer dark scarf around his neck as he attended the evening with his mum

Home time: The TV personality was spotted departing the theatre with a packet of popcorn

Upbeat: Sheridan Smith greeted onlookers with a smile as she exited the theatre later that night

There she is: The actress caught the eye in a smart black trouser suit and crisp white shirt

Pals: Smith reunited with close friend Sweeney following the show at London's Duke Of York theatre

After she took to the stage for the first performance, audience members rushed to social media to gush over the show - dubbing Sheridan's acting 'perfect'.

One penned: '@sheridansmith1 wow what a performance, a true icon and such talent. One woman show, so incredible @shirleyonstage a must see'.

'A well deserved standing ovation for @sheridansmith1 this evening after an incredible opening night performance as Shirley Valentine. Craving chips and egg now,' tweeted another.

As others noted that she 'smashed it out of the park', one simply shared: 'Sheridan Smith as Shirley Valentine in West End: totally utterly divine'.

Shirley Valentine is written by Willy Russell, directed by Matthew Dunster, designed by Paul Wills, with lighting design by Lucy Carter, sound design by Ian Dickinson for Autograph and is produced by David Pugh.

Previously speaking about taking on the role, Sheridan explained: 'As a mum now myself I'm delighted to be playing theatre's best-loved mum and I am honoured to be entrusted by Willy Russell to bring his Shirley to life once again in the West End.

Continuing, she promised at the time: 'Now, to practice cooking chips and egg'.

In attendance: Former Hollyoaks star Gary beamed with his mother Ros at the show

Make way: Amanda and Claire beamed for a photo together in the theatre

Glam: Amanda put on a busty display in the number as she posed up a storm ahead of the performance

Cold: Rupert Everett braved the cold in a dark jacket, blue winter hat and scarf as he posed on the red carpet

In attendance: Lou Teasdale cut a casual figure in an oversized grey sweatshirt and black jacket

In character: Sheridan Smith kicked off her 15-week stint in the one-woman-show Shirley Valentine at the Duke Of York theatre in London last week

Looking back: The role of Shirley Valentine was made famous by actress Pauline Collins, 82, when it was made into a film in 1989
Channel Nine has censored Married At First Sight groom Harrison Boon after he went rogue and accused Bronte Schofield's sister of ambushing him during family week.

The builder shared a post on Instagram claiming Kirra Schofield had 'overstepped boundaries' by passing judgement on his 'private relationship' with Bronte.

However, this post was evidently not approved by Nine's publicity department, as he was later ordered to update his caption with something less inflammatory.

The MAFS Gossip Instagram page screenshotted the original caption before it was changed, and contrasted it with the edited version.

Harrison's first caption read: 'Kirra always oversteps the bounds of family member making comments on a private relationship. It's not family or friends' place to threaten a spouse on their loved one's behalf.

'What is going to happen in Perth? Seems like Kirra is planning something. Is Bronte okay with this?'

Channel Nine has censored Married At First Sight groom Harrison Boon (pictured) after he went rogue and accused Bronte Schofield's sister of ambushing him during family week

This caption, which implied Kirra was plotting to sabotage his relationship, irked the MAFS publicists, who told him to change it.

His post was then updated to, 'It's not family or friends' place to make comments on their loved one's behalf,' removing the reference to Kirra 'planning something'.

It comes after exclusive footage obtained by Daily Mail Australia showed MAFS producers at work while Harrison and Bronte were filming 'family week'.

Producers were seen pulling aside Bronte's sister Kirra - who had earlier expressed doubts about Harrison on the couple's wedding day - and urging her to 'rip into' her brother-in-law.

They intervened after noticing how well the trio was getting along on set, which 'wouldn't make for good TV,' according to a well-placed source.

'The producers were trying to create drama and were desperate to inject some tension into the show,' the insider said.

'They freaked out when the three of them reunited and were all getting along, as they'd expected Kirra to be on the warpath after what happened at the wedding.'

The builder shared an Instagram post claiming Kirra had 'overstepped boundaries' by passing judgement on his 'private relationship' with Bronte (left). However, this was not approved by Nine publicists, as he was ordered to update his caption with something less inflammatory

Kirra had been instantly wary of Harrison's cocky attitude when she locked eyes with him at the altar - and her suspicions where later confirmed when it was alleged at the reception he had a 'secret girlfriend' waiting for him outside the experiment.

But things had clearly cooled off by the time Kirra returned for family week.

'They wanted Kirra to have a go at Harrison, but that wasn't happening. So they pulled her outside and told her she needed to go back in and give him an earful,' the source revealed.

The MAFS Gossip Instagram page screenshotted the original caption before it was changed, and contrasted it with the edited version (seen here). The updated caption removed the reference to Kirra 'planning something'

'They pretty much instructed her to rip into him and say she didn't trust him.

'Things were actually really good with Bronte and Harrison at that stage, but the producers wanted Kirra to come in and cause drama.'

According to the insider, producers told Harrison and Bronte's family and friends they 'weren't going home until they had enough proper footage to work with'.

And they were successful as Bronte's sister was later seen angrily giving Harrison a piece of her mind during the reunion with family and friends.

It comes after exclusive footage obtained by Daily Mail Australia showed producers at work while Harrison and Bronte were filming 'family week'

Producers intervened after noticing how well Bronte (left), Kirra (centre) and Harrison were getting along on set, which 'wouldn't make for good TV,' according to a well-placed source
She is known for her expensive taste and chic designer wardrobe.

And even Julie Bishop wears her very best to go grocery shopping.

The former foreign minister looked incredibly stylish as she visited her local IGA supermarket in Perth this week.

Julie Bishop glammed up and wore a $8800 Chanel handbag to grab some groceries at her local IGA in Perth this week

While the 66-year-old put her grocery items in an eco-friendly grocery box bag, she flexed with a Chanel wallet on chain handbag, which can retail to up to $8000.

Julie also slipped her slender figure into a designer skirt and cashmere knitted top.

She wore even more expensive accessories, including a pair of sky-high stilettos, designer sunglasses and diamond jewels.

Her famous cropped hairstyle was expertly styled and she had on an application of light makeup.

The picture of Julie was posted by Bag With Envy, who make revolutionary reusable grocery box bags and reposted by Julie.

Julie lives in Perth, but was recently in Sydney to attend the Carla Zampatti fashion show.

At the event she flaunted her super fit frame in a stunning navy sleeveless dress with tulle ruffled detailing at the side.

Julie lives in Perth but was recently in Sydney to attend the Carla Zampatti fashion show

But it was Bishop's footwear which really stood out, with the former politician stepping out of her taxi in a pair of ankle breaking Aquazzura Yes Darling five inch platform heels, worth an eye-watering $1400.

Julie completed her ensemble with an embellished clutch and a pair of diamond pave hoop earrings.

She managed to battle the humidity, sporting a sleek blow wave and made her blue eyes pop with lashing of black eye liner.

Julie was joined at the event by the former Premier of New South Wales Gladys Berejiklian, Sam Armytage, former Sunrise host Mel Doyle and Christian Wilkins.

Julie revealed she was taking part in a running challenge at the start of the year, and has been pounding the pavement around the world for the past few weeks.

On January 3, she shared a video of herself jogging and captioned the clip 'New Year resolution day three,' adding an angel emoji.

Julie's fitness challenge comes amid persistent romance rumours with self-described 'adventure philanthropist' Luke Hepworth.

The pair raised eyebrows in December when they posed arm-in-arm on the red carpet at the 2022 NGV Gala in Melbourne, despite Luke denying they are dating.

Julie and Luke have attended several high-profile soirees recently, including an event hosted by Moet & Chandon in early December month and the Perth Telethon.

'I am not in a relationship. She is just a good friend of mine and a wonderful human, so we have been to a couple of charity events,' he added.

But Luke did confirm he's known Julie for several years after they first met at the ritzy Gold Dinner charity gala.

Julie has been single since mid last year, following her split from partner-of-eight-years David Panton.
Eton College has turned out 20 prime ministers and innumerable Cabinet ministers  as well as Princes William and Harry.

Soon, it could educate Princess Charlotte or Harry and Meghan's daughter, Lilibet.

For I hear that the Berkshire boarding school is actively considering the most radical change in its 600-year history, by admitting girls.

'I'll let you into a secret,' says Eton's Provost Lord (William) Waldegrave, the former Tory Cabinet minister. 'Every year, the governors of Eton consider whether Eton should go co-ed.

'And we don't quite decide. But, of course, we will go co-ed in due course.'

Eton College has turned out 20 prime ministers and innumerable Cabinet ministers  as well as Princes William and Harry

For I hear that the Berkshire boarding school is actively considering the most radical change in its 600-year history, by admitting girls

Lord Waldegrave, 76, the brother of Queen Elizabeth's right-hand woman Lady Susan Hussey, has been Provost, or chairman of Eton's governing body, since 2009.

EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: NADHIM ZAHAWI, who was sacked as Conservative Party chairman in January over his tax affairs, attended the British Kebab Awards at the Park Plaza Westminster Hotel this week. He remarks: Four weeks ago, I was dealing with the donors. Now Im dealing with the doners. Advertisement

He made the comments at a reunion dinner at Eton for those who left in 1983.

Intriguingly, this included a small band of 'Old Etoniennes'  about 16 women who were at the school for just one term, during which they prepared for the exam then taken by all those hoping to go to Oxford or Cambridge universities.

As I reported last month, these women had initially not been invited to the reunion. However, the Etoniennes of 1983, who include High Court judge Dame Philippa Whipple, did not take their exclusion lying down. 'They kicked up a stink and mounted a campaign,' I was told. 'Now they've been asked [to attend].'

Eton, which charges fees of 46,000 a year, sometimes appears to struggle when women come into the equation.

In 2020, it sacked an immensely popular English master, Will Knowland, after he posted a lecture online, and refused to remove it, which cited a Marie Claire magazine article, containing one woman's observation that she yearned to be overwhelmed by the 'sheer power of her husband's masculinity in the bedroom'.

Eton, which charges fees of 46,000 a year, sometimes appears to struggle when women come into the equation. Pictured: Prince William and Prince Harry outside Manor House, with House Master Dr Andrew Gailey (centre), on Prince William's first day at Eton in 1995.

Princess Charlotte, Prince George, the Prince of Wales, Prince Louis and the Princess of Wales attending the Christmas Day morning church service at St Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham, Norfolk in 2022

As far as we know, Prince Harry and Meghan's California-born daughter, Lilibet, has still not been christened, even though she's almost two.

The Princess of Wales's sister, Pippa Middleton, however, is not prepared to wait so long for the baptism of her own daughter. I hear that seven-month-old Rose, Pippa's third child with her husband, financier James Matthews, was christened this week at their local village church in Berkshire.

I'm told: 'Prince William and Catherine both attended the service.'

It's a jungle in there, Alice

Many women like to match their shoes with their handbag, but society model Alice Dellal is taking style co-ordination to another dimension altogether.

The granddaughter of late property tycoon 'Black Jack' Dellal is apparently trying to usher in a new fashion for matching shoes with home furnishings.

Here, Alice (right) is wearing a pair of 895 'Malice' leopard-print platform heels by her sister's label, Charlotte Olympia. She's paired them with an 845 De Winter bag while posing on a tiger-print sofa.

Many women like to match their shoes with their handbag, but society model Alice Dellal is taking style co-ordination to another dimension altogether

How To Look Good Naked star Gok Wan is hoping King Charles will avoid a fashion faux pas at his Coronation.

Aides are said to have advised the monarch to ditch traditional silk stockings and breeches in favour of modern attire.

'I love all the regalia that comes with the royals,' Wan, 48, tells me at the Urban Music Awards. 'I like all the traditional stuff because you don't see it any more. I love a moment when you can see that robe, or accessory, or a crown jewel that has been around for hundreds of years. He should make a style statement and really go for it.'

The stars get bigger and closer to Hockney

How about this for a line-up! Britain's greatest living artist, David Hockney, 85, was joined by two of our most celebrated pop knights, Paul McCartney and Elton John, plus Hollywood legend Tom Hanks at his latest exhibition, called Bigger & Closer (Not Smaller & Further Away).

'Great art accompanied by life's great artists,' says musician and TV presenter Jools Holland, who joined the illustrious quartet. 'Couldn't be better.'

The show, at the Lightroom gallery in King's Cross, Central London, features some of Hockney's best-known works projected onto screens around the visitors.

Given that it costs 90 for a family of four to attend the show, it helps to have the stars' millions.

Britain's greatest living artist, David Hockney, 85, was joined by two of our most celebrated pop knights, Paul McCartney and Elton John, plus Hollywood legend Tom Hanks at his latest exhibition, called Bigger & Closer (Not Smaller & Further Away)

King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla could be bopping to the beat of My Generation ('I hope I die before I get old') when The Who play a special August bank holiday gig at the Royal Family's Sandringham estate in Norfolk.

Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey will perform hits including Won't Get Fooled Again, accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the show, which will act as the band's finale to their 2023 UK tour.

If Prince Harry joins the VIPs, he will surely appreciate support act Richard Ashcroft, whose set includes his chart-topper with The Verve, The Drugs Don't Work.

Farewell to Dame Barbara's son Ian

So Devoted was Ian McCorquodale to his mother, the Queen of Romance Dame Barbara Cartland, that he moved back in with her after his divorce.

Now, McCorquodale, who handled the prolific novelist's publishing business, has died aged 85.

First married to war hero's daughter Anna Chisholm, with whom he has two daughters, McCorquodale later wed the former Royal Ballet principal dancer Bryony Brind, 22 years his junior.

Brind, who was previously romantically linked to Prince Michael of Kent and Oscar-winner Daniel Day-Lewis, cared for former Debrett's chairman McCorquodale after he suffered a series of strokes.

'I've been so lucky with Bryony, who looks after me beautifully,' he said.

'She went from being a newlywed to a carer.'

Brind predeceased him in 2015.
The chief reporter of the Western Daily Press, my colleague Mervyn Hancock, was a big bloke in every sense  hugely experienced, loud, 6ft 3in and confidently good-humoured.

But an encounter with John Goldfinger Palmer, now a leading character in BBC1s crime drama The Gold, left this towering man white-faced and shaken.

In the early 1990s, when I was working at Bristols morning newspaper, we heard that Palmer was running a timeshare scam, ripping off thousands of holidaymakers.

Merv went to investigate. He signed up for a presentation at a city hotel, where he watched a video promoting Palmers apartments in Playa de las Americas, Tenerife.

After being showered with promises of free holidays for life and annual profits, at the end of the sales film everyone in the conference room  most of them retired couples  discovered the catch.

Ruthless: John Palmer with wife Marnie in Tenerife

Tom Cullen plays Palmer as a doe-eyed softie in The Gold

The doors were locked and no one was going to be allowed out until theyd signed up.

Merv declared he was leaving. Thats when the scare tactics started. Customers were unable to leave, to use the toilets or even attend medical appointments, as they were pressured for six hours by Palmers slick sales team. Pens were thrust into their hands and they were forced to sign.

This was just the ugly beginning of a massive fraud which cheated clients of thousands of pounds. Many didnt even get to holiday in their timeshare apartments.

When Mervyn finally returned to the office he was shaken, but boiling with anger at what the thugs were doing to innocent people.

That was the truth about John Palmer, the ruthless and illiterate gangster, who is now being portrayed by the BBC as a doe-eyed, cuddly wide-boy in the new series about the aftermath of the biggest armed heist in British history  the Brinks-Mat gold bullion robbery in November 1983.

Tom Cullen is a good physical match for Goldfinger, so called because his scrap gold business Scadlynn, based in Bristols Bedminster district, bought up jewellery by the pound.

Melted down, these odds and ends of precious metal helped him disguise much of the three tons of extraordinarily pure gold, worth 26 million in 1983, from the robbery.

But Cullens Palmer is a Somerset softie, a wide-boy who finds himself out of his depth in the big league. Besotted with his needy wife Marnie (Stefanie Martini), he pushes his luck and keeps smelting the stolen gold. No one is more surprised than he is when he gets away with it.

Kenneth Noye, pictured shortly after the road rage killing of Stephen Cameron

In one tearful scene, Palmer tells Marnie how, as a boy, he was bitterly ashamed of his alcoholic, homeless father. Any crime is better than living as a beggar on the streets, he says.

What sentimental tosh. His murderous associate Kenneth Noye (played by Jack Lowden in the drama) made it plain in a book published last month that even he was terrified of John Palmer.

After Noye stabbed Stephen Cameron to death in a road rage attack on the M25 in May 1996, Palmer helped him flee to Tenerife  travelling part of the way on a private jet, owned by a Russian mafia oligarch.

In the Canaries, Noye saw some of the methods Palmer used to deter challenges to his power.

He ensured a reign of terror by encouraging his retinue of thugs to tank up on cocaine and whisky at the weekends, before descending on bars to start fights with locals and holidaymakers.

Jack Lowden portrays Noye in The Gold

On another occasion, one of his mistresses, a teenage girl, was invited to throw a party for her family and friends, where she was to be presented with the keys to her own glamorous vehicle. With great ceremony, she was blindfolded and everyone gathered round  before one of Palmers henchman wheeled in a dirty, broken-down moped . . . purely to humiliate her.

Guessing it was only a matter of time before he became a victim himself of Palmers malevolent spite, Noye decamped to Africa and spent the next two years on the run. Eventually, he was tracked down by the dogged police work of Detective Superintendent Nick Biddiss of the Kent force  who has lambasted The Golds generous portrayal of Noye.

The BBCs portrait of Noye is out of order, Biddiss says. He was a cunning, cold-blooded killer, but that doesnt come across. The drama makes out that he was some sort of latter-day Robin Hood, a ladies man who wouldnt hurt a soul  not the vicious, violent criminal he really was.

The pretence that these evil men were simply working-class rogues is only part of the wholescale reinvention of facts in The Gold.

One scene early on, for instance, shows a wise old superintendent advising the Flying Squad detectives, DS Tony Brightwell and DC Nicki Jennings (played by Emun Elliott and Charlotte Spencer). He suggests Noye as a likely suspect for the first time.

The reality was much more colourful than that, according to a Sky News podcast released last year by veteran crime reporter Martin Brunt. In the police canteen, Brunt said, when officers were voicing their frustration at the case, a desk sergeant perked up his ears. He recognised some of those names  and he could take a good guess at who else was involved. But his information came at a price: a slap-up curry dinner washed down with gallons of lager in an Indian restaurant.

It wasnt until the bhajis, the bhuna and all the poppadoms were eaten that the sergeant started talking: the Flying Squad needed to talk to Kenneth Noye.

Why that scene isnt in the show is a mystery. But like many of his old colleagues, Roy Ramm, formerly commander of Specialist Operations at New Scotland Yard, regards the whole series as a disappointment, a succession of missed opportunities.

Ramm says: The production feels cheap. It isnt Happy Valley quality, thats for sure. The Gold claims to be inspired by actual events, but the introduction of wholly invented characters is silly and occasionally offensive. The female officer, Nicki Jennings, is a fictional, baseless and unnecessary invention.

Using real characters and real events as part of the narrative, he adds, makes it impossible for the viewer to distinguish between what was inspired and what actually transpired.

Among the errors he identifies is the scene where armed robber Micky McAvoy, on remand in prison, is left unsupervised to have a covert phone conversation about the bullion with a felon on the outside. It must have left viewers wondering about the competence of the officers who allowed it, Ramm says.

And senior Daily Mail journalist Neil Darbyshire, who covered the Brinks-Mat case as a young crime reporter, takes issue with Hugh Bonnevilles portrayal of DCI Brian Boyce, who led the investigation. He says Boyce was a far more complex man than the show depicts. In particular, he was a talented jazz pianist, who was known to unwind by playing boogie-woogie piano in Soho clubs. Again, its a mystery why such vibrant material was omitted.

But the central complaint from every old hand is the same: Palmer and Noye were sociopathic monsters, not a couple of likely lads. They left a trail of devastated lives and showed no remorse.

Palmer was killed in a gangland execution in 2015, but Noye was released from prison after serving 20 years for the M25 murder.

Noye should still be inside, says Biddiss. I am a wooden-box man. If you are convicted of murder and you are a professional criminal, you should never be released. It is difficult enough for police to catch such killers and collect the crucial evidence.

When that happens and they are convicted, then they should never come out  except in a wooden box.
Dixie D'Amelio is finding out firsthand if blondes have more fun.

The 21-year-old social media star - who looked stylish earlier this year on a night out in L.A. - posted a series of snaps in both color and black and white wearing a cropped black top, sheer midi skirt that showed off her black underwear, and a chic black tuxedo-inspired trench coat.

The dark color of her ensemble showed off the new white-blonde shade of her hair which was tousled.

She captioned the snaps, 'I am having more fun tbh thank you @ysl, stunning show tonight.'

Dixie's eyes were rimmed in heavy black eyeliner, while the rest of her makeup was subtle and sun-kissed. In the black and white shots, she donned a pair of black shades.

Blondes have more fun: Social media influencer Dixie D'Amelio debuted a white blonde mixie cut at Paris Fashion Week

The TikTok star debuted the new look at Paris Fashion week. The light blonde look is a dramatic change from her formerly dark brown tresses.

In the comments one fan said she was 'giving Draco Malfoy vibes.'

TikToker Alix Earle quipped, 'Blondieeeeeeeeeee booo,' while Landon Barker, her sister Charli's BFF, commented "Mgk!," saying the blonde 'do resembles Machine Gun Kelly.

The bleached blonde comes via her hair dresser Dimitris Giannetos, who also did her choppy pixie cut.

Her haircut updates the classic style with long bangs that hang below her dark brown eyebrows and a bit of length at the nape of her neck.

The new style is a mix between a pixie and a mullet, a mixie, with it longer in the front and shorter in the back.

Supermodel Linda Evangelista was the inspiration behind Dixie's new look.

'We wanted to do a drastic change for Paris Fashion Week and there is no other designer to choose than Saint Laurent,' Giannetos told Allure.

Updated 'do: The new hairstyle is courtesy of her LA-based hair guru Dimitris Giannetos

90s vibe: The look was inspired by super model Linda Evangelista's bleached blonde pixie cut in the 1990s

She's got the look: The new hair color and style comes six months after she shaved her long dark hair off

'We wanted her hair look to be a very strong statement so I decided to do platinum color and a pixie cut  something to be bold and memorable.'

'Its the perfect way to introduce the '90s supermodel to Gen Z,' he added.

Dixie has been rocking short hair since September when she took a razor to her long brunette hair in favor of a buzz cut.

At the time, Dixie admitted that she'd been dreaming of cutting all of her hair off since sixth grade.

Sunglasses at night: 'Its the perfect way to introduce the '90s supermodel to Gen Z,' Dixie's hairstylist said

'It's great, you get up in the morning and you don't have to do anything,' D'Amelio told ET at the time.

'Definitely want to get a few more pictures with it and I think I'm going to grow it out...

'I always wanted to do it, so I did it and now on to the next,' she added.

When she buzzed off her hair, D'Amelio revealed that her family and friends had been supportive of her shifting look.

'I think for the most part everything's been very positive about it and loves it,' she said. 'I'm happy with it, I don't know, that's all that matters.'
Rep. Lee Jae-myung, chief of the Democratic Party of Korea, gestures as he speaks during a media briefing at the National Assembly on Yeouido, Seoul, Oct. 21, 2022. Korea Times photo by Oh Dae-geun



Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung on Wednesday criticized the government of President Yoon Suk Yeol for trying to mend relations with Japan, saying trust-building is impossible unless Japan takes responsibility and offers legal compensation for its 1910-45 colonial rule of Korea.



Lee, chairman of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, made the remark in a Facebook post marking the anniversary of the March 1 Independence Movement, a 1919 nationwide uprising against the Japanese colonial rule.



"The Yoon Suk Yeol government is oblivious of the March 1 Independence Movement spirit and is damaging it," Lee said. "No one would oppose building future-oriented Korea-Japan relations. Without historical responsibility and legitimate legal compensation, however, it is impossible to build trust."



The Yoon administration has been seeking a solution to the issue of wartime forced labor that has frayed relations with Japan for years after Korea's Supreme Court ordered Japanese companies in 2018 to pay compensation to Korean forced labor victims.






Phoebe Dynevor and Cameron Fuller were spotted for the first time together on Tuesday as they checked out of a hotel in New York City.

The two haven't publicly confirmed any dating or relationship rumours, but appeared to enjoy spending time together during their first joint appearance.

The British actress, 27, bundled up in a grey trench coat and a black hoodie, teamed with black trousers and Adidas trainers.

She tried to keep a low profile by hiding her eyed behind a pair of rectangle sunglasses.

Phoebe went makeup free during the outing, showing off her natural beauty, while scraping her brunette locks back into a ponytail.

Meanwhile, Cameron, 27, cut a casual figure in a black hoodie and navy joggers as he pulled along both of their suitcases.

Outing: Phoebe Dynevor and Cameron Fuller were spotted for the first time together on Tuesday as they appeared to be checking out of a hotel in New York City

Just friends? The two haven't publicly confirmed any dating or relationship rumours, but appeared to enjoy spending time together

The actor donned a nike grey beanie hate and accessorised with a pair of round shades.

MailOnline has contacted Phoebe and Cameron's representatives for comment.

It comes after Phoebe was linked to Andrew Garfield after meeting at this week's GQ Man Of The Year Awards in London.

The Bridgerton star was said to have hit it off with the former Spiderman star, who is 12 years her senior, during the star-studded after-party for the bash.

And the alleged romance comes following the actress's 2021 split from US comedian Pete Davidson, while Andrew broke things off with model girlfriend Alyssa Miller earlier this year.

A source told The Sun: 'Andrew and Phoebe clicked straight away, there was an immediate attraction. They know each other through various acquaintances in the business and have plenty in common.

'But this is certainly no one-off encounter. After leaving together, theyve since met up and are acting like a proper couple,' they continued.

Phoebe Dynevor: A Relationship Timeline 2014 - Simon Merrill (Phoebe dated the recruitment consultant for a year, during which they travelled across south east Asia) 2017 - Sean Teale (the actress was romantically connected to Skins star Teale after they attended the premiere of Snatch together) 2021 - Pete Davidson (Phoebe surprised fans by embarking on a short lived romance with the SNL star, who even visited her in the UK) Advertisement

Stylish: The British actress, 27, bundled up in a grey trench coat and a black hoodie, teamed with black trousers and Adidas trainers

Check out: Cameron cut a casual figure in a black hoodie and navy joggers as he pulled along both of their suitcases

Low-key: Phoebe tried to keep a low profile by hiding her eyed behind a pair of rectangle sunglasses

Phoebe, who is daughter to Coronation Street's Sally Dynevor, dated comedian Pete for five months in 2021 , and was rumoured to be getting close to Jaden Smith following the split.

Cameron previously sparked dating rumours with actress Lucy Hale last year as they were pictured out on dinner dates several times.

Pretty little Liars star Lucy has had a few beaus in the past, such as dating Disney channel star and Wizards Of Waverly Pace actor, David Henrie, back in 2007 to 2009.

Her most recent fling was with actor, Skeet Ulrich. The two were seen showing some affection last year in 2021.

In January 2013, Chloe Moretz received a plastic ring from her 'boo' at the time Cameron.

At the time, Cameron told her that he loves her and misses her on Twitter, to which she responded: 'I'm excited to see you boo'.

Cameron, who is a long-term friend of the actress, got down on one knee and gave the pretty star a plastic ring in a mock proposal during their outing in West Hollywood.

Chloe's family have known the Fullers ever since Brad Fuller produced the Amityville Horror remake in which Chloe made her film debut.

High profile: The alleged romance comes following the actress's 2021 split from US comedian Pete Davidson

Cameron is Brad's brother and she's friends with their other brother, Paxton.

A source close to the actress told Mail Online that there's no steamy romance. They said: 'Chloe isn't dating anyone, she's too young and has been friends with the boys for a long while... her career is her main priority.'

Cameron is best known for his roles in TV series The Last Ship, Into the Dark, The Goldbergs and Insecure.

Hes also known for his YouTube channel with real life BFF Gregg Sulkin. He also dated fellow internet personality Lauren Elizabeth for nearly three years.


Parties should compete with ideas and policies



In 1995, Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee angered the political community by saying, "Korea's businesses are second rate by global standards, but its government is third rate, and its politics is fourth rate."



It is questionable whether the late tycoon, familiar with backroom dealings with politicians, had the right to criticize his counterparts.



However, Lee's now-famous remark still has quite a ring to it.



Current scenes in Yeouido, Korea's political and financial hub, show that domestic politics have changed little over the past three decades. Fresh ideas and effective policies are hard to find. In their places are only power games and boss politics.



On Monday, the National Assembly rejected the government's request for consent to arrest Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), on corruption charges. However, Lee managed to avoid arrest by a razor-thin margin, as at least 30 DPK lawmakers did not vote by the party line.



Even more pathetic was the party's response to the internal revolt. Lee's loyalists set about to hunt down the rebels to drop them from party nominations for next year's general elections. That's the last thing the DPK must do now. Lee was right to tell his followers this is the time to cement the party's unity and listen to different voices within the party. To do so, however, Lee himself must change first.



Lee has sufficient political assets. Last May, Lee lost the presidential election by less than 1 percentage point in the polling rate, the narrowest margin in history. Three months later, he took the DPK's helm with an approval rate of nearly 80 percent. Lee's is a typical rags-to-riches story, from a factory hand in childhood to a lawyer, mayor, and provincial governor. He was a creative administrator and a feisty politician.



However, Lee's critical weakness is his "legal risk." He has been investigated on at least three counts since last year, including charges of embezzlement and bribery regarding a major land development scandal. Lee says all this is a conspiracy by President Yoon Suk Yeol to cripple his archrival. Lee may not be wrong and there are signs of a political vendetta. However, many voters, even those who voted for Lee, find it difficult to understand why he fails to resolve all suspicions concerning his involvement in these scandals.



Lee must no longer let his scandal and character flaws give a free hand to the Yoon administration and governing People Power Party.



The scandal-ridden opposition leader and DPK, as his "bulletproof vest," have given a blank check to the president and his party. So, Yoon has withstood public pressure to fire his home minister taking responsibility for the Itaewon crowd crush disaster four months ago. He also got away with numerous appointment mistakes, diplomatic blunders, and anachronistic economic policies. There are even rumors that the governing camp might want Lee to stay until the next parliamentary polls.



Now is the time for Lee to come forth and solve his problems. If he refuses to do so, the DPK should abandon him. Global politics and economy are entering an entirely new era and Korea can ill afford to remain mired in petty politics. The ongoing dogfight within the ruling party to pick its new chairman is no less bleak. The four contenders are competing over who is closer to Yoon.



For decades, two centrist parties by Western standards  one center-of-right and one center-of-left party  have led Korean politics. They call themselves conservatives or progressives, but there are not many differences in their policies as foreigners see them.



Korean voters are sick of politics marked by revenge and the purge of former opponents. That may explain why Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun are still the most popular former presidents. Yoon must know that.



Lee, for his part, should recall Admiral Yi Sun-shin's famous words, "Those who try to live will die, and those who try to die will live."


Premierul Nicolae Ciuca a fost prezent la evenimentul care a marcat Ziua Nationala a Japoniei, unde s-a intalnit cu Ambasadorul Japoniei la Bucuresti Hiroshi Ueda. Acesta din urma a tinut in discurs pe care vi-l prezentam in randurile de mai jos - si in limba engleza, dar si in limba romana.

Your Excellency Mr. Prime Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciuca,

Your Excellency Mr. Former President Emil Constantinescu,

Dear Senators and Deputies and Members of the European Parliament,

Minister of Justice, Mr. Catalin Predoiu,

Minister of Development, Public Works and Administration, Mr. Cseke Attila-Zoltan,

Minister of Health, Mr. Alexandru Rafila,

Ministry of Culture, Mr. Lucian Romascanu,

Ambassadors and Heads of Missions accredited in Romania,

Dear members of the Diplomatic Corps,

High Officials and Representatives,

Dear Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

First of all, I would like to extend my deepest condolences to the families and friends of the victims of the Turkey-Syria Earthquake and to express my wishes for the earliest possible recovery and reconstruction of the affected areas.

Ladies and gentlemen,



Japan's National Day is February 23, the birthday of His Majesty Emperor Naruhito.



At 63 years of age, he is the 126th Emperor of Japan, the longest continuously reigning member of the Imperial Family in the world. We are truly honored to be able to celebrate this special occasion with you all, especially face to face for the first time in three years, after the pandemic.



Ziua Nationala a Japoniei se sarbatoreste pe data de 23 februarie, ziua de nastere a Maiestatii Sale Imparatul Naruhito.



In varsta de 63 de ani, Maiestatea Sa este cel de-al 126-lea imparat al Japoniei si mostenitorul celei mai vechi linii imperiale din lume. Suntem cu adevarat onorati sa putem sarbatori impreuna cu dumneavoastra aceasta ocazie speciala.



Japonia si Romania, care au aniversat in anul 2021 centenarul stabilirii relatiilor diplomatice, au legaturi extrem de bune sub toate aspectele: politic, economic, cultural, artistic si sportiv.



Iar anul acesta este cel in care se va realiza promisiunea facuta de regretatul Prim Ministru al Japoniei, Shinzo Abe, in discutia cu presedintele Klaus Iohannis, cu ocazia vizitei in Romania din anul 2018, aceea de a ridica relatiile bilaterale la nivelul de Parteneriat Strategic.

The year before last, in 2021, Japan and Romania celebrated the 100th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations.



On that occasion, despite the pandemic, numerous festive events were held in various spheres, including the anniversary resolution adopted by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Romanian Senate.



Japan and Romania have strengthened their friendship, especially in recent years, based on shared values such as rule of law, democracy, respect for human rights, and open economy.



In 2018, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe became the first Japanese Prime Minister to visit Romania, where he and President Klaus Iohannis pledged to elevate bilateral relations to the level of Strategic Partnership. The following year, in 2019, President Iohannis visited Japan on the occasion of the enthronement of His Majesty Emperor Naruhito.

Unfortunately, Prime Minister Abe passed away last year.



I would like to express my gratitude for the messages of condolence from President Iohannis and many others, as well as for the attendance of Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca and Speaker Marcel Ciolacu, to Prime Minister Abe's State Funeral in Japan. Now that Mr. Abe has passed away, I believe that it is our responsibility to carry on his legacy and to conclude the document of the Strategic Partnership between our two countries.



On the economic front, more than 110 Japanese companies operate in Romania, creating over 40,000 jobs. In addition, we are participating in many of Romania's flagship projects, such as the Braila Bridge, the largest suspension bridge in Romania and the third longest in the EU, which is under construction by the Japanese company IHI.



Another prime example of our cooperation is the Bucharest International Airport Access Railway, so-called M6 metro line, which will be built with Japanese yen loans.



Last but not least, ELI-NP, the world-class extreme laser nuclear physics research institute is with the cooperation of Osaka University for cutting-edge technology and research.



In terms of culture, arts, and sports, we are amazed at the popularity of Japan in Romania in a wide range of fields, including Japanese language, literature, martial arts, tea ceremony, pop culture, anime, manga, etc. The participation of Japanese drama artists in the Sibiu International Theater Festival has become a regular sight every June.

Last year, the year 2022, when both countries took their first steps toward the new century of bilateral relations, was marked by two major events: the convergence of Covid-19 and the Russias invasion of Ukraine.



Covid-19 raged for more than two years and was a major challenge for both countries. However, owing much to bilateral and international cooperation in the medical and other fields, the major crisis was averted and restrictions have been relaxed in many countries, including Japan and Romania.



Russia's aggression against Ukraine is absolutely unacceptable and shakes the very foundations of the international order. In cooperation with Romania and other like-minded countries, Japan was quick to implement sanctions against Russia, and pledged a total of 7.1 billion US dollars in aid to Ukraine, Romania, Republic of Moldova and other neighboring countries.



Japan will strongly continue to impose sanctions against Russia and provide assistance for Ukraine with a strong determination to reject unilateral attempt to change the status quo by force (and coercion) in any region.



At the same time, I would like to express my sincere respect and admiration for Romania, as a key member of NATO's Eastern Flank and Bucharest 9, for fulfilling the responsibilities by providing assistance to refugees, supporting the transportation of Ukrainian grain, providing energy assistance, supporting Republic of Moldova, and many more.



In particular, we witnessed firsthand the heartwarming welcome extended to Ukrainian refugees by the Romanian people. This reminds me of how, right after the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, our Romanian friends invited children from Fukushima to Romania to heal their hearts. I am sure I am not the only Japanese who recall this Romanian hospitality.



Doamnelor si domnilor,



Lumea se afla acum intr-un moment de cotitura. Sunt provocari la adresa ordinii internationale libere si deschise, bazate pe statul de drept, cum este invazia Rusiei in Ucraina, un act impardonabil care pune greu la incercare fundamentele ordinii internationale, dar si provocari comune intregii omeniri, precum schimbarile climatice, sanatatea globala, raspunsul la multiplele dezastre naturale, si multe altele.



The world is now at a turning point in history. The free and open international order based on the rule of law that has upheld peace and prosperity in the post-Cold War era is facing serious challenges. Furthermore, there are mounting challenges common to all humankind, such as climate change, global health, response to frequent natural disasters, and many more.

Ladies and gentlemen,



Takasugi Shinsaku, one of the architects of the Meiji Restoration that modernized Japan from the samurai era said, "The degree to which you can trust your friends becomes clear when you are in an emergency or difficult situation.



I have heard a similar saying in Romanian: "Prietenul la nevoie se cunoaste.



In the face of the challenges we confront, I am convinced that Japan and Romania will very soon raise their relations to the level of Strategic Partnership and continue to do the utmost in the international community, based on common values and with greater strength and deeper trust.



Am convingerea ca, in fata provocarilor cu care ne confruntam, Japonia si Romania isi vor ridica in curand relatiile la nivelul de Parteneriat Strategic si vor continua sa faca tot ce le sta in putinta in cadrul comunitatii internationale, pe baza unor valori comune si cu o incredere mai puternica si mai profunda pentru a-si atinge telul.

According to the Japanese zodiac of 60 year cycle, the year 2023 is the year of "Mizunoto-u, water-rabbit, which has the implication of the year in which our past efforts will blossom and begin to bear fruit.



To conclude my words, please allow me to extend my best wishes for the further development of the bilateral relations in this auspicious year.

Va multumesc pentru atentie.



Thank you very much, a spus Ambasadorul Japoniei la Bucuresti Hiroshi Ueda.

Fiti la curent cu ultimele noutati. Urmariti DCNews si pe Google News




By John J. Metzler







A year after Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, the U.N. General Assembly firmly and sternly rebuked Russia's brutal war against a sovereign country. With a thumping majority of 141 in favor, only 7 against and 32 abstentions, the Assembly again issued a non-binding resolution demanding Russia's military withdrawal from Ukraine and calling for a "comprehensive, just and lasting peace."







Thus, to the unrelenting backdrop of thudding artillery and lethal cruise missile attacks, Ukraine still stands tall but battered a year into what Russian leader Vladimir Putin calls a "special military operation," which has hardly brought glory to his own once vaunted military. Ukraine's war has become a grinding stalemate.







Nevertheless, on the diplomatic front in New York, while lacking the danger, drama and debilitating cold of this ongoing war in Europe, there's a clear consensus to censure and sanction Russia's actions, which violated the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. The hallowed principles of "a rules-based international order" are regularly recited by most diplomats almost in rote and offer the relentless chorus to what remains a long path to any negotiated peace.







U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated at the onset of the Emergency Special Session on Ukraine, "The one-year mark of Russia's invasion of Ukraine stands as a grim milestone, for the people of Ukraine and for the international community." He added that 40 percent of Ukrainians are in need of humanitarian assistance with 8 million refugees "creating the largest refugee crisis since the Second World War."







Yet diplomatic denunciations of Russia aside, here's how the U.N. Assembly vote tallied. Yes, 141 with the United States, Canada, all of Europe and most of Latin America supporting the resolution. So did Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Singapore. Among African states, key countries such as Nigeria and Kenya backed the plan along with Egypt and Morocco.







Only six countries backed Russia; Belarus, Eritrea, Mali, North Korea, Nicaragua and Syria.







Among 32 abstentions there's nuance and "non-alignment," India, Iran, Pakistan and South Africa. But China, Cuba, Vietnam and Zimbabwe abstained to the chagrin of Moscow.







"We are satisfied with the outcome and the message is clear," Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told the media after the vote.







The U.S. U.N. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield commented, 141 countries demanded Russia, "withdraw immediately, completely and unconditionally from Ukraine's internationally recognized territory, send your troops home, end this war."







Interestingly China "abstained" sensing it could politically "afford to do it," in what is a non-binding resolution. Now China has unveiled its 12-point Peace Plan for Ukraine. Is this to offer Russia respite or try to impose a Beijing-brokered Peace for a key region in Central Europe?







The role of China is increasingly mercurial. While Beijing backs Moscow as a military foil to disrupt Europe and the West in general, China secretly wishes to see a weakened Russian state become more dependent on the People's Republic. Indeed China may send military ordinance to Russia to replenish its dwindling supplies. But in the longer term, China can assess the situation, gauge military tactics and weapons systems, and sharpen its sword for what is likely an inevitable military showdown with democratic Taiwan in a few years.







The Assembly vote comes in parallel to massive U.S. and NATO military aid for the beleaguered Ukrainians. Washington has provided over $100 billion in lethal aid and that's probably a low number. Britain, France and Germany are rushing more supplies to Ukraine too including long-awaited battle tanks, such as the British Challenger and German Leopard II.







Ukraine's military crisis is deepening. Ironically U.S. actions to engage in this proxy war with Russia, have ensured closer political solidarity between Putin's Russia and Xi Jinping's China.







Hungary's Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, offered a different perspective; calling on the international community to focus on establishing an immediate ceasefire and help launch peace talks soon. He admonished that, "in Central Europe, the lesson of history is clear. Whenever there is a conflict between East and West, we in central Europe have always lost." As Ukraine's neighbor, Hungary lives with the tragic consequences of this brutal war. "Hungary is carrying out the largest humanitarian operation ever in its history, having received more than a million refugees," Minister Szijjarto told the Assembly.







Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock made a stirring address just before the Assembly voted. "We did not choose this war," she affirmed, "But the truth is if the Russian Federation stops fighting, this war ends, while if Ukraine stops fighting, Ukraine ends."









) is a United Nations correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He is the author of "Divided Dynamism The Diplomacy of Separated Nations; Germany, Korea, China."



John J. Metzler ( jjmcolumn@earthlink.net
Activists protest the death by suicide of a student belonging to Sri Chaitanya college ain front of the college premises on Wednesday. (K. Durga Rao/DC)

HYDERABAD: Physical assault, abuse and use of vulgar language by lecturers and staffers of Sri Chaitanya Junior Residential College in Narsingi forced a 16-year-old student to end his life by suicide on the college premises on Tuesday night, students of the college said.

The police said that the student blamed teachers Acharya and Krishna Reddy, staffer Jagan and the warden, Naresh, in a suicide note that he left behind in a pocket. The teachers and warden allegedly used to slap him and abuse him, as well as his friends, when they complained about poor food quality and lack of other amenities.

The victim also apologised to his parents and grandmother for taking the extreme step.

The victims father said he met his son on Tuesday evening. "I met him at 7.45 pm at the hostel and gave him medicines as he had a skin disease. He was depressed and complained that the two teachers and the warden were beating and abusing him. I told him to focus on studies and promised to take him home after his examinations," the father said.

"I received a call from the management at 12.20 am. They informed me that my son was admitted to Anand Hospital. My wife, elder son and I rushed to the hospital, where a doctor told me my son had died," he said.

Students studying in the college corroborated the fathers account, saying that the victim was harassed and assaulted.

A student, requesting anonymity, said: "The hostel warden did not react even after coming to know of the suicide attempt. He just bolted the door and shooed away the students. More students joined in and we carried him to the main road, where we flagged a car to take us to a hospital. But, he was already dead due to the delay."

The student said that the incident took place around 10.45 pm, after students returned to their rooms at 10 pm.

Family members, relatives and friends of the victim, in the interim, started protesting on the college premises, demanding action against those responsible.

"Stern action should be taken against the warden Naresh, teachers Acharya, Krishna Reddy and staffer Jagan," the victims father said.

When contacted by Deccan Chronicle, the college dean, V. Venkateshwaru, refused to comment on the incident.

The situation was normalised only after the Narsingi police reached the spot, pacified the protesters and registered a case.

"We received a complaint from the victims father at 1 am and registered a case under IPC Section 305 (abetment to suicide)," Narayan Reddy, sub-inspector of Narsingi police, said.

The police recorded the statements of the students and called the four members named in the suicide note for questioning.

They said that the students body was shifted to Osmania General Hospital for a post-mortem examination.

Meanwhile, activists of the Students Federation of India (SFI) held an agitation at the Intermediate Board office in Nampally on Wednesday, demanding stern action against the junior college authorities.

They demanded a comprehensive inquiry and tried to lay siege to the office, but were thwarted by police, who detained the agitators in preventive custody and released them later.

DISCLAIMER: As per the law and journalistic ethics, Deccan Chronicle does not name minors, who are victims of crimes or have died by suicide, and juveniles in conflict with the law, for committing serious crimes.
Shahid Kapoor

NEW DELHI: "Farzi" has found an audience across demographics and its lead star Shahid Kapoor is happy that people are connecting with his "not-so-likeable" character of Sunny, a talented painter who turns to currency counterfeiting, in his streaming debut.

The actor, who celebrated his 42nd birthday on February 25 days after the premiere of "Farzi" on Prime Video, said the success of the eight-episode series gave him "a deep sense of satisfaction" as his character is not an easy guy to root for.

"It's always challenging when you're playing a guy who is not likeable or who's not necessarily the guy you want to make friends with or go on a date with...

"It's important for you to make them (audience) like him, even though as the show progresses, he's not going to be very likeable in the things that he does," Kapoor told PTI in a virtual interview.

Created and directed by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK, Farzi revolves around Sunny (Kapoor) who finds himself drawn into the dark while he plots a perfect con. A task force officer (played by Vijay Sethupathi) has made it his goal to eliminate the threat Sunny represents to the country.

Known for his roles in Kaminey, Haider, Udta Punjab, and Kabir Singh, Kapoor said the challenge for him was to ensure that people feel empathy for Sunny.

"It's always, for me as an actor, much more challenging to pick up a character like that... As an actor, through the emotionality and his journey, I have to be able to make the audience like him. So, that's always more complex, challenging and exciting. And when you pull it off, it gives you a deep sense of satisfaction," he added.

As someone who had binge-watched Raj & DK's acclaimed Prime Video series "The Family Man", the actor said he loved the director duo's work in the streaming space. The two, best known for their movies such as Go Goa Gone and Shor In The City, initially met Kapoor to discuss a film project.

That movie eventually became "Farzi", and Kapoor said as a fan of "The Family Man", he could not be happier.

"We were talking about a movie and I asked them to have a show and they said, 'Are you serious? You want to do a show?'

"I said, 'I love you as filmmakers, you guys are killing it with how you're telling stories on OTT', which is very different from telling stories in two hours in the theatre as opposed to watching seven hours of content sitting at home... They told me that they turned 'Farzi' into a show and I said, 'Okay, amazing. Let's do it'," he recalled.

The web series seems to be connected to the universe of "The Family Man", fronted by Manoj Bajpayee. Which is why fans were excited to see the all-knowing Chellam sir (Uday Mahesh) from "The Family Man" season two make an appearance in "Farzi".

In fact, Sethupathi's character, who is hot on the heels of a counterfeiting gang, even seeks help from Bajpayee's intelligence agent Srikant Tiwari in a phone call.

Asked about the world of "The Family Man" and "Farzi" merging somewhere in the future, Kapoor said he was "open to all possibilities".

"It's so cool that you can do things like that today and you can create universes, which can connect if required and can be independent when they need to be. You can give the audience that kind of experience.

"The fact that people notice these things and are excited about them helps you understand that it's something that works. So, why not? I'm open to all possibilities," he added.

Kapoor's wife Mira Kapoor and actor-brother Ishaan Khatter, whom he described as his "biggest critics", loved "Farzi".

"They will cut me down (to size) every chance they get. And, they just binged on the show and they just really loved the show. They told me it was one of their favorite shows ever.

"Not just Hindi shows, but (one of their) favourite shows ever. I remember one day where 'Farzi' was the number one show on Amazon globally, not just in India, my brother called me and he said, 'I told you this one's just going to explode...'" he said.

Not just the family, the New Delhi-born actor said he was surprised to see the series appeal to people across demographics.

"What's very interesting about the show is that from my driver to my NRI cousins all of them are connecting with it. So, I realised that it's cutting across demographics and that was really special because every piece of content has its core audience.

"Then sometimes that audience becomes slightly wider because of the quality of the product. This one just has a really wide audience. It's cutting across almost all demographics. And that was amazing."

Personally, Kapoor said he is happy that his monologue on the "middle-finger class", where his character rails against the economic issues faced by the middle class in the country, has resonated with the audience.

"The 'middle-finger class' dialogue was one of my favourite dialogues. I have a relationship with showing my middle finger. Wherever I do it, that film or that show tends to do very well. I don't know why that happens," the actor said, referring to his characters in "Farzi" and "Kabir Singh".

The actor said he could understand why the dialogue hit home.

"You feel those things all the time. That scene where they go to the club and the dude looks at them and says 'Maybe you should just go on the terrace, open a couple of bottles, sit there and drink'.

"That's just so derogatory, but that's how the middle class sometimes feels. I knew that's going to connect because I could feel that connection with that time in my life," he added.

Kapoor has a busy year ahead with a film, billed as "an edgy actioner spread over one night", directed by Ali Abbas Zafar, followed by a "high-concept quirky love story" with Kriti Sanon, which will also be released in 2023.
Ambani family (PTI)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has directed to provide the highest level Z-plus security to industrialist Mukesh Ambani and his family members all across India and abroad.

A bench of Justices Krishna Murari and Ahsanuddin Amanullah said on Monday it was of considered opinion that if there is a security threat, the security cover cannot be restricted to a particular area or place of stay.

Highest Z+ Security Cover provided to respondent nos. 2 to 6 (Ambanis) shall be available all across India and the same is to be ensured by the State of Maharashtra and Ministry of Home Affairs.

Highest Level Z+ Security Cover, as per the policy of Government of India, be also provided, while respondent nos. 2 to 6 are travelling abroad and the same shall be ensured by the Ministry of Home Affairs, the bench said.

The top court said the entire expenses and cost of providing Z+ security cover to Ambanis within the territory of India or abroad shall be borne by them.

It said that looking into the business activities of Ambanis within the country as also outside the country, the very purpose of providing security cover would stand frustrated, if the same is restricted to a particular place or area.

We find that the security cover provided to the respondent nos. 2 to 6 has been the subject matter of controversy at different places and in different high courts, the bench said.

The top court's order came on an application filed by petitioner Bikash Saha seeking clarification of its July 22, 2022 order by which it had allowed the Centre to continue with the security cover for Ambani and his family members in Mumbai.

It had allowed the appeal of the Central government challenging the Tripura High Court's direction on a PIL.

The Tripura High Court had on a PIL filed by Bikash Saha passed two interim orders on May 31 and June 21 and directed the Central government to place the original file maintained by the Ministry of Home Affairs regarding threat perception and assessment report of Ambani, his wife and children based on which security has been granted to them.
Stalin said that he had been visiting the convent as an MLA, Chennai Mayor, State Minister, Deputy Chief Minister, Leader of the Opposition and as Chief Minister and that whatever was his official position, the visit always gave him happiness and satisfaction. Twitter

Chennai: Chief Minister M K Stalin thanked the children of Little Flower convent in Chennai for their love and affection when he visited them on the eve of his 70th birthday.

He said that he had been celebrating his birthdays since 1984 with the children and sisters of the convent and that he had been visiting them the previous day of late because he could find more time to spend with them and watch their cultural programmes.

Thanking them for mentioning the achievement of his government in the past 22 months in their cultural programmes and he said that he wished that he could have done more to earn their accolades.

Stalin said that he had been visiting the convent as an MLA, Chennai Mayor, State Minister, Deputy Chief Minister, Leader of the Opposition and as Chief Minister and that whatever was his official position, the visit always gave him happiness and satisfaction.

Most of the top IAS officers, including Chief Secretary V Irai Anbu, met the Chief Minister and greeted him on his birthday on Tuesday.

He would be starting Wednesday with a visit to the memorial of C N Annadurai at 7 am to pay floral tribute and then place a wreath at the resting place of his father and former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, before driving down to the memorial of Periyar E V Ramasamy.

At 8.30 am he would reach Anna Arivalayam, the DMK headquarters to receive the greeting of party leaders, functionaries, workers and cadre, besides the common people.

Later in the day, at 5 pm, a public meeting will be held at the YMCA ground in Nandanam, which could be the beginning of a nation-wide political alliance to take on the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Among those participating in the meeting are Congress president Maligarjun Kharge, former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Farooq Abdullah, former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Akilesh Yadav and Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Tejeshwi Yadav.

The line of the national opposition leaders could pave the way for the emergence of a united political force in the country rather than be an occasion for just personal bonhomie. For, Stalin himself had said that he did not want a flashy celebration.
Space for landing 18 special aircraft at Visakhapatnam Airport created for two day Global Investors Summit on March 3 and 4. (Representational photo)

Visakhapatnam: The Visakhapatnam Airport has created the space for landing 18 special aircraft over the next two days that will bring national and international delegates to the two day Global Investors Summit on March 3 and 4.

Three helipads have been readied at the Andhra University Engineering College grounds, the venue of the summit, to airlift the delegates from the airport.

Nodal officials would escort the delegates from the hotels to the venue. Around 750 hotel rooms have been booked at the official level while the participants booked around 1,000 additional rooms on their own.

In all 5,000 delegates including teams from foreign countries are expected for the two-day event.

The district administration has made elaborate arrangements for the summit. Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, central ministers Nitin Gadkari and Piyush Goyal and others would be housed at the venue itself. Tight security has been made for this exclusive hall.

Registration of delegates began on Wednesday through 12 special counters at the venue.

Some 4,000 delegates can have their lunch at the venue in a huge hall specially created for the occasion, an industry source said.

The state would unveil an AP Pavilion which would showcase its activities and products in the specially designed 137 stalls. These stalls exhibit items titled start-ups, country arena, renewable energy, textiles, handlooms, tourism, automobiles, IT and Electronics, pharmacy, health, logistics, fertilisers and food.

District collector Dr A. Mallikarjuna said around Rs 100 crore was spent on the beautification of the city and all the works would be completed by Thursday evening.

"A dry run will be conducted from the airport to the venue along with police personnel and the fire services department. Another run would be conducted from the beach resort where the delegates would be housed, to the venue, he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (PTI Photo)

NEW DELHI: The G-20 foreign ministers meeting is due to kick off with a "gala dinner" Wednesday night ahead of the main meeting on Thursday, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to address the gathering. The two sessions on Thursday will be chaired by external affairs minister S. Jaishankar.

India on Wednesday, in response to media queries, said it was up to Russia and China to answer whether those two nations are no longer accepting references to Ukraine that they had agreed to in the G-20 Bali Summit Declaration in November last year. New Delhi signalled it would stand firm on the consensus adopted by all G-20 nations in Bali as far as references to the Ukraine conflict were concerned.

At a special MEA briefing, foreign secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra said while the Ukraine conflict will be an important point of discussion at the G-20 meeting, the challenges facing the Global South on food, fuel and fertiliser security will also be an "equally important" point of discussion. "You need to ask Russia and China whether they are no longer with the Bali Declaration," MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said at the briefing, in a response to a media query. The foreign secretary referred to Indias position that "dialogue and diplomacy is the way forward" to resolve the Ukraine conflict, while noting that India had contributed to reaching of a consensus at the Bali G-20 meet in November during Indonesias G-20 presidency.

All eyes are on whether a joint communique will be adopted at the end of the G-20 meeting on Thursday or whether India as G-20 president will issue a Chairmans Summary and Outcome Document as happened after the G-20 finance ministers meeting in Bengaluru just last week when there was no consensus due to objections raised by Moscow and Beijing over certain references to Ukraine. It may be noted that the Western nations are expected to clash with Russia at the main G-20 foreign ministers meeting on Thursday, even as India is trying hard to keep the focus on the G-20 agenda, that includes the problems facing developing nations in food, fuel and fertiliser security.

The foreign secretary, meanwhile, said "given the developing situation", the Russia-Ukraine conflict will be an "important point of discussion at the meeting", adding that the "foreign ministers would focus on the ongoing situation between Russia and Ukraine". However, Mr Kwatra made it clear "it was equally important" to focus on the impact on the rest of the world, the understanding of the situation and the solutions to it.

On Thursday, the G-20 meeting will be held in two sessions. The first session is on "Strengthening Multilateralism and Need for Reforms, Food and Energy Security and Development Cooperation" while the second in the afternoon will be on "Counter-Terrorism: New and Emerging Threats, Global Skill Mapping and Talent Pool, and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR)". Mr Kwatra said all these issues will receive the complete focus of the foreign ministers.

The G-20 is an "intergovernmental forum of the worlds major developed and developing economies and comprises 19 countries -- Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, UK, USA -- and the European Union".

In addition, the foreign ministers of nine guest countries will also be participating. These guest countries are Bangladesh, Egypt, Mauritius, Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Singapore, Spain and the UAE. There will also be representation from the ISA (International Solar Alliance), CDRI (Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure) and ADB (Asian Development Bank) as Guest IOs" (International Organisations). This will be "in addition to the regular IOs (UN, IMF, World Bank, WHO, WTO, ILO, FSB and OECD) and chairs of regional organizations -- African Union, AUDA-NEPAD (both Africa-related) and Asean.
YSRC ministers and legislators echo Jagan's challenge to the Telugu Desam and Jana Sena. (File photo: By Arrangement)

Vijayawada: YSR Congress president and Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddys challenge to TD chief Chandrababu Naidu and Jana Sena leader Pawan Kalyan is raising the election heat in Andhra Pradesh, where Assembly polls are still a year away.

YSRCs ministers and legislators are echoing Jagans challenge to the Telugu Desam and Jana Sena to contest all the 175 Assembly seats individually without a poll alliance. Agriculture minister Kakani Govardhan Reddy and other YSRC leaders have demanded that the two parties respond to the CMs challenge.

Govardhan said the Rythu Bharosa programme that started on October 15, 2019 was continuing uninterruptedly under the YSRC rule, but Naidu failed to fulfil his poll promises including the agriculture loan waiver to farmers. He said the Jagan-led government also provided an assistance of Rs 13,500 annually to tenant farmers from the SC, ST, BC, minorities and farmers cultivating forest lands under the Forest Act, which had not been given to them during the TD term.

He claimed that since the inception of the scheme till now, Rs 27,062 crore was provided to the beneficiaries under the Rythu Bharosa.

The minister said Naidu had repeatedly alleged that the financial condition of the state had deteriorated due to the introduction of welfare schemes by Jagan Mohan Reddy. But, now Naidu is vowing to "continue all of Jagan's schemes if the TD is elected to power."

Ministers Venugopala Krishna and Seediri Appalaraju said there were not enough candidates for TD and JS to contest all the 175 Assembly seats and hence they would enter into an alliance to fight the polls.




By Sandip Kumar Mishra







South Korea in its Defense White Paper released on Feb. 16 again referred to North Korea and its military as an enemy. The label hardly surprised anyone and it was quite expected. Actually, after coming to power, the Yoon Suk Yeol administration adopted a tit-for-tat approach toward North Korea and his policies, statements and behavior clearly indicate that South Korea considers North Korea as an enemy country.







The Defense White Paper just appears to be formal recognition of the fact. Furthermore, it's not the first time that South Korea has labeled North Korea as an enemy or the main enemy. It started in 1995 and South Korea's conservative administrations have used the term in official documents and progressive administrations have generally withdrawn such labels.







There is no proof that putting the label enemy for North Korea has helped South Korea in dealing with it. However, some may say that even if it has not helped, it is a statement of fact and not using it would be appeasement to North Korea. But it must be remembered that formally, the Korean War has not ended yet and both Koreas are technically at war with each other and this fact is more fundamental than the inclusion or exclusion of the word enemy in an official South Korean document. The question remains that by reiterating the fact by using the word enemy, does South Korea acquire any benefits in its dealings with North Korea?







On the contrary, such reiterations create obstacles for South Korea in dealing with North Korea. First, such inclusions are largely populist and largely they are political moves rather than strategic. Moreover, they are meant more for the domestic politics of South Korea. It garners support from a section of South Koreans who feel that North Korea is an 'evil' state and it must be dealt with strictly. It also gives some solace to people who are frustrated with North Korea's dangerous and provocative behavior.







These people feel better that at least their government is bold and doing something to deal with North Korea. However, a more composed reflection would make them realize that such labels do not have any substance and they just deflect people's expectations to have an effective North Korea policy, which could resolve or at least manage the problem.







Second, using such labels by South Korea annoys North Korea and it gives them excuses to overtly and aggressively pursue weapons of mass destruction. Actually, two days after the release of South Korea's Defense White Paper, North Korea had an ICBM launch. There are going to be many such provocative acts by North Korea as it feels annoyed or deliberately portrays itself to be annoyed. North Korean missile and nuclear programs have been getting more advanced and sophisticated and there must be moves to decelerate the process rather than doing the opposite with the reintroduction of the label of enemy.







Third, even though the current South Korean administration wants to have a strict policy toward North Korea, it must have space to make backward-forward moves. It means that putting pressure on North Korea must be pursued with flexibility so that if and when North Korea shows a positive response, South Korea must be ready to diplomatically engage with it. Labeling North Korea as the enemy restricts such flexibility.







Fourth, South Korea must also be aware that through its miraculous economic success, democratic transformation and developmental approach, the image of the country has been enhanced in the community of nations. South Korea is considered to be a country, which provides developmental aid and cultural content and leads by working for green technologies.







It is contrary to North Korea which has become a highly problematic state because of its domestic mismanagement and dangerous obsession with weapons of mass destruction. Even though both Koreas have the same origin, both countries are considered polar opposites. By using the term enemy, South Korea has apparently responded to North Korea which called South Korea an "obvious enemy," a few weeks prior.







South Korea's current administration talks about a "preemptive strike," its "own nukes," "revenge of a hundred or thousand times" or having missile tests in response to North Korea's missile tests. It is well understood in the world that South Korea is a responsible country, which has been dealing with an irresponsible country. However, similar tactics and metaphors/labels have the potential to be counterproductive to South Korea's image.







Overall, it appears that labeling North Korea and its military as an enemy has hardly any benefit except self-deception and false solace, but it has several unintended negative consequences. The South Korean administration, therefore, must be more creative and cool-headed in its dealings with North Korea. Not because North Korea is a lesser evil, but because it is a serious problem and it must be dealt with by going beyond semantics.









) is an associate professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.











The author ( sandipmishra10@gmail.com
BRS to hold rallies against the Centre's decision to hike the price of domestic LPG cylinders by Rs 50. (ANI Photo)

HYDERABAD: The ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has decided to hold protest rallies in all Assembly constituency headquarters, towns and mandal headquarters across the state on March 3, Friday, against the Centre's decision to hike the price of domestic LPG cylinders by Rs 50.

BRS working president and IT minister K.T.Rama Rao held a teleconference with ministers, party MLAs, MLCs, district party presidents on Wednesday and instructed them to organise protest rallies involving people especially women in large numbers. He also asked party leaders to hold agitation programmes across the state against cylinder price rise and to highlight what he called the "lopsided policies" of the BJP government at the Centre on the occasion of International Women's Day on March 8.

Strongly condemning the price hike, Rama Rao came down heavily on the BJP-led government at the Centre for increasing the price of domestic cylinders sharply by Rs 50 and that of commercial cylinders by Rs 350.

"It has become a norm for the BJP government at the Centre to increase the price of cylinders soon after the polling for Assembly elections ends in States. The BJP government resorted to steep hike in cylinder prices soon after Assembly elections polling in Nagaland and Meghalaya ended on February 27. Common people are already burdened with higher fuel prices and essential commodities. At this stage, imposing additional burden on common people will make their lives more miserable," Rama Rao said.

"Is it Prime Minister Narendra Modi's gift to the women folk of the country ahead of International Women's Day on March 8?" Rama Rao questioned.

He instructed party leaders and cadre to organise protest rallies in a unique manner to highlight the plight of common people due to price rise.

Rama Rao stated that the price of domestic LPG cylinder prior to the Modi government coming to power in 2014 was Rs 400 which has now reached to nearly Rs 1,200 under Modi regime in the last nine years.

He accused the Modi government of deceiving women from poorer sections by introducing "PM Ujjwala Scheme" to provide LPG connections and now making cylinders unaffordable for them by increasing prices sharply.

Rama Rao demanded the Centre to roll back the cylinder price hike immediately and not resort to any more hikes in the future.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. (PTI Photo)

GUWAHATI: A day before the counting of votes in Meghalaya, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had a closed-door meeting with Meghalaya CM Conrad Sangma at midnight Tuesday amidst speculation about a hung Assembly.

While there was no official communication on the meeting, that was held in a Guwahati hotel, sources said Mr Sangma and Mr Sarma discussed the possibility of a post-election alliance to form the next government in the state.

Saying that Mr Sangma returned to Tura, his hometown in Meghalaya, on Wednesday morning, sources said the duo also explored the possibility of roping in legislators from other political parties in case of the National Peoples Party (NPP) and the BJP combine failing to cross the magic figure of 30 legislators in the 60-member House.

It is significant that the NPP, led by chief minister Conrad Sangma, had broken the alliance with the BJP and decided to go to the polls alone in the Assembly polls. The BJP, which was a part of the ruling Meghalaya Democratic Alliance led by chief minister Conrad Sangma in the outgoing setup, went all out against the NPP and put up candidates in all 60 seats.

Mr Sarma, who is the key political strategist for the BJP in the Northeast, is also convenor of the North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), which was instrumental in spreading the influence of the saffron party in the region.

The meeting of two chief ministers is also significant as just a day earlier the Assam chief minister had said that he was confident that the NDA would be forming the government in all the three northeastern eastern states -- Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya  which had gone to the polls in Fenruary. He had also predicted that there will be no hung Assembly in Tripura and Nagaland, where elections were held recently.
BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar called upon OBC leaders to reach every community and explain the misdeeds of the BRS government. (File Photo: DC)

Hyderabad: BJP state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Sunday said that BRS leaders were in jitters seeing the huge response to the street corner meetings of BJP. This is compelling them to attack BJP activists merely to show their existence, he said.

He was taking stock of the street corner meetings here with party district presidents and in-charges, including street corner meetings in-charge Kasam Venkateshwarlu, national executive committee member Garikapati Mohan Rao and state secretary Kolli Madhavi.

He said that BJP has completed its first phase of election campaign with the successful conduct of street corner meetings. Undeterred by BRS-led attacks, the party activists should reach people and expose the failures of the BRS government, he said.

Venkateshwarlu said that around 8,000 street corner meetings were conducted so far, including 80 percent of scheduled meetings in Gajwel, Siddipet and Sircilla Assembly constituencies represented by K. Chandrasekhar Rao, T. Harish Rao and K.T. Rama Rao, respectively. Civic issues came to fore during the meetings, he said.

Later addressing the OBC Morcha meeting, Sanjay called upon OBC leaders to reach every community and explain the misdeeds of the BRS government. The Chief Minister is trying to cheat all caste organizations ahead of Assembly elections, he cautioned them.

Meanwhile, Lingayat community elders met National OBC commission chairman Hansraj Gangaram Ahir and urged him to include them in the OBC list of the central government. Hansraj gave a positive response.
The U.S. Pentagons F-35 Joint Program Office recently cleared the way for Raytheons Pratt & Whitney sector to resume delivery of new F135 engines for the militarys new Joint Strike Fighters. Roughly a couple of months ago, the project was put on hold because of an anomaly that diverted development.

According to those working on the project, the pause was necessary to address a rare system phenomenon affecting what is known as harmonic resonance within the engines. Solving this problem should better facilitate the completion of the existing F-35 order. It should also help other jets that may be affected by the same problem.

Get alerts:

But while the issue is being addressed, the government has still not cleared the fighter jets for aerial operations. The JPO asserts this is just precautionary, as the Pentagon is developing instructions for the fleet and for Lockheed Martin to resume all flight operations safely. Lockheed Martin, of course, is the manufacturer contracted to build the planes, most of which have been assembled in the companys main Fort Worth, TX facility.

Before Lockheed & Martin can deliver the planes to the U.S. government, the company must conduct successful test flights to ensure they will work as intended and designed. Unfortunately, Lockheed Martin has had trouble with several of these tests, further complicating the matter.

For example, a test on December 15 resulted in an Air Force pilot prematurely ejecting from an F-35B. As the investigation dragged on, this led to a pause in engine deliveries within the next week. Then, on Feb 9, Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va, confessed that Air Force engineers had, in fact, identified the associated vibration issues. Indeed, early assessments of the F-35B mishap found a high-pressure fuel tube malfunctioned. It was also concluded that this issue was related to harmonic resonance.Fortunately, a simple solution quickly resolved it.

At the end of the day, JPO only grounded a small percentage of the existing fleet, specifically those at higher risk of an engine problem. Furthermore, Lockheed is still building these aircraft. However, they are storing them until they can be cleared for full flight operations.
The U.S. government is the largest customer for many defense companies, providing a significant portion of their revenue. This stability and predictability can be beneficial for both the companies and investors. However, the revenue... More of this article 
S&P 500 4,137.64 DOW 33,886.47 QQQ 318.57 MarketBeat Week in Review  4/10 - 4/14 Sell every Stock except ONE (Ad) Over and out: Germany switches off its last nuclear plants Macron's unpopular pension plan enacted into French law Fed's Shocking New Plan to Control Your Money (Ad) China protests US sanctioning of firms dealing with Russia US dollar scarcity threatens Bolivia's 'economic miracle' Sell every Stock except ONE (Ad) Mediators propose deal in German public sector pay dispute Kenya deploys first earth observation satellite into space

S&P 500 4,137.64 DOW 33,886.47 QQQ 318.57 MarketBeat Week in Review  4/10 - 4/14 Sell every Stock except ONE (Ad) Over and out: Germany switches off its last nuclear plants Macron's unpopular pension plan enacted into French law Fed's Shocking New Plan to Control Your Money (Ad) China protests US sanctioning of firms dealing with Russia US dollar scarcity threatens Bolivia's 'economic miracle' Sell every Stock except ONE (Ad) Mediators propose deal in German public sector pay dispute Kenya deploys first earth observation satellite into space

S&P 500 4,137.64 DOW 33,886.47 QQQ 318.57 MarketBeat Week in Review  4/10 - 4/14 Sell every Stock except ONE (Ad) Over and out: Germany switches off its last nuclear plants Macron's unpopular pension plan enacted into French law Fed's Shocking New Plan to Control Your Money (Ad) China protests US sanctioning of firms dealing with Russia US dollar scarcity threatens Bolivia's 'economic miracle' Sell every Stock except ONE (Ad) Mediators propose deal in German public sector pay dispute Kenya deploys first earth observation satellite into space
The following companies are subsidiares of Mohawk Industries: A&S Energie NV, A&U Energie NV, Aladdin Manufacturing Corporation, Aladdin Manufacturing Of New York LLC, Aladdin Manufacturing of Alabama LLC, Alsace Logistique S.A., Avelgem Green Power CVBA, Avon Pacific Holdings Ltd, B&M NV, BGE Mexico S. de R. L. de C.V., Berghoef GmbH, Berghoef-Hout B.V., Bienes Raices y Materiales del Centro S. de R.L. de C.V., C.F. Marazzi S.A., Canterbury Spinners Ltd, Carpet Foundation Ltd, Cevotrans BV, Ceramus Bahia S/A  Produtos Ceramicos, DT Mex Holdings LLC, DTM/CM Holdings LLC, Dal Italia LLC, Dal-Elit LLC, Dal-Tile Chile Comercial Limitada, Dal-Tile Colombia S.A.S., Dal-Tile Distribution Inc., Dal-Tile Group Inc., Dal-Tile I LLC, Dal-Tile Industrias S. de R.L. de C.V., Dal-Tile International Inc., Dal-Tile Mexico Comercial S. de R.L. de C.V., Dal-Tile Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Dal-Tile Operaciones Mexico S. De R.L. De C.V., Dal-Tile Peru SRL, Dal-Tile Puerto Rico Inc., Dal-Tile Services Inc., Dal-Tile Shared Services Inc., Dal-Tile Tennessee LLC, Dal-Tile of Canada ULC, Daltile, Daltile, Dekaply NV, Durkan, Dynea NV, Eliane Argentina Sociedad Anonima, Eliane S/A - Revestimentos Ceramicos, Emilceramica India Pvt Ltd., Emilceramica S.r.l, Emilgermany GmbH, Emilgroup Asia Ltd, Explorer S.r.l., F.I.L.S. Investments Unlimited Company, Feltex Carpets Ltd, Feltex Carpets Pty Ltd, Feltex New Zealand Ltd, Fibremakers Australia Pty Ltd, Flooring Foundation Ltd, Flooring Industries Limited S.a r.l., Flooring XL B.V., Floorscape Limited, Godfrey Hirst & Co Pty Ltd, Godfrey Hirst (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Godfrey Hirst Australia Pty Ltd, Godfrey Hirst Group, Godfrey Hirst NZ Ltd, Hytherm (Ireland) Limited, IVC BVBA, IVC Far-East Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., IVC France S.a r.l., IVC GROUP LIMITED, IVC Green Power NV, IVC Group, IVC Group GmbH, IVC Luxembourg S.a r.l., IVC Rus OOO, IVC US Inc., International Flooring Systems S.a r.l., International Vinyl Company - Vostok OOO, KAI Group, KAI Keramica Ltd, KAI Mining EOOD, KERAMA CENTER OOO, Kerama Baltics OOO, Kerama Export OOO, Kerama Marazzi OOO, Kerampromservis (LLC), Khan Asparuh - Transport EOOD, Khan Asparuh AD, Khan Omurtag AD, Koninklijke Peitsman B.V., Kraj Kerama OOO, MG China Trading Ltd., MI Finance SRL, MUD (Holding) Brazil Ltda., Management Co EAD, Marazzi Acquisition S.r.l., Marazzi Deutschland G.m.b.H., Marazzi France Trading S.A.S., Marazzi Group, Marazzi Group F.Z.E., Marazzi Group S.r.l., Marazzi Group Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Marazzi Iberia S.L.U., Marazzi Japan Co. Ltd., Marazzi Middle East FZ LLC, Marazzi Schweiz S.A.G.L., Marazzi UK Ltd., Mohawk Assurance Services Inc., Mohawk Australia Pty Ltd, Mohawk Canada Corporation, Mohawk Capital Finance S.A., Mohawk Capital Luxembourg SA, Mohawk Carpet Distribution Inc., Mohawk Carpet Foundation Inc., Mohawk Carpet LLC, Mohawk Carpet Transportation Of Georgia LLC, Mohawk Commercial Inc., Mohawk ESV Inc., Mohawk Europe BVBA, Mohawk Factoring II Inc., Mohawk Factoring LLC, Mohawk Finance S.a r.l., Mohawk Foreign Acquisitions S.a r.l., Mohawk Foreign Funding S.a.r.l, Mohawk Foreign Holdings S.a r.l., Mohawk Foreign Investments Inc., Mohawk Global Investments S.a r.l., Mohawk Holdings International B.V., Mohawk Industries Inc., Mohawk International (Europe) S.a r.l., Mohawk International (Hong Kong) Limited, Mohawk International Capital N.V., Mohawk International Financing S.a.r.l, Mohawk International Holdings (DE) LLC, Mohawk International Holdings S.a r.l., Mohawk International Luxembourg S.a r.l., Mohawk International Netherlands B.V., Mohawk International Services BVBA, Mohawk KAI Luxembourg Holding S.a r.l., Mohawk KAI Luxembourg S.a r.l., Mohawk Luxembourg Capital S.A., Mohawk Luxembourg Financing S.a r.l., Mohawk Luxembourg Holdings S.a r.l., Mohawk Luxembourg Investments S.a r.l., Mohawk Luxembourg Pacific S.a r.l., Mohawk Marazzi International BV, Mohawk Marazzi Russia BV, Mohawk New Zealand Limited, Mohawk Operaciones Mexicali S. de R.L. de C.V., Mohawk Operations Luxembourg S.a r.l., Mohawk Pacific Investments S.a r.l., Mohawk Resources LLC, Mohawk Servicing LLC, Mohawk Singapore Private Limited, Mohawk Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, Mohawk Unilin Luxembourg S.a r.l., Mohawk United Finance B.V., Mohawk United International B.V., Mohawk Vinyl Financing S.a r.l., Molber Beheer B.V., Monarch Ceramic Tile Inc., P.F. Onroerend Goed B.V., PF Beheer B.V., Pergo, Pergo (Europe) AB, Pergo Holding BV, Pergo India Pvt Ltd, Polcolorit S.A., Premium Floors Australia Pty Limited, RR Apex LLC, Rata International Pty Ltd, Recubrimientos Interceramica S. de R.L. de C.V., Riverside Textiles Pty Ltd, S.C. KAI Ceramics SRL, Sibir Kerama OOO, SimpleSolutions USA LLC, Soft Step (Australia) Pty Ltd, Spano Group, Spano Invest BVBA, Spano NV, Stroyagromekhzapchast ChaO, Stroytrans OAO Orelstroy, Summit Wool Spinners Ltd, The Flooring Federation Ltd, Tiles Co OOD, Unilin (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Unilin ApS, Unilin Arauco Pisos Ltda., Unilin BVBA, Unilin Beheer BV, Unilin Distribution Ltd., Unilin Distribution Ukraine LLC, Unilin Finland OY, Unilin Flooring India Private Limited, Unilin Flooring SAS, Unilin GmbH, Unilin Holding BVBA, Unilin Insulation BV, Unilin Insulation SAS, Unilin Insulation Sury SAS, Unilin Italia S.R.L., Unilin North America LLC, Unilin Norway AS, Unilin OOO, Unilin Panels SAS, Unilin Poland Sp.Z.o.o., Unilin SAS, Unilin Spain SL, Unilin Swiss GmbH, Unilin s.r.o., World International Inc., Xtratherm, Xtratherm Limited, Xtratherm S.A., and Xtratherm UK Limited.

Read More
A convenience store clerk scans lunch packs at a convenience store in Seoul on Jan. 17. Yonhap



By Kim Jae-heun



A 34-year-old office worker surnamed Kim said he does not have many choices for lunch these days as it costs at least 10,000 won ($7.5) to eat at a restaurant.



"My wife only gives me a 500,000 won monthly allowance from my salary which I use to buy lunch and drink coffee. In other words, I have 16,129 won to spend a day and if I want to save some money, I have to reduce my lunch cost," Kim said.



A 28-year-old college student surnamed Lee works part-time at a coffee shop and gives private tutoring lessons to high school students to pay rent for his flat and make a living. A recent surge in food prices has forced him to cut costs when dining out by choosing more cost-effective lunch packs sold at convenience stores.



"Saving at least 5,000 won a day helps a lot. I need extra money to hang out with my friends and go on dates with my girlfriend, which means I can't afford to spend more than 10,000 won per meal. Convenience store lunch boxes are the best option," Lee said.



Cheap lunch packs sold at local convenience stores have grown popular among young customers as dining prices continue to rise.



GS25, a convenience store operated by GS Retail, said sales of its new "Hyeja" lunch pack launched on Feb. 15, increased by 350 percent compared to that of similar lunch items.



As the cost of living increases and more consumers visit convenience stores to buy lunch, GS25 re-launched its Hyeja lunch items priced at 4,500 won. The first series of the lunch packs was introduced in 2010 and instantly garnered much popularity among young consumers for their affordable price tag.



GS25 said sales of lunch packs soared 41.2 percent last year, quintupling compared to 2020.



BGF Retail's convenience store brand CU also introduced a 5,000 won-range lunch pack in collaboration with popular restaurateur Paik Jong-won.



"Our lunch box meals are cheap, but they include various side dishes. They are very popular among students and office workers these days," a BGF Retail official said. "We are increasing the production of lunch packs to sell at our convenience stores to meet the rising demand from young customers."



In 2022, CU's lunch pack sales grew 24.6 percent. Its revenue for simple food items from Jan. 1 to Feb. 8 this year increased by 22 percent compared to the same period last year.


New X-ray body scanners are to be used in Northern Irelands prisons as part of the fight against the trafficking of illegal drugs.

The scanners, which are already being used in other regions of the UK, have been described as a game changer by the director general of the Northern Ireland Prison Service Ronnie Armour.

The prison service has purchased four of the 75,000 Linev ConPass TR X-ray body scanners  two for Maghaberry and one each for Hydebank Wood and Magilligan Prison.

The scanners utilise ionising radiation in the same way as a hospital X-ray. The dose is more than 100 times lower than a hospital X-ray and is over 1,000 times lower than a CT scan.

The scanners will show internally concealed prohibited and unauthorised articles such as mobile phones, drugs or weapons.

Only prisoners will be scanned. The scans will be voluntary although non-compliance may result in reverting to other search methods and the application of disciplinary action.

Mr Armour said: Some people in our prisons are determined to traffic contraband into our establishments, however we are equally determined to stop them.

Our fight against illegal trafficking has taken a huge step forward with the introduction of X-ray body scanners into Maghaberry, Magilligan and Hydebank.

This technology should be seen as a deterrent to those who wish to use their bodies to bring in drugs and other illegal items into our prisons.

This really has the potential to be a game changer in our efforts to thwart their efforts; it will assist in the detection and prosecution of offenders; and as a result will make our prisons safer for our staff, partner agencies and the people in our care.

The introduction of this technology is a key recommendation from the Criminal Justice Inspector and demonstrates our determination to makes our prisons as safe as we can to facilitate our focus on rehabilitation as we challenge and support those in our care to change their behaviours.

The first new scanners will start being used in Maghaberry Prison on Wednesday with other machines planned for Hydebank and Magilligan later in the month.

The governor of Maghaberry Prison, David Savage said: This technology was initially piloted in prisons in England and has recently been introduced in Scotland.

Last year over one in 10 scans in England and Wales highlighted the presence of contraband.

Experience elsewhere indicates that this technology will greatly assist prison officers in controlling the flow of drugs in our prisons.
An Irish Goodbye actor James Martin has said he was a bit late after seeing Brendan Fraser standing up for him as he headed on stage to celebrate his win at the Bafta film awards.

The Northern Irish black comedy, which follows two estranged brothers who come together after their mothers death to fulfil her bucket list, picked up the British short film gong at the ceremony last month.

Martin told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: I walked down the steps (at the Baftas) and the next minute this hand appeared and (stood) up and that was Brendan Fraser.

And Im thinking to myself pinch me right now and then I was a bit late because of that.

Coming up  the actor James Martin whose film has won a BAFTA. Hes on his way to the #Oscars #AnIrishGoodbye pic.twitter.com/rw4yzZeydb  Martha Kearney (@Marthakearney) March 1, 2023

And I walked down to the stage (and Irish actors) Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell (stood) up and clapped and it was actually really good.

It was really nice to go up and go yes we did it.

The Banshees of Inisherins Farrell and The Whales Fraser lost out on the night to Austin Butler who picked up the leading actor award for Elvis.

Gleeson who also starred in the dark comedy, The Banshees of Inisherin, which was filmed on the Aran Islands and Achill Island off the coast of Mayo, saw his co-star Barry Keoghan pick up the supporting actor award for his role in the same movie.

Tom Berkeley and Ross White, who joined Martin on stage at the awards ceremony in London, wrote and directed the short which was filmed on location in Londonderry, Templepatrick and Saintfield.

The 30-year-old actor, who has Downs syndrome, was also asked about his campaign work on behalf of people with disabilities following his addresses to the European Parliament and Northern Ireland Assembly, known as Stormont.

He said: Well, lets put it this way, Im the first person with Downs syndrome to not just pick up a Bafta but, fingers crossed, an Oscar.

I always say to people never judge a book by its cover because anybody can act, it doesnt matter if you have Downs syndrome.

Set on a rural farm, his film sees Turlough, played by Game Of Thrones and The Northman star Seamus OHara, make new care arrangements for his brother Lorcan, played by Martin.

Turlough plans to send Lorcan to live with his aunt on the other side of Ireland which he will only do when they complete the 100 items on the list of things their mother, played by Game Of Thrones actress Michelle Fairley, wanted to do before she died.

Martin previously starred in BBC film Ups And Downs and works in hospitality at Italian restaurant Scalini in Belfast and Starbucks.

An Irish Goodbye has also been nominated in the best short film category at the 95th Academy Awards, which will take place on Martins 31st birthday on March 12.

The Banshees Of Inisherins Gleeson and Keoghan and Farrell have received nominations for best supporting actor and the later for best actor at the Oscars.

Farrell faces competition from Butler for Elvis, Fraser for The Whale, Paul Mescal for Aftersun and Bill Nighy for Living.
A new organ donation law for Northern Ireland will come into force at the start of June.

From then, all adults in the region will be considered potential organ donors unless they choose to opt out or are in an excluded group.

The Department of Health has confirmed the date for the introduction of Daithis Law after the legislation received Royal Assent earlier this week.

MPs at Westminster last week progressed the stalled legislation on the opt-out donation system because the political impasse at Stormont meant local Assembly members were unable to convene to pass the regulations.

The law is named in honour of six-year-old Daithi Mac Gabhann from Belfast, who is waiting for a new heart.

Daithis Law will come into effect from 1 June 2023 This means that all adults in Northern Ireland will be considered potential organ donors unless they choose to opt out or are in an excluded group.  https://t.co/ifQiZZMD6I pic.twitter.com/MLeJKcVgwt  Department of Health (@healthdpt) March 1, 2023

Ahead of its introduction, the Public Health Agency will carry out an extensive public education and awareness campaign to make sure people understand the new system.

Those excluded from deemed consent legislation are children under 18, people who lack the mental capacity to understand the change in law and visitors to Northern Ireland and temporary residents

Specialist nursing staff will continue to speak to families about donation, as well as considerations around faith and beliefs, before any organ or tissue donation goes ahead.

Peter May, Permanent Secretary at the Department of Health, said: June 1 will mark another important milestone for organ donation in Northern Ireland.

The new law will strengthen the current legislative framework around organ donation and will increase the current rate of consent in the small number of cases in which it is clinically possible for organ donation to proceed after a persons death.

Doing so will increase the overall number of donors, and ultimately the number of lifesaving organs available for transplantation.

I know that many people in Northern Ireland have campaigned tirelessly to raise awareness of organ donation and I want to commend them for all their work in this area.

Daithis father, Mairtin Mac Gabhann, said: It was a very proud day for our family and campaign to have Daithis Law included as an amendment on the Executive Formation Bill.

To hear Daithis name mentioned again, and again, in the House of Commons was something we will treasure forever.

It was an incredibly difficult couple of weeks to get where we wanted to be, but we are just delighted to be here now and to see that Daithis Law will be in effect by Spring 2023, as planned, is just the cherry on top.

Daithi continues to fight every day while he waits for the gift of a new heart, and we hope that this change in law helps make organ donation the norm in society, along with education and further awareness.

We will never stop spreading the positive message of organ donation, as we hope that one day it will save our Daithis life.
During the ongoing Mobile World Congress 2023, Tecno launched two more products along with the Tecno Phantom V Fold.

1. Tecno MegaBook S1

Speaking of the new Tecno laptop that the company has just debuted at MWC, it is an updated laptop version that was first launched in December last year. The MegaBook S1 2023 will be powered by the latest 13th-gen Intel Core processor. In addition to this, it also boasts new features like PC SwiftTransfer through hand gestures.

Users will also be able to share data, manage files, use multi-screen as well as share a reverse network across Tecno's digital ecosystem with the help of Tecno's new generation OneLeap connection which is supported by PC SwiftTransfer.

Most of the laptop's features are similar to that of its predecessor. It weighs 1.35kg and has a thickness of 13.5mm. The screen size is 15.6 inches which offer a 3.2k resolution and a 16:10 aspect ratio. It offers a 120Hz refresh rate. In addition to this, it offers up to 450 nits of brightness along with 100 percent coverage of the sRGB colour gamut.

2. Tecno Spark 10 Pro

First up is the Tecno Spark 10 Pro which is its new budget offering. The phone is expected to be available from March onwards. It is a selfie-focused phone and will feature a 32- megapixel ultra-clear selfie shooter. The smartphone will be powered by the MediaTek Helio G88 SoC. The next device that was showcased is the upgraded MegaBook S1 laptop.

This mid-range smartphone with a 32-megapixel front camera will be launched in the market in March. However, some specs have already been revealed.

As mentioned earlier, it will be packed with the MediaTek Helio G88 SoC. To make the front-camera experience even better, it will also incorporate a dual flashlight. It will also offer a 50-megapixel primary camera on the back.

The device has a starry glass back panel with a glossy finish.

For more technology news, product reviews, sci-tech features and updates, keep reading Digit.in or head to our Google News page.
Vivo has announced the Vivo V27 series in India today and it comes with two phone models, that are Vivo V27 and Vivo V27 Pro. Both phones feature similar features like a colour-changing design on the back and a new Night Portrait mode with an Aura Light option. Today we are comparing both the Vivo V27 series phones to help you decide which one is better for you.

Vivo V27 Pro vs Vivo V27: Design

The design of the Vivo V27 series is very similar to the Vivo S16 series. Both phones have a LED ring light and a triple camera setup on the back just like the Vivo S16 series in China. The Vivo V27 Pro and Vivo V27 come with a curved display this time, unlike the Vivo V25 series. Both phones come with a colour-changing back panel.

The Vivo V27 Pro comes in two colours; Magic Blue, and Noble Black.

On the other hand, the Vivo V27 comes in four colours; Magic Blue, Noble Black, Emerald Green, Flowing Gold

Vivo V27 Pro vs Vivo V27: Display

Both phones feature the same 6.78-inch curved AMOLED displays with a resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels and they support a refresh rate of 120Hz, 10-bit colours and HDR10+ as well.

Vivo V27 Pro vs Vivo V27: Performance

In terms of performance, the Vivo V27 Pro comes with a slightly more powerful chipset than the Vivo V27. Vivo V27 Pro is powered by the Mediatek Dimensity 8200 chipset. This phone runs on the Android 13-based Funtouch 13 operating system. It comes in three memory options; 8GB+ 128GB, 8GB+ 256GB and 12GB+ 256 GB.

Vivo V27 is powered by the Mediatek Dimensity 7200 chipset. The phone runs on the Funtouch 13 OS which is based on Android 13. It comes in only two memory options which are 256GB+ 8GB RAM, and 256GB+ 12GB RAM.

Both phones come with the same battery configuration of 4600mAh battery with 66-watt fast charging support.

Vivo V27 Pro vs Vivo V27: Camera

The Vivo V27 Pro and Vivo V27 feature a triple camera setup holding a Sony 50-megapixel IMX766 primary camera, an 8-megapixel ultrawide lens and a 2-megapixel macro sensor. Both phones also sport a 50-megapixel selfie shooter on the front.

Vivo V27 Pro vs Vivo V27: Price and availability

Vivo V27 Pro is available on Vivo's official website for pre-booking at the starting price of 37,999. However, Vivo V27 will be available from March 23 and the starting price of the phone is 32,999.

Here are the prices of all models:

Vivo V27

- 8+128GB: 32,999

- 12+256GB: 36,999

Vivo V27 Pro

8+128GB: 37,999

8+256GB: 39,999

12+256GB: 42,999

As part of an introductory offer, Rs 3,000 (HDFC Bank, ICICI, and Kotak Mahindra bank), a cashback those who prebook the phones can get 3,500 discount with ICICI, Kotak, and HDB Financial services. Further, you can also snag the Vivo TWS Air buds at a discount of 1,000 with the purchase of these new Vivo phones.

For more technology news, product reviews, sci-tech features and updates, keep reading Digit.in or head to our Google News page.
Chung Euisun, sixth from right in the first row, chairman of Hyundai Motor Group, and Cho Tae-yong, fifth from right in the first row, Korea's ambassador to the United States, pose with ambassadors from the Marshall Islands, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Malawi, Mali, Togo, Bahamas, Guyana, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Central African Republic, Burundi and Mauritius at the Embassy of Korea in the U.S. in Washington, D.C., Tuesday (local time). Courtesy of Hyundai Motor Group





By Baek Byung-yeul







Chung Euisun, chairman of Hyundai Motor Group, asked ambassadors from African, Caribbean and Pacific nations to support Busan's bid to host World Expo 2030 in a meeting in the United States, according to the automotive giant, Wednesday.







The chairman joined the event held at the office of the Embassy of Korea in the U.S. in Washington, D.C., to strengthen cooperation with African, Caribbean and Pacific countries and explain why the Korean port city is trying to host the international event in 2030.







Invited countries include Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Burundi and Central African Republic from Africa; Guyana, Barbados, Bahamas, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda from the Caribbean and the Marshall Islands from the Pacific.







Chung expressed his gratitude to the ambassadors of each country and tried to form a consensus on Busan's bid to host the World Expo. Chang Jae-hoon, CEO of Hyundai Motor, Jose Munoz, chief operating officer of Hyundai Motor, and Shin Jai-won, president of Hyundai Motor Group, also joined the event.







"The world is facing complex crises and challenges such as climate change and widening gaps between countries. To cope with them, we need to make various kinds of efforts and the Busan Expo, which is being prepared under the theme of 'World Transformation and Voyage to a Better Future,' can be a good solution," Chung said during the event.







"Korea can serve as a bridge between emerging and advanced countries based on its experience in overcoming many crises and achieving economic growth in a short period of time," Chung added. "By sharing Korea's experience and technology, I am confident that we will be able to play a pivotal role in international cooperation in solving global challenges."







To help the Korean port city become the host city of the 2030 event, which will be decided in November, Hyundai Motor Group has promoted the city's bid and the strengths of the city to high-ranking officials from more than 20 countries.







The chairman met with the prime ministers of the Czech Republic and Slovakia respectively last October while CEOs of Hyundai Motor and Kia visited the Bahamas, Paraguay, Chile, South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Serbia, Albania and Greece in 2022.







Cho Tae-yong, South Korea's ambassador to the U.S., also asked for their support to help Busan host the international event. "Busan is a well-prepared international city with a lot of experience in hosting large-scale global events. The city will present a future vision for marine and climate change in 2030," he said.







The automotive group added that the chairman also shared his thoughts on the future of cars at a time when the industry is experiencing rapid change due to climate change and the emergence of electric vehicles (EVs).







Chung also introduced Hyundai Motor Group's efforts in nurturing the global EV ecosystem by supplying high-quality eco-friendly EVs and building infrastructure for EV charging.


TD Holly Cairns did not ruled out a coalition with any party as she became leader of the Social Democrats on Wednesday.

Promising to be unashamedly ambitious about the upcoming local and general elections, she said the party wants to be in government and offer a new style of politics, not the old jobs for the boys, not the cosy connections.

Although the Cork South-West TD admitted there were many similarities between left-wing parties in Ireland, she emphatically denied that the Social Democrats would be appealing to the same pool of voters as the Labour Party.

After Social Democrat members present booed a question about a long-mooted merger with Labour, Ms Cairns ruled that possibility out: Its a categoric no.

What Im talking about there in terms of trying to earn peoples trust, I think that trust has been broken between people and the Labour Party and were unashamedly ambitious about the future of the Social Democrats.

That future does not include a merger with any other party.

Outlining what differentiates the two parties, she said that Labour tend to vote for funding for the greyhound racing industry.

I dont think were actually appealing to the same group of voters and I wouldnt have joined the Labour Party, she said, prompting applause from the packed room of her friends, family and party members.

I recognise that theres lots of similarities in policy among left wing parties, and that it can be confusing as a voter.

I suppose a lot of it is the way you achieve the final goal and climate action I think is something that really does differentiate a lot of parties.

She said that the swing towards Sinn Fein happened at a time when the Social Democrats were just five years old and werent, in that moment, big enough to fill the need that voters were searching for at that time.

She said that her aim would be to encourage people disinterested in or disillusioned with politics into the party.

She added: We really want to govern, we want to implement the policies that were speaking about, but we dont want to go into government for the sake of going into government.

We certainly wouldnt be going into government to make up the numbers.

Our aim is to introduce democratic policies that can have a profound impact on the people we represent. Were not ruling anybody out at the moment but safe to say we will drive a very hard bargain.

Ms Cairns became leader of the Social Democrats a week after its co-leaders, Catherine Murphy and Roisin Shortall, announced they would step down to pass on the future of the party to its next generation.

Founded in July 2015, the party currently has six TDs.

In her maiden speech, Ms Cairns outlined how she joined the Social Democrats just five years ago, while campaigning for a vote to liberalise Irelands abortion laws in the 2018 Eighth Amendment referendum.

The 33-year-old said: Some will say I am too inexperienced for this job.

To them I say, I have plenty of experience.

I grew up on a small dairy farm in West Cork; I worked as a waitress through school and college; I had to emigrate after the crash; I worked in disability services and saw the transformative difference that proper services can make to disabled peoples lives; I have a masters in science; and I have run a small business with my amazing mum.

I may not fit the stereotype of a politician, but that is not a bad thing.

Lets not forget that some of the most experienced politicians in the Dail bankrupted the country a little over a decade ago.
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.
A view of the town of Bakhmut, the site of the heaviest battles with the Russian troops, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Monday, Feb. 27. AP-Yonhap



Russian forces on Tuesday pressed forward their weeks-long drive to encircle and capture the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, where the Ukrainian military described the attacks as constant.



Taking Bakhmut, the scene of some of the year-long war's bloodiest battles, would be Russia's first major prize in more than six months. It would open the way to seizing the last remaining urban centers in the Donetsk region, one of four Moscow claims to have annexed.



"In the Bakhmut sector, the enemy is launching offensive action and is continuously attacking Bakhmut," said the regular evening statement by the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.



While most of the Russian attacks were focused on Bakhmut and other towns and villages in Donetsk province, the statement said Russian forces shelled more than 20 settlements in northern regions near the Russian border: Chernihiv, Sumy and Kharkiv.



Ukrainian aircraft launched three strikes on areas of concentration of Russian forces, the statement said.



Reuters was not able to verify battlefield reports.



Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the FSB security service to bolster security in the four regions Moscow claims to have annexed and also to counter espionage and sabotage operations against Russia by Ukraine and the West.



He was speaking after a Russian regional governor said a drone had crashed near a natural gas distribution station on Tuesday in an apparent failed attack near the town of Kolomna, just 110 km (68 miles) southeast of Moscow.



Ukraine does not publicly claim responsibility for attacks inside Russia. If it was behind the Kolomna incident, it would be its closest attempted drone strike to the Russian capital.



Earlier, Russia's defense ministry also accused Ukraine of launching two attempted drone attacks against two southern Russian regions overnight but said they caused no damage.



'City is on fire'



Around Bakhmut, Russian troops, including mercenary fighters from the Wagner Group, were trying to cut the Ukrainian defenders' supply lines and force them to surrender or withdraw.









"Despite significant losses, the enemy threw in the most prepared assault units of Wagner, who are trying to break through the defenses of our troops and surround the city," Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine's ground forces, said in a statement.



An unnamed soldier from Ukraine's 93rd Separate Mechanised Brigade, speaking on the Telegram messaging app as explosions boomed in the background, struck a defiant note: "Feb. 28, the town of Bakhmut. The city is on fire, the enemy is pressing. Everything will be Ukraine..."



Russia's state-run RIA news agency released a video clip it said showed Russian Su-25 fighter jets roaring over Bakhmut, which had a pre-war population of around 70,000 but now lies in ruins after months of intense trench warfare.



"We are glad they are ours," says a man in the clip identified as a Wagner fighter, adding the jets helped them "psychologically".



Ukraine's eastern front line resembles "a grinding slog" and Russia is not likely to be able to make significant territorial gains in the near term, the U.S. undersecretary of defense for policy, Colin Kahl, said on Tuesday.



Ukrainian soldiers in the Donetsk region hunkered in muddy trenches after warmer weather thawed the frozen ground.





Medics give the first aid to a wounded Ukrainian soldier near Bakhmut, the site of the heaviest battles with the Russian troops, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Monday, Feb. 27. AP-Yonhap



"Both sides stay in their positions, because as you see, spring means mud. Thus, it is impossible to move forward," said Mykola, 59, commander of a Ukrainian front-line rocket launcher battery, watching a tablet screen for coordinates to fire.



The spring thaw has a history of ruining plans by armies to attack across Ukraine and western Russia, turning roads into rivers and fields into quagmires.



Russia has replenished its forces with hundreds of thousands of conscripts and has intensified attacks all along the eastern front but at a high cost, says Ukraine, which is expected soon to launch its own counter-offensive.



Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov repeated Moscow's stance that it is open to peace negotiations but Kyiv and its Western allies must accept Russia's annexation of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions after referendums last September that most governments said were illegal.



"The constitution of the Russian Federation exists, and cannot be ignored. Russia will never be able to compromise on this, these are important realities," Peskov told reporters.



Despite several battlefield setbacks, Russia still controls about a fifth of Ukrainian territory. Kyiv has so far ruled out talks with Moscow and has demanded that Russian troops withdraw to Ukraine's borders in 1991  the year the Soviet Union collapsed.



On Tuesday, the International Criminal Court's top prosecutor Karim Khan was in Ukraine to investigate Russia's campaign of missile and drone attacks on power and other infrastructure that killed hundreds of civilians and left millions with no electricity or water. (Reuters)





Ukrainians rest and check their phones at a humanitarian aid centre in Bakhmut, Feb. 27, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. AFP-Yonhap
The team at Local Enterprise Office Louth are here to support businesses in so many ways. But were not the only ones. Louth has a multitude of great Enterprise Centres, Chambers of Commerce, BIDS and educational institutions that also provide learning, networking, advice and support to local businesses declares Riona McCoy, Acting Head of Enterprise at Local Enterprise Office Louth.

She continues: We are delighted to partner with Drogheda Chamber, Dundalk Chamber and Network Louth to enlarge our event offering for Local Enterprise Week 2023, which takes place from 6-10th March. It is also a great way to showcase all of these organisations to business owners and highlight the work they do all year round.

Riona outlines what to expect from these events: On Tuesday, 7th March, Drogheda Chamber will host a really important seminar helping business owners to understand the latest changes in HR and Employment Law and what that means for their business.

Featuring industry experts Michelle McDonagh and Katie Ridge of Adare Human Resource Management, this free, online event is a must-attend for business owners, managers and HR professionals.

Previewing Wednesdays events, Riona explains, Dundalk Chamber will join forces with Newry Chamber for the annual Cross Border Conference. The event will address crucial themes for business, including supports, sustainability, skills and will feature a wealth of expert speakers.

Led by journalist Mark Simpson, the conference will be addressed by Minister for Enterprise, Trade, and Employment, Simon Coveney T.D. This event is aimed at anyone operating cross border or considering it in the future.

Well mark International Womens Day on Wednesday, 8th March with Network Louth, the network for women in business, the arts and community sector in Louth.

Entitled Neurodiversity in the Workplace, this evening session at The Mill Enterprise Hub in Drogheda, will examine how neurodiversity impacts business and how it can really enhance it.

"Featuring Roann Byrne, Chef & Taste the Atlantic Young Chef Ambassador, and Fiona Ferris, Deputy CEO of AsIAm, this compelling event will showcase both their knowledge and lived experience. It promises to be a thought-provoking evening with great opportunities for networking and building connections.

Looking ahead to Thursday, Riona explains Cyber security is an ever present threat for businesses, of all sizes and at all stages. In 2022, 6 in 10 Irish SMEs experienced cyber-attacks. Understanding the threat and taking action is the first and most important step for small business owners.

On Thursday morning, Dundalk Chamber in partnership with Grant Thornton, will present a morning briefing session that will help inform and protect local businesses.

Riona concludes We are proud to partner with these great organisations to provide superb learning and networking experiences as part of Local Enterprise Week 2023. You can book your free places at any or all of these events by visiting www.localenterprise.ie/louth. Looking forward to welcoming you to Local Enterprise Week!
Time is of the essence to resurrect the Stormont Assembly and seize economic opportunities, the Sinn Fein president has said.

Mary Lou McDonald was speaking as the DUP continues to consider a deal struck between the UK and EU to address unionist concerns around Brexits Northern Ireland Protocol.

The DUP has it will consider the Windsor Framework, with no timescale yet given on when it may decide to go back into the Assembly.

Sir Jeffrey Donaldsons party has been refusing to take part in devolved government for the last year in protest against the protocol.

Ms McDonald said her party is currently actively preparing for the return of the Assembly, describing her MLAs as anxious to get back to work.

She emphasised that time is of the essence.

She added: We know that we face very, very big challenges, economically, socially, in terms of public service provision.

We also know theres big opportunities as well for the North of Ireland and the opportunities are coming at us now.

Were satisfied that the agreement struck does essential things. It ensures there will be no hardening of the border on our island.

The team is here and every single one of us is aware we have a big job to do. Were very, very anxious to get back to work, none more so than Michelle ONeill, and we await and look forward to the time when she will lead the executive as a first minister.

However, DUP MLA Gordon Lyons responded by accusing Sinn Fein of welcoming economic opportunities from a protocol deal brought at the insistence of Sir Jeffreys party.

He also said Sinn Fein vice president Michelle ONeill should apologise for having previously called for the EU to rigorously implement the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The only reason Sinn Fein or any other party in Northern Ireland is offering views on the Windsor Framework is because of the determination and action of the Democratic Unionist Party, he said.

It is notable that all of those who have been quick to welcome the framework without significant scrutiny are the same parties who told us that the protocol could never be reopened and that the European Union would never agree to fresh negotiations.

He added: We will take time to fully scrutinise both the political and legal texts to assess whether this framework meets our seven tests and whether it restores Northern Irelands place within the United Kingdom.

The intention behind the efforts to bring forward this framework however has been to resolve problems which many people denied even existed.

Sitting alongside Ms McDonald at a press conference at Stormont, Ms ONeill described the economic potential of this moment as enormous and an opportunity not to be missed.

She added: Now we find ourselves on the other end of this negotiation, there is enormous potential for us now, a potential that must be grasped.

I rarely find myself agreeing with the British Prime Minister, but I do think that the opportunity we now have of access to both markets has to be grabbed on to with both hands, and there is no time to waste because were about to attend in Washington DC a number of events that will be to celebrate St Patricks Day, but as you all know, thats about encouraging investment here, thats about the economic potential of here.

We have in quick succession a deal being done on the protocol, we go to the States next week to celebrate St Patricks Day, very quickly in the aftermath of that comes the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

The economic potential for us here is enormous and this is a moment not to be missed.

Ms ONeill said that over the last 24 hours she has been speaking with people, including the business community, and says they have given the deal a cautious welcome so far, and want to examine the detail.

But that should not delay the formation of an executive, thats where we all should be today, thats where were focused on and thats the message we believe the public at home want to hear, she said.

They want to hear when the executive is going to be formed, they want to hear how were going to tackle together, all of the parties, the huge financial situation that we have ahead of us.

All the executive parties need to be working together in this time to secure maximum advantage for the people we represent collectively here, and there should be no more delays in all of that.
Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko arrives in Beijing on Feb. 28. AFP-Yonhap



Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Russia, arrived in Beijing on Tuesday for a state visit that will be watched for hints about China's attitude to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.



China claims neutrality in the war, but U.S. officials have warned recently that it is considering sending military assistance to Russia. Beijing has called the U.S. allegations a smear campaign, and said it is committed to promoting peace talks.



China has long had a close relationship with Lukashenko. But his trip also illustrates the depth of Beijing's ties to Russian leader Vladimir Putin and his allies.



Lukashenko's government has strongly backed Moscow and allowed Belarus' territory to be used as a staging ground for the initial invasion of Ukraine a year ago. Russia has maintained a contingent of troops and weapons in Belarus and the two neighbors and allies conducted joint military drills.






Iran blames U.S. "wrong policy" for nuke talks impasse

Xinhua) 13:04, March 01, 2023

TEHRAN, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on Tuesday blamed the U.S. "miscalculation and wrong policy" for causing the current stalemate on the revival of a 2015 nuclear deal.

Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks in an address to the High-Level Segment of the Conference on Disarmament in the Swiss city of Geneva, Iran's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its website.

If all parties have the "determination and goodwill," the few outstanding issues can be settled without any precondition and within the framework of the previous talks, thus enabling the parties to take the "final step," the top Iranian diplomat was quoted as saying.

The United States needs to have "the will and strength to conclude the lengthy talks," he said, stressing that Iran is ready to continue the talks until the conclusion of an agreement.

Amir-Abdollahian said Iran's nuclear program will remain "peaceful" and Tehran is determined to remain committed to its obligations under the safeguards agreement.

He also warned against any action to be taken during the upcoming meeting of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in March, saying that Iran reserves the right to respond accordingly.

A technical solution is within reach if the IAEA stops its politically-motivated approach, said the Iranian minister.

Iran signed the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), with world powers in July 2015, agreeing to put some curbs on its nuclear program in return for the removal of the sanctions on the country. The United States, however, pulled out of the deal in May 2018 and reimposed its unilateral sanctions on Iran, prompting the latter to reduce some of its nuclear commitments under the deal.

The talks on the JCPOA's revival began in April 2021 in the Austrian capital of Vienna. No breakthrough has been achieved after the latest round of talks held in August 2022.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Colin Kahl, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, testifies during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on oversight of U.S. military support to Ukraine, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., Feb. 28. Reuters-Yonhap



Iran could make enough fissile for one nuclear bomb in "about 12 days," a top U.S. Defense Department official said on Tuesday, down from the estimated one year it would have taken while the 2015 Iran nuclear deal was in effect.



Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl made the comment to a House of Representatives hearing when pressed by a Republican lawmaker why the Biden administration had sought to revive the deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).



"Because Iran's nuclear progress since we left the JCPOA has been remarkable. Back in 2018, when the previous administration decided to leave the JCPOA it would have taken Iran about 12 months to produce one bomb's worth of fissile material. Now it would take about 12 days," Kahl, the third ranking Defense Department official, told lawmakers.



"And so I think there is still the view that if you could resolve this issue diplomatically and put constraints back on their nuclear program, it is better than the other options. But right now, the JCPOA is on ice," Kahl added.





U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) returns to his seat as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl testifies during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on oversight of U.S. military support to Ukraine, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., Feb. 28. Reuters-Yonhap




A SECONDARY school principal has called for a mature debate involving all stakeholders to find a solution to the current Leaving Cert impasse.

Kinsale Community School principal Fergal McCarthy was speaking to The Echo after Education Minister Norma Foley deferred an interim plan for Leaving Cert candidates to sit Paper 1 of their English and Irish exams at the end of fifth year. The measure was due to be implemented in June 2024, but it faced considerable opposition from teacher unions and student representative bodies.

Mr McCarthy said alternatives now need to be found to relieve the pressure on students.

I admired the intent around relieving stress from students in respect of the Leaving Cert. I would now call upon the unions, the secondary school students union, and the Department of Education to look at alternatives in respect of how the Leaving Cert can be assessed and how it can relieve pressure, said Mr McCarthy.

It is important that we come together and identify methods of assessment that are more student friendly.

I welcome that there is now a conversation in respect of trying to identify an assessment that will relieve the mammoth stress from these students. We need a mature national conversation around how we assess our students in a humane, fair, and equitable way without causing undue exhaustion.

Douglas Community School principal Pat Barry said the news is disappointing for students.

It would have been good for the students to complete some of their final assessments in fifth year which would take some of the pressure off when it comes to the Leaving Cert, said Mr Barry.

Everyone must now gather round and produce a solution that suits all the parties. The student must be kept at the centre of it all.

Ms Foley said the decision was made after taking on board stakeholders views.

The move of Paper 1 was intended as an interim measure to respond to a broad consensus for spreading the assessment load, said Ms Foley. My officials and I have engaged with student representatives, teachers unions, parents representatives, and subject teacher organisations to understand their concerns about this change.

Having reflected on the views, I have decided to defer the introduction of this planned change so that those entering fifth year this coming September will sit both of the papers in each of the subjects in Irish and English in sixth year, she added.

A spokesperson for the Teachers Union of Ireland and Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland said the deferral was welcome.
Despite a fall off in ransomware attacks since last year, the U.S. Marshals Service on Monday disclosed that it suffered a major breach of its computer network on Feb. 17 that included a ransomware component.

Numerous recent cybersecurity reports suggest that ransomware is becoming less profitable for cybercriminals as more victims refuse to pay their attackers. But a wave of ongoing hack attacks continues to target businesses and government organizations.

U.S. Marshals Service spokesperson Drew Wade said in comments to news outlets on Monday, Feb. 27, that the agency received a ransomware demand and found a data exfiltration event that affected the agencys stand-alone computer system.

According to Wade, the attack affected information involving sensitive law enforcement details, returns from legal processes, and administrative information. However, the ransomware failed to impact the Witness Security Program as the service disconnected computers from the network.

The attack also obtained personally identifiable information pertaining to subjects of USMS investigations, third parties, and certain USMS employees. The breach touched records about targets of ongoing investigations, employee personal data, and internal processes.

The data exfiltration attack against the U.S. Marshals service serves as a sobering reminder of the far-reaching and devastating effects that cyberattacks can have on our most critical institutions, Dimitri Nemirovsky, co-founder and COO of decentralized encryption key management firm Atakama, told TechNewsWorld.

The theft of U.S. Marshal confidential data can compromise ongoing investigations, endanger the lives of law enforcement officers, and undermine public trust in our justice system, he added.

Engaging Damage Control

The Marshals Service, a federal agency responsible for tracking down and capturing fugitives wanted by law enforcement, also is part of the U.S. Department of Justice. Besides its work with fugitives, the service provides security at federal courthouses nationwide, among other duties.

Government officials have yet to identify possible culprits in the cyberattack. But Marshals Service workers have reportedly created a workaround to maintain its internal activities and searches for fugitives.

The announcement of the US Marshals breach comes a week after the FBI said it contained a security incident on its network. It is the latest successful intrusion into government records amid ongoing hacking attempts into various levels of government and public institutions in the past several months.

For instance, the DOJ infiltrated and disrupted the Hive ransomware group in late January. According to news accounts, the group had targeted over 1,500 victims in more than 80 countries, extorting hundreds of millions of dollars in ransom payments.

We must remain vigilant in our efforts to defend against these attacks and safeguard sensitive information to prevent it from being exposed, offered Nemirovsky. Implementing proactive, granular data protection measures to safeguard all confidential, sensitive, and personally identifiable information should not be an afterthought.

Goals Unclear

U.S. government officials have been mum on details about the dynamics of the cyber breach. Other than confirming that a ransomware component was involved, insiders have not said whether the service received threats of divulging breached information or if a payment was demanded. Also unknown at this point is whether the attack involved encrypting files on the server.

In todays digital age, protecting sensitive files at the granular level is not just an option; it is a necessity, observed Nemirovsky.

Unofficially, some cybersecurity workers suggested that ransomware threats are sometimes included as a ruse to mask other attack objectives. Among the list of unanswered questions is how the attackers succeeded in bypassing network security measures.

Heightened Investigation Needed

While we do not know yet the exact information these threat actors were able to exfiltrate from the U.S. Marshals Service, the ramifications could be significant, warned Darren Guccione, CEO and co-founder at Keeper Security.

Based on the information we do have, the information stolen has the potential to compromise ongoing investigations, including witnesses and informants, put USMS employees in danger, and disrupt time-sensitive operations while the USMS recovers, Guccione told TechNewsWorld.

Another significant ramification is the impact on public trust and confidence in the U.S. Marshals Service, he added.

A Case of Lessons Maybe Not Learned

This apparently quite serious breach again demonstrates that even the most vigilant entities are not immune from ransomware and other sophisticated attacks, according to Bryan Cunningham, Advisory Council Member at Theon Technology.

As a victim of the Chinese hack of U.S. OPM security clearance files, it is infuriating that our government  or at least the USMS  has apparently not learned from its prior mistakes. It sounds like this data may not have even been encrypted, he told TechNewsWorld.

Cunningham is certain the story will get worse as the incident is investigated. Almost all data-exfil/ransomware attacks result from poor training and security awareness, which is particularly disappointing in a U.S. law enforcement agency, he suggested.

That said, it is not all that surprising as humans are fallible, and attacks are becoming ever more sophisticated. This reinforces the imperative of developing quantum-resistant encryption and much better security awareness training and enforcement. Someone needs to be held accountable here, he advised.
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.

Hurricane Florence churns through the Atlantic Ocean toward the U.S. East Coast, followed by Hurricane Isaac and then Hurricane Helene on Sept. 11, 2018. NOAA via Getty Images

In October of 2020, the town of Lake Charles, Louisiana, was in the process of recovering from Hurricane Laura, a Category 4 storm that had damaged nearly every structure in the town six weeks earlier.

Then Category 2 Hurricane Delta bore down, flooding several of the already damaged buildings.

Add Laura and Delta together and its just absolutely unprecedented and catastrophic, Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter told The Associated Press at the time.

But while its mayor called Lake Charless experience unprecedented, back-to-back tropical storms are becoming increasingly likely in the U.S. and could become even more frequent along the U.S. Gulf and East Coasts as global temperatures continue to climb. Thats the conclusion of a new study published in Nature Climate Change Monday that offers yet another warning for vulnerable regions as they adapt to the climate crisis.

Rising sea levels and climate change make sequential damaging hurricanes more likely as the century progresses, lead author and postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University Dazhi Xi said in a press release. Todays extremely rare events will become far more frequent.

New paper from our group in @NatureClimate! We investigate the risk of back-to-back hurricane strikes along the US coastline, finding that these temporally compounding events may become much more frequent by the end of the century. https://t.co/rhREsvd0lr  Avantika Gori (@avantika_gori) February 28, 2023

One hurricane striking an area is bad enough, but when another strong storm follows in quick succession, it can compound the impacts of the first. For example, when a weakened Hurricane Nicholas passed over Louisiana as a tropical depression on September 15, 2021, the ground was already sodden from the Category 4 Hurricane Ida around 15 days before, leading the weaker storm to have worse consequences than it would have on its own, as the study authors noted.

The researchers first decided to investigate whether this was truly happening more frequently in 2017, when Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria all struck, according to the press release.

Sequential hurricane hazards are happening already, so we felt they should be studied, research leader and Princeton associate professor of civil and environmental engineering Ning Lin said in the press release. There has been an increasing trend in recent decades.

First, the team looked at whether sequential tropical storms were really on the rise. Because there werent enough actual storms since reliable record-keeping began around 1950, the researchers used computer simulations to round out the data, AP News explained. They found that the risk of back-to-back storms had increased in seven out of nine coastal locations studied between 1949 and 2018, according to the study. The risk is still low  the highest likelihood they found was still less than 10 percent for storms within 30 days of each other  but in Sandy Hook, New Jersey, the risk had still doubled over the study period.

When it comes to the future, however, the risk could get much higher. The study authors next considered what would happen to the chance of back-to-back tropical storms under a high and moderate emission climate scenario. In both cases, the risk of two tropical storms striking within 15 days along the Gulf or East Coast went up significantly by 2100, from every 10-to-92 years to every one-to-two years in the worst-case scenario and every one-to-three years in the moderate one.

For people in harms way this is very bad news, University of Albany hurricane scientist Kristen Corbosiero, who did not participate in the study, told AP News. We (scientists) have been warning about the increase in heavy rain and significant storm surges with landfalling TCs (tropical cyclones) in a warming climate and the results of this study show this is the case.

The main reasons for the increase in risk are that sea level rise makes storm surges more impactful and warmer temperatures lead to more intense, wetter storms.

The scientists said that policy makers should take their findings into account when drafting recovery plans and improving infrastructure in at-risk areas, according to the press release.

If a power system requires 15 days to recover from a major hurricane, we cannot wait that long in the future because the next storm can hit before you can restore power, as in the case of Nicholas following Ida, Lin said in the release. We need to think about plans, rescue workers, resources. How will we plan for this?
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on his plan to protect Americans' access to affordable health care, at XXX in Virginia Beach, Virginia, Feb. 28. AFP-Yonhap



The Biden administration on Tuesday said it will require companies winning funds from its $52-billion U.S. semiconductor manufacturing and research program to share excess profits and explain how they plan to provide affordable childcare.



The Commerce Department on Tuesday released its plans to begin accepting applications in late June for a $39-billion manufacturing subsidy program. The law also creates a 25 percent investment tax credit for building chip plants, estimated to be worth $24 billion.



The CHIPS Act plays a central role in the Biden administration's effort to bring semiconductor manufacturing back to the United States. Its success is vital to U.S. ambitions to keep ahead of China in global markets.



Semiconductor companies have already announced more than 40 new projects including nearly $200 billion in private investments to increase domestic production.



Recipients who receive more than $150 million in direct funding "will be required to share with the U.S. government a portion of any cash flows or returns that exceed the applicant's projections by an agreed-upon threshold," the department said.



Commerce expects "upside sharing will only be material in instances where the project significantly exceeds its projected cash flows or returns, and will not exceed 75 percent of the recipient's direct funding award."



'Not a free handout'



Democratic Senator Jack Reed praised the profit sharing plan, saying chips funding is "not a free handout for multi-billion dollar tech companies.... There is no downside for companies that participate because they only have to share a portion of future profits if they do exceedingly well."



Republican House Science Committee Chair Frank Lucas criticized the childcare and revenue-sharing provisions, saying they exceed authority granted by Congress. He says Commerce is "focusing less on the urgent need for chip production and more on attempting to impose their labor agenda on this critical industry."



Companies winning funding are also prohibited from using chips funds for dividends or stock buybacks, and must provide details of any plans to buy back their own shares over five years. The department will consider an "applicant's commitments to refrain from stock buybacks."



Democratic lawmakers have noted that the largest U.S. semiconductor companies have poured hundreds of billions of dollars into stock buybacks in recent years, with Intel spending more than $100 billion on buybacks since 2005. Intel also pays a dividend.



It's not uncommon for states to require specific employment targets as a condition for tax subsidies, but the Biden administration is a significant expansion.



Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said companies must submit a plan that includes an outline of workforce needs. Applicants seeking more than $150 million in direct funding must submit "a plan for how they will provide affordable and accessible childcare for their workers."





Semiconductor chips are seen on a printed circuit board in this illustration picture taken Feb. 17. Reuters-Yonhap
China's flags are seen near a TikTok logo in this illustration picture taken July 16, 2020. Reuters-Yonhap



The United States is ratcheting up national security concerns about TikTok, mandating that all federal employees delete the Chinese-owned social media app from government-issued mobile phones.



Other Western governments are pursuing similar bans, citing espionage fears.



So how serious is the threat? And should TikTok users who don't work for the government be worried about the app, too?



The answers depend somewhat on whom you ask, and how concerned you are in general about technology companies gathering and sharing personal data.



Here's what to know:



How are the U.S. and other governments blocking Toktok?



The White House said Monday it is giving U.S. federal agencies 30 days to delete TikTok from all government-issued mobile devices.



Congress, the White House, U.S. armed forces and more than half of U.S. states had already banned TikTok amid concerns that its parent company, ByteDance, would give user data  such as browsing history and location  to the Chinese government, or push propaganda and misinformation on its behalf.



The European Union's executive branch has temporarily banned TikTok from employee phones, and Denmark and Canada have announced efforts to block TikTok on government-issued phones.



China says the bans reveal the United States' insecurities and are an abuse of state power. But they come at a time when Western technology companies, including Airbnb, Yahoo and LinkedIn, have been leaving China or downsizing operations there because of Beijing's strict privacy law that specifies how companies can collect and store data.



What are the concerns about Toktok?



Both the FBI and the Federal Communications Commission have warned that ByteDance could share TikTok user data with China's authoritarian government.



A law China implemented in 2017 requires companies to give the government any personal data relevant to the country's national security. There's no evidence that TikTok has turned over such data, but fears abound due to the vast amount of user data it collects.



Concerns were heightened in December when ByteDance said it fired four employees who accessed data on two journalists from Buzzfeed News and The Financial Times while attempting to track down the source of a leaked report about the company. TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter said the breach was an "egregious misuse" of the employees' authority.



There is also concern about TikTok's content and whether it harms teenagers' mental health.



Researchers from the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate said in a report released in December that eating disorder content on the platform had amassed 13.2 billion views. Roughly two-thirds of U.S. teens use TikTok, according to the Pew Research Center.



Who has pushed for Tiktok restrictions?



In 2020, then-President Donald Trump and his administration sought to force ByteDance to sell off its U.S. assets and ban TikTok from app stores. Courts blocked Trump's efforts, and President Joe Biden rescinded Trump's orders after taking office but ordered an in-depth study of the issue. A planned sale of TikTok's U.S. assets was shelved.



In Congress, concern about the app has been bipartisan. Congress passed the "No TikTok on Government Devices Act" in December as part of a sweeping government funding package. The legislation does allow for TikTok use in certain cases, including for national security, law enforcement and research purposes.



House Republicans are expected to move forward Tuesday with a bill that would give Biden the power to ban TikTok nationwide. The legislation, proposed by Rep. Mike McCaul, looks to circumvent the challenges the administration would face in court if it moved forward with sanctions against the company.



The bill has received pushback from civil liberties organizations. In a letter sent Monday to McCaul and Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, the American Civil Liberties Union said a nationwide TikTok ban would be unconstitutional and would "likely result in banning many other businesses and applications as well."





Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau answers questions at an announcement in Mississauga, Ontario, Monday, Feb. 27. Canada announced Monday it is banning TikTok from all government-issued mobile devices, reflecting widening worries from Western official over the Chinese-owned video sharing app. AP-Yonhap
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a press conference at the Hyatt Regency in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Wednesday. / AP-Yonhap





U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrapped up a brief tour of Central Asia in Uzbekistan on Wednesday before heading to India for what is expected to be a contentious Ukraine-dominated meeting of foreign ministers from the Group of 20.







Blinken met in Tashkent with senior Uzbek officials a day after warning his counterparts from all five Central Asian nations about the dangers posed by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.







Blinken told reporters after his talks in Tashkent that the invasion had "fostered deep concern across the region."







"After all, if a powerful country is willing to try to erase the borders of the sovereign neighbor by force what's to stop it from doing the same to others," he said.







"Countries across Central Asia understand this. So does the United States and so do partners and allies around the world. And that's exactly why we've been committed and remain committed to standing for the sovereignty and territorial integrity, the independence not only of Ukraine, but for countries across Central Asia and indeed around the world."







Speaking at a meeting with Uzbekistan's acting foreign minister, Blinken said he believed the United States and Central Asia shared those concerns even though the former Soviet states have toed a delicate line when it comes to condemning Russia for the war.







"I think there was a tremendous sense of both common challenge and common purpose among the C5+1 countries," Blinken said in reference to his meeting Tuesday in the Kazakh capital of Astana with the foreign ministers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.







Blinken repeatedly referred to U.S. support for the five countries' "sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence" in a not-so-subtle warning to the former Soviet republics that Russia's value as a partner has been badly compromised by its year-old war against Ukraine, another ex-Soviet state.







Acting Uzbek Foreign Minister Bakhtiyor Saidov thanked Blinken for U.S. support for his country and its neighbors. "I want to underline that we share common priorities for a prosperous, stable and peaceful Central Asia," he said.







None of the five Central Asian nations, traditionally viewed as part of the Kremlin's sphere of influence, have publicly backed the Russian invasion. Yet none of them have condemned it and all of them passed on a chance to do so again last week when they abstained in a vote at the U.N. General Assembly on the first anniversary of the war.







Blinken later saw Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev to applaud an ambitious packaged of domestic reforms before leaving for New Delhi, where he will attend a two-day meeting of the foreign ministers from the Group of 20 largest industrialized and developing countries, including China and Russia.







The G-20 talks come as tensions have soared between the U.S. and Russia and between the U.S. and China over Russia's war in Ukraine and Chinese assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific. All three countries are competing fiercely to outdo each other in influence, particularly at venues like the G-20.







The U.S. and its Western allies in the G-20 will be pushing for the group to adopt a firmer position on the war, while Russia and China will likely be pressing for broad endorsement of a Chinese peace proposal for Ukraine that Beijing unveiled last week. That plan has been largely dismissed by the West.







Blinken said Wednesday that there were elements of the Chinese plan that made sense but that its stress on the principle of sovereignty rang hollow while it is supporting Russia economically and diplomatically and now considering, according to Western officials, supplying Russia with weapons.







He reiterated that the Biden administration would impose sanctions on Chinese companies that support Russia's war effort and accused Beijing of acting in bad faith.







"If China was genuinely serious about this ... it would have been spending all of the last year working in support of the restoration of Ukraine's full sovereignty," Blinken said. "And of course, it's been doing the opposite."







"China can't have it both ways," he said. "It can't be putting itself out as a force for peace in public, while in one way or another, continues to fuel the flames of this fire that Vladimir Putin started."







U.S. officials have been tight-lipped about the prospects for Blinken sitting down with new Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang or Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in New Delhi. Blinken said he had no plans to meet with either, but added that he expected to be in multiple group sessions with both. (AP)


Sociedad

El TC rechaza el amparo a una mujer divorciada para usar la vivienda familiar cuando las hijas son mayores de edad
The Pound New Zealand Dollar (GBP/NZD) exchange rate dropped on Tuesday afternoon as the New Zealand Dollar (NZD) enjoyed a boost from its positive correlation with the Australian Dollar (AUD). AU retail sales increased by more than expected In January.

At the time of writing, GBP/NZD is trading at NZ$1.9467, down 0.6% in the last day.

Pound (GBP) Exchange Rates Supported by New Windsor Framework

The Pound found support on Tuesday as Sterling investors grew optimistic on account of the newly-announced Windsor Framework.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak unveiled new plans in the morning pertaining to the Northern Ireland protocol, which he claimed would strengthen the union between the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. The Windsor Framework will give lawmakers a greater say over the regulations they take from EU headquarters.

Following months of uncertainty and tension between the UK and European Union, investors are not the only ones sighing with relief.

According to The Guardian, Mr Sunaks approach has brought an immediate benefit. No longer is the UK likely to breach international law after the Prime Minister dropped the Johnson-era bill designed to dodge the government's own EU deal.

Experts stress, however, that the UK is not yet out of the woods. The deal's success hinges upon the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP)s response: whether it chooses to end its boycott of Northern Ireland's power-sharing arrangements.

Such a prospect may have capped GBP gains yesterday, allowing the Kiwi to climb against the UK currency.

New Zealand Dollar (NZD) Exchange Rates Bolstered by Upbeat AU Data

The New Zealand Dollar (NZD) was buoyed on Tuesday by an uptick in Australian Dollar exchange rates, on account of a better-than-expected increase in retail sales.

The strong positive correlation between the two Antipodean currencies invariably supports the Kiwi when the Aussie benefits from positive data.

Australian sales rebounded by 1.9% in January on a monthly basis, following a 4% contraction the previous month.

Commenting on the data, Ben Dorber, ABS Head of Retail Statistics, said The continued return of large-scale sporting and cultural events in January, combined with high costs reflected in prices, has boosted sales in catering services [in particular].

Also buoying NZD may be optimism surrounding the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ)s forward action. According to analysts at ANZ Bank, the weight of evidence on the side of the RBNZ having to do more seems to grow.

GBP/NZD Exchange Rate Forecast: Bailey Speech to Inspire Movement?

Midweek, a scheduled speech from Bank of England (BoE)s Governor Andrew Bailey may influence GBP exchange rates. If Bailey strikes a hawkish tone, Sterling is likely to climb.

In the meantime, growth in the Australian economy may boost NZD alongside a potential increase in Chinas manufacturing and non-manufacturing PMIs.
The Montana State Capitol pictured on Feb. 6, 2023. (Photo by Nicole Girten/Daily Montanan)

A bill that would give a tax break to top earners in the state looks likely to land on Gov. Greg Gianfortes desk soon.

Also, a bill letting kids fight back against bullies in school passed second reading Tuesday, as did another requiring the Secretary of State to investigate whether people registering to vote are U.S. citizens.

These votes come as committees are pushing bills to the floor in the run up to the transmittal deadline on Friday, requiring all general bills without a fiscal note to pass through at least one chamber of the legislature.

Democrats pushed back during debate on the floor on Senate Bill 121, on tax breaks, but ultimately it passed second reading on the House floor along party lines, 68-32.

The bill would lower the top income tax rate from 6.5% to 5.9% and increase the earned income tax credit, which helps lower income families get a tax break from 3% to 10%.

The fiscal note for the bill reports the state will lose more than $150 million per fiscal year in the general fund, with changes set to start at the end of this calendar year in December. The fiscal note forecasts the state will lose $180 million in the fiscal year 2027.

Minority Leader Kim Abbott, D-Helena, said this tax cut was being rushed, and decisions on cuts to spending should be made alongside the budgeting process. She said theres currently $1.9 billion in spending outside of House Bill 2, the appropriations bill that funds state government for the next two years.

We need to slow it down and take care of our budget first, alongside what were giving back, alongside what were investing, she said. Thats the right thing to do. I dont understand what rush were in.

Abbott also pointed to whom the bill helps.

This disproportionately helps wealthy folks, and disproportionately leaves middle class folks behind, she said.

House Speaker Matt Regier, R-Kalispell, said that taxpayer money should be given back to taxpayers because its their money.

Weve got a surplus. Everybody knows that. We have over-collected their money for the last two years, he said.

He said it was a pro-business bill to in part compete for businesses from the region to come to Montana.

The bill, which also received pushback when it was heard in the Senate, will go onto third reading tomorrow before making its way to the governors desk.

House Bill 450: Bullying in schools

The House also advanced a bill from Rep. Jedediah Hinkle, R- Belgrade, that would let a student be able to use force to defend themselves or another student if being physically bullied.

Educators in the body said this bill would not work in practice.

A teacher for 24 years, Rep. Eric Matthews, D-Bozeman, said that reality is, fights dont happen in front of cameras, and kids could make it seem like another kid started the fight and make themselves the victim.

Other representatives talked about their own bullying experiences, with Rep. John Fitzpatrick, a Republican from Anaconda and father to Senate Majority Leader Steve Fitzpatrick, R-Great Falls, talking about the advice on bullying passed down in their family.

I passed down grandpas instructions: punch him back in the face, said the senior Fitzpatrick. The most important class any child will ever take in school is playground, and if he doesnt learn to pass playground, hes going to be a victim for the rest of his life.

The bill passed second reading 70-30.

Voter registration investigations, ICWA, abortion, blood donations

Rep. David Bedey, R-Hamilton, sponsored a bill that narrowly passed second reading Tuesday that would require the Secretary of States office to investigate residents citizenship status when they register to vote.

The bill passed 51-49, after some critiqued it for being a response to the case out of Phillips County where two Philippine citizens voted in 2021. Rep. Ed Stafman, D-Bozeman, said bill supporters were just chasing phantoms as cases like this are so rare, and in Montanas case they were caught.

A similar bill from Rep. Zack Wirth, R-Wolf Creek, that would ban noncitizens from voting in Montana elections, which is already prohibited, passed third reading 70-29 and is going to the Senate.

Another bill that passed third reading in the House on Tuesday is a bill that would codify the Indian Child Welfare Act in Montana law. ICWA established standards for removal of Native children at a federal level, currently being challenged in the U.S. Supreme Court. Proponents noted it as the gold standard for child custody proceedings and practices.

House Judiciary forwarded three abortion bills on Tuesday to the House floor, including Speaker Regiers bill banning most surgical abortions after 12 weeks, the resurrected LR-131 bill from Rep. Kerri Seekins-Crowe, R- Billings, and a bill from Republican Rep. Lola Sheldon-Galloway of Great Falls that would require reporting of potential adverse effects from abortion pills.

House Health Services tabled a bill Monday that would have banned vaccinated people from donating blood, with a 19-1 vote.

The House and Senate will convene Wednesday morning to hold all day floor sessions in order for bills to meet the Friday transmittal deadline.

The post Bullying, tax breaks and alien ballots: bills pass House hurdle as transmittal closes in appeared first on Daily Montanan.
First Milk has become the latest processor to announce a substantial milk price fall for April, declining by 3p per litre.

The move means its milk price on a manufacturing standard litre will sit at 42.69p per litre, including the member premium.

The UK dairy co-operative said there was the "significant disjoint" between market prices and current farmgate milk prices.

Robert Craig, First Milk's vice-chairman, admitted that the news would be 'unwelcome' for suppliers.

Whilst dairy markets appear to have stabilised a little in recent weeks, there remains a significant disjoint between market prices and current farmgate milk prices.

"As a result, we must adjust our milk price to reflect the market returns. We know that this will be unwelcome news and we will continue to work to maximise our members milk price in the coming months.

Dairy farmers supplying Muller who meet the conditions of the processor's Advantage scheme will also see an April milk price decline, of 1.5ppl.

Those producers who follow the programme will see their milk price fall to 42.5 pence per litre.
Apparel exports from Turkiye recovered in January 2023 after decline of 9.2 per cent YoY in December 2022. The exports increased 8.55 per cent in January 2023, as per the data of the Turkish Statistical Institute and the countrys ministry of trade. During the first month of 2023, Turkiye exported apparel worth $1.536 billion, compared to $1.415 billion in January 2022.

Category-wise, exports of knitted and crocheted clothing and accessories (HS chapter 61) earned $833.585 million in January 2023, registering a growth of 2.4 per cent over $814.110 million earned during the same month of the previous year. Exports of non-knitted apparel and accessories (HS chapter 62) were valued at $702.640 million, showing an increase of 16.9 per cent compared to $600.924 million exports in January 2022.

Apparel exports from Turkiye recovered in January 2023 after decline of 9.2 per cent YoY in December 2022. The exports increased 8.55 per cent in January 2023, as per the data of the Turkish Statistical Institute and the country's ministry of trade. During January 2023, Turkiye exported apparel worth $1.536 billion, compared to $1.415 billion in January 2022

Meanwhile, Turkiyes imports of cotton, cotton yarn and cotton textiles (HS chapter 52) were negligible in January 2023, and therefore did not make it to the top 20 HS chapters for the imports in the country. Last year, Turkiyes imports had increased by 30.3 per cent to $4.842 billion over $3.714 billion in 2021.

Last year, apparel exports from Turkiye increased by 6.46 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to reach $19.475 billion, compared to $18.294 billion in 2021. However, in December 2022, the exports decreased by 9.2 per cent YoY to $0.890 billion.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KUL)
The Philippine department of trade and industry (DTI) recently again called for resumption of talks for a free trade agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU) to promote stronger trade and investment ties. Trade secretary Alfredo Pascual met members of the European Parliament sub-committee on human rights and conveyed the countrys interest in signing an FTA.

With the positive developments in our relations and growing economic performance of the country, these all merit further consideration of elevating Philippine-EU relations through an FTA. DTI proposes, with the Parliaments support, the continuation of the FTA negotiations, as the FTA will provide a more stable and permanent platform for our trade and investment, he was quoted as saying by Philippine media reports.

Two rounds of negotiations are already overthe first held in May 2016 and the last in February 2017.

The Philippine department of trade and industry recently again called for resumption of talks for a free trade agreement (FTA) with the European Union to promote stronger trade and investment ties. Trade secretary Alfredo Pascual met members of the European Parliament sub-committee on human rights and conveyed the country's interest in signing an FTA.

Pascual briefed the visiting EU delegation on domestic economic developments.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)
LONDON, Feb. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Please consult the following Press Release for more information: https://www.seadrill.com/investors/news/detail/?id=7191D2529379A90A

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release includes forward looking statements. Such statements are generally not historical in nature, and specifically include statements about the Company's plans, strategies, business prospects, changes and trends in its business and the markets in which it operates. The duration, timing (including both starting and ending dates) and total contract value of customer contracts and any related agreements are estimates only. The actual total contract value over the course of any given contract or agreement may be lower and could be substantially lower, depending on a number of factors (cancellation, suspension, delays, rig downtime, etc.). These statements are made based upon management's current plans, expectations, assumptions and beliefs concerning future events impacting the Company and therefore involve a number of risks (some beyond the control of the Company), uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this news release. Consequently, no forward-looking statement can be guaranteed. When considering these forward-looking statements, you should keep in mind the risks described from time to time in the Company's regulatory filings and periodic reporting. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which such statement is made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for the Company to predict all of these factors. Further, the Company cannot assess the impact of each such factor on its business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to be materially different from those contained in any forward-looking statement.

CONTACT:

aquadrill@aquadrilloffshore.com

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/seadrill-limited-provides-update-on-proposed-acquisition-of-aquadrill-301758848.html
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 28, 2023) - The BC Bud Corporation (CSE: BCBC) (OTCQB: BCBCF) ("The BC Bud Co" or the "Company"), a house of high-quality cannabis brands based out of British Columbia, Canada, is pleased to announce the appointment of Simon Tso as Chief Financial Officer effective March 1, 2023.

Simon brings years of experience assisting companies of all sizes with their financial reporting, regulatory filing and taxation requirements. Mr. Tso is a co-founder of Zeus Capital Ltd., a boutique corporate finance firm that specializes in providing financial advisory, valuation and consulting services. Simon graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce (Finance) degree from the UBC Sauder School of Business, and is both a CFA Charterholder and a Chartered Professional Accountant.

Mr. Tso replaces Emily Graham. The Company thanks Ms. Graham for her contributions to the Company in its first year of operations and wishes her well with her endeavours.

In addition, in connection with the completion of the Company's 2023 financial year end, the Company has determined to issue as compensation to its independent directors 100,000 shares each for an aggregate of 300,000 shares issuable all at a deemed price of $0.12 per share (the "Compensation Issuance"). The Company has also determined to issue 150,000 shares to its advisor, Marc Lustig, for services provided through the year. All of the securities issuable will be subject to resale restrictions under the policies of the CSE expiring on June 29, 2023.

The participation in the Compensation Issuance by insiders of the Company constitutes a "related party transaction" as such term is defined under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). The Company is relying on exemptions from the formal valuation and minority approval requirements under MI 61-101. The Company relied on Section 5.5(a) of MI 61-101 for an exemption from the formal valuation requirement and Section 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101 for an exemption from the minority shareholder approval requirement of MI 61-101 as the fair market value of the Compensation Issuance in so far as the Compensation Issuance involved interested parties did not exceed 25% of the Company's market capitalization

The Company has also determined to grant an aggregate of 500,000 stock options exercisable for a period of five years at a $0.12 per share to officers and consultants.

About The BC Bud Co

The BC Bud Co is a house of brands created by industry professionals who are passionate about the user experience and the ever-changing consumer experience. Founder-led and based in British Columbia; we take the heritage of BC Bud seriously.

Investor Relations

Phone: 1-(778)-656-0377

Email: invest@thebcbc.com

Web: www.thebcbc.com

Disclaimer

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements included in this press release constitute forward-looking information or statements (collectively, "forward-looking statements"), including those identified by the expressions "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "may", "should" and similar expressions to the extent they relate to the Company or its management. The forward-looking statements are not historical facts but reflect current expectations regarding future results or events. This press release contains forward looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and various estimates, factors and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors.

Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions which are difficult to predict. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include failure to obtain regulatory approval, the continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions, including the effects of COVID-19. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. These statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those implied by such statements. Although such statements are based on management's reasonable assumptions, there can be no assurance that the statements will prove to be accurate or that management's expectations or estimates of future developments, circumstances or results will materialize. The Company assumes no responsibility to update or revise forward-looking information to reflect new events or circumstances unless required by law. Readers should not place undue reliance on the Company's forward-looking statements.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange (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.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/156647
Ottawa, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - February 28, 2023) - BluMetric Environmental Inc. (TSXV: BLM), a full-service environmental consulting and engineering cleantech firm, announces its financial results for the quarter ended December 31, 2022.

Revenue for the quarter grew more than 30% as compared to Q1 2022, mainly driven by BluMetric's active portfolio of projects having larger field programs and cleantech solutions having increased requirements for materials. Earnings for the quarter increased slightly over Q1 2022.

"The BluMetric team continues to deliver solid financial results," says Scott MacFabe, CEO of BluMetric. "Our strong client base, high-value services and strategic initiatives are supporting our success as we adapt to changing market conditions."

Revenue from the Government and Military markets for Q1 2023 were relatively consistent with the same quarter in 2022. Commercial market revenue increased by approximately $1.7 million, mainly as a result of a large remediation project for brownfield redevelopment. Revenue from the Mining market increased more than 60%, driven by greater customer diversification and successful business development.

Highlights

Revenue for the quarter was $10.5 million compared to $7.8 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2021.

for the quarter was $10.5 million compared to $7.8 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2021. Gross margin for the quarter was 22% compared to 26% for the same quarter in the previous year.

for the quarter was 22% compared to 26% for the same quarter in the previous year. EBITDA (see Note 1 below for definition) for Q1 2023 increased to $920,000, compared to $912,000 in Q1 2022.

(see Note 1 below for definition) for Q1 2023 increased to $920,000, compared to $912,000 in Q1 2022. Net cash (see Note 3 below for definition) at December 31, 2022 was $2.9 million. This compares to net cash at September 30, 2022 of $3.6 million, and net cash of $2.6 million at December 31, 2021.

Business Outlook

BluMetric's strategic initiatives and business development continue to support a solid project pipeline across all four key client sectors. As markets shift to current economic conditions, profit margins are returning to historical levels, while an increased number of larger projects are being launched which include increased support services costs at lower margins.

The Company remains focused on key investments in its Cleantech water treatment products and service to support growth and market expansion. The Company is planning to invest in leadership in the Commercial and Industrial market and staff expansion of our fabrication facility, to take advantage of emerging opportunities.

In the past quarter, BluMetric entered into a joint venture arrangement (JV) with Kitikmeot Corporation, an Inuit-owned business. The Company is looking forward to working collaboratively with Kitikmeot Corporation and its other partners in this JV, Accutech Engineering Inc. and KBL Environmental Ltd., on projects in Nunavut supporting federal, territorial and private industry clients.

Financial Table



Three Months Ended

December 31, 2022 Three Months Ended

December 31, 2021

($000) ($000) Revenue 10,478 7,816 Gross profit 2,329 2,045 Gross margin % 22% 26% Operating expenses 1,553 1,265 Operating profit 776 780 Finance costs 21 33 Earnings before provision for income tax 755 747 Income tax expense 299 195 Net earnings 456 552 Earnings per share - basic and diluted 0.02 0.02 EBITDA1 920 912 Free cash flow2 767 683 Net cash (debt)3 2,872 2,566



Note 1: EBITDA is a non-IFRS measure and is calculated as net income before interest expense, income taxes, depreciation, and amortization.

Note 2: Free cash flow is a non-IFRS measure and is calculated as cash flow from operating activities excluding changes in working capital balances less net capital expenditures and net payment of lease obligations.

Note 3: Net cash (debt) is a non-IFRS measure and is calculated as cash less total debt excluding lease liabilities.



The full results are available at www.sedar.com.

Investor conference call on Thursday, March 2, 2023

BluMetric will host a conference call on Thursday, March 2 at 1:00 pm Eastern time to discuss the results. To join the call, please dial 1-888-664-6392 (Toll-Free North America) and enter confirmation number 07337596.

About BluMetric Environmental Inc.

BluMetric Environmental Inc. is a publicly traded environmental consulting and engineering company with expertise across professional and trade disciplines and technologies that allow for the design, fabrication and delivery of sustainable solutions to environmental and water challenges. BluMetric has more than 170 employees operating in ten offices and over 40 years of expertise. Headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, BluMetric's team of industry experts serves Commercial and Industrial, Military, Mining and Government clients in Canada and the United States.

For more information, visit www.blumetric.ca or please contact:

Scott MacFabe

BluMetric Environmental Inc.

Tel: 1-877-487-8436

Email: smacfabe@blumetric.ca

Vivian Karaiskos, CFO

BluMetric Environmental Inc.

Tel: 1-877-487-8436

Email: vkaraiskos@blumetric.ca

Forward-Looking Statements

Some of the statements in this press release, including those relating to the Company's quarterly and annual results, future products, opportunities and cost initiatives, strategies, and other statements that are predictive in nature, that depend upon or refer to future events or conditions, or that include words such as "expects", "anticipates", "intends", "plans", "believes", "estimates", or similar expressions, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, the information concerning possible or assumed future results of operations of the Company. These statements are not historical facts but instead represent only the Company's expectations, estimates, and projections regarding future events. By their nature, forward-looking statements require us to make assumptions and are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties. We caution readers of this news release not to place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements as a number of factors could cause actual results or conditions to differ materially from current expectations. Please refer to the risks set forth in the Company's most recent annual MD&A and the Company's continuous disclosure documents that can be found on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. The Company does not intend, and disclaims any obligation, except as required by law, to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/156651
JEFFERSONVILLE, Ohio, Mar 1, 2023 - (JCN Newswire) - Honda and LG Energy Solution (LGES; KRX: 373220) today held the official groundbreaking ceremony for a new joint venture EV battery plant over 2 million square feet in size, to be located in Fayette County, near Jeffersonville, Ohio.The two companies have committed to invest $3.5 billion in the new joint venture (JV) facility, with their overall investment projected to reach $4.4 billion. The facility is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2024, with plans to create 2,200 jobs, and the aim for approximately 40GWh of annual production capacity. The JV company will deliver lithium-ion batteries with cutting-edge technology to support Honda's plan to build battery-electric vehicles (EV) in North America.The ceremony's attendees included Toshihiro Mibe, president and CEO of Honda Motor Co., Ltd., Dong-Myung Kim, president and head of the Advanced Automotive Battery Division of LG Energy Solution, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted, other members of state government and local community officials.At the ceremony, the leaders of the new JV company, CEO Robert H. Lee and COO Rick Riggle, revealed a rendering of the new facility which will be located about 40 miles southwest of Columbus.Rendering of the new EV battery plant"It is an honor to represent two great corporations, Honda and LG Energy Solution, both with a long, proud history of success. LG Energy Solution is the leading battery manufacturer globally and is investing aggressively to meet demand for electrification. We are excited to embark on this partnership with Honda, a leader in the global auto industry with a reputation for quality and reliability," said Lee. "If we harness these strengths, I have no doubt our joint venture will be the most successful battery plant in the world, and we look forward to being a part of this massive transformation toward sustainability.""We have talked a lot about the partnership between Honda and LG Energy Solution, but the communities of Southern Ohio are a part of this venture, too, and we see it not so much as a joint venture, but a tri-venture between our companies and the community," said Riggle. "We share similar values and perspectives regarding the relationship we want to have with our new workforce, and this spirit of teamwork will be key to our success."The location of the joint venture between Honda and LGES was announced on Oct.11, 2022, and was formally established on Jan. 12, 2023. The plant aims to start mass production of pouch-type lithium-ion batteries by the end of 2025, to be provided exclusively to Honda auto plants to produce EVs to be sold in North America.Honda also has announced plans to invest $700 million to re-tool several of its existing auto and powertrain plants in Ohio for production* of electric vehicles that will utilize the batteries made at the new JV facility. Honda plans to begin production and sales of Honda EVs in North America in 2026, based on its new Honda e:Architecture. As part of its goal to achieve carbon neutrality for all products and corporate activities by 2050, Honda has a vision to make battery-electric and fuel cell electric vehicles represent 100% of its vehicle sales by 2040.Backed by the largest global battery manufacturing network it has established, LG Energy Solution has been carrying out its initiative to expedite the global EV transition, with its annual production capacity of 200GWh to further expand to 300GWh by the end of this year. Capitalizing on its ample R&D experience and operational expertise, LGES is devoted to providing competitive power solutions for its customers, thereby promoting the customer values and reinforcing the collective initiatives for clean energy transformation.For more information about the joint venture battery plant, visit www.lgeshonda.com.About LG Energy SolutionLG Energy Solution (KRX: 373220), a split-off from LG Chem, is a leading global manufacturer of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobility, IT, and energy storage systems. With 30 years of experience in revolutionary battery technology and extensive research and development (R&D), the company is the top battery-related patent holder in the world with over 25,000 patents. Its robust global network, which spans North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, includes battery manufacturing facilities established through joint ventures with major automakers such as General Motors, Stellantis N.V., Hyundai Motor Group, and Honda Motor Co. Ltd. At the forefront of green business and sustainability, LG Energy Solution aims to achieve carbon neutral operations by 2050, while embodying the value of shared growth and promoting diverse and inclusive corporate culture. To learn more about LG Energy Solution's ideas and innovations, visit https://www.lgensol.com.About Honda Motor Co., Ltd.Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (NYSE: HMC) is responsible for the development, production and sales of automobiles, motorcycles, power products and aviation products worldwide. Honda now delivers over 30 million products annually through its three product lines. Honda and its partners build products in more than 60 manufacturing plants in 27 countries, employing about 220,000 associates globally. On a global basis by 2050, Honda is striving to achieve carbon neutrality for all products and corporate activities, as well as zero traffic collision fatalities involving Honda automobiles and motorcycles.Source: Honda Motor Co, LtdCopyright 2023 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 28, 2023) - Pure Energy Minerals Ltd. (TSXV: PE) (OTCQB: PEMIF) ("Pure Energy" or "the Company") is pleased to announce that Xavier Wenzel has been appointed as Chief Financial Officer of the Company effective February 24, 2023, replacing the Company's Interim CFO Ann Fehr.

Mr. Wenzel, is a Chartered Professional Accountant with over 25 years of financial management experience. He has an extensive background with public companies, particularly in the mining and resource sector. Mr. Wenzel has considerable audit and tax expertise and extensive experience with US GAAP.

In connection with the appointment 150,000 incentive stock options of the Company were granted. The options were granted under the Company's Stock Option Plan and each stock option entitles the holder to acquire one common share at an exercise price of $0.54 until February 27, 2028.

The Company thanks Ms. Fehr for her many contributions to the Company as Interim CFO, and wishes her well in her future endeavors.

About Pure Energy

Pure Energy Minerals is a lithium resource developer that is driven to become a low-cost supplier for the growing lithium battery industry. Pure Energy has consolidated a pre-eminent land position at its Clayton Valley Project in the Clayton Valley of central Nevada for the exploration and development of lithium resources, comprising 950 claims over 23,360 acres (9,450 hectares), representing the largest mineral land holdings in the valley. Pure Energy's Clayton Valley Project adjoins and surrounds on three sides the Silver Peak lithium brine mine operated by Albemarle Corporation.

Pure Energy's strategic partner, Schlumberger Technologies Corporation ("SLB"), is the operator of the Clayton Valley Project. In May of 2019, Pure Energy and SLB signed an Earn-In agreement over the CV Project which requires significant investment by SLB at the Project, to include the design and construction of a pilot plant capable of processing lithium-bearing brines for high-quality lithium hydroxide monohydrate ("lithium hydroxide" or "LiOHH2O") and/or lithium carbonate products at a specified rate. SLB plans to utilize both in-house and commercially available technology in the design of the CV pilot plant. SLB's costs, technical parameters and ultimate technology are anticipated to differ from the published PEA. For further details regarding SLB's participation, please refer to Pure Energy's Annual General and Special Meeting Management Information Circular dated April 4, 2019, available on SEDAR.com.

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

"Mary L. Little"

Director, Pure Energy Minerals Ltd.

CONTACT:

Pure Energy Minerals Limited (www.pureenergyminerals.com)

Email: info@pureenergyminerals.com

Telephone - 604 608 6611

Cautionary Statements and Forward-Looking Information

The information in this news release contains forward looking statements that are subject to a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in our forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause such differences include: changes in world commodity markets, equity markets, costs and supply of materials relevant to the mining industry, change in government and changes to regulations affecting the mining industry. Forward-looking statements in this release may include future exploration and development on the Clayton Valley Project. Although we believe the expectations reflected in our forward-looking statements are reasonable, results may vary, and we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements.

The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except as required by applicable laws.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of 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/156657


Mr. Sutep Punthupeng, Chief Executive Officer, SRT Electrified Train Co., Ltd. (Left); Mr. Ryo Morita, Managing Director, JCB International (Thailand) Co., Ltd. (Right)

TOKYO & BANGKOK, Mar 1, 2023 - (JCN Newswire) - JCB International Co., Ltd., the international operations subsidiary of JCB Co., Ltd., Japan's only international payment brand, is pleased to announce the launch of a contactless fare payment service starting at the SRT Red Lines in Bangkok, Thailand. This service aims to provide quicker and effortless transactions for both Thai and international cardholders.Mr. Ryo Morita, Managing Director of JCB International (Thailand) Co., Ltd., said, "According to information from the Bank of Thailand, accumulated credit card spending for purchasing purposes over the nine-month period in 2022 increased by approximately 30% compared to the same period in 2021. For JCB, the share of contactless payments is increasing, indicating that JCB cardholders prefer and are familiar with contactless payments."Mr. Morita added, "JCB aims to enhance ease of payment for cardholders with a focus on contactless payments in mass transit systems. Currently, JCB Cards can be used in mass transit systems in many countries and territories around the world such as New York, Malaysia, Taiwan and Japan. In the post-COVID era, both domestic and international travel has resumed. It is believed that the launch of this service will increase flexibility for cardholders in their daily commute as well as international cardholders traveling to Thailand."The SRT Red Lines is a commuter rail running between Bang Sue - Rangsit and Bang Sue - Taling Chan. It provides a convenient and fast transport service for passengers from suburban areas to the center of Bangkok and connects with other railway systems such as the Metropolitan Rapid Transit (MRT), BTS Skytrain (BTS), long-distance intercity trains, and facilitates travel to and from important places such as Don Mueang Airport and Bangkok Bus Terminal Chatuchak (Mo Chit Mai)."This project marks the beginning of JCB's contactless payment service in Thailand's mass transit systems. The goal is to expand the service to other trains and other modes of travel. In addition, JCB Card is providing special offers for spending in travel and shopping categories, both domestically and internationally," Mr. Morita concluded.From March 1, 2023 to May 31, 2023, JCB cardholders will enjoy a cashback privilege for Red Lines rides. For the more details of the campaign and news updates including other promotions for JCB cardholders in Thailand, please visit:- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/JCBCardThailandTH- Thai website: http://www.th.jcb/th/- Domestic and international promotions: http://www.specialoffers.jcb/th/- Latest channel JCB Thailand LINE Official Account: @JCBThailandAbout JCBJCB is a major global payment brand and a leading credit card issuer and acquirer in Japan. JCB launched its card business in Japan in 1961 and began expanding worldwide in 1981. Its acceptance network includes about 41 million merchants around the world. JCB Cards are issued mainly in Asian countries and territories, with more than 150 million cardholders. As part of its international growth strategy, JCB has formed alliances with hundreds of leading banks and financial institutions globally to increase its merchant coverage and cardholder base. As a comprehensive payment solution provider, JCB commits to providing responsive and high-quality service and products to all customers worldwide. For more information, please visit: www.global.jcb/en/ContactsJCBAyaka NakajimaCorporate CommunicationsTel: +81-3-5778-8353Email: jcb-pr@jcb.co.jpSource: JCBCopyright 2023 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved.
Edmonton, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - February 28, 2023) - Radient Technologies Inc. (TSXV: RTI) (OTC Pink: RDDTF) ("Radient" or the "Company") announces today that it anticipates that it may be delayed in filing its interim financial statements (the "Statements") for the nine-month period ended December 31, 2022 and the related Management's Discussion and Analysis and Certifications by the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer (collectively the "Required Filings"). Under National Instrument 51-102 of the Canadian Securities Administrators, the Required Filings are required to be made not later than March 1, 2023 (the "Deadline"). While every effort is being made to make the Required Filings as soon as possible, the Issuer is concerned that the Required Filings may not be made by the Deadline.

Out of an abundance of caution in the event that the Company is unable to make the Required Filings by the Deadline, the Company applied to the Alberta Securities Commission (the "Principal Regulator"), British Columbia Securities Commission, Ontario Securities Commission, Manitoba Securities Commission, Saskatchewan Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority, Newfoundland and Labrador, Director of Securities, New Brunswick Financial and Consumer Services Commission, Autorite des marches financiers, and Nova Scotia Securities Commission pursuant to Part 3 of National Policy 12-203 ("NP 12-203") for a Management Cease Trade Order ("MCTO") as an alternative to a general Cease Trade Order in connection with the possible late filing (the "Default") of the Required Filings. In the event that the MCTO is granted, it will remain in effect until the Default is remedied. The issuance of a management cease trade order generally does not affect the ability of persons who have not been directors, officers or insiders of the Company to trade in their securities.

The Issuer has experienced delays in completing the Required Filings due to a lack of adequate resources to complete the reconciliation of new programs that the Issuer launched in previous quarters, resources being diverted to manage the sale of certain real estate assets and to deal with accounting reconciliation with lenders, and unexpected delays to asset evaluation and valuation, including inventory and related appraisals. The Company anticipates that it will be able to complete the Required Filings by March 17, 2023.

The Company confirms that it will satisfy the provisions of the alternative information guidelines under NP 12-203 by issuing bi-weekly default status reports in the form of news releases for so long as it remains in default of the filing requirements described above.

The Company has not taken any steps towards any insolvency proceeding and the Company confirms that there is no material information relating to its affairs that has not been generally disclosed.

In the last few weeks significant progress has been made in collecting the requisite information to prepare and file the Required Filings prior to the Deadline.

The MCTO prohibits trading in securities of the Company, whether direct or indirect, by:

(a) the Company's Chief Executive Officer; and

(b) the Company's Chief Financial Officer.

Should the Company fail to make its Required Filings on or before March 17, 2023, the Principal Regulator can impose a cease trade order that all trading in securities of the Company cease for such period of time as the Principal Regulator may deem appropriate.

About Radient

Radient Technologies is a commercial manufacturer of diverse, novel and high-quality cannabis extracts and packaged products. Radient develops specialty products and ingredients that contain a broad range of cannabinoid and terpene profiles while meeting the highest standards of quality and safety. Radient is focused on innovation with expertise in formulations and technologies offering unique solutions in the cannabis and wellness space. Please visit www.radientinc.com for more information.

For more information, please contact:

Steven Splinter, CEO & Director

ir@radientinc.com

Ph: 780 465 1318

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, without limitation, statements regarding the potential Default, including the Company's ability to make the Required Filings on or prior to March 17, 2023. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Radient, as the case may be, to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to: risks associated with the MCTO issued by the applicable securities regulatory authorities. Although Radient has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Radient does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable laws.

NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/156662
BARCELONA, Spain, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Huawei hosted the Global Digital Power Forum at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2023. The Forum was themed "Enabling Operator Success amid the Global Transition to Carbon Neutrality." Operators, industry leaders, and experts from around the world gathered to exchange their latest insights into the global energy and ICT industries. They also shared innovative solutions and best practices for green and low-carbon energy infrastructure, discussing how to help operators succeed in the pursuit of a greener future.





Charles Yang, President of Global Marketing and Sales Services of Huawei Digital Power, delivered a speech on "Enabling Operator Success amid the Global Transition to Carbon Neutrality." He highlighted that despite the global consensus on green development, operators continue to face challenges. Operators are still seeing rising electricity costs, difficulties in reducing carbon emissions, and stagnant growth.

Huawei is committed to integrating digital and power electronics technologies to help operators succeed in the pursuit of a greener future. According to Mr. Yang, operators can no longer be just energy consumers, but must also become producers and enablers amid the global transition to carbon neutrality. Huawei hopes to support them on this journey.

Energy consumers: Operators will maximize energy efficiency to reduce energy consumption by enabling each watt to power more bits. Networks will use intelligent energy-saving and optimal hibernation technologies to reduce power consumption. Telecom sites will be simplified from rooms to cabinets or from cabinets to poles to improve site energy efficiency up to 97%. Data centers will use free cooling and AI energy efficiency optimization to reduce the PUE to 1.15.

Operators will maximize energy efficiency to reduce energy consumption by enabling each watt to power more bits. Networks will use intelligent energy-saving and optimal hibernation technologies to reduce power consumption. Telecom sites will be simplified from rooms to cabinets or from cabinets to poles to improve site energy efficiency up to 97%. Data centers will use free cooling and AI energy efficiency optimization to reduce the PUE to 1.15. Energy producers: Operators will participate in energy generation and regulation to maximize the value of their infrastructure. They will deploy PV systems or purchase green energy at telecom sites, data centers, and campuses. Staggering electricity usage will also reduce electricity costs. Finally, they will save and make money by using lithium batteries as part of the virtual power plant (VPP).

Operators will participate in energy generation and regulation to maximize the value of their infrastructure. They will deploy PV systems or purchase green energy at telecom sites, data centers, and campuses. Staggering electricity usage will also reduce electricity costs. Finally, they will save and make money by using lithium batteries as part of the virtual power plant (VPP). Energy enablers: Operators will use digital technologies such as 5G, AI, cloud, and loT to enable digital management, intelligent O&M, and a stable supply of both conventional and renewable energy systems. They will enable network-wide scheduling and AI-based fault predictions, helping build safe, stable, and efficient energy supply systems.

Yao Quan, President of Huawei Site Power Facility, delivered a speech on "Intelligent Site Power: A Key Enabler for Green and Low-Carbon Network." He explained that operators are reducing carbon emissions and energy expenditures to meet carbon neutrality targets, shoulder rising energy prices, and keep up with accelerated 5G network deployment.

However, conventional site power solutions have a high total cost of ownership (TCO) and carbon emissions. This hinders network evolution and prevents operators from achieving carbon neutrality. To address these issues, Huawei proposes intelligent site power solutions that offer 'Intelligent Simplicity', 'Intelligent Green', and 'Intelligent Saving'. By serving as a key enabler for developing green and low-carbon networks, these intelligent site power solutions will help operators accelerate the achievement of their carbon neutrality goals.

Sun Xiaofeng, President of Huawei Data Center Facility and Critical Power Business Unit, delivered a speech on "Smart DC, Building the Green Future." The world is going carbon neutral, digital, and intelligent. In this context, data centers must deliver high energy efficiency, high O&M efficiency, agility, and availability to support the exponential growth of computing power. He introduced Huawei's solutions for all sizes of data centers and critical power supply solutions. These solutions enable green, simple, smart, and reliable data centers to facilitate low-carbon and intelligent industry development.

Experts also spoke at the forum, sharing their visions on green ICTs in the energy business. Their presentations are listed in order of appearance.

Massamba Thioye , Project Executive of the UNFCCC Global Innovation Hub, shared his ideas on "Energy Transformation for a Net-Zero World."

, Project Executive of the UNFCCC Global Innovation Hub, shared his ideas on "Energy Transformation for a Net-Zero World." Jose Donoso , Director General of Union Espanola Fotovoltaica (UNEF) and Chairman of Global Solar Council, shared the "Trends of ICT Industry Use of Renewable Energy."

, Director General of Union Espanola Fotovoltaica (UNEF) and Chairman of Global Solar Council, shared the "Trends of ICT Industry Use of Renewable Energy." Luis Neves , GeSI CEO, summed up the "Trends of Thousands of Industries under Energy Transformation."

, GeSI CEO, summed up the "Trends of Thousands of Industries under Energy Transformation." Herve Suquet, SVP of Orange, presented on "Lead the future - Orange Energy Challenge."

Anastasios Koumparos, Head of Energy Management, Vantage Towers, gave a speech on "Towers for Good - Enable a Greener Future."

Fred Mitchell , Technical Director of K2, shared the "Practice of Building Green Data Center."

, Technical Director of K2, shared the "Practice of Building Green Data Center." Seppo Ihalainen , CEO of VerneGlobal Finland, presented their best practice during the speech on "Towards Zero-Carbon Data Center."

The theme for MWC 2023 is Velocity. Technological progress is accelerating and carbon neutrality is trending. Huawei will continue to invest in innovation, integrate digital and power electronics technologies, and work with global customers and partners to accelerate carbon neutrality. Together, we will help operators succeed in the pursuit of a greener future.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2012705/mmexport1677597449372.jpg

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/global-digital-power-forum-2023-enabling-operator-success-amid-the-global-transition-to-carbon-neutrality-301759099.html
Elliptic Labs (OSE: ELABS), a global AI software company and the world leader in AI Virtual Smart Sensors, has launched the AI Virtual Proximity Sensor INNER BEAUTY on the Transsion flagship Tecno Phantom V Fold smartphone, Elliptic Labs' first foldable phone launch. The Tecno Phantom V Fold is being launched for the global market. Elliptic Labs' partner MediaTek is driving the Tecno Phantom V Fold with its premium Dimensity 9000+ chipset. The contract for this launch was previously announced by Elliptic Labs.

"Elliptic Labs's partnership with Transsion has thus far resulted in some of the most advanced smartphones produced under their higher-end Tecno brand," said Laila Danielsen, CEO of Elliptic Labs. "The Tecno Phantom V Fold is the first foldable phone to utilize our AI Virtual Proximity Sensor INNER BEAUTY. Much like the bezel-less designs before it, the foldable phone design trend is the latest smartphone industrial design that takes advantage of the AI Virtual Smart Sensor Platform, which continues to empower smartphone makers to offer devices that are smarter, greener, and more human-friendly."

AI Virtual Proximity Sensor INNER BEAUTY

Elliptic Labs' AI Virtual Proximity Sensor detects when a user holds their phone up to their ear during a call, allowing the smartphone to turn off its display and disable its screen's touch functionality. This keeps the user's ear or cheek from triggering unwanted actions during the call, such as hanging up or dialing numbers. Turning off the screen also helps conserve battery life.

Proximity detection is a core capability that is used in all smartphones, but Elliptic Labs' AI Virtual Proximity Sensor is a unique, software-only solution that delivers robust proximity detection without the need for a dedicated hardware sensor. By replacing hardware sensors with software sensors, the AI Virtual Proximity Sensor reduces device cost and eliminates sourcing risk.

INNER BEAUTY is a registered trademark of Elliptic Labs.

AI Virtual Smart Sensor, AI Virtual Proximity Sensor, and AI Virtual Smart Sensor Platform are trademarks of Elliptic Labs.

All other trademarks or service markets are the responsibility of their respective organizations.

About Elliptic Labs

Elliptic Labs is a global enterprise targeting the smartphone, laptop, IoT, and automotive markets. Founded in 2006 as a research spin-off from Norway's Oslo University, the company's patented software uses AI, ultrasound and sensor fusion to deliver intuitive 3D gesture, proximity-, presence-, breathing- and heartbeat-detection experiences. Its scalable AI Virtual Smart Sensor Platform creates software-only sensors that are sustainable, human-friendly and already deployed in hundreds of millions of devices around the world. Elliptic Labs is the only software company that has delivered detection capabilities using AI software, ultrasound, and sensor fusion deployed at scale. The company joined the Oslo Brs main listing in March 2022.

Elliptic Labs is headquartered in Norway with presence in the USA, China, South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan. Its technology and IP are developed in Norway and are solely owned by the company.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230228005893/en/

Contacts:

PR Contacts:

Patrick Tsui

pr@ellipticlabs.com

Investor Relations:

Lars Holmy

Lars.Holmoy@ellipticlabs.com
New approach to boosting sustainability capabilities provides clearer and more manageable resource and personnel model, resulting in significant energy savings and emission reductions.

BRUSSELS, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Rockwell Automation, Inc. (NYSE: ROK), the world's largest company dedicated to industrial automation and digital transformation, today announced that, as part of an innovative energy-savings-as-a-service partnership, its drives technology helped reduce emissions and deliver substantial annual energy savings at the Sibanye-Stillwater Driefontein mine in South Africa.





Rockwell Automation and Energy Drive, an energy-efficiency specialist with headquarters in Durban, South Africa, recently signed a memorandum of understanding in which they will collaborate on projects that are designed so that the resulting energy savings offset any investment in technology and systems required to drive the sustainability solutions.

"We share a common vision to provide the most efficient and sustainable solutions for customers and the environment," said Tom O'Reilly, global vice president, sustainability, at Rockwell Automation. "We are excited to address the rapidly growing needs of our customers with this energy-saving-as-a-service partnership, to help them on their journey to greater sustainability and achieving net zero."

Designed by Energy Drive, the system at the Sibanye-Stillwater mine is central to the new optimized control solution for the mine's ventilation architecture. The new efficiencies - which have delivered annual energy savings of more than 55 GWh - will help Sibanye-Stillwater address some core goals of its ESG activities.

"Collaboration is at the core of our business, and actualizing sustainability is what drives us," explains James Hynd, CEO of Energy Drive. Describing "actualizing sustainability", Hynd explains that "a direct result of the energy savings we deliver is the reduction of CO2, which contributes to our clients' sustainability targets, specifically carbon-reduction targets." As a result, Energy Drive operates as a resource to energy-intensive industries, helping with their response to operational outputs and sustainability targets driven by investment committees.

The ventilation system's operational parameters have been remodeled to leverage the advanced capabilities of Allen-Bradley PowerFlex 6000T variable-frequency drives. Through optimized control of fan speed and air circulation, this new approach has resulted in an average energy saving of 62% in one shaft and 48% in the other, with another shaft soon to be commissioned.

Engineers anticipate that the three upgrades will eventually deliver a total energy saving of about 360 GWh over the term of the contract - equivalent to removing 5,000 South African homes from the grid every month. Notably, it will save 379,000 tons of carbon over the period, while significantly reducing water and coal consumption.

Thomas Malomane, power control business manager, Africa, at Rockwell Automation, explained: "A large proportion of global energy is consumed by electric motors, with HVAC applications accounting for a significant part of this. Many motor-based solutions are either running without any form of motor control or are using outdated technology and practices that do not offer contemporary efficiency capabilities. Our PowerFlex range of variable-speed drives undergoes continual development to address modern demands and is a core solution for reducing energy consumption across a huge variety of applications globally."

Volatile energy prices compounded by global sustainability initiatives have delivered the perfect justification for greater energy efficiency; and significant savings can be made with the correct deployment of motor control solutions. In most cases, the purchase cost of a motor is eclipsed by its lifetime running costs, so any means to keep running costs down will not only deliver faster payback, but also help users to address ever-more stringent ESG targets.

Learn more about Rockwell Automation's extensive variable-speed drive portfolio and its sustainability solutions.





Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2011581/image_1.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1981317/Rockwell_Automation_Logo.jpg

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/rockwell-automation-and-energy-drive-partnership-delivers-innovative-energy-savings-as-a-service-business-model-to-south-african-mine-301758010.html
The transaction further bolsters BearingPoint's sustainability practice and offers clients an extended range of services

European management and technology consultancy BearingPoint announced it has acquired the sustainability consulting practice of Korkia, a Helsinki-based investment and advisory company. Korkia offers clients a wide range of services to address the challenges of sustainable development and has been active in this field for several years.

With the transaction, a team of highly qualified experts will join BearingPoint and complement BearingPoint's offering in the field of renewable energy, resource industries and low emission traffic. Korkia's sustainability and growth team is focusing on clients in the Public Sector, Consumer Goods and Retail as well as in the Utilities' and Transport segments.

Kiumars Hamidian, Managing Partner BearingPoint, said: "I am delighted to welcome the sustainability team of Korkia to the BearingPoint Family. They have a strong and proven expertise in helping clients in sustainability and growth topics. With this acquisition, we are continuing to implement our growth plans in the sustainability market."

After the acquisition of Paris-based I Care Consultants in 2022, this is the second significant step by BearingPoint within 12 months to grow its sustainability team. "We see a strong demand from our clients in this field. The combined sustainability practice of BearingPoint and Korkia will deliver a comprehensive suite of services to support clients on their sustainability journey," said Kiumars Hamidian.

"Korkia's expertise in the sustainability field is a perfect fit strategically and culturally for BearingPoint and will enhance our already excellent skills in those areas. The team will join our Finish practice but of course support all our clients across Europe from the first day on," said Eric Conway, Regional Leader of the GROW region (Finland, Sweden, Norway, Italy, The Netherlands, UK, and Ireland) at BearingPoint.

"The consulting team will have a bright future under Bearing Point's ownership. They have excellent resources to support the development and growth of the business. We will keep on focusing on renewable energy and keep moving on the same track we have been for the last few years," Pauli Maenpaa, CEO at Korkia, concludes.

About BearingPoint

BearingPoint is an independent management and technology consultancy with European roots and a global reach. The company operates in three business units: Consulting, Products, and Capital. Consulting covers the advisory business with a clear focus on selected business areas. Products provides IP-driven digital assets and managed services for business-critical processes. Capital delivers M&A and transaction services.

BearingPoint's clients include many of the world's leading companies and organizations. The firm has a global consulting network with more than 13,000 people and supports clients in over 70 countries, engaging with them to achieve measurable and sustainable success.

For more information, please visit:

Homepage: www.bearingpoint.com

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/bearingpoint

Twitter: @BearingPoint

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230228006039/en/

Contacts:

Press contact

Mike Kronfellner

Global Director Marketing Communications

Telephone: +49 89 540337070

E-Mail: mike.kronfellner@bearingpoint.com
Zaandam, The Netherlands, March 1, 2023 - Ahold Delhaize today publishes its 2022 Annual Report, an integrated report that provides an overview of the Company's financial and ESG performance in 2022. Reflecting the fact that Ahold Delhaize is a family of great local brands serving millions of customers every day, the theme of this annual report is 'Local matters'. Our brands understand the unique needs of their local communities and customers, and by leveraging the scale and efficiency of a global company, they can offer them best-in-class digital solutions and make sustainable and healthy food accessible to everyone. The report will be on the agenda of the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (AGM), which will be held on April 12, 2023.



Frans Muller, CEO of Ahold Delhaize, said: "2022 was a challenging year, that has put a strain on associates and on the communities - particularly as a result of the war in Ukraine. I'm grateful and proud of the people across our brands who have provided comfort, food and work to those affected and those fleeing the violence. We also saw the impact on people's mental well-being - which was already under pressure after two difficult years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our brands worked hard to support associates, continuing to invest in mental health and overall well-being.

In response to these circumstances, the brands remained laser focused on keeping grocery prices as low as possible and make healthy food options accessible to everyone by investing in high-quality own-brand products, expanding the range of price-entry products, and offer more personalized discounts through their loyalty programs. We have doubled down on our Save For Our Customers cost savings program that reached a record level of 979 million in 2022. In addition, our brands made significant donations to local communities, adding up to a total value of 218 million in cash and monetary value of food and products.

We have made substantial progress in our Leading Together strategy and within our growth drivers of e-commerce and digitalization, health and sustainability, cultivating talent, and operational excellence. One example is the significant increase in our interim scope 3 CO2 emissions reduction target to 37% by 2030, in line with the UN goal of keeping global warming below 1.5C. This not only demonstrates our commitment to our considerable sustainability ambitions, but also our aspiration to play a leading role in driving sustainability across the food retail sector and our value chain.

By investing in our future and in the interests of all of our company's stakeholders, including employees and shareholders, we will continue to be able to take care of customers throughout the local communities our brands serve, even in these difficult times."

Looking forward

Looking forward to 2023, Ahold Delhaize expects challenging macro-economic conditions to continue. The company remains focused on its omnichannel customer experience to enable customers to shop whenever and wherever they want, and continue to provide affordable and healthy food options. In addition, the company will increase its Capex investments to 2.5 billion euros. This will include investments in digital and online capabilities as well as in initiatives that serve our healthy and sustainable targets.



Ahold Delhaize's 2022 Annual Report will be on the agenda of the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders.



The 2022 Annual Report is available here.

-- ENDS --

Cautionary notice

This communication includes forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical facts may be forward-looking statements. Words and expressions such as provides, offer, will, continu(e)/(ing), progress, strategy, in line, commitment, ambitions, aspiration, looking forward, expects, remains or other similar words or expressions are typically used to identify forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that are difficult to predict and that may cause actual results of Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize N.V. (the "Company") to differ materially from future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to, the risk factors set forth in the Company's public filings and other disclosures. Forward-looking statements reflect the current views of the Company's management and assumptions based on information currently available to the Company's management. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made and the Company does not assume any obligation to update such statements, except as required by law.

For more information

Press office: +31 88 6595134 / media.relations@aholddelhaize.com

Investor relations:?+31 88 659 5213 / investor.relations@aholddelhaize.com

Social media: Instagram: @Ahold-Delhaize | LinkedIn: @Ahold-Delhaize | Twitter: @AholdDelhaize?

About Ahold Delhaize

Ahold Delhaize is one of the world's largest food retail groups and a leader in both supermarkets and e-commerce. Its family of great local brands serves 60 million customers each week, both in stores and online, in the United States, Europe and Indonesia. Together, these brands employ more than 414,000 associates in 7,659 grocery and specialty stores and include the top online retailer in the Benelux and the leading online grocers in the Benelux and the United States. Ahold Delhaize brands are at the forefront of sustainable retailing, sourcing responsibly, supporting local communities and helping customers make healthier choices. The company's focus on four growth drivers - drive omnichannel growth, elevate healthy and sustainable, cultivate best talent and strengthen operational excellence - is helping to fulfil its purpose, achieve its vision and prepare its brands and businesses for tomorrow. Headquartered in Zaandam, the Netherlands, Ahold Delhaize is listed on the Euronext Amsterdam and Brussels stock exchanges.?





Attachment
Company to host radiologist peer-to-peer workshops on TBS Osteo software used to monitor bone health

Medimaps Group, a Swiss/Global med-tech company specializing in image-processing software for assessing bone health, announced today results showing that its new spine segmentation (SpS) deep learning algorithm may be a reliable, time-efficient tool to enhance patient monitoring and osteoporosis diagnosis. The SpS algorithm has been designed to enhance bone measurement accuracy on dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) lumbar spine (LS) scans with potential application in X-ray based imaging systems. The data is scheduled to be presented1 at the European Congress of Radiology (ECR), held in Vienna, Austria, March 1-5, 2023.

"Our main aim is to bring clinically-driven innovations to radiologists that increase efficiency by reducing technical errors, save time and augment productivity," said Prof Didier Hans, CEO and co-founder of Medimaps Group, and Head of the R&D Bone Diseases Center Lausanne University Hospital, Switzerland. "Our data show, for the first time, the efficacy of an algorithm to assess lumbar spine segmentation on DXA scans to enable better screening for osteoporosis. Based on these promising results, we have moved this algorithm into further development stage, and look forward to submitting our next generation product for regulatory approval later this year."

The results1 were obtained from a study using Medimaps Group's SpS deep learning algorithm on thousands of scans from the OsteoLaus cohort and evaluated on an independent test set. Results showed a significant improvement for the measured bone mineral density (BMD), trabecular bone score (TBS) and surface compared to the machine default bone mask, and similar results as obtained from a human expert bone mask.

According to the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF), osteoporosis causes more than 8.9 million fractures globally every year, resulting in an osteoporosis fracture every three seconds. 1 in 5 men and 1 in 3 women will be affected by this disease in their lifetime. This suggests that approximately 500 million men and women worldwide may be affected by osteoporosis annually.2

"The volume of patients requiring scanning is steadily increasing in the radiology practice, therefore computerized tools such as the spine segmentation algorithm embedded into the TBS Osteo software represent a way forward to optimize the workflow while improving clinical patient management. This best-in class software has proven to be a precious aid in our clinical routine to detect more cases of osteoporosis, and to improve patients bone health prognostic reliably, said Prof. Giuseppe Guglielmi, Foggia University School of Medicine and Dimiccoli Teaching Hospital, Barletta, Italy, and former President of the European Society of Musculoskeletal Radiology (ESSR).

During the congress, Medimaps Group will also hold a series of radiologist peer-to-peer workshops to present TBS Osteo, a software product used by radiologists to monitor bone health. The software calculates TBS, an index of the bone microarchitecture and a BMD-independent bone fracture risk predictor. The use of TBS is proven to help identify approximately 30%3 more patients at risk of fracture compared to BMD alone, without additional examination time nor radiation. Entitled "Osteoporosis: augmented intelligence solutions for better patient care", theseworkshops will be co-presented by densitometry experts Prof Giuseppe Guglielmi and Prof Didier Hans. Delegates can register here to this in-person event held on Medimaps Group booth (AI 41) on March 2,3,4 at 12:00pm-12:20pm.

Medimaps Group's imaging software TBS Osteo has received regulatory approval and benefits from reimbursement in the US, and certain European countries. It is commercially available in 60 markets worldwide.

References

1. Gatineau G. et al, Evaluation of a deep learning spine segmentation (SpS) algorithm for accurate and reproducible monitoring of lumbar spine DXA scans, Poster C-24875, ECR 2023.

2. Facts Statistics: epidemiology of osteoporosis and fragility fractures, IOF, https://www.osteoporosis.foundation/facts-statistics/epidemiology-of-osteoporosis-and-fragility-fractures, last accessed, February 22, 2023

3. Hans D, Goertzen AL, Krieg MA, Leslie WD. Bone microarchitecture assessed by TBS predicts osteoporotic fractures independent of bone density: the Manitoba study. J Bone Miner Res. 2011 Nov;26(11):2762-9. doi: 10.1002/jbmr.499. PMID: 21887701.

About Medimaps Group

Medimaps Group's medical imaging software applications, based on patented multi-purpose technology with artificial intelligence capabilities, provide healthcare solutions that fit seamlessly into the workflow for the benefit of the patient. TBS iNsight (Osteo) has been used for years in clinical practice worldwide in the field of osteoporosis. It has become the new gold standard for bone texture assessment in routine clinical practice. TBS has gained international recognition with more than 900 peer-reviewed scientific publications and is included in many guidelines and used by more than 30,000 physicians worldwide including leading healthcare institutions. Learn more at https://www.medimapsgroup.com/.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230228006219/en/

Contacts:

Shelley Horn

Head of Business Development

Mob: +1 240 994 0248

shorn@medimapsgroup.com

Saoyuth Nidh

Global Corporate Communications Manager

Mob: +41 79 969 77 57

snidh@medimapsgroup.com
SHENZHEN, China, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Creality, a global pioneer in 3D printing, has been providing support to assist those impacted by the recent earthquakes in Turkey.

Together with Genix, a leading printing solutions provider and Creality's major distributor in Turkey, Creality has donated about 1500 emergency supply kits including tents and blankets to the affected regions through Ahbap Association, a non-governmental organization founded by the Turkish musician and philanthropist Haluk Levent. All the supplies were sent to Aahbap's community recovery warehouse in Osmaniye in southern Turkey by February 26, and will be distributed to the surrounding villages as requested by Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD).





"It is heartbreaking to see so many people affected by the devastating earthquakes, and our deepest condolences go to the families who have lost their loved ones," said Ao Danjun, CEO of Creality. "As a global company, we are responsible for providing timely aid to people in need. Our local colleagues and business partners are sparing no effort in allocating supplies and helping victims, and we will continue to stand with the local people during this challenging time."

Creality has been proactive in charitable contributions for years and established the Creality Charity Fund in 2020. In early 2020, Creality quickly responded to the COVID-19 outbreak and donated 300,000 RMB (43,200 USD) to Wuhan Charity Federation for epidemic prevention and control, and procured 50,000 KN95 masks worth 500,000 RMB and shipped them to the United States, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and other countries.

About Creality

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.





Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2012789/image.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1609256/Logo.jpg

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/creality-donates-emergency-supplies-to-turkish-earthquake-relief-efforts-301759218.html
1.40% Ni, 0.88% Cu, O.09 Co,2.52 g/t Palladium,0.56g/t Platinum over 10.2M Hole PN-22-012

0.99% Ni, 0.68% Cu, O.06 Co,0.99 g/t Palladium,0.52g/t Platinum over 5.2M Hole PN-22-011

Highlights

Recent assay results from the current drill program at the Nisk deposit continue to return high grade Ni-Cu-Co sulphide and PGE mineralization. Significant results from this batch of assays include:

10.25 metres of 1.4% Ni, 0.88% Cu, 0.09 Co, and 2.52 g/t Pd, 0.56 g/t Pt in PN-22-012 including

6.85 metres 1.93% Ni, 1.06% Cu, 0.12 Co, and 3.60 g/t Pd, 0.29 g/t Platinum in PN-22-012

5.2 metres 0.99% Ni, 0.68 Cu, 0.06 Co, and .99 g/t Pd, 0.52 g/t Pt in PN-22-011

3.5 metres of 1.23% Ni, 0.73% Cu, 0.07 Co and 3.17 g/t Pd, 0.36 Pt in hole PN-22-014

3.2 metres of 1.15% Ni , 0.39% Cu, 0.09 Co and .83 g/t Pd, 0.10 Pt in hole PN-22-017

Drilling is ongoing and expected to continue through to breakup in Late April/Early May



TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / March 1, 2023 / Power Nickel Inc. (the "Company" or "Power Nickel") (TSX-V:PNPN)(OTCQB:PNPNF)(Frankfurt:IVVI) continues to report new productive results from its Phase 2 drill program at its "Nisk" project near James Bay. These initial drill results confirm the presence of high-grade Ni-Cu-Co-PGE mineralization in the Nisk Main zone and extends mineralization by an additional 150 metres at depth and to the east and below to central portion

Table 1 below presents the significant results received to date from drill holes PN-22-008 through to PN-22-021.

Table 1: Significant results from the 2022 drilling program.

UTM NAD83, Zone 18N. True widths are estimated to be 60 to 70% of the Interval Length.

Fourteen (14) holes were completed in the fall of 2022 for the second phase of drilling at Nisk. An additional seven (7) holes have been completed in the winter 2023 drill program. This release comprises results covering the mineralized target for five (5) holes: PN-22-011, PN-22-012, PN-22-014, PN-22-017 and PN-22-018.

Figure 1 - Longitudinal view of the Nisk Main presenting the currently available assay results.

Significant results from PN-22-014 have confirmed the presence of nickel mineralization in the areas defined as targets. Such assay indicates that the mineralization extends to a minimum of 150 metres below the deepest know intercepts.

Figure 2 and 3 below present section views along the two of the reported drillholes.

Figure 2 - Cross section view presenting current assay results in hole PN-22-012

Figure 3 - Cross section view presenting current assay results in hole PN-22-014

"The results in Holes PN-22-011 and PN-22-012 were significant, maintaining a very high NIEQ Flow that is continuing at depth. Peripheral holes PN-22-014, and PN-22-017 showed to be just outside the river of nickel but even so had some interesting kicker zones. Adding these holes to holes 22-009 from earlier in the campaign and PN-21-003A from the first drill program and we are seeing a very robust drill response.

Since our last release, we have also hired Fleet Technologies to utilize their cutting-edge Ambient Noise Technology to help us visualize our current deposit focusing on the one (1) square Kilometre main Nisk zone. These new assays will provide further data for Fleet to potentially generate a signature for the High NIEQ Zones within this prospective area that we can then use to more effectively and in a more environmentally beneficial way identify other target zones whether associated with the current area of interest or in our forty-five (45) Square Kilometre land package.

We have now reported on ten (10) of the fourteen (14) holes drilled in the Fall 2022 Campaign and have another ten (10) holes to come with perhaps another ten (10) completed by the end of the winter 2023 program. At that time, we will have the results of our new metallurgical report and would we expect be in a position to deliver a NI 43-101 technical report by end of June or early July" commented Terry Lynch Power Nickel CEO.

The map shows the Fall and Winter drilling program with reported holes to date and the balance of the fall program.

About the Nisk Project

The Nisk Project is located in the southern portion of the Eeyo Istchee James Bay territory, Quebec, a region that is the site of a number of mining projects improving infrastructure (Figure 4).[1]

Power Nickel completed the acquisition of its option to acquire up to 80% of the Nisk Project from Critical Elements Lithium Corp. (CRE:TSXV). The Nisk Project comprises a large land position (20 kilometres of strike length) with numerous high-grade Nickel intercepts.

Figure 4 - Location of the Nisk Project with respect the current infrastructure available in the area.

QAQC and SAMPLING

GeoVector Management Inc is the Consulting Company retained to oversee the drilling program, which includes core logging and sampling of the drill core.

All samples were submitted to and analyzed at ALS Global ("ALS"), an independent commercial laboratory located in Val-d'Or, Quebec for both the sample preparation and assaying. ALS is a commercial laboratory independent of Power Nickel with no interest in the Nisk Project. ALS is an ISO 9001 and 17025 certified and accredited laboratory. Samples submitted through ALS are run through standard preparation methods and analysed using ME-ICP61a (33 element Suite; 0.4g sample; Intermediate Level Four Acid Digestion) and PGM-ICP27 (Pt, Pd, and Au; 30g fire assay and ICP-AES Finish) methods. ALS also undertake their own internal coarse and pulp duplicate analysis to ensure proper sample preparation and equipment calibration.

GeoVector's QAQC program includes regular insertion of CRM standards, duplicates, and blanks into the sample stream with a stringent review of all results.

The results presented in the current Press Release are complete. QAQC and data validation was performed on these holes and no material errors were observed.

Qualified Person

Kenneth Williamson, Geo, M.Sc. from 3DGeo Solution Inc and consultant to Power Nickel, is the independent qualified person who has reviewed and approved the technical disclosure contained in this news release.

About Power Nickel Inc.

Power Nickel is a Canadian junior exploration company focusing on high-potential copper, gold and battery metal prospects in Canada and Chile.

On February 1, 2021 Power Nickel (then called Chilean Metals) completed the acquisition of its option to acquire up to 80% of the Nisk project from Critical Elements Lithium Corp. (CRE:TSXV)

The NISK property comprises a large land position (20 kilometres of strike length) with numerous high-grade intercepts. Power Nickel is focused on expanding the historical high-grade nickel-copper PGE mineralization with a series of drill programs designed to test the initial Nisk discovery zone and to explore the land package for adjacent potential Nickel deposits.[2]

Power Nickel announced on June 8th, 2021 that an agreement has been made to complete the 100% acquisition of its Golden Ivan project in the heart of the Golden Triangle. The Golden Triangle has reported mineral resources (past production and current resources) in total of 130 million ounces of gold, 800 million ounces of silver and 40 billion pounds of copper (Resource World). This property hosts two known mineral showings (gold ore and magee), and a portion of the past-producing Silverado mine, which was reportedly exploited between 1921 and 1939. These mineral showings are described to be Polymetallic veins that contain quantities of silver, lead, zinc, plus/minus gold, and plus/minus copper.

Power Nickel is also 100-per-cent owner of five properties comprising over 50,000 acres strategically located in the prolific iron-oxide-copper-gold belt of northern Chile. It also owns a 3-per-cent NSR royalty interest on any future production from the Copaquire copper-molybdenum deposit, that was sold to a subsidiary of Teck resources Inc. Under the terms of the sale agreement, Teck has the right to acquire one-third of the 3-per-cent NSR for $3-million at any time. The Copaquire property borders Teck's producing Quebrada Blanca copper mine in Chile's first region.

For further information on Power Nickel Inc., please contact:

Mr. Terry Lynch, CEO

647-448-8044

terry@powernickel.com

For further information, readers are encouraged to contact:

Power Nickel Inc.

The Canadian Venture Building

82 Richmond St East, Suite 202

Toronto, ON

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

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 the Company 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 ability to raise sufficient capital to fund its planned activities at the NISK Property and for general working capital purposes; the timing and costs of future activities on the Company's properties; maintaining its mineral tenures and concessions in good standing; changes in economic conditions or financial markets; the inherent hazards associates with mineral exploration and mining operations; future prices of metals; changes in general economic conditions; 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.

[1] References to nearby properties is for information purposes only and there is no assurance that Power Nickel will achieve the same results as on the nearby properties.

[2] The resource estimates at Nisk are historical in nature and the Company's geology team has not completed sufficient work to confirm an NI 43-101 mineral resource. Mineral resource information is derived from the technical report titled "Resource Estimate for the NISK-1 Deposit, Lac Levac Property, Nemiscau, Quebec" dated December 2009. The key assumptions, parameters, and methods used to prepare the mineral resource estimates are set out in the technical report. This report, prepared by RSW Inc in 2009, can be found on the SEDAR website.

SOURCE: Power Nickel Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/741367/Power-Nickel-Extends-Nickel-Mineralization-In-Multiple-Holes-on-its-Fall-2022-Drill-Program


ZURICH (dpa-AFX) - Swiss Life Holding AG (SZLMY.PK, SLHN.VX), a Swiss-based life insurance provider, on Wednesday posted an increase in earnings for the year 2022, amidst a rise in fee result.



Patrick Frost, CEO of the Swiss Life Group, said: 'Swiss Life performed very well in an economically challenging year. I am particularly pleased with the growth path for the fee result and the cash remittance to the holding company, which will enable a further increase in the dividend.'



For the 12-month period, the Zurich-headquartered firm reported a profit of CHF 1.46 billion, compared with CHF 1.25 billion of 2021. Adjusted profit from operations was at CHF 2.06 billion, higher than last year's CHF 1.81 billion.



Premiums came in at CHF 19.6 billion as against last year's CHF 20.2 billion, which corresponds to an increase of 1% in local currency. Fee result improved to CHF 756 million from 668 million a year ago.



The Group said it will pay an annual dividend of CHF 30.00 per share, which is higher than last year's CHF 25.00 per share. The dividend will be paid on May 5.



In addition, the company has appointed Theo Iaponas as the new Chief Executive Officer of Swiss Life International, with effect from July 1. Iaponas has held several management positions at Swiss Life since 2009, most recently at Swiss Life International as CEO of Global Employee Benefits in Luxembourg.



Iaponas will succeed Nils Frowein, who, after 15 years at the Swiss Life Group, has decided to embark on another new chapter in his career.



Looking ahead, Swiss Life noted that the 'Swiss Life 2024' Group-wide program is very well on track and it is convinced to achieve or exceed the Group's financial targets by 2024.



Copyright(c) 2023 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
Severe wound infections increasingly prove to be a serious medical challenge. Complications particularly arise from the high number of infections caused by resistant or multi-resistant pathogens.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005069/en/

Laboratory work

"Infections with resistant bacteria remain the greatest threat to human health. Recently, the United Nations pointed out that in 2019 alone, almost five million deaths worldwide were caused by resistant pathogens", says Univ.-Prof. Dr. med. Volkhard A. J. Kempf, Director of the Institute for Medical Microbiology and Hospital Hygiene at University Hospital of Goethe University Frankfurt.

Acinetobacter baumannii is one of these pathogens. Its peculiarity: it is often observed in connection with infections in patients from war zones, recently in soldiers from the war in Ukraine. Infections with one of the continuously increasing multi-resistant A.baumannii strains can now often only be addressed with last resort antibiotics or, at worst, are untreatable.

"Severe wound infections usually have to be treated surgically in several consecutive procedures. As bacteria are also always present in neighboring and often non-removable tissue, an innovative approach of local treatment with Artilysin is a promising future strategy", explains Univ.-Prof. Dr. med. Ingo Marzi, Director of Trauma, Hand and Reconstructive Surgery Clinic at the University Hospital of Goethe University Frankfurt.

The Artilysin technology comprises antibacterial molecules specifically designed by the Lysando team from flexibly combinable modules.

Lysando is collaborating with the University Hospital Frankfurt am Main as part of the KMU-innovativ-22 funding initiative of the BMBF (Federal Ministry of Education and Research). In close cooperation with Univ.-Prof. Dr. med. Kempf and Univ.-Prof. Dr. med. Marzi, the development of Artilysin prototypes has been advanced. The specifically developed molecules exhibit strong antibacterial activity against clinical A.baumannii strains, particularly against multi-resistant and other gram-negative germs.

These results provide a promising basis for new therapeutic approaches in the fight against these problematic pathogens.

About Lysando AG

Lysando AG is the market leader for antimicrobial proteins, so-called Artilysin molecules. They can effectively eliminate problem-causing bacteria without associated high risk of resistance formation and microbial disbalances. Artilysin constitutes an innovative, proprietary and environmentally friendly technology with a wide range of applications: in human and veterinary medicine, but for example also in cosmetics.

Lysando AG's research facility is Lysando Innovations Lab GmbH located in Regensburg's BioPark.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005069/en/

Contacts:

Verena Schossmann

Tel.: +41(0)79 211 83 42

E-Mail: Verena.Schossmann@lysando.com
HELSINKI, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Inflexion is pleased to announce it has entered into an agreement to acquire a majority stake in Nomentia, a leading European treasury and cash management software provider, from current investors PSG Equity ("PSG"), a leading growth equity firm partnering with software and technology-enabled services companies, and Verdane, a European specialist growth investor named one of the region's most active software investors. The investment is being made by Inflexion Buyout Fund VI.

Helsinki-headquartered Nomentia is a modular, cloud first software provider delivering a comprehensive portfolio of solutions to the cash & treasury management segment around bank connectivity, payments, cash visibility and forecasting, trade finance, and risk & reporting.

Nomentia's loyal base of 1,400+ blue chip customers spans across a wide range of industries and geographies across Europe. The solutions are used in over 80 countries and the company currently processes more than 1.2 trillion of payments through its bank connections annually.

The company aims to continue its growth across Europe both organically and through further acquisitions. "Nomentia has gone through an incredible journey under PSG and Verdane's ownership. We've established Nomentia as one of the leading players in the European treasury and cash Management space. Going forward, Nomentia plans to be even better at serving customers in its current markets and new ones by bringing new and innovative features to a growing client base. Management is very excited to partner with Inflexion to accelerate the company's growth further," commented Jukka Sallinen, CEO of Nomentia.

The investment is the fourth for Inflexion in the Nordics following its investment into EcoOnline earlier this year, the take-private of Infront in 2021, and the acquisition of Nordic Trustee by Inflexion portfolio company Ocorian that same year.

Flor Kassai, Partner at Inflexion and Head of Buyout Fund said, "Nomentia is a market leading SaaS business benefitting from a best-in-class offering for its clients. Now is the right time for the business to accelerate its growth across Europe whilst continuing to maintain its high level of customer service. We look forward to supporting Jukka and the team as Nomentia further penetrates the European market both organically and through acquisitions."

Romain Railhac, Managing Director at PSG said, "Nomentia's immense success means the business is now ready to enter its next phase of growth, and we are confident Inflexion brings the right resources and expertise to drive further success. We have been delighted to actively support the entire Nomentia team in scaling the business, both organically and via M&A, into a comprehensive and genuinely pan-European provider of cash and treasury management software solutions."

Iikka Moilanen, Principal at Verdane, said, "Working with Nomentia's top quality management team has for me been one of the greatest learning opportunities of my career. Given the team's passion and talent, and Nomentia's market-leading product offering, it's no wonder that Nomentia is well-loved and trusted by the market, and has been recognised by an investor with a track record and reputation as strong as Inflexion."

The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals.

For further information, please contact:

Inflexion

Sarah Gestetner

+44020 7487 9820

sarah.gestetner@inflexion.com

PSG Equity

Prosek Partners

Ryan Smith

07854750943

pro-psg@prosek.com

Verdane

Sasha Olshanetsky

+44 (0)20 3960 5320

sasha.olshanestky@verdane.com

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/inflexion-announces-acquisition-of-nomentia-301759250.html
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Holborn Assets, the multi award winning financial services group adds the DIFC licence to its extensive license roster, complementing its existing IA license in the UAE. The Dubai headquarted firm will look to utilise the DIFC license to expand its HNW offering in the market place, and build stronger ties with firms operating under the DIFC license.





Robert Parker CEO notes, the acquisition of a DIFC license will allow Holborn to offer a broader and improved range of services to our HNW clients, including structured finance solutions, premium asset and investment managers, and opens the door to a suite of Investment Banks and HNW insurers.

Following a reorganisation of the regulatory bodies in the UAE in 2020 the DIFC is becoming the license of choice for most Independent Financial Advisers and Wealth managers.

Simon Parker comments. We have grown exponentially over the last five years opening 22 offices in 17 countries, but the obtaining of the DIFC license was a priority of the board and will serve as the platform for our next phase of growth.

Amongst others, Holborn hold licenses in the UK, US, South Africa, HK and Europe and is looking to expand its headcount by 20% in 2023.

About Holborn Assets

Established in 1999, Holborn is a multi-award-winning, international financial services group, specialising in independent financial advice to the expatriate market. A British family-owned and operated business, the firm has over 550 employees, including 250 financial advisers, and 23 offices around the world.

Holborn Assets' experienced team of professional fully qualified advisers specialise in delivering clients quality, independent financial advice and services. Core areas of operation include: Financial Planning, Wealth Management, Insurance, Investments, Mortgages, Tax Planning, Will Writing, Pension Transfers.

Contact: Alex Greenwood, Alex.Greenwood@holbornassets.com

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2013015/Robert_Parker.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/719435/Holborn_Assets_Logo.jpg





View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/holborn-adds-difc-licence-to-its-collection-301759270.html


LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Ricardo Plc (RCDO.L), an engineering and environmental consultancy, on Wednesday recorded a loss for the first-half of 2022, compared with a profit last year, amidst higher costs and expenses. However, the company registered a rise in revenue.



For the six-month period to December 31, 2022, the firm recorded a pre-tax loss of 12.5 million pounds, compared with a profit of 4.6 million pounds a year ago. Underlying pre-tax income rose to 9.9 million pounds from 8 million pounds of 2021 period.



Post-tax loss was at 8.1 million pounds or 13.2 pence per share, compared with a profit of 3.5 million pounds or 5.6 pence per share of previous year period. Underlying post-tax income moved up to 7.7 million pounds or 12.2 pence per share from 6.6 million pounds or 10.6 pence of 2021.



Operating loss stood at 9.9 million pounds as against a profit of 6.4 million pounds of previous year.



Underlying operating earnings were at 12.5 million pounds, higher than last year's 9.8 million pounds.



Cost of sales increased to 152.6 million pounds from 128.5 million pounds of 2021.



Administrative expenses were at 70.3 million pounds, versus 47.4 million pounds a year ago.



Revenue was at 212.7 million pounds, higher than 182 million pounds of previous year first-half.



The Board has declared an interim dividend of 3.35 pence per share, higher than last year's interim dividend of 2.91 pence per share. The dividend will be paid on April 11, to holders of record on March 10.



Looking ahead, the company said: 'The remainder of the year looks positive with a record high order book. Macro-economic uncertainties remain and we continue to navigate our supply chain in order to ensure that we are able to meet demand. Nevertheless, we are confident in the delivery of our full year expectations.'



Copyright(c) 2023 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
EQS-News: MC Services AG / Key word(s): Conference/Merger

MC Services to support BIO-Europe Spring 2023 in Basel as media partner



01.03.2023 / 10:00 CET/CEST

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.





Press Release

MC Services to support BIO-Europe Spring 2023 in Basel as media partner

Munich/Dusseldorf, Germany, March 01, 2023. MC Services AG, a leading international public and investor relations firm specializing in communications for the life science and healthcare sectors, will continue its support for BIO-Europe Spring, Europe's largest springtime life sciences networking conference, as a media partner. The event, organized by EBD Group, will take place March 20-22, 2023 in Basel, Switzerland, and be followed by a virtual partnering edition March 28-30, 2023. As a media partner, MC Services invites local and international journalists to attend the event and provides them with early information on attendees, presenting companies, as well as interview opportunities with senior executives and investors.

"By hosting this year's BIO-Europe Spring in Basel, EBD Group has chosen one of the most productive life science hubs in Europe. As an important therapeutic and technological development location for both big pharma and biotech companies, it is ideal for connecting people in the international biopharma sector," said Anne Hennecke, Managing Partner of MC Services AG. "MC Services is excited to support this important partnering event again by promoting international awareness and fostering media relations."

BIO-Europe Spring is expected to bring together more than 2,800 executives from biotech and pharma companies as well as stakeholders in the financial community from 60+ countries. Highlights from this year's program include a keynote speech on the "The Business of Biotech", exploring the latest developments and challenges in capital formation and deal-making plus panel sessions on the topic of "therapeutic insight", presenting the latest innovations and global trends in oncology and neurology. For more detailed information regarding the program, timing and additional activities, please visit the event's website.

About MC Services AG

MC Services AG is an international public relations and investor relations firm specializing in communications for the life science and healthcare sectors. With a strong team of advisors in science, finance, media communications and extensive industry experience, MC Services is a leading life sciences agency in Europe. MC Services' long-standing clients include international public and private companies, as well as venture capital and investment firms. Established for many years as a link between the healthcare industry and the financial markets, MC Services provides comprehensive services in investor relations, public relations and financial transactions. MC Services has offices in Munich, Dusseldorf, Berlin, London and Boston.

www.mc-services.eu

About EBD Group

EBD Group's overriding mission is to help collaborations get started across the life science value chain. Our range of partnering conferences has grown to become the largest and most productive conference platform in the industry. Each one of our landmark events held in key life science markets around the world is powered by our state-of-the-art partnering software, partneringONE , that enables delegates to efficiently identify and engage with new opportunities via one-to-one meetings. Today our events (BIO-Europe, BIO-Europe Spring, BioPharm America, Biotech Showcase, ChinaBio Partnering Forum, Asia Bio Partnering Forum and BioEquity Europe) annually attract more than 15,000 senior life science executives who engage in over 50,000 one-to-one partnering meetings. These vital one-to-one engagements are the wellspring of deals that drive innovation in our industry. EBD Group is an Informa company. For more information, please visit www.ebdgroup.com.

Contact

Anne Hennecke

MC Services AG

Phone: +49 211 529252 22

Email: contact@mc-services.eu

01.03.2023 CET/CEST Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by EQS News - a service of EQS Group AG.

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.



The EQS Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases.

Archive at www.eqs-news.com


March 1, 2023

Fully interoperable smart imaging systems and informatics solutions connect teams in radiology, oncology, cardiology and pathology to enhance clinical confidence and advance precision in diagnosis and treatment

Vienna, Austria and Amsterdam, the Netherlands - Royal Philips (ECR) international meeting (March 1-5, Vienna, Austria). Visitors to Philips @The Blue Level at ECR, the largest exposition space at the Congress, will experience how Philips' AI-powered technology turns data into actionable insights to increase diagnostic confidence and improve clinical outcomes, enhancing patient and staff experience, driving operational efficiency, and helping lower the cost of care.

"At this year's ECR, together with our customer partners, Philips will demonstrate how our latest AI-powered integrated smart diagnostic systems and informatics solutions can help reduce clinical complexity and drive operational efficiency to address workforce shortages and staff burnout, all while optimizing the right care pathway for patients," said Bert van Meurs , Chief Business Leader of Image Guided Therapy and Precision Diagnosis at Philips. "With our AI-enabled technology, we can automate and accelerate routine tasks to generate patient-centric insights from large volumes of data to help improve productivity and enhance patient outcomes. Underpinning each of our innovations at ECR is Philips' commitment to delivering sustainable, resilient diagnostic solutions that help hospitals receive ongoing value from their investments."

Smart connected imaging systems powered by leading clinical and AI technology

Philips will showcase its latest innovations connecting radiology, cardiology, pathology and oncology across MR, CT, diagnostic X-ray and ultrasound, including MR SmartSpeed , the next-generation imaging technology that leverages Philips' state-of-the-art speed engine and an award-winning Artificial Intelligence(Leiden, The Netherlands) Philips is innovating with AI to further speed up and improve MR examinations, with the aim to reduce scan times to less than five minutes and to reconstruct detailed MR images despite patient or internal organ movement. The approach is already showing promising results in leading hospitals worldwide.

"In systematic research studies, we have seen strong evidence of the ability of SmartSpeed to significantly accelerate acquisition times for knee and spine examinations without compromising image quality, with scan times that can be reduced up to 64% for certain sequences," said Dr. Andra-Iza Iuga, Department of Radiology at the University Hospital of Cologne, Germany. "Since musculoskeletal (MSK) exams make up a large part of all MR procedures, these acceleration benefits have the potential to result in significant operational cost reductions and we are currently successfully implementing the results of our research studies into our clinical routine."

Integrated radiology workflow solutions driving operational efficiency

Optimizing clinical workflows can help eliminate waste and allow hospitals to use their resources more efficiently, which translates into improved patient flow and delivery of higher quality care to patients. At ECR, Philips will spotlight its advanced technology to simplify and connect workflows to help reduce variability and staff workload, drive operational efficiency, and enhance the patient experience.

For more information on Philips' fully integrated radiology portfolio of imaging and informatics solutions being featured at ECR, visit the Philips ECR Press Backgrounder. Read more about Philips' partnerships with public and private customers, peers, and industry-leading global organizations to help reduce the environmental impact of radiology .

Join Philips in person at the Blue Level at ECR, or virtually via the Philips interactive online radiology experience and follow @PhilipsLiveFrom for ECR2023 updates throughout the event.

[1] According to the definition of AI from the EU High-Level Expert Group.

For further information, please contact:

Kathy O'Reilly

Philips Global Press Office

Tel.:+1 978 221 8919

E-Mail: kathy.oreilly@philips.com

Twitter: @kathyoreilly

About Royal Philips

Royal Philips.

Attachments
The arbitration experts at Soreide Law Group (1-888-760-6552) have announced updates to their all-costs-advanced representation service in response to new industry data, with a special focus on the FINRA arbitration process.

Pompano Beach, Florida--(Newsfile Corp. - March 1, 2023) - Soreide Law Group is expanding its legal representation to those impacted by broker fraud or a selection of other financial crimes in response to a recent increase in fraud among Florida brokers. They are now serving new areas including Miami, which is ranked #1 in the state in terms of fraud reported.

To find out more, visit https://www.securitieslawyer.com.



Soreide Law Group Announces Q1 2023 FINRA Arbitration Service Update For Miami

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8814/156492_641639a1e434f9a4_001full.jpg

The firm has announced Floridians can use their services to take advantage of the Florida Investor Protection Act, which may entitle victims of financial fraud to significant compensation.

This announcement is intended to allow Floridians to more easily hold the financial professionals with whom they entrust their securities portfolios or retirement funds accountable for their actions. Through the process of FINRA arbitration, plaintiffs may be able to leverage certain state and local statutes to settle cases involving securities fraud out of court.

The firm employs many of the leading experts in FINRA arbitration, which is a fitting litigation method in these cases.

Many of the cases recently litigated by Soreide have involved crimes such as embezzlement, improper or unauthorized trading, overly risky market behavior, or the sale of over-leveraged assets.

Soreide works closely with FINRA, or the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, to stay up to date on the most effective practices and methods at play in the finance law community.

Those who are interested in securing representation in relation to a financial fraud case may call 1-888-760-6552 for a consultation. Soreide Law Group advances all costs until victory is secured, and is primarily interested in cases that can be settled out of court through the FINRA arbitration process.

Interested parties can find more information at https://www.securitieslawyer.com.

Contact Info:

Name: Lars Soreide

Email: info@securitieslawyer.com

Organization: Soreide Law Group

Address: 2401 East Atlantic Boulevard Suite 305, Pompano Beach, Florida 33062, United States

Website: https://www.securitieslawyer.com/

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/156492
Vantage is recognised as the Best CFD Broker in Australia by Business Tabloid.

LONDON, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Multi-asset broker Vantage (or "Vantage Markets") clinched a total of 11 new awards in 2023, marking a positive start to the year. These awards are testament to Vantage's efforts in strengthening its platform and enhancing its client offerings over the past year.





On a global level, Vantage received the Best-in-Class award for the Metatrader and Social Copy Trading categories, awarded by renowned review platform ForexBrokers.com. This comes on the back of the introduction of social trading to Vantage's proprietary app in 2022.

The multi-asset broker also received 6 awards from EMG - Global 100, including the "Best FOREX Broker of the Year - Global", "Excellence in Customer Service - Global", "Best Leading Regulated Forex Broker of the Year - Global", and "Best Web Based Trading Platform and Mobile App - 2023".

In Australia, where Vantage has operated since 2009, the broker was recognised as the "Best CFD Broker - Australia 2022" at the Business Tabloid awards. In recent years, the group has expanded its client support team in Australia to provide a better service to its clients.

Further in the Middle East and Africa region, where Vantage has sponsored major exhibitions like iFX Dubai and AW Dubai, it has received the "Best Trading Experience - MEA" and the "Most Transparent Broker - MEA" awards, issued by Ultimate Fintech MEA.

Marc Despallieres, Chief Strategy & Trading Officer at Vantage, says "We are honoured to be recognised at these performance-based awards. Our team has worked hard to bring our business from strength to strength, which culminated in our crossing the 1 million active users milestone in 2022. These awards are dedicated to them."

"We also want to thank our clients for their continued support and encouragement, and for being our biggest motivation to keep improving."

About Vantage

Vantage is a multi-asset broker offering clients access to a nimble and powerful service for trading CFD on Forex, Commodities, Indices, Shares, ETFs, and Bonds.

With more than 13 years of market experience, Vantage entities now have over 1,000 employees across more than 30 global offices.

Vantage is more than a broker. It provides a trusted trading ecosystem, an award-winning mobile trading app, and a user- friendly trading platform that enables clients to take advantage of trading opportunities.



trade smarter @vantage.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1745281/Vantage_Logo.jpg

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/vantage-receives-11-new-awards-including-best-forex-broker-of-the-year-301759304.html
TOKYO, Mar 1, 2023 - (JCN Newswire) - Fujitsu Limited ("Fujitsu") today announces the signing of a Business Combination Agreement with GK Software SE ("GK"), a leading global provider of cloud services for the international retail industry, headquartered in Schoeneck, Germany. In conjunction, Fujitsu ND Solutions AG ("ND Solutions"), a direct wholly-owned subsidiary of Fujitsu, announced its decision to launch a voluntary public takeover offer for the acquisition of all outstanding shares of GK.GK shareholders will be offered a cash consideration of EUR 190.00 per share. The offer price represents a premium of 34.7% to the XETRA volume-weighted average share price of GK in the last three months prior to (and including) 28 February 2023, a premium of 31.0% to the XETRA closing price of 28 February 2023, and a premium of 10.5% to GK's all-time high price so far of EUR 172.00.GK's founders and major shareholders, Rainer Gla (also CEO) and Stephan Kronm u ller, support the transaction and have entered into irrevocable undertakings with ND Solutions regarding their GK shares. Consequently, Fujitsu has already secured 40.65% of the total share capital of GK.Fujitsu Executive Board and Supervisory Board of GK welcome and support the takeover offerThe Executive Board and the Supervisory Board of GK welcome and support the takeover offer. The proposed transaction provides an attractive price for GK shareholders. In addition, it will allow GK to continue to thrive in the cloud services for retail space and to better serve its customers. Subject to the review of the offer document and the fulfilment of their legal obligations, the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board of GK intend to recommend GK shareholders to accept the takeover offer.Yoshinami Takahashi, EVP and vice head of Global Solution Business Group comments: "This proposed acquisition is an important step in accelerating Uvance, a pillar of Fujitsu's growth strategy, which will revitalize and transform Fujitsu's business portfolio to make it more competitive. Fujitsu Uvance builds on our core strengths as a DX company and, through our solutions and services, provides value to customers while making a positive contribution towards solving crucial societal issues. Fujitsu's strong development and delivery capabilities paired with GK dedication to innovation will enable both companies to serve their international customer base more holistically and bring new offerings to customers, both in Japan and across our international regions."Rainer Gla, CEO of GK comments: "I welcome Fujitsu's offer and am pleased that GK's growth story will continue within the framework of one of the largest IT companies worldwide. Stephan Kronm u ller and I founded the company and now, after more than 30 successful years, it was very important to us, to find a strategic partner that would further develop GK. With Fujitsu we have found a partner whose strategy and company culture fits very well with GK and its employees. I am therefore convinced that this is the right step for the continuation and growth of the company and, just as Stephan Kronm uller, I am contributing my shares completely to the offer. In doing so, I would also like to send a signal of confidence to all GK shareholders in Fujitsu's offer. I am very much looking forward to this new chapter in the history of the company that the two of us founded in 1990 and accompanying GK on an advisory basis, in case of a successful takeover, in a new role as Honorary Chairman of the Supervisory Board."The proposed transaction will accelerate Fujitsu's shift towards Cloud / Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and expand its global reach with new Digital Transformation offeringsThis proposed transaction is part of a global strategy to accelerate Fujitsu's standing as a digital transformation enterprise, strengthen its services, and help to grow and realize its purpose. It also provides the basis for a business partnership with GK, known for their ability to deliver highly flexible SaaS and cloud-based DX solutions to customers. Fujitsu intends to support GK to accelerate its international expansion in Japan, Asia, the Americas, and Europe. Fujitsu also intends to offer GK access to its enhanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and High-Performance Computing (HPC).Details of the takeover offerThe completion of the takeover offer will be subject to a minimum acceptance threshold of 55% of GK's share capital (including shares already secured under irrevocable undertakings) and certain customary conditions, including clearances under merger control as well as foreign investment control proceedings in Germany. Closing of the takeover offer is currently expected to occur by July 2023.Following the completion of the takeover offer, ND Solutions intends to examine whether to initiate a delisting of GK. In case of a corresponding request, the executive board of GK has agreed to support this process.Fujitsu has committed in the Business Combination Agreement in a legally binding manner not to enter into adomination and/or profit and loss transfer agreement with GK for at least two years upon closing of the takeover offer. In doing so, Fujitsu has also committed not to cause GK to relocate the registered office or headquarters of the Schoeneck, Germany, location.Fujitsu intends funding the takeover offer with existing cash.The takeover offer will be made pursuant to the terms and conditions set out in the offer document to be approved by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin). This offer document will be published following clearance by BaFin, at which point the acceptance period for the takeover offer will commence. The offer document and other information pertaining to the offer will be made available in accordance with the German Securities Acquisition and Takeover Act (Wertpapiererwerbs- und Ubernahmegesetz - WpUG) on the following website: www.nd-offer.de.BofA Securities is acting as the exclusive financial advisor, and Morrison & Foerster as legal advisor to Fujitsu.About FujitsuFujitsu's purpose is to make the world more sustainable by building trust in society through innovation. As the digital transformation partner of choice for customers in over 100 countries, our 124,000 employees work to resolve some of the greatest challenges facing humanity. Our range of services and solutions draw on five key technologies: Computing, Networks, AI, Data & Security, and Converging Technologies, which we bring together to deliver sustainability transformation. Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702) reported consolidated revenues of 3.6 trillion yen (US$32 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2022 and remains the top digital services company in Japan by market share.Find out more: www.fujitsu.com/Fujitsu's Commitment to the Sustainable Development GoalsThe Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2015 represent a set of common goals to be achieved worldwide by 2030. Fujitsu's purpose - "to make the world more sustainable by building trust in society through innovation" - is a promise to contribute to the vision of a better future empowered by the SDGs.About GK Software SEGK Software SE is a leading global provider of cloud solutions for the international retail industry and one of the fastest growing companies in its field. The cornerstones of the company are self-developed, open and platform- independent solutions. Thanks to its comprehensive product portfolio, 22 percent of the world's 50 largest retailers currently rely on solutions from GK. The company's customers include Adidas, Aldi, Coop (Switzerland), Edeka, Grupo Kuo, Hornbach, HyVee, Lidl, Migros, Netto Marken-Discount and Walmart International. GK has subsidiaries in the U.S., France, Czech Republic, Switzerland, South Africa, Singapore, Australia and holds ownership or majority stakes in DF Deutsche Fiskal GmbH, Artificial Intelligence for Retail AG and retail7. Since its IPO in 2008, the company has grown more than sevenfold and generated revenues of EUR 130.8 million in 2021. GK was founded in 1990 by CEO Rainer Gla and Stephan Kronmuller and is still founder-managed today. In addition to its headquarters in Schoeneck, the group now operates 16 sites worldwide. GK's goal is to become the leading cloud solutions company in the retail industry worldwide, enabling consumers on all continents to enjoy the best possible shopping experiences.Further information about the company: www.gk-software.com/Important noticeThis announcement is for information purposes only and does not constitute an invitation to make an offer to sell GK securities. This announcement does not constitute an offer to purchase GK securities and is not for the purposes of Fujitsu making any representations or entering into any other binding legal commitments. Investors and holders of GK securities are strongly advised to read the relevant documents regarding the takeover offer, when available, because they contain important information. In addition, holders of GK securities subject to the takeover offer are strongly recommended to seek independent advice in order to reach an informed decision in respect of the content of such documents and with regard to the takeover offer.The publication, sending, distribution or dissemination of this announcement in certain jurisdictions other than Germany and the United States may be governed by laws of jurisdictions other than Germany and the United States in which the publication, sending, distribution or dissemination are subject to legal restrictions. Persons who are not resident in Germany or the United States or who are for other reasons subject to the laws of other jurisdictions should inform themselves of, and observe, the laws of such other jurisdictions.This announcement is not for release, publication or distribution, in whole or in part, in, into or from any jurisdiction where to do so would constitute a violation of the relevant laws of such jurisdiction.If you are a resident of the United States, please read the following:The intended takeover offer is being made for the securities of a German company and is subject to German disclosure requirements, which are different from those of the United States. The financial information included in this announcement has been largely prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards and thus may not be comparable to financial information of US companies or companies whose financial statements are prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States. The intended takeover offer will be made in the United States pursuant to the applicable US tender offer rules, including Regulation 14E and relevant provisions on exemptions from the prohibition on purchases outside the intended takeover offer and otherwise in accordance with the requirements of the German Securities Acquisition and Takeover Act (Wertpapiererwerbs- und -bernahmegesetz - WpUG). Accordingly, the intended takeover offer will be subject to disclosure and other procedural requirements, including with respect to withdrawal rights, offer timetable, settlement procedures and timing of payments that are different from those applicable under US domestic tender offer procedures and law.To the extent permissible under applicable law or regulation, ND Solutions and its affiliates or brokers (acting as agents for ND Solutions or its affiliates, as applicable) may from time to time before, during or after the period in which the takeover offer remains open for acceptance, and other than pursuant to the intended takeover offer, directly or indirectly purchase, or arrange to purchase, shares of GK, that may be the subject of the takeover offer, or any securities that are convertible into, exchangeable for or exercisable for shares of GK. Any such purchases, or arrangements to purchase, will comply with all applicable German rules and regulations and Rule 14e-5 under the U.S. Securities Exchange Act to the extent applicable. Information about such purchases will be disclosed in Germany to the extent required by applicable law. To the extent information about such purchases or arrangements to purchase is made public in Germany, such information also will be deemed to be publicly disclosed in the United States. In addition, the financial advisors to ND Solutions may also engage in ordinary course trading activities in securities of GK, which may include purchases or arrangements to purchase such securities. In some jurisdictions, publication or distribution of this announcement may be illegal or permitted only to certain persons.Forward-looking statementsThis announcement contains forward-looking statements or statements that may be deemed to be forward-looking statements with respect to Fujitsu, ND Solutions and GK. Statements other than historical facts contained in this announcement may constitute forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include "targets," "plans," "believes," "expects," "aims," "intends," "will," "may", "anticipates", "estimates", "projects" and similar words and phrases, or the negative forms thereof. Forward-looking statements include (i) future capital expenditures, expenses, revenues, earnings, synergies, economic trends, indebtedness, financial condition, dividend policy, losses and projections; (ii) business and management strategies and the potential synergies and business expansion and growth that the takeover offer may bring to Fujitsu, ND Solutions, or GK; and (iii) the impact of any governmental regulation on the business of Fujitsu or GK, including statements regarding the impact of such regulation on the business of Fujitsu or GK.Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may materially affect expected results and are based on certain important assumptions. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those assumed or implied in the forward-looking statements. In light of such uncertainties and risks, you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which are relevant only as of the date they are made. Neither Fujitsu, ND Solutions nor GK undertakes any obligation to update any forward-looking statements or other statements contained in this announcement, except as required by applicable law.None of the statements contained or referred to in this announcement are made as a profit forecast.Source: Fujitsu LtdCopyright 2023 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved.
Solynta and PepsiCo's Ethiopia-based Foods Unit, Senselet Food Processing PLC (Senselet), have launched a project to introduce hybrid true potato seeds (HTPS) to Ethiopia. Hybrid breeding is the focused breeding of desirable traits like pest resistance and hardiness improving food security and ensuring more sustainable income for farmers.

Ethiopian researchers and farmers will test the seeds, and Solynta/PepsiCo will work closely with Ethiopian authorities to establish legal frameworks for seed import, seed variety registration, and certification of hybrid seed tubers.

"Our teams will develop with farmers the best practices for Ethiopian conditions," said Charles Miller, Solynta's Director of Business Development. "Hybrid breeding will significantly affect crop practices, productivity, and reliance on pesticides."

The partnership aligns with the Ethiopia-Netherlands Seed Partnership (ENSP), whose mission is to "enable the private sector in Ethiopia to deliver farming men and women high-quality seed of improved varieties much needed for food security, nutrition, and climate resilience."

PepsiCo is the leading Ethiopian potato processing company. The announcement of its cooperation with Solynta closely follows PepsiCo's $40 million cash injection to expand in Ethiopia. "This investment will allow us to leverage PepsiCo's global expertise to boost the business' potato sourcing programs, as well as its manufacturing and go-to-market capabilities," said Chris Wijnterp, Senselet's GM at the time of the investment announcement. "We want to help build a more sustainable food system in Ethiopia by meeting human needs while bolstering global economic and social development."

About PepsiCo

PepsiCo products are enjoyed by consumers more than one billion times a day in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. PepsiCo Positive is our strategic end-to-end transformation that puts sustainability and human capital at the centre of how we will create value and growth by operating within planetary boundaries and inspiring positive change for planet and people. For more information, visit www.ssa.pepsico.africa.

About Solynta

Solynta is a Dutch hybrid potato innovator whose mission is to help create global solutions for food and nutritional insecurity by giving farmers better, stronger and more cost-efficient ways to grow crops. Solynta's technology will provide resistance to disease and pests, provide ease of use, and facilitate production speed and scalability. To learn more, visit www.solynta.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230224005264/en/

Contacts:

Press Contact

Hannah Foster

(Maneuvre, on behalf of Solynta)

press@solynta.com

Gugu Gowera

(FleishmanHillard, on behalf of PepsiCo)

gugu.gowera@fleishman.co.za
New partnership will provide complete visibility into the complex journeys of Air Europa's global customer base.

COLORADO SPRING, Colo., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Quantum Metric , the Continuous Product Design platform for customer-driven digital experiences, today shares that Air Europa has chosen to partner with the company to further its mission of providing the best digital experience across every customer touchpoint.





As an international airline flying to over 55 destinations around the world, Air Europa will work with Quantum Metric to easily visualize every multi-channel, multi-step booking experience, and prioritize digital needs based on its impact to the business and the customer.

"From the first time they visit our site, customers need to feel that the booking experience is seamless and in tune with their needs, said Oscar Riolobos, Web Director at Air Europa. "Quantum Metric provides an enterprise-grade infrastructure for analyzing our customer experience, enabling a clear and direct understanding of even the most complex parts of our digital experience today. This empowers my team to be customer-first, prioritizing what to act on next based on its impact across our global customer base."

Data from Quantum Metric's most recent Travel Benchmarks Report shows that at least 51% of consumers use multiple channels throughout their booking experience from initial travel research, to the check-in and flight experience. Working with Quantum Metric, Air Europa now has complete visibility into the omnichannel customer experience and context into the why behind customer behavior. With the ability to quantify every challenge or opportunity, in real-time, Air Europa is equipped to exceed customer expectations at every touchpoint and easily scale its experiences as travelers' needs shift or evolve.

"Digital has dramatically evolved how we travel today. What was once transactional has become a complex experience that lasts long after the flight is booked," said Mario Ciabarra, CEO and Founder of Quantum Metric. "Travel brands like Air Europa are setting the bar for how to build customer-led relationships that convert consumers into customers for life. Our partnership with Air Europa will help to provide structured guidance and enable teams to feel confident in knowing that the digital priorities they are focused on today will not only move the business forward, but positively impact how people are able to travel in the coming months and years."

Air Europa joins the larger community of global travel brands that work with Quantum Metric today. With an enhanced understanding of the digital customer journey, Air Europa will continue to lean into its technology advantage and deliver technologically bold digital products across web, mobile and other digital channels.

For more information on Quantum Metric and its work within the travel industry visit: quantummetric.com

About Air Europa

Founded in 1986, Air Europa is a Spanish airline member of the SkyTeam alliance that aims to bring people together by offering them the freedom to create their best travel experience. The company's fleet is one of the most modern and sustainable in the industry, with Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Boeing 737 models that guarantee maximum efficiency and comfort for its passengers. Air Europa flies to more than 55 destinations around the world and has a strategic position in the Adolfo Suarez Madrid-Barajas airport hub, connecting Europe and America. The company stands out for its firm commitment to sustainability and decarbonisation, as well as for its commitment to innovation through the incorporation of the most advanced technologies for the digitalisation and optimization of its processes. In addition, Air Europa offers a high level of excellence to its passengers and is regularly ranked among the most punctual airlines in Europe.

About Quantum Metric

As the pioneer in Continuous Product Design, Quantum Metric helps organizations put customers at the heart of everything they do. The Quantum Metric platform provides a structured approach to understanding the digital customer journey, enabling organizations to recognize customer needs, quantify the financial impact and prioritize based on the impact to the customer and business' bottom line. Today, Quantum Metric captures insights from 30% of the world's internet users, supporting globally recognized brands across industries including retail, travel, financial services and telecommunications. For more information about Quantum Metric, visit www.quantummetric.com .

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1559642/Quantum_Metric_Logo.jpg

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/air-europa-selects-quantum-metric-to-achieve-digital-excellence-at-scale-301758865.html
QATAR, UAE, Mar 1, 2023 - (ACN Newswire) - Exito Media Concepts is organizing a tech summit which is aligned with the Qatar's National Vision 2030 that is driving significant advancements in the country.The 17th Edition of Digital Transformation Summit Qatar is taking place on 16th of March 2023 at The Westin Doha Hotel & Spa. The summit will bring together senior government representatives, thought leaders, and leading industry experts to share their knowledge and experience on the latest technologies and trends shaping industries in the region.At the summit, you will hear from top IT experts on emerging technologies, strategies, action plans and best practices towards building an agile digital organization. We will have panel discussions, industry keynotes and solution showcases that will enable IT leaders to chart out the optimal strategic path. The Summit is taking place with the support of The London Institute of Banking & Finance (LIBF).The event will focus on topics like 5G, Cloud Technology, IoT, Cyber Security, Smart Cities, Intelligent Automation and others helping in transforming organizations into digital businesses.Experts joining the conference are:- Kareem Refaay, Managing Director, The London Institute Of Banking & Finance MENA- John Mankarios, Vice President - IT, QInvest LLC- Dr Mohamed Elhindi, CIO, Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU)- Amr Metwally, Assistant Executive Director, ITQAN, Clinical Simulation And Innovation Centre, Hamad Medical Corporation- Alexey Sidorov, Data Management Director & Chief, Evangelist Middle East'S, Denodo- Santiago Banales, Managing Director - Iberdrola Innovation Middle East- Imran Chowdhury, Global Head Of Data Protection & Governance, Al Jazeera Media Network- Hamid Menouar,Senior R&D Expect And Product Manager, Qatar Mobility Innovations Center (QMIC)- Najmul Haque, Head of PMO, Public Works Authority 'Ashghal'- Hamdan Merchant, Sr Director Innovation, IT & Operational Excellence, GWC- Faizal Babu Kavungal, Head Of Enterprise Risk Management & Governance, Gulf Drilling International Ltd (Q.S.C.)"Organizational digital transformation is a key driver of economic growth and diversification that is in line with Qatar's 2030 National Vision. Now in its 17th Edition, the Digital Transformation Series is coming to Qatar and is the ideal summit that will enable the public and private sectors to embrace technologies that will foster change and unlock operational efficiencies," said Rishikesh Shetty, CEO, of Exito Media Concepts, the organizer of the event.The summit is expected to attract 150+ attendees from across the region, making it a must-attend event for everyone in the industry.For more information and to register for the event, Visit: www.digitaltransformationsummit/qatarAbout ExitoWe are a global B2B business events company focused on crafting bespoke solutions and contexts by designing platforms that create new business opportunities for our clients across concepts and industries. We cherish the trust over the last 12 years garnered from our partnering organizations globally, and with a growing team of young, vibrant, and creative individuals, Exito aims at success and perfection!Source: ExitoCopyright 2023 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved.
The partnership will deliver new investments to Web3.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates--(Newsfile Corp. - March 1, 2023) - VC firms Cryptomeria Capital and Axon Partners Group, operating in the Web3 and Web2 spaces respectively, announce a new corporate partnership.

With net assets totaling well over 500 million and an IPO on the Spanish stock exchange BME, Axon is one of the largest European VC fund managers. Through this initiative, Cryptomeria Capital seeks to attract new institutional investors to the burgeoning blockchain market.

Cryptomeria Capital

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8637/154176_c4150578d44eb85b_001full.jpg

"Axon is a reliable and stable partner with a solid background in traditional investing and an impressive Web2 portfolio. We're excited about this new chapter for Cryptomeria Capital and confident that the mutually beneficial collaboration will come with excellent scaling opportunities," says Vadim Krekotin, Cryptomeria Capital's founding partner.

"Our partnership with Cryptomeria Capital represents our continuous commitment to technology and venture capital investing. Having been focused on investing in technology for over 16 years, we have seen many waves of innovation, and Web3 is an exciting and highly complex one. Cryptomeria expertise in the space and our established institutional approach blend extremely well to enable web3 VC as an asset class to institutional grade investors," says Francisco Velazquez, Chairman and Managing Partner of Axon Partners Group.

Cryptomeria will focus on investing in emerging Web3 businesses, such as metaverse-related projects, NFT gaming, SocialFi, and TradeFi, among others, with the intention of attracting new users. For Axon, the cooperation offers exposure to new opportunities in a fast-growing and promising industry. Cryptomeria, on the other hand, will be able to gain access to Axon's valuable resources and European investor network expertise, that have been accumulated over time.

On February 22, Cryptomeria Capital and Axon, together with Metaverse Post (top-tier Web3 media with over 2M monthly visitors) and Chabaud (a French fragrance brand) co-hosted an evening at the iconic Fountain Views in Dubai to commemorate the new relationship. The event offered a unique opportunity to engage with representatives from renowned companies, brands, and organizations.

Axon Partners Group

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8637/154176_c4150578d44eb85b_002full.jpg

It was an insightful and open-minded event, that showed the relevance of Web3 topics in the UAE's market, while Chabaud created both a luxurious and cozy atmosphere that perfectly matched the feeling of the event.

About Cryptomeria Capital



Cryptomeria Capital is a web3-focused venture capital firm that is passionate about the future of decentralized technology. Their investments are focused on early-stage projects steeped in web3 innovations and decentralized scaling solutions. The company's founders believe that decentralized projects, cryptocurrencies, and web3 will dramatically reshape economic relations, which has the potential to bring about a positive impact on society as a whole.



Cryptomeria's stated mission is to support this transformation by providing early-stage financing to the most ambitious projects in this young and rapidly developing industry. These goals aim to be achieved by combining team experience, along with new and established networks, in an effort to actively support the most promising teams in the market.



About Axon Partners Group



Axon Partners Group ('Axon') is an international investment and consulting firm founded in 2006. Axon combines the flexibility and speed of a specialist firm with excellence in business advice and execution in all the sectors impacted by technology and innovation. Their multidisciplinary experts possess extensive track records and complementary expertise in the investment and advisory fields.



The firm offers services such as first-class specialty strategy consulting empowered by strong analytical skills, as well as investment strategies serving as a key partner to entrepreneurs and fund managers. Axon has a top-quartile track record in venture capital, including direct investment and Fund of Fund strategies.

Contact Information

Alex Mukhin

alex@cryptomeriacapital.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/154176
Lenovo enables mass deployment of ThinkEdge solutions with new remote automation and management software, introducing Lenovo Open Cloud Automation (LOC-A) 2.6 and XClarity edge-to-cloud orchestration

Lenovo expands end-to-end edge portfolio with new ThinkEdge SE10 edge client device, capable of capturing analog and digital data at the far edge

New range of support services, including Edge Data Management Workshops, help customers realize faster edge deployments

Today, at MWC 2023, Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) announced the next generation of ThinkEdge remote automation and orchestration with the introduction of new software solutions to accelerate the deployment of edge solutions. Lenovo's new Lenovo Open Cloud Automation (LOC-A) 2.6 software delivers secure automated setup, enabling customers to complete global edge deployments for any number of locations in a matter of minutes, with one-touch provisioning from a single device, such as a PC, smartphone or tablet. New Lenovo XClarity edge-to-cloud management software also simplifies orchestration, maintenance and metering with one unified view into all Lenovo edge to cloud solutions. Lenovo also introduced its highly adaptable ThinkEdge SE10, an optimized entry level client edge device that allows customers to capture analog and digital data, such as temperature and humidity at the outermost edge of their business. Together, the solutions will help businesses across a wide range of high-growth industries accelerate the global rollout of edge computing, generating faster insights and accelerating intelligent transformation.

As the amount of worldwide data from sensors, cameras and other sources exponentially grows, next generation technologies that deliver data center-like computing to the edge are helping companies overcome networking constraints. Reducing the lag that occurs from massive data transfer, customers are leveraging edge computing technologies to process data at the source of its creation, benefitting from faster actionable insights and enabling innovative services for end users. However, edge site locations are often unmanned and hard to reach. Combined with new scalable server and computing services, Lenovo's full range of far edge to cloud solutions will enable businesses to deploy an entire network of edge devices that are spread all across the world at once, ushering in a pivotal evolution in data intelligence.

"As the need for edge computing grows, customers are facing challenges around deploying and managing numerous edge sites due to complexity and resource constraints," said Charles Ferland, Vice President and General Manager of Edge Computing, Lenovo Infrastructure Solutions Group. "With the new Lenovo Open Cloud Automation and end-to-end ThinkEdge portfolio of clients and servers, Lenovo is enabling a new era of edge automation and management at scale. The ThinkEdge portfolio innovations enable customers to compute data wherever it is created and harness the power of AI at the edge."

Unlocking intelligence at the edge

Modern edge infrastructure is unlocking data intelligence to help solve humanity's greatest challenges in far-flung locales all over the world. The old-world city of Barcelona is being transformed into one of the smartest in the world, enabled by a network of Lenovo ThinkEdge servers that are powering its award-winning 5G infrastructure. Lifting a smartphone near Barcelona's picturesque La Sagrada Familia church triggers a tourist video to play instantly on screen, while in the city's glamorous Mercat de la Concepcio, a personal shopper broadcasts food recommendations directly via the high-tech augmented reality glasses. As the rollout continues, Lenovo ThinkEdge servers are deployed in street cabinets around the city, empowering artificial intelligence for improved emergency response, public safety and accessibility.

Built for the unique challenges of remote environments, the ruggedized ThinkEdge portfolio leverage Lenovo's ThinkShield security capabilities, featuring the industry's most modern and stringent security measures to keep data safe, such as bolstered physical and cyber tamper detection and locking bezels that prevent unauthorized access. The servers are also built to withstand Barcelona's hot summer temperatures, as well as chilly winters.

In the future, these edge servers can help better manage traffic, sending messages from traffic lights to cars, warning when they are about to turn red, and helping them drive in a fuel-efficient fashion.

Enabling mass edge deployment

As the demand for edge computing grows, the new Lenovo Open Cloud Automation (LOC-A) 2.6 dramatically simplifies processes that used to require weeks of manual work to complete. LOC-A is capable of automating the deployment of ThinkEdge clients and servers at scale within minutes, eliminating the need for manual resources and potential human error. With LOC-A 2.6, Lenovo ThinkEdge servers can be shipped directly to their desired edge locations, where they can be securely authenticated, activated, and registered remotely, speeding time to value.

"When it comes to edge computing, there are different variables that need to be addressed. At Insight Enterprises Inc., oftentimes we are helping customers deploy systems in remote locations where space is limited, harder to access and conditions are harsher than in a traditional data center. Each location individually is challenging, but the edge is a distributed environment that often numbers into the thousands if not tens of thousands. To help our clients scale edge solutions, we need enough compute power to support multiple diverse workloads and the tooling and logistics to manage everything efficiently. That's why we've chosen Lenovo as an edge technology partner," said Juan Orlandini, Chief Architect and Distinguished Engineer at Insight.

LOC-A automatically and remotely updates the edge device's firmware, then installs and configures all platform components like the operating system and cloud software. Previously, administrators had to inflexibly pre-load software at a factory, or undergo the logistically complex process of installing software images at staging areas, one at a time. With LOC-A 2.6, edge devices are installed through one-touch setup with minimal downtime, delivering immediate value through ease and efficiency of operation and enabling swift computing and insights from globally sourced data without lag time. LOC-A 2.6 is capable of onboarding Lenovo's ThinkEdge portfolio of SE10, SE30, SE50, SE70, SE350, and SE450 servers.

Transforming business outcomes anywhere

The Lenovo ThinkEdge portfolio offers a full range of client and server edge infrastructure solutions, software and services. The new ThinkEdge SE10 client device with Intel Atom processor turns analog measurements, such as temperature, lighting and humidity into digital data, which can then be analyzed for insights and actions. The ThinkEdge SE10 compact and rugged design is optimized for analog-to-data processing everywhere customers need it, including retail locations, manufacturing facilities and smart buildings. Leveraging the ThinkEdge, SE10, businesses can mitigate food waste, automate sorting and processing, improve inventory management and improve self-service or security functions throughout their operations. From extreme temperatures to the most constrained spaces, the SE10 is designed as the most versatile device in the ThinkEdge portfolio and available in an industrial-specific design, with even more rugged ThinkEdge SE10-i.

Lenovo's fully integrated edge business also features a range of newly available support services, including Lenovo's Edge Data Management Workshops and AI Innovators Program. Working with Lenovo, businesses can tap an extensive ecosystem of expert consultants who are trained to help customers identify a clear path for rollout and realize faster edge deployments to achieve scale.

Providing a complete portfolio of edge servers, AI-ready storage and solutions, Lenovo offerings are also available as-a-Service through Lenovo TruScale, which easily extends workloads from the edge to the cloud in a consumption-based model.

Visit https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/servers-storage/solutions/edge-computing/ to learn more about the Lenovo Edge Ecosystem, including the new software, hardware and service offerings, as well as new customer stories. See here for Lenovo's latest PC solutions including new ThinkPad, ThinkCentre, and IdeaPad devices that are accelerating digital transformation in the hybrid world.

About Lenovo

Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) is a US$70 billion revenue global technology powerhouse, ranked #171 in the Fortune Global 500, employing 82,000 people around the world, and serving millions of customers every day in 180 markets. Focused on a bold vision to deliver smarter technology for all, Lenovo has built on its success as the world's largest PC company by further expanding into key growth areas including server, storage, mobile, solutions and services. This transformation together with Lenovo's world-changing innovation is building a more inclusive, trustworthy, and sustainable digital society for everyone, everywhere. To find out more visit https://www.lenovo.com, and read about the latest news via our StoryHub.

LENOVO, THINKEDGE, THINKSHIELD, THINKPAD, THINKCENTRE, IDEAPAD and TRUSCALE are trademarks of Lenovo. Intel and Atom are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. 2023 Lenovo

Intel, the Intel logo, and other Intel marks are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005418/en/

Contacts:

Worldwide

Zeno Group, LenovoISG@zenogroup.com

Claire Simmons, csimmons1@lenovo.com

EMEA

3 Monkeys Zeno, Lauren Phillipou, Lauren.Phillipou@3monkeyszeno.com

APAC

Shonali Chakravarty, schakravarty@lenovo.com, +91 9833059832



LATAM

Valkiria Suzuki, vsuzuki@lenovo.com, +5511996563108
Everest Global Plc - Temporary Suspension of Trading in Ordinary Shares

The information contained within this announcement is deemed to constitute inside information as stipulated underArticle 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014 (which forms part of domestic UK law pursuant to the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018). Upon the publication of this announcement, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

1 March 2023

For Immediate Release

Everest Global PLC

("EG" or the "Company")

Temporary Suspension of Trading in Ordinary Shares

Further to the Company's announcement of 21st February 2023, regarding the delayed publication of the Company's audited financial statements for the year ended 31 October 2023 ("FY22 Results"), the Company applied for and has been granted a temporary suspension of the listing on the Official List of the Financial Conduct Authority ("FCA") of its ordinary shares of 2p each ("Ordinary Shares") from 7.30 this morning until publication of its FY22 Results.

The Company expects to publish its FY22 Results during June 2023 and, until then, the listing on the Official List of the FCA of its Ordinary Shares will continue to be suspended temporarily.

The Directors of the Company accept responsibility for the content of this announcement.

For further information contact the following:



Everest Global PLC Andy Sui, Chief Executive Officer

Rob Scott, Non-Executive Director +44 (0) 776 775 1787

+27 (0)84 6006 001

Caution regarding forward looking statements

Certain statements in this announcement, are, or may be deemed to be, forward looking statements. Forward looking statements are identi?ed by their use of terms and phrases such as 'believe', 'could', "should" 'envisage', 'estimate', 'intend', 'may', 'plan', 'potentially', "expect", 'will' or the negative of those, variations or comparable expressions, including references to assumptions. These forward-looking statements are not based on historical facts but rather on the Directors' current expectations and assumptions regarding the Company's future growth, results of operations, performance, future capital and other expenditures (including the amount, nature and sources of funding thereof), competitive advantages, business prospects and opportunities. Such forward looking statements re?ect the Directors' current beliefs and assumptions and are based on information currently available to the Directors.
Chiro's By Jigyasa, an online retailer of authentic Indian fashion and formalwear, is now offering customized designs for their bridal lehengas.

Katy, Texas--(Newsfile Corp. - March 1, 2023) - Following the announcement, Chiro's By Jigyasa offers its customers the opportunity to personalize or customize their bridal lehenga. Chiro's By Jigyasa, which has developed a reputation for beautiful artisan-made Indian wear, now gives brides-to-be the opportunity to create their own wedding lehenga, by helping them to personalize the color, fabric, embroidery style, and more.

More information is available at https://chirosbyjigyasa.com/collections/wedding-lehengas

New Customized Lehenga Designs in Houston Launched by Chiro's By Jigyasa

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8814/156686_00fb653454d0aa23_001full.jpg

Chiro's By Jigyasa's new custom design services coincide with the ongoing trend in American weddings towards both personalized and non-traditional styles and elements.

Chiro's By Jigyasa understands that for many young Indian couples, it can be challenging to balance traditional Indian wedding culture with millennial American wedding trends and find a style that still feels like them. As such, they have both traditional and modern style lehengas that brides-to-be can now further adapt to suit the style and feel of their special day.

With their customized designs, Chiro's By Jigyasa shoppers can take one of their ready-to-wear pieces and adapt it or can conceive of something totally new in conjunction with the brand's style consultants and seamstresses.

In addition to its customization service, Chiro's By Jigyasa also offers handmade, ready-to-wear lehengas for future brides, including the Sequin Work Lehenga with Contrast Choli in Yellow. This piece has been handmade from soft, diaphanous georgette and is embellished with a bold diamond shape sequin design, with contrasting soft buttery yellow and deep forest green fabrics. The same lehenga is also available in pastel pink and pale sea green.

Another bridal lehenga from their ready-to-wear collection is the Sequin Work Georgette Lehenga in Blue. This lehenga has a fully sequined skirt and dupatta with cascading mirror-style sequin embroidery and a contrasting rich navy blue blouse.

Chiro's By Jigyasa says, "Our wedding lehengas are designed to make you look and feel like a queen, with a touch of royal elegance. We now offer custom designs so that you can be sure that you're getting the perfect fit and style. With our unique styles, high-quality fabrics, and attention to detail, we are sure that you will love our bridal lehengas."

More details can be found at https://chirosbyjigyasa.com/collections/wedding-lehengas

Contact Info:

Name: Jigyasa Anand

Email: support@chirosbyjigyasa.com

Organization: Chiro's By Jigyasa

Address: 19822 Almond Park Drive, Katy, TX 77450, United States

Website: https://chirosbyjigyasa.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/156686
LONDON, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Proactis, the leading Source-to-Pay software solution provider, and Cegedim, specialists in the management of digital flows in the healthcare and B2B ecosystems, have announced the signing of a four-year contract with AP-HP Hopitaux de Paris for the deployment of a solution to manage supply across its hospitals, enabling the group to optimise its purchasing processes.

A Parisian university hospital with a European dimension and a worldwide reputation, the AP-HP welcomes 10 million patients every year. It is the largest employer in the Ile de France region, with more than 100,000 employees in its 39 establishments.

In order to meet the AP-HP's objective of optimising purchasing processes, Proactis and Cegedim have developed a tailored solution that combines their two areas of expertise - including the Proactis Marketplace , with 3,000 catalogues negotiated with AP-HP suppliers, and Cegedim's Hospitalis platform for the dematerialisation of orders, receipts and delivery notices.

Since January 2022, the Proactis and Hospitalis solution has already resulted in a 95% dematerialisation rate of contracts on the 4 pilot sites of the AP-HP, representing more than 100 million Euros of orders in value.

As part of the new contract, the solution will be further deployed to 4,000 users with the aim of managing more than 600,000 orders per year. The solution makes purchasing processes more streamlined, efficient and rapid and improves the user experience - as well as longer term gains in terms of turnover and discounts.

Mr Christophe Couvreur, Director of Hospitalis, stated: "The digitisation of exchanges between hospitals and their suppliers through the dematerialisation of orders, order confirmations, dispatch notices and invoices offers gains in multiple areas, such as reducing repetitive tasks for healthcare professionals and the traceability of medical/implantable devices. We are very pleased to support the AP-HP in this digital transformation."

Olivier Jung, Director of Proactis France, added: "Proactis is proud that the AP-HP has renewed its confidence in the use of our marketplace and its platform for the dematerialisation of orders. This project is at the heart of the performance challenges facing the AP-HP's Finance department. This contract underlines the quality of our long-term collaboration."

About Proactis

Proactis is a leading Source-to-Pay software solution provider for mid-market organisations across a range of service-led industries.

Proactis' end-to-end modular platform enables customers to control spend and manage supply-chain risk; improve compliance and governance of their purchasing activities; reduce the cost of goods and services; and deliver efficiencies, all through process digitisation and automation.

Proactis serves a rapidly growing client base of over 1,100 corporate and public sector organisations and 2 million suppliers, with over 3 million users in 100+ countries across the UK, Europe, North America, New Zealand and Australia.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/ap-hp-signs-4-year-agreement-with-proactis-and-cegedim-to-optimise-the-management-of-its-supply-301758669.html
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 1, 2023) - EMX Royalty Corporation (NYSE American: EMX) (TSXV: EMX) (FSE: 6E9) (the "Company" or "EMX") is pleased to announce the execution of an agreement to sell its Adak volcanogenic massive sulfide ("VMS") project and its Akerberg and Rismyrliden gold projects in Sweden (the "Projects") (see Figure 1) to Copperhead Mineral AB ("Copperhead"), an unlisted public company in Sweden. In return for the transfer of the Projects to Copperhead, the agreement provides EMX with a 9.9% equity interest in Copperhead, annual advance royalty payments, 2.5% Net Smelter Return ("NSR") royalty interests, work commitments, and other considerations. In conjunction with this transaction, Copperhead intends to apply for a public listing of the Company's shares on a multilateral trading facility in Sweden or other appropriate trading facility.

The Adak VMS project was acquired by EMX in 2020 and covers the areas of historical mining in the Adak district, positioned at the northwest end of the prolific Skelleftea mining belt in Sweden. Akerberg and Rismyrliden are intrusion-hosted and orogenic gold projects also located in the Skelleftea belt. The Akerberg license surrounds the historic Akerberg Gold Mine with the Rismyrliden property located nearby along the geologic trend to the south of Akerberg.

The Skelleftea belt is known for its prolific historic production from gold-enriched polymetallic VMS deposits, such as the Adak district, and its intrusion-related and orogenic gold systems which are located north of a linear geologic feature locally known as "The Break" (including the historic Akerberg Mine). Together, these assets will form a diverse, polymetallic "starter" portfolio in central Sweden for Copperhead.

Commercial Terms Overview. Via an arm's length transaction, Copperhead will acquire a 100% share interest in the EMX subsidiary company that controls the Projects, subject to the following terms:

Upon closing, EMX will receive 600,000 SEK (approximately US$57,000 at current exchange rates) in cash in addition to newly issued shares in Copperhead corresponding to 9.9% of the issued and outstanding shares of Copperhead.

EMX will receive a 2.5% NSR royalty interest on each of the Projects. On the sixth anniversary after closing, Copperhead has the option to purchase 0.5% of the NSR on a given project by paying EMX 12,500,000 SEK.

EMX will receive annual advance royalty (" AAR ") payments of 125,000 SEK for each project commencing on the third anniversary of the closing, with the AAR payment increasing by 50,000 SEK per year until reaching 750,000 SEK on a per project basis. Copperhead will only be required to make two AAR payments each year if it continues to hold all three Projects, but if one of the Projects is sold or transferred to a third party, the third AAR payment will be reinstated.

A financial instrument will be put in place that allows EMX to maintain its 9.9% interest in Copperhead until a total of 18,000,000 SEK (approximately US$1.7 million at current exchange rates) has been raised by Copperhead.

A payment of 5,000,000 SEK, payable in cash or shares of Copperhead, will be made to EMX upon the completion of a Prefeasibility or Feasibility Study for a given project. Copperhead will only be required to make two resource payments if it continues to hold all three Projects, but if one of the Projects is sold or transferred to a third party, the third resource payment will be reinstated.

To maintain its interest in the Projects, Copperhead will also: (i) spend a minimum of 2,500,000 SEK on the Projects by the second anniversary of the agreement (with at least 500,000 SEK spent on each property) and (ii) spend an aggregate of 10,000,000 SEK by the third anniversary of the agreement or complete a minimum of 3,000 meters of drilling, with a minimum of 1,000 meters of drilling at each of the Adak and Akerberg projects.

Adak Project Overview. EMX's Adak exploration permit is the site of the historic Adak mine, which operated from 1941 through 1978, when the mining complex was destroyed by a fire. The mine was never rebuilt or re-opened after the fire, and was operated at a time when VMS deposit models were only poorly understood. Through compilations of historical exploration data and the application of modern concepts for VMS exploration, EMX has identified numerous new targets in the vicinity of the historical mines. EMX believes that the nearby Storliden VMS deposit, discovered in 1998 and mined from 2002 through 2007, provides an exploration analog for further discoveries at Adak.

Akerberg Project Overview. The Akerberg gold project is situated in an area with multiple active gold mines and development/advanced exploration stage projects. The EMX land position surrounds the historic Akerberg mine, which was operated by Boliden AB and produced 1.48 million tonnes averaging 3.0 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 1991 through 20031. During the time of operation relatively little exploration took place outside of the immediate mine area, and EMX has found multiple untested zones of outcropping gold mineralization within the project area.

Mineralization in the Akerberg mine area consists of sheeted swarms of gold bearing quartz veins and veinlets developed in gabbroic host rocks. EMX has mapped additional gabbroic rocks throughout the EMX permit areas with similar gold-bearing quartz veins.

Rismyrliden Project Overview. The regional shear zone that hosts the active Bjorkdal Gold Mine and the past-producing Akerberg and Norrberget gold mines extends through EMX's Rismyrliden license. Similar to Akerberg, gold mineralization at Rismyrliden is hosted by swarms of sheeted quartz veins developed in calc-silicate altered greenstone rocks. EMX recently completed a multi-element soil sampling program over the entire Rismyrliden project area. EMX uses an innovative and cost-effective rapid sampling technique to test for geochemical anomalies in soils over large areas. These surveys at Rismyrliden generated multiple reinforcing geochemical anomalies that will be targeted for immediate follow up.

More information on the Projects can be found at www.EMXroyalty.com.

Comments on Nearby and Adjacent Properties. The historic mines and deposits discussed in this news release provide context for EMX's Projects, which occur in a similar geologic setting, but this is not necessarily indicative that the Projects host similar quantities, grades or styles of mineralization.

Qualified Person. Dr. Eric P. Jensen, CPG, a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and employee of the Company, has reviewed, verified and approved the disclosure of the technical information contained in this news release.

About EMX. EMX is a precious, base and battery metals royalty company. EMX's investors are provided with discovery, development, and commodity price optionality, while limiting exposure to risks inherent to operating companies. The Company's common shares are listed on the NYSE American Exchange and the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol EMX, and also trade on the Frankfurt exchange under the symbol "6E9". Please see www.EMXroyalty.com for more information.

For further information contact:

David M. Cole

President and Chief Executive Officer

Phone: (303) 973-8585

Dave@emxroyalty.com

Scott Close

Director of Investor Relations

Phone: (303) 973-8585

SClose@emxroyalty.com

Isabel Belger

Investor Relations (Europe)

Phone: +49 178 4909039

IBelger@EMXroyalty.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release may contain "forward-looking statements" that reflect the Company's current expectations and projections about its future results. These forward-looking statements may include statements regarding perceived merit of properties, exploration results and budgets, mineral reserve and resource estimates, work programs, capital expenditures, timelines, strategic plans, market prices for precious and base metal, or other statements that are not statements of fact. When used in this news release, words such as "estimate," "intend," "expect," "anticipate," "will", "believe", "potential" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, which, by their very nature, are not guarantees of the Company's future operational or financial performance, and are subject to risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause the Company's actual results, performance, prospects or opportunities to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and factors may include, but are not limited to: unavailability of financing, failure to identify commercially viable mineral reserves, fluctuations in the market valuation for commodities, difficulties in obtaining required approvals for the development of a mineral project, increased regulatory compliance costs, expectations of project funding by joint venture partners and other factors.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this news release or as of the date otherwise specifically indicated herein. Due to risks and uncertainties, including the risks and uncertainties identified in this news release, and other risk factors and forward-looking statements listed in the Company's MD&A for the quarter ended September 30, 2022 and the year ended December 31, 2021 (the "MD&A"), and the most recently filed Revised Annual Information Form (the "AIF") for the year ended December 31, 2021, actual events may differ materially from current expectations. More information about the Company, including the MD&A, the AIF and financial statements of the Company, is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the SEC's EDGAR website at www.sec.gov.

Figure 1. Location Map of EMX Royalty Properties



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/1508/156620_4b5bc4b3442a3afd_002full.jpg

Figure 2. Skelleftea Mining Belt and EMX Royalty Properties



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/1508/156620_4b5bc4b3442a3afd_003full.jpg

1 Historical production values are cited in Special Paper 53 (2012), by the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK).

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/156620
FERGUSON PLC

(THE "COMPANY")

NOTIFICATION OF TOTAL VOTING RIGHTS AND CAPITAL IN THE COMPANY

WOKINGHAM, UK / ACCESSWIRE / March 1, 2023 / In accordance with DTR 5.6.1, the Company hereby notifies the following:

The Company's issued share capital as at February 28, 2023 consisted of 232,171,182 ordinary shares of 10 pence each ("Ordinary Shares"), of which 26,071,119 Ordinary Shares were held in treasury as at the date of this disclosure. The voting rights of treasury shares are automatically suspended.

Therefore, the total voting rights in the Company is 206,100,063. This figure may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which to determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the Company under the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules and the Company's Articles of Association.

Enquiries:

Kate McCormick, Company Secretary

(0118 927 3827)

March 1, 2023

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.

SOURCE: Ferguson PLC

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/741387/Ferguson-PLC-Announces-Total-Voting-Rights
Thunder Bay, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - March 1, 2023) - Kesselrun Resources Ltd. (TSXV: KES) (OTCQB: KSSRF) ("Kesselrun" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that the Company will be exhibiting at the annual Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada ("PDAC") convention, the world's premier mineral exploration and mining event, which will be held in person in Toronto from Sunday, March 5th to Wednesday, March 8th, 2023.

Kesselrun's management team looks forward to discussing the Company's ongoing exploration plans at booth 2536 in the Investor Exchange at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

For more information and/or to register for the convention, please visit: www.pdac.ca/convention.

About Kesselrun Resources Ltd.

Kesselrun Resources is a Thunder Bay, Ontario-based mineral exploration company focused on growth through property acquisitions and discoveries. Kesselrun's management team possesses strong geological and exploration expertise in Northwest Ontario. For more information about Kesselrun Resources, please visit www.kesselrunresources.com.

For additional information please contact:

Kesselrun Resources Ltd.

Michael Thompson, P.Geo., President & CEO

807.285.3323

michaelt@kesselrunresources.com

Corporate Communications

1.866.416.7941

information@kesselrunresources.com

Forward Looking Statements - Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of Kesselrun, including, but not limited to the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions, volatility of commodity prices, dependence upon regulatory approvals, the execution of definitive documentation, the availability of financing and exploration risk. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/156219
CRANKBROOK, BC / ACCESSWIRE / March 1, 2023 / Further to its news release dated January 4, 2023, Eagle Plains Resources Ltd. (TSXV:EPL) ("EPL" or "Eagle Plains") is pleased to announce that it has entered into an arrangement agreement with its wholly-owned subsidiary, Eagle Royalties Ltd. ("ER" or "Eagle Royalties") and an amalgamation agreement among 1386884 B.C. Ltd. ("138") and Eagle Royalties.

Strategic Rationale for the Spin-out Transaction and the Subsequent Amalgamation

Separating over 50 separate royalties from Eagle Plain's current portfolio of assets is expected to enable Eagle Royalties to focus on accretive growth, spotlighting the value of the royalty assets and potentially realizing a fair market value that is commensurate with peer royalty companies;

Eagle Plains securityholders will benefit by holding shares in two separate public companies listed on both the TSX Venture Exchange (" TSX-V ") and the Canadian Securities Exchange (" CSE ");

") and the Canadian Securities Exchange (" "); Separating the royalties is expected to expand Eagle Royalties' potential shareholder base, marketing opportunities and access to capital;

Packaging these diverse royalty assets into an independent and stand-alone vehicle that is readily available for a possible acquisition by other royalty companies interested in expanding their existing portfolio; and

Eagle Plains' board of directors and management team will maintain its focus on its core business model of acquiring and advancing grassroots critical and precious metal exploration properties.

Tim Termuende, President and CEO of Eagle Plains and Eagle Royalties commented on the proposed transaction: "We are encouraged by progress made to date by our geological, accounting and legal teams. As we move toward completion of the proposed transactions, we are confident that the resulting entity will be well-funded, well-structured and strategically positioned to take advantage of opportunities in the royalty sector".

Definitive Agreements and Related Matters

Arrangement Agreement

Under the terms of arrangement agreement dated February 28, 2023 between Eagle Plains and Eagle Royalties, Eagle Plains will undergo a capital reorganization and, through a series of transactions, will transfer a majority of its portfolio of royalty interests (the "Royalties") to Eagle Royalties (the "Spin-out Transaction"). As a result of the Spin-out Transaction, ER plans to issue an aggregate of 42 million Eagle Royalty shares (the "Spinco Shares"). Of the total Spinco Shares, it is expected that approximately 5.5 million Spinco Shares will be retained by EPL and the remaining approximately 36.5 million Spinco Shares will be distributed to former EPL shareholders on a 1:3 basis.

The board of directors of Eagle Plain and Eagle Royalties have unanimously approved the signing of the arrangement agreement to give effect to the Spin-out Transaction.

Amalgamation Agreement

Under the terms of amalgamation agreement dated February 28, 2023 among 138, Eagle Plains and Eagle Royalties, immediately after the Spin-out Transaction, Eagle Royalties and 138 will combine and continue as one business entity under the name "Eagle Royalties Ltd." (the "Combination Transaction"). The combination between 138 and Eagle Royalties and its respective share capital will be completed on 1:1 basis. Following the completion of the Combination Transaction, Eagle Royalties will make an application for the listing of its common shares on the CSE.

On completion of the Combination Transaction, it is anticipated that Eagle Royalties will commence trading with treasury holding a minimum of $2.5M in cash.

The board of directors of Eagle Royalties and 138 have each unanimously approved the signing of the amalgamation agreement.

Transaction Conditions and Timing

Eagle Plains intends to call a special meeting of securityholders to be held on or about April 20, 2023 to seek securityholder approval for the Spin-out Transaction (the "Meeting"). The record date for the Spin-out Transaction (i.e. the cut-off date for eligible EPL securityholders to receive a 1/3 spin-out share of Eagle Royalties) is expected to be March 17, 2023.

The Spin-out Transaction will be effected by way of a court approved plan of arrangement under Section 193 of the Business Corporations Act (Alberta) and is expected to require:

approval of at least 66.66% of the votes cast by Eagle Plains securityholders, voting as a single class; and a simple majority of the votes cast by Eagle Plains securityholders, voting as a single class, as required under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Securityholders in Special Transactions.

Given the sequencing and timing of the transactions, the Combination Transaction will not require the approval of EPL securityholders, but will require the approval of ER's sole shareholder, Eagle Plains.

The completion of the Spin-out Transaction and the Combination Transaction (collectively, the "Transactions") are also subject to the receipt of court and applicable stock exchange approvals, namely TSX-V and the CSE, and any other required regulatory approvals, and is subject to certain customary closing conditions for transactions of this nature.

The amalgamation agreement provides for, among other things, non-solicitation covenants, with "fiduciary out" provisions that allows the board of directors of Eagle Plains and Eagle Royalties to consider and accept a superior proposal, subject to a "right to match period" in favour of 138.

The Transactions are expected to close in the first half of 2023.

Voting Support Agreements, Board Approval and Recommendation

Officers and directors of Eagle Plains (collectively, the "Insiders") who together hold, or exercise direction and control over, approximately 12 million Eagle Plains common shares (10.9% of the total issued and outstanding Eagle Plains common shares) (the "Insider Shares") have each entered into a voting and support agreement pursuant to which they have each agreed, among other things, to vote their Eagle Plains common shares in favour of the Spin-out Transaction.

Eagle Plains has received overwhelming support for the Spin-out Transaction from multiple significant shareholders that were contacted by the EPL's investor relations team in late February 2023 and along with the Insiders, EPL has secured written support of approximately 27.5 millionEagle Plains common shares (25% of the total issued and outstanding Eagle Plains common shares), 8.2 million Eagle Plains options (96% of the total issued and outstanding Eagle Plains options) and 2.5 millionEagle Plains warrants (47% of the total issued and outstanding Eagle Plains warrants).

The Transactions have been unanimously approved by the board of directors of each Eagle Plains, Eagle Royalties and 138. The board of directors of Eagle Plains unanimously recommends that its securityholders vote in favour of the Spin-out Transaction.

Eagle Plains Options and Warrants

Pursuant to the terms of the arrangement agreement, all vested Eagle Plains options and outstanding Eagle Plains warrants, if exercised by the holder prior to the expiry of such options or warrants, will entitle the holder to receive one (1) Eagle Plains common share and 1/3rd of an Eagle Royalties common share.



Concurrent Financing

Concurrent with the Transactions, 138 will complete a private placement financing (the "Concurrent Financing") raising gross proceeds of approximately $3 million through the issuance of common shares, units or subscription receipts, as the case may be at a price of $0.30 per security. In connection with the Concurrent Financing, 138 may: (i) pay agent commissions in cash of up to 7% of the gross proceed raised from the Concurrent Financing; and (ii) issue broker's warrants, equivalent to 7% of the 138 securities sold through the Concurrent Financing.

Additional Matters Relating to the Transactions

For all additional matters relating to the Transactions and, in particular, matters relating to the statutory and contractual escrow that will be applicable to Eagle Plains securityholders following the completion of the Transactions, readers are encouraged to review the news release dated January 4, 2023, which is available at the following link: https://www.eagleplains.com/news/eagle-plains-announces-signing-letter-intent-spin-out-certain-royalty-assets

About Eagle Royalties Ltd.

Eagle Royalties is a wholly owned subsidiary of Eagle Plains. It manages royalty assets that have been generated by the corporate operations of the parent company over thirty years of conducting business as a project generator in the mineral exploration industry. Eagle Royalties intends to expand its portfolio of royalty assets as Eagle Plains continues with mineral exploration, project acquisition activities and deal-flow in western Canada.

About 1386884 B.C. Ltd.

138 is a private British Columbia incorporated company. 138 has no active business, instead it has been incorporated with the sole intention of completing the Combination Transaction.

About Eagle Plains Resources

Based in Cranbrook, B.C., Eagle Plains is a well-funded, prolific project generator that continues to conduct research, acquire and explore mineral projects throughout western Canada. The Company was formed in 1992 and is the ninth-oldest listed issuer on the TSX-V (and one of only three that has not seen a roll-back or restructuring of its shares). Eagle Plains has continued to deliver shareholder value over the years and through numerous spin-outs has transferred over $100,000,000 in value directly to its shareholders, with Copper Canyon Resources and recently Taiga Gold being notable examples. The Company is committed to steadily enhancing shareholder value by advancing our diverse portfolio of projects toward discovery through collaborative partnerships and development of a highly experienced technical team.

In late 2022 Eagle Plains announced the formation of a separate division within the Company; Eagle Royalties Ltd. ("ER") which will hold many of Eagle Plains' diverse portfolio of royalty assets. The restructuring will enhance the valuation of Eagle Plains' extensive royalty interests, enabling ER to market and develop its royalty assets while seeking additional royalty acquisition opportunities. Eagle Plains' royalties cover a broad spectrum of commodities on projects controlled by Cameco Corp., Iso Energy Corp., Denison Mines Corp., Skeena Resources Ltd. and Hecla Mining Co./Banyan Gold Corp., among others. Eagle Plains will continue to focus on its core business model of acquiring and advancing grassroots critical- and precious-metal exploration properties.

Expenditures from 2011-2022 on Eagle Plains-related projects exceed $30M, the majority of which was funded by third-party partners. This exploration work resulted in approximately 45,000m of diamond-drilling and extensive ground-based exploration work facilitating the advancement of numerous projects at various stages of development. Throughout the exploration process, our mission is to help maintain prosperous communities by exploring for and discovering resource opportunities while building lasting relationships through honest and respectful business practices.

Advisors

McLeod Law LLP is acting as legal counsel to Eagle Plains and Eagle Royalties in connection with the Transactions. Armstrong Simpson, Barristers and Solicitors is acting as legal counsel to 138. Nauth LPC is acting as US legal counsel to Eagle Plains and Eagle Royalties on all US securities law matters relating to the Transactions.

On behalf of the Board of Directors of Eagle Plains

"Tim J. Termuende"

President and CEO

For further information on EPL, please contact Mike Labach at 1 866 HUNT ORE (486 8673)

Email: mgl@eagleplains.com or visit our website at https://www.eagleplains.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively, the "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that involves discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as "expects", or "does not expect", "is expected", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans", "budget", "scheduled", "forecasts", "estimates", "believes", an or "intends" or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results "may" or "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements.

In this news release, forward-looking statements relate, among other things, to the terms and conditions of the Proposed Transaction, the issuance of Spin-out Shares, the completion of the Concurrent Financing, the proposed listings of Eagle Royalties on the CSE, the execution the definitive agreements to give effect to the Transactions, the expected closing timeline of the proposed Transactions and the business of Eagle Royalties following the completion of the proposed Transactions. These forward-looking statements reflects the EPL's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to it and on assumptions EPL's management believes to be fair and reasonable. These assumptions include but are not limited to, the ability of the parties to complete the proposed Transactions at all or in a timely manner, the ability of the combined business to be listed on the CSE and following such listing, ER's ability to meet the continued listing requirements, the ability of each of EPL, ER and 138 to successfully secure all of the necessary approvals to complete the proposed Transactions, the ability of 138 to successfully raise the capital as contemplated in the news release and successfully close the Concurrent Financing, the completion of satisfactory due diligence by 138 in relation to the proposed Transactions; the satisfactory fulfilment of all of the condition's precedent prior to giving effect to the proposed Transactions; and the receipt of all required securityholder approval, court approval and other regulatory approvals for the proposed Transactions.

Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance, or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such risks and other factors may include, but are not limited to, general business, economic, competitive, political, and social uncertainties; general capital market conditions and market price for securities; and the delay or failure to receive board, shareholder, court, or regulatory approvals, as applicable. A description of additional risk factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking information can be found in EPL's disclosure documents on the SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although EPL has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements in this news release, there may be other factors that could cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. 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 the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release. Except as required by law, EPL does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking statements should they change.

SOURCE: Eagle Plains Resources Ltd

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/741352/Eagle-Plains-Announces-the-Execution-of-Definitive-Agreements-Relating-to-the-Proposed-Spin-Out-of-Eagle-Royalties
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - March 1, 2023) - Maritime Resources Corp. (TSXV: MAE) ("Maritime" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an update on the Company's activities at the 100% owned Hammerdown Gold Project ("Hammerdown" or the "Project") in the Baie Verte mining district of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada near the Towns of King's Point and Springdale.

Highlights:

Hammerdown Gold Project - submission of Development Plan and Closure Plans represent key steps in completing project permitting.

Inaugural corporate sustainability report published, setting the foundation for the Company's ESG disclosures, including greenhouse gas ("GHG") emissions, water stewardship, diversity, equity, inclusion, governance and social performance.

Funding commitment of $1M from the Climate Change Challenge Fund for Hammerdown's proposed mineral sorting facility.

Maritime attending 2023 Prospectors and Developers conference March 5-8th in Toronto, ON.

"Since completing the feasibility study for Hammerdown, Maritime has made significant progress in further de-risking the Project ahead of development. The submission of the project Development Plan, and the Closure Plan to the province of Newfoundland and Labrador are important milestones and when both are approved, will establish Hammerdown as one of the few permitted gold projects located in a top tier jurisdiction. Value engineering has commenced for the planned Hammerdown operations with the initial focus on optimizing designs, capital expenditures and construction schedules. Maritime has begun the process of reviewing its financing options for the Hammerdown Project, including ongoing discussions with potential lenders and other financing sources," adds Garett Macdonald, President and CEO. "We are pleased to publish our first corporate Sustainability Report and are very appreciative of the local input and support for the Project. Maritime is also pleased to announce that the Climate Change Challenge Fund has committed $1M towards the capital cost of the proposed Hammerdown sorting plant, an innovative technology that will reduce GHG emissions while producing a higher grade product for downstream processing."

Project Permitting

In May of 2021, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador approved the Hammerdown Project and issued a release from Environmental Assessment (EA). With the completion of the project feasibility study and technical report in 2022, Maritime completed regulatory submissions for the Project Development Plan and the Closure Plan. Regulatory approval of both documents is a requirement under the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador Mining Act prior to the start of construction. Maritime anticipates receiving regulatory approvals by the end of Q2 2023, concluding the major permitting milestones for the Hammerdown Project.

The design of the Hammerdown Project is based on over three years' of environmental baseline studies, site investigations and technical programs. As a brownfields project, Hammerdown benefits from existing and nearby infrastructure such as access roads and grid power (Figure 1). With respect to the environment, Hammerdown is somewhat unique in that there is no acid generating waste rock, no presence of fish habitat or fish populations, no species at risk and only minor diversions to surface drainage are required within the proposed site footprint. The Hammerdown Project was not subject to federal environmental assessment; however, standard permitting requirements from the federal Metal and Diamond Effluent Regulations apply, regulating discharge from the site.

The Closure Plan and associated reclamation activities have been developed using provincial government guidelines and industry best practices. The site closure proposed for the Hammerdown Project (Figure 2.) will include removing all site infrastructure, placement of stockpiled sorter rejects back into the open pit, covering disturbed areas and stockpiles with organics salvaged from site construction and re-seeding to promote revegetation and natural succession. Progressive rehabilitation opportunities have also been determined and Maritime will integrate these plans with annual operations strategies.

Figure 1. Hammerdown Project site plan - 2022 feasibility study



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/4548/156646_31dcd89fa4165a48_001full.jpg

Figure 2. Rendering of Hammerdown Project site post-closure



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/4548/156646_31dcd89fa4165a48_002full.jpg

2022 Sustainability Report

Maritime is pleased to provide the Company's first sustainability report highlighting the progress made over the last two years as we continue to advance the Hammerdown Project towards a development decision. Environmental stewardship, our community relationships and our outlook for 2023 are some of the important aspects presented in our 2022 report. Maritime's inaugural Sustainability Report can be found on the Company's website https://maritimeresourcescorp.com.

Climate Change Challenge Fund

Maritime plans to implement mineral sorting technology at the proposed mine site to concentrate mineralized material, removing waste rock from the run of mine feed destined for road transport. Reducing the tonnage of trucked waste material will have a direct impact on reduced diesel fuel consumption and GHG emissions by approximately 40% (approximately 19 Kt) throughout the life of mine. In March 2022, Maritime applied for funding under a provincial program in support of GHG reduction initiatives. The Climate Change Challenge Fund (CCCF) is supported by the federal Low Carbon Economy Leadership Fund - a joint federal and provincial funding initiative which endorses a commitment for a net-zero emissions economy by 2050. In October 2022, Maritime was notified by the provincial government that $1 million dollars was being awarded in support of future capital costs of sorting technology for use at the Hammerdown Gold Project.

PDAC 2023

Maritime will be exhibiting at the annual 2023 Prospectors & Development Association of Canada Convention (PDAC), the world's premier mineral exploration & mining event. We invite all our shareholders and conference delegates to visit us at booth #2816. The in-person event will be held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (MTCC) from Sunday, March 5 to Wednesday, March 8, 2023. Maritime will also be presenting at Canada's Atlantic Edge mining investment forum on Tuesday March 7th at 9:40am, Ballroom A, Lower Level, Intercontinental Hotel, adjacent MTCC.

Stock Option Grant

On December 15, 2022, a total of 2,075,000 stock options expired. Maritime announces that it has granted new incentive stock options to certain officers, directors, employees and/or consultants of the Corporation to purchase up to 4,950,000 common shares in the capital of the Company until February 28, 2028, at an exercise price of $0.05 per share. The incentive stock options were granted on February 28, 2023 in accordance with the Company's Stock Option Plan.

Qualified Person

Garett Macdonald, P.Eng., President and CEO of the Company, is the Qualified Person for the Company and has prepared, validated and approved the technical and scientific content of this news release in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

About Maritime Resources Corp.

Maritime holds a 100% interest- directly and subject to option agreements entitling it to earn 100% ownership in the Green Bay Property. This includes the former Hammerdown gold mine and the Orion gold project plus the Whisker Valley exploration project, all located in the Baie Verte Mining District near the town of King's Point, Newfoundland and Labrador. The Hammerdown Gold Project is characterized by near-vertical, narrow mesothermal quartz veins containing gold associated with pyrite. Hammerdown was last operated by Richmont Mines between 2000 and 2004. The Company also owns the gold circuit at the Nugget Pond metallurgical facility in Newfoundland and Labrador, the Lac Pelletier gold project in Rouyn Noranda, Quebec and several other exploration properties in key mining camps across Canada.

On Behalf of the Board:

Garett Macdonald, MBA, P.Eng.

President and CEO

1900-110 Yonge Street, Toronto, ON M5C 1T4

Phone: (416) 365-5321

info@maritimegold.com

www.maritimeresourcescorp.com

Twitter

Facebook

LinkedIn

Youtube

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:

Certain of the statements made and information contained herein is "forward-looking information" within the meaning of National Instrument 51-102 - Continuous Disclosure Obligations. Forward-looking statements are often identified by terms such as "will", "may", "should", "anticipate", "expects", "intends", "indicates" "plans" and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning the low capital intensity and rapid payback of the Project, the exploration upside relating to the Project, the pursuit of mine life extensions, the potential to increase mineral resource and mineral reserve estimates, returns and FCF relating to the Project, capital financing processes relating to the Project, development of the next drill program on the Project, exploration and development of the Orion deposit, "Run of Mine" ore scheduled to be mined from the Project, timing of submission of the Project Development Plan and the Progressive Rehabilitation and Closure Plan for Hammerdown, timing of future site construction, timing to first gold production, length of construction period for the Project, timing of completion of required permitting, timing for approvals to be obtained for the closure and development plans relating to the Project, availability of capital financing, the non-equity portion of any construction capital financing, timing of completion of construction capital financing process, amongst other things, which involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. All forward-looking statements and forward-looking information are based on reasonable assumptions that have been made by the Company in good faith as at the date of such information. Such assumptions include, without limitation, the price of and anticipated costs of recovery of, base metal concentrates, gold and silver, the presence of and continuity of such minerals at modeled grades and values, the capacities of various machinery and equipment, the use of ore sorting technology will produce positive results, the availability of personnel, machinery and equipment at estimated prices, mineral recovery rates, and others. Forward-looking information is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking information, including, without limitation, the ability of the Company to continue to be able to access the capital markets for the funding necessary to acquire, maintain and advance exploration properties or business opportunities; global financial conditions, including market reaction to the coronavirus outbreak; competition within the industry to acquire properties of merit or new business opportunities, and competition from other companies possessing greater technical and financial resources; difficulties in advancing towards a development decision at Hammerdown and executing exploration programs at its Newfoundland and Labrador properties on the Company's proposed schedules and within its cost estimates, whether due to weather conditions, availability or interruption of power supply, mechanical equipment performance problems, natural disasters or pandemics in the areas where it operates; increasingly stringent environmental regulations and other permitting restrictions or maintaining title or other factors related to exploring of its properties, such as the availability of essential supplies and services; factors beyond the capacity of the Company to anticipate and control, such as the marketability of mineral products produced from the Company's properties; uncertainty as to whether the acquisition of assets and new mineral property interests including the Nugget Pond gold circuit will be completed in the manner currently contemplated by the parties; uncertainty as to whether mineral resources will ever be converted into mineral reserves once economic considerations are applied; uncertainty as to whether inferred mineral resources will be converted to the measured and indicated categories through further drilling, or into mineral reserves, once economic considerations are applied; government regulations relating to health, safety and the environment, and the scale and scope of royalties and taxes on production; and the availability of experienced contractors and professional staff to perform work in a competitive environment and the resulting adverse impact on costs and performance and other risks and uncertainties, including those described in each MD&A of financial condition and results of operations. In addition, forward-looking information is based on various assumptions including, without limitation, assumptions associated with exploration results and costs and the availability of materials and skilled labour. Should one or more of these risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, Maritime undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange ("TSX-V") nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX-V) 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/156646
LIMA, Peru, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Minera IRL Limited ("Minera", the "Company" or "we") (BVL:MIRL) (CSE:MIRL) (FWB:DZX) (OTCQB:MRLLF) is pleased to announce that the Corihuarmi Gold Mine ("Corihuarmi") has shipped 1,797 ounces of gold in January 2023, a 15% increase as compared to the December 2022 shipment of 1,565 ounces of gold.



The month of January saw a decrease of 19.8% in the volume of waste mined, in line with the revised planning studies completed in the last quarter of 2022 and aimed to maintain low strip ratios. This is part of the overall strategy implemented by the Company to achieve a reduction in production costs at Corihuarmi and increase gold production in 2023.

Qualified Person

Martin Mount, Independent Director of Minera, is a Fellow of the Geological Society of London (& Registered CGeol), a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Metals & Mining (& Registered CEng), and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Mr. Mount has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information contained in this news release and has verified the underlying data.

About Minera IRL Limited

Minera IRL Limited is the CSE, BVL, FWB and OTCQB listed holding company of Minera IRL S.A. and Compania Minera Kuri Kullu S.A., two precious metal mining companies engaged in mining exploration, development, and operations in Peru, with a primary focus on gold. Minera is led by an agile and experienced senior management team with extensive mining industry experience, particularly in South America. Minera operates the Corihuarmi Gold Mine located 5,000 meters above sea level in Central Peru, while assessing financing opportunities to advance its Ollachea Gold Project located in the Department of Puno, Southern Peru. For more information, please visit www.minera-irl.com.

On behalf of the Board of Directors of Minera IRL Limited

Gerardo Perez

Executive Chairman

Diego Benavides

CEO and Director

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Minera IRL Limited

Susan Gabbie

Manager, Communications

+51 1 418 - 1230

Pedro Valdez

Head of Investor Relations

+51 1 418 - 1230

No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained in this news release.

Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Information

Certain information in this press release constitutes "forward-looking statements." Forward looking statements are based on assumptions. While management believes these assumptions and statements are reasonable in context, forward-looking statements are inherently subject to political, legal, regulatory, business, environmental and economic risks and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. The Company cautions readers that forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Minera IRL's actual results and future performance to be materially different than those expected or estimated future results, performance or achievements and that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, results, or achievements.

Minera IRL assumes no obligation, except as may be required by law, to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. Risks, uncertainties and contingencies and other factors that might cause actual performance to differ from forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, Peru's ability to continue to contain the COVID-19 crisis, the current political protests throughout Peru and the resulting nationwide state of emergency that have and may continue to adversely affect supply routes within the country, changes in and access to the capital or precious metals markets, weather, labor unrest, the uncertainties inherent in mineral exploration and changes to legislative, political, social, health or economic developments both within Peru and in general.
Exceeded target enrollment with 110 patients randomized across 28 clinical sites in Europe, the United States and Australia

Efficacy proof-of-concept data from IMPACT is expected in Q1 2024. Following the positive interim biomarker analysis reported earlier last year, these data results will inform final Phase 3 protocol design while also further supporting IMCY-0098 and our Imotope mode of action

Critical unmet need remains for effective prevention strategies or curative therapies in Type 1 diabetes beyond insulin replacement that can delay disease onset or arrest progression and improve patient quality of life

LIEGE, BELGIUM / ACCESSWIRE / March 1, 2023 / Imcyse, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company pioneering the development of a new class of active and specific immunotherapies for the treatment of severe autoimmune diseases, today announced completion of patient enrollment in its Phase 2 IMPACT ( IM CY-0098 P roof of AC tion in T ype 1 Diabetes) trial of its lead product candidate IMCY-0098, a proinsulin-derived Imotope engineered to halt the progression and prevent early-onset Type 1 diabetes (T1D).

"Reaching the enrollment target is a key milestone in our effort to advance IMCY-0098 as a disease-modifying treatment and clinical proof of concept for the Imotope platform," said Denis Bedoret, CEO of Imcyse. "Imcyse has made significant strides in the past year evolving into a clinical-stage company, with two candidates now in clinical development and other programs advancing towards the clinic. We are encouraged by the strength of our IMCY-0098 data to date, including our Phase 1 EXALT study and the IMPACT biomarker interim analysis, and we look forward to reporting topline IMPACT results in the first quarter of 2024."

Jean Van Rampelbergh, CCDO of Imcyse added: "The potential of Imotopes to not only slow but also halt disease progression represents an innovative therapeutic approach that could transform the T1D treatment landscape. The successful recruitment of IMPACT has been the result of a fantastic collaboration with our partners, and we would like to thank INNODIA, T1D UK, as well as all clinical trial physicians and staff, including in Australia, Lithuania and the US, for their dedication to this program."

IMPACT is a Phase 2 multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, dose comparison study designed to evaluate proof of concept efficacy of IMCY-0098 in adults with newly diagnosed T1D. The study is conducted in collaboration with INNODIA, the largest European T1D network comprised of 40 members, including academic institutions, industrial partners and patient organizations. The study exceeded its recruitment target, with a total of 110 patients enrolled and randomized across 28 clinical sites in Europe, the United States and Australia. Patients are randomized 1:1:1 to receive multiple doses plus a booster of 450 g IMCY-0098, 1350 g IMCY-0098 or placebo. The primary endpoint is the change from baseline in C-peptide level. Secondary endpoints include hemoglobin A1C levels, insulin use and continuous glucose monitoring. In addition, biomarker analysis will characterize the immune signature induced by IMCY-0098. Topline results are expected in the first quarter of 2024, based on the 48-week follow up period built into the study.

Data from a previously reported interim biomarker analysis of the Phase 2 IMPACT study showed that IMCY-0098 treatment induces an insulin-specific cytolytic CD4+ immune signature, concomitant with prevention of the expansion of insulin-specific pathogenic Th17 T-cells. In addition, IMCY-0098 demonstrated a favorable safety and tolerability profile in the Phase 1 EXALT trial, with no statistically significant difference in adverse events between placebo group and treated group. Results from the Phase 2 IMPACT trial are expected to inform the design of a Phase 3 trial.

"Type 1 diabetes is a debilitating, lifelong disease linked to a multitude of other problems that impact overall health. There remains a critical unmet need for effective prevention strategies or causal therapies beyond insulin replacement that can improve patient quality of life," commented Prof. Dr. Chantal Mathieu Principal Investigator of the IMPACT study and Coordinator at T1D consortium INNODIA . "Imcyse's immunotherapy approach is very promising as it targets the underlying cause of the disease by reprogramming the immune system so that it no longer attacks and destroys insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. I am delighted to see that recruitment in the Phase 2 trial is now complete, and I look forward to the further development of this promising candidate."

The IMPACT clinical trial is supported by the Walloon Region of Belgium under grant agreement N 8234.

For more information on this clinical trial, please visit: www.clinicaltrials.gov , NCT04524949.

###

ABOUT TYPE 1 DIABETES

In T1D, beta-cells in the pancreas are destroyed due to an improper immune response. This damage to the pancreas causes the organ to stop producing insulin, the hormone that controls blood-sugar levels. In most cases, the onset of T1D occurs in children and adolescents, but it can also affect adults.

ABOUT IMCY-0098

IMCY-0098, the Company's most advanced Imotope in development, is designed to halt the progression of diabetes by stopping the body's immune system from attacking beta-cells. With early intervention the aim is to preserve the pancreas' ability to produce insulin and allow patients to manage the disease without the need for daily insulin injections. The Imcyse approach is unique and distinct to general tolerance induction or overall "immune-suppression". Imotopes specifically target the autoimmune pathway without harming the rest of the immune system.

ABOUT IMCYSE

Imcyse is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company pioneering the development of a new class of active specific immunotherapies for the treatment of severe chronic autoimmune diseases. The company's unique technology platform allows it to locally target immune cells involved in the destruction of the diseased organ. This platform is based on the administration of Imotopes, which are synthetic peptides encompassing a T cell epitope and an active thioredox motif. , Imotopes generate cytolytic CD4 T-cells that specifically eliminate autoantigen-presenting cells and autoantigen-specific lymphocytes involved in the disease pathways. Imcyse's approach, sustained over time, may help to prevent and treat diseases with no current therapeutic options and to potentially cure patients without impairing their immune defenses. The company has established proof of concept in several indications and has completed its first clinical trial in type 1 diabetes with promising results and is expecting top-line data from the fully enrolled Phase 2 study in 2024. A clinical Phase 1/2 clinical trial in Multiple Sclerosis (MS) was initiated in April 2022. Beyond type 1 diabetes and MS, Imcyse is developing a pipeline of Imotopes for the treatment of several autoimmune diseases in large and rare disease indications. Imcyse was founded as a spin-off from the Catholic University of Leuven and is headquartered in Liege, Belgium.

www.imcyse.com

ABOUT INNODIA

INNODIA, a consortium of 40 European partners funded by the European Commission, brings together a large team of international academic researchers and the most important pharmaceutical companies active in diabetes research. The project has been launched to advance understanding of type 1 diabetes and develop tools and technologies that will allow health professionals to predict, evaluate and prevent the onset and progression of the condition. INNODIA has received funding from the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking under grant agreement No 115797 (INNODIA) and No 945268 (INNODIA HARVEST) as part of the Horizon 2020 European program.

CONTACT:

Imcyse S.A.

Jean Van Rampelbergh

Chief Clinical Development Officer

Mail: contact@imcyse.com

Investor Relations:

Life Sci Advisors

Chuck Padala, Managing Director

Mail: chuck@lifesciadvisors.com

Tel: +1-646-627-8390

For Media Inquiries:

MC Services AG

Anne Hennecke / Julia Bittner

Mail: imcyse@mc-services.eu

Tel.: +49 (0) 211-529-252-28

SOURCE: Imcyse

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/741397/Imcyse-Announces-Completion-of-Enrollment-in-Phase-2-IMPACT-Trial-of-IMCY-0098-for-Type-1-Diabetes
ADC Therapeutics SA (NYSE: ADCT) announced today that Ameet Mallik, Chief Executive Officer, will present a company overview at the Cowen 43rd Annual Health Care Conference in Boston, MA, on Tuesday, March 7th at 2:50 p.m. ET.

A live webcast of the presentation will be available via the Events Presentations page in the Investors section of ADC Therapeutics' website, ir.adctherapeutics.com. A replay of the webcast will be available for approximately 30 days.

About ADC Therapeutics

ADC Therapeutics (NYSE: ADCT) is a commercial-stage biotechnology company helping to improve the lives of those affected by cancer with its next-generation, targeted antibody drug conjugates (ADCs). The Company is advancing its proprietary PBD-based ADC technology to transform the treatment paradigm for patients with hematologic malignancies and solid tumors.

ADC Therapeutics' CD19-directed ADC ZYNLONTA (loncastuximab tesirine-lpyl) is approved by the FDA for the treatment of relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma after two or more lines of systemic therapy. ZYNLONTA is also in development in combination with other agents. In addition to ZYNLONTA, ADC Therapeutics has multiple ADCs in ongoing clinical and preclinical development.

ADC Therapeutics is based in Lausanne (Biopole), Switzerland and has operations in London, the San Francisco Bay Area and New Jersey. For more information, please visit https://adctherapeutics.com/ and follow the Company on Twitter and LinkedIn.

ZYNLONTA is a registered trademark of ADC Therapeutics SA.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that can cause actual results to differ materially from those described. Factors that may cause such differences include, but are not limited to: the Company's ability to achieve the 2023 net product sales guidance for ZYNLONTA and the decrease in total operating expenses for 2023 and 2024, the expected cash runway into the middle of 2025, the Company's ability to continue to commercialize ZYNLONTA in the United States and future revenue from the same; Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB (Sobi) ability to successfully commercialize ZYNLONTA in the European Economic Area and market acceptance, adequate reimbursement coverage, and future revenue from the same; our strategic partners', including Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation and Overland Pharmaceuticals, ability to obtain regulatory approval for ZYNLONTA in foreign jurisdictions, and the timing and amount of future revenue and payments to us from such partnerships; the Company's ability to market its products in compliance with applicable laws and regulations; the Company's expectations regarding the impact of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act; the timing and results of the Company's or its partners' research projects or clinical trials including LOTIS 2, 5 and 9, ADCT 901, 601 and 212, the timing and outcome of regulatory submissions and actions by the FDA or other regulatory agencies with respect to the Company's products or product candidates; projected revenue and expenses; the Company's indebtedness, including Healthcare Royalty Management and Blue Owl and Oaktree facilities, and the restrictions imposed on the Company's activities by such indebtedness, the ability to repay such indebtedness and the significant cash required to service such indebtedness; the Company's ability to obtain financial and other resources for its research, development, clinical, and commercial activities and other statements regarding matters that are not historical facts, and involve predictions. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance, achievements or prospects to be materially different from any future results, performance, achievements or prospects expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements. In some cases you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "may", "will", "should", "would", "expect", "intend", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "predict", "potential", "seem", "seek", "future", "continue", or "appear" or the negative of these terms or similar expressions, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Additional information concerning these and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements is contained in the "Risk Factors" section of the Company's Annual Report on Form 20-F and in the Company's other periodic reports and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company cautions investors not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements contained in this document. The Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release, except as required by law.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005027/en/

Contacts:

Investors

Eugenia Litz

ADC Therapeutics

Eugenia.Litz@adctherapeutics.com

+44 7879 627205



Amanda Loshbaugh

ADC Therapeutics

Amanda.Loshbaugh@adctherapeutics.com

+1 917-288-7023



Media

Mary Ann Ondish

ADC Therapeutics

Maryann.Ondish@adctherapeutics.com

+1 914-552-4625
LONDON, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- EarnPark, a brand-new crypto earning platform , is excited to announce the launch of its newly redesigned platform. The new design is aimed at providing users with a more reliable, easy-to-use, and user-friendly experience while earning passive income in crypto .





The new platform offers some of the highest yields and APYs in the market, making it a top choice for users looking to maximize their earning potential. In addition, EarnPark has introduced an advantageous referral program that allows users to earn even more by referring their friends and community to the platform.

The remastered platform is available for everyone, with no limits or lockups, simplifying access and asset management for users. The new design also includes an intuitive interface, enabling revenue tracking and other useful features.

What's more, EarnPark is preparing a product that will expose users to the potential of their cryptocurrencies and help them have more in 10 years' time. This possibility will allow users to unlock the full potential of their crypto and take advantage of the long-term growth prospects of the market. And now users have access to 4 different crypto earning strategies :

13% APY on USDT 13% APY on USDC 11% APY on Bitcoin 8% APY on Ethereum

EarnPark takes security and user protection inherent to traditional platforms and enhances it by introducing decentralization. While redefining personal finance, the company aims to take advantage of the optimistic market opportunity and let people invest and earn consistently.

CEO Quote: "We are thrilled to launch our redesigned platform for our users to enjoy a more reliable, straightforward, and smooth investment experience," said Gene Netso, CEO of EarnPark ( https://twitter.com/eugenenetso ). "We believe that the new platform, combined with our upcoming earning strategies, is the perfect match for anyone looking to earn passive income in crypto and boost their returns in the long run. Our focus is on users, and we can't wait to see them prosper. "

The new EarnPark platform is now live. Sign up and start earning today by visiting the EarnPark website.

Don't miss out on the opportunity to earn passive income in crypto with EarnPark. Follow EarnPark on Twitter and Telegram

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2010832/EarnPark.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2010833/EarnPark_Logo.jpg





View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/earnpark-announces-the-launch-of-redesigned-platform-301759433.html
RIGA, Latvia, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- For the third year in a row, Sun Finance, a Latvia-based financial technology company, has been ranked as one of the fastest-growing companies in Europe by The Financial Times, the world's leading business newspaper. This result allows Sun Finance to become the only Latvian company which has earned a spot in the ranking for three consecutive years.



The Financial Times, a London-based business newspaper, has published its annual FT 1000 ranking, compiled in cooperation with Statista, an independent market research firm. The ranking includes 1000 European companies that over the past four years have achieved the highest compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in revenue. This year, Sun Finance has been ranked as the 25th fastest-growing fintech in Europe.

The Latvian fintech debuted the FT 1000 ranking in 2021, when it was rated as the fastest-growing fintech in Europe. At the time, the company attracted worldwide attention as it had achieved an unprecedented growth in revenue of 618 times or 61 837,8%, a result unbeaten until today. In the following year, Sun Finance managed to retain a record-high growth rate, coming third in the ranking. By conquering the top for the third time this year, Sun Finance has made it among 125 firms that have landed a spot in the ranking for three consecutive years.

"We are delighted to have made it into the top for three years in a row. The top entrants are assessed by looking at their financial results of the previous years. If in the first year we surprised Europe with our record-high CAGR, then going ahead we not only are expected to retain our financial performance but to beat it. To achieve a good result in the ranking, a consistent growth rate is not enough-a company must expand in geometrical progression," states Toms Jurjevs, Founder and CEO of Sun Finance.

About Sun Finance

Since its inception in 2017, Sun Finance's services have been used by 11 million people worldwide, and the company has issued close to 2 billion euros in loans. Sun Finance was founded in 2017 by Toms Jurjevs and Emils Latkovskis, and it operates in eight countries across three continents. The company employs more than 1400 people, 180 of whom work at its headquarters in Riga. Sun Finance is led by a team of seasoned professionals with more than 15 years of experience in managing fintech, financial and IT companies.

Contact:

Sindija Liepina

Sun Finance Group PR project manager

sindija.liepina@sunfinance.group

+371 27886826

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/403bc50c-81ba-4b0e-ac0e-fe62cbe6fe1f
LONDON (dpa-AFX) - ITV Plc (ITV.L), a British free-to-air public broadcast television network, said on Wednesday that it will invest up to 3 million pounds in architectural platform, Resi, for a minority stake. The broadcast firm will invest the sum through advertising inventory across ITV's channels and ITVX. ITV's first investment of 2023 will be completed through ITV Adventures Invest, the firm's Media for Equity investment fund. The investment allows Resi to join ITV's portfolio Media for Equity investments including location app what3words, online menswear brand Spoke, wellness brand Feel and Europe's biggest new car buying marketplace Carwow. Alex Depledge, CEO of Resi, said: 'Through a combination of both the scale of linear TV channels and a growing digital audience with ITVX, ITV enables Resi to speak directly to the everyday homeowner. Homeowners who are looking to improve their property and reduce their energy costs but are not sure where to start or who to trust.' Copyright(c) 2023 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.
International SOS Foundation Recognising Organisations for Their Exceptional Duty of Care Programmes

The International SOS Foundation has revealed their 2023 Duty of Care Awards shortlist today. From leading technology firms and financial institutions to NGOs and manufacturing conglomerates, we received entries from 34 different countries.

Honouring organisations around the world for their dedication to protecting the health, safety, security and wellbeing of their global workforce, the Awards are now in its sixth edition. This year's event theme focusses on resilience and change in light of robust and challenging global circumstances Leading Change for a Re-Imagined Future.

This year's Head of Judges, Peter O'Neil, CEO of ASIS International said, "On behalf of our esteemed panel of judges, I would like to congratulate each of the finalists included in this year's shortlist. The diversity and breadth of the entries received this year was outstanding. These organisations and individuals embodied an unparalleled level of commitment and excellence to protecting the health, safety, security and wellbeing of their people. As we face with challenging and complex times, I do sincerely hope that our finalists will inspire others to adopt these robust Duty of Care initiatives within the core of their workforces."

Kai Boschmann Executive Director of the International SOS Foundation said, "The world has become more fragile experiencing a state of poly-crisis through economic instability, geopolitical tensions, natural disasters exacerbated by climate change, new and re-occurring disease outbreaks and security threats. This year's Duty of Care Summit looks to re-imagine the future resilience measures and best practices to bring positive change for our future. We look forward to announcing the Duty of Care Awards winners in-person during our event on 25 May.

The International SOS Foundation is proud to present Chubb, the world's largest publicly traded property casualty insurance company, as Platinum sponsor for the 2023 Duty of Care Awards Summit.

Frank Scalia, Vice President - Head of National Sales, Accident Health Division at Chubb said, "We are living through a period of unprecedented socio-political and environmental change. The Duty of Care Awards Summit is an important event in recognising organisations' Duty of Care programmes and best practices on a global scale putting a necessary spotlight on companies that provide insurance protection and other risk mitigation programmes for the health, safety, and well-being of employees. We are delighted to be participating in the event for the fifth time and look forward to celebrating those outstanding organisations and individuals in Austin."

The winners, across our six categories, will be announced live as part of our Duty of Care Summit Awards taking place on 25 May 2023 at the Fairmont Austin. Now in its fifth year, the Summit brings together industry-leading experts for discussion, debate, practical case studies and invaluable networking on protecting mobile workers and mitigating risks. To learn more about the event and attend using our early-bird rate visit, https://dutyofcare-summit-awards.aio-events.com/.

The Summit and Awards are proud to have the supporting sponsorship of all organisations below in order to make this event possible: Chubb (Platinum Sponsor), CWT, Marsh,Marsh&McLennan Agency (MMA), Workplace Options (WPO), and Koa Health.

2023 Duty of Care Awards Shortlist Communications COVID-19 Agility Response HCL Technologies Limited Mott MacDonald Philip Morris International (PMI) Salesforce Sinoma International Engineering Co.,Ltd Social Friday Tetra Tech TUV SUD Yanfeng Aditya Birla Management Corporation Pvt. Ltd. Air New Zealand Calcutta Rescue (CR) Energy Development Corporation EY Global Delivery Services Philippines Freeport-McMoRan HCL Technologies Limited JTI SA Kinross Tasiast Kristin School Lendlease Oracle India Private Limited PT Kilang Pertamina Internasional Refinery Unit III Plaju (Pertamina RU III) Red Sea Global Reliance Industries Ltd. Technip Energies (M) Sdn Bhd Wipro Limited Worley WSP (Middle East) Duty of Care Ambassador ESG Aegion Corporation, Todd Brabson Dell Technologies, Stephanie Toutsi Lifecare International, Sheryl Dumasia PwC, Richard Stanley Society for Public Educational Cultural Training and Rural Action, Pradeep Pundhir Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Chris Hart Envision Energy Mahindra Mahindra Limited Rescue Foundation Sonepar Technip Energies (M) Sdn Bhd Tetra Tech WSP Yale University Inclusion and Diversity Innovation Microsoft France Mott MacDonald Societe Generale ssstart Wipro Limited WSP Bristol Myers Squibb China First Highway Engineering Co .Ltd Dell Technologies Groupe La Poste HSBC Khushi Baby PwC Reliance Industries Ltd. Salesforce The Ascott Limited Verisk, Global Protection Services Wolters Kluwer

The Awards were judged by our esteemed panel of judges which includes:

Judge name Biography Location Peter O'Neil CEO ASIS International Peter J. O'Neil, FASAE, CAE, is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ASIS International, the largest global membership organisation for security management professionals that crosses industry sectors, embracing every discipline along the security spectrum from operational to cybersecurity. United States Dr Rachel Lewis Professor Occupational Psychologist Birkbeck University of London Dr Rachel Lewis is a multi-award winning registered occupational psychologist and she leads the Professional Doctorate in Occupational Psychology at Birkbeck, University of London. United Kingdom Suzanne Neufang CEO Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) Suzanne Neufang was named to lead the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) as Chief Executive Officer in February 2021. In her role, she oversees the association's strategy, staff, services, and mission to provide value in the form of community, learning and advocacy to industry members and partners worldwide. She has served at the helm as the $1.4 trillion global business travel industry navigates recovery from the pandemic, in addition to leading the association's ongoing evolution. United States Paul Wolcott President Great Place to Work Paul Wolcott serves as President of Great Place to Work, the global people analytics and consulting firm that helps organisations of all sizes produce better business results by focusing on improving the work experience of every employee. He oversees the US business and has led the firm's global expansion of its employee experience Certification business and people analytics capabilities as co-creator and chief product strategist of Emprising, Great Place To Work's employee experience SaaS offering. United States Dr Pasi Penttinen CEO Gulf Centre For Disease Prevention and Control (Gulf CDC) Dr Penttinen is the Chief Executive Officer for Gulf CDC, based in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He is leading the establishment of this regional Center for Disease Prevention and Control in a scientific and managerial role. Saudi Arabia Deborah de Cerff Founder The Employee Mobility Institute (TEMI) Deborah de Cerff is the Founder of The Employee Mobility Institute (TEMI), the Australasian talent mobility industry's professional development body. Her commitment and passion for supporting and strengthening individual and business mobile workforce capability has helped to create a connected, engaged and informed community of more than 2000 global talent mobility practitioners. Australia Franck Baron Chairman President Pan-Asia Risk Insurance Management Association (PARIMA) International Federation of Risk and Insurance Management Associations (IFRIMA) Franck is the founding Chairman of PARIMA (Pan Asia Risk Insurance Management Association), the Asian regional risk managers association and the president of the International Federation of Risk and Insurance Management Associations (IFRIMA), the international umbrella organisation for risk management associations, representing 20 organisations and over 30 countries around the world. Singapore Gary A. LaBranche CEO RIMS, the Risk Management Society ? Gary, FASAE, CAE, is the Chief Executive Officer of RIMS, the Risk Management Society, a global professional association committed to advancing the professional practice of risk management. RIMS provides networking, professional development, certification, advocacy, and research opportunities to more than 200,000 risk practitioners in 60 countries. United States Johnny C. Taylor, Jr. President and CEO Society For Human Resource Management (SHRM) Mr. Taylor's career spans over 20 years as a lawyer, human resources executive and CEO in both the not-for-profit and for-profit space. As a global leader on the future of employment, culture and leadership, he is a sought-after voice on all matters affecting work, workers and the workplace. United States Steve Kenzie Executive Director UN Global Compact Network (UNGC) UK Steve has managed the Secretariat of the UN Global Compact Network UK since 2008, inspiring and enabling UK companies to be more sustainable. He has Chaired the UN Global Compact's Global Network Council and was a member of the UN Global Compact Board. United Kingdom

END

About the International SOS Foundation

Celebrating 10 years as ambassadors for Duty of Care, the International SOS Foundation drives and promotes best practice in protecting employee safety, security, health and wellbeing. Through a range of groundbreaking thought-leadership, CPD and IOSH accredited training and expert led events, the Foundation helps to share vital insight, understanding, and practical risk mitigation measures. All employees need to be protected, at home or away, and the COVID-19 pandemic has created an evolving and complex Duty of Care landscape for organisations to navigate.

The Foundation is a registered charity. Initially launched with a grant from International SOS in 2011, it is now an independent, non-profit organisation.

For more information on Duty of Care and the International SOS Foundation, please visit http://www.internationalsosfoundation.org/

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005613/en/

Contacts:

Alexis Harding

Group Head of PR, International SOS

Email: alexis.harding@internationalsos.com


The 39th Hong Kong International Jewellery Show and the 9th Hong Kong International Diamond, Gem & Pearl Show, organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, open today at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai.



The Hon Cheuk Wing-hing, Deputy Chief Secretary for Administration of HKSAR (front row, 5th from L); Dr Peter K N Lam, HKTDC Chairman (front row, 6th from L); Margaret Fong, HKTDC Executive Director (front row, 7th from L) and guests attend the opening ceremony of the 39th Hong Kong International Jewellery Show and the 9th Hong Kong International Diamond, Gem & Pearl Show.



The Hong Kong International Diamond, Gem & Pearl Show offers a wide range of raw materials for jewellery and treasures

HONG KONG, Mar 1, 2023 - (ACN Newswire) - Social distancing measures came to an end, as the mask mandate was officially lifted today, expediting the recovery of business activities between Hong Kong, Mainland China and the rest of the world.The 39th Hong Kong International Jewellery Show and the 9th Hong Kong International Diamond, Gem & Pearl Show, organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), are the first major trade fairs being held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai after the territory returns to normalcy. The twin shows run from today until 5 March.The opening ceremony of the twin jewellery shows was held this morning with Deputy Chief Secretary for Administration, The Hon CHEUK Wing-hing, GBS, JP, as the guest of honour. Speaking at the ceremony, Mr Lawrence Ma, Chairman of the Fairs' Organising Committee, said: "The twin jewellery shows are the first major international trade event since the complete lifting of anti-epidemic measures, projecting a gradual recovery of economy and trade between Hong Kong, the Mainland and the rest of the world. I hope the shows will create more business deals and collaboration opportunities for global exhibitors."Keen participation from the Mainland and overseas exhibitorsWith the global economy moving towards normalcy, both mainland and overseas exhibitors are enthusiastic to participate in this year's shows, with over 2,500 exhibitors from 36 countries and regions. The HKTDC has also organised 100 buying missions from 70 countries and regions. A total of 20 pavilions have been set up - including those from the mainland, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, India, Turkey, Israel, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Brazil, Colombia and the United States.Renowned jewellery industry organisations, such as the Asia Pacific Creator Association, International Colored Gemstone Association, Tanzanite Foundation and T-GOLD+METS Pavilion - co-organised by the Hong Kong Jewellery & Jade Manufacturers Association and the Italian Exhibition Group - also return, signalling the confidence of international companies in Hong Kong as a business platform.Seventeen themed zones gather world-class jewellersExhibitors value the first trade fairs after the pandemic and bring a wide range of valuable and unique jewellery items to both shows. This year's Hong Kong International Jewellery Show features 17 themed zones, including the Hall of the Extraordinary, Hall of Fame, Designer Galleria and World of Glamour, which showcases jewellery from local brands. A number of jewellers present high quality and distinct jewellery, including an exquisite jadeite bead necklace (On Tung Company, booth no: GH-C10); a classic elegant Burmese ruby ring (Fai Dee Limited, booth no: GH-C31); and a uniquely-crafted zodaria bracelet, a panther-shaped diamond bracelet in gold (Nico Juliany SL, booth no: GH-G03).Also featured at the show is the 21st Hong Kong Jewellery Design Competition Open Group award-winning pendant in 18K gold, diamonds, rubies and sapphires (Charente Fine Jewelry, booth no: 1CON-008). Additionally, a Korean exhibitor has brought along a magnificent brooch inspired by the natural bracken plants of Jeju Island (Gina Fine Jewelry Creator, booth no: 1CON-024), highlighting the refined, beautiful wares with sophisticated craftsmanship.The Hong Kong International Diamond, Gem & Pearl Show, held at the same time as the Jewellery Show, showcases the finest diamonds and pearls as well as quality gemstones and raw materials for jewellery from various origins in the Hall of Fine Diamond, Treasures of Nature and Treasures of Ocean. The show features natural coloured diamonds with cushion, oval pear, heart cuts and premium black opals from the Lightning Ridge in northern New South Wales, Australia; drop-shaped and hole-drilled emeralds; Canadian Ammonite and Ammolite; Mexican fire opals and various pearl products.Various seminars and forums to facilitate business exchangeA number of seminars, forums and parades will be held during the twin jewellery shows to facilitate networking and keep participants abreast of the latest industry trends. These include a seminar titled "Hong Kong Jewellery Industry Shines over the World" and a buyer forum on "Updated Market Trend of Jewellery Market in ASEAN Markets" tomorrow (2 March). There will also be seminars on "Ammolite - A 71 Million-Year Natural Treasure only from Alberta, Canada" (3 March) and "Jewellery Industry: Go Smart and Green" (4 March) and more.The results of the 24th Hong Kong Jewellery Design Competition - which aims to raise the standard and quality of jewellery design, and to cultivate local creative talents - have been recently announced. The winning entries are currently displayed outside Hall 1E.Twin jewellery shows run under the EXHIBITION+ online and offline hybrid modelAs the pandemic accelerated the adoption of e-commerce, jewellery retailers are increasingly using social media and e-platforms to promote their brands and expand sales channels. To help companies adapt to the new normal, the HKTDC's EXHIBITION+ hybrid model combines physical fairs, the Click2Match smart business-matching platform, online-to-offline seminars and forums (Intelligence Hub), and the hktdc.com Sourcing platform. EXHIBITION+ extends face-to-face interaction and promotion activities from physical exhibitions to online.The Click2Match smart business-matching platform for both jewellery shows is accessible from 1 to 12 March, allowing both buyers and sellers an extended period to meet online beyond the physical fairs to facilitate further collaboration.Websites:- Hong Kong International Jewellery Show: https://www.hktdc.com/event/hkjewellery/en- Hong Kong International Diamond, Gem & Pearl Show: https://www.hktdc.com/event/hkdgp/en- Activities Schedule: https://www.hktdc.com/event/hkjewellery/en/intelligence-hub- HKTDC Media Room: https://mediaroom.hktdc.com/en- Photos download: https://bit.ly/3YffTnkAbout HKTDCThe Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) is a statutory body established in 1966 to promote, assist and develop Hong Kong's trade. With 50 offices globally, including 13 in Mainland China, the HKTDC promotes Hong Kong as a two-way global investment and business hub. The HKTDC organises international exhibitions, conferences and business missions to create business opportunities for companies, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), in the mainland and international markets. The HKTDC also provides up-to-date market insights and product information via research reports and digital news channels. For more information, please visit: www.hktdc.com/aboutus. Follow us on Twitter @hktdc and LinkedInMedia enquiriesPlease contact the HKTDC's Communications & Public Affairs Department:Janet Chan, Tel: +852 2584 4369, Email: janet.ch.chan@hktdc.orgFrankie Leung, Tel: +852 2584 4298, Email: frankie.cy.leung@hktdc.orgSource: HKTDCCopyright 2023 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved.
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / March 1, 2023 / Fabled Copper Corp. ("Fabled Copper" or the "Company") (CSE:FABL)(FSE:XZ7) announces the results of 2022 surface field work on its Muskwa Copper Project. See Figure 1 below.

Figure 1 - General Property Location

The Project is comprised of the Neil Property, the Toro Property and the Bronson Property all located in northern British Columbia. See Figure 2 below.

Figure 2 - Location Map

The eastern extension of the Eagle Creek copper occurrence is located on the Neil Property roughly 1.5 km east of the 6400 Eagle Vein adit where the 2022 underground LIDAR survey was completed. The Eagle creek flows northward into the Yedhe Creek and it is located in the same valley that contains the eastern end of the 6400 adit & Eagle Vein exposure that are located on the west cliff face of the valley. During the summer of 2022 the Eagle Creek (See Release dated February 7, 2023), east extension of the Eagle Creek copper occurrence, the western extension, north extension, southern extension and the backside of the Eagle vein were visited on sperate occasions.

This release pertains to the eastern extension of the Eagle Creek Copper occurrence site visit, see Figure 3 below.

Figure 3 - Eagle Creek Copper Occurrence Location

Peter Hawley, President, CEO reports; "The eastern extension of the Eagle Creek copper occurrence was visited by a 2-person field team consisting of a geologist and geo technician on two occasions during the summer field season. A total of 10 samples were collected, all float samples. Of the 10 samples collected, 3 assayed greater than 0.5% copper. See Table 1 below.

Over the course of two site visits a vertical altitude of 335 meters was examined and 10 float samples were collected, three of which assayed greater that 0.50% copper. See Photo 1 below.

Photo 1 - East Eagle Creek Exposed Veining over 335 meters vertically, note folding

Float sample D-723607 taken at the 1,557-meter elevation consisted of semi massive sulphides with quartz, minor carbonate, abundant azurite and malachite copper alteration with 60% chalcopyrite and 35% quartz. This sample returned an impressive 15.55% copper. See Table 1 and Photo 1, below.

Photo 1 - Sample D-723607 - 15.55 % copper.

At the 1,307 meter altitude float sample D-723612 which consisted of vuggy quartz veining with minor patches of minor carbonate and iron carbonate contained abundant malachite copper alteration with 8% chalcopyrite as patched and disseminations and returned 6.14% copper. See Table 1, Photo 2 below

Photo 2 - Sample D-723612 - 15.55 % copper.

Table 1- East Extension of Eagle Creek Occurrence Sample Results

Sample No. Elevation (m) Copper % Sample Type D-723607 1,579 15.55 Float D-723608 1,558 0.03 Float D-723609 1,524 0.41 Float D-723611 1,407 0.04 Float D-723612 1,307 6.14 Float D-723613 1,478 1.09 Float D-723614 1,665 0.45 Float D-723692 1,599 0.24 Float D-723693 1,641 0.03 Float D-723695 1,607 0.01 Float

1% copper = 22.2 pounds

As per protocol, all sample locations were taken with GPS along with GPS enabled field cameras of photos of the sampled units. The photos, sample locations and all assay data pertaining to the assay taken, (36 elements were assayed) were tagged in a geo tag format for plotting in .kml / .kmz GIS systems such as Google Earth. See Photo 3 below

Photo 3 - Geotagging sample / photo location

An additional releases on the 2022 exploration program of the Muskwa area will be forth coming in the following weeks.

QA QC Procedure

Analytical results of sampling reported by Fabled Copper Corp represent rock samples submitted by Fabled Copper Corp staff directly to ALS Chemex, Vancouver, British Columbia Canada. Samples were crushed, split, and pulverized as per ALS Chemex method PREP-31, then analyzed for ME-ICP61 33 element package by four acid digestion with ICP-AES Finish. ME-GRA21 method for Au and Ag by fire assay and gravimetric finish, 30g nominal sample weight.

Over Limit Methods

For samples triggering precious metal over-limit thresholds of 10 g/t Au or 100 g/t Ag, the following is being used:

Au-GRA21 Au by fire assay and gravimetric finish with 30 g sample.

Ag-GRA21 Ag by fire assay and gravimetric finish.

Fabled Copper Corp. monitors QA/QC using commercially sourced standards and locally sourced blank materials inserted within the sample sequence at regular intervals.

About Fabled Copper Corp.

Fabled Copper is a junior mining exploration company. Its current focus is to creating value for stakeholders through the exploration and development of its existing copper properties located in northern British Columbia. The Muskwa Project is located in the Liard Mining Division in northern British Columbia.

Mr. Peter J. Hawley, President and C.E.O.

Fabled Copper Corp.

Phone: (819) 316-0919

peter@fabledcopper.org

For further information please contact:

info@fabledcopper.org

The technical information contained in this news release has been approved by Peter J. Hawley, P.Geo. President and C.E.O. of Fabled, who is a Qualified Person as defined in National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

The Canadian Securities Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Certain statements contained in this news release constitute "forward-looking information" as such term is used in applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking information is based on plans, expectations and estimates of management at the date the information is provided and is subject to certain factors and assumptions, including, that the Company's financial condition and development plans do not change as a result of unforeseen events and that the Company obtains any required regulatory approvals.

Forward-looking information is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause plans, estimates and actual results to vary materially from those projected in such forward-looking information. Some of the risks and other factors that could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: impacts from the coronavirus or other epidemics, general economic conditions in Canada, the United States and globally; industry conditions, including fluctuations in commodity prices; governmental regulation of the mining industry, including environmental regulation; geological, technical and drilling problems; unanticipated operating events; competition for and/or inability to retain drilling rigs and other services; the availability of capital

on acceptable terms; the need to obtain required approvals from regulatory authorities; stock market volatility; volatility in market prices for commodities; liabilities inherent in mining operations; changes in tax laws and incentive programs relating to the mining industry; as well as the other risks and uncertainties applicable to the Company as set forth in the Company's continuous disclosure filings filed under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com . The Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements, other than as required by applicable law.

SOURCE: Fabled Copper Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/741393/Fabled-Copper-Reports-Values-as-High-as-1555-Copper-on-East-Extension-of-the-Eagle-Creek-Copper-Occurrence
TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / March 1, 2023 / Forward Water Technologies Corp. (TSXV:FWTC) (the "Company" or "FWTC") is pleased to announce that it has filed its condensed consolidated un-audited financial statements and related management's discussion and analysis for the three and nine months ended December 31, 2022 and 2021. Copies of these financial statements and related management's discussion and analysis can be found on the Company's issuer profile at www.sedar.com. All financial information in this news release is reported in Canadian dollars, unless otherwise indicated.

Q3 Financial Highlights

Total expenses were $577,766 for the three months ended December 31, 2022, and $1,742,884 for the nine months ended December 31, 2022.

Net loss and comprehensive loss was $522,920 for the three months ended December 31, 2022, compared to a loss of $1,938,856 for the same period in 2021. The net loss and comprehensive loss for the nine month period ended December 31, 2022 was $1,588,968 compared to a loss of $3,504,400 for the same period in 2021.

Basic loss per share was $0.00 and $0.02 for the three and nine months ended December 31, 2022, respectively, compared to $0.02 and $0.05 for the same three and nine months in 2021.

Operating Highlights and Recent Corporate Developments

On November 3, 2022, the Company was awarded $97,773 in matching funds as part of The Canadian Food Innovation Network's Innovation Booster Program

The Company recognized $30,389 in revenue for the quarter, the first significant commercial revenue. This is a result of new contracts with customers to test wastewater and water samples from mineral recovery processes as preliminary steps toward a project order

Significant progress has been made on the building of the mobile demonstration unit which is now 80% complete, the completion of which will align with the first commercial contract

On January 9, 2023, the Company granted incentive stock options to certain employees to acquire an aggregate of 620,000 common shares at an exercise price of $0.085

On January 20, 2023, the Company grated incentive stock options to the CEO, to acquire 425,000 common shares at an exercise price of $0.105

On February 8, 2023, the Company announced the renewal of the contract with Agora Internet Relations Corp to provide online advertising, marketing and branding services commencing January 1, 2023. The Company is not paying cash for the program due to AGORA'S shares for services program

Management Commentary

"FWTC sees the early revenue received in this quarter as a clear indication of interest from our developing client base across several sectors. Our goal is to rapidly develop these opportunities to full commercial scale" said Howie Honeyman, CEO of the Company.

Summary of Financial Results

Income Statement

Balance Sheet

Statement of Cash Flows

About Forward Water Technologies Corp.

Forward Water Technologies Corp. is a publicly traded Canadian company dedicated to saving the earth's water supply using its patented Forward Osmosis technology. The Company was founded by GreenCentre Canada, a leading technology innovation centre supported by the government of Canada. The Company's technology allows for the reduction of challenging waste streams simultaneously returning fresh water for re-use or surface release. The Company's mandate is to focus on the large-scale implementation of its technology in multiple sectors, including industrial wastewater, oil and gas, mining, agriculture and ultimately municipal water supply and re-use market sectors. In addition, the Company has initiated early stage R&D for the treatment of food and beverage process streams.

For more information, please visit www.forwardwater.com.

Contact Information

For more information or interview requests, please contact:

C. Howie Honeyman - Chief Executive Officer

howie.honeyman@forwardwater.com

416-451-8155

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.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this news release constitute "forward-looking information" as such term is used in applicable Canadian securities laws including statements regarding expansion and uptake of the Company's technology and the ability for the Company to achieve its growth strategy and business plan. Forward-looking information is based on plans, expectations and estimates of management at the date the information is provided and is subject to certain factors and assumptions, including, the ability to scale the technology and the adoption of the technology by potential customers.

Forward-looking information is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause plans, estimates and actual results to vary materially from those projected in such forward-looking information. Some of the risks and other factors that could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: the impacts from the coronavirus or other epidemics, general economic conditions in Canada, the United States and globally; unanticipated operating events; the availability of capital on acceptable terms; the need to obtain required approvals from regulatory authorities; stock market volatility as well as the other risks and uncertainties applicable to the Company as set forth in the Company's continuous disclosure filings filed under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com. The Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements, other than as required by applicable law.

Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information.

SOURCE: Forward Water Technologies Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/741391/Forward-Water-Technologies-Announces-Third-Quarter-Financial-Results
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - March 1, 2023) - Xplore Resources Corp. (TSXV: XPLR) ("Xplore or "the Company"), is pleased to report results from the initial reconnaissance mapping of the Surge Lithium Property ("Surge"), located approximately 110 kilometres northeast of Sioux Lookout, Ontario.

Highlights:

Trace element results suggest opportunity for lithium-cesium-tantalum ("LCT") type pegmatites;

Key element ratios indicate favourable setting for LCT pegmatites;

Anomalous copper, zinc and nickel results associated with sulphide trend;

In Q4, 2022, the Company completed an initial reconnaissance mapping and sampling program at Surge. The program was undertaken to evaluate access to and outcrop exposure within the Surge property in advance of 2023 exploration budget preparation. Any outcrops of interest were sampled and submitted for multi-element analyses.

A total of ten pegmatite outcrops were identified, five (5) of which were channel sampled. The identified pegmatite outcrops were identified south of the St. Joseph Fault ("SJF"), on trend to known lithium-cesium-tantalum ("LCT") pegmatites currently being drilled at the adjacent Root Property owned by Green Technology Metals Ltd. ("GT1"). The St. Joseph Fault ("SJF"), which defines the regional geological break between the Uchi and English River geological sub-provinces. These sub-provincial breaks are considered prospective for LCT pegmatites, as demonstrated by GT1's recent reporting on exploration results.

Trace element and element ratios from the five pegmatites sampled to date at Surge returned values within the tolerances specified by Cerny P. (1989) for fertile granites (Ref. Table 1.0). The reader is cautioned that the limited data population may not be representative and further sampling and analysis is strongly recommended.

Sample results were also returned for the 1,500 metre long, east-west striking zone of disseminated to massive sulphide mineralization identified in eight (8) outcrops parallel to the SJF in the northern portion of the property (Ref. Figure 1.0). A total of sixteen (16), saw cut channel samples were collected from outcrop and submitted for analysis. Results identified anomalous copper, nickel and zinc mineralization in 81% of the sample population with anomalous gold mineralization identified in 25% of the samples submitted (Ref. Table 2.0).

Wes Hanson, P.Geo., President and CEO of Xplore, notes, "Our primary objective at Surge in 2022 was to confirm access to the property and evaluate the surface exposure in advance of an exploration program in 2023. I had no real expectations that sampling would return economic lithium values, especially considering the limited coverage and the time of year. The fact that pegmatites were observed and returned geochemical values suggesting potential for LCT type pegmatite formation is the key takeaway from this limited sampling. More surprising was the strong sulphide mineralization identified to the north and the sample results which indicate widespread, anomalous copper, zinc and nickel values along the entire 1,500 metre trend identified to date. Tracing this system to the interpreted structural intersections (T2 and T3) to the east and the possible folded strata (T1) to the west is a high priority in 2023. In addition, the 1,000 metre wide zone of magnetic destruction east and adjacent to target T1 (Ref. Figure 2.0) remains unexplained as this area was inaccessible due to unsafe ice conditions. This is an intriguing response in the magnetic survey, warranting field verification. I am encouraged by these initial results and cautiously optimistic that Surge offers discovery potential for LCT type pegmatites, similar to those discovered to the west, as well as opportunity for copper and nickel mineralization as evidenced by the sulphide trend to the north. Our plan for 2023 is to focus on advancing our lithium properties in 2023. As a result, we made the difficult decision to terminate the option agreements on the Upper Red Lake and Pringle Lake Gold properties as we transition to a pure battery metal focused junior explorer."

Figure 1.0 - Surge Regional Geology with 2022 Reconnaissance Discoveries



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/7519/156698_bcdf89aaf45e0a1c_002full.jpg

Figure 2.0 Surge - First Vertical Derivative with Priority Targets and Sulphide Trend



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/7519/156698_bcdf89aaf45e0a1c_003full.jpg

Exploration in 2023 shall focus on confirming the northern and western limit of the peraluminous granite and concentrating the search for LCT type pegmatites outboard from that defined contact. Analytical results from the initial sampling of the sulphide trend will determine the priority of the T1-3 target areas.

Table 1.0 -Multi-Element Analytical Summary - Surge Pegmatites

Trace

Element Minimum Maximum Element

Ratios Minimum Maximum Ba 21 206 K:Rb 127 199 Be 3.1 12.9 K:Cs 1239 7014 Cs 6.9 22.2 K:Ba 179 1173 Ga 14.7* 25.7 Rb:Sr 4.1 11 Li 8 24 Mg:Li 20 87.5* Rb 98 267 Al:Ga 2887 4993* Sn 1 9 Zr:Hf 10 23 Sr 32 56 Ti 50 200 Y 1.9* 5.8 Zr <1 21

*Indicates result outside specification.

Table 2.0 - Multi-Element Analytical Summary - Surge Sulphide Trend

Element Minimum Maximum Average Au (ppb) trace 48 5.9 Cu (ppm) 10.3 141 61.7 Ni (ppm) 6.2 103 57.7 Zn (ppm) 8.7 393 153.6

Analytical Description

Surface samples were collected from outcrop exposure utilizing a diamond saw. Samples were delivered to Activation Laboratories Ltd. ("Actlabs"), Thunder Bay, ON. Canada, an ISO/IEC 17025:2017 certified analytical laboratory with extensive experience in geochemical analysis of exploration samples. All sample preparation and analysis was completed at the Thunder Bay location using the following analytical methods:

Ultratrace 3 Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA)+ICP-OES and ICP-MS analyses by 4 acid digestion

Ultratrace 7 Peroxide Total Fusion ICP-OES+ICP-MS for total metal recovery.

Quality Control and Quality Assurance

No quality control- quality assurance procedures were utilized during this reconnaissance field program.

Corporate

The Company announces the termination of the option agreements for the Upper Red Lake and Pringle Lake properties to allow the Company to focus on their portfolio of lithium properties in Ontario and Brazil as well as the 100% owned Valk copper property in British Columbia.

About Xplore Resources (TSXV: XPLR)

Xplore Resources is a Toronto based exploration company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under symbol XPLR and is focused on the acquisition and development of battery metal projects in the Americas. The Company is led by a highly experienced management team and is comprised of industry experts with executive and senior management experience.

Qualified Person

Wes Hanson, P. Geo., President & CEO of Xplore and registered in the Provinces of Ontario is the "Qualified Person" under National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") and is responsible for the technical contents of this news release and has approved the disclosure of the technical information contained herein.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"Wesley C. Hanson"

President & CEO

For further information, please contact:

Phone: +1 647-202-7686

Email: whanson@xploreresources.com

NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE

ANY SECURITIES REFERRED TO HEREIN WILL NOT BE REGISTERED UNDER THE U.S. SECURITIES ACT OF 1933, AS AMENDED (THE "1933 ACT"), AND MAY NOT BE OFFERED OR SOLD IN THE UNITED STATES OR TO A U.S. PERSON IN THE ABSENCE OF SUCH REGISTRATION OR AN EXEMPTION FROM THE REGISTRATION REQUIREMENTS OF THE 1933 ACT.

THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE INC. HAS IN NO WAY PASSED UPON THE MERITS OF THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION AND HAS NEITHER APPROVED NOR DISAPPROVED THE CONTENTS OF THIS PRESS RELEASE.

Notice on forward-looking statements:

Information set forth in this news release contains forward-looking statements. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations; they are not guarantees of future performance. Xplore cautions that all forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain, and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond Xplore's control. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to Xplore's ability to complete the proposed Transaction; and other risks and uncertainties, including those to be described in the Filing Statement to be filed by Xplore on SEDAR.com. Accordingly, actual, and future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions, and expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, Xplore undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/156698


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Julie Su, who is known as a champion for workers, will become the new Secretary of the Department of Labor.



President Joe Biden will officially announce her nomination at White House at 9:30 AM ET Wednesday.



'It is my honor to nominate Julie Su to be our country's next Secretary of Labor. Julie has spent her life fighting to make sure that everyone has a fair shot, that no community is overlooked, and that no worker is left behind,' Biden said in a statement released by the White House.



'Over several decades, Julie has led the largest state labor department in the nation, cracked down on wage theft, fought to protect trafficked workers, increased the minimum wage, created good-paying, high-quality jobs, and established and enforced workplace safety standards,' he added.



Biden urged the Senate to take up her nomination quickly.



Julie Su, who has been serving as the Deputy Secretary of Labor since July 2021, will head the agency after current Secretary Marty Walsh steps down later this month.



Previously, Su was the Labor Secretary for the State of California where she worked closely with unions and employers to build high road training partnerships to connect people to good, union jobs.



Su began her life in government service as the California Labor Commissioner where she launched the 'Wage Theft is a Crime' campaign with the support of both labor and management. Su spent 17 years as a civil rights attorney representing workers who are often invisible, including 72 Thai garment workers who were trafficked into the US and forced to work behind barbed wire and under armed guard. Her work earned her a MacArthur 'genius' award.



The Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus had pushed for the nomination of Su, who was born in Wisconsin to Chinese immigrants.



54-year-old Su is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Law School.



Copyright(c) 2023 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
Halifax, Nova Scotia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 1, 2023) - EDM Resources Inc. (TSXV: EDM) ("EDM" or the "Company") is pleased to announce a non-brokered hard dollar and flow-though private placement for aggregate gross proceeds of up to C$1,650,000 (the "Offering").

The Company's President and CEO, Mr. Mark Haywood, commented: "We are very pleased to provide an opportunity for investors to participate in this private placement, which the Company anticipates being the last prior to the commencement of commercial production presently scheduled for January 2024. The majority of the net proceeds of the hard dollar component of this financing is planned to exchange the Company's C$3 million cash environmental bond with a surety environmental bond, which in effect releases the C$3 million to EDM's treasury. The proceeds of the flow-through component of the financing will be used to advance the Company's exploration projects which are near to the Scotia Mine.

With only 20 million shares currently issued and outstanding, EDM is a tightly held, publicly traded mining company which in the last 3 years has taken the Scotia Mine from a moth-balled project to a permitted and compliant mine, financed to commercial production by one of the world's largest traders of physical non-ferrous metals, Geneva based IXM S.A."

The hard dollar component of the Offering is a non-brokered private placement of up to 3,000,000 units ("HD Units") of the Company (the "Hard Dollar Offering") at a price of C$0.50 per HD Unit, each HD Unit consisting of one common share of the Company (each an "HD Share") and one share purchase warrant entitling the holder to purchase one common share of the Company (each an "HD Warrant Share") at a price of C$0.75 for each HD Warrant Share, until the date that is 36 months from the closing of the Hard Dollar Offering. The Company will use the net proceeds from the HD Offering to advance geotechnical and environmental bonding work at its wholly-owned Scotia Mine, located 60 km north of Halifax (the "Scotia Mine"), to pay deposits for critical long-lead time equipment required to commence mining operations at the Scotia Mine, and for general working capital purposes.

The flow-through component of the Offering is a non-brokered private placement of up to 250,000 common shares ("FT Units") of the Company (the "Flow-Through Offering") at a price of C$0.60 per FT Unit, each FT Unit consisting of one common share of the Company (each an "FT Share") and one half of one share purchase warrant entitling the holder to purchase one common share of the Company (each an "FT Warrant Share") at a price of C$0.75 for each FT Warrant Share until the date that is 36 months from the closing of the Flow-Through Offering. The Company will use the gross proceeds from the Flow-Through Offering to conduct exploration work on its mineral properties qualifying as Canadian Exploration Expenditures, as such term is defined in the Income Tax Act (Canada).

Certain directors, officers and other insiders of the Company are expected to acquire securities under the Offering. Such participation will be a "related party transaction" as such term is defined in Multilateral Instrument 61-101- Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101") but is exempt from the valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101.

The Offering is subject to the TSX Venture Exchange approval.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any of the securities in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available.

About EDM Resources Inc.

EDM is a Canadian exploration and mining company that has full ownership of the Scotia Mine and related facilities near Halifax, Nova Scotia. Through its wholly owned subsidiary, EDM also holds several prospective exploration licenses near its Scotia Mine and in the surrounding regions of Nova Scotia.

The Company's common shares are traded on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "EDM". For more information, please contact:

Mark Haywood - President & Chief Executive Officer

Kevin Farrell - Chief Financial Officer

Simion Candrea - Vice President

Head Office Purdy's Wharf, 1959 Upper Water Street, Suite 1301, Nova Scotia, B3J 3N2, Canada

Telephone +1 (902) 482 4481

Facsimile +1 (902) 422 2388

Email & Web info@EDMresources.com & www.EDMresources.com

The Company's corporate filings and technical reports can be viewed on the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. Further information on EDM is also available on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/EDMresources.inc Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/EDMresources and LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/company/EDMresources .

CAUTIONARY STATEMENTS

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

This news release includes certain forward-looking statements which are not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking statements include estimates and statements that describe the Company's future plans, objectives or goals, including words to the effect that the Company or management expects a stated condition or result to occur. Forward-looking statements may be identified by such terms as "believes", "anticipates", "expects", "estimates", "may", "should", "could", "would", "will", or "plan". Since forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Although these statements are based on information currently available to the Company, the Company provides no assurance that actual results will meet management's expectations. Risks, uncertainties, and other factors involved with forward-looking information could cause actual events, results, performance, prospects, and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Forward-looking information in this news release includes, but is not limited to, the Company's objectives, goals or future plans, statements, potential mineralization, exploration and development results, the estimation of mineral resources, exploration and mine development plans, timing of the commencement of operations and estimates of market conditions. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from EDM's expectations include, among others, the degree to which mineral resource and reserve estimates are reflective of actual mineral resources and reserves, the degree to which factors are present which would make a mineral deposit commercially viable, the price of zinc, lead and gypsum, uncertainties relating to availability and costs of financing needed in the future, changes in equity markets, risks related to international operations, the actual results of current exploration activities, delays in the development of projects, conclusions of economic evaluations and changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined as well as future prices of metals, ability to predict or counteract potential impact of COVID-19 coronavirus on factors relevant to the Company's business, as well as those factors discussed in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in EDM's management's discussion and analysis of the Company's annual financial statements for the period ended December 31, 2021. Although EDM has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results to be not as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/156700
OTTAWA (dpa-AFX) - Enbridge Inc. (ENB, ENB.TO) said it expects to grow earnings per share and EBITDA by a compound annual growth rate or 'CAGR' of 4%-6% through 2025. Enbridge announced an $3.3 billion of new accretive investments, which includes expanding USGC footprint through investments in oil and gas storage and furthering NG strategy by investing in Divert Inc., a RNG infrastructure company. In addition, Enbridge said it reached a definitive agreement with Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (BIP) and Crestwood Equity Partners LP (CEQP) to acquire Tres Palacios Holdings LLC for US$335 million. The transaction is expected to be accretive in its first full year of ownership. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2023. Additionally, Enbridge noted that it agreed to buy a 10% stake in Divert Inc, food waste management company expanding into RNG to help major food retailers manage their waste more sustainably, for US$80 million. The agreement includes further investment opportunities to develop wasted-food-to-RNG projects across the US providing line of site to greater than $1 billion of new capital growth which will be underpinned by long-term take-or-pay contracts. Enbridge expects to close the transaction in March 2023. Meanwhile, Enbridge stated that it plans to build a 14km natural gas pipeline to support ArcelorMittal Dofasco's plan to change the way it makes steel, eliminating coal as a fuel for ironmaking. Copyright(c) 2023 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.
The founder-led global company's new identity further strengthens its mission to be the CX solutions and team behind the world's leading brands with its 170,000-strong workforce

Sitel Group, one of the largest global providers of customer experience (CX) products and solutions, today announces its official transition to Foundever. Since acquiring Sykes Enterprises, Inc. (SYKES) in 2021, the group has solidified its place as one of the top three CX providers in the world. The rebrand to Foundever reflects the company's commitment to innovation, dynamism and best-in-class CX delivery.

"The CX industry has changed drastically since we founded this company 30 years ago," said Laurent Uberti, President, CEO Co-founder, Foundever. "What was once manual and local is now digital first and global. Yet, CX remains rooted in human-to-human interactions. For over three decades, we have sought to innovate and adapt with the times while maintaining a strong human-centric element to our solutions. I'm proud to say that we have successfully grown from a small startup to a global company that delivers over 9 million customer conversations and insights each day to help our clients navigate their digital transformation journey. Launching Foundever is a chance to bring us back to our entrepreneurial roots and simplify CX for the brands we support."

Combining global strength with an agile, award-winning entrepreneurial spirit enables Foundever to have the scalability and digital know-how to support the world's leading brands as they develop best-in-class CX strategies for their clients. With support available in over 60 languages and several locations in 45 countries, Foundever has a truly global reach and a revenue of $4 billion. Its staff, which is composed of 170,000 people worldwide, gives the company the ability to serve over 750 brands across the Americas, Asia Pacific, Africa and Europe.

"This new chapter of becoming Foundever gives us the opportunity to build on the company values that have been in place for decades," said Olivier Camino, Global COO Co-founder, Foundever. "Consumer demand is changing and brands must be able to deliver customer experiences faster and with more complexity. Since we founded this company, we've continued to evolve and transform to meet modern-day needs, finding a balance between human and technology. Because we know the employee experience is the customer experience, we're committed to maintaining an employee culture that is diverse and inclusive, creating an environment that helps our Foundever family not only to meet their goals, but exceed them."

The new brand celebrates the foundation of expertise on which the company was founded. While ever evolving, the organization maintains the same principles today it was founded upon, maintaining the same level of curiosity and passion. "Found" represents our constant curiosity to seek out innovation to create grounded solutions, and "ever" signals the agility and drive to continuously adapt to the market and clients' changing needs.

The newly branded company continues to offer the same high-quality CX solutions that Sitel Group and SYKES are known for, evolving to integrate new solutions and cutting-edge technology, analysis and bespoke CX solutions designed to meet the needs of today's brands. When solutions are designed for clients, the Foundever team commits to learning, designing and integrating solutions to ensure they meet the specific needs of the client, including getting to know individual cultures, values and operational models on a human level to address unique business challenges.

Deeply rooted in its core values of creativity, commitment and connection, Foundever offers a range of high-quality services including customer care, business optimization and sales and retention, as well as strategy and design, omnichannel CX, workflow orchestration, self-service and bots, analytics and AI, social media CX, Web3, and learning and development. The Foundever CX solutions accelerate CX and digital transformation by combining deep expertise and data analytics to drive operational transformation. The company also prioritizes services such as sales and retention, tech support, back-office support, collections, and trust and safety to ensure clients are fully supported.

For more information, visit the company's brand-new website at www.foundever.com.

About Foundever

Foundever is a global leader in the customer experience (CX) industry. With 170,000 associates across the globe, we're the team behind the best experiences for +750 of the world's leading and digital-first brands. Our innovative CX solutions, technology and expertise are designed to support operational needs for our clients and deliver a seamless experience to customers in the moments that matter.

Supporting +9 million customer conversations every day in +60 languages across 45 countries, Foundever combines global strength and scale with the agile, entrepreneurial approach of our founder-led culture, enabling companies of all sizes and industries to transform their CX.

Get to know us at www.foundever.com and connect with us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005002/en/

Contacts:

Rebecca Sanders

media@foundever.com

Deborah Low

foundever@theproffice.com
VANA Botanicals is the latest South Asian women-owned brand with its all-natural and organic skincare line.

Austin, Texas--(Newsfile Corp. - March 1, 2023) - VANA Botanicals, a South Asian women-owned brand, announces the launch of their new range of natural and organic skincare products. The brand, which is derived from the word "VANA" meaning "Forest", is on a mission to provide effective skincare solutions using only the best ingredients from nature.

VANA Botanicals

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/9276/156690_b9c25c7954a5795d_002full.jpg

Symbolizing the brand's commitment to using only nature's ingredients to deliver radiant, healthy skin. VANA Botanicals not only focuses on the main ingredients, but also pays close attention to the 'hidden' ingredients such as chelating agents and preservatives to ensure that every ingredient is thoroughly researched and hand-selected for the best possible experience.

VANA Botanicals

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/9276/156690_b9c25c7954a5795d_001full.jpg

The brand's founder, Spoorthi Reddy, has devoted years to exploring the ancient beauty secrets of Ayurveda and discovering highly effective, natural ingredients for the products. With this knowledge, VANA Botanicals aims to educate consumers on the importance of understanding all ingredients in a skincare product, not just the main ingredients.

VANA Botanicals is dedicated to using only the best natural preservatives. The brand's mission is to provide chemical-free, nature-based solutions for every skin type and concern.

In the future, VANA Botanicals plans to expand into body and hair care, becoming the go-to source for all natural skincare needs.

"With the desire to meld modern technologies with traditional methods, we are here to explore the unexplored corners of forests to redefine your skincare routine," said Spoorthi Reddy, Founder of VANA Botanicals. "Love your skin and let VANA Botanicals take care of it with the power of nature."

For more information, Join us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter

Contact Details:

Spoorthi Reddy

VANA Botanicals

support@vanabotanicals.com

About VANA Botanicals

VANA Botanicals is a company that specializes in selling botanical skincare products. The products are made with natural and organic ingredients, and the company prides itself on being environmentally conscious. The website offers a range of products including face oils, serums, masks, and more. Each product is described in detail, with information on the ingredients used and how they benefit the skin. The company's mission is to provide customers with high-quality, natural skincare products that promote healthy, radiant skin.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/156690
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / March 1, 2023 / UNFCU Foundation announced the 19 grantees it will be funding this year. The projects sustain pathways out of poverty for women and youth through access to health care, livelihood training, and education across three continents.

Funding for these grants and UNFCU Foundation's support for humanitarian relief enabled the organization to reach a milestone of $1 million in grants.

"We are thrilled to enable more women and youth to gain economic and social empowerment," said Pamela Agnone, chairperson of the UNFCU Foundation. "Our partners' impact-driven programs and the resiliency of participants signal continued success advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals in 2023."

Grants are awarded to initiatives that focus on the empowerment of women and youth, and particularly on the Foundation's mission to end poverty. The chosen partners demonstrate a strong record of accomplishment and UN SDG impact in marginalized communities. According to several ongoing grantees, UNFCU Foundation's funding has fast-tracked growth in critical areas:

"Support from UNFCU Foundation will enable New York-based YWCA Brooklyn to expand its YW Brooklyn LEAD Program to serve more young women of color in poverty-impacted communities," said Martha Kamber, the organization's CEO & President. "In exploring college and careers, girls take their first steps towards economic mobility."

"MindLeaps launched a virtual academy to help youth refugees in Uganda transition from social-emotional learning to economic empowerment with its UNFCU Foundation grant," said Rebecca Davis, founder and executive director. "In 2023, to further strengthen families and self-belief, women will receive extensive business training through our Moving Forward Together Program."

"RefuSHE will provide additional refugee artisans in Nairobi, Kenya with the technical, business, and financial training they need to become skilled craftswomen and self-reliant entrepreneurs," said Rose Kanana Muthuri, chief programs officer. "UNFCU Foundation's grant will enable more young women to continue healing while they achieve economic and social independence. This includes saving the income they earn as members of RefuSHE's Artisan Collective and launching their own businesses across Nairobi."

Grantees and projects supported by the UNFCU Foundation in 2023:

Health care grantees:

The Floating Hospital continues to provide behavioral health services and support programs for women and children in New York?City.

continues to provide behavioral health services and support programs for women and children in New York?City. Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center provides integrated medical, sexual, and reproductive health, as well as behavioral and mental health services to youth in New York?City.

provides integrated medical, sexual, and reproductive health, as well as behavioral and mental health services to youth in New York?City. United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) delivers livelihood training to obstetric fistula survivors in Nigeria.

Education grantees:

Building Tomorrow ensures children in rural Uganda access to foundational learning opportunities, including literacy and numeracy via its Roots to Rise Program.

ensures children in rural Uganda access to foundational learning opportunities, including literacy and numeracy via its Roots to Rise Program. Girl Up instructs adolescent girls in three target under-resourced communities in Kenya with Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), life skills, and enhanced leadership development training to become advocates for gender justice.

instructs adolescent girls in three target under-resourced communities in Kenya with Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), life skills, and enhanced leadership development training to become advocates for gender justice. Grace Outreach enhances the academic skills of low-income women in New York City through the pursuit of higher education and employment.

Livelihood training grantees:

The BOMA Project enrolls ultra-poor women living in Northern Kenya in a two-year program that includes financial, life skills, and business training.

enrolls ultra-poor women living in Northern Kenya in a two-year program that includes financial, life skills, and business training. Hot Bread Kitchen expands workforce development and social entrepreneurship programs in the food industry for women, immigrants, and Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities in New York City.

expands workforce development and social entrepreneurship programs in the food industry for women, immigrants, and Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities in New York City. International Rescue Committee (IRC) provides employment services to refugee women in America through its Women's Employability Program.

provides employment services to refugee women in America through its Women's Employability Program. Kilimanjaro Initiative (KI) empowers Maasai women through female genital mutilation (FGM) awareness, business skills training, and creating a hub for women's development.

empowers Maasai women through female genital mutilation (FGM) awareness, business skills training, and creating a hub for women's development. MindLeaps provides young adults in the Rwamwanja Refugee Settlement, Uganda with access to the Virtual Academy Program on business entrepreneurship and life skills.

provides young adults in the Rwamwanja Refugee Settlement, Uganda with access to the Virtual Academy Program on business entrepreneurship and life skills. Mission for Community Development (MCODE) enhances the income-generating capacity of young rural women and girls in Uganda through agricultural vocational skills.

enhances the income-generating capacity of young rural women and girls in Uganda through agricultural vocational skills. RefuSHE expands in-person and virtual vocational training programs for urban refugee young women in Nairobi.

expands in-person and virtual vocational training programs for urban refugee young women in Nairobi. Sanctuary for Families addresses the root causes of abuse, poverty, and homelessness in New York City via intensive living-wage career training.

addresses the root causes of abuse, poverty, and homelessness in New York City via intensive living-wage career training. Imagine Her enables young women in Uganda to gain leadership and social enterprise training through the Imagine Academy.

enables young women in Uganda to gain leadership and social enterprise training through the Imagine Academy. Together We Bake provides women in the Washington, DC area with livelihood training and hands-on experience in the food industry.

provides women in the Washington, DC area with livelihood training and hands-on experience in the food industry. Trickle Up improves economic opportunities for women, including the disabled, living in extreme poverty in Guatemala. The organization also builds their resilience to socioeconomic shocks using the Graduation Approach.

improves economic opportunities for women, including the disabled, living in extreme poverty in Guatemala. The organization also builds their resilience to socioeconomic shocks using the Graduation Approach. Village Enterprise expands the Poverty Graduation Program, an entrepreneurship training program for primarily women and girls in rural Uganda.

expands the Poverty Graduation Program, an entrepreneurship training program for primarily women and girls in rural Uganda. The YWCA of Brooklyn offers college access and leadership skills training to girls of color from poverty-impacted communities in Brooklyn, NY.

Humanitarian relief in 2022:

Supporting emergency humanitarian work on the ground with partners represents an additional commitment by UNFCU Foundation to leave no one behind. In 2022, relief efforts supported the people of Ukraine in collaboration with UNICEF USA and USA for UNHCR. A partnership with USA for UNHCR contributed to its Horn of Africa campaign.

ABOUT UNFCU FOUNDATION

UNFCU Foundation is an accredited New York-based, non-profit corporation launched in 2015. It was established by the United Nations Federal Credit Union (UNFCU) with a mission to sustain the path out of poverty through healthcare and education for women and youth. Since its inception, UNFCU Foundation has supported programs to enable more than 31,000 marginalized women and youth to unlock their potential.

To learn more, follow UNFCU Foundation's progress on YouTube , Twitter , Facebook , Instagram , and LinkedIn .

MEDIA CONTACT:

Elisabeth Philippe, UNFCU Foundation, ephilippe@unfcufoundation.org , Tel. +1 347-686-6776; Mobile +1 347-510-4036

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from UNFCU Foundation on 3blmedia.com.



Contact Info:

Spokesperson: UNFCU Foundation

Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/unfcu-foundation

Email: info@3blmedia.com

SOURCE: UNFCU Foundation

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/741410/UNFCU-Foundation-Announces-Its-2023-Grant-Partners
CELEBRATION, FL / ACCESSWIRE / March 1, 2023 / Methes Energies International Ltd. ("Methes" - http://www.methes.com) is pleased to announce that their biodegradable and bio-based lubricants, branded as "b2" and made with domestically sourced farm grown feedstocks, adhere to the properties defined by the EPA for environmentally acceptable lubricants.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") has outlined these properties for environmentally acceptable lubricants (EAL), targeting three primary environmental traits; biodegradability, aquatic toxicity and bio-accumulation. There is a growing need for environmentally acceptable lubricant solutions - a rising demand for lubricants with improved environmental protection.

"Our b2 assortment of engine oils and industrial lubrication offerings will elevate the environmentally protective qualities of EAL lubricants and industrial applications worldwide, meeting the evolving environmental registrations and to capitalize on the growing bio-lubricant market demands;" said Carol Loch, Chairman and CEO of Methes Energies International Ltd. "These offerings have demonstrated biodegradability, minimal aquatic toxicity and promote non-bioaccumlative potential."

Used motor oil represents the largest single source of oil pollution in our lakes, streams and rivers. According to the EPA, 40% of U.S. water pollution comes from used oil. Used motor oil entering the world's oceans equal an oil tanker sized oil spill every week. Americans spill over 180 million gallons of used oil each year into our waters (either improperly disposed or lost in use). Just one gallon of petroleum based used oil can contaminate over one million gallons of fresh water.

ABOUT

Methes Energies International Ltd., which trades under the symbol "MEIL" on OTC Markets (https://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/MEIL/quote), is a totally green "CLEAN TECH" renewable energy company that manufactures and markets an assortment of bio-lubricants, by combining domestically sourced farm grown bio-derived feedstocks with proprietary technologies for superior performance, all molded around and supporting the four ideologies of being GREEN: renewable, biodegradable, recyclable and non-toxic (earth-friendly).

# # #

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release may contain forward-looking statements (Safe Harbor Statements) covered within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements relate to, among other things, plans and timing for the introduction or enhancement of our services and products, statements about future market conditions, supply and demand conditions, and other expectations, intentions and plans contained in this press release that are not historical fact and involve risks and uncertainties. Our expectations regarding future revenues depend upon our ability to develop and supply products and services that we may not produce today and that meet defined specifications. When used in this press release, the words "plan," "expect," "believe;" and, similar expressions generally identify forward-looking statements. These statements reflect our current expectations. They are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, changes in technology and changes in pervasive markets. This release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of1933 and Section 27E of the Securities Act of 1934. Statements contained in this release that are not historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain. Actual performance and results may differ materially from that projected or suggested herein due to certain risks and uncertainties including, without limitation, ability to obtain financing and regulatory and shareholder approval for anticipated actions.

CONTACT:

James Ray

goodkarmaray@gmail.com

602-315-4995

SOURCE: Methes Energies International Ltd.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/741339/B2-Bio-Lubricants-Elevate-Environmentally-Protective-Qualities
Red Light Holland safely exports another 3000 Grams (3KG) of Psilocybin Truffles, produced and sold in The Netherlands, into Canada under a fourth Health Canada approved psilocybin import permit to its laboratory partner, CCrest Laboratories Inc., a cGMP pharmaceutical laboratory in Montreal, Canada



CCrest Labs to utilize its newly amended Controlled Drugs & Substances Dealer's License by Health Canada adding 'Assembly and Packaging' to develop Red Light's psilocybe Truffles into homogenized microdosing capsules containing 0.5 mg of psychoactive material (psilocybin + psilocin).

Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - March 1, 2023) - Red Light Holland Corp. (CSE: TRIP) (FSE: 4YX) (OTCQB: TRUFF) ("Red Light Holland" or the "Company"), an Ontario-based corporation engaged in the production, growth, and sale of functional mushrooms and mushroom home grow kits in North America and Europe, and a premium brand of psilocybin truffles to the legal, recreational market within the Netherlands, in compliance with all applicable laws, is extremely pleased to announce that 3 kilograms of the Company's natural psilocybin truffles have arrived safely in Canada, under a fourth Health Canada approved psilocybin import permit.

Red Light Holland has successfully shipped another 3000 grams of their truffles, from their facility in Horst, The Netherlands to CCrest Laboratories Inc., a Montreal-based cGMP pharmaceutical laboratory that holds a Controlled Drugs & Substances Dealer's License from Health Canada. CCrest Labs will use the license, which now includes 'Assembly and Packaging,' to develop Red Light's psilocybin truffles into homogenized microdosing capsules containing 0.5 mg of psychoactive material (psilocybin + psilocin). The capsules will be packaged in child-proof safety bottles containing 20 capsules per bottle and will undergo quality control testing, including dosage, certificate of analysis and stability testing.

"We are thrilled to announce that our Company's Netherlands' grown psilocybin truffles have successfully arrived at CCrest Laboratories for product development of microdosing capsules," said Todd Shapiro, Red Light Holland CEO and Director. "To the best of our knowledge, it's infrequent that naturally occurring psilocybin mushrooms or truffles are approved by Health Canada to be shipped from Europe to Canada and we are proud to be working with CCrest with the goal of creating a standardized microdose pill. During a time where magic mushrooms' dispensaries are illegally popping up in Canada, Red Light Holland is also proud of our legal and cautious approach in our psychedelics' journey. The goal of Red Light Holland has always been to develop an advanced psilocybin product for microdosing, that will hopefully be accessible in emerging legal markets worldwide, including potentially Canada - if and when government regulations permit and/or approvals are granted."

Alex Grenier, CEO of Shaman Pharma and President of CCrest Laboratories, shared his excitement for the project, stating, "At CCrest Labs, we are very pleased to continue our work with Red Light Holland in the development of homogenized microdosing capsules. Our esteemed scientists will research and develop a high-quality microdosing capsule of psilocybe truffles in a way that preserves their natural integrity. We are proud to operate in compliance with Health Canada regulations and maintain the highest standards of quality and safety. Together with Red Light, we are committed to advancing this exciting field with caution and care, and we are grateful for the opportunity to contribute to a potentially positive impact through disruptive innovation with a scientific approach and methodology."

Red Light Holland plans to provide updates as it continues its research and development with CCrest Laboratories, as further tests and product development of microdosing capsules with the Company's naturally occurring psilocybin truffles are achieved.

About Shaman Pharma Corp.

Shaman Pharma is a federally registered Canadian corporation with the mission to power outstanding psychedelic life science innovation. Accelerating time-to-market through its portfolio of assets, Shaman launches and consolidates revenue-driven pharma-biotech life sciences ventures focused on supplying psychedelic drugs & novel active ingredients.

About Red Light Holland

Red Light Holland is an Ontario-based corporation engaged in the production, growth and sale of functional mushrooms and mushroom home grow kits in North America and Europe, and a premium brand of psilocybin truffles to the legal, recreational market within the Netherlands, in compliance with all applicable laws.

For additional information on the Company:

Todd Shapiro

Chief Executive Officer & Director

Tel: 647-643-TRIP (8747)

Email: todd@redlight.co

Website: www.RedLight.co

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of Red Light Holland. Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "continue", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "may", "will", "potential", "proposed" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. These statements are only predictions. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: statements with respect to the Company creating a standardized consistent dose from naturally occurring psychoactive truffles; the Company working with CCrest Laboratories, which holds a Controlled Drugs & Substances Dealer's License to develop homogenized microdosing capsules from naturally occurring psychoactive truffles; statements with respect to Health Canada's Special Access Program, including the Company's expectations to have their 3000kg of psilocybe truffles used for emerging markets or the special access program or exemption 56 grants; the Company's expectations to have their 3000kg psilocybe truffles further tested in Canada at all; the Company's expectations to have the naturally occurring psilocybin capsules, from the Company's facility in the Netherlands to be packaged in child-proof safety bottles containing 20 capsules per bottle and the Company's expectations that the truffles will undergo quality control testing, including dosage, certificate of analysis and stability testing; the Company' expectations with respect to exceeding any potential regulatory standards set by such program; statements with respect to further evaluation, R&D, product development and testing of the Company's naturally occurring psilocybe truffles by CCrest Laboratories for either recreational or scientific and medical purposes; the potential of the Company's products being used for recreational and/or scientific and medical purposes; the potential of the Company's products being used for Health Canada's Special Access Program; the potential of the Company's products being used for emerging markets; the potential of the Company's products being used for future legal markets as legal markets and regulations are still being written, the potential of the Company's products being used for emerging markets across the globe; the Company's recommended dosage and packaging - which were determined based on prior testing, and the Company's ability to establish itself as the leader in the recreational psychedelics sector.

Forward-looking information is based on a number of key expectations and assumptions made by Red Light Holland, including without limitation: the COVID-19 pandemic impact on the Canadian economy and Red Light Holland's business, and the extent and duration of such impact; no change to laws or regulations that negatively affect Red Light Holland's business; there will be a demand for Red Light Holland's products in the future; no unanticipated expenses or costs arise; the Company will be able to continue to develop products that are allowed to be imported and sold under Health Canada's import permit; and the partnership with Shaman Pharma Corp. will help Red Light Holland to achieve its business goals. Although the forward-looking information contained in this news release is based upon what the Company believes to be reasonable assumptions, it cannot assure investors that actual results will be consistent with such information.

These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements, including but not limited to: the inability of the Company to further testing on the company's facility grown psilocybe truffles in Montreal, Canada; the inability for the Company to have the psilocybe truffles to Montreal, Canada in testing conditions; the inability for the Company's psilocbye truffle at CCrest Labs in Montreal, Canada to be packaged in child-proof safety bottles containing 20 capsules per bottle and will undergo quality control testing, including dosage, certificate of analysis and stability testing; the inability of the Company to continue as a going concern; the inability of the Company to obtain all necessary governmental and/or other regulatory approvals, licenses, and permits necessary to operate and expand the Company's facilities; the effect of regulatory and/or political change and its effect on the legislation and regulations surrounding the psychedelics industry including SAP; negative perception of the medical-use and adult-use psilocybin industry; the inability of CCrest to complete the planned testing of the Company's products; the inability of the Company to create a standardized dose; the inability of the Company and CCrest Labs to create a homogonized microdosing capsule from the Company's Netherlands grown truffles, the potential unviability of psilocybin for recreational, medical and/or scientific purposes; the inability of the Company to partner with any global emerging markets or Canada; the Company's ability to establish itself as the leader in the recreational psychedelics sector; the inability for the company to use their psilocybin in any potential recreational use of naturally occurring Psilocybin; the inability for the Company to use their psilocybe microdosing capsules for positive change; the inability for the Company to continue product development and research and development including the inability of the Company to continue working with CCrest labs and the inability of the Company's truffles to be developed into homogenized microdosing capsules, will be packaged in child-proof safety bottles containing 20 capsules per bottle and will undergo quality control testing, including dosage, certificate of analysis and stability testing by CCrest Labs; the inability of the Company to continue its growth; the Company's limited operating history; reliance on management; the Company's requirements for additional financing; and competition for mental health and wellness investments.

Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list is not exhaustive. Readers are further cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are placed will occur. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated.

Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement and reflect the Company's expectations as of the date hereof and are subject to change thereafter. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, estimates or opinions, future events or results or otherwise or to explain any material difference between subsequent actual events and such forward-looking information, except as required by applicable law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/156668
U.S. envoy condemns Israeli settlers' violence during visit to Palestinian village

Xinhua) 13:07, March 01, 2023

RAMALLAH, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- A senior U.S. official on Tuesday visited the Palestinian village of Hawara near the northern West Bank city of Nablus and condemned the recent violence by Israeli settlers.

During a short visit to the village, Hady Amr, the U.S. special representative for Palestinian affairs in the State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, met with the representatives of civil institutions and the municipal council.

He expressed his concern about the escalation of violence in the West Bank after hearing testimonies of some residents whose homes and vehicles were burned and destroyed by the settlers in the village.

In a news briefing at a site with several burnt vehicles, Amr condemned "the random, widespread, and unacceptable acts of violence carried out by the settlers."

He stressed the need to see full accountability and prosecution through the law of those responsible for these "heinous" attacks and compensation for those who lost their property or were otherwise damaged.

Mueen Al-Damidi, mayor of Hawara, told reporters that "the settlers' attack on the village led to the death of a Palestinian and the injury of dozens, including pregnant women and children."

"The settlers' attack has never been witnessed before, and it took place under the protection, full view, and hearing of the Israeli army forces. This is unacceptable to all countries concerned about humanity and peaceful coexistence," he said.

Meanwhile, during Amr's tour through the alleys of Hawara, the outer walls of some of its houses were covered with black marks as a result of the flames caused by the settlers' attack.

On Tuesday, Amr also met with Hussein Al-Sheikh, the secretary-general of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

An official statement issued by Al-Sheikh's office said that he briefed Amr on the recent attacks of the Israeli settlers and the Israeli army forces on the Palestinians and their properties.

The tensions have escalated between Israel and the Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since early January. Official Palestinian figures showed that 65 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers so far this year, while Israeli data put the death toll of Israelis killed by Palestinians at 13.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Drills 5.48 g/t Gold and 128 g/t Silver (7.00 g/t AuEq2) over 5.85 m at its Klaza Project, Yukon

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / March 1, 2023 / Rockhaven Resources Ltd. (TSX-V:RK) ("Rockhaven") is pleased to announce the final assay results from the 2022 diamond drilling program completed at its 100% owned and road accessible Klaza property. The Klaza property is located within the Dawson Range Gold-Copper Belt of southern Yukon, a prolific belt that hosts several important mineral deposits including Minto Metals' Minto copper-gold mine, Western Copper and Gold's Casino copper-gold deposit and Newmont's Coffee gold deposit.

2022 Program

During the summer of 2022, a total of 12,042 m of drilling was completed in 69 holes at Klaza. The work program was designed to advance Klaza towards an updated mineral resource estimate1 and pre-feasibility study by attaining the following objectives: (1) re-categorization of prioritized inferred mineral resources into indicated mineral resources; (2) expansion of the total mineral resource; (3) collection of samples for advanced-stage metallurgical test work; (4) completion of additional geotechnical drilling for optimized open-pit and underground engineering; and, (5) evaluation of some of the exploration targets that lie outside of the known mineral resource areas through excavator trenching, soil sampling and prospecting. Based on results received to date, Rockhaven is on track to achieve all objectives.

Highlights

Results presented in this news release are from various parts of the Central Klaza Zone, the adjacent BYG Zone and the Western BRX Zone Extension target. Previous 2022 season drill results were announced on January 18th and January 30th, 2023.

Highlight assays from this press release include:

5.48 g/t gold and 128 g/t silver (7.00 g/t AuEq 2 ) over 5.85 m (KL-22-603)

(KL-22-603) 11.16 g/t gold and 23 g/t silver (11.82 g/t AuEq 2 ) over 2.14 m (KL-22-600)

(KL-22-600) 5.60 g/t gold and 174 g/t silver (8.29 g/t AuEq 2 ) over 3.38 m (KL-22-596)

(KL-22-596) 4.27 g/t gold and 352 g/t silver (8.44 g/t AuEq 2 ) over 2.31 m (KL-22-590)

(KL-22-590) 4.24 g/t gold and 38 g/t silver (4.69 g/t AuEq 2 ) over 3.81 m (KL-22-602)

(KL-22-602) 2.56 g/t gold and 14 g/t silver (2.78 g/t AuEq 2 ) over 5.61 m (KL-22-611)

(KL-22-611) 25.90 g/t gold and 258 g/t silver (30.50 g/t AuEq2) over 0.64 m (KL-22-594)

Statement from Rockhaven's President and CEO, Matt Turner:

"Drilling completed at the Central Klaza Zone in 2022 primarily focused on areas to the east and west of infill drilling done during the 2021 program. Although these areas were considered to be lower priority targets coming into 2022, all 21 holes returned significant mineralization along the targeted vein structures. The results are expected to be supportive of the potential project economics because several intercepts are higher than deposit average grade and some, like the interval averaging 7.00 g/t AuEq across 5.85 m in hole KL-22-603, are located near surface."

"In addition to the resource definition holes, the 2022 drill program included several geotechnical holes, the data from which will be used for engineering studies that will be an important part of our planned pre-feasibility study. The engineering work includes rock strength testing and slope stability studies, which are essential for optimizing pit shell design. The geotechnical holes were drilled at oblique angles to the mineralized structures, targeting primarily the hanging wall and footwall rocks and not the main mineralized structures. Nevertheless, a few of the geotechnical holes intersected the veins, producing additional assay information that will be used to support planned resource estimation. Of particular note, geotechnical hole KL-22-605 averaged 7.36 g/t gold and 136 g/t silver over 5.70 m and KL-22-622 returned a weighted average grade of 2.85 g/t gold and 41 g/t silver over 33.96 m, with individual assays of 65.8 g/t gold and 182 g/t silver over 1.07 m and 15 g/t gold and 957 g/t silver over 0.93 m, respectively."

1 See Rockhaven news release dated June 21, 2018 for more information on the mineral resource estimate for the Klaza deposit.

2Gold equivalent (AuEq) values assume $1,800/oz Au, $22/oz Ag, $1.05/lb Pb, and $1.60/lb Zn, and variable recoveries for the different metals. The equation used is AuEq=1*Au+Ag/103.42+Pb/4.64+Zn/3.63

The Central Klaza Zone

The Central Klaza Zone hosts a laterally extensive complex of steeply dipping veins, breccias and sheeted veinlets emplaced within a 25 to 100 m wide by 1,300 m long structural corridor. In 2022, twenty-one in-fill holes were completed at the Central Klaza Zone. These holes were designed to upgrade mineral resources from inferred to indicated and to collect material for advanced metallurgical testing. Fourteen of the holes intersected the western portion of the zone, five targeted its eastern side and two tested deeper, beneath the central portion. All holes returned promising intercepts, with the most significant results coming from near surface hits on the eastern side, where highlights include 7.00 g/t AuEq2 over 5.85 m, 2.78 g/t AuEq2 over 5.61 m, and 3.13 g/t AuEq2 over 3.08 m.

Illustrations

A map showing the locations of all drill holes at the Klaza Zone, a long-section along the zone and core photos of mineralized veins can be viewed below and on the Rockhaven website at www.rockhavenresources.com.

Significant Results

Significant results from the 2022 drilling at the Central Klaza Zone and the BYG Zone announced in this press release are tabulated below.

Central Klaza and BYG Zones - Significant Results from this Release

Drill Hole From (m) To (m) Interval (m)+ Au (g/t) Ag (g/t) Pb (%) Zn (%) AuEq* (g/t) KL-22-583 36.81 37.44 0.63 0.64 259.0 1.18 0.36 3.49 and 78.02 78.58 0.56 2.90 184.0 0.49 0.45 4.91 and 92.90 94.24 1.34 0.27 318.0 0.36 0.42 3.54 KL-22-584 63.43 64.36 0.93 1.26 6.7 0.04 0.10 1.35 and 100.79 101.62 0.83 2.14 33.8 0.27 0.12 2.56 and 148.79 149.59 0.80 4.90 102.0 0.34 0.97 6.23 KL-22-585 76.16 76.66 0.50 4.66 19.5 0.07 2.08 5.44 and 132.45 133.46 1.01 2.02 3.3 0.02 0.05 2.07 KL-22-586 12.65 13.35 0.70 0.11 187.0 0.32 0.51 2.13 and 19.00 20.07 1.07 4.06 234.0 0.54 3.18 7.31 KL-22-587 16.16 16.66 0.50 3.65 101.0 1.59 3.16 5.84 and 37.49 37.94 0.45 1.88 330.0 1.75 1.61 5.89 and 57.11 58.75 1.64 0.27 176.2 0.55 0.83 2.32 KL-22-588 81.26 82.49 1.23 2.34 84.6 0.27 0.39 3.33 and 119.83 120.69 0.86 3.26 53.3 0.76 0.91 4.19 and 129.00 129.30 0.30 5.94 753.0 16.75 1.43 17.22 and 176.45 177.00 0.55 5.01 190.0 0.59 1.28 7.32 and 192.92 194.18 1.26 1.56 251.0 2.80 1.53 5.01 KL-22-590 122.32 122.98 0.66 2.67 55.2 0.78 0.64 3.55 and 170.78 171.24 0.46 6.60 439.0 2.57 4.79 12.66 and 185.33 186.39 1.06 1.50 26.8 0.26 0.54 1.96 and 247.47 251.40 3.93 2.71 214.2 1.21 0.87 5.28 incl. 249.09 251.40 2.31 4.27 351.6 1.91 1.34 8.44 KL-22-592 70.72 71.22 0.50 1.38 111.0 0.14 0.60 2.64 and 102.35 102.85 0.50 9.35 118.0 1.22 2.93 11.56 and 110.48 111.25 0.77 11.80 106.0 0.44 1.02 13.20 and 172.61 173.49 0.88 1.03 5.3 0.07 0.19 1.14 KL-22-594 36.17 36.67 0.50 0.92 175.0 0.92 0.69 3.00 and 152.12 152.48 0.36 5.90 257.0 4.03 6.22 10.97 and 177.07 177.57 0.50 1.77 93.9 0.53 0.79 3.01 and 249.76 250.40 0.64 25.90 258.0 2.89 5.39 30.50 KL-22-595 263.63 264.02 0.39 0.24 150.0 2.26 0.23 2.24 and 282.74 283.46 0.72 2.27 42.7 0.67 0.38 2.93 and 324.61 325.67 1.06 0.92 78.1 1.26 0.53 2.09 and 345.14 345.73 0.59 1.99 29.1 0.34 0.55 2.50 KL-22-596 18.71 19.47 0.76 3.08 1.7 0.01 0.02 3.10 and 35.75 36.41 0.66 1.40 520.0 0.42 0.80 6.73 and 200.90 201.40 0.50 3.02 385.0 10.10 0.49 9.05 and 226.24 227.50 1.26 1.86 15.8 0.10 0.63 2.21 and 292.10 295.48 3.38 5.60 173.6 2.02 2.09 8.29 incl. 294.13 295.48 1.35 12.36 370.0 4.47 4.19 18.06 KL-22-597^ 38.98 39.40 0.42 6.93 328.0 10.70 13.50 16.13 and 260.98 261.30 0.32 3.75 9.1 0.03 0.36 3.94 and 264.44 266.20 1.76 1.95 16.5 0.05 0.38 2.23 and 287.09 287.42 0.33 15.05 168.0 0.35 12.65 20.23 and 294.20 294.60 0.40 3.40 9.5 0.13 0.80 3.74 and 324.83 325.23 0.40 6.75 105.0 0.13 3.65 8.80 and 346.72 347.17 0.45 1.41 152.0 0.17 2.51 3.61 KL-22-598 98.07 99.06 0.99 6.66 56.3 0.09 2.22 7.84 and 110.79 111.39 0.60 1.44 93.9 0.58 0.44 2.59 and 172.69 173.24 0.55 2.71 212.0 1.72 2.89 5.93 and 178.63 179.83 1.20 1.09 11.8 0.22 0.12 1.28 and 230.35 231.75 1.40 2.71 59.9 0.57 1.12 3.72 KL-22-599 67.54 68.67 1.13 3.02 77.2 0.24 0.30 3.90 and 158.93 159.28 0.35 1.93 271.0 3.69 0.55 5.49 and 174.44 174.84 0.40 2.47 61.9 0.78 1.98 3.78 and 309.11 311.55 2.44 2.64 25.1 0.28 0.63 3.11 KL-22-600^ 47.04 48.06 1.02 5.97 21.5 0.42 0.97 6.54 and 113.30 115.44 2.14 11.16 23.5 0.38 1.25 11.82 and 248.12 249.00 0.88 4.23 58.0 0.03 0.03 4.81 KL-22-602 170.70 171.37 0.67 4.73 77.5 0.70 2.48 6.31 and 270.97 274.78 3.81 4.24 37.5 0.10 0.23 4.69 incl. 270.97 273.31 2.34 5.79 56.0 0.12 0.19 6.40 and incl. 272.00 273.31 1.31 8.66 85.1 0.19 0.19 9.58 and 333.67 334.64 0.97 1.79 37.6 0.92 1.34 2.72 and 346.46 347.24 0.78 2.46 85.6 1.87 1.65 4.15 KL-22-603 19.81 21.34 1.53 2.13 13.3 0.02 0.03 2.27 and 45.21 51.06 5.85 5.48 128.0 0.44 0.70 7.00 incl. 48.49 51.06 2.57 11.96 269.8 0.59 1.00 14.97 and incl. 50.29 51.06 0.77 27.30 675.0 1.56 1.84 34.67 KL-22-609 27.04 30.12 3.08 2.94 18.8 0.01 0.04 3.13 and 27.04 27.75 0.71 11.25 66.1 0.16 1.23 12.26 KL-22-611 18.85 24.46 5.61 2.56 14.1 0.16 0.18 2.78 incl. 18.85 22.70 3.85 3.32 13.8 0.12 0.20 3.53 and incl. 18.85 20.47 1.62 5.13 18.5 0.05 0.07 5.34 KL-22-613^ 25.00 26.68 1.68 1.26 4.1 0.08 0.19 1.37 and 47.94 48.46 0.52 5.70 160.0 0.22 1.15 7.61 and 60.95 62.48 1.53 4.50 12.7 0.02 0.06 4.64 and 75.85 79.25 3.40 2.54 165.4 0.17 0.26 4.25 incl. 75.85 77.28 1.43 4.70 274.0 0.30 0.51 7.55 KL-22-616^ 27.30 28.33 1.03 1.17 6.4 0.14 0.24 1.32 and^ 31.42 32.32 0.90 1.24 6.5 0.11 0.43 1.44 and 64.35 65.27 0.92 2.04 25.4 0.76 1.82 2.95 and 134.11 138.96 4.85 0.77 60.2 0.37 0.77 1.64 incl. 137.16 138.96 1.80 1.26 125.7 0.35 0.58 2.71 and 323.93 326.18 2.25 4.47 77.4 0.58 1.42 5.73 incl. 324.52 325.60 1.08 7.83 146.0 1.12 2.67 10.22 and 338.33 338.99 0.66 6.83 211.0 0.55 0.63 9.16

+ Represents the diamond drill hole core length. True widths are estimated to be 80-90% of the interval as the majority of vein intersects had contacts that were at or near perpendicular to core axis.

*Gold equivalent (AuEQ) values assume $1,800/oz Au, $22/oz Ag, $1.05/lb Pb, and $1.60/lb Zn, and variable recoveries for the different metals. The equation used is AuEq=1*Au+Ag/103.42+Pb/4.64+Zn/3.63

^ Represents a drill intersection in the BYG Zone, which trends subparallel and is located to the south of the Central Klaza Zone.

Engineering Work

Completed and planned engineering studies include geotechnical drilling and rock strength test work. During the 2022 program, a total of 16 holes were completed to support the open-pit portion of the planned pre-feasibility study. Holes were oriented oblique to the main zones, as previous geotechnical drilling at Klaza had mainly been done in conjunction with exploration holes designed to cut the veins perpendicular to strike. The holes completed in 2022 were structural logged in detail to determine joint and fracture orientations and density and this data will be used to optimize the slope of pit walls. Where the geotechnical holes intersected vein structures, grade continuity within the resource models was also examined. Significant results from the geotechnical holes are summarized in Table II. It should be noted that these holes crossed the veins at oblique angles and their intersected widths do not represent true widths.

Klaza Project -Central BRX Zone - Significant Results from Geotechnical Holes

Drill Hole From (m) To (m) Interval (m) + Au (g/t) Ag (g/t) Pb (%) Zn (%) KL-22-605 54.56 56.18 1.62 14.73 89.2 0.76 3.33 and 60.33 66.03 5.70 7.36 136.2 1.29 1.02 incl. 65.68 66.03 0.35 37.30 525.0 3.68 5.63 and 66.54 68.00 1.46 1.10 20.2 0.09 0.10 and 71.00 71.63 0.63 1.51 46.6 0.61 0.37 KL-22-622 73.18 107.14 33.96 2.85 41.5 0.17 0.16 incl. 73.18 74.84 1.66 2.74 42.7 0.04 0.03 incl. 80.15 82.00 1.85 8.07 496.7 1.09 0.51 and incl. 80.15 81.08 0.93 15.00 957.0 1.97 0.89 incl. 104.64 106.38 1.74 42.06 192.4 1.31 0.96 and incl. 104.64 105.71 1.07 65.80 182.0 0.16 0.14

+ Represents the diamond drill hole core length. True widths are unknown at this time but estimated to be 20-40% of the interval.

Rock strength test work on samples collected from the 2022 drill program includes uniaxial compression strength, splitting tensile strength, triaxial compressive strength and direct shear strength. These tests are currently in process.

The Western BRX Zone Extension

Two exploration drill holes targeted the potential eastern projection of the Western BRX Extension target, an early stage exploration opportunity, which hosts a silver-rich vein discovered in KL-21-492 (which returned 1,160 g/t silver, 8.4% lead and 5.2% zinc over 0.54 m, see press release dated December 15, 2021). Drilling in 2022 returned one interval of note, grading 98 g/t silver over 0.90 m in KL-22-567. These results will assist in defining opportunities for potential extensions of the Western BRX Extension target.

QA/QC

All analyses for rock and core samples from the 2022 program were performed by ALS Minerals with sample preparation in Whitehorse, Yukon and Windsor, Ontario and assays and geochemical analyses in North Vancouver. Core samples were routinely analyzed for gold by fire assay followed by atomic absorption (Au-AA24) and 48 other elements by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ME-MS61). Samples that exceeded the detection limits of the routine methods were assayed for silver, copper, lead and zinc by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (Ag/Cu/Pb/Zn - OG62) and gold by gravimetric analysis (Au-GRA22). Rigorous procedures were in place regarding sample collection, chain of custody and data entry. Certified assay standards, coarse reject duplicates, field duplicates and blanks were routinely inserted into the sample stream to ensure integrity of the assay process. All of the results reported have passed the QA/QC screening.

Qualified Persons

Technical information in this news release has been approved by Matthew R. Dumala, P.Eng., a geological engineer with Archer, Cathro & Associates (1981) Limited and qualified person for the purpose of National Instrument 43-101.

About Rockhaven

Rockhaven Resources Ltd. is a well-funded explorer focused on advancing its 100%-owned, camp-scale Klaza Property, which hosts the Klaza Deposit and numerous lightly explored exploration targets. Rockhaven has completed a mineral resource estimate and a preliminary economic assessment on the Klaza deposit (see Klaza Property Technical Report with an effective date of July 10, 2020 and titled, "Technical Report and Preliminary Economic Assessment Update for the Klaza Property, Yukon, Canada." which can be viewed at www.sedar.com under the Rockhaven profile or on the Rockhaven website at www.rockhavenresources.com).

Matthew Turner

President, CEO and Director

Rockhaven Resources Ltd.

T:604-687-2522

mturner@rockhavenresources.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward Looking Statements

Information contained in this news release contains forward-looking statements. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations; they are not guarantees of future performance. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "advance", "believes", "designed", "progress", "expect", "supportive", "re-categorization", "prioritized", "expansion", "evaluate", "upgrade", "potential", "objectives", "promising", "support", "definition", "opportunity", "significant", "planned", "optimize", "interpreted" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "should" or "will" occur. Rockhaven cautions that all forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain, and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond the control of Rockhaven. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to exploration and development and the results thereof, including the results of the recently completed drill program, the impact on mineral resource estimates, the potential for new discoveries, and the results of planned metallurgical and geotechnical programs, the advancement of exploration targets, the outcome of the planned prefeasibility study, as well as the ability of Rockhaven to obtain additional financing, the need to comply with environmental and governmental regulations, fluctuations in the prices of commodities, operating hazards and risks, competition and other risks and uncertainties, including those described in Rockhaven's financial statements available under the Rockhaven profile at www.sedar.com. Accordingly, actual and future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, Rockhaven undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information.

SOURCE: Rockhaven Resources Ltd.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/741380/Rockhaven-Ends-2022-Klaza-Drill-Program-Reporting-on-a-High-Note
TORONTO, ON and NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / March 1, 2023 / Sekur Private Data Ltd. (CSE:SKUR)(OTCQX:SWISF)(FRA:GDT0) ("Sekur" or the "Company"), a leading Swiss hosted secure and private communications platform, is pleased announce that it has launched a new service as part of its SekurMail solution called "SekurAlias".

SekurAlias, or "Alias" emails come free of charge with every Consumer SekurMail account on a per user basis. Each user is granted 2 Alias emails free of charge, which can be discarted anytime to create a new Alias email as often as the user wishes to do so, as long as they have no more than 2 Alias emails at any time. An email alias is an additional email address for an email account, with which a user can send and receive emails or set forwards to. An Alias email is primarily used to add protection against phishing emails, to protect a user's primary email address from receiving spam and to remain anonymous to email lists and anyone targeting a particular user. Aliases can be changed as many times as a user wishes as they are discartable emails and can also be used as a temporary email address. All Alias emails also come with the Company's anti-phishing and privacy SekurSend feature.

Alain Ghiai, CEO of Sekur Private Data said: "We are very happy to provide this valuable additional privacy and security service free of charge to consumers. The SekurAlias comes with the same features as a regular SekurMail email including our proprietary SekurSend feature. Our prime directive is to provide private and secure communications for everyone, and, as we are not connected to any big tech platform or hyperscaler, we offer a truly independent, private and secure means of communications without any data mining, through our proprietary technology and our secure servers based in Switzerland. We look forward to continuing to offer true data privacy to all individuals and their businesses and protect their intellectual property, and their privacy, from data miners and malicious hackers."

Sekur, which includes SekurMessenger and SekurMail, is part of a bundle of email, messaging and file transfer into one application, includes the Company's latest SekurMail technology, which includes proprietary anti-phishing and privacy feature called SekurSend. SekurSend lets a user send an email to any other recipient, whether they have Sekur or not, in full privacy and security as the email never leaves Sekur 's encrypted email servers based in Switzerland. The recipient can then click on the notification and reply in the same manner using SekurReply, without the recipient having to register for a Sekur account. The sender can also decide to protect any email sent by adding a password to open it, a read-limit and a self-destruct timer as well. Sending an email with the SekurSend feature allows the senders and recipients to add limitless size attachments to the emails without crowding the recipients' email box. This also eliminates BEC attacks for businesses and email phishing attacks. Additionally, SekurMail includes full control of email delivery, automatic data export for large Enterprises and an automatic Data Loss Prevention technology ("DLP") with real time continuous archiving.

Recent data breaches in messaging applications have created a certain urgency for businesses and data privacy advocates to protect their communications from cyber-attacks and identity theft via mobile and desktop devices.

SekurMessenger now comes with a proprietary feature and technology called "Chat-By-Invites". This feature allows a SekurMessenger user ("SM user") invite a non-SM user, or a group of non-SM users, to chat in a fully private and secure way, without the recipient ever having to register to SekurMessenger or download the app. At the end of the chat, the initiator of the conversation can remotely terminate the conversation and all traces of the conversation are deleted from all users, including the recipient. This unique feature is now fully deployed and functional on all iOS and Android devices and web platforms. The target sectors are numerous, including but not limited to real estate, legal, finance, insurance, medical, government, energy, manufacturing, trade and pharmaceutical sectors.

SekurMessenger also eliminates many of the privacy and security risks by not only not requiring a phone number, which would divulge a user's phone device ID, but also by not social engineering a user's phone or computer contact list and infecting the contacts by default as well, eliminating a huge loophole in security and privacy. SekurMessenger issues each user a username and a Sekur number. The Sekur number is the contact ID a user would disclose in order for other Sekur users to be added. The service comes with a self-destruct timer and other features as well, including Sekur's proprietary VirtualVaults and HeliX technologies with all data stored in Swiss hosted encrypted servers.

Sekur's Data privacy solutions are all hosted in Switzerland, protecting users' data from any outside data intrusion requests. In Switzerland, the right to privacy is guaranteed in article 13 of the Swiss Federal Constitution. The Federal Act on Data Protection ("FADP") of 19 June 1992 (in force since 1993) has set up a strict protection of privacy by prohibiting virtually any processing of personal data which is not expressly authorized by the data subjects. The protection is subject to the authority of the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner.

Under Swiss federal law, it is a crime to publish information based on leaked "secret official discussions." In 2010 the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland found that IP addresses are personal information and that under Swiss privacy laws they may not be used to track Internet usage without the knowledge of the individuals involved.

About Sekur Private Data Ltd.

Sekur Private Data Ltd. is a Cybersecurity and Internet privacy provider of Swiss hosted solutions for secure and private communications. The Company distributes a suite of encrypted e-mails, secure messengers, and secure communication tools. Sekur Private Data Ltd. sells its products through its own website at https://www.sekur.com , and approved distributors, and telecommunications companies worldwide. Sekur Private Data Ltd. serves consumers, businesses and governments worldwide.

On behalf of Management

SEKUR PRIVATE DATA LTD.

Alain Ghiai

President and Chief Executive Officer

+1.416.644.8690

corporate@sekurprivatedata.com

For more information, please contact Sekur Private Data at corporate@sekurprivatedata.com or visit us at https://www.sekurprivatedata.com

For more information on Sekur visit us at: https://www.sekur.com .

Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains certain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws ("forward-looking statements"). All statements other than statements of present or historical fact are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "anticipate", "achieve", "could", "believe", "plan", "intend", "objective", "continuous", "ongoing", "estimate", "outlook", "expect", "project" and similar words, including negatives thereof, suggesting future outcomes or that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. These statements are only predictions. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations; they are not guaranteeing future performance. Sekur cautions that all forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond Sekur's control. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to the future of the Company's business; the success of marketing and sales efforts of the Company; the projections prepared in house and projections delivered by channel partners; the Company's ability to complete the necessary software updates; increases in sales as a result of investments software development technology; consumer interest in the Products; future sales plans and strategies; reliance on large channel partners and expectations of renewals to ongoing agreements with these partners; anticipated events and trends; the economy and other future conditions; and other risks and uncertainties, including those described in Sekur's prospectus dated May 8, 2019 filed with the Canadian Securities Administrators and available on www.sedar.com. Accordingly, actual and future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, Sekur undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information.

SOURCE: Sekur Private Data Ltd.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/741371/Sekur-Private-Data-Ltd-Launches-New-Free-Disposal-Anonymous-Emails-for-its-Swiss-Hosted-SekurMail-Solution
PITTSBURGH, PA / ACCESSWIRE / March 1, 2023 / Today, Liberated Syndication Inc. ("Libsyn"), the leading all-in-one podcasting platform for creators and advertisers, announced its February 2023 Podcast Advertising Rates, including the highest and most accessible CPM categories.

"Programmatic accounts for just 2% of total podcast ad revenues. While this is still nascent, in the last six months, Advertisecast is experiencing growing adoption of our Libsyn Auto Ads solution as more brands and agencies seek to buy podcast advertising programmatically like they purchase other digital ads," said Dave Hanley, Chief Revenue Officer at Libsyn's AdvertiseCast. "What sets our open marketplace apart is our ability to bring together content, audience, technology, and transparency to deliver meaningful results for advertisers."

The AdvertiseCast February 2023 Podcast Advertising Rates

The following rates, which are denoted as cost per thousand or CPM, are published monthly by Libsyn's AdvertiseCast, the industry's premier podcast advertising marketplace that connects advertisers with podcasters. The Company releases the figures to empower the podcaster and advertiser communities to readily monitor market pricing and provide greater insight into podcasting advertising as a monetization vehicle. The data is derived from actual sales data across AdvertiseCast's network of over 2,900 shows, including more than 225 exclusive podcasts.

For February 2023, the average CPM rate was $22.04 for a 60-second ad spot. That figure is down approximately 1% compared to last month (January 2023 avg. CPM rate: $22.28) and has decreased year-over-year (February 2022 avg. CPM rate: $23.25).

"Although the podcast ad market remains resilient, we are seeing a couple factors pushing rates down for us," said Hanley. "Given the market uncertainty, we are working aggressively with our agency and brand partners to offer them great value. In addition, our network has gone up market representing several larger podcasts, this carries natural rate compression, and those large audiences carry more weight in our calculations."

The three highest CPM categories in February based on delivered advertising were:

Technology: $27

Education: $25

Kids & Family: $25

Moreover, three categories where advertisers can effectively tap into highly engaged audiences at more accessible CPM rates include Music, Leisure, and Fiction, which averaged around the low twenties in February.

Libsyn's AdvertiseCast combines an industry-leading ad buying and management platform with full-service capabilities that makes it easy for podcast advertisers to initiate and manage highly targeted and measurable campaigns, while providing maximum return for creators. Historical monthly CPM rates can be found on AdvertiseCast's website at: www.advertisecast.com/podcast-advertising-rates.

About Liberated Syndication

Founded in 2004, Liberated Syndication Inc. ("Libsyn") is the leading all-in-one podcasting platform for creators and advertisers to host, distribute, monetize, amplify, and measure their audio content. In 2022, the Company hosted over 75,000 shows and delivered over 8 billion downloads to listeners globally. Libsyn's AdvertiseCast marketplace combines an industry-leading ad buying and management platform with full-service capabilities that make it easy for podcast advertisers to initiate and manage highly targeted and measurable campaigns on over 3,000 shows. Based in Munich, Germany, Libsyn's Julep Media platform is the leading podcasting hosting platform and advertising marketplace in Europe. Libsyn also powers podcast membership platform, Glow, and web hosting platform, Pair Networks. Visit libsyn.com or investor.libsyn.com for more company information.

# # #

Media Contacts:

Ray Yeung + Nancy Zakhary | ray@relev8.co + nancy@relev8.co

SOURCE: Liberated Syndication, Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/741411/LibsynUnveilsFebruary-2023-Podcast-Advertising-Rates
MAX Lithium property located in same batholith and geology as and just 4 km southwest of the North American Lithium mine, the only operating lithium mine in Quebec

19 km 2 property with road access, surrounded by spodumene-rich pegmatite showings and hosting several outcrops with as-yet untested potential

Exploration program to commence soon, and will include detailed mapping and sampling to prepare next drill targets

MONTREAL, QC / ACCESSWIRE / March 1, 2023 / Tarku Resources Ltd (TSXV:TKU)(FRA:7TK)(OTCQB:TRKUF) (the "Company" or "Tarku") is pleased to announce the acquisition of a 100% interest in 28 claims (19.25 km2) forming the MAX Lithium property from prospectors (the "Vendors"). The property is located in Quebec, Canada, 45 km north of Val-d'Or and 4 km southwest of Sayona Mining's North American Lithium mine (proven reserves of 1.2 million tonnes grading 0.92% Li2O and probable reserves 28 million tonnes grading 0.96% Li2O (source: company press release dated May 23, 2022)).

Julien Davy, President and CEO of Tarku Resources, said: "This agreement presents a significant new opportunity for Tarku shareholders in the growing global lithium market. Quebec is a haven for high-grade, high-quality lithium, and this project has the advantage of being located on the same batholith and geological context as the only producing lithium mine in Quebec, with spodumene-rich pegmatite showings surrounding the property. The other interesting fact about this property is that it seems to have been overlooked by past explorers, despite its prime location. We intend to do aggressive exploration and drill the project as soon as possible."

"This new lithium project is also a good complement to our portfolio of quality gold and silver assets in Quebec and Arizona, where we'll continue to be very active this year, and fits with Tarku's established exploration strategy of exploring in overlooked, easily accessible areas with strong geological potential in safe jurisdictions," added Mr. Davy.

Summary of the transaction to acquire the MAX Lithium property

Tarku can earn a 100% interest in the MAX Lithium property by issuing 4 million common shares of the Company (including escrow provisions to release one quarter of the shares in 4 months, one quarter in 8 months, one quarter in 12 months and the final quarter in 16 months). The Company will file all requisite documents with the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV") in connection with this transaction in order to obtain final acceptance.

Location of the Max Lithium property

Figure 1: Location of Tarku's MAX Lithium property within the La Corne batholith at 4 km from North American Lithium's operations

Update on other key projects

The Company also remains active on its other key projects.

On its wholly-owned Silver Strike project in Arizona, Tarku conducted a geophysical survey in 2022 and is now finalizing the planning of its 2023 exploration program, which will include surface mapping over the new targets generated, and potential drill program depending on market conditions. The MAG data from the 2022 survey was the first recent geophysical data for the area and has been used successfully in the discovery of carbonate replacement deposits (CRD), Tarku's target at Silver Strike.

In Quebec, on its wholly-owned Apollo Gold project, Tarku has completed a maiden 3,048-metre drilling program over the extension of the Sunday Lake fault. Visual inspection of the core reveals both intensive hydrothermal alterations, similar in style to orogenic gold deposits, and magmatic alterations, including hematization, carbonatization and sericitization associated with fine-grained disseminated pyrite, pyrrhotite, sphalerite and copper observed over intervals up to 45 metres thick. Assay results are still pending but are expected very soon.

Financing announcement

Tarku also announces that it is undertaking a non-brokered private placement of units of up to $280,000.

Pursuant to the placement of units, Tarku is offering up to 4,000,000 units (the "Units") at a price of $0.07 per Unit. Each Unit consists of one common share and one share purchase warrant entitling the holder to acquire one additional common share in the capital of the Company at a price of $0.12 per share, for a period of 24 months from the date the Units are issued. The proceeds of the financing will be used for general working capital purposes.

The Company will file all requisite documents with the TSX Venture Exchange in connection with this transaction in order to obtain final acceptance.

Stock option grant

The board of directors has approved the grant of 3,440,000 stock options pursuant to the Company's stock option plan. The options were granted to directors, officers and consultants of the Company and are exercisable at a price of $0.10 per share. If not exercised, they will expire on February 28, 2027, subject to earlier expiration in accordance with the stock option plan and the applicable policies of the TSX Venture Exchange.

Qualified persons

Julien Davy, P.Geo., M.Sc, MBA, President and Chief Executive Officer of Tarku, a qualified person under National Instrument 43-101 on standards of disclosure for mineral projects, has prepared, supervised and approved the technical information in this news release.

About Tarku

Tarku Resources Ltd. (TSXV:TKU | FRA:7TK | OTCBQ:TRKUF) is a mining exploration company focused on advancing the development of new discoveries by using modern techniques in favourable mining jurisdictions such as Quebec and Arizona.

In Arizona, within the famous Tombstone District, Tarku owns 100% of the 29 km2 Silver Strike project. Silver Strike has been interpreted by management to have the potential for similar Carbonate Replacement Deposits (CRD) comparable to the Hermosa project, located 80 km west in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, which South32 acquired for USD 1.8 billion in 2018.

In Quebec, Tarku owns 100% of the "Three A's" exploration projects, (Apollo, Admiral and Atlas projects), in the Matagami Greenstone Belt, interpreted by management as the eastern extension of the Detour Belt, which has seen recent exploration successes by Midland Exploration, Wallbridge Mining Company and Probe Metals. In addition, the Company owns the MAX Lithium project, located 4 km southwest of Sayona Mining's North American Lithium mine.

On behalf of Tarku Resources Ltd

Julien Davy,

President and CEO

Tarku contact information:

Email: investors@tarkuresources.com

Website: www.tarkuresources.com

Please follow @TarkuResources on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This press release may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and activities to vary materially from targeted results and planning. Such risks and uncertainties include those described in Tarku's periodic reports including the annual report or in the filings made by Tarku from time to time with securities regulatory authorities.

SOURCE: Tarku Resources Ltd.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/741320/Tarku-Acquires-100-of-the-MAX-Lithium-Property
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - March 1, 2023) - Britannia Life Sciences Inc. (CSE: BLAB) (FSE: L020) ("Britannia" or the "Company") is pleased to provide its unaudited financial results for the three- and nine-month periods ended December 31, 2022. These filings and additional information regarding Britannia are available for review on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. All amounts are Canadian dollars unless otherwise stated.

Q3 2023 Highlights:

Revenue for the three- and nine-month periods ended December 31, 2022, was $1.65m and $4.76m, respectively.

During the three and nine-month period ended December 31, 2022, the Company generated gross profit of $1.23m and $3.54m, respectively.

The Company reports Adjusted EBITDA of $598k for the quarter ended December 31, 2022. Adjusted EBITDA and net cash flows from operating activities for the nine-month period ended December 31, 2022, were $2.04m and $1.56m, respectively.

About Britannia Life Sciences Inc.

Britannia Life Sciences Inc. is a global platform offering an integrated suite of services to assist companies along their product development journey. Britannia's services, including product formulations, safety assessments, analytical and microbiological testing, global compliance and consumer evaluations are offered to companies ranging from multinationals to startups particularly in the cosmetics, food and wellness industries. Britannia has garnered significant expertise in the development and regulatory approval of topical and edible cannabis products, including preparation and support for novel food authorizations.

Britannia's head office is located at 120 Adelaide Street West, Suite 2400, Toronto, Ontario, M5H 1T1.

For further information contact:

Britannia Life Sciences Inc.

Email: investors@britannia.life

Forward-Looking Information

This press release may contain certain "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation regarding Britannia and its business. Any statement that involves discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as "expects", or "does not expect", "is expected" "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans", "budget", "scheduled", "forecasts". "estimates", "believes" or intends" or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results "may" or "could, "would", "might" or "will" be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, Britannia assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

For a detailed description of the risks and uncertainties facing the Company and its business and affairs, readers should refer to the Company's filings statement available on SEDAR under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/156586
Vancouver, British Columbia and Montreal, Quebec--(Newsfile Corp. - March 1, 2023) - Hypercharge Networks Corp. (NEO: HC) (OTCQB: HCNWF) (FSE: PB7) (the "Company" or "Hypercharge"), a leading, smart electric vehicle (EV) charging solutions provider, is pleased to announce its first roaming agreement with Electric Circuit. This partnership enables Hypercharge members to access Electric Circuit's 4,000+ public charging stations, and reciprocally allows Electric Circuit members to access Hypercharge's rapidly growing network of public charging stations.

Electric Circuit was founded in 2012 as a project of Hydro-Quebec and has since grown to be one of the most extensive public charging networks for electric vehicles in Canada. With its commitment to' sustainability and innovation, Electric Circuit has developed a strong reputation for reliable and accessible chargers with a solid mix of both Level 2 and Level 3 DC Fast Charging available.

Today's announcement is facilitated by both Hypercharge's and Electric Circuit's participation in the ChargeHub Passport program, which allows charging networks to enter into revenue-sharing agreements with other operators on the platform. For EV drivers, both networks are available to activate and pay via the ChargeHub mobile app, enabling a frictionless charging experience.

"We're thrilled to be working with Electric Circuit as our first roaming partner, as they operate the largest EV charging network in Quebec, and one of the most mature EV charging networks globally," said Rob Boyko, Head of Product & Operations at Hypercharge. "By participating in ChargeHub Passport, we look forward to continuing to grow the number of stations available to Hypercharge users through additional roaming agreements. Our vision for a truly carbon-neutral future means compatible, holistic solutions that work in harmony among all EV charging networks."

"This new roaming agreement between the Electric Circuit and Hypercharge is great news for electric vehicle drivers across Canada," said France Lampron, Director - Energy and Mobility Solutions at Hydro-Quebec. "Our goal has always been to make EV charging a seamless experience wherever people go, and this new agreement will bring us even closer to that goal."

The roaming agreement signed between Hypercharge and Electric Circuit offers financial benefits for both companies. By collaborating to expand their respective EV charging networks, both companies will attract more users to their respective platforms, increasing revenue streams.

-##-

About Hypercharge

Hypercharge Networks Corp. (NEO: HC) (OTCQB: HCNWF) (FSE: PB7) is a leading provider of smart electric vehicle (EV) charging solutions that offers turnkey technology to multi-unit residential and commercial buildings, fleet operations, and other rapidly growing sectors. Driven by its mission to accelerate EV adoption and enable the shift towards a carbon neutral economy, Hypercharge is committed to providing seamless, simple charging solutions by offering industry-leading equipment and a robust network of public and private charging stations. Learn more: https://hypercharge.com/

On behalf of the company,

Hypercharge Networks Corp.

David Bibby, President & CEO

Investor Relations:

invest@hypercharge.com

604-881-1730

Media Contact:

Kyle Green | Senior Marketing Manager

kyle.green@hypercharge.com

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Any statements that are contained in this news release that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often identified by terms such as "may", "should", "anticipate", "will", "estimates", "believes", "intends", "expects" and similar expressions which are intended to identify forward-looking statements. More particularly and without limitation, this news release contains forward-looking statements concerning Hypercharge growing the number of stations available to its users through additional roaming agreements. Forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain, and the actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, assumptions and expectations, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. Readers are cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of any forward-looking statements may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. Readers are further cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, as such information, although considered reasonable by the respective management of the Company at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated.

The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release, and are expressly qualified by the foregoing cautionary statement. Except as expressly required by securities law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or to revise any of the included forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Neither the NEO Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in policies of the NEO Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/156617
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 1, 2023) - BioMark Diagnostics Inc. (CSE: BUX) (FSE: 20B) (OTC Pink: BMKDF) ("BioMark" or the "Company") an advanced stage liquid biopsy company with a focus on hard to detect and treat cancers reported its operational update for the third quarter ended December 31, 2022, as well as outlook for 2023.



Business Update Highlights

"We are excited to share our Q3 results which demonstrates BioMark's efforts to solidify its robust technology platform and to accelerate commercialization of our early lung cancer blood-based assay that it plans to launch at its Quebec-based laboratory after securing appropriate international accreditation. Over the past few months, we continue to make significant accomplishments in clinical operations related to our early lung cancer metabolic as deeper data analytics is yielding very encouraging results. We intend to share these new findings at a major oncology symposium and publish in peer reviewed publication by Q3 2023. The company is pursuing new competitive non-dilutive government funding programs to help power our technology platform development, hire technical experts, accelerate commercialization initiatives, and support business development activities on a global basis," said CEO Rashid Bux. "Every quarter our dedicated team continues to execute and deliver corporate objectives to enhance and eventually unlock value for our shareholders. Thanks to these efforts, we remain on track for all key deliverables in Q3, and importantly for the commercialization of our lung cancer assay by late 2023."

Highlights of the Third Quarter

BioMark participated in a commercial trade mission in Maryland- The Bio Innovation Conference 2022 took place on October 3 - 4, 2022 in Bethesda, Maryland. The conference provided a unique opportunity to hear from and connect with researchers, business leaders, academia, venture capitalists, and other industry professionals in life sciences. BioMark delegates were able to have productive meetings with many leaders and representatives, including Secretary of Maryland Department of Commerce Mike Gill and National Institutes of Health (NIH) Associate Deputy Director Tara Schwetz. This trade mission was part of the MOU signed in 2020 between Quebec Government and the State of Maryland to strengthen collaboration and promote trade and innovation in the life sciences and public health sectors.

On October 27, 2022, BioMark announced the publication of a preclinical study demonstrating therapeutic capabilities of its SAT1 cancer marker in glioblastoma (GB) cells using an ionizable lipid nanoparticle. The study published as part of the special issue of Cancers "Novel Techniques and Technology for Treatment of Brain Tumors", reports that Spermidine/spermine N1- acetyltransferase 1 (SAT1) inhibition using an ionizable lipid nanoparticle-based siRNA delivery system appears to provide a safe and effective method to sensitizing GB cells to radiation and chemotherapeutic agents. The outcome of the study will dramatically impact therapeutic intervention associated with this lethal cancer. These results thus far illustrate BioMark's continuous efforts to diversify its product portfolio, expand its clinical application toward personalized medicine and patent portfolio with new discoveries that can impact cancer care management.

On November 22, 2022, BioMark signed a collaborative research agreement with Delhi Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research (DPSRU) in New Delhi, India, and St. Boniface Research Centre (SBRC) in Winnipeg, Manitoba for potential early lung cancer detection for the population in India. This would be critical for India as lung cancer cases are projected to increase by five- to seven-fold between 2025 to 2030 due to pollution and climate change.

On December 21, 2022, BioMark announced that its Quebec-based subsidiary, BioMark Diagnostic Solutions Inc ("BDS") is receiving advisory services and nondilutive funding of up to CAD $185,900 from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP) to support research and development of a quantitative assay to measure drug metabolites for cancer treatment monitoring. The project is leveraging the fully integrated BioMark's metabolomic liquid biopsy platform to develop a safe, effective, and affordable drug biomarker test to assess and monitor response to therapy which could provide both clinicians and patients with an accurate and easy way to perform relapse surveillance and therapeutic monitoring more effectively.

Results for the Third Quarter

The Company's unaudited consolidated results of operations, financial condition and cash flows for the quarter ended December 31, 2022, and the related management's discussion and analysis (MD&A) are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Of note, the total asset stood at C$884,597 at the end of the quarter. Research & Development expenses increased by 114%, compared to the nine months ended December 31, 2021. This increase in Research and Development expenses is in line with management projection and was mainly due to investments directed towards validation of the early lung cancer screening test and preparation for the lab certification and accreditation to meet ISO 15189 and USA CLIA standards which will allow the Company to generate revenue across North America. As of December 31, 2022, the number of issued and outstanding common shares was 83,286,229 and a total of 12,634,579 stock options and warrants were reserved for issuance.

The Company successfully held its Annual General Meeting on December 20, 2022, at 9:00 a.m. (Vancouver Time) from its head office in Richmond, BC. All the motions were passed.

Update on Company Outlook for 2023

Consistent with BioMark's commercialization strategies of its liquid biopsy platform for the early detection of hard to detect and treat cancers, the Company will accelerate certain initiatives in 2023, including:

Preparation for laboratory certification and accreditation to meet ISO 15891 and CLIA standards to provide metabolomics lab services.

Increase staff size in Quebec to support lab operations, business development initiatives, accelerate commercialization and expand expertise in bioinformatics and machine learning ..

Engage with North American leading medical institutions and bio-pharma partners to drive adoption of BioMark's early lung cancer liquid biopsy assay. The U.S. market is by far the largest addressable lung cancer market with over 16 million at risk individuals who can potentially benefit from screening annually. BioMark's assays are ideally suited for underserved and under resourced communities especially in community hospitals.

Accelerating international commercialization efforts of its early lung cancer lab developed test (LDT) and generate interest from leading institutions across Europe, India and South America. BioMark intends to partner with established lab operators within these strategic market regions in the next several quarters.

The Company is also actively seeking additional non-dilutive funding resources for the lab operations certification of its clinical lab, U.S. expansion, business development initiatives and conducting clinical studies.

About BioMark Diagnostics Inc.

BioMark is a liquid biopsy company developing a molecular diagnostics technology platform that leverages the power of metabolomics and machine learning algorithms to bring new cancer diagnostics to market and improving cancer prognosis by allowing physicians to detect carcinomas in the pre-symptomatic stages. The technology can also be used for measuring response to treatment and potentially for serial monitoring of cancer survivors. While the Company current focus is on the commercialization of its liquid biopsy test for early detection of lung, it has plan to expand into other hard to detect and treat cancers such as brain, ovarian and pancreatic.

Further information about BioMark is available under its profile on the SEDAR website www.sedar.com and on the CSE website https://thecse.com/.

For further information on BioMark, please Contact:

Rashid Ahmed Bux, President & CEO

BioMark Diagnostics Inc.

Tel. 604-370-0779, Email: info@biomarkdiagnostics.com

Forward-Looking Information:

This press release may include forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation, concerning the business of BioMark. Forward-looking information is based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by the management of BioMark. Although BioMark believes that the expectations and assumptions on which such forward-looking information is based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking information because BioMark can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release. BioMark disclaims any intent or obligation to update publicly any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events, or results or otherwise, other than as required by applicable securities laws.

The CSE has not reviewed, approved, or disapproved the content of this press release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/156666
WUHAN, China, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Guide Sensmart, the leading thermal imaging manufacturer just attended the Enforce Tac 2023, the international trade show for law enforcement and military professionals to showcase its classic thermal products, which has received a tremendous response. And now, they are coming to IWA 2023.

Over the last 40 years, IWA OutdoorClassics has developed into the leading international trade fair for hunting, shooting sports, equipment for outdoor activities, and for civilian and official security applications. This time, Guide Sensmart will take all their most popular thermal imaging products there, including TK Gen2 Series Handheld Thermal Imaging Monocular, TN Series Handheld Thermal Binoculars, TU Series Thermal Imaging Riflescope, and the newly developed TR Series Thermal Rifle Scope, etc.

The TR Series adopts the 12um sensor with 640512 resolution, 1024768 OLED display, and 48mm eye relief, more suitable for aiming. With the powerful sensor and image algorithm, better image quality is provided. Three different lenses of 25 mm, 35 mm, and 50 mm bring more options. Users can adjust image brightness and contrast, providing better playability. Fast and easy replaceable 18650 battery allows 5 hours of operation. The function of setting the height of the target for the rangefinder can adapt to the size of the prey in different areas. And first-time range notification enables users to set the prey height and effective range. Users can easily determine whether the prey enters the range through the notification line on the interface. To satisfy different hunting requirements of users, 10 different reticles are designed for users to choose from. The more advanced 12um sensor is adopted, which has a greater visual magnification and detection range. The TR Series also features exceptionally high shock resistance up to 800G. Compared with the previous riflescopes, the TR Series has more advantages, especially in weight and battery life.

IWA 2023 is right around the corner! Be sure to visit Guide Sensmart at Booth #513 in Hall 4A to experience first-hand the latest device technology. See you in Nuremberg!

IWA OutdoorClassics

About Guide Sensmart

Established in 2016, Guide Sensmart focuses on development, manufacture, and marketing of infrared thermal imaging products for commercial applications. For more information, visit https://www.guideir.com/.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2013051/Guide_Sensmart_Enforce_Tac.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2013052/Guide_Sensmart_IWA.jpg

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/guide-sensmart-debuted-the-new-thermal-rifle-scope---tr-series-at-iwa-2023-301759521.html
Brampton, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - March 1, 2023) - Star Navigation Systems Group Ltd. (CSE: SNA) (CSE: SNA.CN) ("Star" or the "Company") announces the resignation of Mr. Amir Bhatti as Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately.

Mr. Bhatti played a key roll in guiding Star through the COVID-19 pandemic and having the Company reinstated on the Canadian Stock Exchange. The Company wishes to thank Mr. Bhatti for his efforts as CEO and wishes him much success in the future.

The Company has appointed Mr. Anoop Brar, MBA, P.Eng, PMP as the new Interim CEO.

Mr. Brar has served on Star's Board of Directors for several years and has played a significant role in Star's turnaround for over two years. Mr. Brar brings his experience as an Engineer, Digital Transformation Consultant, Entrepreneur and Corporate Strategist to implement the Company's strategic and tactical agenda's by focusing on marketing, innovation and sales.

About Star Navigation Systems - www.star-navigation.com

Star Navigation Systems Group Ltd. manufactures the In-flight Safety Monitoring System, STAR-ISMS, the heart of the STAR-A.D.S. System. The STAR-A.D.S. System has real-time capability of tracking, performance trends and predicting incident-occurrences which enhances aviation safety and improves fleet management while reducing costs for the operator. Star's MMI Division (Military and Defence) designs and manufactures high performance, mission critical, flight deck flat panel displays for defence and commercial aviation industries worldwide.

Forward-Looking Information

Certain statements in this news release may constitute "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements are statements that address or discuss activities, events or developments that Star expects or anticipates may occur in the future.

When used in this news release, words such as "estimates", "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "projects", "will", "believes", "intends" "should", "could", "may" and other similar terminology are intended to identify such forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements reflect the current expectations and beliefs of Star's management. Because forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, actual results, performance or achievements of Star or the industry may be materially different from those implied by such forward-looking statements.

Examples of such forward-looking information that may be contained in this news release include statements regarding; growth and future prospects of our business; our perceptions of the industry and markets in which we operate and anticipated trends in such markets; expectations regarding the operation of our app; and our future revenues.

Material factors or assumptions that were applied in drawing a conclusion or making an estimate set out in the forward-looking statements may include, but are not limited to, our ability to execute on our business plan, increase visibility amongst consumers and convert users to revenue producing subscribers and the success of the business of our partners. Forward-looking statements involve significant uncertainties, should not be read as a guarantee of future performance or results, and will not necessarily be an accurate indication of whether or not such results will be achieved.

Should one or more of these factors or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected.

Accordingly, readers should exercise caution in relying upon forward-looking statements and Star undertakes no obligation to publicly revise them to reflect subsequent events or circumstances, except as required by law.

NEITHER 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.

Please visit www.star-navigation.com or contact

Randy Koroll, Chief Financial Officer at 1-416-252-2889 x228

randy.koroll@star-navigation.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/156706
ST PETER PORT, Guernsey, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ --

Michael Beys, Esq

Chairman

Secure Property Development & Investment plc

16, Kyriakou Matsi Avenue

Eagle House, 10th floor, PC 1082,

Nicosia, Cyprus

Dear Sir

Secure Property Development & Investment plc (the "Company")

Please see below the questions that we have submitted to St Brides Partners and which we the expect the board to answer in full on the Shareholder Call to be held at 3.00 CET on 2 March 2023.

Question 1: Please advise shareholders on the timing and process for completing the wind-down of the Company including the mechanism for distributing the underlying shares in Arcona to SPDI shareholders, as well as the closure costs of the plc head office?

On 3 January 2022 the Company announced the sale of the GreenLake land portfolio to Bougalon Investments Limited, a company in which 3 directors of the Company are interested.

Question 2: This represents the sale of one of the remaining assets of the Company and is a material transaction. When will the Strand Hanson fairness opinion referenced in the announcement be circulated to shareholders?

In the absence of this opinion we submit the following further questions for the call:

Question 3: Note 19 to the Interim Results for 1H.22 refers to the Company exercising effective management control of Green Lake Development Srl. Please confirm that the sale has been valued on a controlling interest basis?

Question 4; Please provide details of the structure of the transaction including the underlying residential units and land?

Question 5: Please explain the circumstances and conditions for the deferred consideration of 450,000 referenced in the announcement?

Question 6: With regard to Bougalon, we understand that the Directors hold a 60% interest. Who owns the remaining 40%? Do any of these shareholders have any association with the Company? In which jurisdiction is Bougalon registered?

Question 7: We understand that the Greenlake Kindergarten has been sold separately for 175,000. This seems incredibly low given that the 2020 and 2021 Annual Reports noted that (i) the property is " 100% leased to the International School for Primary Education until 2032" and (ii) it produces an "annual rent inflow of 115,000" and that more recently in the 1H 2022 Interim Results the Directors attributed a fair value to the property at 30 June 2022 at 1.32m. Please provide details of this transaction including the parties thereto?

Yours faithfully

Julia Church

Artemis Corporate Services Limited

Director

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/nr-investments-limited-says-shareholders-have-waited-long-enough-301759545.html
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / March 1, 2023 / The Fintech Open Source Foundation ( FINOS ), the financial services umbrella of the Linux Foundation, today announced the addition of three new Gold members: Discover , Lloyds Banking Group , and Temenos , as well as turntabl as a Silver member. Welcoming these new members from different areas of the industry is yet another sign of the business value open source delivers to financial services at large, as evidenced by FINOS' continued momentum as it nears 70 members across the globe. Additionally, FINOS grows its senior representation on its Governing Board, with the additions of Camille Fournier, Managing Director & Head of Engineering and Architecture, J.P. Morgan Corporate & Investment Bank; Aric Rosenbaum, Chief Technologist, Global Financial Services at Red Hat; John Mark Walker, Director, Open Source Program Office at Fannie Mae; and Andrew Aitken, GM & Global Open Source Leader, Wipro Ltd. FINOS also welcomes Rhyddian Olds, Head of Citi's Open Source Program Office (OSPO), as Vice Chair of the Governing Board.

As FINOS continues to build both its community of global members and the diversity of its Governing Board, the organization will be able to continue investing in strategic areas of open source collaboration in 2023, such as Open Source Readiness, FDC3, and Open RegTech .

"After an unprecedented year of growth for the FINOS community and the open source in financial services movement, we are energized to see this trend continue by welcoming not only another group of influential organizations pledging a sizeable commitment to open source, but also our new Governing Board representatives and Vice Chair that will further our impact at the leadership level and in the C-suite," said Gabriele Columbro, Executive Director of FINOS & General Manager of Linux Foundation Europe. "Open Source is counter cyclical in nature, so it's fantastic to see organizations across the whole value chain doubling down their investments in a period of economic turmoil, because only by garnering this broad industry support will we be able to create a truly open ecosystem to open up new markets and unprecedented opportunities for all financial industry participants, large and small, established or just coming to the global stage."

The deep level of participation in the open source community from key players across financial services, software companies, and banking technology platforms allows FINOS to continue to expand its reach and deliver collaborative solutions throughout the ecosystem. Between these new members of both the community and Governing Board, collaboration in interoperability, data connectivity and standardization, security, regulation, open source readiness, and more will continue to flourish and transform the industry at an accelerated pace.

New Members React

"Joining the Fintech Open Source Foundation (FINOS) is an important step for Discover. Delivering innovative, reliable, secure, and industry-leading technology is at the heart of our mission to build a brighter financial future for our customers. Today, we see innovation happening in the open - in robust communities like the one that has come together around FINOS. We look forward to many years of collaboration and development within the community, and we invite the community to learn how our people, processes, and technology come together at the Discover Technology Experience ." - Angel Diaz, Vice President, Technology Capabilities and Innovation

"Lloyds Banking Group is on a journey to transform our relationship with Open Source Software. Partnering with FINOS will empower our talented engineers to give back to the Open Source Community while supporting our purpose of Helping Britain Prosper." - Allan Woodcock, Engineering Services Director, Lloyds Banking Group

"Temenos is a proven leader that has been pioneering in banking technology for almost 30 years. We wanted to bring that expertise and that passion for innovation to the FINOS community. By working with FINOS and its members, we can further deliver on our mission to build the future of banking. We look forward to cross-pollinating ideas, collaborative problem-solving, and molding formal standards with the FINOS community." - Tony Coleman, CTO, Temenos

"After successfully collaborating with FINOS sponsors on open source projects, we're excited and proud to join FINOS itself. Not only are we both passionate about social initiatives, giving back to communities, and changing the industry from within, but FINOS' benchmarks for open source excellence and innovation are inspiring and essential. There's no better steward for global FinTech software standards to grow with, and this opens the door for our people and other Ghanaian engineers to take FinTech's global open-source community to new heights." - Sam Moorhouse, CEO and Founder turntabl

New Governing Board Members React

"At Citi, in realizing the tremendous benefits of open source within financial services, we have also recognized that these go hand-in-hand with giving back to the communities that have become essential to our success. We have seen the benefits of collaboration through projects like FDC3 which promises to directly connect our services to client applications and beyond. Through our OSPO we are committed to strengthening our connections with communities by making open source a central pillar of engineering excellence at Citi. As FINOS' Vice Chair of the Governing Board, my goal is to further drive the value of open source at the leadership level." - Rhyddian Olds, Head of Citi's Open Source Program Office (OSPO)

"I'm honored to be joining the FINOS Governing Board. Open source software is a foundational enabler of rapid innovation in the technology industry and investment in this space by financial services companies will lead to greater modernization." - Camille Fournier, Managing Director & Head of Engineering and Architecture, J.P. Morgan Corporate & Investment Bank

"When Fannie Mae launched its open source program, we saw immediate value in working with our industry peers to meet the challenges of standardizing on open source usage and increasing contributions to upstream projects. I look forward to building on that work, helping FINOS drive emerging technology trends using open source ecosystems." - John Mark Walker, Director, Open Source Program Office at Fannie Mae

"At Red Hat, we've spent more than two decades collaborating on community projects and protecting open source licenses so we can continue to develop software that pushes the boundaries of technological ability. Red Hat believes using an open development model helps create more stable, secure, and innovative technologies. FINOS is a strategic investment for Red Hat as it provides an ecosystem of community driven projects and working groups, especially around open source readiness that are focused on delivering value for financial service firms." - Aric Rosenbaum, Chief Technologist, Financial Services, Red Hat

"Wipro has many thousands of developers that leverage and contribute to the open source ecosystem whose aim is to deliver cutting edge solutions and products that drive innovation. Our commitment to upskilling helps to ensure that our developers are at the forefront of next generation innovation and meet the current and future demands of our global, enterprise customers. FINOS has become the epicenter of open source and open standards in financial services, and our participation in the foundation and on the Governing Board demonstrates our commitment to industry leadership. Wipro actively participates and contributes to FINOS and the open source projects it guides. We created the Open Source Maturity Model (OSMM), a unique model that helps organizations understand where they are on their open source journey and how to reach their target stage, to the FINOS Open Source Readiness Project. We will continue to steward this project and deepen our overall engagement with FINOS in 2023 and beyond." - Andrew Aitken, GM & Global Open Source Leader, Wipro Ltd

As reinforced by the recent open sourcing of the CDM, FINOS has now established itself as the primary venue for open source collaboration at a technology and business level across a diverse assortment of financial institutions, regulators, IT companies, cloud service providers, and more. Not only does FINOS see the number and active participation of each of its members continue to grow, but also casts a wider net geographically in firms recognizing the value of unification through open source.

To learn more about joining FINOS as a member, visit the Member Benefits page .

About FINOS

FINOS (The Fintech Open Source Foundation) is a nonprofit whose mission is to foster adoption of open source, open standards and collaborative software development practices in financial services. It is the center for open source developers and the financial services industry to build new technology projects that have a lasting impact on business operations. As a regulatory compliant platform, the foundation enables developers from these competing organizations to collaborate on projects with a strong propensity for mutualization. It has enabled codebase contributions from both the buy- and sell-side firms and counts over 50 major financial institutions, fintechs and technology consultancies as part of its membership. FINOS is also part of the Linux Foundation, the largest shared technology organization in the world. Get involved and join FINOS as a Member. To stay up to date on FINOS news, events, podcasts, blogs, and more, sign up here .

Media Contact:

Catharine Rybeck

Caliber Corporate Advisers

catharine@calibercorporateadvisers.com

SOURCE: FINOS

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/741477/CORRECTION-FROM-SOURCE-FINOS-Adds-New-Members-and-Expands-its-Governing-Board-As-Open-Source-Footprint-Is-On-The-Rise-Across-The-Financial-Value-Chain
Disney, McLaren Racing, RSM US LLP, The University of Texas at Dallas host Global Alteryx SparkED Datathon Series designed to increase data literacy and close skills gap

IRVINE, Calif., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Alteryx, Inc. (NYSE: AYX), the Analytics Automation company, announced today the launch of its first ever Alteryx SparkED Datathon series with a flagship event in partnership with McLaren Racing. This comes on the heels of the two-day SparkED Datathon hosted at The University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas) with Alteryx customers Disney, RSM US LLP, and more. This global upskilling initiative is designed to help learners gain data and analytics experience and understand how data-driven organizations are using decision intelligence to drive meaningful business outcomes.





Alteryx SparkED, the company's no-cost analytics education program, now works with 977 institutions globally, an 87 percent year over year increase in 2022, and more than 140,000 learners in over 50 countries. The program helps individuals and career changers create growth opportunities and improve their career outcomes amidst current economic turbulence.

McLaren Racing Accelerates Analytics Education

On Tuesday, March 14, McLaren Racing and Alteryx will host a unique Datathon at the McLaren Technology Centre, inviting students from universities across the UK to compete in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to analyze real-world data from the McLaren F1 Team. Students will qualify through a series of individual "escape room" challenges, with finalists participating in the data analytics Grand Prix event and getting a behind-the-scenes tour and look at the historical collection of McLaren Racing cars.

"Promoting STEM education pathways to help prepare today's students to become tomorrow's data leaders forms part of McLaren Racing's commitment to making STEM careers more accessible to all," said Matt Dennington, Executive Director, Partnerships and Accelerator at McLaren Racing. "Teaming up with our partner Alteryx to host a SparkED Datathon at the McLaren Technology Centre is an exciting opportunity for data-curious students. They will need to solve challenges using real-world McLaren data on the same innovative analytics platform our team uses to power our performance-enhancing insights."

The University of Texas at Dallas Improves Students' Career Outcomes with Alteryx SparkED

The McLaren Datathon follows the success of the UT Dallas event, where 100 students competed and solved use cases from Disney, RSM, and more. Students then met with prospective employers and showcased how they can deliver value with analytics on day one of employment.

"It's important for us to build a robust data analytics program and give our students strong networking opportunities to improve their career outcomes," said Gaurav Shekhar, Director of MS Business Analytics and Assistant Professor of Instruction, UT Dallas. "Alteryx SparkED has been a key partner for upskilling our students and helping them develop highly demanded data analytics skills that every employer across every industry needs."

UT Dallas has the largest analytics program in the United States and serves as a model for higher education institutions by ensuring students have relevant business skills by graduation. More than 1,000 students have participated in SparkED, achieving more than 500 Alteryx micro-credentials and certifications.

"Businesses globally are hungry to find talented employees who are data literate and skilled in analytics," said Libby Duane Adams, Chief Advocacy Officer and Co-Founder, Alteryx. "We've designed the Alteryx SparkED program to upskill students and help them succeed in the workplace, but we cannot do it alone. Our partnerships with organizations such as McLaren Racing and UT Dallas are key to bringing analytics to all."

Learn more about the Alteryx SparkED program and get involved here.

About Alteryx?

Alteryx (NYSE: AYX) powers analytics for all by providing our leading Analytics Automation Platform. Alteryx delivers easy end-to-end automation of data engineering, analytics, reporting, machine learning, and data science processes, enabling enterprises everywhere to democratize data analytics across their organizations for a broad range of use cases. More than 8,000 customers globally rely on Alteryx to deliver high-impact business outcomes. To learn more, visit www.alteryx.com.

Alteryx is a registered trademark of Alteryx, Inc. All other product and brand names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/662162/Alteryx_Logo.jpg

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/alteryx-announces-new-education-initiative-to-bring-analytics-for-all-to-learners-and-career-changers-301759395.html
TrueBrew is the first-of-its-kind, fully automatic, premium drip coffee machine, supported with a high impact campaign with global ambassador, Brad Pitt

De'Longhi, a global leader in the specialty coffee and espresso category known for superior Italian design and breakthrough technology, unveils their newest creation TrueBrew. While De'Longhi prides itself on its expertise and innovation with premium bean to cup espresso machines, the brand is now extending its offerings to include specialty drip coffee, now brewing at-home with TrueBrew a truly revolutionary machine that delivers quality and versatility with just a touch.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005302/en/

De'Longhi debuts first-of-its-kind, fully automatic specialty drip coffee machine, TrueBrew (Photo: Business Wire)

North American consumer insights led to the detailed development of TrueBrew, as a recent internal study conducted by De'Longhi found that coffee drinkers are seeking a higher quality each time they refill their cup. Specifically, the study found that within a focus group of coffee drinkers:

The majority of pod buyers agree and know the best cup of coffee starts with freshly ground beans.

Pod buyers are predominantly interested in specialty coffees.

Two-thirds own two or more coffee makers to achieve their desired coffee beverage, spending $200 or more on their most recent coffee machine purchase.

TrueBrew is the first drip coffee machine that doesn't force consumers to choose between quality and convenience by offering innovative technology that eliminates any guess work and measuring, allowing consumers to enjoy a superior, freshly ground coffee experience, any time. The unparalleled, built-in technology ensures precise grinding, measuring, and brewing (with the help of De'Longhi's patented Bean Extract Technology) for a variety of sizes at the press of a button. The Auto-Clean feature disposes of the used coffee grounds uniquely eliminating further waste and mess, without the use of paper filters or plastic pods.

"De'Longhi continues to revolutionize the coffee industry with advanced technology that is intuitive, easy to use and makes amazing coffee," said Mike Prager, North America CEO, De'Longhi Group. "Based on our local North American consumer research, we know there is an appetite for a higher quality experience within the drip coffee category. We are bringing breakthrough innovation with an artistic design, founded in our belief that the journey from bean to cup should be fresh and simple. We're elated to debut TrueBrew and elevate the at home bean to cup coffee experience."

TrueBrew features include:

The proprietary Bean Extract Technology automatically grinds, doses, and brews each cup to perfection.

The built-in conical burr grinder perfectly grinds fresh beans for a quality cup of coffee, eliminating the need for plastic pods and paper filter, ultimately mitigating waste.

Up to six different size beverages (3, 8, 12, 16, 24 and 40 oz) and five different brew styles (light, gold, bold, espresso-style, or over-ice), giving coffee drinkers the capability to customize their coffee to their exact specifications.

An over-ice option which adjusts the dose and brew resulting in a refreshingly bold and balanced iced coffee without compromising flavor.

Auto-clean function for coffee grounds to be packed into disposable pucks that can be discarded or repurposed for sustainable efforts such as composting.

To complement the launch of TrueBrew, global ambassador, Brad Pitt, and award-winning director, Damien Chazelle, return with a new installation of De'Longhi Group's global "Perfetto Moment" campaign. The cinematic campaign originally launched in 2021 and provided a glimpse into a "day-in-the-life of Brad Pitt."

"TrueBrew is arguably one of our most original innovations to date," said Maria Colon, Vice President of Marketing Consumer Experience for De'Longhi North America. "We recognized that a machine as revolutionary as this needed a unique marketing approach to match, which includes focusing on product-immersive content, hosting events where consumers can experience the machine through hands-on demonstrations to test its excellence and educating coffee users at any level, all with the goal to help excite consumers about this product launch."

The full funnel campaign is also supported with significant investment through high impact, culturally visible media moments including out of home, connected and linear TV, engaging influencer content and strong retail activations, with an emphasis in the United States and Canada. Efforts were supported by De'Longhi's agencies in North America including creative support from McKinney, PR activation by Current Global, media planning by Mediaplus and creative adaptation by The Woo.

TrueBrew is available in three models, the CAM51035M, the CAM51025MB and the CAM51015B, and all can dispense up to six different brew size beverages, hot or over-ice. The CAM51035M is a Williams-Sonoma launch exclusive, designed with a full stainless-steel aesthetic and comes with a 40 oz stainless-steel carafe that is perfect for serving multiple guests at once, and retails for $599. The additional two models will range from $399 to $499 and will be available at most major retailers in the US and Canada this spring.

To learn more about De'Longhi's latest campaign, TrueBrew and premium specialty coffee and espresso machines, visit DeLonghi.com.

De'Longhi Group

The De'Longhi Group is based in Treviso, Italy and is on the forefront of the small domestic appliance category with a range of premium products under three internationally renowned brands; De'Longhi, Kenwood, Braun and Capital Brands. The De'Longhi Group is committed to continuing their mission to create exceptional products that improve the lives' of the consumer through innovative technologies and unparalleled design.

The De'Longhi brand is based in Treviso Italy and the global leader in espresso and comfort products. Highest quality, high Italian design and meaningful product innovations are the core values of the De'Longhi brand. De'Longhi is present in over 123 countries and creates products in three main categories: espresso, specialty cooking and home comfort. After more than a century of perfecting its products, De'Longhi remains committed to creating innovations that bring convenience and style into every customers' home; making the everyday better. For more information visit www.delonghi.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005302/en/

Contacts:

Josephine Mallari

Current Global

312.929.0519

jmallari@currentglobal.com
Individual samples from hole QDG-22-63 return assays of up to 1.27% Ni, 1.21% Cu, 559 ppm Co and 1.46 g/t Pt-Pd-Au

High-grade Ni-Cu-PGE-bearing drill core from Fortin Sill Zone to be on display at PDAC 2023

Quebec Nickel Corp. (CSE: QNI; FSE: 7lB; OTCQB: QNICF) ("QNI" or the "Company") is pleased to report new drilling assay results from its Ducros Ni-Cu-PGE Project, located 80 kilometres northeast of Val-d'Or, Quebec. These results come from exploration drilling completed at the Fortin Sill Zone in late 2022 and suggest the critical metals-rich (Cu-Ni-PGE) zone is open at depth and along strike.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005556/en/

Figure 1. Plan map showing the locations of selected drill holes completed at the Fortin Sill Zone with Ni Cu assays (%) in relation to the outline of the Fortin Sill discovery outcrop. Drill holes with new assay results reported herein are highlighted in orange. (Graphic: Business Wire)

Highlights:

Hole QDG-22-63 returned a 4.90-metre-long drill intercept averaging 0.77% Ni, 0.56% Cu, 340 ppm Co and 0.80 g/t Pt-Pd-Au which includes a higher grade three-metre-long subinterval of 1.06% Ni, 0.77% Cu, 447 ppm Co and 1.09 g/t Pt-Pd-Au

which includes a higher grade three-metre-long subinterval of Individual one-metre-long samples from the reported intersection returned up to 1.27% Ni, 1.21% Cu, 559 ppm Co and 1.46 g/t Pt-Pd-Au

The drill intercept occurs approximately 60 metres below and 55 metres to the southwest of the known extents of the Fortin Sill Zone and suggests the zone is open both at depth and along strike.

Assay results from five additional holes completed from the same drill pad as QDG-22-63 are pending.

Follow-up exploration, expansion and definition drilling are planned for this winter and spring at the Fortin Sill Zone.

Fortin Sill Zone Drilling Results

Hole QDG-22-63 was completed in late 2022 in response to anomalous Ni-Cu-PGE results (all critical metals) returned from hole QDG-22-38, which was collared on the northeast side of the Fortin Sill Zone discovery outcrop and drilled towards the southwest under the mineralized bedrock exposure (Figure 1). Hole QDG-22-38 returned anomalous nickel, copper, and PGE values well below and to the southwest, potentially down plunge, of the Fortin Sill Zone. The geology and mineralization encountered in hole QDG-22-38 are summarized in the Company's October 19, 2022 news release for reference. Later during the same drilling program, hole QDG-22-63 was collared to the southwest of the Fortin Sill discovery outcrop and drill towards 105 Azimuth at a -75 dip from an existing permitted drill pad to follow-up on the results from hole QDG-22-38.

The 4.90-metre-long mineralized interval cut by QDG-22-63 begins at 109.10 metres downhole depth and returned 0.77% Ni, 0.56% Cu, 340 ppm Co and 0.80 g/t Pt-Pd-Au and includes a higher-grade three metre sub-interval of 1.06% Ni, 0.77% Cu, 447 ppm Co and 1.08 g/t Pt-Pd-Au. A one-metre sample within this interval assayed 1.27% Ni, 1.21% Cu, 559 ppm Co and 1.46 g/t Pt-Pd-Au (see Table 1 for details). The entire mineralized interval is characterized by the presence of heavily disseminated to net texture pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite with frequent multi centimeter to decimeter-wide semi-massive to massive sulphide veins, stringers, and clasts within a variably chlorite-altered and moderately to strongly foliated pyroxenite to gabbronorite host rock. Assay results for holes QDG-22-60, QDG-22-61, QDG-22-62, and QDG-22-64 through QDG-22-66, which were all collared from the same drill pad as QDG-22-63, are pending (Figures 1 2).

The occurrence of high-grade nickel-copper-PGE sulphides at depth of the at-surface Fortin Sill Zone warrants follow-up drilling and as such, several additional holes will be completed during the 2023 exploration program to evaluate the potential size and extent of this new target and/or potential extension of the Fortin Sill Zone. In addition, the new drilling will also test the updated geological model for the emplacement of the mineralized Fortin Sill intrusion, as discussed in the Company's December 15, 2022 news release.

The occurrence of strongly anomalous to high-grade Ni-Cu-Co-PGE-Au mineralization in multiple drill holes at depth and potentially down plunge from the Fortin Sill Zone reinforces the potential for discovering additional Ni-Cu-Co-PGE-Au sulphide mineralization in the immediate area as well as throughout the greater Project area.

In addition to the assay results from hole QDG-22-63, anomalous Ni-Cu-Co-PGE-Au values from holes QDG-22-33 and QDG-22-34 are also reported herein (Table 1, Figures 1 2). These two holes were collared within 50 metres of the Fortin Sill Zone mineralized outcrop exposure and intercepted long core intervals of anomalous Ni-Cu-Co-PGE-Au mineralization starting at surface (Table 1).

Hole ID From (m) To (m) Length (m) Ni Cu Ni Cu Co (ppm) Pt (g/t) Pd (g/t) Au (g/t) 3E (g/t) QDG-22-33 7.03 32.00 24.97 0.14 0.02 0.16 108 0.03 0.04 0.02 0.09 QDG-22-34 6.82 54.00 47.18 0.16 0.07 0.23 114 0.04 0.05 0.03 0.12 including 6.82 40.50 33.68 0.17 0.10 0.27 118 0.06 0.07 0.04 0.17 including 8.00 17.50 9.50 0.24 0.28 0.52 128 0.11 0.11 0.11 0.33 QDG-22-63 109.10 114.00 4.90 0.77 0.56 1.33 340 0.33 0.36 0.11 0.80 including 110.00 113.00 3.00 1.06 0.77 1.83 447 0.46 0.48 0.14 1.08 including 111.00 112.00 1.00 1.27 1.21 2.48 559 0.60 0.70 0.16 1.46 Table 1. Summary assay results for holes QDG-22-33, QDG-22-34 and QDG-22-631,2,3 1Reported assay intervals are sample length weighted. 2The true width of mineralized intervals is not known due to insufficient information. 33E Pt+Pd+Au

2023 Exploration Program

As previously announced, the Company's 2023 winter exploration activities kicked-off on January 20th with the start of its planned ~20,000 metre drilling program at the northern portion of the Ducros Ultramafic Sill Complex (DUSC) (see January 17, 2023 News Release). This year's drilling program will test numerous coincident geophysical (electromagnetic, magnetic and gravity anomalies) and geological targets at the DUSC and Ducros Gabbro target areas. Drilling is planned to resume at the Fortin Sill Zone later this winter and spring. In addition to the ongoing drilling program, approximately 600 line-kilometers of additional high-resolution drone-based magnetic surveys have been completed this winter that cover selected targets in the central and southwestern portions of the Ducros property. These new geophysical data will be incorporated into the project database and will help guide and refine the ongoing exploration work.

The Company also announces the successful relocation of its base of field operations and core processing facilities from Val-d'Or to the town of Lebel-sur-Quevillon. The new office space, core shack and core sawing facilities in Lebel-sur-Quevillon are less than a 30-minute drive from the Ducros property, allowing for significantly improved work efficiencies and overall safety of Project personnel and contractors.

PDAC 2023

Company representatives will be attending the Prospectors Developers Association of Canada conference (PDAC) on March 5-8, 2023, in Toronto, Canada. Conference attendees are invited to visit the QNI booth (#3250) during the four-day event to examine some of the high-grade Ni-Cu-PGE core drilled at the Fortin Sill Zone in 2022 and to discuss the Company's exploration plans for 2023.

Core Processing QAQC

Quebec Nickel has implemented a quality assurance and quality control ("QAQC") program for its Ducros Project to ensure best practices for logging, sampling and analysis of its drill core as well as for the collection and analyses of rock samples. This includes the regular insertion of geochemical blanks, duplicates and multiple Ni-Cu-PGE-Au certified reference material standards (CRMs) into the sample stream.

Drill core is collected by Ducros Project personnel daily from the drill rigs and transported in secured core boxes to QNI's core logging facilities in Lebel-sur-Quevillon. Logging is completed on laptops and data are captured using fit-for-purpose computer software.

Core destined for geochemical analyses is identified and labeled by core logging geologists and is then sawed in half by a diamond blade. One half of the NQ-diameter core sample is placed in a labeled and secured sample bag. The remaining half of the core sample is returned to its core box for archiving. All core samples are transported from QNI's logging facilities to AGAT Laboratories' sample preparation facility in Val-d'Or in secured and numbered rice bags by Project personnel.

AGAT Laboratories is accredited to the ISO/IEC 17025:2017 and ISO 9001:2015 standards. Analysis for precious metals (gold, platinum, and palladium) is completed by Fire Assay with an ICP-OES finish while analyses for nickel, copper and 41 other elements are performed using AGAT's 4 Acid Digest Metals Package, with an ICP-OES finish.

QUALIFIED PERSON

Gary DeSchutter, M.Sc., P.Geo., Vice-President of Exploration for Quebec Nickel Corp., and a Qualified Person ("QP") as defined under National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101"), has reviewed, and approved the scientific and technical content of this press release.

ABOUT QUEBEC NICKEL CORP.

Quebec Nickel Corp. is a mineral exploration company focused on acquiring, exploring, and developing critical metals (Ni-Cu-Co-PGE) projects in Quebec, Canada. The Company has a 100% interest in the Ducros Property, consisting of 282 contiguous mining claims covering 15,293 hectares within the eastern portion of the Abitibi Greenstone Belt in Quebec, Canada. Additional information about Quebec Nickel Corp. is available at www.quebecnickel.com.

The CSE has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release. Neither the CSE nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

CAUTIONARY AND FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this news release, other than statements of historical facts that address events or developments that the Company expects to occur, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "intends," "estimates," "projects," "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will," "would," "may," "could" or "should" occur. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause the results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market, or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that such statements are not guarantees of future performance and that actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates, and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements if management's beliefs, estimates, opinions, or other factors should change.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005556/en/

Contacts:

On behalf of the Board of Directors

David Patterson

Chief Executive Officer and Director

1 (855) 764-2535 (QNICKEL)

info@quebecnickel.com
ST. LOUIS / ACCESSWIRE / March 1, 2023 / The Yellowstone Bourbon brand family announced it has renewed its partnership with the National Parks Conservation Association. As a result of the newly structured partnership, Yellowstone will donate $250,000 - making it NPCA's largest annual corporate donor.*

To celebrate the continued partnership with NPCA, Yellowstone also will release a special-edition NPCA collector's label on bottles of Yellowstone Select Bourbon. The front label includes an illustration of two grizzly bears depicted on the NPCA logo, along with a ribbon in the organization's iconic green. The back label includes a QR code to learn more about Yellowstone's partnership with NPCA.

Starting during National Park Week in April, 10,000 cases (60,000 bottles) of Yellowstone Select featuring the NPCA collector's label will be available at retail nationwide.

"We're proud of the 150-plus-year heritage we share with America's first national park, and we are equally proud of our growing relationship with NPCA - an organization that works tirelessly to protect and preserve our national parks," said McKenna Burst, Yellowstone brand manager. "In addition to donating money to support their efforts, we are proud to raise additional awareness through our NPCA collector's label and through upcoming activities and promotions throughout the year."

"Yellowstone Bourbon is a brand that truly puts their values into action, and that's why NPCA is so proud to partner with them. They're committed to protecting America's national parks for all who visit them now, and will visit them for generations to come," said Theresa Pierno, President and CEO of the National Parks Conservation Association. "This passion and dedication is how we'll ensure our most iconic landscapes and most important history will be safeguarded. As NPCA's largest annual corporate partner, and building on our five-year partnership, we are committed to doing this important work together, and to inspiring people to join us in standing up for these places we all care so much about."

In June 2022, Yellowstone Bourbon stepped in to support Yellowstone National Park in the wake of devastating floods that swept through it and the surrounding area. Through a fundraising event hosted by NPCA, Yellowstone Bourbon matched donations up to $50,000 to support the Southwest Montana Relief Fund - a joint effort between the Park County Community Foundation (PCCF) and Greater Gallatin United Way - and the Red Lodge Area Community Foundation. With Yellowstone Bourbon's help, NPCA and the Bozeman community raised nearly $100,000.

Yellowstone began supporting NPCA in 2018, donating $1.00 for every bottle of Yellowstone Select Bourbon sold - up to a total of $30,000 each year. To date Yellowstone has donated more than $495,000 to NPCA.

About the National Parks Conservation Association

Since 1919, the nonpartisan National Parks Conservation Association has been the leading voice in safeguarding our national parks. NPCA and its more than 1.6 million members and supporters work together to protect and preserve our nation's most iconic and inspirational places for future generations. For more information, visit www.npca.org.

About Limestone Branch Distillery

Stephen Beam opened Limestone Branch Distillery in 2011, with the goal of crafting the finest spirits in small batches. Stephen is a seventh-generation distiller with a history of distilling on both sides of his family - Beam and Dant. In 2015, he brought the Yellowstone brand back to the family. The distillery is now home to Yellowstone Select, Yellowstone American Single Malt Whiskey, Yellowstone Limited Edition, Minor Case Rye Whiskey and Bowling & Burch Gin. For more information on Limestone Branch Distillery and Yellowstone, please visit www.limestonebranch.com , www.yellowstonebourbon.com or https://www.instagram.com/yellowstonebourbon/.

*Based on donations made within NPCA's fiscal year 2023.

# # #

Special-edition NPCA collector's label Yellowstone Select Bourbon

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from National Parks Conservation Association on 3blmedia.com.

Contact Info:

Spokesperson: National Parks Conservation Association

Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/national-parks-conservation-association

Email: info@3blmedia.com

SOURCE: National Parks Conservation Association

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/741418/Yellowstone-Bourbon-Renews-Partnership-With-the-National-Parks-Conservation-Association
BALTIMORE, MD / ACCESSWIRE / March 1, 2023 / T. Rowe Price Lead Client Consultant Alexis Willis' daughter was diagnosed at a young age with sickle cell anemia, a common inherited blood disorder affecting red blood cells and that can be fatal without proper treatment and access to blood transfusions. T. Rowe Price Director of Marketing Lee Jokl is a board member for the American Red Cross of Central Maryland. His involvement in the organization was spurred after his son needed several blood transfusions as a baby.

Together, Willis and Jokl spearheaded a blood drive event for T. Rowe Price associates as an opportunity for their colleagues to give back to those fighting illness and trauma.

The Baltimore-based global investment management firm hosted a two-day blood drive on February 7 and 8 at its Baltimore and Owings Mills locations for associates who were eligible to donate. The events were coordinated in partnership with the firm's MOSAIC African Heritage Community, one of three communities under the multicultural business resource group dedicated to promoting an inclusive culture, as part of its MLK Week of Service and Black History Month agendas.

"For my family and many others, blood accessibility is a personal issue; families across the U.S. rely on blood transfusions to care for loved ones who suffer from illness or trauma," said Willis. "I know firsthand how valuable blood donation events are to supporting communities. I am so thankful to the Red Cross and my T. Rowe Price colleagues for putting on these donation events to help families like mine."

Both locations exceeded their individual donation goals with 64 units of blood donated, which will save up to an estimated 192 lives. Nearly 20% of the donations were from diverse donors and will go to support sickle cell anemia patients specifically.

"It's not every day you come home from work knowing you potentially saved a life. Today, the T. Rowe Price team can," said Jokl. "Community is at the heart of everything we do at T. Rowe Price, and there is no better way to support our community than protecting the health and wellness of those around us. Blood drives like these make it easy to participate in such a necessary and selfless act."

Education and accessibility to the blood drives aided in the success of these events. The firm hosted a lunch and learn to educate associates on the importance of diverse blood donors. With repeat donors accounting for 69% of U.S. blood donations, according to America's Blood Centers, corporate blood drives like that hosted by T. Rowe Price can help create awareness and easy access to potential donors.

The events came at an urgent time for blood donation in Maryland. In a 2022 Baltimore Sun article, Red Cross Spokeswoman Ashley Henyan shared that new donor turnout in Maryland was down more than 30% compared with previous years. Blood donations are often necessary to treat cancer patients, trauma victims, and people with chronic illness.

"T. Rowe Price embodies the definition of community and compassionate service," Misty L. Bruce, executive director, American Red Cross of Central Maryland. "I am not surprised that so many employees rolled up their sleeves in hopes of giving someone else another chance at life."

The American Red Cross must collect enough blood every day to meet the needs of accident and burn victims, heart surgery and organ transplant patients, and those receiving treatment for leukemia, cancer, or sickle cell disease. The organization encourages eligible donors of all races and ethnicities to give blood or platelets to increase the diversity of the blood supply. For more information, visit RedCrossBlood.org.

###

ABOUT T. ROWE PRICE

Founded in 1937, Baltimore-based T. Rowe Price (troweprice.com) is a global investment management organization with $1.35 trillion in assets under management as of January 31, 2023. The organization provides a broad array of mutual funds, subadvisory services, and separate account management for individual and institutional investors, retirement plans, and financial intermediaries. The company also offers a variety of sophisticated investment planning and guidance tools. T. Rowe Price's disciplined, risk-aware investment approach focuses on diversification, style consistency, and fundamental research. T. Rowe Price helps clients invest with confidence and can be found on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from T. Rowe Price on 3blmedia.com.



Contact Info:

Spokesperson: T. Rowe Price

Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/t-rowe-price

Email: info@3blmedia.com

SOURCE: T. Rowe Price

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/741419/T-Rowe-Price-Blood-Drive-Helps-Support-American-Red-Cross-During-Time-of-Urgency
Sale and Leaseback Transaction Supports Maximizing Middle East Carrier's Post-Pandemic Growth Trajectory

CDB Aviation, a wholly owned Irish subsidiary of China Development Bank Financial Leasing Co., Ltd. ("CDB Leasing"), announced today the final delivery of a new Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft in a series of five deliveries contracted as part of a sale and leaseback transaction with Oman Air, the national airline of the Sultanate of Oman.

The aircraft, equipped with the CFM Leap 1B27 engines and configured with 12 business and 150 economy class seats, will support the carrier's ever-expanding network. Oman Air has been introducing routes throughout the Middle East and the Indian Subcontinent, as well as several cities in Europe, South Asia, and Africa, in recent years and is focused on growing additional connectivity to North and South America and Australia.

"We are very pleased to build on our relationship with Oman Air and to expand our presence in the Middle East with this sale and leaseback transaction," said Paul Boyle, CDB Aviation's Head of EMEA. "These new technology, fuel-efficient aircraft will support the airline's ongoing recovery efforts, providing the airline's passengers with greater connectivity and a wider choice of destinations from its hub in Muscat."

"As air travel demand continues to grow post-pandemic, Oman Air has the opportunity to expand progressively. The latest addition to our fleet will serve both domestic and short-to-medium international sectors, further extending our seamless connectivity to a growing number of destinations," commented AbdulAziz Al Raisi, Chief Executive Officer of Oman Air. "We are glad to have CDB Aviation as our partner in growth and continue to place ourselves at the forefront of aviation technology, enhance our operational efficiency, as well as provide our guests with an exceptional on-board experience."

Peter Goodman, CDB Aviation's Chief Marketing Officer, concluded: "As the airlines' ongoing recovery continues, members of our commercial team are working relentlessly with airline teams across all markets to support the financing needs of their fleets and commercial operations to take full advantage of post-pandemic growth opportunities."

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements, beliefs or opinions, including with respect to CDB Aviation's business, financial condition, results of operations or plans. CDB Aviation cautions readers that no forward-looking statement is a guarantee of future performance and that actual results or other financial condition or performance measures could differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements can be identified by the fact that they do not relate only to historical or current facts. Forward-looking statements sometimes use words such as "may," "will," "seek," "continue," "aim," "anticipate," "target," "projected," "expect," "estimate," "intend," "plan," "goal," "believe," "achieve" or other terminology or words of similar meaning. These statements are based on the current beliefs and expectations of CDB Aviation's management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Actual results and outcomes may differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. Accordingly, you should not rely upon forward-looking statements as a prediction of actual results and we do not assume any responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of any of these forward-looking statements. Except as required by applicable law, we do not undertake any obligation to, and will not, update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

About Oman Air

Oman Air (WY), the national airline of the Sultanate of Oman, began operations in 1993. Initially founded to serve important domestic routes, it has since undergone rapid growth and is today recognised as a major international carrier connecting cities around the world to Oman's stunning nature, rich heritage and welcoming culture. The award-winning airline has been instrumental in transforming Muscat into one of the middle East's most desirable travel destinations, while supporting adjacent commercial, industrial and tourism activities. With a young and modern fleet including, among others, fuel-efficient Boeing 737 and 787 Dreamliner aircraft, which feature luxuriously appointed interiors, Oman Air is renowned for its exceptional products and services, both in the air and on the ground, and for the signature Omani hospitality it offers to every guest throughout their journey. www.omanair.com

About CDB Aviation

CDB Aviation is a wholly owned Irish subsidiary of China Development Bank Financial Leasing Co., Ltd. ("CDB Leasing") a 38-year-old Chinese leasing company that is backed mainly by the China Development Bank. CDB Aviation is rated Investment Grade by Moody's (A2), S&P Global (A), and Fitch (A+). China Development Bank is under the direct jurisdiction of the State Council of China and is the world's largest development finance institution. It is also the largest Chinese bank for foreign investment and financing cooperation, long-term lending and bond issuance, enjoying Chinese sovereign credit rating.

CDB Leasing is the only leasing arm of the China Development Bank and a leading company in China's leasing industry that has been engaged in aircraft, infrastructure, ship, commercial vehicle and construction machinery leasing and enjoys a Chinese sovereign credit rating. It took an important step in July 2016 to globalize and marketize its business listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX STOCK CODE: 1606). www.CDBAviation.aero

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230217005347/en/

Contacts:

Paul Thibeau

Paul.THIBEAU@CDBAviation.aero; +1 612 594 9844
NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, IN, INTO OR FROM ANY RESTRICTED JURISDICTION WHERE TO DO SO WOULD CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF THE RELEVANT LAWS OR REGULATIONS OF SUCH JURISDICTION.

This announcement is an advertisement and does not constitute a prospectus and investors must subscribe for or purchase any shares referred to in this announcement only on the basis of information contained in the Prospectus and not in reliance on this announcement. Copies of the Prospectus, subject to any applicable law, are available for viewing at the National Storage Mechanism at https://data.fca.org.uk/#/nsm/nationalstoragemechanism and on the Company's website. This announcement does not constitute, and may not be construed as, an offer to sell or an invitation to purchase investments of any description or a recommendation regarding the issue or the provision of investment advice by any party. No information set out in this announcement is intended to form the basis of any contract of sale, investment decision or any decision to purchase shares in the Company.



1 March 2023



Castelnau Group Limited

Update to Placing Timetable

On 1 February 2023, Castelnau Group Limited ("Castelnau" or the "Company") published a prospectus (the "Prospectus") containing details of a proposed Placing to raise proceeds for the Company's funding obligations in respect of the recommended cash offer for Dignity Plc ("Dignity") by Yellow (SPC) Bidco Limited ("Bidco"), a newly formed company indirectly owned or controlled by a consortium comprised of joint offerors SPWOne V Limited, Castelnau and Phoenix Asset Management Partners Limited ("PAMP"). The Placing is for up to 154,000,000 new Ordinary Shares in the Company and is conditional, inter alia, upon the completion of the Takeover Offer, which is itself subject to the Acceptance Condition and the FCA Change in Control Condition, as defined in the offer document (the "Offer Document") published by Bidco on 14 February 2023. Pursuant to the Offer Document, the latest date for acceptance of the Offer by Dignity Shareholders is 15 April 2023.

Due to the interconnected nature of the Placing and the Offer for Dignity, including the acceptance of the Alternative Offers outlined in the Offer Document, the Company, in consultation with Liberum Capital Limited (financial adviser to Castelnau in connection to the Placing), has decided to adjust the Placing Timetable, such that the latest time and date for receipt of commitments under the Placing will occur at a later stage in the Offer timetable, allowing investors further clarity on the status of the Offer at the point of their participation in the Placing. The latest time and date for receipt of Placing commitments will be midday 14 April 2023, given the latest date by which the Offer can be accepted by Dignity Shareholders is on 15 April 2023. In the event that the Company decides to close the Placing before this date, a further announcement will be made giving five business days' notice of the revised latest time and date for Placing commitments.

Except where the context requires otherwise, defined terms herein shall have the meanings given to them in the Prospectus. A copy of the Prospectus and Offer Document are available on the Company's website at www.castelnaugroup.com, subject to certain access restrictions.



Expected timetable

Publication of the Prospectus and Placing open 1 February 2023 Latest time and date for receipt of commitments under the Placing midday on 14 April 20231 Announcement of the results of the Placing 7.00 a.m. on 17 April 20231 Admission and dealings in the Placing Shares commence 8.00 a.m. on 20 April 2023 or, if later, the date being three business days following the date on which the Takeover Offer has become or been declared unconditional Crediting of CREST stock accounts in respect of the Placing Shares as soon as reasonably practicable on the date of Admission Where applicable, definitive share certificates despatched in respect of the Placing Shares within 10 Business Days of Admission

1 or such earlier date as announced by the Company, with five business days' notice.

Notes:

References to times above are to London times unless otherwise specified.

All times and dates in the expected timetable may be adjusted by the Company. Any material changes to the timetable will be notified via an RIS.

- Ends -

Enquiries

Phoenix Asset Management Limited +44 (0) 208 600 0100 Gary Channon

Steve Tatters

Liberum Capital Limited (Financial adviser and sole bookrunner to Castelnau) +44 (0) 20 3100 2222 Darren Vickers

Owen Matthews

Will King

Morgan Stanley (Financial adviser to Bidco)

+44 (0) 20 7425 8000

Laurence Hopkins

Richard Brown

Anusha Vijeyaratnam



Citigate Dewe Rogerson +44 (0) 20 7638 9571 Caroline Merrell

Toby Moore



Important Information

Liberum Capital Limited ("Liberum") is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Liberum is acting exclusively for the Company in connection with the matters described in this announcement and is not acting for or advising any other person, or treating any other person as its client, in relation thereto and will not be responsible for providing the regulatory protection afforded to its clients or advice to any other person in relation to the matters contained herein. This does not exclude any responsibilities or liabilities of Liberum under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 ("FSMA") or the regulatory regime established thereunder.

This announcement is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of any offer to buy any securities in the Company in the United States, Australia, Canada, the Republic of South Africa, Japan, or in any other jurisdiction where such offer or sale would be unlawful.

This communication is not for publication or distribution, directly or indirectly, in or into the United States of America. This communication is not an offer of securities for sale into the United States. The securities referred to herein have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States, except pursuant to an applicable exemption from registration. No public offering of securities is being made in the United States.

The Company has not been and will not be registered under the US Investment Company Act of 1940 (the "Investment Company Act") and, as such, holders of the Company's securities will not be entitled to the benefits of the Investment Company Act. No offer, sale, resale, pledge, delivery, distribution or transfer of the Company's securities may be made except under circumstances that will not result in the Company being required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act.

Moreover, the Company's securities will not be registered under the applicable securities laws of Australia, Canada, the Republic of South Africa, Japan or any member state of the EEA. Subject to certain exceptions, the Company's securities may not be offered or sold in Australia, Canada, the Republic of South Africa, Japan or any member state of the EEA or to, or for the account or benefit of, any national, resident or citizen of, Australia, Canada, the Republic of South Africa, Japan or any member state of the EEA. The Placing and the distribution of this announcement, in certain jurisdictions may be restricted by law and accordingly persons into whose possession this announcement is received are required to inform themselves about and to observe such restrictions.

Neither the content of the Company's website, nor the content on any website accessible from hyperlinks on its website for any other website, is incorporated into, or forms part of, this announcement nor, unless previously published by means of an RIS announcement, should any such content be relied upon in reaching a decision as to whether or not to acquire, continue to hold, or dispose of, securities in the Company.

The information in this announcement is for background purposes only and does not purport to be full or complete. No reliance may be placed for any purpose on the information contained in this announcement or its accuracy or completeness. The material contained in this announcement is given as at the date of its publication (unless otherwise marked) and is subject to updating, revision and amendment. In particular, any proposals referred to herein are subject to revision and amendment.

The value of shares and the income from them is not guaranteed and can fall as well as rise due to stock market and currency movements. When you sell your investment you may get back less than you originally invested. Figures refer to past performance and past performance should not be considered a reliable indicator of future results.

This announcement may include statements that are, or may be deemed to be, "forward-looking statements". These forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including the terms "believes", "estimates", "anticipates", "expects", "intends", "may", "might", "will" or "should" or, in each case, their negative or other variations or similar expressions. All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this announcement, including, without limitation, those regarding the Company's financial position, strategy, plans, proposed acquisitions and objectives, are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements speak only as at the date of this announcement and cannot be relied upon as a guide to future performance.

Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties and, accordingly, the Company's actual future financial results and operational performance may differ materially from the results and performance expressed in, or implied by, the statements. These factors include but are not limited to those described in the Prospectus. These forward-looking statements speak only as at the date of this announcement and cannot be relied upon as a guide to future performance. Subject to their respective legal and regulatory obligations (including under the Prospectus Regulation Rules), the Company, PAMP and/or Liberum expressly disclaim any obligations or undertaking to update or revise any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based unless required to do so by law or any appropriate regulatory authority, including FSMA, the Prospectus Regulation Rules, the Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules, the Prospectus Regulation and UK MAR.

None of the Company, PAMP and/or Liberum, or any of their respective affiliates, accepts any responsibility or liability whatsoever for, or makes any representation or warranty, express or implied, as to this announcement, including the truth, accuracy or completeness of the information in this announcement (or whether any information has been omitted from the announcement) or any other information relating to the Company or associated companies, whether written, oral or in a visual or electronic form, and howsoever transmitted or made available or for any loss howsoever arising from any use of the announcement or its contents or otherwise arising in connection therewith. The Company, PAMP and Liberum, and their respective affiliates, accordingly disclaim all and any liability whether arising in tort, contract or otherwise which they might otherwise have in respect of this announcement or its contents or otherwise arising in connection therewith.

INFORMATION TO DISTRIBUTORS

Solely for the purposes of the product governance requirements contained within PROD 3 of the FCA's Product Intervention and Product Governance Sourcebook (the "Product Governance Requirements"), and disclaiming all and any liability, whether arising in tort, contract or otherwise, which any "manufacturer" (for the purposes of the Product Governance Requirements) may otherwise have with respect thereto, the Shares have been subject to a product approval process, which has determined that the Shares to be issued pursuant to the Placing and Subsequent Placings are: (i) compatible with an end target market of retail investors and investors who meet the criteria of professional clients and eligible counterparties, each as defined in COBS 3.5 and 3.6 of the FCA's Conduct of Business Sourcebook, respectively; and (ii) eligible for distribution through all distribution channels as are permitted by the Product Governance Requirements (the "Target Market Assessment").

Notwithstanding the Target Market Assessment, distributors should note that: (a) the price of the Shares may decline and investors could lose all or part of their investment; the Shares offer no guaranteed income and no capital protection; (b) an investment in the Shares is compatible only with investors who do not need a guaranteed income or capital protection, who (either alone or in conjunction with an appropriate financial or other adviser) are capable of evaluating the merits and risks of such an investment and who have sufficient resources to be able to bear any losses that may result therefrom, and (c) the Shares will be admitted to the Specialist Fund Segment, which is intended for institutional, professional, professionally advised and knowledgeable investors who understand, or who have been advised of, the potential risk from investing in companies admitted to the Specialist Fund Segment. The Target Market Assessment is without prejudice to the requirements of any contractual, legal or regulatory selling restrictions in relation to the Initial Issue and/or Subsequent Placings. Furthermore, it is noted that, notwithstanding the Target Market Assessment, Liberum will only procure investors who meet the criteria of professional clients and eligible counterparties.

For the avoidance of doubt, the Target Market Assessment does not constitute: (a) an assessment of suitability or appropriateness for the purposes of the FCA's Conduct of Business Sourcebook; or (b) a recommendation to any investor or group of investors to invest in, or purchase, or take any other action whatsoever with respect to the Shares.

Each distributor is responsible for undertaking its own Target Market Assessment in respect of the Shares and determining appropriate distribution channels.

PRIIPS REGULATION

In accordance with the PRIIPs Regulation, a Key Information Document prepared by PAMP in relation to the Ordinary Shares is available on the Company's website: www.castelnaugroup.com. If any C Shares are offered pursuant to the Placing Programme, a Key Information Document in respect of such C Shares will be prepared by PAMP and will be available to investors at www.castelnaugroup.com. It is the responsibility of each distributor of Ordinary Shares or C Shares to ensure that its "retail clients" are provided with a copy of the relevant Key Information Document.

PAMP is the only manufacturer of the Shares for the purposes of the PRIIPs Regulation and Liberum is not a manufacturer for these purposes. Liberum makes no representations, express or implied, or accepts any responsibility whatsoever for the contents of the Key Information Documents prepared by PAMP nor accepts any responsibility to update the contents of any Key Information Documents in accordance with the PRIIPs Regulation, to undertake any review processes in relation thereto or to provide such Key Information Documents to future distributors of Shares. Liberum and its affiliates accordingly disclaim all and any liability whether arising in tort or contract or otherwise which it or they might have in respect of any Key Information Documents prepared by PAMP.

Dealing disclosure requirements under the Takeover Code

Under Rule 8.3(a) of the Takeover Code, any person who is interested in 1% or more of any class of relevant securities of an offeree company or of any securities exchange offeror (being any offeror other than an offeror in respect of which it has been announced that its offer is, or is likely to be, solely in cash) must make an Opening Position Disclosure following the commencement of the offer period and, if later, following the announcement in which any securities exchange offeror is first identified.

An Opening Position Disclosure must contain details of the person's interests and short positions in, and rights to subscribe for, any relevant securities of each of (i) the offeree company and (ii) any securities exchange offeror(s). An Opening Position Disclosure by a person to whom Rule 8.3(a) applies must be made by no later than 3.30 p.m. on the 10th business day following the commencement of the offer period and, if appropriate, by no later than 3.30 p.m. on the 10th Business Day following the announcement in which any securities exchange offeror is first identified. Relevant persons who deal in the relevant securities of the offeree company or of a securities exchange offeror prior to the deadline for making an Opening Position Disclosure must instead make a Dealing Disclosure.

Under Rule 8.3(b) of the Takeover Code, any person who is, or becomes, interested in 1% or more of any class of relevant securities of the offeree company or of any securities exchange offeror must make a Dealing Disclosure if the person deals in any relevant securities of the offeree company or of any securities exchange offeror. A Dealing Disclosure must contain details of the dealing concerned and of the person's interests and short positions in, and rights to subscribe for, any relevant securities of each of (i) the offeree company and (ii) any securities exchange offeror(s), save to the extent that these details have previously been disclosed under Rule 8. A Dealing Disclosure by a person to whom Rule 8.3(b) applies must be made by no later than 3.30 p.m. on the Business Day following the date of the relevant dealing. If two or more persons act together pursuant to an agreement or understanding, whether formal or informal, to acquire or control an interest in relevant securities of an offeree company or a securities exchange offeror, they will be deemed to be a single person for the purpose of Rule 8.3.

Opening Position Disclosures must also be made by the offeree company and by any offeror and Dealing Disclosures must also be made by the offeree company, by any offeror and by any persons acting in concert with any of them (see Rules 8.1, 8.2 and 8.4). Details of the offeree and offeror companies in respect of whose relevant securities Opening Position Disclosures and Dealing Disclosures must be made can be found in the Disclosure Table on the Panel's website at www.thetakeoverpanel.org.uk, including details of the number of relevant securities in issue, when the offer period commenced and when any offeror was first identified. You should contact the Panel's Market Surveillance Unit on +44 (0)20 7638 0129 if you are in any doubt as to whether you are required to make an Opening Position Disclosure or a Dealing Disclosure.

Right to request hard copies

Pursuant to Rule 30.3 of the Takeover Code, a person so entitled may request a copy of this announcement in hard copy form by contacting Link Group, at Corporate Actions, 10th Floor, Central Square, 29 Wellington Street, Leeds LS1 4DL, or by telephoning +44 (0) 3716640321. Calls from outside the UK will be charged at the applicable international rate. A person may also request that all future documents, announcements and information to be sent to that person in relation to the Offer should be in hard copy form. For persons who receive a copy of this announcement in electronic form or via a website notification, a hard copy of this announcement will not be sent unless so requested.

PUBLICATION OF THIS ANNOUNCEMENT

In accordance with Rule 26.1 of the Takeover Code, a copy of this announcement will be available, subject to certain restrictions relating to persons resident in restricted jurisdictions, on Castelnau's website at https://www.castelnaugroup.com/investor-relations/Offer-for-Dignity-Plc no later than 12 noon on 2 March 2023.

The content of the website referred to in this announcement is not incorporated into and does not form part of this announcement.
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - March 1, 2023) - Pool Safe Inc. (TSXV: POOL) ("Pool Safe" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that all matters put forward at the Company's Annual General and Special Meeting (the "Meeting") of shareholders of the Company (the "Shareholders") held on February 28, 2023 were duly approved. Details on the voting results are provided below.

At the Meeting, a total of 49,157,751 votes were cast, representing 55.09% of the issued and outstanding shares of the Company, were voted in connection with the Meeting by Shareholders and proxy holders. All the resolutions, as described in the Company's management information circular dated January 16, 2023, were approved by the requisite majority of votes cast at the Meeting. The resolutions are set out below:

Setting the number of directors of the Company at six;

Election of directors of the Company for the ensuing year comprised of Nils Kravis, David Berger, Steven Glaser, Steven Mintz, Robert Pratt and Gillian Deacon;

Re-appointment of Wasserman Ramsay, Chartered Accountants as the auditors of the Company for the ensuing year; and

Adoption of the Amended Omnibus Plan (as defined below).

Amended Omnibus Plan

At the Meeting, the Shareholders voted in favour of the adoption of the Company's amended and restated omnibus incentive plan (the "Amended Omnibus Plan"), which replaced the previous omnibus incentive plan approved by the Shareholders on December 1, 2021 (the "Omnibus Plan"). The principal changes to the Omnibus Plan include: (i) amendments to certain definitions to mirror corresponding requirements in the TSX Venture Exchange Policy 4.4 - Security Based Compensation (the "New Policy 4.4"); (ii) amendments to Section 2.07 (Maximum Number of Shares); (iii) amendments to Section 4.07 (Determination of Amounts); (iv) amendments to Section 4.08 (Effect of Death); (v) amendments to Section 4.09 (Effect of Termination of Engagement); and (vi) other amendments to ensure compliance with the New Policy 4.4. The full text of the Amended Omnibus Plan is available in the Company's management information circular dated January 16, 2023, which is posted under the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. Final acceptance of the Amended Plan by the TSX Venture Exchange is pending.

About Pool Safe Inc.

Pool Safe Inc. designs, develops and distributes a product known as the "LounGenie", which functions as a multi-purpose personal poolside attendant. The LounGenie is designed to provide safety, convenience and peace of mind for hotels, resorts, waterparks and cruise ship guests. Functions include: lockable safe, solar-powered charger for USB compatible electronic devices including phones, cameras and tablets in addition to a server call-button, a beverage cooler and holders. Conveniently located alongside pool or beach lounge chairs, the LounGenie is a unique way of providing vacationers with a comforting sense of security for their belongings, while they enjoy their vacation. For more information, please visit www.poolsafeinc.com.

Pool Safe Inc. is a fully reporting publicly traded company which is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol POOL.

For further information, please contact:

Pool Safe Inc.

Steven Glaser, C.O.O. | C.F.O.

T: 416-630-2444

E: sglaser@poolsafeinc.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Not for distribution to U.S. Newswire Services or for dissemination in the United States. Any failure to comply with this restriction may constitute a violation of U.S. Securities laws.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/156713
Sysdig Inc., the unified cloud and container security leader, today announced a new foundation that will serve as the long-term custodian of the Wireshark open source project. Wireshark is the world's foremost traffic protocol analyzer, with more than 2,000 contributors and over 60 million downloads in the last five years. Sysdig, as Wireshark's current corporate sponsor, encouraged the creation of the foundation. The nonprofit will be home to SharkFest, Wireshark's developer and user conference, and the Wireshark source code and assets.

Save the date the 2023 SharkFest schedule:

SharkFest Asia (Singapore), April 17-19, 2023

SharkFest North America (San Diego), June 10-15, 2023

SharkFest Europe (Location/Date TBA)

This July, Wireshark will celebrate its 25th anniversary as an open source project. Over the years, Wireshark has been sponsored by several companies. Most recently, in January 2022, Sysdig assumed responsibility for the project. The move into the Wireshark Foundation donates Wireshark to the community and ensures that Wireshark has a long-term home that goes beyond a specific company or sponsor.

The history of Wireshark

Ethereal, the predecessor of Wireshark, was originally created in 1998 by Gerald Combs, Director of Open Source Projects at Sysdig. Together, Gerald and Loris Degioanni, CTO and Founder of Sysdig, launched Wireshark in 2006. An open source GUI network package capturing tool, Wireshark enables teams to monitor network traffic, learn protocols and packet basics, and troubleshoot network problems. Wireshark is the de facto standard for checking health and security at a packet level. Wireshark takes packet captures and saves them for later viewing. Teams can filter through that traffic to find evidence from an incident.

The Wireshark Foundation will have an open governance model that encourages participation and technical contribution. The foundation will provide a framework for long-term stewardship and sustainability of projects it governs. The foundation is launching with Sheri Najafi as the foundation's executive director, and Loris Degioanni, Janice Spampinato, Hansang Bae, Sheri Najafi, and Gerald Combs on the board. The foundation will also take over management of SharkFest. SharkFest provides a unique opportunity for industry experts and the developer and user communities to share knowledge.

Open source is the right approach to security

Proprietary solutions alone are not enough to counter the ever-expanding list of attack techniques. Open source is the only approach with the agility and broad reach to set up the conditions to meet modern security concerns, well-demonstrated by Wireshark over its 25 years of development. Sysdig believes that collaboration that brings together both expertise and scrutiny, and a broader range of use cases, will ultimately drive more secure software.

Sysdig was founded as an open source company, and the Sysdig platform was built on an open source foundation to address the security challenges of modern cloud applications. Open source Sysdig and Falco are projects created by Sysdig to leverage deep visibility as a foundation for security. These projects have become standards for container and cloud threat detection and incident response. Falco, which Sysdig contributed to the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) in 2018, is now an incubation-level hosted project with more than 50 million downloads. In addition to Sysdig-created tools, Sysdig is powered by open source tools, such as OPA, Prometheus, and eBPF.

What people have to say

Loris Degioanni, Founder and CTO of Sysdig

"We want Wireshark to be set up for long-term success, which includes ensuring the health and independence of the project. Moving Wireshark to a foundation guarantees that Gerald and the rest of the core developers own and operate Wireshark. The open source users can count on the fact that Wireshark will remain an important industry standard for a long time, and that its development will continue to be driven by the community."

Gerald Combs, Director of Open Source Projects at Sysdig

"It is clear that Sysdig is an open source company through and through. While other companies claim to support the open source community, Sysdig has actually followed through. They not only contributed Falco and the largest set of eBPF libraries to the CNCF, but they have encouraged the creation of a foundation for Wireshark. The Wireshark community and I look forward to investigating ways to extend Wireshark to address new challenges, including securing the cloud."

Sheri Najafi, Executive Director, Wireshark Foundation

"We're very excited for the formation of the Wireshark Foundation, a nonprofit organization with the mission to help as many people as possible understand their networks through the ongoing evolution of Wireshark and the SharkFest conferences. The Wireshark Foundation fosters open source development and will continue to explore new ways of educating the public."

Resources

Press release when Sysdig assumed responsibility for Wireshark

Wireshark website

Sysdig's open source history

About Sysdig

Sysdig delivers cloud and container security so you can stop attacks with no wasted time. The company created open source Falco, the standard for cloud-native threat detection. Using Falco, the platform provides real-time threat detection with the detail to immediately respond. With Sysdig you can prioritize vulnerabilities, trim excess permissions, and fix misconfigurations based on in-use risk exposure. Manage cloud costs and rapidly troubleshoot issues. The largest and most innovative companies around the world rely on Sysdig for cloud and container security.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005737/en/

Contacts:

Media contact

Amanda McKinney Smith

amanda.smith@sysdig.com

703-473-4051
STAMFORD, CT / ACCESSWIRE / March 1, 2023 / Webster Bank, together with Eagle Academy Foundation, today launched the opening of the Webster/Eagle Academy Finance Lab, a program created to provide students in their schools to gain the skills needed for economic empowerment and financial success. The program is funded by a $100,000 Webster Bank Charitable Foundation (WBCF) grant.

The Webster/Eagle Academy Finance Lab expands a signature initiative of Webster Bank designed to help Webster's partners in low- to moderate-income (LMI) communities expand financial empowerment opportunities for youth. The grant funds finance software and curriculum for students enrolled in Eagle Academy's six schools - one in each New York City borough and one in Newark, N.J.

The Eagle Academy location is the second in a series of Finance Labs Webster is funding throughout its footprint from New York to New England in the coming months.

"Following the successful launch of our first Finance Lab in Yonkers earlier this year, Webster is pleased to invest $100,000 with Eagle Academy Foundation to further extend our existing relationship to educate and empower more youth in the communities we serve," said Marissa Weidner, Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer and president of the WBCF. She added, "Webster's commitment to programs such as the Finance Lab gives students a unique opportunity to learn about finance, foster youth leadership and helps build our future workforce."

To celebrate the launch, Eagle Academy students and alumni heard from Donald Ruff, President & CEO of the Eagle Academy Foundation, John Ciulla, President & CEO of Webster Bank, Javier Evans, Chief Human Resources Officer and Matthew Smith, Head of Banking as a Service and Digital Banking about their paths into the banking industry, careers in finance and why creating opportunities for financial empowerment matters.

Webster's partnership with Eagle Academy is reflective of its continuing support of programs that address financial empowerment, workforce development, community development and human services and basic needs. Webster's volunteerism initiatives also will play a key role in the partnership.

"The partnership that The Eagle Academy Foundation enjoys with Webster Bank and its predecessor, Sterling, is an ideal model for corporate engagement. EAF's expanded vision for young men of color, "Eagles Soaring Beyond," includes financial empowerment, and Webster has committed to developing pathways for Eagle students through awareness, education, and career pathways. Eagle Nation is grateful for all the ways that we partner with Webster, and we look forward to even further collaborations," said Ruff.

The Eagle Academy Foundation develops and supports a network of all-male, grades 6 -12, college-preparatory schools in challenged, urban communities. The Eagle Academies consist of six traditional public schools in New York City and Newark, New Jersey and serve over 4,000 scholars and alumni.

About Webster

Webster Bank ("Webster") is a leading commercial bank in the Northeast that provides a wide range of digital and traditional financial solutions across three differentiated lines of business: Commercial Banking, Consumer Banking and its HSA Bank division, one of the country's largest providers of employee benefits solutions. Headquartered in Stamford, CT, Webster is a values-driven organization with $68 billion in assets. Its core footprint spans the northeastern U.S. from New York to Massachusetts, with certain businesses operating in extended geographies. Webster Bank is a member of the FDIC and an equal housing lender. For more information about Webster, including our latest annual report, please visit our About page. To find our latest press releases, visit the Webster Newsroom.

About Eagle Academy Foundation

The Eagle Academy Foundation is a game-changing non-profit organization, dedicated to improving educational, career, and life outcomes for young men of color in New York City and across the country through education, mentoring, and post-secondary support. The foundation developed and supports the Eagle Academy schools-a network of six traditional public schools serving young men from marginalized communities across the five boroughs of New York City and Newark, N.J.?For more information, visit?eafny.org?and follow The Eagle Academy Foundation on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.?

Media Contact:

Alice Ferreira

acferreira@websterbank.com

203-578-2610

Investor Contact:

Emlen Harmon

eharmon@websterbank.com

212-309-7646

View original content here.

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Webster Bank on 3blmedia.com.

Contact Info:

Spokesperson: Webster Bank

Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/webster-bank

Email: info@3blmedia.com

SOURCE: Webster Bank

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/741426/Webster-Bank-Announces-Launch-of-Finance-Lab-With-Eagle-Academy-Foundation
NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / March 1, 2023 / Bayer

Imagine being told something doesn't exist, then stumbling across it in nature.

During a research trip to the Oaxaca Valley in Mexico in 1980, plant scientist Howard-Yana Shapiro observed a strain of corn twice as tall as any he'd ever seen. Its roots dripped a gel that piqued Shapiro's curiosity. Puzzled by how corn could grow this tall in a place without access to modern agricultural conveniences, the man who tended the fields told him, "There's no fertilizer in this community."

What Howard observed changed everything.

For a plant to grow and thrive, it needs sufficient nitrogen. It is vital and serves as an engine for plant growth. However, most crops don't produce their own nitrogen but must be fertilized. Synthetic fertilizer production - popularized in the early 20th century - supports the food systems for about 1/3 of today's global population. But the process is responsible for about 3 percent of global greenhouse gasses. So, while we can't change the fact that most of our crops need food, we can change how we think about feeding them.

Although it took two decades for science and technology (and skeptics) to catch up with Howard's ideas, genomics and technology like CRISPR means it's possible to take what Howard observed and breed those traits into other plants so they use less fertilizer. That's good news for the air, the soil and the water.

Human activity is often seen as the culprit in the story of climate change. But it's ideas like Howard's that illustrate how human activity also holds the key to changing course.

"We absolutely have to drive agriculture as a climate smart solution," said Jessica Christiansen, Head of Sustainability, Bayer Crop Science. "We are going to be one of the biggest, if not the biggest lever to create positive change. To do that, we need to work together with several different partners across the industry."

"The biotechnology of programming cells will be essential to the response to climate change." Jason Kelly, Ginkgo Bioworks CEO

One of those partnerships undertaken by Bayer and Joyn Bio is with Boston-based Ginkgo Bioworks. CEO Jason Kelly and fellow MIT graduates created a DNA printing and editing platform that he believes will create cleaner, more efficient ways we produce everything from plant-based foods to chemicals. The partnership hopes to uncover its own holy grail of plant sciences.

"I think the biotechnology of programming cells will be essential to the response to climate change because biology figured this out. When a leaf falls off the tree it is magically recycled back into sub-components. This is how we should make everything. We should grow everything," said Kelly. "We can go look at the genome of the microbe on the soy, read the DNA code, find the part of it that says, 'Hey, here's how you run Haber-Bosch. Here's how you produce fertilizer. Go on the computer, redesign it, hit print and then install that code into the microbes that live on the roots of corn, for example, and give them the ability to produce fertilizer for the crop."

Shapiro's colleague at UC Davis, distinguished professor Eduardo Blumwald, published a study in July 2022 showing how he used CRISPR-engineered rice to enhance nitrogen production in rice. The discovery has the potential to save farmer's billions and reduce reliance on synthetic fertilizers. That's good news for the environment.

"Today we put so much in the soil without thinking, we didn't know either. But now we have to remediate," said Blumwald. "And the first way of remediation is lower your input, do not disturb anymore and try to instrument that for your advantage. We can play judo with our adversary. We can use that strength in our favor."

View original content here.

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Bayer on 3blmedia.com.

Contact Info:

Spokesperson: Bayer

Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/bayer

Email: info@3blmedia.com

SOURCE: Bayer

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/741429/Bayer--Human-Activity-Episode-1-Air-Pulling-Fertilizer-Out-of-Thin-Air
Accelerating the Integration of the Supercomputer Fugaku and AI for research in the Society 5.0 era

SCA2023--SambaNova Systems, the company that was first to market with domain-specific, pre-trained foundation models to underpin generative AI, is delivering the SambaNova DataScale system to RIKEN Center for Computational Science (R-CCS). The system is being used as a new resource to accelerate the integration of AI with the supercomputer Fugaku to do research on digital twins for the Society 5.0 era.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005417/en/

Professor Satoshi Matsuoka, director of RIKEN Center for Computational Science and Toshinori Kujiraoka, Country Sales Director for Japan at SambaNova Systems (Photo: Business Wire)

"The provision of SambaNova's system resources to R-CCS provides a new option for accelerating the integration of HPC simulations and AI with Fugaku," said Professor Satoshi Matsuoka, director of R-CCS. "The new SambaNova system will boost research into the convergence of HPC and AI, including ultra-high-resolution computer vision for building a digital twin for the Society 5.0 era."

R-CCS researchers will use DataScale to develop surrogate models to improve the accuracy of ultra-high-resolution 3D computer vision, such as more precise inspection of highways and other social infrastructure, and to process ultra-high-resolution image datasets that are difficult to handle with conventional technologies.

"We are excited to work with Fugaku, the world's premier supercomputer, to contribute to efforts in the Society 5.0 era," said Toshinori Kujiraoka, Country Sales Director for Japan at SambaNova Systems. "SambaNova's unique reconfigurable dataflow architecture and its large memory capacity provide a comprehensive AI solution capable of processing higher resolution 3D images beyond 512x512x512. Combined with Fugaku, it provides a new resource for digital twin simulations."

About RIKEN Center for Computational Science (R-CCS)

As a world-class research center in the field of high-performance computational science, R-CCS manages and operates supercomputer Fugaku, which began shared use in March 2021. R-CCS provides systems that contribute to solving social and scientific issues and also accelerate new IT fields such as big data and artificial intelligence. R-CCS is also actively engaged in social implementation efforts in various fields to accelerate the realization of Society 5.0, which is being promoted by the Japanese government.

About SambaNova Systems

Customers turn to SambaNova to quickly deploy state-of-the-art generative AI capabilities within the enterprise. Our purpose-built enterprise-scale AI platform is the technology backbone for the next generation of AI computing.

Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, SambaNova Systems was founded in 2017 by industry luminaries, and hardware and software design experts from Sun/Oracle and Stanford University. Investors include SoftBank Vision Fund 2, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, Intel Capital, GV, Walden International, Temasek, GIC, Redline Capital, Atlantic Bridge Ventures, Celesta, and several others. Visit us at sambanova.ai or contact us at info@sambanova.ai. Follow SambaNova Systems on Linkedin.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005417/en/

Contacts:

Virginia Jamieson

Head of External Communications

virginia.jamieson@sambanova.ai

1-650-279-8619
BOSTON, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Chloris Geospatial, a technology company that measures natural capital from space, closes seed extension round of funding led by AXA IM Alts and Orbia Ventures, with participation from existing investors At One Ventures and Counteract.

Companies are challenged with adopting nature-based solutions with increasing speed, scale, and integrity to meet climate and biodiversity goals. Chloris developed technology that uses satellite data to reliably assess forest carbon dynamics, including forest growth and degradation.

Marco Albani, CEO of Chloris Geospatial, commented, "We are excited to welcome AXA IM Alts and Orbia as new investors. The market needs robust and reliable natural capital insights to deploy high-integrity nature-based solutions. We will use the new funding to advance sensor-fusion technology and equip customers with globally consistent estimates for 2000-2022. This aligns with corporate sustainability reporting frameworks and allows us to assess the impact of forest projects in the voluntary carbon markets. The funding will also extend spatial coverage and grow customer support services."

Jonathan Dean, Head of Impact Investing at AXA IM Alts, commented, "AXA IM Alts is committed to investing in companies and projects to preserve our planet's natural ecosystems and address climate risk. Chloris's innovative solutions will enhance the credibility of natural capital projects and associated ecosystem services claims and provide the necessary assurance to support continued investments in natural capital. This aligns with our ambition to create scalable solutions that contribute to global protection, restoration, and sustainable management of natural capital globally."

Shai Albaranes, VP Innovation, and Ventures at Orbia commented, "We are delighted to be part of this round of funding in Chloris Geospatial. Climatech is a key focus area for Orbia Ventures, with this investment forming part of a wider strategy to implement our commitment to advancing life around the world by developing and investing in products and services that mitigate the impact of climate change and move us closer to our goal of being carbon neutral while helping decarbonize the planet."

About Chloris Geospatial

Chloris Geospatial is a provider of science-based forest carbon insights built with Earth observation data and machine learning. The Chloris Platform enables high-integrity nature-based solutions to climate change. For more information, visit www.chloris.earth.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/chloris-geospatial-closes-seed-extension-round-of-funding-with-axa-im-alts-and-orbia-ventures-as-new-investors-301759599.html












SINGAPORE, Mar 1, 2023 - (ACN Newswire) - Mainboard-listed Q&M Dental Group (Singapore) Limited today reported total revenue of S$181.2 million, and profit after tax attributable to parent (PATMI) of S$11.3 million for the twelve months ended 31 December 2022 (FY2022). The Group Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation (EBITDA) for FY2022 was S$35.2 million.For FY2022, Core Healthcare revenue increased 2% to S$172.1 million and Core Healthcare EBITDA increased by 6% to S$39.5 million.For the Other Business segment, revenue contributions from the Group's medical laboratory business dropped very significantly with demand for COVID-19 testing now reduced to a very small group, following the government eliminating all tests for locals and foreign visitors to Singapore.As at 31 December 2022, the Group's financial position remains strong with Net Assets of S$96.5 million, as well as cash and cash equivalents of S$39.7 million. Bank borrowings plus finance leases amounted to S$85.1 million.The Group declares a second interim dividend of 0.6 Singapore cent per ordinary share for 4Q2022. Together with the 0.4 Singapore cent dividend paid out for 1Q2022, the total dividends for FY2022 work out to 1.0 Singapore cent. The 4Q2022 dividend will be paid on 24 March 2023.Q&M Chief Executive Officer Dr Ng Chin Siau said, "We are pleased to note that our Core Healthcare Business has continued to demonstrate strong resilience and is well-positioned to grow in the coming year.We are heartened by the fact that the Core Healthcare's Revenue and EBITDA compound annual growth rate ("CAGR") for the last 5 years (FY2018 to FY2022) are 9% and 26% respectively. We believe that with the strategies that we are implementing, this will continue to be the case.The Group had been very nimble in the Covid-19 period, treating and reacting to threats as opportunities with resulting outstanding results. As we transition to a "living with COVID-19" stance now, long term growth will be driven by improved utilisation of our professional staff, optimising the use of clinics and improving margins. The key to this approach is continuing training and upgrading of our dentists and professional assistants and use of technologies. The Group is very well placed to implement these strategies with the Q&M College of Dentistry, our investments in technologies and an experienced management team, which has led the exponential expansion of our core businesses. "Dr Ng continued, "We see the future of dentistry lying in combining the dentist's domain expertise and valuable experience with data-centric analysis to generate objective and highly accurate dental healthcare plans that are specifically tailored to individual needs.With the above in mind, we will continue to prioritise in investing in our people as they are the bedrock upon which our long term success lies. Whether frontline or behind the scenes, they play a vital role in ensuring that we deliver the best dental healthcare to our patients, every single day."4Q2022 Core Business Healthcare- Financial PerformanceRevenue from Core Healthcare Business continues to inch up to S$46.2 million for the three months ended 31 December 2022 ("4Q2022") mainly due to the organic growth of dental clinics (See Table 1). The Group added a net 10 dental clinics in Singapore and net 6 dental clinics in Malaysia the last 12 months.Over the last 4 consecutive quarters ie 4Q2022 vs 1Q2022, 2Q2022 and 3Q2022, Core Healthcare Business grew between 9% and 12%. (See Table 2 above)Operational Update and Recent DevelopmentsThe Group currently operates a total of 152 dental clinics, of which 107 are located in Singapore, 44 in Malaysia and 1 in PRC China. (See Table 3 above)1. Dental Operations (Singapore and Malaysia)The Group is initiating a strategy of intensive organic growth of dental clinics and will expand its team of dentists to support the future growth of its operations in Singapore. We will continue to develop, invest and optimise our digital guided clinical decision support system to provide the most effective and suitable treatment plans for our patients.With rising standards of living and higher expectations of dental healthcare in Singapore, the Group believes it is well-positioned to meet the rising demand for primary and high-value specialist dental healthcare services for its patients.In Malaysia, the Group operates 44 clinics with 16 dental clinics in Johor, 9 in Kuala Lumpur, 12 in Selangor, 4 in Melaka and 3 in Negeri Sembilan. The eventual number of dental outlets will depend on available opportunities and pertinent market conditions. The increasingly tight labour market is a limiting factor.2. Dental Operations (People's Republic of China (PRC))The main thrust of the Group's proposed expansion in PRC is through organic growth to develop a new and sustainable growth pillar that can yield long term value for the Group.The Group is also actively exploring opportunities to expand its dental business to Southeast Asian countries at this time.Strengthening Capabilities, Fortifying Relationships, Building FuturesQ&M has firmly committed to keep the business on a steady growth path that is always forward looking, sustainable yet firmly anchored in the Company's philosophy.1. Expansion of network of dental clinics in Singapore, Malaysia and Southeast Asia and ChinaThe Group is continuously looking for opportunities to expand its dental business to Southeast Asian countries with an emphasis on utilisation and optimisation of existing clinics, and only opening new clinics where appropriate and meets the overall strategic objectives of the Company.2. Medical LaboratoryThe Group's medical laboratory will continue to progressively roll out its pipeline of new PCR tests for various purposes. These include the tests for sepsis, identification of bacteria pathogens and their associated antimicrobial resistance in hospitalised pneumonia, as well as colorectal cancer screening and pharmacogenomics.Looking ForwardBarring any unforeseen circumstances, there are no known significant changes in the trends and competitive conditions of the industry in which the Group operates and no other major known factors or events that may adversely affect the Group in the next reporting period and the next 12 months. However, the Group and the industry is impacted by increased manpower and occupancy costs, as well as shortage of and competition for trained nurses.[1] Core Healthcare Business excludes contributions from the Group's medical laboratory, share of profit from disposal of associate, Aidite, other gains, other losses and expenses incurred on the development of the Group's digital Artificial Intelligence ("AI") guided clinical decision support system as well as rental rebates received from the Singapore Government.Please see links for PDF documents from SGXNET.Financial Results: https://links.sgx.com/FileOpen/QnM_4Q_2022_Announcement.ashx?App=Announcement&FileID=748726Press Release: https://links.sgx.com/FileOpen/QnM_PR_FY2022.ashx?App=Announcement&FileID=748727About Q&M Dental Group (Singapore) Limited (QC7.SI)Q&M Dental Group (Singapore) Limited (QC7.SI) ("Q&M" or together with its subsidiaries, the "Group") is a leading private dental healthcare group in Asia.The Group owns the largest network of private dental outlets in Singapore, operating 107 dental outlets across the country. Underpinned by about 270 experienced dentists and over 350 supporting staff, the Group sees an average of 40,000 patient visits a month in Singapore. The Group also operates 5 medical clinics and a dental supplies and equipment distribution company.Outside of Singapore, the Group has 44 dental clinics and a dental supplies and equipment distribution company in Malaysia, as well as a dental clinic in the People's Republic of China ("PRC"). Q&M is also the substantial shareholder of Aoxin Q&M Dental Group Limited, a dental Group listed on the Catalist board of the Singapore Exchange that operates dental clinics and hospitals primarily in the north-eastern region of the PRC. The Group aims to expand its operations geographically and vertically through the value chain in Malaysia, the PRC and within the ASEAN region.The Q&M College of Dentistry was established in 2019 to offer postgraduate dental education as part of its commitment to continual education and professional development of dentists. It offers Singapore's first private postgraduate diploma programme in clinical dentistry.In 2020, the Group expanded into the medical laboratories and research industry with the strategic investment into Acumen Diagnostics Pte. Ltd. ("Acumen"). Acumen currently focuses on the manufacture, sale and distribution of COVID-19 diagnostic test kits, as well as COVID-19 testing. It is also working to roll out a pipeline of new tests, including PCR assays for dengue, sepsis and, identification of bacterial pathogens and their associated antibiotics resistance in pneumonia and bloodstream infections.The Group was listed on the Mainboard of the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited ("SGX- ST") on 26 November 2009. For more information on the Group, please visit www.QandMDental.com.sgFor more information, please contact:Waterbrooks Consultants Pte LtdWayne Koo: wayne.koo@waterbrooks.com.sg, +65 9338-8166Derek Yeo: derek@waterbrooks.com.sg, +65 9791-4707General: query@waterbrooks.com.sg, +65 9690-4959Proud Investor Relations partner: https://www.waterbrooks.com.sg/ and https://www.shareinvestorholdings.com/Source: Q&M Dental Group Singapore LtdCopyright 2023 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved.
AURP's Annual International Conference, Oct. 16-19, to spotlight the unique partnerships and collaborative infrastructure that define Delaware's innovation and entrepreneurial success

TUSCON, AZ, and COLLEGE PARK, MD / ACCESSWIRE / March 1, 2023 / The Association of University Research Parks (AURP), a global nonprofit membership association serving university and institutional research park communities and innovation districts, has announced the University of Delaware (UD) and its Science, Technology and Advanced Research (STAR) Campus as host of AURP's 2023 International Conference, Oct. 16-19. The landmark Hotel Du Pont in Wilmington, Delaware, will serve as conference headquarters.

AURP's International Conference brings together 300+ research park and innovation district leaders from around the world for high-impact knowledge exchange and networking with the industry's premier experts and innovation professionals. This annual conference is hosted by member institutions, giving conference attendees robust opportunities to learn about and see first-hand how their peers operate and chart their growth paths.

UD's 272-acre STAR Campus, originally the location of a Chrysler automobile assembly plant, now comprises roughly one million square feet of real estate, including multiple buildings, wet labs and more than 30 high-growth companies in fields ranging from health care to biotechnology, financial technology, agricultural science, advanced materials and more. In recent years, STAR Campus has received more than $500 million in investments.

"Our global AURP community is truly energized to bring our network community to the University of Delaware and its STAR Campus for our 2023 International Conference," said Erin Koshut, AURP president and Executive Director of Cummings Research Park in Huntsville, Alabama. "The dynamism and collaborative spirit of the people in Delaware represent whole new ways to create and grow entrepreneurial-focused innovation districts and research parks. We look forward to learning from and interacting with each of Delaware's innovation communities while in Wilmington and Newark."

"AURP is looking forward to bringing innovation experts from around the world to the STAR Campus," said Vickie Palmer, AURP Chief Executive Officer. "Our members will experience in-person this powerful regional and collaborative park system developed through its hugely successful university partnership with investment from private industry and government to create an education and research campus with global impact. The renaissance of this region and story of its rebirth, from its historic manufacturing background to research and education giant, are inspiring and a worthy choice for our 2023 International Conference," Palmer said.

"The University of Delaware is proud and excited to welcome AURP's International Conference to the STAR Campus this fall," said UD President Dennis Assanis, a member of President Biden's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

"As a Research-1 and Community Engaged institution, UD is committed to addressing the critical needs of our state, nation and global community through deep learning, cutting-edge discovery and bold innovation," Assanis said. "Partnerships are crucial to our success - and STAR Campus is a shining example of the power of partnerships at the intersection of academics and research with industry and community."

Overall, UD's growing innovation community, including its STAR Campus, is driving significant economic growth for the state, including more than $13 million in venture capital funding for UD startups; 32 startups resulting from licensing of UD technology; and more than 100 patents by UD researchers resulting from more than 450 inventions in the past decade.

About UD STAR Campus:

The STAR Campus is a burgeoning community of innovators driven by cutting-edge discovery. It is integral to the University of Delaware's mission as a 21st-century research university, a place that is both intellectual intersection and economic engine fueled by an urgent commitment to advance knowledge in service to others. At the STAR Campus - as throughout the University of Delaware - we are dedicated to providing our students with a top-notch education that enables their success. This means providing hands-on learning experiences in interdisciplinary labs, in our community health clinics, and in internships and research projects with our public and private partners. Learn more: www.udel.edu/research-innovation/star

About AURP:

AURP, a non-profit international organization with offices in the Washington, D.C. area at the University of Maryland Discovery District and in Tucson, Arizona, at the University of Arizona Tech Park, focuses on creating communities of innovation and education for research parks, both operating and planned, plus innovation districts, incubators, accelerators and the businesses that support the research park industry. AURP and its global membership promote research, institute-industry relations and innovation districts to foster innovation and to facilitate the transfer of technology from such institutions to the private sector. Learn more: www.aurp.net

Media Contact:

Ken Berlack

AURP

kenberlack@aurp.net

SOURCE: AURP

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/741432/University-of-Delaware-and-STAR-Campus-to-Host-AURP-2023-International-Conference


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The United States has has announced a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the identification or location of Ali Mohamed Rage, who is a key leader of the terrorist outfit al-Shabaab.



Ali Mohamed Rage, also known as Ali Dheere, has been al-Shabaab's chief spokesperson since May 2009 and is a senior leader of the terrorist organization.



The Somalia-born Rage has been involved in the planning of terrorist attacks in Kenya and Somalia.



In August, 2021, the Department of State designated Rage as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.



In February, 2022, the UN Security Council's Somalia Sanctions Committee added Rage to its Sanctions List.



Many U.S. citizens were killed in terrorist attacks carried out by Al-Shabaab in Kenya, Somalia, and neighboring African countries.



The terrorist group continues to plot, plan, and conspire to commit terrorist acts against the United States, U.S. interests, and foreign partners, according to the State Department.



The Department of State designated al-Shabaab as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and Specially Designated Global Terrorist in March 2008. In April 2010, al-Shabaab was also added to the UN Security Council's 1844 Sanctions List.



Since its inception in 1984, the State Department's Rewards for Justice (RFJ) program has paid around $250 million to more than 125 people across the globe for providing actionable information that had helped resolve threats to U.S. national security.



A Salafi-jihadist military and political organization based in Somalia and active elsewhere in East Africa, Al-Shabaab is actively involved in the ongoing Somali Civil War and incorporates elements of Somali nationalism into its Islamist cause.



A combined Somali and ATMIS offensive operations against al-Shabaab, with U.S. support, began in August 2022. With assistance from U.S. airstrikes, it has been focused on disrupting al-Shabaab activity in Somalia's central Hiraan region.



Copyright(c) 2023 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
SWORDS, IRELAND / ACCESSWIRE / March 1, 2023 / Trane Technologies (NYSE:TT), a global climate innovator, is pleased to announce Vinitha Nalla and Rashmi Vadlakonda as recipients of The Manufacturing Institute's 2023 Women MAKE Awards, a national award program that honors women across all levels of the manufacturing industry who have demonstrated excellence and leadership in their careers.

Vinitha was named a Women MAKE Awards Honoree, which honors women who've made a significant impact in the manufacturing industry. Rashmi was named a Women MAKE Awards Emerging Leader, which honors young women in manufacturing who've excelled early in their career.

"We are excited to see Vinitha and Rashmi honored with this prestigious and well-deserved award," said Mairead Magner, Trane Technologies senior vice president and chief human resources officer. "They continuously inspire others with their leadership, hard work and dedicated promotion of STEM opportunities for women, exemplifying our purpose to boldly challenging what's possible for a sustainable world."

Vinitha is a senior systems engineer, Controls Systems with Trane Technologies' Thermo King business. She recently played a leadership role in the company's product development program, helping drive complex development of a system that allowed early testing. With a passion for supporting under-represented groups and serving as a mentor to others, Vinitha founded Thermo King's Women Engineers group and was featured in Trane Technologies' Sustainable Futures Virtual Field Trip - giving students an up-close look at how sustainable innovation can be embraced in everyday life. She has been instrumental in introducing young girls to STEM by working with Project Scientist and participating in the 2022 Youth Science Day.

Rashmi is a manufacturing engineer who played an integral role in the company's adoption and implementation of 3D printing technology at its manufacturing facilities and engineering centers. She works closely with young students in her community, including representing Trane Technologies in CreatorsWanted, a campaign by the National Association of Manufacturers to inspire students to pursue careers in manufacturing. Rashmi also serves as Vice Chair of Women in Manufacturing's (WiM) South Carolina chapter and is a member of the WiM Internal Steering Committee for Trane Technologies.

Today's announcement comes on the very first day of Women's History Month. Throughout the month, Trane Technologies will recognize the many contributions that women have made to the world through events centered around the theme "Embrace Equity."

Trane Technologies is committed to cultivating a workforce reflective of the communities it serves. The company was the first in its industry to join Paradigm for Parity, a coalition of businesses dedicated to addressing the leadership gender gap. The company has increased its commitment to diverse recruiting and development through initiatives including ReLaunch, a "returnship" program that provides support and resources to people re-entering the workforce after a career gap, and numerous leadership development programs.

About Trane Technologies

Trane Technologies is a global climate innovator. Through our strategic brands Trane and Thermo King, and our environmentally responsible portfolio of products and services, we bring efficient and sustainable climate solutions to buildings, homes, and transportation. Learn more at tranetechnologies.com.

About The Manufacturing Institute

The Manufacturing Institute builds, diversifies and strengthens the modern manufacturing workforce, with the goal of furthering individual opportunity, community prosperity and a more competitive manufacturing industry. The MI engages underrepresented communities and shifts perceptions about careers in modern manufacturing, leads skilled training and career development programs, provides thought leadership and research on the changing state of the workforce and builds partnerships to scale up its impact on manufacturing in the United States. As the 501(c)3 nonprofit workforce development and education partner of the National Association of Manufacturers, the MI is a trusted adviser to manufacturers, equipping them with solutions for the industry's toughest challenges. For more information, please visit themanufacturinginstitute.org.

Vinitha Nalla

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Trane Technologies on 3blmedia.com

Contact Info:

Spokesperson: Trane Technologies

Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/trane-technologies

Email: info@3blmedia.com

SOURCE: Trane Technologies

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/741442/Trane-Technologies-Vinitha-Nalla-and-Rashmi-Vadlakonda-Receive-2023-Women-MAKE-Awards
Surge in need for comprehensive supply chain risk management solutions, increased government regulations and standards, an increase in urbanization, rise in traffic congestion, and digital revolution in the transportation sector drive the growth of the global supply chain risk management market.

PORTLAND, Ore., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Supply Chain Risk Management Market by Component (Solution, Services), by End Use Industry (Retail and Consumer Goods, Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals, Manufacturing, Food and Beverages, Transportation and Logistics, Automotive, Other), by Enterprise Size (Large Enterprise, Small and Medium Enterprise), by Deployment (On Premise, Cloud): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2021-2031." According to the report, the global supply chain risk management industry generated $2.9 billion in 2021, and is estimated to reach $6.9 billion by 2031 witnessing a CAGR of 9.2% 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.







Download Free Sample of Research Report - https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/47876

Drivers, Restraints, and Opportunities:

Surge in need for comprehensive supply chain risk management solutions, increased government regulations and standards, an increase in urbanization, rise in traffic congestion, initiatives and developments by government & industry players across the country, and digital revolution in the transportation sector drive the growth of the global supply chain risk management market. However, data security issues and manual risk management processes restrict the market growth. On the other hand, standardization of risk assessment processes across organizations, as well as the integration of advanced technologies will present new growth opportunities for the global SCRM market in the coming years.

COVID-19 Scenario:

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted the supply chain risk management market, as companies faced a variety of challenges, like reduced capacity, factory closures, and disrupted transportation & logistics.

In response to the pandemic, demand for supply chain risk management solutions increased as businesses seek to better understand their risk exposure and implement risk-mitigation measures.

Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of greater supply chain resilience and flexibility, as well as having contingency plans in place to respond to disruptions. As a result, many businesses are emphasizing risk management and taking a more proactive approach to supply chain risk management in order to better prepare for future challenges.

The solution segment to rule the roost:

By component, the solution segment contributed to the largest share of more than three-fifths of the global supply chain risk management market in 2021 and is expected to maintain progressive growth during the forecast period. The segment is driven by rise in the adoption of supply chain visibility and event management software, as it is an important part of supply chain management. However, the services segment is projected to witness the fastest CAGR of 11.3% from 2022 to 2031. This is due to rise in implementation of supply chain risk management services to ensure effective functioning of the supply chain with transparency and control throughout the process.

The large enterprise segment to retain its dominance by 2031:

Based on enterprise size, the large enterprise segment accounted for around three-fifths of the global supply chain risk management market share in 2021 and is expected to retain its dominance by 2031. This is due to an increase in the use of supply chain risk management software to track data on supply chain operations and make required decisions. On the other hand, small and medium enterprise segment is projected to witness the fastest CAGR of 10.8% from 2022 to 2031, owing to surge in the adoption of supply chain management technologies to gain insights by analyzing real-time data across SMEs.

Procure Complete Research Report - https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/supply-chain-risk-management-market/purchase-options

The on-premise segment to dominate in terms of revenue during the forecast period:

In terms of deployment, the on-premise segment accounted for more than two-thirds of the global supply chain risk management market share in 2021 and is expected to retain its dominance by 2031. By utilizing the business's own IT infrastructure, on-premises supply chain risk management software can be utilized to gather, present, and arrange crucial data from customer communications made through calls, emails, and chatbots. This lowers the risk of failure while enabling them to securely maintain customer requirement data, increase customer happiness, and foster long-term engagement. On the other hand, cloud segment is projected to witness the fastest CAGR of 11.5% from 2022 to 2031, owing to the fact that small and medium-sized businesses choose cloud-based supply chain risk management software as it has limited maintenance requirements and does not require any capital expenditure.

North America garnered the major share in 2021:

By region, North America garnered the highest share in 2021, accounting for nearly two-fifths of the global supply chain risk management market revenue, and is expected to rule the roost during the forecast period. This is due to a rise in spending on transportation & logistics, which is boosting the implementation of automation technologies in logistics and supply chain. However, the Asia-Pacific region is projected to witness the fastest CAGR of 11.4% from 2022 to 2031. This is due to rise in cloud deployment among small & medium businesses, and ongoing modernization of manufacturing & construction industries in emerging countries.

Leading Market Players:

AnyLogistix

JAGGAER

Avetta, LLC

EXIGER, SAP Arbia

CURA

Marsh LLC

DHL International GmbH

MetricSream

LogicManager, Inc.

Interested to Procure the Research Report? Inquire Before Buying - https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/47876

Similar Reports We Have on Supply Chain Industry:

Agriculture Supply Chain Management Market Research Report 2023-2035

About Us

Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions." AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.

We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Allied Market Research CEO Pawan Kumar is instrumental in inspiring and encouraging everyone associated with the company to maintain high quality of data and help clients in every way possible to achieve success. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.

Contact:

David Correa

5933 NE Win Sivers Drive

#205, Portland, OR 97220

United States

USA/Canada (Toll Free): +1-800-792-5285, +1-503-894-6022

UK: +44-845-528-1300

Hong Kong: +852-301-84916

India (Pune): +91-20-66346060

Fax: +1(855)550-5975

help@alliedmarketresearch.com

Web: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/reports-store/automotive-and-transportation

Follow Our Blog: www.theinnovativereport.com

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/636519/Allied_Market_Research_Logo.jpg

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/supply-chain-risk-management-market-to-reach-6-9-billion-globally-by-2031-at-9-2-cagr-allied-market-research-301759597.html
TRUE BLUE, GRENADA / ACCESSWIRE / March 1, 2023 / St. George's University (SGU) announced today that it has renewed and expanded its relationship with NYC Health + Hospitals to bolster the pipeline of physicians from diverse backgrounds into New York's healthcare system.

The agreement extends opportunities for St. George's University medical students to complete clinical rotations at affiliated NYC hospitals during their third and fourth years of study. Following completion of basic sciences studies at St. George's University, students will continue their medical training in clinical environments in the NYC Health + Hospitals system. Training and learning as members of care teams, these students gain first-hand experience in a range of medical fields while contributing directly to serving and caring for patients.

"We've partnered with NYC Health + Hospitals for nearly two decades to achieve our mutual goals of diversifying the nation's healthcare workforce, bringing physicians to underserved areas, and opening doors for talented students from historically underrepresented backgrounds," said Dr. Marios Loukas, Dean of St. George's University School of Medicine. "We're thrilled to continue that important work in the years ahead."

"New York City is one of the most diverse places in the world. It's critical that our healthcare providers reflect the patient population they serve," said Machelle Allen, Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of NYC Health + Hospitals. "Expanding our relationship with St. George's will help us achieve that goal -- and improve patient access to culturally competent providers."

The agreement also increases the number of full-tuition medical school scholarships awarded through the St. George's University School of Medicine CityDoctors scholarship program from 12 to 15 each year. It will also create 100 full scholarships for employees of NYC Health + Hospitals to pursue a Master of Public Health from St. George's University, a program accredited by the US Council on Education for Public Health.

"Applying for the CityDoctors Scholarship is one of the best decisions I have ever made. The training I received at St. George's University and NYC Health + Hospitals gave me the expertise necessary to attend to the mental health needs of our community, especially now as the demand for services is increasing," said NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi Attending Physician Eric Behar, MD. "I cannot fathom where my medical career would be without this program. CityDoctors and NYC Health + Hospitals taught me the importance of giving back to our community. I highly encourage all aspiring physicians to apply."

To date, the CityDoctors program has made a career in medicine possible for more than 80 physicians, many of whom now practice in the communities in which they were raised. To qualify, applicants must be New York City residents or graduates of a New York City school. Applicants who are employed by, or have a parent or grandparent employed by NYC Health + Hospitals or the City of New York are also eligible. Scholarship recipients must commit to serving in the NYC Health + Hospitals system after residency, one year for each year of full tuition scholarship received. Interested students may access the application here.

SGU's Master of Public Health program produces leading public health practitioners and researchers on a global scale. Fully accredited by the US Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH), it is a one calendar year program in three academic terms, which can be completed online. Interested NYC Health and Hospitals' staff may apply using SOPHAS, the centralized application service for Public Health programs.

About St. George's University

St. George's University is a center of international education, drawing students and faculty from 140 countries to the country of Grenada, in the West Indies, to its programs in medicine, veterinary medicine, public health, science, and business. SGU is affiliated with educational institutions worldwide, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Ireland, and the Netherlands. The University's over 20,000 graduates include physicians, veterinarians, scientists, and public health and business professionals across the world. St. George's University School of Medicine is accredited by the Grenada Medical and Dental Council which has been recognized by the World Federation for Medical Education, and its programs across all schools are accredited and approved by many governing authorities. For more information, visit www.sgu.edu.

About NYC Health + Hospitals

NYC Health + Hospitals is the largest municipal health care system in the nation serving more than a million New Yorkers annually in more than 70 patient care locations across the city's five boroughs. A robust network of outpatient, neighborhood-based primary and specialty care centers anchors care coordination with the system's trauma centers, nursing homes, post-acute care centers, home care agency, and MetroPlus health plan-all supported by 11 essential hospitals. Its diverse workforce of more than 43,000 employees is uniquely focused on empowering New Yorkers, without exception, to live the healthiest life possible. For more information, visit www.nychealthandhospitals.org and stay connected on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

MEDIA CONTACTS

For St. George's University:

Maggie Servais

maggie@keybridge.biz

(202) 516-6584

For NYC Health and Hospitals:

PressOffice@nychhc.org

(212) 788-3339

SOURCE: St. George's University

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/741341/St-Georges-University-to-Expand-Relationship-with-NYC-Health-Hospitals-Strengthening-Pipeline-of-Future-Doctors
The Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) has today released a major update to the Higg Brand & Retail Module (BRM) to more effectively deliver on industry needs and drive positive impact.

The update follows a process of rigorous consultation between the SAC, its members, Apparel Alliance partners Textile Exchange and ZDHC and other industry experts.

The result is a tool which will help brands and retailers to better assess their Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) performance along their entire global value chain, in order to improve performance.

In order to drive positive impact at scale the tool now has greater alignment with 'best in class' frameworks on issues such as biodiversity, or responsible purchasing practices.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS, and HONG KONG / ACCESSWIRE / March 1, 2023 / The Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC), in collaboration with technology partner Higg, has today released the latest version of the Higg Brand & Retail Module (BRM), one of the five assessment tools in the Higg Index. The Higg BRM is a leading, holistic framework that creates an industry specific method for brands and retailers to evaluate, report on and improve Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) performance along their global value chains. The SAC has invested in a major update of the tool which will feature a new assessment structure and updated methodology, underpinned by a due diligence approach. The update will encourage brands and retailers to focus on real action, impact and results.

Recent findings from The Industry We Want, in partnership with Fair Wear, the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) and the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC), have revealed the apparel and footwear industry is not making fast enough progress on purchasing practices, supply chain wages and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In order to drive the scale of transformation needed, brands and retailers need a clear and standardized picture of their environmental and social hotspots, to create a clear roadmap for transformation.

This new version of the assessment has been reorganized across 11 key areas, split across three pillars (environmental impacts, social impacts, governance) to be more relevant to where the industry needs to drive change, faster. The assessment has added biodiversity as a new impact area and now features more in depth questions on water and circularity as key impact areas and levers of change in the tool. The questions have also been revised to align with best in class standards; for example, alignment with best practice guidance on responsible purchasing practices. Additionally, the scoring methodology has been simplified so it can be shared with users openly. The Higg BRM now provides one finite score out of 100, in addition to score breakdowns per pillar and impact area, making it easier to understand, communicate and benchmark against peers.

The assessment has been restructured to provide greater value for different organizations to prioritize our industry's pressing ESG issues and focusing on impacts and results. Other benefits include the reduction of reporting burden through alignment with relevant frameworks and by eliminating duplication across the entire questionnaire.

The update is based on research by the SAC's Higg BRM team and is the result of one year of consultations and with over 75 stakeholders including members and industry experts to ensure close alignment with standard assessment protocols. It has been developed in collaboration with members, key partner organizations including Apparel Alliance members Textile Exchange and ZDHC who contributed to the development of specific content on materials, biodiversity, circularity and chemicals. The SAC also engaged STTI and the Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives Working Group of the Common Framework of Responsible Purchasing Practice (CFRPP), represented by Fair Wear, who provided input and feedback on the responsible purchasing practices section of the assessment. SAC members across all territories were also consulted and the SAC hosted three regional roundtables to ensure all geographies were represented.

Jeremy Lardeau, Vice President, Higg Index at the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, said: "We are excited to release the latest version of our Higg Brand & Retail Module, which marks a major milestone for the SAC. This update is the result of an incredible level of engagement with experts and stakeholders from across the industry, to whom we are truly grateful for the time and input provided. This process has allowed us to better align with existing industry assessment frameworks, and make sure we are addressing the needs and expectations of our members and the industry at large. Our tools must evolve to continuously improve, and while this update is a step in that direction, we will continue to iterate the BRM as the industry progresses, legislation evolves and we continue to gather insights and feedback from BRM users and other stakeholders."

Maravillas Rodriguez Zarco, Director, Higg Brand & Retail, at the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, said: "The release of the latest version of our Higg Brand & Retail Module is a clear reflection of our mission at the SAC to transform business for exponential impact through groundbreaking tools, collaborative partnerships, and trusted leadership for industry sustainability. From the new assessment structure, to the updated methodology, we are proud of the work we have done to get to this point, we believe the latest version will provide deeper insights and value for brands and retailers and we look forward to continuing supporting them on their sustainability journeys."

Magnus Dorsch, Head of Corporate Sustainability, About You said: "The launch of the updated Higg BRM marks a major milestone for the SAC, its members, and the industry at large. We are honored to have contributed to the work that went into the development of the new version. Since joining the SAC in January 2021 and adopting the Higg BRM, we have supported our brand partners in aligning on a unified approach towards sustainable practices, helping them understand where they stand regarding their sustainability journeys and how to continue to support them to improve and drive progress. We believe the updated Higg BRM will serve to help us continue calibrating our ESG strategy to ensure consistency in our progress and reporting and look forward to seeing how it continues to evolve to meet the needs of the industry."

Sarah Needham, Director of Stakeholder Engagement, Textile Exchange said: "It is exciting to see the Sustainable Apparel Coalition's investment to move the Higg Brand & Retail Module in this direction, adding crucial updates including biodiversity as a new impact area and moving to closer alignment with our Materials Benchmark program (formally known as Corporate Fiber and Material Benchmark). We are pleased that as a part of the apparel alliance, we can continue to support on progressing our shared goal of moving the industry towards 45% GHG reduction by 2030 by providing a source for raw materials uptake information, and collaborate to streamline reporting across the fashion, apparel and textile industry."

Klaas Nuttbohm, ZDHC Implementation Director said: "We are excited for the opportunity to collaborate with the SAC and create greater alignment between the two organizations. The integration of the ZDHC Brands to Zero Assessment (BtZ) into the Higg BRM means a big step forward for both our organizations. This is a major advance for the apparel alliance partners to align the programmes and tools which will lead to the opportunity for our Contributor Brands to benefit from utilizing the BtZ results in the BRM reporting."

Margreet Vrieling Fair Wear, chair of the Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives Working Group on the CFRPP, said: "We welcome the efforts of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition to seek closer alignment to the Common Framework for Responsible Purchasing Practices, developed by the MSI working group, within its Higg Brand & Retail Module. Identifying and assessing the risks and negative impacts of purchasing practices in the buyer-supplier relationship is key to mitigate negative effects on suppliers and workers. By using the responsible purchasing practices as they have been laid down in the Common Framework as input for the BRM responsible purchasing practices questions, the SAC reinforces the importance of collaboration and convergence to drive progress within our industry."

Karin Ekberg GmbH, Founder & CEO Leadership & Sustainability said: "The launch of the new BRM module is a great step forward for SAC and its members. It has been a pleasure for us at Leadership & Sustainability to be part of the process to develop the new BRM. As it is now aligned with international ESG standards and expectations, we believe this version will meet market demands, will support brands and retailers to measure and improve their ESG performance as well as communicate their efforts in a transparent and trustworthy manner. Congratulations to the SAC team and all contributing members!"

Brands and retailers can use the Higg BRM to understand their performance in these areas: Environment: climate, water, waste, biodiversity and chemicals; Social: workers, employees, consumers and communities; Governance: structure and management, ethics and behavior.

The updated Higg BRM is now available for brands and retailers to measure and report on their ESG impacts to understand their progress and identify areas for improvement with clarity and transparency. If your organization is interested in using the Higg BRM, please find more information here .

About the Sustainable Apparel Coalition:

The Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) is an independent and impact-creating organization that aims to lead the industry toward a shared vision of sustainability based upon a joint approach for measuring, evaluating, and improving performance.

As a non-profit organization, it has members from across the apparel, footwear and textile sector, but exists independently outside any one company so that it can drive progress. The SAC's collective action efforts bring more than 280 global brands, retailers, manufacturers, NGOs, academics and industry associations together. They represent about half of the apparel and footwear industry along the whole supply chain - from sustainability pioneers to organizations just getting started.

Before the SAC existed, companies worked in a siloed way, using their own programs and measurements that lacked standardization and an ability to drive collective action. In 2009, Walmart and Patagonia identified this as a serious problem. Joining forces, they brought together peers and competitors from across the sector, to develop a universal approach to measuring sustainability performance and founded the Sustainable Apparel Coalition.

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Sustainable Apparel Coalition on 3blmedia.com.

Contact Info:

Spokesperson: Sustainable Apparel Coalition

Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/sustainable-apparel-coalition

Email: info@3blmedia.com

SOURCE: Sustainable Apparel Coalition

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/741453/Sustainable-Apparel-Coalition-Releases-Latest-Version-of-the-Higg-Brand-Retail-Module-To-Support-Companies-To-Drive-Positive-Impact-at-Scale
LOS ANGELES, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- According to blogger Sarah Johnson, an expert on historical fiction, the 20th century as a whole is still very popular up to and including the early 1970s, if we use 50 years in the past as a guideline for defining what's historical fiction. The novel Afterdamp is set in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the coal-mining communities of central Utah. The author, R. Craig Johnson, felt passionately that the miners' way of life and the mining conditions needed to be told, allowing the reader to be guided daily, as the miners were, to the portals of the deep and dark. A. Keith Carreiro's fictional verse Send Down the Master in Person is a reflection on Adolf Eichmann and the Holocaust. A Readers' Favorite review observes that the author "has a talent for blending history with poetry, which makes for an irresistible read. The words reach deep to pull out painful imagery, then take you to lofty heights that reflect both hope and tragedy."

LibraryBub, an industry first, was established in 2015. Dedicated to making strong, mutual connections between indie and small-press authors and an extensive network of libraries, it works in conjunction with all major libraries. The core commitment of the LibraryBub service is to help librarians to identify acclaimed books from the independent publishing sector. LibraryBub introduces thousands of librarians to bestselling and award-winning books from the independent publishing sector. These books hold immense potential for enhancing the lives of their readers. Newbery laureate Pam Munoz Ryan recalls a childhood attachment to her local library. "The library became my favorite hangout because my family didn't have a swimming pool and the library was air-conditioned. That's how I got hooked on reading" As an adult, a friend encouraged her to write. "Today, I am a full-time writer and I still spend a lot of time at the library. When I start a new book the first thing I do is go to the library for research." Librarians enable writers to make that kind of difference to people's lives, and LibraryBub CEO Alinka Rutkowska considers it a privilege to support them in that role.

Below is this month's selection by category.

FICTION

Literature & Fiction

Afterdamp: the Winter Quarters and Castle Gate mine disasters by R. Craig Johnson ISBN: 978-1959009016

As Time Goes By by W. Royce Adams ISBN: 979-8986488509

Send Down the Master in Person: reflections on Adolf Eichmann by A. Keith Carreiro ISBN: 978-0997382730

Silent Screams by L.J. Crawford ISBN: 978-1941749531

Romance

Abraham and Sarah's Amish Baby (Book One of the Amish Bible Story series) by Ashley Emma ISBN: 979-8767031887

Esther's Amish Bravery (Book Four of the Amish Bible Story series) by Ashley Emma ISBN: 979-8835438693

The Amish Prodigal Son (Book Five of the Amish Bible Story series) by Ashley Emma ISBN: 979-8841140276

Young Adult

Colors of Truth by Paula Paul ISBN: 978-1098384722

Children's

Books for Benjamin by R.G. de Rouen ISBN: 979-8986585413

Brooklyn Beaver almost Builds a Dam (Book One of the Brooklyn Beaver series) by Florenza Denise Lee ISBN: 978-1941328545

NON-FICTION

Biographies & Memoirs

Celebrating 100 Years in the Soft Drink Business: the story of L.L. Minges & M.O. Minges by John Franklin Minges III ISBN: 978-0990599036

Triumphs of a Little Girl: a memoir by Ingrid J. Benjamin ISBN: 978-1637283479

Business

Finding the Speaker's Edge by Michael D. Butler ISBN:978-1637921739

Done Deal!: the step-by-step handbook to sales success by Jeffrey Brandeis ISBN: 979-8683699543

Leading Positive Organizational Change: Energize - Redesign - Gel by Bart Tkaczyk ISBN: 978-0367608767

The Lean Recruiting Toolkit by Craig E. Brown ISBN: 978-1730966057

Politics & Social Sciences

Adoration and Pilgrimage: James Dean and Fairmount by James F. Hopgood ISBN: 979-8886790108

Feminist Giving: creating new frontiers in social change by Kiersten Marek ISBN: 978-1458371362

Religion & Spirituality

Back to God, Away from Religion by Gopi Menon ISBN: 979-8522234980

Songs in the Night: how God transforms our pain to praise by Michael A. Milton ISBN: 978-1596382213

Science & Math

Advanced Lotto Rotation System by Joseph Z. Vlasic ISBN: 978-0648653035

Self-Help

Coming of Age: our journey into adulthood by Cate LeSourd ISBN:978-1737766803

Confessions of an Ironman by David Solyomi ISBN: 978-1637351079

The Ten Principles of Visibility by Pam Hamilton ISBN: 979-8830985819

Children's

The A to Z Book of Cats by Michael P. Earney ISBN: 978-1941345757

"The newsletter got great open and click rates!" says LibraryBub author Charles Veley. "I'm very happy to see the results from the LibraryBub promotion were so impressive." He's convinced that "this was a great way to increase discoverability".

Librarians should sign up for LibraryBub at http://librarybub.com/

Independent publishers are asked to visit http://librarybub.com/authors/ to submit their books for consideration.

Media Contact:



Alinka Rutkowska

alinka@leaderspress.com

www.leaderspress.com

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/insightful-historical-fiction-featured-in-librarybub-selection-for-march-301759096.html
NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / March 1, 2023 / The Conference Board:

We are excited to invite you to join us at The Power of Communications: Driving Business Results, which we are hosting in New York on Thursday, March 16 and Friday, March 17 at the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge. Communicators representing a wide variety of industries and perspectives will be gathering for two action-packed days of programming centered on some of the most pressing issues confronting the profession today, with topics ranging from the disruptive potential of AI, breaking through with distracted audiences, and navigating both an unpredictable economy and the continuing transition to remote and hybrid work.

[ Register now ]

USE CODE 3BLVIP AND SAVE $500

We're especially looking forward to hearing from 3BL Media's Dave Armon when he takes the stage with Tapestry's Jackie Albano for the following timely discussion:

The Future of Sustainability in the Corporate Narrative

Increasingly, consumers in America expect companies to be taking actions on critical topics of sustainability with research quantifying 60% to 70% identifying that as a priority. Sustainability, in the minds of the consumer, means environmental issues ranging from emissions and pollution to energy use and sourcing. It also involves social issues such as labor conditions, equitable pay, and DEI initiatives. The "corporate narrative" needs to engage other stakeholders beyond just their customers, especially when expectations diverge. Increasing pressure from investor activists is surfacing on environmental investments, and boards are also now playing defense against criticism of greenwashing.

As these tensions continue to grow, how do communications leaders shape the corporate narrative to not only stay future-focused but also positively address the expectations of multiple stakeholders?

Jackie Albano, Director, ESG Communications, Tapestry

Moderator: Dave Armon, Chief Executive Officer, 3BL Media

To learn what other leading brands like Citi, CVS Health, Etsy, Lockheed Martin, and Microsoft will be contributing to the conversation, you can review the rest of our agenda here .



This special event is designed as an opportunity to examine the latest best practices during this pivotal moment for the communications function and to expand and enrich our professional networks along the way.



We hope to see you there!



The Conference Board Programming Team

Register Now

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from The Conference Board on 3blmedia.com.



Contact Info:

Spokesperson: The Conference Board

Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/conference-board

Email: info@3blmedia.com

SOURCE: The Conference Board

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/741464/Join-3BL-Media-to-Learn-About-the-Future-of-Sustainability-at-The-Conference-Boards-The-Power-of-Corporate-Communications-Mar-16-17-in-New-York
An end-to-end ecosystem to help governments and organizations make the most of frequency thanks to complete portable solutions

BOLZANO VICENTINO, Italy, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- More and more governments in Europe are undergoing a digital transformation across their public safety agencies. Band 68 is a dedicated frequency that can be used to support emergency management and other public safety use cases with critical private mobile radio (PMR) communications.





Despite the band availability, its full potential has not yet been realized and a multi-vendor product approach can help meet the challenging needs of these use cases and accelerate the agencies' digital transformation.

By combining Athonet's mission critical portable solutions and Crosscall's ruggedized smartphones and tablets, which utilize IoT solutions from Qualcomm Technologies Inc., Athonet can realize an end-to-end offering for this band-from network to the end user device.

Thanks to this collaboration, public safety agencies can utilize a complete portable tactical solution with full use of band 68 for various critical PMR communications. This offering is enabled by the Athonet Tactical Backpack ATB-68, Athonet Tactical Cube ATC-68, Crosscall X-COMM remote speaker microphone, Crosscall X-VIBES bone conduction headphones and Crosscall CORE-Z5 smartphone, which utilizes the Qualcomm QCM6490 SoC.

During the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Athonet will showcase the Athonet Tactical Backpack ATB-68 in Hall 5, stand 5J65.

"Being able to guarantee portable tactical solutions with the Athonet Tactical Backpack ATB-68 and Athonet Tactical Cube ATC-68 is the result of years of research and constant improvement of our solutions. We have been working alongside organizations, ministries and security services for years to meet their needs related to communication and connectivity systems and this solution is an important milestone, both for us and for our customers.

"The collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies and Crosscall was fundamental in arriving at the definition of this solution and we are sure that even in the near future new products and services can arise from this collaborative work capable of responding to the ever-increasing needs of the public safety and critical PMR communications world," said Massimiliano Gianesin, Director, Special Projects, Athonet.

"Crosscall supports the public safety community with devices that are designed to work in all environments and meet all critical communication requirements. We have developed solutions, including terminals but also a whole system of highly technical accessories operating on the very high speed 4G/5G network, which allow us to accompany the public safety sector in the transformation of use that it is facing.

"The collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies and the integration of the Qualcomm QCM6490 processor on our latest smartphone, the CORE-Z5, is a real innovation at the service of this transformation: it is the first smartphone compatible with band 68. Working with Athonet and Qualcomm Technologies allows us to offer a complete solution that meets the current and future challenges of critical communication world," said Denis Thayanithy, Director, Solution Engineering & Global Partnership, Crosscall.

"Qualcomm Technologies is helping to drive the digital transformation of industries, enabling more intelligent IoT devices at the edge, and public safety is no exception," said Sebastiano Di Filippo, Senior Director, Business Development, Qualcomm Europe, Inc. "It's exciting to see Athonet and Crosscall utilize the availability of band 68 with the CORE-Z5 to deliver critical PMR communications. Powered by the Qualcomm QCM6490, the CORE-Z5 benefits from the processor's premium tier features, including 5G, WiFi-6E and band 68 connectivity compatibility, and powerful on-device AI and compute performance. This growing ecosystem of products will help to address new use cases in public safety."

Qualcomm branded products are products of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. Qualcomm patented technologies are licensed by Qualcomm Incorporated.

Qualcomm is a trademark or registered trademark of Qualcomm Incorporated.

About Athonet

Athonet is a leader in private cellular network technology delivering a mobile core to enterprises and communication service providers to connect applications, devices and radios. With more than 15 years of experience in delivering 4G/5G mobile core solutions to customers and partners in every region of the world, Athonet supports key industries where network control, mobility, security, performance, and cost are important for business outcomes. Find out more www.athonet.com.

About Crosscall

Crosscall, the creator of durable mobile telephony, offers waterproof, ruggedized and long-lasting mobiles and smartphones. The company was created in 2009 by Cyril Vidal to respond to specific needs and uses that he himself was confronted with and for which no specific equipment existed. The brand thus designs models perfectly adapted to the hostile and unpredictable environments encountered by sportsmen and professionals in the field (water, rain, wind, humidity, dust, shocks...); as well as a range of high-performance accessories. Crosscall has extensive expertise in mission-critical and business critical communication and provides solutions that are perfectly suited to both public and private security actors. With more than 3.5 million units sold, a turnover of 134.3 M and already more than 20,000 points of sale, the French company, based in Aix-en-Provence, continues to evolve by upgrading its increasingly recognized for their quality and originality in France and abroad.

About Qualcomm

Qualcomm is enabling a world where everyone and everything can be intelligently connected. Our one technology roadmap allows us to efficiently scale the technologies that launched the mobile revolution - including advanced connectivity, high-performance, low-power compute, on-device intelligence and more - to the next generation of connected smart devices across industries. Innovations from Qualcomm and our family of Snapdragon platforms will help enable cloud-edge convergence, transform industries, accelerate the digital economy, and revolutionize how we experience the world, for the greater good.

Qualcomm Incorporated includes our licensing business, QTL, and the vast majority of our patent portfolio. Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, operates, along with its subsidiaries, substantially all of our engineering, research and development functions, and substantially all of our products and services businesses, including our QCT semiconductor business. Snapdragon and Qualcomm branded products are products of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. Qualcomm patented technologies are licensed by Qualcomm Incorporated.





Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2013396/Athonet_Crosscall_Qualcomm.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1799298/Logo_Athonet.jpg

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/athonet-crosscall-and-qualcomm-join-forces-to-accelerate-digital-transformation-in-public-safety-with-b68-band-301759791.html
Christian Policard is appointed Chairman of THERADIAG

Simon Daviere becomes Chief Executive Officer of THERADIAG

Regulatory News:

The Board of Directors of THERADIAG (ISIN: FR0004197747, Ticker: ALTER), held on March 1st, 2023, has decided to appoint Mr Christian Policard as Chairman to replace Mr Pierre Morgon, who has resigned, and Mr Simon Daviere as Chief Executive Officer to replace Mr Bertrand de Castelnau, who has also resigned, as of March 1st,2023.

"After more than ten years as an independent director, and then Chairman of the Board, I am closing today a chapter of profound transformation and development of THERADIAG, which began at the time of the IPO in 2012, with the satisfaction of seeing a company that has developed an unparalleled research and development activity, and industrial competencies that meet the most demanding regulatory standards", said Pierre Morgon. "THERADIAG is now on the threshold of profitability and fully prepared for its future expansion, and I wish it every success.

Bertrand de Castelnau added: "I am leaving THERADIAG after many rich and stimulating years, having brought the Company to the threshold of profitability. THERADIAG is now supported by a solid shareholder and can generate synergies between the two companies. I am convinced that THERADIAG will be able to sustain and above all accelerate its development for a positive future. I would like to express my gratitude to our employees for the quality of their work and their dedication, to our customers for their loyalty, to the Board of Directors for its support, and to our shareholders for their support."

Christian Policard, 74 years old, is a biophysicist and teacher in the Volvox programme in Israel. He was a founding partner of Biotech Developpement Conseils, an international biotech consulting firm that supports innovative companies worldwide. He is currently a senior partner at Global Close Alliance (GCA), a global technology consulting firm operating in over fifty countries. He currently sits on the boards of Vidac Pharma (Israel), RDS (Strasbourg), HTID (Paris) and Technion (Paris-Haifa). He has been Executive Vice President and member of the Global Strategy Committee of Sanofi, Chairman of Cellectis, Director at the Pasteur Institute but also venture capitalist and participated in the creation of numerous companies in France, Israel and the USA.

"I am very pleased to join THERADIAG, which has world-renowned expertise in the monitoring of biotherapies. I am particularly proud to support the Group in its growth strategy both in France and internationally, with the aim of returning to profitability in the short term", said Christian Policard

Simon DAVIERE, 39 years old, holds an engineering degree in Biological Engineering from the University of Technology of Compiegne and a Master's degree in Biotechnology from the University of Technology of Lille. He has a solid professional experience of nearly 15 years in the in vitro diagnostics industry and personalised medicine, particularly in the field of chronic inflammatory diseases. He started his career at EUROIMMUN before joining Theradiag where he held several managerial positions in marketing and medico-marketing before taking over the management of the Theranostic Business Unit.

"Accelerating the development of our diagnostic activities both in France and internationally is at the heart of our short and medium-term strategic ambition. With the THERADIAG teams, we will be keen to open a new page in the Group development", added Simon Daviere

About Theradiag

Theradiag is the market leader in biotherapy monitoring. Capitalizing on its expertise in the diagnostics market, the Company has been developing, manufacturing and marketing innovative in vitro diagnostic (IVD) tests for over 30 years.

Theradiag pioneered "theranostics" testing (combining therapy with diagnosis), which measures the efficacy of biotherapy in the treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases. Going beyond mere diagnosis, Theranostics aims to help clinicians set up "customized treatment" for each patient. This method favors the individualization of treatment, evaluation of its efficacy and the prevention of drug resistance. In response to this challenge, Theradiag develops and markets the CE-marked TRACKER range, a comprehensive solution of inestimable medical value.

The Company is based in Marne-la-Vallee, near Paris, has operations in over 70 countries and employs over 60 people. In 2022, the Company posted revenue of 12.2 million. The Theradiag share is listed on Euronext Growth Paris (ISIN: FR0004197747) and is eligible for the French PEA-PME personal equity plan.

For more information about Theradiag, please visit our website: https://www.theradiag.com/

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005887/en/

Contacts:

Theradiag

Simon Daviere

CEO

contact@theradiag.com

NewCap

Financial Communications Investor Relations

Pierre Laurent Quentin Masse

Tel.: +33 (0)1 44 71 94 94

theradiag@newcap.eu

NewCap

Media Relations

Arthur Rouille

Tel.: +33 (0)1 44 71 94 94

nmerigeau@newcap.fr
Kamloops, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 1, 2023) - Advance Lithium Corp. (TSXV: AALI) ("Advance Lithium" or "the Company") is pleased to announce that it has entered into discussions with Mexico's national lithium company, LitioMx, to form a joint venture. The goals of Advance Lithium and LitioMx are aligned, in that both want Mexico to become a lithium mining country as quickly as possible.

Advance Lithium has a group of lithium and potassium salars/salt lakes in central Mexico. The lithium and potassium mineralization are in clay deposits that start right at the surface. The lithium and potassium are not bound up in other minerals.

Advance Lithium has the rights to use a patent pending lithium and potassium extraction method for its salars. The first step is to add water to the clay and then agitate it to release the lithium and potassium from the clay. Then using electrical separation, a concentrate would be produced of lithium, potassium and water. Followed by adding an organic compound to the concentrate to separate the lithium and potassium from the water.

Key benefits of this extraction method is low energy would be needed which could be provided using solar power. The lithium extraction methods for other lithium clay deposits need expensive roasters that have high energy costs as the lithium is bound up in other minerals. The water from the method could be recycled and used many times, which is a key difference between other lithium extraction methods from clay deposits which require significant amounts of water that can't be recycled. No need for acid digestion to liberate the lithium and potassium from other minerals. It truly is a green mining solution to produce lithium crucial for green energy.

A demonstration plant is currently being built in Zacatecas, Mexico by a team of metallurgists with extensive experience working for Mexican major mining companies building and operating production facilities. The goal is to show potential partners, shareholders and other interested parties the unique method to extract lithium and potassium from Advance Lithium's salars.

Allan Barry Laboucan, President and CEO of Advance Lithium Corp. commented: "I'm excited about entering discussions with LitioMx to form a joint venture. Two large vehicle manufacturing companies have recently announced plans to build battery manufacturing facilities in Mexico, one of which will be located in the state of San Luis Potosi in close proximity to our salars. It has always been a goal of Advance Lithium that if we become a lithium and potassium producer and that the lithium and potassium stays in Mexico to help with domestic battery manufacturing and to benefit Mexican farmers. Of course, I have to add that we have not as of yet come to terms on a joint venture, and until that is done we haven't made an agreement. Based on our discussions with LitioMx, I believe there is a path to making a joint venture happen in the near term. Battery manufacturing is ramping up in Mexico, a domestic source of lithium to supply the coming demand will be crucial, we believe we have the potential to be part of these efforts and working with LitioMx would be the quickest way to make that a reality."

Dr. Julio Pinto Linares is a qualified person, doctor in geological sciences with an academic specialty in economic geology and a qualified professional, No. 01365 by MMSA. He is the qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 for Advance Gold and is responsible for the accuracy of technical information contained in this news release.

About Advance Lithium Corp.

Advance Lithium is a junior exploration company focused on acquiring and exploring mineral properties containing precious metals, agricultural minerals and battery metals. The company acquired a 100-per-cent interest in the Tabasquena silver mine in Zacatecas, Mexico, in 2017, and the Venaditas project, also in Zacatecas state, in April, 2018.

In March, 2021 Advance Gold acquired 13 salars in central Mexico containing potassium, boron and lithium, enabling it to move into agricultural minerals and the exciting lithium space.

In June, 2022 Advance Lithium sold its 3% Royalty interest in strategic claims in the Liranda Corridor in Kenya, East Africa, where Shanta Gold Limited is upgrading their resource. The sale of the Kenya royalty to Orogen Royalties was for US$120,000 and the Sarape epithermal gold project in Mexico.

For further information, please contact:

Allan Barry Laboucan,

President and CEO

Phone: 492-238-5282 (Direct-Mexico Cell)

Email: allan@advancelithiumcorp.com

This news release contains certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in forward based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. 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, except as required by law.

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 news release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/156736
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.
Papaya Global Launches Comprehensive Health Care Plans That Empower Enterprise Companies to Unify Global Employees Under One Premium Solution

This new international health care plan, in a partnership with DavidShield-Passportcard Group, simplifies health care management and offers Papaya's clients an additional competitive advantage in recruiting and managing global talent while unifying employees under one flexible plan.

TEL AVIV, Israel, Feb. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Papaya Global, the SaaS fintech company providing global payroll and payments technology, announced today its new premium healthcare benefits plan. With this singular global plan, Papaya's clients can provide their employees employer-sponsored, customized international health insurance in over 160 countries while eliminating the complex, time-consuming process of comparing multiple plans across regions. The new offering signals continued growth for Papaya while building on its commitment to supporting organizations and their global employees.





Designed to leverage group buying power, Papaya delivers a superior solution to businesses of all sizes, providing unified global plans with flexible and convenient health care benefits for their employees. This unique approach consolidates the management of health benefits for employees across multiple countries under one umbrella. Papaya's clients also gain a significant advantage in recruiting global talent as their employees can access a comprehensive medical care plan without the headaches of traditional health insurance.

Insured members can now pay for medical services using a designated card and without out-of-pocket spending. It can be used to cover outpatient treatments, prescription drugs, standard lab tests, emergency room visits, doctor visits, and X-rays. They have the freedom to choose their doctors, with no limit to any provider networks, and receive global coverage in over 160 countries. The plan also includes unique: emergency medical care coverage for up to 60 days outside of the employee's home location worldwide (including the U.S.), giving employees peace of mind when traveling without the need for additional medical insurance.

"With dispersed workforces becoming increasingly prevalent, multinational organizations must provide an improved and more unified employee experience for all team members, especially those who may not have access to comprehensive health benefits in various global locations," said Papaya Global CEO Eynat Guez. "This new partnership with DavidShield will allow employees to have an easy-to-use and flexible access to medical, dental and vision benefits no matter where they work. This benefit upgrade reflects our continued commitment to employee experience and helping our clients build strong workplace cultures worldwide."

The new plan's main benefits for employees are:

Global coverage (over 160 countries outside the U.S.) including emergency medical coverage away from home location (up to 60 days)

Doctors of choice; no network limit for providers

24/7 customer support through WhatsApp, phone, email and messenger

Inpatient and outpatient services, and alternative medicine options

Wellness screenings

Maternity coverage

Optional dental and vision coverage

Main benefits for employers are:

No minimum headcount requirement

Simplified registration, including optional no medical questionnaire requirements ?(applies to certain sized groups)

Consistent medical coverage for employees across multiple geographies

About Papaya Global

Papaya Global is a SaaS fintech company providing global payroll and payments technology - the only tech-first payroll software built for global enterprises. Papaya's comprehensive automated solution provides the visibility, speed, and flexibility that finance teams need to control workforce spending. Papaya serves as the brain connecting the dots of global payroll, unifying data streams and integrating with HCM and ERP tools to create a single source of truth. It turns payroll - every company's biggest expense and liability - into a strategic asset.

Papaya's team currently spans Tel Aviv, New York, Austin, London, Kiev, Singapore, and Melbourne. Its technology has been recognized by all leading global analysts, including Gartner, Visa, NelsonHall, and others, as disruptive in the field of global people, payroll, and payments. Papaya was included in the Forbes Cloud 100 and CNBC's Top Startups for the Enterprise.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1908188/Papaya_Global___2.jpg

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/papaya-global-launches-comprehensive-health-care-plans-that-empower-enterprise-companies-to-unify-global-employees-under-one-premium-solution-301757553.html
Finsbury Growth & Income Trust Plc - Transaction in Own Shares

For immediate release

1 March 2023

FINSBURY GROWTH & INCOME TRUST PLC

(the "Company")

MARKET PURCHASE OF COMPANY'S OWN SHARES

The Company announces that it has today purchased 47,446 of its own shares ("Ordinary Shares") at a price of 878.26 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 17 January 2023.

Following this transaction, the total number of Ordinary Shares held by the Company in treasury is 15,307,600; 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 209,683,703.

The figure of 209,683,703 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
CHICAGO, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (AST) is a laboratory test used to determine the susceptibility of bacteria to various antibiotics. It is an important part of determining the best antibiotic to treat an infection. By performing Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing, clinicians can identify which antibiotics will be effective in treating a particular infection, allowing them to choose the most appropriate treatment. The results of the Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing can be used to determine the most effective therapy for the patient.





Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing Market in terms of revenue was estimated to be worth $3.6 billion in 2022 and is poised to reach $4.7 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 5.5% from 2022 to 2027 according to a new report by MarketsandMarkets. The rising prevalence of infectious diseases, high antibiotic resistance, and supportive government measures to lessen the burden of infectious diseases can all be linked to the expansion of the antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) industry. The use of antimicrobial susceptibility testing is growing due to an increase in specific illnesses such pneumonia and bloodstream infections caused by E. coli, K. pneumoniae, P. aeruginosa, and others.

Download an Illustrative overview: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=206359984

Browse in-depth TOC on "Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing Market"

161 - Tables

40 - Figures

243 - Pages

Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing Market Scope:

Report Coverage Details Market Revenue in 2022 $3.6 billion Estimated Value by 2027 $4.7 billion Growth Rate Poised to grow at a CAGR of 5.5% Market Size Available for 2020-2027 Forecast Period 2022-2027 Forecast Units Value (USD Billion) Report Coverage Revenue Forecast, Competitive Landscape, Growth Factors, and Trends Segments Covered Product, Type, Method, Applications, End User, and Region Geographies Covered North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East and Africa Report Highlights Updated financial information / product portfolio of players Key Market Opportunities Growth opportunities in emerging market Key Market Drivers Emergence of multidrug resistance due to drug abuse

Automated Laboratory Instruments segment to register a significant growth rate over the forecast period of 2022-2027

Based on the product type, the antimicrobial susceptibility testing market is segmented into Manual antimicrobial susceptibility testing products, Automated Laboratory Instruments, Culture and Growth Media, and Consumables. with each segment covering various products used in susceptibility testing. Automated Laboratory Instruments hold the largest share of the antimicrobial susceptibility testing market in 2022. The large share of this segment can be attributed to Getting fast results than the traditional procedures used in susceptibility testing

The hospitals and Diagnostic centers segment accounted for the largest share of the Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing market, by the end-user market in 2022.

Based on End users, the antimicrobial susceptibility testing market is segmented into Hospitals and Diagnostic centers, Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology companies, Research & Academic Institutes, and Clinical research organizations.

North America to register major growth in the market during the forecast period

North America microcatheter market is anticipated to register the highest growth over the forecast period of 2022 to 2027. North America accounted for the largest share of 35.4% of the antimicrobial susceptibility testing market in 2022. This market is projected to reach USD 1.6 billion by 2027 from USD 1.2 billion in 2022, at a CAGR of 5.3% during the forecast period. The large share of North America can be attributed due to the growth in antibiotic resistance prevalence, the existence of important actors, an increase in healthcare spending, technological developments, and an increase in government activities in the area. Nonetheless, due to a rise in the region's population generally and rising investments in the healthcare industry, Asia-Pacific is expected to experience significant development.

Request for FREE Sample Pages: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestsampleNew.asp?id=206359984

Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing Market Dynamics:

Drivers:

Rising incidence of infectious diseases coupled with epidemic and pandemic events Increasing funding, research grants, and public-private investments Technological advancements Growing government initiatives to detect and control antimicrobial-resistant species Emergence of multidrug resistance due to drug abuse

Restraints:

High cost of automated ID/AST systems

Opportunities:

Growth opportunities in emerging markets

Challenges:

Complex regulatory frameworks

Key Market Players:

As of 2022, prominent players are Becton, Dickinson and Company, Biomerieux SA, Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., Bruker, Danaher Corporation.

Recent Developments

In Jan,2023 bioMerieux launched a automated instrument named MAESTRIA

In Aug,2022 BD India launched the BD MAX MDR-TB panel.

In May ,2022 Thermofisher scientific introduced automated antimicrobial susceptibility products.

Get 10% Free Customization on this Report: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestCustomizationNew.asp?id=206359984

Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing Market Advantages:

Antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) is a laboratory technique used to determine the susceptibility or resistance of microorganisms to antimicrobial drugs. The market for AST is rapidly growing due to the increasing prevalence of infectious diseases and the need for appropriate antibiotic therapy. Here are some advantages of the antimicrobial susceptibility testing market:

Accurate Diagnosis: Antimicrobial susceptibility testing provides accurate and reliable results for the diagnosis of bacterial infections. This helps healthcare providers to select the appropriate antibiotics to treat the infection and prevent the development of antibiotic resistance.

Improved Patient Outcomes: By providing accurate information on the susceptibility or resistance of microorganisms to antimicrobial drugs, AST helps healthcare providers to make informed decisions regarding the treatment of bacterial infections. This can lead to improved patient outcomes and reduced healthcare costs.

Effective Management of Antibiotic Resistance: The misuse and overuse of antibiotics have led to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which is a major public health concern. AST helps to manage antibiotic resistance by providing information on the susceptibility or resistance of microorganisms to specific antibiotics.

Customized Treatment Plans: Antimicrobial susceptibility testing enables healthcare providers to customize treatment plans for individual patients based on their specific infection and the susceptibility or resistance of the microorganism causing the infection.

Growing Market: The antimicrobial susceptibility testing market is rapidly growing due to the increasing prevalence of infectious diseases and the need for appropriate antibiotic therapy. This presents significant opportunities for companies involved in the development and manufacture of AST products.

In summary, the antimicrobial susceptibility testing market is crucial for accurate diagnosis, effective management of antibiotic resistance, and customized treatment plans. It also presents significant opportunities for companies involved in the development and manufacture of AST products.

Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing Market - Report Highlights:

The study consists of the average selling price (ASP) analysis for different products in the Antimicrobial susceptibiity testing products

The research study comprises the patent analysis of technologies/solutions used in the Antimicrobial susceptibility testing products

The new market study consists of the trends/disruptions impacting customers' businesses.

The new market study consists of information on key conferences and events in 2020-2027.

The new market study consists of the region-wise regulatory landscape.

The new market study consists of Porter's Five Forces Analysis

The new market study provides details of the strategies of the top 5 players operating in the market.

The competitive landscape chapter has been updated with the market evaluation matrix. The competitive landscape also includes the market share analysis of major global players (as of 2021), updated competitive leadership mapping, and competitive situations and trends.

The new market study comprises 25 players. These companies have emerged as key market players in recent years due to their products and various strategic investments undertaken in the medical aesthetic market space.

Updated financial information/product portfolio of players: The new edition of the report provides updated financial information in the context of the medical aesthetic market from January 2020 to July 2022 (depending on availability) for each listed company in graphical representation.

to (depending on availability) for each listed company in graphical representation. Updated market developments of profiled players: The current report includes the market developments from January 2020 to July 2022 .

During the production cycle of the report, in-depth interviews were conducted with various primary respondents, which include key opinion leaders, subject matter experts, directors, and C-level executives of selected particle counters vendors to obtain and verify critical qualitative and quantitative information. This primary data was collected mainly through questionnaires, mails, and telephonic interviews.

Browse Adjacent Market:

Related Reports:

Sepsis Diagnostics Market - Global Forecasts to 2026

Rapid Microbiology Testing Market - Global Forecasts to 2026

Veterinary Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing Market - Global Forecasts to 2026

Microbial Identification Market - Global Forecasts to 2025

Clinical Microbiology Market - Global Forecasts to 2025

About MarketsandMarkets:

MarketsandMarkets is a blue ocean alternative in growth consulting and program management, leveraging a man-machine offering to drive supernormal growth for progressive organizations in the B2B space. We have the widest lens on emerging technologies, making us proficient in co-creating supernormal growth for clients.

The B2B economy is witnessing the emergence of $25 trillion of new revenue streams that are substituting existing revenue streams in this decade alone. We work with clients on growth programs, helping them monetize this $25 trillion opportunity through our service lines - TAM Expansion, Go-to-Market (GTM) Strategy to Execution, Market Share Gain, Account Enablement, and Thought Leadership Marketing.

Built on the 'GIVE Growth' principle, we work with several Forbes Global 2000 B2B companies - helping them stay relevant in a disruptive ecosystem. Our insights and strategies are molded by our industry experts, cutting-edge AI-powered Market Intelligence Cloud, and years of research. The KnowledgeStore (our Market Intelligence Cloud) integrates our research, facilitates an analysis of interconnections through a set of applications, helping clients look at the entire ecosystem and understand the revenue shifts happening in their industry.

To find out more, visit www.MarketsandMarkets.com or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Contact:

Mr. Aashish Mehra

MarketsandMarkets INC.

630 Dundee Road

Suite 430

Northbrook, IL 60062

USA: +1-888-600-6441

Email: sales@marketsandmarkets.com

Research Insight: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ResearchInsight/antimicrobial-susceptibility-testing-market.asp

Visit Our Website: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/

Content Source: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/antimicrobial-susceptibility-testing.asp

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/660509/MarketsandMarkets_Logo.jpg

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/antimicrobial-susceptibility-testing-market-worth-4-7-billion--marketsandmarkets-301759335.html
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 1, 2023) - Boosh Plant-Based Brands Inc. (CSE: VEGI) (OTCQB: VGGIF) (FSE: 77I) ("Boosh" or the "Company") a premier plant-based brand in the "better for you" food sector, is providing an update on Boosh sales activity as well as a list of the top selling retailers where Beanfields chips are currently available in the USA and Canada.





Beanfields Chips

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/7944/156757_beanfieldimage.jpg.

CEO Connie Marples states, "As we continue to scale production to meet our consistent purchase orders of approx. $800K a month the following stores are the top retailers carrying Beanfields Chips. Once we are able to meet that production level we have numerous more retailers waiting for product and expect to be able to cross the $1M monthly sales mark in the coming months."

Beanfields Top US Accounts

Whole Foods

Sprouts

Albertson's

Safeway

Raleys

Amazon

Mom's Organic

Hy-Vee

Beanfields Top Canadian Accounts

Whole Foods

Sobeys

Pattison Group (Choice's, Nester's, Buy-Low, Nature's Fare)

Loblaws

Boosh Update

Although the primary focus is on Beanfields and the company's cashflow is dedicated to increasing production of the Bean Chip line, Boosh continues its organic growth with new accounts and market penetration:

Nature's Fare Stores throughout BC and Kootenay Co-Op now carry the Amuse boosh line of plant based cheese and vege pate.

UNFI had a 74% increase in sales of Boosh products vs 2021 ($196,226 vs $342,294)

Whole Foods had a 124% increase in sales ($19 0978 in 2021 vs $44 864 in 2022)

New Independent stores include: Foxy Market, Mother Natures, Veganist Chilliwack, Lifestyles Market and new Thrifty Foods locations, Pomme Markets, Jarry's Market, Morchella Market & Cafe, Welk's, 7 more Nutter's locations, 7 Country Grocer locations , Spud/ Blush Lane, plus many more small independents.

Marples continues, "Once Beanfields is fully capitalized the company expects to be able to increase production levels of Boosh products to meet new retail opportunities that have been presented through our broker but require upfront capital to execute."

Connie Marples

Founder/President

connie@booshfood.com

Telephone: 778 840 1700

www.Booshfood.com

www.beanfields.com

About Boosh Plant-Based Brands Inc.:

Boosh Plant-Based Brands Inc., through its wholly owned subsidiary, Boosh Food (www.booshfood.com) offers high quality, non-GMO, gluten free, 100% plant-based nutritional comfort foods for the whole family. Through a separate subsidiary, Beautiful Beanfields, (www.beanfields.com) the Company owns Beanfields, a plant-based chip brand sold in over 7,000 stores throughout North America. Boosh, good for you and good for planet earth.

The information in this news release includes certain information and statements about management's view of future events, expectations, plans and prospects that constitute forward-looking statements. These statements are based upon assumptions that are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Because of these risks and uncertainties and as a result of a variety of factors, the actual results, expectations, achievements or performance may differ materially from those anticipated and indicated by these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, but are not limited to, the Company's expectations concerning the size of the Financing, its ability to close the Financing in whole or in part or at all and its plan for the proceeds of the Financing. Any number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements as well as future results. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurances that the expectations of any forward-looking statements will prove to be correct. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in assumptions, changes in factors affecting such forward-looking statements or otherwise.

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/156757
TORTOLA, BVI / ACCESSWIRE / March 1, 2023 / Enlighta Inc. (NEX:NLTA.H) ("Enlighta" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the appointment of Ms. Jing Chen as Chief Financial Officer of the Company.

Ms. Chen is currently the Controller for Sun Seven Stars Investment Group Limited ("SSSIGL"), a private equity investment company domiciled in the British Virgin Islands. Prior to joining SSSIGL, Ms. Chen was, from 2015 to 2017, the CFO for CAC Security Limited Company (a publicly listed company in China) and from 2010 to 2014 was an Audit Manager with Ernst & Young (China).. Ms. Chen is a member of The Chinese Institute of Certified Public Accountants and have advanced accounting degrees and a Doctorate in Management from Wuhan University of Technology.

About Enlighta Inc.

Enlighta Inc. is a diversified healthcare, medical, green and clean technology company active in global strategic partnerships and in licensing of technologies and assets for rapid growth and high value solutions. Additional details with respect to the Company are available on SEDAR (www.sedar.com)

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward Looking Statements:

Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect the expectations or beliefs regarding future events of management of Enlighta. This information and these statements, referred to herein as "forward-looking statements", are not historical facts, are made as of the date of this news release and include without limitation, statements regarding discussions of future plans, estimates and forecasts and statements as to management's expectations and intentions with respect to the agreements with Enlighta. These statements generally can be identified by use of forward-looking terms such as "may", "will", "expect", "estimate", "anticipate", "intends", "believe" or "continue" or the negative thereof or similar variations. These forward-looking statements involve numerous risks and uncertainties and actual results might differ materially from results anticipated in any forward-looking statements. Enlighta does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those reflected in the forward looking-statements, other than as required by applicable securities laws.

For further information, please contact:

Avis Zhu, CEO and Director

Enlighta Inc.

(604) 200-8028

SOURCE: Enlighta Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/741534/Enlighta-Announces-Appointment-Of-CFO
Calibo, a leading product and platform company and maker of the industry's first end-to-end self-service software development platform, has appointed Loic Giraud as Chief Operating Officer and Adrian Heim as Vice President, Head of Sales and Marketingeffective March 1. Both executives will directly steer Calibo's growth initiatives by building the sales, marketing, customer success, and global operations departments, while building strategic partnerships.

"Calibo's self-service development platform simplifies the typically complex digital landscape, accelerates product innovation, and enhances the developer experience. Its numerous capabilities position Calibo to be a platform leader in both end-to-end software development and data engineering," said Giraud. "I am very excited to be a part of Calibo's leadership team and empower customers to realize the strategic business value of leveraging the platform for both digital and data initiatives. I am fully convinced about its value proposition and look forward to collaborating with key players in the industry to deliver this mission."

Loic Giraud was most recently the Global Head of Digital at Novartis, where he spearheaded several successful and award winning digital transformation initiatives for the pharmaceutical giant. In his 14-plus-year stint with Novartis, Loic played key roles as Head of IT Data, Data science, Analytics and IntegrationHead Design and Architectureand Global Head of Business IntelligenceHe is credited to have established Novartis' first global competence center for the distributed teams supporting Drug Development, HR, Finance, Technical Operation, and Sales.

Giraud worked at Mars, Incorporated from 2002 and 2008, where he drove Analytics and Digital Marketing functions for the multinational manufacturer and animal care services provider.

"I was always searching for best-in-class ways to help my customers accelerate time to value on an end-to-end scale," said Heim. "Calibo has built an incredibly innovative and comprehensive platform that gives today's business leaders exactly what they're searching for: An efficient, cost-effective way to develop digital capabilities and increase productivity and competitiveness in the process. I feel very fortunate to join Calibo's team and look forward to driving future growth."

Adrian Heim carries over22 years of experience driving sales for some of the fastest-growing tech companies, including Snowflake and MongoDB, as well as some of the largest IT companies like Oracle and IBM. Heim is joining from Snowflake, where he was the first country manager in Switzerland and built a now very successful sales organization from scratch. During his four-plus-year tenure, Heim and his team were able to win numerous customers across all industries and segments and build strategic alliances with partners. He also worked with high potential clients and developed them into becoming some of the most strategic and vocal customers of Snowflake. Prior to Snowflake he held a similar role at MongoDB, where he also joined pre-IPO. At Oracle, he became one of the youngest Global Key Account Directors after he scaled a Fortune 500 company to become one of Oracle's top global customers. In this role, he led an international team of sales professionals across all portfolios. Heim's career started at IBM, where he spent over 12 years in and around IBM in various sales, partner, partner marketing, and sales leadership roles. He earned his B.S in Business Administration at the University of Applied Sciences in Zurich.

Both Loic and Adrian will report to Calibo's CEO Scott Sandschafer.

"Loic and Adrian bring an unparalleled level of strategic expertise for us. Both are proven business leaders with a solid track record of performance," said Sandschafer. "I am confident they will help build on the momentum we have established in 2022, and will play an instrumental role in steering Calibo's market leadership in the years to come."

About Calibo

Calibo is a leading digital product and platform company. It is the maker of industry's first, end-to-end, cloud based self-service development platform which helps enterprises accelerate product development and data engineering from ideation to operationalization. Enterprises across the world of all sizes can realize faster time to market for their digital initiatives by using Calibo's platform. It improves developer experience and productivity by leveraging best-in-breed technology, tool chains, out of the box processes and intelligent automation.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005979/en/

Contacts:

Aurobindo Sahoo

asahoo@calibo.com
CHICAGO, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- According to Arizton's latest research report, the Canada data center market is to grow at a CAGR of 8.70% during 2022-2028. Over the next few years, Canada's maximum data center demand will come from the cloud segment, followed by the IT and Telecom, government, e-commerce, BFSI, healthcare, and education sectors. Canada is a well-established market in North America. The country supports investments with its macroeconomic policies and other incentives for investors. Toronto and Montreal are Canada's primary data center hubs, with cities such as Calgary and Kamloops also receiving investments from eStruxture Data Centers and Equinix, respectively, during the forecast period.





Download the Free Sample Report Now: https://www.arizton.com/request-sample/3727

Toronto and Montreal are the primary data center hubs in Canada, with cities such as Calgary and Kamloops also receiving investments from eStruxture Data Centers and Equinix, respectively, during the forecast period. Over the next few years, the maximum data center demand in Canada is expected to come from the cloud segment, followed by the IT and Telecom, government, e-commerce, BFSI, healthcare, and education sectors. Canada has some of the greenest data center facilities, with an average Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of around 1.2. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), in 2020, around 81% of the renewable energy generated in the country came from hydro & other marine sources.

CANADA DATA CENTER MARKET REPORT SCOPE

Report Attributes Details Market Size (2028) USD 5.48 Billion Market Size (Area) 0.84 million sq. Feet (2028) Market Size (Power Capacity) 145 MW (2028) CAGR Investment (2022-2028) 8.70 % Colocation Market Size (Revenue) USD 1450 Million (2028) Historic Year 2020-2021 Base Year 2022 Forecast Year 2023-2028 Key Vendors IT Infrastructure Providers: Arista Networks, Atos, Broadcom, Cisco Systems, Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Huawei Technologies, IBM, Juniper Networks, Lenovo, NetApp, and Oracle Data Center Construction Contractors & Sub-Contractors: Arup, AECOM, Black & Veatch, Computer Room Services Corporation (CRSC), DPR Construction, Ehvert, EllisDon, First Gulf, Karbon Engineering, PCL Construction, Salute Mission Critical, Turner Construction, Urbacon, and WZMH Architects Support Infrastructure Providers: ABB, Alfa Laval, Arctic Chiller Group, Caterpillar, Chatsworth Products, ClimateWorx, Cummins, CoolIT Systems, Dataprobe, Delta Electronics, Eaton, Generac Power Systems, Johnson Controls, KyotoCooling, Legrand, Mitsubishi Electric, Panduit, Piller Power Systems, Rittal, Rolls-Royce Power Systems, Schneider Electric, STULZ, Siemens, Toshiba, Trane, and Vertiv Data Center Investors: AWS, Cologix, Compass Datacenters, Digital Realty, Equinix, eStruxture Data Centers, Google, Microsoft, Urbacon Data Centre Solutions, and Vantage Data Centers New Entrants: QScale, STACK Infrastructure, Eastlink, Intermarket Properties, and Gatineau Data Hub (GDH) Market Dynamics Rise and Advancement in Submarine and Inland Connectivity

OCP, Big Data & IoT Drive Data Center Investments

Increase in Data Center Investments and Activities

Growing Cloud Service Adoption Page Number 126

Download the Free Sample Report Now: https://www.arizton.com/request-sample/3727

WHY SHOULD YOU BUY THIS RESEARCH?

Market size available in the investment, area, power capacity, and Canada colocation market revenue.

An assessment of the data center investment in Canada by colocation, hyperscale, and enterprise operators.

by colocation, hyperscale, and enterprise operators. Investments in the area (square feet) and power capacity (MW) across states in the country.

A detailed study of the existing Canada data center market landscape, an in-depth industry analysis, and insightful predictions about industry size during the forecast period.

Snapshot of existing and upcoming third-party data center facilities in Canada

Facilities Covered (Existing): 115



Facilities Identified (Upcoming): 11



Coverage: 21 Cities



Existing vs. Upcoming (Area)



Existing vs. Upcoming (IT Load Capacity)

Data center colocation market in Canada

Market Revenue & Forecast (2022-2028)



Retail Colocation Pricing



Wholesale Colocation Pricing

Canadian market investments are classified into IT, power, cooling, and general construction services with sizing and forecast.

A comprehensive analysis of the latest trends, growth rate, potential opportunities, growth restraints, and prospects for the industry.

Business overview and product offerings of prominent IT infrastructure providers, construction contractors, support infrastructure providers, and investors operating in the industry.

A transparent research methodology and the analysis of the demand and supply aspects of the industry.

CUSTOMIZE YOUR REPORT

If our report does not include the information you are searching for, you may contact us to have a report tailored to your specific business needs https://www.arizton.com/customize-report/3727

VENDOR LANDSCAPE

Some key investors in the Canada data center market are STACK Infrastructure, QScal, Eastlink, Intermarket Properties, and Gatineau Data Hub (GDH).

Some of the notable investments in Canada's hyperscale market include:

Amazon Web Services: Amazon Web Services has established a cloud region in Canada , including Montreal , Toronto , and Vancouver .

, including , , and .

Google: Google has invested in cloud regions in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario .

and .

Microsoft: Microsoft has established its cloud region in Canada , including Toronto and Quebec City .

, including and .

Telecom operators such as Rogers Communications, Bell Canada , and TELUS deployed commercial 5G services nationwide.

, and TELUS deployed commercial 5G services nationwide. The operators are increasing their Canada data center market share and presence across the country by either acquiring the data center operators or investing in the company. For instance, Stonepeak acquired Cologix, a Canadian data center operator, in 2022.

EXISTING VS. UPCOMING DATA CENTERS

Existing Facilities in the region (Area and Power Capacity)

Montreal



Toronto



Other Cities

List of Upcoming Facilities in the region (Area and Power Capacity)

Download the Free Sample Report Now: https://www.arizton.com/request-sample/3727

THE REPORT INCLUDES THE INVESTMENT IN THE FOLLOWING AREAS:

IT Infrastructure

Servers



Storage Systems



Network Infrastructure

Electrical Infrastructure

UPS Systems



Generators



Switches & Switchgears



PDUs



Other Electrical Infrastructure

Mechanical Infrastructure

Cooling Systems



Rack Cabinets



Other Mechanical Infrastructure

General Construction

Core & Shell Development



Installation & Commissioning Services



Engineering & Building Design



Fire Detection & Suppression



Physical Security



Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM)

Tier Standard

Tier I & Tier II



Tier III



Tier IV

Geography

Montreal



Toronto



Other Cities

MAJOR VENDORS

IT Infrastructure Providers

Arista Networks

Atos

Broadcom

Cisco Systems

Dell Technologies

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)

Huawei Technologies

IBM

Juniper Networks

Lenovo

NetApp

Oracle

Data Center Construction Contractors & Sub-Contractors

Arup

AECOM

Black & Veatch

Computer Room Services Corporation (CRSC)

DPR Construction

Ehvert

EllisDon

First Gulf

Karbon Engineering

PCL Construction

Salute Mission Critical

Turner Construction

Urbacon

WZMH Architects

Support Infrastructure Providers

ABB

Alfa Laval

Arctic Chiller Group

Caterpillar

Chatsworth Products

ClimateWorx

Cummins

CoolIT Systems

Dataprobe

Delta Electronics

Eaton

Generac Power Systems

Johnson Controls

KyotoCooling

Legrand

Mitsubishi Electric

Panduit

Piller Power Systems

Rittal

Rolls-Royce Power Systems

Schneider Electric

STULZ

Siemens

Toshiba

Trane

Vertiv

Data Center Investors

AWS

Cologix

Compass Datacenters

Digital Realty

Equinix

eStruxture Data Centers

Google

Microsoft

Urbacon Data Centre Solutions

Vantage Data Centers

New Entrants

QScale

STACK Infrastructure

Eastlink

Intermarket Properties

Gatineau Data Hub (GDH)

Know More About the Canada Data Center Market: https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/canada-data-center-market-investment-analysis

TABLE OF CONTENT

Chapter 1: Existing & Upcoming Third-Party Data Centers In Canada

Historical Market Scenario

110+ Unique Data Center Properties

Data Center IT Load Capacity

Data Center White Floor Area Space

Existing Vs Upcoming Data Center Capacity by Cities

Cities Covered

Montreal



Toronto



Other Cities

List of Upcoming Data Center Facilities

Chapter 2: Investment Opportunities In Canada

Microeconomic and Macroeconomic factors of the Canada Market

Data Center Investments

Investment by Area

Investment by Power Capacity

Chapter 3: Data Center Colocation Market In Canada

Colocation Services Market in Canada

Retail vs Wholesale Data Center Colocation

Retail & Wholesale Colocation Pricing

Chapter 4: Market Dynamics

Market Drivers

Market Trends

Market Restraints

Chapter 5: Market Segmentation

IT Infrastructure: Market Size & Forecast

Electrical Infrastructure: Market Size & Forecast

Mechanical Infrastructure: Market Size & Forecast

General Construction Services: Market Size & Forecast

Chapter 6: Tier Standard Investment

Tier I & II

Tier III

Tier IV

Chapter 7: Geography Segmentation

Montreal

Toronto

Other Cities

Chapter 8: Key Market Participants

IT Infrastructure Providers

Construction Contractors

Support Infrastructure Providers

Data Center Investors

New Entrants

Chapter 9: Appendix

Market Derivation

Quantitative Summary

CHECK OUT SOME OF THE TOP-SELLING RESEARCH REPORTS:

Brazil Data Center Market - The Brazil data center market is expected to reach USD 4.43 billion by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 8.26% from 2022-2028. Brazil contributes around 50% of data center investments in the Latin American region.

Mexico Data Center Market - Mexico data center market size was valued at USD 632 million in 2021 and is projected to reach USD 1,082 million by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 9.37% during 2022-2027.

Colombia Data Center Market - Colombia data center market will witness investments of over USD 705 million by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 8.17% during 2023-2028.

U.S. Data Center Market - The U.S. data center market was valued at $86.98 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach $101.45 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 2.60% from 2022 to 2027.

ABOUT US:??

Arizton Advisory and Intelligence is an innovative and quality-driven firm that offers cutting-edge research solutions to clients worldwide. We excel in providing comprehensive market intelligence reports and advisory and consulting services.

We offer comprehensive market research reports on consumer goods & retail technology, automotive and mobility, smart tech, healthcare, life sciences, industrial machinery, chemicals, materials, I.T. and media, logistics, and packaging. These reports contain detailed industry analysis, market size, share, growth drivers, and trend forecasts.?

Arizton comprises a team of exuberant and well-experienced analysts who have mastered generating incisive reports. Our specialist analysts possess exemplary skills in market research. We train our team in advanced research practices, techniques, and ethics to outperform in fabricating impregnable research reports.

CONTACT US

Call: +1-312-235-2040?

????????? +1 302 469 0707?

Mail: enquiry@arizton.com

Contact Us: https://www.arizton.com/contact-us

Blog: https://www.arizton.com/blog

Website: https://www.arizton.com/

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/818553/Arizton_Logo.jpg

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2012998/Canada_Data_Center_Market.jpg





View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/canada-data-center-market-to-reach-investment-of-5-48-billion-in-2028--the-market-to-reach-more-than-1-45-billion-colocation-revenue-in-2028--arizton-301759301.html
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - March 1, 2023) - Canadian North Resources Inc. (TSXV: CNRI) (FSE: EO0) ("the Company," (E-O-zero)) is pleased to announce that we will be attending the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada's (PDAC) Convention at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (MTCC) from Sunday, March 5 to Wednesday, March 8, 2023.

In particular, the Company completed 18,144 meter drilling in 2022 and significantly expanded the mineralized zones outside the block model of the mineral resource estimates at 100% owned flagship Ferguson Lake nickel, copper, cobalt, palladium, and platinum project. (Refer to "Independent Technical Report, Updated Mineral Resource Estimate, Ferguson Lake Project, Nunavut, Canada, June 13, 2022, Prepared by Elisabeth Ronacher and Jamie Lavigne," filed by the Company to Sedar.com).

The Company's team will be on hand and available to meet with investor at our booth, number 3031. We are looking forward to this opportunity to share with you our latest developments and insights about the Company and its project.

About Canadian North Resources

Canadian North Resources Inc. is an exploration and development company focusing on the metals for the clean-energy, electric vehicles, battery and high-tech industries. The company is advancing its 100% owned Ferguson Lake nickel, copper, cobalt, palladium, and platinum project in Nunavut, Canada.

The Ferguson Lake mining property contains substantial resources in compliance with NI43-101 standards, which include Indicated Mineral Resources of 24.3 million tonnes containing 455 million pounds (Mlb) copper at 0.85%, 321Mlb nickel at 0.60%, 37.5Mlb cobalt at 0.07%, 1.08 million ounces (Moz) palladium at 1.38gpt and 0.18Moz platinum at 0.23gpt; Inferred Mineral Resources of 47.2 million tonnes containing 947Mlb copper at 0.91%, 551.5Mlb nickel at 0.53%, 62.4Mlb cobalt at 0.06%, 2.12Moz palladium at 1.4gpt and 0.38Moz platinum at 0.25gpt. The resource model indicates significant potential for resource expansion along strike and at depth over the 15 km long mineralized belt. (Refer to "Independent Technical Report, Updated Mineral Resource Estimate, Ferguson Lake Project, Nunavut, Canada, June 13, 2022, Prepared by Elisabeth Ronacher and Jamie Lavigne," filed by the Company to Sedar.com).

About PDAC

PDAC 2023: The World's Premier Mineral Exploration & Mining Convention is the leading event for people, companies and organizations connected to mineral exploration.

This annual convention in Toronto, Canada is known for attracting up to 30,000 attendees from over 130+ countries for its educational programming, networking events, outstanding business opportunities and fun. Since it began in 1932, the PDAC Convention has grown in size, stature and influence. Today, it is the event of choice for the world's mineral industry hosting more than 1,100 exhibitors and 2,500 investors.

For more information and/or to register for the conference please visit: https://www.pdac.ca/convention/attend/registration.

Further information please visit the website at www.cnresources.com or contact:

Dr. Kaihui Yang, President and CEO

Phone: 905-696-8288 (Canada) 1-888-688-8809 (Toll-Free)

Email: info@cnresources.com

www.cnresources.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/156772
San Francisco, California--(Newsfile Corp. - March 1, 2023) - Diamond Real Estate Group, whose proprietary, AI-powered software streamlines how luxury properties are identified and invested in, is launching its high-tech website. Visitors will be able to utilize the company's AI platform to find off-market investment opportunities and market their homes to potential buyers. The new website also contains blog articles, white papers, case studies, and other educational content on real estate investments and transactions for companies and individuals.

"The rollout of our new website is a major milestone for us, and we hope it becomes a valuable resource for anyone interested in real estate and business," says Matthew Martinez, Diamond Real Estate Group's Founder/CEO. "After launching our AI platform and enjoying our own increase in productivity, we wanted to share that capability with visitors to our website so that their own real estate transactions could be potentially streamlined."





Using AI to impact how luxury real estate properties are identified and invested in

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8668/156747_f2317c97a45ab8d9_001full.jpg

Diamond Real Estate Group's AI software utilizes advanced algorithms and data analysis to identify potential investment properties or buyers based on specific criteria, including location, price, and other factors. It is one of the new features on the company's website, which was redesigned with a user's experience in mind and focuses primarily on navigation, functionality, and usefulness. To that end, advanced search capabilities, personalized recommendations, and integrated tools and resources are included.

Also new is the company's blog, which Martinez explains is meant to build a sense of community among local business owners and customers, foster a positive business environment, and contribute to the local economy.

"We will be featuring other local businesses on the Diamond Real Estate Group blog, with the aim of increasing their exposure to the public," he says. "Readers will be able to learn about the products or services that a company offers, its background and founder, any notable milestones or accomplishments, and its unique selling points."

Local companies will be selected based upon their reputation/reviews, uniqueness, involvement in the community, and support for other local businesses. Interested business owners should reach out to Diamond Real Estate Group either by email or on the website's contact page and include their business's location, their products and/or services, any notable selling points, and their community involvement initiatives.

"While we will do our best to get back to all inquiries in a timely manner, we receive a large volume of requests and may not be able to respond immediately," says Martinez. "We recommend following up after a reasonable timeframe to demonstrate their continued interest in being featured on our blog. We hope to hear from you, as we believe deeply in supporting new businesses in the local area."

The blog will also provide information and insights on a wide range of topics related to real estate, investing, and entrepreneurship, such as home prices, rental rates, inventory levels, strategies that include buy-and-holds and fix-and-flip, starting and managing a business, marketing, branding, and team building.

"One topic we look forward to exploring is real estate investment, which often requires significant financing," Martinez says. "We plan to go into the finer details of traditional loans, private lending, and crowdfunding. We will also touch on lease agreements, tenant screening, and the use of AI to find investment opportunities and market properties."

Anyone interested in experiencing how artificial intelligence is impacting the real estate process is invited to try out Diamond Real Estate Group's AI platform on its website. They are also encouraged to access its free resources so that they can network, continue learning about real estate and business, and stay up-to-date with trends and developments.

Diamond Real Estate Group, an international, tech-powered brokerage that specializes in the sale and lease of premium real estate, was founded by Matthew Martinez, who was included in the list of Top 100 Luxury Real Estate Agents on Social Media and the Top 100 Real Estate Agents on Instagram. Diamond Real Estate Group makes the process of buying, selling, and investing in real estate as streamlined and stress-free as possible. The company also runs a special program to help investors find private, under-market investment opportunities. It has purchased and renovated 25+ properties and regularly shares on social media its suggestions for how to maximize resale value with all buyers and sellers.

For more information about Diamond Real Estate Group, please see the company's website or contact:





Founder/CEO Matthew Martinez

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8668/156747_f2317c97a45ab8d9_002full.jpg

Matthew Martinez, Diamond Real Estate Group

1-800-661-5080

matthew@diamondgroupestates.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/156747
Mercury Capital Advisors announced today that it has added Devrup Banerjee as a Partner in its Secondary Advisory team. Mr. Banerjee joined Mercury on February 1st 2023 in its London office. This follows the hire of Vik Salh who joined the Secondary Advisory team as a Vice President last year in New York.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005994/en/

Devrup Banerjee, Partner, Secondary Advisory Team, Mercury Capital Advisors (Photo: Business Wire)

Mr. Banerjee will be responsible for the origination and execution of secondary transactions globally. Mr. Banerjee joins Mercury with more than 10 years of experience in Secondaries. Prior to joining Mercury, Mr. Banerjee was a Principal at Glendower Capital, a global secondary private equity firm, where he was responsible for sourcing, structuring, evaluating, negotiating and closing a broad range of secondary private equity transactions, including both LP Portfolio and single multi-asset GP-led transactions. Mr. Banerjee started his career within the Investment Banking Division at Goldman Sachs, where he worked on a wide range of M&A and capital markets transactions within the Natural Resources sector. Mr. Banerjee holds an MA in Economics and Management from the University of Oxford.

Mercury started its Secondary Advisory business in 2015 and has established a credible track record, closing several high-quality transactions since its inception. Recent transactions advised by Mercury include a preferred equity deal for Springwater Capital, a European special situations manager with Morningside Capital Management and LSV Advisors, and a strategic investment by 17 Capital in a portfolio of private equity, real estate and credit assets held by Investcorp.

"We welcome Devrup to the Firm. We continue to see strong momentum in both GP-led and LP-led Secondaries transaction volumes. With his extensive experience, we are confident that Devrup will add significant value and contribute to the growth of our Secondaries business vertical," said John Franklin and Enrique Cuan, Managing Partners at Mercury.

Mercury continues to provide a comprehensive one-stop solution for its GP clients across fund placement, secondary advisory, fund co-investments and direct placement. It has added several new clients in the last year including NGP Energy Capital, 3i Group and Capitol Meridian while continuing to provide services to its long-standing clients such as Gaw Capital Partners, Coller Capital, and Valar Ventures among others.

About Mercury Capital Advisors

Mercury Capital Advisors is a leading global private fund and investment advisory firm. Founded in 2009 as a spinoff from the Merrill Lynch Private Funds Group, the firm assists general partners and limited partners in fundraising and secondary advisory, co-investment and direct deal placement. The firm specializes in alternative assets including private equity, real estate, infrastructure, credit, venture capital, secondaries and special situations investments. Mercury has advised on over 100 fundraisings and closed over $100 billion in fund commitments since its inception in 2009.

With offices in New York, London, Dubai, Singapore, Tokyo and New Delhi, the firm maintains strong relationships with a broad range of the world's pre-eminent institutional investors, including sovereign wealth funds, corporate and public pension plans, insurance companies, endowments, family offices, foundations, secondary funds, funds of funds and consultants.

Mercury Capital Advisors is a 100% owned subsidiary of Investcorp, a global investment manager, specializing in alternative investments across private equity, real estate, credit, absolute return strategies, GP stakes, infrastructure, and insurance asset management. Today, Investcorp manages $50 billion in assets, including assets managed by third party managers. Investcorp has 14 offices in the US, Europe, GCC and Asia, including, India, China, Japan and Singapore and employs approximately 500 people from 50 nationalities globally.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005994/en/

Contacts:

Chris Gillick

chris.gillick@icrinc.com
Dubai, United Arab Emirates--(Newsfile Corp. - March 1, 2023) - Sell Bitcoin in Dubai has leveled up the quality of the crypto service provided to the customers in 2023. Visitors now can easily buy and sell crypto in Dubai in a few minutes with the expanded staff and equipment.

Dubai - the business capital of the United Arab Emirates recently attracted crypto companies and exchanges to operate in Dubai. One such service is the Bitcoin to Cash shop in Dubai, which has been operating in the city for several years. SBID (Sell Bitcoin in Dubai) offers customized services to cater to the unique needs of its customers, making the selling experience seamless.

Fast Local Crypto OTC in Dubai

Now expert staff provides a fast and secure experience for customers. When visitors sell their Bitcoin at the SBID crypto OTC, they can be assured of security and privacy. Additionally, the shop offers competitive pricing, and no commission, ensuring that visitors get a convenient rate for Bitcoin when visitors sell BTC for cash in Dubai.

In 2023 with the expansion of the staff and the equipment, it is aimed to increase the speed of the service. It is expected that it will lower the amount of time required to fulfill the buy and sell orders by customers significantly.

SBID crypto OTC provides a convenient and reliable option for those looking to sell their Bitcoin in Dubai. Their commitment to customer satisfaction and their reputation for being a renowned Bitcoin shop to sell BTC in Dubai are reasons why customers have come to trust their services.

Guide to Sell Bitcoin in Dubai

SBID provides a quick and dependable way for customers to engage with cryptocurrencies, particularly Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and other thousands of cryptos. Customers can buy or sell these digital currencies at SBID's crypto OTC desk, it makes cryptocurrencies accessible to anyone.

The process involves three simple steps. Firstly, visit the SBID crypto OTC in the city center at the Exchange tower in the Business Bay. Secondly, visitors need to determine the amount of Bitcoin they want to convert for cash. Finally getting cash after converting Bitcoin in Dubai at SBID.

Both locals and tourists can visit the SBID crypto OTC shop, where only an ID card or passport is required to convert Bitcoin to cash. Foreign visitors can sell Bitcoin for USD in Dubai, while locals have the option to sell it for AED, EURO, USD, and other fiat currencies. SBID aims to make the process of engaging with cryptocurrencies as accessible and straightforward as possible.

About Sell Bitcoin in Dubai

SBID, Sell Bitcoin in Dubai, is a crypto OTC shop where customers can quickly buy and sell bitcoin (BTC) with cash in Dubai. Located in Dubai, the store offers a range of cryptocurrencies for purchase, including popular options like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) and stablecoins like USDT. The process for selling Bitcoin in Dubai is straightforward, making it accessible for both locals and visitors. In total, SBID offers over 1000 different cryptocurrencies for customers to choose from.

Company Name: Sell Bitcoin in Dubai

Location: Office 10040 10th Floor, Exchange Tower, Business Bay - Dubai - United Arab Emirates

Phone: +971585666767

Email: contact@sellbitcoinindubai.com

Contact Person: Khaled Saeed

Contact Person title: Public Relations

City, Country: Dubai, the UAE

Website: https://sellbitcoinindubai.com/

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/156625
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 1, 2023) - You are welcome to join Forum Energy Metals (TSXV: FMC) (OTCQB: FDCFF) at the Red Cloud Pre-PDAC Mining Showcase on Thursday, March 2nd and Friday, March 3rd followed by the Investor Exchange Booth #2825 at the 2023 PDAC, being held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Sunday March 5th through Wednesday March 8th.

Technical meetings with management and partnering inquiries on Forum's portfolio of uranium, copper, nickel and cobalt projects in Saskatchewan, Nunavut and Idaho can be arranged with Dr. Rebecca Hunter, Vice President, Exploration and the Forum team at our booth, or contact: Rick Mazur, President & CEO, to arrange a time for an off site meeting mazur@forumenergymetals.com; 604-630-1585

Dr. Rebecca Hunter, VP, Exploration will be presenting at the Red Cloud Pre-PDAC Mining Showcase at 2:10pm on Thursday, March 2nd. Dr. Hunter will review the Company's recent uranium drill program in the Athabasca Basin, the advancement of its Thelon Basin uranium acquisition of uranium deposits formerly discovered by Cameco Corporation and review of its energy metal properties - copper, nickel and cobalt.

About Forum Energy Metals

Forum Energy Metals Corp. (TSXV: FMC) (OTCQB: FDCFF) is a diversified energy metal company with uranium, copper, nickel, and cobalt projects in Saskatchewan, Canada's Number One Rated mining province for exploration and development, a strategic uranium land position in Nunavut and a strategic cobalt land position in the Idaho Cobalt Belt. For further information: www.forumenergymetals.com

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Richard J. Mazur, P.Geo.

President & CEO

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.

For further information contact:

Rick Mazur, P.Geo., President & CEO

mazur@forumenergymetals.com

Tel: 604-630-1585

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/156733
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - March 1, 2023) - Lorne Park Capital Partners Inc. (TSXV: LPC) ("LPCP" or the "Company") today announced the issuance of shares pursuant to its Employee Share Savings Plan ("ESSP") and announced option grants pursuant to its Stock Option Plan.

Issuance of Shares Pursuant to ESSP

LPCP announced that pursuant to its ESSP, the Company has issued a total of 94,193 common shares of LPCP to eligible employees at a price of $1.30, for aggregate proceeds of $122,451. Of these common shares, 29,371 shares were issued to certain directors and officers of the Company.

Option Grant

LPCP also announced that it has granted 755,500 aggregate incentive stock options to various employees, officers, and directors of the Company, under its Stock Option Plan. The options are exercisable at $1.30 per common share, vest over a three-year period, and expire on March 1, 2033. Of these options, 615,000 were granted to certain directors and officers of the Company.

About Lorne Park Capital Partners Inc.

LPCP was created to bring together boutique investment management and wealth advisory firms in order to deliver robust, cost-effective investment solutions to affluent investors, foundations, estates and trusts. LPCP's unique strategy creates better alignment between investment managers and wealth advisors while providing them with additional resources to accelerate their growth.

For further information, please contact:

Robert Sewell

Chief Executive Officer

Lorne Park Capital Partners Inc.

investor.relations@lpcp.ca

(905) 337-2227

Cautionary Notes

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release contains statements which constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information may be identified by such terms as "believes", "anticipates", "expects", "estimates", "may", "could", "would", "will", "plan", and other similar expressions. Forward-looking information in this news release includes, without limitation, LPCP's objectives, goals, and future plans. Forward-looking information addresses possible future events, conditions and financial performance based upon management's current expectations, estimates, projections, and assumptions. In particular, the forward-looking information contained in this news release reflects assumptions about the timing and results of the amalgamation and regulatory approvals. Management of LPCP considers the assumptions on which the forward-looking information contained herein are based to be reasonable. However, by its very nature, forward-looking information inherently involves known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such information. Such risks include, without limitation, changes in economic conditions, applicable laws, or regulations. Accordingly, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. LPCP 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 law.

/NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION IN THE UNITED STATES, ANY FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH THIS RESTRICTION MAY CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF U.S. SECURITIES LAW/

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/156740
Kelvin View, Sandton, South Africa--(Newsfile Corp. - March 1, 2023) - Alleluia Ministries International, founded by Pastor Alph Lukau in 2002, celebrated its 21st anniversary at its headquarters in South Africa.





Alleluia Ministries' 21st Anniversary

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8846/156782_0a87aa6284b6eabb_001full.jpg

AMI's 21st anniversary was celebrated with a dinner at Sandton Convention Centre in the presence of politicians, dignitaries, AMI country leaders and followers from across the globe.

The 21st anniversary was also marked by the completion of a 40-day fast with Pastor Alph Lukau by 1.8 million people across the world. This 40-day annual fast done for spiritual empowerment and prophetic alignment and led by Pastor Alph was undertaken by millions of his followers across continents, online and offsite.

At the ministry celebrations, which witnessed a performance by Radical AMI Youth, the ministry's achievements in the last two decades were highlighted as more than 20,000 pastors have graduated and are serving the calling of Christ across continents.

Addressing his 15 million followers worldwide, Pastor Alph Lukau reiterated his vow to continue being the servant of God, and said, "We celebrate 21 Years of walking with God, 21 years of grace and power, 21 years of faith and dominion and 21 years of ever growing in Jehovah and we are on the path to conquer the world for Christ."

About Pastor Alph Lukau:

Pastor Alph Lukau is the senior Pastor and General Overseer of Alleluia Ministries International which he founded in February 2002 in Johannesburg. Pastor Alph Lukau is followed worldwide for his perfection in service delivery and continues to set excellence in Ministry.

About Alleluia Ministries International :

Alleluia Ministries International is a Bible-believing Christian Church, with its foundation rooted in the word of God. Alleluia Ministries International has over 15 million followers and has grown to over 45 churches around the world in the last 21 years.

For more information, visit the following links:

Author: www.alphlukau.com

Ministry: www.alleluiaministries.com

Book: www.theriseofthepropheticvoice.com

Follow Pastor Alph Lukau

Facebook: www.facebook.com/alphlukau01

Twitter: www.twitter.com/AlphLukau

Instagram: www.instagram.com/alphlukau

YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PastorAlphLukauofficial

Contact information:

Maya Hwaka

contact.publication.office@gmail.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/156782
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 1, 2023) - New Energy Metals Corp. (TSXV: ENRG) (OTC Pink: NEMCF) ("New Energy Metals" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that further to its December 6, 2022, February 14, and February 22, 2023 news releases, it has closed the acquisition of the Roslyn Lithium Property (the "Roslyn Property") pursuant to an Assignment and Assumption Agreement (the "Agreement") with an arm's length party (the "Assignor") dated December 6, 2022. The Roslyn Property is subject to an option agreement (the "Underlying Agreement") with arms-length vendors. The Roslyn Property is comprised of 12 claims (254 cells) totaling approximately 5,100 hectares located 50 kilometers northeast of Nipigon, Northwestern Ontario.

Under the Agreement, the Assignor assigns and transfers to the Company its right to acquire a 100% interest in the Roslyn Property for the following consideration:

$2,300,000 over a period of 3 years;

1,430,000 common shares of the Company within 60 days of signing of the Agreement; and

an additional 800,000 common shares over a period of 2 years.

The Assignor will retain a 3% net smelter return (NSR) royalty on the Roslyn Property of which 0.5% can be repurchased by the Company for $1 million. The Assignor remains fully and solely liable for all payment obligations under the Underlying Agreement.

All shares to be issued under the Agreement will be subject to a four-month and one-day hold period in accordance with applicable Canadian securities laws.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS,

New Energy Metals Corp.

Rishi Kwatra

CEO & Director

#2710 - 200 Granville Street

Vancouver, BC V6C 1S4, Canada

Tel: 778.510.5757

www.new-enrg.com

About New Energy Metals Corp.

New Energy Metals Corp. is a Canadian-based resource company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "ENRG". The Company has an option to purchase a 100% interest in the Roslyn Lithium property, covering 5,100 hectares located 20 km southeast of the Georgia Lake Pegmatite Field and 35 km southeast of where Rock Tech Lithium just published a PEA supporting the indicated mineral resource of 10.6 Mt (million tonnes) grading 0.88% Li2O and an inferred mineral resource of 4.2 Mt grading 1.0% Li2O (https://www.rocktechlithium.com/news/georgia-lake-project:-pre-feasibility-study-published ) .

The Company also has an option to purchase a 100% interest in the Troitsa Copper property covering approximately 7,000 hectares located in the Omineca Mining Division of British Columbia.

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 and forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). Forward-looking statements in this news release relate to, among other things: acquiring an interest in the Roslyn Lithium Property; and all other statements that are not historical facts, particularly statements that express, or involve discussions as to, expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance of the Company. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified through the use of words or phrases such as "will likely result", "are expected to", "expects", "will continue", "is anticipated", "anticipates", "believes", "estimated", "intends", "plans", "forecast", "projection", "strategy", "objective" and "outlook". Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made based on reasonable estimates and assumptions made by management of the Company at the relevant time in light of its experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors that are believed to be appropriate and reasonable in the circumstances. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and the Company will not update any such forward-looking statements as a result of new information or if management's beliefs, estimates, assumptions or opinions change, except as required by law. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are beyond the Company's control, which could cause actual results, performance, achievements and events to differ materially from those that are disclosed in or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include all factors outlined in the Company's publicly filed documents under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. The Company cautions that the list of risk factors and uncertainties described in its publicly filed documents on SEDAR is not exhaustive and other factors could materially affect its results. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for the Company to consider all of them, or assess the impact of each such factor or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. Any forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/156844
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 1, 2023) - Los Andes Copper Ltd. (TSXV: LA) (OTCQX: LSANF) ("Los Andes" or the "Company") announces that in accordance with the terms of the US$5,000,000, US$4,000,000 and US$5,000,000 eight per cent convertible debentures issued to Queen's Road Capital Investment Ltd. ("Queen's Road Capital") on June 2, 2021, April 4, 2022 and September 2, 2022 (the "Convertible Debentures"), the Company has elected to issue 11,984 common shares in the capital of the Company ("Common Shares") at a deemed price of US$8.76 (C$11.75) to Queen's Road Capital as payment for US$104,979 (C$140,721) in interest owing on the Convertible Debentures.

Under the terms of the Convertible Debentures, interest is payable quarterly, five per cent in cash and three per cent in shares, at the greater of: (i) the 20-day volume weighted average price prior to the interest payment date; or (ii) the Discounted Market Price (as such term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSX-V")).

The issuance of the Common Shares as payment for interest owing on the Convertible Debentures is subject to the terms and conditions of the Convertible Debentures as well as the receipt of all requisite approvals, including, without limitation, the approval of the TSX-V.

About Queen's Road Capital Investment Ltd.

Queen's Road Capital Investment Ltd. is a leading financier to the global resource sector. The company is a resource focused investment company, making investments in privately held and publicly traded resource companies.

It is intended that the company will acquire and hold securities for both long-term capital appreciation and short-term gains, with a focus on convertible debt securities and resource projects in advanced development or production located in safe jurisdictions.

Queen's Road Capital Investment Ltd. is listed on the TSX under the ticker: QRC.

About Los Andes Copper Ltd.

Los Andes Copper Ltd. is an exploration and development company with an 100% interest in the Vizcachitas Project in Chile. The Company is focused on progressing the Project, which is located along Chile's most prolific copper belt. Vizcachitas is one of the largest copper deposits in the Americas not controlled by the majors. The Project is a copper-molybdenum porphyry deposit, located 150 kilometers north of Santiago, in an area of very good infrastructure. An independent technical report for the Pre Feasibility Study ("PFS") announced on Thursday February 23, 2023, prepared in accordance with NI 43-101, will be available under the Company's SEDAR profile before April 9, 2023.

The Company's Preliminary Economic Assessment (the "PEA"), delivered in June 2019, highlights that the Project has a post tax NPV of $2.7 billion and an IRR of 26.7%, based on a $3.50 per pound copper price. It also has a Measured Resources of 254.4 million tonnes having a grade of 0.439% copper and Indicated Resource of approximately 1.03 billion tonnes having a grade of 0.385% copper. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. Please refer to the technical report dated June 13, 2019, with an effective date of May 10, 2019, and titled "Preliminary Economic Assessment of the Vizcachitas Project", prepared by Tetra Tech.

The PEA is preliminary in nature, it includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves, and there is no certainty that the PEA will be realized.

Los Andes Copper Ltd. is listed on the TSX-V under the ticker: LA.

Qualified Persons

Antony Amberg CGeol FGS, the Company's Chief Geologist, is the qualified person who has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information contained in this news release.

For more information please contact:

Santiago Montt, Interim CEO

santiago.montt@losandescopper.com

Tel: +56 2 2954-0450

Elizabeth Johnson, Investor Relations

Elizabeth.johnson@losandescopper.com

E-Mail: info@losandescopper.com or visit our website at: www.losandescopper.com

Follow us on twitter @LosAndesCopper

Follow us on LinkedIn Los Andes Copper Ltd

Certain of the information and statements contained herein that are not historical facts, constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of the Securities Act (British Columbia), Securities Act (Ontario) and the Securities Act (Alberta) ("Forward-Looking Information"). Forward-Looking Information is often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect" and "intend"; statements that an event or result is "due" on or "may", "will", "should", "could", or might" occur or be achieved; and, other similar expressions. More specifically, Forward-Looking Information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such Forward-Looking Information. Such Forward-Looking Information includes, without limitation, the timing of and ability to obtain TSX-V and other regulatory approvals and the prospects, details related to and timing of the Vizcachitas Project. Such Forward-Looking Information is based upon the Company's assumptions regarding global and Chilean economic, political and market conditions and the price of metals and energy and the Company's production. Among the factors that have a direct bearing on the Company's future results of operations and financial conditions are changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, a change in government policies, competition, currency fluctuations and restrictions and technological changes, among other things. Should one or more of any of the aforementioned risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from any conclusions, forecasts or projections described in the Forward-Looking Information. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on Forward-Looking Information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise Forward-Looking Information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/156845
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - March 1, 2023) - Steep Hill Inc. (CSE: STPH) ("Steep Hill" or the "Company") announces that it has entered into a settlement and release agreement (the "Termination Agreement") with its wholly owned subsidiary Steep Hill Inc. ("Steep Hill US") and Green Analytics MD, LLC, Green Analytics Massachusetts LLC, Green Analytics East LLC, Green Analytics North LLC, Green Analytics Virginia, LLC, Green Analytics West Virginia, LLC, and Green Analytics New York, LLC. (collectively, the "Green Analytics Parties"). Under the terms of the Termination Agreement, Steep Hill US and the Green Analytics Parties agreed that, effective as of February 28, 2023, the respective license agreements between Steep Hill US and the Green Analytics Parties terminated. As a result, Steep Hill has no continuing licensed operations in the states of Massachusetts, New Jersey and Pennsylvania and will continue not engaging in any such actives in Maryland. During the Company's fiscal year ended December 31, 2022, the terminated licenses to the Green Analytics Parties in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Pennsylvania accounted for approximately US $1.29 million of the Company's consolidated revenues, representing approximately 83% of the Company's total royalty revenues.

In consideration for the termination of the agreements and the settlement of all royalty and other amounts owing to Steep Hill US, the Green Analytics Parties agreed to pay to Steep Hill US an aggregate amount of US $2,000,000. The parties also provided comprehensive mutual releases to each other as part of the termination arrangements. Steep Hill US intends to use the transaction proceeds to pay its long-term liabilities and for general corporate purposes.

As a consequence of the termination of the licenses provided for in the Termination Agreement, the Company expects that future license revenues from Steep Hill US's remaining business will be insufficient to support Steep Hill US's continued operations in its current form. Accordingly, the Company is currently evaluating its strategic options for Steep Hill US and the Company as a whole, including potential transactions of a transformative nature.

ABOUT STEEP HILL

Steep Hill is in the process of restructuring its business and is exploring strategic alternatives.

For further information, please contact:

Raj Ravindran, CFO

Email: rajscontact@gmail.com

416-839-7424

www.steephill.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/156825
Princeton, New Jersey--(Newsfile Corp. - March 1, 2023) - Xybion Digital Inc. (TSXV: XYBN) ("Xybion" or the "Company"), a global, low-code SaaS company that enables digital transformation in highly regulated industries like Life Sciences, announced that it will be attending the Roth Conference on March 12-14, 2023. The conference is one of the world's premier investor conferences and brings together leaders from around the world from a variety of growth sectors. Xybion Digital has been invited to attend.

Dr. Pradip Banerjee, Chairman and CEO of Xybion Digital, said, "We are excited to be attending the Roth Conference this year. It is an incredible opportunity to showcase our unified software solutions to digitally transform the life sciences R&D and laboratory processes with embedded quality and compliance software to help our clients bring new critical medicines to market faster and save more lives." He added, "We look forward to connecting with investors, analysts and industry leaders, sharing our vision, strategy and investment thesis for the digital transformation of life sciences and healthcare companies."

Conference Details:



Event: The 35th Annual Roth Conference



Format: 1-on-1, Group Meetings, Presentations, and Panel Discussions



Date: Sunday, March 12, 2023 - Tuesday, March 14, 2023



Venue: Ritz Carlton, Laguna Niguel. Dana Point, California.



Registration: www.b2idigital.com/

About Xybion Digital Inc.

Xybion is a global SaaS company that helps enterprise life sciences organizations accelerate new drug development into approved medicines that may save lives and keep employees safe. We digitize drug research and development, laboratory testing, regulatory approvals, and pharmaceutical manufacturing on a single, unified cloud platform that is cost-effective, ready to deploy, and easy to use. Xybion has over 160 clients in 29 countries using its low-code software to accelerate timelines, improve compliance, expand capacity, minimize operating risks, and reduce expenses while keeping employees safe.

Learn more about Xybion at https://www.xybion.com/

For further information: For more information regarding Xybion Digital Inc., please contact Pradip Banerjee, Chief Executive Officer, PBanerjee@xybion.com, 609-512-5790 x122

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements ("forward-looking statements") in this news release may contain forward-looking information concerning relating to the release of financial results, plans related to the Company's business and other matters that may occur in the future, made as of the date of this news release. In making the forward-looking statements included in this news release, the Company has applied several material assumptions, including with respect to the timing of such release. Although management considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information available to it, they may prove to be incorrect.

Forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause actual events or results to differ from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements as a number of important factors could cause the actual outcomes to differ materially from the expectations expressed in them. Such factors include, among others, the risks described in disclosure documents filed by the Company on SEDAR. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The Company expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as otherwise required by applicable securities legislation.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described herein in the United States. The securities described herein have not been registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or any state securities law and may not be offered or sold in the "United States", as such term is defined in Regulation S promulgated under the U.S. Securities Act, unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration requirements is available.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/156846
Bain Capital Ventures, a San Francisco, CA-based multi-stage venture capital firm, closed two funds, totaling $1.9 Billion.

BCV will invest in groundbreaking companies within fintech, infrastructure, apps and commerce sectors, supporting them from seed to growth.

Bain Capital Ventures is a multi-stage VC firm investing across four core domainsfintech, application software, infrastructure, and commerce-tech. Leveraging its resources, the firm offers a targeted support at every stage of the company-building journey. For over 20 years, BCV has helped launch and commercialize more than 400 companies including Attentive, Bloomreach, Clari, Docker, DocuSign, Flywire, LinkedIn, Mirakl, and Redis.

These new funds are in addition to the Bain Capital Crypto fund, which was announced in April 2022 with $500M under management.

The team includes Kevin Zhang, Enrique Salem, Merritt Hummer, Noah Breslow, Leslie Crowe, Allison Braley, Christina Melas-Kyriazi, Sarah Hinkfuss, Slater Stich, and Saanya Ojha.

FinSMEs

01/03/2023
Cargo Therapeutics, Inc., a San Mateo, CA-based biotechnology company advancing a next generation of CAR T-cell therapies for cancer, closed a $200m upsized Series A financing.

The round was co-led by Third Rock Ventures, RTW Investments, LP and Perceptive Xontogeny Venture Fund, and includes additional new investors Nextech, Janus Henderson Investors, Ally Bridge Group, Wellington Management, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., Cormorant Asset Management and Piper Heartland. Founding investor Samsara BioCapital and existing seed investors Red Tree Venture Capital and Emerson Collective also participated in the financing.

Launched in 2021 by Samsara BioCapital in collaboration with CAR T pioneers, Crystal Mackall, MD, and Robbie Majzner, MD, and accomplished cancer advocate, Nancy Goodman, JD, and led by Gina Chapman, CEO, Cargo Therapeutics leverages proprietary platform technologies to engineer and develop next-generation best-in-class CARs that incorporate complex therapeutic cargo with the potential to achieve durable responses that are curative for more cancer patients.

The company intends to use the proceeds from the financing to advance its autologous CD22 CAR T-cell therapy candidate, CRG-022, through a pivotal multicenter Phase 2 trial in patients with LBCL whose disease has relapsed or is refractory to CD19 CAR T-cell therapy, and to advance its proprietary platform technologies and discovery-stage programs to deliver better outcomes for patients with cancer who have high unmet need.

FinSMEs

01/03/2023
Chroma Medicine, a Cambridge, MA-based genomic medicine company, raised $135M in Series B funding.

The round was led by GV, with participation from additional new investors ARCH Venture Partners, DCVC Bio, Mubadala Capital, Sixth Street, and all existing investors Alexandria Venture Investments, Atlas Venture, Casdin Capital, Cormorant Asset Management, Janus Henderson Investors, Newpath Partners, Omega Funds, Osage University Partners, Sofinnova Partners, T Rowe Price, and Wellington Management.

The company intends to use the funds to progress its single-dose epigenetic editing therapies and support expansion of novel genetic medicine platform designed to enable precise gene regulation while preserving genomic integrity.

Led by CEO Catherine Stehman-Breen, Chroma Medicine is a biotechnology company providing genomic medicines that harness the cells innate mechanism for gene regulation to precisely and durably silence, activate, and multiplex genes using a single platform, without changing the underlying DNA sequence. This approach enables the company to more effectively address a wide range of diseases and to target multiple pathways for complex diseases.

FinSMEs

01/03/2023
Jobgether, a Brussels, Belgium-based provider of a search engine for remote and flexible working, raised 1.4M in Seed funding.

The round was led by finance&invest.brussels and 4Ventures, as well as business angels.

The company intends to use the funds to establish and consolidate its leadership in the remote work space by strengthening the search engines job aggregation capacity and talent acquisition strategy, focusing on Europe and emerging markets.

Co-founded in May 2020 by Juan Bourgois, Arnaud Devigne, Alex Hernandez and Alexis Rodriguez, Jobgether is a global search engine for remote and flexible working. Addressing global talent imbalances, diversity and inclusion challenges, and new lifestyle expectations, the company finds all global remote work opportunities, not just a single country view, and ranks the real flexibility on offer. Its platform identifies and aggregates remote jobs based on an applicants location and enriches each job post with detailed information about its flexibility and remote-friendliness. This allows job seekers to make informed decisions when evaluating companies and job openings, and narrow search to positions that are available from where they are based.

To date, the site already offers 60,000 remote positions and attracts one million users monthly.

Jobgethers job search and job posting is free. The startup generates revenue from a performance-based solution called Sponsored Jobs, aimed at employers who want to promote their open positions and find the right talent faster. Another option is a Flex Package which is aimed at fully flexible companies who would like to highlight their employer branding.

FinSMEs

01/03/2023
SHANGHAI, CHINA  Recently, Ronovo Surgical invited top gynecology and urology surgeons to evaluate the performance of its newly unveiled Carina RAS Platform, the first modular robotic-assisted surgery (RAS) platform developed in China for laparoscopic procedures.

The invited surgeons combine for more than 11,000 robotic surgeries that span both urology and gynecology. These experts included:

Professor Dingwei Ye Vice Chairman, Fudan University Cancer Institute (Shanghai) Chairman, Urology Section, China Anti-Cancer Association Led and performed over 8000 robotic surgeries

Professor Mei Ji Deputy Director, Department of Gynecology, First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University Performed over 2000 robotic surgeries

Professor Dapeng Wu Deputy Director, Department of Urology, First Affiliated Hospital of Xian Jiaotong University Performed over 1000 robotic surgeries



Image: Carina RAS Platform being configured for animal lab.

Uniquely designed for optimized surgical access in broader surgical specialties, Carina features single-instrument robotic arms that are nimbly distributed around the operating bed based on the surgeons preferences. The small footprint of each bedside module is designed to improve the surgical teams ability to efficiently utilize precious OR space. Additionally, individual modules can freely move to join others as needed in different operating rooms, enabling the platform to easily adapt to typical operating environments in China.

Carina allows laparoscopic surgeons to select the ideal types, quantities and configurations of surgical instruments based on their laparoscopy foundation. Such flexibility allows surgeons to leverage  rather than abandon  prior training and continue to improve upon their performance with minimal learning curve. This means broader utilization of Ronovos proprietary technology to enable MIS in more surgical specialties to be performed robotically.

While R&D efforts for Carina officially kicked off in 2021, Ronovo has developed multiple iterations in under two years and performed dozens of animal and cadaver labs, leading up to the recent animal lab series with gynecology and urology RAS experts.

Image: Carina RAS Platform in action during animal lab series.

The first evaluation in the live porcine series was performed by Prof. Ji from Zhengzhou University. With port placements set up like laparoscopy, she completed hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy and iliac lymph node dissection. Numerous surgical maneuvers were precisely executed, including target exposure, dissection and coagulation of the uterine artery, transection of distal side of the cervix, and suturing of vaginal stump. The consecutive operations were performed uninterrupted and nearly free of bleeding. Prof. Ji also simulated pelvic lymphadenectomy to test ability to delicately dissect, coagulate and resect around vessels for complete exposure of internal and external iliac arteries. Commenting on her experience, Prof. Ji asserted that, the completely modular design demonstrated exceptional operating capabilities during the live animal trial. I consider the Carina robotic platform and its instruments fully ready for human clinical trials.

The second evaluation in the live series was led by Prof. Ye from Fudan University. On Carinas modular architecture, he commented that the design can bring dexterity and practicality uniquely advantageous in a variety of MIS applications. On Carinas imaging capability, he complimented on the clarity and vividness of the 3DHD stereoscopic view. His evaluation started with unilateral partial nephrectomy, where he successfully exposed and mobilized the renal artery, followed by renal tissue resection and suturing, and ended with simulated vesicourethral anastomosis. Commenting on his experience, Prof. Ye observed that, by successfully completing several procedures with Carina and personally experiencing its performance, I am quite optimistic about its potential to excel in many clinical applications. Therefore, I fully support advancing Carina into human clinical trials as soon as possible.

The final evaluation in the series was performed by Prof. Wu from Xian Jiaotong University. He was able to quickly familiarize with Carina and start performing complex and delicate surgical maneuvers. Four procedures were completed consecutively within three hours  partial nephrectomy, ureteroplasty, renal venotomy and suturing, as well as unilateral nephrectomy. Notably, renal warm ischemia time lasted only 10 minutes during partial nephrectomy. Commenting on his experience, Prof. Wu concluded that, Carina provided surprisingly realistic stereoscopic vision, reliable hand control-to-instrument tracking, robust wristed instruments, and ergonomic comfort  all of which are important requirements for my surgeries. Additionally, he pointed out the unique modular designs potential to overcome challenges of performing multi-quadrant surgeries on existing surgical robots. Prof. Wu hopes to see Carina in routine clinical use as soon as possible to benefit MIS patients.

For almost two decades, the laparoscopic surgical robotics market in China has been a foreign monopoly. Although the clinical value of RAS is now well accepted in urologic minimally invasive surgeries (MIS), the prohibitive cost and sluggish expansion into additional specialties present substantial barriers to broader adoption. This major market gap inspired Ronovo to develop Carina to address practical needs of nearly 10 million MIS patients, approximately 120,000 laparoscopic surgeons, and more than 10,000 hospitals in China every year.

KOL feedback from these latest evaluations represents a major milestone in readiness for human clinical trials, which are planned for later this year. The company expects to commercialize Carina in 2024, starting with China and aiming to expand globally soon thereafter.

About Ronovo Surgical

Founded in 2019, Ronovo Surgical is accelerating the transition to truly intelligent MIS through innovative robotic and digital solutions. It is the only soft tissue robotic surgery company in China led by seasoned industry leaders with expertise in both commercial leadership and technology development. Founder, Chairman and CEO, John Ma, Ph.D., is former SVP at Intuitive and Global Partner at Fosun Group. Co-Founder, COO and CTO, Ying Mao, Ph.D., is former systems engineering lead at Auris Health (now J&J Ethicon) and founder of Dreamworld AR. With more than two decades of leadership experience combined specifically in the development and commercialization of surgical robotics systems, they now lead a seasoned core team that represents deep product development and implementation expertise in surgical robotics, industrial robotics, medical capital equipment, and medical consumables from Chinese and multinational manufacturers. Additionally, Ronovo has significant global clinical and technical resources, having established long-term partnerships with numerous clinical and technical advisors.

For more information, please visit: http://www.ronovosurgical.com/.

Contact

ZiHan Lin

VP of Business Development

[email protected]
SESAMm, a Paris, France-based natural language processing (NLP) company serving global investment firms and corporations around the globe, raised 35M in Series B2 funding.

The round, which brought total funding raised to 50M, was led by Elaia and Opera Tech Ventures with participation from Unigestion, Raiffeisen Bank Internationals (RBI) venture capital entity Elevator Ventures, AFG Partners, CEGEE Capital, and Carlyle (CG) and New Alpha Asset Management.

The company intends to use the funds to further expand into U.S. and Asian markets, support technology development to generate AI-powered ESG and sentiment analytics, and hire talent across sustainability, technology, sales, and marketing.

Co-founded in 2014 by CEO Sylvain Forte, COO Pierre Rinaldi, and CTO Florian Aubry, SESAMm is an artificial intelligence company that provides a platform analyzing documents in real-time to generate insights for controversy detection on investments, clients and suppliers, ESG and positive impact scores, private equity due diligence and sourcing, and sentiment analysis on financial assets.

The company serves global investment firms such as top private equity firms, hedge funds, and other asset management companies, in addition to corporations of all sizes.

FinSMEs

01/03/2023
Sourceries co-founders Kristin Cardwell and Alex Beyer

Sourcerie, a London, UK-based provider of a community-driven data platform and personalisation software for the beauty industry, raised 1.8M in Pre-Seed funding.

The round was led by Playfair Capital and Vorwerk Ventures, with participation from Sandrine Deveaux, EVP Future Retail at Farfetch, Mandeep Singh, exited Co-Founder of Trouva, Renee Parker, Ex Head of Amazon Luxury Beauty, Vanessa Goddevrind, ex EMEA Head of Beauty for McKinsey, Jason Scott, ex Head of Googles US Startup Ecosystem, and Joe Falter, Co-founder of Zapp and ex Jumia founding team member. Notable partners across European funds also participated in the round such as Laura Connell, Partner at Atomico, Anna Sweeting, Founder Vaultier7, and Claire Cherry, Partner at Joyance.

The company intends to use the funds to continue to build their global tech platform for every decision in beauty and personal care.

Co-founded by Kristin Cardwell and Alex Beyer, Sourcerie is a personalised shopping marketplace between consumers, retailers, and brands. By working with its supplier partners to structure their data, such as user reviews, and gathering additional data from its own users, the marketplace is powered by a recommendation engine underpinned by its user-driven data platform. The recommender matches brands and products against over three billion distinct user profiles, powering a completely bespoke shopping experience for every individual, and enabling one-stop-shop purchase across brands and retailers in a single destination.

Since closing the 1.8m pre-seed round, they have built their team across engineering, product, commercial, and marketing. The founding team boasts expertise across B2B software and data (Palantir, Cytora), ecommerce (Ocado, Slerp), and consumer tech (Manual, Gousto, Allbright).

FinSMEs

01/03/2023
realme just announced the GT3, the companys latest smartphone in the GT series at the MWC 2023, as it had promised. It has a 6.7-inch 144Hz 1.5K flat AMOLED screen with 2160Hz ultra-high frequency PWM dimming, up to 1400 nits brightness and a 2.31mm ultra-narrow chin.

The phone is powered by Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC with up to 16GB RAM and up to 1TB storage. There is variable heat dissipation system max with 6580mm cooling area, 4500 mm 3D VC cooling, 1500Hz gaming control engine, customized for players and antenna matrix system 2.0.

There is pulse interface RGB system with a transparent design, offers 25 colors, 2 rhythm and 5 speed models with custom settings for notifications, low battery and more. The phone has a matte AG glass back.

The phone has 50MP Sony IMX890 with OIS, HyperShot 2.0, Turbo RAW lossless image algorithm, Street shooting mode 3.0 and also has a microscope lens, in addition to a 8MP ultra-wide camera.

It packs a 4600mAh with 240W fast charging, making it the fastest charging phone to be mass-produced. This promises a charge of up to 50% in 4 minutes, and full charge about 9 minutes and 30 seconds.

realme GT Neo5 specifications

6.74-inch (27721240 pixels) (144Hz/120Hz/90Hz/60Hz/45Hz/40Hz adaptive) AMOLED display with up to 1450 nits peak brightness, 100% DCI-P3 color gamut, 2160Hz high-frequency PWM dimming

Octa Core Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 4nm Mobile Platform with Adreno next-gen GPU

8GB /12GB / 16GB LPDDR5X RAM with 128GB / 256GB /512GB / 1TB (UFS 3.1) storage

Android 13 with realme UI 4.0

Dual SIM (nano + nano)

50MP rear camera with Sony IMX890 sensor, OIS, f/1.88 aperture, 23.6mm equivalent focal length, 8MP 112 ultra-wide camera with f/2.2 aperture, 2MP microscope lens with f/3.3 aperture, LED flash

16MP front-facing camera with f/2.45 aperture

In-display fingerprint sensor

Dimensions: 163.8575.758.9; Weight:199g

USB Type-C audio, Stereo speakers, Dolby Atmos, Hi-Res Audio

5G SA/ NSA, Dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 6 802.11 ax (2.4GHz + 5GHz), Bluetooth 5.2, GPS (L1 + L5)/ GLONASS, NFC, USB Type-C

4600mAh (typical) / 4450mAh (minimum) battery with 240W SuperVOOC fast charging

Get ready to witness the power of #realmeGT3! Check out this video and experience the ultimate combination of speed and style. pic.twitter.com/xVtP63xvPG  realme (@realmeglobal) February 28, 2023

Pricing and availability

The realme GT3 comes in Booster Black and Pulse White colours and is priced starting at $649 (Rs. 53,605 approx.) for the base 8GB + 128GB model. It also comes in 12GB + 256GB, 16GB + 256GB, 16GB + 512GB and 16GB + 1TB options. The company said that it will reveal the availability details soon.
Microsoft has announced a redesign of the Microsoft Translator app for Apple devices, with the goal of making it easier to use and providing users with advanced AI technologies.

The new user interface is accessible, intuitive, and user-friendly. Microsoft Translator recently added support for Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Malayalam, and Kannada languages.

We are very excited to announce that we have redesigned Microsoft Translator iOS app and upgraded it with cool and advanced AI technologies. Try out the app: https://t.co/UQd19bVLiu Learn more: https://t.co/af3UUadWFLhttps://t.co/8DzojpQwXJ #Microsoft #MicrosoftTranslator  Microsoft Translator (@mstranslator) February 28, 2023

Easy Translation with Rollover History

Microsoft Translator app offers an intuitive interface on top of the upgraded Azure Cognitive Services, providing real-time translations in more than 100 languages. Users can translate text, speech, and images without having to switch languages.

Simply select the languages for translation and the app will display the available modes, such as speech, image, and text. As you go along, you can view the translation history on the same page.

Continuous Language Identification (LID)

Microsoft has announced an enhanced speech translation experience with their new AI technology, Continuous Language Identification (LID). This new feature allows for natural and continuous conversations without the need to select source and target audio languages, or tap the microphone for each speaker. A microphone with stars icon will appear if both selected languages have continuous LID support.

Improved Image Translation Experience

Microsoft announced that they upgraded from an offline Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to an online OCR powered by Azure Cognitive Services. This improved experience delivers better quality image translation with a wider range of language support.

Multi-Device Conversation Made Easy

Have long conversations with someone or a group who doesnt speak your language? The Conversation feature located in the top-right corner of the app transcribes and translates multiple users within a group. Plus, access transcripts and use meeting topics to navigate within a transcript.

No Language Barriers

Support for over 100 languages makes it easy to communicate with anyone, no matter the language.

Availability

The redesigned Microsoft Translator app for iOS is now available for users to update/download from the App store. Microsoft also announced that a similar redesigned experience for Android will be released soon.
High Court judge, Justice Webster Chinamora, has ordered the eviction of a gold miner who was undertaking mining activities at a protected area reserved for the Zimbabwe Power Company.

Sebastin Magodo was mining based on an order that he was granted in 2020 under Special Grants 7667, 7668, and 7669 situated at Electrom Farm in Midlands Province.

The area is reserved for a solar power plant.

However, ZPC successfully contested the standing mining order.

In his ruling, Justice Chinamora said based on the facts ZPC provided, the former judgement had been rescinded.

In its submissions, the applicant made a point that it is the registered owner of Electrom Farm where the special grants were issued, he said. The applicant further submitted that the area where the mining operations were taking place was reserved for solar power stations and that there were several open cast mining and shafts.

I am satisfied by the applicants submission that the question of whether or not the applicant had interest in the matter under HC 4169/20 was resolved by this court under HC 5788/20 which ordered the joinder of the applicant to the proceedings under HC 4169/20.

Justice Chinamora said as a result the application for rescission of default judgment has been granted.

The order granted in HC 4169/20 on 21 October 2020 was also set aside.

In its application, ZPC cited Magodo, Mines Ministry Permanent Secretary Onesimo Mazai Moyo, Minister Winston Chitando and the Midlands Province Provincial Mining Director as the respondents.

ZPC, through its business performance manager, Bernard Chizengeya, argued that the order had disrupted their plan to set up a solar power station. Herald
THE Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC) chief executive officer (CEO) Mark Mabhudhu was suspended on Monday for reportedly stalling the corrupt purchase of Kuvimba Mining House (KMH)s 33% shares in Great Dyke Investments (GDI), NewsDay can exclusively reveal.

KMH became part of GDI after acquiring 50% stake from Afromet Joint Stock Company owned by Russian businessman Vitaly Machitskis Vi Holdings.

JSC Afromet pulled out of the Darwendale project in June 2022 after registering displeasure about financial management by its Zimbabwean partners to Mines and Mining Development minister Winston Chitando.

Mabhudu was suspended by the Munashe Shava-led ZCDC board for allegedly choosing to travel abroad without first fast-tracking the purchase of the KMH shares.

A suspension letter dated February 27 partly reads: The temporary suspension was meant to ensure that the decisions relating to the ZCDC/GDI transactions are made in the short turnaround time possible. Despite you being fully aware of this position which was made in light of this critical assignment at hand, you proceeded to travel to Thailand.

Mabhudu travelled to the Asian nation last week following Cabinet approval.

NewsDay has gathered that the ZCDC board chair is also CEO and project leader at GDI, the company which Mabhudu is reportedly being forced to buy shares from without conducting due diligence.

Sources within the ZCDC board confided in NewsDay that Shava was trying to arm-twist Mabhudhu into accelerating the fraudulent purchase of shares pegged at US$400 290 000.

Information gathered by NewsDay shows that Treasury approved the purchase on condition that due diligence is adhered to.

In line with section 48(3)(c) of the Public Finance Management Act [Chapter 22:19], Treasury has no objection for the ZCDC to proceed with the purchase of 33% shareholding of Great Dyke Investment from Kuvimba Mining house. However, there is need to ensure that the necessary due diligence is exercised on the pricing of the shares, as well as ensuring that the necessary approvals are granted as required by the above cited PFM Act provision, reads an approval letter from Treasury seen by NewsDay.

Mabhudhu is also accused of refusing to authorise a contract between ZCDC and the African Banking Corporation (BancABC), who had been engaged for advisory services as asset evaluators.

BancABC had charged US$2,9 million for advisory services as well as invoices for any technical and legal experts that would have been contracted, which Mabhudhu is said to have declined.

The engagement of BancABC as transaction advisory services also omitted the tender process, raising alarm on the deal.

Mabhudu allegedly told BancABC that the fees were too high, pursuant to further market research and advised that indications were that fees for transaction advisory services of that nature required that the transaction should not exceed US$300 000. Newsday
Tourism market recovery in Chinas Hainan accelerates

People's Daily Online) 13:11, March 01, 2023

Tourism consumption in South Chinas Hainan Province has accelerated thanks to the strong recovery of cross-provincial tours this year and the implementation of pro-consumption measures.

The number of tourists welcomed by Sanya, a coastal resort city in the province, during this years Spring Festival holiday increased by 616,400 compared with the same period in 2019.

Tourists visit an aquarium in Atlantis Hotel in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province, Dec. 30, 2022. (Xinhua/Wang Xue)

Data from the local cultural and tourism bureau shows Sanya Phoenix International Airport received more than 1.1 million incoming tourists in January, up 22.38 percent year on year, while revenue from overnight domestic visitors reached nearly 10.18 billion yuan ($1.46 billion), a year-on-year increase of 33.26 percent.

The average occupancy rate at tourist hotels in Sanya was 80 percent between Feb. 10 and 19.

Offshore duty-free sales supervised by Sanya Customs reached over 5.99 billion yuan between Jan. 7 and Feb. 15, accounting for 66.95 percent of the total in Hainan. Tourists flocked to scenic areas after the Spring Festival holiday. Data showed that the number of tourists received per day on average by 17 scenic areas in Sanya stayed at above 120,000 recently.

China unveiled a plan to boost domestic demand for the 2022-2035 period, calling for cultivating tourism attractions such as islands, cruise ships, low-altitude flight tourism, and deserts at an accelerated pace.

New tourism attractions such as yacht trips are highly sought-after in Hainan. Yacht trips are in high demand this year, and tourists have to wait for seats sometimes, said Xiang Yu, director of the cruise and yacht industry division of the Sanya Central Business District Administration.

Data from the Sanya Yachting Association shows that 180,000 tourists took 18,000 trips in January, up 59.29 percent and 3.18 percent, respectively.

The recover in consumption has injected strong impetus into the economy. Haikou Customs said the offshore duty-free sales supervised by customs in the province had reached 6.38 billion yuan in January.

The accelerated pace of building Hainan into an international hub for consumption and tourism, the flow of elements of international trade, and the holding of conventions, exhibitions and major events have injected impetus into the recovery of Hainans tourism industry, said an official from Sanyas cultural and tourism bureau.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
In October, I submitted an As I See It piece titled Being woke is no joke.

Id heard GOP politicians talking about wokeness and read it in letters to the editor. I was curious, so I investigated.

My conclusion: Being aware of poverty and inequality and trying to do something about it seems good.

Nancy Haldeman responded with a letter to the editor, Try reading other points of view, published Nov. 6. She supports social justice, is against name-calling, and dislikes people who think they know everything or use scare tactics. Nancy wants discussion. We agree!

However, she learned that woke people are dangerous; they divide us. She suggested I read Woke Racism by John McWhorter to help me understand how the woke movement makes Black (and white) people ashamed, how its destroying our country, and more.

I read the book. It was name-calling and exaggerations by a know-it-all professor. (Things Nancy and I both dislike.)

McWhorter calls woke folks a mob of social justice warriors. Woke is like a religion (but without a deity). Woke thinks it is righteous. The elite think they know everything. Name-calling.

Unfortunately, McWhorter concluded that dialogue is futile. More discussion is useless.

Woke folks wont listen to him, and McWhorter wont listen to them because they have nothing to say that is worthwhile (his words). Know-it-all.

So much for discussion.

He writes the woke movement will lead us into a Brave New World. Woke is brainwashing your kids every day in school! Exaggeration. Scare tactics.

I learned by reading it; it helped me understand more. Thank you, Nancy.

I havent read books promoting the woke movement, but suspect that name-calling, knowing it all and exaggerations are common on both sides. Its what humans do so well.

Recently Steve Bannon called for an Army of the Awakened. Awakened but not woke? Now Im really confused. Maybe hell explain after he gets out of prison.

It seems both sides are stuck on how to convince the other guys they are wrong.

We need to try something different.

Nancy (and everyone) should read Why Are We Yelling?: The Art of Productive Disagreement by Buster Benson. He gives guidelines on how to discuss topics without name-calling, yelling or having a food fight.

This procedure keeps us focused. All opinions are expressed without interruptions. No name-calling. Everyone can speak in a safe atmosphere.

It works best by having people get to know each other, share a meal or drink, or play bonding activities first. Ease into it.

Important: Do not expect to change anybodys mind. You can learn to understand their position, however. And they, yours. Thats a start.

Our country has real problems. We need to attack these problems, not each other. We act like a couple yelling, Who started the fire? as their house burns down on them.

We have to learn how to live on this planet without destroying it. Or each other.

Every living species on this planet coexists/lives in harmony with the earth and its own species. Every species but human beings. We are not living in harmony with the earth but destroying it. Our history of human greed has resulted in poverty, starvation, wars and genocide. And climate change.

If we continue to copy behaviors found in Washington, D.C., we are doomed. Politicians and talking heads in the media stand in their own righteous truth, repeat the same lines and continue to ignore significant problems we face. And blame it on the other guys.

Can we talk?

Can we change?
The Downtown Corvallis Association, promoting businesses for nearly four decades before dissolving in February 2022, has received a clean bill of financial health from auditors.

Conducted by Tigard-based Pauly, Rogers & Co., an audit of the DCAs fiscal year ending June 2022 resulted in an unmodified opinion on its financial position, according to a report the firm provided to the city.

Unmodified means the now-defunct association was given a clean opinion with no reservations.

Audit details

Calling attention to best practices, auditors noted the nonprofit DCA had just one employee at times and recommended having another person for reviewing work to enhance internal control.

Reviewing bank reconciliations, auditors noted multiple reconciliations were not prepared or reviewed within 30 days, recommending that those actions happen within that time frame.

Auditors also found various gift certificates were lost during the process of merging association records. The firm recommended all supporting documentation have safe backups to prevent the loss of assets.

The citys Economic Development Office will be working with the Chamber of Commerce throughout a transition from the DCA to the Chamber. There are no capital assets being transferred, but $120,496 in cash and equivalents and $35,016 in accounts receivable are being turned over to the city and the Chamber.

Although dated Dec. 2, the audit report was issued Feb. 9, according to Corvallis Finance Director Ryan Seidl. He said the period between reflects time for auditors to review, approve and assemble documents. The report was provided to the press after the city had a few questions answered, Seidl said via email.

The overall cost of the audit came to $15,700, according to Seidl. By September, the city had already been billed for $9,100 for auditing services. At that time, city staff said the audit would take another one to three months to complete.

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.

So, why did it take so long? The audit lead assigned by Pauly, Rogers & Co. resigned midway in the process, requiring a new lead to get up to speed, Seidl said, adding there were 11 bankers boxes of receipts, tax forms and other financial documents to review.

There were some lengthy conversation and data requests that were needed to facilitate a full understanding of multiple points of interest by the auditors, Seidl said.

Prior to the DCAs dissolution, the city requested to audit the nonprofits last five years of financial records. It also requested contracts, payroll records, details related to revenue and expenditures, evidence of work performed, bank statements and any previous audits.

The audit satisfied the citys needs, Seidl said, noting multiple years of data were used to determine the associations financial position.

However, the goal was also to verify the financial resources so there would be a clear understanding of the current assets and existing liabilities that were being turned over to the Chamber of Commerce, he said.

DCA shutdown

The DCAs board of directors cited COVID-19 as the cause of the associations demise in a February 2022 news release, saying the pandemic shut down most of the large fundraising events over the course of two years.

Jennifer Moreland was the DCAs executive director when the association dissolved. She took over in 2018 when Joan Wessell retired after 25 years as executive director.

The city was obligated to perform the audit because the association had been funded by a downtown economic improvement district the city created in 1993. It applied a voluntary surcharge to property owners who agreed to pay up in exchange for programming and advocacy to help downtown businesses thrive.

Now, many downtown organizations are moving away from improvement districts, focusing more on membership or sponsorship models, city staff previously said.

City records show property in the district was annually assessed at $1.25 per $1,000 of real market value, with a maximum cap of $3,500. The assessments generated around $60,000 a year for the association, according to the records.

But property owner participation declined over the years, according to city staff, shrinking the districts boundaries and revenue for DCA operations. Among those operations were business assistance, public advocacy, political involvement, and community events.

It was not clear to auditors how much the pandemic further weakened the association.

There is considerable uncertainty around the duration of the outbreak and the long-term impact to the overall economy, the audit states regarding the COVID-19 outbreak. The ultimate impact on the DCAs finances is not determinable.

Related articles:
Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN! Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2021.
Created in conjunction with BeautifulBeast, an independent cross-cultural agency, Talking Sh!t Saves Lives lives predominantly on Twitter, with the support of radio PSAs, digital videos, social posts, and electronic billboards across the nation.

DALLAS and MIAMI and NEW YORK and MINNEAPOLIS, Feb. 28, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In recognition of Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, the Colon Cancer Coalition and cross-cultural agency BeautifulBeast invite the world to join the campaign and talk about their crap.

Colorectal cancer is on the rise among younger people and has been steadily increasing over the past thirty years. It is important, however, to note that screening for colorectal cancer is not recommended before age 45. Thats why this campaign aims to raise awareness about the symptoms, no matter your age.

We are not asking young adults to do anything new, as we all talk sh!t occasionally. Instead, we want them to pay attention every time they go to the bathroom, and if they see anything out of the ordinary, to talk about their crap with a doctor. Their stool might be telling them something significant: the symptoms of colorectal cancer, said Flor Leibaschoff, Chief Creative Officer at BeautifulBeast, who lost her brother to colon cancer after battling it for almost seven years, passing when he was only 44 years old.

These are some of the critical questions that aim to raise awareness of the symptoms:

Do you notice any traces of blood in your stool or changes in your bathroom habits?

Are you feeling bloated constantly?

Are you constantly feeling fatigued?

Have you experienced any unexplained weight loss or persistent cramping?

If you answer yes to any of the above, OR if you are over 45, you should talk about this sh!t!

The campaign, which kicks off March 1, will live predominantly on Twitter, the platform primarily used by young adults and known as the place to talk sh!t about everything.

One of the problems this campaign is tackling directly is that young adults are more likely to be diagnosed with a later stage of the disease when its harder to treat. Our hope is that they at least become aware of the symptoms. Screening should begin for most average-risk adults at age 45 and earlier for those with a family history or other risk factors. In addition to a colonoscopy, many screening options are available, including several tests that can be done in the privacy of your own home, added Chris Evans, President of the Colon Cancer Coalition.

Talking Sh!t Saves Lives invites celebrities and the most influential people on Twitter to join the cause, talk crap, and help amplify the message by tweeting about it. As a part of the campaign launch a public plea is being made to comedian and late night host Jimmy Kimmel. Kimmel, 55, documented his own colonoscopy in 2018. The Colon Cancer Coalition will dedicate a statue to him in the Metaverse if he sends just one tweet inviting young people to look for symptoms of colorectal cancer.

A series of radio public service announcements (PSAs), billboards, and social media complement the effort to spread the word about the importance of getting screened for colorectal cancer.

The colonoscopy is the only screening option available that can also prevent colorectal cancer by removing pre-cancerous lesions, or polyps, at the time of the test. Colorectal cancer is highly treatable when diagnosed in the earliest stages. Individuals of all ages experiencing symptoms should talk with their doctors about screening options right for them.

Colon cancer is the third most common cancer in America. Its a very serious disease. We are using levity and street talk. Our campaign, Talking Sh!t Saves Lives, is a powerful and disruptive way to highlight the importance of colorectal cancer screening and symptom awareness. Were very excited to share it with everyone; we want the entire country to talk about their own sh!t, stated Erin Peterson, Sr. Director of Mission & Partnerships at the Coalition.

We are very excited to work with BeautifulBeast on this important project, adds Evans. We know this is a very personal project for their team, and we love the creativity and digital strategy they bring to increase screening rates for colorectal cancer. In addition, this campaign aligns with the mission of the Colon Cancer Coalition. One of our objectives this year is to educate young adults about the symptoms of colorectal cancer and learn their family history so they can get screened on time. And if we have to talk sh!t to convince them, that's what we'll do.

To implement this campaign, BeautifulBeast collaborated with Latina Digital Design Studio in Bogota, Colombia; Deaf Mule Audio Post in Dallas; Fabrica de Canciones, Buenos Aires; Ro2 Media, Dallas; iKhan Media, Los Angeles, and digital agency MDS Digital in Los Angeles and Bogota.

For more information about the campaign or to find information about colorectal cancer symptoms and screening options, visit www.TalkingShitSavesLives.org

About BeautifulBeast

BeautifulBeast is a business-growth company dedicated to cross-cultural solutions through creativity and big data. The name symbolizes the perfect balance between the beauty of a great idea and the beast that big data represents. While the agencys DNA is Hispanic, it embraces its multicultural background, allowing it to seamlessly navigate across cultures to connect brands with the right audience. The agencys founders have worked together for over 20 years, contributing to the success of their clients. BeautifulBeast has operations both in Dallas and Miami.



About the Colon Cancer Coalition

The Colon Cancer Coalition is dedicated to encouraging screening and raising awareness of colorectal cancer. The organizations signature Get Your Rear in Gear event series is volunteer driven in communities throughout the United States. Annually, the Colon Cancer Coalition grants over 1 million dollars to local communities to build and sustain programs promoting early prevention, screening, and research, as well as patient support efforts for those living with this disease. By making the words colon, colorectal and colonoscopy a part of everyday language, we believe we can overcome the fear and decrease deaths from this largely preventable cancer. For more information visit ColonCancerCoalition.org.

Press contacts

Erin Peterson

Colon Cancer Coalition

651-247-4023

erin@coloncancercoalition.org

Salma Gottfried

BeautifulBeast

469-939-9896

salma@beautifulbeastad.com

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c2c52981-fa22-4fd8-96fe-731cb649a47d

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/83d05810-c1cc-483a-838f-4bdf29aa3b3d








NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, continues to investigate potential securities claims on behalf of shareholders of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE: GS) resulting from allegations that Goldman Sachs may have issued materially misleading business information to the investing public.



SO WHAT: If you purchased Goldman Sachs securities you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement. The Rosen Law Firm is preparing a class action seeking recovery of investor losses.

WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the prospective class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=11359 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email pkim@rosenlegal.com or cases@rosenlegal.com for information on the class action.

WHAT IS THIS ABOUT: On January 20, 2023, during trading hours, The Wall Street Journal published an article entitled U.S. Fed probes Goldman Sachs consumer business. The article stated that The U.S. Federal Reserve is probing whether Goldman Sachs Group Inc's consumer business had appropriate safeguards in place as the bank ramped up lending. Further, the article stated that The central bank is concerned the Wall Street giant did not have proper monitoring and control systems inside Marcus, its consumer unit, as it grew larger. The article added that The probe, which grew out of a standard Fed review of the business in 2021 and intensified into an investigation last year, is also examining instances of customer harm and whether they were properly resolved.

On this news, Goldman Sachss price fell $8.91, or 2.54%, to close at $341.84 on January 20, 2023.

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 litigate securities class actions. 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 firms attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.

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

lrosen@rosenlegal.com

pkim@rosenlegal.com

cases@rosenlegal.com

www.rosenlegal.com
NEW ORLEANS, Feb. 28, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ClaimsFiler, a FREE shareholder information service, reminds investors that they have until April 25, 2023 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against Catalent, Inc. (the Company) (NYSE: CTLT), if they purchased the Companys securities between August 30, 2021 and October 31, 2022, inclusive (the Class Period). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey.



Get Help

Catalent investors should visit us at https://claimsfiler.com/cases/nyse-ctlt/ or call toll-free (844) 367-9658. Lawyers at Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC are available to discuss your legal options.

About the Lawsuit

Catalent and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws.

On November 1, 2022, the Company reported its financial results for 1Q2023 ending September 30, 2022, disclosing that its earnings had fallen to zero, a slashed fiscal year 2023 revenue guidance from $4.975B to $5.225B to the range of $4.625B to $4.875B, and that it was anticipating negative P&L [profit and loss] effects, due to regulatory issues.

On this news, shares of Catalent plummeted by 31.7% over two trading sessions, to close at $44.90 per share on November 2, 2022.

The case is City of Warwick Retirement System v. Catalent, Inc., No. 23-cv-1108.

About ClaimsFiler

ClaimsFiler has a single mission: to serve as the information source to help retail investors recover their share of billions of dollars from securities class action settlements. At ClaimsFiler.com, investors can: (1) register for free to gain access to information and settlement websites for various securities class action cases so they can timely submit their own claims; (2) upload their portfolio transactional data to be notified about relevant securities cases in which they may have a financial interest; and (3) submit inquiries to the Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC law firm for free case evaluations.

To learn more about ClaimsFiler, visit www.claimsfiler.com.
Montreal, Feb. 28, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Recent study report released by Data Bridge Market research with titled "Brain Cancer Diagnostic Market" (covering USA, Europe, China, Japan, India, South East Asia and etc) highlights opportunities, risk analysis, and leveraged with strategic and tactical decision-making support. This report appreciably aids marketing strategy as it provides key insights and information to the business. It makes available a deeper understanding on customers and competitors. This industry report helps to know who is buying product or service, who is not buying a product or service, what motivates them, or whether they are loyal to certain brand and all these ultimately leads to increased sales over time. Similarly, it provides information about the wider market environment that helps identify new opportunities for the business.

The global brain cancer diagnostic market is expected to gain market growth in the forecast period of 2023 to 2030. Data Bridge Market Research analyses that the market is growing with a CAGR of 18.9% in the forecast period of 2023 to 2030 and is expected to reach USD 6,977.02 million by 2030.

Get a PDF Sample of the Brain Cancer Diagnostic Market report @ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/request-a-sample/?dbmr=global-brain-cancer-diagnostic-market

Brain cancer is an overgrowth of cells in the brain that forms masses called tumors. It is a brain disorder in which cancer cells (malignant cells) arise in the brain tissue. Cancer cells multiply to produce a mass of cancer tissue (tumor) that interferes with brain functions such as muscle control, sensation, memory, and other body functions. Cancer cells that arise from brain tissue are called primary brain tumors, while tumors that spread from other body parts to the brain are called metastatic or secondary brain tumors.

Primary brain tumors can develop from various brain tissues (for example, glial cells, astrocytes, and other brain cell types). Metastatic brain cancer is caused by the spread of cancer cells from a body organ to the brain.

One of the primary factors driving the growth of the brain cancer diagnostic market is the rising cases of brain cancer worldwide. The continuing clinical trial research being conducted by several companies for better treatment leads to market expansion. The market is also influenced by rising awareness of the early diagnosis of brain cancer and innovations in drug delivery to brain cancer cells. However, the high cost associated with diagnosis & treatment for brain cancer, late diagnosis of brain cancer resulting in poor prognosis, and side-effects of treatment drugs & therapies acts as a restraining factor for the global brain cancer diagnostic market in the forecast period.

Recent Developments

In November 2022, Siemens Healthcare GmbH has presented its two latest magnetic resonance tomographs designed for clinical and scientific use. Due to their high field strengths and strong gradient performance, both scanners will be optimal for detecting the finest structures in the body more clearly.

In November 2022, BD has announced to grant USD 652,000 to Valley-Mount Sinai Comprehensive Cancer Care to increase diversity, equity and inclusion in cancer clinical trials.

The investment made in the study would provide you access to information such as:

Brain cancer Market [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.

Brain cancer Market Size

Market Size by application/industry verticals

Market Projections/Forecast

Some of the major players operating in this market are

NIHON KOHDEN CORPORATION

Canon Inc.

FUJIFILM Holdings Corporation

Neusoft Corporation

GE HealthCare

Koninklijke Philips N.V.

BD, and FONAR Corp., among others.

Access Full PDF Research Report @ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/checkout/buy/enterprise/global-brain-cancer-diagnostic-market

Opportunities

Increasing investment and funding by emerging players

The market for brain cancer is huge, and the rising number of the population affected by this disease is attracting other players to work in the diagnostic field for this disease. Diagnosis of brain cancer in the early stage is a tedious task but can be possible with the new product line for the diagnosis of disease.

The industry offers numerous growth opportunities. Thus, a number of start-ups providing innovative products and technologies have been entering the market. Many new companies and start-ups are looking forward to the field of brain cancer. They are trying to make business expansion and increase the distribution of their newly marketed product. Some of the company are listed below and is expected to act as an opportunity for a brain cancer diagnosis.

The report includes six parts, dealing with:

Basic information The Asia Brain Cancer Diagnostic Market The North American Brain Cancer Diagnostic Market The European Brain Cancer Diagnostic Market MEA Brain Cancer Diagnostic Market Market entry and investment feasibility The report conclusion

All the research report is made by using two techniques that are Primary and secondary research. There are various dynamic features of the business, like client need and feedback from the customers. Before (company name) curate any report, it has studied in-depth from all dynamic aspects such as industrial structure, application, classification, and definition.

Brain Cancer Diagnostic Market Scope

Test Type

Imaging Tests

Biopsy

Lumbar Puncture

Molecular Testing

Electroencephalography (EEG)

Others

Cancer Type

Acoustic Neuroma

Astrocytomas

Glioblastoma Multiforme

Meningiomas

Oligodendroglioma

Others

Age Group

Below 21

21-35

35-65

65 and above

End User

Hospitals

Specialty clinics

Diagnostic centers and research institutes

Ambulatory surgical centers

Others

Brain Cancer Diagnostic Market Regional Analysis/Insights

The global brain cancer diagnostic market is analyzed, and market size insights and trends are provided by country, test type, cancer type, age group, and end user.

The brain cancer diagnostic market report comprises of U.S., Canada, Mexico, Russia, Spain, Turkey, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Netherlands, Rest of Europe, China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Rest of Asia-Pacific, Brazil, Argentina, Rest of South America, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Kuwait and the rest of the Middle East and Africa.

In 2023, North America is expected to dominate the global brain cancer diagnostic market due to increasing awareness among consumers about the benefits of a brain cancer diagnosis. An increase in demand for Brain cancer diagnostics products and an increase in research and development activities in the industry are also expected to drive the market in the forecasted period.

The Brain Cancer Diagnostic Market report provides insights on the following pointers:

Competitive Assessment: In-depth assessment of the market strategies, geographic and business segments of the leading players in the market.

Market Diversification: Exhaustive information about new products, untapped geographies, recent developments, and investments in the Brain Cancer Diagnostic market.

Market Development: Comprehensive information about emerging markets. This report analyzes the market for various segments across geographies.

Market Penetration: Comprehensive information on the product portfolios of the top players in the Brain Cancer Diagnostic market.

Gain More Insights into the Brain Cancer Diagnostic Market Analysis @ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-brain-cancer-diagnostic-market

Key Growth Drivers

Rising Cases of Brain Cancer Worldwide

Cancer that develops elsewhere in the body & then spreads into the brain is called a secondary brain tumor or brain metastasis. There are various cancers that can metastasize into the brain, such as breast cancer, lung cancer, colon cancer and kidney cancer. Brain cancer cells generally do not spread beyond the brain. Rather, they have the capacity to travel short distances within the brain. Genetic links inherited through family ancestors, chemical exposure to certain industrial chemicals or solvents, compromised immune system, and previous radiation treatments can be some of the major causes of brain cancer.

Brain cancer cases are rising worldwide. In 2019, as per the National Cancer Institute report, there were an estimated 176,566 people found living with brain & other nervous system cancer in the United States. In addition, based on 2017-2019 data, it has been predicted that approximately 0.6 percent of men & women will be diagnosed with brain and other nervous system cancer at some point during their lifetime.

Rising awareness of the early diagnosis of brain cancer

Brain cancer awareness month is nationally recognized in the United States during the month of May. This awareness month focuses on bringing together the brain tumor community to increase awareness among the patient population.

Brain cancer is not a common type of cancer like other types. However, the need for new & innovative ways to treat brain cancer is more important. As per research studies, 1.4 million patients worldwide are suffering from malignant brain tumors & another 2,56,000 people will be diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor by the end of the year.

The importance of patient care, education & cancer research is becoming more apparent due to the impact of COVID-19 worldwide. Considering the future perspectives, there is still more groundwork to be done to discover new drugs & effective approaches for brain cancer patients. Brain cancer awareness month is a movement that is fully dedicated to these efforts and even in the midst of a pandemic.

Critical Insights Related to the Brain Cancer Diagnostic Included in the Report:

Exclusive graphics and Illustrative SWOT analysis of some of the leading companies in this market

Value chain analysis of prominent players in the Brain Cancer Diagnostic 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

Table of Contents:

Introduction Market Segmentation Executive Summary Premium Insights Global Brain Cancer Diagnostic Market : Regulations Market Overview Global Brain Cancer Diagnostic Market, By Test Type Global Brain Cancer Diagnostic Market, By Cancer Type Global Brain Cancer Diagnostic Market, By Age Group Global Brain Cancer Diagnostic Market, By End User Global Brain Cancer Diagnostic Market, By Region Global Brain Cancer Diagnostic Market: Company Landscape SWOT Analyses Company Profile Questionnaires Related Reports

Get the Complete Table of Contents @ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/toc/?dbmr=global-brain-cancer-diagnostic-market

Browse Related Reports:

North America Brain Cancer Diagnostic Market , By Test Type (Imaging Test, Biopsy, Lumber Puncture, Molecular Testing, Electroencephalography, and Others), Cancer Type (Acoustic Neuroma, Astrocytomas, Glioblastoma Multiforme, Meningiomas, Oligodendroglioma, and Others), Age Group (Below 21, 21-34, 35-65 and 65 and Above), End User (Hospitals, Specialty Clinics, Diagnostic Centers & Research Institutes, Ambulatory Surgical Centers, and Others), Industry Trends and Forecast to 2030. https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/north-america-brain-cancer-diagnostic-market

Middle East and Africa Brain Cancer Diagnostic Market , By Test Type (Imaging Test, Biopsy, Lumber Puncture, Molecular Testing, Electroencephalography, and Others), Cancer Type (Acoustic Neuroma, Astrocytomas, Glioblastoma Multiforme, Meningiomas, Oligodendroglioma, and Others), Age Group (Below 21, 21-34, 35-65 and 65 and Above), End User (Hospitals, Specialty Clinics, Diagnostic Centers & Research Institutes, Ambulatory Surgical Centers, and Others), Industry Trends and Forecast to 2030. https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/middle-east-and-africa-brain-cancer-diagnostic-market

Asia-Pacific Brain Cancer Diagnostic Market , By Test Type (Imaging Test, Biopsy, Lumber Puncture, Molecular Testing, Electroencephalography, and Others), Cancer Type (Acoustic Neuroma, Astrocytomas, Glioblastoma Multiforme, Meningiomas, Oligodendroglioma, and Others), Age Group (Below 21, 21-34, 35-65 and 65 and Above), End User (Hospitals, Specialty Clinics, Diagnostic Centers & Research Institutes, Ambulatory Surgical Centers, and Others), Industry Trends and Forecast to 2030. https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/asia-pacific-brain-cancer-diagnostic-market

Europe Brain Cancer Diagnostic Market , By Test Type (Imaging Test, Biopsy, Lumber Puncture, Molecular Testing, Electroencephalography, and Others), Cancer Type (Acoustic Neuroma, Astrocytomas, Glioblastoma Multiforme, Meningiomas, Oligodendroglioma, and Others), Age Group (Below 21, 21-34, 35-65 and 65 and Above), End User (Hospitals, Specialty Clinics, Diagnostic Centers & Research Institutes, Ambulatory Surgical Centers, and Others), Industry Trends and Forecast to 2030. ht tps://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/europe-brain-cancer-diagnostic-market

Traumatic Brain Injuries Treatment Market , By Treatment (Immediate Emergency Care, Medications, Surgery), Route of Administration (Parenteral, Oral), Patient Age (Children, Teenager, Elder), Gender (Male, Female), Cause of Injury (Falls, Motor Vehicle Traffic, Sports, Others), End Users (Hospitals, Neurology Clinics, Independent Pharmacies, Others), Country (U.S., Canada, Mexico, Germany, Italy, U.K., France, Spain, Netherland, Belgium, Switzerland, Turkey, Russia, Rest of Europe, Japan, China, India, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Rest of Asia- Pacific, Brazil, Argentina, Rest of South America, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Israel, Rest of Middle East and Africa) Industry Trends and Forecast to 2029 https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-traumatic-brain-injuries-treatment-market

Deep Brain Stimulation Systems Market , By Product Type (Single-Channel Deep Brain Stimulator, Dual-Channel Deep Brain Stimulator), Application (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Parkinsons Disease, Essential Tremor, Epilepsy, Dystonia), Type (Rechargeable, Non-Rechargeable), End User (Hospitals, Ambulatory Surgical Centers (ASCs), Neurological Clinic)  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2029 https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-deep-brain-stimulation-systems-market

Deep Brain Stimulation Market , By Product (Single Channel Deep Brain Stimulator, Dual Channel Deep Brain Stimulator), Type (Subthalamic DBS, Globus Pallidus DBS, Thalamic DBS, Pedunculopontine Nucleus DBS), Application (Pain Management, Epilepsy, Essential Tremor, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Depression, Dystonia, Parkinsons Disease, Others), End-Use (Hospitals, Neurology Clinics, Ambulatory Surgical Centers, Research Centers), Country (U.S., Canada, Mexico, Germany, Italy, U.K., France, Spain, Netherland, Belgium, Switzerland, Turkey, Russia, Rest of Europe, Japan, China, India, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Rest of Asia-Pacific, Brazil, Argentina, Rest of South America, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Israel, Rest of Middle East & Africa) Industry Trends and Forecast https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-deep-brain-stimulation-market

Brain Aneurysm Market By Type (Ruptured Aneurysm, Leaking Aneurysm, Unruptured Aneurysm, Others), Treatment (Surgery, Medication, Others), Route of Administration (Oral, Parenteral, Others), End-Users (Hospitals, Homecare, Speciality Centres, Others), Distribution Channel (Hospital Pharmacy, Online Pharmacy, Retail Pharmacy)  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2029 https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-brain-aneurysm-market

Brain Tumor Diagnosis and Treatment Market , By Product Type (Primary Brain Tumor, Secondary Brain Tumor), Product Analysis (Stains and Varnishes, Shellacs, Lacquers, Others), Diagnosis Type (CT Scan, MRI, PET-CT Scan, Molecular Testing, EEG, Others), Treatment Type (Surgery, Radiation Therapy, Targeted Therapy, Chemotherapy, Immunotherapy), End User (Hospitals, Ambulatory Surgical Centers), Country (U.S., Canada, Mexico, Germany, Italy, U.K., France, Spain, Netherland, Belgium, Switzerland, Turkey, Russia, Rest of Europe, Japan, China, India, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Rest of Asia- Pacific, Brazil, Argentina, Rest of South America, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, U.A.E, Egypt, Israel, Rest of Middle East and Africa) https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-brain-tumor-diagnosis-and-treatment-market

Brain Ischemia Market , By Condition Type (Focal Brain Ischemia and Global Brain Ischemia), Treatment (Angioplasty, Beta Blockers, Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme (ACE) Inhibitors and Others), End User (Hospitals and Clinics, Research and Academic Institutes and Others), Country (U.S., Canada, Mexico, Germany, Italy, U.K., France, Spain, Netherland, Belgium, Switzerland, Turkey, Russia, Rest of Europe, Japan, China, India, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Rest of Asia-Pacific, Brazil, Argentina, Rest of South America, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Israel, Rest of Middle East & Africa) https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-brain-ischemia-market

Brain Implants Market , By Product Type (Deep Brain Stimulator, Spinal Cord Stimulator, and Vagus Nerve Stimulator), Application (Chronic Pain, Epilepsy, Parkinson's Disease, Depression, Essential Tremor, Alzheimer's Disease, and Other Applications), End User (Therapeutics and Drug Discovery, Biological Research, Agricultural Biotech, Industrial Biotech) , Country (U.S., Canada, Mexico, Germany, Italy, U.K., France, Spain, Netherland, Belgium, Switzerland, Turkey, Russia, Rest of Europe, Japan, China, India, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Rest of Asia- Pacific, Brazil, Argentina, Rest of South America, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Israel, Rest of Middle East and Africa) https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-brain-implants-market

Brain Hematomas Market , By Type (Epidural Hematomas, Subdural Hematomas, Intracerebral Hematomas), Treatment (Anticonvulsants, Diuretics, Corticosteroids, Surgery, Catheter, Physical Therapy, Speech Therapy, Vitamin K Therapy, Others), Diagnosis (Computed Tomography (CT) Scan, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Angiogram, Others), Dosage (Tablet, Injection, Others), Route of Administration (Oral, Intravenous, Others), Symptoms (Seizures, Change in behavior, Headache, Nausea, Confusion, Dizziness, Vomiting, Lethargy, Apathy, Weakness, Others), End-Users (Clinic, Hospital, Others), Distribution Channel (Hospital Pharmacy, Retail Pharmacy, Online Pharmacy), Country (U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Rest of South America, Germany, France, U.K., Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Russia, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Hungary, Lithuania, Austria, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Rest of Europe, China, Japan, India, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Rest of Asia-Pacific, Saudi Arabia, U.A.E, Egypt, Israel, Kuwait, South Africa, Rest of Middle East and Africa) https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-brain-hematomas-market

Brain Abscess Drugs Market , By Drug Classification (Cephalosporin, Metronidazole, Other Antibiotics), Treatment (Medication, Surgery. Others), Route of Administration (Oral, Parenteral), End- Users (Hospitals, Homecare, Specialty Clinics, Oncologist, Immunologist and Others), Country (U.S., Canada, Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Rest of South America, Germany, Italy, U.K., France, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Turkey, Russia, Hungary, Lithuania, Austria, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Rest of Europe, Japan, China, India, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Rest of Asia Pacific, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, U.A.E, Kuwait, Israel, Egypt, Rest of Middle East and Africa) https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-brain-abscess-drugs-market

Brain Vasculitis Market , By Drug Class (Corticosteroids, Immunosuppressants, Biologics), Disease Type (Small Vessel, Medium Vessel Vasculitis), Treatment (Medication, Surgery, Others), Route of Administration (Oral, Parenteral), End- Users (Hospitals, Homecare, Specialty Clinics, Oncologist, Immunologist and Others), Country (U.S., Canada, Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Rest of South America, Germany, Italy, U.K., France, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Turkey, Russia, Hungary, Lithuania, Austria, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Rest of Europe, Japan, China, India, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Rest of Asia Pacific, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, U.A.E, Kuwait, Israel, Egypt, Rest of Middle East and Africa) https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-brain-vasculitis-market

Brainerd Diarrhea Market , By Treatment (Antimicrobial Agents, Others), Diagnosis (Colonoscopy, Microscopic Examination, Others), Symptoms (Mild Abdominal Cramping, Fever, Fatigue, Intestinal Gas, Slight Weight Loss, Nausea, Vomiting, Others), Dosage (Tablet, Injection, Others), Route of Administration (Oral, Intravenous, Others), End-Users (Clinic, Hospital, Others), Distribution Channel (Hospital Pharmacy, Retail Pharmacy, Online Pharmacy), Country (U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Rest of South America, Germany, France, U.K., Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Russia, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Hungary, Lithuania, Austria, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Rest of Europe, China, Japan, India, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Rest of Asia-Pacific, Saudi Arabia, U.A.E, Egypt, Israel, Kuwait, South Africa, Rest of Middle East and Africa) https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-brainerd-diarrhea-market

Brain Abscess Treatment Market , By Drug Classification (Antibiotics, Steroids, Anticonvulsants, Others), Treatment (Medication, Surgery, Others), End-Users (Hospitals, Homecare, Specialty Clinics, Others), Distribution Channel (Hospital Pharmacy, Online Pharmacy, Retail Pharmacy), Country (U.S., Canada, Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Rest of South America, Germany, Italy, U.K., France, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Turkey, Russia, Hungary, Lithuania, Austria, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Rest of Europe, Japan, China, India, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Rest of Asia Pacific, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, U.A.E, Kuwait, Israel, Egypt, Rest of Middle East and Africa) Industry Trends and Forecast https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-brain-abscess-treatment-market

Brain MRI Scan Market , By Scanner Type (Low Field Strength (<1.5t MRI), Mid Field Strength (1.5t MRI to 3.0t MRI and High Field Strength (4t and Above)), Machine Type (Open MRI Machine, Closed MRI Machine and Standing or Sitting MRI Machine.), Brain Disorder Type (Brain Tumor, Dementia, Alzheimers Disease, Parkinsons Disease, Epilepsy and Seizure, Stroke, Multiple Sclerosis, and Others), End User (Hospitals, Imaging and Diagnostic Centers, Ambulatory Surgery Centers, and Others) Distribution Channel (Direct Tender, Retail Sales) https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-brain-mri-scan-market

Asia-Pacific Brain MRI Scan Market , By Scanner Type (Low Field Strength (<1.5t MRI), Mid Field Strength (1.5t MRI to 3.0t MRI and High Field Strength (4t and Above)), Machine Type (Open MRI Machine, Closed MRI Machine and Standing or Sitting MRI Machine.), Brain Disorder Type (Brain Tumor, Dementia, Alzheimers Disease, Parkinsons Disease, Epilepsy and Seizure, Stroke, Multiple Sclerosis, and Others), End User (Hospitals, Imaging and Diagnostic Centers, Ambulatory Surgery Centers, and Others) Distribution Channel (Direct Tender, Retail Sales), Country (China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines & Rest of Asia-Pacific) https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/asia-pacific-brain-mri-scan-market

About Data Bridge Market Research:

An absolute way to forecast what future holds is to comprehend the trend today!

Data Bridge Market Research set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market. Data Bridge endeavours to provide appropriate solutions to the complex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-making process. Data Bridge is an aftermath of sheer wisdom and experience which was formulated and framed in the year 2015 in Pune.

Data Bridge Market Research has over 500 analysts working in different industries. We have catered more than 40% of the fortune 500 companies globally and have a network of more than 5000+ clientele around the globe. Data Bridge adepts in creating satisfied clients who reckon upon our services and rely on our hard work with certitude. We are content with our glorious 99.9 % client satisfying rate.

Contact Us: -

Data Bridge Market Research

US: +1 888 387 2818

UK: +44 208 089 1725

Hong Kong: +852 8192 7475
Newark, New Castle, USA, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As per the report published by Growth Plus Reports the Global Radioligand Therapy (RLT) Market was estimated at US$ 4.29 billion in 2021 and is expected to surpass a valuation of US$ 8.43 billion by 2030, progressing at a CAGR of 7.8% from 2022 to 2030. The report provides a detailed analysis of top winning strategies, drivers & opportunities, competitive scenario, wavering market trends, market size, statistics & estimations, and major investment pockets. Owing to the rapid advancement in technology and celebrity endorsements are responsible for the market growth of radioligand therapy.

Get a Sample Copy of the Research Report: https://www.growthplusreports.com/inquiry/request-sample/radioligand-therapy-rlt-market/8225

Market Drivers

The growing geriatric population, public and private funding for targeted cancer research, high awareness of alpha radioimmunotherapy, and product innovation and development as a result of technical developments will present profitable prospects for market players. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), cancer is the second biggest cause of mortality in the world, accounting for around 9.6 million deaths in 2018. Furthermore, the country's growing geriatric population is boosting the market because older persons are more likely to have chronic health concerns such as diabetes or heart disease. However, the high cost of developing radioligand therapeutics and the related adverse effects are projected to stymie market expansion over the projection period. Furthermore, according to the American Cancer Society, around 174,650 new instances of prostate cancer were detected in the United States in 2019. Additionally, during the forecast period, the global radioligand therapy treatment market is likely to be propelled by research and development of radioligand therapy candidates to treat a wide range of cancer types. Endocyte's Lu-PSMA-617 is a radioligand therapy candidate in a phase III clinical trial for prostate cancer treatment. The rising prevalence of medical disorders such as hormonal imbalance in the population has also increased demand for radioligand products. As a result, the radioligand therapy market is predicted to expand significantly throughout the forecast period. Additionally, the category of approved products accounted for a large share of the market. This is primarily due to the availability of a diverse range of products and the introduction of novel and improved FDA-approved and more effective procedures such as lutetium 177, prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA), and other approved products for cancer treatment and the development of radioligand therapies. Leading companies in radioligand therapy are making strategic acquisitions to help manufacturers increase their cancer product pipeline. Thus, pipeline product approval and commercialization are projected to push the market throughout the forecast period.

Excerpts from By Indication Segmentation

Based on indication, the global radioligand therapy (RLT) market is segmented into:

Prostate Cancer

Gastroenteropancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors (Gep-Nets)

Others

The prostate cancer dominated the market in 2021. Prostate cancer is the sixth most common cause of mortality in males and the eleventh most common cause of death overall. Many prostate cancers are slow-growing and limited to the prostate gland, where they are unlikely to cause significant harm. Radioligand is used to treat prostate cancer by binding to prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA). Prostate-specific membrane antigens (PSMA) are overexpressed in prostate cancer. Moreover, because of the rising elderly population, higher prevalence of prostate cancer, greater public awareness of prostate cancer therapy, increased R&D expenditure, and availability of novel prostate cancer medicines, the prostate cancer segment is expected to lead. Prostate cancer is a type of cancer that occurs when abnormal cells in the prostate gland grow and multiply uncontrollably.

Excerpts from By Region Segmentation

Based on region, the global radioligand therapy (RLT) market is segmented into:

North America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Rest of the World

The North America held large revenue share of the market in 2021. The U.S. and Canada are important contributors to the growth of this market. The increased awareness about the availability of various therapies, as well as the increase in the patient base suffering from cancer, has fuelled the region's market expansion. Europe's governments offer generous reimbursement programmes. Furthermore, a growth in research laboratories, an increase in cancer prevalence, and an increase in government funding are expected to boost the market in the area during the forecast period.

Radioligand Therapy (RLT) Market Scope

Report Attribute Details Market size value in 2021 US$ 4.29 billion Revenue forecast in 2030 US$ 8.43 billion Growth Rate CAGR of 7.8% from 2022 to 2030 Base year for estimation 2021 Forecast period 2022-2030 Historical Year 2020 Segments covered Indication, Application and Region. Regional scope North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Rest of the World (ROW)

Request for Customization  https://www.growthplusreports.com/inquiry/customization/radioligand-therapy-rlt-market/8225

Excerpts from Competitive Landscape

Some of the prominent market player in the global radioligand therapy (RLT) market include:

Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc.

Pfizer Inc.

Bayer AG

Molecular Partners

ITM Isotope Technologies Munich SE

Amneal Pharmaceuticals LLC

Novartis International AG

POINT Biopharma Global Inc

Fusion Pharma

Clovis Oncology

Telix Pharmaceuticals

Lantheus Holdings, Inc. (Progenics Pharmaceuticals)

Curium Pharma

Precirix, Radio Medix

Table of Content

INTRODUCTION

Market Ecosystem Timeline Under Consideration Historical Years  2020 Base Year  2021 Forecasted Years  2022 to 2030 Currency Used in the Report

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Approach Data Collection Methodology Data Sources Secondary Sources Primary Sources Market Estimation Approach Bottom Up Top Down Market Forecasting Model Limitations and Assumptions

PREMIUM INSIGHTS

Current Market Trend (COVID-19 Perspective) Technological Trends Key Players & Competitive Positioning (2021)

MARKET DYNAMICS

Drivers Restraints/Challenges Opportunities

GLOBAL RADIOLIGAND THERAPY (RLT) MARKET- ANALYSIS & FORECAST, BY DRUG CLASS

Anti-Androgens Therapeutic Radiopharmaceuticals Others

GLOBAL RADIOLIGAND THERAPY (RLT) MARKET - ANALYSIS & FORECAST, BY INDICATION

Prostate Cancer Neuroendocrine Tumors Others

VALUE PROPOSITIONS RELATED TO THE REPORT:

Powered with Complimentary Analyst Hours and Expert Interviews with Each Report

Comprehensive quantitative and qualitative insights at segment and sub-segment level

Covid 19 impact trends and perspective

Granular insights at global/regional/country level

Deep-rooted insights on market dynamics (drivers, restraints, opportunities) and business environment

Blanket coverage on competitive landscape

Winning imperatives

Exhaustive coverage on 'Strategic Developments' registered by leading players of the market

CUSTOMIZATION OPTIONS:

Distributor Landscape Assessment

Pricing Intelligence

Customer Base Assessment

Investment & Initiatives Analysis

'Business Profile' of Key Players

Schedule a call with our analyst: https://appoint.ly/s/salesZ3Jvd3RocGx1c3JlcG9ydHMuY29t/introduction

Visit our report store at - https://www.growthplusreports.com/report-store

Browse related reports:

Chromatography Accessories and Consumables Market by Product (Columns and Column Accessories, Autosamplers), Technologies (Liquid Chromatography, Gas Chromatography), End-user (Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology, Academic & Research Institutes) - Global Outlook and Forecast 2020-2030

Hospital Microbiology Testing Market by Product type (Instruments, Chemicals and Reagents), By Application (Gastrointestinal Infections, Respiratory Infections)  Global Outlook & Forecast Period 2022-2030

Atherectomy and Thrombectomy Devices Market by Type (Rheolytic, Rotational), by Application (Hospitals, Clinics)-Global Outlook and Forecast 2020-2030

Nuclear Medicine Market by Product Type (Diagnostic, Therapeutics), by Application (Cardiology, Neurology, Oncology), by End User (Hospitals and Clinics)  Global Outlook & Forecast 2022-2030

Antibody Chips Market by Technology (Analytical Microarrays, Functional Protein Microarrays, and Reverse Phase Protein Microarrays), End User (Hospitals & Clinic, Diagnostic Laboratories)  Global Outlook & Forecast 2022-2030

About Us:

Growth Plus Reports is part of GRG Health, a global healthcare knowledge service company. We are proud members of EPhMRA (European Pharmaceutical Marketing Research Association).

Growth Plus portfolio of services draws on our core capabilities of secondary & primary research, market modelling & forecasting, benchmarking, analysis and strategy formulation to help clients create scalable, ground-breaking solutions that prepare them for future growth and success.

We were awarded by the prestigious CEO Magazine as "Most Innovative Healthcare Market Research Company in 2020.
Newark, New Castle, USA, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to a new market research report titled,  Cardiovascular Medical Tourism Market by Treatment Type (Coronary Artery Bypass, Cardiac Valve Replacement or Reconstruction), Service Provider (Public and Private) - Global Outlook and Forecast 2020-2030 " published by Growth Plus Reports, the cardiovascular medical tourism market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.6% from 2021 to reach US$ 7.0 billion by 2030.

Cardiovascular medical tourism can be broadly characterized as the delivery of cost-effective private cardiovascular treatment in partnership with the travel and tourism sector for people needing specialized surgical and other medical care. Both the commercial and public tourism industries and the corporate sectors are parties to medical tourism. A patient from any nation could select cardiovascular medical travel for a number of reasons. The patient may not want to wait on a long waiting list for care in their native country, and the ailment may require urgent care due to its severity. Secondly, the patient might travel to receive care that is not offered in their country of domicile. Also, the patient might fly to a prime vacation spot for surgery, staying in opulent accommodations with first-class care. Moreover, a patient may seek medical tourism of the cost of domestic healthcare in the native country is significantly high.

Download PDF Brochure of Cardiovascular Medical Tourism Market Size - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis with Strategic Developments at: https://www.growthplusreports.com/inquiry/request-sample/cardiovascular-medical-tourism-market/8228

Market Drivers

The primary drivers of the expansion of the global cardiovascular medical tourism market are accessibility and affordability of high-quality healthcare services as well as support from local governments and tourism bureaus. Additionally, the growing availability of cutting-edge medical technology in medical tourism hotspots around the globe is anticipated to fuel market growth. The medical tourism industry anticipating growth challenges due to long payment times from payers, partial reimbursement, travel challenges, language obstacles, a lack of available documentation, and problems with VISA acceptance. However, growing base of hospital networks covered by insurance for cashless transactions is anticipated to present growth prospect for the global cardiovascular medical tourism market.

Excerpts from By Treatment Type Segmentation

Based on treatment types, the global cardiovascular medical tourism market is segmented into:

Percutaneous Coronary Angioplasty and Stenting

Cardiac Valve Replacement or Reconstruction

Coronary Artery Bypass

Among these, the coronary artery bypass segment accounted for the largest revenue share of the global cardiovascular medical tourism market. The rise in coronary artery disease prevalence around the globe explains the sector expansion. Through coronary artery bypass surgery, an completely or partially clogged artery is circumvented. The benefits of bypass surgery over stents include the fact that a surgical re-vascularization often lasts longer than a stent procedure. The significant price disparity across countries for coronary artery bypass surgery creates a sizable patient pool for those considering cardiovascular medical tourism.

Excerpts from By Region Segmentation

Based on the regions, the global cardiovascular medical tourism market is segmented into:

North America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Rest of the World

North America has the largest revenue share of the global cardiovascular medical tourism market in 2021. The market in North America is characterized by a significant growth in the prevalence of chronic and cardiovascular disease, a rapidly aging population, and a growth in the number of tourists seeking cardiovascular treatments in the U.S., which boosts provider income generation.

The cardiovascular medical tourism market is rapidly growing in the Asia Pacific region, and this trend is projected to continue in the years to come. An increase in market share is anticipated throughout the projection period as a result of the growing desire for medical travel in emerging countries. Additionally, China has the greatest market share in the Asia-Pacific region due to its superior healthcare system and more affordable healthcare costs. Finally, the market for cardiovascular medical tourism in Asia is supported by the expanding trend of cardiac surgeries in nations such as Thailand and India.

Request for Customization  https://www.growthplusreports.com/inquiry/customization/cardiovascular-medical-tourism-market/8228

Excerpts from Competitive Landscape

The global cardiovascular medical tourism market is fiercely competitive, and major competitors have used various tactics to gain a strong market position. Key companies operating the global cardiovascular medical tourism market are Aditya Birla Memorial Hospital, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise, Asian Heart Institute, Barbados Fertility Center, Fortis Healthcare Limited, KPJ Healthcare Berhad, NTT Medical Center Tokyo, Prince Court Medical Centre, SamitivejSukhumvit Hospital PCL, Seoul National University Hospital, Wooridul Spine Hospital, Gleneagles Hospital, MIn-Sheng General Hospital, Raffles Medical Group, Clemenceau Medical Centers, Anadolu Medical Center, Bangkok Hospital, and Bumrungrad International Hospital, among others.

Cardiovascular Medical Tourism Market Scope

Report Attribute Details Market size value in 2021 US$ 3.9 billion Revenue forecast in 2030 US$ 7.0 billion Growth Rate CAGR of 7.6% from 2022 to 2030 Base year for estimation 2021 Forecast period 2022-2030 Historical Year 2020 Segments covered Treatment Type, Service Provider, and Region Regional scope North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Rest of the World (ROW)

Table of Content

INTRODUCTION Market Ecosystem Timeline Under Consideration Historical Years  2020 Base Year  2021 Forecast Years  2022 to 2030 Currency Used in the Report RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Research Approach Data Collection Methodology Data Sources Secondary Sources Primary Sources Market Estimation Approach Bottom Up Top Down Market Forecasting Model Limitations and Assumptions PREMIUM INSIGHTS Current Market Trends (COVID-19 Perspective) Key Players & Competitive Positioning (2021) MARKET DYNAMICS Drivers Restraints/Challenges Opportunities GLOBAL CARDIOVASCULAR MEDICAL TOURISM MARKET - ANALYSIS & FORECAST, BY TREATMENT TYPE Coronary Artery Bypass Cardiac Valve Replacement or Reconstruction Percutaneous Coronary Angioplasty and Stenting GLOBAL CARDIOVASCULAR MEDICAL TOURISM MARKET - ANALYSIS & FORECAST, BY SERVICE PROVIDER Public Private

VALUE PROPOSITIONS RELATED TO THE REPORT:

Powered with Complimentary Analyst Hours and Expert Interviews with Each Report

Comprehensive quantitative and qualitative insights at segment and sub-segment level

Covid 19 impact trends and perspective

Granular insights at global/regional/country level

Deep-rooted insights on market dynamics (drivers, restraints, opportunities) and business environment

Blanket coverage on competitive landscape

Winning imperatives

Exhaustive coverage on 'Strategic Developments' registered by leading players of the market

CUSTOMIZATION OPTIONS:

Distributor Landscape Assessment

Pricing Intelligence

Customer Base Assessment

Investment & Initiatives Analysis

'Business Profile' of Key Players

Schedule a call with our analyst: https://appoint.ly/s/salesZ3Jvd3RocGx1c3JlcG9ydHMuY29t/introduction

Visit our report store at - https://www.growthplusreports.com/report-store

Browse related reports:

Bioremediation Technology and Services Market by Type (In-situ, Ex-situ), Technology (Phytoremediation, Fungal Remediation), Services (Soil Remediation, Wastewater Remediation)  Global Outlook & Forecast 2022-2030

Pharmacy Automation Market by Product (Medication Dispensing Systems, Automated Medication Compounding Systems), End Use (Inpatient Pharmacies, Retail Pharmacies)  Global Outlook & Forecast 2022-2030

Pharmaceuticals and Food Anti-Counterfeiting Technologies Market by Application (Food, Pharmaceuticals), Technology (Authentication, Inks and Dyes, Holograms, Watermarks)  Global Outlook & Forecast 2022-2030

Global Orthopedic Trauma Fixation Devices Market by Product (Internal, External fixators), Site (Lower, Upper Extremities), Material (Titanium, Stainless Steel), End-user (Hospitals, Orthopedic Centers)  Global Outlook & Forecast 2022-2030

Neonatal Intensive Care Respiratory Devices Market by Device Type (Nebulizers, Inhalers), End-user (NICU Hospitals, Specialty Clinics)  Global Outlook & Forecast 2022-2030

About Us:

Growth Plus Reports is part of GRG Health, a global healthcare knowledge service company. We are proud members of EPhMRA (European Pharmaceutical Marketing Research Association).

Growth Plus portfolio of services draws on our core capabilities of secondary & primary research, market modelling & forecasting, benchmarking, analysis and strategy formulation to help clients create scalable, ground-breaking solutions that prepare them for future growth and success.

We were awarded by the prestigious CEO Magazine as "Most Innovative Healthcare Market Research Company in 2020.
Dublin, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Bag-in-Box Container Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report by Application (Food & Beverage, Industrial Liquids, Household Products), by Region, and Segment Forecasts, 2022-2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The global bag-in-box container market size is projected to reach USD 6.77 billion by 2030, registering a CAGR of 6.7% over the forecast period. The increasing consumption of alcoholic beverages has emerged as a major driving factor fueling demand for the application of bag-in-box containers in the food & beverage industry. The growth of the industry is also fueled by the shift in consumption patterns towards natural food products across the globe.



Another important factor bolstering the demand for bag-in-box containers is the increasing consumption in the household products industry. In this regard, household products, most notably surface cleaners and surface deodorizers are being increasingly packaged using bag-in-box containers. Growing urban population across the globe has further contributed to the growth of the industry owing to an increasing consumption of hygiene promoting products in households. Furthermore, the industry is driven by the rise in the packaging of low-foam detergents in bag-in-box containers coupled with their rising consumption (low-foam detergents).



Europe has witnessed a considerable surge in the adoption rate (bag-in-box containers) in the recent few years. The demand for the product in this region is principally driven by the food sector and is backed by the increasing demand and consumption of cooking oils and sauces. In addition, the demand for the product is also augmented by the shift towards organic and healthy food. The region has also been witnessing high demand for convenient and flexible packaging solutions. This development has been encouraging major food brands operating in the flexible packaging to increase their scale of operation in Europe.



The demand for bag-In-box container in the U.S. is expected to grow due to the presence of well-established food and beverage sector, coupled with high product adoption rates. In addition, presence of numerous manufactures including Smurfit Kappa Group, DS Smith, and Amcor Ltd. is expected to open new avenues for the industry growth over the projected period. The market is characterized by the presence of numerous established players in the market, which mostly operate out of North America with their distribution and manufacturing locations present across the globe. These companies enter into long-term agreements with raw material suppliers to reduce their production costs, ensure constant supply of the materials, and gain competitive edge over other small-scale, local players.



Bag-in-box Container Market Report & Highlights

The food and beverages segment in the application scope accounted for the largest share of 65.8% in 2021 owing to an increasing consumption of alcoholic beverages across the globe. However, the household products segment is anticipated to grow at the fastest rate over the forecast period backed by increasing application of bag-in-box containers for the packaging of cleaning products

Asia Pacific is expected to witness the fastest growth over the forecast period. Increasing exports by counties such as Japan, China, and India coupled with rising popularity of flexible packaging products in the region has bolstered the demand for bag-in-box container

In China, the bag-in-box container industry is anticipated to witness a reasonable CAGR of 8.2% over the forecast period. The increasing demand for convenience food by time-constrained consumers is expected to drive the market growth in China

The market for bag-in-box represents a highly competitive landscape with a sizable number of players sharing the market space. Some of the key competitive strategies employed by the key players include mergers & acquisitions, expansion of product portfolio, and product innovation

Report Attribute Details No. of Pages 158 Forecast Period 2022 - 2030 Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2022 $4.01 Billion Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2030 $6.77 Billion Compound Annual Growth Rate 6.7% Regions Covered Global



Key Topics Covered:



Chapter 1 Methodology and Scope



Chapter 2 Executive Summary



Chapter 3 Market Variables, Trends, and Scope



Chapter 4 Bag-In-Box Container Market: Application Estimates & Trend Analysis

4.1 Definition & Scope

4.2 Application Movement & Market Share Analysis, 2021 & 2030

4.2.1 Food & Beverages

4.2.2 Household Products

4.2.3 Industrial Liquid



Chapter 5 Bag-In-Box Container Market: Regional Estimates & Trend Analysis

Chapter 6 Competitive Analysis



Chapter 7 Company Profiles



Companies Mentioned

Amcor Ltd.

Smurfit Kappa

Ds Smith

Liquibox

Scholle Ipn

Cdf Corporation

Arlington Packaging (Rental) Limited

Central Package & Display

Accurate Box Company, Inc.

Tps Rental Systems Ltd.

Optopack Ltd.

Zarcos America

Aran Group

Bibp Sp. Z O.O.

Hangzhou Hansin New Packing Material Co. Ltd.

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/x3ea5y-in-box?w=12

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

Attachment
FREMONT, Calif., March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The LoRa Alliance, the global association of companies backing the open LoRaWAN standard for the internet of things (IoT) low-power wide-area networks (LPWANs), today announced the full program for LoRaWAN Live Orlando, offering a wide variety of programming across technical and certification tracks, business developments and solutions, global and regional deployments, and live demos and exhibitions with a focus on smart cities, buildings and utilities. This is the first LoRaWAN Live event of 2023 and the only LoRaWAN Live of 2023 in the Americas and will take place at Loews Portofino Bay Hotel at Universal Orlando in Orlando, Florida, USA, from 15-16 March 2023.







Program highlights include LoRa Alliance CEO and Chairwoman Donna Moore speaking about the LoRa Alliance ecosystems work to deliver solutions for digital transformation that optimize business operations, work environments, critical infrastructure, and environmental sustainability. As part of her keynote, she will host a panel with the City of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and its partners TEKTELIC, eleven-x and OrbiWise from the LoRaWAN ecosystem to learn how Calgary became a world-class smart city using LoRaWAN.

Additionally, MetaWorldX will share a live demonstration of a real smart city pulling in real-time LoRaWAN data as part of a city scale digital twin project. A second demo from Actility and Semtech will show how easy and economical it is to use LoRaWANs new relay feature to extend coverage in dense urban environments and underground, which is a critical advantage for LoRaWANs use in cities, buildings and utilities. Other program highlights include featured presentations from Cisco, Georgia-Pacific and Mueller Water Products.

The LoRa Alliance LoRaWAN Live events are must-attend learning and networking opportunities for anyone involved in IoT deployments, whether youre at the earliest stages of inquiry or actively deploying LoRaWAN, said Donna Moore, CEO and Chairwoman of the LoRa Alliance. Were coming to Orlando next month because of the amazing growth weve seen in LoRaWAN deployments across the Americas, including massive projects in Latin America. LoRaWAN Live Orlando is the best opportunity this year to hear from, meet and network with our tremendous ecosystem and learn about LoRaWAN technology and how it can help you enable digital transformation to advance your business and sustainability goals.

Register now to take advantage of your chance to experience LoRaWAN Live Orlando.

LoRaWAN Live offers visitors the opportunity to join global LoRaWAN leaders, innovators, developers, system integrators, network providers, device manufacturers, end users, media, and more to connect, exchange ideas, share large-scale success stories, go in-depth about LoRaWAN features, and create partnerships. The event will also feature an extensive vendor marketplace, allowing visitors to explore LoRaWAN solutions and experience a multitude of live demonstrations.

Key session highlights include:

Latin America

How ST Engineering is using IoT to increase the quality of life for citizens in Brazilian cities (ST Engineering and Everynet)

Panel: Get ready for smart metering with DLMS over LoRaWAN, featuring a discussion of current deployments in Brazil (Aklio, Everynet, HTMicron, NEPEN and Semtech)

Leveraging an FCC Radio Approval in Latin AmericaExcept when you cannot (Approve-IT)

Panama Canal: LoRaWAN Deployment Helps Canal Operators Track Sulfur Dioxide Emissions by Each Ship (Kerlink and Senzary)

Smart Cities

Panel: LoRaWAN for Smart Cities (3S, Brunata MINOL Zenner Group, OrbiWise, Seeed Studio and X-TELIA)

Building a city scale digital twin (MetaWorldX)

uCifi Alliance Unified Data Model and LoRaWAN Synergies (Kerlink)

Innovative LoRaWAN Partnerships Between Universities and Local Communities (Center for IOT Engineering and Innovation - East Carolina University)

Smart Building

LoRaWAN Delivers Enhanced Restroom Experiences (Georgia-Pacific and Comcasts MachineQ)

New National Gas Standard Sets the Stage for LoRaWAN Implementation (Senet and ProSentry)

From GM to Delta Airlines: Construction Sites Made Safer and More Productive Using Smart Badges (Kwant)

Ghirardelli Square: LoRaWAN Innovations provide a path to protect and preserve a sweet piece of American history (Kairos)

Crossing the Chasm  Where LoRaWAN is Scaling Fast with Strong ROI (MultiTech)

Smart Refrigeration with LoRaWAN: How to Comply with Regulations, Reduce Food Waste (MultiTech, PwC and Therma, moderated by IoT for All)

Panel: Building Intelligence with LoRaWAN (AvalonBay, Klika Tech, Nordic Propeye and Vutility, moderated by Moor Insights & Strategy)





Smart Utilities

LoRaWAN: the Right Technology for Utilities (Zenner USA)

Panel: Protect Water with LoRaWAN (APANA, LimnoTech, Mueller Water Products, moderated by James Brehm & Associates)

Utility Infrastructure Modernization & Service Optimization (Senet)

From AMR to AMI: Transforming Legacy Systems with LoRaWAN (Mainlink)

Transforming IoT Utility Metering - From Innovation to Mainstream Technology (Actility and MarineSync)

Integrating Legacy Energy Meters to a LoRaWAN Smart Grid (Instituto Federal do Amazonas - Innovation hub)

Register now join us at LoRaWAN Live Orlando.

Thanks to LoRaWAN Lives Sponsors

Media Event on March 15 at 10:30

Media and analysts are invited to attend the 2-day conference at no cost. It will also feature a media event at 10:30 am on March 15, 2023. The following companies will make announcements from the event: the LoRa Alliance, Actility, City of Calgary, Dryad, Everynet, Peplink, Seeed, and Semtech. Contact lora-alliance@kiterocket.com for your complimentary registration details.

About LoRa Alliance

The LoRa Alliance is an open, nonprofit association that has become one of the largest and fastest-growing alliances in the technology sector since its inception in 2015. Its members closely collaborate and share expertise to develop and promote the LoRaWAN standard, the de facto global standard for secure, carrier-grade IoT LPWAN connectivity. LoRaWAN has the technical flexibility to address a broad range of fixed and mobile IoT applications and a robust LoRaWAN Certification program to guarantee that devices perform as specified. The LoRaWAN standard has been deployed by more than 170 major mobile network operators globally, with connectivity available worldwide. More information: lora-alliance.org

LoRa Alliance, LoRaWAN and LoRaWAN CertifiedCM are registered marks.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/5b983287-55e5-4883-ab7e-886636a35a03




CHICAGO, IL, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NewMediaWire  Epazz Inc. (OTC: EPAZ), a mission-critical provider of drone technology, blockchain mobile apps and cloud-based business software solutions, announced today that the US Air Force invited ZenaDrone to showcase the ZenaDrone 1000 at an air base in California on March 16 and 17. This will be ZenaDrones first visit to a military base to interact with personnel and gain insight into our drone technologys potential use in the Air Force.

ZenaDrone has been focusing on getting U.S. government contracts for its ZenaDrone 1000. It has submitted Phase 1 SBIR contracts and is working on securing partnerships for Phase 2.

CEO Shaun Passley, Ph.D., said, We are excited to be invited to the U.S. Air Force air base in order to showcase our drone technology and meet with military personnel to understand how our drone can be used in the Air Force.

The U.S. government is pushing initiatives to obtain made-in-America drones through its BlueUAS program. ZenaDrone is currently in the process of applying for BlueUAS, and the list is very short.

ZenaDrone Inc. is a provider of a multifunctional unmanned aerial vehicle equipped with machine learning systems, multispectral sensors and AI technology. ZenaDrone uses the data its cameras capture to create a 3D interactive environment.

The ZenaDrone team will use predictive AI analytics  or predictive modeling  a type of analysis that employs methods and resources to create predictive models and make forecasts of future outcomes based on acquired data. Techniques used in predictive analytics include machine learning algorithms, sophisticated mathematics, statistical modeling, descriptive analytics and data mining. Predictive analytics refers to a method rather than a specific technology.

Epazz Holdings will prioritize developing the ZenaDrone 1000 by upgrading its AI technology to increase its global reach across industries.

About ZenaDrone Inc. (https://www.zenadrone.com/)

ZenaDrone Inc. is a provider of a multifunctional unmanned aerial vehicle equipped with machine learning systems, multispectral sensors and AI technology. ZenaDrone uses the data its cameras capture to create a 3D interactive environment.

About Epazz Inc. (https://www.epazz.com/)

Epazz Inc. specializes in enterprise cloud business process software, metaverse solutions, drone technology and blockchain mobile apps and has over 500 repeat customers. Epazz acquired DeskFlex in 2008. DeskFlex is a desk- and room-booking software company that has been in business since 1997. DeskFlex is developing a metaverse virtual office and has added social distancing features and contact tracing technology to its system to help organizations bring employees back to the office and create new hybrid work environments (https://www.deskflex.com/DeskFlex-Safety-Operation-after-COVID-19-Pandemic). Epazz technology makes it easy to convert legacy systems into cloud business process software, for which the company then charges an annual subscription fee. Epazz has acquired 11 software companies that have converted or are in the process of converting their legacy software products to cloud software using Epazzs technology. Epazz then markets the new cloud-based solutions to new and existing customers. Epazz spun off a ZenaPay Inc. 2018 New Bitcoin Mobile app is a financial technology company that offers a unique Bitcoin and Ethereum payment mobile app software allowing consumers to acquire Bitcoin at the point of sale.

SAFE HARBOR

This is the safe harbor statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Certain statements contained in this press release are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements can generally be identified by the use of forward-looking statements such as may, expect, intend, estimate, anticipate, believe, continue (or the negatives thereof) or similar terminology. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from future results or those implied by such forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that any forward-looking statement is not a guarantee of future performance and that actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements. Epazz Inc. assumes no obligation and has no intention of updating these forward-looking statements, and it has no obligation to update or correct information prepared by third parties that are not paid for by Epazz Inc. Investors are encouraged to review Epazz Inc.s public filings on SEC.gov and otcmarkets.com, including its unaudited and audited financial statements and its OTC market filings, which contain general business information about the companys operations, results of operations and risks associated with the company and its operations.

Contact

Investor Relations

investors@epazz.net

312-955-8161

https://www.epazz.com/











Attachment
Parkersburg, WV, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Parkersburg, WV March 1, 2023 /GlobeNewswire/ KRONOS ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES, INC. (OTC MARKETS: KNOS) ("KNOS" or the "Company"), innovation-driven product development and creator of patented Kronos CORE air disinfection technology inside its advanced smart air purification devices applauds The Womens Health Initiative (WHI.org) for providing important clinical data for a large research study that concluded air pollution may cause bone damage in women with osteoporosis.

Elevated levels of air pollutants are associated with bone damage among postmenopausal women according to new research led by scientists at Columbia Universitys Mailman School of Public Health. The effects were most evident on the lumbar spine, with nitrous oxides twice as damaging to the area than seen with normal aging.

The research findings were published recently in the peer-reviewed journal, eClinicalMedicine, part of The Lancet Discovery Science suite of open-access journals. The new study is the first to explore the connection between air pollution and bone mineral density specifically in postmenopausal women and the first to explore the effects of air pollution mixtures on bone outcomes.

The researchers analyzed data collected through the Womens Health Initiative study, an ethnically diverse cohort of 161,808 postmenopausal women. They estimated air pollution (PM10, NO, NO2, and SO2) exposures based on participants home addresses. They measured bone mineral density (BMD; whole-body, total hip, femoral neck, and lumbar spine) at enrollment at follow-up at year one, year three, and year six using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry.

Our findings confirm that poor air quality may be a risk factor for bone loss, independent of socioeconomic or demographic factors. For the first time, we have evidence that nitrogen oxides, in particular, are a major contributor to bone damage and that the lumbar spine is one of the most susceptible sites of this damage, says the studys first author, Diddier Prada, MD, Ph.D., an associate research scientist in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health.

American Lung Association also warns that Poor Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) can cause or contribute to the development of infections, lung cancer, and chronic lung diseases such as asthma. People who already have lung disease are at greater risk. Find out what makes indoor air unhealthy and how pollution can hurt your body.

As previously announced Kronos air disinfection technology manufacturer received FDA 510(k) class II medical device clearance for the destruction of viruses, bacteria, and allergens. The FDA clearance was provided to the product manufacturer after a detailed review of the patented Model 5 device, which utilizes patented High Voltage Field air disinfection technology and is proven to eliminate 99.9% of harmful airborne particles, including allergens, bacteria, fungi, and viruses, like COVID-19. FDA Clearance which means our air purifiers can be deployed in hospitals and home health-care settings to clear the air of infected bioaerosol droplets, in addition, our air purifiers comply with all CARB regulations related to air cleaners for sale in California, and the Companys manufacturer is registered with the State of California CARB.

Kronos can now provide schools, healthcare facilities, businesses, hotels, and government agencies with the best medical-grade air purification and air disinfection technology.

Kronos  developed Electrostatic HEPA (eHEPA) filtration which is a revolutionary technology that uses high voltage electric field to attract and trap particles in the air, such as dust, pollen, smoke, allergens, and other airborne contaminants, including viruses and bacteria. This type of filtration is considered one of the most effective ways to remove particles from the air and is used in many air purifiers, HVAC systems, and other air cleaning systems.

eHEPA filtration works by trapping particles within the collecting cartridge filter itself, which is made up of fine metalized collecting plates in a particular way to create a comb-like structure. When air passes through the filter, the particles become electrically attached and zapped in the comb matrix and can no longer pass through. Kronos technology allows for superior filtration of particles as small as 14.6 nanometers which are 20 times smaller than conventional HEPA filters.

This FDA-cleared class II medical device technology is commonly used in cleanrooms, medical facilities, and other areas that require a high degree of air purification and disinfection.

The technology is utilizing an electric charge to attract the particles in the air. The particles are then drawn to the surface of the patented washable collection cartridge filter, where particles get trapped and zapped, and bacteria and viruses get killed and cannot escape. This makes electrostatic HEPA filtration incredibly effective at trapping particles and ensuring that the air that we breathe is clean.

The technology is also incredibly energy efficient and cost-effective, with literally zero maintenance costs making it an ideal choice for many applications. Additionally, our eHEPA washable filters are easy to maintain and can be used for extended periods of time, making them an attractive option for air purification and filtration.

Overall, electrostatic HEPA filtration is an effective and efficient way to keep the air that we breathe free from particles and contaminants. It is being used in a variety of applications, from air purifiers to HVAC systems to other air cleaning systems. The technology is cost-effective, energy-efficient, and easy to maintain, making it an attractive option for many.

eHEPA filtration is also highly efficient, using far less energy than traditional methods of air purification. This helps to reduce energy costs and makes the technology more environmentally friendly. Furthermore, eHEPA filters are designed to last up to five years without needing to be replaced, which helps to reduce the overall cost of ownership.

The main advantage of eHEPA filtration is its superior efficiency. It is capable of removing up to 99.99% of all particles from the air, ensuring that the air is free of allergens, dust, bacteria, and other pollutants. Additionally, eHEPA filtration is very quiet, making it ideal for areas where noise pollution is a concern, like classrooms and bedrooms.

KNOS is committed to helping our customers, businesses, and government offices improve Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) and to provide healthier and safer air and significant cost savings.

About Kronos Advanced Technologies, Inc.

The Company was initially founded in 2002 and funded by the U.S. military to develop electrostatic air movers. Eventually, the Company moved into the consumer air purification business. It began operations as a product development company that invented and significantly changed the way air is moved, filtered, and sterilized. Historically, Kronos has focused on developing, marketing, and selling the Company's proprietary air movement and purification technology. Serving the Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) market, Kronos technology uses state-of-the-art high voltage patented processes without the use of traditional porous HEPA filters. Kronos-based products move air silently, filter, sterilize, and purify the air while dramatically reducing energy consumption to half of a 60-watt light bulb. Kronos devices can be variable in shape or size and, therefore, have the potential to be scaled down for air purification in cars or scaled up in size for industrial and hazardous gas destruction. The technology is currently being implemented in multiple standalone products for businesses, homes, and vehicles of all types -to move, sterilize and filter air, including removing allergens down to 14.6 nanometers, passing through our patented technology -replacing expensive outdated passive HEPA and other filtration type systems. There are broad ranges of additional markets for standalone and embedded Kronos CORE technology-based devices. Examples of immediately addressable markets include schools, universities, healthcare facilities, operating rooms, manufacturing clean rooms, and the cabins of automobiles and commercial aircraft.

Kronos published research about the effectiveness of Kronos Patented technology on air disinfection n (e.g., microorganism destruction) by demonstrating the high efficacy of Kronos Technology-based air purifiers in capturing and destruction of various types of microorganisms (including Corona Viruses) in different environmental settings back in 2008. Results of this research showed that Electrostatic Air Filtration and Purification systems based on Kronos technology demonstrated high capturing and destruction efficiency for different types of microorganisms, bacteria, and viruses and can be successfully used for disinfection of air in real word environmental settings, including hospital facilities both with and without the presence of people.

BusinessWeek called Kronos air purifiers "VIRUS KILLER" in 2005.

Kronos was the first publicly traded company that accepted DOGE coin as a form of payment for its products, as well as other cryptocurrencies.

Company also filed for a patent involving an innovative protective face mask with antimicrobial and anti-cellphone radiation protection features. The Company is planning to file additional patents to improve its existing technology as well as enter into new market segments but will continue to market air purifiers and other consumer products. The Company is a distributor and licensee of the latest generation of air purifiers based on the Company's CORE technologies. The Company markets its products as Airdog , AIR 5G and KRONOS brands. All Kronos products come with Kronos Promise  -Your Satisfaction is Guaranteed!

Company offices are located in Parkersburg, West Virginia.

Shopping portal: https://www.1800safeair.com

Follow $KNOS on Twitter: https://twitter.com/kronosati

Follow $KNOS on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kronosati

Follow $KNOS on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kronos_ati/

Follow $KNOS on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/KronosAdvancedTechnologies

Follow $KNOS on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/Kronos_ATI

Follow $KNOS on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kronos-advanced-techngologies-inc

Contact us via info@kronosati.co or visit https://www.kronosati.co or https://www.1800SafeAIR.com





Disclaimer

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a recommendation of any security or any other product or service by Kronos Advanced Technologies Inc or any other third party regardless of whether such security, product, or service is referenced in this press release. Furthermore, nothing in this press release is intended to provide tax, legal, or investment advice, and nothing in it should be construed as a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any investment or security or to engage in any investment strategy or transaction. Kronos Advanced Technologies does not represent that the securities, products, or services discussed in this press release are suitable for any particular investor. You are solely responsible for determining whether any investment, investment strategy, security, or related transaction is appropriate for you based on your personal investment objectives, financial circumstances, and risk tolerance. You should consult your business advisor, attorney, and/or tax and accounting advisor regarding your specific business, legal, or tax situation.





Social Media Disclaimer and Forward-Looking Statements.

Kronos Advanced Technologies investors and others should note that we announce material information to the public about the Company through various means, including our website (https://www.kronosati.co/investors), press releases, OTCmarkets filings, public conference calls, via our corporate Social Media accounts, listed above.

We encourage our investors and others to monitor and review the information we make public in these locations, as such information could be deemed to be material information. Please note that this list may be updated from time to time.

Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors as disclosed in our filings with the OTC Markets at OTCMarkets.com. In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic conditions, governmental and public policy changes, the Company's ability to raise capital on acceptable terms, if at all, the Company's successful development of its products and the integration into its existing products and the commercial acceptance of the Company's products.

The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release, and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so.

These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of the press release.





SOURCE: KRONOS ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES, Inc

Phone inquiries: 1-800-SAFE-AIR (option #4)
Norcross, Georgia, and San Antonio, Texas, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Viveon Health Acquisition Corp. (NYSE American: VHAQ, VHAQW, VHAQR, VHAQU), a special purpose acquisition company led by principals experienced in healthcare and med-tech innovation, is pleased to announce that it has identified and entered into a letter of intent with a business combination target company, Clearday (OTCQX: CLRD).

Clearday provides a technology platform for the aging population that integrates numerous healthcare innovations into personalized, AI-driven care experiences, which continuously assesses an individual's cognitive and physical capabilities. The companys customized treatment plans are intended to improve the quality of life for aging and special needs populations. With its autonomous companion robotics and innovative care treatments, Clearday intends to address the $1.4 Trillion burden in annual National Health Expenditures for aging adults.

Company Overview

Cleardays (www.viveon.myclearday.com) mission is to provide industry-leading longevity care that is more accessible and affordable. Clearday enables aging individuals, those with special needs, and their families, to optimize their quality of life across the healthcare continuum: at home, in community centers, during medical visits, and at full and part-time care facilities. Cleardays Longevity Care Platform seamlessly integrates numerous health technology innovations into personalized AI-driven care experiences. The platform continuously assesses an individuals cognitive and physical capabilities to deliver a customized plan.

Globally, the population of individuals over the age of 60 is projected to double by 2050, resulting in nearly 2.1 billion people. In 2035, the US Census Bureau predicts that for the first time, there will be more Americans over the age of 65 than those under 18. These demographics drive the need for new longevity-tech solutions that provide continuous monitoring, increased engagement, and proactive interventions for older individuals.

The Clearday Longevity Care Platform delivers solutions through a hub-n-spoke model involving Clearday at Home, Clearday Labs, Clearday Clubs, Clearday Residential, and Clearday Robotics. Together, they offer the industrys leading proactive engagement, intervention, and monitoring solutions for the aging population.

Management Comments

Clearday is an ideal merger partner for Viveon Health as it is a transformative healthcare technology company at its inflection point of rapid growth  and addresses an underserved, large, and expanding market, said Jagi Gill, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Viveon Health. As operators ourselves in the healthcare technology space, our hands-on diligence revealed the Clearday teams deliberate expansion and acceleration of their longevity-tech business plan impacting the arc from home to residential care facilities. By leveraging its operational excellence and history in longevity care and bolting on AI-driven solutions to monitor mental and physical health, its solutions can deliver real-time engagement with individuals and their families through robotic-assisted companion care designed to deliver support at any setting. I look forward to working with Jim and the rest of the Clearday team to execute their global sales channel expansion and market development plan poised to deliver growth and shareholder value.

James Walesa, CEO and Founder said, "We are thrilled with the opportunity to partner with Viveon and its industry-leading founders, Drs. Jagi Gill and Rom Papadopoulos. Both have decades of experience scaling healthcare technology businesses. Clearday began seeking partners with operational and financial expertise who shared the vision of Clearday's Aging in the Right Place. It has taken longer than I wanted, but today we found the team that combines capital markets experience with healthcare leadership to accelerate Clearday's mission. Their extensive professional contacts and experience will bolster our sales and go-to-market initiatives and generate additional revenue opportunities for the combined companies."

Transaction Overview

Under the terms of the letter of intent, Cleardays existing equity holders would convert 100% of their equity into the combined public company. The proposed transaction values Clearday at $250 million. Viveon expects to announce additional details regarding the proposed business combination when a definitive merger agreement is executed.

Completion of a business combination with Clearday is subject to, among other matters, the completion of due diligence, the negotiation of a definitive agreement providing for the transaction, satisfaction of the conditions negotiated therein and approval of the transaction by the board and stockholders of both Viveon and Clearday. There can be no assurance that a definitive agreement will be entered into or that the proposed transaction will be consummated on the terms or timeframe currently contemplated, or at all.

About Clearday, Inc.

Clearday is an innovative longevity healthcare technology company with a modern, hopeful vision for making high-quality care solutions more accessible, affordable, and empowering for aging individuals and their families. Clearday has a decades-long experience in non-acute care through its subsidiary Clearday Living, which operates highly-rated residential memory care and adult daycare communities. Its Longevity Care Platform brings Clearday solutions to people wherever they are. Its platform is at the intersection of telehealth, remote monitoring, and patient engagement  all delivered across mobile, wearable, and robotic endpoints in a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Robotics as a Service (RaaS) model. Learn more about Clearday and its pioneering legislative efforts to bring the Innovative Cognitive Care Act for Veterans to Congress at www.viveon.myclearday.com .

About Viveon Health Acquisition Corp.

Viveon Health Acquisition Corp. is a blank check company, also commonly referred to as a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses. It is the Companys intention to pursue prospective targets that are focused on the healthcare sector in the United States and other developed countries.

No Offer or Solicitation



This press release shall not constitute a solicitation of a proxy, consent, or authorization with respect to any securities or in respect of the proposed business combination. This press release shall also not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any states or jurisdictions in which such offer, solicitation, or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. No offering of securities shall be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or an exemption therefrom.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements made in this press release are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of words such as "target," "believe," "expect," "will," "shall," "may," "anticipate," "estimate," "would," "positioned," "future," "forecast," "intend," "plan," "project," "outlook" and other similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding projections, estimates and forecasts of revenue and other financial and performance metrics and projections of market opportunity and expectations, Viveons ability to enter into a definitive agreement or consummate a transaction with the target company. These statements are based on various assumptions and on the current expectations of Viveons management and are not predictions of actual performance. These forward-looking statements are provided for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to serve as, and must not be relied on by any investor as, a guarantee, an assurance, a prediction or a definitive statement of fact or probability. Actual events and circumstances are difficult or impossible to predict and will differ from assumptions. Many actual events and circumstances are beyond the control of Viveon and the target company. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including: Viveons ability to enter into a definitive agreement with respect to the proposed business combination or consummate a transaction with the target company; the risk that the approval of the stockholders of Viveon for the potential transaction is not obtained; failure to realize the anticipated benefits of the potential transaction, including as a result of a delay in consummating the potential transaction; the amount of redemption requests made by Viveons stockholders and the amount of funds remaining in Viveons trust account after satisfaction of such requests; those factors discussed in Viveons prospectus for its initial public offering dated December 28, 2020, under the heading Risk Factors, and other documents of Viveon filed, or to be filed, with the SEC. If the risks materialize or assumptions prove incorrect, actual results could differ materially from the results implied by these forward-looking statements. There may be additional risks that Viveon presently does not know or that Viveon currently believes are immaterial that could also cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. In addition, forward-looking statements reflect Viveons expectations, plans or forecasts of future events and views as of the date hereof. Viveon anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause Viveons assessments to change. However, while Viveon may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, Viveon specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing Viveons assessments as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release. Accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed upon the forward-looking statements.

Contact:

Rom Papadopoulos

Viveon Health Acquisition Corp.

Chief Financial Officer

rom@viveonhealth.com

404-861-0839




Dublin, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Smart Shower Market Size, Share & Industry Trends Analysis Report By Application, By Commercial Type, By Regional Outlook and Forecast, 2022-2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The Global Smart Shower Market size is expected to reach $1.8 billion by 2028, rising at a market growth of 9.7% CAGR during the forecast period.



An electronic device called a 'smart shower' is a plumbing fixture that allows you to use a touchpad, your phone, or a voice-activated smart speaker to regulate the temperature, flow rate, and outlet to use. Electronic controls in a smart shower regulate such features as well as provide you with considerably more advanced possibilities. A digital touchpad, a phone, your voice, or a smart speaker may all be used to operate a smart shower.



Additionally, smart showers may contribute to energy-saving plans for smart homes. Users may choose a precise water temperature with the thermostatic valve's digital temperature controls. Throughout your shower, the temperature will remain precisely where it is, owing to the system's sensors. When you have a fully integrated smart shower system, you can start the shower from a phone or smart speaker as the user gets out of bed or come home from the gym.



It will then be prepared to enter immediately. Improved safety is one of the key advantages of smart showers, which is achieved by limiting the peak water temperature. You may use less water and energy to heat water while taking showers on average. Set the ideal temperature, flow rate, and duration of your shower in advance. You may take relaxing showers without creating garbage.



Market Growth Factors

Rising activity in both residential and commercial development



One of the most important factors promoting market growth is the growing rate of commercial and residential commercial operations and their completion in both developed and emerging countries. As people's affordability and buying power rise, there is a significant rise in the demand for new homes. Additionally, rehabilitation and remodeling projects are becoming increasingly popular throughout developed parts of the globe. Today's consumers desire to have contemporary, multipurpose bathroom amenities, which is driving up demand for interior design. These are anticipated to drive the market growth of smart showers over the projected period.



Global urbanization is growing rapidly



Urbanization has accelerated globally in recent years. The main cause of urbanization is migration from rural to urban areas, which increases the size and populace of urban areas. These population changes have an impact on other aspects of land use, economic activity, and culture. Urbanization has historically been linked to important social and economic changes. For example, living in an urban region is linked to higher levels of education and literacy, better health, lower fertility, a longer life expectancy, easier access to social services, and expanded opportunities for political and cultural involvement. Therefore, the adoption of smart home automation technology would expand dramatically as a result of this component.



Application Outlook



Based on application, the smart shower market is divided into commercial and residential. In 2021, the commercial segment reported a significant revenue share in the smart showers market. The high demand for smart bathroom fixtures in hotels and airports is to blame for the segment's rise. Additionally, due to changing consumer preferences, restaurant chains all over the globe are likely to embrace such items. Commercial establishments put a high priority on the ease and comfort of their visitors and work to provide a magnificent living experience via clever solutions.



Regional Outlook



Based on region, the smart shower market is categorized into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and LAMEA. The North American region held the largest revenue share in 2021. A significant driver of market growth in the area is the rising prevalence of smart homes and commercial buildings in the US and Canada. The market for smart showers in North America is primarily driven by cutting-edge technology intended to save energy and preserve cleanliness. The rising number of outdated homes in North America encourages the need for home upgrading, which will enhance demand for modern, innovative bathroom fixtures.



Scope of the Study

Market Segments Covered in the Report:

By Application

Residential

Commercial

Hotels & Restaurants

Spas & Wellness

Gyms

Others

By Geography

North America

US

Canada

Mexico

Rest of North America

Europe

Germany

UK

France

Russia

Spain

Italy

Rest of Europe

Asia Pacific

China

Japan

India

South Korea

Singapore

Malaysia

Rest of Asia Pacific

LAMEA

Brazil

Argentina

UAE

Saudi Arabia

South Africa

Nigeria

Rest of LAMEA

Key Market Players

Aqualisa Products Limited (Fortune Brands Home & Security, Inc.)

GetHai, Inc

Roca Sanitario, SA (Roca Corporacion Empresarial, SA)

Toto Ltd

Lixil Corporation

Kohler Co

Jaquar Group

Dornbracht Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG

Report Attribute Details No. of Pages 138 Forecast Period 2021 - 2028 Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2021 $976.5 Million Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2028 $1848 Million Compound Annual Growth Rate 9.7% Regions Covered Global

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/o6pa2h-smart?w=12

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

Attachment
New York, US, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ORCP Market Analysis

According to a comprehensive research report by Market Research Future (MRFR),  Omnichannel Retail Commerce Platform Market Analysis By Deployment, By Solution, By Vertical - Forecast 2030 valuation is poised to reach 14.3 Billion by 2030, registering a 19.20% CAGR throughout the forecast period (20222030). One type of business model utilised by retail organisations to enhance customer experience is the omnichannel retail commerce platform. Its multi-channel sales strategy offers customers an integrated purchasing experience. This platform gives the store the chance to engage with customers, satisfy them, and boost their own sales. Websites, physical storefronts, and mobile applications are a few retail distribution channels.

ORCP market Competitive Landscape

IBM Corporation (US)

Cognition Technology Solutions Corp (US)

NCR Corporation (US)

com (US)

Oracle Corporation (US)

SAP SE (Germany)

Toshiba Corporation (Japan)

Diebold Nixdorf AG (Germany)

Infosys Ltd (India)

Infor Global Solutions Inc (US)

Dunnhumby (UK)

iVend Retail (US)

Retail pro international (US)

Get Free Sample PDF Brochure:

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/6956



Omnichannel Retail Commerce Platform Market Report Scope:

Report Metric Details ORCP market Revenue forecast in 2030 USD 14.3 Billion ORCP market Growth Rate CAGR of 19.20% from 2022 to 2030 Base Year 2021 Forecast Period 2022-2030 Historical Data 2020 Forecast Units Value (USD Billion) Key Market Opportunities This platform is used in multiple fields and has a wide scope of omnichannel retail commerce platform opportunities to accelerate the demand for the ORCP market.

Not all of these channels are always run by the retailers. Yet, more channels lead to greater consumer engagement, which increases demand for omnichannel retail commerce platforms.

In order to avoid paying shipping costs, today's consumers use six different touchpoints when shopping: brick-and-mortar stores, online retailers, smartphones, computers, laptops, and tablets. Players in the omnichannel retail commerce platform market place a high priority on client happiness and are able to assist customers with any kind of online or offline shopping.

The business sector suffered significant losses as a result of the ongoing lockdown, which also caused production to stop. Even the large retailers, like Walmart, are seeing a decline in casual shopping. The electronics sector has been most negatively impacted by COVID-19 as China has outlawed China products from other nations.

Browse In-depth Market Research Report (100 Pages) on Omnichannel Retail Commerce Platform Market:

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/omnichannel-retail-commerce-platform-market-6956



China is the world's biggest producer of electronic goods and their parts, according to the International Trade Union Federation (ITUF).

Online purchasing has been more popular among customers during this pandemic as a result of social withdrawal and keeping at home, and e-commerce has accelerated growth. Due to its advantages for better shopping, consumers staying at home are favouring this platform, which has a beneficial impact on the market for omnichannel retail commerce platforms. As a result, in the current market environment, demand is rising.

The two main reasons driving the industry are the growing use of e-commerce for easy online buying and the rising popularity of smartphones and tablets.

Retailers with improved operational efficiency use a multi-channel strategy that boosts sales and quickly boosts earnings.

The retailer benefits from knowing client behaviour and purchasing patterns since it lowers shop traffic, lowers costs, and spurs the market's expansion. Mobile phone adoption is increasing, which boosts e-commerce and raises demand in the market. The retail sector is generally impacted by the widespread use of the internet, which is also fueling the e-commerce business.

High costs associated with software setup and omnichannel retail commerce platform setup limit market expansion. The supply chain's complexity is impeding market expansion.

Small and medium-sized shops are anticipated to invest in this software, which might accelerate the expansion of the market, due to the expanding sophistication of technologies and the simple accessibility of necessary resources. This platform is utilised across a variety of industries and offers numerous omnichannel retail commerce platform chances to fuel the growth of the ORCP market.

Ask To Expert:

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/ask_for_schedule_call/6956



One of the tough aspects of the market is that inventory management and allocation end up being prioritised along the most busy channels, but there is a risk of missing orders from other, less frequent channels. Overestimating anticipated sales might result in dangerously large stock orders, which may be another difficult element impeding market expansion.

The deployment, solution, vertical, and geographic divisions of the global omnichannel retail commerce platform market study have all been taken into consideration.

Based on deployment, the omnichannel retail commerce platform business is divided into two categories: SaaS platforms and On-Premise implementation modes.

The global omnichannel retail commerce platform is divided into different solutions for order administration, e-commerce, warehouse management, point of sale, cloud service for retail order brokers, CRM, and others. E-commerce has the biggest market share of all of them.

The omnichannel retail commerce platform divides into FMCG, clothes and footwear, consumer electronics, and others based on vertical. The highest market share is being held by consumer electronics.

The regions that make up the global omnichannel retail commerce platform are Europe, Asia-Pacific, North America, and the rest of the globe. The high level of digitization is likely to provide North America the highest market share.

Check for Discount:

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/6956



Regional divisions of the globe's omnichannel retail commerce platform market include North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the rest of the world. North America is expected to contribute a sizable portion of the market for omnichannel retail commerce platforms due to its high degree of digitization and rising online sales relative to offline sales. Also, as compared to other regions, this region's retailers use omnichannel commerce solutions at a rather high rate.

Asia-Pacific is anticipated to grow at the highest rate due to the significant e-commerce sector and the use of click and collect systems. The expansion of the internet retail industry could drive market expansion. The market is expanding as a result of rising demand for omnichannel platforms in developing nations like China, Japan, and India. Also, it is anticipated that Europe will expand significantly, and that the Middle East, Africa, and South America would eventually contribute to market expansion through their profitable potential.

Related Reports:

Private Cloud Services Market Research Report Global Forecast till 2030

Metaverse Market Research Report - Global Forecast till 2030

Live Streaming Market Research Report - Global Forecast till 2030

About Market Research Future:

Market Research Future (MRFR) is a global market research company that takes pride in its services, offering a complete and accurate analysis regarding diverse markets and consumers worldwide. Market Research Future has the distinguished objective of providing the optimal quality research and granular research to clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help answer your most important questions.
New York, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to The Insight Partners,  Data Collection and Labeling Market Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Global Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis by Data Type (Text, Image/Video, Audio); Vertical (Information Technology, Automotive, Government, Healthcare, BFSI, Retail and E-commerce, Others) and Geography, the global data collection and labeling market growth is driven by increasing usage of smartphones & internet services and growing use of machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), and big data.





Download Sample PDF Brochure of Data Collection and Labeling Size - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis with Strategic Insights at: https://www.theinsightpartners.com/sample/TIPRE00011529





Global Data Collection and Labeling Market  Report Scope:

Market Size Value in USD 1.82 Billion in 2021 Market Size Value by USD 9.07 Billion by 2028 Growth rate CAGR of 27.2% from 2022 to 2028 Forecast Period 2022-2028 Base Year 2021 No. of Pages 150 Historical data available Yes Segments covered Data Type, Vertical, and Geography Regional scope North America; Europe; Asia Pacific; Latin America; MEA Country scope US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Australia, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Argentina Report coverage Revenue forecast, company ranking, competitive landscape, growth factors, and trends





Global Data Collection and Labeling Market - Key Companies:

During the study, Alegion Inc., Appen Limited, Dobility Inc., IBM Corporation, and Reality Analytics Inc. were among the data collection and labeling market players profiled. The research study also analyzed several other major players in the market to gain a comprehensive understanding of the data collection and labeling market and its ecosystem.





Global Data Collection and Labeling Market Overview:

Data labeling involves assigning a unique label to each collected data, which helps group it into a specific category. For example, all images containing people's faces are separated, and each individual in those images is identified and tagged with a name. This process is performed for huge amounts of data, containing various identifiers and millions of labels. ML models identify data vectors and provide predictions based on the labels attached to a data pointer. Any labeling errors can result in inaccurate models. Solutions provided by data collection and labeling market players can help mitigate these challenges and significantly improve the efficiency of ML models.





Inquiry Before Purchase at: https://www.theinsightpartners.com/inquiry/TIPRE00011529





Global Data Collection and Labeling Market Growth Dynamics:

The increasing usage of smartphones and internet services has brought about a significant change in the business industry. As a result, social media marketing has seen a steady rise and businesses are using data collected from these platforms to promote their products and enhance their operations. In today's business landscape, data from various sources, including social media, is a key driver of business intelligence strategies. This trend has led to an increase in data generation and utilization, which is expected to drive the growth of the data collection and labeling market. The data collection and labeling market is being driven by the growing use of machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), and big data. This involves integrating data annotators, software, and various processes to create a base for an ML model. The quality of data fed to the model is crucial as ML models reflect their input data. Data can be in various forms such as audio, text, images, or video. However, collecting, sorting, and labeling such data can be a time-consuming and costly process.

The success of the data collection and labeling market is largely attributed to the innovative solutions provided by its players. A significant trend is the shift from on-premise to cloud-based solutions, with the development of cloud-based automated image organization being a particularly appealing feature. This solution can quickly identify and group images, providing a seamless user experience in a fraction of the time. Moreover, data collection and labeling market players are collaborating with enterprises to create customized solutions, while AI-driven data labeling platforms are experiencing high demand. For instance, Heartex, Inc. secured almost US$ 25 million in funding in May 2022 to develop such a platform. The use of solutions developed by data collection and labeling market players is most prominent in the information technology, retail, and e-commerce industries. In particular, retail and e-commerce heavily rely on social media marketing, which has changed the way consumers research products, made purchases, and engage with their favorite brands. These digital touchpoints have also changed the frequency and speed with which consumers share feedback about their retail experiences with their peers.

The data collection and labeling market is expected to grow due to the increasing digital browsing and purchasing in the retail and e-commerce industry, which has led to a rise in expenditure on data analytics for consumer and business insights. In addition, the IT and telecom industry is embracing data collection and labeling solutions to gain a competitive edge. Quantzig and MVNO Analytics are some companies aiding the IT and telecom industry to gather insightful data from social media platforms for business growth. These trends and factors are expected to drive the growth of the data collection and labeling market.





Buy Premium Copy of Data Collection and Labeling Market Growth Report (2022-2028) at: https://www.theinsightpartners.com/buy/TIPRE00011529









Browse other research published by The Insight Partners:

Data Classification Market - The global data classification market size was valued at US$ 568.80 million in 2019 and is projected to reach US$ 3,577.49 million by 2027. The Data classification market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 27.6% from 2020 to 2027.

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) Market - The global electronic data interchange (EDI) market size was valued at US$ 24640.3 million in 2019 and is projected to reach US$ 49213.1 million by 2027. The Electronic data interchange (EDI) market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 9.5% during the forecast period of 2020 to 2027.

Data Wrangling Market - The global data wrangling market size is expected to reach US$ 6,034.4 million by 2027, rising from US$ 1,377.8 million in 2019. The growth rate for revenue curve is estimated to be 20.9% during the forecast period.

Data Fabric Market - The global data fabric market size is projected to reach US$ 2,466.12 million by 2028 from US$ 1,241.04 million in 2021; it is estimated to register a CAGR of 10.3% during 20212028.

Electronic Shelf Label Market - The global electronic shelf label Market size was valued at US$ 464.7 Mn in 2019 and is projected to reach US$ 1577.6 Mn by 2027; it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 16.9% from 2020 to 2027.

Label Printer Market - The global label printer market size was valued at US$ 4,715.4 million in 2019 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.3% during the forecast period 2020-2027 and reach US$ 7,494.4 million by 2027.

Data Annotation Tools Market - The global data annotation tools market size expected to grow from US$ 897.5 million in 2020 to US$ 6,450.0 million by 2027; it is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 32.54% from 2020 to 2027.

Inventory Tags Market - The global inventory tags market size was valued at US$ 4,995.36 million in 2020 and is projected to reach US$ 7,264.42 million by 2028; it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.0% during 20212028.

Data Center Infrastructure Management Market - The global data center infrastructure management market size is expected to grow from US$ 1,881.60 million in 2021 to US$ 5,781.80 million by 2028; it is estimated to register a CAGR of 15.4% from 2021 to 2028.

Customer Data Platform Market - The global customer data platform market size was valued at US$ 2,672.5 Mn in 2021 and it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 28.2% between 2022 and 2028.









About Us:

The Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We specialize in industries such as Semiconductor and Electronics, Aerospace and Defense, Automotive and Transportation, Biotechnology, Healthcare IT, Manufacturing and Construction, Medical Device, Technology, Media and Telecommunications, Chemicals and Materials.

Contact Us:

If you have any queries about this report or if you would like further information, please contact us:




Re item (7):



The Board of Directors proposes to amend the authorization to the Board of Directors under article 3.13 in the articles of association to the following wording:





"The Board of Directors is authorized during the period until 31 December 2024 on one or more occasions to issue up to 9,000,000 warrants each conferring the right to subscribe one share of nominal DKK 1.00 share against cash contribution and to effect the corresponding increase(s) of the share capital with up to nominal DKK 9,000,000 shares. Warrants may be issued to Members of Management, including the Board of Directors and Executive Management, and other Employees and Consultants of the Company and its subsidiaries, if any, without pre-emptive rights for the Companys shareholders.





New shares issued pursuant to the above authorization shall:







be subscribed for against cash payment of the full subscription amount;

not be negotiable instruments;

be set out in the name of the holder;

be subject to the same restrictions on transferability as the existing shares of the company;

in all other respects carry the same rights and privileges as the shares existing in the Company at the date of the adoption of this authorization; and the Board of Directors will determine all other terms and conditions for the warrants, which are issued pursuant to this authorization, including the exercise price."







Re item (8):



The Board of Directors proposes re-election of KPMG P/S as the Auditor of the Company.







Proxy



Proxies may represent a shareholder at the general meeting. In this case, the Company must receive a proxy no later than Wednesday 15 March 2023 at 4:00 pm CET on tff@europeanenergy.com.







Date: 1 March 2023









Kind regards,







The Board of Directors of European Energy A/S
Dublin, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Atomic Clock Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Type and Application" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The atomic clock market is expected to reach US$ 745.79 million by 2028. It is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 6.5% during 2022-2028.



The cesium atomic clock market demand is rising due to the growing need for improved precision in radio astronomy labs and metrology. Also, military, aerospace, and navigation satellites are among the critical applications for cesium atomic clocks, where they are used for the measurement of pulsar stability, differential GPS (DGPS), geographical exploration, global positioning systems (GPS), geology, palaeontology, archaeology, and environmental studies.

The US is the largest producer of cesium atomic clocks which is propelling the regional atomic clock market growth. China and Japan are major countries producing cesium atomic clocks in Asia Pacific. Moreover, two significant firms offering cesium atomic clocks are Microchip and Oscilloquartz.

Also, Microsemi is the only commercial supplier of cesium beam-tube clocks, used in national laboratories across the world. Further, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has developed its own cesium atomic clock ensemble. Moreover, ISRO has been working on high precision atomic clocks based on rubidium. Such factors are bolstering the atomic clock market size.



With the increasing number of consumers, telecommunication network providers require highly precise clocks for digital signals to be transmitted effectively. Compared to hydrogen maser atomic clocks, the cesium beam has a higher holdover, while hydrogen maser atomic clocks are more effective in size and power consumption. Therefore, the cost of hydrogen maser atomic clock is higher than the cesium beams atomic clock, which fuels the demand for atomic clock market.

In addition, due to its high technology learning curve, hydrogen maser atomic clock manufacturing is a stringent process. The key requirements for the manufacture of these clocks are the highly-priced rare elements and the availability of technical workers. These are the main reasons for the reduction in the number of hydrogen maser atomic clock producers. However, the larger companies engaged in high technology production can enter the hydrogen maser atomic clock market size with the passage of time and increasing demand.



At present, most of the applications for communication, navigation, financial transactions, distributed cloud, and defense rely on the accurate timing of atomic clocks or clocks that track time based on the highest degrees of atom oscillation accuracy. New applications and technologies such as 5G networks and GPS alternatives will need accurate timekeeping on portable platforms, which would propel the demand for high performance miniaturized atomic clock market.

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has invested a huge amount in the advancement and miniaturization of atomic clock market share over the past few decades, generating commercially available chip-scale atomic clocks (CSACs) and offering unprecedented timing stability in regards with size, weight, and power (SWaP). However, the physics associated with their designs limit the performance of first-generation CSACs. For instance, timing errors can be created by calibration requirements and frequency drift, which makes it difficult to achieve the highest degrees of precision and reliability in a portable package. Thus, next-generation chip-scale atomic clock (CSACs)/miniaturization is anticipated to provide opportunities to the atomic clock market players during the forecast period.



The growth of the atomic clock market in Europe is attributed to the increasing number of projects focusing on atomic clock development. In May 2022, AccuBeat (a leading provider of Rubidium oscillators, Time Servers, and GPS disciplined atomic clock) announced that it was selected to develop and produce an Ultra Stable Oscillator (USO) for the European Space Agency's (ESA) JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) mission as Space missions and deep space exploration programs rely on high precision atomic clocks. Europe has the presence of satellite communication solutions providers such as Satcom Global Ltd and Holkirk Communications Ltd. However, the onboard atomic clocks driving satellite-navigation signals on the European Galileo network have noticeably failed, and 9 clocks have stopped working on the 18 satellites in orbit. These factors hinder the growth of the atomic clock market player's businesses in Europe.



China is one of the most significant revenue contributors to the atomic clock market in APAC. China led the APAC atomic clock market with a share of 37.28% in 2021. It declared the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) official commissioning in July 2020, marking it formally available for global users. More than 400 agencies and 300,000 research personnel and technicians are involved in the BDS system. The China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), a satellite developer, has brought together leading experts and manufacturers across the country and integrated the most advanced technologies and high-quality materials and products for the project. Rubidium atomic clocks provide BDS satellites with time and frequency standards, and these clocks play vital role in the system's positioning, speed measurement, and timing accuracy.

More than 100 rubidium atomic clocks, including 70 high-precision clocks, have been delivered to the BDS program by the Xi'an branch in the last two decades. Further, APAC is anticipated to register the highest CAGR in the global atomic clock market during the forecast period. The rise in the use of atomic clocks in satellite antennas in the aviation, telecommunications, and broadcasting applications in countries such as India and China is anticipated to boost the region's atomic clock market growth during the forecast period.



The ongoing developments in the atomic clock market are driving the market growth. In November 2022, China launched its lab module called Mengtian as a part of its ambitious space station currently under construction. Mengtian is set to carry the world's first space-based set of cold atomic clocks consisting of a hydrogen clock, a rubidium clock, and an optical clock.



The global atomic clock market is segmented on the basis of type and application. Based on type, the market is segmented into rubidium atomic clock and CSAC, cesium atomic clock, and hydrogen maser atomic clock. Based on application, the market is segmented into space and military/aerospace, scientific and metrology research, telecom/broadcasting, and others.





Market Dynamics

Market Drivers

Increasing Need for a High Precision Atomic Clock in Aerospace and Military

High Demand from Metrology Stations Owing to Time-Sensitive Applications

Market Restraints

High Cost and Complexities Associated with Atomic Clocks

Market Opportunities

Next-Generation Chip-Scale Atomic Clocks (CSACs)

Emerging Digital Infrastructure and 5G Base Stations

Future Trends

Atomic Clocks based on Optical Lattices of Strontium, Ytterbium and Gadolinium Atoms

Report Attribute Details No. of Pages 146 Forecast Period 2022 - 2028 Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2022 $511.54 Million Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2028 $745.79 Million Compound Annual Growth Rate 6.5% Regions Covered Global



A selection of companies mentioned in this report includes





AccuBeat Ltd

Excelitas Technologies Corp

IQD Frequency Products Ltd

Leonardo SpA

Microchip Technology Inc

Orolia

Oscilloquartz SA

Stanford Research Systems Inc

Tekron

VREMYA-CH JSC





For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/shqwft-clock?w=12

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

Attachment
OKLAHOMA CITY, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Homebuilders have had their ups and downs since the start of the pandemic. Despite the change in the market, Oklahoma home builder Homes by Taber continues to receive recognition on a national scale.

Home Builder Executive Magazine has released their yearly list and has ranked Homes by Taber at #40. Home Builder Executive Magazine releases an annual ranking of home builders across the nation based on the number of closings in the given year. With only the best builders mentioned on the list, it is an honor to be recognized.

This achievement declares Homes by Taber as the highest-ranking builder in Oklahoma. With 857 closings in 2022, the home builder significantly moved up in rankings from #61 in 2021 to #40 in 2022. Homes by Taber continues to outrank competitors in the state for multiple years in a row because of their significant customer support and included features home shoppers long for.

No wonder the builder continues to excel, no matter the market climate. Since 2000, Homes by Taber has built their reputation with the value, quality, and features in their homes that mirror what homebuyers want most. It is what not only sets the builder apart from other Oklahoma builders, but also from most other nationally ranked builders on the list. The builder continuously analyzes buyer trends and reviews to provide optimal features included in every home with no additional cost to the customer. Some of these popular features currently include a tornado shelter, smart sprinkler system, covered patio, wood-like tile, and more. The Proudly Overbuilt phrase not only serves as a motto but as a promise to the thousands of current Taber homeowners and potential buyers on the horizon.

Homes by Taber looks forward to continuing to serve customers with the elevated level of service and included features that Oklahoman's deserve in 2023 with new communities, floor plans, and features to be released throughout the year.

Contact Information:

Lindsay Haltom

Director of Marketing

lindsay@homesbytaber.com

4055090670



Related Images











Image 1: Homes by Taber Model Home





Fully Staged, Award Winning Model Home in The Cove at Nichols Creek; A Piedmont Schools Community









This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com.

Attachment
Dublin, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Test Benches Market Size, Share & Industry Trends Analysis Report By Component (Hardware and Software), By Application, By Test Material (Valve, Motors, Furniture), By Type, By Test Stands, By Regional Outlook and Forecast, 2022 - 2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The Global Test Benches Market size is expected to reach $1.6 billion by 2028, rising at a market growth of 4.9% CAGR during the forecast period.

Key Market Players

Robert Bosch GmbH

Nidec Corporation

Ametek, Inc.

dSPACE GmbH

PPT Group (Mecmesin)

Kern & Sohn GmbH

IMADA, Inc.

MCD Elektronik GmbH

Blum-Novotest GmbH

Haven Automation Ltd.

Test benches are supporting equipment that is utilized to physically test a device or component before assembling. In the case of mass production, these are frequently used to check that quality standards are met by testing samples.

As a support tool for testing personnel, these benches make sure that products are tested in accordance with predetermined criteria and that the testing procedure is repeatable and consistent with the established quality standards.



In some applications, test benches are used to inspect the component while also assembling it in the final product. Before installing and commissioning their products, test benches assist manufacturers in customizing their offerings to meet specific performance requirements. The performance of such products in the field is also enhanced by the testing benches. It is anticipated that these elements will increase the demand for test benches.



Over the forecast period, the market is anticipated to grow as test benches are increasingly used in a variety of industrial applications, including automotive & transportation, power generation and utilities, semiconductor and electronics, and industrial manufacturing. Test benches aid manufacturers in ensuring product quality, extending product life, and comprehending component limitations.



Product testing during the research & development stage and retesting prior to delivery, aid in reducing the number of issues related to the product's quality. Additionally, testing benches aid in accelerating the cycle of innovation and improving productivity and cost-efficiency. This is predicted to increase demand for the product. Before assembling the circuit boards and other electronic components, manufacturers can test and examine them due to the use of test benches in the electronics industry.



COVID-19 Impact Analysis



A significant production slowdown resulted from the temporary suspension of manufacturing operations across key manufacturing hubs. As public gatherings and travel are increasingly restricted, people are becoming notably more isolated.

The COVID-19 pandemic is having impacted supply chain delays and stock market volatility. It directly affected test bench demand and production, disrupting the market and supply chain. During the pandemic, the use of test benches is halted as several manufacturing facilities closed, which has an adverse effect on the test bench market size.



Market Growth Factors

Increase In Use Of Test Bench In The Automotive Industry



The use of test benches in manufacturing processes is constantly increasing. Only the most important features and functions are tested when manufacturing and assembly test benches, also referred to as production test benches. The objective is to use quick testing procedures. It aids in confirming a design or model's accuracy or soundness. Testing and control of the manufacturing process is necessary to guarantee high quality.



Stiffening Of Emissions Regulations To Protect The Environment



The trend is toward the development of test apparatus and its application to gauge emission levels legally. The amount of NOx emissions from diesel vehicles that are allowed, has been reduced by ten times dueto six laws.

Every vehicle is required to abide by emission standards. To determine whether a vehicle complies with industry standards, the vehicle emission test system is used. In addition, a test bench and associated software can aid in determining the level of emissions produced by passenger cars while also increasing fuel efficiency.



Market Restraining Factors

Insufficient R&D Resources For Automotive Test Equipment



The strict regulations are governing gaseous emissions from vehicle exhaust and the growing requirement for routine, periodic technical inspections. Government wants to reduce the harmful environmental effects that light-duty and passenger vehicles cause. OEMs have been forced to test their vehicles effectively to make sure they comply with the many strict emission norms & regulations that have been mandated throughout the world. Different kinds of test benches are needed for contemporary vehicles with hybrid powertrains, such as hybrid cars.

Key Topics Covered:



Chapter 1. Market Scope & Methodology



Chapter 2. Market Overview

2.1 Introduction

2.1.1 Overview

2.1.1.1 Market Composition & Scenario

2.2 Key Factors Impacting the Market

2.2.1 Market Drivers

2.2.2 Market Restraints



Chapter 3. Strategies deployed in Test Benches Market



Chapter 4. Global Test Benches Market by Component

4.1 Global Hardware Market by Region

4.2 Global Software Market by Region



Chapter 5. Global Test Benches Market by Application

5.1 Global Automotive & Transportation Market by Region

5.2 Global Semiconductor & Electronics Market by Region

5.3 Global Industrial Manufacturing & Engineering Market by Region

5.4 Global Power Generation & Utilities Market by Region

5.5 Global Oil & Gas Market by Region

5.6 Global Others Market by Region



Chapter 6. Global Test Benches Market by Test Material

6.1 Global Valve Market by Region

6.2 Global Motors Market by Region

6.3 Global Furniture Market by Region

6.4 Global Others Market by Region



Chapter 7. Global Test Benches Market by Type

7.1 Global Valve Test Benches Market by Region

7.2 Global Force Test Bench Market by Region

7.3 Global Torque Test Bench Market by Region

7.4 Global Others Market by Region



Chapter 8. Global Test Benches Market by Test Stands

8.1 Global Motorized Test Stands Market by Region

8.2 Global Manual Test Stands Market by Region



Chapter 9. Global Test Benches Market by Region



Chapter 10. Company Profiles

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/l6ea8j-test?w=12-test?w=12

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

Attachment
Dublin, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Wallpaper Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report by Product (Vinyl, Nonwoven, Paper, Fabric), by End Use (Residential, Commercial), by Region, and Segment Forecasts, 2022-2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The global wallpaper market size is expected to reach USD 2.44 billion by 2030. The market is anticipated to register a CAGR of 4.3% from 2022 to 2030.

Companies Mentioned

Sangetsu Corporation

York Wall Coverings Inc.

Brewster Wallpaper Corporation

F. Schumacher & Co.

as Creation Tapeten Ag.

Osborne & Little

the Romo Group

Grandeco

4Walls

Asian Paints

The growth is primarily driven by the rising disposable income, the growing trend of home remodeling, and the major initiatives taken by market players to offer a variety of products. Commercial uses of wallpaper in hotels, restaurants, and hospitals across the globe are expected to boost the growth of the residential wallpaper industry.



The market is highly competitive due to the presence of a high number of companies with vast strong brand images, geographic presence, and wide distribution networks. Market players are expected to increase their focus on innovation with increasing R&D activities. For instance, in September 2020, AS Creation Tapeten AG revised the online shop with new functions like motifs and room configurators. These functions allow digital prints to be applied to individual walls and wallpapers.



Key players in the industry are concentrating on the launch of eco-friendly and aesthetically pleasing wallpaper in different designs and styles. Consumers are preferring peel and stick wallpapers as these are easy to use. Various firms are implementing strategies such as partnerships and acquisitions to gain market share. For instance, Blik Inc. introduced new self-adhesive removable wallpapers with new designs and sizes for interiors and exteriors, accelerating the sales of removable wallpaper.



North America held the largest revenue share in 2021, owing to the rise in the inclination of people in North America toward home renovation projects that includes personalizing according to their needs and recent trends. For instance, according to a remodeling survey from the National Association of Home Builders, 40% of the houses in North America are more than 50 years old anticipating there will be an increase in renovation spending in the coming years.



Additionally, the rising number of hypermarkets, specialty food stores, and supermarkets across the globe has significantly boosted the adoption of Residential Wallpapers. According to the Food Institute, Costco is expected to open around 22 new warehouses each year, with 75% of them located in the U.S. The retailer also plans to open three new stores in Bradenton, Florida; Bismarck, North Dakota; and Plainfield, Illinois. Similarly, Walmart invested billions in new stores and improvements throughout 2019.



Wallpaper Market Report Highlights

Vinyl-based wallpaper was valued at USD 610.4 million in 2021 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 3.0% from 2022 to 2030. The demand for vinyl-based wallpaper can be attributed to a high preference for these products in the residential and commercial sectors

The nonwoven segment is expected to witness a substantial CAGR of around 4.8% from 2022 to 2030. Nonwoven wallpapers remain stable in dry and humid conditions when combined with the printing solution. These wallpapers provide an ideal mix of natural and synthetic fibers which are utilized for producing coffee filters, tea bags, and gauze

Asia Pacific was valued a USD 348.9 million in 2021 and is expected to register a CAGR of over 5.0% over the forecast period. The region's hospitality sector is booming as it is one of the popular travel destinations owing to the diversity provided in this region.

Report Metrics

Report Attribute Details No. of Pages 83 Forecast Period 2022 - 2030 Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2022 $1.73 Billion Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2030 $2.44 Billion Compound Annual Growth Rate 4.3% Regions Covered Global

Key Topics Covered:



Chapter 1. Methodology and Scope



Chapter 2. Executive Summary



Chapter 3. Wallpaper Market Variables, Trends & Scope

3.1. Market Introduction

3.2. Penetration & Growth Prospect Mapping

3.3. Impact of COVID-19 on the Wallpaper Market

3.4. Industry Value Chain Analysis

3.4.1. Sales/Retail Channel Analysis

3.4.2. Profit Margin Analysis

3.5. Market Dynamics

3.5.1. Market Driver Analysis

3.5.2. Market Restraint Analysis

3.5.3. Industry Challenges

3.5.4. Industry Opportunities

3.6. Business Environment Analysis

3.7. Roadmap of Wallpaper Market

3.8. Market Entry Strategies

3.9. COVID Impact on the Wallpaper Market



Chapter 4. Consumer Behavior Analysis

4.1. Demographic Analysis

4.2. Consumer Trends and Preferences

4.3. Factors Affecting Buying Decision

4.4. Consumer Product Adoption

4.5. Observations & Recommendations



Chapter 5. Wallpaper Market: Product Estimates & Trend Analysis

5.1. Product Movement Analysis & Market Share, 2021 & 2030

5.2. Vinyl

5.2.1. Market estimates and forecast, 2017 - 2030 (USD Million)

5.3. Nonwoven

5.3.1. Market estimates and forecast, 2017 - 2030 (USD Million)

5.4. Paper

5.4.1. Market estimates and forecast, 2017 - 2030 (USD Million)

5.5. Fabric

5.5.1. Market estimates and forecast, 2017 - 2030 (USD Million)

5.6. Others

5.6.1. Market estimates and forecast, 2017 - 2030 (USD Million)



Chapter 6. Wallpaper Market: End-use Estimates & Trend Analysis

6.1. End-use Movement Analysis & Market Share, 2021 & 2030

6.2. Residential

6.2.1. Market estimates and forecast, 2017 - 2030 (USD Million)

6.3. Commercial

6.3.1. Market estimates and forecast, 2017 - 2030 (USD Million)



Chapter 7. Wallpaper Market: Regional Estimates & Trend Analysis



Chapter 8. Competitive Analysis

8.1. Key global players, recent developments & their impact on the industry

8.2. Key Company/Competition Categorization (Key innovators, Market leaders, Emerging players)

8.3. Vendor Landscape

8.3.1. Key company market share analysis, 2021



Chapter 9. Company Profiles

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/gyjjuf-market?w=12

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

Attachment
Dublin, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Saudi Arabia Social Commerce Market Intelligence and Future Growth Dynamics Databook - 50+ KPIs on Social Commerce Trends by End-Use Sectors, Operational KPIs, Retail Product Dynamics, and Consumer Demographics - Q1 2023 Update" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



Social commerce industry in Saudi Arabia is expected to grow by 35.0% on annual basis to reach US$1337.3 million in 2023.



The social commerce industry is expected to grow steadily over the forecast period, recording a CAGR of 21.7% during 2022-2028. The social commerce GMV in the country will increase from US$1337.3 million in 2023 to reach US$4351.2 million by 2028.



This report provides a detailed data centric analysis of social commerce industry, covering market opportunities and risks. With over 50+ KPIs at country level, this report provides a comprehensive understanding of social commerce market dynamics, market size and forecast, and market share statistics.



The research methodology is based on industry best practices. Its unbiased analysis leverages a proprietary analytics platform to offer a detailed view on emerging business and investment market opportunities.

Reasons to buy

In-depth Understanding of Social Commerce Market Dynamics: Understand market opportunities and key trends along with forecast (2019-2028).

Insights into Opportunity by end-use sectors - Get market dynamics by end-use sectors to assess emerging opportunity across various end-use sectors.

Develop Market Specific Strategies: Identify growth segments and target specific opportunities to formulate social commerce strategy; assess market specific key trends, drivers, and risks in the industry.

Scope



Saudi Arabia Ecommerce Industry Market Size and Future Growth Dynamics by Key Performance Indicators, 2019-2028

Saudi Arabia Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Future Growth Dynamics by Key Performance Indicators, 2019-2028

Saudi Arabia Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Retail Product Categories, 2019-2028

Clothing & Footwear

Beauty and Personal Care

Food & Grocery

Appliances and Electronics

Home Improvement

Travel

Hospitality

Saudi Arabia Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by End Use Segment, 2019-2028

B2B

B2C

C2C

Saudi Arabia Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by End Use Device, 2019-2028

Mobile

Desktop

Saudi Arabia Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Location, 2019-2028

Domestic

Cross Border

Saudi Arabia Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Location, 2019-2028

Tier-1 Cities

Tier-2 Cities

Tier-3 Cities

Saudi Arabia Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Payment Method, 2019-2028

Credit Card

Debit Card

Bank Transfer

Prepaid Card

Digital & Mobile Wallet

Other Digital Payment

Cash

Saudi Arabia Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Platforms

Video Commerce

Social Network-Led Commerce

Social Reselling

Group Buying

Product Review Platforms

Saudi Arabia Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Consumer Demographics & Behaviour,2022

By Age

By Income Level

By Gender

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/yhbsok-arabia?w=12

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.
NEW YORK, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Dutch Bros Inc. (Dutch or the Company) (NYSE: BROS). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at newaction@pomlaw.com or 888-476-6529, ext. 7980.



The investigation concerns whether Dutch Bros and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.

[Click here for information about joining the class action]

On February 23, 2023, Hedgeye published a note adding Dutch Bros as a new short idea, stating that [t]he relentless focus on excessive unity growth and not balancing that with profitability can create long-term issues for the company and that [w]e dont see the company generating enough [operating cash flow] to cover capital spending until FY2026 (and that might be a generous assumption).

On this news, Dutch Bros stock price fell $3.97 per share, or 10.45%, to close at $34.02 per share on February 23, 2023.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, and Paris is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com .
Oakland, California, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Visit Oakland announces the return of its popular Oakland Restaurant Week, March 16-26, 2023. Featuring specially-designed dining experiences and offers from more than 110 participating restaurants, from local gems and food trucks, to Michelin-starred restaurants and newly opened eateriesits 10 days of lunch and dinner specials, and infinite possibilities of deliciousness. Diners are invited to support local restaurants and literally Feast Your Way through the East Bay.

Launched in 2010, Oakland Restaurant Week is an annual dining promotion presented by Visit Oakland, a non-profit organization marketing Oakland, California as a travel destination. The 10-day celebration highlights the flavors of Oakland and is designed to support local establishments, enticing diners with menu offerings and experiences made available only during the 10 days from March 16-26, 2023.

Oakland Restaurant Week is about celebrating our diverse collection of restaurants and the talented chefs that give our culinary scene its vibrancy commented Peter Gamez, President & CEO, Visit Oakland. With more than 110 restaurants participating, its a great opportunity to come to Oakland and stay for a day or two. There is so much to see and do in Oakland and we look forward to welcoming everyone to The Town.

Oakland Restaurant Week is offered at no cost for any and all Oakland restaurants to participate. Participating restaurants create new and unique offerings from family-style dinners, special menu items, prix fixe menus, ingredient-driven tastings and more. Its an invitation for the community, locals and visitors alike to Eat. Drink. Repeat.

The community and fabric of Oakland is made up of culturally-distinct neighborhoods, inspiring an incredibly creative food scene of unexpected pairings and fusion-style flavors. Favorite foodie hot-spots include Jack London Square and Temescal to Uptown and Fruitvale, to name a few. Featured restaurants include: Bardo Lounge & Supper Club, Calavera Mexican Kitchen & Bar, Chop Bar, Horn Barbecue, Left Bank Brasserie, Occitania, Odin Mezcaleria, Parche, Saucy Oakland, Town Fare Cafe, Vegan Mob and Wahpepah's Kitchen and more.

All Oakland Restaurant Week participants will feature lunch and/or dinner menus at six different price points:

Lunch: $15, $25, $35

Dinner: $35, $45, $65

Complete lists of participating hotels, restaurants, menus, special events, and reservations are available on OaklandRestaurantWeek.org. Hotel partners include: The Kissel, Marriott City Center, Courtyard Marriott, and The Waterfront. Other partners include: 7x7, AC Transit, Audacy / KCBS, Bartable, Bay Area News Group (East Bay Times), Best Version Media, Cityside, Diablo Magazine, Local Getaways, Money Pages, Oakland Airport, OpenTable, San Francisco Bay Times, San Francisco Magazine.

Participating restaurants will be searchable by neighborhood, cuisine, meal type, and price point. Through a partnership with OpenTable, reservations (strongly recommended) can be made directly from the Oakland Restaurant Week page.

About Visit Oakland

Visit Oakland is a non-profit organization marketing Oakland, California as a travel destination. Visit Oakland offers a wide variety of complimentary services and materials for travelers interested in visiting Oakland. For more information, check out visitoakland.com. Want to share the Oakland love with the world?

Follow @visitoakland on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.

PHOTOS Dropbox

CONTACT Beth Schnitzer | 917.287.7064 | beth@spritzsf.com

SOCIAL FB @VisitOakland | IG @VisitOakland | LinkedIn | YouTube

HASHTAGS #ORW23 #ORW23 #oaklandrestaurantweek #orw #oaklandsmallbusiness #oaklandfoodie #oaklandeats #oaklandrestaurants #keepitoakland #OaklandLetsEat #FeastYourWay

Attachments
Farmington, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Global Baby Care Products Market Size Was Valued At USD 204.75 Billion In 2021. The Market Is Projected To Grow From USD 215.13 Billion In 2022 To USD 331.92 Billion By 2030, Exhibiting A CAGR Of 6.40% During The Forecast Period. The COVID-19 pandemic has been shocking and unprecedented on a worldwide scale. As a result, compared to levels prior to the pandemic, demand for baby care products has been higher than anticipated in all regions. In comparison to 2019, the global market grew by 4.21% in 2020, per our research.

Items like baby oil, baby shampoo, baby powder, diapers, baby wipes, baby seat and safety items, baby food, baby clothing, and baby toys are all considered to be part of the category of baby care products. The growth of the market is significantly influenced by the number of babies born each year. The market grew in 2021 as more and more people wanted baby care kits to ensure the health of their infants in both developed and developing nations.

Request Sample Copy of Report  Baby Care Products Market Size, Share & Trends Estimation Report By Product Type (Cosmetics & Toiletries, Baby Food, Baby Safety & Convenience, and Others), By End-user (Infants and Toddlers), By Sales Channel (Online and Offline), By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2023 - 2030 , published by Contrive Datum Insights.

Recent Developments:

July 2022 - US-based brand Johnson & Johnson launched a new skin and hair care brand for babies called "Vivvi & Bloom". The brand offers shampoos, body lotions and body massage oils for babies and toddlers. The brand launched its products to meet the growing needs of millennial parents for their young children. The product is also available on ecommerce platforms like Amazon and Flipkart.

- US-based brand Johnson & Johnson launched a new skin and hair care brand for babies called "Vivvi & Bloom". The brand offers shampoos, body lotions and body massage oils for babies and toddlers. The brand launched its products to meet the growing needs of millennial parents for their young children. The product is also available on ecommerce platforms like Amazon and Flipkart. April 2022 - German premium skincare brand Sanosan Baby launched the Sanosan Baby Cleansing line in India, consisting of bath and shampoo, soap and wash foam. The exclusive range was launched in India in collaboration with the company's Indian partner, Glowderma.

Segment Overview

Product Type Insights

The market is divided into categories for infant food, safety and convenience for babies, cosmetics and toiletries, and other products based on the type of product. The cosmetics and toiletries sector controls the industry. The most widely used goods are infant shampoos, conditioners, soaps, and wipes because they are frequently applied to a baby's skin. These items are simple to use and effective for treating issues like diaper rashes, illnesses, and dryness. They can provide immediate hydration and revived epidermis, among other things. The growing number of young parents who are concerned about the security and comfort of their infants is one of the main factors boosting demand for makeup and toiletries.

The fastest-growing product area is baby food, which is produced for various age groups according to their nutritional requirements. Because more people spent money on high-quality baby foods that satisfied their nutritional needs in 2021, the market for baby food increased.

End-user Insights

Parents worry that their infants could easily come into contact with harmful bacteria and viruses that could harm their epidermis and overall health. During the forecast period, this market segment is anticipated to expand the fastest. Baby care kits help prevent infant illnesses, increasing demand for the product, particularly among infants. Because there was a greater demand for eco-friendly and premium baby goods in 2021, the market expanded more quickly.

Sales Channel Insights

In 2021, offline sales will surpass online sales in value as more supermarkets, hypermarkets, and specialty shops open across the globe and in multiple locations. Parents examine the product's details, test it out, and make a careful selection before making a purchase because they are concerned about the health and safety of their infants.

Online sales of baby products for parents are anticipated to increase significantly over the coming years, particularly with the emergence of e-commerce sites like Amazon and Flipkart. Because it is simple to discover products to choose from, there is a wealth of information about the product, and there are services that transport the product to your home, it is anticipated that online sales of baby products will increase during the forecast period.

Regional Outlook:

The largest market for baby goods is now Asia-Pacific. Due to the rapid and significant population growth in Asia, the Asia-Pacific industry is expanding. The most populous countries, China and India, are anticipated to support the industry. India and China are predicted to have the greatest birth rates in 2021 by UNICEF. This will have a significant impact on how quickly the market for baby care goods expands. In 2021, there will be a remarkable shift in the market as more people choose to live in cities and spend more money.

The region of the industry that is expanding second-fastest is North America. The use of strollers, car seats, baby monitors, and safety barriers is a major contributing factor to this. In the United States, the majority of parents purchase items for their infants that are nourishing. Safe, simple-to-digest newborn foods and improved infant formulas that have received FDA approval are in greater demand in the United States.

Europe is regarded as a strong market for baby products because parents in nations like Germany, Italy, the U.K., and France are becoming more knowledgeable about raising children. Due to high demand during COVID-19, sales of baby care items from well-known brands like Kimberly Clark increased in Europe. More people are searching for low-sugar baby foods to aid in teaching infants and children healthy eating habits, which is causing the industry in the area to expand.

Buy this Premium Research Report@

https://www.contrivedatuminsights.com/buy/248572

Scope of Report:

Report Attributes Details Growth Rate CAGR of 6.40% from 2023 to 2030. Revenue Forecast by 2030 USD 331.92 Billion By Product Type Cosmetics & Toiletries, Baby Food, Baby Safety & Convenience, Others By End-user Infants, Toddlers, Others By Sales Channel Online, Offline, Others By Companies Johnson & Johnson (U.S.), Kimberly-Clark Corporation (U.S.), The Himalaya Drug Company (India), Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) (U.S.), Honasa Consumer Private Limited (Mamaearth) (India), Beiersdorf AG (Germany), Sebapharma GmbH & Co. KG (Germany), Nestle S.A. (Switzerland), Unilever plc (U.K.), Essity AB (Sweden) Regions and Countries Covered North America: (US, Canada, Mexico, Rest of North America)

Europe(Germany, France, Italy, Spain, UK, Nordic Countries, Benelux Union, Rest of Europe)

Asia-Pacific (Japan, China, India, Australia, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Rest of Asia-Pacific)

The Middle East & Africa(Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, South Africa, Rest of the Middle East & Africa)

Latin America(Brazil, Argentina, Rest of Latin America)

Rest Of the World Base Year 2022 Historical Year 2017 to 2022 Forecast Year 2023 to 2030

Latest Trends:

The market will have an opportunity to expand if we can encourage more people to use organic and natural baby care products.

Natural or organic baby care products are created with safe, skin-friendly ingredients that have minimal to no side effects. Compared to elder children or adults, babies' skin is much more delicate and soft. By developing new products with organic ingredients, a number of new diaper companies have emerged in recent years to highlight the natural and organic advantages of cotton diapers. As an illustration, the Indian business Godrej Consumer Products Ltd. released Goodnessme in October 2021. For babies and infants with sensitive skin, it is a high-end line of baby care kits created with organic ingredients. Because organic products don't contain any chemicals or preservatives, they are healthier for a baby's skin and hair.

Driving Factors:

Because baby care products are getting better and better, the industry is expanding.

The market is expanding as more and more infant foods are produced using novel protein and fat combinations that are intended to support babies' brain development. Consumers must purchase more high-quality baby food items that provide babies with the nutrients they require in order to accelerate market development. For instance, the French firm Danone began offering pre-measured tabs of formula milk for sale in the United Kingdom in March 2021. The new formula milk tabs are simple to break up, making it simple and handy for moms to give their babies.

Restraining Factors:

Baby product sales will suffer because of chemicals in those goods.

A product is brought back from the customer when it is recalled because it is defective or may be hazardous. A maker or the government may request that a product be returned if it has safety issues. Recalls of products in the baby care industry can harm a company's brand image, which can reduce its customer base and sales. For instance, the American firm Johnson & Johnson announced in August 2022 that it would cease selling talc-based baby powder globally. The business was being sued for using the hazardous substance "asbestos" in its talc-based baby powder, which resulted in health issues like ovarian cancer and damaged the brand's image.

Key Segments Covered:

Top Market Players:

Johnson & Johnson (U.S.), Kimberly-Clark Corporation (U.S.), The Himalaya Drug Company (India), Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) (U.S.), Honasa Consumer Private Limited (Mamaearth) (India), Beiersdorf AG (Germany), Sebapharma GmbH & Co. KG (Germany), Nestle S.A. (Switzerland), Unilever plc (U.K.), Essity AB (Sweden), and others.

By Product Type

Cosmetic & Toiletries

Baby Food

Baby Safety & Convenience

Others

By End-user

Infants

Toddlers

Others

By Sales Channel

Online

Offline

Others

Regions and Countries Covered

North America: (US, Canada, Mexico, Rest of North America)

(US, Canada, Mexico, Rest of North America) Europe: (Germany, France, Italy, Spain, UK, Nordic Countries, Benelux Union, Rest of Europe)

(Germany, France, Italy, Spain, UK, Nordic Countries, Benelux Union, Rest of Europe) Asia-Pacific: (Japan, China, India, Australia, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Rest of Asia-Pacific)

(Japan, China, India, Australia, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Rest of Asia-Pacific) The Middle East & Africa: (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, South Africa, Rest of the Middle East & Africa)

(Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, South Africa, Rest of the Middle East & Africa) Latin America: (Brazil, Argentina, Rest of Latin America)

(Brazil, Argentina, Rest of Latin America) Rest Of the World

Check out more related studies published by Contrive Datum Insights:

Box Filling Machine Market - The global Box Filling Machine Market is expected to exceed US$ 104.3 million in 2022 to reach US$ 148.5 million by 2030, and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 3.6% during the forecast period 2022 to 2030.

- The global Box Filling Machine Market is expected to exceed US$ 104.3 million in 2022 to reach US$ 148.5 million by 2030, and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 3.6% during the forecast period 2022 to 2030. Dinnerwares Market - The global Dinnerwares market size was valued at USD 42.52 billion in 2022 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.0% over the forecast period 2023-2030.

- The global Dinnerwares market size was valued at USD 42.52 billion in 2022 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.0% over the forecast period 2023-2030. Flat Steel Market - The Global Flat Steel Market Size Was Valued At USD 504.46 Billion In 2021. The Market Is Projected To Grow From USD 526.89 Billion In 2022 To USD 783.71 Billion By 2030, Exhibiting A CAGR Of 5.8% During The Forecast Period.

Customization of the Report: The report can be customized as per client needs or requirements.For any queries, you can contact us on anna@contrivedatuminsights.com or +1 215-297-4078. Our sales executives will be happy to understand your needs and provide you with the most suitable reports.

About Us:

Contrive Datum Insights (CDI) is a global delivery partner of market intelligence and consulting services to officials at various sectors such as investment, information technology, telecommunication, consumer technology, and manufacturing markets. CDI assists investment communities, business executives, and IT professionals to undertake statistics-based accurate decisions on technology purchases and advance strong growth tactics to sustain market competitiveness. Comprising of a team size of more than 100 analysts and cumulative market experience of more than 200 years, Contrive Datum Insights guarantees the delivery of industry knowledge combined with global and country-level expertise.

Social: Facebook / LinkedIn / Twitter

Contact Us:

Anna B. | Head Of Sales

Contrive Datum Insights

Phone: +91 9834816757 | +1 2152974078

Email: anna@contrivedatuminsights.com
GUADALAJARA, Mexico, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico, S.A.B. de C.V., (NYSE: PAC; BMV: GAP) (the Company or GAP) announced the following:



Pursuant to a resolution adopted by our Board of Directors on February 20, 2023, and in accordance with Articles 180, 181, 182, and other applicable articles of the Mexican General Corporations Law and Article 35 of the Companys by-laws, GAP invites its shareholders to the General Ordinary and General Extraordinary Shareholders Meeting on April 13, 2023, at 12:00 and 2:00 pm, respectively, in Salon Midtown Ballroom 3, 3rd floor of the Hilton Hotel, located at Av. Lopez Mateos 2405-300, Col. Italia Providencia, Zip Code 44648, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, to discuss the following:

ANNUAL GENERAL ORDINARY SHAREHOLDERS MEETING

AGENDA

In compliance with Article 28, Section IV of the Mexican Securities Market Law, the following will be presented and, if applicable, submitted for approval: The Chief Executive Officers report regarding the results of operations for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022, in accordance with Article 44, Section XI of the Mexican Securities Market Law and Article 172 of the Mexican General Corporations Law, together with the external auditors report, with respect to the Company on an unconsolidated basis in accordance with Mexican Financial Reporting Standards (MFRS), as well as with respect to the Company and its subsidiaries on a consolidated basis in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), each based on the Companys most recent financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022, under both standards, as well as the 2022 Sustainability Report. Board of Directors opinion of the Chief Executive Officers report. Board of Directors report in accordance with Article 172, clause b, of the Mexican General Law of Commercial Corporations, regarding the Companys main accounting policies and criteria, as well as the information used to prepare the Companys financial statements. Report on transactions and activities undertaken by the Companys Board of Directors during the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022, pursuant to the Mexican Securities Market Law. The annual report on the activities undertaken by the Audit and Corporate Practices Committee in accordance with Article 43 of the Mexican Securities Market Law, as well as the ratification of the actions of the various committees, and release from further obligations. Report on the Companys compliance with tax obligations for the fiscal year from January 1 to December 31, 2021, and an instruction to Company officers to comply with tax obligations corresponding to the fiscal year from January 1 and ended December 31, 2022, in accordance with Article 26, Section III of the Mexican Fiscal Code. As a result of the reports in item I above, ratification of the actions of our Board of Directors and officers and release from further obligations in the fulfillment of their duties. Presentation, discussion, and submission for approval of the Companys financial statements for the fiscal year from January 1 to December 31, 2022, on an unconsolidated basis, in accordance with MFRS for purposes of calculating legal reserves, net income, fiscal effects related to dividend payments and capital reduction, as applicable, and approval of the financial statements of the Company and its subsidiaries on a consolidated basis in accordance with IFRS for their publication to financial markets, with respect to our operations that took place during the fiscal year from January 1 to December 31, 2022; and approval of the external auditors report regarding both aforementioned financial statements. Proposal to approve from the Companys net income for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022, reported in its unconsolidated financial statements, presented in agenda item III above and audited in accordance with MFRS, which was Ps. 8,882,181,314.00 (EIGHT BILLION EIGHT HUNDRED EIGHTY-TWO MILLION ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY-ONE THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED FOURTEEN PESOS 00/100 M.N.), the allocation of Ps. 444,109,066.00 (FOUR HUNDRED FORTY-FOUR MILLION ONE HUNDRED NINE THOUSAND SIXTY-SIX PESOS 00/100 M.N.), towards increasing the Companys legal reserve, which represents 5% (FIVE PERCENT) of the net income, in accordance with Article 20 of the Mexican General Law of Commercial Corporations, with the remaining balance of Ps. 8,438,072,248.00 (EIGHT BILLION FOUR HUNDRED THIRTY-EIGHT MILLION SEVENTY-TWO THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED FORTY-EIGHT PESOS 00/100 M.N.) to be allocated to the retained earnings account. Presentation, discussion and submission for approval that from the retained earnings account pending application which amounts to a total of Ps. 11,685,291,653.00 (ELEVEN BILLION SIX HUNDRED EIGHTY-FIVE MILLION TWO HUNDRED NINETY-ONE THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED FIFTY-THREE PESOS 00/100 M.N.), a dividend will be declared equal to Ps. 14.84 (FOURTEEN PESOS 84/100 M.N.) pesos per share, to be paid to the holders of each share outstanding on the payment date, excluding any shares repurchased by the Company in accordance with Article 56 of the Mexican Securities Market Law; any amounts of retained earnings pending application remaining after the payment of such dividend will remain in the retained earnings account pending application. The dividend will be payable in one or more installments within 12 (twelve) months after April 13, 2023. Proposal, discussion, and if applicable, approval of the cancellation of the outstanding balance, as of the date of the General Ordinary Shareholders Meeting, under the Share Repurchase Program approved at the General Ordinary Shareholders Meeting that took place on April 22, 2022, which amounts to Ps. 499,486,566.00 (FOUR HUNDRED NINETY-NINE MILLION FOUR HUNDRED EIGHTY-SIX THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED SIXTY-SIX PESOS 00/100). Furthermore, the approval of Ps. 2,500,000,000.00 (TWO BILLION FIVE HUNDRED MILLION PESOS 00/100 M.N.) as the maximum amount to be allocated to the repurchase of the Companys shares or credit instruments that represent such shares for the 12-month period following April 13, 2023, in accordance with Article 56, Section IV of the Mexican Securities Market Law. The report regarding the designation or ratification of the four members of the Board of Directors and their respective alternates appointed by the Series BB shareholders. Ratification and/or designation of the persons that will serve as members of the Companys Board of Directors, as designated by any holder or group of holders of Series B shares that owns, individually or collectively, 10% or more of the Companys common stock. Ratification and/or designation of the persons that will serve as members of the Companys Board of Directors, as designated by the Series B shareholders and certification of independence. Ratification and/or designation of the Chairman of the Companys Board of Directors, in accordance with Article 16 of the Companys by-laws. Ratification of the compensation paid to the members of the Companys Board of Directors during the 2022 fiscal year and determination of the compensation to be paid in 2023. Ratification and/or designation of the member of our Board of Directors designated by the Series B shareholders to serve as a member of the Companys Nominations and Compensation Committee, in accordance with Article 28 of the Companys bylaws. Ratification and/or designation of the President of the Audit and Corporate Practices Committee. The report concerning compliance with Article 29 of the Companys bylaws regarding acquisitions of goods or services or contracting of projects or asset sales that are equal to or greater than US$ 3,000,000.00 (THREE MILLION U.S. DOLLARS), or its equivalent in Mexican pesos or other legal tender in circulation outside Mexico, or, if applicable, regarding transactions with relevant shareholders. Appointment and designation of special delegates to appear before a public notary and present the resolutions adopted at this meeting for formalization. Adoption of the resolutions deemed necessary or convenient in order to fulfill the decisions adopted in relation to the preceding agenda items.

EXTRAORDINARY SHAREHOLDERS MEETING

AGENDA

Proposal to approve the cancellation of 7,024,113 (SEVEN MILLION TWENTY-FOUR THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED THIRTEEN) shares held in the Companys treasury.

Perform all corporate legal formalities required, including the amendment of Article 6 of the Companys by-laws, derived from the adoption of resolutions at this shareholders meeting.

Proposal for approval of amendment of the Company's Bylaws to add Article 29 Bis to create the Sustainability Committee. This committee will be a delegated body of the Board of Directors. Therefore, the Board of Directors will determine its duties and integration.

Appointment and designation of special delegates to appear before a public notary and present the resolutions adopted at this meeting for formalization. Adoption of the resolutions deemed necessary or convenient in order to fulfill the decisions adopted in relation to the preceding agenda items.



Shareholders are reminded that in accordance with Article 36 of the Companys by-laws, only those shareholders registered in the Companys share registry as holders of one or more of the Companys shares will be admitted into the shareholders meetings, and they will be admitted only if they have obtained an admission card. The share registry will close three (3) business days prior to the date of this meeting.

In order to attend the meeting, at least one (1) business day prior to the meeting: (i) shareholders must deposit with the Company their stock certificates, shares or a receipt of deposit of shares from S.D. Indeval Institucion para el Deposito de Valores, S.A. de C.V. (Indeval) or from a local or foreign financial institution, and (ii) brokerage firms and other depositors at Indeval should present a listing containing the name, address, nationality and number of shares of the shareholders they will represent at the meeting. In exchange for these documents, the Company will issue, in accordance with the Companys bylaws, an admission card and/or the forms required under Article 49, Section III of the Mexican Securities Market Law in order to be represented.

In order to attend the meeting, shareholders must present the admission card and/or the corresponding form.

Shares deposited in order to gain admittance to these meetings will only be returned, via a voucher that will have been given to the shareholder or his/her representative.

Shareholders may be represented by proxy at the meetings by any person designated by a power of attorney signed before two witnesses or as otherwise authorized by law. However, with respect to the Companys common stock traded on a stock exchange, the proxy or proxies may only verify their identities via Company forms. These will be available to all shareholders, including any stockbrokers, during the time period specified in Article 173 of the Mexican General Corporations Law.

Following the publication of this announcement, all shareholders and their legal representatives will have free and immediate access to all information and documents related to each of the topics included in the meeting agendas, as well as all proxy forms that must be presented by persons representing shareholders. These documents will be available at the Companys offices located at Av. Mariano Otero #1249-B, 6th Floor, Col. Rinconada del Bosque, Guadalajara, Jalisco 44530 or at Arquimedes #19, 4th Floor, Col. Bosque de Chapultepec, C.P. 11580, Alcaldia Miguel Hidalgo, Mexico City, Mexico 11580.

Shareholders are invited to contact the Company should they have need for any additional information.

Company Description

Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico, S.A.B. de C.V. (GAP) operates 12 airports throughout Mexico s Pacific region, including the major cities of Guadalajara and Tijuana, the four tourist destinations of Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos, La Paz and Manzanillo, and six other mid-sized cities: Hermosillo, Guanajuato, Morelia, Aguascalientes, Mexicali and Los Mochis. In February 2006, GAPs shares were listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol PAC and on the Mexican Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol GAP. In April 2015, GAP acquired 100% of Desarrollo de Concessioner Aeroportuarias, S.L., which owns a majority stake in MBJ Airports Limited, a company operating Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, Jamaica. In October 2018, GAP entered into a concession agreement for the operation of the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston, Jamaica and took control of the operation in October 2019.

This press release may contain forward-looking statements. These statements are statements that are not historical facts and are based on managements current view and estimates of future economic circumstances, industry conditions, company performance and financial results. The words anticipates, believes, estimates, expects, plans and similar expressions, as they relate to the company, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Statements regarding the declaration or payment of dividends, the implementation of principal operating and financing strategies and capital expenditure plans, the direction of future operations and the factors or trends affecting financial condition, liquidity or results of operations are examples of forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the current views of management and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. There is no guarantee that the expected events, trends or results will actually occur. The statements are based on many assumptions and factors, including general economic and market conditions, industry conditions, and operating factors. Any changes in such assumptions or factors could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations.



In accordance with Section 806 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and article 42 of the Ley del Mercado de Valores, GAP has implemented a whistleblower program, which allows complainants to anonymously and confidentially report suspected activities that June involve criminal conduct or violations. The telephone number in Mexico, facilitated by a third party that is in charge of collecting these complaints, is 01 800 563 00 47. The web site is www.lineadedenuncia.com/gap . GAPs Audit Committee will be notified of all complaints for immediate investigation.


Chinese ethnic culture products find promising market in Italy

Xinhua) 13:25, March 01, 2023

NANNING, March 1 (Xinhua) -- At the Nanning Museum, located in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, a striking black pleated skirt adorned with vibrant ethnic minority elements has been a crowd-puller, with tourists flocking in to take photos.

This unique creation has been designed by the renowned Milanese designer, Giancarlo Mossi Borella, and is a standout feature of the museum's collection.

Borella's design is a creative fusion of Western fashion art and elements from ethnic minority groups in southwest China. Drawing inspiration from the intricate customs of these groups, he incorporated their unique aesthetic into the dress.

One notable feature of the dress is its black color, which holds great significance for certain ethnic minority communities. To pay homage to this tradition, Borella chose to incorporate this color into the design. The dress also boasts pleated outer yarn on the top and lower skirt, adding a delightful texture to the garment.

To further enhance its cultural authenticity, he decorated the dress with handicraft belts, headdresses and accessories that are emblematic of these minority groups.

"Before designing this dress, we were inspired by Guangxi's Zhuang brocade, and it took me two weeks to choose the color to match the belt pattern. It can be said that we (Italy) make the house of the concept but you (China) made the heart of the house," said Yosmany Larrea, Borella's assistant, adding that the design combines distinctive elements of Chinese ethnic minority groups with Western aesthetic elements in a creative manner.

Borella and Larrea share a deep appreciation for ethnic cultures, and they first learned about Guangxi's ethnic groups back in 2018. In December 2019, they led a team of Italian designers to Nanning and Longzhou to witness first-hand the exceptional skills of the Zhuang people in creating brocade fabrics.

"I was shocked on arriving at the workshop, and I felt like I stepped into a magical land. Weaving skills are good, and Zhuang brocade is beautiful. I also touched the materials. At that time, I hoped to bring Zhuang brocade elements into my design immediately," Borella said.

During the visit, Borella was deeply impressed by the remarkable skills of the Zhuang ethnic people in creating brocade fabrics and their rich cultural heritage. He felt inspired to incorporate these unique elements into his design and share them with the world, as a way to promote and preserve this valuable aspect of Chinese national culture.

Larrea noted that in China's ethnic minority areas, ethnic culture and art are deeply intertwined with people's daily lives and production practices. According to her, the Zhuang brocade is not only a form of culture but also a carrier of culture. "After learning about the minority culture, the Chinese and Western elements collided in my mind, and created something new."

He Ka, head of Guangxi Jinzhuangjin Culture and Art Co., Ltd., has been actively engaged in promoting the local ethnic culture to the world. To achieve this goal, He has worked closely with Borella and his team, fostering a productive exchange and cooperation between them.

He's company has forged a collaboration with the Sino-Italy Cultural Exchange Association and Italian designers to establish the Guangxi Zhuang brocade brand operation team and create their own brand, DONNA HECCA. Registered in both China and Italy, this brand encompasses a range of products, including clothing and accessories.

The exhibition hall of He's company showcases a variety of DONNA HECCA handbag samples. "We use raw materials with distinctive ethnic characteristics that are sourced from China. Borella and his team design the products, which are then produced in Italy," He said, adding that the brand has produced over 100 types of women's handbags, clothing and household items.

"Italy boasts a wealth of cultural and artistic heritage, while Guangxi is renowned for its ethnic minority culture. By combining these two cultures, we can break free from traditional design concepts and create a new fusion that integrates design elements from China and foreign countries," He added.

DONNA HECCA now plans to expand its product line to include perfume under the same brand. Guangxi is rich in raw materials suitable for perfume production, making it an ideal location for sourcing ingredients, He explained, adding that she hopes for possible international collaborations.

Currently, two teams from China and Italy are in constant touch through online communication to determine patterns, styles, fabrics and other details. "We are planning a trip to Italy this year and hope to create more new products after face-to-face interactions," He said.

According to Borella, the Chinese Zhuang brocade has a promising market in Europe. By using modern design concepts to present the culture and history of ethnic minority groups to Western consumers, they would further promote the ethnic culture represented by the Zhuang brocade to Europe, He added.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Archbishop Emeritus Peter Kwasi Sarpongs 90 Years Odyssey

Mother Bendicta Nana Adwoa Pinaman Genfi Opinion Feb - 28 - 2023 , 09:44

When asked to write about the life, achievements, accomplishments, and profound influence; locally and worldwide, of Archbishop Emeritus Peter Kwasi Sarpong on his historic 90 years of his life on earth, the first thing that came to mind was a Bible verse in John 21:25 that says: If all that Jesus did and said were to be recorded, there would not be enough space in the world itself to contain all the books 

Such is the scenario of the phenomenally monumental life of Archbishop Emeritus Sarpong: If all his life, accomplishments, achievements, teachings, profound influences, and untold knowledge in the endless arenas and the universalities of Spirituality, Culture, Politics, Science, Socio-dynamics; etc., etc., etc., were all to be recorded, no house in the world would be big enough to contain all the books that could be produced!

Again, another Bible verse came to mind: Isaiah 55:10-11: For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return empty, but accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Such is the scenario of the profound endless flow of knowledge, teachings, and inexhaustible writings by Archbishop Emeritus Sarpong, who, was once described by one of his colleague Bishops as a walking encyclopaedia!

A prolific writer, author, columnist, speaker, teacher with thousands of works to his credit, his words mystically hone in and penetrate to sow enlightenment and perfectly fulfils its objective.

One, after reading his writings, comes out feeling a sense of coming out from a dark room into a lighted room; and ones mind becomes un-fogged, awakened, and as if suddenly aroused from sleep!

Not only are his writings brilliantly scholarly and educating; they are imbued with a certain sense of truth and light that shatters ones delusion and ignorance.

Insatiably enjoyable, his writings are systematic, poignant, and full of such profound detail that it captures ones attention while possessing a certain distinct mystical light that illumines to fulfil its objective.

Having a mystical controversial birth and possessing unquestionable mystical divinity, he is often touted as a veritable embodiment of the Biblical Peter Kephas Simon (P.K.S.), and providently also mystically possess the same initials as Peter Kwasi Sarpong (P.K.S).

Again, often touted as a veritable embodiment of Moses, he also mystically possesses the same name given at birth as it relates to the controversial birth as Kwasi Mose.

A once upon a time Komfou-to-be who providently turned Catholic Priest, he is again often touted as a veritable part-embodiment of the legendary Komfo Anokye, and his kinship with the Otumfuo is akin to inseparable twins to the extent that he was once accused of running Asanteman with the Otumfuo.

Archbishop Emeritus Sarpong uniquely combines the Church with Tradition to produce Enculturation par excellence that have benefited thousands of Missionaries, Priests, Chiefs, and Traditional Priests, the faithful worldwide, and people of other religions, faiths, and cultures.

Moreover, Archbishop Sarpong not only preached the message of God, but he also worked to preserve and promote the Ghanaian and African culture. He was approached to serve on the Charter Committee of General Acheampong's government in 1974, but he declined.

Some concerned statesmen and politicians even approached him to persuade him to become the Head Of State, but he declined again.

He is, without a doubt, a fine gentleman who exhibited a considerable degree of dignity mingled with meekness, moderation, assertiveness, respect, tolerance, and intelligence.

Born in Offinso, Ashanti on 26th February 1933, ordained Catholic Priest in 1959 and appointed Bishop of Diocese of Kumasi (which then consisted of all of Ashanti and Brong Ahafo Regions combined) in 1970 when he was only a youthful 37 years old! In 2002, he was appointed Archbishop; and he attained Archbishop Emeritus status in 2008.

Fr. Michael Boahene reminiscing his childhood encounters says that Archbishop Peter Kwasi Sarpong was a down to earth rural apostolate with profound love and care for the people and their welfare and existence.

Whenever he came on Pastoral visits to the villages, he would always go first to greet the Chiefs and Elders of the village, and he humbly slept in the modest huts with the people; and to date most of the bore holes providing water for the masses in the region were all done by the then intimately called Nana Kwasi Sarpong.

With profound love for all, both young and old, he would always gather the children around him and personally teach and intimately interact with them as if his companions. His profound humility and simplicity were mind-boggling!

A peacemaker par excellence, in addition to his work in the Catholic Church, Archbishop Sarpong was also involved in a number of interfaith initiatives, including the National Peace Council of Ghana, which seeks to promote peace and reconciliation between different religious and ethnic groups in the country.

In addition to his work in Ghana, Archbishop Sarpong was also involved in a number of international organizations. His work on the global stage helped to bring attention to the important issues facing developing countries and to promote solidarity and cooperation between different nations.

Archbishop Sarpong is fluent in several languages, including English, Italian, French, and Twi, etc. His multifarious cultural and linguistic abilities have helped him to connect with people from diverse backgrounds and has served as a bridge between different cultures and religions.

The Arrupe Jesuits in a recent article referred to Archbishop Emeritus Peter Kwasi Sarpong as evidently one of the (all time) brainiest academics in Africa and the World; and the most cited social anthropologists in Ghana, Africa, and the World at large.

Shortly after his ordination in 1959, he made his way to Italy where he obtained a Licentiate in Sacred Theology (S.T.L.) from St Thomas Aquinas University, Rome, in 1962, and a Doctorate degree in Sacred Theology in 1963. He also obtained a Diploma in Anthropology and Master of Letters (M.Litt.) in Social Anthropology from Oxford University, England in 1965.

He has written over 1,000 books and articles on Anthropology, Theology and African Culture, among others. His articles are published in different national, continental and international journals.
Did Pius Hadzide say Afriyie Akoto is a dull brain?

Michael Aidoo Opinion Feb - 28 - 2023 , 10:22

Did Pius Hadzide say Afriyie Akoto is a dull brain? My take, experience, and reflections.

Background

Time check was circa 8 a.m. on Tuesday, February 21. I turned on my TV set to a submission by a former General Secretary of the Peoples National Convention (PNC), Benard Mornah, on the Key Issues segment of TV3s New Day morning show.

Bernard was interpreting an earlier statement made on the same programme by a co-panelist, Pius Enam Hadzide, Chief Executive Officer of National Youth Authority. The panelists were discussing the performance of the ministers-designate in the ongoing parliamentary vetting process and matters arising therefrom. Pius had earlier submitted that the minister-designate for agriculture, Mr Byan Acheampong, was a sharp brain.

Yesterday [Monday, February 20], the comment was made that not many people knew, for instance, the steel that the gentleman, for instance, Mr Bryan Acheampong, is made of. He is a good friend of mine. I know him very well, and I do know that given the time, people will even be more impressed. He is [an] academic, very learned, very calm demeanour.

He pays attention to detail. You could see yesterdayHim [sic] churning out figures and facts relative to even trajectory and the growth rate in the agric sector, and the consistency with which he flowed, and the data that he was [giving]. I was marvelled. I am like ah, Did he know that he was going to be [a] minister? Did he understudy the minister [Dr Afriyie Owusu Akoto] or what? It tells you that this is a sharp brain, who will not take time to abreast himself with [sic] the issues. Same can be said for Honourable K. T. Hammond, whom [sic], by the way we know, is quite jovial and makes light of situations, Pius added.

I reproduce the long quote here to put things in proper context, but the statement in contention is,  this [Bryan] is a sharp brain  This statement, according to Bernard Mornah, means Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto [who recently resigned to pursue his presidential ambition] was a dull brain. Bernard wouldnt budge but insist on his logic, even when Pius had impugned the logic in his (Bernards) inference.

Now I listened to my brother Pius, and I chuckled when he said that some people were sharp brain [sic]. You [Pius] want to say that the minister who resigned was a dull brain. Bryan Acheampong, going to the Ministry of Agric, is described as [having] a sharp brain. [Pius interjects] PiusPius, if you decide to question my logic, you will not speak on issues because I will, I will interject you. [Pius interjects again, but the programme host, Roland Walker, intervenes] So cant I make inferences? So, he [Pius] should keep quiet and allow me to make my point. You [Pius] sat here and said that Bryan Acheampong is a sharp brain, and Im saying that is it to relate that the previous minister [Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto] was a dull brain? Bernard questioned, amid Piuss failed attempt to explain himself.

But is the statement, This [Bryan] is a sharp brain logically equivalent to [That] Akoto is a dull brain?

Before we attempt to answer this question, lets obtain some background knowledge in sentence stress and how the stressed word in an utterance determines the meaning of that utterance or sentence.

My take

One sentence can possibly have as many meanings as the number of words in it. Shocked? Exactly the same way I felt almost exactly seven years ago when I learnt this strand of knowledge from Dr Elizabeth Orfson-Offei of the University of Ghana Department of English Language. Dr Orfson-Offei was teaching the topic stress to a class of which I was a part. The class was the February 2016 Batch of Phonetics and Presentation Skills learners at GBC Radio Training School. Phonetics basically concerns itself with how the different speech sounds of a language are produced by the speaker and perceived by the listener.

Unlike other languages like French and Japanese, which are syllable timed, whereby all syllables take roughly the same amount of time, English is a stress-timed language, whereby stressed syllables take longer time than unstressed ones to achieve a rhythmic effect. In phonetics, stress is loosely defined as the intensity or prominence or emphasis a speaker of a language gives to a certain syllable in a word or to a certain word in a sentence. The given emphasis results in a relative loudness of that stressed syllable in the given word or that stressed word in the given sentence. Hence, there are two types of stress: word stress and sentence stress. In a sentence, the stressed word carries the meaning of that sentence. This is why one sentence can have as many possible meanings as the number of words in it. Lets consider the following example:

Ato can drink this wine.

The foregoing sentence has five words in it. This means the utterance can have five possible meanings, depending on which word is stressed at different times. To get the logical equivalence of a sentence, one has to contrast the stressed word in the given sentence with another word of its kind in the new sentence. So, in the given example, if the stressed word is the name Ato, whether other names have been mentioned in the context or not, you necessarily contrast Ato with another name, like Kofi or Kodwo or Kwamena in the context to obtain a logical equivalence. If the stressed word is the modal auxiliary can, you contrast can with another modal auxiliary, like should or must or will. If the stressed word is the verb drink, you contrast drink with another verb, like sell or dash or spill. If the stressed word is the determiner this, you contrast this with its past form, that. Finally, if the stressed word is the liquid wine, you contrast wine with another liquid, like water or soup or porridge. Lets look at each of the five possible interpretations in more practical terms. The emboldened word in caps in each of the sentences is the stressed word.

ATO can drink this wine means Ato is the only one who can drink this wine. This also means that not Kofi or Kodwo or Kwamena can drink this wine. Ato CAN drink this wine means either Ato is permitted or Ato is able to drink this wine. It also means that not that Ato is obliged or is mandated or is certain to drink this wine. Ato can DRINK this wine means Ato can only drink this wine. It means Ato cant sell or dash or spill this wine. Ato can drink THIS wine means Ato can drink this particular wine, which the speaker mustve shown to his or her listener(s). This means Ato cant drink that wine or any other wine. Ato can drink this WINE means Ato can drink this wine, and not this water or this soup or this porridge.

As indicated before, a stressed word comes out longer than the unstressed words in a speech, as indicated in each of the example sentences above. But apart from having longer time, stressed words can also come out with a louder sound or a higher pitch than, or a different vowel quality from, unstressed ones.

With these understandings, lets now analyse Pius Hadzides mediated statement of Tuesday:

This [Bryan] is a sharp brain.

Based on our understanding, to say the above statement is logically equivalent to Akoto is a dull brain means the interpreter (Bernard Mornah) is contrasting the determiner, this, which is performing the function of a noun equivalent for Bryan, with Akoto. For Bernard to be right in this sense, thus, one assumption should be met: that the speaker (Pius) mustve stressed the noun equivalent, this.

Hows this assumption met or otherwise? Did the speaker actually stress the word this?

Listen to the statement, which can be heard from the 10:20 to 11:34 time frame of this one-and-a-half hour video. Bernards interpretation can also be heard from the 29:21 to 30:57 time frame of the same video.

Per what I heard (I may be wrong because my ears can deceive me.), Pius didnt stress the word this, the noun equivalent of Byan. Pius arguably rather stressed the modifier sharp in the noun phrase sharp brain. Even assuming Pius didnt stress any word at all but spoke in a flat monotone, the rule is that in a situation of a monotone, without a change in the sound of the voice, the last lexical word becomes the automatic stressed word.

For the avoidance of doubt, lexical words (also called content words) include (pro)nouns, main verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Lexical words contrast with function words (also called grammatical words). These are words belonging to the other parts of speech such as auxiliary verbs, propositions, conjunctions, and articles. The last lexical word in Piuss statement is brain, which is still the headword of the noun phrase, sharp brain.

So, in either case, it is the noun phrase, sharp brain that should be in contention, which phrase should contrast with such other noun phrases as dull brain and pin brain. That is, the issue should be whether Bryan is a sharp brain, or Bryan is a dull brain. And not whether Byan is a sharp brain, and Akoto is a dull brain. As you may have noticed from the explanations, one may be committing a logical blunder if one contrasts two words in the same utterance [such as Bryan and sharp brain] with their opposite numbers [such as Akoto and dull brain] to form the logical equivalence of that utterance, as Bernard did.

Thus, its logically untenable for Mr Bernard Mornah to extrapolate that Mr Pius Enam Hadzide meant Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto is a dull brain, simply because Pius had said Mr Bryan Acheampong is a sharp brain. Indeed, such illogical extrapolation from utterances is rife, especially in our mediated public discourses and political debates.

A classic example is that which I took notice of in the run up to the 2016 presidential election, which example involved a declarative statement, a somewhat promise, NPPs Candidate, now President, Akufo Addo made: I am not coming to steal your money. Whether he meant it or not, and whether hes lived up to that promise since he assumed the reins of governance, are a different kettle of fish to analyse in another writing. But the statement can be analysed now.

An enthusiastic fresh graduate of Phonetics and Presentation Skills, I was eager to test my newly acquired skillI. I listened up to Candidate Akufo Addos statement more than a few times, but I didnt perceive a stressed word. It was quite a monotone too. (Indeed, the average Ghanaian English-speaker speaks in a monotone.) And I wasnt sure the context in which Akufo Addo made the statement. I could only speculate. Take it or leave it, there's been a long-standing, universal negative perception about politicians, especially ours: something like, All Ghanaian politicians are the same; they come to power to steal our money.

So, my speculation was that Akufo Addo was responding to this general perception about the character of Ghanaian politicians. Or perhaps a rather specific perception about his own being relative to money. If the general perception was the case, then he was seeking to achieve either of two things: (1) to proclaim that he was a different politician, in which case he should have stressed the pronoun I, or (2) to propose what he would rather do (and/or not do) with our money, in which case he should have stressed the verb, steal. But if the specific perception (about his being relative to money) was the case, then he was seeking to parry the negative perception about him, in which case, he should have stressed the adverb, not.

In the final analysis, thus, one of the following three conclusions, based on my perception of the context, was possible:

I am not coming to steal your money; meaning, for example, Yes, I concede your quintessential Ghanaian politician comes/is coming to steal your money, but I am not coming to steal your money. I am not like the other politicians. I am different. I am NOT coming to steal your money; meaning, for instance, People think of me or perceive me as coming to steal your money, but that is not true. I am not like that. This perception doesnt define me. This is not who I am. This is not the way I was born. I am not coming to STEAL your money; meaning, for example, That [stealing] is not what I am coming (or intend to) do your money. I am rather coming to protect it/share it (equally)/put it to judicious use, not steal it.

It wasnt clear which of these three meanings Akufo Addo wanted to communicate because the statement lacked context. But expectedly enough, NDC communicators chose the one they thought would help them in their causeAkufo Addo says HE is not coming to steal your money; meaning, SOMEONE ELSE is coming to steal your moneyand went ahead to attribute that someone else to their candidate, John Mahama. So, they got something like, Akufo Addo says HE is not coming to steal your money; By this, he means Mahama, who is now the president, has stolen/is stealing/is coming to steal your money. You see how reckless he is in his speech? Speaking ill of his co-contenders without a scintilla/shred of evidence/proof [in Murtalas voice]. This is someone who is asking you to vote for him to become your president. Dont vote for such a reckless speaker/person/man.

In fact, that someone else couldve been any other candidate in the presidential race, but it makes some sense for NDC people to have attributed the someone else to John Mahama because at least, he was the only candidate in the presidential race who had been and was even still president. Besides, he was the main competitor, looking at how insignificant the cumulated votes of the other contesting political parties had been and indeed continue to be since the inception of the fourth republic.

But it doesnt make logical sense for the NDC members to have interpreted the statement the way they did. For them to have been logical, however, Akufo Addo shouldve stressed the pronoun I, but he didnt. He spoke in a monotone, in which case the automatic stressed word was supposed to be the last lexical wordmoney. This means with all of the other words in the sentence, including steal, held constant, money was the word to contrast with another worda stealable resource of the nation, perhaps gold or diamond or bauxite. So, they couldve argued something like the following:

You [Ghanaians] have been saying that politicians come to power to steal from the nation. The nation is blessed with very many resources like gold, diamond, and bauxite. Akufo Addo says he is not coming to steal your MONEY, leaving out those other resources, which, of course, can be stolen, too. Why didnt say he isnt coming to steal those too? If he is not coming to steal your money, then he is coming to steal your gold, diamond, and bauxite. Dont vote for such a person, who will come and steal the precious gifts God has blessed you with and leave you with nothing to depend on or to hand down to your children and grandchildren.

Obviously the NDC members interpretation of Akufo Addos statement was for political expediency, a calculated attempt to whip up public disaffection for Akufo Addo and public sympathy for their candidate, John Mahama. My contention is that they were even more likely to have been more effective and efficient with their mission if theyd chosen the logical path. But they chose not only the weak but also the illogical path. Such illogical extrapolations are found not only in the public space, but in our private circles, too.

My unpleasant experience

Two years ago, I was one of ten participants on a fellowship programme. I had what was supposed to be office banter with one of the other nine participants. I said to her, I am not close minded. Even though it was clear that the context was about my beingthat is whether I am close minded or open mindedand not about who between us was close minded and who was open minded, she interpreted my statement to mean she was close minded. That wasnt all.

She managed to obtain the backing of the eight participants of the fellowship. I was a loner. It was one against nine. Like Bernard Mornah, my co-participants believed in their logic. And like in Pius Hadzides case, I couldnt get a word in edgeways to explain myself, as Ive done here. And even when I finally got the chance, after the intervention of our assigned editor, to do so, my co-participants still wouldnt accept my explanation, a slothful induction fallacy, you may call it, perhaps to the satisfaction of their own self-fulfilling prophecy.

Indeed, this unpleasant encounter would be the straw that broke the camels back not only to sour the relationship between my co-participants and me but also for me to intend to withdraw from the fellowship altogether. I broached my intention to our editor; he dissuaded me from doing so. He enjoined me to stay on, but I didnt enjoy my stay there. My only consolation, however, was perhaps that I wouldve behaved the same way as, or even worse than, they did had I not been exposed to this knowledge.

My reflections

But I also began to wonder and question why our institutions of learning dont include this piece of knowledge in their curricula. High schools are supposed to be teaching stress as part of the listening and speaking (also known as oral English) aspect of the English language, but I daresay they dont. Yet, all high school students, regardless of their programmes of pursuit, are expected to answer questions on it. Little wonder the wanton rate of failure in the English language exam!

Institutions of higher learning should also be teaching this as part of the communication skills course, which every student, irrespective of discipline, takes. But not even our communication training institutions, at least neither of the two Ive so far attended, teach this. I had to scrimp and save from an already precarious lifestyle and free up some time from the tight academic timetable, to seek this extra tuition at GBC Radio Training School.

If Bernard Mornah, who has at least a master's degree, had been exposed to this knowledge, he might have admitted his flaw at least after his attention had been called to it. If the NDC communicators, who most probably had at least a bachelors degree, had been exposed to this knowledge, they might have exhibited so in their interpretation of Akufo Addos 2016 statement. If my co-participants on the fellowship programme, all of whom were either graduates or undergraduate students of communication, had been exposed to this knowledge, they might have better understood my explanation, rather than mocking it.

Yes, I wrote might, not will, taking cognizance of the fact that not all we study in school do we integrate in our lives. Theres a proverb in Ola Rotimis The Gods Are Not To Blame to the effect that the hen eats pebbles but complains of having no teeth, as if she had teeth she would eat gold; meanwhile, the cow has teeth yet eats grass.

Take, for instance, logic and critical thinking or whatever name is given to it in our various institutions of higher learning. Just as theyre supposed to take communication skills, every level 100 student is mandated to take a logic course, yet I wonder how many of us apply the course content in real life! Our media space is awash with logical fallacies of differing kinds, ranging from ad hominem through strawman to red herring. Like this one.

Yes, I concede sometimes, these fallacies are deliberately committed for expediency: for personal interest, in the political space, in the courtroom, etc. But for the most part of the time, I daresay their commission is based on sheer ignorance. But we can do better.
Universities warn against using ChatGPT for assignments

BBC Junior News Feb - 28 - 2023 , 13:28

Universities are warning students they could be punished for using artificial intelligence (AI) to complete essays.

"Don't take the chance," said Steve West, Vice Chancellor at the University of the West of England (UWE).

It comes after a former University of Bristol student experimented with the ChatGPT bot to get a 2:2 on one of his old essay questions.

"I got 65% and it took two weeks when I did it. ChatGPT was 12 marks off - that's scary," said Pieter Snepvangers.

ChatGPT, which reacts to users in a conversational way, provides convincingly human responses to questions using information from the internet,

Mr Snepvangers' essay was graded at 53% by one of his former lecturers, who was fully aware it had been created using artificial intelligence.

The student asked the bot 10 questions and received a 3,500-word essay, which he then spent 10 minutes formatting for the experiment.

'Convincing' English

"ChatGPT didn't produce in-text referencing, but my lecturer said if I had done that it would have scored a high 2:2 or a 2:1," said Mr Snepvangers.

"He said the English was convincing, but it often danced around answering the actual question.

"Can you imagine what the software will be like for students starting university now by their third year?

"Universities have to switch on and find a way of adapting their assessments," said Mr Snepvangers.

His lecturer also said four out of 33 essays handed in for one module this year "looked fishy from an AI perspective."

A University of Bristol spokesperson said: "ChatGPT's unauthorised use, like that of other chatbots or artificial intelligence software, would be considered a form of cheating under our assessment regulations."

ChatGPT has become hugely popular since it launched in December.

It is trained on large amounts of data that enable it to make predictions about how to string words together.

It can be hard to detect using traditional anti-plagiarism software because it generates a brand new answer for questions asked.

'Students don't need AI'

Vice chancellor of the University of the West of England, Steve West - who warned students that using AI to create essays would be an "assessment offence" - said he had dabbled with the software.

"I'm a foot surgeon by background so I put in a question about a complex surgical procedure and it gave me an answer.

"Would I use that answer to do that surgery? Absolutely not.

"We can't put the technology back in the bottle, but its limitations have to be understood.

"But academic staff are bright and they will spot it being used. Students - you're brighter than that, you don't need to do it," he said.

credit: BBC
Enoch Darfah Frimpong appointed Editor of Graphic Digital

Graphic.com.gh Mar - 01 - 2023 , 00:20

The Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL) has appointed Enoch Darfah Frimpong as the new Editor of Graphic Digital with effect from March 1, 2023.

The Editor of Graphic Digital is in charge of Graphic Online (www.graphic.com.gh) and the electronic version of the brands, the Graphic News Plus.

He is in charge of building, maintaining and leading the digital team to create and acquire rich media content for publishing on all Graphic Digital platforms in furtherance of the groups objectives.

In a related development Theophilus Yartey, has been appointed Editor, Graphic, an executive management position and takes over from Kobby Asmah, who attained the retirement age of 60 on February 28, 2023.

The two new appointments follow two previous ones.

Hannah Acheampong Amoah, became Editor of the Junior Graphic in October 2022 and Boahene Asamoah, Editor of Graphic Business in January 2023.

The Managing Director of the GCGL, Ato Afful, has congratulated the newly appointed Editors and expressed the hope that they would bring their energies to bear on the business.

Profile of Editor Graphic Digital, Enoch Darfah Frimpong

Mr Darfah Frimpong comes to his new task with over 21 years experience as a journalist.

Prior to assuming this new role, he was the Assistant Editor of Graphic Online, having joined the Graphic Communications Group in 2001 and rose through the ranks until his current appointment.

He spent 10 years of his career working from the Ashanti Regional Office (Kumasi) of the company, from where he wrote many impactful articles for the flagship Daily Graphic and its sister brands.

In 2011, he joined the Graphic Online unit at the head office in Accra and in the last 12 years has been part of the team at the Digital Unit, pushing the shift to a digital-first focus.

Mr Darfah Frimpong has attended a number of international and local training programmes, courses and conferences in Europe, India and South Africa in the area of New Media, Social Media and its effect on newspaper business.

He holds a Master of Arts degree in Media Management, a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration (Management) and a Diploma in Journalism.

Mr Darfah Frimpong is a member of the Ghana Journalists Association and an alumnus of the University of Education, Winneba and Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ).
Theophilus Yartey appointed Editor, Graphic - Company names 3 others to strengthen brands

Graphic.com.gh Mar - 01 - 2023 , 00:25

The Graphic Communications Group Ltd (GCGL) has appointed Theophilus Yartey as the new Editor, Graphic, with effect from today, March 1, 2023.

He takes over from Kobby Asmah, who attained the official retirement age of 60 yesterday.

The Editor, Graphic is an executive management position of the GCGL, with oversight responsibility over all other news brands of the group, namely the Daily Graphic, The Mirror, the Graphic Sports, the Graphic Business, the Junior Graphic, the Graphic Showbiz, the Graphic Online (www.graphic.com.gh) and the electronic version of the brands, the Graphic News Plus.

Enoch Darfah Frimpong, Editor of Graphic Digital

The company has also appointed Enoch Darfah Frimpong, as the Editor of Graphic Digital, with a charge to build, maintain and lead the digital team to create and acquire rich media content for publishing on all Graphic Digital platforms in furtherance of the groups objectives, with immediate effect.

The two appointments, announced yesterday add to two previous ones.

They are Hannah Acheampong Amoah as Editor of the Junior Graphic, which took effect in October last year and Asamoah Boahene as Editor, Graphic Business, a business journalist and consultant, who has also been charged with transforming the niche business paper, making it visible on the corridors of the business community.

The Managing Director of the GCGL, Ato Afful, has congratulated the newly appointed Editors and expressed the hope that they would bring their energies to bear on the business.

Profiles

Theophilus Yartey

Until his appointment, Mr Yartey who has virtually 30 years of experience in frontline journalism, was the Deputy Editor of the Daily Graphic, having joined the group in 2014 as the Editor of Graphic Business.

He cut his teeth as a journalist with the New Times Corporation as a reporter and rose through the ranks to become the Deputy Business Editor after 10 years of dedicated service.

Mr Yartey also joined Business and Financial Times and became the Deputy Editor, until he crossed over to the GCGL on August 4, 2014.

He holds a Master of Philosophy in Leadership from the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), Bachelor of Law and a Bachelor of Science in Banking and Finance, both from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).

Mr Yartey also holds a Diploma in Journalism from the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ).

He comes to the job with in-depth knowledge of the media landscape in the country, with a proven ability to effectively manage major newspaper brands with compelling content to meet the needs of the reading public.

Mr Yartey also has a deep appreciation of the digital media landscape and its strategic place in the developmental aspirations of the Daily Graphic and the GCGL brands.

He is committed to help build an editorial team to drive the digital-first mandate of Graphics editorial team.

Mr Yartey has also attended many courses, workshops and seminars in the country and abroad.

He has also covered high profile events and programmes across the world, including the International Monetary Fund/World Bank meetings, African Development Bank annual conferences, the World Economic Forum thought leadership events over the years.

Mrs Hannah Acheampong Amoah, Editor of Junior Graphic

Junior Graphic

Mrs Amoah, for her part, holds a Master of Arts degree in Media Management from the School of Graduate Studies and Research of the GIJ, a diploma in Journalism also from GIJ and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from the University of Ghana.

Until her appointment, she was the Assistant Editor of the Junior Graphic, a position she held since 2017, having been the newspapers pioneer staff during its reintroduction in September 2000.

Mrs Amoah has been with the Junior Graphic for more than 22 years and has written articles and news stories that have had a positive impact on young people in the country.

She was honoured by the Ghana Journalists Association for her articles on youth development.

Graphic Digital Editor

Mr Darfah Frimpong also comes to his new task with over 21 years experience as a journalist.

Prior to assuming this new role, he was the Assistant Editor of Graphic Online, having joined the group in 2001 and rose through the ranks until his current appointment.

He spent the better part of his career at the group working from the Ashanti Regional Office (Kumasi) of the company, from where he wrote many impactful articles for the flagship Daily Graphic and its sister brands.

In 2011, he joined the Graphic Online unit at the head office in Accra and in the last 12 years has been part of the team at the Digital Unit, pushing the shift to a digital-first focus.

Mr Darfah Frimpong has attended a number of international and local training programmes and courses in Europe, India and South Africa in the area of New Media, Social Media and its effect on newspaper business.

He holds a Master of Arts degree in Media Management, a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration (Management) and a Diploma in Journalism.

Mr Darfah Frimpong is a member of the Ghana Journalists Association and an alumnus of the University of Education, Winneba and GIJ.
Trial of former Beige Bank boss - Confusion ensues between accused, lawyer

Justice Agbenorsi Mar - 01 - 2023 , 16:02

The Economic and Financial Crime Division of the High Court in Accra has adjourned the trial of the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of defunct Beige Bank Limited over a misunderstanding between the accused and his lawyer, Thaddeus Sory.

The lawyer, who was expected to continue his cross-examination of the prosecutions principal witness, was absent in court when the case was called.

A Chartered Accountant with an accounting and auditing firm, KPMG, Julius Ayivor, has his evidence in chief and is currently being cross-examined by Nyinakus lawyer.

He was expected to resume the cross-examination today (Feb 16), but he (Nyinaku) informed the Court that there had been a misunderstanding between him and his lawyer.

Mr Sory, the accused said, failed to show up in court because of what the accused described as a misunderstanding that occurred in their camp over the weekend.

When Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe asked Mike Nyinaku why his lawyer was absent, the former CEO of the defunct Beige Bank answered: My lady, there was a misunderstanding in our camp.

The misunderstanding, he said, accounted for his lawyer's absence.

The presiding judge further asked why the accused was just telling the court about the misunderstanding.

The accused responded by saying that the misunderstanding happened over the weekend.

Details of the matter were not given in open court as the judge was briefed in her chamber.

The case was subsequently adjourned to March 10, 2023.

At the court presided over by Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe, Nyinaku was charged for allegedly stealing GH1.21 billion of depositors' money from the bank.

However, he pleaded not guilty to 43 charges of stealing, fraudulent breach of trust and money laundering when he mounted the dock yesterday.

Transactions

At the previous hearing, Mr Sory continued with his cross-examination of Mr Ayivor.

Mr Sory, in his cross-examination, had put to the prosecution witness that customer funds siphoned from Beige Bank to BCAM, Nyinakus company, were done in the ordinary course of Beige Banks business and were, therefore, regular transactions as the Beige Bank had kept accurate records of those movements.

Mr Sory suggested to the witness that before the banks licence was revoked, any customer that wanted their funds got those funds.

Mr Sory had, during a previous hearing, tendered through the principal witness, a copy of what he said was an investment certificate that had been issued to an affected customer for a GH4 million fixed deposit investment that had been placed with BEIGE.

Blind side

Mr Ayivor, however, disagreed with Mr Sorys suggestions and indicated that the amounts siphoned from Beige Bank to BCAM were done on the blind side of the over 10,000 affected customers.

Mr Ayivor further told the court that the investment certificates issued to the affected customers had some peculiarities.

Explaining the said peculiarities, Mr Ayivor stated that the referenced investment certificate, which was similar to other investment certificates issued to various unsuspecting customers of the bank, only had the embossment BEIGE on the certificates without specifying which specific Beige entity the amount was being invested in.

Mr Ayivor indicated that there were other entities in the Beige Group, including BCAM and Beige Group Limited, on whose behalf the said BEIGE investment certificate was issued, yet those certificates were presented to the unsuspecting customers as though they had been issued by Beige Bank.

Mr Ayivor added that those investment certificates had been designed to mislead unsuspecting customers who believed their monies were being placed in fixed deposit investments with Beige Bank when the monies collected were siphoned and diverted out of the bank to other companies owned by Nyinaku.

What remains unknown is whether Mr Sory will continue to represent Mike Nyinaku or whether another lawyer will show up on the adjourned date.
The Sylvia Lawson Foundation launched to educate girls on menstrual health

Elizabeth Konadu-Boakye Health Mar - 01 - 2023 , 08:39

A foundation which seeks to educate girls on menstrual health and hygiene has been launched in Accra.

Known as The Sylvia Lawson Foundation (TSLF), the foundation is targeted at distributing over 25,000 sanitary pads to over 6,009 students in eight schools across the Volta and Upper East regions.

The sanitary pads will be distributed to adolescent females between the ages of 15 and 20 who attend lower graded senior high schools.

The launch, which took place last Saturday was attended by members of the foundation, representatives from corporate institutions and partners.

The Founder of the foundation, Sylvia Adwoa Lawson, said over the years, many girls in primary and senior high schools across the country had been unable to buy hygienic sanitary towels for proper menstrual care.

That, she said, had led to some young ladies resorting to the use of many unconventional means to support themselves during their menstrual period.

"Hygienic menstrual practices in adolescents must not be taken for granted.

Girls who contract reproductive infections through the wrong use of absorbent materials during their menstrual flow might be unable to get access to healthcare to treat themselves," she said

The situation, Mrs Lawson said was a sad one which called for interventions from governmental authorities, non-governmental organisations and private bodies, adding that I know what the foundation stands for.

It is up to you and me to lock hands and heart and support the foundation to reach out to our vulnerable girls and restore their dignity to brighten up their future," she added.

Natural phenomenon

The Municipal Chief Executive for Tema West, Anna Adukwei Addo, said it was disheartening that a natural phenomenon such as menstrual period could infringe on the basic human rights of the girl child.

The lack of menstrual hygiene products such as sanitary pads, she said, made the girl child have low self-esteem, lack confidence as well as face humiliation from the opposite sex.

Ms Addo congratulated the founder for the initiative and encouraged all to support her to help young girls.

The Assistant Headteacher, Administration, of the Tema Secondary School, Sarah Gershong also encouraged the founder not to look at only the rural areas, but also support girls in the city.

You will be surprised to know that the period poverty is not in the deprived areas alone, but it is also in the cities and there are some communities even here in Accra who need these sanitary tools, she said.
Ghana Card guarantees voter integrity in continuous voter registration exercise - EC Chair Jean Mensa

Nana Konadu Agyeman Politics Feb - 28 - 2023 , 23:01

The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Jean Mensa, has told Parliament that the use of the Ghana Card as the sole identification document for continuous voters registration will guarantee the credibility and integrity of the countrys voter register and aid elections as a whole.

For the part of the Executive Secretary of the National Identification Authority (NIA), Professor Ken Attafuah, he insisted that his outfit was ready to issue Ghana cards to eligible citizens voters to aid the EC in the registration process.

Equally, the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, gave the assurance that the government would honour all financial commitments necessary to drive the voter registration process.

However, the Minority Members of Parliament (MPs) were not convinced about the process to make the Ghana Card the sole identification document for the registration, and advanced arguments, backed with questions, to support their position.

The EC chairperson was in the House to brief the Committee of the Whole on the new draft Public Elections (Registration of Voters) Regulations, 2022, on the floor of Parliament yesterday.

The Executive Secretary of the NIA and the Finance Minister were also there to brief the committee on how feasible it is for the Ghana Card to be used as the sole identification for the continuous registration of new voters as espoused in a new Constitutional Instrument (C.I.) yet to be laid before Parliament.

It followed a directive by the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, last Thursday for the EC Chairperson to come and give members insight into the new draft C.I.

She appeared in the House alongside the Minister of Finance and the Executive Secretary of the NIA.

The trio highlighted the diverse challenges confronting the implementation of the commission and the NIA and what the Finance Ministry could do to facilitate their work.

The briefing formed part of pre-laying consultation processes with Parliament before the EC could lay the C.I. in the House.

New C.I.

The C.I. seeks to promote the continuous registration of voters and advocates an all-year round registration of eligible voters at the district offices of the EC.

It is a clear departure from the previous system where voters registration was done for a limited period.

Under the limited voters registration exercise, the registration of new voters was only done for a limited period.

Positives of Ghana Card

Mrs Mensa told the MPs that the use of the Ghana Card would prevent the enrolment of minors on the register and stop foreigners from registering and voting.

While eliminating the guarantor system which was prone to abuse and promote conflicts and violence, she said it would also prevent costly, time-consuming and tedious follow-up exercises by the district registration review committee established nationwide.

Mrs Mensa said the new C.I. and its provisions were not aimed at disenfranchising eligible Ghanaians.

The continuous registration process on the contrary will be inclusive as it will make it possible to capture all those who would otherwise have been excluded in a limited registration process.

The exercise is not a periodic or limited one that could lead to disenfranchising persons who do not possess the Ghana Card.

More especially it will prevent unqualified persons from influencing our elections and having a say as to who should govern our country. This is an issue that borders on the sovereignty of our nation. Simply put, only eligible Ghanaians must be entitled to vote, she stated.

Legal backing

The EC Chairperson said by using the Ghana Card as the main source of identification for the all-year-round voter registration exercise, the EC would be conforming to regulation 7 (1) of the Legal Instrument (LI) passed by Parliament--the National Identity Register Regulations LI 2114.

The regulation, she said, stated that the national identity card should be used for a number of transactions where identification was required, including the voters register.

Under the new proposal, Mrs Mensa said anyone who was eligible to vote could simply walk into any of the district offices of the commission in the district where he or she intended to vote and register to vote.

She described the process as a far departure from the previous limited registration exercise, where persons who could not register had to wait for the next round of the limited registration exercise before they could register.

The main advantage of the continuous registration is that potential voters can register at any time of their choosing once the exercise begins.

Interested persons who have not previously registered and qualify to vote will be able to register at their leisure and with ease because it will be an all-year-round activity, the EC Chairperson said.

Mrs Mensa explained that applicants would not be confronted with long queues, frustrated crowds and conflicts which had the potential to lead to violence, saying that the EC was confident that the registration would minimise the bussing of prospective applicants to the registration centres and thereby lead to an orderly, conflict-free process.

Eliminating guarantor system

Mrs Mensa pointed out that the adoption of the draft C.l. would do away with the guarantor system which hitherto allowed a registered voter to vouch for the citizenship and would make the age of prospective applicants not to be any longer relied on as part of the registration process.

The reason is that, over the years, the guarantor system has presented us with several challenges. Unfortunately, we were unable to discard it much earlier due to the absence of a national identification document such as the one issued by the NIA.

The challenges with the guarantor system are that it opens the door for registered voters or guarantor contractors to guarantee/vouch for persons who are less than 18 years and it allows the guarantors to vouch for foreigners. Such unqualified persons used the door of the guarantor system to try to get onto the register.

Truth be told, the guarantor system was not the best under any circumstances but we did not have other options since a significant number of persons did not possess the Ghana Card at the time. Even then, we had 10 million Ghanaians using the Ghana Card to back their citizenship at the time of registration, she said.

Mrs Mensa added that with 16 million Ghanaians in possession of the Ghana Card, and with the NIA's assurance that it would print and distribute the remaining cards to registrants in a matter of weeks, the EC did not believe that we will disenfranchise persons by enforcing the policy requirement of using the Ghana Card to prove one's eligibility.

Take advantage

In the view of the EC Chairperson, although the Ghana Card was not the only required document to prove a person's eligibility in 2020, at the end of the exercise, over 60 per cent or about 10 million of registered voters used the Ghana Card as the main source of identification.

She told the House that the commission was reliably informed that over 17 million Ghanaians had registered for the card and that about 16 million Ghana cards had been issued.

On the strength of those numbers, Mrs Mensa said the commission was convinced that the 1.5 million applicants we are expecting to register by the end of 2023 are likely to already possess the Ghana Card.

Relying on the 2021 Census report and, per our estimates, we are likely to register between 450,000 and 550,000 Ghanaians every year.

We believe that of the 17 million people the NIA has registered, it is likely the 450,000 to 550,000 people we intend to register annually have the card, as we speak, she said.

She, therefore, encouraged any Ghanaian who would turn 18 in 2023 or 2024 and who was interested in voting in the country's elections to visit the nearest NIA registration centres and register for the Ghana Card to enable them to vote in the 2024 elections.

Competence to print more cards

Prof. Attafuah said the NIA as of 2017 had registered 4,554,528 Ghanaians, printed the cards of 2,719,425, and issued 900,000 cards to Ghanaians.

As of February 19, this year, he said, the authority had registered 17,375,861 Ghanaians, aged 15 years or above, onto the national identity database.

At the same time, the authority had printed 16,737,734 cards, the Executive Director said.

Of the 17,375,861 Ghanaians, the number of Ghanaians captured aged 18 years and above is 16.9 million and the number of registered Ghanaians aged 18 years and above existing on the EC voters register is 17,229,000 people.

The number of Ghanaians aged 15 years and above who are yet to be captured out of the total population of 31 million is 2,565,705, he said.

Prof. Attafuah indicated that the number of Ghanaians aged 15 years or above and captured onto the national identity register was 17.3 million out of which the number of cards printed but not collected by the applicants stood at 642,403 nationwide.

The number of cards not yet printed stands at 541,529, he said, attributing the situation to the financial difficulty the authority had encountered from July last year.

He said the situation resulted in the inability of the authority to get access to some 3.5 million blank cards that it had imported into the country which were currently in bonded warehouses, Prof. Attafuah explained.

The Executive Director of the NIA assured Parliament that the authority had the technical and operational competencies to print and issue those 541,529 cards in record time once those financial challenges were cleared.

He informed the House that it had settled $80 million out of nearly $100 million of its indebtedness to its partners, the Identity Management Limited, and Cal Bank.

Financial commitments

For his part, Mr Ofori-Atta stated that an agreement had been reached with CalBank for a GH100 million facility to ensure that the over three million Ghana Cards locked up in bonded warehouses were released.

We have agreed to a GH100 million facility to ensure that the 3.5 million cards are released.

GH80 million has been deposited, and the remaining GH20 million will be paid by this evening, he added.
Mahama to launch presidential campaign in Volta Region on March 2

Getrude Ankah Nyavi Politics Feb - 28 - 2023 , 20:06

Former President John Dramani Mahama will launch his campaign for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer race on Thursday (March 2, 2023).

The launch will take place at Sokode near Ho in the Volta Region at the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS).

If he is successful with his bid to lead the NDC, it will be the fourth time Mr Mahama will be leading the NDC to a general election.

He led the NDC in 2012 and won to become president, led in 2016 and 2020 but lost on both occasions to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who he had earlier defeated in 2012.

Dr Kwabena Duffuor, Kojo Bonsu, and Ernest Korbeah have also picked forms to contest for the same position.
NPP deserves praise in Volta Region  Togbe Ayim

Alberto Mario Noretti Politics Mar - 01 - 2023 , 07:48

The Paramount Chief of Ziavi, Togbe Kwaku Ayim IV, has said the New Patriotic Party (NPP) deserves praise in the Volta Region, with its development effort readily evident on the ground.

He was speaking at a durbar at Ziavi-Dzogbe last Saturday to round off the 11th Avazorli (Exodus) festival of the people of the Ziavi and other communities that make up the Avazorli communities.

They are Etordome, Kpedze-Todze, Botoku, Kpando-Anyigbe, Mepe, and the Ando enclaves in Ghana and Togo.

Togbe Ayim cited the absorption of the Ziavi Senior High Technical School (ZISTECH) into the public education system, the five-kilometre (km) tarred road between Ziavi and Klefe, ongoing work on the 20-km Ziavi-Anfoeta road, and the choice of the region by President, Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo, as host of the 66th Independence Day anniversary, as valid proofs of the seriousness the government attached to the area.

He said the ongoing 12-classroom block GETFund project at ZISTECH also bore testimony to the governments efforts to promote quality education at Ziavi, and for that matter the Volta Region.

Let us give praise where praise is due and let us criticise the government of the day constructively in the broader national interest, Togbe Ayim added.



Misgivings

The Paramount Chief of Ziavi expressed misgivings about what he described as the growing trend of the politics of insults, saying that it did not project prospects for harmony in the country.

He called on the various political parties to be tolerant of one another and accept election results in good faith.

Togbe Ayim said instances where losers of elections spent time contesting the results at the Supreme Court were not in the national interest, as that brought progress to a standstill.

He observed that as a result of the growing political intolerance in the country, young people now insulted state functionaries during phone-in programmes with impunity.

Our culture does not endorse conducts of disrespect by young people towards the elderly or people in authority, the paramount chief maintained.



Peace

Togbe Ayim, who is president of the Ziavi Traditional Council, said Ghana needed peace and not political squabbles to move fast in development.

He, therefore, entreated Ghanaians to renew their sense of patriotism and first demonstrate their allegiance to the country before partisan party considerations.

The celebration was on the theme: Enhancing health infrastructure for healthy development of Ziavi and Avazorliawo.

It was meant to raise funds to put up a three-bedroom self-contained bungalow for the resident medical officer at the local health centre and residential accommodation for the nurses.

The guest of honour was the Chief of Staff at the Office of the President, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare.

Mrs Osei-Opare, who is an honorary citizen of Ziavi, paid glowing tribute to the people for their self-help spirit, and said their good development efforts deserved support from the government.

An amount of GH 212, 000 was realised.
Leverage sister-city relationships for economic development  Dr Bawumia

Daily Graphic Politics Feb - 28 - 2023 , 07:04

The Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has called for the leveraging of sister-city relationships into economic development.

He said while sister-city relationships had traditionally been developed for diplomatic, cultural or educational purposes, in the current economic climate, the way to go was to connect and expand to economic development.

Dr Bawumia said this in a speech read on his behalf by a deputy Minister of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, Augustine Collins Ntim, at the First Sister Cities International (SCI) African Regional Summit in Pretoria, South Africa last Friday.

Dr Bawumias speech was on the topic, Forging Stronger Partnership in Africa for Sustainable Economic Development through the Sister Cities Global Partnership.

The event was on the theme, Transforming SCI Africa: Honouring Traditions, creating New Partnerships.

The goal of this summit was to create some 500 new US-Africa partnerships by 2028 to generate extraordinary opportunities for global, economic and sustainable development in Africa.

Cities driving world economy

Dr Bawumia said it was clear that cities operate and compete in a different world today than they did 50 years ago, adding that it had been projected that by 2030, the global urban population will reach 75 per cent, and over 90 per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP) will result from urban activity.

He said cities were driving the global economy and had become the engines of growth through productivity, innovation and job creation.

The Vice-President noted that globalisation was increasing trade flows between regions and shifting economic power towards the emerging economies of Africa, Asia and South America, or more accurately, the cities of those regions.

Sister Cities International

Sister Cities International, a non-profit organisation created to help communities achieve this aspiration, was born out of that conference.

Today, SCI has over 500 member cities, counties and states in the US, which have partnered with over 2,100 municipalities in 145 other countries worldwide.

Its mission is to develop peace and prosperity worldwide through person-to-person interaction, an exchange that transcends national boundaries and governmental action.

Collaborations

Dr Bawumia stated that officials, businesses and other community members in sister cities had unique opportunities to learn from each other in policy areas such as sanitation, water, health, transportation, tourism, sustainability, economic development and education.

Sister city communities, he added, were also well-placed to assist each other in times of crisis.

He further indicated that sharing cultural traditions, from music and art to food and fashion, was a powerful way for two communities to learn from each other.
The California Energy Commission (CEC) approved a staff analysis recommending the state pursue extending operation of Diablo Canyon Power Plant (DCPP) through 2030 to ensure electricity reliability. DCPP is currently scheduled for phased retirement in 2024 and 2025.

The determination is based on data showing California risks energy supply shortfalls during extreme weather events.

Senate Bill 846 (Dodd, 2022) requires the CEC to determine the need to extend DCPPs license to operate beyond its expiration date of 2025. Located in San Luis Obispo County, DCPP is owned and operated by Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E). The nuclear power plant supplies about 17% of Californias zero-carbon electricity and 9% of total electricity. An extension allows the state to rely less on natural gas and more on clean resources for the electricity grid.

The determination comes as California is experiencing a substantial shift in conditions affecting the electric grid, which is transitioning to the states clean energy future, while confronting the impacts of climate change. This includes extreme heat and wildfires that threaten the grid with growing frequency and intensity.

On 6 September 2022, the California ISO (ISO) reached a new all-time high peak load of 52,061 megawatts (MW) during a record-breaking 10-day heat wave, nearly 2,000 MW higher than the previous record. Updated forecasts show this type of extreme event is increasingly likely to occur because of rising temperatures.

The CEC will publish additional analysis this year comparing the cost of alternatives to the cost of extending DCPP. At the same time, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is evaluating how extension impacts electricity rates. Ultimately, the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission will consider whether to approve PG&Es application to extend the plants operating license.

The state is continuing to invest in rapidly building out clean energy capacity. The CEC also approved a $1-billion investment plan for clean energy resources as required by SB 846. The Clean Energy Reliability Investment Plan prioritizes funding for efforts that accelerate the deployment of clean energy resources, support demand response, assist ratepayers, and increase energy reliability.

In 2021, the CPUC ordered the states investor-owned utilities to bring 11,500 MW of new clean electricity resources on-line from 2023 to 2026. Last week, the CPUC ordered an additional 4,000 MW of new clean energy capacity between 2027 and 2028. However, lingering pandemic-related supply chain disruptions continue to cause project delays, the CEC said.
Honda and LG Energy Solution held the official groundbreaking ceremony for a new joint venture EV battery plant more than 2 million square feet in size, to be located in Fayette County, near Jeffersonville, Ohioabout 40 miles southwest of Columbus. (Earlier post.)





The two companies have committed to invest $3.5 billion in the new joint venture (JV) facility, with their overall investment projected to reach $4.4 billion. The facility is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2024, with plans to create 2,200 jobs, and the aim for approximately 40GWh of annual production capacity.

The plant aims to start mass production of pouch-type lithium-ion batteries by the end of 2025, to be provided exclusively to Honda auto plants to produce EVs to be sold in North America.

Honda also has announced plans to invest $700 million to re-tool several of its existing auto and powertrain plants in Ohio for production of electric vehicles that will utilize the batteries made at the new JV facility.

Honda plans to begin production and sales of Honda EVs in North America in 2026, based on its new Honda e:Architecture. As part of its goal to achieve carbon neutrality for all products and corporate activities by 2050, Honda has a vision to make battery-electric and fuel cell electric vehicles represent 100% of its vehicle sales by 2040.

LG Energy Solution currently has a global annual production capacity of 200GWh to further expand to 300GWh by the end of this year.
Tesla and its affiliates have signed a $2.9-billion order for high-nickel cathode materials with South Koreas L&F Company, according to an L&F regulatory filing. The contract runs for two years, from 1 Jan 2024 through 31 December 2025.

The value of the deal is calculated on the basis of L&Fs recent cathode sales price, and may change depending upon fluctuations in lithium pricing. L&F currently supplies LiNiMnCoO 2 , LiCoO 2 and LiMn 2 O 4 materials, with customized high-nickel NCM materials for high-performance products.

L&F also supplies LG Energy Solutions among other battery makers.

L&F was founded in July 2000 to produce LCD back lighting units. In August 2005, L&F Materials, a subsidiary of L&F, started the cathode active material business for lithium-ion rechargeable batteries. In February 2016, L&F and L&F Materials, merged to become a world-class company in the cathode active material business.
LG Energy Solution and Honda break ground for new JV EV battery plant in Ohio
Realme is gearing up to launch a new C-series phone in Indonesia and India soon and we now have some new renders as well as a rumored launch date to look forward to. Realme C55 is expected to launch next Tuesday, March 7 while open sales should start a day later.

Taking a look at the renders we can see the device will sport a punch-hole display and dual rear cameras (64MP + 2MP) housed in separate circular cutouts. The phone will arrive in at least two colors  gradient and black with both featuring a matte finish.



Realme C55 renders

Realme C55 is rumored to bring a 6.52-inch LCD with FHD+ resolution and a 90Hz refresh rate. More interestingly, the new leak suggests the C55 will be the first Realme phone with a Dynamic Island style setup for notifications and charging details.

Elsewhere, the C55 is expected to launch with MediaTeks Helio G88 chipset alongside 4/8GB RAM and 64/128/256GB storage. The phone will boot Android 13 with Realme UI 4.0 on top and will pack a 5,000 mAh battery with 33W fast charging

Via
After spending the first nine months of his life in the neonatal intensive care unit of Guam Memorial Hospital, Markes Shirai weighed 17.6 pounds when he went home on Feb. 10, 2023.
You have permission to edit this article.

Edit Close
The schedule of vendors, rides and activities to celebrate Humataks Guam History and CHamoru Heritage Day Festival has been announced.

The festival will run from Friday evening to Monday night and is free for the community at the Humatak Mayors Office Festival Grounds.

Payment to vendors and food trucks will be cash only.

The event is to celebrate CHamoru culture and history as well as bring the community together to enjoy live music, a drone show, games and support local businesses.

Kids and families can look forward to rides like spinning teacups and a rock wall. They also can participate in games and activities such as a mobile petting zoo, darts, bean bag toss, spin the wheel and more.

Food trucks that plan to be on site are Ssoonnyys Food Truck, C&J Hotdog Stand, Pono Hawaiian Grill, Momos Cafe, Sip n Dip, Salupa Hut, 671 Kettle Corn and Sticky Fingers.

Attendees can expect to hear and see the talents of Manfafanaguen Bailan CHamoru, Island Kai, DJ Mario Padilla, the John Dank Show and others.

The festival start and end times each day are:

Friday, 6 p.m.-midnight.

Saturday, noon-midnight.

Sunday, noon-midnight.

Monday, noon-midnight.

The Magellan landing reenactment will be from 2-3 p.m. Monday at the Magellan Monument Park along Humatak Bay.

The Mount Schroeder Trail Race will return on Sunday. Show time is 7:30 a.m. and go time is 8 a.m. The course goes from Humatak Bay to the summit of Mount Schroeder and back. The event is capped at the first 99 people to sign up and the registration fee is $25. Prizes will be awarded to the top three women and top three men.
Calls for another round of bailouts for local businesses have apparently been heard, with two lawmakers introducing legislation to extend the Local Employers Assistance Program, or LEAP.

Sens. Chris Barnett and Frank Blas Jr. have introduced two separate pieces of legislation to pump $10 million and $15 million more into the program, respectively. Both bills were filed within 24 hours of the Guam Restaurateur Collection publicly petitioning government officials to help keep restaurants afloat.

LEAP was created by an executive order in October 2021 to provide loans to businesses struggling due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It helped about 900 businesses keep the lights on, and loans are forgivable if 60% of the money goes toward employee wages and benefits.

We have a duty to do what we can to lift up both the public and the private sector, Sen. Chris Barnett said in a statement. Thats exactly what were trying to do.

Barnetts Bill 59, which was filed first, would pull $10 million from any unappropriated, excess tax revenue collected in fiscal years 2021, fiscal 2022, or the first quarter of 2023 to fund the extension. The bill states that small businesses shall be given priority for any grants and that the Guam Economic Development Authority will provide monthly, online reports about who receives the grants.

A release from Barnetts office stated the senator supports a 22% general pay raise for government of Guam employees, but that all island residents must also be considered.

Bill 59 has bipartisan support, with Sens. Sabina Perez, Telo Taitague, Joanne Brown, Chris Duenas, Thomas Fisher, and Jesse Lujan signed on as cosponsors.

Blas has proposed a bigger stimulus of $15 million in Bill 61. The measure would draw the funds entirely from excess tax revenue collected in fiscal 2023, noting the government of Guams revenue is coming in over projections.

Excess revenue

GovGuam closed January with $42 million more in collections than the current fiscal year budget allotted, according to a statement Monday from Bureau of Budget and Management Research Director Lester Carlson.

With that money coming from businesses and residents providing a portion of the excess revenues to our businesses that need help to recover and continue to drive our economy (its) prudent and beneficial for our island as a whole, the bill states.

However, there are competing interests for that excess revenue, with the administration looking to take $16 million to raise GovGuam salaries by 22% through the end of the year, and Duenas looking to put $30 million toward repairs for the school system.

Total price tag

Its unclear whether either portion of money would be enough to pay out the pool of eligible applicants  businesses whose revenue is 50% below pre-pandemic levels. The LEAP cost GovGuam $62 million last year through a mix of federal and local dollars.

GEDA Administrator Melanie Mendiola last October estimated about half the 900 awardees still would qualify, putting the cost at $36 million.
Should employers be barred from screening job applicants for cannabis?

Residents can weigh in on Thursday.

A public hearing for Bill 6, the Responsible Cannabis User Employment Protection Act will be held at 9 a.m. at the Guam Congress Building.

Sen. Will Parkinson introduced the bill, which would also prevent any landlord, college, or government agency from testing for cannabis as a condition of employment, housing, education or government services. Signed on as cosponsors of the measure are Sen. Dwayne San Nicolas and Vice Speaker Tina Muna Barnes.

Testing would only be allowed if required by federal law.

Village mayors recently brought up the issue of job applicants being denied employment by the Department of Administration after testing positive for cannabis use on a drug test. The substance has been legal for adult recreational use since 2019, however, its still prohibited under the government of Guams Drug-Free Workplace Program.

A large number of government employees may still be required to undergo drug screening, should the bill become law, as roughly a third of GovGuams workers have their salaries paid for with federal funding. Cannabis is still a Schedule I controlled substance federally.

Parkinsons Bill 6 would not prohibit law enforcement from testing during an investigation of possible intoxicated driving. Neither would it prevent an employer, landlord or college from taking action against an employee based on their behavior, according to the bill.

Public safety retirement

Two measures to revise the lowered retirement age for public safety personnel under GovGuams Defined Benefit 1.75 retirement scheme will be up for hearing after Bill 6.

Public Law 36-130 lowered the retirement age to 55 for a number of public safety personnel under the retirement scheme, but inadvertently included all of the staff at the Office of the Attorney General while also excluding positions like firefighters at the airport. Thats according to the vice speakers Bill 27, which would amend the definition of personnel covered by the lowered retirement age.

Parkinsons Bill 37, meanwhile, would name Public Law 36-130, after the late senator and former police officer Jose Pedo Terlaje, who introduced the legislation last term.
Published on 2023/03/01 | Source

Korean movies opening today 2023/03/01 in Korea: "The Devil's Deal", "My Heart Puppy", "There Is People Here, Too", "Ethnic People" and "IM HERO The Final"

Advertisement

"The Devil's Deal" (2020)

Directed by Lee Won-tae

With Cho Jin-woong, Lee Sung-min, Kim Mu-yeol, Won Hyun-joon, Son Yeo-eun, Kim Yoon-sung,...

Synopsis

The more power he desires, the darker his world becomes

Hae-woong (Cho Jin-woong), an assembly member candidate, is taken out of the running because he became a thorn in the side of a local bigwig, Soon-tae (Lee Sung-min). Hounded by loan sharks, due to defaulting a campaign loan, he decides to get his hands dirty. He steals classified government's information about an urban development plan and obtains the help of a local gang leader, Pil-do (Kim Mu-yeol), by promising hefty real estate profit. Now Hae-woong re-enters the race and tries to take revenge on Soon-tae. Unbeknownst to him, his messy journey through politics has only just begun.

"My Heart Puppy" (2022)

Directed by Kim Joo-hwan

With Yoo Yeon-seok, Cha Tae-hyun, Jung In-sun, Kang Shin-il, Park Jin-joo, Woo Do-hwan,...

Synopsis

"My Heart Puppy" is about a man who is about to get married going through an adventure when he sets off with his friend to drop his dog off at the pet-sitters.

"There Is People Here, Too" (2023)

Directed by Kim Choong-gil

With Kim Choong-gil, Lee Yi-seul, Jeung Hoi-dong, Han Dong-won, Lim Sung-kyun-I, Shin Yeon-jae,...

Synopsis

Choong-gil is an unknown actor who broke up with his girlfriend and is having trouble with his work. While frustrated, a great thing happened to him. He passed the first audition for a new film by a world-renowned master director. With the thought that this is the last time, he prepares for the second audition. On the other hand, his friend I-seul comforts him.

"Ethnic People" (2020)

Directed by Lee Se-won

Synopsis

A documentary film that looks back on the history of Koreans in China through various materials and videos, from the first ethnic Koreans who settled in China in the 17th century to modern and contemporary history such as the Japanese colonial period and the Korean War.

"IM HERO The Final" (2023)

Directed by Oh Yoon-dong

With Lim Young-woong,...

Synopsis

In the winter of 2022, Im Hero (IMHERO) Lim Young-woong's Encore Concert, which heated up the Gocheok Sky Dome, is coming to the audience in 2023 with "IM HERO The Final" through ScreenX, which will recreate the thrill of the grand finale.

"I feel like I became the main character of The Truman Show"

He says that he seems to be the main character of the movie 'The Truman Show', but he does his best every moment for the fandom 'Age of Hero', a 'real Lim Young-woong', a heartfelt interview, and a behind-the-scenes story of a national tour that can only be found in the movie theater.

Filmed with 14 cinematic cameras, Lim Young-woong's "IM HERO The Final" will provide a special viewing experience with angles that can only be seen in theaters.
Login or sign up to follow actresses, movies & dramas and get specific updates and news

Login Sign Up

 New Ad-free Subscriber Login

Email

Password

Password Username Subscribe to our daily NewsLetter Your E-mail will only be used to retrieve a lost password or receive our NewsLetter.

Stay logged in

Lost password

Contact
Published on 2023/02/28 | Source

Actor Lee Jong-won-I will work with Lee Hanee.

Advertisement

The MBC TV drama "Flower That Blooms at Night" depicts the double life of Jo Yeo-hwa (Lee Hanee), a 15-year widowed woman, and Park Soo-ho (Lee Jong-won-I), a military worker who everyone covets at the four gates of old Seoul. Soo-ho is a person with excellent martial arts skills and a clear brain. He tries not to have a relationship because he is afraid of losing anyone precious, but after meeting Yeo-hwa, he is caught up in an unexpected incident and goes through a change.

It will be directed by Chang Tae-you of "My Love from the Star" (2013-2014) and it will be broadcast in the second half of the year.
Germanys Sono Motors in February announced it has decided to pull the plug on the development of solar-powered electric vehicles in order to focus exclusively on solar panel technology that is compatible with vehicles.

VALMET AUTOMOTIVE , a Finnish contract automotive manufacturer, has lost one of its most important near-future clients, reports YLE.

It was a difficult decision, said Laurin Hahn, the CEO of Sono Motors, and despite more than 45,000 reservations and pre-orders for the Sion, we were compelled to react to the ongoing financial market instability and streamline our business.

The announcement was made after a crowdfunding campaign launched by the startup to fund the production fell well short of its 104-million-euro target, yielding pledges worth around 50 million euros despite a one-month extension.

Sono Motors and Valmet Automotive had signed a seven-year contract for producing 275,000 vehicles at the latters assembly plant in Uusikaupunki, Southern Finland. The first vehicles were to roll off the assembly line at the end of this year.

Sono Group, the parent company of Sono Motors, has seen its share price plummet to 0.62 US dollars since its initial public offering at a price of 25 US dollars in 2021, according to YLE.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT
TAMK University of Applied Sciences in Tampere, for example, is trying to collect overdue tuition fees worth a total of 200,000 euros from Uasin Gishu County, a western county of Kenya.

KENYAN STUDENTS across Finland may have to discontinue their studies due to unpaid tuition fees, a possibility that is causing uncertainty over what had been a promising start to education exports to Kenya, reports YLE.

The due date in the latest collection letter was 28 February 2023. Ari Sivula, a vice rector at TAMK, told the Finnish public broadcasting company yesterday that the payment has not been received.

We have to find someone to pay the invoice. Education isnt free, he said, confirming that a failure to pay the fees would prevent the students from continuing their studies. Well continue looking for a solution in March, and well keep our lines of communication open to Kenya.

TAMK sent its first payment reminder to Uasin Gishu County in November.

Laurea University of Applied Sciences, meanwhile, has 139 Kenyan students whose right to study will expire at the end of this month unless their tuition fees are paid  possibly along with their right of residence, according to another report by YLE. Laurea and Uasin Gishu County have signed a commissioned education agreement under which the county would cover the costs of students acquiring professional qualifications in Finland.

The county has failed to comply with the agreement, however. Laurea was told by a representative of the county last month that the fees are collected from the students themselves or their parents, a fact that goes against the principal idea of commissioned education.

Some of the students and parents have expressed their concern about the possible misappropriation of the funds.

Similar problems have been encountered by Saimaa Vocational College (Sampo). The Lappeenranta-based vocational institute has already terminated its agreement with Uasin Gishu County.

Atte Jaaskelainen, the head of science and higher education policy at the Ministry of Education and Culture, told YLE on Tuesday that the cases draw attention to the need to consider how to protect the rights of students in commissioned education. While the universities have no legal obligation to help the students, they should consider other factors, too.

They took a risk, the risk was realised and they should carry the risk. This becomes a more multifaceted issue if the university thinks about its own reputation or social responsibility, he said.

Jaaskelainen in February hosted a meeting of university rectors about the problems in commissioned education. The Ministry of Education and Culture handed out new instructions for commissioned education, advising universities to both look more carefully into the arrangement between the commissioner and students and to make sure students in commissioned education recognise that their status differs from students admitted through the joint application procedure.

Universities should make sure that the education is paid in advance or receive some sort of guarantees from a reliable financing institution. This must be done to protect the standing of students, stated Jaaskelainen.

The provision of commissioned education has been possible for universities of applied sciences since 2019 and for vocational schools since 2022 under a legislative amendment adopted in a bid to triple the number of foreign students in Finland by 2030.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT
Between February 8th and 26th, 2023, around 150 people have reported falling ill after eating oysters in restaurants across Helsinki. The illnesses are related to oysters imported from France and the Netherlands.

Reports of illnesses have been recorded from several different restaurants, prompting inspections and sample collections from affected venues. Importers of the oysters in question have also withdrawn their products from the market.

The examination of food samples is still ongoing, but some patient samples have already been completed. So far, seven individuals have tested positive for norovirus related to this outbreak.

Those who have eaten oysters are being encouraged to contact environmental services to provide information for the ongoing investigation.

A report on the outbreak will be prepared for the Finnish Food Authority and the National Institute for Health and Welfare. All known affected individuals will receive a written account of the situation.

Those who suspect that they have fallen ill due to eating food from a restaurant or store are encouraged to complete an online food poisoning report at https://ilppa.fi.

If a food industry operator receives a report of food poisoning from a customer, they have a legal obligation to report it to their local food control authority immediately. Reports should be made at https://ilppa.fi.

Oysters are considered a high-risk food product

Investigations into oyster-related food poisoning occur annually. Eating raw oysters is always a risk, even though not all oysters are contaminated. Oysters filter-feed in seawater and can accumulate norovirus from human waste. Quick heating may not be enough to destroy the virus, as it requires heating to a temperature of +90 degrees Celsius for two minutes to eliminate it.

Restaurants cannot detect norovirus in oysters, and the virus can quickly spread in households and other social settings.

Environmental services will continue to work with the Helsinki epidemiological unit to investigate this outbreak.

HT
After-school activities provided by the City of Helsinki basic education are guided leisure activities for first- and second graders and pupils requiring special-needs support.

The application period for the basic education after-school activities for 1st- and 2nd-graders for their 20232024 school year is approaching. If your school child needs a place in after-school activities next autumn, remember to apply this spring between 6 March and 1 May.

The children participate in meaningful activities in a safe environment after their school day. The activities end either at 16.00 or 17.00.

After-school activities are subject to a fee, which includes a snack and insurance. The monthly fee is EUR 100 for activities ending at 16.00 and EUR 120 for activities ending at 17.00. You can apply for a reduction of or an exemption from the fee based on your income.

Starting from next autumn, the school childrens after-school activities (for 1st and 2nd graders) will be provided by City of Helsinki basic education. In other words, the previous free-of-charge activities for school children provided by public playgrounds will no longer be available. The city announced this on 14 March 2022.

Guided activities after the school day make daily life easier for families

City of Helsinki basic education provides after-school activities in approximately 250 locations around the city, in schools and locations near schools, such as playgrounds and parish facilities. The activities suit the childs age  they include play, outdoor activities and exercise, as well as small excursions to the surrounding area. Some organisers may have a special emphasis in their activities such as exercise.

Spending time with friends is important for after-school activities. More than 10,000 children participate in after-school activities each year, and we encourage all first- and second graders to join in. Meaningful, guided activities support childrens wellbeing, says Outi Salo, Head of Basic Education.

After-school activities supplement small childrens school days. When the school day is over, the child goes to guided after-school activities, which are held at the school or near it. Of course, parents and guardians can also apply for an after-school activity place further away, but most children participate in the activities held at their own school or in its surroundings, continues Salo.

A place will be offered for those who applied during the application period

All first and second graders who apply within the application period will be offered a place in after-school activities. If no place is available at your chosen location, the child will be offered a place in another location in the area. If a location receives more applicants than places available, first-graders and pupils requiring special-needs support are prioritised.

In terms of allocating places, it does not matter when families send in their application, as long as it is submitted during the application period.

Information on locations and organisers is available on the Service Map, which will be updated to include the next school year's locations by 6 March. Application forms for the 20232024 school year will be available from 6 March on the website here.

HT

Source: City of Helsinki, Department of Education
City invites residents to apply for advisory board seats

The city's Diversity & Inclusion Committee is one of the advisory boards that has openings.

The city of Hendersonville is inviting community members to participate in local government by serving on a board, committee, or commission.

Serving on local government boards is one of the leading ways residents can make a positive impact on the future of Hendersonville. City Council is accepting applications for a variety of board appointments. Applications received by May 5 will be considered at the City Councils regular June meeting.



Hendersonville strives for diverse representation on boards and commissions. Residents of all backgrounds are encouraged to apply. Members are encouraged to bring their unique perspectives to advise the mayor and City Council on a variety of issues. Volunteering to serve is a constructive way to use ones knowledge and experience to have an active voice in local government.



Some boards consist of seats filled by people who live within the Hendersonville city limits, or residents of the citys extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) and unincorporated areas of Henderson County. For residency requirements and information on each boards purpose and meeting schedule, visit the citys website.



Board meetings are open to the public, and anyone interested in seeing how an advisory board operates is welcome to attend a meeting. Locations and meeting schedules are listed on the website calendar at https://www.hendersonvillenc.gov/events-calendar

Application deadline is 5 p.m. Friday, May 5, for the council to consider vacancies at its June 1 meeting. A limited number of seats are available. Visit https://www.hendersonvillenc.gov/boards-and-commissions to apply and learn more about residency and appointment requirements.



Those interested are invited to submit applications for:

 Animal Services Advisory Committee

 Board of Adjustment

 Business Advisory Committee

 Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Committee

 Downtown Advisory Board

 Environmental Sustainability Board

 Historic Preservation Commission

 Planning Board

 Tree Board

 Walk of Fame Steering Committee






THE owners of a grocery shop and off-licence in Goring have celebrated 35 years in the village.

Jayesh Patel, known as Jack, and his wife Varsha, who run Westholme Stores, were given a surprise presentation by customers.

They received flowers and cards and a cake made by villager Mary Scriven.

The outside of the Londis shop in Wallingford Road was decorated with colourful balloons.

The couples daughter Nikita, who organised the surprise, said: To be honest, I think my dad forgot that it had been 35 years, so I thought I would do something because its a real milestone for him and mum.

She sent almost 400 cards and chocolates to residents that the shop delivers newspapers to and customers who visited the store were given chocolates.

Miss Patel said: Everyone likes a bit of chocolate so we had heart-shaped chocolates made and wrapped in green, the colours of the shops logo.

Inspiration, a shop in the village, provided the balloons.

I just wanted to show gratitude to all our customers who have supported us for years.

The shop is kind of like a hub where people just gather. Even if theyre in a queue, somebody will start up a conversation.

Its such a lovely, friendly, helpful and supportive community. Everyone looks out for each other, especially during the pandemic, when everyone really came together.

The Patels, who have three grown-up children, moved to the shop on Valentines Day 1988 after buying the freehold of the property and they live above it.

Soon after opening they extended the rear of the premises in order to offer a wider selection of goods.

Mr and Mrs Patel both grew up in Kenya and moved to London with their families in the Seventies when they were teenagers and were introduced by their parents. They were married in 1983.

Mr Patel worked as a sales assistant and then departmental manager at Selfridges in Oxford Street before opening a newsagents in Mitcham in 1981, where he and his wife worked together.

The couple moved to Goring after having their eldest daughter Shrina and then had Nikita and son Rupen.

Mr Patel said: Id always wanted to live in a village because back in Kenya wed lived in a village with a river running through it.

I wanted to move to a village with a scenic view similar to that. A lot of other shops came up but we fell in love with this one.

It has been a great time and Ive seen a lot of children grow up. I often think, Oh my god, theyre all grown up now and some of them still live in the village.

Ive seen a lot of change  lots of different people coming and going. There used to be a post office and a grocers in Cleeve and those have been replaced by a house and a bungalow.

But the beauty of it all is that all the people here are so nice. Its a very close community.

James Elliott, who works at the Davis Tate estate agency branch in Goring, was one of Mr Patels original paperboys.

He said: I worked in the shop, bringing in the fruit and vegetables at the end of the day, then rounding up any newspapers that hadnt sold and bundling them up.

Jacks father, Harry, who must have been in his eighties at the time, used to work with me in closing the shop.

Jack employed a lot of us back then. He was a great boss, really patient and always looked out for us. I was 15 or 16 back then and Im now 45. Jacks a top man  he really puts a lot into the community.

Villager Tina Taylor, who has been an assistant at the shop for almost 20 years, said: The Patels treat you like family. Theyd do anything to help you out.

In January 2021, the Patels were presented with the Shop Local, Shop Little Heroes certificate by the National Confederation of Small Retailers for supporting the community through the coronavirus pandemic.

They worked with the villages volunteer street champions to parcel up orders for people who were self-isolating or shielding due to medical vulnerability.

Volunteers collected and delivered these and said that chatting with the family helped them cope with the stress of the situation.

The couple also helped to prevent goods shortages by limiting purchases and encouraging customers to split multi-packs where necessary.

For their 30th anniversary, the Patels organised a Bollywood night for Restore, a mental health charity based in Oxford that provides rehabilitation services, which raised 3,500.

They are planning to hold another celebration in October to mark their 35th anniversary.
Australian tourism head departs on China visit

Xinhua) 13:48, March 01, 2023

CANBERRA, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Tourism Australia (TA) has launched a campaign for the growth of the country's number one tourism market -- China.

Phillipa Harrison, managing director of TA, on Wednesday departed for a three-day visit to Chinese cities of Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai where she will meet with strategic partners in a bid to invite Chinese tourists to Australia.

The trip will coincide with a localized version of TA's "Don't Go Small, Go Australia" campaign showcasing iconic sites such as the Great Barrier Reef, Uluru and Sydney Opera House to China.

Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, Chinese visitors accounted for about 15 percent of all foreign tourists to Australia and for one third of tourism spending in the country, according to News Corp Australia.

Airline capacity between the countries is expected to reach 80 percent of pre-COVID levels by the end of 2023.

Prior to departing, Harrison said the visit would focus on capturing visiting friends and relatives' market ahead of launching a major campaign later in 2023.

She said that she looks forward to meeting with key airline partners in China about opportunities to strengthen aviation capacity to Australia.

"A strong aviation environment is key to the growth of the China market. These meetings will be crucial as we build up to the launch of a major campaign in China in the middle of the year," she said.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
The Kinney SLO has completed a long-awaited transformation to become The Wayfarer San Luis Obispo. The second Wayfarer hotel concept to date (the first opened in DTLA in 2020), The Wayfarer SLO invites guests to experience its refreshed guestrooms and newly rebranded restaurant and bar, Schoolyard Burgers & Brew.

Offering an all-new experience in the heart of the city, The Wayfarer SLO is a quick drive from the San Luis Obispo airport and less than a mile away from downtown and the Cal Poly SLO campus. Tapping into the classic college experience - minus those pesky PAs and noisy bunk beds - property highlights include:

Stay: The 100 boutique, Cal Poly inspired rooms tap into the nostalgia of college days: Dean's suite, Professor's suite, Campus King and Queen all embrace the staples of dorm life right down to script-embroidered pillows and collage-style photographs on the walls inspired by the coastal college town, without shorting guests on modern amenities.

The 100 boutique, Cal Poly inspired rooms tap into the nostalgia of college days: Dean's suite, Professor's suite, Campus King and Queen all embrace the staples of dorm life right down to script-embroidered pillows and collage-style photographs on the walls inspired by the coastal college town, without shorting guests on modern amenities. Eat : Schoolyard offers an elevated twist on pub-style classics from smash burgers to boozy milkshakes and hyper-local beers on tap, including Schoolyard Blonde, a co-branded brew with Antigua Brewing. Thirteen TVs set the stage for game day watch parties and a new Weekend Brunch features items like the hangover burger, breakfast sando, breakfast tot bowl, Bloody Mary's and Mimosas.

: Schoolyard offers an elevated twist on pub-style classics from smash burgers to boozy milkshakes and hyper-local beers on tap, including Schoolyard Blonde, a co-branded brew with Antigua Brewing. Thirteen TVs set the stage for game day watch parties and a new Weekend Brunch features items like the hangover burger, breakfast sando, breakfast tot bowl, Bloody Mary's and Mimosas. Play: The Wayfarer SLO features a year-round heated pool, fitness center with Peleton bikes, outdoor patio with firepits, classic games from shuffleboard to Scrabble and Skee-Ball, and weekly happenings like Trivia Nights. Nearby, guests can explore downtown via complimentary bikes, hike the picturesque trails of Montana de Oro, check out Bubblegum Alley or sunbathe at Avila Beach.

The Wayfarer SLO features a year-round heated pool, fitness center with Peleton bikes, outdoor patio with firepits, classic games from shuffleboard to Scrabble and Skee-Ball, and weekly happenings like Trivia Nights. Nearby, guests can explore downtown via complimentary bikes, hike the picturesque trails of Montana de Oro, check out Bubblegum Alley or sunbathe at Avila Beach. Meet: Offering 2,000 square feet of flexible meeting and event space, the hotel's two event venues include The Library, accommodating up to 100 guests, and The Gallery, which accommodates up to 60 guests and can be expanded to invite the California sunshine in with an adjoining private patio.

Hotel website
Banyan Tree Group, one of the world's leading multi-branded independent hospitality groups, has signed an MOU with La Quinta Real Estate Group to open Angsana Real de la Quinta Benahavis Marbella resort and residences in 2026. Located in the charming Mediterranean town of Benahavis near Marbella, the development will include a hotel, branded residences, apartments and commercial spaces. The property will mark the Group's debut in Spain.

Perched at the top of a hill and nestled inside the 200-hectare Real de La Quinta residential community, Angsana Real de la Quinta Benahavis Marbella will command expansive views over the rolling hills below and the blue Alboran sea. The design - led by OBMI with interiors from MKV Design and landscaping by RSR Studio - celebrates and fosters togetherness among friends and family amid bright, airy interiors. Composed of clean lines and simple silhouettes, the architecture incorporates elegant brick wall patterns and stonework referencing local materials and building traditions.

Modern and fluid interior designs, meanwhile, find cues in the resort's architecture and honour the sense of retreat into the beautiful, wooded slopes of the Sierra de las Nieves. Ample windows provide expansive views and an open feel, while social spaces dotted with orange trees and water features promote social gatherings in a courtyard-style setting that reflects both Angsana's essence of treasuring each moment and the destination's Andalusian soul.

In addition to 90 nature-integrated guestrooms and suites circling an oasis courtyard, the hotel will also feature three dining venues, including all-day dining, signature and pool bar and grill concepts; meeting spaces; spa and kids' club; adult and family pools; and a wedding amphitheatre. Branded residences, ranging from 97 to 151 square metres in size, are a carefully choreographed composition of light and space which, at the same time, serves the needs of a family lifestyle. Available in two- and three-bedroom configurations, Angsana residences will come with amenities such as a private courtyard, swimming pool, parking, daily housekeeping and maintenance services.

To help families with local immersion through on- and off-site activities, Angsana Real de La Quinta Benahavis Marbella will offer moonlit paddles around Real de la Quinta's lake (with a beach area), nature hikes to explore local flora, including to the neighbouring UNESCO biosphere reserve. Real de La Quinta will also have a restaurant area, operated by the renowned Azotea Grupo; a Health & Wellness area, run by Le Max Club. one of the most chic and luxurious destinations in Spain and Southern Europe.

Hotel website
FAIRMONT BANGKOK SUKHUMVIT to be FIRST HOTEL DEVELOPED UNDER MULTI-PROPERTY AGREEMENT SIGNED BY AWC AND ACCOR TO ELEVATE BANGKOK AS A GLOBAL TOURISM HUB.

Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, part of world leading hospitality group Accor, and Asset World Corp Public Company Limited (AWC), Thailand's leading integrated lifestyle real estate group, today announced the signing of the first Fairmont hotel in Thailand. Fairmont Bangkok Sukhumvit is set to open in 2024 as the first project signed under AWC's multi-property framework agreement with Accor, elevating Bangkok as a global hub for luxury leisure, business and group travel. Under this partnership, AWC and Accor will open more than 1,000 keys across multiple Accor-branded hotels in key tourist destinations throughout the country, providing unique offerings and experiences for guests, and strengthening Thailand as a sustainable tourism destination.

Fairmont is one of Accor's top global luxury brands, with more than a century of history, and iconic hotels positioned in extraordinary destinations worldwide - from The Plaza in New York City, to The Savoy in London, to Fairmont Peace Hotel in Shanghai, to Fairmont The Palm in Dubai - aligning with AWC's strategy to develop quality assets in prime locations. Fairmont properties around the globe are known for their luxurious guest rooms, world-class public spaces and dining venues, and amazing locations from which they provide guests with unforgettable memories - and Fairmont Bangkok Sukhumvit will be no different.

Located in the heart of the city's Sukhumvit district, Fairmont Bangkok Sukhumvit will bring together a unique interpretation of Fairmont's timeless aesthetic, designed with 'a tasteful touch of elegance and simplicity', the renowned luxury brand's legendary service, and distinctive offerings, including an unforgettable gastronomic experience. The hotel will serve as a home away from home for guests, brought to life through the design story of 'The Fantastic Journey of Travel to the Bygone Era', with elements from handcrafted classic furniture to touches of opulence and sophistication.

The 419-room hotel will feature a variety of specialty restaurants & bars offering both international and Asian cuisine, rooftop bar with a spectacular view of the skyscrapers in Bangkok's central business district, swimming pool, fitness center, spa and wellness center. Boasting extensive meeting facilities, scalable with a choice of room size, and equipped with the latest technology, including virtual meeting equipment, Fairmont Bangkok Sukhumvit will open as the first fully integrated luxury MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) hotel in Thailand. Bringing a new level of luxury to the capital's central business district, the hotel is designed to meet the demands of today's customers, appealing to both locals and overseas guests, and elevating Bangkok as a global hub for the luxury MICE market.

Aligning with both Fairmont's and AWC's commitments to sustainability, the hotel will meet LEED and WELL green building standards that prioritize energy saving and a circular economy model on waste management. The property will be located in the Sukhumvit mid-town and Asoke junction, with easy access to the BTS Skytrain and underground MRT train network, surrounded by offices of multinational companies, Queen Sirikit National Convention Center, and shopping centers including EM District.

With more than 90 hotels around the globe, and a record-breaking pipeline under development, Fairmont Bangkok Sukhumvit joins a growing portfolio of renowned properties in Asia, including Fairmont Singapore, at the heart of the lion city; Fairmont Makati, which recently celebrated its 10th birthday; and Fairmont Ambassador Seoul, the newest expression of urban luxury in the center of the South Korean capital.

Fairmont is part of Accor, the second largest operator of luxury hotels in the world. Additional luxury brands in the Accor portfolio include Raffles, Orient Express, Sofitel, and more. Upon its opening, Fairmont Bangkok Sukhumvit will join ALL - Accor Live Limitless, Accor's award-winning lifestyle loyalty program.

Hotel website
In the heart of Tel Aviv's Old City, in the picturesque Neve Tsedekneighbourhood, Elkonin Hotel MGallery offers an enchanting setting for a wide range of sensory experiences, from taste to smell to an overall sense of relaxation.

Bringing back to life the first ever hotel in the Israeli metropolis, created in 1913 by Malka and Menahem Elkonin - a charismatic couple originally from Russia who left a strong mark on the city - Elkonin Hotel MGalleryis also a place of historical significance. Indeed, illustrious guests such as Albert Einstein and David Ben-Gurion have resided under its roof. Its rich history seduced Dominique Romano, who acquired it in 2004 with the intention of saving the historic building, which had been abandoned. The Franco-Israeli entrepreneur has given the place a new lease on life by bringing in modernity and an incomparable art of hospitality. The dream of a luxury home and a private getaway became a reality thanks to the architect Gidi Bar Orian and the interior designer Adriana Schor, who in addition to executing the interior design, also acted as artistic director.

Designed as a boutique hotel with 44 rooms including 2 suites, Elkonin Hotel MGallery offers unique service and amenities, featuring collaborations with world-renowned brands. As such, it is home to' Epoque, the first Robuchon restaurant in Israel, as well as a Clarins spa, which is also a first in the country. The hotel has joined the Mgallery Hotel Collection, a brand of more than a hundred soulful boutique hotels around the world where captivating stories are lived and shared. Whether it is for a weekend, a romantic getaway, a week of exploring the city or a business trip; for solo travelers, couples, or friends, ElkoninHotel MGallery is always open to welcome guests and offer a personal touch. It is in perfect harmony with the festive atmosphere and the dynamic pace of Tel Aviv.

The historic building in which Elkonin Hotel MGallery was built has been meticulously restored. The interior designer wished to preserve the architectural modeling typical of the eclectic style in vogue in Tel Aviv at the beginning of the 20th century. A site-specific, majestic glass tower designed by Gidi Bar Oriancreates a striking architectural dialogue with the historic part of the building. Faceted like an abstract painting, with reflections that change according to the trajectory of the sun, it provides access to the rooftop on the 7th floor, reserved for hotel and spa guests until 6 pm. Non-resident guests may also enjoy the rooftop upon reservation. This truly panoramic spot is the perfect place to enjoy a refreshing cocktail accompanied by a choice of snacks while admiring the famous Tel Aviv sunset over the Mediterranean

Hotel website
Complementing further Cycas Hospitality developments in the region, is the forthcoming opening of Hyatt Place Rouen, the first Hyatt hotel within the Normandy region. Scheduled to open late 2023, Hyatt Place Rouen will offer 78 guestrooms, meeting spaces for approximately 100 guests and a state-of-the-art gym and swimming pool. The property will be developed from a former 19th century school building, located near the railway station and the old city centre.

Reflecting the strong momentum in the select service category across Europe, Hyatt Place Rouen is the second Hyatt Place hotel in France operated by Cycas Hospitality and the first under a hotel management agreement. This opening strengthens Cycas' portfolio of Hyatt properties, including the dual-branded Hyatt Place & Hyatt House properties at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport and the 280-room Hyatt Place London City East.

Hotel website
The Ritz-Carlton, Tysons Corner is proud to announce the recent appointment of Olivier Lau to the role of General Manager. With nearly two decades of hospitality experience, Olivier brings a plethora of knowledge to his new title, where he will continue to establish the hotel as a luxury destination in picturesque Northern Virginia. In this role, he will also have oversight for The Ritz-Carlton, Georgetown, Washington D.C., with their shared Guidance Team members supporting both locations.

In his most recent role as General Manager of JW Marriott New Orleans, Olivier exceeded all key metrics, where he produced remarkable results in employee, quest, and owner satisfaction - all while improving topline revenue and GOP margin during the height of the pandemic. Prior to this role, Olivier served as the Director of Operations at the JW Marriott Minneapolis Mall of America, earning Hotel of the Year under the Classic Luxury category in 2017 and 2019 during his tenure.

Olivier's industry experience spans 18 years across multiple brands and locations. He began his career in the purchasing department of the Brussels Marriott Hotel. As his career progressed, he held a variety of food and beverage roles in Brussels, Belgium, and St. Thomas, USVI, before returning stateside to open the JW Marriott Chicago as Director of Restaurants. Olivier's journey continued as Director of Food and Beverage at The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco, followed by a promotion to Los Angeles as Director of Food and Beverage for the LA Live complex of hotels: The Ritz-Carlton, The Ritz-Carlton Residences and JW Marriott.

Born and raised in Paris, Olivier earned a Bachelor of Tourism Management from Haute Ecole Lucia de Brouckere (Brussels, Belgium), followed by certifications in Revenue Management, Real Estate Investment, and Asset Management from Cornell University.
Marisa Fernandes has been named General Manager at Four Seasons Safari Lodge Serengeti, Tanzania starting January 2023. She assumes this role after having joined the Lodge team as the Resort Manager in September 2021. Her leadership over the past year has seen the Lodge thrive on delivering the exceptional guest and employee experiences it is renowned for.

Fernandes grew up with a dream to travel the world. With a degree in International Relations and Communications Law, she never imagined that the hospitality industry would be the ticket to achieving her ambitions, yet a short internship at a hotel in her hometown of Lamego, Portugal after her studies set her on her course to success, eventually joining Four Seasons Safari Lodge Serengeti in 2021 after an already accomplished career with Six Senses that had taken her to different destinations such as Bhutan or Vietnam.

As the first female General Manager of Four Seasons Safari Lodge Serengeti since it began operating in 2012, Fernandes oversees all operations of the 77-unit luxury lodge, which includes 12 Terrace Suites with plunge pools and five free-standing pool villas, all with stunning views of the fascinating Serengeti landscape.

Fernandes brings extensive experience gained in her various leadership roles with hotels and resorts in Portugal, United Kingdom and Southeast Asia and as a lecturer in Tourism and Hospitality Management School for more than six years.

Leading and motivating a team to deliver the hospitality experience guests have come to expect from Four Seasons is an ongoing motivator that sets the tone for Fernandes' day every day.

Fernande's new home, Four Seasons Safari Lodge Serengeti, is a notable property. It provides the ideal setting for couples and families and groups to create memories that will last a lifetime. Nestled discreetly in the heart of the world's most well-known national park and UNESCO World Heritage Site the Serengeti National Park, and situated centrally to experience the great migration heading north and south, the Lodge provides an unrivalled safari experience throughout the year. It was also one of the first lodges on the African continent to welcome children, a significant milestone for families with younger ones.
Fondo Italiano and Eulero Capital acquire stake in HNH Hospitality from Siparex

Fund manager Fondo Italiano dInvestimento and investment manager Eurelo Capital, through the Fondo Italiano Consolidamento e Crescita (FICC), have taken over an equity stake in Italian operator HNH Hospitality for an undisclosed amount from Siparex, which invested in the company in 2017. The new stakeholders will work alongside and support the majority shareholder of HNH Hospitality, the Boccato family, led by CEO Luca Boccato. HNH Hospitality currently operates 16 hotels and resorts, 13 of which are located in major Italian cities such as Rome, Bologna, Venice and Milan, under brands such as Almar (HNHs own brand), voco, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Best Western, and DoubleTree by Hilton.

Fattal Group acquires The Grand Brighton hotel in the UK from the Weston family

Israels largest hotel organisation and owner of Leonardo Hotels, Fattal Group, has acquired The Grand Brighton, a 201-room historic hotel situated on Englands south coast, from the billionaire Weston family, for a sum reported to be in the region of 55 million to 60 million (274,000 to 299,000 per room). The Weston family, who control Fortnum and Mason and Associated British Foods, transacted the property via the familys privately-held holding company, Wittington Investments. The family had acquired the hotel from DeVere in 2014 for 50 million and refurbished the property in 2019, including restoring the hotels Victorian facade. The hotel includes conference and banquet facilities totalling 1,200 sqm across 13 rooms.

About HVS

HVS is the world's leading consulting and valuation services organization focused on the hotel, restaurant, shared ownership, gaming, and leisure industries. Established in 1980, the company performs more than 4,500 assignments per year for virtually every major industry participant. HVS principals are regarded as the leading professionals in their respective regions of the globe. Through a worldwide network of over 50 offices staffed by 300 experienced industry professionals, HVS provides an unparalleled range of complementary services for the hospitality industry. For further information regarding our expertise and specifics about our services, please visit www.hvs.com.
Expands presence within France with the development of 3 new branded hotels

New Marriott and Hyatt additions bring Cycas French portfolio to 8 hotels (+1100 rooms)

New hotels bolster Cycas portfolio to 47 hotels across Europe and the UK

Cycas Hospitality has announced the inclusion of 3 new branded hotels to the management companys growing European portfolio of 47 hotels.

The 91-bedroom Moxy Paris Clamart is scheduled for opening late 2023, in a partnership with Spirit REIM Services, Eiffage Immobilier and COFFIM. Located within the ZAC Grand Canal region of the Parisian suburb, hotel guests can enjoy the brands communal play spaces alongside Art Deco interior designs.

Complementing further Cycas Hospitality developments in the region, is the forthcoming opening of Hyatt Place Rouen, the first Hyatt hotel within the Normandy region. Scheduled to open late 2023, Hyatt Place Rouen will offer 78 guestrooms, meeting spaces for approximately 100 guests and a state-of-the-art gym and swimming pool. The property will be developed from a former 19th century school building, located near the railway station and the old city centre.

Reflecting the strong momentum in the select service category across Europe, Hyatt Place Rouen is the second Hyatt Place hotel in France operated by Cycas Hospitality and the first under a hotel management agreement. This opening strengthens Cycas portfolio of Hyatt properties, including the dual-branded Hyatt Place & Hyatt House properties at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport and the 280-room Hyatt Place London City East.

Set to open in early 2025, Cycas is working with Marriott Hotels & Resorts to develop the 86-room hotel Moxy Le Havre based in the Normandy area of France. Moxy Le Havre, Cycas 4th Moxy hotel opening, will form part of a multi-purpose complex within the region and is owned by the family-run ETAMINE company. Set between Frances second largest port, train station, beach and marina, this development will transform the former EM Normandie campus site into a new urban centre within this popular business destination and world heritage city.
The positive effects of employees trust in their supervisors have been widely documented, such as job engagement, performance, and organizational citizenship behaviors. Given supervisors authority in the workplace, we suspect supervisors would bear a critical role in initiating trusting supervisor-employee relationships. As suggested in the social exchange theory, employees may perceive supervisor trust in them as a kind act by the supervisor and feel obligated to return such a kind act with their trust in supervisor.

The Research

To examine the relationships among (supervisor) trust in employee, (employee) felt trust, and (employee) trust in supervisor with empirical data, I worked with Drs. Yung-Kuei Huang at National Ilan University in Taiwan and Ning-Kuang Chuang at Kent State University on a project. Our purpose is two-fold.

1. To examine the mediating relationships among trust in employee, felt trust, and trust in supervisor with two-dimensional measures:

Reliance-based trust intentions --- trustors willingness to rely on trustees knowledge, skills, and abilities;

--- trustors willingness to rely on trustees knowledge, skills, and abilities; Disclosure-based trust intentions --- trustors disclosure of sensitive or personal information to trustees.

2. To investigate the direct and indirect effects of the above trust-related variables on customer-focused voice and silence.

Customer-focused voice --- employees efforts to provide constructive suggestions to management with the intent to address customer needs and improve service quality and procedures;

--- employees efforts to provide constructive suggestions to management with the intent to address customer needs and improve service quality and procedures; Customer-focused silence --- employees intentionally withhold information, ideas, and concerns that may be potentially important for the improvement or medication of customer services.

We employed structured equation modeling with 307 valid paired supervisor-employee questionnaires from 32 hotels in Taiwan to test the hypotheses. We then published the results in the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.

The Key Findings

Besides the reciprocity of trust between supervisor trust in employee and employee trust in supervisor, we also discovered some interesting findings about employees customer-focused voice and silence behaviors:

(Supervisor) reliance-based trust in employee has a significantly positive effect on voice but not silence. (Employee) felt reliance positively affects voice but negatively affects silence. (Employee) felt disclosure has no impact on voice but positively affects silence. (Employee) reliance-based trust in supervisor negatively affects voice. (Employee) disclosure-based trust in supervisor positively affects voice and negatively affects silence.

Is relying on employees better than disclosing sensitive information to employees?

It appears that supervisor reliance-based trust in employee can trigger employees feeling of being trusted by their supervisor. Then, when employees feel their supervisors rely on them, they would trust their supervisors in return. Furthermore, when supervisors rely more on employees at work, employees become more likely to provide constructive feedback and suggestions for service improvement.

It is noteworthy to mention that when employees feel their supervisors disclose more sensitive and personal information, they become more likely to withhold their suggestions (i.e., to remain silent). It makes sense that employees might feel reluctant to provide suggestions or inputs when they see their supervisors often share personal and sensitive information with others.

Our results indicate that employees will trust their supervisors more when their supervisors delegate more important tasks to them but not as much when their supervisors disclose too much personal or sensitive information to them. Accordingly, we present the following:

Recommendations for Managers and Supervisors

Assign employees important tasks and give them decision latitude and autonomy to convey a stronger message of their trust in employees.

At the same time, avoid overly delegating the number of important tasks.

Establish a boundary with their subordinate, allowing them to better manage the amount and content of the personal/sensitive information shared with the employees.

Actively welcome suggestions and inputs from frontline employees to minimize the negative effect of overly delegating important tasks on employee voice.

Clearly and openly express their confidence and positive expectations about employees because employees also need to feel the trust before returning supervisors trust in them with their trust in supervisors.

The Conclusion

No study is perfect or free from potential bias. While there are limitations, our work suggests that we must treat reliance-based trust differently from disclosure-based trust in future studies and practices about trust at work. Different trust-related variables can trigger psychological responses unique to customer-focused silence and voice.

In what way do you see the differences between reliance- and disclosure-based trust? What best practices do you see in promoting employee trust in supervisor? How about best practices in helping employees feel or acknowledge their supervisor trust in them?

Linchi Kwok

Professor at The Collins College of Hospitality Management, Cal Poly Pomona

CAL Poly Pomona

View source
Pain points are a challenge for many hotels to maneuver around. And in many cases, hotels have developed a block towards these pain points or in some cases become blind towards them.

In many cases, this has resulted in customers becoming numb to these pain points, and everyone has ended up accepting this as a norm.

So how can you identify your customers pain points? And how do you know which ones are worth solving?

To answer these questions, I use two different matrixes in context with each other.

Utility Matrix for Hotels

The utility matrix helps hotels identify significant pain points that need to be solved.

Source: Are Morch, Digital Transformation Coach

This matrix outlines the customer experience cycle. And hotels need to identify the pain points in each stage. Each stage entails very specific experiences.

The insight generated from understanding the pain points within each stage will help hotels identify perceptions that detract customers from value and can be reversed.

And it is essential to collaborate with employees, customers, and the community to get a good perspective of all the pain points of the customers experience.

The utility levers will help hotels identify opportunities and possibilities that they can pull.

Productivity, that is, anything to do with efficiency  less time, effort, and/or money  in fulfilling customers needs.

Simplicity is anything that eliminates or minimizes complexity or hassle.

Convenience is about when and where you want something, like 24/7, 365 days a year.

Risk reduction might include financial, physical, and reputational risk.

Fun and image are things like the look, feel, and attitude the offering conveys.

Environmental friendliness is about how to green your product or service is, and what this might mean for buyers.

Look at each stage and identify the biggest block for customers, and what are the key reasons for this block.

You might discover that long-held perceptions by your hotel are not what customers are experiencing.

And the first rule is to utilize your hotel employees and the community to better understand what customer experience.

It starts with introducing community days at your hotels where employees visit the local community and experience what it has to offer.

Digital Transformation Matrix for Hotels

The digital transformation matrix helps hotels identify and solve pain points related to employees, customers, and community mindset.

Source: Are Morch, Digital Transformation Coach

This is a transformation process that will transform pain points into power points.

During this process, you will discover the underlying cause of financial pain points, productivity pain points, process pain points, and service pain points.

Just like with the utility matrix, the perceptions might be quite different from what people experience. With the digital transformation matrix change often triggers pain points that might result in resistance or the worst-case sabotage of a process.

It is also important with the digital transformation matrix for hotels to look at each stage. This will move your hotel closer to power points.

Both the utility matrix and the digital transformation matrix represent a dynamic and flexible process.

Within these two matrixes lays the key for your hotel to unlock a formula that will help you identify alternative solutions to all pain points.

Digital Transformation Framework Partnership for Hotels

Hotels today must invest in people and technology in a context that adds value to everyone involved.

Dont continue to neglect or take the people's transformation for granted. Technology is a digital tool that will help your hotel when implemented in collaboration with your employees.

Partner with your employees and they will help with retaining and hiring people.

I also invite you to work with me as your hotel partner to help implement a new innovative digital transformation framework that opens the digital gateways to more direct bookings without competing with the OTA.

Through value innovation, I help hotels with cost-effective alternatives that are focused on eliminating and reducing factors the hotel industry competes on. I also help lift employee and customer value by raising and creating elements that hotels never offered before.

Learn more about digital transformation partnerships for hotels...\

DM me on LinkedIn or shoot me an email at: [email protected]

Are Morch is a digital transformation coach helping hotels open their digital front door, reimagine their processes and culture, and transform experiences in a fast-paced world!

View source
E-procurement is more than just a fancy word for digital purchasing. Though the process involves ordering and purchasing goods and services, the solution for eProcurement takes the entire paper-based process of supplier exchange and transforms it into an innovative online service.

For businesses in the hospitality industry, this means proactively identifying and fulfilling needs while sourcing, tendering, auctioning, and ordering products for your hotel, restaurant, casino, food service, or other event-hosting business.

To learn more about this tool, lets take a look at what eProcurement software is and how it can benefit your company, as well as successful examples from some of BirchStreet System's most reputable customers.

What is eProcurement Software?

Though many believe eProcurement software to be a fairly recent invention, its evolution has been taking place since the 1980s, when electronic data interchange (EDI) was first developed.

Fast-forward to the 1990s, improvements to EDI led to further advancements which allowed organizations to develop online catalogs for vendors.

Today, modern eProcurement involves a web-interface system that centralizes and automates interactions between vendors and customers to acquire products or services efficiently.

Benefits of eProcurement Solutions

Regarding the main functions of eProcurement, the features are far-reaching, ranging from automating the companys day-to-day activities to larger supply chain functions.

In general, most eProcurement software offers automated processes to replace manual repetitive tasks, enables improved communication and collaboration between partners, works as a centralized platform for all procurement activity, and offers real-time data reports for all parties involved.

When it comes to the softwares benefits, most of the advantages of eProcurement are apparent in the functions themselves. For example, automated processes mean that chances for human error become significantly lower. Improved communication translates to more streamlined procurement cycles. A centralized platform for all procurement allows managers and stakeholders to manage and audit from a single location. And lastly, real-time data reports ensure all parties are on the same page at all times.

Particularly for supply chain management, eProcurement offers several additional benefits for indirect procurement or any items that are not directly involved in producing the final product sold by the company. This variety of goods can include office supplies, janitorial and facilities supplies, and other low-cost items.

eProcurement According to BirchStreets Customers

Since manual systems often result in wasted resources and unnecessary expenses, eProcurement solutions can save companies significant capital.

At BirchStreet, several customers utilize our unique eProcurement software, which eliminates such expenses and saves the company money which can be otherwise allocated for more important business-boosting practices.

Among our long list of reputable global partners and customers, clients notice significant cost savings and productivity gains from digitizing their procurement processes.

For example, a leading procurement service provider in North America uses BirchStreets eProcurement software to purchase nearly $4 billion of critical supplies and services annually.

Additionally, BirchStreet has partnered with top third-party management companies to utilize this comprehensive, value-based supply management solution.

As a whole, our clients notice an overall savings of 7-10% from compliance improvements after using the eProcurement software solution, as well as a 10-20% productivity gain from automating procurement processes.

Optimizing Cash Back with BirchStreet Pay

Gone are the days of manually conducting procurement processes. In our digital age, it only makes sense that dozens of companies and industries are migrating over to eProcurement solutions to identify and fulfill the needs between vendors and customers.

And with a simple, easy-to-use interface like BirchStreets eProcurement software, integrating our comprehensive solution for sourcing, tendering, auctioning, and ordering products becomes a no-brainer for your hospitality company. Plus, you can obtain real-time visibility into spending and compliance for all locations and departments while noticing significant cost savings and productivity gains first-hand.

About BirchStreet Systems

BirchStreet Systems powers hospitality and food and beverage enterprises with a comprehensive procure-to-pay business solution. As the global leading provider of spend management solutions in the hospitality industry, 15,500 enterprises in over 130 countries subscribe to BirchStreet to connect with a network of more than 450,000 suppliers.

Established in 2002, BirchStreet is privately held and is headquartered in Las Vegas, NV with offices in California, China, Singapore, India, and the UK. For more information, please visit www.birchstreetsystems.com.

Request Demonstration

Gareth Fraser

Vice President of Sales & Marketing Enablement

BirchStreet Systems

View source
After 3 years of absence, the ITB Berlin, the worlds largest exhibition event for the hospitality industry, will be back in full throttle this year. We know you are as excited as we are, so here is a little personal service for you from us. Deborah Rothe, the Exhibition Director of the ITB Berlin, joined us on the podcast and we asked her what to expect from ITB Berlin 2023 and how it will differ from the last live ITB Berlin event back in 2019. Deborah told us about her career path to becoming the new exhibition director just weeks prior to this years event and the most memorable exhibitor stand from the years she has been involved with the ITB. Needless to say we asked her about the infamous afterparties during the week of ITB that take place throughout the city and Deborah shared the craziest moment of her career in working on exhibitions related to the ITB with us.
Chicago, IL (60637)

Today

Rain early...then remaining cloudy with showers and windy conditions developing in the afternoon. Morning high of 60F with temps falling to near 40. Winds WSW at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch..

Tonight

Periods of rain and snow showers in the evening transitioning to snow showers late...windy. Low 34F. Winds WSW at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of precip 60%. Higher wind gusts possible.
Chicago, IL (60637)

Today

Steady light rain this morning. Windy with showers continuing this afternoon. Thunder possible. Morning high of 59F with temps falling to near 40. Winds SW at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Windy with rain and snow showers this evening transitioning to snow showers overnight. Low 34F. Winds WSW at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of precip 60%. Higher wind gusts possible.
Click here for a Print Subscription with Online Digital included.

Some people only want to be a digital subscriber to get access online and others want to also receive the print edition.

If you are already a print subscriber and want online access, it is free, you simply have to create an online account and then attach your print subscription account number to the online account you create. Below you will see test that reads Print Subscribe Access. Click this to then Get Started attaching your account number and zip code to you online user account.

Click on the banner above if you would like to become a print subscriber with digital access.

If you simply want online access without print click get started below.
Subscribers to Register-Star or The Daily Mail are eligible to receive full access to HudsonValley360.

If you have an existing print subscription, please make sure your email address on file matches your HudsonValley360 account email.
Pittsfield Schools Look to Improve Attendance

PITTSFIELD, Mass.  The district has had improvement in absences this year versus last year's overall attendance rate, Deputy Superintendent Marisa Mendonsa said during last week's school committee meeting.

Morningside Community and Stearns Elementary had some stability from last year as there was not much fluctuation in the numbers.

Both Crosby Academy and Eagle Academy had significant gains in attendance rates from last year, said Mendonsa, crediting a work on building a greater sense of belonging and community.

Crosby Academys attendance rate increased to 91.8 percent from 86.4 percent last year and Eagle Academy's rate increased to 84.4 percent from 72.5 percent.

COVID-19 absences are still a factor that need to considered, Mendonsa said.

September 2022 had one of the district's highest COVID-19 numbers this school year, causing more than 1,000 absences. The district's overall total through January 2023 for COVID-19 absences is 2,193.

Mendonsa is not sure why the numbers have decreased since September but noted it could be because of people are choosing not to test or questioning whether it is the novel coronavirus or the flu since the symptoms are similar.

Although the district has both excused and unexcused absences, regardless of the type of absence, it still affects the district's attendance data because the state marks it as a missed day of learning.

An excused absence occurs when the caregiver or medical professional provides information as to why the student is unable to attend school.

If a student has a certain number of unexcused absences then it will start to affect their academic credit.

An internal suspension does not count against the district in terms of attendance but external suspensions do.

The district has about 1,400 suspension days across the district, but Mendonsa did not specify the type of suspension.

There are a variety of things the district needs to consider to continue to improve attendance rates, she said.

The schools should be continuing to build community connections to provide more therapeutic services to students. In addition, the district should consider conducting more research into what leads to chronic absences -- whether it is transportation, feeling of belonging, language barriers, or other factors.

The schools should consider an internal review of its external suspensions, Mendonsa said. The district's code of conduct does focus on utilizing restorative practices.

"There's also new state laws around external suspensions and so that will help guide us through this work," she said. "So I really see the external suspension rates decreasing for us and for many schools around the commonwealth."

The attendance data allows family engagement and attendance coordinators to identify the students who are not attending school regularly and reaching out to families to offer support.

They collaborate with the teachers, administrators, school counselors, school adjustment counselors, the instructional accountability coordinators, and schedule home visits to help problem solve.

"They're working with school counselors and school adjustment counselors to help maybe change schedules if needed. Think about transitions in between classes, if a student gets really anxious with crowds and hallways, they can develop plans," Mendonsa said.

"Its like an onion, peeling away the layers to get to the root cause of why a student may be struggling to come to school, or maybe struggling to be successful in school."

They also discuss alternative education options with the parents and students, which is something that is beginning to happen in the Student Success Teams and coming to the district level.

The FEAC has also been developing incentive plans for students to improve attendance and build engagement by having "fun" activities tied to school such as running attendance boosters, holding lunch groups, and hosting after school clubs.

Last year there was a concern regarding how many of the calls and emails the caregivers are receiving that the school is sending out when absent.

This year the district has adjusted the way that we track absent communication between the caregivers and the school by also tracking whether they're receiving a return communication or if they're getting in contact the first try.

This year a little less than 3000 calls and emails have been attempted so far across our schools with 81 percent having had contact made with a response.

"The [family engagement attendance coordinators] have been a part of 213 conferences, they've conducted 172 home visits, they've participated and or designed 67 engagement activities for families and have also made 415 community contacts that might be with the Brien Center, Elizabeth Freeman Center, 18 Degrees, just for resources and or even therapeutic services that are offered in our city," Mendonsa said.

The coordinators are in their second year with the district and work to identify chronically absent students and support the caregivers who may need additional assistance getting their kids to school.

"I am definitely a parent who every once in a while has experienced my child not wanting to go to school. And as they get a little bit older, it's a little bit harder to lift them up, especially when they're four or five inches taller than you," Mendonsa said.

"The family engagement attendance coordinators are really wonderful in meeting with families helping support them, or even connect them to an outside agency for some additional resources."

They are also members of the student support teams, providing guidance in data and attendance because a student may not be performing well academically because of how many classes they missed.

In addition to that, they conduct home visits to speak with the student to determine what is not working for them, what adjustments the school can make, and develop a plan together.

The district has to decide the next steps it wants to take in regard to the role of the coordinators. Schools that don't have coordinators, or FEAC, do have staff that provide some support but often have other priorities.

The dean, vice principal, family engagement and attendance coordinators, school counselors, school adjustment counselors, and principal all play a role. For instance, they may meet weekly with students or assign someone to to welcome chronically absent students at the beginning of the day and then review how the day went.

The school counselors are often the point person for students in the schools, working more specifically around the academics and the social-emotional learning support services, whether that is another counselor, or an outside therapist.

They set goals with students and attend meetings with students and caregivers. School adjustment counselor may also work with chronically absent students.
Alyssa Tomkowicz is congratulated on Tuesday night after being sworn in as a member of the school Committee. Tomkowicz being sworn in. PreviousNext

North Adams Officials Elect New School Committee Member



Cody Chamberlain has taught and tutored in Boston area schools and he saw the School Committee as way to get involved in his new community. He said he planned to run for the committee in the next election. NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  City and school officials elected a college admissions counselor to fill an empty seat on the School Committee.

Alyssa Tomkowicz, who grew up in Williamstown and graduated from Williams College, is a senior admissions counselor for systems and outreach at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.

Tomkowicz was one of eight candidates who applied for a vacant seat in 2020 that was filled with the election of Emily Daunis.

She was one of two candidates to fill the seat left vacant by the resignation of Joshua Vallieres in December . The other candidate, Cody Chamberlain, studied education and economic development at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He moved to North Adams in 2021.

Both candidates addressed the joint meeting of the School Committee and City Council on why they were interested in serving. They answered a broad range of questions on their interests in educational levels; the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion; pathways to success; public education; balancing student needs and budgetary limits; and their interest in running for office in the future.

"We have two impressive candidates tonight and I don't think this is going to be an easy decision," said Councilor Keith Bona, later joking, "it's a great time for any School Committee member to resign right now, we can make our job a lot easier."

Daunis encouraged whoever wasn't selected to run for office.

"It's a great process to go through and you know, I myself wasn't elected the first time and I really encourage everyone to try, try again," she said.

Tomkowicz said she had "a really strong love for public education" and, as an admissions counselor, a good handle on the career pathways for students that may not be four-year colleges.

Students should always be the "true north" of the School Committee but it should also be on the side of its staff and administration, she said.

She said DEI education at appropriate levels was important for children "to fully understand what it means to be a citizen in the world."

"I think that the students who come [to college] with that more DEI education that they've already had, often have an easier time for sort of acclimating to the world after high school," she said.

Tomkowicz also said she would like to see the public school system use resources like the region's colleges and museums.

"We live in such a rich and vibrant place with a lot of cultural opportunities and educational opportunities and our students can and should be able to take advantage of that," said Tomkowicz. "Additionally, technology is ever evolving, and I would love to see how we can incorporate new and emerging technologies into our classrooms."

Council President Lisa Blackmer nominated Tomkowicz, who was elected on an 11-3 vote, with School Committee members Richard Alcombright and David Sookey and Councilor Jennifer Barbeau voting against.

Alcombright then called for a vote of confidence for Tomkowicz, which was unanimous.

"Although I was disappointed that we didn't have a larger number of candidates, I'm very happy with the quality of both of you," Blackmer said. "You brought a couple different tweaks in interest but you both care about our students and the education, and I find that it's really important, obviously."
The Mount, Straw Dog Writers Guild Announce Writers in Residency

LENOX, Mass.  The Mount and Western Massachusetts' Straw Dog Writers Guild announced the nine writers selected for the 2023 Residency for Emerging Writers.

Among this years' writers are a dancer-turned-oncologist, a public defender, and a prison abolitionist.

The selected writers will be working on developing their respective works at The Mount for one week each, between March 5 and March 25.

Submissions were reviewed anonymously and ranked based on quality of writing, originality of voice, and the potential for growth as a writer.

The nine 2023 Writers-in-Residence are:

CAT WEI is a poet working in healthcare in Brooklyn, New York; she is an active advocate for poetry in her community as the organizer of East Village Poetry Salon, a reading series that centers on female, queer, and trans poets of color. She is the recipient of a Bread Loaf Katharine Bakeless Nason Contributor Award, an Idyllwild Writers Week Fellow, and Tin House Workshop alumni. Wei's writing was Best of the Net nominated and appears in Gulf Coast, Vagabond City, Sundog Lit, and Lantern Review.

EMILY ATKINSON is a writer and public defender born and raised in Illinois; she earned her MFA in Playwriting from Smith College and a J.D. and M.A. in English Literature from Boston University. She is currently working on a novel workshopped at the Colgate Writers' Workshop, two Tin House Summer Workshops, and a Tin House Winter Workshop. Atkinson's published work appears in Electric Literature, PopMatters, and HuffPost. She lives in western Massachusetts with her dog, Marlowe.

EMILY KIERNAN is the author of the novel, Great Divide (Unsolicited Press). Her work has appeared in American Short Fiction, Pank, The Collagist, Redivider, Quarterly West, X-R-A-Y, and numerous other journals. She has received support from MacDowell, The Ucross Foundation, The Sewanee Writers' Conference, The Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, The Tin House Summer Workshop, and The Community of Writers. She holds an MFA from The California Institute of the Arts and serves as a prose editor at Noemi Press.

KATHERINE EASER was born in Kansas City, Kansas, the daughter of a Chinese mother from Taiwan and an American father of European ancestry. After earning a BA from Smith College, she studied creative writing in The Writers' Program at UCLA Extension. In 2011, her young adult novel, Vicious Little Darlings, was published by Bloomsbury. Her short story, "Parade of Cats," a third-place winner in Glimmer Train's 2017 Fiction Open, appeared in the magazine's Winter 2018 issue. She lives and writes in Los Angeles.

KEEONNA HARRIS is a writer, storyteller, mother of five, and prison abolitionist. She received her Ph.D. at Arizona State University. Her dissertation, "Everybody Survived but Nobody Survived: Black Feminism, Motherhood, and Mass Incarceration," used ethnography and autoethnography to document the experiences of Black mothers navigating the process of visitation and incarceration. Her memoir, Mainline Mama, forthcoming in 2024 from Amistad Press, draws from her experiences as a Black woman, a teen mother, and twenty years of raising children with an incarcerated partner, building community in the borderlands of the prison. An excerpt from her memoir is available on Salon.com.

LINDSAY ROCKWELL is poet-in-residence for the Episcopal Church of Connecticut and hosts their Poetry and Social Justice Dialogue series. She's published, or forthcoming in, BlazeVOX, Connecticut River Review, Amethyst Review, Iron Horse Literary Review, and Willawaw, among others. Her first collection of poems, GHOST FIRES, is forthcoming from Main Street Rag press in spring/summer 2023. She won first prize in the October Project Poetry Contest and 81st Moon Prize from Writing in a Woman's Voice. Lindsay holds a Master of Dance and Choreography from NYU's Tisch School of Arts and is an oncologist.

MARIO GIANNONE received a Bachelor's in English with a minor in Creative Writing from Rutgers University-Camden and an MFA in Creative Writing from Cornell University. Giannone served as an assistant fiction editor for Epoch Magazine and taught creative writing and composition for Cornell University's Department of Literatures in English and the Knight Institute for Writing in the Disciplines. He teaches writing for Johns Hopkins University's Center for Talented Youth. Giannone's short fiction appears in Third Coast, Indiana Review, and Blue Mesa Review, and his story "Heaven is a Disk," published in Indiana Review, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

MARTHA PHAM is from Massachusetts. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Electric Literature, Nurture, FERAL: A Journal of Poetry & Art, Kitchn, and Serious Eats. She holds an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is at work on her first novel set during the war in Vietnam, which explores the secrets that can make and unmake a family as they navigate the devastations of war. At the center is a family with shadowy ties to the National Police and the CIA.

PARVATI RAMCHANDANI is a recently retired physician looking forward to bringing long-stalled writing projects to fruition. She has published short fiction and creative nonfiction pieces in literary magazines, including Peregrine, Asian Pacific American Journal, and Bucks County Writer. Ramchandani won an award from the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts for fiction writing. Two of her creative nonfiction pieces relating to her work as a physician are slated for publication in an anthology of writings by Women Physicians titled This Side of Doctoring (Eliza Chin, MD, and Anju Goel, Eds.), to be published by Oxford University Press in 2023.
2nd Street Announces Launch of Three Initiatives

PITTSFIELD, Mass.  2nd Street announces the launch of three initiatives in partnership with Berkshire Museum, Berkshire Community College and Chaos Theory.

The programs  Insight Out, Using Our Outside Voices and Hear Me Out  are designed to promote creativity, acceptance and inclusion for presently or formerly incarcerated men and women in Berkshire County. All three programs will conclude in September 2023 with public presentations featuring art, written works and dramatic performances by presently or formerly incarcerated people.

"In addition to making sure our clients get essential services, we also want to provide platforms for them to tell their own stories in whatever form they like and to be supported and recognized for their creativity," said Board of Directors President Mark Gold. "With these innovative programs, we aim to foster a sense of achievement and self-esteem for our clients  and give the community the opportunity to hear their voices, see them as individuals and reduce stigma and stereotyping."

Insight Out

Insight Out, created as a result of a partnership between 2nd Street and Berkshire Museum, will culminate in a juried exhibition of visual art created by presently or formerly incarcerated individuals. The exhibition will be on view at Berkshire Museum September 2October 1, 2023.

Any Berkshire County resident who is currently or formerly incarcerated may submit works of art, including paintings, drawings, mixed media, prints, photographs, sculpture and videos, by July 1, 2023. Artists whose work is selected for the exhibition will receive a cash award of $200. There will be an opening reception and public programming tied to the exhibition.

"The staff of the Berkshire Museum are truly honored to have this opportunity to work with 2nd Street to provide artists who have been previously incarcerated an opportunity to share their work with the public in a museum setting," said Berkshire Museum Executive Director Kimberley Bush Tomio. "Each artist will bring their own individual story and journey  expressed through their creations and the transformative power of art  which we hope will lead to conversations about society and the criminal justice system and be an inspiration to others."

Artists of all skill levels are encouraged to submit entries. For those wishing to improve their skills, 2nd Street will offer weekly drawing workshops on Tuesdays, April 4-May 23, from 4:30-6 pm. The workshops will be led by Phyllis Kornfeld, who has taught art in correctional facilities for 40 years, including at the Berkshire County Jail. She is the author of Cellblock Visions: Prison Art in America.

For more details on how to submit a work of art, and to learn how to participate in the free weekly drawing workshops, visit www.2nd-street.org and click Special Projects, or call (413) 443-7220, ext. 1275.

Financial and in-kind support of Insight Out is provided by Berkshire Museum, Becky and Doug Crane, Josie Greene and Glenn Asch, David Crane and Ruth Blodgett, and Pittsfield Cultural Council.

Using Our Outside Voices

2nd Street and Berkshire Community College (BCC) have partnered to create Using Our Outside Voices, a literary project that will result in the publication of a collection of poetry, short fiction, essays and other original work written by presently or formerly incarcerated individuals.

Any presently or formerly incarcerated resident of Berkshire County is invited to submit original poetry, short fiction, personal essays or other literary works for publication in the inaugural issue of Using Our Outside Voices. Works will be judged by a team led by the editor of Zine, the BCC student literary journal. The team will also include at least one formerly incarcerated individual and at least two BCC students. Julianna Spallholz, chair of the BCC English department, will oversee the production of the literary magazine.

The initial run of 400 printed copies of the free journal will be distributed to local facilities and events, and digital copies will be available online. Authors whose work is included in the Using Our Outside Voices journal will receive a cash award of $200, and they will be invited to participate in public readings at various venues in the Berkshires.

To help participants prepare, BCC will offer drop-in access to its Writing Center on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, April 4-May 5, from 10 am-3 pm. Staffed by trained writing consultants, the Writing Center provides interactive, one-on-one sessions in which tutors help participants identify strengths and weaknesses in their writing and take ownership of their work.

"This collaboration with 2nd Street allows us to carry out one of BCC's core values of serving and providing access to all community members," said Matthew Muller, BCC Interim Dean of Humanities, Behavioral and Social Sciences. "Participants in this program will not only have access to our Writing Center to hone their craft, but they will also be able to participate in writing workshops. We are so excited to help bring these stories into the world through this great community partnership."

Creative writing workshops will be held at 2nd Street on Wednesdays, April 5-May 24, from 4:30-6 pm. The workshops will be led by Liesl Schwabe, BCC Coordinator of Writing Across the Curriculum. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Review of Books and many other publications and anthologies. In addition, poetry workshops will be held at 2nd Street on Thursdays, April 6-May 25, from 4:30-6 pm. The workshops will be led by Benjamin Grimes, a review writer and copyeditor for Muzzle Magazine. His work has appeared in New Ohio Review and is forthcoming in Sycamore Review.

For more details on how to submit a literary work, and to learn how to participate in the free weekly workshops, visit www.2nd-street.org and click Special Projects, or call (413) 443-7220, ext. 1275.

Financial and in-kind support of Using Our Outside Voices is provided by Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation's Arts Build Community initiative with funding from the Barr Foundation; Berkshire United Way; and Berkshire Community College.

Hear Me Out

Hear Me Out will engage presently and formerly incarcerated individuals in Berkshire County in the development of a dramatic performance. The program was created in partnership with Chaos Theory, which creates live productions integrating storytelling, music and movement. Its founder, Jenny Herzog, will lead development, production and direction of the show.

Through the process of crafting real-life stories, cast members are invited to reflect on their lived experiences, take ownership of their narratives, derive meaning from obstacles they have overcome and utilize their past experiences to educate and inspire their community.

Performances, which are free and open to the public, will take place at Berkshire Community College on September 19 and at the St. Germain Stage of Barrington Stage Company on September 21 and 23. Each show will be followed by a talk-back.

"As a community, we have a lot to learn from the voices and stories of those who have experienced incarceration. They are the true experts," said Herzog, founder of Chaos Theory. "Each cast member brings with them a unique blend of skill, talent and experience. By weaving together their creative expression and stories, we aim to tell a more complete story  the factors that converge to result in incarceration, what it's like behind the wall and what it means to come home."

Herzog will meet with cast members to learn about their interests and talents, provide personalized feedback and help craft creative material, which may include storytelling, music, rap or beat performances, dance and theater. Group workshops will facilitate creative exploration, dialogue, team-building and social-emotional learning.

Each presently or formerly incarcerated individual who participates in Hear Me Out will receive a stipend of $300.

For more details on how to get involved , visit www.2nd-street.org and click Special Projects, or call (413) 443-7220, ext. 1275.

Financial and in-kind support of Hear Me Out is provided by Chaos Theory, Barrington Stage Company, Berkshire Community College, and First Avenue Fund, a component fund of Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation. Funding opportunities remain available for Hear Me Out
The headquarters of our affiliate, the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate (YJS) in the Aden Governorate, were taken over by armed men on 28 February. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joins its affiliate the YJS in condemning the assault as an open attack on the journalists union. The IFJ called on the authorities to take measures to ensure the property returns to the rightful owners and to enable journalists to recover their rights and resume their work.

On the evening of 28 February, a group of individuals from the recently created Southern Media and Journalists Syndicate, an organisation supported by the Southern Transitional Council of the Transitional Council(STC)that controls the city of Aden and other areas in the south backed by armed men, occupied the headquarters of the YJS in the city of Tawahi in the Aden Governorate. The individuals replaced the banner of the YJS with another of their organisation and cordoned off the area, according to the YJS.

The YJS reacted to this situation in a statement denouncing the assault, which it said threatens union life in the country, and calling on the government and local authorities to protect their offices and restore order in the vicinity. We express our deepest concern about these actions and its repercussions on the work of the labour movement in the country. Protecting trade unions and their headquarters is the responsibility of the authorities with the ultimate goal of preserving the rights of the citizens and enhancing the status of civil society institutions, it reads.

The Yemeni Journalists Syndicate called for the swift evacuation of the gunmen from the headquarters, the return of the headquarters to the administrative body while ensuring the protection of colleagues in the Syndicate branch in Aden and all members of the Syndicate. The YJS also urged the authorities to avoid the repeat of such incidents.

IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger said: This is a shameful attack on the trade union movement and the rights of journalists and media workers in the country. We urge the authorities to take action and to hold accountable those responsible for the assault.
THE KINGDOM OF BHUTAN

Unveil the gem of the Himalayas from behind the steering wheel

(Initiative Mittelstand)

Ready to go where others stop? Experience a magical self-drive adventure in a quest to find peace, tranquility and discover the beautiful landscape of the largely untouched, ancient Buddhist kingdom!



Join our spiritual Beyond Adventure Bhutan

from November 10th to 17th, 2023



The secrets of Bhutan are well-hidden due to the limited number of visitors allowed to enter the country and its relative geographical isolation. This journey will change your way of thinking, relax you to a calming pace of life and show you an area on Earth that remains largely untouched by tourists.

Discover the country without a single traffic light from behind the steering wheel and become a member of a small group of people who drive themselves in Bhutan! Explore backroads to untouched villages, reaching heights close to 4,000m while enjoying the most beautiful sights of the Himalayan range.

Let yourself be surprised by the colorful Himalayan Kingdom with its verdant valleys, elegant dzongs and cliff-hugging monasteries and expect the unexpected. Experience this hidden gem away from modernity while driving yourself in a local 4x4 SUV.

The breathtaking views seen from the car are just a part of the package. You will rest and recharge your body and mind in hand-selected, award-winning lodges, located in stunning valleys, amongst opalescent rivers, unspoiled greenery, and outstanding mountains.

The inclusive atmosphere, delicious cuisine, balance, and mysticism  is there more to desire?



DONT MISS OUT ON THOSE MEMORIES OF A LIFETIME!

TAKE ME THERE REGISTER NOW

DISCOVER MORE

BEYOND ADVENTURES TO COME:



AFRICAN HIGHLANDS

(23rd September - 2nd October, 2023)



Welcome to the highlands of Africa - the home of the mountain gorillas, volcanoes, lakes and never-ending savannahs. This continent has a lot to offer!



Read more >

MOROCCO

(April 2024)



Morocco is a place of spectacular natural scenery full of epic mountain ranges and desert! Let Beyond Adventure take you into areas you could not imagine you would reach - from highest Saharan dunes to the peaks of High Atlas.



Read more >

STAY TUNED FOR MORE BEYOND ADVENTURES TO COME!
What factors, do you think can cause the ESG ranking of a company to be high, despite the presence of real corporate governance issues?

A robust ESG Assessment framework should not only highlight ESG risks of a company but also measure how the companies are managing those risks. For ESG risk assessment, while one needs to look at the Environment (E), Social (S) and Governance (G) considerations of a company, the relevance of E, S and G varies across industries. At ESGRisk.ai, we therefore follow a multi-dimensional approach of assigning industry specific weightage of E, S and G based on the nature of operations of each industry. So if a company from mining industry where environment and social categories have higher relevance, is not complying with a few governance parameters but it is taking several initiatives on the environment and social front, may score higher. However, such non-compliance governance parameters should be factored in the framework to raise caveats.

What are ESG rating entities like yours doing to see beyond the greenwashing done by companies?

It is imperative that we follow a comprehensive approach while measuring a companys ESG performance right from framing policies, taking initiatives, setting targets and measuring their progress. It is crucial to analyse what the company is doing beyond just ticking the boxes. To cite an example, at ESGRisk.ai, while analysing the performance of a company, we first examine if the company has implemented a policy to mitigate its GHG emissions. Further to this, we scrutinize whether it has set targets to reduce its carbon footprint and finally to understand the improvement made, measuring the year-on-year progress achieved on the set targets.

Do you think ESG score/ranking alone is sufficient to understand a company's corporate governance performance?

A composite level ESG score is a reflection of the companys ESG risk management framework. It is a result of the companys performance in all 3 categories. In order to understand E or S or G, a detailed ground up assessment is important, and ESGRisk.ais framework allows for such detailed assessment through our comprehensive taxonomy comprising of 1000 indicators. However, to understand the corporate governance performance of a company, it is crucial to evaluate it on various aspects such as comparing the company's performance against the previous year and to benchmark it against the industry leaders in order to get an overall picture and not merely analyse the current years performance in isolation. Furthermore, constantly monitoring whether a company has been involved in controversies, and if so, what remedial measures have been adopted is another facet that holds primary importance. In conclusion, solely interpreting the governance performance through the ESG scores or ranking isnt adequate.

SEBI and other regulators are stepping up focus on the 'real impact' of ESG investing. Do you think their initiatives will be effective?

We have witnessed companies misusing the ESG label for improper financial gains. However, as the market matures, regulators have caught on to these practices and are adopting measures to ensure transparency & accountability. These stringent approaches followed by the regulators are promising as they look deeper into the initiatives taken by the corporates, through the means of assurance statements & ESG Ratings. Increasing push from lenders and investors on higher disclosures & auditing requirements also help in reducing the ambiguities in ESG investing. All these, if implemented correctly, can aid in effectively reducing greenwashing and help increase transparency in ESG investing.

Proposals such as proper assurance of ESG disclosures are in the pipeline. Is this practice effective globally? What are the ways to implement this successfully?

Going forward, we believe, it is imperative that companies undergo ESG audits in the form of assurance statements from independent third parties to build and strengthen stakeholder confidence. In a short span of time, the number of global companies obtaining independent assurance on their environmental, social and governance (ESG) information increased from 51% to 58% in 2020, compared to the previous year, according to data from the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) and Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA). In India itself, for FY24, SEBI, in a phased manner, has suggested to make reasonable assurance for BRSR Core indicators mandatory for top 250 companies and for top 500 companies from 2024-25 and top 1,000 from 2025-26. The regulatory push will generate the momentum needed to build investor confidence.

How can investors ensure they are investing in high-quality companies not just on future prospects, but also on ESG parameters?

ESG Ratings provides a very effective tool in the hands of the investors. ESG ratings measures a company's exposure to long-term environmental, social, and governance risks. These risks have a financial impact but are often not highlighted during traditional financial reviews. When ESG ratings are complemented by financial analysis, investors can gain a thorough understanding of a company's long-term prospects. ESGRisk.ais assessment report is designed to help investors understand companies ESG risk susceptibility & risk management framework, enabling investors to directly integrate ESG factors into their portfolio construction and management.

Promises of becoming net zero have fallen short so far, as far as execution is concerned. How can this issue be addressed?

Achieving net-zero for the country will require a collaborative effort with the corporates being the backbone of the Indian economy. The process should begin at an elementary level where companies are not only required to start monitoring, measuring and disclosing GHG emissions but should also set science-based targets as a first step towards decarbonization. For achieving net-zero for a country like India, which is extensively dependant on coal, lacks expertise to build cleaner technologies, some regulatory actions coupled with incentives in the form of tax benefits will ease the shift towards disclosures of the business short and long-term carbon reduction targets and the actions they are taking to achieve them thus encouraging Indian businesses to achieve net zero by 2070.

The government recently finalized 13 activities for trading of carbon credits. What is your view on this move?

It is a laudable move on the part of the Indian Government to finalize 13 activities for carbon trading. The Government has essentially outlined a long-term policy outlook and has welcomed investment in particular technologies and activities. Carbon markets offer a viable solution to companies who struggle organically to reduce their net emissions and support green initiatives. This initiative will allow companies to meet sustainability objectives while also funding carbon reduction and capture projects, boosting capital flow to such critical initiatives. Consequently, India will receive investments in high-tech fields where it has limited expertise. Additionally, with the assured carbon revenue, it will encourage investors and businesses to invest in promoting these low-carbon technologies.
OTTAWA, TRADITIONAL UNCEDED ALGONQUIN TERRITORY  When applying for funding or business supports, connecting to all the programs, funding applications, departments and agencies of the Government of Canada can be challenging. This can be even har...
Advertisements

~Launches its First Hindi Website~ MUMBAI, India, Feb. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Tata AIA Life Insurance Co. Ltd. (Tata AIA), one of India's leading life insurers, has launched its very first Hindi website. With this initiative, Tata AIA aims to enhance its virtual footprint across Bharat, and provide consumers with a website that conveys benefits of life insurance solutions in their preferred language. Tata AIA's Hindi interface (https://www.tataaia.com/hi-in/homepage.html) is a comprehensive website providing information about the company, its solutions, content in the form of blogs etc. It also empowers consumers to make premium payments, complete purchase of products, and have their queries resolved conveniently from the comfort of their homes, simply at the click of a button. To ensure that the content is translated in the correct manner, while being easily understood by people at large, the company adopted a two step approach while developing the Hindi website. The content was first translated using an AI engine followed by a complete review by human experts. Commenting on the occasion, Girish Kalra, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of Tata AIA, said, "India's Internet usage base has grown exponentially in the last few years with the surge in smart phone usage. Our in-house research highlights the growing preference among Indians for consuming content in vernacular language. This inspired us to create a Hindi version of our website that is desi in spirit while offering our consumers the right experience, ease, and convenience powered by the latest web technologies. For us, this is yet another step in our endeavour to connect with Bharat in the true sense". A 2021 report by Google1 estimates the number of Internet users in Indian languages to reach 536 million in four years. As Hindi becomes an increasingly popular language for accessing the Internet, having a Hindi interface is vital to strengthening consumer relationships. About Tata AIA Life Tata AIA Life Insurance Company Limited (Tata AIA Life) is a joint venture company formed by Tata Sons Pvt. Ltd. and AIA Group Ltd. (AIA). Tata AIA Life combines Tata's pre-eminent leadership position in India and AIA's presence as the largest, independent listed pan-Asian life insurance group in the world, spanning 18 markets in the Asia Pacific region. About the Tata Group Founded by Jamsetji Tata in 1868, the Tata group is a global enterprise, headquartered in India, comprising 30 companies across ten verticals. The group operates in more than 100 countries across six continents, with a mission 'To improve the quality of life of the communities we serve globally, through long-term stakeholder value creation based on Leadership with Trust'. Tata Sons is the principal investment holding company and promoter of Tata companies. Sixty-six percent of the equity share capital of Tata Sons is held by philanthropic trusts, which support education, health, livelihood generation and art and culture. In 2021-22, the revenue of Tata companies, taken together, was $128 billion (INR 9.6 trillion). These companies collectively employ over 935,000 people. Each Tata company or enterprise operates independently under the guidance and supervision of its own board of directors. There are 29 publicly listed Tata enterprises with a combined market capitalisation of $311 billion (INR 23.6 trillion) as on March 31, 2022. Companies include Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Motors Tata Steel, Tata Chemicals, Tata Consumer Products, Titan, Tata Capital, Tata Power, Indian Hotels, Tata Communications, Tata Digital, and Tata Electronics. About AIA AIA Group Limited and its subsidiaries (collectively 'AIA' or the 'Group') comprise the largest independent publicly listed pan-Asian life insurance group. It has a presence in 18 markets  wholly-owned branches and subsidiaries in Mainland China, Hong Kong SAR, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan (China), Vietnam, Brunei and Macau SAR, and a 49 per cent joint venture in India. The business that is now AIA was first established in Shanghai more than a century ago in 1919. It is a market leader in Asia (ex-Japan) based on life insurance premiums and holds leading positions across the majority of its markets. It had total assets of US$302 billion as of 30 June 2022. AIA meets the long-term savings and protection needs of individuals by offering a range of products and services including life insurance, accident and health insurance and savings plans. The Group also provides employee benefits, credit life and pension services to corporate clients. Through an extensive network of agents, partners and employees across Asia, AIA serves the holders of more than 40 million individual policies and over 17 million participating members of group insurance schemes. AIA Group Limited is listed on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited under the stock code '1299' with American Depositary Receipts (Level 1) traded on the over-the-counter market (ticker symbol: 'AAGIY'). 1. https://tech.hindustantimes.com/tech/news/over-500-million-users-to-access-internet-in-indian-languages-by-2021-google-story-6SV7GlYWssoZZQjm4O5n6I.html Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2010386/Tata_AIA_Hindi_Website.jpg View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/in/news-releases/tata-aia-enhances-its-web-presence-to-reach-out-to-bharat-301756502.html
When Irinjadappilly Raman was inducted by the Irinjadappilly Sree Krishna Temple in Kerala's Thrissur, it scripted history.

That is because it was for the first time a Kerala temple has used a mechanical elephant for its festival.

INDIATIMES

Meet Irinjadappilly Raman, the robotic elephant

Irinjadappilly Raman is a robotic elephant that was donated to the temple by the animal rights organisation People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India.



The temple welcomed the 11-foot-tall robotic elephant, which can move its head, eyes, ears, mouth, tail and trunk like a real elephant, on Sunday in a traditional ceremony called 'Nadayiruthal' in which offerings are dedicated to the deity.

INDIATIMES

Kerala temple welcomes first robotic elephant

Following this, Irinjadappilly Raman made his debut in the afternoon when he was decked up and paraded during the temple festival procession, accompanied by a performance by the percussion ensemble led by legendary artist Peruvanam Satheesan Marar.



"We are extremely happy and grateful to receive this mechanical elephant which will help us to conduct our rituals and festivals in a cruelty-free way, and we hope that other temples will also think about replacing live elephants for rituals," the Head priest of the temple Rajkumar Namboothiri, who welcomed Irinjadappilly Raman, said.

INDIATIMES

Can robotic elephants free captive jumbos?

According to PETA India, which has been campaigning for long to end the use of elephants in temple festivals, robotic elephants like Irinjadappilly Raman can become a viable alternative to real jumbos.



The use of captive elephants in temple festivals across Kerala has always been controversial.

Animal rights groups have long accused elephant owners and temple authorities of ill-treatment of the jumbos.

BCCL/File

Elephants running amok, killing or injuring mahouts, spectators and even other jumbos are not uncommon during this time of the year in Kerala, which is the peak of the festival season, when the tuskers are in high demand.



"We wanted to offer an alternative to using elephants in temple festivities. Because elephants are wild animals that should live freely in the wild. We wanted to show that when there are alternatives like this mechanical elephant, there is no reason we should put elephants through such torture and also endanger the lives of people," Khushboo Gupta, Director of Advocacy Projects at PETA India, told Indiatimes.

INDIATIMES

Meet the artists who made Irinjadappilly Raman

The life-like elephant that left festival-goers amused on Sunday was built by four young artisans from Thrissur for Rs 5 lakhs.



"The elephant figure has a height of 10.8 feet and with the wheels, it will be around 11 feet tall. The core structure is made using steel and the outer material is rubber to give it a life-like feel. It weighs around 800 kgs and took us two months to complete," Prasanth Prakasan, the co-founder of Chalakkuduy-based Four He Arts, which created the elephant, told Indiatimes.

INDIATIMES

The electric-powered elephant has five in-built motors to move its tail, eyes, ears, head and mouth. While these are automated, the robotic elephant's trunk, which is also mobile, can be controlled manually.

Like real elephants, the robotic elephant also can carry up to four people on its back.

INDIATIMES

How they started

Irinjadappilly Raman, however, is not the first life-like elephant made by Prakasan, who has been an artisan for nearly 15 years.

"We had been making cement sculptures for around 15 years now. We used to rent out some of these sculptures including a miniature elephant, for events and exhibitions. After a video of our miniature elephant went viral, we were contacted by some people from Dubai asking if we could make a life-sized elephant for a temple festival there. We shipped two completed elephant figures from here and also assembled one in Dubai. The festival and elephants became a superhit there," Prakasan said.

INDIATIMES

Robotic elephants become a hit

Since then, Prakasan and his friends, Santo, Jinesh and Robin, have been flooded with inquiries and orders.



The friends who used to work from their backyards, creating sculptures and storing them, also set up a small garage called Four He Arts.

INDIATIMES

Had no idea it was for PETA

He, however, said they had no idea that the elephant would be offered to a temple.



"After Dubai, we received many orders, including one from Udaipur. So, when we received this order from Delhi, we were under the impression that it was to be exhibited there. Only later, we go to know that it was for PETA India and that they are going to gift this to a temple. For us, this is our job and we don't bother what the customer is going to do with the elephant," he said.

INDIATIMES

Given how elephants have become inseparable from temple festivals, especially in Thrissur, Prakasan said he is still unsure of the future.



"Maybe this will start a larger debate about the use of elephants in temple festivals. Maybe there will be backlash from elephant owners and fans, I don't know," he said.

BCCL/ FILE

Captive elephants should be rehabilitated: PETA India

PETA India, however, is confident that if more temple authorities come forward to accept mechanical elephants like Irinjadappilly Raman, the abuse of captive jumbos can be ended.

"Elephants continue to suffer because there is demand for them and their use is still being allowed. At PETA India, we are ready to guide and assist any temple or individual elephant owners to sanctuaries for rehabilitation. Elephants are highly social animals and they live in a group. Capturing them, keeping them in isolation, in chains all their lives, is wrong. We feel that it is time that governments also invest in providing sanctuaries for these elephants, rather than letting their abuse continue," Khushboo Gupta said.

For more on news and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News.
A mummified human dating back to a period between 600 and 800 years has been recovered by the police in Peru from a man who asserted that he had the preserved body at his home for three decades.



AFP

Man stored mummy in delivery bag

The mummy was in the isothermal bag the man had once used to deliver food to people's homes.



The man, 26-year-old Julio Cesar Bermejo, will remain in detention while investigators look into the case, a government official told AFP on Tuesday.



'Like my spiritual girlfriend'

Bermejo told local media the mummy, who he called "Juanita," was "like my spiritual girlfriend."



"At home, she's in my room, she sleeps with me. I take care of her," he said in a video that went viral on social media.



AFP

Bermejo said his father brought the mummy home almost 30 years ago.



It's mummy of male individual: Govt

According to the Ministry of Culture, the pre-Hispanic relic was a "mummified adult male individual, presumably from the eastern area of Puno", a region in the Peruvian Andes some 1,300 kilometres (more than 800 miles) southeast of Lima.



"It's not a Juanita, it's a Juan," a specialist at the ministry affirmed, adding the mummy was of a man at least 45 years old.

The body was wrapped in bandages in the fetal position.

Man denies intention of selling it

Police found the remains in Bermejo's bag on Saturday while patrolling a park in the city of Puno, where he had been hanging out with friends.



He denied he was trying to sell the mummy and said he was carrying it around because "my friends wanted to see it."



The culture ministry said it had taken possession of the mummified remains "with the aim of protecting and preserving this heritage."



Machu Picchu

Peru is rich in archaeological sites and objects. Its most visited tourist destination is the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, built in the 15th century near Cusco.

(With inputs from AFP)



For more on news and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News.
In Mastodon relationship graphs I showed how to use Steampipe to map Mastodon network neighborhoods. When I use the word map here, Im channeling Denis Woods The Power of Maps:

Every map shows this  but not that, and every map shows what it shows this way  but not the other way. Not only is this inescapable but it is precisely because of this interested selectivitythis choice of word or sign or aspect of the world to make a pointthat the map is enabled to work.

The aspect chosen by those neighborhood maps is the boostthe Mastodon version of a retweet. One of the maps focuses on a selected instance that appears in the home timeline. It shows people who belong to that instance and who boost toots from people on the same or different instances.

The other map zooms out to show boost relationships among all the instances that appear in the home timeline. This view wouldnt be legible if it included people, so it omits them in order to focus on server-to-server relationships.

These maps represent (or as Denis Wood emphasizes, re-present) a set of toots. They omit original toots to which nobody replies, and they also omit replies, in order to focus on boost relationships. What about replies? That would be a different map, one that might also be interesting to draw.

Meanwhile, though, Ive come up with another map to display the tags that appear in the results of a Mastodon tag search, along with the accounts that use those tags. It proved its worth today when I was looking for perspectives on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. As youve likely noticed, the US Supreme Court is reconsidering Section 230. My understanding of the topic wasnt current, I wanted to refresh it, and I especially wanted to test whether Mastodon could provide a useful alternative to a conventional web search.

One affordance that Mastodon provides: search for toots that use the #Section230 tag. Here are two ways to map the results of that search.

IDG

On the left is a conventional Mastodon view: a list of toots that match the query. In this case the article I ultimately wanted to read appears way down in that list. The toot that announced it was from The Markup, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates how powerful institutions are using technology to change our society. The article, Section 230 Is a Load-Bearing WallIs It Coming Down?, transcribes part of a conversation with two legal scholars whom I know to be reliable guides to Net-related issues.

On the right is my Steampipe-based Mastodon tag explorer. Working with the same data, it surfaced The Markups article in a way that brought it immediately to my attention. The first thing that caught my eye was the conjunction of two tags: #section230 and #scotus. Since the Supreme Courts interest in Section 230 is whats driving the current news cycle, I wanted to hear from legal scholars qualified to discuss the courts interest in Section 230. So the tag conjunction was a significant landmark.

The map displayed two nodes that connect to both #section230 and #scotus. How did I choose between them? My prior familiarity with The Markup led me to click on that node and visit the Markups Mastodon instance where I read the article.

Had I been following The Markup then, as I am now, I would likely have seen the article on the news list to which Ive assigned The Markups account. But that wouldnt have changed the experience of searching for the #section230 tag. The relationship graph works by reformulating the results of that search. It omits the text of toots that contain the tag, and the images in those toots, in order to highlight two aspects of the result list: people (or accounts) and tags. It contextualizes those tags by charting their relative frequency in the result list. And it attaches, to each tag node, a link to a new graph focused on that tag.

This interested selectivity enables the map to do its work: find accounts that use given tags. Like a tag node, an account node provides a linkin this case, to the accounts Mastodon home page. It also reports the accounts description using a property that appears when hovering the node. So if I were unfamiliar with The Markup I could reveal its description without leaving the graph. Heres the query that adds that property to the node.

select note from mastodon_search_account where query = 'https://mastodon.themarkup.org/@themarkup' +---------------------+ | note | +---------------------+ | Watching Big Tech. | +---------------------+

That query is embedded in another query that joins across two Steampipe plugins: one that wraps the Mastodon API and another that queries RSS feeds. Thats because, as noted in Mastodon, Steampipe, and RSS, the RSS feeds that Mastodon provides for tags enrich the results available from the core API.

Enabling SQL to query diverse APIs in a common way is one of Steampipes core superpowers. Enabling such queries to form the nodes and edges of relationship graphs is another. Used together, these two superpowers enable maps that select what is helpful, omit what isnt, and thus re-present information for a given purpose.

This series:
On its website, the Sydney brokerage describes itself as a family-owned business with more than 50 years experience. The firm was founded, says the website, as an insurance specialist for civil engineering, building construction, mining and resources and information technology.
Insurance company, Youi Holdings Limited (Youi), has announced a new CEO. In a media release, the Queensland headquartered firm said Nathaniel Simpson (pictured above), will take on the role from July 01. Simpsons appointment follows the retirement, announced early in February, of founding CEO Hugo Schreuder (pictured below) who will transition to Youis Board.
The thinking needs to pivot so businesses are actively looking at what steps they can implement today to mitigate the extent of the impact, he said. Preparation is key, we frequently find that the most successful responses to cyberattacks come from businesses that have pre-existing systems and strategies in place to mitigate the impact.
I am delighted to welcome Allianz Global Benefits to the Allianz Partners family, said Ida Luka-Lognone, CEO of health at Allianz Partners. There are many synergies between Allianz Partners and AGB in terms of broker channel, customers, proposition and market approach. Our joint and strengthened B2B2C approach will allow us to further leverage our expertise in both international private medical insurance and local employee benefits program business. Multinational corporations can expect a flexible and innovative set of employee benefits solutions including a strong health and wellbeing service proposition.
Patronis was in Fort Myers earlier this week to answer questions about insurance companies and the length of time they should be taking to process claims. The CFO said that he is aware that many people are still owed payments from their insurers.
The revised policy offers a new, redesigned layout and more comprehensive coverage, the company said. The policy is designed for fixed-site facility and service industry clients, and provides traditional general liability, environmental liability and professional liability coverages.
WARNING: Some readers may find this article upsetting

The Limerick woman who had acid thrown in her face, boiling water poured on her back and was left lying seriously injured in her home which was then set on fire, said on Wednesday: Im a survivor, not a victim.

Christopher Stokes,39, of Sarsfield Avenue, Garryowen, Limerick, first claimed to gardai that he was the one who tried to help 43-year-old Simone Lee and had actually saved her life. But he confessed this week to charges including causing serious harm to her and setting fire to her home.

Detective Garda Aled Harkin was asked by prosecution senior counsel Sean Gillane about the background to the case where Stokes initially faced trial for attempted murder. Simone Lee was living in the McVerry Trust house at Fairview Crescent, Garryowen, in Limerick, where the attack was carried out.

She knew Christopher Stokes and although visitors were not allowed in the supported accommodation, he stayed at her home on the night of May 9, 2021. In the course of the following day he became increasingly agitated about money and maintenance that he needed for his ex-partner and their three children.

He told Ms Lee to ring someone known to both of them, Timothy Fehin, 73, and to tell him to drive to her home from his property outside Charleville, County Cork. Mr Fehin arrived at 8.30pm and agreed to drive to Lidl in Charleville for Stokes and Ms Lee to buy alcohol and return to the house in Garryowen.

In the journey to and from Charleville, Stokes became more aggressive, sitting in the back of the car and punching Ms Lee in the head numerous times. At one stage he struck her in the head with a glass bottle which caused her to bleed. She was upset and crying.

'I am going to kill the two of you'

Back at the house the defendants violence intensified. He put a fridge freezer against an internal door to stop anyone from leaving. He struck Ms Lee repeatedly. She fell to the floor striking her head against a TV stand.

Mr Fehin tried to stop the assault on Ms Lee but the 39-year-old defendant, who is of a very big build, threatened: You are going to get it too. I am going to kill the two of you. He said he would bury both of them on Mr Fehins land.

Referring to another serious assault a number of years ago by another man on Ms Lee, Stokes said: I am going to finish the job the other eejit didnt finish. Mr Gillane SC said Stokes then attacked her further: He put a plastic bin-liner over her and tightened it around her neck. She lost consciousness.

He told Mr Fehin, You are going to get it too. He told him he would be driving back to Charleville and burying Ms Lee on Mr Fehins land.

Det. Garda Harkin said: Mr Fehin managed to move the fridge-freezer from the door and escape from the premises. Ms Lee was lying on the couch. The assaults continued. Amonia acid was thrown on her face three times. He boiled water in the kettle and poured it over her back the pain from boiling water being poured over her was excruciating.

Mr Fehin made a call to gardai that something was happening in the house at 2.45am, but gardai who arrived at 3am remained outside as they had no indication of the seriousness of the situation.

Mr Gillane said: She lost consciousness with the pouring of the boiling water and further blows. Her next memory was when she woke up covered with cardboard boxes and surrounded by debris. She realised her home was on fire. She ran from the premises.

A neighbour came to her assistance and the emergency services, including gardai, ambulance and fire brigade, all arrived at the scene at 4.30am. Christopher Stokes was still in the property and he was arrested.

When questioned, he said: I saw the room on fire and I tried to help. I actually saved her.

Apology

Defence senior counsel Brian McInerney, said on behalf of Stokes: He has instructed me to apologise unreservedly for what was visited on them on the night by him. He wishes he could turn back the clock. He hopes the pleas of guilty will go some distance for Ms Lee and Mr Fehin.

"He is acknowledging his guilt, acknowledging his responsibility. This is a serious case but it is not homicide or attempted homicide and falls into an entirely different category.

Mr Justice Michael McGrath will impose sentence on Christopher Stokes on March 2 at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork for causing serious harm to Simone Lee on May 11, 2021, at the house in Garryowen, arson and threatening to kill or cause serious harm to Timothy Fehin.

Victim Impact Statement of Simone Lee

My name is Simone Lee and I am 43 years of age. On the May 10 2021, I was the victim of a serious and sustained assault which happened in my home. As a result of this assault, I have been left with lifelong scars, both mental and physical. I have scars on my body which I still feel pain in.

I am still receiving medical treatment for my skin grafts. I was two months and four days in the Burns Unit in Cork. I couldnt have any visitors due to Covid. I felt vulnerable. I felt petrified I was in so much fear. I couldnt sleep, I still struggle to sleep today.

My family thought I was dead, I was unrecognisable, even now I cant wear certain clothes as I am conscious about my scars. I recently saw the photos of my injuries and I couldnt believe how bad I looked.

I was blind for three days after the assault. I was frightened I would be blind. I still take drops for my eyes now.

As a result of the arson, I have lost a home which I had lived happily in for four years. I lost all my possessions and when I got out of hospital, I was living out of a black bag. I miss my flat. It was mine and I was settled there. I am now in temporary accommodation, and I wont be able to return to my previous home.

I am frightened to go out alone, to live alone but I am also scared to move on in my personal life for fear of anyone else putting me through similar pain. I trust no one now. I am in counselling and I am grateful that the treatment I received at Coolmine Treatment Centre has allowed me to access counselling services. I initially spent time in 5B Psychiatric Unit as I was very depressed after this incident.

This is the second time in my life I have been violently assaulted. I do not remember much about the first assault, but the details of this assault are with me strongly every day. Christopher Stokes told me he would finish the job of the first assault, he told me I was worthless, and no one would miss me.

I feel so lucky to have survived. I am a strong woman. I never gave up my fight to survive.

I hope to make a positive impact on others, to help others who have been victims. For all the fear that this man caused me, I am proud I am here today telling my story  Im a survivor, not a victim.

I am looking to the future now with the hope I can move on and do some courses to try to help other victims by telling my story of survival. I continue to write down my thoughts and feelings about this incident to help me deal with everything, this assault is still with me every day. In so many ways, I am still struggling. Life is a daily battle, and I am working hard to move on.

Victim Impact Statement of Timothy Fehin

My name is Tim Fehin. I became friendly with Simone Lee and through this I got introduced to Christopher Stokes. Through my dealings with Christopher Stokes, I observed his unpredictable and aggressive nature. Christopher Stokes is far bigger than me physically and I am in my 70s.

On the night in question, Christopher Stokes threatened me and beat Simone Lee up in my presence both in my car and in Simones house. I was terrified out of my mind when he threatened to kill me and told me how he planned on doing it. I have never been so frightened in all my life.

Somehow, I managed to escape from Christopher Stokes that night.

I was so frightened that I was unable to help Simone and it still haunts me.

The guards had to take my car because Simones blood was in it after Christopher Stokes assaulted her. The Guards still have this car and I had to get a replacement. This has caused me financial hardship.

I think about what happened every day and when I am home alone on my land, it goes over in my head how he told me he was going to kill me and bury me in my own land and it still terrifies me.

- If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please click here for a list of support services.
A kayaking trip by a group of students from University of Limerick on a river in Co. Kerry three years ago during which a young woman drowned, was not suitable for all participants, an investigation has found.

A report by the Marine Casualty Investigation Board into the fatal incident involving a group of 27 members of the University of Limerick Kayak Club, said the trip was not properly assessed for risk given the prevailing conditions on the Upper Caragh River and the skills and experience of those taking part in a high-risk activity.

Aisling OConnor (21) from Ballyshannon, Co Donegal, drowned after becoming unconscious and stopping breathing when she was trapped under a tree branch in the river near Glencar, Co Kerry, during the trip on November 2, 2019.

Ms OConnor, a biochemistry student at UL, was resuscitated and transferred by helicopter to University Hospital Kerry but died two days later from her injuries. Another kayaker, a male student, who became unconscious, required medical resuscitation and hospitalisation in what the MCIB described as a near fatality.

River conditions

The MCIB report said the River Caragh was graded as a difficult to very difficult river for kayaking, with hazards including overhanging trees, rocks on some rapids and the potential for wire fencing to run across the river identified on a popular website used by kayakers.

Weather conditions on the day were inclement with strong gusty winds and a yellow weather alert in force which had resulted in the River Caragh being swollen and its difficulty level increased.

The report said the persons in charge of identifying and assessing the risks were themselves insufficiently trained and experienced to make those calculations given the river conditions and the nature of the group.

Qualified instructors

It claimed there was a lack of adherence to the clubs safety statement and trips policy and procedure which had resulted in a lack of accredited training and associated poor decision-making.

Had there been Canoeing Ireland qualified instructors available (or persons with recognisable equivalent training and experience) they would have identified that the group was too large and its make-up too inexperienced and would not have approved a trip that involved a group of beginners in those conditions, the report stated.

It also observed that the lack of any supervision or audit of the safety of UL students engaged in high-risk activities by the universitys students union had contributed to gaps in the kayak clubs safety environment.

'Spheres of responsibility'

In addition, the report said the absence of any overarching spheres of responsibility between the students union and the university had led to an environment at club level where there was a serious disregard for the kayak clubs safety statement and policy and procedure on trips as well as Canoeing Irelands recommended standards.

The 202-page report said the groups leaders had assessed the river conditions and were satisfied it was safe for the group to kayak on as they planned to exit the water before the more difficult final section.

It claimed the absence of a comprehensive risk assessment was a main factor for a series of capsize incidents during the trip as well as an underestimation of the grade of the river following heavy rainfall and swollen river courses.

The report said no assessment was carried out following these earlier difficulties which could have resulted in the remainder of the trip being abandoned. Different decisions might have been taken with more and better qualified instructors, the report claimed.

UL informed the MCIB that it had no role in club management or safety and is unconnected with the students union and associated clubs. Both UL and its students union maintained they were entirely independent of each other with the students union saying that no recommendations should be addressed to the university.

However, the MCIB said that position was not entirely consistent as UL had acknowledged it had a role in working with the students union to address any recommendations.

The MCIB said it had not been provided with any evidence of changes in safety practices or learnings, although it had been informed that the kayak club had engaged external safety consultants. However, it expressed concern that there was no reference to any engagement being planned with Canoeing Ireland.

The report said the inconsistent position of the students union with regard to its role in club safety and its aversion to any input from UL might not lead to the optimum improvement in safety that is required.

There is an insufficient safety regime on a third-level education campus if clubs carrying out kayaking, which is a high-risk sport, are left to their own devices without any safety auditing from a clearly identified and empowered 'on-campus entity'. This absence was a contributory factor in this incident."

Recommendations

The MCIB issued a series of safety recommendations addressed to the club, students union and UL including a review by ULs Kayak club of its procedures for assessments of planned trips.

It also recommended that the club should suspend any further activities until its safety regime was audited to a standard acceptable to Canoeing Ireland. The MCIB acknowledged that the various parties had already taken steps to improve safety since the start of its investigation.
Greek police say the stationmaster in the city of Larissa has been arrested following the train crash that left at least 36 people dead.

A police statement identified the suspect only as a 59-year-old man. Another two people have been detained for questioning.

Fire Service Officials said 36 people were killed and at least 85 were hurt after multiple train carriages derailed and at least three caught on fire after the crash just before midnight near Tempe, some 235 miles north of Athens.

Visiting the accident scene, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that the government must help the injured recover and identify the dead.

I can guarantee one thing: We will find out the causes of this tragedy and we will do all thats in our power so that something like this never happens again, Mr Mitsotakis said.

On Wednesday, the government declared three days of national mourning, while flags flew at half-staff outside all European Commission buildings in Brussels.

Rescue crews illuminated the scene with floodlights before dawn on Wednesday as they searched frantically through the twisted, smoking wreckage for survivors.

Three days of national mourning have been announced.

Survivors said several passengers were thrown through the windows of the train carriages due to the impact.

They said others fought to free themselves after the passenger train buckled, slamming into a field next to the tracks near a gorge about 235 miles north of Athens where major highway and rail tunnels are located.

There were many big pieces of steel, said Vassilis Polyzos, a local resident who was one of the first people on the scene. The trains were completely destroyed, both passenger and freight trains.

Smoke rises from trains as firefighters and rescuers operate after a collision near Larissa city, Greece, early Wednesday, March 1, 2023. Picture: AP Photo/Vaggelis Kousioras

He said dazed and disoriented people were escaping out of the trains rear cars as he arrived.

People, naturally, were scared  very scared, he said. They were looking around, searching; they didnt know where they were. The trains crashed just before the Vale of Tempe, a gorge that separates the regions of Thessaly and Macedonia. Costas Agorastos, the regional governor of the Thessaly area, told Greeces Skai television the two trains crashed head on at high speed.

Carriage one and two no longer exist, and the third has derailed, he said.

Rescuers wearing head lamps worked in thick smoke, pulling pieces of mangled metal from the carriages to search for trapped people.

Others scoured the field with flashlights and checked underneath the wreckage. Several of the dead are believed to have been found in the restaurant area near the front of the passenger train which was carrying hundreds of people.

The evacuation process is ongoing and is being carried out under very difficult conditions due to the severity of the collision between the two trains, Fire Service spokesman Vassilis Varthakoyiannis said.

Hospital units used to treat burn victims had been alerted in the area, he said, adding that dozens of ambulances were involved in the rescue effort.

It was a very powerful collision. This is a terrible night its hard to describe the scene, Mr Agorastos earlier told state-run television.

Officials said many of the passengers on board the Athens to Thessaloniki train had been students returning home after celebrating Carnival over the long weekend.

This is a terrible tragedy that is hard to comprehend, said Deputy Health Minister Mina Gaga.

A crane, firefighters and rescuers operate after a collision in Tempe near Larissa city, Greece, Wednesday, March 1, 2023. Picture: AP Photo/Vaggelis Kousioras

I feel so sorry for the parents of these kids. The front section of the train was smashed were getting cranes to come in and special lifting equipment to clear the debris and lift the rail cars. Theres debris flung all around the crash site. Government officials said the army has been contacted to assist in the rescue.

The possible cause of the collision was not immediately clear. Two rail officials were being questioned by police but had not been detained.

Passengers who received minor injuries or were unharmed were transported by bus to Thessaloniki, 80 miles to the north. Police took their names as they arrived, in an effort to track anyone who may be missing.

A teenage survivor who did not give his name told reporters that just before the crash he felt a strong braking and saw sparks and then there was a sudden stop.

Our carriage didnt derail, but the ones in front did and were smashed, he said, visibly shaken.

He added that the first car caught fire and that he used a bag to break the window of his car, the fourth, and escape.

Rail operator Hellenic Train said the northbound passenger train from Athens to Thessaloniki, Greeces second-largest city, had about 350 passengers on board.

Officials said the army had been contacted to assist.

Hellenic Train, which has added high-speed services in recent years, is operated by Italys FS Group, which runs rail services in several European countries.
Greek transport minister Kostas Karamanlis has resigned following a rail crash which killed at least 36 people, saying he felt it was his duty to step down.

The announcement came after Greek police said the stationmaster in the city of Larissa has been arrested following the head-on crash that left at least 85 people injured.

A police statement identified the suspect only as a 59-year-old man. Another two people have been detained for questioning.

Mr Karamanlis said he felt it was his duty to step down as a basic indication of respect for the memory of the people who died so unfairly.

Fire Service officials said 36 people were killed and at least 85 were hurt after multiple train carriages derailed and at least three caught on fire after the crash between a passenger train and a freight train just before midnight near Tempe, some 235 miles north of Athens.

Visiting the accident scene, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that the government must help the injured recover and identify the dead.

I can guarantee one thing: We will find out the causes of this tragedy and we will do all thats in our power so that something like this never happens again, Mr Mitsotakis said.

On Wednesday, the government declared three days of national mourning, while flags flew at half-staff outside all European Commission buildings in Brussels.

Debris lies on the rail lines as firefighters operate after the collision in Tempe (Giannis Papanikos/AP/PA)

Rescue crews illuminated the scene with floodlights before dawn on Wednesday as they searched frantically through the twisted, smoking wreckage for survivors.

Survivors said several passengers were thrown through the windows of the train carriages due to the impact.

They said others fought to free themselves after the passenger train buckled, slamming into a field next to the tracks near a gorge about 235 miles north of Athens where major highway and rail tunnels are located.

There were many big pieces of steel, said Vassilis Polyzos, a local resident who was one of the first people on the scene. The trains were completely destroyed, both passenger and freight trains.

A crane operator, firefighters and rescuers work the scene of a collision in Tempe, about 235 miles north of Athens, near Larissa city, Greece (Vaggelis Kousioras/AP)

He said dazed and disoriented people were escaping out of the trains rear cars as he arrived.

People, naturally, were scared  very scared, he said. They were looking around, searching; they didnt know where they were.

The trains crashed just before the Vale of Tempe, a gorge that separates the regions of Thessaly and Macedonia. Costas Agorastos, the regional governor of the Thessaly area, told Greeces Skai television the two trains crashed head on at high speed.

Firefighters operate after a collision in Tempe near Larissa city (George Kidonas/InTime News/AP)

Carriage one and two no longer exist, and the third has derailed, he said.

Rescuers wearing head lamps worked in thick smoke, pulling pieces of mangled metal from the carriages to search for trapped people.

Others scoured the field with flashlights and checked underneath the wreckage. Several of the dead are believed to have been found in the restaurant area near the front of the passenger train which was carrying hundreds of people.

Smoke rises from trains as firefighters and rescuers operate after a collision near Larissa city, Greece, early on Wednesday (Vaggelis Kousioras/AP)

The evacuation process is ongoing and is being carried out under very difficult conditions due to the severity of the collision between the two trains, Fire Service spokesman Vassilis Varthakoyiannis said.

Hospital units used to treat burn victims had been alerted in the area, he said, adding that dozens of ambulances were involved in the rescue effort.

It was a very powerful collision. This is a terrible night its hard to describe the scene, Mr Agorastos earlier told state-run television.

Officials said many of the passengers on board the Athens to Thessaloniki train had been students returning home after celebrating Carnival over the long weekend.

This is a terrible tragedy that is hard to comprehend, said Deputy Health Minister Mina Gaga. I feel so sorry for the parents of these kids.

A passenger walks on a road after the train collision in Larissa city, Greece (Vaggelis Kousioras/AP)

The front section of the train was smashed were getting cranes to come in and special lifting equipment to clear the debris and lift the rail cars. Theres debris flung all around the crash site.

Government officials said the army has been contacted to assist in the rescue.

The possible cause of the collision was not immediately clear. Two rail officials were being questioned by police but had not been detained.

Passengers who received minor injuries or were unharmed were transported by bus to Thessaloniki, 80 miles to the north. Police took their names as they arrived, in an effort to track anyone who may be missing.

A train carrying hundreds of passengers collided with an oncoming freight train in northern Greece, killing and injuring dozens passengers (George Kidonas/InTime News/AP)

A teenage survivor who did not give his name told reporters that just before the crash he felt a strong braking and saw sparks and then there was a sudden stop.

Our carriage didnt derail, but the ones in front did and were smashed, he said, visibly shaken.

He added that the first car caught fire and that he used a bag to break the window of his car, the fourth, and escape.

Rail operator Hellenic Train said the northbound passenger train from Athens to Thessaloniki, Greeces second-largest city, had about 350 passengers on board.

Officials said the army had been contacted to assist.

Hellenic Train, which has added high-speed services in recent years, is operated by Italys FS Group, which runs rail services in several European countries.
Burma JFM Accuses India of Complicity in Myanmar Junta War Crimes

Myanmar junta soldiers fire a shell during a drill. / Junta website

The Indian government has been accused of collaboration in Myanmar juntas atrocities against its people because of its exports of artillery barrels to the regime.

On Wednesday, the campaign and rights group Justice for Myanmar (JFM) reported that Indian state-owned Yantra India Limited shipped multiple 122mm barrels to Myanmars junta in October 2022.

Yantra India is an official public sector company that runs operations under the Department of Defence Production at the Indian defense ministry.

The shipment probably breached international law, the rights group said.

Since the coup in February 2021, the regime has used airstrikes, shelling and arson attacks on residential areas killing large numbers of civilians while it is struggling to crush a growing resistance movement.

The artillery barrels were sent to a company owned by a regime arms broker, Kyaw Kyaw Htun, who has been investigated for importing fuses from the Indian company Sandeep Metalcraft to be used by the junta for the detonation of ammunition, JFM said.

It added that the juntas arms broker and his network have not been sanctioned yet.

JFM said in its statement that the barrels appear to be used for howitzers that are produced in Myanmar by the Chief of Defence Industries (OCDI), a military unit that has been sanctioned by the United States, United Kingdom, European Union and Canada.

The exporting of 122mm barrels to Myanmar by Yantra India follows several other known exports of weapons and weapons components from Indian companies after the 2021 coup.

Bharat Electronics Limited, a majority state-owned Indian company, exported a remote-controlled weapons station to the regime, the report said.

In December the junta fired 122mm howitzers on civilian areas in Hpakant and Bhamo townships in Kachin State.

JFM said the state-owned weapons manufacturer has continued to supply weapons to the junta since the coup. It showed Indias serious disregard for international humanitarian law and norms of conduct contained in the 1996 Wassenaar Arrangement.

JFM called on the Indian government to impose an arms embargo on the junta, a terrorist organization under Myanmar and international law and to cease all training and other cooperation.

India is directly supporting the juntas indiscriminate attacks against civilians by allowing the export of barrels that the junta will use in its continued gross violations of international law, said Yadanar Maung of the JFM.

She added: As a democracy and a neighbor of Myanmar, we appeal to the Indian government to stand with the people of Myanmar, not war criminals and their illegitimate junta.

The rights group also urged fellow members of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (the Quad), Australia, Japan and the US, to use their influence to stop the flow of arms from India to the regime.

JFM said it is disappointing that arms broker Kyaw Kyaw Htun and his network have not been sanctioned amid clear evidence of complicity in junta war crimes and crimes against humanity through the brokering of arms and surveillance equipment for the junta.

By Tuesday, 3,071 people had been killed by the junta and 19,936, including elected leaders, have been detained since the coup, said the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners that monitors deaths and arrests.
Burma Myanmar Junta Rounds Up Family of Deposed NLD MP in Sagaing

National League for Democracy lawmaker Dr. Win Aung

Myanmars junta detained more than 10 residents, including relatives of a former National League for Democracy (NLD) lawmaker in Khin-U Township, Sagaing Region, last week, and their whereabouts are still unknown, according to sources.

Junta troops detained the wife and elder daughter of Dr. Win Aung, a Lower House parliamentarian, from their houses last Friday. The arrest came a few days after Dr. Win Aungs other daughter and her husband died in an accident while preparing gunpowder.

It appears that news reached the regime. Thats why they have detained the lawmakers wife and daughter.

The regime had already sealed off Dr. Win Aungs house in Khin-U before the arrests and his family were only allowed in the house after signing a pledge to avoid political activities.

A domestic helper at their house was also detained along with the lawmakers wife and daughter, according to residents.

On the same day around 10 people, including a teashop owner and one of his employees, were detained in Khin-U. Most of the detainees are reportedly NLD supporters. Two civilians were injured when junta troops opened fire during an arrest, said residents.

It remains unclear why they were detained and where they were taken.

One resident said: They might still be in Khin-U undergoing investigation. There are empty buildings in the town center and we heard they are being investigated in one.

Dr. Win Aung was elected in both the 2015 and 2020 general elections. He fled the town after the 2021 coup for resistance territory, according to sources.

Following its imposition of martial law in Khin-U Township, the regime increased its presence in the town, making arbitrary arrests and conducting raids on villages.

More junta troops have been deployed since February 9. It appears to be targeting NLD members and supporters. It is possible informants incited the regime to arrest them out of personal grudges, said a resistance fighter from Khin-U Peoples Defense Force.

On February 2, the regime imposed martial law on 37 townships in Sagaing, Magwe, Bago and Tanintharyi regions and Chin, Karen, Kayah and Mon states, putting the townships under direct military control.

At a regime cabinet meeting on February 9, junta boss Min Aung Hlaing said martial law would be imposed in important townships and action would be taken to curb violence.

Over 100 junta troops have been raiding villages in Khin-U since February 9 and more than 600 houses in seven villages were torched in junta arson attacks, according to groups documenting junta atrocities.

Three people, including two resistance fighters, have been killed and 13 others injured since the imposition of martial law. Two resistance fighters on a reconnaissance mission were killed and a nun was set on fire.

Since the coup, 3,062 people have died at the hands of the junta and 16,065 have been detained, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. From May 1, 2021, to January 31 this year, 55,484 houses were torched by the regime, and Sagaing Region was hit hardest with 43,292 houses lost, according to Data for Myanmar.
War Against the Junta Dozens of Myanmar Junta Forces Killed in Four Days of Resistance Attacks

Troops of the Karenni Army / Kn.A.C

At least 26 Myanmar junta forces and a resistance fighter were killed in the last four days as Peoples Defense Forces (PDFs) and ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) continued to attack regime targets across the country.

Incidents were reported in Kayah and Shan states and Magwe, Sagaing and Bago regions.

The Irrawaddy has rounded up the following reports of significant attacks from PDFs and EAOs.

Some military casualties could not be independently verified.

Ten regime forces killed in resistance attacks in Kayah, Shan

At least 10 regime forces and a resistance fighter were killed in three days when Karenni resistance forces conducted a series of attacks on regime targets in Kayah State, said the Karenni Military Information Center (KMIC), the information unit of the Karenni Army (KA).

On Monday, the KA, Karenni Nationalities Defense Force (KNDF) and PDF groups jointly attacked regime forces and the junta-allied Pa-O National Army (PNO) in Pekon Township, southern Shan State.

In the clash, nine regime forces and a resistance fighter were killed. Also, eight weapons and some ammunition were seized from the junta troops, said KMIC.

On Sunday, the KA and KNDF also ambushed regime forces from the No. 14 Military Training School while they were going out to check and repair a water pipeline linked to their school in Hpruso Township, Kayah State. Earlier, the pipeline had been cut off by resistance forces.

In the clash, regime forces from the training school shelled Karenni resistance forces, though the troops attacked by the resistance forces did not respond.

A KNDF fighter suffered minor injuries in the incident.

On Saturday, a junta soldier was also killed when combined resistance forces attacked regime forces leaving the training school, said KMIC.

Pro-regime militia village raided in Magwe

Many regime forces including pro-regime Pyu Saw Htee militia members were thought to have been injured or killed as Thway Thauk Revolution Force (TTRF) and other PDF groups raided junta forces stationed in the pro-regime village of Min Ywa in Yesagyo Township, Magwe Region on Monday.

The TTRF also forms PDF Battalion 10 of Myanmars civilian National Unity Government (NUG).

After an hourlong shootout, all PDF fighters retreated from the village without any casualties.

Military detachment ambushed in Magwe



PDF fighters engage in a clash with regime forces in Pauk Township on Sunday. / PRF

Five regime forces were killed and many others injured in Pauk Township, Magwe Region on Sunday when at least six PDF groups from five townships jointly ambushed a military detachment of 100 troops in the southern part of the township, said Pauk Revolution Front, which took part in the attack.

Regime forces were attacked from close range while resting in a forest.

After a 30-minute firefight, the PDF forces retreated from the site due to a lack of ammunition. In the clash, junta troops responded with machine guns and 40-mm and 60-mm explosives. Three PDF fighters suffered minor injuries.

Regime forces bombarded in Magwe

Local resistance group Myingyan Black Tiger claimed it used rocket-propelled grenades (RPG), grenade launchers, 40-mm explosives and firearms to attack regime forces gathering in the compound of the township General Administration Department office in the town of Yesagyo in Magwe Region on Sunday.

Four regime soldiers wounded in the attack were reported to be in critical condition in a hospital, the PDF group said, citing military informants.

Three junta troops killed by resistance forces in Magwe

Three regime soldiers were confirmed killed in Tilin Township, Magwe Region on Sunday when a clash broke out between junta patrols from the No. 24 Military Weapons Factory and resistance fighters of PDF-Htilin, the PDF group said.

In the shootout, a weapon and some ammunition were seized from the regime forces.

Junta police outpost bombed by PDF drone in Magwe

At least three junta troops were injured in Yesagyo Township, Magwe Region on Monday when combined PDF groups used drones to drop three bombs on a police outpost in Pakhan Nge Village, said Salingyi Spaceman Drone Army, which joined the drone strike mission.

Regime forces raided in Sagaing



PDF fighters attack regime forces in the town of Myinmu on Monday. / PAFD

Two regime forces were killed in Myinmu Township, Sagaing Region on Monday when at least five PDF groups jointly conducted a surprise raid on regime forces stationed at the junta-controlled Myanmar Economic Bank in the town of Myinmu, said the Peoples Army to Fight Dictatorship, which joined the attack.

At the same time, PDF fighters used a grenade to attack regime forces stationed at a school in the town.

Military detachment ambushed in Sagaing

At least three regime forces were killed and four others injured in Wetlet Township, Sagaing Region on Tuesday when GZ Special Task Force-Wetlet used three land mines to ambush 100 junta troops leaving Hla Taw Village, claimed the resistance group.

Military checkpoint raided in Bago

Three regime forces were killed and four others injured in Wal Township, Bago Region on Sunday when Wal PDF attacked a military checkpoint at an entrance to Wal town, said Bago Region PDF.

In the attack, a junta-appointed 100 household administrator and two volunteer firefighters were killed and an army sergeant, a police captain and two pro-regime Pyu Saw Htee militia members were injured.

After facing growing armed resistance and losing a large number of its troops, the Myanmar junta has formed armed security groups, comprising administrators, volunteer firefighters, military supporters and nationalists, across the country.
War Against the Junta Fierce Fighting in Myanmars Ayadaw Claims Many Junta, Resistance Casualties

Pictures of three young resistance fighters who died on Feb. 28 when mortar shells they were preparing to use in attacks on junta troops exploded. / Ayadaw LPDF

Both the Myanmar juntas military and resistance groups have suffered heavy casualties in clashes in Ayadaw Township, Sagaing Region over the past week, according to the resistance groups.

The junta military has carried out raids in the south of Ayadaw Township since Feb. 23, conducting air strikes and deploying ground troops. Peoples resistance groups in the area said they had lost at least 10 comrades, while the junta military suffered at least a couple of dozen casualties.

The junta military launched air strikes on Ma Lae Thar Village in Ayadaw Township at around 2 p.m. on that day, with Air Force Mi-35 helicopter gunships destroying a small hospital, a school and some other buildings inside a Health Department compound in the village, said a spokesperson for the Ayadaw Peoples Defense Force (PDF).

The Mi-35 came from the North-Western Regional Military Command. It shot at and dropped bombs upon the hospital and school, and also shot at nearby villages, he said.

The junta military also brought in troop reinforcements on an Mi-17 helicopter four times that day in the south of Ayadaw, according to the residents.

Clashes have continued between the junta military and local resistance groups since then. The fighting has forced thousands of residents to flee their homes.

According to a statement released on Wednesday by Danger Force, a local PDF (LPDF) based in Ayadaw, a combined force of nine local resistance groups has responded by launching intensive attacks on junta troops in the township, which is located in Monywa District, since Feb. 24, one day after the junta launched its first air strikes.

On Feb. 24 alone, we launched an attack near Nyaung Pin Village, killing at least five junta military troops and injuring three, said a member of Danger Force LPDF.

Resistance groups said the clashes continued on Wednesday in the south of Ayadaw, adding that they had sacrificed at least 10 comrades so far, while at least a couple of dozen junta troops have been killed in the clashes, mostly around Nat Ma Thin, Kan Yin and Ma Lae Thar villages.

On Feb. 28, three young members of Ayadaw LPDF died in the south of Ayadaw while preparing mortar shells to attack junta troops. They were identified as Comrade Cover, 18; Comrade Hpar Gyi, 19; and Comrade Nway Oo, 20.
February 28, 2023



Amy Kawahara Rhoads, CEO and President of Citizens Community Bank, is Alpha Kappa Psi's 63rd Idaho Business Leader of the Year.

Alpha Kappa Psi (Delta Upsilon chapter), the professional business fraternity at Idaho State University, will recognize Rhoads at their annual award dinner in Idaho State Universitys Stephen Performing Arts Center on Thursday, March 9 at 6 p.m.

This award annually recognizes an Idaho business leader who has demonstrated outstanding business and professional ethics while contributing significant support to worthwhile community, civic and education activities. Awarded by Idaho State University Alpha Kappa Psi Professional Development Fraternity since 1959, previous honorees have included a congressman, former governors, entrepreneurs and leaders of some of Idahos largest companies. The recognition program is the longest-standing one of its kind in Idaho.

Rhoads began her career path in the banking industry over 40 years ago as a loan secretary. Unselfishly, Rhoads has served as Senior Vice President and Branch Administrator, and in 2015 was named President and CEO of Citizens Community Bank.

In June 1997, Rhoads helped start Citizens Community Bank, and was one of its three original employees when she was recruited by the board of the directors as the first branch administrator. After the first nine months in business Citizens Community Bank was profitable and has been ever since.

Rhoads has overseen the opening of six branches throughout Southeast Idaho, and has been instrumental to the growth of Citizens Community Bank that is now over $875 million in assets. Rhoads has expanded her leadership role beyond the walls of Citizens Community Bank, and found a passion for being an active member of the community, focused on making a difference in the lives of her neighbors and colleagues alike. Currently, she is chair for Bannock Development Corporation and the Pocatello Housing Authority. She is a member of Fort Hall Business Advisory, REDI, College of Business Leadership Committee, College of Eastern Idaho, and the Pocatello Chiefs. Last year, Rhoads coordinated the effort with ISU College of Business and ISU Foundation to create the first endowment that will fund financial literacy classes for current students.

As a business leader, Rhoads emulates the You Matter Most employee culture. She embodies this mantra by taking time to get to know each of her employees personally. This is not just as simple as learning their names, but rather she goes out of her way to get to know them on a more personal level. For example, on hiring anniversaries, Rhoads brings a homemade dessert and words of congratulations to each of her 108 employees.

Rhoads is a true example of the Alpha Kappa Psi values of brotherhood, knowledge, service, integrity, and unity. All are invited to spend an evening celebrating her accomplishments and contributions to our community. To support Rhoads and Alpha Kappa Psi you can buy tickets here.
February 28, 2023



An Idaho State University professor is being recognized with one of the most distinguished honors in the structural engineering community.

Recently, the Structural Engineering Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers (SEI) named Mustafa Mashal, associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, as one of the groups 2023 SEI Fellows. SEI Fellows are members who are recognized as leaders and mentors in the structural engineering profession and represent less than 1 percent of the groups 30,000 total members. SEI comprises professionals from all aspects of the structural engineering community and is heavily involved in developing and revising building codes and guidelines in the United States. The 2023 SEI Fellows will be formally inducted at the ASCE Structures Congress in New Orleans in May 2023.

I am truly honored to be selected as an SEI Fellow, Mashal said. This is a great honor for me. Id like to thank the nominators and the selection committee for seeing me worthy of this honor.

At Idaho State, Mashals research focuses on concrete structures, earthquake-resistant technologies, and environmentally friendly and resilient construction practices. He has been a member of several SEI committees and serves as a Faculty Advisor for the American Society of Civil Engineers Student Chapter at ISU. Mashal was recently announced as ISUs associate director at the Center for Advanced Energy Studies (CAES) and has been part of the leadership team for ISUs Office for Research.

Dr. Mashal is an outstanding member of the Idaho State community and very deserving of this recognition as an SEI Fellow, said Scott Snyder, Dean of ISUs College of Science and Engineering. Mustafa has been a driving force in building both the Disaster Response Complex and the Structural Laboratory at ISU. As indicated by his being named an SEI Fellow, he has an international reputation in structural engineering, and we are very proud to call Dr. Mashal a Bengal.

Mashal is currently serving as a Fulbright U.S. Scholar at Qatar University in Doha, Qatar, as part of his sabbatical. For the past six months, Mashal has taught classes in structural engineering. He is also researching the use of titanium alloy bars to retrofit structurally deficient concrete buildings in collaboration with colleagues at Qatar University. Mashal will return to Idaho in August 2023.

I have learned a lot from my peers and students here, Mashal said. Ive also had the opportunity to travel to other countries in the region and visit multiple universities, discuss research collaboration, and present my ISU-based research. I am very thankful for the support I have been given by the Fulbright Program, Qatar University, and the United States Embassy in Doha during my sabbatical in Qatar.

For more information on Idaho State Universitys Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, visit isu.edu/cee.

Prospective students can schedule a campus tour at isu.edu/visit.
Mexican president accuses U.S. of meddling in internal affairs

Xinhua) 13:51, March 01, 2023

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador reacts during his morning press conference at the National Palace in Mexico City, capital of Mexico, June 6, 2022. (Photo by Francisco Canedo/Xinhua)

"There is currently more democracy in Mexico than in the United States," the Mexican president said at his regular daily press conference.

MEXICO CITY, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Tuesday accused the U.S. State Department of "interfering" in the internal affairs of other countries.

"There is currently more democracy in Mexico than in the United States," the Mexican president said at his regular daily press conference.

On Monday, the U.S. State Department issued a statement that the United States "supports independent, well-resourced electoral institutions." The statement followed an opposition march Sunday against reforms proposed by Lopez Obrador's administration to the nation's autonomous election body, including reducing its budget and electoral officials' salaries.

By issuing the statement, said Lopez Obrador, Washington showed it continues to cling to the 200-year-old Monroe Doctrine, which espouses U.S. domination over the Western Hemisphere.

The doctrine makes the United States "feel like it's the government of the world," he said.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Western Australia's Edith Cowan University (ECU) has officially launched the WA Cyber Security Innovation Hub, to be known as CyberWest, as the state's newly revamped,cyber security centre.

Established in 2018 as part of the AustCyber Industry Growth Network, the locally driven CyberWest will now be supported by the State Government through the New Industry Fund and hosted by Edith Cowan University with a remit to grow and support the states cyber security capability.

The initial four years we spent as part of AustCyber were an excellent foundation on which to build the hub and its capability and were grateful to the AustCyber network for their support over this time, CyberWest Director Cecily Rawlinson said.

Were now entering an exciting new phase of growth but will of course continue to work collaboratively with other states and federal cyber agencies so we can best support the cyber sector.

The CyberWest team is co-located with the Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre, the ECU Security Research Institute, ECU Securing Digital Futures theme leader, and ECU Defence Research at ECUs Joondalup campus.

Were pleased to continue being hosted by ECU as it is a natural fit for CyberWest. They produce 20% of Australias cyber graduates and we are part of a cluster of organisations that provide a centre of cyber capability, capacity, and leadership for the state, Rawlinson said.



The university says CyberWests priorities for 2023 include supporting growth and commercial opportunities for the cyber security sector, building capability in the next generation of cyber professionals, and improving cyber security awareness and preparedness in all WA businesses.

Edith Cowan University (ECU) notes that in May, the second annual CyberWest Summit will be held in Perth, and recognising that cyber security is more than an IT problem the Summit is the cyber conference for non cyber professionals and is designed for leaders across all business functions.

The program will provide clear and actionable cyber education to professionals outside of the security sector through a variety of presentations, workshops, and hands-on activities as well as connecting organisations to world leading cyber security providers. There will be a focus on three content streams; Critical Infrastructure, Secure Government, and Cyber Skills, the summit will also have an emphasis on diversity and education pathways, the university says.

Western Australias Minister for Innovation Stephen Dawson MLC has praised CyberWest for its commitment to growth and innovation in the Western Australian cyber sector.

"The launch of CyberWest marks a new era of growth and collaboration for Western Australia's cyber hub," Minister Dawson said.

"We are confident that this new locally driven and expertly led hub will bring about exciting developments and opportunities for the Western Australian cyber sector."

To join the 2023 CyberWest Summit and to be a part of this exciting new phase of growth for Western Australia's cyber sector by registering your interest here.
As a result of digital transformation, data has become perhaps the most important corporate currency, and according to experts at LiveRamp, effective management of data could be the difference between keeping your business afloat or not in a recessionary environment.

GUEST OPINION: As the threat of recession looms large, companies need strategies to protect their business and maintain revenue. Last year, Deutsche Bank 1 forecasted that Australia would enter a recession in 2023, based on rising unemployment rates.

To help, COO Mel Hoptman at LiveRamp has put together four strategies on how businesses can leverage data to protect and even increase revenue in a challenging economic environment.

1. Spend smarter

In recent quarters, many big tech companies have reported losses and plans to pull back on marketing spend. While businesses must spend smarter in times of economic uncertainty, pulling back on advertising is a mistake.

Rather than shutting off these activities - and risk losing market share to competitors, instead prove these investments drive quantifiable results. Maximize what you already have by more effectively leveraging first-party data through people-based activities. Use addressable strategies across digital, search, mobile and programmatic to analyze and justify marketing spend. When every dollar is addressable, accountable and measurable, ROI and growth will occur.

2. Ditch third-party cookies

With consumers more conscious than ever in their spending habits, targeted advertising will be key to maintaining sales. However with third-party cookies sunsetting from the ecosystem, companies need to look for alternatives, and soon. Nearly half (40%) of the internet is already cookieless4 and 2024 will be here before we know it.

In a time when every marketing dollar spent must be accountable, businesses need alternate solutions that enable accurate reach and measurement without the faults inherent to third-party cookies or mobile identifiers. In place of cookies, building campaigns on authenticated solutions that leverage people-based identifiers will improve audience building, targeting and measurement while maintaining more transparency with consumers. Test and learn is always a good strategy to understand which cookie alternatives work best for your unique business needs.

3. Collaborate to unlock new revenue streams

First-party data is among one of a companys strongest assets, but it can only go so far. In order to get a true, 360-degree view of customers and understand who new and prospective consumers are outside the four walls of their business, companies have to collaborate with partners.

As proven by the rapid rise of retail media networks and data clean rooms, data collaboration  whether between teams in your organization or with external partners - is undergoing huge growth. It allows for two or more enterprises to combine their data to unlock new insights about their customers. These strategic partnerships, increasingly pursued between a retailer and supplier, brand and publisher, or even internally between CIOs and CMOs, allow partners to collaborate to identify new customers, strengthen campaign planning, and improve analytics and measurement to increase revenue - all in a secure and privacy-first way.

4. Keep data governance top of mind

With security and privacy concerns ever present, make sure technology leaves no room for failure. In a recession, privacy fines or consumers losing trust in your brand cannot be risked. Closely evaluate current technology partners, and if you decide to explore new solutions for data collaboration or other activities, make sure it removes consumers personally identifiable information (PII) from the equation.

As an example, LiveRamp offers Safe Haven, a permission-based data collaboration environment that utilises privacy-enhancing technology, allowing organisations to share data with trusted partners safely and securely.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced the launch of its second AWS infrastructure Region in Australiathe AWS Asia Pacific (Melbourne) Region.

AWS says that with the launch of the new region developers, startups, entrepreneurs, and enterprises, as well as government, education, and nonprofit organizations, will have greater choice for running their applications and serving end users from AWS data centers located in Australia.

AWS also announced that it is planning to invest an estimated US$4.5 billion (approx. A$6.8 billion) in Australia by 2037 through the AWS Asia Pacific (Melbourne) Region.

Australia has a strong history of technical innovation, and the launch of a second AWS Region in Australia provides even greater resilience and enables more customers to develop cloud-based applications that help fuel economic development across the country, said Prasad Kalyanaraman, vice president of Infrastructure Services at AWS.

The AWS Asia Pacific (Melbourne) Region adds to our ongoing infrastructure expansion and investments in Australia since we launched the AWS Asia Pacific (Sydney) Region in 2012. We are proud to deepen our investment by driving local job creation, building cloud skills, and creating opportunities for growth and collaboration with our local customers and AWS Partners.

We know how important access to secure cloud infrastructure is to Victorian businesses, and providing more choice will deliver a boost to the economy, support innovation, and help to create new jobs locally, said Victorian Minister for Trade and Investment Tim Pallas.

With the launch of the AWS Asia Pacific (Melbourne) Region, AWS says it now has 99 Availability Zones across 31 geographic regions, with announced plans to launch 12 more Availability Zones and four more AWS Regions in Canada, Israel, New Zealand, and Thailand.

AWS Regions are composed of Availability Zones that place infrastructure in separate and distinct geographic locations. The AWS Asia Pacific (Melbourne) Region consists of three Availability Zones and joins the existing AWS Asia Pacific (Sydney) Region, which opened in November 2012.

Availability Zones are located far enough from each other to support customers business continuity and near enough to provide low latency for high availability applications that use multiple Availability Zones- and each Availability Zone has independent power, cooling, and physical security and is connected through redundant, ultra-low latency networks, AWS explained.

AWS says its customers focused on high availability can design their applications to run in multiple Availability Zones to achieve even greater fault tolerance.

The launch of the AWS Asia Pacific (Melbourne) Region will enable local customers with data residency preferences to store data securely in Australia while providing customers with even lower latency to drive greater productivity, more efficient business operations, and enhanced real-time application performance. Customers will also have access to advanced AWS technologies to drive innovation including compute, storage, networking, business applications, developer tools, data analytics, security, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, notes AWS.

Operational resilience is at the heart of our commitment to customers and our regulatory imperatives, which is why it is a top strategic priority at PEXA, said Eglantine Etiemble, chief technology officer at PEXA Group. The launch of a second AWS Region in Australia makes it possible for us to deploy applications securely across multiple Regions to improve the availability and performance of our PEXA platform and continue helping more than 20,000 families a week settle their homes sooner.

AWS also released an economic impact study estimating that the companys projected spending on the construction and operation of the new Region will support more than 2,500 full-time jobs at external businesses annually, with a planned $4.5 billion (approx. A$6.8 billion) investment in Australia by 2037.

The investment includes capital expenditures on the construction of data centers, operational expenses related to ongoing utilities and facility costs, and purchases of goods and services from regional businesses.

These jobs, including construction, facility maintenance, engineering, telecommunications, and other jobs within the countrys broader economy, will be part of the AWS supply chain in Australia. The construction and operation of the AWS Asia Pacific (Melbourne) Region is also estimated to add approximately $10.6 billion (approx. A$15.9 billion) to Australias GDP by 2037, AWS said.

AWS says customers welcome the AWS Asia Pacific (Melbourne) Region and hundreds of thousands of organizations in Australia are among the millions of active customers using AWS in more than 190 countries around the world.

Enterprises in Australia choose AWS to innovate and assist with accelerating time to market. Customers using AWS include Airtasker, Animal Logic, ANZ Bank, Atlassian, Canva, Cochlear, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Jims Group, Kmart, Lion, Lovisa, National Australia Bank, Optus, PEXA Group, Pizza Hut, Smiling Mind, Swimming Australia, Target, Telstra, Ticketek, Woodside Energy, and Youfoodz. Australian public sector customers use AWS to help drive cost savings and better serve local citizens, AWS commented.

These customers include FrontierSI, Melbourne Genomics Health Alliance, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), University of Melbourne, and Victorian Land Registry Services. Australian startups, including Brighte, FloodMapp, FrankieOne, Illuvium, Law On Earth, Littlepay, Mr Yum, Omniscient Neurotechnology (o8t), Reejig, and Swoop Aero, are building their businesses with the use of AWS to rapidly scale nationally and around the world.

We plan to deploy our AWS targeted workloads and applications through the AWS Asia Pacific (Melbourne) Region on day one and want to make it our long-term primary AWS location, said Gerard Florian, group executive of Technology at ANZ. The lower latency and higher performance we expect of the new AWS Region in Melbourne will help us improve our customer experience and accelerate our cloud adoption.

Littlepay is a Melbourne-based financial technology company that works with more than 250 transport and mobility providers to enable contactless payments on local buses, city networks, and national public transport systems, says AWS.

Our mission is to create a universal payment experience around the world, which requires world-class global infrastructure that can grow with us, said Amin Shayan, CEO at Littlepay.

To drive a seamless experience for our customers, we ingest and process over 1 million monthly transactions in real time using AWS, which enables us to generate insights that help us improve our services. We are excited about the launch of a second AWS Region in Australia, as it gives us access to advanced technologies, like machine learning and artificial intelligence, at a lower latency to help make commuting a simpler and more enjoyable experience.

The launch of an AWS Region in Melbourne gives us the additional capacity to assist researchers, students, and academics to deliver world-class research outcomes that benefit society, said professor Calum Drummond, deputy vice chancellor of Research and Innovation and vice president at RMIT.

We recently launched RMIT Universitys AWS Cloud Supercomputing facility, known as RACE. RMIT researchers are using RACE to advance battery technologies, photonics, and geospatial science. The low latency and high throughput of the AWS Region in Melbourne, combined with our high-bandwidth private fiber network, will enable researchers and students to innovate beyond the limitations of traditional on-premises data centers.

AWS says its Australian partners also welcome the AWS Asia Pacific (Melbourne) Region.

The AWS Partner Network (APN) includes tens of thousands of independent software vendors (ISVs) and systems integrators (SIs) around the world. AWS Partners build innovative solutions and services on AWS, and the APN helps by providing business, technical, marketing, and go-to-market support to customers. AWS ISVs, SIs, and consulting partners help enterprise and public sector customers migrate to AWS, deploy mission-critical applications, and provide a full range of monitoring, automation, and management services for customers' cloud environments. Examples of Australian-based AWS Partners include Cevo, CMD Solutions, DiUS, IntelligenceBank, Local Measure, NCS, Stax, Unleash live, Urban.io, and Versent. For the full list of AWS Partners, visit aws.amazon.com/partners, notes AWS.

Cevo is an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner that provides cloud services such as migration, data analytics, and managed services to Australian companies including David Jones, Insignia Financial, MYOB, and Jims Group.

Working with AWS has enabled us to expand our team by more than 60 consultants in the past 12 months to meet increased customer demand for deploying highly-regulated cloud environments, said James Lewis, CEO at Cevo.

As cloud adoption continues to scale, were seeing more customersparticularly in the financial, government, and retail sectorsmove to the cloud to tap into advanced modernization and analytics capabilities to ideate, design and build new customer-focused services. With the AWS Asia Pacific (Melbourne) Region, we can enable customers to drive more experimentation at scale, while providing assurance that their data is stored securely in Australia.
This Week in Review

A weekly review of the best and most popular stories published in the Imperial Valley Press. Also, featured upcoming events, new movies at local theaters, the week in photos and much more.
Monticello, IL (61856)

Today

Windy. Rain showers early becoming less numerous for the afternoon. Thunder possible. Morning high of 58F with temps falling to near 45. Winds W at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

Rain showers along with windy conditions. Low 36F. Winds W at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 40%. Higher wind gusts possible.
An N.C. House Select Committee is recommending that the General Assembly change a state law forcing districts to start school the Monday closest to Aug. 26 and end no later than the Friday clo
Today

Cloudy this morning. Scattered thunderstorms developing this afternoon. Storms may contain strong gusty winds. High 76F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%.

Tonight

Rain early. Decreasing clouds with mostly clear skies by morning. Low 44F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.

Tomorrow

Sunny skies. High 67F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph.
Lee Je Hoon answered random questions from fans, including his real age, what makes him happy, and more, as the "Taxi Driver 2" star appears in Allure Korea's video.

Lee Je Hoon Surprises Fans With His Age

In a question-and-answer segment of the publication, the South Korean heartthrob swooned with fans with his wit, charm, and stunning visuals.

For the segment ASK Allure, Lee Je Hoon received various questions from fans where he got to answer random topics - from his favorite drink, perfume, his real age, and message to his supporters.

One of the questions was asking the top star if he ever feels like he is aging.

Before answering this, Lee Je Hoon was lauded by viewers for his baby-face visuals. However, he stunned viewers when he revealed his real age.

"To be honest, in terms of physical fitness, I'm still fine," he said, and added he will be in his forties (Korean age) this 2023.

With this, fans couldn't believe that Lee Je Hoon will be welcoming the big 40 as he celebrates his birthday on July 4!

In an online community, fans got surprised by the actor's age reveal, noting that he has a "freaking baby face."

Others felt strange and mentioned that he looked as if he is still in his 30s.

As mentioned, Lee Je Hoon's birthday is on July 4, 1984, which makes him under the water sign, Cancer, known to be a creative and passionate individual.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Was Lee Je Hoon Verbally Harrassed? Radio Show Removes Inappropriate Remark Towards the 'Taxi Driver' Star

Before becoming an actor, he was admitted to Korea University, one of the prestigious schools in the country where he took up Biotechnology. He dropped out to pursue his dream. He started by transferring to the Korea National University of Arts and the rest is history for Lee Je Hoon.

Lee Je Hoon Talks About His Likes, Dislikes

The actor spoke about his love for coffee, and said he would drink at least 1 to 2 cups a day. Moreover, he also likes having two shots of espresso and warm milk in colder months or a flat white.

As for his current favorite series, Lee Je Hoon recommended a Japanese drama "First Love Hatsukoi" and said that he cried while watching the series.

In addition, the Japanese series also reminded him of his movie "Architecture 101" because of their sentimental approach.

Lee Je Hoon's Drama 'Taxi Driver 2' Soars With Amazing Viewership

The South Korean star recently returned to the small screen with his comeback as Kim Do Gi for the much-awaited "Taxi Driver 2." Playing the role of the anti-hero of the Rainbow Taxi group, the SBS series jumped to double-digit viewership during the release of its pilot episode.

In addition, the sequel immediately entered the Most Buzzworthy Drama and Actor rankings in its first week of airing.

KDramastars owns this article

Written by Geca Wills
This "Crash Course in Romance" star surprised many with her chic and sexy photoshoot ahead of the drama's finale. Can you guess who this actress is?

Roh Yoon Seo Makes Heads Turn With Her Mature Fashion Pictorial

Roh Yoon Seo is currently winning the viewers hearts as she plays the smart and lovely Nam Hae Yi in the trending K-drama "Crash Course in Romance." The 23-year-old celebrity shocked many with her transformation exhibiting her mature look in Marie Claire's March 2023 issue.

She boasted a unique atmosphere by exuding a chic and elegant impression in her first fashion magazine shoot. The young star is embellished in Cartier accessories, elevating Roh Yoon Seo's elegance. Her new look showcased a unique style that breaks away from traditional stereotypes, which also displays freedom and strong individuality.

'Crash Course in Romance' Star Roh Yoon Seo Receives Rave Reviews For Her Acting

As she entered showbiz in 2022, Roh Yoon Seo was worried on how she could build a good image as a beginner in the industry. But as she already landed her first role in tvN's "Our Blues" and showcased her skills, she immediately captivated the public with her performance.

In the same year, the young star also made her silver screen debut through Netflix's "20th Century Girl," where she played the character of Kim Yeon Doo. With her back-to-back projects last year, Roh Yoon Seo was quick to gain new fans.

This 2023, she made a comeback through "Crash Course in Romance," which consecutively receives high viewership rating records since it premiered in January.

Who Will Be Roh Yoon Seo's Endgame in 'Crash Course in Romance'?

As the drama is about to conclude, Roh Yoon Seo successfully introduces a new side of her acting in public through the healing-romance series.

Many are now looking forward to the actress' upcoming roles. For now, catch the remaining two episodes of "Crash Course in Romance" and anticipate what will happen next to each character.

Audience is also excited to see who will be Nam Hae Yi's endgame between Lee Sun Jae (Lee Chae Min) and Seo Geon Hu (Lee Min Jae).

"Crash Course in Romance" follows the story of Nam Haeng Seon, a Banchan shop owner who falls in love with a Math Celebrity teacher, Choi Chi Yeol.

What can you say about Roh Yoon Seo's latest magazine pictorial? Share your replies in the comments!

For more K-Drama, K-Movie, and celebrity news, keep your tabs open here at KDramaStars.

KDramaStars owns this article.

Shai Collins wrote this.
Jeon So Nee is determined to clear her name as "Our Blooming Youth" featured a crime involving her family. Amid the investigation, she believes that the Crown Prince, played by Park Hyung Sik, knew the reason behind her father's death.

"Our Blooming Youth" is a historical-romance series that follows the story of Min Jae Yi (Jeon So Nee). She was engaged to the son of powerful State Councillor, Han Sung On (Yoon Jeong Sook) but their marriage faced difficulties after Lady Min Jae Yi gets caught up in a conspiracy.

The town speculates she was the one behind her family's death and had a lover. However, she will do everything to clear her name with the help of the Crown prince (Park Hyung Sik).

'Our Blooming Youth' Episode 7 Recap

Lady Min Jae Yi, who is disguised as eunuch Go Soon Dol, examined peony blossom flowers she found at shaman's house. Through this, she recalled the day that her family was murdered as someone was burning peony blossom incense in the kitchen.

Moreover, she also recalled that Sim Yeong visited her while she was making soup for the family but couldn't remember what they were talking about.

In the next scene, the Crown Prince had a heated discussion with Min Jae Yi, asking her if she lied to him. In addition, he also accused her of lying and manipulating him.

The young royal also thought she and Sim Yeong were lovers because of the suicide note he left.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Is Jeon So Nee the Reason Behind 'Our Blooming Youth's' Plummeting Viewership?

The Crown Prince handed the letter containing a bracelet that both of them have. Upon reading it, she couldn't believe that Sin Yeong committed suicide, but denied that they were lovers.

Min Jae Yi pointed out that she is innocent but the Crown Prince didn't believe her and asked his servants to drag her out of the Eastern Palace.

Nowhere else to go, she decided to go to Kim Myung Jin, where her former court lady Jang Ga Ram temporarily lives.

On the other hand, the authorities were on the lookout for Lady Min Jae Yi's court lady. Here, Han Sung On wondered why the Crown Prince was investigating the case of his fiancee and the murder of her family, doubting that the young royal was up to something.

During her conversation with Ga Ram, Min Jae Yi told the courtlady, who was also in disguise, that Sim Yeong committed suicide and left a note about them.

Ga Ram was stunned by the tone of the note, pointing out that they were close but Min Jae Yi and he were not lovers.

With their friendship, other people might have mistaken them for having a relationship, but she knew that Min Jae Yi is innocent. She was also saddened to hear what happened at the palace.
Kim Woo Bin teased fans with his hair transformation as the actor recently updated his social media account. From donning a sleek short hairstyle, the "Our Blues" star ditched his dapper look and opted for a change.

Kim Woo Bin Dons Long Hair

Kim Woo Bin's Instagram showcases the actor's new photo, showing off a longer hairstyle. The South Korean heartthrob casually posed with shoulder-length hair.

Over his Instagram, he captioned the photo with an emoji of a woman with short hair.

Interestingly, fans took to the comment section to express their thoughts about Kim Woo Bin's long hair.

While the majority of the comments said that long hair suits Kim Woo Bin, some fans poked fun at the photo's background since some of the snaps where shot in a diaper section.

On the other hand, others asked if his hair transformation is for his upcoming K-drama.

Kim Woo Bin Drama: Hallyu Star Returns for 'Black Knight'

After his successful K-drama comeback through "Our Blues," Kim Woo Bin is set to return to the small screen with a new series. The 33-year-old top star will be headlining an interesting K-drama based on the webcomic and directed by Cho Ui Seok, the genius behind movies "The World of Silence," "Cold Eyes" and "Master."

Kim Woo Bin will get to work alongside a roster of talented stars like Song Seung Heon, Esom, and "Start-Up" actor Kang Yoo Seok as lead stars.

Interestingly. "Taxi Driver" star Kim Eui Sung and Jin Kyung from "Dr. Romantic" will also join the upcoming series.

In the upcoming series, Kim Woo Bin plays the legendary delivery man known as "5-8."

The actor will flaunt his combat skills as his character possesses extraordinary fighting techniques. He then meets a refugee named Seol Ah, played by Esom.

Kim Woo Bin's new drama will feature how delivery knights play an extremely significant role in society, taking place in 2071.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Song Joong Ki, Lee Jong Suk, More Heartthrobs to Lead K-dramas in Second Half of 2022

"Black Knight" also focuses on the chaos where pollution becomes the top challenge for humans which makes it a struggle for everyone to survive.

Set to be released on Netflix sometime this 2023, the streaming giant dropped still cuts for the forthcoming series, featuring Kim Woo Bin's new role.

Apart from "Black Knight" Kim Woo Bin is booked and busy in the coming months as he gears up for the most awaited sequel of "Alienoid."

Kim Woo Bin reprises Role in 'Alienoid 2'

With the success of the first part, the adventure-fantasy movie returns with part two. Kim Woo Bin will return as Thunder, alongside Kim Tae Ri and Ryu Jun Yeol.

However, as of this writing, representatives are yet to confirm the target release date of "Alienoid 2."

KDramastars owns this article

Written by Geca Wills
Scientists examine a step in the vaccine purification process as they design updates to the Novavax's COVID-19 shots in the company's research laboratory on May 24, 2022, in Gaithersburg, Md. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Angie Wang
Minister of Finance Katrine Conroy tables her first budget as Premier David Eby looks on in the legislative assembly at legislature in Victoria, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito
Matthew McKnight holds arms with his mother as they walk into court in Edmonton on July 10, 2020. The Alberta Court of Appeal has sentenced the former Edmonton club promoter to 11 years for the sexual assaults of five women. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson
Kennesaw State physics student looks to turn NASA internship into a full-time opportunity

KENNESAW, Ga. | Mar 1, 2023

Kennesaw State University junior Christopher Woolford spends a lot of time hunched over a laptop at his apartment, in one of the common spaces on the Marietta Campus or in the laboratory of associate professor of physics David Joffe. Christopher Woolford

Its all physics all the time for the junior, between his coursework, research in the Joffe lab and virtual internships with both NASAs Glenn Research Center and the Department of Energys Fermi National Laboratory (Fermilab). And its the life he has wanted since developing a love of physics in high school.

This is why Im at Kennesaw State, he said. When I came to campus, I was given the opportunity to just go, go, go. I'm here. Let's do this. And so, I jumped right into studying physics and gaining experience.

Upon arriving at KSU, Woolford joined the Undergraduate Research Club and found Joffes particle physics laboratory. Two years later, hes been a mainstay in Joffes lab, and his research led him to a virtual internship last summer with Fermilab in Illinois and in the fall with NASA, where in both instances he wrote computer programs the labs use to model physical systems.

Joffe said Woolfords experience in high school enabled him to hit the ground running in the lab.

Students usually start in my research group in their sophomore year, but once every few years a very enthusiastic and self-motivated student like Christopher will start in their freshman year, Joffe said. His passion for physics comes through in everything he does, and hes an asset to everything we do.

A KSU faculty member since 2011, Joffe has worked with Fermilab for over 20 years and NASA for nearly 10 years and has helped students obtain internship experience in both entities. He participates in a project at Fermilab called EMPHATIC, which is currently Woolfords main responsibility within the Joffe lab.

My time in Dr. Joffes lab has improved my base of knowledge in programming, which is increasingly important in physics, Woolford said. Ive gotten all these opportunities to learn how to understand and write computer programs, and I know I can handle anything I might experience in the workplace.

Eventually, Woolford has his sights set on a research career in the government. Woolford said he is looking to explore future opportunities with NASA and other government agencies. A masters or doctoral degree could happen as well.

Woolford says that the best advice he could give to other students is to seek out and take advantage of the opportunities KSU has to offer.

I'd really encourage anyone at KSU to look at these kinds of opportunities, like internships and research, he said. Before college, nobody told me about undergraduate research. I had to figure it out for myself and do tons of reading and look into it, so the biggest takeaway is to look into those kinds of things and to pursue whatever looks interesting to you.

 Dave Shelles

Photos by Darnell Wilburn

Related Stories

A leader in innovative teaching and learning, Kennesaw State University offers undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees to its more than 43,000 students. Kennesaw State is a member of the University System of Georgia with 11 academic colleges. The universitys vibrant campus culture, diverse population, strong global ties and entrepreneurial spirit draw students from throughout the country and the world. Kennesaw State is a Carnegie-designated doctoral research institution (R2), placing it among an elite group of only 7 percent of U.S. colleges and universities with an R1 or R2 status. For more information, visit kennesaw.edu.
36 Shares Share

I recently read a story in which a woman named H. Lee, who has muscular dystrophy, details a decade-long struggle to receive adequate cervical cancer screening. Providers have been unable to find her cervix due to the curvature of her spine, examined her in her wheelchair because there were no height-adjustable examination tables, and outright turned her away for liability reasons.

By the time she finds an accessible provider, she has not had a pap smear in four years. She is eventually diagnosed with a form of precancer called carcinoma in situ and must have her uterus removed. She writes, I never wanted to have children. But, not to have a child was my choice, but now it was being taken away from me.

Lees experience is not unique. In a study of more than 60,000 women in the United States, women with disabilities had lower odds of being up to date on pap smears and were more likely to be diagnosed with cervical cancer. These disparities pervade other areas of womens health. Women with disabilities are also less likely to be up to date on breast cancer screening. They are more likely to undergo female sterilization and less likely to be on the pill than non-disabled women.

One of the many barriers to accessing gynecological care is the lack of height-adjustable examination tables. This leaves many women with mobility disabilities vulnerable to potential injury from unsafe transfers to and from their wheelchairs or unable to receive adequate examinations.

Several pieces of legislation exist to protect individuals with disabilities from experiencing discrimination in health care. These include Title II and Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and Section 1557 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Though the disability rights law within the US is arguably robust, the means of enforcing these protections are not. Currently, if an individual experiences discrimination based on disability status, they must file a report with the Department of Justice. This protocol places the burden on the individual. It can be time-consuming and financially burdensome.

We need a policy that is not reactive but rather prevents these injustices from occurring in the first place. It should incentivize clinics to be accessible and comply with the ADA. A tax credit in which womens health clinics are evaluated based on the presence of height-adjustable examination tables as well as providing disability-focused training to staff may help to reduce inaccessibility of the physical environment. Both the Disabled Access Credit, which offers a tax credit to employers for expenditures related to accessibility, and the Architectural Barrier Removal Tax Deduction, which allows small businesses to receive a deduction of up to $15,000 per year for expenditures related to barrier removal, may serve as a model for this proposal. One potential weakness of this policy is that complying with the ADA can be expensive; it may not be financially worth it to many smaller clinics. Thus, the credit must outweigh the cost of examination tables and training.

Inaccessible examination tables are just one of many systemic and discriminatory factors impacting health access and outcomes for people with disabilities. Addressing them is important to ensure health equity and reproductive justice for all.

Geffen Treiman is a medical student.
80 Shares Share

I retired as a physician at age 70, when COVID-19 came to town and the clinic I was working closed. During these past three years, I have had the luxury of a long view of my career. Every now and then, I feel the urge to pick up my stethoscope again and return to the practice of medicine. Im tempted by the several good aspects of being a doctor.

The good

The conversations with patients were often remarkable, offering insight into other peoples lives. For example, the wealthy white man who seems to have it all tells me his wife is being treated for cancer. He has donated money to a cancer center nearby and is seeking cutting-edge treatment for her. Unfortunately, his wife has metastatic cancer that is beyond any known treatment. It turns out no amount of wealth or influence will stand in its destructive way. I know that. He will eventually come to know it as well. Doctor Death makes no exceptions for wealthy men and their loved ones. My heart goes out to him. He will learn the same life lessons the rest of us have had to learn.

Other patients were just plain amusing. For example, I saw Mr. Gillman in a rural clinic. I had been seeing Mr. Gillman for some time already. I asked about his wife and the farm. This Mr. Gillman answered me hesitantly. It turns out this was a brother. The two men looked alike. Thus Mr. Gillman did not have a wife. He was trying not to hurt my feelings by saying as much. My nurse explained the situation to me after he left.

The intellectual component of doctoring was also rewarding. Most doctors enjoy solving medical puzzles, dipping into the medical lore one had worked so hard to acquire. Now, the extent of my medical challenges is limited to family members. They may or may not want to hear my insight on the brother-in-law who just got four cardiac stents. Or the sister-in-law dealing with Alzheimers dementia.

I wrote a memoir about practicing medicine in rural Kentucky for 20 years. That book has more about the good parts of doctoring, stories that gladden the heart, and medical puzzles that challenge the brain.

What other part of doctoring do I miss? I miss the income stream. That was nice, making good money. With retirement, I am somewhat limited. I must dip into savings and retirement accounts to pay for trips for my children and grandchildren. The latter demographic is not terribly understanding of why they cannot go to the beach in Mexico for spring break.

The bad

Then there are several reasons I do not miss doctoring. For the sake of symmetry, lets call these reasons the bad. It turns out there are structural disincentives in the profession. About which I knew nothing when I started medical school. Below are three things I found out along the way and why I will remain retired:

Topping the list is the fear of being sued for medical malpractice. It is like touching a live wire. The shock it delivers can destroy your enthusiasm for the practice of medicine. The AMA reports that 50 percent of doctors over age 55 will have faced lawsuits sometime in their careers. An altogether unpleasant experience.

Also unpleasant is the experience of working in a clinic owned by a corporate entity. They try to cut costs. Support staff gets thinned out: medical assistants replace RNs. The medical ranks get pruned: physician assistants replace physicians. Not to mention the overscheduling  expecting the provider to see 30 patients daily when the natural flow of things would allow doctors to see 15 patients daily with adequate time to talk to patients.

The last development of concern is the mandated use of EMRs. A providers attention is divided between what the patient says and what the EMR asks. The EMRs, in my experience, suck your life out with their demand for endless clicking and useless data. Perhaps there are newer iterations out there that offer a more streamlined experience for doctors and patients. One can hope.

And the ugly

The initial response to COVID. Leaving millions of front-line medical workers unprotected at the onset of the pandemic. There were no masks available. There were no tests available. Plus, the misinformation campaign telling people that doctors were plotting against them and that the vaccines were dangerous was ugly.

So there you have it: the good, the bad, and the ugly. What I did not know when I started working as a physician. And why I am retired now with minimal regrets.

Janet Tamaren is a family physician.
Chinese scientists provide new method to monitor CO2 emissions from power plants

Xinhua) 13:52, March 01, 2023

BEIJING, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese scientists have developed a new approach to estimate carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants, which offers further insight on carbon reduction, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

This method of carbon dioxide emission inversion is based on an improved Gaussian plume model and data from the orbiting carbon observatory satellites, said Shi Yusheng, a researcher with the Aerospace Information Research Institute (AIR) under the CAS and leader of the study team.

The existing emission inventory does not accurately reflect current CO2 emissions due to the lag in the statistical data and the accuracy limit for emissions factor.

The progress of remote-sensing technology sheds light on the carbon-emission monitoring sector. This method is based on measured data that is less prone to being impacted by human factors and statistical data errors. It also has a high time resolution, providing a unified standard for estimation, said Shi.

The validation results of the new method showed a high level of agreement with the existing emission inventory.

The method helps monitor and estimate important point sources of carbon emissions, which is a prerequisite for the power industry to carry out carbon reduction efforts, according to Shi.

The study results have been published in the Journal of Cleaner Production.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
A man has been brought to court and charged with assault causing serious harm following the death of his son in Kilkenny on Monday.

Zbigniew Besnarczyk (61), 21 Meadow Way, Kilkenny, appeared before Carlow District Court this afternoon. He is charged under Section 4 of the Non Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997.

Mr Besnarczyk, who was in court dressed in a grey tracksuit and black trainers, did not speak during the appearance. He was assisted in court by a Polish interpreter.

Detective Garda Brian Sheeran said the accused did not reply when charged. The detective garda said he attended at 21 Meadow Way on Monday, February 27, in response to a call about a stabbing incident.

At the scene the son of the accused, Rafal Besnarczyk Jacyna, was found dead. He had sustained one stab wound to the thigh which had damaged the femoral artery. He was lying on the kitchen floor in a pool of blood.

The detective Garda said a knife was observed on the kitchen table and seized. He said it will be alleged there as an argument between the accused and his son, during which the younger man sustained an injury that caused his death.

Gardai objected to bail being granted to the accused on the grounds of the seriousness of the offence and fears he is a flight risk.

Solicitor Thomas Walsh said his client maintained that what had occurred was an accident. He denied Mr Besnarczyk was a flight risk.

Judge Geraldine Carthy denied bail. Mr Besnarczyk was remanded in custody to appear before Kilkenny District Court, via video link, next Monday.

She expressed her sympathies to the family.
BOONE COUNTY - The Missouri Attorney General's Office filed a brief Monday in Joseph Elledge's murder conviction appeal. Elledge claimed prosecutors in his trial failed to prove second-degree murder because they couldn't adequately prove his intent.

The brief, filed by Assistant Attorney General Zeb Charlton, says Elledge's fabrications to police and his attempts to conceal his involvement in the crime prove that he intentionally killed his wife, Mengqi Ji.

TIMELINE: Events in the murder of Mengqi Ji Mengqi Ji was reported missing from Columbia, Missouri on Oct. 10, 2019. She was last seen on Oct. 8 by her husband, Joseph Elledge.

Elledge was found guilty of second-degree murder in November 2021 and was sentenced to 28 years in prison.

Elledge appealed his conviction in January 2022 and filed the brief in September 2022. Elledge's attorneys claim the court should not have overruled their motions for acquittal during and after the trial, claiming prosecutors didn't have enough evidence to establish second-degree murder. Specifically, the brief claims the state "provided no evidence as to [Ji's] cause or manner of death, nor evidence that [Elledge] intentionally caused her demise."

Charlton wrote in his brief that witness testimony, recordings of arguments between Elledge and Ji, and Elledge's lying to police were enough evidence for the jury to find him guilty.

Elledge's attorneys also wrote that prosecutors were "unable to present any evidence as to how [Ji] died."

Charlton wrote that the medical examiner could not determine a cause of death, but the examiner did rule the death a homicide based on the circumstances of how Ji's body was found. Hikers found her remains in Rock Bridge State Park in March 2021, nearly 15 months after she was reported missing.




China President Xi Jinping said the country is willing to work with Belarus to promote the healthy and stable development of bilateral relations at a high level, state media reported on Wednesday.







Xi also said China and Belarus should support each other in "safeguarding their own core interests, oppose interference by external forces in internal affairs, and safeguard the sovereignty and political security of the two countries." (Reuters)










Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Occasional rain. Becoming windy. Morning high of 64F with temps falling to near 45. Winds SSW at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

Cloudy and windy early. Snow showers developing overnight. Low 33F. Winds SW at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of snow 60%. Higher wind gusts possible.
Angola, IN (46703)

Today

Periods of rain. Becoming windy in the afternoon. High 64F. Winds S at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

Cloudy skies early followed by a mixture of light rain and snow overnight. Low 33F. Winds SW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of precip 50%. Higher wind gusts possible.
Angola, IN (46703)

Today

Periods of rain. Becoming windy in the afternoon. High 64F. Winds S at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

Cloudy skies with late-night snow showers. Low 33F. Winds SW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of snow 50%. Higher wind gusts possible.
Auburn, IN (46706)

Today

Periods of rain. Morning high of 65F with temps falling to near 45. Winds SSW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

Cloudy with snow showers developing after midnight. Low 34F. Winds SW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of snow 50%. Higher wind gusts possible.
slide 2 of 6

BLACKPINK member and actoress Jisoo decorated the cover of Vogue France for the first time as an Asian. This is the first feat since the magazine was founded 103 years ago.

On the 23rd and 24th, Jisoo posted the pre-release version of the cover of the March 2023 issue of Vogue France on her SNS. She wrote in the caption, the most memorable moment.
Today, Lorenzo Vella has been appointed as new Head of the European Commission Representation in Valletta. In this function, he will act as the official representative of the European Commission in Malta under the political authority of President Ursula von der Leyen. Moreover Claudia Colla has been appointed as new Head of the Regional Office in Milan, in Italy. The date of effect of their appointments will be determined later.

Lorenzo Vella, a Maltese national, will draw on his extensive experience of 15 years in European affairs in Brussels and Luxembourg but also in the Maltese public service. In his new position, he will build on his refined diplomatic and representation skills as well as his thorough understanding of key EU policy priorities. He is currently the Permanent Representative of Malta to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. Prior to that, he was a Deputy Permanent Representative of Malta to the EU in Brussels, representing Malta at COREPER I. From 2012 until 2014, he also worked in the Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (DG EMPL) of the European Commission as a Programme Manager, responsible for the overall monitoring of policy developments in Malta in relation to the priorities and objectives of Europe 2020 Strategy. Prior to that, he worked in the public sector mainly in Malta, complemented by a short experience as a project manager at the European Court of Auditors. He holds two Master's Degrees in European Politics and Policies from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium and from the Faculty of Economics, Management and Accountancy in University of Malta.

Claudia Colla, an Italian national, will lead the Regional Office in Milan, which is part of the Commission Representation in Italy led by the Head of Representation in Rome. In this capacity, she will rely greatly on her advanced negotiation and representation skills, and her deep knowledge of an array of EU policies. She currently works in the Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW) as Team Leader and Head of the EU delegation in the Technical Barriers to Trade Committee of the Word Trade Organisation (WTO). She previously worked in the Directorate-General for Competition (DG COMP) and in the Directorate-General Internal Market and Services (DG MARKT). During these years, she has been responsible for different topics and policies, including State Aid, Intellectual Property Rights and International Trade. Before joining the Commission in 2004, she was a Member of the Cabinet of the Italian Minister for European Affairs. She has been lecturing on International Relations and EU integration at the University of Florence and Bologna. Claudia Colla is a fellow of the Marshall Memorial Fellowships Program and of the United Nations Fellowships Program on Disarmament. She holds a Master Degree in Advanced European Studies at the College of Europe of Bruges, in Diplomatic and International Studies at the University of Bologna, and in Political Science and International Relations at the University of Florence.

Background

The Commission maintains Representations in all capitals of EU Member States, and Regional Offices in Barcelona, Bonn, Marseille, Milan, Munich and Wroclaw. The Representations are the Commission's eyes, ears and voice on the ground in EU Member States. They interact with national authorities, stakeholders and citizens, and inform the media and the public about EU policies. Heads of Representations are appointed by the President of the European Commission and are her political representatives in the Member State to which they are posted.

For More Information

Commission Representation in Malta

Commission Representation in Italy
New Delhi [India], March 1 (ANI): Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal on Wednesday underscored the importance of the India-Europe partnership in ensuring sustainability and inclusive growth and making the world a better and safer place.

The Industry Minister was addressing the India-Europe Sustainability Conclave, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in collaboration with the Ministry of External Affairs, in New Delhi.

Also Read | Why Selfiee and Shehzada Failed at Box Office: Decoding the Poor Performance of Akshay Kumar and Kartik Aaryans Movies in Theatres.

Goyal emphasised that sustainable growth cannot be achieved unless there is a collective effort from all stakeholders of society including the government, businesses and citizens.

The Minister highlighted that sustainability and inclusive growth were critical elements of India's Union Budget 2023. "Basic needs including access to water, digital and infrastructure connectivity, technology, healthcare, and education, among others, must be assured to everyone," added Goyal.

Also Read | Jharkhand Shocker: Teenager Killed in Dhanbad Days Ahead of Exam, Two Friends Arrested.

Goyal stated further that India's growth story is driven by India's aspirational youth, who also recognise sustainability as an important element of India's future growth. The Minister urged business leaders and the global political leadership to come together in driving collective efforts in transitioning towards a greener future.

He further mentioned that it was important to recognise that developing countries vis-a-vis developed countries will have different goals and timelines in their growth journey and therefore all countries must be sensitive to each other's needs, goals and outcomes.

"India is an indispensable and strategic partner for the European Union," stated Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President, European Union.

He highlighted that India is an important partner for EU in many areas, including energy and technology.

He added there is greater potential for increasing India-EU energy cooperation, particularly in green energy and just transition.

Borrell also underlined the need for strengthening the India-EU partnership in areas such as robotics, quantum computing, critical materials, semiconductors and in ensuring debt sustainability.

"The Indian and European economies are connected through trade and innovation and cooperation between the two must be explored further as the two together can shape a better future for the world," stated Wopke Hoekstra, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands.

He added the two economies could expand cooperation particularly in driving global response to global challenges and in the areas of digital health and cybersecurity.

He further stated that India and Europe can join hands to promote a rule-based international order for enhancing a stable, prosperous and peaceful future.

James Cleverly, MP, Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, UK, stated that India's G20 presidency has come at the right time, making India a crucial partner for the UK.

The Secretary of State emphasised that the UK would lend its support to India's G20 presidency and will work together to strengthen the global trade system. He also added that the India-UK FTA has the potential to deliver real benefits across both economies.

Silvio Schembri, Minister of Economy, European Funds and Land, Malta, stated that the India Europe conclave will further strengthen existing historical ties between India and Malta.

He observed that aviation, pharmaceuticals, and technology were some of the potential sectors of collaboration between the two countries. The Minister stated that he looked forward towards a fruitful conclusion of the India-EU FTA.

"Europe and India must look beyond bilateral cooperation and jointly address global issues," stated Sanjiv Bajaj, President, CII. He highlighted digital cooperation, global value chains, climate action and sustainability, and green product development as critical areas of cooperation between India and Europe.

The India Europe Conclave over the past two days have seen a significant presence from Europe and received a strong response from global thought leaders which will help in deepening India's bilateral ties with many European countries, added Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Cachar (Assam) [India], March 1 (ANI): Two drug peddlers were arrested from Kachudaram area in Cachar with three kg of brown sugar, being transported from neighbouring West Bengal, Assam Chief Minister informed on Wednesday.

Detailing the police action, Sarma took to Twitter on Wednesday and wrote, "In a huge recovery on Tuesday, @cacharpolice arrested two drug peddlers at Kachudaram and seized 3 kg Brown Sugar being transported from a neighbouring state. Much appreciated."

Also Read | Chinese Loan Apps Fraud: Scam Leads to Financial Crisis and Loss of Jobs.

The two arrested peddlers belonged to the North 24 Parganas district in West Bengal, police said.

Earlier, on February 25, the Assam Police had apprehended two accused from the Karbi Anglong district and seized 2.013 kg of Morphine, valued at Rs 8 Crores in the international market.

Also Read | Roshanara Road Factory Fire: Four-Storey Building Collapses in Delhi After Massive Blaze (Watch Video).

John Das, SDPO of Bokajan in Karbi Anglong, while speaking to ANI had said the police launched a hunt in the case after receiving a tip-off and nabbed two during a naka-checking on the National Highway 36.

While in a separate case on February 1, a drug peddler was injured in a police fire after trying to flee the spot in Assam's Nagaon District. (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, March 1: Senior AAP leader Atishi, who is set to become the first woman minister in the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi Cabinet, has been a key member of the team tasked with implementing the party's educational reforms in the national capital.

Atishi, along with AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj, are the two leaders whose names have been forwarded for appointment as ministers after Kejriwal's trusted lieutenants Manish Sisodia and Satyender Jain, both arrested on corruption charges, resigned from their Cabinet posts. Manish Sisodia's Arrest Casts Shadow Over Arvind Kejriwal's Delhi Model of Governance Poll Plank, AAP Fights Back.

Bharadwaj (43) is the party's national spokesperson and currently serving as the vice-chairman of the Delhi Jal Board. The two leaders are usually at the forefront in interactions with media and during various protests organised by the party.

Speaking to PTI, Bharadwaj said, "The Centre wanted to stop the work done in Delhi and we will not let that happen. We are thankful to the CM for having faith in me and Atishi, and we will continue to work for the people of Delhi."

Atishi (41), who represents the Kalkaji constituency in the assembly, had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from the East Delhi seat but she lost to the BJP's Gautam Gambhir.

Bharadwaj, who is a three-time MLA from the Greater Kailash assembly constituency, has also served as a transport minister in the Delhi cabinet during the first stint of the AAP government. After Sisodia, Jain Resignation, AAP to Launch Door-to-door Campaign from March 5.

A computer science engineer, Bharadwaj is also a law graduate from the Osmania University. He has worked abroad for a brief period of time before the joining the Aam Aadmi Party in 2013.

While Sisodia, who was handling 18 of the total 33 departments in the Delhi government, was arrested on Sunday evening by the CBI in the Delhi excise policy case, Jain, currently lodged in Tihar jail, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in May last year in connection with a money laundering case. Jain continued to be a minister in the Delhi government even after his arrest.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Kolkata, Mar 1 (PTI) Chief Justice of India Justice D Y Chandrachud on Wednesday said that internet facilities should be set up within courtrooms with firewalls in place to ensure that the facility is put to genuine and authorised use.

Inaugurating several e-initiatives and a new administrative block of the Calcutta High Court through the virtual mode from the Supreme Court, the CJI said that adoption of technology is for the needs of "tomorrow and today."

Also Read | International Womens Day 2023: Free Travel for Women in Rajasthan Roadways Buses on March 8.

Reminiscing the era when mobile phones were banned in many courtrooms, he said "and here we are today releasing a mobile application for the high court."

Recalling a recent incident in which he heard about a young lawyer working on her tablet in a courtroom of a premier high court when the usher of the court told her that she has to switch it off as it is not in accordance with the discipline of the court.

Also Read | Telangana Horror: Man Collapses While Playing Badminton, Dies of Heart Attack in Hyderabad (Watch Video).

"I said that we are carrying our discipline too far. A lawyer working on an Ipad within the precincts of a courtroom should be allowed to work on it so long as they are not watching movies from the Ipad or their laptops," the CJI said.

"We must set up internet facilities within our courtrooms and of course have adequately maintained firewalls so that the facility is put to genuine and authorised use," he said.

The CJI said that the Supreme Court has commenced an initiative for translating its judgements in every language recognised by the Indian constitution and that 3,000 such judgments have already been translated into different languages.

"I would earnestly appeal to the Calcutta High Court as well to launch this initiative, ... ensuring that your judgements are available in simple language to the people as we understand the language," he said.

The CJI said that this will truly ensure that the judiciary reaches out to the citizens.

Stating that adoption of technology is for the needs of tomorrow and today, the CJI said that rather than choosing a strategy where technology is designed to respond to problems which have already arisen, a strategy must be embraced where the existing systems are periodically revamped by using technology.

"If we do this, we will be able to meet any challenge head-on regardless of whether the challenges are foreseen," he said.

The CJI said that the e-committee of the Supreme Court, which he heads, had been expanding the technological capacities of the courts long before the Covid-19 pandemic struck in 2020.

"It was because of this that we were able to conduct virtual hearings during the pandemic," he said.

Holding that public institutions must not lag behind private entities or individuals when it comes to the adoption of technology, he said that they must instead lead the way.

The CJI lauded the Calcutta High Court for "doing exactly this" by way of initiating several e-services meant for litigants, lawyers, the registry and the bench.

"Today we have launched the Calcutta High Court mobile application, a justice clock for the high court, a personal information system software, e-filing and we inaugurate e-seva kendras," he said.

He said that the litigants too will find the applications very useful because the citizenry is able to afford mobile phones more easily than they can afford desktops or laptops.

Stating that over Rs 7,000 crore have been allocated for the phase III of the e-courts budget, he said, "funds will not be a constraining factor for us anymore, the constraints will be our own ability to design, manage and implement a project of this magnitude."

He said that with the anticipated release of the first tranche of funds for phase III, planning must begin now on how to utilise the funds for the judiciary in West Bengal and ensure that these funds are put to use immediately and for good purpose.

Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court Justice Prakash Shrivastava, Justice T S Sivagnanam, Justice I P Mukerji and other judges of the high court were present at the function which was held at the sesquicentenary building of the high court.

(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: Cabinet reshuffle imminent, says Presidential spokesperson

President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to announce a Minister of Electricity and a reshuffled Cabinet in a matter of days.

This is according to Presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya, who was addressing media on Wednesday.

There are vacancies in Cabinet. We also now have a vacancy in the role of a Deputy President and so there is a sense of urgency that the President fills those vacancies as soon as possible. In a matter of days, that announcement will be made.

The President has to apply his mind. The appointment of Cabinet members and the management of Cabinet is not something that you can conduct in haste. Its something that has to be carefully considered because you have to look at the stability of government, you have to look at the programmes that are already underway.

There are many layers of complexity and sensitivity that have to be looked at, Magwenya said.

Answering questions on former Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyters allegations that senior government officials and at least two Cabinet Ministers are allegedly involved in corruption at the power utility, Magwenya said: What [De Ruyter] has said is nothing new to the extent that we know that there is corruption at Eskom.

More importantly, government has responded to that level of criminality that exists within Eskom through a multi-disciplinary task team that has been deployed to Eskom through the NatJOINTS. That includes all the law enforcement agencies, including State Security and they are dealing with every aspect of wrongdoing going on at Eskom, he said.

Magwenya said President Ramaphosa does not have the names of those Cabinet Ministers allegedly involved in wrongdoing at the State power utility and therefore cannot factor that into his impending Cabinet reshuffle decision.

What the President has said is that Mr De Ruyter should approach law enforcement agencies with all the evidence and all the information that he has. He has a duty to do so and he had a duty to provide that information to law enforcement agencies as the CEO of Eskom.

The President has also been on record to say that we now have law enforcement agencies that have been empowered to operate without any fear or favour. We know we come from an era where some of these law enforcement agencies were ameliorated of skills, were disempowered in so many ways. That has changed They now investigate without any fear or favour.

So anybody who has any information that can assist in curbing the levels of corruption at Eskom is urged to take that information to law enforcement agencies so that it can be fully investigated, Magwenya said. - SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2023-03-01. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
We Are China

Behold, grand fireworks at Liuyang, a global fireworks production and trade base

People's Daily Online) 13:52, March 01, 2023

Behold, grand fireworks at Liuyang City, a global fireworks production and trade base, in central China's Hunan Province.

Starting Feb. 25, visitors are invited to watch flamboyant fireworks here for free every Saturday and holiday.

(Video source: Douyin)

(Web editor: Xian Jiangnan, Liang Jun)
New Delhi [India], March 1 (ANI): Amid the ongoing political crisis in the Aam Aadmi Party, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has called a meeting of party councillors and MLAs on Wednesday evening.

The meeting has been called in the wake of a cabinet reshuffle which was mandated after top cabinet ministers Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain resigned from their respective positions following corruption allegations.

Also Read | Rajesh Malhotra Takes Charge as Principal Director General of Press Information Bureau.

The party organization can also be discussed in the meeting, according to sources.

Meanwhile, Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena on Wednesday approved Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's proposal to allocate new departments to ministers Kailash Gahlot and Rajkumar Anand.

Also Read | Delhi Fire: Massive Blaze Erupts at Roshanara Road Factory Near Pul Bangash Metro Station, 18 Fire Tenders Despatched (Watch Video).

Kejriwal had sent a proposal to allot eight portfolios to Gahlot and 10 portfolios to Anand.

The Chief Minister has entrusted both the ministers with major portfolios including Home, Health and Education, besides the departments already held by the two ministers.

In a notification by the Delhi government, Gahlot has been given the responsibility of Finance, Planning, Public Works Department, Power, Home, Urban Development, Irrigation and Flood Control and Water departments, which is in addition to the departments he is currently holding.

Anand has been assigned the Education portfolio (previously held by Sisodia), Land and Building, Vigilance (also held by Sisodia), Services, Tourism, Art, Culture & Language, Labour, Employment, Health (previously held by Jain, then Sisodia after Jain's arrest), and Industries.

Meanwhile, in a major rejig in the Delhi cabinet necessitated by the resignations of Sisodia and Satyendar Jain, chief minister Kejriwal has sent the names of Aam Aadmi Party MLAs Saurabh Bhardwaj and Atishi to Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena to be elevated as ministers, sources said today.

Sisodia was earlier arrested by the CBI in connection with the Delhi excise policy case.

Sisodia was arrested on Sunday in an ongoing investigation of a case related to alleged irregularities in the framing and implementation of the new excise policy of the Delhi government.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain Sisodia's plea challenging his arrest in the excise policy case.

Delhi's Rouse Avenue Court on Monday sent him to CBI custody for five days.

The CBI had also quizzed AAP leader Jain in Tihar Jail in connection with alleged corruption in the implementation of the now-junked Delhi Excise policy.

Jain is currently lodged in judicial custody in connection with a money laundering case registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

Recently, the CBI and ED made several arrests for alleged corruption in the implementation of the Delhi Excise Policy. (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], March 1 (ANI): A Delhi court has recently dismissed the appeal against the acquittal of a former Jamia Hamdard University Registrar in a sexual harassment case.

He was acquitted by the Mahila Court in December 2021. A case was registered against him at the Ambedkar Nagar police station. The acquittal was challenged by the complainant in the matter.

Also Read | Manish Sisodias Arrest Casts Shadow Over Arvind Kejriwals Delhi Model of Governance Poll Plank, AAP Fights Back.

Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Rakesh Kumar Singh upheld the order of the magisterial court acquitting the accused of the charges of sexual harassment, criminal intimidation and assault, outraging the modesty of a woman.

ASJ dismissed the appeal and said, "In the present case, the counsel for the petitioner has not been able to show any irregularity. Consequently, the appeal is dismissed and the order of acquittal is maintained."

Also Read | Chinese Loan Apps Fraud: Scam Leads to Financial Crisis and Loss of Jobs.

"In an appeal against acquittal, it was well settled that though the appellate court could re-appreciate the evidence, it should normally not disturb the magisterial court's view unless glaring irregularity was shown either for factual appreciation of the case or for the applicability of the law," the Sessions court observed.

The judge said that the magisterial court order is a thorough one supported by detailed reasons.

"I am of the view that there have been gross and deliberate improvements in the version of the complainant which she made gradually only with a view to somehow settle some score with the accused who was Registrar under whom the complainant was working," ASJ Singh said in the order of February 10.

He also pointed out that the testimony of the complainant was not reliable.

While acquitting the accused, the magisterial court had said that the prosecution's case had fallen flat on its face as the complainant made "major material improvements with every successive statement" and there was an "utter lack of cogent corroborative evidence."

The Complainant alleged that from November 11, 2011 to June 11, 2012 at Jamia Hamdard University, the accused used criminal force on to complainant by trying to touch her, had put his hand on her shoulder while she bent down to pick up the file/pen, tried to hold her hand on the pretext of giving her the teacup, stroked her head and moved his hand over her face intending to outrage or knowing it to be likely that he will thereby outrage her modesty.

After the completion of the investigation, the police filed a chargesheet against the accused/ respondent before the Ld Magistrate.

A charge Under section 354/354A/506 IPC was framed against the accused on 19.05.2018 to which he pleaded not guilty and claimed trial.

After completion of trial, the Trial Court came to the conclusion that the prosecution has failed to prove the guilt of accused beyond reasonable doubt and acquitted the accused forthe said offences. This order was challenged before the court of Sessions. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Shimla, Mar 1 (PTI) Goods and Service Tax collection in Himachal Pradesh rose by 25 per cent to Rs 377 crore in February, an official release said on Wednesday.

The GST collection in the current financial year so far is Rs 4,933 crore, which is 21 per cent more than the previous year, the release said.

Also Read | BJP Accounts for More Than Half of Total Income Declared by 8 National Parties in Financial Year 2021-22: ADR.

Attributing the growth in GST collection to strengthened enforcement and improved taxpayer compliances, officials said that sustained training effort of the department has helped in capacity building of the tax officers making enforcement activities more effective.

The department has trained around 450 tax officers recently and verified 12 lakh e-way bills during road checking conducted in the current financial year.

Also Read | Excise Policy Case: Delhi Court Defers Passing Order on Auditor Butchi Babu Gorantla's Bail Plea.

Continuous improvement in return filing, speedy scrutiny of returns, timely completion of GST audits and strengthened enforcement continues to be the focus areas for the department.

The department is set to surpass the revenue target of Rs 5,130 crore fixed by the government for the current financial year, the release said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Gurugram (Haryana) [India], March 1 (ANI): Gurugram police have arrested one person in connection with a case related to theft of flower pots set up for the G20 event, police said on Wednesday.

Earlier a video had earlier gone viral on social media, which showed two people purportedly stealing the flower pots kept on the Delhi-Gurugram expressway.

Also Read | We Look Forward to Bringing It to the Conclusion in Due Course of Time: UK Foreign   Latest Tweet by ANI.

The accused has been identified as one 50-year-old Manmohan, a resident of Gurugram.

"Police have seized the stolen flower pots and the car used in the theft," said Gurugram police.

Also Read | Bombay High Court Says New Born Means Full-Term and Pre-Term Baby; Directs Insurance Firm To Pay Rs 11 Lakh Medical Expenses to Mother of Twins.

Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority, Joint CEO, SK Chahal has taken cognizance of the situation.

"It has come to our cognizance and action will be taken against them," SK Chahal said.

The incident took place on Monday in front of the Ambience mall on the Delhi-Gurugram expressway and the men in the video can be seen putting the flower pots in the SUV.

Further details are awaited.

India is holding the Presidency of G20 for one year, till November 30, 2023. The forum will bring together the G20 member countries, guest countries, and international organisations invited by India. Through the Sherpa Track, 13 Working Groups and 2 initiatives will meet under India's Presidency to discuss priorities and provide recommendations.

The first G20 Environment and Climate Sustainability Working Group (ECSWG) meeting concluded in Bengaluru on a positive note with all G20 countries expressing support on the themes outlined by MoEF&CC for India's Presidency. (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, Mar 1 (PTI) External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday held separate bilateral talks with his counterparts from the UK, Russia, Mexico, South Africa, the Netherlands, Argentina, Nigeria and Comoros with a focus on agenda of G20 under India's presidency and two-way cooperation in key areas.

He is likely to hold bilateral talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang who is scheduled to arrive in Delhi early on Thursday.

Also Read | International Womens Day 2023: Free Travel for Women in Rajasthan Roadways Buses on March 8.

The dignitaries are visiting Delhi to attend the India-hosted G20 foreign ministers meeting on March 1 and 2.

"Our conversation focused on the G20 agenda and the Ukraine conflict. Appreciated the steady growth of India-EU cooperation," Jaishankar said on Twitter after meeting European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell Fontelles.

Also Read | Telangana Horror: Man Collapses While Playing Badminton, Dies of Heart Attack in Hyderabad (Watch Video).

On talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, the external affairs minister said they exchanged views on bilateral cooperation and G20 issues.

Jaishankar said he thanked South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor for her country's contribution in enhancing India's biodiversity by sending Cheetahs.

"Always a pleasure to meet FM Naledi Pandor of South Africa. This time in New Delhi for #G20FMM. Discussed G20 focus areas and the agenda of our Ministerial. Also exchanged views on BRICS. Appreciated the growth in our bilateral relationship," Jaishankar tweeted.

In their meeting, Jaishankar and his Argentinian counterpart Santiago Cafiero discussed cooperation in areas of trade and defence.

"So nice to welcome FM @SantiagoCafiero of Argentina this evening. Glad to see the steady progress in our relations. Trade has expanded significantly even as defence cooperation unfolds. Our nuclear partnership has also been mutually beneficial," Jaishankar said in another tweet.

On his talks with British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, Jaishankar said the two sides reviewed the progress in ties since their last discussion.

"Noted in particular the commencement of the Young Professional Scheme," he said.

In their meeting, Jaishankar and his Mexican counterpart Marcelo Ebrard C discussed the G20 agenda.

"A warm meeting with FM @m_ebrard of Mexico on #G20FMM sidelines. Noted our strong multilateral cooperation and discussed the G20 agenda. Focused on issues related to growth and development," the external affairs minister said.

Jaishankar said he and the foreign minister of the Netherlands Wopke Hoekstra held a "good discussion" on technology, mobility and innovation.

About his meeting with Nigerian Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama, Jaishankar said he underlined India's strong commitment to the Global South and the interests of the African Union.

"Noted recent developments in our bilateral cooperation, especially in educational exchanges. Welcomed direct flights between our two countries," he said.

(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], March 1 (ANI): Mumbai Police on Wednesday detained the state Congress president Ashok Jagtap, senior leader Charan Singh Sapra and a few party supporters for protesting over the Hindenburg-Adani row here in Mumbai.

The protesters had gathered outside the office of the National Stock Exchange in Mumbai after a report by US-based firm Hindenburg had earlier accused industrialist Gautam Adani of brazen stock manipulation and alleged financial irregularities.

Also Read | Jharkhand Shocker: Teenager Killed in Dhanbad Days Ahead of Exam, Two Friends Arrested.

Congress leader Charan Singh Sapra speaking inside a police van after being detained alleged that Prime Minister Modi had "close links with Gautam Adani".

Protestors who were raising "anti-Modi slogans" accused the PM of having "links" with industrialist Adani.

Also Read | Defence Minister Rajnath Singh Speaks to Bihar CM Nitish Kumar Over Misbehaviour with Family of Soldier Killed in Galwan.

Opposition Congress had attempted several times to raise the issue inside the parliament and has been demanding a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) to probe the allegations of the report.

The party had announced a nation-wide-stir against the Adani issue last month and attempted to bring other opposition parties on board to corner the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central government over the issue.

On February 1, Adani Enterprises decided not to go ahead with its fully subscribed Follow-on Public Offer (FPO), with the Group chairman Gautam Adani stating on February 2 that it would not be "morally correct" to go ahead with the Rs 20,000-crore share in the current market condition.

A report by the New York-based short seller on January 24, accused Adani Group of brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud among others. The US-based firm, in its report, raised concerns about shares of Adani group companies having a possibility of declining from their current levels, owing to high valuations.

In response, Adani Group said Hindenburg's report was not an attack on any specific company but a "calculated attack" on India, its growth story, and ambitions. It added the report was "nothing but a lie".

The shares of Adani Group companies have been consistently declining, though with varying degrees, after the January 24 report by a US-based short seller which levelled various allegations against the group. (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, Mar 1 (PTI) Students can be imposed a penalty of Rs 20,000 for holding dharnas and face admission cancellation or a fine of up to Rs 30,000 for resorting to violence at Jawaharlal Nehru University, its latest rules stipulate.

The 10-page 'Rules of Discipline and proper conduct of students of JNU' has laid out punishments for different kinds of acts like protests and forgery, and procedures for proctorial enquiry and recording a statement.

Also Read | Adenovirus in West Bengal: Seven Children Die Due to Acute Respiratory Infection in Last 24 Hours.

According to the document, the rules came into effect on February 3. It came after the university witnessed a slew of protests over the screening of a BBC documentary.

The rules document states that it has been approved by the Executive Council, the highest decision-making body of the university.

Also Read | Delhi Air Pollution: Stage-II of GRAP Rolled Back As Overall AQI in National Capital Improves.

However, Executive Council members told PTI that the issue was brought as an additional agenda item and it was mentioned that this document has been prepared for "court matters".

The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad's JNU Secretary Vikas Patel termed the new rules "authoritarian ('tughlaqi')" while asserting that the old code of conduct was sufficiently effective. He demanded a rollback of this "draconian" code of conduct.

JNU Vice Chancellor Santishree D Pandit did not respond to texts and calls from PTI seeking her reaction.

The rules will apply to all students of the university, including part-time students whether admitted before the commencement of these rules or after, the document states.

Punishments have been listed for 17 "crimes" including blockage, indulging in gambling, unauthorised occupation of hostel rooms, use of abusive and derogatory language and committing forgery. The rules also mention that a copy of the complaints will be sent to the parents.

Cases involving both teachers and students may be referred to the Grievance Redressal Committee of the university, school and centre level. Sexual abuse, eve-teasing, ragging, and arousing communal disharmony cases are of the purview of the chief proctor's office.

Chief Proctor Rajnish Mishra told PTI, "There were rules mentioned in the statute. However, the new rules have been formulated after a proctorial enquiry."

He did not reveal when this proctorial enquiry started and when asked whether old rules have been modified, she replied in affirmation.

It has proposed punishments for all acts of violence and coercion such as gheraos, sit-ins or any variation which disrupt normal academic and administrative functioning and/or any act which incites or leads to violence.

The punishments include "cancellation of admission or withdrawal of degree or denial of registration for a specified period, rustication up to four semesters and/or declaring any part or the entire JNU campus out of bounds, expulsion, a fine of up to Rs 30,000 as per the old rules, One/two semesters of eviction from the hostel".

If the matter is sub-judice, the chief proctor's office will take action as per the order and direction of the honourable court, the rules state.

For hunger strikes, dharnas, group bargaining and any other form of protest by blocking the entrance or exit of any of the academic and/or administrative complexes or disrupting the movements of any member of the University community, a fine of up to Rs 20,000 will be levied.

According to the old rules, for gheraos, demonstrations and sexual harassment, the proposed punishments were cancellation of admission, rustication and expulsion.

This statute states the university has a proctorial system where the administration of student-related matters about all acts of indiscipline are delegated to the chief proctor. He and she are assisted by proctors. The size of the Proctorial Board is decided by the competent authority.

After receipt of a complaint, it will be scrutinized by the chief proctor who will set up a proctorial enquiry.

"Subsequently, either a one/two/three member(s) proctorial enquiry committee to conduct an in-depth investigation into the matter. Proctorial enquiry is an internal enquiry of JNU and hence, no other person except the Board members is allowed to be present during hearings.

"The accused or complainants is not allowed to be represented by a third party. Similarly, he/she cannot have an observer during the process of enquiry," the document read.

An Executive Council member, who does not wish to be named, said the matter was not discussed at length in the EC meeting and "we were told that the rules have been created for court matters".

Another Executive Council member Brahma Prakash Singh said: "The university might have planned to streamline the process and prepare a full document but it should have been discussed in the EC meeting properly."

The ABVP's JNU Secretary Vikas Patel said, "There is no need for this new authoritarian ('tuglaki') code of conduct. The old code of conduct was sufficiently effective.

"Instead of focusing on improvement of safety security and order, the JNU admin has imposed this draconian code of conduct, without any discussion with the stakeholders, especially the student community. We demand its rollback."

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Bhubaneswar (Odisha) [India], March 1 (ANI): Around 21 police personnel were injured during the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) Yuva Morcha protest in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday, officials said on Wednesday.

Hundreds of Yuva Morcha activists were protesting against the government at Mahatma Gandhi Marg in front of the Odisha State Assembly on Tuesday night when a scuffle broke out between the protesters and police personnel after they were stopped, said officials.

Also Read | Have Asked Departments to Prepare PPTs of Work Done by Them and Future Projects: AAP   Latest Tweet by PTI News.

Commissioner of Police, Saumendra Kumar Priyadarshi said that two police personnel have been seriously injured and have been referred to Cuttack.

"2 police personnel are seriously injured and have been referred to Cuttack. They damaged several police vehicles and tried to set several vehicles on fire. This is a very serious offence. We arrested 22 BJYM workers and sent them to judicial custody," said Saumendra Kumar Priyadarshi.

Also Read | Uttar Pradesh: Man Dies After Touching Electrified Fence in Agra; FIR Registered Against Farmer.

He said that the protestors hurled eggs, stones, and water bottles. Due to this 21 police personnel were injured and hospitalized.

"Yesterday BJP Yuva Morcha workers tried to enter the Assembly. When police tried to stop them, they immediately attacked the police. They hurled eggs, stones, and water bottles. Due to this 21 police personnel were injured and hospitalized," said Saumendra Kumar Priyadarshi.

"We will take stern action and the way they attacked us indicates it was pre-planned," he added.

Following this, BJP Yuva Morcha activists reached Capital Police Station premises and staged a protest demanding the removal of false charges against BJP activists and their release.

The protesters also demanded the arrest of unknown people, who they claimed, turned a peaceful protest into violence.

Triggered by the recent killing of the state's Health Minister Naba Das, the youth wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party was protesting against the deteriorating law and order situation in Odisha, during which they also raised slogans against the CM Naveen Patnaik-led BJD government.

A section of agitators also tried to break through the police barricade intending for a gherao of the state assembly but was met with a lathi charge by the police which turned the situation violent.

Later in the evening, the police detained many Karyakartas.

Enraged by this, the BJYM is alleging that the police manhandled its Karyakartas, with BJYM national president and BJP MP Tejasvi Surya accusing the state police of filing draconian cases and illegally arresting the protestors.

In a video shared by the BJYM, Odisha Police is seen manhandling and lathi-charging the activists of the BJYM.

Taking to Twitter, Surya said that BJYM will protest against the Odisha Police at the Capital Police Station in Bhubaneswar 'through the night'."

"Police brutality against BJYM Karyakartas is hitting a new low in Odisha. Having manhandled our activists this morning during the protest, police are now filing draconian cases & illegally arresting them. BJYM will protest through the night at Capital Police Station, Bhubaneswar," Surya tweeted.

The Bengaluru South MP further asked Odisha Police to drop the charges against the BJYM Karyakartas.

"BJYM demands Odisha police to drop all false charges against our activists and release them from illegal detention immediately," Surya said.

"Request all BJYM Karyakartas in Bhubaneswar to reach Capital Police Station, Bhubaneswar for the night-long protest, starting now," he added.

While speaking to ANI on Tuesday, he said that they will even consider approaching the High Court tomorrow through a Public Interest Litigation (PIL). (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 (Uttar Pradesh) [India], March 1: Prayagraj Police conducted a raid on gangster-turned-politician and former Samajwadi Party leader Atiq Ahmed's residence in the Mahanagar area of Lucknow, seizing two luxury cars from the Universal Apartments, police sources said on Wednesday.

The raids were conducted on February 27 late night, sources said, adding that the action followed a shootout in which the prime witness in the murder of BSP MLA Raju Pal, advocate Umesh Pal, was shot dead in Prayagraj on February 24. Umesh Pal Murder: CCTV Video Shows How Assailants Ambushed and Killed the Witness in BSP MLA Raju Pal's Murder in Prayagraj.

Atiq Ahmed, along with his son Asad Ahmed and wife and BSP leader Shaista Parveen were named in the FIR in connection with the murder. The police conducted the raid after receiving an input that some shooters had taken shelter in that apartment. However, they had left the place before the raid, police sources said on Wednesday.

The police, however, impounded two luxury cars and took them to the Mahanagar police station.

"STF and Prayagraj Police raided Universal Apartment flat number 202 and impounded two luxury vehicles, which were brought to Mahanagar police station. The vehicles are registered in the names of Atiq Ahmed's family members," a source said.

A guard at the building said the CCTV has been out of order for nearly two years.

"They left the flat on February 24 evening. There were 3 to 4 people. They (shooters) were not seen thereafter. The police took away the cars day before yesterday. Personnel from the STF and Mahanagar police station were here. Nobody was found in the flat," a guard at the building said.

Earlier, in a major development in the Umesh Pal murder case, an accused was shot in an exchange of fire near the Nehru Park area in Prayagraj's Dhoomanganj on Monday, a top police officer said.

The accused, identified as Arbaaz, was driving the car used in the murder of Umesh Pal, who was a prime witness in several cases, including the murder of BSP MLA Raju Pal.

The police said Arbaaz was injured and succumbed at the hospital.

"Accused Arbaaz was shot during the encounter that took place near Nehru Park in Dhoomanganj, Prayagraj earlier today. He was driving the car that was used in the murder (of Umesh Pal) and was fired upon," ADG law and order Prashant Kumar said on Monday.

"Arbaaz died during treatment at the hospital. The UP administration and the police have initiated a campaign against all such miscreants, gangsters, and mafia. There is also a crackdown on those sheltering such people," he added.

Umesh Pal and one of his two armed security escorts were shot dead in Prayagraj's Sulem Saray area on February 24. Several rounds were fired and bombs hurled at Umesh and his gunners. BSP MLA Raju Pal Murder Case: Main Witness Umesh Pal Shot Dead at His House in Prayagraj (Watch CCTV Video).

The incident came days after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath lashed out at the Samajwadi Party in the Assembly on February 25, saying that his government would destroy the mafia.

Describing the Prayagraj incident as sad, CM Yogi said "The government has taken cognisance of it and the results of our policy of zero tolerance for crime would be there for everyone to see very soon. No one should have any doubts about it."

"Is it not true that the accused against whom the FIR has been lodged, was made an MP by Samajwadi Party? You raise and nurture all the criminals, garland them and then blame others when a crime takes place. By doing this, you are just making a spectacle of yourself," the CM added, in an attack on SP members.

Meanwhile, SP MLA Pooja Pal (wife of Lt. BSP MLA Raju Pal) met CM Adityanath on Tuesday, demanding for Y+ security for herself and family.

(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, Mar 1 (PTI) The Press Council of India on Wednesday cautioned newspapers against publication of paid news during the upcoming elections to various states.

In a statement here, the Press Council of India (PCI) asked newspapers to adhere to the Norms of Journalistic Conduct - 2022 on Paid News and refrain from paid news publication during elections.

Also Read | Roshanara Road Factory Fire: Four-Storey Building Collapses in Delhi After Massive Blaze (Watch Video).

"The newspaper should not misconstrue or misquote the statements given by leaders. The statements quoted in the editorial should project the true spirit of what is being tried to be conveyed by them," the PCI said.

It said political news published in competing newspapers with similar content strongly suggests such reports to be paid news.

Also Read | Umesh Pal Murder Case: Atiq Ahmed Moves Supreme Court Seeking Protection of Life.

Two newspapers publishing the same news item verbatim during election days is not accidental and it is evident that such news items have been published for a consideration, the PCI said.

However, the PCI said news reports on campaign meetings stating enthusiasm because film stars were present cannot be termed as paid news.

It also asked newspapers to ensure balance in publishing reports and interviews of candidates.

The council also asked newspapers not to publish any news survey predicting the victory of any political party without verification.

(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, Mar 1 (PTI) The Supreme Court is scheduled to pronounce on Thursday its order on a batch of pleas seeking a collegium-like system for the appointment of election commissioners and the Chief Election Commissioner.

A five-judge constitution bench headed by Justice KM Joseph is likely to give its verdict.

Also Read | Meghalaya Assembly Election Result 2023: Counting of Votes Tomorrow Amid Tight Security.

The bench also comprising justices Ajay Rastogi, Aniruddha Bose, Hrishikesh Roy and CT Ravikumar had reserved its judgement on the issue on November 24 last year.

The top court had questioned the "haste" and "tearing hurry" with which the Centre appointed ex-bureaucrat Arun Goel as an Election Commissioner, saying his file travelled at "lightning speed" within departments in 24 hours.

Also Read | Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann to Meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah Tomorrow.

The central government had vehemently resisted the observations, with Attorney General R Venkataramani contending the whole issue pertaining to his appointment needed to be looked at in entirety.

The top court had asked how the Union law minister shortlisted a panel of four names that was recommended to the prime minister for appointment as election commissioner when none of them would have completed the stipulated six-year tenure in office.

It had perused the Centre's original file on Goel's appointment and said, "What kind of evaluation is this? Although, we are not questioning the merits of Arun Goel's credentials but the process."

As the bench questioned the "lightning speed" with which Goel was appointed as an EC without his file even moving within departments for 24 hours, Venkataramani, the government's law officer, urged the bench not to make observations without looking into the entire issue of the appointment process.

Under the Election Commission (Conditions of Service of Election Commissioners and Transaction of Business) Act, 1991, an EC can have a tenure of six years or up to the age of 65, whichever is earlier.

Goel's appointment as an EC came under scrutiny by the top court which had sought from the Centre the original records pertaining to his appointment for perusal, saying it wanted to know whether there was any "hanky panky".

The top court, which had rejected the Centre's objections to its order for producing the original file, had said it wanted to know whether everything was "hunky dory" in the appointment process as claimed by the government.

On November 19, Goel, a Punjab cadre IAS officer, was appointed as election commissioner.

Goel would be in line to be the next CEC after incumbent Rajiv Kumar demits office in February 2025. His total tenure in the Election Commission would be of over five years.

He will join Kumar and Election Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey on the poll panel.

There was a vacancy in the Election Commission (EC) following the retirement of previous CEC Sushil Chandra in May.

Goel was the secretary in the Ministry of Heavy Industries till recently and his voluntary retirement came into effect on November 18. He has also served in the Union culture ministry.

(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, March 1: The resignation of two of its ministers, including Manish Sisodia, amid allegations of graft, has thrown a new challenge for the AAP with its rivals using the development to discredit the party's key poll plank of "Kejriwal model of governance".

Sisodia, who was handling 18 of the total 33 departments in the Delhi government, was arrested on Sunday by the CBI in the Delhi excise policy scam case, while Satyendra Jain, currently lodged in Tihar jail, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in May last year in connection with a money laundering case. They both resigned of Tuesday. Arvind Kejriwal Attacks PM Narendra Modi Over Manish Sisodia Arrest, Says He Wanted To Stop Good Work in Delhi.

The development comes at a time when the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is gearing up to contest all the seats in the assembly elections to be held in Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, keeping its "Delhi model of governance" as one of the key planks for the polls. AAP leaders said the party has become stronger whenever it has been attacked and accused the BJP government of running a "witch-hunt" against its leaders.

Sisodia, sources in party said, besides being the deputy chief minister, had finance, education and public works portfolios, ministries key to the Kejriwal model. The AAP leadership has "already" asked the party's state units to "intensify" their campaign against the BJP and the Congress in Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan which will go to polls this year, the sources said.

The party will turn the table on the BJP with a massive counter-campaign highlighting a range of issues, including allegations of stock manipulation by the Adani Group and the alleged misuse of central probe agencies by its government at the Centre, they said.

The AAP is under attack by the BJP since the CBI registered a case in connection with alleged irregularities in the implementation and formulation of the excise policy, now withdrawn, against 15 accused, including Manish Sisodia, who was deputy chief minister.

"The AAP has become stronger whenever it has been attacked and efforts have been made to crush the party. The AAP survived even when it was nothing. Today, we have our government in two states and our members in two other state assemblies," AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj told PTI.

He dubbed Sisodia's arrest by the CBI as political vendetta and accused the Modi government of running "an organised witch-hunt" of the AAP leaders.

A AAP leader also claimed that the resignations by Sisodia and Jain, who are victims of political vendetta, has taken the fizz off the BJP campaign against the party. Bharadwaj also took on the Congress, saying leaders of the grand old party, who used to call "AAP a B-Team of the BJP and Kejriwal as Modi's 'younger brother'", have gone into "hibernation" today. Arvind Kejriwal Says PM Narendra Modi Wanted To Stop Good Work in Delhi Citing Arrests of Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain.

"There are a litany of allegations against Rahul Gandhi but he is roaming scot free, taking out Bharat Jodo Yatra while we are facing a continuous attack," he said. "This has sent out one message that the BJP considers AAP its number one enemy. That's why it keeps making attempts to crush the AAP," he said.

Riding high on its electoral success in Punjab and gains in Gujarat and Goa last year, the AAP is gearing up to contest in Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan even though it had failed to open its account in the last assembly elections in these states.

While the AAP stormed to power in Punjab in March last year, it also managed to breach the BJP bastion of Gujarat by winning five seats with a nearly 13 per cent vote share in the polls held in December. The AAP also gained a toehold in Goa, winning two assembly seats in the coastal state last year. The electoral gains in these three states also paved the way for the AAP to get recognised by the Election Commission (EC) as a national party.

Kejriwal is scheduled to visit these four states to launch his party's foray ahead of elections. While Kejriwal is scheduled to launch his party's poll campaign in BJP-ruled Karnataka on March 4, he will visit Chhattisgarh and sound the AAP's poll bugle in the Congress-ruled state on March 5.

The AAP supremo will launch his poll campaign in Rajasthan, currently ruled by the Congress, on March 13, and in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh on March 14. "There is no change in the schedule so far. Kejriwal ji will visit Chhattisgarh on March 5," AAP in-charge of the state Sanjeev Jha, who is camping there for more than a month to lead the party's poll preparations, told PTI.

"There is no impact on the party's poll prospects with the arrest of Sisodia as he is a man with a clean image, known for the revolutionary transformation that he brought in school education in Delhi," he said. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal Sends AAP MLAs Saurabh Bhardwaj, Atishi's Names To LG VK Saxena To Elevate Them as Cabinet Ministers.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested Sisodia on Sunday evening after nearly nine hours of questioning in connection with now-scrapped policy.

In a significant turn of events, Sisodia and his cabinet colleague Jain on Tuesday resigned from the Kejriwal-led Cabinet amidst BJP's persistent onslaught against the AAP over the corruption charges against its leaders.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Shimla, Mar 1 (PTI) Snowfall in higher reaches and tribal areas of Himachal Pradesh blocked 120 roads, including three national highways, on Wednesday.

The meteorological department also issued a 'yellow' warning for thunderstorms and lightning at isolated places over plains, low and mid-hills on March 2 and 4.

Also Read | Punjab Shocker: Woman Slashed to Death After Failed Molestation Bid in Sangrur; 20-Year-Old Servant Arrested.

Gondla received 6 cm of snowfall, followed by 5.5 cm in Kalpa, 4 cm each in Khadrala, Keylong and Kukumseri, 3 cm in Kothi and 2 cm in Udaipur.

Parts of Himachal Pradesh also received intermittent rains.

Also Read | Manish Sisodias Arrest Casts Shadow Over Arvind Kejriwals Delhi Model of Governance Poll Plank, AAP Fights Back.

Manali received 11 mm of rainfall; Tinder and Theog 9 mm each; Chaupal 8 mm; Shillaro, Banjar, Kotkhai and Manali 7 mm each; Shimla, Mashobra, Dalhousie and Rohru 5 mm each; Shimla, Bharmour, Bhuntar and Kasol 4 mm each; and Wangtoo and Jubbal Hatti 3 mm each.

The weather office has issued a 'yellow' warning for thunderstorms and lightning at isolated places over plains, low and mid-hills on March 2 and 4. It has also predicted a wet spell till March 5 as a fresh western disturbance is likely to affect the western Himalayan region from March 4.

Bilaspur was the hottest place in the state with a maximum temperature of 30 degrees Celsius.

Himachal Pradesh received 117 mm of rain against the normal of 187.1 mm, a deficit of 37 per cent, during the winter season from January 1 to February 28.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Chennai, Mar 1 (PTI) The birthday celebrations of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK supremo M K Stalin on Wednesday saw calls for opposition unity with regional parties Samajwadi Party and National Conference urging him to take a larger role in Delhi ahead of the 2024 general elections.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who was also present at the event, stressed that the primary objective of the opposition should be to put up a united fight against "divisive forces" and the question was not of who would be the PM candidate of such a bloc.

Also Read | Meghalaya Assembly Election Result 2023: Counting of Votes Tomorrow Amid Tight Security.

Stalin threw his weight behind the Congress to ensure the opposition victory in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, saying post-poll alliances and arguments by some favouring a front without the grand old party should be rejected as they are not workable.

At the event to mark the DMK leader's 70th birthday here, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and National Conference supremo Farooq Abdullah urged him to come to the national political scene by playing a bigger role.

Also Read | Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann to Meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah Tomorrow.

Abdullah said the first priority for the opposition was to win the 2024 polls and that "let us forget who is going to become the Prime Minister."

Kharge then told gathering, "All like minded-opposition parties must come together in this fight against divisive forces. That is our desire. I never said who will lead, who will become the prime minister. Farooq Saab, I am telling you--we are not telling who will lead or who is not going to lead; that is not the question. We want to fight together unitedly. That is our desire."

"That is why we have sacrificed many times in the name of secularism, in the name of liberty, in the name of freedom of expression. That we have done and showed, and we have also lost many times," he added.

Batting for a spirit of unity among opposition parties, the Dravidian party chief said it would bring victory in the general elections. "If national politics is decided based on state-based political differences, the loss is for us," he said, a reference to state-specific political realities that hindered bringing like-minded parties together to take on the BJP.

"If we (the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance) have all elections in Tamil Nadu during the past four years, the reason is unity," Stalin said.

"Political parties should rise above differences and stand together as a unified force to defeat the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls. Talks of a third front are pointless. I humbly request all the political parties opposed to the BJP to understand this simple electoral arithmetic and stand united," he said.

He urged his party's cadre to work for the victory of the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance in all the 40 seats, 39 in Tamil Nadu and one in neighbouring Puducherry in the 2024 polls.

He conveyed to Kharge, in his address, that a resolution passed at the recent Congress plenary demonstrating the party's willingness to work with all like-minded parties was the "ideal birthday present" to him.

In the plenary on Saturday, the Congress had said it was willing to forge a viable alternative by aligning with like-minded parties and regional outfits that agree with its ideology to get rid of the "anti-people and undemocratic" BJP government in the general elections.

Stalin said arguments put forth by "some" favouring a non-Congress front should be rejected and a post-poll alliance for the parliamentary election is not practical.

The K Chandrasekhar Rao-led BRS is pitted against the Congress and the BJP in Telangana. In West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's TMC is fighting both the Left and the BJP.

"Political parties should rise above differences and stand together as a unified force to defeat the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls. Talks of a third front are pointless. I humbly request all the political parties opposed to the BJP to understand this simple electoral arithmetic and stand united," the Dravidian party chief said.

Asked about the chances of Stalin becoming the prime minister, Abdullah told reporters: "Why not? Why can't he become the prime minister?"

To a question on opposition unity, he said Stalin and the DMK have done very well. When the nation's diversity is protected, then unity is guarded, he said. Tamil Nadu's ruling party has done well on nurturing Opposition and national unity, Abdullah added.

Addressing a mega public meeting here organised by the DMK to celebrate the party chief's birthday, Abdullah said: "Stalin, it is time to move on. Come to the national scene. Come to the nation and build the nation as you have built this state. Nation needs people who can work together and to Kharge ji also I will say Let us forget who is going to become the prime minister. Let us first win the election (2024 Lok Sabha polls), then think who is going to become the prime minister."

It is not the prime minister that matters but it is the nation that matters and if the country is saved, then its 140 crore people are protected, the senior political leader said. All the opposition leaders need to work together and that is the need of the hour, he said.

"Wake up, unite," he said and work for the nation where all people could live in peace with honour and dignity. Peace could emerge only when people are happy. Citing factors like unemployment and price rise, he said in such a scenario the nation cannot be strong.

Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav praised the DMK president and expressed confidence that he will rise to national prominence.

Akhilesh Yadav, a former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, said Stalin has done "exemplary work" for Tamil Nadu's development as its chief minister. He was speaking at the DMK event organised here to mark Stalin's birthday.

"I wish him great health and immense drive to advance his unique pursuit of social justice and equality-oriented good governance. I am certain that he will rise to great political heights and national prominence," Akhilesh Yadav added.

Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav said, "We know strong and effective leadership can come only from conviction from values of social justice."

"This is also an occasion to declare that it is a meeting ground of parties with social justice background," he said.

"The politics of hollow supremacy can be stopped only by the collective will of the people of India. Your focus on social justice and opposition to caste discrimination has resonated with the voters of in your state. Parties in north India should learn and re-learn this continuously and prioritise issues related to social justice and the marginalised communities," Tejashwi Yadav added.

He alleged the "approach" of the Union government is "fundamentally anti-social justice." "We cannot have a vision of India which looks at marginalised people with contempt..." he said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New Delhi [India], March 1, (ANI): Referring to the extradition of fugitive economic offenders Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi, UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly on Wednesday said that the British Judicial system is independent of the government and it is them to decide.

Without mentioning the names of fugitive economic offenders, Cleverly, who is currently in India to attend the G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting, told ANI, "The legal process in the UK, just as it is in India, is independent of the government. We always want to see the machinery of the justice system working promptly but those are the decisions of the British Judicial system."

Also Read | Detroit: Repeated Sex Offender Covicted for Sending Sexually Explicit Texts to Minor.

Vijay Mallya, chairman of Kingfisher Airlines, was ordered to be extradited by the British judiciary in 2019 and is yet to be sent to India. Similarly, diamantaire Nirav Modi has been held in custody at south London's Wandsworth prison since he was arrested in 2019.

India and the UK had signed an extradition treaty in 1992. This was ratified the following year and has been in force since.

Also Read | Dog Attack in Spain: Adopted Pitbull Mauls Elderly Woman to Death in Her Own Home in Valencia.

Fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi's plea to move the UK Supreme Court against his extradition to India on charges of fraud and money laundering was denied in December last year.

Modi lost the bid to take his fight against extradition to India on charges of fraud and money laundering to the UK's Supreme Court.

Nirav Modi, who is a prime accused in the Rs 13,500 crore PNB scam, had fled India. He lost his appeal after he had moved the High Court in London against extradition on mental health grounds.

The bench of Justice Stuart Smith and Justice Robert Jay of the High Court said there are "no features of psychotic illness".

The court rejected Nirav Modi's counsel's claims that he will die by suicide due to severe depression and said "Nirav Modi neither is nor is very likely to be at the most severe end of the scale of depressive illness".

Speaking on the attacks on Indians in the UK by Khalistani groups, he said that everyone in the UK, irrespective of their origin, has the right to live in peace and security.

"We take the security of people very seriously, our police and security services always pay a close regard to such activities and if it is an illegal activity, we act upon it," Cleverly said, adding that he wanted to make it very clear to the Indians that the UK is a welcoming place for them.

UK Foreign Secretary said, "We want to see more connections with Indians and we want to strengthen the bilateral relations in the coming future."

He further said that India's G20 presidency is quite exciting, it has fantastic opportunities. This is a great opportunity to talk about sustainable economic agenda and green agenda.

Speaking on India-UK Free Trade Agreement (FTA), James Cleverly said, "The UK does a lot of business with India and is working extensively."

He added that he'll be meeting India's trade secretary to make sure this trade agreement really benefits both countries & unlocks billion of pounds of bilateral trade.

British Foreign Secretary said that the issue of searches on BBC offices in India was raised with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar during a bilateral meeting today.

Cleverly brought up the issue of the BBC tax searches during his meeting with Jaishankar, sources told ANI.

He was firmly told that all entities operating in India must comply fully with relevant laws and regulations," according to sources.

In February this year Income Tax authorites had conducted searches at the offices of the British broadcaster in New Delhi and Mumbai.

Speaking to ANI in an exclusive interview, Cleverly said that BBC is an independent organisation and is separate from the UK Government.

"I didn't see the documentary but I've seen reactions in UK and India. BBC is an independent organisation and separate from government. I enjoy a strong personal relationship with Dr Jaishankar...relationship between UK-India growing stronger by the day," said Cleverly when asked about the BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Speaking on the UK PM Rishi Sunak's priorities in terms of India, he said that he has launched the young professional scheme, whereby 3,000 young Indians can come to the UK, and vice-versa, to develop answers to the challenges of the future together. The living bridge, those connections are very well exemplified given the fact that the British PM is of Indian heritage. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Dubai, Mar 1 (AP) Iran's president on Wednesday ordered authorities to investigate a series of incidents in which noxious fumes have sickened students at girls' schools, which some officials suspect are attacks targeting women's education.

Hundreds of girls at around 30 schools have been sickened since November, with some winding up in hospital beds. Officials initially dismissed the incidents, only acknowledging the scope of the crisis in recent days.

Also Read | Detroit: Repeated Sex Offender Covicted for Sending Sexually Explicit Texts to Minor.

Children have complained about headaches, heart palpitations, feeling lethargic or otherwise unable to move. Some described smelling tangerines, chlorine or cleaning agents.

Unlike neighbouring Afghanistan, Iran has no history of religious extremists targeting girls' education. Women and girls continued attending school even at the height of the 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled Iran's Western-backed monarchy.

Also Read | Dog Attack in Spain: Adopted Pitbull Mauls Elderly Woman to Death in Her Own Home in Valencia.

At a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, President Ebrahim Raisi said the Interior Ministry should probe the incidents, with help from the health and intelligence ministries, and promptly release the results to the public, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.

It was the first time he has publicly addressed the poisonings.

The night before the Cabinet meeting, a senior security official had downplayed the matter, dismissing it as psychological warfare by unnamed enemies of the country.

Over 99 per cent of this is caused by stress, rumour and psychological war started particularly by hostile TV channels, to create a troubled and stressful situation for students and their parents, the deputy interior minister, Majid Mirahmadi, told state TV. Their goal was to force schools to close.

The poisonings come at a sensitive time for Iran, which has faced months of nationwide protests since a young woman died in September after being arrested by the morality police for allegedly violating Iran's strict Islamic dress code.

After months of downplaying the poisonings, state-run IRNA filed multiple stories on the subject on Sunday in which officials acknowledged the scope of the incidents.

Iran's prosecutor-general has ordered an investigation, saying there are possibilities of deliberate criminal acts. IRNA quoted a deputy health minister as saying that unnamed people wanted the schools to close.

Suspected extremists attacked women with acid for not dressing conservatively enough around the Iranian city of Isfahan in 2014. But there's no opposition to women's education in Shiite Islam, and Iran has even called on the Taliban in Afghanistan to let women and girls return to school. (AP)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New Delhi [India], March 1 (ANI): UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly is set to launch a new exchange scheme for young British and Indian professionals to live and work in the two countries.

The foreign secretary will also announce that the UK is to appoint a Tech Envoy to the Indo-Pacific region. This envoy is the second of its kind to be announced by the UK (after the appointment of a Tech Envoy to the US in late 2020) and it demonstrates its commitment to the region and tech-diplomacy.

Also Read | Greece Train Collision: Fiery Train Crash Near Tempe Kills 26, Injures at Least 85.

The new Tech Envoy role will boost the UK's status as a science and tech superpower while working with its partners in the region in areas of shared interest, including setting global technology standards and helping to solve challenges through innovative technology.

Also, on Wednesday, the UK Foreign Secretary will meet his Indian counterpart, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. The statement said they are expected to discuss progress on the UK-India 2030 Roadmap, which aims to bolster the two countries' ties in defence and security, trade and investment.

Also Read | COVID-19: FBI Chief Christopher Wray Confirms Coronavirus Originated From Lab Incident in China's Wuhan.

He will also visit IIT Delhi later on Wednesday.

"During a visit to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Delhi today (Wednesday), the Foreign Secretary will mark the opening of the Young Professionals Scheme, an ambitious new partnership between the UK and India which allows up 3,000 Brits and 3,000 Indians a year the right to live and work in the other country for up to two years," the statement said.

Foreign Secretary Cleverly said India is a hugely important partner to the UK and 'the deeper ties we are forging now will help to grow the UK economy and boost industries for the future".

"This landmark migration scheme will enable the brightest and best in both our countries to benefit from new opportunities," Cleverly said further in the statement.

"India is also an emerging global leader on technology and there are immense opportunities for better collaboration between us in this sector. That is why we will be sending our first Tech Envoy to the Indo-Pacific region, to maximise the tech expertise of both countries," he added.

India has the world's third highest number of tech unicorns and start-ups, with 108 start-ups gaining the unicorn status of a private company valued at over USD 1 billion. This announcement illustrates the UK's clear commitment to boosting partnerships in India and across South Asia.

On Thursday, the Foreign Secretary will attend the G20 Foreign Ministers' meeting to work with partners to advance global efforts on food and energy security, climate change and development.

According to the statement, he will continue to call Russia out at the G20 and work with partners to mitigate the global impacts of Russian aggression in Ukraine.

If the war were to end today, the effects of the exacerbated food insecurity would still run into 2027, it added.

Later, the Foreign Secretary will also address an India-Europe business event in the capital where he will reaffirm the UK's commitment to conclude a Free Trade Agreement with India. With more links than almost any country in the Indo-Pacific region, the UK-India trading relationship is already worth 34 billion, growing by 10 billion in one year. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Beirut, Mar 1 (AP) A Lebanese intelligence chief who has mediated the release of Westerners held in Syria and also acted as a mediator within Lebanon stepped down on Wednesday after attempts to extend his term failed.

Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim's term as a head of the General Security Directorate ends on Thursday, when he reaches retirement age of 64 in Lebanon. On Wednesday afternoon, he left his office and was replaced by Brig. Gen. Elias Baisary as acting head of the agency.

Also Read | Detroit: Repeated Sex Offender Covicted for Sending Sexually Explicit Texts to Minor.

We will continue the march in different fields to serve Lebanon, Ibrahim said before leaving.

Ibrahim, who headed General Security Directorate since 2011, is known for wide connections with different local, regional and international figures, including the Iran-backed militant Hezbollah group, the Syrian government and Western nations.

Also Read | Dog Attack in Spain: Adopted Pitbull Mauls Elderly Woman to Death in Her Own Home in Valencia.

A Shiite Muslim, he was tipped to eventually replace longtime Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri who turned 85 in January. When asked by local media whether he intended to replace the speaker, Ibrahim said: May God grant Speaker Berri a long life.

Under Lebanon's power-sharing agreement, the country's president has to be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni and the parliament speaker a Shiite. Ibrahim said if offered a ministerial job, he would like to become foreign minister.

Ibrahim's term ends at a time when Lebanon has no president since Michel Aoun's term ended in late October, with a deeply divided parliament unable to elect a successor. The country is also without a fully-functional government, with Prime Minister Najib Mikati heading a caretaker Cabinet.

Mikati indicated last week that Ibrahim's term may be extended but no parliament session was held to do this nor has Berri scheduled one.

A rarity in Lebanon, Ibrahim had good ties with Hezbollah, the United States and the international community, making him a key political mediator. At times, he also acted as a diplomatic representative for Lebanon abroad, roles usually outside a top security official's mandate.

One of his biggest cases was that of American journalist Austin Tice, missing in Syria since August 2012. The US says Tice is being held by the Syrian government while Damascus denies holding him. Last year, Ibrahim met with US officials in Washington as part of his mediation efforts for Tice's release and later went to the Syrian capital of Damascus but did not reach a breakthrough.

In 2019, Ibrahim's mediation led to the release of American Samuel Goodwin, who was held for two months in Syria. That same year, Ibrahim mediated the release of Kristian Lee Baxter, a Canadian citizen held in Syrian prisons for almost a year.

Ibrahim was among eight Lebanese officials charged in January by the judge investigating the massive August 2020 port blast in Beirut that killed nearly 220 people. The charges were never specified. (AP)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Des Moines (US), Mar 1 (AP) Donald Trump is planning to visit Iowa in mid-March, a first foray to the leadoff caucus state since announcing his 2024 White House campaign.

The former president hinted at an Iowa trip very soon in a radio interview with Des Moines talk show host Simon Conway on Tuesday.

Also Read | Hotmail Co-Founder Sabeer Bhatia Says 90% of Indian innovations Copied Ideas, Country Unprepared for Creator Economy Shift.

A Trump aide confirmed on Wednesday that plans were underway for an upcoming appearance, but declined to provide details about the location or date, beyond the middle of this month.

The aide spoken on condition of anonymity to discuss plans that have not been publicly announced.

Also Read | Detroit: Repeated Sex Offender Covicted for Sending Sexually Explicit Texts to Minor.

We're planning something very soon, Trump told Conway on WHO radio. And then we'll be coming back at least a couple of times before the election.

Trump has been notably absent in Iowa, where Republican candidate Nikki Haley, his former UN ambassador, and potential rivals Mike Pence, the former vice president, and Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., have visited after a slow start to campaigning in the state.

Some Iowa Republican activists, including Gloria Mazza, chairwoman of the Polk County Republicans, representing Iowa's most populous county, have noted that Trump has stayed away so far.

Trump travelled in January to New Hampshire, scheduled to host the first Republican presidential primary next year, and South Carolina, the South's first primary. (AP)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
San Francisco, March 1: Elon Musk has chosen Mexico for the next Tesla Gigafactory and will reveal more about it during the company's investor day.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that Tesla agreed to use recycled water at the plant in Monterrey throughout the manufacturing process. Elon Musk-Run Tesla Halts Rollout of Full Self-Driving Beta Software in US and Canada Amid Recall.

"He (Musk) was very responsive, understanding our concerns and accepting our proposals," said the President. Musk is expected to present the long-awaited and often teased 'Master Plan 3' during the investor day on March 1 (US time) at the company's Gigafactory Texas located near Austin, Texas, reports TechCrunch.

Tesla has several factories in the US, including in Fremont, California. The electric car-maker also has factories near Berlin and Shanghai. US automakers Ford and GM, German automaker Volkswagen and Japanese companies Honda, Nissan and Toyota have vehicle assembly plants in Mexico. GM, Kia and Stellantis have factories in Monterrey. Elon Musk-Run Teslas Vehicle Deliveries To Exceed 1.7 Million Units Globally in 2023 If Companys Recent Price Cuts Remain in Effect.

"I want to thank Elon Musk, who was very respectful and understood the importance of addressing the problem of water scarcity," the Mexican President was quoted as saying in reports.

Musk was reportedly touring three Mexican states in December 2022. It was reported locally that the automaker plans an initial investment of $800 million to $1 billion.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 01, 2023 10:12 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
In an unfortunate incident that took place in Maharashtra, a 22-year-old youth was killed while one was severely injured after an over-speeding car rammed into an electric pole in Thane. As per reports, the over-speeding car rammed into an electric pole on Thane's Ghodbunder Road. The incident took place last night. The injured were sent to a nearby hospital for treatment. "Further probe underway," officials of Kapurbawdi police station said. Maharashtra Road Accident: Bus Collides With Truck on Pune-Solapur Highway; Four Killed and 20 Injured (See Pics).

Over-Speeding Car Rams Into Electric Pole

Maharashtra | A 22-year-old youth was killed while one was severely injured after an over-speeding car rammed into an electric pole on Thane's Ghodbunder Road last night. The injured was sent to a nearby hospital for treatment. Further probe underway: Kapurbawdi police pic.twitter.com/JRVoppFgyz  ANI (@ANI) March 1, 2023

(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.)
Amid SNAP benefits ending, U.S. Department of Agriculture data noted that the emergency allotments being gone will affect more than 30 million who are participating in the nutrition assistance program.

Ellen Vollinger, SNAP director at the Food Research & Action Center, noted that a "hunger cliff" will be felt in the majority of states, with people losing about an average of $82 per month, as reported by CBS News.

States who have ended emergency allotments earlier have cited that there is an increased need for food pantries, such as in Georgia.

The president and CEO of the Atlanta Community Food Bank, Kyle Waide, told the media outlet that they are seeing "lines are getting longer" as emergency allotments come to an end.

Waide added that they have seen a 40% increase in the food pantry over the last 15 months.

The timing of the cuts of the extra funding was also off, with advocates and food pantries noting that food prices are skyrocketing.

READ NEXT: SNAP Benefits: Who Will Lose $250 in Extra Payments This March?

SNAP Benefits Ending and Need For Food Pantry

Some seniors are projected to feel the brunt of the cuts in emergency allotments. There was also an increase of 8.7% in cost-of-living adjustment in January. It was considered to be the largest COLA adjustment since 1981.

The drop in some seniors' SNAP benefits is due to some factors calculated, such as income and other expenses. Social Security benefits count as income, as reported by USA Today.

Mary Johnson, a policy analyst at the Senior Citizens League, noted that they have received a very high volume of emails from older households who said they had to cut back on expenses.

Johnson added that several noted they eat one meal per day and continue to visit food pantries.

Man-Yee Lee, a spokesperson at the Greater Chicago Food Depository, said that they have been preparing since the announcement that Congress made on rolling back emergency allotments.

Lee said that they fully expect in March to really start noticing the decreased SNAP benefits and projected more people will visit the pantry.

People can also offset the drop in their SNAP benefits by participating in other nutrition programs such as the Summer meals for children; Special SNAP for Women, Infants, and Children, or WIC; and the farmers' markets programs.

Food Pantry Near You

Those who are in need can find food pantries near them through the Food Finders site.

Food Finders is a nonprofit organization aiming to address hunger while also reducing food waste.

The nonprofit organization also coordinates the daily pick-up of donated excess food from grocers, restaurants, hospitals, schools, and manufacturers, among many others.

The food is then distributed directly and immediately to nonprofit recipients such as pantries, shelters, youth programs, and senior centers.

It was first founded in 1989 by Arlene Mercer, with some of the food from her table while also engaging with volunteers to organize the food deliveries.

As of reporting, Food Finders has 471 partner agencies, 650 active food donors, and 444 active volunteers.

READ MORE: SSDI Benefits February: When Will You Get Your $3000+ Payments?

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Inflation drives demand at local food banks | To The Point - from ABC 10


The state of Mississippi has enacted a gender reassignment ban for transgender minors after Republican Gov. Tate Reeves signed a bill imposing the prohibition.

House Bill 1125 states that public funds or tax deductions for gender reassignment procedures would be off-limits and stops Medicaid from covering gender transition-related care in Mississippi, as reported by KTLA News 5.

Reeves said that the matter has two positions, with one telling children "they're beautiful the way they are" and the other telling them that "they should take drugs and cut themselves up with expensive surgeries" to be free from depression.

The Republican governor went on to say that no child in Mississippi will "have these drugs or surgeries pushed upon them."

House Bill 1125 passed in Senate with a 33-15 vote and House with a 78-30 vote on January 19. The law took effect right away.

Aside from the gender reassignment ban, Reeves also signed a law in 2021 to ban transgender athletes from competing in girls' or women's sports.

Reeves signed the bill into law less than two weeks after transgender teenagers, including their families and those who support them, protested against the measure.

READ NEXT: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Bans Late-Term Abortion in the State

Gender Reassignment Ban in Mississippi

The newly signed law stated that healthcare professionals found violating the ban will have their license to practice in the state of Mississippi revoked.

American Psychiatric Association noted psychological distress may result when a person's gender identity and sex assigned at birth do not align.

LGBTQ advocates argued that access to gender reassignment procedures is a "life-saving health care," according to CNN.

The Trevor Project slammed Reeves' decision to sign the bill. The group is a nonprofit organization that works to prevent suicide among LGBTQ youth.

Its vice president of advocacy and government affairs, Kasey Suffredini, said in a statement that decisions about medical care should be made between parents, patients, and doctors and "not by politicians."

State director of Human Right Campaign Mississippi, Rob Hill, also condemned the move.

Hill noted in a statement that politicians are interfering "with our rights as parents and acting as if they know how to raise and support" their children as compared to them.

The state director added that "attacking LBTQ+ Mississippians will not solve any problems or make life easier" for the people in the state.

Instead, they will only "further demonize and alienate transgender kids."

U.S. Bills Targeting Transgender People

The Daily Leader reported that at least 150 bills have been introduced focusing on transgender people in the U.S., according to Human Right Campaign.

In February, states such as South Dakota imposed the same healthcare ban, while Utah enforced the same ban in January. The states of Alabama, Arizona, and Arkansas have also implemented gender reassignment bans in recent years.

However, two of those implementations were blocked by federal courts.

The state of North Carolina also launched a bill that stated that no provider shall offer care "to facilitate the minor's desire to present or appear" in a way that is "inconsistent with the minor's sex," as cited by Pew Trust.

Medical associations generally describe such care from pediatrics to psychiatry to endocrinology.

Patients needing such care are attended not only by their pediatricians but also counselors, family doctors, and specialized LGBTQ+ health care centers.

READ MORE: Texas Lawmaker Seeks Death Penalty for Women Who Get Abortions

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: JUST IN: Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves Signs Ban On Gender Reassignment Surgeries On Minors - from Forbes Breaking News


Former U.S. President Donald Trump has scrutinized media mogul Fox News for "promoting" Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis "so hard and so much."

Trump went on to say that the promotion for the Republican governor has not left "much time" for "Real News," as reported by The Hill.

He also accused the network of underplaying a new poll showing him with a "double-digit" lead against DeSantis in a possible 2024 Republican presidential primary match-up.

Trump was referring to a poll that showed him leading DeSantis by 15 points in the hypothetical match-up.

Aside from alleging that the network was promoting DeSantis, he also dubbed Fox News a "RINO" network, an acronym for Republican in Name Only.

Aside from Fox News, he also slammed evangelical groups and Jewish key figures for being "disloyal" to him after the party's lukewarm performance results in the midterm elections.

Rolling Stone reported that Trump is already getting ahead and accusing that the 2024 election will be stolen.

Trump wrote on his Truth Social account that "crooked Democrat Prosecutors" are attempting to "steal a second Presidential Election."

He went on to say that the group did it in 2020, and they will not be allowing it to happen again in 2024.

READ NEXT: Donald Trump Visits Ohio Town After Train Derailment, Says Officials 'Indifferent'

Rupert Murdoch's Testimony

The owner of Fox News, Rupert Murdoch, was reported to have acknowledged under oath that several Fox News hosts endorsed Trump's false claims about the 2020 election, falsely accusing that it was stolen from him.

Murdoch made the admission in the $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit filed against the network by Dominion Voting Systems, which was the voting company used in the 2020 election.

Dominion Voting Systems has accused Fox News and its affiliated company, Fox Corporation, of maligning its reputation, according to The Guardian.

Murdoch named Fox News hosts in his deposition as those who have "endorsed" the false claims spread by Trump. The names included Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs, Sean Hannity, and Jeanine Pirro.

The defamation case filed by the voting company was described as a "landmark," with one Harvard law professor noting that he had "never seen a defamation case" with such proof leading the defendant to admit in writing that it was "making up fake information" for viewership and revenues.

Donald Trump and Fox News

Trump and the media giant had a cordial relationship during his presidency.

One media expert who wrote a 2016 book about the network's influence on American politics, Daniel Cassino, noted that Trump was getting all the coverage at the time. However, he noted that there has been a change, with Trump not "dominating Fox the way he did before."

The Hill noted in 2022 that other Murdoch-owned media outlets also dismissed editorials critical of Trump in the wake of the Capitol riot, with the Wall Street Journal and New York Post slamming Trump for his Jan. 6 response.

In a statement, Trump earlier said that Fox, the Journal, and the Post have always been against him until he won.

READ MORE: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Seeks Grand Jury Probe Over COVID-19 Vaccines

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Trump Lambasts Fox News By Name Over DeSantis Coverage - from Forbes Breaking News


A man in Peru shocked many after Peruvian police found an ancient mummy inside a food delivery cooler bag that he was carrying.

Julio Cesar Bermejo, 25, caught the attention of patrolling police officers after he was seen drunk and hanging out with two men at a deserted park in the city of Puno on Saturday afternoon.

The Peru man said he was carrying it around in the food delivery bag he had once used to deliver food to people's homes as he wanted to show the mummy to his friends. According to CNN, Bermejo will remain in police custody as investigators look into the case.

He previously worked as a delivery man for Pedidos Ya, a Latin American food delivery app. Images of the mummy in a fetal position wrapped in bandages inside a red isothermal bag are now circulating on social media.

READ NEXT: Peru: Inca Mummies Making Peruvian Home's Construction Complicated

Peru Man Claims Mummy Is His Spiritual Girlfriend

Julio Cesar Bermejo claimed that the mummy was always in his home. He said it is usually inside his room, and he sleeps with it. Bermejo even named it "Juanita" and said it was like his spiritual girlfriend, NDTV reported.

He noted that his father brought the mummy home nearly 30 years ago. According to experts, the mummy was between 600 and 800 years old. They also said the 4 feet 11 inches tall mummy was not a woman but a man who was at least 45 years old when he died and was subsequently mummified.

According to Peru's Ministry of Culture, the ancient mummy that Bermejo had been spending his time with was a "mummified adult male individual, presumably from the eastern area of Puno."

A specialist at the ministry said: "It's not a Juanita. It's a Juan." According to the BBC, police have confiscated the mummy and handed it to the ministry of culture, which looks after Peru's heritage.

Two of Bermejo's friends, who are between 23 and 26 years old, have also been detained for possible crimes against the country's cultural heritage. The former food delivery man maintained that he was only showing off the mummy to his friends and had no plan to sell it.

Mummies in Peru Are Considered National Cultural Asset

Much like in Egypt, mummies are also widely revered in Peru as a national cultural asset. Peru has hundreds of archaeological sites from several civilizations, including the Inca Empire. However, the practice of mummifying the dead had been around even before the Incas came to power.

Most of the mummies in Peru were dated even before the Spanish arrived and conquered the Inca Empire. These mummies are often celebrated throughout the country and are often brought out to be paraded during several important Peruvian festivals.

READ MORE: Peru Continues Diplomatic Rift With Mexico, Recalls Diplomats Over Support for Pedro Castillo

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: The Ancient Secrets Of Peru's Mummified Female Warrior - From Ancient History Documentaries
Mexico's Defense Department confirmed Tuesday that Mexican soldiers fired shots at a pickup truck in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, killing five men and injuring another over the weekend.

In a statement, the department said soldiers heard gunshots in the early hours of Sunday and approached the pickup with no license plates. The department noted that the occupants of the pickup sped up in a "brusque and evasive way" when they saw the soldiers.

The army troops said the speeding vehicle then crashed into a parked vehicle, and when they heard the crash, they started shooting. The soldiers did not say if they thought the loud noise was a gunshot. A sixth person in the truck was only hospitalized with gunshot wounds, while a seventh person in the vehicle was not harmed.

The department was reportedly cooperating with civilian prosecutors to investigate the deaths. In a state crime scene report acquired by The Associated Press on Monday, the Mexican soldiers said the pickup truck ignored their orders to stop.

In a separate statement, the activist group Nuevo Laredo Human Rights Committee noted that the shooting incident sparked a scuffle between soldiers and a big crowd of angry residents who believed the victims were not armed, so "there was no reason to arbitrarily kill them in this way."

READ NEXT: Mexico Extending Army Presence Until 2029

Videos of the Shooting Incident in Mexico Quickly Spread Online

Videos of the clash posted on social media showed a street brawl between residents and Mexican soldiers near the bullet-ridden pickup truck. Some residents can be seen throwing punches, knocking a soldier to the ground, and repeatedly kicking him.

Toward the end of that incident, shots were heard, and people started running, but it is unclear who fired them, Al Jazeera reported. Raymundo Ramos, head of the Nuevo Laredo Human Rights Committee, released a video statement in which he accused the army of firing into the crowd but with no immediate information about any additional casualties.

Ramos also said among those killed were teens who had only returned from a night out at a club when they were shot. However, Nuevo Laredo Mayor Carmen Lilia Canturosas said Monday that none of the victims were minors.

She added that the Mexican army, the National Human Rights Commission, and the Attorney General's Office were already investigating the case and collecting evidence.

According to the state crime scene report, three bodies were found in the pickup truck, while two were discovered on the sidewalk nearby. Such reports usually cite the weapons found at a crime scene, but no mention was made in any of the cases.

One of the Victims Could Be a U.S. Citizen

The state crime scene report noted that a Texas-issued identification document was discovered on one of the bodies. However, Reuters reported that the U.S. Embassy could not immediately say if any U.S. citizens or residents were involved.

On behalf of the victims and their relatives, the Nuevo Laredo Human Rights Committee announced Monday that it had filed a complaint with federal prosecutors. In its statement, the rights group noted that the victim's families and a journalist who arrived at the scene were met with a violent response from the army troops.

"The Mexican army is out of control... Prosecutors have to clear up what happened, and the president must stop protecting (the soldiers)," Raymundo Ramos said.

Last September, rights groups and foreign organizations, such as the United Nations, voiced their disapproval of Mexico's Congress' decision to give the army control over the National Guard.

"Sending soldiers out onto the streets with weapons of war has led to more violence, not less," said Tyler Mattiace, a Mexico researcher for Human Rights Watch, adding that the killings highlight a defective strategy to reduce crime.

READ MORE: Did Karim Benzema Take a Shot at Lionel Messi Over FIFA Best Award?

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Bert Hoover

WATCH: Locals Fight With Mexican soldiers After Killing of Five Men - From Al Jazeera
After being rejected by Adele and Ed Sheeran, other British artists, like Harry Styles and Elton John, were also invited to perform at King Charles III's coronation concert.

However, Fox News reported that Harry Styles, Elton John, as well as Robbie Williams, and the Spice Girls had all declined the invitation to perform in a special coronation concert at Windsor Castle on May 7.

Royal experts talked about the upcoming coronation concert, as no artist has agreed yet to perform on stage. Christopher Andersen, author of "The King," told the outlet that he would not "panic quite yet," as far as lining up performers for the coronation concert.

Andersen noted that Joss Stone, a friend of the younger royals, "can usually be counted on" and that there was "also a long list of American pop stars chomping at the bit to perform."

The royal author went on to say that Diana Ross, Alicia Keys, and Andrea Bocelli, who performed during the late Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee last year, would likely be invited again.

Andersen further noted that there were plenty of options, and the coronation team would be "crazy" not to ask Madonna, who has a massive 40th-anniversary tour this summer.

READ NEXT: Meghan Markle Feels 'Excluded' as Palace 'Is Only Fighting for Prince Harry' to Attend King Charles III Coronation

Harry Styles and Elton John Invited to King Charles III Coronation Concert

Three U.K.-based artists had turned down the invite due to their busy schedules. Harry Styles is currently on his concert tour, named Love On Tour. According to Daily Mail, he will perform in Coventry in May. On the other hand, Spice Girls were said to reunite for the coronation.

They were reportedly coming back together for the coronation concert but now appeared to have turned down the performance. The girl group, composed of Victoria Beckham, Mel B, Mel C, Geri Horner, and Emma Bunton, split up in 2000. Elton John was the third British star who was reportedly approached but also turned down.

The iconic boyband Take That and sisters Kylie and Dannii Minogue will reportedly perform at the coronation concert with Lionel Richie. More acts will be announced in the coming weeks. A source told Daily Mail that the "biggest names and acts in the world music" are being invited to the coronation concert.

Ed Sheeran previously said he will perform in Texas the day before the coronation concert, while Adele reportedly turned down the invitation "without explanation."

King Charles III Coronation

The BBC will reportedly suspend the license fee as part of a one-off dispensation for King Charles III's coronation. It would allow venues to screen the live coronation ceremony coverage on May 6 and May 7 without needing to buy a TV license.

BBC granted the dispensation in exceptional circumstances, with the event needing to be of national importance, The Guardian reported. The public should be able to watch the ceremony for free. The license fee was also removed during the late queen's Platinum Jubilee in June last year.

According to reports, Camilla will be officially called "Queen" after her coronation alongside her husband, Charles. Independent reported that Queen Elizabeth said before her death last September that it was her "sincere wish" that Camilla will be known as "Queen Consort" while she continues "her own loyal service."

Buckingham Palace officials are reportedly looking for past precedents, including the titles used for the king's grandfather's wife. King Charles and Camilla got married in April 2005, with the Queen Consort receiving the title of Duchess of Cornwall after their marriage.

READ MORE: Prince Harry's Controversial Memoir 'Spare' Breaks Guinness World Record

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Harry Styles, Elton John & More Music Acts Reportedly Decline to Perform At King Charles' Coronation - From ET Canada
Sinaloa Cartel boss Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman Loera, also known as "El Chapo," has opened up about his sensational escape from the Altiplano maximum security prison in Mexico state through a narco tunnel.

According to Infobae, author and criminologist Monica Ramirez Cano has recently tweeted about his brief conversation with the Sinaloa Cartel boss, who discussed his escape from Altiplano prison.

In one of his many talks with the Mexican drug kingpin when he was still imprisoned in Mexico, Cano asked El Chapo what had been his best escape, to which he answered: "This last one," referring to his breakout from Altiplano prison.

"I was very stressed all the time. But I have always behaved well. I have behaved well, miss," El Chapo reportedly said in a kind tone that seemed to distinguish his dealings with women.

Yo. Joaquin (#ChapoGuzman) cual consideras que ha sido tu mejor fuga?

El. Ah no, pues esta ultima, estuve muy estresado todo el tiempo. Pero siempre me porte muy bien, me he portado bien senorita

Yo. Te parece que fugarte 2 veces es portarte bien?

El. Bueno no, pero  Monica Ramirez Cano (@MonRamirezCano) February 27, 2023

Throughout his bloody career, El Chapo broke out of two Mexican prisons to continue his reign as head of the Sinaloa cartel. Cano also asked El Chapo if he considered escaping twice as "behaving well." The Mexican drug lord said "no," but admitted that he "didn't want to be extradited."

When she asked the Sinaloa Cartel boss what he was thinking inside the narco tunnel as he escaped, El Chapo noted: "Of course, don't get caught!"

The author of the "Las Puertas del Infierno" or "The Gates of Hell," also a psychologist, tried to learn about what's inside the heads of the most famous criminals in Mexico in the past years, and she had the opportunity to work closely with El Chapo as she made his criminal profile.

Aside from El Chapo, other drug traffickers she had interviewed were Los Zetas cartel leader Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, alias "Z-40"; Los Caballeros Templarios cartel head Servando Gomez Martinez, alias "La Tuta"; and dozens of serial killers.

READ NEXT: El Chapo's Son Ovidio Guzman Has Extradition Request on His Head After U.S. Officially Issued Plea

How El Chapo of Sinaloa Cartel Escaped Using a Narco Tunnel

El Chapo was captured for the first time in 1993 in Guatemala. He was then extradited to Mexico and sentenced to 20 years for drug trafficking and murder.

The Sinaloa Cartel boss spent eight years in the Puente Grande maximum security prison in Jalisco state until he made his first escape by hiding in a laundry cart in 2001 with the help of prison officials he had corrupted. El Chapo became a fugitive for 13 years but was arrested again in 2014 in Sinaloa state and transferred to the Altiplano prison.

The following year, he escaped again through a hole under his cell's shower and then went down to a ladder before hopping on the back of a waiting modified motorcycle mounted on rails and speeding through a mile-long narco tunnel to freedom.

However, El Chapo was captured for a third time in 2016 and extradited to the United States the following year. He was sentenced to spend the rest of his days in the ADX Florence "supermax" prison in Colorado after being sentenced to life imprisonment in 2019 on multiple drug-related charges.

Engineer of Sinaloa Cartel Narco Tunnels

The Sinaloa Cartel built the first cross-border narco tunnel in 1989. Since then, the drug cartel has refined the art of underground construction and used these narco tunnels more effectively than any criminal group in history.

Officials have reportedly discovered 181 illicit passageways under the U.S.-Mexico border until 2014. They said most of them have been short and like narrow "gopher holes," just enough for a person to crawl through.

Federal agents noted that the Sinaloa Cartel also specializes in what they called "super tunnels." Authorities said a single "super tunnel" takes several months and over a million dollars to build as it has electric lights, elevators, and ventilation ducts, with disguised entry and exit shafts.

They said these passageways could also reach as deep as seventy feet and were usually tall enough for an adult to walk or ride through. This was the method that El Chapo left to the Sinaloa Cartel for drug trafficking to evade law enforcement.

Mexican and U.S. authorities have identified Jose Sanchez Villalobos as the mastermind behind the design of the Sinaloa Cartel narco tunnels. Sanchez was reportedly the builder of the narco tunnels linking Tijuana on the Mexican side and San Diego on the U.S. side.

He was released from prison in the U.S. last year after serving a 10-year term for a drug distribution conspiracy. Sanchez, also one of the Sinaloa Cartel's high-level managers, pleaded guilty in December 2020 to planning, financing, and supervising the construction of several cross-border tunnels from 2010 to 2012.

He also pleaded guilty to overseeing the cartel's operation as smuggling conduits. He was reportedly responsible for transporting drugs in Mexico's states of Baja California and Jalisco and managing marijuana transport from southern Mexico to northern Mexico.

Sanchez was also reported to have overseen two narco tunnels built in the San Diego area to transport drugs. He was also said to have been responsible for deciding who could use the said tunnels for a fee.

Sanchez was arrested in Mexico in 2012 and spent about eight years in custody there. He then spent the rest of his sentence in San Diego after being extradited to the U.S. to face charges.

"El Chapo" is known for his ingenious ways of transporting drugs, including creating and using narco tunnels for his drug empire. He had also used the narco tunnels to evade capture and law enforcement officials for three decades. The Mexican drug kingpin has earned the reputation of being the "Lord of the Tunnels" for his preference to use the underground.

He was compared to early Juarez Cartel boss Amado Carillo Fuentes, who was dubbed as "Lord of the Skies." Carillo Fuentes was known to transport drugs by using planes.

READ MORE: El Chapo's Wife Emma Coronel Could Dismantle Sinaloa Cartel

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Sophisticated Drug Tunnel Discovered in Otay Mesa Warehouse; $25 Million in Drugs Seized - From CBS 8 San Diego
Brazil is one of the largest beef exporters in the world, providing about 25 percent of total global exports. Thus, many Brazilians usually look forward to a weekend barbecue with friends and family and other delicious beef dishes served at parties and special occasions.

READ NEXT: Get to Know the Brazilian Cuisine With These 5 Famous Dishes

Brazil: 5 Mouthwatering Brazilian Beef Dishes

While some Brazilian beef dishes have ingredients that could raise eyebrows in other countries, the result is still delicious and amazingly flavorful meals. Here are five famous Brazilian beef dishes that every foodie traveling in Brazil must try.

Carne de Onca

Curitiba is the birthplace of carne de onca, a popular Brazilian beef cuisine that has been around since 1953. Minced beef, olive oil, Cognac, onions, chives, sweet paprika, and chili powder come together in this meal, which is also the official cuisine of the city.

After the ground beef is flattened, the Cognac should be drizzled over it, and the meat must be seasoned and blended with the rest of the ingredients. After everything has been combined, the mixture is typically flattened into a rectangle and served with buttered toast, mustard, and a jar of horseradish.

According to Taste Atlas, the dish's name means jaguar meat, as it refers to the Brazilian cat known as onca because many said that anyone who eats it will have the breath of the onca after eating it.

Vaca Atolada

Brazil's national meat dish, vaca atolada, is made with beef ribs, onions, garlic, tomatoes, parsley, chili peppers, cassava, and ground colorau or urucum seed, if available. Cow stuck in the mud is another term for this popular Brazilian beef dish, which refers to how the meat is cooked in a thick sauce after being marinated.

In addition to white rice, many restaurants now serve green salads on the side with this delicious meal. Vaca atolada is very popular in the state of Minas Gerais.

Picanha

Many people in Brazil consider the picanha a popular and highly prized fresh cut of beef. It is mostly used for churrasco or grilled meat. Picanha can be found at the animal's back, above the butt, where it sits on a thick layer of fat called a fat cap.

When cooked properly, it has a fantastic natural flavor and is typically seasoned with nothing more than salt. Much of the picanha's flavor and tenderness comes from the fluids released as the fat cap melts. Picanha is often served rare or medium-rare, while some diners prefer it well done.

Lingua de Boi

Cow's tongue, or lingua de boi, is one of the Brazilian beef dishes that can surprise visitors from other countries, according to Chef's Pencil. It is a highly sought-after main course meat. Overcooking the tongue will cause it to become dry, hard, and rubbery.

Thus, proper preparation requires some practice. It has an exceptionally delicate texture and a pleasant flavor when done correctly. White wine, onions, garlic, bell peppers, olives, tomatoes, and basil are incorporated into a rich sauce that coats the finished product before serving.

Brazilian Beef Picadillo

Ensopado de Carninha Moida, or Brazilian beef picadillo, is a famous and convenient Brazilian beef dish. According to Jess Eats and Travels, put everything in a pot and cook it on a stove. Ground beef, capers, red wine vinegar, onions, garlic, and green peppers are the main ingredients of this traditional beef dish in Brazil.

A can of tomatoes and a sprig of parsley top off the dish, seasoned with paprika, cinnamon, and bay leaves. The paprika adds a smokiness, while the vinegar and capers give it a tangy, acidic bite. The flavors are fantastic.

READ MORE: Top 3 Best Food Countries for Insatiable Foodies

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Bert Hoover

WATCH: Brazilian Steakhouse - HUGE BEEF RIBS in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil! - From Mark Wiens
Kobe Bryant's widow, Vanessa Bryant, has reached a nearly $29 million deal with Los Angeles County to settle a civil lawsuit over the distribution of photos taken at the helicopter crash scene that killed her husband, her daughter Gianna Bryant and seven others in January 2020.

The lawsuit related to the helicopter crash on a Calabasas, California, hillside and the images that surfaced afterward was resolved after several months of court proceedings.

In a statement to CNN, Bryant's attorney Luis Li said, "today marks the successful culmination of Mrs. Bryant's courageous battle to hold accountable those who engaged in this grotesque conduct."

Li noted that Kobe Bryant's widow fought "for her husband, her daughter, and all those in the community whose deceased family were treated with similar disrespect." He added that they hoped that Bryant's victory at trial and "this settlement will put an end to this practice."

In a separate statement, Mira Hashmall, lead trial counsel for Los Angeles County, said the $28,850,000 settlement includes the verdict awarded by a federal jury last August.

Hashmall noted that it also "resolves all outstanding issues related to pending legal claims in state court," any future claims by Bryant's surviving daughters, and "other costs, with each party responsible for its respective attorneys' fees."

Natalia Bryant, the 20-year-old daughter of the late Kobe Bryant, 6-year-old Bianka Bella Bryant, and 3-year-old Capri Kobe Bryant, were reportedly named in the lawsuit, along with their mother as Bryant seemed to amend her initial lawsuit to add her daughters. However, it was unclear when did she amend it, TMZ reported.

READ NEXT: Vanessa Bryant 'Asphyxiated' With Horror in Possibility Crash Photos May Leak Someday

$16 Million Court Winnings of Kobe Bryant's Widow Vanessa Bryant Reduced

In August, Vanessa Bryant won a huge legal battle against Los Angeles County, which forced the local government to pay her and co-plaintiff Chris Chester a total of $31 million in damages over the distribution of photos taken at the helicopter crash scene.

A nine-member jury awarded Bryant $16 million, while Chester was separately awarded $15 million after a civil trial that went into graphic detail about the gruesome photos taken from the crash site. However, Bryant's attorney said the $16 million was later reduced to $15 million because of a clerical error.

Bryant and Chester sued Los Angeles County for emotional distress caused by deputies and firefighters sharing photos of their loved ones' bodies at the helicopter crash site. Luis Li previously said Bryant only sought accountability, adding that the legal system "does not permit her to force better policies, more training or officer discipline."

The lawyer noted that Kobe Bryant's widow hopes this case will help change the "callous behavior" of the sheriff and fire departments' first responders.

Vanessa Bryant Lawsuit Changed Invasion of Privacy Rules in California

Vanessa Bryant and Chris Chester sued Los Angeles County for invasion of privacy and negligence. Kobe Bryant's widow claimed that the county sheriff's and fire department employees improperly shared images of human remains from the helicopter crash.

The defense argued that the photos were never made public. However, the plaintiffs' lawyers said there was evidence that several other people received the images before Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva ordered the photos to be deleted.

Bryant has made it clear that the thought of the photos of her husband and daughter's dead bodies surfacing gave her panic attacks and that the county has given her emotional damage.

According to reports, most of the money will come from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office, which has a long-established practice of sharing photos from crime scenes.

This practice has already been made illegal thanks to California Governor Gavin Newsom, who signed the "Kobe Bryant Act," which made it illegal for first responders to share photos of a dead person at a crime scene or a scene of an accident.

Photos taken at such scenes can only be for "Law Enforcement Purposes."

READ MORE: Mexico Army Confirms 5 Civilians Killed by Mexican Soldiers

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Bert Hoover

WATCH: Vanessa Bryant Settles Helicopter Crash Photos Lawsuit for $28.85 Million - From NBC News
Glanbia is selling its interest in a Portlaoise cheese plant which was the result of a 130 million investment with an American company that is now taking over its full operation as part of a 160 deal with the Irish food giant.

Glanbia and US firm Leprino Foods Company have announced that they have signed a non-binding agreement for Leprino Foods to acquire full ownership of Glanbia Cheese, a leading mozzarella maker in Europe. It comprises Glanbia Cheese UK and Glanbia Cheese EU.

The two firms have already partnered on the building of the Portlaoise plant which went into operation in April 2021 making pizza mozzarella cheese for the European market. Glanbia says 100 people work at the plant has a production capacity of 45,000 tonnes of mozzarella cheese per annum.

The 40,000-metric ton facility requires significant amounts of dairy ingredients - the equivalent of 400 million litres of milk a year to operate.

The development, which was announced in July 2018, was the first big client to set up in the Laois County Council driven National Enterprise Park in Portlaoise. It is located near the M7 Togher interchange on a new access road built by the Council that also links to the town's Clonminham Industrial Estate.

A statement said it is expected that Glanbia plc will receive initial cash consideration in excess of 160 million (inclusive of repayment of shareholder loans) for the sale of its stake in Glanbia Cheese. It says there is the possibility of additional contingent consideration of up to 25 million over the next three years, dependent on business performance.

Glanbia Cheese has three manufacturing facilities  Llangefni in Wales, Magheralin in Northern Ireland and Portlaoise. The company says the existing team will continue to manage the business, led by CEO Paul Vernon and his senior management team, with no disruption to day-to-day operations.

In reply to the Leinste Express, Glanbia said there will be no redundancies adding that it "will be very much business as usual" for the Portlaoise operation and other plants in Glanbia Cheese that are part of the deal. It confirmed that 500 people work in Portlaoise and plants in Northern Ireland, Wales and England.

Based in Denver, Colorado, and founded as a small, family-run cheese business 65 years ago, Leprino Foods now claims to be worlds largest mozzarella cheese maker and top producer of whey protein and dairy ingredients.

Still family-owned, the company says it prides itself on having a reputation of being a dairy industry pioneer, supplying the highest-quality products to food and nutrition companies around the globe.

Mike Durkin is President and CEO of Leprino Foods which has its HQ in Dever, Colorado. He commented on the deal.

Having successfully partnered with Glanbia since 2000, we are proud of the high-quality business that we have helped build. We look forward to working with Paul Vernon and the local team to ensure a seamless transition for our employees, customers and suppliers.

"We intend to take advantage of our combined expertise, knowledge and strengths to further enhance the business and are committed to ongoing investments in the core capabilities and the talented people that set us apart from our competition. We thank Glanbia for their valued partnership and wish them continued success, he said.

Siobhan Talbot is Group MD Glanbia plc also commented in a joint statement.

"Glanbia and Leprino Foods have enjoyed many years of successful partnership since our first Joint Venture was established. As we have evolved our portfolio at Glanbia in recent years, we have become very focused on our nutrition strategy, serving consumer health and wellness categories through our brands and ingredient solutions business.

"From the plcs perspective the logic of this transaction is clear as it allows us to focus on our core better nutrition strategy and to allocate further capital to our global growth businesses. We have had a long and successful partnership with Leprino Foods, and we wish Paul and the entire team every success for the next chapter of the business,

Paul Vernon, CEO Glanbia Cheese concluded.

"Glanbia Cheese is a strong, well invested business with an excellent team and deep customer and supplier relationships. We are excited by this proposed transaction which will see us align our business into Leprino Foods, the largest and most successful mozzarella business in the world.

"Glanbia Cheese will be a strong fit within Leprino Foods, with its strategic focus on our category. We look forward to working with Leprino Foods to build on our success as a trusted supplier and business partner to our customers in the pizza category across the UK and Europe," he said.

Subject to the completion of due diligence and execution of definitive agreements, it is expected that the potential transaction will close in the first half of 2023.

In its annual results the Irish-based international food giant says that as part of an on-going focus on optimising its portfolio, it had signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding for the sale of its 50% holding in Glanbia Cheese EU and 51% holding in Glanbia Cheese UK (collectively the Glanbia Cheese JVs) to Leprino Foods Company.

It added that based on preliminary results for both companies, the Glanbia Cheese JVs, which includes revenue raised from sales of products made in Laois, contributed approximately 7.3 million to the share of profit after tax of Glanbia equity accounted investees in 2022 (2021: 0.3 million).

It is expected that Glanbia will receive initial cash proceeds in excess of 160m (including the repayment of shareholder loans), with further contingent consideration of up to 25m dependant on the performance of the Glanbia Cheese JVs over the next three years.

Subject to the satisfactory completion of limited confirmatory diligence, the negotiation of binding transaction agreements and other conditions, it is expected that the deal will close in the first half of 2023.
A driver caught speeding on the old road to Dublin in Laois has made it to the top ten worst cases are in from the National Slow Down Day published by Gardai.

The motorist got on to the chart early in the 24-hour period and remained there until the Gardai published the list of fastest drivers after the operation finished on March 1,

The driver was clocked at 113km/h in a 80km/h zone on the R445 at The Heath near Portlaoise in the first 5 hours of National Slow Down Day.

Laois Offaly Gardai reported being active on roads around the county including in Portarlington conducting speed checks near schools and creches.

During the early part of the day GoSafe checked the speed of 53,951 vehicles and detected 129 vehicles traveling in excess of the applicable speed limit.

Gardai say the motorist was driving one of a total of 628 cars that were caught speeding on National Slow Down Day, February 28/March 1. Some drivers caught doing twice the speed limit.

Gardai say that during National Slow Down Day from 7am on Tuesday to 7am on Wednesday, GoSafe checked the speed of 173,811 vehicles.

Gardai published a list of some of the worst cases:

117km/h in a 50km/h Zone on the N6 Baile An Phoill Gaillimh Gaillimh

92km/h in a 60km/h Zone on the N4 Drishoge Carrick-On-Shannon Roscommon

92km/h in a 60km/h Zone on the Monaghan Road Castleblayney Monaghan

122km/h in a 80km/h Zone on the N4 Doddsborough Lucan Dublin

159km/h in a 100km/h Zone on the N25 Ballyadam Carrigtwohill Cork

139km/h in a 100km/h Zone on the N24 Woodrooff Clonmel Tipperary

153km/h in a 120km/h Zone on the M6 An Carn Mor Thiar Oran Mor Gaillimh

113km/h in a 80km/h Zone on the R445 Greatheath Portlaoise Laois

126km/h in a 100km/h Zone on the N21 Tooreenmore Knocknagoshel Kerry

115km/h in a 80km/h Zone on the R513 Herbertstown Herbertstown Limerick

The guards say they continue to appeal to drivers to comply with speed limits in order to reduce the number of speed-related collisions, save lives and reduce injuries on our roads.

They say that last year saw fatal and serious injury road traffic collisions increase with 156 people fatally injured, the largest death toll on Irish roads since 2016. Figures published by gardai show that January 2023 had the highest number of road deaths of any January in 10 years. A total of 20 people died.

Recent Garda enforcement data and RSA research demonstrate that drivers continue to speed. Gardai say that during 2022, nearly three-quarters of fatal collisions occurred on rural (80km/h or more) roads with just over a quarter happening in towns and cities.

It has been estimated that nearly a third of fatal collisions are the result of speeding or inappropriate speed.

Mr Sam Waide, CEO, Road Safety Authority, said: "Evidence shows that many drivers are choosing to speed in our towns, villages and on rural roads. The RSAs Free Speed observational study found that half of all drivers (52%) were observed speeding on urban roads and over a quarter (27%) were speeding on rural roads," he said.

The concluding message from the gardai is a plea to drivers that complying with the speed limit will reduce crashes, save lives and cut injuries on our roads.
Three more people have been charged in connection with an incident in Monasterevin which led to the death of Limerick man Dylan McCarthy.

Glen Brogan, 23, whose address was given as Ardullen, Kilmallock, Co Limerick faces allegations of violent disorder and criminal damage at Dublin Road, Monasterevin on August 21. The latter relates to a window at The Bellyard pub.

Orla McCarthy, 23, whose address was given as Ardvullen, Kilmallock and Aoife Talty, 25, whose address was given as Knockdangan, Kilmaley, Ennis each face allegations of violent disorder on August 21.

All three appeared before Naas District Court today and Ms McCarthy is a sister of the deceased.

Two men - Sean Kavanagh, 24, whose address was given as 17 St Marys Lane, Monasterevin and Calvin Dunne, 22, whose address was given as 1 Abbey View, Monasterevin - have already been charged with the alleged murder of Dylan McCarthy, who died on August 22 last. They face further charges of violent disorder while Sean Kavanagh faces a further charge of assault causing harm.

Darren Harrison, 30, and his brother Tadhg Harrison, 25, both of 1 Rosglas Avenue in Monasterevin, are accused of violent disorder on August 22 last.

Adam Ford, 25, with an address given as 26 Togher Avenue in Monasterevin, is accused of violent disorder and assault causing harm against the father of the late Mr McCarthy on the date of the incident.

Jordan Kevin, 30, and his brother Shane Kevin, 38, both of 1761 St Evins Park in Monasterevin, are accused of taking part in violent disorder at the time of the incident. Shane Foley, 29, with an address listed as 1021 Cowpasture in Monasterevin, is accused of violent disorder on the date of the incident.

Garda Kenneth McDonald today gave evidence of charging the trio and said the State had no objection to bail being granted.

A number of conditions were imposed including that they provide a phone number, reside at their addresses and sign on once weekly at nominated garda stations.

They were also told not to interfere with witnesses directly or indirectly. The matter was adjourned by Judge Desmond Zaidan to May 3.
Commitments to Glanbia Cheese workers in Portlaoise must be honoured following its sale, a local TD has said.

Laois Offaly TD Carol Nolan said she fully expects the positions of the existing workforce at Glanbia Cheese to be protected following the sale of the hugely successful brand to the Leprino Foods Company (Leprino Foods).

She was speaking after the owners of Glanbia Cheese, Glanbia plc, had signed a non-binding agreement for Leprino Foods to acquire full ownership of Glanbia Cheese for an estimated 160 million.

Glanbia Cheese has three manufacturing facilities  Llangefni in Wales, Magheralin in Northern Ireland and locally in Portlaoise.

Glanbia says 100 people work at the plant in Portlaoise which has a production capacity of 45,000 tonnes of mozzarella cheese per annum.

In a statement, the company gave commitments to its staff in relation to the works.

Post completion, the existing team will continue to manage the business, led by CEO Paul Vernon and his senior management team, with no disruption to day-to-day operations, Glanbia said.

I very much welcome the strong wording of the statement issued today in terms of the commitment to continue with the existing team with no disruption to day-to-day operations, said Deputy Nolan.

It is vital that the position of this facility is maintained and strengthened given that it has the capacity to use the equivalent of over 360 million litres of milk per year. This clearly indicates its value to the Irish dairy sector, said Dep Nolan.

Rural Ireland needs the kind of growth and commitment that Glanbia have provided. But it also needs firm job security when acquisitions of this kind occur, she said.

I have been contacted by the company today about this deal and I will certainly be maintaining a close relationship to ensure that the objectives we all want to see in terms of rural jobs and rural economic growth are protected, concluded Deputy Nolan.
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
A Kildare man was accused of attempting to gouge out a gardas eye.

Before Naas District Court on Thursday, February 23 was John O Brien, with an address listed as 2 Osberstown Court in Sallins.

The court was told by the garda in question that he was called down to Osberstown Court on September 19 last at 1am.

It was alleged that the 48-year-old was engaged in an argument with his son, and when he was questioned about it by the garda, he told the garda to 'f**k off.'

Following this, the garda alleged that Mr O' Brien became further agitated and allegedly attacked the garda, and tried to gouge out one of his eyes with his fingers.

The garda claimed that he sustained a small cut just under his eye as a result of the alleged assault, and handed in a photograph showing his injuries to Judge Desmond Zaidan.

The judge accepted jurisdiction over the case, and adjourned it to July 6 for hearing.

Mr O' Brien was granted bail until this date.
The owners of Kildare Village and Tesco Ireland are among those objecting to a proposed hotel.

Back in December, the Leinster Leader reported that a 158 bedroom, six-storey hotel is being planned for County Kildare.

The development was proposed by Murlynn Capitals Investments Limited on land bounded by the Monasterevin Road (R445) and to the west by the Nurney Road (R415).

Value Retail Dublin Ltd told Kildare County Council (KCC) on Kildare Village's behalf that its client has 'a number of serious concerns' over the proposed development.

The concerns relate to: traffic safety and general access, parking, design, servicing and planning policy considerations.

Kildare Town Tidy Towns' chairperson, Mary Connor, called the proposed development 'inappropriate' in her submission to KCC.

She said that the group feels that the current plans 'out scales and conflicts with the architectural context of the main entry point to one of the most historic towns in Ireland.'

In addition, RMLA Limited, acting on behalf of Tesco Ireland, said that the supermarket giant has concerns regarding parking provisions, serving arrangements, a potential increase in noise, and the potential for 'significant traffic challenge's for Tesco's existing delivery arrangements, operations, and for pedestrian safety (on the Monasterevin Road).'

However, Curragh Racecourse Ltd welcomed the development, as there was 'a shortage in (the) availability of beds.'

According to the business information website SoloCheck.ie, Murlynn Capitals Investments Ltd was set up in Dublin in 2019.

The company concentrates in 'Other Specialised Construction Activities' and has an address listed as 2nd Floor, 25 Mountjoy Square East, Dublin 1, County Dublin.

FURTHER DETAILS

Murlynn Capitals Investments Ltd is seeking consent from KCC for the development on this 3,574sqm site.

The development would consist of the construction of a 158 bedroom, in a six-storey block, over a partial basement, totaling 1,743 sqm comprising with an overall height of circa 22.9 square metres, depending on the elevation and ground level.

The proposed hotel would include a ground floor public bar (ca. 100 sqm ) and independent cafe/restaurant (ca.106 sqm), as well as ancillary facilities such as scullery, spa area, storage areas, bin stores, plant rooms, reception area, administration offices, including an ESB substation and switch room (ca.20sqm).

Permission for a ground floor set-down area with one car parking space is also being sought by Murlynn Capitals Investments Ltd, and would include provisions for: a partial basement comprising 59 car parking spaces, a rooftop plant area of ca.285 sqm, a rooftop solar array with an overall area of ca.312sqm, 20 bicycle spaces, two vehicular entrances and one service entrance off the Monasterevin road (R445), and a car parking entrance / set down area off the Nurney Road (R415).

Consent for associated plant, infrastructural connections, boundary works and site development works is also being sought from KCC.
A national lead in charge of housing refugees and asylum seekers is needed in Ireland, a committee has head.

The Oireachtas Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth was urged to push this issue as a matter of priority, having been told a different approach was needed on migration.

It comes as Ireland continues with the challenge of finding accommodation suitable for tens of thousands of Ukrainian nationals and other international protection seekers who arrived in Ireland last year.

Private accommodation provided by hotels and B&Bs; refurbished buildings owned by the State; and rapid-build modular homes are among the strategies Ireland has pursued to house people quickly.

But concerns have been raised about the number of public buildings that have been offered in response to requests from the Department of Integration, and the number of hotels expected to end contracts with the State ahead of the upcoming tourism season.

During an appearance before the Oireachtas committee on Tuesday, groups raised frustration that a national lead to coordinate Irelands response on migration had not been pursued.

Nick Henderson, chief executive of the Irish Refugee Council, said it had recommended in a crisis paper published in October that a refugee response director should be appointed.

He suggested that a lack of engagement from some government departments, which he called deeply frustrating, was an area where such a role could offer improvement.

As an example, one thing thats deeply frustrating at the moment is that people who arrive in Ireland may not be offered accommodation and theyre homeless, he said.

As an example, the lack of other government departments supporting people or at least responding to us.

We sent out a letter to the Department of Justice, to the Department of Children, and the Department of Housing, saying that not accommodating people was a breach of the law  but if that is going to happen, you could take various mitigating measures to support people.

Giving people information; supporting homeless services in the Dublin area; setting out clearly and in a language somebody would understand, what their rights and entitlements are, and we did that in mid January and we havent got a response.

And that, we would imagine, is a very easy thing for somebody to do.

Edel McGinley, director of the Migrant Rights Centre, also said a new approach was needed.

For almost a year, weve been calling for central coordination, for somebody to lead that, and its fallen on deaf ears in government circles, across government, and in the Taoiseachs office, she said.

And its exceptionally frustrating because you see the manifestation of this: the lack of coordination, the lack of an emergency approach thats given to this issue by the government and by the Department of the Taoiseach.

So I think its incumbent on this committee to really push for that and to really push for a whole of government approach, to support this minister in the delivery of that.

We need a different approach now. And that really needs to be pushed at this point.

Reuben Hambakachere, a community development worker with Cultur Migrant Centre, also raised concerns that the International Protection Office (IPO) has started accelerating asylum applications.

He said that applicants now have less time to get legal advice before submitting their questionnaire, which is used as a reference document throughout the process of applying for asylum.

He also said that people in Direct Provision should not be overlooked as part of the governments spring bonus for social welfare recipients announced last week.
Clamping payment rules in County Kildare need to change, according to one councillor.

Labour Party Cllr Angela Feeney said that the payment rules must change for commuters who are clamped at train stations.

She cited figures released to her from her colleague, Deputy Sean Sherlock, who revealed the amounts being paid in clamping fees at train stations from 2018 to date.

The Maynooth politician said: "During a cost of living crisis, people should not have to pay on the spot to get their car unclamped.

"It is also a public safety matter."

Cllr Feeney further said that as well as the cost of removing the clamp, the safety of commuters waiting at night for the removal of the clamp must be taken into consideration.

She elaborated: "Commuters leaving their car are faced with a 120 fee to remove the clamp."

Councillor Angela Feeney, Labour Party.

"While it is absolutely accepted that people must pay the parking charges, the reality is sometimes the machines are not working, the app does not reload or people just simply forget.

"Commuters are left stranded when they get back to their cars in the evening and realise that their car has been clamped. On cold, dark nights, people are left waiting at the train station for the clampers to come back and remove the clamp."

"Its time to have a look at this: I am calling on Irish Rail to change the rules around clamping so that people do not have to pay on the spot to get the clamp removed.

"It would be preferable to see a removal of the clamping process given the need for payment, which is heightened in a cost of living crisis, compounded by the public safety issue where an individual arrives back at their car late at night and its clamped."

She concluded: "Clamping should not be seen as a purely revenue raising exercise, and I would urge Irish Rail to consider the Labour Partys call and make it safer for commuters."
A key part of Rishi Sunaks new Brexit deal for Northern Ireland is coming under criticism within the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) as they were warned it is the best offer they will get.

The Prime Minister is giving the party time and space to consider the Windsor Framework, which is hoped will restore powersharing to Stormont after a year-long absence.

Senior DUP MP Sammy Wilson suggested it was not a great deal, as the party leadership takes time to consider its formal position on the agreement.

Declining to say whether it would take days or weeks, he told Times Radio: As long as it takes us to, first of all, look at the substance of the deal rather than the spin which the Government has given.

He lashed out at the Stormont brake, the mechanism by which the Northern Ireland Assembly can reject changes to EU goods rules.

The Stormont brake is not really a brake at all. Its a delaying mechanism.

In reality, the UK Government would have the final say over whether to veto a law, he said, predicting that it would be reluctant to do so due to being fearful of the consequences of trade for the rest of the United Kingdom and retaliatory action from the EU.

Mr Wilson, who is the DUPs chief whip, also condemned the involvement of the King in the finalising of the EU-UK pact, after the monarch controversially met with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen at Windsor Castle on Monday.

I think first of all its really an indication the Government knew this deal was not a great deal and were trying to persuade unionists to accept it on the basis that we have great respect for the monarchy, Mr Wilson said.

To use the monarch in the way in which he has been used, I think, is a very, very dangerous thing.

Mr Wilson joins DUP colleague Ian Paisley in vocally criticising the pact, whereas party leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, who won the leadership against the backdrop of division within the DUP, has withheld judgement while consulting colleagues to try and reach a collective decision.

Richard Graham, a member of the executive of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, said it would be very sad if the DUP rejected the agreement.

He told Sky News: I think there is a strong feeling that this does make a difference for so many people in Northern Ireland and I think its going to be difficult for the DUP to strongly object to this, though they will probably say that its not perfect.

Mr Sunak told Tory MPs he was confident the DUP would back his deal as he acknowledged a spectrum of views within the unionist party.

The Prime Minister addressed Tory backbenchers at the 1922 Committee in the Commons on Tuesday evening after a visit to Northern Ireland in an attempt to shore up support.

He was understood to have told Conservative colleagues he had spent a lot of time with DUP leader Sir Jeffrey, whose party walked out of Stormont in protest at Boris Johnsons Northern Ireland Protocol.

And I would just say one thing to you all: we should give him and the DUP time and space, Mr Sunak said.

So lets not pressure them for an instant answer, he added. Lets also remember that the last thing the public want is another Westminster drama.

It was being argued that any resistance to the deal will not result in changes to the framework as reopening an agreement which took months to negotiate is not seen as a workable solution.

With opposition parties offering support, there is little chance of it failing to receive support in Parliament when put to a vote, so the DUP will not be effectively handed a veto over the process.
All roads lead to Kiltyclogher during the first week of March when the Annual Drama Festival takes place. The Drama Committee have been busy putting together an exciting programme with a number of new groups and plays for their 39th Annual Drama Festival.

The Festival starts this Friday, March 3 with a new group, Ballycogley Players all the way from Co Wexford with The Red Iron by Jim Nolan. (open) This is a new play set in Waterford in 2017. As ever with Jim Nolans writing there is a good mix of drama and comedy, dealing with a difficult subject in a sensitive and captivating way.

On Saturday, March 4 a local group, Spiodar Theatre Co present The Last Prime Minister of Ireland written by Manorhamilton native, Gerry Farrell.

Tension and comedy come together in this historical drama centred on David Lloyd George, where family dynamics provide much of the intrigue, and no one is who they seem.

Sunday, March 5 Promeroy Players (confined) bring us Jimmy Murphys The Hen Night Epiphany. A subtle Irish comedy and thoughtful, poignant drama,

On Monday, March 6 we welcome back the winners of the confined section of last years Festival, Newtonstewart Theatre Co with Midden by Morna Regan.

A sharp, funny, moving story of five women across three generations, and a prodigal daughters return.

Tuesday, March 7, Corn Mill Theatre bring us the hilarious comedy The Cheques in the Post by Alice Lynch. Set in 1970's rural Ireland, sisters Maggie and Mary run their farm without any help - as far as anyone knows.

Wednesday, March 8: another new group to our Festival, Harvest Moon Theatre Group, Claremorris (confined) present God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza. Two sets of parents who meet to discuss an incident in a public park, involving their children.

Friday, March 10: Always very popular at our Festval and winners of last years open section Ballyshannon Drama Society present A Delicate Balance by Eward Albee.

Agnes and Tobias, wealthy middle-aged couple, have their complacency shattered when their longtime friends Harry and Edna appear at their doorstep.

Saturday, March 11: Another new Group will close our Festival, Clontarf Players present the classic Oscar Wilde Play, The Importance of being Earnest. The play is a theatrical rollercoaster packed with shade, wit and plenty of gags as Oscar Wildes ingenious humour succeeds in debunking social pretensions.

The Adjudicator for this years festival is Evelyn OSullivan.

Kiltyclogher Drama Festival Committee are very grateful to Killasnett Co-op, Manorhamilton the main sponsors of the Festival.

The drama committee would like to thank all their sponsors for their continued support. All patrons, are guaranteed a warm welcome and an opportunity to catch up with friends over a cup of tea and some lovely homemade apple tart and buns.

Doors open at 7.30pm and curtain goes up at 8pm. Season Tickets: 50 and nightly tickets 10. Tickets can be purchased at the door or on (071) 9854368 /(083) 1847432.
Iran's president on Wednesday, March 1, ordered authorities to investigate a series of incidents in which noxious fumes have sickened students at girls' schools, which some officials suspect are attacks targeting women's education.

Hundreds of girls at around 30 schools have been sickened since November, with some winding up in hospital beds. Officials initially dismissed the incidents, only acknowledging the scope of the crisis in recent days.

Children have complained about headaches, heart palpitations, feeling lethargic or otherwise unable to move. Some described smelling tangerines, chlorine or cleaning agents.

Unlike neighboring Afghanistan, Iran has no history of religious extremists targeting girls' education. Women and girls continued attending school even at the height of the 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled Iran's Western-backed monarchy.

At a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, President Ebrahim Raisi said the Interior Ministry should probe the incidents, with help from the health and intelligence ministries, and promptly release the results to the public, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.

It was the first time he has publicly addressed the poisonings.

Read more Article reserve a nos abonnes In Iran, students from the prestigious Sharif University are at the forefront of the revolt

The night before the Cabinet meeting, a senior security official had downplayed the matter, dismissing it as psychological warfare by unnamed enemies of the country.

"Over 99% of this is caused by stress, rumor and psychological war started particularly by hostile TV channels, to create a troubled and stressful situation for students and their parents," the deputy interior minister, Majid Mirahmadi, told state TV. "Their goal was to force schools to close."

The poisonings come at a sensitive time for Iran, which has faced months of nationwide protests since a young woman died in September after being arrested by the morality police for allegedly violating Iran's strict Islamic dress code.

After months of downplaying the poisonings, state-run IRNA filed multiple stories on the subject on Sunday in which officials acknowledged the scope of the incidents.

Irans prosecutor-general has ordered an investigation, saying "there are possibilities of deliberate criminal acts." IRNA quoted a deputy health minister as saying that unnamed people wanted the schools to close.

Suspected extremists attacked women with acid for not dressing conservatively enough around the Iranian city of Isfahan in 2014. But there's no opposition to women's education in Shiite Islam, and Iran has even called on the Taliban in Afghanistan to let women and girls return to school.

Read more Article reserve a nos abonnes In Iran, 'it has become more difficult to control the population'

Le Monde with AP
French President Emmanuel Macron gestures as he gives a speech to outline France's revamped strategy for Africa ahead of his visit to Central Africa, at the Elysee Palace in Paris on February 27, 2023. STEFANO RELLANDINI / AFP

France's President Emmanuel Macron began a tour of Central Africa on Wednesday, March 1, in a diplomatic drive to test a new "responsible relationship" with the continent as anti-French sentiment runs high in some former colonies. He landed in Gabon's capital Libreville on Wednesday and will later head to Angola, Congo-Brazzaville and the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

Macron's trip comes as alarm grows in Paris over Russia's rising influence in French-speaking African countries, joining China, which has been present in the region for some years. Burkina Faso, according to official correspondence seen by AFP on Wednesday, has told France it is renouncing a 1961 agreement that provided a legal basis for French military aid.

Read more Article reserve a nos abonnes Macron defends 'renewal' of military cooperation in Africa

In a speech on France's Africa policy on Monday, Macron called for a "mutual and responsible relationship" with the continent of more than 50 countries, including on climate issues. He reiterated a pledge to break with former post-colonial policies. "Our interest is first and foremost democracy," as well as economic partnerships, he said.

He also said the French military would reduce its footprint on the continent in the coming months, though a military source and analyst have said French army chiefs may be reluctant to do so. More than 3,000 French soldiers are deployed in Senegal, Ivory Coast, Gabon and Djibouti, according to official figures. Another 3,000 are in the Sahel region further north, including in Niger and Chad.

Detract from rainforest summit?

In Gabon, Macron will dine with President Ali Bongo Ondimba on Wednesday and present him with 900 recordings of songs, tales and other oral folklore made in the country between 1954 and 1970.

On Thursday he will attend the One Forest Summit on preserving forests worldwide, including along the vast Congo River basin. Covering 1.62 million square kilometres (more than 625,000 square miles), the forests of Central Africa represent the planet's second-largest carbon sink after the Amazon.

They are also home to huge biodiversity including forest elephants and gorillas, and bear traces of the settlement of early humanity. But they face threats such as poaching, deforestation for the oil palm and rubber industries, and illegal logging and mineral exploitation.

Read more Gabon to host tailor-made summit on protecting tropical forests

Gabonese environmental activist Marc Ona Essangui told AFP he was worried Macron's visit would detract from the rainforest summit's main goal. Gabonese people would instead likely view his presence as giving a political boost to Bongo in the run-up to presidential elections later this year, he said. "What people are registering is Emmanuel Macron coming to back his candidate," he said. Bongo, 64, has been president since succeeding his long-ruling father in 2009.

Macron has insisted Africa is a priority of his second term, and in July he went to Cameroon, Benin and Guinea-Bissau. After Gabon, he heads to the former Portuguese colony of Angola on Friday. There, he is set to sign an accord to develop the agricultural sector as part of a drive to enhance French ties with English- and Portuguese-speaking parts of Africa.

Congo talks

He will then stop in the Republic of Congo, another former French colony, where President Denis Sassou Nguesso has ruled for almost four decades, albeit in several stints.

Finally, he will end his trip on Saturday in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which was ruled by Belgium during the colonial era. President Felix Tshisekedi has been at the helm of DRC since January 2019, but he is up for re-election later this year, and here too the opposition has voiced reservations about the French president's visit.

The DRC accuses its smaller neighbour Rwanda of backing the M23 rebel group in the east of the country, a charge denied by Kigali. Dozens of young Congolese demonstrators holding Russian flags rallied outside the French embassy in the capital Kinshasa on Wednesday to denounce Macron's visit.

Read more The Democratic Republic of Congo, a helpless giant against Rwandan interference

Anti-French rallies have erupted in recent months in the former colonies of Mali and Burkina Faso in the Sahel. Paris has fallen out with the military authorities there and withdrawn its troops from both countries following years of helping them to battle jihadists.

France and its Western allies accuse Russian mercenary group Wagner, infamous for its activities in Ukraine, of being active in Mali and the Central African Republic, also once ruled by France. Paris has also accused Russia of spreading anti-French propaganda.

Le Monde with AFP
A LIMERICK chamber choir is to hold a fundraising concert next week for the victims of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria.

Tens of thousands of people have tragically died following the incident, while donations of aid have been pouring in from across the world.

The disaster has prompted the Seoda Chamber Choir  Limericks only all-female choral ensemble  to give a fundraising concert to raise money for the aid agency Unicef.

It will be held at St Marys Church in Kilbane, near the village of Ardnacrusha on Thursday, March 9 at 8pm. The churchs Eircode is V94 HX75.

Under the direction of Maire Keary-Scanlon, the choir will perform some old favourites  hopefully many of which will be recognisable to the audience  as well as one or two lesser-known pieces.

She said: The opportunity to help people in any way, no matter how small, towards the suffering in Turkey and Syria following the devastating earthquakes, is something we are so happy to do, and we are sure that people will give generously and whole-heartedly.

Seoda will be accompanied on piano by Eoin Scanlon, and a young cellist, Liam Hunka. The church has recently undergone a refurbishment.

Danielle Abraham who is a member of Seoda and a committee which helped raise funds to refurbish St Marys Church said: We had intended marking International Womens Day with a concert and the events in Turkey and Syria have focused our minds on what really matters.

Although entry to the concert next week is free, there will be a voluntary collection, with all money going to Unicef, which provides humanitarian and developmental aid to children worldwide.

For more information on the event, please telephone Danielle at 086-0867976.
GAMES FLEADH, Ireland's yearly game development event, will celebrate its 20-year anniversary at the Technological University of the Shannon (TUS) Thurles campus this month.

Games Fleadh is an event where Irish game developers, students of game and software development, enthusiasts and professors alike celebrate the country's game development industry.

The event, which takes place on March 8 at TUS Thurles campus, will feature game presentations, awards, guest speakers and celebrations for the 20-year anniversary. You can register to attend at www.gamesfleadh.ie

The day will also celebrate videogames of the past and present that have inspired world-famous developers with features from games such as Doom, FIFA and Guitar Hero.

Students and developers will present their own creations and awards will be given to the best games made in different categories such as best game mechanics, best trailer, and best use of artificial intelligence algorithms.

The competition will reward those brightest and most innovative for their contribution to the Irish games development industry.

BAFTA award-winning Game Designer Brenda Romero will be talking about the booming industry and the importance of women in technology in celebration of International Women's Day.

John Romero of Romero Games will feature and chat with the audience while commemorating the 30-year anniversary of the video game Doom.

Leading professionals from game development giants Electronic Arts will also be in attendance.

We are thrilled to be celebrating the 20th anniversary of Games Fleadh this year. . .Through the creativity and imagination of Games, this unique event brings together industry, academia, current students, and future students. said Dr. Janice OConnell, Head of the Department of Information Technology at TUS.

Games Fleadh is a free, ticketed event, and is an excellent opportunity for students of computer science and game development to learn and network with industry professionals.
A FORMER food delivery driver has denied, in court, offering to sell cannabis to customers in Limerick when bringing fast food to their homes.

At Ennis District Court, Judge Mary Larkin imposed a two month prison term on married father-of-one, Renan Ricardo Da Costa when convicting him of the possession of cannabis with intent to sell or supply despite his denials.

The offence occurred at Glendermot House, Monaskeha, Clonlara, County Clare on February 23, 2022.

Judge Larkin also fined the 29-year-old for possession of the cannabis on the same date.

In court, Sergeant Aiden Lonergan said that gardai recovered 25 separate deal bags' containing cannabis that were found in a Just Eat orange bag, used for the delivery of food, in Mr Da Costas car.

The defendant, who has an addresses at Glendermot House, Monaskeha, Clonlara and at Bru Na Gruadan, Castletroy, Limerick told the court that he worked for Just Eat for five months and had delivered food for the likes of McDonalds and Burger King in the Limerick area.

Mr Da Costa agreed with Sgt Lonergan that his work for Just Eat allowed him to travel door-to-door delivering fast food.

Sgt Lonergan asked: When you were delivering food for Just Eat did anyone ever ask you for cannabis?

In response, Mr Da Costa said: no.

He also replied no when Sgt Lonergan asked: Did you ever offer anyone cannabis for sale when delivering a Big Mac or a pizza?

Sgt Lonergan said forensic tests found that 124.5 grams of cannabis was recovered from Mr Da Costas Just Eat bag with a street value of 2,490. An additional 2,600 in cash was also found in his possession.

The sergeant said the amount of cannabis stored in the Just Eat bag taken together with the large amount of cash indicates that the purpose of the drugs was the sale and supply.

However, Mr Da Costa denied this: I dont sell drugs. I am a normal person. I just work, he said.

Mr Da Costa said that he was a cannabis user and smoked cannabis twice a day. I didnt sell drugs, I am not involved in selling. I just use it," he stated.

In relation to the cash, Mr Da Costa - who has eight previous convictions - said he saves at home. He added that he thought he purchased 90 grams of cannabis for 700. He said that the cannabis would do him for one and a half months.

Solicitor Tara Godfrey said her instructions were that Mr Da Costa used the drugs for his personal use and that the car was used as a "smoking booth".

She said this was because Mr Da Costas mother-in-law was staying with him at the time and that he didnt wish to smoke cannabis while she was staying.

Ms Godfrey asked Judge Larkin to view Mr Da Costa as an addict rather than someone higher up the scale and not having a background in this type of offending.

Ms Godfrey asked Judge Larkin not to impose a custodial sentence on her client who, she said, has been living in Ireland for four years.
In February, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) reported a YoY growth of eight per cent with a total sales figure of 58,801 units, as compared to 54,455 units dispatched to dealers in February 2022.

According to a statement by the Mumbai-based auto giant, its domestic passenger vehicle sales increased by 10 per cent to 30,358 units in February, up from 27,663 units sold in the same month last year.

Mahindra & Mahindra says that its commercial vehicle sales increased from 23,978 units in February last year to 26,193 units last month. Meanwhile, the company's exports in February declined by 20% to 2,250 units, down from 2,814 units in the same period last year.

M&M Automotive Division President Veejay Nakra said the company continues to sell more than 30,000 SUVs per month.

"Our recent launches (Thar RWD and XUV400) have received a very positive response and we see good demand across our portfolio as well. We are monitoring and taking appropriate steps on the supply chain scenario of semiconductors, which continue to be dynamic," he noted.

Meanwhile, Mahindra is introducing a new variant of the Scorpio Classic called the Classic S5, which will be positioned between the Classic S and Classic S11 trims. This move has been likely made as the higher-spec Classic S11 is not selling as well due to its price proximity to the Scorpio N.

According to a report by Autocar India, the upcoming Scorpio Classic S5 variant will come with three seating configurations - a 7-seater with bench, a 7-seater with captain's chairs, and a 9-seater with bench. This is a significant improvement over the current offering, where only two out of the three options are available depending on the variant. Additionally, the sources suggest that the Classic S11 will also now have the 9-seat configuration option.
NEW DELHI : India's youngest airline Akasa Air will hire 300 pilots over the next 12 months, Founder and Chief Executive Officer Vinay Dube said.

The six-month-old airline has recently inducted its 18th aircraft ahead of its estimated timeline of March 2023. The total order book for Akasa stands at 72 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft.

Dube reiterated that the airline will place a "3 digit aircraft order" before the end of this year.

The airline started scheduled commercial flights on 7 August 2022 and currently operates more than 700 weekly flights across 14 domestic destinations including Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Chennai, Cochin, Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Agartala, Goa, Vizag, Pune, Lucknow, Hyderabad and Varanasi.

The airline's largest hub is based in Bengaluru with 36 daily flights from Bengaluru, and as a result, Akasa Air is the third largest domestic carrier in the city. The airline is optimistic that it will soon be the second largest carrier from Bengaluru.

"We are forecasted to achieve an average of 100 flights per day, starting 10th of March 2023 - the first time ever that a new airline in India has managed to breach the daily 100 flights mark at such a short span of time. With this, we will also offer 700 flights per week, well within 200 days of operations. We are on track to receive our 20th aircraft this summer and remain focussed on establishing a strong national presence, providing linkages from metro to tier 2 and tier 3 cities across the country," Praveen Iyer, Co-Founder, and Chief Commercial Officer, Akasa Air said.

The airline also joined Air India in allowing pets on board from November 2022 and so far, 250 domesticated cats and dogs have travelled on its network.

The airline also plans to invest heavily in its digital ecosystem with enhancements to the web and mobile app centred around user convenience and personalisation.

"We have achieved our target of inducting 20 aircraft before time," Dube said. Over the next four years, the airline is expected to add 54 additional aircraft, taking its total fleet size to 72 aircraft.

As per Jan data from Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Akasa is the seventh largest airline in India with a market share of 2.8% after IndiGo, Air India, Vistara, Go FIRST, AirAsia India and SpiceJet. IndiGo is the largest domestic airline with a market share of 54.6%.
India is known the world over as the graveyard of global truckmakers, and over the years, it has underlined why it deserves that sobriquet. The list of global commercial vehicle manufacturers that have entered the country only to succumb is long and varied. It includes Ford Motor Company (before the recent decision to exit Indias passenger car market, it made an abortive attempt to launch trucks in the 1980s), American major Navistar (it had a JV with M&M), Japans Hino Motors (owned by Toyota), Italys Iveco (in partnership with Ashok Leyland), Swedens Scania (which closed its luxury bus business) and the Volkswagen-owned MAN Trucks.

These brands, which have a footprint straddling markets across the world, found India too hot to handle. For one, it is a cost-conscious market. Local players Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland, who have a stranglehold over the market, manufacture and sell trucks at price points that are too low for the multinational (MNC) players to match. Over the last five decades or more, the duo has also built a formidable service network across the length and breadth of the country, which is not easy for a new entrant to replicate. This is a critical psychological need in a market where the reliability of a truck is always tested by rampant overloading and poor road conditions.

Despite this, many global players, including Daimler, the worlds largest truckmaker, bravely ventured in. All of them were drawn to India because it was a market that was impossible to ignoreIndia has a large population and a long road network. The countrys rapidly growing economy depends heavily on roads to move goods. And yet, despite the road sectors primacy, the volume of commercial vehicles sold annually was lowit was less than 200,000 units in 2006, while China was 10 times higher. This offered plenty of headroom for growth. And most of all, after over half a century, the Indian commercial vehicle sector was on the cusp of modernization, an attractive proposition for foreign players.

The board of Daimler AG grappled with these factors before greenlighting, in 2006, the truckmakers entry into India. The German company has established its presence here today, despite witnessing one global peer after another bite the dust.

Wallowing in the red

Seventeen years and an investment of 9,650 crore later, Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV) has managed to establish a foothold in the Indian market and make it a hub for its exports. Its local sales average 15,000 units annually; the companys cumulative sales in India so far exceed 140,000 units. The company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Daimler Truck Holding AG, ended 2020-21 with 5,271 crore in revenue (it is yet to release the 2021-22 numbers). Of that, exports of trucks and components, amounting to 1,629 crore, account for slightly less than 30% of its revenue. Today, DICV has become a critical hub for Daimlers global operations," says Satyakam Arya, CEO, DICV.

To be sure, Daimler has come a long way compared to other global players. However, in terms of market share and profitability, it is nowhere near the Big 2. A decade after launching its first trucks in the medium and heavy commercial vehicles (M&HCV) segment, DICVs overall market share is a mere 5%. In comparison, Tata Motors has a 51% share, while Ashok Leyland is at 26%. It doesnt help that all of them have been operating in a market that has shrunk to a level last seen in 2008.

As for profitability, the German company continues to wallow in the red. In 2020-21, DICV posted a loss of 426 crore. In fact, in the last three years (between 2018-19 and 2020-21), it has incurred a loss of 766 crore. The parent company has had to periodically infuse money to make up for the losses. Its larger rivals have also struggled with profitability, but that is no consolation.

DICVs domestic sales touched a high of 22,532 units in 2018 but have since declined. They dropped to a low 9,624 units in covid-hit 2020 and recovered to 14,222 units in 2021. The company is yet to release its 2022 numbers.

Daimler badly needs to improve its volumes and for that it needs to sell more in India," says an automotive expert from an international consultancy firm who didnt want to be identified. With sales not living up to the companys expectations, capacity utilization at its 400-acre manufacturing facility at Oragadam, near Chennai, is low, at barely 35%. While the plant has the capacity to produce 70,000 trucks per annum, its output averages around 25,000 units (both for domestic sales and exports).

Martin Daum, chairman, Daimler Truck Holding AG, who was in Chennai late last year to celebrate the 10th anniversary of BharatBenz trucks (DICVs brand in India), blamed the slow pace of the industrys modernization for lower volumes. We thought the market for sophisticated trucks would grow much faster. But it didnt. It is far behind initial estimates," he has been quoted as saying in the media.

Daimler is also a victim of bad timing. While it had anticipated multiple challenges on its India journey, what it did not foresee was a rapid contraction of the market. This was due to a series of setbacks, which began with the economic slowdown, followed by demonetization, the revision in axle-load norms (which, in effect, regularized overloading and added huge trucking capacity, hurting demand for new trucks), and culminated with the covid pandemic.

When we entered India, M&HCV demand was expected to touch 500,000 units by 2015 and 1 million units by 2020. Today, the industry volume, at around 241,000 units, is at 2008 levels," says Arya. This contraction has, of course, impacted all the players.

New approach

Looking back, Daimler has laid a good foundation for itself in India and has done some things well. DICV has invested and put in place all the building blocks that are needed to succeed once the commercial vehicle market in India, which typically operates in cycles, revives," says the automotive expert cited above.

Setting up those building blocks was no mean feat. Despite a strong product portfolio, an automotive history of over 100 years, and a presence in over 150 countries with market leadership in many developing countries, it chose not to take any chances with India. The company set aside 1,200 crore for India-specific product development. In fact, the first infrastructure it built at its Oragadam facility, in 2009, was a 47-acre test trackonly its third after Germany and Japanthat simulated Indias diverse road conditions.

We launched our products in September 2012 after testing them for more than three years," recalls VRV Sriprasad, former vice-president (marketing, sales & after sales) and DICVs second employee.

Daimler also put a great deal of thought into the brand name for its vehicles. Foreign brands unnerved Indian truckers. They were seen as pricey, with little product support. Many had quit India in the past, leaving buyers high and dry. After many months of deliberation, DICV settled on BharatBenz as the brand. It was the first time in the German automotive majors history that Benz was associated with a name other than Mercedes," recalls Arya.

Changing the name was relatively easy compared to setting up a sales and service network. In 2006, market leader Tata Motor had over 500-plus touch points while Ashok Leyland boasted of 400-plus such facilities. That apart, their biggest strength was that there were thousands of roadside mechanics across the country who could easily repair their vehicles.

After conducting a study, DICV took a radical approach, riding on its reputation for quality. We offered vehicles that required oil and filter changes only once in 50,000 km. That apart, our vehicles had high reliability. To drive home this point, we were the first in the industry to offer a three-year warranty," recalls Sriprasad. This ensured that it did not have to set up too many dealerships. Data mining also helped. In September 2012 when the company launched its products, it had just 20 dealerships in place. By 2014, it addressed 88% of the market with just 73 dealerships. Today, DICV has about 300 touch points.

View Full Image Diamler India sales data.

Export focus

After an abortive attempt to tie up with Eicher Motors and a short-lived marriage with the Hero group, Daimlers local team recast the business plan and convinced the Board to go it alone. DICV thus came into existence.

Work on independently building a local supply chain began soon thereafter. We set a high localization level of 85% as it was critical to bring down the cost of the vehicle," says Arya. The company selected suppliers and, in many cases, transferred technology to them. Many technologies that were till then used in-house by Daimler were transferred for the first time," he adds.

DICV also decided to Make in India long before the term was coined. Today, it has over 400 suppliers and its localization level has reached 95% in value terms. In a move to benefit from economies of scale and reduce costs, not just for Indian operations but globally, the company chose early on to focus on sourcing parts for Daimlers plants elsewhere in the world. Over 100 suppliers have so far exported more than 200 million parts to Daimlers operations worldwide," says Arya. For instance, DICV is today the hub for transmission parts for the whole of Europe and Brazil.

The exports were not restricted to just components; DICV started exporting trucks early on. In fact, Oragadam is the only Daimler facility across the world that manufactures and exports multiple truck brands  Fuso (to Japan and the rest of Asia), Freightliner (to the Americas) and Mercedes Benz (to various parts of the world)," says Arya. The company claims to have exported over 60,000 units to over 60 countries so far.

While auto analysts laud all these efforts, they have not been enough to lift Daimler out of the also-ran league and it remains a bit player in the worlds toughest truck market. If it has to establish a larger presence and turn profitable, DICV needs to cast a wider net for customers and look beyond large fleet operators. It needs to reach out to the price-sensitive single-truck owners and small-fleet operators who dominate the market.

Rajinder Singh, managing director, Janta Roadways, a Chennai-based fleet operator with over 200 trucks (including 10 BharatBenz vehicles), sums up DICVs predicament. When it comes to cost of operations (TCO), BharatBenz is much lower than Tata Motors or Ashok Leyland," he emphasizes. But, he complains, Daimler trucks are packed with features that are way more than what the market needs, which makes them 10-15% costlier. People can appreciate the lower TCO only if they buy and use BharatBenz trucks. But for that, the price has to come down," he says.

While it may have done enough to avoid ending up as one more tombstone along Indias trucking highway, Daimler certainly needs to pay heed to the market if it is to go the distance in this country.
On Wednesday, the Union Cabinet approved the acquisition of 70 HTT-40 basic trainer aircraft from Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) for a whopping 6,828.36 crore. The said aircraft will be supplied to Indian Air Force over a period of six years. HAL would engage Indian private industry, including MSMEs, in its supply chain.

As per Defence Ministry, the HTT-40 is a turbo-prop aircraft and is designed to have good low-speed handling qualities and provide better training effectiveness. This fully aerobatic tandem seat turbo trainer has an air-conditioned cockpit, modern avionics, hot re-fuelling, running change over, and zero-zero ejection seats.

The aircraft contains approximately 56% indigenous content which will progressively increase to over 60% through indigenisation of major components and subsystems.

Further, the aircraft is expected to meet the shortage of basic trainer aircraft of IAF for the training of newly inducted pilots. The procurement will include associated equipment and training aids including simulators.

Being an indigenous solution, the Aircraft is configurable for upgrades to incorporate the futuristic requirements of the Indian Armed Forces, the ministry statement said.

According to the ministry, the procurement has the potential to provide direct employment to approximately 1,500 personnel and indirect employment for up to 3,000 people spread over more than 100 MSMEs.

Moreover, the acquisition of the HTT-40 provides a fillip to the Indian Aerospace Defence ecosystem and boosts efforts towards Aatmanirbhar Bharat.

On BSE, HAL share price closed at 2,685.70 apiece up by 111.95 or 4.35% on Wednesday. The company's market cap stood at 89,806.45 crore.
Mumbai: The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Wednesday refused to stay the National Company Law Tribunal's (NCLT) order which allowed the transfer of ownership of Jet Airways to its successful resolution applicant Jalan-Kalrock consortium.

A bench, led by Justice Ashok Bhushan, while refusing to stay the lenders' plea, said, "Plan needs to be implemented as approved by the NCLT." A detailed order in the matter is awaited.

On 8 February, the lenders approached the tribunal, aggrieved by the NCLT order. The lenders and the consortium have been at loggerheads over the implementation of the resolution plan approved by the NCLT in June 2021.

In its order passed on 13 January, the NCLT held that the plan approved by the tribunal has to be implemented without any modification, adding that We are of the view that in the interest of justice and in achieving the primary objective of maximization of assets and resolution of corporate debtor, we grant exclusion of 180-days for taking control of the corporate debtor (Jet)."

From 16 November, which is set as the effective date for taking control of Jet, the consortium has six months to pay the dues owed by the beleaguered airlines employees.

Lenders had argued that the consortium had not adhered to the conditions precedent (CPs) required for the transfer of ownership while the consortium held that it had satisfied all the requisite CPs that were required to take control of Jet Airways.

Moreover, the lenders had said the viability of the approved plan submitted by Jalan-Kalrock consortium was highly doubtful since it did not provide any comfort to the lenders in terms of paying their consideration obligations.

Jet Airways owes its operational and financial creditors more than 15,000 crores.

As per the plan, the consortium had to also pay the gratuity and provident fund dues owed to the former employees and workmen of the cash-strapped airlines.

Following this, the consortium knocked on the doors of NCLAT seeking to cap its payment liabilities at 475 crores under the approved resolution plan. The appellate law tribunal, however, rejected the consortium's plea. This was then challenged before the Supreme Court.

Later in January, the top court dismissed the appeal of Jalan-Kalrock that sought a stay on the NCLAT order directing it to pay provident fund and gratuity dues to workers of Jet.
NEW DELHI : Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Wednesday said that Shree Anna (Millets) is the need of the day, as it is rich in nutrients.

In the present environment, whether at home or outside, food is available to us, but it lacks nutrients as per requirement. Nutrients should be in sufficient quantity in the food, for this it is necessary to have Shree Anna in our food plate," Tomar said while addressing the inauguration ceremony of the two-day National Millets Conference organized by Jawaharlal Nehru Agricultural University, Jabalpur as part of the International Year of Millets.

Tomar said that we know that millets are being produced as a special product in the world. With the passage of time, the share of millets in the food plate decreased and millets lost its competitive edge. Efforts are being made to promote millets again and increase its use.

Under the leadership of India, the whole world is celebrating the year 2023 as the International Year of Millets. It will be formally launched by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi at an International Conference in New Delhi on 18 March," he added.

The minister said that under the directions of the Prime Minister, a plan has been prepared for the promotion of millets through G-20 meetings. In all the programs of G-20, priority is being given to millets in food, so that when these people return to their country, they take good taste of food from here and Indias Shree Anna gets new recognition in the world. Our farmers and the country will get the benefit of this," he informed.

Tomar said that the millets crop is rain-fed, which can be grown with less expenditure and consumes less water. Poor farmers can produce it in barren land. The more the use of millets increases, the more nutrients will be available in the food, which will benefit people.

If the use of millets increases in the world, processing will increase, exports will increase, which will benefit small farmers and it will eventually help improve their financial condition. This International Year of Millets is very important from this point of view," the minister said.

He added that to increase research on this in the country, three National Centers of Excellence have been set up in Haryana, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, through which a lot of work is being done. There are about 2000 Startups working in the Agriculture sector, most of which are related to millets. Agricultural products worth more than 4 lakh crore were exported from our country, most of which are organic and millets.

Lauding the contribution of Jawaharlal Nehru Agricultural University in promoting agriculture in Madhya Pradesh and making it emerge as a soya growing state, the minister said the University is also working on millets crops that are vanishing, an area which needs to be doubled up.
Citibank's customers will witness a major transformation from today (1 March 2023). The grand old bank, which started its India operations back in 1902 in Kolkata, has completely sold its retail banking assets to Axis Bank. Private lender Axis Bank announced on Wednesday that it has completed the acquisition of Citigroup's India consumer business for an overall consideration of 11,603 crore. With this, all of Citibank's consumer business in India will be transferred to Axis Bank.

Last year, the US bank Citigroup announced the sale of its consumer banking business, including wealth management, and loans to Axis Bank as part of its plans to exit retail operations in 13 markets.

With the completion of this deal, Axis Bank would get 30 lakh unique customers of Citibank India, seven offices, 21 branches, and 499 ATMs across 18 Indian cities.

Citibank India has on its official website informed its customers that "Citi India has transferred ownership of its consumer banking business to Axis Bank with effect from 1 March 2023".

Further, Citi India advised its customers that they can continue to use "all existing Citi products and/or services, branches, ATMs, internet banking and Citi Mobile app as usual".

The website mentioned that the trademarks "Citi", "Citibank", "Citigroup", the arc design, and all similar trademarks and derivations thereof are used temporarily under the license by Axis Bank from Citigroup Inc and related group entities.

Key things for Citibank's customers:

1. Your bank account numbers, credit and debit card numbers, chequebooks, and IFSC will remain the same.

2. Citi Mobile App or Citibank Online will remain functional.

3. The earning ratio and redemption process of the reward points in both credit and debit cards will remain the same.

4. If you have an insurance policy availed through Citi India, the features would remain the same and will continue to be serviced by Axis Bank.

5. You will be able to access any Axis Bank ATM. The number of free transactions currently available to you at Citibank ATMs will be extended to Axis Bank ATMs. However, any charges currently applicable over and above free transactions at Citibank ATMs will be charged on transactions at Axis Bank ATMs too.

6. Notably, the Citigold 'Global Banking Privileges' will cease today.

7. Citi NRI bank account: The existing NRI deposits (NRE/NRO/FCNR) will continue to earn interest as per the rates they were earning on their Citi deposits. But, any new NRI deposits will be as per Axis Bank's rates.

8. Your investments in mutual funds, PMS, or AIF will be transferred to Axis Bank.

9. Citibank home loan: If you have a home loan that is benchmarked to Citibank mortgage prime lending rate, base rate, or marginal cost of lending rate (MCLR), the same will not undergo any change. In case of any change during the course of the transition, Axis Bank will update the borrowers.

10. Dispute with Citi credit card: In this case, getting a resolution to your card complaints might be difficult.
Spring flowers are in full bloom but for those living in north India, it already feels like summer. And if we are to go by the predictions of private weather forecaster Skymet, the months of April, May and June will be searing"; the mercury could shoot up to record levels".

Spare a thought for several towns and cities where people may not be able to switch on their air conditioners all the time. Bhuj, Morbi and Anjar, along with other towns in Gujarat, for instance, are already encountering long hours of power cuts. The reason: state run power distribution companies, or discoms, have cut off the power supply since municipalities are yet to pay their dues.

This is unusual if not unprecedented in a country where supply or the cost of electricity is a political hot potato that can make or break electoral fortunes.

Cutting supply is always the last option. We have given many reminders and enough time for the municipalities to pay up," said an official with one of the discom companies who didnt want to be identified. Gujarat has four state-owned discom companies.

This may seem like an obvious thing to do in a business transaction but when it comes to the power sector in India, it is anything but that. Exercising this last option is the result of a domino effect from a policy change effected more than six months ago.

Before one can switch on the air conditioner, the television, or the geyser, the electricity passes through a web of wires across many entities. Electricity is generated at a power plant run by a power generation company, or genco, such as NTPC Ltd, where the primary fuel could be coal, water, wind, solar or nuclear. The job of transporting this electricity to our homes falls on the Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (to facilitate inter-state movement of power) and the discoms. They lay a mesh of high-tension overhead wires the ones you see on large farms, trans- formers and substations.

Some of the electricity gets lost in transit, which is referred to as transmission loss, and is borne by the discom. But then, that is just one hit such companies take. Non-payment of dues by the municipalities, like in the case of Gujarat, is another woe. Perennially debt-ridden and loss making, many discoms cant make their payments to the gencos.

The policy change we are talking about wants to break this cycle.

The central government, in June 2022, issued the late payment surcharge (LPS) rules. For the first time, gencos could cut the supply to defaulting discomsif they failed to pay within two-and-a-half months from the date bills are raised.

This was not a hollow threat. In August, last year, 27 discoms across 13 states were barred from buying or selling electricity in power exchanges due to non-payment of dues to gencos. The 13 defaulting states were Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur and Mizoram.

What followed was a mad scramble to pay up. Soon enough, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Bihar, Manipur and Chhattisgarh saw their names struck off after they cleared their pending dues. Others followed suit.

The message had been sent; the head- master wont budge any longer. The total outstanding dues owed by discoms to gencos is down 46% between June 2022 and February 2023 to 71,755 crore.

They havent completely sobered up. But it has brought some financial discipline to discoms and the payment owed to gencos in the last few months has come down. It is a positive development," said Vibhuti Garg, director, South Asia, Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).

The ability of the government to implement and provide a strong warning via this mechanism will raise alarms in the minds of discoms. How much they will be able to sustain while reeling under heavy debt will have to be monitored," said Hetal Gandhi, director- research, Crisil Market Intelligence and Analytics.

However, such green shoots had sprouted before. In the last two decades, governments tried at least five bailout packagesthree in the last decade alone hoping for a turnaround. And each time, the discoms have flattered to deceive as dues shot up after the first few years.

Will it be any different this time?

View Full Image (Graphics: Mint)

The carrot

The LPS is the latest in the governments two-pronged carrot and stick policy.

The carrot came in fiscal 2021 with a 1.35 trillion bailout package for discoms. A bigger carrot was the 3.04 trillion revamped distribution sector scheme in July 2021, which aims to reduce the aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) lossesrepresentative of power theft, inefficiencies in billing and collectionto pan-India levels of 12-15% from over 22% in fiscal 2021.

Right now, the cost of power for a discom is higher than the price at which it sells to the consumer. The scheme, therefore, also aims to close this gap to zero by 2024-25.

Other steps were also taken. In September 2021, the ministry of power tightened lending norms. To avail funding, loss making discoms now need to draw up an action plan for reducing losses within a specific timeframe and get their state governments commitment. Then, in October 2021, mandatory energy accounting and auditing was introduced for all discoms.

The government, meanwhile, has approved project reports from 13 states, aggregating to 1.62 trillion as part of the scheme. More than half of this amount will be given as grants for installation of smart meters to improve billing and collecting efficiencysmart meters can ensure better recording of power flows.

Smart meters will bring incremental benefits but it does not really address the main problem in the sector. I do not wish to downplay it but you can only achieve so much with improving billing and collection efficiencies," said Garg of IEEFA.

The Elephant in the...

The elephant in the room, which none of the bailout packages have addressed so far, is the inability of discoms to raise tariffs for consumers.

Unlike other commodities or services, the household electricity bill isnt revised annually. In most states, tariffs are not revised for years on end and any attempt at an increase is met with widespread protests. The Uttar Pradesh government, for instance, recently announced a proposal to hike tariffs by 18-23% for 2023-24the first hike in four years. Industries in Noida and Ghaziabad were immediately up in arms.

With electoral dividends in mind, state governments, often, reverse the course. Discoms are handicapped as state governments do not allow them to raise tariffs. That is where the rot begins," said Vikram V, vice president and sector head, corporate ratings, ICRA Ltd, a rating agency.

While the cost of power keeps fluctuating, it is not adequately passed on to the consumer. Their own inefficiencies in billing and collection, and the inability to check theft makes it worse."

States also want discoms to keep the tariff for residential and agricultural consumers very low, promising to subsidize their losses. However, the subsidies are typically not released on time. This adds to the interest burden.

In some cases, subsidies are delayed by months and it balloons. Mind you, we are not operationally profitable either. So, it is an addition to our loss and not a reduction in profit, which we could still live with," said the managing director of a discom on condition of anonymity.

As of 31 March 2022, state governments owed discoms 1.39 trillion, data sourced from the ministry of power shows. Of this, 76,337 crore are in unpaid subsidies.

The end result? An adverse impact on everyone, from power producers to consumers. While gencos do not get their dues on time, which leads to financial stress, consumers do not get the uninterrupted power supply they deserve.

On the one hand, you have the user consuming only 1,200 units a year when he should be consuming twice that amount. And you have the gencos, with 500 GW (gigawatt) of installed capacity, supplying only a peak of 220-250 GW," said Pratik Agarwal, managing director, Sterlite Power Transmission Ltd, a power transmission solutions company. So, you have an eager consumer wanting more and an eager generator wanting to supply more but a broken discom in the middle which is not able to facilitate this."

Milking the rich

There is also the issue of cross subsidies where states milk their industrial consumersthe factories and commercial establishmentsto offset the losses they incur on subsidies to sections such as farms. It has reached a point where it has become untenable, experts said.

It is affecting our competitiveness on a global scale," said Agarwal of Sterlite Power. This needs correction or our manufacturing sector will begin to flounder. How do you compete with China at such high cost?"

It also does a disservice to the profiling of discomssomething that shows up in the audits. Discoms that are rated as good performers based on financial and technical efficiency parameters have more commercial and industrial consumers than agricultural and household consumers. Gujarat discoms that are resorting to load shedding today, are rated A+ by rating agencies, indicating very high operational and performance capability.

The ratings, however, do not capture differences in demand profile. Domestic load is less than 15% in Gujarat. Industrial loadthat carries the highest tariffis nearly 60% in Gujarat and just 15% in Bihar whose discoms are rated C+, just a notch above C. A rating of C indicates very low operational and performance capability.

Hope springs in the East

After a three-year process, the government of Odisha became the first state in the country to privatize all four discoms in the state in 2020. The move is being keenly watched as a stress test for privatization, touted as the only solution to the financial distress in the sector. The signs are encouraging. All the four have shown a marked improvement in financial performance.

In the past, privatization has successfully worked in urban centres like Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Kolkata but there was always a question mark on whether it would work in a large state with significant rural population whose ability to pay for power is significantly lower. What worked? Bidders in Odisha were given a 10-year tariff trajectory and ATC loss was clearly specified. The private discom who won the bid, Tata Power, know the targets.

There are success stories from abroad. Brazil, a country with a federal structure similar to India, is cited as an example. Electricity in the country is a concurrent subject. Their discoms went broke every few years but, in the 90s, privatization kicked in.

All the Brazilian discoms are solvent and profit making, delivering high quality electricity," said Agarwal of Sterlite Power. You can either bite the bullet and prevent these companies from dying by changing their ownership or open the market for more competition."

Yet, privatization will be no silver bullet if state governments are not obliging on tariff revisions. In Delhi, for example, discoms claim that successive state governments havent cleared their dues, for well over a decade. The cumulative dues, according to the discoms, total 25,000 crore.

It is a concern as it spoils our balance sheet and shakes our confidence for investments in the future," said the chief executive of a power distribution company who didnt want to be identified.

Call it freebie or revdi, it is not sweet for us," rued a discom official from UP, talking about political parties making free electricity an election agenda. It is a dangerous trend and will push us deeper in the red. Even private discoms wont be able to manage this."
New Delhi: The central government hosted the first meeting of the governing board of BIMSTEC Energy Centre (BEC) on 27 February, 2023 in Bengaluru.

The meeting witnessed active participation from member countries Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

Indias Neighbourhood first and Act East policies were highlighted during the meeting and a snapshot of areas where BIMSTEC countries can learn and adapt from each other was also presented," the Ministry of Power said.

As host, India made a presentation on establishing BIMSTEC Energy Centre (BEC) in the premises of the Central Power Research Institute (CPRI), Bengaluru.

Ghanshyam Prasad, chairperson, CEA, was nominated as the first executive director of the Energy Centre. The meeting considered and finalized the note on Host Country Agreement between the Government of Republic of India and the BIMSTEC Secretariat. The same was recommended to the seventh meeting of BIMSTEC Permanent Working Committee for consideration," the ministry said.

Considering the current energy scenario in the BIMSTEC region, the meeting recommended addition of the cyber security, green hydrogen, and energy transition areas under the specialised wings of BEC.

The member countries appreciated Indias efforts for organizing the first meeting of the Governing Board of BIMSTEC Energy Centre. The countries expressed that such meetings of the BIMSTEC will happen more frequently," the ministry added.
New Delhi: Oil marketing companies (OMC) on Wednesday raised prices of both domestic and commercial LPG cylinders, but lowered jet fuel prices.

According to available on the Indian Oil Corps website, price of non-subsidised 14.2-kg domestic LPG cylinder has been increased by 50 to 1,103 in the national capital. The price of a 19-kg commercial LPG cylinder has witnessed a steeper hike of 350.5 to 2,119.50.

Effective 1 March, a 14.2-kg domestic LPG cylinder will cost 1,102.50 in Mumbai, 1,129 in Kolkata, and 1,118.50 in Chennai.

While prices of domestic LPG have been revised after a gap of around seven months, commercial LPG prices have been raised twice so far this year.

Global energy prices had surged in the aftermath of Russias invasion of Ukraine in February last year. Although, prices largely remained elevated, they have since eased from multi-year highs.

OMCs have suffered heavy losses on the sale of these fuels as they were selling below global prices. In October, the Centre gave a one-time special grant of 22,000 crore to the three companies to compensate them for losses on domestic LPG sales.

Aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices on Wednesday were cut by 4% following the recent fall in international oil prices amid gloomy economic outlook. ATF prices are revised on the first of every month based on the average rate of international benchmark and foreign exchange rates.

After the cut, ATF is now priced at 1.07 lakh per kilolitre in Delhi, compared to 1.12 lakh per kilolitre.
NEW DELHI : The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved signing of a contract with Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T) for acquisition of three cadet training ships, at an overall cost of 3,108.09 crore, under Buy (Indian-IDDM (Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured)) category.

The delivery of ships is scheduled to commence from 2026, the Ministry of Defence said in a statement.

According to the ministry, these ships will cater to the training of officer cadets, including women, at sea after their basic training to meet the future requirements of the Indian Navy.

The ships would also provide training to cadets from friendly countries with the aim to strengthen diplomatic relations. The ships can also be deployed for evacuation of people and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR)," it added.

The ships will be indigenously designed, developed and constructed at L&T shipyard in Kattupalli, Chennai.

The project will generate employment of 22.5 lakh man-days over a period of four-and-half years. This will encourage the active participation of Indian shipbuilding and associated industries, including MSMEs.

With the majority of the equipment and systems sourced from indigenous manufacturers, these vessels will be a proud flag bearer of Aatmanirbhar Bharat in consonance with the Make in India initiative of the Government.
The new appointees include Vipasha Joshi as chief operating officer, Krishna Desai, as chief product officer and Biswamitra Ray who will look after branded content and creator projects. These appointments follow the recent announcement of Devdatta Potnis as chief executive officer, who was previously with Cosmos Maya and Viacom.

Joshi will lead creator growth and content strategy at Animeta across all major verticals, languages and regions. Her experience includes eight years as head of diversity at Google India, and stints at Dentsu and Jellysmack, where she developed the creator program in APAC and grew creator revenue across multiple platforms.

Animeta offers holistic, all-encompassing, sustainable growth for our creator partners, and I am happy to make a meaningful difference in the creators lives," Joshi said in a statement.

On the product side, chief product officer and data scientist Krishna Desai will oversee the development of Animetas AI-powered platform to provide data and business intelligence to drive the companys operations. A media expert with over 22 years of experience in the television and media industries, Desai has built data-driven plans for multinationals, including WPP and WarnerMedia, where he held the position of network head.

I am excited to build an AI-powered tech product that has the potential to change the lives of millions of social content creators across the world and bring about a paradigm shift in the industry, Desai said in a statement.

Ray will serve as senior vice-president of branded content and creator projects, focusing on creator growth and partnerships. He previously spent eight years at Meta, where he led creator strategy for Facebook and Instagram in India and managed the platforms relationships with the countrys creators.
The rally in Gautam Adani's flagship entity, Adani Enterprises Ltd has the potential to extend further, as per technicals. The shares surged 15.78 per cent to settle at 1,579.00 apiece, after climbing 14 per cent yesterday, ending a seven-day losing streak that was the longest since October 2022.

Chart patterns show that bulls may be eyeing 1,900  nearly 40 per cent higher than yesterday's close  so long as they're able to hold the stock above critical support at almost 1,400.

Technical factors are suggesting a strong counter trend move in Adani Enterprises," said Anuj Dixit, vice president of equity research at Mumbai-based Sovereign Global Markets Pvt Ltd.

"There is potential for further rally in the stock as the bullish engulfing pattern is supported by high volumes," Dixit said.

The recovery that began Tuesday saw the stock end the session with a so-called bullish engulfing" pattern. Also, yesterday's volume on the NSE stood at nearly 340 lakh shares, about 2.4 times the 20-day average and the highest since 3 February, when 439 lakh shares traded on the day of crash lows.

All 10 stocks of the ports-to-power Adani Group closed higher, the first such occurrence since the bombshell report by US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research on 24 January sparked an unprecedented rout in the empire's shares.

Adani Total Gas climbed 4.9 per cent, ending a 26-session losing streak.

The conglomerate has lost about $145 billion of its market capitalization since the report that alleged accounting fraud and stock manipulation.

Adani, led by billionaire Gautam Adani, has rejected the allegations and denied any wrongdoing.

The Adani Group companies have recouped some losses this week after the ports-to-airport conglomerate's management kicked off roadshows in Singapore and Hong Kong to shore up investor confidence in the crisis-ridden empire.

The group said that it has sufficient cash to prepay a lot of debts, including onshore bonds, and it has started doing that already.

Meanwhile, Adani Group has told creditors it has secured a $3 billion loan from a sovereign wealth fund. The credit line from the sovereign wealth fund could be increased to $5 billion, according to a Reuters report.

The news of Adani securing fresh credit comes a day after group management told bondholders it expected to prepay or repay share-backed loans worth $690 million to $790 million by March-end.

Know your inner investor Do you have the nerves of steel or do you get insomniac over your investments? Lets define your investment approach. Take the test
India's Adani Group has told creditors it has secured $3 billion loan from a sovereign wealth fund, two sources with knowledge of the matter said, as the embattled conglomerate seeks to ease concerns about its credit profile after a short-seller attack.

The credit line from the sovereign wealth fund could be upsized to $5 billion, said the two sources, citing a memo that was circulated to participants as highlights of a three-day investor roadshow ending on Wednesday.

The identity of the sovereign wealth fund was not disclosed in the memo.

The sources declined to be identified as they were not authorised to speak with media.

A spokesperson for Adani did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The news of a fresh fundraising plan comes a day after Adani management told bondholders that it expected to prepay or repay share-backed loans worth $690 million to $790 million by end-March.

The plans are being unveiled as the group holds a fixed-income roadshow this week in Singapore and Hong Kong to shore up investor confidence amid steep share price falls and a regulatory probe.

Seven listed Adani Group companies have lost more than $140 billion in market value since a Jan. 24 report by Hindenburg Research alleged stock manipulation and improper use of tax havens, and flagged concerns over debt levels.

Adani has rejected the allegations and denied any wrongdoing.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.
Here is the list of the top 10 stocks that will be in focus today:

Adani Group: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is examining the utilization of sanctioned bank loans by the Adani group to determine if the company is relying excessively on domestic lenders to fund its operations and expansion plans, a banker aware of the development said. The banker said RBI supervisors overseeing some banks are even requesting Adani group loan data twice weekly, including sanctioned fund-based and non-fund-based limits and their utilization.

One 97 Communications: Paytm on 28 February denied the recent news article about offloading of shares by SoftBank and Ant Group, stating that the firm is 'not part of any negotiation/events as mentioned in the news report'. In a report published by Economic Times, it was said that China's Ant Group and Japan's SoftBank were looking to sell their shares in the company through a secondary sale. As per details, Masayoshi Son's SoftBank and Alibaba's affiliate Antfin have 13.24 per cent and 25.47 per cent shares in Paytm respectively.

State Bank of India: The State Bank of India, the country's top lender, on Tuesday, said it raised $1 billion via a syndicated social loan from global banks for further lending to certain kinds of socially impactful businesses in India. The funds will be used to further lend to microfinance institutions and self-help groups, a senior official at SBI, who declined to be named, told Reuters. The loan facility was arranged through Japan-based MUFG Bank and Taiwan-based Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank Co. Ltd, SBI said in a release on Tuesday.

Biocon: Integrated Core Strategies (Asia) Pte on Tuesday bought shares of biopharmaceutical company Biocon for 185 crore through an open market transaction. According to the bulk deal data available with the National Stock Exchange (NSE), Integrated Core Strategies (Asia) Pte purchased 80,61,599 shares at an average price of 229.26 for each share. The aggregate deal value is 184.82 crore. Kotak Special Situations Fund (KSSF) announced an investment of RS 1,070 crore in the Indian biopharmaceutical major, Biocon.

Reliance Industries: Indias largest telco, Reliance Jio, will clock the fastest rollout of 5G services in the world, said chairman Akash Ambani at a post-budget webinar of the ministry of electronics and information technology. Jio has launched 5G services in 277 cities so far in India, with the largest deployment of over 40,000 sites and 250,000 cells in the 700 Mhz as well as in the 3500 Mhz band, he said. Jio is aiming to cover every town, every taluka, and every tehsil across the nation by December 2023.

Vedanta: Vedanta assured on Tuesday that it was in a comfortable position to meet debt maturing in April as well as the first quarter of the upcoming financial year. The remarks came amid growing concerns about Vedanta Resources' ability to meet its financial obligations in the coming months. A company spokesperson was quoted as telling CNBC-TV18 that there was no question of default and dismissed the risks of people selling shares. The spokesperson also told the publication that no holdings - except a 6.8% stake in Hindustan Zinc - were pledged.

Delhivery: Japanese conglomerate Softbank will offload shares worth 600 crore in Delhivery through block deals on Wednesday, according to reports. Softbank may also consider upsizing the option, if the deal sees strong demand, according to reports. The block deal to offload Delhivery shares could start on 1 March 2023. The shares are likely to be offered at a 3-5 per cent discount to the current market price. Citigroup will be the broker for the deal.

NTPC: Under the aegis of the National Monetization Pipeline of government, State-owned power utility major NTPC Ltd on Tuesday completed the transfer of its 15 renewable energy assets to NTPC Green Energy Limited. NTPC Limited completed the closing of the transactions in relation to consolidating its renewable energy portfolio under one umbrella entity i.e., NTPC Green Energy Limited (NGEL"), on February 28, 2023," the company said in a statement. This is a transfer of RE assets/ entities owned by NTPC to NGEL, its wholly-owned subsidiary, incorporated on 7 April 2022.

Ambuja Cements: Ambuja Cements Ltd bagged a coal mine in Maharashtra on the second day of the commercial mines auction on Tuesday. While Assam Mineral Development Corporation Ltd emerged as the highest bidder for a coal block in Jharkhand, Shreesatya Mines Private Ltd bagged a coal block in the eastern state. The auction of three other coal blocks was underway. "Forward auctions for these mines have been started on 27.02.2023 and on the 2nd day of the e-auction, six coal mines were put up for auction," the coal ministry said in a statement.

Tata Power: Tata Power on Tuesday said the board of its arm Tata Power Renewable Energy has approved the allotment of 20 crore preference shares worth 2,000 crore to GreenForest New Energies Bidco. "Board of Directors of Tata Power Renewable Energy Ltd (TPREL), a subsidiary of the Company, today approved the allotment of 20,00,00,000 Compulsorily Convertible Preference Shares at face value of 100 each at par aggregating to 2,000 crore on a preferential basis to GreenForest New Energies Bidco Ltd (GreenForest), a Company incorporated under the laws of England and Wales," a BSE filing said.
Clarifying on the Reuters report of securing $3 billion from sovereign wealth fund, Adani group clarifies that it's false. According to a Reuters report, India's Adani Group informed creditors on Wednesday that it had secured a $3 billion loan from a sovereign wealth fund.

A day after company management informed bondholders that it anticipated prepaying or repaying share-backed loans of $690 million to $790 million by the end of March, news of Adani securing new credit circulated. The credit line from the sovereign wealth fund could be increased to $5 billion, according to a Reuters report.

Post the announcement, NSE and BSE sought clarification from Adani Enterprises on Wednesday with reference to news appeared dated 1st March 2023 quoting Adani says has secured $3 billion from sovereign wealth fund, however the reply is awaited from the exchanges.

Since a Hindenburg Research report on January 24 accused stock manipulation, seven listed Adani Group firms have collectively lost more than $145 billion in market value. Nevertheless, Adani, headed by billionaire Gautam Adani, has dismissed the claims and rejected all accusations.

Since the bombshell report by US short-seller Hindenburg Research in late January, all 10 Adani Group stocks ended on a positive note on Wednesday. The flagship Adani Enterprises ended 15.78% higher while Adani Total Gas surged 5% in a broader market that gained 0.85% on Wednesday. Shares in Adani group firms kept going up after the Reuters report. Adani Green Energy Ltd., Adani Transmission Ltd. and Adani Power Ltd ended today at a 5% upper circuit limit today. The market value of the ten companies that make up billionaire Gautam Adani's empire increased by roughly $9 billion during the last two trading sessions.

A Bloomberg report said the rally in Adani Enterprises has the potential to extend further, according to technicals. Chart patterns show that bulls may be eyeing 1,900 rupees  nearly 22% higher than Wednesdays close  so long as theyre able to hold the stock above critical support at almost 1,400 rupees.

The recovery in the flagships shares that began Tuesday saw the stock end that session with a so-called bullish engulfing" pattern. Also, Tuesdays volume on the National Stock Exchange stood at nearly 34 million shares, about 2.4 times the 20-day average and the highest since Feb. 3, when 43.9 million shares traded on the day of crash lows, according to a report from Bloomberg.

(With inputs from agencies)
NEW DELHI : The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved the procurement of 70 HTT-40 Basic Trainer Aircraft from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for the Indian Air Force at a cost of 6,828.36 crore.

The aircraft will be supplied over a period of six years, the Ministry of Defence said in a statement.

The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) chaired by Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi has approved procurement of 70 HTT-40 Basic Trainer Aircraft at the cost of 6,828.36 crores," Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Twitter.

The defence ministry said the HTT-40, produced by state-run aerospace major Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, is a turboprop aircraft designed to have good low-speed handling qualities and provide better training effectiveness.

This fully aerobatic tandem seat turbo trainer has air-conditioned cockpit, modern avionics, hot re-fueling, running change over and zero-zero ejection seats. The aircraft will meet the shortage of basic trainer aircraft of IAF for training of newly inducted pilots. The procurement will include associated equipment and training aids including simulators," the ministry said.

Being an indigenous solution, the Aircraft is configurable for upgrades to incorporate the futuristic requirements of the Indian Armed Forces," it added.

The defence minister said the procurement decision will open new opportunities for hundreds of MSMEs (Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) and create thousands of jobs.

It is a significant step towards strengthening Indias self-reliance in defence," he said.

The HTT-40 contains approx. 56% indigenous content which will progressively increase to over 60% through indigenisation of major components and subsystems.

The HAL would engage Indian private industry, including MSMEs, in its supply chain. The procurement has the potential to provide direct employment to approx. 1,500 personnel and indirect employment for up to 3,000 people spread over more than 100 MSMEs," it said in a statement.

The acquisition of the HTT-40 provides fillip to the Indian Aerospace Defence ecosystem and boosts efforts towards Aatmanirbhar Bharat, it added.
The G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting (FMM) is scheduled to take place in physical format from 1-2 March, 2023 in New Delhi under India's presidency.

Representatives of 40 countries, including non-G20 members invited by India, and multilateral organisations will attend. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to address the foreign ministers of the member countries of G20 and he will talk about India's growing influence globally.

The Foreign Ministers meeting is one of the most significant G20 meetings.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in India for the G20 FMM. He is also set to attend Raisina Dialogue 2023. Besides Lavrov, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DSA) Under Secretary General Li Junhua also arrived for the meet.

Apart from them, Australian Senator Penny Wong, Turkey FM Mevlutt Cavusoglu, FM Mauro Vieira of Brazil, FM Alan Ganoo of Mauritius have also arrived for the G20 FMM.

Those attending the G20 foreign ministers meeting include US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, Germany's Annalena Baerbock and British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly.

European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell Fontelles, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajan, Australia's Penny Wong, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, Indonesia's Retno Marsudi and Argentine Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero are also among those attending the G20 foreign ministers' meeting.

While the visiting dignitaries will be welcomed at a gala reception on March 1, the crucial deliberations on various challenges will be held on March 2.

Giving a sneak peak of the event, MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi shared a video of the preparation of G20 Foreign Ministers Meet.

1 day to go for the #G20India Foreign Ministers Meeting!



 Here is a sneak peek into how weve been gearing up to host the @g20org Foreign Ministers at Rashtrapati Bhavan Cultural Centre: pic.twitter.com/BpoIqYlwjy  Arindam Bagchi (@MEAIndia) February 28, 2023

The Russian Foreign Ministry had said that Lavrov and India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will touch on a number of regional topics, including "developments in Ukraine" during Lavrov's visit to India for the G20. "As part of the visit's bilateral events, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar will discuss ways to further advance cooperation in key areas, as well as coordinate the schedule of upcoming contacts. The main thematic blocks include trade, investment, transport and logistics cooperation, the use of national currencies in mutual settlements, and promising projects in the energy sector.

Ahead of the meet, EAM Jaishankar on Tuesday held separate bilateral talks with his counterparts from Brazil, Turkiye and Mauritius with a focus on the agenda of the G20 foreign ministers' meeting and the Ukraine conflict.

With India holding the chair, countries are looking to India to bring economic stability, especially at a time when there is a lack of success from multilateral bodies like the UN and UNSC whose job is to maintain peace and security. Barely a one-day plus meeting, the FMM will have a packed agenda. Though a joint photo op involving all the foreign ministers is unlikely, several discussions will be held on March 2.

The G20 or Group of 20 is an intergovernmental forum of the world's major developed and developing economies. The members represent around 85 percent of the global GDP, over 75 per cent of the global trade, and about two-thirds of the world population.

The grouping comprises Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the UK, the US and the European Union.
Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim has asked state government employees to take up Central government jobs if they are not happy with the Dearness Allowance (DA) given by the Mamata Banerjee administration in West Bengal.

At the Budget session of the Assembly on February 15, Chandrima Bhattacharya proposed 3% DA for state government employees. The Minister of State for Finance made the proposal with the approval of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The total Budget has been proposed to 3.39 lakh crore.

Beginning on March 1, 2023, employees, pensioners and family pensioners will receive DA. The 6th Pay Commission's recommendations served as the foundation for the choice. The new increase consists of a 3% increase that was announced in December 2020 and will take effect on January 1, 2021, as well as a subsequent 3% increase.

Also Read: West Bengal hikes dearness allowance (DA) by 6%

There have been protests in West Bengal around the announcement. Employees of the West Bengal government are dissatisfied, claiming that their salaries will still fall 32% short of the DA provided to its workers by the Central government.

In defiance of threats of legal action, many state government employee organisations recently launched a 48-hour "pen down" protest in support of their demand for DA parity with the Centre.

Meanwhile, Firhad has said the underprivileged are the priority for the Mamata government. "It seems to me a sin to give more to those who are getting a lot. When the Central government is giving a lot of money, go and join them. I am not an executive of a multinational company. I get my salary from the taxpayers money. I serve people. Thats my primary responsibility."

Also Read: West Bengal govt says no leaves on 20-21 Feb as staff call for 2-day cease-work

It can never be the job of our government to further neglect those who are already deprived and neglected. So, we provide shelter to those who have no shelter, feed those who are hungry and arrange treatment for those who are sick. We try to bring forward the girls who are lagging behind with the Kanyashree scheme and put a smile on the faces of fathers who are unable to marry off their daughters with the Rupashree scheme," he added.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Sounak Mukhopadhyay Sounak Mukhopadhyay, who also goes by the name Sounak Mukherjee, has been producing digital news since 2012. He's worked for the International Business Times, The Inquisitr, and Moneycontrol in the past. He's also contributed to Free Press Journal and TheRichest with feature articles. He covers news for a wide range of subjects including business, finance, economy, politics and social media. Before working with digital news publications, he worked as a freelance content writer. Read more from this author
New Delhi: The government is framing guidelines for withdrawal of life-support systems for terminally ill patients after the Supreme Court directed it to take such measures.

At present, there are no government guidelines on this issue, leaving the matter to the wishes of patients relatives.

The process is in underway for drafting guidelines and steps or methodology whereby withdrawing of life-support system in terminally ill patients could be made easier. This would benefit both the society as well as people who generally take such decisions," an official familiar with the matter said.

In addition, this would make available ICU beds for others in need, the official added.

The health ministry spokesperson did not respond to queries.

The concept of end-of-life care is a new (to India), which means moving from curative to comfort. So, now we are not aiming to cure a person and want the patient to be comfortable. We do not intubate or resuscitate a patient and if they on a life support system it should be withdrawn," said Dr BK Rao, chairman of Critical Care Medicine Department at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.

But this concept is not fully accepted by Indian society. However, there are some sections of people who are aware and make such request. But we dont consider their request because it is unlawful. Now that the government is coming up with the guidelines, methodology and steps for withdrawal of life system from terminally ill patients  also called end of life care"  it is a welcome move," Rao added.

The SC in 2018 legalized passive euthanasia by withdrawal of life support to patients in a permanent vegetative state in a case involving Aruna Shanbaug, a sexual assault victim who was in a coma for 42 years until her death in 2015. Medical experts say that worldwide only the Netherlands, Belgium, Colombia, and Luxembourg allow passive euthanasia.
Digital rights advocacy group Access Now's 2022 report, which covers total blackouts, the suspension of particular phone networks or social media apps and the slowing down of internet connections, was compiled using technical evaluations, news articles and personal testimony.

India imposed the highest number of internet shutdowns in the world in 2022, according to Access Now. India has topped the list for the fifth successive year. The government regularly imposed communications restrictions on the region on security grounds, which rights groups have condemned and described as measures to quash dissent.

India saw over half of the global shutdowns. Globally speaking, 2022 witnessed the highest shutdowns since the group started keeping track of interruptions in 2016, if India is excluded from the list.

Out of 187 internet shutdowns globally recorded by Access Now, 84 took place in India, including 49 in Kashmir, the watchdog report added. Authorities disrupted internet access at least 49 times in Kashmir due to political instability and violence, including a string of 16 back-to-back orders for three-day-long curfew-style shutdowns in January and February 2022.

Also Read: This man, who built own Internet network to avoid paying bills, gets 21 crore from government for expansion

Militants have battled India's rule in Kashmir for more than three decades. Delhi blames Pakistan for stoking the unrest while Islamabad denies the claims.

Ukraine was second on the list, with the Russian military cutting access to the internet at least 22 times after Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. The Russian military intentionally destroyed telecommunications equipment and cut off Internet connectivity at least 22 times during its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the watchdog said in its report.

Although India once again led the world in internet shutdowns, 2022 marked the first time since 2017 that there were fewer than 100 shutdowns in the country, the watchdog said. Iran came in third place with 18 internet shutdowns imposed in 2022 in response to demonstrations against the government.

Watch: Iranian couple dance in Tehran street, leading to 10.5-year imprisonment

Nationwide anti-government protests erupted in Iran last fall after the death of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini in police custody on September 16, 2022. Amini was arrested in Tehran by the morality police for flouting the hijab rules, which require women to entirely cover their hair and bodies. She died while in custody.

(With agency inputs)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Sounak Mukhopadhyay Sounak Mukhopadhyay, who also goes by the name Sounak Mukherjee, has been producing digital news since 2012. He's worked for the International Business Times, The Inquisitr, and Moneycontrol in the past. He's also contributed to Free Press Journal and TheRichest with feature articles. He covers news for a wide range of subjects including business, finance, economy, politics and social media. Before working with digital news publications, he worked as a freelance content writer. Read more from this author
In yet another achievement for the SS Rajamouli's 'RRR' movie, the popular song 'Naatu Naatu' which is nominated in the 'Best Original Song' category will be performed at the 95th Academy Awards by singers Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava in their Oscar debut. The song's music is composed by M.M. Keeravaani, while its lyrics are written by Chandrabose.

'Naatu Naaatu' which has already become a mass hits has a list of award under its name.In January, 'Naatu Naatu' won the Golden Globes in the 'Best Original Song' category. Five days later, 'RRR' bagged two more awards at the 28th edition of the Critics Choice Awards. One is for the best song and another is for 'best foreign language film.' Since then, 'RRR' and 'Naatu Naatu' are riding high on the global chart.What makes the song appeal to the masses is its universal appeal through a joyous vibe and a hook of a dance step that's a rage. Also, the culture of the country is reflected in the lyrics with every line evoking sentiments about the food and the flora and fauna of the nation.

Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava. Naatu Naatu." LIVE at the 95th Oscars.



Tune into ABC to watch the Oscars LIVE on Sunday, March 12th at 8e/5p! #Oscars95 pic.twitter.com/8FC7gJQbJs  The Academy (@TheAcademy) February 28, 2023

Naatu Naatu" has become a viral sensation outside of the film, racking up more than 122 million views on YouTube and inspiring a TikTok challenge where users attempt to recreate the acrobatic dance-off. South Korean Ambassador Chang Jae-boks 53-second rendition has received more than 4.8 million views since it was posted Sunday on Twitter.

'Naatu Naatu' was shot as a part of the final leg of the shooting. Filming for it took place at the Mariinskyi Palace (Ukraine Presidential Palace) in Kyiv, a few months before the onset of the Russian military invasion of Ukraine.

The song was also released in Hindi as 'Naacho Naacho', in Tamil as 'Naattu Koothu', in Kannada as 'Halli Naatu' and in Malayalam as 'Karinthol'. Its Hindi version was sung by Rahul Sipligunj and Vishal Mishra.

The hook step, performed by Jr NTR and Ram Charan, went viral on social media and the duo often recreated the viral portion of the dance in the film's promotions.

The cross-cultural hit is nominated in the original song category alongside "This Is A Life" from "Everything Everywhere All at Once," "Applause" from "Tell It Like a Woman," and "Lift Me Up" from "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever," all of which are part of the scheduled performances for the 95th annual ceremony, Variety reported.

David Byrne, Stephanie Hsu and Son Lux will also take the stage at the Oscars to perform "This Is a Life," the Oscar-nominated song from Everything Everywhere All at Once, as will Rihanna, who will sing the Oscar-nominated song "Lift Me Up" from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

The 95th Oscars will be held on March 12, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. This time around, not just one, but three Indian significant movies are competing for the coveted Oscars Awards 2023 nominationsThe 95th Oscars, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, will be broadcast live on March 13 in India.

*With agency inputs
New Delhi: Senior Indian Information Service (IIS) officer Rajesh Malhotra has been appointed as the principal director general of the Press Information Bureau (PIB), the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting said.

In his new role, Malhotra will be the principal spokesperson of the government of India. He will replace Satyendra Prakash, who took charge as principal DG of PIB in August 2022.

Malhotra, a 1989 batch officer, had been working in Ministry of Finance since January 2018. During the critical Covid-19 pandemic, he effectively steered the media and communication policy in the Ministry of Finance in sync with the various AatmaNirbhar Bharat Packages announced by the government over time to give relief to people and maintain economic balance," the ministry said.

Malhotra has over 32 years of operational experience in planning and implementation of media and communication strategies for the Election Commission of India and various central government ministries/ departments including finance, company affairs, agriculture, power, coal, mines, communications and IT, textiles, labour, new & renewable energy.

He was associated with Election Commission of India as in-charge of media & communication for 21 years till 2017.
G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting, under India's ongoing G20 Presidency, will be held tomorrow i.e. on 2 March but the event will kick off from today night with a gala dinner.

In a special briefing by Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra on G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting cleared the country's stand on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, reaffirming Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement that "this isn't an era of war".

'This isn't an era of war'. Dialogue and diplomacy are the way forward. The agenda is for the foreign ministers to discuss in the meet," the foreign secretary said.

Also Read: G20: Second environment and climate sustainability working group meeting to be held from 27-29 March

Further adding, he also added that Russia-Ukraine conflict will be an important point of discussion when the foreign ministers from around the world meet during Thursday's Group of 20 (G20) gathering.

Given developing situation of Russia-Ukraine, naturally, it'll be important point of discussion during Foreign ministers meet. Foreign ministers will be focusing on Russia-Ukraine situation, it'll be important to what they come out with, what understanding is developed," he said.

He further added, Issues of the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on the world including economic impact and impact on development will also be focused upon in the meeting."

He refused to speculate on whether the G20 foreign ministers' meeting would be able to come out with a joint communique in the backdrop of widening differences between the West and Russia on the Ukraine conflict.

Giving more updates on the G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting, Kwatra said This would be the second ministerial meeting held under our presidency. The venue will be Rashtrapati Bhavan Cultural Center."

The meeting will be attended by 40 delegations including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, European Union, France, Germany, India as host, Indonesia both as immediate past president and ASEAN chair, Italy, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, UK, US (all G20 member countries).

The theme of India's G20 Presidency is "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam" or "One Earth. One Family. One Future."

Speaking on the agenda, the Foreign Secretary said that G20 foreign ministers' meet to deliberate on multilateralism, food and energy security, development cooperation, counter-terrorism. "What we expect from tomorrow's foreign minister meeting is a very clear, strong and all-encompassing message on problem of terrorism and need for G20 countries to fight against it together. Larger challenge of counter-terrorism & narco-terrorism will be in focus, he said.

During the Foreign Ministers meeting tomorrow, he added that EAM will be chairing two session of the foreign ministries meeting.

First session will focus on multilateralism, issues related to food and energy while the second session will focus on four or five key issues including new and emerging threats includes counter terrorism and narcotics, global skill mapping, focus on global talent pools.

Kwatra also spoke about Japan's Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi who will not be attending the G20 FMM. While answering to reporters, he said, "We understand that the Japanese Foreign Minister is not able to come because of his domestic compulsions but we are looking forward to a very active participation, active support in consultation with the Japanese delegation that is coming." Deputy Foreign Minister Kenji Yamada is scheduled to visit to attend the G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to address the foreign ministers of the member countries of G20 and he will talk about India's growing influence globally.

G20 includes the wealthy G7 nations as well as Russia, China, India, Brazil, Australia and Saudi Arabia, among other nations. The meeting comes days after a meeting of finance chiefs of G20 countries in Bengaluru which was overshadowed by Russia's war in Ukraine. Rising U.S.-China tensions are likely to feature at the foreign ministers' meeting while Kwatra said he also expected a clear message on terrorism. The role of crypto currencies will be a part of the message, he said.

(With inputs from agencies)
Spring flu has gripped India causing a painful rasping cough for a longer period. According to a report by the Hindustan Times, the key reason behind the surge in flu cases is due to low immunity and the relative unpopularity of annual flu shots in the country.

Dr GC Khilnani, former head of the pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine department at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) told Hindustan Times that every other person is down with fever, loss of voice, and breathlessness.

An uncontrollable cough, with or without wheezing, is a frequent symptom. The Influenza A virus (H3N2) is frequently diagnosed when tested," he told the daily.

The spike in flu cases in the country is similar to what the West experienced between September and January last year. The World Health Organization mentioned influenza A(H1N1)pdm09, A(H3N2), and influenza B viruses circulated in several countries.

A research paper--Household Transmission of Influenza A viruses in 2021-22 stated that "Loss of natural immunity from lower rates of influenza infection and documented antigenic changes in circulating viruses may have resulted in increased susceptibility to influenza virus infection during the 2021-2022 influenza season".

Several doctors in India have said that they are witnessing cases of prolonged cough post-flu, including influenza, RSV (respiratory syncytial virus), adenovirus, rhinovirus, etc.

The probable reasons for prolonged cough could be pollution, new mutant pathogens reflux diseases (acidity), and irrational use of antibiotics, according to the doctors.

To combat respiratory infections, doctors have advised patients to wear masks and avoid crowded places.

"The vaccine against common flu is available and people must take it," the doctors told the daily.
The US's senior State Department official has spoken about the deepened relationship between the two countries. Assistant Secretary of State for the Political Military Bureau, Jessica Lewis said that India is an incredibly important country in the region.

Lewis said that the United States has deepened and strengthened its relationship with India.

"We have deepened and strengthened our relationship with India, the largest democracy in the world, an incredibly important country in the region, and we are continuing to do so," Lewis told Defense Writers Group.

The US official added, "I think the way we see it is we offer India a choice when it comes to deepening and strengthening their security relationship with us. I feel very good about where that is going. Obviously, they have a long history of course, but I think we are making very good progress on that front".

On arms and weapons, Lewis said a year after the Ukrainian war, countries around the world are looking to diversify their weapons.

"We are seeing countries coming to us and saying look, we may need to diversify in ways that they havent before, off the Russian equipment. Mainly because they are seeing the failure of Russia and Soviet doctrine in the war, but also raising questions about the equipment that Russia is providing and Russias ability to keep providing that equipment," she said.

We think that this moment in time presents an opportunity for us to look at the question of as countries are becoming interested in the transition off Russian equipment both for the US and for our partners and allies it does make sense for us to offer countries a choice. I think that's how we're thinking about it. Were offering countries a choice," he said.

Yesterday, the Biden administration said that India is a global strategic partner of the US.

"India is a global strategic partner of ours. We have a wide, broad, deep relationship with India. There will be a lot on the agenda in the bilateral relationship and in the multilateral engagements he takes part in on the margins of the G20," Ned Price, State Department Spokesperson said.

India is a key partner of ours bilaterally, in the context of the Quad as well as other international groupings, he added.

Quad is comprised of Japan, India, Australia, and the United States. The four countries had in 2017 given shape to the long-pending proposal of setting up the "Quad" or the Quadrilateral coalition to counter China's aggressive behaviour in the Indo-Pacific region.

India and the United States, Price said, share several important interests and a number of important values.
The Karnataka State Government Employees Association swiftly decided to withdraw their indefinite strike on Wednesday after the state government announced an interim hike of up to 17 per cent in basic salary. Moreover, the state government has also decided to establish a committee to examine the possibility of returning to the Old Pension Scheme.

After meeting with members of the association on Tuesday night, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai held further discussions with finance department officials and the KSGEA on Wednesday morning. Subsequently, the state government issued an order announcing a salary hike of up to 17 per cent for government employees, effective from 1 April 2023.

The Karnataka government also directed the additional chief secretary to visit states that have reinstated the old pension scheme and scrapped NPS and submit a report within two months. This move will lead to an additional expenditure of 12,000 crore for the government as interim relief.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said, We will provide 17 per cent hike to all government employees in the state and orders regarding the same are already issued. The 7th pay commission has already been appointed and I have already discussed it with the employee associations."

He added, We will constitute a special committee under an additional chief secretary, and it will submit a detailed study on the New Pension Scheme (NPS) and how other state governments are implementing it. Within two months, the committee will submit the report and even that issue will be resolved. I request the employees to end the protest and get back to their duties."
On Tuesday, China said coal use rose 4.3% in 2022 compared with the previous yeara higher-than-expected increase that came even as the economy was kept down by widespread Covid-19 lockdowns.

That all looks like grim news for the effort to limit climate change, and for Chinas pledge to start ramping down coal consumption in 2026 and to reach peak emissions before 2030.

But Chinas unusual approach to the energy transition means the impact might not be as bad as it seems. That matters since China accounts for nearly one third of the worlds total carbon-dioxide emissions.

This past year shows the difficulty in assessing Chinas current and future emissions. Global Carbon Project, a research consortium that produces annual data focused on emissions used by the United Nations, forecast in November that Chinas emissions had fallen 0.9%. Carbon Monitor currently estimates that Chinas emissions dropped by 1.5% and the International Energy Agency said it expected Chinas emissions to remain broadly flat.

As Chinas newly reopened economy ramps up, emissions could rise again. China started construction on 50 gigawatts of coal power capacity in 2022six times as much as the rest of the world, according to a report published Monday by two independent climate research organizations, the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air and the Global Energy Monitor.

China also added a record 125 gigawatts of new solar and wind energy capacity, more than the U.S., Europe and India combined. The country says it aims to build another 160 gigawatts of solar and wind energy capacity in 2023.

If all goes to plan, this renewable power would relegate coal plants to backup status, meaning they would run well below capacity and add less to emissions than the headline number may suggest.

The coal data looks scarier than it is," said Yao Lixia, a senior research fellow at the National University of Singapores Energy Studies Institute, who pointed to Chinas push for electric vehicles and non-fossil fuel power generation as silver linings for the countrys future emissions trajectory.

The main reason coal use may not surge is economics. The new coal facilities being built will likely lose money for their owners. Instead, they serve an important purpose, meeting Beijings goal of boosting energy security by reducing reliance on energy imports and ensuring stable power supply.

After a nationwide power crunch in 2021, Chinas leader, Xi Jinping, called for the country to hold the energy rice bowl in its own hands." Increases in domestic coal and natural-gas production soon followed.

That boom in the construction and approval of coal projects, in particular, raised global alarms about Chinas commitment and ability to kick its dependency on coal. Indeed, all that new capacity creates a whole additional set of vested interests for continuing coal use for longer," said Lauri Myllyvirta, lead analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.

But while the new coal projects might mean the fossil fuels use will continue for longer, experts say the speed with which renewable energy capacity is being added will likely relegate coal to an eventual supporting role in Chinas future energy mix.

In fact, some climate analysts suspect that emissions may actually have gone down in 2022 despite the larger-than-expected increase in coal consumption, and may continue to drop this year.

While greater coal consumption generally translates into higher emissions, China appears to be burning more low-quality coal, according to researchers at Citic Futuresgenerating less power and thus less emissions per kilogram of coal. Thermal power generation, which largely relies on coal, rose by just 1.4% in China last year, while activity in the two largest coal-burning industries, crude steel and cement production, suffered drops of 1.7% and 10.5%, respectively, according to official data.

And, while Chinese power demand is expected to grow by 6% this year, according to the state-backed China Electricity Council, more of that demand will be fulfilled by wind, solar and nuclear power generation, which are predicted to account for more than half of Chinas power generation capacity by the end of this yeara first for China.

As long as those non-fossil fuel power sources continue to grow in importance and electricity demand growth stabilizes, emissions from coal power generation will plateau and then decline, says Mr. Myllyvirta.

Many of Chinas new coal plants are meant to provide backup rather than baseload power, supporting new large-scale wind and solar parks being built in Chinas deserts and plains, which are connected by transmission lines to Chinas coastal industrial centers.

In December, state-run China Three Gorges Corp. said it broke ground on a multibillion-dollar renewable and fossil-fuel energy project in the northern Chinese region of Inner Mongolia. The installation will eventually feature 8 gigawatts of solar power and 4 gigawatts of wind power capacity, according to Chinese state media reports. Another 4 gigawatts of coal-fired power capacity, in addition to energy storage, is supposed to increase when the sun isnt shining and the wind isnt blowing.

During times of peak demand, for instance when consumers turn on air conditioners or heaters, coal can kick in to supplement wind and solar. Last year, Chinas peak capacity hit a record 1,290 gigawatts, a nearly 20% jump from two years earlier.

Using coal plants as balancing power sources means that their utilization will likely drop even further, said Yan Qin, an analyst at financial information provider Refinitiv. In 2022, the average running hours of Chinas coal plants fell by eight hours for the year, while the average utilization hours of solar power generation increased by 56 hours, according to data from the China Electricity Council.

It is also likely that some of the newly approved coal plants will end up being shelved or abandoned because of poor project economics, according to energy consulting firm Lantau Group. Coal power generation has largely been a loss-making business for Chinese state-owned enterprises, while their renewables have been posting profit. China Resources Holdings Co., which operates coal plants across China, said in 2021 it had recorded $660 million of losses in their thermal business, while their clean-energy business made $940 million in profit.

Write to Sha Hua at sha.hua@wsj.com
On March 1, Tesla CEO Elon Musk will unveil the third part of the company's "Master Plan" during their first investor day. Musk previously laid out his vision for the electric carmaker in 2006 and 2016, but many of those plans have not yet been achieved.

During Tesla's annual shareholder meeting in August, Musk revealed that the third part of his Master Plan would focus on scaling both car production and the supply chain that supports it, including battery materials and components.

The upcoming investor day, which will take place at Tesla's gigafactory in Texas, will provide details about the company's next-generation vehicle platforms. Musk has claimed that these platforms will be able to produce a vehicle that costs half as much as Tesla's current vehicle underpinnings. Additionally, Tesla will discuss its long-term expansion plans, capital allocation, and other subjects.

Also Read: Elon Musk reclaims world's richest man position

Last year, Tesla shares experienced their worst annual performance, which some attribute to Musk selling shares to fund his purchase of Twitter and other shareholders losing confidence in his focus on the carmaker. Tesla's sales growth did not meet the expectations of some investors.

Musk's 2006 "secret master plan" included the creation of an affordable electric car, but Tesla's cheapest model is currently priced at $43,490 in the United States.

In 2016, Musk unveiled his "Master Plan, Part Deux," which included expanding the electric vehicle lineup to all major segments and achieving "true self-driving." In 2022, Tesla's Semi heavy duty electric trucks began "pilot production," while the release of its Cyber Truck pickup trucks has been delayed until 2023.

Also Read: Elon Musk hires AI researchers to develop ChatGPT rival

As part of the 2016 plan, Musk claimed that Tesla drivers would be able to sleep, read, or do anything else enroute to their destination while making money by renting out their autonomous vehicles when they are not in use.

However, in October 2022, Musk revealed that Tesla's cars were not yet ready to operate without a human driver, as the company had missed its targets for achieving self-driving capability.

Tesla Investor Day will be streaming live on Twitter and YouTube at 2:30 AM on March 2 (Indian time).

(With agency inputs)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Sounak Mukhopadhyay Sounak Mukhopadhyay, who also goes by the name Sounak Mukherjee, has been producing digital news since 2012. He's worked for the International Business Times, The Inquisitr, and Moneycontrol in the past. He's also contributed to Free Press Journal and TheRichest with feature articles. He covers news for a wide range of subjects including business, finance, economy, politics and social media. Before working with digital news publications, he worked as a freelance content writer. Read more from this author
New Delhi: The key G20 foreign ministers meeting moves into high gear on Thursday, when the top diplomats of member-countries meet at the Rashtrapati Bhavan Cultural Centre in New Delhi. With the notable exception of Japans foreign minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, the city will play host to the foreign ministers of most major global powers including Sergei Lavrov of Russia, Antony Blinken of the US and Qin Gang of China.

Around 40 delegations are expected to take part in the meeting, said foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra at a press briefing. Apart from G20 members, India has also invited delegations from Singapore, the UAE, Egypt and the Netherlands among others. This will be the second ministerial-level meeting of Indias G-20 presidency after the finance ministers and central bankers meeting in Bengaluru in late February. Expectations that Quad foreign ministers would meet on the sidelines of the summit have been made uncertain by the Japanese foreign ministers absence.

The program officially began on Tuesday evening with a dinner hosted by external affairs minister S Jaishankar.

Wednesday will see the bulk of meetings including Jaishankars bilaterals as well as two discussion sessions. These sessions will focus on issues ranging from multilateralism, development cooperation, counter terrorism and counter-narcotics to humanitarian cooperation and disaster risk reduction.

Even as the ministers meet, all eyes will be on the unfolding tensions between the West on one hand and Russia and China on the other. Disagreements over how to characterise the war in Ukraine led to an inability to release a joint communique during the recently concluded Finance Ministers meeting.

Given the nature and the developing situation in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, it will be an important point of discussion in the G20 Foreign Ministers meeting," acknowledged Foreign Secretary Kwatra.

However, the Foreign Secretary avoided controversy on questions related to how India planned to manage the inevitable tensions between the two blocs in the war. However, both the Foreign Secretary and Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi backed the Bali Declaration that was agreed upon during the Indonesia Presidency of the G20. The Declaration, which includes significant criticism of Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, was secured after careful diplomacy by India and Indonesia. However, attempts by Western nations to include similar criticism during the recent G20 Finance Ministers meeting were resisted by Russia and China, which refused to endorse a joint communique.

This has led to concerns that tensions over Ukraine will undermine substantive discussions on the ambitious agenda set for the Foreign Ministers meeting.
Hong Kong will begin giving away 500,000 airline tickets from Wednesday in a bid to attract visitors and boost its flagging economy, just as it finally drops its compulsory mask-wearing rule.

The tickets will be distributed by the citys airlines  Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. and its budget unit HK Express, as well as Hong Kong Airlines Ltd. and newcomer Greater Bay Airlines Co.

Also Read: Echoes of Adani-Hindenburg row: Hong Kong firm faces massive rout after obscure short-seller's attack

Who Gets Them First?

Residents in Thailand, initially. Cathay will hand out 80,000 round-trip tickets in March, starting Wednesday with 17,400 allocated to Thailand. Then it will expand the handouts to Singapore and the Philippines later this week and other nearby Asian countries in the following days.

Also Read: Adani CFO says Group not seeking to refinance debt, inject capital at Hong Kong Roadshow

Hong Kong Airlines will also distribute tickets from Wednesday to residents of Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam. The carrier hasnt disclosed how many tickets will be handed out to each country. Greater Bay Airlines will give out tickets to Taiwan in May, followed by South Korea in July. HK Express will join the campaign in April, but it hasnt disclosed details.

Also Release: World's longest Covid-19 mask mandate: This city is scrapping it after 945 days

Free tickets will open for mainland Chinese residents in April. Some 80,000 tickets will become available to Hong Kong residents in July, though it is unclear what routes they will be valid for. Authorities also havent given a reason for the different timelines and ordering of the handouts.

How to Apply?

Cathay requires people to register on its website and take part in a quiz with three questions. The tickets will be distributed on a first-come-first-serve basis to those who get the answers right. Each applicant can submit one entry only. The winners will be announced on the campaign website on April 3 and receive a confirmation email the same day.

Hong Kong Airlines will also hand out tickets on a first-come-first-serve basis. It has released application details on its campaign page.

Who Is Eligible and Other Terms and Conditions?

Cathay says participants must be at least 18-years-old and each winner can only get one ticket. Winners still need to pay taxes and surcharges, and tickets arent refundable, redeemable for cash or transferable. You also cant upgrade seats using cash or frequent-flier miles.

Do the Tickets Expire?

Yes, according to Cathay. Winners will receive a unique code via email once the redemption period begins. That must then be used within a month to get a ticket.

When booking a ticket, the minimum stay in Hong Kong is two days and the maximum is seven days, Cathay says. Winners are required to travel within nine months of receiving the email containing the redemption code. Rebooking charges stand at HK$1,200 ($150).

Why Is Hong Kong Doing This?

Tourism has traditionally been a major contributor to Hong Kongs coffers, but three years of Covid restrictions kept the city largely closed off from the outside world and battered its economy, leaving it trailing rival hub Singapore.

Hong Kongs economy shrank 3.5% in 2022  the third contraction in four years  and it had a whopping HK$140 billion deficit for fiscal 2022-2023, about three times higher than the governments original estimate.

The ticket giveaway is part of a Hello Hong Kong" campaign to promote the city as a tourism center and bring back visitors. Airport Authority Hong Kong purchased the tickets in 2020 as part of a HK$2 billion rescue package for the aviation industry. Click here for more information from the Airport Authority.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.
Representatives from self-styled godman Nithyanada's unrecognised island nation attended a UN meeting last week. According to updates shared by the fugitive leader, the Republic of Kailasa had sought protection for the "supreme pontiff of Hinduism".

Footage of a saffron-clad woman attending a meeting of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights have since gone viral. The individual - self-identified as Vijayapriya Nithyananda - contends that she is the Permanent Ambassador of Kailasa to the UN.

Vijayapriya spoke about the many initiatives taken up by her country when it came to sustainable development. She alleged that Nithyananda has been persecuted for reviving the ancient traditions of Hinduism and banned from his birth country. The representative also asked the UN body about measures that could be taken to stop his persecution.

Social media posts shared by by accounts linked to Nithyananda have also shared visuals from the event. The event video also remains uploaded to the official website of the United Nations.

It is not yet clear how Kailasa and its representatives managed to gain access to the UN.

USK at UN Geneva: Inputs on the Achievement of Sustainability



Participation of the United States of KAILASA in a discussion on the General Comment on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Sustainable Development at the United Nations in Geneva



The Economic, Social, and pic.twitter.com/pNoAkWOas8  KAILASA's SPH Nithyananda (@SriNithyananda) February 25, 2023

In August last year a Karnataka court had issued a non-bailable warrant against the controversial godman in connection with a rape case. The case against Nithyananda was filed in 2010 based on a complaint by his former driver Lenin. The controversial guru has however failed to respond to all the summons issued against him since 2019.

Against this backdrop, reports had emerged in recent years indicating that he had created a Hindu nation called Kailasa. Located on an island near Ecuador, the country has its own flag and political set up and even a Reserve Bank of Kailasa.
Right now, America pays the bad guys", according to the US Republican Party Presidential candidate Nikki Haley who believes that a strong America should not act as the world's ATM. The US has paid hundreds of millions in aid to Pakistan, Iraq and Zimbabwe alone in 2022, Haley said. She has also stated that she plans to cut foreign aid to countries that hate the US, such as China and Pakistan if she becomes president.

The US has given the people of Pakistan direct assistance of more than $32 billion over the previous 20 years. The US contributed $80 million to Pakistan's effort to fight the COVID-19 outbreak while establishing infrastructure and future resilience.

"A weak America pays the bad guys: Hundreds of millions to Pakistan, Iraq, and Zimbabwe last year alone. A strong America won't be the world's ATM," Haley tweeted.

Also Read: Nikki Haley asked to go back to cow-worshipping India

A proud America does not waste its hard-earned money and only supports leaders that stand up to enemies and stand beside friends, Haley wrote in an op-ed for the New York Post. She cited examples that the US had given more than $2 billion to Iran over the past few years, even though its government is getting closer to the murderous thugs in Iran who shout "Death to America!" and launch attacks on US troops.

Haley pointed out that the Joe Biden administration restored half a billion dollars to a corrupt United Nations agency that claims to help the Palestinian people but, in fact, spreads deeply anti-Semitic propaganda against the US ally Israel.

The US has given hundreds of millions of dollars to Zimbabwe, a country with one of the most anti-American voting records in the UN. Haley also mentioned that American taxpayers still give money to Communist China for ridiculous environmental programs, even though China poses an obvious threat to Americans.

Also Read: Another Indian-American in US presidential bid: Who is Vivek Ramaswamy?

Haley added that the US Republican Party needs new leaders who can win at the ballot box, and she formally launched her 2024 campaign for the White House on February 15. Haley introduced herself as the proud daughter of Indian immigrants who is pitching a new future for the Republican party. In her op-ed, Haley claimed that American taxpayers deserve to know where their foreign aid money is going and what it is doing.

(With ANI inputs)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Sounak Mukhopadhyay Sounak Mukhopadhyay, who also goes by the name Sounak Mukherjee, has been producing digital news since 2012. He's worked for the International Business Times, The Inquisitr, and Moneycontrol in the past. He's also contributed to Free Press Journal and TheRichest with feature articles. He covers news for a wide range of subjects including business, finance, economy, politics and social media. Before working with digital news publications, he worked as a freelance content writer. Read more from this author
On February 28, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an amended law that prohibits government officials from using most foreign words during their official duties, with the exception of foreign words that do not have widely-used corresponding equivalents in Russian.

The law aims to protect and support the status of the Russian language and a list of foreign-based words that can still be used will be published separately. The amendments do not include any specified punishments for those who violate the updated law.

Since launching the invasion of Ukraine a year ago, Putin has expressed his desire to protect Russia from what he perceives as a degenerate West that is trying to destroy the country. The new law is consistent with this vision and an effort to protect the Russian language from the excessive use of foreign words.

Maxim Krupsky, a lawyer who has defended activists and others caught up in the government's campaign to brand opponents as 'traitors' and 'foreign agents', suggests that the Kremlin is attempting to create a new imperial identity for Russian society through the paranoid purging of such individuals.

Also Read: One year of Russia-Ukraine war: A timeline of key moments so far

Putin has prioritised the reflection of his revanchist vision of Russia's history and mission in the education system and textbooks. A new required volume for university students highlights the tradition of a strong hand in Russia throughout the centuries, including the present day.

The Kremlin has also allocated 18.6 billion rubles ( 2,046 crore) to establish a new network of "patriotic" summer camps for children. Moreover, the school lessons emphasising Russia's supposed fight against western encroachment will be expanded to include parents.

Also Read: End of Putin? How Russias failure in Ukraine may push this man to become Kremlins next supremo

Around Russia, Putin's explanation that Russia is battling the "collective West" rather than Ukraine has more resonance than his original statements that the war was about toppling the Kyiv administration, according to pollsters. This rationale was adopted following a run of defeats at the hands of Kyiv's soldiers. That belief is unaffected by the absence of actual combat between the US and its allies.

According to those close to the leadership, the Kremlin's belief that it can win the battle by outlasting Ukraine and its allies, even if it means enduring much more cost, is strengthened by the perception that the support is strong.

(With agency inputs)
Russian forces carried out continuous attacks on the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut in their quest for a breakthrough in the year-long war, and one U.S. official predicted few short-term territorial gains for Russia.

Ukrainian aircraft launched three strikes on areas of concentration of Russian forces, according to a statement by the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on Tuesday night.

Also Read: Ukraine war: Chinese firms make the most as global brands exit sanctions-hit Russia

Bakhmut had a pre-war population of around 70,000 but has been ruined during months of fighting as a focal point of Russian assaults and determined Ukrainian defence.

"The most difficult part, as before, is Bakhmut and the fighting that is essential for the city's defence," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.

Also Read: Vladimir Putin's close ally Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on China's 3-day visit

"Russia in general takes no account of people and sends them in constant waves against our positions, the intensity of the fighting is only increasing," Zelenskiy said.

A Russian takeover of Bakhmut would open the way to seizing the last remaining urban centres in the industrial Donetsk province.

While most of the Russian attacks were focused on Bakhmut and other towns and villages in Donetsk, the military statement said Russian forces shelled more than 20 settlements in northern regions near the Russian border: Chernihiv, Sumy and Kharkiv.

Also Read: Lethal aid to Russia would come at real costs: US warns China as Ukraine war enters 2nd year

Reuters was not able to verify battlefield reports.

Russia's state-run RIA news agency released a video clip it said showed Russian Su-25 fighter jets roaring over Bakhmut.

"We are glad they are ours," says a man in the clip identified as a fighter of the mercenary Wagner Group, adding the jets helped them "psychologically". 'GRINDING SLOG' In Washington, senior U.S. defence official Colin Kahl told a congressional hearing on Tuesday that the front lines of the war were a "grinding slog" and there was nothing to suggest "the Russians can sweep across Ukraine and make significant territorial gains anytime in the next year or so."

Kahl spoke during a hearing focused on oversight of the nearly $32 billion in military aid President Joe Biden's administration has provided to Ukraine since Russia's invasion on Feb. 24 last year, including drones, long-range artillery systems, and air defence capabilities.

Ukraine has sought weaponry to protect itself from waves of Russian missile and drone attacks that in the depths of winter damaged the power grid and other infrastructure, killed hundreds of civilians and left millions with no electricity or water.

As part of an investigation into whether the attacks contravened the Geneva conventions on military conflict, the International Criminal Court's top prosecutor Karim Khan was in Ukraine on Tuesday.

"Generally we see clearly a pattern, I think, in terms of the number, scale and breadth of attacks against the power grids of Ukraine and we need to look at why that's taking place; are they legitimate targets or not?" Khan said to reporters in the town of Vyshhorod just north of the capital Kyiv. FOREIGN MINISTERS MEET Elsewhere, foreign ministers from around the world will meet in New Delhi on Wednesday and Thursday in the shadow of Russia's war in Ukraine and spiralling U.S.-China tensions.

The meeting will be attended by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Britain's James Cleverly, while China is expected to send its foreign minister, Qin Gang.

India does not want Ukraine to dominate the event, but it will top the agenda, said an Indian foreign ministry official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday repeated Moscow's stance that it is open to peace negotiations but Ukraine and its Western allies must accept Russia's annexation of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions after referendums last September that most governments said were illegal.

Despite several battlefield setbacks in what Moscow describes as a "special military operation" to protect Russian security interests, Russian forces still control about a fifth of territory in its European-leaning neighbour Ukraine.

Zelenskiy's government has so far ruled out talks with Moscow and has demanded that Russian troops withdraw to Ukraine's borders in 1991 - the year the Soviet Union collapsed.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.
TAIPEI: Taiwan's defence ministry said on Wednesday it had spotted 19 Chinese air force planes in its air defence zone in the past 24 hours, part of what Taipei calls regular harassment by Beijing.

Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, has complained for the past three years or so of stepped up Chinese military activities near the island as Beijing seeks to assert its sovereignty claims.

China has said its activities in the area are justified as it seeks to defend its territorial integrity and to warn the United States against "colluding" with Taiwan, despite the anger this causes in Taipei.

Taiwan's defence ministry said 19 J-10 fighters had flown into the southwestern corner of the island's air defence identification zone, or ADIZ, though closer to the Chinese coast than Taiwan's according to a map the ministry released.

Taiwan's forces monitored the situation, including sending up its own air force planes, the ministry added, using the normal phrasing for its response to such Chinese incursions.

However, the aircraft did not cross the sensitive median line of the Taiwan Strait, which previously served as an unofficial barrier between the two sides but which China's air force has been flying over on an almost daily basis since staging war games near Taiwan last August.

No shots have been fired and the Chinese aircraft have been flying in Taiwan's ADIZ, not in its territorial air space.

The ADIZ is a broader area Taiwan monitors and patrols that acts to give it more time to respond to any threats.

The democratically elected Taiwanese government has repeatedly offered talks with China, but says the island will defend itself if attacked and that only the Taiwanese people can decide their own future.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.
WASHINGTONA bill aimed at banning TikTok in the U.S. was approved by a Republican-led House committee Wednesday, but the legislation faces a tough path ahead in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee passed the measure 24 to 16 vote along party lines. The bill, known as the DATA Act (for Deterring Americas Technological Adversaries"), would effectively block U.S. interactions with the popular Chinese-owned video-sharing app.

Rep. Michael McCaul (R., Tex.), the committee chairman, termed TikTok a modern-day Trojan horse" of the Chinese Communist Party, noting that the company would be required to share user data with Beijing if demanded.

Its a spy balloon on your phone," he added, a reference to the suspected Chinese reconnaissance balloon that the U.S. recently shot down off the coast of South Carolina.

Democrats on the panel complained that the legislation was being rushed as the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., a multiagency panel known as Cfius, is negotiating with TikTok on measures to address the potential security risk.

The legislation before us today is unvetted and dangerously overbroad," said Rep. Gregory Meeks (D., N.Y.), the committees top Democrat.

TikTok, which is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd., has repeatedly said it wouldnt share its data with the Chinese government.

A U.S. ban on TikTok is a ban on the export of American culture and values to the billion-plus people who use our service worldwide," TikTok said in a statement. Were disappointed to see this rushed piece of legislation move forward, despite its considerable negative impact on the free speech rights of millions of Americans who use and love TikTok."

The legislation is also opposed by the American Civil Liberties Union, which said a ban would violate the First Amendment rights of millions of Americans who use the app to express themselves daily."

The bill calls for the Treasury secretary to issue a directive prohibiting U.S. transactions with any entity that might transfer sensitive personal data to an entity controlled or influenced by Chinaa measure that the bill specifically targets at TikTok but could be used for other apps as well.

In addition, the legislation directs the president to impose sanctions on any entity that operates a connected software application that is subject to the influence of China and might facilitate Chinese surveillance, propaganda or censorshipanother provision aimed at TikTok.

The legislation allows the president to waive sanctions under some circumstances, and calls for the president to report to Congress on whether TikTok, ByteDance or any of its subsidiaries or successors meets the criteria for sanctions.

While Democratic resistance looms in the Senate, the bill nonetheless comes as the latest in a series of actions targeting TikTok globally.

The U.S. recently banned TikTok from government-issued smartphones and other devices, actions that were followed by the European Union, Canada and many states.

Former President Donald Trump first targeted TikTok as a security risk, but his efforts were struck down in federal courtspartly because of obscure laws known as the Berman amendments dating back to the final years of the Cold War that allow films, books and music to flow freely between the U.S. and hostile foreign countries.

The draft measure would carve out an exception to the Berman amendments. Mr. McCaul, the bills sponsor, said the changes are needed to give the federal government necessary tools to address security risks posed by apps such as TikTok.

Anyone with TikTok downloaded on their device has given the [Chinese Communist Party] a backdoor to all their personal information," Mr. McCaul said in a statement.

Republicans have also complained that the negotiations between Cfius and TikTok on security measures to address risks have dragged on too long.

Mr. Meeks offered an amendment to the bill that would have allowed the long-running Cfius process to continue, but would require the Biden administration to report regularly to Congress on whether TikTok would be subject to sanctions, including a block on all transactions with it. His amendment and others proposed by Democrats were struck down along party lines.

The White House, meanwhile, recently signaled that it might engage more actively with Congress on the issue.

Weve been clear about our concerns about apps like TikTok," said White House deputy press secretary Olivia Dalton aboard Air Force One en route to Virginia Beach, Va. on Tuesday. Well continue to look at other actions that we can take, and that includes how to work with Congress on this issue further."

Write to John D. McKinnon at John.McKinnon@wsj.com
Two trains collided head-on in Greece killing at least 32 people and injuring 85 late on Tuesday night, the fire brigade said, but the cause of the deadliest rail crash in Greece in decades remained unclear.

An intercity passenger train travelling from Athens to the northern city of Thessaloniki collided at high speed with a cargo train outside the city of Larissa in central Greece, said the governor of the Thessaly region.

The impact caused a fire in a number of the passenger carriages, burning many commuters who were rushed to hospitals.

Also Read: Greece's parliament bans far-right Greek National Party from upcoming polls

"We heard a big bang, (it was) 10 nightmarish seconds," said Stergios Minenis, a 28-year-old passenger who jumped to safety from the wreckage.

Also Read: Golden visa programmes to be scrapped by these European countries

"We were turning over in the wagon until we fell on our sides...then there was panic, cables (everywhere) fire, the fire was immediate, as we were turning over we were being burned, fire was right and left."

Thessaly regional governor Konstantinos Agorastos told SKAI TV that the first four carriages of the passenger train were derailed in the crash, while the first two carriages, which caught fire, were "almost completely destroyed".

Also Read: NEOM: All you need to know about Saudi Arabia's futuristic city without roads and cars | WATCH

He said the two trains hurtled towards each other on the same track.

"They were travelling at great speed and one (driver) didn't know the other was coming," the governor said.

About 250 passengers were evacuated safely to Thessaloniki on buses. One passenger told state broadcaster ERT he managed to escape after breaking the train window with his suitcase.

"There was panic in the carriage, people were screaming," a young man who was evacuated to a nearby bridge told SKAI TV.

"It was like an earthquake," Angelos Tsiamouras, another passenger, told ERT.

Broadcaster SKAI showed footage of derailed carriages, badly damaged with broken windows and thick plumes of smoke, as well as debris strewn across the road. Rescue workers were seen carrying torches in carriages looking for trapped passengers.

"The evacuation of passengers is under way in very difficult conditions given the severity of the collision of the two trains," fire brigade spokesperson Vassilis Varthakogiannis said in a televised address.

In the early hours of Wednesday, footage from state broadcaster ERT showed rescue workers with headlights searching the wreckage and surrounding fields for survivors.

"We are living through a tragedy. We are pulling out people alive, injured...there are dead. We are going to be here all night, until we finish, until we find the last person," a volunteer rescue worker told ERT state broadcaster.

Local media reported about 350 people were travelling on the passenger train, which departed Athens around 7.30 pm (0530 GMT). The fire brigade said it was informed of the accident shortly before midnight on Tuesday. The cargo train had been travelling from Thessaloniki to Larissa.

In 1972, 19 people were killed when two trains collided head on outside Larissa.

Greece's ageing railway system is need of modernising, with many trains travelling on single tracks and signalling and automatic control systems still to be installed in many areas.

Greece sold railway operator TRAINOSE to Italy's Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane in 2017 as part of its international bailout programme, expecting hundreds of millions of euros to be invested in rail infrastructure in the coming years.

According to the Italian company's website it is the main provider of rail transport for passengers and freight in Greece and runs 342 passenger and commercial routes a day.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.
More than three quarters of a century after it was written, George Kennans long telegramit ran to 5,500 wordsfrom Moscow to his bosses at the US State Department remains arguably the most influential diplomatic document of all time. At a time when the US and Britain were still nominally allied with Stalins Russia in the aftermath of World War II, his 22 February 1946 memo called for realism in dealing with an autocratic adversary and containing it. I apologise in advance for this burdening of the telegraphic channel," Kennan wrote. But he had opted not to use the diplomatic pouch precisely to grab the attention of Washington. Long as the telegram was, its very first point, that Stalins Soviet Union was beset by antagonistic" paranoia about capitalist encirclement" and that there could be no permanent peaceful coexistence", set the foundations for decades of US containment as a strategy for dealing with Moscow.

Re-reading it today, against the backdrop of Russias invasion of Ukraine as well as Chinas border disputes with nearly all its neighbours, is hugely instructive. Kennans genius, as someone who loved Russia, spoke Russian fluently and adored its literature enough to contemplate writing a biography of the playwright Anton Chekhov, was to understand that Marxism was just a fig leaf of their moral and intellectual respectability. Without it, [the Kremlin] would stand before history as only the last of that long succession of cruel and wasteful Russian rulers who have relentlessly forced the country on to ever new heights of military power in order to guarantee the external security of their internally weak regimes." This perspective is crucial to understand the combative stance of two countries with Communist foundations: Putins Russia and Xis China.

Then, as now, coping with these powerful rivals is undoubtedly the greatest task our diplomacy has ever faced and probably will ever have to face," as Kennan wrote. Unlike those who act as apologists for Putins need for spheres of influence" and tiptoe around Beijings supposed historical claims to Taiwanwhich ought to be regarded with as much scorn as, say, Pakistan insisting that Bangladesh not be accorded diplomatic status befitting a nationKennan warned that these regimes were committed to the belief that with the US there can be no permanent modus vivendi." Decades later, it is easy to discern signs that this perceived antagonism was alive and well in the minds of Chinas leadership in an encounter described in Richard McGregors biography of the Chinese Communist Party. McGregors The Party recounts a meeting between Wang Qishan, Chinas vice premier in charge of the financial sector, with Western financial investors and executives. One of the underappreciated inflection points of history is how this partnership between Communist Beijing and Wall Street has been crucial in helping China raise hundreds of billions of dollars in overseas capital markets by listing an array of badly run state-owned enterprises that Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley also helped restructure. The meeting with Wang took place in 2008 in the aftermath of the financial crisis that saw US financial giants nearly collapse till they were bailed out by the US government. Wangs meeting was suffused with gloating rather than sympathy; Beijings superiority complex was all too apparent. Wangs view, one participant told McGregor, was You have your way. We have our way. And our way is right!"

Kennans policy of containment focused on exerting pressure on a totalitarian adversary by diplomatic and economic means, not war. It is safe to assume that he would have regarded Wall Streets track record as an accomplice to Chinese power ambitions as naive. Equally, he would have been appalled by the cynical view of so many that the invasion of Ukraine is just Russia asserting its right to rule its neighbours. The ferocious fight-back by Ukraines leadership, army and civilians makes a mockery of Russian claims.

A formative experience for Kennan in the last days of World War II was hearing of the Polish Home Army heroically rising up against Warsaws German occupiers in August 1944. Stalin refused to intervene, even though the Russian army was less than 60 miles away. He initially paid little heed to US appeals to let Allied planes refuel at Ukrainian bases so they could get arms and supplies to the Polish revolt. As Louis Menand observes in a 2011 review of Kennans biography in The New Yorker: [Stalin] was waiting for the [German elite guard] to annihilate the Home Army for him, thereby removing a potential obstacle to the establishment of a Soviet puppet regime." The Germans killed 225,000 civilians and shipped half a million Poles to concentration camps. When Russian troops entered Warsaw in January 1945, not a single inhabitant was left." This shameful example of Russian realpolitik should suffice to explain the commitment of ordinary Poles to the Ukrainian cause; thousands of Polish families have opened their homes to Ukrainian refugees who have crossed the border in millions.

Kennan was disillusioned that successive US administrations sought military intervention of one kind or another to prop up regimes in Asia and Latin America. He spoke against the Vietnam war. But, he would have loudly called out the autocratic regimes in Beijing and Moscow and their many cheerleaders in diplomatic and business circles. From Delhi to Davos and from Washington to Brussels, we need Kennans clear-eyed vision more than ever today and in the perilous years ahead.

Rahul Jacob is a Mint columnist and a former Financial Times foreign correspondent.
Indias former economic advisor Arvind Subramanian once invoked the Mahabharata to aptly describe one of the countrys biggest hurdles to long-term growth  that of free exits for firms. It was like the Chakravyuha from which Abhimanyu was unable to break free, he said.

Free exit occurs when a firm can exit the market without limit when incurring economic losses.

Companies, both domestic and foreign, as well as workers will connect to this. Take the case of automaker General Motors, which is battling its workers union on a voluntary separation. A court in Pune last week ordered the company and the union to mediate after differences emerged over a severance package. Meanwhile, a leading edtech company that sacked several staffers at one of its offices in Kerala a few months ago had to backpedal after facing resistance from staffers and politicians.

Indian industry and many economists have traced the origins of such resistance to the countrys restrictive industrial policies in the early decades of the republic. Such fetters have hobbled the growth of firms, discouraged large, labour-intensive manufacturing, increased transaction costs and reduced competitiveness, theyve argued.

Indian policymakers have long recognised this and sought to address the issue of free entry and exit for firms in the first flush of economic liberalisation in 1991.

While that government and subsequent ones did progressively ease restrictions on domestic and foreign companies, success on a free exit policy has been elusive.

The central government may have changed labour laws with the introduction of four labour codes, but labour is on the concurrent list. And not all states may want to play ball. Indeed, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh have moved on this front, but the majority of investment still flows to states with superior infrastructure and an industrial base.

It isnt as if the government hasnt tried. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) introduced during the first term of the Modi-led government was aimed at easing the pain of closing a firm, stemming erosion of the value of assets of a company, and helping lenders realise better value.

But the early success and euphoria that was generated after the quick resolution of some firms bankruptcies has since dissipated, with the average time lines for resolution now more than twice the mandated period of 270 days.

Building an exit policy that will meet the competing demands of business and labour is a difficult challenge for any government. Over 30 years ago, the Narasimha Rao government approved the formation of a National Renewal Fund (NRF) to provide a safety net for workers. The idea was to fund the severance costs of employees hit by the closure of both state-owned units and private companies, and to help them to adapt to a new world of technology.

That initiative was perceived as a nudge by the World Bank, which had approved a loan that did not materialise thanks to political and economic constraints. Similarly, promises of using the proceeds from the sale of state-run companies to protect workers havent been delivered either.

The failure to build consensus on a suitable exit policy has been costly for the economy as it incentivises firms to remain small and limit their ambitions.

Overcoming this will require a social safety net to which workers contribute, more skill training, generous severance packages, and insurance tools. That wont be easy for a country with limited fiscal resources. The Chakravyuha challenge still looms large.
Ever since OpenAIs ChatGPT lit up the internet in November, companies cant stop talking about artificial intelligence. Take this earnings season so far: References to AI and related terms during calls with investors are already up 77% from a year earlier.

Its no wonder. AI-hungry investors have propelled Nvidia Corp., which makes the chips needed for complex AI computing tasks, into the best-performing stock among mega-caps this year. Relatively obscure firms with AI in their names have also skyrocketed. BigBear.ai Holdings Inc. has surged more than 300%, while C3.ai Inc. and BuzzFeed Inc. have more than doubled. Guardforce AI Co. is up 51%.

A lot of the companies tossing around the phrase AI are just taking advantage of the hype. Some are speaking aspirationally about how they see AI transforming their businessesone day, some day. And then there are the real, practical use cases for AI and machine learning that companies have been actively investing in, developing and usingin some cases, long before AI became a buzzwordproving that the power of these algorithms is already reaching far beyond chatbots to change everything from the way companies manage their parts inventories to how theyre recruiting for job candidates.

It is impossible to quantify what the impact of AI could be and equally possible that a wave of enthusiasm carries stocks with expertise in or exposure to AI, no matter how tenuous, higher and higher," said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell Plc. All investors can do is stick to their disciplines and focus on competitive position, management, and valuation, while making sure that they truly understand the business, before they put any capital at risk."

Below is a look at how various companies and industries are using AIlargely based on commentary from this quarters earnings calls but also some key announcements made in recent weeks.

Alphabet Inc.s Google is using large language models to strengthen its search engine, specifically by helping anticipate the intent of users queries, Philipp Schindler, Googles chief business officer, said on the companys fourth-quarter earnings call on 2 February. AI is also used to increase consumer interactions with ads. AI has been foundational to our ads business for the last decade," he said.

During Meta Platforms Inc.s own earnings call, chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg said AI is the foundation of our discovery engine and ads business." The company is investing more heavily in AI to develop privacy tools as well as help advertisers serve more relevant and engaging" ads, he said. Some of those efforts are already paying off, with conversions, or an advertisers desired outcome from ads, increasing 20% in the last quarter compared with the prior year. Meta also uses AI for their content algorithms. Microsoft Corp. CEO Satya Nadella said theres a sea change" happening in search. The companys AI model, Prometheus, will allow it to make the biggest leap ever in the relevance of results, he said. Its new Bing search engine adds the ability to chat and can help users compose emails and other content. Google will integrate the underlying technology in its Bard chatbot into its own engine. CEO Sundar Pichai has said this will produce results that distill complex information and multiple perspectives into easy-to-digest formats."

Zoom Video Communications Inc. CEO Eric Yuan pledged to layer more AI technologies into our products," and touted new features like translation, video captioning and analysis for sales.

Its clear that not every company has embraced the AI hype with the same enthusiasm as the ones above. For every major company that mentioned AI in an earnings call this quarter, there were scores more that didnt utter the phrase at all.

Some companies, namely financial ones, have gone as far as to ban or restrict their employees use of ChatGPT in particular. Citigroup Inc., Deutsche Bank AG and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are among those that have recently banned employees from using the chatbot.

The clamour for everything AI bears hallmarks of the cryptocurrency frenzy that took Wall Street by storm a few years back, and more recently the metaverse. Only time will tell if investor interest will last longer than it did for those similarly untested concepts.
Sea of rapeseed flowers ushers in springtime in SW Chinas Yunnan

People's Daily Online) 14:38, March 01, 2023

Photo shows a sea of rapeseed flowers in Luoping county, Qujing, southwest Chinas Yunnan Province. (Photo/Hou Ying)

A sea of golden rapeseed flowers recently came into full bloom in Luoping county, Qujing, southwest Chinas Yunnan Province, drawing hordes of visitors. These bright flowers, basked in warm sunshine and rippled in gentle breezes, made a visible presence almost everywhere across the county  from dotted hills to terraced fields.

Thanks to its diverse terrain, the county offers a wide range of options for viewers to enjoy the rapeseed scenery from different locations. In local mountainous areas, for example, waves of rapeseed blossom, stretching from mountain tops to their feet, rise and fall along the rolling landscape.

Luoping, as one of the 31 rapeseed production counties in China, is hailed as the rapeseed oil granary of east Yunnan. The local agriculture department said this years rapeseed flowering is half a month later than previous ones, due to a lack of rainfall at the earlier growth stage, and millions of mu (0.07 hectares) of flowers began to usher in full bloom in late February.

Over recent years, the county has taken full advantage of local flower resources, established a new bussiness model by integrating agriculture and tourism, and formed an industrial layout featuring a mutually reinforcing relationship between the two sectors. This has brought prosperity to locals and laid a solid foundation for rural vitalization.

(Web editor: Chang Sha, Liang Jun)
A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
Elizabeth "Lizzie" Greenlee was last seen in the area of the Country Inn and Suites on West Bridge Road. Photo by DPD.
Students in Adam Wolcotts Innovation and Creativity in Business class toured the Mapp Buildings Hatch It! Lab on Feb. 16.
Dalton firefighters Byron Miranda (left) and Zach Carlson (right) stand together during a break in the action at the Georgia Smoke Divers training earlier this month at the Dalton Fire Department Training Center
Rail accident involving a collision between a cargo and a passenger train in the Evangelismos area of Larissa, Greece on March 1, 2023. (Photo by STRINGER / SOOC / SOOC via AFP) (Photo by STRINGER/SOOC/AFP via Getty Images)
Im only going by what Ive seen in Western movies, Chattanooga senator says in questioning the method.
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.
A Lithuanian national charged with handling and possessing stolen property at various commercial and residential properties in Granard and Dublin had additional charges added to his prosecution at Longford District Court.

Andrius Parfionovas (39), 34 Oldbridge Park, Griffeen Valley, Lucan, Dublin, originally came before Judge Bernadette Owens charged in connection with the alleged possession of 300,000 of stolen property.

They included 14 outboard Yamaha engines, 14 Hummingbird fish finders, four marine radios, 4 propellers, 8 GPS systems, two wave boards, and 3,115 in cash, amounting to a total of 48,000.

Those items were allegedly stolen from a house in Omagh, Tyrone shortly before the accused was arrested by Gardai at a property in Granard, Longford.

Mr Parfionovas was further charged with handling a stolen Renault Master Van valued at 20,000 which had been fitted with false plates after it had also been allegedly stolen from a property at Edenderry, Offaly on July 25.

The accused is further charged with handling a string of alleged stolen car components, among which included parts belonging to a BMW M5 181 registered car valued at 90,000 after it too was allegedly stolen in Navan, Meath on July 5.

At last week's District court sitting two additional charges were added. The defendant is now charged with two additional counts of possession of a Garda uniform. Mr Parfionovas, who is in custody on the matters, was remanded to appear before Longford District Court by video link.

Sergeant Mark Mahon said it will take around three weeks to have a book of evidence prepared for the defendant, but acknowledged that because the additional charges with proffered the longest remand in custody is one week.

Solicitor Brid Mimnagh pointed out her client has been in custody since November 13 and had a High Court bail application declined.

Judge Owens adjourned the matter to February 28 when the defendant will appear by video link.
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue TD has confirmed that all 46,000 applicants for the new Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) are to be included in the scheme.

Welcoming the announcement, Longford / Westmeath Fianna Fail TD Joe Flaherty said, This is a major scheme for Longford farmers who have enthusiastically embraced the two previous environmental schemes and it was critical that they were allowed entry to the new programme.

Deputy Flaherty also confirmed the opening of the new BISS (replacing the BPS, which replaced the Single Farm Payment) programme as part of the rollout of Irelands 9.8bn CAP Strategic Plan.

He explained, The application process for the new Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) as well as other area-based schemes, is now open. Over the coming days, farmers will receive information in the post containing their BISS maps and land details for 2023.

"Useful information on the new schemes, on the Area Monitoring System and a guide to staying healthy, safe, and well while farming, which has been supported and driven by Minister Heydon, will also be posted to farmers. This information will assist farmers and their advisors to make their online BISS application.

Continuing, Deputy Flaherty referred to some of the key dates that will inform scheme implementation in 2023.

He said: With this being the first year of the new CAP Strategic Plan, a whole range of new schemes are being introduced over a relatively short time period. It is important therefore that farmers and advisors are aware of some important planned delivery dates.

The key dates are as follows:
Stephen Silver thought that shooting dead Garda Colm Horkan was all a hoax or a test to be in the special forces, an expert medical witness told the Central Criminal Court today as she gave evidence of his multiple admissions to hospital.

Dr Brenda Wright today (Wednesday, March 1) told the jury in the trial of Mr Silver (46), of Aughavard, Foxford, Co Mayo, that the accused told her he was feeling strange the day before the shooting and thought he would have to sign himself into hospital.

Mr Silver has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Gda Horkan knowing or being reckless as to whether he was a member of An Garda Siochana acting in accordance with his duty at Castlerea, Co Roscommon on June 17, 2020. He has pleaded guilty to manslaughter and the jury have been told the main issue in the trial is Mr Silvers state of mind at the time of the shooting.

Dr Wright, interim clinical director at the Central Mental Hospital, gave evidence to defence counsel Dominic McGinn SC about interviews she conducted with Mr Silver in the months after the shooting. She said that he described experiencing a sleep disturbance in the days leading up to the incident. His alcohol consumption increased and he was drinking a bottle of wine or half a bottle of gin or five beers a night.

Looking back, my mind wasnt clear, my head was rushing, Mr Silver told her.

Dr Wright said that two days before the incident, Mr Silver started getting paranoid about a female companions purpose towards him. Dr Wright said Mr Silver told the witness he was feeling strange the day before the shooting and thought he might be becoming unwell. Dr Wright said the accused told her he thought he would sign himself into the hospital the next day.

Concerning the shooting of Gda Horkan, Dr Wright said Mr Silver told her that on the day, Gda Horkan squared up to him.

She said he told her that a scuffle ensued in which he lost his prescription sunglasses, and he felt Gda Horkan had a gun. He told her that he thought: Oh f*ck, Im wrestling for my life. Dr Wright gave evidence that Mr Silver said he and Gda Horkan struggled for the gun and next thing it started going off. He said he hit Gda Horkan on the head to loosen his grip on Mr Silver and then Mr Silver aimed and shot him.

Asked how he felt about the shooting, Dr Wright said Mr Silver told her he felt angry. Youre going for a pizza and now youre in a shootout. If there was no gun thered be no crime. If only he had told me he was a garda and shown me ID. He had no reason to grab me. I dont know why he got out of the car. Hes after ruining my life. I thought he was a drug dealer, Mr Silver told Dr Wright.

Dr Wright gave evidence that Mr Silver said he did not sleep for three nights after the shooting. She said he told her he thought it was all a hoax or a test to be in the special forces. She said he told her that his uncle and father would save the day with the cavalry.

Dr Wright also gave evidence in the trial regarding Mr Silvers mental health history.

She said that Mr Silver was brought to hospital by gardai and admitted on an involuntary basis on January 19, 2010, a year after his previous admission. He had not been complying with his medication for seven months and was confused, mixed up in his thoughts and experiencing a flight of ideas. He was placed on a high dose of antipsychotic medication, Dr Wright said.

She gave evidence that he was again admitted on an involuntary basis on February 14, 2010. He was very aggressive and violent, with a loss of energy and an elated mood. He had stopped taking his medication and was in an unkempt state, and he was suspicious and talking in a raised volume.

Dr Wright said he displayed ideas of reference, which is a common thread of symptoms of schizophrenia. She said a person in this state may believe they are receiving messages from the radio, or if they are watching the news then they get the feeling the newsreader is trying to tell them something.

She said Mr Silver also had thought insertion, which is the feeling that their thoughts are not their own and must have come from somewhere else, put into their mind by an external agent. She said he also displayed thought interference, which is the belief that thoughts are being taken out of a persons head, and passivity feelings, which is the belief that an external agent is controlling how a person feels.

She confirmed to Mr McGinn that Mr Silver had believed people were out to get him and he needed to protect himself by physical means. She said that his diagnosis at that time was a relapse of bipolar affective disorder.

Dr Wright went on to confirm to Mr McGinn that Mr Silver was again admitted to hospital on March 19, 2010, after he was found dancing barefoot with no trousers on in the street. He was aggressive and required restraint by the gardai. At the garda station, he had conversations with himself and lacked insight. She said he had been non-compliant with his medication and had paranoid delusions.

She said that Mr Silver was again admitted on a voluntary basis on April 25, 2010, after becoming acutely psychotic following alcohol consumption. He had persecution delusions and was suspicious of 25 people trying to follow and kill him.

The court heard that Mr Silver was not admitted to hospital again until February 9, 2018. Dr Wright confirmed to Mr McGinn that on this occasion, which was his 16th admission to hospital, Mr Silver self-presented to A&E with his wife, after he was verbally and physically aggressive to his wife since returning from a biking rally in Germany. He had disturbed sleep and was highly agitated and had caused damage to property at home.

She said Mr Silver accused his wife of being a spy at this time. He had slurred speech and was talkative and anxious. She confirmed to Mr McGinn that Mr Silver tested positive for PCP, known as angel dust.

Dr Wright said that the last time the accused was admitted to hospital was September 2, 2019. Mr Silver presented to A&E with a friend as his family were concerned about his mental state. He was threatening in nature, irritable, and displaying inappropriate behaviour. He was paranoid about the nursing staff and was threatening staff and other patients. Dr Wright said that Mr Silver left the hospital and subsequently physically assaulted staff who went after him. He later presented voluntarily at the hospital.

The jury previously heard that Dr Wright interviewed Mr Silver three times after the shooting of Gda Horkan, on dates between August and September 2020.

"Having reviewed the information and having met with him and interviewed him on three occasions, my view is that at the time he was mentally unwell and as a consequence his capacity was impaired, said Dr Wright.

She said that as a consequence of his mental illness, Mr Silvers capacity was significantly impaired at the time of the shooting.

The trial continues tomorrow (Thursday, March 2) before Ms Justice Tara Burns and the jury of seven men and five women.
Pakistan and China have further stepped up their cooperation in green energy for the benefit of the region under the CPEC, helping Pakistan mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change.

[Xinhua] The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship project under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), has been playing a pivotal role in promoting green development in Pakistan, highlighting China's commitment to harmonious coexistence of human beings and nature, Pakistani officials and experts said.

Talking to Xinhua, Convener of National Parliamentary Task Force on Sustainable Development Goals, Romina Khurshid Alam, said the cooperation between Pakistan and China under the CPEC in the fields of energy, transport, agriculture and industrial production has helped Pakistan boost green, low-carbon sustainable development.

Photo taken on Jan. 1, 2022 shows the sunrise view in Lahore, Pakistan. (Photo by Sajjad/Xinhua)

Besides assisting Pakistan in overcoming energy crisis and infrastructure upgrading through the CPEC, Chinese companies in Pakistan have been strictly following international and local standards on safety and environmental protection, Alam said.

In implementing infrastructure projects, ecological factors have been fully considered and a number of green and clean energy projects including solar, wind and hydropower have been completed across the Asian country over the past several years, reducing carbon emissions and contributing to economic development, environment protection and improvement of living standards of the locals, said the official.

Citing the example of recently completed 720-megawatt Karot hydropower project, Alam said that a comprehensive biodiversity management plan was developed for construction and operation stages of the project to protect environment and wildlife around the project site.

Pakistan and China have further stepped up their cooperation in green energy for the benefit of the region under the CPEC, helping Pakistan mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change, said Hassan Daud Butt, senior advisor at the China Study Center of the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, an Islamabad-based think tank.

"Pakistan is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change, with the country facing the worst climate-induced catastrophic floods recently. As the CPEC is making progress, it can help the country to tackle the climate change issue by increasing investment in renewable energy, green building construction, decreasing energy loss, and innovative practices such as green finance and other measures," Butt told Xinhua.

Calling the CPEC a game changer and a green corridor, Shakeel Ahmad Ramay, chief executive officer of the Asian Institute of Eco-civilization Research and Development, said that the flagship project of the BRI is people-centric, environmentally friendly, inclusive and green and sustainable initiative.

China has been utilizing new technologies and making investments in BRI partner countries to support green development. Pakistan can learn from the Chinese experience and technology to realize its vision of high-quality green and sustainable development, Ramay told Xinhua.

"The CPEC has changed the landscape of Pakistan and has accelerated growth while bringing about socio-economic benefits for the people of Pakistan ... China's commitment to promoting carbon-free global economy is commendable," he said.
First Property Group PLC - UK property fund manager and investor - Reports EUR1.7 million loan has been obtained by E & S Estates Ltd of which it owns 89%. Says loan secured on a supermarket in Praga, a suburb of Warsaw, Poland worth EUR3.4 million, implying loan to value ratio of around 50%. Forecasts net income from property of EUR160,000, a return on equity of 9% annually. Notes group cash following this refinancing amounts to GBP8.5 million.

Current stock price: 24 pence

12-month change: down 27%

By Jeremy Cutler, Alliance News reporter

Comments and questions to newsroom@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2023 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved
(Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of updates by London-listed companies, issued on Monday and not separately reported by Alliance News:

----------

Eco Atlantic Oil & Gas Ltd - Toronto-based oil and gas exploration company - Records interest income of USD36,731 in the final quarter that ended December 31. In the comparable period it recorded no income. In the nine months to December 31 interest income amounts to USD93,183, multiplied from USD8,435 a year before. In the quarter, it swings to a net loss of USD20.0 million from a profit of USD748,821. For the nine months, it swings to a net loss of USD35.6 million from a profit of USD10,752. Operating expenses surge to USD37.8 million from USD1.9 million and it records a fair value change in warrant liability of USD1.9 million. "Both Guyana and Namibia continue to yield sizeable discoveries, and we are seeing unprecedented levels of interest for exploration assets in these regions. As such, we continue to progress our highly strategic acreage positions in both Guyana and Namibia and we look forward to updating the market on our farm out program in Namibia and our plans for a drilling campaign in Guyana as soon as practically possible. We remain excited about the potential for 2023 and we look forward to keeping all stakeholders updated throughout the course of the year," President & Chief Executive Gil Holzman comments.

----------

Curtis Banks Group PLC - Bristol-based provider of self-invested personal pensions - Says that almost 100% of scheme shareholders voted in favour of the resolution to approve the acquisition by Nucleus Clyde Acquisition Ltd. Says that almost 100% of its shareholders approved the scheme at its general meeting. In January, the company got a GBP242 million takeover offer at 350 pence per share.

----------

PureTech Health PLC - London-based clinical-stage biotherapeutics company - Notes that its founded entity Sonde Health has been selected by the Massachusetts Artificial Intelligence and Technology Center for Connected Care in Aging & Alzheimer's Disease to lead a pilot study focused on leveraging vocal biomarkers for remote detection and monitoring of mild cognitive impairment in the home environment. Explains that the project is part of a USD1.7 million grant to explore the use of artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies for in-home care.

----------

BlueRock Diamonds PLC - diamond producer focused on South Africa - Says indebtedness of principal operating subsidiary Kareevlei Mining Proprietary Ltd to Teichmann South Africa rises to ZAR75.5 million, or GBP3.4 million as at February 10. Says Kareevlei's application for business rescue had been received and approved by the relevant regulatory authorities in South Africa. Says it is awaiting the formal registration of Engaged Business Turnaround Proprietary Ltd as its Business Rescue practitioner. Says Kareevlei engaged with EBT, TSA and TSA's legal advisors to secure essential payments, and payments were made to staff for February salaries and to the diesel supplier for diesel on Friday afternoon.

----------

By Abby Amoakuh, Alliance News reporter

Comments and questions to newsroom@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2023 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
(Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of updates by London-listed companies, issued on Wednesday and not separately reported by Alliance News:

----------

Riverstone Energy Ltd - Guernsey-based investment firm focused on energy and power - Reports a net asset value per share of USD14.52, or GBP11.99, as of December 31. This represents a 17% increase in USD terms and a 30% increase in GBP terms compared to the company's NAV at the same time a year prior. Explains that power producer Onyx and energy and power firms Hammerhead and Permian were the largest drivers of NAV improvement over the year. Looking forward, Riverstone says it believes past work with its legacy commodity-linked portfolio and work to identify strong growth equity opportunities in the decarbonisation space, has positioned its portfolio "well" to capitalise on the "upside of energy market volatility and the steady march toward a decarbonised economy."

----------

SuperSeed Capital Ltd - Guernsey-based venture capital fund focused on early-stage technology investments - Notes that 2022 saw "significant market volatility and economic uncertainty", which it says resulted in significant falls in software-as-a-services companies' valuations during the year. However, it explains that robust revenue for the fund's portfolio companies "more than made up for the multiple contraction". Adds that the outlook for the fund's portfolio in 2022 is "very encouraging," saying that revenue for the existing portfoilo is expected to "more than double" over the course of the year before any new companies are added to the portfolio. Reports NAV per share of GBP1.0192 at the end of 2022 and income totalling GBP163,538 in the year as a whole.

----------

SDX Energy PLC - Middle East and North Africa-focused oil and gas exploration and production company - Reports an average gross production of 38.5 million standard cubic feet equivalent per day in the South Disouq area in Egypt in 2022. Adds that the SD-5X well in the area is on production and is exceeding immediate post-drill volume expectations. In the West Gharib area in Egypt, reports an average gross production of 2,033 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2022. Says results of the Rabul SE-1 exploration well in this area will be communicated to the market in "due course." SDX Energy reports average gross production of 4.9 million standard cubic feet per day for 2022 in Morocco. Adds that the KRS-20 discovery well in Morocco is now currently on production. Expects to publish full-year results near the end of April. In other company news, notes that interim Chief Financial Officer Daan Hanssen has resigned. He will leave at the end of May.

----------

LendInvest PLC - London-based non-bank mortgage lender - Completes the sale of its non-risk retention residual economic interest in Mortimer BTL 2020-1 PLC for GBP7.0 million in cash. Says the transaction will reduce the company's gross loans and advances of GBP212 million. It will generate a net pretax gain of GBP1.3 million for financial 2023, in-line with management expectations.

----------

San Leon Energy PLC - Nigeria-focused oil and gas production, development and exploration company - Notes an announcement made by Decklar Resources Inc. San Leon has an 11% shareholding in Decklar Petroleum Lltd, the local subsidiary of Decklar operating in Nigeria. Decklar Resources signs a crude oil sale and purchase agreement with its co-venturer Millenium Oil & Gas Co Ltd to deliver an additional 150,000 barrels of crude oil to Edo Refinery & Petrochemicals Co Ltd in Nigeria. Decklar and Millenium also enter a sale and purchase agreement with Duport Midsteam Co Ltd to deliver 5,000 barrels of oil to the Duport refinery, also in Nigeria.

----------

By Heather Rydings, Alliance News senior economics reporter

Comments and questions to newsroom@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2023 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Such delay strains NATO's open-door policy and harms its credibility, Marin told Stoltenberg on Tuesday.

[Xinhua] The delay in the ratification of Finland and Sweden's North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) membership bid harms the alliance's credibility, Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin said here on Tuesday.

"We (Finland and Sweden) would have hoped to become members of NATO already," she said. "Finland and Sweden fulfill all the criteria as it has been mentioned, and we are yet waiting. Of course, this strains the open-door policy of NATO; it's also to do with NATO's credibility," Marin said during a joint press conference with visiting NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

This photo taken on April 6, 2022 shows a sculpture and flags at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)

Finland and Sweden jointly submitted their NATO membership bids in May last year. So far, 28 of NATO's 30 current members have ratified the applications. Turkiye and Hungary have yet to formally endorse the two countries' accession.

Stoltenberg reiterated that Finland and Sweden's rapid admission is now the alliance's number one priority. He said that representatives of Turkiye, Finland and Sweden are scheduled to meet at NATO headquarters in Brussels next week. However, this does not guarantee a breakthrough and the final decision rests with Turkiye and Hungary, Stoltenberg said.

Stoltenberg was in Helsinki to attend the annual meeting of SAMAK, the co-operation committee of the Nordic Social Democratic parties.
For Dr. Emily Maher, MCLA Professor of Physics, coming together with other women in science is imperative for longevity in the field. Thats why she attended a three-day Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics (CUWiP) with her physics student Tea Caravello 26 last month at Brown University.

The goal of the conference, which happens simultaneously at sites all over the US and Canada, is to provide a space for undergraduate women in physics to learn about the profession, access resources, and get advice from women currently working in the field and hear about their experiences.

I believe one of the most difficult aspects of being a woman in physics is being the only woman around, Dr. Maher said. One of the reasons I joined the faculty at MCLA was because of Adrienne Wootters, who served as the chair of physics when I was hired. Our next hire was Kebra Ward, and for a brief time, the MCLA physics faculty consisted solely of women. Conferences like CUWiP allow women pursuing undergraduate physics degrees to get together and talk with others who share their experiences.

The conference featured research presentations by physicists working in academics and industry, panel discussions about the experiences of women in physics, laboratory tours, student research talks and poster sessions, a graduate school and career fair, and times when presenters and students could interact with each other.

Dr. Maher first attended the conference in 2019 at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. This year she learned about instruments used in cutting-edge physics research while touring the Brown University physics and engineering labs. She also attended two hands-on workshops; one where she built cloud chambers to detect cosmic rays and another session where she used machine learning algorithms to analyze particle physics data from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

Experiencing imposter syndrome was something the speakers frequently discussed, Dr. Maher said. The speakers noted that imposter syndrome affects many people in physics but is especially prevalent in minorities in the physics community.

I believe it is very important (and also a little disheartening) to hear extremely successful physicists discuss their own imposter syndrome and tips for combatting it, she said. Many of the undergraduate students who attended the conference are the only female physics majors in their departments, and some are the only woman in the entire department.

While Caravellos undergraduate career is still in its infancy, she said attending CUWiP allowed her to see that pursuing graduate school is less intimidating than she originally thought it to be and she valued the information about entering a field that is heavily male-dominated. She said it empowered her to continue her education as a physics major as an undergrad and beyond.

One of the evenings, I was fortunate enough to sit down with a woman working on her Ph.D. at Harvard University, and another currently working as a Postdoctoral fellow at MIT, which was an incredible opportunity, Caravello said. We spent over an hour discussing the challenges of being a woman in physics, and they both shared advice with me on ways to succeed as I navigate the field.

Upon entering the conference, Caravello had thought it would be hard to balance a social life or graduate school while pursuing a career in physics but quickly learned from other attendees and speakers that thats not the case.

I went into the conference believing that I was heading into a career that would take up much of my life, and there would be little to no room for other things (especially during the graduate school years). However, I learned that this is absolutely not the case, and that thought shouldn't stop someone from pursuing a career in physics, she said.

I would have loved to attend a conference like this when I was an undergraduate, and I am very happy to be able to take our physics majors to such a conference, Dr. Maher said.
India-Australia military cooperation is focused on the maritime domain in support of an open, inclusive, and resilient Indo-Pacific region

by Ashok K. Mehta

Wandering through Australia, Im discovering that our own great Sikhs came in shiploads during the 19th century to fight under Australian officers in World War I. The Brits brought camels from India with Sikh cameleers whom the Australians mistook as Afghans. More Sikhs arrived to set up a base between Brisbane and Sydney establishing banana plantations. Surprisingly they havent reached the moon yet.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will be visiting India in March 2023, where he is set to hold critical bilateral talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. Two leaders in Bali, Indonesia last year [ Photo credit: G20]

Fast forward to 1998 to Indias nuclear tests. Australia then was so paranoid about nuclear proliferation that the Sikh Defence Attache was asked to leave Australia within 24 hours. In a surprising turn of policy two years ago Canberra decided to export uranium to India. On 15 February Defence Secretary, Greg Moriarty announced its dont ask dont tell nuclear policy. Australia no longer asks strategic bombers whether they are carrying nuclear weapons. US B52 stealth B2 bombers operate from Australian bases to maintain Operation Unpredictability dispersing the nuclear triad. The stationing of nuclear weapons in Australia is prohibited under its South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty but the US has traditionally neither confirmed nor denied carriage of nuclear weapons, a policy endorsed by Foreign Minister Penny Wong at a Senate hearing last week where the Greens Senator objected to breach of SPNFZT. Under the highly controversial Australia UK and US (AUKUS) arrangement, Canberras nuclear-powered submarine fleet  which canceled the agreement with France to buy its Barracuda design  two already built UK Astute class submarines will be fitted with American subsystems. Australia could have 12 such submarines by 2050. It will become the only non-nuclear state to get US nuclear technology for its submarine fleet. This has generated a big debate on do we need AUKUS or whether Australia is rubber-stamping US policy. Australia is already part of the US India Japan QUAD and its Navy has already been part of the Malabar Naval exercises. With the new Albanese government calling up to China and India sitting on the fence, QUAD and Malabar as serious deterrents to China are questionable.

Australias new Defence Security Review, authored by former Defence Minister Stephen Smith and former CDS Air Marshal Angus Houston was released last week. Previously defence policy focused on defence of Australia and later, forward defence to the present when the China challenge of uncertainties and ambiguities has covered Australia. A defence expert told me in Sydney that the Chinese tried to strangle Australia and its economic coercion failed miserably. Distance and sea frontiers have made Australia safe and secure. Theres not been a single terrorist attack that makes Australia an attractive destination for trade and investment. However, fears of illegal immigrants have magnified. Last Saturday Foreign Minister S Jaishankar was in Sydney transiting from a visit to Fiji. India-Australia relations are on a high. Canberra considers New Delhi one of its most important partners in the Indo-Pacific. Prime Ministers Morrison and Modi signed the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2020, the Economic Strategy Update in 2022, and Australia India Economic Cooperation Agreement in 2022. The Australian government is setting up the Centre for Australia-India Relations like the Australia India Council set up 30 years ago.

Today 50,000 Indian students are helping the Australian higher education sector rebound after the pandemic. India-Australia defence cooperation traces its origins in the trenches of Gallipoli in World War I. Two agreements underpin defence ties  the 2006 Memorandum of Defence Cooperation; and the 2009 Joint Declaration in Security Cooperation. A joint working group on joint research and military cooperation has been set up. Joint exercises are regularly held between the three services. In 2015, the first formal bilateral naval exercise was held off the coast of Visakhapatnam and these are held every two years. In addition, the Milan fleet review has the Australian Navy participating. A maritime partnership exercise off Perth last year involved several ships and helicopters. IAF Su30 and C17 aircraft participated in Exercise Pitch Black. This was followed by another international Exercise Kakadu 2022. The Australian Navy participated in RIMPAC, an Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2022 Exercise.

The focus of India-Australia military cooperation is in the maritime domain in support of an open, inclusive, and resilient Indo-Pacific as stated by Defence Minister Richard Marles. Australian High Commissioner in India, Barry OFarrell has said that joint defence activities had experienced a nearly fourfold increase since 2014. The upgrade of ties was reflected in the recent 2+2 dialogue between Finance and Defence Ministers. The Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement entered into force on 29 December 2022 will allow tariff-free trade of 85 to 90 percent of the goods. India-Australia defence ties have come a long way since the expulsion of the Defence Advisor.

Ashok K. Mehta is a radio and television commentator, and a columnist on defence and security issues. He is a former Major General of Indian Army. After joining the Indian Army in 1957, he was commissioned in the 5th Gorkha Rifles infantry regiment in the same year. He had fought in all major wars India went into, except the Sino-Indian War of 1962. And he was also on a peacekeeping mission in Zaire in the year 1962 and in the Indian Peace Keeping Force, Sri Lanka (1988-90) and it was his last assignment in the Indian Army. He is also a writer of several books and a founder-member of the Defense Planning Staff in the Ministry of Defence, India.
Punjab government has said that these Khalistan terrorists who attacked the police station enjoy money support from overseas countries, where they have gained a foothold, obviously implying Canada.

by N. S. Venkataraman

Canada, a rich and underpopulated country with huge land space and considerable mineral deposits, has adopted a liberal migrant policy for the last several years. It is debatable whether such an approach is influenced by the fact that Canada is underpopulated or its commitment to welcoming migrants and refugees as a humane policy.

It is uncertain as to whether such a policy approach by the Canadian government will do well for Canada in the long run. The question is whether it would cause serious internal problems, by resulting in demographic imbalance and cultural dissimilarities amongst the natives and migrants/refugees entering Canada from different countries with divergent backgrounds.

The flag of Khalistan Movement in India [ Photo Credit: hinduamerican.org]

Germany has welcomed refugees in a big way from strife-torn countries. Availing Germanys liberal approach, a large number of refugees particularly from Islamic countries have entered Germany and are unlikely to go back. Such influx of refugees has been allowed by earlier German government as a humanistic approach towards refugees but has already caused serious local issues in Germany. Several Germans are protesting against such influx of refugees, most of whom have no particular skill or reasonable level of education and with different habits and priorities in personal life.

There are other countries in Europe such as Belgium, France, Britain where also migrants/refugees from African and Asian countries have entered, causing local issues. Australia is yet another country with similar problems. USA is also not an exception to such conditions.

Some migrants turned into separatists

This approach of the above countries have created problems for other countries like India and Sri Lanka since some separatists targeting India or Sri Lanka have also joined the group of people entering the above countries in the guise of migrants/refugees.

Sri Lanka suffered from serious internal strife resulting in a civil war launched by LTTE separatists, who found a safe haven in countries like Canada, Britain, France and others. Now, India is facing problems due to the Khalistan separatists based in countries like Canada, demanding a separate Khalistan region from India.

Khalistan separatists tolerated:

These Khalistan separatists virtually act and behave like terrorists and are not concealing their readiness to use violent methods to achieve their ends. While they are firmly footed in Canada, they have also in recent times gained foothold in other countries like Britain, and Australia.

What is unfortunate is that the countries like Canada have allowed these separatists to get a foothold, in spite of the fact that it is well known that they have separatist objectives in other countries, which would inevitably destabilize the targeted countries of the separatists, with adverse impact on their sovereignty and territorial integrity.

in the name of their commitment to free speech, individual liberty and democratic procedures, these democratic countries like Canada which are accommodating the separatists, virtually remain silent about the activities of the Khalistan separatists, They do not seem to realise that the activities of the Khalistan separatist groups are similar to the double-edged sword that has two sharp edges on both the sides. While the targeted countries of the separatists suffer due to their activities, the countries accommodating these separatists will also be seriously impacted and this is already evident from several recent developments.

Violent acts:

Khalistan separatists have attacked several Hindu temples in Canada and Australia and they have not been caught and punished for their dastardly acts by Government of Canada and Government of Australia so far.

Due to the activities of the Khalistan separatists, the law and order scenario in countries like Canada, Australia have been disrupted to some extent and is likely that the disruption would become more severe beyond tolerable level in the coming period if their accommodative attitude towards separatists would continue.

Recently, some Khalistan separatists have created huge law and order problem in Punjab state in India, where they attacked a police station with swords and arms, demanding the release of an arrested person. Unfortunately, the Punjab government panicked and released the arrested person, which inevitably have boosted the morale and confidence level of Khalistan terrorists.

Punjab government has said that these Khalistan terrorists who attacked the police station enjoy money support from overseas countries, where they have gained a foothold, obviously implying Canada.

Need for introspection:

For a moment, the leadership in the Government of Canada, the Government of Australia and other countries should introspect as to how they would feel bad and concerned if a similar separatist movement against them would be encouraged or tolerated in some other countries, where these separatists would gain a place.

It is high time that in the name of liberty and freedom, governments in Canada, Australia, Britain and other democratic countries should not confuse themselves, thinking that they would be right in accommodating separatists from other countries and providing them liberty and rights for free speech and unrestricted activities to cause disruptions in other countries.

If these democratic countries were to do so, it can be definitely said that they would become the cause for destabilizing other countries and creating pockets of tension in the world and disrupting global peace and harmony.
At its meeting today, the Board of Directors of HUBER+SUHNER AG decided to propose Marina Bill and Kerstin Gunther for election to the Board of Directors at the Annual General Meeting on 29 March 2023.

At the Annual General Meeting of HUBER+SUHNER AG on 29 March 2023, the Board of Directors will propose the election of two independent members with many years of international professional experience in the important target markets of industry and communication. Following the elections, the Board will then comprise eight members.

Marina Bill, a dual Swedish-Swiss citizen, graduated with a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering and Management from the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm (SE). She has been Group Vice President Marketing & Sales at ABB Robotics since 2018. Over a period of around 25 years, she has held various management positions at ABB in Sweden, Germany, the UK, the Philippines, and Switzerland in the area of grid automation, power generation and network management. Marina Bill has been President of ADRA (Artificial Intelligence, Data and Robotics Association) since 2021 and IFR (International Federation of Robotics) since 2022.

Kerstin Gunther, a German national, graduated with a Master of Science in Electronics from the Technical University of Wroclaw (PL) and holds an MBA in International Management. She has been the Chief Financial and Technology Officer of Helmholtz Munich (DE) since 2019. Prior to this, she spent her entire professional career in leadership positions  and in several countries  in the telecommunications industry, including 15 years at Deutsche Telekom. There, her responsibilities included, among others, technology and IT in Europe as well as network and investment planning in Germany, and she was responsible for establishing a cloud platform for pan-European network services.

"With Marina Bill and Kerstin Gunther, the Board of Directors is pleased to be able to propose two strong personalities with extensive international leadership experience in our target markets of industry and communication for election to the Board of Directors of HUBER+SUHNER," said Urs Kaufmann, Chairman of the Board of Directors.

This media release can also be found under https://www.hubersuhner.com/en/company/media/news

This media release is also available in German. The German version is binding.
On January 8th China launched another Shijian (experimental or special purpose) satellite into GSO (geostationary orbit). GSO space is not for orbiting satellites but for those that prefer to remain stationary, which can be done if you are about 35,786 kilometers from earth. This is where any satellite orbited that high will remain above the same area on earth. Since 2016 China has launched four Shijian series satellites into GSO space for vague or sometimes classified missions. The latest one, Shijian-23, was described as on a classified mission. The U.S. Space Force is able to monitor the activities of satellites in GSO space and Shijian-23 was seen to release at least one sub-satellite which could maneuver. China had earlier described Shijian-23 as carrying two sub-satellites but later deleted that information without comment. China would not describe what Shijian-23 and its sub-satellite was up there for. So far, Shijian-23 and its sub-satellite have been moving around up there. Previous Shijian-series satellites were observed moving close to other satellites and apparently inspecting them. Sometimes Shijian series satellites moved other satellites or debris out of valuable GSO areas. This is a useful activity and for China inspecting satellites of other nations is useful and in wartime so is moving foreign satellites out of position or disabling them would also be useful.

Several specialized satellites already put into orbit can grab and move another satellite to a less dangerous location or move a defunct satellite into a less troublesome location. China put the latest of these satellite movers into space during 2021. SJ-21 was put into GSO apace and proved large enough to grab large defunct satellites and move them to less valuable geostationary orbits. In other words, the satellite and earth will rotate together. For some types of satellites these orbits are very useful and when a satellite occupying one of these orbits ceases to function, you have to move it away in order for a working satellite to take its place. SJ-21 demonstrated that it could do the moving. This is quite useful.

More mobile satellites with robotic arms are a welcome new development because they can be used to inspect satellites in trouble and help diagnose the problem and perhaps fix it. Chinese and Russian satellites similar to SJ-21 have already been spotted getting close to satellites belonging to other nations and, in some cases, apparently practicing disabling them. That was not unexpected. While these movement and inspection satellites have a wartime use to disable enemy satellites, the more immediate problem is managing and eventually eliminating a lot of the man-made debris in orbit. The only way to destroy this stuff is to use another satellite to push it close enough to earth for gravity pulls to the surface and moving through the atmosphere at high speeds causes the debris, and in most cases, be completely destroyed. This does not work with the majority of space debris, which is too small to track from earth and too numerous to collect and send into the atmosphere. As this debris crisis becomes more acute, more effort will be put into solutions and those solutions will appear, or there will be fewer operational satellites in orbit. No precise date when the orbit debris crisis becomes critical but when it does show up it shouldnt be a surprise.

The Shijian series satellites are large enough to operate in GSO and inspect, move or disable other satellites. This was first demonstrated in 2016 with Shijian-17, followed by Shijian-21 in 2021 and now Shijian-23 in 2023.
Advertisement

Vitamin D & Reduced Risk of Dementia

Professor Zahinoor Ismail, of the University of Calgary and University of Exeter, who led the research, said: "We know that vitamin D has some effects in the brain that could have implications for reducing dementia, however so far, research has yielded conflicting results. Our findings give key insights into groups who might be specifically targeted for vitamin D supplementation. Overall, we found evidence to suggest that earlier supplementation might be particularly beneficial, before the onset of cognitive decline."While Vitamin D was effective in all groups, the team found that effects were significantly greater in females, compared to males. Similarly, effects were greater in people with normal cognition, compared to those who reported signs of mild cognitive impairment - changes to cognition which have been linked to a higher risk of dementia.The authors suggest that people who carry the APOEe4 gene absorb vitamin D better from their intestine, which might reduce the vitamin D supplementation effect. However, no blood levels were drawn to test this hypothesis.Previous research has found that low levels of vitamin D are linked to higher dementia risk. Vitamin D is involved in the clearance of amyloid in the brain, the accumulation of which is one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease. Studies have also found that vitamin D may provide help to protect the brain against build-up of tau, another protein involved in the development of dementia.Co-author Dr. Byron Creese, at the University of Exeter, said: "Preventing dementia or even delaying its onset is vitally important given the growing numbers of people affected. The link with vitamin D in this study suggests that taking vitamin D supplements may be beneficial in preventing or delaying dementia, but we now need clinical trials to confirm whether this is really the case. The ongoing VitaMIND study at the University of Exeter is exploring this issue further by randomly assigning participants to either take vitamin D or placebo and examining changes in memory and thinking tests over time."Source: Eurekalert
Its been a year since Russia invaded Ukraine and the Ukrainians are seen as the unexpected victor against the theoretically more powerful Russians. The Russian effort was poorly planned and carried out by poorly trained and often reluctant Russian troops. The Ukrainians were prepared and determined to defend their independence. This was the largest war Russia has been involved in since 1945 and Russian commanders and troops were not ready for what they faced in Ukraine. Its common for Russian forces to perform poorly in the early stages of a war, especially when they are the attacker. The Russian government thought they had solved all these problems. That was not the case and in some respects Russian reform efforts made matter worse

From the start of the invasion the Russians under-performed. Initially this was seen as the Ukrainians getting lucky. After a few weeks it was clear that Russian and Ukrainian forces were using very different tactics. The Ukrainians have been winning from the beginning by using better tactics and having better leadership in general. These differences led to Russia suffering more combat deaths in the last year than they suffered in all the wars and conflicts their troops were involved in since the end of World War II in 1945.

The original plan was to make a massive attack from many directions on an unprepared Ukraine. That failed in a spectacular fashion because the Russians overly dispersed their attacks and the Ukrainians were far more prepared than the invaders. Ukrainian war preparations were no secret and Russian intel (FSB and GRU) had lots of people inside Ukraine observing and reporting back to Russia. These reports were accurate but, by the time they reached senior leaders, especially Vladimir Putin, they had been modified to tell Putin what he wanted to hear. Putin believed the Ukrainians were incapable of organizing an effective resistance against his planned massive land and air attack that would paralyze and demoralize them. Russia expected to take control of the country in a matter of days. A year later Russian military operations are still crippled by similar delusions which probably only Putin believes, with any senior dissenters being retired or reported as a victim of a fatal accident.

Russia had a hard time accepting the fact that the Ukrainians were better trained, armed and led. To an outside observer Russia has two major problems with their armed forces. The most obvious one is continued use of outdated (pre-1991) Soviet-style planning and command techniques. Plans are still created to be followed precisely by subordinates who make no deviations without orders from above. This works if you use overwhelming force against a foe who does not react in an unanticipated fashion. During World War II German dictator Hitler often ordered troops to not retreat and that is one of the reasons for this Russian military style. Many major Russian World War II victories were due to frequent German stand fast orders. This did not work against the more flexible Ukrainians, who were using planning methods and tactics developed in the West during the last century and tested and found effective many times during and after World War II. The standard Russian tactics dont work against a more flexible defender and the Ukrainians were yet another demonstration of that.

Another Russian problem is a lot more corruption than in Ukraine. This makes it difficult for Russia to recruit or even conscript more troops. In contrast Ukraine had about a million regular and reserve troops a year after the invasion began. In Russia, corruption in the recruitment and training process is common and discourages new soldiers from fighting. Desertion in the combat zone is common. Those who dont desert face almost certain death or injury making suicidal frontal attacks on well prepared and determined Ukrainian defenders. In response to this the Russian plan is to keep the war going for as long as it takes to wear the Ukrainians and their NATO supporters d0wn. The Russian people are suffering most from all this and Putin believes the Russian people will put up with this because this is what Russians have done in the past. Currently most Russians still support the war. At the same time there are also a growing number of Russians trying to get out of Russia to avoid military service or staying and subverting or sabotaging the war effort.

Russia is trying to produce some victories, no matter how minor, by carrying out dozens of small offensive operations. Some of these do gain minor amounts of territory and are declared as great victories even though they usually have no value at all and were gained at the cost of thousands of Russian casualties.

Captured documents indicate Russia has developed a new solution to the problems revealed a year ago when the BTG (Battalion Task Group) system that Russia expanded since the 1980s was a major failure in combat. The new combined arms units contain fewer than a hundred troops and about a dozen tanks and other armored vehicles. The BTGs had as many as 800 troops and Russian officers (there are few NCOs) were unable to handle the many different weapons and other systems found in a BTG. The new, smaller task groups are more the size of an infantry company and could be called CTGs (Company Task Groups). As simplified as they are, the key problem is the lack of small unit officers in general and combat experienced officers in particular.

The BTG concept was based on the success Western armies had with task forces. The Russian BTGs missed that point that a successful task force required trained, and preferably combat experienced officers and NCOs to work. Russia didnt have sufficient small unit leaders for the 170 BTGs they had before the invasion and lost a lot of combat officers in the first months of the Ukraine war. It is believed that Russia will form far fewer CTGs and use only as many as it can find competent junior officers who are able to command them in combat. In Ukraine Russia sought to replace heavy losses of junior combat officers by offering competent soldiers officer rank and command of small units. Historically, officers given battlefield promotions to officer rank are not reluctant to point out problems to their superiors. This apparently led to the CTGs. Russia is desperate for some battlefield victories, no matter how small and the few CTGs in action so far seem capable of delivering some wins.

Before the invasion the BTGs became the standard for Russian divisions, which now consisted of two or three brigades. Each of these usually had just two BTGs. The division had fewer support units because most of these troops were now assigned to BTGs or brigades. BTG combat elements consisted of one tank company, two or three infantry companies and one or two batteries of artillery. These contained contract (volunteer) troops while most of the rest of the BTG depended on conscripts. The conscripts had several shortcomings. They could not be used in a combat zone outside Russia. The Conscript's term of service was only one year and they were not as well trained or trained at all compared to the contract troops. Many newly formed BTGs were sent to the Ukrainian border in late 2021 to threaten Ukraine and if that did not work, to invade. Most of the troops in BTGs were not aware of the invasion option.

The flaw in the BTGs was not obvious until they encountered well-armed and motivated opponents. That happened soon after they crossed the border into Ukraine. The leadership in these BTGs could not handle the complex composition of BTGs. Senior Russian leaders knew this from the performance of BTG leaders during military exercises. This was not a surprise as the quality of officers had declined in the last decade and there were still not enough experienced NCOs.

The lack of competent leadership meant the troops in the BTGs were poorly used during combat and troops increasingly abandoned their vehicles and fled if they encountered Ukrainian troops, who concentrated on hitting the very vulnerable tanks and light armored vehicles. BTG commanders failed to carry out effective reconnaissance or get the infantry out of their armored vehicles and protect their tanks from Ukrainian infantry armed with modern Western anti-tank weapons. Worse, the Ukrainians concentrated on attacking the BTG supply trucks and vehicles transporting maintenance personnel. The Ukrainian attacks on these trucks meant that the combat units could not refuel and had to stop before they reached their objectives. The Ukrainians now had stationary Russian armored vehicles to attack. The few competent or determined BTG officers were soon killed as they tried to get their troops to put up an effective fight. These young officers had no experience and many had little or no training for combat. An example was a weather officer forced to serve as an armored reconnaissance officer. Senior Russian officers (colonels and generals) who did have experience were under tremendous pressure from their military and political commanders to get the problem fixed. Many went to the front line BTGs to show the junior officers how it was done, often by example. Many of these senior officers were killed or wounded. This further weakened the leadership of the brigades and divisions that went into Ukraine dependent on their BTGs.

It remains to be seen if the CTGs can be turned into a success. The BTGs were a major embarrassment; the CTGs appear more the result of practical necessity than damage control by embarrassed Russian generals. Ukraine is the first major war Russia has fought since World War II and after two years of heavy losses in 1942-2, the surviving Russian officers and troops had become practical and effective in how they fought, and eventually defeated the Germans. In Ukraine the Russians are the invaders and the Ukrainian defenders have been far more innovative and effective at defending themselves and killing Russians. For Russia, this is not World War II and the Russians are the bad guys in Ukraine.

Ammunition Supply Problems

Russia is also running out of ammunition and weapons because its defense industries are not large enough to build the needed replacements. Economic sanctions also limit defense production and war-related spending in general. Few countries were willing to sell to Russia. The solution was to find countries willing to barter instead. Russia found two suppliers. Iran offered Russian ammunition as well as more UAVs. Iran manufactures a wide range of artillery and infantry weapon ammunition, and some UAVs. Many of the Iranian made mortars, assault rifles and machine-guns are compatible with Russian weapons. In return Iran wanted modern Russian military aircraft, including recent jet trainers and electronic warfare systems. Russia is apparently reluctant to provide Iran with assistance in developing nuclear weapons. North Korea was willing to provide artillery munitions in return for food and fuel.

Atrocity Blues

Another cost of the war for Russia is legal and international. Ukraine has assembled a large quantity of evidence, including recorded cell phone conversions, captured cellphones and testimony from Russian prisoners as part of an effort to bring charges of war crimes against Russian troops in Ukraine, especially those in Russian occupied territory. There the Russians have been particularly brutal against Ukrainian civilians who refuse to accept Russian rule. Food and access to utilities (electricity and water) is limited for those who refuse to accept Russian identification documents or use Russian currency.

Russia continues to send kidnapped Ukrainian children to Russia where they are adopted by Russian couples and raised as Russian. Details of these war crimes have been smuggled out or Russian occupied territory and formal war crimes charges have been brought for more 65,000 separate incidents including mass murder, deliberate attacks on civilians, rape and kidnapping. Many of these continue to occur in Ukrainian territory or were discovered when the Russians are driven out of Ukrainian territory. Many of these crimes have no Ukrainian witnesses, just a lot of dead bodies. Ukraine is accused of killing Russian troops seeking to surrender and sometimes firing artillery shells at civilian occupied areas. Russia is way ahead of Ukraine when it comes to bad behavior in or out of combat.

February 27, 2023: Russia continues to face problems with its neighbor and sometimes ally Belarus. Efforts to persuade Belarus to join Russian forces inside Ukraine continue to be turned down. The main obstacle to that happening is that Russia wants to annex Belarus as well as Ukraine. This was confirmed recently when a classified Russian document describing how Russia planned to absorb Belarus without a war. This was not news. Before 2022, Belarus was seen as the next former Soviet territory to be annexed by Russia. The response of Ukrainians to the Russian invasion changed attitudes towards annexation of Belorussia. This is despite the fact that the longtime (27 years so far) Belarus president-for-life Alexander Lukashenko has ruled Belarus as a loyal ally of Russia. That has not helped the Belarussian economy or improved the lives of Belarus voters. A new post-Soviet Union generation of voters has seen how life is better in democracies, especially other former victims of Russian rule like neighboring Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Ukraine. They blame Lukashenko for the poverty and mismanaged economy in Belarus, as well as an incompetent response to covid19. Since 2020 Lukashenko has faced growing popular protest against government incompetence and decades of rigged elections, corrupt rule, and inability to do much of anything effectively. Since the late 1990s Lukashenko has won reelection with 80-90 percent of the vote in visibly fraudulent elections. Lukashenko is a Soviet era official, who runs Belarus using the Soviet Union as a model. Belarus is a police state, where elections, and everything else, is manipulated to keep the same politicians in power. It's a tricky business, but so far Lukashenko has kept the security forces up to snuff, and on his side. He bribes or bullies key officials to keep the country running. Lukashenko has maintained good relations with Russia, getting him cheap fuel supplies and other aid. Belarus is small (9.5 million people) compared to neighbors Russia (146 million) and Ukraine (42 million) and Russia wants to absorb Belarus and Ukraine to rebuild the centuries old Russian empire that the czars created and the communists lost. Lukashenko, like most Belarussians, opposes annexation by Russia. So far Russia is not actively seeking to annex Belarus or send in security forces to help suppress what has turned into a rebellion against Lukashenko. Lukashenko is becoming more of a liability for Russia but is currently still a favored ally. Russia would like to be rid of Lukashenko but there is no one in Belarus with his skills, experience and pro-Russia attitude. Russia has created a major problem for itself in Belarus. Not as bad as the mess in Ukraine, but still another setback in the Russian effort to rebuild the Soviet-era Russian empire. Lukashenko noted what happened to pro-Russia Ukrainian politicians after the Russians invaded and most Ukrainians joined or supported the fight against Russian domination and any pro-Russia Ukrainians. Currently Lukashenko is on his way to China for a three day official (state) visit that will involve discussions with China about helping Belarus retain its independence from Russia, even if that means becoming dependent on China.

February 26, 2023: The Ukrainian economy shrank by over 30 percent in 2022 and deliberate Russian attacks on the Ukrainian economy mean post-war reconstruction will cost between $140 billion and one trillion dollars. Emergency rebuilding efforts for essential services (medical and utilities) are being paid for by a few billion dollars in emergency economic aid.

The Russian GDP shrank by about five percent but the number of Russians living below the poverty line reached 60 percent. The government is managing the economic decline caused by growing sanctions. This involves ensuring that no one starves to death and concentrating military mobilization efforts in regions with the largest number of military age men who are unemployed. The growing economic problems are accompanied by more corruption, especially by officials who distribute emergency aid and manage military mobilization efforts.

February 25, 2023: Ukrainian military intelligence keeps track of Russians losses and so far this year the Ukrainians estimate (usually based on observable evidence) that Russian forces have lost (dead, wounded, prisoners) about 149,000 troops in the last year. In addition, Russia has lost over 3,300 tanks, twice as many other armored vehicles, 2,800 towed or self-propelled artillery systems plus nearly 500 MLRS (multiple launch rocket systems), nearly 600 hundred aircraft and helicopters and over two thousand UAVs. About 5,500 trucks were lost, including fuel tankers and cargo transports of various sizes.

February 24, 2023: On the first anniversary of the Russian invasion, Ukrainian counterintelligence forces discovered and arrested six Russian FSB members who were operating in southern Ukraine. The Russians were responsible for finding and reporting to Russia targets for Russian missile attacks. Ukrainian counterintelligence personnel have been busier in the past year than before the invasion. Russia is losing a lot of FSB professionals and local hires in Ukraine. The FSB and the smaller GRU (military intelligence) are more active in Russian occupied Ukraine. Both Russia and Ukraine use internal security agencies based on Soviet era agencies. The SBU is the successor to the Ukrainian branch of the KGB. After Ukrainian became independent in 1991, obvious KGB loyalists were fired but many vets remained and they perpetuated a culture of corruption along with the formidable deception and operational skills the KGB excelled in. The SBU is a large organization, with 35,000 employees. That is the same size as the American FBI, for a country with seven times more people. Equivalent European agencies, like DST in France and MI5 in Britain are equally small, relative to population, as the FBI. On a per-capita basis Western internal agencies have about 109 agency personnel per million population. For the Russian FSB it is 591 and for the SBU it is about 850. For the Soviet KGB it was 1,600. The SBU, like its predecessor the KGB, demanded high performance and discipline. In return, KGB personnel were free to make a little extra on the side, The KGB was literally above the law as the only ones who could arrest KGB personnel were other KGB personnel. The post-Soviet FSB and SBU have similar immunities. The Russian invasion has meant more work for the SBU and less tolerance for the remaining pro-Russia SBU personnel.

February 23, 2023: The Czech Republic has gone public with information about its line of fake (inflatable rubber) versions of the American HIMARS and larger M270 GMLRS missile launchers as well as M777 155mm howitzers. Russia claims to have destroyed dozens of these vehicles while Ukraine insists they have lost none to Russian artillery, rocket or airstrikes. What Russia has destroyed is many of the Czech inflatable replicas. This form of deception was first used during World War II when hand built fakes began getting replaced by the inflatable versions.

February 22, 2023: Russia admits that the Ukraine War has further damaged the frail Russian military aircraft production industry. Economic sanctions and loss of many export customers resulted in Russia building only 27 combat aircraft in 2022. China was producing much more than that and the United States was delivering about 150 F-35s a year, in three models. Most of this was for American forces but more and more are going to export customers. The F-35 is a combat proven success and very popular with pilots. A thousand have been built so far and there are orders for 2,000 more, to be delivered at the rate of about 150 a year to American and export customers way into the 2030s.

Russia used to be a major producer of military aircraft. Late in the Cold War the Soviet Union was still producing several hundred combat aircraft a year. The Soviet Union collapsed and dissolved in 1991. So did Russian production of combat aircraft. During the 1990s, production of a hundred combat aircraft a year was only possible by obtaining many export sales. Twenty years after the Soviet Union collapsed, Russian warplane production was increasing because exports were still strong and Russia could afford to buy more aircraft for itself. The Soviet Air Force had 10,000 warplanes in 1991 and most of those went to the fourteen new countries where they were based. Russia could not afford to maintain the few thousand combat aircraft it was left with after 1991 and, by 2000, found it could not maintain more than a thousand combat aircraft. Another loss during the 1990s was the ability to design and build new aircraft. Most Russian defense firms went out of business in the 1990s while some managed to switch production to items that were still sold. In the last decade most Russian producers of military aircraft were merged into one state-owned United Aircraft Corporation or UAC. A similar merger created a similar company for helicopters.

UAC had a lot of work to do producing new model aircraft as well as older designs that were still popular, especially with export customers. UAC could produce over a hundred aircraft a year and until 2014 it looked like the Russian demand for military aircraft would keep growing along with export sales. UAC had to be profitable and achieved that by shutting down many of the facilities it acquired via all those mergers. Aircraft design and production was concentrated in three facilities and MiG finally disappeared, leaving only Sukhoi (Su series) warplanes in production. The Su-27 and MiG-29 appeared late in the Cold War and while the Su-27 kept evolving and improving, the MiG-29 did not. That eventually put MiG out of business.

February 21, 2023: A year of fighting in Ukraine has left the Russian army defeated, depleted and demoralized. Most of the army personnel available before the invasion have been killed, wounded or missing (captured, deserted or body not found). About half the troops were conscripts untrained for combat. Conscripts only serve for a year and are called up twice a year (spring and fall) and, by the time they have acquired useful skills, they are discharged and placed in the reserves. In Russian the government has your last known address and will try to notify you if there is a national emergency and all veterans of the military are needed quickly.

Few conscripts were prepared for the intensity of combat encountered in Ukraine. The other half of Russian military personnel joined voluntarily to serve longer and receive higher pay. These somewhat more experienced troops are what passed for NCOs, since Russia has not been able to recreate the NCO Corps it had a century ago but destroyed because the new communist government believed (with some justification) that sergeants are more likely to lead a revolution than more carefully selected and trained officers. Using junior officers to supervise the troops and lead them in combat did not work as well as the Western system of having sergeants supervising the troops and a junior officer to command and lead them in combat.

Junior officers in combat units, who arent already veterans, require years more of training and dutifully try to carry out their orders. In Ukraine that got them and most of their troops turned into casualties, or prisoners of war. Russian combat zone medical care was also a mess and not able to handle the large number of wounded. As a result, most of the wounded died or developed conditions that rendered them unfit for further military service. Russia still has not solved this medical problem, even after trying to improvise by taking over local civilian hospitals and their staffs to just treat military casualties.

February 20, 2023: A month ago the United States began imposing sanctions on members of the Russian Wagner Group and those affiliated with Wagner Group. The United States defines much of what Wagner Group does as a form of terrorism. Some of it definitely is. Most of the criminal offenses were committed by Wagner Group personnel sent to Africa, where the profits from legal and illegal activities were abundant. More recently, a Chinese space satellite manufacturer and satellite operator was sanctioned for selling the Wagner Group satellite imagery of Ukrainian military units and facilities. These imagery services aided Wagner Group in its recent offensive against Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine. During these operations Wagner Group members committed numerous atrocities and war crimes. Then there was the Wagner Group activity in Ukraine, which received far more publicity than the more lucrative dirty deeds Wagner was guilty of in many parts of Africa. For Ukraine the Wagner Group recruited convicts with the promise of a pardon if they served six months. This backfired when it became known that only about 20 percent of the first convicts recruited survived their six months and received their pardons. Recent recruiting efforts show that far fewer convicts are willing to volunteer and, justifiably, feel safer serving out their sentences. Russia has now officially banned Wagner from recruiting prison inmates. Instead, the Russian military does the recruiting and offers more survivable terms of service as well as the pardon after the term of service is completed.

February 19, 2023: Russia has started using their new Strizh-3 EW (Electronic Warfare) against the many different UAV models used by Ukrainian troops. Strizh-3 disrupts the operator control signal or the video images sent back by the UAV.

February 18, 2023: A major Ukrainian advantage during the last year of fighting Russians has been logistics. Not just keeping Ukrainian troops supplied but making it difficult for the Russians to supply their own troops with munitions and much else. This became a critical problem for the Russians once the Ukrainians began receiving and using the HIMARS vehicle and the six GLMRS guided missiles each of these vehicles (a 6x6 truck with the six missiles stored in a single box-like launch container) carried and fired. The GMLRS missile used by HIMARS has a range of 85 kilometers and the Ukrainians always had good information on where Russian supplies of munitions, fuel, food and so on were. Ukraine had access to the Starlink satellite communications system as well as NATO satellite and aerial surveillance of Russian occupied Ukraine. Before HIMARS arrived the Russians could store supplies within 20 or 30 kilometers of the front like and be out of range of Ukrainian artillery. With HIMARS the Russians had to store supplies more than 80 kilometers from the fighting. GLMRS missiles are GPS guided while most Ukrainian artillery shells are not. Because of Starlink and locally produced UAVs Ukrainian forces could quickly spot Russian supply storage areas and order an artillery or GLMRS attack. This meant that the Russians were chronically short of supplies because so many of them were being destroyed with Ukrainian artillery or missiles. Russia was, and still is, less capable of attacking Ukrainian supplies for frontline troops. This situation has caused Russia to shut down all cell phone and Internet service in an area where they plan to move a lot of troops and supplies around. With cell phone and Internet service active the Ukrainians would often disrupt and destroy a lot of those movements with artillery or missile attacks.

February 17, 2023: Russia does have some international support for its invasion of Ukraine. Those supporters have a lot in common with Russia as they tend to be aggressive and warlike dictatorships or those with ideological or economic reasons to back Russia. These supporters include Belarus, China, Eritrea, India, Iran, Mali, Myanmar, Nicaragua, North Korea and Syria. All these supporters agree that the West is a problem for them and Russia. Russia continues to insist that its operations in Ukraine are part of an effort to defend Russia from growing NATO efforts to destroy Russia.

February 16, 2023: Iran announced that it would have to complete major oil industry projects without Chinese investments or Chinese specialists. While China quietly withdrew its participation, Iran had to explain the change, especially since Iran will miss the Chinese money most of all because Iran is very short of cash. A delegation of senior Iranian government officials ended its official visit to China today. The Iranians wanted more cooperation and investment from China and instead were told there would be way less until the political and economic situations in Iran calm down. The growing unrest since last September and Iranian involvement with Russia in the Ukraine war are seen as creating a very risky situation for foreign investors.
University offers free fish dishes to students in S Chinas Guangxi

People's Daily Online) 14:44, March 01, 2023

At the beginning of the new semester, the Guangxi Medical University offered a gift to its students -- free dishes made from fish raised in a lake on the campus.

People harvest fish on the campus of Guangxi Medical University in south Chinas Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. (Photo/Xinhua)

On Feb. 23, 2023, 3,750 kilograms of fish were harvested. The next day, the canteen served dishes including sweet and soured fish, steamed fish, spicy fish heads, and crispy fillets, to satisfy students from different parts of the country.

Guangxi Medical University in south Chinas Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region offers students free fish of different flavors. (Photo/Xinhua)

The harvesting of fish is an annual event of the university, which has raised fish on its campus to purify the water. To ensure food security, the university had examined the water in the lake and fish samples in advance.

Students at Guangxi Medical University show the fish they harvested. (Photo/Xinhua)

(Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun)
The war in Ukraine has, among other things, demonstrated to Russia how bad their military manpower situation is. When the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, half the Soviet population left and formed independent states. What remained was Russia, which also inherited the economic problems that were a major factor in the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russia also inherited the mighty Red Army which had defeated the Germans in World War II and remained a large and formidable force as long as the Soviet Union lasted.

After 1991 Russia found that it had neither the manpower nor the money to maintain the Red Army and its armed forces personnel decreased by 80 percent in a few years. It wasnt just the loss of half the Soviet era population or the post 1991 financial difficulties. There were other problems. The post-Soviet Russians were able to force the government to reduce conscription to one year. The government also noted that the birthrate of Russians was falling and that eventually reached the point where more Russians were dying than were being born. This dramatically reduced even ethnic Russian military-age manpower over 20 years,, plus most Russians wanted an end to conscription and an all-volunteer armed force, something that was common in Western nations, especially after 1991. Russia had a few good years after 1991 but was often short of cash and the attack on Ukraine in 2014 and invasion in 2022 found Russia subject to harsh economic sanctions. Russia is having a difficult time paying for its military, which suffered heavy personnel and equipment losses during the first few months of the Ukraine invasion.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin described the invasion of Ukraine as a defensive battle to disrupt NATO efforts to surround and destroy Russia. NATO was formed seventy years ago as a mutual-defense organization to deal with a Russian invasion. Putin needed a reason for the expensive and unsuccessful war in Ukraine and the NATO is actually attacking us fable was the best he could come up with. Many Russians believed this until those with family or friends in Ukraine or the West got in touch and Russians learned that they were seen as the invaders by the Ukrainians. Russian soldiers who were wounded and returned to Russian confirmed that. Ukrainians were fighting to defend Ukraine from Russian domination and were not part of some NATO conspiracy against Russia.

Putin continued to claim he was defending Russia in Ukraine but more and more military-age Russians were unconvinced and increasingly to be conscripted or otherwise mobilized into the army and risk death or serious injury in Ukraine. Before the Ukraine invasion the primary source of Russian military manpower was conscription, which brings in about 260,000 men a year who serve for only one year.

Russia depended on 400,000 contract (or contracti) soldiers who volunteered to serve for three year periods for a wage comparable to what they could earn as civilians. Conscripts were paid very little and often had to ask their parents for money. Many of the contract soldiers had initially served as conscripts, were familiar with military service and willing to further serve in peacetime. Fighting in Ukraine was a different matter, significantly discouraged new volunteers and caused many contract soldiers to refuse to renew their contracts. This became more of an issue when the government tried to force contract soldiers to stay in the military. So many refused that the government could not prosecute them so instead added a comment on their internal passport that they refused to remain in the army. That did not encourage anyone to re-enlist.

In fact, few Russians were willing to serve in the Russian armed forces in general at a time when they will probably be sent to Ukraine because about a third of the air force and a tenth of the navy are ground combat personnel. The government resorted to mobilizations that sought to conscript men with military experience or an interest in fighting for Russia. Most younger Russians were not interested and many fled the country to avoid mobilization. Putin then restricted foreign travel for military-age men and that led many of these men to find illegal ways to get out and, if possible, claim asylum in a Western nation. The mobilization did bring in some older Russian men who believed that Russia was being attacked. If they ended up in Ukraine they quickly discovered who was invading who.

Another mobilization ploy was to offer large cash bonuses to those who agreed to be mobilized. Those bonuses were often not paid and when that became common knowledge, there was one more reason not to trust the government on what mobilization was all about. The corruption still common in Russia was responsible for some of those bonus payments not arriving and also for new troops receiving substandard uniforms and other equipment as well as defective or inoperable weapons.

For over a decade before the Ukraine invasion Russia sought to create a paid and trained reserve force of 100,000 men, some of them formed into complete reserve units. Not enough former soldiers and officers were willing to join this reserve, even though they were paid for the time they spent training. While Russian leaders praised the glorious history of the Russian military, its personnel had a low opinion of the military because it was run in a haphazard manner in peacetime. The Russian army has a sad tradition, reinforced in its conflicts before (Afghanistan) and after the Soviet collapse (Chechnya) of being unprepared when a war breaks out and taking heavy losses as a more effective force is created while under fire.

After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Russians were free to express what they really felt about their military and most regarded military service as something to be avoided. Because of this the trained reserves were seen as an effort to get people with previous military training to join a peacetime force, continue training a bit, get paid for that and be eligible for rapid mobilization in the event of a war. Most Russians assumed this would be a war to defend Russia being invaded, not Russian troops invading a neighbor. The mobilizations to replace early Ukraine war losses were seen as typical of Russian army incompetence and this was another reason why Russians avoided the reserves. The mobilizations found that there were fewer than 10,000 actual trained reservists and most of them regarded the Ukraine invasion as something they had not become a reservist for.

As was historically the case, the Russian army adapted to the mess in Ukraine and developed tactics that made the most of the many Russian shortcomings. This enabled Russian units to be of some use in combat. These improvised units took heavy casualties but the survivors became more capable and effective. This was another Russian military tradition and one that enabled Russia to emerge victorious during World War II. What was not revealed until the Soviet Union dissolved was the true cost of that victory; 13 percent of the pre-war population. Thats over 27 million dead. The Soviets reported lower losses because the true losses were considered bad for morale. When the true extent of the losses was revealed most Russians were not surprised at the higher losses and believed it was more realistic. Most Russian (and Ukrainian) families had a history of heavy civilian and military losses during World War II.

This explains the Russian expectation of high casualties in Ukraine. This is the first major war Russia fought since World War II. Naturally, the poor preparation and high casualty rates were expected. What has changed is that, unlike World War II, Russians have more opportunities to avoid going to Ukraine at all. Post-Soviet Russia no longer had the feared KGB and nationwide network of informers. Also absent was a homicidal maniac like World War II leader Josef Stalin. Putin tried to emulate all these World War II era tools but was unable to do so. One reason the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991 was that Russians were fed up the many of the Soviet era military traditions. After 1991, school history textbooks were revised to tell the truth about Russian history. While this was not shocking to most foreigners, especially Westerners, it was a surprise to older Russians but the young students accepted the new textbooks because it described a Russia similar to the one quietly discussed among the adults, especially the older ones, in their families.

When Putin took over after 2000, one of his first actions was to bring back the old history textbooks which lied about the Russian military. It was too late. While teachers could be forced to use these textbooks, many of their students knew someone who had used the more honest 1990s textbooks. Not only that, some of those old textbooks survived the Putin purge that was supposed to remove all those accurate history books from circulation. Many survived and continued to quietly circulate. This was another Soviet era tradition, where books from the west were translated into Russia and quietly circulated, often as typescripts. Putin began his career as a KGB officer and knew more about how the KGB tried to control what Russians thought and did than what Russians did to resist all this. That ignorance makes it difficult for Putin to understand the widespread Russian reluctance to participate in his Ukraine war.
HELSINKI  Finlands Parliament gave final approval Wednesday to the Nordic countrys bid to join NATO, with lawmakers signing off on membership along with the required legislation.

The 200-seat Eduskunta legislature voted 184-7 to authorize Finlands accession to NATO, clearing the last required domestic hurdle to becoming part of the 30-member Western military alliance.

Two of NATO's 30 existing members, Turkey and Hungary, have yet to ratify the joint application Finland and neighboring Sweden made last year. Admitting new members requires unanimous approval.

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marins center-left government initiated the vote, seeking to secure the approval of her country's lawmakers before an April 2 general election.

President Sauli Niinisto has pledged to sign Wednesdays legislative decisions into law before the election.

Finland and Sweden, which are close partners culturally, economically and politically, applied together to join NATO in May 2022. Their bid is historic as Finland has remained military non-aligned since World War II, and Sweden has not been in a military conflict in the past 200 years.

Most of the opposition to accepting Finland and Sweden as new NATO members comes from Turkey, which wants stronger action, mostly from Sweden, against groups that Ankara considers as terrorist organizations.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Wednesday that Sweden needs a law which forbids participation in terrorist organizations -- a move considered important for Turkey to sign off on Swedens NATO application.

For far too long, Sweden has had too lax legislation regarding the possibility of participating in terrorist activities without it being a crime, Swedish news agency TT quoted Kristersson as saying.

Such a law is expected to be take effect by June 1, TT reported.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday in Helsinki that adding Finland and Sweden as members was a top priority for the alliance. He urged Turkey and Hungary to ratify the Nordic countries accession.

Turkey has agreed to resume talks with Finland and Sweden in Brussels this month to iron out obstacles and issues that Ankara has, especially with Sweden.

Meanwhile, Hungarys parliament was scheduled to start debating the Nordic duos NATO membership on Wednesday, with expected ratification at the end of March.

A senior Hungarian lawmaker said last week that Hungary was planning to send a delegation to Finland and Sweden to resolve political disputes that have raised doubts among some Hungarian lawmakers of whether to support their NATO bids.

Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed to this report.
The Marlins are dealing with various small injuries throughout their spring camp, per a report from Barry Jackson and Craig Mish of the Miami Herald.

The slate of injuries include three relievers. Left-hander A.J. Puk has some tightness in the adductor muscle of his left leg, fellow lefty Tanner Scott is dealing with slight discomfort in his left biceps, while Tommy Nance has discomfort in his right shoulder. Puk and Scott are playing catch today but Nance will be reevaluated in a couple of days. Im not too concerned, Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said to Jackson and Mish. If it was a starter who had to get built up, thats a whole different story. But the relievers, I think thats a little easier.

Puk, just acquired from the As a few weeks ago, was once one of the top prospects in the league but has struggled to stay healthy. Shoulder issues prevented him from making an appearance in 2020 and he struggled in 2021. He bounced back nicely last year, however, posting a 3.12 ERA over 62 appearances.

Scott was acquired from the Orioles a year ago and had a solid season for Miami, despite some control issues. He walked 15.9% of batters faced but struck out 31.1% and got grounders at a 46.3% clip. Nance was claimed off waivers from the Cubs about a year ago and registered a 4.33 ERA in 43 2/3 innings last year. He struck out 29.1% of opponents while walking 10.7%, also getting grounders at a strong 46.4% rate.

Theres also one other hiccup in the clubs bullpen, as Huascar Brazoban has yet to report to camp due to a visa issue. However, the issue has been resolved and Brazoban should be leaving the Dominican Republic for the United States tomorrow. The righty was a nice story last year, making his major league debut at the age of 32. He tossed 32 innings with a 3.09 ERA, 28.4% strikeout rate, 14.9% walk rate and 49.4% ground ball rate.

All in all, it seems like a pile of minor issues scattered throughout the bullpen, but they are situations worth monitoring with only about four weeks until Opening Day.

Leaving aside the bullpen, the club has been connected to free agent Yuli Gurriel multiple times this offseason. The most recent reporting indicated they offered him a $2MM deal at one point but took that offer the table when a week went by without a response. Today, Jackson and Mish report that the club is still willing to bring Gurriel into camp as a non-roster invitee if hes interested.

The fact that a minor league deal hasnt yet come to fruition suggests that Gurriel is perhaps still holding out for a major league pact. Garrett Cooper is penciled in as the clubs first baseman but hes dealt with various injuries in his career and it makes sense that the Fish would look to add some depth behind him. Gurriel was a batting champ as recently as 2021 but hes now entering his age-39 season and is coming off a rough campaign. He hit just .242/.288/.360 last year for a wRC+ of 85, indicating he was 15% worse than the league average hitter.

If Gurriel continues to linger on the market, the Marlins could potentially contact other first base options. The free agent market still features other bounceback candidates like Miguel Sano and Mike Moustakas.
Nigerian actress and deputy governorship aspirant for River State on the ticket of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Tonto Charity Dikeh, has called for peace amid the controversy surrounding the collation of results.

The politician and entertainer told Nigerians to remain calm and peaceful because they have no other country to run to.

In a story shared on her verified Instagram handle, Miss Dikeh urged them not to follow any politician to cause violence.

"Fellow Nigerians, please, let's remain calm and peaceful. Nigeria is our home; we have no other home o. No follow anybody, cause katakata. Na peace we need," she wrote.

Meanwhile, the declaration of the River State election results was earlier suspended after officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission were allegedly threatened by some aggrieved citizens.

But after a long impasse, the initial results declared by INEC showed Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress polling 231,593 votes while Peter Obi of the Labour Party got 175,555 votes.

In third place was Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with 130,081 votes, while Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) got 4,740.
01.03.2023 LISTEN

Members of the Christ For All Nations over the weekend paid a familiarization visit to the Godbless Charity Foundation, a Kumasi-based Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) to acquaint themselves with the activities of the Foundation.

According to the leader of the congregation, the church had heard about the good works that the NGO have been doing to promote the welfare of the children.

They took advantage of the churches' program dubbed "Asanteman Great Gospel Crusade" with Evangelist Daniel Kolenda to visit the children.

The group fraternized with the children and gave them some words of encouragement to renew their faith in the Lord.

The woman of God charged them to be law abiding and grow to become responsible citizens to serve the country.

At the end of the visit, special prayers were said for the children, the management and staff of the outfit for God's protection, guidance and blessings.

On his part, the Chief Executive Officer of the NGO Mr George Ignacious Amankwa thanked the church for the visit.

He assures they would continue to seek the welfare of the children.
A communicator of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Paul Amaning says former President John Dramani Mahama has proven, over time, to be inconsistent, as he flip-flops on issues of national development.

He stated that the credibility of the countrys public discourse is needed to ensure that persons are consistent in their views and advocacy.

On the Free Senior High School policy, he recalled how John Mahama criticised the policy and stated that the pledge by the NPP to provide Free SHS was a mere political gimmick.

He noted that the implementation of the policy can only happen in 20 years.

Speaking with Asabea Asomaning on Adwenekasa on Accra-based Original FM 91.9, Paul Amaning asked Ghanaians to continue to have trust and confidence in NPP, adding that NPP will always be truthful to you, and work for the unity, progress, prosperity and development of our nation.

He emphasized that Ghanaians will experience harsher conditions if they bring back Mahama in the 2024 elections.
28.02.2023 LISTEN

The calls for the Finance Minister, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta, to be dismissed from his post by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo or resign himself have been revitalized.

A staunch member of about 80 majority MPs who, in the latter part of 2022, demanded the ministers dismissal, Eugene Boakye Antwi, has added more fire to the calls.

The Subin MP said Mr. Ofori-Atta is expected to quit his duties right after sealing the recent IMF bailout request, which is pending the Board's approval.

The lawmaker added that the finance minister, though he has contributed his quota, should leave for a new face to take over and help resolve the countrys economic quagmire.

"He (Ofori-Atta) came, he explained, and he said the board-level agreement was going to be achieved in March, because if anything should happen today, I am sure the president is going to say he is dealing with the IMF, so we are waiting for him to deal with the IMF.

"If the IMF thing gets board approval, then we will see what will happen. We are not saying to the president that by all means remove him; we are appealing that all is not well and "he has done his bit for the country and the time has come for him to step aside," the Subin lawmaker said.

He stressed that the minister must, at all costs, leave "based on his own pronouncement and his own performance at the ministry."

"He was in Parliament to assure that the Board Level Agreement was achievable next month, so we will wait and see," he emphasized.
The Heads of the Election Observation Missions of the Commission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Africa Union (AU), note with concern signs of increasing tensions in the country following the 25th February general elections.

As we follow the progressive collation and release of election results by the Independ ent National Electoral Commission (INEC), we wish to remind all stakeholders that the electoral process is still ongoing. While we recognize that the tallying of results at all levels is a critical part of the process, we urge INEC, to expedite the transparent release of results to the general public, in order to ease anxieties and tensions.

We call on all political parties and their candidates to appeal to their supporters to exercise maximum restraint and refrain from the use of provocative language and the dissemination of misinformation and dis-information, which would only exacerbate political tensions, divisiveness, and violence at this critical stage, with the potential to undermine the progressive democratic progress Nigeria has continuously made over the years. We exhort the electorate to maintain the patience so far demonstrated in the electoral process, and await for the official release of the results of the polls. We also urge the security agencies to continue to professionally discharge their duties with utmost respect for the rule of law.

We further call on political parties and their candidates to settle electoral disputes through peaceful means and dialogue, in accordance with the law. We remain confident in the strong commitment of the Nigerian government and her people to peace, stability, and development and reaffirm our commitment to accompany the country in

H.E Ernest Bai KOROMA

Former President of the Republic of Sierra Leone

Head of Mission ECOWAS Election Observation

H.E Uhuru Kenyatta

Former President of Kenya

Head of Mission AU Observation Mission
The Ghana Card is only a requirement to register as a voter and not a substitute for the Voter identification card, Madam Jean Adukwei Mensa, the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), said on Tuesday.

Once you present your Ghana Card and successfully register as a voter, you will be issued a Voters Identification Card, which bears the code of your region, district, electoral area, and polling station, she said.

Mr Speaker, I wish to emphasise that the Ghana Card will not be used to vote in 2024. The Ghana card does not have these features. It will not be used to vote in the 2024 General Elections, she said.

Madam Mensa said this on the floor of Parliament when she briefed the House on the proposed Constitutional Instrument (CI) ahead of the 2024 polls.

In the new CI, the EC has expressed the intention to use the Ghana Card, also known as the ECOWAS Card, as the only form of identification or medium to qualify a citizen of Ghana eligible to vote to be registered or enrolled onto the voters register.

The EC Chair told the House that the exercise was the Commissions mandate, where they were mindful of Article 42 of the 1992 Constitution, which enjoined them to register Ghanaians who were 18 years or above and of sound mind.

We do not intend to disenfranchise persons who qualify to vote. It is in our interest to register them, however, we equally have the responsibility to ensure that only qualified Ghanaians are found in the voter register.

We owe this responsibility to Ghanaians, and we will work to uphold that, she said.

GNA
Hon. Charles Agbeve, the incumbent Member of Parliament (MP) for Agortime-Ziope Constituency in the Volta Region is the sole candidate to pick nomination form for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) primaries by close of nomination on Friday, February 24.

The Parliamentary elections are scheduled for May 13, 2023.

Mr Alfred Odikro Klu, NDC Constituency Chairman for Agortime-Ziope disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in a telephone conversation.

When the GNA contacted Mr Agbeve, he confirmed being the sole candidate and that he would give a message when he filed his nomination form on March 22.

Fanfare, borborbor and brass band music will go along with the submission of the filled documents, he said.

He was elected to Parliament in 2016 after the former MP for the area; Mrs. Juliana Joycelyn Azumah-Mensah stepped down after 12 years in parliament.

Mr Agbeve is a Ranking Member on the Select Committee on Health and the Government Assurance Committee of Ghana's Parliament.

He also was a former District Manager of the National Health Insurance Scheme, in Agortime-Ziope District.

GNA
Dr Joana Larry  Afutu, a Clinical psychologist and lecturer at the University of Ghana has said that diversity is our reality as a people, and we should learn to accept people who are different to reduce conflicts.

She said stereotypes, prejudice and distortions may be subtle, but they have a strong psychological force that could lead to inequality in society.

Dr Larry-Afutu said this at beginning of a three-day retreat for activists working on minority group issues in Ghana as part of implementation of the Engaging media and minorities to act for peacebuilding programme (EMMAP)

EMMAP aims at raising public awareness on the interconnections between conflicts, migration and minority exclusion to help build and consolidate sustainable peace in Ghana, Senegal and Sierra Leone.

The programme jointly organised by the Media Platform on Environment and Climate Change (MPEC) and the Minority Rights International with funding from the European Union also seek to sensitise minority activists on ethical and privacy standards as well as empower them on how to access media for better voicing of stories.

Dr Larry  Afutu pointed out that perception does not necessarily mean that we are dealing with the truth and encouraged participants to desist from reinforcing stereotypes.

Ms Charity Akua Foriwaa Dwommoh, Chief Executive Officer of Women lifting Women, an NGO, a Lawyer and a certified Alternative Despite Resolution officer, who took participants through conflicts management issues, urged participants to always endeavour to involve all manner of people especially when taking decisions.

She said  Everyones opinion is important and should be respected that is one way to avoid conflicts.

Mr Ebenezer Tawiah Hanson, a Lecturer, urged participants to always conduct some research about minority issues to help determine the right strategy to use in communicating their issues.
01.03.2023 LISTEN

Jean Mensa, the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC) , has explained to Parliament that it was not possible for her to appear before the Committee of the Whole Meeting of the House, held on Thursday, February 23.

She informed the House that as at the time of the Meeting, she was in Nigeria for a Peer Exchange and Election Observer Mission.

Mr Speaker, as you maybe aware, I was out of the jurisdiction at the invitation of ECOWAS Network of Electoral Commissions (ECONEC) in Nigeria when your invitation to the Commission was received.

Indeed, your letter received on Wednesday, 22nd February, requested for a meeting the following day, Thursday, 23rd February, 2023. In fact, had I been aware of the meeting, I would have rescheduled the mission, Mr Mensa stated during her presentation to Parliaments Committee of the Whole.

The Chairperson was at the Committees sitting to brief the House on the Draft Public Elections (Registration of Voters) Regulations, 2023.

In this vein, I would like to use this opportunity, Mr Speaker, to correct the erroneous impression that I have failed to honour the invitation of Parliament.

Mrs Mensa said for the records, this was the second time the Electoral Commission had been invited to a Meeting of the Committee of the Whole.

The first was immediately preceding the 2020 elections and I led my team and presented a report on our readiness for the election, she said.

This meeting is the second time we have received an invitation to address the full House and I am here in my capacity as Gods servant and Chairperson to lead my team and to present our justifications for the draft Cl, which is the subject matter of our deliberations today.

Touching on the CI that was before Parliament, she said the CI was seeking to promote the Continuous registration of voters and advocate an all year-round registration of eligible voters at the district offices of the EC.

This was a clear departure from the previous system where voters registration was done for a limited period, she explained.

GNA
Chairman of the Appointments Committee of Parliament, Joseph Osei-Owusu has said the approval of some of the Presidents ministerial nominees may be done through secret balloting.

He said the Minoritys refusal to support the approval process at the Committee level will force a secret ballot when the report is presented to the House this week.

Our recommendation will be that, the Majority says yes, the Minority says no. If we recommend approval by consensus, then, the decision is taken by voice vote. But when its recommended by a majority decision, then the report is adopted by a secret ballot.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on February 7, 2023, nominated six members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to replace some outgoing ministers.

They have subsequently been vetted by the Appointments Committee awaiting approval by Parliament.

But the National Democratic Congress (NDC) had earlier directed the Minority Caucus in Parliament not to approve the new ministerial nominees.

NDC described the nominations as insensitive and will affect government spending in the midst of an economic mess created by president Akufo-Addo and his Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.

The NDC in a statement signed by its General Secretary, Fifi Fiavi Kwetey said: the NDC has long expressed concern over the very large size of the current government and shares the views of most Ghanaians, including civil society, that it must be reduced bearing in mind the current massive economic mess the country has been plunged into by the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government.

The party said it has appealed to the government and president Akufo-Addo on numerous occasions to cut down on the number of appointees, but the president has remained adamant.

It said the option available to the party to attempt to compel the president to cut down the size of his government is to direct members of the party in Parliament to reject the nominees.

citinewsroom
Bola Ahmed Tinubu , of the ruling All Progressives Congress in Nigeria, has been declared winner of the country's keenly contested presidential election.

The 70-year-old former governor of Lagos State and Nigeria's political kingmaker will inherit a Nigeria that is faced with a fractured polity, national security threats and economic challenges including skyrocketing cost of living .

Tinubu polled 36% of the 24,965,218 votes cast in the 25 February presidential election whose outcome is being disputed by his closest rivals.

To emerge as Nigeria's President, Section 134 of the constitution states that a presidential candidate must score the highest number of votes cast at the election. In addition, the candidate must also score at least a quarter of the votes cast in each of at least 25 states in the Federation including the Federal Capital Territory. Tinubu met this requirement.

His closest rivals Atiku Abubakar of the People's Democratic Party got 29% and the Labour Party's Peter Obi got 25% of the votes cast. Both parties had earlier described the poll as a sham and demanded a cancellation.

The PDP and Labour Party protested the inability of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to upload the Presidential election results, from each of the 176,606 polling units, on an electronic portal accessible to all citizens as earlier promised.

The electoral commission blamed its failure to upload the results on failing internet network across the country.

Tinubu's campaign was largely based on his record as governor of Lagos state, Nigeria's commercial capital. He was however defeated in Lagos by Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, southeast Nigeria.

Obi's relatively unknown Labour Party galvanised the interest of young, urban dwellers and took the country's two-party system to task in the 2023 presidential election.

Nigeria has the largest population of youth in the world, with a median age of 18.1 years. About 70% of the population are under 30, and 42% are under the age of 15. The youth are often left with the shorter end of the stick when it comes to governance and economic indices.

Outside of Lagos, Tinubu won most other states in his home region of the south-west. He also secured the constitutional requirement of scoring at least 25% of votes cast in 24 states of the federation.

Widely believed to be the political kingmaker responsible for the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015, Tinubu is loved and loathed in almost equal measures.

His admirers describe him as Nigeria's number one political strategist, a technocrat, an astute administrator, a talent spotter and nurturer. They give him credit for the recent development of Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital.

Critics see a different Tinubu. They point to controversies surrounding his age, parental ancestry, educational background and health. Allegations of corruption have lingered though he has been tried and acquitted.

As an academic and journalist who has reported Nigeria's politics for more than three decades, I offer my assessment here of Tinubu.

Tinubu's political rise

Tinubu came into national prominence during Nigeria's ill-fated Third Republic (1985-1992), when a National Assembly existed along with a military president, General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida .

Under the quasi-democratic arrangement of that time, Tinubu was a member of the Nigerian Senate when Babangida annulled the results of the 1993 presidential election . The winner was believed to be the charismatic business mogul Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola .

Tinubu's fight to re-validate that election was what brought him into national political consciousness. He openly opposed the annulment and worked to restore democracy in Nigeria.

He and others became targets of military elimination and he had to flee abroad . Tinubu coordinated and largely funded the campaign for democracy in Nigeria from exile.

At the dawn of the return to democracy in 1999, Tinubu emerged as the governor of Lagos State, the country's commercial capital.

Governor of Lagos

In his eight years as governor (1999-2007), Lagos State introduced reforms in revenue generation , the judiciary , security , infrastructural development and other sectors.

But his time in office was dominated by a long battle with the federal government over his decision to create new local governments in Lagos. This angered the President Olusegun Obasanjo led federal government which took the decision to withhold the monthly federal allocation that was due to the state.

Until then, no state in the country was thought to be capable of surviving without monthly federal allocations. Tinubu was able to raise the state's internal revenue, which sustained it through that period. Since then, Lagos has kept increasing its capacity to fund itself. In 2022, only six of Nigeria's 36 states were capable of surviving independently.

Tinubu was the only governor, out of six, in the south-west region of Nigeria who won re-election in 2003 on the platform of the then opposition party, Alliance for Democracy . The other five governors all lost their second term bid to opponents fielded by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party under then president Olusegun Obasanjo. Tinubu is believed to have won due to his popularity among Lagos voters.

He has remained influential in the state and is popularly described as the godfather of Lagos politics , having played a substantial role in the emergence of his successors as Lagos governor.

Bridge builder and nurturer of talent

Tinubu is often described by his admirers as a political bridge builder. He is reputed to be able to spot and nurture talent. Many of those he has spotted have become high performers in Nigeria's politics and governance.

For instance, he appointed Nigeria's current vice-president, Yemi Osinbajo , a law academic, as attorney general and commissioner for justice in Lagos State. In 2015, he nominated Osinbajo as vice-president to Buhari.

Tinubu has also been instrumental in the emergence of many ministers and special advisers in the Buhari's cabinet, former and current members of the National Assembly, and former and current state governors who were his aides and political followers.

The controversial Tinubu

Controversies around Tinubu's parental origin and academic credentials were obstacles to his bid for votes.

In Nigerian politics, identity issues such as family and ancestral lineage often play a key role in how candidates are assessed.

The late Alhaja Abibat Mogaji , the powerful leader of the association of market traders who had the title of Iyaloja General of Lagos and Nigeria, was widely acknowledged as Tinubu's mother. She died in 2013, aged 96.

But critics insist that she could not have been his biological mother. They argue that Tinubu has a different identity from what is in the public domain. His family has countered such rumours.

His age is another source of dispute. Tinubu says he is 70. His critics say he is probably older than that. His critics also insist that he is unhealthy and unfit to be president, a claim he and his supporters have refuted .

Allegations of corruption have clung to him over the years. He has never been convicted. Under former president Goodluck Jonathan , he was charged before the Code of Conduct Tribunal but acquitted . This was a boost for his image. His supporters argue that if he was truly corrupt, he would have been convicted, especially since he was an opposition politician.

The kingmaker is President-elect

In 2015, Tinubu led a political movement that gave birth to the All Progressives Congress party, a coalition of opposition parties that eventually defeated the Peoples Democratic Party at the presidential poll.

It was the first time since 1999, when Nigeria returned to democratic rule, that a ruling party and sitting president had lost an election.

Tinubu is widely believed to be the political kingmaker responsible for Buhari's success in 2015. He is also believed to have supported Buhari in his second term bid in 2019.

Now, he has emerged as President-elect and successor to President Buhari whose tenure officially ends on 29 May.

This article has been revised to reflect the election results

Olayinka Oyegbile 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 Olayinka Oyegbile, Journalist and Communications scholar, Trinity University, Lagos
The Minerals Commission has increased the number of items on the Local Procurement List of goods and services reserved for Ghanaians to 50.

The number of items on the procurement list for goods and services was 41 last year.

The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Samuel Abu Jinapor, who disclosed this at a press briefing in Accra on Tuesday, stated that the new additions include the provision of medical services at mine sites, construction and management of Tailings Storage Facilities, assaying and motor rewinding.

That, according to the minister, forms part of measures to promote job creation in the mining industry through the use of local expertise, goods and services.

The provision of these goods and services by Ghanaians will ensure that we retain here in our country some US$3,000,000,000.00 annually, which would have otherwise been exported, he noted.

Mr Jinapor further disclosed that the government has increased the provision of financial, insurance and reinsurance services reserved for Ghanaians from 20 per cent to a minimum of 60 per cent.

He stated that the government was in talks with the Rand Refinery of South Africa and a London Bullion Marketing Association (LBMA) Referee, to secure LBMA certification to enable Ghana to easily export and trade refined gold on the international market.
A delegation from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), International Organisation for Migration, and German has called on the Minister for the Interior, Mr Ambrose Dery in Accra.

The delegation, led by Mr Rob Jenkins, Assistant to the Administrator for Conflict Prevention and Stabilization of the USAID, discussed the launch of the Coastal States Stability Mechanism, a new joint USGerman funded programme to support Coastal West African Countries to prevent and counter violent extremism.

The Minister urged Ghana, America, and Germany to work more closely in the field of security for the benefit of the three nations.

Peace and security, according to him, are core in nation building, hence, measures needed to be put in place to protect the territories of countries to ensure that citizens go about their daily activities without let or hindrance.
Former Ghana President, John Dramani Mahama was part of a delegation of the West African Elders Forum that visited the key Presidential candidates in the Nigeria elections.

In a post on Facebook after the visits, the leading member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) stressed that the key message is for the maintenance of peace and stability in Nigeria.

I led the West African Elders Forum to meet with the four key presidential candidates in Saturdays Nigerian election.

Our message to all the candidates, during our engagements between Sunday and Tuesday, was to maintain the peace and stability of Nigeria, John Dramani Mahama shared on Facebook.

The Nigeria Presidential candidates engaged include Bola Tinubu of All Progressives Congress (APC), Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The election has been tagged the tightest in the history of the country since 1991.

Today, Bola Tinubu has been announced as the Nigeria President-elect.
The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has provided a new update on the outbreak of Lassa Fever in the country.

In a press release on Tuesday, February 28, it said 12 additional cases have been recorded through contact tracing.

Meanwhile, one person has died.

The Ghana Health Service on the 26th of February 2023 issued a press release indicating the confirmation of two cases of Lassa Fever in Ghana.

Following the institution of control measures including contact tracing and testing, 12 additional cases who were close contacts have been confirmed.

This brings to 14 the total number of confirmed cases for this outbreak. One death has so far been recorded, part of the Ghana Health Service release said.

The release notes that all 13 cases are alive, in stable condition, and are being managed in designated health facilities.

A total of 97 contacts have been identified and efforts are underway to identify more contacts.

The public is reminded by the Ghana Health Service to avoid contact with rodents, ensure environmental hygiene and institute measures such as storing grain and other foodstuffs in rodent-proof containers, and avoid contact with blood and body fluids while caring for sick persons.
01.03.2023 LISTEN

The Minority Leader in Parliament, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson has said the Akufo-Addo's Government is having difficulty paying the February salaries of public sector employees.

He cited the GCB Banks tweet that suggested it was having challenges processing salaries from the Controller and Accountant Generals Department.

Dr. Ato Forosn was addressing members on the floor of the House in relation to the Electoral Commissions new Constitutional Instrument that seeks to make the Ghana card the source document for voter registration.

As we speak today, government is unable to pay salaries. If you check the Twitter account of GCB Bank, it says it is unable to pay salaries. So if government is unable to pay salaries, how can it accept assurances that, the government every Ghanaian will acquire the Ghana card.

But the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta who was also present in Parliament responded to the claim.

He refuted the assertion maintaining that the government has reneged on its obligations.

The Minority Leader said, there have been some challenges with data challenges with salary processes and in his own way what we call terminological inexactitude, is interpreting that to mean, the Republic of Ghana not having money to pay salaries. That is wrong and disingenuous, and we should not allow that to be perpetuated.

citinewsroom
A French civil court on Tuesday threw out a lawsuit brought by environmental campaigners against the French energy giant TotalEnergies over its oil projects in Uganda and Tanzania.

Under the case filed in 2019, six French and Ugandan activist groups  including Friends of the Earth France  had accused the company of not doing its utmost to protect people and the environment from the Tilenga oil development and the 3.5 billion euro East African Crude Oil Pipeline.

The campaigners wanted the court to order TotalEnergies to stop the east African projects under France's duty of vigilance law.

The 2017 statute requires companies to identify human rights and environmental risks in their global operations and supply chains, and to take measures to prevent them.

Dismissing the action, judges in the civil court panel said that only a judge examining the case more in depth could assess whether there was enough substance in the accusations against TotalEnergies. A review of operations around the pipeline could then take place, they added.

Procedures

Welcoming the ruling, TotalEnergies said: "The court has found we formally established a vigilance plan comprising the five items required by the duty of vigilance law, in sufficient detail so as not to be considered purely summary."

Friends of the Earth France said they reserved their right to further legal action.

Activists did, however, enjoy a significant breakthrough.

The court in its ruling  the first based on the 2017 law  said nothing prevented France from enforcing laws that govern the overseas activities of companies present in France.

TotalEnergies had argued a French court did not have jurisdiction over the overseas activities of its subsidiary TotalEnergies EP Uganda.

Implications

The case is expected to have wider ramifications.

Other French multinationals, including nuclear giant EDF, water supplier Suez, bank BNP Paribas and the agri-food firm Danone have been taken to court under the 2017 duty of vigilance law.

Those cases centre on claims as diverse as plastics pollution, working conditions in France and overseas, loans to companies contributing to deforestation, and land clashes with indigenous populations during the construction of a project.

"What we're actually seeing is an emergence of an entirely new field of litigation," said Carroll Muffett, head of the Center for International Environmental Law in Washington

"What binds these cases is that there are an array of legal duties that are coming into play  as the universe of potential plaintiffs harmed by corporate conduct is becoming ever broader," he said.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has called on political actors in Nigeria to seek a peaceful resolution to all the issues raised against the February 25, 2023, elections.

They should, in accordance with due process, seek consensus to address all the challenges arising from the polls, so that the will of the Nigerian people will be duly manifested.

The President made the call at the presentation of new year greetings to the Diplomatic Community at the Peduase Lodge on Tuesday.

The annual event aims to strengthen the bonds of friendship and promote goodwill between Ghana and other countries and international organizations.

Millions of Nigerians turned out on February 23 to cast their votes in what political analysts have described as the most keenly contested election in the history of the West African country.

But some political actors across the country have dismissed the polls as a sham, accusing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of colluding with security agencies to compromise the polls, against the wish of the Nigerian people.

INEC Wednesday morning declared the Ruling All People's Congress's 70-year-old candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the winner of the disputed election.

He got 37 per cent of the votes to beat his main rival Atiku Abubakar of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) who polled 29 per cent, and the Labour Party's Peter Obi who also polled 25 per cent.

The opposition parties have maintained that the elections were highly flawed and have demanded a rerun of the polls.

President Akufo-Addo told the diplomatic community that happenings in Nigeria had direct implications in West Africa and the entire African continent, and as such, political stakeholders in that country must find an amicable solution to objections about the 2023 presidential elections.

I hope that these challenges will be resolved peacefully in accordance with due process and that the will of the Nigerian people will be duly manifested, he said.

The impact on the cause of democracy in West Africa and indeed, in the entire continent of Africa by the events in Nigeria cannot be overemphasized. We wish them the best of luck and Gods blessings.

GNA
It's hard for many of us to imagine a world without instant, limitless internet access. Some have even argued that it should, alongside access to clean water and electricity, be considered a basic human right .

But in fact only 64.4% of the global population as of January 2023 are internet users. Asia and Europe are home to most of the people who are connected.

Africa comes in third. However, accessibility varies wildly across the continent. About 66% of people in southern Africa are internet users. In east Africa the figure is 26%; it is just 24% in central Africa. People in rural areas have far less access than those in the continent's urban areas.

Internet access opens up the world in many ways. It can entertain, educate, enable payments and even bolster democracy .

That's why advances in providing internet access to people in Africa are worth celebrating. In January 2023, the US company SpaceX , which manufactures and launches spacecraft and communication satellites, announced that its Starlink service was available in Nigeria. This was a first for the continent. It has also since become available in Rwanda.

Starlink is a satellite-based internet service. It is set to be rolled out elsewhere on the continent, including the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya and Tanzania, later this year. More coverage is to come in 2024.

This could be an important way to fill Africa's connectivity gaps, which have arisen because of poor digital infrastructure and the high costs of investing in fibre optic cables or mobile phone masts, particularly in rural and remote areas. The United Nations has a strategy for reaching universal access across Africa by 2030, but this won't be possible without innovative approaches.

Starlink is one such innovation. Since all its users are tapping into the same infrastructure, in space, there's less need for erecting mobile phone masts or laying fibre optic cable on land .

What is Starlink?

Starlink is a network of thousands of satellites located close to the Earth  about 550km from the planet's surface  that provide broadband internet access.

Of course, satellites are already used for internet connectivity. But a traditional internet satellite is a single geostationary object; its position in orbit is fixed in relation to the Earth. These satellites are also located more than 35,000km from Earth, so it takes a long time for the signal to reach the end user. As anyone who has tried to use the internet in a remote area knows, the further a signal travels, the worse it gets, so traditional internet satellites tend to be slow and can be unreliable. They aren't able to adequately support activities like live streaming, online gaming and video calls.

Read more: Nanosatellite launch is a big step forward for African space science

Starlink's Low-Earth Orbit satellites are able to interconnect and relay signals between each other, creating fast, stable internet service. There are also a lot of them: on 17 February 2023, SpaceX said it had launched 3,981 satellites in total, with 3,639 currently operational.

The company can launch its own satellites on demand and update them with the latest technology as required, which it says adds to their reliability .

Much of Africa's internet access is currently being provided through mobile, wireless internet  signals are relayed from land-based towers. This has less coverage and is slower than satellite internet access.

One area of concern when it comes to Starlink is the cost. For example, at the beginning of February 2023, FiberOne, a broadband internet provider in Nigeria, was providing internet with speeds of up to 500Mbps, which is fast. The installation fee was N32,231 (about US$70) and the monthly subscription cost around N100,000 (US$220). Starlink in Nigeria, meanwhile, costs about N276,000 (US$599) once-off for the kit and installation, then charges a monthly subscription fee of about N198,000 (US$43).

Starlink is cheaper in the long term than both fibre optic and mobile internet providers. But can an average rural Nigerian household with a monthly income of less than N28,000 (US$60) afford it? Given that average incomes are similarly low in most rural and remote parts of Africa, there's a risk that Starlink's targeted users on the continent won't be able to use the service.

Research uses

These concerns aside, there's no doubt that faster internet can propel Africa forward. Despite the shortcomings of mobile, wireless internet, it has been credited with greatly advancing Africa technologically. Services like Starlink could fuel even greater growth in several areas. These include education, participation in democracy and governance, disaster risk reduction and mitigation, health, and agriculture.

Read more: Pasha 34: How digital technologies can help farmers in Africa

As a researcher in planetary and space science whose work includes , among other things, the use of satellite data for monitoring and modelling in relation to geology, I am especially interested in the ways these satellites could be used beyond internet access, for tasks like remote sensing and Earth observations . I hope that Starlink's arrival in Africa will help usher the continent into a new phase of technological development.

For example , satellite images can give information on crop yield, helping farmers to make better decisions on irrigation, fertilisation and harvesting. They also allow for widespread and effective monitoring of reservoir levels, as well as increasing transparency about how much water is available, thereby providing early warnings of shortages and uniform data among countries with common water sources.

Governments, researchers and industries can buy access to specialised Starlink satellites called Swarm for data they need for these kinds of projects. The sheer number and speed of Starlink's satellites means they can gather a lot of data, quickly, and offer frequent updates. Starlink's arrival in Africa is a great opportunity for the continent's scientists, governments and industries to collaborate.

Marian Selorm Sapah 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 Marian Selorm Sapah, Lecturer/Research Scientist, University of Ghana
The President of Ghana, H.E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has exchanged New Year Greetings with Members of the Diplomatic Corps.

During his meeting with Members of the Diplomatic Corps, the President stressed that Ghana remains committed to efforts to maintain peace and stability in Africa.

I indicated, in my address to them, that Ghana remains committed to the joint continental effort to ensure peace and stability on the continent, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said during the meeting on Tuesday, February 28, at the Peduase Lodge.

The Ghana leader added, As far as the interests of Africa are concerned, we seek collectively a peaceful and secure Africa based on the progressive ideals of fostering democracy, good governance, respect for human rights, social justice, and the rule of law.

The New Year Greetings is an annual event that affords the President the opportunity to exchange greetings, interact with members of the diplomatic corps, to affirm shared commitment and dedication to strengthening existing bonds of friendship, cooperation, goodwill, and solidarity between Ghana and its respective countries and organisations, and to wish them a Happy New Year.
Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the president-elect of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has promised to restore the lost confidence in the Nigerian tertiary educational system.

The veteran politician has assured university students that there will be no more strikes as their lecturers will be provided with everything they need to make life comfortable.

Speaking at a brief acceptance ceremony on Wednesday, March 1, shortly after being declared the winner, Mr. Tinubu said he will pay attention to the demands of the tertiary cycle of education.

He also promised to offer them student loans to aid their education in the tertiary.

"I will pay attentionundivided attentionto your education. We will be creative. Credit will be available. Education loans will be available. Four years course will be four years course. No more strike," said the president-elect.

He further noted that the educational sector, particularly the third cycle, will be given the autonomy it needs to upgrade its syllabus on its own.

"Your universities will have their autonomy to be able to upgrade your syllabuses and be creative. No more selling of handouts. They must be authors. They must write and create for the nation," he said.

The proposed assurance, if granted, will see to the end of the frequent strike actions in the public universities of Nigeria.

Millions of students nationwide were at home due to an eight-month strike action that started on February 14, 2022.

At least 15 recorded strikes have taken place in the about 100 public universities in Nigeria, which have affected an estimated 2.5 million students, according to the countrys National Universities Commission.

The striking lecturers have always been demanding a review of their conditions of service, including the platform the government uses to pay their earnings, improved funding for the universities, and payment of their salaries withheld since the strike started.
President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, H.E. Muhammadu Buhari will be handing over power happily.

His dreams before the elections were to hand over power to another person from the All Progressives Congress party, which is Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

The outgoing president announced on February 22 that his party is going all out for victory in the recently concluded election held on Saturday, February 25.

In a tweet, Mr. Buhari said the final APC rally in Lagos on February 21 showed that Nigerians will keep them in power.

"The Grand Finale Rally of the Presidential Campaign of our great party, APC, took place in Lagos yesterday. We are going into Saturday confident of victory," he said.

President Buhari continued, "Vote Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the next President of Nigeria.

The Nigerian presidential elections, per several surveys and the final results, suggested a fierce contest between three candidates: Mr. Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the APC, opposition leader Atiku Abubakar of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), and Peter Obi of the previously unknown Labour Party.

In affirmation, and just as Tinubu himself captioned his campaign messages, "Its my turn," the election results gave him the long-awaited opportunity to become the next president of Africas most populous country.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the 70-year-old veteran politician as the president-elect after he polled 8,794,726 votes in the 2023 presidential election held over the weekend.

Tinubu clinched the magical victory ahead of other close contenders: the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Atiku Abubakar; the Labour Party candidate, Peter Obi; and the New Nigeria Peoples Party candidate, Rabiu Kwankwaso.

The three leading presidential candidates won 12 states each, while Kwankwaso claimed only Kano State.
France is staging its biggest military exercises to date  an operation involving 12,000 troops including NATO allies. The first leg of the Orion 2023 war games started on 23 February and will last until 11 March. The drills come one year after Russia began its invasion of Ukraine.

"The geopolitical context justifies this exercise," says Yves Metayer, commander of the troop deployment division at the French chiefs of staff.

He adds that the plan has been in the works since 2020 and builds on the French Ministry of Defence's 2017 Strategic Review of Defence and National Security.

According to the website of France's Air Force, Orion 2023 is designed to become a "triennial cycle of exercises" aimed at "operational readiness" of the participating forces.

During a press conference organised by France's Ministry of Defence on 16 February, Division General Nicolas Le Nen, commander of the Joint Operations Command (CPOIA,) said that the operation is "unprecedented" and signifies "the return of major exercises on the territory."

Arnland against Mercury

According to the playbook of Orion 2023, the participating armies will simulate a conflict between two imaginary countries: Arnland and Mercury.

According to Nen, "Arnland (supported by France and its allies) is opposed to its neighbor Mercury, a country which exploits militias, while exerting a consequent military threat on the borders."

The exercises consist of four "phases," the first being operational planning, which concluded in February.

The second is an aero-maritime campaign taking place in France's southwest, which involves 7,000 soldiers from NATO partners France, the US, Italy, Spain, Belgium and the UK.

Some 2,300 military vehicles are deployed, including 40 warplanes, over 100 drones, 30 warships and France's biggest aircraft carrier the Charles De Gaulle.

Later in March, the third, more theoretical "civil-military work" phase will follow, aimed at the decision making process of political authorities faced with the crisis at hand.

Between mid-April and early May the final phase will take place in the east of France, with up to 12,000 soldiers.

'Confrontation with Russia'

Critics of the exercises say that with Orion 2023, France is in "open preparation for war with Russia."

The left wing World Socialist Web Site (WSES) points out that the exercises represent "a thinly veiled reference to Russia, as a hostile power called 'Mercury', which has invaded a French ally named 'Arnland'".

The goal of the exercise is for France and its allies to "establish a bridgehead in occupied Arnland and begin to push back Mercury forces," it says.

"Such a scenario, played out in occupied southern Ukraine or Crimea, is undoubtedly a critical part of NATO's battlefield plans for direct confrontation with Russia," observes the WSWS.

France is not the only country currently engaging in war games. South Africa hosted military from China and Russia for exercises completed on 27 February.

In the same month the US held joint exercises with Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Botswana while Djibouti and Pakistan hosted its "Aman 23" naval drills, hosting a diverse array of players including the US, China, Indonesia, Italy, and Japan.
01.03.2023 LISTEN

A former presenter at Radio Gold based in Accra Nana Yaw Kwakye popularly known as 'Omansomfo' has been laid to rest in his hometown in the Agona West Municipality of the Central Region.

Before his demise, Nana Yaw Kwakye was the Tufuhene of Agona Kwaman under the Stool name Nana Kwakye-Ankomah I.

He was installed in 1996 as the Tufuhene to lead the Agona Kwaman Asafo Company until his ancestors called him home in 2022.

Tributes that poured in described the late Tufuhene as an epitome of development, a man who led his people in humility with maximum respect for people in the community.

Interacting with the media last Saturday, the Ebusuapanyin of the Oyoko Royal Family of Agona Kwaman, Nana Kweku Nyamekye Benstil stated that the late Tufuhene was born in December 1950 to Mr. Papa Kofi Ntow and Maame Sarah Akua Sam of blessed memory.

According to the Ebusuapanyin, Nana Kwakye-Ankomah I started schooling at the Agona Kwaman Roman Catholic Primary School.

"After his elementary education, Nana Kwakye-Ankomah I passed the Ghana Enrolled Nurses entrance examination and trained as a Mental Health Nurse at Ankaful Mental Hospital in 1971.

"Known in his private life as Nana Yaw Kwakye, he participated in a TV series at the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation. Without a doubt, his Show Director recognized that she had found an unequalled talent.

"Nana Kwakye-Ankomah I lived his dream in a changing world where he was called to serve his community and nation as well, thus his nickname 'Omansomfo' and it really fit him as he exhibited inspirational leadership," he stated.

Ebusuapanyin Nana Kweku Nyamekye Benstil wished Traditional Leaders could lead with humility with mutual respect for the people they presided over in their areas of operations. He encouraged Traditional Councils to instil and make changes to some of the outmoded cultural practices to suit the modern trend in the era of globalization.

"Again, we should make changes to some of the outmoded cultural set up and structures that do not promote coexistence because many of the chieftaincy disputes across the country is, as a result of lack of data for royal families that could indicate the next in a succession of a vacant stool," he stressed.

Nana Kweku Nyamekye Benstil therefore made a passionate appeal to family heads, traditional councils, as well as stakeholders in the Chieftaincy institution to formulate lay down measures for the selection of successors to vacant stools as a means to curtail chieftaincy disputes to facilitate national development.

Mr. Fetus Owusu Ntow, Senior Journalist based in the United States of America in his tribute on behalf of his siblings described the late Tufuhene as a man who was down to earth.

"Nana was a human being. I am sure he had his faults just like any of us here present, but no one with a clear conscience can ever in truthfulness say he was not a good man. On record, Nana Kwakye-Ankomah I was respectful of anyone, he was kind to his fault and so much cared about humanity.

"I can proudly say Nana has left a better legacy of respect for each other, humility and about all God-fearing attitude for his Royal Oyoko Family members, Agona Kwaman Community and generation yet to come. Indeed, Good Name is better than Riches," Mr. Fetus Owusu Ntow concluded amidst tears.
Ruling party candidate Bola Tinubu on Wednesday was declared winner of Nigeria's fiercely disputed presidential elections, securing the former Lagos governor his life-long ambition of heading Africa's most populous democracy.

With President Muhammadu Buhari stepping down after two terms, many Nigerians hoped Saturday's vote would usher in a leader capable of tackling widening insecurity, righting the economy and easing poverty.

The final results gave Tinubu, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), 8.8 million votes against 6.9 million for opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Atiku Abubakar.

The Labour Party's Peter Obi notched up 6.1 million votes, confirming his success as a surprise third candidate.

The Independent National Electoral Commission, or INEC, confirmed Tinubu as president-elect after he also secured the required number votes across two-thirds of Nigeria's states -- a rule meant to ensure broad representation.

Supporters of the Nigerian presidential candidate Bola Tinubu celebrated in Abuja after the news of his victory. By Kola SULAIMON (AFP)

But the February 25 election was marked by long delays in voting and slow arrival of results that angered voters and prompted opposition parties to demand a new vote, alleging massive vote-rigging.

"I appeal to my fellow contestants to let us team together. It is the only nation we have. It is one country that we must build together," Tinubu said in an acceptance speech early Wednesday.

Supporters danced to Afrobeats at the APC party campaign office in Abuja and chanted "Jagaban," a local chieftain title for Tinubu.

In a congratulatory message on Twitter, Buhari described the president-elect as "the best person for the job" and urged opposition parties seek peaceful means to address their grievances over the vote.

Tinubu, 70, is a long-time political kingmaker who is a Muslim from the southern Yoruba community.

He campaigned on his experience as Lagos governor from 1999 to 2007, charging ahead with the slogan "It's my turn" to govern Africa's largest economy.

But his promise of reviving hope was attacked by rivals, who questioned his health, past graft accusations and ties to Buhari, criticised for failing in his vow to make Nigeria safer.

Tinubu was declared winner in the early hours of Wednesday after a bitterly contested campaign and vote count. By PIUS UTOMI EKPEI (AFP)

Mixed reactions greeted his election victory on Wednesday.

In Lagos, Tinubu's home turf, the streets were calm, with the usual traffic flowing, while businesses were open after the long wait for the results.

"Tinubu might be old... he is the best to govern, because he is very open-minded and will promote unity between north and south," said Abiola Adesina, a 47-year-old driver.

But other younger voters were angry, expressing concerns over how INEC managed the tallies.

"The INEC chairman has failed to make the results transparent.. Nobody is happy... we are definitely going to court. Tinubu can't be the president," said Orisa Omega, 23, an Abuja student.

Tight race

Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi (C) attracted new voters with a message of change. By Patrick Meinhardt (AFP)

The election was a tight race for the first time since Nigeria ended military rule in 1999, after Obi, 61, drew younger voters with a message of change.

He scored a major victory in Lagos, the state with the largest number of registered voters and Tinubu's traditional bastion.

Abubakar, a 76-year-old businessman and former vice president, lost his sixth attempt at the presidency.

Saturday's voting was mostly peaceful, but was troubled by long delays at many polling stations and some intimidation by thugs.

Technical hitches disrupted the uploading of results to INEC's central website, fuelling concerns over vote rigging.

"The election is irretrievably compromised," Labour Party chairman Julius Abure told reporters on Tuesday. "We demand that this sham of an election should be immediately cancelled."

Hitches

INEC introduced biometric voter identification technology for the first time at the national level and its IReV central database for uploading results to improve transparency.

Tinubu was among three frontrunner candidates campaigning for Nigeria's presidency. By JOHN WESSELS (AFP)

But opposition parties said failures in the system to upload tallies allowed for ballot manipulation and disparities in the results from the manual counts at local polling stations.

Nigerian elections have often been marred by vote-rigging, ballot buying, violence and clashes between rival parties.

INEC dismissed opposition allegations.

"Contrary to the insinuation by both parties, results emanating from the States point to a free, fair and credible process," INEC said.

It said parties should allow the process to run its course and then take their claims to court.

But international observers, including from the European Union, noted major logistical problems, disenfranchised voters and a lack of transparency by INEC.

The expectations facing Nigeria's next leader are huge, and they start with the country's security crisis.

A grinding Islamist insurgency in the northeast has displaced more than two million, bandit militias carry out mass abductions in the northwest and separatists attack police in the southeast.

Nigeria is Africa's top oil producer but struggles with sporadic fuel shortages, huge energy import bills due a lack of refineries and crude theft from its wells and pipelines.
01.03.2023 LISTEN

The Minority Leader in Parliament, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson has urged the Electoral Commission to tread carefully in order not to plunge the country into chaos.

He indicated that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was when the EC was putting together the new CI for Voter Registration.

Initial (IPAC) meetings to which NDC was invited did not materialize only for the party to be invited in August 2022 that this proposed CI was ready to be presented to Parliament. In other words, the NDC had been completely excluded from the processes of preparing such an important CI to Parliament, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson said in Parliament on Tuesday.

The Electoral Commission (EC) has tabled before Parliament a new Constitutional Instrument (CI).

Through the CI, the EC is seeking approval from Parliament to make the Ghana Card the sole source of identification for Voter Registration.

This has not gone down well with the Minority in Parliament who argue that some 3.5 million Ghanaians who still do not have their Ghana Cards could be disenfranchised.

When EC chairperson Jean Mensa went before Parliament on Tuesday, she made a justification why the CI is important.

According to her, it will ensure minors and foreigners are not successful when they attempt to write their names in the Voter Register.

She called on Members of Parliament for support insisting that her outfit only aims to make elections in Ghana more credible.
The Faculty of Engineering of the Takoradi Technical University has developed an oil and gas leakage detector system to aid the detection and easy safeguarding of petroleum installations in the Ghanaian petroleum sector.

Speaking to Citi News at the maiden TTU Technology Fair where the oil leakage detector system was outdoored, the Vice Chancellor of the Takoradi Technical University, Rev. Professor John Frank Eshun said the innovation gives credence to Takoradi Technology University's niche area of Petroleum training, hence the university will continue to come up with relevant technologies to support the petroleum industry.

He said it is the fulfilment of its core mandate as a Technical University expected to innovate the industry and socially relevant technology.

It provides a platform for students and staff of the university to showcase the brilliant innovative ideas they had developed to make the world a better place and a more sustainable one. And to ensure that the ideas the students have acquired through their studies are transformed into viable projects with the intent of unearthing the entrepreneurial potential of the students thereby impacting positively on society. And among other things ensuring that students are challenged to think smart with their innovative ideas and create wealth for mankind, he said.

The Vice-Chancellor added that one of the intentions of the fair is to check the commercial viability of projects.

It is to identify a couple of the exhibited works, patent it and scale them up into business incubation hubs for commercial ventures which will eventually lead to wealth creation, he noted.

Rev. Prof. Eshun however said Takoradi Technical University is moving more towards practical teaching and problem-solving method of teaching.

The world has moved into the fourth revolution, which is characterized by innovation and high-end or cutting-edge industrial advancement. Ghana is no exception as the country has to adopt a new education curriculum that has a slant toward modern technological trends. TTU next academic year will move away from such education and adopt a new education that focuses more on innovation and industrialization.

TTU will launch into outcomes-focused national development activities toward a competitive, modern, and industrialized Ghana. It will be all about problem-solving for value creation. This will help retool and revive the industry using the latest technology, he pointed out.

To help achieve that, he hinted that TTU will soon launch a Research and Innovation Fund.

TTU is committed to seeing to it that the country's education system spurs the country towards achieving upper middle-income status by riding upon technological advancements and industrialisation. Research and Innovation Fund will be created to support this agenda and we are appealing to the corporate world to also support TTU in this direction, he emphasized.

The General Manager of Kantanka Group of Companies, Francis Kojo Kudjodjie who was the special guest at the maiden TTU Tech fair while praising TTU for the numerous innovations on display at the fair said Kantanka will soon initiate collaboration with TTU to produce EV car batteries as well as tire manufacturing.

Deputy Director General of CTVET, Peter Antwi Bosiako who represented the Director General at the opening of the Tech-Fair indicated that technology runs the world and every facet of its existence hence failure to invest in the sector means no development for that country.

He said unemployment in the country is partly a creation of Universities in the country because of the programmes they offer.

While commending TTU for its excellence in pushing the frontiers of technological research and innovation, Eng. Antwi-Bosiako, challenged universities to prioritize TVET education to complement the recent huge investment government has made in resourcing TVET institutions.

Though all the five faculties of TTU are exhibiting various important innovations, key innovations from the Faculty of Engineering that headlines the fair included; Oil and Gas Leakage Detector, Car Theft and Arrestor and Locator System with SMS Notification, An automated railway level crossing system as well as a Clinical Analyzer.

Other innovations on display at the four-day Tech-fair which will come to an end on Friday 3rd March 2023 are the Coconut Peeling Machine, a Procurement Training System, Improved 3D animation for architectural projects, alternative use for flour from the Applied Sciences and Recycled discarded waste material for the preservation of the Environment from the Faculty of Applied Arts.

By Citi Newsroom
01.03.2023 LISTEN

Mahama Ayariga, a member of the Constitutional, Legal, and Parliamentary Affairs Committee, has vowed that the NDC caucus will never support the Electoral Commission Chairperson, Jean Mensa on her bid to use the Ghana Card as the sole document for voter registration.

He said the minority MPs will continuously resist the Constitutional Instrument (CI) laid before them by the Electoral Commission.

He explained that his side will kick against the ECs proposal with all legitimate means to always protect the interests of Ghanaians.

"We will do everything within our power to resist the laying of the CI if she brings one that says the Ghana Card is the only way to prove one's citizenship.

"The EC has to bring the CI for it to be laid, and the debate will go on." As parliamentarians, we will do what is right for Ghanaians," the MP said.

Mr. Ayariga debunked the electoral bodys assertion that it is introducing the CI to help prevent foreigners and minors from registering.

"It is important for people to understand that the question of voting and how to prove your citizenship is a question of law, and the EC Chairperson can't do what she wants," he stressed.

The NDC caucus in Parliament has been opposing the use of a Ghana card as the only requirement for voter registration on the grounds that the action seeks to disenfranchise several Ghanaians who are of voting age but do not have the Ghana card.
There has been an impasse between the majority and the minority caucuses of Ghanas Parliament over the ECs attempt to make the Ghana card the sole requirement for voter registration.

While the Minority opposes it, the Majority side says it is the right decision and must be supported by the legislative assembly at all cost.

Speaking on Accra-based JoyNews PM Express on Tuesday, February 28, Deputy Majority Chief Whip, Habib Iddrisu, noted that the move will help the electoral body secure a credible voter register.

"We will do everything to lay the C.I. because it will give us a credible register unless the minority wants to register minors," he said.

The NDC caucus in Parliament has been defending its position on the grounds that the action only seeks to disenfranchise over 3million Ghanaians who are of voting age but do not have Ghana cards.

They have proposed that a guarantor system needs to be added so that people with no Ghana card will have the opportunity to be registered.

But, speaking on the floor of Parliament on Tuesday, February 28, the EC boss, Jane Mensa explained that the guarantor system gives way for minors and foreigners to be registered.

She also stressed the new C.I., if approved by Parliament will help to secure a credible register.
President Nana Akufo-Addo has called on the Diplomatic Corps to help Ghanas bid for a $3 billion bailout at the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Addressing members of the Diplomatic Corps at the Peduase Lodge on Tuesday, the President said with the cooperation received from the Paris Club, he is confident that the IMF deal will finally be concluded by the end of March.

Just as we managed to achieve a staff-level agreement with the Fund in record time in December last year whose terms were systematically fulfilling including the difficult but ultimately highly successful process of the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme, I am confident that with the cooperation we have received from the members of the Paris Club and the People's Republic of China, which sent a delegation from China's EXIM Bank to Accra over the weekend to meet with officials of the Ministry of Finance, we shall be able to go to the Board of the Fund to conclude finally the agreement by the end of March, he said.

President Akufo-Addo added this will set the stage for the strong recovery of Ghana's economy. Needless to say, we will hope that all Ghana's friends will weigh in with words of support at the Fund.

Ghana has already reached a staff-level agreement (SLA) with the IMF but has yet to get board approval.

Meanwhile, the German Ambassador to Ghana, Daniel Krull, has warned that the $3 billion bailout being sought from the International Monetary Fund is in danger of not being approved if China fails to agree to a debt relief package.

We are ready to take our part when others are ready to do that, so all major creditors must be ready to help Ghana. The Big elephant in the room is China. China is the largest creditor to Ghana and so far [China] is not supportive of setting up of a creditors' committee, where the creditors will sit down and agree on an aid package for Ghana.

By Citi Newsroom
The Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) and the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MOTAC), have held a Ghanaian Citizenship ceremony for two of the three last-known living survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre.

The two, 108-year-old Viola Fletcher, and her 101-year-old brother, Van Ellis, received their Ghanaian citizenship at a solemn but impressive ceremony at the Ghana Embassy in Washinton DC.

In 2021, Fletcher, affectionately called Mother Fletcher, and Ellis, often called Uncle Red, travelled to Ghana for the first time where President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, conferred on them Ghanaian citizenship.

Hajia Alima Mahama, Ghanas Ambassador to the United States of America, welcoming the gathering, recounted Ghanas long standing history of Pan-Africanism and said the Country continues to build bridges between the continent of Africa and Africans in the Diaspora in extraordinary ways.

Dr. Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, said he was hopeful the event would resonate and inspire others to make the journey back home to the motherland like mother Fletcher and Uncle Red did.

I am looking forward to this ceremony opening new doors of engagement in tourism, trade and investments amongst us as Africans and our brothers and sisters in the diaspora, he added.

Dr Awal said the Government was committed to creating an environment that would encourage diaspora investment, create jobs for the youth and enhance livelihoods.

The Chief Executive Officer, GTA, Mr Akwasi Agyeman, said the event was a perfect climax to the Black History Month celebration in the United States of America , highlighting Ghanas Diaspora Pathways pillar as part of the Beyond the Return Project.

He said: Your story of survival is an important imprint in the story of the African Americans in America. It is also a story that shows the resilience of the African spirit and on, which we can stand to strengthen the bonds between Africa and its diaspora community. 

Madam Regina Goodwin, a member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, responding on behalf of the family, said: We are honoured to be receiving Ghanaian citizenship for our priceless Black icons. Mother Fletcher and Uncle Red wanted to visit the Motherland before they caught their wings, now they have more than that.

We thank the President and People of Ghana for this honour done to not just them, but the African American community in the United States. 

She noted that Mother Fletcher and Van Ellis opted for Ghana due to its credentials as the hub of global diaspora engagement and the home of Pan Africanism.

Dignitaries who graced the occasion included Ghanaian Musical icon, Rocky Dawuni, Hollywood Actress A.J Johnson, Ghana's Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Mrs. Cecelia Dapaah, Ike Howard, Grandson of Mother Fletcher, Akwasi Awuah Ababio, Director, Diaspora Affairs  Office of the President , and Annabelle McKenzie, Director of the Beyond the Return Secretariat.

Others were: Adwoa Asamoah, National Advisor for Black Engagement for the Biden-Harris campaign, Jasmine Young, Director of Warner Music/Blavatnik Center for Music Business at Howard University, and Maxwell Edusei, CEO, the African Loom.

GNA
The people of Ho, the capital of the Volta region have been incited by Oliver Barker Vormawor, the lead convener of the #FixTheCountry Movement, to hoot at President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo when he goes there for the Independence Day celebration.

The activist said Ghanaians are currently relying on them in the region, where the President and other government officials will be hosted on March 6, to make them proud.

He explained in a post shared on his Facebook page on March 1 that Nana Akufo-Addos administration is making the toils of the countrys independent fighters go in vain.

To him, the current administration has inflicted nothing less than hardships and trauma on Ghanaians under economic mismanagement and corruption.

"I am calling on the people of Ho to boo the president when he comes there for the 6th March.

"Boo him louder than he has ever been booed in his life before. Let him understand the trauma of his presidency," read part of his post.

He further told the natives of the Volta Region, "Your ancestors fought for Independence. Singlehandedly, Gbedemah kept the revolution alive when Nkrumah was jailed.

"No one is asking more from you. You charge on this Independence Day is to express, on behalf of all of us, our national indignation to a person that represents everything that Nkrumah will be repulsed by."

He concluded by telling them to "make Ghana Proud. Boo the President."

The Vice President, Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia was booed at the 2022 Hogbestotso Za celebration, right after the President has been booed on multiple occasions at the Global Citizens festival and some towns in the Ashanti Region, while on a working visit.
The Minority in Parliament has made a strong argument why it is against the decision by the Electoral Commission (NDC) to rely on only the Ghana Card for voter registration.

In a new Constitutional Instrument (CI) presented to Parliament by the EC, it is seeking approval to make the Ghana Card the sole source of identification for registration.

Addressing the press on Wednesday, the Minority in Parliament argued that the conduct of the Electoral Commission is unconstitutional.

According to the Minority, the 1992 Constitution requires evidence of citizenship and not proof of identification when one wants to register to become a voter.

What Article 42 of the 1992 Constitution requires, is evidence of citizenship and not evidence or proof of identification. Any evidence of citizenship should therefore qualify a person to be registered, Minority Leader Dr. Ato Forson said at its press briefing.

Dr. Ato Forson added, That is why under the current C.I 91 as amended by C.I 126, Ghanaian Passports and guarantor system are allowed as evidence of citizenship. Clearly, the proposed C.I which makes the Ghana Card the sole requirement for voter registration serves as a restraint on citizens right to register and exercise their franchise in elections.

It is important to remind the Electoral Commission headed by Madam Jean Mensah that the Commission is enjoined by the constitution to advance the right to vote and not introduce any law that seeks to curtail same.

The Minority is of the view that the critical nature of the issue at stake has the potential to undermine Ghanas democracy and thereby disturb the peace and security of our country.

The Minority at its press briefing said it will be engaging a broad spectrum of stakeholders, including Development Partners, Faith-based Organizations, Traditional Authorities, and Civil Society Organizations in the coming days to get them to appreciate the issues at stake, and the consequences the plans of the EC bodes for Ghanas democracy and stability.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has expressed confidence that with the cooperation Government is receiving from members of the Paris Club and China, it would be able to conclude finally an agreement with the International Monetary Fund, (IMF) by the end of March.

President Akufo-Addo said the Chinese Government has sent a delegation from Chinas Eximbank to Accra, over the weekend, to meet with officials of the Ministry of Finance to discuss the possibility of restructuring the countrys debt.

According to the International Institute of Finance, Ghana owes about $13 billion in Eurobonds and $4 billion to bilateral loans as of September 2022, of which $1.7 billion is owed to China alone.

President Akufo-Addo three weeks ago appealed to Germany to convince China to participate in the Credits Committee under the Paris Club Common Framework to deal with Ghanas external debt restructuring efforts.

The German government has expressed its willingness to assist Ghana to deal with its difficult economic challenges, amidst the countrys unsustainable debt levels which have necessitated the debt restructuring efforts.

Addressing an annual event which allows various foreign diplomats to exchange greetings, interact with each other and strengthen existing bonds of friendship, cooperation, and goodwill between Ghana and their respective countries and organisations, President Akufo-Addo said Like the rest of the world Ghana acknowledges that its economy is in considerable difficulty.

The Budget drawn for the 2022 fiscal year, according to the President, was thrown out of gear, disrupting the balance of payments and debt sustainability and further exposing the structural weaknesses in the Ghanaian economy.

Ghana has gone to the IMF, to repair in the short term, its public finances and restore the balance of payments, while the government continue to work on the medium to long-term structural changes that are at the heart of the countrys goal of constructing a resilient and robust Ghanaian economy and building a Ghana beyond Aid.

President Akufo-Addo said just as the government managed to achieve a Staff Level Agreement with the Fund in record time, in December last year and as part of fulfilling the difficult but highly successful Domestic Debt Exchange Programme, he was convinced the government conclude $3 billion stimulus package with the IMF.

That, he said, would set the stage for the strong recovery of Ghanas economy.

The President indicated, that the government would hope that all of Ghanas friends would weigh in with words of support to the Fund to make this agreement possible and on time.

He said as part of efforts to reset the economy and restore stability; the government has also come up with a seven-point agenda aimed at restoring macroeconomic stability and accelerating economic transformation that is articulated in the post-COVID-19 program for economic growth.

The programme, President Akufo-Addo indicated, contains a set of goals which seek to mobilise domestic revenue; streamline and rationalise expenditure; boost local productive capacity; promote and diversify exports; protect the poor and vulnerable; expand digital and climate-responsible infrastructure; implement structural public sector reforms.

He said the government acknowledges that there would be palpable reactions to the fiscal adjustments it intends to implement in the coming years for the sustainability, recovery and eventual transformation of the economy but assured that as it had shown in other circumstances, we shall turn this crisis into an opportunity to restore not just the short-term problems, but the long-term structural problems.

He said the debilitating effects of COVID-19 have more than ever heightened the high interconnectivity of the world and as a result, used the opportunity to reiterate Ghanas appreciation for the solidarity shown to the country by the diplomats respective countries and governments.

He also expressed Ghanas gratitude to countries such as Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Italy, India, Japan, Malaysia, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, China, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Turkey, US, Uk,through scholarship and training programmes such as governance, arts and culture, medicine, security agriculture, technology, health, tradeamong others.

The support from these countries through vaccines and PPEs and various forms of collaboration during the pandemic the President noted are highly appreciated.

The President said Ghana would remain mindful of its responsibility to contribute to the economic and political integration of her region and the continent as a whole.

The potential for African countries to succeed together he stressed lies largely in intra-African trade.
The Bawku Central Constituency branch of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has said it does not have any interest in chieftaincy issues as a national party.

This comes on the back of the enskinment of a new Chief for the Mamprugus and governments interventions to prevent the chieftaincy dispute in the area from escalating.

In a statement, the Bawku Central NPP, said its members are made up of tribes within the Bawku traditional area and it does not encourage divisive tribalism.

Setting the record straight, it noted that the chieftaincy dispute in Bawku has affected members of the party in the constituency greatly and is making the party unpopular in the constituency.

The Bawku Central NPP noted that its regional and national executives together with government, is not giving it the needed attention and support to sustain the partys strength in the constituency.

It stressed that since 1996, the Bawku Central NPP has constantly given the party the highest votes in the region and is among the three leading constituencies in the whole of the North that gives the party the needed votes to win power.

The Bawku Central NPP therefore called on the leadership of the party in Accra and government to take the necessary steps in order to avoid breaking the rank and file of the party in the constituency.

It indicated that majority of the votes the party gets in the area comes from the Mamprusis and their sympathisers in the Bawku township and beyond.

In the 2020 general election, we gave Nana Akufo-Addo more than 20,000 votes to win the election, and out of this number, the Mamprusis gave the party more than 18,000 votes, the statement further noted.

It therefore requested the National Executives to tell the President that his posture towards the Bawku chieftaincy dispute is hurting the party at the constituency considering the fact that, majority of the people in Bawku who voted to make him the president are Mamprusis and are a party to the chieftaincy dispute.

They urged the President to therefore treat the Bawku chieftaincy dispute as a pure traditional matter and refer the matter to the eminent traditional authorities to handle it rather than making pronouncements on it.

-classfmonline
The President of the Republic of Ghana, HE. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has indicated that Ghana is on course to closing its deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by the close of March.

Speaking to members of the Diplomatic Corps especially from the Paris Club, at the Peduase Lodge on Tuesday, February 28, the President said he is optimistic a board-level agreement with the IMF will be reached later this month.

Just as we managed to achieve a staff-level agreement with the Fund in record time in December last year whose terms were systematically fulfilling including the difficult but ultimately highly successful process of the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme, I am confident that with the cooperation we have received from the members of the Paris Club and the Peoples Republic of China, which sent a delegation from Chinas EXIM Bank to Accra over the weekend to meet with officials of the Ministry of Finance, we shall be able to go to the Board of the Fund to conclude finally the agreement by the end of March, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said.

During the engagement with the members of the Diplomatic Corps, the President said once the board-level agreement is reached, Ghanas economy will surely make a strong recovery.

H.E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo used the opportunity to appeal to allies to support Ghana.

This will set the stage for the strong recovery of Ghanas economy. Needless to say, we will hope that all Ghanas friends will weigh in with words of support at the Fund, the Ghana President added.
A well-known US-based Ghanaian economist, Dr. Sa-ad Iddrisu has opined on the rate at which the Ghanaian government has been misusing borrowed money meant for projects.

The economist noted that governments in Ghana are always interested in just borrowing and nothing else.

Speaking on Accra-based JoyNews, Dr. Sa-ad lamented the rate at which projects started with loan funds are mostly abandoned in the bush.

"In Ghana, in particular, we only borrow to waste money and not develop the country, and until we fix this particular issue, there won't be any meaningful developmental project that will come out of our loans no matter how much we borrow.

"It doesn't matter which government is in power because there are projects that were started by Rawlings with borrowed funds and abandoned by the government that took over from him.

"The same thing happened with Kuffour, Professor Mills, and John Mahama, and will happen when Akufo-Addo leaves power.

"Meanwhile, Ghana is paying these huge loans with interest, but we are not getting economic returns from these projects." Look at the Sagleme Housing project; money was borrowed to start the project but has been left to rot. "The examples are many," he lamented.

The will to complete projects left behind by the previous government, according to Dr. Saad, needs to be enforced by Parliament.

He proposed that there must be a law from Parliament to compel the government to finish old projects before they can move on to others.

"It seems we just have an appetite for borrowing just for borrowing's sake.

"So where are we going as a nation if Parliament can't pass a law that will compel any successive government to finish the project of its predecessor?" he emphasised.
The new Constitutional Instrument (CI) presented to parliament by the Electoral Commission of Ghana is of no value, seasoned journalist Kwesi Pratt Jr. argues.

In a quest to compile a credible voters' register, Jean Mensa-led EC has proposed to use the Ghana card as the sole requirement for voter registration.

Speaking on the floor of Parliament on Tuesday, February 28, the chairperson of the electoral commission explained that her plan will help prevent minors and foreigners from registering.

On the use of the guarantor system, she argued that unlike the NIA, where guarantors are made to swear an oath, the one done at the registration centres does not authenticate who a qualified voter is.

The majority MPs have also mounted a spirited defence of the EC on the grounds that the move will help secure a credible electoral system.

But the minority, on the other hand, is also opposed to it, citing the reason that such a move would disenfranchise millions of Ghanaians who still do not have access to the Ghana Card.

Also giving his thoughts on Accra-based Peace FMs Kokrokoo morning show, the managing editor of the Insight said the move is unimportant.

"It is of no importance... What is the sense in this new C.I. because we already have a C.I that's operative. We have a register that they claim is credible, and that nothing impedes a person who reaches the age of 18 from registering his or her name. So, where from all this noise? Unless, of course, there is some other motive I don't know," he intimated.
The Institute for Energy Security (IES) has expressed concern over the almost 600,000 barrels of crude oil consignment that arrived at the Tema port on Friday, February 26, aboard the vessel MT Theseus.

This follows publication from Bloomberg that the consignment is Russian Oil to be stashed in Ghana as pool of buyers shrinks.

In a press release from IES, it says documents it has intercepted suggest that Planton Gas Oil Ghana Limited is the importer, and has requested a crude oil storage space of approximately 80,000 metric tonnes (MT), equivalent to 600,000 barrels from the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), after nominating the facility as the discharge destination.

IES further notes that the vessel in question is presently at the Tema port anchorage and has issued a notice of readiness (NOR) to the importer, awaiting to berth at either the Single Point Mooring (SPM) system or the Tema Oil Jetty for onward discharge into storage tank(s).

It noted that it has uncovered that the vessel is free from any interception and is only awaiting clearance from the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) to berth, and start discharge into TOR's crude oil tanks.

IES says it finds it troubling, given that few days ago, NPA which is the regulator of the downstream petroleum sector had given a strong indication that should the MT Tedeus crude oil vessel in question enter Ghana waters it will cause the interception of the cargo.

To clear doubts, the IES is calling on government to come out and clarify all the issues and questions around the about 600,000 barrels of crude oil consignment at Tema Port.

To clear doubts in the minds of Ghanaians and industry watchers, the IES calls on the government to speak and clarify issues surrounding the arrival of the crude vessel into the country.

Government must let Ghanaians know why it failed to block the vessel as suggested by the boss of NPA Dr. Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, few days before the arrival of the cargo, IES said in a release.

Read the full IES release below:

GOVERNMENT MUST COME CLEAR ON THE 600,000 BARRELS RUSSIAN CRUDE OIL ABOARD MT. THESEUS

The Institute for Energy Security (IES) has taken note of a roughly 600,000 barrels crude oil consignment that arrived at the Tema port on Friday 26th February 2023 aboard the vessel MT Theseus, which Bloomberg reports as Russian Oil to be stashed in Ghana as pool of buyers shrinks.

Documents intercepted by the IES suggest that Planton Gas Oil Ghana Limited is the importer, and has requested for a crude oil storage space of approximately 80,000 metric tonne (MT), equivalent to 600,000 barrels from the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), after nominating the facility as the discharge destination.

The IES can confirm that the vessel in question is presently at the Tema port anchorage and has issued notice of readiness (NOR) to the importer, awaiting to berth at either the Single Point Mooring (SPM) system or the Tema Oil Jetty for onward discharge into storage tank(s). The Institute can also confirm that samples of the crude has been taken for laboratory testing by nominated Inspectors and Agents, with the support of staffs at the TOR facility.

The IES can also confirm that the vessel is free from any interception and is only awaiting clearance from the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) to berth, and start discharge into TOR's crude oil tanks.

This the IES finds as troubling given that few days ago, NPA the regulator of the downstream petroleum sector had given a strong indication that should the MT. Tedeus crude oil vessel in question enter Ghana waters it will cause the interception of the cargo. Instead the vessel MT. Theseus sits free, receiving the cooperation of state actors, and is likely to discharge into a national oil facility.

More troubling is the fact that Platon Gas Oil Ghana Ltd processing and distribution capacity is very small, for a size of 80,000 MT crude cargo. The IES finds that between January and December 2022, Platon could process and distribute just 2,849 MT of Residual Fuel Oil (RFO) and Gasoil, representing just 3.6% of the crude oil consignment under discussion. This raises eyebrows, and the IES is tempted to think that the named receiver of the crude cargo Platon Gas Oil Ltd. is only a frontal.

Ghanaians can recollect that in late December 2022 the Deputy Minister of Energy Andrew Egyapa Mercer gave another assurance that the Tema Oil Refinery will commence full operation by the end of February 2023. Could this crude cargo aboard MT. Theseus be the first parcel of crude for TOR to start full operation, after 2 years of shutdown? Could this crude oil consignment be an extension of the government's Gold for Oil Program?

To clear doubts in the minds of Ghanaians and industry watchers, the IES calls on the government to speak and clarify issues surrounding the arrival of the crude vessel into the country. Government must let Ghanaians know why it failed to block the vessel as suggested by the boss of NPA Dr. Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, few days before the arrival of the cargo.
Just hours after Nigeria's president-elect Bola Tinubu raised his hand in victory, Sam Nwajaku could not hide his anger.

"They cheated," the 38-year-old painter, seated at a kiosk in Onitsha, in southeastern Nigeria, a stronghold of opposition candidate Peter Obi.

"We see the same old politicians who have no interest in us."

Nicknamed the "Godfather of Lagos" for his influence, Tinubu, 70, was elected on Wednesday as president of Africa's most populous country after an election that had sparked hopes for change but ended in acrimony.

The result has exasperated some young Nigerians, tired of the ageing political elite who govern them. Nearly 40 percent of the electorate is aged under 35.

Many young voters were drawn to Peter Obi, the surprise third party challenger who eventually came third.

A former governor of his own home state of Anambra, Obi drew support from southern states, where many are Christian or from the Igbo ethnic group like him.

He campaigned saying he was a candidate for all Nigerians, but especially many of the younger electorate disenchanted with politics as usual.

"We are upset, I really thought Peter Obi would be elected," said Nikodemos Daniel, a 27-year-old motorcycle driver, also in Onitsha, in Anambra State.

Tinubu's rise has been punctuated by numerous accusations of corruption, without him ever being convicted and which he has always denied.

Saturday, many young people across the country turned into ardent defenders of democracy remaining for hours, sometimes in the rain, to ensure vote transparency.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said the February 25 election would be more transparent than past votes tainted by accusations of rigging and ballot-buying.

Protest: Demonstrators in Abuja contesting Wednesday's result. By KOLA SULAIMON (AFP)

But long delays in voting and slow delivery of the results upset many and stoked suspicions of fraud.

INEC said technical difficulties caused problems but insisted the vote was free.

"This time, we thought it would be different," said Osaki Briggs, 25, a photographer from the southern state of Rivers.

He said the election was "depressing," just like previous ones marred by accusations of fraud.

'Sick man'

"Everyone expected an online transmission of results from polling units to portal... Only, after voting, we heard the portal crashed," said Orison Omega, 23, an Abuja student.

"Which cannot be true. There could only be a hidden agenda."

President Muhammudu Buhari, 80, leaves power in May after two terms, bequeathing Tinubu mighty challenges ranging from a security crisis and widening poverty to a stagnant economy.

"How can a sick man who can't stand on his own or make a speech (...) be declared the winner?" asked Jennifer Dike, 28, in reference to concerns over Tinubu's health and age -- worries his party dismisses as unfounded.

For her, Tinubu will not be the president who will "deliver" Nigeria from corruption, hunger or poverty.

Critics of 70-year-old Tinubu say he embodies the Old Guard -- a political generation out of touch with a young country facing complex problems. By KOLA SULAIMON (AFP)

"I'm so sad. No wonder young people are leaving the country in large numbers these days."

For decades, Nigerians, rich and poor alike, have emigrated to other countries. But today, the desire to be elsewhere appears on the rise as Nigerians battle economic hardship, shortages of gasoline and even banknotes.

For the social media-connected youth of the south, Obi precisely embodied this desire for change and something better.

But analysts doubted the ability of the candidate of the small Labour Party to amass votes beyond his stronghold and in particular in the Muslim majority north.

In Kano, the second city of the country located in the north, some celebrated Tinubu's win.

Opposition parties may go to court to challenge the outcome.

But for now, life goes back to normal in Onitsha in Obi's home state as elsewhere with Nigerians getting back to work.

"If he is a candidate, Peter Obi will win the next one," said Chukwu Michael.
01.03.2023 LISTEN

Post-Election Grief Could Be Real, Especially With Obi People Of All Ages Became Acquainted With This Great Man

This election was like no other The rise of Peter Obi in the crusade for Nigeria's presidential election on February 25, 2023 will forever shake up the country's politics.

Rallying him are what has come to be known as the "Obi-dients" consisting of mostly youths, young adults, and open-minded adults within and outside Nigeria.

They joined Obi to battle for the soul of old Nigeria. In Obis own words, The big people are there, but allow this small person to do it. And I know I can do it.

To join him in this battle for the soul are his followers, many of them first time voters, others moving away from the giant parties, the All Progressives Congress (apc) and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (pdp).

In polls after polls Obi was always in the lead sometimes with more than 15 percentage points over Bola Tinubu of the incumbent All Progressives Congress (apc) and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (pdp), the main opposition.

Even more extraordinary is that the Obidients joined Obi into a very small party, the Labour Party, I will call it the unknown party.

These soul changers as they dreamed and wished for new country with positive changes surrounded themselves around Obi and gave him the physical, spiritual, and psychological push to withstand what is known as Nigerias 'cabals' that wanted Obi to step down as a presidential candidate of the Labour party.

Obi the spectacled former governor of Anambra State decided to stay on to harness Nigerians' anger as it relates to their expression of frustration and anger with a cyclical corrupt leadership.

May Nigerians who chanted for a New Nigeria, saw this election as the most consequential election in the history of Nigeria.

Obi the man the politician gave hope to fight institutional dishonesty, unequal justice, mal education, chronic unemployment and unfair distributive healthcare and economy.

Obi not only motivated many Nigerians young and old from all regions of the country, but he also captivated many and fell in love with him right on the spot.

They campaigned up and down in different states every nook and corner of it. They were violently attacked by political thugs, they like many faced unexplained delays polling units, stayed in the rain, late arrival of voting materials, faced cash swap crisis, many were not just attacked by thugs, whole stole and BVAS snatched ballot boxes, beating with sticks, stabbed, and shot at them, yet in the face of these anger, pains, and torment. Labour Party supporters shocked Nigerians and the world with impressive and good turnout.

As I write this note of advising the apparent Nigerians in grief, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) just declared Bola Tinubu of APC as the winner of presidential election over all 18 presidential contestants.

We know that sometimes the aftermath of an election can take a serious toll on ones psyche, mental, emotional and health.

Lets call it what it is, post-election anxiety and depression. It is not unlikely or uncommon that Obi is as angry as you. In your dream or fantasy the curious post-election life of the man who would have been president will come to you.

The anger will turn into tears and pain about a man who is believed by his supporters to have more actual votes for President than any other contestants will not be president because of endemic corruption in the political space of Nigeria.

There might still be hope Obi might still come in.

While in my capacity as a licensed psychologist I cannot offer any one therapy here openly and in the media, I am suggesting some possible coping strategies  post-election grief is very real, as every election triggers distress for some people. Right now, many Nigerians whose candidate lost are deeply upset following the victory of Tinubu in the 2023.

The people are now in a state of contentious political divide.

Here are the most common symptoms of depression  sadness, lonesomeness, and fatigue  that seem to be common responses to electoral loss.

In the coming days, weeks, and months what I call political and electoral depression to loss may be experienced in what in psychology, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross famously named as the five stages of grief, starting with denial, anger, bargaining and ultimately, acceptance.

Some people experience just one or two of these emotions due to electoral loss. I can tell you know there is no easy way to make depression vanish, but there are actions we can take to cope.

Focusing on healthy living will help refurbish your energy. Give yourself breaks from the news  and politics.

Get sufficient sleep, eat well, and get some exercise. Limit time on social media, or better yet, log off altogether for a few days.

While its a way to connect with other people and share information, its also a key source of political misrepresentation, echo chamber exchanges and polarized thinking.

Overall, too much time on Facebook or Twitter can deepen electoral anxiety and depression.

Seek out social support. Talk to a trusted family member, friend, community leader  or find a social support group in your area.

Uphold the value of democracy. Electoral loss is daunting because it means having to contend with unwanted or disliked leadership  and can create extreme polarization. But accepting loss is part and parcel of democracy.

Once youve accepted the outcome, get involved with politics. Elections are just the start of what is a difficult policymaking process. Participating is encouraging and can help alleviate psychological distress.

There are many ways to contribute, from contacting elected officials, protesting, running for local office, or donating money to joining advocacy groups or starting a political discussion group.

Ultimately, democratic societies select leaders through true voting, but one untrustworthy part of the process is that many citizens dont get their preferred choice.

Being on the losing side of an election may generate distrust in the system and dissatisfaction with democracy.

A loss hit one emotionally.

As many of you wake up to the victory of the president-elect Tinubu on Mach 1st, 2023, you will be filled with a range of emotions, including shock, sadness, anger, confusion, anxiety, and fear.

For individuals who already struggle with anxiety or have experienced trauma, grief or loss, the stress of election loss can make things worse.

Make one feel uncertain and unsafe about what the future will hold.

Dont get overwhelmed. Election-induced stress can be prevented or lessened.

Here are some helpful reminders and tips:

Reoccurring negative thoughts can hamper your ability to function throughout the day.

For those who are feeling anxious this election period try to refocus your thoughts on something positive, such as thankfulness.

Take time to practice gratefulness for the things that are going well, both in your life and in the lives of others around you.

Learn to recognize what is within your space of influence and try to engage in activities which give you a sense of power.

Remember that you are in control of how you spend your time, what you pay attention to and how much mental energy you expend on the election.

Keep in contact with supportive friends, family members, neighbors, or co-campaigners through the next several weeks.

If you decide to watch election night news coverage, try to watch with a friend or family member if possible.

In the coming days post-election coverage  and the partisan jokes that accompanies them on TV and social media will make you more stressed or angry, so limit your consumption.

Read just enough to stay informed or set a time limit for yourself. Also, turn off your TV, smartphone, or laptop at least 30 minutes before going to bed.

Limit your exposure to television and your devices, and to turn them off when they are getting triggered meaning anxiety flares.

Although social media can be a beneficial tool for bringing like-minded friends together and sharing ideas, this time be vigilant and use Facebook and other sites in small doses only.

Take time for yourself.

When anxious feelings start to rise, be intentional about doing things that you enjoy. Psychotherapists call this self-care. Perhaps its a favorite hobby, such as swimming, singing, listening to music, or listening to a (nonpolitical) news, podcast, going for a run or having a cup of tea or coffee.

Should you continue to find yourself getting really sad, anxious and in agony pick up the phone, make a call or set up a virtual or face to face appointment with a competent therapist or mental health professional. Avoid social isolation for a as it intensifies undesirable feelings and thoughts. Stay strong!
Mali's junta has issued a strongly worded warning to international partners about threats to a major peace deal with armed groups in the country's north, fuelling fears of renewed hostilities.

Colonel Major Ismael Wague, one of the junta's strongmen, recently wrote in strong terms to Algerian Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra, whose country is leading international mediation efforts to uphold the so-called Algiers agreement, signed in 2015.

In the letter, obtained by AFP Wednesday, Wague accused one of the deal's signatories, the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA) -- an alliance of Tuareg-dominated independence and autonomist groups -- of repeatedly violating the agreement.

He also questioned the credibility of international mediators supporting the agreement's implementation, which include the United Nations, African organisations and foreign partners under the leadership of Algeria.

"The behaviour of certain movements is an obstacle to peace," he said.

Wague accused the CMA of "increasingly obvious collusion with terrorist groups".

Large swathes of northern Mali are under the CMA's control, including the strategic town of Kidal.

The situation is a major irritant for the junta, which has made sovereignty its mantra since seizing power by force in 2020.

It broke a long-standing alliance with France and other Western partners in the fight against jihadism and turned militarily and politically toward Russia.

"The government, while remaining committed to the intelligent implementation of the agreement, will automatically reject any accusation that would hold it responsible for the possible consequences of (its) violation," Wague warned in the letter dated February 24.

A spokesperson for the CMA declined to comment.

The letter comes amid heightened tension between the junta and the signatories of the Algiers agreement, led by the CMA.

Sombre outlook

The Algiers agreement ended years of hostilities with groups that in 2012 mounted a campaign for independence in northern Mali -- a conflict fanned by jihadists.

The accord provides for more local autonomy and the chance for former rebels to integrate their fighters into a state-run "reconstituted" army that would operate throughout the north.

The deal has often been touted as crucial for resolving tensions in deeply troubled Mali.

But delays in implementing it have fuelled doubts about its future.

The jihadists, meanwhile, have continued to fight under the banner of Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State organisation, and the security crisis has spread to central Mali and neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.

The CMA in December announced it was suspending its participation in the deal's implementation, accusing authorities of lacking political will.

It also criticised their "inertia" in the face of a push by the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) underway in northern and northeastern Mali.

Mali. By (AFP)

The push has generated battles with local armed groups and Al-Qaeda affiliated rivals. It has resulted in hundreds of civilian deaths, massacres and mass displacement.

The CMA mounted a major security operation in February without the help of the state.

An official supporting the junta in February said he expected hostilities to resume soon.

Neighbouring Algeria and other mediators have been working for weeks to break the deadlock.

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune received representatives of the CMA on Sunday.

"Some movements, precisely those of the CMA, keep violating the agreement," Wague wrote in the letter.

He pointed to command posts established by the CMA, travel permits to gold panning sites that it has issued and an Islamic court in Kidal it allows to operate, all without government approval.

These actions, and a "lack of response" from the mediators to them, discredit the mediators, he said.
In the rural areas of Northern Ghana, both men and women farm the lands. However, due to traditional norms, men are the only ones who can legally own the lands. As a result, the income from farming goes only to the men, leaving women with no option but to gather Shea nut fruit from the Shea trees, which is known as "Women's Gold" in the Northern Region.

But there's a major challenge that these women face. They are exploited by middlemen who pay them very little for their Shea nuts. As a result, these women have started cutting down Shea trees to burn as charcoal, which can be sold to supplement their household income. They use the money to pay for their children's school fees and provide health and medications for their families.

This practice of cutting down Shea trees for charcoal has become a major threat to the endless fight against climate change. Thousands of Shea trees are being cut down every day for charcoal, leading to deforestation and loss of habitat for wildlife. This poses a serious threat to the environment and the livelihoods of many rural communities in Northern Ghana.

The situation is dire, but there is hope. Green Africa Trade Engagement, funded by WAICA Reinsurance as part of WAICA Reinsurance annual CSR project, is implementing a project that aims to empower rural women in the Shea nut value chain to be financially independent while ensuring environmental sustainability. The goal of the project is to enable rural women to access the international Shea market industry by helping them produce high-quality traditionally processed Shea nuts as local women's groups located in Northern Ghana.

The team behind the project aspires to help the women's groups carry a reputation in the international Shea market place for delivering high-quality traditional Shea nuts at a competitive price. The produced Shea nuts can be used for cosmetic products such as soap, body lotion, moisturizer, and balm, as well as for edible products such as cooking oil.

But the project's ultimate goal is to ensure environmental sustainability through the preservation of Shea trees. This has become very necessary because many rural poor have resorted to cutting down Shea trees and burning them as charcoal to meet their immediate needs in many parts of Northern Ghana.

The Green Africa Trade Engagement team aims to motivate the rural poor to desist from this practice once they begin to experience the long-term benefit and value of the tree. Additionally, they can be encouraged to not only protect the trees but to plant more, thus preserving and improving the environment.

The project implemented by Green Africa Trade Engagement is a beacon of hope for rural women in Northern Ghana. It not only empowers them to be financially independent, but it also enables them to be environmentally conscious. The project is a testament to the fact that social and environmental impact can go hand in hand.

WAICA Reinsurance's contribution to this project highlights the importance of socially responsible organizations in improving Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) footprints in Africa. The project's success will not only benefit the rural communities in Northern Ghana but also serve as a model for other regions facing similar challenges.

Climate change is a global crisis that requires collective efforts to address. However, we cannot achieve our goals if we leave behind the most vulnerable communities, especially women. The fight against climate change is useless if women are kept poor. Empowering them to be financially independent while ensuring environmental sustainability is crucial to achieving our goals. The project implemented by Green Africa Trade Engagement and funded by WAICA Reinsurance is a step in the right direction.

Joseph Atchulo

Finance and Administrative Manager

GATE (Green Africa Trade Engagement)
Whatever the situation may be, former President John Dramani Mahama shouldnt have trash-talked Ghanas Electoral Commission in favour of Nigerias Independent National Electoral Commission, Yaw Adomako Baafi has argued.

The former president, in his recent attack on the Jean Mensa-led EC, said the majority no longer trusted the electoral body.

Observing the just-ended Nigerian election, the 2020 NDC presidential candidate lauded INEC for managing to win the trust of all participants before the election.

Sharing his experience on his Facebook page, the NDC flagbearer hopeful revealed that the EC has blatantly spurned all efforts to hold a meeting with the National Peace Council, the NPP, and the NDC.

"Unfortunately, I can't say same for my Electoral Commission (EC), which was once among the best election management agencies in the world," he wrote in part of the post.

He added that, "regrettably, I am not hopeful this will happen when we have an EC that has blatantly spurned all efforts by the National Peace Council to host a meeting between the Commission and the two major political parties, the NDC and NPP."

Reacting to this, the NPP communications team member said Mr. Mahama violated the ethics of communications.

To him, the former President, who is also an astute communicator, shouldnt have exposed his own countrys electoral body on that level, indicating that his attitude was unpatriotic.

"I don't think it's the right thing because, in communication, as everyone knows him to be a communication person, we have ethics. So, if we have ethics, one of the principles is that you must be very patriotic no matter the situation," he said.
March 01, 2023

Ukraine Open Thread 2023-51

Only for news & views directly related to the Ukraine conflict.

The current open thread for other issues is here.

Please stick to the topic. Contribute facts. Do not attack other commentators.

Posted by b on March 1, 2023 at 17:13 UTC | Permalink

Comments

next page 
Staff Reporter

Richelle obtained a bachelor of arts degree in mass communications from the Far Eastern University in Manila, the Philippines. She was a junior reporter for Marianas Variety from 2009 to 2010, and from 2014 to 2015. In the Maldives, she worked as a news reporter and marketing executive. In her free time, shes a painter, pianist, and mom baker.
An encampment with makeshift fencing and personal property is seen Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023, in Dededo, Guam.
Disabled man in SW Chinas Yunnan brings prosperity to rural residents through vegetable planting

People's Daily Online) 15:49, March 01, 2023

A disabled young man in Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture of southwest Chinas Yunnan Province has turned gongcai, a green vegetable of the lettuce family, into a big business through the planting of the vegetable, generating wealth for local rural residents.

Photo shows a planting base of gongcai, a green dehydrated vegetable of the lettuce family, in Nanhua county, Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture, southwest Chinas Yunnan Province. (Peoples Daily Online/Hu Zunhui)

Born into a farming family in Jinzhulin village, Shaqiao town, Nanhua county of Chuxiong in 1984, Zhou Ziling suffered from congenital absence of the right arm below the elbow. Despite his disability, he didnt give up and has played a leading role in driving the development of the gongcai industry in the locality.

This year, we planted vegetables on 6,300 mu (420 hectares) of land, and more than 3,000 farming households in seven counties and cities, including Lufeng city, Nanhua county, and Yongren county, were involved in the planting industry, Zhou said.

After graduating from Chuxiong Normal University in 2007, Zhou taught at a school in Nanhua county for two years and then engaged in other businesses after resigning from the school.

In 2015, one of his customers recommended gongcai to him and he saw huge business opportunities from the vegetable. In December that year, Zhou leased 60 mu of land to plant the vegetable. When the vegetable entered harvest season in April 2016, he hired over 90 people to harvest the vegetable but failed to pick them before the end of the best harvesting period. Nearly one-third of his vegetables were abandoned. Even so, Zhou still made money from the business.

While benefiting from the business and knowing more about it, Zhou decided to start large-scale planting of the vegetable by encouraging other villagers to join the business.

Zhou Ziling (left) teaches growers how to harvest the vegetable. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)

However, Zhou was pushed from pillar to post at first as many locals didnt know the vegetable. He went to Waheijing village in Shaqiao town to advise villagers to plant the vegetable five times in 2017, but only five of the 80 households accepted his advice, with each planting the vegetable on 1 mu of land. One of the five households even uprooted the vegetable before harvesting.

Fortunately, the other four households secured a bumper harvest and generated 4,000 yuan ($577) to 6,000 yuan per mu. Attracted by the good returns from planting the vegetable, 27 farming households in the village joined the business the following year and a cooperative was established there, according to Zhou.

Zhou now runs a company and has established 15 cooperatives that benefit more than 5,000 villagers. His gongcai products are sold to countries like South Korea, Singapore, and Japan.

Zhou organizes regular training sessions for growers who sign contracts with his company. To help growers reduce costs and earn more, Zhous company and cooperatives formulated planting guidelines for them, ensuring that the cost per mu is less than 600 yuan.

They can grow the vegetable in line with our standards as long as they master planting techniques, the man said.

Zhou also adopted a business model to guarantee growers incomes. The model allows clients to place orders before production and ensures that the minimum purchase price of the vegetable for farmers who have signed contracts with his company is 30 yuan per kilogram.

Photo shows a smiling grower after selling his gongcai. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)

I sold out the vegetables grown on 6,300 mu of land before planting them this year, and one-third of them would be exported, Zhou said with a smile.

As the income per mu of gongcai is relatively higher, the planting of the vegetable helps farmers boost their income, Zhou said.

Now the purchase price of first-class products is 62 yuan per kilogram and that of second-class products is 55 yuan per kilogram, the man said, estimating that he needs to pay over 50 million yuan to growers this year, which will expand the income for each of these growers by an average of more than 10,000 yuan.

An increasing number of young people have since joined Zhous cooperatives. It is expected that the planting area of the vegetable will reach 10,000 mu next year, generating a total output value of more than 100 million yuan, according to Zhou.

Zhou Ziling (center) teaches a grower how to cut the vegetable into strips. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
The evolution of my position with the Post dates to 2000, when I began work with The City Paper. In 2008, SouthComm Inc. bought the Post and TCP, with the latter ceasing operations in 2013. In 2018, FW Publishing acquired the Post, for which I have served as managing editor since 2011.

Follow William 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
(Natural News) Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) is much worse than he, wife and staff are telling the public. It is only through leaks to the media that the public is learning the truth and that is only after events prove the lies.

(Article by Baxter Dmitry republished from NewsPunch.com)

According to reports, Fetterman, the 6 foot 8, heavily tattooed Democrat, is essentially brain dead and unable to take care of himself, much less perform the job he was elected to do.

Democrats are determined to silence the truth about Fettermans condition until after August 28 in order to avoid a special election which they understand they would almost certainly lose.

Being told that Fetterman is essentially brain dead and its being hidden because keeping him in office until August 18th avoids a special election which Republicans would most certainly win. This must be investigated.  John Cardillo (@johncardillo) February 25, 2023

Pennsylvania Democrat Gov. Josh Shapiro says he will dismiss immediately any calls for Sen. John Fetterman to step down after he checked himself into Walter Reed National Military Center to receive treatment for clinical depression.

Hes going to get the help that he needs  and do a great job for the people of Pennsylvania as their senator for a long time, Shapiro told The Philadelphia Inquirer about the first-term Democrat senator.

The lies about Fetterman have been circulating since last year.

He has a bad heart, which wasnt disclosed until his debilitating stroke last May.

Truthpress report: The stroke was much worse than his campaign let on until his only debate in late October. He has also battled depression all his life, but that wasnt disclosed until ten days ago when he was hospitalized for clinical depression.

Fetterman was sworn in as Senator on January 3 and kept a low profile until his office reported he had checked himself into George Washington University Hospital on February 8 after feeling lightheaded. His spokesman released statements that all tests on Fetterman came back negative and he was released after two days.

What the spokesman did not disclose was that Fetterman was diagnosed with depression and was advised to see the Capitol physician, which he did the following Monday. The doctor recommended Fetterman check himself into the hospital for clinical depression.

It turns out Fettermans lightheadedness was the result of him not being able to take care of himself: He was not eating or drinking enough fluids to sustain himself.

Fetterman is on his own in D.C. His family did not move to Washington with him, opting to remain in their hometown Braddock. This meant that Fetterman, still recuperating from a debilitating stroke while starting a new high pressure job, had no one to look after him. His staff obviously wasnt. They knew he was suffering from depression and that between the stroke and depression he was difficult to deal with.

Fettermans wife Gisele tweeted Friday that when her husband went in Walter Reed Walter National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland on February 15 for depression, she grabbed the kids and their passports and got out of the country.

CNN reported in a little noticed report earlier this week that Fetterman was hospitalized because he was unable to take care of himself (excerpt):

In someone who has pre-existing depression, it is possible that they may be more treatment resistant and have a history of failing medications. So as a result, they may require more aggressive treatment that can take several weeks and even into several months, depending on how they present, said Dr. Daniel Bober, a psychiatrist in Hollywood, Florida. In someone whos already had depression even before their stroke, this puts him at much greater risk and requires much more aggressive treatment, Bober said. Fettermans symptoms for depression included weight loss and loss of appetite, a source familiar with the matter said. He was not suicidal, the source said. His lack of eating and drinking water contributed to lightheadedness. He was hospitalized earlier this month in Washington, DC, after feeling lightheaded. His office said he had not had another stroke. Generally, the reason that someone presents to a hospital for a psychiatric condition like depression is because either they are acutely suicidal or they have been deemed unable to take care of themselves. And when I say unable to take care of themselves, I mean, their basic needs  food, hydration, hygiene  are all things that theyre required to do on a daily basis, and they are unable to do this due to the severity of their depression, Bober said. One reason to treat depression in the hospital is that care can happen faster. Doctors can try different approaches and pivot if something isnt working, Cronenwett said. Another reason is its safe. People with depression sometimes have trouble with activities of daily living. They may shut down or may stop eating. The hospital can support them in their activities of daily living. Some people may have thoughts about suicide, and the hospital can be a place of safety, while they are recovering, Cronenwett said.

The New York Times reported after Fettermans first hospitalization on the toll becoming a Senator was taking on him, but it turns out to be worse (excerpt):

Fetterman, 53, the 6-foot-8, tattooed and goateed Democrat from Pennsylvania who suffered a near-fatal stroke last May and went on to win one of the most competitive seats in Novembers midterm elections, was never going to blend in seamlessly in the marbled corridors of Congress. But his adjustment to serving in the Senate has been made vastly more difficult by the strains of his recovery, which left him with a physical impairment and serious mental health challenges that have rendered the transition extraordinarily challenging  even with the accommodations that have been made to help him adapt. What youre supposed to do to recover from this is do as little as possible, said Adam Jentleson, his chief of staff. Instead, Fetterman was forced to do as much as possible  he had to get back to the campaign trail. Its hard to claw that back. The latest health scare convinced his staff that Fetterman needs a better plan to take care of himself, both physically and emotionally. Fetterman declined to be interviewed for this story. But aides and confidants describe his introduction to the Senate as a difficult period, filled with unfamiliar duties that are taxing for someone still in recovery: meetings with constituents, attending caucus and committee meetings, appearing in public at White House events and at the State of the Union address, as well as making appearances in Pennsylvania. The hearing issues are inconsistent; they often get worse when he is in a stressful or unfamiliar situation. When its bad, Fetterman has described it as trying to make out the muffled voice of the teacher in the Peanuts cartoon, whose words could never be deciphered. The stroke  after which he had a pacemaker and defibrillator implanted  also took a less apparent but very real psychological toll on Fetterman. It has been less than a year since the stroke transformed him from someone with a large stature that suggested machismo  a central part of his political identity  into a physically altered version of himself, and he is frustrated at times that he is not yet back to the man he once was. He has had to come to terms with the fact that he may have set himself back permanently by not taking the recommended amount of rest during the campaign. And he continues to push himself in ways that people close to him worry are detrimental. It is stressful, having to go through that experience in the context of the most high-profile Senate race in the country, said Jentleson. But Fetterman is the only one who is dealing with recuperation as he enters the Senate for the first time. For now, that means living alone in a Washington apartment during the week, and driving four hours home to Braddock, Pennsylvania, most weekends to see his wife and three children.

Many people have a lot to answer to for putting Fetterman in this position, including his campaign donor doctor who gave him a clean bill of health last October.

Read more at: NewsPunch.com
(Natural News) As Cassandra Fairbanks posted earlier  USA Today and its affiliates will no longer run the Dilbert comic strip over online commentary about race relations by its creator, Scott Adams.

(Article by Jim Hoft republished from TheGatewayPundit.com)

Scott announced last week that he was giving up on race relations.

Adams said during one of his livestreams that all of the viral videos of black people beating up white people had led him to believe that the two races cannot live together peacefully.

Here is what Scott Adams told his audience from the Twitter video below.

Scott Adams: So if nearly half of all blacks are not okay with white people, according to this poll not according to me. According to this poll, thats a hate group. Thats a hate group, and I dont want to have anything to do with them. And I would say, based on the current way things are going, the best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away. Away from black people. Just get the fuck away. Wherever you have to go, just get away, because theres no fixing this. This cant be fixed. This cant be fixed. You just have to escape. So thats what I did. I went to a neighborhood where I have a very low black population, because, unfortunately, theres a high correlation between the density and this is according to Don Lemon, by the way. So here Im just quoting Don Lemon when he notes that when he lived in a mostly black neighborhood, there were a bunch of problems that he didnt see in white neighborhoods. So even Don Lemon sees a big difference in your own quality of living based on where you live and whos there. So I think it makes no sense whatsoever as a white citizen of America to try to help black citizens anymore. It doesnt make sense. Its no longer a rational impulse. And so Im going to back off from being helpful to black America, because it doesnt seem like it pays off. Like, Ive been doing it all my life, and the only outcome is I get called a racist. Thats the only outcome. It makes no sense to help black Americans if youre white. Its over. Dont dont even think its worth trying. Totally not trying. And there we go. You didnt expect that today, did you? But those who dont want to focus on education, you just need to get away from them. Just get as much distance as you can. Thats my recommendation. And Im also really sick of seeing video after video of black Americans beating up non black citizens. Im you know, I realize its anecdotal and, you know, it doesnt give me a full picture of whats happening, but every damn day, I look on social media, and theres some black person beating the shit out of some white person. Im kind of over it. Im over it, right? So I quit.

The comic book creator also said that white people should stop trying to help black people and cited a poll that found only 53 percent of black people agree with the phrase its okay to be white.

And I would say, based on the current way things are going, the best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from black people, Adams said. Just get the f-ck away.

Wherever you have to go  just get away. Because theres no fixing this. This cant be fixed, right? This cant be fixed. You just have to escape, he stated.

Adams also said he moved to an area with a very low black population.

It helps no sense to help black Americans if youre white, he said.

USA Today and Gannetts public relations Twitter account tweeted that they lead with inclusion and strive to maintain a respectful and equitable environment for the diverse communities we serve nationwide.

In response to USA banning Dilbert from its pages Twitter user pointed out that Scott Adams was only responding to a recent poll of black Americans.

Elon Musk then joined in saying, The media is racist.

The media is racist  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 26, 2023

For a *very* long time, US media was racist against non-white people, now theyre racist against whites & Asians. Same thing happened with elite colleges & high schools in America. Maybe they can try not being racist.  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 26, 2023

Its hard to argue with Elons assessment.

This ought to make a few headlines. Or maybe the racist media will ignore it? Does the media REALLY want an open discussion on race relations in America today?

Read more at: TheGatewayPundit.com
(Natural News) The Department of Energy (DoE) has concluded that the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic most likely started from a laboratory leak in China after the White House and the United States Congress received a classified intelligence report on the real origin of the said virus.

However, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times reported that the department made its conclusion with low confidence. A U.S. official said that the data maintained the consensus that SARS-COV-2 was not the result of Chinese bioweapons and DOE described the likely laboratory-related leak as an accident as per their assessment. (Related: THREE YEARS LATE: Energy Department finally concludes that COVID probably came from a Chinese lab.)

There were two prevailing theories about what started COVID-19. First is that the virus jumped from animals to humans at the Wuhan market, where they sell live animals. Second is that the infection was accidentally released by researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a scientific lab a few miles from the wet market. In this scenario, researchers who were studying the virus infected themselves and passed it on to others.

But President Joe Bidens administration has stood firm against the lab-leak theory. Dr. Anthony Fauci, then the governments leading infectious disease expert, refuted former President Donald Trumps claim, citing a study that found the virus mutations are consistent with a jump of a species from an animal to a human. But Fauci, later on in 2021, contradicted his statement, saying that he keeps an absolutely open mind that there may be other origins, and adding that it could have been a lab leak.

The shift by the DoE was noted in an update to a 2021 document by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines office. It now joins the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the belief that the virus likely spread via an accident transmission at a Chinese laboratory.

U.S. officials declined to give details on the fresh intelligence and analysis that led the department to change its stance on the COVID-19 origin. They added that while DoE and the FBI each say that an unintended lab leak is most likely, they arrived at those conclusions for different reasons. The updated document underscored how intelligence officials are still putting together the pieces on how the virus emerged.

More than one million Americans have died in the pandemic that began more than three years ago.

The agency continues to support the thorough, careful and objective work of our intelligence professionals in investigating the origins of COVID-19, as the President directed, a DoE spokesperson said.

House GOPs start probe on pandemic origins

The House Republicans have already started their own investigation into the origins of the pandemic early this month. Two committees and potentially several more are getting involved in the investigation. The House Energy and Commerce Committee kicked off the first COVID-19 origins hearing early this month in its Oversight subcommittee.

During the hearing, Republicans accused top administration officials of using faulty science and poor judgment to mandate vaccinations for federal workers and recommend mask usage, particularly for children. This has broken public trust in health officials, according to lawmakers.

Many will say that the American people deserve an apology, but they deserve much more, said the committee chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash). I think about every person who lost a loved one to COVID-19. The people who died alone because of the policies. The frontline workers who sacrificed but were still forced out of their jobs because of vaccine mandates and the children isolated and sent home from school closures.

A separate committee is also set to investigate how hundreds of billions of dollars in COVID relief funds were lost to fraud during both the Trump and Biden administrations.

The committee already questioned the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf and Lawrence A. Tabak, the senior official performing the duties of the director of the National Institutes of Health.

Visit Pandemic.news for more stories related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Situation Update below features Mike Adams talking about DoEs admission that COVID came from Wuhan lab leak.

This video is from the Health Ranger Report channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Chinese doctor says covid was intentionally released from Wuhan lab.

WHO finally ready to investigate COVID lab-leak theory after denying it for years.

State Department memo: Covid most likely escaped from Wuhan lab.

Wuhan lab ordered U.S.-based partner to destroy evidence.

Emails show efforts by Fauci to suppress lab leak theory of COVID-19 origins.

Sources include:

WSJ.com

USAToday.com

NYTimes.com

NBCNews.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) New, mind-blowing research about the Covid so-called vaccinations has been published recently in medical journals. Sadly, mRNA technology, not Covid, is destroying peoples hearts and brains, and its being documented in medical journals for all the pro-science pro-vaxxers to ingest.

Recently, a patient died a few weeks after getting his third mRNA stab. Right after the toxic spike protein injections, his Parkinsons symptoms got exponentially worse quickly, and it was all down hill from there. The pathology report confirms his clinical history with NO documentation of ever having the Fauci Flu, a.ka. Covid-19, per the autopsy. This is a case of vaccine-induced death that Big Pharma, Big Media, and the Vaccine Industrial Complex do NOT want anyone reading about, discussing, or re-publishing in the news.

We can say definitively that this damage was caused by vaccine, says John Campbell, Ph.D. and health educator with 2.68 million YouTube subscribers

Researchers ran an autopsy on a 76-year-old man with Parkinsons disease who died just weeks after receiving his 3rd mRNA Covid jab. Researchers processed tissues in the mans body with formalin, and stained them with eosin and hemotoxylin for examination. The first Covid jab the patient got was the AstraZeneca injection, then he got two Pfizer jabs the same year, in 2021. After the second jab, his family noticed major changes in his behavior, as he became much more lethargic, anxious, and did not want to be touched. Then he became very withdrawn, so they gave him a third jab, and then he died.

The autopsy revealed inflammation in the heart and brain. He suffered myocarditis that was not caused by natural infection, but by the spike proteins. He also suffered acute brain damage completely unrelated to his Parkinsons diagnosis, according to three kinds of pathological findings, including neuronal death. Guess what they found in the frontal lobe of his brain? Spike proteins.

Spike proteins in the brain and vascular system of Covid jabbed victims now showing up in autopsies as main cause of strokes and heart attacks

Scientists and doctors who still deny that Covid jabs are causing deaths need to take a close look at these findings, as detailed photographs reveal the patients spike-protein-contaminated and compromised tissue. The vaccines caused the brain damage. Period. Look at the case report. Follow the science.

The patient also suffered generalized swelling of the heart. Then the vaccine-induced brain damage caused him to have seizures, which in turn caused him to go unconscious, and he ended up breathing in his own vomit and finally dying from that, according to the pathologists. Heres how it went down in the pathologists own words:

The vaccine circulating around the body will come into contact with the blood vessels. So the lipo-nanoparticles containing the mRNA will go into the blood vessels. And its the blood vessels cells themselves that will express the spike protein. In other words, the spike protein caused a massive inflammatory response in the different parts of the brain, causing death in those sections.

British and American medical scientists refuse to conduct autopsies to search for spike proteins like this. The medical industries are obviously suppressing this research to protect the vaccine industry in general and what many are referring to as a Vaccine Holocaust with these mRNA injections.

Dr. Robert Lowry, a Texas-based neurologist, is on the record saying that autopsies should be conducted on every young person who dies suddenly and unexpectedly, and heres what he expressed about the spike protein jabs: They dont prevent disease, and the immediate and long-term risk of serious injury from them is greater than that of having the actual disease. Natural immunity to corona viruses is far better and longer lasting than anything these vaccines provide.

Bookmark Vaccines.news to your favorite independent websites for updates on experimental gene therapy injections the CDC and fake news claim are safe and effective when theyre really dangerous and health-damaging.

Sources for this article include:

Pandemic.news

TheEpochTimes.com

REalNewsAggregator.com
(Natural News) A Twitter user who describes himself as a former National Health Service (NHS) professional and former director of End of Life Care recently tweeted that in the newly implemented Medical Examiner (ME) System to certify deaths in the U.K., all types of pneumonia deaths and deaths due to other health conditions were being classified as Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) deaths.

Using the account named Sai, the Twitter user exposed how British hospitals make it appear that different diseases are consolidated under the umbrella of COVID-19 and insinuating that the so-called virus is the primary cause of death in the nation.

Patients being admitted and dying with very common conditions such as old age, myocardial infarctions, end-stage kidney failure, hemorrhages, strokes, COPD and cancer, etc. were all now being certified as COVID-19 via the ME system. Hospitals were switching to and from the system and the pre-pandemic system as [and] when they pleased. When COVID-19 deaths needed to be increased, the hospital would switch to the ME system, Sai added.

Sais post further exposed that hospitals were incentivized to report COVID-19 deaths over normal deaths, as the government was paying hospitals additional money for every coronavirus death that was being reported. I have no doubt in my mind, that the government has planned the entire pandemic since 2016 when they first proposed the change to medical death certification, Sai tweeted.

One Twitter user replied in the thread, saying: [This] confirms that the foundations for this whole scam have been long in the making. Coordinated control over reporting by a few, has been the key whether dealing with death certs, media, etc.

Another one lamented how they lost their loved one, who died alone in the hospital due to the strict public health mandates. The hospital knew when they put my mother on the ventilator she would not survive it. The pain knowing at the time, not able to see her, knowing she would die alone in that hospital will never leave our family, @giptonian responded in the thread.

NaturalHealth365 writer Patrick Tims commented that there was a clear agenda to make it seem that COVID-19 was wreaking havoc on the U.K. populace.

Big Government, Big Pharma and the heads of hospitals conveniently attributed deaths to the virus using the death cause classification scheme to advance their financial and political interests. This evil triumvirate conveniently pivoted to the medical examiner system when it was in their interest to increase the coronavirus death count, he stressed.

Sai: People are being killed by corrupt organizations for pure monetary gain

Sai cited this reason for leaving NHS: Innocent people are being killed by a corrupt organization and system for pure monetary gain. (Related: UK hospital doctors are quitting in shocking numbers, leaving industry prone to complete collapse in less than a year.)

I am very blessed and lucky that I was in a position to walk away. Ive been able to speak out because my hands are not tied and I am not regulated by any organization or governing body. I believe in speaking the truth and in doing so, I am only just an instrument for God, Sai continued.

Sai also shared an instance where one 56-year-old male was admitted into accident and emergency (A&E) with end-stage kidney failure. The patient had a previous history of regular dialysis treatment with no respiratory symptoms on admission and no temperature. However, he tested positive for COVID-19.

The ex-health authority said their hospital did not have a dialysis machine, so they had to transfer him to another hospital. But a transfer was declined due to a COVID-19 infection protocol. They were told there is nothing that can be done and that the patient cannot be accepted for transfer.

The patient died shortly because he missed having a dialysis procedure.

Sai ended the thread urging all its followers to spread the truth and raise awareness by reposting the thread and tagging relevant individuals that could help.

Visit BadMedicine.news to know more about how hospitals colluded with Big Government and Big Pharma to successfully launch the plandemic.

Watch the video below that talks about an NHS whistleblower exposing vaccine injuries she has witnessed as a nurse.

This video is from the Tim Truth channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

NEEDLES FOREVER: United Kingdoms NHS launches FIFTH COVID jab.

British government quietly BANS covid jabs for children under 12 while U.S. government still pushing shots on BABIES.

HOLOCAUST: UK government confirms 1 in 310 boosted individuals died within 48 days of vaccination.

Dr. Derrick DeSilva: The main cause of death is heart disease and not COVID-19  Brighteon.TV.

Sources include:

NaturalHealth365.com

Expose-News.com

Assets.Publishing.Service.gov.uk

Twitter.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) The derailment of a Norfolk Southern train in East Palestine, Ohio, which caused a destructive chemical spill early this month, was 100 percent preventable. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chair Jennifer Homendy made this admission at a media conference Thursday, February 23.

I can tell you this much: This was 100 percent preventable. We call things, accidents. There is no accident. Every single event we investigate is preventable, Homendy said. However, she quickly added that there was no evidence that the train crew had done anything wrong.

The NTSBs preliminary report on the disaster disclosed that the temperature of one of the trains wheel bearings reached 215 degrees Fahrenheit over the last 30 miles it traveled. This was verified by the two sensors installed along the route used to detect hot bearings.

While Norfolk Southern confirmed on Thursday that the heat sensors were working well, the trains own alarm was not fixed to go off until an even higher temperature was reached.

By the time the alert sounded, the bearing was 253 degrees hotter than its environment. And while the engineer immediately acted to slow the train, the bearing allegedly failed and caused a derailment at the 23rd car.

The plastic pellets inside the railcar ignited when they were exposed to the overheated bearings, quickly spreading to the 11 other cars comprising hazardous materials, along with five full of vinyl chloride that authorities eventually decided to release and burn onsite.

The investigation established that this action was made because the temperature inside one of the tanks full of vinyl chloride was increasing.

Homendy said it was too early to tell for sure how the disaster could have been prevented. The official told reporters that the NTSB will continue to investigate whether industry safety standards concerning the heat threshold for high-temperature alarms and other defect detectors, rail car, wheel design and the spacing of sensors along the track require adjustment.

NTSB to investigate Norfolk Southerns inspection practices

Norfolk Southerns inspection practices will also be investigated. The NTSB will look at whether the rail operator correctly disposed of the vinyl chloride.

Residents have blamed the fire for an increasing number of bird, livestock and fish deaths in addition to water contamination in the region, although state and federal officials claimed the air and water are safe. (Related: EPA chief downplays Ohio chemical spill, says hell allow his kids to drink and bathe in East Palestines water.)

The reports release coincided with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigiegs initial visit to the derailment site.

Buttigieg drew criticisms from Republicans for not touring the site sooner. The secretary also mispronounced East Palestine at a media conference after touring the community on Thursday.

Asked about the timing of his visit, Buttigieg asserted that he was trying to strike the right balance and permitting NTSB to play its role first.

Follow Disaster.news for more news about the Ohio train disaster.

Watch the video below about the lingering health concerns after the Ohio train derailment.

This video is from the NewsClips channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Tom Renz: East Palestine train derailment and toxic chemical spill an environmental catastrophe  Brighteon.TV.

Government orders Norfolk Southern to pay for train derailment cleanup costs (but the EPA still wont mention dioxins.)

Joe Biden ignores ecological disaster in East Palestine, flies overseas to visit Ukraine instead while fake air raid siren blares overhead.

Ohio train derailment highlights Democrats environmental hypocrisy, reveals this about the disaster.

Eric Coppolino and the Health Ranger call for the TOTAL EVACUATION of East Palestine due to extremely toxic dioxin fallout that will poison the land and crops for GENERATIONS.

Sources include:

RT.com

ABCNews.go.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) South Africa, under the left-wing rule of racist black political leaders, has now officially begun to collapse, marking a shocking reversal from being a nation that once secretly developed nuclear weapons.

South Africa has collapsed. US embassy is now informing international travellers to stock up (prepper style) on food and water, says the beginning of a Twitter thread by the account Zombieland, which is based in the country.

1. South Africa has collapsed. US embassy is now informing international travellers to stock up (prepper style) on food and water. https://t.co/WLfG88D0Uj  #zombieland (@k9_reaper) February 26, 2023

City Power has an average turn around time of 2 to 3 days for grid repairs. They dont have the manpower, supplies nor funds. And theyve already used this years budget, the thread continued.

South Africa is in a state of chaos as the nation grapples with a variety of issues. The economic crisis has led to a rise in unemployment and poverty, while political tensions have caused widespread civil unrest. As if that werent enough, South Africa is dealing with a surge in crime, particularly gang violence, and an increase in the number of drug-related deaths. The government has been criticized for its failure to tackle these issues, leaving South Africans feeling increasingly frustrated and hopeless.

Were seeing an increase in coordinated attacks on water, power and comms infrastructure. Looting is no longer just a daily thing, but is also now becoming more structured with guerilla planning involved, the thread continued. Our roads no longer exist. Anything that is state run is crumbling. Police, fire and hospital resources for the state dont exist and are also slowly disintegrating.

ESKOM  South Africas only power producer  is averaging 50% or less power output. Plunging massive parts of our country into rolling blackouts, the thread continued, going on to note that the socialism imposed by successive left-wing governments has eroded the countrys ability to fend for itself. Grant recipients [sic] outnumber tax payers like 10 to 1. (Need to work out that number, but its definitely up there. They offer nothing to society.. just leaches.)

The decay in general amazes even me. Roads are shot. Infrastructure is collapsing. Anything that isnt bolted down is stolen, and what is bolted down is grinded off, the Zombieland thread went on. The cost of living is insane. Fuel is expensive. Medical aid is a luxury that most cannot afford. Food costs are going through the roof. I myself can literally barely pay for new f**king pants.

The SA government now wants to put through EWC and NHI. Expropriation Without Compensation where land is taken from rightful and legal land owners and given to the previously disadvantaged. NHI is some national health thing where you use the government for medical aid.

The thread went on to say that the countrys armed forces are a shambles as well.

Our Navy, Army and Airforce are done. Troops are buying their own bootsarmy bases are being looted for copper.. vehicles and machinery are being canabilised for parts, the thread noted. Our murder rate is higher than the death rate in Ukraines current conflict. Higher than an active war zone. 100[s] of rapes a day.. 1000s of kidnappings every month. 90 hijackings a day. Farmers being murdered like flies in the most brutal ways imaginable.

The only form of public transportation that is operational is the taxi industry. Their mafia tactics have ensured that over the years, theyre the only ones who will operate. They burn and kill anyone who gets in their way, the thread said. Our rail is dead. Almost the entirety of South Africas rail system is non operational.

National cabinet reshuffle coming soon.. doesnt mean f**k all anyway considering theyre all ancient and on pension, the account continued, adding that the countrys unemployment rate is the highest in the world at around 35 percent. The account also noted that there is zero border security.

Sewage. Everywhere. In the streets. In the rivers and oceans.. flowing through our fresh water dams too.. just everywhere.

The thread was confirmed by a report in Australia-based News.com.

Sources include:

ThreadReaderApp.com

News.com.au
ESPO:                 ...
(Natural News) Health and environmental concerns have been arising following the Norfolk Southern train derailment on Feb. 3 that caused a chemical cocktail spill in East Palestine, Ohio. People fear the potential adverse effects of authorities decision to embark on controlled burning of vinyl chloride and other cancer-causing toxins found in the site to avert a potential explosion and to clean up the wreck.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) already released statements that the regions air and drinking water are safe. In fact, EPA Administrator Michael Regan, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and other government officials drank water from the East Palestine municipal water authority to assure the residents of the village that the water supply is safe.

EPA has already greenlit removing hazardous materials from the derailment site by the train company after asking the company to temporarily halt shipments until the plans could undergo a federal review.

Moving forward, waste disposal plans, including disposal location and transportation routes for contaminated waste, will be subject to federal EPA review and approval, said Debra Shore, the administrator of the EPAs Region 5 Office. EPA will ensure that all waste is disposed of in a safe and lawful manner.

But aquatic and land animals are dying and getting sick. Some people in the area are also complaining of illnesses, some are even coughing out blood. Concerned citizens could not help but worry that the contamination could have also reached far-off cities and suburbs.

Grocery chain Giant Eagle, which has hundreds of stores in five states, including Ohio and Pennsylvania, recalled their bottled water out of an abundance of caution because it was bottled 25 miles from the chemical spill site, following questions posted on social media whether the grocery chains bottled water was safe to drink.

The company claimed that its water comes from a protected spring, not near any affected groundwater sources. They also assured consumers that third-party lab testing had revealed no abnormalities. But it still decided to take down the water sourced from the Salineville facility until further notice while health officials continue to review the impacts of the derailment.

Meanwhile, some residents of Deer Park, Texas, posted online that they were shocked to discover that wastewater from the incident was headed to a hazardous waste disposal facility in the Lone Star State.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said in a news conference that some 30 trucks a day of water had begun arriving in Harris County last week. She told residents her office is researching the transportation and disposal of the water to make sure it meets regulations.

Health Ranger slams EPA, Ohio for covering up the deadliest toxin theyve created out of the derailment

Health Ranger Mike Adams slammed EPA and the Ohio local government officials for downplaying the potential damage of the most toxic molecule they have created: dioxin.

In an interview with Resistance Chicks Michelle and Leah Svensson, Adams said the persistent organic pollutant is also the scariest and most toxic molecule created by mankind and they can be toxic at parts-per-quadrillion concentrations. (Related: Eight alarming cover-ups and contradictions in the East Palestine train wreck chemical nightmare now spreading across multiple states.)

The forever chemical was spread to air, water and ground in the derailment when the authorities ordered to burn off the vinyl chloride as well as butyl acrylate, benzene residue, ethylene glycol mono butyl ether, ethylhexyl acrylate and isobutylene.

Dioxins are always created when chlorinated compounds are burned within a certain temperature range. They are also the most deadly chemical compounds known to humankind, Adams noted.

As of writing, EPA and the local government of Ohio are still refusing to test for dioxins, not even admitting that the harmful chemical has been released into the ecosystem.

The entire town of East Palestine may ultimately have to be condemned, razed and decontaminated. Instead, the EPA is spreading the toxic waste across multiple states, Adams said.

Check out ChemicalViolence.com for the hazardous chemicals humankind has created.

Watch the video below where Mike Adams talks about dioxins and the ways to detoxify from this bio-accumulative chemical.

This video is from the Health Ranger Report channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Over 43,000 aquatic animals DIED in the aftermath of Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine.

Ohio train derailment and toxic chemical spill: Mike Adams says nothing comes close to toxicity of dioxins.

EPA chief downplays Ohio chemical spill, says hell allow his kids to drink and bathe in East Palestines water.

Plan to INJECT toxic Ohio wastewater underground in Texas alarms locals.

Sources include:

WSJ.com

Dispatch.com

WinsightGroceryBusiness.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) Politicians in the state of Montana are pushing a new bill that would make it a crime for those who have been vaccinated for the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) to donate blood.

Citing contamination issues, Rep. Greg Kmetz (R-Miles City), the sponsor behind House Bill 645, wants to make it a misdemeanor with a $500 fine for vaccinated donors to contribute their spike protein-laden blood to the donation pool.

HB 645 would also ban people who have had a diagnosis of long covid, medically defined as postacute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 due to chronic 27 SARS-CoV-2 viral infection, from donating blood in Montana.

Montanas blood supply could be cut by up to 80%, leading to adverse patient outcomes including unnecessary and unconscionable death, said Cliff Numark, senior vice president of the blood collection nonprofit Vitalant, about the potential impact of the legislation.

Most blood banks are already struggling to keep up with demand, and an 80 percent reduction in available supply in the event that HB 645 passes would only make matters worse.

(Related: Biden continues to push Americans to take endless booster injections so their blood spike protein levels remain as high as possible.)

Montana doesnt want to give people tainted blood transfusions

Numarks admission about the 80 percent reduction in available clean blood is based on statistics out of Montana showing that four out of five residents have received at least one injection of a covid vaccine since the initial rollout of Operation Warp Speed.

Most Montanans, in other words, have tainted blood and would no longer be allowed to share that tainted blood with patients in need. The same is true in other states where uptake of the jabs was high.

Kmetzs new legislation builds upon House Bill 702 from last session. That bill outlawed discrimination on the basis of vaccination status, though a portion of it was struck down in December as unconstitutional.

Other proponents of HB 645 include Rep. Lola Sheldon-Galloway, vice chairwoman of the House Human Services Committee. Sheldon-Galloways brother is a mortician who told her that covid injections cause issues with blood flow.

Im one of many who believe in the God given right of medical freedom, which is having access to genetically unmodified blood during a time of need, said Jo Vilhauer, a resident of Miles City who supports HB 645. This is a vital part of health autonomy.

According to Dr. Michael Busch, director of the Vitalant Research Institute, the true percentage of tainted blood in the United States is closer to 90 percent than it is to 80 percent, meaning as little as only one in 10 donors have clean, safe blood.

This is a serious problem because those in need of a blood transfusion will have to wait a lot longer for it  if they are ever able to receive one at all, now that most of the American blood supply is loaded with toxic spike proteins and other jab ingredients.

One problem with HB 645 is that there is no way to test blood samples for spike proteins or any other evidence of covid jab contamination. It is thus a trust-based system that is impractical at best.

Rep. Jodee Etchart (R-Billings), who requested the bill, asked Kmetz to consider establishing two different blood banks: one for vaccinated blood and another for unvaccinated blood. Kmetz says constituents are opposed to that idea.

We are not going to consider that, Kmetz said.

The way it appears, no one will qualify, and this bill will go down so fast it isnt even worth bringing, Etchart responded about the unlikelihood that HB 645 will pass.

More related news about the destruction of the blood supply with spike protein-tainted donations can be found at SpikeProtein.news.

Sources for this article include:

Newsbreak.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Archaeologists have discovered the earliest example of a unique brain surgery procedure, which dated back to 3,500 years ago.

The discovery came in the form of skeletons of two Bronze Age brothers unearthed at the ancient city of Megiddo in Israel, today the Tel Megiddo site. One of the brothers had a 30-millimeter square hole in the frontal bone of his skull that was surgically taken out. The findings served as the first example of trephination  also called trepanning, trepanation, or burr holing  in the Near East.

Trephination calls for cutting the scalp open, carving four intersecting lines in the skull using an instrument with a sharp beveled edge and utilizing leverage to make a square-shaped hole in the skull. One of the oldest known surgical procedures, trephination was believed to let evil spirits that caused disease out of the patients body. It was later refined as a way to relieve pressure on the brain, and is still being utilized today.

Archaeologist Rachel Kalisher, who headed the examination of the brothers remains, said one of the brothers had undergone an angular notched trephination. However, the lack of bone healing indicates that the patient died during or shortly after the surgery. Kalisher nevertheless remarked that this was the earliest example of trephination found in the region.

We have evidence that trephination has been this universal, widespread type of surgery for thousands of years, she said. But in the Near East, we dont see it so often  there are only about a dozen examples of trephination in this entire region. (Related: Skulls from a cave in Spain suggest Stone Age people may have performed brain surgery, practiced human sacrifice.)

Brothers may have suffered from infectious disease

Kalisher also noted: This uncommon procedure was done on an elite individual with developmental anomalies and infectious disease.

Both brothers, who reportedly belonged to the upper class in life, died young. One brother was in his teens or early 20s, while the other died sometime between his 20s and 40s. Despite the age gap, the archaeologists determined that an infectious disease claimed the lives of the siblings.

Further analysis revealed that a third of one brothers skeleton and half of the other brothers revealed porosity, lesions and signs of inflammation in the membrane covering them. This led the team to believe that both of them had systemic and sustained cases of an infectious disease, such as tuberculosis or leprosy.

According to Kalisher, the advanced state of the lesions indicate that the men survived for several years despite the severity of their illness. However, she emphasized that even though some skeletal proof points to leprosy, it is hard to diagnose the exact cause of death by looking at ancient bones alone.

Moreover, the brothers tomb was decorated with high-quality food and fine ceramics, similar to other nearby high-status tombs in Megiddo. This implies that the brothers were not excluded from normal burial traditions due to their poor health. It also served as an evidence of their familys wealth and status, which provided them with more opportunities to try uncommon treatments such as trephination.

Follow Discoveries.news for more about the latest archaeological findings.

Watch this video about giant skeletons being found inside Lovelock Cave in Nevada.

This video is from the High Hopes channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Ancient Egyptian mass grave with dogs, 8-year-old kid baffles archaeologists.

Archaeologists discover ruins of Mayan civilization in Guatemala using LiDAR technology.

Ancient human remains unearthed in Ethiopia older than previously thought, reveals study.

Stunning archaeological discovery finds that humans were processing plants for food and medicine more than 10,000 years ago.

Old-school adhesives: Archeologists discover some of the earliest known examples of adhesive use in Italian cave.

Sources include:

The-Sun.com

StudyFinds.org

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) On January 28 of this year, about 500 people from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho converged on the Wenatchee Convention Center in Washington state to discuss Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccine injuries and deaths. Part of the gathering included heart screening, which showed a 53 percent myocarditis rate among those evaluated.

Attendees shared stories of injuries and deaths caused by Fauci Flu shots, as well as stories about how jab and mask mandates ruined lives and careers and tore families apart  not to mention all the businesses, churches, and schools that were shut down as well.

Heart screening was available and conducted using multifunction cardiogram technology, or MCG, provided by HeartCARE Corp., reports indicate.

We had the opportunity to perform Multifunction Cardiogram screens on a variety of participants  over half of those tested (16 of 30 people) (53%) had positive markers for myocarditis. Two of these were active-duty U.S. military pilots.

(Related: A large Nordic study found that mRNA vaccines drastically increase ones risk of myocarditis.)

Most post-injection sudden deaths are a result of heart inflammation

Right now, the authorities are reluctant to tell the truth about heart injuries and deaths stemming from covid injection. At best, they will admit to a rate of 1 in 5,000 for cardiovascular diseases like myocarditis.

What the testing portion of the Wenatchee gathering showed is that this 1 in 5,000 rate is far too low. The reality is that many more people who get jabbed end up suffering serious heart problems after the fact.

The rates of post-covid-19 vaccine myocarditis are much, much higher than what public health authorities have admitted to, reports explain.

Two key studies illustrate this, including one out of Thailand showing that one in 30 vaccinated boys between the ages of 13-17 develop myocarditis or pericarditis within a week following their second dose of Pfizer-BioNTechs messenger RNA (mRNA) injection.

Another study out of Switzerland, that one conducted by Prof. Christian Mueller, found that within one week of getting boosted for covid, one in 35 health care workers at University Hospital Basel Switzerland developed troponinemia.

The actual incidence of post-vaccination myocardial lesions is 2.8% vs 0.0035% of myocarditis in retrospective studies (unvaccinated), the researchers explained. The incidence of myocardial lesions is 2.8% (1:35), or 800 times higher than the usual incidence of myocarditis (in unvaccinated).

It is believed by many that the vast majority of sudden deaths following injection for covid stem from myocarditis or some other form of heart inflammation. This is why some are trying to stop all efforts to perform autopsies on the dead bodies of the fully vaccinated  because they know this truth will be revealed.

They dont want to conduct autopsies on sudden deaths now because they dont want us to know that the risk of post-vaccine myocarditis and sudden cardiac death was always much higher than what they admitted to publicly, one report explains.

In Ontario, the chief medical officer of health was lambasted by pharma-captured doctors when he dared to admit that post-injection myocarditis is a serious problem, affecting as many as one in 5,000 patients, in his view. Even this very conservative number is a problem for jab proponents who want to pretend that the shots are safe and effective.

 both the Thailand study and Swiss study suggest a myocarditis risk of 1:30 or 1:35per vaccine dose, one report said.

That means 3% of all COVID-19 vaccinated people could be walking around with heart inflammation (myocarditis) they dont know they have, which puts them at increased risk for sudden cardiac death, during exercise or in the early morning hours (the trigger for sudden cardiac death is a surge of stress hormones).

The latest news about covid injections can be found at ChemicalViolence.com.

Sources for this article include:

GlobalResearch.ca

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Energy costs are now so high across the United Kingdom that the countrys agriculture system is showing signs of a collapse.

Many U.K. farmers were unable to use greenhouses to plant winter crops this year because the costs of doing so have reached epic highs. Consequently, some fresh produce is now having to be rationed, according to the BBC.

Field crops such as tomatoes, peppers, lambs lettuce, cauliflower or cucumbers are sometimes only sold in limited quantities, Free West Media reported.

Meanwhile, wholesalers are looking for new suppliers from other countries  but this means that the harvests have to travel much longer distances to Europe, which is not in the interest of the environment.

The public was little involved in addressing the energy crisis because it had not yet impacted them. Now that produce prices are skyrocketing at the same time availability is plummeting, people are really starting to take notice.

This is now beginning to have an impact on consumers, reports explain. Inexpensive food that is available all year round will soon be a thing of the past in Europe.

(Related: Check out the back story about the sabotaged Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines.)

U.K. authorities blame climate change, not globalist corruption, for exorbitant energy prices

According to government officials in the U.K., the cause behind high electricity prices and chaos in the food markets is climate change, not globalist financial corruption.

Bad weather in Morocco, we are told, is the reason why the U.K. is unable to sustain its food supplies. There are also reports about thousands of food offenses detected by the Moroccan government, including bad pricing and poor-quality products.

Some 400 tons of products not conforming to the standards in force were seized and destroyed. All usable products that remained were sold at a public auction.

The U.K. food markets are supposedly well supplied with basic products, according to the nations food minister.

Meanwhile, government authorities in the U.K. have decided to use this opportunity to push for the legalization of genetically modified (GMO) food crops, which are currently illegal there.

Bank of England director Andrew Bailey warned last June about an apocalyptic rise in food prices moving into 2023. The Lea Valley Growers Association (LVGA), which produces around 75 percent of the countrys crops, said at least half of its greenhouses are now empty, and that production is expected to decrease by 60 percent.

Many greenhouse producers are abandoning their businesses due to the inability to cover their current heating and labor costs, added the Bulgarian Association of Greenhouse Farmers, which says similar problems are spreading across Bulgaria.

So far, the state has taken absolutely no measures to support the greenhouse production sector. As we all know, it is one of the most expensive industries in the agricultural sector and is directly related to gas and electricity prices.

Dutch agriculture is also suffering as energy represents 20-30 percent of the costs associated with growing goods in greenhouses. Compared to what they paid in 2019, Dutch farmers will spend around five times the normal amount, or 22 billion euros, this year on gas and electricity.

Among the most impacted sectors: greenhouse production whose annual turnover reaches around 8 billion euros but where energy represents 20 to 30 percent of the costs, reports explain. Already 40 percent of the members of the Glastuinbouw Nederland group are operating at a loss, due to excessive energy costs.

In the comments, someone mentioned that the Wests sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline is a much bigger cause of all these energy problems rather than global warming.

The collapse of the global financial, food, and energy markets is well underway. To keep up with the latest news, visit Collapse.news.

Sources for this article include:

FreeWestMedia.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) A law firm based in California has alleged, without yet offering conclusive evidence, that Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, Runbeck Election Services, and several other election officials, judges, mayors, city councilmen, and county supervisors in the state received bribes from the Sinaloa cartel.

During a hearing before the Senate Elections and Municipal Oversight & Elections Joint Committee last week, Jacqueline Breger, the lead investigator for the Harris/Thaler Law Corporation, presented their claims. She described how an inquiry into money laundering in the Midwest uncovered allegations of corruption in Arizona, The Post Millennial is reporting.

In 2006, the U.S. Attorneys Offices in Illinois, Indiana and Iowa investigated the laundering of drug cartel monies through a complex series of single-family home purchases in those states, Breger told the committee.

By 2009, numerous real estate agents, escrow companies and title insurers had been indicted, charged and convicted of racketeering. In 2014, our office was asked to review the case files and to determine whether monies from the sales of the properties had filtered to property purchases in Arizona, specifically in Maricopa and Pima County, Breger continued, per the report.

The Sinaloa Cartel is a powerful and violent Mexican drug trafficking organization based in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. Led by notorious drug lord Joaquin El Chapo Guzman until his capture in 2016, the cartel has developed into one of the most powerful drug trafficking cartels in the world. The cartel is involved in a variety of illegal activities, including drug smuggling, money laundering, and assassinations, and has been linked to numerous violent crimes across Mexico and the United States. As the cartel continues to expand its operations, it has become a major threat to global security.

According to the investigator, it was discovered that a group of real estate agents in Iowa had established a money laundering system in Arizona and subsequently transferred the sales proceeds to Panamanian corporations.

In 2018, Mr. Thaler discovered, incidental to another matter, a series of trust deeds evidencing that cash laundering through single family residences in Arizona was pervasive and ongoing, Breger noted further. With that, a new investigation began with the focus being on money laundering and related racketeering activities in Maricopa County and several other Arizona counties. The Harris/Thaler office currently represents several parties directly damaged by the racketeering activities.

In a report spanning almost 100 pages, the Post Millennial continued, Breger delved into the entire inquiry, identifying Dawna Rae Chavez, a Mesa resident, and her daughter, Brittany Rae Chavez, as the main individuals responsible for preparing the documents required to carry out the racketeering enterprises.

To date, more than 10,000 falsified documents have been recorded with the Maricopa County Recorder. We estimate that more than 35,000 warranty deeds/trust deeds evidencing fraudulent transactions exist in the database. 11. The number of falsified notarizations exceeds 15,000. 12. Dawna and Brittanys participation in racketeering activities also includes facilitation of bribes to public officials, tax evasion, payroll theft, bankruptcy fraud, insurance fraud, and extortion, Breger said.

Heres why #ArrestKatieHobbs is trending worldwide John Thaler of Harris/Thaler Law Firm claims he uncovered absolute proof showing that the Sinaloa cartel (formerly led by El Chapo) bribes high-ranking officials in Arizona including Katie Hobbs, Adrian Fontes, Kris Mayes, etc. https://t.co/Mk85qoGnko pic.twitter.com/9PajbG4kIS  George (@BehizyTweets) February 26, 2023

The investigators claimed that the funds from fraudulent home deeds in Midwestern states were routed back to Arizona and given to politicians and election officials. Breger alleged that the election fraud had been taking place since 2004.

Convincing, supporting evidence that would serve as a smoking gun in all this has yet to be publicly revealed.

In a Friday interview with Lindell TV host Brannon Howse, Thaler provided additional details as to how the cartel bribes impacted elections in the state of Arizona.

So are you saying that the cartels are using their billions of dollars to buy elected officials to keep the border open, to keep their businesses going in the United States?, the host asked.

That would be precisely what Im saying, Thaler responded. The election fraud comes in [to this] in several different ways. When you have elected and appointed officials who have these kinds of racketeering documents, one of the things we look for at that point is where is this coming in?

In Arizona, he went on, the bribe problem is not so much about somebody bringing in a suitcase full of cash. Most of the officials who we have found who have accepted bribes, accepted them very early on. Usually at the start of their career, and oftentimes take the initial position or run for the initial office. So they are bribed, in essence, to become officials, not once they have become officials. And that creates a big problem.

Sources include:

ThePostMillennial.com

FrankSpeech.com
(Natural News) Energy concerns are growing in the UK and throughout Europe. Governments around the world are racing toward a net-zero carbon infrastructure but are simultaneously putting their entire electric grid at risk. Exorbitant electricity rates and rolling blackouts are the inevitable result  a serious problem that has already set in across Europe.

Hundreds of energy projects are currently stalled in the UK, and mayors are speaking out. Many of these projects, which include renewable energy, will not be implemented for several years. Mayors across the UK are reporting capacity issues, and the capacity upgrades may take an additional seven to eight years to complete. To make matters worse, these renewable energy projects cost tens of billions of euros to set up, leaving consumers with higher energy prices, while detracting investors.

Renewable energy projects put on hold as energy costs soar

One energy project  The Tees Valley Energy Recovery Facility  was scheduled to come online in 2026. The 300m waste-to-power plant included a massive incinerator that would generate renewable energy by burning household waste. Now the National Grid is warning that capacity upgrades will not be complete until 2031  leaving the facility defunct for nearly a decade. This is one of many consequences of central economic planning. Britain can no longer ensure energy security for the country, and they still wont be able to cut carbon emissions in accordance with their United Nations agreement.

Denise McGuckin, the managing director of the Hartlepool Borough Council, said: The Tees Valley Energy Recovery Facility project is a vital piece of infrastructure for the North-East, which more than one and a half million people living and working across the region will rely on every day to safely and sustainably treat their general rubbish, but it will only come to fruition with a viable energy offtake.

Wind farm projects not getting off the ground, as promised

These problems are compounding. As energy costs soar, it only puts future clean energy projects at peril. Grid connection delays are now threatening to halt a 10bn wind farm scheme. This comes at a time when Britain has fallen behind in nuclear energy production and can barely sustain its power grid. Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen warns that the red tape regulations on the energy sector are putting the entire industry at risk, forcing people to pay higher bills to heat their homes and keep the lights on.

Houchen said: It is going to be difficult to deliver energy security  which in the medium to long term could mean lower energy prices  unless the Government gets to grips with the regulation of how the grid operates and the capacity of the grid full-stop.

That has not just a knock-on impact for our economic prosperity, but also the Governments targets to reach net zero by 2050, he added. For example, the global push to put every family in an electric car will not be realized by 2050, because the grid cannot support the load. In order to finance the upgrades in the grid, taxpaying citizens will have to pay exorbitant new costs. Tens of billions of dollars will be needed to finance these renewable energy projects. However, governments have so far ignored the massive cost of implementing these capacity upgrades.

Many of these wind energy projects are not getting off the ground because the government-backed contracts are unable to appropriately compensate the developers to keep the system up and running. These contracts are not attractive for investors and they set the citizens up for high energy bills. The Vanguard and Boreas wind farms would have become two of the biggest in Britain; however, analysts expect the projects to cost more than 10bn. So far, negotiations have stalled on these wind farm projects, as national energy security hangs in the balance.

Sources include:

WhatsUpWithThat.com

Telegraph.co.uk

NewsTarget.com
(Natural News) A report from the Illinois news outlet Wirepoints highlights a very concerning trend in the state of Illinois: Students at dozens of public high schools are not achieving grade-level proficiency in math, and their reading performance isnt much better.

One of the more damning findings of their report is the fact that not a single student is capable of doing math at grade level in 53 of the states schools. Moreover, the figure for reading is 30 schools. Once again, they are not just performing below the average  not a single student can do these basic academics at their grade level.

A list presented by Wirepoints of the schools that are failing so miserably shows that many are situated in the city of Chicago. Some of the schools have spending per student of upwards of $40,000. Some 23 schools, including 18 situated in Chicago, appear on both the reading and math lists.

Some people, like Illinois state Senator Willie Preston, have tried to blame the situation on the pandemic. However, Wirepoints indicated that the issue existed before COVID-19 wreaked havoc on the school system. They noted that a look at the 2019 numbers show that the reading and math numbers were only slightly better than they are now.

Funding is also unlikely to be a factor, as they noted that spending at one of the schools, Spry Community Links High School of Chicagos Little Village, was $35,600 per student; the figure before the pandemic was already at $20,000.

Perhaps one of the most outrageous aspects of this report is the way the Illinois State Board of Education is burying its head in the sand and acting like everything is great when so many students cant even do the minimum expected of them.

They wrote: Whats really incredible is that many of these schools are rated commendable by the Illinois State Board of Education. Thats the 2nd-highest of four accountability ratings a school can receive. Not a single one of the 113 students at Sandoval Sr High School can read or do math at grade level. And yet the school is commendable.

There is little Chicago Public Schools can say in its own defense, so when asked for a comment by Fox News, a representative resorted to pointing out that their scores were consistent with other large urban districts. In other words, their students cant read or do math, but its not a big deal because students in other cities cant, either.

Problem extends throughout the state

The problem may be particularly pronounced in certain schools, but it is something that schools are struggling with across the state. Data from the Illinois State Board of Education shows that across all of the public schools in the state, just 29.9 percent of students are proficient in reading and 25.8 percent are proficient in math. Furthermore, Wirepoints noted that only one out of 10 students or less are capable of doing math at grade level in 930 schools, which amounts to more than a quarter of the schools in the state.

Of course, none of this is terribly surprising coming from a place where many schools are far too busy focusing on gender pronouns to spend time on matters such as teaching math and reading. Last year, Chicago Public Schools made headlines for mandating a teacher training program that claimed sex is not rooted in biology and threatening to punish teachers who dont use students preferred pronouns. Teachers were also instructed not to inform parents about students preferences regarding their gender and pronouns.

Apparently, practical life skills like math and reading arent nearly as important to some schools as making sure teachers use the names and genders that students have chosen for themselves.

Sources for this article include:

Wirepoints.org

FoxNews.com

FoxNews.com
(Natural News) The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is resisting calls for water, soil, and other chemical testing in and around East Palestine, Ohio  and for good reason, seeing as how the place is likely a hotbed of dioxins and other noxious chemicals.

Because East Palestine was declared to be safe not long after the controlled explosion decimated the region, a positive dioxin test at this stage of the saga would be a death sentence for the community, which would have to be evacuated.

The reason that EPA is resisting testing for dioxin is that once the first positive test result comes back, the next question is about evacuation, reported Planet Waves FM. Other communities have been permanently evacuated for dioxin contamination, including Times Beach, MO, and Love Canal in western New York.

Once there is a single positive result, the discussion also goes to how far the dioxin has spread. More people will want testing. This is likely to have devastating effects, as one cannot sell a home or business in a dioxin-contaminated area.

(Related: Chlorophyll-rich chlorella is a powerful remedy against dioxin poisoning.)

Government officials more concerned about photo ops than public safety

As of this writing, there are still no test results available for East Palestine. Nobody really knows what might be lurking around the community, and at what levels  and this is by design.

From the governments perspective, playing dumb and pretending everything is fine is much better for public relations than producing actual data and telling the truth about it.

From the governments point of view, admitting to the presence of dioxin must be avoided at all costs, Planet Waves FM added. The way to avoid that is to not test.

Therefore, Gov. Mike DeWine and EPA chief Michael Regan do things like visit residents in their homes, and toast drinking tap water. This is a typical PR maneuver to show that its safe without actually producing data.

In order for there to be any possibility of an honest assessment, the entire region of eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania must be investigated. All food products from all 125,000 farms located throughout the region must be tested continually.

There must be full-spectrum chemical testing, as well as analyzing for dioxins and related dibenzofurans.

Water, soil, and air must also be tested, as should soot samples collected from the controlled burn pit, which has since been back-filled. Samples of undisturbed soot on peoples rooftops also need to be tested.

This will give a picture of levels at ground zero, and, plotted on a grid, give some sense of how the plume moved through the immediate vicinity of the incident. Its important to remember that dioxin-contaminated soot will bind to soil and dust, and eventually get tracked around, and blow and flow with sediments in water  but testing must start where we are most likely to find the chemicals now.

Planet Waves FM further suggests analyzing samples for both dioxins and dibenzofurans, the latter constituting dioxins with just one oxygen molecule as opposed to two.

Furans are just as toxic as dioxins, but they will not show up in testing if the analysis is designed to test only for dioxins. To accurately measure dioxin levels, one must include all furans, otherwise it will drive down the final result, known as TEQ, or toxic equivalency.

Split sampling is essential to honest testing, Planet Waves FM further said.

That means taking samples from the same location and sending them to two different labs working under different contracts and comparing the results. The results should be similar, and if they are not, something is amiss.

To keep up with the latest news about the chemical fallout in East Palestine, be sure to visit ChemicalViolence.com.

Sources for this article include:

PlanetWavesFM.substack.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) The United Nations has called on governments across the world to abolish free speech in the interests of combatting disinformation.

(Article by Sean Adl-Tabatabai republished from NewsPunch.com)

On Wednesday, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) demanded the establishment of global guidelines for the regulation of social media in a conference to address alleged disinformation.

Breitbart.com reports: Participating in the conference, based in Paris, were Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva  a convicted felon who spuriously referred to his opponent Jair Bolsonaro as a pedophile in an online podcast during last years presidential race  and Maria Ressa, a Filipino journalist who faced government persecution for allegedly reporting disinformation online under former President Rodrigo Duterte.

UNESCOs event was titled the Internet for Trust Conference and featured speakers demanding a global governance structure to silence hate speech, misogyny, suppression of free speech, doxxing and conspiracy theories. The agency emphasized its opposition to sovereign countries taking individual actions they deemed appropriate to address the existence of speech online.

If these regulatory initiatives are developed in isolation, with each country working in their own corner, they are doomed to fail. Information disruption is by definition a global problem, so our reflections must take place at the global scale, UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay lamented on Wednesday, noting that at least 55 countries are working on suppression of speech online.

In a promotional video to announce the conference, a spokesman for UNESCO referred to users online violating the boundaries of appropriate speech as insects thriving in the dark.

In her address on Thursday, Azoulay argued that regulation was necessary online because the truth is allegedly unpopular.

The blurring of boundaries between true and false, the highly-organized denial of scientific facts, the amplification of disinformation and conspiracies  these did not originate on social networks, the UNESCO head said. But, in the absence of regulation, they flourish there much better than the truth.

Only by taking the full measure of this technological revolution can we ensure it does not sacrifice human rights, freedom of expression and democracy. For information to remain a common good, we must reflect and act now, together, she demanded.

Lula da Silva used his address to lament the January 8 Brasilia riot, in which Bolsonaro supporters stormed the Brazilian Congress, the headquarters of the supreme court, and the Planalto presidential palace. While destroying parts of all three facilities, the riots  unlike those in past years by leftists in neighboring Peru, Colombia, Chile, Bolivia, and Ecuador, among other countries  did not result in any deaths and only a small number of injuries.

The Brazilian protesters convened in the capital on January 8 to protest Lulas inauguration into a third term as president. The hardline leftist president had been arrested following the end of his second term in 2011 on charges of corruption while in office. He was convicted on multiple appeals and sentenced to over two decades in prison for using bribe money to buy a luxury property  an investigation that resulted from a much larger police probe known as Operation Car Wash, which unveiled a massive corruption apparatus in the government organized under Lula. The nations top court, the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), overturned Lulas convictions in 2021 on a technicality, presenting no exonerating evidence but allowing him to run for president.

Bolsonaro supporters protesting Lulas inauguration argued that someone convicted of crimes while president should not have been allowed on the ballot and pointed to the Brazilian government banning media organizations from even discussing Lulas corruption convictions as an indication that the election was neither free nor fair. While journalists could not publicly discuss Lulas convictions without risking a fine, Lula and his campaign freely accused Bolsonaro of pedophilia and cannibalism.

The internet, Lula said in a statement to the UNESCO conference on Thursday, has also caused risks to democracy. Risks to the civilized interaction between people. Risks to public health.

The dissemination of disinformation during the [Chinese coronavirus] pandemic contributed to thousands of deaths. Hate speech makes victims every day, he claimed. Moreover, the victimized the most are the most vulnerable sectors of our societies.

The world has witnessed the attack by extremists to the seats of the Executive, Legislative and Judiciary branches of Power in Brazil on January 8. Brazilian democracy won that battle and it is now stronger, he claimed. However, we will always be indignant with the barbaric scenes of that Sunday.

On the one hand, it is necessary to guarantee the exercise of individual freedom of expression, a fundamental human right. On the other hand, we need to ensure a collective right: the right of society to have access to trustworthy information, and not lies and disinformation, Lula insisted.

Ressa, the Philippine journalist, agreed with Azoulays assertion that lies are more popular than true statements and refuted calls for more speech to combat disagreeable commentary online.

Justice Brandeis said, the way to fight hate speech is with more speech, Ressa said. No longer; its a different world. Its like were speaking a different language. This is data, this is algorithms.

Lies spread faster than facts. For some reason, facts are really boring, Ressa asserted. Lies  especially when laced with fear, with anger, with hate, with tribalism  us against them. They spread. Its like throwing a lit match into kindling.

Ressa became an international sensation  Time magazines 2018 co-person of the year and a Nobel Peace Prize winner  after the government of anti-drug crusader Rodrigo Duterte targeted her and her media outlet, Rappler, for public coverage critical of his drug war. The Philippine government accused Rappler of tax evasion and Ressa herself was convicted of libel.

Duterte was at the forefront of the movement that Ressa is now promoting with UNESCO to silence fake news. In 2020, the former president supported a bill to criminalize fake news, particularly content deemed unsavory regarding the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.

President Rodrigo Dutertes special powers to stem the spread of coronavirus include a last-minute sanction clause on prohibited acts like spreading false or alarming information  which may just be the most dangerous feature of the law, Ressas Rappler warned at the time.

UNESCO is the United Nations agency tasked with promoting education and cultural exchanges.

Our mission since 1945 is to build peace through international cooperation as it is the only way to build bridges between nations, the agencys website explains. UNESCO defends and promotes freedom of expression, media independence and pluralism, and the building of inclusive knowledge societies underpinned by universal access to information and the innovative use of digital technologies.

Read more at: NewsPunch.com
(Natural News) In his opening monologue on SNL last weekend, actor Woody Harrelson took aim at Big Pharma, calling it the biggest drug cartel in the world.

The normally politically correct and highly unfunny late-night program aired a rare trace of truth by allowing Harrelson to blast the vaccine industry without shame.

The biggest drug cartels in the world get together and buy up all the media and all the politicians and force all the people in the world to stay locked in their homes, and people can only come out if they take the cartels drugs and keep taking them over and over, Harrelson said  watch below:

Woody Harrelson hosting SNL: The biggest drug cartels in the world get together and buy up all the media and all the politicians and force all the people in the world to stay locked in their homes, and people can only come out if they take the cartels pic.twitter.com/2pemSdPzE2 https://t.co/NwyVhraHao  Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) February 26, 2023

(Related: Many medical journals function as drug marketing platforms for the corrupt pharmaceutical industry.)

Left-wing media freaks out over Harrelsons boldness, calling his statements conspiracy theory

It took no time at all for the corporate-controlled media to accuse Harrelson of being an anti-vax conspiracy theorist following the monologues airing. The Washington Post, for instance, accused Harrelson of pushing a popular covid-19 conspiracy theory.

The actor worked in a joke during his monologue that repeated a pandemic plot favored by vaccination opponents, wrote Olivia McCormack smugly, adding that Harrelson used his opening monologue to seemingly promote a pervasive coronavirus conspiracy theory.

McCormack also worked in a mention of her own about Harrelsons abiding use of marijuana, as if his use of the natural herb somehow invalidates his statements about the vaccine industry being a predatory monopoly always out for blood money.

His joke referenced a pervasive conspiracy theory that pharmaceutical companies control the government and the media, and that theyre forcing the public to take unnecessary vaccines, McCormack went on to criticize.

The actor, who described himself as an anarchist, Marxist, ethical hedonist, nondiscriminatory empath, epistemological deconstructionist and Texan, immediately began receiving accolades from people who oppose coronavirus vaccines.

People magazine also shunned Harrelson for Supporting COVID Vaccine Conspiracy Theory on SNL. According to Peoples Glenn Garner, Harrelsons statements were met with criticism online after his opening monologue.

Its disappointing that Lorne Michaels would allow this conspiratorial nonsense on his show, complained one supporter of vaccines about SNLs allowance of Harrelson on the show. Its probably time for Lorne to retire.

Another rapid vaccine supporter on Twitter took aim at SNL for allowing Harrelson to engage in free speech.

Does #SNL think [its] just harmless noise? this person whined. Normalizing #antivaxx conspiracies does real harm!

Even though the Left loves when celebrities speak out in support of vaccines, making them seem credible to the gullible masses, one Leftist wrote that nobody should listen to Harrelson because he is just an actor, and not a medical professional.

Anti-Vaxxers wont listen to highly educated people whove spent their lives devoted to science and medicine  but they will listen to a guy who they saw in that movie they watched a few years ago, this person condescendingly wrote.

Others expressed skepticism as to why SNL allowed Harrelson to deliver these statements, knowing they would cause controversy. Was it just for ratings, or is there something more sinister afoot?

Its all scripted and you are being played with, one person said towards this end. They know something big is planned and the truth will not matter once it happens.

The latest news about the corrupt, money-grubbing drug and vaccine industry can be found at BadMedicine.news.

Sources for this article include:

TheGatewayPundit.com

NaturalNews.com
The latest weather forecasts warned of another storm system that could unload isolated tornadoes and flooding downpours in the South, especially in parts of Texas and Ohio this week.

The challenging weather conditions could result in flash flooding, thunderstorms and damaging winds. Staying updated is essential.

Recently, the Associated Press and CNN reported that tornado outbreaks emerged in Oklahoma City, causing damage to properties.

The tornadoes also resulted in power outages.

Isolated tornadoes and severe weather risk

AccuWeather monitors the development of possible severe weather risks.

In the latest forecasts, the weather agency said another round of storms could unleash severe weather conditions in Oklahoma, Texas and Ohio.

Based on AccuWeather's outlook, severe thunders could unfold from Wednesday until Wednesday night.

Homeowners could notice possible tornadoes, hail and damaging wind gusts.

On same day, possible at-risk areas are Memphis, Nashville and Shreveport.

The National Weather Service and NOAA WRN Ambassadors advised homeowners to keep multiple sources and alerts for tornado warnings, especially if their area is prone to tornadoes.

Furthermore, the problematic weather conditions could cause road delays and hazards this week.

It is best to check the road details before departing, especially on Interstate 10 and 35.

From Thursday to Friday, storm could still cause severe weather conditions.

The forecast said weather risk could unleash from Thursday until night in Paducah, Jackson, New Orleans and Houston.

The moderate risk would unfold in Dallas and Little Rock.

On Friday, the forecast said severe weather risks could unfold in Montgomery, Atlanta, Albany, Augusta, Charlotte, Raleigh, Knoxville, Lexington, Columbus and Chattanooga.

Homeowners could also stay alert for flooding rain in Little Rock, Memphis, Nashville, Cincinnati, Indianapolis and St. Louis.

Stay updated with AccuWeather and National Weather Service for the latest weather updates.

Developing winter storms in the Northeast

In some parts of the United States, the National Weather Prediction Center said that a developing winter storm would hit parts of the Northeast, bringing significant snow and rain.

Meanwhile, the NWS advisory showed that the wetter conditions in California improved the prolonged drought conditions.

How to prepare for isolated tornadoes

The latest weather forecasts explained that isolated tornadoes and possible flash flooding could emerge in the South, especially in Texas and Ohio.

In previous news reports, Nature World News reported the importance of disaster preparedness during tornado outbreaks.

The recent aftermath of a tornado in Oklahoma City showed how tornadoes could cause widespread damage to lives and properties.

Here are important reminders for homeowners before and during tornado outbreaks.

Prepare an emergency bag and supplies.

Emergency kits are crucial during severe or extreme weather. The American Red Cross explained the crucial role of emergency supplies and kits during natural disasters, including tornadoes.

Homeowners should keep the following:

Battery-operated flashlight beside you

Battery-powered radio with extra batteries

Medicines and non-perishable goods

Extra blanket and clothes

Stay updated with tornado updates.

A tornado watch helps homeowners anticipate possible tornadoes. However, the situation could become challenging at night.

Related Article: Active Storm Pattern Likely to Hit Southern Central, Eastern United States; Widespread Travel Delays Possible

For more similar, don't forget to follow Nature World News.
The latest weather forecasts said that possible heavy snow would unload in parts of Canada and Vancouver Island this week.

The first week of March would set for snowy conditions in Canada after winter storms unloaded in February.

Staying updated with local weather reports is essential to anticipate potential severe weather conditions in the country.

Meanwhile, heavy snow is also forecast in the United States and the United Kingdom this March.

According to the National Weather Service (NWS), the last stretch of the winter season is expected to unload heavy snow and challenging winds in parts of the Northeast.

Meanwhile, the Met Office reported that parts of the United Kingdom would experience chilly conditions and chances of snow this March.

Snow conditions in parts of Canada

Canadians are used to challenging and extreme weather conditions

. However, a snowy outlook could still add more headaches for homeowners and motorists.

In the latest weather forecasts, The Weather Network reported snow conditions could unload in the South Coast and Vancouver Islands this week.

The weather agency monitored the possibility of more snow in parts of the southwest and Interior B.C.

Meanwhile, CTV News Toronto reported that a winter storm is forecast to impact Southern Ontario, bringing freezing rain and snow.

The weather forecasts added that the freezing conditions could become noticeable in parts of Huron, Windsor, Belleville, Halton, Toronto and Kingston.

Furthermore, The Weather Network reported that the bad weather caused power outages:

Parts of Sechelt and West Vancouver recorded 4,000 without power.

13,000 people suffered from power outages in Southern Gulf and Vancouver Islands

The challenging snowfall could also become noticeable in Port Renfrew, Duncan, Sydney, Vancouver and Squamish.

For more weather updates in Canada, stay updated with The Weather Network.

Preparing for heavy snow

The latest weather forecasts noted that parts of Canada would experience possible heavy snow this week or during the first week of March.

The most common cold-related health risks are hypothermia and frostbite.

As a result, Canadians should avoid prolonged exposure to colder weather, especially this week.

Also Read: U.K. Latest Weather Forecast: Freezing Temperatures, Heavy Snow Likely to Unload in March

Furthermore, the Canadian Red Cross emphasized staying warm and safe during severe winter storms or heavy snow.

Road hazards are also possible during heavy snow.

The familiar multiple hazards are the following:

Reduced road visibility and freezing fog

Slick and slippery roads

Untreated road pavements

Blizzard-like conditions

Here are important safety reminders for Canadians this week, especially those with travel plans.

Always keep updated with weather reports in your local area.

Anticipate extreme temperatures, freezing rain and heavy snow.

Homeowners should check for frozen pipes and damaged roofing due to heavy snow.

Homeowners should check the temperatures of their family members, especially those with pre-existing health conditions.

When the weather conditions worsen, it is advisable to stay at home.

As Nature World News reports recommended, keeping an emergency bag or kit would be helpful for homeowners and motorists.

Related Article: New York City To Receive Heavy Snow This Week

For more similar, don't forget to follow Nature World News.
If current forecasts are correct, Somerset will see sleet, snow, and sub-zero temperatures.

There has been much speculation in recent weeks about whether a recent weather event, which brought the Beast from the East to the UK in 2018, could lead to freezing conditions and Arctic temperatures.

On February 16, a major sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) event occurred, and while this caused extreme weather five years ago, the snow did not fall after similar weather events in 2019 or January 2023.

'Beast from the East' risk

The UK has experienced a mix of cold and mild temperatures in recent weeks, but temperatures are expected to drop further in the coming weeks, according to long-term forecasts, as per SomersetLive.

While the Met Office predicts snow in the north and east from March 4 to March 13, it also predicted wintry weather could cause 'disruption' until March 28, with BBC Weather forecasting snow in Taunton and other parts of the county next month today, February 28.

The Met Office has already stated that it is difficult to predict the weather two weeks in advance with any certainty, but the most recent graphics from WX Charts show snow could arrive in the UK - and even parts of the South West - as early as March 6.

The likelihood of this occurring is unknown.

The BBC predicted highs of 8 degrees Celsius in Taunton today, tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday, with overnight temperatures dropping to -1 degrees Celsius on Thursday and Friday.

Sleet is expected to fall around 6 p.m. on Sunday, March 5, with light snow expected from 2 a.m. on Tuesday, March 7, to 9 a.m. the next day, with temperatures as low as -2 C.

From Thursday, there is also a chance of more light snow and sleet, as well as sunny spells, March 9.

Temperatures will be similar on the other side of the county in Yeovil during that time, with light snow expected from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. on Wednesday, March 8.

The following day, Thursday, March 9, is expected to see a mix of sleet, snow, and rain showers.

The most likely scenario for Saturday is a band of fragmented light showers moving into the far northeast of the United Kingdom.

A continuation of cloudy and cold conditions is expected, with a few coastal showers.

There is less optimism for the rest of the period, though the preferred scenario is that dominant high pressure continues to dominate the UK, bringing large amounts of settled weather.

Colder air may infiltrate into northern and eastern areas at times, possibly bringing wintry showers, with a low likelihood of these snow showers becoming more widespread.

Later in the period, there is a greater likelihood of it becoming more unsettled, possibly bringing snow at times.

Also Read: UK Weather Update: Polar Vortex Snow and Blizzard Warnings Clarified by the Met Office This Week With 5-Day Forecast

Spell Of Wintry Weather In March

Next week, a "highly amplified" jet stream, combined with a low-pressure area over the Mid-North Atlantic, is expected to push air up into Greenland and then back down towards the UK, as per Sky News.

If the weather pattern continues as predicted by Met Office meteorologists, snow could fall in parts of northern and eastern England.

Changes in the pattern, while considered "less likely," could bring cold air and snow across larger parts of the country, or in from the west of the UK, making it less winter-like.

It loops around this low pressure and then pushes all the way back to the north of the high pressure developing over Greenland, allowing the colder weather to push into the north of the UK by the end of Saturday.

Though changes could occur and change the pattern, he stated that the Met Office believed the cold air would be pushed into the north and east of the UK.

As this occurs, low pressure from the south and west is expected to push in and mix with cold from the north and east, resulting in some disruptive snow in places by the start of next week.

Temperatures will be below average overall, but will gradually rise throughout the period, according to the Met Office.

However, its long-term forecast indicates that late-season wintry showers are "expected" across the country.

Rain and strong winds are expected in the south, with rain becoming heavy at times, according to the forecast.

Despite this, the Met Office does not expect the weather to be as dramatic as it was in 2018, when ice-cold winds from Arctic Siberia created "The Beast From The East," a snowstorm.

Related article: UK Weather Forecast: Beast of the East Will Hit This Week After Storm Otto Left Thousands of Residents Without Power
According to a new study of New Zealand blue whale vocalizations, the whales are present year-round in the South Taranaki Bight and their behavior is influenced by the region's environmental conditions.

The findings represent a significant advance in researchers' understanding of the habitat use and behavior of this population of blue whales, which was first identified as genetically distinct from other blue whale populations by Oregon State University researchers less than a decade ago.

Blue Whale To Environmental Conditions

"We went from not knowing whether this was a distinct population ten years ago to now understanding these whales' ecology and response to changing environmental conditions," said Dawn Barlow, a postdoctoral scholar in OSU's Marine Mammal Institute, as per ScienceDaily.

The findings can help guide conservation efforts for this blue whale population and its habitat.

Over two years, the patterns and intensity of the whales' calls and songs revealed strong seasonality in their foraging and breeding behavior, and the vocalizations changed in response to environmental conditions such as a documented marine heatwave, according to Barlow.

"Feeding-related calls were reduced during the marine heatwave, reflecting poor foraging conditions at the time," Barlow explained.

However, Barlow noticed changes in vocalizations during the subsequent breeding period, indicating that they put less effort into reproduction after a period of poor feeding conditions.

The findings were recently published in the journal Ecology and Evolution.

Barlow worked as a doctoral student in the Geospatial Ecology of Marine Megafauna Laboratory at Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, which is led by associate professor Leigh Torres, who is also a co-author of the new paper.

Blue whales are the largest of all whales, and they can be found in every ocean except the Arctic

Because of commercial whaling in the early 1900s, their populations were depleted, and they are now listed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species.

The habitat of New Zealand whales overlaps with a variety of commercial activities, including oil and gas exploration and extraction, vessel traffic, fisheries, wind energy development, and potential seabed mining.

Torres proposed in 2013 that the South Taranaki Bight, located between New Zealand's North and South Islands, was an undocumented feeding ground for blue whales.

Torres, Barlow, and colleagues were able to demonstrate in 2018 that the population in this region was genetically distinct from other blue whale populations after extensive data collection efforts and the use of multiple lines of evidence.

Previous research was primarily based on observations made by researchers during summer visits to the region.

However, the researchers were curious about the whales' behavior at other times of the year.

They installed five hydrophones, which are underwater microphones, and recorded continuously from January 2016 to February 2018, with only brief breaks to retrieve data every six months.

The hydrophone recordings revealed that the whales' "D" calls were strongly correlated with upwelling oceanographic conditions in the spring and summer.

Upwelling occurs when deeper, cooler water is pushed to the surface; the nutrient-rich water supports krill aggregations that blue whales feed on.

During periods of strong upwelling, the whales' D calls were more intense.

Also Read: Blue Whales Are the Biggest Microplastic Consumer Victims, Eating an Estimated 10 Million Pieces of Microplastic Daily

Their Breeding Behavior

The recordings also revealed that male whale song vocalizations, which are associated with breeding behavior, followed a highly seasonal pattern, with peak intensity in the fall, as per Newswise.

This coincides with previous whaling records' estimates of conception, according to Barlow.

The hydrophone evidence of the whales' breeding behavior and year-round presence in the region can influence the animals' national threat classification status, which impacts management practices, according to the researchers.

Blue whales in New Zealand were previously classified as migrants, but as a result of Torres, Barlow, and colleagues' research, the classification has been changed from migrant to data deficient.

If the whales are reclassified as a resident population, management practices may change, but evidence of breeding in New Zealand is required for that to happen, according to the researchers.

Once the researchers established a link between the whales' behavior and their calls, they were able to examine the calls and behavior in relation to environmental patterns.

They were particularly interested in how the whales' foraging and breeding behavior changed during and after a 2016 marine heatwave.

During the marine heatwave, there were fewer krill aggregations for the whales to feed on, as previously documented by the researchers in a previous study.

The decrease in foraging behavior was correlated with less intense D calls during that time period, and the following breeding season's breeding songs were also less intense.

Related article: The World's Largest Container Line Reroutes Ships to Avoid Harming Endangered Blue Whales
According to a new study, the United States' Atlantic Coast and eastern Gulf Coast are likely to see significant increases in nutrient loading in the coming decades, putting those areas at risk of harmful algal blooms.

Estuaries Face Higher Nutrient Loads In The Future

Nutrient loadings are of particular interest because they are major contributors to algal blooms, which endanger both human health and the environment, as per ScienceDaily.

Blooms can produce toxins that are harmful to both human and animal life, depending on the type of algae.

Algal blooms also contribute to "dead zones," which are areas of water with insufficient oxygen to support a healthy ecosystem.

Furthermore, algal blooms can raise the cost of drinking water treatment and industrial sectors that rely on clean water.

Furthermore, the risk of algal blooms is increasing as temperatures rise due to global climate change.

"We know how important nutrient loadings are to ecosystem health, so we wanted to assess estuaries across the 48 contiguous states to see how vulnerable they are to increased nutrient loads," said Lise Montefiore, a postdoctoral researcher at North Carolina State University and co-corresponding author of a paper on the work.

The goal was to estimate average annual nutrient loads for estuaries between 2035 and 2065 using predictive modeling.

With the exception of the Mississippi River estuary, they were able to assess all major estuaries in the lower 48 states.

"One of the drivers for this study is that once an estuary has elevated nutrient loads, it is extremely difficult to restore that estuary," said Natalie Nelson, co-corresponding author and assistant professor of biological and agricultural engineering at NC State.

It's more effective to prevent high nutrient loads from occurring in the first place than it is to address nutrient loading problems once they've occurred, so they wanted to assist policymakers in identifying which systems are most vulnerable and could benefit significantly from conservation efforts to prevent increased nutrient loads.

Researchers used historical data as well as existing research to forecast land use and climate conditions for the continental United States between 2035 and 2065.

This information was then fed into a model that predicted annual average nitrogen and phosphorus loads for 112 estuaries in the lower 48 states.

The model was applied to the time periods 1990-2020 and 2035-2065 by the researchers.

To help put the modeling results into context, the researchers also assessed each estuary's sensitivity to increased nutrient loads.

The researchers used existing research to classify estuaries based on how much their conditions are likely to deteriorate if nutrient loads increased.

The researchers also assessed each estuary's "adaptive capacity," which essentially accounts for the resources available in each estuary that authorities could use to effectively address nutrient loadings.

State laws and regulations, the availability of monitoring data, and the number of wetlands in the estuary were among the factors considered.

The greater the available resources, the higher the estuary's adaptive capacity score.

"One of the key takeaways from this work is that land use plays a significant role in nutrient loads, possibly larger than many people would expect when compared to climate change," Montefiore said.

State and regional officials have limited influence over climate change, but they do have control over land-use decisions.

As a result, they will be able to help limit future nutrient loads and protect their water resources.

Also Read: Eutrophication Continues To Increase in Blue Lakes Due to Climate Change

Nutrients and Eutrophication

Nutrients are required for plant growth, but an excess of nutrients in water can have a number of negative health and environmental consequences, as per USGS.

Eutrophication occurs when there is an excess of nutrients in the water, primarily nitrogen and phosphorus.

Algae feed on the nutrients in the water, growing, spreading, and turning green.

Algae blooms can stink, block sunlight, and, in some cases, release toxins.

When the algae die, they are decomposed by bacteria-this process consumes the oxygen dissolved in the water and is needed by fish and other aquatic life to "breathe".

If enough oxygen is removed, the water can become hypoxic, where there is not enough oxygen to sustain life, creating a "dead zone".

Eutrophication is a natural process caused by nutrient accumulation in lakes or other bodies of water.

Nutrient-feeding algae form unsightly scum on the water's surface, reducing the recreational value and clogging water-intake pipes.

Decaying mats of dead algae can cause foul tastes and odors in the water; bacteria consume dissolved oxygen from the water, causing fish kills in some cases.

Eutrophication can be accelerated by increasing the rate at which nutrients enter the water.

Algal growth is typically limited by the available supply of either phosphate or nitrate, and a water body is said to be nitrogen limited if the ratio of nitrogen species to phosphorus species (N:P) is low, or phosphorus limited if the N:P is high.

Many different types of algae can cause harmful algal blooms (HABs) in freshwater ecosystems, and they can be triggered by nutrient enrichment.

The most common and severe blooms are typically caused by cyanobacteria, the only known freshwater algae capable of producing toxins dangerous to human health.

CyanoHABs have the potential to endanger both human and aquatic ecosystem health.

Economic costs associated with cyanoHABs include lost recreational revenue, lower property values, and higher drinking-water treatment costs.

Related article: Eutrophication Could Lead to More Silent Seas, Study Finds
Antarctic sea ice has reached record low levels for the second time in two years. Some scientists are concerned that these sudden declines are a sign that the climate crisis may more obviously affect this huge, complicated, and remote region.

Melting Level

According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, or NSIDC, the sea ice that surrounds Antarctica shrank to just 737,000 square miles (1.91 million square kilometers) on February 13-below the previous record of 741,000 square miles (1.92 million square kilometers) established on February 25 of last year.

Sea ice could still lose more mass, and it might take longer than a week to reach its minimum extent for the southern summer.

Since 1978, when satellite monitoring of sea ice began, the past two years are the only ones whose extent has fallen below 2 million square kilometers.

According to Ted Scambos, a glaciologist at the University of Colorado Boulder, there is a downward trend.

Also Read: Arctic Sea Ice Freeze-Thaw Cycle Shows How Sea Ice reto Climate Change

Predicting Melts

It is more difficult to predict how the Antarctic continent and its surrounding waters will react to climate change because, unlike the Arctic, where the pace of sea ice loss has followed a relatively continuous downward trajectory as climate change has accelerated.

The two poles are significantly dissimilar from one another. Antarctica's sea ice can expand without being confined by land, unlike the Arctic, an ocean surrounded by landmass. With higher winter highs and steeper summer lows, Antarctic ice tends to be thinner than Arctic ice.

Until recently, the region was acting radically differently than those climate models anticipated, although they forecast losses in Antarctic sea ice comparable to those in the Arctic.

In 2014, when it reached a record high of 7.76 million square miles, the extent of winter sea ice confirmed the hypothesis that the Antarctic might be comparatively shielded from global warming.

But, something altered in 2016. Researchers saw a sharp declining trend.

Some initially attributed it to the regular variability of this enormously complex continent's numerous, interconnected climatic systems. But after two consecutive years with record-low sea ice, scientists are worried.

"The question is, has Antarctica been affected by climate change? Is this signaling the end of the world? Will the sea ice permanently vanish in the summer of the upcoming years? "Christian Haas, director of the Alfred Wegener Institute's Sea Ice Physics Research Department, told CNN.

Sea ice may be so low due to several variables, such as winds, ocean currents, and ocean heat.

In some areas of the Antarctic, air temperatures have been about 1.5 degrees Celsius higher than usual.

He explained that heat was being agitated into the upper layer of water surrounding the Antarctic. This notion "has huge consequences for the stability of the Antarctic ice sheet" if supported and connected to the overall warming of the oceans.

Loss of Ice

Sea ice loss may have repercussions that extend beyond Antarctica.

The loss of the Antarctic sea ice fringe exposes coastal ice sheets and glaciers to waves and warm ocean waters, increasing their susceptibility to melting and breaking apart. This does not directly impact sea levels because the ice is already floating in the ocean.

Alarming developments have been occurring in several areas of Antarctica for some time.

Related Article: Ocean Temperature Reaches "Point of No Return" as Climate Change Creates Irreversible Scenario

For Environmental News, don't forget to follow Nature World News!
Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Windy with rain showers. Thunder possible. Morning high of 57F with temps falling to near 45. Winds WSW at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Rain showers this evening mixing with snow showers overnight. Low around 35F. Winds W at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of precip 40%. Higher wind gusts possible.
Inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis have complex disease mechanisms that can differ from patient to patient with the same diagnosis. This means that currently available drugs have little effect on many patients. Using so-called digital twins, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have now obtained a deeper understanding of the "off and on" proteins that control these diseases. The study, which is published in Cell Reports Medicine, can lead to more personalized drug therapies.

Many patients with inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, never feel fully healthy despite being on medication. It is a problem that causes significant suffering and expense.

In an inflammatory disease, thousands of genes alter the way they interact in different organs and cell types. Moreover, the pathological process varies from one patient to another with the same diagnosis, and even within the same patient at different times.

It is exceedingly difficult to diagnose and treat such complex and varied changes. In a project that has been underway for five years, researchers from a constellation of institutions including Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have been trying to solve this problem and tailor drugs to individual patients by constructing and data-processing their digital twins, i.e. digital models of each patient's unique disease mechanisms.

Now, the research group has found a possible solution: the changes can be organized in molecular programs. These molecular programs are regulated by a limited number of "off and on" switch proteins, of which some are known targets for drugs such as TNF inhibitors. But it is not a therapeutic option that helps everyone.

"Our analyses of patients who responded or didn't respond to TNF therapy revealed different switch proteins in different individuals," says the study's corresponding author Mikael Benson, researcher at the Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology, Karolinska Institutet. "Another important discovery was that the proteins did not switch off the diseases but were more like dimmer switches that raised or lowered the disease programs."

Every physiological process can be described with mathematical equations. This advanced digital modeling technique can be adjusted to a patient's unique circumstances by analyzing the activity of each and every gene in thousands of individual cells from blood and tissue. Such a digital twin can be used to calculate the physiological outcome if a condition changes, such as the dosage of a drugs.

Digital twins have revealed to the researchers new opportunities for the effective treatment of serious diseases.

"The methods can be developed to tailor the right combination of drugs for "on" proteins for individual patients," Dr Benson continues. "The programs we describe will be made available to the research community so that more clinical studies can be done of patients with different immune diseases."

In the current study, the researchers combined analyses of a mouse model of rheumatoid arthritis and digital twins of human patients with various inflammatory diseases.

"Even though only the joints were inflamed in mice, we found that thousands of genes changed their activity in different cell types in ten organs, including the skin, spleen, liver and lungs," says Dr Benson. "As far as I'm aware, this is the first time science has obtained such a broad picture of how many organs are affected in rheumatoid arthritis. This is partly due to the difficulty of physically sampling so many different organs."
The gut is one of the most complex organs in the body. Inside, it teems with a diverse microbial population that interacts and cooperates with intestinal cells to digest food and drugs. Disruptions in this microbiome have strong links to a wide spectrum of diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease, obesity, asthma, and even psychological and behavioral disorders.

Valid models of the gut are therefore immensely useful for understanding its function and associated ailments. In APL Bioengineering, by AIP Publishing, researchers from the University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab described how gut-on-a-chip devices can bridge lab models and human biology.

Organ-on-a-chip devices are miniaturized models of human organs. They contain tiny microchannels where cells and tissue cultures interact with precisely controlled nutrients. Regulating the cell's environment in such a way is crucial for creating realistic models of tissue.

Using these models avoids the time-consuming and costly challenges of clinical trials and the ethical issues behind animal testing.

"Medical research is currently facing major hurdles, both in terms of understanding the basic science governing the function of human organs and the research and development of new drugs and therapeutics," said author Amin Valiei. "Access to valid models of human organs that can be studied conveniently in the lab can significantly accelerate scientific discoveries and the development of new medications."

Modeling the microbiome is particularly difficult because of its unique environmental conditions. Through creative design, gut-on-a-chip devices can simulate many of these properties, such as the gut's anaerobic atmosphere, fluid flow, and pulses of contraction/relaxation. Growing intestinal cells in this environment means that they more closely resemble human biology compared to standard laboratory cell cultures.

"Recent gut-on-a-chip models have demonstrated success in maintaining a viable coculture of the human intestinal cells and the microbiome for a few days and even up to weeks," said Valiei. "This opens new ways to analyze the microbiome under biologically relevant conditions."

The authors highlight key gut-on-a-chip devices and their success in simulating microbial and human cellular biology. They also describe current disease models and drug studies using the technology.

"Its unique capabilities make the organ-on-a-chip apt for plenty of research investigations in the future," said Valiei.

The team is currently investigating dysbiosis, an imbalance in the gut microbial community with major health consequences. They aim to find innovative ways to diagnose, mitigate, and treat this condition.
For the first time in humans, a research team has shown that, as early as the first days of infection, HIV is able to create reservoirs where it will hide and persist during antiretroviral therapy.

Until now, the scientific community did not know exactly when or how these viral reservoirs-;the existence of which is a major obstacle to curing HIV-;are established in human beings.

In a study published in the journal Immunity, scientists led by Nicolas Chomont, a researcher at the CHUM Research Centre (CRCHUM) and professor at Universite de Montreal, found that a small fraction of the virus integrates into the genome of CD4+ T cells in the very first weeks of infection (the acute phase), but does not replicate there. It therefore escapes the notice of the fastest diagnostic tool to date, which detects active viral replication.

CD4+ T cells are HIV's primary targets. They are white blood cells responsible for activating the human body's defence against infections.

"With the help of an analysis technique developed in our laboratory, we were able to observe and count the T cells infected by the virus in human samples collected in the earliest stages of the infection," said Chomont, the study's principal author. "We succeeded in detecting the presence of the virus through sequencing even when it was hidden in cells that weren't participating in viral replication."

To study these initial phases of the spread of the virus, Pierre Gantner, a former postdoctoral student in Chomont's lab and the study's first author, had access to samples of blood and inguinal lymph node tissue from 25 people in the first acute-infection cohort of the U.S. Military HIV Research Program in Thailand.

This cohort, RV254/SEARCH010, was launched more than 10 years ago in collaboration with the Thai Red Cross AIDS Research Centre and has enrolled nearly 800 volunteers. Chomont and his team have been closely cooperating with their colleagues in Thailand since its launch.

Mapping the types of infected cells

Through their analysis technique, the CRCHUM scientists succeeded in counting the CD4+ T cells infected by the virus during the acute phase of the infection.

These infected cells increased in number from 10 to 1,000 per million CD4+ T cells in less than seven days, thereby showing the extreme speed with which HIV spreads.

The scientists also observed that the characteristics of the cells targeted by HIV in the first weeks of the infection varied quickly and differed depending on whether they were located in the blood or lymph nodes.

"For example, we noticed that few Tfh-;T follicular helper cells-;are infected by the virus during the acute phase of the infection," said Chomont. "Since they play a crucial role in viral replication, the scientific community thought that they were the first to be infected."

"In fact, we counted a lot more [infected Tfh] during the chronic phase of the disease, which is about two months after infection. At that point, they are actively contributing to the development of the disease."

Until now, these types of studies have been carried out on animal models. Therefore, this is the first time that the early stages of the infection in humans have been described so precisely.

Destabilizing the reservoirs

A large part of global research dedicated to the study of HIV focuses on how to reactivate the virus lying dormant in the reservoirs in order to neutralize it.

"'The earlier we start antiretroviral therapy, the more we prevent the virus from replicating and the more we limit the size of the reservoirs. We proved that in 2020," said Chomont.

"However, it seems clear that early antiretroviral therapy should be combined with another treatment to force the virus out of its hiding places, because at the time of diagnosis latent reservoirs will have already been established in people infected with HIV."

In collaboration with scientists from the United States, Chomont's research team is currently evaluating whether this type of treatment administered in the acute infection phase would prevent the establishment of viral reservoirs.
Feature: Remote sensing scientist leads the way in tracking wild camels

Xinhua) 16:25, March 01, 2023

BEIJING, March 1 (Xinhua) -- In the office of remote sensing scientist Liu Shaochuang, there is a huge photograph of a camel he snapped a decade ago in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Wearing camouflage clothing, he crouched for hours by a pool of water in the Gobi Desert to capture an image of the wild animal. This is the subject of his research.

Since 2012, he has led a team in tracking and studying wild camels using satellite remote sensing technology. Unlike zoologists who focus on species, Liu has studied the interrelationship between endangered animals and their environment, which he believes will help develop better protection strategies against the background of climate change.

In the run-up to World Wildlife Day on March 3, Liu's research has come under the spotlight as it is a successful example of how advanced space technology benefits animal protection on Earth.

Liu works at the Aerospace Information Research Institute under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. His studies have covered many fields, including polar region scientific expeditions and mapping the headwaters of great rivers across the globe, while he has also developed the navigation and localization systems for China's lunar rovers and Mars rover.

His interest in wild camels began when his team tested a prototype design of the lunar rover Yutu in deserts. Living in the harsh deserts in northwestern China and southwestern Mongolia, the even-toed camel is listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Experts estimate that the population of this species is currently less than 1,000, of which around 650 are in China.

"Ten years ago, the camel research only relied on human observation, [which was] very primitive," Liu said. Because wild Bactrian camels are fully migratory and can travel over long distances, scientists used to learn their habits by studying hoof prints and feces. It was hard to find one camel in the desert, let alone track it.

But Liu thought his expertise in satellite navigation and remote sensing might come in useful in the wild camel study.

It was not easy at first. Liu learned zoology from scratch. His team had to spend several weeks each year braving dust and sandstorms in the vastness of the Gobi Desert to seek camels. A scar on his right eyebrow is the result of a rollover accident on a rugged mountain road in Xinjiang.

"The most thrilling moment was attaching trackers to the wild camels," Liu recalled. On May 6, 2012, Liu's team for the first time succeeded in putting a satellite positioning collar on a wild camel, attaching one to a female camel in Xinjiang's Lop Nur Desert.

The tracking collar, equipped with special receivers, weighs only a few hundred grams. It can drop off automatically and will not have a negative impact on the daily lives of the animals. According to Liu, at least seven wild camels are currently fitted with tracking collars, and their locations are transmitted via satellite every day. Based on tracking data, scientists can get to know their migratory paths, living environments and possible threats they may encounter.

The short message function provided by China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System enables the collar to transmit and receive signals in real time. Even when the communication network is lacking, collars with BeiDou chips can send back the positions of the wild camels through Chinese satellites. Sitting in his office in Beijing, Liu can also obtain information about the surrounding environment on his computer, including temperature, vegetation, and water sources.

His latest discovery is that the suitable habitat range has shrunk greatly due to climate change, and that wild camels have moved to the colder Altun Mountain Range in China, and higher-altitude regions in Mongolia as a result of climate change.

This implies that the animals may face more dangers, Liu said. For example, the narrowing habitats may lead to an increased chance of attacks by wolves, a reduction in drinking water sources, and a high risk of disease spread.

Liu is calling for an expansion of current protection zones and the establishment of a larger-scale national park for the wild camels. Meanwhile, he suggests building a space-air-ground integrated monitoring system, which will use remote sensing satellites in space, aircraft in the sky, and wireless smart sensors on the ground to strengthen observation capabilities.

For Liu, it is worth spending significant sci-tech effort on the study of such a rare species. Scientists have found that the DNA of the wild camel is 2 to 3 percent different from that of the domestic camel, while the DNA difference between humans and chimpanzees is only 1 percent. Wild camels are more resilient in harsh environments, and some researchers believe their genes may provide insights useful for the treatment of cancer and diabetes.

Liu admitted that it would take a long time for humans to fully understand this rare species. Much is unknown about its population, distribution, and habits. The 60-year-old Chinese researcher plans to enhance cooperation with his Mongolian counterparts to boost wild camel protection this year, and to apply the tracking techniques to the study of other species.

"I like to explore the unknown," Liu said.

More than 40 BeiDou navigation satellites are currently operating in orbit. China will launch three to five more this year to enhance its constellation. Liu said wildlife protection and research will become more precise and efficient with the help of technology.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
VisitMalta, the tourism promotion body of Malta, will launch new luxury yachting and scuba diving holiday packages for GCC residents at the Dubai International Boat Show 2023, which opened today.

Yachting Malta and VisitMalta have teamed up to showcase the Maltese Islands as a yachting holidays destination and boating craft and experiences at the Dubai International Boat Show 2023, taking place in Dubai from March 1-5.

VisitMalta will be exhibiting at the prestigious show for the first time accompanied by Yachting Malta, a public-private partnership between the Government of Malta and the Royal Malta Yacht Club.

Yachting Malta will be joining forces with the Super Yacht Industry Network Malta to showcase Malta not only as a Yacht cruising destination but also as a destination for refits, registrations and all ancillary services including wintering, hardstanding and crew training.

Representatives from VisitMalta will also be present at the same stand to showcase the tourism attractions of the Maltese islands of Malta, Comino and Gozo, especially as a sailing and diving destination that is coupled with history and culture, heritage sites and culinary experiences.

At the stand, VisitMalta representatives will launch and introduce the destinations latest marine-themed holiday offerings of luxury private sailing & diving holiday packages, tailored exclusively for the UAE and GCC residents.

Visitors to the stand (MLL-115) are also invited to go into the draw to win two return business class tickets with Emirates to Malta, with the winner being announced on the VisitMalta Middle East Instagram page (@VisitMaltaME) on March 5.

As a well-known yachting and boating destination for leisure and international sporting events, Malta also offers some of the best diving experiences in the Mediterranean Sea. It has diverse natural reefs and exceptional underwater caves and rock formations. Adding to the experience the Maltese islands are also known for their year-round good weather conditions, crystal-clear visibility and mild water temperatures.

As testimony to Maltas scuba diving pedigree as leading Scuba diving destination in Europe and one of the best diving sites in the world, Malta earned second place in the Top diver destination of the year 2018 awards by one of the world's longest-established diving websites; Divernet.

For both novices and experts alike, Malta is home to top-rated scuba schools and marine clubs.

For marine sports, Malta hosts regular maritime events and festivals that attract thousands of yacht and boat owners every year for business and leisure travel, including the annual Rolex Middle Sea Race, which this year will be held from October 21, 2023. - TradeArabia News Service
A team of investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), a founding member of Mass General Brigham (MGB) and Mass General for Children (MGfC) has identified-; for the first time-; the mutation in a single non-coding gene of a young patient responsible for the extremely rare disease known as multisystemic smooth muscle dysfunction syndrome (MSMDS), which causes profound cerebrovascular, gastrointestinal and urologic impairment.

For the child's family, the discovery helped unravel the mystery of a condition that had afflicted their son since birth and will now enable physicians to initiate treatment to lessen the risk of future strokes.

The team's findings were reported in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.

"Thousands of other families live with the burden of children with undiagnosed diseases whose lives could be significantly changed with the help of the latest research and technologies to shed light on what are often hereditary disorders," says senior author Patricia Musolino, MD, PhD, a critical care and vascular neurologist at MGH and a globally recognized authority in MSMDS.

"The child we evaluated had been to five other hospitals before Mass General, which is part of the Harvard Clinical Site of the Undiagnosed Diseases Network(UDN) study, funded by the National Institutes of Health. Without that specialized team of experts under one roof, it would have been impossible to arrive at the diagnosis we did for this child."

Past research has shown a mutation in the coding gene ACTA2 to be commonly associated with multisystemic smooth muscle dysfunction syndrome, which prevents smooth muscle throughout the body from contracting and working properly.

In the case of the young MGH patient, the disease was characterized by multiple strokes beginning at age three, along with severe bowel, bladder and feeding issues. Standard genetic testing did not detect a mutation in the ACTA2 gene as the source of the problem.

MGH's Undiagnosed Diseases Network team was the first to put all the clinical pieces together.

Co-authors David Sweetser, MD, PhD, and Lauren Briere, MS, CGC, narrowed the search to a single nucleotide variant in the gene MIR145, a microRNA gene.

The team followed up with a detailed molecular analysis which confirmed that the variant affects the expression of several cytoskeletal proteins and smooth muscle cell function. The genetic breakthrough represents only the sixth recorded monogenetic disorder (resulting from the dysfunction of a single gene) attributed to the microRNA (miRNA) class of genes.

"Despite major advances in genetic testing that now allow us to routinely sequence the entire genome, large numbers of patients with suspected genetic disorders still remain undiagnosed," notes Sweetser. "One reason for this might be that practically all genetic testing performed today focuses on protein coding genes. The UDN has allowed us to delve much deeper, beyond standard clinical testing.

"The finding of disease-causing mutations in regulatory non-protein encoding genes, such as this microRNA, opens up a new frontier in our search for answers that can impact patient care."

"As it turns out, the patient's MIR145 variant actually causes the same cellular changes that result from the well-described MSMDS-causing ACTA2 variants," says Briere.

"That finding meant we were able to identify for the first time a second gene that interacts with ACTA2 to influence smooth muscle behavior," adds co-author Mark Lindsay, MD, PhD, an MGfC cardiologist.

"More important, though, is the impact it may have on the MGH patient, whose condition had baffled clinicians for so long," adds Lindsay.

"The hopeful message from this case is that advanced genetic research can change the course of a disease not just for one family, but potentially for others faced with the same debilitating condition," says Musolino. "But that will only happen if the Undiagnosed Diseases Network, which Mass General is fortunate enough to be part of, is able to significantly expand its research through NIH funding."

Musolino is co-director of Pediatric Stroke and Cerebrovascular Service, MGfC, and assistant professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School (HMS). Lindsay is assistant professor of Medicine, HMS.

Lead author Christian Lacks Lino Cardenas, PhD, is an instructor in Medicine at the Cardiovascular Research Center, Mass General Research Institute. Co-lead author Briere is a genetic counselor at MGH, working on the UDN study.

Sweetser is a medical geneticist, lead principal investigator of the UDN at MGH, and chief of Medical Genetics and Metabolism at MGH and MGfC

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health through the Undiagnosed Diseases Network and the Caitlin and Rich Hill Family Fund for Undiagnosed Diseases at MGH.
One of the most expensive steps in manufacturing protein drugs such as antibodies or insulin is the purification step: isolating the protein from the bioreactor used to produce it. This step can account for up to half of the total cost of manufacturing a protein.

In an effort to help reduce those costs, MIT engineers have devised a new way to perform this kind of purification. Their approach, which uses specialized nanoparticles to rapidly crystallize proteins, could help to make protein drugs more affordable and accessible, especially in developing countries.

"This work uses bioconjugate-functionalized nanoparticles to act as templates for enhancing protein crystal formation at low concentrations," says Kripa Varanasi, a professor of mechanical engineering at MIT and the senior author of the new study. "The goal is to reduce the cost so that this kind of drug manufacturing becomes affordable in the developing world."

The researchers demonstrated that their approach can be used to crystallize lysozyme (an antimicrobial enzyme) and insulin. They believe it could also be applied to many other useful proteins, including antibody drugs and vaccines.

MIT graduate student Caroline McCue is the lead author of the study, which appears today in the journal ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. Henri-Louis Girard PhD '20 is also an author of the paper.

Protein purification

Antibodies and other protein drugs are part of a growing class of drugs known as biologics, which also include molecules such as DNA and RNA, as well as cell-based therapies. Most protein drugs are produced by living cells such as yeast in large bioreactors.

Once these proteins are generated, they have to be isolated from the reactor, which is usually done through a process called chromatography. Chromatography, which separates proteins based on their size, requires specialized materials that make the process very expensive.

Varanasi and his colleagues decided to try a different approach, based on protein crystallization. Researchers often crystallize proteins to study their structures, but the process is considered too slow for industrial use and doesn't work well at low concentrations of protein. To overcome those obstacles, Varanasi's lab set out to use nanoscale structures to speed up the crystallization.

In previous work, the lab has used nanoscale features to create materials that repel water or to modify interfaces for injecting highly viscous biologic drugs. In this case, the researchers wanted to adapt nanoparticles so that they could locally increase the concentration of protein at the surface and also provide a template that would allow the proteins to align correctly and form crystals.

To create the surface they needed, the researchers coated gold nanoparticles with molecules called bioconjugates -; materials that can help form links between other molecules. For this study, the researchers used bioconjugates called maleimide and NHS, which are commonly used for tagging proteins for study or attaching protein drugs to drug-delivering nanoparticles.

When solutions of proteins are exposed to these coated nanoparticles, the proteins accumulate at the surface and bind to the bioconjugates. Furthermore, the bioconjugates compel the proteins to align themselves with a specific orientation, creating a scaffold for additional proteins to come along and join the crystal.

The researchers demonstrated their approach with lysozyme, an enzyme whose crystallization properties have been well studied, and insulin. They say it could also be applied to many other proteins.

"This is a general approach that could be scaled to other systems as well. If you know the protein structure that you're trying to crystallize, you can then add the right bioconjugates that will force this process to happen," Varanasi says.

Rapid crystallization

In their studies with lysozyme and insulin, the researchers found that crystallization occurred much faster when the proteins were exposed to the bioconjugate-coated nanoparticles, compared to bare nanoparticles or no nanoparticles. With the coated particles, the researchers saw a sevenfold reduction in the induction time -; how long it takes for crystals to begin forming -; and a threefold increase in the nucleation rate, which is how quickly the crystals grow once started.

"Even at low protein concentrations, we see a lot more crystals forming with these bioconjugate-functionalized nanoparticles," McCue says. "The functionalized nanoparticles reduce the induction time so much because these bioconjugates are providing a specific site for the proteins to bind. And because the proteins are aligned, they can form a crystal faster."

In addition, the team used machine learning to analyze thousands of images of crystals. "Protein crystallization is a stochastic process, so we needed to have a huge dataset to be able to really measure whether our approach was improving the induction time and nucleation rate of crystallization. With so many images to process, machine learning is the best way to be able to determine when crystals are forming in each image without having to go through and manually count each one," McCue says.

This project is part of a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation effort to make biologic drugs, such as prophylactic antibodies that have been shown to prevent malaria in clinical trials, more widely available in developing nationsThe MIT team is now working on scaling up the process so that it could be used in an industrial bioreactor, and demonstrating that it can work with monoclonal antibodies, vaccines, and other useful proteins.

"If we can make it easier to manufacture these proteins anywhere, then everyone in the world can benefit," Varanasi says. "We are not saying that this is going to be solved tomorrow because of us, but this is a small step that can contribute to that mission."

In addition to the Gates Foundation, the research was partly funded by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of vaccines in controlling infectious disease in sub-Saharan Africa and renewed interest in vaccine research and development across the continent.

Yet at the moment, Africa produces just one per cent of its routine vaccines.

"Africa has to build that capacity to produce vaccines," Ebere Okere, senior technical advisor at the Tony Blair Institute for global change and honorary senior public health advisor of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, tells SciDev.Net.

This insufficient capacity to produce vaccines leaves the region dependent on imports for its vaccine needs, and makes it vulnerable to a vaccine crisis during health emergencies.

The COVID-19 pandemic served to ignite conversations between world leaders, researchers and scientists, covering everything from research and innovation to vaccine manufacturing and even the politics of vaccine production.

Yet in November 2022, leaders from Africa and Europe found themselves at loggerheads during a meeting in Brussels, Belgium, over how Africa could begin to develop and manufacture life-saving vaccines.

At the heart of the argument lay lucrative intellectual property rights. The EU had offered to help Africa build vaccine manufacturing plants, but refused to waive intellectual property rights that would give Africans the right to duplicate vaccines and speed up vaccine production.

Immoral

On their side, African leaders argued that in a third year of pandemic, it was immoral to withhold intellectual property rights, when it meant people in Africa had unequal access to life-saving COVID-19 vaccines.

"We are talking about the lives of millions rather than the profitability of a few companies," South African president Cyril Ramaphosa told a news conference at the time.

While the leaders failed to agree at the February 2022 summit, some concessions were made.

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission - the EU's executive arm - said the bloc would be open to more conversations around the waiver, to be led by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Nigerian director-general of the World Trade Organization.

Vaccine hubs

These talks led to the creation of vaccine manufacturing hubs in Senegal, South Africa, Rwanda, Algeria and Nigeria - most of which are not functional yet.

The hubs are expected to employ the breakthrough vaccine technology behind Pfizer and Moderna's highly successful COVID-19 jabs, known as messenger RNA (mRNA), to replicate existing vaccines and drive research into the production of new ones. The technology could be aimed at diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria and AIDS.

Yet South Africa's Ramaphosa has insisted that until there is a removal of "intellectual property barriers", the "full operationalization of the mRNA hub" will be hampered.

In November last year, Gavi, the 23-year-old vaccine alliance which brings public and private sectors player to create equal access to vaccines for children, pointed out in a report that Africa only produced 0.1 per cent of global vaccines, despite being home to 17 per cent of the world's population and 58 per cent of vaccine-preventable disease-related deaths in children under five years old.

2040

In April 2021, the African Union Commission and the Africa Centres for Disease Control, made a commitment to develop a framework to reach 60 per cent local manufacturing of Africa's routine vaccine needs by 2040.

"We are too reliant on a global system that just didn't actually put us first, for the supply of most of the technology we need for our health system," Okere tells SciDev.Net.

"So the work that is being developed now  will not only solve the problem of the current pandemic, but will set the foundation for us to have more resilience in our system."

She says Africa must find a way to engage and convince richer countries and the pharmaceutical industry to access IP waivers

As Ramaphosa suggested in Brussels, at the heart of the politics of vaccine research and production is profits.

Simply put, money over lives. "We are talking about the lives of hundreds of millions of people, rather than the profitability of a few companies," Ramaphosa said as he asked that Africa be supported to build a sustainable path to vaccine manufacturing.

One solution, according to Deborah King, vaccines research lead at Wellcome, is advance purchase agreements, where governments agree to buy a specific number of jabs ahead of them being produced.

This could be, King argues, a way to get necessary funding to produce vaccines on the continent, while also ensuring profitability for the manufacturers.

Consulting group BCG in a research note on ramping up vaccine manufacturing in Africa also recommends advance purchase agreements.

It adds that African manufacturers should focus on vaccines with "high supply constraints" and "low manufacturing complexity" such as such as the vaccines for rotavirus and meningitis.

"While there is no panacea for the challenges that African vaccine manufacturers face, an extensive vaccine-manufacturing ecosystem is imperative," the consultancy adds.

"It will improve vaccine-supply security, help to better tackle endemic diseases, and contribute to global pandemic preparedness while also boosting the continent's socioeconomic development."

This piece was produced by SciDev.Net's Sub-Saharan Africa English desk.

This article was supported by Global Health Strategies (GHS), an organization which uses advocacy, communications and policy analysis to improve health and wellbeing around the world.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, killing someone in the United States every 34 seconds, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A new study by investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, conducted the first population-based study on patients' nonacceptance of statin therapy recommendations.

The study found that in patients at high risk of developing cardiovascular disease, over 20 percent refused to take statin medications. They were particularly surprised to see that women were about 20 percent more likely than men to refuse statin therapy when it was first suggested by their physician, and 50 percent more likely than men to never accept the recommendation. The study also showed that all patients who refused statin therapy developed higher LDL ("bad") cholesterol levels, likely increasing their risk even further. The results are published in JAMA Network Open.

"Our study highlights the alarming number of patients who refuse statins and signals that physicians must have discussions with patients about why," says Alex Turchin, MD, MS, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and director of quality in the Brigham's Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Hypertension. "We need to better understand what our patients' preferences are and to be able to provide more patient-centered care."

After Turchin began noticing that many of his patients with high cholesterol, including those with diabetes, were opting not to take safe and beneficial medications like statins that can lower cholesterol and bring down the risk of heart attack and stroke, he developed a system to more closely study the phenomenon by analyzing the text of provider notes.

The study focused on high-risk patients who either had coronary artery or vascular disease, diabetes, very high cholesterol, or had suffered a stroke. All were recommended statin medications by their physicians to reduce their risk of heart attack and stroke and reduce cholesterol levels. The retrospective study included more than 24,000 patients who were seen at Mass General Brigham between Jan. 1, 2000, and Dec. 31, 2018.

"Even in this higher-risk patient population, so many people did not accept statin therapy," Turchin said. The study found that while about two-thirds of the patients who were being recommended statin therapy eventually tried it, about one-third never did. And it took three times as long for people in the study who initially said no to taking statin medications to reduce their LDL cholesterol levels to less than 100, compared to people who initially said yes.

The study's biggest surprise, however, was the much higher rate of refusal by women than men. Turchin and his colleagues wonder if this might be due in part to a false misconception that heart disease impacts men more than women, and plan to further research the reasons underlying these results.

"Ultimately, we need to talk to our patients and find out in more detail why they would prefer not to take statins," Turchin says. He is currently looking at the impacts of nonacceptance of statin therapy on outcomes that matter to most to patients including heart attacks, strokes, and death. "I think people underestimate how much of a difference modern medicine has made in extending people's lives, and their quality of life, and medications can play a big role in that."
Most lawmakers  Republicans and Democrats alike  have declared the marquee safety-net programs of Medicare and Social Security off-limits for cuts as a divided Washington heads for a showdown over the national debt and government spending. Health programs for lower-income Americans, though, have gotten no such bipartisan assurances.

More than 20 million people gained Medicaid coverage in the past three years after Congress expanded access to the entitlement program during the covid-19 pandemic, swelling Medicaid's population by about 30%. But enrollment will fall starting in April, when the pandemic-era changes end and states begin cutting coverage for Americans who are no longer eligible.

On Tuesday, President Joe Biden pressured Republicans to release the party's plans to cut government spending, which are expected to call for deeper cuts to Medicaid  and could offer Americans a preview of Republicans' wish list should the party gain full power in the 2024 election.

If far-right Republicans "try to take away people's health care by gutting Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, I will stop them," Biden said.

Biden and other Democratic leaders have said they want to expand Medicaid, a goal likely to be reflected in the president's budget proposal out next week. But while top Democrats say they will not negotiate government spending with Republicans when the GOP is refusing to raise the debt ceiling, they have left open the possibility of talks over Medicaid spending at a later date.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the new House Democratic leader, said in January that Democrats are open to "a conversation" with Republicans separate from the debt ceiling debate.

"There is a budget process, and there's an appropriations process," Jeffries said when asked by KHN why Medicaid did not get the same red-line defense as Medicare and Social Security during Biden's State of the Union address. "We are willing to have a conversation with the other side of the aisle about how to invest in making life better for everyday Americans, how to invest in the middle class, how to invest in all those Americans who aspire to be part of the middle class."

Some Republicans hope to extract concessions with Democrats to cut the program by limiting benefits, such as by allowing more states to impose work requirements on Medicaid beneficiaries  a plan pushed by the Trump administration but largely struck down by the courts. Republicans could also target Medicaid provider taxes, meaning taxes placed on things like inpatient hospital services or nursing facility beds.

Progressive Democrats have drawn a hard line and hope the program's growth makes cutting Medicaid a riskier political idea than it once was. More than 1 in 4 Americans are currently covered through Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program, including children, pregnant people, people with disabilities, and people living on a lower income.

"To my mind, Medicaid must be off the table," Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chair of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pension Committee, told KHN. "The idea of coming down heavy on people who are of low income would be outrageous, and I feel very much that's what Republicans have in mind."

The Biden administration is expected to send its annual budget blueprint to Congress on March 9, outlining the president's spending priorities for federal programs, including for Medicaid.

During his Feb. 28 speech, Biden pointed to recent Republican proposals to cut Medicaid and repeal the Affordable Care Act. And he listed the possible consequences of those proposals  such as the loss of mental health care for millions of children under Medicaid's guarantee of comprehensive health coverage  and urged Americans to compare the still-unknown cuts that Republicans want with his budget proposal.

Biden is likely to start any negotiations by arguing for more spending. He has called out conservative states that have resisted expanding Medicaid coverage, traveling to Florida after his State of the Union address to chastise nearly a dozen states that have not yet expanded the program under the ACA. He pushed to expand ACA subsidies during the pandemic and, more recently, to make them permanent.

House Republicans say they want to balance the federal budget in 10 years without raising taxes and without cuts to Medicare, Social Security, or military spending  a feat some analysts have called "impossible." Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security, along with funding for the Affordable Care Act and Childrens Health Insurance Program, account for nearly half of the federal budget on their own.

The Washington Post recently reported that a former Trump administration official had briefed lawmakers on a balanced-budget proposal that includes $2 trillion in cuts to Medicaid. A separate proposal from House Republicans last year would cut total federal Medicaid, CHIP, and ACA marketplace subsidy spending by nearly half over the next decade.

Edwin Park, a research professor at the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy's Center for Children and Families, wrote that the House proposal "would likely drive tens of millions into the ranks of the uninsured and severely reduce access to health care and long-term services and supports needed by low-income children, families, seniors, people with disabilities, and other adults."

Because Medicaid is the largest source of federal funding for the states, dollars could also dry up for priorities like education, Park added.

A longtime push by conservatives has been to trim Medicaid by adding eligibility restrictions like work requirements or more stringent verifications. Republicans tried to do that in the failed repeal of the ACA in 2017. The same plan included a bid to convert state Medicaid funding to a per capita allotment instead of the federal government matching a percentage of whatever a state spends.

Republicans could also push to rein in the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage that states get for Medicaid. Currently, that percentage match has been boosted under the public health emergency. And at least one top Republican has expressed interest in making changes to the way disabled people get home- and community-based care services that allow them to remain in their homes, said Yvette Fontenot, senior policy and legislative affairs adviser at the liberal-leaning Protect Our Care.

Fontenot said Republicans could focus on fraud as a pretext for their proposals, raising oversight questions about how many people got benefits improperly and how many stayed on Medicaid under pandemic rules that required states to maintain enrollment when they would otherwise be kicked off. "I think it just becomes an underpinning of all the different potential policies here," she said.

Brian Blase, a former Trump administration economic adviser who is now president of the Paragon Health Institute, told KHN he doubted Republicans would have much success going after Medicaid  especially ahead of next year's presidential election, when Democrats would be less likely to cave on any entitlements.

But he noted potentially promising discussions on Capitol Hill for some GOP goals  specifically, cutting Medicaid provider taxes or pushing new work requirements, an idea that some conservative Democrats like Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia have signaled they are open to.

Conservatives see the taxes, which states levy on Medicaid providers, as a backdoor way to boost what the federal government sends to states, since states use those taxes to fund their share of Medicaid funding under FMAP.

Blase pointed to reporting from the major budget showdowns in 2011 and 2013 as evidence that Biden, who was then vice president, might be open to cuts there.

The fact that Biden is on record as calling them 'a scam' that should be eliminated, I think, makes it a little bit easier for congressional Republicans to argue that they should be on the table, he said.

The fight over government spending is nearing an inflection point. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office recently estimated the United States would hit the debt ceiling between July and September, meaning the Treasury Department's ability to pay the nation's bills and prevent defaulting on its debt could be exhausted as early as this summer without congressional action.

A recent NPR-PBS NewsHour-Marist poll showed that while a majority of voters support raising the debt ceiling, they are split on how lawmakers should address the nation's debt. Nearly three-quarters of Republicans and a majority of independent voters said Congress should cut programs and services rather than raise taxes and other revenue.

Though Republicans have yet to propose specific cuts, Democrats are betting that Medicaid and other entitlements will prove as difficult to target as Social Security and Medicare if voters understand the impact on many Americans' lives.

"I think it's going to be tough for Republicans right now," Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) told KHN. If the GOP wants to cut benefits for low-income families "in a time when eggs are expensive and a time when groceries and food have gotten quite expensive for everyday people, then they need to go in front of the public, in front of the American people, and make the case as to why they want to cut people's ability to feed themselves and their children."
In a recent study posted to the medRxiv* preprint server, researchers described the experiences and coping strategies of people who suffered from drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) in Zimbabwe between 2020 and 2021. They conducted this study during the first year of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

*Important notice: medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.

Background

Zimbabwe, a sub-Saharan African country experiencing economic hardship since 2000, witnessed a COVID-19-induced lockdown between March and August 2020. In Zimbabwe, 72% of the population lives in poverty due to widespread unemployment. Here, the incidence of DR-TB was 4.9/100,000 population in 2021, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) co-infections with TB also exceeded 50%.

During the lockdown, the condition of the impoverished people belonging to poor and distressed households in cities worsened further. They faced an increased risk of contracting COVID-19 due to overcrowded habitations and had to survive on daily earnings. In the absence of social security, the pandemic reduced their household income leading to food insecurity.

Thus, households affected by DR-TB suffered concurrently or sequentially during the COVID-19 pandemic. As they had no savings or insurance, they adopted reversible coping strategies. For instance, they delayed health-seeking for chronic diseases, relocated in search of food, and mobilized and spent their resources rapidly.

Indeed, COVID-19 emerged as a global stressor and a stress multiplier and had synergistic relationships that determined household coping strategies. Though several previous studies have explored the impact of DR-TB, few studies have examined it in the context of COVID-19.

About the study

In the present study, researchers conducted comprehensive interviews with DR-TB patients in Zimbabwe to understand their experiences and how they coped with two lockdowns imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic, i.e., between March and July 2020 and December and February 2021.

The study population comprised adult men and women who received two months of DR-TB treatment or had completed it in the past two months. The researchers identified them from TB registers of health facilities in two provinces in Zimbabwe, the urban province Harare and the rural province Matebeleland South. They examined the physical impact of DR-TB, its treatment, and changes in livelihoods due to DR-TB episodes.

Moreover, they explored the coping strategies adopted in response to DR-TB and the COVID-19 pandemic. In this way, the researchers identified setting-specific experiences and coping strategies adopted by people in Zimbabwe who experienced DR-TB during the pandemic.

The team conducted interviews lasting 35 to 45 minutes in local languages, Shona or Ndebele. It encompassed questions about these people's health-seeking patterns, DR-TB treatment-related experiences, and coping strategies. Finally, the team translated interview transcripts into English and analyzed data using thematic analysis.

This study had minimal recall bias, and since they recruited most participants during the first lockdown, it helped the researchers understand the challenges at the beginning of the pandemic. On the contrary, participants recruited later helped gain insights into their DR-TB diagnostic and treatment journeys though that introduced survival bias.

Study findings

The study had 16 participants, of which eight were women. In total, 12 participants were also co-infected with HIV. The researchers noted that 10 of the 16 participants experienced delays of up to four months in DR-TB treatment initiation due to under or misdiagnoses of TB, HIV co-infection, and seeking healthcare from other providers, e.g., traditional healers. These people also sought care from private pharmacies and clinics; thus, health system-related factors contributed significantly to these delays. Longer diagnostic journeys depleted the financial resources of households by the time of DR-TB treatment initiation.

Delayed diagnosis also worsened the DR-TB severity and incurred higher costs. Not only such households depleted their assets, but they also exhausted short-term coping strategies, such as borrowing, as they were no longer creditworthy. The study also revealed vast physical and psychological impacts of DR-TB on affected people and their households, including young children.

Further, the researchers noted a frequent shortage of DR-TB drugs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Together, COVID-19 and economic challenges amplified the impact of DR-TB on households, accelerating irreversible coping strategies, which had an extensive impact on their livelihoods. Though all the study participants eventually attained successful treatment outcomes, it came at the expense of their livelihoods.

Conclusions

Some government and non-governmental organizations in Zimbabwe provide cash disbursement every month (amounting to US dollar 25) for the duration of treatment to people receiving DR-TB treatment. Unfortunately, the impact of DR-TB extends beyond the duration of DR-TB treatment. Thus, this amount is inadequate to mitigate the financial losses experienced by DR-TB households.

More TB-sensitive approaches, focused on vulnerable households, could have a greater impact in Zimbabwe and will likely prevent future DR-TB episodes. Thus, the study highlighted the significance of raising community awareness about TB symptoms and the benefits of seeking help from public facilities early on. Further, there is an urgent need to address delays in diagnosis by increasing collaborations between private and public healthcare sectors and traditional healers.

More importantly, there is a need for multisectoral approaches that go beyond the DR-TB treatment period to improve the physical, mental, and socioeconomic well-being of people and households affected by this disease, alongside other shocks, including COVID-19 and drought, et cetera. The focus should also be on post-TB care to reduce the likelihood of DR-TB re-infection.

*Important notice: medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
During the first two years of the covid-19 pandemic, while the federal government was trying to prevent people on Medicaid from losing health coverage, Idaho dropped nearly 10,000 people from the safety-net program.

Federal law generally banned states from dropping people, and federal officials said Idaho acted improperly. Idaho officials, however, said they didn't think they did anything wrong.

The episode, revealed in documents KHN obtained through a public records request and in interviews with state officials, offers a preview of what could soon unfold across the United States for millions of people covered through Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program for people with low incomes.

It shows how easily state bureaucracies can disenroll people they shouldn't be disenrolling, leaving those people in financial and medical jeopardy. It also illustrates the potential for confusion and disagreement over what procedures states should follow before cutting off anyone's benefits, particularly when enrollees can't be reached.

A covid relief law Congress enacted in 2020 prohibited states from removing people from Medicaid except in a few narrow circumstances, such as if an enrollee died or moved out of state.

On April 1 of this year, after the prohibition expires, states will resume removing people who no longer qualify or do not furnish needed information. That process has come to be known as the unwinding. Some states see the end of the mandate as a chance to quickly winnow Medicaid rolls that have grown to record levels.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little was among 25 Republican governors who told President Joe Biden in a December letter that, by keeping ineligible people on the Medicaid rolls, the mandate was negatively affecting states.

Idaho's Medicaid program had nearly 450,000 enrollees as of February. The state said about 150,000 of them no longer qualified or had not been in contact with the program during the public health emergency.

Nationally, as disenrollments ramp up, many officials are predicting a mess. The Department of Health and Human Services has predicted that nearly 7 million people still entitled to Medicaid benefits will lose coverage because they fail to complete renewals or state governments won't be able to contact them.

People may not realize they've been dropped until they seek care.

The damage will be done, said Tricia Brooks, a research professor with Georgetown Universitys Center for Children and Families.

Idaho terminated Medicaid benefits for more than 9,800 beneficiaries during the pandemic after mail the state sent them was returned as undeliverable and other attempts to confirm that they still resided in Idaho failed, according to emails between the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare and the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

The emails, sent last spring and summer, detail Idaho's rationale for the terminations, CMS' concerns, and the state's efforts to restore benefits.

CMS officials maintained that, when Idaho's mailings were returned with no forwarding address or an out-of-state forwarding address, the state didn't do enough to make contact with the beneficiaries and ensure they no longer lived in Idaho, according to the emails and state officials.

CMS appreciates the states efforts to come into compliance, Sarah OConnor, a CMS official, wrote on Aug. 18 of last year.

In meetings with CMS, Idaho officials were told the state could not kick people off if it didnt make physical contact, Shane Leach, administrator of the Division of Welfare at Idahos Department of Health and Welfare, recounted in correspondence with CMS.

What they were saying early on, Leach told KHN, is, basically, we didnt do enough outreach to really prove that this person was no longer in Idaho and not eligible for Medicaid.

"My perspective is, we did our due diligence," he added.

For the first two years of the pandemic, when Idaho received returned mail with an out-of-state forwarding address or no forwarding address  possibly indicating the enrollee no longer lived in Idaho  Leach said state officials would call them.

A lot of the calls went unanswered, he said.

"They're really concerned about physically talking to the person or having them say, 'Yes, I'm in another state,'" Leach said of CMS. "And so that's where they said, 'OK, well, you need to reinstate those individuals.'"

"We felt like we were following the guidance," added Jennifer Palagi, a deputy director at the Idaho health department.

CMS guidance in August 2021 stated that returned mail alone was not reason enough to disenroll Medicaid beneficiaries during the public health emergency. But if CMS had issued a written version of the standard to which it was holding Idaho  in which disenrollments would be justified only if the state made contact with the enrollee  Medicaid consumer advocates and other specialists said they were unaware of it.

CMS declined to answer several questions about the Idaho situation.

CMS is committed to working with states to ensure continuity of coverage for eligible individuals, including those for whom the Medicaid agency receives returned mail, Bruce Alexander, director of CMS office of communications, said in a written statement to KHN.

According to the batch of emails obtained by KHN, Idaho in March 2022 did change the states procedures after discussions with CMS. By July, the state Medicaid agency had reinstated benefits for 6,400 people the state couldnt get hold of.

In one of the emails the Idaho Medicaid agency sent to CMS last July, the state said it was reviewing the extent to which it needed to pay medical bills the program had originally rejected.

The inability to reach Medicaid enrollees has been a long-standing problem. The paperwork that agencies send people to fill out often goes unreturned. Some ends up at the wrong address. Up-to-date phone numbers or email addresses may not be available to state and county workers.

"In a perfect situation, a member responds to give you their current address, a phone number, an email address, etc.," said Jack Rollins, director of federal policy for the National Association of Medicaid Directors. "But that is not the case for a lot of situations."

And thats bound to become a larger problem, consumer advocates say, after the pandemic-era enrollment mandate ends this spring. On Jan. 27, CMS detailed to health agencies in all states the minimum theyll need to do to reach a Medicaid recipient who hasnt responded to a mailed form: Before ending benefits, a state must try to obtain up-to-date contact information and attempt to reach the person through at least two means, such as by mail, phone, email or text message, if those means are available.

Still, theres just a lot of variation in terms of what that could look like, said Farah Erzouki, a senior health policy analyst for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a think tank in Washington, D.C.

If any state isn't following the rules, Georgetown University's Brooks said, it can take months to fix the problems  all while people's benefits hang in the balance.

"This is what we want to avoid," Brooks said. "We don't need to spend the next three years after the unwinding trying to get people back on who should not have been disenrolled."
Bacteria of the species Pseudomonas aeruginosa are antibiotic-resistant hospital germs that can enter blood, lungs and other tissues through wounds and cause life-threatening infections. In a joint project, researchers from the Universities of Freiburg and Strasbourg in France have discovered a mechanism that likely contributes to the severity of P. aeruginosa infections. At the same time, it could be a target for future treatments. The results were recently appeared in the journal EMBO Reports.

Many bacterial species use sugar-binding molecules called lectins to attach to and invade host cells. Lectins can also influence the immune response to bacterial infections. However, these functions have hardly been researched so far. A research consortium led by Prof. Dr. Winfried Romer from the Cluster of Excellence CIBSS - Centre for Integrative Biological Signalling Studies at the University of Freiburg and Prof. Dr. Christopher G. Mueller from the IBMC - Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology at the CNRS/University of Strasbourg has investigated the effect of the lectin LecB from P. aeruginosa on the immune system. It found that isolated LecB can render immune cells ineffective: The cells are then no longer able to migrate through the body and trigger an immune response. The administration of a substance directed against LecB prevented this effect and led to the immune cells being able to move unhindered again.

LecB barricades the path for immune cells

As soon as they perceive an infection, cells of the innate immune system migrate to a nearby lymph node, where they activate T and B cells and trigger a targeted immune response. LecB, according to the current study, prevents this migration.

We assume that LecB not only acts on the immune cells themselves in this process, but also has an unexpected effect on the cells lining the inside of the blood and lymph vessels. When LecB binds to these cells, it triggers extensive changes in them." Prof. Dr. Winfried Romer, Cluster of Excellence CIBSS - Centre for Integrative Biological Signalling Studies, University of Freiburg

Indeed, the researchers observed that important structural molecules were relocated to the interior of the cells and degraded. At the same time, the cell skeleton became more rigid. "The cell layer thus becomes an impenetrable barrier for the immune cells," Romer said.

An effective agent against LecB

Can this effect be prevented? To find out, the researchers tested a specific LecB inhibitor that resembles the sugar building blocks to which LecB otherwise binds. "The inhibitor prevented the changes in the cells, and T-cell activation was possible again," Mueller said, summarizing the promising results of the current study. The inhibitor was developed by Prof. Dr. Alexander Titz, who conducts research at the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland and Saarland University.

Further studies are needed to determine how clinically relevant the inhibition of the immune system by LecB is to the spread of P. aeruginosa infection and whether the LecB inhibitor has potential for therapeutic application. "The current results provide further evidence that lectins are a useful target for the development of new therapies, especially for antibiotic-resistant pathogens such as P. aeruginosa," the authors conclude.

A cooperation across the Rhine

The results stem from a cooperation between the universities of Freiburg and Strasbourg. The two first authors of the study were or are currently doctoral candidates at both universities and were/are supported by the Franco-German University of Applied Sciences. The project is thus an example of a successful cross-border research project on the Upper Rhine.
Quebec City, Quebec, February 28, 2023  OpSens Inc. (OpSens or the Company) (TSX:OPS) (OTCQX:OPSSF), a medical device cardiology-focused company delivering innovative solutions based on its proprietary optical technology, is pleased to announce the inaugural two SavvyWire live case broadcasts occurred on Monday, February 27, 2023, during the Cardiovascular Research Technologies (CRT) conference.

These initial live case broadcasts using the SavvyWire were performed and moderated by a panel of global experts during a transcatheter aortic valve replacement procedure (TAVR) at the Medstar Washington Hospital Center by Toby Rogers, MD, PhD, and Lowell F. Satler, MD, FSCAI and during a balloon aortic valvuloplasty (BAV) at Tucson Medical Center by Thomas Waggoner, DO, FACC, FSCAI, FSVM, RPVI.

According to Dr. Satler, Being able to use SavvyWire during its first-ever live case broadcast demonstrates how CRT and the Medstar Washington Hospital Center are at the forefront of cardiovascular innovation. We expect SavvyWire to be a valuable tool when treating patients with aortic stenosis and are encouraged about using it to improve TAVR procedural efficiency.

We are excited to have the opportunity to optimize aortic valve hemodynamics during BAV, said Dr. Thomas Waggoner at Tucson Medical Center. We believe that SavvyWire has the potential to significantly improve procedural efficiency for these procedures via left ventricular pacing and continuous, accurate hemodynamics supporting our ability to know when the procedure is complete.

OpSens continues to execute a methodical launch plan for the SavvyWire, said Louis Laflamme, President and CEO of OpSens. While we are still in the early stages of the launch cycle, the live cases at CRT are key events positioning OpSens for a full commercial launch in the U.S. in the coming months. We believe that SavvyWire has the potential to revolutionize the way physicians treat patients with valvular disease.

Cardiovascular Research Technologies (CRT) is a live, in-person annual educational interventional cardiology conference being held February 25-28, 2023, in Washington, D.C., with Dr. Ron Waksman as the course chairman. Attracting a global audience from all seven continents, CRT 2023 has over 2,900 attendees, 20 live cases, and 12 late-breaking clinical trials.

SavvyWire is more than a wire, as the worlds first and only sensor-guided TAVR solution. It uniquely provides a 3-in-1 solution for stable aortic valve delivery and positioning, continuous accurate hemodynamic measurement during the procedure, and reliable left ventricular pacing without the need for adjunct devices or venous access.

About OpSens Inc. (www.OpSens.com or www.OpSensmedical.com)

OpSens focuses mainly on cardiology. The Company offers an advanced optical-based pressure guidewire that aims at improving the clinical outcome of patients with coronary artery disease. Its flagship product, the OptoWire, is a second-generation fiber optic pressure guidewire designed to provide the lowest drift in the industry and excellent lesions access. The OptoWire has been used in the diagnosis and treatment of more than 200,000 patients in more than 30 countries. It is approved for sale in the United States, European Union, Japan, and Canada.

OpSens has recently received FDA clearance and Health Canada approval to commercialize the SavvyWire for transcatheter aortic valve replacement procedures (TAVR). This unique guidewire is a 3-in-1 solution for stable aortic valve delivery and positioning, continuous accurate hemodynamic measurement during the procedure, and reliable left ventricular pacing without the need for adjunct devices or venous access.

OpSens SavvyWire is on trend with a minimalist approach to TAVR and advances the procedure, allowing patients to leave the hospital earlier, sometimes the same day.

The TAVR procedure is growing rapidly globally, driven by the aging population and recent studies that demonstrate its benefits for a broader array of patients. The global TAVR market is currently estimated at over 200,000 procedures and is expected to reach 400,000 in 2027.

OpSens is also involved in industrial activities in developing, manufacturing, and installing innovative fiber optic sensing solutions for critical applications.
Taking vitamin D supplements may help ward off dementia, according to a new, large-scale study.

Researchers at the University of Calgary's Hotchkiss Brain Institute in Canada and the University of Exeter in the UK explored the relationship between vitamin D supplementation and dementia in more than 12,388 participants of the US National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center, who had a mean age of 71 and were dementia-free when they signed up. Of the group, 37 per cent (4,637) took vitamin D supplements.

In the study, published in Alzheimer's & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring, the team found that taking vitamin D was associated with living dementia-free for longer, and they also found 40 per cent fewer dementia diagnoses in the group who took supplements.

Across the entire sample, 2,696 participants progressed to dementia over ten years; amongst them, 2,017 (75%) had no exposure to vitamin D throughout all visits prior to dementia diagnosis, and 679 (25%) had baseline exposure.

Professor Zahinoor Ismail, of the University of Calgary and University of Exeter, who led the research, said: "We know that vitamin D has some effects in the brain that could have implications for reducing dementia, however so far, research has yielded conflicting results. Our findings give key insights into groups who might be specifically targeted for vitamin D supplementation. Overall, we found evidence to suggest that earlier supplementation might be particularly beneficial, before the onset of cognitive decline."

While Vitamin D was effective in all groups, the team found that effects were significantly greater in females, compared to males. Similarly, effects were greater in people with normal cognition, compared to those who reported signs of mild cognitive impairment  changes to cognition which have been linked to a higher risk of dementia.

The effects of vitamin D were also significantly greater in people who did not carry the APOEe4 gene, known to present a higher risk for Alzheimer's dementia, compared to non-carriers. The authors suggest that people who carry the APOEe4 gene absorb vitamin D better from their intestine, which might reduce the vitamin D supplementation effect. However, no blood levels were drawn to test this hypothesis.

Previous research has found that low levels of vitamin D are linked to higher dementia risk. Vitamin D is involved in the clearance of amyloid in the brain, the accumulation of which is one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease. Studies have also found that vitamin D may provide help to protect the brain against build-up of tau, another protein involved in the development of dementia.

Preventing dementia or even delaying its onset is vitally important given the growing numbers of people affected. The link with vitamin D in this study suggests that taking vitamin D supplements may be beneficial in preventing or delaying dementia, but we now need clinical trials to confirm whether this is really the case. The ongoing VitaMIND study at the University of Exeter is exploring this issue further by randomly assigning participants to either take vitamin D or placebo and examining changes in memory and thinking tests over time." Dr Byron Creese, Co-Author, University of Exeter

The VitaMIND study is run via PROTECT, an online study open to people aged 40 and over. In PROTECT annual questionnaires on detailed lifestyle factors combine with cognitive testing, to determine what keeps the brain sharp in later life. To find out more or to sign up, visit their website. In Canada, CAN-PROTECT, is a linked online study on aging, in people aged 40 and over, with an additional focus on caregiving in dementia.
IRCTC partners with HDFC Bank to launch Indias most rewarding co-branded travel credit card

New Delhi, Mar 1 (UNI) Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd (IRCTC), the public sector undertaking under the Ministry of Railways, and HDFC Bank, Indias largest private sector bank on Wednesady announced a partnership to launch one of Indias most rewarding co-branded travel credit cards.

Known as the IRCTC HDFC Bank Credit Card, the newly launched co-branded card is in a single variant and is available exclusively on NPCIs Rupay network.



It will provide exclusive benefits and maximum savings on bookings of train tickets booked through the IRCTCs ticketing website and through IRCTC Rail Connect app. Additionally, IRCTC HDFC Bank Credit cardholders will enjoy an attractive joining bonus, discounts on bookings and access to the several executive lounges at railway stations across the country, according to media statement.



The card combines the strength of two leading Indian brands to deliver superior value and an enhanced customer experience to travellers. It will leverage HDFC Banks expertise as the market leader in card issuance in the country, offering its best-in-class rewards programme, and IRCTCs unmatched services on train travel.



The credit card was launched by Rajni Hasija, Chairman & Managing Director, IRCTC, Parag Rao, Group Head  Payments, Consumer Finance, Digital Banking and IT, HDFC Bank and Praveena Rai, COO, NPCI at a launch ceremony held at New Delhi.



Commenting on the association, Rajni Hasija, Chairman & Managing Director, IRCTC said, HDFC Bank is among the largest and most trusted banks in the country. We are delighted to partner with them for this initiative. The co-branded card offers exclusive access to newly opened state-of-the-art lounges available at most of the major railway stations. The credit card will help to streamline online transactions and at the same time offer best-in-class benefits as well as experience to our customers.



Parag Rao, Group Head  Payments, Consumer Finance, Digital Banking and IT, HDFC Bank said, HDFC Bank is committed to providing best-in-class banking services to the nation. The IRCTC HDFC Bank Credit Card will enable us to offer our card to millions of Indians across the country. Indian Railways is one of the biggest public sector enterprises in the country and we are delighted to be the first private sector bank to partner with IRCTC to enhance customer experience for train travellers, right from the time of booking their tickets. As the largest card issuer in the country, it is

our endeavour consistently to find new ways to nurture and support the payments ecosystem in India.



Praveena Rai, Chief Operating Officer  National Payments Corporation of India said, At RuPay, we have customers at the heart of all our offerings & innovations. We are happy to partner with IRCTC & HDFC Bank for a cobranded credit card which will offer seamless payment convenience and appealing benefits to customers for rail travel as well as their shopping needs. With RuPay Credit Cards now enabled on UPI for payments, this cobranded card will provide impetus to further adoption and reach of digital payments across India.

UNI BM KK
Boja Kragulj, an accomplished clarinetist who once performed with orchestras in New York, Philadelphia, and Jacksonville, Florida, has already lost four teeth. And she expects to lose at least a dozen more.

Five years ago, seeking to correct her bite and improve her breathing, Kragulj tried a dental device that she was told would put pressure on her upper palate, lengthening her jawbone to fix her issues without surgery, according to an ongoing lawsuit she has filed in federal court. Kragulj said she discovered the device through Facebook, and it sounded "miraculous."

What she said happened next was ghastly. Kragulj alleged in her lawsuit that instead of changing her jaw, the device pushed her teeth forward through the bone that anchors their roots in place, which put her front teeth in jeopardy. Dozens of photos provided by her attorney show that over time her teeth bulged out of her mouth, warping her smile into a twisted mess. In the three years since filing her suit, Kragulj has had four unsalvageable teeth removed and two others ground to nubs, she said.

Now Kragulj's only option is to undergo far more extensive surgeries than she faced before, according to her lawsuit. She described pain when eating anything that must be chewed and sometimes struggles to speak clearly through false teeth. And her livelihood is lost: Despite decades of training, Kragulj recently said she can no longer play clarinet well enough to perform or teach.

"So now something I had only seen in very old studies that were published in black and white, on animals, I saw in my patients with 3D X-rays." Dr. Marianna Evans, orthodontist and periodontist

More than 10,000 dental patients have been fitted with an Anterior Growth Guidance Appliance, or "AGGA," according to court records. But the unproven and unregulated dental device, often costing patients about $7,000, has not been evaluated by the FDA, according to a months-long joint investigation by KHN and CBS News. The FDA relies on device companies to submit new products for evaluation, and because the AGGA was never submitted, it has been sold to patients without that government review.

"They're still selling it. And still teaching classes. And still putting it in people's mouths," Kragulj, 42, said in an interview.

Dentists across the country promote the AGGA on their websites, often claiming it can "grow," "remodel," or "expand" an adult's jaw without surgery, sometimes saying it has the potential to make patients more attractive and treat common ailments like sleep apnea and TMJ. However, after reviewing dental scans that the AGGA inventor submitted in court to prove the device works, eight experts told KHN and CBS News the scans show signs of the AGGA displacing teeth instead of expanding the jaw. Some experts said, based on their experience with former AGGA patients, the device caused tens of thousands of dollars in damage to the patient's mouths.

Dr. Marianna Evans, a Philadelphia orthodontist and periodontist who has examined multiple AGGA patients experiencing pain or complications, said she was reminded of gruesome, decades-old experiments that intentionally displaced the teeth of monkeys and dogs to test the limits of orthodontia.

"These studies could not be done on humans because it was ethically wrong," Evans said. "So now something I had only seen in very old studies that were published in black and white, on animals, I saw in my patients with 3D X-rays."

At least 20 AGGA patients, including Kragulj, have in the past three years filed lawsuits detailing their complaints about the device, claiming it left them with flared teeth, damaged gums, exposed roots, or erosion of the bone that holds teeth in place. Some plaintiffs said in lawsuits they would lose teeth and added in interviews that they no longer have enough healthy bone to replace their teeth with dental implants.

Most of their lawsuits do not name the dentists who installed the device as defendants, but are filed against the AGGA's inventor, its manufacturer, and companies that train dentists to use it, alleging they profit from false claims about a device that does not  and cannot  work.

All the AGGA lawsuits are ongoing. Attorneys for the inventor, Dr. Steve Galella, and the company he leads, the Facial Beauty Institute, have in court filings denied liability and argued that plaintiffs were appropriately warned of potential complications from the device, including "teeth dying" or "removal of teeth." The Las Vegas Institute, which previously held AGGA classes for dentists and promoted the device on Facebook, denied liability in court and has a pending motion to end claims in one lawsuit in which it is named as a defendant. And the AGGA's manufacturer, Johns Dental Laboratories, has settled one lawsuit for an undisclosed amount but continues to fight allegations in the rest of the cases.

Galella, 70, a Tennessee dentist who invented the AGGA in the 1990s, declined to be interviewed after being contacted by phone, email, and in person. His attorney, Alan Fumuso, said in a written statement that Galella "had not been made aware of any complaints" about the device prior to the recent lawsuits.

"The [AGGA], when properly used, is safe and can achieve beneficial results for the patient," Fumuso said. "This is not only the personal observation and experience of Dr. Galella, but also the experience of other dentists as well."

The plaintiffs do not allege in their lawsuits that Galella treated them but that he or his company consulted with each of their dentists about their AGGA treatment.

For this article, KHN and CBS News journalists interviewed 11 dental patients who said they were harmed by the AGGA  eight of whom have active lawsuits concerning the device  plus attorneys who said they represent or have represented at least 23 others. In every case, the patients said in lawsuits or interviews that they were convinced the device would expand their jaws or improve their breathing and mistakenly assumed the AGGA would not be for sale unless it was proven safe and effective.

None of their jawbones expanded, the patients alleged in lawsuits and interviews.

"The entire concept of this device, of this treatment, makes zero sense.  It doesn't grow the jaw. It doesn't widen the jaw. It just pushes the teeth out of their original position." Dr. Kasey Li, maxillofacial surgeon and sleep apnea specialist

Leigh Peterson, 47, of Ohio, spent $7,000 on AGGA treatment in hopes of alleviating her TMJ, or temporomandibular joint disorder, which had caused her pain since she was a teen.

Within months of AGGA use, Peterson said, her teeth were so loose she could feel them move when rubbing moisturizer on her cheeks. Kissing her boyfriend became uncomfortable.

Peterson, who does not have an active lawsuit, said that according to a dental specialist she will need at least one round of bone grafts to stabilize her teeth.

"I feel like all I have to look forward to now is treatment and pain and fear and debt," Peterson said. "And I just regret it. I wish I'd never done any of this."

The AGGA, which was recently rebranded as the Osseo-Restoration Appliance, resembles a retainer and uses springs to apply pressure to the front teeth and upper palate, according to a patent application filed in 2021. The version of AGGA intended for adults is affixed to a patient's molars, typically worn for several months, and must be removed by a medical professional. Galella said pressure from the device causes an adult's jaw to "remodel" forward "to where the body really wants it to be," according to video footage from one of his dentist trainings produced in discovery in an AGGA lawsuit. In the video, Galella describes this transformation as the key to "curing" patients and making them more beautiful.

"We fix the facial biology," Galella said in the video.

However, in a series of interviews with orthodontists, periodontists, and maxillofacial surgeons  all of whom have more training than the average dentist  these experts said that while it is possible to expand the jaws of children without surgery, jawbones stop growing forward as people mature into adulthood. Experts who have examined patients fitted with an AGGA said the device aggressively moved teeth, sometimes creating an illusion of jaw growth by tilting some teeth forward and forcing gaps between others. In the worst cases, those experts have seen teeth shoved so far out of position that their roots are pushed free of the bone and into the gums.

Dr. Kasey Li, a California maxillofacial surgeon and sleep apnea specialist, last year published a study  the abstract of which appeared on a National Institutes of Health website  describing loose teeth and bone loss among AGGA patients he has examined.

In an interview, Li described the AGGA device as "medieval" and said using it to try to expand a jaw is not unlike trying to make your house bigger by simply pushing on the wooden framing in the walls.

"The entire concept of this device, of this treatment, makes zero sense," Li said. "It doesn't grow the jaw. It doesn't widen the jaw. It just pushes the teeth out of their original position."

Rolling out the AGGA

The AGGA device has been used on patients for about 15 years. Its biggest promoter is Galella, who operates out of a small, unremarkable clinic in a strip mall in the Memphis suburbs.

Galella said in a 2021 sworn deposition in one of the lawsuits that he has applied the AGGA to about 600 patients and prepared treatment plans for patients getting an AGGA from another dentist on about 9,800 occasions, collecting a "royalty" of $50 to $65 each time the device is made.

The Facial Beauty Institute has also taught an undisclosed number of dentists to use the device during three-day courses costing about $5,000, according to the company's website. The Las Vegas Institute, also known as LVI Global, offered similar AGGA classes for years and lists on its website about 75 dentists across the U.S. and Canada who have taken that class.

Dave Hornblower, 36, of Ontario, who was fitted with an AGGA in 2019 by a dentist who trained at the Las Vegas Institute, now expects to lose multiple teeth, according to his lawsuit against the company, the inventor, and other defendants.

Hornblower said in an interview the AGGA did not improve his breathing and he now feels pain whenever he makes a TH sound, brushing his tongue against the back of his front teeth.

"My dentist said he'd went to courses, seen the evidence, and he seemed very sure of himself, so I was sure of him," Hornblower said. "He told me it would do all that magical stuff, and I believed him."

William Schuller, an attorney for the Las Vegas Institute, said in a phone interview that the Institute disputes claims the AGGA is "inherently dangerous" or "has no utility to adults." Schuller said AGGA training is no longer offered at the institute and disputed that the institute ever taught dentists to use the device.

"I wouldn't go so far as to say that LVI directly taught dentists to use the AGGA device ever," he said. "LVI is a campus that provides the ability to teach courses in a variety of procedures and techniques. The doctors who taught the courses were associated with Dr. Galella. It was his course and his course materials that he prepared."

However, according to a sworn deposition filed in one of the AGGA lawsuits, the AGGA training at the Las Vegas Institute was for years taught by the company's "co-orthodontic directors," Dr. David Buck and Dr. Timothy Gross. Buck said in that deposition he created lectures and wrote materials for the course, which were approved by Galella and the leadership of the institute, which kept 70% of the tuition paid for the trainings. A slideshow presentation from one of these training sessions, filed as an exhibit in another AGGA lawsuit, identifies Buck and Gross as "clinical instructor[s]" at the institute.

"We are not aware of any peer-reviewed articles regarding AGGA working and we're not aware of any peer-reviewed articles regarding AGGA not working." William Schuller, attorney

When pressed during his deposition, Galella said he was not aware of any peer-reviewed studies or clinical trials demonstrating that the AGGA works as claimed on patients whose jaws have finished growing. Galella said his confidence in the device comes from years of using it on patients and dental scans he had not published.

"It proved it to me," Galella said. "But for the rest of the world, I hadn't posted anything. Sorry."

Galella's company has posted a non-peer-reviewed "white paper" that summarizes the theory behind the AGGA and contains one image from a dental scan of an unidentified, presumably adult patient that describes 1 to 3 millimeters of "outward relocation" of the upper jawbone after wearing an AGGA for four months. The paper says research on the AGGA "takes some time" and "we have begun this research in earnest."

Schuller acknowledged the lack of peer-reviewed evidence behind the AGGA.

"We are not aware of any peer-reviewed articles regarding AGGA working," he said in an interview, "and we're not aware of any peer-reviewed articles regarding AGGA not working. So my understanding is that there is no literature to speak to it one way or the other."

Faced with the lack of professional studies, a federal judge last year ordered Galella to turn over a sample of his dental scans. Galella was required to provide the plaintiffs with before-and-after scans from five patients over age 30 that demonstrate the AGGA is effective.

Those scans offer no proof, according to an expert witness enlisted by the plaintiffs. In a sworn affidavit filed with the court, Dr. Ricky Harrell, who leads the residency program at the Georgia School of Orthodontics, said Galella's dental scans "demonstrate no appreciable growth" of the adult jawbones.

KHN and CBS News had those scans reviewed by eight independent experts, including orthodontists, periodontists, maxillofacial surgeons, and faculty from dental colleges at Columbia, Harvard, and the University of Florida. None of these experts was involved in any of the AGGA lawsuits at the time of their interviews.

Every expert had the same response: Galella's scans showed patients' teeth had moved but their jaws remained unchanged.

"It is proof," said Dr. Richard Roblee, an Arkansas orthodontist who reviewed the scans. "Proof that the [AGGA] is not working correctly, not doing what they say. That is the proof that he has given."

Roblee said he has examined at least 15 people he said were harmed by the AGGA and has never seen another dental technique cause "this much damage" to so many patients.

Dr. George Mandelaris, a Chicago-area periodontist and member of the American Academy of Periodontology Board of Trustees, said Galella's dental scans show "harm" to the bone that holds teeth in place. Mandelaris said he has consulted with 11 AGGA patients, including Kragulj, who looked as if "a bomb went off in her mouth."

Dr. Sercan Akyalcin, the head of orthodontics at Harvard, said the scans showed the patients' upper frontmost teeth were pushed forward but did not show that their jawbones expanded.

Dr. Millie Embree, a professor of orthodontics at Columbia, and Dr. Anita Gohel, the head of oral radiology at the University of Florida, each said they saw that patients were losing teeth in the scans that Galella chose to validate the AGGA's effectiveness.

"I'm a little surprised that this was the best evidence," Gohel said. "I wonder what the rest is."

The AGGA appears to be off the radar of the FDA, which is responsible for regulating medical and dental devices in the United States. Device manufacturers are supposed to register new products with the agency, and any devices that pose even a moderate risk to a patient can be required to go through a pre-market review to check if they are safe and effective.

In an emailed statement, the FDA confirmed it had no record of the AGGA being registered in its device database but would not comment on whether the device should have been registered or if it would be investigated. The agency would not say if it was aware of the AGGA prior to being contacted by KHN and CBS News.

The AGGA's exclusive manufacturer, Johns Dental Laboratories, located in Indiana, said in a court document it has no record of communicating with the FDA about the AGGA before beginning to make or sell it. Johns Dental said in court the AGGA falls into the FDA's least-risky classification for devices, similar to a dental retainer, and is exempt from a pre-market clearance under a statutory exemption for dental labs. Johns Dental attorney Jeffrey Oberlies declined to comment.

Galella said in his deposition that he believed the AGGA was outside of the FDA's jurisdiction.

Cara Tenenbaum, a former senior policy adviser in the FDA's device center, said the AGGA is within FDA jurisdiction and it was "incredibly problematic" that it was not registered, at least in part because that is how the FDA collects reports of negative effects.

If properly registered, Tenenbaum said, the AGGA might be classified with devices that reposition the jaw or prevent snoring, which are in a more tightly regulated category than what Johns Dental cited in court. Tenenbaum said the FDA was most likely unaware of the AGGA and she suspects it will investigate once alerted to allegations of patient harm.

Scott Charnas, a New York attorney who represents numerous AGGA patients, said he believed a more proactive FDA would have discovered and investigated the device years ago.

"It's just going to go on and on unless someone does something about it," Charnas said. "Somebody needs to step up."

AGGA inventor: 'It's OK to make a crapload of money'

Both Galella and the Las Vegas Institute have said in dentist trainings that the AGGA can "cure" TMJ and sleep apnea, according to the AGGA training video footage and a slideshow presentation obtained from the ongoing lawsuits.

Galella is heard in the video telling dentists that customers are "gonna beat your door down" because the AGGA can cure patients instead of merely treating their symptoms. He says some patients who want to lessen their pain or improve their looks will "pay anything  anything!  to have that problem resolved."

"It's OK to make a crapload of money," Galella tells dentists in the video. "You're not ripping anybody off. You're curing them. You're helping them. You're making their life totally beautiful forever and ever."

Beauty was also a focal point of AGGA classes at the Las Vegas Institute, where the slideshow presentation features photos of celebrities and models. Images of decorated Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps and Princess of Wales Kate Middleton are shown as examples of the kind of unattractive, "underdeveloped midface" that the AGGA is claimed to correct. Middleton is specifically described as "remarkably not beautiful.

"Why are we here?" reads the first page of the slideshow. "To treat ugly faces."

The Las Vegas Institute frequently promoted the AGGA in a Facebook group where many of the patients interviewed for this story say they were first persuaded to use the device. The group outwardly appears to be a discussion space for people with jaw problems, and membership is controlled by the Las Vegas Institute.

"We were looking for this holy grail type of deal," said Karan Gill, who wore an AGGA for months and alleges in a lawsuit his teeth were left loose and sensitive. "The people who were promoting the AGGA in these Facebook groups and such  that's the way they were talking about it."

Five former members described the Facebook group as a pro-AGGA echo chamber, where anyone who asked for proof that the AGGA works was hushed or banned.

"If you seek the truth outside, you will be excommunicated," said Nick Hamilton, 40, a former member of the Facebook group who has an ongoing lawsuit against Galella. "I was asking too many questions. And I started talking openly with other people that were having issues. And they kicked us all out."

A KHN-CBS News review of the Facebook group postings the past six years uncovered at least five posts in which Las Vegas Institute CEO Bill Dickerson said that the AGGA is "growing bone" or can "grow the maxilla," which is another name for the upper jaw.

"[I]nstead of just moving teeth  we are growing bone  it's awesome," Dickerson wrote in a 2017 post about the AGGA in the Facebook group.

Dickerson has since changed his view. Last year, in a sworn deposition filed in an ongoing lawsuit, Dickerson said he did not believe the AGGA could grow the maxilla and agreed it would be misleading to say it could. Dickerson said in the deposition he began to question the claims of what the AGGA could do in 2020, and after reviewing some patients' dental scans, he severed ties with Galella and the Facial Beauty Institute.

Kragulj, the clarinetist from the beginning of this article, said she discovered the AGGA through a Facebook video from Galella's Facial Beauty Institute. According to her lawsuit, she got a device in 2018 and wore it for about 14 months, by which point she had sustained "irreversible" damage to the bone that holds her teeth in place.

Eventually, Kragulj sought help from the man who knew the AGGA better than anyone: Galella. She said she traveled to his Facial Beauty Institute for a consultation, expecting an elite academic facility but finding only a small clinic with aging wallpaper and broken equipment.

Kragulj said Galella looked in her mouth and, after an audible sigh, offered to fix her for $15,000  plus as much as $15,000 more per tooth. Galella confirmed that meeting and approximate cost in his deposition.

After the meeting, Kragulj decided she was done with Galella, according to her lawsuit. She said she returned to the traditional surgeons and specialists she once eschewed, and the first orthodontist she saw described her teeth as "the worst thing he'd ever seen."

"They were hanging on by a thread, and the bone was gone," Kragulj said in an interview. "So it was an extravagant process to get to a place where I could even have fake teeth."

Kragulj said that since abandoning the AGGA treatment she had to remove four front teeth and was fitted with a dental bridge of false teeth. She said she will need surgery to fix the underlying problems in her jaw and will likely need to replace her upper teeth with prosthetics.

Her entire treatment will cost, by her estimate, a minimum of $150,000, followed by a lifetime of maintaining and replacing dental implants, she said.

Kragulj said it is unlikely she will ever play the clarinet professionally again and as of now she cannot play properly for even a minute without pain.

"My inner world is very silent," Kragulj said. "It was my voice."
New Delhi, March 1 (UNI) Supreme Court will deliver its verdict on Thursday on the appointment of a committee to probe the Adani-Hindenburg row.

A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dr Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chadrachud, and also comprising Justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwa, had reserved its verdict on the constitution of the panel.

The Supreme Court had in its order on February 17, said that it would not accept the sealed cover names of experts suggested by the Union government for inclusion in the committee to be set up to examine US short-seller Hindenburg's report on the Adani report that led to meltdown of the Indian conglomerate's shares, noting that "We want to maintain full transparency" in the case.

"We will select the experts and maintain full transparency. If we take names from the government, it would amount to a government constituted committee. There has to be full (public) confidence in the committee," the bench had said.

The Supreme Court also observed that it wanted to maintain full transparency, it may result in people thhinking it is a government-appointed panel.

"If we accept suggestions we should disclose it to the other side so that there is transparency. So we will appoint the committee and appoint members on our own," the Supreme Court had said.

The Top Court also refused to accept SEBIs suggestions for the appointment of an expert committee to examine changes required in the regulatory framework, and said that it will appoint the same itself to maintain fullest transparency for protection of investors.

"We do not want to put out names since it may affect them. We don't want names and we will do our own work but we can," the Supreme Court had said, in its order.

Advocate Vishal Tiwari, one of the petitioners, said that we want this entire thing to be probed and a high-powered committee to look into it, what is happening in corporate bodies.

"Fair, unbiased and credible investigation is required in this case," lawyer for one of the petitioners, had told the Supreme Court.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan for another petitioner, said that we demand a SIT probe into the adani group case and also a probe into the role of banks.

"Hindenburg Research report shows that many offshore companies were owned by brother of the promoter of adani group.. percentage of shares held in Adani group exceeded the max laid down as 75% by SEBI and offshore funds were being manipulated to increase share price," Bhushan had told the Supreme Court.

Bhushan said that we seek to know the source of funds by the shell companies which the report shows.

The Supreme Court heard a number of petitions filed by lawyer duo -- Manohar Lal Sharma and Vishal Tiwari -- and Congress leader and Member of Parliament (MP) Dr Jaya Thakur, seeking a direction for investigation against Adani Group in the light of the Hindenburg report. UNI SC SSP
Japan's government has eased its COVID-19 border controls on travelers arriving from China.

The government imposed emergency measures on travelers from China last December, after the number of coronavirus infections in the country soared.

The measures required all visitors from China to be PCR tested upon arrival, and to show proof of negative pre-departure test results.

On Wednesday, the mandatory testing was switched to random testing of a limited number of people. But travelers are still required to show proof of negative pre-departure test results, as the government plans to ease controls in phases.

Under the new measure, up to 20 percent of passengers on direct flights from mainland China are subject to testing.

Travelers who arrived at Narita Airport near Tokyo on Wednesday afternoon via a direct flight from Shanghai were not subject to testing, so they immediately headed for the immigration area. ...continue reading
New Delhi, Mar 1 (UNI) Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra on Wednesday declined to say whether a joint statement would be issued at the end of the G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting tomorrow, even as Western leaders and Russia issued strong statements on the Ukraine-Russia conflict.

It would not be correct to prejudge the outcome of the meeting, Kwatra said at a special briefing here on whether a joint statement could be expected.

His comments come in the backdrop of the Russia-Ukraine conflict overshadowing the G20 Finance Ministers Meeting in Bengaluru last week that prevented a joint communique from being issued. With Russia and China objecting to the use of the word war to describe the dragging conflict, the Finance Ministers session saw a Chairs Statement and an Outcome Document issued.

Kwatra also said the Ukraine conflict is expected to be in focus at the meetings.

Clearly the foreign ministers would also focus on ongoing situation in the Russian-Ukraine conflict, but what is it they come out with, and clearly among members what is the understanding they develop, not just on the conflict, but on the impact of the conflict on the rest of the world, the economic impact, the challenges that developing countries face, are equally important to focus on; I dont think it would be correct to prejudge the outcome of the meeting; let the foreign ministers decide that on their own; but we are very clear that the foreign ministers should focus on all the priorities that are very relevant in the global context, he said.

Kwatra also reiterated Indias position on the Ukraine issue, including PM Modis statement at Samarkand at the SCO summit where he had said that this is not the era of war. and right from the start of the Ukraine conflict in February last year, the PM has in his conversations with the global leadership and with those of Russia and Ukraine, clearly stated that dialogue and diplomacy is the way forward. Converge these three, and you see what came about in the Bali declaration.

What the foreign ministers would discuss tomorrow and whether it would be to the exclusion of the other agenda items, is for the foreign ministers to discuss and decide, Kwatra added, to persistent queries.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in his tour of the Central Asian countries ahead of his arrival in the Indian capital, warned them about the dangers of the Ukraine conflict in their neighbourhood.

UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly is expected to continue to call Russia out at the G20 and work with partners to mitigate the global impacts of Russian aggression in Ukraine

The Russian Foreign Ministry in a statement said, as FM Sergey Lavrov landed in India, that During the regular foreign ministers meeting we intend to firmly and openly talk about the reasons and instigators of the current serious problems in world politics and the global economy.



We will focus on the attempts by the West to take revenge for the inevitable disappearance of the levers of dominance from its hands. We will also concentrate on its striving to continue receiving unilateral rent, in part, through unequal trade and violent interference in the affairs of sovereign states.

Meanwhile, clarifying the language of the Outcome Document issued at the end of the Finance Ministers Meeting in Bengaluru, MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said:

There was a text tabled at the Finance Ministers Meeting, which was a Chairs Statement and Outcome Document, on the issue of the Russian-Ukraine conflict, we tabled paras 3 and 4 which is a reproduction of the text from the Bali Leaders declaration.

Two countries, Russia and China, did not agree to that; you need to ask them about why exactly, on their perspectives, or do they no longer, are they no longer with the text from Bali. You have to ask them; and this is not a speculative response. And we will see how it goes forward

It is a repetition from the Bali declaration, and obviously we stand by the declaration, it was our PM who was there, our constructive role was appreciated in that, there is no question of not agreeing to that text, we are with that text, and if two countries, in this case Russia and China have reservations about the text, you need to ask them.

And arguing that that has now made a change in our position is not accurate, because in the Bali declaration we signed up, to all the paras of the Bali declaration are there as the agreed text, and now as the text we have presented (as the Outcome Document).



UNI RN
Have an opinion on a recent story or event around the University of Cincinnati? Let us know what you think!

If you're interested in submitting a Letter to the Editor, click the button below to email Emma Balcom, editor-in-chief. For news tips or story ideas, contact one of our editors.

Send us a tip
Revenue of $17.8M compared to $9.4M in 2021, an increase of 89%

compared to in 2021, an increase of 89% Operating Cash Flow (OCF), before changes in working capital (WC), of $3.2M compared to $1.9M in 2021, an increase of 68%

compared to in 2021, an increase of 68% Free Cash Flow 1 (FCF) of $0.9M , after a $1.2M increase in WC and $1.1M in capital expenditures

(FCF) of , after a increase in WC and in capital expenditures The Company anticipates an increase in free cash flow in 2023 as a result of higher operating cash flow and lower capital expenditures compared to 2022

Subsequent to year-end, closed a $2.0M convertible debenture financing

MEDFORD, Ore., March 1, 2023 /CNW/ - Grown Rogue International Inc. ("Grown Rogue" or the "Company") (CSE: GRIN) (OTC: GRUSF), a craft cannabis company operating in Oregon and Michigan, is pleased to report its audited 2022 results for the twelve months ended October 31, 2022. All financial information is provided in U.S. dollars unless otherwise indicated.

Fiscal 2022 Financial Summary ($USD Millions)

Fiscal 2022 Summary 2022 2021 +/- % Revenue 17.8 9.4 +89 % aEBITDA 5.1 2.3 +126 % aEBITDA % 28.7 % 24.0 % +4.7 % OCF (Before Changes in WC) 3.2 1.9 +68 % OCF % 17.9 % 20.1 % (2.2 %)



Management Commentary

"I'm thrilled to report our fiscal 2022 results, which continue to show our ability to carefully and profitably scale our business, including being free cash flow positive and increasing revenue and aEBITDA by 89% and 126% respectively year-over-year," said Obie Strickler, CEO of Grown Rogue. "Our relentless focus on delivering a high-quality craft product at the best price has led to customers responding by giving us more share in the markets we serve. I look forward to continuing this trend into our fiscal 2023, especially as Michigan's capital improvements are now complete and we continue to optimize yields and institute a rigid focus on genetics."

Continued Mr. Strickler: "Regarding our go-forward strategy and our capital allocation priorities, I want to note that many previously insulated markets are beginning to experience price normalization which we have long been familiar with in our home state of Oregon and now Michigan. But, even in markets where prices have fallen from their highs, they are still significantly above prevailing Oregon and Michigan pricing. This normalization has created distress among companies which cannot operate at prices we are comfortable with, and this distress has, in turn, lowered asset prices creating new and exciting opportunities for us. Our capital allocation is guided by our disciplined search for the most compelling ways of entering new markets where the 'Grown Rogue Way' will be successful. Our focus in 2023 on new market entry has been significantly bolstered by the $2M investment we recently closed, strengthening our balance sheet on great terms for the Company."

Oregon Market Highlights ($USD Millions)

Oregon 2022 2021 +/- % Revenue 8.9 5.2 +72 % aEBITDA 2.6 1.7 +271 % aEBITDA Margin % 29.0 % 32.7 % (3.8 %)

#1 Flower brand and #3 brand overall in 2022, according to LeafLink's MarketScape data

#1 Flower brand for six consecutive quarters

Total harvested wet weights for the state of Oregon decreased 5% YoY for indoor, 18% YoY for mixed, and 17% YoY for outdoor, according to the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission (OLCC)

Grown Rogue wet weight harvested for indoor and outdoor increased 45% and 88%, respectively, compared to 2021

Subsequent to year-end, Grown Rogue increased Oregon sungrown capacity with a lease option of 35 acres in Medford

Michigan Market Highlights ($USD Millions)

Michigan 2022 2021 +/- % Revenue 8.9 3.9 +129 % aEBITDA 3.9 2.2 +77 % aEBITDA Margin % 43.8 % 56.4 % (12.6 %)

#10 wholesale flower brand in 2022, according to LeafLink's MarketScape data

Added an additional $1.1M in fixed assets, including production from five additional flower rooms

More than doubled production in 2022 compared to 2021 and expect an additional 50% growth in 2023 reflecting the annualization of rooms built in 2022

Launched one gram pre-rolls (including nitrogen sealed varieties) in Q2 2022

Subsequent to year-end, Grown Rogue exercised its option to acquire its controlling interest in Golden Harvests, LLC

Michigan operations are through Golden Harvests, LLC.

Financial Statements and aEBITDA reconciliation

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF FINANCIAL POSITION October 31, 2022 October 31, 2021

$ $ ASSETS



Current assets



Cash and cash equivalents 1,582,384 1,114,033 Accounts receivable (Note 20) 1,643,959 739,248 Biological assets (Note 4) 1,199,519 1,188,552 Inventory (Note 5) 3,131,877 3,306,312 Prepaid expenses and other assets 352,274 357,541 Total current assets 7,910,013 6,705,686 Marketable securities (Note 6) - 610,092 Other investments and purchase deposits (Note 8) - 750,000 Property and equipment (Note 11) 7,734,901 5,742,584 Intangible assets and goodwill (Note 12) 725,668 399,338 TOTAL ASSETS 16,370,582 14,207,700 LIABILITIES



Current liabilities



Accounts payable and accrued liabilities 1,821,875 1,766,707 Current portion of lease liabilities (Note 10) 1,025,373 624,935 Current portion of long-term debt (Note 13) 1,769,600 843,900 Business acquisition consideration payable (Note 7) 360,000 358,537 Interest payable (Note 13) - 13,750 Unearned revenue 28,024 - Income tax 311,032 254,631 Total current liabilities 5,315,904 3,862,460 Accrued liabilities (Note 9) - 123,413 Lease liabilities (Note 10) 1,275,756 1,735,503 Long-term debt (Note 13) 839,222 1,365,761 TOTAL LIABILITIES 7,430,882 7,087,137 EQUITY



Share capital (Note 14) 21,858,827 20,499,031 Shares issuable (Note 7) 35,806 74,338 Contributed surplus (Notes 15, 16) 6,505,092 6,407,935 Accumulated other comprehensive loss (109,613) (90,378) Accumulated deficit (21,356,891) (21,804,349) Equity attributable to shareholders 6,933,221 5,086,577 Non-controlling interests (Note 25) 2,006,479 2,033,986 TOTAL EQUITY 8,939,700 7,120,563 TOTAL LIABILITIES AND EQUITY 16,370,582 14,207,700

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME & LOSS Years ended October 31, AND COMPREHENSIVE INCOME & LOSS 2022 2021

$ $ Revenue



Product sales 17,757,283 9,034,618 Service revenue - 344,055 Total revenue 17,757,283 9,378,673 Cost of goods sold



Cost of finished cannabis inventory sold (9,227,439) (3,997,617) Costs of service revenue - (154,353) Gross profit, excluding fair value items 8,529,844 5,226,703 Realized fair value amounts in inventory sold (3,685,338) (950,461) Unrealized fair value gain on growth of biological assets 3,278,572 1,824,226 Gross profit 8,123,078 6,100,468 Expenses



Accretion expense 491,781 949,811 Amortization of intangible assets - 4,997 Amortization of property and equipment 750,916 180,015 General and administrative 5,852,236 3,983,250 Share-based compensation 70,996 280,819 Total expenses 7,165,929 5,398,892 Income from operations 957,149 701,576 Other income and (expense)



Interest expense (402,239) (197,632) Other expense (3,432) (17,072) Gain on debt settlement 453,858 141,180 Loss on settlement of non-controlling interest - (189,816) Unrealized loss on marketable securities (333,777) (35,902) Unrealized loss on derivative liability - (1,258,996) Loss on disposal of property and equipment (6,250) (7,542) Gain (loss) from operations before income tax 665,309 (864,204) Income tax (245,358) (150,543) Net income (loss) 419,951 (1,014,747) Other comprehensive income (items that may be subsequently reclassified to profit & loss)



Currency translation loss (19,235) (78,181) Total comprehensive income (loss) 400,716 (1,092,928) Gain (loss) per share attributable to owners of the parent  basic & diluted 0.00 (0.02) Weighted average shares outstanding - basic 169,193,812 135,231,802 Net income (loss) for the period attributable to:



Non-controlling interest (27,507) 1,395,558 Shareholders 447,458 (2,410,305) Net income (loss) 419,951 (1,014,747) Comprehensive income (loss) for the period attributable to:



Non-controlling interest (27,507) 1,395,558 Shareholders 428,223 (2,488,486) Total comprehensive income (loss) 400,716 (1,092,928)

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS Year ended October 31,

2022 2021

$ $ Operating activities



Net income (loss) 419,951 (1,014,747) Adjustments for non-cash items in net income (loss)



Amortization of property and equipment 750,916 180,015 Amortization of property and equipment include in costs of inventory sold 1,102,688 733,655 Amortization of intangible assets - 4,997 Unrealized gain on changes in fair value of biological assets (3,278,572) (1,824,226) Changes in fair value of inventory sold 3,685,338 950,461 Share-based compensation 21,264 170,136 Stock option expense 96,649 243,662 Accretion expense 491,781 949,811 Loss on disposal of property & equipment 6,250 7,542 Unrealized loss on marketable securities 333,777 35,902 Gain on debt settlement (455,674) - Loss on fair value of derivative liability - 1,258,996 Loss on acquisition of non-controlling interest paid in shares - 189,816 Effects of foreign exchange 918 7,233

3,175,286 1,893,253 Changes in non-cash working capital (Note 17) (1,171,111) (2,131,714) Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities 2,004,175 (238,461)





Investing activities



Purchase of property and equipment and intangibles (1,111,283) (2,047,136) Net cash acquired - 76,128 Payments of acquisition payable (2,000) (6,000) Other investments - (750,000) Net cash used in investing activities (1,113,283) (2,727,008)





Financing activities



Third party investment in subsidiary - 475,000 Proceeds from long-term debt 100,000 1,125,000 Proceeds from private placement 1,300,000 1,225,000 Proceeds from brokered private placement - 3,738,564 Payment of equity and debenture issuance costs - (500,870) Repayment of long-term debt (732,803) (507,715) Repayment of convertible debentures - (1,312,722) Payments of lease principal (1,089,738) (380,543) Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities (422,541) 3,861,714





Change in cash and cash equivalents 468,351 896,245 Cash and cash equivalents balance, beginning 1,114,033 217,788 Cash and cash equivalents balance, ending 1,582,384 1,114,033

SEGMENTED aEBITDA YEAR ENDED OCTOBER 31, 2022 Oregon Michigan Corporate Consolidated Sales revenues 8,852,104 8,905,179 - 17,757,283 Costs of goods sold, excluding fair value ("FV") adjustments (5,762,802) (3,464,637) - (9,227,439) Gross profit before fair value adjustments 3,089,302 5,440,542 - 8,529,844 Net fair value adjustments (50,143) (356,623) - (406,766) Gross profit 3,039,159 5,083,919 - 8,123,078 Operating expenses:







General and administration 1,982,911 2,217,413 1,651,912 5,852,236 Depreciation and amortization 84,919 562,443 103,554 750,916 Share based compensation - - 70,996 70,996 Other income and expense:







Loss on sale of assets (6,250) - - (6,250) Interest and accretion (293,103) (242,601) (358,316) (894,020) Gain (loss) on debt settlement 6,020 (1,847) 449,685 453,858 Unrealized gain on marketable securities - - (333,777) (333,777) Other income and expense 5,400 - (8,832) (3,432) Net income (loss) before tax 683,396 2,059,615 (2,077,702) 665,309 Tax 27,787 217,571 - 245,358 Net income after tax 655,609 1,842,044 (2,077,702) 419,951 Add back (deduct) from net income after tax:







Realized FV amounts included in inventory sold 1,388,657 2,296,681 - 3,685,338 Unrealized FV gain on growth of biological assets (1,338,514) (1,940,058) - (3,278,572) Amortization of property & equipment included in cost of sales 756,795 345,893 - 1,102,688 Interest and interest accretion expense 293,103 242,601 358,316 894,020 Amortization of property and equipment 84,919 562,443 103,554 750,916 Share-based compensation - - 117,913 117,913 Unrealized loss on marketable securities - - 333,777 333,777 Income tax expense 27,787 217,571 - 245,358 EBITDA 1,868,356 3,567,175 (1,164,142) 4,271,389 Add back (deduct) from EBITDA:







Performance incentive bonus payment - 179,685 - 179,685 Severance and inactive employee compensation - - 61,077 61,077 Business development incentive bonus - 153,825 - 153,825 Gain on debt settlement for marketable securities - - (449,684) (449,684) Compliance costs - - 98,139 98,139 Costs associated with acquisition of Golden Harvests - - 80,000 80,000 New production location startup costs 697,120 - - 697,120 aEBITDA 2,565,476 3,900,685 (1,374,610) 5,091,551 aEBITDA margin % 29.0 % 43.8 % -- 28.7 %

NOTES:

1. The Company's "Free cash flow" metric is defined by cash flow from operations minus capital expenditures.



2. The Company's "aEBITDA," or "Adjusted EBITDA," is a non-IFRS measure used by management that does not have any prescribed meaning by IFRS and that may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. The Company defines "EBITDA" as the Company's net income or loss for a period, as reported, before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, and is further adjusted to remove transaction costs, stock-based compensation expense, accretion expense, gain (loss) on derecognition of derivative liabilities, the effects of fair-value accounting for biological assets and inventory, as well as other non-cash items and items not representative of operational performance as reported in net income (loss). Adjusted EBITDA is defined as EBITDA adjusted for the impact of various significant or unusual transactions. The Company believes that this is a useful metric to evaluate its operating performance.



NON-IFRS FINANCIAL MEASURES

EBITDA and aEBITDA are non-IFRS measures and do not have standardized definitions under IFRS. The Company has also provided unaudited pro-forma financial information, which assumes that closed and pending mergers and acquisitions in 2021 are included in the Company's financial results as of the beginning of the quarterly and annual periods in 2021. The Company has provided the non-IFRS financial measures, which are not calculated or presented in accordance with IFRS, as supplemental information and in addition to the financial measures that are calculated and presented in accordance with IFRS. These supplemental non-IFRS financial measures are presented because management has evaluated the financial results both including and excluding the adjusted items and believe that the supplemental non-IFRS financial measures presented provide additional perspective and insights when analyzing the core operating performance of the business. These supplemental non-IFRS financial measures should not be considered superior to, as a substitute for or as an alternative to, and should only be considered in conjunction with, the IFRS financial measures presented herein. Accordingly, the following information provides reconciliations of the supplemental non-IFRS financial measures, presented herein to the most directly comparable financial measures calculated and presented in accordance with IFRS.

About Grown Rogue

Grown Rogue International (CSE: GRIN | OTC: GRUSF) is a craft cannabis company focused on delighting customers with premium flower and flower-derived products at fair prices. Our roots are in Southern Oregon where we have demonstrated our capabilities in the highly competitive and discerning Oregon market and, more recently, we successfully expanded our platform to Michigan. We combine our passion for product and value with a disciplined approach to growth, prioritizing profitability and return on capital. Our strategy is to pursue capital efficient methods to expand into new markets, bringing our craft quality and value to more consumers. We also continue to make modest investments to improve our outdoor craft cultivation capabilities in preparation for eventual interstate commerce.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release contains statements which constitute "forwardlooking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including statements regarding the plans, intentions, beliefs and current expectations of the Company with respect to future business activities. Forward looking information is often identified by the words "may," "would," "could," "should," "will," "intend," "plan," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect" or similar expressions and include information regarding: (i) statements regarding the future direction of the Company (ii) the ability of the Company to successfully achieve its business and financial objectives, (iii) plans for expansion of the Company and securing applicable regulatory approvals, and (iv) expectations for other economic, business, and/or competitive factors. Investors are cautioned that forwardlooking information is not based on historical facts but instead reflect the Company's management's expectations, estimates or projections concerning the business of the Company's future results or events based on the opinions, assumptions and estimates of management considered reasonable at the date the statements are made. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forwardlooking information are reasonable, such information involves risks and uncertainties, and undue reliance should not be placed on such information, as unknown or unpredictable factors could have material adverse effects on future results, performance or achievements of the combined company. Among the key factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forwardlooking information are the following: changes in general economic, business and political conditions, including changes in the financial markets; and in particular in the ability of the Company to raise debt and equity capital in the amounts and at the costs that it expects; adverse changes in the public perception of cannabis; decreases in the prevailing prices for cannabis and cannabis products in the markets that the Company operates in; adverse changes in applicable laws; or adverse changes in the application or enforcement of current laws; compliance with extensive government regulation and related costs, and other risks described in the Company's public disclosure documents filed on Sedar.

Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forwardlooking information prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Although the Company 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 Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update this forwardlooking information except as otherwise required by applicable law.

The Company is indirectly involved in the manufacture, possession, use, sale and distribution of cannabis in the recreational cannabis marketplace in the United States through its indirect operating subsidiaries. Local state laws where its subsidiaries operate permit such activities however, these activities are currently illegal under United States federal law. Additional information regarding this and other risks and uncertainties relating to the Company's business are disclosed in the Company's Listing Statement filed on its issuer profile 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 forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected.

No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein.

SOURCE Grown Rogue International Inc.

For further information: For further information on Grown Rogue International please visit www.grownrogue.com or contact: Obie Strickler, Chief Executive Officer, [email protected]; Investor Relations Desk Inquiries, [email protected], (458) 226-2100
Adewole Adebayo, the presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), says Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) should concede to Bola Tinubu.

His statement comes amid calls by the LP and PDP for Mahmood Yakubu, the chairperson of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to cancel the presidential election.

Also, Olusegun Obasanjo, former president of Nigeria, had said the INEC chairperson should declare void and inadmissible election results where BVAS and servers have been manipulated or rendered inactive.

Adebayo, in a Twitter post on Tuesday, said Abubakar and Obi should show they love Nigeria by conceding to Tinubu.

Chinua Achebe was right that leadership is the problem of Nigeria. Where are the true leaders? Same drama every election year is not progress, Adebayo wrote.

@GEJonathan saved us in 2015. It is now time for @atiku and @PeterObi to show that they love Nigeria. Time to call @officialABAT is now.

I have more grievances than all the presidential candidates combined. Im least satisfied with the results. I am dissatisfied with the choice of the electorate.

It is the prerogatives of the people to make unwise choices but the choice is clear. We can be more honest all around.
Alhassan Doguwa, majority leader of the house of representatives, has been arrested by the police for his alleged role in attacks in Kano state during the general election.

A source in the police said Doguwa was picked up on Tuesday at the Mallam Aminu Kano international airport while boarding a flight to Abuja.

The source said the police received a report in Tudun Wada alleging that Doguwa led the thugs that set ablaze the secretariat of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in the area, with two persons feared dead.

He is currently cooling off in the state criminal investigation department, the source said.

Earlier on Tuesday at a media briefing, Doguwa denied the allegation that supporters of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), were responsible for the fire that gutted the secretariat of the NNPP in Tudun Wada LGA of the state.

During the briefing, Doguwa also said he learnt that the police were looking for him but said he had not received any formal invitation.

I never held a gun. I dont even know how to hold a gun. I also never held any weapon throughout the election, he had said.




The All Progressives Congress (APC) has congratulated Bola Tinubu, the partys standard bearer, for winning the presidential election.

According to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Tinubu secured 8,794,726 votes to defeat Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who got 6,984,520 votes, and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) who polled 6,101,533 votes.

In a statement on Wednesday, Felix Morka, APC spokesperson, asked the other political parties to join forces with Tinubu for the benefit of Nigerians.

Morka said the president-elect would do all it takes to make the country prosperous.

We commend all political parties and their supporters for the engaging contest. We urge them to join hands with Bola Ahmed Tinubu, president-elect, to work for the utmost good and benefit of all Nigerians, irrespective of partisan political, ethnic, religious, age or gender difference, he said.

As stakeholders, we must put our people first and make their best interest and well-being the top and controlling priority of the incoming administration.

We have full faith and confidence that our president-elect would spare no effort in mobilising all available human and material resources to take our country to new and lofty heights of unity, peace, economic vibrancy, security and prosperity.

Morka thanked President Muhammadu Buhari for his loyalty to the party.

Your unparalleled program of electoral and democratic reform provided a conducive predicate for the successful conduct of this years presidential election. Your legacy will endure through time, he said.

We commend the INEC for the creditable discharge of its statutory duty to deliver a free and credible presidential election.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential campaign council has asked Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to accept defeat by calling congratulate Bola Tinubu.

Dele Alake, the campaign councils media adviser, spoke at a media briefing on Tuesday in Abuja.

The collation of results for the election is ongoing and Tinubu has won in 12 states, while also securing the constitutionally-required 25 percent of valid votes in several other states.

Recall that Adewole Adebayo, presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), said Abubakar and Obi should show they love Nigeria by conceding to Tinubu.

Speaking at the event, Alake asked the two candidates should follow the example of former President Goodluck Jonathan who congratulated President Muhammadu Buhari even before a winner was declared in the 2015 election.

We call on Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, to emulate former President Goodluck Jonathan by conceding defeat, he said.

This election has already been won by our candidate, according to the results declared at the collation centres in the state.

In 2015, President Jonathan did not wait for INEC to finish collation before he called President Muhammadu Buhari and congratulated him in the true spirit of democracy and sportsmanship.

We urge Atiku Abubakar and Obi to follow the same path of honour, instead of attempting to heat the polity via the reckless statements by surrogates. Let Atiku and Obi call Tinubu now.

Also speaking at the media briefing, Festus Keyamo, spokesperson of the APC presidential campaign council, tackled critics calling for the resignation of Mahmood Yakubu, chairperson of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Keyamo said that it was legally wrong for any candidate or political party to call for a change in the electoral process when the final result had not been declared.




The All Progressives Congress, APC, Presidential Campaign Council, PCC, has called on presidential candidates of Labour Party, LP, Peter Obi, and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to concede defeat to Nigerias president-elect.





APC PCC Media Adviser, Dele Alake, made the remark while condemning LP and PDP for calling for the cancellation of the presidential election.





Recall that PDP and LP held a joint press conference yesterday where they condemned the conduct of Saturdays election.





They called on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to cancel the election.





Reacting, Alake said calling for the cancellation of the election was tantamount to an abortion of democracy.





Addressing journalists in Abuja, Alake said Atiku and Obi should accept defeat honorably.





This election has already been won by our candidate, according to the result declared by the collation centres in the states, In 2015, President Jonathan did not wait for INEC to finish collation before he called President Buhari in the true spirit of democracy and sportsmanship.





We urge Abubakar and Obi to follow the same path of honour instead of heating the polity with reckless statements by surrogates. Let Atiku and Obi do the needful, the necessary thing and save Nigeria by calling Tinubu now and conceding defeat. Alake said.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has congratulated Nigerias President-elect Bola Tinubu.

Umaru Embalo, chair of the ECOWAS authority of heads of state and government, conveyed the congratulatory message in a statement on Wednesday.

Nigerians went to the polls on Saturday to elect a president and members of the national assembly.

On Wednesday, Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), announced Tinubu as the winner of the presidential election.

Tinubu defeated Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) with a total of 8,794,726 votes.

While Abubakar polled 6,984,520, Obi scored 6,101,533 votes.

Embalo said stakeholders must ensure peace is sustained by attending to all grievances following the constitution.

On behalf of His excellency general Umaru Sissoco Embalo, chair of the ECOWAS authority of heads of state and government and the entire ECOWAS leadership, we wish to convey our heartfelt congratulations to his excellency senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu on his election as president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the statement reads.

His excellency general Embalo appeals to all the stakeholders to promote peace and to use constitutional means to address any grievances they may have.

Earlier, the ECOWAS had through its electoral observation team, listed violence, ballot, and BVAS device snatching as some of the challenges that affected the efficiency of Saturdays polls in Nigeria.




A chief magistrate court presided over by Ibrahim Mansur, has remanded the House of Representatives Majority Leader, Alhassan Ado Doguwa on a five-count charge that included culpable homicide.





The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Kano State Police Command docked Doguwa, alleged to have attacked his constituents on election day leading to the killing of three persons while others were burnt alive.





Charged at Magistrate Court 53, he is alleged of criminal conspiracy, culpable homicide, causing grievous hurt, mischief by firearm and inciting disturbances, setting the NNPP office on fire, shooting one to death and seriously injuring others.





The prosecution counsel had applied to the court to remand the suspect at a correctional facility, pending the conclusion of investigations on the matter by the states Attorney General.





The accuseds counsel, Barrister Abdul Adamu, however, argued that he should be granted bail on self-recognition as a member of the House of Representatives as well as member-elect of the 10th National Assembly.





The presiding magistrate, after hearing arguments from both sides on the bail application, adjourned the case to March 7.




The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, on Wednesday dismissed two of its staff for gross misconduct.





JAMB identified the two dismissed staff as Bilyaminu Ishaku and Andrew Anebi Candidus from its Benue State branch Office in Markurdi.





A statement by JAMB spokesman Fabian Benjamin on Wednesday accused the dismissed staff of document forgery.





The body noted that their dismissal took effect on 27th February 2023.





JAMB said their dismissal was subjected to the Public Service Rule 030401.





The statement read in parts: Sequel to your appearance before the Senior Staff Disciplinary Committee and the subsequent recommendations of the committee, I am directed to convey to you the approval of the Honourable Minister of Education of your dismissal from the service of the Board from 27th February 2023 for serious misconduct.





JAMB said the affected staff were directed to submit their identity cards and all other property of the Board to the state Coordinator, JAMB Office, Benue State.
Anap Foundation, a non-profit organisation, has asked supporters of the major opposition parties in Nigeria to focus on the March 11 governorship elections.

The non-profit re-echoed the remarks of Bola Tinubu, the president-elect, who asked Nigerians not to resort to violence over their disagreement with the outcome of the presidential election.

On Saturday, Nigerians voted in the presidential and national assembly elections across the 36 states and the federal capital territory (FCT).

In the early hours of Wednesday, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Tinubu, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the winner.

Mahmood Yakubu, chairperson of INEC, said Tinubu secured a total of 8,794,726 votes.

Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had the second-highest tally with 6,984,520 votes, while Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) was next with 6,101,533 votes.

Before the declaration, the major opposition parties  LP, PDP, and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP)  had called for the cancellation of the election over what they described as irregularities and non-compliance with the electoral act.

Reacting to the development, Anap Foundation, in a tweet, quoted a portion of Tinubus acceptance speech wherein he said violence is neither right nor defensible.

Supporters of @atiku @PeterObi @KwankwasoRM etc should now focus on the coming Governorship Elections. @inecnigeria has announced the Presidential Election Results & we agree with @bolaTinubu that:

"What is neither right nor defensible is for anybody to resort to violence" pic.twitter.com/9iMcJ7bUf8  Anap Foundation (@anapfoundation) March 1, 2023





In September 2022, Anap Foundation released its NOI poll on the 2023 presidential election and Obi was placed as a leading candidate, with 21 percent of votes.

A similar NOI poll in December 2022 placed Obi as the leading candidate with 23 percent of respondents.

Atedo Peterside, president of Anap Foundation, is a known supporter of the LP presidential candidate.

He recently said his support for Obi did not influence the integrity of presidential polls carried out by his organisation.
The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has reacted to a viral video claiming that some of its officers have arrested a criminal syndicate engaging in electoral fraud in the federal capital territory (FCT).

On Tuesday, a video showing some persons arrested with some items like the bimodal voter accreditation system (BVAS) machines of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) appeared on social media.

In the video, some of the items were branded with the tag  INEC.

The persons were said to have been arrested at a building located in Maitama, FCT, the countrys capital.

 Situation Report : Nigerian Police arrest BVAS syndicate, who allegedly manipulated the electoral process at Maitama Abuja.



 President Elect  #INECElectionResult  Obi and Atiku  #NigerianElections2023  #Electionresults2023  RCCG  Nyesom Wike pic.twitter.com/9V9T1A3wvh  Samzy (@SamzyVG) February 28, 2023





Reacting to the video, Muyiwa Adejobi, force spokesperson, said the police visited the building after a tip-off from residents of the area in Maitama, Abuja.

In a statement, on Wednesday, Adejobi disclosed that when the police arrived at the building, some electoral materials, including BVAS machines, were discovered.

The police spokesperson added that INEC confirmed that the occupants of the house are staff of Emperor Technology, a firm outsourced by INEC to provide engineering services.

Operatives of the Nigeria Police Force Intelligence Bureau (FIB), acting on a tip from residents of an area in Maitama who reported suspicious activities, visited the location, interviewed the occupants, and conducted a search on the house, Adejobi said.

In the course of the search, some electoral materials and BVAS machines were discovered in their possession.

However, the Independent National Electoral Commission, when contacted, confirmed that the occupants of the house are staff of Emperor Technology, outsourcing engineering services to the INEC, and they were immediately released to go about their lawful business.

The force, while urging well-meaning members of the public to discountenance the false and misconstrued narrative being spread by some sections of the media about the arrest of these individuals and their link with BVAS manipulation, charged reporters and media houses to endeavour to do due diligence and ascertain the veracity of the information on the public space before spreading such to avoid being victims of the breaking news syndrome.




Police have announced a ban on celebrations or rallies by supporters of political parties on the just concluded Presidential and National Assembly elections in Kaduna State.





Kaduna Police Command spokesperson DSP Mohammed Jalige said this in a statement on Wednesday.





According to the police spokesperson, protests or celebrations against results of the elections were completely banned to prevent breakdown of law and order in the state.





The command wishes to notify the general public that all forms of celebrations and rallies by political party supporters for or against winners/losers of the just concluded Presidential and National Assembly elections has been banned in the state.





Any deliberate act to violate the ban or cause breakdown of law and order under whatever guise would not be tolerated, as the full wrath of the law would be bought to bare, the police said.





He disclosed that security agencies have been deployed and directed to ensure full enforcement.





All persons with intent to violate the order are warned to desist from that, as the command in collaboration with other sister agencies are fully prepared to deal decisively with such persons in accordance with extant laws.





The command uses this medium to call on the members of the public not to relent in supporting security agencies in delivering their mandates of securing lives and properties of the good people of Kaduna state, Jalige said.
Six-day (Tuesday through Sunday) print subscribers of the Watertown Daily Times are eligible for full access to NNY360, the NNY360 mobile app, and the Watertown Daily Times e-edition, all at no additional cost.

If you have an existing six-day print subscription to the Watertown Daily Times, please make sure your email address on file matches your NNY360 account email. You can sign up or manage your print subscription using the options below.
Watertown, NY (13601)

Today

Sunny to partly cloudy. High near 80F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies this evening will give way to cloudy skies and rain overnight. Low near 45F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch.
It may not have the same kind of recognition as Americas famous barbecue regions, like Texas or the Carolinas, but you cant tell Shannon Bingham that Louisiana doesnt have barbecue.

A lot of the flavors we have in Louisiana start with smoke, even if we dont necessarily brand it as barbecue, Bingham said.

Bingham is pitmaster at Devil Moon BBQ, which is doing its bit to change that perception with sausages like boudin and chaurice next to the brisket and ribs, and dirty rice and chicken sauce piquant among the sides.

The new barbecue restaurant opened just after Mardi Gras inside the Odeon, an apartment tower thats part of the South Market District downtown. Its part of a double-barrel project pairing low-and-slow barbecue and craft beer.

Devil Moon BBQ is connected by a corridor to Brewery Saint X, a brewpub thats now set to open in the next month or so.

Theyre both situated at a crossroads between the offices and residential buildings of the CBD and the event destinations of the Caesars Superdome and the Smoothie King Center.

The restaurant and brewpub are from Neighborhood Restaurant Group, a hospitality company based in Washington, D.C., known for its beer. The brewery/restaurant Bluejacket and the craft beer bar ChurchKey are two of its properties.

Neighborhood Restaurant Group founder Michael Babin is originally from Baton Rouge, and partnerships and events have brought his company frequently to New Orleans.

"Sense of place"

Bingham leads the shared kitchen for both Devil Moon and Brewery Saint X, with Coquette alum Stephen Herzog as chef de cuisine. Bingham spent time as pitmaster for Blue Oak BBQ before opening Emmylous, which was a barbecue counter at St. Roch Market.
Charles Southall III, wearing mask, leaves the U.S. District Courthouse in New Orleans on Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023, after a federal judge sentenced him to five years in prison and ordered him to repay $900,000 to victims. Southall pleaded guilty in 2022 to money laundering. (Staff Photo by David Grunfeld, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Rooke site scoping exercise

Government has said it is aware that a scoping exercise regarding potential transfers of Service Users to the new facilities at Rooke site has been undertaken by the Elderly Residential Services at the behest of the Gibraltar Health Authoritys Director General, to understand resourcing implications of said transfers.

'No offers to move have been made to any residents as the Gibraltar Health Authority is simply gathering information at this stage.'

'This is not the formal request that Service Users or their families will be in receipt of once the developers have completed the site and have advised the Government that it may proceed with the next step of the Rooke site project. The Government will make further announcements at that stage.'

The Government has stated in Parliament and through Press Releases that the decision for Service Users to transfer from Mount Alvernia to the Rooke Site remains with Service Users and their families.

Consequently, service provision will remain to meet the needs of non-transferring Service Users as presently offered.

Government also said that further answers are subject to Parliamentary questions and as such will be addressed at the next session of Parliament.
WASHINGTON  The latest in a long series of Louisiana efforts to wrest more money from the federal governments offshore energy production took its first step Tuesday in a U.S. House committee.

Language increasing a states royalty rate from offshore energy production was added to a broad effort by House Republicans to generally increase oil and gas activity. As it stands, royalties and fees private companies pay the U.S. government for energy production offshore amounts to the highest source of federal revenue after taxes.

Wording lifted from last years Budgeting for Renewable Electrical Energy Zone Earnings, called BREEZE Act, was added to the Transparency and Production of American Energy Act 6 of 2023, which received its first committee hearing Tuesday.

The BREEZE legislation, sponsored by House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, and Congressman Troy Carter, D-New Orleans, failed to get a vote last year as did similar legislation in the Senate.

The House hearing is the first since the failed all-hands-on-deck effort in December required that everything start over again in January. Should increased revenue-sharing legislation pass the House and the Senate, and is signed into law by the president, the additional money would account for about 20% of Louisiana state general fund revenues.

Throughout my time in Congress I have fought for changes to the current offshore revenue sharing system that will provide coastal states like Louisiana with the same revenue sharing framework as interior states, Scalise said Tuesday. In Louisiana, we use these funds to restore our coast and build critical hurricane protection projects.

In the Senate, a bill with similar intent was introduced in early February by U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge. Called RISEE, or Reinvesting In Shoreline Economies and Ecosystems Act, the bill could be taken up by the Senate Energy committee as early as late March.
Faimon Roberts III covers rural communities in Louisiana. His work is supported by a reporting grant from the Microsoft Journalism Initiative and is administered by the Greater New Orleans Foundation.

He can be reached at froberts@theadvocate.com.
FILE - In this Jan. 6, 2021, file photo supporters of President Donald Trump are confronted by U.S. Capitol Police officers outside the Senate Chamber inside the Capitol in Washington. An Arizona man seen in photos and video of the mob wearing a fur hat with horns was also charged Saturday in Wednesday's chaos. Jacob Anthony Chansley, who also goes by the name Jake Angeli, was taken into custody Saturday, Jan. 9. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File) ORG XMIT: WX101
China and Europe aim to overcome obstacles to strengthen ties

By George N. Tzogopoulos (China.org.cn) 17:02, March 01, 2023

Over the past three years, from the start of 2020 until the close of 2022, Sino-European relations were significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Fear about the unknown virus, unprecedented measures and inward-looking strategies generated a type of uncertainty. The lack of in-person conversations only added to the challenge. Although important political meetings were conducted in the digital realm, the impersonal character of such interactions presented obstacles.

Despite these difficulties, China and the European Union cooperated on several fronts. For instance, trade between the two entities experienced growth, except for the pandemic's first phase. The two sides also valued the role of the World Health Organization during the pandemic and joined forces in COVAX to help others with vaccines. However, problems and disagreements frequently overshadowed areas of coordination. In a remarkable case, the Comprehensive Agreement on Investments was not ratified in 2021, despite seven years of challenging bilateral negotiations.

As 2022 came to a close, physical communication began to return to some normalcy. China and Europe decided to work together and create the necessary presuppositions for 2023 to be a different, better year.

The Chinese government recently announced optimized pandemic control and prevention measures, which will undoubtedly boost people-to-people exchanges. Tourism flows to and from China will resume this year. Such a resumption will benefit both the Chinese and European economies. As a result, China's reopening has been positively perceived in Europe.

The recent visit of China's top diplomat Wang Yi to Germany, where he spoke at the Munich Security Conference, and to France, Italy and Hungary is another indication of the Chinese government's and European countries' will to collaborate. As already mentioned, efforts are demonstrating continuity. French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will visit Beijing this year. The press release that the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued after Wang's visit to Paris highlighted several sectors where interests intersect, including Ukraine, Iran, food security, biodiversity and the global financial pact. A similar trend is evident in relations between China and other European states as well as the European Union.

2023 is a crucial year, as while the pandemic may be over, its economic consequences linger. Additionally, the conflict in Ukraine continues to cause regional and international instability and death. In such challenging circumstances, it is difficult to envisage better days for the world without cooperation, and China and Europe are crucial actors in this process.

A few days ago, statistics revealed that Manzhouli, China's largest land port, handled 4,818 freight trains between China and Europe in 2022, up 37.6% on a yearly basis. These trains carried 382,058 TEUs of cargo, with a total value of approximately $7 billion. The resilience of globalization and interconnectivity remains strong. Of course, discussions ought to look beyond trade. While China and the EU may disagree on many issues, there is a willingness to talk to each other. Expectations for fruitful consultations, even without leading to a synthesis of opinions, are high in 2023.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Gibraltar National Book Council launched

The Gibraltar National Book Council was launched this afternoon, on the eve of World Book Day, by Minister for Culture John Cortes who presented the members of the Council and its aims and objectives.

The initiative to create the Gibraltar National Book Council arose following a suggestion by Gibraltarian author Mark Sanchez at last years Gibraltar Literature Week. Based broadly on the equivalent council in Malta, the Council has been set up to become a focal point in Gibraltar for all book and literature related activity.

The Council will encourage writing and reading and will support writers, illustrators and publishers, working to promote Gibraltarian Literature locally and internationally. In supporting Gibraltarian Literature, the Council will strive to promote the use, in literary works, of all the languages of Gibraltar, including English and Spanish, Llanito in its own right, as well as other languages spoken locally, including Arabic, Hebrew and Hindi.

The Council will be supported by the Ministry of Culture, which will provide the Secretariat, and by Gibraltar Cultural Services, who were represented at the launch by CEO Seamus Byrne.

The Council will initially be chaired by John Cortes, and its other members are Davina Barbara (representing GCS), Melissa Bosano, Giordano Durante, Jonathan Pizarro, Mark Sanchez and Jamie Trinidad.

In welcoming the creation of the Council, author Mark Sanchez commented: This is a really exciting development. For a number of years, international interest in Gibraltarian writing has been steadily increasing and it is only fit and proper that we should have an organisation on the Rock dedicated to supporting and promoting all things literary.

The Minister for Culture, the Hon John Cortes, said: This is a tremendously exciting development. The Gibraltar National Book Council will work tirelessly to promote all its aims, centred around books and Literature, and enhancing our communitys identity through the use of our languages. The enthusiasm of the Council members is huge, y hay muchisimas ganas de trabajar. Its initiatives and activities are being planned and will be announced soon. All ideas are welcome!

The Council will encourage writing and reading and will support writers, illustrators and publishers, working to promote Gibraltarian Literature locally and internationally.

In supporting Gibraltarian Literature, the Council will specifically strive to promote the use, in literary works, of all the languages of Gibraltar.

The Council will work with Gibraltar Cultural Services as the local agent for ISBN, and with different partners to achieve its goals.

Its activities may include:

Supporting research into Gibraltarian Literature

Writing competitions

Workshops, conferences or symposia

Support to writers and illustrators

Support to educators

Encouraging the love of reading and of the use of libraries

Storytelling and initiatives for young readers and writers

Awarding of book grants

Spoken word events such as literary nights and readings

Encouraging local writers as speakers in schools to introduce Gibraltarian Literature at an early age

Providing mentorship for young writers

The Gibraltar National Book Council intends to become a focal point in Gibraltar for all book and literature related activity.
If you have an event you'd like to list on the site, submit it now!

Submit
You are clearly a super-user of NUVO.net. Thats a good thing. It means you depend on independent and local news sources to keep you informed. You are a smart person.



Coincidentally, independent and local news sources depend on you too. Youve read 25 articles this month and now, wed like you to be join our mission and become a NUVO Supporter. For as little as $4 a month, you can keep us alive and fighting -- and can have unlimited access to the independent news that cant be found anywhere else.
The Indiana Senate has approved legislation prohibiting the provision of any medical or surgical gender transition treatment to individuals under age 18  even if the care for the transgender child is supported by their parents.

The Republican-controlled chamber voted 36-12 on Tuesday to advance Senate Bill 480 to the Republican-controlled House for a decision in coming weeks on sending it to Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb to be signed into law or vetoed.

The legislation would bar Indiana hospitals and medical providers from performing any surgery, other procedure or hormone therapy intended to transition the gender of a person under age 18.

In addition, any children currently receiving gender transition hormones or puberty-blocking drugs no longer could obtain them in Indiana after Dec. 31, 2023, leaving transgender Hoosier children and their parents no in-state medical options for gender-affirming health care.

State Sen. Tyler Johnson, R-Leo, the sponsor of the measure and an emergency room physician, said he believes children cannot understand the weight and permanence of gender transition procedures and correspondingly should not be able to access them until they are older.

"We have the medical, moral and legal obligation to protect Hoosier children," Johnson said. "This bill is the right thing to do. It's common sense public policy to protect Hoosier children from unproven, irreversible life-altering procedures."

"It would cause far less harm to let these kids wait, let them get the counseling they need and let them make these decisions as adults," he added.

If enacted into law, Indiana would join Mississippi, Utah, South Dakota, Alabama and Arkansas with statutes banning health care treatments for gender dysphoria in transgender youth.

Democratic critics of the proposal said it usurps the right of Hoosier parents to choose the medical care that's best for their child by substituting the judgment of politicians with priorities other than the best interests of the child.

"This is really about parental rights," said state Sen. Andrea Hunley, D-Indianapolis. "Parents should have the right to determine what is best for their specific child."

State Sen. Greg Taylor, D-Indianapolis, suggested the legislation illegally discriminates on the basis of sex by denying specific medical procedures to children seeking them for gender transition purposes, but allowing children needing the treatments for any other medical reason to still obtain them.

"Are you really trying to protect children, or are you trying to demonize some children?" Taylor asked.

State Sen. Shelli Yoder, D-Bloomington, said there's no doubt in her mind the real purpose of the measure: "Bullying kids."

"Why are we picking on transgender youth?" Yoder asked. "We are targeting a very extraordinarily small and an extraordinarily vulnerable population, making them targets of further harassment."

Yoder noted 1 in 3 transgender youth already attempt suicide. She said it's bad public policy, and utterly uncompassionate, to potentially inspire more attempts by preventing transgender youth from obtaining the gender-affirming care they need.

Among Northwest Indiana senators, the legislation was supported by the four Republicans and opposed by the three Democrats.

It's one of a series of measures targeting transgender Hoosiers of all ages that have advanced out of the House or Senate during the first half of this year's legislative session that next week will begin to be taken up by the opposite chamber.

They include:

House Bill 1407 authorizing parents and guardians to ignore their child's preferred gender if it does not match the child's biological sex, so long as the adult's treatment of the child does not amount to substantiated physical abuse or neglect.

House Bill 1608 barring school personnel from using a name, pronoun, title or another word to identify a student if it's inconsistent with the child's biological sex, and obligating the school to "out" any student to his or her parents if the child requests to be identified by an alternative name or pronoun.

House Bill 1569 blocking the Indiana Department of Correction from using any state or federal dollars to provide "sexual reassignment surgery" to state prison inmates, even if the surgery is deemed medically necessary.

House Bill 1001 prohibiting any state spending to support the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction at Indiana University in Bloomington.

Meet the 2023 Northwest Indiana legislative delegation State Rep. Carolyn Jackson, D-Hammond State Rep. Earl Harris Jr., D-East Chicago State Rep. Ragen Hatcher, D-Gary State Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso State Rep. Pat Boy, D-Michigan City State Rep. Chuck Moseley, D-Portage State Rep. Mike Aylesworth, R-Hebron State Rep. Mike Andrade, D-Munster State Rep. Vernon Smith, D-Gary State Rep. Hal Slager, R-Schererville State Rep. Kendell Culp, R-Rensselaer State Rep. Julie Olthoff, R-Crown Point State Rep. Jim Pressel, R-Rolling Prairie State Sen. Dan Dernulc, R-Highland State Sen. Lonnie Randolph, D-East Chicago State Sen. Eddie Melton, D-Gary State Sen. Rodney Pol Jr., D-Chesterton State Sen. Ed Charbonneau, R-Valparaiso State Sen. Rick Niemeyer, R-Lowell State Sen. Mike Bohacek, R-Michiana Shores
The Congressional Steel Caucus is calling for tariffs to be maintained to protect American steel jobs, including at the steel mills along the lakeshore in Northwest Indiana.

Congressional Steel Caucus Chairman Rick Crawford and Vice Chairman Frank J. Mrvan wrote a letter asking the administration to keep the Section 232 tariffs and subsequent quotas in place.

We continue to support strong trade enforcement that will ensure a vibrant industry, competitive wages, and outstanding quality of life for our industrys workers. We encourage the Biden Administration to continue to maintain the Section 232 tariffs and quotas, ensure strong trade remedy laws that address unfair trade practices, and protect our environment from high-emission foreign steel production, the Congressional Steel Caucus said in the letter.

About 35 other members of the Congressional Steel Caucus co-signed the letter. The congressional representatives also asked for federal trade remedy laws to be modernized to address the current challenges the steel industry faces.

Finished steel imports rose by 11% last year, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute. U.S. Steel ended up idling its tin operations at Gary Works and the United Steelworkers union filed a new trade case against tin imports.

I thank Chairman Crawford and the Congressional Steel Caucus Members for joining this initiative to ensure that the voice of the dedicated workers and the steel industry is heard by the Administration. Steel is essential to the strength of our national economy and our national security, and I look forward to continuing to work with all of my colleagues and the Administration to ensure that our domestic steel industry is able to thrive in our global economy, Mrvan said.

About 100 members of Congress from both parties belong to the Congressional Steel Caucus. They hail from places in the country that make steel like Northwest Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Arkansas, where mini-mills are located. They made the case that the domestic steel industry deserves to be protected.

The Section 232 tariffs have been vital to reviving the American steel industry and reinforcing our national security. Our steel sector manufactures the high-quality product we rely on for our roads, buildings, and everything in-between, and does so sustainably. Supporting American steel means supporting our environment, our jobs, and our communities, and should be a priority for our nations leaders, Crawford said.
The vote count starts Wednesday in a historic run-off election for the United Auto Workers presidency and other offices.

It's the first time auto workers have directly elected their international union leaders instead of voting for local leaders who then appoint the international offices similar to how the electoral college works. A court-appointed monitor oversaw the direct election as part of a consent decree following the corruption convictions of 15 people, including former UAW presidents Gary Jones and Dennis Williams, on charges that included taking bribes and stealing union funds.

Incumbent President Ray Curry faced a challenge from reform candidate Shawn Fain, who came within 1% in the initial election in which eight candidates ran and no one ended up with a majority.

In the runoff election, Chuck Browning and Tim Bressler squared off in a race for international vice president. Daniel Vicente and Lauren Farrell had a runoff for Region 9 regional director.

The winners will lead the UAW, which represents thousands of workers at Ford's Chicago Assembly Plant on the far South Side, the Chicago Stamping Plant in Chicago Heights and the Lear seat-making factory in Hammond.

Ballots were mailed out to auto workers on Jan. 12 and were due Tuesday.

They will be tallied in Dayton, Ohio in the coming days.

UAW Members United won five seats in the first direct election in November after UAW members voted in a referendum for a new "One Member, One Vote" policy.

The reform party won the secretary-treasurer's office, two vice president seats and two regional director seats. It could end up with a majority if Fain and Vicente win their runoff elections.

The incumbent Administration Caucus has led the UAW International Board for 70 years.

For too long, the UAW has been controlled by leadership with a top-down, company union philosophy. Ray Curry and the Administration Caucus have been unwilling to confront the companies, and as a result weve seen nothing but concessions, corruption, and plant closures. We now have a historic opportunity to get back to setting the standard across all sectors, and to transform the UAW into a member-led, fighting union once again. The future of the working class is at stake, Fain said.

The UAW is one of the largest and most powerful unions in the country, representing workers at plants in Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, Missouri, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, New York and Massachusetts.
MATTOON  A new John Deere parts distribution center is set to open this spring in the former LSC Communications Printing Co. plant in Mattoon.

Local officials said they anticipate the new facility will employ more than 200 workers and are also excited for the prospects of the former General Electric Mattoon Lamp Plant, which LSC site owner Phoenix Investors recently purchased.

The Moline-based manufacturer of agricultural machinery and other heavy equipment confirmed its plans for a Mattoon distribution center in statement shared by spokesperson Dustin Lemmon.

To help accommodate ongoing growth in our Aftermarket & Customer Support business, we are expanding our warehousing, packaging and logistics operations," John Deere reported. "The new distribution center in Mattoon will improve our ability to receive material directly from suppliers and enable us to ship outbound directly to dealers."

John Deere reported that the Mattoon facility will serve as a secondary parts distribution center for its U.S. network and that its primary parts distribution center will remain in Milan, located just southwest of Moline.

"With deep roots in agriculture, Coles County is pleased to welcome John Deere, one of the worlds leading agricultural companies, to the industrial and manufacturing base in the community," said Angela Griffin, president of the Coles Together economic development organization. "As Deere grows its operation in Coles County, we know our roots in the industrial sector will also be of value to the company."

Griffin said Coles Together is working to assist the company as employment at the former LSC/RR Donnelly facility is expected to reach more than 200 employees to support the Deere operation.

Ed Dowd, executive director of the Mattoon Chamber of Commerce, said having a Fortune 500 company like John Deere locate in Mattoon and create 200 jobs there will be great for the local economy.

The former LSC printing plant, 6821 E. County Road 1100 North, closed in 2020 and was purchased at the end of that year by Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based Phoenix Investors, a national commercial real estate firm that specializes in revitalizing former manufacturing facilities. Phoenix has been marketing the property to prospective occupants since then.

Phoenix has reported that the 84-acre property includes 1.1 million square feet of improvements, including clear heights up to 80 feet, 41 loading docks, 11 drive-in doors, large parking lots, and two interior rail spurs with interior loading, supported by Canadian National. The property is located just north of County Road 1000 North, which provides direct access to an Interstate 57 interchange.

The City of Mattoon is very excited about putting a very good company like John Deere in the location where LSC was previously located, said Mattoon Mayor Rick Hall. "This 1-million-square-foot building should be a great place for John Deere, with access to highways and rail. We look forward to officially welcoming them to Mattoon.

Griffin said Coles Together also looks forward to continuing to work with Phoenix Investors. Dowd added that this company has a reputation for getting vacant industrial spaces filled as "quickly as possible."

"With the company's purchase of the (LSC Communications) facility and, recently, the General Electric facility, their partnership and track record of success has opened the door to many opportunities for Coles County."

Coles County property tax assessment records show that Phoenix Investors purchased the former General Electric Mattoon Lamp Plant in January. This factory building at 1501 S. 19th St. was closed by GE in 2017.

More than a dozen trailers bearing John Deere's signature leaping deer logo could be seen in recent days parked in the former LSC property's east parking lot or attached to loading docks on the west side of the building. John Deere recently posted a job notice for an operations coordinator at the planned distribution center in Mattoon.

Coles County already has some ties to the Moline-based Fortune 500 company. Lake Land College in Mattoon is home to a John Deere Tech Program that is specifically designed to advance the skill level of new John Deere service technicians. In addition, Alliance Tractor LLC in Mattoon and AHW LLC in Ashmore are both John Deere farm equipment dealerships.

"Deere is one of many industrial firms making decisions to locate or grow in Coles County over the past three years because the local workforce has demonstrated it is very productive at making things, Griffin said.

Coles Together appreciates the foresight and work by local school districts, Lake Land College, and Eastern Illinois University to invest in skills training in the workforce, Griffin said. These efforts and workforce support from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity has given Coles County a reputation for having skilled and trained workers needed to support todays industrial sector, she said.

"With very few empty facilities and a steady demand for industrial and warehouse space, it is time to bury the phrase 'Rust Belt' when referring to Coles County," Griffin said.
Weezer fans will come undone at the chance to see Rivers Cuomo and sweater-destroying crew at the Hard Rock Casino in Gary.

It's no Beverly Hills, but the Grammy-winning alternative rock act will perform at Hard Rock Casino Northern Indianas Hard Rock Live venue on Sunday, July 9. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. for the 21+ show at 5400 West 29th Ave. in Gary.

Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday.

Weezer formed in Los Angeles in 1992 and became one of the most defining acts of the 1990s. Consisting of Cuomo, drummer Patrick Wilson, rhythm guitarist Brian Bell and bassist Scott Shriner, the band has sold 35 million records worldwide, including 10 million in the United States.

Major hits include "Buddy Holly, Undone (The Sweater Song), Say It Aint So, El Scorcho, Hash Pipe, Island In The Sun, Beverly Hills and Pork and Beans. The band has lately found success with popular covers at its live shows, such as for Toto's "Africa."

The band continues to release new music that continues to find success commercially.

"Following massively acclaimed album releases in 2016 and 2017 and two sold-out amphitheatre tours with Panic! At the Disco and The Pixies, Weezer released a fan-inspired cover of Totos 'Africa.' The cover propelled the band back into the charts across the board, giving Weezer their fifth #1, tenth Top 5, and sixteenth Top 10 at Alternative Radio, in addition to landing Top 5 on the Hot AC chart. It has since gone Platinum," Hard Rock Casino said in a press release. "They then surprise dropped a covers album at the start of 2019 - Weezer (The Teal Album) - which has been streamed over a hundred million times since its release."

The band's creative output has become diverse as it's dabbled in different genres in a looser, more experimental way.

"In 2021, Weezer released two very different but equally Weezer albums  OK Human, an orchestral pop album meditating on technology and disconnectedness, and Van Weezer, an homage to the bands shared metal roots growing up. OK Humans first single, 'All My Favorite Songs,' was one of the biggest rock hits of 2021, and was subsequently nominated for a Grammy for 'Best Rock Song,'" Hard Rock Casino said in a press release. "In 2022, the band released SZNZ, a four EP project inspired by Vivaldis Four Seasons, and completed the European leg of the Hella Mega tour, which sold out stadiums in America throughout the year prior."

Weezer last performed locally at the south suburban Tinley Park Amphitheater in 2018.

For more information, visit https://www.hardrockcasinonorthernindiana.com.
CROWN POINT  Two men from Illinois were each sentenced to over 90 years in prison on Tuesday for the 2019 murder of a Portage High School student in Griffith.

Park Forest resident Elrice Williams, 29, and Joe Pittman Jr. 29, of Chicago, each received a 97-year sentence and a 94-year sentence, respectively, for their connection to the Jan. 9, 2019, fatal shooting of 18-year-old Alayna Ortiz.

The two were found guilty of murder, as well as a slew of robbery-related charges, Feb. 1.

Prosecutors alleged that Williams and Pittman, along with three others, were attempting to rob Ortizs boyfriend when the high school student was killed at Park West Apartment Complex.

Court records show that Giovante Galloway, 25, of Gary, his uncle Juarez Rogers, 52, of Park Forest, and another co-defendant who died in an unrelated homicide, planned to rob Ortizs boyfriend for money Galloway owed him for drugs Galloway had purchased.

Galloway pleaded guilty to reduced charges of attempted robbery and burglary in December 2019 and Rogers pleaded guilty to the same charges in April 2021.

Williams was previously in discussions to enter a plea agreement, which would have made his maximum sentence 26 years.

Under the proposed deal, Williams would have pleaded guilty to attempted robbery resulting in serious bodily injury and attempted armed robbery.

Lake Criminal Court Judge Natalie Bokota rejected Williamss plea change because he recanted his admission to the shooting and said he pulled the trigger accidentally.

At Williamss sentencing, the judge reiterated that she did not think the incident was an accident and said that she never had the sense that Williams will take responsibility for his actions.

This is not an accident, Bokota said. Its a culmination of your choices.

Pittman denied any involvement with the crime during a statement he gave before he was sentenced and vowed to appeal his conviction. Williams also said he will appeal his conviction.
The Indiana Senate unanimously agrees: Cops shouldnt be lying to kids.

Hoosier senators recently voted 48-0 to prohibit law enforcement officers from knowingly providing false statements or information to children during an interrogation.

According to the legislation, a statement made by a person younger than 18 in police custody for an alleged delinquent act would be inadmissible in court if a police officer communicated to the child false information regarding evidence, or false or unauthorized statements relating to penalties or leniency.

Sen. Rodney Pol Jr., D-Chesterton, an attorney, is sponsor of Senate Bill 415. He said the need to protect children includes protecting them during interactions with police officers.

I dont believe that law enforcement frequently engages in providing false information to children. Yet any time it does happen is harmful to children, their future, their families and the justice system, Pol said.

One of the most common reasons for exonerations of juvenile offenses is false confessions, Pol explained  a fact confirmed by Nicky Jackson, a Purdue University Northwest professor and executive director at the Center for Justice and Post-Exoneration Assistance.

This bill seeks to stop those confessions and build more trust in the criminal justice system, Pol said.

At the request of Sen. Aaron Freeman, R-Indianapolis, a co-sponsor, the legislation includes a good-faith exception for police officers unaware that they were communicating false information to a child at the time they misspoke.

If enacted into law, police in Indiana still would be generally permitted to mislead adult criminal suspects about the evidence officers have acquired or nonexistent statements by alleged accomplices in an effort to secure a confession.

Pol insisted that children are different. To that end, his legislation requires police, before transporting an allegedly delinquent child away from school, to make a reasonable attempt to notify the parents or listed emergency contact of a person younger than 18 if the child was taken into custody at a school or a school-sponsored activity.

The measure goes to the House for possible revision and a decision in coming weeks on sending it to Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb to be signed into law.

The proposal is sponsored in the House by, among others, Democrats Chuck Moseley of Portage and Pat Boy of Michigan City.

Gallery: Indiana historical markers in the Region First Physician Great Sauk (Sac) Trail St. John's Lutheran Church Tolleston Dutch in the Calumet Region St. John Township School, District #2 The Lincoln Highway/The Ideal Section The Lincoln Highway/The Ideal Section Froebel School - side 1 Froebel School Stewart Settlement House Stewart Settlement House Origin of Dr. MLK Day Law Origin of Dr. MLK Day Law Bailly Homestead Iron Brigade Willow Creek Confrontation Ogden ski jump.jpg Teale 1.jpg Teale 2.jpg Steel 1.jpg Steel 2.jpg Civil War camps.jpg Old lighthouse.jpg Railroad.jpg Camp Anderson.jpg Boundary line 1.jpg Boundary line 2.jpg LaPorte courthouse 1.jpg LaPorte courthouse 2.jpg Carnegie 1.jpg Carnegie 2.jpg Rumely Co 1.jpg Rumely Co 2.jpg Lincoln train 1.jpg Lincoln train 2.jpg LaPorte university 1.jpg Laporte university 2.jpg Gary Roosevelt 1 Gary Roosevelt 2
WINFIELD  A woman who was found dead in her home Monday night died by homicide, according to a release from the Lake County coroner's office Tuesday.

The coroner's office was dispatched at 7:48 p.m. Monday to the 11000 block of Pike Place for a death investigation. The decedent was identified as Haley Losinski, 36, of Winfield. The coroner listed blunt force injury as Losinski's cause of death.

Town Marshal Dan Ball confirmed Tuesday morning that his department was called out Monday night to a death investigation. Ball said he asked for the assistance of the Lake County Crime Lab at the scene but was unable to release additional information related to the investigation.

Several squad cars and a Lake County coroners van were in the area about 9 p.m. Monday, with a side street of the Winfield Commons subdivision largely blocked off by police. The neighborhood is located just west of Randolph Street on 112th Avenue.

Lake County Sheriff Oscar Martinez Jr. said Monday that the Winfield police requested the assistance of the sheriffs Crime Scene Investigations unit earlier in the evening.

The Major Crimes Task Force is also assisting with the investigation, according to the coroner's office.
An overwhelming majority of Indiana senators believe public school libraries seemingly are filled with pornographic, obscene and otherwise inappropriate materials, and something must be done about it.

For some two hours Tuesday, members of the Republican-controlled chamber held forth on the "bad," "sickening," "nasty," "raw pornography" they contend is filling the shelves of school libraries just waiting to destroy the innocence of helpless children.

"We're talking about really, really, really bad books," said state Sen. Jim Tomes, R-Wadesville. "It's so disgusting that I couldn't even bring myself to open it up."

Tomes, the sponsor of Senate Bill 12, did not identify a single book by title he believes is beyond the pale.

Instead, he cited book lists compiled by conservative parent activists in Indiana and elsewhere as proof there's a big problem at Hoosier elementary, middle and high school libraries.

While Tomes acknowledged some of those lists include literary classics, such as "The Great Gatsby," "Catch-22" and "The Grapes of Wrath," he explained that his interest is centered on removing books that "are just full-bore graphic pictures and illustrations."

In fact, the majority of the material parent activists identify as "pornography" consists of nonfiction narratives and novels that merely include scenes of sex, drug use or racism, along with illustrated guides to puberty and growing up, such as "Let's Talk About It: The Teen's Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human."

State Sen. Rodney Pol Jr., D-Chesterton, said none of the 50 state senators are interested in seeing pornography distributed through public school libraries in Indiana.

But Pol said Tomes' proposal permitting challenges to all "inappropriate" books opens the door to activists challenging books that speak specifically to issues, such as drug use and sexual identity, which often are sought out by youths and teens who might otherwise read nothing.

"This will be used for ill purposes," Pol said. "You're going to have schools and libraries that are already overworked and understaffed having to deal with complaints from people with a political agenda."

Under the plan, a parent's complaint about a school library book initially would be reviewed by a certified school librarian who must decide that either: the book be removed from the library, the book be restricted to an age-limited section of the library, or the complaint be denied through a written response to the parent.

If the complaint is denied, the parent could appeal first to the school principal, and then to the school board, who each would have the same options of leaving the challenged book on the shelf, restricting it or removing it.

The measure also specifies that schools could not make available any book deemed obscene or harmful to minors, which generally comprises material that appeals to a prurient interest in sex and is considered as a whole to lack serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.

In tandem with that provision, the legislation specifies a school employee no longer would be entitled to claim an "educational" defense for knowingly or intentionally disseminating material found to be harmful to minors  subjecting school librarians, teachers and principals to potential criminal prosecution.

In addition, each school would be obligated to post online, and make available on paper to every parent who requests it, a detailed and regularly updated list of every single book contained in the school library.

Among Northwest Indiana lawmakers, the proposal was supported by every Republican senator and opposed by every Democrat.

It now goes to the Republican-controlled House for possible revision and a decision on advancing it to Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb to be signed into law.

Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, who serves as the Senate's presiding officer and is seeking the 2024 GOP nomination for governor, promptly endorsed the policy in a tweet posted shortly after the measure won Senate approval.

"The school library should be a place for learning, not a license for grooming. I support Senate Bill 12 and will never stop advocating for more parental involvement in Hoosier education," Crouch said. "We must fight the political and progressive takeover of our schools."

Meet the 2023 Northwest Indiana legislative delegation State Rep. Carolyn Jackson, D-Hammond State Rep. Earl Harris Jr., D-East Chicago State Rep. Ragen Hatcher, D-Gary State Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso State Rep. Pat Boy, D-Michigan City State Rep. Chuck Moseley, D-Portage State Rep. Mike Aylesworth, R-Hebron State Rep. Mike Andrade, D-Munster State Rep. Vernon Smith, D-Gary State Rep. Hal Slager, R-Schererville State Rep. Kendell Culp, R-Rensselaer State Rep. Julie Olthoff, R-Crown Point State Rep. Jim Pressel, R-Rolling Prairie State Sen. Dan Dernulc, R-Highland State Sen. Lonnie Randolph, D-East Chicago State Sen. Eddie Melton, D-Gary State Sen. Rodney Pol Jr., D-Chesterton State Sen. Ed Charbonneau, R-Valparaiso State Sen. Rick Niemeyer, R-Lowell State Sen. Mike Bohacek, R-Michiana Shores
VALPARAISO  The Valparaiso City Council unanimously passed an ordinance banning the sale of cats and dogs, though looming state legislation could preempt the local restriction.

The ordinance was first introduced by City Attorney Patrick Lyp during a Feb. 13 council meeting. Lyp said residents began expressing concerns about pet stores selling cats and dogs last year after The Puppy Emporium opened at 1101 Calumet Ave. The proposed ordinance would ban the sale of cats and dogs in retail pet stores but does not apply to shelters and rescue organizations.

The Puppy Emporium would be grandfathered in and would be exempt from the ban. However, if the store voluntarily abandons operations for 180 consecutive days, it would no longer be exempt. Initially, the ordinance stated the store would no longer be exempt if it abandoned operations for 30 days, however the ordinance was amended to extend the timeline to 180.

During the Monday night meeting, Lyp noted Senate Bill 134 would preempt the city ordinance.

The legislation was approved by the Senate on Feb. 20 and referred to the House Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development on Tuesday. SB 134 requires Indiana localities that did not ban the sale of dogs at retail pet stores prior to Jan. 1, 2023, to allow pet store dog sales in accordance with the terms of the proposal. If the measure ultimately is enacted into law without changes, the pet store dog sale ordinance adopted by Valparaiso would be preempted by the retroactive provision of the state statute and would not legally be enforceable.

Valparaiso worked with the U.S. Humane Society to draft the ordinance. Lyp said representatives from the Humane Society are "optimistic" the state legislation will not become law.

"If were preempted, were preempted, but if were not we would have the ordinance adopted within our municipal code, Lyp told the council.

Senate Bill 134 faces an uncertain fate in the House where a similar proposal, House Bill 1121, sponsored by state Rep. Mike Aylesworth, R-Hebron, failed to advance out of the Agriculture and Rural Development Committee.

At this time, the legislation does not negate the bans on pet store dog sales previously adopted as a means to combat animal abuse by Crown Point, Dyer, East Chicago, Hebron, Highland, Lake Station, Lowell, Munster, Schererville and Whiting.

Region communities began adopting humane pet store ordinances after Illinois passed a statewide ban on puppy mills and the sale of dogs and cats by pet shops in August 2021. Multiple elected officials have said they were concerned that Illinois pet stores would relocate to Indiana after the ban. Of the 13 Hoosier municipalities that have passed humane pet store ordinances, all but three are in Northwest Indiana.

Hammond and Hobart have both discussed the possibility of passing a humane pet store ordinance, but the legislation has not moved forward.

PHOTOS: Valparaiso hosts panel on National Opioid Settlement Valparaiso hosts opioid solutions panel Valparaiso hosts opioid solutions panel Valparaiso hosts opioid solutions panel Valparaiso hosts opioid solutions panel Valparaiso hosts opioid solutions panel Valparaiso hosts opioid solutions panel Valparaiso hosts opioid solutions panel Valparaiso hosts opioid solutions panel Valparaiso hosts opioid solutions panel Valparaiso hosts opioid solutions panel Valparaiso hosts opioid solutions panel Valparaiso hosts opioid solutions panel Valparaiso hosts opioid solutions panel Valparaiso hosts opioid solutions panel Valparaiso hosts opioid solutions panel Valparaiso hosts opioid solutions panel Valparaiso hosts opioid solutions panel Valparaiso hosts opioid solutions panel Valparaiso hosts opioid solutions panel Valparaiso hosts opioid solutions panel
Hospital units used to treat burn victims had been alerted in the area, Mr. Varthakoyiannis said, adding that dozens of ambulances were involved in the rescue effort. The fire service said 85 people had been injured, 53 of whom were still hospitalized.

Survivors said several passengers were thrown through the windows of the train cars. They said others fought to free themselves after the passenger train buckled, slamming into a field next to the tracks.

Rescuers wearing head lamps worked in thick smoke, pulling pieces of mangled sheet metal from the crashed rail cars to search for trapped people.

It was a very powerful collision. This is a terrible night, Costas Agorastos, the regional governor of the central Thessaly area, told state-run television. The front section of the train was smashed.

The governor added that cranes and special lifting equipment were coming in to clear the debris and lift the rail cars. Theres debris flung all around the crash site, he said.
Five days after a pro-Trump mob attacked the U.S. Capitol, a board member of the Fox Corporation, Anne Dias, reached out to Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch with an urgent plea.

Considering how important Fox News has been as a megaphone for Donald Trump, she said, it was time to take a stance. Ms. Dias, who sounded shaken by the riot, said she thought Fox News and the nation faced an existential moment.

As quickly as the two Murdochs began discussing how to respond, their bind became evident.

Just tell her we have been talking internally and intensely, Rupert Murdoch, whose family controls the company, wrote in an email. Fox News, he told his son, is pivoting as fast as possible. But he sounded a note of caution: We have to lead our viewers, which is not as easy as it might seem.

Ever since Donald J. Trump announced his presidential campaign in 2015, Rupert Murdoch and his Fox News Channel have struggled with how to handle the man and the movement they helped create.
Were you surprised by the kind of attention the initial article received?

MICHAEL GOLD: This was a two-day assignment that turned into multiple months. I dont think I fully understood the impact that this might have had. We spent that first week reeling from the fact that so many people were gravitating toward this story. When youre working in isolation for as long as we were working, you had no idea what would happen. We reached out to the Santos team leading up to publication, and their posture initially was the one that you usually get from spokespeople. It gradually became more aggressive, I would say, and defensive at the same time.

To have him that next week come out and say, as he put it, I did embellish my resume,was an interesting moment. We stood by our reporting at that point, but we realized there was possibly more to the story.

GRACE ASHFORD: And then the question becomes: Now what? Now that this is not just a report in The New York Times that has been denied  this is something thats been admitted. That also broadened the horizon of what the impact of the story might be.

When did you start thinking the initial investigation would need a wider focus?

ASHFORD: The decision to publish when we did was a difficult one. What we were really saying in that first story was, hes not who he claims to be  and we dont totally know who he is. But what we do know paints a very different portrait. That was part of the reason I think that this story garnered so much attention: It invited America to help figure out what was really going on under the surface.

GOLD: There were also things that we mentioned in that first story that became a bigger deal later on, like the pet charity. Then other reporting came out by Patch, originally, that suggested that there was much more about his involvement with pets. If you look back at that first story, there are a lot of things that maybe at the time felt like minor details that have become a major part of this.
While Dosa focused much of her movie on the Kraffts relationship and shared passion  she has described Fire of Love as a love triangle involving the two of them and the volcanoes  Herzog adopts a more cosmic perspective. The Kraffts fit neatly within his gallery of quixotic figures unintimidated by what, in Grizzly Man, he called the overwhelming indifference of nature. Herzog puts the Kraffts deaths  they were killed while observing the eruption of Mount Unzen in Japan in 1991  up front, dwelling on video that shows them waiting at the volcano that would kill them and considering what they and other onlookers would have been thinking as the clock ticked down. He then runs down other narrow escapes that happened during their career. Over footage of an eruption in Alaska, Herzog, narrating as usual, marvels at how Maurice does not flee but instead calmly keeps the action in frame until he runs out of film.

Clearly Herzog sees the Kraffts as kindred spirits  fellow intrepid globe-trotting auteurs. (Near the end, he confesses that he would have given much if he could have been their companion.) And while Fire of Love was also concerned with the Kraffts evolution as filmmakers, and with the extent to which they played for the camera, Herzogs perspective is more eccentric. As he contemplates how the Kraffts gaze became, in his estimation, less scientific and more humanistic, he is drawn to the material they shot of people and of animals, in clips that have no volcanoes at all. Nobody has ever filmed landscapes like them, he says. Some of it has the quality of dreams.

Good Night Oppy (2022)

Stream it on Amazon Prime Video.
The annual interfaith breakfast hosted on Tuesday by Mayor Eric Adams began normally enough. A choir sang a rousing rendition of My Country Tis of Thee. A rabbi spoke. So did Buddhist and Muslim leaders.

And then things started to get surreal.

The mayors closest aide, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, took the stage to declare that the Adams administration doesnt believe in the separation of church and state, characterizing the mayor of New York City as definitely one of the chosen as she introduced him.

Mr. Adams clearly had no issue with how Ms. Lewis-Martin, a chaplain, described his views.

Ingrid was so right, Mr. Adams said, to the astonishment of some of the religious leaders who filled the New York Public Librarys glass-domed reception hall on Fifth Avenue. Dont tell me about no separation of church and state. State is the body. Church is the heart. You take the heart out of the body, the body dies.

I cant separate my belief because Im an elected official, he continued, over scattered applause.
Few thought it would be easy when Laura Kavanagh took the reins of the nations largest fire department in November as its first female leader.

Most of the 33 men who had run the New York Fire Department, dating back to 1883, were older, with an up-through-the-ranks pedigree. But Ms. Kavanagh, 40, was the youngest in over a century. She had an Ivy League degree, but was not a native of New York, a background that has long been assumed as a prerequisite. And, though she had been a civilian department official for years, she had never been a member of a fire company.

This week, in a kind of culmination of Ms. Kavanaghs tumultuous early tenure, four of her top chiefs filed a lawsuit against her and the department that took aim at her experience, repeatedly leaning on the same phrase: Never a day as a firefighter.

The suit claims that three of the officials were unfairly demoted, putting New Yorkers at risk. Ms. Kavanagh on Tuesday evening dismissed that idea.
To President Emmanuel Macron of France, a suggestion:

If, as a report in The Wall Street Journal suggests, you are convinced the war in Ukraine is destined for a bloody stalemate, and would like to encourage Kyiv to enter peace talks with Moscow that would leave Russia in possession of large tracts of conquered territory, why not lead by example? Publicly suggest the return of Alsace to Germany as evidence that you, too, believe that territorial sovereignty should be negotiable.

To Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany, another suggestion:

If youre going to dangle the prospect of closer ties between Ukraine and NATO (but not full membership) as a way of pushing Kyiv into a diplomatic settlement with Moscow, why not invite several battalions of Russian armor to the vicinity of Berlin? That would demonstrate that you, too, are willing to adjust the verdict of 1991 to mollify the Kremlins resentment, greed and paranoia.

These are preposterous suggestions. Thats the point. Those who now argue that President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine needs to be realistic or pragmatic  that is, that he should stop short of pursuing a complete Russian withdrawal from all occupied Ukrainian territories  are proposing a solution they would never countenance for their own countries under ordinary circumstances, let alone during a struggle for national survival.

Thats why, as the war in Ukraine enters its second year, I feel grateful for Joe Biden. Fault him all you want on many issues, particularly his gradualist approach to arming Ukraine, but on the most consequential question of our time he has the big thing right. Appetites of the autocrat cannot be appeased, he said last week in Warsaw. They must be opposed.
NATIONAL

An article on Tuesday about the Supreme Courts review of a federal identity theft law misstated the given name of a defendant who was convicted of health care fraud. He is David Dubin, not Davis.

BUSINESS

An article on Friday about Israeli tech executives who are considering moving their businesses out of Israel after the prime minister announced plans for a judicial overhaul misstated Adam Fishers role at Bessemer Venture Partners. He is a partner, not a co-founder. The article also referred incorrectly to Wix.com. It is a publicly traded company; it is not private.

DINING

An article last Wednesday about the cookbook author and teacher Raghavan Iyer misstated an ingredient he used to make lunch. It was black cardamom pods, not black coriander pods.

A review last Wednesday of the Manhattan restaurant Kjun misstated the number of courses in Little Mads $95 Mad Dinner Experience. It is five courses, not three.
In Kate Whoriskeys witty, sensitive production for Signature Theater, the role of Max is shared by two actors, alternating performances. Ben Edelman, so excellent opposite Hecht in Joshua Harmons Admissions, is the more raucous Max, with a bigger personality that gets bigger laughs. Whatever is behind that facade, though, remains hidden from us. Zane Paiss loose-limbed Max is the one who brings the tenderness, which cracks the play open emotionally and also, somehow, poetically. Skinny and floppy-haired, with a restless intensity and a searching intelligence, he is at once irrepressible and unavoidably vulnerable.

This slender play has some of the spareness of poetry, which Sarah and Max periodically speak aloud. If, at a scant two hours including intermission, the production seems sometimes to be moving too fast, it also has interludes when it slows down  as in an exquisite scene between Max and a winged character who is both an angel and a tattoo artist, and is played by Edelman or Pais, whichever of them isnt embodying Max at that performance.

In that third role, Edelman (on piano) and Pais (on guitar) each also play underscoring music that they wrote with the sound designer, Sinan Refik Zafar. The last music the audience hears, though, was composed by Ritvo. The effect of it all, in tandem with the other design elements, is a sense of ethereality. (The set is by Marsha Ginsberg, costumes by Anita Yavich, lighting by Amith Chandrashaker and projection and video by S Katy Tucker.)

Ruhls plays are sometimes mistranslated from page to stage  rendered less poetic than they are, and more earthbound. Like Les Waters with Eurydice, Whoriskey is the rare director who grasps the ineffable in Ruhl, and knows how to make sense of it in three dimensions. For all its talk of this world and corporeality, Letters From Max exists on a slightly other plane.

Ruhl and Ritvos conversation was as much about the life of the mind, and the work of an artist, as it was about the life of the body and the existence of the soul. Ruhl has fashioned from it the kind of play that makes you want to dig in afterward: into the letters between them, into her plays, into his poems. Since the closure of Signatures thoughtfully curated lobby bookstore  a casualty of the coronavirus pandemic  no production there has made me miss it as powerfully as this one.
Ms. Atkins, who died in 2009, provided the crucial grand jury testimony that led to indictments; but she then changed her mind and declined to testify at Mr. Mansons trial, which began with jury selection in June 1970 and opening arguments in mid-July. That was fine with Vincent Bugliosi, the lead prosecutor, who after the deal had been struck for Ms. Atkinss grand jury testimony learned that Ms. Kasabian was also willing to testify.

Given a choice between Susan and Linda as the star witness for the prosecution, I much preferred Linda: She hadnt killed anyone, Mr. Bugliosi wrote in Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders (1974, written with Curt Gentry), his best-selling account of the case. But in the rush to get the case to the grand jury, wed made the deal with Susan and, like it or not, we were stuck with it. Unless Susan bolted.

Once Susan bolted, the prosecution gave Ms. Kasabian conditional immunity  it would be revoked if she did not testify fully and truthfully  and she became the centerpiece of the trial of Mr. Manson and the three women. (She was later important in the case against Mr. Watson, who was tried separately.)

That trial was a wild affair that lasted months. Ms. Kasabian testified for 17 days, withstanding badgering by the defense lawyers and sometimes by Mr. Manson himself.

Though the defense had been given a 20-page summary of all my interviews with her, as well as copies of all her letters to me, Mr. Bugliosi, who died in 2015, wrote in Helter Skelter, not once had she been impeached with a prior inconsistent statement. I was very proud of her.
Mr. Biden will release his budget on March 9 at a time of deep political polarization over the economy and a fight over the debt limit. Republicans, who hold the majority in the House, have refused to raise the debt limit unless Mr. Biden accepts deep cuts in federal spending. The president has said that the White House will not negotiate.

Instead, on Tuesday, Mr. Biden defended Democratic efforts to expand provisions of the Affordable Care Act, the landmark health care law that has withstood some 13 years of Republican attempts to repeal it. He also touted a law that requires Medicare to bargain with drug manufacturers on behalf of seniors to lower their prescription costs.

Mr. Biden said he wanted to continue his efforts to make health care more affordable by instituting a nationwide cap of $35 a month for insulin, a measure that failed last year and is unlikely to pass in a majority-Republican House.

President Biden proposed a $6.8 trillion budget that sought to increase spending on the military and social programs while also reducing future budget deficits. Recapturing a Centrist Identity: Biden has made curbing the budget gap one of his centerpiece promises. The move is part of a wider shift that sees the president Biden has made curbing the budget gap one of his centerpiece promises. The move is part of a wider shift that sees the president speaking more to the concerns of the political middle

Reducing Deficit: Instead of talking about hard choices and freezing spending, the president has pledged to defend popular federal programs and rely on taxing corporations and high earners. Instead of talking about hard choices and freezing spending, the president has pledged to defend popular federal programs and rely on taxing corporations and high earners. That represents a break with the past

A Missing Plan for Social Security: Like the presidents previous budgets, Like the presidents previous budgets, his new proposal makes no mention of the program , which he promised to shore up during his 2020 campaign.

A record 16.3 million Americans signed up for health insurance plans through the laws marketplaces during this years open enrollment period, a sign of its enduring popularity. But it has also become more expensive for the government: Generous new policies that were introduced during the coronavirus pandemic have made more health care subsidies available to Americans across income levels.

Mr. Biden said his budget would pay for increasing Medicare, Social Security and health care costs by increasing taxes. The proposal, which revisits a so-called billionaire tax Mr. Biden introduced in last years budget, faces slim odds in a divided Congress.
WASHINGTON  The Supreme Courts conservative majority seemed deeply skeptical on Tuesday of the legality of the Biden administrations plan to wipe out more than $400 billion in student debt, heightening the prospect that the justices would thwart efforts to forgive the loans of tens of millions of borrowers.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. indicated that the administration had acted without sufficiently explicit congressional authorization to undertake one of the most ambitious and expensive executive actions in the nations history, violating separation-of-powers principles.

I think most casual observers would say, the chief justice said, that if youre going to give up that much amount of money, if youre going to affect the obligations of that many Americans on a subject thats of great controversy, they would think thats something for Congress to act on.

The courts three liberal members said Congress had already acted, by passing a law in 2003 that authorized the secretary of education to address emergencies.
WASHINGTON  Republicans in Congress sharply questioned senior Pentagon officials on Tuesday about the tens of billions of dollars in military and other aid the United States has sent to Ukraine, casting fresh doubt on whether they would embrace future spending as Democrats pleaded for a cleareyed assessment of how much more money would be needed.

The exchanges at two House committee hearings, coming just days after the anniversary of Russias invasion of Ukraine, highlighted how concerns about the high cost of sending weapons to Kyiv have intensified on Capitol Hill. The growing doubts have threatened what has been a strong bipartisan consensus in favor of the aid, and could make it more difficult for the Biden administration to win congressional approval of funds to replenish its military assistance accounts. The funding inflection point could come as soon as this summer, months earlier than previously expected.

The hearings also illustrated how members of both parties, despite expressing confidence that a majority in Congress remains committed to supporting Ukraine, are concerned that a determined minority  including right-wing Republicans who eschew U.S. involvement in foreign conflicts and liberal antiwar Democrats  may weaken that resolve if the war continues to drag on.

Were all concerned about accountability, Representative Joe Wilson, Republican of South Carolina, who has supported Ukraine funding ventures in the past, said during a House Armed Services Committee hearing. Please, lets get this publicized so the American people can trust what the expenditures are.
This is a real concern in Nigeria, where several leaders have died in office, and where the current president, Muhammadu Buhari, spent a large chunk of his first term absent, receiving medical treatment in London, for an illness he refused to discuss.

Many Nigerians believe that their country, as Africas biggest economy, needs an energetic leader.

Mr. Tinubu ran Lagos as governor for eight years, and then mentored his successors, giving him a reputation as a political godfather, able to ensure that some peoples careers took off while others sank.

He has also claimed that without his influence, Mr. Buhari, who lost the presidential elections several times before winning his first term in 2015, would never have become president.

In the run-up to this election, Mr. Tinubu used the slogan, Its my turn  flaunting his role as kingmaker, but also alienating many voters.

A Muslim from Nigerias southwest, Mr. Tinubu may struggle to unite Nigerias diverse population. He ran for president with another Muslim on the ticket  Kashim Shettima, a former governor of Borno state in the northeast, which has been the epicenter of Boko Harams campaign of terrorism for over a decade.
ASTANA, Kazakhstan  Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken came to Central Asia to press his case that the region should hold the line against Russian efforts to seek economic aid as Moscow grapples with Western sanctions.

Within hours of landing in Astana, the snow-draped capital of Kazakhstan, he received a sign that the United States had some leverage. The Kazakh president stood next to Mr. Blinken in the blue-domed presidential palace and thanked the Americans for their support of his nations independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty.

The president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, has not criticized Russias war, and neither have leaders of the four other Central Asian nations, former Soviet republics with decades-long ties with Moscow. But his pointed statement suggested that, after the invasion of Ukraine, also a former Soviet republic, there was concern that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia could try to seize parts of their own nations or encourage separatists.

Parts of northern Kazakhstan are inhabited largely by ethnic Russians and are viewed by Russian nationalists as territory that should belong to Russia. So there is concern that those Kazakh residents could fall victim to Mr. Putins logic that Moscow has a duty to protect ethnic kin wherever they are.
OTTAWA  Foreign governments tried to interfere with the last two federal elections in Canada, but they did not succeed in impacting the voting results, according to an independent review released on Tuesday.

That conclusion comes as opposition politicians and others are pressing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to open a separate, public inquiry into allegations of election interference by Chinese diplomats based in Canada, as well as by informal agents of the Chinese government  a move that Mr. Trudeau has rejected.

The report released on Tuesday was a review of the work of a special panel of five senior public servants, created to work with intelligence and law enforcement agencies to alert the public to any incidents that threaten the integrity of a federal election.

Morris Rosenberg, the former deputy justice minister who wrote the report, said the panel had determined that the government of Canada did not detect foreign interference that threatened Canadas ability to have free and fair elections, adding: National security agencies saw attempts at foreign interference, but not enough to have met the threshold of impacting electoral integrity.
Russian officials accused Ukraine on Tuesday of deploying attack drones over Russian territory, a salvo that highlights Russias vulnerability within its borders.

The attacks, as described by Russian officials, pierced a vast swath of Russian airspace, from Krasnodar in the countrys south to within about 60 miles of Moscow, the capital, in the west, on Monday night and Tuesday morning. The Ukrainian government publicly follows a policy of deliberate ambiguity about strikes on Russian territory.

Andrei Vorobyov, the governor of the Moscow region, said on the social messaging platform Telegram that a drone had crashed near the village of Gubastovo, about 60 miles from Moscow and 280 miles from the countrys border with Ukraine. Mr. Vorobyov did not specify that the drone was Ukrainian, but he said that the Federal Security Service  Russias military and primary security service  had responded to the site of the crash.

Aleksandr Bogomaz, the governor of Bryansk region, said on Telegram on Tuesday that in another incident, Russian forces had shot down a Ukrainian drone over the Surazhsky district, about 50 miles from the border with Ukraine. He added that the drone did not appear to cause any damage.
We can get insight into that first transformation of art into fArt, circa 1500, from the research of Alexander Nagel, an art historian at New York Universitys Institute of Fine Arts. It looks as though a few religious reformers  in particular Girolamo Savonarola, the Florentine firebrand  began to be disgusted by the distracting realism of certain new sacred paintings, like the ones that scored artistic points by posing local girls as biblical heroines: The figures you have made in the churches are in the likeness of one or another woman, which is very badly done and in great disregard for what is Gods, Savonarola raged.

The issue, as Nagel spelled it out in his book The Controversy of Renaissance Art, was that the paintings viewers, instead of having their minds on God and his saints, were engaging in the pleasurable activity of pictorial analysis  the kind of contemplative work that Noe finds in what were calling fArt.

Some of Savonarolas contemporaries solved the problem. Franz von Sickingen, a patron of Martin Luther himself, suggested that those distracting church paintings should be moved into secular settings  as ornaments of fine rooms, he said, where their art, beauty, and magnificence could be safely studied and enjoyed. That is, those newfangled religious objects should be appropriated into the domain of fArt, to receive the kind of attention we give them today when theyre hung down the hall from the Warhols. (Of course, other versions of fArt have cropped up at other moments in other places  in Persia, or China, or Japan  but they didnt play a role in the Leonardo-to-Warhol story.)

In the early 16th century, all sorts of objects whose functions might once have been clear start migrating  start being appropriated  into such rooms. You see religious paintings being gathered into art collections where they cant have had any ritual use. The Mona Lisa itself never gets delivered to the patron who paid to have his wife commemorated in it; instead Leonardo da Vinci carries the painting with him as he travels, reworking it as an example of his fArt. After Leonardos death, in France in 1519, the painting is treasured by King Francis I and his heirs, none of whom cared about the woman it showed or the pride of the man who married her.

Around that same time, paintings start being created that are so hard to figure out, they could only ever function as fArt. A picture by the Venetian artist Giorgione is referred to as The Three Philosophers, but the title is that vague only because we have never been able to settle on what the artist had in mind for his three figures.
Immediately clear after the stunning death of Prince, at age 57 in 2016, was that the world had lost a brilliant artist. What has taken years to unfold, from a magazine cover to the Supreme Court, is a debate over creativity and free expression that has been framed as a fight over the spirit of art itself.

The feud began in 2016 when the Andy Warhol Foundation licensed an image of Prince to Conde Nast for a special magazine commemorating the musicians death. Lynn Goldsmith, whose photograph had served as Warhols template decades earlier, objected because she had licensed the picture for one-time use. The foundation then sued her, asking for a judgment that Warhols changes to the photograph were transformative and should be considered fair use.

A district court agreed. An appeals court did not.

Now the Supreme Court is preparing to issue its opinion on the case, after oral arguments in October and a flurry of amicus briefs from parties concerned about the ramifications.

The Warhol foundation has argued that the appeals court decision renders some existing artworks presumptively unlawful and could lead to the removal of seminal works of art from the public sphere. Goldsmith contends that the case is about the licensing of creative work, not about exhibiting art, and that a ruling against her would transform copyright law into all copying, no right.
At the Grammy Awards last month, the rap trio De La Soul was booked for the shows 50th anniversary tribute to hip-hop, alongside more than two dozen performers. The timing was perfect, coming just a few weeks ahead of the long-delayed digital release of the groups storied catalog.

But the day before the ceremony, David Jolicoeur, who was known as Trugoy the Dove  and had long been public about having congestive heart failure  told his bandmates he was too ill to make it; Vincent Mason, a.k.a. Maseo, the groups D.J., also had health problems. Kelvin Mercer, known as Posdnuos, represented the trio alone, rapping part of Buddy from its classic 1989 debut, 3 Feet High and Rising.

It was a bittersweet performance for me, Mercer said last week, because I was looking so forward to having my brothers there for this amazing moment. A week after the Grammys, Jolicoeur died at age 54.

Another painful victory for De La Soul arrives on Friday, when the groups first six albums will finally become available on streaming services after years of struggles with record companies that have kept that music  one of hip-hops most cherished and influential bodies of work  largely inaccessible to longtime fans, and invisible to younger audiences. For the last year and a half, each of the members had been closely involved in the reissue project, digging through old tapes to identify samples that still needed to be cleared and making cosmetic edits when they could not.
4. Nigeria named a winner of its presidential election, despite claims of fraud.

Bola Tinubu, a former state governor who campaigned using the slogan Its my turn, was declared the winner of Nigerias presidential election, extending the governing partys rule in Africas largest nation.

Tinubu won about 36 percent of the vote, avoiding a runoff. But with only 27 percent of voters participating, turnout was the lowest in the countrys history. Citing delays and violence, opposition parties have called for a redo of the election.

Tinubu is a divisive figure. Some credit him for turning around the fortunes of Lagos during his eight years as governor; others deride him as a corrupt stalwart of the old guard, who could struggle to unite a country with a huge population of young people. The president-elect says he is 70, but some Nigerians think he is much older.

In other international news, the Greek transport minister resigned after a head-on collision between two trains killed at least 38 people.
Victory for a Nigerian political big boss

Bola Tinubu was declared the winner of Nigerias presidential election on Wednesday, extending the governing All Progressives Congress partys rule in Africas largest nation.

Tinubu won about 36 percent of the vote, enough to avoid a runoff. But only 27 percent of voters participated, the lowest turnout in the countrys history.

A political insider who ran on the slogan Its my turn, Tinubu is a divisive figure. Some revere him for turning around the fortunes of Lagos during his eight years as governor; others deride him as a corrupt stalwart of the old guard.

A multimillionaire, Tinubu made his money in real estate, but has faced questions over his wealth. His supporters call him big boss, while many detractors call him balablu, a reference to a speech in which he failed to pronounce the word hullabaloo and a shorthand to imply that he is too old to lead.
One of the main challenges that come with living at home for Mr. Morris is the toll it has taken on his dating and social life. Both of his parents are retired, and he has to ask for permission to have friends over. Mr. Morris said he had been on few dates since moving back home, partly because he did not have his own space.

Its not that enticing to just date someone who still lives with their parents, he said.

Mr. Morris still owes about $8,000 in private student loans and hopes to move out when he pays them off. He is aiming to reach this goal by the end of September.

When young people have student loans, hope to start a business or want to save up for things like a house or a wedding, living at home can be a good financial decision, said Jovan Johnson, a co-owner of Piece of Wealth Planning, a financial advisory firm. In terms of when to move out, Mr. Johnson said, it is important to make sure you have enough income to afford rent and your lifestyle as well as an emergency fund that includes three to six months of rent and basic expenses. He also stressed the importance of being emotionally prepared for that next step.

Make sure youre ready for that independence and what comes with it, he said. It is a little different when youre on your own without that support.

Living at home is necessary for Kiah Ranstead because she takes care of her parents, who are both disabled. Ms. Ranstead, 30, lives in Kent, Ill., and helps out by doing household chores, managing her mothers medication and taking her to doctors appointments.
After being brutally battered by the coronavirus pandemic last year, Chinese factories bounced back with unexpected vigor last month.

The official index of manufacturing activity, based on surveys of purchasing managers at companies in China, shot up in February from the month before to its highest level in more than a decade. The index of service sector activity also rose. Both measures suggested that business had expanded for a second straight month, after contracting during the Covid restrictions.

After a year of unrelenting lockdowns, quarantines and coronavirus testing that paralyzed much of the country, Beijing lifted restrictions without warning in early December. The abrupt reversal in policy resulted in a rampage of infections, and rough estimates suggest that up to 1.5 million people have died in the Covid wave. But it also freed the economy to begin a revival.

Overnight weve seen a decent change in momentum for risk as upbeat China data has revived optimism for the reopening trade that has been flagging of late, analysts at Deutsche Bank wrote after the statistics were released. The Hang Seng stock index in Hong Kong rose more than 4 percent on Wednesday.
Benioffs big test

Wednesdays earnings report by Salesforce may be the most closely watched in the software giants 24-year history. Investors  especially the now half-dozen activist shareholders who are clamoring for change at the company, and possibly board seats  will be eager to hear how its chief, Marc Benioff, plans to turn around its fortunes.

That wont be easy. Mr. Benioff must make potentially drastic changes to the performance and culture of the company he founded, even as employees grow restive after a wave of layoffs.

Salesforce faces a host of challenges. Its stock price is down 47 percent from its November peak, as investors fret over declining sales and a company that seemingly grew bloated during the tech boom. The Wall Street Journal outlined some of the most striking examples of what happened to the onetime highflier:

The company paid Matthew McConaughey, a friend of Mr. Benioffs, over $10 million a year to be a creative adviser and spokesman, including in a $5 million Super Bowl ad. (Mr. Benioff told The Journal he had no part in approving McConaugheys compensation.)

Mr. Benioff repeatedly prioritized sales growth  including a flood-the-zone approach  over profitability and efficiency; he believed that slowing hiring for sales teams would hurt revenue growth. Thats borne out in financial measures: The companys adjusted operating margins have been much smaller than those of rivals like ServiceNow and Adobe.

Previous efforts to promote efficiency, including a 2021 proposal that would have ranked top achievers and eliminated the worst performers, fell flat with staff.

Salesforce, the largest employer in San Francisco, was once awash in perks, including specialty-coffee baristas at its headquarters and use of a 75-acre wellness retreat. Those have been drastically scaled back, drawing complaints from the 22,000 employees whove joined an internal Slack channel called airing of grievances.

Mr. Benioff has already moved to change course, including by laying off 10 percent of the companys work force, or 8,000 people. That cuts against his longtime corporate philosophy of ohana  Hawaiian for familial bonds  but it was necessary, he told The Journal: If you dont have a performance culture, and you dont operate the company with that kind of efficacy, youre not doing anybody any favors.

The question now is what investors will think. Wall Street has already been agog at how many activist shareholders have piled into Salesforce  including Elliott Management, Starboard Value, Third Point, Inclusive Capital and ValueAct. They are likely to push for a focus on increasing profits. A sixth activist showed up this week: Strive Asset Management, a self-professed anti-woke investment firm, which has called on Salesforce to stop using your business as a platform for social change and focus on serving your customers alone.
The little QR code is ubiquitous across Indias vastness.

You find it pasted on a tree next to a roadside barber, propped on the pile of embroidery sold by female weavers, sticking out of a mound of freshly roasted peanuts on a snack cart. A beachside performer in Mumbai places it on his donations can before beginning his robot act; a Delhi beggar flashes it through your cars window when you plead that you have no cash.

The codes connect hundreds of millions of people in an instant payment system that has revolutionized Indian commerce. Billions of mobile app transactions  a volume dwarfing anything in the West  course each month through a homegrown digital network that has made business easier and brought large numbers of Indians into the formal economy.

The scan-and-pay system is one pillar of what the countrys prime minister, Narendra Modi, has championed as digital public infrastructure, with a foundation laid by the government. It has made daily life more convenient, expanded banking services like credit and savings to millions more Indians, and extended the reach of government programs and tax collection.
Tesla said on Wednesday that it would build a factory in Mexico to manufacture an electric vehicle that would be significantly more affordable than any of the cars it sold now. But the company disappointed investors who were expecting it to make big announcements about new products and strategies.

Shareholders and analysts had expected Tesla to reveal information that would clarify how the company would retain its crown as the worlds dominant maker of electric vehicles in the face of energetic competition from established carmakers and relatively younger Chinese manufacturers.

Instead, company executives offered a seminar on its manufacturing processes, supply chain organization and software. The message was that Tesla is eons ahead of other automakers in technology and efficiency, on track to someday produce 20 million vehicles a year, twice as many as Toyota does now. Tesla provided few of the financial bullet points or strategic initiatives that are often found in investor presentations.

Elon Musk, Teslas chief executive, portrayed Tesla as a company on a mission to eliminate global dependence on fossil fuels, a theme he has often highlighted.
LONDON  Five leading supermarket chains in Britain have limited the number of some vegetables that customers can buy, deepening the pressure on policymakers to confront the shrinking supply of salad ingredients.

Last weekend, Lidl, the German discount supermarket chain, said it was limiting the sale of cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes to three per customer, joining four other chains  Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and Aldi  that have capped the sales of some produce. Lidl said there was good availability in its stores and that the measures were precautionary.

Together, the five chains represent about two-thirds of the market share of grocery stores in Britain.

So, where have all of the tomatoes gone?

Frosty temperatures in Spain, the primary supplier of British vegetables, have damaged crops, particularly in the Spanish province of Almeria, where tomato sales were down 22 percent in the first two weeks of February, compared to a year ago, according to Fepex, an organization representing Spanish producers and exporters of fruits and vegetables. Cucumber sales fell 21 percent and pepper and eggplant sales fell 25 percent, the organization said.
I feel like a winter coat with pasta all over it is a little bit of joy, she said.

This winter, the pasta puffer has been especially conspicuous. Lauren Goldstein, 26, who works in social media and marketing in Manhattan and owns the coat, said this could be a result of the unseasonably warm weather in many parts of the country, which allows for outerwear that prioritizes fashion over function.

The pasta coat is my entire personality this winter, she said.

Its not unheard-of for outerwear to develop a cult following (see: the $100-ish Amazon Coat that took New York by storm in 2018). But the pasta puffer seems more niche.

Before the pandemic, we were very often told, This is way too loud, too much, this doesnt merchandise,  said Ms. Antonoff, who has been making food-themed garments like babka sweaters and dresses decorated with seafood towers since 2015. Then the lockdowns happened, and many people spending their workdays on Zoom calls were looking for a way to provoke conversation. We noticed that people are being seen from waist up, and they wanted to have a big bagel on their sweater.

The excitement for those styles has remained, she said.

Laura Nguyen, an account executive in Brooklyn Heights, said that during the pandemic she grew tired of her bluish-gray professional clothes from Ann Taylor. She decided to refresh her wardrobe, and at the end of 2021 rented the pasta puffer from the website Rent the Runway.

Adding food into patterns and fashion is like the new florals, said Ms. Nguyen, 25.

Sam Hwang, 25, who lives in Huntington Beach, Calif., and also owns the coat, said its popularity speaks to the way many people are more body-positive, and make their favorite dishes part of their identity. Other designers, like Lisa Says Gah and Susan Alexandra, have drawn attention for their food-themed fashion.
Federal and state regulators are being urged to increase their oversight of insurance agents and brokers selling Medigap policies, the private supplemental coverage owned by millions of people with traditional Medicare that pays out-of-pocket costs.

These brokers received paid vacations and cash bonuses to enroll customers in plans offered by specific companies, according to a report released Wednesday by Senator Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat.

Giant insurance companies have free rein to scam millions of seniors in Medigap, offering agents lavish vacations to steer unknowing beneficiaries into more expensive plans, Ms. Warren said in a statement. Regulators must act to make sure seniors arent getting fleeced.

The report found that at least 32 Medigap insurers were associated with reward programs, either directly or through third parties. These incentives are legal, but can create financial reasons for agents to recommend more expensive policies or plans from a single insurer.
After hours of deliberation over safety concerns, a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel on Wednesday recommended approval of a second vaccine for the respiratory syncytial virus in older adults, advancing the first shots against an illness that can be deadly for the very young and the very old.

Over two days this week, the panel debated and then voted in favor of two vaccines, one by Pfizer and one by GSK (GlaxoSmithKline), that would become available for adults 60 and older.

The panels made their recommendations to the agency, which typically abides by advisory committee decisions and could grant formal approval within months.

The F.D.A. estimates that R.S.V. is associated with 6,000 to 10,000 deaths each year in adults 65 and older and at least 60,000 hospitalizations in that group. It is a leading killer of children worldwide. This winter, R.S.V. contributed to the tripledemic also involving flu and Covid cases that swamped childrens hospitals and some I.C.U. wards. The caseloads have eased off recently.
In like one of my daily scrolls through the New York Times, I came across this competition. I guess the rest is history. Hi, everyone, My name is Abel John. Im going to Clements High School in Sugarland, Texas. The title of my essay is Collar the Cat. Hi, Eddie Xu, this piece is entitled How Pragmatism is Poisoning the Democratic Will of Americas Youth. My name is Ananya Udaygiri. I go to Shadow Creek High School. I am the author of How Animal Crossing Will Save Gen Z. Ive always been interested in politics and current events, but sometimes I see that my friends and my peers dont necessarily have that same background, and they find it harder to enter into the discussion. And I just think that theres not a lot of opportunities for students to do that. And this is really unique. My strategy starting was to get words on the paper, and I got a lot of words on the paper, and they were bad words, but it gives you something to start off with. I do debate. As part of that. you have to write cases, right? Those are a way that you present your arguments to the audience. And it follows the basic structure of establishing the problem, warranting out the problem, right, saying why its bad, and then providing a solution to it. So throughout the editorial, I kind of follow the same structure. I actually started off with. So many drafts where I filled it with, like convoluted analogies and really pretentious wording. And to me, you know, like whenever I write something, I think of it as my baby and Im like, wow, this is so clever. I showed to my friend and theyre like, I have no idea what youre talking about. The message is being lost. So I had to go through it multiple times and just check that the clarity was there that I was saying what I need to be said. And that was a really hard process to me and just shaving off things that were unnecessary and reshaping it so that it genuinely was supposed to be accessible. The whole process forced me to concretize all these rants and run-on sentences I had in my head into a succinct piece of writing. I think in the future, Ill absolutely keep writing, because its a great way to convey what you think, like to everybody else, and just raise awareness of important things in our society. I was so convinced that I was a bad writer before this contest and now moving into this, just having that validation, I do feel more confident to explore writing careers. Im thinking about careers in English, careers in journalism. And so its really opened those pathways to me that I thought were closed. This whole process has been so amazing for me. And its been one of the best opportunities in my life. And its just been such an honor to work with The New York Times.
Second, adoptions facilitated by the Chinese government are generally not closed  that is, birth parents are very rarely assured privacy and anonymity. So theres no reason to assume that your sons prospective interest in learning about his ancestry would necessarily conflict with the privacy interests of his birth parents. In the unlikely event that they or other close biological relatives have chosen to submit their genetic data to public databases, they may well have been hoping to be found.

What about your sons privacy interests? Its true that there are effectively no restrictions on the Chinese governments use of genetic data. But assuming that your son is planning to live outside China, you may not need to worry much. Besides, you can take measures to anonymize his data, submitting it in a way that would not leave him easily identified. Once youve got a firm sense of options, you can talk about them with your 8-year-old. Then its up to you whether to get out the swab, as the person whose fiduciary duty it is to protect his interests. All told, though, I would attach a slender probability both to your fears and to your hopes.

A Bonus Question

Some years ago, a college friend of mine received a lengthy prison sentence. The ordeal left him, his wife and their two kids in a bad spot financially; he was the familys main breadwinner and legal fees used up much of their savings. His kids were not yet 10. I wanted to do something to help and hit on the idea of starting a 529 college plan for his kids. Two friends and I went about informing a larger circle of friends who might be interested in contributing. The three of us agreed on anonymity for everyone, and that there would be no pressure; give what you like, if you can. Because the contributions flow through a bank account I established for this venture, I know everyone who contributed, and thereby everyone who has not. Recently, one of my incarcerated friends children, who has begun to draw on his 529, reached out to me for a list of donors so that he could thank them. I dont know him particularly well and dont know how far the list will travel if I give it to him. Should I provide him with the names of the contributors? Some of the names absent from the list would be, in my opinion, rather conspicuous. Can I give it to him and request that he keep the list secret? It is hard for me to believe that at least his mom and dad would not somehow see it.  Name Withheld

From the Ethicist:

If the grateful beneficiary wants to write a letter of thanks, you can offer to send it yourself to the relevant people. Those who wish to reply to him directly may do so. Or you could contact those who contributed and ask if they want to be put in touch with the child. But if prospective donors were promised anonymity and gave  or didnt give  under that condition, you would be breaking your word and their trust were you to reveal names.
Heres a day in the life working at Google, the clip opens. We watch a woman in Los Angeles drive to the office, get valet parking, fetch some iced coffee and a banana and tend to some tasks on a blurred-out screen. She shows off but declines to eat drawers full of snacks, then describes her complimentary salad in detail. Highlights of the office space around her include a nap room and a Harry Potter-themed conference room filled with flickering lamps and house flags.

Welcome to a day in my life as a 22-year-old living in NYC and working at Google, another clip begins. This employee describes a day of meetings, but films food and interiors: open areas filled with colorful couches, a room stocked with plants. The bathroom is stocked with Listerine, Lubriderm lotion and bobby pins; the fridges teem with Red Bull, baby carrots and a wide selection of juices. She fetches a plate of barbecue. She opens drawers labeled snacks, each containing more delights than the last: gum, mints, M&Ms, various bags of chips. She closes with a view of Chelsea Piers.

Workplace TikToks walk us through a day at a job  usually a well-compensated role in tech, banking or consulting. Energetic narrators, often women in their 20s, show off compressed and curated versions of their routines: commutes, coffee, tasks, amenities, lunch, meetings, dip out for happy hour. The videos seemed to peak, as a format, in 2022, as workers showed off the elaborate perks of working for tech and finance giants. In most, the substance of work was incidental; the narrators glossed over spreadsheets, deadlines and check-ins to such an extent that many saw the videos as evidence of just how spoiled and indolent the young professional class had become. But the clips were not about labor. They were about the performance of a class role that comes with the labor.

The offices, accordingly, convey expense and ease. The textures are smooth, the food is abundant. Tasks exist in negative space, and amenities fill the rest. These videos play the same role as the films and shows that once provided aspirational images of different industries: the romantic comedies about magazine editors, the TV dramas about glamorous lawyers, the stories of young tech workers in offices strewn with foosball tables  none of which belabored the parts where the characters answered emails. Young people have long turned to media to form ideas, including off-base ones, about work. On TikTok, they get those ideas not from Hollywood producers but from workers themselves. Indeed, the people making workday TikToks often claim, in voice-overs and interviews, that they are trying to increase access to exclusive work spaces and educate young workers, especially those from groups historically denied access to elite jobs.
When Democrats in Connecticut introduced legislation to ban the word Latinx from government documents, they found themselves with unlikely allies: Republicans including Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas, who barred Latinx from state documents as her first official act.

Their reasons differ: Conservatives argue that the word, coined about 20 years ago as an inclusive, gender-neutral term to describe people of Latino descent, is a product of liberal wokeism. But the bill making its way through Hartford was introduced by several Democratic members of the Black and Puerto Rican caucus. They argue, among other things, that the Americanized word disfigures the Spanish language and in doing so, is an act of cultural appropriation.

The situation has made for some of the oddest bedfellows in the culture wars. Ms. Sanders, who initiated her states ban in January, said the term Latinx was ethnically insensitive and pejorative language. Around the same time, she also forbade the teaching of critical race theory in Arkansas schools and the use of TikTok on state-issued devices  statements that have set the tone for her conservative administration.
The bumps are bunions. About 20 years ago, they had become painful  throbbing during long runs in tight sneakers and interfering with his life. Mr. DeRuvo saw a doctor who recommended surgery. As he awaited the scheduled procedure, he went without shoes because the pain was so intense. In the intervening days he learned that the screws that were to be implanted in his feet contained a metal he was allergic to. He also realized that he felt better since he quit shoes.

It did not take long before he came to see that going barefoot was enriching his life in ways he did not anticipate. There were physical benefits in addition to the relief for the bunions: He found comfort from the ground beneath him. The tactile feedback just kind of makes everything else going on feel a little bit smoother, he said.

There are spiritual benefits too, said Mr. DeRuvo, a religious man. God says to Moses, Take off your sandals, you know, this ground is holy, he said. Well, I kind of like to take that as far as it can go.

Shoelessness also provides him a mindful life, not rooted in the past, the future or the iPhone. I pay attention to every single step I take.

For these reasons, he said, he considers his lifestyle a gift, and, despite all the store managers who question his choices, a privilege. A Black person going around shoelessly, he said, I just dont think a Black person would have that freedom. The cops would be called.
Ms. Conway, who was seen walking into the district attorneys office shortly before 2 p.m. on Wednesday, is the latest in a string of witnesses to meet with prosecutors in the last month or so. Since the district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, impaneled a grand jury in January to hear evidence about Mr. Trumps role in paying the hush money, at least five witnesses have testified: Jeffrey McConney and Deborah Tarasoff, employees of Mr. Trumps company; David Pecker and Dylan Howard, two former leaders of The National Enquirer, which helped arrange the hush money deal; and Keith Davidson, a former lawyer for Ms. Daniels.

The decision to question those central players in the hush money saga before the grand jury suggests that Mr. Bragg is nearing a decision on whether to seek an indictment of the former president.

A spokeswoman for the office and a lawyer for Ms. Conway declined to comment. It is unclear whether Ms. Conway appeared before the grand jury or was only interviewed by prosecutors.

Still, the investigation is not complete. Mr. Cohen has met with the prosecutors for several hours of questioning, though he has yet to testify in front of the grand jury. Ms. Daniels herself has yet to be interviewed, and Ms. Conway might not be the last 2016 campaign official to face questioning.

It is one of three potential criminal cases looming over Mr. Trump, even as he remains a front-runner in the 2024 presidential campaign. In addition to Mr. Braggs inquiry, Mr. Trump could face charges from a local prosecutor in Georgia investigating whether he interfered in the 2020 election. And at the federal level, a special counsel is scrutinizing Mr. Trumps efforts to overturn the election  including whether he committed any crimes in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol  as well as his handling of classified documents.
New York City has agreed to pay $21,500 to each of hundreds of demonstrators who were penned in by the police in the Bronx during racial justice protests in 2020, then charged at or beaten with batons, according to a legal settlement.

If a judge approves the settlement filed in federal court late Tuesday, the amount would be one of the highest ever awarded per person in a class action case of mass arrests, and could cost the city between $4 million and $6 million.

The case concerned roughly 300 people who were arrested on June 4, 2020, in the Mott Haven neighborhood of the Bronx during protests against the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers the week before. His death set off protests across the country, including in New York, where thousands of people demonstrated in May and June.

On June 4, the police boxed in hundreds of protesters who had peacefully gathered on 136th Street and then prevented them from leaving, a practice known as kettling, according to the lawsuit.
The City Council on Wednesday assembled to examine the inner workings of a Police Department unit that became a lightning rod in 2020 after the killing of George Floyd, when racial justice protests swept New York City.

The focus of the oversight hearing was the Strategic Response Group, a unit used for crowd control, and its hundreds of officers who responded to the demonstrations that year. The clashes that erupted resulted in arrests, injuries, allegations of police misconduct, official reports and citizen lawsuits.

No one from the Police Department came to the hearing.

The no-show by top police officials  a day after the city agreed to a multimillion-dollar settlement with protesters who said they were mistreated  came after the session had been postponed at least twice.

In a written statement to the Council, Michael Clarke, the departments director of legislative affairs, said that a lawsuit over police conduct at the protests made it impossible to testify. In a separate statement, the department said the court has issued a gag order that meant expert witnesses could not come before the Council.
One day in 2017, Mukaddas Saipova, of Tashkent, Uzbekistan, saw her son  whom she knew as helpful, loving and kind  on a television news broadcast. She fainted, an ambulance came and she stayed in a hospital for a week.

Her son, Sayfullo Saipov, had just committed the deadliest terrorist attack in New York City since 9/11.

Ms. Saipova told that story through an interpreter to a federal jury in Manhattan on Wednesday, the final day of testimony during her sons trial. The same jurors in January convicted Mr. Saipov, a 35-year-old native of Uzbekistan, of using a truck to kill eight people and injure many others on the West Side bike path on Halloween Day 2017. That jury is now weighing whether to sentence Mr. Saipov to life in prison without the possibility of release  or whether instead to sentence him to death.

The death penalty phase began last month, with prosecutors arguing that Mr. Saipov was too dangerous for prison, citing threats he has made while behind bars for the past five years.
With oceans becoming warmer, whales and menhaden have been feeding in new haunts, often closer to the shore. Thats bad news for the menhaden, silvery fish with a black spot just above and behind the gills, because the whales feed on them. The menhaden population has grown, but they are also preyed on by bigger fish, as well as harvested for Omega fish oil and as bait for crab and lobster traps.

As menhaden remain in coastal waters in the Northeast for more months of the year, hungry whales will follow. If the bait is there, said Capt. Timothy Ferrie, a president of the Sandy Hook Pilots Association who has steered ships in and out of New York Harbor for 43 years, the whales are there.

As for online shopping, its growth means that more ships carrying merchandise are heading into the ports in New York and New Jersey. The ships themselves are bigger than they once were. The ports in New Jersey became accessible to the worlds largest cargo ships in 2017, after the Bayonne Bridge was raised, increasing the waterway clearance by 64 feet.

There is also more traffic from ships returning to retrieve empty cargo containers that piled up in port, a factor that contributed to supply-chain problems as the pandemic wore on. But extra traffic could mean more collisions with whales. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration proposed enforcing a 10-knot speed limit farther from port and applying it to boats as small as 35 feet long. The idea was to give whales time to get out of the way  or limit the injuries if a collision occurred.

Sick sea turtles

This winter, sick sea turtles have all but overwhelmed the New York Marine Rescue Center, not far from the river in Riverhead, N.Y. Its the only marine mammal and sea turtle rehabilitation center in New York State, and it has taken in a record number of ailing sea turtles, which face new challenges because of climate change.
The primary responsibility for this backsliding rests with congressional Republicans, who have blocked legislation that would guarantee access to affordable child care, ensure workers can take paid sick and family leave and permanently expand the child tax credit.

But Mr. Biden can also do better. He needs to campaign for the government to aid Americans as parents with the same passion that he has long devoted to aiding them as workers. He needs to make the case that it is a mistake to see support for corporations as investments while regarding support for people as handouts.

He needs to explain to Americans that everyone benefits when parents are able to work outside the home and children are raised in financially secure families.

Mr. Bidens State of the Union address was substantially devoted to his successes; the work that remains was treated as an afterthought. It ought now to be his focus. Mr. Biden needs to give Americans a clear sense of what is at stake in the next national elections, in 2024.

By then, the White House can make some progress by using its regulatory powers and its bully pulpit. In a promising development, the administration said Tuesday that semiconductor companies applying for new federal subsidies must ensure that child care is available and affordable for the workers who build and operate their factories. This is a principle that ought to be expanded to other corporate recipients of federal handouts  and to the other components of a basic set of benefits that ought to be standard for workers in the United States.
It was a stunning rebuke. On Tuesday, Mayor Lori Lightfoot of Chicago, the first Black woman and first openly L.G.B.T.Q. person to lead the city, failed to advance to a runoff, earning just 17 percent of the vote and becoming the first incumbent mayor in 40 years to lose a re-election bid.

Four days before the election, I interviewed Lightfoot in her Chicago office. The space, with its soaring ceiling, was a clash of aesthetics, like many government buildings, displaying a kind of prudent grandeur, evoking the gravitas of the office without signaling excess, much like Lightfoot herself, who settled her small frame, dressed in a smart gray suit, into a large chair.

During our nearly hourlong interview, she choked up and fought back tears when discussing the sacrifices her parents had made for her and her siblings. A smile lit her face when she talked about all the memes that had made her a folk hero in the early days of her term, and she puffed up with pride when discussing her proudest moments as mayor, including how she and her team had dealt with the Covid-19 crisis.

But those werent the reasons Id trekked to the frigid city on the lake. Id come because Lightfoot belongs to a group of recently elected Black mayors of major American cities, including Eric Adams in New York, Sylvester Turner in Houston and Karen Bass in Los Angeles.
Herf contended that Trumps message of 2016

was one of national liberation for constituencies whose anger had been growing since the 1960s. He smashed taboos. His rallies were enormously liberating, a huge rush of emotion and relief for his supporters. It was the return of the repressed, a cultural counterrevolution, a genie that was now out of the bottle. Once you unleash those hatreds, and the huge pleasure that many people take in those hatreds, it takes some time to put the genie back in the bottle.

I asked Gary Jacobson, a political scientist at the University of California, San Diego, about Trumps 2024 strategy and he wrote in an email:

This is not so much a dilemma for Trump, who has always catered assiduously to his followers with only the feeblest attempts to expand his appeal beyond them. But it is a dilemma for the Republican Party generally, which cannot win without the enthusiastic support of the MAGA faction but also has a hard time winning when they dominate the partys image with the wider public. At present, party leaders (notably McCarthy) seem more worried about keeping the far right happy than about any long-term damage to the partys image, and this does put them in something of a trap, because it is hard to see how they can gracefully move toward any more moderate and popular stances without upsetting the extremists.

In some respects, Jacobson continued,

Trump is trapped by the base. For example, he cant campaign on the crash program to develop the Covid vaccines during his administration, a popular success, because much of his base is anti-vaccine. Trumps strength has always been his capacity to convince supporters that he is one of them, sharing their opinions, grievances, sense of victimhood, etc., and it would be a problem for him if they become disillusioned on this score.

The parallel to Fox News, Jacobson noted, is obvious: Trumps support depends on continuing to meet expectations he has created; doing otherwise might turn his audience elsewhere.

In the view of Stella Rouse, a political scientist at the University of Maryland, Trump and the Republican Party have become so reliant on a hard-right constituency that there is no turning back:

Trump has built his political brand and the loyal and fervent following of his base on both implicit and explicit expressions of grievance and fear of the other. As such, he is extremely dependent on projecting the right messages, some of which directly target groups (Mexico is not sending their best) and some of which are more indirect and ambiguous and can be justified if there is sufficient blowback. Equivocating on antisemitism falls in this category as he doesnt outright make antisemitic statements and claims not to have known he was dining with a self-proclaimed antisemite.

The same is true of the contemporary G.O.P., Rouse argued in an email. When the party fell in line behind Trump in 2016, the horse was out of the barn not only for Trump but for those who have embraced and promulgated this politics of grievance. And the establishment wing of the party gets enough ambiguity to justify continued support of Trump and these members without much or enough political backlash.

I asked Joseph Uscinski, a political scientist at the University of Miami, whether Trump built and became dependent on a coalition that requires him to equivocate on antisemitism, QAnon and other extremist expressions for fear of losing any constituency.

Yes, Uscinski replied by email:

Trump built a coalition of people who were attracted to conspiratorial, racist and xenophobic claims. Both Trump and other G.O.P. politicians who want to tap into that coalition need to play the tune the crowd wants to hear. When G.O.P. politicians go against the coalitions reigning conspiracy theories, they pay a price for it. For example, when Trump told supporters he got vaccinated, he got booed.

There seem to be two factions in the G.O.P., Uscinski continued, one more aligned with traditional Republicanism and conservatism (e.g., Mitt Romney) and another more aligned with Donald Trump or his movement and, consequently, with populism and conspiracism (e.g., Marjorie Taylor Greene). One or the other faction could win this battle in the coming decades, but that depends on how successful either faction is at getting elected.

Uscinski argued that

while there are conspiracy-minded Republicans in the mass public, Republicans in the mass public are no more conspiracy-minded than Democrats in the mass public. So, while there is a market for G.O.P. candidates who traffic in populist and conspiratorial claims, not all Republican voters are conspiracy theorists or MAGA. Trump only got about 40 percent of the primary vote in 2016, and his voters were different from those who voted for more traditional G.O.P. candidates. Think of Trumps coalition as a combination of a little traditional conservatism, social conservatism on steroids and a very heavy dose of anti-establishment sentiment and populism.

In this context, Uscinski wrote, the person to watch is DeSantis. By attempting to appeal to the anti-vaxx crowd, the anti-Ukraine crowd and the Covid-denying crowd, he is battling Trump for the coalition Trump built.
They want to do all this major development in this tiny little village that does not have the infrastructure to handle it, Ms. Curran said. It seems to me like an awful lot of major development in a very short period of time.

The village has granted conditional site plan approval to projects with a total of more than 2,800 units over the past three years, said Stuart L. Rabin, the village manager. This flurry of development proposals is largely the result of a change in village zoning three years ago designed to encourage the redevelopment and revitalization of Port Chesters downtown, waterfront and transit-adjacent parcels, he said.

The village of Port Chester is certainly on the move, Mr. Rabin said.

But the scale of the proposals has generated considerable public pushback, with some residents expressing concern that towering apartment buildings threaten to overwhelm the historic downtown and price out the many mom-and-pop businesses.

John Allen, an elected member of Port Chesters board of trustees, said that while the village was ripe for redevelopment, given the number of buildings in disrepair, there is a growing sense that the board allowed for these extraordinary increases for density and asked for very little in return from developers, including having to meet more of the communitys affordable housing needs.

The board has recently begun to discuss a narrowly tailored moratorium on development in order to study whether further changes are needed to the zoning code, he said. A moratorium would not affect projects already under construction.
In the 1800s, archaeologists began reconstructing the deep history of Europe from the bones of ancient hunter-gatherers and the iconic art they left behind, like cave paintings, fertility figurines and lion-man statues.

Over the past decade, geneticists have added a new dimension to that history by extracting DNA from teeth and bones.

And now, in a pair of studies published on Wednesday, researchers have produced the most robust analysis yet of the genetic record of prehistoric Europe.

Looking at DNA gleaned from the remains of 357 ancient Europeans, researchers discovered that several waves of hunter-gatherers migrated into Europe. The studies identified at least eight populations, some more genetically distinct from each other than modern-day Europeans and Asians. They coexisted in Europe for thousands of years, apparently trading tools and sharing cultures. Some groups survived the Ice Age, while others vanished, perhaps wiped out by other groups.
Get ready for some roaring new rockets in March.

As many as three launchers that have never traveled to space could try to reach orbit in the coming month.

Relativity Space, an American company, may be the first to fly. Its Terran 1 rocket is scheduled to lift off as early as March 8 from Cape Canaveral, Fla. Relativitys rocket is made mostly with 3-D printing and uses liquid oxygen and liquid methane as propellants. The mission, called GLHF, for Good Luck, Have Fun, is for test purposes and will not fly any satellites to orbit. Relativity is working toward building another rocket that is fully reusable and is collaborating with another company, Impulse Space, on a mission aiming to beat Elon Musks SpaceX to Mars.


PARIS  Was 1997 a watershed year for modern fashion? Next week, at the Palais Galliera museum, a new blockbuster exhibition will make the case that the year was both a high point of 1990s fashion  a current focus of nostalgia  and the gateway to the millennium.

With dozens of looks, the show 1997 Fashion Big Bang charts some of the most seismic designer moves at French fashion houses; the revival of couture; and the collections that have become definitive reference points for the industry, including Comme des Garcons Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body and Stockman by Martin Margiela.

Historically, big years for fashion have been hooked to a single event  think 1947 for the New Look by Christian Dior, said Alexandre Samson, the exhibitions curator. But by our count, 1997 had 50 explosive moments, 38 of which are included in the show.

Ahead of the opening on March 7, here are five events from 1997 that each had an impact on fashion  forever.
Ms. Grippo began posting on TikTok at the end of 2021 after the abrupt ending of an almost-relationship, and the videos performed better than she expected. She made a deal with herself  post at least twice a day to draw a following  and it worked. Today she has more than 100,000 followers, a vast majority of whom are women, she said, and she now teams up with companies like Tinder. Im just a hurt person, Ms. Grippo said. She said she filmed her videos from bed and shared the kind of relatable experiences girls want to hear.

#DatingTok began attracting more attention in late 2021 and early 2022, around the time the internet became acquainted with West Elm Caleb, a man whose Hinge profile has been etched into many single, 20-something womens memories (and on the side of a building in New York in a fake ad, courtesy of a dating app, for a time).

In January 2021, Mimi Shou, a jewelry designer and content creator, posted a TikTok video about her travails involving a man named Caleb, who she said never reached out after, by her definition, a great first date. Women flocked to the comments section, sharing their own horror stories of love-bombing and ghosting at the thumbs of a man named Caleb who said he worked at West Elm.

Though Ms. Shous story was about a different Caleb, whose identity she never made public  and though she said her goal was not to retaliate against him  the tale set off a wave of viral videos, highlighting the idea that TikTok could be a forum for righting dating wrongs.

Ms. Shou, 28, said she had also been inspired by the subsequent West Elm Caleb, and in addition to her usual comedic bits, some of which involve poking fun at the finance bro archetype and her misguided attraction to it, she decided to dig a little deeper. I realized people want to discuss the hurt theyve had and make sure theyre not alone, she said. So I started talking more about dating advice and my own experiences. She now has more than a dozen brand partnerships, she said, and considers content creation her full-time job.
The devil is in the defaults.

In 2013, Square released a point-of-sales product that replaced cash registers by letting vendors input an order into a tablet and letting customers swipe a credit card to add their signature and tip. Square has said its products have led to big increases in tips for many businesses. Its technology has since been widely copied by many brands, and traditional cash registers are a rare sighting.

A key driver of the success of digital payment systems, design experts said, is that they take advantage of a design principle that influences consumer behavior: The default is the path of least resistance.

Payment technologies allow merchants to show a set of default tipping amounts  for example, buttons for 15 percent, 20 percent and 30 percent, along with the no tip or custom tip button. That setup makes it simplest for us to choose a generous tip, rather than a smaller one or no tip at all.

Plenty of studies document this type of behavior. Ted Selker, a product design veteran who worked at IBM, Xerox PARC and elsewhere, led past research on encouraging people to register to vote. He found that they were more likely to register if that option was preselected when they filled out applications for drivers licenses and address changes. In other words, people were much more likely to not opt out than they were to opt in.

A Square spokeswoman said the companys payment technology does not allow merchants to preselect a tip amount (except when tips are automatically added for large groups in a restaurant, an industry standard). But in my experience, some of Squares copycats allow merchants to do so.

A broader issue remains: When businesses that dont ordinarily get tips use technology to present a tipping screen, they require the consumer to opt out.

Its coercion, Mr. Selker said.

On the bright side, the gratuity screens are not considered deceptive, said Harry Brignull, a user-experience consultant in Britain, because the custom tip and no tip buttons are roughly the same size as the tipping buttons. If the opt-out buttons were extremely difficult to find, this would be an abusive practice known as dark patterns.
Weve gotten a lot of great questions and feedback over the last few months, and I think were inclined to make a mailbag a regular feature, especially during the off-season. If you have a question, send it to dear.upshot@nytimes.com.

Bots in polling

Lets start with a question on an issue that Id already been mulling:

Mr. Cohn, you mentioned bots in passing as a potential issue for nonprobability polls. Which makes me wonder, how easy/hard would it be for a malign outside actor to interfere in the polling and make Donald Trumps chances look better than they are? Because if that would be possible, Id say countries with an interest in a divided U.S. (Russia and China come to mind) would certainly be tempted to pull that off.  Moritz, Vienna

This is a serious question. A Pew Research study a few years ago used a few simple techniques to find that 4 percent to 7 percent of respondents to nonprobability surveys were bogus, to use their term. These bogus respondents took the survey multiple times, took the poll too quickly, stated that they lived outside the United States, or offered nonsensical answers in open-ended questioning. (A nonprobability sample isnt selected at random; probability samples are considered the gold standard.)

Anecdotally, Ive heard more complaints about these kinds of issues from pollsters. I routinely hear about pollsters who toss as many as half of their respondents for data quality issues. It is reasonable to assume that the better-known pollsters take these challenges seriously, but we dont know much about their practices, let alone whether they work.

Could this be part of Donald J. Trumps strength in online panel polls? Its hard to prove, but one emerging pattern has caught my attention: Mr. Trump has fared quite poorly in two online nonprobability polls linked to voter registration files, which require the panelist to provide personal information that matches a real registered voter.
What happened next was maddening. Outdated listings, emails and voice mail messages that were never returned. Rental prices that suddenly increased after an inquiry. Apartments in disrepair that charged $2,000 a month. And the most egregious: Landlords made it clear that they did not want to rent to someone with a housing voucher.

Benitezs journey became the focus of an article I wrote last month that revealed what someone with a voucher can encounter despite a state law that makes it illegal to discriminate against renters based on their source of income.

I knew it was going to be difficult, I was just naive, she told me seven weeks into her search. Everything is so automated. If I was actually able to talk to someone and share my story and let them meet me, I feel like that would make a difference.

Landlords often associate Section 8 voucher holders with crime or consider them to be unreliable tenants. And while prospective tenants can report discrimination to the state civil rights department or request assistance from a legal services program, many just move on to the next listing, anxious about the expiration date on their voucher, or eventually give up.

The success rate for Los Angeles Countys housing authority from April 2021 to December 2022 was 44.7 percent of vouchers issued, according to a spokeswoman for the agency.
But it was Mr. Vallass hard-line message on crime and policing that elevated him in this years nine-candidate mayoral field. After unsuccessful runs for governor in 2002, lieutenant governor in 2014 and mayor in 2019, Mr. Vallas positioned himself this year well to the political right of Ms. Lightfoot, and even further to the right of Mr. Johnson.

I was never scared before, said Martha Wicker, 61, who voted for Mr. Vallas and described worrying about crime during her daily commute. Now I dont want to be on the train alone when its dark.

The next mayor will inherit a long-challenged Police Department operating under a consent decree and without a permanent leader. In Ms. Lightfoots first major announcement since losing re-election, she said on Wednesday that David O. Brown, who led the Chicago Police during most of her time in City Hall, would resign later this month.

As of Wednesday evening, with some mail-in ballots still not counted, Mr. Vallas was leading in 19 of the citys 50 wards, compared with nine wards where Mr. Johnson was in first place.

Mr. Vallas racked up large margins in downtown Chicago, the site of widespread looting in 2020, and in parts of the Northwest and Southwest Sides with significant white, working-class populations. Mr. Johnson performed well on the citys northern lakefront, carrying a plurality of the votes in some majority-white wards, while also winning some majority-Hispanic areas northwest of downtown.

Mr. Vallas was the only white politician in the field, which included seven Black candidates and one Hispanic contender. Chicago, which has a history of racial and ethnic groups sometimes voting as blocs, has roughly equal numbers of Black, white and Hispanic residents.
In San Francisco, Chesa Boudin, the liberal district attorney of a city once synonymous with liberalism, was recalled last year by voters infuriated by rising disorder, and similarly progressive prosecutors from Philadelphia to Chicago have become lightning rods in conservative campaigns against supposedly woke law enforcement. Michelle Wu, the newly elected mayor of Boston, was forced just this week to respond to criticism of her handling of violence, after Black leaders accused her of ignoring their safety.

And while the G.O.P. was disappointed with its showing in Novembers congressional elections, one bright spot for Republicans came in victories in New York and California that were fueled by advertisements portraying Democratic cities as lawless. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said her Democratic Party may well have held onto control of the House in November if candidates had a better answer to Republican attacks on crime, especially in New York.

Add to that the issue of education, another sharp divide between Mr. Johnson and Mr. Vallas, and the mayors race in the city of broad shoulders may play out exactly as Republican presidential candidates would want. Ever since Glenn Youngkin recaptured Virginias governorship for his party in 2021 with an education-focused campaign, Republicans have made problems in the nations schools a centerpiece of their attempted national comeback, especially in the suburbs.

And that has included a pitch for more school choice, whether through charter schools or vouchers to help public school students attend private schools. Again, Mr. Vallas and Mr. Johnson represent polar opposite positions on the issue: Mr. Vallas, as Chicagos schools chief, expanded charter schools, then virtually eliminated neighborhood public schools when he took over the New Orleans school system after Hurricane Katrina. Mr. Johnson, a former schoolteacher and teachers union leader, stands firmly against that movement.
The chairman and chief strategist for a major Democratic outside group is stepping down after eight years, a shift in leadership while plans for 2024 are taking shape for the constellation of entities expected to support Democrats up and down the ballot.

Guy Cecil, who has led that Democratic group, the super PAC Priorities USA, since early 2015, will leave at the end of March, the group announced on Wednesday. It has been a key force in Democratic politics for over a decade, and during Mr. Cecils tenure, it became deeply involved in politics beyond presidential races. In the 2022 midterms, it spent heavily on digital ads.

Allies of President Biden are assessing what the support from outside groups for Mr. Bidens expected re-election campaign will look like. In 2020, officials involved with his campaign indicated that they wanted people to engage with Priorities USA.

It is unclear who will replace Mr. Cecil, but officials said the group has top staff members who have been there for six years. It spent tens of millions on anti-Trump ads in 2020, and it has roughly $11 million in cash on hand and $16 million in further commitments.
WASHINGTON  A group of Republicans and Democrats in the Senate has proposed legislation to mandate that the Transportation Department tighten safety rules for freight rail, the first glimmer of bipartisan activity on the issue since a train carrying hazardous materials derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, last month.

The measure by Senators Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, and J.D. Vance, a Republican, both of Ohio, would strengthen notification and inspection requirements for trains carrying hazardous materials, increase fines for safety violations by rail carriers and authorize $27 million for research on safety improvements. But it would stop short of dictating major regulatory changes, leaving the matter to the Transportation Department.

The bipartisan nature of the bill  which is co-sponsored by Senators Marco Rubio of Florida and Josh Hawley of Missouri, both Republicans  indicates that it may be able to gain traction in the Senate, where most major legislation needs 60 votes to advance. But it is not clear whether the measure can draw support in the Republican-led House.

It shouldnt take a massive railroad disaster for elected officials to put partisanship aside and work together for the people we serve  not corporations like Norfolk Southern, Mr. Brown said in a statement, referring to the derailed trains operator. Rail lobbyists have fought for years to protect their profits at the expense of communities like East Palestine and Steubenville and Sandusky.
When a 772-ton wooden schooner barge named Ironton collided with a wooden freighter loaded with 1,000 tons of grain and sank in Lake Huron on Sept. 26, 1894, its seven-man crew tried to escape on a lifeboat.

But no one untied the rope that secured the lifeboat to Ironton. Five crew members died.

More than 120 years later, when researchers discovered Ironton, magnificently preserved in the cold water at the bottom of Lake Huron, hundreds of feet below the surface, they also found that doomed lifeboat, still lashed to Irontons stern.

Ironton was located in 2019, but the discovery was not revealed to the public until Wednesday to allow researchers time to study and document the wreck, said Jeff Gray, the superintendent of the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, which discovered Ironton along with a group of partners.
SACRAMENTO  A California panel on Wednesday denied parole for Sirhan B. Sirhan, the man convicted in the 1968 assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, in its first review of the case since Gov. Gavin Newsom decided last year that Mr. Sirhan, 78, should not be released.

The parole boards latest decision, which followed a hearing via videoconference from the state prison in San Diego, where Mr. Sirhan has been held, was the second time in three years that Mr. Sirhans release had been considered. He has spent more than a half-century behind bars for shooting Mr. Kennedy, then a candidate for president, inside the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles at the end of a campaign appearance in 1968. At the time, Mr. Sirhan was 24.

His lawyers have argued that he is not a danger to the public and should be released. In 2021, a panel of the parole board agreed. But after an extraordinary chain of events, the governor overruled the panel last year, charging that Mr. Sirhan had not yet been rehabilitated.

On Wednesday, after Mr. Sirhans 17th parole hearing, the new recommendation was made by a commissioner and a deputy commissioner who were not part of the review panel in 2021. Governor Newsom had no comment.
JOHANNESBURG  David Mabuza, the deputy president of South Africa whose political rise became emblematic of the scandals and leadership crises that have eroded the credibility of the governing African National Congress party, has resigned.

Mr. Mabuza was sworn in as deputy president in 2019. Despite longtime accusations of financial misdeeds against Mr. Mabuza, his enduring presence alongside Mr. Ramaphosa cast doubt on the presidents ability to root out corruption and restore the reputation of the governing party.

In a statement on Wednesday, Mr. Ramaphosa thanked Mr. Mabuza for his exceptional service to the country over the last five years.

Mr. Ramaphosa is set to reshuffle his cabinet soon, moving around lawmakers to reflect shifts within the A.N.C. He will also appoint a minister of electricity, a new position announced last month to steer the country out of a state of disaster caused by prolonged, daily power outages.
Just before the peace agreement to end Ethiopias civil war, troops from neighboring Eritrea massacred hundreds of civilians, looted businesses and arbitrarily detained civilians already facing extraordinary suffering, according to rights groups, aid workers and news outlets.

The Eritrean soldiers were fighting on the side of the Ethiopian government, which was waging a two-year civil war against the leadership of the northern Tigray region.

The gruesome accounts underscore the ugly nature of a conflict that killed hundreds of thousands of people, displaced millions and upended life in Africas second most populous nation. The violence reached a climax last fall, after a five-month truce was shattered in August and before the beginning of the formal peace talks in South Africa in late October that led, within days, to the end of the war.

On Tuesday, The Washington Post reported that Eritrean forces killed hundreds of people, including teachers and farmers, at the very end of that period, just days before the warring parties agreed to end the hostilities. Relatives of those killed described horrific scenes, including parents being shot in front of their children.
In the run-up to Nigerias presidential election on Saturday, the ruling party candidates best-known slogan was Emi lo kan, a phrase in the Yoruba language meaning Its my turn.

By Wednesday morning, his turn had finally come. Bola Tinubu, a former state governor and one of the most powerful political kingmakers in Nigeria, was declared the West African nations next president by election officials in the capital at around 4 a.m., after the most closely fought contest in years.

While opposition parties dismissed the election as a sham, alleging widespread fraud and violence and vowing to challenge the outcome in court, many Nigerians were trying to come to terms with the prospect of four years under one of the countrys most contentious figures.

Widely perceived as corrupt, in poor health, and a stalwart of the old guard, Mr. Tinubu may struggle to unite a country with a huge population of young people  particularly those plugged into social media  who are increasingly trying to make themselves heard, and fighting against old ways of governing.
LONDON  It is an old, seemingly innocuous idea among city planners: The closer you live to your workplace, shops, schools and other amenities, the better your quality of life will be.

But the concept of so-called 15-minute cities, in which lifes necessities are only a short walk or bike ride from home, does not sound utopian to everyone. To some, it sounds like a restriction on the routine act of driving a car. To others, especially on the far right, it sounds like the first step to draconian government lockdowns that will confine people in their homes.

Regardless, it has become a source of widespread confusion, disinformation and conspiracy theories.

A quick history of the 15-minute city.

The idea behind 15-minute cities is not a new one, and is familiar to anyone who has strolled around the historic villages of Europe or remembers bustling Main Streets in the United States before the postwar sprawl that arrived with the Interstate System.

More recently, developments that market themselves as places to live, work and play have helped breathe new life into Americas inner cities. In 2012, Portland, Ore., adopted a plan for 20-minute neighborhoods, in which residents could live within a half-mile of amenities such as grocery stores, parks and elementary schools.
If this week marks the end of Brexit as a central issue in British politics, as my Times colleague Mark Landler suggested may have happened yesterday, then it went with a whimper, not a bang.

On Monday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, announced an agreement on trade rules for Northern Ireland, resolving one of the last major Brexit-related disputes between Britain and the European Union.

But while coverage in the British press was generally positive, it had more of the sense of a dutiful news cycle than a genuine watershed moment. That is consistent with voters generally blase attitude toward the Northern Ireland negotiations: a YouGov poll this week found that 44 percent of Britons werent following the issue at all, and only 6 percent reported following it closely.

On the one hand, this seems kind of shocking: leaving the European Union is the most significant political and economic event for Britain in a generation. The country is in the midst of an economic crisis. People arent even paying attention?
He said they were worried that the admission of Finland would increase the risk of conflict by creating a new NATO border with Russia stretching more than 800 miles, far longer than Russias short borders with the alliance members Estonia, Latvia and Poland.

Hungary has a long record of leveraging its veto power within the European Union over sanctions against Russia to try to secure concessions on other issues, primarily those involving money, and it now seems to be doing the same thing over the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO.

Mr. Orban has combined his own tentative support for the admission of Finland and Sweden with angry complaints that the two would-be members  which, like many others in the European Union, have criticized Hungarys drift into authoritarianism  have been spreading blatant lies about us. Mr. Orban asked last week: How does someone want to be our ally in a military regime if they are unscrupulously spreading lies about Hungary?

Hungarian politicians complain that Sweden and Finland have been openly critical of Hungarys abuses of the rule of law. Concerns over the rule of law and corruption have led Brussels to hold up about 6.3 billion euros, about $6.7 billion, in European funds due to Hungary.

Mr. Orban has also been eager to keep close ties to Russia, on which Hungary depends for energy, and he has worked to water down some E.U. sanctions aimed at the Kremlin and its cronies.
Rescue workers in Greece frantically searched for survivors through flattened carriages and smoking wreckage on Wednesday after a high-speed, head-on collision between a freight train and a passenger train killed at least 38 people and injured scores of others in what appeared to be the countrys deadliest rail accident.

Kostas A. Karamanlis, the Greek transport minister, announced hours after the crash that he would resign, saying in a statement that when something so tragic happens, its impossible to continue as if nothing had happened.

Its a fact that we inherited the Greek railway in a state that is not fitting for the 21st century, he added. In those three and a half years we made every effort to improve this reality. Unfortunately, those efforts were not adequate to avert such a tragedy.

It was not immediately clear what led to the crash, which happened as the passenger train traveled from Athens to the northern city of Thessaloniki just before midnight on Tuesday. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told reporters after visiting the crash site that tragic human error had led to the crash, but gave no further details.
The dinner theater is now a day care center, where children rifle through boxes of donated toys. The beauty salon has turned into a one-man barbershop.

On a recent afternoon, young boys raced across the wide decks that run the length of the Gemini, a cruise ship floating off the coast of southern Turkey. Families drank tea and peered at an amphitheater of mountains encompassing the lives they had lost beneath the rubble of two earthquakes that decimated a wide section of Turkey and western Syria.

Were in a strange dream  it is haunting, said Basak Atay, a 30-year-old nurse. She has spent the past several days living with her family on the 538-foot luxury ship, which has become a shelter for some of the estimated 1.7 million Turks displaced by the quakes and their aftershocks.

I would never have guessed that I would be on a cruise to nowhere at a moment like this, said Ms. Atay, who lost family and friends in the quakes.
LONDON  President Biden heaped praise on it, as did the prime minister of Ireland, Leo Varadkar. Britains Labour Party threw its support behind it. Even hard-line Brexiteers in the British Conservative Party, who were expected to revolt against the agreement, swiftly fell into line.

Only one group has so far refused to support the trade deal for Northern Ireland that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the European Union announced on Monday: the Democratic Unionist Party, or D.U.P., which represents unionist voters in the North, who seek to remain part of the United Kingdom.

The D.U.P.s lonely reluctance speaks not only to the devilishly complex nature of trade in the post-Brexit era but also to the deeper dysfunction of politics in Northern Ireland, which has not had a functioning government since early last year, when its fragile experiment in power-sharing last fell apart.

The Democratic Unionists say they need time to study the fine print of Mr. Sunaks deal, known as the Windsor Framework, before they render a verdict. The D.U.P. has no legal power to hold up the agreement. But if the party rejects it, it could sabotage efforts to restart Northern Irelands government, one of Mr. Sunaks key objectives in settling the trade dispute with the European Union.
Ukraine has sent reinforcements to Bakhmut, a senior Ukrainian official said on Wednesday, signaling the intensity of fighting in a city that has become a crucible in the east of the country as Russian forces gradually tighten their grip.

Speaking on Ukrainian television, the official, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar, did not say how many troops were being sent or for what purpose. It is unclear if the reinforcements could be needed for cover or logistical support in case of a Ukrainian withdrawal, or whether they could be part of an effort to continue to defend Bakhmut and possibly to keep Russian forces tied up so they cannot redeploy to other battles.

Ukrainian soldiers have for months held out in Bakhmut, where the death toll has been staggering on both sides. Russian forces, including large numbers of newly mobilized recruits, have been rushed to the front line in the east, giving Ukraine opportunity to inflict thousands of casualties, even at a high cost to its own fighters.

Russia has sustained more combat deaths in the wars first year than in all the conflicts it has fought since World War II combined, including Chechnya and Afghanistan, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a research organization based in Washington.
KURAKHOVE, Ukraine  Before driving into battle in their mud-spattered war machine, a T-64 tank, the three-man Ukrainian crew performs a ritual.

The commander, Pvt. Dmytro Hrebenok, recites the Lords Prayer. Then, the men walk around the tank, patting its chunky green armor.

We say, Please, dont let us down in battle, said Sgt. Artyom Knignitsky, the mechanic. Bring us in and bring us out.

Their respect for their tank is understandable. Perhaps no weapon symbolizes the ferocious violence of war more than the main battle tank. Tanks have loomed over the conflict in Ukraine in recent months  militarily and diplomatically  as both sides prepared for offensives. Russia pulled reserves of tanks from Cold War-era storage, and Ukraine prodded Western governments to supply American Abrams and German Leopard 2 tanks.
The United States is framing a visit to China by President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus as a sign of Beijings support for the war in Ukraine and an attempt by two of Russias closest allies to strengthen ties.

The three-day trip, during which Mr. Lukashenko is expected to meet with Chinas leader, Xi Jinping, is just another element of the P.R.C.s deepening engagement with Russia, with all of those who are engaged with and supporting Russias brutal war against Ukraine, Ned Price, the State Department spokesman, said on Monday, using an abbreviation for the Peoples Republic of China.

China is trying to present itself as a neutral observer in the war while maintaining close strategic ties to Russia, part of a desire to be a global counterweight to Washington. Just before President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia invaded Ukraine last year, Moscow and Beijing declared a no limits partnership.

Belarus is one of Russias staunchest allies. Mr. Lukashenko allowed Russian forces to use Belarus as a staging ground for assaults against Ukraine at the start of the war last year. Analysts say that economic support will be a priority for Mr. Lukashenkos China visit, with Belarus becoming more isolated by sanctions.
When Israeli forces entered the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank on the morning of Feb. 22, their goal was to apprehend three members of an armed Palestinian group in a single safe house. But after a firefight broke out with the three gunmen, chaos and violence spread well beyond the stated targets and into the busy surrounding streets.

Minutes after the rare and risky daytime raid began, additional support vehicles from Israels military and the police entered Nablus, establishing a perimeter around the old city, and blocking entry and exit points. Traveling in armored vehicles, the security forces were pelted with stones and oranges, and in some cases fired upon by other Palestinian gunmen.

The three men in the safe house and another gunman were killed. But in other cases, videos show that Israeli soldiers used deadly force against unarmed Palestinians, killing at least four people who did not appear to pose a threat.

In total, 11 people were killed and over 100 wounded, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The Israel Defense Forces reported no injuries.

The operation came at a time when the situation in the West Bank has been rapidly deteriorating. One act of violence is typically responded to by another, accelerating a cycle of bloodshed. Palestinian officials said this was the deadliest start to a year there since 2000. Sixty-four Palestinians have been killed over the last two months, and at least 13 Israelis have been killed in the territory and Jerusalem.

The Times obtained security camera footage, witness video and testimony from multiple locations in Nablus, and reviewed posts and live streams from social media that captured the operation to establish where and when the raid and ensuing lethal action played out.

In response to questions from The Times, the I.D.F. said that the circumstances of the raid were under examination.
The Israeli police deployed water cannons and stun grenades on Wednesday against thousands of protesters blocking a main road in Tel Aviv, a significant escalation of the confrontation between the political leadership and opponents of the governments plan to rein in the powers of the countrys judiciary.

The rare use of force by the police against Israeli citizens came as groups of protesters carrying Israeli flags blocked roads, bridges and busy intersections around the country in what organizers called a day of national disruption. These actions followed regular protests that began eight weeks ago and have at times disrupted life in Israels major cities.

On Wednesday, a few dozen protesters were arrested and a few people were injured. Images on social media and news outlets showed one man who had been hit by a stun grenade with a mangled ear and blood pouring down his neck.

Police videos showed some demonstrators throwing empty plastic water bottles at officers mounted on horseback during the confrontation. Some protesters chanted shame, shame shame and democracy, democracy, democracy.
The most useful recipes  the ones that ferret their way into your brain and inform the way you cook  have light-bulb moments, details that you need to read only once to comprehend. Some of the ideas highlighted below are broad, like spotlighting the importance of salting layer by layer, while some are hyperspecific, like how chile crisp is delicious on vanilla ice cream. Some are simple, some are unexpected and all can make you a more creative cook.
Can You Spot the Copyright Infringement?

It can be difficult to predict the outcome of copyright cases, some dealing with parody, that reach the courts. Judges must parse precedent and the Copyright Act of 1976, which outlines how to decide whether something is the fair use of a creative work. In the cases below, guess which way the judges ruled.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

In an impressive feat, China landed its Zhurong rover on Mars in May 2021, joining NASA in exploring the red planets surface.

But China has not provided recent updates, and images from orbit show the vehicle fixed in the same place.

Something seems to have gone wrong 
Offaly student Anna Jolly, from Tullamore, was among the students from Trinity College Dublin to receive scholarships at a ceremony held at Trinity College Dublin campus.

The Award recognises outstanding female students in STEM2D disciplines: Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths, Manufacturing and Design. This is the inaugural year of the programme being offered to Trinity College students. Each recipient will receive a student award, industry mentoring and leadership training, along with the opportunity to attend career workshops, visit Johnson & Johnson sites and participate in WiSTEM2D events designed to support them with pursuing future STEM careers.

The Johnson & Johnson WiSTEM2D programme fuels the development of the female STEM2D talent pipeline by awarding and sponsoring women at critical points in their educational experience and their careers, in STEM disciplines. The Undergraduate programme was first introduced at University of Limerick in 2016, and extended to University College Cork and University of Galway in the intervening years, supporting more than 400 students to date. This year, the programme has been expanded further to include Munster Technological University and Trinity College.

The Trinity College Dublin students selected to receive the scholarships are:

Anna Jolly; Biological and Biomedical Sciences; Tullamore, Co. Offaly

Aoife Mary Morris; Chemical Sciences; Midleton, Co. Cork

Eva McDonnell; Pharmacy; Ballintemple, Co. Cork

Keela Duffy Naughton; Engineering with Management; Irishtown, Dublin

Lydia Politi; Biological and Biomedical Sciences; Dublin

Makua Ifediora; Biological and Biomedical Sciences; Mountmellick, Co. Laois

Mirela Sofia Mucenic; Biological and Biomedical Sciences; Bucharest, Romania

Naomi Adeniji; Engineering; Clondalkin, Dublin

Raea Michie; Biological and Biomedical Sciences; Berlin, Germany

Sarah Sheridan; Biological and Biomedical Sciences; Swinford, Co. Mayo

The faculty of STEM at Trinity College has a long-standing commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI). All 8 of its schools have established EDI committees. Seven schools hold Athena SWAN Bronze awards as a mark of their commitment to promote EDI work practices at a local level, including for example, the visibility of female role models (as speakers at research seminars, as external examiners, on websites), gender representation on decision-making committees and the adoption of family-friendly meeting policies.

Dr. Thorsten Giesecke, General Manager, Commercial Business at Janssen Sciences Ireland said: Congratulations to the Trinity College Dublin students who have been selected to receive the Johnson & Johnson WiSTEM2D award. They will now benefit from a range of opportunities, which will provide them with the tools, resources & opportunities they need to excel in their careers. Through the programme, Johnson & Johnson aims to inspire and support more women to pursue a career in STEM after university and increase female representation in the STEM2D workforce.

Professor Sylvia Draper, Dean of the Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics at Trinity College Dublin said: 'I am delighted to support and promote this initiative which seeks to raise awareness of, and the need for, diversity and inclusion in STEM disciplines and technologies. These J&J WiSTEM scholarships will provide financial support and also career mentorship and guidance for ten Senior Fresh undergraduates in STEM. It is never too early to start identifying your own unique skill sets, to understand what makes you different and know what is important to you. With this knowledge you can create an environment in which you and everyone around you can flourish. It is the first step in making our world a better place'.

The awards ceremony, held at the Trinity College Dublin campus, was attended by Fergus Sharpe, Government Affairs & Policy Manager, Janssen Sciences Ireland; Brid Seoighe, Director of Medical Affairs, Janssen Sciences Ireland; Dr Lorraine Byrne, Executive Director of the AMBER Centre; Katie OBrien, GOLD Associate, Janssen Sciences Ireland; and Anna Rafferty, Director of Strategy, Johnson & Johnson Campus Ireland. Recipients of the Johnson & Johnson WiSTEM2D Award scholarship were also presented with bespoke framed glass artwork created by Fermoy-based artist, Suzanne OSullivan.
SHOOTING began this Monday morning on a digital and television advert for Tullamore Dew whiskey which will be viewed by millions across the globe in the coming months.

Just after 6.30am on Monday morning film crews descended on William Street in the Offaly capital to shoot the advert at Clarke's barber shop and Digan's public house.

Footage for the advert is also being shot at Lough Boora and Cappyroe near Ballinagar and the crew will return for filming in the town centre today, Wednesday.

In a post on Facebook, Digan's public house apologised to their customers that they could not open until 6.30pm on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in order to facilitate filming.

The Tullamore Dew dog was also in town for the action and was escorted outside Digan's on Monday evening by proprietors Ray and Brian Digan.

Strict secrecy surrounds the advert and the Tribune was prohibited from taking photographs when scenes were being shot inside Digan's.

The advert will give huge publicity for Tullamore and Offaly as it will be viewed by tens of millions of people throughout the world.

The advert follows up on a billboard campaign by Tullamore Dew in the United States which featured local business people Anne McCormack of Tyrrell's shop and bakery, O'Moore St and Paul Bell of the Brewery Tap public house on Bridge St.
The mother of a Black man from Repentigny, Que. who was killed by police in 2021 has filed a lawsuit against the city and its police force.
Donald Trump has unveiled his new America First policy. But its not just China that should be worried about the prospect of Trump returning to the White House.
The federal government nears a deal with the crossbench on superannuation as the Coalition accuses it of breaking promises, a ban on engineered stone has been delayed, and Russian troops push toward a key city in Ukraines east.
 2008-2023 One News Page Ltd.

All rights reserved.

One News is a registered trademark

of One News Page Ltd.
Nurses and midwives have been warned against posting content on the adults-only website by the industrys professional complaints body.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed to dismantle the "Russian genocidal system." Meanwhile, Finland's parliament is preparing to vote on a bill to pave the way for NATO membership. DW rounds up the latest.
The death toll rose to 36 on Wednesday and a railroad worker was arrested after two trains collided head-on in northern Greece.


Foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra said on Wednesday that the Russia-Ukraine conflict will be a crucial topic at the G20 foreign ministers meeting. However, he declined to speculate on whether the G20 foreign ministers' meeting would produce a joint communique, given the widening differences between the West and Russia regarding the Ukraine conflict. "It would not be correct to prejudge the outcome of the meeting," Kwatra said at a press conference.
Eurasia Review 28 Mar 2023

As Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, put it, "your dreams and our vision have the potential to become better together."..
Brexit-supporting businessman Arron Banks has won a partial victory in his ongoing libel case with journalist Carole Cadwalladr, over comments she made in a TED Talk.
Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot pinned the blame for her election loss on her race and gender on Tuesday night, telling reporters that..

Upworthy 01 Mar 2023
The Cornwall Wildlife Trust is worried the stocks of brown crab are so depleted it is no longer sustainable to fish.
A passenger train carrying hundreds of people, including many university students returning home from holiday, collided at high speed with an oncoming freight train in Greece. (Mar. 1)


Watch VideoPresident Joe Biden is nominating Julie Su, the current deputy and former California official, as his next labor secretary, replacing the departing incumbent, former Boston Mayor Marty Walsh.



Su, a civil rights attorney and former head of California's labor department, was central to negotiations between labor and...
The Brazilian government has permitted a flotilla of Iranian naval ships to berth in Rio de Janeiro in defiance of pressures from the US.



The Iranian Navy's Makran and Dena warships, which together form the Islamic Republic's 86th flotilla of military vessels, berthed in Rio on Sunday, the port authority was quoted by...
Ministers have warned energy firms that they must pass on the benefits of lower wholesale prices to consumers, amid concern that bills could rise this spring. In a speech on Wednesday, Grant Shapps will tell energy suppliers that reduced wholesale prices must be seen in consumer prices, no ifs,



#grantshapps #chathamhouse #ofgem #shapps #vladimirputin #ukraine #extinctionrebellion
Russian forces carried out relentless attacks on Bakhmut on Wednesday, trying to encircle and storm the small eastern Ukrainian city and claim their first major prize for more than half a year after some of the bloodiest fighting of the war.
Bangui, CAR (PANA) - Representatives of the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) have conducted a joint visit to Central African Republic (CAR) to explore the potential of joint initiatives for durable solutions to sustain the returns of refugees and internally displaced people
In January, Noah Cyruss subversive approach to style reached new heights when she made the rounds at Paris Fashion Week (her first time attending).

Her distinctive look  bleached eyebrows, long black hair, porcelain skin, 35+ tattoos  combined with her experimental, avant-garde outfits helped her emerge as a new Fashion Week style fixture to watch.

Related | Noah Cyrus Examines Herself

The schedule for her debut PFW (for the mens shows and couture) included stops at Maison Margiela, Patou, Miss Sohee, Viktor & Rolf and more. Marine Serre, whom Cyrus wore for her debut album's cover art, was the first brand to invite the 23-year-old.

Noah Cyrus wearing COLORS (Courtesy of Noah Cyrus)

She wore pieces by Arturo Obegero, Robert Wun, Alexandre Vauthier, Paul Benzing and Ludovic de Saint Sernin. Among her most striking looks was one in collaboration with Pinkus, the designer of COLORS, including a full-body black puffer gown that sent the internet into a frenzy.

"Why this feel like that montage in the Lizzie McGuire movie where she tried on the igloo," one person commented. Others included "michelin man slay," and "it's giving stack of tires, but in a slay way of course."

Cyrus met Pinkus on Instagram and felt compelled to work with him as a fan of his designs. "I was initially drawn to the uniqueness of the bran, she says. I love the bigger pieces we posted because they really connected to my more dark ethereal style. But his street designs are still so high fashion. There's really no one else like him or COLORS."

Noah Cyrus wearing Yuima Nakazato (Photo courtesy of Holly Gibson)

For her PFW wardrobe she worked with stylist Lyn Alyson. "I contacted the designers that I felt fit her vibe aesthetically and accentuated her style, Alyson says. It really came down to finding pieces that we knew would create a defining moment for her and during PFW  When it comes to Noah, it's never difficult for her to wear anything and make it look effortless. She's literally a dream."

"Her and I are constantly sending photos of inspiration back and forth to each other, Alyson adds. Usually we find out the event and what the vibe is, then we dive into what designers and brands fit the energy. But I think the approach is really a style collaboration between the two of us.

Another favorite PFW moment for Cyrus was a long black Stephane Rolland gown with a deep plunging neckline and two heavy black chains covering her braless chest. (Fans commented that it gave Morticia Adams vibes.) She was supposed to wear it to the brand's show.

Noah Cyrus wearing Robert Wun (Courtesy of Keenan Gosset)

The funny thing is we did not even make it to the show, Alyson says. Security locked the doors early because of capacity. But Noah had such a moment just out front of the venue.
FedEx Express has expanded its Stuttgart Air Gateway air cargo facility in Germany and commissioned a sorter at the site.

') } // --> ') } else { console.log ('nompuad'); document.write('') } // -->

The setup is expected to improve the sites handling speed and capacity, equipping it to meet export and import demand from customers in the region. In addition to tripling sorting capacity, it offers a fivefold increase in capacity for x-raying airfreight shipments. The warehouse, which has been expanded from 800m2 to 3,000m2, also enables better handling of freight and dangerous goods.

') } else { console.log ('nompuad'); document.write(' ') } // --> ') } else if (width >= 425) { console.log ('largescreen'); document.write('') } else { console.log ('nompuad'); document.write('') } // -->

The Stuttgart Air Gateway, which has been in operation since September 2012, is one of seven FedEx air cargo locations in Germany. It is currently connected to the main FedEx European hub, Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, with four outbound and four inbound flights a week. This route is flown by a B737 jet. An ATR 72 turboprop will be used on another route between Stuttgart, Germany, and Liege, Belgium. The new setup will create 30 new jobs at Stuttgart Airport. Currently, 15 employees work at the site.

The expansion of the air gateway is FedEx Expresss second major investment in the Stuttgart region within a year. In early summer 2022, the company opened a facility in Nufringen, Germany, to offer improved express services through later pick-up times and expanded capacities.

Stefan Dries, vice president of ground operations at FedEx Germany, Austria and Switzerland, said, The expansion is further evidence of our growth strategy in Europe. We have invested to offer our customers in the region even more service and opportunities. FedEx Express is a strong partner and supports large, medium-sized and smaller companies to grow their business.

Matthias Barbian, managing director of ramp and gateway operations at FedEx Express, added, The Air Gateway Stuttgart offers our team members and service providers a modern working environment. The location is in an economically strong region and connects the companies based here to international markets worldwide via the FedEx Express air network.

Read more key technology updates from the parcel and postal technology industry, here.
German Minister for Development Cooperation, Svenja Schulze, has tagged Ghana as a pillar of stability, saying it is Germanys best destination in Africa for collaboration and partnership on key developmental agenda.



Addressing the media at the residence of the German Ambassador to Ghana, Mrs. Schulze said jointly, we want to achieve progress for people and enterprises here in Ghana.



It is really important to me that the rules are applying on the ground to help those at the beginning of the supply chain here in Ghana and in this context to strengthen children and womens rights, she added.



Mrs. Schulze was part of a delegation with her colleague, the Minister for Employment and Social Policies and the Director General of the International Labour Organisation, to Ghana.



The team met with the sector ministers in Ghana to deliberate on matters of mutual interest; top on the agenda was decent work, human rights and economic value chain.



The German Minister for Employment and Social Policies, Hubertus Heil, expressed optimism in Ghana and Germany relations stating that, its important for both countries to share the same values, democracy and economic values. Everyone needs to be responsible, especially the government and the business sector.



He commended the Government of Ghana for initiating measures to protect children against child labour by investing in compulsory child education.



We are working together for decent work and for social protection, he emphasised.



Director General of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Gilbert Houngbo, in a brief statement, stated keenly what the labour organisation expects from countries, thereby availing ILOs expertise into sector ministries in order to put together an action plan that will push-up trade to a better quality to move our people out of poverty.



On the issue of fair migration, he said Ghana has expertise in different sectors but we also have the international guidelines on fair migration and that should help us to achieve what we call the triple win.



Ghanas Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, who doubles as the caretaker Minister for Trade, Samuel Jinapor said theres a need for Ghana and Cote dIvoire to make appreciable gains as the primary producers of the worlds cocoa.



He believes effective collaboration with Germany has the potential to scale up the production value chain.



Ghana and Cote dIvoire needs to rise to an appreciable level of the global market share of cocoa. Currently, both countries earn only $6 billion out of the over $113 billion, and it tells you that, if you dont amplify or promote our cocoa, a lot of the rhetoric will not resonate or materialise, he said.

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
Yofi Grant, the esteemed CEO of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), has been honored with the prestigious African Business Personality of the Year 2022 by International Investor Magazine. This coveted award recognizes Yofi Grant's outstanding leadership and contributions to promoting investment and economic growth in Ghana and across Africa.



Furthermore, GIPC, representing Ghana, was also awarded "Best FDI Destination in Africa for 2022," solidifying its reputation as an innovative leader in fostering foreign direct investment opportunities in Ghana and the continent as a whole. It is a major milestone for the GIPC and illustrates the hard work and dedication of the CEO in steering Ghana to become one of Africas most attractive investment destinations on the back of several reforms and policies by President Nana Akufo-Addo to improve the Ghanaian business environment.



As the CEO of GIPC and Director for Sub-Saharan Africa on the WAIPA steering board, Yofi Grant has been instrumental in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) into Ghana and shaping investment policies across the continent. He has led initiatives to streamline the investment process, reduce bureaucracy, and increase transparency by spearheading the digitization of investment registration at the GIPC, making Ghana an attractive destination for investors.



Under his leadership, GIPC has been able to attract significant investments into the country in diverse sectors such as energy, manufacturing, and services. The agency has also facilitated partnerships between local businesses and multinational corporations, promoting knowledge transfer and technology exchange.



Commenting on the awards, Mr. Grant noted that "the awards recognize the positive impact of the organization's initiatives and policies in attracting foreign investment into Ghana and the continent as a whole." It highlights Ghana's attractiveness as an investment destination, with a stable political environment and an expanding economy, encouraging more investors to consider Ghana as a destination for their investments.



He added that "with the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area, Africas position as a leading destination for investors seeking vibrant markets and real economic opportunities has heightened." This has put the continent in a favourable position to attract more foreign investments and promote economic growth. It is therefore expedient that we





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 Member of Parliament for Mpraeso Constituency, Davis Ansah Opoku has supported some best performing BECE students in his constituency.



The Legislator, during last years Basic Education Certificate Examination, pledged to support JHS who would attain an aggregate 6 to 15.



Speaking in an interview with Republic Presss Andy Frimpong Manso, the MP indicated that, this is in line with his vision to ensure that Students are motivated to make good grades.



Some 50 selected best-performing students were given Gh500 each, totalling Gh25,000. These monies are to enable them to get some provisions while they begin their first journey to second-cycle education.



Mr. Opoku said the pupils knowing that the MP will commend them when they pass well, will encourage them and also those who are yet to write their BECE next year to do it well.



We also make allocations for the disabled students irrespective of the grade they had. It is an ongoing process so, through the Ghana Education Service Directorate, I am hoping they will bring the data for us to support such students, he noted.

He said the government has implemented free SHS so every student must take advantage of it and at least complete Senior High School to give him or her a basic understanding.



We are hoping to get a scholarship for brilliant but needy students with the help of the government. However, we facilitate the scholarship secretariat office to make sure the students will get scholarships and pursue their tertiary education, he added.



The MP for Mpraeso constituency also commended Dr. Yaw Adutwum, the Educational Minister for the arrangements done concerning computer placement and also, for the innovative ideas he has brought to the education sector.



Some of the students expressed their gratitude to the honourable MP for his continued support of education in the district.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
The deputy ranking member of the Public Accounts Committee and the Member of Parliament for Mpraeso Constituency, Hon. Davis Ansah Opoku has commended the Education Minister, Hon. Dr. Osei Yaw Adutwum for the many policies hes introduced to change the face of education in the country.



Speaking to Republic Press during a donation he made to support 50 best-performing students in his constituency, the MP indicated that the Education ministers arrangement towards the school selection and placement system (CSSPS) has been very remarkable and deserves some commendation.



The MP, while speaking on the backdrop of the CSSPS refuted claims that the system has been very dissatisfying and perhaps, coming with a lot of challenges as far as the placement system is concerned.



I think this year has been a bit different and successful. Lemme use this opportunity to commend the Education Minister, Dr. Osei Yaw Adutwum. Looking at the arrangement laid down concerning the Computer placement this year, nobody has called me to assist them in facing any challenges. At first, you can hear such issues of people taking money before placement but as we speak, due to the hard work of the Education Minister, Mr. Adutwum, we must commend him for streamlining the activities of CSSPS.



Recently, his office and some media houses did an investigation and unearth some corrupt practices that were going on. If you look at his innovative ideas that have been implemented in the Education sector, we must commend him and the President, he stated.



The MP, during last years Basic Education Certificate Examination, pledged to support some first 50 students who would attain an aggregate of 6 to 15 in their BECE exam. Last year, 50 students were supported. This year, 50 students were selected and supported with 500 each.



The MP said this initiative was to motivate school pupils to do well during their exams, knowing very well that if they do excel, the MP will support them.

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
Professor Fiifi Ofori-Acquah, Director of the Ghanaian Genome (GhGenome) project, has called on the Government to institute a national programme where every baby born in the country is screened for sickle cell diseases.



He said, The reason we advocate screening of newborns for sickle cell is once you have been identified to have sickle cell, you can be given a medication to protect you from getting infections that can be fatal.



Professor Ofori-Acquah, who is also President of the Sickle Cell Foundation of Ghana, made the call when delivering a lecture dubbed: The Ghanaian Genome, at the University for Development Studies (UDS) in Tamale.



The public lecture, which was to educate the public on genetics and the critical role, it played in health, wellbeing, and diseases, was attended by members of the University community, some traditional authorities, and students from second cycle institutions.



The (GhGenome) project is an initiative of the University of Ghanas West African Genetic Medicine Centre to improve access to all aspects of genetic health in the country.



Professor Ofori-Acquah bemoaned the fact that while genetic diseases were a problem in the country It is sad we do not have a national screening programme for sickle cell diseases in the country. That is just not acceptable.



He spoke about the GhGenome projects awareness activities on the role genetics played in causing diseases that were currently attributed to many wrong factors.



He mentioned that the project was focused on four main areas, which included nationwide public lecture series on the Ghanaian genome, and free nationwide screening of genetic diseases in partnership with traditional leaders across the country specifically for sickle cell conditions as well as breast and prostate cancers.



The rest were the development of postgraduate genetics training programmes, and financial support to train citizens in genetic health professions, and sequencing of the DNA of 1,000 Ghanaian children with severe genetic disorders including sickle cell disease, cancer, and rare diseases.



He advised people to be aware of genetic disorders and take advantage of public screening events to get screened for them.



In a speech read on his behalf, Professor Seidu Al-Hassan, Vice-chancellor of UDS, said the genetic disorder situation in the country was serious, requiring the need for all to get screened especially when getting married.



Meanwhile, the GhGenome project, as part of its awareness campaign to sensitise the public on genetics, has in collaboration with UDS, organised a free public health screening for residents of Tamale and Sagnarigu on sickle cell conditions as well as breast and prostate cancers.



A total of 365 people comprising 174 children and 191 adults were screened at the event held at the forecourt of the palace of the Chief of Sagnarigu.



Dr Amma Benneh-Akwasi Kuma, Consultant Haematologist at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, who coordinated the free public health screening exercise, said For adults, some of the diseases we are encountering are those with increased high blood pressure. Some of them know about their situation but they sometimes forget to take their medicine. We have counselled them.



She added that For others, this is the first time they have been told that their blood pressure is high. So, we have advised them to go to the nearest health facility for a check up and get treatment for it.





Source: GNA









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
The Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, has reportedly been given two hours to appear before Parliaments Select Committee on Health.



According to a news report by myjoyonline.com, Agyeman-Manu and some officials from his ministry and the Ghana Health Service were expected to appear before the committee to answer questions on the shortage of vaccines in the country.



The report indicated that neither the minister nor his officials were present before the committee hours after the committees meeting had started on Tuesday, February 28, 2023.



It added that the absences of the minister and his officials infuriated the members of the committee including the Member of Parliament for Asawase, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak, who described the absence of the officials as disrespectful.



The Health Minister, Dr. Kwaku Agyeman Manu, was invited to an emergency meeting with the Parliamentary Committee on Health on Tuesday, February 28, 2023. The minister was expected to brief the committee on the current nationwide vaccine shortage.



He is also expected to tell the committee about measures put in place by his ministry to address the situation. The committee has also invited the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and other institutions on the same issue.



The Committee also requests the presence of the following institutions heads and relevant officers: the Ghana Health Service, the National Health Insurance Authority, the Global Fund, the Ministry of Finance, and the Vaccine Control Programme, a letter addressed to the Health Minister stated.



There are reports of a shortage of vaccines used for routine vaccination of children from childbirth to age 18 months in some parts of the country.



Vaccines for diseases such as measles, polio, and tuberculosis have been scarce in hospitals.



This is likely to increase the vulnerability of the very children the vaccines are meant to protect.



The Western, Greater Accra, Central, Upper West, Bono, Eastern, and Upper East regions are among the regions affected by the vaccine shortage.







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 (EC) Boss, Jean Mensa, and the Executive Secretary of the National Identification Authority, Kenneth Attafuah, are billed to appear in parliament today, Tuesday, 28 February 2023 to brief the leadership of the House on the draft C.I on the registration of voters.



Due to Madam Mensas absence from the House, the Minority in Parliament objected to the briefing by EC officials last Thursday.



Reports were rife that the EC Chairperson, Jean Mensa is in Ghana and has refused to honour an invitation from Parliament disrespecting the august house.



However, the Electoral Commission in response to the claims said, At the time the Chairperson had travelled to Nigeria at the invitation of ECOWAS/ECONEC for a peer exchange and election observation mission.



But the EC Chair is unlikely to appear again in parliament for that scheduled meeting as she is still out of the country.



Early on, Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, announced that the EC Chairperson, Jean Mensa, will appear before the legislators on Tuesday.



The EC officials had established contact with the Chairperson, who had agreed to come down for us to have the committee of the whole meeting, but she delayed because the Minority MPs were picking up their parliamentary forms. So on Tuesday, she will appear, and we will continue with the committee of the whole meeting.





Source: starrfm









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has emphasised that the minority will stand by its position to fight any attempt to make the Ghana Card the sole mandatory ID for voter registration.

In Facebook post sighted by GhanaWeb, Mr Ablakwa questioned how the government will raise money to ensure the issuance of new Ghana Cards while the same government has failed to meet several of its financial commitments.



A government unable to pay bondholders, unable to provide furniture for 2.3million pupils, unable to address SHS congestion, unable to clear NaBCo arrears & unable to fulfill promises to COVID frontliners is suddenly giving Ghana Card assurances worth a staggering GHS1.4billion.



When will some politicians learn that delivering on the peoples needs & real expectations are the only saving grace & that unscrupulous mafia electoral manipulation doesnt work?



The NDC Caucus in Parliament means every word when we say: there shall be no new CI! he added.



His statement comes on the back of the assurance by the Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta that the state has reached an agreement with CalBank, for a GH100 million facility to ensure that the over 3 million Ghana Cards stuck in bonded warehouses are released.



The assurance by the minister was after the National IDentificiation Authority reported that it owes a private company some GH100 million for the supply of blank cards hence their refusal to release the Ghana Cards to the NIA.



We have agreed to a GH100 million facility to ensure that the 3.2 million cards are released, Mr Ofori-Atta told Parliament on Tuesday, adding that GH80 million has been deposited, and the remaining GH20 million will be paid by this evening.



Meanwhile, Jean Mensa, Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), has justified her outfits attempt to make the Ghana Card the sole identification document for voter registration ahead of the 2024 polls.



Briefing Parliament on the proposed constitutional instrument for the next general elections, Madam Jean Mensa said the C.I. seeks to promote continuous registration of voters and will allow for an all-year-round registration of eligible voters at its district offices.



Under the limited voters registration process, registration was conducted at limited periods and was not done all year round. This made it such that, persons who turned 18 after the registration period could not do so after the time set for the limited registration, which usually within 23 weeks.



Under the new C.I., anyone who turns 18 can simply walk into any of our district offices and register to vote. This is a departure from the previous one. The main advantage of this is that potential voters can register anytime any day. Eligible persons will be at liberty to do it at their leisure because it will be an all-year-round activity.







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
One of the 14 persons accused of the murder of the late Major Maxwell Mahama, has admitted to hitting the head of the deceased military officer with a block during his brutal lynching in 2017.



Akwasi Baah led in evidence by his counsel to present his evidence-in-chief, however, told an Accra High Court on Tuesday that the late soldier was already dead when he smashed his head with the cement block.



Led by George Bernard Shaw, the accused according to a report by Dailyguidenetwork.com sighted by GhanaWeb, informed the court that he was not present at the scene when the mob attacked Major Mahama but later arrived at the scene when he had been beaten to death.



The suspect said he had been a robbery victim a day prior to the incident and that upon arriving at the scene of the lynching, he realised that the deceased was wearing a boot similar to that which one his assailants wore during the robbery he suffered.



Akwasi Baah told the court that while he was travelling from Dunkwa-on-Offin to Obuasi on May 28, 2017, the car he was onboard run into a gang of armed robbers.



He said the road had been barricaded by robbers carrying weapons adding that the robbers hijacked the vehicle, commanded everyone to step down and later searched all the passengers on board the vehicle.



He narrated that while he was at home the next day, he heard a noise and was informed that an armed robber had shot a young man in the foot and he had been taken to the clinic so he decided to go to the clinic to find out if the person was his relative.



He left the clinic upon finding out that the young man was not related to him and ten minutes after leaving the clinic, he heard an armed robber had been killed so he went to the scene where the incident occurred.



The suspect said he found at the scene the very gun that was used to rob him the previous day and also saw the deceased wearing the same boots that was used in kicking him during the robbery.



This made me pick up a block and hit the deceased, he recounted.



Chief State Attorney, Frances Mullen Ansah who led the prosecution during the cross-examination of the suspect, replayed a video of the gruesome lynching of the deceased in court.



Akwasi Baah while under questioning by the prosecution, identified himself as the person who smashed the head of the late Major Mahama who lay motionless at the time.



The suspect admitted that due to the heavy weight of the block, he had to carry it with his two hands but denied that he smashed the head of the deceased soldier on purpose.







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
Two persons have picked nomination forms to contest the Asante Akim North parliamentary primaries of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).



They are Adams Yusif, a Lawyer and Kofi Asamoah, a businessman.



Adams Yusif contested the 2020 elections but lost to Andy Appiah Kubi, the NPP candidate.



Peter Abaje, the Asante Akim North constituency chairman of NDC, told the Ghana News Agency in an interview that, the two were the only persons who had picked forms for the constituency.



He stressed the need for all interested candidates to follow the laid down procedure of the party and work to promote peace among party members and supporters in the constituency.



Abaje said strong party unity and hard work among all the members were crucial to capture the seat and winning the presidential ticket as well.



Meanwhile, four persons have picked the nominations forms to contest the Atwima-Nwabiagya South constituency primaries of the NDC.



They are Nana Asare Bediako, former Municipal Chief Executive under President Mahama, Wisdom Osei Boateng, former constituency youth organizer, Derrick Owusu Boateng, the 2020 parliamentary candidate of the party and Salisu Mohammed, a businessman.



Godfred Petigo, the constituency Secretary, who confirmed this to the GNA, said the constituency leadership was following all the laid down procedures to ensure fairness in the processes.



He appealed to supporters of the nominees to remain calm and go about their campaigns peacefully to help strengthen the existing unity in the party.





Source: GNA









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
Seasoned Journalist, Kwesi Pratt Jnr. has kicked against the new Constitutional Instrument (C.I) proposal by the Electoral Commission to use the Ghana Card as the only identification card for the 2024 elections.



Last week, Parliament held a pre-presentation discussion on the CI, to collect input from relevant sources for the drafting of the Constitutional Instrument (Cl).



In September last year, the EC sought to have the Ghana Card as the sole document for voter registration in the country.



The move agitated the Minority Group and they subsequently opposed the CI, saying it will disenfranchise voters. But the EC insisted that it will use the Ghana Card for voter registration.



According to the Electoral Management Body, the Ghana Card is the most authentic means of identifying Ghanaians, hence the Commissions decision to use it in compiling a new database of voters.



Subsequently, on February 8, the Minority in Parliament reiterated its strong opposition to the use of the Ghana Card for voter registration. They explained that many Ghanaians may not have access to it in order to register.



In preparation towards the next general elections, the EC is proposing the use of Ghana Card as the only form of identification medium to qualify a Ghanaian citizen, who is eligible to vote, to be registered or enrolled onto the voters register.



Tackling the matter on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' programme, the Editor-in-Chief of the Insight newspaper pointed out the proposal makes absolutely no sense. He further argued that the EC asked for a new register and was given 80 million dollars to redo the register which they claim is credible, therefore he wonders why the Commission would be asking for a new C.I.



"We have put together a new register [80 million] and we claim there is no dirt on it; the best register in Ghana's history. So, why do we want to do another register? Why make a new law?" he queried.



Mr. Pratt asserted the EC's proposal is of no beneficial use stressing there is already a faultless register, so there is no need for a new C.I.



"It is of no importance . . .What is the sense in this new C.I? Because we have a C.I that's operative. We have a register that they claim is credible and that nothing impedes a person who reaches 18 years to register his or her name. So, where from all this noise? Unless, of course, there is some other motive I don't know," he exclaimed.





Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
Results of some other states have been announced by the appropriate INEC officials in the states but have yet to be presented to Mr Yakubu in Abuja.



After receiving the results of 14 states, the INEC Chairman and Returning Officer for the presidential election, Mahmood Yakubu, said Monday evening that the collation of results continues today by 10 GMT.



Mr Yakubu received the Results of Ekiti on Sunday. On Monday, he received the results of Kwara, Osun, Ondo, Ogun, Oyo, Yobe, Enugu, Lagos, Gombe, Jigawa, Adamawa, Katsina and Nasarawa states.



However, no other states collations officer was present; therefore, Mr Yakubu said the collation will close for the day and resume Tuesday when the results of more states would have arrived.



So far, the candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, has won in six states; Jigawa, Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Kwara, and Ekiti states.



The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Atiku Abubakar, is leading in five states; Katsina, Adamawa, Gombe, Yobe and Osun.



Meanwhile, the Labour Party (LP) Candidate, Peter Obi, has won in Nasarawa, Lagos and Enugu.



The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Rabiu Kwankwaso, has not won any of the states presented to the INEC Chairman as of Tuesday.



Results of some other states have been announced by the appropriate INEC officials in the states but have yet to be presented to Mr Yakubu in Abuja.



PDP, LPs dissent



Earlier during the collation of results, the agents of the PDP and LP walked out of the collation centre in protest of INECs failure to upload all polling unit results before the collation of results continued.



Both parties claimed that the electoral law stipulates that all results must be uploaded to the INEC result Viewing Portal (IReV) before collation.



But the INEC Chairman insisted that the process can continue even if the results were not uploaded.



Less than 60 per cent of the result sheets across Nigeria had been uploaded as of Monday evening.



INECs National Commissioner for Voter Education, Festus Okoye, had on Sunday attributed the failure to upload the results to technical hitches.



The INEC Chairman, however, said he would speak on the uploading of results today.



In a press conference later on Tuesday, the PDP accused INEC of announcing compromised results.



The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, demanded that INEC transmit the results directly into the INEC Server/Website as provided for under Section 68 of the Electoral Act 2022.



Also on Monday, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo alleged fraud in the result collation process. He said the failure of the BVAS to promptly upload results from polling units in the election results portal showed the process was being manipulated. He asked President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene in the controversy.



In a prompt response, the campaign council of the APC accused Mr Obasajo of calling for a military coup in Nigeria. The council said Mr Obasanjo has no evidence of the fraud he alleges and was not a neutral arbiter having supported Mr Obi of the Labour Party in the presidential election.







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
"Compatriot Nigerians, please exercise patience until the wrong is righted. I strongly believe that nobody will toy with the future and fortune of Nigeria..."



Former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo has alleged that the results of last Saturdays presidential election have been doctored and manipulated.



He has therefore called on President Muhammadu Buhari to demand a review of the results collation process



In a statement he personally signed and issued on Monday, Mr Obasanjo alleged that most of the results that are brought outside BVAS and Server are not true reflection of the will of Nigerians.



Mr Obasanjo is one of the major backers of the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi.



The Labour Party and some other opposition parties like PDP have withdrawn from the final collation and announcement of results after they accused the electoral commission of not posting results on the INEC web portal.



The parties said not pasting the results from the polling units on the online portal as required by INEC guidelines suggests the results being announced may have been tampered with.



In his Monday statement, which he also broadcast via video, Mr Obasanjo hailed Mr Buhari for his resolve to ensure a legacy of free, fair, transparent and credible elections.



He, however, appealed to President Buhari to save the country from the looming danger that might hit the country as a result of the election.



A total of 18 candidates are taking part in the presidential election. But only four, candidates of the Labour Party, APC, PDP and NNPP, are considered major contenders.



Attached below is a copy of Obasanjo's statement



PRESS RELEASE



2023 NIGERIA PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION - AN APPEAL FOR CAUTION AND RECTIFICATION



Nigerian Brothers and Sisters, greetings to you all.

I am constrained to speak at this point.

I crave the indulgence of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency General M u h a m m a d Buhari, to make this statement because I have had opportunity to keep him aware of what I know is happening and the danger looming ahead.



On many occasions in the past, I have not hesitated to point out lacuna in the action of the President and his government. But as far as the election issues are concerned, the President has proved beyond reasonable doubt that he will want to leave a legacy of free, fair, transparent and credible elections.



Until last Saturday night, February 25, 2023, the good and noble plan and preparation for the elections seemed to be going well.



For the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), a lot of money was spent to introduce Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), and the Server for immediate transmission of results from polling units.



It is no secret that INEC officials, at operational level, have been allegedly compromised to make what should have worked not to work and to revert to manual transmission of results which is manipulated and the results doctored.



The Chairman of INEC may claim ignorance but he cannot fold his hands and do nothing when he knows that election process has been corrupted and most of the results that are brought outside BVAS and Server are not true reflection of the will of Nigerians who have made their individual choice.



At this stage, we do not need wittingly or unwittingly to set this country on fire with the greed, irresponsibility and unpatriotic act of those who allegedly gave money to I N C officials for perversion and those who collected the blood money.



Let me appeal to the Chairman of INEC, fi his hands are clean, to save Nigeria from the looming danger and disaster which is just waiting to happen.



If the Chairman can postpone elections four days to the election, he can do everything to rectify the errors of the last two days- no BVAS, no result to be acceptable; and no upload through Server, no result to be acceptable.



Where BVAS and Servers have been manipulated or rendered inactive, such results must be declared void and inadmissible for election declaration.



Chairman INEC, I have thought that you would use this opportunity to mend your reputation and character for posterity.



Your Excellency, President Buhari Muhammadu, tension is building up and please let all elections that do not pass the credibility and transparency test be cancelled and be brought back with areas where elections were disrupted for next Saturday, March 4, 2023, and BVAS and Server officials be changed.



To know which stations or polling units were manipulated, let a Committee of INEC staff and representatives of the four major political parties with the Chairman of Nigerian Bar Association look into what must be done to have hitch-free elections next Saturday.



Mr. President, may your plan and hope for leaving a legacy of free, fair, transparent and credible election be realised.



Mr. President, please don't let anybody say to you that it does not matter or it is the problem of INEC.



On no account should you be seen as part of the collusion or compromise. When the die is cast, it wil be your problem and that of the nation.



The Chairman of INEC may sneak out of the country or go back to his ivory tower.



Your Excellency, thank you for hearing me out.



Compatriot Nigerians, please exercise patience until the wrong is righted. I strongly believe that nobody will toy with the future and fortune of Nigeria at this juncture.



Long live Nigeria in peace, security, stability and in the hope for greater future.



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
Aspiring NPP Presidential Candidate, Joe Ghartey held a meeting with the staff of the UMAT - School of Railways and Infrastructure Development, Sekondi-Takoradi.



The meeting held on February 15th was Joe Ghartey's first visit to the school

since he ceased being Minister for Railways Development. This was during his Nationwide Tour of Hope and Unity.



In the interactions, the staff of the University showed their appreciation to the Presidential Candidate for his vision and efforts when he was Railways Development Minister, which saw the establishment of the school.



They said the establishment of the school has benefited both students and staff and has as well affected the economy of the surrounding communities.



They declared that they are solidly behind him and believe that he is the best man for the job. The staff also informed him that they have conferred with him

the title 'Papa of the University'.



Hon Ghartey thanked them for their wonderful reception stating that the vision was to build a school that would attract students from all over Africa. He said that given the opportunity he would take education to the next level and make it a major foreign exchange earner.



#ReadyToServe #BigJoe #BigIdeas #BigVision

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 TESCON chapter of the Atibie Midwifery and Nursing Training College (NMTC) has conducted a handing over of newly elected executives to lead the chapter.



The event was also used to induct newly admitted student nurses who have joined the TESCON chapter.



At the handing over held on Saturday, February 25 at the NMTC Auditorium in Atibie, the Member of Parliament for Mpraeso Constituency, David Ansah Opoku charged the newly elected executives to take charge and steer the affairs of the chapter firmly to help the NPP in breaking the 8 in the upcoming 2024 General elections.



Lets all be helpful to each other. The NPP is a better government that will continue to provide you access to education and other forms of economic relief. ,



The MP commended the immediate past executives for their relentless effort and support for the youth Wing of the NPP. Mr. Ansah further took a swipe at the NDC for falsifying propaganda around the current economic challenges the country is facing.



Dont pay heed to what John Mahama and the NDC is saying. They have absolutely nothing to offer you. If the NDC says NPP has mismanaged the Economy, its a big lie. A big lie in the sense that, during NPP there was covid-19 and we all saw the impact it had on all of us. During John Mahamas administration, there was no covid-19 but the NDC took Ghana to IMF, so compare the two, whos telling lies?, he said.



He charged the students to inculcate in them the best disciplinary behaviours to aid them in access to higher positions. He said the contributions of the NMTC chapter count greatly if the NPP will maintain and hold on to power.



The deputy National Youth Organizer, Sandra Sarkodie -Addo commended the past executives for their bravery in making sure the NPP maintained power during the 2020 general elections. she further urged the new executives to take charge and put the affairs of the NPP up to secure victory in the 2024 general elections.



She added that the NPP is the best political party to manage the affairs of the Ghanaian economy.



The Eastern Regional NPP Youth Organizer, Mr. Adamu Musah Raha said he will do everything in his power to achieve their aim since they want to break the eight. The reason behind my excitement is because we have been able to capture the youth and people have hope in us so we will make sure to put them in a better position, he said.



It is beneficial for every student to join Tescon because we must serve our people and these students just need to be recognized and be posted when they complete school however, we will make sure to place our people very well. We have been doing it and we will do it again to serve our people, he added.



He urged everyone to have faith in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) because NDC is not a better option. Mr. Adamu said NDC will make Ghanaians suffer if they come into power so Ghanaians should wise up.



A total of 13 new executives were reelected to take up the new challenge of the Atibie NMTC TESCON chapter.

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 Independent National Electoral Commission has declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, as the winner of the Saturday, February 25, presidential election.



The Chairman of the Commission, Mahmood Yakubu, who announced the final result at exactly 4.10 a.m. Wednesday, March 1, said after days of collation of results from across the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Tinubu polled a total of 8,794, 726 votes.



His closest rival, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, scored 6, 984, 520 votes while Labour Party's Peter Obi secured 6, 101, 533 votes to come third. Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), has 1,496,687 votes.



Mahmood said the Certificate of Returns for Tinubu and his running mate will be issued by 3pm today, March 1. - VIDEOS



View this post on Instagram A post shared by Odunlade Adekola (@odunomoadekola)







View this post on Instagram A post shared by Gh Blinks (@gh_blinks_tv)

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ameyaw Kissi Debrah (@ameyaw112)











Bola Tinubu wins Nigerias presidential election against Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi

Ruling party candidate Bola Tinubu has been declared the winner of Nigerias disputed presidential election.



The 70-year-old veteran politician got 36% of the vote, official results show.



His main rival Atiku Abubakar polled 29%, and Labours Peter Obi 25%. Their parties had earlier dismissed the poll as a sham, and demanded a rerun.



Mr Tinubu is one of Nigerias richest politicians, and based his campaign on his record of rebuilding the biggest city, Lagos, when he was governor.



He was nevertheless defeated in the city by Mr Obi, a relative newcomer who mobilised the support of many young people, especially in urban areas, shaking up the countrys two-party system.



Mr Tinubu won most other states in his home region of the south-west, where he is known as a political godfather.



He campaigned for the presidency under the slogan: Its my turn.



President Muhammadu Buhari is stepping down after two terms in office, marked by economic stagnation and growing insecurity around the country  from an Islamist insurgency in the north-east to a nationwide crisis of kidnapping for ransom and separatist attacks in the south-east.



Bola Ahmed Tinubu, 70, the candidate from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).



Atiku Abubakar, 76, the main opposition leader and former vice president, is the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).



Peter Obi, 61, of the little-known Labour Party (LP), hopes to break the two parties decades-old stranglehold on Nigerian politics.

















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 Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria has commented on the outcome of the 2023 presidential elections won by the ruling party's candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.



Buhari's official statement came barely an hour after Tinubu had been declared winner of the February 25 vote beating off competition from former vice president Atiku Abubakar and one-time Anambra State governor, Peter Obi.



Buhari's statement congratulated Nigerians for the conduct of the polls as well as the outcomes, surprising as some were across the country.



He stressed that he was happy that Nigeria had delivered "Africas largest democratic exercise," admitting that faults identified will lead to reforms in the future.



The election was Africas largest democratic exercise. In a region that has undergone backsliding and military coups in recent years, this election demonstrates democracys continued relevance and capability to deliver for the people it serves," the statement read in part.



In his message to the vanquished, the outgoing president noted: I know some politicians and candidates may not agree with this view. That too is fine. If any candidate believes they can prove the fraud they claim is committed against them, then bring forward the evidence.



"If they cannot, then we must conclude that the election was indeed the peoples will no matter how hard that may be for the losers to accept. If they feel the need to challenge, please take it to the courts, not to the streets.



INEC declares Tinubu president-elect



Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the presidential candidate of Nigeria's ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), has been declared the winner of the 2023 presidential election.



Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), announced the results in the wee hours of Wednesday.



Tinubu was in the race along with the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party's (PDP) Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP).



In terms of the hard figures, APC polled 8,805,655 valid votes as against the PDP's 6,984,520 and LP's 6,098,588.



The New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) got 1,496,687 valid votes whiles the fourteen other aspirants together got the remaining 666,298.



Nigeria's peculiar means of determining president means that the winner must get at least 25% of votes in two thirds of the 36 states plus the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja.



Tinubu had at least 25% of votes in 29 states, Atiku had 25% of votes in 21 states, Obi had 25% of votes in 16 states whiles Rabiu Kwankwaso of NNPP passed the threshold in only one state.



Tinubu is expected to be handed his certificate later today at the Abuja International Conference Center where INEC had used as the collation center for the presidential elections.



FULL STATEMENT: STATE HOUSE PRESS RELEASE



PRESIDENT BUHARI CONGRATULATES WINNER OF PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ASIWAJU BOLA AHMED TINUBU



President Muhammadu Buhari heartily congratulates the winner of the (2023) Presidential Election, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.



Reacting to the results just announced, President Buhari said:



I congratulate His Excellency Bola Ahmed Tinubu on his victory. Elected by the people, he is the best person for the job. I shall now work with him and his team to ensure an orderly handover of power.



The election was Africas largest democratic exercise. In a region that has undergone backsliding and military coups in recent years, this election demonstrates democracys continued relevance and capability to deliver for the people it serves.



Within Nigeria, the results reveal democracys ripening in our country. Never has the electoral map shifted so drastically in one cycle. In the presidential elections, states in all regions across the nation changed colour. Some amongst you may have noticed my home state amongst them. The winning candidate did not carry his own home state either. That happens during a competitive election.

Votes and those that cast them cannot be taken for granted. Each must be earned. Competition is good for our democracy. There is no doubt the peoples decision has been rendered in the results we look at today.



That is not to say the exercise was without fault. For instance, there were technical problems with electronic transmission of the results. Of course, there will be areas that need work to bring further transparency and credibility to the voting procedure. However, none of the issues registered represent a challenge to the freeness and fairness of the elections.



I know some politicians and candidates may not agree with this view. That too is fine. If any candidate believes they can prove the fraud they claim is committed against them, then bring forward the evidence. If they cannot, then we must conclude that the election was indeed the peoples will no matter how hard that may be for the losers to accept. If they feel the need to challenge, please take it to the courts, not to the streets.



However, to do the latter means they are not doing it in the interest of the people, but rather to inflame, to put people in harms way and all for personal, selfish gains.



After a degree of polarization that necessarily accompanies any election, it is now time to come together and act responsibly. I call on all candidates to remember the peace pledge they signed just days before the election. Do not undermine the credibility of INEC. Let us now move forward as one. The people have spoken.



Garba Shehu

Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media & Publicity)

March 1, 2023







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
Osebo, a businessman from Ghana The Zaraman holds that deceptive traditions that masquerade as Christian worship have been brainwashed into approval among Christians.



Osebo claims that the bulk of African and Ghanaian Christians have disregarded the true gospel by succumbing to forgers who have abused them for years.



In an interview with blogger Nkonkonsa, Osebo urged Christians to worship God in reality and to unravel the mysteries of their religion, while also calling for a change of heart among some believers.



If apple can cure sicknesses, then there will be no sick person in Italy. People fetch River Jordan and bring it into the country. If it heals sicknesses, people over there wouldnt have been ill. We have been brainwashed into believing certain things. In Africa, Christianity is our first priority. Christianity is not practiced through only preaching. You prove it by your deeds.



Every Saturday, I donate. I dont fast, I dont visit the Atwea Mountains, MOGPA or Achimota Forest to pray. God listens to our prayers no matter the location. The fastest way by which God listens to our prayers is through the act of giving. It is not through cheap talk," he disclosed.



Faith and work complement each other. Paul said it in the bible. What is your faith? Is your faith about storming the church with canes to lash the devil? Is it by stomping your foot in churches disrespectfully whiles requesting things from God? We dont understand Christianity,"he added.



The fashionista who stressed the need of donating to the less fortunate encouraged Christians to focus their energies on doing good deeds rather than blaming the devil for everything that happens.



Watch full interview below:





Source: Eugene Osafo-Nkansah/Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
Originally known as Seth Kusi, but known in the pastoral work as Rev. Christian Kwabena Andrews popularly known as Osofo Kyiri Abosom, says he doesnt believe in the supremacy of Jesus Christ, who is believed by Christians to be the son of God.



The Live Assembly Worship Centers leader claimed Jesus Christ isnt who Christians have been worshipping.



To him, Jesus Christ, whom he described as a mere prophet, isnt the one Christians should be worshipping and believing in but the Father.



Speaking in an interview with Ghanaian media personality Deloris Frimpong Manso on her Delay show, the man of God cum politician asserted that Jesus Christ is now history.



Having made those statements, Delay, who was confused, quizzed, "My issue is, why don't you just accept that you're not a Christian? You have refused to accept Jesus for who he is."



Kyiri Abosom swiftly replied, "Is Jesus your property?" adding that, "I believe he is a prophet. I believe Mohammed is a prophet. They're done with their work and are gone. It's our time now. I am in Ghana. Jesus didn't come to Ghana. He was in Isreal."



The former presidential candidate then posited that there is no heaven and earth as Christians preach, but each individual will receive his or her rewards according to their deeds on earth.



"There's no heaven; there's no hell. It doesn't mean to be evil because you'll reap what you sow. If you do evil, you'll suffer before you die," he said.



















Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
A one-month dosage of hormonal birth control pills is displayed in Sacramento, Calif. Friday, Aug. 26, 2016. B.C. advocates are celebrating news the province will become the first in Canada to make prescription contraception free to all residents as of April 1.THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Rich Pedroncelli
The hubs weigh 156 g for a front and 306 for an XD freehub equipped rear. They are also available in Microspline and 11-speed freehubs.

You may well have seen Berd's take on the mountain bike wheel on this site before. We have reviewed the concept previously, as well as featuring their latest release - the bold 1400 gram enduro ready Hawk30 wheels, which we hope to be testing here in BC over the summer.Calling them string spokes is perhaps somewhat unfair. The polyethylene spokes are at the core of Berd's wheel ethos, but now the company is branching out - first to include their own rims and now their own hubs. You could of course opt for the spokes and hubs laced to a different brand's rim.Previously, you could use standard eyelet hubs with Berd's spoke system, but that required drilling out the spoke holes to remove any sharp edges, which might compromise manufacturers' warranties. These new Talon hubs are ready from the get-go, and have a unique flange design intended to make lacing up the hubs with Berd's spokes as quick and easy as possible.Berd say these hubs are designed for durability, and have done extensive in-house testing to verify that claim. It should also be noted that these hubs are center-lock only. I imagine if you aren't put off by these unorthodox spokes, this will seem inconsequential but it is worth a mention.In regards to engagement, initially there will be a run of hubs equipped with a 36t dual sprung ratchet before a 54t ratchet system will be available in four to six weeks. The hubs have a retail price of $495 USD, and they're also available on Berd's complete carbon wheelsets, with prices starting at $1,995 USD.For more information please visit their website
PokerStars Announces Five Stops on the 2023 France Poker Series (FPS) Schedule

March 01, 2023 Gaelle Jaudon

The poker calendar for 2023 is underway, and it's already been a busy one! After the recent EPT Paris stop, PokerStars has announced the return of the France Poker Series (FPS) with an expanded schedule, visiting some of its favorite venues as well as a whole host of new ones!

The announcement comes one week after the record-breaking Paris FPS Main Event, the biggest FPS in history, won by Alan Goasdoue for 287,830. The new schedule will see four stops in France and one in Belgium over the course of 2023.

2023 France Poker Series Schedule

Dates Location Venue April 26-30 Monte Carlo Sporting Monte Carlo May 12-21 Namur Circus Casino Resort Namur July 15 to 23 Paris Stade Jean Bouin September 29 to October 8 Aix les Bains Casino Grand Cercle Aix-les-Bains November 10th to 19th Aix en Provence Pasino Grand

Alan Goasdoue Wins Largest-Ever FPS Main Event

New Location for FPS Paris in July

Among the highlights of the announcement is the holding of a FPS Paris in July at the home of the Stade Francais, the Stade Jean Bouin. Organized in collaboration with the Club Circus, the Main Event prize pool comes with an additional 1 million for this tournament alone.

And over in Belgium with FPS Namur, PokerStars will be sponsoring the Belgian Poker Challenge and has introduced a 1,000,000 guarantee across all events, with a prize pool of 750,000 for the Main Event and 100,000 for the High Roller.

Finally, the FPS will head south to Aix-les-Bains from September 29 to October 8, before returning to Aix-en-Provence from November 10 to 19. The venue will host its second FPS after Anthony Apicella's victory in 2022 for 141,200.

But before all that, there's FPS Monte Carlo held at the Sporting Monte Carlo in April! Start counting down the days!

Qualify for the FPS Online

For each FPS stop, the buy-in for the Main Event is 1,100 and 2,200 for the High Roller. To win your seat for less, online satellites are available online, where two types of prizes are up for grabs: the seat alone (1,100 value) or the seat + fee package (1,500 value).
Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Email

Print

After Eli Lilly announced that they are capping patient out-of-pocket insulin costs at $35. President Biden urged other insulin manufacturers to follow.

The President said in a statement provided to PoliticusUSA:

Today, Eli Lilly, the largest manufacturer of insulin in the United States, announced that they are lowering their prices, capping what patients pay out of pocket for the drug makers insulin products at $35. For far too long, American families have been crushed by drug costs many times higher than what people in other countries are charged for the same prescriptions. Insulin costs less than $10 to make, but Americans are sometimes forced to pay over $300 for it. Its flat wrong.



Last year, I signed a law to cap insulin at $35 for seniors and I called on pharma companies to bring prices down for everyone on their own. Today, Eli Lilly did that.



Its a big deal, and its time for other manufacturers to follow.

The big news that Eli Lilly announced is that the $35 out-of-pocket cap will apply to both those who have and dont have insurance. An uninsured person will need to fill out a form to get the reduced insulin, but all American diabetics, who use Eli Lilly insulin, like me, will see their out-of-pocket cost capped at $35.

Subscribe To Our Newsletter:

The expansion of the out-of-pocket price cap may not have happened without Congressional Democrats and President Biden capping the price of insulin for Medicare patients.

The Biden agenda is working and having a president who wants to help people is starting to change the culture and deliver real change beyond legislative accomplishments.
Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Email

Print

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) apparently doesnt like being called a MAGA extremist and would rather be referred to as ultra MAGA.

Video of Boebert on the House floor:

The Clown Show continues  pic.twitter.com/uOLdrIa3tE  Ron Filipkowski  (@RonFilipkowski) March 1, 2023

Boebert said, I just wanted to take a few seconds to respond, that was great, You know, we are addressed as MAGA extremists, extreme, MAGA Republicans, and I would to make a clarification point. Its ultra MAGA. Thats what we prefer.

Subscribe To Our Newsletter:

Of course, Boebert would prefer to be called ultra MAGA instead of extreme, because being ultra does not reflect the extremism of the MAGA agenda. Boeberts comments also suggest that even Trumps most fervent supporters understand that being labeled an extremist is a bad thing for them politically. When the House is in session, not a day goes by without House Democrats driving him the message that MAGA is extremism.

Rep. Boebert can try to change the name all she wants, but it isnt going to work. The 2024 election is already being defined as a contest against right-wing extremism.

MAGAs like Boebert dont want the rest of the country to find out about their extremism, which is why they are trying so hard to rebrand, and trying to make Americans forget what they really stand for.
Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Email

Print

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is embarrassing himself at a hearing featuring Merrick Garland by spinning conspiracy theories and getting obvious facts wrong.

Ted Cruz spent a lot of time screaming at Garland for not throwing people who protested against conservative Supreme Court justices in jail:

Merrick Garland vs. Ted Cruz pic.twitter.com/CYWvOG9FI5  Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 1, 2023

Cruz claimed that Garland isnt enforcing the law when people on the left threaten conservative Supreme Court justices. Garland told Cruz that he took the unprecedented step of sending US Marshalls to the homes of all Supreme Court justices to provide personal protection.

This fact made Cruz hysterical. The Texas senator gave a performance that will land him on Fox News primetime tonight, but Cruz wanted to seal the deal, so his next round of questions took it to the next level.

Video of Cruz trying again:

Ted Cruz claims that the Hunter Biden investigation is a pretext for indicting Trump. Cruz then tried to claim that court filed evidence were DOJ leaks, and Attorney General Garland corrected him. pic.twitter.com/RxJhpo1gkv  Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) March 1, 2023

Cruz launched into his conspiracy theory that the DOJ will indict Hunter Biden as a cover for their real motivation, which is to indict Donald Trump. Sen. Cruz then tried to claim that the picture of classified documents recovered at Mar-a-Lago was a leak. Attorney General Garland corrected him and told him the picture was evidence from a submitted court filing.

Subscribe To Our Newsletter:

Sen. Cruz persisted with his conspiracy theory that the DOJ has been politicized and they are secretly out to get Donald Trump.

It wasnt a coincidence that Cruz was trying to spread conspiracies on the same day that it was reported that agents in an FBI field office tried to shut down the criminal investigation into Trump.

Ted Cruzs attacks on Garland embody why so many congressional hearings become performative theater.

Cruz isnt interested in conducting congressional oversight. For him, the hearing is a big cry for attention.

Ted Cruz humiliated himself with how he treated AG Garland, but he will likely get what he wants and be on Fox News tonight.
A third man has been arrested and charged in connection to a Dec. 25 shooting and break-in incident in Williston.

Antonio Jamari Isaac, 20, of Blackville, was arrested in connection to a shooting and burglary that took place in Williston. He was charged Feb. 27 with six counts of attempted murder, possession of a weapon during a violent crime and burglary, according to jail records.

Two other suspects, Kadarrien Stephen-Marquon Hutto, 20, and Cameron Curtis Walker, 21, were arrested in January.

Both men were arrested and charged with six counts of attempted murder, burglary and possession of a weapon during a violent crime, according to jail records.

A witness told police that around 12:33 a.m. on Dec. 25, a white Toyota Tacoma was parked across the roadway in the 1300 block of Weeks Road, according to an incident report from the Aiken County Sheriffs Office. The witness said three Black males exited the Tacoma and went toward storage containers on the property, the report said.

A male victim told police the suspects attempted to take a four wheeler, located inside the shed, that had been a point of tension in the family for an extended period of time, according to the report.

The witness said an alarm sounded and the three men left, the report said.

The witness stated that the suspects began to observe his family before firing shots at them, the report said.

Isaac and Hutto are listed as inmates in the Aiken County detention center with no bond. Walker has been released on bond.
The structure located on the northwest corner of Hampton and Tennessee avenues currently sits abandoned with its roof caved in and it may have to stay that way.

Councilwoman Kay Brohl made a motion at Monday's Aiken City Council meeting to approve a resolution to provide water service  sewer service is unavailable  to the property located at 1410 Hampton Ave. N.W. but her motion failed when no other council member seconded it.

Mayor Rick Osbon said the matter failed because the council cannot conduct a public hearing, hold debate on or let alone approve the resolution without a second from another member.

The request, made by Citlali Diaz last year, was one of the steps necessary to transform the property from an abandoned eyesore into a used car lot. Specifically, city policy requires owners of properties not in the city to seek approval for water service when the proposed use of the property changes.

The Aiken Planning Commission considered and recommended the Aiken City Council approve Diaz's request Aug. 9, 2022.

No one spoke on the matter, according to the meeting minutes.

But, on Aug. 22, 2022, the Aiken City Council voted to continue the matter to allow Diaz to meet with concerned neighbors.

Ronnie West and Richard Parks spoke at the Aug. 22 meeting before the city council voted unanimously to table the request.

West asked the city not to approve the request. He said the area looks rundown and he was concerned the car lot's presence could further rundown the area. Parks said she was concerned the proposed business could be an eyesore and wasn't right for the community.

Councilwoman Lessie Price, made a motion to continue the ordinance. Her motion was seconded by Gail Diggs.

In other action, the Aiken City Council also approved:

 Entry into a participation agreement with the South Carolina Department of Transportation for the University Parkway widening project;

 Approval of Destination by Design of Boone, N.C., to be the city's marketing agency for one year; and

 Approval of a fireworks display at the Reserve Club at Woodside on Independence Day.

Appointments approved were:

 Lela Wulf (reappointment) to the Equine Committee;

 Sam Erb (reappointment) to the Planning Commission;

 Katy Lipscomb (reappointment) to the Design Review Board; and

 Laura Thomas to the Senior Commission.
An Aiken County interchange on Interstate 20 may soon carry the name of the first Jewish woman to serve in the South Carolina House of Representatives.

The S.C. House of Representatives Invitations and Memorial Resolutions Committee approved a resolution sponsored by S.C. Rep. Bill Clyburn renaming I-20's interchange with Bettis Academy Road after former S.C. Rep. Irene Rudnick at a Wednesday meeting.

"There have been some people in the community asking the question why nothing's named after Ms. Irene Rudnick," said Clyburn, a Democrat who represents the north side of Aiken. "That's been recommended across party lines and color lines so I think that's worth stating."

Clyburn said it meant a lot to introduce the resolution.

"My neighborhood and my community are better off because of Irene Rudnick," he said. "The communication throughout our city is as good as it is because of Irene Rudnick."

Rudnick's son, Morris, said he was honored by the resolution and appreciative of the county's legislative delegation and Clyburn for introducing it.

Helen Rapoport, Rudnick's daughter, said the resolution meant a lot to her.

"I just saw how my mother lived a lifetime of service to Aiken County," Rapoport said. "She completely dedicated herself to public service."

Rudnick, who died on Feb. 2, 2019, was described as a "bitzuist"  someone who says little and gets a lot done  in her obituary.

She served for 14 years in the South Carolina House of Representatives and is Clyburn's immediate predecessor in District 81. She represented the district from 1972-1976, 1981-1984 and 1987-1994.

Her obituary adds her office was in her husband's furniture store, Rudnick's Furniture Barn on Park Avenue, for a time and had a sign reading "Welcome, Come On In" at the door. A listing in the Jewish Merchant Project adds Rudnick eventually had to move her office out of the store because of her growing law practice and political career.

Rudnick also served as superintendent of the Aiken County Public School District and briefly taught at Warrenville Elementary School while she maintained her law practice.

She was instrumental in the founding of USC Aiken. Her obituary says she helped organize fundraising receptions, letter writing campaigns, and other efforts to increase awareness for the creation of USC Aiken. Once the school began, Rudnick taught legal classes there from its opening in 1961 until December 2018.

Rudnick was born Irene Krugman in Columbia in 1929. She was class valedictorian at Columbia High School and graduated with honors from the University of South Carolina.

In college, Krugman won the Hemphill Award for Oratory and served as president of the Alpha Kappa Gamma womens leadership society, Pi Delta Kappa and the Hypation Literary Society, manager of the debate team and as secretary of the International Relations Club. Rudnick was also involved in theatrical productions, the YWCA Cabinet, Hillel and Alpha Psi Omega.

She then became one of the few women to attend the University of South Carolina School of Law. During law school, she was a member of the editorial staff of what would become the South Carolina Law Review, chair of the program committee of law federation and a member of the Honor Council.

After law school, Krugman opened her law practice, met the man who would become her husband, Harold Rudnick, and moved to Aiken.

Rudnick also served as president of Adath Yeshurun Synagogue for decades and also served as president of the Hadassah Sisterhood. Rudnick swept the synagogues steps, polished its silver, cooked and cleaned for events, and hosted community and interfaith groups. She also taught Sunday School starting as a teenager and continuing until late in her life.
Aiken, SC (29801)

Today

Cloudy with rain this morning...then scattered thunderstorms in the afternoon. Storms may contain strong gusty winds. High 78F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%..

Tonight

Cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy after midnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 48F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph.
COLUMBIA  A group of hard-line conservatives in the South Carolina House of Representatives is challenging state laws that ban them from raising money to support their candidates and influence elections.

A lawsuit filed Feb. 28 takes an intra-party Republican feud to another level, with the uber-conservative South Carolina Freedom Caucus fighting in federal court for the same rights to seek and spend donations as the larger House GOP Caucus.

It seeks a declaration that state laws which treat the Freedom Caucus differently violate their members' free speech rights guaranteed in the First Amendment and equal protection in the 14th Amendment.

Other caucuses "can raise money, hire staff, openly endorse candidates," Rep. Adam Morgan, the Freedom Caucus chairman, said during a Statehouse news conference. "Our political speech is muzzled by current ethics laws."

The Taylors Republican argued the laws, which date to 1962, represent an abuse of power being weaponized by politicians in power to "silence opposition."

The lawsuit is filed against the 10-member House Ethics Committee, which is divided evenly among Republicans and Democrats.

But the complaints are aimed squarely at members of the Freedom Caucus' own party.

The filing took the chamber's leading Republicans by surprise.

"While I am unaware of the details of this lawsuit, I am confident the courts will sort it out as is their purpose," said House Speaker Murrell Smith, R-Sumter. "In the meantime, my focus will continue to be on legislating, not litigating."

House Ethics Chairman Jay Jordan, R-Florence, said he's never threatened a violation of law or otherwise had any other conversation with Freedom Caucus members about the group's fundraising limitations.

"If they think they have grounds, that's what a lawsuit is for," he said.

Like much of the state ethics code, a violation of the restrictions is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail or up to a $5,000 fine.

By law, the Freedom Caucus  which formed last April as a subset of the GOP Caucus  is defined as a "special interest caucus," which can raise money for expenses such as printing, postage and attending conferences, but only for activities unrelated to electing or opposing candidates.

Those fundraising abilities are reserved for the Republican and Democratic caucuses in each chamber, as well as caucuses organized by gender or race. For that reason, the Legislative Black Caucus and General Assembly Women's Caucus are treated the same as the major-party caucuses.

Other groups in the Legislature with the "special interest" label include the sportsmen's and military caucuses. Another example is the Family Caucus, a group of Christian, anti-abortion legislators. Freshmen also have their own caucus. Many legislators belong to multiple caucuses, in addition to their party caucus.

The Freedom Caucus' split from the larger House GOP Caucus marks a first.

While the November elections gave Republicans a supermajority advantage in the House  88 Republicans to 36 Democrats  16 of the Freedom Caucus' 20 members are not part of the House GOP Caucus. That's because they refused to sign rules the caucus adopted during an organizational meeting after the election.

The rule that caused the schism bans members from participating in "campaign activities of any kind" against a fellow caucus member. House GOP leaders wanted to prevent a repeat of last year, when Rep. R.J. May, a campaign consultant, ran primary campaigns against fellow GOP incumbents.

May, the Freedom Caucus' vice chairman, likened the challenged state law to the GOP rule he refused to sign last month.

"This unconstitutional law, much like the slimy incumbent protection pledge being pushed by the House Republican Caucus, exists to maintain the failed status quo and silence conservatives," said the Lexington Republican.

Due to the fundraising restrictions, America First Legal is representing the Freedom Caucus voluntarily. The group, founded as the counter to the American Civil Liberties Union, is led by Stephen Miller, a former senior advisor to President Donald Trump.

"AFL recognizes that there are swamps in all 50 states and we appreciate their help in returning the people's house back to the people," said Rep. Josiah Magnuson, R-Campobello.

In addition to seeking a declaration that state law violates the U.S. Constitution, the lawsuit wants a federal court to order the GOP-led House Ethics Committee to treat the Freedom Caucus like the House GOP Caucus. The order would ensure Freedom Caucus fundraising and campaign activities could proceed as if the law didn't exist.

Rep. Micah Caskey, R-West Columbia, said the lawsuit represents an example of the Freedom Caucus trying to get its way through the courts rather than legislation.

"This is a demonstration they don't know how the law works," he said. A Marine veteran, Caskey is a member of the military caucus as well as the House GOP Caucus.

Asked if he thought a bill changing the law could pass, Caskey said, "I think it would be a worthy discussion. But because this motley crew ran to the courts, we'll have to see what the courts say."
Moncks Corner, SC (29461)

Today

Mostly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 82F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms during the evening. Partly cloudy skies after midnight. Low 54F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
A day after the 10th anniversary of its launch at Charleston International, JetBlue Airways announced it's offering New York City-bound passengers a new option.

The carrier said March 1 that it will commence daily nonstop flights on May 25 to Westchester County Airport in White Plains, N.Y., about 30 miles north of Manhattan.

The flight will bring head-to-head competition between JetBlue and an upstart that already offers service to White Plains from Charleston.

Breeze Airways began offering flights to Westchester County Airport in June. The Utah-based carrier will beef up its service with daily flights to White Plains, starting May 1, according to its flight schedule.

JetBlue already offers flights from the Lowcountry to two other New York City-area airports: John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia.

As part of the latest announcement, a JetBlue representative cited the airline's pledge to deliver service to more destinations from the Lowcountry.

JetBlue is proud of our decade-long partnership with Charleston, made possible by the incredible support of the community, and we are excited to offer customers more travel options this summer, said David Jehn, vice president of network planning and partnerships.

The New York City area is a top market of origin for visitors to the Lowcountry and a popular destination for local travelers, according to Helen Hill, chairwoman of Charleston County Aviation Authority and CEO of tourism agency Explore Charleston.

Charleston airport CEO Elliott Summey said the additional access to the New York area "solidifies JetBlue's commitment to our region."

The roughly two-hour flight will leave North Charleston at 3:15 p.m. and land in White Plains at 5:30 p.m. The departure time from White Plains is 11:59 a.m. with a scheduled landing at 2:14 p.m.

JetBlue, which launched service from CHS on Feb. 28, 2013, also offers nonstop flights from the Lowcountry airport to Boston, Fort Lauderdale and Los Angeles.
COLUMBIA  The University of South Carolina Development Foundation has purchased a row of prime downtown Columbia real estate once at the center of a disputed private student apartment deal that the school helped dismantle.

The foundation closed on the purchase of 1.3 acres on the southeast corner of Gervais and Pickens streets across from the USC Law School and three blocks from the Statehouse in November. That was after plans by an Indiana-based development firm were thwarted due to legal challenges mounted by residents of the University Hill neighborhood and supported by the university.

The site was owned by a former South Carolina political kingmaker whose clients included USC before being caught up in a Statehouse corruption probe.

This marks the second time the school's nonprofit foundation has scooped up property where USC helped to combat apartment development.

The foundation will hold the newly purchased Gervais Street property and make use of two of the existing office buildings on site, according to foundation President Jason Caskey.

The foundation had purchased the former Christian Science Church on that same block in 2019 to house the university's children's law training center. It plans to move more law school staff from another office building to the space closest to the law school, putting those employees in closer proximity to the school.

The center building that houses Havens Framemakers & Gallery will be demolished because of a caved-in second-floor roof. The frame shop is moving to the third building, 1620 Gervais St., which the foundation plans to lease to private tenants.

The foundation purchased the property from Richard Quinn, an embattled political and business consultant, who as of early December was still facing perjury charges stemming from the S.C. Statehouse corruption probe who has received $1 million from USC for consulting and fundraising services.

Before the probe, Quinn was considered the state's main Republican powerbroker who helped elect governors, attorneys general and state and federal lawmakers, and worked for presidential campaigns, major businesses and large state agencies.

The buildings that USC bought were headquarters for Quinn's consulting business and a mailing and printing business owned by his son, former state Rep. Rick Quinn.

As part of the Statehouse probe, Rick Quinn resigned from the Legislature in 2017 after pleading guilty to a misconduct charge. He failed to disclose on state financial disclosure reports that USC rented office space from his father in a building with a mortgage the younger Quinn co-signed.

In 2020, Richard Quinn had a deal to sell the property to Trinitas Ventures, which wanted to build an eight-story, 271-unit apartment complex.

But the developer and the city of Columbia were sued over the apartment plans by the surrounding neighborhood, saying proper zoning procedures were not followed. The neighbors were helped by S.C. Sen. Dick Harpootlian, a Columbia lawyer who is defending Alex Murdaugh in his double-murder trial.

When the developers had sought approval from the city for the development, the university spoke out against the project alongside neighbors.

As the lawsuit against the student apartment proposal dragged on Richard Quinn was left with few options, Rick Quinn said.

Caskey said the Quinns approached the foundation about buying the property. The family said it had not made direct contact with the foundation but that the foundation had expressed interest in the property years prior.

Ultimately, the $3.1 million price paid by the foundation was $800,000 less than prior offers made on the property, Rick Quinn said. The foundation also was the only interested buyer whose plans would not require a zoning change, which the Quinn family felt could have further prolonged court battles over development.

Richland County calculates the market value of the three properties at $2.4 million but the foundation said it conducted private appraisals and paid less than the appraised value.

Caskey stressed the foundation does not view the property as a viable spot for apartments.

"There will be no plans for student housing there ever," he said.

The foundation was able to benefit one other time from a development deal gone wrong.

In 2015, another national student housing developer from Memphis, Tenn., EdR, pulled out of its plans for a 15-story tower amid protests by the USC Alumni Association that it would cast a shadow on the schools historic Horseshoe a block away.

A USC spokesman at the time said the university did not spur the campaign against the EdR development but did support it, The State reported. Now known as Greystar Collegiate Housing, the company was later contracted by USC to build the school's massive Campus Village student dormitory complex.

The half-acre site that included the former Sandys Famous Hot Dogs is now a Dominoes Pizza restaurant. The foundation would end up purchasing that property in 2016 for $1.5 million and has purchased several other parcels on that block since, including most recently a pair of parcels along Greene Street where FedEx sits for $2.3 million each according to Richland County assessment records.

That section of Main Street, south of the Statehouse, is slated for millions of dollars in streetscaping meant to create a pedestrian friendly corridor similar to the downtown center.

"After the streetscaping we and others believe it will be great property to develop," Caskey said.

Caskey said the foundation has had no "specific conversations" about what to do with the land but said the city has expressed support for more restaurants and retail in the area.
January and August have historically been the least busy months of the calendar year at Kwei Fei, David and Tina Schuttenbergs wildly popular Sichuan eatery attached to the Charleston Pour House on James Island.

That quickly changed when the Schuttenbergs started serving a special menu  one featuring food found at some Chinese American restaurants  to drum up new business during those quieter months. Dishes like shrimp and snow pea stir fry, General Tsos chicken and fried rice came, as Kwei Fei's Sichuan specialties temporarily went.

When Beautiful South opens at 128 Columbus St., on the ground floor of The Guild this summer, the Schuttenbergs' Sichuan and Cantonese concepts will each have full-time homes in Charleston.

The forthcoming restaurant's name is a nod to both its physical home in the Lowcountry and cuisine from the regions below the Yangtze River in Southeastern China, the culinary inspiration for Beautiful South.

When you narrow down to that region, youre still looking at multiple areas of China that have different styles of food, David Schuttenberg said. "Were starting with a cannon of food that weve worked with in the past."

The Schuttenbergs officially entered Charlestons hospitality industry when they launched Kwei Fei in 2017, bringing Sichuan cookery to The Daily for pop-ups every Friday and Saturday night. Many of the dishes they developed during their tenure at The Daily made the trip to Kwei Fei's brick-and-mortar restaurant, including lamb dumplings, marinated cucumbers, dry-rubbed wings and dan dan mian.

In the years since Kwei Fei opened on James Island in 2018, research and development for a second concept began organically during those January and August off-months. The new concept's name shifted from Lady Xian to Beautiful South, representing the inclusion of food from the region believed to be responsible for the birth of American-style Chinese food  often referred to as Cantonese cooking  the Guangdong Province. Giving Beautiful South its own 85-seat space will allow David Schuttenberg to further explore the food hes been studying for years.

Once open this summer, Beautiful South will start with some former pop-up favorites, such as slow poached crystal chicken, salt and pepper pork, fried rice and crab roe tofu, among others. Cantonese-style roasted meats will eventually be prominently featured as the restaurant shifts to daily service, when the Schuttenbergs will also explore vegan Chinese cooking. In addition to lunch and dinner, Beautiful South will offer a dim sum service on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays, catering to the food and beverage industry crowd.

Beautiful South will be open and vibrant, fitting in with a family-style menu format. The music will be a little loud, the bar program will be robust and the atmosphere will be energetic, the couple said.

We feel like weve really dialed into a service style that works for us, Tina Schuttenberg said.

A series of pop-ups will reintroduce Beautiful South to the Charleston community, starting March 27 at The Daily where the Schuttenbergs journey first began. After that on April 6, 13, 20 and 27, Beautiful South will take over the former Juan Luis food trailer outside Lewis Barbecue (464 N. Nassau St.), with street-snacks, noodles and more on the menu.
GEORGETOWN  The Georgetown County Council put off its final decision on the blueprint for its natural resource planning over the next 10 years, leaving council members more time to submit feedback before a vote.

Conservation group representatives have expressed shock to the council at changes made to the draft of its comprehensive plan's natural resource element, specifically the section on goals, objectives and strategies. Those changes were made between the time the county Planning Commission approved the text on Nov. 17 and its approval on a second reading approval by the County Council on Feb. 14.

Natural resources is one of 10 elements required in a countys comprehensive plan  a map for future development  that is updated every 10 years. The natural resources element has already seen several redrafts and considerable stakeholder feedback.

While some public comment at the council's Feb. 14 and Feb. 28 meetings has applauded the county planning staff's work on the section, feedback has quickly turned sour as speakers from the likes of the Coastal Conservation League and the South Carolina Environmental Law Project note deletions of objectives and loosening of previously stern language.

County Planning Director Holly Richardson told the council prior to its unanimous Feb. 14 vote on second reading that county administration felt some objectives, including regulation of septic tanks and revival of shellfish farming, were beyond the countys reach. Some changes were made for budgetary concerns, she said.

Richardson confirmed more edits can be made to the draft prior to its consideration for approval on third reading. The earliest that final vote could take place is March 14.

County Administrator Angela Christian said she hopes to receive comments from council members in the coming week.

"The strategies seem to be pretty much intact," Christian said. "There are a couple things they've asked for more information on. So its kind of 'I need more information on this versus this,' 'Can I put this in?' 'Does this fit within the parameters of what they are trying to accomplish?' So we referred some information back to staff to take a look at a couple of things."

In public comment on Feb. 28, Duane Draper, a local naturalist, noted several changes made throughout the draft element between November and February to shift away from action-oriented words.

One of the element's strategies on resource protection, as approved by the council on Feb. 14, is to "encourage residential and non-residential development towards the periphery of urban cores."

In the aforementioned strategy, the word "encourage" replaced "entice" from the draft approved in November.

"It was a very collaborative approach which reflected the hopes and concerns of many of your constituents in Georgetown County," Draper said of the draft element. "That the goals and objectives were eviscerated by administration without benefit of further review and comments by either the public or the planning commission is equally disturbing."

Amy Jones of North Litchfield called the council's unanimous second-reading approval of the natural resource element "disturbing" and commented on the council's lack of cohesion with its commissions.

"The seemingly persistent lack of transparency has never been more evident than in the actions taken regarding our natural resource element in our last meeting," Jones said.

Public commenters also have called on the council to make its natural resource goals and objectives aspirational. Richardson said she agreed the element should be aspirational, but noted that feasibility is also important.

The goals should be aspirational, they should be aggressive and push us a little, but they also should be attainable, because we want to come back to (the) council and be accountable for what (we have) done, Richardson said.

The Georgetown County Council will next meet at 5:30 p.m. March 14.
Summerville, SC (29483)

Today

Mostly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 83F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms during the evening. Partly cloudy skies after midnight. Low 53F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
Kingstree, SC (29556)

Today

Chance of a shower or two during the morning, followed by partly cloudy skies this afternoon. High 83F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms early, then partly cloudy after midnight. Low 52F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
Charleston, SC (29403)

Today

Mostly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High near 80F. Winds SSW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms early, then cloudy skies after midnight. Low around 55F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
Mount Pleasant, SC (29464)

Today

A few showers this morning with mostly cloudy conditions during the afternoon hours. High 78F. Winds SSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms early, then cloudy skies after midnight. Low 56F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
CONWAY  Travelers Chapel, considered one of the nation's smallest churches, is caught in the web of a zoning battle over buffer zones for a nearby drug-treatment center.

The quaint Palmetto State landmark along U.S. Highway 501 could lose its "religious institution" designation, which provides legal protections against potentially discriminatory zoning laws for places of worship, according to federal law.

The firm wanting the drug-treatment center, Claycon Pharma Conway, already plans to request removing Travelers Chapels religious designation so the facility can be permitted. To do this, Claycon must petition for the removal of the designation by the Conway's zoning administrators, according to city documents.

Claycon Pharma's attorneys declined to comment on the case.

Travelers Chapel, which has no official pastor or services, was built in 1972 as a refuge on the way into Myrtle Beach and attracts thousands of annual visitors. The church only seats 12 people within a 12-by-24-foot floor plan, according to officials.

Although it is unclear how the chapel could be impacted by this change, Mike Strite, nonprofit president of Travelers Chapel Inc., said he supports the proposed treatment clinic, adding its value would be greater to the community than the chapel's lack of religious designation.

"The chapel is going to be here doing the same thing its done for 50 years, whether there is a treatment facility, which we need there, or not," Strite said. "Weve had all kinds of problems, and God has always seen fit to get us through. I dont see this as really anything different."

The proposed drug-treatment facility is at 1800 Husted Road, which is a heavy industrial-zoned property located more than 600 feet from Travelers Chapel. It is also adjacent to Yahnis Co.'s alcoholic beverage distribution center and two Horry-Georgetown Technical College buildings.

Claycon proposed the space as an appointment-only clinic for patients to receive treatment and pick up prescriptions, city documents show.

Attorneys for Yahnis Co. and HGTC declined to comment on the case.

In Conway, drug-treatment sites are only permitted in heavy/light industrial zones, which are scarce due to increased development, and zoning prohibits such facilities from being within 1,000 feet of a religious institution, like Travelers Chapel.

City officials declined Claycon's business license request in 2020 because of this, according to city documents.

In September, Conway Board of Zoning Appeals approved Claycon's request to reduce the required buffer to 500 feet and allow the clinic to move forward. The Board revisited and approved its decision again in December.

The board claimed the site will not substantially harm adjacent properties, the general public or the district's character, according to court documents. The board's attorneys did not respond for comment.

Yahnis and HGTC appealed the board's decision in court. Yahnis said the treatment site would harm its business, according to court documents.

The (Board's) order ignores transportation and traffic concerns and other public health, safety, morals, convenience, order, appearance, prosperity and general welfare, Yahnis said.

The technical college argued treatment facilities cannot be within 1,000 feet of educational sites, in addition to religious institutions, in industrial zones. It said this buffer creates a more harmonious community.

The Boards decision not only undermines the expressed intention of the ordinance, but also neglects a class of people the ordinance clearly intended to protect  secondary education students, HGTC claimed, referring to the city's zoning plan.

Claycon denied Yahnis' claim about the clinic's potential impacts. Also, it argued the city classifies educational facilities as those used for only elementary and secondary education. Horry-Georgetown Technical College countered that it sometimes teaches secondary students there.

Also, Yahnis and HGTC claimed the board did not offer timely notice before revisiting the decision in December, with HGTC claiming it was not notified about the September and December meetings. The board denied this, according to court documents.

Circuit Court Judge Paul Burch ruled Feb. 21 that the board did not offer the technical college and Yahnis timely notice before approving Claycon's request, and ordered the board to discuss the request again at a future meeting, the officials said.
Dilapidated homes in Charleston are a familiar site. The city has a tally of about 200 of them.

But what appears as neglect on the outside often obscures decades of personal, financial and logistical hurdles faced by a homeowner.

Often those problems arise when properties dont go through the legal process known as probate, and its worse if the deceased owner didnt leave a will.

For these houses, known as heirs' properties, the name on the deed is not a living person and the potential claims of heirs have not been sorted out.

Without clear ownership, its not possible to get a mortgage, home insurance or access to government home repair programs. The savings that owning a property represents cant be tapped with a home-equity loan, and property cant easily be sold.

Now, Charleston leaders are exploring a way to clear a path forward for those homeowners to rehabilitate their homes enough to either live in them comfortably or sell them. City Council gave initial approval Feb. 28 to establish a new Livability Review Board that will help homeowners resolve title issues.

If the board is successful, it will be addressing a problem that is intertwined with the city's history.

Its not uncommon in South Carolina for heirs properties to have title issues that date back to the late 1800s when formerly enslaved residents bought land after the Civil War. A property handed down informally through multiple generations could have more than 100 partial owners and no living person on the deed.

Hereditary title issues have contributed to tremendous losses of Black-owned land in the South where, by some estimates, four out of 10 Black-owned properties are heirs property.

"A lot of times the problems with these properties are myriad and its not an easy fix," said Cashion Drolet, chief advocacy officer for the Historic Charleston Foundation.

Finding a solution

After The Post and Courier published a story in April exploring the city of Philadelphia's efforts to resolve similar issues, Charleston leaders took notice. The City Council Community Development Committee met to discuss potential policy changes, but little materialized immediately after the initial discussions.

Last month, Charleston Livability Director Dan Riccio came back to the committee with the proposal to create a Livability Review Board.

The Livability Review Board is a new iteration of a previous board that was tasked with addressing similar issues in the 1990s. It went defunct about 10 years later. Because the board was staffed entirely by city employees, it didn't have any helpful community involvement, Riccio said.

"It didnt have the structure needed," he said.

The new board will be made up of five members, some of whom will be city staff and others who will be attorneys specializing in probate law, general contractors and community members. The hope is that each person can help identify the barriers to repairs that a homeowner is facing.

If there are ownership concerns, attorneys can give advice about how to clear up a title. Contractors can help a homeowner understand what repairs are needed and how much they might cost, while city staff can explain what to expect from the permitting process for such projects.

The process could help prevent the displacement of longtime residents that Charleston has seen over the years as home values and rents rise, Mayor John Tecklenburg said at a committee meeting last week.

The real estate market in Charleston is such that if there is a property that can be habitable and provide housing for somebody at some level, we ought to try to make it habitable, he said.

If the proposal gets final approval, the code enforcement division will send letters to property owners of dilapidated structures suggesting they schedule a meeting with the board, although they will not be required to do so. Municipal judges in Charleston will also have the ability to require certain property owners meet with the board.

Searching for funding

Even armed with expert advice, a homeowner doesn't always have the money to resolve title issues and make home repairs.

That's why the city of Philadelphia earmarks funds in its budget to give homeowners a boost

Their Tangled Title Fund provides up to $4,000 to cover the costs and fees homeowners must pay to resolve title issues. Theres also an income-based payment plan for delinquent property taxes, a deferral of the probate fees required to resolve property ownership after a death, a waiver of deed-recording fees and a requirement that funeral homes provide information about how to transfer deeds after a death.

At the end of 2021, Philadelphia decided to commit $7.6 million to the Tangled Title Fund as part of a larger neighborhood preservation initiative.

Charleston's new initiative, on the other hand, does not include funding for financial assistance. Instead, some of the staff members will be able to direct a homeowner to government assistance programs and grant opportunities to help offset the cost of repairs.

One of those providers could be the Historic Charleston Foundation's new Common Cause Loan Fund, which awards funding to low-income property owners to help with exterior renovations of historic homes. The fund got up and running in 2022 and ended the year with five home-repair projects underway.

Drolet said that sometimes they are unable to give funds to homeowners because of heirs' property issues. The new Livability Review Board will clear the way for the foundation to provide more funding.

"They can't obtain financial assistance without a clear title," she said.

City Council voted unanimously to give initial approval to the board. Councilwoman Caroline Parker was absent. If council gives the board final approval at its next meeting March 14, Riccio said the goal is to have the board ready to go in about two months. Members of the board will be nominated by the mayor and approved by City Council. It will likely meet once a month.
We are dangerously close to seeing teenagers carrying loaded guns up and down King Street every night.

And the police wont be able to do a thing about it.

See, S.C. House Republicans have passed this legislation called constitutional carry, which would allow nearly anyone to go practically anywhere strapped ... without a license or any training. But not, of course, in the Statehouse.

The proposed law also would prevent police from stopping anyone carrying a gun without some other probable cause.

If the state Senate doesnt stop this madness, and it has in the past, thats exactly what will happen.

Of course, this raises a number of questions, such as: What could go wrong? And, Who thinks this is a good idea?

Not the police, thats for sure.

But perhaps the best question is, How are these teenagers getting guns?

Uh, from legal South Carolina gun owners  many of whom bear no resemblance to the definition of responsible.

A new report from the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives says South Carolina is No. 4 in the country for the number of guns stolen from private citizens.

That shouldnt come as a surprise, seeing as how for years North Charleston, Columbia and Charleston have been on the national top 20 list for cities where the most guns are stolen from unlocked cars.

Yes, as crazy as it sounds, an increasing number of folks keep loaded guns in their cars and dont even bother to lock their doors. Gun owners in those three cities alone are basically gifting hundreds of firearms to S.C. criminals every year.

The DOJ report says nearly 8,000 guns are stolen in South Carolina annually (and 1 million nationally). And 96% are stolen from private citizens.

Cops will tell you thats a lowball estimate, because many people never report their own negligence.

Thats a big pet peeve of Charleston Police Chief Luther Reynolds, whos tried to warn the public  and state officials  about this for years. Now hes dealing with the possibility of no-training open carry at the same time there are more guns on the streets.

We have multiple guns taken out of cars on King Street  literally on King Street, Reynolds says. More people are leaving guns in their cars, and theres a lot of under-reporting. Gang members are sending their cronies out for that sole purpose. Theyll hit 20-30 cars and come away with 2-3 guns. Theyll leave cash and computers, because theyre looking for guns  and know theyll find them.

Right now, that study says, about 30% of legally purchased guns in South Carolina end up used in a crime within three years.

Now, the Statehouse guys pushing this (or who're afraid to oppose it for fear of getting beat in a primary by someone even crazier) say it wont lead to any increase in crime.

Yeah, tell that to King Street business owners  who are absolutely going to freak out. And tell it to the people who end up victims, which will no doubt include innocent bystanders or, more likely, police officers.

There is some good news. While the number of guns stolen from cars continues to climb, thefts are actually down in West Ashley. The chief credits his cops, and they'll tell you its the result of a combination of factors.

Lt. Heath King, the West Ashley police commander for Team 4, says four factors have led to a decrease in stolen guns. First, his officers have put some local repeat offenders behind bars, which helps because a very small number of people commit an astounding percentage of all crimes.

His officers also have stepped up highly visible patrols, which deters thieves. The increasing number of ring cameras has helped police tie criminals to more crimes. And King has West Ashley residents talking about the problem on social media, which has raised awareness.

A lot of our car break-ins are done by a lot of the same people, King says. And a lot of factors go into that success.

Hes right, and Reynolds says thats the key here. Public safety is a shared responsibility, he says, and I think we can do better.

That doesnt mean we need more vigilantes openly carrying guns. It means more people should secure their guns.

Criminals are going to commit crimes, but its insane for otherwise law-abiding people to help arm them  especially at a time when elected loons want to make it easier for everyone to carry those guns practically everywhere in the state.

Except the Statehouse, natch. They may pander like lunatics, but they aren't that crazy.
Goose Creek, SC (29445)

Today

Mostly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 84F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms during the evening. Cloudy skies after midnight. Low 54F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
COLUMBIA  Three years after a global pandemic transformed grocery delivery from rarity to run-of-the-mill, the South Carolina Senate is taking another stab at adding beer and wine to the list of items you can get delivered right to your door.

Industry giants like DoorDash, Targets Shipt service, Amazon and Total Wine & More, were all on hand at a Feb. 28 state Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing to press for the passage after a failed attempt last session of a bipartisan bill to legalize curbside pick-up and delivery of alcohol.

South Carolinas alcohol laws prevent customers from being able to opt for modern accessibility, said Krista Hinson, the executive director of the South Carolina Retail Association.

This bill would bring South Carolina into the growing group of states that acknowledge the shift in commerce and trust adult customers to choose how they receive their products, she added.

The bill passed unanimously out of the subcommittee, though some members expressed a desire for small changes, and is headed for the full judiciary committee.

The legislation does have prominent opponents, especially Sen. Dick Harpootlian, a Columbia Democrat who has made it his mission to clean up the college party scene in the capital citys Five Points neighborhood.

Harpootlian has argued that delivery would increase access to alcohol and the harms that go with it.

Harpootlian isn't at the Statehouse and hasn't been for weeks as he serves as defense counsel in disgraced Hampton attorney Alex Murdaughs double murder trial in Walterboro.

The bill would allow the state to license retailers to perform curbside pickup of alcohol orders and use a delivery service, like DoorDash or Uber Eats, to deliver beer and wine to customers doors.

Forty-three other states allow some form alcohol delivery, Chad Horrell, a DoorDash representative told the senators. Horrell argued the measure will help not only the company but delivery drivers too because orders that include alcohol earn them 30 percent more on average than those without.

Customers and delivery drivers would have to be at least 21. Deliveries could only be made in the same zip code or zip codes contiguous to the retailers physical location, a provision that was included in previous versions of the bill to protect mom-and-pop stores.

For both curbside and delivery, alcohol could not be sold to those who are intoxicated.

That became a point of contention for one member of the subcommittee.

"I really have a problem with your policy, anybodys policy of coming to my house and telling me whether Im intoxicated or not, Sen. Gerald Malloy, D-Hartsville, told Mark Smith, a Shipt representative, at the meeting.

The company simply follows the law in other states where checking for intoxication is required, Smith responded, and often those provisions are included to align the delivery legislation with other restrictions on alcohol sales to intoxicated people.

Malloy said he was fine with the rule for curbside, but indicated he may try to amend the delivery section in full committee.

Alcohol delivery has always been the sticking point for critics, rather than curbside. At the height of the pandemic Gov. Henry McMaster issued an emergency order allowing curbside alcohol pickup to help ailing businesses, but passed on delivery, which was implemented in many other states. The curbside pickup order, as with the other pandemic measures, was eventually rescinded.

A 2021 proposal to add delivery to a curbside pickup bill failed in a Senate committee.

A bill to legalize beer and wine delivery passed the House last year with little opposition, and a Senate version made it out of committee but died on the floor last spring.
COLUMBIA  Republicans in the South Carolina House of Representatives narrowly approved asking voters in 2024 whether to repeal the state constitution's ban on taxpayer money flowing directly to private schools.

Constitutional referendums require two-thirds approval in both chambers. The 83-27 vote split along party lines without a single crossover vote. Nine Democrats and two Republicans were there but didn't vote.

House Republicans reached exactly the number of votes needed to advance the measure to the Senate, where its fate is far less certain.

House Speaker Murrell Smith led the debate by couching the repeal as necessary to protect existing education programs that send money to private colleges, preschools and after-school programs from a potential future court challenge.

The Sumter Republican acknowledged it would also protect a proposed voucher program for private K-12 tuition that will be debated on the floor in the coming weeks  and is expected to pass. But he denied that's the reason for wanting to change the constitution.

"This bill is not about promoting things were developing now but protecting what weve done over a matter of decades," said Smith, the measure's lead sponsor.

"Does this benefit choice? Absolutely," he said in response to an opponent. "Is that the reason were here today? No, sir."

The impetus for seeking the repeal, he said, was the state Supreme Court's 2020 ruling on a voucher program.

Justices unanimously declared that Gov. Henry McMaster's attempt to spend $32 million of federal COVID aid on K-12 private tuition scholarships violated the state constitution's direct benefit prohibition. Because of the lawsuit, which opponents filed soon after McMaster announced his decision, that program was never enacted.

Smith argued the ruling could jeopardize publicly popular programs such as lottery-backed scholarships students can use at the college of their choosing  public or private  and full-day 4-year-old kindergarten programs overseen in private day cares by First Steps.

Rep. Russell Ott, D-St. Matthews, noted those programs, which date to 2001 and 2006, have never been challenged.

But if safeguarding those programs is truly the concern, he argued, there's another way to do it that doesn't invite unintended consequences. He advocated passing a state law clarifying to any future courtroom that the Legislature deems those forms of payments acceptable.

What the SC constitution says South Carolina House Republicans want to ask voters in 2024 whether this paragraph should be repealed from the state constitution: No money shall be paid from public funds nor shall the credit of the State or any of its political subdivisions be used for the direct benefit of any religious or other private educational institution. Source: Section 4, Article XI of the S.C. Constitution That is what the section has said since 1972, before it was amended. The original version in the 1895 constitution said this: The property or credit of the state of South Carolina, or of any county, city, town, township, school district, or other subdivision of the said state, or any public money, from whatever source derived, shall not, by gift, donation, loan, contract, appropriation, or otherwise, be used, directly or indirectly, in aid or maintenance of any college, school, hospital, orphan house, or other institution, society, or organization, of whatever kind, which is wholly or in part under the direction or control of any church or religious or sectarian denomination, society or organization.

"I believe that doesnt have to be done by a constitutional amendment that opens up appropriations carte blanche," Ott said. "Just define what a direct or indirect payment is, and then its a done deal and a much safer path forward in my opinion to protect what we already have."

Smith countered he doesn't believe that would settle a constitutional question.

Rep. Spencer Wetmore, D-Folly Beach, said Smith's arguments ignore that the justices themselves distinguished between McMaster's plans and a college tuition program.

In the 2020 ruling Chief Justice Don Beatty wrote the K-12 vouchers, which could be used only at private schools the state deemed eligible, were completely different than a college assistance program upheld by a 1972 state high court decision. Those loans could be used at any college in the state, and all were eligible to participate, Beatty wrote.

"We can cure (Smith's concerns) without opening Pandoras Box and giving money to institutions we have no control over," Wetmore said.

Getting the question on the ballot still requires 31 senators to approve.

That's three more votes than passed the Senate's voucher proposal a month ago.
Spartanburg has a new restaurant serving authentic Central American flavors in the former location of The Junction Too and Quincys Family SteakHouse near Hearon Circle.

La Choza Restaurant opened its second location in Spartanburg on Feb. 20 on Simuel Road.

Seven years ago, owner Tobias Cano opened the first La Choza Restaurant on White Horse Road in Greenville. Cano, who is from Nicaragua, said he envisions the restaurant as a place where customers can learn about Central American culture.

The community from Central America here is pretty big, and we want to bring a piece of Central America to Spartanburg for the people to feel at home, Cano said.

The restaurant had been sitting empty for years before Cano got it, so hes made many renovations to the space. Theres a full bar near the entrance and pool tables in the back.

If youre a food enthusiast, you have to try it, and you have to be open-minded as well because its going to be different, said Sarah Kontorovsky, the restaurant's social media manager.

The restaurant has breakfast, lunch and dinner options.

Kontorovsky said a common menu item is gallo pinto, which is a mix of rice and beans. She said in Nicaragua the dish is made with white rice and small red beans.

Customers will also find tajadas fried plantain dish on the menu. Queso fresco is a popular side item. Kontorovsky describes queso fresco as fried cheese that has a crunchy outside and a soft inside. Any of the menu items can be paired with carne asada. The steak is made with sour orange marinade.

The menu has a variety of drinks made with real fruit, such as Macua, Nicaragua's national cocktail. The drink is made with rum, guava and orange juice. For a non-alcoholic option, customers can enjoy a Rojita Soda.

Kontorovsky said the restaurant is a place she can go to and feel comforted by the foods and flavors that she had during her childhood.

La Choza Restaurant is open from 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday. The restaurant will close around 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
SPARTANBURG  City Council will soon decide how the remaining portion of its $16.5 million in American Rescue Plan funding will be spent to address a variety of needs including education, housing and economic ability.

On Feb. 27, City Manager Chris Story presented a preliminary plan for the funds. The council will hold further discussion to determine how it will be allocated. Story said the money must be allocated by 2024 and spent by 2026 to meet federal guidelines.

The funding is part of a $1.9 trillion economic recovery package approved by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden in March 2021 to offer assistance to individuals and communities hit the hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic. Of the $1.9 trillion, $362 billion was allocated to state and local governments to provide relief and assistance for economic recovery. Story said there is more flexibility in the portion of ARP funds designated for state and local fiscal recovery.

"We have spent the past year discussing priorities to develop a starting point for discussion for a strategic allocation of dollars," Story said.

No formal action was taken by City Council on how to spend the funds. Over the next several months, discussions will continue as city staff seeks more information.

Story presented 10 categories of spending, including ways to boost the supply of affordable rental units, homeownership, fixed-income homeowner assistance, college and career transition, policing technology and funding to assist with the construction of a modern fire department headquarters. Story's initial recommendation also provides funding for the Highland Neighborhood Transformation Plan.

"The objective tonight is to engage City Council and the public so we might come together," Story said. "We know the amounts will be adjusted."

Councilman Rob Rain said he believed funding should be prioritized based on the city's obligations to provide core services including police, fire, public works and parks and recreation. Rain stated the preliminary report wasn't focused enough on what the city's responsibilities should be and a majority of what was presented could be accomplished by other agencies instead. He also suggested some funding be aimed at reducing the city's debt obligations.

Providing more affordable housing opportunities through ARP funds should be at the top of the list, Councilwoman Erica Brown said. Brown also suggested some funds should be used to repave the Mary Black Foundation Rail Trail. It is among the most popular trails in the city.

"I don't see it as a means to pay down debt," Brown said. "We really have an opportunity, a unique one-time opportunity, to make some investments that will be very impactful."

Councilwoman Meghan Smith said the ARP funds could be leveraged to create partnerships in the city, improve college readiness, and bolster programs within the city Parks and Recreation Department.

The ARP funds should be used to build a plan focused on long term growth providing opportunities for residents, Mayor Jerome Rice said. The funding goals include assisting historically disadvantaged populations, as well as those not historically disadvantaged but hardest hit by the pandemic. The federal guidelines require the city to measure and quantify the performance of the money spent by documenting outcomes.
Financial and investment services group United Capital grew turnover by approximately half to N26.9 billion last year, its biggest revenue since its inception 21 years ago.

But a PREMIUM TIMES analysis of its financials showed that the milepost could not lift profit because of the exigency of meeting certain costs.

The holding company which divorced from United Bank for Africa in 2022 and now runs on its own, leaned on income from its flagship investment banking division to drive growth in its top line in a year where income from managed funds was especially strong.

Investment income sprang up by 55.3 per cent to N13.8 billion, while fees and commission income at N8.1 billion expanded by 31.9 per cent.

United Capital, whose offerings also include issuing house services, asset & wealth management, M&A, trusteeship and brokerage, owed the improvement in the latter to higher financial advisory fees as well as management fees & other commissions.

Profits took the most blow from the need to set aside as much N6.2 billion from revenue to cover loans granted by the institution, which stand only a slim chance of getting repaid.

That compares to the N453.5 million allocated to that purpose in the same period of 2021, its audited financial report issued on Wednesday shows.

United Capital runs a consumer finance unit UCPlus Advance Limited through which it lends to customers using a digital platform. The company told PREMIUM TIMES it is set to formally launch its digital banking subsidiary.

Profit before tax rose to N13.5 billion from N11.9 billion. Taxation soared by almost five times to N3.8 billion, hurting net profit which, at N9.7 billion, was 14.3 per cent weaker than the 2021 level.

We remain upbeat about sustaining our performance in 2023 having kicked off the year in a robust financial position with close to N1 trillion funds under management, said CEO Peter Ashade in another document providing performance highlights.

A note also issued Wednesday details the boards plan to pay a dividend of N1.50 per share for the year, summing up to a N9 billion payout, the same amount it paid for 2021.

Shares in the company had fallen 3.9 per cent by the time trade closed in Lagos on Wednesday.

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

Telegram

LinkedIn

Email

Print


Hate from the Altar, an inspirational movie by an award-winning Nigerian-American Filmmaker Temitope Adebiyis film will premiere at the Faith Dome in Maryland, U.S., on 24 March.

The movie, which was shot in November and December 2022 in Maryland, U.S., tells the story of a young girl whose emergence as the new choir leader of a church sparks up controversy amongst the choir members and within the pastorate as it is rumoured that she is having an affair with her boss at work.

Efforts to get her removed revealed a more profound secret in the church.

The movie stars Kike Ayodeji, Ayodeji Adekoya, Paul Tolbert, Lekan Adeiga, Kazeem Omotolani, and Simeon Dan and introduces Olalani Akinyode.

Unusual Storyline

The movies artistic director, Temitope Adebiyi, told PREMIUM TIMES that some of the churchs challenges inspired the film.

The church, which is supposed to be a house of love, has been turned into a place where hatred and jealousy are the new standards of the time.

Going by recent events and stories about happenings, hypocrisy and problems in Churches, I realised that the major missing link is the lack of love in the church. Then I feel there is a need for me as a filmmaker to talk about this.

Mr Temitope, a certified screenwriter and Filmmaker from the New York film Academy, said that he initially intended for it to be a short film. Still, along the way, he discovered that the significant subject matter was too broad to be a short film.

Describing the movie as a religious-centric film, the award-winning filmmaker said it could best be described as a Christian film because it passed a solid message to believers.

The filmmaker, who bagged his first degree in Dramatic Arts at the Obafemi Awolowo University, said it would help Christians remember many things not expected of them as Christians.

He, however, highlighted that the plot was not your typical Nigerian gospel movie storyline and that he would screen it in Nigeria.

My significant targets are churches. We have the premiere next month, and we have some churches in the USA that have shown interest in hosting the screening, he said.

Cast

Temitope, taking his time to explain his choice of cast, revealed that he chose them after critically analysing their strengths and not through formal auditions.

As a filmmaker, I always try to pay attention to my cast. What formed my decision on the casting was reaching out to people I have worked with before; I know their acting strengths and which role they fit into because I didnt conduct any audition, he said.

He, however, explained that he was working with some of the cast for the first time and added that he deliberately featured an American actor in the film.

I have a lot of American actors I have worked with that I could have brought in for the project, but there is something I am looking for in my actors for this project that is beyond their acting skill or nationality. So I had to work with only those who have it.

Challenges

Speaking of challenges encountered in the movie production, he said adjusting to the busy schedules of his cast and crew.

One of the major challenges in shooting the film is getting film time with the actors. The film was shot in a country where people have busy schedules- work and family, and acting is not a full-time job for anyone, he said.

Without disclosing the films budget, the filmmaker, who trained at the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography in Russia, assured the public that they would be amazed by the outcome.

The filmmaker, who presently lives in Washington DC has produced films like Down from heaven, Backchat, Pa said to me, The dead saved me, Late Move, and, most recently , Hate from the Altar.

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

Telegram

LinkedIn

Email

Print


At 4.10 a.m. Nigerian time on Wednesday, 1 March, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), was declared president-elect by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja, Nigerias capital.

That development, on the first day of March, marked not just the conclusion of a contentious presidential election process, but also the culmination of one mans long and difficult march to the zenith of his countrys political power.

In the most wide-open presidential election Nigeria has seen since 1979, Mr Tinubu polled 8,794,726 votes to defeat 17 other candidates. His two closest opponents, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the PDP and former Governor Peter Obi of the Labour Party, are calling for the cancellation of the 25 February poll, alleging that it was tainted by voter suppression and the failure of INEC to upload polling units results from the over 176,000 polling stations to a web portal as stipulated in its guideline.

INEC has dismissed the claims of the candidates, whose agents walked out of the national collation centre, where the returns from the states were tallied, and advised them to take their grievances to the election petition tribunal, as stipulated by law. The president-elect a few hours later on Wednesday gave an acceptance speech before cheering party leaders and supporters, in which he offered reconciliation to his opponents and their supporters.

Mr Tinubu and a long-term ambition

Mr Tinubu has consistently played major roles in party politics since 1992 when he was elected senator for Lagos West District. He has since then been governor of Lagos for eight years. But unlike his three main opponents, including former Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), who returned fourth, this was the first time he would be running for president, whether in the party primaries or general elections. His victory means that he took the prize on first attempt, just like Shehu Shagari, Olusegun Obasanjo and Umaru Yaradua before him.

Yet, it seemed on many occasions, between the point that he declared his bid and the certification of his election early Wednesday morning, that the feat might elude him. Mr Tinubu was the first in the APC to announce his bid. That was in January 2022, after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa in Abuja.

The choice of location or timing of the announcement seemed to have been a strategic design to create the impression that President Muhammadu Buhari was in full support of the former governors ambition. But after several weeks of hesitation, many other aspirants declared too, including some ministers assumed to be close to the president.

And when Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, an associate of Mr Tinubu, also declared, it was taken as a confirmation that the president did not want the former Lagos governor, his most important political ally since they formed the APC in 2013, to succeed him. Mr Tinubus presidential ambition finally seemed imperilled a few days before the party primaries when he made the controversial Emi lokan (it is my turn) remark in Abeokuta, Ogun State while addressing party delegates. It was taken as a public attack on the president and the last kicks of a dying horse. But after a few more days of intrigues in the party, Mr Tinubu recorded a stunning landslide victory at the APC national convention in Abuja.

But it did not take long before the speculation that the president was not supportive of his candidature regained life. Mr Tinubu seemed to confirm the speculation when at a campaign stop again in Abeokuta, he spoke out against a fuel supply shortage that had lingered for several months across the country, and a currency redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria. Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, later said on television that some fifth columnists at the presidency designed the two disruptive policies to incite voters against the APC at the general elections.

In spite of appeals by APC governors to the president to extend the deadline for the swapping of old naira banknotes for new designs of the banknotes, the central bank stuck to its schedule. Violent protests broke out in parts of the country over the severe scarcity of cash that arose from the implementation of the policy. But even after some APC-led state governments sued the federal government at the Supreme Court over the policy, Mr Buhari refused to vary his approval to the central bank for the implementation of the policy. The opposition, led by Atiku and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, hailed Mr Buhari for his stand on the issue, interpreting it as a determination to stop Mr Tinubu and state governors from buying votes during the elections.

It was under these circumstances that the APC went into the elections on Saturday. And the outcome underscored widespread dissatisfaction with the ruling party. In the presidential poll, it came top in only 12 states across the country, down from 19 when Mr Buhari was reelected in 2019. Mr Tinubu also lost Lagos, his stronghold since 1999, to the Labour Party while Mr Buharis Katsina flipped to the PDP. In the North of Nigeria, where it had been dominant since 2015, the APC won only six of the 15 states in which it has governors.

In the end, Mr Tinubu managed to draw the highest votes, although the votes in quantum and as a percentage of the total votes cast, were still the lowest by a winning candidate in the Fourth Republic. Yet that feat was entirely due to the division of the opposition, which split into three, and an unresolved internal crisis in the PDP. The Labour Party, whose candidate was the PDP vice presidential candidate in 2019, seized the strongholds of the main opposition party in the South-east, South-south and North-central. In Lagos where Mr Obi embarrassed Mr Tinubu, the PDP candidate suffered a worse rout, leaving Mr Tinubu with a net gain of about 500,000 votes over Atiku, his closest rival. And in Kano, where the APC share of the votes fell by half, the beneficiary was the NNPP which also seized most of what had been the PDP shares in previous elections. The crisis in the PDP also saw the party losing strategic support in especially Rivers, Oyo and Benue states.

However, in spite of the opposition cannibalising and leaving itself supine in the fight, the poll could still have dragged into a run off, but for the residual support that the APC retains across the North. Mr Tinubu came out with more votes in the North-west and North-central than Atiku, despite losing the four-K (Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi) states and taking only two of the seven states in a zone with the largest voter population in the country and long-term fortress of the APC.

By his victory in the presidential election, Mr Tinubu became the third person from the South-west to be elected president in 30 years and in the entire history of the country. However, the election of the first one, Moshood Abiola, was annulled and he died in prison under the military while insisting on the de-annulement of the 1993 presidential election and revalidatiion of his mandate. Despite the hard way he secured his victory, the president-elect is going to the Aso Rock Villa with a reputation of a successful governor, party builder and political strategist. This will raise expectations among Nigerians and outside the country about the prospects of Nigeria on his watch. After the security and economic crises of the past eight years, many believe Mr Buharis is not a tough act to follow. Some reports on Tuesday stated that Nigerian stocks rose upon information that Mr Tinubu was heading for victory.

Mr Tinubu and an anonymous entry

Mr Tinubu made an almost anonymous entry into the political terrain during the political transition programme of General Ibrahim Babangida. He was a member of the Peoples Front political association founded by the late Shehu Yaradua but the group and others were denied registration as political parties by the junta. Instead, it established two parties, the Social Democratic Party and the National Republican Convention. The Yaradua group moved into the former and it was under the party that Mr Tinubu was elected senator in July 1992.

After Sani Abacha, the military successor of Mr Babangida, scrapped the transitional democratic institutions, including the National Assembly, threw Mr Abiola into jail and went after his supporters with an iron fist, Mr Tinubu joined in the formation of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) which sustained a campaign against military rule. His involvement in the pro-democracy struggle forced him into exile. When he returned home after the June 1998 death of Mr Abacha, Mr Tinubu joined in forming the Alliance for Democracy and was elected the first governor of Lagos in the Fourth Republic in 1999. He was the only one among the six governors of the party, all of them in the South-west, to retain office in 2003 after Mr Obasanjos PDP seized control of the region during the presidents reelection that year.

Mr Tinubus legacy as governor of Lagos include pioneering the Bus Rapid Transit System and LAGBUS, establishment of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) and creation of 37 local council development areas. As an advocate of true federalism, he referenced at least 13 matters related to the principle of federalism to be tested by the Supreme Court. His creation of the LCDAs led to the federal government seizing the allocations to local governments in the state from the federation account until he and Mr Obasanjo left their different offices in 2007.

After his tenure as governor, Mr Tinubu concentrated on rebuilding his party to reclaim the Southwest from the PDP and to build alliances outside the region for influence in national politics. In 2006, Atiku, at that time a vice president, who had fallen out with President Obasanjo and was being hounded by the PDP, crossed over to the Action Congress of Mr Tinubu to run unsuccessfully in the 2007 presidential election. After further incarnation as Action Congress, Action Congress of Nigeria, Mr Tinubus party merged with two other legacy parties (the All Nigerians Peoples Party and the Congress for Progressive Change) and factions of APGA and the PDP to produce the APC in 2013. The party was an instant hit with the Nigerian voters and it defeated the ruling PDP in the 2015 elections. Several leaders of the APC spoke on various occasions about the pivotal role of Mr Tinubu in the formation of the APC.

According to President Buhari, If Bola Ahmed Tinubu did not participate, there wouldnt have been a merger and there wouldnt have been an APC government at the centre. That is absolutely clear.

Speaking in the same vein, a former governor of Rivers and Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, said: I think what was important is that he was able to gather the political class together  it was key, more than gathering the populace, because once you gather the leadership of the political class then you could ensure there was unanimity of purpose and they could sell jointly this CHANGE mantra He is a progressive.

When he is sworn in on 29 May, Mr Tinubu will become Nigerias fifth president of the Fourth Republic. Controversy persists over aspects of Mr Tinubus biography, especially his date of birth, parentage and early education. However, his records established that he was born on 29 March 1952. He went to the United States in 1975, where he studied first at Richard J. Daley College in Chicago and then at Chicago State University. He graduated in 1979 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting.

MrTinubu worked for the American companies Arthur Andersen, Deloitte, Haskins, & Sells, and GTE Services Corporation. He returned to Nigeria in 1983 and joined Mobil Oil Nigeria as an auditor, and later became an executive of the company.

He is the author of at least two publications: Financialism: Water from an Empty Well, which was co-written with Briane Brown; and Common Sense Revolution, which was presented at the seventh Bola Tinubu Colloquium.

He has many honorary academic awards, including: Doctor of Civil Law (DCL) (Honoris Causa) by the University of Njala, Freetown, Sierra Leone; Doctor of Science (D.Sc) by Kano State University of Science and Technology; Doctor of Science (D.SC) in Management Sciences by Ladoke Akintola University of Technology; Doctor of Political Science and Diplomacy by Adeleke University, Osun State; Doctor of Business Administration by University of Abuja, and Doctor of Business Administration by Usman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto.

The president-elect also holds many chieftaincy titles, including Asiwaju of Lagos, Aare of Ile Oluji, Eze Obalu Dike Gawu na Oko, Jagaban of Borgu, Are-Ago of Egbaland and Wakilin Raya Emir of Gusau.

Mr Tinubu is married to Remi, who is a current senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

Telegram

LinkedIn

Email

Print


The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has called on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party to leave it out of their fight with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The two parties have accused the electoral body of unfairness with its agents walking out of the collation centre while presidential results were being declared.

The leaders of the two parties including the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, also called for the suspension of the collation of results and the resignation of the INEC boss, Mahmoud Yakubu.

But the ADC, in a statement signed by its Board of Trustees Chairperson, Patricia Akwashiki, said the party has never been part of the fight.

It also asked the two parties to delist its name from those partaking in the fight against INEC.

They demanded that the INEC Chairman step down from his position and that fresh elections should be conducted, she said.

According to Mrs Akwashiki, the former ADC party chairman doesnt have the right to decide the future of the party since he is no longer its leader.

This is not the position of the African Democratic Congress (ADC). Ralph Nwosu who is the immediate past Chairman of the ADC does not speak for the ADC and cannot speak for the ADC.

We cannot be a party to any action that will undermine the integrity of INEC or lead to a breakdown of law and order. When the final results are announced by INEC, we will have an informed reaction. The ADC will not be a party to any attempt to truncate the ongoing electoral process. All parties to this process must remain law abiding and remember that the Electoral Act clearly spells out guidelines for redress, she added.

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

Telegram

LinkedIn

Email

Print


Labour Partys Vice Presidential candidate in the 2023 presidential election, Datti Baba-Ahmed, has urged supporters of the party to remain calm following the outcome of Saturdays elections.

Mr Baba-Ahmed asked the supporters to vote for the party in the forthcoming governorship and the state house of assembly polls scheduled for 11 March.

The LP chieftain made the call during a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday, a few hours after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Bola Tinubu as the winner of the 2023 presidential election held on Saturday.

He noted that his the partys flagbearer, Peter Obi, will speak on the election outcome in due time.

Mr Obi came third in the just concluded election with a total of 6,101,533 votes, while Rabiu Kwankwaso of the NNPP came fourth with 1,496,687 votes.

Atiku Abubakar, the candidate of the PDP, polled a total of 6,984,520 votes in the election to clinch the second spot, while Mr Tinubu scored a total of 8,794,726 votes to emerge as the president-elect.

Cancellation

While the APC and its supporters celebrate their electoral victory, the PDP and the LP have called for the cancellation of the results.

The PDP and LP made their positions known at a Tuesday press conference attended by their vice-presidential candidates, Ifeanyi Okowa and Datti Baba-Ahmed, respectively.

The election was a sham, and never free and fair, said Mr Okowa of the PDP, a position corroborated by the LPs vice-presidential candidate.

Their main grouse is that INEC failed to upload the results of elections in the over 170,000 polling units onto a central server (IReV) as required by law. That step should have been done before the collation and announcement of results, they said.

At the press conference, the two parties also demanded that the chairman of INEC, Mahmood Yakubu, must step aside over what they described as electoral irregularities and malfeasance. INEC has since replied, saying its chairman would not resign and that any party aggrieved with the election process should follow the law to air its grievances.

Legal redress

At the briefing, Mr Baba-Ahmed assured their supporters that the party will be seeking legal redress to the election outcome.

While calling for calm, he claimed that the election was not free and fair.

Mr Baba-Ahmed asked the judiciary to prove themselves to be impartial when the case gets to the court, wondering how the results for the presidential and National Assembly elections were collated when they were not transmitted electronically to the INEC IREV portal as required by the electoral act as amended.

No amount of pressure would get the Labour Party or its agents to preach against peace, he said. Adding that despite the outcome of the poll, they still have hope in Nigeria.

READ ALSO: Masari discusses Katsina governorship election with Buhari

The LP will continue to hold the President Muhammadu Buhari administration accountable for a free and credible election and remains optimistic of a great outing come March 11 when the guber and house of assembly exercise takes place, he said.

Mr Baba-Ahmed dismissed speculations of a merger with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), reiterating that the party is fighting for its mandate alone.

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

Telegram

LinkedIn

Email

Print


The electoral commission, INEC, has declared Bola Tinubu, the candidate of Nigerias ruling party, APC, as the winner of Saturdays presidential election.

Mr Tinubu defeated 17 other candidates who took part in the election. He scored a total of 8,794,726 votes, the highest of all the candidates, thus meeting the first constitutional requirement to be declared the winner.

He also scored over 25 per cent of the votes cast in 30 states, more than the 24 states constitutionally required.

INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu, who announced the final results in the early hours of Wednesday in Abuja, said Atiku Abubakar of the PDP came second in the election.

Atiku polled a total of 6,984,520 votes in the election.

Peter Obi of the Labour Party came third in the election with a total of 6,101,533 votes while Rabiu Kwankwaso of the NNPP came fourth with 1,496,687 votes.

Mr Yakubu said a Certificate of Return for the President and Vice President will be presented by 3 p.m. on Wednesday at the National Collation Centre.

Only the top four candidates won the presidential election in at least one state. Each of Messrs Tinubu, Atiku and Obi won in 12 states while Mr Kwankwaso won only in Kano.

However, winning a majority of states is not a requirement for a candidate to be declared the winner of the election.

States Won

Mr Tinubu won the election in Rivers, Borno, Jigawa, Zamfara, Benue, Kogi, Kwara, Niger, Osun, Ekiti, Ondo, Oyo and Ogun states.

Atiku won in Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, Kaduna, Gombe, Yobe, Bauchi, Adamawa and Taraba states. He also won in Osun, Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa states.

Mr Obi won in Edo, Cross River, Delta, Lagos, FCT, Plateau, Imo, Ebonyi, Nasarawa, Anambra, Abia and Enugu states.

Mr Kwankwaso won in only Kano State.

LP/PDP call for cancellation

While the APC and its supporters celebrate their electoral victory, the PDP and the LP have called for the cancellation of the results.

The PDP and LP made their positions known at a Tuesday press conference attended by their vice-presidential candidates, Ifeanyi Okowa and Datti Baba-Ahmed, respectively.

The election was a sham, and never free and fair, said Mr Okowa of the PDP, a position corroborated by the LPs vice-presidential candidate.

Their main grouse is that INEC failed to upload the results of elections in the over 170,000 polling units onto a central server (IReV) as required by law. That step should have been done before the collation and announcement of results, they said.

At the press conference, the two parties also demanded that the chairman of INEC, Mahmood Yakubu, must step aside over what they described as electoral irregularities and malfeasance. INEC has since replied, saying its chairman would not resign and that any party aggrieved with the election process should follow the law to air its grievances.

========

FINAL RESULT OF THE 2023 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION AS PRESENTED BY THE INEC CHAIRMAN AT THE COLLATION CENTRE ON WEDNESDAY 1ST MARCH, 2023

TOTAL REGISTERED VOTERS 93,469,008

ACCREDITED VOTERS 25,286,616

A 61,014

AA 14,542

AAC 14,608

ADC 81,919

ADP 43,924

APC 8,794,726

APGA 61,966

APM 25,961

APP 12,839

BP 16,156

LP 6,101,533

NNPP 1,496,687

NRM 24,869

PDP 6,984,520

PRP 72,144

SDP 80,267

YPP 60,600

ZLP 77,665

TOTAL VALID VOTES 24,025,940

TOTAL REJECTED VOTES: 939,278

TOTAL VOTE CAST 24,965,218

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

Telegram

LinkedIn

Email

Print


The All Progressives Congress (APC) and its presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, his running mate, Kashim Shettima, have filed a suit to block any move aimed at stopping the collation and announcement of the presidential election.

The Cable reported that they sued the Labour Party (LP), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at the Federal High Court in Kano.

The presidential candidates of both PDP and the Labour Party are trailing in the results of the election held on Saturday that INEC has announced so far.

The agents of the parties, on Monday, staged a walk-out from the venue of the National Collation Centre, Abuja, over the refusal of the INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, to address their complaints about the validity of the results that came from Ekiti and Kwara states. The APC won both states.

On Tuesday, the two opposition parties and their vice presidential candidates, at a joint press conference, in Abuja, called for the stopping of the collation of the results of the election and resignation of the INEC chair.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who had earlier endorsed Mr Obi as his preferred candidate, alleged fraud in the election and called for the cancellation of the results in places where the election had been conducted without compliance with the law.

But in their suit suit marked FHC/KN/CS/43/2023, Mr Tinubu, his running mate, Mr Shettima, urged the court to restrain the defendants from stopping the collation.

The plaintiffs said in an affidavit filed in an application for an interim order that neither the defendants nor any other person has the power to stop the process of announcing the result of the election as collated from various polling units.

They argued that from the result at our situation rooms as collated in the states of the federation, Tinubu and Shettima have met the requirements of the law to be declared the winner of the election and accordingly returned as the president and vice president-elect.

They said the opposition parties and Mr Obasanjo had put enormous pressure on INEC to stop the collation of results.

Therefore, they said there was an urgent need for the court to intervene and put a stop to those pressurising the electoral commission.

They prayed for an order of injunction restraining the political parties, their privies, agents, associates, assigns, sympathisers, supporters, or any other person howsoever described under whatever guise howsoever spelt, under any guise whatsoever from taking any step or steps, whether judicial or extrajudicial, that is capable of preventing the INEC from completing the process of the conduct of the Presidential election held on February 25.

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

Telegram

LinkedIn

Email

Print


The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) has called for the cancellation of the result of the 2023 presidential election.

The party made the call on Wednesday at a press conference in Abuja and addressed its National Chairman, Rufai Alkali.

INEC had on Wednesday declared the presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, as the winner of the 25 February election.

According to the result announced by the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mr Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos State polled 8, 794, 726 to defeat his major rivals; Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who polled 6, 984, 520 votes and Peter Obi of Labour Party (LP) who secured 6,101,533 votes of the 24, 965, 218 total vote cast.

Rabiu Kwankwaso of the NNPP came a distant fourth with 1,496,687 votes.

Mr Alkali said with the way it conducted the election, INEC had taken the country back to the pre-2015 era.

We are deeply concerned that going by what had happened on election day, the election umpire has taken our country back to the pre-2015 era of election where everything goes: where voters were deliberately and systematically disenfranchised; where ballot box snatching and ballot box stuffing was the norm; where voter suppression was widespread; where violence and vote-buying were the main deciding factors of the outcome of elections; where security agents openly take side with the ruling party and participate actively in rigging elections.., he said.

Mr Alkali listed seven fundamental observations made by the party, namely that INEC deliberately undermined NNPP in the process, allowed campaign on election day by President Muhammadu Buhari and others, voter suppression, vote buying, BVAS failure and over voting, lying about IREV sever and election marred unprecedented violence.

He, therefore, demanded the cancellation of the poll.

To save our democracy and our country, the present election results must not be accepted by Nigerians and by all friends of Nigeria. We are therefore calling on the immediate suspension of the announcement of results and the cancellation of the 2023 presidential election across the country. New election should be conducted as soon as possible, he said.

Read the full text of the press conference below

TEXT OF PRESS CONFERENCE BY THE NATIONAL CHAIRMAN OF THE NEW NIGERIA PEOPLES PARTY, NNPP, PROF RUFAI AHMED ALKALI ON THE CONDUCT OF THE 25TH FEBRUARY 2023 GENERAL ELECTIONS

HELD ON TUESDAY 28TH FEBRUARY, 2023 AT THE CONFERENCE HALL OF TRANSCORP HILTON HOTEL, ABUJA

Gentlemen of the Press,

On behalf of our Party, the New Nigeria Peoples Party NNPP and all our candidates, we wish to express our gratitude to all Nigerians especially our teaming supporters who thronged their polling units on Saturday 25th February, 2023 to exercise their civic duty and vote for our Party but unfortunately met an election arrangement that is diametrically opposite to everything that INEC has promised. We are deeply concerned that going by what had happened on election day, the election umpire has taken our country back to pre-2015 era of election where everything goes: where voters were deliberately and systematically disenfranchised; where ballot box snatching and ballot box stuffing was the norm; where voter suppression was widespread; where violence and vote-buying were the main deciding factors of the outcome of elections; where security agents openly take side with the ruling party and participate actively in rigging elections; and where people who have not participated in an election are declared winners of the election [for instance, in Kano Ibrahim Shekarau who formally resigned from the NNPP, withdrew from the race, registered with the PDP, conveyed same to the party and to the INEC is now declared by INEC as the winner of an election under theNNPP]. This is the era that the Nigerians election umpire, INEC, has, unfortunately returned our country to.

At the NNPP, we wish to draw attention to seven fundamental observations that we believed were deliberately planned between INEC and the ruling party to compromise the election in favour of the ruling party:

1. Deliberate Undermining of the NNPP by INEC. From the beginning of the 2023 electioneering process, INEC as a Commission has been displaying incomprehensible hostility towards the NNPP. From the conduct of our congresses and conventions to the conduct of our primary elections we suffered unnecessary and unexplainable resistance and outright sabotage from INEC both at state and national levels.

The most disturbing one was when INEC shut our party from submitting our candidates onto their server days before the deadline. We had to go to court and secure judgement to compel INEC to accept our Candidates. As if that was not enough, even after the court judgement, INEC went ahead to appeal some of the judgments. And to the best of our knowledge, we are the only political party that INEC has been appealing pre-election cases that we have won in courts.

The most shameful of all is the refusal of INEC to use the correct and legible logo of our party on the ballot papers. The deliberate use of illegible logo of our party on the ballot papers of the 2023 general elections by INEC is very unfortunate. We were shocked on the Election Day to discover that INEC has decided to make use of the most blurred image to represent the logo of NNPP. It is even more shocking that the blurred image that INEC has put on the ballot did not include the name of our party. This is in spite of the provision of section 42 (1) which states the commission shall prescribe the format of the ballot papers which shall include the symbol adopted by the political party of the candidate and such other information as it may require.

Majority of our supporters found it difficult to identity NNPP on the ballot paper. The key representation of the NNPP logo is the basket of fruits. But on the INEC ballot papers neither the basket nor the fruits can be identified. This did not only confuse our supporters but deliberately disenfranchised them.

2. Campaign on Election Day. While it is illegal to campaign on election day according to the provisions of the electoral act, the President of Nigeria Maj. Gen. M. Buhari (rtd.) and the Minister of Justice Barr A Malami and many senior members of the government were seen on election day campaigning openly by displaying their ballot papers showing Nigerians which party should be voted. The action of the President and commander-in- chief together with that of the Minister of Justice, which clearly was campaigning on Election Day, has compromised the election by showing Nigerians that this is the party that the Nigerian government wants Nigerians to vote for.

And for the President to display his ballot papers after voting just few minutes after the opening of the polls amounts to multiple offences: first, the electoral act requires that balloting be done in secret but the President disregarded that; second, campaign on election day is illegal but the president did not only displayed his ballot but also announced that he wants all Nigerians to vote for his candidate. And for this illegal action to be made by the president, and on Election Day, speaks volume about the entire election arrangement.

3. Voter Suppression. It is unfortunate that the distribution of election materials was deliberately delayed in many polling units to suppress our voters. This is Rigging-by- Time. In many places elections started few minutes to the closing time of 2:30pm. Law enforcement personnel especially some Police and DSS were openly seen colluding with the agents of the ruling party and elections officials not only to cause delays in the process but also to harass and intimidate voters in places were the ruling party is very unpopular.

Vote Buying. In spite of the Naira swap policy which the government claimed was intended to end the culture of vote-buying, there is no gainsaying that the 2023 general election was among the worse in terms of vote-buying. While the volume of cash being used to bribe voters has reduced, the quantum of other truckloads of essential commodities that was used openly, at polling units, to bribe voters was unprecedented in the history of elections in Nigeria. In almost every electoral ward in the country, merchants of corruption and bribe were in their elements! Truckloads of raw food items, truckloads of fabrics, truckloads of toiletries etc. were seen everywhere and being used shamelessly by the ruling party to bribe voters and compromise the election. In many places this dastardly act was being protected by some law enforcement agents.

5. BVAS Failure and Over-voting. The embarrassing decision of INEC to close down the iReV server might not be unconnected with the very widespread failures of the bvas across the country. In majority of the PUs across rural Nigeria, the bvas machine failed. It simply did not work. There was no any accreditation. And people were allowed to vote. Nothing compromised the election and returned us to pre-technology era than the shelving of bvas and allowing election to hold without accreditation. And in those places, ballot boxes were simply stuffed with ballot papers of a particular party to the detriment and disadvantage of other parties. No over-voting is worse that voting without accreditation at all. In fact in the few places were the bvas machine worked, the attempt to change the results on transit has also rubbished the accreditation as the record on the bvas is entirely different with the tampered results on the results sheet.

6. INEC Lies about iReV Server. In the entire arrangements for the 2023 general elections, nothing was more comforting to all political parties on the opposition side than the fact that election results will be transmitted electronically, in real-time, from the polling units to the iReV server. And INEC kept hammering, repeatedly, on the fact that there will be no going back on the arrangement to electronically transmit results from the PUs. But the ruling party and all its candidate kept kicking against the arrangement. To our greatest shock, and in kowtowing to the whims of the ruling party, INEC shelved the electronic transmission arrangement and literally closed the iReV server when only about 30 out of over 176,000 PUs results were uploaded.

This very action of colluding with the ruling party and returning to manual transmission has completely compromised the 2023 general elections. Election results were intercepted and changed between PUs and Wards Collation centres, between Wards Collation centres and Local government collation centres, and between local government collation centres and state collation centres. This election is marred with numerous incidences of changing the results of the election on transit from one level to another  exactly what the electronic transmission clause of the electoral act seeks to avoid.

7. Election Marred by Unprecedented Violence. Never in the history of Nigeria did we experience widespread violence in almost every local government council in the country on Election Day. People were maimed and killed. Party offices and public buildings were torched by arsonists and vandals. Election materials were destroyed in many Polling Units.

A typical example is the cold-blood murder of 15 innocent members of the NNPP on Election Day allegedly by the current member representing Tudun Wada/Doguwa federal constituency. Some were burnt alive, some were shot at close range while others were hacked with machetes and daggers.

Violence on the scale we saw on February 25th couldnt have possibly allow for any semblance of fair election. In fact all the serious election observers have noted this. For instance, the NDI/IRI observer mission reports that:

The mission notes that despite the much-needed reforms to The Electoral Act 2022, the election fell well short of Nigerian citizens reasonable expectations. Logistical challenges and multiple incidents of political violence overshadowed the electoral process and impeded a substantial number of voters from participating.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we must be aware that, no matter the situation in our country all leaders must consider the stability and security of the country as paramount. Our country is bigger than any individual and is certainly more important than any vested interest.

To save our democracy and our country, the present election results must not be accepted by Nigerians and by all friends of Nigeria. We are therefore calling on the immediate suspension of the announcement of result and the cancellation of the 2023 presidential election across the country. New election should be conducted as soon as possible.

Thank you for your attention.

Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria! Long live NNPP

Prof Rufai Ahmed Alkali

National Chairman

New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

Telegram

LinkedIn

Email

Print


The police in Kano have charged the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Ado Doguwa, with murder for allegedly killing three people.

The police spokesperson in the state, Abdullahi Kiyawa, said the lawmaker was arrested and charged to court following an incident that led to the killings.

The lawmaker was reportedly involved in a violent confrontation between members of the New Nigeria People Party (NNPP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) that led to the killing of three people and the burning of a campaign office of the opposition party in the Tudun Wada Local Government Area of Kano.

The police said the lawmaker was arrested and charged alongside other accomplices.

The lawmaker was charged with criminal conspiracy, culpable homicide, causing grievous hurt, and mischief by fire, inciting disturbance, the police spokesperson said.

Residents said the violent confrontation occurred at the Dadin Kowa ward, (Mr Doguwas ward) when the NNPP agents called for the cancellation of the Dadin Kowa results over alleged incidents of over-voting in the just concluded presidential and parliamentary elections.

READ ALSO: Kwankwasos NNPP demands cancellation of presidential election results

Mr Doguwa, who is seeking re-election to represent the Tudun Wada, Doguwa federal constituency, reportedly arrived at the venue of the fracas to protest the alleged cancellation of the result where the crisis ensured.

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

Telegram

LinkedIn

Email

Print


Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has congratulated the winner of the 2023 presidential election, Bola Tinubu.

Mr Osinbajo extended his felicitations in a message he sent to the president-elect on Wednesday in Abuja.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had earlier on Wednesday declared Mr Tinubu, the presidential flag bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC), winner of the 25 February presidential election.

INEC has also presented the Certificates of Return to Mr Tinubu, and his Vice President-elect, Kashim Shettima.

I warmly congratulate the flagbearer of our great party, the APC, Tinubu, on his victory at the 2023 Presidential Elections, and his declaration as President-Elect of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

I also congratulate Sen. Shettima on his declaration as Vice President-Elect of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

In your previous years of public service, you have demonstrated a consistent fidelity to progressive and welfarist ideals, and an ability to build bridges across several divides.

These attributes are needed especially at this time, to reach out to disaffected sections of our society and to meet the aspirational expectations of our young people who have shown such a strong desire to impact our democratic process in a positive way.

I trust that they will not allow whatever setbacks they may have experienced to truncate their strong desire to determine the future course of our national journey.

Through thick and thin, we must all remain focused on the objective of birthing the Nigeria of our dreams.

I pray that Almighty God will help you to fulfil the progressive mandate of our Party, as well as your various plans to improve the security, welfare and happiness of all Nigerians, he said.

Earlier, while presiding over the weekly Federal Executive Council, the vice president led the ministers to congratulate Mr Tinubu, his wife, Oluremi, and the Vice President-Elect, Mr Shettima.

He directed the Secretary to the Government of the Federation to formally convey the felicitations of the council.

The vice president also attended the formal presentation of the INEC Certificates of Return to both the President-Elect and the Vice President-Elect at the National Collation Center, International Conference Centre, Abuja.

Mr Osinbajo was one of the 13 presidential aspirants Mr Tinubu defeated during the primary election of the APC in June last year.

The vice president was a political ally of the president-elect. Mr Osinbajo served as attorney general and commissioner for justice while Mr Tinubu was governor of Lagos State between 1999 and 2007.

(NAN)

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

Telegram

LinkedIn

Email

Print


Deputy Senate President and Delta State APC Governorship Candidate, Ovie Omo-Agege, and the state APC Campaign Council, have congratulated, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on his victory at the 2023 presidential election.

Mr Omo-Agege in a congratulatory message he signed, said Mr Tinubus victory is a testament to a renewed hope for a better, forward-looking thinking Nigeria, in which we can better define our destiny as a people.

In its own statement, the Campaign Council described Mr Tinubu as a true renaissance president, a pro democracy activist who was obviously destined for leadership. The council stated that Nigerians have closely followed the President-Elects trajectory as a leader of the National Democratic Coalition, NADECO, Senator, Governor and eventually, National Leader of the Progressives under the auspices of the APC.

The country holds you to higher standards than most, and we are confident that you will take the nation to heights previously unknown.

Mr Omo-Agege assured the president-elect of his readiness to work with him to maintain and consolidate the overall development of Delta State and the country at large.

He specifically congratulated Labour Party candidate, Peter Obi, for his tenacity, commitment and perseverance; and for creating a new thinking among Nigerians especially the youths. He assured Mr. Obi and his teeming supporters, the Obedients, in Delta State, that when elected, he will uphold the shared values of responsible governance, transparency and accountability, and ensure people feel the impact of governance.

His words: On behalf of myself and the good people of Delta State, I congratulate Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, President-elect of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I send you the warmest wishes as you exercise your new mandate. I pray Gods blessing upon you, your government, and the people of our dear country.

I can attest to the fact that you truly have had a front-row seat in the socio-economic and political development of Nigeria. It is evident that in you, we have a fearless, tested, experienced, urbane, business-like, well-rounded, and visionary president-electyou represent the best bet for the continued prosperity of the country.

There is no doubt that your victory is a testament to renewed hope; the certainty of victory over poverty and the conviction that our country carries within its bosom the potential of the worlds next economic power. Renewed Hope for a Better Nigeria will drive forward-looking thinking and show that we can begin to define our destiny as a people.

Be assured of my constant readiness to work with you to maintain and consolidate the overall development of Delta State and our dear country.

Let me also congratulate my dear friend and brother, Mr. Peter Obi. We are so very proud of you! Through this election, you have solidified your reputation as an ethical personality. Your tenacity, commitment and perseverance have created new thinking among Nigerians, especially the youth.

However, the most significant issue I have taken from your participation in the 2023 election is your concern about responsible governance through transparency and accountability. I assure you and your teeming supporters, especially in Delta State that when elected, I will uphold those beliefs and ensure that our people feel the impact of government. I wish you even more success in the future.

I also commend all the staff of INEC and all the security agencies for their services. However, more needs to be done, especially regarding the early arrival of materials to the polling units and more security for voters and staff of INEC.

Finally, I congratulate all Nigerians on a successful presidential election. I urge all registered voters to once again turn out en masse for the March 11, Governorship and House of Assembly Elections to vote for all APC candidates. We must free and save our dear State in the interest of generations yet unborn.

Your vote is your right!

Ima Niboro

Director, Communications and Media Strategy,

Delta APC Campaign Council.

Member, APC Presidential Campaign Council.

March 1, 2023.

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

Telegram

LinkedIn

Email

Print


Senate President Ahmad Lawan has said that Nigeria will experience more development with Bola Tinubu as president.

Mr Lawan, who made the remarks at the start of plenary on Wednesday, prayed that the country would see more, better development and progress with the leadership of Mr Tinubu.

He also prayed that the 10th Senate would provide the kind of support that the president-elect would need for the betterment of the country.

Mr Lawan said: Let me invite distinguished senators, particularly the All Progressives Congress (APC) senators to attend if possible, the ceremony for the issuance of Certificate-of-Returns to our President-elect Bola Tinubu at 3 p.m. at the International Conference Centre (ICC).

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the early hours of Wednesday, declared Tinubu the winner of the 25 February presidential election.

Mr Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos State, got a total vote of 8, 794, 726 to defeat his major rivals; Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who polled 6, 984, 520 votes and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) who secured 6,101,533 votes of the 24, 965, 218 total vote cast.

Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) came a distant fourth with 1,496,687 votes.

The INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, said that Mr Tinubu was declared returned and elected having satisfied the requirements.

That Tinubu Bola Ahmed of the APC having satisfied the requirements of the law and scoring the highest votes is hereby declared the winner and elected, Mr Yakubu said.

Governor Biodun Oyebanji of Ekiti State has also congratulated Mr Tinubu on his victory at Saturdays Presidential Election.

This was contained in a statement by the governors Special Adviser on Media, Yinka Oyebode, on Wednesday in Ado-Ekiti.

Mr Oyebanji described Mr Tinubus emergence as the president-elect as a sweet victory, coming after a rigorous fight of the electoral process.

He congratulated the president-elect, whom he described as a man of immense experience, capacity and competence; who will lead and serve the country with courage as well as sagacity.

Mr Oyebanji also congratulated Nigerians for the success of the electoral process, saying that the success of the 2023 elections attested to the fact that democracy had taken a firm root in the country.

First of all, we give thanks to God Almighty for this victory. Hearty congratulations to our leader and President-elect, Sen. Bola Tinubu, and a big congratulations to the Nigerian electorates- who are the real winners in the contest.

It is a new day in Nigeria, a happy day for all lovers of democracy, Tinubus electoral victory is a defining moment in the anal of our political history as a nation.

I have absolute confidence in Tinubus capacity to turn around the fortunes of the country and lead Nigeria to a new level of economic prosperity and international relevance, he said.

He also congratulated INEC leadership and the ruling APC, urging Nigerians to be prepared to give massive support to the incoming administration to be led by MrTinubu.

Also, a former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio, has described the emergence of Mr Tinubu, the President-elect, as a sign of better days to come for the country.

This was contained in a statement issued by Mr Akpabios Chief Press Secretary, Jackson Udom, in Uyo on Wednesday.

Mr Udom quoted Mr Akpabio as saying that the victory of Mr Tinubu was a demonstration of his acceptance across the length and breadth of the country and beyond.

Mr Akpabio, who is also the senator-elect for Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District, said the victory of the APC presidential candidate as declared by INEC was a confirmation of his nationwide acceptance.

Sen. Bola Tinubu is a tested and trusted hand in service delivery. He has done it before in Lagos State and I am very confident that he will do more for Nigerians as its leader.

He has the ability, capacity and the required experience needed to take this country to the next level in both national and international affairs, he said.

Mr Akpabio said that 29 May would mark the commencement of the delivery of dividends of democracy to our people in renewed hope.

I congratulate the leadership and membership of our great party on this well-deserved victory of our party, he added.

(NAN)

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

Telegram

LinkedIn

Email

Print


The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the African Union (AU) Convention on Cross-Border Cooperation better known as the Niamey Convention.

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Zubairu Dada, briefed State House correspondents on Wednesday after the FEC meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

According to the minister, the convention aims to simply promote cross-border cooperation at local, sub-regional and regional levels.

Mr Dada said the convention was initiated by Nigeria during the conference of African ministers in charge of borders on 29 May 2012 in Niamey, Niger Republic and adopted in Malabo Equatorial Guinea in 2014.

That simply explains why it is referred to as the Niamey Convention.

As I said, Nigeria initiated and spearheaded the drafting of the Convention; subsequently, Nigeria signed the convention on January 29, 2017.

What we simply did today was to present the convention to the council for its approval and ratification by the president.

The convention harps on federal governments foreign policy, which emphasises good neighbourliness,.

He said the convention equally intended to facilitate the delimitation, demarcation and reaffirmation of inter-state borders in conformity with mechanisms that had been agreed upon by the parties to the convention.

This convention is aimed at facilitating a peaceful resolution of border disputes between member states.

It is also intended to promote peace and stability through the prevention of conflicts, the integration of the continent and the deepening of unity amongst member states.

Equally very important is the fact that it provides an opportunity to share intelligence between us and our neighbours.

it also provides a mechanism for the promotion of economic integration of the continent, cross-border cooperation that will help trade facilitation and promote African Continental Free Trade Agreement which has just come into effect in the entire continent.

The minister said that he looked forward that the convention would enable Nigeria to harmonise activities at its numerous borders because it had very large borders.

Mr Dada said that the convention would enable Nigeria to achieve an integrated border management system.

This is precisely what this convention intends to achieve; as I said, we did sign this since the convention on January 29, 2017.

All we are doing now is to seek its ratification; other African countries have already signed on to it and have also ratified it.

All we are doing is to give leadership to Africa by ensuring that we also ratify it so that it will come into effect, he said.

(NAN)

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

Telegram

LinkedIn

Email

Print


The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senatorial candidate for the Abia North District election, M.A.O Ohuabunwa, has rejected the result of Saturdays poll.

Mr Ohuabunwa told reporters in his Umuahia residence on Tuesday that INEC breached the Electoral Act by announcing the results after declaring the election inconclusive.

He said the commission had on Sunday rescheduled elections in about 100 polling units in Arochukwu, Ohafia and other local government areas of Abia.

According to him, the elections were rescheduled for Sunday and later shifted to Monday in the areas where they could not take place on Saturday.

We mobilised our people and they trooped out to cast their votes only for us to hear that INEC announced a winner when it had yet to conclude the exercise.

This is unacceptable to us and we demand that the election be cancelled and a fresh election conducted in the 100 polling units.

I am rejecting the result totally and calling on INEC to conduct elections in the remaining polling units.

There are over 100 polling units with at least 60,000 voters in those areas, which is my own area, Mr Ohuabunwa said.

He said he had petitioned the commission to do the needful by conducting an election in the remaining polling units it declared inconclusive.

I do not care if somebody wins but the process must be clean and conclusive, he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Returning Officer for Abia North, Chinedu Nnamdi, on Monday declared Orji Kalu the winner of the election, having polled 30,805 votes.

Mr Nnamdi said Nnamdi Iroh of the Labour Party came second with 27,540, while Mr Ohuabunwa came third, having polled 15,175 votes.

Mr Ohuabunwa said the commission would have disenfranchised 60,000 voters in the area, who were prepared to exercise their franchise but for the lapses on the part of INEC.

He said when the INEC officials could not come with the materials around 3 p.m. because of a lack of vehicles, he gave money to hire 12 buses to assist in the distribution of materials from the local government headquarters to the polling units.

After waiting for a long period of time for materials, many people became worried and agitated and some of them went back home.

Election did not start until about 4 p.m., while the Bimodal Voter Verification System machine was bypassed in the sending of results at the local government level, Mr Ohuabunwa said.

He expressed disappointment that the commission gave the impression that the BVAS would help to eliminate rigging of elections in the country.

Unfortunately, this is the worst rigging I have ever seen, the former lawmaker said.

He said that the Electoral Act empowers INEC to review any petitions before it within seven days.

At the end of the window period we will weigh other options available to us if we are not satisfied, Mr Ohuabunwa said.

(NAN)

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

Telegram

LinkedIn

Email

Print


The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Umana Okon Umana has congratulated Nigerias President-elect Bola Tinubu for his victory at the poll.

Mr Tinubu, a candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), defeated 17 other candidates, including Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, to emerge as the winner of the 25 February election.

Mr Umana, who is a chieftain of the APC and the 2015 governorship candidate of the party in Akwa Ibom State, said in a statement issued on Wednesday that Mr Tinubu is a man of vision, who would harness human resources to further the collective interest of Nigerians.

He appreciated the APC members in Akwa Ibom for their support and commitment to the party during the presidential and National Assembly elections in the state.

We collectively achieved the objective of ensuring that His Excellency Bola Tinubu exceeded the minimum Constitutional requirement in Akwa Ibom State, the minister said.

Mr Umana also congratulated the former minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio over his victory in the senatorial election in Akwa Ibom North-west District, and expressed the hope that Mr Akpabio would utilise his wealth of experience to advance the cause of national development.

The President-elect, Mr Tinubu, in his victory speech, described his election as a shining moment and an affirmation of Nigerias democratic existence.

He extended a hand of friendship to his opponents in the election, saying the campaign was competitive, high-spirited.

Today, Nigeria stands tall as the giant of Africa. It shines even brighter as the continents biggest democracy, Mr Tinubu said.

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

Telegram

LinkedIn

Email

Print


A former Governor of Katsina State, Ibrahim Shema has called on the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and other contestants to accept the outcome of the presidential election.

The result of the election, held on Saturday, is being collated but the PDP, the Labour Party and former President Olusegun Obasanjo have accused the electoral body of insincerity.

Mr Shema, in a statement he titled In the interest of Nigeria said the election was peaceful but had its challenges.

He said despite the challenges, Nigerians should collectively work for the success of the process.

This election was generally acclaimed to be peaceful, but not without some challenges, we should therefore collectively come together to work for its peaceful outcome and continue to support the advancement of the course of our dear country and its people, in unity, peace and progress for all Nigerians, because without peace no nation can endure and no leader can succeed, he said.

Mr Shema, also a former deputy national chairman (north) of the PDP, urged contestants and other politicians to support democratic institutions to discharge their duties accordingly.

Our democratic institutions must be encouraged and supported in discharging their roles in accordance with the laws of the land.

Let also be reminded that there is no perfect election anywhere in the world or election without complaints, and ours can not be an exemption, but we must therefore learn to manage our situation in the interest of Nigeria and for all Nigerians.

It is also time for *all leading candidates in this contest* to come together and speak with one voice for the peace, unity, and stability of this country they seek to lead, he said.

Mr Shema also called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to look into complaints raised by political parties.

On the final note, INEC must look into genuine and legitimate concerns and complaints, but in doing so must act strictly in consonance with the laws of the land*. They will still be accused, abused, and insulted, but that should not deter them from doing what is right under the laws.

BELOW IS MR SHEMAS FULL STATEMENT

IN THE INTEREST OF NIGERIA

I begin in the name of God Almighty, who knows what will be before it comes to be.

1. I will start this as an *appeal to all our leaders, men and women of goodwill* to speak up for collective NATIONAL INTEREST at this critical stage of our National life, while also acknowledging those who have spoken already.

2. We must also anchor *our democracy on the rule of law* in order for us to build an enduring system that will succeed.

3. *Our Democratic Institutions* must be encouraged and supported in discharging their roles in accordance with the laws of the land.

4. Let also be reminded that there is no perfect election anywhere in the world or election without complaints, and ours can not be an exemption, but we must therefore learn to manage our situation in the interest of Nigeria and for all Nigerians.

5. At this junction, sectional, tribal, religious, personal, or group interests must give way to *National and Collective Interest*.

6. I also call on all *political, regional, religious, traditional, and business leaders* to join hands in supporting and deepening Nigerias democracy in *peace and unity* to calm our nation.

7. It is also time for *all leading candidates in this contest* to come together and speak with one voice for the peace, unity, and stability of this country they seek to lead.

8. By the special grace of God, we should not forget that we are the *largest black nation on the face of this universe* and the pride of all black men and women, blessed with enormous hunan and material resources, thereby making our leadership role in Africa a responsibility we must not fail to carry.

9. Let me also call on *the global Democratic family across the world, especially our international friends, nations, and partners*, not to relent in their efforts in supporting our growing democracy under the rule of law.

10. This election was generally acclaimed to be peaceful, but not without some challenges, we should therefore collectively come together to work for its peaceful outcome and continue to support the advancement of the course of our dear country and its people, in unity, peace and progress for all Nigerians, because without peace no nation can endure and no leader can succeed.

11. I can not end this appeal without asking the media ( all categories) to stand up and be counted at this hour of our nations needs in order to help bring down tension in the land and not to do anything to escalate it. Their role is critical because they can contribute immensely one way or the other for the peace and stability of Nigeria.

12. On the final note, *INEC must look into genuine and legitimate concerns and complaints, but in doing so must act strictly in consonance with the laws of the land*. They will still be accused, abused, and insulted, but that should not deter them from doing what is right under the laws.

13. Our *security agencies* should also ensure effective discharge of their constitutional responsibilities of protecting the lives and property of Nigerians wherever they are.

14. May the God Almighty, the master and ruler of the universe, bless Nigeria with the peaceful outcomes of these elections .

Signed

Ibrahim S. Shema ( CON)

(Sarkin yarkin Hausa)

Former Governor of Katsina State

Dated  28th February, 2023.

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

Telegram

LinkedIn

Email

Print


President Muhammadu Buhari has congratulated the winner of the 2023 Presidential Election, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

I congratulate His Excellency Bola Ahmed Tinubu on his victory. Elected by the people, he is the best person for the job. I shall now work with him and his team to ensure an orderly handover of power, spokesperson Garba Shehu quoted Mr Buhari as saying.

The election was Africas largest democratic exercise. In a region that has undergone backsliding and military coups in recent years, this election demonstrates democracys continued relevance and capability to deliver for the people it serves.

Within Nigeria, the results reveal democracys ripening in our country. Never has the electoral map shifted so drastically in one cycle. In the presidential elections, states in all regions across the nation changed colour. Some amongst you may have noticed my home state amongst them. The winning candidate did not carry his own home state either. That happens during a competitive election. Votes and those that cast them cannot be taken for granted. Each must be earned. Competition is good for our democracy. There is no doubt the peoples decision has been rendered in the results we look at today.

Mr Buhari also commented on the reactions of the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (Atiku Abubakar) and the Labour Party (Peter Obi) who accused INEC of compromise and called for the cancellation of the election.

The president continued, That is not to say the exercise was without fault. For instance, there were technical problems with electronic transmission of the results. Of course, there will be areas that need work to bring further transparency and credibility to the voting procedure. However, none of the issues registered represent a challenge to the freeness and fairness of the elections.

I know some politicians and candidates may not agree with this view. That too is fine. If any candidate believes they can prove the fraud they claim is committed against them, then bring forward the evidence. If they cannot, then we must conclude that the election was indeed the peoples will  no matter how hard that may be for the losers to accept. If they feel the need to challenge, please take it to the courts, not to the streets.

However, to do the latter means they are not doing it in the interest of the people, but rather to inflame, to put people in harms way and all for personal, selfish gains.

After a degree of polarization that necessarily accompanies any election, it is now time to come together and act responsibly. I call on all candidates to remember the peace pledge they signed just days before the election. Do not undermine the credibility of INEC. Let us now move forward as one. The people have spoken.

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

Telegram

LinkedIn

Email

Print


A coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) has called for thorough investigation into reported infractions in the conduct of the 2023 general election.

The election which took place on Saturday was reportedly marred by violence and attacks in some states in the country. Many electorate in Lagos state reported cases of assaults from supporters of opposition parties.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the coalition said it is concerned about reports of irregularities and violence during voting in several states.

It said there were also reports of violent assaults on staff of Nigerias electoral commission, INEC, destruction of election materials, including BVAS, and attacks on voters in a number of places as a result of security flaws.

The coalition called for thorough investigation and persecution of persons where human error is established.

That despite the infractions and incidents of violence reported in a couple of places, we strongly believe the elections are not beyond redemption, and thus INEC and law enforcement authorities should do all that is possible within the law to transparently rectify these situations, it said.

Other irregularities

The coalition said it observed INECs evident blunder, which resulted in lengthy delays in the start and end of voting in a number of polling units, and even the deferral of the exercise to the following day in some other units.

It said it also noticed reports of technical challenges with the BVAS in some polling locations, as well as other critical but resolved issues such as ballot paper stamping delays.

The coalition added: More significantly, and with grave worry, we observe INECs inability to quickly update the iRev Portal for citizens to monitor poll results, despite the huge expectations raised by INEC in that regard.

We are concerned, however, by the approach that politicians across the board are taking to the issues, as well as the danger that their words and actions may pose to the Nigerian society and our efforts to secure our democratic path through fair election conduct.

The coalition also raised concerns about attempt to end the ongoing electoral process without completing it logically and in accordance with established processes and procedures.

It urge Nigerians to be vigilant and resist any attempt by politicians of all stripes to undermine or impede the countrys hard-earned democracy.

Members of the coalition include: Abiola Akiode-Afolabi of Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre, Sulaimon Arigbabu  HEDA Resource Centre, Zikrillahi Ibrahim- Resource Centre for Human Rights & Civic Education (CHRICED), Hazmat Lawal  Connected Development (CODE), Debo Adeniran, Centre for Anti corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL), Adeola Soetan  Citizenship Civic Awareness Centre, Olanrewaju Suraju  Civil Society Network Against Corruption (CSNAC) and Popoola Ajayi  Value and Integrity Group.

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

Telegram

LinkedIn

Email

Print


Katsina State governor, Aminu Masari, has expressed optimism that the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, Dikko Radda, will emerge victorious.

Mr Masari was speaking to journalists Wednesday afternoon when he visited President Muhammadu Buhari at his private residence in Daura, Katsina State, to congratulate the president on the victory of the APC in the presidential election.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Bola Tinubu of the APC as the president-elect Wednesday morning.

Mr Tinubu lost Katsina State to the PDP.

The closed-door meeting lasted for about an hour.

Briefing journalists after the meeting, the governor said he met with the president to review the preparations of the APC for the governorship elections with the president.

He (Buhari) is more than delighted first of all for APC to have won this presidential election and in a peaceful manner, like I said in Katsina we had the elections without loss of lives, without any violence recorded and so he is very pleased and happy about it and reports coming from across the nation that has been reaching him had indicated quite a successful election.

And you know as a President leaving office and getting a successor from his party, you dont need to ask me if he was happy. The answer is positive and he is happier than the candidate because this is his election, its a verdict on the performance of his government that is the reason why people voted for the APC, Mr Masari said.

READ ALSO: INEC declares APCs Bola Tinubu winner of Nigerias presidential election

We are getting ready to breed on our successes and also our failures to see those areas we need to address so that the gubernatorial election will be won by APC. You know that we delivered all three senatorial seats from Katsina state, and we delivered 9 members of the House of Representatives out of 15, so you can see that the whole of North West, we are contributing more to the National Assembly than any other state, he said.

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

Telegram

LinkedIn

Email

Print


A Magistrate Court in Kano on Wednesday remanded in a correctional facility the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Ado Doguwa, over alleged complicity in the murder of three members of his constituency.

The police in Kano arrested and charged Mr Doguwa, alongside others, for criminal conspiracy, and culpable homicide.

He was also charged with causing grievous hurt, mischief by fire, and inciting disturbance.

The Magistrate, Ibrahim Yola, remanded the lawmaker till 7th March for the hearing of his bail application.

The lawmaker was reportedly involved in a violent confrontation between members of the New Nigeria People Party (NNPP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) that led to the killing of three people and the burning of a campaign office of the opposition party in the Tudun Wada Local Government Area of Kano.

Mr Doguwa, who is seeking re-election to represent the Tudun Wada, Doguwa federal constituency, reportedly arrived at the venue of the fracas to protest the alleged cancellation of the result where the crisis ensured.

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

Telegram

LinkedIn

Email

Print


Proceedings in the trial of suspended Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Ahmed Idris, over an alleged N109 billion money laundering suit were stalled on Wednesday.

Mr Idris alongside three others  Godfrey Olusegun Akindele, Mohammed Usman and Gezawa Commodity Market and Exchange Limited  are being tried at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court

But Wednesdays proceedings could not go on due to a missing statement that was made by Mr Idris to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in the course of investigation.

The defendants were initially arraigned before O A. Adeyemi-Ajayi, but they were re-arraigned last October before another judge, Halilu Yusuf.

The statement dated 5 July 2022, could not be found in the courts record as well as EFCCs and the defence teams.

At the resumed hearing on Wednesday, EFCCs lawyer, Oluwaleke Atolagbe, began trial-within-trial of Mr Idris, following the suspended AGFs denial of voluntarily making some of his statements to the anti-graft agency.

Mr Idris insists that key statements being proposed by the EFCC to be used against him in the alleged corruption charges were made under duress.

Due to the allegation, the judge, Mr Yusuf, ordered a trial-within-trial to authenticate the claims.

How missing statement stalled hearing

The EFCC had presented one of its witnesses, Hayatudeen Suleiman, for examination of 13 statements extracted from Mr Idris.

But the days proceedings came to a halt when it was discovered that the statement dated 5 July 2022, was missing.

The missing statement is said to be critical to the entire trial.

The issue was compounded when the anti-corruption agency could not find the statement in its own case file.

Mr Idris lawyer, Chris Uche, told the court that the missing statement did not form part of the prosecutions statements that were given to him.

Mr Uche, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), accused EFCC of suppressing some documents, which the missing one might be a part of.

We came fully prepared for this case to be substantially dealt with but unfortunately, EFCC appears to be dragging us back by not putting its house in order.

If it were a civil matter, I would have asked for a cost of N5 million for our precious time wasted by the prosecution, Mr Uche said.

Subsequently, the EFCC lawyer, sought an adjournment to enable him to search for the missing statement and serve it on the defendant as required by law.

Acceding to the request, the judge adjourned the case until 11 May for the continuation of trial-within-trial.

Background

The anti-graft agency re-arraigned the defendants on 27 October 27, 2022, on a 13-count charge bordering on alleged misappropriation of the sum of N109 billion.

Mr Idris and his co-defendants were first arraigned on 22 July 2o22, before Mr Ajayi, who was a vacation judge.

In one of the charges, the EFCC said between February and December 2021, Mr Idris accepted from Mr Akindele, a gratification of N15.1 billion, which sum was as a motive for accelerating the payment of 13 per cent derivation to the nine oil-producing states in the Federation, through the office of the Accountant General of the Federation.

Also, it alleged that N84.3 billion from the Federal Governments account was cornered by Mr Idris and the second defendant (Mr Akindele) between February and November 2021.

According to the charges, the alleged offences violate sections 155 and 315 of the Penal Code Act Cap 532 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990.

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

Telegram

LinkedIn

Email

Print


President-elect, Bola Tinubu, on Wednesday night met with President Muhammadu Buhari in Daura, hours after collecting his Certificate of Return from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr Tinubu was accompanied by Vice-President-elect, Kashim Shettima and the National Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Adamu.

Others on the trip to Daura were the Governors of Kaduna, Nasir El-Rufai; Kebbi, Atiku Bagudu; Ebonyi, Dave Umahi; Zamfara, Bello Matawalle; Niger, Abubakar Sani-Bello; Lagos, Babajide Sanwo-Olu; Ogun, Dapo Abiodun, Jigawa, Badaru Abubakar and Plateau, Simon Lalong.

NAN gathered that the President-elect used the opportunity to thank President Buhari for his support during the electioneering process.

President Buhari had openly displayed his ballot paper, with thumb print of APC, before casting his vote during the presidential election on 25 February.

Mr Tinubu was declared the President-elect in the early hours of Wednesday by INEC, having defeated Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, among other presidential candidates.

(NAN)

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

Telegram

LinkedIn

Email

Print


With what was commonplace on social media platforms populated by people with higher educational certificates and professional/vocational exposures, it is not likely we are going to have that new Nigeria in the foreseeable future With that election done, and the self-styled potentates dusted, it would be difficult for some entities to retain their pre-election statuses and reverence.

I was deeply worried about my uncles heart. He has a blood pressure challenge. Thank God I was in Uyo when the 2015 presidential election result was announced. I had advised him much earlier against placing too much premium on election outcomes, but should always keep an open mind because anything could happen. I told him that permutations on ground did not favour his then preferred candidate; that he should create room for the unexpected. He dismissed my advice, citing what he regarded as solid indicators. It almost cost his life.

I had just returned from my sojourn in Abuja as one of the principal officers of the 2014 National Conference. Given my orientation as a journalist, I had carried out a survey among a very potent political population that made up the delegates. I knew their thinking and dispositions. I placed that alongside my many years in the field. It was obvious that what undiscerning persons would think impossible was going to happen. It happened. My uncle almost had a grand reception from his ancestors. I was called in by his club members. My presence helped the situation.

On Wednesday, 22 February, it suddenly occurred to me that my uncle, who is eight years older now, might again be walking a similar pathway, given his peculiar disposition. He had been calling me almost on a daily basis to find out the status of the various court cases involving the gubernatorial candidates of parties in my state. He relies on me to give him information on such politically-related cases handled in Abuja.

I then called him to find out who he was supporting for the presidential race. He told me. I asked him why. He explained. The familiar trademarks! I reminded him of his blood pressure situation and asked him to keep an open mind. He asked why. I told him his candidate does not stand a chance, given the permutations on ground. He argued. I told him outcomes of national elections are determined using binoculars, not spectacles. Again, he lost but with care this time.

Often, people contest election results because they always see issues from their own prisms. They hardly consider historical antecedents, regional peculiarities, religious affiliations, and the sensibilities and orientation of others that make up the universe of activity. They hardly look at the big picture. They create their own world and live in it. And then assume that whatever obtains there should be the gold standard. Any divergent view is viciously attacked, condemned, rejected and vehemently protested. In their cocoon, they become the custodians of the national conscience. Those who do not share in their sentiments are enemies of the country.

It remains true always that raw emotion cannot supplant strategic planning. Every segment spills emotions; it is the strategic mixture of the various emotions into an agreeable paste called goodwill that gives a candidate an edge. The mixture is done in a crucible known as structures, built across the divides, over time. It is so because the component divides have their peculiarities, strengths and weaknesses; and these have to be harnessed and cultivated. Arrogance is one ingredient that does not blend. It makes smooth paste impossible. Mindless consumption often results in emotional combustion.

The just concluded presidential election in Nigeria presented a spectacular scenario. Religion has dealt a fatal blow to rationalism. It has always been there, but this time it took the form of sordid evangelism. Some who believe they know God more than God himself, irrespective of creed and educational attainments, became trapped in odious sentiments that beggar belief.

People often claim that there is something peculiar about politics in Nigeria. A comparative spreadsheet would show that is not the case. It is what happens everywhere in the world, even though in varying degrees. Region, religion, race and rewards always play critical roles in the eventual disposition of those involved and affected. Vehicles to push and counter the inputs and outputs are very germane in determining the outcomes.

Some Nigerians have become avid complainants about how things are not working in the country; and they often express how desirous they are for a new Nigeria. Underneath such expressions is usually a deep sense of hypocrisy. The concern is not really about Nigeria; it is about their sentimental predispositions, largely region and religion, and a good dose of greed and opportunism.

The just concluded presidential election in Nigeria presented a spectacular scenario. Religion has dealt a fatal blow to rationalism. It has always been there, but this time it took the form of sordid evangelism. Some who believe they know God more than God himself, irrespective of creed and educational attainments, became trapped in odious sentiments that beggar belief.

In all the sacred books used by the various faiths, God clearly indicates that He is the supreme consciousness. He shares His glory with no one. But what did we see all over the place? Leaders of some faith-based institutions became gods and made pronouncements with uncanny indiscretion. Some uttered curses upon members who do not take their word as gospel. They turned the altar of God into a theatre of absurdities. They forget that the Almighty is a jealous God.

Platforms of religious groups meant for information and evangelism were turned into arenas for hate speeches and preachments of political and religious intolerance. Anyone who has a different view would be reminded of how the children of Israel lost their heritage in Egypt because they failed to position themselves in governance when Joseph was prime minister. Was that Gods plan for the children of Israel, to make Egypt their inheritance? Religionists who do not factor Gods plan into their thinking and rationalisations are bound to turn logic into gospel and confuse the gullible.

Sentiment has a way of beclouding reasoning. It amazes when some religious practitioners assume a sense of entitlement. They initiate actions and fail to reckon that others have the capacity to either counter or do the same. They direct adherents not to vote for people of other faiths but expect others to vote for theirs, nonetheless. Bigotry was elevated to a mountainous pedigree. They label others and assume theirs should be sacrosanct. Clannishness runs deep in their consciousness, some with unbelievable arrogance.

Ethnicity has always played a role in our election decisions. However, in the last election there was something that looked like a resurgence of ethnic nationalism. It showed in the results, where some regions had just one party as the exclusive choice. Arrogance and impudence were on open display across the land. Divergent views were attacked with vehemence.

They chose to forget that God is not a religious bigot, nor is He an ethnic chauvinist. God has always shown himself to be God of all, and the pretenders are always unveiled as liars. Unfortunately these liars learn no lessons. They wait for the next season; and their band of gullible followers are on hand to form an orchestra,

Ethnicity has always played a role in our election decisions. However, in the last election there was something that looked like a resurgence of ethnic nationalism. It showed in the results, where some regions had just one party as the exclusive choice. Arrogance and impudence were on open display across the land. Divergent views were attacked with vehemence.

At a point, it was like this is my turn had transformed in some quarters to this is our chance, a mantra that had been waiting for an opportunity to resurface. The brash attitude, which was probably assumed to be some kind of positive activism, offended the sensibilities of some undecided elements in other areas, who also donned their respective ethnic or regional garbs, even if reluctantly. Some regions were locked in, while some others were turned into a thoroughfare for political wayfarers. It forced some persons who remembered the past to scream never again!

Propaganda is usually the main ingredient in electioneering campaigns. It lived up to its billing in the last exercise. One thing it unveiled glaringly was the gullibility of otherwise exposed persons. The way some Nigerians gobbled fake news and obvious lies was really amazing. No matter how glaringly distorted, some otherwise enlightened persons would jump on illicit postings and attack them with ferocious comments, depending on their respective camps and dispositions. It could be quite disappointing seeing persons who should ordinarily be discerning sharing obviously harebrained materials on platforms of persons with privileged exposure.

I have always longed for a new Nigeria where citizens will first be responsible and then patriotic; where people know their boundaries and respect the sensibilities and sensitivities of others; where certain things are left to personal/private dispositions; where citizens are weaned off uncanny entitlements, where people take responsibility for their actions. A new Nigeria is not synonymous with a new individual as president. It is wishful thinking that an individual who has presented himself for the office of president will emerge with a magic wand to clear the Augean stable, while we keep our clannish and greedy dispositions.

With what was commonplace on social media platforms populated by people with higher educational certificates and professional/vocational exposures, it is not likely we are going to have that new Nigeria in the foreseeable future. Deep interrogation of issues from a global perspective is clearly lacking. Most are armed with ethnic and religious stethoscopes. The diagnosis can only worsen our case. With that election done, and the self-styled potentates dusted, it would be difficult for some entities to retain their pre-election statuses and reverence.

Akpandem James, a communication consultant, lives in Abuja.

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

Telegram

LinkedIn

Email

Print


Photo taken on May 7, 2019 shows vehicles at the Tiexi Plant of BMW Brilliance Automotive (BBA) in Shenyang, northeast China's Liaoning Province. (Xinhua/Yang Qing)

GUANGZHOU, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- China is still considered one of the most attractive destinations for investment with more companies planning to reinvest in China this year, according to a report released Monday by the American Chamber of Commerce in South China (AmCham South China).

The chamber's annual white paper on China's business environment is seen as a window for observing China's business environment through the eyes of foreign-funded enterprises. The white paper was based on a survey of more than 200 companies from September to December 2022. Among the surveyed businesses, 40 percent are wholly foreign-owned companies, and nearly 20 percent are representative offices of foreign companies and joint ventures.

The report showed that more than 90 percent of the participating companies select China as one of the most important investment destinations.

More than half of the companies gained over 30 percent of their global revenue from China, and 45 percent registered a significant or slight increase in their revenue from China last year, according to the report.

China has been among the world's fastest-growing economies with one of the most dynamic markets. Although its economy is shadowed somewhat by uncertainty caused by the pandemic, most companies still consider China a critical part of their future strategic development plans, and 75 percent of the participating companies plan to reinvest in China in 2023, an increase of around 3 percent, said the report.

With more than 2,300 members, AmCham South China provides support for American and international companies doing business in south China.
In the eyes of the people, Labour Party won this election, and there is no better way to reciprocate the mandate given to them by working for the people. This time, representations at the National Assembly will be colourful, while debates will be exciting. For winning the hearts of the people and for changing the usual narrative with the much it has achieved, Labour Party is the unexpected victor in Nigerias most consequential election.

As imperfect as any human endeavour is, as disappointing as the election turned out to be, in comparison with the pre-election optimism, and as certain as winning and losing is, this presidential election is, for the first time in the history of elections in Nigeria, the most competitive, revealing, shocking and anticipated.

Apart from the almost 25 million voters, the election has produced so many upsets and thrown up issues and persons that were not in the front burner in political discourse previously. Is it the outpouring of youth in the political participation process? Is it the incumbent party struggling for survival? Or is the defeat of Tinubu at his backyard in Lagos imminent?

One of the issues thrown up with this election, apart from the massive youth mobilisation and participation, is anger and revulsion against the political elite. Even those who eventually emerged winners would tell you how hard they fought.

Peter Obi, the former governor of Anambra State, came to the Labour Party as an underdog; he was not just a frontrunner in the election, his massive votes threatened established candidates in the race. He did not just win the majority of votes in the South-South and South-East, the Labour Party succeeded in defeating lawmakers who have been around over the years, such as Ndudi Elumelu, Sam Egwu, Onyejeocha and a host of others.

But how does one juxtapose the LPs sweeping of the South-East with the same zones agitation for the presidency in the context of a national quest? The Obi/LP revolution might have changed the power configuration generally, but it has left the Igbo presidency bid in a quandary. Their pathway to the presidency, which PDP touted and offered them, was rejected in favour of their own in Obi. However, the final results of the presidential election may have left the Igbo in a far more precarious situation and despondency than before, except the LP momentum can be sustained and nurtured for years in the way the South-West nurtured, sustained and owned the Alliance for Democracy (AD)-Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) until their merger with Buharis Congress for Progressive Change (CPC)/All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) to produce the presidency in 2015. If the South-East handles Labour Party the way it did the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), the momentum will fizzle out in the course of time.

The opposition is yet to learn any lesson. How can you seek to supplant an incumbent government while being so split down the middle? Rabiu Kwankwaso with his nearly one million votes in Kano alone is down and out. Impressive as Labour Partys outing is, nearly does not kill a bird. For the G-5, it takes more than junketing from one part of the world to the other on tax payers money, wearing aso ebi and partying together to win elections.

The political equation that came out of the contest has further alienated the South-East from mainstream political leaning, which used to be PDP and now APC. So, when next the Igbos complain about being marginalised, remind them about the missed opportunity in the Atiku-Obi and Atiku-Okowa tickets that did not fly and which they did not buy into respectively. Politics is about strategic thinking, calculation, scheming and planning, and not emotion and the bandwagon effect. Im afraid the South-East did not do much of it prior to this election.

This takes me to the once-toast of the Nigerian press, the G-5 governors. The renegade five governors of the PDP  Governors Samuel Ortom, Ikpeazu, Makinde, Ugwuanyi and Wike who have been in combat mood and were celebrated as speaking for the South did help the Labour Party and this nailed some of them and their ambitions under the PDP. They even renamed themselves as the Integrity Group to give themselves a semblance of credibility and as freedom fighters. Out of these five, at least three have kissed the canvas, having lost their senatorial bids, while Wikes anointed candidates also lost their bids. It remains to be seen whether their anointed governorship candidates will survive the Labour Party storm they brought upon themselves.

As for the PDP, it should be obvious to them that you cannot go into a crucial contest like a presidential election divided. And as the saying goes, a divided house cannot stand. PDP had split into four before the election  the mainstream PDP, the G-5, part of Labour Party and NNPP. All of them went down together.

The opposition is yet to learn any lesson. How can you seek to supplant an incumbent government while being so split down the middle? Rabiu Kwankwaso with his nearly one million votes in Kano alone is down and out. Impressive as Labour Partys outing is, nearly does not kill a bird. For the G-5, it takes more than junketing from one part of the world to the other on tax payers money, wearing aso ebi and partying together to win elections. If you dont want your friend to become king, you cannot be a kings friend. They fought Atiku to a standstill and frustrated his last opportunity to be president; the electorate has paid them in their own coins.

There is a saying that there is blessing in disunity. The Labour Party thought they were fighting Tinubu, meanwhile he became the beneficiary of the division they caused with their withdrawal of support for PDP. The lack of compromise and cohesion undid the PDP. A fragmented opposition PDP was not formidable enough to defeat the incumbent, and some of us did warn on the imperative of making concessions, but they did not listen.

My hope is that Labour Party will not mismanage the revolutionary-like unprecedent support they got by allowing pastors and Christian religious leaders to hijack their denouement reminiscent of the EndSARS protest that unified the youth of this country. Even then, the party has every reason to celebrate the number of lawmakers that will be flying its flag in the next dispensation at the National Assembly.

Warts and all, Labour Party might not have won, but the party should actually celebrate itself as the biggest winner. You dont have to win the trophy before you win the hearts of people. Labour is the hero of the presidential race. It railed against the establishment and revolted against the system, while Obi served a red card to politicians of the old order. With Labour and Obis incursion, no public position is anybodys birthright, while intimidation and suppression of votes can no longer work.

Here is a party cobbled together within a year after it became obvious that Atiku would not pick Obi as his running mate. Yet, that party has been able to come this far. If only they eschewed religious and ethnic sentiments, they would have gone farther than this. A political party that identifies with a particular ethnic group or religion is doomed to fail. Labour built its house on quicksand, and failure was predictable. It is however not too late to consolidate on its current efforts. Labour only needs a national spread to take it to Aso Rock Villa. Legal options and protests wont take it anywhere.

My hope is that Labour Party will not mismanage the revolutionary-like unprecedent support they got by allowing pastors and Christian religious leaders to hijack their denouement reminiscent of the EndSARS protest that unified the youth of this country. Even then, the party has every reason to celebrate the number of lawmakers that will be flying its flag in the next dispensation at the National Assembly. Im excited about the coming rainbow parliament of people from different parties working toward the betterment of Nigeria, and not for self-interest or party interest. Hopefully, the National Assembly will cease to be the Executives rubber stamp, thanks to Obi and the Labour Party.

Another win for the people is the emergence of an Okada rider as a would-be lawmaker in Kaduna State. It means institutional and structural bottlenecks will no longer be impediments to ones aspiration. Again, thanks to the Labour Party.

In the coming days, we expect an active parliament that will scrutinise (and not pad) budgets. A National Assembly that will ensure even spread of infrastructure across the country, and not those that turn constituency projects into their slush funds. Labour Party can work for the people if its lawmakers do their oversight work and do not collude with the executive to shortchange Nigerians. In the eyes of the people, Labour Party won this election, and there is no better way to reciprocate the mandate given to them by working for the people. This time, representations at the National Assembly will be colourful, while debates will be exciting. For winning the hearts of the people and for changing the usual narrative with the much it has achieved, Labour Party is the unexpected victor in Nigerias most consequential election.

Zainab Suleiman Okino is Editorial Board chair of Blueprint Newspaper and a syndicated columnist. She can be reached via zainabokino@gmail.com.

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

Telegram

LinkedIn

Email

Print


I attended an event recently in Lagos and Chief Joseph Oladele Sanusi (84) from Ogbagi in Akoko North West Local Government of Ondo state, entered quietly, unannounced. The Master of Ceremony (MC) at the event did not even recognise him. I had to tell a friend of mine who sat next to me that, that is the eighth governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). My friend then asked me was he governor under the military and I replied negative, but that he was the Central Bank governor between 1999 and 2004 under President Olusegun Obasanjo, GCFR.

By the way Ogbagi is home to other prominent people including Chief Jibola Aribisala (SAN); Dr Olu Ibukun, a retired UN Diplomat; Professor Soji Adesugba, current managing director of Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA), a parastatal under the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment and others too numerous to mention.

Chief Joseph Sanusi attended the United School, Ogbagi-Irun from 1944-1950; Jubilee Central School, Ikare, 1951 (his classmates then were the late Owa Ale of Ikare), Sir S.K. Adedoyin (1924-2021),the late Akoko leader, Chief Felix Idowu Ayegbusi (1935-2018) and the present Olukare of Ikare, Oba Saliu Akadiri Momoh (89). He later proceeded to St. Johns College, Owo, 1953-1954, St Peters College, Kaduna, 1957-1958, South West London College, England, 1961-1966; he joined the Central Bank of Nigeria in 1966 as an account manager, later assistant Chief Internal Auditor, deputy Chief of Banking Operations, departmental director, executive director, Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), later chairman, First Bank of Nigeria; appointed deputy governor, CBN, 1988; associate, Corporation of Chartered Accountants and fellow, Institute of Chartered Accountants.

When President Olusegun Obasanjo GCFR became the President on May 29 1999, he appointed Chief Sanusi as the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. President Obasanjo made the appointment over his Egba born close friend, Chief Oluwole Alani Adeosun(1938-2012), former Managing Director of NAL Merchant Bank, also Managing Director of First Bank of Nigeria, who also served as the Minister of Transport in the Interim Transitional Government headed by Chief Ernest Adegunle Oladeinde Shonekan GCFR (9 May 1936  11 January 2022).

The Central Bank of Nigeria is the apex monetary authority of Nigeria established by the CBN Act of 1958 and commenced operations on 1 July 1959.

The major regulatory objectives of the bank as stated in the CBN Act are to: maintain the external reserves of the country, promote monetary stability and a sound financial environment, and act as a banker of last resort and financial adviser to the federal government. The central banks role as lender of last resort and adviser to the federal government has sometimes pushed it into murky regulatory waters. After the end of British imperial rule the desire of the government to become pro-active in the development of the economy became visible especially after the end of the Nigerian civil war, the bank followed the governments desire and took a determined effort to supplement any show shortfalls, credit allocations to the real sector. The bank became involved in lending directly to consumers, contravening its original intention to work through commercial banks in activities involving consumer lending.

During the tenure of Chief Sanusi as Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, he embraced collaboration with his deputy governors  Mr Oluwole S. Oduyemi, Alhaji Mahey R. Rasheed, Mrs Wahir Msheila, Dr Shamsudeen Usman and Mr Ernest C. Ebi. He never acted like an alpha and omega.

He quickly introduced foreign exchange controls in an effort to reduce the drain on foreign reserves which had fallen from over $7 billion to under $4 billion in the last two years, during the tenure of the then Head of States, General Sani Abacha GCFR (20 September 1943  8 June 1998) and General Abdusalam Abubakar (80) GCFR and to defend the naira. Oil revenues, the primary source of foreign exchange, had dropped below the level needed to cover basic requirements. The business community was hostile to the efforts to prop up the currency, believing that devaluation coupled with exchange market reform was necessary.

On Saturday, 29 May, 2004, Chief Sanusis tenure as the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria was to end. His term was qualified for a renewal. Few weeks before that date, he had an audience with President Obasanjo in THE VILLA during which he told the President emphatically that he would not serve another term. He elaborated to the President that he would want to spend more time with his wife, Adunke Sanusi alias MAMA TOYIN, who is from Imesi Ile in Obokun Local Government Area of Osun State. Chief Sanusi tendered his resignation to President Obasanjo, who said he was shocked by Chief Sanusis decision. He later instructed the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Ufot Ekaette, to write a letter of appreciation on behalf of the Federal Government to Chief Sanusi for his long and rewarding service to the nation.

On Monday, 31 May, 2004, my boss, Chief Ufot Ekaette (1939-2019) CFR, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, handed to me, for distribution, a press release on the new appointment of Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo as the new Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria by President Olusegun Obasanjo. It was a two paragraph press statement.

I had to convince Chief Ekaette to let us delay the announcement until we could get fully, the biography of Professor Soludo. He obliged and directed me to contact Dr Obiageli Katryn Ezekwesili (59), who was then head of the Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit in the Presidency and who introduced Professor Soludo to President Obasanjo for the appointment. An hour later, Professor Soludo entered my office with his Curriculum Vitae (CV), which I added to the press release and I congratulated him. That was the last time he ever visited the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.

Chief Joseph Sanusis tenure as the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria was indeed low profile.

Those who succeeded him, Professor Soludo(29 May 2004-29 May 2009), Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi(June 4, 2009-June 2, 2014) and Mr Godwin Emefiele(June 3, 2014 to date) took a different route.

Past Governors of the bankRoy Pentelow Fenton, 24 July 1958 to 24 July, 1963, Alhaji Aliyu Mai-Bornu, 25 July, 1963 to 22 June 1967; Dr Clement Nyong Isong; 15 August, 1972 to 24 September, 1975; Mallam Adamu Ciroma, 24 September 1975 to 28 June 1977; Mr O. Ola Vincent, 28 June 1977 to 28 June 1982; Alhaji Abdulkadir Ahmed, 28 June 1982 to 30 September 1993 and Dr. Paul Agbai Ogwuma, 1 October 1993 to 29 May 1999, all avoided notoriety while in office.

In 1975, the members of the Constitution Drafting Committee argued among themselves on the exact role of the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria especially on monetary matters.

The members of the subcommittee on the Economy, Finance and Division of Powers headed by Dr. Pius Nwabufo Charles Okigbo (1924-2000) from Ojoto Village in Idemili Local Government Area of Anambra State, never wanted a conflict between the Governor of the Central Bank and the Minister of Finance. Other members of the subcommittee were Dr Bala Usman, Senior Lecturer in History at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Dr Segun Osoba, then Senior lecturer in history at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife), Chief Rasheed Gbadamosi, pioneer Commissioner of Economic Development in Lagos State, Dr. O. Oyediran, then Senior lecturer in Political Science at the University of Ibadan, Dr Ali Alhakeem, an Economist and former deputy General Manager, Bank of the North, later full time Chairman Nigerian Indigenisation Board, Chief I.I. Murphy, former Parliamentarian in the first republic and Commissioner in the Old South Eastern State, Dr E.C. Edozien, senior lecturer in Economics at the University of Ibadan, Professor Sam Aluko, professor of Economics at the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife and Dr. V.P. Diejomaoh, professor of Economics at the University of Lagos.

The only schedule recommended for the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria by the subcommittee was the membership of the National Economic Council. In paragraph 4 of their submission, the subcommittee recommended that the National Economic Council should have the following members: the Vice President as the Chairman, the nineteen governors, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and Chairman of the Economic Planning Commission.

In May 1976, General Olusegun Obasanjo, the then Head of State, appointed a nine-man committee headed by Dr. Okigbo, who was then the Economic Adviser to the Federal Government. The Committee submitted its report to the Government in December, 1976; its findings and recommendations have since then greatly influenced the growth and direction of the Nigerian financial system. At the time of the Okigbo Committee on the Review of Nigerian Financial System in 1977, there were a total of 21 banks in Nigeria comprising 18 commercial and cooperative banks and 3 merchant banks. These 21 banks had a total of 487 branches across branches across the country. By the end of March, 1991 the number of banks had shot up to a total of 115 comprising 62 commercial and cooperative banks and 53 merchant banks with a total branch office network of 2,021. Banking programme was established as a result of the recommendations made by the Okigbo Review Committee in recognition of the vital role which the banking system could play in the transformation of the rural areas of the country.

Furthermore, as a result of the Okigbo Review Committee recommendation, the Federal Government decided to intervene massively in the ownership structure of the erstwhile foreign banks and, in promulgation the Nigerian Enterprises Promotion Decree 1977, banking was classified as a Schedule enterprise requiring mandatory minimum Nigerian participation of 60% of equity share holding.

In the third schedule of the 1979 Constitution it ruled that the National Economic Council shall comprise the following members, namely(a) the Vice President who shall be Chairman (b) the Governor of each State; and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria established under the Central Bank of Nigeria Act, or any enact replacing the Act.

The National Economic Council shall have power to advise the President concerning the economic affairs of the Federation, and in particular on measures necessary for the co-ordination of the economic planning efforts or economic programmes of the various Governments of the Federation.

Also in the third schedule of the 1999 Constitution, it states that  the National Economic Council shall comprise the following membersthe Vice-President who shall be Chairman (b) the Governor of each State of the Federation; and (c) the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria established under the Central Bank of Nigeria Decree 1991, or any enactment replacing that Decree.

Until 20 August, 1991, the Central Bank was one of the parastatals under the Ministry of Finance. It was General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida(81) GCFR, the then Head of State, that promulgated two decrees on that day. The decrees gave full independence to the Central Bank of Nigeria and removed it from the shackles of the Ministry of Finance.

That was during the tenure of Prince Bolasodun Adesunmbo Ajibola (88), former President of the Nigerian Bar Association between 1984 and 1985 and Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice from 1985-1991.

The Decrees were, Central Bank of Nigeria Decree 24 and Bank and other Financial Institutions Decree 25 of 1991.

Decree 24 gave sole authority to the Central Bank of Nigeria to be responsible for the regulation of banking and other related financial services in Nigeria.

Speaking at a workshop in Lagos in December 1991, Prince Ajibola said the bank now has the power to set guidelines for any person or institution that engages in the provision of financial services  including commercial and development banks, bureau de change, discount houses, finance houses and even insurance companies. The new powers conferred on the Central Bank of Nigeria have clearly introduced some noteworthy changes in the relationship between several sectors of the countrys financial services which hitherto had been regulated by other functionaries and bodies such as the Director of lnsurance in the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Securities and Exchange Commission to name only two. Furthermore, Central Bank of Nigeria is now the sole authority for the determination of the exchange of rate of the naira from to time, using any mechanism it deems appropriate. The formulation of the countrys monetary policy is the prerogative of the Central Bank of Nigeria and the policies may only be modified by the President of Nigeria in writing whenever he so decides.

Details of Decree 24 of 1991 as promulgated by General Babangida state that there shall be for the Bank a Board of Directors (hereinafter in this Decree referred to as the Board) which shall be responsible for the policy and general administration of the affairs and business of the Bank. (2) The Board shall consist of:- (a) a Governor who shall be the Chairman (b) four Deputy Governors; (c) The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance; and (d) five directors. (3) The Board constituted under subsection (2) of this section shall be responsible for:- (a) the consideration and approval of the annual budget of the Bank; (b) the approval of the audited and management accounts and the consideration of the management letter from the external auditors; (c) the formulation of the Monetary and Credit Policy for Nigeria; which the Bank shall buy and sell foreign currencies; (d) devising suitable mechanism to determine rates of exchange at which the Bank shall buy and sell foreign currencies; (e) the appointment of auditors in accordance with section 43 of this Decree, the provision of the necessary facilities and the rates of remuneration; (f) the establishment and closing of Zonal Offices, Branches and Currency Centres; (g) carrying out of such other activities as are necessary and expedient for the pur poses of achieving the objectives of the Bank. (4) It shall be the duty of the Board to approve the detailed responsibilities of each of the Deputy Governors on the recommendation of the Governor. (5) Without prejudice to subsection (4) of this section, the Board may, on the recommendation of the Governor, assign or re-assign the Deputy Governors, from time to time, as may be expedient for the performance of the Banks functions under or pursuant to this Decree. 7. (1) The Governor or in his absence, one of the Deputy Governors nominated by him, shall be in charge of the day-to-day management of the Bank and shall be answerable to the Board for his acts and decisions. (2) The provisions of subsection (1) of section 6 of this Decree shall apply in relation to the general policy pursued or intended to be pursued on any administrative matters including staff pensions, salaries, allowances and any other similar matters. 8. 9. (1) The Governor and Deputy Governors shall be persons of recognised financial experience and shall be appointed by the President by instrument under the public seal and on such terms and conditions as may be set out in their respective letters of appointment. (2) The Governor and Deputy Governors shall be appointed in the first instance for a team of five years and shall each be eligible for re-appointment for another term not exceeding 5 years. Provided that, of the first four Deputy Governors to be so appointed, one shall in the first instance be appointed for three years and two shall in the first instance be appointed for four years. Amendment Decree No. 41 of 1999 Management of the Bank Amendment Decree No. 41 of 1999 Appointment of Governor and Deputy Governors. Amendment Decree No. 37 of 1998 Amendment Decree No. 41 of 1999 (3) Notwithstanding subsection (1) or (2) of this section, the President may extend the tenure of office of the Governor, any Deputy Governor or any other Director of the Bank whose term of office has expired until a successor to such Governor, Deputy Governor or Director is appointed. (4) The Governor shall  (a) from time to time, keep the Head of State, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces informed of the affairs of the Bank: and (b) at the end of every period of six months make a formal report of the affairs of the Bank to the Provisional ruling Council. 10. The Governor and the Deputy Governors shall devote the whole of their time to the service of the Bank and while holding office shall not occupy any other office or employment whether remunerated or not: Provided that the Governor or any of the Deputy Governors may by virtue of his office be appointed with the approval of the Board to  (a) act as member of any commission established by the Federal Government to enquire into any matter affecting currency or banking in Nigeria; (b) become Governor, Director or member of the Board or by whatever name called, of any international bank or international monetary institution to which the Federal Government shall have interest or given support or approval; (c) become Director of any corporation in Nigeria in which the Bank may participate under paragraph (I) of subsection (1) of section 27 of this Decree. 11. (1) The five Directors of the Bank shall be appointed by the President. (2) A Director appointed pursuant to this section shall be a person of recognised standing and experience in financial or banking affairs, but whilst a Director of the Bank, he shall not be regarded or act as a delegate on the board of any Federal, State or Local Government or of any commercial, financial, agricultural, industrial, or other interest with which he may have been connected before his appointment as a Director of the Bank. (3) A Director appointed pursuant to this section shall (a) hold office for three years and shall be eligible for re-appointment for another term of three years only; (b) be entitled to such fees and allowances as may be prescribed by rules made in that behalf by the Board and approved by the President. 12. (1) No person shall be appointed or shall remain Governor, Deputy Governor or Director of the Bank if he is  (a) a member of any Federal or State legislative house; (b) a Director, officer or employee of any bank licensed under the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Decree 1991. (2) The Governor, any Deputy Governor or any Director shall cease to hold office in the Bank if he  (a) becomes of unsound mind or, owing to ill health, is incapable of carrying out his duties; (b) is convicted of any offence involving dishonesty or any other offence the maximum penalty of which exceeds imprisonment for six months; c) is guilty of a serious misconduct in relation to his duties under this Decree; Governor and Deputy Governors to be fully devoted to the service of the Bank. Amendment Decree No. 79 of 1993 Appointment of other Directors. Amendment Decree No. 79 of 1993 Disqualification and cessation of appointment 1991 No. 25 (d) is disqualified or suspended from practising his profession in Nigeria by order of a competent authority made in respect of him personally; c) becomes bankrupt or suspends payments or compounds with his creditors. (3) The governor or any Deputy Governor may resign his office by giving at least three months notice in writing to the President of his intention to do so; and any Director may similarly resign by giving at least one months notice in writing to the President of his intention to do so. (4) If the Governor, any Deputy Governor or any Director of the Bank dies, resigns or otherwise vacates his office before the expiry of the term for which he has been appointed, there shall be appointed a fit and proper person to take his place on the Board for the unexpired period of the term of appointment in the first instance  (a) If the vacancy is that of the Governor or a Deputy Governor, the appointment shall be made in the manner prescribed by section 9 (1) of this Decree; and (b) If the vacancy is that of any Director, the appointment shall be made in the manner prescribed by section 11(1) of this Decree.

In addition, every staff of the Central Bank of Nigeria must sign a form of declaration of allegiance and secrecy. At present, the following are members of the Committee of Governors of Central Bank of Nigeria. They are Mr Godwin Emefiele (CON) (chairman, Board of Directors) governor, serving since Tuesday, 03 June, 2014  till date; Mrs Aishah N. Ahmad (Board member), deputy governor, Financial System Stability Directorate, serving since Friday, 23 March, 2018  till date; Mr Edward L. Adamu (Board member), deputy governor, Corporate Services Directorate, serving since, Friday, 23 March, 2018  till date; Mr Folashodun Adebisi Shonubi (Board Member), deputy governor, Operations Directorate, serving since, Wednesday, 17 October, 2018  till date; Dr Kingsley Obiora (Board member), deputy governor, Economic Policy Directorate, serving since, Monday, 02 March, 2020  till date; non-executive Board Members and their profiles, Professor Justitia O. Nnabuko (Board member), director serving since 7th of July 2018  till date; Adeola S. Adetunji (Board member), director, serving since 7th of July 2018  till date; Professor Mike I. Obadan (Board member), director, serving since 7th of July 2018  till date; Professor Ummu A. Jalingo (Board member), director, serving since 7th of July 2018  till date; Accountant General of the Federation, serving since 7th of July 2018  till date; Dr Abdu Abubakar (Board member), director, serving since 4th of April 2019  till date; Mr Aliyu Ahmed (Board member), director, serving since 25th of September, 2020  till date.

I am not sure whether the present Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria had carried his deputy governors fully in the implementation of many of his monetary policies. The deputy governors have important roles to play if we are to go by the decree which is now named Central Bank Act.

If you look at the high profile of the present governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, one will know that his actions do not conform to the provisions of the decree and the oath of allegiance. He acts like a pop star and talks like partisan politicians. Definitely our money cannot be safe with such a person.

For those who read about foreign affairs, the name Andrew Bailey does not sound familiar, yet he has been Governor of the Bank of England since March 2020. He hardly talks. Same with Jerome Powell, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve in America, the equivalent of the Central Bank in Nigeria.

One of the most admired past Chairman of the Federal Reserve in America was Alan Greenspan, who served from August 11, 1987 to February 1, 2006. He rarely spoke. He once said to succeed, you will soon learn, as I did, the importance of a solid foundation in the basics education. How many times do we hear of the Governor of the Central Bank of England going to the British Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street almost on a weekly basis or do we hear of the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board going to the White House to see the President of the United States of America often.

In the past in this country, we rarely see the face of the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria. It is his spokesmen like Tony Ede and others, who from time to time issue press statements. Now the situation we have contradicts the old golden days, to the extent that it was rumoured that Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria wanted to take part in partisan politics. The high profile of the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria contradicts the ethics of a public servant.

A man who is supposed to keep and protect our money should avoid such a behavior. His attempt last year to enter the Presidential race is anything but frivolous. If his wish is to serve the people or make money, he does not need to be President. His present job is an opportunity to serve the people. The other point is his piety and fidelity to the President. No doubt, the President appointed him like he appointed the deputy governors of the Central Bank. But his loyalty is to Nigerians and not to the Presidents family or friends or relations. He should take another look at his declaration of allegiance and secrecy which he swore to.

His customers are Nigerians.

The main objective of the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria is to promote the good of the people of Nigeria and maintain monetary and financial stability. Nothing more, nothing less.

Eric Teniola, a former director in the Presidency, writes from Lagos.

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

Telegram

LinkedIn

Email

Print


Governor Muhammad Badaru Abubakar of Jigawa State who is the coordinator 19 Northern states of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council on behalf of himself, the Government and good people of Jigawa State has sent his warm and heartfelt congratulations to the President-elect Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu over his victory on the just concluded Presidential election.

In a press statement, the Governor also thanked the electorates who conducted themselves peacefully during the voting process that brought the victory of Mr Tinubu.

Governor Badaru expressed his belief that the President-elect will confront with renewed vigor the most urgent problems confronting the country in formulating policies that will improve the living standard of all Nigerians.

He then prayed to the Almighty to guide and protect the President-elect Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu in the task ahead.

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

Telegram

LinkedIn

Email

Print


The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Kogi Central Senatorial candidate, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan has described the elections in Kogi Central as a sham, barbaric and undemocratic.

I will say the entire election in Kogi Central is a sham, I find it quite barbaric and undemocratic I will pretty much say 90 per cent of the polling unit had no elections but surprisingly results came out of them, she said.

Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan lamented the acceptance of the results despite her partys complaints and petitions.

According to her, Okene Local Government experienced the highest violence of all five local government areas including ballot and BVAS snatching, even five INEC staff were abducted but rescued by the DSS operatives.

She further accused Yahaya Bello, the governor of Kogi, of rigging. nine polling units did not have their elections on 25 February, materials were not delivered and INEC officers did not present themselves at that point I knew the governor had targeted that Ganaja as an axis to rig in case his Okene plan failed.

Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan insists that she won the election and therefore, rejects the final results announced by the returning officer.

It will interest Nigerians to know that the total number of accredited voters in Okene is 26,860 but the sum of the votes that came out is 38,315, she said.

She alleged that elections in Okene Local Government were highly manipulated in connivance with the electoral officials and APC thugs who invaded many polling units, chased out voters and snatched ballot boxes which were filled in a private residence.

APC in collaboration with INEC officials disregarded electoral guidelines, fraudulently rigged Okene local government area with a high number of over-voting. The results of the 11 Wards in Okene local government were highly doctored, her campaign team said.

Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan said she will not go to court, rather she will take advantage of the seven days window given by INEC to contest the election.

Section 65 of the Electoral Act allows INEC to review results declared by a returning officer under duress within seven days or where such a declaration was made contrary to the provision of the law, regulations and guidelines, and manual for the election.

The decision of the returning officer shall be final on any question arising from or relating to (a) unmarked ballot paper ; (b) rejected ballot paper; and (c) declaration of scores of candidates and the return of a candidate: Provided that the Commission shall have the power within seven days to review the declaration and return where the Commission determines that the said declaration and return were not made voluntarily or was made contrary to the provisions of the law, regulations and guidelines, and manual for the election.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Monday cancelled the results of 74 polling units in six local government areas of Kogi State over thuggery. It failed BVAS that characterised Saturdays polls.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) listed the LGAs involved: Okehi, Umala, Olamaboro, Ofu, Yagba East and Ibaji out of several others that suffered a similar fate.

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

Telegram

LinkedIn

Email

Print


Kaduna State police have announced a ban on all celebration rallies by supporters of political parties following the just concluded Presidential and National Assembly elections.

In a statement on Wednesday, the spokesperson of the states police command, Mohammed Jalige, said the citizens should avoid an act that may incite others.

 The command wishes to notify the general public that all forms of celebrations and rallies by political party supporters for or against winners/losers of the just concluded Presidential and National Assembly elections have been banned in the state.

Any deliberate act to violate the ban or cause breakdown of law and order under whatever guise would not be tolerated, as the full wrath of the law would be bought to bear.

Security agencies have been deployed and directed to ensure the full enforcement of the ban

All persons with intent to violate the order are warned to desist from that, as the command in collaboration with other sister agencies is fully prepared to deal decisively with such persons in accordance with extant laws.

The command uses this medium to call on the members of the public not to relent in supporting security agencies in delivering their mandates of securing lives and properties of the good people of Kaduna state, Jalige said.

The elections

Despite winning the presidential election, the APC lost several of its National Assembly seats after the election in Kaduna State.

The final result of Saturdays National Assembly Elections in the state shows the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won 70 per cent of the seats contested.

PDP won 10 of the 16 House of Representatives seats.

The APC won in four, while the Labour Party secured two seats.

The PDP won all three Senatorial seats in the State.

List of the winners and their political parties below

SENATORIAL DISTRICTS

Kaduna North  Alhaji Khalid Mustapha (PDP)

Kaduna Central  Alhaji Lawal Umar (PDP)

Kaduna South  Mr Sunday Katanga (PDP)

FEDERAL CONSTITUENCIES

Birningwari/Giwa- Mr Zubairu Jibrin (APC)

Kaduna North  Mr Bello El-Rufai (APC)

Lere  Mr Ahmed Munir (APC)

Zaria  Mr Tajudeen Abbas (APC)

Jemaa/ Sanga  Mr Daniel Amos (PDP)

Sabongari  Mr Sadiq Abdullahi (PDP)

Kachia/Kagarko  Mr David Gurara (PDP)

Kauru  Mr Bashir Yusuf (PDP)

Soba  Mr Yahaya Richifa (PDP)

Igabi  Mr Hussaini Jalo (PDP)

Zangon Kataf/Jaba  Mr Amos Gwamna (PDP)

Ikara/Kubau  Mr Aliyu Mustapha (PDP)

Kaduna South  Mr Abdulkarim Kero (PDP)

Makarfi/Kudan  Mr Umar Ajilo (PDP)

Kaura  Mr Donatus Mathew (LP)

Chikun/Kajuru  Mr Ekene Adams (LP)

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

Telegram

LinkedIn

Email

Print


HAIKOU, China, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The 1st China (Hainan) Dongpo Cultural Tourism Festival (Hainan Dongpo Fest) commenced on February 18, according to the Hainan International Media Center.

Opening ceremonies for Hainan Dongpo Fest, which will continue until the end of March, were held concurrently in Haikou, the capital of southern China's Hainan Province, and Danzhou, the former place of exile of Su Shi (Su Dongpo), the life of whom the festival explores and celebrates. Communities around the island province will also be holding a variety of activities during the festival.

Aerial view of Danzhous Dongpo Academy, regarded as Hainan's first institute of higher education. (Photo / Chen Yuancai) Residents and visitors experiencing a variety of Dongpo culture themed activities at the garden party in Haikous GDF Plaza on February 19. (Photo / Wu Wei)

The festival has led to a resurgence of interest in Su Dongpo (1037-1101), a cultural giant of the Song Dynasty who was a prominent figure in Chinese classic literature known for his achievements in poetry, prose, calligraphy, painting, and even gastronomy. Su was denounced and exiled to Hainan for involvement in political factions. He lived on the island for three years, leaving local residents with a profound and influential cultural heritage.

At the International Forum on Dongpo Culture held in Haikou, Professor Wang Zhaopeng of Sichuan University shared the fruits of his research. Of the 1485 academicians involved in studying Song Dynasty history during the 20th century, a vast majority of them specialized in researching the life and historical context of Su Shi, both on his own merits and as a representative figure of the Song Dynasty.

"In recent years, there has been an increasing emphasis on Dongpo culture across Hainan," Li Gui, a professor at Shanghai Normal University's School of Humanities, said at the forum. Last summer, he visited Danzhou, where he had found elements of Dongpo culture incorporated at every corner.

Returning to Hainan after a year away, Li has discovered further developments concerning Dongpo culture. "Haikou has developed the Dongpo Old Wharf as a complex integrating culture, tourism, and commerce and bringing elements of Su Dongpo's gastronomical acclaim to life. I've even seen young people dressed up in Song-Dynasty attire to live the 'Dongpo Experience'. Dongpo culture clearly runs deep in Hainan."

Su Dongpo's fame is not limited to China. In 2000, France's Le Monde chose 12 figures from around the globe as "Heroes of the Millennium", with Su being the only one from China selected. In recent years, Hainan has also strengthened studies on Dongpo culture, organizing regular seminars and establishing a research center. Dongpo culture offers a promising platform for research cooperation between Hainan and the rest of the world.

"As a free trade port with Chinese characteristics, Hainan has continued to open its door wider, and the island will receive increasing numbers of visitors from around the globe." Li Gui indicated that Hainan should capitalize on the global fame of Su Dongpo and, by innovatively developing more targeted cultural products to appeal to the broadest range of visitors, spread Dongpo culture further beyond China's borders.

SOURCE Hainan International Media Center (HIMC)
DUBLIN, Feb. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Africa & Middle East Social Commerce Market Intelligence and Future Growth Dynamics Databook - 50+ KPIs on Social Commerce Trends by End-Use Sectors, Operational KPIs, Retail Product Dynamics, and Consumer Demographics - Q1 2023 Update" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.





According to the publisher, social commerce industry in Africa & Middle East is expected to grow by 39.5% on annual basis to reach US$9638.6 million in 2023.



The social commerce industry is expected to grow steadily over the forecast period, recording a CAGR of 27.1% during 2022-2028. The social commerce GMV in the region will increase from US$9638.6 million in 2023 to reach US$40695.1 million by 2028.



Each report in bundle provides a detailed data centric analysis of social commerce industry, covering market opportunities and risks. With over 50+ KPIs at country level, this report provides a comprehensive understanding of social commerce market dynamics, market size and forecast, and market share statistics.



The research methodology is based on industry best practices. Its unbiased analysis leverages a proprietary analytics platform to offer a detailed view on emerging business and investment market opportunities.



This tittle is a bundled offering provides detailed 8 reports, covering regional insights along with data centric analysis at regional and country level:



1. Africa & Middle East Social Commerce Market Intelligence and Future Growth Dynamics (Databook)

2. Egypt Social Commerce Market Intelligence and Future Growth Dynamics (Databook)

3. Israel Social Commerce Market Intelligence and Future Growth Dynamics (Databook)

4. Nigeria Social Commerce Market Intelligence and Future Growth Dynamics (Databook)

5. Saudi Arabia Social Commerce Market Intelligence and Future Growth Dynamics (Databook)

6. South Africa Social Commerce Market Intelligence and Future Growth Dynamics (Databook)

7. Turkey Social Commerce Market Intelligence and Future Growth Dynamics (Databook)

8. United Arab Emirates Social Commerce Market Intelligence and Future Growth Dynamics (Databook)



Scope



This title is a bundled offering, combining 8 reports (352 tables and 456 charts).



Country reports in this bundled offering provide in-depth analysis of Social Commerce industry. Below is a summary of key market segments offered at country level:

Ecommerce Industry Market Size and Future Growth Dynamics by Key Performance Indicators, 2019-2028

Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Future Growth Dynamics by Key Performance Indicators, 2019-2028

Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Retail Product Categories, 2019-2028

Clothing & Footwear

Beauty and Personal Care

Food & Grocery

Appliances and Electronics

Home Improvement

Travel

Hospitality

Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by End Use Segment, 2019-2028

B2B

B2C

C2C

Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by End Use Device, 2019-2028

Mobile

Desktop

Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Location, 2019-2028

Domestic

Cross Border

Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Location, 2019-2028

Tier-1 Cities

Tier-2 Cities

Tier-3 Cities

Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Payment Method, 2019-2028

Credit Card

Debit Card

Bank Transfer

Prepaid Card

Digital & Mobile Wallet

Other Digital Payment

Cash

Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Platforms

Video Commerce

Social Network-Led Commerce

Social Reselling

Group Buying

Product Review Platforms

Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Consumer Demographics & Behaviour,2022

By Age

By Income Level

By Gender

Reasons to buy

In-depth Understanding of Social Commerce Market Dynamics: Understand market opportunities and key trends along with forecast (2019-2028).

Insights into Opportunity by end-use sectors - Get market dynamics by end-use sectors to assess emerging opportunity across various end-use sectors.

Develop Market Specific Strategies: Identify growth segments and target specific opportunities to formulate social commerce strategy; assess market specific key trends, drivers, and risks in the industry.



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/oax9gu-and-middle?w=5

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.



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
Organization Awards Ten Full-Ride Travel Awards to Attend AGBT Agriculture in Spring 2023

ST. LOUIS, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Advances in Genome Biology and Technology, (AGBT ), recognized as a cornerstone in the genomics research community, is hosting its second annual Agricultural Meeting (AGBT Ag) March 2729, in San Antonio, Texas. The Agricultural Meeting is the preeminent genome science and technology conference for top global researchers, leaders, and innovators.

AGBT Ag will bring together the world's leading genome researchers, data scientists, breeders, policy influencers, funders, and technology innovators who wish to embrace opportunities to redesign terrestrial and aquatic agriculture. Because of its focus on the integration of genomics and agriculture, AGBT Ag is uniquely positioned to enable and enhance communication among stakeholders to address the escalating needs of a changing earth.

For the second consecutive year, AGBT offered 10 full-ride travel awards to enable promising graduate students, post-docs, and early-career scientists across the globe to attend the event at no cost. The scholarships cover travel, lodging, registration fees, scientific sessions, and more.

The winners are:

Charles Anthon Cadorna , Institute of Biology, Science Research Specialist, University of the Philippines Diliman

, Institute of Biology, Science Research Specialist, Diliman Simona Antonios , PhD Student, Inrae

, PhD Student, Inrae Rachael Ashby , Postdoctoral Researcher, AgResearch

, Postdoctoral Researcher, AgResearch Jenifer Camila , Godoy dos Santos, PhD Student in Genetics and Plant Breeding University of Sao Paulo / University of Wisconsin

, Godoy dos Santos, PhD Student in Genetics and Plant Breeding University of / Rebecca Clarke , Post-Doctoral Scientist, Invermay Agricultural Centre

, Post-Doctoral Scientist, Invermay Agricultural Centre Anna Goldkamp , Graduate Research Assistant, Oklahoma University

, Graduate Research Assistant, Nadia Kamal, Postdoctoral researcher, Helmholtz Munich

Emily Kathambi, PhD Graduate Student, University of Minnesota

Temitayo Olagunju , Post Doctorate, University of Idaho

, Post Doctorate, Alana Selli , MSc Student, University of Sao Paulo

"According to UIS data, less than 30 percent of the world's researchers are women, so we were thrilled to be able to grant 90 percent of our scholarships to young professional women from all over the world to give them the opportunity to learn from some of the brightest minds in the industry," said Leisa Zigman, President of AGBT.

"The purpose of AGBT's 'Next Gen Leadership Award is to open doors for people who might not otherwise be able to attend the AGBT-Ag conference. I know first-hand that this kind of recognition can really impact a career. These awards shine a light on the achievements of young researchers from diverse disciplinary and personal backgrounds," said Susan McCouch-Cornell University and Next Gen Leadership Award Committee Co-chair.

Visit here to register for the conference. Follow AGBT on LinkedIn and Twitter .

ABOUT AGBT

2023 marks the 23rd anniversary of The Genome Partnership, which convenes three of the world's most revered genome science and technology conferences; AGBT General Meeting, AGBT Ag, and AGBT Precision Health. The Genome Partnership has proudly organized the Advances in Genome Biology and Technology (AGBT) meetings since 1999. The Genome Partnership, based in St. Louis, is a non-profit organization with a mission to advance research, promote education, and expand commerce. For more information, visit www.agbt.org .

Media Contact

Laura Often

Zen Media

(508) 887-3796

[email protected]

SOURCE AGBT
Landmark industry event convenes top national brands, media companies, buyers and the advertising industry to celebrate, highlight, engage and transact with historically underrepresented media entities

LOS ANGELES, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The ANA's Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing (AIMM), today announces its Diverse Owned and Targeted Media GrowthFronts , an inaugural industry media upfront event hosted at DotDash Meredith headquarters in New York City. The event brings together diverse owned and targeted media entities with buyers and advertisers, increasing visibility and access for media entities including Black, Hispanic, Asian, Indigenous, and LGBTQ+ who own video, digital, print, audio and/or content integration platforms.

ANA AIMM GrowthFronts Diverse Owned and Targeted Media Participants

A preliminary benchmark by AIMM in partnership with Media Framework and Standard Media Index reveals that 1.2% of the media dollars held by the largest media holding companies currently go towards diverse owned and diverse targeted media entities across the following segments: Black, Hispanic, Asian, Indigenous, People with Disabilities, and LGBTQ+. A groundbreaking event, GrowthFronts will increase visibility and access for diverse owned and diverse targeted media entities, providing a stage where they can engage and transact with leading national brands, media buyers and advertisers. AIMM's goal is to increase investment into diverse owned and targeted media to a minimum of 4% by its 2025 GrowthFronts.

"This event promises to change the industry's expectations, closing the gap between intent and action and ultimately, making the industry stronger by providing more investment and equity," says Bob Liodice, CEO, ANA. "We are grateful for the support from our incredible members and sponsors whose passion enabled this momentous event to happen."

GrowthFronts panel discussions will be hosted by John Leguizamo, actor and partner, NGLmitu and Richard Lui, MSNBC anchor and bestselling author. The event schedule is centered around networking sessions and one-on-one meetings for dozens of advertisers and 40 diverse owned and targeted media entities. These one-on-one introductory meetings are designed to be equitable for all media entities and ensure each advertiser meets with several diverse owned and targeted media entities, including one from each segment. More than 550 individual meetings have been scheduled during GrowthFronts so that all 40 diverse owned and targeted entities can present, transact and connect. The event also includes panel discussions from CMOs and industry leaders and performances by celebrated drag artists Lagoona Bloo, Castrata and Peachez.

Sponsors and AIMM members including P&G, Publicis, Target, Verizon, DotDash Meredith, Anheuser-Busch, Omnicom Media Group, AARP and Nielsen are enabling this event to take place thanks to their generous support.

"We are thrilled to spotlight forty diverse owned and diverse targeted media entities today," says Gilbert Davila, Co-Founder, AIMM. "This revolutionary event allows us to achieve business growth and equity in the marketplace, and together, we can begin to take steps to prioritize increased investment levels in diverse owned and diverse targeted media entities with advertisers who have the potential to connect with critical audiences."

By providing industry-wide access to the event, AIMM's core objective is to achieve long-term equity and increase investment in diverse owned and targeted media. The increase in dollars should also be evidenced in targeted/endemic platforms where about 14% of linear TV and radio ad dollars are spent to reach ALL diverse segments through those platforms, according to a Santiago Solutions Group and DMI-Consulting analysis of Nielsen Ad Intel data for AIMM.

"As one of the largest minority-owned media companies targeting a culturally diverse audience, Fuse Media's purpose has always been to create a multi-platform ecosystem where everyone can see themselves represented. We thank the ANA and AIMM for supporting our mission, and for creating opportunities, like the GrowthFronts, to help increase visibility and access for media companies like ours," said Miguel Roggero, Chairman and CEO of Fuse Media.

About the Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing (AIMM)

Founded in 2016, ANA's Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing (AIMM) is the leading voice in multicultural and inclusive marketing and DEIB, powered by a collective of 200+ industry leaders from across the ecosystem, advancing actionable change to drive business growth and equity for all in today's diverse marketplace. For more information, visit: www.anaaimm.net.

SOURCE ANAs Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing (AIMM)
WASHINGTON, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Land Title Association (ALTA), the national trade association of the land title insurance industry, and the Utah Land Title Association applaud the Utah legislature for passing H.B. 211, which will protect homeowners from the predatory practice of filing of unfair real estate fee agreements in property records, known as Non-Title Record Agreements for Personal Service (NTRAPS). Utah is the first state to pass NTRAPS legislation this year.

H.B. 211 follows a model bill, which ALTA helped draft with input from national stakeholders. The model bill created a blueprint for states wishing to provide a remedy for existing NTRAPS while also discouraging future unfair and deceptive practices.

"Today, the Utah legislature has affirmed that they are committed to protecting homeowners and their largest financial investment," said ALTA CEO Diane Tomb. "NTRAPS is a deceitful, predatory practice, and homeowners in Utah can now breathe a sigh of relief that real estate brokerage firms can no longer continue these schemes, which impact homeowners' future ability to sell or refinance property."

NTRAPS have been recorded in property records since 2018. The practice preys upon homeowners, offering small cash gifts in exchange for decades-long contracts for the exclusive rights to sell the property.

Submitting NTRAPS for inclusion in property records characterized as liens, covenants, encumbrances, or security interests in exchange for money creates impediments and increases the cost and complexity of transferring or financing real estate in the future.

"The Utah Land Title Association applauds the state legislature's efforts to end these harmful practices," said Cort Ashton, the Utah Land Title Association's Legislative Chair. "This bill came into fruition thanks to the collaborative efforts of many of our industry partners, including the Utah Association of Realtors, and we are pleased that the state legislature has recognized that this abusive and anti-consumer activity has no place in Utah."

The new law will:

Make NTRAPS unenforceable by law.

Restrict and prohibit the recording of NTRAPS in property records.

Create penalties if NTRAPS are recorded in property records.

Provide for the removal of NTRAPS from property records and recovery of damages.

H.B. 211 will head to the desk of Utah Gov. Spencer J. Cox in the coming days, and once signed will go into effect April 1.

About ALTA

The American Land Title Association, founded in 1907, is the national trade association representing more than 6,500 title insurance companies, title and settlement agents, independent abstracters, title searchers and real estate attorneys. ALTA members conduct title searches, examinations, closings and issue title insurance that protects real property owners and mortgage lenders against losses from defects in titles.

Contact:

Megan Hernandez

202-261-0315

[email protected]

SOURCE American Land Title Association
NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The latest report on the ambulatory healthcare service market estimates that the market size will grow by USD 1,207.02 billion from 2022 to 2027. Moreover, the growth momentum of the market will accelerate at a CAGR of 6.38% during the forecast period. Aspen Healthcare Ltd., DaVita Inc., EBOS Group Ltd., Envision Healthcare, Fresenius SE and Co. KGaA, HCA Healthcare Inc., Medical Facilities Corp., Sonic Healthcare Ltd., Suomen Terveystalo Oy, and Surgery Partners Inc. are among some of the major market participants. For more insights on the historic (2017 to 2021) and forecast market size (2023 to 2027) - Request the latest sample report

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Ambulatory Healthcare Service Market 2023-2027

Ambulatory healthcare service market 2023-2027:Vendor offerings

The key offerings of some of these vendors are listed below:

Aspen Healthcare Ltd. - The company offers ambulatory healthcare services such as Cancer Center London.

The company offers ambulatory healthcare services such as Cancer Center London. DaVita Inc. - The company offers ambulatory healthcare services such as DaVita Integrated Kidney Care.

The company offers ambulatory healthcare services such as DaVita Integrated Kidney Care. EBOS Group Ltd. - The company offers ambulatory healthcare services through its subsidiary Symbion Hospital Services.

The company offers ambulatory healthcare services through its subsidiary Symbion Hospital Services. Envision Healthcare - The company offers ambulatory healthcare service through its division AMSURG.

The company offers ambulatory healthcare service through its division AMSURG. Fresenius SE and Co. KGaA - The company offers ambulatory healthcare services for critically and chronically ill patients.

Technavio's reports provide key strategic initiatives used by vendors, along with key news and the latest developments - Download a sample report

Ambulatory healthcare service market 2023-2027: Scope

Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. The ambulatory healthcare service market report covers the following areas:

This study identifies favorable reimbursement policies as one of the prime trends in the ambulatory healthcare service market during the next few years. The increasing prevalence of infectious diseases has been driving the growth of the market. However, intensifying vendor competition might hamper the market growth.

Ambulatory healthcare service market 2023-2027: Segmentation

Type

Primary care offices: This segment will account for a significant share of the market growth during the forecast period. Primary care offices refer to locations where patients are treated by primary care physicians (PCPs). These physicians can provide particular medical treatments such as prescribing medications. The rise in the aging population and the growing prevalence of chronic diseases will drive the growth of this segment during the forecast period.



Emergency departments



Medical specialty offices



Surgical specialty offices

Application

Ophthalmology



Gastroenterology



Orthopedics



Pain Management



Others

Geography

North America : North America is projected to account for 38% of the growth of the global market during the forecast period. This growth is attributed to factors such as an increase in investments in healthcare facilities, the presence of key vendors, and strict government regulations on environmental monitoring in healthcare facilities. The need to deliver efficient healthcare services has led to the adoption of automated solutions for treatment.

: is projected to account for 38% of the growth of the global market during the forecast period. This growth is attributed to factors such as an increase in investments in healthcare facilities, the presence of key vendors, and strict government regulations on environmental monitoring in healthcare facilities. The need to deliver efficient healthcare services has led to the adoption of automated solutions for treatment.

Europe



Asia



Rest Of World (ROW)

Ambulatory healthcare service market 2023-2027: Key highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2023-2027

Detailed information on factors that will assist ambulatory healthcare service market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the ambulatory healthcare service market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the ambulatory healthcare service market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of ambulatory healthcare service market vendors

Why buy?

Add credibility to strategy

Analyzes competitor's offerings

Get a holistic view of the market

Grow your profit margin with Technavio  Buy the report!

Related reports

The consumer healthcare market size is expected to increase by USD 123.78 billion from 2021 to 2026, and the market's growth momentum will accelerate at a CAGR of 5.66%. The awareness about lifestyle diseases is notably driving the consumer healthcare market growth, although factors such as intense competition may impede the market growth.

The predicted growth of the healthcare information software market size from 2021 to 2026 is USD 11.76 billion at a progressing CAGR of 7.9%. The increasing adoption of EHRs is notably driving the market growth, although factors such as concerns about security of patient data and cyberattacks may impede the market growth.

Ambulatory Healthcare Service Market Scope Report Coverage Details Base year 2022 Historic period 2017-2021 Forecast period 2023-2027 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 6.38% Market growth 2023-2027 USD 1,207.02 billion Market structure Concentrated YoY growth 2022-2023(%) 5.68 Regional analysis North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of World (ROW) Performing market contribution North America at 38% Key countries US, Germany, UK, China, India, Canada, Mexico, Italy,Spain, Japan, Australia, and South Korea Competitive landscape Leading vendors, market positioning of vendors, competitive strategies, and industry risks Key companies profiled Aspen Healthcare Ltd., DaVita Inc., EBOS Group Ltd., Envision Healthcare, Fresenius SE and Co. KGaA, HCA Healthcare Inc., Medical Facilities Corp., Sonic Healthcare Ltd., Suomen Terveystalo Oy, and Surgery Partners 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 for Technavio 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 Market Segmentation by Application



Exhibit 07: Executive Summary  Chart on Incremental Growth



Exhibit 08: Executive Summary  Data Table on Incremental Growth



Exhibit 09: Executive Summary  Chart on Vendor Market Positioning

2 Market Landscape

2.1 Market ecosystem

Exhibit 10: Parent market



Exhibit 11: Market Characteristics

3 Market Sizing

3.1 Market definition

Exhibit 12: Offerings of vendors included in the market definition

3.2 Market segment analysis

Exhibit 13: Market segments

3.3 Market size 2022

3.4 Market outlook: Forecast for 2022-2027

Exhibit 14: Chart on Global - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 15: Data Table on Global - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 16: Chart on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 17: Data Table on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

4 Historic Market Size

4.1 Global ambulatory healthcare service market 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 18: Historic Market Size  Data Table on Global ambulatory healthcare service market 2017 - 2021 ($ billion)

4.2 Type Segment Analysis 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 19: Historic Market Size  Type Segment 2017 - 2021 ($ billion)

4.3 Application Segment Analysis 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 20: Historic Market Size  Application Segment 2017 - 2021 ($ billion)

4.4 Geography Segment Analysis 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 21: Historic Market Size  Geography Segment 2017 - 2021 ($ billion)

4.5 Country Segment Analysis 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 22: Historic Market Size  Country Segment 2017 - 2021 ($ billion)

5 Five Forces Analysis

5.1 Five forces summary

Exhibit 23: Five forces analysis - Comparison between 2022 and 2027

5.2 Bargaining power of buyers

Exhibit 24: Chart on Bargaining power of buyers  Impact of key factors 2022 and 2027

5.3 Bargaining power of suppliers

Exhibit 25: Bargaining power of suppliers  Impact of key factors in 2022 and 2027

5.4 Threat of new entrants

Exhibit 26: Threat of new entrants  Impact of key factors in 2022 and 2027

5.5 Threat of substitutes

Exhibit 27: Threat of substitutes  Impact of key factors in 2022 and 2027

5.6 Threat of rivalry

Exhibit 28: Threat of rivalry  Impact of key factors in 2022 and 2027

5.7 Market condition

Exhibit 29: Chart on Market condition - Five forces 2022 and 2027

6 Market Segmentation by Type

6.1 Market segments

Exhibit 30: Chart on Type - Market share 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 31: Data Table on Type - Market share 2022-2027 (%)

6.2 Comparison by Type

Exhibit 32: Chart on Comparison by Type



Exhibit 33: Data Table on Comparison by Type

6.3 Primary care offices - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 34: Chart on Primary care offices - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 35: Data Table on Primary care offices - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 36: Chart on Primary care offices - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 37: Data Table on Primary care offices - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

6.4 Emergency departments - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 38: Chart on Emergency departments - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 39: Data Table on Emergency departments - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 40: Chart on Emergency departments - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 41: Data Table on Emergency departments - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

6.5 Medical specialty offices - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 42: Chart on Medical specialty offices - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 43: Data Table on Medical specialty offices - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 44: Chart on Medical specialty offices - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 45: Data Table on Medical specialty offices - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

6.6 Surgical specialty offices - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 46: Chart on Surgical specialty offices - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 47: Data Table on Surgical specialty offices - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 48: Chart on Surgical specialty offices - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 49: Data Table on Surgical specialty offices - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

6.7 Market opportunity by Type

Exhibit 50: Market opportunity by Type ($ billion)

7 Market Segmentation by Application

7.1 Market segments

Exhibit 51: Chart on Application - Market share 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 52: Data Table on Application - Market share 2022-2027 (%)

7.2 Comparison by Application

Exhibit 53: Chart on Comparison by Application



Exhibit 54: Data Table on Comparison by Application

7.3 Ophthalmology - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 55: Chart on Ophthalmology - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 56: Data Table on Ophthalmology - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 57: Chart on Ophthalmology - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 58: Data Table on Ophthalmology - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

7.4 Gastroenterology - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 59: Chart on Gastroenterology - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 60: Data Table on Gastroenterology - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 61: Chart on Gastroenterology - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 62: Data Table on Gastroenterology - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

7.5 Orthopedics - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 63: Chart on Orthopedics - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 64: Data Table on Orthopedics - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 65: Chart on Orthopedics - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 66: Data Table on Orthopedics - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

7.6 Pain management - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 67: Chart on Pain management - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 68: Data Table on Pain management - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 69: Chart on Pain management - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 70: Data Table on Pain management - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

7.7 Others - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 71: Chart on Others - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 72: Data Table on Others - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 73: Chart on Others - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 74: Data Table on Others - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

7.8 Market opportunity by Application

Exhibit 75: Market opportunity by Application ($ billion)

8 Customer Landscape

8.1 Customer landscape overview

Exhibit 76: Analysis of price sensitivity, lifecycle, customer purchase basket, adoption rates, and purchase criteria

9 Geographic Landscape

9.1 Geographic segmentation

Exhibit 77: Chart on Market share by geography 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 78: Data Table on Market share by geography 2022-2027 (%)

9.2 Geographic comparison

Exhibit 79: Chart on Geographic comparison



Exhibit 80: Data Table on Geographic comparison

9.3 North America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 81: Chart on North America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

Exhibit 82: Data Table on North America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

Exhibit 83: Chart on North America - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 84: Data Table on North America - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.4 Europe - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 85: Chart on Europe - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

Exhibit 86: Data Table on Europe - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

Exhibit 87: Chart on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 88: Data Table on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.5 Asia - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 89: Chart on Asia - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

Exhibit 90: Data Table on Asia - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

Exhibit 91: Chart on Asia - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 92: Data Table on Asia - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.6 Rest of World (ROW) - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 93: Chart on Rest of World (ROW) - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 94: Data Table on Rest of World (ROW) - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 95: Chart on Rest of World (ROW) - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 96: Data Table on Rest of World (ROW) - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.7 US - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 97: Chart on US - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 98: Data Table on US - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 99: Chart on US - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 100: Data Table on US - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.8 Germany - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 101: Chart on Germany - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

Exhibit 102: Data Table on Germany - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

Exhibit 103: Chart on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 104: Data Table on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.9 China - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 105: Chart on China - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

Exhibit 106: Data Table on China - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

Exhibit 107: Chart on China - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 108: Data Table on China - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.10 UK - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 109: Chart on UK - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 110: Data Table on UK - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 111: Chart on UK - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 112: Data Table on UK - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.11 India - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 113: Chart on India - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

Exhibit 114: Data Table on India - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

Exhibit 115: Chart on India - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 116: Data Table on India - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.12 Market opportunity by geography

Exhibit 117: Market opportunity by geography ($ billion)

10 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends

10.1 Market drivers

10.2 Market challenges

10.3 Impact of drivers and challenges

Exhibit 118: Impact of drivers and challenges in 2022 and 2027

10.4 Market trends

11 Vendor Landscape

11.1 Overview

11.2 Vendor landscape

Exhibit 119: Overview on Criticality of inputs and Factors of differentiation

11.3 Landscape disruption

Exhibit 120: Overview on factors of disruption

11.4 Industry risks

Exhibit 121: Impact of key risks on business

12 Vendor Analysis

12.1 Vendors covered

Exhibit 122: Vendors covered

12.2 Market positioning of vendors

Exhibit 123: Matrix on vendor position and classification

12.3 Aspen Healthcare Ltd.

Exhibit 124: Aspen Healthcare Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 125: Aspen Healthcare Ltd. - Product / Service



Exhibit 126: Aspen Healthcare Ltd. - Key offerings

12.4 DaVita Inc.

Exhibit 127: DaVita Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 128: DaVita Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 129: DaVita Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 130: DaVita Inc. - Segment focus

12.5 EBOS Group Ltd.

Exhibit 131: EBOS Group Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 132: EBOS Group Ltd. - Business segments



Exhibit 133: EBOS Group Ltd. - Key offerings



Exhibit 134: EBOS Group Ltd. - Segment focus

12.6 Envision Healthcare

Exhibit 135: Envision Healthcare - Overview



Exhibit 136: Envision Healthcare - Product / Service



Exhibit 137: Envision Healthcare - Key news



Exhibit 138: Envision Healthcare - Key offerings

12.7 Fresenius SE and Co. KGaA

Exhibit 139: Fresenius SE and Co. KGaA - Overview



Exhibit 140: Fresenius SE and Co. KGaA - Business segments



Exhibit 141: Fresenius SE and Co. KGaA - Key news



Exhibit 142: Fresenius SE and Co. KGaA - Key offerings



Exhibit 143: Fresenius SE and Co. KGaA - Segment focus

12.8 HCA Healthcare Inc.

Exhibit 144: HCA Healthcare Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 145: HCA Healthcare Inc. - Product / Service



Exhibit 146: HCA Healthcare Inc. - Key offerings

12.9 Medical Facilities Corp.

Exhibit 147: Medical Facilities Corp. - Overview



Exhibit 148: Medical Facilities Corp. - Product / Service



Exhibit 149: Medical Facilities Corp. - Key offerings

12.10 Sonic Healthcare Ltd.

Exhibit 150: Sonic Healthcare Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 151: Sonic Healthcare Ltd. - Business segments



Exhibit 152: Sonic Healthcare Ltd. - Key offerings



Exhibit 153: Sonic Healthcare Ltd. - Segment focus

12.11 Suomen Terveystalo Oy

Exhibit 154: Suomen Terveystalo Oy - Overview



Exhibit 155: Suomen Terveystalo Oy - Business segments



Exhibit 156: Suomen Terveystalo Oy - Key offerings



Exhibit 157: Suomen Terveystalo Oy - Segment focus

12.12 Surgery Partners Inc.

Exhibit 158: Surgery Partners Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 159: Surgery Partners Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 160: Surgery Partners Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 161: Surgery Partners Inc. - Segment focus

13 Appendix

13.1 Scope of the report

13.2 Inclusions and exclusions checklist

Exhibit 162: Inclusions checklist



Exhibit 163: Exclusions checklist

13.3 Currency conversion rates for US$

Exhibit 164: Currency conversion rates for US$

13.4 Research methodology

Exhibit 165: Research methodology



Exhibit 166: Validation techniques employed for market sizing



Exhibit 167: Information sources

13.5 List of abbreviations

Exhibit 168: 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 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
HOUSTON, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today at the American Waterways Operators Winter Safety Meeting in Houston, AWO announced the inaugural awardees of its newly-launched American Waterways Honor & Excellence in Rescue Operations (HERO) Award, to document and recognize rescues undertaken by AWO member company employees that demonstrate selflessness, skill and bravery.

Qualifying events for the award include, among others: rescuing commercial or recreational mariners; responding to a medical emergency onboard; recovering a person who has fallen overboard; responding to a person in distress while traveling to/from the boat; and other selfless service actions that reflect the safety culture of the American tugboat, towboat and barge industry.

The inaugural American Waterways HERO awardees include six vessel crews employed by three different AWO member companies:

The crew aboard MV Ron Callegan, American Commercial Barge Line, for rescuing a crew member from a fall overboard near the Plaquemine, Louisiana ferry

ferry The crew aboard MV Safety Explorer, American Commercial Barge Line, for rescuing a crew member who had fallen overboard from another vessel

The crew working for Great Lakes Dredge and Dock, LLC who, while working on the Houston Ship Channel Project, rescued three civilians from the water after their boat caught fire

The crew aboard MV Mary K. Cavarra, Ingram Barge Company, for rescuing a person in the water near the St. Paul City Front

The crew aboard MV Michael J. Granger, Ingram Barge Company, for rescuing a distressed automobile driver who had entered the water near Paducah, Kentucky

The crew aboard MV Midland, Ingram Barge Company, who responded to a health emergency on their vessel, rendering immediate care and supporting an airlift evacuation on the Illinois River

AWO President & CEO Jennifer Carpenter commented: "We are proud to recognize the inaugural recipients of the American Waterways HERO Award and we congratulate them on this achievement. These crews exemplify the purpose of our launching this award: to recognize the heroism of the men and women of America's tugboat, towboat and barge industry, whose actions prevent harm and save lives on the water every day. We look forward to highlighting such acts of professionalism and selflessness, and at the same time learning from those efforts to continue improving safety across our industry."

Mary McCarthy, Director of Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility, Moran Towing Corporation, and Co-Chair of the AWO Safety Leadership Advisory Panel Distracted Operations Subcommittee, commented: "We always say that our mariners are the eyes and ears of the waterways, but sometimes they're the hands as well  first on the scene to help someone in need. The mariners that conduct rescues on the water often do so behind the scenes and humbly refer to their life-saving actions as 'just part of the job.' We're excited to bring those stories to the forefront to show our mariners' valuable contributions to communities on the water, and share learnings from them to help all of us improve as operators and responders."

Companies wishing to nominate employees for an American Waterways HERO Award can fill out an informational form. Information submitted through the program may be shared by AWO with members and the public to support safety efforts such as lessons-learned presentations or safety trending reports, and to raise public awareness of the industry's role in ensuring safety on America's waterways.

About American Waterways Operators:

The American Waterways Operators is the tugboat, towboat and barge industry's advocate, resource and united voice for safe, sustainable and efficient transportation on America's waterways, oceans and coasts. Industry vessels move more than 665 million tons of America's commerce each year on the U.S. inland and intracoastal waterways, the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf Coasts and the Great Lakes.

SOURCE American Waterways Operators
CHICAGO, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Angeles Investors  the angel investor community finding, funding and growing the most promising Hispanic and Latino/a ventures  is pleased to announce its recent seed investment in MasPanadas, a Rockville, Maryland-based business that makes a modern, American-palate-friendly empanada. Angeles Investors co-led the investment with Union Kitchen Ventures . The deal was led by Angeles Investors member, Louis Caldera , an experienced corporate director.

MasPanadas was founded by Margarita Womack, Ph.D. in 2020. While the business started as a food services operation, it more recently has emerged as a booming frozen packaged food line expanding rapidly into 1,000+ natural and organic retailers, including Whole Foods Market, as well as in hotels, country clubs, and event venues. Margarita was recognized in 2022 as Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year (Mid-Atlantic region) and was named Top CEO of the Year (small business leader) by the Washington Business Journal.

Nearly 50% of Angeles Investors portfolio companies are founded by women or have a female CEO. Tweet this

This investment is a monumental moment for Angeles Investors as it accomplishes two goals: 1) giving more Latina founders access to venture capital, and 2) creating more opportunities for Latinas to join corporate boards.

"I founded Latin Goodness Foods/MASPANADAS with a mission to offer Better Food for working families and also to provide Better Jobs that enable Better Lives for our employees, the majority of whom are fellow immigrants from Latin America," said Margarita Womack Ph.D., MasPanadas Founder. "I am thrilled to partner with Angeles Investors, Inc., who offer the resources, experience, and unique insight needed to continue to grow our business and who share my commitment to engaging and positively impacting Hispanic/LatinX communities. Together, mas is better!"

Monica Hernandez , Founder of Mas Global Consulting , a provider of agile software development and technology services with teams in the United States and LATAM, and recognized as a top 3% Women Owned Business per American Express, will be serving on MasPanadas' Board of Directors.

"I couldn't be more excited to join the MasPanadas Board. MAS Global and MasPanadas have more than a name in common. Our company missions go beyond making a financial impact and extend deeply into impacting our communities," said MAS Global Founder, Monica Hernandez. "Our higher purpose and sense of community have brought us together by way of Angeles Investors. By combining the knowledge, ganas and connections of our investor community, we will help MasPanadas reach their full potential."

"We believe the MasPanadas team, combined with its truly unique approach, will unlock the full potential of the U.S. consumer market," said Angeles Investors CEO, David Olivencia. "Our firm's investment philosophy is all about finding the most exciting startups, funding the most disruptive and fastest growing business models and growing the impact of Hispanic and Latino entrepreneurs in the U.S. economy. With MasPanadas, we have discovered the perfect match."

We look forward to partnering on more deals that create growth opportunities for our Hispanic and Latinx communities.

For more information, contact Dahlia Majirez.

SOURCE Angeles Investors
LONDON, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Proactis, the leading Source-to-Pay software solution provider, and Cegedim, specialists in the management of digital flows in the healthcare and B2B ecosystems, have announced the signing of a four-year contract with AP-HP Hopitaux de Paris for the deployment of a solution to manage supply across its hospitals, enabling the group to optimise its purchasing processes.

A Parisian university hospital with a European dimension and a worldwide reputation, the AP-HP welcomes 10 million patients every year. It is the largest employer in the Ile de France region, with more than 100,000 employees in its 39 establishments.

In order to meet the AP-HP's objective of optimising purchasing processes, Proactis and Cegedim have developed a tailored solution that combines their two areas of expertise  including the Proactis Marketplace , with 3,000 catalogues negotiated with AP-HP suppliers, and Cegedim's Hospitalis platform for the dematerialisation of orders, receipts and delivery notices.

Since January 2022, the Proactis and Hospitalis solution has already resulted in a 95% dematerialisation rate of contracts on the 4 pilot sites of the AP-HP, representing more than 100 million Euros of orders in value.

As part of the new contract, the solution will be further deployed to 4,000 users with the aim of managing more than 600,000 orders per year. The solution makes purchasing processes more streamlined, efficient and rapid and improves the user experience  as well as longer term gains in terms of turnover and discounts.

Mr Christophe Couvreur, Director of Hospitalis, stated: "The digitisation of exchanges between hospitals and their suppliers through the dematerialisation of orders, order confirmations, dispatch notices and invoices offers gains in multiple areas, such as reducing repetitive tasks for healthcare professionals and the traceability of medical/implantable devices. We are very pleased to support the AP-HP in this digital transformation."

Olivier Jung, Director of Proactis France, added: "Proactis is proud that the AP-HP has renewed its confidence in the use of our marketplace and its platform for the dematerialisation of orders. This project is at the heart of the performance challenges facing the AP-HP's Finance department. This contract underlines the quality of our long-term collaboration."

About Proactis

Proactis is a leading Source-to-Pay software solution provider for mid-market organisations across a range of service-led industries.

Proactis' end-to-end modular platform enables customers to control spend and manage supply-chain risk; improve compliance and governance of their purchasing activities; reduce the cost of goods and services; and deliver efficiencies, all through process digitisation and automation.

Proactis serves a rapidly growing client base of over 1,100 corporate and public sector organisations and 2 million suppliers, with over 3 million users in 100+ countries across the UK, Europe, North America, New Zealand and Australia.

SOURCE Proactis
Carrier collaborates with UCC to expand its global channel coverage in financial and wholesale markets

STOCKHOLM, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Arelion today announced an expanded partnership with United Cable Company (UCC), a boutique, privately-held master agent with a successful history of developing and sourcing complex subsea and terrestrial infrastructure on a global scale. Through the extended partnership, UCC will offer Arelion's complete suite of IP and optical services, including IP Transit, Wavelengths and Ethernet, to its large and expanding network of clients, global agents, VARs and Managed Service Providers (MSPs).

As a continuation of the companies' lengthy partnership, Arelion will leverage UCC's expertise in the financial and wholesale markets to serve new customers, making Arelion's global network and footprint at the 10/100/400G levels available to companies that require high-capacity bandwidth and low-latency, diverse connectivity services. For over 30 years, UCC's procurement team has designed global infrastructure and complex solutions for its client base, delivering fast and accurate quotes, providing accelerated growth in international markets.

"We provide our clients with specialized solutions for their procurement needs that satisfy their latency, diversity and bulk wholesale requirements." said Eric Gutshall, UCC Founder and CEO. "We have experienced dramatic growth in international business markets over the past 20 years, so our partnership with Arelion is paramount to our continued success. We will leverage Arelion's experience and presence in these markets to provide the white glove treatment that our clients demand."

Arelion has won three consecutive 'Most Responsive Supplier Channel Team' Visionary Spotlight Awards from ChannelVision for its Conflict-Free Channel Program, recognizing the global carrier's commitment to world-class customer care through the telecom channel model. Through coordinated teamwork and a streamlined bid process, Arelion is an extension of UCC's seasoned procurement team, helping UCC provide its customers with access to Arelion's #1 ranked Internet backbone, AS1299. The companies will continue to satisfy clients' strategic business needs by building reliable, diverse networks that can handle the demands of the modern business landscape.

"Our continued collaboration with UCC is further validation of Arelion's commitment to providing exceptional network services and an industry-leading customer experience on a global scale," said Rob Pulkownik, Arelion Head of Channel Sales. "UCC's extensive global agent base and consultancy approach to procurement perfectly complements our global footprint, allowing us to connect with more customers who will benefit from our connectivity services."

About Arelion

Arelion solves global connectivity challenges for multinational enterprises whose businesses rely on digital infrastructure. On top of the world's #1 ranked IP backbone and a unique ecosystem of cloud and network service providers, we provide an award-winning customer experience to customers in more than 125 countries worldwide. Our global Internet services connect more than 700 cloud, security and content providers with low latency. For further resilience, our private Cloud Connect service connects directly to Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud and Oracle cloud across North America, Europe and Asia. Discover more at www.arelion.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Contacts

Arelion

Martin Sjogren, Senior Manager PR and Analyst Relations

+46 (0)707 770 522

[email protected]

United Cable Company

Paige Dyman, Marketing & PR

+1.908.988.0366

[email protected]

Media Contact

Jeannette Bitz

+1.510.295.4972

[email protected]

SOURCE Arelion; United Cable Company
Changing its name to Fullpath, AutoLeadStar aims to represent its dedication to creating infinite customer lifecycles and improving dealerships' consumer experience offerings.

TEL AVIV, Israel, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The automotive retail industry's leading Customer Data and Experience Platform (CDXP) is announcing its rebranding today, changing its name to Fullpath from AutoLeadStar. The company's new branding identity fully represents its offerings, which provide dealers a robust path to connect with consumers.

Fullpath's comprehensive platform for automotive dealers spans from initial lead interest to sale-closing, boosted by AI-powered digital advertising, website optimization, and data connectivity. The news comes only months after raising $40 million to transform how cars are sold in the automotive industry.

Fullpath does much more than just generate leads, it unlocks data that enables dealers to provide a personalized dealership experience that creates customers for life in service and sales. With state-of-the-art AI and machine learning technology that orchestrates a dealership's data strategy while keeping the dealer in the driver's seat, Fullpath optimizes every part of the sales and marketing process. Partnered with leading OEMs and 150 top dealerships, Fullpath enables their forward-thinking clientele of dealers to improve the lifetime value of customers.

"We are dedicated to engineering customer relationships that are built to last. Our new branding and name symbolize the shift we've undergone from a lead-focused platform to a comprehensive end-to-end solution, improving all aspects of customer experience." Says CEO and Co-founder, Aharon Horwitz of Fullpath. "With the rise in demand for customer data platforms in the industry, this rebranding provides a clear direction and represents our aims to become the CDP of choice as we continue to improve experiences for customers and dealerships alike."

About Fullpath

Fullpath is the automotive retail industry's most trusted Customer Data and Experience Platform (CDXP). Unifying first-party dealership data and leveraging it to create seamless omnichannel marketing campaigns, Fullpath is a CDXP pioneer. Used by 1,000 dealerships across North America, Fullpath's CDXP is advancing dealer tech adoption in this enormous segment of the economy.

SOURCE AutoLeadStar
Leading Coffee Franchise Celebrates Female Entrepreneur Paving the Way as an Industry Leader and Top Performer

DENVER, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii, a leading coffee franchise renowned for its premium sourcing of Hawaiian coffees and memorable cafes, announces one of its top-performing franchisees, Kristen Williams Haseotes, is the recipient of International Franchise Association's (IFA) prestigious Franchisee of the Year Award. The annual recognition honors a select group of franchisees who have demonstrated excellence within the franchise community as an outstanding franchise establishment owner-operator.

The Franchisee of the Year Award, sponsored by IFA's partner Paychex, recognizes leading franchise owners from IFA member brands whose outstanding performance and contributions help protect, enhance, and promote the franchise business model. Nominated by their parent company, individuals are selected for their service to their communities, fostering a strong and vibrant workforce, opening the doors for career growth and entrepreneurship, and supporting their fellow franchisees.

"Kristen and her amazing team are the very best representation of what Franchise Partnership is all about," said Scott Snyder, CEO of Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii. "The entire Naples, Florida team follows Kristen's example in not only sharing a remarkable 'Aloha' experience with every customer exchange inside the store, but also models a 'community-first' role in helping others through Hurricane recovery and by creating meaningful give-back opportunities in their hometown. We are so proud to call them 'ohana (family)."

As a successful real estate developer, the last thing on Haseotes' mind was becoming a franchisee. But, when the opportunity to step into an ownership position at her favorite coffee shop presented itself, it was simply too appealing to pass up. Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii had been open and operating in Naples, FL for several years before Haseotes assumed ownership in 2019. Now, the store is among the top two performers in the entire system. She's been able to double the store in size, nearly triple sales, and retain top talent  something that's become extremely rare in today's 'great resignation' era.

"It is an incredible honor to be recognized with this award and a true testament to the opportunity that lies within franchising," said Haseotes. "Key to my success was finding a rock star general manager to support our vision. That's where Dan Guimond comes into play, and I'd be remised not to give him credit for this achievement. Dan had been working at the store for eight years before becoming general manager in 2020. By giving him the right tools to succeed and empowering him to make key business decisions, he's been hard at work building a culture that puts people-first."

From the onset, Haseotes and Guimond understood that customers were the lifeblood of their business. They focused immensely on customer satisfaction - knowing it would lead to customer loyalty. Crucial contributors to the store's strong performance are the culture, influence, energy, and passion that their team demonstrates in the community to the experience they deliver in the store.

"Franchisee of the Year recipients represent the best in franchising," said Matthew Haller, president and CEO of the International Franchise Association. "This is the highest honor IFA awards to individual franchisees, and local business owners like Kristen exemplify the power of franchising and its positive contributions to communities around the world."

As Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii's franchisees receive high praise, the brand has also earned multiple awards and recognition for its impressive performance, recently ranking on QSR's 2023 40/40 List as one of America's hottest emerging fast casual brands, in addition to QSR's Top 50  2022 Contenders as a brand to watch. Notably, CEO Scott Snyder was recognized by Automatic Merchandiser as a 2022 Pros to Know award winner for his accomplishments in moving the industry forward.

Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii closed out a record-breaking 2022, awarding 45 franchise agreements while opening eight new stores. Alongside this impressive development, the brand continues to achieve high performance marks with a 76% average unit volume increase compared to that of pre-COVID, 2019. These achievements have set the foundation for a remarkable 2023 as Bad Ass Coffee continues to prove itself as a standout, premium coffee franchise that's winning by differentiating its brand experience.

For more information on Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii franchise opportunities, visit badasscoffeefranchise.com or call 833-205-2224.

About Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii

Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii was born on the Big Island of Hawai'i in 1989 and is dedicated to sharing premium Hawaiian coffees "with a kick" from the Hawaiian Islands through 25-plus U.S. franchise locations  with additional shops in various stages of development. Today, Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii stores also serve popular blended drinks, teas, food, along with other international premium coffees and sell popular branded merchandise with exceptional service and the Aloha Spirit. Bad Ass Coffees are available in franchise stores, online and will soon be available through grocery, hospitality, and specialty retail channels. The Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii brand and franchise is owned by Royal Aloha Franchise Company, LLC. For more information, visit badasscoffee.com and connect on Facebook and Instagram @badasscoffeeofhawaii. Franchise information is available at badasscoffeefranchise.com.

About the International Franchise Association

Celebrating over 60 years of excellence, education, and advocacy, the International Franchise Association (IFA) is the world's oldest and largest organization representing franchising worldwide. IFA works through its government relations and public policy, media relations, and educational programs to protect, enhance and promote franchising and the approximately 790,492 franchise establishments that support nearly 8.4 million direct jobs, $825.4 billion of economic output for the U.S. economy, and almost 3 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). IFA members include franchise companies in over 300 different business format categories, individual franchisees, and companies that support the industry in marketing, law, technology, and business development.

SOURCE Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii
System Level on a Chip Program demonstrates plan to innovate products by driving down platform costs and deliver new functionality on an increasingly smaller product footprint.

PLANO, Texas, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Baicells Technologies, a global provider of LTE and 5G network solutions, has announced its Quanta program to build its own system level chips in house to accelerate its go to market. The Quanta system on a chip program will offer several critical benefits like lower product cost, lower power requirements, and smaller physical footprint, that can be realized by Baicells customers going forward.

The program will deliver its first products, the Quanta BCR200 and Quanta BCTR100, in Q2 2023.

The Quanta BCR200 is a low cost and low power RRU (Remote Radio Unit) system level on a chip. It will offer support for both LTE and 5G functionality, either as a hybrid or standalone network. It has an integrated Radio Frequency (RF) transceiver with an integrated RF front-end, including digital analogue mixed signal processing and frequency synthesizer. The chip also contains an RF transceiver supporting the Sub 6GHz band. It supports LTE/5G system bandwidth channels: 100, 80, 60, 50, 40, 30, 20, 10, and 5 MHz. It offers a host of configurable CPRI options like cascading, compressed IQ data, and bandwidth options to support both single and dual carriers.

The Quanta BCTR100 is a low power consumption, high performance, ultra-wideband 2T2R mixer with Phased Locked Loop (PLL). The Quanta BCTR100 converts IF signals ranging from 400 MHz to 7000 MHz and supports LTE/NR system bandwidth from 1.4 MHz to 100 MHz, with ultra-low power consumption. Its small form factor allows it to be used in both mobile devices like smartphones, PDAs, tablets, CPE, and in 4G and 5G small cell platforms.

Lixin Sun, Chairman and CEO of Baicells, commented: "With these types of engineering programs, we continue to execute on our mission to connect the unconnected, and in ways that others in this space are not. It's efforts like these that will highlight how we continue to innovate and standout for our customers in this critical product segment."

The Quanta system on a chip will be on display at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, February 27-March 2. Visit Baicells in Hall 2, booth # 2C 44 to view the product, talk with Baicells, and learn more.

About Baicells

Baicells is a global technology company offering turnkey 4G and 5G Network Solutions under new economics for service providers, enterprises, and communities. With 600+ commercial deployments across more than 60 countries, offices on five continents, and over 500 patents, Baicells has established itself as a technology leader. To meet the demand for connectivity in a mobile first world, Baicells continues to scale with manufacturing capacity online in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Vietnam backed by partnerships with leading global manufacturers. Baicells innovations help connect the unconnected. Visit www.baicells.com to learn more.

Media Contact for Baicells

Babel for Baicells

Paul Campbell

[email protected]

SOURCE Baicells Technologies
LONDON, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today in the High Court of Antigua and Barbuda, Dr Craig Wright, the inventor of Bitcoin - the world's first functioning and successful electronic cash system  was granted permission to continue his defamation proceedings against Bitcoin Cash (BCH) proponent, Roger Ver in the jurisdiction.

Both Dr Wright and Mr Ver are Antiguan citizens, and Mr Ver has a home in Antigua. Dr Wright is a computer scientist who created Bitcoin. Mr Ver is a prolific commentator in the Bitcoin community and has invested in a number of digital asset start-ups, blockchain businesses and associated companies, including Bitpay.com and Kraken.com. He also owns and operates the website Bitcoin.com.

Dr Wright claims Mr Ver defamed him in his YouTube video in April 2019. In May 2019, Mr Ver published another video which included the same message, in response to the commencement of libel proceedings in England by Dr Wright against Mr Ver. This publication also forms part of Dr Wright's Antiguan defamation claim, alongside two tweets published on 3 May 2019 and 11 June 2019 respectively.

The blockchain is the technology that enables the existence of cryptocurrency. It is a decentralized ledger of all transactions across a peer-to-peer network. Using this technology, participants can confirm and make transactions without a need for a central clearing authority, such as a bank. For this reason, trust and confidence are crucial in this industry. Dr Wright is concerned that Mr Ver's publications sought to undermine trust and confidence in Dr Wright and by extension the electronic cash system and blockchain network which he created Bitcoin, now referred to as Bitcoin Satoshi Vision.

Mr Ver challenged Dr Wright's claim brought against him in Antigua on jurisdictional grounds but was defeated as set out in today's judgment.

Jurisdiction Application heard before Justice Robertson

Legal Advisors: Dr Wright is represented by Dr Errol Cort of Cort & Cort and Anthony Astaphan SC in Antigua and Barbuda, and by Derek Stinson, James Dixon and Simon Cohen of ONTIER LLP in London as co-counsel.

Notes to Editors

Mr Ver brought an application to challenge jurisdiction to the Antigua and Barbuda High Court in October 2020. This followed a defamation claim by Dr Wright in Antigua, whose original English Court proceedings were eventually barred by jurisdiction.

Today's successful jurisdiction judgment is the latest outcome in a series of legal claims issued by ONTIER LLP, on behalf of Dr Wright and his associated entities, to uphold his right to protect his lawfully-held digital assets, his reputation as the creator of Bitcoin and his associated intellectual property:

In 2020, ONTIER began defamation proceedings in London on behalf of Dr Wright against podcaster Peter McCormack . In 2021, following extensive disclosure by Dr Wright, McCormack was compelled to drop his reliance on a truth defence in the libel claim, leaving only the issue of serious harm caused to Dr Wright by McCormack's tweets. The judge ruled that McCormack's statements were defamatory of Dr Wright but awarded nominal damages. Permission to appeal this aspect of the judgment is currently being sought.

on behalf of Dr Wright against podcaster . In 2021, following extensive disclosure by Dr Wright, McCormack was compelled to drop his reliance on a truth defence in the libel claim, leaving only the issue of serious harm caused to Dr Wright by McCormack's tweets. The judge ruled that McCormack's statements were defamatory of Dr Wright but awarded nominal damages. Permission to appeal this aspect of the judgment is currently being sought. In 2021 ONTIER successfully brought a copyright claim in England against the anonymous digital currency enthusiast operating under the pseudonym "Cbra".

ONTIER defeated a strike-out attempt by digital currency enthusiast, Magnus Granath, following Dr Wright's defamation action, the trial of which will heard by the English High Court in late 2023.

Dr Wright was recently granted permission to appeal the Norwegian Court's finding that permitted Mr Granath's statements under Norwegian law.

ONTIER is also pursuing a landmark claim against the developers of BTC, BCH and BCH ABC to restore control of addresses containing Bitcoin and other digital assets. The defendants' jurisdictional challenge to this claim is currently being appealed by the claimant, Tulip Trading Ltd.

and other digital assets. The defendants' jurisdictional challenge to this claim is currently being appealed by the claimant, Tulip Trading Ltd. ONTIER is currently advising companies connected with Dr Wright in their passing off claims against exchanges Kraken and Coinbase, filed in the High Court earlier this year.

Dr Wright is also advised by ONTIER on his defence to the Crypto Open Patent Alliance's (COPA) challenge to Dr Wright's authorship of the Bitcoin White Paper, which will be heard by the English court in 2024.

SOURCE ONTIER
Professional growth and learning program takes place in conjunction with employment at Bogart Wealth

MCLEAN, Va., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Bogart Wealth, an independent, fee-only wealth management and Registered Investment Advisory firm, today announced the launch of Advisor Growth Track, a professional growth and training program for both emerging talent and experienced financial advisors that takes place in conjunction with employment at Bogart Wealth.

"We are super excited to formally launch this program," said James Bogart, President and CEO of Bogart Wealth. "We've been training and developing our employees in the Bogart way for years, but we are officially launching Advisor Growth Track in order to help young and emerging professionals find their best fit by working a variety of roles within an established and rapidly growing wealth management firm, as well as experienced advisors create a glide path for the future."

Young professionals will learn how to deliver a first-rate client experience  and be supported every step of the way. Tweet this

FIND YOUR PLACE WITHIN ONE OF THE FASTEST-GROWING RIA FIRMS IN THE COUNTRY

Advisor Growth Track is suitable for motivated individuals new to the financial services industry looking to gain their footing, as well as experienced advisors looking to revitalize their practice and partner with a winning team. Bogart Wealth builds a personalized program for each individual so they can, as appropriate, "work all the stations" and find their groove within a proven and successful financial services firm.

For emerging talent, Bogart Wealth aims to share their expertise and specialized perspective within every department at the firm, helping candidates thrive and grow under the mentorship of one of the fastest-growing Registered Investment Advisory (RIA) firms in the country in a collaborative, family-oriented, high-achieving environment. Participants gain expertise in all aspects of holistic financial planning including retirement planning, investment management, estate and multigenerational planning, risk management, client services and communications, account management, operations, and more.

For established advisors looking to "tuck in" with a robust firm, Bogart Wealth creates a customized growth and succession plan that helps them monetize today while creating a greater glide path and continuity plan for the future. The program allows them to enhance their skills, learn the Bogart way, and grow together.

"You'll learn how to deliver a first-rate client experience  and be supported every step of the way  as we guide successful individuals and their families on their paths to and throughout retirement, while also helping them achieve financial peace of mind by preserving and maximizing intergenerational wealth," added Bogart.

To learn more about Advisor Growth Track, please click here. To apply for the program, please click here.

A CULTURE OF EXCELLENCE

Founded in 2016 and headquartered in McLean, Virginia with additional offices in Houston and The Woodlands, Texas, Bogart Wealth is one of the fastest-growing RIA firms in the country, as identified by Inc. Magazine (Inc. 5000), Financial Advisor Magazine, SmartAsset, ThinkAdvisor, Citywire, Houston Business Journal, and more. In addition, Bogart has been identified as a top financial advisor in Forbes, Barron's, Washington Business Journal, and more.

Bogart Wealth was also recognized by InvestmentNews in their 2022 Best Places to Work for Financial Advisors list, which features financial advice businesses that create meaningful work experiences for their professionals and value a commitment to excellence for both their employees and clients.

"We balance a culture of excellence with a collaborative, family-oriented environment where our employees can feel empowered to do their best work for our valued clients," said Bogart. "We've also cracked the code on marketing and attracting the right types of clients. In fact, we have such a robust pipeline of new business now that we need and want to add talent and energy to our team as soon as possible."

To learn more about Bogart Wealth's team culture and core values, please click here.

OPEN POSITIONS AT BOGART WEALTH

Bogart Wealth continues to experience rapid growth in all facets of the firm and has more than tripled assets under management organically in the past three years (currently managing around $2.4B AUM). They currently have open positions in financial advisory, financial planning, portfolio management, compliance, marketing, client services, and more.

To learn more about the open positions and careers at Bogart Wealth, please click here. To learn more about all of the employee benefits at Bogart Wealth, please click here.

ABOUT BOGART WEALTH

Bogart Wealth is an independent, fee-only wealth management firm guiding corporate executives, professionals, and families on their paths to and throughout retirement. Led by President and CEO James Bogart, their mission is to help clients achieve financial peace of mind by preserving and maximizing intergenerational wealth. As a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA), Bogart Wealth is held to a fiduciary standard, which gives clients confidence in knowing that everything the firm does is always in their best interest. Clients of Bogart Wealth enjoy an extremely high level of service, and the firm's boutique size enables multiple advisors to become familiar with each client and their financial plan. At Bogart Wealth, everyone is a part of the team, and they have taken great care to build a collegial and cooperative culture, as well as a diverse set of skills, experience, qualifications, and credentials. The team works together to apply their combined experience, expertise, and knowledge to each client account. To learn more, visit www.BogartWealth.com.

Media Contact:

Jonny Swift

Impact Communications, Inc.

913-649-5009

[email protected]

SOURCE Bogart Wealth
MIAMI, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Brand Institute, the world's #1 naming agency and the global leader in pharmaceutical and healthcare-related brand name development, is proud to announce its 30-year anniversary.

Brand Institute was founded on March 1, 1993, by James L. Dettore with a vision to provide leading-edge naming and branding services to businesses across industries. "We are extremely proud to have reached this milestone," said Mr. Dettore, who remains the company's CEO. "Thirty years is a long time in business, and it's a testament to the dedication of our employees, the support and loyalty of our customers, and our commitment to innovation and excellence."

Over the past three decades, the company has grown into a global leader in their field, with a reputation for unmatched expertise in pharmaceutical brand and nonproprietary name development.

"In the beginning, we didn't specialize in a specific industry," continued Dettore. "Our first clients were consumer-product and telecommunications companies." That changed in 2004 when the company founded Drug Safety Institute (DSI) and hired Jerry Phillips from the FDA to lead the new regulatory arm. Mr. Phillips went to work developing a drug name research model that would be fully compliant with regulatory guidance from global health agencies.

"DSI was a game-changer for Brand Institute," said Bill Johnson, Brand Institute's Co-Chief Executive Officer and 25-year veteran of the agency. "It made our ambitions clear to the pharmaceutical and biotech community. Today, we can proudly say that we are the industry leader in pharmaceutical name development, and we have hired the best regulatory experts from around the world."

About Brand Institute and our wholly owned regulatory subsidiary, Drug Safety Institute

Brand Institute has a portfolio of over 5,000 marketed healthcare and consumer brands for more than 1,600 clients. The company partners on over 75% of pharmaceutical brand and nonproprietary name approvals globally every year. Drug Safety Institute is composed of former naming regulatory officials from global government health agencies, including the FDA, European Medicines Agency (EMA), Health Canada, American Medical Association (AMA), and the WHO. These regulatory experts co-authored the name review guidelines with their respective agencies, with many responsible for ultimately approving (or rejecting) brand name applications. Now working for a private company, these professionals provide Brand Institute's clients with industry-leading guidance pertaining to drug name safety (i.e., preventing medication errors), packaging, and labeling.

Contact:

[email protected]

www.brandinstitute.com

SOURCE Brand Institute, Inc.
The 2023 Moxie Awards Program Celebrates and Honors Women on the Rise Across the Industry

CHICAGO, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Built In, a technology recruitment platform, today invites tech professionals across the U.S. to submit nominations to its 2023 Moxie Awards.

The annual awards program recognizes 100 outstanding women in tech who have made outsized contributions to their places of work, communities and the industry as a whole. Built In's Moxie Awards Program is open to individual contributors, managers and directors  people with room to grow in their careers  who work in the technology industry. Built In accepts Moxie Award nominations for any person who identifies as a woman, whether through gender identity, gender expression or sex.

Built In accepting nominations for awards program honoring women on the rise in tech. Tweet this

View the awards program website and submit a nomination

Nomination deadline: March 31 , 11:59pm EST

"At Built In, our mission is to empower tech professionals to build the future," says Sheridan Orr, Chief Marketing Officer, Built In. "Women have always made outsized contributions toward that end, laying the foundations for a better, more innovative future of tech. Yet, historically, that has not been adequately recognized, which makes these awards particularly important. With this call for entries, we are inviting all people across the industry to join us in celebrating and honoring women on the rise in tech."

The 100 winners, announced in late April, will be people who not only achieve excellence in their respective fields and uplift other women, but who also show a combination of courage, determination, energy and know-how.

For Eligibility, Nominees Must:

Not hold a C-level or VP-level position. This is based on our intent to honor women on the rise. Eligible nominees will hold positions such as individual contributors, managers or directors.

Be employed full time by a company and work in the U.S.

Nominations for freelancers, contractors or those employed by an agency or consultancy will not be considered.

Work in the technology industry full time. Nominees can hold either a traditional tech role (engineering, product development, programming, etc.) or a tech-adjacent role (marketing, UX, design, sales, etc.).

Not be a previous Moxie Award winner. Built In Moxie Award winners hold this honor for the entirety of their career. Every year, our goal is to highlight a new group of women professionals, therefore repeat winners will not be allowed.

How to Nominate:

Click "Submit a Nomination" here to complete your nomination.

here to complete your nomination. Submit one or more nominee(s)  from within or outside your company  by or before March 31 , 11:59pm EDT

, As a nominator, you will answer five questions in 500 words per question.

ABOUT BUILT IN'S MOXIE AWARDS

Built In's original, in-person Moxie Awards ran for seven years, highlighting the most innovative companies in Chicago tech before pausing in 2018. The program returned in 2021 to honor outstanding women in tech across the nation. The program now recognizes up-and-coming women in tech and tech-adjacent roles who go above and beyond in their organizations and the industry as a whole. A panel of senior women in tech serve as judges and select the 100 winners. For the 2023 Moxie Awards, the winners will be announced in April. The nomination window closes on March 31, 11:59pm EDT. https://employers.builtin.com/moxie-awards/

ABOUT BUILT IN

Built In is creating the largest platform for technology professionals globally. Monthly, millions of the industry's most in-demand professionals visit the site from across the world. They rely on our platform to stay ahead of tech trends and news, learn skills to accelerate their careers and find opportunities at companies whose values they share. Built In also serves 2,000 customers, innovative companies ranging from startups to those in the Fortune 500. By putting their stories in front of our uniquely engaged audience, we help them hire otherwise hard-to-reach tech professionals. www.builtin.com

PRESS INQUIRIES

Tiffany Meyers, Built In

[email protected]

(917) 741-6750

SOURCE Built In
LOS ANGELES, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- California Credit Union has launched a Summer Internship Program, inviting local college students and high school seniors to apply for the opportunity to work at the credit union. Through the program, paid internships are available to provide students with professional work experience in multiple areas throughout the organization, including Accounting, Real Estate, Electronic Services, and IT.

"We're excited to expand our educational support initiatives through our Internship Program, helping set students up for success to work in the financial industry and open doors to a future career," said California Credit Union CEO Steve O'Connell. "Through our Summer Internship Program, we will integrate students into teams across the credit union so they can apply what they learn in the classroom to a hands-on setting in the business world."

Los Angeles County college students and high school seniors can learn more and apply for the internships through the credit union's website. Applications will be accepted through April 15th for the summer program.

The California Credit Union internships will provide students with practical work experience within and across multiple departments, leadership development skills, and school-to-career readiness, with direct training and mentoring with managers. All internships will be paid, part-time opportunities at the credit union's Glendale headquarters offices from June 20th through August 18th.

About California Credit Union

California Credit Union is a federally insured, state chartered credit union founded in 1933 that serves public or private school employees, community members and businesses across California. With more than 170,000 members and assets of over $4.5 billion, California Credit Union has 24 branches throughout Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties. The credit union operates in San Diego County as North Island Credit Union, a division of California Credit Union. California Credit Union offers a full suite of consumer, business and investment products and services, including comprehensive consumer checking and loan options, personalized financial planning, business banking, and leading-edge online and mobile banking. Visit ccu.com for more information, or follow the credit union on Instagram or Facebook @CaliforniaCreditUnion.

SOURCE California Credit Union
Embarking on listening tour at CONEXPO/CON-AGG for real-world operator feedback

RACINE, Wis., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- CASE Construction Equipment and BRUNT Workwear are joining forces with a formal and unique partnership to better the lives of the hard-working operators of America. This partnership will kick off within the CASE booth at CONEXPO/CON-AGG, through several days of customer research with construction tradesmen and women to best understand their everyday needs. The goal: gather real-world input from those on jobsites to build a new, first-of-its-kind ultimate construction equipment-operator boot from the ground up. Both BRUNT and CASE are dedicated to creating the best tools for the trades and are thrilled with the unique opportunity to craft the best options for their community.

"Operators are the bedrock of our industry. At CASE, we build machines that keep operators comfortable, productive and working hard," says Rebecca Bortner, director of marketing, CASE Construction Equipment, North America. "That's why we're partnering with BRUNT. We loved the idea of collaborating to create boots built specifically with the operator in mind. Like CASE, BRUNT is obsessed with listening first then innovating and we're excited to embark on this project together."

This summer, BRUNT will then take their prototype boots  based on the operator feedback from CONEXPO  to the CASE Tomahawk Customer Center. Exclusive to CASE customers, dealers and the media  the 500-acre training-and-customer-experience facility, tucked in the scenic north woods of Wisconsin, is part summer camp (for adults), part nature preserve and part horsepower-enhanced power-tool playground for operators. The retail launch of the co-branded CASE and BRUNT ultimate operator boot is slated for March 2024.

"Partnering with CASE is an incredible honor for the BRUNT team. I have spent the past five years on jobsites learning about the tools our customer wears and the equipment they need to get their job done. I see lots of CASE equipment while in the field, and I'm always impressed with the work their machines are capable of," says Eric Girouard, CEO, of BRUNT Workwear. "This collaboration is going to provide the opportunity for heavy equipment operators to tell us what they need in a work boot, and we're going to bring those ideas to life in partnership with CASE. We could not have asked for a better partner than CASE to learn and grow with."

CASE and BRUNT also teamed up to design limited-edition CASE-branded boots. CASE-branded BRUNT boots are currently available via https://bruntworkwear.com/collections/case-brunt , starting at $135 USD. When individuals go to purchase their boots, they will also have the option to donate to Team Rubicon, a veteran-led humanitarian organization that serves global communities before, during, and after disasters and crises. Founded following the Haiti earthquake in 2010, the organization has grown to more than 150,000 volunteers across the United States and has launched over 1,100 operations domestically and internationally.

"CASE and CASE CONSTRUCTION are trademarks owned or licensed by CNH Industrial N.V., its subsidiaries or affiliates. BRUNT is a trademark owned by BRUNT Workwear."

About CASE Construction Equipment

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/ .

About BRUNT Workwear

BRUNT Workwear is the no-B.S. direct-to-consumer modern work boot and apparel brand designed for today's construction workers and tradespeople. Launched in September 2020 during a global pandemic, BRUNT is on a mission to serve the incredibly important, yet often overlooked population of more than 17 million workers across the construction, installation, maintenance, and repair industries in the United States alone. Visit BRUNTworkwear.com for more.

About Team Rubicon

Team Rubicon is a veteran-led humanitarian organization that serves global communities before, during, and after disasters and crises. Founded following the Haiti earthquake in 2010, the organization has grown to more than 150,000 volunteers across the United States and has launched over 1,100 operations domestically and internationally. To drive equity across disaster and humanitarian services, Team Rubicon focuses on three areas of impact: disaster services- from mitigation to immediate response to recovery; rebuild services- maintaining the fabric of communities through resilient building methods; and international services- providing emergent and surge medical services, WASH, and disaster risk reduction. Visit www.teamrubiconusa.org for more information.

SOURCE BRUNT Workwear
GanjaVacations offering $150 off a couple's booking

OAK PARK, Ill., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Ganja Vacations , a cannabis travel services platform has announced a special offer for cannabis enthusiasts enchanted by the idea of celebrating this year's 4/20 holiday at a ganja friendly resort in Jamaica.

$150 off a couple's booking

Gathering the harvest at HotBox, Jamaica

GanjaVacations is offering a discount of $150 on any couple's booking with the coupon code 042023. This discount can be applied to any of the vacation packages featured on the GanjaVacations website  all of which facilitate access to Jamaica's famous strains plus grow tours and other ganja related activities. A few of the resorts listed on the platform are also offering their own 4/20 specials. Founder and CEO, Norman L. Lawrence, Jr. says that "because we know that some people are likely to experience difficulty choosing from the many vacation packages on our platform, we will have agents standing by to help. We encourage all interested parties to call (888-524-2652) or email [email protected] for one-on-one assistance."

Let's check this off your bucket list

4/20 is a special day for many cannabis consumers. A day to celebrate the plant and their special relationship with it. Is there a more meaningful or memorable way to do this than at a cannabis friendly resort in Jamaica? The capital of weed. Most of the ganja vacation experiences start right off the plane with a trip to a dispensary just minutes from the airport followed, of course, by several high holy days at a boutique resort on the beach or perhaps high up in the mountains. There's something for everyone.

Can't get away by 4/20? No worries, man!

It's likely that some interested ganja enthusiasts may not be able to get away by 4/20 but that is not a problem. CEO Norman Lawrence suggests that they "book now, take advantage of the 4/20 discount and travel when their schedule permits." After all, the date doesn't really matter, does it? Every day with weed is a celebration. Especially if you are in Jamaica.

About GanjaVacations

GanjaVacations is a cannabis travel services company offering very affordable ganja vacation experiences in Jamaica, its first destination. We connect cannabis enthusiasts across the globe with ganja friendly resorts, exclusive 420 vacation deals, local dispensaries, wellness facilities and other ganja related vacation resources.

Contact:

Larry Leo

[email protected]

(888) 524-2652

Related links:

4/20 Special offer: https://www.ganjavacations.net/celebrate-4-20-in-jamaica/

Vacation Deals: https://www.ganjavacations.net/exclusive-deals/

Main website: https://ganjavacations.net

SOURCE GanjaVacations
Stock Market Symbols

GIB (NYSE)

GIB.A (TSX)

cgi.com/newsroom

LONDON, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ - As part of its Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) strategy, CGI (NYSE: GIB) (TSX: GIB.A) has partnered with Project Seagrass, a global charity devoted to seagrass conservation, to develop an open-source algorithm that helps locate, quantify and track seagrass meadows initially across the UK region. The new algorithm launches today, the United Nation's first-ever World Seagrass Day.

CGI and Project Seagrass have developed the algorithm to support academic and government plans for protecting vital seagrass ecosystems, which, in turn, help to mitigate climate change.

Tara McGeehan, President of CGI in the UK and Australia, said: "At CGI, we support the no planet B initiative. As such, we are consciously trying to support our planet and its resources to protect future generations. By leveraging our IP, and through our pro-bono collaboration with Project Seagrass, the development of an open-source algorithm has been an important milestone for us. We now hope to continue to work to enhance the algorithm in partnership with open-source community organizations, academia, and government."

The open-source algorithm is designed to pinpoint and quantify seagrass meadows as part of CGI's proprietary CGI GeoData360 Earth observation data processing platform, which leverages data from the European Space Agency's (ESA) Copernicus Satellite Earth Observation Mission and processes it via the seagrass identification algorithm. The CGI GeoData360 platform and the ESA Earth observation imagery can be trained to create new algorithms which could be used to deliver seagrass identifications anywhere in the world with access to relevant data.

CGI and Project Seagrass have released the latest version of the open-source algorithm to enable community collaboration and continued development of the algorithm.

Richard Unsworth, Founding Director of Project Seagrass, said: "By working in partnership with CGI, we've been able to make good progress on mapping at a local level. We are pleased to now open-source our work and look forward to the collaboration this release stimulates, as well as input from others to help enhance the algorithm and ensure the data is correct. It's a pleasure working with this professional team. By working together, we can secure a better future for all."

CGI and Project Seagrass are committed to encouraging academic organizations, environmentalists, and governments across the UK to learn about the incredible role seagrass plays in protecting our planet. Seagrass acts as a powerful carbon sink, a natural resource that absorbs carbon, with the potential to lock carbon away for thousands of years. However, seagrass meadows are under threat from coastal development, pollution, and damage from human activity within marine environments. Seagrass also acts as a nursery for young fish and other animals, thus increasing the biodiversity and food supply of our coastal waters. Understanding where seagrass is located is critical to conservation efforts, enabling local policy and conservation teams to collaborate in preserving this important natural resource.

As part of its ESG commitment, CGI collaborates with clients, academia, governments, and charities across the globe to improve the economic, social and environmental well-being of communities and their citizens. For more information, read CGI's 2022 ESG report.

About CGI

Founded in 1976, CGI is among the largest independent IT and business consulting services firms in the world. With 90,250 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 2022 reported revenue is $12.87 billion and CGI shares are listed on the TSX (GIB.A) and the NYSE (GIB). Learn more at cgi.com.

ABOUT PROJECT SEAGRASS

Founded in 2013, Project Seagrass is an environmental charity devoted to the conservation of seagrass ecosystems through community, research and action. Their mission is to lead societal change to enable the recognition, recovery and resilience of seagrass ecosystems globally: that provide biodiversity, equitable and sustainable livelihoods, and planetary life support.

SOURCE CGI Inc.
New funding will enable Shef to help thousands more local cooks turn their

culinary talents into a small business

SAN FRANCISCO, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Shef , the nation's leading chef-to-consumer marketplace, today announced plans to expand nationwide after closing a $73.5 million Series B funding round last year, bringing the company's total funding to date to more than $100 million. The largest investment ever in a chef-to-consumer marketplace, the funding will help Shef connect talented local cooks anywhere in the United States with customers looking for healthy, high-quality food options prepared by members of their community.

Mealtime with Shef

Shef's previously closed Series B round was led by CRV, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz and Amex Ventures. The round included $7M in venture debt. Other investors include celebrity chefs Andrew Zimmern (Bizarre Foods), Carla Hall (The Chew, Top Chef), Kristen Kish (Top Chef, Iron Chef) and Nyesha Arrington (Next Level Chef); athletes Russell Westbrook, Odell Beckham Jr. and Candace Parker; comedians Jimmy O. Yang and Lilly Singh; entrepreneur and best-selling author Tony Robbins; Visa CFO Vasant Prabhu; AngelList founder Naval Ravikant; Poshmark founder Manish Chandra; and former Airbnb executives Belinda Johnson and Joe Zadeh. They join a long list of existing investors including Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom, Aaron Sanchez, Andre Iguodala, and Alexis Ohanian.

Shef launched in the Bay Area in 2019 and currently operates in 11 states plus Washington, D.C., reaching 70 million people. Since its launch four years ago, thousands of local, food safety certified "shefs"  85% of whom are women and 80% people of color  have joined the marketplace. Many are immigrants or refugees, representing nearly 100 countries around the world. Cooks on Shef have earned tens of millions of dollars of net income to support themselves and their families.

"Finding Shef has changed my life here," said Shef Adriana , a Nicaraguan refugee who was forced to flee her beloved home country and successful Managua restaurant four years ago. "My dream is to open a restaurant again someday. Until then, Shef enables me to share my cherished family recipes with customers and earn much-needed income. It makes me so happy to give my customers a taste of where I come from, hopefully reminding them of their own mother's or grandmother's cooking too."

The new funding will enable Shef to help thousands more local cooks turn their culinary talents into a small business for the first time, while meeting the needs of busy consumers looking for healthy, high-quality meal options. As of 2022, all 50 states now allow for the sale of certain types of homemade food, with many states clarifying laws to embrace and regulate the practice. Starting today, talented cooks anywhere across the country can apply to sell their homemade specialties on Shef. Shef will also be investing in key product developments, including new preference and customization features that will deliver a uniquely personalized experience.

"With our plans to bring Shef nationwide this year, we're focused on enabling anyone, anywhere to become a food entrepreneur  something that would have been a true economic lifeline for both Alvin's and my family when they immigrated to the U.S.," said Shef co-founder and CEO Joey Grassia. "Demand for Shef has grown dramatically over the past four years  both from those interested in cooking on the platform to earn much-needed income, as well as consumers looking for more affordable, healthy ways to feed their families. We're thrilled to be able to meet this demand and fill a significant gap in the market between home cooking and takeout."

"Shef is not only incubating the next generation of American food entrepreneurs and future restaurant owners, they're unlocking an entirely new category of how we feed our families," said Saar Gur, general partner at CRV . "Neighbors feeding neighbors is already a widely accepted tradition around the world. Now talented local cooks can simultaneously pursue their passion while also providing their families with another meaningful source of income by providing homemade dishes to those nearby, something that's even more relevant given the tough economy. We're proud to support a company that puts the interests of shefs front and center while meeting a huge consumer demand for more healthy, high-quality food options in their community."

"At American Express, we're all about shopping small and supporting the next generation of small business owners," said Kevin Tsang, Managing Director for Consumer Services Investments at Amex Ventures. "Shef has turned starting a small food business  something previously cost-prohibitive for most  into a reality for thousands of people across the country. In supporting Shef, we're honored to invest in a majority female and people of color marketplace that's dramatically lowering the price of entry into the food industry."

Beyond supporting the fast-growing community of shefs across the country, Shef is also committed to giving back  both to non-profits and causes in places where Shef operates, as well as around the world. Shef and its customers have donated more than 10,000 meals to those in need. Shef also established an initiative to help Afghan refugees in the wake of the 2021 crisis, expediting the applications of any Afghan refugee interested in cooking on Shef and setting aside $3,500 per person to help pay for training, supplies, and marketing support.

About Shef

Shef is a chef-to-consumer marketplace that enables talented local cooks to connect directly with customers in their community and earn a meaningful income selling authentic, homemade dishes. Shef was founded by Joey Grassia and Alvin Salehi, both sons of immigrants whose parents struggled to make ends meet after arriving in the U.S. The "she" in Shef is in honor of their mothers who worked incredibly hard to support and nourish their families and communities. Shef is their way of bringing a community-based food system to life, where anyone can gain access to a meaningful income and take care of their neighbors, one meal at a time. The service is currently available in several markets across the United States, including San Francisco, New York, New Jersey, Seattle, Chicago, Houston, Austin, Boston, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia, and Atlanta, with plans to expand nationwide this year. To order food from a local cook in your area, or for more information on how to become a shef, visit www.shef.com .

Contact:

Amy Dudley, Head of Communications, Shef

[email protected]

203-470-5881

SOURCE Shef
DUBLIN, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Cordless Saw Market Trends in China" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

This study focuses on China's Cordless Saw market trends. In the two past decades, the market has been growing at a fast pace. The dramatic expansions of the manufacturing capabilities and rising consumer consumptions in China have transformed China's society and economy. China is one of the world's major producers for industrial and consumer products. Far outpacing other economies in the world, China is the world's fastest growing market for the consumptions of goods and services.

The Chinese economy maintains a high speed growth which has been stimulated by the consecutive increases of industrial output, imports & exports, consumer consumption and capital investment for over two decades. Rapid consolidation between medium and large players is anticipated since the Chinese government has been encouraging industry consolidation with an effort to regulate the industry and to improve competitiveness in the world market.



Although China has enjoyed the benefits of an expanding market for production and distribution, the industry is suffering from minimal innovation and investment in R&D and new product development. The sector's economies of scale have yet to be achieved. Most domestic manufacturers lack the autonomic intellectual property and financial resources to develop their own brand name products.



This new study focuses on market trends and forecasts with historical data (2011, 2016 and 2021) and long-term forecasts through 2026 and 2031 are presented.



The primary and secondary research is done in China in order to access up-to-date government regulations, market information and industry data. Data were collected from the Chinese government publications, Chinese language newspapers and magazines, industry associations, local governments' industry bureaus, industry publications, and the publisher's in-house databases.



Key Topics Covered:



I. INTRODUCTION

Report Scope and Methodology

Executive Summary

II. BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

Economic Outlook

Key Economic Indicators

Industrial Output

Population and Labor

Foreign Investment

Foreign Trade

Financial and Tax Regulations

Banking System and Regulations

Foreign Exchange

Taxes, Tariff and Custom Duties

Market Trends

Technology Development

Market Development

Major Industry Development

Regional Development

Enterprise Development

Labor Market Development

III. CORDLESS SAW MARKET TRENDS

Cordless Saw Market Trends

Current Market Analyses

Market Development Trends

Market Challenges

Major Producers

Chinese Retail Market Trends

Consumer Income Trends

Consumer Spending Trends by Region

Northeast

North

Southeast

Central

Southwest

Northwest

IV. MARKETING STRATEGIES

China Market Entry Overview

China's Distribution System

Distribution System Distribution Channels

Transportation and Freight Infrastructure

Communications

China's Market Entry

Market Entry Exporting to China

License

Franchising

E-Commerce

Trading Companies and Local Agents

Representative Offices and Subsidiaries

Joint Ventures

Wholly Foreign-Owned Enterprise



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/rnzt7o-saw?w=5

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.



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
LONDON, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Chubb Tempest Re today announced that Wayne Ashley has been appointed Division President, Chubb Tempest Re International. Currently, he serves as Deputy Head of the business. In his new role, Ashley will be responsible for the overall management and development of Chubb Tempest Re's international property and casualty reinsurance business.

The appointment, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected to be effective on April 1. Ashley will report to Jim Wixtead, Senior Vice President, Chubb Group and President, Chubb Tempest Re. Ashley succeeds Stephen Roberts, who is retiring from the company at the end of April.

"Wayne is a seasoned reinsurance executive who has had leadership roles at Chubb Tempest Re for more than 15 years. Having served as deputy head of our international P&C reinsurance business, he is well positioned to lead as division president," said Wixtead. "I look forward to working with Wayne as we continue to serve our clients in this important international business."

"We are extremely grateful for Steve's years of service and the invaluable leadership he has provided to our reinsurance operation," said Wixtead. "He has played an important role in building our reinsurance company's international presence. We wish him all the very best in his retirement."

Ashley has nearly 30 years of experience in the insurance industry. He joined Chubb Tempest Re Bermuda in 2006 as Assistant Vice President, International, and was promoted to Vice President in 2009 and Senior Vice President in 2012. Ashley relocated to London in 2017 and moved into the deputy role responsible for all international property lines of business in 2019. Prior to Chubb, he was with Alea London, where he underwrote the International treaty portfolio. He began his career in London at Zurich Re in 1994 in the Reinsurance Treaty unit.

About Chubb Tempest Re

Chubb Tempest Re is the reinsurance business of Chubb, offering a broad range of products to a diverse group of primary property and casualty insurers worldwide. Doing business globally with offices in Bermuda, Stamford, London, Montreal and Zurich, the business has deep underwriting, actuarial and claims expertise.

About Chubb



Chubb is the world's largest publicly traded property and casualty insurance company. With operations in 54 countries and territories, Chubb provides commercial and personal property and casualty insurance, personal accident and supplemental health insurance, reinsurance and life insurance to a diverse group of clients. As an underwriting company, we assess, assume and manage risk with insight and discipline. We service and pay our claims fairly and promptly. The company is also defined by its extensive product and service offerings, broad distribution capabilities, exceptional financial strength and local operations globally. Parent company Chubb Limited is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: CB) and is a component of the S&P 500 index. Chubb maintains executive offices in Zurich, New York, London, Paris and other locations, and employs approximately 34,000 people worldwide. Additional information can be found at: www.chubb.com.

SOURCE Chubb INA Holdings
Clearstead's eighth acquisition will expand its presence in the Southwest and bolster its trust capabilities.

CLEVELAND, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Clearstead Advisors ("Clearstead"), a high-net-worth focused independent financial advisory firm serving private and institutional clients, has acquired Avalon Trust ("Avalon"), a similarly high-net-worth focused wealth management firm based in New Mexico with additional offices in Ridgewood, New Jersey, and Portland, Oregon. This acquisition reflects a continuation of Clearstead's strategy to expand its national presence, bolster its value-added services, and add seasoned executives to its platform. Avalon expands Clearstead's trust capabilities following Clearstead's acquisition of Atlantic Trust in 2021. In addition, Avalon represents Clearstead's second acquisition since Flexpoint Ford's majority investment in February 2022.

Clearstead Logo

The combined firm will oversee $28 billion of assets under advisement and management. Together, Clearstead and Avalon are well-positioned to provide clients and multi-generational families with a comprehensive suite of value-added services, including in-house and vertically integrated wealth management, trust, tax planning, alternative investments, and family office administration. This expertise is supported by best practices developed through 30+ years of experience providing first-class service.

Like Clearstead, Avalon is a client-focused, growth-oriented advisory business. Avalon offers highly customized solutions across investment management, trust, family office administration, and financial planning services to individuals, families, trusts, non-profits, and foundations. The firm, including its 13 employees, is managed by industry veterans Andrew Wallerstein, Christine McDermott, and Julia Peters, all of whom will continue as senior leaders in the combined firm. Through this combination, Avalon's clients will gain access to tax planning, alternative investments, and other complementary services.

Clearstead Chairman and CEO Dave Fulton said, "We are excited to join forces with Avalon. Partnering with the Avalon team furthers our strategy of providing high net worth families across the United States a holistic and differentiated wealth management offering. The Avalon team members are outstanding individuals who have done a first-rate job in building a leading wealth management and trust business. In particular, Avalon's focus on client values aligns with our Sustainable Clearstead initiatives. We are delighted to have them as partners."

Andrew Wallerstein, Christine McDermott, and Julia Peters will become partners of Clearstead. Mr. Wallerstein said, "Partnering with Clearstead helps us expand our resources and strengthen services for our clients. By joining Clearstead, our next generation of team members will have more opportunities to grow and ensure we are able to work with our clients for many years to come."

District Capital Partners served as the exclusive financial advisor to Clearstead on the transaction. Colchester Partners served as the exclusive financial advisor to Avalon Trust on the transaction.

About Clearstead: Founded in 1989, Clearstead is an independent, wealth management firm headquartered in Cleveland OH. Clearstead's in-house financial planning, tax planning, investment management, trust, family office, and OCIO experts are focused on delivering best-in-class services to private clients and institutions. Clients are served by over 130 employees of which more than 40 are employee partners. The firm has $26 billion in assets under advisement and management. The firm tackles complex investment, financial, tax, and governance needs for institutional and private clients. For more information about Clearstead, please visit https://www.clearstead.com.

About Avalon Trust: Founded in 1998, Avalon Trust is a trust and wealth management firm headquartered in Santa Fe, New Mexico. With employees in New Mexico, New Jersey, and Oregon, Avalon manages approximately $2 billion in assets under management. Avalon provides investment management, trust services, and financial planning to families, trusts, and foundations nationwide. For more information about Avalon Trust, please visit https://www.avalontrust.com/.

Dave Fulton, Chairman and Chief Executive

Clearstead Advisors, LLC.

(216) 621  1090

[email protected]

SOURCE Clearstead
HONG KONG, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- CNOOC Limited (the "Company", SEHK: 00883, SSE: 600938) announces today that it has discovered Bozhong 26-6 oilfield in Bohai Sea, which brings another hundred million tons of reserves.

Bozhong 26-6 oilfield is located in the south of Bohai Sea, with an average water depth of 22 meters. The main oil-bearing play is Archean buried hill and the oil property is light crude. The discovery well BZ26-6-2 was drilled and completed at a depth of 4,480 meters, which encountered a total of 321.3 meters oil pay zones. The well was tested to produce an average of approximately 2,040 barrels of crude oil and 11.45 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.

Mr. Xu Changgui, Deputy Chief Exploration Engineer of the Company, said, "Bozhong 26-6 oilfield is the third oilfield discovery with hundred million tons of reserves in southern Bohai Sea after Kenli 6-1 and Kenli 10-2. It is identified as the largest metamorphic buried hill oilfield in China. The discovery demonstrates the broad prospect of exploration for subtle buried hills in the Bohai Sea, providing important guidance for exploration in similar basins."

Mr. Zhou Xinhuai, CEO of the Company, said, "Bohai Sea has been one of the targeted areas of exploration for the Company. We will keep looking for mid-to-large sized oil and gas fields and continue to discover new momentum for offshore oil and gas developments, helping to fortify the resource foundation for the high-quality and sustainable development of the Company."

Notes to Editors:

More information about the Company is available at http://www.cnoocltd.com.

*** *** *** ***

This press release includes forward looking information, including statements regarding the likely future developments in the business of the Company and its subsidiaries, such as expected future events, business prospects or financial results. The words "expect", "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "objective", "ongoing", "may", "will", "project", "should", "believe", "plans", "intends" and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These statements are based on assumptions and analyses made by the Company as of this date in light of its experience and its perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors that the Company currently believes are appropriate under the circumstances. However, whether actual results and developments will meet the current expectations and predictions of the Company is uncertain. Actual results, performance and financial condition may differ materially from the Company's expectations, including but not limited to those associated with fluctuations in crude oil and natural gas prices, macro-political and economic factors, changes in the tax and fiscal regimes of the host countries in which we operate, the highly competitive nature of the oil and natural gas industry, environmental responsibility and compliance requirements, the Company's price forecast, the exploration and development activities, mergers, acquisitions and divestments activities, HSSE and insurance policies and changes in anti-corruption, anti-fraud, anti-money laundering and corporate governance laws.

Consequently, all of the forward-looking statements made in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements. The Company cannot assure that the results or developments anticipated will be realised or, even if substantially realised, that they will have the expected effect on the Company, its business or operations.

*** *** *** ***

For further enquiries, please contact:

Ms. Ariel Wang

Media & Public Relations

CNOOC Limited

Tel: +86-10-8452-6832

Fax: +86-10-8452-1441

E-mail: [email protected]

Mr. Bunny Lee

Porda Havas International Finance Communications Group

Tel: +852 3150 6707

Fax: +852 3150 6728

E-mail: [email protected]

SOURCE CNOOC Limited
DALLAS, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Comerica Incorporated (NYSE: CMA) announced that it will participate in the 2023 RBC Capital Markets Global Financial Institutions Conference on Tuesday, March 7, 2023.

Comerica Incorporated also provided updates to its 2023 earnings dates, including details for its first quarter 2023 earnings call on Thursday, April 20, 2023.

Interested parties may access additional information through the following details:

2023 RBC Capital Markets Financial Institutions Conference:

DATE: Tuesday, March 7, 2023

TIME: 9:40 a.m. CT / 10:40 a.m. ET

PARTICIPATING: James Herzog, Chief Financial Officer Kelly Gage, Director of Investor Relations

WEBCAST/PRESENTATION: The live audio webcast and presentation slides will be available on the Investor Relations Presentations and Events page on www.comerica.com. Comerica's presentation may include forward looking statements.

REPLAY INFORMATION: A replay (accessible for six months) of the call is expected to be available approximately one hour after the live webcast on the Investor Relations Presentations and Events page on www.comerica.com.

2023 Earnings Conference Call Schedule:

FIRST QUARTER 2023:

PARTICIPANT DIAL-IN:

Thursday, April 20, 2023

(877) 336-4440 or (409) 207-6984

(Event ID No. 4619582) 7 a.m. CT / 8 a.m. ET

SECOND QUARTER 2023: Friday, July 21, 2023 7 a.m. CT / 8 a.m. ET

THIRD QUARTER 2023: Friday, Oct. 20, 2023 7 a.m. CT / 8 a.m. ET

In addition, the conference presentation, financial results and earnings presentation will be furnished on Form 8-K filings that will be available on the Securities and Exchange Commission website at www.sec.gov.

Comerica Incorporated (NYSE: CMA) is a financial services company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and strategically aligned by three business segments: The Commercial Bank, The Retail Bank, and Wealth Management. Comerica focuses on relationships, and helping people and businesses be successful. In addition to Texas, Comerica Bank locations can be found in Arizona, California, Florida and Michigan, with select businesses operating in several other states, as well as in Canada and Mexico.

SOURCE Comerica Incorporated
NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The commercial real estate market size is expected to grow by USD 260.37 billion from 2022 to 2027 at a CAGR of 3.3%, according to Technavio. The growing commercial sector is driving market growth. In emerging economies such as China, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia, the retail construction industry will be supported by rapid industrialization and urbanization. Large corporations from the US, Europe, and Japan consider India as a prospective market. As a result, the country has witnessed significant growth in foreign investments in the commercial building sector. For more insights on the historic (2017 to 2021) and forecast market size (2023 to 2027) - Request a sample report.

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Commercial Real Estate Market 2023-2027

Commercial real estate market 2023-2027: Scope

Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our commercial real estate market report covers the following areas:

Commercial real estate market 2023-2027: Segmentation

End-user

Offices: The market share growth by this segment will be significant during the forecast period. This growth is attributed to factors such as the increasing demand for commercial offices from industrial sector companies. MNCs are investing in commercial spaces such as offices, especially in developing countries, to expand their global presence. Various investors are investing in commercial offices to guarantee high returns on investment. Such factors will drive the segment's growth during the forecast period.



Retail



Leisure



Others

Geography

APAC: APAC is projected to account for 52% of the market growth during the forecast period. The growth of the industrial sector has increased the demand for commercial office spaces, which has fueled the regional market's growth. China , Japan , India , South Korea , and Singapore are some of the key countries in the market in the region. In addition, consumers' investments in commercial developments owing to high disposable incomes and evolving lifestyles will also drive the regional market's growth.

, , , , and are some of the key countries in the market in the region. In addition, consumers' investments in commercial developments owing to high disposable incomes and evolving lifestyles will also drive the regional market's growth.

North America



Europe



South America



Middle East And Africa

For insights on global, regional, and country-level parameters with growth opportunities , historic (2017 to 2021) and forecast market size (2023 to 2027) Download a sample

Commercial real estate market 2023-2027: Vendor Analysis

ATC Group Services LLC, Boston Commercial Properties Inc., Brookfield Business Partners LP, CBRE Group Inc., DLF Ltd., Keller Williams Realty Inc., Lee and Associates Licensing and Administration Co. LP, Link Asset Management Ltd., MARCUS and MILLICHAP Inc., MaxWell Realty Canada, NAI Global, Nakheel PJSC, Onni Contracting Ltd., Prologis Inc., RAK Properties PJSC, Segro Plc, Shannon Waltchack, TCN Worldwide, Wanda Group, and WeWork Companies LLC are some of the major market participants.

Key vendor offerings

ATC Group Services LLC - The company offers solutions for commercial real estate.

The company offers solutions for commercial real estate. Boston Commercial Properties Inc. - The company offers solutions for commercial real estate that includes initial space programming, verifying assumptions of space needs, and investigating and assessing suitable alternative properties.

The company offers solutions for commercial real estate that includes initial space programming, verifying assumptions of space needs, and investigating and assessing suitable alternative properties. Brookfield Business Partners LP - The company offers solutions for commercial real estate, which include office, retail, multifamily, logistics, hospitality, land and housing, triple net lease, manufactured housing, and student housing assets on different continents.

The company offers solutions for commercial real estate, which include office, retail, multifamily, logistics, hospitality, land and housing, triple net lease, manufactured housing, and student housing assets on different continents. CBRE Group Inc. - The company offers solutions for commercial real estate comprising car parks, offices, logistics centers, and different retail outlets.

The company offers solutions for commercial real estate comprising car parks, offices, logistics centers, and different retail outlets. DLF Ltd. - The company offers solutions for commercial real estate, which involves design expertise, technology, advanced safety systems, and sustainability.

Commercial real estate market 2023-2027: Key highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2023-2027

Detailed information on factors that will assist commercial real estate market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the commercial real estate market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the commercial real estate market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of commercial real estate market vendors

Why buy?

Add credibility to strategy

Analyzes competitor's offerings

Get a holistic view of the market

Grow your profit margin with Technavio  Buy the report!

Related Reports:

The Europe commercial real estate market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 5.55% between 2022 and 2027. The size of the market is forecasted to increase by USD 80.59 billion. This report extensively covers market segmentation by end-user (offices, retail, leisure, and others) and type (rental, lease, and sales). It also includes an in-depth analysis of drivers, trends, and challenges.

The residential real estate market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 5.07% between 2022 and 2027. The size of the market is forecasted to increase by USD 514.41 billion. This report extensively covers market segmentation by mode of booking (sales and rental/lease), type (apartments, condominiums, landed houses, and villas), and geography (APAC, North America, Europe, South America, and Middle East and Africa).

Gain instant access to 17,000+ market research reports.

Technavio's SUBSCRIPTION platform

Commercial Real Estate Market Scope Report Coverage Details Base year 2022 Historic period 2017-2021 Forecast period 2023-2027 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 3.3% Market growth 2023-2027 USD 260.37 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth 2022-2023 (%) 2.4 Regional analysis APAC, North America, Europe, South America, and Middle East and Africa Performing market contribution APAC at 52% Key countries US, China, Japan, Germany, UK, India, Canada, Mexico, Italy,Spain, Australia, and South Korea Competitive landscape Leading vendors, market positioning of vendors, competitive strategies, and industry risks Key companies profiled ATC Group Services LLC, Boston Commercial Properties Inc., Brookfield Business Partners LP, CBRE Group Inc., DLF Ltd., Keller Williams Realty Inc., Lee and Associates Licensing and Administration Co. LP, Link Asset Management Ltd., MARCUS and MILLICHAP Inc., MaxWell Realty Canada, NAI Global, Nakheel PJSC, Onni Contracting Ltd., Prologis Inc., RAK Properties PJSC, Segro Plc, Shannon Waltchack, TCN Worldwide, Wanda Group, and WeWork Companies LLC 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 for Technavio consumer discretionary 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 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 2022

3.4 Market outlook: Forecast for 2022-2027

Exhibit 13: Chart on Global - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 14: Data Table on Global - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 15: Chart on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 16: Data Table on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

4 Historic Market Size

4.1 Global commercial real estate market 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 17: Historic Market Size  Data Table on Global commercial real estate market 2017 - 2021 ($ billion)

4.2 End-user Segment Analysis 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 18: Historic Market Size  End-user Segment 2017 - 2021 ($ billion)

4.3 Geography Segment Analysis 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 19: Historic Market Size  Geography Segment 2017 - 2021 ($ billion)

4.4 Country Segment Analysis 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 20: Historic Market Size  Country Segment 2017 - 2021 ($ billion)

5 Five Forces Analysis

5.1 Five forces summary

Exhibit 21: Five forces analysis - Comparison between 2022 and 2027

5.2 Bargaining power of buyers

Exhibit 22: Chart on Bargaining power of buyers  Impact of key factors 2022 and 2027

5.3 Bargaining power of suppliers

Exhibit 23: Bargaining power of suppliers  Impact of key factors in 2022 and 2027

5.4 Threat of new entrants

Exhibit 24: Threat of new entrants  Impact of key factors in 2022 and 2027

5.5 Threat of substitutes

Exhibit 25: Threat of substitutes  Impact of key factors in 2022 and 2027

5.6 Threat of rivalry

Exhibit 26: Threat of rivalry  Impact of key factors in 2022 and 2027

5.7 Market condition

Exhibit 27: Chart on Market condition - Five forces 2022 and 2027

6 Market Segmentation by End-user

6.1 Market segments

Exhibit 28: Chart on End-user - Market share 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 29: Data Table on End-user - Market share 2022-2027 (%)

6.2 Comparison by End-user

Exhibit 30: Chart on Comparison by End-user



Exhibit 31: Data Table on Comparison by End-user

6.3 Offices - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 32: Chart on Offices - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 33: Data Table on Offices - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 34: Chart on Offices - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 35: Data Table on Offices - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

6.4 Retail - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 36: Chart on Retail - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 37: Data Table on Retail - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 38: Chart on Retail - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 39: Data Table on Retail - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

6.5 Leisure - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 40: Chart on Leisure - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 41: Data Table on Leisure - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 42: Chart on Leisure - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 43: Data Table on Leisure - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

6.6 Others - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 44: Chart on Others - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 45: Data Table on Others - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 46: Chart on Others - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 47: Data Table on Others - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

6.7 Market opportunity by End-user

Exhibit 48: Market opportunity by End-user ($ billion)

7 Customer Landscape

7.1 Customer landscape overview

Exhibit 49: Analysis of price sensitivity, lifecycle, customer purchase basket, adoption rates, and purchase criteria

8 Geographic Landscape

8.1 Geographic segmentation

Exhibit 50: Chart on Market share by geography 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 51: Data Table on Market share by geography 2022-2027 (%)

8.2 Geographic comparison

Exhibit 52: Chart on Geographic comparison



Exhibit 53: Data Table on Geographic comparison

8.3 APAC - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 54: Chart on APAC - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 55: Data Table on APAC - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 56: Chart on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 57: Data Table on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

8.4 North America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 58: Chart on North America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

Exhibit 59: Data Table on North America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

Exhibit 60: Chart on North America - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 61: Data Table on North America - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

8.5 Europe - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 62: Chart on Europe - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

Exhibit 63: Data Table on Europe - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

Exhibit 64: Chart on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 65: Data Table on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

8.6 South America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 66: Chart on South America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

Exhibit 67: Data Table on South America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

Exhibit 68: Chart on South America - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 69: Data Table on South America - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

8.7 Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

and - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 70: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

and - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

Exhibit 71: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

and - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

Exhibit 72: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

and - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 73: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

8.8 US - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 74: Chart on US - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 75: Data Table on US - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 76: Chart on US - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 77: Data Table on US - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

8.9 China - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 78: Chart on China - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

Exhibit 79: Data Table on China - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

Exhibit 80: Chart on China - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 81: Data Table on China - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

8.10 Japan - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 82: Chart on Japan - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

Exhibit 83: Data Table on Japan - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

Exhibit 84: Chart on Japan - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 85: Data Table on Japan - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

8.11 Germany - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 86: Chart on Germany - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

Exhibit 87: Data Table on Germany - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)

Exhibit 88: Chart on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 89: Data Table on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

8.12 UK - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 90: Chart on UK - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 91: Data Table on UK - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ billion)



Exhibit 92: Chart on UK - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 93: Data Table on UK - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

8.13 Market opportunity by geography

Exhibit 94: Market opportunity by geography ($ billion)

9 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends

9.1 Market drivers

9.2 Market challenges

9.3 Impact of drivers and challenges

Exhibit 95: Impact of drivers and challenges in 2022 and 2027

9.4 Market trends

10 Vendor Landscape

10.1 Overview

10.2 Vendor landscape

Exhibit 96: Overview on Criticality of inputs and Factors of differentiation

10.3 Landscape disruption

Exhibit 97: Overview on factors of disruption

10.4 Industry risks

Exhibit 98: Impact of key risks on business

11 Vendor Analysis

11.1 Vendors covered

Exhibit 99: Vendors covered

11.2 Market positioning of vendors

Exhibit 100: Matrix on vendor position and classification

11.3 ATC Group Services LLC

Exhibit 101: ATC Group Services LLC - Overview



Exhibit 102: ATC Group Services LLC - Product / Service



Exhibit 103: ATC Group Services LLC - Key offerings

11.4 Boston Commercial Properties Inc.

Exhibit 104: Boston Commercial Properties Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 105: Boston Commercial Properties Inc. - Product / Service



Exhibit 106: Boston Commercial Properties Inc. - Key offerings

11.5 Brookfield Business Partners LP

Exhibit 107: Brookfield Business Partners LP - Overview



Exhibit 108: Brookfield Business Partners LP - Business segments



Exhibit 109: Brookfield Business Partners LP - Key offerings



Exhibit 110: Brookfield Business Partners LP - Segment focus

11.6 CBRE Group Inc.

Exhibit 111: CBRE Group Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 112: CBRE Group Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 113: CBRE Group Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 114: CBRE Group Inc. - Segment focus

11.7 DLF Ltd.

Exhibit 115: DLF Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 116: DLF Ltd. - Product / Service



Exhibit 117: DLF Ltd. - Key offerings

11.8 Link Asset Management Ltd.

Exhibit 118: Link Asset Management Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 119: Link Asset Management Ltd. - Product / Service



Exhibit 120: Link Asset Management Ltd. - Key offerings

11.9 MaxWell Realty Canada

Exhibit 121: MaxWell Realty Canada - Overview



Exhibit 122: MaxWell Realty Canada - Product / Service



Exhibit 123: MaxWell Realty Canada - Key offerings

11.10 Nakheel PJSC

Exhibit 124: Nakheel PJSC - Overview



Exhibit 125: Nakheel PJSC - Product / Service



Exhibit 126: Nakheel PJSC - Key offerings

11.11 Onni Contracting Ltd.

Exhibit 127: Onni Contracting Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 128: Onni Contracting Ltd. - Product / Service



Exhibit 129: Onni Contracting Ltd. - Key offerings

11.12 Prologis Inc.

Exhibit 130: Prologis Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 131: Prologis Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 132: Prologis Inc. - Key news



Exhibit 133: Prologis Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 134: Prologis Inc. - Segment focus

11.13 RAK Properties PJSC

Exhibit 135: RAK Properties PJSC - Overview



Exhibit 136: RAK Properties PJSC - Business segments



Exhibit 137: RAK Properties PJSC - Key offerings



Exhibit 138: RAK Properties PJSC - Segment focus

11.14 Segro Plc

Exhibit 139: Segro Plc - Overview



Exhibit 140: Segro Plc - Business segments



Exhibit 141: Segro Plc - Key offerings



Exhibit 142: Segro Plc - Segment focus

11.15 Shannon Waltchack

Exhibit 143: Shannon Waltchack - Overview

- Overview

Exhibit 144: Shannon Waltchack - Product / Service

- Product / Service

Exhibit 145: Shannon Waltchack - Key offerings

11.16 Wanda Group

Exhibit 146: Wanda Group - Overview



Exhibit 147: Wanda Group - Product / Service



Exhibit 148: Wanda Group - Key offerings

11.17 WeWork Companies LLC

Exhibit 149: WeWork Companies LLC - Overview



Exhibit 150: WeWork Companies LLC - Product / Service



Exhibit 151: WeWork Companies LLC - Key news



Exhibit 152: WeWork Companies LLC - Key offerings

12 Appendix

12.1 Scope of the report

12.2 Inclusions and exclusions checklist

Exhibit 153: Inclusions checklist



Exhibit 154: Exclusions checklist

12.3 Currency conversion rates for US$

Exhibit 155: Currency conversion rates for US$

12.4 Research methodology

Exhibit 156: Research methodology



Exhibit 157: Validation techniques employed for market sizing



Exhibit 158: Information sources

12.5 List of abbreviations

Exhibit 159: 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 across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

Contact

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media & Marketing Executive

US: +1 844 364 1100

UK: +44 203 893 3200

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.technavio.com/

SOURCE Technavio
NEW YORK, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Compass, Inc. (NYSE: COMP), a leading technology-enabled residential real estate brokerage, today announced that Robert Reffkin, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, and Kalani Reelitz, Chief Financial Officer, will present at the 2023 Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference on March 9, 2023. The session is scheduled to begin at 11:35 a.m. ET / 8:35 a.m. PT.

A live webcast of the event and any related presentation materials will be available at https://cc.webcasts.com/morg007/030623a_js/?entity=100_PSJS8JN and the event will be available as a replay under the Events & Presentations section on the Compass Investor Relations website, https://investors.compass.com .

About Compass

Founded in 2012, Compass is the largest residential real estate brokerage in the United States.1 The technology-enabled brokerage provides an end-to-end platform that empowers its residential real estate agents to deliver exceptional service to seller and buyer clients. The platform includes an integrated suite of cloud-based software for customer relationship management, marketing, client service, brokerage services and other critical functionality, all custom-built for the real estate industry. Compass agents utilize the platform to grow their business, save time and manage their business more effectively. For more information on how Compass empowers real estate agents, one of the largest groups of small business owners in the country, please visit www.Compass.com .

Compass uses its Investor Relations website, https://investors.compass.com , as a means of disclosing information which may be of interest or material to its investors and for complying with disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. Accordingly, investors should monitor Compass' Investor Relations website, in addition to following Compass' press releases, SEC filings, public conference calls, webcasts and social media.

1 T. Velt, "RealTrends 500: The Rise of Compass," RealTrends, Online, HW Media, 3/25/2022, https://www.realtrends.com/realtrends-500-the-rise-of-compass/ .

SOURCE Compass
SHENZHEN, China, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Creality, a global pioneer in 3D printing, has been providing support to assist those impacted by the recent earthquakes in Turkey.

Crealitys emergency supplies arrived at the warehouse in Osmaniye on February 26.

Together with Genix, a leading printing solutions provider and Creality's major distributor in Turkey, Creality has donated about 1500 emergency supply kits including tents and blankets to the affected regions through Ahbap Association, a non-governmental organization founded by the Turkish musician and philanthropist Haluk Levent. All the supplies were sent to Aahbap's community recovery warehouse in Osmaniye in southern Turkey by February 26, and will be distributed to the surrounding villages as requested by Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD).

"It is heartbreaking to see so many people affected by the devastating earthquakes, and our deepest condolences go to the families who have lost their loved ones," said Ao Danjun, CEO of Creality. "As a global company, we are responsible for providing timely aid to people in need. Our local colleagues and business partners are sparing no effort in allocating supplies and helping victims, and we will continue to stand with the local people during this challenging time."

Creality has been proactive in charitable contributions for years and established the Creality Charity Fund in 2020. In early 2020, Creality quickly responded to the COVID-19 outbreak and donated 300,000 RMB (43,200 USD) to Wuhan Charity Federation for epidemic prevention and control, and procured 50,000 KN95 masks worth 500,000 RMB and shipped them to the United States, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and other countries.

About Creality

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.

SOURCE CREALITY 3D
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- cultivate(MD) Capital Funds LP, funds that are focused on investments into early-stage healthcare companies with innovative technologies, announced today that one of their portfolio companies, Grand Rapids-based SPDx has hired Julius Heil in the role of CEO. Mr. Heil brings over 30 years' experience in healthcare and logistics with deep expertise in supply chain management, operations and asset management. Most recently, Mr. Heil served as President and CEO of Intalere, a leading national group purchasing organization (GPO).

SPDx is creating a network of purpose-built facilities to provide surgery centers and hospitals with off-site sterilization and logistics services that are powered by world class technicians, IT systems, and the latest sterilization technologies and methods. Their services are expected to increase revenue and asset use for facilities while lowering costs, as well as reducing risks of healthcare-acquired infections for patients.

SPDx specializes in centralized sterile processing serving Ambulatory Surgery Centers, Hospitals and OEM Suppliers. Tweet this

Julius Heil said, "Every patient deserves access to quality, affordable healthcare close to home. I am very excited to join SPDx because its business model facilitates expansion of the healthcare ecosystem, thereby providing patients with a larger choice of safe environments in which to receive care. The skills and experience of the board of directors and the management team already in place created an opportunity I knew I had to be part of and should not pass up. Expansion of this business to more cities across the US is just good for everyone SPDx serves."

Scott Lancaster, Chief Investment Officer of The 4100 Group, Inc. said, "We partner with teamsfounders and those who surround themwhere there is a clear indication of a match between the expertise and experience set and the problem they are going after. SPDx is no exception. With veterans of the medical device and logistics arenas, SPDx complements hospitals, ASCs and OEMs through a proprietary system of services that support the quadruple aim."

SPDx Board Member Michael Chaney said, "We are pleased with the progress of SPDx and the opening of our first facility to provide patients with safer and more affordable health care. Julius' extensive experience, skills, and excellent leadership make him a great addition to the current strong team. This positions us to accelerate our expansion to other markets to serve more patients and expand this exciting new business model."

SPDx is entering the market with their first facility operating in Phoenix, AZ in Q1 of this year.

About SPDx (Sterile Processing Express):

SPDx is a company specializing in centralized sterile processing serving Ambulatory Surgery Centers, Hospitals and OEM Suppliers. SPDx's unique approach changes the way in which sterile processing is handled, with benefits of increased revenue, efficient case turns, improved compliance and service for facilities that specialize in surgical procedures. Patients benefit from reduced risk of healthcare-acquired infections and lower costs. To learn more about SPDx, please visit us at https://sterileprocessingexpress.com/

About cultivate(MD) Capital Funds

As a medical device venture capital fund, cultivate(MD) is dedicated to bringing emerging health care innovations to market, with a special focus on medical device and orthopedic technologies. cultivate(MD) is focused on investing in early stage healthcare companies with innovative technologies that have demonstrated evidence of effectiveness. For more information, visit: https://genesisinnovationgroup.com/

SOURCE cultivate(MD)
The Company continues to expand its adult-use services across the state

NEW YORK, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Curaleaf Holdings, Inc. (CSE: CURA) (OTCQX: CURLF) ("Curaleaf" or the "Company"), a leading international provider of consumer cannabis products, today announced that it will commence adult-use sales at its Hartford, Connecticut location beginning March 1 at 9:00 am EST. Curaleaf Hartford, located at 92 Weston St, is the Company's second dispensary to serve adult-use consumers in Connecticut and the first dispensary in the capital city to offer adult-use products.

In January, Curaleaf began adult-use cannabis sales at its Stamford location. The Company currently serves medical patients at two of its other Connecticut dispensaries in Milford and Groton, and anticipates welcoming adult-use customers at additional locations in the future, pending regulatory approvals.

"Curaleaf is well positioned to serve Connecticut's quickly expanding needs for both the adult-use and medical markets," said Matt Darin, CEO of Curaleaf. "We continue to expand our product offerings, and our knowledgeable team provides our patients and customers with guidance and education on how cannabis can meet their wellness and lifestyle needs."

Curaleaf's dispensaries in Hartford and Stamford both offer adult-use consumers a diverse collection of cannabis goods and services, including whole flower, pre-rolls, Select Elite vaporizers, and Curaleaf's breakthrough vape hardware, Cliq by Select. Patients and customers across Connecticut can participate in Curaleaf's revamped rewards program earning loyalty points for every dollar spent that can be redeemed for savings on future purchases made at any Curaleaf-operated dispensary.

At Curaleaf Hartford, existing medical patients will have priority access into the dispensary through a dedicated medical patient entrance, experience quicker check-ins with a dedicated staff, and will have a separate line for check-out. In addition, patients will continue to have access to Curaleaf's Compassionate Care Plan, along with its outstanding pharmacy team and patient consult rooms.

As an appreciation for the Company's patients and consumers, Curaleaf Hartford will host a celebration on Friday, March 3rd, featuring vendor sponsored giveaways, product discounts, music and complimentary food and drinks. Curaleaf Hartford operates from 9:00 am to 8:00 pm EST Monday through Saturday, and 9:00 am to 7:00 pm EST on Sundays. For more information on Curaleaf's locations, patient resources and products in Connecticut, please visit https://ct.curaleaf.com/ .

About Curaleaf Holdings

Curaleaf Holdings, Inc. (CSE: CURA) (OTCQX: CURLF) ("Curaleaf") is a leading international provider of consumer products in cannabis with a mission to improve lives by providing clarity around cannabis and confidence around consumption. As a high-growth cannabis company known for quality, expertise and reliability, the Company and its brands, including Curaleaf and Select, provide industry-leading service, product selection and accessibility across the medical and adult-use markets. In the United States, Curaleaf currently operates in 19 states with 148 dispensaries, and employs nearly 5,500 team members. Curaleaf International is the largest vertically integrated cannabis company in Europe with a unique supply and distribution network throughout the European market, bringing together pioneering science and research with cutting-edge cultivation, extraction and production. Curaleaf is listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the symbol CURA and trades on the OTCQX market under the symbol CURLF. For more information, please visit https://ir.curaleaf.com .

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This media advisory contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. These statements relate to future events or future performance. All statements other than statements of historical fact may be forwardlooking statements or information. Generally, forward-looking statements and information may be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or, "proposed", "is expected", "intends", "anticipates", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases, or by the use of words or phrases which state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, or might occur or be achieved. More particularly and without limitation, this news release contains forward-looking statements and information concerning the commencement of adult-use sales at Curaleaf Hartford. Such forward-looking statements and information reflect management's current beliefs and are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to the company with respect to the matter described in this new release. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, which are based on current expectations as of the date of this release and subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Additional information about these assumptions and risks and uncertainties is contained under "Risk Factors and Uncertainties" in the Company's latest annual information form filed March 9, 2022, which is available under the Company's SEDAR profile at http://www.sedar.com, and in other filings that the Company has made and may make with applicable securities authorities in the future. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made only as to the date of this press release and we undertake no 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. We caution investors not to place considerable reliance on the forward looking statements contained in this press release. The Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed, approved or disapproved the content of this news release.

INVESTOR CONTACT

Curaleaf Holdings, Inc.

Camilo Lyon, Chief Investment Officer

[email protected]

MEDIA CONTACT

Curaleaf Holdings, Inc.

Jordon Rahmil, Sr. Director Corporate Communications

[email protected]

SOURCE Curaleaf Holdings, Inc.
POTOMAC, Md., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Curbio, Inc., the leading fix now, pay-at-closing home improvement solution for real estate agents, has been named a finalist in Maryland Tech Council's (MTC) 2023 ICON Awards in the Technology Company of the Year category. The award is part of the MTC's annual Industry Awards Celebration, an event honoring individuals and companies in the life sciences, technology, and government contracting industries that have made a significant impact in their respective fields.

Curbio is a groundbreaking PropTech company that has set out to transform the way that real estate agents and their clients get listings ready for market. Powered by technology, Curbio streamlines the pre-listing home improvement process from start to finish, allowing the company to complete pre-listing home improvement projects of any size quickly and reliably. With Curbio, realtors and their clients can update homes to sell for more, without the hassle of traditional home improvement.

"Curbio is excited to be selected as a finalist for Technology Company of the Year by the MTC. This has been a big year for Curbio as we continue to grow- expanding into new markets and launching new technologies like the Curbio mobile app to help realtors win listings and sell them for top dollar. We are honored to be recognized for our work as we continue to set the new standard in pre-sale home improvement," said Olivia Mariani, Chief Marketing Officer at Curbio.

The winners of the MTC's 2023 ICON Awards will be announced live on April 27th at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center. Learn more about the event on MTC's website.

For more information on Curbio, visit www.Curbio.com.

About Curbio

Curbio is on a mission to help real estate agents fix and update homes before they go on the market, so they sell quickly and for the best price, with zero payment due until closing. Founded in 2017, Curbio has quickly become the largest national home improvement company dedicated to pre-listing repairs, updates, and renovations. Curbio has modernized home improvement with an easy-to-use app that accelerates project timelines by 50%, while removing the delays, uncertainties and other frustrations that have plagued home improvement for decades. Their rapid time to listing, coupled with a turn-key approach and project ROI expertise, has made Curbio the most trusted fix first, pay-at-closing home improvement partner to thousands of realtors and brokerages nationwide, including eXp realty, RE/MAX, HomeServices of America, Long & Foster, @properties and many more.

SOURCE Curbio
D-ID's new live-streaming API provides a 'human user interface' for Conversational AI, enhancing the digital experience and enabling companies to better connect with customers

TEL AVIV, Israel, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- D-ID , a world leader in generative AI today launched their chat API, the first platform to enable face-to-face conversations with an AI Digital Human in a natural way. With D-ID's new real-time streaming capabilities, together with its text-to-video technology, clients can integrate the power of large language models like GPT-3 and LaMDA to deploy interactive digital humans.

D-ID is premiering the product at Mobile World Congress (Hall 5 stand 5E61, Kiosk 12A).

D-ID's new offering gives enterprises and developers the ability to create photorealistic digital assistants who can interact with consumers in a more human, engaging and effective way, to improve customer support, sales, training, personal finance and more  increasing conversion, customer experience while lowering the brands' overall production costs.

"Large language models like GPT-3 and LaMDA are changing the way we relate to and interact with technology, and we are not far off from all of us having our own personalized AI assistants and companions," said Gil Perry, CEO and Co-Founder of D-ID. "We are making tech more human by giving it a face and making the interaction more natural. I am very proud of D-ID, which continues to be at the cutting edge of the emergent generative AI industry."

One of the use cases for brands is the ability to engage customers with more personal interactive experiences. Text chatbots are the top way consumers interact with brands; however, according to a recent Forrester survey , 50% of respondents feel frustrated with their experience. On the other hand, when consumers have a positive experience with a chatbot, 61% expressed they would be more likely to return.

D-IDs live-streaming face animation API offers enterprises and developers the opportunity to embrace the generative AI trend by easily integrating D-ID's proprietary technology in a simple, scalable and elastic package. Companies can incorporate presenters, talking and moving faces, to offer consumers real time digital assistants or companions.

On Monday, D-ID also announced its involvement in the first-of-its-kind framework for the ethical and responsible development, creation and sharing of synthetic media/generative AI. Initiated by Partnership on AI (PAI) and backed by a cohort of launch partners, the framework is called Partnership on AI's Responsible Practices for Synthetic Media and was created over a year-long process with a range of relevant stakeholders, including D-ID. It is a set of guiding recommendations for those creating, sharing, and distributing synthetic media  (AI-generated media).

For more information, visit https://d-id.com

About D-ID

D-ID's generative AI technology elevates learning and development, sales, and marketing video content. Their platform uses deep learning models to enable creators to generate digital people and photorealistic digital presenters from text, dramatically reducing the cost and hassle of video production at scale. D-ID was established in 2017 and is backed by tier 1 VCs. Over 110 million videos have been created using their technology. D-ID's solution is available through a self-service Creative RealityTM Studio , a corporate training solution , an API , and plug-ins. D-ID unleashed the viral sensation Deep Nostalgia , the first generative AI tool to go viral, in 2020. It took over the internet for months, as millions of people used it to bring photos of ancestors and historic figures to life. Customers include Fortune 500 companies such as Warner Bros , Mondelez , leading e-learning platforms,, social media platforms and content creators of all sorts.

The media kit can be found here

Media Contact:

Gina Shaffer

Si14 Global Communications

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE D-ID
An Expanded Investor Team Unlocks the Potential for Web3, Metaverse, AI and more, Boosting Origination and Fresh Perspectives

CHICAGO, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Decasonic , the global venture and digital assets fund building blockchain innovation, announced today two new hires to its venture investment team to assist in driving growth and achieving company goals. The move happens with an increased need for origination, helping founders accelerate global mainstream adoption with product marketing, category creation and investor deal fit.

Danny Pantuso and Lauren Tierney join Decasonic as Venture Investors, expanding the investment team based in the company's Chicago office. These two hires will report directly to Paul Hsu, founder and CEO of Decasonic in Chicago, IL. Pantuso and Tierney will source opportunities on the frontier of Web3 pre-seed, seed stage venture and digital assets, both domestically and internationally. They will also maintain, innovate and interface on VC data and the Decasonic software stack while activating the Decasonic ecosystem of founders, investors and other strategic partners, among other responsibilities.

"We continue to seek out and add capabilities to our best-in-class venture team, meeting founders where they are and driving with energy, passion, empathy and commitment, where bold founders meet us with energy, passion, entrepreneurship and determination," said Paul Hsu, founder and CEO of Decasonic. "Augmenting our team while maintaining our core values and principles with exciting, outcome-oriented individuals will bring countless new opportunities to our deal team. Danny and Lauren are energetic, driven and work empathetically with outlier founders who value discipline and speed in execution."

Pantuso and Tierney hail from the Bay Area with extensive backgrounds, education and experience in venture capital. Pantuso specializes in product identification, with empathy for founders and a love of gaming, much like Hsu. Tierney excels with marketing, is an adept creator of narratives that will help founders shape their stories, and is a "super-connector" networker.

"You could say Venture Capital is in my veins. My parents were managing partners at NeoCarta Venture and some of my earliest memories involved meeting with founders in Menlo Park, in the heart of Sand Hill Road," explained Danny Pantuso. "That's also where I first met Paul Hsu, where he was working in the same role I fulfill today,

Pantuso received a degree in Management Science and Engineering at Stanford, where he studied design thinking at the D.School on the frontier of entrepreneurship and technological innovation. Upon graduating, he turned down a job at Microsoft in Silicon Valley for a job 10 thousand miles away in Iceland. There, he honed his product skills, leading two development teams at Iceland's largest travel marketplace.

"As co-founder/co-host of Allowlist, a weekly podcast highlighting different use cases for blockchain technology and the metaverse, I believe that web3 presents a unique opportunity to build a better digital world and solve problems that span every industry, from healthcare and education to consumer loyalty and sustainability," said Lauren Tierney. "I am excited by the opportunity at Decasonic, where we firmly believe that blockchain technology holds the key to unlocking trillion-dollar opportunities and are committed to leveraging its disruptive potential to accelerate the pace of progress toward a better future."

Tierney is a rising star in the web3 space and has been invited to speak at various businesses and organizations to provide education on the fundamentals of web3 and advise on how blockchain technology, tokenization, and metaverse activations can create measurable results for businesses. She previously worked at Atlassian, a software development company based in Australia, as a Senior Experiential Marketing Manager and NetEquity Real Estate before joining Decasonic.

To learn more about Decasonic, please visit: www.decasonic.com

ABOUT DECASONIC:

Decasonic is the venture and digital assets fund building blockchain and web3 innovation. They draw on decades of experience as tech investors and operators to help founders in blockchain accelerate product-market fit and scale growth. As believers, builders, and investors in blockchain since 2013, they've engineered a systematic approach to iconic growth  with people, data, and relationships as the north stars of the fund.

SOURCE Decasonic
LOS ANGELES, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Davtyan Law Firm ( www.d.law ) is anxious to begin helping employees in the Long Beach, CA area after opening its newest location Downtown. DLaw's flagship office opened over seven years ago to help fight for the rights of the working class in the Los Angeles area.

The employment law firm achieved industry-leading stats in 2022 and looks to surpass them in 2023. DLaw attorneys focus on supporting all Californians in navigating employment issues, such as workplace harassment, discrimination, unpaid wages, and wrongful termination. Their dedication and determination is what sets them apart from other employment law firms in the area.

Founder and Managing Attorney Emil Davtyan is eager to see how his firm's experience and skillset will help workers in and around the Long Beach, CA area. The entire team at DLaw brings experienced and conscientious legal services to all employees in this region. The firm works tirelessly to provide approachable help to those that need it most.

DLaw also has offices in Los Angeles , San Diego , San Francisco , Fresno , Sacramento , Chico , San Luis Obispo , Lake Tahoe , San Bernardino , Monterey , Stockton , and San Jose to protect all Californians from abusive employers.

Since its inception in 2015, DLaw's 80-plus lawyers and staff have helped hundreds of thousands of California workers recover nearly a quarter of $1 billion from their employers. To date, the firm has helped pursue nearly 3,000 cases.

DLaw has grown its staff with close to three dozen new hires across a variety of full-time staff positions since the beginning of 2022. The increase in staff further allows DLaw to provide unparalleled support to those who need help.

"Hourly and low-wage workers are the backbone of our society, working tirelessly to keep things moving forward," said Emil. "Unfortunately, these hardworking individuals often face tough challenges and struggles, and can sometimes feel like they have no voice. We want them to know that although employment law can be intimidating, we're here to help. Whether you've experienced unfair treatment at work, or just need someone to talk to, we're always just a phone call or click away."

DLaw's newest office is located in Downtown Long Beach just steps away from Lincoln Park, at 111 W. Ocean Blvd., 4th Floor Long Beach, California, 90802.

Are you a California employee who is treated unfairly at work? If so, please call 888-TRY-DLAW, visit the www.d.law website or email [email protected] . A representative is standing by 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to help with your employment law legal needs.

Contact:

Armen Petrosyan

[email protected]

SOURCE Davtyan Law Firm, Inc.
Diversification at geographical and energy source levels, as well as storage adoption, emerge as keys success factors for renewables players

MADRID, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- RatedPower, now a part of Enverus, the most trusted energy-dedicated SaaS platform, has released its annual findings derived from nearly 100 diverse industry experts from across the world, and more than 101,000 simulations. According to the results, the focus for 2023 will be on accelerating the adoption of renewable energy power generation, reducing the levelized cost of electricity, fuel diversification and energy storage investment.

After years of falling costs, the renewable industry faced new challenges in 2022 as supply chain disruptions related to the pandemic increased equipment prices and reduced availability. But new global capacity installations continued to rise as the pandemic, coupled with the energy crisis, spurred governments and businesses to increase their investments in clean energy and reduce reliance on fossil fuel imports.

"In the year ahead, we expect the green transition to provide a massive boost to investments in solar photovoltaics (PV)  for residential, commercial and industrial, and for utility-scale installations. The industry is increasingly looking at ways to incorporate battery storage and clean, green hydrogen into renewable installations to maximize supply," said Andrea Barber, vice president of Power & Renewables at Enverus and co-founder of RatedPower, upon release of the report.

To gain further insight into the status of the industry and the key trends for this year and beyond, RatedPower turned to more than 100 experts from energy companies of all sizes from around the world and carried out a comprehensive survey that includes their views on the challenges and prospects ahead. Additionally, the report analyzes data from RatedPower's solar plant simulation software to highlight key trends and top manufacturers around the world in 2022.

"The energy evolution is not clearly mapped out for us; it is a winding, twisting road full of potholes. All these twists, turns and bumps make the market one that is full of risk but, more importantly, of opportunity as well. At Enverus, we continue to work endlessly to eliminate the gaps and help you make intelligent connections between all parts of the project lifecycle from siting through operations, so you can minimize investment risks and maximize returns," added Bernadette Johnson, general manager of Power & Renewables at Enverus.

Key themes revealed:

Industry experts are concerned about instability and grid saturation

Grid saturation and instability has joined permitting and regulation as the biggest challenge the renewable industry is facing in the coming year, with both issues cited by 68% of respondents. The increase in costs is widely mentioned among the respondents as a major challenge. More than 40% of survey respondents have also cited the increasing lack of skilled personnel, land availability and raw materials.

Energy storage keeps gaining attention

When asked about technologies with the highest potential, experts still mention energy storage as a trendy topic, but agree that the future might be in newer PV technologies that contribute to the deployment of renewable capacity at the scale needed for global decarbonization. Agriphotovoltaics, floating PV, vehicle-integrated PV, and building-integrated PV are promoted as routes to expanding solar capacity.

US and China are perceived as top growth potential regions

For the first time, the U.S. has overtaken China as the country with the highest growth potential, with 60% of responses placing it at the top, followed by China with 46%. India and Australia also made the list with their ambitious renewable plans.

The key to success: Diversification

Diversification of renewable energy is one of the top three key success factors of a leading energy company, according to 68.5% of respondents. Almost all industry professionals believe that automation, digitalization of the processes, and energy storage need to be the focus of investors to help with the grid saturation and instability challenges.

RatedPower: A deep dive into the data

There has been an increase in the volume of generation capacity simulated in RatedPower's software to 9.47 TW across 101,822 simulations throughout 2022.

The average rated power capacity worldwide in 2022 was around 96GW, with the first quarter rising above 100MW, up from 80.69MW in 2021. The data shows an increase in the popularity of string inverters over central inverters for the past two years. The simulations based with these inverters are 53% and 47% respectively. Although solar tracking systems accounted for more than half of the simulations, there seems to be a growing trend towards the use of fixed structures, which increased by 3%. Top three countries by average rated power are Brazil (326.8MW), Mexico (162.6MW), and Chile (161.95MW). Bifacial modules simulations kept growing last year, reaching a total of 71.87% of simulations, up from 57% in 2021.

2022 was a record year of high energy costs across Europe, which has emphasized the advantages of low-carbon energy generation, increasing calls for an acceleration in wind and solar system installation. The survey reveals that renewable energy experts are confident that digitalization, storage and diversification will be key for the development of the renewable energy sector going forward.

Members of the media should contact Jon Haubert (North America) or Angela Lopez (international) to request a copy of the full report or to schedule an interview with one of Enverus' expert analysts.

About Enverus

Enverus is the most trusted, energy-dedicated SaaS platform, offering real-time access to analytics, insights and benchmark cost and revenue data sourced from our partnerships to 98% of U.S. energy producers, and more than 35,000 suppliers. Our platform, with intelligent connections, drives more efficient production and distribution, capital allocation, renewable energy development, investment and sourcing, and our experienced industry experts support our customers through thought leadership, consulting and technology innovations. We provide intelligence across the energy ecosystem: renewables, oil and gas, financial institutions, and power and utilities, with more than 6,000 customers in 50 countries. Learn more at Enverus.com.

About RatedPower

RatedPower, an Enverus company since September 2022, helps companies discover the smartest ways to design and engineer utility-scale solar PV plants and maximize their potential through pvDesign, their software to automate and optimize the study, analysis, design and engineering of photovoltaic plants and its electrical infrastructure in all its stages. Learn more at ratedpower.com.

SOURCE Enverus
GRANTS PASS, Ore., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Are you an avid DB sticker collector? Or just love a spectacular sticker to rock on your water bottle or laptop case? Well get ready, not only will Dutch Bros feature an extra special sticker in June, but you get to be part of the fun!

Back in January, Dutch Bros hosted its first broista only sticker competition and now it's your turn to vote. Here's the deets:

Voting is live now through March 7! Tweet this Dutch Bros gave broistas the opportunity to create and submit sticker designs following the theme Bring the Heat while also showing their mind-blowing artistic skills.

Dutch Bros gave broistas the opportunity to create and submit sticker designs following the theme "Bring the Heat" while also showing their mind-blowing artistic skills.

After receiving more than 290 incredible submissions, 10 designs were selected as finalists!!

Starting today through March 7 , customers can (and should!) vote for their fave sticker.

, customers can (and should!) vote for their fave sticker. The winning sticker will be the June sticker of the month!

"Each month, Dutch Bros launches a sticker of the month and these stickers are our way of surprising and delighting our customers," said Charles Swindler, senior vice president of brand at Dutch Bros. "With so many talented broistas out there, we thought this competition was a rad way to celebrate their creativity!"

Voting is live now through March 7, click here to submit your vote! Want to learn more about these absolutely legendary broista artists? Read more here !

About Dutch Bros

Dutch Bros Coffee is a drive-thru coffee company dedicated to making a massive difference one cup at a time. Headquartered in Grants Pass, Oregon, where it was founded in 1992 by Dane and Travis Boersma, it's now sharing the "Dutch Luv" with more than 700 locations in 14 states. Dutch Bros serves specialty coffee, smoothies, freezes, teas, an exclusive Dutch Bros Rebel energy drink and nitrogen-infused cold brew coffee. Its rich, proprietary coffee blend is handcrafted from start to finish.

In addition to its mission of speed, quality and service, Dutch Bros is committed to giving back to the communities it serves. Through its Dutch Bros Foundation and local operators and franchisees, the company donates several million dollars to causes across the country each year.

To learn more about Dutch Bros, visit www.dutchbros.com , follow Dutch Bros Coffee on Instagram , Facebook , Twitter , & TikTok , and download the Dutch Bros app to earn points and score rewards!

SOURCE Dutch Bros Coffee
LONDON, Feb. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- EarnPark, a brand-new crypto earning platform , is excited to announce the launch of its newly redesigned platform. The new design is aimed at providing users with a more reliable, easy-to-use, and user-friendly experience while earning passive income in crypto .

4 Crypto Earning Strategies up to 13% APY  EarnPark Crypto Earning Platform

The new platform offers some of the highest yields and APYs in the market, making it a top choice for users looking to maximize their earning potential. In addition, EarnPark has introduced an advantageous referral program that allows users to earn even more by referring their friends and community to the platform.

The remastered platform is available for everyone, with no limits or lockups, simplifying access and asset management for users. The new design also includes an intuitive interface, enabling revenue tracking and other useful features.

What's more, EarnPark is preparing a product that will expose users to the potential of their cryptocurrencies and help them have more in 10 years' time. This possibility will allow users to unlock the full potential of their crypto and take advantage of the long-term growth prospects of the market. And now users have access to 4 different crypto earning strategies :

13% APY on USDT 13% APY on USDC 11% APY on Bitcoin 8% APY on Ethereum

EarnPark takes security and user protection inherent to traditional platforms and enhances it by introducing decentralization. While redefining personal finance, the company aims to take advantage of the optimistic market opportunity and let people invest and earn consistently.

CEO Quote: "We are thrilled to launch our redesigned platform for our users to enjoy a more reliable, straightforward, and smooth investment experience," said Gene Netso, CEO of EarnPark ( https://twitter.com/eugenenetso ). "We believe that the new platform, combined with our upcoming earning strategies, is the perfect match for anyone looking to earn passive income in crypto and boost their returns in the long run. Our focus is on users, and we can't wait to see them prosper. "

The new EarnPark platform is now live. Sign up and start earning today by visiting the EarnPark website.

Don't miss out on the opportunity to earn passive income in crypto with EarnPark. Follow EarnPark on Twitter and Telegram

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2010832/EarnPark.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2010833/EarnPark_Logo.jpg

SOURCE EarnPark
PACE Provides Nursing Home Alternative To Enable Frail Elderly to Age in Place

WASHINGTON, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Edenbridge PACE at Skyland Town Center, Washington D.C.'s first PACE (Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly), is now open and serving eligible participants residing in zip codes 20019, 20020, and 20032. Edenbridge PACE will host a grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony on April 11th from 2-6pm. For more information or to schedule a tour of the center, please call (571) 622-0555.

The new, state-of-the-art PACE center, located at 2211 Town Center Drive SE, offers participants a central location for medical care, therapies, recreational activities, meals, and more. Most participants live in their own homes with Edenbridge PACE's support, and the program is typically free of charge for participants who are both Medicaid- and Medicare-eligible. Eligible participants must:

EDENBRIDGE PACE AT SKYLAND TOWN CENTER, WASHINGTON DC'S FIRST PROGRAM OF ALL-INCLUSIVE CARE FOR THE ELDERLY, NOW OPEN Tweet this

be 55 years of age or older;

qualify for nursing facility level of care;

live within our service area;

and be able to live safely within their community with support.

"Our growing team of 20 is eager and ready to serve the vibrant community east of the Anacostia," said Amanda Davis, Executive Director of Edenbridge PACE at Skyland Town Center. "PACE enables frail elders to remain living at home and connected to their community, while receiving the complex care they need. Their loved ones have peace of mind knowing they're happy and safe. It's a win-win!"

Edenbridge PACE at Skyland Town Center is owned by Element Care, a nationally recognized PACE operator, and Edenbridge Health, a geriatrician-led PACE operator. Additional community supporters include The East River Family Strengthening Collaborative, The Pennsylvania Avenue Baptist Church, Capital Caring Health, and The George Washington University Hospital. GW Hospital and its affiliated physicians will collaborate in providing care to the program's participants.

"Elderly residents of the neighborhoods east of the river have spent decades without affordable, comprehensive healthcare," said Reverend Kendrick E. Curry, PhD., senior pastor of the Pennsylvania Avenue Baptist Church and Chair of the Edenbridge PACE Community Advisory Board. "Edenbridge PACE will be life-changing for families here."

About Edenbridge Health

Edenbridge Health is a mission-focused company founded in 2016 by seasoned geriatricians. From long experience and national study of best practices, Edenbridge has complemented the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) model with a special focus on supporting participants' personal autonomy and happiness. Through comprehensive, integrated and person-centered care, Edenbridge enables frail elders to age in the community and lead connected, meaningful lives. For more information, visit www.edenbridgehealth.org .

About Element Care

Element Care PACE, founded in 1995, is a non-profit healthcare organization with a mission to provide support and services necessary to allow older adults to remain safe and comfortable in their communities. As one of the largest PACE programs in the country, Element Care PACE delivers innovative medical care to eligible adults 55+ throughout Northeastern Massachusetts. For 28 years, Element Care PACE has enabled thousands of older adults to remain in their homes. For more information on Element Care PACE visit www.elementcare.org

About PACE

The Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) is a federal-state program to provide comprehensive care for frail elders. PACE is designed for elders who wish to remain at home rather than being placed in a nursing home.

PACE programs cover all Medicare and Medicaid services. They use an interdisciplinary team including doctors, nurses, home health aides and other providers. Many services are provided in a PACE center, which has medical office space, adult day services, and room for activities. Much of the medical care and support services are provided in participants' homes. The programs have very high satisfaction rates, low rates of hospitalization, and strong health outcomes.

PACE originated almost 50 years ago in San Francisco's On Lok program, which became a national model. PACE is now available in 32 states, serving about 62,000 participants through over 148 sponsoring organizations that run more than 270 PACE centers.

SOURCE Edenbridge PACE at Skyland Town Center
New cloud native integration provides unprecedented risk visibility with the ability to monitor cloud assets and their security posture in one unified platform.

DUBLIN, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Edgescan, the first-fully integrated cybersecurity platform, announced today the release of Cloudhook for cloud native environments. The Cloudhook integration feeds location data (IPs and hostnames) into the Edgescan platform and leverages both the external attack surface management (EASM) and vulnerability management components to illuminate and eliminate risk. As a cloud endpoint changes, Edgescan keeps pace with the evolving environment.

The modern cloud attack surface is ephemeral and in constant flux to support business critical infrastructure. The Edgescan platform keeps pace with these changes by ensuring complete visibility across an organization's global attack surface to eliminate security blind spots. This ensures all IT assets are inventoried and included in security monitoring and testing to build a resilient business posture.

"Security tools that dynamically inventory and monitor your assets as your global attack surface expands into the cloud are no longer a nice to have, they are a requirement for robust security programs," said Eoin Keary, Founder and CEO of Edgescan.

About Edgescan

Edgescan is the first fully integrated cybersecurity platform that unifies all required security solutions into a single combative platform. These solutions include pen testing as a service (PTaaS), vulnerability management, dynamic application security testing (DAST), external attack surface management (EASM), and API security testing. It allows companies to view and map assets across their entire global attack surface and delivers validated vulnerability data eliminating false positives. The platform reduces the complexity and overhead associated with tool proliferation, speeds up remediation, cuts operational costs, while reducing risk associated with digital transformation and cloud deployments.

Media Contact:

Christine Carrig

SVP Global Marketing

Edgescan

[email protected]

SOURCE Edgescan
WESTBOROUGH, Mass., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Every day, people across the country face emergencies of all types  and the American Red Cross is there to respond. To help the Red Cross in its efforts to assist those in need and to commemorate Red Cross Month in March and its generous volunteers, EG America has announced a fundraiser with a goal of $150,000.

American Red Cross logo

During the month of March, guests will have the opportunity to donate $1, $5, or an amount of their choosing to the Red Cross during checkout. Participating stores include Cumberland Farms, Certified Oil, Fastrac, Kwik Shop, Loaf 'N Jug, Minit Mart, Quik Stop, Sprint Food Stores, Tom Thumb, and Turkey Hill. All proceeds will go towards supporting the urgent needs of the Red Cross's humanitarian mission to alleviate human suffering in the face of emergencies. This U.S. fundraiser is part of EG Group's global participation in supporting the Red Cross.

"It is a privilege to partner with American Red Cross to raise funds for their vital mission of offering help in times of extreme need through mobilization, volunteering, and generosity," said Caroline Taitelbaum, president of EG America. "We encourage all guests who visit any of our participating locations nationwide to consider making a donation in support of this worthy cause and help us achieve our goal of raising $150,000."

Nearly 1,000 people are helped every hour of the day by the Red Cross as individuals and communities experience crises  from prolonged and life-threatening blood shortages to more frequent and intense natural disasters like wildfires and hurricanes, to the unique challenges faced by military families, to a person in need of lifesaving CPR provided by a trained bystander. Donations help enable the Red Cross to respond immediately, delivering its lifesaving mission to those in need.

"Red Cross Month is a time to celebrate the community and the heroes who volunteer with the Red Cross, ensuring that no one faces emergencies alone," said Bill Andrews, division fundraising vice president at the American Red Cross. "We are proud to celebrate our partnership with companies like EG America, whose generosity provides hope and comfort when help can't wait."

About EG Group

Founded in 2001 by the Issa family, United Kingdom-based EG Group is a leading convenience retailer which has established partnerships with global brands. The business has an established pedigree of delivering a world-class Grocery & Merchandise, Foodservice and Fuel offer.

EG Group currently employs in excess of 50,000 colleagues working in more than 6,300 sites across USA, UK & Ireland, Continental Europe and Australia.

Zuber Issa CBE and Mohsin Issa CBE, founders and co-CEOs, EG Group, were honoured in the Queen's Birthday Honours List 2020 for their contribution to business and charity. They were also jointly named the 2018 EY Entrepreneur of the Year in the UK.

Further information at www.eg.group

Media Contact

Emily Pickering

[email protected]

617.337.9517

SOURCE EG Group
Enrolled patients will receive medication for up to 24 weeks; 90 sites planned for North America and Europe

CHICAGO, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Emalex Biosciences announced that the first patient was dosed in its Phase 3 clinical trial evaluating ecopipam for the treatment of Tourette Syndrome.

Participants in the trial receive ecopipam for 12 weeks in the open-label phase of the study. Those with at least a 25% reduction in the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale-Total Tic Score (YGTSS-TTS) at both week 8 and 12 will be randomized to continue on ecopipam or placebo in the double-blind phase of the study until they relapse, up to an additional 12 weeks. Efficacy will be assessed as the difference in time-to-relapse between groups.

Participants in the trial receive ecopipam for 12 weeks in the open-label phase of the study. Tweet this

"Tourette Syndrome is a serious condition for which there is significant unmet need," said Amanda Talty, Tourette Association of America president and CEO. "Currently, the two classes of medicines commonly used to treat Tourette can have a number of concerning side effects. We are happy to see the progress of additional studies being conducted to test new treatment alternatives for our community."

Emalex closed an upsized and oversubscribed $250 million Series D round led by Bain Capital Life Sciences in November to fund the Phase 3 trial and potential commercialization of ecopipam. The trial is expected to enroll more than 200 patients across 90 sites in North America and Europe.

Ecopipam is a first-in-class dopamine-1 receptor antagonist. The antipsychotic agents currently approved to treat Tourette syndrome target the dopamine-2 receptor and are associated with serious side effects. Patients enrolled in the Phase 2b D1AMOND study did not have observable evidence of adverse movements, excessive weight gain, or the metabolic side effects commonly reported with antipsychotic agents. The most frequent ecopipam-related adverse events in the study were headache (9.2%), fatigue (6.6%), somnolence (6.6%), insomnia (5.3%), and restlessness (5.3%).

Tourette Syndrome is a chronic, childhood-onset neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by motor and vocal tics. The condition is associated with both increased mortality and significant morbidity. In the majority of individuals, Tourette Syndrome substantially impacts day-to-day physical and social function.

Principal investigator Donald Gilbert, MD, a movement disorders specialist at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital, noted patients' tics often cause pain and injury in addition to social stigma and emotional distress.

"My patients have an urgent need for safer and more effective treatments. Tourette interferes with daily activities and commonly has negative impacts on mental and emotional health. For children and teens, Tourette can affect school performance and social development, which has lifelong consequences," Dr. Gilbert said.

About Ecopipam

Emalex's first-in-class development candidate, ecopipam, is a novel investigational compound that is being studied as a potential treatment for certain central nervous system disorders. Ecopipam blocks the actions of the neurotransmitter dopamine at the D1 receptor. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter in the central nervous system, and its receptors have been classified into two "families" based on their genetic structure: "D1" (including subtypes D1 and D5) and "D2" (including subtypes D2, D3, and D4). D1 receptor super-sensitivity may be a mechanism for the repetitive and compulsive behaviors associated with Tourette syndrome. Currently approved therapies for the treatment of Tourette syndrome act at D2 receptors. Ecopipam has been shown to be generally well tolerated in clinical trials conducted to date and has received Orphan Drug and Fast Track designation from the FDA. Adverse events affecting primarily the central nervous system have been reported in clinical trials conducted to date include headache, fatigue, somnolence, insomnia, restlessness, anxiety, depression and rarely, suicidal ideation. Further information can be found on clinicaltrials.gov.

About Emalex Biosciences

Emalex Biosciences was created by Paragon Biosciences to develop new treatments for central nervous system disorders. Emalex is in late-stage development of a new class of drug targeting the D1 receptor for patients with Tourette syndrome and other conditions that have limited treatment options. Visit https://emalexbiosciences.com to learn more

About Paragon Biosciences

Paragon Biosciences is a global life science leader that creates, builds and funds innovative biology-based companies in three key areas: cell and gene therapy, biology engineering and advanced biotechnology. Our portfolio companies use biology to accelerate scientific breakthroughs that solve some of society's most challenging problems. Learn more at https://www.paragonbiosci.com.

Media Contact:

Sheridan Chaney

312.847.1323

[email protected]

SOURCE Emalex Biosciences
Veteran leader brings deep experience in business development, building partnerships, and driving revenue

VANCOUVER, BC, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- emtelligent, a leader in the development of clinical-grade natural language processing (NLP) software for healthcare organizations, today announced it has named veteran healthcare industry executive Kim Perry as the company's first chief growth officer.

emtelligent's proprietary, enterprise-scale emtelliPro NLP engine and emtelliSuite apps are purpose-built to reveal actionable insights buried within unstructured medical text. Healthcare organizations use emtelliPro to improve clinician productivity and increase reimbursement and quality - allowing for improved patient care and outcomes.

Perry's experience spans large Fortune 500 companies as well as high-growth and private equity-backed organizations in her professional career. Prior to joining emtelligent, she served as vice president of business development and partnerships for ABOUT Healthcare. Perry also was national healthcare practice director and business development director at management consulting firm West Monroe Partners. Earlier in her career, she was an executive for 15 years at Xerox Services (now Conduent) and parent company Xerox Corp.

"Kim's experience leading through rapid growth and expertise in business development are an ideal fit for our company as we scale our business," said Dr. Tim O'Connell, emtelligent CEO and co-founder and a practicing radiologist. "She is a proven leader with the skills and knowledge to foster collaboration, build a strong internal culture, and drive results. We are fortunate and excited to have Kim on board."

In addition to her full-time professional roles, Perry is president of Women's Health Leadership TRUST, an organization with 500 members that elevates and supports women at all phases of their healthcare career, and an advisory board member at Broadpath, a privately held call center company. Perry also served as a member of the executive leadership team for the American Heart Association's Heart Ball, as board chair for more than three years of Neighborhood HealthSource, a Federally Qualified Health Center in Minneapolis, and was honored with a 2020 Minneapolis/St. Paul Women in Business award from the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal.

She earned a bachelor's degree in marketing and economics (with a specialty in international business) from the University of Wisconsin  Madison.

"When a company takes the time to thoroughly build a product before taking it to the market, it sets itself up for greater success, and that's what emtelligent has done," Perry said. "The management team is extremely thoughtful and focused and the culture they've built is a perfect fit for me. I'm looking forward to helping the company continue to grow and expand market share in the medical NLP space."

Perry will be attending ViVE 2023, which is being held March 26-29 in Nashville. She will be available for media interviews and analyst briefings.

About emtelligent

Based in Vancouver, BC, emtelligent partners with healthcare institutions, companies and organizations to strategically structure their unstructured medical data, helping them increase safety, operating efficiency and the quality of care. The emtelliPro engine and emtelliSuite apps are available now, and the team is on-hand to consult regarding your medical data needs. Learn more or schedule a demonstration at www.emtelligent.com or call 1-877-GO-EMTEL (1-877-463-6835) today.

Media Contact:

Maria Meredith

Amendola Communications for emtelligent

[email protected]

SOURCE emtelligent
SUNMI showcases its innovative BIoT solutions with partners at Euroshop 2023

DUSSELDORF, Germany, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- SUNMI, a business digitization solutions provider, showcased its latest intelligent retail technology at EuroShop 2023 (Booth06/F57), the world's largest retail trade fair, held from February 26 to March 2 in Dusseldorf, Germany. SUNMI's participation has added even more highlights to the event through presenting innovative solutions to provide customers with a brand new experiences.

Full Range of SUNMI BIoT Products

SUNMI's Booth 6/F57 at EuroShop2023

As one of the industry's leading innovators, SUNMI has been at the forefront of the Android solutions for business, with a deep understanding of the digital trends in the industry. At EuroShop 2023, SUNMI showcases its full ranges of BIoT products, designed to cater to the evolving needs of different industries. The product range includes payment, mobile, desktop, Kiosks, and other innovative hardware solutions, all designed to enhance the customer experience, streamline operations, and increase sales for businesses of all sizes.

SUNMI is a certified Android enterprise device reseller providing zero-touch enrollment. SUNMI L2s PRO, along with other models such as the SUNMI V2s, SUNMI V2s PLUS, SUNMI L2H, and SUNMI L2Ks, has been certified by GMS. This certification ensures that customers can quickly and easily deploy SUNMI Android devices with immediate remote activation and configuration. By utilizing this feature, customers' IT departments can deploy SUNMI devices on a large scale without having to manually configure each individual device.

Apart from the groundbreaking android devices, SUNMI also provides comprehensive software services. SUNMI DMP (SUNMI Device Management Platform) allow customer manage all company-owned devices, apps and contents from the cloud efficiently, easily and securely. RKI, a cloud-terminal integrated system, is designed for secure, efficient and convenient key injection, which is especially important for customers in the financial industry. In addition, SUNMI's financial product series has obtained multiple authoritative financial certifications, bringing customers omni-channel payment experience.

Business IoT Solutions with 11 ISV Partners

For the onsite activities, SUNMI and 11 ISV partners Jointly present a wide range of android based IoT solutions, including Retail, Payment, Hospitality, Catering, Lottery and Softpos. Working with partners worldwide, SUNMI is bringing Android-based IoT solutions to every business, offering essential hardware and software capabilities to address the business challenges faced by customers and boost their sales.

SUNMI's founder & CEO, Lin Zhe (Jack), attends the Euroshop Welcome Party and share his opinions on how BIoT devices and digital solutions can empower business. "We believe that, ToB smart terminals will be suit for more scenarios, and enabled by BIoT, the interconnection of more smart things will bring more profound revolution to this society." said Lin Zhe.

So far, SUNMI's products have received widespread recognition from businesses around the world, earning the trust and loyalty of more than 3 million merchants. Its participation in EuroShop 2023 is an opportunity to shape the industry by leading the move to Android for business.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2011868/1.jpg

SOURCE SUNMI
During MWC Barcelona 2023, Fibocom to unveil the 5G Sub-6GHz and mmWave module Fx190/Fx180 series based on Snapdragon X75 and X72 5G Modem-RF System, by integrating AI innovations in architecture design, significantly improves 5G cellular capabilities and spectrum utilization.

BARCELONA, Spain, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Fibocom Wireless Inc.,(300638.SZ) a global leading provider of IoT (Internet of Things) wireless solutions and wireless communication modules, to announce the launch of the leading-edge 5G Sub-6GHz and mmWave module Fx190(W)/Fx180(W) series at MWC Barcelona 2023. Adopting multiple innovations from the world's first 5G Advanced-ready modem-RF system, Snapdragon X75 and X72, the modules are set to bring outstanding cellular performance to mass data transmission applications such as mobile broadband, FWA, enterprise 5G, and IIoT.

Equipped with Qualcomm 5G AI Processor Gen 2, Snapdragon X75 is the world's first modem-RF system with a dedicated AI tensor accelerator. With 2.5X improved AI performance over Gen 1, allowing modules to significantly improve the 5G cellular capabilities with ultra-fast speed performance, extended network coverage, and spectrum utilization. Powered by Snapdragon X75 and X72, and a quad-core A55 CPU, Fibocom Fx190/Fx180 series provide superior 5G experience especially for FWA applications, offering optimized power consumption and multiple Wi-Fi 7 selections, furtherly reducing the time to market.

Compliant with 3GPP Release 17 standard, Fibocom FG190(W)/FM190(W) module series are adopting LGA and M.2 form factors into module design, efficiently driving the flexibility and scalability in a various of IoT terminal devices. By leveraging the spectrum resources for a broader reach of faster speeds, the module series support Sub-6 GHz and mmWave dual-connectivity, as well as NR 10CA with up to 1000MHz bandwidth in the mmWave frequency band, significantly boosting the maximum downlink speed of up to 10Gbps.

In addition to the Fx190 series, Fibocom launches the FG180(W)/FM180(W) series based on the Snapdragon X72, which supports up to 400MHz bandwidth of NR 4CA under mmwave bands, and 200MHz bandwidth of NR 3CA under Sub-6GHz, the maximum downlink rate under the aggregation of the two can reach 4.4Gbps. The Fx180 series is optimized for the FWA market and supports multi-gigabit uplink and downlink rates.

It is worth noting that FM190/FM180 series are M.2 standard and pin compatible with Fibocom FM170/FM160/FM150 5G module series. However, FG190(W)/FG180(W) series are design to provide Open CPU solution with rich interfaces such as PCIe, Ethernet, USXGMII, UART, I2S, USB 3.1 and UIM. Featuring on the fast-growing 5G FWA market, FG190(W)/FG180(W) series offers a comprehensive module solution in combination with the latest Wi-Fi 7 technology, including Tri-band Wi-Fi 7 for CPE (BE19000) and Dual-band Wi-Fi 7 for MiFi (BE5800). Benefiting from the Wi-Fi 7 capabilities such as 160MHz/320MHz bandwidth, 6GHz frequency band, 4096QAM, as well as Multi-Link Operation (MLO), ensuring the Wi-Fi network coverage and better speed experience in home, enterprise and manufacturing plants. It is worth noting that the FG190/FG180 series also supports wired network deployment, allowing maximum 10Gb Ethernet, satisfying different application requirements. Fibocom Fx190/Fx180 series also supports a variety of global operating systems, including OpenWRT and RDK-B, to further help customers reduce time to the market.

"We are excited to have Fibocom develop module products incorporating the leading-edge capabilities of our Snapdragon X75 and X72," said Gautam Sheoran, vice president, product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. "The unparalleled performance and power efficiency of Snapdragon X75 and X72 in both Sub-6 and mmWave technologies ushers in the next phase of 5G evolution in all major verticals such as FWA, Industrial IoT, and beyond."

"We are proud of cooperating with Qualcomm Technologies, the most valuable partner of Fibocom to launch the leading-edge 5G Sub-6GHz and mmWave module series Fx190(W)/Fx180(W) based on Snapdragon X75 and X72 at MWC Barcelona 2023," said Dan Schieler, SVP of IoT Overseas Sales Department, Fibocom. "It's great to see that in terms of offering 5G connectivity service, we are now diving deep into more and more vertical markets to provide the improved quality of 5G service. FWA is a fast-growing and promising market, we have the confidence to deliver a high-efficient, best-in-the-market total solution for our customers."

About Fibocom

Fibocom is a leading global supplier of wireless communication modules and solutions in the sector of IoT, as well as the first wireless communication module producer listed on the A-share market in China (stock code: 300638). We provide end-to-end IoT wireless communication solutions for telecom operators, IoT equipment manufacturers, and IoT system integrators. With over two decades' engagement in M2M and IoT communication technology and extensive expertise, we are capable of independently developing high-performance wireless communication modules including 5G/ 4G high speed cellular modules, LTE Cat 1/ 3G/ 2G/ NB-IoT/ LTE Cat M LPWA IoT cellular modules, Android smart modules and automotive communication modules for vehicle applications. Besides reliable, convenient, safe and intelligent IoT communication solutions for almost all vertical industries, we are also geared to customize the best and optimal IoT modules and solutions catering to your special requirements.

Qualcomm and Snapdragon are trademarks or registered trademarks of Qualcomm Incorporated.

Snapdragon and Qualcomm branded products are products of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. Qualcomm patented technologies are licensed by Qualcomm Incorporated.

SOURCE Fibocom Wireless Inc.
DUBLIN, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The "2023 Reputation Strategy & Brand Resilience Summit" conference has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

97% of customers will have searched online for reviews of your business before they decide to either work with you or make a purchase. And now, as we adapt to the new post Pandemic landscape, most organizations are rethinking how they engage and communicate with customers, partners, and fellow employees.

With increased scrutiny from the media, online and the general public, the stakes are higher than ever to be perceived in a favorable light. If there is a negative perception (as we've seen with examples of how various airlines, travel agencies & insurance providers have handled the pandemic), it can have disastrous consequences for your company's stability and revenue.

So how do you implement a watertight reputation management & brand resilence plan, that protects and enhances your companies reputation for the future in this new post pandemic landscape?

Join 150+ PR/Marketing & Communications professionals for The 2023 Reputation Strategy & Brand Resilience Summit. Now in it's 4th year and back for the first time post pandemic. This unique 2-day live and virtual event will provide you with the right tools, strategies and processes needed to protect and enhance your companies reputation for the future.

Listen, engage and takeaway actionable strategies with 20+ cross-industry leading speakers, happy to discuss their front-line experiences of planning/contingency & recovery while managing public communications in often challenging and fast-moving situations. This is one event not to be missed!

Previous Summit Themes Included:

Building a new corporate culture in living rooms and home offices

Black Out Tuesday ( June 4, 2020 ): Were companies practising advocacy or performative activism?

): Were companies practising advocacy or performative activism? Telehealth: Lessons for Reputation

Brand resilience anytime anywhere

Communicating through crisis

The importance of staff trust when navigating an external crisis

Measuring social media strategy in the new normal

Hands-on education during COVID: Reinventing your marketing strategy for the new norm

Innovation and brand resilience coming out of the pandemic

Why the business card isn't dead...just yet

Using media intelligence to combat disinformation

Previous Speakers Included:

Georgette Pascale

Founder & CEO

Pascale Communications

Alechia Reese

Director of Public Relations & Creative Marketing

The PowHERful Foundation

Kati Murphy

Executive Director of Public Affairs

The Art Institute of Chicago

Richard Crompton

VP Corporate Communications

Cayuga Centers

Hunter Hoffmann

SVP, Global Marketing and Communications

Amtrust Financial Services

Tori Oman Carter

Global Public Affairs

KFC Yum! Brands

Tom Albright

President & CEO

Recros Medica

Frederik Bjorndal

Corporate Press Manager

Novozymes

Sheila Doyle

Managing Director

High Falls Hemp

Ken Wisnefski

Founder & CEO

Webimax

Stephen Madden

Editor in Chief

Haymarket Media

Brandi Boatner

Social and Influencer Communications Lead, Global Markets

IBM

For more information about this conference visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/2hivdo

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.



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, Feb. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The "GCC Data Center Market - Investment Analysis & Growth Opportunities 2023-2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.





The GCC data center market is expected to reach a value of $5.5 billion by 2028 from $3.44 billion in 2022, growing at a CAGR of 8.14%

This report analyses the GCC data center market share. It elaboratively analyses the existing and upcoming facilities and investments in IT, electrical, mechanical infrastructure, general construction, and tier standards. It discusses market sizing and investment estimation for different segments.



DRIVING FACTORS FOR INVESTMENT IN THE REGION



The increased demand for the facilities is driven by the presence of smart cities, 5G and its applications, and the adoption of artificial intelligence and cloud-based services.



The increase in the adoption of cloud-based services in the region is growing the establishment of cloud regions by major cloud service providers such as Microsoft, Tencent cloud, Oracle, Amazon Web Services, and Alibaba Cloud. Microsoft Azure is opening its new cloud region in Qatar, a global data center facility. The region is also witnessing the adoption of cloud services as the governments adopt policies for implementing cloud services in the region. For instance, the Saudi Arabian government implemented the Cloud first policy to adopt cloud services in the region.



Telecom operators such as Saudi Telecom Company (stc), Mobily, Zain, Atlas, Sirius Telecom, Ooredoo, Nokia, Ericsson, and Vodafone are the major companies that deploy 5G connectivity in the GCC data center market. In the GCC region, around five submarine cables are currently under development. In terms of existing submarine cables, United Arab Emirates has the largest network of Submarine cables, with more than 15 submarine cables connected.



DRIVING FACTORS FOR AREA IN THE REGION



The government initiatives for developing the GCC data center market include the steps taken to reduce the price of the land to promote investment in the country. For instance, the Oman government reduce the cost of the land to facilitate the investment of the data centers in the country.



The presence of industrial parks, the availability of land, and the government's support motivate the operators to develop facilities in GCC countries. For instance, the Government of Bahrain announced the launching of its first data center park, which includes the development of its first data center by stc Bahrain through collaboration with the ministry of transport and Telecommunications.



The majority of the GCC countries have the availability of Free Trade Zones (FTZs). For instance, Oman has free trade zones such as the Al Mazunah Free Zone, Salalah Free Zone, Sohar Free Zone, and Duqm SEZ. These zones provide multiple benefits to investors, including corporate tax exemption, full exemption of import and export taxes, and local labor recruitment.



DRIVING FACTORS OF THE POWER CAPACITY IN THE REGION



In terms of renewable energy, GCC countries produce renewable energy majorly from solar, geothermal, and wind energy sources & aim to be carbon neutral. For instance, the UAE announced its plan to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 with an investment of over USD 160 billion towards renewable energy.



The GCC countries make initiatives for the development of renewable energy. For instance, the Bahrain government took National Energy Efficiency Action Plan (NEFAP), and the National Renewable Energy Action Plan (NREAP) was formed to increase the renewable energy addition by 10% in 2035.



In addition, the GCC region is witnessing a rise in investments in solar parks and renewable energy sources, which facilitate increasing renewable energy usage during the forecasted period. For instance, Shagaya renewable-energy park plans to expand its generation capacity of 4 GW by developing concentrated solar power (CSP) plants, solar PV farms, and wind farms by 2027.



The region also witnessed the power purchase agreement for powering the data centers. For instance, Khazna Data Centers formed a new Joint Venture (JV) with BEEAH Digital and planned to build a new 9 MW data center that will likely be powered by solar power. In terms of IT load, Saudi Arabia is dominating the GCC data center market with the addition of IT load by upcoming facilities during the forecast period. The UAE, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, and Bahrain follow Saudi Arabia.



SUPPLY & DEMAND IN THE GCC DATA CENTER MARKET



Government support and initiatives in digitalization are expected to boost the GCC data center market. For instance, the Arab League Digital Economy Federation (AFDE) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with ATDXT, a UAE-based digital transformation company, to build a new regional facility to promote digital transformation across the Gulf region.



The UAE is the most advanced technology market among GCC countries in the GCC region due to the presence of two smart cities, such as Abu Dhabi and Dubai, which drives the demand for data center investments. The expansion of cloud regions by hyperscale operators and internet service providers is fuelling the region's significant demand for data center investments.



The major colocation service providers in the GCC data center market include Ooredoo, Khazna Data Centers, Equinix, Gulf data hub, Zajil Telecom, Moro Hub, Oman Data Park, Mezza, Etisalat, and Saudi Telecom Company (stc). In addition, the region is also witnessing investments from new entrants such as ZeroPoint DC, EDGNEX, and Quantum Switch.



The migration of the on-premises data centers to colocation is increasing in the GCC region. For instance, the Abu Dhabi Accountability Authority (ADAA) was the first government entity to migrate its workloads from the on-premises data center to the G42 (Group 42) cloud.



In the GCC region, several sectors, such as BFSI, healthcare, education, hospitality, government, and transport, have observed data migration to the cloud. For instance, the educational institutions in the GCC region migrated their core applications, such as Student Information System (SIS) and Correspondence Management System (CMS), to the AWS cloud.



WHY SHOULD YOU BUY THIS RESEARCH?

The GCC market investments are classified into IT, power, cooling, and general construction services with sizing and forecast.

A comprehensive analysis of the latest trends, growth rate, potential opportunities, growth restraints, and prospects for the industry.

Business overview and product offerings of prominent IT infrastructure providers, construction contractors, support infrastructure providers, and investors operating in the industry.

A transparent research methodology and the analysis of the demand and supply aspects of the market.

Coverage

Facilities Covered (Existing): 78

Facilities Identified (Upcoming): 44

Coverage: 6 Countries

Existing vs. Upcoming (Area)

Existing vs. Upcoming (IT Load Capacity)

VENDOR LANDSCAPE

Major Vendors

IT Infrastructure Providers

Arista Networks

Atos

Broadcom

Cisco Systems

Dell Technologies

Fujitsu

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Hitachi Vantara

Huawei Technologies

IBM

Juniper Networks

Lenovo

NetApp

Oracle

Data Center Construction Contractors & Sub-Contractors

AECOM

Al Latifia Trading & Contracting

Aldar Properties

Arup

Ashi & Bushnag

Atkins

Capitoline

Dar

DC PRO BV

Direct Services

Edarat Group

EGEC

Egis

HATCO

HHM Building Contracting

Hill International

ICS Nett

INT'LTEC Group

JAMED

James L. Williams (JLW)

(JLW) Laing O'Rourke

Linesight

M+W Group

Mace

Marafie Group

McLaren Construction Group

Red Engineering

RW Armstrong

SANA Creative Systems

Specialist Technical Services (STS Group)

Turner & Townsend

Support Infrastructure Providers

ABB

Airedale

Alfa Laval

Canovate

Caterpillar

Cummins

Delta Electronics

Eaton

Enrogen

Envicool

Grundfos

Honeywell International

Johnson Controls

Legrand

Mitsubishi Electric

Rittal

Rolls-Royce

STULZ

Schneider Electric

Siemens

Vertiv

Data Center Investors

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Batelco

Etisalat (e&)

Equinix

Gulf Data Hub

Google

Khazna Data Centers

MEEZA

Mobily

Moro Hub

Oman Data Park

Ooredoo

Saudi Telecom Company (stc)

Tencent Cloud

Cloud Zain

Zajil Telecom

New Entrants

EDGNEX

Quantum Switch

ZeroPoint DC

EXISTING VS. UPCOMING DATA CENTERS

Existing Facilities in the region (Area and Power Capacity)

UAE

Saudi Arabia

Bahrain

Oman

Kuwait

Qatar

List of Upcoming Facilities in the region (Area and Power Capacity)

REPORT COVERAGE:

The segmentation includes:

IT Infrastructure

Servers

Storage Systems

Network Infrastructure

Electrical Infrastructure

UPS Systems

Generators

Transfer Switches & Switchgears

PDUs

Other Electrical Infrastructure

Mechanical Infrastructure

Cooling Systems

Racks

Other Mechanical Infrastructure

Cooling Systems

CRAC & CRAH Units

Chiller Units

Cooling Towers, Condensers & Dry Coolers

Other Cooling Units

General Construction

Core & Shell Development

Installation & Commissioning Services

Engineering & Building Design

Fire Detection & Suppression Systems

Physical Security

Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM)

Tier Standard

Tier I & Tier II

Tier III

Tier IV

Geography

UAE

Saudi Arabia

Bahrain

Oman

Kuwait

Qatar

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/7knt03-data-center?w=5

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.



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
PITTSBURGH, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Generian Pharmaceuticals, Inc., ("Generian"), a biopharmaceutical company discovering and developing orally bioavailable small molecule therapeutics in areas dominated by biologics, today announced that Hank Safferstein, Chief Executive Officer of Generian Pharmaceuticals, will host investor meetings at the Cowen 43rd Annual Healthcare Conference in Boston, MA, on Tuesday, March 7, 2023.

About Generian

Generian Pharmaceuticals is a preclinical biotechnology company focused on developing novel, orally available small molecule therapeutics for diseases with high unmet needspecifically areas dominated by biologics. By utilizing a proprietary platform, the company is advancing a pipeline of first in class drug candidates that therapeutically modulate target protein structure resulting in functional inhibition or activation. Generian has programs for both clinically validated targets as well as programs focused on novel targets under its collaboration agreement with Mitobridge, Inc. (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Astellas Pharma Inc.).

Learn more at www.generian.com.

Generian Contact:

Investor and Media inquiries

Argot Partners

[email protected]

SOURCE Generian Pharmaceuticals
Payments company adds former executives from Paysafe, First Data, Morgan Stanley, and iMobile3 to its Board of Directors

PRINCETON, N.J., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Get Beyond announced new additions to its Board of Directors, marking a strategic shift in the direction of the company. The change comes less than a year after Bob Carr, Founder and Executive Chairman, appointed Mike Peters as the company's new Chief Executive Officer and President. In the past 12 months, the company has positioned itself for rapid growth, and the addition of these experienced Board Members points towards a bright future.

Get Beyond appoints four experienced Board members and positions itself for rapid growth. Tweet this Former executives from Paysafe, First Data, Morgan Stanley, and iMobile3 join Get Beyond's Board of Directors.

The new appointees, Mia Shernoff, Robert J. Leonard, O.B. Rawls IV, and Robert Niehaus will join Honora Moore, Chief Legal Officer and Chief of Staff, Mike Peters, and Bob Carr on the Board.

Mike Peters comments on the wealth of experience that will influence the company's future:

"As we look to the future growth of the organization, I welcome and could not be more delighted to have O.B., Mia, Bob Leonard, and Bob Niehaus joining our team. They each bring significant industry experience and collectively are all well respected leaders in the payments space."

About the appointees:

Mia Shernoff is a marketing executive, currently serving as a Fractional Chief Marketing Officer to technology and financial institution clients. In the last fifteen years, Mia served as Chief Marketing Officer of First Data and a member of its Management Committee, as well as Head of Marketing for Fiserv's Global Business Solutions where she was a driving force for the company's Clover and Carat businesses. Prior to Fiserv, Mia was CMO for Chase Paymentech.

Robert J. Leonard is a successful entrepreneur responsible for co-founding and growing three different software companies, including iMobile3, Encore Development, and Leonard Development Group over the past 30+ years. Each company resulted in successful acquisitions by publicly traded companies.

O.B. Rawls is an accomplished senior level executive with monumental success in fintech, payments, and banking. He previously served as CEO of Global Payment Processing for Paysafe and CEO and President of iPayment. His career of more than 30 years also includes senior level executive roles with First Data, now Fiserv, Hypercom, and Bank of America.

Robert H. Niehaus is the Chairman and Founder of GCP Capital Partners LLC, an independent, privately held investment management firm which currently manages four U.S. private equity funds totaling $1.8 billion in committed capital. Prior to joining Greenhill, Mr. Niehaus spent 17 years at Morgan Stanley & Co., where he was a Managing Director in the merchant banking department.

Bob Carr comments on the new Board appointments:

"I'm very excited about our recent Board appointments and am thrilled this group of industry experts has decided to join the Get Beyond team. With their help, we will guide our company towards a path of success."

Get Beyond offers a suite of SMB business solutionsproviding transparent statements, protected pricing, and a philanthropic mission.

Media Contact:

[email protected]

SOURCE Get Beyond
DUBLIN, Feb. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Insect Repellent Market - Forecasts from 2022 to 2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Global Insect Repellent Market was valued at US$7.573 billion in 2020.

Growing global temperatures due to increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have created suitable conditions for mosquitos to breed across different regions while increasing their levels of activity. Climate conditions such as wet and damp climates in certain regions are also favouring the multiplication of the populations of various insects which can cause serious diseases. Thus, the growing incidence of vector-borne diseases in various parts of the world is significantly driving the market growth of insect repellents worldwide.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), vector-borne diseases account for more than 17% of all infectious diseases, killing over 700,000 people each year. These diseases can be caused either by parasites, viruses, or bacteria. Out of all vector-borne diseases, dengue is the most prevalent, causing an estimated 40,000 deaths every year. As novel vector-borne diseases keep spreading in various regions, the demand for insect repellents will continue to accelerate during the forecast period.

The growing number of pet owners across the globe is expected to propel market growth.

The increasing number of pet owners globally is also a major driver of the global insect repellent market as many pet owners are purchasing different types of insect repellents for their pets, especially dogs, to keep them safe and healthy. These parasites are problematic for dogs and cats as they spread diseases among animals.

As such, with a rise in the number of pets owned by people, the demand for insect repellents for pets is also increasing in order to prevent infestation and insect bites from occurring in the first place.

Growing demand for insect repellents made from natural ingredients to be used by kids is also paving the way for the market growth of insect repellents as many insect repellent manufacturers are now focusing on launching natural insect repellents in order to gain a larger share of the global insect repellent market. The booming global e-commerce industry is also contributing to the growth of the market for insect repellents.

Strategic developments deployed by the prominent market players are bound to fuel the market size.

Market players in the global insect repellent market are working closely with governments, international organizations, and universities to run various awareness campaigns so as to educate the public about effective measures to prevent the breeding of insects and, hence, prevent various diseases. For example, SC Johnson partnered with the University of Notre Dame in order to create public awareness about the benefits of spatial repellents. Furthermore, companies are also expanding their footprints by adding new and innovative products to their portfolio while establishing new facilities in emerging regions to cater to the local market.

The global insect repellent market has been segmented on the basis of insect type, product type, the active ingredient, application, sales channel, and geography. By insect type, the global insect repellent market has been segmented as mosquitoes, bugs, and others. By product type, the market has been segmented as sprays, coil, creams and lotions, vaporizers, and others. The market has been segmented by active ingredients such as synthetic and natural. By application, the market has also been segmented into humans and pets. The global insect repellent market has also been segmented by sales channels such as online and offline.

There is a boom in demand for insect repellents with natural ingredients

With active ingredients, the market for the natural segment will witness a substantial CAGR during the forecast period. People are constantly looking for alternatives to DEET-based chemical insect repellents with natural ingredients to protect themselves and their pets from insect bites as these are less toxic to humans and animals as well as the environment. However, the demand for synthetic-based insect repellents will remain high, especially in regions with a high risk of vector-borne diseases like Zika.

The Asia Pacific will witness the fastest regional market growth

Geographically, the global insect repellent market has been segmented into North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. The Asia Pacific regional market for insect repellent is poised to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Rising awareness about the benefits of insect repellents among consumers along with the growing prevalence of insect-borne diseases in different APAC countries such as India, Thailand, and Indonesia is driving the demand for insect repellents across this region. Supportive government initiatives to boost the adoption of insect repellents in order to reduce the burden of various insect-borne diseases such as dengue and malaria are further bolstering the market growth of insect repellents in this region. For example, the launch of the campaign in Delhi (India) to tackle vector-borne diseases like chikungunya and dengue while increasing the participation of residents in preventing their spread. The Middle East and Africa will also witness noteworthy regional market growth during the forecast period as there has been a rise in the incidence of various vector-borne diseases, especially in African countries.

Segmentation

By Insect Type

Mosquito

Bugs

By Product Type

Sprays

Coil

Creams and Lotions

Vaporizers

By Active Ingredient

Synthetic

Natural

By Application

Humans

Pets

By Sales Channel

Online

Offline

By Geography

North America

USA

Canada

Mexico

South America

Brazil

Argentina

Europe

UK

Germany

France

Spain

Italy

Middle East and Africa

and Saudi Arabia

UAE

Israel

Asia Pacific

China

Japan

South Korea

Australia

Indonesia

India

Companies Mentioned

Reckitt Benckiser Group plc

Sawyer Products, Inc.

GODREJ LTD.

Dabur Odomos

Spectrum Brands, Inc.

Enesis Group

Jyothy Laboratories Ltd

S. C. Johnson & Son, Inc.

PIC

Quantum Health

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/tn4ufw-insect?w=5

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

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
BEIJING, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Located in a small alley in Beijing's Xicheng district is renowned art gallery Rong Bao Zhai. As a centuries-old art gallery dedicated to promoting Chinese aesthetics in painting, Rong Bao Zhai often welcomes visitors from all over the world.

Since January, the gallery has become even busier as a large number of people have come to see its most recent exhibition, which is dedicated to Chinese art master Fan Zeng.

Displaying a total of 99 of Fan's artworks, the exhibition is called Han Mo Yuan, which means "the close bond between pen and ink."

Fan is one of the older generations of Chinese cultural workers who have spent a lifetime conveying Chinese beauty and the imbedded traditional philosophy through art. How did he transfer such profound Chinese cultural knowledge into art inspiration? And what did he do to maintain his Chinese style while winning over fans in the West?

With these questions in mind, the Global Times walked into Fan's exhibition to discover his opinions on China-West cultural communication.

This is the second issue of our Cultural Influencer series.

A total of 99 art treasures created by famous Chinese artist Fan Zeng are currently on display at Beijing art gallery Rong Bao Zhai.

As a prestigious gallery in China, Rong Bao Zhai has gone through over 300 years of development, and its history is closely linked with the names of generations of important Chinese artists. The art house has also witnessed the brilliant achievements of the development of Chinese painting arts.

Fan's exhibition is the grand finale of the celebration event to mark the 350th anniversary of Rong Bao Zhai. The exhibition featuring artworks by a Chinese master of international repute in a top gallery is particularly exciting.

Fan calls himself an artist who is "fascinated with painting," and this "artist" role has not diminished his talents when it comes to being a great cultural scholar. Fan has extensive knowledge of Chinese and Western literature, history and philosophy. The all-rounder was gifted in writing and poetry, and this ability has also infused his painting with deep cultural and spiritual connotations.

Fan Zeng has been famous in the painting world for more than half a century. Since the 1980s, he has attracted increasing attention in the art circles in East Asia and the rest of the world. As Fan's international profile grew, he kept adhering to the spirit of Chinese classical art, even though his vision incorporates Western elements. This has made him a cross-cultural communicator rather than a follower of world art trends.

His vision of China-West exchanges can clearly be seen in his paintings, especially the series of "Western faces" portraits. These portraits show viewers his cross-cultural thinking at the spiritual level of art.

Across changing times, the global cultural dialogues initiated by this art veteran have been carried on by younger artists. Many young Chinese artists have been encouraged by him and continued to have such dialogues.

Radiating different cultures

In Fan's exhibition, there are portraits of Western greats like Friedrich Nietzsche, Victor Hugo and Leo Tolstoy. The artist has used accurate, vivid and poetic lines to show audiences such great minds' inner spirit. At the same time, the paintings also convey unique visual styles rooted in Chinese aesthetics.

When viewing the paintings, visitors can observe how the spirit of Chinese classical art and Western modeling methods are naturally integrated, presenting a unique artistic charm. Yi Xuan, a 28-year-old art lover, was one of the fans who have observed this, and he told the Global Times that he saw "Chinese romanticism and Western realism" in Fan's paintings.

Wu Hongbin, an art critic and curator, told the Global Times that Fan's unique art style is actually rooted in the "combination of Eastern and Western artistic differences."

"Lines are basic modeling approaches in traditional Chinese art, and his lines are unique and representative of this. But at the same time, you can also perceive the artist's Western art techniques," Wu told the Global Times.

Although Fan himself also said Western "reason-guided philosophy" is different from Chinese philosophers' pursuit of nature, he is still confident and believes that his Chinese paintings can be admired by overseas audiences because they are rooted in China's profound, everlasting cultural history.

His paintings have become a window for international audiences to look into Asian aesthetics. Arts of the West and the East can therefore "collide" and complement each other.

Due to the Asian aesthetics displayed in Fan's paintings, Japan was one of the first countries in the world to show appreciation for his art.

Fan has been a main contributor to the China-Japan arts exchange dating back to as early as the 1970s. His art impressed Japan's acclaimed artist Hirayama Ikuo, who said Fan was an art leader that has inherited the excellent cultural traditions of China.

The two painters bond Chinese and Japanese cultures in art. As a Chinese art lover himself, Ikuo showed Fan his depiction of China's cultural legacy, the Dunhuang Grottoes; Fan has painted Monk Jianzhen to show the Buddhist culture shared by China and Japan.

Following Japan's appreciation, the profound Chinese humanistic spirit in Fan's art has attracted admirers from all over the world. In his paintings, overseas audiences can sense how ancient Chinese art engages in communication with the modern world in an open manner. As an artist leading the dialogue, Fan's artistic achievements and artistic ideas have become widely respected.

Over the years, the artist has been invited to participate in a series of China-West cultural and artistic exchange events, and has received various honors.

In 2010, then French president Nicolas Sarkozy awarded Fan the Knight of the Legion of Honor for his contributions to China-France cultural exchanges.

In 2011, he was made Honorary Doctor of Literature by the University of Glasgow in the UK. Fan gave a speech at the time exploring the arts of Rembrandt, one of the greatest Western painters, and Bada Shanren, a Chinese master of the late Ming (1368-1644) and early Qing (1644-1911) dynasties who was skillful in painting, calligraphy and poetry.

In 2012, the University of Alberta conferred an Honorary Degree on Fan in recognition of his contribution to the arts and education. Fan gave a speech titled "The Tranquil World" when receiving the honor.

In 2014, a China-France Cultural Dialogue event was held at the National Museum of China featuring Fan and Laurent Fabius, former French foreign minister and president of the Paris Climate Change Conference. In promoting the two countries' cultural ties, Fan gave Fabius a portrait named We Will Not Be Faithless to Human Civilization.

In August 2014, a joint exhibition of the works of Fan and French sculptor Jean Cardot was held in the National Museum of China on the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France.

In December 2014, Fan held a dialogue titled "The Beauty of Language" with Gabriel de Broglie, Chancelier of L'Institut de France, in Peking University.

On the occasion of the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Italy in 2015, an exhibition of calligraphy and painting by Fan Zeng themed "Dialogue of Civilizations" opened in Rome, Italy. Italy's President Sergio Mattarella awarded Fan the title of Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.

A year later, Fan participated in the "China Italy Language and Culture Dialogue" event at the Oriental Art Building of Nankai University.

Fan's artworks have also been sent as "national gifts" from China to overseas guests in both Asia and Europe. One of his iconic paintings, a portrait of historical figure Charles de Gaulle, has been sent to France, and in 2014, his portrait of China's Three Kingdoms (220-280) period hero Zhao Yun was gifted to Park Geunhye, then South Korean president.

Art critic Fan Qingqiong told the Global Times that both the technique and expression of Fan Zeng's art are deeply rooted in China, adding that Fan is an outstanding representative among the Chinese artists who have built a bridge between Chinese and Western art worlds.

Guo Changhong, deputy secretary-general of the China Television Art Committee, said that Fan's artworks deliver a "completely different artistic temperament." Compared with artists who bring Chinese art to the West, Fan's works are also dedicated to China-West dialogue.

Cultural confidence

During an interview with the Global Times, Fan said he always felt a sense of pride and confidence when talking about his Chinese identity. "It gives me a sense of contentment and happiness," he said.

Fan is also a veteran writer. For years, he has written about his deep understanding of Chinese culture in multiple essays. These writings have explored different themes such as China's philosophical, historical and cultural confidence. He noted that Western philosophers such as Heidegger and Wittgenstein thought that China's Asian philosophy is an excellent philosophical tradition and provides a window for the world to understand the country.

Talking about the concept of "people-oriented" philosophy, Fan explained to the Global Times that this concept was embedded in a section of the ancient Chinese philosophical text The Works of Mencius. Though the concept is ancient, its underlying wisdom has continued until today as an underpinning principle for the country's development.

"We should combine the ideas in ancient books with modern thinking to serve the new era," Fan remarked.

In order to stay up to date with the times, he continues to learn new things. Fan emphasized that the ability to embrace the new and other cultures is the "exciting" part of Chinese art.

"We should also absorb the good things from abroad. For example, Hollywood movies have their advantages in aesthetics. The scientific methods used to establish big scenes and create atmosphere is quite sophisticated. If we can apply these to our culture and art, of course, that is good," Fan said.

Fan also noted that he will always keep his "religion-like" passion for Chinese art and culture. "Because we all love this land, we want to become the backbone of China," Fan said during the interview at Rong Bao Zhai.

He has also quoted patriotic enthusiasm for China's literary giant Lu Xun to express his faith in Chinese culture, and implied that the artistic dialogue between China and the world is the responsibility of ensuing generations of Chinese cultural workers.

SOURCE Global Times
BEIJING, Feb. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- A report from GLOBAL TIMES ONLINE:

The activity entitled Ambassadors Face to Face with China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) was held in Beijing on Feb. 27.

A total of 111 diplomatic envoys of foreign countries and representatives of international organizations visited CCCC, witnessing the company's remarkable achievements and capability in infrastructure construction at home and abroad.

As one of the earliest and most successful Chinese enterprises to "go global," the company has promoted high-quality Belt and Road development and deepened friendly cooperation with governments and enterprises in various countries through the building of roads, bridges, ports, and cities, said Wang Tongzhou, Chairman of CCCC.

Diplomatic envoys expressed a strong willingness to enhance cooperation with China in the future. Noting that CCCC has built many important infrastructure projects like the Gwadar Deep Water Port in Pakistan, Pakistani Ambassador to China Moin ul Haque said the country is more than willing to cooperate with CCCC in social and economic projects.

China and the Philippines enjoy economic complementarity and the latter expects more cooperation between the two countries to benefit each other and the two peoples, said Philippine Ambassador to China Jaime A. FlorCruz.

Diplomatic envoys also visited the light technology and urban upgrading exhibition halls of a subsidiary of CCCC and tried smart light technologies in person.

"I am deeply impressed by this visit," said South African ambassador to China Siyabonga C. Cwele, adding that new technologies need to be used to improve people's lives in the future.

With the vision of making the world smoother, cities more livable and life more colorful, CCCC is willing to work with various countries to build more projects aimed at improving people's well-being and see that every person in every country shares more fully and fairly in the gains of cooperation, Wang said.

SOURCE GLOBAL TIMES ONLINE
CALGARY, AB, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ - (TSXV: GRD) (OTCQB: GRDAF) - Grounded Lithium Corp. ("GLC" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the entering into a purchase and sale agreement with Hub City Lithium Corp., owned 75% by EMP Metals Corp. ("EMP")(CSE: EMPS) (OTCQB: EMPPF) with the remaining 25% owned by ROK Resources Inc. ("ROK") (TSXV: ROK), to acquire an additional 33 sections (8,498 hectares) of highly prospective lands in our core Kindersley area (the "Assets"). The acquisition will bring GLC's total corporate landholdings, both Crown and freehold, to 333 sections (86,229 hectares), with approximately 300 sections (77,477 hectares) alone in the Kindersley Lithium Project ("KLP"). GLC expects to close the acquisition on or around March 15, 2023 (the "Closing"), subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions precedent.

(CNW Group/Grounded Lithium Corp)

Transaction Terms & Highlights

Total consideration - $425,000 comprised of cash consideration of $175,000 and the issuance of $250,000 of GLC common shares (" Shares ") based on the 10-day volume weighted average trading price of the Shares at Closing. For illustrative purposes, if the issuance price was based on the 10-day volume weighted average trading price of the Shares as of the date hereof, the number of Shares issued as consideration would equal 945,500 common shares or 1.4% of the Company's current outstanding Common Shares;





comprised of cash consideration of and the issuance of of GLC common shares (" ") based on the 10-day volume weighted average trading price of the Shares at Closing. For illustrative purposes, if the issuance price was based on the 10-day volume weighted average trading price of the Shares as of the date hereof, the number of Shares issued as consideration would equal 945,500 common shares or 1.4% of the Company's current outstanding Common Shares; The Shares issued will be subject to a contractual escrow to be released in equal 1/3 rd tranches on the 4, 8 and 12 month anniversaries from Closing;





tranches on the 4, 8 and 12 month anniversaries from Closing; The price of the Assets equals $50 per hectare, which is substantially lower than recent land sale processes in the nearby area (see " Rationale and Strategic Benefit of the Acquisition " below ) , and the Company believes the acquisition is accretive based on current valuation metrics such as enterprise value per tonne; and





per hectare, which is substantially lower than recent land sale processes in the nearby area (see " " below , and the Company believes the acquisition is accretive based on current valuation metrics such as enterprise value per tonne; and This acquisition directly adjoins and is contiguous with the Company's lands where we previously announced our initial development plan for our first commercial project, and thus represents a strong strategic asset for future growth and development.

Proforma Land and Development Map

Following the Closing, the Company's 300 section land position and development plan for the KLP is depicted in the following map. The Company expects that all of our Crown and freehold land positions can be developed independently while respecting the terms of the individual agreements, and we foresee no need to pool lands between the various mineral rights owners. Our development plans include drilling on both Crown and freehold land holdings to satisfy future work commitments and maintain the lands with all parties.

Rationale and Strategic Benefit of the Transaction

The acquisition adds 12% to the Company's prospective land base within the KLP, while adding 11% to the Company's overall land position. Pursuant to the terms of the original lease agreement governing the Assets, the Company will have six years to meet capital commitments on the Assets. From a broader field development plan, future work commitments on both Crown and freehold lands will be satisfied by slightly relocating a few locations in our first phase field development plan, with no impact on costs or anticipated outcomes, as communicated in our press release dated February 8, 2023. Work commitments apply to all parties operating in this area, whether landholdings are Crown or freehold, and must be met to extend the ability to develop those landholdings beyond the initial period commonly referred to as the primary term. It is expected that consolidating land positions within the KLP will provide a number of operational and infrastructure efficiencies; however, developing from a 'checkerboard' position is feasible and commonplace in resource development.

At present, the KLP has been independently assessed by Sproule Associates Limited containing 3.7 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent ("LCE"). While not all acreage is completely homogeneous, an average LCE per section in the KLP is approximately 14,000 tonnes. The transaction specifically targeted lands that possess a higher strategic and geologic value for the Company. The Company believes that on a purchase price per tonne of inferred LCE basis, this transaction will be accretive to GLC's existing enterprise value per tonne metric, which is approximately $4.50/tonne.

Further, the acquisition of the Assets is competitive compared to recent Crown land sales in the nearby area where successful bids have exceeded $100/hectare. The Company purchased the Assets for $50/hectare. The Company's total land acquisition price in the greater Kindersley area is approximately $16/hectare, as compared to the next most significant peer accumulating land at an average cost of approximately $41/hectare. Third party property acquisition price information is sourced from the published results of Saskatchewan's Subsurface Mineral Public Offerings for Permits.

"As is typical in sub-surface resource development plays, accretive tuck-in acquisitions once a dominant land position is established become excellent vehicles by which to enhance shareholder value," commented Gregg Smith, President & CEO. "In our resource capture formative years, we continue to successfully secure acreage at competitive prices to enhance the full economic value chain and eventually support multiple commercial projects. This transaction reflects the strength in our team at moving early with creative strategies and transactions to secure a dominant position within the Kindersley area. We wish to thank the EMP and ROK teams for moving quickly on this transaction, and we look forward to delivering further value to them as shareholders but more broadly to all shareholders of the Company as we progress ultimately towards commercialization."

About Grounded Lithium Corp.

GLC is a publicly traded lithium brine exploration and development company that controls approximately 3.7 million metric tons of lithium carbonate equivalent of inferred resource over our focused land holdings in Southwest Saskatchewan. GLC's multi-faceted business model involves the consolidation, delineation, exploitation and ultimately development of our opportunity base to fulfill our vision to build a best-in-class, environmentally responsible, Canadian lithium producer supporting the global energy transition shift. U.S. investors can find current financial disclosure and Real-Time Level 2 quotes for the Company on https://www.otcmarkets.com/.

Qualified Person

Scientific and technical information contained in this press release has been prepared under the supervision of Doug Ashton, P.Eng, Suryanarayana Karri, P. Geoph., Alexey Romanov, P. Geo. and Meghan Klein, P. Eng., each of whom is a qualified person within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101  Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. The opinions, forecasts, projections and statements about future events of results, are forward looking information, forward-looking statements or financial outlooks (collectively, "forward-looking statements") under the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. These statements are made as of the date of this press release and the fact that this press release remains available does not constitute a representation by GLC that the Company believes these forward-looking statements continue to be true as of any subsequent date. Although GLC believes that the assumptions underlying, and expectations reflected in, these forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that these assumptions and expectations will prove to be correct. Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the timing of Closing, satisfying conditions precedent to Closing, GLC's landholdings following Closing, GLC's land development plans, operational and infrastructure efficiencies associated with consolidating land positions, the Asset acquisition being accretive to the Company's current price per tonne of inferred LCE, the ability of the Company to enhance shareholder value, the Company's lands supporting multiple commercial projects, commercializing the Company's projects, and GLC's vision of becoming a best-in-class, environmentally responsible, Canadian lithium producer supporting the global energy transition.

Among the important factors, risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements are: GLC's expectation that our operations will be in Western Canada, unexpected problems can arise due to technical difficulties and operational difficulties which impact the production, transport or sale of our products; geographic and weather conditions can impact the production; the risk that current global economic and credit conditions may impact commodity prices and consumption more than GLC currently predicts; the failure to obtain financing on reasonable terms; the risk that unexpected delays and difficulties in developing currently owned properties may occur; the failure of drilling to result in commercial projects; unexpected delays due to the limited availability of drilling equipment and personnel; the failure to satisfy conditions precedent to Closing; and the other risk factors detailed from time to time in GLC's periodic reports. GLC's forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.

This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities in any jurisdiction.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

SOURCE Grounded Lithium Corp
MIDDLETOWN, Conn., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- San Francisco-based real estate investment firm Hamilton Zanze is pleased to announce the sale of Middletown Brooke and Middletown Ridge Apartments in the desirable Southeast Hartford/Middlesex County submarket of Hartford, Connecticut. The firm purchased the portfolio of two properties in March 2018 and the sale closed on February 27, 2023.

The Middletown Ridge Apartments were part of a two-community apartment portfolio sold by Hamilton Zanze on February 27th. The Middletown Brook apartment community features 280 apartment residences and has seen significant renovations and updating under the ownership of Hamilton Zanze since 2018.

During their ownership, Hamilton Zanze completed many successful renovations focused on making the property run more efficiently. These projects include unit upgrades, additions to the amenity package, repaving, HVAC replacements, and numerous exterior improvements.

"We are thrilled to have executed our business plans for Middletown Brooke and Middletown Ridge in just five years versus the projected ten-year hold period," said Anthony Ly, senior director of dispositions at Hamilton Zanze. "Both properties were acquired as a portfolio in 2018 and represented an opportunity for immediate scale and to improve the resident experience through unit renovations and property-wide improvements."

Middletown Brooke was built in 1989 and is located at 100 Town Brooke. The property comprises 280 one- and two-bedroom units averaging 812 square feet. Community amenities feature a leasing office, clubroom, fitness center, swimming pool, dog park, barbecue areas, and a carport.

Middletown Ridge was built in 1988 and is located at 100 Town Ridge Road. The property comprises 236 one-, two-, and three-bedroom units averaging 1,066 square feet. Community amenities include a leasing office, clubroom with kitchen, fitness center, indoor racquetball court, swimming pool with sundeck, laundry facility, and barbeque grilling stations.

Middletown Brooke and Ridge are located in Middletown, CT, central to both Downtown Hartford and Downtown New Haven. Both apartment communities provide residents with easy access to major retail and employment centers. The properties are also located near several of Connecticut's largest employers, such as Aerospace Techniques, Wesleyan University, Middlesex Hospital, and Pratt & Whitney.

ABOUT HAMILTON ZANZE

Hamilton Zanze (HZ) is a private, San Francisco-based real estate investment company that owns and operates apartment communities. Since its founding in 2001, Hamilton Zanze has acquired over $6.2 billion in multifamily assets primarily in the Western, Southwestern, and Eastern U.S. The company currently owns and operates 132 properties (22,821 units) across 17 states and 30 markets. For additional information, visit www.hamiltonzanze.com.

Media Contact:

Nicole Marshall

5046447335

[email protected]

SOURCE Hamilton Zanze
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Holborn Assets, the multi award winning financial services group adds the DIFC licence to its extensive license roster, complementing its existing IA license in the UAE. The Dubai headquarted firm will look to utilise the DIFC license to expand its HNW offering in the market place, and build stronger ties with firms operating under the DIFC license.

Robert Parker, CEO, Holborn Assets Limited

Robert Parker CEO notes, the acquisition of a DIFC license will allow Holborn to offer a broader and improved range of services to our HNW clients, including structured finance solutions, premium asset and investment managers, and opens the door to a suite of Investment Banks and HNW insurers.

Following a reorganisation of the regulatory bodies in the UAE in 2020 the DIFC is becoming the license of choice for most Independent Financial Advisers and Wealth managers.

Simon Parker comments. We have grown exponentially over the last five years opening 22 offices in 17 countries, but the obtaining of the DIFC license was a priority of the board and will serve as the platform for our next phase of growth.

Amongst others, Holborn hold licenses in the UK, US, South Africa, HK and Europe and is looking to expand its headcount by 20% in 2023.

About Holborn Assets

Established in 1999, Holborn is a multi-award-winning, international financial services group, specialising in independent financial advice to the expatriate market. A British family-owned and operated business, the firm has over 550 employees, including 250 financial advisers, and 23 offices around the world.

Holborn Assets' experienced team of professional fully qualified advisers specialise in delivering clients quality, independent financial advice and services. Core areas of operation include: Financial Planning, Wealth Management, Insurance, Investments, Mortgages, Tax Planning, Will Writing, Pension Transfers.

Contact: Alex Greenwood, [email protected]

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2013015/Robert_Parker.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/719435/Holborn_Assets_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Holborn Assets
ITHACA, N.Y., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- As the celebration of its centennial year continues, the Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration is excited to welcome hospitality executives from around the globe for its annual Professional Development Program (PDP) this summer in Ithaca, New York.

The Cornell campus in Ithaca, NY Hospitality leaders at Cornell's annual Professional Development Program

Since 1928, PDP has provided professionals with an immersive educational and networking experience, offering participants unparalleled opportunities to engage with distinguished faculty experts and peers, explore the latest industry developments and advance their careers. This summer's program is offered June 12-17, and participants may curate their learning by selecting one course from each session or choosing any single three-day course:

Session 1: June 12  14, 2023

Session 2: June 15  17, 2023

"For the past three years, the hospitality industry has demonstrated resilience and adaptability in times of unprecedented challenge and change," said Kate Walsh, dean of the Cornell Nolan School. "PDP uniquely equips professionals with the knowledge, skills and global perspective necessary for leadership on industry best practices and evolving topics such as rethinking the guest value proposition, managing the brand across platforms, and empowering innovation in your team  trends that are transforming hospitality's future."

The program  which is delivered entirely by the Cornell Nolan School's award-winning and industry-leading faculty researchers  serves a variety of hospitality professionals, from front line managers to senior executives. Participants build relationships and exchange ideas with colleagues in networking sessions and broaden their expertise through individual and group assignments, simulations and case studies.

While the program's courses enable participants to earn up to two professional development certificates over six days, hospitality leaders also observe this time on the Cornell University campus as an occasion for self-improvement.

"The Professional Development Program was an absolute experience," said Kieron Hunt general manager for Ovolo Hotels. "The dynamic people who attended the course, followed by the richness in the course materials, allowed for in-depth personal growth."

For more information, visit the PDP's Frequently Asked Questions .

Media Contact:

Molly Israel

607-255-7832

[email protected]

SOURCE Cornell University
Temporary Staffing Agency for Resorts and Hotels Celebrates Two Decades of Service

LAS VEGAS, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The leadership team of Hospitality Taskforce, Inc. is excited to announce that in 2023, the company is celebrating 20 years of service in the hospitality staffing industry. A frontrunner among its peer companies, Hospitality Taskforce, Inc. was the first commercial hotel taskforce agency of its kind.

After decades of working in the hospitality industry, Tony DiRaimondo founded Hospitality Taskforce in 2003 with a sole focus on providing contractors to hotels for Sales and Marketing positions. In the years since, the company has grown to include all hotel management, including Food and Beverage, Operations, Human Resources, and all other critical managerial roles.

"We remain 'boutique' in our nature and size. We never wanted to be the largest company in the hotel taskforce industry, but we've always worked to be the most desired company. We want to be the team that contractors want to work with and that clients feel most comfortable calling before calling any other," explains Tony. "We are not shy about charging more than most others because we know we have the best (and very experienced) contractors. As the saying goes, the sweet taste of a low price never offsets the bitter taste of poor quality."

In 2021, Tony's daughter, Dani Churchill took over the role of Vice President of Marketing and Operations. She joined her father and Michael Lee, the Executive Vice President and Managing Director. Dani is leading the ongoing investment in new technologies and digital marketing to attract the best contractors in the industry and streamline business practices. Michael has been involved in the company for many years and continues to be a driving force behind the business. He also oversees the rigorous vetting process to continue growing the incredible roster of talented, experienced, and highly recommended individuals.

All of the contractors affiliated with Hospitality Taskforce, Inc. are required to have a minimum of ten years experience in their respective disciplines at branded and/or independent hotel properties, and the large majority have at least twenty years of experience. Contractors who meet these criteria, along with hotel managers who are in need of taskforce staffing, are invited to visit https://hospitalitytaskforce.com to request additional information, submit an application, or fill out an RFP.

About Hospitality Taskforce

Founded in 2003, Hospitality Taskforce was built on the philosophy that hotels should have access to top talent in times of need without having to carry them on their payroll. Likewise, we understand that the most talented individuals in our industry want the freedom and flexibility of independent contract work. Our role is to support both parties in coming together for the good of themselves, the industry, and the hotels and management companies we serve.

Press Contact: Marissa Kasarov, 857.347.8468, http://sunnysidesocialmedia.com

SOURCE Hospitality Taskforce
LOS ANGELES, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- CanEx Delivery, a top-rated cannabis delivery service, has become the first cannabis delivery company to be listed on the Republic investment platform. This move makes CanEx Delivery a viable investment option for private investors who want to take advantage of the growing cannabis market.

"We are excited to be the first cannabis delivery company to be on Republic, making it easy for people to now invest" Tweet this Investment Growth

Republic is a leading investment platform that allows anyone to invest in private companies, including startups and small businesses. The platform connects entrepreneurs and investors to help new businesses grow and succeed. Republic has facilitated more than $2.5 Billion in investments in over 2000 companies, making it a trusted platform for investors.

CanEx Delivery , founded in 2016, is a cannabis delivery service that offers high-quality products to customers in California. The company has a loyal customer base due to its fast and reliable service, and has earned a reputation as one of the top-rated delivery services in the cannabis industry.

By listing on Republic, CanEx Delivery is looking to raise capital to expand its business and take advantage of the booming cannabis market. The company's COO, Shannon Bitzer, stated, "We are excited to be the first cannabis delivery company to be listed on Republic. This is a significant milestone for us and we believe it will help us raise the capital we need to grow our business and meet the demand of our customers."

Investors who choose to invest in CanEx Delivery will be supporting a company that is dedicated to providing quality products and excellent customer service. The company is committed to maintaining its position as a top-rated cannabis delivery service and expanding its reach to new markets.

The cannabis industry is projected to be worth $52.6 billion by 2026, according to a report by MJBiz Factbook. This presents a huge opportunity for companies like CanEx to grow and succeed in the market. With the legalization of cannabis in several states and the increasing acceptance of the plant for both medical and recreational use, the industry is set for explosive growth.

CanEx Delivery's listing on Republic is a significant step towards achieving the company's goals. With the backing of private investors, the company will have the resources it needs to expand its operations, hire new staff, and increase its product offerings.

Investors who are interested in investing in CanEx Delivery can do so through the Republic platform. Republic offers a range of investment options, including equity investments, revenue sharing agreements, and convertible notes.

CanEx Delivery's listing on Republic marks a significant milestone for the company and the cannabis industry as a whole. The move is a sign that the industry is maturing and becoming more attractive to investors. With its top-rated service and commitment to quality, CanEx Delivery is well positioned to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the growing cannabis market.

For more information about the investment campaign and to learn more about CanEx Delivery, please visit the company's website at www.canexdelivery.com .

Contact:

Name: Jim Damask

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 919-280-8742

Address: CanEx Delivery, 12130 Millennium Dr Suite 300, Los Angeles, California 90094

SOURCE CanEx Delivery
PLANO, Texas, Feb. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- World-leading smart solar supplier and microinverter manufacturer Hoymiles opened its first US subsidiary on February 28th, marking a new leap forward in its quest to bring open energy to the global market.

Hoymiles USA will serve as a hub for sales and technical support operations across North America, allowing Hoymiles to offer:

Faster response times to customer queries and support requests

Faster delivery times

Localized support for US customers

The President of Hoymiles Power Electronics Inc. USA, Rocky Gao says the new US subsidiary is expected to play a key role in fulfilling the growing global demand for renewable energy. With the support of its local partners, Hoymiles will be able to provide North American customers with high-quality and reliable solar products and outstanding service.

Hoymiles' manufacturing capacity is constantly expanding, and is expected to reach 5 million units in 2023. The company is also speeding up the deployment of local warehouses and manufacturing bases in other key markets, so that customers around the world can expect shorter delivery times in the future.

Contact details of Hoymiles USA

Address: 3001 Technology Drive, Suite 100, Plano, TX 75074

Tel: +1 (587) 394-5848

About Hoymiles

Founded in 2012, Hoymiles is a global MLPE (Module-Level Power Electronics) solution provider, specializing in module-level microinverters, storage systems, and rapid shutdown systems. With a vision of a clean, sustainable future, the company strives to drive innovation in the smart energy industry with its high-performance and accessible products.

With a driven engineering team, 1200+ global experts, and a distribution and service network spanning North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Oceania, Hoymiles is empowering homeowners and professionals in more than 110 countries and regions to join the journey to true open energy. It is now one of the fastest-growing microinverter manufacturers in the industry, with an average 100% annual sales volume increase since 2016. In December 2021, Hoymiles went public on the Shanghai Stock Exchange STAR Market, one that only high-tech companies are able to qualify for.

For more information, please visit hoymiles.com

SOURCE Hoymiles Power Electronics Inc.
BARCELONA, Spain, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- After launching the TECH4ALL initiative at Mobile World Congress (MWC) Barcelona four years ago, Huawei and its partners shared the latest insights and practices on how technology is enabling digital inclusion and sustainability at a media roundtable on Day 1 of MWC Barcelona 2023.

Huawei and partners hold TECH4ALL media roundtable on Day 1 of MWC Barcelona 2023. Click the link (https://www.huawei.com/en/tech4all/publications/digital-inclusion) to download the Digital Inclusion special publication Huawei TECH4ALL booth at Hall1, MWC

"All of our efforts with the TECH4ALL initiative wouldn't have been possible without taking technology and partnerships as key enablers," said Jeffrey Zhou, President of ICT Marketing for Huawei, in his opening speech. "Since the launch of TECH4ALL, more than 600 schools worldwide, over 220,000 K12 teachers and students in remote areas, unemployed youth, women, and the elderly, and 46 nature reserves have benefited from the TECH4ALL program. Moving forward, we will keep innovating and using technology along with our global partners to build a more inclusive and sustainable digital world for all."

At the end of his speech, Zhou officially launched the TECH4ALL Digital Inclusion special publication, which shares the diverse visions, strategies, and best practices of global experts and partners in 15 stories set out in three sections: Insights, Technology in Focus, and Case Studies. The special publication is now ready to view and download on the Huawei TECH4ALL website.

Also at the roundtable, representatives from UNESCO and the global NGO Close the Gap explored how technology is helping to boost the digital transformation of education and improve digital skills, especially for underserved groups in remote and rural areas. These include providing connectivity, expanding digital literacy and skills, and supporting STEAM curriculum through projects such as Technology-enabled Open Schools for All, DigiSchool, and DigiTruck.

"Digital open schooling models are the manifestation of the digital transformation of school education. It's an open approach to reinventing schooling systems to ensure school education, including knowledge learning, skills development, the fostering of values, and social caring, will be secured both under normal and emergency situations," said Dr. Fengchun Miao, Chief of Unit for Technology and Artificial Intelligence in Education for UNESCO. "The UNESCO-Huawei project Technology-enabled Open Schools for All is having a ground-breaking impact on the building and testing of digital open schools in African countries. The project directly covers more than 20,000 students and more than 1 million teachers in Ghana, Ethiopia, and Egypt."

TECH4ALL partner Close the Gap described the value of the DigiTruck in providing free digital skills training for remote communities in Africa.

"We have partnered with Huawei to develop and deploy DigiTrucks in Africa to rural and peri-urban communities specifically targeted at preparing the young people in those communities for the digital jobs of the future," said Ngosa Mupela, Business and Investment Manager for Close the Gap.

Under the TECH4ALL initiative, technology is also enabling sustainable management of natural resources and protecting biodiversity. Arno Cimadom from the National Park Neusiedler See-Seewinkel in Austria explored the pivotal role technology plays in wetland conservation, including protecting biodiversity and studying the effects of climate change on ecosystems.

"Thanks to the new technology provided by Huawei and its partners, we are now for the first time able to collect sound data 24/7, year-round, simultaneously from more than 60 sites and analyze them via AI-models provided by Rainforest Connection. This makes research and management in difficult-to-access wetland areas more efficient and allows new investigations," said Arno Cimadom, representing National Park Neusiedler See-Seewinkel.

Alongside the media roundtable, the Huawei TECH4ALL booth at MWC Barcelona 2023 welcomes visitors to explore the latest progress in projects running under the initiative and learn about the crucial role that technology and partnerships can have in enabling inclusion and sustainability.

About Huawei TECH4ALL

TECH4ALL is Huawei's long-term digital inclusion initiative and action plan. Enabled by innovative technologies and partnerships, TECH4ALL is designed to help promote inclusion and sustainability in the digital world.

For more information, please visit Huawei TECH4ALL website at https://www.huawei.com/en/tech4all

Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/HUAWEI_TECH4ALL

SOURCE Huawei
BARCELONA, Spain, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Huawei released the industry's first multilayer DC ransomware protection solution based on network-storage collaboration today at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) Barcelona 2023. Huawei recently commissioned IDC to write an IDC White Paper, Developing Ransomware Resilience with Multilayer Network, Storage, and Data Protection Architecture , which systematically defines best practices for multilayer protection system for ransomware attacks.

The MRP Solution Launch (PRNewsfoto/Huawei)

During ransomware attacks, hackers encrypt user data and restrict asset access and force victims to pay a ransom to unlock it. Ransomware attacks can not only cause service interruption, but also result in massive reputational damage for the victims.

All ransomware attacks share some important key features from a service perspective:

a) Their software is extremely diverse. The number of ransomware variants increased by 98% between 2021 H2 and 2022 H1, making it very difficult to detect and respond to covert and new attacks quickly and effectively.

b) Ransomware spreads quickly, leaving little time for administrators to respond once an attack begins. Microsoft found that ransomware can penetrate a system to obtain permissions in just 45 minutes.

c) Enterprise businesses feel the impact of ransomware attacks more acutely than other types of users, as it normally takes a long time to restore services after an attack and data often cannot be restored at all. The IDC's white paper shows that the average service downtime caused by ransomware attacks was 5 days In 2022, and more than 46% of organizations that paid a ransom were still unable to restore their data after the attack.

This leaves enterprises in urgent need of effective end-to-end protection as traditional ransomware protection solutions simply cannot compete with these challenges.

Huawei's innovative multilayer ransomware protection (MRP) solution instead turns to data protection capabilities that are based on network-storage collaboration. Its three core capabilities  network-storage detection, network-storage response, and network-storage recovery  are able to better prevent data encryption and theft than competing solutions.

The MRP solution uses a system consisting of two lines of defense and six layers of protection to enhance the security of IT systems and provides end-to-end encryption in the storage field to effectively block data theft.

Thanks to Huawei's industry-leading ransomware protection team and security services, its network-storage association detection mechanism also delivers 99.9% accuracy (based on the CNCTC report), automating threat detection.

Huawei's MRP solution provides the industry's fastest recovery speed of up to 172 TB/hour and uses secure snapshots to recover services within seconds. Its offline air-gap storage also effectively copes with long-term service locking after data is encrypted, slashing the recovery time.

Michael Qiu, President of Global Data Center Marketing & Solution Sales Dept., Enterprise BG, Huawei, explained, "Ransomware has become one of the most serious threats to businesses globally. Last year, Huawei launched the four-layer storage solution, which helped many customers defeat ransomware attacks. This year, our new multilayer ransomware protection (MRP) technology built on network-storage collaboration reinforces the protection. It minimizes the impact of ransomware attacks on your business, delivering even zero service downtime."

Duncan Brown, VP of Enterprise Research Europe, IDC, noted, "We believe it is time to elevate these strategies to a multilayered approach that includes a combination of infrastructure technologies such as storage and network, consistent and comprehensive security awareness training, and regular updating of endpoint and network security. This is the best defense against ransomware."

For details, visit https://e.huawei.com/en/solutions/data-center/multi-level-data-center/mrp.

CONTACT:

[email protected]

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2013166/image_986294_40475425.jpg

SOURCE Huawei
BARCELONA, Spain, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Huawei launched the Inclusive Connectivity 2.0 Solution at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2023. The launch was part of the "Accelerating Digital Transformation of Public Services" session, a gathering of public service experts. The session focused on the trends in the sector's digital transformation, looking at ways to promote economic and social development while improving the quality of life of citizens.

Promoting Digital Inclusion with Universal Connectivity

Hong-Eng Koh, Global Chief Public Services Industry Scientist of Huawei, Launches Inclusive Connectivity 2.0 Solution (PRNewsfoto/Huawei)

Despite the growing access to connectivity, 400 million people around the world still lack access to mobile broadband networks (about 5% of the population). In low- and middle-income countries, rural residents are 33% less likely to use mobile Internet than urban residents.

In light of this, governments around the world have launched strategies to connect rural areas by building digital infrastructure in remote areas. The ultimate goal is to achieve inclusive and equitable digital services, bridging the digital gap.

Huawei's solution is crucial for countries looking to bridge the digital divide. Andrew Zhang, Vice President of Huawei Public Sector, explained: "A leading global provider of information communications technology, Huawei has supported many governments in their digital transformation journey. Our innovative solutions can help bridge the digital divide, enable inclusive connectivity, bringing the digital world to everyone."

At MWC 2023, Huawei launched its Inclusive Connectivity 2.0 Solution, which facilitates network construction in remote areas with complex environments. The solution combines datacom, optical network, and wireless products, designed to bring connectivity to rural and remote mountainous areas.

The goal behind Inclusive Connectivity 2.0 is to reduce network construction costs and speed up roll out, driving fast and cost-effective national informatization. It helps governments around the world improve service delivery and improve the quality of life in hard-to-reach areas.

Accelerating the Digital Transformation of Public Services

Today, public services must be focused on people. Therefore, it is instrumental to build the "cloud + network" infrastructure via top-level design to deliver comprehensive digital public services to citizens and achieve interconnection throughout.

The integrated "cloud + network" architecture enables the public sector to easily and securely exchange data across networks and regions, offering one-stop services for the public. At the same time, it can create a centralized, secure, and reliable bearer environment for government departments to connect with each other and increase their collaboration efficiency. This ultimately achieves higher governance efficiency.

Hong-Eng Koh, Global Chief Public Services Industry Scientist of Huawei, said: " Huawei enables our government, education and healthcare clients globally in their digital transformation journey through our comprehensive technologies including 5G, F5G, Cloud, Big Data and AI. We help our clients in their national backbone, last mile connectivity, to achieve their goals in digital society, digital economy and digital government."

Chris Baryomunsi, Minister for ICT and National Guidance in Uganda, said"In building pervasive, intelligent digital infrastructure all over the country, the government has diligently worked towards expanding the nation's digitalization in a number of fields, in order to unleash the multiplier effect of ICT on associated secondary and tertiary industries for tremendous impact on the economy."

Huawei's mission in government and public services is to help countries and regions "Enhancing national digital infrastructure, Accelerating public services digital transformation ". We hope to help governments around the world go digital.

For media enquiries, please contact:

[email protected]

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2012428/image_986294_75812793.jpg

SOURCE Huawei
BARCELONA, Spain, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- At the F5G Evolution, Unleashing Green Digital Productivity session held during the Mobile World Congress 2023 (MWC 2023), Huawei released a series of new F5G products and solutions for five scenarios of industrial digitalization.

F5G, the Fifth-generation fixed network defined by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), is dedicated to moving from Fiber to the Home (FTTH) to Fiber to Everywhere. Marcus Brunner, ETSI ISG F5G Liaison Officer, said that fiber is the most efficient and green optical communication media. It can help various industries go green and digital. The F5G Advanced technologies significantly improve network capabilities in terms of bandwidth, latency, coverage, energy efficiency, intelligence, sensing, visibility, and resiliencibilty, better enabling industry digitalization and energy saving.

Kim Jin, Vice President of Huawei Optical Business Product Line, said, "F5G evolution needs to focus on exploring new industrial application scenarios. This is key to releasing the potential of digital productivity. Based on technological innovation and industrial digitalization practices, Huawei has released all-optical network solutions that are more reliable, greener, and more efficient for various industries. Huawei looks forward to promoting F5G technologies together with industry partners."

Comprehensive Solution Upgrade for Five Scenarios

Based on F5G evolution, Huawei has upgraded all-optical network solutions to support digital transformation in five key scenarios, including campus network, WAN production network, industrial IoT, data center interconnection, and industry sensing.

For the campus network scenario, Huawei released the industry's first 50G POL prototype to build a next-generation campus network oriented to Wi-Fi 7. The new products not only meet users' requirements in the Wi-Fi 6 era, but also adopt industry-leading 50G PON optical modules and algorithms to support future Wi-Fi 7 without the need to replace the OLT, ODN, and ONU products.

At the session, Huawei, together with partners from around the world, released the All-Optical Campus Network Technology Application White Paper, providing a reference for future-oriented all-optical campus construction.

For the WAN production network scenario , Huawei released the industry's first end-to-end OSU product portfolio to build a reliable and continuously evolving production network for electric power and transportation industries. The new network features four capabilities: fully inheriting SDH services; providing end-to-end OSU hard pipes from backbone to access in order to ensure production security; breaking through SDH bandwidth restrictions and supporting 96 Tbps bandwidth per fiber to meet the bandwidth requirements of digital services; and supporting unified network management and simplified O&M.

, Huawei released the industry's first end-to-end OSU product portfolio to build a reliable and continuously evolving production network for electric power and transportation industries. The new network features four capabilities: fully inheriting SDH services; providing end-to-end OSU hard pipes from backbone to access in order to ensure production security; breaking through SDH bandwidth restrictions and supporting 96 Tbps bandwidth per fiber to meet the bandwidth requirements of digital services; and supporting unified network management and simplified O&M. For the industrial IoT scenario , Huawei released the industry's first lossless industrial optical network solution to comprehensively upgrade all-optical industrial networks. Based on the innovative dual-fed selective receiving technology and the industry's

, Huawei released the industry's first lossless industrial optical network solution to comprehensively upgrade all-optical industrial networks. Based on the innovative dual-fed selective receiving technology and the industry's For the data center interconnection scenario , Huawei released the latest Storage + Optical Connection Coordination ( SOCC ) feature to reduce the I/O link switchover duration from 120 seconds to 2 seconds, and expand 5 ms switchover from the C120 band to the C120+L120 band.

SOCC In the industry sensing scenario , Huawei released the EF3000 product featuring innovative Huawei oDSP and sensing algorithms. This product achieves zero false negatives and low false positives, improves sensing precision, and expands the application of fiber sensing from pipeline inspection to perimeter inspection for large campuses such as railways and airports, helping these campuses prevent illegal intrusion and ensure security.

In the future, Huawei will continuously make innovations to promote F5G evolution, develop leading products and solutions, and work with customers and partners to help various industries go green and digital.

SOURCE Huawei
KLECZEW, Poland, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The largest hybrid farm in Central and Eastern Europe will be built in Poland, combining a photovoltaic and a wind power plants with a total capacity of 205 MW. The annual production will supply electricity to more than 100,000 households and reduce CO2 emissions by nearly 160 tons. To develop the plant's technological infrastructure, Huawei will supply the FusionSolar Smart PV Solution. The hybrid farm is being built on post-mining land in Kleczew, Wielkopolska Voivodeship.

Kleczew Solar & Wind is located on post-mining land and will be one of the largest renewable energy parks in Central and Eastern Europe and the first project in Poland, on such a large scale, to combine photovoltaic and wind technologies. The first phase of construction includes the construction of a 193 MWp photovoltaic power plant and a 12 MW wind power plant. The assumed annual energy yield from the photovoltaic power plant is about 222 GWh and about 47 GWh from the wind farm. The hybrid farm in Kleczew will be able to supply energy needs of more than 100,000 households.

Huawei has been consistently involved in the development of modern energy sector with smart photovoltaic solutions for several years. I am extremely pleased that our technologies can proactively support Poland's green transformation in such key projects as the hybrid power plant in Kleczew. This is a very important investment on the way to the full decarbonization of the Polish economy and the provision of green, clean and cost-effective energy to the entire society. - says Ryszard Hordynski, Director of Strategy and Communications at Huawei Poland.

Kleczew Solar & Wind's investor is Lewandpol Group; the asset manager is Ergy, the Electrum Group is responsible for general contracting and the implementation of the active and reactive power regulator, Renedium.

This is a strategically important project towards the decarbonization of the Polish economy. Suppliers and contractors involved in the supply chain were carefully selected, in order to ensure efficiency and reliability during and beyond the construction period of the power plant. We are confident we will be cooperating with the best suppliers, this includes Huawei, already known on the Polish market as a reliable supplier of high-end inverters. - said Marcin Kuprel, CEO of Ergy.

The photovoltaic part of the Kleczew Solar & Wind power plant is being built with the participation of Electrum, Jinko Solar, Budmat and Tele-Fonika Kable.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2013200/project_picture.jpg

SOURCE Huawei
BARCELONA, Spain, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- At the "5G Innovation Leads the Future of Digital Intelligence" summit, held by China Unicom during the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2023 Barcelona, Yang Chaobin, Senior Vice President and President of ICT Products & Solutions at Huawei, delivered a keynote speech titled "Continuous Innovations Leading All-Digital Era".

5G is developing rapidly, and driving the world to an intelligent age. "China Unicom and Huawei have achieved one key milestone after another through technical innovations over the past four years," commented Yang in his speech.

Yang Chaobin, Huawei's Senior Vice President and President of ICT Products & Solutions, giving a keynote speech "Continuous Innovations Leading All-Digital Era"

In the toC market, the scaled deployment of 3.5 GHz Massive MIMO and the introduction of the innovative extremely large antenna array (ELAA) technology have enabled China Unicom Beijing to build high-quality 5G networks that deliver excellent experiences. In the toB market, China Unicom and Huawei jointly deployed more than 3,000 private networks projects. They have helped Schneider build the world's first commercial flexible production line based on 5G and PLC, and assisted EA Automation in verifying, for the first time, the 5G-Advanced URLLC-based benchmark project that aims to support an E2E latency of 4 ms and a reliability of 99.999%. This will enable 5G digitalization to expand deep into core production. In the toH market, FTTR extends gigabit to every corner of homes, and it has attracted nearly 1 million new China Unicom users in one year, bringing ubiquitous gigabit experiences to the digital life of all homes.

Yang believes that, in the forthcoming 5.5G era, 5.5G, F5.5G, and Net5.5G will significantly improve network infrastructure, bringing 10 times improvement in network performance. As a result, 10 Gbps downlink, 1 Gbps uplink peak speeds, and millisecond-level latency as well as cost-effective 100 billion IoT connections will all become a reality. This will help the industry meet various service needs and open up a new industry vision.

"Endless Innovation for a Better Tomorrow," Yang said towards the end of his speech. "With this in mind, Huawei will continue to work with industry partners to innovate in the digital age to accelerate 5G growth. By taking a new journey towards 5.5G, we will contribute more to the transformation of industries and the thriving growth of the digital economy."

SOURCE Huawei
DUBLIN, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Hypersonic Weapons - Market and Technology Forecast to 2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



This comprehensive report examine the various types of guidance systems, technologies, platforms, end-users of hypersonic weapons.



Military spending for this technology is expected to grow as an overall percentage of large military budgets such as the United States' defense budget and the Chinese defense budget, offering specialized missile manufacturers and software developers a tremendous opportunity.

Hypersonic technology (speeds greater than Mach 5) has a wide range of applications, including military, commercial aviation, space exploration, and environmental protection.

A decade ago experiments started in the US with hypersonic weapons but were initially not seen as an option to increase the strike capability enough to justify the cost. With the Chinese and Russians starting to develop hypersonic weapons, the US has renewed funding to continue the development for weapons and defense systems once again.

In the military domain, hypersonic technology is used to develop fast, highly maneuverable weapons that can strike targets quickly and with little warning. In the commercial aviation sector, hypersonic technology has the potential to enable the development of passenger planes that can travel at extremely high speeds, reducing travel times significantly.

Based on rigorous study of the capabilities of supersonic and hypersonic weapons and the growing impact this technology has caused in military environments, we've researched the market and technologies for Hypersonic Weapons.

Covered in this report

Overview: Snapshot of the hypersonic weapon technology in the military market during 2022-2030, including highlights of the demand drivers, trends, and challenges. It also provides a snapshot of the spending with respect to regions as well as segments and sheds light on the emergence of new technologies

Market Dynamics: Insights into the technological developments in the hypersonic weapon market and a detailed analysis of the changing preferences of governments around the world. It also analyses changing industry structure trends and the challenges faced by the industry participants.

Segment Analysis: Insights into the various systems market from a segmental perspective and a detailed analysis of factors influencing the market for each segment.

Regional Review: Insights into modernization patterns and budgetary allocation for top countries within a region.

Regional Analysis: Insights into the systems market from a regional perspective and a detailed analysis of factors influencing the market for each region.

Impact Analysis: Analysis on how certain events will impact the missiles market. This will give you an indication on which factors are important for the forecast.

Key Program Analysis: Details of the top programs in each segment expected to be executed during the forecast period.

Competitive landscape Analysis: Analysis of competitive landscape of this industry. It provides an overview of key companies, together with insights such as key alliances, strategic initiatives, and a brief financial analysis

Reasons to buy

Determine prospective investment areas based on a detailed trend analysis of the global Hypersonic weapon industry over the next eight years

Gain in-depth understanding about the underlying factors driving demand for different systems segments in the top spending countries across the world and identify the opportunities offered by each of them

Strengthen your understanding of the market in terms of demand drivers, industry trends, and the latest technological developments, among others

Identify the major channels that are driving the global Hypersonic weapon business, providing a clear picture about future opportunities that can be tapped, resulting in revenue expansion

Channelize resources by focusing on the ongoing programs that are being undertaken by the ministries of different countries within the Hypersonic market

Make correct business decisions based on thorough analysis of the total competitive landscape of the sector with detailed profiles of the top systems providers around the world which include information about their products, alliances, recent contract wins and financial analysis

The study aims to achieve the following objectives:

Demonstrate the importance of Hypersonic weapons for the military globally

Relate the concept of interoperability of hypersonic weapons with man & unmanned systems

Analyse and forecast the market size of the Hypersonic market in the US and globally

Technologies and Developments

Technology overview

Types of Hypersonic weapons

Challenges faced in the development of hypersonic weapons

Technologies: Hypersonic Weapons

Countering hypersonic weapons

Leading Companies

Airbus

BAE Systems

Boeing

Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI)

Leonardo

Northrop Grumman Corp.

Raytheon

Safran

Thales

Other Companies of Interest

Almaz -Antey

China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation

Curtiss-Wright Corporation

Denel SOC Ltd

General Dynamics Corporation

Kongsberg Gruppen ASA

MBDA

Nexter Group

Tactical Missiles Corporation

Textron Inc.

Segmentation

Region

Americas

Europe

Asia

Middle East

Africa

Technology

Aerodynamics

Propulsion

Structure/Materials

Guidance & Control

Seeker

Munition Design

Satellite Navigation Sensors

Automatic Target Recognition

Mission Management

Data Link

Logistics

Observables /Survivability

Type

Land Attack Cruise Missile

Air Launched Cruise Missile

Anti-Ship Cruise Missile

Hypersonic Glide Vehicle

Surface to Air Missile

Tactical Ballistic Missile

Non-Missile Kinetic Penetrators

GuidanceSystem

Infrared Homing

Laser Homing

Radar

Satellite Based Navigation

Acoustic Homing

End-User

Army

Air Force

Navy

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/vl8s8z

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

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, Feb. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Infection Surveillance Solutions Market by Software (On-Premise, Web-Based), Services (Product Support & Maintenance, Implementation, Training & Consulting), End User (Hospitals, Long-Term Care Facilities), and Region - Global Forecast to 2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The infection surveillance solutions market is anticipated to grow from an estimated USD 577 million in 2022 to USD 1,100 million in 2027, at a CAGR of 13.8%

The market has a promising growth potential due to increased demand the increasing prevalence of hospital-acquired infections, increasing surgical procedures, and rising healthcare expenditure among other factors. However, the Shortage of skilled healthcare IT professionals and Data security concerns are expected to limit the growth of this market to a certain extent.

Training & Consulting Services: The fastest-growing segment of the infection surveillance services market, by type.

Training & consulting services are expected to witness the fastest growth in the infection surveillance services market during the forecast. Training and consulting services increase healthcare providers' awareness of the latest infection surveillance solutions available in the market.

Most large and mid-size companies actively provide technical assistance to hospitals, independent laboratories, and physician office laboratories that use infection surveillance software. Factors such as the increasing importance of value-based care, technological advancements, and growing consolidation in healthcare are driving the market for consulting services.

The Large Hospitals Segment is anticipated to be the largest infection surveillance solutions market for hospitals, by type, during the forecast period.

Based on type (the number of beds), hospitals are segmented into large (>450 beds), medium-sized (250-449 beds), and small (<249 beds) hospitals. The large hospitals segment accounted for the largest share of the infection surveillance solutions market for hospitals.

The rising number of private hospitals in China and other developing countries is expected to drive the demand for technologically advanced HCIT solutions deployed in ICUs and other departments of hospitals. Furthermore, the complexity of managing HAIs rises with the size of hospitals, as more patients need to be monitored continuously; this is the primary reason for the large share of this end-user segment.

Europe accounted for the second-largest share in the infection surveillance solutions market during the forecast period.

Europe accounted for the second-largest share of the infection surveillance solutions market during the forecast period. Growth in the European market can be attributed to the increasing adoption of HCIT solutions, the increasing incidence of HAIs, the increasing number of surgeries, and the rising geriatric population.

The increasing need to improve patient outcomes has contributed to the adoption of infection surveillance solutions across the region. Several policies and guidelines have been implemented in Europe as infection prevention strategies for hospitals and long-term care facilities which are propelling the demand for infection surveillance solutions in the region.

Competitive landscape

The prominent players in this market are Becton, Dickinson and Company (US), Premier, Inc. (US), Wolters Kluwer N.V. (Netherlands), Cerner Corporation (US), Baxter International Inc. (US), GOJO Industries, Inc. (US), Clinisys (US), Deb Group Ltd. (UK), BioVigil Healthcare Systems (US), RLDatix (UK), Merative (US), Vecna Technologies, Inc. (US), VigiLanz Corporation (US), and VIZZIA Technologies (US).

Premium Insights

Growing Incidence of Hospital-Acquired Infections to Drive Market Growth

Hospitals Held the Largest Share of the North American Market in 2021

China to Register Highest Revenue Growth from 2022 to 2027

to Register Highest Revenue Growth from 2022 to 2027 North America to Dominate Global Market During Forecast Period

to Dominate Global Market During Forecast Period Developing Markets to Register Higher Growth Rates During Forecast Period

Market Dynamics

Industry Trends

Shift Toward Web-Based Solutions

Ai-Powered Surveillance Software

Shift Toward Automation in Healthcare Facilities

Infection Surveillance Using Mobile Application Tools

Market Drivers

Increasing Prevalence of Hospital-Acquired Infections

Increasing Adoption of Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs

Increasing Number of Surgeries

Growing Geriatric Population and Increasing Incidence of Chronic Diseases

Growing Investments to Improve Healthcare Systems

Market Restraints

High Cost of Deployment for Small Healthcare Organizations

Reluctance Among Medical Professionals to Adopt Advanced Healthcare It Solutions

Market Opportunities

Increasing Consolidation in Healthcare Industry

Cloud-Based Software Solutions

Emerging Markets

Market Challenges

Shortage of Skilled Healthcare It Professionals

Data Security Concerns

Company Profiles



Key Players

Becton, Dickinson and Company

Cerner Corporation

Premier, Inc.

Baxter International Inc.

Wolters Kluwer N.V .

. Merative

Ecolab

Biomerieux Sa

Gojo Industries, Inc.

Rldatix

Vigilanz Corporation

Deb Group Ltd

Clinisys

Biovigil Healthcare Systems

Vecna Technologies

Harris Healthcare

Perahealth

Medexter Healthcare

Centrak

Ckm Healthcare Incorporated

Other Players

Asolva Inc.

Pointclickcare

Vitalacy Inc.

Stanley Healthcare

Vizzia Technologies

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/6ecdao

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.



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
HARD MTN DEW to host epic "Definitely Over 21" Launch Party at Retirement Community in Florida, America's most notorious party destination for retirees

BOSTON, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- HARD MTN DEW FANS, REJOICE! One year after the highly anticipated launch of HARD MTN DEW, the brand today announced the release of HARD MTN DEW Livewire, the first-ever addition to the flavor lineup. HARD MTN DEW Livewire is an electrifying new twist on the classic, fan-favorite soft drink with a jolt of orange citrus refreshment, 5% ABV, no caffeine, no added sugars and 100 calories per serving. To celebrate the launch, HARD MTN DEW is once again shocking the world by hosting a "Definitely Over 21" launch party at a retirement community in Florida -- the retirement capital of the world.

The "Definitely Over 21" launch party will prove that just because you've surpassed the legal drinking age doesn't mean you have to stop having fun. Hosted in the Orange State, the party is "exclusively" for residents 55+ as well as ONE member of HARD MTN DEW Nation who dreams of spending spring break at one of America's most notorious party destinations.

To say goodbye to the winter blues and hello to the new king of citrus, the "Definitely Over 21" party will be a spring break bash as electric as the flavor itself. Beginning Wednesday, March 1, fans can enter for the chance to celebrate the introduction of HARD MTN DEW Livewire with a mature spring break unlike any other. Visit DefinitelyOver21.com and tell us how you'd spend your spring break at a retirement community with HARD MTN DEW, open now through March 10.

The winning submission will receive a trip to the "Definitely Over 21" party in Florida for themselves and a guest, including roundtrip airfare, two nights lodging, transportation and a $1,000 spending allowance. Contest entrants must be twenty-one years of age and be a U.S. resident. Full rules and regulations can be found here.

"Since the launch of HARD MTN DEW, we've pushed boundaries and challenged convention, even going so far as to marry a fan to show our love and commitment to HARD DEW Nation," said Erica Taylor, Senior Brand Director for HARD MTN DEW, The Boston Beer Company. "To launch new HARD MTN DEW Livewire, we're inviting fans to celebrate spring break with us in the least conventional way possible. In the one place synonymous with both oranges and everyone being definitely over 21, we're ready to party like only HARD DEW can."

HARD MTN DEW Livewire is now available in 24-ounce cans where HARD MTN DEW is sold. HARD MTN DEW is currently available for purchase in Florida, Iowa, Tennessee, Arkansas, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, Las Vegas and Virginia  with more to come! Visit HardMountainDew.com for additional information and product details. Follow @HardMountainDew on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for real-time product news and updates.

About HARD MTN DEW:

Bold, delicious flavor with the added bite of 5% ABV, HARD MTN DEW brings the big citrus flavor fans of the soft drink know and love, now with the hard kick of alcohol. Available in five flavors, including HARD MTN DEW, HARD MTN DEW Baja Blast, Black Cherry, Watermelon and HARD MTN DEW Livewire, HARD MTN DEW offers zero caffeine, no added sugar, 100 calories and a whole lot of flavor. For more information, please visit hardmountaindew.com.

Media Contact:

Jack Barbour, [email protected]

SOURCE HARD MTN DEW
SAN FRANCISCO, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Invitae (NYSE: NVTA), a leading medical genetics company, today announced that Ken Knight, president and chief executive officer, will participate in a fireside chat at the TD Cowen 43rd Annual Health Care Conference on Monday, March 6, at 1:30 p.m. Eastern.

A live audio webcast of the fireside chat may be accessed by visiting the investors section of the company's website at ir.invitae.com. A replay of the webcast will be available shortly after the conclusion of the fireside chat.

About Invitae

Invitae (NYSE: NVTA) is a leading medical genetics company trusted by millions of patients and their providers to deliver timely genetic information using digital technology. We aim to provide accurate and actionable answers to strengthen medical decision-making for individuals and their families. Invitae's genetics experts apply a rigorous approach to data and research, serving as the foundation of their mission to bring comprehensive genetic information into mainstream medicine to improve healthcare for billions of people.

To learn more, visit invitae.com and follow for updates on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and LinkedIn @Invitae.

Contacts for Invitae:

Investor Relations

Hoki Luk

[email protected]

Public Relations

Amy Hadsock

[email protected]

SOURCE Invitae Corporation
SEATTLE, Feb. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Jones Soda. (OTCQB: JSDA)(CSE: JSDA) ("Jones" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that Gregg Reichman was appointed by the Company's board of directors (the "Board") to serve as a director on the Board until the Company's next annual meeting of stockholders.

"We are excited to have Gregg join the Board, and believe that his background in finance and investments will help further our corporate strategy to deliver enhanced value to our stockholders through continued growth and diversification of our business," stated Paul Norman, the Chairman of the Board.

About Jones Soda Co.

Jones Soda Co. (CSE: JSDA, OTCQB: JSDA) is a leading craft soda manufacturer with a growing line of cannabis products. The Company markets and distributes premium craft sodas under the Jones Soda and Lemoncocco brands, and a variety of cannabis products under the Mary Jones brand. Jones' mainstream soda line is sold across North America in glass bottles, cans and on fountain through traditional beverage outlets, restaurants and alternative accounts. The Company is headquartered in Seattle, Washington. For more information, visit www.jonessoda.com, www.myjones.com, www.drinklemoncocco.com or www.MaryJonesCannabis.com.

Neither the CSE nor its regulation services provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE Jones Soda
Expanded offerings will increase Black representation in clinical trials, ensuring that new medicines are safe and effective for people of color.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. and LOS ANGELES, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Jumo Health , the global provider of age appropriate, culturally sensitive medical education, announced today that, together with the I Choose Life Foundation (ICLF) , it has expanded its health equity service line to include the recruitment and retention of people of color in clinical trials.

To guide their pharmaceutical and biotech customers as they endeavor to develop culturally responsible medications, Jumo Health and ICLF have amassed a national network of more than 2,000 churches that primarily serve Black congregations. Those 2,000 churches, which are located across the United States, have more than 500,000 members.

This group of a half million people offers rare access to a community that is historically underrepresented in clinical trials. While approximately 14% of the United States population is Black, the community only makes up approximately 5% of clinical trial participants. There has been a long history of medical and research-related abuse of African Americans in the US, including the USPHS Syphilis Study at Tuskegee and treatment of Henrietta Lacks . This mistreatment has led to decades of mistrust of the health care system by the Black community, which when combined with limited access to health care and difficulty reaching clinical research sites, has resulted in a severe lack of participation in clinical trials.

"Jumo Health explains difficult medical concepts in ways people can understand and act upon," stated Kevin Aniskovich, President and CEO of Jumo Health. "With a keen understanding of health literacy, how various communities consume information, and the importance of storytelling, we ensure that people can 'see themselves' in the information provided; critically important when serving communities that have been historically overlooked by government and industry," continued Aniskovich.

On the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) acknowledged these disparities and recently issued draft guidance that will soon require pharmaceutical companies to create a " Race and Ethnicity Diversity Plan " for each new drug in development to "enroll representative numbers of participants from underrepresented racial and ethnic populations in the United States, such as Black or African American, Hispanic/Latino, Indigenous and Native American, Asian, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islanders, and other persons of color, in clinical trials."

"There's no reason that my community accounts for 14% of the United States' population yet we are only 5% or less of those participating in clinical trials," shared Tony Wafford, President and CEO of ICLF. "Over 70 years ago Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, 'Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.' The Black community can no longer be left behind when it comes to culturally competent education, recruitment and Black retention in clinical trials and research. Through this partnership, I Choose Life Foundation and Jumo Healthwe're going to turn that narrative around! My goal is to make the Black community self-conscious agents of their own health and wellness," concluded Wafford.

"Having met during our work on a COVID-19 clinical trial, Tony and I quickly realized that by working together we could have a positive impact on the standard social determinants of health," said Aniskovich. "COVID-19 was infecting Black and Hispanic people at 3.5 times the rate of the general public yet participatory representation within those communities was embarrassingly low; we knew our energy and effort in developing best in class solutions in concert with community partners was to be our top priority," said Aniskovich.

To support its education and newly formed community recruitment and outreach efforts, Jumo Health has formed a Community Advisory Recruitment and Engagement Solutions Council (the CARES Council) comprised of Black leaders across the country including its founding Council members:

Rev. Dr. Howard-John Wesley - Alfred Street Baptist Church (ASBC), Alexandria,VA

- (ASBC), Alexandria,VA Rev. Dr. Marcus D. Cosby - Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church, Houston, TX

- Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church, Rev. Dr. Frederick Douglass Haynes III - Friendship-West Baptist Church, Dallas, TX

- Friendship-West Baptist Church, Rev. Dr. John E. Jackson, Sr. - Trinity United Church of Christ, Gary, IN

- Trinity United Church of Christ, Rev. Oliver Buie - Warren Chapel , Los Angeles, CA

Working together, Jumo Health, ICLF, and the CARES Council seek to ensure that Black participants are appropriately represented in future clinical trials.

About I Choose Life Foundation

The mission of I Choose Life Foundation is to improve the health and well-being of the African American community through addressing health disparities in five interrelated areas: Cardiovascular disease, Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, Mental Health, Obesity Cancers and STIs. Drawing on its life-affirming culture, values, and internal resources; the community will become effectively informed, organized and will engage in cooperative health care and prevention projects focused on choosing life and rejecting ideas and actions which lead to health deterioration and death. Learn more at www.ichoose-life.com .

About Jumo Health

Jumo Health develops age-appropriate, culturally sensitive, and relatable educational resources for patients and caregivers. We have experience serving diverse populations, covering more than 160 health topics across 75+ countries and 90+ languages - and we're always expanding! Our multicultural offerings are designed to explain the latest in evidence-based literature using highly visual elements so that everyone can understand complex medical topics. We use familiar mediums to ensure this - from comic books and animation to virtual reality experiences and authentic documentary-style patient stories - all tailored based on age and audience. Jumo Health collaborates globally with more than 180 advocacy groups and community organizations to ensure an authentic patient experience is accurately represented. For further information, visit www.jumohealth.com .

Contact:

Kelly Gelinne

[email protected]

SOURCE Jumo Health
Bestselling Author Shares Ways to Make Work Fun, Fulfilling

SALT LAKE CITY, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- With March 2023 designated as Employee Spirit Month, which honors all hard-working employees, a bestselling author is sharing five ways to boost employee morale for ongoing, upward progress.

All the Right Reasons: 12 Timeless Principles for Living a Life in Harmony, by USANA CEO and chairman Kevin Guest (PRNewsfoto/USANA)

"When employee morale is high, we see productivity soar, so it's important to keep morale at a high level for many reasons," said Kevin Guest, chairman and CEO of USANA Health Sciences (NYSE: USNA), a billion-dollar nutritional supplement company in 24 worldwide markets. "Boosting employee optimism can happen with five proven ways that enhance individuals, teams and companies."

In his book, All the Right Reasons, 12 Timeless Principles for Living a Life in Harmony, Guest writes, "Nothing is more important than relationships," realizing that, at the core, companies are primarily groups of people providing services or products. Lifting employees higher benefits everyone with high-level positivity.

Guest said to first be vigilant in creating a positive work environment, supporting team-building activities, and celebrating employee achievements.

"An upbeat work environment reduces stress and provides an atmosphere of collaboration and communication, which benefits every organization," he said. "Team-building activities unite people because they let employees bond over shared experiences outside of work.

"When a supervisor genuinely shows appreciation for an employee's good performance, it makes a huge statement that the company values each person."

Next, dutifully listen and respond to employee feedback to demonstrate inclusivity and value to employees.

"While making the work environment a safe place to share feedback is important, it's equally valuable to show employees you are acting on valid points they've raised," he said. "If you simply can't act on their suggestions, you have to state that and give a valid reason to continue to lead with trust and respect."

Finally, in today's sometimes fatigued work world, promoting work-life balance acknowledges that company leadership understands employees have important personal lives that should be addressed.

"Each circumstance calls for its own practices, but mental balance is key because when employees are balanced in life, they bring that stability and happiness to work, which results in more productive results at every level," said Guest.

Drawing on the power of values to help others find life's success secrets, All the Right Reasons uncovers 12 principles for living a life in harmony. All proceeds of the book, now on Amazon, go to feeding hungry children, with each book purchase providing 40 meals.

For more information, visit www.kevinguest.com .

MEDIA CONTACT:

Tim Brown, Candid Communications

[email protected]

SOURCE USANA
Firm maintains strong safety record with results including Aviation, Railroad, Energy and Government Projects.

ARLINGTON, Texas, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Kinley Construction has extended its continued outstanding construction industry safety reputation, officially surpassing 1.7 million hours of incident-free industrial construction work since July, 2017.

"Safety is the top priority for our company. We're very proud of the long and outstanding safety record our employees have upheld through hard work and compassion for others," Jimmy Kinley, CEO of Kinley Construction, stated, "We realize with safety, there is no 'finish line.' We must be diligent in emphasizing, focusing and practicing safety every day to ensure the well-being of our employees and their families. For that reason, every employee in our company has the authority to stop work for any reason. We encourage them to use that authority whenever necessary."

Kinley Construction surpasses 1.7 million hours of incident-free industrial construction work. Tweet this

Kinley has delivered a consistently excellent reputation and record in safety, covering fueling infrastructure projects in aviation, rail, energy, and government. Since 2018, Kinley has recorded an annual Experience Modification Rating (EMR), a standard measurement for construction safety, of well under the industry-accepted rating of one/1. Furthermore, the firm has recorded a 0/zero rating for both Total Case Incident Rate and OSHA's DART rate (Days Away, Restricted or Transferred).

"I'm pleased the organization has performed so well as it's reflective of our commitment to safety," said Roy Crocker, Corporate Safety Manager for Kinley Construction. "However, you can never be satisfied with your safety program or rest on your record. Safety requires constant attention, training, and keen awareness to maintain the highest level of performance. Safety is every minute of every day. There are no off days. Our employees and their families literally depend on a safe working environment."

For more information about Kinley Construction, visit www.kinleyconstruction.com/.

About Kinley Construction

The Kinley family has been in the oil and gas industry for six generations and over 110 years. Today, Kinley Construction is a premier industrial fueling contractor for the aviation, railroad, government and energy industries, specializing in construction, service and maintenance of midstream terminals, hydrant fueling facilities, bulk storage facilities, diesel fueling platforms, and industrial waste systems as well as service, maintenance and parts for rotating equipment.

SOURCE Kinley Construction
DUBLIN, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Latin America Social Commerce Market Intelligence and Future Growth Dynamics Databook - 50+ KPIs on Social Commerce Trends by End-Use Sectors, Operational KPIs, Retail Product Dynamics, and Consumer Demographics - Q1 2023 Update" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

According to the publisher, social commerce industry in Latin America is expected to grow by 34.5% on annual basis to reach US$8347.9 million in 2023.



The social commerce industry is expected to grow steadily over the forecast period, recording a CAGR of 21.9% during 2022-2028. The social commerce GMV in the region will increase from US$8347.9 million in 2023 to reach US$27370.6 million by 2028.



Each report in the bundle provides a detailed data centric analysis of social commerce industry, covering market opportunities and risks. With over 50+ KPIs at country level, this report provides a comprehensive understanding of social commerce market dynamics, market size and forecast, and market share statistics.

The research methodology is based on industry best practices. Its unbiased analysis leverages a proprietary analytics platform to offer a detailed view on emerging business and investment market opportunities.

This title is a bundled offering provides detailed 5 reports, covering regional insights along with data centric analysis at regional and country level:



Latin America Social Commerce Market Intelligence and Future Growth Dynamics (Databook) Argentina Social Commerce Market Intelligence and Future Growth Dynamics (Databook) Brazil Social Commerce Market Intelligence and Future Growth Dynamics (Databook) Colombia Social Commerce Market Intelligence and Future Growth Dynamics (Databook) Mexico Social Commerce Market Intelligence and Future Growth Dynamics (Databook)

Scope

This title is a bundled offering, combining 5 reports (220 tables and 285 charts).

Country reports in this bundled offering provide in-depth analysis of Social Commerce industry. Below is a summary of key market segments offered at country level:

Ecommerce Industry Market Size and Future Growth Dynamics by Key Performance Indicators, 2019-2028

Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Future Growth Dynamics by Key Performance Indicators, 2019-2028

Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Retail Product Categories, 2019-2028

Clothing & Footwear

Beauty and Personal Care

Food & Grocery

Appliances and Electronics

Home Improvement

Travel

Hospitality

Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by End Use Segment, 2019-2028

B2B

B2C

C2C

Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by End Use Device, 2019-2028

Mobile

Desktop

Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Location, 2019-2028

Domestic

Cross Border

Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Location, 2019-2028

Tier-1 Cities

Tier-2 Cities

Tier-3 Cities

Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Payment Method, 2019-2028

Credit Card

Debit Card

Bank Transfer

Prepaid Card

Digital & Mobile Wallet

Other Digital Payment

Cash

Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Platforms

Video Commerce

Social Network-Led Commerce

Social Reselling

Group Buying

Product Review Platforms

Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Consumer Demographics & Behaviour,2022

By Age

By Income Level

By Gender

Reasons to buy

In-depth Understanding of Social Commerce Market Dynamics: Understand market opportunities and key trends along with forecast (2019-2028).

Insights into Opportunity by end-use sectors - Get market dynamics by end-use sectors to assess emerging opportunity across various end-use sectors.

Develop Market Specific Strategies: Identify growth segments and target specific opportunities to formulate social commerce strategy; assess market specific key trends, drivers, and risks in the industry.

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/f6tdzs-america?w=5

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

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
Feature Highlights:

Both inherent and customizable dashboards.

Over 30 built-in analytics reports.

Extensive options for new mapping visualizations.

Billions of new data points to analyze.

Increased security was implemented with this version, including two-factor authentication, allowing users to have an extra layer of protection.

WellDatabase will not change the cost of any of the tiers in their pricing model and will continue to offer a lite version at no cost for users who simply need well level data without a need for analytics or exporting. Paid subscriptions start at $250/month/user for the Essential tier, with the ability to cancel at any time. Compare plan features at https://welldatabase.com/compare-welldatabase-plans/.

About WellDatabase:

WellDatabase is a customer-oriented software company with the vision to take traditional oil and gas data needs and merge them with the latest technology. Founded in 2010, the company offers a revolutionary platform that provides a data source for everyone from the curious royalty owner to the most robust oil and gas engineer. WellDatabase delivers trusted insights on wells across America and Canada, including extensive analytics, comprehensive forecasting, superior mapping, and data management tools to assist customers in making data-driven business decisions. For more information, visit www.welldatabase.com

John Ferrell

WellDatabase

832.698.9355

[email protected]

SOURCE WellDatabase
Chomps' Newest Flavors are Available Exclusively Online To Purchase Now

NAPLES, Fla., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ --.Fastest-growing U.S. natural meat snack brand, Chomps , announces today the launch of two new flavor innovations: Taco Beef and Habanero Beef. These flavors were highly requested by the brand's loyal consumers, and join its line of existing meat snacks available for purchase exclusively online through Amazon and on chomps.com.

Chomps Releases Two New Meat Snack Flavors: Taco Beef and Habanero Beef Tweet this Chomps Habanero Beef and Chomps Taco Beef

Providing healthy snacking enthusiasts with a high-quality grab-n-go bite that packs a flavor punch, Chomps' new Habanero Beef stick cranks up the heat with habanero peppers, red pepper, and coriander, making it Chomps' spiciest flavor yet. Taco Beef spotlights the beloved flavors of a taco in a portable and mess-free format, with each bite delivering a zesty kick including notes of paprika, cumin, and chili powder. The new sticks pack 10g of protein, only 100 calories, and zero sugar. They have beef collagen casings and consist of only grass-fed and finished beef with no hormones or antibiotics. Chomps Taco Beef and Habanero Beef sticks will be sold online at $24 for a 10-count box or $50 for a 24-count box.

"We started Chomps to provide delicious, sustainably sourced snacks that fill you up and actually taste good," said Chomps CEO, Pete Maldonado. "We'll never stop innovating to give our customers what they are craving, and we created Taco Beef and Habanero Beef to do just that."

The launch of Habanero Beef and Taco Beef comes on the heels of Chomps' appointment of Elizabeth Carter as president and chief operations officer earlier this year. With extensive experience as a senior executive in the consumer-packaged goods industry, Carter now leads the brand and marketing strategy, which includes overseeing new innovation and retail expansion.

Chomps Taco Beef and Habanero Beef flavors are available for purchase now through Amazon and online at www.chomps.com . Additional Chomps sticks include Original Beef, Jalapeno Beef, Sea Salt Beef, Italian Style Beef, Original Turkey, Pepperoni Turkey, Jalapeno Turkey, and Salt and Pepper Venison. Chomps' snacks are high-quality, lean protein with low-to-no carbs, no added sugar or harmful ingredients, and are free from the top nine food allergens. All Chomps' farmers raise animals humanely and in facilities regularly audited to certify all animal welfare guidelines. For more information or to find a retail location near you, visit www.chomps.com .

About Chomps

Chomps is the fastest-growing natural meat snack brand in both the Natural and Conventional retail channels* with products made from the highest-quality, sustainably sourced proteins, and no hidden, harmful ingredients. All Chomps' meat sticks are made from grass-fed and finished beef and venison and free-range turkey with no hormones or antibiotics. Chomps never contain added sugar, soy, dairy, artificial preservatives or colors, MSG, fillers, binders, or artificial nitrates or nitrites. Additionally, Chomps is the only meat snack that is Whole30 Approved, Certified Gluten-Free, Certified Paleo, Keto Certified, Non-GMO Project Verified, and Allergy-Friendly. Visit www.chomps.com for more information.

SOURCE Chomps
Salt Lake City-based Lightstream appoints transformational cybersecurity leader Joe Vadakkan to Chief Revenue Officer.

SALT LAKE CITY, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Lightstream, a leader in secure digital transformation that provides fully integrated cloud, security, and network connectivity services to its global clients, recently named Joe Vadakkan as its Chief Revenue Officer.

Previously, Vadakkan served as Lightstream's EVP of Sales and Engineering, achieving sales growth and alignment in the engineering organization to drive growth and service clients' continuous secure digital transformation needs to meet global demands.

Please join all of us at Lightstream in congratulating Joe Vadakkan on his appointment as Chief Revenue Officer. Tweet this Joe Vaddakan, CRO Lightstream

Vadakkan is a proven transformational cybersecurity industry leader with a track record of scaling functions for growth and profitability. In his new role as Chief Revenue Officer, Vadakkan will play a critical role in Lightstream's global growth in the convergence business of network, cloud, and security. He will set the hyper-scale strategy and execution with the sales, brand, and distribution channels while focusing on expanding the partner ecosystem to address complex enterprise challenges.

In a joint statement, co-CEOs Rod Stout and Jim Cassell said:

Please join all of us at Lightstream in congratulating Joe Vadakkan on his appointment as Chief Revenue Officer. We are very excited to have Joe continue to provide a structure and cadence to allow Lightstream to take advantage of its highly differentiated service offerings and excellent reputation in the market.

Joe is a proven transformational cybersecurity industry leader known for his ability to scale businesses, create value for the ecosystem, and expand a customer-first sales organization.

We look forward to working alongside him to further our mission of helping customers innovate to achieve business outcomes through our solutions and services.

Vadakkan is an industry leader with over 20 years of experience in global infrastructure and security. He led the Lightstream sales and engineering teams, ensuring alignment to help Lightstream better serve its clients and grow its business. Building on his experience guiding startups, venture capital and private equity firms, and Fortune 2000 companies, Vadakkan is ready to lead the Lightstream organization as its Chief Revenue Officer.

About Lightstream

Lightstream is a fully integrated cloud, security, and network connectivity services business specializing in building and managing secure cloud environments and network solutions. They help control operating expenses, mitigate security risks, and reduce system complexity to increase operational effectiveness so organizations can focus on business growth and innovation.

Founded in 2003 and headquartered in Salt Lake City, UT, Lightstream partners with leading enterprise and SMB organizations in restaurants/hospitality, retail, fintech, healthcare and automotive to provide network and cloud solutions. Passionate about solving complex technology challenges, Lightstream also delivers fanatical customer service.

Lightstream has received multiple Palo Alto Networks Public Cloud Partner of the Year awards and is an AWS Security Competency Partner, AWS Advanced Consulting Partner, and Microsoft Cloud Platform Gold Partner with Security Competency. To learn more about Lightstream, visit our website or LinkedIn.

SOURCE Lightstream
NEW YORK, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) and Gran Coramino Tequila announced funding today for 50 small businesses led by Black and Latinx entrepreneurs operating in diverse industries like retail, transportation, and educational services.

Cofounded by entrepreneur Kevin Hart and 11th generation tequila maker Juan Domingo Beckmann, and developed in partnership with Global Brand Equities, Gran Coramino is partnering with LISC to implement The Coramino Fundthe centerpiece of a give-back program to support small business owners who have historically faced racial barriers to capital that have blocked necessary resources to grow their businesses. LISC is the program's U.S. partner, and The Beckmann Foundation is leading the program in Mexico, which will launch later this year.

The Coramino Fund opened applications for U.S. businesses in November 2022, with submissions coming in from across the country. LISC selected 50 eligible businesses to receive a total of $500,000 in funding. Half of the grantees are Black-owned; 36 percent are Latinx-owned; and 14 percent are Black and Latinx-owned. Sixty-eight percent are women-owned businesses.

"We are proud to announce this year's Coramino Fund grantees in partnership with Gran Coramino Tequila," said Lisa Glover, CEO of LISC. "Black and Latinx entrepreneurs have historically lacked access to financial resources and learning opportunities, restricting their businesses' ability to expand and thrive. This impactful partnership provides vital resources to an exceptional group of small business owners around the country, who in turn support our local communities," said Glover.

"Juan and I always knew we wanted Gran Coramino to have a give-back component that focused on providing Black and Latinx entrepreneurs with resources to pursue their small business dreams," said Kevin Hart, co-founder of Gran Coramino Tequila. "Teaming up with LISC last year to launch The Coramino Fund in the U.S. was the start of that journey. Today, we are honored to recognize the 50 inspiring, hard-working entrepreneurs from around the country who were selected by LISC to receive a cash grant from The Coramino Fund," said Hart.

Please visit www.lisc.org/grancoramino for more information on The Coramino Fund and to learn more about the 2022-2023 grantees.

The Coramino Fund 2023 U.S. Grantees

ABOUT LISC

LISC is one of the country's largest community development organizations, helping forge vibrant, resilient communities across America. LISC works with communities and partners to close systemic gaps in health, wealth and opportunity and advance racial equity so that people and places can thrive. Since its founding in 1979, LISC has invested $26.7 billion to create more than 463,000 affordable homes and apartments, develop 78.5 million square feet of retail, community and educational space and help tens of thousands of people find employment and improve their finances. www.lisc.org

ABOUT GRAN CORAMINO TEQUILA

Gran Coramino is a tequila brand founded by two world-class masters of their crafts, Juan Domingo Beckmann and Kevin Hart. As entrepreneurs and tequila lovers, Juan and Kevin first bonded in Tequila, Mexico over their passion for what tequila is and can be, as well as their shared values and desire to innovate the tequila category. Launching first with Gran Coramino Reposado Cristalino, the tequila is matured in Eastern European oak barrels, finished in California Cabernet wine casks and slow-filtered for smooth flavor and crystal-clear color. On September 14, 2022, the brand expanded with an Anejo expression, matured in both American and French oak barrels for 12 months. The tequila is then blended with Anejo reserves matured in ex-cognac casks. The final liquid reveals notes of butterscotch, toasted cacao, and coffee beans for a silky smooth tequila taste with a long and sweet cognac-laced finish. For more information, please visit www.GranCoramino.com and follow @GranCoramino on Instagram.

SOURCE Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC)
BARCELONA, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- At MWC Barcelona 2023, LITEON Technology is showcasing the 5G private solutions for different use cases. It provides the operator and system integrator with the capabilities to deliver more accurate coverage and better overall connectivity by overcoming the challenges associated with scarce spectrum in the country's dense areas.

Increase the Coverage from Indoor to Outdoor to Support Composite Private Network Scenarios

LITEON's 5G Solutions Increase the Coverage from Indoor to Outdoor Supporting Composite Private Network Scenarios LITEON Provides 5G Small Cell and O-RAN Products to Create Efficient Smart Factory Applications LITEON Collaborates with Telecom Partners Showcasing the Beyond 5G mmWave Indoor Deployment Solution

For more composite and diverse 5G private network scenarios like train station, campus, and shopping mall, LITEON launched the latest product, Semi-Outdoor Solution, featuring high transmission power and support of two different RAN architecture of AIO and O-RU. Take under-seat WiFi for example, unlike other current stadium solutions, LITEON Semi-Outdoor RAN Solution offers faster and better connections, while significantly reducing the number of small cell locations. It's capable of replacing hundreds of Wi-Fi access points with just a dozen 5G semi-outdoor RAN covering an enormous area, and the connectivity and signal strength around the stadium are still able to meet customers' expectations.

Provide 5G Small Cell and O-RAN Products to Create Efficient Smart Factory Applications

As the industry 4.0 paradigm gathers momentum, reliable data networks are key differentiators in factory & manufacturing performances. Building on the basis of Private 5G Networks, LITEON's 5G small cell and O-RAN products with Sub-6 and mmWave spectrum will offer an unprecedented integrated end-to-end 5G testing network for testing specifically industrial applications in accordance with updated 5G standardization specifications.

LITEON Collaborates with Telecom Partners Showcasing the Beyond 5G mmWave Indoor Deployment Solution

Another LITEON innovative demonstration is the indoor deployment solution with mmWave RU and Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS), which can be attached to walls to make them "intelligent" by redirecting existing radio waves within a target zone without emitting any additional waves or consuming energy. This solution improves the coverage and performance of a mmWave network.

Moving to 5G even further increases the importance of high-quality mmWave engineering in implementing smart solutions and densification strategies to bolster high capacity and extended coverage. With our partnership with RIS solutions, LITEON is well-positioned to meet all expectations for each of our customers.

Incorporating LITEON's latest and most advanced equipment and functionalities, LITEON's 5G and beyond solutions will facilitate customers to deal with challenges of private network.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2013155/1_Composite_Private_Network.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2013156/2_5G_Smart_Factory_Application.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2013157/3_mmWave_application.jpg

SOURCE LITEON Technology
New Orders and Production Contracting; Backlogs Contracting; Supplier Deliveries Faster; Raw Materials Inventories Growing; Customers' Inventories Too Low; Prices Increasing; Exports and Imports Contracting

TEMPE, Ariz., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Economic activity in the manufacturing sector contracted in February for the fourth consecutive month following a 28-month period of growth, say the nation's supply executives in the latest Manufacturing ISM Report On Business.

The report was issued today by Timothy R. Fiore, CPSM, C.P.M., Chair of the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) Manufacturing Business Survey Committee:

"The February Manufacturing PMI registered 47.7 percent, 0.3 percentage point higher than the 47.4 percent recorded in January. Regarding the overall economy, this figure indicates a third month of contraction after a 30-month period of expansion. In the last two months, the Manufacturing PMI has been at its lowest levels since May 2020, when it registered 43.5 percent. The New Orders Index remained in contraction territory at 47 percent, 4.5 percentage points higher than the figure of 42.5 percent recorded in January. The Production Index reading of 47.3 percent is a 0.7-percentage point decrease compared to January's figure of 48 percent. The Prices Index registered 51.3 percent, up 6.8 percentage points compared to the January figure of 44.5 percent. The Backlog of Orders Index registered 45.1 percent, 1.7 percentage points higher than the January reading of 43.4 percent. The Employment Index dropped into contraction territory, registering 49.1 percent, down 1.5 percentage points from January's 50.6 percent. The Supplier Deliveries Index figure of 45.2 percent is 0.4 percentage point lower than the 45.6 percent recorded in January; readings from the last three months are the index's lowest since March 2009 (43.2 percent). The Inventories Index registered 50.1 percent, 0.1 percentage point lower than the January reading of 50.2 percent. The New Export Orders Index reading of 49.9 percent is 0.5 percentage point higher than January's figure of 49.4 percent. The Imports Index continued in contraction territory at 49.9 percent, 2.1 percentage points above the January reading of 47.8 percent."

Fiore continues, "The U.S. manufacturing sector again contracted, with the Manufacturing PMI improving marginally over the previous month. With Business Survey Committee panelists reporting softening new order rates over the previous nine months, the February composite index reading reflects companies continuing to slow outputs to better match demand for the first half of 2023 and prepare for growth in the second half of the year. Demand eased, with the (1) New Orders Index contracting at a slower rate, (2) New Export Orders Index still below 50 percent but continuing to improve, (3) Customers' Inventories Index remaining at 'too low' levels, a positive for future production and (4) Backlog of Orders Index recovering for a third month but still in moderate contraction. Output/Consumption (measured by the Production and Employment indexes) was negative, with a combined 2.2-percentage point downward impact on the Manufacturing PMI calculation. The Employment Index returned to contraction after two months of expansion, and the Production Index logged a third month in contraction territory. Panelists' companies continue to indicate that they will not substantially reduce head counts, as sentiment is positive about the second half of the year, though slightly less so compared to January. Inputs  defined as supplier deliveries, inventories, prices and imports  continue to accommodate future demand growth. The Supplier Deliveries Index indicated faster deliveries, and the Inventories Index expanded at a slower rate as panelists' companies manage their total supply chain inventories. The Prices Index jumped back into 'increasing' territory after four consecutive months below 50 percent, supporting agreement between buyers and sellers to place orders in the near term.

"Of the six biggest manufacturing industries, two  Transportation Equipment; and Petroleum & Coal Products  registered growth in February.

"New order rates remain sluggish due to buyer and supplier disagreements regarding price levels and delivery lead times; the index increase suggests progress in February. Panelists' companies continue to attempt to maintain head-count levels through the projected slow first half of the year in preparation for a stronger performance in the second half. Eighty-two percent of manufacturing gross domestic product (GDP) is contracting, down from 86 percent in January. In February, fewer industries contracted strongly: The share of sector industries with a composite PMI calculation at or below 45 percent  a good barometer of overall manufacturing sluggishness  was 10 percent, an improvement compared to 26 percent in January," says Fiore.

The four manufacturing industries that reported growth in February are: Apparel, Leather & Allied Products; Transportation Equipment; Petroleum & Coal Products; and Electrical Equipment, Appliances & Components. The 14 industries reporting contraction in February, in the following order, are: Printing & Related Support Activities; Paper Products; Wood Products; Textile Mills; Furniture & Related Products; Nonmetallic Mineral Products; Plastics & Rubber Products; Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products; Chemical Products; Primary Metals; Computer & Electronic Products; Fabricated Metal Products; Machinery; and Miscellaneous Manufacturing.

WHAT RESPONDENTS ARE SAYING

"Good start to the year for bookings. Electronic components, specifically processors, continue to be challenging due to the risk of not hitting the commit dates, even with the extended lead times quoted." [Computer & Electronic Products]

"A slowdown in new housing construction and concerns of a slowing economy have customers delaying purchases in an effort to destock." [Chemical Products]

"Sales remain solid, and most assembly plants are running at capacity. There is concern for the global supply chain now that we are restricting sales of some semiconductors to China ." [Transportation Equipment]

." [Transportation Equipment] "Expect the first half of 2023 in the U.S. to be slower than the second half. Expect slower orders throughout 2023 for Europe ." [Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products]

." [Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products] "Even though our number of quotes are down, we are still staying busy, and our backlog has a lot to do with it. A backlog of 30-plus weeks is not ideal." [Machinery]

"Business and new orders are softening, and customers are pushing out current orders." [Plastics & Rubber Products]

"New orders are steady; production has been running consistently for several months. Many items remain in short supply (particularly anything electronics) and require daily monitoring to ensure supply." [Electrical Equipment, Appliances & Components]

"New orders are still strong; however, we continue to experience price increases (although at a slower rate than a year ago), which we have not accounted for in this year's budget. Restoring lost margin due to cost increases is a top priority." [Fabricated Metal Products]

"We shipped some long-term backlogged orders, enabling some progress on our current backlog." [Miscellaneous Manufacturing]

"Business conditions are still strong; however, inventory has exceeded our planned levels. This will impact operations until the inventory situation is resolved." [Primary Metals]

"While there are lingering concerns about a recession, we are not expecting a large drop-off in manufacturing this year. Worst case is flat." [Nonmetallic Mineral Products]

MANUFACTURING AT A GLANCE

February 2023 Index Series

Index Feb Series

Index Jan Percentage Point Change Direction Rate of

Change Trend*

(Months) Manufacturing PMI 47.7 47.4 +0.3 Contracting Slower 4 New Orders 47.0 42.5 +4.5 Contracting Slower 6 Production 47.3 48.0 -0.7 Contracting Faster 3 Employment 49.1 50.6 -1.5 Contracting From Growing 1 Supplier Deliveries 45.2 45.6 -0.4 Faster Faster 5 Inventories 50.1 50.2 -0.1 Growing Slower 19 Customers' Inventories 46.9 47.4 -0.5 Too Low Faster 77 Prices 51.3 44.5 +6.8 Increasing From Decreasing 1 Backlog of Orders 45.1 43.4 +1.7 Contracting Slower 5 New Export Orders 49.9 49.4 +0.5 Contracting Slower 7 Imports 49.9 47.8 +2.1 Contracting Slower 4 OVERALL ECONOMY Contracting Slower 3 Manufacturing Sector Contracting Slower 4

Manufacturing ISM Report On Business data is seasonally adjusted for the New Orders, Production, Employment and Inventories indexes.

*Number of months moving in current direction.

COMMODITIES REPORTED UP/DOWN IN PRICE AND IN SHORT SUPPLY

Commodities Up in Price

Aluminum (2)*; Copper (3); Electrical Components (4); Electronic Components; Maintenance, Repair, and Operations (MRO) Materials; Polyethylene; Polypropylene; Solvents; Steel*; Steel  Stainless; and Steel Products* (2).

Commodities Down in Price

Aluminum (10)*; Corrugate (3); Corrugated Boxes (2); Freight (4); Lumber (2); Natural Gas (3); Ocean Freight (6); Pallets; Plastic Resins (9); Polyethylene; Steel* (10); Steel  Hot Rolled; and Steel Products* (8).

Commodities in Short Supply

Electrical Components (29); Electronic Components (27); Hydraulic Components (10); Packaging Materials; Plastic Resins; Semiconductors (27); and Steel Products (2).

Note: The number of consecutive months the commodity is listed is indicated after each item.

*Indicates both up and down in price.

FEBRUARY 2023 MANUFACTURING INDEX SUMMARIES

Manufacturing PMI 

The U.S. manufacturing sector contracted in February, as the Manufacturing PMI registered 47.7 percent, 0.3 percentage point higher than the reading of 47.4 percent recorded in January. "This is the fourth month of slow contraction and continuation of a downward trend that began in June 2022. Of the five subindexes that directly factor into the Manufacturing PMI, only one (the Inventories Index), was in growth territory, and just barely. For the last two months, the PMI has registered its lowest levels since May 2020, when the index was at 43.5 percent. Of the six biggest manufacturing industries, two (Transportation Equipment; and Petroleum & Coal Products) registered strong growth in February. The Production Index logged a third month in contraction territory. Only three of the 10 subindexes were positive for the period," says Fiore. A reading above 50 percent indicates that the manufacturing sector is generally expanding; below 50 percent indicates that it is generally contracting.

A Manufacturing PMI above 48.7 percent, over a period of time, generally indicates an expansion of the overall economy. Therefore, the February Manufacturing PMI indicates the overall economy contracted in February for a third consecutive month after 30 straight months of expansion. "The past relationship between the Manufacturing PMI and the overall economy indicates that the February reading (47.7 percent) corresponds to a change of minus-0.3 percent in real gross domestic product (GDP) on an annualized basis," says Fiore.

THE LAST 12 MONTHS

Month Manufacturing

PMI Month Manufacturing

PMI Feb 2023 47.7 Aug 2022 52.9 Jan 2023 47.4 Jul 2022 52.7 Dec 2022 48.4 Jun 2022 53.1 Nov 2022 49.0 May 2022 56.1 Oct 2022 50.0 Apr 2022 55.9 Sep 2022 51.0 Mar 2022 57.0 Average for 12 months  51.8 High  57.0 Low  47.4

New Orders

ISM's New Orders Index contracted for the sixth consecutive month in February, registering 47 percent, an increase of 4.5 percentage points compared to January's reading of 42.5 percent. "Of the six largest manufacturing sectors, two (Petroleum & Coal Products; and Transportation Equipment) reported increased new orders. New orders contraction slowed as more buyers and sellers reached agreements due to improved lead times (as noted in panelists' comments), as well as the potential for future price growth (as indicated by steel, aluminum and copper prices rising). Uncertainty regarding future demand continues to hold the index back from more significant improvement," says Fiore. (For more on lead times, see the Buying Policy section of this report.) A New Orders Index above 52.7 percent, over time, is generally consistent with an increase in the Census Bureau's series on manufacturing orders (in constant 2000 dollars).

The three manufacturing industries that reported growth in new orders in February are: Petroleum & Coal Products; Transportation Equipment; and Miscellaneous Manufacturing. Twelve industries reported a decline in new orders in February, in the following order: Paper Products; Nonmetallic Mineral Products; Textile Mills; Printing & Related Support Activities; Furniture & Related Products; Wood Products; Machinery; Plastics & Rubber Products; Primary Metals; Fabricated Metal Products; Electrical Equipment, Appliances & Components; and Computer & Electronic Products.

New Orders %Higher %Same %Lower Net Index Feb 2023 21.3 54.6 24.1 -2.8 47.0 Jan 2023 15.4 50.3 34.3 -18.9 42.5 Dec 2022 15.8 52.7 31.5 -15.7 45.1 Nov 2022 12.7 62.3 25.0 -12.3 46.8

Production

The Production Index registered 47.3 percent in February, 0.7 percentage point lower than the January reading of 48 percent, indicating a third month of contraction after 30 consecutive months of growth. "Of the top six industries, only two  Machinery; and Transportation Equipment  expanded in February. Weak contraction in the Production Index continues to support manufacturing executives' strategy to extend output during the first half of 2023, as panelists' companies attempt to retain workers to prepare for better second-half performance. The index reached its lowest level since May 2020 (34.2 percent)," says Fiore. An index above 52.2 percent, over time, is generally consistent with an increase in the Federal Reserve Board's Industrial Production figures.

The four industries reporting growth in production during the month of February are: Machinery; Transportation Equipment; Fabricated Metal Products; and Electrical Equipment, Appliances & Components. The nine industries reporting a decrease in production in February  in the following order  are: Printing & Related Support Activities; Nonmetallic Mineral Products; Furniture & Related Products; Wood Products; Textile Mills; Paper Products; Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products; Miscellaneous Manufacturing; and Computer & Electronic Products.

Production %Higher %Same %Lower Net Index Feb 2023 16.6 62.3 21.1 -4.5 47.3 Jan 2023 17.9 53.7 28.4 -10.5 48.0 Dec 2022 17.3 56.2 26.5 -9.2 48.6 Nov 2022 20.2 61.7 18.1 +2.1 50.9

Employment

ISM's Employment Index registered 49.1 percent in February, 1.5 percentage points lower than the January reading of 50.6 percent. "The index indicated employment contracted after weak expansion in the previous two months and contraction in the three months before that. Of the six big manufacturing sectors, only three (Petroleum & Coal Products; Machinery; and Transportation Equipment) expanded. Labor management sentiment at panelists' companies still favors attempting to hire rather than reducing employment levels. Although layoffs continued in February, the hiring to reduction ratio among panelists' comments was 2-to-1 (compared to 4-to-1 in the previous month). Many companies opted to maintain workforce levels to support projected second-half growth, but to a lesser degree compared to January. Turnover rates declined in the month. For those companies increasing their head counts, comments continue to support an improving hiring environment," says Fiore. An Employment Index above 50.4 percent, over time, is generally consistent with an increase in the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data on manufacturing employment.

Of 18 manufacturing industries, six reported employment growth in February, in the following order: Apparel, Leather & Allied Products; Furniture & Related Products; Electrical Equipment, Appliances & Components; Petroleum & Coal Products; Machinery; and Transportation Equipment. The four industries reporting a decrease in employment in February are: Computer & Electronic Products; Miscellaneous Manufacturing; Chemical Products; and Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products. Eight industries reported no change in employment in February compared to January.

Employment %Higher %Same %Lower Net Index Feb 2023 13.8 71.0 15.2 -1.4 49.1 Jan 2023 15.2 67.8 17.0 -1.8 50.6 Dec 2022 15.6 67.5 16.9 -1.3 50.8 Nov 2022 12.8 70.6 16.6 -3.8 48.9

Supplier Deliveries 

The delivery performance of suppliers to manufacturing organizations was faster for a fifth straight month in February, as the Supplier Deliveries Index registered 45.2 percent, 0.4 percentage point lower than the 45.6 percent reported in January. The last three readings indicate the fastest supplier delivery performance since March 2009, when the index registered 43.2 percent. Of the top six manufacturing industries, only Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products reported slower deliveries. "Panelist comments indicate that suppliers now have ideal capacity levels, as backlogs at suppliers get worked off due to an extended period of slowing new orders," says Fiore. A reading below 50 percent indicates faster deliveries, while a reading above 50 percent indicates slower deliveries.

Four of 18 manufacturing industries reported slower supplier deliveries in February: Apparel, Leather & Allied Products; Textile Mills; Miscellaneous Manufacturing; and Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products. The 10 industries reporting faster supplier deliveries in February as compared to January  in the following order  are: Paper Products; Electrical Equipment, Appliances & Components; Printing & Related Support Activities; Plastics & Rubber Products; Furniture & Related Products; Fabricated Metal Products; Chemical Products; Machinery; Computer & Electronic Products; and Transportation Equipment.

Supplier Deliveries %Slower %Same %Faster Net Index Feb 2023 9.7 71.0 19.3 -9.6 45.2 Jan 2023 11.2 68.8 20.0 -8.8 45.6 Dec 2022 12.3 65.6 22.1 -9.8 45.1 Nov 2022 13.9 66.5 19.6 -5.7 47.2

Inventories

The Inventories Index registered 50.1 percent in February, 0.1 percentage point lower than the 50.2 percent reported for January. "Manufacturing inventories expanded at a slower rate compared to January. Of the six big manufacturing industries, two (Computer & Electronic Products; and Transportation Equipment) increased manufacturing raw material inventories in February. Manufacturing inventories continue to be effectively managed by panelists' companies as they work down total supply chain inventories," says Fiore. An Inventories Index greater than 44.4 percent, over time, is generally consistent with expansion in the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) figures on overall manufacturing inventories (in chained 2000 dollars).

Of 18 manufacturing industries, the nine reporting higher inventories in February  in the following order  are: Apparel, Leather & Allied Products; Nonmetallic Mineral Products; Electrical Equipment, Appliances & Components; Paper Products; Computer & Electronic Products; Plastics & Rubber Products; Fabricated Metal Products; Miscellaneous Manufacturing; and Transportation Equipment. The eight industries reporting contracting inventories in February  in the following order  are: Wood Products; Textile Mills; Furniture & Related Products; Primary Metals; Petroleum & Coal Products; Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products; Machinery; and Chemical Products.

Inventories %Higher %Same %Lower Net Index Feb 2023 20.5 60.7 18.8 +1.7 50.1 Jan 2023 22.1 57.1 20.8 +1.3 50.2 Dec 2022 20.0 59.5 20.5 -0.5 52.3 Nov 2022 20.9 58.3 20.8 +0.1 51.1

Customers' Inventories 

ISM's Customers' Inventories Index registered 46.9 percent in February, 0.5 percentage point lower than the 47.4 percent reported for January. "Customers' inventory levels are now at the higher end of the 'too low' level, as panelists' companies continue to manage total supply chain inventories. February saw customer inventories return to accommodative levels for future output growth potential," says Fiore.

Six industries reported customers' inventories as too high in February, in the following order: Paper Products; Nonmetallic Mineral Products; Printing & Related Support Activities; Electrical Equipment, Appliances & Components; Plastics & Rubber Products; and Fabricated Metal Products. The nine industries reporting customers' inventories as too low in February  listed in order  are: Wood Products; Textile Mills; Petroleum & Coal Products; Miscellaneous Manufacturing; Primary Metals; Transportation Equipment; Machinery; Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products; and Computer & Electronic Products.

Customers'

Inventories %

Reporting %Too

High %About

Right %Too

Low Net Index Feb 2023 75 18.4 56.9 24.7 -6.3 46.9 Jan 2023 75 18.5 57.8 23.7 -5.2 47.4 Dec 2022 78 15.2 66.0 18.8 -3.6 48.2 Nov 2022 77 20.6 56.2 23.2 -2.6 48.7

Prices 

The ISM Prices Index registered 51.3 percent, 6.8 percentage points higher compared to the January reading of 44.5 percent, indicating raw materials prices increased in February. The index ended a four-month period in "decreasing" territory preceded by 28 straight months of "increasing" status. "Panelists' comments support a return to more balanced supplier-buyer relationships, as sellers are more interested in filling order books and buyers now see the need to reorder. Also, future price increases are apparent for foundational purchased materials in several sectors. Over the last two months, the Prices Index has risen 11.9 percentage points after decreasing 47.7 points between April and December 2022. Of the top six manufacturing industries, three (Petroleum & Coal Products; Computer & Electronic Products; and Machinery) reported price increases in February. Panelists' companies reporting 'same' or 'lower' prices (75 percent in February, 82 percent in January), support buyers beginning to increase their new order rates," says Fiore. A Prices Index above 52.9 percent, over time, is generally consistent with an increase in the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Producer Price Index for Intermediate Materials.

In February, eight industries  in the following order  reported paying increased prices for raw materials: Electrical Equipment, Appliances & Components; Plastics & Rubber Products; Fabricated Metal Products; Nonmetallic Mineral Products; Petroleum & Coal Products; Computer & Electronic Products; Miscellaneous Manufacturing; and Machinery. The six industries reporting paying decreased prices for raw materials in February  in the following order  are: Textile Mills; Furniture & Related Products; Wood Products; Paper Products; Chemical Products; and Transportation Equipment.

Prices %Higher %Same %Lower Net Index Feb 2023 24.7 53.2 22.1 +2.6 51.3 Jan 2023 18.2 52.5 29.3 -11.1 44.5 Dec 2022 13.6 51.6 34.8 -21.2 39.4 Nov 2022 13.1 59.8 27.1 -14.0 43.0

Backlog of Orders 

ISM's Backlog of Orders Index registered 45.1 percent in February, a 1.7-percentage point increase compared to January's reading of 43.4 percent, indicating order backlogs contracted for the fifth consecutive month after a 27-month period of expansion. Of the six largest manufacturing sectors, two  Computer & Electronic Products; and Transportation Equipment  expanded order backlogs in February. "Backlogs contracted again but at the slowest pace since November 2022, when the index registered 45.3. percent. We have now experienced three straight months of improving backlog contraction, likely due to improvement in new order rates and panelists' companies better managing their outputs," says Fiore.

Two industries reported growth in order backlogs in February: Computer & Electronic Products; and Transportation Equipment. Twelve industries reported lower backlogs in February, in the following order: Furniture & Related Products; Printing & Related Support Activities; Paper Products; Nonmetallic Mineral Products; Wood Products; Primary Metals; Electrical Equipment, Appliances & Components; Fabricated Metal Products; Plastics & Rubber Products; Machinery; Chemical Products; and Miscellaneous Manufacturing.

Backlog of

Orders %

Reporting %Higher %Same %Lower Net Index Feb 2023 92 16.9 56.3 26.8 -9.9 45.1 Jan 2023 91 15.9 55.0 29.1 -13.2 43.4 Dec 2022 93 11.5 59.7 28.8 -17.3 41.4 Nov 2022 91 13.7 52.6 33.7 -20.0 40.0

New Export Orders 

ISM's New Export Orders Index registered 49.9 percent in February, 0.5 percentage point higher than the January reading of 49.4 percent. "The New Export Orders Index contracted in February for the seventh consecutive month after 25 straight months in expansion territory. Comments supported an improvement in orders from China as well as surprising improvement from the eurozone. The index reported its best performance since July 2022 (52.6 percent)," says Fiore.

Four industries reported growth in new export orders in February: Nonmetallic Mineral Products; Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products; Transportation Equipment; and Miscellaneous Manufacturing. The 10 industries reporting a decrease in new export orders in February  in the following order  are: Wood Products; Textile Mills; Printing & Related Support Activities; Furniture & Related Products; Electrical Equipment, Appliances & Components; Plastics & Rubber Products; Fabricated Metal Products; Machinery; Computer & Electronic Products; and Chemical Products.

New Export

Orders %

Reporting %Higher %Same %Lower Net Index Feb 2023 72 11.0 77.7 11.3 -0.3 49.9 Jan 2023 71 12.2 74.4 13.4 -1.2 49.4 Dec 2022 72 5.6 81.2 13.2 -7.6 46.2 Nov 2022 72 11.2 74.4 14.4 -3.2 48.4

Imports 

ISM's Imports Index registered 49.9 percent in February, an increase of 2.1 percentage points compared to January's figure of 47.8 percent. "The index remained in contraction in February following a recent five-month period of expansion. Import performance improved during the month, contracting at a slower pace. Panelists' comments indicate that the index reading reflects a combination of sluggish demand, as well as lingering effects from Lunar New Year," says Fiore.

The four industries reporting an increase in import volumes in February are: Transportation Equipment; Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products; Miscellaneous Manufacturing; and Electrical Equipment, Appliances & Components. Five industries reported lower volumes of imports in February: Paper Products; Furniture & Related Products; Machinery; Computer & Electronic Products; and Fabricated Metal Products. Nine industries reported no change in imports in February compared to January.

Imports % Reporting %Higher %Same %Lower Net Index Feb 2023 84 10.5 78.8 10.7 -0.2 49.9 Jan 2023 81 12.4 70.7 16.9 -4.5 47.8 Dec 2022 85 7.3 75.6 17.1 -9.8 45.1 Nov 2022 84 10.2 72.8 17.0 -6.8 46.6

The Supplier Deliveries, Customers' Inventories, Prices, Backlog of Orders, New Export Orders, and Imports indexes do not meet the accepted criteria for seasonal adjustments.

Buying Policy

The average commitment lead time for Capital Expenditures in February was 176 days, an increase of 10 days compared to January. Average lead time in February for Production Materials was 88 days, an increase of one day. Average lead time for Maintenance, Repair and Operating (MRO) Supplies was 43 days, an increase of two days.

Percent Reporting Capital

Expenditures Hand-to-

Mouth 30 Days 60 Days 90 Days 6 Months 1 Year+ Average

Days Feb 2023 14 5 10 12 31 28 176 Jan 2023 15 5 8 13 36 23 166 Dec 2022 16 6 7 12 33 26 171 Nov 2022 16 4 8 11 33 28 177

Percent Reporting Production

Materials Hand-to-

Mouth 30 Days 60 Days 90 Days 6 Months 1 Year+ Average

Days Feb 2023 6 26 25 26 11 6 88 Jan 2023 9 24 27 22 12 6 87 Dec 2022 11 19 28 25 12 5 85 Nov 2022 8 23 25 27 13 4 84

Percent Reporting MRO Supplies Hand-to-

Mouth 30 Days 60 Days 90 Days 6 Months 1 Year+ Average

Days Feb 2023 27 36 20 13 4 0 43 Jan 2023 28 37 19 13 3 0 41 Dec 2022 29 33 17 16 4 1 47 Nov 2022 30 34 17 15 3 1 44

About This Report

DO NOT CONFUSE THIS NATIONAL REPORT with the various regional purchasing reports released across the country. The national report's information reflects the entire U.S., while the regional reports contain primarily regional data from their local vicinities. Also, the information in the regional reports is not used in calculating the results of the national report. The information compiled in this report is for the month of February 2023.

The data presented herein is obtained from a survey of manufacturing supply executives based on information they have collected within their respective organizations. ISM makes no representation, other than that stated within this release, regarding the individual company data collection procedures. The data should be compared to all other economic data sources when used in decision-making.

Data and Method of Presentation

The Manufacturing ISM Report On Business is based on data compiled from purchasing and supply executives nationwide. The composition of the Manufacturing Business Survey Committee is stratified according to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) and each of the following NAICS-based industry's contribution to gross domestic product (GDP): Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products; Textile Mills; Apparel, Leather & Allied Products; Wood Products; Paper Products; Printing & Related Support Activities; Petroleum & Coal Products; Chemical Products; Plastics & Rubber Products; Nonmetallic Mineral Products; Primary Metals; Fabricated Metal Products; Machinery; Computer & Electronic Products; Electrical Equipment, Appliances & Components; Transportation Equipment; Furniture & Related Products; and Miscellaneous Manufacturing (products such as medical equipment and supplies, jewelry, sporting goods, toys and office supplies). The data are weighted based on each industry's contribution to GDP. According to the BEA estimates for 2021 GDP (released December 22, 2022), the six largest manufacturing subsectors are: Computer & Electronic Products; Chemical Products; Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products; Transportation Equipment; Machinery; and Petroleum & Coal Products.

Survey responses reflect the change, if any, in the current month compared to the previous month. For each of the indicators measured (New Orders, Backlog of Orders, New Export Orders, Imports, Production, Supplier Deliveries, Inventories, Customers' Inventories, Employment and Prices), this report shows the percentage reporting each response, the net difference between the number of responses in the positive economic direction (higher, better and slower for Supplier Deliveries) and the negative economic direction (lower, worse and faster for Supplier Deliveries), and the diffusion index. Responses are raw data and are never changed. The diffusion index includes the percent of positive responses plus one-half of those responding the same (considered positive).

The resulting single index number for those meeting the criteria for seasonal adjustments (Manufacturing PMI, New Orders, Production, Employment and Inventories) is then seasonally adjusted to allow for the effects of repetitive intra-year variations resulting primarily from normal differences in weather conditions, various institutional arrangements, and differences attributable to non-moveable holidays. All seasonal adjustment factors are subject annually to relatively minor changes when conditions warrant them. The Manufacturing PMI is a composite index based on the diffusion indexes of five of the indexes with equal weights: New Orders (seasonally adjusted), Production (seasonally adjusted), Employment (seasonally adjusted), Supplier Deliveries, and Inventories (seasonally adjusted).

Diffusion indexes have the properties of leading indicators and are convenient summary measures showing the prevailing direction of change and the scope of change. A Manufacturing PMI reading above 50 percent indicates that the manufacturing economy is generally expanding; below 50 percent indicates that it is generally declining. A Manufacturing PMI above 48.7 percent, over a period of time, indicates that the overall economy, or gross domestic product (GDP), is generally expanding; below 48.7 percent, it is generally declining. The distance from 50 percent or 48.7 percent is indicative of the extent of the expansion or decline. With some of the indicators within this report, ISM has indicated the departure point between expansion and decline of comparable government series, as determined by regression analysis. The Manufacturing ISM Report On Business survey is sent out to Manufacturing Business Survey Committee respondents the first part of each month. Respondents are asked to report on information for the current month for U.S. operations only. ISM receives survey responses throughout most of any given month, with the majority of respondents generally waiting until late in the month to submit responses to give the most accurate picture of current business activity. ISM then compiles the report for release on the first business day of the following month.

The industries reporting growth, as indicated in the Manufacturing ISM Report On Business monthly report, are listed in the order of most growth to least growth. For the industries reporting contraction or decreases, those are listed in the order of the highest level of contraction/decrease to the least level of contraction/decrease.

Responses to Buying Policy reflect the percent reporting the current month's lead time, the approximate weighted number of days ahead for which commitments are made for Capital Expenditures; Production Materials; and Maintenance, Repair and Operating (MRO) Supplies, expressed as hand-to-mouth (five days), 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, six months (180 days), a year or more (360 days), and the weighted average number of days. These responses are raw data, never revised, and not seasonally adjusted.

ISM ROB Content

The Institute for Supply Management ("ISM") Report On Business (both Manufacturing and Non-Manufacturing) ("ISM ROB") contains information, text, files, images, video, sounds, musical works, works of authorship, applications, and any other materials or content (collectively, "Content") of ISM ("ISM ROB Content"). ISM ROB Content is protected by copyright, trademark, trade secret, and other laws, and as between you and ISM, ISM owns and retains all rights in the ISM ROB Content. ISM hereby grants you a limited, revocable, nonsublicensable license to access and display on your individual device the ISM ROB Content (excluding any software code) solely for your personal, non-commercial use. The ISM ROB Content shall also contain Content of users and other ISM licensors. Except as provided herein or as explicitly allowed in writing by ISM, you shall not copy, download, stream, capture, reproduce, duplicate, archive, upload, modify, translate, publish, broadcast, transmit, retransmit, distribute, perform, display, sell, or otherwise use any ISM ROB Content.

Except as explicitly and expressly permitted by ISM, you are strictly prohibited from creating works or materials (including but not limited to tables, charts, data streams, time-series variables, fonts, icons, link buttons, wallpaper, desktop themes, online postcards, montages, mashups and similar videos, greeting cards, and unlicensed merchandise) that derive from or are based on the ISM ROB Content. This prohibition applies regardless of whether the derivative works or materials are sold, bartered, or given away. You shall not either directly or through the use of any device, software, internet site, web-based service, or other means remove, alter, bypass, avoid, interfere with, or circumvent any copyright, trademark, or other proprietary notices marked on the Content or any digital rights management mechanism, device, or other content protection or access control measure associated with the Content including geo-filtering mechanisms. Without prior written authorization from ISM, you shall not build a business utilizing the Content, whether or not for profit.

You shall not create, recreate, distribute, incorporate in other work, or advertise an index of any portion of the Content unless you receive prior written authorization from ISM. Requests for permission to reproduce or distribute ISM ROB Content can be made by contacting in writing at: ISM Research, Institute for Supply Management, 309 West Elliot Road, Suite 113, Tempe, Arizona 85284-1556, or by emailing [email protected]. Subject: Content Request.

ISM shall not have any liability, duty, or obligation for or relating to the ISM ROB Content or other information contained herein, any errors, inaccuracies, omissions or delays in providing any ISM ROB Content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. In no event shall ISM be liable for any special, incidental, or consequential damages, arising out of the use of the ISM ROB. Report On Business, PMI, and NMI are registered trademarks of Institute for Supply Management. Institute for Supply Management and ISM are registered trademarks of Institute for Supply Management, Inc.

About Institute for Supply Management 

Institute for Supply Management (ISM) serves supply management professionals in more than 90 countries. Its 50,000 members around the world manage about US$1 trillion in corporate and government supply chain procurement annually. Founded in 1915 as the first supply management institute in the world, ISM is committed to advancing the practice of supply management to drive value and competitive advantage for its members, contributing to a prosperous and sustainable world. ISM leads the profession through the ISM Report On Business, its highly regarded certification programs and the ISM Advance Digital Platform. This report has been issued by the association since 1931, except for a four-year interruption during World War II.

The full text version of the Manufacturing ISM Report On Business is posted on ISM's website at www.ismrob.org on the first business day* of every month after 10:00 a.m. ET.

The next Manufacturing ISM Report On Business featuring March 2023 data will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET on Monday, April 3, 2023.

*Unless the New York Stock Exchange is closed.

Contact: Kristina Cahill



Report On Business Analyst



ISM, ROB/Research Manager



Tempe, Arizona



+1 480.455.5910



Email: [email protected]



SOURCE Institute for Supply Management
From Wall Street to Building a Pizza Empire, Entrepreneur Solidifies Position as Industry Leader with Nation's Fastest-Growing Pizza Brand*

TOLEDO, Ohio, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Marco's Pizza, the nation's fastest-growing pizza brand*, announces one of its successful multi-unit franchisees, Kal Gullapalli, as the recipient of the International Franchise Association's (IFA) prestigious Franchisee of the Year Award. The annual recognition honors a select group of franchisees who have demonstrated excellence within the franchise community as an outstanding franchise establishment owner-operator.

Marcos Pizza Multi-Unit Franchisee Kal Gullapalli Named 2023 Franchisee of the Year by International Franchise Association

The Franchisee of the Year Award recognizes leading franchise owners from IFA member brands whose outstanding performance and contributions help protect, enhance, and promote the franchise business model. Individuals are selected for their service to their communities, fostering a strong and vibrant workforce, opening the doors for career growth and entrepreneurship, and supporting their fellow franchisees.

"I am extremely humbled to receive this recognition and honored to represent Marco's Pizza and its franchise community," said Gullapalli. "When I joined this system, I knew I didn't want to just open one store. My vision was to build a pizza empire while also giving others the tools and resources to become leaders. Hiring a great team and investing in their professional development has played a key role in my success. With 48 locations currently open across the Southeast, we're well on our way to achieving a 100-plus store portfolio by 2025. The future is bright with Marco's Pizza."

After spending seven years working on Wall Street, Gullapalli made the shift into entrepreneurship, opening several food concepts. His journey within franchising began in 2016 and he quickly found his stride as a successful multi-brand, multi-unit operator who is now paving the way as a stand out performer in the Marco's Pizza franchise system. As a diverse, multi-brand owner, Gullapalli has built his success around prioritizing growth, community, and investing in the next generation of leaders.

"Kal embodies our mission and vision down to his core, and is a prime model for our system," said Tony Libardi, Co-CEO & President of Marco's Pizza. "When looking for new franchisees to partner with, we make it a priority to align with someone who is not afraid to go the extra mile to develop their team. Kal's ability to empower his team and contribute to his community has not gone unnoticed."

For Gullapalli, the secret to mega growth entrepreneurship has lied within hiring, developing, and trusting a great team. After making strategic hires, he further invests in their development so they have the opportunity to grow and expand their skillsets. Gullapalli commits to teaching and empowering his team, knowing they are essential as he looks to continue to scale.

"Franchisee of the Year recipients represent the best in franchising," said Matthew Haller, president and CEO of the International Franchise Association. "This is the highest honor IFA awards to individual franchisees, and local business owners like Kal exemplify the power of franchising and its positive contributions to communities around the world."

Alongside franchisee recognition, Marco's continues to receive brand achievements and accolades: Ranking in Newsweek's 2023 America's Best Customer Service in the pizza chains category, earning a spot on QSR's Top 50  ranking No. 1 in the pizza category for guest satisfaction, claiming the No. 51 spot on Entrepreneur's 2023 Franchise 500 ranking, and appearing six consecutive years on Nation's Restaurant News' prestigious Top 500 ranking.

At the crux of Marco's ongoing growth is its renowned high-quality pizza which has provided the basic foundation to scale. Nation's Restaurant News Top 500 Report shows Marco's achieved the highest percent year-over-year sales change (+18.2%) when compared to the nation's top 4 pizza brands, making Marco's the No. 5 pizza brand in systemwide sales in America**. Now, Marco's has its sights set on becoming the No. 4 brand in pizza as it experienced a 12.8% increase in year-over-year Average Unit Volume (AUV), and the Top 50% of Marco's franchised stores generated $1,198,201 AUV for 2021***.

With vast territories across the country, company leadership has identified 4,200 potential U.S. locations. Marco's provides a full development support system, including technology and tools to help identify the right territories for expansion plus expertise in financing, real estate, construction management, and field operations, to assist franchisees and multi-unit operators.

For more information on Marco's Pizza franchise opportunities, visit https://www.marcos.com/franchising/ or call 866-731-8209 to speak with Shannon Iverson, Vice President of Franchise Sales.

ABOUT MARCO'S PIZZA

Marco's Pizza is one of America's Top 10 Favorite QSR Brands according to the 2022 Market Force Information Study. Headquartered in Toledo, Ohio, Marco's Pizza is the fastest-growing pizza brand in the United States*. Marco's was founded in 1978 by Italian-born Pasquale ("Pat") Giammarco and thrives to deliver a high-quality pizza experience, known for its dough made from scratch and its three fresh signature cheeses. The company has grown from its roots as a beloved Ohio brand to operate over 1,100 stores in 34 states with locations in Puerto Rico and the Bahamas. Most recently, Marco's Pizza was ranked No. 51 on Entrepreneur Magazine's 2023 "Franchise 500" ranking. Other recent accolades include a high ranking on Newsweek's 2023 "America's Best Customer Service" in pizza chains list, ranked No. 40 on QSR's Top 50 and has been featured six consecutive years on Nation's Restaurant News' prestigious "Top 500" ranking.

About the International Franchise Association

Celebrating over 60 years of excellence, education, and advocacy, the International Franchise Association (IFA) is the world's oldest and largest organization representing franchising worldwide. IFA works through its government relations and public policy, media relations, and educational programs to protect, enhance and promote franchising and the approximately 790,492 franchise establishments that support nearly 8.4 million direct jobs, $825.4 billion of economic output for the U.S. economy, and almost 3 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). IFA members include franchise companies in over 300 different business format categories, individual franchisees, and companies that support the industry in marketing, law, technology, and business development.

*Marco's Pizza is the fastest-growing pizza brand based on year-over-year unit growth, according to 2021 NRN Top 500 U.S. Restaurant Ranking LSR Pizza Segment.

**Marco's is now the 5th largest pizza brand in systemwide sales, according to 2021 NRN Top 500 US Restaurant Ranking LSR Pizza Segment."

***Based on the Average Unit Volume of the top 50% of our Franchised Stores for fiscal year 2021. Based on fiscal year 2021, 146 of 389 Franchised Stores in the category (38%) met or exceeded this average. This information appears in Item 19 of our current FDD  please refer to our FDD for complete information on financial performance. Results may differ. There is no assurance that any franchisee will perform as well.

SOURCE Marco's Pizza
CANTON, Mass., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The International Franchise Association (IFA) today named Matias Puga Hamilton, master franchisee of School of Rock in Latin America , as a 2023 Franchisee of the Year. He currently owns four schools in Latin America: Los Dominicos in Chile, Santiago in Chile, Polanco in Mexico, and Bogota in Colombia (Colombia). Hamilton was honored at the 63rd IFA Annual Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, for being an outstanding franchise establishment owner-operator.

"We are absolutely thrilled to see Matias Puga Hamilton being awarded Franchisee of the Year by the IFA. Matias' unwavering commitment, tireless efforts, and unparalleled dedication to excellence in every aspect of our business have earned him this well-deserved recognition," said Rob Price, CEO of School of Rock. "We are incredibly proud to have Matias as a part of our franchise system, and this award serves as a shining example of what can be achieved with hard work and a relentless pursuit of success. Matias' achievement is a true inspiration to our entire franchise community, and we are confident that it will motivate everyone to aim even higher and push the boundaries of what is possible."

The Franchisee of the Year Award, sponsored by IFA's partner, Paychex, recognizes leading franchise owners from IFA member brands whose outstanding performance and contributions help protect, enhance, and promote the franchise business model. Nominated by their parent company, individuals are selected for their service to their communities, fostering a strong and vibrant workforce, opening the doors for career growth and entrepreneurship, and supporting their fellow franchisees.

"Franchisee of the Year recipients represent the best in franchising," said Matthew Haller, president and CEO of the International Franchise Association. "This is the highest honor IFA awards to individual franchisees, and local business owners like Hamilton exemplify the power of franchising and its positive contributions to communities around the world."

There are approximately 800,000 franchised businesses across the U.S., providing over 8.4 million direct jobs and generating over $800 billion in economic output. According to Oxford Economics , franchising on average provides higher wages and better benefits than non-franchised businesses, as well as greater entrepreneurial opportunities to minorities, women, veterans, and other underrepresented communities.

School of Rock provides students of all ages an exciting and engaging music education experience, which includes bass lessons , guitar lessons , singing lessons , drum lessons , and piano lessons . Drawing from all styles of rock and roll, School of Rock students learn theory and techniques via songs from legendary artists such as Aretha Franklin, Lenny Kravitz, and Led Zeppelin. Thanks to the school's performance-based approach, students around the world have gained superior musical proficiency, with some moving on to record deals and larger platforms such as American Idol, The Voice and Broadway.

About the International Franchise Association

Celebrating over 60 years of excellence, education, and advocacy, the International Franchise Association (IFA) is the world's oldest and largest organization representing franchising worldwide. IFA works through its government relations and public policy, media relations, and educational programs to protect, enhance and promote franchising and the approximately 790,492 franchise establishments that support nearly 8.4 million direct jobs, $825.4 billion of economic output for the U.S. economy, and almost 3 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). IFA members include franchise companies in over 300 different business format categories, individual franchisees, and companies that support the industry in marketing, law, technology, and business development.

About School of Rock

School of Rock helps aspiring musicians master skills, unleash creativity, and develop tools they need to thrive in life. Founded as a single school in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1998, School of Rock has become a rapidly growing international franchise with over 500 schools open and in development across 15 global markets. Since 2009, School of Rock has grown its student count from 4,000 to nearly 60,000. School of Rock offers a wide variety of music lessons , including guitar lessons , singing lessons and piano lessons . The company also sells musical instruments and music gear through its GearSelect program. School of Rock is proud to support Music Will (formerly Little Kids Rock), the National Museum of African American Music (NMAAM), and the Society for the Prevention of Teen Suicide (SPTS). School of Rock was awarded US Patent 10,891,872 in 2021 for its innovative music education method. School of Rock also has garnered the following industry awards: 2022 and 2021 Global Franchise's Awards Best Children's Service and Education Franchise; 2023 Entrepreneur Magazine's Franchise 500 Top Children's Music Enrichment Brand; 2021 Franchise Innovation Award for Most Innovative Use of Customer-Facing Digital Tools; Franchise Business Review's 2023 Top 200 Franchises and Culture 200 list; 2020 Entrepreneur Magazine's Top 200 Franchise and the #1 Child Enrichment Franchise; and 2018 Forbes # 2 Best Franchise Medium-Level Investment Award and the #1 Music Franchise in America.

Follow School of Rock on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SchoolofRockUSA and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/SchoolofRockUSA .

For more information on School of Rock visit www.SchoolofRock.com or call 866-695-5515. To learn more about School of Rock franchise opportunities head to http://franchising.schoolofrock.com/

SOURCE School of Rock
IRVINE, Calif., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Mazda North American Operations (MNAO) today reported total February sales of 30,639 vehicles, an increase of 8.8 percent compared to February 2022. Year-to-date sales totaled 53,606 vehicles; an increase of 8.9 percent compared to the same time last year. With 24 selling days in February, compared to the same the year prior, the company posted an increase of 8.8 percent on a Daily Selling Rate (DSR) basis.

CPO sales totaled 5,016 vehicles in February, an increase of 41 percent compared to February 2022.

Mazda Reports February Sales Results

Sales Highlights

Best-ever total February sales with 30,639 vehicles sold.

Best-ever sales of CX-30 with 8,026 vehicles sold.

2nd best-ever February sales of CX-9 with 3,515 vehicles sold.

Mazda Canada, Inc., (MCI) reported February sales of 2,714 vehicles, a decrease of 24.9 percent compared to February last year. Year-to-date sales total 7,109 vehicles; a decrease of 17.6 percent compared to the same time last year.

Mazda Motor de Mexico (MMdM) reported February sales of 5,568 vehicles, an increase of 16 percent compared to last year. Year-to-date sales totaled 12,159 vehicles; an increase of 16 percent compared to the same time last year.

Mazda North American Operations is headquartered in Irvine, California, and oversees the sales, marketing, parts, and customer service support of Mazda vehicles in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Colombia through approximately 795 dealers. Operations in Canada are managed by Mazda Canada Inc. in Richmond Hill, Ontario; operations in Mexico are managed by Mazda Motor de Mexico in Mexico City; and operations in Colombia are managed by Mazda de Colombia in Bogota, Colombia. For more information on Mazda vehicles, including photography and B-roll, please visit the online Mazda media center at News.MazdaUSA.com.

Follow MNAO's social media channels through Twitter and Instagram at @MazdaUSA and Facebook at Facebook.com/MazdaUSA.

























Month-To-Date

Year-To-Date

























February February YOY % % MTD

February February YOY % % MTD



2023 2022 Change DSR

2023 2022 Change DSR























Mazda3 2,846 2,969 (4.1) % (4.1) %

4,423 6,439 (31.3) % (31.3) %

Mazda 3 Sdn 1,584 1,224 29.4 % 29.4 %

2596 2,654 (2.2) % (2.2) %

Mazda 3 HB 1,262 1,745 (27.7) % (27.7) %

1827 3,785 (51.7) % (51.7) %























Mazda6 0 55 (100.0) % (100.0) %

0 311 (100.0) % (100.0) %























MX-5 Miata 783 556 40.8 % 40.8 %

1,507 942 60.0 % 60.0 %

MX-5 404 227 78.0 % 78.0 %

760 362 109.9 % 109.9 %

MXR 379 329 15.2 % 15.2 %

747 580 28.8 % 28.8 %























CX-3 0 0 - -

0 0 - -

CX-30 8,026 4,333 85.2 % 85.2 %

13091 6,151 112.8 % 112.8 %

CX-5 12,282 16,404 (25.1) % (25.1) %

22115 29,008 (23.8) % (23.8) %

CX-9 3,515 3,803 (7.6) % (7.6) %

6685 6,315 5.9 % 5.9 %

CX-50 3,165 0 - -

5754 0 - -

MX-30 2 46 (95.7) % (95.7) %

11 79 (86.1) % (86.1) %

CX-90 20 0 - -

20 0 - -























CARS 3,629 3,580 1.4 % 1.4 %

5,930 7,692 (22.9) % (22.9) %

TRUCKS 27,010 24,586 9.9 % 9.9 %

47,676 41,553 14.7 % 14.7 %























TOTAL 30,639 28,166 8.8 % 8.8 %

53,606 49,245 8.9 % 8.9 %













































*Selling Days 24 24





48 48









SOURCE Mazda North American Operations
SAN FRANCISCO, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The global medical foods market size is expected to reach USD 33.5 billion by 2030, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. It is expected to expand at a CAGR of 5.2% from 2022 to 2030. Increasing incidences of chronic diseases, the rising geriatric population, and the growing burden of malnutrition are the major factors responsible for the substantial growth of the market over the years. For instance, according to a WHO report, about 149 million children under 5 were stunted and 38.9 million were obese or overweight due to undernutrition in 2020. The emerging focus of the policymakers to manage chronic disorders and nutritional deficiency is also anticipated to drive the adoption of medical foods over the years.

Key Industry Insights & Findings from the report:

The oral route of the administration segment dominated the market in 2021. The major factors contributing to the large share of the segment include a high preference for oral medical foods owing to the ease of consumption and high commercial viability of products administered orally.

The powder product segment accounted for the largest revenue share in 2021 owing to the factors such as rising application areas of powdered medical foods, ease of administration, and higher commercial viability.

Chemotherapy-induced diarrhea emerged as the leading application segment in 2021. The diabetic neuropathy segment is expected to register the fastest growth rate over the forecast period.

By sales channel, the institutional sales segment accounted for the largest revenue share in 2021 owing to the higher penetration and adoption of these products in the healthcare institutions such as clinics, hospitals, and care centers.

North America accounted for the largest revenue share in 2021 due to the increasing prevalence of chronic diseases and the presence of key players.

Read 150 page market research report, "Medical Foods Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Route of Administration (Oral, Enteral), By Product (Pills, Powder, Liquid), By Application, By Sales Channel, And Segment Forecasts, 2022 - 2030", published by Grand View Research.

Medical Foods Market Growth & Trends

The oral route of the administration segment dominated the market with a revenue share of over 65.0% in 2021. The major factors contributing to the segment growth include a high preference for oral medical foods owing to the ease of consumption and high commercial viability of products administered orally. In addition, these foods are available in a variety of forms such as pills, powder, puddings, and pre-thickened products, thereby fueling the growth of the segment.

In 2021, the powder product segment accounted for the largest revenue share of over 35.0%. Factors contributing to the growth are rising application areas of powdered medical foods, ease of administration, and higher commercial viability. The liquid segment is anticipated to grow at the fastest rate during the forecast period owing to the ease of consumption of liquid-based foods for special medical purposes by the pediatric and geriatric population.

The chemotherapy-induced diarrhea segment emerged as the largest application segment in 2021. Diarrhea caused by chemotherapy treatment is one of the common problems among cancer patients and the rising prevalence of cancer is one of the major reasons for increasing the revenue share. For instance, according to the National Cancer Institute statistics, about half of the patients develop diarrhea when treated with chemotherapy agents and the rate can reach 80% with respect to certain chemotherapy agents.

The institutional sales channel segment dominated the market in 2021. Higher penetration and adoption of oral and enteral medical foods in the healthcare institutions such as clinics, hospitals, and care centers and the rising consumption of these products are some of the major factors contributing to the large revenue share. In addition, rising demand for such products in inpatient facilities and increasing adoption for such products are boosting the market growth.

North America dominated the market with a revenue share of over 30.0% in 2021. The presence of major players and high revenue generated by them in the North American region are the key factors contributing to the regional market growth. In addition, strategic developments, the growing prevalence of chronic conditions, and the increasing adoption of medical foods by patients and healthcare professionals are the other factors supporting the growth.

Furthermore, the ongoing outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increase in the consumption of medical foods. Growing preference by healthcare professionals to consume these products in patients suffering from comorbidities and chronic conditions is beneficial in supporting the market growth. In addition, increasing complications in the patients suffering from chronic disorders due to COVID-19 disease are fueling their adoption and consumption, thereby supporting the growth.

Medical Foods Market Segmentation

Grand View Research has segmented the global medical foods market on the basis of route of administration, product, application, sales channel, and region:

Medical Foods Market - Route of Administration Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2030)

Oral

Enteral

Medical Foods Market - Product Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2030)

Pills

Powder

Liquid

Others

Medical Foods Market - Application Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2030)

Chronic Kidney Disease

Minimal Hepatic Encephalopathy

Chemotherapy-induced Diarrhea

Pathogen Related Infections

Diabetic Neuropathy

ADHD

Depression

Alzheimer's Disease

Nutritional Deficiency

Orphan Diseases

Phenylketonuria



Eosinophilic Esophagitis



FPIES



MSUD



Homocystinuria



Tyrosinemia



Others

Wound Healing

Chronic Diarrhea

Constipation Relief

Protein Booster

Dysphagia

Pain Management

Parkinson's Disease

Epilepsy

Other Cancer Related Treatments

Severe Protein Allergy

Other

Medical Foods Market - Sales Channel Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2030)

Online Sales

Institutional Sales

Retail Sales

Medical Foods Market - Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2030)

North America

U.S.



Canada

Europe

U.K.



Germany



France



Spain



Italy



Russia

Asia Pacific

Japan



China



India



Australia



New Zealand



Singapore



South Korea

Latin America

Brazil



Mexico



Argentina

Middle East & Africa

& South Africa



Saudi Arabia



UAE

List of Key Players of Medical Foods Market

Nestle

Danone

Abbott

Mead Johnson & Company, LLC

Fresenius Kabi

Targeted Medical Pharma, Inc.

Primus Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Medtrition, Inc.

Check out more related studies published by Grand View Research:

Medical Foods For Orphan Diseases Market - The global medical foods for orphan diseases market size is expected to reach USD 1.9 billion by 2030. It is expected to expand at a CAGR of 5.5% from 2023 to 2030, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The major factors contributing to the industry's growth are the growing prevalence of orphan diseases and increasing awareness about such rare conditions. Moreover, rising government initiatives for early screening and increasing initiatives by key players to develop products that cater to such niche segments also spell a promising horizon of growth.

- The global medical foods for orphan diseases market size is expected to reach by 2030. It is expected to expand at a CAGR of 5.5% from 2023 to 2030, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The major factors contributing to the industry's growth are the growing prevalence of orphan diseases and increasing awareness about such rare conditions. Moreover, rising government initiatives for early screening and increasing initiatives by key players to develop products that cater to such niche segments also spell a promising horizon of growth. Food Allergy Diagnostics & Therapeutics Market - The global food allergy diagnostics & therapeutics market size is expected to reach USD 4.71 billion by 2026, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc., exhibiting a CAGR of 7.4%. The market is expected to grow in the coming years owing to increasing incidence of food allergies coupled with rising demand for products for management of these conditions.

- The global food allergy diagnostics & therapeutics market size is expected to reach by 2026, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc., exhibiting a CAGR of 7.4%. The market is expected to grow in the coming years owing to increasing incidence of food allergies coupled with rising demand for products for management of these conditions. Smart Pills Market - The global smart pills market is expected to reach USD 3.0 billion by 2025 at a CAGR of 15.5% during the forecast period, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. An increase in prevalence of diseases such as colorectal cancer and gastrointestinal disorders, expansion in the geographical reach of major players, rising cancer screening awareness programs, and expeditious FDA approvals are prime factors that are expected to drive the market growth over the forecast period.

Browse through Grand View Research's Pharmaceuticals Industry Research Reports.

About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, U.S.-based market research and consulting company, provides syndicated as well as customized research reports and consulting services. Registered in California and headquartered in San Francisco, the company comprises over 425 analysts and consultants, adding more than 1200 market research reports to its vast database each year. These reports offer in-depth analysis on 46 industries across 25 major countries worldwide. With the help of an interactive market intelligence platform, Grand View Research Helps Fortune 500 companies and renowned academic institutes understand the global and regional business environment and gauge the opportunities that lie ahead.

Contact:

Sherry James

Corporate Sales Specialist, USA

Grand View Research, Inc.

Phone: 1-415-349-0058

Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519

Email: [email protected]

Web: https://www.grandviewresearch.com

Grand View Compass | Astra ESG Solutions

Follow Us: LinkedIn | Twitter

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/661327/Grand_View_Research_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Grand View Research, Inc.
DUBLIN, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Middle East & Africa Green Data Center Market - Industry Outlook & Forecast 2022-2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Middle East and Africa green data center market is expected to reach a value of $1.58 billion by 2027 from $690 million in 2021, growing at a CAGR of 14.81% during 2022-2027

Major cloud service providers in the region expect to expand their presence during the forecast period, which enhances the demand for wholesale colocation services in the region. The Middle East and Africa green data center will witness investments from cloud service providers, such as Google, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Oracle, and Tencent.

The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Turkey, Israel, Qatar, South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria witnessed commercial investments in deploying the 5G network.



KEY HIGHLIGHTS

The Middle East and Africa green data center market account for around 10% of the overall data center market in the region. The region, primarily Africa-based countries, has been slow in adopting efficiency in operations due to lower fund availability. However, investment is expected to grow with more funding flowing into the industry and global operators entering the market.

Colocation operators in the Middle East and Africa green data center market, such as Equinix, Moro Hub, Digital Realty, Gulf Data Hub, and Rack Centre, have been investing in efficient operations to achieve their sustainability goals.

Innovations in green operations are also being explored. For instance, Saudi Arabia is exploring free cooling using salt and sunlight, wherein this electricity-free cooling technique is being developed at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST).

The increased hyperscale data centers in the region and the need to power the facilities with renewable energy will also be a significant revenue boost for renewable energy suppliers and energy companies.

PUE of Data Centers is Decreasing?



Data centers operators in the Middle East and Africa region are increasingly targeting a PUE of < 1.5, using innovative design, power, and cooling technologies such as hybrid cooling, advanced UPS systems, smart DCIM solutions, and the adoption of renewable energy sources.



Government Interest In Curbing Carbon Emissions Will Drive Middle East And Africa Green Data Center Market Developments

Several regional governments are driving the requirement for sustainable data center operations to ensure a reduced carbon footprint. Several countries have announced plans to become carbon neutral between 2030 and 2050.

The Saudi Arabia government aims to achieve net zero emissions by 2060. It is conducting the Middle East Green Initiative (MGI) Summit and the Saudi Green Initiative (SGI) in November 2022 to chart actionable plans to combat climate change.

government aims to achieve net zero emissions by 2060. It is conducting the Middle East Green Initiative (MGI) Summit and the Saudi Green Initiative (SGI) in to chart actionable plans to combat climate change. UAE has planned to reduce its carbon emissions by 31% by 2030.

As per the National Determined Contribution (NDC) 2020, South Africa announced that its range of GHG emissions will be between 398 million tonnes of CO2 to 440 million tonnes of CO2 by 2030.

announced that its range of GHG emissions will be between 398 million tonnes of CO2 to 440 million tonnes of CO2 by 2030. Governments are also partnering with renewable energy companies to develop renewable energy projects like wind and solar farms.

ELEMENTS OF GREEN DATA CENTERS

Innovations In Power Technologies

As Lithium and Nickel are essential innovations in batteries, the gulf countries, primarily Saudi Arabia , are investing in mining. It has planned to attract investment of around USD 32 billion in the minerals and mining sectors.

, are investing in mining. It has planned to attract investment of around in the minerals and mining sectors. Lepidico, an Australian company, collaborates with Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi (KIZAD) for lithium production in the Middle East . It has acquired over 600,000 square feet of land, aiming to invest around USD 95 million to set up its plants in Abu Dhabi .

. It has acquired over 600,000 square feet of land, aiming to invest around to set up its plants in . To grow the usage of green energy, in August 2021 , an investment of over USD 1 million was made by I-G3N, a battery manufacturer in South Africa .

, an investment of over was made by I-G3N, a battery manufacturer in . In March 2022 , Siemens announced that it would provide the first microgrid in Qatar , mostly for industrial use. It has collaborated with Qatar Solar Energy for its establishment. It will ultimately lessen the electricity cost and control greenhouse emissions at its facility in Doha .

Innovations In Cooling Technologies

The use of free cooling reduces the usage of water and power to cool IT infrastructure. For at least part of the year, free cooling can be explored in various countries that witness colder climates.

Owing to the hotter climate in most Middle Eastern and African countries, liquid cooling will be one of the better and more efficient techniques to ensure better cooling in data centers operating in the region.

Increasing Modular Data Center Design & Deployment

Modular data center buildouts tackle challenges such as a high PUE, high operational costs of traditional data centers, and high environmental impact.

The Middle East and Africa have both witnessed significant investments in modular data center deployment, which offers several efficiency-related benefits, including the opportunity for expansion based on business requirements, and lesser use of cement, among other things.

and have both witnessed significant investments in modular data center deployment, which offers several efficiency-related benefits, including the opportunity for expansion based on business requirements, and lesser use of cement, among other things. MDX-I's (Equinix) Lekki Data Center in Lagos, Nigeria , which opened in April 2022 , has been built as a modular data center facility according to Tier III standards.

Hyperscale Operators Stacking Up On Renewable Energy PPAs

Google, AWS, Microsoft, Alibaba Cloud , and Oracle are some hyperscale operators in the Middle East and Africa region. They are all aggressively pursuing the adoption of renewable energy to meet their sustainability goals. For instance, in July 2021 , AWS signed a deal with TotalEnergies to power its renewable energy operations and expanded its partnership in various regions, including the Middle East .

Renewable Energy Adoption by Colocation Service Providers

Equinix, Africa Data Centres, Rack Centre, Moro Hub, Gulf Data Hub, Khazna Data Centers, and Digital Realty are some significant data center service providers operating using renewable energy and aiming to be carbon neutral in the Middle East and Africa green data center market.

and green data center market. For instance, Moro Hub, a DEWA's digital arm Digital DEWA subsidiary, is constructing a facility at Dubai's Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park . The carbon-neutral green data center, with a more than 100 MW capacity, will be powered exclusively by renewable energy.

VENDOR LANDSCAPE

Prominent Data Center Investors

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Africa Data Centres

Equinix

Future Digital Data Systems (FDDS)

Gulf Data Hub

Digital Realty

IXAfrica

Moro Hub

Meeza

Microsoft

Ooredoo

Paratus Group

Rack Centre

Raxio Data Centres

Turkcell

Google

Renewable Energy Providers

MASE

Enerwhere

SolarWind Middle East

Yellow Door Energy

Masdar

Canadian Solar

SirajPower

ACWA Power

EDF Renewables

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA)

ENGIE

AMEA Power

TotalEnergies

ACCIONA Energia

Scatec

Green Data Center Metrics

Policy Drivers

the Paris Agreement & Science Based Targets Initiative (Sbti)

Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact

Long Duration Energy Storage (Ldes) Council

Re100

Circular Economy

Energy Certifications

It Infrastructure Efficiency

E-Waste Disposal

Market Opportunities & Trends

Establishment of Green It Solutions

Server Virtualization

Converged & Hyperconverged Infrastructure

Advanced Risc Machine (Arm) Servers

Data Storage Administration

Governments' Carbon Neutrality Pledge

Adoption of Innovative Power Technologies

Ecodiesel Generators

Natural Gas Generators

Fuel Cells

Hvo Fuel

Nuclear Energy Generation

Microgrids

Grid Interactive Ups

Adoption of Advanced Ups Batteries

Green Construction & Urban Maintenance Techniques

Modular Data Center Deployment

Other Construction Techniques

Innovative Data Center Cooling Technologies

Market Growth Enablers

Renewable Energy Initiatives by Hyperscale & Cloud Operators

Renewable Energy Initiatives by Colocation Operators

Automated & Intelligent Monitoring Solutions

Deployment of Modular Data Centers

Market Restraints

Increased Carbon Emissions from Data Centers

Water Consumption by Data Centers

Lack of Skilled Data Center Professionals

Location Constraints for Green Data Centers

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/mdqtd3-east-and?w=5

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.



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
Ukrainians and Europeans net victims of Washington strategy, experts say

Editor's note: As Feb 24 marks the one-year anniversary of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, China Daily is reviewing how it has reshaped geopolitics, impacted the global economy and aggravated the energy crisis.

Provocative action by the United States in the Asia-Pacific region and meddling by it and NATO in eastern Asia threaten regional stability as well as Asian and global economic growth and social development, analysts say.

Measures taken by the US and some of its NATO allies such as the United Kingdom and Canada in their so-called "Indo-Pacific strategy" are creating instability in the region, including leading Japan and South Korea on a path of militarism, with more frequent joint drills, the analysts said.

Karori Singh, emeritus fellow and former director of the South Asia Studies Center at the University of Rajasthan in Jaipur, India, said one manifestation of this is multilayered alliances, such as the Five Eyes, which groups the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, and the more recently established AUKUS, comprising Australia, the UK and the US. Another recently formed group, the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, commonly known as the Quad, consists of Australia, India, Japan and the US. One aim of the Quad and NATO is to involve Japan and South Korea in military programs, Singh said.

In addition, AUKUS is trying to lure Pacific island countries with the offer of development and security aid, he said. "In reality, the search for regional security and development through such measures is bound to breed insecurity and restrict development."

Even some US allies are unhappy with what is going on, Singh said.

"Recent Nord Stream revelations are an alarm bell for the Europeans," he said, referring to allegations by the US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh that the US had had a hand in explosions in the Nord Stream gas pipelines in September.

Ukrainians and Europeans are "the net victims of US strategy", Singh said.

Moreover, demonstrations in Paris and Berlin in recent days and in Washington earlier represent "rage against the war machine" and show that people in the West are against US policies, he said.

Yoichi Komori, an emeritus professor at the University of Tokyo, said the US and NATO are using Japan as a shield in case of conflict. "It's very dangerous for Japan to give full play to its Self-Defense Forces in East Asia, which is also contrary to Article 9 of Japan's Constitution. We, the people, must not allow it."

Shakeel Ahmad Ramay, chief executive of the Asian Institute of Eco-civilization Research and Development in Islamabad, Pakistan, said the peaceful rise of China is a constant irritant for the US and its allies.

"After some failures including 'debt trap' accusations, they have reverted back to the alliance building mentality of the Cold War era," he said.

The US had persuaded Japan to depart from its post-World War II policy of defense, he said. Then the US extended defense measures with the Philippines, including opening four new bases close and upgrading others.

Shigeki Nagayama, a professor of law at Tokai University in Tokyo, said: "The Japanese government has invited NATO to get involved in the Asia-Pacific region to enhance its own defense capability, and that will only destabilize the region."

Kazuyuki Hamada, president of the Research Institute for Future Technologies in Tokyo, and former parliamentary vice-minister for foreign affairs, said Japan's proposal for "an Asian NATO" or "a global NATO" runs counter to the zeitgeist.

"Japan's advocacy and the realization of it is nothing more than going against the post-Cold War era. This unnecessarily intensifies the arms race and reduces the value of diplomacy."

Mustafa Hyder Sayed, executive director of the Pakistan-China Institute in Islamabad, said the consistent pattern of the US seeking to create an Asian copy of NATO reflects the objectives in the NATO 2030 agenda that the military alliance published earlier.

However, such a Cold War mentality threatens regional stability and the development of the Asia-Pacific, the world's most robust growth engine, he said. "The hegemony of the US and its allies cannot continue to prevail in the post-pandemic world order, where collective wisdom, cooperation and connectivity is required to build bridges rather than create walls between countries."

The US and its allies must try to understand that China seeks peaceful coexistence, is integrated deeply in global development, and is the chief engine of world growth through programs such as the Belt and Road Initiative and the Global Security Initiative, Ramay said. "The US and its allies should say goodbye to their hegemonic, confrontational and Cold War mentality."
A Collaborative Vaporizer That Offers Fast Heat Activation and an Intuitive Experience

LOS ANGELES, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Two powerhouses, Grenco Science ( G Pen ), the leader in advanced technology cannabis vaporization, and TYSON 2.0, legendary boxer, entrepreneur and advocate Mike Tyson's cannabis brand, teamed up to introduce a palm-sized, portable dry herb vaporizer. The TYSON 2.0 x G Pen Dash allows consumers to experience their favorite strains and is a fresh take on G Pen's essential vaporizer in TYSON 2.0's signature colorway. The TYSON 2.0 x G Pen Dash launches in stores nationwide and online March 1st, 2023 at gpen.com/tyson.

We are excited to announce the launch of the Tyson 2.0 Dash as our first collaboration of 2023 Tweet this Tyson 2.0 x G Pen Dash

"We are excited to announce the launch of the Tyson 2.0 Dash as our first collaboration of 2023. This partnership illustrates our alignment with Mike (the g.o.a.t.) on our top selling dry herb product. We are very proud of this partnership and excited to see its impact in the market", says Chris Folkerts, CEO of Grenco Science.

"Combining our signature strains and Grenco's state of the art technology, we've developed the TYSON 2.0 x G Pen Dash to provide an elevated consumption experience that's accessible to the masses. It's a privilege aligning with Grenco to continue fulfilling our mission of delivering high-quality cannabis products," said Mike Tyson, Chief Brand Officer and Co-Founder of TYSON 2.0.

The collaborative vaporizer is the perfect marriage of G Pen's signature technology and TYSON 2.0's powerful iconography. Pre-programmed with 3 temperature settings, the TYSON 2.0 x G Pen Dash is engineered for an intuitive and satisfying experience. It features a glass-glazed stainless steel heating chamber combined with a clean air source and integrated air path for unsurpassed flavor and vapor production from your favorite TYSON 2.0 strains.

TYSON 2.0 x G Pen Dash Key Features:

Ergonomic, easy-load chamber opening

Three temperature settings, 375F, 401 F, 428F

Session mode/Automatic shut-off

Magnetic mouthpiece with integrated airpath

Glass-glazed stainless steel heating chamber

Compact, lightweight, and durable aluminum-alloy body

Haptic feedback

Pass-through charging via micro usb

950mah battery

Tool with keychain

1 Year warranty

The TYSON 2.0 x G Pen Dash retails for $79.95 and will be available in stores nationwide and online at gpen.com.

About

Grenco Science, which launched in 2012, celebrates 10 years as a leader in engineering advanced cannabis vaporizers, setting new standards in aesthetics, portability, functionality, and user experience. Through proprietary research and development, as well as collaborations with influencers in music, art, and fashion, Grenco Science is transforming the cannabis experience and leading the movement to bring cannabis traditions to the 21st century. Visit gpen.com .

About TYSON 2.0

TYSON 2.0 is a premier cannabis company formed with legendary boxer, entrepreneur and icon Mike Tyson. The company's mission is to produce innovative, high-quality cannabis products known for purity, precision, and wide accessibility. Providing consumers an outstanding selection of products, TYSON 2.0 is an extraordinary balance of premium and affordable, full-spectrum cannabis flower, concentrates and consumables available at retailers nationwide. Learn more at Tyson20.com.

For Media Inquiries

Rio PR

Georgia Mack

[email protected]

SOURCE GPen
The dynamics of the minimal residual disease market are anticipated to change as the future of guided therapies, improvements in the next-generation sequencing detection methods, and the increased use of MRD testing can increase the market share in the near future

LAS VEGAS, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- DelveInsight's Minimal Residual Disease Market Insights report includes a comprehensive understanding of current treatment practices, minimal residual disease emerging products, market share of individual products, and current and forecasted market size from 2019 to 2032, segmented into 7MM [the United States, the EU-4 (Italy, Spain, France, and Germany), the United Kingdom, and Japan].

Key Takeaways from the Minimal Residual Disease Market Report

As per DelveInsight analysis, the minimal residual disease market size in the 7MM was approximately 700 million in 2021.

in 2021. According to the assessment done by DelveInsight, the total minimal residual disease testing cases in the 7MM were found to be USD 1.2 million in 2021.

in 2021. Leading minimal residual disease companies, such as Adaptive Biotechnologies, Foresight Diagnostics, Ceregentis B.V., ICON Plc, 3B BlackBio-Biotech, Natera, EntroGen, Quest Diagnostics, Hangzhou ImmuQuad Biotechnologies, Mission Bio, Biocartis, and others are involved in the development of diagnostic methods for the diagnosis of MRD in patients with cancer. The introduction of these methods might get an advantage in market space due to course.

and others are involved in the development of diagnostic methods for the diagnosis of MRD in patients with cancer. The introduction of these methods might get an advantage in market space due to course. The promising minimal residual disease products include ClonoSEQ, PhasED-Seq, Targeted Locus Amplification (TLA) technology, MRDx BCR-ABL Test, TRUPCR PML-RARA, Signatera, Leukemia Fusion Gene One-Step Detection Kits, CBFB/MYH11 inv(16), Seq-MRD, LymphoTrack, Idylla Technology, and others.

Discover which product will grab the major minimal residual disease market share @ Minimal Residual Disease Market Report

Minimal Residual Disease Overview

Minimal residual disease (MRD) is a small number of cancer cells that remain in the body after treatment. These cells have the potential to resurface and cause a relapse. In leukemia, for example, physicians look for a response after chemotherapy treatment by looking for cancer cells in a bone marrow biopsy under a microscope. An MRD positive test result indicates that the disease remained after treatment. An MRD negative result indicates that no disease was detected after treatment. Patients with MRD may have so few remaining cancer cells that traditional tests, such as viewing cells under a microscope, cannot detect them.

Measurable or minimal residual disease (MRD) testing is used to determine whether or not cancer treatment is effective and to guide future treatment plans. MRD testing is currently being studied in other cancers besides blood cancers (leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma). Because the results can be used to tailor your treatment plan, it is a type of personalized medicine. MRD tests employ extremely sensitive techniques such as multiparametric flow cytometry, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and next-generation sequencing (NGS).

Minimal Residual Disease Epidemiology Segmentation

DelveInsight estimates that in the year 2021, the total minimal residual disease testing cases in the 7MM were found to be 1.2 million. The most number of MRD testing cases were found in the US, followed by Germany.

In Germany, the total number of MRD testing during new therapy and maintenance was found to be approximately 38 thousand and 97 thousand, respectively, in the year 2021.

The minimal residual disease market report proffers epidemiological analysis for the study period 20192032 in the 7MM segmented into:

Total MRD testing

Total MRD cases by cancer type

Total MRD testing from different blood cancers

Total MRD testing for HSCT-related transplant

Total MRD testing during new therapy and maintenance therapy

Total number of MRD Testing by age

Download the report to understand which factors are driving minimal residual disease epidemiology trends @ Minimal Residual Disease Epidemiological Insights

Minimal Residual Disease Testing Market Insights

MRD is detected using highly sensitive methods such as multiparameter flow cytometry (MFC), which detects antigen expression on neoplastic cells compared to normal cells, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which increases trace amounts of DNA so that a specific segment of DNA can be studied, and next-generation sequencing (NGS). Currently, patients are treated until they achieve complete remission (CR). This could be accomplished through surgical resection, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, or a combination of these treatments. Patients are usually monitored until they relapse. Instead, MRD could be sampled iteratively, tested for therapeutic susceptibility, and treated with the agents identified as most effective by that test. When a patient's MRD falls below the minimum detectable threshold (dashed line), treatment can be stopped, continued indefinitely, or continued with curative intent for a set period.

The ClonoSEQ is the first FDA-approved assay for detecting measurable residual disease. It detects MRD in bone marrow from patients with multiple myeloma (MM) and B-cell lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), as well as blood or bone marrow from patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). The clonoSEQ is an MRD assessment tool that uses next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology and is distinguished from other NGS assays by groundbreaking chemistry advances and proprietary bioinformatics.

To know more about minimal residual disease testing guidelines, visit @ Minimal Residual Disease Testing Methods

Minimal Residual Disease Products and Key Companies

ClonoSEQ: Adaptive Biotechnologies

PhasED-Seq: Foresight Diagnostics

Targeted Locus Amplification (TLA) technology: Cergentis B.V.

MRDx BCR-ABL Test: ICON plc

TRUPCR PML-RARA: 3B BlacBio Biotech India

BlacBio Biotech India Signatera: Natera

Leukemia Fusion Gene One-Step Detection Kits: EntroGen

CBFB/MYH11 inv(16): Quest Diagnostics

Seq-MRD: ImmuQuad

LymphoTrack: Invivoscribe Inc.

Idylla Technology: Biocartis

Learn more about the FDA-approved products for minimal residual disease @ New Methods for Minimal Residual Disease Testing

Minimal Residual Disease Market Dynamics

The dynamics of the minimal residual disease market is expected to change in the coming years. Several organizations and companies, including the European Scientific Foundation for Laboratory Hemato Oncology (ESLHO), the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS), and European LeukemiaNet (ELN), are raising awareness about the disease, which may result in a larger patient pool. Moreover, recent advances in high-throughput molecular genetics technologies, such as next-generation sequencing (NGS), may now provide a novel approach to detecting MRD.

In addition, increased use of MRD testing can open up new avenues by identifying patients who may benefit from consolidative HDT-ASCT and prolonged therapy. Furthermore, the development of more precise diagnostic methods with high sensitivity allows for the detection of even the smallest number of MRD cells.

However, MRD causes cancer relapse because antibodies may disappear with appropriate treatment but reappear with tumor relapse. A lack of proper diagnostic and treatment guidelines can hamper patients' conditions. Furthermore, the diagnostic scenario in the United States differs from that in Europe and Japan. There are only a few approved testing methods for assessing MRD in the United States. The MRD market is characterized by a lack of disease understanding, limited epidemiological studies, and assessment options. There is a need to develop effective patient-specific assessment options, including age. However, there is a significant unmet need to establish MRD biology for a better understanding of the disease and a significant need for expertise to carry out MRD assays.

Report Metrics Details Study Period 20192032 Coverage 7MM [the United States, the EU-4 (Italy, Spain, France, and Germany), the United Kingdom, and Japan]. Base Year 2019 Minimal Residual Disease Market CAGR 14 % Minimal Residual Disease Market Size in 2021 USD 1.2 Million Key Minimal Residual Disease Companies Adaptive Biotechnologies, Foresight diagnostics, Ceregentis B.V., ICON Plc, 3B BlackBio-Biotech, Natera, Entrogen, Quest diagnostics, Hangzhou ImmuQuad Biotechnologies, Mission Bio, Biocartis, and others Key Minimal Residual Disease Products ClonoSEQ, PhasED-Seq, Targeted Locus Amplification (TLA) technology, MRDx BCR-ABL Test, TRUPCR PML-RARA, Signatera, Leukemia Fusion Gene One-Step Detection Kits, CBFB/MYH11 inv(16), Seq-MRD, LymphoTrack, Idylla Technology, and others

Scope of the Minimal Residual Disease Market Report

Therapeutic Assessment: Minimal Residual Disease current marketed and emerging therapies

Minimal Residual Disease current marketed and emerging therapies Minimal Residual Disease Market Dynamics: Minimal Residual Disease market drivers and barriers

Minimal Residual Disease market drivers and barriers Competitive Intelligence Analysis: SWOT analysis and Market entry strategies

SWOT analysis and Market entry strategies Unmet Needs, KOL's views, Analyst's views, Minimal Residual Disease Market Access and Reimbursement

Discover more about minimal residual disease testing products in development @ Minimal Residual Disease Testing Clinical Trials

Table of Contents

1. Minimal Residual Disease Market Key Insights 2. Minimal Residual Disease Market Report Introduction 3. Minimal Residual Disease Market Overview at a Glance 4. Minimal Residual Disease Market Executive Summary 5. Disease Background and Overview 6. Minimal Residual Disease Treatment and Management 7. Minimal Residual Disease Epidemiology and Patient Population 8. Patient Journey 9. Minimal Residual Disease Marketed Drugs 10. Minimal Residual Disease Emerging Drugs 11. Seven Major Minimal Residual Disease Market Analysis 12. Minimal Residual Disease Market Outlook 13. Potential of Current and Emerging Therapies 14. KOL Views 15. Minimal Residual Disease Market Drivers 16. Minimal Residual Disease Market Barriers 17. Unmet Needs 18. SWOT Analysis 19. Appendix 20. DelveInsight Capabilities 21. Disclaimer 22. About DelveInsight

Related Reports

Hematological Cancer Therapeutics Market

Hematological Cancer Therapeutics Market Insight, Competitive Landscape, and Market Forecast  2027 report delivers an in-depth understanding of market trends, market drivers, market barriers, and key hematological cancer therapeutics companies, including Pfizer Inc., F. Hoffmann-LA Roche Ltd, Sanofi SA, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, AbbVie Inc, among others.

Refractory Multiple Myeloma Market

Refractory Multiple Myeloma Market Insight, Epidemiology, and Market Forecast  2032 report delivers an in-depth understanding of the market trends, market drivers, market barriers, and key refractory multiple myeloma companies, including Takeda Oncology, ORIC Pharmaceuticals, Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Cellectis S.A., YZY Biopharma, among others.

Relapsing Refractory Multiple Myeloma Market

Relapsing Refractory Multiple Myeloma Market Insight, Epidemiology, and Market Forecast  2032 report delivers an in-depth understanding of the market trends, market drivers, market barriers, and key relapsing refractory multiple myeloma companies, including AbbVie, Amgen, Takeda Oncology, among others.

Multiple Myeloma Market

Multiple Myeloma Market Insight, Epidemiology, and Market Forecast  2032 report delivers an in-depth understanding of the market trends, market drivers, market barriers, and key multiple myeloma companies, including Novartis, Incyte Corporation, Arcellx, Pfizer, among others.

Acute Myeloid Leukemia Market

Acute Myeloid Leukemia Market Insight, Epidemiology, and Market Forecast  2032 report delivers an in-depth understanding of the market trends, market drivers, market barriers, and key acute myeloid leukemia companies, including Takeda Oncology, Immunity Bio, Teva Pharmaceuticals, among others.

Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia Pipeline

Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia Pipeline Insight  2023 report provides comprehensive insights about the pipeline landscape, pipeline drug profiles, including clinical and non-clinical stage products, and the key acute lymphocytic leukemia companies, including AbbVie, Novartis, Jazz Pharmaceutical, among others.

Other Trending Reports

Tay-sachs Disease Or Gm2 Gangliosidosis Market | Onycholysis Market | Diagnostic Imaging Equipment Market | Chemotherapy-induced Peripheral Neuropathy Market | Global Electrophysiology Devices Market | Anaphylaxis Market | Atherectomy Devices Market | Helicobacter Pylori Infections Market | Ophthalmic Imaging Equipment Market | Androgenetic Alopecia Market | Allergic Rhinitis Market | Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy Market | Chronic Inflammtory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy Market | Colorectal Cancer Crc Market | Opioid Induced Constipation Market | Vertigo Market | Bone Anchored Hearing Systems Market | Wound Closure Devices Market | Hip Replacement Devices Market | Hemodynamic Monitoring Systems Market | Egfr Non-small Cell Lung Cancer Market | Helicobacter Pylori Infection Market | Hyperkalemia Market | Polycythemia Market Neurostimulation Devices Market | Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Market | Ventilator Market | Cerebral Aneurysm Market | Alpha Antitrypsin Market | Binge Eating Disorder Market | Bunion Market | Concussions Market Size | Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency Market | Healthcare Due Diligence Services | Minimal Residual Disease Market | Hypertrophic Scar Market | Lung Fibrosis Market | Anterior Uveitis Market | 22q11.2 deletion syndrome Market | X-Linked Retinitis Pigmentosa (XLRP) Market | Acute Radiation Syndrome Market | Alpha-1 Protease Inhibitor Deficiency Market | Androgenetic Alopecia Market | Hyperlipidemia Market | Cardiotoxicity Market | Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Market | Fatty Acid Oxidation Disorders (FAODs) Market | Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome Market | Emphysema Market | Canaloplasty Market | Dravet Syndrome Market | Celiac Disease Market | Chlamydia Infections Market | Syphilis Market | Renal Tubular Acidosis Market | Palmoplantar Pustulosis (PPP) Market | Aplastic Anemia Market | Bacterial Pneumonia Market | B cell Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Market | B cell Lymphomas Market | Behcets Disease Market Neoantigen-based Personalized Cancer therapeutic Vaccines Competitive Landscape and Market Forecastby 2035 | Glioblastoma Market

Related Healthcare Blogs

Multiple Myeloma Treatment Market

Upcoming Oncology Drugs

Oncology Market Outlook

Future of Oncology Market

Related Cases Studies

Competitive Intelligence

Market Assessment

Product Assessment

Epidemiology Assessment

Related Healthcare Services

Healthcare Consulting

Healthcare Competitive Intelligence Services

Healthcare Asset Prioritization Services

About DelveInsight

DelveInsight is a leading Business Consultant and Market Research firm focused exclusively on life sciences. It supports pharma companies by providing comprehensive end-to-end solutions to improve their performance. Get hassle-free access to all the healthcare and pharma market research reports through our subscription-based platform PharmDelve.

Connect with us on LinkedIn|Facebook|Twitter

Additionally, get in touch with our business executive to explore @ Healthcare Due Diligence Services

Contact Us

Shruti Thakur

[email protected]

+1(919)321-6187

www.delveinsight.com

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1082265/DelveInsight_Logo.jpg

SOURCE DelveInsight Business Research, LLP
TEMPE, Ariz., March 2, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Moov , the largest and fastest growing global marketplace for used semiconductor equipment, today announced it will be expanding its presence in South Korea with additional full-time, native Korean speaking staff dedicated to serving the market.

"South Korea is a critical market for Moov as a memory chip manufacturing and foundry leader with strong demand for semiconductor manufacturing equipment including hard to find older systems," said Steven Zhou, co-founder and CEO of Moov. "In 2022, Moov's platform helped Korean customers source several millions of dollars worth of equipment. With new full-time staff dedicated to growing this market, we expect to see those numbers grow exponentially this year."

Moov's marketplace helps Korean chipmakers source used manufacturing equipment. Tweet this

Moov's real-time digital marketplace and end-to-end management, transaction, and fulfillment platform enables manufacturers to easily buy, sell, and manage pre-owned semiconductor equipment from anywhere in the world in a matter of minutes.

This announcement comes as part of Moov's plan to expand presence in APAC in 2023, and as South Korea invests in ramping up semiconductor manufacturing capacity. In January, South Korea announced plans to offer tax deductions up to 35% for companies investing in strategic industries including semiconductor manufacturing, expanding tax breaks from the initial proposed breaks in 2022. Small and medium sized companies will receive larger tax breaks than large corporations under this plan.

Moov's expansion in South Korea also comes at a time when Korean chipmakers know they need to stay nimble to respond to changing sociopolitical, trade, and demand tides. By growing the secondary market for semiconductor manufacturing equipment, Moov is helping to make these high-value assets more liquid. Moov's global marketplace brings transparency and data to the equipment resale market so that manufacturers can find the equipment they need for a competitive price and offload idle assets to recoup capital.

Additionally, Moov eliminates purchase risk for manufacturers looking to diversify their supply chain strategy by sourcing used equipment with its no-questions-asked, money-back guarantee, according to SEMI , the California-based global association that represents the electronics and supply-chain design industries.

If you are a Korean company looking to buy or sell semiconductor manufacturing equipment, contact [email protected].

About Moov Technologies Inc.

Headquartered in Tempe, Arizona, and Austin, Texas, Moov is a technology-driven marketplace and asset management platform that matches buyers and sellers of pre-owned semiconductor manufacturing equipment. Built by a team with more than 50 years of experience in the manufacturing equipment brokerage industry, Moov's platform ensures accurate listings and faster transactions. CEO Steven Zhou and Managing Director Maxam Yeung co-founded the company in 2017. To learn more, please visit Moov.co .

SOURCE Moov Technologies
New Plantspired Gochujang Steak and Plantspired Sweet Chili Toss'ables to debut at Natural Products Expo West

AYER, Mass. and FULLERTON, Calif., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Nasoya, a pioneer in the plant-based foods revolution and maker of the country's #1 brand of tofu, is building on the success of its Plantspired lineup of convenient meal solutions with two new flavor extensions. Plantspired plant-based steak will now be available in a gochujang flavor variety and Plantspired Toss'ables will add a Korean-inspired sweet chili flavor. Both new items will be showcased at this year's Natural Products Expo West Show, March 8-11 in Anaheim, California.

NASOYA EXPANDS POPULAR PLANTSPIRED LINE WITH PLANT-BASED, ASIAN-INSPIRED INNOVATIONS

The highly anticipated launch of Plantspired Gochujang Steak arrives just one year after Nasoya brought its award-wining Plantspired Korean BBQ Steak to grocers nationwide. Applauded by consumers for its meat-like texture and delicious flavor, Plantspired Steak has become a favorite with plant-based eaters and flexitarians alike. Marinated in a perfectly spicy, sweet and savory gochujang sauce, the new steak variety is pre-sliced and charcoal grilled, offering the same convenience as Plantspired Korean BBQ Steak. Well-balanced with notes of garlic and natural sweetness from Asian pear, Nasoya's Gochujang Plantspired Steak boasts 14g of plant-based protein per serving and is crafted with high-quality, non-GMO ingredients.

Joining the existing Garlic and Herb Toss'ables, Korean-inspired Sweet Chili Toss'ables feature bite-sized, pre-baked tofu cubes marinated with a Korean Sweet Chili Sauce. Sweet Chili Toss'ables are made from Nasoya's Organic Super Firm Tofu and contain 11g of plant-based protein per serving. The tofu bites are conveniently cubed and marinated in a sweet and savory sauce packed with sesame oil and aromatics like garlic and ginger. Non-GMO Project Verified and USDA-Certified Organic, Sweet Chili Toss'ables are ready to enjoy right out of the package and can be served with rice, noodles, salads or stir-frys.

"With a rich Korean heritage and deep legacy in the plant-based space, Nasoya is thrilled to expand our Plantspired offerings, bringing more Asian-inspired flavors and nutritious plant-based products to consumers across the country," says Ellen Kim, Director of Brand Strategy & Marketing Communications at Pulmuone, parent company of Nasoya. "The addition of Gochujang Steak and Korean-Inspired Sweet Chili Toss'ables builds on our mission to make eating plant-based foods accessible and convenient, while meeting consumers growing desire to enjoy unique and global flavors at home."

Plantspired Gochujang Steak will be available this spring at retailers including Sprouts Farmers Markets, Albertsons, Vons and Pavilions. Sweet Chili Toss'ables can be found at Albertsons, Publix, Giant Landover, Sprouts Farmers Markets, with additional distribution for both products expected in 2023.

Pulmuone Family of Brands at Natural Products Expo West

The company's plant-based and Asian-inspired innovations will be on display at Natural Products Expo West 2023 in Anaheim, Calif. at Booth #435 in Hall A. Products that will be sampled include both varieties of Plantspired Steak and Korean-Inspired Sweet Chili Toss'ables. Popular Nasoya items including Plantspired TofuBaked, Plantspired Superfood Skillets, tofu, Vegan Kimchi, Vegan Dumplings, Vegan Wraps and Pasta Zero will also be displayed at Nasoya's booth.

Nasoya's parent company, Pulmuone, will also be showcasing a variety of convenient and accessible meal solutions with authentic Asian flavors and ingredients. The new plant-based meal solutions include Bulgogi Fried Rice, Bulgogi Rice Balls, Pork Style Fried Rice, Chive & Sweet Potato Potstickers, and Crispy Tofu Nuggets. Pulmuone will also display a new line of global products for climate-conscious consumers, including Crispy Tofu Sticks, Tofu Tenders, Noodles with Black Bean Sauce and Tteokbokki. Pulmuone's offerings are available in Asian grocery stores nationwide.

Pulmuone's Wildwood brand will be debuting a new pre-seasoned and pre-baked tofu in a Black Truffle & Sea Salt variety, conveniently packaged and ready to enjoy with pasta, salads, grain bowls and more.

"Pulmuone and its family of brands is proud to announce a robust array of new plant-based items, from Asian-inspired meat analogs to plant-based varieties of traditional Korean dishes," says Sung Yoon Nam, Vice President of Marketing and Sales at Pulmuone. "Backed by our longstanding commitment to deliver authentic, sustainable products made with high quality ingredients, we're continuing to explore new flavors and formats, and look forward to showcasing our latest innovations at this year's Natural Products Expo West."

ABOUT NASOYA

For over 40 years, Nasoya has been a leading provider of natural and organic foods. Part of the family of brands at Pulmuone, a company synonymous with authentic, wholesome products and the highest quality of ingredients, Nasoya believes in creating great-tasting, healthy, convenient snacks and meals for every eating occasion. Product offerings include tofu, high-protein tofu, Kimchi, Asian-Style Vegan Wraps, Asian Noodle Kits & Dumplings, low calorie/low carb Pasta Zero noodles and a variety of Plantspired products including TofuBaked, Toss'ables, Superfood Skillets, Plantspired Steak and many more. The Nasoya website offers countless healthy and delicious recipes, tips and tricks, and helpful blog posts. Learn more at Nasoya.com, Facebook, YouTube or Instagram.

About PULMUONE FOODS USA

Pulmuone Foods USA, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pulmuone South Korea, is home to a family of brands that includes a wide variety of delicious products inspired by contemporary flavor palates that encourage a healthy and sustainable lifestyle. Amid the growing global demand for plant-based protein food, Pulmuone Foods USA is leading the US tofu market with a nearly 70 percent market share with beloved brands like Nasoya and Wildwood. Pulmuone brands also include Emerald Valley Kitchen, Monterey Gourmet Foods and a line of Pulmuone-branded Asian-inspired products available at mass grocery stores and major club channels throughout the United States. For more information, visit pulmuonefoodsusa.com.

Media contact:

Carly Wilhelm

[email protected]

732-237-4533

SOURCE Nasoya
Millburn-based firm selected by New Jersey Economic Development Authority to provide free website, e-commerce & digital marketing services to small businesses statewide.

MILLBURN, N.J., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- New Frontier, a full-service advertising and marketing firm based in Millburn, N.J., has been selected by the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) to provide free consulting and digital marketing services to eligible New Jersey restaurants, retail stores, and personal care businesses. All services will be rendered under the newly created New Frontier StoreFront platform and will be fully subsidized by the State of New Jersey.

"We started the Storefront Project in 2022 as a grassroots initiative to give back to our community while helping local businesses learn how to market themselves," says David Sorkin, President of New Frontier. "Since that time, what is now New Frontier StoreFront has become an important part of our identity, and we're honored to have our passion recognized by the State of New Jersey. By partnering with the NJEDA, we're able to broaden our reach and our impact in helping small businesses grow."

Through the State initiative (officially known as the "NJEDA Small Business E-commerce Support Program"), New Frontier StoreFront will provide eligible businesses with free services, including website development and optimization, e-commerce development, online ordering, online appointment booking, and digital marketing plans. Any New Jersey-based storefront business that meets the State's minimum eligibility requirements can participate in the program, which is scheduled to run through 2025. To learn more, visit newfrontier.com/storefront .

About New Frontier

New Frontier is a full-service advertising and marketing agency focused on consumer product management, professional service marketing, and website development. With the expertise of a New York-style agency and the accessibility of a small business consultancy, New Frontier is a one-stop resource for award-winning marketing support. Founded in 2012, the firm has offices in Short Hills, NJ and Boston, MA. For more information, visit newfrontier.com .

Media Contact:

David Sorkin

[email protected]

SOURCE New Frontier
HAMBURG, Germany, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Ciarra, a well-known professional kitchen appliances brand of innovative kitchen appliances, recently announced the launch of its latest product - the Ciarra HOOD TO GO portable range hood. This product is designed to cater to the needs of those who love to cook and gather at home with friends. The HOOD TO GO is a mini but mighty kitchen appliance that is always good to go.

Mini but mighty, always good to go.

The HOOD TO GO is perfect for individuals who love to cook on the go, whether it's in their living room, event room, RV, camper, or any other place. Its easy-to-carry and store design makes it a great gift for anyone who loves to cook. The compact size of the HOOD TO GO does not compromise on its performance, as it is equipped with a high-efficient motor that provides strong suction power. This motor effectively drives the suction mechanism to remove odors in cooking environments.

In addition to its strong suction power, the HOOD TO GO operates with low noise levels, making it an ideal choice for those who value a quiet kitchen environment. The energy-efficient motor ensures strong airflow with a low noise level of only 6.5 sones, and the two-speed levels can be easily adjusted with just a touch of the finger. This feature allows the user to regulate the speed of the hood to suit their cooking needs.

The HOOD TO GO also features a triple filtration system that ensures that all cooking odors are effectively removed from the kitchen. All cooking odors are passed through three different filters that extract grease particles from the cooking vapors, reducing the intensity of lingering odors and leaving the user with clean air. The hood utilizes three layers of filtration to ensure clean air while cooking. These layers have 3 different filters which do various jobs including a polymer filter for separation, an aluminum filter for filtration, also a carbon filter for purification. To top it off, changing filters is easy thanks to the magnetically attached filter holders.

The HOOD TO GO is also easy to clean and maintain. Its dishwasher-safe polymer and aluminum filters make cleaning a breeze, and the hood also features a large capacity oil collecting cup for easy disposal of grease. The recycled ABS material used to manufacture the hood is durable and easy to wipe off, ensuring that it remains in great condition for a long time.

Ciarra received a positive response to the HOOD TO GO portable range hood at the IBS Exhibition in Las Vegas. Customers showed interest in its strong suction power and compact size, and appreciated the fact that they could take it with them on RV trips or camping trips and cook anywhere, anytime without worrying about cooking smells. The company is looking forward to showcasing its latest product at the IHA Exhibition in March and introducing it to the world.

For more information on the Ciarra HOOD TO GO range hood, interested parties can visit the company's website at www.ciarraappliances.com or contact [email protected]. With its innovative design, strong suction power, and low noise operation, the HOOD TO GO is a must-have for anyone who loves to cook and values a clean and odor-free kitchen environment.

SOURCE Ciarra Appliances
Two Out of Three Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Communities Now Serve Seniors with Medicaid Coverage

RED BANK, N.J., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Three newly built communities, developed by New Standard Senior Living (NSSL), a New Jersey-based assisted living provider that specializes in Medicaid facilities, are available to South Jersey seniors who are in need of affordable, assisted living.

All three communities feature individual (single occupant only) studio apartment-style residences. The Millville community offers 154 units while the second, Egg Harbor Township location offers 166 units that are filling fast. The last of the initial three communities, located in Hammonton, is nearing its completion with 174 units this spring. Reservations are now accepted.

The NSSL communities are the first of its kind in the state of New Jersey, and are designated to provide a much needed solution for affordable, assisted living for New Jersey seniors. Affordable  being key  especially for seniors who are not in need of skilled nursing facilities and who cannot afford market-rate assisted living residences. Affordability however, should not suggest shortcuts in senior living and care standards. Quite the opposite, the NSSL's mission is to bring high quality, affordable, senior living, health and wellness  thus, the New Standard  to low income seniors.

The NSSL communities offer private living residences with a private bath in state-of-the-art, smart-building complexes that are fully ADA accessible to accommodate all residents including those with visual, hearing, motor and cognitive disabilities. Additionally, each community was developed with a green standard, has ASHRE Level 2 and Energy Star certifications and, all three facilities were designed to accommodate solar energy.

Seniors and their loved ones can obtain more information about Millville, Egg Harbor Township, and Hammonton communities and schedule tours by calling 609-330-6878 or by visiting newstandardsl.com.

About New Standard Senior Living

With corporate offices in Red Bank, N.J., New Standard Senior Living (NSSL) is the first provider in the state purposely created to deliver dedicated, affordable, assisted living solutions, including direct Medicaid admissions, for New Jersey seniors. For more information, visit newstandardsl.com.

Contact:

Michele McLaughlin, Director of External Case Management

Phone: 609-330-6878

Efax: 856-558-9357

SOURCE New Standard Senior Living
DARIEN, Conn., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- John J. Sullivan will be stepping down from his current role as President & CEO. His role will be filled by Food Industry Executive, Carl Gerlach effective immediately.

Leadership Transition Announcement: Carl Gerlach to begin as CEO of Norseland, Inc. John Sullivan is stepping down from his current role as President & CEO of Norseland, Inc.

Sullivan has worked for Norseland, Inc./TINE SA and the Norwegian Dairy Farmers for more than 32 years. Having served in many positions of Sales, Marketing, Executive Management, and Board Member, Sullivan has been President & CEO for over 17 years. During this span, Norseland, Inc. has grown from a Sales and Marketing organization to a structured end-to-end dairy company. Sullivan stated, "The privilege of leading Norseland, Inc. for our owners, the Norwegian Dairy Farmers, has been an incredible journey. Our owners have been very supportive throughout my tenure," says John Sullivan. Sullivan's leadership transition has been in the planning process for a long period of time and he will take on the role of Strategic Advisor to the CEO of TINE SA, and Chairman of the Board for Norseland Inc, Gunnar Hovland.

"We are very pleased that Carl Gerlach has accepted the position as CEO of our subsidiary in the U.S. His food industry experience provides us with skills to further build Norseland, Inc. Under Carl's leadership, we will continue to strengthen our position, drive further growth and build Jarlsberg's solid brand position in our largest market outside Norway," says Gunnar Hovland.

Gerlach comes to Norseland, Inc. with extensive experience in the Food Industry, spending most of his career in the dairy industry. He has held several senior roles leading businesses at Kraft Foods, Sara Lee, Unilever, and most recently as Chief Executive Officer of Maple Hill Creamery, America's fasted growing grass-fed organic dairy brand.

"It is a privilege to be leading Norseland at this time in its history. John has built a solid team and business, and I look forward to working with them, our customers, and partners across the globe as we drive further growth. There are very few global brands as strong as Jarlsberg, and I know it has what consumers want in the U.S. market," commented Gerlach.

"I would like to use this opportunity to thank John for his considerable efforts and tireless commitment for over 30 years at Norseland. Jarlsberg is TINE's strongest International brand and our American subsidiary is crucial to securing our market position abroad. Norseland, Inc. will continue to be an International growth platform to build the TINE brands which the Norwegian dairy farmers have invested in for decades. This change further supports TINE's long-term commitment to Norseland Inc. and the Jarlsberg brand," Hovland concludes.

About Norseland, Inc.

Norseland, Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of TINE SA, Norway's largest cooperative of dairy farmers. Originally formed in 1978 to import Jarlsberg wheels to the US, Norseland now represents a diverse portfolio of both owned and partner specialty food brands. Norseland, Inc. uses traditional recipes and generations of farming knowledge to bring real food to your table. But they know 21st-century food isn't just about the taste...they aim to contribute to a global food future that is ethically produced, sustainable, and good for you.

Contributors to the Good Life.

Media Contact:

Stacey Bender

973-650-1218

[email protected]

SOURCE Norseland, Inc.
SAN DIEGO, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- North Island Credit Union has launched a Summer Internship Program, inviting local college students and high school seniors to apply for the opportunity to work at the credit union. Through the program, paid internships are available to provide students with professional work experience in multiple areas throughout the organization, including Deposit Operations, Digital Banking Operations, Human Resources, IT, Marketing, Project Management, Learning & Development, and Wealth Management.

"We're excited to expand our educational support initiatives through our Internship Program, helping set students up for success to work in the financial industry and open doors to a future career," said North Island Credit Union CEO Steve O'Connell. "Through our Summer Internship Program, we will integrate students into teams across the credit union so they can apply what they learn in the classroom to a hands-on setting in the business world."

San Diego County college students and high school seniors can learn more and apply for the internships through the credit union's website. Applications will be accepted through April 15th for the summer program.

The North Island Credit Union internships will provide students with practical work experience within and across multiple departments, leadership development skills, and school-to-career readiness, with direct training and mentoring with managers. All internships will be paid, part-time opportunities at the credit union's San Diego headquarters offices from June 20th through August 18th.

About North Island Credit Union, a division of California Credit Union

California Credit Union is a federally insured, state chartered credit union founded in 1933 that serves public or private school employees, community members and businesses across California. With more than 170,000 members and assets of over $4.5 billion, California Credit Union has 24 branches throughout Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties. The credit union operates in San Diego County as North Island Credit Union, a division of California Credit Union. California Credit Union offers a full suite of consumer, business and investment products and services, including comprehensive consumer checking and loan options, personalized financial planning, business banking, and leading-edge online and mobile banking. Please visit northisland.ccu.com for more information or follow the credit union on Instagram or Facebook @northislandcu.

SOURCE North Island Credit Union
STOCKHOLM, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The shareholders in NeoDynamics AB (publ), corp. reg. no 559014-9117 (the "Company") are hereby convened to an extraordinary general meeting on Monday 3 April 2023, at 15.30 at the Company's premises on Lejonvagen 14, Lidingo, Sweden.

Right to participate

Shareholders who wish to participate in the general meeting must:

be registered in his/her/its own name (not nominee-registered) in the share register kept by Euroclear Sweden AB on Friday 24 March 2023 (the record date), and

(the record date), and notify his/her/its intention to attend the general meeting to the Company no later than Thursday 30 March 2023 , by mail to NeoDynamics AB (publ), Lejonvagen 14, 181 32 Lidingo, Sweden or by e-mail to [email protected] .

Such notification shall include the shareholder's name, personal identification number or corporate registration number, number of shares, address and telephone number, details on advisors (no more than two), if any, and, where applicable, details of representatives or proxies.

Nominee-registered shares

Shareholders whose shares are nominee-registered through a bank or other trustee must, in order to exercise the right to vote and participate in the general meeting, temporarily register their shares in their own names (so-called voting rights registration). Voting rights registration requested by shareholders in such time that the nominee has completed the registration no later than Tuesday 28 March 2023 will be considered in the preparation of the share register. This means that shareholders who wish to temporarily register their shares in their own names must make such request to their nominees well in advance of this date.

Proxy

Shareholders represented by proxy must submit a dated power of attorney. If the power of attorney is executed by a legal person, a copy of the certificate of registration or equivalent must be attached. The power of attorney may not be valid for a period exceeding five years from its issuance. The original power of attorney and certificate of registration should be submitted to the Company by mail to the address mentioned above in due time prior to the general meeting. Alternatively, the original power of attorney and certificate of registration may be brought and presented at the general meeting. The Company provides a proxy form at request and on the Company's website, www.neodynamics.com.

Number of shares and votes

As of the date of this notice, there are a total of 120,501,184 shares and votes in the Company.

Proposed agenda

Opening of the general meeting and election of chairman of the general meeting Preparation and approval of the voting list Election of one or two persons to verify the minutes Approval of the agenda Determination as to whether the meeting has been duly convened Resolution on authorization for issues of shares, warrants and/or convertible instruments Resolution on adoption of new Articles of Association Board election Closing of the general meeting

Proposals to resolutions

Item 1 - Election of chairman of the general meeting

The board of directors proposes that Ingrid Salen is elected as chairman of the general meeting.

Item 6 - Resolution on authorization for issues of shares, warrants and/or convertible instruments

The board of directors proposes that the general meeting authorizes the board of directors to, on one or several occasions during the period up to the next annual general meeting, increase the Company's share capital through issues of new shares, warrants and/or convertible instruments, with or without deviating from the shareholders' preferential rights, and with or without provisions on payment by non-cash consideration and/or by way of set-off or other provisions.

The purpose of the authorization and the reason to propose that the board of directors shall be authorized to resolve on issues with deviation from the shareholders' preferential rights is to give the board of directors flexibility in the work of ensuring that the Company is able to raise capital to finance the operations and to enable continued expansion, alternatively to enable a broadening of the ownership of the Company, e.g. with one or several owners of strategic importance to the Company.

An issue in accordance with this authorization shall be made on market conditions. The board of directors shall be entitled to decide on additional terms and conditions for issues under this authorization and who shall be entitled to subscribe for the shares, warrants and/or convertible instruments. If the board of directors deems it appropriate to facilitate the delivery of shares in connection with an issue in accordance with this authorization, the issue may also take place at a subscription price which corresponds to the quota value of the shares (provided that the Company ensures through relevant agreements that market compensation is received for the issued shares).

The CEO shall be authorised to make any minor adjustments required to register the resolution with the Swedish Companies Registration Office.

Item 7 - Resolution on adoption of new Articles of Association

The board of directors proposes that the general meeting resolves to adopt new Articles of Association where  4 and  5 are changed as follows:

Current wording New wording  4 Share capital  4 Share capital The company's share capital shall be not less than

SEK 6,000,000 and not more than SEK 24,000,000. The company's share capital shall be not less

than SEK 12,000,000 and not more than SEK 48,000,000.  5 Number of shares  5 Number of shares The company shall have not less than 60,000,000 shares

and not more than 240,000,000 shares. The company shall have not less than 120,000,000

shares and not more than 480,000,000 shares.

The CEO shall be authorised to make any minor adjustments required to register the resolution with the Swedish Companies Registration Office.

Item 8 - Board election

The board members Xiaojun Xu and Jie Bao have as of 14 February 2023 left the board of directors. In light of this, the election committee proposes that the board of directors, for the period until the end of the next annual general meeting, shall consist of four directors (previously six) and no deputy directors (unchanged) and to re-elect Ingrid Salen (chairman), Carina Bolin, Claes Pettersson and Matthew E. Colpoys, Jr.

Majority requirements

A resolution in accordance with the proposals under item 6 and 7 above requires that it is supported by shareholders representing at least two-thirds of both the votes cast and the shares represented at the meeting.

The shareholders' right to information at the general meeting

The board of directors and the CEO shall, upon request by any shareholder, and where the board of directors deems that such information may be provided without significant harm to the Company, provide information in respect of any circumstances which may affect the assessment of a matter on the agenda.

Documents

The board of director's complete proposals for resolutions as well as other documents according to the Swedish Companies Act will be held available at the Company (Lejonvagen 14, 181 32 Lidingo, Sweden) and at the Company's website, www.neodynamics.com. The documents will also be sent, without charge, to shareholders who so request and inform the Company of their postal address.

Processing of personal data

For information regarding the processing of personal data, please refer to the policy available on Euroclear Sweden AB's website:

https://www.euroclear.com/dam/ESw/Legal/Privacy-notice-bolagsstammor-engelska.pdf

Lidingo in March 2023

NeoDynamics AB (publ)

The board of directors

This disclosure contains information that NeoDynamics is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation (EU nr 596/2014) and the Swedish Securities Markets Act (2007:528). The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person, on 01-03-2023 08:35 CET.

For further information, please contact:

Anna Eriksrud, CEO NeoDynamics AB, phone +46708 444 966 or e-mail [email protected]

Aaron Wong, CFO NeoDynamics AB, phone +46735 972 011 or e-mail [email protected]

SOURCE NeoDynamics
TOKYO, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- GA technologies Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Minato-Ku, Tokyo; CEO: Ryo Higuchi; Securities Code: 3491 the "Company") hereby announces the launch of new business in our group, "MtechA", an M&A intermediary digital transformation service. This service follows the Group's online real estate marketplace "RENOSY" and real estate digital transformation business "ITANDI" and is the Group's first venture outside the field of real estate. MtechA Inc. was already established on August 1, 2022, and today, March 1, 2023, we are pleased to announce as a voluntary disclosure that we have decided to officially begin offering our services as follows.

1. Purpose and Background of Service Launch

Since our founding in 2013, we have promoted digital transformation in the real estate industry, which has been considered analog, based on our corporate philosophy of "Building a world leading company that inspires and impresses people with the power of technology and innovation." We have strived to improve the quality of business operations in the real estate industry by accelerating the PDCA cycle and integrating technology with real estate transaction practices such as streamlining operations using technologies such as AI and RPA, shifting operations online, and improving the customer experience through the use of data. As a result, after10 years since our founding, consolidated group sales have exceeded 100 billion yen, and we have earned a reputation for promoting digital transformation in the analog industry, including being the only company in the growth market to be selected as a Digital Transformation Stock for three consecutive years (*1).

Meanwhile, approximately 2.45 million top management of small-and medium-sized businesses in Japan will be 70 years old or older by 2025, and of these, about 1.27 million face the problem of lack of successors (*2). In 2022, the number of business closures and dissolutions totaled 53,426, showing a downward trend for the third consecutive year following 2021. However, more than half of the companies were still profitable when they closed, and the loss of employment opportunities due to profitable business closures exceeded 80,000 people and the total lost sales amounted to 2.3677 trillion yen(*3). Since the lack of successors in these small and medium-sized businesses leads to a decline in Japan's GDP and loss of high-quality technology and employment opportunities that there have been revisions to the system and the establishment of guidelines in recent years to make M&A an option for business succession. As a result of this trend, the number of domestic M&A transactions has been increasing, reaching a record high of 4,280 in 2021 (*4). The number of M&A intermediaries and platforms is also increasing, with the number of M&A support organizations totaling approximately 2,900 (*5) as of January 2023.

Given these circumstances, we have decided to enter the M&A intermediary business, an area in which we can horizontally expand the successful structure we have established in the real estate field, and where we can expect synergies.

2. Overview of Services

While the number of M&As has increased in recent years (*4) and is garnering attention as a means of solving social issues, many of their operations and processes are analog and dependent on individual skills. Based on our track record of promoting real estate digital transformation, we will bring technology into the field of M&A intermediary services to improve the overall quality of the M&A experience by increasing the transparency of transactions and making all parties involved more comfortable.

I. Utilizing expertise accumulated in real estate digital transformation, including the use of AI, in the field of M&A

We will provide services that leverage our planning and development capabilities, which have enabled the completion of all procedures necessary to lease, buy, and sell real estate online, and the research and development systems of our in-house AI research organization, which has reduced real estate procurement work to a third of what it used to be.

II. Customer-oriented services that combine technology and human skills

Members with proven track records in the industry have already joined MtechA, including consultants for major Japanese M&A intermediary firms and product managers for major Japanese M&A platforms. The combination of our development capabilities with personnel who are well versed in the M&A industry and practices, we provide the services and products that our clients, including business managers, truly seek.

III. Integrated support for asset management after business transfer

MtechA can provide asset management support for business owners after the transfer of their business, using RENOSY. RENOSY offers an extensive lineup of pre-owned compact condominiums and one-unit apartments in central Tokyo, as well as overseas real estate, and more which allows us to provide comprehensive support for issues related to home purchasing, leasing and land use.

3. Overview of MtechA

(1) Company name MtechA Inc. (2) Name and title of representative Dai Higuchi, Representative Director (3) Head office Sumitomo Fudosan Roppongi Grand Tower 39F, 3-2-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo (4) Established August 1, 2022 (5) Capital 50 million yen (6) Business description M&A intermediary business, research and development of M&A products

(*1) Selected as "Digital Transformation Stock (digital transformation Stock)" for the third consecutive year by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

https://ssl4.eir-parts.net/doc/3491/tdnet/2140180/00.pdf

(*2) Current Status and Issues of M&A in Small and Medium Enterprises and Small Businesses Operators, The Small and Medium Enterprise Agency

https://www.chusho.meti.go.jp/koukai/kenkyukai/hikitugigl/2019/191107hikitugigl03_1.pdf

(*3) National Survey of Business Suspension and Dissolution Trends (2022), Teikoku Databank, Ltd.

https://www.tdb.co.jp/report/watching/press/pdf/p230106.pdf

(*4) 2022 Small and Medium Enterprise White Paper and Small Enterprise White Paper, Small and Medium Enterprise Agency

https://www.chusho.meti.go.jp/pamflet/hakusyo/2022/PDF/chusho/00Hakusyo_zentai.pdf

(*5) Registration System for M&A Support Agencies, Current Registration Status (as of January 16, 2023), Small and Medium Enterprise Agency

https://www.chusho.meti.go.jp/zaimu/shoukei/2023/230116m_and_a02.pdf

4. Future Outlook

This plan is expected to have only a limited impact on our consolidated performance for this fiscal year, but additional information will be disclosed as soon as such need arises.

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: 7,238,798,466 yen (by October 2022)

Services:

Internet real estate marketplace business: RENOSY

BtoB PropTech SaaS development

GA technologies group: ITANDI, RENOSY PLUS, Shenjumiausuan, and 12 other group companies

SOURCE GA technologies
Current Deputy Has Proven Track Record of Standing Up for Workers

WASHINGTON, Feb. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The following is a statement from Teamsters General President Sean M. O'Brien regarding President Joe Biden's nomination of Julie Su as Labor Secretary:

"The Teamsters applaud the nomination of Julie Su for the top job at the U.S. Department of Labor. Su is highly qualified and will be a phenomenal ally of working families. She has proven herself as someone who isn't afraid to stand up to white-collar criminals and corporate greed. The Senate has already confirmed her once, so we encourage them to do so again  expeditiously and without political sideshows for the benefit of all Americans."

Su is the Deputy U.S. Secretary of Labor, a position she has held for over two years. Previously, she was the California Secretary of Labor, where she tackled issues critical to Teamsters, including worker misclassification, wage theft, and holding employers accountable for unsafe workplaces.

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.2 million hardworking people in the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico. Visit Teamster.org to learn more. Follow us on Twitter @Teamsters and "like" us on Facebook at Facebook.com/teamsters.

Contact:

Kara Deniz, (202) 624-8142

[email protected]

SOURCE International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Embedded Dev Teams Efficiently Produce Compliant Software With AI-Enhanced Continuous Automation Testing Platform

News Highlights

Parasoft C/C++test 2023.1 provides complete support for the upcoming MISRA C 2012 Amendment 4 and MISRA C 2023.

+20% reduction in average time development teams spend fixing a single violation using Parasoft's CI /CD for embedded automated testing solutions enhanced with AI.

Attend: Does MISRA Help Create Safety-Critical Systems That Use Both C & C ++? Presented by compliance expert, Michal Rozenau , on March 15 .

MONROVIA, Calif. and NUREMBERG, Germany, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Parasoft, a global leader in automated software testing solutions, announces its participation in Embedded World 2023 on March 14-16. Compliance experts will be available to answer all questions and provide onsite live demonstrations of Parasoft test automation solutions for the embedded real-time safety- and security-critical industries.

Embedded Dev Teams Efficiently Produce Compliant Software With AI Enhanced Parasoft Continuous Automation Testing Platform

Visit Parasoft and its compliance experts in Hall 4, Booth 378 to see a live demo of C/C++test, the company's powerful and comprehensive testing solution for C/C++ code. Embedded development teams continue to rely on Parasoft's Continuous Automation Testing Platform seeing that it offers an impressive range of test methods, including the use of AI/ML augmented automation. Teams experience the following benefits.

21-28% drop in developers' average time required to fix or suppress errors.

Simplified and optimized coding compliance as a result of Parasoft's support, which continuously enables organizations to satisfy industry regulations and stay up to date with the latest compliance requirements.

Increased productivity and reduced labor by automating verification methods defined in functional safety standards like ISO 26262, IEC 62304, DO-178C, and more.

The MISRA C Working Group will be announcing MISRA C 2012 Amendment 4 on March 15. Also being announced is the consolidation of previous versions of the guidelines into a single edition MISRA C 2023. Parasoft C/C++test 2023.1 fully supports both MISRA C 2012 AMD4 and MISRA C 2023. Visitors can gain insights into these up-and-coming MISRA standards and other solutions. We will be showcasing our latest product capabilities in software test automation, where attendees will have the opportunity to learn about best practices in deploying the following test methods using Parasoft C/C++test:

Static code analysis

Unit testing

Code coverage

Testing on target-hardware

Test based CI /CD workflows

Automated reporting and deep test data analytics for actionable insights

"Our test automation solutions for embedded dev teams deliver measurable results towards producing safe, secure, and quality software," said Igor Kirilenko, CPO at Parasoft. "We provide our customers with seamless integrations into their development ecosystems, like Git-based CI/CD platforms and IDEs, so they can easily achieve compliance towards their verification and validation obligations."

Contact Parasoft for a briefing or to request a demo and see how the Continuous Automation Testing Platform augmented with AI simplifies and optimizes coding compliance with industry standards and regulations.

About Parasoft

Parasoft helps organizations continuously deliver quality software with its market-proven, integrated suite of automated software testing tools. Supporting the embedded, enterprise, and IoT markets, Parasoft's technologies reduce the time, effort, and cost of delivering secure, reliable, and compliant software by integrating everything from deep code analysis and unit testing to web UI and API testing, plus service virtualization and complete code coverage, into the delivery pipeline. Bringing all this together, Parasoft's award winning reporting and analytics dashboard delivers a centralized view of quality enabling organizations to deliver with confidence and succeed in today's most strategic ecosystems and development initiatives  security, safety-critical, Agile, DevOps, and continuous testing.

SOURCE Parasoft
Families Can Enter Through March 31 for a Chance to Win

ATLANTA, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Path from Pre-K to College Sweepstakes is now open, and Georgia parents, grandparents and guardians with pre-k-aged children have the opportunity to win money for college simply by entering. The sweepstakes, held by Georgia's Path2College 529 Plan and the Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL), will award four children across the state with $1,529 each for their education.

"Four lucky children will win money for their college savings, and we hope this will be the catalyst for many Georgia families to begin saving for college. Saving small amounts over time can help build a solid financial foundation for higher education pursuits," said Georgia Student Finance Commission President Lynne Riley.

Winners will be chosen in four regions of the stateMetro Atlanta, Southeast, North and South Georgia. The winner's Pre-K program will also win $1,529.

"Again this year, I encourage families of children enrolled in Georgia's Pre-K Program to enter the Pre-K to College Sweepstakes sponsored by the Path2College 529 Plan," said DECAL Commissioner Amy M. Jacobs. "It is not too early for families to start investing in their children's college or workforce dreams, and winning this sweepstakes could be a perfect first step. Georgia's Path2College 529 Plan helps ensure that students have the resources to pursue the academic or career paths of their choice."

Parents, legal guardians or grandparents with children enrolled in one of Georgia's Pre-K Programs for the 2022-2023 school year may submit entries online between March 1-31, 2023. For more details and Official Rules, visit www.path2college529.com/PreK . Winners will be randomly selected from the entrants.

For more information about the Path2College 529 Plan or to open a college savings account, please visit www.Path2College529.com or call (877) 424-4377.

No purchase necessary to enter Sweepstakes. Void where prohibited or restricted by law. Deadline for entry is March 31st. Sponsored by the Path2College 529 Plan and the Department of Early care and Learning.

To learn more about Georgia's Path2College 529 Plan, its investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses please see the Plan Description at path2college529.com. Read it carefully. Investments in the Plan are neither insured nor guaranteed and there is the risk of investment loss. TIAA-CREF Individual & Institutional Services, LLC, Member FINRA, is the distributor and underwriter for the Path2College 529 Plan.

FPS-2751959PR-O0223X

SOURCE Path2College
DUBLIN, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Perrigo Company plc (NYSE: PRGO), a leading provider of Consumer Self-Care Products, today announced that it has received final approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") for its Abbreviated New Drug Application ("ANDA") for Acetaminophen and Ibuprofen Tablets, 250 mg/125 mg, the store brand over-the-counter ("OTC") equivalent of Advil Dual Action Tablets 250 mg/125 mg. The Company anticipates launching the product by Spring 2023.

Perrigo Executive Vice President & President, Consumer Self-Care Americas, Jim Dillard commented, "Following the successful approval and launch of Perrigo's first self-led branded prescription-to-OTC switch of Nasonex24HR, this prescription-to-OTC approval further exemplifies the strength of our regulatory and development capabilities, enabling our business to quickly follow national brand innovation and consumer preferences. This approval was received on the first day possible following the expiration of the marketing exclusivity for Advil Dual Action Tablets 250 mg/125 mg."

Acetaminophen and Ibuprofen Tablets, 250 mg/125 mg provides relief for multiple pain related symptoms by combining two ingredients indicated for OTC pain relief. Retail sales for the national brand equivalent product for the last twelve months ending January 29, 2023, were approximately $69 million based on IRI multi-outlet market data.

Important safety information about Acetaminophen and Ibuprofen Tablets, 250 mg/125 mg

Before using the product, consumers should read the Acetaminophen and Ibuprofen Tablets, 250 mg/125 mg drug facts label.

About Perrigo

Perrigo Company plc (NYSE: PRGO) is a leading provider of Consumer Self-Care Products and over-the-counter (OTC) health and wellness solutions that enhance individual well-being by empowering consumers to proactively prevent or treat conditions that can be self-managed. Visit Perrigo online at www.perrigo.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Litigation Securities Reform Act of 1995, as amended. Forward-looking statements relate to future events, such as future product sales and regulatory capabilities, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factorsmany of which beyond the Company's controlthat may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from its current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections. Interested persons are urged to consult the Company's filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, available at https://investor.perrigo.com/sec-filings, for a discussion of the Company's business and financial condition and certain material trends, risks, uncertainties and other factors relating thereto, including those discussed under "Risk Factors" in the Company's Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022.

SOURCE Perrigo Company plc
Partnership brings PR Newswire stories to 14,500 screens in top metro markets in North America

CHICAGO, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- PR Newswire, a Cision company, is further amplifying the visibility of its clients' news through a strategic partnership with Captivate, a leading digital-out-of-home video network.

PR Newswires Strategic Partnership with Captivate Enhances Reach

Press releases and brand stories issued through PR Newswire's premium North American networks will now be directly delivered to Captivate editors through a dedicated feed. For Captivate, this PR Newswire feed will be a valued source of stories to share with the audiences they serve on elevator and lobby displays in Class A office towers and luxury multifamily residential properties in English and French in over 30 markets across the US and Canada.

"Now more than ever, our clients are looking to PR Newswire for new ways to reach their audiences, to amplify their most important stories, and ultimately to shape their brand reputation," said Nicole Guillot, Cision COO and President of PR Newswire. "This partnership provides yet another key earned media opportunity for our clients. We think Captivate, with their ability to engage high-value B2B and B2C influencers, is a fantastic new outlet for the brand stories shared through PR Newswire's content amplification network."

Natalia Chown, Sr. Director, Strategic Partnerships of PR Newswire, commented, "Captivate's talented team of editors will ensure that content from our clients reaches millions of viewers across North America in a timely, dynamic, and trustworthy manner."

Captivate recently announced a partnership that brings Captivate's content and advertising experience to digital screens in WeWork flexible workspaces. This partnership extends the Captivate network by more than 175 high traffic locations in top metro areas in North America  bringing the total Captivate office and residential building screen count to 14,500. "As we continue to expand our network," says Marc Kidd, CEO of Captivate, "we need to ensure we provide our audiences with content that engages them and they can trust. PR Newswire, with its reputation for credibility and quality and its wide-ranging content from the world's leading brands, serves as an excellent addition to our programming mix."

Michael Kingston, Director of Global Content of Captivate, added: "This exciting new partnership with PR Newswire gives Captivate another valuable source of breaking news and timely announcements, helping to keep our viewers accurately informed and up to date throughout their day."

About Captivate

Captivate is a leading digital-out-of-home video network with 14,500 screens featured in premium locations where modern professionals work and live. We provide agencies and brands unrivaled access to high-value audiences at scale in brand-safe environments, serve as a turnkey communication solution for properties, and deliver an engaging viewer experience that informs and delights.

About Cision

Cision is a comprehensive consumer & media intelligence and communications platform enabling public relations, marketing and communications professionals around the world to understand, influence and amplify their stories. As the market leader, Cision enables the next generation of leaders 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 PR Newswire, Cision Communications Cloud, Cision Insights and Brandwatch. To learn more, visit www.cision.com and follow @Cision on Twitter.

Contact Info:

Captivate - Kara Conti, Marketing Communications

[email protected]

Cision - For media inquiries, please contact:

Cision Public Relations

[email protected]

SOURCE Cision Ltd.
OpenSynergy's Automotive Virtual Platform supports Hardware Virtualization of Stellar Automotive MCUs

BERLIN, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- OpenSynergy announces the successful porting and availability of its COQOS Hypervisor SDK to the STMicroelectronics Stellar family of Integration MCUs. The Berlin-based software company has worked closely with STMicroelectronics to demonstrate that its automotive virtual platform 'COQOS Hypervisor SDK for real-time processors' picks up the hardware virtualization in the Stellar products and extends it. With this virtualization technology automotive manufacturers can reliably execute multiple functions and various software services on a single piece of hardware, securely separated from other functions. This approach forms the technical basis for the coming generations of domain and zonal architectures.

Separation of functions by hardware virtualization alone is not sufficient to fully exploit the enormous power of the new class of automotive MCUs. Additional virtualization technology, like COQOS Hypervisor SDK, further enables the integration of numerous applications and runs several operating systems, on which the various functions are located, side by side. In addition to the hypervisor, the virtual devices that OpenSynergy offers on its COQOS Hypervisor SDK allow the systems to communicate without additional hardware. Thus, physical CAN buses are replaced by VIRTIO-CAN (a CAN implementation in shared memory instead of wires). The exchange between virtual machines is also possible via VIRTIO-vsock or VIRTIO-net depending on the application. For the development of these virtual devices, OpenSynergy has been an active member of the OASIS Open consortium since 2018 and specifies the most important devices according to the open VIRTIO standard.

COQOS hypervisor in combination with STMicroelectronics Stellar virtualization technology completely separates all software components from the hardware and enables both the operating systems and the applications running on them to be completely independent and without influence on each other. They can also be updated modularly.

"We developed Stellar Integration MCUs for Software Defined Vehicles specifically to deliver hardware virtualization able to integrate many real-time and multi-ASIL vECUs," said Philippe Prats, Vice President of Automotive Marketing and Applications, EMEA Region, STMicroelectronics. "The port of the popular COQOS Hypervisor from OpenSynergy to Stellar is a great addition to the comprehensive hardware virtualization features of Stellar."

Hardware virtualization enables all functions of a domain (e.g., body control, power distribution, GW functions) to run together and simultaneously on a single Stellar MCU. With Stellar's high-performance, multi-core design, the number of integrated functions can still be expanded for a zonal or domain approach. Future architectures will favor the spatial aggregation of functions, such as zonal computers as it reduces the cabling throughout the vehicle. The savings of harnessing through zonalization and virtual ECUs can result in reduced vehicle weight and lower integration effort.

An example of an application with COQOS Hypervisor SDK running on the Stellar is the Zonal Front Computer. This Board is in the front of a vehicle (meaning zone). It allows manufacturers to consolidate all functions of the body -- I/O, power distribution, and part of the ADAS sensors -- on this single powerful hardware.

"We look forward to the successful cooperation with STMicroelectronics and the first joint customer projects that have already resulted from this collaboration. By using a Stellar together with the COQOS Hypervisor, OEMs are now able to develop secure virtual domain or zone controllers for the first time. The consolidation of control units from different tier1s and the associated high ROI plays an important role here," said Matthias Stumpf, Vice President Global Sales, OpenSynergy.

This next generation of EE architectures can thus address the growing complexity of vehicles, changing the vehicle architectures of the future. Virtualization is the key technology for these architectures.

On top of the announcement of COQOS Hypervisor SDK for Stellar, OpenSynergy has extended its long-standing relationship and collaboration with STMicroelectronics by joining the STMicroelectronics Partner Program, which helps customers reduce development effort and accelerate time to market by enhancing the ecosystem around STMicroelectronics' broad product portfolio.

About OpenSynergy

OpenSynergy provides embedded software products for the next generation of vehicles. Its hypervisor and communication products pave the way for an integrated driving experience.

The automotive virtual platform COQOS Hypervisor SDK integrates a mix of real-time applications and open source solutions on powerful domain controllers. It supports a large bundle of features corresponding to the virtualization standard VIRTIO, creating maximum flexibility: guest operating systems can be used and reused on different Systems on Chips.

The automotive leading Bluetooth stack Blue SDK is one of OpenSynergy's communications platforms. It is the reference Bluetooth implementation for many OEMs around the world.

OpenSynergy further provides complimentary Automotive-Grade software components tailored for the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) to boost Android's adoption in the automotive domain.

OpenSynergy also provides engineering services to support the customization of its products.

Read more on www.opensynergy.com

Contact:

OpenSynergy GmbH

Sabine Mutumba

Director of Marketing

Rotherstr. 20

D-10245 Berlin

Tel.: +49 (0)30.60 98 540-41

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE OpenSynergy GmbH
WASHINGTON, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- A global group of leading primate protection and animal welfare experts led by Born Free USA have offered support to the Government of St. Maarten in a bid to halt reported plans to kill members of a troop of free-living green monkeys on the island as a means of population control. In a letter sent to the Minister for the Environment on Feb. 2, 2023, and made public today, the groups outline concerns over current plans and make an offer of collaboration with the Caribbean Dutch territory and neighboring French Saint Martin to implement a humane sterilization program in place of the announced lethal cull.

A global group of leading primate protection and animal welfare experts led by Born Free USA have outlined concerns about reported plans to kill members of a troop of free-living green monkeys on the island of St. Maarten.

Said Angela Grimes, CEO of Born Free USA: "Our coalition is standing ready to offer expertise, including voluntary veterinary services, to the Government of St. Maarten to save the innocent lives of the 450 monkeys who currently make their home there. A sterilization program will effectively and humanely reduce the non-native monkey population over time, and we have offered to work with St. Maarten authorities to help mitigate short-term issues caused by the monkeys, such as crop damage and encroachment into homes and schools. We are awaiting a response from the government to our letter, signed by 75 signatories, including world-renowned experts and organizations."

In order to demonstrate support for non-lethal control, Born Free USA has also launched a petition to the St. Maarten Government to call for the cull to be abandoned.

The letter sent to the Government of St. Maarten in February highlights concerns over the research behind the proposed cull, citing multiple flaws in the work, including estimations surrounding population growth of the monkey population. The report, authored by the St. Maarten non-profit, The Nature Foundation, makes the erroneous claim that the monkey population can double in the space of one year, using this to justify their swift and drastic killing. In fact, if the population cited by the report is correct, the troop grows at around 10% per year, meaning that the level of population expansion feared by residents will take almost a decade. This, says the collective of primate experts, allows the government plenty of time to explore non-lethal control as a humane and effective response.

The letter further questions methodology and information provided as part of the public survey whereby the researchers sought views on the monkey's presence. Not only was information provided in the survey skewed towards eradication as a preferred option, but the respondents to the survey were also predominantly self-identified as involved in agriculture (72%)  a group that would be arguably biased toward eradication of the monkeys as they perceive them as a nuisance. Data shows that over 85% of residents on St. Maarten are employed in tourism, and that agriculture makes up just 1% of St. Maarten's GDP. That 72% of respondents to the public survey identified as being involved in agriculture suggests that little effort was made to ensure that the survey results were representative of the island's wider population. Even with the identified biases in the survey, only 55% of respondents were in favor of eradication with the other 45% in favor of sterilization or leaving the monkeys alone.

Claims made in the report and on the social media page of the non-profit responsible for it suggested that sterilization of the monkeys would cost five times that of killing and that there was not enough funding to implement sterilization. It is unclear how the financial costs of sterilization have been calculated, and the groups behind the letter have asked for clarification on this point and for the opportunity to cost the project themselves, factoring in the offers of voluntary veterinary and project staff services.

Grimes continued: "We believe that a humane sterilization program is the compassionate choice for the St. Maarten government, will be the most cost-effective solution, and will position St. Maarten as a leader in humane wildlife management."

Born Free USA operates one of the largest primate sanctuaries in the United States, caring for monkeys formerly exploited in the pet trade, in laboratories, and in zoos.

Read the letter to the Government of St. Maarten: https://bit.ly/stmaartenmonkeysletter

Sign the petition to Save the St. Maarten Monkeys: https://bit.ly/stmaartenmonkeys

About Born Free USA

Born Free USA works to ensure that all wild animals, whether living in captivity or in the wild, are treated with compassion and respect and are able to live their lives according to their needs. We oppose the exploitation of wild animals in captivity and campaign to keep them where they belongin the wild. Born Free USA's Primate Sanctuary is the largest in the United States and provides a permanent home for hundreds of primates rehomed from laboratories or rescued from zoos and private ownership. We're social: www.bornfreeusa.org , www.twitter.com/bornfreeusa , www.facebook.com/bornfreeusa , www.instagram.com/bornfreeusaorg , www.tiktok.com/@bornfreeusaorg.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Heather Ripley

Orange Orchard

(865) 977-1973

[email protected]

SOURCE Born Free USA
ATLANTA, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Jo Kirchner, CEO of Primrose Schools, was honored with the International Franchise Association (IFA) Entrepreneur of the Year award at the 2023 IFA Annual Convention in Las Vegas this week. Under Kirchner's leadership, Primrose Schools is a premium early education and care leader with more than 480 schools, enriching the lives of tens of thousands of children every day.

Jo Kirchner, CEO of Primrose Schools, was honored with the International Franchise Association (IFA) Entrepreneur of the Year award at the 2023 IFA Annual Convention.

The Entrepreneur of the Year Award, given at IFA's 63rd Annual Convention, is one of the highest honors presented by IFA, given to an individual who is currently managing and building a successful business through franchising. The award recognizes individuals who are willing to take risks in business and exemplify the entrepreneurial spirit that franchising represents.

"I am deeply humbled and honored. This is an amazing journey and one in which I am still learning," said Jo Kirchner, CEO of Primrose Schools. "I want to dedicate this award to my Primrose colleagues, the support team, franchise owners and their school staff who for more than thirty years have delivered educational childcare service excellence and shared the belief that continual learning is the path to a brighter future for all children."

Kirchner joined the organization in 1990, assuming the role of CEO in 1999, and expanded the organization from four schools to more than 480 schools across 33 states. In 2022, through Kirchner's passion, people-first and purpose-driven leadership approach, Primrose celebrated its 40th anniversary and reaching $1 billion in systemwide sales. Through her work as a co-founder and co-chair with the Early Care and Education Consortium, Kirchner is continuing to lead the development of transformational solutions to achieve a more equitable and sustainable early care and education system for America.

"Jo Kirchner exemplifies the power of franchising, taking a concept and expanding it to hundreds of locations that have impacted the lives of countless children and families," said IFA President and CEO Matthew Haller. "She is a pioneer in franchising early childhood education and has led the way in the industry for more than 20 years. Because of Jo's leadership and entrepreneurial vision with Primrose Schools, thousands of children and families have had greater access to high-quality education and care, sending a positive ripple effect through communities that will be felt for generations to come."

Details about the IFA major awards and the list of past winners in all categories are available at www.franchise.org/past-ifa-major-award-winners.

About Primrose Schools

Primrose Schools is the leader in providing premier early education and care to children and families in the United States. Founded in 1982, there are more than 480 Primrose schools in 33 states and Washington D.C. today. Each school is independently owned and operated by Franchise Owners who partner with parents to help children build the right foundation for future learning and life. Primrose believes who children become is as important as what they know. The Primrose-exclusive Balanced Learning approach is created from the best early education wisdom and balances purposeful play with nurturing guidance from teachers to encourage curiosity, creativity, confidence, and compassion. For more information, visit www.PrimroseSchools.com , connect with us on Facebook and Twitter , explore our blog , sign up for our emails and find a Primrose school near you .

SOURCE Primrose Schools
NEW YORK, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ --

Protein Engineering Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Product (Reagents, Instruments), By Protein Type (Insulin, Vaccines), By End-use (CROs, Pharma & Biotech Companies), By Technology, And Segment Forecasts, 2023 - 2030

Source: ReportLinker

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06423425/?utm_source=PRN

Protein Engineering Market Growth & Trends

The global protein engineering market size is expected to reach USD 7.62 billion by 2030, registering a CAGR of 16.60% during the forecast period. One of the key factors fueling the industry's growth is the rising demand for non-chemical medicinal alternatives for the treatment of chronic diseases globally. Furthermore, due to the favorable clinical outcomes connected to protein-based treatments, these therapeutics are now preferred over conventional synthesized pharmaceuticals, which is expected to accelerate market growth. The rising number of government activities, such as funding research and advancement for engineering novel therapeutics further influence the industry growth.

In addition, the market is positively impacted by improvements in healthcare infrastructure, an increase in healthcare spending, growth in the geriatric population, and an increase in investments in health-related research & development globally.Furthermore, key companies are expected to have profitable opportunities due to the growth in technological advancements in the protein engineering field.

For instance, in February 2022, Tierra Biosciences unveiled the Tierra Protein Platform, an e-commerce platform that enables consumers to receive unique protein engineering products manufactured, verified, and dispatched to them in only a few clicks.

The platform offered by Tierra offers a quicker and more practical alternative to conventional approaches for finding thousands of proteins for use in R&D.The COVID-19 pandemic has boosted the industry growth due to applications of protein engineering in the production of COVID-19 vaccines and diagnostics.

A bioluminescent diagnostic kit, for instance, was developed in July 2021 by scientists at the Eindhoven University of Technology in Germany.It can be utilized to determine whether an individual's immune system is producing antibodies in reaction to the coronavirus.

Similarly, it is anticipated that the market will witness substantial growth during the forecast period as a result of the rising R&D efforts for engineering COVID-19 treatments.

Protein Engineering Market Report Highlights

The instruments product segment accounted for the highest market share in 2022. High demand for efficient and high throughput instruments for chromatographic analysis in protein engineering applications is driving the segment

The rational protein design technology segment accounted for the largest share in 2022. Protein remodeling engineering is an emerging and important application of rational design and serves as a major factor contributing to the growth of the segment due to its highly reliable and rapid processing attributes

The monoclonal antibodies protein type segment held the largest share in 2022. Monoclonal bodies find applications in the treatment of autoimmune disorders and with the rising prevalence of such diseases, the segment is anticipated to witness a rapid growth

The pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies end-use segment held the largest share in 2022. Rising R&D expenditure by biotechnology and pharmaceutical firms and increasing government funding and support for engineering advanced therapies are boosting the segment growth

North America accounted for the largest share in 2022 due to the rising use of biological medications for the treatment of chronic diseases, as well as rising funding opportunities in the region for R&D activities

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06423425/?utm_source=PRN

About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.

Contact Clare: [email protected]

US: (339)-368-6001

Intl: +1 339-368-6001

SOURCE Reportlinker
Funding comes on the heels of a strong 2022, where Quantifind achieved rapid growth, including a contract for $23.7M from the Department of Defense and partnerships with anti-trafficking NGOs

PALO ALTO, Calif., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Quantifind , a leading provider of AI-powered financial crimes risk management solutions, announced it has raised $23 million in funding led by DNS Capital, with participation from Citi Ventures, US Venture Partners, Valor Equity Partners, and S&P Global. The funding comes after a strong 2022 that included signing four of the world's largest banks, new contracts from the Department of Defense, including a $23.7 million production contract, signing deals with leading universities and establishing partnerships with the United for Wildlife taskforce and the Polaris Financial Intelligence Unit to fight human trafficking.

New Funding will Accelerate Business Growth and Customer Success

Quantifind will use the funding to expand its footprint in international markets, grow global brand recognition, and enhance its solutions for financial crimes investigation, continuous customer monitoring, alerts triage, and supply chain risk screening.

"As the financial markets continue to evolve, it is critical for risk management teams to develop dynamic detection capabilities to prevent and mitigate financial crime and global threats," said Vibhor Rastogi, Global Head of AI/ML/Data Investing at Citi Ventures. "Quantifind is uniquely poised to deliver the data coverage, rich feature set, and detection accuracy grounded in science that global risk specialists across industry and government need to be effective at fighting financial crime and emerging threats."

Quantifind's Graphyte Platform is the Ideal Solution in a Global Macro Economy Experiencing High Regulatory and Cost-efficiency Demand.

"Quantifind is an essential part of our risk management strategy. We see upwards of 40% productivity gains for investigations and 75% of high-risk cases automatically triaged," said a representative of one of Canada's big five banks and financial services companies.

Quantifind also supports nonprofits by lending its intelligence software to the Polaris Financial Intelligence Unit against human trafficking and the United for Wildlife taskforce. These organizations use the Quantifind risk intelligence platform to understand the financial patterns that signal human trafficking red flags. This intelligence is shared with financial services and law enforcement leaders. Furthermore, these thought-leading nonprofits provide industry expertise as feedback to Quantifind machine-learned risk typologies to power a paradigm for risk standards. Quantifind will host two events this year with Polaris and the United for Wildlife task force.

Product Innovation Fuels Customer Advancement

Looking to 2023 and in line with its mission to help global risk specialists overcome the mounting pressures of budget cuts, less staff, and tighter regulations; organizations use the Quantifind Graphyte automation platform to:

Manage risks using AI to detect hidden threats quickly and with industry-leading accuracy

using AI to detect hidden threats quickly and with industry-leading accuracy Reduce costs and increase overall productivity by saving 40% of investigator time with 80% fewer false-positives

and increase overall productivity by saving 40% of investigator time with 80% fewer false-positives Contribute to the safety of the global financial ecosystem by identifying bad actors and their networks

"Global financial institutions and governments value Quantifind's ability to automatically uncover risk signals from disparate and unstructured data sources," said Quantifind CEO and co-founder Ari Tuchman. "We continue to raise the data science bar in the fight against financial crimes and hidden threats with a commitment to accuracy, speed, and seamless integration into client workflows."

About Quantifind

Quantifind's AI-powered automation uncovers relevant risk signals from disparate and unstructured data to help risk specialists investigate people and organizations faster and more accurately. Quantifind's Graphyte automation platform maximizes risk intelligence workflows by delivering superior entity resolution, dynamic risk typologies, knowledge graph technology, and name science. Quantifind is a top provider to tier 1 banks, digital banks, financial institutions, and government organizations for the following use cases: Know Your Customer (KYC), Customer Due Diligence (CDD), Fraud Risk Management, and Anti-Money Laundering (AML). These organizations benefit from proven outcomes: 75% reduction in false positives, 50% improvement in investigative efficiency, and daily screening of the entire vendor/donor base with >90% name resolution accuracy.

Quantifind is headquartered in Palo Alto, with teams in Boston, Washington, Atlanta, Madrid, London, and New York.

For more information on Quatifind: https://www.quantifind.com

SOURCE Quantifind
RE/MAX Leaders Open Event with Lessons from the Past, Strategies for the Future

DENVER , Feb. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- RE/MAX, the #1 name in real estate*, today hosted the Opening General Session at its annual R4 convention, the international gathering of RE/MAX agents and franchise owners. The session showcased the brand's advantages and vision for the future. Taking place in Las Vegas, Nevada, the three-day event is filled with world-class education, global networking, business building  and a special celebration of the franchisor's first 50 years. The annual convention has more than 9,300 attendees representing 74 countries and territories, demonstrating a bigger, bolder, and more ambitious RE/MAX spirit than ever before.

RE/MAX Holdings Chairman and Co-Founder Dave Liniger kicked off the event crediting his wife and RE/MAX Co-Founder Gail Liniger for the vital role she's played in the evolution of the Company over the past five decades. He continued with a powerful address about five lessons from the first 50 years of RE/MAX. The five lessons, he said, shaped the RE/MAX network and set the course for what the global network has become. The lessons, rooted in surrounding oneself with like-minded individuals and championing one another, have impacted the strategic decisions of the company since the beginning:

Lesson #1 - Align with great people

Lesson #2 - Be fearless, do the right thing and earn peoples' trust

Lesson #3 - Invest in your brand

Lesson #4 - Always have a growth mindset

Lesson #5 - Adapt to change quickly

"Nick and his team are constantly meeting with Broker/Owners and agents who are suggesting great ideas," Liniger said. "And so many of those ideas that have been implemented in this company have come from the field."

Liniger also announced the launch of his new podcast, "Ambition & Grit," available on Spotify, Apple Play, Google Play and more. The first episode, now live, features an interview with Vernice "FlyGirl" Armour, America's first Black female combat pilot.

The opening session continued with RE/MAX, LLC President and CEO Nick Bailey, who applauded the network's 2022 accomplishments and highlighted the ways in which RE/MAX agents excel in building trust, sharing knowledge and demonstrating their experience to consumers.

Major accomplishments of the global real estate network in 2022 include:

In terms of total transaction sides, 2022 ranked as one of the top 5 years in RE/MAX history

RE/MAX has been recognized for having the Most Trusted Real Estate Agents in the USA ** and Canada *** by BrandSpark International Inc., an independent market research company

** and *** by BrandSpark International Inc., an independent market research company Once again, the network can proudly state that "Nobody in the world sells more real estate than RE/MAX" ****

Reflecting on the state of the housing market, Bailey told the network that housing demand is strong and, although current market conditions may pose challenges, the fluctuations are overall a positive development for the industry.

"I'm very clear on two things," he said. "People are going to buy and sell houses in 2023, and experienced agents will have the upper hand. I get asked when the market is going to rebound, but you can't rebound if you don't have a crash. And we haven't had a crash, we've just begun to rebalance, putting buyers and sellers on more equal footing  and that's good news for all of us. The question isn't whether (people will) buy and sell houses in 2023, the question is which agents are going to be the ones to help them do it. That's going to be you."

Bailey went on to share his three keys to thriving in any market: Connection, Technology, Marketing. Citing the brand's 50 years of experience, RE/MAX is staying focused on supporting its network with the tools, technology, and education affiliates need to thrive in any environment.

Discussed live during the Opening General Session, Bailey highlighted a few of the many ways RE/MAX is adding value for affiliates in each of these areas:

MAX/Tech SM powered by kvCORE Provides Agents with a Full Suite of Products to Maximize Lead Generation, Presentations, Marketing and AI

Following product rollout in Canada in late 2022, Bailey reported RE/MAX accelerated the U.S. launch to the first week in January 2023 . That's two months earlier than anticipated, a rare occurrence in tech rollouts. Offering the industry-leading technology to agents and teams in the U.S. and Canada at no additional cost is a huge competitive advantage for RE/MAX brokerages, said Bailey, noting that on the retail market, the suite of products could cost an agent thousands of dollars annually.

RE/MAX Upgrades the Global Referrals Platform, Powered by GryphTech

The process of making referrals around the world is getting even easier with the launch of the refreshed RE/MAX Global Referrals Platform, a comprehensive tech hub that auto-translates referrals into more than 50 local languages. Now powered by GryphTech  the driver of global.remax.com  the platform seamlessly tracks a referral from start to finish, in each agent's preferred language, and uses an algorithm to help connect users with potential business partners based on customizable preferences like specializations, preferred languages, country locations, and more.



RE/MAX agents ready to use the refreshed RE/MAX Global Referrals Platform can enter the platform via MAX/Center or head to remaxglobalreferrals.com  a multilingual access point.



The mobile app can be downloaded via Google and Apple.

The 2023 National Ad Campaign Assets Are Customizable to the Agent  and Their Listings

Bailey noted how RE/MAX agents can leverage content from 2023 ad campaigns in the U.S. and Canada . The U.S. campaign, "The Right Agent Can Lead the Way," highlights the value a skilled RE/MAX agent brings to a real estate transaction. The new ad campaign for Canada , "The Advice You Need," launched in February. Once again, RE/MAX agents can personalize the 2023 commercials on the RE/MAX Hustle website with their name, photo, contact information and a short message.

Bailey concluded the Opening General Session sharing three takeaways he hopes R4 attendees take with them. "I want you to leave R4 with confidence in the housing market, confidence knowing that you are the most trusted, knowledgeable and productive agents in the history of this business, and that you are without question in the right place at the right time. You're unstoppable."

Teri Nestel, President and CEO of Children's Miracle Network Hospitals (CMN Hospitals), also appeared on stage to celebrate over $197 million dollars donated by RE/MAX affiliates since the onset of the partnership between RE/MAX and CMN Hospitals 31 years ago. Through the RE/MAX Miracle Home Program, every dollar donated by an agent remains local at one of the 170 CMN member hospitals throughout the U.S and Canada.

The Opening General Session also featured a keynote address from iconic adventurer, mountaineer, author and television host, Bear Grylls. Grylls shared the many lessons he's learned from his endeavors  like adapting to change and developing resiliency  all of which are applicable to entrepreneurs looking to build their businesses.

Images from the 2023 Opening General Session and RE/MAX R4 convention can be found here.

* MMR Strategy Group study of unaided awareness

**Voted most trusted Real Estate Agency brand by American shoppers based on the BrandSpark American Trust Study, years 2023, 2022 and 2019.

***Voted most trusted Real Estate Agency brand by Canadian shoppers based on the BrandSpark Canadian Trust Study, years 2019-2023 and 2017.

**** Based on residential transaction sides.

About the RE/MAX Network

As one of the leading global real estate franchisors, RE/MAX, LLC is a subsidiary of RE/MAX Holdings (NYSE: RMAX) with more than 140,000 agents in over 9,000 offices and a presence in more than 110 countries and territories. Nobody in the world sells more real estate than RE/MAX, as measured by residential transaction sides. RE/MAX was founded in 1973 by Dave and Gail Liniger, with an innovative, entrepreneurial culture affording its agents and franchisees the flexibility to operate their businesses with great independence. RE/MAX agents have lived, worked and served in their local communities for decades, raising millions of dollars every year for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals and other charities. To learn more about RE/MAX, to search home listings or find an agent in your community, please visit www.remax.com. For the latest news about RE/MAX, please visit news.remax.com.

SOURCE RE/MAX, LLC
PHOENIX, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- March 1st, 2023 RYNO Strategic Solutions, the leading digital marketing agency for the home services industry, is shining a light on the sharp increase in Google Business Profile (GBP) theft occurring online in recent months. In their recent blog on GBP theft prevention, they cover how these scams work, what to look out for, what to do to protect your business, and how to recover your GBP if it has been stolen. With time, money, and reputation on the line, it's an important read for any business.

A GBP is an important online listing for any business regardless of digital presence containing information such as location, reviews, contact information, and more. It appears in local search results and Google Maps, and is publicly available to those searching for similar listings  whether or not you've claimed the profile. This has made it a prime target amongst the rising trend of digital scams hitting businesses hard.

Online fraud has increased dramatically over the last decade, and as COVID-19 moved more and more businesses into the digital world, digital scams targeting businesses have skyrocketed. Google Business Profiles are no exception, with Google reporting that more than 100,000,000 fraudulent GBP edits were blocked in 2021. Google also removed approximately 7,000,000 fraudulent Google Business Profiles in the same year.

RYNO Strategic Solutions is determined to spread awareness to their clients and other businesses alike with preventative measures to take in order to avoid GBP theft, as well as helpful information for what to do in the event your GBP is stolen or falsely claimed.

About RYNO Strategic Solutions

RYNO Strategic Solutions, LLC is a Phoenix, AZ-based company. We are a full-service digital marketing agency specializing in Home Services Internet Marketing, PPC Ad Management, SEO, Social Media Marketing, TRAXION Coaching & Training, Web Design & RYNOtrax Call Listening & Reporting to best serve our clients. Our RYNOtrax proprietary reporting and tracking dashboard allows all of our clients to know exactly what leads, new and old, they receive from their investment every month so there is no guessing. As a Google Premier Partner, we are one of the select few that Google has chosen to be one of their preferred Managed Agencies. For more information, visit RYNO Strategic Solutions.

SOURCE RYNO Strategic Solutions
CHICAGO, Feb. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Sabanto, Inc announced delivery of two autonomous tractor units to the 45th Civil Engineer Squadron at Patrick Space Force Base, Florida. These units will aid the grounds maintenance measures around the base. This technology allows one operator to supervise multiple tractors, addressing labor shortages and helping to alleviate a backlog of tasks.

The first autonomous tractor units delivered to Patrick Space Force Base by Sabanto

"We are excited to provide our technology not only to the United States Air Force, but also to the United States Space Force," said Eddie Brown, Sabanto's Vice President of Government Products & Services. "Expanding our market within the Department of Defense represents a big step for Sabanto."

Sabanto's autonomous technology was recently installed on the supported Kubota M5 tractor platform and is being used to automate airfield mowing operations using Sabanto's state-of-the-art path planning technology.

"Automating our mowers will allow for the reallocation of labor hours to tackle other base priorities," said Andrew C. Johnson, Captain, USAF. "By maximizing our labor hours, we will be able to complete more tasks in-house to support the space launch mission, our mission partners, and the base populace."

"Sabanto is thankful for the opportunity to serve Patrick Space Force Base. We are looking forward to opportunities to advance Sabanto's technology to better support our military partners," said Cory Spaetti, Sabanto's Vice President of Product.

Sabanto has proven, through extensive field testing, its ability to automate a variety of field operations over significant acres, leveraging a fleet of smaller 60 and 90 horsepower tractors. The company's advanced software has also been pivotal in deploying multiple systems for multiple days of non-stop operation.

Visit sabantoag.com to learn more about the company, the technology behind its autonomy kits, and to keep up with news as the company expands its product offerings throughout North America.

About Sabanto

Headquartered in Itasca, Illinois, Sabanto's mission is to accelerate autonomy in agricultural machinery to solve two primary problems: (i) the increasingly acute scarcity of labor in rural areas and (ii) ever-increasing capital expenses for modern ag machinery. Sabanto's core competency revolves around low-cost retrofits of existing agriculture machinery regardless of make or model, along with the development of necessary supporting software to maximize the utility of autonomous technology, thereby increasing producer ROI. Learn more at https://sabantoag.com.

SOURCE Sabanto
Online vanilla and spice company experienced 122% two-year revenue growth

SARASOTA, Fla., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Slofoodgroup announced it's been named the 135th fastest-growing private company in the Southeast by Inc. Magazine. This regional list  part of the publication's popular 5000 Series  represents independent small businesses in ten Southeastern states and territories that achieved a significant percentage in revenue growth when comparing 2019 and 2021.

"As a small independent business, we know how crucial it is to develop authentic relationships with partners and deliver high-quality products and personalized experiences to customers," said Shawn Gavin, CEO of Slofoodgroup. "Our growth over the past few years can be attributed to our outstanding team members who successfully achieved those goals, as well as our loyal customers and dedicated partners from all over the world. We are honored to be a part of this list alongside so many other dynamic Southeastern businesses."

Slofoodgroup was ranked no. 135 on Inc. Magazine's list of the Southeast region's fastest-growing private companies. Tweet this

The 200 private companies on this list show a remarkable rate of growth across all industries in the Southeast region. They've experienced an average growth rate of 673 percent, and in 2021 alone, they added 25,844 jobs and nearly $7 billion to the Southeast region's economy.

Between 2019 and 2021, Slofoodgroup continued growing its team and robust product portfolio. Aside from business growth, Slofoodgroup also puts a big emphasis on giving back to its partners. This past year, Slofoodgroup donated toward developing water and sanitation facilities in the Dominican Republic via Blue Missions, financed a water well for a local village in the Sava region of Madagascar, and onboarded five farmer groups from Guatemala, Costa Rica, Mexico, Vietnam, and Australia.

The complete results of the Inc. 5000 Regionals: Southeast can be found at inc.com/southeast .

About Slofoodgroup

Slofoodgroup is an importer of premium vanilla products and spices from around the world that believes in the principle "best in, best out." Since 2012, Slofoodgroup has worked closely with its partners from around the globe to ensure they offer the highest quality products and pricing. Slofoodgroup is committed to connecting its customers, partners, families, and communities with the best gourmet spices and flavors online. To learn more, visit https://www.slofoodgroup.com/ .

SOURCE Slofoodgroup
Meet the equipment lifecycle & parts procurement technology company at CONEXPO-CON/AGG

NORWALK, Conn., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ - SmartEquip is the leading technology standard for equipment lifecycle management, service, and procurement support for the construction industry, with US$1.4+ billion in equipment parts ordered through its network each year. Founded in 2000, the company's platform provides a seamless brand-enhancing experience for fleet owners, manufacturers, and distributors of complex equipment.

Today the SmartEquip Network has grown to more than 700 suppliers in 20 countries around the world, which support over 100 equipment owners across the globe, including the top five rental companies in the world: United Rentals, Sunbelt Rentals, AKTIO, LOXAM, and Herc Rentals.

"We started in North America, have grown our European and Asian markets expansively over the past decade, and are excited to continue building the SmartEquip Network around the world with the help of our parent company Ritchie Bros.," said Alexander Schuessler, Founder & President International Group, SmartEquip. "We will be showcasing our solutions and services at CONEXPO-CON/AGG next month, as well as also celebrate our 10-year anniversary in Europe."

How SmartEquip Helps:

Equipment owners around the world recognize the drain on fleet uptime, due to the labor- and time-intensive need to locate the right parts and appropriate service procedures for their equipment repairs. SmartEquip's global Network allows manufacturers and dealers electronically to pinpoint-deliver the right parts and support information to the individual service technician, dynamically customized to the make, model, and serial number of the equipment.

The Network delivers product support information with interactive intelligent diagrams. From within a single screen, repair technicians can locate the required parts either from within their own stock, or order directly from their preferred suppliers, as the system auto-generates always-accurate purchase and work orders.

Manufacturers and dealers on the platform additionally can utilize SmartEquip's e-Commerce platform, to provide similarly support and commerce capabilities within their own websites. The company recently released its e-Commerce 2.0 product with significantly enhanced flexibility in supporting electronic transactions.

SmartEquip will be presenting its solutions and services at CONEXPO/CON-AGG in Las Vegas, NV next month. Visit the company in the West Hall at Booth W43001 with Ritchie Bros. To book a SmartEquip a demo, click here!

About Ritchie Bros .:

Established in 1958, Ritchie Bros. (NYSE and TSX: RBA) is a global asset management and disposition company, offering customers end-to-end solutions for buying and selling used heavy equipment, trucks and other assets. Operating in a number of sectors, including construction, transportation, agriculture, energy, mining, and forestry, the company's selling channels include: Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers, the world's largest industrial auctioneer offering live auction events with online bidding; IronPlanet, an online marketplace with weekly featured auctions and providing the exclusive IronClad Assurance equipment condition certification; Marketplace-E, a controlled marketplace offering multiple price and timing options; Ritchie List, a self-serve listing service for North America; Mascus, a leading European online equipment listing service; Ritchie Bros. Private Treaty, offering privately negotiated sales; and sector-specific solutions GovPlanet, TruckPlanet, and Ritchie Bros. Energy. The Company's suite of solutions also includes Ritchie Bros. Asset Solutions and Rouse Services LLC, which together provides a complete end-to-end asset management, data-driven intelligence and performance benchmarking system; SmartEquip, an innovative technology platform that supports customers' management of the equipment lifecycle and integrates parts procurement with both OEMs and dealers; plus equipment financing and leasing through Ritchie Bros. Financial Service. For more information about Ritchie Bros., visit RitchieBros.com.

About SmartEquip

SmartEquip is the leading technology standard for equipment lifecycle management, service and procurement support for the construction industry. The platform provides a seamless brand-enhancing experience for fleet owners, manufacturers, and distributors of complex equipment. SmartEquip enhances ROI for all Network participants by increasing equipment uptime, improving both technician wrench time and transaction accuracy, while reducing the total cost of equipment ownership. The SmartEquip Network currently supports more than 700 OEM brands, with over 95,000 users across more than 42,000 equipment locations globally. The Network supports over $1.4 billion in parts transactions annually and the company is led by veterans of construction, technology, and data sciences. Founded in 2000, SmartEquip is positioned to define tomorrow's dynamic and evolving equipment industry.

Photos and video for embedding in media stories are available at rbauction.com/media.

SOURCE Ritchie Bros.
Southern California gateway earns higher rating for robust pandemic recovery and strong financial management

ONTARIO, Calif., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- S&P Global Ratings raised its long-term rating for Ontario International Airport Authority revenue bonds outstanding to A from A-minus because of the airport's substantial recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, passenger volumes sustained above pre-pandemic levels and significant cash reserves. The ratings agency further said its outlook for the OIAA is stable.

S&P Global has raised its rating for Southern California's Ontario International Airport Authority.

"The upgrade reflects our view of the airport's improved market position and strong overall enterprise risk profile, driven by a substantial rebound in enplaned passenger levels that have been sustained above pre-pandemic levels and the expectation that the authority will maintain financial metrics consistent with a strong financial risk profile as it issues debt to fund its capital needs," S&P Global reported.

Three key credit strengths contributed to the higher rating:

"Robust air travel demand, supported by favorable service are economic fundamentals, including a large, growing population base and ample employment opportunities."

"Strong management and governance, with management that we consider capable in operating an airport of this size, and a conservative approach to financial and capital planning."

"Strong liquidity position, bolstered by an infusion of federal stimulus aid."

"We couldn't be more pleased by the S&P rating as Ontario International Airport continues to turn heads in its pandemic recovery," said John M. Schubert, OIAA chief financial officer. "With our population base growing, passenger and cargo volumes remaining strong and our aviation partners showing even greater confidence in our facilities and services, we are looking forward to sustained growth and a bright future."

Ontario International Airport welcomed more than 5.7 million air travelers in 2022, outpacing pre-pandemic 2019 by 2.8%. It was the airport's highest annual passenger volume since 2008. Shipments of air cargo also outpaced 2019 volume by nearly 9% and maintained ONT's position as a major commerce and logistics hub.

Ontario ranks among the 10 largest cargo airports in North America and, according to a recent analysis by Oxford Economics, serves as the hub of a global supply chain network that generates $17.8 billion in economic activity.

S&P Global Ratings is a leading provider of credit ratings with more than 1 million credit ratings outstanding on government, corporate, financial sector and structured finance entities and securities.

About Ontario International Airport

Ontario International Airport (ONT) is the fastest growing airport in the United States, according to Global Traveler, a leading publication for frequent fliers. Located in the Inland Empire, ONT is approximately 35 miles east of downtown Los Angeles in the center of Southern California. It is a full-service airport which offers nonstop commercial jet service to more than two dozen major airports in the U.S., Mexico, Central America and Taiwan. More information is available at www.flyOntario.com. Follow @flyONT on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

About the Ontario International Airport Authority (OIAA)

The OIAA was formed in August 2012 by a Joint Powers Agreement between the City of Ontario and the County of San Bernardino to provide overall direction for the management, operations, development and marketing of ONT for the benefit of the Southern California economy and the residents of the airport's four-county catchment area. OIAA Commissioners are Ontario City Council Member Alan D. Wapner (President), Retired Riverside Mayor Ronald O. Loveridge (Vice President), Ontario City Council Member Jim W. Bowman (Secretary), San Bernardino County Supervisor Curt Hagman (Commissioner) and retired business executive Julia Gouw (Commissioner).

OIAA Media Contact:

Steve Lambert (909) 841-7527 [email protected]

SOURCE Ontario International Airport
MINNEAPOLIS, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- People with painful diabetic neuropathy may be able to get relief from high-frequency spinal cord stimulation, according to a preliminary study released February 28, 2023, that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 75th Annual Meeting being held in person in Boston and live online from April 22-27, 2023.

Diabetic neuropathy is nerve damage due to diabetes and can lead to pain and numbness, most often in the hands and feet. About 25% of the 37 million Americans with diabetes have painful diabetic neuropathy.

"Diabetic neuropathy often results in poor quality of life, depression, anxiety and impaired sleep, and the available medications can be ineffective for many people or have side effects that people can't tolerate," said study author Erika Petersen, MD, of the University of Arkansas in Little Rock. "These results are exciting because there is an urgent need for more effective therapies."

The study involved 216 people who had painful diabetic neuropathy symptoms for at least one year that were not responding to medications. Half of the people received spinal cord stimulation plus regular medical treatment for six months. Half received only regular medical treatment. After six months, people had the option to switch to the other treatment. People were followed for a total of two years.

Spinal cord stimulation involves a device that is implanted under the skin. The device delivers electrical stimulation to the spinal cord to cut off pain signals to the brain.

After six months, the people who received stimulation reported 76% decrease in their average pain amount, while the people who did not receive stimulation had a 2% increase in their average amount of pain. In tests of their motor function, sensation and reflexes, improvements were seen in 62% of those receiving stimulation compared to 3% of those receiving medication only.

A total of 93% of those receiving medication only and eligible to cross over chose to receive the stimulation after six months, while none of those receiving the stimulation wanted to receive medication only.

After two years, people reported 80% improvement in their average pain amount, and 66% continued to have improvement in motor function, sensation and reflexes.

None of the participants had their devices removed because they were not effective. Eight people had infections related to the device. Three of those cleared up and five people, or 3%, had their devices removed due to infection, which Petersen said is within the range reported for people receiving spinal cord stimulation for other conditions.

Petersen also noted that the high-frequency stimulation appears to provide greater pain relief than low-frequency stimulation. High-frequency stimulation also does not create the "pins and needles" sensation that comes with low-frequency stimulation.

"This study demonstrates that high-frequency stimulation provides long-term pain relief with acceptable safety," Petersen said. "The improvements in motor function, sensation and reflexes suggest that this therapy could have disease-modifying potential."

Petersen said, "Confirmation of results through studies in larger groups of people could further strengthen our understanding of this spinal cord stimulation therapy for the treatment of painful diabetic neuropathy."

The study was supported by Nevro Corp., the maker of the spinal cord stimulation system.

Learn more about neuropathy at BrainandLife.org, home of the American Academy of Neurology's free patient and caregiver magazine focused on the intersection of neurologic disease and brain health. Follow Brain & Life on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

When posting to social media channels about this research, we encourage you to use the American Academy of Neurology's Annual Meeting hashtag #AANAM.

The American Academy of Neurology is the world's largest association of neurologists and neuroscience professionals, with over 38,000 members. The AAN is dedicated to promoting the highest quality patient-centered neurologic care. A neurologist is a doctor with specialized training in diagnosing, treating and managing disorders of the brain and nervous system such as Alzheimer's disease, stroke, migraine, multiple sclerosis, concussion, Parkinson's disease and epilepsy.

For more information about the American Academy of Neurology, visit AAN.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.

SOURCE American Academy of Neurology
Combined company now has 81 fulfillment centers across the U.S.,

France, Belgium, UK, Germany, Netherlands, Italy and Spain

SAINT OUEN L'AUMONE, France and LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Staci, Europe's leading multichannel fulfillment provider, has completed the acquisition of Amware Fulfillment LLC, a top provider of direct-to-consumer, order fulfillment services with 15 facilities across the U.S. Both companies are privately held. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The combined company gives growing brands a powerful multichannel fulfillment solution across North America and Europe, with 81 fulfillment centers (9.8 million square feet), including 18 facilities in the U.S. and 63 across France, Belgium, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain.

The acquisition of Amware gives us a powerful eCommerce fulfillment capability in the important U.S. market Tweet this

Staci's primary investment partner is Ardian, which acquired a majority stake in the company in 2019. Amware's primary investment partner was Rotunda Capital Partners, which acquired a majority stake in the company in 2014.

In the U.S., the company will continue to operate as Amware Fulfillment and Staci's three U.S. facilities (Jersey City, NJ, Memphis, TN and Reno, NV) will become part of a combined USA fulfillment network. Amware's current leadership team will remain in place led by CEO, Harry Drajpuch. He will report to Nicolas Morisse, CEO of Eurodislog and Chairman of Staci US Corp.

According to Staci Group CEO, Thomas Mortier, "The acquisition of Amware gives us a powerful eCommerce fulfillment capability in the important U.S. market and expands our global fulfillment platform. Amware's network of multi-client fulfillment centers aligns perfectly with Staci's model of offering growing brands a flexible, pay-as-you-go logistics solution that scales quickly and economically to match revenue growth."

According to Amware's Harry Drajpuch, "In the current market for fulfillment services, it's rare to find a provider that combines significant size and scale with a more personalized, collaborative approach to solution design. That's the unique value the Staci-Amware union brings  robust, high-volume fulfillment and parcel shipping solutions that are also highly customized."

About Staci Group

Founded in 1989, Staci has consistently delivered excellent services in a wide range of tailor-made B2B and B2C logistics and distribution solutions. The Staci Group began its work in France and has expanded to 81 sites in France, the United States, Germany, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom. Our fully integrated solutions guarantee an agile supply chain that efficiently monitors goods, data, and spend.

About Amware Fulfillment

Founded in 1989, Amware Fulfillment helps fast-growing companies scale fulfillment operations through every stage of business growth. With distribution centers located across the U.S., Amware enables delivery in 12 days to 98% of the country.

About Rotunda Capital Partners

Rotunda Capital Partners is a private equity firm that invests equity capital in established and profitable lower-middle-market companies. The firm uses a rigorous approach to identify market-leading companies in targeted sectors, including distribution, industrial and business services, and logistics. The company looks for management teams seeking a partner to help grow their business.

SOURCE Staci Group; Amware Fulfillment
GREENSBORO, N.C., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Tanger Factory Outlet Centers, Inc. (NYSE: SKT) announced today that it will participate in Citi's 2023 Global Property CEO Conference from March 5 through March 8, 2023, including hosting a tour of Tanger Outlets Palm Beach on March 5. Stephen Yalof, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Michael Bilerman, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Investment Officer, will participate in a round table presentation scheduled for 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday, March 7, 2023. A live audio webcast can be accessed at investors.tangeroutlets.com. A replay will be available through Friday, March 17, 2023 and can also be accessed via the company's website.

About Tanger Factory Outlet Centers

Tanger Factory Outlet Centers, Inc. (NYSE: SKT) is a leading operator of upscale open-air outlet centers that owns (or has an ownership interest in) and/or manages a portfolio of 36 centers with an additional center currently under development. Tanger's operating properties are located in 20 states and in Canada, totaling approximately 13.9 million square feet, leased to over 2,700 stores operated by more than 600 different brand name companies. The Company has more than 42 years of experience in the outlet industry and is a publicly-traded REIT. For more information on Tanger Outlet Centers, call 1-800-4TANGER or visit the Company's website at www.tangeroutlets.com .

Investor Contact Information

Doug McDonald

SVP, Finance and Capital Markets

T: (336) 856-6066

[email protected]

SOURCE Tanger Factory Outlet Centers, Inc.
GROSS MARGIN EXPANDED TO 39.3%, EBIT INCREASED TO US$1.2 BILLION

HONG KONG, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Global power equipment and floorcare & cleaning company Techtronic Industries Co. Ltd. ("TTI" or the "Group") (stock code: 669, ADR symbol: TTNDY) is pleased to announce the audited consolidated results of the Company and its subsidiaries for the year ended December 31, 2022. TTI demonstrated the resilience of its business model in 2022 in a more challenging operating environment. After nearly doubling the revenue base from 2018 to 2021, the Group delivered 2.8% local currency sales growth in 2022 due to the extraordinary growth of the MILWAUKEE business.

Our flagship MILWAUKEE business grew 21.8% in local currency

business grew 21.8% in local currency Free cash flow increased in the second half to finish the year at US$329 million

Gross margin improved for the 14th consecutive year to 39.3%, up 54 basis points

Financial Performance Highlights for 2022







2022* US$' million 2021 US$' million Changes Revenue 13,254 13,203 +0.4 % Gross profit margin 39.3 % 38.8 % +54bps EBIT 1,201 1,192 +0.8 % Profit attributable to Owners of the Company 1,077 1,099 (2.0 %) Basic earnings per share (US cents) 58.86 60.04 (2.0 %) Dividend per share (approx. US cents) 23.81 23.81 -

*For the year ended December 31, 2022

Gross margin improved for the 14th consecutive year, from 38.8% in 2021 to 39.3% in 2022. TTI EBIT increased 0.8% to US$1.2 billion with margin up slightly to 9.1%. Net Profit declined 2.0% to US$1.1 billion due to higher interest expense. Earnings per share declined 2.0% to US58.86 cents. The Group generated free cash flow of US$329 million, with a tremendous improvement in the second half. Working capital to sales finished the year at 21.2% compared to 20.9% a year ago. Importantly, days of finished goods inventory declined 3 days to 113 days at year end.

TTI's Power Equipment business, representing 93.0% of total sales, grew 5.5% in local currency. MILWAUKEE grew 21.8% in local currency, offsetting declines in our consumer and floorcare businesses. In the Power Equipment business, TTI generated low double-digit organic growth in Europe and ROW along with positive growth in the core North American business.

The Board is recommending a final dividend of HK90.00 cents (approximately US11.58 cents) per share. Together, with the interim dividend of HK95.00 cents (approximately US12.23 cents) per share, this will result in a full-year dividend of HK185.00 cents (approximately US23.81 cents) per share, same as last year.

Mr. Horst Pudwill, Chairman of TTI, said, "With a strong increase in free cash flow and a healthy balance sheet, TTI is well positioned to further expand our global industrial, professional and consumer leadership position. We are highly confident in our ability to continue driving market share gains and to outperform the market in 2023."

Mr. Joseph Galli, CEO of TTI, commented, "TTI is well positioned to outperform the market in 2023. We have not only right-sized our SG&A cost base, but also streamlined our fixed overhead position and prudently managed our production levels while developing a stream of innovative new products."

About TTI

TTI is a world leader in cordless technology spanning Power Tools, Outdoor Power Equipment, Floorcare and Cleaning Products for the DIY, consumer, professional, and industrial users in the home, construction, maintenance, industrial and infrastructure industries. The Company has a foundation built on four strategic drivers  Powerful Brands, Innovative Products, Exceptional People and Operational Excellence - reflecting an expansive long-term vision to advance cordless technology. The global growth strategy of the relentless pursuit of product innovation has brought TTI to the forefront of its industries while maintaining high environmental, social and corporate governance standards. TTI's powerful brand portfolio includes MILWAUKEE, AEG and RYOBI power tools, accessories and hand tools, RYOBI and HOMELITE outdoor products, EMPIRE layout and measuring products, and HOOVER, ORECK, VAX and DIRT DEVIL floorcare cleaning products and solutions.

Founded in 1985 and listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited in 1990, TTI is one of the constituent stocks of the Hang Seng Index, Hang Seng Corporate Sustainability Benchmark Index, FTSE RAFITM All-World 3000 Index, FTSE4Good Developed Index, and MSCI ACWI Index. For more information, please visit www.ttigroup.com.

All trademarks listed other than AEG and RYOBI are owned by the Group. AEG is a registered trademark of AB Electrolux (publ.), and is used under license. RYOBI is a registered trademark of Ryobi Limited, and is used under license.

SOURCE Techtronic Industries
BETHESDA, Md., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) today announced that Bruce R. Korf, MD, PhD, FACMG is stepping down as president of the ACMG Foundation for Genetic and Genomic Medicine, a national nonprofit foundation dedicated to improving health and patient care through the support of research, education, and the safe, effective practice of genetic and genomic medicine, effective March 18, 2023. He will be succeeded by Nancy Mendelsohn, MD, FACMG.

Dr. Korf has led the ACMG Foundation since 2012 and is one of only three people in ACMG's history who served as presidents of both the ACMG ("the College") and the Foundation. "It has been my privilege to serve in various roles at ACMG over the past three decades, including most recently as president of the ACMG Foundation," said Dr. Korf. "It is remarkable to see how the College has grown over this time, with its influence increasing in parallel with the remarkable advances in genetic and genomic medicine. I look forward to the continued leadership of ACMG in the coming years and helping in any way I can to contribute to its success."

Dr. Korf is continuing in his current roles as Associate Dean for Genomic Medicine and

Distinguished Professor of Genetics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Heersink School of Medicine. He also will continue to serve as Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Human Genetics.

"Even in the earliest part of his career, Dr. Korf was recognized as a thought leader by his colleagues; and the College and the Foundation have each been the direct beneficiaries of his exceptional leadership for many years," noted Robert G. Best, PhD, FACMG, interim chief executive officer of the ACMG and the ACMG Foundation. "He demonstrates an unusual depth of commitment and passion, modeling authenticity and character in ways that have changed all of us who have had the fortune of working so closely with him," he concluded.

"Dr. Korf leaves a wonderful legacy as he departs the presidency of the ACMG Foundation," said R. Rodney Howell, MD, FAAP, FACMG, past president of both the ACMG and the ACMG Foundation for Genetic and Genomic Medicine. "As only the third individual who moved from the ACMG presidency into the Foundation presidency, he has focused very successfully on organizing the Foundation structure and operation to provide the appropriate revenue and support to the College for many of its vital programs, as specified in the bylaws," he added.

Michael S. Watson, MS, PhD, FACMG, retired executive director of the ACMG recalled, "Bruce brought his organizational ability and strong leadership skills to both the ACMG and the ACMGF at key times during their development. As both the College and the ACMG Foundation grew, Bruce brought structure, organization and policy to the Boards of Directors, first as president of the ACMG and then later at the ACMG Foundation. His contributions to both the smooth functioning of the Board and its alignment with planning goals have been long-lasting and will be his legacy."

Dr. Korf received his MD degree from Cornell University Medical College and his PhD degree in genetics and cell biology from Rockefeller University. He then completed training in pediatrics, pediatric neurology and genetics at Boston Children's Hospital. He served as clinical director in the Division of Genetics at Children's Hospital from 1986 to 1999 and as the medical director of the Harvard-Partners Center for Genetics and Genomics from 1999-2002.

Currently, Dr. Korf is the Wayne H. and Sara Crews Finley Endowed Chair in Medical Genetics and Distinguished Professor of Genetics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He is also Professor of Pediatrics at UAB. He serves on the medical staff of the Human Genetics Service at University Hospital in Birmingham and at Children's of Alabama. He is Co-Director of the UAB-Hudson Alpha Center for Genomic Medicine, Chief Genomics Officer at UAB and Associate Dean for Genomic Medicine at UAB. A past president of the ACMG, he completed terms as president of the Association of Professors of Human and Medical Genetics, member of the boards of directors of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics and the American Society of Human Genetics, member of the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, and both the National Cancer Institute and the National Human Genome Research Institute Boards of Scientific Counselors. Dr. Korf is author of more than 150 peer-reviewed journal articles, 50 book chapters and multiple texts, including Human Genetics: A Problem-Based Approach, fourth edition. He is also co-author of Medical Genetics at a Glance, co-editor of the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh editions of Emery and Rimoin's Principles and Practice of Medical Genetics, and was a co-editor of Current Protocols in Human Genetics.

About the ACMG Foundation for Genetic and Genomic Medicine

The ACMG Foundation for Genetic and Genomic Medicine, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is a community of supporters and contributors who understand the importance of medical genetics and genomics in healthcare. Established in 1992, the ACMG Foundation supports the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) mission to "translate genes into health." Through its work, the ACMG Foundation fosters charitable giving, promotes training opportunities to attract future medical geneticists and genetic counselors to the field, shares information about medical genetics and genomics, and sponsors important research. To learn more and support the ACMG Foundation mission to create "Better Health through Genetics" visit www.acmgfoundation.org

Kathy Moran, MBA

[email protected]

SOURCE American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics
The only top-shelf vodka designed specifically to give back to the community is recognized for their work

NEW YORK, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Community Spirit Vodka has been certified a B Corporation (B Corp), in recognition of the high social and environmental performance, commitment to all stakeholders, and transparency in performance towards the high standards established by B Lab, the nonprofit network transforming the global economy to benefit all people, communities, and the planet.

By harnessing the power of business, B Lab positively impacts companies around the world, helping them balance profit with purpose, a guiding principle for The Community Spirit Vodka since its founding in 2021.

"We created The Community Spirit Vodka to celebrate and support more directly celebrate and support those individuals and organizations working hard to better their local communities," shared Moises Guindi, Casa Lumbre Co-Founder and CEO. "The year-long B Corp Certification process presented an opportunity to learn and evaluate how we do business and innovate with how and where we can push ourselves in the communities we serve, and in the employment practices we use. This process made a meaningful impact; in 2022 alone, The Community Spirit has given back 24% of revenue to partners trough events, bottles and cocktails working directly for their causes."

B Corp Certification is holistic, not exclusively focused on a single social or environmental issue. Taking company size and profile into account, verification involves documentation of a company's business model and information about operations, structure, and various work processes. Specifically, The Community Spirit Vodka was certified for three core factors:

A formal standing commitment to donate at least 5% of the company profits, revenue, equity, and time to causes

The brand's core value of providing financial, health, and family benefits that deliver the best and most inclusive support for its team

The brand's mission & engagement around social impact, ethics, and transparency were legally formalized for protection

B Lab has recognized that The Community Spirit Vodka exceeded the requirements of a company "Designed to Give," one of the B Corp Impact Business Models where the company is focused on charitable contributions; meaning the business is set up to give a significant proportion of profits, revenue, equity, or time to charitable causes. That status will be reviewed every three years, by the Standards Advisory Council, curated by B Lab, to ensure these standards continue to be met on an ongoing basis.

Since its founding, The Community Spirit Vodka has built a platform to celebrate and support organizations and individuals working to better their communities through education, fundraising and other forms of support. The award-winning premium brand, crafted with 100% American corn and 5x distilled, joins a very small list of spirits brands to receive a B Corp Certification.

"Purchasing The Community Spirit Vodka, and other certified B Corp brands, is a conscious choice to support and give back to the community," added Camille Austin, Senior Director of Advocacy for Casa Lumbre Spirits. "Every case, bottle, and cocktail sold supports the efforts of individuals and organizations giving back to their local communities. The next time you raise a glass, you'll be drinking something that elevates the collective."

To learn more about The Community Spirit Vodka, visit thecommunityspirit.co . You can also connect with The Community Spirit Vodka on Instagram and share how we can work with you to elevate and support your community efforts.

ABOUT THE COMMUNITY SPIRIT VODKA

The Community Spirit Vodka exists to bring people together, to celebrate what makes community special, and to support and showcase community leaders  from social changemakers to one's neighborhood bartender. Like the blank canvas featured front and center on the bottle, the Community Spirit Vodka serves as a platform to spark conversations, amplify community voices, and highlight important causes. The Community Spirit Vodka works to deliver on this goal in multiple ways  by partnering with organizations to provide bartenders, cocktails and thought-provoking activations for their fundraisers and other events, by leveraging marketing resources to promote individuals and organizations including via social media channels, and through creating unique programs such as The Community Cocktail Book, a celebration of eight bartenders working to celebrate and support their communities, one cocktail at a time.

The Community Spirit Vodka is crafted with 100% American corn and is 5x distilled, filtered with activated coconut carbon, and gluten-free/kosher. The Community Spirit Vodka is regularly recognized for its quality liquid, including most recently DOUBLE GOLD at John Barleycorn, GOLD at ASCOT Awards, and GOLD at TAG Global Spirits Awards. The Community Spirit Vodka was also honored by John Barleycorn with a Gold medal for Purpose.

ABOUT CASA LUMBRE

Born and based in Mexico, Casa Lumbre is a global spirits company that develops, produces, and incubates premium, award-winning spirits. Originally known for Mezcals, Liqueurs and Tequilas, Casa Lumbre continues to tap into its global values and perspective to expand beyond Mexican distillates.

PRESS CONTACT:

Alexzandria Parker, CURICH|WEISS

[email protected]

Kelly Carr, CURICH|WEISS

[email protected]

SOURCE The Community Spirit Vodka
CHERRY HILL, N.J., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Multiple Sclerosis Association of America (MSAA) proudly recognizes March as Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Month and is pleased to present four weeks full of valuable and inspiring resources, programs, and strategies for all ages. We are dedicated to spreading awareness, education, and support to individuals, families, and care partners in the MS community, and this month is no different. Our MS Awareness Month initiatives focus on "Life with MS: Different Stages of the Journey" and include a multitude of programs that address MS management in all life stages including pediatric, young adults, family planning, and aging well with MS. MSAA invites you to participate in our upcoming digital educational activities throughout the month of March, including:

"Navigating the Pediatric MS Journey" Podcast Episode: In this podcast episode, Dr. Yolanda Wheeler , an assistant professor and nurse researcher at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Nursing, as well as a member of MSAA's Healthcare Advisory Council and African American Advisory Board, discusses pediatric MS with Elena, a parent of a child with MS. Listen in as they explore how MS affects children and teens in addition to what parents should know and consider when talking to their healthcare providers.





In this podcast episode, Dr. , an assistant professor and nurse researcher at the (UAB) School of Nursing, as well as a member of MSAA's Healthcare Advisory Council and African American Advisory Board, discusses pediatric MS with Elena, a parent of a child with MS. Listen in as they explore how MS affects children and teens in addition to what parents should know and consider when talking to their healthcare providers. "Young Adults Living with MS" Podcast Episode: In this podcast episode, Dr. Nuriel Moghavem, neurologist and MS fellow at Keck School of Medicine at USC in Los Angeles , discusses the importance of learning to live your best life with multiple sclerosis if you are newly diagnosed as a young adult. Dr. Moghavem provides tips on gaining knowledge, maintaining healthy habits, finding a support system, feeling empowered to practice self-advocacy, and adhering to treatment, all of which inspire hope for living well with MS as a young adult.





In this podcast episode, Dr. Nuriel Moghavem, neurologist and MS fellow at Keck School of Medicine at in , discusses the importance of learning to live your best life with multiple sclerosis if you are newly diagnosed as a young adult. Dr. Moghavem provides tips on gaining knowledge, maintaining healthy habits, finding a support system, feeling empowered to practice self-advocacy, and adhering to treatment, all of which inspire hope for living well with MS as a young adult. " Family Planning and Living with MS " Live Webinar on Wednesday, March 22, 2023, from 8:00 PM  9:00 PM Eastern: This webinar presented by Dr. Rohini Samudralwar , an assistant professor of clinical neurology and associate program director of the Neurology Residency at the University of Pennsylvania Penn Medicine, will explore the many concerns of being a parent with MS. This will include discussing when and if to start a family, managing MS symptoms as a parent, planning for caregiver assistance, discussing MS with one's children, and more.





" This webinar presented by Dr. , an assistant professor of clinical neurology and associate program director of the Neurology Residency at the Penn Medicine, will explore the many concerns of being a parent with MS. This will include discussing when and if to start a family, managing MS symptoms as a parent, planning for caregiver assistance, discussing MS with one's children, and more. "Healthy Aging with MS" Live Webinar on Thursday, March 30, 2023 , from 8:00 PM  9:00 PM Eastern: This webinar featuring Dr. Lana Zhovtis Ryerson , board-certified neurologist with a special focus in MS currently practicing at Hackensack Meridian Medical Group in New Jersey , will discuss challenges that older individuals with MS may experience, while identifying modifiable risk factors associated with hastened disease progression. Join MSAA as we discuss the role of disease-modifying therapies in older MS patients and explore factors that have been identified to contribute to healthy aging.





This webinar featuring Dr. , board-certified neurologist with a special focus in MS currently practicing at Hackensack Meridian Medical Group in , will discuss challenges that older individuals with MS may experience, while identifying modifiable risk factors associated with hastened disease progression. Join MSAA as we discuss the role of disease-modifying therapies in older MS patients and explore factors that have been identified to contribute to healthy aging. Improving Lives Through Art Spring Series highlighting art as a form of therapeutic expression and connection. MSAA's Improving Lives Through Art  Spring Series features two fundraising events during March: one virtual art tour on March 14, 2023 , and one virtual paint-along, led by an MSAA Art Showcase artist, on Tuesday, March 28, 2023 .





highlighting art as a form of therapeutic expression and connection. MSAA's Improving Lives Through Art Spring Series features two fundraising events during March: one virtual art tour on , and one virtual paint-along, led by an MSAA Art Showcase artist, on . MSAA's digital Art Showcase launch celebrating the beautiful artwork of more than 50 artists diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Be sure to stay tuned for our highlighted twelve Artists of the Month throughout the year as well.





celebrating the beautiful artwork of more than 50 artists diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Be sure to stay tuned for our highlighted twelve Artists of the Month throughout the year as well. Posts on MSAA's MS Conversations blog. Read new posts featuring topics of interest to the MS community.





Read new posts featuring topics of interest to the MS community. TikTok videos presented weekly as well as other updates on MSAA's social media channels.

To access information and resources provided by MSAA during MS Awareness Month, or to register for our events, please visit the MS Awareness Month hub page at https://mymsaa.org/awarenessmonth/ .

To learn more about MS Awareness Month and MSAA's scheduled digital activities, please contact Diana Cruz, Manager of Public Relations & Engagement at (800) 532-7667, ext. 103, or via email at [email protected]

About MSAA

The Multiple Sclerosis Association of America (MSAA) is a national nonprofit organization and leading resource for the entire MS community, improving lives today through vital services and support. MSAA provides numerous programs and services at no cost including: a Helpline with trained specialists; award-winning publications, including, The Motivator magazine; educational videos, webinars, and research updates; a mobile phone app, My MS Manager; safety and mobility equipment products; cooling accessories for heat-sensitive individuals; MRI funding; My MSAA Community, a peer-to-peer online support forum; MS Conversations blog; a clinical trial search tool; podcasts; and more. For additional information, please visit www.mymsaa.org or call (800) 532-7667.

About Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease of the central nervous system (CNS), which consists of the brain, optic nerves, and spinal cord. MS damages or destroys the protective covering (known as myelin) surrounding the nerves of the CNS, and can potentially injure the nerves as well. This damage causes reduced communication between the brain and nerve pathways. Common MS symptoms include visual problems, overwhelming fatigue, difficulty with balance and coordination, depression and cognitive issues, and various levels of impaired mobility. The prevalence of multiple sclerosis is estimated at nearly one million people nationwide and most people with MS are diagnosed between the ages of 15 and 50. MS is not contagious and researchers continue to look for both a cause and a cure.

MSAA's Communications & Marketing Department

375 Kings Highway North

Cherry Hill, NJ 08034

Phone: (800) 532-7667 | Fax: (856) 661-9797

www.mymsaa.org

SOURCE Multiple Sclerosis Association of America
Applications For The Sigourney Award-2023 Accepted March 1 Through July 31 For International Recognition And Substantial Cash Prize

SEATTLE, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Sigourney Award Trust, founded by Mary Sigourney, annually honors individuals, groups or organizations with The Sigourney Award. This wholly independent prize recognizes outstanding work from around the world that has advanced psychoanalytic thought and principles and was accomplished during the past ten years. As of today, the Trust is accepting applications for The Sigourney Award-2023.

"We appreciate the incredible work that has been presented for consideration over the years and are proud to have honored past recipients whose outstanding work met our founder's aims. We look forward to receiving entries from across all geographies and disciplines this year," says Robin A. Deutsch, PhD, Analyst Trustee for the Trust.

Since 1989, The Sigourney Award has been presented to 141 Award recipients from 22 countries, each earning international distinction plus a substantial cash prize. Recent recipients hail from the United Kingdom, Italy, Mexico, South Africa, Argentina, and the USA. In 2023, work from any geographic location accomplished between 2012-2022 is eligible. Work must be innovative and promote the understanding or evolution of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic principles. An entirely independent and anonymous panel of distinguished judges will complete an unbiased and thorough evaluation of each completed submission before determining The Sigourney Award-2023 recipients.

Whether nominated or self-nominated, applicants must submit a comprehensive online application. To support and encourage international submissions, the application can be translated into more than 100 languages. Instructions and eligibility requirements for The Sigourney Award-2023 are available online and applications will be accepted through July 31, 2023. The Sigourney Award-2023 recipients will be announced in November.

"It's been a tremendous experience to learn about the impressive variety of work around the world, meet The Sigourney Award recipients, and publicly acknowledge the impact of their work. We welcome those whose work illustrates how traditional and non-traditional psychoanalytic applications can positively impact the human experience," says Barbara Sherland, JD, Attorney Trustee.

Visit www.sigourneyaward.org for all information. Applicants who do not win are invited to enter again. Find updates via social platforms on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn @SigourneyAward, and Twitter @sigourney_the.

About The Sigourney Award

The Sigourney Award Trust, an independent nonprofit organization established by Mary Sigourney in 1989, annually bestows The Sigourney Award as international recognition and reward for recent, outstanding work that advanced psychoanalytic principles through traditional and non-traditional work and applications. Ms. Sigourney was a psychotherapist, publisher, and community activist who had a passionate interest in psychoanalysis and understood its ability to benefit and extend human conversation across various disciplines. To date, 141 Award recipients from 22countries represent her global vision. Judges of The Sigourney Award remain anonymous to ensure an unbiased and thorough evaluation practice.

Media Contact:

Kelly Wisecarver, Wisecarver Public Relations

Phone: 773-218-7285 or Email: kell y @wisecarverpr.com

SOURCE The Sigourney Award
The Business Research Company's global market reports are now updated with the latest market sizing information for the year 2023 and forecasted to 2032

LONDON, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- As per The Business Research Company's Tool Steel Global Market Report 2023, the global tool steel market size will grow from $5.3 billion in 2022 to $5.7 billion in 2023 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 6%. The tool steel market growth is then expected to reach $7.3 billion in 2027 at a CAGR of more than 6%.



Asia Pacific was the largest region in the tool steel market, accounting for more than 39% of the global market share in 2022. It was followed by North America, Western Europe, and the other regions.

Hitachi Metal Ltd. was the largest tool steel companies with a more than 10% share of the tool steel market, followed by Swiss Steel Group, Voestalpine AG, Eramet SA, China Baowu Steel Group Corp., Tiangong International, and others.

Learn More On The Tool Steel Market Report  https://www.thebusinessresearchcompany.com/report/tool-steel-global-market-report

Growth in the tool steel market for these regions will be primarily driven by the following three key factors:

1. Increase In Investments In Infrastructure Projects

According to Business Standard, an Indian-based English-language daily edition newspaper, China is pumping trillions of yuan into infrastructure investment, a stimulus that could benefit the world's second-largest economy. Beijing is making 6.8 trillion yuan (about $1 trillion) of government funds available for construction projects. Therefore, increasing investments in infrastructure projects are expected to propel the growth of the tool steel market.

2. Growing Building And Construction Sector

Tool steel is used in the production of structural sections, window frames, mullions, building profiles, and many other components of construction. There is a significant increase in construction expenditures, increasing demand for the tool steel market. For example, in 2022, according to a report published by Canada's national statistical agency, the investment in building construction increased from $11,487 million in April 2020 to $20,779 million in 2022.

3. Rise In Urbanization

Rising urbanization, especially in developing countries, will lead to the development of infrastructure and commercial and residential buildings, leading to a greater demand for tool steel. For example, according to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs data, in 2018, 55% of the world's population resided in urban regions, and this is projected to rise to 68% by 2050.

Request A Free Sample Of The Tool Steel Market Report  https://www.thebusinessresearchcompany.com/sample.aspx?id=7130&type=smp

The global tool steel market is segmented -

By Product Type: Water-hardening, Cold-work, Shock-resisting, High speed, Hot-working, Special Purpose By Material Type: Tungsten, Chromium, Vanadium, Molybdenum By End Use: General Manufacturing, Automotive, Defense and Aerospace, Electronic and Electrical, Ship Building, Other End Uses

According to tool steel market analysis, the top growth potential in the tool steel market will arise in the cold-work market segment, the tungsten market segment, and the automotive market segment. The Business Research Company recommends competitors adopt market-trend-based strategies, such as implementing technological advancements, developing advanced alloys, taking up mergers and acquisitions, and focusing on product innovations, to monetize lucrative tool steel market segments.

View More Similar Market Reports:

Steel Products Global Market Report 2023

https://www.thebusinessresearchcompany.com/report/steel-products-global-market-report

Structural Steel Fabrication Global Market Report 2023

https://www.thebusinessresearchcompany.com/report/structural-steel-fabrication-global-market-report

Sintered Steel Global Market Report 2023

https://www.thebusinessresearchcompany.com/report/sintered-steel-global-market-report

Interested to know more about The Business Research Company?

The Business Research Company has published over 3000+ detailed industry reports, spanning over 3000+ market segments and 60 geographies. The reports draw on 1,500,000 datasets, extensive secondary research, and exclusive insights from interviews with industry leaders.

The World's Most Comprehensive Database

The Global Market Model, The Business Research Company's flagship product, is a market intelligence platform covering various macroeconomic indicators and metrics across 60 geographies and 27 industries. The Global Market Model covers multi-layered datasets that help its users make better strategic decisions.

Contact Information

The Business Research Company

Europe: +44 207 1930 708

Asia: +91 8897263534

Americas: +1 315 623 0293

Email: [email protected]

Follow Us On:

LinkedIn: https://in.linkedin.com/company/the-business-research-company

Twitter: https://twitter.com/tbrc_info

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheBusinessResearchCompany

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC24_fI0rV8cR5DxlCpgmyFQ

Blog: https://blog.tbrc.info/

Healthcare Blog: https://healthcareresearchreports.com/

Global Market Model: https://www.thebusinessresearchcompany.com/global-market-model

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1751581/tbrc_logo.jpg

SOURCE The Business Reseach Company
Expense reductions part of ongoing commitment to maximize value for investors

BALTIMORE, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Transamerica is pleased to announce fee reductions on the four share classes of the Transamerica Floating Rate mutual fund. Contingent upon share class, these reductions range from 0.12% to 0.22% annually. These expense reductions will become effective on or about March 1, 2023. A chart listing the reductions by share class and date is shown below.

These expense reductions are part of Transamerica's ongoing commitment to best serve mutual fund investors. Transamerica routinely reviews fund fees charged and is consistently looking for ways to maximize value.

Transamerica Asset Management, Inc. selects and monitors the sub-advisers managing Transamerica's mutual funds. The Transamerica Floating Rate fund is sub-advised by Aegon USA Investment Management, LLC, an affiliate of Transamerica Asset Management. As of December 31, 2022, Transamerica Asset Management, Inc. maintained $62.86 billion in net assets under management.

Expense reductions for the Floating Rate fund by share class are as follows:

Fund Name Ticker Effective Date Share Class Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses after fee waiver and/or reimbursement. Reduction in

Total Annual

Fund Operating

Expenses Transamerica Floating Rate I TFLIX 3/1/2023 I 0.59 % 0.22 % Transamerica Floating Rate I2 N/A 3/1/2023 I2 0.59 % 0.22 % Transamerica Floating Rate C TFLCX 3/1/2023 C 1.68 % 0.13 % Transamerica Floating Rate A TFLAX 3/1/2023 A 0.94 % 0.12 %

About Transamerica

With a history that dates back more than 100 years, Transamerica is a leading provider of life insurance, retirement, and investment solutions, serving millions of customers throughout the United States. Transamerica's dedicated professionals focus on helping people live well today and empowering them to create a better tomorrow through saving, investing, and protecting their loved ones. Transamerica serves nearly every customer segment, providing a broad range of quality individual life insurance policies, workplace supplemental insurance benefits, workplace retirement plans, individual retirement accounts and investment products including mutual funds, annuities, stable value solutions, as well as asset management services.

In 2021, Transamerica fulfilled its promises to customers, paying more than $52 billion in insurance, retirement, and annuity claims and benefits, including return of annuity premiums paid by the customer. Transamerica's head office is in Baltimore, Maryland, with other major operations in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Denver, Colorado. Transamerica is part of the Aegon group of companies. Each company of the Aegon group of companies is solely responsible for its own financial conditions and contractual obligations. Based in the Netherlands, Aegon is a diversified, international financial services group offering investment, protection, and retirement solutions. For the full year of 2021, Aegon managed over $1.1 trillion in revenue generating investments. For more information, visit www.transamerica.com.

About Transamerica Asset Management, Inc.

Transamerica Asset Management, Inc. is an SEC-registered investment adviser that provides asset management, fund administration and shareholder services for institutional and retail clients. The funds advised and sponsored by Transamerica Asset Management, Inc. include Transamerica Funds, and Transamerica Series Trust. Transamerica Funds and Transamerica Series Trust are distributed by Transamerica Capital, Inc. (TCI), member FINRA. Transamerica Asset Management, Inc. has total assets under management of more than $62.86 billion as of December 31, 2022, and is an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Aegon N.V., an international life insurance, pension, and asset management company. Aegon USA Investment Management, LLC is an affiliate of Transamerica Asset Management, Inc.

Mutual Funds are subject to market risk, including loss of principal. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

Mutual Funds are sold by prospectus. Before investing, consider the funds' investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses. This and other important information is contained in the prospectus. Please visit www.transamerica.com or contact your financial professional to obtain a prospectus or, if available, a summary prospectus containing this information. Please read it carefully before investing.

Floating rate loans are often made to borrowers whose financial condition is troubled or highly leveraged. These loans frequently are rated below investment grade and are therefore subject to risks associated with high yield bonds. High yield bonds tend to be volatile and more susceptible to adverse events, credit downgrades and negative sentiments.

During periods of market disruption (e.g. COVID 19), which may trigger trading halts, the fund's exposure to the risks described in the prospectus will likely increase. As a result, the value and liquidity of the fund's investments may be negatively affected.

Transamerica Funds are advised by Transamerica Asset Management, Inc. (TAM) and distributed by Transamerica Capital, Inc. (TCI), member of FINRA.1801 California Street, Suite 5200, Denver, Colorado 80202.

Media inquiries:

[email protected]

Erin Yang

(303) 383-5295

Julie Quinlan

(303) 383-5923

SOURCE Transamerica
ORLANDO, Fla., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Go Trip Network was spun off from Tansect, and the Company has issued Regulation D 506c shares to promote and grow its unique Travel Tech platform.

The offering is for $1 Million in proceeds in exchange for 50% of the venture, and the minimum investment is $10,000 (maximum of 100 Accredited Investors). Go Trip Network intends to utilize the proceeds for the initial staffing of key positions, marketing, development of an Apple and Android app to mirror the current web-based platform, the opening of a small office in Orlando, and retained funds for Go Trip Network. Details about the offering, including the complete offering document, are available through the Company's website www.gotripnetwork.com/investorhub.php.

The platform launched in 2022, but after initial feedback it was upgraded and relaunched in January 2023. The current platform includes an industry unique DIY itinerary builder that organizes all facets of a trip (no more printing out hundreds of pages of confirmations, or scrolling for confirmation emails), over 4,000 city guides, an online hospitality-based strategy game (Hospitality Empire), a member based social community, and more.

According to Go Trip and Tansect Founder Michael Heisman, "Tansect was originally founded for the sole purpose of this amazing platform and other travel related items, but to earn revenue while coding/developing we started accepting consulting gigs from supply chain customers (a large portion of my background is Supply Chain). The Supply Chain revenue kept coming, and I ultimately made the decision that Tansect will be a third-party Supply Chain provider and consulting firm. However, having two distinct brands (Tansect and Go Trip Network) in two separate industries was confusing our customers and partners, so we made the decision to segregate Go Trip Network. Prior to doing so we wanted to make sure the platform was active and ready to go (which it is), so Investors would not have to sit during a potentially lengthy development process".

Go Trip Network has been incorporated as a Florida Corporation and has plans to open the Orlando office mid-2023.

SOURCE Go Trip Network
QUEBEC, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ - UgoWork, a Canadian energy solutions provider specializing in lithium-ion batteries and Energy as a Service (EaaS) solutions in the material handling industry, today announced that it will unveil a brand-new lithium-ion battery management solution at ProMat 2023 , which will take place from March 20 to 23 in Chicago, IL.

To be showcased at UgoWork's booth (#N6760) alongside its lithium-ion batteries for industrial trucks , pay-per-use approach and real-time fleet monitoring services, the company's lithium-ion battery management solution will put material handling team's in the driver's seat for more effective and efficient means to track performance levels and energy usage.

"This new platform is akin to business intelligence for both industrial trucks and the batteries that power them," explained Philippe Beauchamp, UgoWork's CEO. "We have drawn upon a decade of experience in energy management and most importantly, listened to fleet operator's challenges, to develop an intuitive solution that is easy to use and provides clear insights to maximize the ROI of lithium-ion batteries, reduce unnecessary expenses, and, overall, accelerate material handling operations throughput. Our ultimate goal is to maintain our success story record with our Fortune 500 clients, who all achieved exceptional outcomes from every perspective."

To book an exclusive demo of UgoWork's latest innovations at ProMat 2023, visit get.ugowork.com/promat .

About UgoWork

UgoWork develops, manufactures, and offers energy expertise and innovative lithium-ion power solutions that unlock the possibilities of Energy as a Service for the material handling industry. The company provides a flexible and cost-efficient consumption model that guarantees uptime and peace of mind. Its cloud-based approach to fleet optimization, pay-per-use program, energy insight, continuous field service, uptime guarantee, and end-of-life management enable fleet managers to execute their energy transition seamlessly. UgoWork's products and energy solutions cater to industrial trucks operating in the food and beverage, manufacturing, transportation, and distribution sectors.

Based in Quebec, Canada, the company offers its advanced, cost-efficient, and proven energy management programs across North America to many fortune 500 companies. Visit ugowork.com .

SOURCE UgoWork
The increase in demand for safe and efficient monitoring of gas bubble levels in various industries, and advantages of ultrasonic air bubble detectors over conventional delivery systems drive the global ultrasonic air bubble detectors market

PORTLAND, Ore., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Ultrasonic Air Bubble Detectors Market by Product (Fixed, Adjustable), by Application (Medical Technologies, Pharmaceutical Industry, Foodstuffs Industry, Automation and Process Control, Others): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2021-2031" According to the report, the global ultrasonic air bubble detectors industry was valued at $108.8 million in 2021 and is estimated to generate $221.6 million by 2031, witnessing a CAGR of 7.3% 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.

Request PDF Brochure: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/3117

Drivers, Restraints, and Opportunities

The increase in demand for safe and efficient monitoring of gas bubble levels in various industries, such as oil and gas, power generation, and water treatment, advantages of ultrasonic air bubble detectors over conventional delivery systems, and advancements of temperature-compensated ultrasonic air bubble sensors to overcome limitations of changing temperatures drive cell market. However, high costs associated with deploying ultrasonic gas bubble detectors and the complex integration of them with other systems hinder the global market growth. On the other hand, the advantages of non-invasive air pressure detection in applications for hard body disposable will present new growth opportunities for the global ultrasonic air bubble detectors market in the coming years.

Covid-19 Scenario

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the ultrasonic air bubble detectors market witnessed a negative growth. This is because production and manufacturing facilities across the globe were shut down, owing to the unavailability of workforce, thereby declining the growth of the ultrasonic air bubble detectors market in 2020.

Moreover, the pandemic led the market to make short term decisions with long-term implications.

By mid-2022, the market witnessed a robust recovery due to the demand for digital solutions in industrial sectors. Furthermore, the pandemic escalated the need for high-end testing solutions, which is opportunistic for market growth.

The Fixed Segment to grab the Largest Revenue during the Forecast Period

Based on product, the fixed segment contributed to the largest share of nearly three-fifths of the global ultrasonic air bubble detectors market in 2021 and is expected to maintain its dominance during the forecast period. This is due to the increase in the demand for accurate and reliable monitoring of fluid systems in various industries. The surge in adoption of ultrasonic technology in the medical industry and increase in demand for clean water are expected to drive the market growth. However, the adjustable segment is projected to witness the fastest CAGR of 8.4% from 2022 to 2031. There is an increase in the demand for medical devices, including adjustable ultrasonic air bubble detectors with the growth of the healthcare industry and an aging population.

Buy This Report (218 Pages PDF with Insights, Charts, Tables, and Figures): https://bit.ly/3m3AZrl

The Automation and Process Control Segment to achieve the Fastest growth during the Forecast Period

Based on application, the automation and process control segment is projected to witness the fastest CAGR of 11.15% from 2022 to 2031. Automation and process control systems are becoming increasingly important in various industries, including healthcare, pharmaceuticals, water treatment, and industrial processes. Ultrasonic air bubble detectors can be integrated into these systems to improve the safety and efficiency by detecting the presence of air bubbles in liquid systems. However, the medical technologies segment contributed to the largest share of more than half of the global ultrasonic air bubble detectors market in 2021 and is expected to maintain its leadership in terms of revenue during the forecast period. There is an increase in the demand for ultrasonic air bubble detectors in medical technologies, owing to their growing applications in hospitals, clinics, ambulatory care centers, and home healthcare settings. They are commonly used to monitor IV lines, ensuring that patients receiving IV therapy are not at risk of air bubbles.

Asia-Pacific to Achieve the Largest Revenue and Fastest Growth by 2031

Based on region, the market in Asia-Pacific was the largest in 2021, accounting for more than half of the global ultrasonic air bubble detectors market and is likely to maintain its dominance during the forecast timeframe. The same market is likely to show the fastest CAGR of 8.39% during the forecast period. The market growth is being supported by the increasing adoption of ultrasonic air bubble detectors in various sectors such as pharmaceuticals, food and beverage, power generation, oil and gas, chemical, semiconductor, and aerospace industries in the region.

Want to Access the Statistical Data and Graphs, Key Players' Strategies: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/ultrasonic-air-bubble-detectors-market/purchase-options

Leading Market Players

SONOTEC GmbH

Piezo Technologies

Moog Inc.

Sensaras LLC

TE Connectivity Ltd.

Biosonix

Meggitt plc

Strain Measurement Devices

Introtek International

Siansonic Technology Co., Ltd.

Morgan Advanced Materials Plc

The report analyzes these key players of the global ultrasonic air bubble detectors market. These players have adopted various strategies such as expansion, new product launches, partnerships, and others to increase their market penetration and strengthen their position in the industry. The report is helpful in determining the business performance, operating segments, product portfolio, and developments by every market player.

Key Benefits For Stakeholders:

This report provides a quantitative analysis of the market segments, current trends, estimations, and dynamics of the Ultrasonic Air Bubble Detectors market analysis and Ultrasonic Air Bubble Detectors market outlook from 2021 to 2031 to identify the prevailing market opportunity.

The market research is offered along with information related to key drivers, restraints, and opportunities.

Porter's five forces analysis highlights the potency of buyers and suppliers to enable stakeholders make profit-oriented business decisions and strengthen their supplier-buyer network.

In-depth analysis of the market segmentation assists to determine the prevailing market opportunities.

Major countries in each region are mapped according to their revenue contribution to the global market.

Market player positioning facilitates benchmarking and provides a clear understanding of the present position of the market players.

The report includes the analysis of the regional as well as global Ultrasonic Air Bubble Detectors market trends, key players, market segments, application areas, and market growth strategies.

Ultrasonic Air Bubble Detectors Market Key Segments:

Product

Fixed

Adjustable

Application

Medical Technologies

Pharmaceutical Industry

Foodstuffs Industry

Automation and Process Control

Others

By Region

North America (U.S., Canada , Mexico )

(U.S., , ) Europe (UK, Germany , France , Rest of Europe )

(UK, , , Rest of ) Asia-Pacific ( China , Japan , India , South Korea , Rest of Asia-Pacific )

( , , , , Rest of ) LAMEA ( Latin America , Middle East , Africa )

Buy this Research Report @ https://bit.ly/3kzQgjk

Trending Reports in Semiconductor Industry (Book Now with 10% Discount):

Ultrasonic Sensor Market Size, Share | Industry Trends

Ultrasound Testing Equipment Market Insight and Trends 2031

Ultrasonic Park Assist Sensor Market Size, Share | 2023 - 2031

Ultrasonic Testing Market Trends, Analytics and Statistics

About Us

Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions." AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.

We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Allied Market Research CEO Pawan Kumar is instrumental in inspiring and encouraging everyone associated with the company to maintain high quality of data and help clients in every way possible to achieve success. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.

Contact:

David Correa

5933 NE Win Sivers Drive

#205, Portland, OR 97220

United States

USA/Canada (Toll Free): +1-800-792-5285, +1-503-894-6022

UK: +44-845-528-1300

Hong Kong: +852-301-84916

India (Pune): +91-20-66346060

Fax: +1(855)550-5975

[email protected]

Web: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/reports-store/semiconductor-and-electronics

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/636519/Allied_Market_Research_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Allied Market Research
FREDERICK, Md., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Theradaptive, a leading biotechnology company specializing in therapeutic delivery platforms, announces a Technology & Therapeutic Development Award (TTDA) of $4 million from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) awarded through the Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program (PRMRP) of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP). The contract will fund its OsteoAdapt regenerative therapeutic product for spine and trauma repair to first in human clinical studies.

Theradaptive's OsteoAdapt product was granted three breakthrough medical device designations by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2021 and 2022 for various spinal indications. OsteoAdapt is created by combining AMP2 protein, a novel bone regenerative biologic, with ReBOSSIS, a 510K-approved implant material. OsteoAdapt has the capability to precisely direct bone regrowth where it is needed in the body.

Today, Theradaptive, announces a Technology & Therapeutic Development Award of $4 million from the U.S. DOD Tweet this

The funds from the DOD contract will enable Theradaptive to continue its work to meet regulatory requirements and scale up Good Manufacturing Practices-compliant manufacturing of the OsteoAdapt product in preparation for clinical studies. After a request for an Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) is submitted to the FDA for approval, Theradaptive will initiate human clinical trials.

Theradaptive's OsteoAdapt, powered by their proprietary AMP2 biologic, has beaten the standard of care in all preclinical studies to date. The DOD funding will enable the development of OsteoAdapt and the promise of life-changing surgery for Service Members and civilians with degenerative or traumatic spinal, extremity, craniomaxillofacial, and dental injuries. 37% of adults over the age of 30 and over 80% of adults over the age of 50 have at least one degenerated vertebral disc.

CEO and founder of Theradaptive, Dr. Luis Alvarez, Ph.D., believes the funding is a major step towards clinical trials: "This award affirms Theradaptive's rapid and successful execution of earlier stage programs funded by Department of Defense, and provides funding crucial to advance a new kind of therapeutic that upon FDA approval will address massive unmet needs among Service Members, Veterans, and in the general population."

"We understand the challenges that many service members face, particularly when traumatic extremity injuries progress to limb amputation or when years of physical activity lead to spinal degeneration, disc injury, and pain. The support provided by this contract will accelerate the completion of product development milestones that will allow Theradaptive to reach clinical trials faster and get us one step closer to providing this game-changing therapy to patients who need it most."

Dr. Leon J. Nesti, a surgeon at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center offers additional perspective: "Starting from early inspiration from Luis's military career, Theradaptive has made significant progress in developing a regenerative technology that has now been demonstrated for orthopedic repair. Their technology offers a transformative approach to address medical challenges through regenerative mechanisms that stimulate stem cells, including the potential to restore patients' quality of life by accelerating the process of bone regeneration. This technology is one of the few that addresses the stem cell niche directly by delivering growth factors to those stem cells. This work will have a large scientific impact and will benefit Service Members and Veterans."

About Theradaptive

Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Maryland, U.S., Theradaptive is a venture-backed biopharmaceutical company with the goal of leveraging their therapeutic delivery platform that can deliver biologics where they are needed in the body with high precision and persistence to address unmet medical needs. Theradaptive is led by CEO Luis Alvarez, Ph.D., and its innovative platform has started to enable new therapeutics in spine, orthopedic and soft tissue repair as well as targeted immuno-oncology.

This work is supported by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs through the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs under Award No. (W81XWH-22-1-0875) for an amount of $3,979,465.00. Opinions, interpretations, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Department of Defense.

Contact:

Serena Lertora

[email protected]

SOURCE Theradaptive
Company Partners with Actress and Entrepreneur Ashley Tisdale to Encourage Americans to Take the Phone's Down for 5 Challenge

CHICAGO, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Celebrated the first Friday in March, National Day of Unplugging is a day to disconnect from digital distractions. UScellular is encouraging all Americans to take this a step further with a personal experiment called Phones Down For 5.

UScellular Partners with Ashley Tisdale to Encourage Americans to Take the Phone's Down for 5 Challenge. Tweet this UScellular Partners with Actress and Entrepreneur Ashley Tisdale to Encourage Americans to Take the Phones Down for 5 Challenge

Phones Down For 5 is part of the company's recently announced " Let's Find US " initiative. The goal is to inspire people, who on average spend more than five hours a day staring at their phone screen1, to reset their relationship with technology. Phones Down For 5 challenge asks people to voluntarily stop using their phone to reveal how addicted they are to it. The challenge is built on a simple action: taking a phone break for 5 days, 5 hours, or even just 5 minutes, to reset your relationship with technology.

The company is inviting everyone to participate in Phones Down For 5 by going to uscellular.com/findus to set a personal goal and share their experience using #PhonesDownFor5.

"We're going somewhere others in our industry haven't been - we are bringing awareness to the hyperconnected relationship we have with our devices and the lack of connection with those around us," said Eric Jagher, senior vice president and chief marketing officer for UScellular. "With this challenge, we aspire to help everyone reset and get back time to do the things they love most. I invite the entire nation to join me and the UScellular team this National Day of Unplugging to take a break from their devices and take the first step of building better relationships with our technology."

UScellular has even called for content creators and celebrities to take this challenge to build a healthier connection with their devices. Most notably, actress, mental health advocate, and entrepreneur, Ashley Tisdale. Ashley participated in the challenge and unplugged for five days in late February.

"Who would've thought that a cell carrier would be calling us out on over connection with our devices," said Tisdale. "Participating in the #PhonesDownFor5 challenge was tough, but it allowed me to reconnect with everything I love without any distractions. I highly recommend everyone join UScellular in taking this challenge."

Additionally, UScellular offers tips at newsroom.uscellular.com/phones-down-for-five-tips/ to successfully make the most of the Phones Down For 5 challenge. Highlights include:

Out of sight: Put your phone somewhere you won't be readily able to see it, like a drawer or cabinet. Keep it in your purse or bag while in your car. Consider putting your phone in airplane mode or turning off notifications so you won't be tempted if you hear it buzzing.

Ask yourself: how important is that notification, really? We've all been there: you hear the sound of a text or notification and get the urge to immediately drop everything you're doing and check your phone. But most notifications are not urgent and only a small percentage actually require your immediate attention. Change your notification settings to get them batched at a certain time or turn on only the ones you deem the most important.

Spend time with people you love: Grab dinner with a friend you haven't seen in a while. Have a meaningful conversation with your partner. Invite your neighbors over for a board game night. Cook a complicated recipe with your family. Create memories that you can't replicate when you're focused on your phone.

Get creative: Draw, dance, write, paint, or get creative in the kitchen. Use your phone-free time as an opportunity to reconnect with your creative side and sharpen your brain.

Get out. Work out. Chill out.: Spend some time outdoors, getting some fresh air, and being in nature. It's good for your mental and physical health.

Disconnect Wisely: Needs may dictate not being able to disconnect completelyand that's okay. The goal is to find what works for you. One option could be to move tasks you typically do on your phone to a computer (e.g., email, surfing the internet, scrolling social media). This can help you stay connected as needed but not necessarily be connected everywhere you go.

How did it feel: Take a moment to reflect on what worked and what didn't. Journaling can be a helpful habit while you're doing a digital detox to process what you're feeling while you're offline. What was positive about putting your phone down? Did you pick up any new hobbies or positive habits? Did your life and relationships improve? What would you do differently next time? What you learn from trying to disconnect thoughtfully will help you get closer to success the next time you try.

For more news and information about UScellular, go to newsroom.uscellular.com .

About UScellular

UScellular is the fourth-largest full-service wireless carrier in the United States, providing national network coverage and industry-leading innovations designed to help customers stay connected to the things that matter most. The Chicago-based carrier provides a strong, reliable network supported by the latest technology and offers a wide range of communication services that enhance consumers' lives, increase the competitiveness of local businesses and improve the efficiency of government operations. Through its After School Access Project , the company has pledged to provide hotspots and service to help up to 50,000 youth connect to reliable internet. Additionally, UScellular has price protected all of its plans, promising not to increase prices through at least the end of 2024. To learn more about UScellular, visit one of its retail stores or www.uscellular.com . To get the latest news, visit newsroom.uscellular.com .

[1] data.ai, The State of Mobile 2022 Today, 2022

For more information, contact:

Katie Frey, Uscellular

[email protected]

773-317-0002

SOURCE UScellular
Vantage is recognised as the Best CFD Broker in Australia by Business Tabloid.

SYDNEY, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Multi-asset broker Vantage (or "Vantage Markets") clinched a total of 11 new awards in 2023, marking a positive start to the year. These awards are testament to Vantage's efforts in strengthening its platform and enhancing its client offerings over the past year.

On a global level, Vantage received the Best-in-Class award for the Metatrader and Social Copy Trading categories, awarded by renowned review platform ForexBrokers.com. This comes on the back of the introduction of social trading to Vantage's proprietary app in 2022.

The multi-asset broker also received 6 awards from EMG - Global 100, including the "Best FOREX Broker of the Year  Global", "Excellence in Customer Service  Global", "Best Leading Regulated Forex Broker of the Year  Global", and "Best Web Based Trading Platform and Mobile App  2023".

In Australia, where Vantage has operated since 2009, the broker was recognised as the "Best CFD Broker - Australia 2022" at the Business Tabloid awards. In recent years, the group has expanded its client support team in Australia to provide a better service to its clients.

Further in the Middle East and Africa region, where Vantage has sponsored major exhibitions like iFX Dubai and AW Dubai, it has received the "Best Trading Experience  MEA" and the "Most Transparent Broker  MEA" awards, issued by Ultimate Fintech MEA.

Marc Despallieres, Chief Strategy & Trading Officer at Vantage, says "We are honoured to be recognised at these performance-based awards. Our team has worked hard to bring our business from strength to strength, which culminated in our crossing the 1 million active users milestone in 2022. These awards are dedicated to them."

"We also want to thank our clients for their continued support and encouragement, and for being our biggest motivation to keep improving."

About Vantage

Vantage is a multi-asset broker offering clients access to a nimble and powerful service for trading CFD on Forex, Commodities, Indices, Shares, ETFs, and Bonds.

With more than 13 years of market experience, Vantage entities now have over 1,000 employees across more than 30 global offices.

Vantage is more than a broker. It provides a trusted trading ecosystem, an award-winning mobile trading app, and a user- friendly trading platform that enables clients to take advantage of trading opportunities.

trade smarter @vantage.

SOURCE Vantage
WASHINGTON, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ --

Date: March 6, 2023

Time: 11.00  16.00

Venue: National Press Club (Washington, DC)

Address: 529 14th St NW, Washington DC 20045, USA

Announcement

On March 6, 2023, the International GA Professionals Association (IGAPA) will hold the Seventh International GR Forum at the National Press Club.

The GR forum led by IGAPA is one of the central international events that brings together leading experts in the field of government relations, advocacy and lobbying, as well as representatives of related professions: consultants, lawyers, political technologists from all over the world.

The forum will present best practices in the field of relations with government agencies, as well as discuss global challenges for the GR industry. Forum works as a platform for experience exchange and cooperation and has 8-year history.

One of the central topics on this year will be the advocacy of Ukraine's interests in the world. In this block of discussion to addition to practices, Kateryna Odarchenko will present at the Forum a project on the activities of the Institute for Democracy and Development "PolitA" and their projects on advocacy of Ukraine, democracy building and analytics about Russian disinformation.

Among the speakers

Kateryna Odarchenko is a well-known political consultant and public figure, partner of SIC Group, which is engaged in advocacy of Ukrainian interests, preparation of lawsuits against Russia, as well as analytical support of counteraction to Russian disinformation.

Stephen Blank is a senior fellow at the Institute for Foreign Policy Studies and Hudson Institute, a noted expert on Russian foreign and defense policy and international relations in the former Soviet Union and an expert on European and Asian security, including energy issues.

Victoria Spartz is an American politician of Ukrainian descent. Ex-senator of the state of Indiana. In 2021, she began serving as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Zhanar Suleimenova is a well-known public figure, politician, expert on the development of public administration of small and medium enterprises and education in Kazakhstan.

Participation in the VII International GR forum confirmed the representatives of nine countries: Ukraine, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Great Britain, Canada, USA. Partners: SIC Group, Institute for democracy and development "PolitA"

The program and all speakers of the VII International GR Forum can be found here: https://igapa.net/?p=1829

Accreditation of journalists to cover the VII International GR Forum: https://forms.gle/3iHGSuYbdJ2AuS5s9

SOURCE International GA Professionals Association
The Vilcek Foundation will award three Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise of $50,000 each to immigrant designers in 2024.

NEW YORK, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- In 2024, the Vilcek Foundation will award three Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise of $50,000 each to immigrant designers living and working in the United States. The foundation is issuing an open call for applications for the 2024 prizes, which will be accepted through June 12, 2023, at 5:00 p.m. ET.

The Vilcek Foundation will award three $50,000 Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise to rising immigrant designers in 2024. Tweet this Digital designers collaborate on a design for a website. Related Documents View PDF Vilcek Foundation announces open call for $150,000 in prizes to immigrant designers

The Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Design are part of the Vilcek Foundation Prizes program, which recognizes the contributions of immigrants in the United States, and celebrates the value of immigration for a robust society. Awarded annually since 2006, the Vilcek Foundation Prizes are given each year in two primary categories: biomedical science, and a rotating category in the arts and humanities. The Vilcek Foundation Prizes recognize and celebrate the contributions of immigrants to the arts, culture, and society, and shine a spotlight on individual immigrant artists and scientists whose work has a profound impact on their field.

"Design integrates artistry and scientific analysis to create graphics, products, and experiences that fulfill fundamental human needs: communication, functionality, comfort, and aesthetics," says Vilcek Foundation President Rick Kinsel. "With the Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Design, we honor individual immigrant designers whose work is visually compelling and anticipates the needs of clients and communities."

The 2024 Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Design will be awarded to individuals working in digital design, graphic design, product design, and social design. Recipients of the Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise each receive an unrestricted cash award of $50,000 and a commemorative certificate. Prize recipients are also celebrated in a media campaign published by the Vilcek Foundation highlighting their design accomplishments and life experiences.

Eligible candidates must have at least five years of professional experience in design and must provide proof of completing at least three professional, implemented design projects produced independently or as part of a design collective. Candidates must have been born outside the United States to non-American parents on or after January 1, 1985, and be living and working in the United States. DACA recipients and asylum seekers are strongly encouraged to apply.

The Vilcek Foundation previously awarded prizes in design in 2014. That year, Neri Oxman, known for her work that combines design, biology, computing, and materials engineering, received a Vilcek Prize in Design, and game and UX designer Yasaman Hashemian, product designer Mansour Ourasanah, and DSGN AGNC founder Quilian Riano received Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Design.

Full application details and eligibility requirements are available at the Vilcek Foundation and at vilcek.org . Please direct questions about the application process or the Vilcek Foundation Prizes program to Chief Program Officer Shinnie Kim at [email protected] .

The Vilcek Foundation

The Vilcek Foundation raises awareness of immigrant contributions in the United States and fosters appreciation for the arts and sciences. The foundation was established in 2000 by Jan and Marica Vilcek, immigrants from the former Czechoslovakia. The mission of the foundation was inspired by the couple's respective careers in biomedical science and art history. Since 2000, the foundation has awarded over $7 million in prizes to foreign-born individuals and has supported organizations with over $6 million in grants.

The Vilcek Foundation is a private operating foundation, a federally tax-exempt nonprofit organization under IRS Section 501(c)(3). To learn more, please visit vilcek.org .

SOURCE The Vilcek Foundation
The Vilcek Foundation will award three Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise of $50,000 each to rising immigrant scientists in 2024.

NEW YORK, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- In 2024, the Vilcek Foundation will award three Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science of $50,000 each. The prizes recognize and celebrate the contributions of rising immigrant scientists in the United States whose work represents a significant contribution to their field. The Vilcek Foundation is hosting an open call for applications for the 2024 prizes; applications will be accepted through June 12, 2023, at 5:00 p.m. ET.

Three $50,000 Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science will be awarded to immigrant scientists in 2024. Tweet this Apply by June 12, 2023 for a Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science Related Documents View PDF Vilcek Foundation announces open call for $150,000 in prizes to immigrant scientists

The Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise are a part of the Vilcek Foundation Prizes program. Awarded annually since 2006, the Vilcek Foundation Prizes are given each year in two primary categories: biomedical science, and a rotating category in the arts and humanities. The Vilcek Foundation Prizes honor the contributions of immigrants to science, medicine, and the arts, and raise awareness of the value of immigration for a robust society.

"The American Immigration Council reports that immigrants and foreign-born individuals are widely represented in STEM fields in the United States, making up 30.8% of all physical scientists and 27.7% of life scientists," says Vilcek Foundation President Rick Kinsel. "By highlighting the impact that immigrants have on science and society, we recognize the importance of immigration for medicine, academic research, and scientific advancement in the United States."

"Immigrating to the United States has provided scientists with the opportunity to freely pursue the subjects they are passionate about, and to collaborate openly with others in their fields," says Jan Vilcek, chairman and CEO of the Vilcek Foundation. "With the Vilcek Foundation Prizes in Biomedical Science, we honor exceptional immigrant scientists who are pioneering new research methods and making important discoveries that benefit humanity."

Past recipients of the Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science include Ibrahim Cisse, Hani Goodarzi, Viviana Gradinaru, Harmit Malik, Silvi Rouskin, and Feng Zhang.

Recipients of the Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise each receive an unrestricted cash award of $50,000 and a commemorative certificate. Prize recipients are also celebrated in a media campaign published by the Vilcek Foundation highlighting their scientific accomplishments and life experiences.

Candidates must have been born outside the United States to non-American parents, and be living and working in the United States. Eligible candidates for the 2024 Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science must hold a doctoral degree, and must currently be employed as a principal researcher with an academic institution or an accredited scientific research organization. DACA recipients and asylum seekers are strongly encouraged to apply.

Full application details and eligibility requirements are available at the Vilcek Foundation and at vilcek.org . Please direct questions about the application process or the Vilcek Foundation Prizes to Chief Program Officer Shinnie Kim at [email protected] .

The Vilcek Foundation

The Vilcek Foundation raises awareness of immigrant contributions in the United States and fosters appreciation for the arts and sciences. The foundation was established in 2000 by Jan and Marica Vilcek, immigrants from the former Czechoslovakia. The mission of the foundation was inspired by the couple's respective careers in biomedical science and art history. Since 2000, the foundation has awarded over $7 million in prizes to foreign-born individuals and has supported organizations with over $6 million in grants.

The Vilcek Foundation is a private operating foundation, a federally tax-exempt nonprofit organization under IRS Section 501(c)(3). To learn more, please visit vilcek.org .

Contact

Elizabeth Boylan

The Vilcek Foundation

212-472-2500

[email protected]

SOURCE The Vilcek Foundation
SHENZHEN, China, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- vivo, a global leading technology company, has unveiled the new V27, the latest flagship-level portrait addition to its stylish V series. Equipped with an exclusive Aura Light Portrait System, stylish color designs, a high-performance 4nm chip, and a 3D curved screen, V27 is the complete smartphone for users looking to capture every moment of their exciting lives.

V27 has been designed with the trendy lifestyles of its users in mind. The flagship-level cameras with their Aura Light Portrait System improve the photography experience through the integration of optical photography and computing photography to make images stand out. The smartphone offers video functions including Super Night Video and Hybrid Image Stabilization (OIS + EIS)[1], which allow the user to take videos with bright and clear details in dimly lit environments. The new smartphone colors are richer and more engaging, with each one offering a different visual experience by utilizing Fluorite AG Glass with fashionable color-changing effect[2]. The new generation 4nm chip drives the powerful performance of the phone and improves the user experience. Furthermore, it has a 6.78" (17.22 cm) 3D curved screen and to make sure users never miss a thing, V27 comes with long-lasting battery life.

"vivo constantly strives to develop leading technology such as the studio-level lighting effect of Aura Light Portrait System in its smartphones to improve performance and user experience. The latest V27 model comes with flagship-level cameras, video capabilities, and high-performance 4nm chip which will help users who lead an active social life capture and share special moments," said Spark Ni, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at vivo. "The V series smartphones are well-known for their aesthetic beauty and vivo has continued this strong tradition with Fluorite AG Glass with color changing effect on V27. Looking ahead, vivo will continue to push the boundaries with its smartphones to ensure users enjoy the best experience."

Capture exciting moments with flagship-level camera technology

People with active lives require cameras with groundbreaking hardware as well as software specifications to help them capture every exciting moment. The Aura Light Portrait System of V27 provides natural night portraits thanks to its rear ultra-sensing main camera, studio-level soft lighting effect, and portrait-enhancing capabilities. Featuring a flagship-level Sony IMX766V sensor, and exclusive Aura Light and Portrait algorithms working in tandem, the camera lights up faces for great portraits at night and helps users record beautiful moments.

In addition, the rear camera of V27 also has OIS, which allows for a longer exposure and increases light intake by six times, producing more stable snapshots and boosting the quality and success rate of images taken in low-light conditions. The Real-Time Extreme Night Vision feature available in Night mode allows users to see how bright the image is in preview mode, providing a real-time view of the brightness level of the final image. What's more, users can manually adjust the exposure and brightness during preview, to gain total control in night photography scenarios. vivo's own RAWHDR algorithm makes more detailed color adjustments, faithfully restoring highlights, colors, and brightness. This enables users to record amazing night scenes.

Achieve clearer dim-lighting videos and shoot professional-looking vlogs

V27 combines two video features: Super Night Video and unique Hybrid Image Stabilization (OIS+EIS). Super Night Video reduces noise in night footage and makes the video look brighter, enabling users to capture wonderful moments with one simple tap even in dark conditions. Hybrid Image Stabilization (OIS + EIS) can perform stabilization computations and movements up to 10,000 times per second, giving users smoother, more stable, and clearer footage. In addition, the Vlog Movie Creator feature offers a new one-stop video creation experience, providing 24 templates with rich video effects to show users how to shoot objects, people, or landscapes, along with real-time guidance for camera movement. Furthermore, Vlog Movie Creator also enables users to edit videos efficiently with built-in time slider, allowing users to crop and delete redundant segments of videos with ease. To match the look of professional vloggers, Vlog Movie Creator also comes with portrait optimization to enhance skin texture, focus, lighting and stabilization, to ensure the subjects in the video look their best.

Stand out from the crowd with dynamic colors

Adhering to the stylish aesthetic for which V series is known, V27 defies the conventions of using static designs. The phone has a beautiful design flow which gives it a dynamic, artistic, simple, and elegant look. Each color offers a different visual experience. The Magic Blue[3]edition adopts the Fluorite AG Glass with color-changing effect under UV light, giving it a graceful yet distinctive appearance. While the Emerald Green[4]edition adopts the emerald glass processing technique, combined with 14 layers of nano-grade coating to enhance the smoothness and clearness of the glass, giving it a refreshing appearance while showing its dynamic hues. The Noble Black edition also uses Fluorite AG Glass but with an embossed glitter texture on the surface that resembles stars in the night sky. The Flowing Gold edition uses 3D Light Spot Color Gradient technology to create a water ripple pattern which gives the phone a 3D visual effect on a 2D surface.

High-performance chip seamlessly switches between apps

More and more users are looking for smartphones with high performance capabilities. V27 features a 4 nm advanced process, exceptionally low power consumption, higher processing speed, and a substantial performance boost over the previous generation of MediaTek chip. Furthermore, V27 is equipped with Extended RAM 3.0[5] which works in tandem with the 4 nm chip to help people seamlessly switch between apps and store data. Dynamic app grouping, data compression, and data aggregation algorithms precisely compress and process background app data, increasing the number of active open apps and decreasing resource usage and consumption to provide a smoother user experience. Extended RAM supports extended RAM of up to 8 GB, which means, for example, an 8 GB RAM phone has equivalent RAM of 16 GB, and a 12 GB RAM phone has equivalent RAM of 20 GB.

Visually stunning screen

vivo constantly strives to improve the visual experience for its users. V27 has a 6.78" (17.22 cm) 3D curved screen which provides a more immersive and engaging visual experience with a refresh rate of 120 Hz, 1.07 billion colors, and ultra-high brightness and contrast. The 3D curved screen offers rich details, giving users a cinema-like immersive visual world. In addition, V27 has the thinnest and lightest curved screen in vivo's history, with a 7.36mm thickness and weighing 182g[6], giving the phone a comfortable grip.

Longer battery life provides more enjoyment

The new V27 model is equipped with a 4600 mAh (TYP) battery, coupled with vivo's in-house developed FlashCharge technology, it allows for 66W of charging power and a peak energy conversion efficiency of up to 97.5%. And with the further support of an advanced cooling system, the phone can be charged to 50% in only 19 minutes while the screen is off[7]. The battery lets users play videos, music, games or simply stay connected continuously for longer, and has twice the lifespan compared to the industry standard.

Pricing and availability

Starting from today, V27 is available in more than 25 markets, including India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Pakistan, Egypt, and the UAE. The availability, pricing and specifications of each model will vary according to local market conditions and consumer preferences.

About vivo

vivo is a technology company that creates great products based on a design-driven value, with smart devices and intelligent services as its core. The company aims to build a bridge between humans and the digital world. Through unique creativity, vivo provides users with an increasingly convenient mobile and digital life. Following the company's core values, which include Benfen*, user-orientation, design-driven value, continuous learning and team spirit, vivo has implemented a sustainable development strategy with the vision of developing into a healthier, more sustainable world-class corporation.

While bringing together and developing the best local talents to deliver excellence, vivo is supported by a network of R&D centers in Shenzhen, Dongguan, Nanjing, Beijing, Hangzhou, Shanghai and Xi'an, focusing on the development of state-of-the-art consumer technologies, including 5G, artificial intelligence, industrial design, imaging system and other up-and-coming technologies. vivo has also set up an intelligent manufacturing network (including those authorized by vivo), with an annual production capacity of nearly 200 million smartphones. As of now, vivo has branched out its sales network across more than 60 countries and regions, and is loved by more than 400 million users worldwide.

*"Benfen" is a term describing the attitude on doing the right things and doing things right  which is the ideal description of vivo's mission to create value for society.

Stay informed of latest vivo news at https://www.vivo.com/en/about-vivo/news

[1] The Hybrid Image Stabilization (OIS+EIS) and Super Night Video feature cannot be enabled at the same time. [2] The Color Changing Glass is only available on the Magic Blue and Emerald Green editions of vivo V27. [3] Availability of product colors may vary by region. [4] Availability of product colors may vary by region. [5] 8 GB extended RAM is realized by software. [6] The thickness of Noble Black edition is 7.36mm, while the thickness of Magic Blue, Emerald Green and Flowing Gold editions is 7.4mm. Actual dimensions and weight of each edition may differ due to variations in processes, measurement method, materials supplies. [7] Charging data is based on vivo laboratory environmental tests. Actual charging speed is subject to actual usage and may vary depending on environmental and other factors.

SOURCE vivo
VERO BEACH, Fla., Feb. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- This February at Market Street Memory Care Residence East Lake the residents and associates not only enjoyed the sweet traditions of Valentine's Day, but also celebrated the five year anniversary of the opening of their luxury senior living community located near Tampa, Florida.

In February, Market Street Memory Care Residence East Lake, a Watercrest Senior Living community, celebrated the five-year anniversary of their community opening and the Valentine's Day holiday.

Market Street Memory Care Residence East Lake is an innovative and artfully designed memory care community meeting the unique needs of seniors living with Alzheimer's and dementia. Designed, owned and operated by Watercrest Senior Living Group, the purposeful design of Market Street East Lake connects the hearts and minds of residents by stimulating their senses with the purpose of re-experiencing memories.

This month's celebration included sweet treats, festive drinks, colorful decor, photo opportunities and a special musical performance by students from J.W. Mitchell High School under the leadership of Mr. Josh Hobbs.

Market Street Memory Care recognizes the importance of honoring traditions associated with holidays and special events. When sharing a classic dish or a familiar tune, residents are connecting cherished memories to their daily activities. Celebrating the momentous occasions of each resident's life instills joy and purpose amongst residents, associates, and family members.

"We are overjoyed to celebrate the five year anniversary of this spectacular Watercrest community we call home," says Sheila Kynion, Executive Director of Market Street East Lake. "Thanks to our dedicated associates, outstanding community partners, and our fabulous residents and their families, Market Street East Lake is an award-winning and highly respected senior living community where our seniors are honored with the fulfilling lifestyle they deserve."

Market Street Memory Care Residence East Lake was recently recognized by U.S. News & World Report as a 2022-23 Best Memory Care Community, earned by achieving the highest possible rating for Memory Care.

Market Street East Lake is a 64-unit, state-of-the-art memory care community providing world class care, multi-sensory programming, diverse culinary experiences, and unparalleled associate training honoring seniors with Alzheimer's and dementia. The community boasts Watercrest's uniquely designed Market Plaza, an active, 'outdoor' streetscape, complete with Newsstand, Art Gallery, Bakery, Salon and Spa, and Post Office caringly designed to welcome family and friends. The community is conveniently located at 833 East Lake Road North in Tarpon Springs. For information, contact the community at 727-477-8837 or visit www.marketstreetresidence.com.

About Watercrest Senior Living Group

Watercrest Senior Living Group was founded to honor our mothers and fathers, aspiring to become a beacon for quality in senior living by surpassing standards of care, service and associate training. Watercrest senior living communities are recognized for their luxury aesthetic, exceptional amenities, world-class care, and innovative memory care programming offering unparalleled service to seniors living with Alzheimer's and dementia. A five-time certified Great Place to Work, Watercrest specializes in the development and operations of assisted living and memory care communities and the growth of servant leaders. For information, visit www.watercrestseniorliving.com.

SOURCE Watercrest Senior Living Group
Inaugural event will highlight hottest trends in machine learning, including large language models, image generation, and open science

SAN FRANCISCO, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Weights & Biases, the developer-first MLOps platform, announced today it is hosting Fully Connected, a global event for the data community. This real-world ML conference for practitioners, by practitioners, is taking place March 15 and will focus on the most important trends in the field, from large foundational models to MLOps and what's to come in 2023 and beyond.

The conference will feature a keynote from Weights & Biases CEO Lukas Biewald focused on the future of ML, including trends like large language models, image generation, and open science, as well as new problems ML might be able to solve to have a positive impact on the world. Attendees will also hear from a broad lineup of data luminaries about their real-world ML projects and experiments, including: Jeremy Howard, Founder and Researcher at fast.ai; Shreya Shankar, PhD candidate at University of California, Berkeley; Diego Casabuena, Machine Learning Engineer at Spotify; Stella Biderman, Executive Director of EleutherAI; and senior leadership from Stability AI.

"Every day, I am inspired by the ways our customers and partners use ML to solve some of the world's most complex challenges  everything from fighting fraud to helping farmers more efficiently and safely produce food," said Biewald. "With the Fully Connected conference, our mission is to bring together the people and organizations who use ML in interesting and innovative ways to foster conversations about real-world applications and about what's possible in the years to come."

Check out the full agenda to learn more and sign up for this complimentary, can't-miss event at FullyConnected.com and follow along using #builtwithwandb.

About Weights & Biases

Weights & Biases is the leading developer-first MLOps platform that provides enterprise-grade, end-to-end MLOps workflow to accelerate ML activities. Used by top ML practitioners including teams at NVIDIA, OpenAI, Lyft, Blue River Technology, Toyota, and MILA, Weights & Biases is part of the new standard of best practices for machine learning.

SOURCE Weights & Biases
Group reflects firm's mission to build the next generation of leaders

CHICAGO, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- West Monroe, one of the fastest-growing digital services firms, today announced the promotion of 16 individuals to managing director.

"I am incredibly proud of these 16 talented individuals who represent the next generation of leaders at West Monroe," said Kevin McCarty, Chairman & CEO. "Their leadership and growth have made a significant impact on their clients, their teams, and this firm. We are excited to honor their contributions and congratulate them on reaching this well-deserved milestone."

West Monroe promoted the following individuals to managing director:

Shehzad Amin , as part of the operations excellence practice, drives large-scale IT transformations for major health systems and Fortune 500 companies, resulting in over $1 billion in savings and operational improvements. He has a strong track record driving strategy all the way to execution. He joined West Monroe in 2020 through the acquisition of Pace Harmon.





, as part of the operations excellence practice, drives large-scale IT transformations for major health systems and Fortune 500 companies, resulting in over in savings and operational improvements. He has a strong track record driving strategy all the way to execution. He joined West Monroe in 2020 through the acquisition of Pace Harmon. Sam Arora , as part of the operations excellence practice, helps clients negotiate large-ticket outsourcing contracts, leveraging his relationships with top-tier suppliers, to execute over $2 billion in favorable outsourcing contracts across Fortune 100 companies. He joined West Monroe in 2020 through the acquisition of Pace Harmon.





, as part of the operations excellence practice, helps clients negotiate large-ticket outsourcing contracts, leveraging his relationships with top-tier suppliers, to execute over in favorable outsourcing contracts across Fortune 100 companies. He joined West Monroe in 2020 through the acquisition of Pace Harmon. David Chaddock , as part of the technology practice, partners with clients to define cybersecurity strategies, launch new initiatives, and reduce their overall risk. He is passionate about IT/OT cybersecurity, working with clients to protect critical infrastructure and sensitive data while establishing adherence to industry standards and regulatory obligations. He joined West Monroe in 2018.





, as part of the technology practice, partners with clients to define cybersecurity strategies, launch new initiatives, and reduce their overall risk. He is passionate about IT/OT cybersecurity, working with clients to protect critical infrastructure and sensitive data while establishing adherence to industry standards and regulatory obligations. He joined West Monroe in 2018. Tim Crickenberger , as part of the M&A practice, specializes in mergers and carveouts across the transaction lifecycle, executing cross-functional business transformation initiatives that focus on value capture. He has advised clients on over 150 transactions, including due diligence and post-close execution for both financial and strategic buyers. He joined West Monroe in 2018.





, as part of the M&A practice, specializes in mergers and carveouts across the transaction lifecycle, executing cross-functional business transformation initiatives that focus on value capture. He has advised clients on over 150 transactions, including due diligence and post-close execution for both financial and strategic buyers. He joined West Monroe in 2018. Sanket Dave , as part of the technology practice, works with clients as a strategic business advisor and technology expert, helping them design, develop, and implement cloud-based data & analytics solutions. He is a recognized data & analytics expert, leading multiple large-scale strategic initiatives that leverage data to create business impact. He joined West Monroe in 2016.





, as part of the technology practice, works with clients as a strategic business advisor and technology expert, helping them design, develop, and implement cloud-based data & analytics solutions. He is a recognized data & analytics expert, leading multiple large-scale strategic initiatives that leverage data to create business impact. He joined West Monroe in 2016. Katie Fitzgerald , as part of the operations excellence practice, works closely with senior executives to develop fit-for-culture strategies to help organizations manage their transformation. Her focus on leadership and relationship building helps clients identify and realize value. She joined West Monroe in 2019.





, as part of the operations excellence practice, works closely with senior executives to develop fit-for-culture strategies to help organizations manage their transformation. Her focus on leadership and relationship building helps clients identify and realize value. She joined West Monroe in 2019. Trevor Jones , as part of the healthcare & life sciences practice, delivers innovative solutions to address the market's biggest healthcare challenges. He helped lead and grow the dental & ancillary group and maintains a passion for creating new offerings for clients and the firm. He joined West Monroe in 2015.





, as part of the healthcare & life sciences practice, delivers innovative solutions to address the market's biggest healthcare challenges. He helped lead and grow the dental & ancillary group and maintains a passion for creating new offerings for clients and the firm. He joined West Monroe in 2015. Kate Kiyosaki , as part of the healthcare & life sciences practice, delivers transformational results for the front office of health plansspecifically product, marketing governance, consumer experience, and digital transformation. She leads the firm's largest payer clients, helping them be digital and saving millions annually. She joined West Monroe in 2013.





, as part of the healthcare & life sciences practice, delivers transformational results for the front office of health plansspecifically product, marketing governance, consumer experience, and digital transformation. She leads the firm's largest payer clients, helping them be digital and saving millions annually. She joined West Monroe in 2013. Connor Kohlenberg , as part of the M&A practice, partners with private equity clients on complex global transactions and portfolio company value creation initiatives across various industries. He leads the M&A team out of our London office and played an integral role in its opening. He joined West Monroe in 2014.





, as part of the M&A practice, partners with private equity clients on complex global transactions and portfolio company value creation initiatives across various industries. He leads the M&A team out of our office and played an integral role in its opening. He joined West Monroe in 2014. Dan Mackowiak , as part of the technology practice, leads clients through technology-related activities in divestitures and merger integrations. He is a mentor to many colleagues, helping them understand how projects can benefit their career goals and the client's objectives. He joined West Monroe in 2005.





, as part of the technology practice, leads clients through technology-related activities in divestitures and merger integrations. He is a mentor to many colleagues, helping them understand how projects can benefit their career goals and the client's objectives. He joined West Monroe in 2005. Dan McGuire , as part of the human capital management practice, aligns people and business strategy to create value for clients. Having lived and worked in many countries, he translates complexities into understandable stories, supporting all organizational, people, and cultural aspects of global transformations, including mergers and acquisitions. He joined West Monroe in 2019.





, as part of the human capital management practice, aligns people and business strategy to create value for clients. Having lived and worked in many countries, he translates complexities into understandable stories, supporting all organizational, people, and cultural aspects of global transformations, including mergers and acquisitions. He joined West Monroe in 2019. Sean McHale , as part of the technology practice, leverages his 25 years of experience to help private equity clients understand and mitigate technology risks in M&A transactions. His involvement spans the entire deal lifecycle, from investment thesis development through post-close integration. He joined West Monroe in 2018.





, as part of the technology practice, leverages his 25 years of experience to help private equity clients understand and mitigate technology risks in M&A transactions. His involvement spans the entire deal lifecycle, from investment thesis development through post-close integration. He joined West Monroe in 2018. Chris Miller , as part of the product experience & engineering lab, partners with clients to understand their challenges and guides the creation of digital solutions to those challenges. He focuses on helping electric utilities capture digital opportunities presented by the clean energy transition. He joined West Monroe in 2011.





, as part of the product experience & engineering lab, partners with clients to understand their challenges and guides the creation of digital solutions to those challenges. He focuses on helping electric utilities capture digital opportunities presented by the clean energy transition. He joined West Monroe in 2011. Dani Newman-Biczak , leads West Monroe's internal people, strategy & experience team, focusing on building a differentiated employee experience. She is also responsible for our corporate social responsibility program and internal communications. She joined West Monroe in 2016.





, leads West Monroe's internal people, strategy & experience team, focusing on building a differentiated employee experience. She is also responsible for our corporate social responsibility program and internal communications. She joined West Monroe in 2016. Roger Taylor , as part of the financial services practice, leads strategy, operational improvement, digital, and technology projects for financial institutions. His exposure across a bank's sales, operations, and service for consumer, commercial, and private bank groups, provides him with the unique ability to deliver enterprise-wide solutions. He joined West Monroe in 2015.





, as part of the financial services practice, leads strategy, operational improvement, digital, and technology projects for financial institutions. His exposure across a bank's sales, operations, and service for consumer, commercial, and private bank groups, provides him with the unique ability to deliver enterprise-wide solutions. He joined West Monroe in 2015. Foster Tidwell , as part of the M&A practice, works with private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies to evaluate investments and implement value-creation strategies. He has advised on over 300 carve-out diligence, day-one readiness, and post-close separation transactions. He joined West Monroe in 2011.

All promotions are effective March 1, 2023.

About West Monroe

West Monroe is a digital services firm that was born in technology but built for businesspartnering with companies in transformative industries to deliver quantifiable financial value. We believe that digital is a mindsetnot a project, a team, or a destinationand it's something companies become, not something they do. That's why we work in diverse, multidisciplinary teams that blend management consulting, digital design, and product engineering to move companies from traditional ways of working to digital operating modelsand create experiences that transcend the digital and physical worlds. Connected by the 13 founding values that drive our culture, our 2,200 employees work collaboratively across the firm with the belief that our clients' success is our success. Visit WestMonroe.com to learn more.

Media Inquiries

Christina Galoozis

Senior Manager, External Communications

[email protected]

847-302-1762

Shira Cohen

Senior PR Specialist

[email protected]

443-841-6879

SOURCE West Monroe Partners
CHANDLER, Ariz., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The University of Arizona Global Campus (UAGC) is proud to announce a new education partnership with Yazaki North America, Inc., part of the Yazaki Group, an independent automotive component maker and global leader in the research, development and delivery of vehicle power and data solutions for automotive applications. This will be the first time Yazaki has partnered with a higher education institution that provides a tuition-free offering to its employees in the U.S. The partnership offers UAGC Full Tuition Grants (FTG) to eligible employees in the U.S. and covers tuition, course materials, and mandatory fees. Additionally, the partnership offers 20% off tuition provided to immediate family members of Yazaki employees.

"Yazaki values its employees and recognizes the important work they do," said Heidi Robinson, Head of Human Resources, Yazaki NA. "We want our employee team members to be able to grow their careers and succeed in their efforts through their educational journey, and we believe this partnership with UAGC offers a great example of how we invest in our people."

"We believe this partnership with UAGC offers a great example of how we invest in our people." Tweet this

UAGC helps more than 1,300 companies and organizations across the country optimize the usage of their corporate tuition assistance programs. The partnership with Yazaki North America, Inc., and UAGC provides a flexible online model and class format conducive to the scheduling demands of being an employee for the company. Coursework can be completed from any location, and students are afforded the opportunity to take classes that accommodate their lifestyle and schedule. Students can leverage their employer-sponsored tuition program to start or complete a degree through courses that last five or six weeks, depending on the degree level, enabling them to study at the times that work best for them.

"At UAGC, we believe there is no greater power in this world than education, and we're proud to partner with Yazaki for its commitment to offering this benefit to their employees," UAGC President Paul Pastorek said. "We take great pride in preparing our students for new opportunities with the marketable skills gained through their education, and we commend Yazaki for helping their employees to further their personal and professional goals."

Yazaki believes the UAGC Full Tuition Grant program not only benefits current employees but is seen as an added incentive supporting its talent acquisition and development efforts as the additional educational opportunities will strengthen the company's ability to be viewed as an employer of choice.

About University of Arizona Global Campus

The University of Arizona Global Campus ("Global Campus" or "UAGC") is an independent university that is operated in affiliation with the University of Arizona. Global Campus is designed to provide flexible opportunities for working students from diverse backgrounds who seek to gain knowledge and skills that will help them to achieve their life and career goals. Global Campus is accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC) and is one of the nation's most innovative online universities with approximately 25,000 students. Recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)3 non-profit, UAGC is currently awaiting the Department of Education's formal ruling on our application to be designated as a non-profit institution. UAGC offers more than 50 degrees at the associate, bachelor's, master's and doctoral levels. For more information visit uagc.edu.

About Yazaki Corporation

Yazaki Corporation is a global leader in the research, development, and delivery of vehicle power, data, and display for automotive applications. Yazaki produces wire harnesses, power distribution and control products, connectors, driver information displays, hybrid and electric vehicle products, and sensors. Worldwide, the company employs more than 235,000 people in 45 countries and regions and growing. Yazaki has been committed to the preservation of the environment for more than 80 years. The company continues this commitment today through the development of advanced electric components for hybrid and fully electric vehicles, the promotion of recycling, and the efficient use of resources. For more information about Yazaki and its vision for a greener tomorrow, visit www.yazaki-na.com.

SOURCE University of Arizona Global Campus
BARCELONA, Spain, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- ZTE Corporation (0763.HK / 000063.SZ), a global leading provider of information and communication technology solutions, has partnered with AIS, Thailand's largest mobile carrier, to jointly announce the world's first 3DAI tablet - nubia Pad 3D, at Mobile World Congress 2023.

This innovative device features embedded technology that enables fully eyewear-free immersive 3D calling, streaming, and gaming experiences, as well as content sharing and creation applications.

ZTE and AIS co-announces the world's first eyewear-free 3DAI tablet, and signs a Memorandum of Understanding at MWC 2023

At MWC 2023, the two parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding: AIS and ZTE agreed on a comprehensive strategic partnership to further enhance the cooperation in innovative products for the benefits of each other's product ecosystem. ZTE will work with AIS to maintain its continuous technological leadership in Thailand, and AIS will ensure ZTE's market position as the key digital economic valuable partner of AIS in Thailand, jointly promoting the development of Thailand's communication industry.



Ni Fei, Senior Vice President of ZTE Corporation and President of ZTE Mobile Devices, said: "ZTE is actively expanding the layout of multi-ecological scenarios, and working together with AIS to bring innovative technological products with high-quality experience to more users worldwide. With the new 3D technology, users can eyewear-free enjoy a rich, natural 3D experience."

Tanapong Ittisakulchai, Chief Enterprise Business Officer (CEBO) of AIS, indicated: " As a Digital Life Service Provider with the most 5G spectrum in Thailand, our obligation is to deliver excellent digital experiences over both Mobile and Home Broadband (100% Fiber) to the Thai public. Working with ZTE as a strategic partner on both networks and devices is a clear fulfillment of this policy."

Rich in science and technology, nubia Pad 3D, jointly developed by ZTE and the world leading eyewear-free 3D developer Leia Inc., is equipped with the unique 3D lightfield technology of Leia and tremendous AI computing power to adapt various 3D application scenarios, realising AI Face-Tracking, which can match a perfect view (8 views lightfield in maximum) in real-time, real-time AI-based 2D to 3D content conversion, AI-powered 3D content shot by front or rear cameras, is also compatible with the popular AI 3D applications for artistic creation. It is equipped with a 12.4-inch 2.5K screen and four-corner symmetrical Dolby surround sound speakers, offering an immersive audio and visual experience. With the world's largest 3D content ecosystem, it allows users to seamlessly enjoy the world's first 3D augmented video chat, 3D private theatre, immersive 3D games and other scenarios. Powered by the Snapdragon 8 series chipset, nubia Pad 3D stands out in performance and it offers upgraded user experience in all dimensions with the 9070mAh battery and 33W fast charger.

This product will be officially launched in Thailand this Q2 through AIS online channel.

Previously, AIS has worked with ZTE on multiple projects. In March 2022, ZTE and AIS worked together with Qualcomm to complete the world's first 5G mmWave dual connectivity test (NR-DC) based on sub-6G and high-frequency 26 GHz. In June 2022, the two parties signed a strategic cooperation agreement to build Thailand's first high-level 5G network. The signing of this strategic cooperation marks a new breakthrough for AIS and ZTE in the field of innovative consumer electronics products. ZTE and AIS will cooperate deeply in both 2B and 2C fields, including 5G network construction, 5G industry application expansion, and consumer eco-product innovation, to promote the development of digital economy in Thailand.

About AIS

Advanced Info Service Public Company Limited (AIS) is the 5G Digital Service Provider with the most spectra to provide service, totaling 1420MHz. The company has the most subscribers in Thailand, counting over 46 million in December 2022. AIS is ready to power Thailand with 5G technology which currently covers 77 provinces through 3 core businesses: mobile phones, high-speed home broadband through AIS Fibre, and Digital Services in 5 aspects of video, the Cloud, digital payments, the Internet of Things (IoT) and services provided jointly with partners. The company is also expanding into AIS eSports and AIS Insurance Service. All of this is to proceed with the vision of becoming a Cognitive Tech-Co, to support a robust digital infrastructure for the country, boost the industrial sector's competitive potential and upgrade quality of life for all Thais. Find us at www.ais.th

ABOUT ZTE:

ZTE helps to connect the world with continuous innovation for a better future. The company provides innovative technologies and integrated solutions, its portfolio spans all series of wireless, wireline, devices and professional telecommunications services. Serving over a quarter of the global population, ZTE is dedicated to creating a digital and intelligent ecosystem, and enabling connectivity and trust everywhere. ZTE is listed on both the Hong Kong and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges. www.zte.com.cn/global

FOLLOW US:

Facebook www.facebook.com/ZTECorp

Twitter www.twitter.com/ZTEPress

LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/company/zte

MEDIA INQUIRIES:

ZTE Corporation

Communications

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE ZTE Corporation
ZTE has partnered with Leia Inc., to jointly announce Nubia ' s first eyewear-free 3D  AI tablet at MWC 2023

'  Nubia has introduced the world's first 3DAI tablet, featuring naturally immersive 3D experiences, content sharing and creation applications

BARCELONA, Spain, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- ZTE Corporation (0763.HK / 000063.SZ), a global leading provider of information and communication technology solutions, has partnered with Leia Inc., the world's leading 3DAI technology developer, to jointly announce the world's first 3DAI tablet - nubia Pad 3D, a new ecological product of its Nubia brand, at Mobile World Congress 2023. This innovative device features embedded technology that enables fully eyewear-free immersive 3D calling, streaming, and gaming experiences, as well as content sharing and creation applications. The company also unveiled other exciting products at the exhibition, including Nubia's first AR eyewear - nubia Neovision Glass, and a range of smart ecological products.

Ni Fei, Senior Vice President of ZTE Corporation and President of ZTE Mobile Devices, says: "ZTE, in partnership with Leia on 3DAI technology, is pleased to announce the expansion of its 5G+3D offering. With this technology, users can eyewear-free enjoy a rich, natural 3D experience."

Cecilia Qvist, Leia's CEO, says: "3D has been there for a while but we are now enhancing the 3D viewing and content creation with the latest AI technologies. The AI brings the 3D experience to a whole new level, both in terms of viewing comfort, and the ease it is to create 3D content at a whim - a 5-year-old can now create and share stunning immersive art in seconds using the device."

Immersive 3D experience

The nubia Pad 3D features Leia's cutting-edge 3D lightfield technology, with robust AI computing power engine, making it the perfect device for dynamic three-dimensional face-tracking and real-time matching up to comfortable 3D viewing angles. The device also employs advanced neural network and deep-learning algorithms to seamlessly convert massive 2D content such as streaming media, games, movies, etc., into immersive and unique 3D visual experiences, all in real-time.

High-quality 3D content producer

The nubia Pad 3D is not only a 3D playback browser, but also a 3D content maker. Adopting the principle of the human eye's stereoscopic perception, both its front and rear dual cameras are able to record a 3D view of the world before them. The Dual 16MP rear camera is dedicated to 3D shooting, and the Dual 8MP front camera can be used for 3D video calls, allowing users to create high-quality 3D content, making 3D creation possible. With the addition of creative software, everyone can be an artist to create 3D visual works through AI.

Wide range of 3D applications

By leveraging the power of comprehensive AI and 3D technology, nubia Pad 3D offers an unparalleled digital experience. With its various 3D applications, users can access a wide array of content including 3D chat, 3D streaming media, 3D games, 3D theatre, 3D shooting, and other creation content. The Leia App Store offers a one-stop-shop for users to download all the applications they need.

The nubia Pad 3D is not just limited to consumer scenarios, but also can be used in commercial scenarios. It has the potential to revolutionize the 3D education with digital demonstrations for education, medical support, digital exhibitions at museums, and other fields. With the ability to realize an augmented reality experience, nubia Pad 3D is a game-changer in the world of technology.

Powerful Leia 3D content ecosystem

The nubia Pad 3D's rich applications are inseparable from strong Leia ecosystem support, including Stability.ai's stable diffusion technology that enables LeiaDream to create generative art in 3D, SDK integrations with Unreal Engine, Unity, and many more. On the way to building a comprehensive ecosystem, Nubia and Leia will continue to explore future possibilities of 3D vision with ecosystem partners, aiming to bring users more wonderful and naturally immersive 3D experiences.

Flagship performance and ultra long endurance

The nubia Pad 3D comes built-in with the latest Snapdragon 888 chipset configuration, UFS3.1, and LPDDR5 RAM. Users can expect to experience stunning visuals on the 12.4-inch 2.5K adaptive dimming IPS LCD display, with a resolution of 2560*1600 and 120Hz intelligent high refresh rate. If that's not enough, it also comes with the four-corner symmetrical Dolby surround sound speakers and a large 9070mAh battery with 33W fast charger, providing uninterrupted power for your three-dimensional adventures.

Exquisite and stylish design

The nubia Pad 3D features a metal body design, which is light and portable. The multi-interface and card slot design also greatly improve the usability. A midnight black body color matching with an elegant vegan leather case of the same color, makes it a versatile fashion choice.

After two years, with the efforts of more than 200 professional R&D team members and the support of over 100 laboratories around the world, nubia Pad 3D came into being, and will bring a new 3D digital experience powered by unique AI technology. The product will be ready for pre-sale in March. At MWC 2023, ZTE also singed a Memorandum of Understanding with AIS, the largest mobile operator in Thailand. The two parties would jointly promote nubia Pad 3D in the local market.

For more information, please visit ZTE booth (3F30, Hall 3, Fira Gran Via) at Mobile World Congress 2023, or explore: https://www.zte.com.cn/global/about/exhibition/mwc23.html

ABOUT Leia Inc.

Founded in 2014, Leia Inc. is the leading provider of 3D display hardware and content services for Mobile and Automotive. Leveraging breakthroughs in nanotechnology design, manufacturing and Intelligent Software, the Silicon Valley company is building the future of digital interactions. Its core technology originated from years of R&D at HP Labs and makes any display beautifully immersive through unparalleled depth, look-around, and realistic light effects. Leia's 3DAI content platform empowers developers and content creators worldwide with the ability to easily create stunning Lightfield content for commercial and consumer use.

ABOUT ZTE:

ZTE helps to connect the world with continuous innovation for a better future. The company provides innovative technologies and integrated solutions, its portfolio spans all series of wireless, wireline, devices and professional telecommunications services. Serving over a quarter of the global population, ZTE is dedicated to creating a digital and intelligent ecosystem, and enabling connectivity and trust everywhere. ZTE is listed on both the Hong Kong and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges. www.zte.com.cn/global

FOLLOW US:

Facebook www.facebook.com/ZTECorp

Twitter www.twitter.com/ZTEPress

LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/company/zte

MEDIA INQUIRIES:

ZTE Corporation

Communications

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE ZTE Corporation
Lucknow, March 1 : A special NIA court here has awarded death penalty to seven suspected Islamic State (IS) operatives and life term to one in the Kanpur terror conspiracy case.

The accused, identified as Mohd Faisal, Gaus Mohd Khan, Mohd Azhar, Atiq Muzaffar, Mohd Danish, Mohd Sayyed Meer Hussain, Asif Iqbal and Mohd Atif alias Asif Irani were arrested in 2017 in the case pertaining to planning of terror acts.

Pronouncing the sentence on Tuesday, judge V.S. Tripathi observed that the case fell in the rarest of rare category and as such, the convicts were entitled to the severest punishment.

According to special public prosecutors M.K. Singh and K.K. Sharma, the FIR in the case was registered with ATS police station in Lucknow on March 8, 2017.

The ATS had received information that members of the banned terror outfit were planning to carry out blasts at different places in the country.

Kanpur ATS, on the basis of suspicion, first arrested Mohd Faisal and later other accused were nabbed.

The state counsel said that the accused had conducted a test blast at Ganga Ghat in Unnao. During the probe, it also came to fore that the accused had planted a bomb on the Kanpur-Unnao railway track. They had also planted bombs at different places during the Dussehra celebrations.

The charge sheet filed in the case on August 31, 2017, also included another accused Saifulla, who was killed in an encounter in Dubagga area of the city on March 7, 2017.

Public prosecutor Sharma said that Mohammed Faisal, Gaus Mohd Khan, Mohd Azhar, Atiq Muzaffar, Mohd Danish, Mohd Sayyed Meer Hussain and Asif Iqbal were charged with IPC's section 121 (waging war against the country), along with charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Arms Act and the Explosive Substances Act.

Mohammed Atif Irani, who has been given life in jail, was charged under IPC's section 121 (A) (conspiracy) besides the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Arms Act and the Explosive Substances Act.

The NIA investigations revealed that the accused had prepared and tested some IEDs and had unsuccessfully tried to plant them at various locations in the state.

The NIA had seized a notebook from their Haji Colony (Lucknow) hideout.

The handwritten notes were about potential targets and details about bomb making. Investigations had also led to the discovery of several photographs of the accused making IEDs and even with weapons, ammunition and the IS flag, the NIA said.

The group of eight had reportedly collected illegal weapons, explosives from various places. One of the accused, Atif Muzaffar, had also disclosed that he had compiled information on techniques to fabricate IEDs after collecting materials from various internet sources.

The convicts were also involved in an explosion on the Bhopal-Ujjain passenger train on March 7, 2017, which had left 10 people injured.

The NIA said that investigations in the case had shown that the accused had sworn 'bayat' (allegiance) to the Islamic State and its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Atif Muzaffar was the group's emir (leader) and was influenced by the propaganda of Zakir Naik.

He was found to be a frequent visitor of IS-related websites, from where he was downloading contents and videos and sharing it with the others in his group.

The NIA had also seized a huge cache of arms, ammunitions, electronic gadgets and other materials required to fabricate IEDs, and documents (diaries/literature/handwritten documents) including an ISIS flag, eight pistols, 4 knives, 630 rounds live cartridges of 7.65mm (32 bore), 62 rounds fired cartridges of 7.65 mm, 5 gold coins and cash worth Rs 62,055, foreign currencies, cheques, passports, 5 mobile phones, 2 walkie-talkie sets, SIM cards and a train time table among other things.
New Delhi, March 1 : A fire broke out in a laboratory at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Tuesday. Though no casualties were reported in the incident, some students were reportedly injured due to the fire and a few other got unwell after inhaling the smoke. The injured students have been taken to AIIMS for treatment.

According to the students, the fire broke out in the chemistry lab of JNU's School of Physical Sciences. The fire broke out reportedly after a short circuit.

A few students associated with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) say that the injured students have been admitted to AIIMS by their colleagues.

Students complain that there was neither a fire alarm nor automatic fire extinguishing equipment installed in the building.

Students say that fire brigade was called to control the situation.

Raising concerns over the incident, the JNU unit of the ABVP wrote a letter to the Vice-Chancellor and sought proper fire extinguishing arrangements to avoid such incidents in future.

ABVP's Vikas Patel said that the life of the students should be paramount for the administration. The way there are science labs without any proper safety and security arrangements, even more horrific accident can happen.

It may be noted that in 2016, experimental equipments worth in crores were destroyed in a fire, which broke out after a short circuit in a laboratory at JNU's Institute of Environmental Science.
Tehran, March 1 : Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian blamed the US "miscalculation and wrong policy" for causing the current stalemate on the revival of a 2015 nuclear deal.

Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks in an address to the High-Level Segment of the Conference on Disarmament in the Swiss city of Geneva, Xinhua news agency reported, citing a statement released by Iran's Foreign Ministry on its website on Tuesday.

If all parties have the "determination and goodwill", the few outstanding issues can be settled without any precondition and within the framework of the previous talks, thus enabling the parties to take the "final step", the top Iranian diplomat was quoted as saying.

The US needs to have "the will and strength to conclude the lengthy talks", he said, stressing that Iran is ready to continue the talks until the conclusion of an agreement.

Amir-Abdollahian said Iran's nuclear program will remain "peaceful" and Tehran is determined to remain committed to its obligations under the safeguards agreement.

He also warned against any action to be taken during the upcoming meeting of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in March, saying that Iran reserves the right to respond accordingly.

A technical solution is within reach if the IAEA stops its politically-motivated approach, said the Iranian minister.

Iran signed the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), with world powers in July 2015, agreeing to put some curbs on its nuclear programme in return for the removal of the sanctions on the country. The US, however, pulled out of the deal in May 2018 and reimposed its sanctions on Iran.

The talks on the JCPOA's revival began in April 2021 in the Austrian capital of Vienna. No breakthrough has been achieved after the latest round of talks held in August 2022.
Seoul, March 1 : South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday called Japan a "partner" in tackling security and economic challenges as he marked the anniversary of the nation's 1919 independence movement against Japanese colonial rule.

Yoon made the remark in his first address marking the March 1 Independence Movement at the Memorial Hall of Yu Gwan-sun in Seoul, Yonhap news agency reported.

"Now, a century after the March 1 Independence Movement, Japan has transformed from a militaristic aggressor of the past into a partner that shares the same universal values with us," he said.

"Today Korea and Japan cooperate on issues of security and economy. We also work together to cope with global challenges." Yoon also emphasized the importance of trilateral cooperation among South Korea, the United States and Japan.

"The trilateral cooperation among the Republic of Korea, the United States and Japan has become more important than ever to overcome the security crises, including North Korea's growing nuclear threats and the global polycrisis," he said, referring to South Korea by its official name.
Washington, March 1 : Christopher Wray, Director of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), has said that the Covid-19 pandemic "most likely" originated from a "Chinese government-controlled lab" in Wuhan city.

In an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, Wray said: "The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan... Here you are talking about a potential leak from a Chinese government-controlled lab.

"I will just make the observation that the Chinese government, it seems to me, has been doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate the work here, the work that we're doing, the work that our US government and close foreign partners are doing. And that's unfortunate for everybody." He went to say that the FBI has specialists who focus on "the dangers of biological threats, which include things like novel viruses like Covid, and the concerns that they (are) in the wrong hands (of) some bad guys, a hostile nation state, a terrorist, a criminal".

Some studies in the past have suggested that the virus made the leap from animals to humans in Wuhan, possibly at the city's seafood and wildlife market, reports the BBC.

The market is a 40-minute drive from a world-leading virus laboratory, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which conducted research into coronaviruses.

But China has denied the lab leak theory.

The FBI chief further told Fox News that the Chinese government has been trying to block investigative work into the origins of the coronavirus.

Wray's comments come after the US Department of Energy had recently assessed that the Covid-19 pandemic was likely caused by an accidental lab leak in China.

The National Intelligence Council as well as four other government agencies assess at "low confidence" that Covid-19 originated as a result of natural transmission from an infected animal, but the CIA and other government agencies remain undecided.

On Monday, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that President Joe Biden supports "a whole-of-government effort" to discover how Covid began.

But he added that US still lacks a clear consensus as to what happened.

"We're just not there yet. If we have something that is ready to be briefed to the American people and the Congress, we will do that," the BBC quoted Kirby as saying.

Covid-19 first emerged in late 2019 and has since led to the deaths of nearly seven million people across the world.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Melbourne, March 1 : Police in Australia are extraditing an Indian man over the murder of a woman who was found dead on a Queensland beach in 2018, authorities said, adding that he is expected to arrive in Melbourne on Wednesday.

Rajwinder Singh, who is being flown from Delhi to Melbourne accompanied by detectives, is accused of killing Toyah Cordingley, reports the BBC.

According to detectives, Cordingley, 24, had gone to Wangetti Beach, between the popular tourist hotspots of Cairns and Port Douglas, to walk her dog on October 21, 2018, but never came home.

Her body was discovered by her father the next day, half-buried in sand dunes.

The BBC report said that the 38-year-old accused will first have to appear in court in the state of Victoria, before being moved to Queensland where the crime took place.

He will then face a magistrate in Brisbane, probably later this week, before being remanded in custody.

Singh was arrested in Delhi in November last year, after the Queensland government put up a A$1 million ($672,000) reward for information.

Originally from Buttar Kalan in Punjab, Singh had been living in Innisfail at the time of the murder which is about two hours from the crime scene.

Australian police have alleged that the accused fled the country just hours after the murder and had been staying in Punjab since evading arrest.

At the time of Singh's arrest, Queensland Police Minister Mark Ryan said the development had been "a long time coming" and marked "the next stage of delivering justice for Toyah".
Lucknow, March 1 : The Allahabad High Court's Lucknow bench has upheld the CBI probe which had termed the death of deputy CMO Y.S. Sachan in the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam as a suicide.

Setting aside a July 2022 order passed by CBI special judicial magistrate that termed the death to be "murder", a bench of Justice D.K. Singh said" "There should have been overwhelming material and evidence to ignore the CBI's closure report. There has been nothing before the magistrate to discard the reports submitted by the CBI.

"The findings of the CBI have been in detail to highlight as to how detailed scientific, meticulous and fair investigation was carried out for reaching the conclusion that it was not a case of homicide, but suicide." Sachan was arrested in connection with the embezzlement of NRHM funds and was in jail when the police charged him with plotting the murders of his two seniors.

He was found dead in a deserted section of Lucknow jail on June 22, 2011, a day before he had to appear in court to record his statement in connection with the two murders and his role in the embezzlement of funds.

The incident made national headlines.

The FIR of his death was lodged with Gosainganj police station on June 26, 2011, against unknown persons.

The judicial inquiry report prepared on July 11, 2011 declared Sachan's death to be a murder.

Later, the high court handed over the probe to the CBI on July 14, 2011.

After investigation, the CBI declared Sachan's death as a case of suicide and filed a closure report on September 27, 2012.

His widow Malti challenged the closure report.

The CBI court accepted her protest application and directed the probe agency to investigate further into the case.

However, the CBI again filed a closure report in the case on August 9, 2017.

The court on November 19, 2019, rejected the closure report and registered Malti's application as a complaint case.

In the course of hearing on the complaint case, Malti pleaded that the material already on record was sufficient to constitute offences under section 302 (murder) read with 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC against the accused.

On July 12, 2022, CBI special judicial magistrate Samriddhi Mishra had declared the death to be a case of "murder" and summoned key police and jail officials.
Lucknow, March 1 : Dog owners in Uttar Pradesh will have to compulsorily get their pets sterilised, once they turn a year old.

To keep more than two dogs in a house, the owner will need more than 200 square metres of space.

The new standard operating procedure that has been circulated among the urban local bodies is to manage the dog population and discourage incessant commercial breeding.

According to officials, while individual dog owners will be liable to get their pets sterilised without fail (either adopted or purchased), the ones into breeding will have to face several more regulatory hurdles as the Uttar Pradesh government has decided to adopt the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Dog Breeding and Marketing) Rules, 2017 through the newly introduced guidelines.

Pet shops and breeders who are not registered with the state animal welfare board, will not be allowed to remain in business and a sustained drive will be carried out to check private breeding sites.

Principal secretary, urban development department, Amrit Abhijat said: "The new SOP has been finalised after thoroughly examining the rules and guidelines stipulated by the Animal Welfare Board of India." Registration to the breeders will be provided only if they operate out of commercial areas and adhere to the norms. Similarly, families looking to keep more than two dogs will need to have 200 square metres of property.

Meanwhile, reacting to the provisions specified under the new procedure, dog owners said while regulatory hurdles are being increased with time, no service or facility is being offered in return by the civic bodies.

They rue the fact that cities do not have pet crematoriums.

Besides, there are no dog parks or walking zone, earmarked in colonies, where people can take their dogs out for a walk.

Legal experts also pointed out that the new guidelines will also make the owners accountable for facing criminal charges.

"As all dog owners will have to give an undertaking that they will be responsible for taking necessary steps to avoid any kind of nuisance or disturbance in the neighbourhood on behalf of their pets. Section 350 of Indian Penal Code which amounts to using criminal force could be pressed in case a dog attacks someone," said legal expert.
Ayodhya, March 1 : The construction of a mosque at Dhannipur village in Ayodhya may begin soon since the decision on the issue of change in land use is likely to be taken in the board meeting of the Ayodhya Development Authority (ADA) scheduled this week.

This information was given by a representative of Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation (IICF) Trust.

The project was first delayed in obtaining no objection certificates (NOCs), followed by further delay in the change of land use.

The IICF Trust was set up by the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board (UPSCWB) to look after the Dhannipur project.

Following the orders of the Supreme Court, the state government had given five acres of land in that village to the Sunni Waqf Board for construction of a mosque.

The Waqf Board had handed over the land to the IICF Trust for construction of the mosque in 3,500-square metre, four-storey super specialty charity hospital and a community kitchen in 24,150-square metre, a museum in 500-square metre and an Indo-Islamic Research Centre in 2300-square metre.

The Trust has named the project after noted freedom fighter Maulvi Ahmadullah Shah.

The UPSCWB had formally launched the Dhannipur project on the allocated five-acre land on January 26, 2021.

The IICF Trust had applied online in May 2021 to get its ready map passed by the Ayodhya Development Authority.

Athar Hussain, secretary, IICF Trust, said: "We expect good news this week. As soon as land use is changed, a mosque, a hospital, a research institute, a community kitchen and a library will be constructed by the IICF Trust on five acres of land. The matter of change of land use is expected to be taken up by the ADA and resolved in the next board meeting this week." ADA chairman and Ayodhya divisional commissioner Gaurav Dayal said: "The Board meeting is scheduled this week and several issues, including land use change, are expected to be discussed in it."
Kanpur : , March 1 (IANS) It was a prank that went wrong. Amit Dubey, a 28-year-old compounder, tried to scare his wife into submission by putting a noose around his neck.

Amit had come home in an inebriated state and his wife Shweta objected to his drinking habit.

After an argument, Amit locked the door from the inside and put a noose around his neck to scare his wife.

However, he lost balance and the noose tightened around his neck.

Shweta raised an alarm following which other members of the house rushed to the room and brought him down in an unconscious state.

Amit was rushed to a local doctor who declared him dead on arrival.

Amit and Shweta got married in February last year.

Inspector Kohna said that during a preliminary probe, it was found that Amit was a liquor addict and would often quarrel with his family members.

"The body has been sent for post-mortem," the inspector added.
Varanasi : , March 1 (IANS) A man was arrested by the law enforcement agencies at the Lal Bahadur Shastri International airport in Varanasi for hiding gold weighing more than two kg in his undergarment in the form of a paste.

According to customs officials, the net worth of the gold paste is Rs 1.22 crore.

Officials operating under the supervision of commissioner (customs, Lucknow commissionerate) Aarti Saxena and assistant commissioner (customs) LBSI airport Pradeep Kumar Singh, intercepted Ram Chandra of Faizabad, when he landed in Varanasi on flight from Sharjah.

On being frisked, foreign origin gold was recovered in the form of brown paste, which was put into plastic pouches hidden in the undergarment.

Officials said, the total gold recovered was approximately 2176.8 gram and estimated to be more than Rs 1.22 crore.

Sources said, the accused smuggle gold paste as it is tough to detect and could be easily hidden.
New York, March 1 : The wife of an Indian Microsoft employee, who went missing in the US, has been found dead under mysterious circumstances near a lake in Washington, media reports said.

Soujanya Ramamaurthy, 30, who lived in Redmond with her husband, a software developer at Microsoft, went missing on February 25.

Her body was found the next day in Lake Sammamish after a massive search by the police, The American Bazaar reported.

She was last seen near the Park Marymoor Bell Apartments in Redmond, some eight miles from Seattle.

Police are yet to ascertain how the tragedy transpired, and so far there have been no arrests.

However, multiple media reports stated that Soujanya was hit multiple times on the head with an object similar to a hammer.

According to the police, Soujanya was 5 feet 4 inches tall, 94 pounds, had dark eyes, and black hair, and was clothed in burgundy outerwear when she went missing.

She moved to the US after graduating from India.

Her husband, Mudambi S. Srivatsa, said she had big dreams, and wanted to give her family the best things possible.

A search campaign was launched since the day she went missing and her missing posters were circulated across social media groups in the Indian community in the US, the report said.

A fundraiser has been set up to manage the cost of services to transport her body to Mysuru for her last rites.
Berlin, March 1 : Germany's Transport Minister Volker Wissing has expressed reservations regarding a planned ban on new cars with internal combustion engines in the European Union (EU) from 2035.

A member of the Free Democratic Party (FDP), Wissing is calling for an exception for internal combustion vehicles fueled by e-fuels, namely synthetic fuels produced with green electricity, otherwise, Germany will not support the legislation in the upcoming votes, reports Xinhua news agency.

"Against the background of the enormous existing fleet of passenger cars that we have in Germany alone, for the FDP there can only be a compromise on fleet limits if the use of e-fuels is also made possible," Wissing told the German newspaper Bild on Tuesday.

E-fuels, like e-methane, e-kerosene and e-methanol, are all fuels in gas or liquid form that are produced from renewable (solar or wind power, for example) or decarbonised electricity.

This raw material differentiates them from biofuels, which are primarily produced from biomass.

In February, the European Parliament approved the new CO2 emissions reduction targets for new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles.

Under the new legislation, new passenger cars are to become emission-free by 2035 as the EU is seeking to become climate neutral by 2050.

The law is still subject to the approval of EU member states.

Germany's largest carmaker Volkswagen plans to only produce electric cars in Europe from 2033.

As of 2030, at least 70 per cent of the company's sales in Europe are to be purely electric cars.

In the US and China, Volkswagen is aiming for more than 50 per cent.

After record sales at the end of last year, there were over one million purely battery-electric passenger cars registered in the Europe's largest economy, according to the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin).

The government target for 2030 is 15 million in Germany.
Abuja, March 1 : Bola Tinubu from Nigeria's ruling All Progressives Congress party has won the country's presidential election, the lectoral body announced on Wednesday.

With over 8.79 million ballots, Tinubu secured the highest number of the total votes cast during the disputed election, Xinhua news agency quoted Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, as saying.

The 70-year-old president-elect defeated his closest rival, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, candidate of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party.

Abubakar got over 6.98 million votes and was closely trailed by Peter Obi, candidate of the Labor Party, who secured about 6.1 million votes.

The election was one of the most hotly contested in the country's history, with Tinubu losing Lagos, his stronghold in the country's southwest region, to Obi.

Tinubu, who served as a former Lagos State governor and senator, had been eyeing the presidency for years to build a strong political structure with a vast network of supporters nationwide.

He campaigned for the presidency under the slogan: "It's my turn".

Incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari will step down after two terms in office, marked by economic stagnation and growing insecurity around the country.
Los Angeles, March 1 : Hollywood actor Nicolas Cage is making his 'Dracula' debut in Universal Pictures' upcoming horror comedy 'Renfield', and is already chomping at the bit to play the iconic bloodsucker in an expanded capacity.

Cage's Dracula in 'Renfield' is a supporting role, as the film's protagonist is the vampire's long-suffering servant. The Oscar winner spoke to Total Film magazine about eyeing another Dracula project where he can better explore the psyche of the vampire, reports 'Variety'.

"You know, there are some minor moments here where you get to see some of the pathos in Dracula's eyes," Cage said.

"That made me think that maybe one day I might like to try for a whole movie where you're really understanding the psyche of the character. I didn't really have the time to delve into that here." Cage said that he accepted the role of Dracula as a challenge to himself since he was already a big fan of interpretations of the character by Christopher Lee, Frank Langella, Bela Lugosi and Gary Oldman.

"I also kind of always knew I had to do it at some point," Cage said of playing Dracula.

"I went back to Christopher Lee, in terms of his manner of speaking, but that was really only a starting point. I knew Christopher. I did a small scene with him in aSeason of the Witch,' and I liked him very much." "We had a lot of nice conversations, and he reminded me quite a bit of my father, August. So from then on, my dad sort of became the main inspiration for me." 'Renfield', directed by 'The Lego Batman Movie' and 'The Tomorrow War' helmer Chris McKay, co-stars Awkwafina, Ben Schwartz and Adrian Martinez.
Dharamsala, March 1 : Looking back at his escape from Tibet in 1959, globetrotting Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama says soon he will be 88. Since then, he has been the longest staying guest of the Indian government, enjoying every possible liberty but the tragedy of Tibet has yet to be resolved.

"Today, I am stateless, unable to return to my country. But we Tibetans have a saying, aYour homeland is wherever you are happy. And whoever loves you is your parent," the Buddhist monk wrote in the TIME weekly newsmagazine in an article titled "The Dalai Lama on the gratitude he feels looking back at his escape from Tibet" published on Tuesday.

"India and its people, as well as many across the world, have provided me with constant love and support. When I look at this cover from 1959, I am grateful that I have been able to lead a meaningful life dedicated to helping others." In 1959, TIME magazine had a cover photo and the accompanying story of a young Dalai Lama escaping Tibet.

Sixty years later in 2019, the Tibetan spiritual leader was on its cover page for the third time.

"The tragedy of Tibet has yet to be resolved. But my becoming a refugee in India brought with it many hidden blessings," he wrote in the article.

"For one, the moment I was able to cross over from Tibet to India on March 31, 1959, I realized the value of freedom. Since then, I have been the longest -A staying guest of the Indian government, enjoying every possible liberty.

"In addition, India has provided me, and those other Tibetans who managed to escape, the freedom to preserve and promote Tibetan identity and our culture of peace and compassion, and to share them with the entire world." The Dalai Lama, whom Beijing brands a separatist, fled into exile in 1959 and established his government-in-exile in Dharamsala.

Expressing gratitude to the Indian government, the Dalai Lama wrote: "Most important, I have enjoyed in exile the freedom to pursue my spiritual development, even as I have tried to take care of Tibetan affairs.

"For many decades now, I have had the opportunity to engage in dialogue with leaders of different religious traditions, scholars, and scientists. These new friends have enabled me to understand more clearly the state of humanity and the ways in which I can contribute to a better world.

"This cover (1959) appeared when I was 24. At that time, in spite of our earnest efforts to coexist, the Chinese authorities did not, unfortunately, respond positively.

"The very survival of the Tibetan identity was at risk. So, it was decided that, in the interests of our land and our people, I should leave Lhasa.

"Initially I had some fear and hesitation about doing this. But since the Tibetan people had placed their hope and trust in me, I knew where my responsibility lay. In the same way, when I was hardly 16, and even though I was ill-prepared, I had to take up the political leadership of Tibet.

"Sometimes I say that at 16, I lost my personal freedom, and at 24 my country's freedom was lost. Subsequently, I became a refugee." In 2011, TIME magazine listed the Dalai Lama among the world's top 25 political icons.

"The Dalai Lama's humility has endeared him to presidents and religious leaders of several countries, affording him the opportunity to raise awareness and drum up support for Tibet on a global scale," the magazine had noted.

In 2019 when the spiritual leader was on the magazine cover as the 'Survivor', the then Central Tibetan Administration President Lobsang Sangay said: "Now, we look forward to the day when His Holiness will be on the cover again -- returning home to Tibet. This is the aspiration of six million Tibetans." (Vishal Gulati can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)
Hyderabad, March 1 : Suspended BJP MLA Raja Singh has denied reports that he is planning to contest next Assembly elections as an independent candidate if his suspension was not lifted by the party.

Raja Singh, a member of Telangana Legislative Assembly from Goshamahal constituency in Hyderabad, said if his suspension was not lifted he would not contest the elections.

Raja Singh said he never worked to harm the interests of the BJP and would not do anything which would bring disgrace to the party. He hoped that his suspension would be revoked by the party leadership.

The MLA also stated that he is a big admirer of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. He said he had full faith in the leadership of state BJP chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar and Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy.

Raja Singh's clarification came amid reports that he is planning to contest the Assembly elections as an independent from the Amberpet constituency in the constituency, which was earlier represented by Kishan Reddy.

Since the BJP has not lifted his suspension even after he replied to show cause notice, there were reports that the MLA is mulling to quit the party and contest the next elections as an independent candidate.

The MLA was arrested by the police in August last year for making certain comments hurting religious sentiments of Muslims. He was sent to jail on August 25 after the Hyderabad Police commissioner had invoked PD Act. The BJP had also suspended him from the party.

Raja Singh was released from jail on November 9, after spending two months in jail following his arrest under the Preventive Detention Act.

The Telangana High Court had set aside the police commissioner's order and released the MLA on bail, but directed him not to make any speech or comment which created hatred among communities.
Kolkata, March 1 : The Centre has directed the West Bengal government to file FIRs against those involved in irregularities in implementation of Prime Minister Awas Yojana (PMAY) in the state.

The Union rural development ministry had recently communicated to the state chief secretary H.K. Dwivedi that the central field inspection teams from the Centre have substantial evidence to prove the irregularities.

In a note to the chief secretary, the ministry has suggested that besides initiating necessary action by filing FIRs against those responsible for the irregularities, the state government should also forward a detailed action-taken report on this count to the central ministry by March 10.

It is learnt that the central field inspection teams conducted surveys in 10 districts of the state, during which they have identified irregularities in seven districts.

More central teams are scheduled to visit the state shortly for the purpose of conducting field inspection visits in the remaining districts.

These seven districts which have been identified by the central inspection team where irregularities were rampant are: Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Murshidabad, Nadia, West Midnapore, East Midnapore and East Burdwan.

According to sources, the majority of irregularities identified by the inspection teams are related to allotment of houses under the scheme to ineligible people. There had been instances also where instead of the logo of PMAY, that of the state's own housing scheme Bangla Yojana was used.

The ministry has asked the state government to also file FIRs against those block development officers and supervisory officials who apparently ignored such gross irregularities instead of rectifying them.

Meanwhile, the development has triggered a political slugfest.

While the ruling Trinamool Congress has termed it an "excuse" by the Centre to freeze the state's dues, the opposition BJP has called it the right step to penalise those responsible for depriving the marginalised sections of their legitimate dues.
Bengaluru, March 1 : The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Karnataka suffered a major setback after one of its most prominent faces in the state, Bhaskar Rao, joined the BJP on Wednesday.

Former Bengaluru Police commissioner and vice president of the AAP's Karnataka unit, Bhaskar Rao was welcomed by BJP's state unit president Nalinkumar Kateel among others.

Apart from being inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to join the saffron party, Rao claimed that the AAP is run by a coterie. He also pointed to the developments in Delhi.

"It's shameful that two of the AAP ministers are in jail. There's no clarity in the party," Rao noted.

Rao had recently been appointed the chairperson of the AAP election manifesto committee for Karnataka.

An IPS officer belonging to the Karnataka-cadre, Rao had joined the AAP about a year ago after opting for voluntary retirement.

Commenting on his exit, Rao had claimed Tuesday that there was no scope for growth in the party and he has, therefore, decided to move on.

Coming ahead of the Assembly elections slated to be held in less than two months, the development puts the AAP on the backfoot in a state where it is eyeing for its major foray into south India.
New Delhi, March 1 : After two jailed ministers of Aam Aadmi party (AAP) - Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain - stepped down, Delhi Lt Governor V.K. Saxena on Wednesday recommended the resignations to President Droupadi Murmu.

Upon request from Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to accept the resignations of ministers who quit on Tuesday, the L-G Saxena recommended the same to the President.

Meanwhile, after Sisodia's resignation, the AAP government has decided to assign his departments to two of his cabinet colleagues - Kailash Gahlot and Raaj Kumar Anand - till new ministers are inducted.

Of the 18 departments headed by Sisodia, the responsibilities of eight departments, including Finance and PWD, have been given to Gahlot, while the remaining ten that includes Education and Health have been assigned to Anand.

With the new responsibilities handed over to Gehlot and Anand, both ministers will now have 14 departments each.

Gahlot was already handling six departments that included Law, Justice and Legislative affairs, Transportation, Administrative Reforms, Information Technology, Revenue, and Women and Child Development.

Rajkumar Anand was the minister of four departments - Gurudwara Elections, SC & ST, Social Welfare, and Cooperative.
Washington, March 1 : The US Congress must act urgently to counter the economic and national security threats posed by the Chinese government, a bipartisan chorus of lawmakers on a newly created special House committee has warned.

The two superpowers were locked in an "existential struggle over what life will look like in the 21st century", the committee's Republican chairman, Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, said as the rivalry between the US and China deepens.

With democracy advocates and protesters in attendance, the panel -- formally the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party -- began its work at a precarious moment for Washington-Beijing relations, reports the Guardian.

It comes weeks after a suspected Chinese spy balloon traversed the continental US and amid intelligence that Beijing is considering providing lethal weapons to aid Russia in its ongoing war against Ukraine.

Meanwhile, China's militarisation and aggression toward Taiwan, a self-ruled island that Beijing claims as its own, as well as its response to the coronavirus pandemic, have further escalated tensions.

Underscoring the broad range of challenges the panel hopes to address, lawmakers peppered the witnesses with questions on human rights abuses, trade policies, the influence of TikTok, aggression in Taiwan, the origins of Covid-19 and international espionage, The Guardian reported.

Gallagher hopes the committee will help shape China policy and legislation that can win support from both parties.

But with the 2024 presidential campaign looming, and Republicans eager to paint Joe Biden as "weak on China", the possibility of bipartisan action is likely to become increasingly narrow, reports the Guardian.

"Time is not on our side," he said, imploring a bitterly divided Congress to come together to confront China. "Our policy over the next 10 years will set the stage for the next hundred.".

Illinois Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, the ranking Indian-American Democrat on the panel, echoed Gallagher's sense of urgency.

He said Democrats and Republicans had for years "underestimated" the Chinese government, believing that economic integration would "inevitably lead to democracy".

But it did not and now the US needed to move quickly to pursue economic and trade policies that would "up our game" as Americans to compete with China, the Guardian reported.

"We do not want a war within the PRC," he said, referring to the People's Republic of China, "not a cold war, not a hot war. We don't want a clash of civilizations".
San Francisco, March 1 : Two in three California residents worry about becoming a victim of gun violence in the wake of the recent spike in mass shootings both in the state and around the US, a new poll revealed.

The poll was conducted by the Institute of Governmental Studies (IGS) at the University of California, Berkeley and co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times and published on Tuesday.

It revealed that about 63 per cent of the registered voters in the most populous U. state, home to around 40 million residents, express worries that they or someone close to them could become the victim of gun violence, with 30 per cent very worried and 33 per cent somewhat worried, reports Xinhua news agency.

The poll, which surveyed over 7,500 California registered voters online from February 14-20, found that demographically, women, persons of colour and voters living in urban areas are more likely than men, whites and rural Californians to hold such concerns.

While majorities of both urban and suburban voters attach greater importance to imposing more controls on gun ownership, rural voters are more divided, with 42 per cent holding this view.

The poll also revealed that there are large partisan differences with regard to these fears.

Democrats are more than twice as likely as Republicans to express these concerns, with 78 per cent of Democrats saying they worry about this compared to 36 per cent among Republicans.

"While other studies have shown Republicans to express similar fears of crime as Democrats, it is striking that they report being less threatened by gun violence than their Democratic counterparts," said IGS co-director Eric Schickler.

"This underscores how deep party polarisation regarding guns is in California, and in the US more broadly," he added.

In January, California witnessed back-to-back mass shootings.

On January 21 during a Lunar New Year Celebration in suburban Monterey Park, just west of Los Angeles, a mass shooting incident left 11 people dead.

Another attack on January 23 left four dead at a California mushroom farm in Half Moon Bay. That night, another shooting, this time in Oakland, left one dead and seven others injured.

As of February, the Gun Violence Archive has counted 80 mass shootings in the US this year. Seven of them involved four or more fatalities.

Last year, the group counted 647 mass shootings. Of those, 21 involved five or more fatalities.
Stockholm, March 1 : The largest nuclear reactor in Sweden will be taken off the grid for eight days due to a damaged fuel rod.

Unit 3 at the Oskarshamn nuclear power plant in the southeast of the country will be disconnected from the grid on March 3, Xinhua news agency quoted the Swedish Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper as saying in a report.

One of the country's other five nuclear reactors is also down due to repairs.

"It is unfortunate, but the damaged fuel rod has to be dealt with and it cannot wait," Desiree Liljevall, head of communications at nuclear power operator OKG, told DN.

When the same reactor was taken off the grid for nine days last December due to a faulty generator, the price of electricity soared in Sweden, DN reported.

"If it gets cold, we will have to rely on imports," Erik Ek, strategic operations manager at national grid operator Svenska Kraftnat, told DN about the potential implications of the scheduled stoppage.

Nuclear power accounts for approximately 30 per cent of the electricity produced in the country, according to the Swedish Energy Agency.

Following the decommissioning of four reactors between 2017 and 2020, six reactors remain at three sites.
Chennai, March 1 : The South Asian Fishermen Fraternity (SAFF), a prominent organisation of fishermen in South Tamil Nadu, has called upon the Union Government to take action against Hong Kong flagged vessel, "MV New Frontier" for having rammed into a boat and injuring fishermen.

The Hong Kong-based vessel had damaged the local boat and caused injuries to fishermen on Monday evening.

SAFF leader Father Churchill told media persons that nine fishermen who were on board the boat 'Ruby' from Tamil Nadu were injured and the boat was badly damaged. He said that the Hong Kong flagged vessel should be taken to the courts for the damage caused to the local boat as also the injury inflicted upon the fishermen.

The fishermen said that the MV New Frontier was sailing from Zhanjiag port in China to Khor- Al -Fakkan port, Dubai, UAE when it rammed into 'Ruby' injuring all the nine people on board as well as facing heavy financial crunch.

The mechanised fishing boat from Tamil Nadu, was owned by Antonidasan, from Kanniyakumari. The fishing boat had left the shores of Thengapatanam on February 8 and was engaged in sea gill net fishing.
Helsinki, March 1 : Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin said that delay in the ratification of her country and Sweden's NATO membership bid harms the alliance's credibility.

"We (Finland and Sweden) would have hoped to become members of NATO already," Marin said during a joint press conference with visiting NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

"Finland and Sweden fulfil all the criteria as it has been mentioned, and we are yet waiting. Of course, this strains the open-door policy of NATO; it's also to do with NATO's credibility," Xinhua news agency quoted the Prime Minister as saying.

Finland and Sweden jointly submitted their NATO membership bids in May last year.

So far, 28 of NATO's 30 current members have ratified the applications.

Turkey and Hungary are yet to formally endorse the two countries' accession.

On his part, Stoltenberg reiterated that Finland and Sweden's rapid admission is now the alliance's number one priority.

He said that representatives of Turkey, Finland and Sweden are scheduled to meet at NATO headquarters in Brussels next week.

However, this does not guarantee a breakthrough and the final decision rests with Turkey and Hungary, said the NATO chief.

Stoltenberg was in Helsinki to attend the annual meeting of SAMAK, the co-operation committee of the Nordic Social Democratic parties.
Amaravati, March 1 : The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has summoned Kadapa MP Y.S. Avinash Reddy's father Y.S. Bhaskara Reddy for questioning in former Andhra Pradesh minister Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy's murder case.

The central agency, which is probing the four-year-old case, has asked Bhaskar Reddy to appear before its officials at Kadapa Central prison on March 12.

On Wednesday, the CBI officials served a fresh notice at the residence of Bhaskar Reddy in Pulivendula town of Kadapa district.

Bhaskara Reddy was earlier summoned on February 23 for questioning but he requested the CBI to postpone the questioning to another day as he has some prior commitments.

Avinash Reddy had appeared before CBI officials on February 24. The MP was questioned for more than four hours at the CBI office in Hyderabad.

A cousin of Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, Avinash Reddy was questioned for the second time in the case.

He was questioned earlier for more than four-and-a-half hours on January 28.

Vivekananda Reddy, who was found murdered at his house in Kadapa district in 2019, was the paternal uncle of Jaganmohan Reddy and Avinash Reddy.

The questioning of the MP and his father assumed significance in the wake of an affidavit filed by the CBI in Telangana High Court a few days ago while opposing the bail petition of Sunil Yadav, one of the accused.

The investigating agency stated that Avinash Reddy, Bhaskara Reddy and their follower D. Siva Sankar Reddy had hatched a criminal conspiracy to kill Vivekananda Reddy over conflicting political ambitions.

Avinash Reddy and Bhaskar Reddy had a grouse against Vivekananda Reddy as the latter was opposed to YSRCP fielding Avinash as the party candidate from Kadapa Lok Sabha constituency. The former minister wanted Jagan Mohan Reddy to field his sister Y. S. Sharmila or mother Y.S. Vijayamma.

The CBI claimed that Rs 40 crore was offered to the other accused to carry out the murder.

The investigating agency also stated in its counter that Vivekananda Reddy was not happy with his brother Bhaskar Reddy and nephew Avinash Reddy as they had sabotaged his chances in MLC election in 2017 in Kadapa.

Avinash and his father wanted Siva Sankar as MLC candidate but when Jagan Mohan Reddy fielded Vivekananda, the trio ensured he was defeated.

Avinash Reddy has denied the allegations and claimed that he and his father were in no way involved.

Vivekananda Reddy was younger brother of former chief minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, father of Jagan Mohan Reddy.

He was found murdered mysteriously at his residence at Pulivendula in Kadapa district on March 15, 2019, a month ahead of 2019 general elections.

The 68-year-old former state minister and former MP was alone at his house when unidentified persons barged in and killed him. He was killed hours before he was to launch YSR Congress Party's election campaign in Kadapa.

Though three Special Investigation Teams (SITs) conducted the probe they failed to solve the mystery.

In 2020, the CBI took over the investigation on the direction of Andhra Pradesh High Court while hearing a petition of Vivekananda Reddy's daughter Sunitha Reddy, who raised suspicion about some relatives.

The CBI filed a charge sheet in the murder case on October 26, 2021 and followed it up with a supplementary charge sheet on January 31, 2022 In November last year, the Supreme Court transferred to a CBI court in Hyderabad the trial and probe into the larger conspiracy behind the murder. The apex court observed that doubts raised by Sunitha Reddy about getting a fair trial and investigation in Andhra Pradesh were reasonable.
Istanbul, March 1 : Turkey's largest city Istanbul has launched a program to provide rapid scans of buildings as many people worry about the safety of their residences in the wake of devastating February 6 earthquakes that killed more than 53,500 in the country and neighbouring Syria As Turkey's financial and cultural hub with over 16 million residents, Istanbul is located at the west end of the North Anatolian Fault Line, which has produced many major earthquakes throughout history, reports Xinhua news agency.

The city government launched the scanning program in a bid to soothe the nerves of local residents.

The service, which includes measuring the consistency of concrete and counting the number of rebars with X-ray scan, will evaluate the strength of the ground and rate the safety level of the checked building accordingly.

Ozlem Tut, head of the Municipality's Earthquake Risk Management and Urban Improvement Department, told reporters that they received 85,000 applications for the test since the deadly tremors.

The municipal teams prioritise structures built before 2000, checking 150 buildings per day.

If the concrete's strength is reported as "weak", then it will be reinforced. If reinforcement is not possible, then the building will be demolished before a new one is built.

In case of demolition, the city provides up to 4,500 Turkish liras ($238) in rental assistance to its residents.

In 1999, a 7.4 magnitude earthquake rattled the industrialized Marmara region, home to Istanbul, killing more than 17,000 people and leaving some 300,000 homeless.

The devastation forced authorities to adopt regulations with nominal construction quality after 2000.

Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu urged residents to cooperate on the issue, as there is considerable work in the megalopolis of over 1.16 million buildings.

According to the 2021 building inventory, about half of the buildings do not meet earthquake resistance standards.

"This is a call for mobilization," Imamoglu announced on his social media accounts. "Thousands of buildings in Istanbul must be demolished and constructed to be earthquake-proof." Meanwhile, Istanbul University Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty Hospital suspended all the health and education services in its 17 buildings in the compound in the Fatih district on the city's European side after an earthquake risk examination.

On Monday, Faculty President Nuri Aydin told reporters that the test results revealed that the buildings were at risk and the evacuation had started.

This state-owned hospital is one of the most comprehensive health facilities in the city.

In the wake of the deadly tremors in early February, many Istanbul residents plan to move to earthquake-proof buildings, while the authorities are scrambling to evaluate the buildings' strength.

As a result, the rents of new apartments have skyrocketed in the city recently, increasing by 10 to 20 per cent in the past 15 days.
Patna, March 1 : A day after Vaishali police arrested the father of a Galwan martyr, BJP MLAs strongly protested and created ruckus in the Assembly on Wednesday, the third day of the budget session.

The legislators showed aggression in the House and broke chairs on the reporting table following which Speaker Awadhesh Narayan Singh warned them and called for the marshalls to intervene who took away the banners and posters from the hands of BJP MLAs.

The BJP MLAs included the leader of opposition Vijay Kumar Sinha, former minister Niraj Kumar Bablu, Lal Ganj MLA Sanjay Singh and others.

Sanjay Singh was the first person who went aggressively to the reporting table and alleged that the Nitish government had humiliated the father of a martyr who gave supreme sacrifice in a Galwan valley. He alleged that the local police booked him under sections of Rangdari (extortion) apart from other Acts.

Reacting to the allegation levelled by the BJP legislators, Tejashwi Yadav, the deputy chief minister of Bihar informed the House that the action taken against Raj Kapoor Singh, the father of martyr Jay Kishor Singh was because of the encroachment of government property and a piece of land that belongs to another person.

"When Jay Kishor Singh got martyrdom, I went to the village in Jandaha and consoled the family. At that time too, his father expressed his view to build a monument for his son on the land of others. I don't know if the leader of opposition Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, who was the Speaker of the House at that time and his party was part of the ruling government, went there or not," Yadav said.

"It is a matter of land encroachment and hence Vaishali police took the action as per the law," Yadav said.

Vaishali police arrested Raj Kishor Singh on Monday night and his family members claimed that the SHO of Jandaha police station, named Vishvanath Ram slapped and humiliated him. He had used abusive language and dragged Raj Kishor Singh in the police van like a terrorist, the family alleged.

Following his arrest, a large number of people from across the district assembled there and demanded his release.

"We have registered an FIR in Jandaha police station against Raj Kishor Singh. After the martyrdom of his son, he built this monument on a public road. Due to the monument the public road is blocked at the place. He has land alongside the road and on the other side the piece of land belongs to another person. He has encroached the land and has not vacated despite our warning," said Poonam Keshri, SDPO of (Jandaha) Vaishali.
Mumbai, March 1 : Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut's purported statement labelling the ruling Shiv Sena as fake and a 'chor mandali' (gang of thieves) sparked a massive row in the Maharashtra Assembly with demands for a breach of privilege motion against him, as the House saw four adjournments.

Speaking on the issue, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said calling the House as 'chor mandal' would not be tolerated and it was an insult to the legislature.

He urged that it was not a matter concerning any individual party or member but an onslaught on the dignity of the House, the elected representatives, it could set a precedent and in future anybody could say anything and get away.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Atul Bhatkalkar moved a notice of breach of privilege motion against Raut terming it as an 'extremely serious matter', a slur on the House, the people and the Constitution.

Speaker Rahul Narwekar said that he would fully enquire into Raut's utterances in the next couple of days and would take a decision in the matter on March 8, and adjourned the House till Thursday.

On his part, a besieged Raut claimed that his 'remarks were misinterpreted' but said he was prepared to attend any enquiry in the matter.

Earlier, BJP MLA Ashish Shelar, Nitesh Rane, and others slammed Raut and termed his statement as a 'betrayal' of Maharashtra.

Similarly, Nationalist Congress Party's Leader of Opposition (Assembly), Nationalist Congress Party's Ajit Pawar termed Raut's outburst as 'wrong', while Sena (UBT)'s Leader of Opposition (Council) Ambadas Danve said his party colleague's statement was 'incorrect'.

Amid a huge ruckus on both sides, the House was adjourned for around 10 minutes this morning, followed by at least three more adjournments, and finally at around 1 p.m., it was adjourned for the day.

Soon afterwards, the ruling Shiv Sena-BJP members staged a vociferous protest on the stairs outside the legislature, and raised slogans condemning Raut's utterances.

Currently on a tour of Kolhapur for the ;Shivgarjana' and 'Shivsamvad' initiatives, at one point, Raut hit out at the rival faction, allegedly saying that "there is a fake Shiv Sena in the legislature, it's a gang of thieves".

Referring to the manner in which the Shiv Sena of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde is erasing the influence of former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and his son Aditya Thackeray, Raut said that even if they are removed from any post, they will not quit the party, since the late Balasaheb Thackeray had given them many such posts and the party is supreme.

The Sena (UBT) MP also pointed out how his party made a roaring success of the 'Shivgarjana' in Dharashiv (Osmanabad) Tuesday, and now this will be repeated all over Maharashtra as the party is getting stronger.

The relations between the Sena (UBT) and Shiv Sena have deteriorated after the Election Commission of India (ECI) last month recognised the Shinde faction as the 'real' one and awarded it the 'Shiv Sena' name and 'Bow-and-Arrow' poll symbol, which the Sena (UBT) has challenged in the Supreme Court, along with other related issues.
Phnom Penh, March 1 : Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn said on Wednesday that the biennial Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) has contributed to promoting peace, security, connectivity, development and multilateralism in both continents.

In a message to mark the ASEM Day, Sokhonn said over the past 27 years, the initiative has grown into a significant forum with its mission of maintaining peace and security as well as promoting connectivity and development for the two continents, reports Xinhua news agency.

"It has also served as a high-profile forum for advancing dialogues to enhance multilateralism, in the spirit of consensus, mutual interest and respect, to address inter-regional issues and global challenges," he said.

Sokhonn urged ASEM to provide its decades-long leadership to mobilise joint actions to deepen its cooperation to pursue more sustainable solutions so that the two continents could maintain their course to secure a more resilient future for the next generations to come.

"Cambodia attaches great importance to ASEM as the relevant multilateral platform of dialogue and reaffirms her readiness and proactive engagement to work and collaborate with all its members and stakeholders to achieve the noble goals of peace and prosperity as set out by our ASEM leaders, and to bring back a renewed vitality into the ASEM process," he said.

ASEM comprises 53 partners -- 21 Asian countries, 30 European countries, the ASEAN Secretariat, and the European Union.

ASEM was founded in 1996 and Cambodia became its member in 2004.
Mumbai, March 1 : Popular TV actor Mohsin Khan said that he enjoyed shooting for his latest music video 'Kuch Toh Zaroor Hai' in and around the beautiful location of Munnar in Kerala, and observing the life of locals. The song reminds him of the era of the 90s and it recreates that magic.

He said: "This is indeed a very lovely song it has the 90's classic vibe that has been set on the backdrop of gorgeous scenery. Given that it was Munnar, the weather was wonderful. The voice of Javed Ali is effortlessly smooth. The time we spent on the set was quite memorable. " Mohsin is a well-known name in the TV industry and he has been part of several music videos also like 'Baarish', 'Jaa Rahe Ho', 'Ishq Ishq Karke', 'Saawan Ki Boondein', 'Tu Mujhse Juda', and many more.

He recounted shooting for the romantic track with the actress Nidhi Shah and said that it was all fun because of the pleasant weather and observing the life of local people.

"We spent time in Kerala with their locals, especially the tea plucker women. Their strict discipline was quite enlightening from a cultural perspective. With their blessings, we hope the audience loves our song as much as we loved making it," concluded the 'Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai' actor.

The song is sung by Javed Ali, the music is composed by Nilesh Ahuja, the lyrics are penned by Kumaar, and the song is out on Saregama Originals.
New Delhi, March 1 : A Special CBI court in Kerala has awarded three years rigorous imprisonment to a former Enforcement Officer, Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), Regional Office, Kozhikode in connection with a bribery case.

The court while awarding jail term to P. Premakumaran also slapped a fine of Rs 50,000 on him.

The CBI registered the case against the accused on the allegations that while working as an Enforcement Officer he demanded an illegal gratification of Rs 50,000 from a man for showing him undue favour by reducing the PF contribution towards the employees of his firm for the period 2018-2019 from Rs 8 lakh to Rs 4 lakh.

The CBI laid a trap and caught the accused red-handed while demanding and accepting a bribe from the victim.

After investigation, a charge sheet was filed against the accused. The trial court found the accused guilty and convicted him.
Dubai, March 1 : India's ace off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has moved to the top spot in the latest ICC Men's Test Bowling Rankings, ending veteran England pacer James Anderson's stay at the number one spot.

Ashwin claimed the top spot after taking six wickets in his most recent performance, in India's emphatic victory over Australia in the second Test at New Delhi. Anderson, on the other hand, drops to second place after England's stunning one-run loss to New Zealand in the Wellington Test.

Ashwin, 36, first became the No.1-ranked Test bowler in 2015, and has returned to the top spot on several occasions since then. He bagged big wickets in India's win in New Delhi, removing Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith in the same over of the first innings before returning to pick up Alex Carey for a duck in the first innings.

He was at it again in the second innings, picking up three of the top five while his spin-bowling accomplice, left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja rattled through the rest of the Australian batting order from the other end by picking seven wickets.

Ashwin has an opportunity to extend his latest stay in the No.1 spot through India's remaining two Tests on home soil in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy series against Australia in Indore and Ahmedabad.

Ashwin, with 864 points, is now the third No.1 Test bowler in as many weeks, after Anderson, now having 859 rating points, replaced Australia captain Pat Cummins at the summit last time around. The trio continue to make up the top three bowlers in the latest rankings.

Jadeja's 10 wickets in the second Test against Australia at New Delhi also sees him move up the bowling rankings to eighth position, and strengthen his grip on top spot in the ICC Test All-Rounder Rankings - with Ashwin behind him on the second spot.

England's premier batter Joe Root is the other big mover in the all-rounder rankings, up two spots to eighth. His return to top form in Wellington also sees him leapfrog Australia's Travis Head and Pakistan captain Babar Azam into third in the ICC Test Batting Rankings.

Australia duo of Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith remain first and second respectively among Test batters. England's young batter Harry Brook continues his meteoric rise up the batting rankings after another superb century, climbing 15 places to draw level with Virat Kohli in 16th position.

New Zealand's wicketkeeper-batter Tom Blundell is a new arrival in the top 10 rankings for batters, rising four places to seventh after he helped the Black Caps to their famous follow-on victory by one run in the second Test against England.

-- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed
Hong Kong: Govt opposes US body's remarks

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government today strongly opposed a so-called "statement" issued by the heads of the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China regarding the Hong Kong SAR's criminal justice process for cases concerning the National Security Law.

It also vehemently condemned the US politicians' attempt to seek the imposition of "sanctions" on Department of Justice prosecutors who have been fulfilling their righteous duties of administering justice independently and impartially.

The Hong Kong SAR Government said it strongly objects to the purely politically oriented remarks of the US politicians.

Making a statement with the intent to interfere with or obstruct the course of justice or engaging in conduct with the same intent may even constitute the offence of criminal contempt of court or of perverting the course of justice, it said.

Pursuant to Article 63 of the Basic Law, the Department of Justice controls criminal prosecutions free from any interference.

The prosecutors act strictly in accordance with a longstanding international practice that the decision to prosecute will only take into consideration the applicable laws and the admissible evidence to justify instituting proceedings. Cases will never be handled differently owing to the political beliefs or backgrounds of the people concerned.

Hong Kong is a society underpinned by the rule of law and has always adhered to the principle that laws must be obeyed and lawbreakers held accountable, the Hong Kong SAR Government noted.

The citys judicial system is highly regarded by international communities and the Judiciary exercises judicial power independently in accordance with the law, free from any interference. Everyone charged with a criminal offence has the right to a fair hearing, it added.

Safeguarding national security falls within the internal affairs of a sovereign jurisdiction, and hence the implementation of the National Security Law in Hong Kong should be free from any form of interference.

The US politicians' arbitrary and unreasonable bullying act has seriously violated international norms and grossly interfered in Hong Kong affairs and China's internal affairs at large.

It is a blatant attempt to undermine the rule of law of Hong Kong and will only expose their own weakness and be doomed to fail.

This story has been published on: 2023-03-01. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Photo taken on March 14, 2022 shows flowers blossoming at Filopappou Hill opposite Acropolis in Athens, Greece. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos) ATHENS, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- China and the ancient Greece are among the world's most important cradles for human civilizations. More than 2,000 years ago, the two ancient civilizations still had some indirect exchanges despite being separated by the vast Eurasian landmass. The ancient Greek people even had a name for the Chinese at that time: Seres, which means the silk-people. In today's world of interdependence, it is of great historical and contemporary significance for China and Greece to promote exchanges and mutual learning between the two civilizations and also push forward the development of civilizations in other countries. Last week, the Center of Greek and Chinese Ancient Civilizations was officially inaugurated at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA). Partnering with the Center of Chinese and Greek Ancient Civilizations of the Southwest University in China, the newly-opened institute aims to promote bilateral exchanges of scholars and students to advance the study of the two civilizations. A deeper exploration of Greek and Chinese civilizations, two of the most ancient ones, will benefit the whole world, said professors from Greek universities involved in founding the new center. "We believe that in this world, which is fragmented, where values are in crisis, it would be very beneficial for all of us, not just for China and Greece, but for the whole world, to look at the legacy of these two great cultures and look at them in a comparative way," said Stelios Virvidakis, president of the Steering Committee of the Center of Greek and Chinese Ancient Civilizations. Visitors take photos of Caryatids on display at the Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece, Nov. 7, 2019. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos) A JOINT INITIATIVE Back in 2019, during his state visit to Greece, Chinese President Xi Jinping and then President of Greece Prokopis Pavlopoulos visited the Acropolis Museum in Athens. Xi said the tour left him a beautiful and memorable impression, and deepened his understanding of ancient Greek civilization. He said he felt the impact of history and further realized that China and Greece, as two ancient civilizations, have much in common. During Xi's visit, the two leaders jointly advocated exchanges and mutual learning between civilizations. After the visit, the two sides started to build centers dedicated to what the two leaders proposed. The deepening of cooperation between Greece and China through this new venue opens a new world, a new era, said Apostolis Dimitropoulos, former general secretary of higher education at Greece's Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs. Recalling his visit in 2019 to Qufu city in Shandong Province of China, the birthplace of Confucius, Dimitropoulos said he realized at that time that it was of great significance to start from a comparative study of the philosophies of the two countries when exploring the two ancient civilizations. Confucianism has great influence on the eastern civilization, "while ancient Greece has saved the western civilization. By studying the foundations of the two in a comparative perspective, I think we could understand more the foundations of the globe," Dimitropoulos told Xinhua. The initiative to build the research centers brings together eight universities from Greece and China, and was warmly supported by the Chinese president. Xi has recently replied to a letter from Virvidakis and four other Greek scholars, extending congratulations over the founding of the Center of Greek and Chinese Ancient Civilizations. "I am very happy and honored and moved that the Chinese president has responded to our letter and has pledged to support and sustain our joint efforts of the two centers, the center in Greece and the center in China," said Virvidakis, also professor emeritus of Philosophy of the NKUA. Visitors view exhibits during an art exhibition of creations by Chinese artist Qi Baishi at the B&M Theocharakis in Athens, Greece, Nov. 12, 2019. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong) A MIRROR TO EACH OTHER Nikos Kazantzakis, a giant of modern Greek literature who had visited China twice, commented that "Confucius and Socrates were two masks that covered the same face of human logic." For Virvidakis, each civilization is like a mirror to the other. Greeks feel that Chinese are friends, and China is another self of Greece, Virvidakis said, referring to a quote of ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle who said that a friend is another self. "My colleagues and I believe that the Chinese are real friends who can share our worries, and our dreams, hopes and vision for the future. I do believe that they are like a mirror that makes us understand ourselves better here in Greece and in the West to the extent that the whole West has been influenced by Greek thought," he explained. "From now on the partnership between China and Greece will have a very different character," said Pavlos Kontos, professor of Philosophy at the University of Patras. He added that the University of Patras in Greece and the Southwest University in China will jointly launch a master's program which will begin in September. "It is on Chinese and Greek civilizations and it is the first one worldwide that introduces a comparative approach to these two civilizations," Kontos said. A man flies a kite on the occasion of Clean Monday at Filopappou Hill in Athens, Greece, on Feb. 27, 2023. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos) A COMMUNITY WITH A SHARED FUTURE In his letter to Greek scholars, Xi said in order to promote the development of human society and jointly build a community with a shared future for mankind, we must deeply understand and grasp the age-old origins and rich contents of different civilizations and let the essence of all civilizations benefit the present generation and all mankind. The world today is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century, Xi said, adding that to solve outstanding contradictions and problems facing the mankind, it is necessary to rely on material means to overcome difficulties and rely on the strength of the spirit to rectify mind through thinking with sincerity. "We think it is a very sound and correct advice. Because we do believe in the power of the spirit and in the importance of values ... The idea is that the people, the scientists and the administrators and politicians who work on solutions, can be inspired from the teaching of great thinkers," Virvidakis said. "In our civilizations, both the Chinese civilization and Greek civilization, we have concepts which provide us with guidelines to more harmonious cooperation in our world," former Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou told Xinhua in a recent interview in Athens. "We do believe that if people from different cultures get together and exchange ideas, this will benefit the whole world. If two big cultures, like Chinese and Greek cultures, get together and exchange ideas, then the hope is that people from other traditions may join," Virvidakis said. "China and Greece have showed the way for this convergence of people and developing new solutions," he added.
New Delhi, March 1 : A Special National Investigation Court (NIA) Court in Lucknow has awarded death penalty to seven IS operatives and life term to another in connection with the 2017 Kanpur terror conspiracy case.

The IS operatives were booked under various sections of the IPC, UA(P), Arms Act and the Explosive Substances Act.

On Tuesday, while the court awarded death sentence to Mohammad Faisal, Gauss Mohammad Khan, Mohammad Azhar, Atif Muzaffar, Mohammad Danish, Sayed Meer Hussain and Asif Iqbal alias Rocky, it gave life term to Mohammad Atif.

The case against the eight accused was initially registered at Police Station ATS, Lucknow and later, the probe was taken over by the NIA.

Earlier, the NIA investigations had revealed that the accused had prepared and tested some IEDs and tried to plant them at various locations in Uttar Pradesh.

A notebook was seized from their Haji Colony (Lucknow) which contained handwritten notes about potential targets and details about bomb making.

Investigations had also led to the discovery of several photographs of the accused making IEDs and even with weapons, ammunition and the IS flag.

"The group had reportedly collected illegal weapons, explosives from various places. One of the accused, Atif Muzaffar, had also disclosed that he had compiled information on techniques to fabricate IEDs after collecting materials from various internet sources," the NIA said.

Investigations had also revealed that Atif and three others, identified as Md Danish, Syed Meer Hasan and Md Saifulla, had been responsible for fabricating the IED that was planted in the Bhopal-Ujjain passenger train.

The train explosion took place on March 7, 2017, in which ten persons had suffered severe injuries.

This case was also investigated by the NIA and is currently under trial.

"The breakthrough in the IS-backed criminal conspiracy case came when the main accused, identified as Md Faisal, was arrested for his involvement in the M P train explosion of March 2017. Disclosures made by him led to the arrest of two of his associates, Gauss Mohammad Khan alias Karan Khatri and Azhar Khan alias Azhar Khalifa," the official said.

After taking over the investigations, NIA arrested five more accused in the case. They were identified as Atif Muzaffar, Mohammad Danish, Asif Iqbal alias Rocky and Mohammad Atif alias Atif Iraqi and Sayed Meer Hussain.

A charge sheet was filed by the NIA against all the eight arrested accused on August 31, 2017.

Investigations in the case had clearly shown that the accused were members of IS and had sworn 'bayat' (allegiance) to the Islamic State and its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Atif Muzaffar was the group's Emir (leader) and was influenced by the propaganda of Dr Zakir Naik. He was found to be a frequent visitor of IS-related websites, from where he was downloading contents and videos and sharing it with the others in his group.

All eight had come together to propagate IS ideology and promote its activities in India. In pursuit of this objective, Mohammad Faisal, Gauss Mohammad Khan, Atif Muzaffar, Md Danish, Md Saifulla had explored land routes.

They had visited several key cities across the country, including Kolkata, Sundarbans, Srinagar, Amritsar, Wagha Border, Badmer, Jaisalmer, Mumbai, and Kozhikode, for undertaking 'hijrah' (migration).

Gauss Mohammad Khan and Atif Muzaffar had, in fact, explored a route to cross over to Bangladesh via Sundarbans, as per the investigations. Faisal, Atif and Saifulla had also travelled to Kashmir in March 2016 in a bid to contact some terrorist groups that could help them to cross over to Pakistan, from where they could migrate to ISIS controlled territories in Syria.

Another accused, Saifulla, was killed during an exchange of fire with ATS UP on March 7, 2017, in Haji Colony. The Police had seized several weapons and incriminating documents from the group's hideout in Haji Colony.

These seizures included a huge cache of arms, ammunition, electronic gadgets and other materials required to fabricate IEDs, and documents, an ISIS flag, eight Pistols, four knives, 630 rounds live cartridges, 62 rounds fired cartridges, five gold coins and cash Rs 62,055, foreign currencies, cheques, passports, five Mobile phones were recovered from them.
New Delhi, March 1: Pakistan is investigating the killing of "educationist Syed Khalid Raza" and former commander of Kashmiri terror outfit Al Badr who was shot dead by a single bullet aimed at his head on Sunday.

Investigators have labelled it a "targeted killing" and have indicated that a foreign hand could be behind the killing. They are also investigating whether the Sindhi nationalist outfit - the Sindhudesh Revolutionary Army (SRA), which claimed responsibility for the killing, is behind the murder.

The fatal attack on Raza comes just one week after a Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist was killed in Rawalpindi - the Pakistani Army headquarters - in similar circumstances.

The SRA, which is fighting for an independent Sindh, has carried out recurring attacks in Sindh but has only a handful of big-ticket attacks unlike the Baloch insurgents who work with impunity. The Sindhi rebel organisations are known for small-scale attacks like blowing up train tracks, damaging mobile communication towers and bombing power transmission lines.

In September 2022, the SRA carried out an attack on a Chinese dental clinic in Karachi in which Ronald Raymond Chou was killed and Dr Richard Hu and his wife Phen Teyin were severely wounded. Though China denied immediately that the people were not Chinese nationals, the news made international headlines.

In another attack in Karachi in May 2022, the SRA targeted a vehicle belonging to the Pakistani Coast Guard in which one person was killed and 13 injured. Even as the Coast Guard personnel escaped injuries, a large number of vehicles were damaged.

It is widely believed that the Sindhi separatists have honed their skills courtesy Baloch insurgents.

In 2020 four Baloch outfits joined hands with the SRA to create an umbrella organisation-Baloch Raji Ajoi Sangar (BRAS) with the aim of opposing the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Like the Baloch nationalists, many Sindhis too believe that the CPEC is exploiting local people to benefit Pakistan's Punjab-dominated areas and China.

The alliance helps the Sindhi outfits get training in warfare while they provide logistical support to Baloch fighters to carry out their operations in Karachi and other parts of Sindh.

Pakistan's policies are making it easy for the rebel groups to operate in Sindh. Increasingly, the Sindhi people have been voicing their dissatisfaction with the Pakistani government over settling Afghan migrants and other ethnicities in Sindh, which they say is leading to crime against the locals and usurpation of their land.

Their other grievances include the exploitation of Sindh natural resources like water, to benefit Punjab province. A major complaint is the enforced disappearances of the Sindhi political leaders. In January 2023, violence erupted after the police opened fire on Sindh nationalists who had gathered to celebrate the 119th birth anniversary of nationalist leader GM Syed in Jamshoro. The event had been organised by a number of relatives of GM Syed as well as nationalist organisations.

The SRA might be smaller and less lethal as compared to Baloch groups but it has already made a dent in Pakistan-China relations. If its claim about the killing of the Al Badr commander is indeed true then it might have arrived on the insurgency scene with a bang that will surely make the Pakistani establishment extremely uncomfortable.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative
Chennai, March 1 : Increased passenger traffic, free pricing and easing of cost pressures make the tailwind for the Indian airlines flying towards profitability next fiscal, said credit rating agency CRISIL Ratings in a sectoral report.

"India's airlines industry, for the first time since the onset of pandemic, is expected to be back in black next fiscal. The industry is also likely to pare its net loss by 75-80 per cent on-year to Rs 3,500-4,500 crore this fiscal, compared with about Rs 17,500 crore last fiscal," CRISIL said.

Strong recovery in passenger traffic and easing cost pressures are supporting this turnaround in operating performance of airlines.

A CRISIL Ratings analysis of three airlines that account for about 75 per cent of domestic air traffic indicates as much.

Domestic and international passenger traffic recovered to 90 per cent and 98 per cent, respectively, in the nine months through December this fiscal, compared with the corresponding period of fiscal 2020 (pre-pandemic).

Business and leisure travel rebounded strongly, even as international scheduled services resumed. The festival season has accelerated recovery in the second half. This pace is likely to be maintained next fiscal, as the Indian economy remains resilient in the face of global headwinds, CRISIL Ratings said.

"Next fiscal, we expect passenger traffic to cross the pre-pandemic level and pricing to remain higher by 20-25 per cent over those levels. Consequently, airlines are expected to clock 25-30 per cent revenue growth next fiscal vis-A-vis pre-pandemic. That, along with expected moderation in average aviation turbine fuel prices will drive a significant turnaround in operational performance of airlines, enabling them to become profitable next fiscal," said Gautam Shahi, Director, CRISIL Ratings.

Profitability will also be aided by lower interest costs, driven by debt reduction owing to privatisation of a large airline in the last quarter of previous fiscal. Better operating performance and expected equity infusions would keep airlines' reliance on debt (excluding lease liabilities) limited over the near-to-medium term.

"The aviation sector is also likely to raise equity of Rs. 8,000-10,000 crore over the next two fiscals, which will be utilised towards increasing fleet size and revamping the existing fleet. This will provide a much-needed boost to the capital structure. Consequently, dependence on incremental debt (excluding lease liabilities) for airlines would remain limited over the near to-medium term, as major part of recent large fleet purchase orders by airlines are expected to be received from fiscal 2026 onwards, and thus support their credit profiles," said Kshitij Jain, Associate Director, CRISIL Ratings.

Timely infusion of equity, debt contracted for capex towards fleet expansion and a resurgence of Covid-19 cases due to spread of any new virus strains, though, will remain key monitorables, CRISIL Ratings said.
Los Angeles, March 1 : During the recent HCA awards in LA Hollywood filmmaker Kevin Taft praised Indian actor NTR Jr's physique and mentioned how he was "Bouncing in his seat" after watching NTR Jr's performance as Komaram Bheem.

The Hollywood filmmaker was in awe of the actor for performing epic stunts like riding the motorcycle while juggling and commanding a pack of wild animals and roaring back at the tiger.

"It had me bouncing in my seat, cheering at the screen and desperately wanted to share the experience with my friends. With one of the most engaging and electrifying performances to grace the silver screen. I rose, I roared and if I don't get the name NTR Jr's personal trainer, I revolt." Up next, NTR Jr will be seen in NTR 30 by Janatha Garage director Koratala Siva. He will also be working with KGF director Prashanth Neel on NTR31.
New Delhi: Police detain a member of Tibetan Youth Congress during a protest condemning Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gangs visit to India for G20 Foreign Ministers meeting , outside the Chinese Embassy at Shanti Path , in New Delhi on Wednesday, M Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi: Police detain a member of Tibetan Youth Congress during a protest condemning Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gangs visit to India for G20 Foreign Ministers meeting , outside the Chinese Embassy at Shanti Path , in New Delhi on Wednesday, M Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi: Police detain a member of Tibetan Youth Congress during a protest condemning Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gangs visit to India for G20 Foreign Ministers meeting , outside the Chinese Embassy at Shanti Path , in New Delhi on Wednesday, M Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi: Police detain a member of Tibetan Youth Congress during a protest condemning Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gangs visit to India for G20 Foreign Ministers meeting , outside the Chinese Embassy at Shanti Path , in New Delhi on Wednesday, M Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi: Police detain a member of Tibetan Youth Congress during a protest condemning Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gangs visit to India for G20 Foreign Ministers meeting , outside the Chinese Embassy at Shanti Path , in New Delhi on Wednesday, M Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi: Police detain a member of Tibetan Youth Congress during a protest condemning Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gangs visit to India for G20 Foreign Ministers meeting , outside the Chinese Embassy at Shanti Path , in New Delhi on Wednesday, M Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, March 1 : With China's foreign minister Qin Gang to attend the G20 foreign ministers' meeting on Thursday (March 2), scores of Tibetans on Wednesday protested outside the Chinese embassy here.

Delhi Police detained several protesters and took them to a nearby police station in a bus.

More details are awaited.

Qin is expected to meet his Indian counterpart S. Jaishankar on the sidelines of the G20 meeting, where according to reports, they are likely to discuss the border issues and review the outcome of talks at the diplomatic and military levels, to resolve the matter.

The Chinese Foreign Minister's visit to New Delhi comes even as the two countries continue efforts to resolve border disputes along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh area and attempts of incursion by the People's Liberation Army.

"At the invitation of Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang will attend the G20 foreign ministers conference in New Delhi, India on March 2," the Chinese Foreign Ministry had said in a brief statement on Tuesday.
New Delhi, March 1 : A carbon market simulation study, implemented in 2020-21, included 21 large Indian businesses, representing about 10 per cent of India's industry emissions, and all elements of a carbon market demonstrated a 28 per cent reduction in the total cost of emissions reductions.

The findings from the report on the study were shared at the Business 20 (B20)-Think20 (T20) convening in Mumbai on Wednesday.

B20 and T20 are the official engagement groups of the G20. Led by the World Resources Institute (WRI) India, this study draws on 15 years of international experience with carbon markets and 10 years of domestic experience with MBMs; consultations with large Indian businesses to understand the needs, challenges, and perspectives of the Indian industry; and a first-of-its-kind simulation of a carbon market.

According to the World Bank (2021), carbon markets now cover 16 per cent of global emissions.

A carbon market that covers India's industrial sector and sets targets aligned with the average ambition level of the existing voluntary commitments by the Indian corporate sector has the potential to reduce the emissions intensity of GDP by an additional 5.6 per cent in 2030 compared to a current policy scenario, which is equivalent to a cumulative reduction of 1.3 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MMTCO2e) between 2022 and 2030.

At COP26, India announced its ambition of reducing the emission intensity per unit GDP by 45 per cent by 2030 and achieving net zero by 2070.

India also announced that it aims to reduce 1 billion metric tonnes of carbon emissions by 2030.

"With a carbon market, India has at its disposal an instrument that can provide the right policy and price signals to incentivise deep decarbonization from the industry sector while ensuring global competitiveness.

"Our analysis shows that a well-designed carbon market can potentially also reduce costs of emissions reductions and mobilize finance needed for decarbonization of MSME sector," said Ashwini Hingne, Senior Manager, WRI India, who led the research study.

The Bureau of Energy Efficiency will administer India's carbon trading framework, which is getting ready for its rollout.

Speaking at the event, Abhay Bakre, Director General, Bureau of Energy Efficiency, said, "As economies mature, if aggressive efforts to mitigate emissions are to be achieved, carbon markets are one of the most cost-effective tools to do that. To build a very robust framework for carbon market in India, some very effective amendments to the Energy Conservation Act were made and several stakeholder consultations were held in parallel.

"We will make sure the Indian market is on a par with the international standards. We are also building a pool of verifiers and a robust electronic platform to register projects, manage credits, etc., and this will build better confidence among industries. By 2030, the Indian carbon market will be the leading market in the world. It will ensure that this market assists the industry in driving decarbonisation effort while driving the cost of technologies down." In December last, the Parliament passed the Energy Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 2022.

The Bill amended the Energy Conservation Act, 2001, to empower the government to establish carbon markets and specify a carbon credit trading scheme.

On February 17, the government announced a list of 13 activities that will be considered for trading of carbon credits under Article 6.2 mechanism to facilitate transfer of emerging technologies and mobilize international finance in India.

By implementing domestic market-based mechanisms to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy over the last decade, namely, the Perform, Achieve, Trade (PAT) and Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) schemes, respectively, India has been able to create some institutional capacity for operationalising MBMs.

This provides a good starting point for implementing a carbon market.

Ravi Pandit, Chairman and Co-founder, KPIT Technologies, said, "Industries are at the opportune time to lead the way to the decarbonisation efforts. Carbon trading is efficient and effective way of reducing emissions. Our study shows that the cost of mitigation comes down by approximately 28 per cent. It is important to focus on the design, management, and capacity building." A national carbon market in India linked to well-established markets such as the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), where marginal emissions abatement costs could be higher, can create international demand for emission reduction units from the Indian market.

"India's carbon market can give businesses a clear policy signal to shift investments toward low carbon technology. This should also be accompanied by an emissions reporting program and targeted capacity building to prepare Indian industry," said Ulka Kelkar, Director of the Climate Program at WRI India.

Reflecting on the need for international uniformity as countries announce their own carbon markets, Riza Suarga, Chairman, Indonesia Carbon Trade Association, said, "Indonesia is planning to release a carbon exchange by mid this year. Indonesia also plans to conduct cross-sectoral carbon trading. Going ahead, aligning with the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi of One Earth, One Family, One Future, it's important to harmonise the procedures and standards and focus on implementing Article 6."
Islamabad, March 1 : A US State Department report has said that the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terror group has intensified its targeted attacks in Pakistan, majorly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), because it aims to topple the government in the province and impose Sharia law by waging a terror campaign against the military and the state.

According to the report titled "2021 Country reports on Terrorism", the TTP uses the porous Pakistan-Afghanistan border and the tribal belt on both sides as sanctuary of training and deployment of its operatives.

"TTP draws its ideological guidance from Al Qaeda, while elements of the terror group rely in part on TTP for safe haven in the Pashtun areas along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border," it stated.

"This arrangement has given TTP access to both Al Qaeda's global terrorist network and its members' operational expertise." Terror groups including the TTP, the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) are among the major beneficiaries of the tribal belt access of the border, who have been involved in carrying out major terror attacks in Pakistan.

"Pakistan experienced significant terrorist activity during the year in review i.e 2021. In 2021, separatist militant groups conducted terrorist attacks against varied targeted in Balochistan and Sindh provinces.

"Terrorists used a range of tactics to attacks varied targets, including Improvised Explosive Devices, Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Devices, suicide bombings, and targeted assassinations," the report said.

It also highlighted that Pakistan took important counter-terrorism measures to curb terror financing by clamping on India-focused militant groups like the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JUD), its subsidiary ambulance and emergency response service Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF) and other affiliate groups and individuals like Hafiz Muhammad Saeed.

The report also criticized Pakistan's failure to sustain its counter-terrorism response, which has been the reason why terrorist groups are able to regroup and re-assemble from time to time.

It emphasized that other than TTP, Pakistan is faced with major threats from ISKP, the Afghan Taliban and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.

These groups are believed to have between 3,000 to 5,000 militants in Pakistan and have claimed responsibility for attacks on civilians and government officials in the country as well.

The report also criticizes Pakistan for not ensuring compliance of its claim that it would not allow any terror group to use its soil and function in the country. However, the report adds that terror groups like the Haqqani Network, Lashkar-e-Taiha (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) continued to operate from the Pakistani soil in 2021.

"Pakistan took some steps in 2021 to counter terror financing and to restrain some India-focused militant groups, authorities did not take sufficient action to dismantle them," the report added.
Amaravati, March 1 : Production at Foxlink, a cable supplier to global tech giant Apple, is not likely to resume soon at its facility in Andhra Pradesh following a huge fire two days ago.

The company, however, stated on Wednesday that it is working to resume production.

Foxlink, a unit of Taiwan's Cheng Uei Precision Industry Co Ltd, said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange that it is still looking into the cause of the fire at its facility in Tirupati district of Andhra Pradesh. The company also informed the Exchange that it is working hard to resume production.

Foxlink, which manufactures cables for iPhone maker, had earlier stated that four production lines at the plant.

Company's officials at the plant were working with the local authorities to undertake restoration works to resume production activity. However, sources said it might take a couple of months to resume production.

The fire broke out at the facility located in Jinkalamitta village late on Monday night. There was no loss of life. About 750 people working at the plant managed to get out soon after the fire broke out.

Police said the investigations were on to ascertain the cause of the fire.

The largest shed among three sheds, where all the production takes place, was charred.

Following the mishap, production came to a halt at the plant, which was set up in 2020.
New Delhi, March 1 : Addressing his letter to Lieutenant Governor V.K. Saxena, incarcerated alleged conman, Sukesh Chandrashekhar has released yet another letter claiming illegal leak and release of CCTV footage of his jail cell by the jail officials.

Chandrashekhar, who is lodged in the national capital's Mandoli jail, has said in his letter that leaking of his cell footage is a security breach and that the said leak "was done by Assistant Superintendent and Deputy Superintendent".

Subjecting it as an "urgent complaint", Chadrashekhar has alleged that both the officials had gone to his cell to threaten and mentally harass him and asked him to take back what he had told them in the Economic Offences Wing.

In his handwritten complaint, the alleged conman said that the search is a regular process in jail, but the way it was carried out as seen in the footage, shows "their behaviour and personal vengeance towards him".

By quoting what the officials had said in their office the next day of the search, Chandrashekhar wrote that Assistant Superintendent Deepak Sharma had previously challenged him that he would release the torture video.

As per his letter, the officials had said: "You exposed Satyendar Jain now its our turn, we will release your video and show the world how you are treated by us." Chadrashekhar questioned as to why the video, which is three months old was leaked only during his Enforcement Directorate custody, where he disclosed Satyendar Jain's involvement.

"Both of them (Sharma and Dy. Supt. Jay Singh) have received Rs 5.5 lakh in total as jail protection money previously and the same was even sent as a complaint to your office," he further wrote in his letter to the L-G.

He alleged that Sharma has asked his favour several times and that the former has also given Rs 30 lakh to him as jail protection money, which the latter used for his body building activities.

His letter alleges that there are multiple complaints of corruption by other prisoners against Sharma.

"Now he along with Jay Singh have done this mischief at the instruction of Satyendra Jain to divert attention from ED enquiry going on in my case where I have disclosed about Satyendra Jain's involvement," he wrote.

He urged the L-G to refer the matter to a central agency.

He said: "I humbly request to refer this matter to a central agency and also to refer the corruption complaint against Deepak Sharma and Jay Singh to the anti-corruption bureau in the interest of justice and truth." "I will fully co-operate and provide substantial evidence on this regard in the investigation, also I humbly request to set up an enquiry in regards to leak of the CCTV footage as it's a security breach by these officers done for their personal gain," Chandrashekhar concluded his letter.
New Delhi, March 1 : A 32-year-old man, declared brain dead, saved four lives after his family donated his heart, liver and both kidneys on Wednesday.

The man, hailing from Madhya Pradesh, met with an accident in Mahipalpur, Delhi on February 25 and was brought in an extremely critical condition to Fortis Hospital, Vasant Kunj.

The patient was declared brain dead on Tuesday.

Post-counseling, the patient's family decided to donate his heart, liver and kidney to save the lives of patients needing transplants.

The heart was donated to AIIMS, the liver to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, one kidney to Max Hospital, Shalimar Bagh, and the second kidney was transplanted on a patient at Fortis, Vasant Kunj.

A green corridor was also created from Fortis Hospital, Vasant Kunj to transport the heart, covering a distance of 10 kms in just 11 minutes.

"I salute the deceased donor and his family for having realised the value of organ donation and giving life to ailing patients. This should encourage more people to come forward and get themselves registered for organ donation to save more lives," said Gauri Shankar Sharma, Director and Head, Critical Care Medicine, Fortis Hospital, Vasant Kunj, in a statement.

As per the data available with NOTTO, in 2022, 11 cadaver donations were done with successful retrieval of 30 organs in Delhi. Every year, hundreds of people die in India, waiting for an organ transplant.

Due to lack of awareness and misconceptions, there is a shortage of organ donors, and with each passing year, the gap between the number of organs donated and the people waiting for transplant, is growing wider.

Timely cadaveric organ donation can save many lives and more people would come forth and pledge their organs if they receive more information and are educated on the benefits of organ donation.
New Delhi, March 1 : Traders' body, Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has sought the attention of the Urban Affairs Minister urging an Amnesty Scheme under Master Plan of Delhi-2041.

In a communication sent to Union Urban Development Minister Hardeep Puri, CAIT has pitched for granting an Amnesty Scheme under Master Plan of Delhi-2041 for protection against sealing of shops.

CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said that in the past the Central government had regularised more than 1,700 unauthorised colonies which has proved to be a major relief to people of Delhi. On the same pattern, an Amnesty Scheme may also be given in MPD-41 to protect the traders of Delhi from any further sealing of shops and the shops which have remained sealed should be de-sealed for resuming normal business activities of Delhi.

Khandelwal said during the last 14 years all efforts were made to set right what happened in the past with the result that year by year, the past could not be rectified and the future also remained continuously disturbed. Even today after the lapse of 14 years, the Delhi traders stand at the same place where they were in 2006. Therefore, there is a need to take actions with prospective effect and not with retrospective effect and such an Amnesty Scheme will bring relief to more than 10 lakh traders of Delhi and nearly more than 20 lakh of their employees will be assured of their livelihood.

CAIT has said that it is a matter of record that non timely implementation of earlier Master Plans of 1962, 1981 and 2006 and due to lethargic attitude of the concerned multiple Authorities who have utterly failed in discharging their responsibilities those were spelled out in all three earlier Master Plans, the trade of Delhi was developed by traders in an unstructured way to meet the requirements of people of Delhi. Even the Additional Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development had filed an Affidavit in the Supreme Court in 2008 and admitted that various government agencies were able to develop only 16 per cent of the commercial space in Delhi in the past four decades which is ample evidence of dereliction of duties by the concerned Authorities.

Khandelwal said that various reliefs granted by the Central government through due process of law were never allowed to be operative by the said Monitoring Committee with the result that large numbers of shops which could be de-sealed in pursuance of the actions of the government are still sealed. The traders of Delhi were denied their fundamental right of issuance of sufficient notice and time to reply, making an Appeal to Appellate Tribunal, making another Appeal before the Administrator as granted under various sections of MCD Act,1957.

Khandelwal said that in view of the fact that previous government authorities failed in developing commercial space as per requirements of growing population of Delhi, rest of the 84 per cent commercial space was developed by traders on their own and without any support from any quarter in order to meet the needs of people of Delhi and rendering yeomen services for collection of revenue for the State exchequer. The shopkeepers in Delhi were charged property tax, electricity and other government charges from time to time on a commercial basis but were never given commercial status which is a grave injustice with the traders. For a better and structured growth of trade in Delhi, an Amnesty Scheme will pave the way, he added.
Bengaluru, March 1 : Barely hours after they started their indefinite strike, Karnataka state government employees Wednesday called off the agitation.

The decision came following the Bommai administration's offer of granting 17 per cent interim relief in basic salary, and constituting a committee to evaluate the feasibility of withdrawing from the National Pension Scheme.

While the hike will be applicable from April 1, the government will take a call on the demand for the old pension scheme, after the committee files its observations in around two months time.

Karnataka State Government Employees Association President C.S. Shadakshari announced immediate withdrawal of the strike but insisted that they would resume their agitation if the government did not meet their remaining demands.

Earlier, on Tuesday night, the employees association had rejected the government's offer of 8 per cent hike against the demand for 40 per cent fitment in basic. Thereafter, the employees decided to begin their indefinite strike from Wednesday morning. Health and other crucial government services were affected by the strike early on Wednesday morning.

The employees, however, relented following Chief Minister Bommai's announcement on Wednesday.
Hyderabad, March 1 : A middle-aged woman from Zambia, who was suffering from a very rare type of tumour called Paraganglioma, has been successfully operated upon at KIMS Hospital in Hyderabad.

Dr. Ramya Valiveru, an endocrine surgeon from KIMS Kondapur, successfully treated the patient by performing a complex surgery.

According to her, the occurrence rate of that Paraganglioma tumour is only two in one million population.

The doctor said, the patient was referred with primary complaints of severe fluctuating hypertension and uncontrolled giddiness. The government of Zambia referred her to the Endocrine Surgery department of KIMS Hospital Kondapur.

The patient had been suffering from severe recurrent headaches, episodes of anxiety, palpitations, and increased sweating for more than five years. She was evaluated in Zambia and was found to have a large 8.5x7.5 cm tumour in her abdomen.

"The tumour is a very rare type that was found to produce very high amounts of a hormone called noradrenaline. Also, the location of the tumour was in a critical zone, behind the large important vessels like Inferior Vena Cava and Aorta. The blood vessels (veins) to both kidneys were travelling on the front of the tumour, the right kidney artery was travelling behind the tumour. All vessels were closely abutting the tumour," explained Dr Ramya.

When the patient came to KIMS, she was noticed to have uncontrolled hypertension. She underwent extensive evaluation and optimal preparation for surgery. "Pre-operative preparation in such cases is the key to successful surgery. Her endocrine control, hypertension control, and optimization were successfully done with alpha and beta blockade by Dr. Krishna Reddy, Consultant Endocrinology. Intra-operative fluctuations of BP and heart rate management is very challenging in this case.

According to Dr Ramya, surgery for Paragangliomas is different from the removal of other tumours. "The tumour can release hormones in a large quantity when touched, and cause a heavy load on the heart. So, we had to perform the surgery so meticulously, and carefully handle the tumour, without damaging the kidneys and the great vessels. The experienced team of anesthetists headed by Dr. Veera Bhadra Rao managed the patient during the surgery and the Postoperative Intensive care stay," she said.

The patient had a smooth recovery in the post-operative period and has been discharged in stable condition.
Patna, March 1 : After the huge uproar in the Assembly over the arrest of Galwan martyr's father Raj Kapoor Singh, Bihar Police has taken cognisance of the matter and initiated high-level inquiry into the matter.

Singh's son Jay Kishore Singh was among those martyred in the Galwan Valley clash in June 2020.

DGP R.S. Bhatti directed the Vaishali police to constitute a team to investigate the incident. The Vaishali police are facing charges of humiliating and thrashing Singh during his arrest on Monday night. The Vaishali police was also directed to submit the report in a time bound manner and take necessary action if any official was involved in misbehaving with the martyr's father.

Singh's son Nand Kishore alleged that the SHO, Jandaha, Vishvanath Ram came to his house in Kajari Bujurg on Sunday night and humiliated his father, using abusive language against him him and dragged him into the police van. Based on his statement, several media organisations published a report.

Complainant Harinath Ram had registered two FIRs in 2019 and January 23, 2023 against Singh for encroaching his land as well as the government road to building a monument for his martyred son.

During the police investigation, the officials said that it was found that Singh has encroached on the land of the complainant as well as the government property and due to the monument, the road was blocked and villagers were facing the problems. Hence, Jandaha SDPO Poonam Keshri visited the village and gave Singh 15 days to remove the monument from the government as well as the land belonging to Harinath Ram.

Based on the FIR, SHO Vishwanath Ram, went with the police force to Kajri Bujurg village on Monday night and arrested Singh.

The BJP legislators created huge ruckus inside Bihar Assembly on Wednesday, alleging that the state Police humiliated a man whose son had given supreme sacrifice for the country.

Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, supporting the Bihar Police, said that the action against Singh was taken as per the law. He also said that the way the BJP legislators created a ruckus, they seemed prepared to do "goondaism" inside the Assembly.

Speaker Awadesh Narayan Singh had given time to Leader of Opposition Vijay Sinha to put his point on this issue but BJP MLAs did not listen and walked out from the house.
New Delhi, March 1 : UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly on Wednesday raised the issue of tax searches at BBC offices in India with his Indian counterpart S. Jaishankar.

The issue was raised during their bilateral meeting, as per reports citing an interview with Cleverly, who is in India to participate in the two-day G20 Foreign Ministers meeting, which began here on Wednesday.

Last month, income tax authorities had conducted "survey operations" at BBC offices in New Delhi and Mumbai.

The searches came after the Indian government had reacted strongly against a BBC documentary on post-Godhra incident riots in Gujarat in 2002, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the state's Chief Minister.
Chennai, March 1 : Tamil Nadu forest department officials are tracking 40-year-old Makna elephant which was captured and relocated to deep forest after sedating it.

The elephant was released in Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR) on February 24 after capturing it on February 23 using darts.

As per the forest department officials, the animal is now healthy and traversing four km per day in the deep forest. It is drinking water, grazing, urinating, defecating like other wild elephants.

A senior officer with the Tamil Nadu forest department while speaking to IANS said, "The animal is now around 6 km from the Kerala border and we are tracking it propery." The animal which was released in Ulanthy forest range in Manombaly is now near the backwaters of Parambikkulam dam site.

Notably, the Tamil Nadu forest department has deputed a special team of forest officials to track the animal as it was not sedation free when released in the forests. The radio-collaring is helping the department officials on the exact location of the animal and whether it is again reaching some human settlements.

The Makhna elephant had created problems in several human settlements, including Pollachi, where it destroyed several residences and buildings.
Chennai, March 1 : Muthuvel Karunanidhi Stalin (M.K. Stalin) on Wednesday is celebrating his 70th birthday as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Son of towering DMK leader M. Karunanidhi Stalin had no easy rise, but had to go through the grind to reach the top of Tamil Nadu politics and assume the CM's office.

Stalin born on this day in 1953 was named so as Karunanidhi was an ardent fan of the Russian revolutionary and political leader.

Stalin was initiated into the nitty-gritty of politics after he campaigned for the election of his uncle Murosali Maran in 1967 at the age of 14.

In 1968, Stalin formed the DMK Gopalapuram Youth Wing with his neighbourhood friends.

Stalin was jailed under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) in 1976 and lodged in Chennai central prison when he was 23 years old. The arrest and jail term was for protesting against the Emergency that then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had announced in the country. Stalin was beaten up in custody and another DMK prisoner, Chittibabu died while protecting him in the prison.

He became the youth wing secretary of the DMK in 1982 and held on to the post for four decades in a row.

Stalin, however, had a bitter electoral outing losing his maiden Assembly election at Thousand Lights to AIADMK, but later won from the same seat in 1989. However, in 1991 after the DMK government was dismissed and elections held, Stalin lost from the Thousand Lights constituency.

From 1996 onwards Stalin won continuously from Thousand Lights seat till 2006. In the 2011 Assembly elections, he shifted from Thousand Lights to Kolathur and has retained the seat since then.

In 1996 Stalin was the first directly elected Mayor of Chennai Corporation and he created the project, 'Singarai Chennai' which was a major hit.

He was nicknamed as 'Managara Thanthai' (Father of the City) for improving the infrastructure of the city. Stalin was instrumental in creating a modern Garbage disposal system for Chennai corporation during his tenure.

Stalin became a minister in 2006 in the government of his father, M. Karunanidhi and assumed office as the Minister for Rural Development and Local administration. He established the women self help groups in Tamil Nadu and created 1,75,493 Women SHGs.

He became the Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on May 29, 2009 and was the first Deputy Chief Minister of the state.

In the 2021 Assembly elections, DMK alliance, Secular Progressive Alliance wrested power winning 159 out of 234 seats in Tamil Nadu. Stalin took his oath of office as Chief Minister on May 7, 2021.

He constituted 'Ungal Thoguthi Muthalamaichar' (Chief Minister in your constituency), which is a grievance redressal service. The Makkal Thedi Maruthuvam scheme launched by the Stalin government on August 5, 2021 provides essential health services at the door steps of the people. He also formed the Illam Thedi Kalvi scheme on October 19, 2021. This is the country's largest volunteer based education programme.

The Chief Minister's breakfast scheme, which he launched on September 15, 2022 is to help prevent hunger and nutritional deficiency in children.
New Delhi, March 1 : A Delhi court has deferred passing of order on Thursday on the bail plea filed by Hyderabad-based CA Butchi Babu Gorantla, recently arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the liquor policy case.

The Special Judge M. K. Nagpal of the Rouse Avenue Courts, on February 24, had reserved his order after hearing arguments in Gorantla's bail plea from both sides and had listed it for hearing on Wednesday.

Gorantla, who is the former auditor of Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao's daughter MLC K. Kavitha whose name has already been dragged into the case, was arrested by the CBI in the excise policy case on February 8.

According to the CBI, he was arrested for his alleged role in formulating and implementing the Delhi Excise Policy and causing wrongful gain to Hyderabad-based wholesale and retail licensees and their beneficial owners.

Recently, the court had also given permission to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to question Gorantla in judicial custody after the agency moved an application seeking permission to quiz him and to record his statement in the money laundering case pertaining to the Excise Policy.
Lahore, March 1 : Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan on Wednesday announced suspension of 'Jail Bharo' movement after Supreme Court's decision regarding elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) provinces, local media reported.

The movement, which kicked off from Lahore on February 22, was scheduled to culminate on March 1 with party activists and leaders courting arrests in their respective cities on the given days, Samaa TV reported.

The PTI activists and leaders including Asad Umar, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Zulfi Bukhari, Fayaz ul Hasan Chohan and others had surrendered before the police during the movement which had so far covered cities including Lahore, Peshawar, Multan and Gujranwala.

Khan took to his Twitter account to make this announcement.

The former premier welcomed the top court's verdict on the elections in Punjab and K-P provinces and commended it for upholding the Constitution, Samaa TV reported.

Khan said they were ending the movement and now kicking-off election campaigns in both provinces.

"We welcome the SC judgement. It was the responsibility of SC to uphold the Constitution and they have valiantly done that through their judgement today," Khan said after the top court's ruling to hold elections in the provinces within 90 days, Geo News reported.

In a split verdict earlier in the day, the Supreme Court asked President Arif Alvi to consult with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and fix a date for elections in Punjab while the governor of KP was ordered to announce a date for the election in the province.
New Delhi, March 1 : Not just the tech industry but layoffs have also hit other verticals and now, leading footwear and apparel brand Nike has laid off several employees who took to professional networking platform LinkedIn to share their plight.

Most job cuts affected Nike recruiters who said that they have been laid off.

Nike, however, did not comment on the social media posts about these job cuts.

The employees posted on LinkedIn after Nike announced the resignation of Ratnakar Lavu, the top technology executive at the company.

Jordan Ingram, senior talent acquisition partner at Nike, said it was hard for him to find the words.

"Like many other amazing people lately, I was laid off from Nike yesterday. If you have followed me or worked with me at all, you know how much I love my career and what I get to do. #SeniorTechRecruiter I take serious the opportunity to change people's lives, and there is no greater joy then being able to love your job and the company you work for," Ingram posted on LinkedIn.

"I am open to work, and I need to be working for my family," he added.

Reports also surfaced late last month that one of Vietnam's largest shoe manufacturers for major brands such as Nike and Adidas plans to cut at least 6,000 jobs due to poor orders.

Frank P, another talent recruiter team member, posted: "Type, delete, type, delete. As I try to find the words to say I was #laidoff yesterday from #nike. Like many talented and truly amazing people, I am now #opentowork." "Despite this unexpected life event, I am excited for a new door to open as this one has been closed. I am looking for a new role and would appreciate your support," Frank wrote.

Natalie Rincon, a product designer, said she was impacted by the layoffs at the company.

"It has been an amazing two years working alongside talented individuals, but I plan on using this time to recharge and refresh before diving back into the job search. Moving forward, I am excited to explore new opportunities in the field of product design and would love to connect with fellow designers and individuals who have been affected by layoffs," Rincon added.
Lucknow, March 1 : Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday targeted Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav over his photo with an accused in the Umesh Pal murder case which went viral on social media.

Adityanath said in the state assembly that the previous Samajwadi Party government handed over the state to the mafias, and ran the 'One district, one mafia' scheme.

"We launched the 'One district, one product' scheme which created lakhs of employment opportunities and made the poor self-reliant," he said.

The chief minister said that there are two ways to solve any problem-- either you run away or you participate to resolve it. He said that since 2017, the state's government is working towards the basic mantra of 'Sabka Saath, Saath Vikas'.

Adityanath further targeted the Opposition, saying tax evasion used to happen in previous governments and one will find many examples of this in many reports, including that of the CAG.

"These (Opposition parties) people used to say that if a Chief Minister will go to Noida, he would lose the election. The Leader of the Opposition had also accepted that he would not visit the city, but we proved this myth wrong," he said.

The Chief Minister said that the government should not run away from the problems but accept the challenge.

"The Finance Minister presented a self-reliant budget with the concept of all-inclusive overall development. In the last six years, the size of the state's budget has more than doubled. The government allocated Rs 6.90 lakh crore for the development," he pointed out.
New Delhi, March 1 : The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked authorities to comply with the Supreme Court's directions to install CCTVs in police stations in the national capital.

The order came on a plea seeking court's direction to the Delhi Police and Delhi Government to make sure that cameras are functional and has audio recording facility.

The police informed the High Court that to conclude the tender process for installing CCTV cameras in police stations is being speedily looked after.

The police said it is being done as per the directions of the apex court in Paramveer Singh Saini v. Baljit Singh case, that cameras must be installed with a storage period of 18 months.

The counsel representing police submitted that the top court on February 21, directed all the State governments to file a status report on compliance of directions while dealing with a similar case.

The court then disposed of the plea saying: "In view of the above, let the bids be evaluated and the orders ... be placed before the successful bidders expeditiously to ensure compliance of directions of the Supreme Court." It added: "Since the issue is being monitored by Supreme Court, no further orders are required to be passed." However, it granted liberty to the petitioner to avail remedies in law, if any, in future in accordance with law.

In January, it was submitted that out of 1941 cameras, 30 were not operational and that the police was working towards upgradation of the existing cameras.

It was also informed that 2,175 additional cameras will be installed in police stations.
New Delhi, March 1 : Meta-owned WhatsApp banned more than 29 lakh accounts in India in the month of January, a figure that is drastically lower than 36.77 lakh accounts it blocked in the country in December last year, in compliance with the new IT Rules 2021.

Between January 1 and January 31, "2,918,000 WhatsApp accounts were banned. 1,038,000 of these accounts were proactively banned, before any reports from users," the company said in its monthly compliance report.

The most popular messaging platform, which has nearly 500 million users in the country, received 1,461 complaint reports in January in the country, and the records "actioned" were 195.

"This report contains details of the user complaints received and the corresponding action taken by WhatsApp, as well as WhatsApp's own preventive actions to combat abuse on our platform," said a company spokesperson.

Meanwhile, in a bid to empower millions of Indian social media users, Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, on Tuesday launched the Grievance Appellate Committee (GAC) that will look into their concerns regarding content and other issues.

The newly-formed panel, a move to strengthen the country's digital laws to tame the Big Tech companies, will look into appeals by users against decisions of social media platforms.

The IT Ministry last month notified to establish three Grievance Appellate Committees (GACs) as required under the recently amended IT Rules, 2021.

In a major push towards an open, safe, trusted and accountable Internet, the Ministry of Electronics and IT has notified some amendments aimed at protecting the rights of 'Digital Nagriks'.
New Delhi, March 1 : Uttar Pradesh's mafia don-turned-former MP Atiq Ahmed has moved the Supreme Court against shifting him to Prayagraj from Sabarmati jail in a case connected with the killing of a witness in an open shooting incident. Ahmed apprehends a threat to his life in an encounter by the police.

Ahmed, in a plea, contended that some local leaders had conspired the murder plan of the deceased Umesh Pal who is a complainant in a case against the petitioner in which his evidence got recorded six years ago.

Umesh Pal, one of the witnesses, was killed on February 25 in Prayagraj in which the wife of Ahmed, all four sons and brother have been roped in as accused of "mere suspicion".

The plea further added that there is no motive for the petitioner to kill Umesh Pal because the trial is going to end next month and the court would decide the case after arguments are concluded.

Ahmad said he was a five-time consecutive time MLA and one-time elected MP and argued that some leaders in Uttar Pradesh government could not accept the induction of his wife in Bahujan Samaj Party, and her name in mayoral elections as BSP candidate, as they know their fate in local bodies election and also in forthcoming general election in 2024.

The plea said: "After the murder of Umesh Pal, the opposition put fuel on the fire... which provoked the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to say he would finish mafia (me) 'mafia ko mitti me mila doonga' because the petitioner was the main subject in argument in house." "This statement of the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh has strengthened the devious plan of some police officers who are playing in the hands of political rivals of petitioner. They are planning to eliminate the petitioner and his brother in transit between jail to court. In the past three years some incidents like this happened in Uttar Pradesh by the UP Police," the plea contended.

The petitioner sought directions to protect his life and also to ensure that no physical or bodily injury or harm is done to him in any manner whatsoever during police custody/ remand/ questioning.

Ahmed and his brother, along with several others were named as the accused in the murder case of Raju Pal, then BSP legislator from Allahabad (West) constituency.
Barcelona, March 1 : Chip maker Qualcomm and French IT company Thales have announced the certification of the world's first commercially deployable iSIM (Integrated SIM) on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform, enabling the functionality of a SIM within a smartphone's main processor.

The GSMA (Global Association for the Mobile Communications Industry) security certification ensures that the iSIM meets the same high standards of cyber-security and flexible 'anytime, anywhere' connectivity as the latest generation of embedded SIMs (eSIMs).

"We are very pleased to see our investment in high assurance processor hardware security, in collaboration with Thales, achieving the security and functional bar required by the GSMA for Remote Provisioning UICC use case," Ziad Asghar, senior vice president of product management, Qualcomm Technologies, said in a statement.

Moreover, the new iSIM can now provide device makers with additional opportunities to save space, reduce build and supply chain costs, and maintain best-in-class security levels.

The new iSIM, like Thales' eSIM, comes fully compliant with the GSMA Remote SIM Provisioning standard, meaning subscriptions can be managed remotely via any standard platform, according to the company.

"Alongside the increasingly popular eSIM, the Thales 5G iSIM gives device makers and mobile operators even greater freedom to offer their customers effortless over-the-air connectivity, and more exciting and accessible product designs," Guillaume Lafaix, vice president of embedded products at Thales Mobile and Connectivity Solutions, said in a statement.

Further, the chipmaker mentioned that the global iSIM shipments are predicted to reach 300 million by 20271 and intended to complement SIM and eSIM market offer.
Hyderabad, March 1 : The BJP will go alone in the Telangana Assembly elections scheduled to be held towards the end of this year, party's state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar said on Wednesday.

A day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP president J.P. Nadda and other central leaders held a crucial meeting with the party's state leaders in Delhi, Sanjay made it clear that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will have no alliance with any party in the state.

He reiterated that the BJP will come to power in Telangana as the people want a change and see the BJP as the only alternative to Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).

Sanjay was addressing the BJP Mahila Morcha meeting at the party's state headquarters on Wednesday.

He claimed that Telangana state had become a reality with the support of the BJP. He said people were asking if Telangana state was carved out for the family of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR).

Sanjay, who is also a Member of Parliament, dared KCR to come forward for a debate on the development of Telangana under his rule.

The BJP leader alleged that people were surprised over the financial position of the state. He alleged that KCR has put a debt burden of Rs 6 lakh on every family.

"A situation has come wherein the government has no money to pay salaries to employees," he said.

Sanjay also slammed the BRS government for its indifference to the growing number of murders and rapes in the state. People doubt whether the state has a home minister, he said.

The BJP leader called for checking consumption of liquor in the state, saying this is the main cause of murders and rapes.

Sanjay said that while BJP made tribal woman Droupadi Murmu President of India, BRS was responsible for the death of tribal woman Dr. Preethi.

He was referring to the suicide of post-graduate student Preethi of Kakatiya Medical College in Warangal due to alleged by her senior Dr. M.A. Saif.

"If the BJP comes to power in Telangana, bulldozers will be used on those who commit crime against women, as crimes are used in Uttar Pradesh," he said.

Branding state minister K.T. Rama Rao as 'Twitter Tillu', Sanjay said the BRS leader was unable to digest the fact that a corporator had become president of the BJP's state unit.
Shillong, March 1 : Twenty-five km from Meghalayas capital city Shillong lies the pristine forest of Hima Mawphlang (Kingdom of Mawphlang), where over 450 species of trees, herbs and wildlife, including clouded leopard, monkeys, deer and frogs of the genus Rana, thrive. This is no ordinary forest, but a sacred grove, where belief and conservation go hand in hand.

Labasa, the deity that governs the law-kyntang (the Khasi equivalent of sacred grove), can both protect and punish. Take a twig or pluck a leaf, and you are inviting the deity's wrath and bad luck. This belief in itself has thrown a ring of protection around the nearly 800-year-old forest spread across 193 acres.

Located in East Khasi Hills district, the forest belongs to the native Khasi tribe, an indigenous ethnic group found in the Northeast. Its residents still identify themselves with the ancient Kingdom of Mawphlang and even now have a king elected democratically. The present king belongs to the Lyngdoh clan.

The Office of Hima Mawphlang decides on all matters related to the sacred grove. The responsibility to protect it lies with the men of 12 clans - Lyngdoh, Blah, Kharshiing, Kharsohliya, Kharhunai, Kharnarbi, Kharsahkar, Kharmawphlang, Kharmaram, Kharlangnuih, Kharphyrnap and Kharkalong - living in villages in the vicinity.

The forest is divided into three parts: phiephandi, the central portion where all rituals take place; Laittyrkhang located near the hamlet; law nongkynrih, an extension opposite the main forest. Though an ecotourism hotspot, tourist entry is restricted to only certain portions of the forest.

Leopard, snake, and the fear of desecration Appeasing the deity is of utmost importance to Philarihun Lyngdoh (28), a local guide. Every morning, upon reaching the forest entry point, she chants in Khasi seeking permission and protection. She also pleads forgiveness, if she has wronged unknowingly.

Since time immemorial, villagers have been performing ritualistic worship of the forest deity in the presence of an important elder or the King, before taking any major community decisions, before a major event, or during disease outbreaks. Such events used to happen inside the sacred forest, before it was shifted to a nearby hill.

Bulls were sacrificed in the last known ritual held inside the forest during a massive famine in 1959. Nowadays, only hens and roosters are sacrificed in an annual ritual held before the monoliths that dot the landscape, which also serve as route markers.

It is believed that the deity used to appear as a clouded leopard or a snake when the elders sought permission during the sacrificial ritual, standing in front of the monoliths.

"Leopards and snakes are highly regarded here. Leopard will come to the rescue in times of danger, while the snake is a mediator that shows up when something is wrong," noted ecologist Tambor Lyngdoh told 101Reporters.

Sharing some anecdotes on grove desecration, Tambor said stories about those who were punished by turning their heads backwards (shah khyrwait basa) still do the rounds in the region.

"In the 1970s, some Army personnel from Shillong went to Mawphlang to gather wood from the grove. When loaded in trucks, the engines did not start. While checking the truck's condition, the drivers began to feel uneasy and weak. Soon, they returned to the headquarters empty-handed." "The next morning, the brigadier reached Mawphlang on inspection and met the chief of the clan, who suggested unloading of wood in the grove itself. Once his advice was heeded, the engines miraculously started functioning again." Ardent followers of Mother Nature

In the distant past, the people of Mawphlang were mostly dependent on the forest for basic essentials. Even before there was a religious system, people believed in one god: Mother Nature. This practice continues even today. Residents believe that in the sacred grove resides the wisdom of their forefathers and a way to carry forward their heritage and establish a legacy.

"Nature is given the highest regard in our community. Before starting anything auspicious, we pray to nature. We know we cannot survive without nature. No one is allowed to collect even firewood from the forest. We grow everything we need, including vegetables, fruits and trees for firewood, in our farmlands," Tambor elaborated.

Philarihun said every household in this place used the water from the forest springs for cooking and drinking purposes as "we think its sacred quality can cure health problems." There are certain taboos linked to the sacred grove that the society here follows without fail. Women in Mawphlang cannot directly participate in the rituals, though the society is matrilineal in nature. Even the dorbar council meetings have only men above 18 years of age in attendance.

However, Tambor claimed that everyone, from a young child to an elderly person, was responsible for protecting the grove. Iemonleng Kharshiing, a school teacher, said this responsibility is imbibed into the minds of residents at a young age both through education and environment-themed competitions.

Ecotourism hotspot Mawphlang village consists of five sub-villages - Nogrum Mawphlang, Dongiewrim Mawphlang, Mawkohmom Mawphlang, Mission Mawphlang and Lad-Umisain Mawphlang. In all, there are 800 households, where agriculture was once the primary occupation. The area saw a shift towards ecotourism when Tambor, in his role as the secretary of the Office of Hima Mawphlang, introduced ecotourism to the area in 1996.

Tourist influx has since opened up new avenues of income for the local youth. Most of them now earn around Rs 20,000 per month. For instance, John Starfield, who used to work as a tourist guide, has recently opened his own homestay on the forest outskirts of Nogrum.

"This sacred forest is everything to me. As a guide, I got the opportunity to meet new people and learn new things. Most importantly, I see it as a way to showcase our rich Khasi culture and tradition in front of the world," shared Starfield. Philarihun echoed him when she said, "Many youth shift to metro cities for better opportunities. But for me, this forest is heaven." A set of rules is in place to manage guesthouses in the area. For building homestays, permission from the village headman is necessary. Tourists should not roam around the village late in the night, or visit houses in the locality without the headman's permission.

"Conservation is not a one-person's job. Therefore, the village panchayat actively works with the Office of Lyngdoh. An annual or half-yearly general public meeting is held, where attendance of at least one person from every household is mandatory. Executive committee meetings are held frequently," said Auspicious L Mawphlang, the headman of Nogrum.

Opportunities on the anvil Taking note of the ecotourism activities in the area, Meghalaya Tourism has proposed to develop the David Scott Trail, a 16-km-long trekking route that starts near the sacred grove in Mawphlang.

"We plan to start a tourist information centre and ticketing counter here. Cafes, rain shelters, washrooms for travellers and signages along the trail are all part of the plan, proposed to be funded under the Meghalaya Ecotourism Infrastructure Development," CVD Diengdoh, Director of Tourism, Government of Meghalaya, told 101Reporters.

He added that the government has no role in the maintenance and development of the sacred forest as "it is completely owned by the kingdom." Diengdoh informed that the Meghalaya government has implemented the Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme to push tourism-driven entrepreneurship. Under this, young entrepreneurs can claim a subsidy of up to Rs 7 lakh for a project worth Rs 10 lakh.

Mawphlang's love for nature has set an example for the rest of Meghalaya, with Umket and Mawtneng in Ri Bhoi district and Baghmara in South Garo Hills following suit.

(Sayantani Deb is a Meghalaya-based journalist and a member of 101Reporters, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters)
New Delhi, March 1 : Punjab NRIs Affairs Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal on Wednesday demanded to include both the Amritsar and Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport in Mohali for direct flights to Canada and the US.

He said the commencement of the direct flights would ensure great facility to a large number of travellers for both sides.

Calling on Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya M. Scindia here, Dhaliwal apprised him that large number of Punjabis and Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) card holders had been living in Canada and the US since long, and that during the NRI sammelan organised by the Punjab government in December last, these NRIs sought commencement of these flights.

The state minister said there has been a persistent demand for providing direct air connectivity between Amritsar and Canada. Citing that it is of utmost significant to make direct flights operational from Amritsar to Canadian cities, the minister said presently travellers both from Amritsar and Canadian cities are hugely inconvenienced, as they have to travel to or from New Delhi or other cities in India to reach their destinations.
New Delhi, March 1 : For Dr Sonali Garg, frogs are not just amphibians that leap out during monsoons or when you are near a lake. As she puts it, it is her calling. As a girl, Sonali came across as a person who was fond of nature and environment. She was drawn to books, research and studies.

An above average student in Class 10, Science and Mathematics were her subjects of interest for further studies. It led her to take up BSc Zoology (Honours) course in Hans Raj College, Delhi University, in 2008. While at college, she honed her interest in biodiversity, which concentrated more into frogs and later helped her become India's first woman researcher to discover 50 new frog species.

Sonali did extensive field expeditions in remote forests of the Western Ghats, Northeast India, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands during her decade-long research. Outside India, her scientific forays extended into Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Thailand. This not only made her a familiar name among frog researchers in the country, but also helped her bag the Edward O Wilson Biodiversity Postdoctoral Fellowship from Harvard University. Through it, Sonali will further her quest for the discovery of earth's animal species.

Her field expeditions did come with self-explorations, life lessons and some adventures. As a frog scientist, not just most, but all of her fieldwork happened during the night in the heavy forests.

"When you are in remote areas for field work, dynamics are different," she acknowledges. "There is a certain way the villagers around the forest are used to seeing a woman and when someone in field work clothing goes into the forest, there are certain challenges to beat that mentality. So, you dress accordingly (cover up as much as you can; if need be, wear traditional clothes) and more importantly try to look past that, do your job and do it well," she adds.

All-round support Sonali emphasises that her journey has been fruitful, all thanks to her colleagues, who played an important role in providing an atmosphere that promotes equality and safety. "As we travel around places that are mostly remote, it is imperative that those around me understand the concepts of safety. I was fortunate in finding a team that never made me feel like I am a woman doing a man's job... Your own sense of safety and passion also plays a role in promoting such an atmosphere," she confirms.

"Apart from humans, a jungle rulebook is one of its kind. It is as risky for a man as for a woman," she adds.

Even her family, while being as supportive as she puts it, had natural concerns each time she went on an expansive expedition.

"There have been times when I had discussions with my mother on the safety parameters of my job. I remember telling her that I could easily be injured staying in Delhi as I could be in a jungle," she shares.

"I would rather be killed or injured by an elephant in a jungle than die in a road accident in Delhi," she says, highlighting her determination to do the job she has chosen.

What helped her gain more trust from her family was her habit of sharing stories of work with them. "I think when they saw the spark in my eyes, I had even more unwavering support from them," she says.

Sonali's mother Raj Bala, a businesswoman, is all praise for her. "Even as a school student, she wished to do something big in her future career. As parents, we decided to always provide for her in every possible way... When someone posed a question about marriage, she used to reply that I have married her off to studies, and it will happen if/when it is supposed to happen," Bala quips.

"Now that she is in Harvard, I am absolutely proud of her achievements. I tell her to live life to the fullest; you have done enough for the family and home, do the rest for the society and make the country proud," Bala adds.

Her neighbour Santosh Jhanwar is equally proud of her. "I have seen Sonali grow up. She has always been sincere and studious, besides being well behaved. She always has an eye on her career. She truly deserved the biodiversity fellowship from Harvard University," said Jhanwar, a homemaker.

Extensive research Frogs play an important role in biodiversity. The insect-eating species is irreplaceable as their sensitive nature quickly indicates environmental hazards in both water and surroundings. They are also an important source of medicine, including highly potent painkillers.

Sonali took her PhD from the Department of Environmental Studies of University of Delhi. Subsequently, she continued to work as a Research Associate sponsored by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Government of India.

Her outstanding discoveries include a new genus and species of mysterious frog, the details of which will be published in international platforms such as BBC and National Geographic. Sonali has described three new genera and resolved numerous century-old taxonomic puzzles.

Her research largely focuses on unravelling the unique diversity of frogs, besides studying their evolutionary relationships using DNA, and biogeography to decipher patterns of historical and present-day distributions. Among many, Mysticellus, Mysterious Narrow-mouthed frog is a new genus from India discovered by Sonali.

In addition, the Microhylid frog from Indonesia (Microhyla Sriwijaya) has been described by her along with Indonesian scientists.

At Harvard, Sonali will work at the Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ), in affiliation with the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology. Established in 1859, the MCZ is a centre for research and education focused on the comparative relationships of animal life.

With frog population diminishing, bio-scientists like Sonali play a major role in taking the research forward. Her adaptive nature, fearlessness and time management skills accurately complement her attitude towards work and interest in her field subject. The Bombay Natural History Society recognised her contributions to the amphibian research and conservation by conferring her with the JC Daniel Young Conservation Leader Award in 2019.

"This is a niche field. Such exposures help people learn about the behind-the-scenes stories in conservation fieldwork. Bio-scientists in the country should get due recognition," Sonali sums up.

(This piece was originally published by Rukhmabai Initiatives, an endeavour by 101Reporters to make Indian STEM more inclusive)
Chennai, March 1 : The Tamil Nadu Police's CB-CID, which is probing alleged torture, rape, and ill-treatment at the Anbu Jothi Ashram mental care centre in the state's Villupuram, have commenced an investigation on persons missing from there amid concerns of trafficking and illegal organ transplants, officials said on Wednesday.

The centre, located in Tamil Nadu's Villupuram, was in the news after government authorities conducted raids in the ashram and shut it down, following complaints of torture and ill-treatment of the inmates.

There has been complaints of rape and human trafficking from the mental care home rune by Jubin Baby and his wife Maria hailing from Kerala.

The probe into the Anbu Jothi Ashram came out in the open when Halideen filed a habeas corpus petition after finding his relative Zafirullah, 70, missing from the ashram. The subsequent police investigation found that the septuagenarian was transferred to another home, Hope of Home, in Bengaluru.

The owners of the ashram used to transfer people undergoing mental illness to other ashrams like Home of Hope, Snehalaya Charitable Trust in Kerala's Kasargod, Apna Ghar Ashram in Rajasthan, Karunai Illam in Tamil Nadu's Vaniyambadi and the St Joseph's Hospice in Villupuram.

Police, on investigation, found that 15 residents were missing from the Home Of Hope in Bengaluru after they were transferred there from the Anbu Jothi Ashram. There were reports that Zafirullah was among these 15.

Interstate human trafficking and human organ trade are also being raised against the ashram owners. One of the accused in the case, Biju Mohan, in his statement to the police, said that he used to lure people loitering in the streets and bring them to the ashram where their heads were tonsured and they taken to other homes mentioned above.

He also informed the police that Jubin Baby use to terrorise the inmates by letting loose two monkeys in the ashram on them. The monkeys were captured by the Forest Department during the raids.

Two women inmates of the ashram have complained of rape against Jubin and the Kedar police have registered a case over this.

Opposition BJP and AIADMK have already demanded a CBI probe into the case as this involve interstate connections and human trafficking and organ trade is being suspected.

The presence of psychotropic materials from the ashram is also now being probed by the CB-CID.

With more complaints coming up, the CB-CID is joining the dots to bring out a clear picture of whether human trafficking and human organ sale has taken place from the Anbu Jothi Ashram, and this will become clear in the days to come.
New Delhi, March 1 : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) which is conducting a probe into the Chinese loan applications scam case has learnt during its course of investigation that the apps' creators had cheated a number of people during the Covid phase, which led to many challenges, including financial crisis and loss of jobs.

The Chinese loan apps offered micro loans to millions of jobless people and then recovered the amount from them by blackmailing them on various pretexts.

A source involved in the probe said all this happened due to 'weaker' rules and regulations.

A number of women who had taken loans were threatened that their names and photos would be uploaded on porn sites if they did not repay with full interest along with the penalty amounts.

The accused had accessed contact details of those who took loans and sent messages to their relatives, friends and known persons, portraying them as thief.

It was also a tactic to make them take a loan from another Chinese loan app.

A few apps which were behind this were Money Box, Need Rupee, My Bank, Loan Gram, Coco Cash, Panda Rupee and Cash Pot. These were controlled and managed by Chinese nationals based in Hong Kong and in other cities.

After investigation, the ED learnt that two main accused -- Qu Yang Peng and 'Mr. Lail' had visited India.

They took the help of some Indian nationals, and opened firms while the Indians had no idea about their malicious intent.

"During enquiries, it emerged that these entities are operated by Chinese persons. They used forged documents of Indians and made them dummy directors of those entities while generating proceeds of crime," the ED had earlier said.

As many as 18 FIRs were registered by Cyber Crime Police Station, Bengaluru against numerous entities related to Chinese nationals.

The ED conducted their probe on the basis of these FIRs.

"The accused running Chinese apps used to make a WhatsApp group of the contact details of the victim. The women contacts were sent objectionable messages. All the contacts of the victim were called by their agents who would say that they were made guarantor by the loan-taker. This was the modus-operandi opted by Chinese nationals to extort money from Indians," the source said.
San Francisco, March 1 : Automaker General Motors (GM) is laying off hundreds of workers from the company as it follows other major companies, including competitors, in downsizing headcounts to preserve cash and boost profits, the media reported.

Announced internally on Tuesday, the cuts affected about 500 positions across the company's various functions, reports CNBC, citing sources.

The timing of the job cuts seems odd as it roughly comes a month after GM CEO Mary Barra and CFO Paul Jacobson told investors that the company was not planning any layoffs.

GM Chief People Officer Arden Hoffman confirmed the company's goal of $2 billion in cost savings over the next two years in a letter sent on Tuesday, which "we'll find by reducing corporate expenses, overhead, and complexity in all our products", said the report.

In an emailed statement, the company reiterated that the cuts were a result of performance, saying that they help with "managing the attrition curve as part of our overall structural cost reduction effort", the report added.

Meanwhile, US automaker Ford Motors has announced it will eliminate 3,800 jobs over the next three years in Europe to restructure its business, creating a leaner, more competitive cost structure.

By 2025, Ford plans to resize its European engineering footprint, resulting in 2,800 fewer jobs.
New Delhi, March 1 : Doctors on Wednesday reported a rise in flu cases in the national capital with patients showing high grade fever and persistent cough lasting for about two weeks.

Speaking to IANS, Sushila Kataria, Senior Director, Internal Medicine, Medanta, noted that the cases pertain to the H3N2 variant of Influenza A virus.

"The typical symptoms include high grade fever for two-three days, body ache and headache, throat irritation, and a majorly persistent cough lasting for two weeks," Kataria said.

According to Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) data, H3N2, a sub-type of the influenza virus, has been in wide circulation for the last two-three months.

Harshal R. Salve, Professor at the Centre for Community Medicine, AIIMS, said the increase in the transmission of flu virus is due to abrupt "climatic conditions currently prevalent".

"Serological surveillance through established mechanisms in the public health system by the government is essential to determine serotype of the virus and its endemic," Salve told IANS.

Doctors from Primus Hospital, Chanakyapuri, also reported a 90 per cent patient surge in OPD cases with viral infections.

"Viral fever, cold and cough, and severe lung allergies like bronchitis are being reported majorly in patients visiting the hospital," S.K. Chhabra, Head of Department - Pulmonary, Sleep and Critical Care Medicine, at Primus said in a statement.

The rise in the number of patients complaining of viral infections and chest congestion reflects how seasonal change is gravely impacting the health conditions of people.

Coupled with the changing weather, pollution is also playing a pivotal role in multiplying the number of patient impacted by viral infections.

As a result, doctors noted that patients with asthma, and those with severe lung infections are finding difficulty in breathing.

Elderly people, children and pregnant women are most vulnerable to getting infected. Therefore, they must remain extra cautious while venturing outside, the doctors said.

"Patients having chronic ailments like asthma have to be extra cautious during such weather transition as it can trigger severe respiratory issues and asthma attacks. During this time, even a minor respiratory problem must be reported to a pulmonologist or a physician to reduce the risk of escalating the problem," Chhabra added.

The doctors also suggested getting vaccinated against flu, practising hand sanitation, and maintaining hydration to fight the virus.
New Delhi, March 1 : Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday said that sustainable growth cannot be achieved unless there is a collective effort from all stakeholders of the society including the government, businesses, and the citizens.

Addressing the India-Europe Business and Sustainability Conclave organised by industry body CII, Goyal said that the partnership between India and the European nations was important for ensuring sustainability and inclusive growth and making the world a better and safer place.

The minister highlighted that it is important to recognise that developing countries vis-a-vis developed countries will have different goals and timelines in their growth journey, and therefore, all countries must be sensitive to each other's needs, goals and outcomes.

Sustainability and inclusive growth were critical elements of India's Union Budget 2023, the Commerce Minister added.

"Basic needs including access to water, digital and infrastructure connectivity, technology, healthcare, and education, among others, must be assured to everyone," he added.

Goyal stated further that India's growth story is driven by its aspirational youth who also recognise sustainability as an important element of India's future growth.

The Union Minister urged the business leaders and the global political leadership to come together in driving collective efforts in transitioning towards a greener future.

"India is an indispensable and strategic partner for the European Union," said Josep Borrell, high representative of the European Union for foreign affairs and security policy, and vice president, European Union.

He highlighted that India is an important partner for the EU in many areas, including energy and technology, adding that there is greater potential for increasing India-EU energy cooperation, particularly in green energy and just transition.

"The Indian and European economies are connected through trade and innovation and cooperation between the two must be explored further as the two together can shape a better future for the world," said Wopke Hoekstra, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands.

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said that India's G20 presidency has come at the right time, making India a crucial partner for the UK.

He emphasised that the UK would lend its support to India's G20 presidency and would work together to strengthen the global trade system. Cleverly further said that the India-UK free trade agreement has the potential to deliver real benefits across both economies.
New Delhi, March 1 : The Supreme Court has said that strong evidence is required to corroborate extra-judicial confession, which is a weak piece of evidence, as it acquitted a man in a 2007 murder case.

A bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and Vikram Nath said: "The extra-judicial confession is a weak piece of evidence and especially, when it has been retracted during trial. It requires strong evidence to corroborate it and also it must be established that it was completely voluntary and truthful." The apex court made this observation while hearing a plea filed by murder accused Indrajit Das challenging the order of the Tripura High Court.

The bench said: "We do not find any corroborating evidence to support the extra judicial confession, rather the evidence led by prosecution is inconsistent with the same." It observed that in a case of circumstantial evidence, motive has an important role to play. Motive may also have a role to play even in a case of direct evidence but it carries much greater importance in a case of circumstantial evidence than a case of direct evidence and it is an important link in the chain of circumstances, it added.

The high court had declined to entertain an appeal filed by Das, while confirming the conviction by the trial court under Section 302/34 (murder and common intention) of the IPC and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of IPC. Das was handed down imprisonment for life and allied sentences to run concurrently.

The police have claimed that Das, along with a juvenile, confessed before them that they had gone to Fatikroy and Kanchanbari area in north Tripura district on the bike of the deceased Kaushik Sarkar.

According to the police, the accused assaulted the deceased with a big knife and threw his helmet, purse, and two knives in the nearby jungle and dragged the body and the motorcycle to a nearby river and threw them into it.

The bench noted that the dead body has not been recovered and only a limb was recovered but no DNA testing was carried out to establish that the limb was that of the deceased Sarkar. "As such, the entire case of the prosecution proceeds on presumption that Kaushik Sarkar has died. The principle of corpus delicti has judgments on both sides stating that conviction can be recorded in the absence of the recovery of the corpus and the other view that no conviction could be recorded in the absence of recovery of the corpus," it said.

In conclusion, the bench said: "We find that the major links of the chain of circumstances have not been proved by the prosecution evidence and as such it would be unjust to uphold the conviction of the appellant. The appellant would be entitled to benefit of doubt."
Mumbai, March 1 : Actor Yogesh Bhardwaj, who was last seen in the movie 'Lost', is all set to play a private detective in the psycho-thriller film 'Chhipkali', starring Yashpal Sharma.

It is based on the book 'Chhayajapon' written by Vinod Ghosal.

The actor shared how he tried his best to portray a detective in a distinct way and make it look different from the way they are presented generally on-screen.

Yogesh said: "I am playing Rudraksh, a private investigator who is very sharp. He has very strong intuitive power, and he deals with everything with perfection and patience. The challenge for me was to make him different from what has been played to date by others. I wanted to break the stereotype of private detectives by not making it stereotypical and tried to work on my body language and psychology to make it look mysterious. It was one of the most challenging roles for me to date." He said: "It is a psycho thriller film, which involves time dimensions. It depicts things that we cannot see but they happen. It is a philosophical film, which has not been created yet in Bollywood and this is one of its kind. It has a very unique element that you won't find in Sci-Fi films: it blends science with human emotions. This makes it stand out from other movies in this genre." Yogesh, while talking about its storyline, said that it is interesting and unique.

"The film is based on a famous novel writer known for his unique writing, but he is not commercially successful in the market. The writer is accused of killing his wife and son and got a clean chit from the court, but a private detective Rudraksh, played by me, enters into his life and reopens this case. He interrogates the writer and how things unfold through this investigation is something you need to watch out for. It's something very unpredictable with lots of small elements and layers," he said.

The 'Ek Ladki ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga' actor will be seen playing a parallel lead in the film.

While praising his co-actor Yashpal, he said: "He is a very professional actor and director. It was difficult to understand his style of acting for a newcomer like me. He has worked in almost all kinds of cinema and mediums all over the country, so matching his working style and acting skills is a task in itself. His every scene and detailed work was a learning experience for me. He is a complete package and always high on energy on set whom I used to observe and learn from. I feel very fortunate to play a parallel lead in this film."
Chennai, March 1 : Four people carrying electronic detonators without any documents were arrested in in Tamil Nadu's Coimbatore on Wednesday morning, police said.

A police team that was conducting a vehicle check at Karamadai found four men in suspicious circumstances and on searching them, found the electronic detonators.

Police said that two of the men purchased the electronic detonators from the state's Salem and sold to the other two men from Kerala at a higher price.

Police sources told IANS that a thorough interrogation and background check of the four men is on, but did not reveal their names.

On October 23, 2022, the Deepavali eve, a 29-year-old man was charred to death in a car bomb explosion at Ukkadam in Coimbatore.

Jameesha Mubin was allegedly trying to carry out a major explosion on the eve of Deepavali day near a temple in Ukkadam but his lack of experience led to the explosion much before planned leading to his death.

With Coimbatore being a sensitive area, police are not taking any chances on the youths who are in custody and a thorough investigation is conducted on whether the youths were buying and selling detonators for a profit or whether there was something other more serious.
London, March 1 : UK Labour party leader Keir Starmer has said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the Foreign Office seem to be pulling back support for British Sikh Jagtar Singh Johal, lodged in an Indian jail for five years.

According to The Guardian, the Sunak government has refused invitations to echo assertions that India has arbitrarily detained Johal.

Johal aka Jaggi Johal was arrested by Punjab Police on November 4, 2017, in Jalandhar over his alleged role in killings by the Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF), a banned terrorist organisation.

Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson as well as a UN panel on arbitrary detention had said last year that Johal has been arbitrarily detained, without any prosecution started.

Calling it an "important step", Starmer wrote to Sunak early in February asking him what action he intends to take on the matter.

"I would like to ask if you can confirm if the UK government still believes that Jagtar is being arbitrarily detained and if so, what further steps your government will take to secure a breakthrough in the case?" he said.

In response, according to The Guardian report, Sunak avoided the direct question, saying that the FCDO (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) "continues to provide consular support" to Johal and his family.

The Labour leader said Johnson's recognition of arbitrary detention should have led the FCDO to formally seek the Briton's release, which did not happen."I am therefore concerned that in his response to my letter and in discussions with Jagtar's family, Rishi Sunak's government may now be backsliding on their previous stance. To ease these fears, it is crucial No. 10 and the Foreign Office make their position on arbitrary detention clear," The Guardian cited Starmer as saying.

"It is the duty of the British government and political parties in Westminster to make proper representations and do what it takes to bring him home to his family in Dumbarton." An FCDO spokesperson told the paper that they have consistently raised concerns about Johal directly with the Indian government, including allegations of torture and his right to a fair trial.

"We are committed to doing what we can to assist him," the spokesperson told The Guardian.

The free Johal protests are now directed toward the British -- earlier they were targeting India -- after a BBC report revealed last year that the alleged KLF activist was arrested in India on the basis of information provided by the UK intelligence, IANS reported earlier.

According to BBC, Johal's activities in the UK as a fundraiser for Sikh separatists active in Punjab were in the knowledge of the British intelligence agencies.
Mumbai, March 1 : The Shiv Sena-UBT on Wednesday demanded action against Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde for allegedly calling the Opposition 'deshdrohi' (traitors) after they boycotted the customary session-eve tea party on last Sunday.

The Chief Whip of Sena-UBT and MLA from Dindoshi, Sunil Prabhu said that the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) had sent a letter to the government on their decision to boycott the tea party.

"Despite this, the CM's comment is regretful and is disrespectful to the Legislative Assembly. How can the Opposition legislators tolerate this," he asked.

Prabhu said that it is the duty of the Speaker to protect the Opposition legislators, adding that he had sought an opportunity to air his views in the House, but could not get the chance as many other members spoke.

The development came shortly after Sena-UBT MP and chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut's remarks of 'chor mandli' (band of thieves) against the ruling Shiv Sena headed by Shinde created a huge ruckus in the Assembly on Wednesday.

Later, the ruling ally Bharatiya Janata Party moved a breach of privilege motion against Raut which the Speaker accepted and promised to probe the matter and announce his decision on March 8.

Prabhu's letter came even as some Opposition legislators clamoured for a breach of privilege against the CM for his "traitor" comments and Raut supported the demand.

However, Leader of Opposition in Assembly Ajit Pawar, of the NCP, and Leader of Opposition in Council Ambadas Danve, of the Sena-UBT, termed Raut's remarks as untenable and avoidable, even as the process of the breach of privilege motion got underway.

Congress MLA Dr. Nitin Raut termed the stance of Pawar and Danve as "hasty" and said they were falling in the BJP's trap of "dividing" the Opposition parties.

State Congress President Nana Patole said that the Speaker's move to adjourn the House till Thursday was intended to avoid debates on major issues confronting the people and the farmers.

On his part, Sena's Raut, while claiming that his utterances were "misinterpreted", said that he was prepared to face any enquiry in the matter and bear its consequences.
Kolkata, March 1 : A division bench of the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday sought a report from the West Bengal government on the attack on the convoy of Union minister Nisith Pramanik at Dinhata in Cooch Behar district on February 24.

Besides directing the West Bengal government to submit the report by 12.30 p.m. on March 3, the division bench of Justice Prakash Srivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj also directed the state government to submit the case diary in the matter to the court.

The court passed the directions after hearing a PIL filed by the leader of the opposition in West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, on the attack on the convoy of Pramanik, the Union Minister of State for Home, last Saturday.

Adhikari's counsel claimed that the entire attack was pre-planned and instigated by the Trinamool Congress MLA from Dinhata, Udayan Guha, who is also the minister in- charge of the North Bengal Development Department.

"The goons attacked the convoy of the Union minister in a pre-planned manner. They hurled bricks, stones and crude bombs towards his convoy, damaging the vehicle in the process. He even faced life threat," Adhikari's counsel argued.

He also claimed that the police totally failed in bringing the situation under control on that day.

"So, let there be an initial probe by the CBI into the matter. After the incident, the CISF personnel deputed for the minister's security made an attempt to lodge an FIR at the local police station, which the police didn't agree to file. Instead, the police arrested 40 BJP workers in the matter," Adhikari's counsel said.

The counsel pointed out that as per protocol, the state government is responsible for the security of a Union minister.

"But in this case, the state government failed miserably. We want a CBI probe into the matter," Adhikari's counsel argued.

After hearing the arguments, the bench directed the state government to file a detailed report in the matter and submit it to the court along with the case diary by 12.30 p.m. on Friday.
Gurugram, March 1 : The Cybercrime Branch of the Gurugram Police on Wednesday busted a fake stock trading call centre and arrested 13 people including two foreign nationals in this connection.

A police officer said that the fake call centre was involved in duping a man of Rs 1.6 crore by luring him to invest in the stock market, cryptocurrency, and international share market, the police said.

The complainant came in touch with the fraudsters through advertisements and pop-ups on Facebook that promised hefty returns by investing in the stock market, the police said.

The police have arrested 13 people including two from Uzbekistan and Latvia. The foreign nationals have been identified as Konstantins FIlipous -- a resident of Latvia,and Albert Saribekyan a.k.a. Peter -- a resident of Uzbekistan.

The arrested also include Gaurav Verma a.k.a. Prashant Goel, Melbin Mejan, Rakesh S. Nair a.k.a. Cameron Willson, Anvin Mathew a.k.a. Adam John, Rohinth Hari Charkravarthy a.k.a. Rajkumar, Deepanshu Verma a.k.a. Deepak Malhotra, among others.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Priyanshu Diwan said, the accused used to lure victims by putting advertisements/pop ups on Facebook, Instagram and social networking sites about getting huge returns by investing in the stock market.

These fraudsters then used to scam the victims by making them invest in fake trading websites -- Lexa Trade and Grow Line in the name of investing in the Stock Market, Crypto Currency and International Share Market by putting advertisements/ pop-ups on Facebook, Instagram and social networking sites, he said.

"These fraudsters used to make virtual accounts of victims on these websites and asked for an amount to invest. Once the victims invested some amount through them, they initially used to return some amount back as profit to gain the confidence of the victims. Later, the accused would ask them to invest bigger amounts for more profit which they never returned. Eventually, they would stop replying, and then blocked their numbers," the ACP said.

Police have taken some accused on remand to recover the amount of Rs 1.6 crore. Efforts are being made to identify other victims who have been defrauded by these scamsters, he added.
Srinagar, March 1 : The Indian Army on Wednesday paid rich tributes to late Sepoy Pawan Kumar, who was killed in an encounter in the Potgampora area of Pulwama district on Tuesday in which two terrorists were also gunned down.

In a solemn ceremony at the Chinar War Memorial, Major General Vivek Dogra, Chief of Staff, Chinar Corps, paid homage to the gallant soldier along with other officers.

"Sepoy Pawan Kumar in a sheer act of bravery had overpowered a terrorist in a hand-to-hand combat during a cordon and search operation in Potgampora, and was grievously injured in the process. He subsequently succumbed to his injuries, making the supreme sacrifice in the highest traditions of the Indian Army," the army said.

The deceased soldier is survived by his mother. The mortal remains of Kumar are being moved to his native place at Pithyt village in Shimla district, where he will be laid to rest with full military honours.

"In this hour of grief, the army stands in solidarity with the bereaved family and remains committed to their dignity and well-being," the army said.
Chennai, March 1 : Traffic Police personnel in Tamil Nadu's Vellore range, covering Vellore, Ranipet, Tirupattur, and Tiruvannamalai districts, will be provided buttermilk, and lemon juice in view of the rising temperatures.

Deputy Inspector General of Police, K. Muniswamny, and Vellore's Superintendent of police, Rajesh Kannan, on Wednesday distributed buttermilk and lemon juice to traffic police on duty at key junctions in Vellore.

Sources in Tamil Nadu Police told IANS that the project will be extended across the state.

A sachet containing 200 ml of buttermilk will be distributed to police personnel both in the morning and evening from March 1 onwards. Glucose biscuits and water bottles will also be provided to keep their energy levels high.

In the Vellore police range, there are 5,000 police personnel, including women, and of them, 600 are traffic police. The police personnel were also provided lemon juice in addition to buttermilk in some districts of the Vellore range.

On average, police personnel on traffic duty will get two hours of break for doing four hours of duty.

In addition to lemon juice and buttermilk, police personnel will also be provided jute hats as the temperature rises in these districts.

The jute hats stop direct sunlight on on-duty personnel and small holes in this headgear provide better ventilation and air circulation.
Bhubaneswar, March 1 : As part of its '5T' initiative, the Odisha government has decided to introduce an automated driving testing system (ADTS) in the state for testing the driving skill of the aspirants before issuing driving license (DL).

The state government on Wednesday signed an MoU with Akshara Nipun JV to implement the project in the presence of Commerce and Transport Minister Tukuni Sahu.

The ADTS will be implemented in the regional transport offices (RTOs) on PPP mode within 10 months, officials said.

The Central Institute of Road Transport (CIRT), Pune, has been appointed as consultant to monitor the implementation of the project and to conduct periodic audits of the system, they said.

By introducing ADTS, the drivers will be tested through a computerised system, which will ensure transparency in the process of issuing DL.

In the first phase, the ADTS will be set up in the driving testing tracks of 19 RTOs -- Angul, Baripada, Bhadrak, Bolangir, Deogarh, Dhenkanal, Ganjam, Nayagarh, Phulbani, Rairangpur, Rourkela, Sundergarh, Talcher, Keonjhar, Malkangiri, Nuapada, Bhanjanagar, Nabarangpur and Sonepur.

The system will feature a state-of-the-art set up, including video analytics technology and a vast array of cameras and sensors. From the entry of the vehicles to their inspection and driving test, everything will be conducted using digital methods.

The applicants will know the outcome of the test on the spot.
Gandhinagar, March 1 : Congress MLAs in Gujarat walked out of the Assembly on Wednesday to protest an alleged recruitment scam in the state police force.

Congress Legislative Party leader Amit Chavda later told media persons that, till now, only competitive exams' question papers were leaked, but now, even candidates are getting entry into the academy on fake appointment orders.

He cited an allegation that a person, using a false identity, applied for PSI training but was not chosen, and claimed to have paid a bribe of Rs 40 lakh for the privilege.

The Congress wanted to discuss the matter in the house, but the Speaker denied permission, so in protest, they staged a walkout.

The opposition party is also demanding that Minister of State for Home, Harsh Sanghvi, should resign, owning moral responsibility for the PSI recruitment scam.

Meanwhile, the ruling BJP moved a motion to suspend Congress MLAs from the house for a day as they caused a commotion and disrupted the proceedings, and this was approved by voice vote.
New Delhi, March 1 : Delhi Lt Governor V.K. Saxena on Wednesday approved Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's proposal to allocate former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia's departments to ministers Kailash Gahlot and Raajkumar Anand.

After Sisodia and Satyendar Jain resigned as ministers on Tuesday, Kejriwal had sent a proposal to allot eight portfolios to Gahlot and ten to Anand.

Out of 18 departments with Sisodia, the responsibilities for eight, including Finance and PWD, have been assigned to Gahlot and other ten, including Education and Health, have been assigned to Anand.

With their new responsibilities, both ministers will have now 14 departments each.

Gahlot, who already was holding charge of Law, Justice and Legislative affairs, Transport, Administrative Reforms, Information Technology, Revenue, and Women and Child Development, now has additional responsibility of Finance, Planning, Public Works Department, Power, Home, Urban Development, Irrigation and Flood Control, and Water.

Anand, who was in charge of Gurudwara Elections, SC & STs, Social Welfare, and Cooperatives, has been assigned Education, Land and Buildings, Vigilance, Services, Tourism, Art, Culture & Language, Labour, Employment, Health, and Industries.
Bhubaneswar, March 1 : The opposition BJP members in the Odisha Assembly on Wednesday created a ruckus in the house in protest against the "police excesses" on the BJP youth wing workers during a protest rally over minister Naba Das' murder case here.

The BJP youth wing activists on Tuesday were engaged in a scuffle with the police personnel while marching towards the state assembly in protest over the assassination of minister Naba Das and the deteriorating law and order in the state.

Several police personnel and BJP workers were injured in the clash.

Later, the police arrested 22 BJP youth wing workers, including the state BJYM president Irasish Acharya.

Though the BJP has filed a complaint in the capital police station against the police officials, no case has been registered.

As soon as the House assembled for the day, the BJP members, carrying posters and newspapers rushed into the Well and raised slogans against the police action on BJP youth wing workers.

The BJP legislators demanded action against the police officers and a debate on the issue.

Speaker Bikram Keshari Arukha first adjourned the House till 11.30 a.m. When the situation remained the same after the adjournment, the Speaker called an all-party meeting, adjourning the proceedings for 15 minutes, which was extended for another 5 minutes.

Later, the BJP members again stalled the House when Treasury Bench member Arun Sahoo blamed the BJP leader for the violence on Tuesday.

Condemning the alleged police excesses during the BJP rally, Leader of the Opposition Jayanarayan Mishra (BJP) wanted to know as to who were the people in black and white shirts who attacked the BJP Yuva Morcha activists.

Police have refused to lodge an FIR on the basis of a complaint filed by the BJP while the BJP workers have been booked under different sections of the IPC, including 307 (attempt to murder), he said.

"The chief minister often says that the law will take its own course. But, in this case, I want to say that the law is not taking its course," the Leader of the Opposition said.

Speaking to media persons, BJP chief whip Mohan Majhi claimed that several police personnel were admitted to the hospital on the false pretext of being injured in the clash, while the injured BJP workers were not given proper treatment in the hospital.

Reacting to this, BJD MLA Arun Sahoo said the BJP was trying to do politics over the unfortunate death of a person. Sahoo alleged that the BJP workers have brought stones, knives and bombs to the protest site. "The youth workers have been misguided," Sahoo said.

Meanwhile, Congress legislature party leader Narasingha Mishra has moved breach of privilege notice against Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Minister of State for Home, Tusharkanti Behera.

Mishra alleged that the MoS has misled the House over the appointment of retired Orissa high court judge Justice J.P. Das for monitoring minister Naba Das murder case.

"As the MoS is not given independent charge, his statement in the Assembly will be treated as the statement of the CM. So, I have moved breach of privilege notice against them," the Congress lawmaker told reporters.

BJD leader Sahoo said the Congress MLA Mishra should seek an apology as he has disrespected the order of the chief justice of Orissa high court.
New Delhi, March 1 : The Delhi unit of Congress on Wednesday staged a protest outside the office of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) here, demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot, alleging they were also party to the now-scrapped excise policy.

Delhi Congress President Anil Kumar said that the resignations of Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain prove that the Kejriwal government was neck-deep in corruption and scams.

The Congress alleged that under the Kejriwal government, Delhi has witnessed a Rs 10,000 crore liquor scam, Rs 4,288 crore DTC scam, premium bus service scam, class room construction scam, toilet complex construction scam, ration scam, oxygen scam during the Covid-19 pandemic, DJB scam and PWD scam.

Addressing the Congress workers, Kumar said that the resignations of his ministers Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain, which were quickly accepted by Kejriwal, were clear proof that Kejriwal was "the mastermind of the liquor scam and all other corrupt deals under the Delhi government".

"Therefore, he should also resign as CM along with Kailash Gahlot, to enable a transparent probe into the liquor scam, to expose the entire corruption behind the liquor deal," the Congress leader said.

The Congress alleged that Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot was involved in a Rs 4,288 crore DTC bus purchase and maintenance scam, about which Delhi Congress had submitted a 1,000-page complaint to the CVC (Chief Vigilance Officer) and CBI on July 13-14, 2021, seeking a probe, adding the CBI took cognisance of the Congress' complaint to file a case.

He said that instead of removing Gahlot from the ministry, Kejriwal entrusted him with eight important departments, as "Gahlot was also a partner in Kejriwal's various scams".
Chandigarh, March 1 : Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Wednesday condemned the cane-charge on the panchayat representatives in Panchkula, saying the government is constantly trying to suppress democratic voices.

"In a democracy, the government cannot run on the strength of batons and bullets... a dialogue with the public and its cooperation is necessary. This government first cane-charged the farmers, then the jawans, then the employees and now the panches and sarpanch," the Leader of Opposition said in a statement.

In the coming elections, he said, the public will take revenge for these atrocities by the power of their vote.

Taking to the media in Jind town, Hooda said from farmers, labourers, employees to panch-sarpanch and every section of the state is agitating against the BJP-JJP government.

"Every month, there are reports of lathi-charges on one section or the other. It is clear from this that the public has become disenchanted with this government and this government has completely failed to solve their problems," he said.

The governments have to fulfil promises made to the people to win the trust of the public, the former chief minister said.

"During the Congress tenure, the government fulfilled every single promise written in the manifesto but the BJP-JJP did not fulfil any of the promises it made during the elections. The alliance partner of the BJP had won the votes of the people by making promises like giving an old-age pension of Rs 5,100, implementing OPS, enacting a law to guarantee the MSP. But after coming to power, these promises were forgotten," he said.

Hooda said the current government is playing with the future of the youth of Haryana.

"The rules are constantly being changed to give state jobs to the people of other states. Earlier, the government gave preference to outside candidates in Group A and B jobs. Now, by deciding to give socio-economic marks to people from other states, they have worked to deprive Haryanvi youths from Group C and D jobs as well," he added.
Hyderabad, March 1 : An intermediate student at a private college near Hyderabad, who died by suicide, blamed the Principal, incharge and lecturers for his extreme step.

In a suicide note recovered by the police from Satwik's pocket, he wrote that he was taking the extreme step due to mental torture by principal and three others.

In the letter addressed to his parents, the 16-year-old apologised to them for taking his life. He wrote that he did not want to cause them pain but the mental torture by the four persons became unbearable. He named the four as Krishna Reddy, Acharya, Shobhan and Naresh and demanded that action be taken against them.

Satwik, an intermediate first year (class 11) student, hanged himself in the classroom after study hours on Tuesday night. His classmates, who found him, alerted the school authorities, but alleged that the school officials did not respond and they shifted him to a hospital where he was declared brought dead.

The incident occurred at Sri Chaitanya college in Gandipet under Narsingi police station limits.

The suicide triggered huge protest by the student's family members, relatives, friends and student organisations. They staged a protest outside the school demanding action against the college management.

Satwik's family members said the lecturers were beating him and insulting in front of his classmates which drove him to depression Police said they have registered a case and took up investigation. Circle Inspector Shiva Kumar said a case under Indian Penal Code section 305 (abetment of suicide of child) has been registered on a complaint by Satwik's parents Tension prevailed at the office of the Board of Intermediate Education in Hyderabad as student groups staged protests demanding action against the college management. Police arrested the protestors and whisked them away.

Meanwhile, following the protest, the state government has ordered a probe into the incident. Education Minister P. Sabitha Indra Reddy directed the secretary of Board of Intermediate Education to conduct an inquiry. She assured the student's family that those found guilty would be punished.

Videos of the student being punished by teachers in the classroom have also gone viral on social media.
Patna, March 1 : In wake of the alleged humiliation of a Galwan martyr's father in Bihar's Vaishali, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh called up Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and expressed anguish over the incident.

He also asked the Chief Minister to take action against officers who misbehaved with the father.

Nitish Kumar himself revealed the incident in the Assembly on the third day of the Budget session on Wednesday. While BJP MLAs including Leader of Opposition Vijay Kumar Sinha were walking out from the house on this issue, he asked them to stay in.

"The Defence Minister has called me and he was concerned about it. I have assured him about the investigation. I have directed Bihar Police to investigate the matter and take action if any police officer is involved in misbehaviour with the father of Galwan martyr's son," he said.

Despite the Chief Minister's assurance, Sinha walked out from the Assembly.

Galwan martyr Jay Kishore Singh's father Raj Kapoor Singh is facing charges of encroaching on a piece of land belonging to the state government and some portion of fellow villager Harinath Ram. Vaishali police booked him under the SC/ST Act as well as under extortion ('rangdari') apart from land encroachment acts.

Singh's son Nand Kishore alleged that the SHO, Jandaha, Vishvanath Ram came to his house in Kajari Bujurg on Sunday night and humiliated his father, used abusive language against him and dragged him into the police van.

Nand Kishore also claimed that as the SHO and the complainant are from the same community, the former has taken the side of the latter.

DGP R.S. Bhatti directed the Vaishali police to constitute a team to investigate the incident. The district police was also directed to submit the report in a time bound manner and take necessary action if any official was involved in misbehaving with the martyr's father.

Complainant Harinath Ram had registered two FIRs in 2019 and January 23, 2023 against Singh for encroaching his land as well as the government road to building a monument for his martyred son.

During the police investigation, the officials said that it was found that Singh has encroached on the land of the complainant as well as the government property and due to the monument, the road was blocked and villagers were facing problems. Hence, Jandaha SDPO Poonam Keshri visited the village and gave Singh 15 days to remove the monument from the government as well as the land belonging to Harinath Ram.
Beijing, March 1 : Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko here on Wednesday.

Xi had said in Samarkand in September last year that he and Lukashenko jointly announced upgrading bilateral relations to an all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership, injecting strong impetus into bilateral cooperation in various fields, Xinhua news agency reported.

For China, this year marks the beginning of the full implementation of the guiding principles laid down at the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. China's high-quality development and modernisation process will bring new opportunities to other countries including Belarus, Xi said.

Hailing the unbreakable China-Belarus friendship, Xi stressed that the two sides should further enhance political mutual trust and remain each other's good friends and partners.

He said China highly appreciates Belarus's firm support for China's justified position on issues related to Taiwan, Xinjiang and Hong Kong, and on human rights.

The two sides should firmly support each other's choice of development path, support each other in safeguarding respective core interests, oppose external interference in internal affairs, and protect their sovereignty and political security, Xi said.

The two presidents agreed to expand economic and trade cooperation, do a good job in building the China-Belarus Industrial Park, and focus on the joint building of the Belt and Road to advance cooperation in connectivity projects such as the China-Europe Railway Express service.
New Delhi, March 1 : The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi is planning to launch a door-to-door campaign to reach out to the people after two of its former ministers -- Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain, have landed in prison for their alleged involvement in graft cases.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that all the party leaders, MLAs and workers will go to the public to seek their support.

Addressing the media after a party workers' gathering, Kejriwal said: "It is enough now. Just like Indira Gandhi had once done too much, they (without mentioning any name) are also doing too much. We will now go door-to-door to reach out to the public. All the leaders will descend on the ground and will go among the people." "They are alleging that (his former deputy) Manish Sisodia took money from the liquor company. They raided Sisodia's house, tore up the mattresses and broke the walls. They even raided Sisodia's paternal house... but nothing was found.

"If there was any scam of crores of rupees, at least some lakhs of rupees must have been found at his residence. They investigated his bank account and even the locker, but nothing was found. If he had taken crores of rupees, where is that money?" Kejriwal questioned.

The Delhi Chief Minister further said that two persons who brought laurels to India have been jailed by the Prime Minister.

"The excise policy is just an excuse... there was no scam. PM (Narendra Modi) wanted to stop the good work in Delhi. Sisodia was arrested as he did good work in education. Satyendar Jain was arrested as he did good work on health," the Chief Minister said.

Kejriwal further said: "If Manish Sisodia joins the BJP today, won't he be released tomorrow? All cases will be withdrawn. If Satyendar Jain joins the BJP today, he will be released from jail tomorrow. The issue is not corruption but to stop work, and send CBI-ED after the opposition." The AAP convenor said that not only the party but the whole country is proud of Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain who did exemplary work in their field.

Sisodia presented the model of education while Jain gave the model of primary healthcare. But Prime Minister Modi put such people behind bars, Kejriwal said.

Meanwhile, he 'assured' the people of Delhi that despite the arrest of their ministers in 'false' cases, the progress and development of Delhi will continue.
New Delhi, March 1 : The Delhi High Court on Wednesday said that it will continue hearing a bunch of pleas concerning the free treatment of children with rare diseases like Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), and Hunter's Syndrome, on March 3.

On January 30, the High Court had asked All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) to file an affidavit as it heard the pleas seeking free treatment as it is very expensive to treat such rare diseases.

During the hearing on Wednesday, counsel for one of the petitioners stated that two affidavits have been filed by the Centre.

Last year, a single-judge bench of Justice Prathiba M. Singh had directed the Centre to release Rs 5.35 crore immediately so as to enable clinical trials for medicines that can help treat such rare diseases.

"The court believes that the development of treatment for children with rare diseases should be considered a 'Nationally Important Project' due to the enormity of the issues confronting these children," she had said.

Dr Kanika from AIIMS apprised the court that the tender has been given and the amount will be released in September 2023.

At this, Justice Singh remarked: "This is just shocking, I can't believe AIIMS is behaving like this." The court then directed the doctor to be present in court on the next date of the hearing and listed the matter for review after 10 days.

The petitioner, who sought directions to provide the children suffering from rare diseases like DMD and Hunter's Syndrome with free treatment, had earlier informed Justice Singh that an MoU with respect to the indigenous development of therapies for rare diseases was signed between Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council and Hanugen Therapeutics Private Ltd in January 2021.

As per the MoU, a multicentric study for therapeutic evaluation with respect to DMD patients will be conducted by Hanugen.

The HC, however, had noted that as per the agreement, 50 per cent of the study would be funded by the Centre while the remaining will come from the company.
Chennai, March 1 : National Conference leader and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah on Wednesday said that opposition's Prime Minister candidate will be named after it wins the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and assumes office.

In his remarks at a public function here to mark the 70th birthday celebrations of Tamil Nadu Chief Minster M.K. Stalin, he termed Stalin was India's hope and called on him to be in national politics Abdullah also called upon the opposition parties to work as a single front.

He also said that it was unacceptable for Jammu and Kashmir to be made a Union Territory.

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said that the Prime Minister candidate was immaterial but opposition unity was the need of the hour.

Lauding Tamil Nadu for being an industrial hub as well as a welfare state, he also blessed Stalin, saying: "I have all the rights to bless you as I am 81 and you are only 70." Samajwadi Party President and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said that Stalin was working for the welfare of the people of his state and added that he was not against any faith. He also praised Stalin for opposing farm laws.

Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav praised the Dravidian movement and Stalin's leadership, adding that political parties of north India must focus on social justice issues. He also condemned the idea of an India that looks down on marginalised communities with contempt.
Kolkata, March 1 : Trinamool Congress legislator and the West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE)'s former President Manik Bhattacharya on Wednesday challenged the order of Calcutta High Court's single-judge bench directing Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to confiscate his property.

Bhattacharya, his wife Satarupa Bhattacharya and son Saouvik Bhattacharya are in judicial custody now because of their alleged involvement in the multi-crore teachers' recruitment scam in West Bengal.

On February 27, a single-judge bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay directed the CBI to confiscate all of Bhattacharya's properties taking a strong note of his missing the deadline tp paying a penalty of Rs 7,00,000 in two cases related to the teachers' recruitment scam. Justice Gangopadhyay observed that despite missing the deadline for payment of the penalty, neither had Bhattacharya taken any initiative to pay it or inform the court about his inability on this count. Thereafter, he directed the CBI to confiscate all his properties.

On Wednesday, Bhattacharya's counsel approached a division bench of Justice Subrata Talukdar and Justice Supratim Bhattacharya challenging the order of the single-judge bench on this count. The matter will come up from hearing this week only.

--IANS src/vd

A
Kohima, March 1 : Over 72.29 per cent of the 3,248 voters cast their votes in the re-polling in four polling stations in Nagaland on Wednesday, officials said.

Nagaland Chief Electoral Officer V. Shashank said that the re-polling was held smoothly in the four polling stations and no untoward incident was reported.

The Election Commission on Tuesday announced the re-polling in four polling stations at New Colony polling station (Zunheboto constituency), Pangti-V (Sanis), Jaboka Village (Tizit), and Pathso East Wing (Thonohy) but election officials in Nagaland did not explain to the media the reasons.

Assembly polls were held on Monday in 59 of the 60 assembly constituencies in Nagaland, where 85.90 per cent of 13.16 lakh had electors cast their ballots.

According to election officials, voting was largely peaceful on Monday across the northeastern state except for some incidents of violence reported from five districts -- Mokokchung, Wokha, Mon, Zunheboto, and Tseminyu.
Melbourne, March 1 : An Australian-Indian man pleaded guilty to one count of behaving in an offensive and disorderly manner in an aircraft, and was fined AUS$750 by a local court this week.

Hardik Patel, 46, from Rooty Hill in western Sydney, became aggressive and abusive onboard a 15-hour Air Canada flight from Vancouver due to heavy drinking, and was arrested upon his arrival at Sydney Airport earlier this month, the Daily Mail reported.

The Air Canada crew found one litre bottle of Bacardi and a water bottle containing a liquid smelling strongly of alcohol with Patel. The crew confiscated the bottles as according to the Civil Aviation and Safety Authority, airline passengers can only consume alcohol provided by cabin crew during a flight.

The crew reported that Patel had then become aggressive shortly before AC33 from Vancouver touched down.

The Australian Federal Police officers, who arrested Patel, observed he had a "flushed face and a strong alcohol odour".

According to a statement of facts submitted in the court, Patel "had poor ability to understand instructions and indifferent demeanour, which escalated to being abusive towards police".

When the police told him that it is an offence to consume one's own alcohol in an aircraft, Patel's responses were "largely aggressive and incoherent", the Daily Mail reported.

He continued to ask police why he was arrested and "became more verbally aggressive and argumentative towards police officers, yelling and screaming and trying to engage with members of the public," the report said.

The police then decided to take Patel into custody "for his own safety and welfare and the welfare and safety of those around him", the statement submitted to the court said.

The Downing Centre Local Court on Monday convicted Patel and fined him AUS$750.
New Delhi, March 1 : The Supreme Court will deliver judgment on Thursday on a batch of petitions seeking a collegium-like system for the appointment of Election Commissioners (ECs) and the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC).

A constitution bench, headed by Justice K.M. Joseph and comprising Justices Ajay Rastogi, Aniruddha Bose, Hrishikesh Roy, and C.T. Ravikumar had reserved judgment in the matter on November 24, 2022. According to the causelist, two judgments, each by Justices Joseph and Rastogi, will be pronounced at 10.30 a.m. on Thursday in the matter.

During the arguments, Attorney General R. Venkataramani had told the Supreme Court that if it were to begin to doubt every step taken by the government in the process of appointment of the Election Commissioner, then it has implications on the integrity and independenceA of the institution.

The five-judge constitution bench, headed by Justice Joseph, had then shot a volley of questions at the country's top law officer in connection with the appointment of Election Commissioner Arun Goel. It posed some critical questions to the AG in connection with Goel's appointment: what deliberation could have been done to finalise his name within 24 hours, same day clearance, same day process completed, and the appointment was made not even in 24 hours.

The Centre had, however, maintained that there is no trigger point for the Supreme Court to interfere in the appointment process of the Election Commissioner.

After hearing detailed arguments, the Supreme Court reserved the judgment on a batch of petitions seeking a collegium-like system for the appointment of the ECs and the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC).

During the hearing, the Supreme Court had told the Centre that it wants to see the files relating to the recent appointment of Goel as the Election Commissioner and emphasised that it wants to see by what mechanism, "he was picked up", and "there is no danger to produce it (files)".
New Delhi, March 1 : A Delhi court on Wednesday granted bail to Aam Aadmi Party MLA Amanatullah Khan in connection with the case related to alleged illegal appointments in the Delhi Waqf Board (DWB).

The case was registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Special CBI Judge M. K. Nagpal of Rouse Avenue Courts observed that it is an apt case where accused should be given bail in pending trial and he found no ground for taking all 11 of them into custody including Khan, who is also the Chairman of the Waqf Board.

Though the CBI has alleged that a loss of over Rs 27 lakh was caused to the government exchequer in the form of salaries or other emoluments, no one was arrested by the agency during its probe.

The court had summoned the accused in November last year after taking cognisance of offences in the CBI's FIR.

On their appearance, they were released on personal bonds till disposal of their regular bail applications.

While granting bail, the judge said that the non-arrest of an accused during investigation is a vital or prime factor which has to be considered while considering the question of grant of bail.

The court noted that though the charge sheet in the case was filed by CBI in August last year for commission of offence of criminal conspiracy under section 120AB of IPC read with sections 13(2) and 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, the FIR was registered long back in November 2016.

It said that the investigation "had been pending with the CBI for a long period of around six years" and during this period there was "sufficient time and opportunity available to the Investigation Officer (IO) of case to arrest the applicants or any of them".

"However, still the IO or the CBI had taken a conscious decision not to arrest any of the above applicants in this case and the IO has charge sheeted them before this court without arrest," the court said.

The judge observed that "morally and also legally" in view of the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court, the CBI "should not have any right to oppose" the request for bail being made by the accused persons and that it should be left to the court to consider the matter on merits.

The court said that admittedly, there are no allegations made against any of the accused persons for demand, payment or acceptance of bribe in connection with the appointments and that provisions of the PC Act were invoked because it was alleged that the public offices of Khan and Mahboob Alam, then Chief Executive Officer of the DWB, were abused or misused.

"Again, further investigation in the matter may take a long time to conclude and there is no purpose behind taking or keeping the accused persons in custody awaiting conclusion thereof," the judge said.

However, the CBI opposed bail, saying that the accused may tamper with evidence of case or influence the witnesses or ongoing investigation.

To this, the court observed prima facie that such apprehensions are "baseless and without any reasons" as investigation has already been completed and most of the evidence collected during investigation is documentary in nature.
Dhaka, March 1 : The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has banned the sale of mobile network operator Robi's e-SIM within one week of launching the service, an official said on Wednesday.

"The division concerned found that Robi launched the service without taking the commission's approval. Therefore, we asked them to stop selling the e-SIM services," BTRC Chairman Shyam Sunder Sikder told a leading media outlet on Wednesday.

Mobile operators are obliged to take the telecom regulator's approval before launching any services, the BRTC said.

On February 22, Robi Axiata Limited announced the start of an e-SIM sale, following two other private telecom operators - Grameenphone and Banglalink.

Launching the service, the company said customers will enjoy the best Internet experience in the country.

When contacted, Robi officials said that they have not received any letter from the BTRC to stop the service. However, they acknowledged that they have been discussing with the regulator some issues regarding the approval for marketing e-SIM.

Currently, Robi is the country's second largest mobile operator with a 5.46 crore subscriber base, while Grameenphone is the top operator with 7.93 crore subscribers.

Banglalink is in the third position with 4.01 crore users.

The total number of SIM subscribers in Bangladesh stands at 18.08 crore.

In March last year, Grameenphone introduced an e-SIM service in Bangladesh for the first time.
Dhaka, March 1 : The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) of Bangladesh has arrested four more members of the newly-formed militant outfit 'Jamatul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya from Chattogram.

The elite force of Bangladesh Police has so far arrested over 30 members and leaders of Jamatul Ansar, said the commander of the force.

At least 17 members of Kuki-Chin National Front (KNF), which is based in the Chattogram hill tract, were also arrested for assisting the Jamatul Ansar militants in training and other activities in the hills of Chattogram.

These militants were arrested in a drive conducted by RAB in the Patiya bypass area on Tuesday night, the elite force said at a press conference on Wednesday.

The law enforcement agencies are conducting anti-militancy operations throughout the country since October last year.

The four arrested Jamatul Ansar members have been identified as Hossain Ahmed (22), Nihal Abdullah (19), Al Amin (22 and Al Amin alias Partha Kumar Das (21).

Hossain Ahmed is from Dasmina in Patuakhali, Nihal and Al Amin are from Sadar in Cumilla, while Partha is from Dumuria in Khulna.

All the four accused left their respective homes as part of 'Hijrat' under the influence of newly-floated Jamatul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya, and took part in arms training in the Chattogram hill tract, said Khandaker Al Moin, RAB Director (Law and Media).

Moin said that eight young men had gone missing from the Cumilla Sadar area on August 23 last year.

Later, their families filed general diaries at the city's Kotwali Thana police station. During investigation, RAB got information about their affiliation to a new militant organisation named Jamatul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya.

At the same time, RAB also learnt that the members of the organisation were receiving arms training with the help of separatist outfits in the Chattogram hill tract area.

Based on the inputs, the elite force conducted an operation and arrested 10 people, including seven members of Jamatul Ansar and three members of KNF, from Bandarban and Rangamati.

Since then, RAB has carried out several operations across the country and arrested more than 30 members of the militant outfit.
New Delhi, March 1 : A cloth warehouse on Roshanara Road in north Delhi collapsed like a house of cards after a massive fire broke out in it on Monday, officials said. However, no one was injured in the incident.

The video of the incident went viral on social media. In the video, firemen can be seen standing near the three-storey structure before it suddenly collapses.

It took just five seconds for the three-storeyed building to completely come down, releasing a thick plume of black smoke.

According to Delhi Fire Service (DFS) Director Atul Garg, a call regarding the blaze in a factory at the premises of logistics firm Jaipur Golden Transport on Roshanara Road near Pul Bangash metro station was received around 11.50 a.m. and 18 fire tenders were rushed to the site.

A senior police official said that after receiving a police control room call at Subzi Mandi police station regarding a fire at Jaipur Golden Transport warehouse, a police team reached the spot.

"The fire was in the warehouse, constructed in an area about 1,000 square metres and is divided in four separate parts. One of the parts having four floors was burning and all its floors were engulfed in the fire," said the official.

"Police team cordoned off the area and the compound was evacuated. Traffic police were also deployed for smooth vehicular movement. The people residing in the adjoining area were also requested to vacate their home," Deputy Commissioner of Police, North, Sagar Singh Kalsi said.

"The reason for the fire is yet to be ascertained but initial investigation suggests that there was some electric short-circuit in the generator set. The warehouse is 50 years old so due to fire, heat and water sprinkling to douse the flames, all the four floors collapsed at about 3.30 p.m," he said.

"The authorities including BSES, Delhi Jal Board, Delhi Disaster Management, Building Department of MCD, SDM office, FSL and district crime team have been requested to inspect the place of fire as well as affected residential area," said the official, adding that legal action is being initiated.
New Delhi, March 1 : Describing Arvind Kejriwal as the kingpin of the Delhi liquor policy 'scam', the BJP asked on Wednesday as to when will the Chief Minister resign, after two of his ministers -- Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain -- stepped down on Tuesday.

The BJP also termed Manish Sisodia's resignation letter submitted on Tuesday not having any date as playing with the Constitution.

Accusing Kejriwal's PA of trying to tamper with evidence by destroying four mobile phones, BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia asked whether the strings of the scam are connected to Kejriwal.

Bhatia said that the decision to constitute a Group of Ministers (GoM) was taken at a Cabinet meeting in 2021, which was chaired by Kejriwal.

"This proves that the mastermind of the excise policy scam is Kejriwal himself," Bhatia said, as he demanded the resignation of Kejriwal and another of his ministers, Kailash Gehlot.

"Out of the three ministers in the GoM, two -- Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain -- have already stepped down. When will the third minister -- Kailash Gehlot -- resign," Bhatia asked.

Bhatia also said that merely getting the 'pawns' to resign will not work.

"Kejriwal should immediately resign to ensure a fair probe by the investigating agencies," Bhatia said.
New Delhi, March 1 : Amritsar will soon witness a celebration of mystics and poets with 'The Sacred Amritsar', scheduled to take place from March 24 to 26.

Teamwork Arts, in association with Sleepwell will organise the event to be held at the Maharaja Ranjit Singh Summer Palace.

Honouring the spirit of Amritsar, a city known for its rich and diverse cultural heritage, with its roots in openness, accessibility and inclusivity, the Festival promises to be an eclectic mix of spiritual music, devotional poetry, heritage walks, food, literature and engaging workshops.

Mornings will begin with performances celebrating the country's musical heritage and afternoons will be about poetry readings and conversations. Evenings will witness collaborative performances between a range of national and international artists.

Artistes who are part of the festival include Aparna Caur, Aruna Sairam, Shabnam Virmani, Sandeep Singh and Vipin Heero, Dolly Guleria, Harpreet Singh, Chinmayi Tripathi, Kamala Shankar, Askari Naqvi and Valentina Trivedi.

Participating authors and poets include Navdeep Suri, Saumya Kulshrestha and Purushottam Agrawal.

The Festival will also have an expression zone called 'Numaish: Poetry, Painting, Performance'. This has been designed to encourage students to engage in creative activities and express themselves through poetry writing, musical performances and art.

While the Morning and Evening Music will be free and open to all, a specially curated 'Delegate Experience', spread over two and a half days, with languid afternoon discourses on poetry, heritage walks across important sites, and the partaking of Amritsar's cuisine will be the festival's hallmark.
Chandigarh, March 1 : BJP national General Secretary Tarun Chugh on Wednesday demanded that the CBI probe into the Delhi liquor policy case should be extended to Punjab as well.

Chugh said the beneficiaries of Punjab's excise policy have alleged connections in Delhi and Punjab has been losing a big chunk of revenue ever since the AAP government came to power in the state last year.

Chugh claimed that the Punjab excise policy for 2022-23 is similar to Delhi's 2021-22 liquor policy, adding that both were drafted by Manish Sisodia and his team.

This, he said, was confirmed by Arvind Kejriwal, who had tweeted that the excise policy which had to be scrapped in Delhi is working wonders in Punjab.
Tehran, March 2 : Iran has declared two German diplomats to be personae non gratae and has expelled them from the Islamic republic over Berlin's "interventionist and irresponsible" measures against Tehran.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani blamed the German government for its "irresponsible interference" in Iran's internal and judicial affairs, according to a statement published on the Foreign Ministry's website on Wednesday.

The Ministry has summoned the German Ambassador to Tehran, Hans-Udo Muzel and informed him of the decision, Kanaani was quoted as saying in the statement.

Iran will "act decisively" in response to unreasonable demands, said Kanaani, warning that Iran will have "other alternatives" if certain countries seek to disregard its fundamental principles and national sovereignty, Xinhua news agency reported.

On February 22, Germany announced that it would expel two diplomats from Iran's embassy in Berlin after an Iranian court handed down the death sentence to Jamshid Sharmahd, an Iranian-German national, for "planning and organising acts of terror in the country".

According to the Mizan news agency affiliated with the Iranian judiciary, Iran handed down the death sentence on February 21, accusing Sharmahd as "the ringleader of the Tondar(Thunder) group who intended to carry out 23 terror operations(in Iran), of which only five were conducted".

One day later, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock announced in a statement that Berlin had declared two staff members from the Iranian embassy in Berlin to be personae non gratae and ordered them to leave Germany immediately.

The Iranian Intelligence Ministry announced the arrest of Sharmahd in 2020.

Founded by a number of Iranian pro-monarchists in Britain in 2003, the Tondar group is accused of carrying out a bombing attack in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz in 2008, which killed 14 people and injured 300 others, and planning other attacks in the country, according to Mizan.
Islamabad, March 2 : Pakistani rupee significantly plunged against the US dollar as the greenback was traded at 266.11 rupees in the interbank market, according to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

The US dollar closed at 261.5 rupees on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the local currency depreciated by 4.61 rupees, or 1.73 per cent, against the US dollar, official figures showed. The rupee's four-session winning streak ended on Tuesday following a depreciation of 0.6 per cent, Xinhua news agency reported.

Market experts attributed the devaluation mainly to the downgrading of the South Asian country's local and foreign currency issuer and senior unsecured debt ratings from "Caa1" to "Caa3" by Moody's Investors Service on Tuesday.
Islamabad, March 2 : Pakistan extended its deepest condolences and sympathies to the government and people of Greece over the loss of precious lives in a deadly train collision in the country, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said.

"We pray for the quick recovery of those injured in the incident," the Ministry added on Wednesday in a statement.

The death toll from the collision of two trains in central Greece on Tuesday night has increased to 36, while 66 injured people were still hospitalised, Xinhua news agency reported.
Mogadishu, March 2 : Somali security forces have killed more than 200 al-Shabab fighters, including senior leaders, in a three-day operation carried out in the central and southern parts of the country, a government official said.

Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism Daud Aweis on Wednesday said the security forces have also liberated new areas in Hirshabelle, Galmudug and Jubaland states, where they killed a large number of extremists.

Aweis added the forces backed by international partners have successfully operated in several frontlines, like Banadir, Hirshabelle, South West, Jubaland, and Galmudug states to flush out the militants who have engaged the government forces in near-daily attacks, Xinhua news agency reported.

"The Somali National Army has captured caves where the Kharijites (al-Shabab) were hiding in areas located in Hirshabelle. This means that the war tactics of the Kharijites are coming to an end and that they are being targeted wherever they try to hide," he told a weekly news briefing in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia.

The Minister also said the security forces in their efforts to strengthen the security of the capital, had arrested three al-Shabab terrorists who were plotting acts against security.

Aweis said the UN Security Council has welcomed the progress made by the government in the war against al-Shabab in the country as well as the progress made in maintaining good relationships and cooperation between the government and the Federal member states.

The government forces have intensified their attacks against al-Shabab since President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud declared an all-out war against the militants last year.

The President has vowed that the military operations to flush out al-Shabab militants from their strongholds will be intensified to stop extortion of the Somali people and the spread of propaganda, intimidation and extremism in Somalia.
Real.ph helps real estate professionals sell properties faster through its suite of marketing tools. "Our two decades of experience in both tech & digital marketing, combined with the ease of use of our platform, will help agents succeed and close more deals."

Real.ph, a leading provider of real estate technology, is proud to announce the launch of its property listings marketplace, agent website builder, digital open house & listings presentation platform. Real.ph is designed to provide agents & brokers in The Philippines with powerful tools that will help them market their properties more effectively.

Bernd Rennebeck, CEO of Oqulo which owns Real.ph, said, "We understand the importance of having a strong online presence in order for real estate agents to get more leads. Aside from Real.ph being an active marketplace for rentals and buy & sell properties, we're excited to launch a website builder that will allow users to create their own agent website in minutes, and easily connect it to their listings on Real.ph.

In addition to that, Real.ph is also launching its digital open house & listings presentation tools. Were looking to partner with the top brokerages and mortgage providers in the Philippines to provide effective digital marketing through tech, Rennebeck adds.

To celebrate the launch, Real.ph is offering a special promotion for agents who will list their properties at real.ph and try out the website builder. For a limited time, agents will receive free website hosting for 12 months. This offer will help agents establish a strong online presence and reach more potential clients.

"Real.ph will revolutionize the way real estate agents do business here in the country," said Rennebeck. "Our two decades of experience in both tech & digital marketing, combined with the ease of use of our platform, will help agents succeed and close more deals."

For more information, visit http://www.real.ph today.

About Real.ph

Real.ph is a leading provider of real estate technology, serving the Philippines market. The company provides innovative solutions for real estate agents and professionals to help them succeed in a competitive market. With a focus on ease of use and customization, Real.ph is committed to helping real estate professionals succeed.

About Oqulo

Oqulo Pte Ltd. is a Singapore-based company that specializes in deploying global technology products. A spin-off of tech incubator August 99, Oqulo has released several projects and services, including Access, QSpace, QTime, and Real, since it was founded in 2019. Oqulo is part of the VS12 group of companies.
The outdated system of work has failed women and we can no longer ignore the alarming trends and outcomes that are widening the gap for working women, says Melissa Dawn Simkins, CEO of Velvet Suite and Founder of The She-Suite.

The SheSuite, a female-focused initiative of Velvet Suite today announced its 8th annual virtual SheSuite Summit23 will be held on Friday, March 10, 2023 from 8:00 am to 6:30 pm EST. The event is a collective gathering where leaders at every level are called to design a modern blueprint of change to create sustainable solutions to support women in work, well-being, and life.

In this post-pandemic era, more senior women are calling it quits at the highest rate ever. According to McKinsey and Lean In, for every woman stepping into a director-level leadership role, two are choosing to leave. There is an urgent call for change. The She-Suite Summit23 accepts the call and convenes a global leadership collective of nearly 60 executives and thought-leaders, 25 leading companies and over 1,000 attendees to join forces to craft a new leadership model with this years theme, Limitless Leadership: Unleash the Life You Want.

The outdated system of work has failed women and we can no longer ignore the alarming trends and outcomes that are widening the gap for working women. At The She-Suite, our purpose is to craft a brand-new model for the modern world of work for women all around the world. This experience marks a new era of change where we can collectively innovate with new models that empower women to do their best work and live their best life, says Melissa Dawn Simkins, CEO of Velvet Suite and Founder of The She-Suite.

The all-day virtual global experience is custom designed to make change personal. Attendees will experience inspiration and empowerment while building their own 90-Day Personal Brand Action Plan Blueprint to create the change they want to see both personally and professionally. A highlight will be the Male Allies panel featuring executives discussing how men play a role as allies and advocates for change.

Executives and expert speakers hail from the likes of 3M, SodexoMagic, Flow Research Collective, Logitech, Rylan Media, Make Meaningful Change, Nestle, Daily Harvest, The Radical Female, Epic Inclusion Solutions, LLC, HUSTLE, GE Healthcare, The She Suite and many others.

For those on the frontlines building the workplace of the future in HR, Talent and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, there seems to be no reprieve from disruption with post-pandemic fallout, the looming recession, and the tightening of the labor market. Companies will have the chance to create their own 90-Day Brand Plan Blueprint to address systemic issues and learn from companies, partners, and panelists throughout the day as they share their own career journeys and how shaping the world of work in difficult times has been fertile ground for growth.

The She-Suite will recognize the ground-breaking work to overcome the persistent gap with women in the workplace by honoring Boston Scientific Corporation and BAE Systems, Inc. with the inaugural She-Suite 100 Architects of Change award. These organizations have crafted new models to address the persistent gap with women in the workplace and have delivered measurable outcomes in retention, readiness, advancement, and culture transformation.

The She-Suite Founder Melissa Dawn Simkins will dive deep into the insights that have driven the pioneering journey for special guest Jennifer Hyman, Co-Founder and CEO of Rent the Runway in a Fireside Conversation. Leaders will hear how her sisters desire to be the best version of herself was the catalyst to Jennifers limitless leadership journey in co-founding her company, and being the 30th woman ever to take a company public in history.

The She-Suite is the only end-to-end womens leadership development platform that enables organizations to address the career life cycle for working women with proven programs and a powerful community to support future-ready development, readiness and advancement, said Kindra Helderle, Associate Director, Global Leadership Development, Merck.

The She-Suite Summit23 is sponsored by some of the worlds leading corporations who recognize the value of fostering womens leadership throughout their organizations. Merck leads the pack with the Platinum sponsorship, followed by Kaiser Permanente, Fidelity Investments, McKesson, T-Mobile, Maximus and Adventist Healthcare Fort Washington Medical Center at the Premier level. Cognosante, General Dynamics, GoGo squeeZ, Lincoln Financial Group, Squire Patton Boggs, and Mars, Incorporated have come on at the Partner level. AstraZeneca, BAE Systems, Colgate Palmolive, Eaton, Elevance Health, Ingredion, Kraft Heinz, LMI, Modivcare, P&G, and UBS round out this elite group as Brand Leadership Institute Partners.

For more information on The SheSuite Summit23, or to register, visit https://theshesuitesummit.com/ on the web, or the community on LinkedIn.

# # #

About The SheSuite

The SheSuite is a leadership and lifestyle innovation platform that exists to architect a brand-new leadership model for the modern world of work for women all around the world. The platform is built upon The SheSuite Method, a novel approach to a safe community for every stage of the career journey from launch, to lead and legacy. For more information, visit https://www.theshesuite.com.
"Adapting to current technology is crucial for meeting customers where they are and increasing their accessibility to innovative products and services that improve quality of life and revolutionize sleep," said Aaron Fuhrman, Founder and Director of Sleeplay.

Today, Sleeplay, a modern CPAP company connecting people to industry leading experts and products for the deepest, best sleep possible, launched the Sleeplay mobile application. It is now available via the App Store and Google Play Store, which will expand accessibility to its luxury sleep products, CPAP equipment and connect customers with medical experts. To celebrate the app launch and World Sleep Day on March 18, Sleeplay is offering 25% off with the promo code APPLAUNCH25.

Were thrilled to announce the launch of the Sleeplay app and expand our foothold in the CPAP and luxury sleep space, said Aaron Fuhrman, Founder and Director of Sleeplay. Adapting to current technology is crucial for meeting customers where they are and increasing their accessibility to innovative products and services that improve quality of life and revolutionize sleep.

The new app will give customers access to Online CPAP Expert support, user-friendly upload RX for fast order placement, visibility into past orders and focused on removing the hassle in all things sleep, wellness and comfort. The app will provide customers with another avenue to obtain the life-changing equipment and accessories that aid the 22 million adult Americans suffering from sleep apnea or other related medical issues. Featuring hundreds of curated products for those with sleep apnea and without, like travel-size CPAP machines, CPAP cleaners, filters, tubings and CPAP batteries for camping, the new app will become the ultimate sleep playground destination.

Customers can download the IOS Sleeplay app here and the Android Sleeplay app here. To learn more about Sleeplay, visit sleeplay.com.

###

About Sleeplay

Sleeplay is a modern CPAP destination dedicated to connecting the next generation with experts and products, from CPAP machines and cleaners to masks and humidifiers, for the deepest, best sleep possible. Through its white-glove customer service and innovative smartphone app and website, Sleeplay removes the headache and hassle in discovering high-quality products by easily connecting customers with CPAP Expert and respiratory therapists to help them better understand their diagnosis and sleep needs. Sleeplay services customers looking to optimize their rest, relaxation and recovery through benefits such as digital prescription uploads, complimentary equipment troubleshooting, financing and effective diagnostic quizzes. Sleeplay proudly partners with American Homecare Equipment, Inc., a trusted member of the industry for over 30 years, and offers products from leading brands such as ResMed, Fisher & Paykel and Philips Respironics. For additional information, visit sleeplay.com.
FullHost, a leading Canadian hosting company, is excited to announce the expansion of FullHost.Cloud to the United States with a new location in Oregon, US-WEST. This marks the first time that FullHost has offered a location outside of Canada as a Canadian hosting provider.

FullHost.Cloud provides businesses with a cost-effective and scalable cloud platform for hosting their web applications. With the addition of the US-WEST location, businesses can now take advantage of the platform's pay-as-you-go billing model, autoscaling and high availability capabilities, and unique combination of reserved and dynamic cloudlets in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States.

"Expanding to the United States is a major milestone for FullHost and our FullHost.Cloud platform," said Chris Tilden, FullHost's Director of Client Success. "We're thrilled to offer our customers a new location that provides easy access to the Pacific Northwest region of the United States, and we look forward to continuing to expand our platform in the future."

FullHost.Cloud supports a wide range of stacks, including Docker, Kubernetes, WordPress Clusters, SQL and NoSQL database clusters, as well as Windows servers. This allows businesses to easily host and manage a variety of web applications.

The platform also offers clustering features for high availability and scalability, ensuring that businesses can accommodate growth and changing demands. With FullHost.Cloud, businesses can enjoy peace of mind knowing that their web applications will be highly available and performant at all times.

For more information on FullHost.Cloud and the new US-WEST location, visit the FullHost website.

About FullHost

FullHost is a leading Canadian hosting company, providing businesses with reliable and cost-effective hosting solutions. With a focus on customer satisfaction, FullHost is dedicated to helping businesses succeed in the digital world.
The war has created an influx of newly injured people in need of physical rehabilitation and mobility aids, and those with pre-existing mobility impairments need continued access to services and supplies, said Momentum Wheels for Humanitys Ukraine Country Director, Natalia Melnychenko.

Momentum Wheels for Humanity, a global organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for people with physical disabilities, has announced a formal partnership with Ukraines Ministry of Health to enhance the accessibility and quality of rehabilitation care for injured and disabled Ukrainians.

With the signing of a memorandum of understanding on February 7, 2023, Momentum Wheels for Humanity and the Ministry of Health are taking concrete steps to build up the systems and workforce needed in Ukraine to provide long-term quality rehabilitation services and assistive technology (AT), including wheelchairs, prostheses, orthoses and a range of other mobility and daily living aids. The formal partnership builds on their long-time collaboration to ensure that Ukrainians with disabilities have access to essential care for their health and well-being.

Momentum Wheels for Humanity's Executive Director, Kate Selengia, emphasized the importance of the partnership, stating, This partnership solidifies Ukraine's commitment to its most vulnerable population. We will continue to work tirelessly to improve and increase Ukraines available rehabilitation services, ensuring that more people in need across Ukraine are able to access the services and products they need to recover from injury and to live as independently as possible.

Viktor Liashko, the Minister of Health in Ukraine, expressed enthusiasm for Momentum Wheels for Humanitys past contributions and ongoing commitment to support, stating, "Through its work in Ukraine, Momentum Wheels for Humanity has demonstrated its unique competencies in the area of AT and rehabilitation. Momentum Wheels for Humanity has positively impacted Ukraines rehabilitation sector, and we appreciate their contributions and partnership."

Momentum Wheels for Humanity has worked in Ukraine for over 25 years, and since 2014 has supported the Ministry of Health to develop and strengthen rehabilitation services within the national health system through technical assistance and workforce development activities, including training, policy advisement, and in-depth capacity building within health facilities.

The war has created an influx of newly injured people in need of physical rehabilitation and mobility aids, and those with pre-existing mobility impairments need continued access to services and supplies to ensure their health and safety, said Momentum Wheels for Humanitys Ukraine Country Director, Natalia Melnychenko. In partnership with the Ministry of Health, and with our implementing partners, we are supporting the development of specialized rehabilitation services, providing humanitarian aid for persons with disabilities, and partnering with hospitals and universities to educate the next generation of physical and occupational therapists.

Currently, Momentum Wheels for Humanitys work includes establishing an assistive product distribution and training hub in Lviv that will address the unmet need for assistive products. The hub will store and dispatch wheelchairs and other assistive products to its network of partner health facilities and serve as a space for product demonstrations, service provision, and training. In partnership with the Ministry of Health, Momentum Wheels for Humanity will provide training and products to establish AT clinics within health facilities throughout western and central Ukraine.

Since the start of the conflict, gaps in capacity to provide rehabilitation to patients with spinal cord injuries have become more evident. Momentum Wheels for Humanity is working with the Lviv Territorial Medical Union Hospital (TMU) to establish a dedicated spinal cord injury unit, including providing technical guidance on setting up and equipping the unit and building the capacity of multidisciplinary teams of rehabilitation professionals and peer mentors working with spinal injury patients at TMU and other health facilities in Ukraine. Momentum Wheels for Humanity is also partnering with universities and government hospitals in Lviv, Kyiv, Lutsk, Ternopil, and Ivano Frankivsk to develop and enhance clinical education programs for physical and occupational therapists, which are critical to building a pipeline of qualified rehabilitation professionals.

Momentum Wheels for Humanitys programs are generously funded by USAID, USAIDs Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance through Project Hope, and the Christian Blind Mission (CBM). To support Ukaraine's most vulnerable population, consider donating to Momentum Wheels for Humanity at momentum4humanity.org/donate.
Clinical and industry experts Dr. Anna Mandeville and Leslie Norwalk join the team at digital mental health solutions provider Koa Health In such a critical time for the healthcare industry, I am looking forward to working with Koa Health to further its mission to provide effective, accessible digital mental health solutions that cover the full spectrum from prevention to treatment. - Leslie Norwalk, Strategic Advisor, Koa Health

Koa Health, a leading global provider of digital mental healthcare solutions, today announces that Dr. Anna Mandeville has joined the companys team as UK Clinical Director, and Leslie Norwalk has been appointed to the companys Supervisory Board. Anna will oversee the development of Koa Healths clinical services, and Leslie will serve as an advisor on the US healthcare system.



Consultant Clinical Psychologist Dr. Anna Mandeville joins Koa Health from the NHS, further strengthening the companys clinical expertise

Leslie Norwalk, who served as acting administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), is appointed to Koa Healths Supervisory Board as Non-executive Director to help the company navigate the US healthcare system

Dr. Oliver Harrison, CEO, Koa Health, said, Around the world, people are grappling with the mental health impact of the cost-of-living crisis and political and economic instability (following three years of pandemic). At Koa, we recognize that mental health is a continuum, so we provide a range of services, from prevention to treating early symptoms to clinical treatment to support people across their mental health journey. We are delighted to welcome Annas clinical experience and Leslies deep understanding of the US healthcare system. Anna and Leslie will be instrumental in helping us to deliver our vision of mental health for everyone.

Dr. Anna Mandeville brings a wealth of experience in Clinical Psychology to the Koa Health Team. She most recently served as Divisional Lead for Psychological Services in Enfield at BEH Mental Health Trust in the U.K., where she led the service design and quality monitoring of a range of physical and mental health services. As part of her tenure at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Anna worked leading and transforming psychological services across the London region and developed national psychological services in chronic pain management. She was selected as an outstanding NHS leader to receive a fully-funded fellowship from the Health Foundation and graduated from Ashridge Business School in 2019 with a Masters in Leadership and Quality improvement. Anna is an honorary lecturer at UCL.

Leslie Norwalks extensive leadership experience in the U.S. Government healthcare industry brings an invaluable perspective to Koa Health. She serves as Strategic Counsel for Epstein Becker & Green P.C. Previously, Leslie served as Acting Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Throughout her accomplished career, she has served on boards across a wide spectrum of healthcare corporations and biotechnology companies, including NuVasive, ModivCare, Neurocrine Biosciences, and Arvinas. Leslie is also a member of APCO Worldwides International Advisory Council.

Anna Mandeville, UK Clinical Director, Koa Health, said, The WHO estimates that one in eight people globally suffer from a mental health disorder, and that number doesnt include the many who struggle from mental health issues from time to time and would benefit from proactive and preventative care. Increasing access to evidence-based digital mental health tools is the best way to support the demand for mental health services across the full continuum of mental health. Im looking forward to supporting Koa Health, developing and delivering high-quality clinical services, and working with the expert team.

Leslie Norwalk, Strategic Advisor, Koa Health, said, In such a critical time of change for the healthcare industry, I am looking forward to working with Koa Health to further its mission to provide effective, clinically validated, and accessible digital mental health solutions that cover the full spectrum from prevention to treatment.

ENDS

Contacts

Koa Health Press Office: KoaHealthUK@missive.co.uk

About Koa Health

Koa Health is the leading global provider offering evidence-based, personalized, integrated solutions and services that deliver mental health for everyone. Available to more than 3 million users worldwide, Koa Health addresses the full continuum of mental health needsfrom prevention to treatment. Backed by investors such as Telefonica, a consortium advised by Ancora Finance Group, Wellington Partners Life Sciences, and MTIP, Koa Health leverages deep clinical expertise, research, and technology to deliver effective and accessible care that adapts to users unique circumstances, leading to lasting behavior change and positive health outcomes. Koa Health partners with employers, health plans, health systems, and providers worldwide, with its headquarters in the Netherlands and operations in Boston, London, and Barcelona.

For more information, please contact us at info@koahealth.com
With Total Support, customers can enjoy remote incident management and data-driven insights from a team of expert roboteers to optimize robot deployments and deliver improved uptime and performance.

InOrbit Inc., the leading provider of cloud-based robot operations (RobOps) software, is excited to announce an expansion to its robot operations support packages with the introduction of the Total Support bundle. This enterprise-tier support package is offered with the Enterprise Edition of the platform, which includes the leading RobOps tools. The bundle is designed to meet the needs of robot developers as well as enterprise companies deploying rapidly growing, multi-site or multi-vendor robot fleets.

Total Support is perfect for qualified InOrbit users who need the highest level of support and are looking for a comprehensive remote robot operations solution to manage active fleets. It is especially valuable for those who may have limited experience managing the complexities of a Robot Operations Center (ROC), or who are looking for a scalable, 24x7, fully-managed solution to drive mission-critical robot applications. With Total Support, customers can enjoy remote incident management and data-driven insights from a team of expert roboteers to optimize robot deployments and deliver improved uptime and performance.

"Some of our customers have already been using Total Support as an early access offering; we're thrilled to now offer it to select customers who are looking to take their robot deployments to the next level," said John Simmons, Head of Product at InOrbit. Beyond fleet monitoring and incident management, Total Support provides access to InOrbits extensive RobOps expertise and accelerates time to value delivered by our platform. InOrbits roboteer team leverages best practices and operational excellence guidelines developed over thousands of hours of hands-on support across a wide range of robot implementations to ensure smooth operations for Total Support customers.

Working with InOrbit and their team allows us to focus our efforts on our unique differentiators, said Steve Cousins, Chief Technology Officer at Relay Robotics. It ensures that were always able to provide the best possible experience for our customers, enabling growth opportunities for our sales team.

Total Support works with InOrbit Enterprise Editions scalable cloud platform for robot operations with:



24/7 remote robot support by experienced roboteers

Comprehensive fleet orchestration

Timely incident management and response

Integrations with incident response tools (Slack, Zendesk, and more)

Customized reporting and key performance indicators

Root-cause incident analysis

Advanced incident optimization

Total Support is available for qualified customers and complements InOrbits existing Basic and Premium support tiers. Learn more about InOrbit robot support services at https://www.inorbit.ai/support For media assets please click here.

About InOrbit

Headquartered in Mountain View, California, InOrbit is the leading platform for RobOps at scale. The company empowers robot developers and end users to maximize the potential of every robot. InOrbits multi-cloud platform enables efficient robot operations and provides observability through secure, real-time analytics and data collection, robot performance monitoring, incident response and root-cause analysis. The InOrbit Connect certification program allows end users across industries to orchestrate robots for multiple tasks and from multiple vendors to optimize productivity. For more information, please visit http://www.inorbit.ai.

Press Contact:

Geoff Chapman

InOrbit, Content Marketing Manager

647-464-4467

geoff@inorbit.ai
A unique collaboration has been created for Tennessee State University (TSU) students interested in covering the automobile industry from a media and communications perspective. Dubbed The Driving Force (TDF), the Black Automotive Media Group (BAMG) sought out minority applicants from the Tenn.-established HBCU to participate in a 10-week, field-credit academic program that commingles virtual training, mentoring sessions, and in-person product experiences.

Supported by INFINITI, TDF guidance is designed to expose interns to opportunities as journalists, PR executives, and business professionals covering the auto industry.

We thank INFINITI Motor Company and the Black Automotive Media Group for including TSU in this innovative partnership to benefit our students, said TSU President Glenda Glover. The automotive internship program gives TSU students access and opportunity to establish a successful career path in a leading industry.

Participants will be able to showcase their work within various multimedia platforms at the end of the program. More importantly, they will interact with INFINITI guest speakers ranging from designers to product planners.

As the Director of Academic Career Pathways and Partnerships, we are excited that our scholars have an opportunity to participate in this virtual internship with the BAMG and INFINITI, stated Antoinette Hargrove Duke. Our goal is to prepare TSU students for the real world and we believe through this experience, they will receive the practical training needed to close the skill gap before transitioning from college to their chosen careers.

For the Spring 2023 academic session, TDF wholeheartedly welcomes the cohort of HBCU students from TSU. The program would not be possible without the commitment and resources from INFINITI.

Its imperative for organizations to cultivate the next generation of minority leaders, and we are honored to be part of this internship program, said Craig Keeys, group vice president, INFINITI Americas. The Driving Force internship at TSU gives students important opportunities to develop their skills, and helps organizations like INFINITI to identify individuals who can excel within the companys staff.

TDF is led by respected media specialists Kimatni D. Rawlins of Automotive Rhythms Communications, publisher Randi Payton, and Greg Morrison from Bumper2Bumpertv, with additional support from an array of Black automotive journalists and publishers.

The goal is to continue expanding learning opportunities for scholars focusing on paths steered towards automotive communications, stated Randi Payton, BAMG member and publishing pioneer. I extended my media career by founding African Americans on Wheels magazine, which introduced thousands of journalists to automotive career opportunities. I am happy to continue that legacy with The Driving Force.

# # #

About Tennessee State University

Founded in 1912, Tennessee State University is Nashvilles only public university, and is a premier, historically black university and land-grant institution offering 39 bachelors degree programs, 24 masters degree programs, and eight doctoral degrees. TSU is a comprehensive research-intensive institution with a R-2 Carnegie designation and has a graduate school on its downtown Avon Williams Campus, along with the Otis Floyd Nursery Research Center in McMinnville, Tennessee. With a commitment to excellence, Tennessee State University provides students with a quality education in a nurturing and innovative environment that prepares them as alumni to be global leaders in every facet of society. Visit the University online at tnstate.edu.

About INFINITI

INFINITI Motor Company is headquartered in Yokohama, Japan with operations around the world including regional offices based in the Americas, China and INFINITI International Markets based in Dubai. The INFINITI brand of premium automobiles are assembled in facilities in Japan, North America and China. INFINITI design studios are located in Atsugi-Shi near Yokohama, London, San Diego and Beijing.

More information about INFINITI can be found at http://www.INFINITIUSA.com.

About the Black Automotive Media Group

The Black Automotive Media Group is a distinguished group of African American reporters and writers representing over 200 years of combined experience in automotive journalism within radio, television, print, experiential marketing, and social media. BAMG members either work for or own various automotive media platforms to bring equity to Black professionals working in the automotive industry. For additional details regarding The Driving Force HBCU, please visit AutomotiveRhythms.com.
Were happy to announce our Series A funding round and are grateful for the support of Fosun RZ Capital and Redpoint China Ventures. This investment will allow us to continue our mission of providing premium-quality, affordable e-bikes that make it easier for people to get around.

Velotric, a leading innovator in the electric bike market, announced today that it has successfully raised a $7.4 million USD Series A round, bringing the total raised to $12 million USD in its first year. Funding has come from Redpoint China Ventures, Fosun RZ Capital, Uphonest Capital, and Lime Cofounders Brad Bao and Toby Sun. The money will be used to expand the companys footprint in the United States, a unique move in the e-bike industry, which has traditionally focused on the European market.

Velotric has seen significant growth in recent months having brought in $15 million USD in revenue and selling over 10,000 bikes from May through December 2022. Retail partners who stock the brands premium e-bikes have also skyrocketed from 21 in November 2022, to 144 in February 2023, with the brand on a trajectory of being sold in 600+ stores in 2023.

Were happy to announce our Series A funding round and are grateful for the support of Fosun RZ Capital and Redpoint China Ventures, said Adam Zhang, Co-Founder of Velotric. This investment will allow us to continue our mission of providing premium-quality, affordable e-bikes that make it easier for people to get around. The funds will allow us to expand our market in the United States and facilitate adventures for more people.

Velotrics competitive advantage comes primarily from its engineering and supply chain expertise. The team is composed of experienced product designers and engineers from brands such as Specialized, Cannondale, Decathlon and more. Creating a proprietary drive system from the ground up with custom components such as the Velotric motor, battery management system (BMS) and booster algorithm has resulted in e-bikes which have more torque, range, and power efficiency. Additionally, the teams experience in mass production of millions of rideshare vehicles such as e-bikes and e-scooters means that it is well positioned to deliver on the mission of creating premium e-bikes at an accessible price.

In 2022, Velotric launched two popular e-bikes: Discover 1 and Nomad 1. Discover 1 is the brands all-rounder offering, an urban commuter e-bike, while the Nomad 1 is the brands first adventure-style, fat-tire model, designed for all-weather, all-terrain use. Both bikes boast a 50% longer range than similar models in the market. This year, Velotric plans to launch a new range of e-bikes which will feature the brands newest drive system and a range of customization options for riders.

Safety and reliability are top priority, and the company goes above and beyond industry standards, stress-testing their bike frames 20% more than the ISO requirement for extra strength and durability. All bikes are UL 2271 recognized for battery safety and longevity, and while currently the Discover 1 Step-Thru model is UL 2849 certified, the rest of the models have their certifications underway.

"At Redpoint China Ventures, we are always looking for innovative companies that have the potential to disrupt their industry and make a meaningful impact on society. Velotric not only impressed us with their rapid growth and impressive technology, but their commitment to making premium quality e-bikes accessible to everyone is truly remarkable. We're thrilled to be a part of this exciting journey and can't wait to see what the future holds for Velotric, said Grace Ping, Partner at Redpoint China Ventures.

Fosun RZ Capital was impressed by Velotrics super fast growth and we are looking forward to being a part of this journey going forward, said Fei Ruan, Investment Senior Director at Fosun RZ Capital. Velotrics commitment to providing high-quality, affordable e-bikes is truly unique in the market. Their focus on safety and reliability is unparalleled, and we are confident that this investment will help Velotric achieve their goals and continue to make a positive impact on the world.

As e-bikes continue to gain popularity and play an increasingly important role in the transportation landscape, Velotric is well positioned to take advantage of current market conditions.

For more information on Velotric and their e-bikes, please visit velotricbike.com. Media wishing to interview Velotric personnel should contact PR agent Borjana Slipicevic.

Media Contact

Borjana Slipicevic

Proper Propaganda

borjana@properpropaganda.net

About Velotric

Velotric is on a mission to rekindle the joy of riding. Led by hardware co-founder of Lime, Adam Zhang, with the team comprising minds from Lime, Giant, Specialized and Decathlon, Velotric bikes are fueled by the proprietary Velopower drive system optimized for higher performance and greater affordability so that you can go on adventures, spark joy, and remember why you learned to ride a bike in the first place: because its fun.
Woodland Mills expands distribution capabilities to Texas with a new warehouse. That was our big drivernot wanting to charge the customer more freight to do the same thing, added Woodland Mills Co-Founder Josh Malcolm. We just looked at those positives for the end consumer and thought, If it works for them, it works for us, too.

Today, Woodland Mills Inc., an industry leader in best-valued forestry equipment, expanded its distribution capabilities to Houston, Texas. This strategically located warehouse will enable faster delivery of Woodland Mills products to regional US customers while suppressing cost pressures to avoid freight increases.

In addition to the innovative design and durability of its portable sawmills, wood chippers, and other forestry equipment, Woodland Mills is known for its unparalleled customer service. The Texas warehouse demonstrates the companys steadfast commitment to the Woodland Mills community by ensuring reliable and convenient ordering for customers.

Woodland Mills Co-Founder Neil Bramley mentioned frequent discussions over shipping and freight within the Woodland Mills team and across the industry.

"You hear about the price of gas, the price of diesel, and all the surcharges," Bramley outlined.

That was our big drivernot wanting to charge the customer more freight to do the same thing, added Woodland Mills Co-Founder Josh Malcolm. We just looked at those positives for the end consumer and thought, If it works for them, it works for us, too.

Port Perry, Ontario-based Woodland Mills now possesses 100,000 square feet of operating space in North America. This new distribution location adds to the companys North American footprint. It joins two existing US warehouses in Portland, Oregon, and Buffalo, New York, respectively, as well as two locations in Canada.

The new Houston location will allow Woodland Mills to utilize Port Houston, giving the company a third port of entry in the US. This diversity will help enhance shipping efficiency and mitigate the impacts of elevated port congestion. Regional consumers will no longer have to wait for their orders to ship from the Oregon or New York locations.

Get capable, durable forestry equipment from Woodland Mills at https://woodlandmills.com/

About Woodland Mills Inc.: Through cost-effective manufacturing, innovative design processes, and direct-to-customer sales, Woodland Mills has become a global leader, offering the best-valued forestry equipment in the industry. Since its founding in 2009, Woodland Mills has prioritized delivering value through design and peerless customer service for hobbyists and DIY landowners.
We are grateful to be named to the 2023 Inc. Regionals. Pacific list of fastest-growing private companies in America. Together we are building something truly great.

"These are exciting times at Overlook Networks" shares CEO Paul Nolan. We are thrilled to be named to the 2023 Inc. Regionals. Pacific list of fastest-growing private companies in America. Everyone with Overlook Networks is grateful to our clients, partners, and dedicated team members for helping us reach this significant growth milestone and look forward to continued success.

The companies on this list show a remarkable rate of growth across all industries in the Pacific. Between 2019 and 2021, these # private companies had an average growth rate of 559 percent and, in 2021 alone, they added 14,536 jobs and $4.6 billion to the Pacific regions economy. Companies based in the Irvine, Santa Monica, and Venice, California areas had the highest growth rates overall. Complete results of the Inc. 5000 Regionals: Pacific, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, metro area, and other criteria, can be found at inc.com/pacific starting February 28, 2023.

This years Inc. 5000 Regional winners represent one of the most exceptional and exciting lists of Americas off-the-charts growth companies. Theyre disrupters and job creators, and all delivered an outsize impact on the economy. Remember their names and follow their lead. These are the companies youll be hearing about for years to come, said Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc. magazine.

Overlook Networks is a Global Innovator of Technology Strategies & Solutions. Providing a wide range of services, solutions and support to enterprise businesses of all sizes worldwide.Dedicated to providing our guarantee of service applying a systematic approach, a wealth of knowledge, industry insights & dedicated guidance. We help businesses worldwide align technology strategies, solutions and services to confidently meet their business goals. By partnering with a wide range of technology providers, we bring guaranteed superior world class solutions to your business.

To learn more about Overlook Networks, visit http://www.overlooknetworks.com

Email: media@overlooknetworks.com

More about Inc. and the Inc. 5000 Regionals

Methodology

The 2023 Inc. 5000 Regionals are ranked according to percentage revenue growth when comparing 2019 and 2021. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2019. They had to be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independentnot subsidiaries or divisions of other companiesas of December 31, 2021. (Since then, a number of companies on the list have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2019 is $100,000; the minimum for 2021 is $1 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons.

About Inc. Media

The worlds most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit http://www.inc.com.
This prestigious ranking by Inc. Magazine is a testament to our outstanding growth, innovation, and commitmentto always making our customers our HIGHEST priority.

Born of the annual Inc. 5000 franchise, this regional list represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the Southwest economys most dynamic segmentits independent small businesses.

Justin Thompson, CEO of MADLUVV stated This prestigious ranking by Inc. Magazine is a testament to our outstanding growth, innovation, and commitment to always making our customers our HIGHEST priority. It is a clear reflection of the hard work, dedication, and commitment of the entire Madluvv team.

Maddie Thompson, MADLUVV founder added, I am so proud of our team and grateful to our customers and partners for their support. It is both exciting and humbling to be listed among these great companies. We look forward to building on this foundation to make Madluvv a household name and our products accessible to even more people in the future.

This years Inc. 5000 Regional winners represent one of the most exceptional and exciting lists of Americas off-the-charts growth companies. Theyre disrupters and job creators, and all delivered an outsize impact on the economy. Remember their names and follow their lead. These are the companies youll be hearing about for years to come, says Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc. magazine.

About MADLUVV

Madluvv is a Gilbert, Arizona based company founded by Maddie Thompson on the idea that every woman should feel beautiful in their own skin and should have innovative, clean, and quality makeup products to match this fast paced, on the go world. Self-proclaimed limit pushers, creators, and excellence seekers who put a lot of effort into great customer care, Madluvv has taken the world by storm with their viral hero product, The Brow Stamp and have made waves in the cosmetic industry, disrupting all eyebrow and cosmetic norms.

Connect with us: madluvv.com | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest

About Inc. Media

The worlds most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The globalrecognition 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.
Vestwell Logo Weve seen 401(k) solutions increasingly become a priority for small business owners...This demand, with the right platform in place, creates a natural pathway for our advisor clients to rapidly expand their wealth practices, said Brett Thorne, President of RBC Clearing & Custody.

Vestwell, the leading small business retirement plan provider and individual savings platform, today announced its small plan 401(k) and 403(b) solutions are now available to thousands of advisor clients of RBC Clearing & Custody (RBC C&C).

RBC C&C, powered by Vestwell, delivers an affordable, modern, and digital workplace savings solution. The platform will enable advisors to efficiently scale their retirement plan practice, customize their offerings, and give clients the experience they expect and deserve. Vestwells advanced technology minimizes administrative workload and provides the innovative tools needed to maximize participant engagement. RBC C&C advisor clients benefit from the ability to own their own brand, investment philosophy, and a streamlined and preferred approach for clients.

After the passing of SECURE 2.0, weve seen 401(k) solutions increasingly become a priority for small business owners across the United States. This demand, with the right platform in place, creates a natural pathway for our advisor clients to rapidly expand their wealth practices, said Brett Thorne, President of RBC Clearing & Custody. Were thrilled to exclusively use Vestwell as our 401(k) provider, as they are an innovative firm that shares our values of prioritizing the advisor experience. Our advisor clients are now able to customize their offerings, expand into the 401(k) segment, and meet the demand from small businesses that need their support today.

The underlying architecture of the 401(k) offering is powered by Vestwells leading cloud-based digital recordkeeping platform. Legacy technology stacks have become too costly and cumbersome for financial advisors to scale their businesses, especially in the small to mid-sized retirement plan market. Vestwells modern architecture drives efficiency and affordability so advisors can effectively grow and scale their retirement plan practice.

Were seeing tremendous demand from U.S. business owners, which is greatly contributing to the growth in the 401(k) industry. There is a great opportunity for advisors to scale their businesses through an integrated workplace savings program, said Aaron Schumm, Founder and CEO of Vestwell. We are excited to be the exclusive 401(k) provider of RBC Clearing & Custody and bring their thousands of advisors clients the ability to deliver a white-labeled offering that's right for them including modern interactions, real-time communications, and transparent costs. Vestwell is committed to empowering advisors to run successful practices and ultimately help close the retirement savings gap in this country.

###

About Vestwell

Vestwell is the modern fintech engine powering savings and investment programs for small businesses and individual savers across the country. Were helping to close the savings gap by offering a flexible, cost-effective, modern solution to save for the critical aspects of life - retirement, education, and healthcare. Vestwell currently powers nearly 120,000 small businesses, over a million savers, and $27 billion in assets in all 50 states. To learn more visit vestwell.com.

Media Contact: Nicole Wood at nicole.wood@vestwell.com

About RBC Clearing & Custody

RBC Clearing & Custody provides clearing, custodian and execution services for independent broker-dealers and registered investment advisors. A leader in the U.S. brokerage industry since 1909 and a custody and clearing leader since 1979, RBC C&C specializes in delivering innovative technology, fiscal strength, world class resources, investment insights and attentive service to help financial professionals manage their clients needs.

RBC Clearing & Custody is a division of RBC Capital Markets, LLC, member NYSE/FINRA/SIPC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), one of the worlds largest and strongest banks. For more information, please visit http://www.rbcclearingandcustody.com.

Media Contact: Megan Boldt at megan.boldt@rbc.com.

 2023 RBC Clearing & Custody, a division of RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Member NYSE/FINRA/SIPC.
"TLK Fusion has remained nimble in the recent economic challenges that all small businesses are experiencing. The value of what we bring for our client base are the pillars that build strong businesses and the partnership that holds them up." states Ken Collis, Founder & CEO.

Inc. Magazine today revealed that TLK Fusion is No.173 on its third annual Inc. 5000 Regionals: Pacific list, the most prestigious ranking of the fastest-growing Pacific private companies, based in Alaska, Hawaii, California, Oregon, and Washington. Born of the annual Inc. 5000 franchise, this regional list represents a unique look at the most successful private companies within the Pacific economy generating sustainable growth and jobs.

"To be honored with this award has been thrilling. The results that we have been delivering to our clients speak on the confidence that we have built with each of the businesses that we represent," states Ken Collis, Founder & CEO. "TLK Fusion has remained nimble in the recent economic challenges that all small businesses are experiencing. The value of what we bring for our client base are the pillars that build strong businesses and the partnership that holds them up."

The companies on this list show a remarkable rate of growth across all industries in the Pacific. Between 2019 and 2021, these private companies had an average growth rate of 559 percent and, in 2021 alone, they added 14,536 jobs and $4.6 billion to the Pacific regions economy. Companies based in the Irvine, Santa Monica, and Venice, California areas had the highest growth rates overall.

Complete results of the Inc. 5000 Regionals: Pacific, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, metro area, and other criteria, can be found at inc.com/pacific starting February 28, 2023.

This years Inc. 5000 Regional winners represent one of the most exceptional and exciting lists of Americas off-the-charts growth companies. Theyre disruptors and job creators, and all delivered an outsize impact on the economy. Remember their names and follow their lead. These are the companies youll be hearing about for years to come, said Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc. magazine.

TLK Fusion (https://tlkfusion.com/) is an innovative, fast-paced, award-winning hybrid Retail Management and Marketing firm based in Los Angeles, CA. Established in 2009 by successful entrepreneur, Ken Collis, TLK Fusion boasts not only an A-List roster of celebrity talent but also has an aggressive footprint in the Influencer Marketing and Distribution into Retail markets. TLK Fusions unique out-of-the-box thinking and 360-degree service mix has proven successful throughout its history. As the recipient of many accolades and awards that include multiple Best in Biz Awards, The Rolling Stone Magazine Impact Award, the notorious Golden Bridge Award, a coveted Stevie Award, multiple Clutch Awards, consecutive Entrepreneur 360 Awards, and finally INC5000 Fastest Growing Companies for three consecutive years in 2020, 2021, and 2022 TLK remains the brands choice of firms to partner with and experience real growth.

More about Inc. and the Inc. 5000 Regionals

Methodology

The 2023 Inc. 5000 Regionals are ranked according to percentage revenue growth when comparing 2019 and 2021. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2019. They had to be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independentnot subsidiaries or divisions of other companiesas of December 31, 2021. (Since then, a number of companies on the list have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2019 is $100,000; the minimum for 2021 is $1 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons.

About Inc. Media

The worlds most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent.

The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit http://www.inc.com.
Caldwell Law "The sky is not the limit, it's just the beginning of new opportunities. I am profoundly grateful to be part of this prestigious recognition for the second year in a row with a 390% growth. Caldwell's team of happy warriors and our community of clients push us to do better every day."

Inc. magazine today revealed that Caldwell is No. 45 on its third annual Inc. 5000 Regionals: Northeast list, the most prestigious ranking of the fastest-growing Northeast private companies, based in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Born of the annual Inc. 5000 franchise, this regional list represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the Northeast economys most dynamic segmentits independent small businesses.

"The sky is not the limit, it's just the beginning of new opportunities. I am profoundly grateful to be part of this prestigious recognition for the second year in a row with a 390% growth. Caldwell's team of happy warriors and our community of clients push us to do better every day." - Keegan Caldwell, Managing Member.

The companies on this list show a remarkable rate of growth across all industries in the Northeast region. Between 2019 and 2021, these private companies had an average growth rate of 450 percent and, in 2021 alone, they added 12,066 jobs and nearly $4.4 billion to the Northeast regions economy. Companies based in the New York and Boston areas had the highest growth rates overall.

Complete results of the Inc. 5000 Regionals: Northeast, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, metro area, and other criteria, can be found at inc.com/northeast starting February 28, 2023.

This years Inc. 5000 Regional winners represent one of the most exceptional and exciting lists of Americas off-the-charts growth companies. Theyre disrupters and job creators, and all delivered an outsize impact on the economy. Remember their names and follow their lead. These are the companies youll be hearing about for years to come, said Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc. magazine.

Caldwell is the go-to firm for high growth start-ups and early-stage technology companies. The team excels at helping clients devise and execute programs to optimize the value of their companies. Attorneys at Caldwell counsel on all aspects of the monetization process from harvesting, mining, identifying valuable assets, evaluating the market for those assets, and generating revenue. With more than 500 clients,150 of which are venture backed, Caldwell has been ranked the #1 fastest growing IP law firm on the Inc. 5000 for 3 years in a row. https://caldwellip.com/

More about Inc. and the Inc. 5000 Regionals

Methodology

The 2023 Inc. 5000 Regionals are ranked according to percentage revenue growth when comparing 2019 and 2021. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2019. They had to be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independentnot subsidiaries or divisions of other companiesas of December 31, 2021. (Since then, a number of companies on the list have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2019 is $100,000; the minimum for 2021 is $1 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons.

About Inc. Media

The worlds most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent.

The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit http://www.inc.com.
Atarraya, creator of Shrimpbox, the first sustainable plug-and-play shrimp farming technology "Atarraya is honored to be named a SXSW Innovation Award finalist. Our Shrimpboxes offer farmers a viable path forward in an age of factory farms with dwindling returns, and a way to ensure sustainability while producing the protein of the future," said Daniel Russek, Atarraya CEO and founder.

Shrimpbox creator Atarraya, the first sustainable plug-and-play shrimp farming technology, today announced its participation in SXSW 2023. Atarraya is a finalist in the prestigious SXSW Innovation Awards, which have historically featured companies that have gone on to change the world with their technology. At the Innovation Award Showcase on March 11, Atarraya will serve fresh Aguachile made from shrimp harvested from its Shrimpbox farm. Watch this video to learn more about Atarraya and Shrimpbox.

Atarraya will also participate in the Future of Food events at SXSW 2023 on Saturday, March 11 at 1400 Lavaca St in Austin:



CEO and founder Daniel Russek will participate in the panel, Farming the Oceans and Building Sustainable Seafood Systems together with chef Andrew Zimmern, entrepreneur Briana Warner and moderator and Forbes journalist, Chloe Sorvino from 3:15 - 4:00 PM CT.

Atarrayas premium, sustainable Agua Blanca Pacific White Shrimp will be served immediately following the panel at the Future of Food Culinary Showcase from 4:00 - 5:00 PM CT. Farmed with the highest quality standards, the shrimp are free of antibiotics, preservatives or chemicals. They offer the best flavor and texture on the market as they are delivered fresh from harvest  farm-to-table  vs. the status quo 12-month-long journey of traditionally sourced shrimp, which are frozen and refrozen along the way.

The Future of Food event is open to the press and the public; free tickets are available here. Press who are interested in meeting with Atarraya, please contact mailto:atarraya@wearemgp.com [atarraya@wearemgp.com __title__ null].

Shrimp plays a key role in feeding a growing global population. In the past five years, shrimp sales volume increased from [275 to 415M pounds. Yet, conventional shrimp farming methods are disastrous for the environment  destroying seabeds and polluting oceans. Atarraya is the key to meeting the growing demand for shrimp by increasing production while minimizing the impact on the planet.

Atarraya is honored to be named a 2023 SXSW Innovation Award finalist in the sustainability category, and were just as excited to discuss how Shrimpbox offers a viable, sustainable way to help feed the planet while safeguarding the environment with industry experts at SXSW Future of Food, said Daniel Russek, Atarraya CEO and founder. Our Shrimpboxes offer farmers a viable path forward in an age of factory farms with dwindling returns, and a way to ensure sustainability while producing the protein of the future.

Atarrayas award-winning, proprietary Shrimpbox technology boosts production and access to the protein of the future. Shrimpbox is a plug-and-play, hyper-modular, semi-automated farm housed in a traditional cargo container that can be located anywhere, making it 100 times more space-efficient than traditional farming. Each Shrimpbox farm can be made up of dozens of containers located in different places and moved according to production needs. Automated systems make it possible to remotely monitor water quality, regulate temperature and oxygenation and feed the shrimp, applying natures wisdom to solve human challenges. It is the aquaculture equivalent to vertical farming that is ready not in ten or five years, but today. The first Shrimpbox farm in the U.S. is already in operation in Indianapolis and also doubles as a shrimp farm training facility.

About Atarraya

Atarraya is on a mission to make shrimp the sustainable protein of the 21st century. Powered by AI, Atarrayas proprietary Shrimpbox is a true plug and play'' sustainable shrimp farm that transforms aquaculture by using the most advanced biotechnology, software and hardware available. Atarrayas Shrimpbox technology was developed over the past 10 years by a team of engineers, biologists, and developers from Mexico, Norway, Brazil, Argentina and Poland. Atarrayas shrimp is distributed through Agua Blanca, which offers the worlds freshest and most sustainable shrimp  tailor-grown for restaurants and chefs who want to delight customers while safeguarding the planet.

Award-winning Atarraya was named to the TIME Best Inventions in November 2022. Based in Indianapolis and Mexico City, Atarraya is a privately held corporation backed by Jeffrey Horing, Mark K. Gormley and other angel investors. Follow Atarraya on YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter, or learn more at https://www.atarraya.ai.

All trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.
Women of Global Change Atlanta Chapter "As an organization, we believe that change can only be achieved through collaborative efforts. We are excited to launch this event, which we hope will foster relationships with people who share our vision of a world where no young person is homeless."- Carole Cheatam, WGC Atlanta Chapter President

The Women of Global Change (WGC) Atlanta, Georgia Chapter has announced the launch of its Spring Gathering aimed at helping homeless teens in the state. The organization is actively seeking collaborations with other local organizations and individuals to make a lasting impact on their communities. Carole Cheatam is the Atlanta Chapter President and has brought together women throughout the state to raise awareness and funds to help teens and children.

Homelessness among teens has become a growing problem in Georgia, with many young people facing a lack of basic needs such as shelter, food, and clothing. The WGC Atlanta Chapter has taken the initiative to address this issue by organizing an event that will provide a platform for local organizations to network and collaborate toward a common goal of alleviating youth homelessness in the state.

The event will be held online, providing an opportunity for organizations and individuals to make introductions and exchange ideas. It will be an excellent opportunity for organizations to showcase their work, highlight their strengths, and identify areas where they need support. Attendees will also be able to learn about the various initiatives and programs available to help homeless teens in the state.

In a statement released by the WGC Atlanta Chapter President, Carole Cheatam, the organization emphasized the importance of collaborative efforts in addressing the issue of youth homelessness. "As an organization, we believe that change can only be achieved through collaborative efforts. We are excited to launch this event, which we hope will foster relationships with people who share our vision of a world where no young person is homeless."

In the past, the WGC Atlanta Chapter has served and collaborated with Nicolas House, Street Grace, and Village of Hope. They have worked with womens and mens shelters throughout the state. Previously, they have refurbished 6 homes to help women transition out of sex trafficking, collected school supplies for children, donated toys for holidays and have done dress clothing pop-ups for job interviews. Wherever there is a need in the Atlanta community, WGC has shown up and helped.

The WGC Atlanta Chapter is calling on all organizations that are actively working towards making a positive impact on their community to attend the event and participate in the discussions. They encourage all attendees to come with an open mind and a willingness to collaborate toward achieving a common goal.

The event is scheduled to take place in the coming weeks, connect with Carole Cheatam, to get on the list. All interested parties are encouraged to sign up and be a part of this impactful initiative. The WGC Atlanta Chapter hopes that this event will be the first step in a series of collaborations aimed at making a lasting impact on their communities and improving the lives of homeless teens in Georgia. To connect with Carole please go to: http://www.womenofglobalchange.com/atlanta

Women of Global Change is a non-profit organization that has received 5 Presidential Service Awards, as well as, has been recognized by governments internationally for the work that they have done to bring people together to help others. The organization is continuing to grow and bring leaders together from around the world, as they go on an Adventure Summit to Uganda and a Safari in Kenya. They will help over 150 women and children in the local communities, meet top government officials and experience the countryside. There is still time to join them on this adventure. To learn more go to: http://www.womenofglobalchange.com/summit

Dr. Dame Shellie Hunt, Founder of WGC, states, Working with Chapter Presidents like Carole Cheatam is an absolute honor, I see the difference that they make in the world. The WGC Atlanta Chapter is a model of service that demonstrates the power of taking action as a community.


BioFit's new mesh chair back is engineered to maximize air circulation, user comfort and performance in industrial workspaces. Our new breathable mesh back fills a longstanding and critical gap in the industrial market.

BioFit Engineered Products, a global leader in the design and manufacture of ergonomic furnishings, announced today the introduction of a mesh chair back developed specifically for use in industrial applications. The new back features a compact profile and is designed to keep workers cool while providing lumbar support. It is available on several popular series from the BioFit Foundation seating line.

Based on research confirming that hot workspaces directly correspond to decreased productivity and feedback from end-use customers, BioFit identified a need for a chair back that would increase airflow and worker comfort under warm and humid working conditions frequently found in industrial settings, particularly in subtropical climates. The company subsequently engineered and rolled out its new ergonomic mesh chair back. Designated the B back, it features a compact frame molded of black recycled nylon and reinforced with glass fiber holding a breathable, woven, black nylon-polyester blend mesh. In addition to a design engineered to maximize air circulation, user comfort and performance, other benefits include enhanced flexibility for both workers and specifiers due to its modest profile.

Our new breathable mesh back fills a longstanding and critical gap in the industrial market, explained BioFit president Jim Connell. He continued: Until now, you could walk into countless factories around the world, many lacking sufficient air conditioning. The workers encountered would be perspiring even as their shifts just began, and often times struggling to meet production quotas by days end. The B back was designed precisely for these situations. Its built to help keep workers cool and comfy while withstanding years of multishift, industrial use. And as its plug and play on many of our most popular seating series, we can offer it on chairs designed to accommodate workers of varying physical sizes and specific facility requirements alike.

Headquartered in Bowling Green, Ohio, BioFit Engineered Products is an industry-leading manufacturer of LEED compliant ergonomic seating, GREENGUARD Gold certified cafeteria and mobile folding tables, book trucks, carts and footrests for industrial, high-tech, laboratory, healthcare, education, office and custom applications. To learn more about BioFit, visit https://www.biofit.com, call 800-597-0246 or email biofit@biofit.com.


Weve seen great progress in literacy growth through implementing BookNook at a national level, said Wendy Mathieu, SVP of Product at BookNook.

BookNook, a leader in effective high-impact tutoring solutions, announces the launch of a new K5 Literacy solution for schools across Florida.

According to EdResearch, tutoring is most effective for students when delivered in higher doses. BookNooks new solution is offering Florida students high-volume, high-quality tutoring sessions. The all-new solution also aligns with Floridas B.E.S.T. Literacy Standards helping educators across the state meet and exceed literacy benchmarks for K-5 students.

BookNook lessons align with the science of reading - a body of evidence about how proficient reading develops - and include instruction and activities focused on phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. All lesson language requirements, comprehensive questions, phonics activities and guided reading stopping points align with Florida B.E.S.T. standards to ensure compliant coursework. In addition, lessons include written and audio instructions, questions and vocabulary in both English and Spanish.

The technology uses reading level data from partnering school districts to place students into appropriate lessons and learning groups. BookNook tutors work remotely with students to support progress and ensure all students have equitable access to new learning opportunities.

Weve seen great progress in literacy growth through implementing BookNook at a national level, said Wendy Mathieu, SVP of Product at BookNook. A clear link between BookNook student participation and literacy/reading growth has been shown from our data collected on partnering districts. Were confident that through prioritizing literacy, well set students up for success.

BookNook works with schools and districts nationwide to provide high-impact tutoring and engaging learning materials to close the learning equity gap in U.S. public schools. As a result, students engage with the same tutors, building authentic connections which further support their growth and development in the program.

This new program will enable us to support thousands more students with rigorous, standards-aligned content, said Laura Fischer, Chief Operating Officer of BookNook. We look forward to partnering with educators across Florida to set every student up for success in reading.

To learn more, please visit http://www.BookNook.com.

About BookNook

BookNook is a comprehensive literacy intervention program, providing instruction through a synchronous teaching and learning platform, standards-aligned curriculum and tutoring services. Since 2016, BookNook has served more than 500 school districts and non-profit partners across 38 states. A 2022 research study with the Consortium for Policy Research in Education suggests a clear link between high-impact tutoring with BookNook and literacy scores. BookNook is committed to bridging the literacy opportunity gap by scaling technology innovation to reach disenfranchised communities through its network of experienced and vetted tutors. For more information, visit http://www.BookNook.com.
Codoxo Our innovative and secure healthcare AI solutions are driving substantial savings across the ecosystem to ensure they stay affordable and effective.

Codoxo, a trusted provider of healthcare artificial intelligence solutions for healthcare payers, agencies and pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs), today announced that it has been named No. 20 on the Inc. 5000 Regionals Southeast list based on its significant two-year growth rate. The Inc. 5000 Southeast list ranks the fastest-growing private companies based in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Of the 200 companies that made the Southeast list, Codoxo is the seventh-fastest growing company in Georgia and the second-fastest growing in the Health Services category.

Being recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in the Southeast, especially considering the challenges and impact of the pandemic on healthcare, is an outstanding tribute to the amazing work of our team and their collaboration with our clients, stated Dr. Musheer Ahmed, CEO and Founder of Codoxo. We are sharply focused on advancing the industry to address the rampant fraud, waste and abuse that contributes to skyrocketing healthcare costs. Our innovative and secure healthcare AI solutions are driving substantial savings across the ecosystem to ensure they stay affordable and effective.

Codoxo has earned several awards and accolades that further underscore the companys upward trajectory within the growing healthcare cost containment industry. Just this month, the company was recognized as a 2023 Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) Technology Awards Finalist. Additionally, Codoxo was awarded the 2022 Fierce Healthcare Innovation Award in the Data Analytics/Business Intelligence category and was also recognized by Aite Group in the Aite Matrix: Payment Integrity in Healthcare Report as a mighty player, with AI prowess as an industry differentiator, among several others.

This years Inc. 5000 Regional winners represent one of the most exceptional and exciting lists of Americas off-the-charts growth companies. Theyre disruptors and job creators, and all delivered an outsize impact on the economy. Remember their names and follow their lead. These are the companies youll be hearing about for years to come, said Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc.magazine.

In the healthcare industry, fraud, waste and abuse is a multi-billion-dollar problem, accounting for as much as 10% of the $3.8 trillion spent on healthcare each year. It has commanded the attention of healthcare executives who want money-saving solutions driven by AI, like that from Codoxo, to help identify and reduce risk and contain healthcare costs.

About Codoxo

With a mission to make healthcare more affordable and effective for everyone, Codoxo is the premier provider of artificial intelligence-driven solutions and services that help healthcare companies and agencies proactively detect and reduce risks from fraud, waste, and abuse and ensure payment integrity. The Codoxo Unified Cost Containment Platform helps clients manage costs across network management, clinical care, provider coding and billing, payment integrity, and special investigation units. Our software-as-a service applications are built on our proven Forensic AI Engine, which uses patented AI-based technology to identify problems and suspicious behavior far faster and earlier than traditional techniques. Codoxo is a Fierce Healthcare Innovation Award winner and has been recognized by the Inc. 5000 Regionals list for growth. Our solutions are HIPAA-compliant and operate in a HITRUST-certified environment. For additional information, visit http://www.codoxo.com.

More about Inc. and the Inc. 5000 Regionals

Methodology

The 2023 Inc. 5000 Regionals are ranked according to percentage revenue growth when comparing 2019 and 2021. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2019. They had to be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, an independentnot subsidiaries or divisions of other companiesas of December 31, 2021.(Since then, a number of companies on the list have gone public or been acquired.) The Minimum revenue required for 2019 is $100,000; the minimum for 2021 is $1 million. As always,Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons.

About Inc. Media

The worlds most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools,connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multi platform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent.

The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit http://www.inc.com.
Our team's commitment to excellence, dedication to innovation, and a relentless focus on delivering exceptional service has been the driving force behind our success.

Cybertrol Engineering, the industry-leading provider of plantwide control systems and information integration solutions is proud to announce an exciting year of growth and success in 2022. To meet the demand for its plantwide automation, manufacturing intelligence and control systems design services, the company has expanded its team which now includes upwards of 160 employees working across 15 states. Cybertrol Engineering attributes its remarkable 50% growth in revenue over the past year to innovative solutions, a dedicated team of professionals and around-the-clock customer service.

Over the past year, Cybertrol has invested heavily in research and development efforts, resulting in the creation of new products and services that have attracted a wide range of clients across industrial and manufacturing industries. The company has also expanded its team of highly-skilled engineers, ensuring it has the capacity and expertise to take on complex projects with a focus on providing service and support for clients.

"We are thrilled to have achieved such a significant year of growth," said Ben Durbin, president of Cybertrol Engineering. Our team's commitment to excellence, dedication to innovation, and a relentless focus on delivering exceptional service has been the driving force behind our success. Our proudest point is our employees."

The company's success in 2022 has been marked by a series of notable achievements. Cybertrol Engineering has been recognized on the 2023 System Integrator Giants list by CFE Media, an effort to celebrate top control system integration companies globally. Additionally, the company was named the 2023 PartnerNetwork Sustainability Award winner by Rockwell Automation for their collaboration with Meati, an alternative protein producer. The Cybertrol Engineering team showcased the latest PalletWorks 2.0 end-of-line labeling and tracking software at the fall 2022 PACK EXPO International in Chicago where they demonstrated the product's ability to bridge the gap between the manufacturing floor and the ERP system. Throughout these milestones, the company has deepened its relationships with existing clients, successfully completing several high-profile projects on time and within budget.

Looking ahead, Cybertrol is poised for continued growth and success in the coming years. With its unwavering commitment to delivering exceptional service and innovative solutions, the company is well-positioned to meet the evolving needs of its clients.

"We are excited about the future and the opportunities that lie ahead," said Ben Durbin. "We will continue to invest in our people, our technology, and our processes to ensure we remain at the forefront of engineering excellence."

About Cybertrol Engineering

Founded in 1996, Cybertrol Engineering is a nationwide CSIA certified control and information systems integrator that develops, implements, and supports plantwide automation systems, industrial IT/OT networks, and manufacturing intelligence solutions. With a plantwide approach, Cybertrol helps manufacturers deliver appropriate information to all users, allowing facilities to run at maximum efficiency, with the greatest visibility for corporate, management, and plant floor operations. With a deep history in manufacturing intelligence, Cybertrols solutions help clients across industries like dairy and cheese, food and beverage, industrial, and life sciences effectively view and analyze operations by providing plantwide information systems at each site, aggregating data for enterprise dashboards, and implementing proven manufacturing intelligence strategies. For more information, visit Cybertrol Engineerings website, Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.


Customers who want the new 2023 Toyota Corolla Cross can purchase the same at the Dan Cava Toyota World dealership.

Dan Cava Toyota, a leading car dealership in Fairmont, West Virginia, is excited to announce the availability of the highly anticipated 2023 Toyota Corolla Cross. This sleek and stylish crossover SUV is a new addition to the Toyota lineup and offers impressive features and technology.

The 2023 Toyota Corolla Cross boasts a striking design with a bold front grille, sculpted sides, and available 18-inch alloy wheels. Its interior offers a spacious, comfortable cabin with premium materials and advanced technology. The SUV also includes Toyota Safety Sense 3.0, a suite of advanced safety features, including pre-collision warning with pedestrian detection, lane departure alert with steering assist, and automatic high beams.

Drivers can choose from the several trims of this SUV, namely L, LE and XLE. The available 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine delivers up to 169 horsepower and the advanced hybrid powertrain offers excellent fuel efficiency.

Dan Cava Toyota World is committed to providing exceptional customer service and offering the latest Toyota models. The dealership has a team of knowledgeable and friendly sales professionals who can help customers choose the right vehicle to meet their needs and budget. Customers can explore the various deals and offers available on the latest Toyota vehicles. They can check out the range of vehicles service provided by the dealership.

For more information about the 2023 Toyota Corolla Cross or to schedule a test drive, customers are encouraged to visit the Dan Cava Toyota World dealership at 2510 White Hall Blvd, Fairmont, WV 26554 or call 304-366-2720.
The Preserve at Kimberton Glen in Phoenixville, PA, now managed by FirstService Residential The board was looking for a partner with years of experience, resources, and support, said Donna Fiore, senior vice president, Pennsylvania, FirstService Residential. Securing a partner with a proven track record of delivering a local commitment to service excellence was critical.

FirstService Residential, Pennsylvanias leading residential community management company, started providing full-service property management services to Preserve at Kimberton Glen in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania.

Were thrilled to welcome Preserve at Kimberton Glen to the family, said Michael Mendillo, president, FirstService Residential. Our teams experience and knowledge of the local market will ensure a successful partnership with this impressive property for years to come.

The Preserve at Kimberton Glen is a 168 single-family home community. Located in scenic Chester County, this community is surrounded by numerous shopping, dining, and cultural events.

The Preserves board of directors was looking for a management partner who has years of experience with HOAs, coupled with the resources and support the community was seeking, said Donna Fiore, senior vice president, Pennsylvania, FirstService Residential. Securing a relationship with a partner with a proven track record of delivering a local commitment to service excellence was critical in the associations decision.

~http://www.fsresidential.com~

About FirstService Residential

FirstService Residential is North Americas property management leader, partnering with more than 8,600 communities across the U.S. and Canada, including low-, mid- and high-rise condominiums and cooperatives; single-family communities; master-planned, lifestyle and active-adult communities; and mixed-use and rental properties. HOAs, community associations and condos rely on their extensive experience, resources and local expertise to maximize property values and enhance their residents lifestyles. Dedicated to making a difference, every day, FirstService Residential goes above and beyond to deliver exceptional service.

FirstService Residential is a subsidiary of FirstService Corporation (FSV), a North American leader in the property services sector. Visit http://www.fsresidential.com.
Greenberg Traurig Shareholder Nanette Aguirre hosted Angeles Investors Q1 meeting and Pitch Night at the firms Miami office on Friday, Feb. 24, where four firms vied for investment funds.

Cesar L. Alvarez, Greenberg Traurigs senior chairman, delivered the opening remarks for the day-long event, and stressed the importance of standing united to help build the Latin community of entrepreneurs in Miami and throughout the country.

In a fireside chat, Aguirre discussed the importance of creating a pathway for investors to access the fast-growing community of Hispanic and Latinx businesses with Anyori (AJ) Hernandez, the newly appointed president and CEO of New America Alliance, an organization comprised of alternative investment executives committed to increasing access to capital for women and minority asset managers. Hernandez is the former director of the Emerging Manager Program at the New York State Common Retirement Fund.

Hernandez expressed the importance of being efficient when presenting pitches and shared three key points to keep in mind: Spend time understanding who you are seeking to raise capital from and target the right match for your business, spend time preparing a thoughtful and concise deck, and spend time streamlining your pitch. Time is of the essence.

Aguirre, a corporate shareholder based in Greenberg Traurigs New York office, focuses on alternative investments, with an emphasis on derivatives, repurchase transactions and structured products as well as corresponding regulation. Nanette is an active member of the alternative investment community and passionate about the advancement of emerging managers and Latinx entrepreneurs including their access to capital to expand their growth. Nanette is a member of New America Alliance, and on the board of: National Associations of Securities Professionals, Florida Alternative Investment Association, and Minorities in Restructuring and Alternative Investments.

Adela Cepeda, co-chair of Angeles Investors, provided the closing remarks. Angeles Investors is committed to the finding, funding and growing of Latinx businesses.

About Greenberg Traurig: Greenberg Traurig, LLP has more than 2650 attorneys in 44 locations in the United States, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East. The firm is a 2022 BTI Highly Recommended Law Firm for superior client service and is consistently among the top firms on the Am Law Global 100 and NLJ 250. Greenberg Traurig is Mansfield Rule 5.0 Certified Plus by The Diversity Lab. The firm is recognized for powering its U.S. offices with 100% renewable energy as certified by the Center for Resource Solutions Green-e Energy program and is a member of the U.S. EPAs Green Power Partnership Program. The firm is known for its philanthropic giving, innovation, diversity, and pro bono. Web: http://www.gtlaw.com
Joshua I. Rudawitz, an Intellectual Property (IP) & Technology associate in global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLPs Boston office, was selected to participate in the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerces 2023 Boston Future Leaders (BFL) program. The BFL class of 2023 consists of 80 up-and-coming leaders, selected to guide Boston into an innovative future.

Presented by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce and Harvard Business School, the BFL program provides key leadership tools through academic content, practical application, workshops, and networking opportunities to participants from a variety of unique backgrounds.

Rudawitz has more than fifteen years of multifaceted strategic intellectual property law experience, including as a primary patent examiner with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and counseling clients of all sizes with their intellectual property needs. Rudawitz focuses his practice on the preparation and prosecution of trademark and patent portfolios. Rudawitz is focused on understanding and studying his clients business needs and goals. With a sound business minded foundation, he counsels his clients on IP portfolio development ensuring that their portfolio meets and exceeds their objectives. He has deep technical experience in fields including medical instruments and devices; consumer electronics; software and mobile applications; business and commercial methods turbine engines; additive manufacturing; and exoskeleton devices.

About Greenberg Traurigs Boston Office: Established in 1999, Greenberg Traurigs Boston office is home to more than 80 attorneys practicing in the areas of bankruptcy and restructuring, corporate, emerging technology, energy, environmental, financial services, gaming, governmental affairs, intellectual property, labor and employment, life sciences and medical technology, litigation, public finance, real estate, and tax. An important contributor to the firm's international platform, the Boston office includes a team of nationally recognized attorneys with both public and private sector experience. The team offers clients the value of decades of helping clients in complex legal matters and hands-on knowledge of the local business community, supported by the firm's vast network of global resources.

About Greenberg Traurig: Greenberg Traurig, LLP has more than 2650 attorneys in 44 locations in the United States, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East. The firm is a 2022 BTI Highly Recommended Law Firm for superior client service and is consistently among the top firms on the Am Law Global 100 and NLJ 250. Greenberg Traurig is Mansfield Rule 5.0 Certified Plus by The Diversity Lab. The firm is recognized for powering its U.S. offices with 100% renewable energy as certified by the Center for Resource Solutions Green-e Energy program and is a member of the U.S. EPAs Green Power Partnership Program. The firm is known for its philanthropic giving, innovation, diversity, and pro bono. Web: http://www.gtlaw.com.
Italian Wine Podcast, Media Partner of the Slow Wine Fair 2023

The Slow Wine Fair, held at BolognaFiere from 26-28 February 2023, is the only international wine exhibition dedicated to good, clean, and fair wine. Now in its second edition, the Italian Wine Podcast attended this years event as an official media partner. New features at the fair this year include a space dedicated to spirits and liqueurs and an area for sustainability partners offering technological solutions, tools, and services for the wine world.

A team of Italian Wine Podcast hosts and producers including Stevie Kim and Joy Livingston attended the three-day fair to meet with producers and learn more about the philosophy behind Slow Wine. Amongst the 694 producers in attendance, were a number of wineries identified as Benchmark Producers by the Italian wine textbook Italian Wine Unplugged 2.0. The Italian Wine Podcast took the opportunity to chat to a number of those producers for a future special edition of the Italian Wine Podcast.

Stevie Kim, founder of the Italian Wine Podcast, said: It was a privilege to attend the Slow Wine Fair as an official media partner and to meet so many conscientious and innovative Italian wine producers. The Slow Food and Wine movement, produced locally, prepared with care, and consumed with appreciation, is of great interest and importance to listeners of the Italian Wine Podcast and we look forward to sharing these fascinating stories with our listeners.

Joy Livingston, producer of the Italian Wine Podcast, said: Benchmark Producers are amongst those who best represent a particular grape or region. It was fantastic to catch up with so many of them at the Slow Wine Fair and to discuss what it means to be a Slow Wine producer.

The full series of interviews conducted at the Slow Wine Fair will be broadcast soon on the Italian Wine Podcast.

_________________________

About: The Italian Wine Podcast: Cin Cin with Italian Wine People! launched in 2017 as a project dedicated exclusively to the Italian wine world. The program uncovers the unique world of Italian wine in conversation with some of its key protagonists. Under the umbrella brand of Mamma Jumbo Shrimp (encompassing books, maps, and videos, bringing together a global community of wine, food, and travel), Italian Wine Podcast aims to inform, educate, and entertain listeners with content for wine professionals and casual listeners alike. The only daily wine podcast in the world, content includes wine business, food & travel, diversity and inclusion, wine producers, science, and marketing and communication. Italian Wine Podcast is available on SoundCloud, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, XimalayaFM (for China), and on the official website. It now boasts almost 1300 recorded episodes with a growing online following of over 5 million listens. Donations to the show are welcomed and help fund a portion of the shows equipment, production, and publication costs. To advertise on the show, please request a prospectus and/or customized advertising plan from info@italianwinepodcast.com. Cin Cin!


Its our goal to be one of the leading implementation, training and support partners for Sage Intacct customers and accounting partners across the US." - Matthew Lescault, Group Chairman & CEO at LWI, AWCape and Applico

Lescault and Walderman (LWI)  a firm that provides technology-driven outsourced accounting solutions for small to medium businesses (SMBs)  has acquired a majority stake in AWCape, a South African Platinum Sage Business Partner, as part of its vision to grow 10-fold over the next five years. The company is also acquiring a minority stake in Applico, a Sage Authorized Learning Partner in the AWCape Group.

Lescault and Walderman is acquiring the shares in the two businesses held by their founder, Henri Hattingh. The acquisition results in the merger of LWI and AWCape, who are both Sage Intacct partners in their respective regions. Sage Intacct is the cloud-native multidimensional financial management system of choice for SMBs.

Through these transactions, LWI will be able to rapidly scale up its Sage Intacct implementation, training and consulting business. AWCape has a deep pool of Sage Intacct Accounting Specialists and Implementation Specialists with experience working on complex implementations in South Africa and the U.S.

AWCape is one of South Africas foremost consulting, implementation, and cloud hosting partners for Sage Intacct, Sage 300cloud, Sage Business Cloud Payroll Professional and Sage 300 People. In addition to its strong ERP and finance base, AWCape specializes in HR and payroll solutions and has more than 700 clients across the Sage product range.

Matthew Lescault, Group Chairman & CEO at LWI, AWCape and Applico, says: Its our goal to be one of the leading implementation, training and support partners for Sage Intacct customers and accounting partners across the US. AWCape offers us a remarkable pool of talent that enables us to grow rapidly in the face of a global shortage of Sage Intacct implementation skills.

Adding the AWCape team to our business enables us to dramatically scale up our Sage Intacct capabilities and offer a second-to-none portfolio of professional services on the AICPAs preferred cloud finance platform. Having worked with the AWCape team on Sage Intacct implementations in the US for months before the acquisition, I know that we have a great cultural fit.

Joseph Frank, Partner and Chief Operating Officer at LWI, will work closely with the AWCape management team to drive value for clients in the US and South Africa as well as unlock synergies between the two businesses.

Marc Monday, VP of Strategic Alliances and Interim VP of North America Partner Strategy and Sales for Sage, said: Sage Intacct provides the productivity, visibility, and agility SMBs need to streamline accounting and finance operations and drive their business forward. Partners like LWI and AWCape help to bring the full power of these businesses to life. We congratulate the teams at both companies on this transaction and look forward to many more years of successful partnership with the combined organization.

ABOUT LESCAULT & WALDERMAN

Lescault and Walderman is a business consulting firm that provides Accounting, Bookkeeping and CFO Services to small to medium businesses across the United States. We also have a growing presence in Africa through our subsidiary, AWCape, which we acquired in 2022. Our experienced accounting team of qualified professionals have decades of combined business consulting services experience in a wide variety of industries.

We partner with our clients to ensure the selection and implementation of the ideal software solution, the design, and deployment of effective accounting processes, the maintenance of accurate and reliable bookkeeping systems, and the creation and analysis of useful CFO-level reports. In addition to our in-house CFO, Controller, Bookkeeping, And Consulting Services, we also maintain established working relationships with third-party vendors to deliver a single, trustworthy, reliable solution.

Visit https://www.l-wconsulting.com/ for more.

ABOUT AWCAPE

AWCape (Pty) Ltd is a leading Sage Business Partner and a Sage Intacct Certified Implementation specialist partner in South Africa. Our business is majority-owned by Lescault and Walderman, a firm that provides accounting, bookkeeping and CFO services to small to medium businesses across the United States.

We provide professional implementation, systems integration and support services for Sage Intacct, Sage 300cloud, Sage 300 People HR & Payroll and Sage Business Cloud Payroll Professional software, with a primary focus on cloud-based solutions. We are renowned for our outstanding consulting resources and industry-leading cloud solutions.

Our depth of experience and dedication to quality products and services that support your business success is what sets us from our industry peers. Together with Lescault and Walderman, we form one of the largest Sage Intacct partners in the world, and are one of the few with a multinational business spanning multiple time zones.

Headquartered in Kenilworth, Cape Town, we provide finance, HR and payroll support to more than 700 Sage customers nationwide. We also offer Sage Authorised Learning services through Applico, an AWCape subsidiary with a B-BBEE level 2 rating and 125% Procurement Recognition.

Visit http://www.awcape.co.za for more.

ABOUT APPLICO

Founded in 1986, Applico has a long heritage as one of South Africas leading Sage Business Partners. Today Applico (Pty) Ltd is a member of the AWCape group and a Sage Authorised Learning Partner - Delivery Centre with a B-BBEE level 2 Contributor rating and 125% Procurement Recognition.

AWCape is a leading Sage Business Partner for Sage Intacct, Sage 300cloud, Sage 300 People, and Sage Business Cloud Payroll Professional, primarily deployed through the cloud. AWCape is majority-owned by Lescault and Walderman, a firm that provides accounting, bookkeeping and CFO services to small to medium businesses across the United States.

Applicos training facilities conform to international standards for classroom and virtual training and all trainers are professionally certified. Based in Cape Town, Applico is a popular destination for domestic & international delegates. Services include full accommodation in premier hotels that are close to the training venue, with a full range of shuttle services.

Visit http://www.applico.co.za for more.
Over the last two decades, early education and child care franchise Lightbridge Academy has expanded far beyond its home state of New Jersey, establishing a strong presence in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. As the brand continues its impressive growth this year, Lightbridge Academy has partnered with passionate, qualified entrepreneurs to help bring the brand to several new markets in Ohio, for example. Now, the Lightbridge team is keeping that momentum strong and anticipates adding over 20 territories across various target markets in The Buckeye State.

"We are pushing full steam ahead with our franchise development plans and bringing our Circle of Care to new states like Ohio, said CEO of Lightbridge Academy Gigi Schweikert. We're looking forward to entering more communities and making a difference for families in new markets across the East Coast and South."

This past year alone, the Lightbridge Franchise Company signed agreements for five centers in Cincinnati, three in Columbus and one in Dayton.

Allison and Ben Kraft are the husband-and-wife duo behind this years three-unit signing in Columbus. Allison has been a special education teacher for 12 years, and Ben is a long-time chiropractor. As working parents of three daughters at home, The Krafts understood how hard it could be to find the right child care fit. After seeing a need for a child care service in Columbus that focuses not only on education but all areas of development, the two decided to look into opening a center of their own and signed a three-unit deal earlier this year.

When a Lightbridge Academy goes into a community, it makes it better, said Ben Kraft. Allison and I lost our son five years ago when he was six years old  our family means everything to us, and we love the idea of owning a business that nurtures and develops young children and supports the community. We have run a non-profit for the past five years helping families that have lost a child. We pay for counseling for the families, help with funeral costs and emergency expenses, and stay in touch with the families to help them through their grief. Owning a child care center feels like the right move for us to be a part of the community and be part of a positive experience in the kids lives.

Maulik (Max) Patel and Naimish (Nick) Patel are the two multi-unit owners behind the recent three-unit signing in Cincinnati. The long-time friends who met in college are both established entrepreneurs and business owners with a portfolio that includes franchise and independent retail and restaurant locations.

We loved the team, the business model and the way they operate, said Nick Patel. The brand itself is great, and their numbers and growth really tell their story of success. We wanted to earn money while also providing a high-quality early education service in a clean, nurturing, happy environment where the children can thrive educationally, developmentally and in life. Our history is in hospitality and retail, but with Lightbridge Academy, we knew we could be more involved with our community.

Jonathan and Portia Vincent are the franchisees planning to open a center in Dayton next year. Beyond Ohio, the Lightbridge Academy team is eager to partner with passionate and qualified franchisees in target markets across Florida, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.

To help support growth in new states like Ohio, the Lightbridge Academy team is continuing to build out the systems, processes and platforms that will position individual franchisees for success. For example, the brand recently rolled out a new land banking strategy, in which the Lightbridge team proactively finds and secures ideal real estate prior to a franchisee signing in that market. This new strategy is another way the Lightbridge team is working to significantly shorten the time to market and make it much faster for franchisees to get operational.

We couldnt be more excited to bring Lightbridge Academys tradition of educational child care excellence as The Solution for Working Parents to communities across the wonderful state of Ohio, said Schweikert. By placing equal importance on the needs of children, their families, staff, and center owners, the entire community benefits. As the company continues to grow in new markets, we are looking forward to supporting even more children and families and making a real difference with the partnership of engaged and passionate franchisees.

For more information on single or multi-unit franchising opportunities with Lightbridge Academy, visit https://lightbridgeacademyfranchise.com/multi-unit/.

About Lightbridge Academy:

Established in 1997, the company was founded as a family business based on core values and a Circle of Care philosophy that places equal importance on the needs of children, their families, teachers, center owners and the community. Now celebrating its 25th anniversary, Lightbridge Academy provides quality early education and child care programs to children aged six weeks through kindergarten. The company currently has over 140 child care centers either open or in development throughout Florida, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. In response to COVID-19, Lightbridge Academy launched the Lightbridge Promise as the Gold Standard for health & safety in the child care industry. In 2020, the company was featured on the Inc. 5000 ranking, Franchise Times Top 200+ awards, and on Newsweeks 2021 list of Americas Best Customer Service. For the 2nd year in a row, Lightbridge Academy was on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing private companies. In 2023, Lightbridge Academy was featured for the 9th year on Entrepreneur Magazine's Franchise 500.


This recognition...gives us great confidence that our efforts are aligned with best-in-class providers in wealth management.

Mack International is a premier boutique C-suite executive search and strategic management/human capital consulting firm serving the family office, family investment firms, and family business enterprise clients on a national and international basis. Clients range from first generation business enterprise owning wealth creators through multi-generational families of six or more generations. Clients also include multi-client family offices and select investment and wealth management firms that serve family office and ultra-high net worth clients.

The firm and its founder, Linda Mack, were recently selected as finalists in the following three individual and firm categories for the 2023- 10th Annual Family Wealth Report Awards:



Leading Individual Service Product Provider

Women in Wealth Family Office

Family Office Management Consultancy

The annual Family Wealth Report Awards program recognizes the most innovative and exceptional firms, teams and individuals serving the family office, family wealth management and trusted advisor communities in North America.

The Family Office Management Consultancy category acknowledges firms providing consulting services that help families think strategically about their objectives to effectively achieve success and sustainability. The Leading Individual Service Provider category recognizes exceptional individuals working in the private client world. Women in Wealth Management cites women in private banking who are an inspiration both to clients and colleagues.

Commenting on being selected a finalist for these prestigious awards, Linda Mack said, It is a privilege to be part of the FWR awards and applaud the outstanding achievements of so many esteemed colleagues in the industry. We are honored to be selected for three categories this year as both a firm and individual. We love what we do and are committed to continuously serving as trusted advisors to our clients. The recognition for sharing our insights and ideas as consultants, providing a valued service, and as advocates for women, gives us great confidence that our efforts are aligned with best-in-class providers in wealth management.

Stephen Harris, ClearView Financial Medias CEO, and publisher of Family Wealth Report was first to extend his congratulations to all finalists, This year we had a record number of registrations and submissions for this program: more than 500 submissions in nearly 70 categories. The firms and individuals in the 10th Family Wealth Report program are worthy competitors and the ones that have reached the Finalist stage are truly outstanding. These awards are judged by an expert panel of more than 40 judges and finalists are selected on the basis of entrants submissions and their response to a number of specific questions, focusing on both qualitative and quantitative performance metrics. These awards recognize the very best operators in the private client industry. The judging process is rigorous and independent, and all conflicts of interest are avoided, ensuring that these awards truly reflect excellence in family wealth management.

Winners will be announced on 4 May 2023 at the Gala Ceremony at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Manhattan, New York.

About Mack International LLC

Mack International is the premier, boutique retained executive search and strategic management/human capital consulting firm serving national and international clients in the family office, family business enterprise and the investment and wealth management industries on national and international basis. Founded in 2002, the firm has achieved an exceptional track record of success as evidenced by its unmatched industry expertise, in-depth market knowledge and unparalleled track record of success. Founder and President, Linda C. Mack has established proprietary methodologies such as the Mack 360 and is credited for having coined the term expert generalist in the industry.

About ClearView Financial Media Ltd (ClearView)

ClearView Financial Media was founded by Chief Executive, Stephen Harris in 2004, to provide high quality need to know information for the discerning private client community. London-based, but with a truly global focus, ClearView publishes the Family Wealth Report group of newswires, along with research reports and newsletters, while also running a pan-global thought-leadership events program.

With teams based in New York, London, Singapore, Switzerland, South Africa and Malaysia, the company is one of the fastest-growing media groups serving the financial services sector.
Protected by PENETRON ADMIX: The $35 million 356-unit luxury apartment complex in Doral, Florida features 7 four-story buildings with one-, two- and three-bedroom apartment layouts. With PENETRON ADMIX SB, the active ingredients form a non-soluble crystalline network throughout the micropores and capillary tracts of the concrete, reducing concrete permeability and protecting against corrosion caused by the Everglades saltwater and groundwater.

The Alexan Park 82nd Apartments, a luxurious complex located in Doral, Florida, welcomed its residents in September 2022. To protect the concrete elevator pits from the harsh effects of saltwater and groundwater, PENETRON ADMIX SB, a powerful crystalline admixture, was used as a concrete waterproofing solution.

Doral, a thriving community of around 76,000 residents, is located just three miles from Miami and borders the Everglades. With its close proximity to the Miami International Airport and recognition as one of the "Best Places to Live" by Money magazine in 2018, Doral is a highly sought-after location.

The Alexan Park 82nd Apartments were designed by MSA Design, a Florida and Ohio-based company specializing in architecture, interior design, and graphic design. The $35 million development spans 11 acres and includes 356 luxurious units, including one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments ranging from 780-1,400 ft2. Residents of the complex enjoy a range of amenities, including a fitness center, outdoor saltwater pool, co-working spaces, gaming lounge, pet spa, DIY creative lab, electric car charging stations, and a mail center with Amazon parcel lockers.

Due to the high groundwater levels prevalent in southern Florida, MSA Design was looking for a reliable waterproofing solution for the below-grade concrete elevator pits. After consulting with Ozinga, the ready-mix concrete supplier for the project, PENETRON ADMIX SB was selected as the preferred concrete waterproofing solution.

According to Christopher Chen, Director of The Penetron Group, "unprotected concrete buildings in Florida's coastal towns are constantly exposed to hydrostatic water pressure, moisture, and chloride ingress, leading to concrete deterioration over time. With PENETRON ADMIX SB, the active ingredients form a non-soluble crystalline network throughout the micropores and capillary tracts of the concrete, reducing concrete permeability and protecting against corrosion caused by the Everglades saltwater and groundwater."

Incorporating PENETRON ADMIX SB enhances the durability and longevity of the concrete, reducing the risk of cracking, spalling, and water and corrosion-related damage. The concrete matrix also gains the ability to self-heal and seal any micro-cracks, minimizing the need for future concrete waterproofing maintenance and repairs.

The Penetron Group is a leading manufacturer of specialty construction products for concrete waterproofing, concrete repairs and floor preparation systems. The Group operates through a global network, offering support to the design and construction community through its regional offices, representatives, and distribution channels.

For more information on Penetron waterproofing solutions, please visit penetron(dot)com or Facebook(dot)com/ThePenetronGroup, email CRDept(at)penetron(dot)com or contact the Corporate Relations Department at 631-941-9700.
On the afternoon of February 27, at the Global Roadshow Center in Zhong'an Chuanggu Tech Park, Hefei City, the Management Committee of Hefei High-tech Industry Development Zone and Guokai Qudoor Quantum Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (also known as Qudoor Quantum) held a signing event for the Qudoor Quantum (Hefei) Headquarters Base Project.

Before the signing event, the two parties conducted in-depth exchanges on accelerating project advancement, jointly promoting the development of the quantum industry in Hefei and building a global "quantum center."

Guokai Qudoor Quantum Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. was formally established in January 2019. It is a national specialized, sophisticated "little giant" high-tech enterprise with quantum computing and quantum communication core technology and product R&D capabilities.

On February 21 this year, Qudoor Quantum officially released the "AbaQu 1.0", China's first modular ion trap quantum computing machine, marking that China's quantum computer has taken a key step from technology breakthroughs, laboratory R&D, to prototype production.

With the mission of building a "world-leading science and technology park," in recent years, Hefei High-tech Zone has been focusing on "quantum information" to accelerate the development of future industries.

Up to now, the quantum industry chain of Hefei High Tech Zone has gathered 47 related enterprises, including 24 core enterprises, ranking first in the country; has more than 2,000 employees, accounting for one-third of the country, and has five national brand platforms and 19 innovation platforms above the provincial level. Several leading enterprises in the industry have been cultivated, including QuantumCTek, CIQTEK, Origin Quantum, MDQ Technology, and Unitary Quantum.

In 2022, Hefei High-tech Zone was approved as a pilot unit for constructing the Quantum Information Future Industry Science and Technology Park. It is determined to finish the "World Quantum Center" construction task by 2035 and make the park's quantum scientific research and industry reach the world-leading level from the domestic leading level.





Reported by Yang Yanhong

Edited and translated by Zheng Chen
This grant opportunity was created to serve military-connected students because their academic situation is so tumultuous and unique, said Dr. Bernard Harris, Executive Director of Business Development and Fundraising.

The National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI) and the Department of Defense STEM (DoD STEM) announce the launch of the Military Families Mission Program at two military-connected schools in Brevard County, FL. This program is designed to increase mastery of College-Level concepts among students historically under-represented in STEM.

With military-connected students moving anywhere from six to nine times throughout their elementary and secondary school years, NMSI leans on the College Boards Advanced Placement framework to create consistent learning all over the country. This ensures that students can stay on track academically and that they can progress without having to start over once they reach a new school.

This grant opportunity was created to serve military-connected students because their academic situation is so tumultuous and unique, said Dr. Bernard Harris, Executive Director of Business Development and Fundraising. We want every student to have access to rigorous and high-quality STEM education opportunities, and now even more students will be able to. NMSI is on track to connect students with growth opportunities in STEM education.

DoD STEM offers dedicated funding to STEM education programs to support various unique internship and career opportunities with NMSI. As a result, students enrolled in these programs have already seen a 45 percent increase in college-level concept mastery compared to the nations 5.6 percent.

Students who are moving from place to place are already pushing themselves to catch up; the last thing we want is for them to feel like they cant pursue their passions, said Louie Lopez, DoD STEM Director. Our Military Family Schools program with NMSI keeps students engaged and driven amidst changing learning environments. Its building the STEM leaders of tomorrow.

Every student at Viera High School and Satellite High School will be eligible to participate in STEM education opportunities through the two-year program. An event to celebrate the partnership is scheduled for Thursday, March 2nd.

The program partnership is made possible with dedicated funding from the Department of Defenses STEM Education & Outreach office through the Defense STEM Education Consortium (DSEC).

To learn more about the Military Family Schools Program, visit this page.

To learn more about NMSI, visit this page: https://www.nms.org/

About the National Math and Science Initiative

The National Math and Science Initiative works with communities and local school systems to increase access and achievement in rigorous education, particularly in STEM and especially for students most often underserved and underrepresented in STEM careers. Recent high school graduates who participated in NMSIs flagship College Readiness Program were more likely than their peers to enroll in four-year college, persist in college, graduate in four years and pursue STEM or teaching careers. Learn more at http://www.nms.org.
She is a leader and doesnt hesitate to give advice to fellow franchisees."

The International Franchise Association (IFA) today named Nora Farhat, owner of British Swim School of Detroit, as a 2023 Franchisee of the Year. Farhat was honored at the 63rd IFA Annual Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, for being an outstanding franchise establishment owner-operator.

Nora is an exemplary franchisee and is always looking for ways to expand her business and increase awareness for the brand, said Ashley Gundlach, British Swim School president. She is a leader and doesnt hesitate to give advice to fellow franchisees. We are thrilled to see the IFA recognize her in this way.

The Franchisee of the Year Award recognizes leading franchise owners from IFA member brands whose outstanding performance and contributions help protect, enhance, and promote the franchise business model. Nominated by their parent company, individuals are selected for their service to their communities, fostering a strong and vibrant workforce, opening the doors for career growth and entrepreneurship, and supporting their fellow franchisees.

Franchisee of the Year recipients represent the best in franchising, said Matthew Haller, president and CEO of the International Franchise Association. This is the highest honor IFA awards to individual franchisees, and local business owners like Nora Farhat exemplify the power of franchising and its positive contributions to communities around the world.

Farhat opened her British Swim School franchise eight years ago and has also added several other brands to her portfolio. Since then she has grown to be one of the top performers, and a valued resource to the system.

For more than 40 years, British Swim School has been dedicated to teaching water survival skills by teaching infants, children and adults of all ages the skills needed for water acclimation, water survival, and stroke development. Its mission  ensure that every person, regardless of age or ability, has the opportunity to become a safe and happy swimmer.

For more information about British Swim School, visit http://www.britishswimschool.com.

To learn more about the benefits of British Swim Schools franchising opportunities, visit http://www.britishswimschoolfranchise.com.

About British Swim School

British Swim School, the nations most established swim school franchise, with over 40 years in business, believes that every individual, regardless of age or ability, should have the opportunity to become a safe and happy swimmer. Offering lessons for babies, children, and adults, the brand is dedicated to its mantra, Survival of the Littlest, focusing first on the survival skills needed to survive a water accident, then moving on to stroke development and more advanced skills. Not only does British Swim Schools give peace of mind to countless families who seek the essential life skill the brand offers their children but the purpose-driven franchise also offers an exceptional opportunity for entrepreneurs who seek a fulfilling business venture with a sound foundation, low investment, and easily scalable model. Part of the Buzz Franchise Brands family, British Swim School currently operates over 215 schools across the United States and Canada.

For more information about British Swim School, visit http://www.britishswimschool.com.

To learn more about the benefits of British Swim Schools franchising opportunities, visit http://www.britishswimschoolfranchise.com.
Theres no better time than NOW to be a woman in technology! This is the time to be bold and reach for opportunities that might seem impossible.

Barbara Kosloski, vice president of Technology at Optum, at UnitedHealth Group, will be one of the keynote speakers at the Women in CyberSecurity (WiCyS) conference, March 16 to 18 in Denver, Colorado.

The WiCyS conference will bring together over 2,000 students, professionals, educators, government, industry, military, and research organizations to encourage, educate, recruit, and help advance women in cybersecurity careers.

Kosloski leads a team powering the technology for more than 350,000 employees at UnitedHealth Group. She has 28 years of experience in business leadership and IT, often helping evolve teams or organizations through transformations and building partnerships. Kosloski has knowledge in technology, transformation and leadership from previous positions at Target Corp., where she was most recently director of Team Member Service Centers, Gander Outdoors, Slalom Consulting, Wilsons Leather, Guidant Corporation and Accenture.

Theres no better time than NOW to be a woman in technology! This is the time to be bold and reach for opportunities that might seem impossible, Kosloski said. Be brave, and listen carefully to the universe  she speaks softly sometimes.

Kosloski will present Charting a Course in Times of Challenge, on female leadership, bravery, success (and failure), and share insight on how to chart a course to success even in challenging circumstances.

Journalists are invited to attend and should email info@wicys.org to request a media pass. For more information on WiCyS or the conference, visit http://www.wicys.org.

About WiCyS:

Women in CyberSecurity (WiCyS) is a nonprofit organization with international reach dedicated to the recruitment, retention and advancement of women in cybersecurity. WiCyS was founded by Dr. Ambareen Siraj in 2013 through a National Science Foundation grant awarded to Tennessee Tech University. In less than 10 years, it has grown into an organization (est. in 2017) representing a leading alliance between trailblazers from academia, government, and industry. WiCyS offers opportunities, trainings, events, and resources for its members. Strategic partners include Tier 1: Akamai, Amazon Web Services, Battelle, Bloomberg, Carnegie Mellon University  Software Engineering Institute, Cisco, Fortinet, Google, Lockheed Martin, Meta, Microsoft, Optum, Sandia National Laboratories, SentinelOne. Tier 2: AbbVie, Aristocrat, Dell Technologies, Intel, JPMorgan Chase & Co., LinkedIn, McKesson, Nike, NCC Group, Workday, Navy Federal Credit Union, Yubico Inc., DeVry University. To partner, visit http://www.wicys.org/support/strategic-partnerships/.
Continuing the public participation process will help us achieve our goal of creating an artwork that represents this community, says Partnership Executive Director Kara Norman.

Downtown Frederick Partnership and the African American Resources Cultural Heritage Society (AARCH Society) are holding a meeting to collect stories from the public to help inspire the design of the artwork planned for the Seventh Street Fountain Park on Saturday, March 4 from 10:30am-12pm. The meeting will be held at the Mountain City Elks Lodge located at 173 W All Saints St in Downtown Frederick.

The AARCH Society and the Partnership are in the process of commissioning a new signature artwork for the Seventh Street Fountain Park as part of the park restoration project. The selected artist, Rodney Carroll, is interested in hearing stories about residents connection to the park and to Frederick as an inspiration for the design.

Artist Carroll explains, Successful results are born from the input and collaboration of all involved. To begin a project, I listen to the concerns and goals of the client, the architect, and the community.

Participants are welcome to contribute to the process by attending the public meeting on March 4 and sharing memories and stories related to Frederick. Continuing the public participation process will help us achieve our goal of creating an artwork that represents this community, says Partnership Executive Director Kara Norman.

Through extensive community engagement, the project partners have determined that the commissioned artwork should be a permanent, well-scaled and integrated sculptural element that supports the project vision to honor our shared humanity and the communitys collective commitment to building a more sustainable community. The sculpture will become a beacon, welcoming all -- connecting us across cultures and time - past, present and future.

Please join us to contribute your stories.

For more information, email mainstreet@downtownfrederick.org or call the office at 301.698.8118.

Downtown Frederick Partnership works to enhance, promote and preserve the vitality, livability and diversity of Downtown Frederick, a national Main Street Program.


By solving these challenges while still in school, students will be better equipped to navigate and solve problems in their future endeavors.

Patti Engineering Inc., a leading control system integrator based in Auburn Hills, MI with offices in Texas and Indiana, today announced details of an ongoing project at Kettering University in partnership with BorgWarner to develop an Industry 4.0-enabled collaborative robotic cell for student learning. The lab is designed to help teach engineering and computer science students about real-world situations with manufacturing automation technologies they may experience during their co-ops and future careers.

Providing the highest quality education for its students is a top priority at Kettering University. For the last several years, the University had been developing the concept to create a new classroom lab to bring the latest technology to its students and facilitate cross-curricular collaboration.

Patti Engineering has been a longtime supporter of Kettering University and has generously helped us design this new lab and develop related coursework, said Scott Grasman, Dean of the College of Engineering. We are thrilled to incorporate real-world applications into a single robotic cell for our students to learn industrial robotics, control systems, the internet of things, wireless communications, and data analytics. Together with our industrial manufacturing, electrical and computer engineering students, computer science students will work side-by-side on the different learning opportunities presented by the robotic cell. We will even integrate our 3D printing course into developing the end-of-arm actuators for the collaborative robot. Its a comprehensive system designed to be utilized by all of our engineering and computer science programs.

Patti Engineerings deep ties to Kettering University began with founder and CEO, Sam Hoff, who graduated with an electrical engineering degree in 1990 and has supported the University in many ways over the years. This, coupled with Patti Engineering's expansive knowledge base in the industrial controls, robotics, and practical application of Industry 4.0 digitalization technologies, has made them a perfect fit for the job.

We are excited for the opportunity to develop a new lab for the students at Kettering, said Hoff. The lab's real-world challenges of collaboration across all disciplines will provide an excellent space for students to put their classroom knowledge into practice, preparing them for the obstacles they may face in their careers. By solving these challenges while still in school, students will be better equipped to navigate and solve problems in their future endeavors.

Patti Engineering was involved with the design of the new classroom lab, along with developing the baseline program. The new robotic cell incorporates technology from some of the Universitys corporate sponsors including Mitsubishi Electric for the PLC, HMI and collaborative pick-and-place robot, and Keyence for the vision systems and area scanners.

To facilitate learning and experimentation throughout the semester, the robotic cell was specifically designed to enable students to work with and modify the code. At the end of the term, the staff resets the code to the baseline program, ensuring the same opportunities to the next group of students. This thoughtful approach ensures that every student who utilizes the robotic cell is able to delve deeply into the material and achieve the cells full potential.

Currently, the University has separate labs to correspond with different courses. The new lab will be integrated into existing courses and will be available for use in future courses. The Kettering University faculty is creating additional curricula including capstone experiences centered around the new lab, which is scheduled to open during the summer of 2023.

About Patti Engineering, Inc.

Patti Engineering, Inc. is a CSIA Certified control systems integration company offering high-caliber engineering and software development services. Patti Engineerings technical expertise in electrical control and information systems provides turnkey control systems integration for design/build, upgrade/retrofit and asset/energy management projects. Industrial automation, production intelligence and shop floor IT solutions services include: project management, electrical engineering, hardware design, hardware procurement, software development, installation, calibration, start-up testing, verification, documentation, training and warranty support. Customer satisfaction and project success earned the company placement in the Control Engineering Magazines Hall of Fame. For more information, visit http://www.pattieng.com.

About Kettering University

Since 1919, Kettering University has pioneered unique educational experiences that blend classroom instruction with real-world wage-paying work at cooperative employer partners. The Flint, Michigan-based private nonprofit university is world-renowned for its engineering, mathematics, business and science programs that produce some of the brightest, most successful entrepreneurs and business innovators. Leaders in the fields of autonomous vehicles and robotics, Kettering is consistently ranked among the countrys best universities for return on investment and career preparation. Learn more at kettering.edu.
An extraordinary customer experience does not happen by accident; it requires a talented team, a customer-centric strategy, being receptive to resident feedback and, most importantly, pivoting your action plans to exceed expectations

Philadelphia-based PRG Real Estate is proud to announce that the portfolio ranked 3rd in the Tier 2 category (10,000  30,000 units) of the Kingsley Excellence Elite 5 award. This is the second consecutive year the company has achieved this prestigious recognition. In addition, one of PRGs communities, AMP Apartments in Louisville, KY, ranked #59 on the Kingsley Top 100 Multifamily Properties list.

PRG Real Estate partners with Grace Hill to survey residents at move-in, pre-renewal, and after each service request is completed to gain insight and elevate the overall customer experience. Since implementation in 2014, PRG has sent more than 320,000 surveys to garner feedback. PRG has boosted overall satisfaction scores by more than 13% in the last eight years and in turn has increased resident renewals and improved employee retention.

An extraordinary customer experience does not happen by accident; it requires a talented team, a customer-centric strategy, being receptive to resident feedback and, most importantly, pivoting your action plans to exceed expectations, said Laura MacDonald, PRGs Vice President of Training & Marketing. We are extremely proud of our teams for surpassing customer service industry benchmarks and honored to be recognized among the top performing multifamily companies in the Kingsley Excellence Elite 5.

About PRG: PRG is a multifamily investment and management company that owns nearly $2.0 billion in apartment homes across its 10,000-unit portfolio with 300+ employees nationwide. PRG believes the only way to offer a quality living experience is through its people. They achieve this mission by hiring and training the best in the industry and creating a supportive and rewarding workplace that inspires its people to achieve great things together. For more information on PRG Real Estate, please visit http://www.prgrealestate.com.
We are excited about the opportunity to join forces with a leader in the green industry. This partnership will offer clients deeper resources while maintaining the timely, professional service that they expect, said owner Sean McInerney.

SavATree, the industry leader in professional tree and shrub care, has announced a merger with Idaho-based Boise Tree. This marks SavATrees first office in the state and its 81st branch nationwide.

Boise Tree is a highly regarded company in the green industry with a loyal customer base and reputation for professionalism and superior service. They specialize in all aspects of arboriculture as well as plant health care services for discerning homeowners in the greater Boise area. Owner of Boise Tree, Sean McInerney, along with his dedicated team will remain on board with SavATree as part of their ongoing commitment to building and maintaining quality relationships.

We are excited about the opportunity to join forces with a leader in the green industry. This partnership will offer clients deeper resources while maintaining the timely, professional service that they expect, said owner Sean McInerney.

Were thrilled to welcome the Boise Tree organization aboard! We are committed to upholding the reputation that this talented team has garnered throughout the growing Boise market and surrounding areas. We look forward to providing customers with an enhanced portfolio of services and expanded science-based solutions, said SavATree CEO, Carmine Schiavone.

About SavATree

SavATree provides environmentally sensible stewardship of valued residential and commercial properties, helping clients care for what they love. Their nationwide team of industry certified arborists and highly trained field specialists delivers professional tree, shrub, and lawn care to their loyal clients, making the intersection between trees and people work. With their innovative science-based programs, SavATree protects and enhances client landscapes. Learn more at http://www.savatree.com
Judson University welcomes Sir James MacMillan and The Lord Smith of Kelvin KT CH as its keynote speakers for its 2023 World Leaders Forum. Eric Liddells compelling story demonstrates the values and principles that will both inform and inspire future generations. Hearing from our speakers at this World Leaders Forum event will demonstrate the way these values continue today.

Judson University announced today that Sir James MacMillan and The Lord Smith of Kelvin, KT CH, Robert Haldane Smith, in partnership with The Eric Liddell Community, will share the stage for the 10th World Leaders Forum on March 21, 2023. This event is the North American Celebration of the 100th Anniversary of Eric Liddell winning the gold medal in the Paris Olympics.

This event is an opportunity to explore the 100th anniversary of Eric Liddells accomplishment and discover what it means for todays exploration of service and achievement, said Judson University President Dr. Gene Crume, the North American representative of The Eric Liddell Community. Eric Liddells compelling story demonstrates the values and principles that will both inform and inspire future generations. Hearing from our speakers at this World Leaders Forum event will demonstrate the way these values continue today.

Previous World Leaders Forum keynote speakers include former President George W. Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev, United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair, Mexican President Felipe Calderon, Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy and, most recently, Ret. General David Petraeus. The goal of the World Leaders Forum is to offer Judson students and the Chicagoland community an opportunity to be inspired by significant thought leaders. Proceeds will fund scholarships for Judsons Roeser and RISE Programs, support ongoing operations of the World Leaders Forum, and benefit The Eric Liddell Community, which is an Edinburgh care charity and community hub founded in 1980.

The 2023 World Leaders Forum will feature a community event at 7 p.m. at the Judson University Herrick Chapel and a VIP reception starting at 5:30 p.m. At the event, Sir James MacMillan and The Lord Smith of Kelvin, KT CH will each share a keynote address and engage in a question-and-answer session. This conversation will be facilitated by Gus Noble OBE, President of the Chicago Scots, which was founded to promote Scottish culture throughout Chicagoland in 1845 and is the oldest charity in Illinois. At the VIP event, guests will have a photo opportunity with both speakers. Additional special guests attending will be announced in the coming months.

Tickets to the VIP event and the Community event are available to the public beginning December 12. For ticketing and sponsorship information, visit http://www.WorldLeadersForum.info.

About Sir James MacMillan

Sir James MacMillan is one of todays most successful composers and performs internationally as a conductor. MacMillan first became internationally recognized after the extraordinary success of The Confession of Isobel Gowdie at the BBC Proms in 1990. His major works include percussion concerto Veni, Veni, Emmanuel, which has received close to 500 performances, a cello concerto for Mstislav Rostropovich and five symphonies. Recent major works include his Percussion Concerto No.2 for Colin Currie and his Symphony No.5, written for The Sixteen, which was premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival.

MacMillan enjoys a flourishing career as conductor of his own music alongside a range of contemporary and standard repertoire, praised for the composers insight he brings to each score. He has conducted orchestras such as the National Symphony Orchestra Washington, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Vienna Radio Symphony, Gothenburg Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, among others. In January 2021 MacMillan conducted the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in the Dutch premiere of his Christmas Oratorio; later that year the work received its UK premiere with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. MacMillan founded music festival The Cumnock Tryst in October 2014, which takes place annually in his native Ayrshire. MacMillan was awarded a CBE in 2004 and a Knighthood in 2015.

About The Lord Smith of Kelvin KT CH

One of the United Kingdoms most experienced chairs, Lord Smith has led organizations in the private, public and voluntary sectors. He was the Chair of SSE until July 2015. In 2014, he chaired the Organizing Committee for Glasgow 2014 (Commonwealth Games) and the Smith Commission on further powers for the Scottish Parliament. A chartered accountant by profession and former President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, Lord Smith was knighted in 1999, appointed to the House of Lords as an independent cross-bench peer in 2008, appointed Knight of the Thistle in 2013, and awarded the Companion of Honour in 2016. He is currently chair of IMI plc, British Business Bank, Forth Ports Ltd. and the Commonwealth Games Federation Partnership. Additionally, he is Chancellor of the University of Strathclyde.

About Judson University

Located in Elgin, Illinois, since 1963, Judson University offers a Christian, liberal arts and sciences education through its Bachelor of Arts degrees for more than 60 majors, minors, graduate programs, and online, as well as certification and accelerated adult degree programs. For more information, visit http://www.JudsonU.edu.

About The Eric Liddell Community

The Eric Liddell Community is an Edinburgh care charity and community hub founded in 1980, in memory of the inspirational Olympic gold medalist, Eric Liddell, whose win in the 1924 Paris Olympics was the subject of the film Chariots of Fire. For more information, visit http://www.ericliddell.org. ###
Kat Ilagan Philippines Chapter President It is a blessing to be able to work with WGC Chapters around the world, I get to see the direct impact that their work provides. It is the little things that we do for others that really make a difference in the world. -Dr. Dame Shellie Hunt

Women of Global Change (WGC) Philippines celebrates the appointment of their new chapter president, Kathleen Ilagan. The organization, local government officials, and business leaders come together to welcome and support the new president as she continues the work that the Chapter had started while Lovanne Gallo was past president.

Ilagan is a chemical engineer, a well-respected businesswoman in sales, and an environmental sustainability advocate who has been a member of WGC. As the new chapter president, she will continue to lead the Clean Up the Ocean project, which focuses on reducing plastic waste in the country's bodies of water. The collected trash will be given to the Aling Titindera Project, supporting local women earning extra money. Some of the collected trash will also be used for art exhibits.

Additionally, Kat will be leading the solar mission to Light Up the World, providing sustainable and renewable energy solutions to rural communities. WGC Philippines is raising funds to continue to light over 150 homes in villages.

WGC Philippines is a leading organization in environmentally friendly renewable and sustainable business development. They have been working towards empowering women to become agents of change in their communities, by providing training, mentorship, and access to resources. They have previously worked with local police departments, colleges and many businesses to facilitate their environmental clean-ups and solar power projects.

One of the recent initiatives of the organization is to use recycled materials to create clothing and purses. The recycled fashion project aims to promote sustainable and eco-friendly fashion in the country, while also raising awareness of the importance of reducing waste and promoting environmental conservation.

Kat Ilagan expressed her gratitude and commitment to the organization and its goals as she takes on the role of Chapter President, the chapter is still looking for board members and active participants in the chapter. She emphasizes the importance of promoting sustainable and eco-friendly practices in business, as well as empowering women to take on leadership roles in their communities. Dont hesitate to reach out to me so we can collaborate and impact the world around us using sustainable initiatives.

This marks a renewed beginning for Women of Global Change in the Philippines. With Ilagan at the helm, the organization is expected to continue its legacy of promoting sustainable and renewable business development while empowering women to positively impact their communities.

Women of Global Change is an internationally recognized non-profit organization that has received 5 US Presidential Service Awards and has made an impact around the world as Chapters have helped women, children, the homeless, and other vulnerable populations. The organization will be traveling to Uganda and Kenya on an Adventure Summit to help over 150 women and children and meet government officials while networking with top business leaders worldwide. Dr. Dame Shellie Hunt, the founder of WGC, states It is a blessing to be able to work with WGC Chapters around the world, I get to see the direct impact that their work provides. It is the little things that we do for others that really make a difference in the world. To learn more about the WGC Adventure Summit go to: https://womenofglobalchange.com/summit/

To connect with the Philippines Chapter go to: https://womenofglobalchange.com/philippines/


Our team prepares for months to bring Yamaha dealers and all NAMM attendees those only at NAMM moments theyll talk about long after they return from Anaheim, said Tom Sumner, president of Yamaha Corporation of America.

Yamaha, the worlds largest manufacturer of musical instruments, today announced its exhibit at the 2023 NAMM Show, being held in April at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. The show is the largest global music trade show. For the second consecutive year, Yamaha will transform the third floor of the Anaheim Convention Center into a playground of its latest musical instruments and technologies.

This year, Yamaha will introduce breakthrough products at the show across multiple musical categories, including piano, synthesizer, winds, acoustic guitar, drums and percussion, and professional audio.

After a strong return to in-person events at last years NAMM Show, Yamaha is ready to deliver even more excitement at NAMM 2023, said Tom Sumner, president of Yamaha Corporation of America. Our team prepares for months to bring Yamaha dealers and all NAMM attendees those only at NAMM moments theyll talk about long after they return from Anaheim.

In addition to new product reveals, Yamaha will delight attendees with one-of-a-kind musical performances hosted at the Yamaha Grand Plaza Stage. Beginning with the Night of Worship on Thursday, April 13, the concert will bring the remarkable sounds of live worship music to The NAMM Show. On Friday, April 14, the highly acclaimed Yamaha All-Star Concert on the Grand will return with inspiring performances from notable artists. The music on the Yamaha Grand Plaza Stage will be creatively mixed and curated by the company's award-winning commercial audio gear, including the Rivage digital console line. Every note will be articulately amplified through NEXO speaker systems. NEXO is a Yamaha company.

This year, we are debuting even more new, exciting products at the show, and attendees will see and hear them performed live at the Yamaha booth stage, said Tom Sumner, president, Yamaha Corporation of America. We hope to once again thrill NAMM attendees with two inspiring concerts on the Yamaha Grand Plaza Stage. We look forward to seeing our dealers, customers and colleagues for another NAMM celebration this April.

Yamaha uniquely offers musicians instruments to create music and professional audio and recording solutions to ensure every performance is heard in its truest form.

To experience Yamaha at The NAMM Show, visit the Yamaha booth #300DE in the Anaheim Convention Center from April 13-15, 2023. For more information, please visit usa.yamaha.com/.

Contact:

Ciara Dixon

cdixon@golin.com

About Yamaha

Yamaha Corporation of America is the largest subsidiary of Yamaha Corporation, the world-leading music and sound company based in Hamamatsu, Japan. The Yamaha team is committed to helping everyone progress, express and connect through music and sound. We offer innovative, finely crafted, award-winning products for your entire musical journey including pianos, brass instruments, woodwinds, strings, electronic keyboards, guitars, drums, professional and home audio equipment.
Novelist Laini Taylor is known for her complex YA fantasy fiction, especially the trilogy that began in 2011 with Daughter of Smoke & Bone and the duology that followed, Strange the Dreamer. Fans who have been waiting for more in this genre will be surprised to learn that her forthcoming book, a collaboration with her husband, illustrator Jim Di Bartolo, is a madcap middle-grade graphic novel, Billie Blaster and the Robot Army from Outer Space, scheduled for publication by Amulet this August. PW has an exclusive look at the cover, revealed here for the first time, as well as insights on the books journey to publication from the creative team that brought it to fruition.

The story stars 10-year-old Billie, genius spawn of two famous scientists, who has inventing in her blood, and has been winning science fair awards since kindergarten, to the growing desperation of her archrival Hector Glum. One year, in angry revenge, Hector launches one of Billies inventionsRoburt, a robot that can create other robotsinto outer space. The book opens with the return of Roburt, bringing news that the evil Emperor Mwahaha is planning to attack Earth with a robot army. Its up to Billie to build a rocket ship, head into outer space, and stop the invasionwhich she does, thanks, to some degree, to the unbeatable combination of dancing and farting.

Filled with kid-friendly elements like toilet weasels, floating cheese puffs, and bees in hazmat suits, the book includes a few slightly deeper openings to conversations, if readers want to have them, Taylor told PW, but basically, the couple prioritized humor. We wanted to create something funny and kid-friendly that adults could enjoy with kids, Di Bartolo said. We wanted to characterize science as fun, something where the skys the limitand something with robots! Taylor added.

The couples agent, Jane Putch of Eyebait Management, believes that the release of the graphic novel, which Abrams senior v-p and publisher Andrew Smith describes as wildly inventive, is perfectly timed to enter what she calls a market hugely welcoming to middle-grade graphic novels. The state of the current market, though, had no bearing on the genesis of the book: Taylor and Di Bartolo conceived it years ago, well before the birth of their daughter, Clementine, who is now 13.

We had gone on a creative retreat together, to Netarts, along the Oregon coast, Di Bartolo recalled. Were always tossing silly ideas back and forth and we brainstormed this story together.

Weve always loved comic books, Taylor added, and we were aware of the lack of comics for kids. It always struck us as a bizarre absence, especially since many people associate comics with kids, going back to the old days, or golden age of comics. But if youre someone who went to comic-book stores in the 90s and early 2000s, like Jim did, you would have been struck, too, by the notable lack of comics suitable for younger readers. It had become a very adult-driven market.

Soon after their retreat, they showed their workwhich then consisted of the complete text plus eight pages of sequential art and a few character drawingsto Putch. I was blown away by the inviting and inventive kid power story of Billie, with its wonderful belly-laugh inducing wackiness, Putch said. But at that time, the appetite for middle-grade graphic novels was very limited in mainstream book retail. Because of that, we decided to place the project in their creative vault of stories for later, while they both focused on their contracted projects.

The first book Taylor and Di Bartolo had created together was also a comic book: The Drowned: A Tale of Mystery and Horror, which was published by Image Comics in 2004. After that Taylor wrote her middle-grade fantasy series Dreamdark (Putnam, 2007), with Di Bartolos cover art and interior illustrations. In the National Book Award finalist Lips Touch: Three Times (Scholastic/Levine, 2009), Taylors collection of three short stories, each hinging on a life-changing kiss, Di Bartolos contribution is an intrinsic part of the storytelling. His illustrations tell the prequel to each story as a visual narrative. Weve always been proponents of art in books, Di Bartolo commented. I am emotionally engaged with traditional novels all the timeI love thembut I think the combination of the written word and visual art just sings!

While Billie lay in their creative vault and the couple worked on their individual projects, the market for graphic novels began expanding. A few years ago, Putch was talking with Smith, who had been deputy publisher at LBYR and had helped launch Daughter of Smoke and Bone. He and the couple, all three self-acclaimed comic nerds, had remained friendly, spending time together at trade shows and Comic Cons.

Our conversation morphed into Abrams success with middle-grade graphic novels, Putch said. The companys graphic novels list encompasses all age groups, early readers through YA, Smith noted, and multiple genres. He had always particularly admired Taylor and Di Bartolos collaboration on Lips Touch: Three Times, and wondered if the couple would be interested in diving into the arena, as Putch put it, of middle-grade graphic novels together. Putch remembered Billie Blaster and pitched it to Smith.

Immediately enthusiastic, Smith offered to make a preempt on the book if Taylor and Di Bartolo were game. Knowing their personalities and interests, it seemed obvious that they would create a story of a child genius and her evil (miniature) nemesis that includes a talking side-kick pet goat, a robot army and a toilet weasel from a different planet, Smith said.

The couple were not only game, they were thrilled. Returning to the project, they made a few crucial changes to their main character: mostly importantly, a gender swap. They had written Billie as a boy but now we realized Billie definitely had to be a girl, Di Bartolo said. The female nemesis Hazel became the male Hector. And Billies last name Raygun became Blaster, not only because ray guns are now known as blasters but also because both Taylor and Di Bartolo now felt strongly about not having the word gun in the title.

The Look of the Book

Once acquired, the project was in the hands of editorial director Maggie Lehrman and senior designer Andrea Miller, both with extensive experience working on graphic novels. Lehrman has edited numerous series in the genre, including Nathan Hales Hazardous Tales series (now at 12 books and counting, she said), and Amy Ignatows Popularity Papers, first introduced in 2010, which makes it one of the first middle-grade graphic novel series. Miller has worked on a wide range of childrens books throughout their career, and now focuses exclusively on designing graphic novels at Abrams.

The team bonded quickly over their love and enthusiasm for the project. Lehrman said. It felt like just the right book for us at Abramsthe way the story leaps all over the galaxy, light as a feather. I love its sly, wry humor, and Jims art style gives it such a distinct, vibrant look.

While Lehrman and Miller both provided notes for layout and clarity, Miller worked closely with Di Bartolo to bring out the distinctive character of this story. Billie Blaster is set in a fantastic time and place where the dial on science and whimsy is turned all the way up, they noted. We really wanted to make that clear via the color, which is sometimes hard to do with a normal CMYK printing process. To solve that, we used a special mix of inks to make Billie and her world really pop off the page. Rhodamine Magenta ensured that her hot pink space boots and her fiery hair have a lot of impact.

Technically speaking, graphic novels are their own thing, Di Bartolo reflected. Thats one reason it took traditional publishers so long to educate themselves about how they are created. Traditionally a comics artist works in black-and-white pencil, then someone else inks the drawings and a third person colors them. Timelines are generally too short for one person to do all of it. In this case, I did the black-and-white drawings digitally and a few color samples of the look I wanted. Then I found a fantastic colorist, WK Sahadewa, on Instagram, who did all the color work. She was greatso fast, and willing to redo things as needed. The final product from her really knocked it out of the park.

For the cover, which Smith extolled for showcasing our hero and supporting cast while at the same time teasing the epic adventure that lies within, Di Bartolo submitted several sketches and was delighted that his favorite was selected: I love having overlaps and angles on covers, having things a little skewed, and I wanted to incorporate a number of elements and characters. Miller asked for minor changes, such as the size of some of the elements and making space for the typewhich they designed. I was aiming for the cover to be dynamic and have a sort of old-school sci-fi vibe, they said. We ended up with what Id call a movie-poster approach that I love, and I wanted to balance that with friendly yet bold type to capture readers attention and invite them in. When Taylor and Di Bartolo saw the print proofs of the cover, they were especially pleased that spot gloss had been used to highlight the title, their names and Billie herself.

For Taylor and Di Bartolo, both back to work on other projects, Billie Blaster was a wonderful opportunity to engage a different set of muscles, as Taylor said. My fantasy work for older readers, which is more serious in tone, is a different mindset and process. Intentionally working in a tone that is so silly made it much more fun than trying to make everything adhere to the rules I create for the fantasy worlds of my other books.

Di Bartolo agreed, saying Im often drawn to edgier, more realistic work, and it was fun to create something sillier, to borrow from anime and manga. Ideally, Im working on something serious and something silly at the same time. At the moment he is focused on a project that is something edgier and older, while Taylor is working on her first adult novel.

The ending of Billie Blaster clearly leaves the door open for future books, and the couple admits to harboring some ideas, though they emphasized that nothings nailed down yet. Andrew Smith mused that he knew from the start that this amazing cast of characters had other stories to tell and I could envision lots more adventures. It will be up to readers, next August, to weigh in.
Gibbs Smith, the 54-year-old publishing company known for its lavishly illustrated books on interior design, crafts, and cooking, as well as childrens books, is launching a childrens imprint this fall, called 7 Cats Press. The titles will emphasize early learning concepts in both secular and inspirational themes. according to a release. Describing 7 Cats Press titles as colorful and fun, and containing high-quality content, Gibbs Smith noted that the books will be sold at price points below the average of comparable trade books.

The Utah company, which has been employee owned since 2015, is described by sales director Moneka Hewlett as mission-driven. As such, we feel it is important to make books available, and affordable, for all families at a variety of retailers.

Hewlett, along with publisher/chief creative officer Suzanne Taylor, will oversee the imprint, while design editor Danielle McGuigan will guide its creative processes. McGuigan promises to offer value in a new era of early learning titles with a fresh perspective and trendy themes.

Taylor noted that Gibbs Smith has already been extremely successful in the marketplace with its two childrens imprints, BabyLit and Flying Frog. Gibbs Smith reports that total sales of of books published under the BabyLit imprintlaunched in 2011 to introduce toddlers to classic literature and to teach early learning concepts such as emotions, numbers, letters, and colorshave topped $14 million.. And in 2022, Gibbs Smith sold 1.7 million books published under the Flying Frog imprint, which the publisher acquired in 2019. Childrens books account for about 50% of total units sold for the company, both frontlist and backlist.

Gibbs Smith plans on releasing 16 titles annually under the 7 Cats imprint. It will debut this fall with 12 board book releases that include such titles as Everyday Counting; Books with Bumps: Animal Colors; God Is Good; and We Are Blessed. Each of these board books will be released on August 1 with a 10,000-copy initial print run.

The 7 Cats Press name pays homage, Hewlett noted, not only to the role cats have played through millennia as protectors of books against harmful elements, but also to the seven morale-boosting cats that reside at the barn at Gibbs Smith headquarters, located on a working farm at the base of the Wasatch Mountains, midway between Ogden and Salt Lake City.
The deployment of the new Orange 5G SA network, created in collaboration with leading comms tech provider Ericsson, will also support the company's sustainability objectives, estimated to increase the energy efficiency required to transmit data up to 20 times by 2030.Powered by Ericssons dual-mode 5G Core, the network will go live in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Sevilla, marking said the tech firm a significant milestone in Orange's commitment to 5G technology, with more cities to be added over the course of the year. The connectivity in Madrid and Barcelona is also delivered through Ericsson RAN solutions.Orange Spain anticipates its customers will see notable benefits from the technologys introduction like better indoor 5G coverage.The commercial launch of the network is seen as a significant step for Orange, which has been driving a significant number of 5G SA pilot experiences to explore the technology's possibilities in various sectors including immersive experiences.We are proud of our collaboration with Orange Spain to deliver cutting-edge 5G Standalone technolog y to mobile users in Spain for the first time, commented Luisa Munoz, head of cloud software and services at Ericsson Iberia. The improved capabilities of the network will transform the user experience and are a major milestone in the evolution of Orange Spains network offering. 
Kinetic Content / Reality TV World

By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 03/01/2023



ADVERTISEMENT

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!

ADVERTISEMENT

Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

star Domynique Kloss has accused husband Mackinley Gilbert of using her as a "scapegoat" for his own problems and insecurities.Domynique, 25, and Mackinley, 34, were matched to wed as strangers by experts Pastor Calvin Roberson and Dr. Pepper Schwartz on the Lifetime reality series' sixteenth season.During the February 22 episode of : Afterparty, Domynique watched back a Season 16 clip of Mackinley checking out his new wife's former Nashville apartment for the first time."I'm sure her apartment's great. It's not a basement; I'm the loser here living with family and friends, so that's my story so far," Mackinley tells the cameras with sarcasm and attitude in the clip.Once they're inside, Mackinley calls Domynique's place "very nice," but he expresses little interest in receiving a tour or getting to know Domynique based on how she was living prior to signing up for ."I don't need to browse. You didn't browse my place," Mackinley says.When reacting to the footage, Domynique shared of Mackinley, "Honestly, I feel like he's using me as a scapegoat.""On our honeymoon, he kind of went on a rant talking about how he felt like he was being portrayed as a guy who lives in a basement. He felt like that the entire time, before I even saw his place," she explained.Domynique therefore suggested Mackinley was worried he was going to have a bad edit and be viewed as a "loser" -- to use his own words -- on ."I felt like he was just kind of using me as a target, rather than accepting the fact, like, I mean, it could be a better living situation," Domynique admitted.Domynique, however, told Afterparty host Keshia Knight Pulliam that she planned to "stay optimistic, stay open-minded, roll with the punches, and continue to have faith in the experts."Domynique also revealed why she didn't want to move into the show's new neutral apartment with Mackinley on Afterparty, as well as what happened off-camera that made her tell Pastor Cal that she felt "over it" with Mackinley in her marriage.While Domynique and Mackinley hit it off on their wedding day, their marriage started going downhill during their honeymoon in Jamaica. Domynique didn't appreciate Mackinley constantly cracking jokes and complaining about having to try new activities with her.And about a week into marriage, Mackinley was tired of feeling like he couldn't do anything right. Mackinley felt criticized and nagged, claiming he wasn't trying to change anything about his wife.On the latest episode , Domynique was upset when Mackinley showed little interest in her apartment. When she asked him if he could see himself moving in one day, he replied, "I don't know. We'll see."The couple then argued about how much freedom Mackinley's dogs could have in their place, and Domynique appeared to suggest Mackinley didn't care that much about his dogs if he hadn't even moved them to Nashville yet."Yeah, you're right. I guess I don't like my dogs and I don't care if they're here," Mackinley snapped at his wife, before explaining how he wanted to get settled with an apartment or house before involving his "kids."While moving into their new apartment, Mackinley complained about how he had made compromises for Domynique, with her allegedly doing nothing in return.During their chat with Pastor Cal, Domynique complained that the expert had "some explaining to do."Domynique told Pastor Cal that Mackinley wasn't outgoing, adventurous or optimistic, and Mackinley vented about how Domynique was too adventurous for him and didn't treat dogs the same way.Mackinley also griped about how he felt "judged" by Domynique's reaction to his basement living, and she confirmed it was "a turnoff" to her because she had asked more a more establish man. Domynique also worried Mackinley had no ties to Nashville and could pack his bags and leave at any moment.When Pastor Cal asked Domynique what she wanted to do, Domynique replied, "I don't know. Honestly, I'm just kind of over it.""What does that mean? 'I'm over this conversation or I'm over the marriage?'" Pastor Cal asked.The episode then ended in a cliffhanger, but previews suggest there is a lot more drama to come for this couple.Interested in more news? Join our Married at First Sight Facebook Group or click here to view our newspage!And click here for more updates on former cast members and info on where they are now!
Nick Viall / Instagram

By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 03/01/2023



ADVERTISEMENT

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!

ADVERTISEMENT

Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

21 star Nick Viall has slammed Zach Shallcross for how he's treated a couple of his bachelorettes on the show's currently-airing 27th season."That's 2 weeks in [a] row now Zach was a total d-ck to one of the [women]," Nick, 42, wrote Monday on Twitter."It's literally all about the one on one. Zach knows that. He made [ Jess Girod ] feel like she messed up for expressing a valid concern. #thebachelor."During the latest episode of , Jess, 23, expressed to Zach how she was disappointed, frustrated and losing confidence in her herself and their relationship because Zach had yet to invite her on a one-on-one date.Nick -- who competed on two ette seasons and appeared on one Bachelor in Paradise edition, in addition to his stint -- continued to give Zach a hard time as episode kept rolling on ABC."Zach is acting like the guy who gets mad at his girlfriend for not letting him know she wanted validation on her birthday #thebachelor," Nick joked.Other than Greer Blitzer -- who was diagnosed with COVID-19 after visiting London and had to quarantine -- Jess was the only woman who had yet to accompany Zach on a solo date by the time they traveled to Estonia, which was Week 6 of Zach's journey to find love.Instead of comforting Jess and validating her concerns, Zach criticized her focus on receiving a one-on-one date, which led to a tense exchange.Jess explained that a bachelorette gets to spend a whole day with Zach on a one-on-one and she had been waiting for that time to tell her story and be more vulnerable with star.Zach seemed bothered and surprised by Jess' emotion over her repeated group dates, which she insisted to Zach was "a big deal" to her and every other woman on the show."That shouldn't be a thing," Zach snapped, later adding, "I never want you to think of this as a process, where you can only open up on a one-on-one."Zach ultimately pointed out how he and Jess had "a disconnect," and so they seemingly mutually agreed to part ways. Zach told the cameras that he and Jess were "butting heads" and he never expected their romance to end that way.For Jess' part, she left the show in tears and a bit angry, venting in a confessional, "This doesn't feel fair. I'm so confused... I have done everything that he has asked, and... all I needed was quality time, and he wasn't processing that."Jess continued, "Is it the craziest thing to want to go on a date with somebody I could potentially marry? Like, it's the craziest thing that I'm upset that I'm the last one [without a solo date]? If it's someone I want to marry, wouldn't I want to feel chosen right away?"Jess lamented about how Zach being "shocked" by her hurt was "crazy" to her.In regard to last week's episode and when Zach was supposedly "a total d-ck" again, Nick may have been referring to when Zach had scolded Greer in London for comparing their COVID-19 diagnoses.Zach had snapped at the Houston-based medical sales representative for comparing his battle with COVID-19 amid his journey and pursuit of finding a wife to her prior positive COVID-19 test during a busy time at work.Zach claimed their situations were "completely different."He told Greer, "I just had to put it out there, like, it's not the same. In a few short weeks, I could be standing in front of my person, and that means a lot more to me than the end of a sales quarter."Greer ended up receiving a rose at the franchise's first-ever virtual Rose Ceremony in London, but she took to Instagram last week and seemingly threw shade at Zach "Women who care about their careers are hot," Greer captioned an Instagram selfie on February 21.While Nick has thrown jabs at Zach for his behavior on the show, alum Susie Evans is all about it.Susie praised Zach for his "no bullsh-t approach" on the series in a recent TikTok video.Interested in more news? Join our The Bachelor Facebook Group
ABC/Ricky Middlesworth

By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 02/28/2023



ADVERTISEMENT

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!

ADVERTISEMENT

Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

bachelorette Mercedes Northup has revealed which bachelors she'd be interested in dating if she joins the Bachelor in Paradise cast this year. eliminated Mercedes, a 24-year-old nonprofit owner from Bloomfield, IA, at the fifth Rose Ceremony of 's 27th season, which filmed in London.Mercedes said she's "very much still single" and "figuring out who I am and who I want to be" during the February 23 episode of the "Click Bait with Bachelor Nation" podcast co-hosted by Joe Amabile and Jill Chin Mercedes was therefore asked if she'd be open to looking for love on the beach in Mexico this summer."Yes, I feel like I would go for sure," Mercedes confirmed. "I hope [I get asked], because I feel like I would low-key thrive!"Mercedes went on to share whom she'd like to meet on Bachelor in Paradise's upcoming ninth season.And the first man who caught Mercedes' eye from Bachelor Nation was Spencer Swies Mercedes said she thought the Chicago-based venture capitalist was "so cute, quiet and quirky" on ette's nineteenth season starring Gabby Windey and Rachel Recchia "I was like, 'Ooh, there's something interesting about him,'" Mercedes noted.But the brunette beauty didn't want the show before appearing on Zach's season.So now that she's had some time to catch up on episodes and do a little research about men from previous seasons, Mercedes said of Spencer, "Now that I've figured out who's all in Bach Nation, he's not necessarily a top runner anymore."Mercedes went on to unveil her "Top 3" love interests, starting with her No. 1 pick."My Top 3? Okay, I think Tyler Norris is a super cutie. He's, like, a cutie patootie! I feel like you just see him and you're like, 'Oh, you're so cute!' I feel like he's just the sweetest," she said of ette 19 and Bachelor in Paradise 8 alum.Tyler was eliminated by Rachel on ette before hometown dates, and then he hit it off with Brittany Galvin on Bachelor in Paradise last year but they called it quits shortly after returning to the real world.Mercedes also noted she thinks Johnny DePhillipo "is cute."Johnny dumped Gabby on ette last year because he couldn't see himself getting engaged by the end of the process.Johnny then fell in love with Victoria Fuller on Bachelor in Paradise's eighth season, but they broke up before the reunion show aired. Victoria is now dating ette 17 alum Greg Grippo "They have way different vibes," Mercedes said of Tyler and Johnny.Given Tyler and Johnny are best friends, Mercedes joked, "It might get messy!"And lastly, Mercedes disclosed, "I feel like Nayte Olukoya would also be fun. That man, he is fine. I would probably see him and be like, 'Uhh, I don't know what to do!'"Nayte won Michelle Young 's ette season in late 2021; however, the couple announced their split in June 2022."My type is someone who is just very sweet and kind and tall and dark-haired," Mercedes shared on the podcast. "Zach definitely checked the boxes right in the beginning."Mercedes has lived in Nashville for the past four years, but she grew up in a small town in Iowa, where she lived on a farm and showed pigs at the local fair.Mercedes worked as a server and in social-media marketing and freelance modeling before appearing on ."My cousin nominated me, kind of, not as a joke, but she was like, 'I'm going to put you on!' And I was like, 'Okay, zero chance I'm getting on.' But then the ball started rolling," Mercedes recalled of how she was cast on ."So it was kind of a joke and then it started getting serious, and I was like, 'Okay, I'm going to do it!'"Mercedes admitted she went into "blind," not knowing much about Zach at all.But Mercedes acknowledged she was "very excited" when Zach was announced as the Bachelor because he's definitely her type. One of Mercedes' friends even predicted that she was going to fall in love on the show.Interested in more news? Join our The Bachelor Facebook Group
Alcohol impairment, racing, reckless driving and speed were significant contributing factors in the Jan. 15 crash that claimed the lives of University of Georgia football recruiting staffer Chandler LeCroy and offensive lineman Devin Willock, according to a Wednesday press release from the Athens-Clarke County Police Department.

Arrest warrants have been secured for former Georgia defensive lineman Jalen Carter for reckless driving and racing.
He also seemed to warn U.S. against making third mistake  a reference to 1970 coup detat.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen speaks at the graduation ceremony for the Cambodia Institute of Technology in Phnom Penh on March 1, 2023.

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday mocked opposition parties and nongovernmental organizations for criticizing recent efforts to coax young activists to join the ruling Cambodian Peoples Party.

Speaking at a graduation ceremony in Phnom Penh, the prime minister alleged that some recent converts to the CPP have told him that foreign donors and activists have been working to get younger Cambodians to conduct a color revolution  a term sometimes used to describe an anti-regime protest movement.

He added that the young activists were being paid to go against the Cambodian government.

"I am telling those who claim to be a democracy don't respect democracy, he said, a likely reference to the West and its support for democratic activists. You regard your supporters as good people, but you see those who support the government as selling out.

Lessons from the 1970s

Hun Sen also appeared to warn the United States about the possible unintended consequences of committing a third mistake against Cambodia.

The prime minister didnt mention the United States by name, but he said the first mistake came out of the 1970 military coup detat  sponsored by the U.S.  that removed Prince Norodom Sihanouk from power. The coup intensified civil war and paved the way for the Khmer Rouge to come to power five years later.

The second mistake was supporting the Khmer Rouges claim to Cambodias seat at the United Nations in the 1980s, he said. The Cold War-era move followed an invasion by Vietnam that drove Khmer Rouge insurgents to the Thai border, and it came at the start of a decade that saw more turmoil and slow economic development.

Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge soldier who took part in the Vietnam-led invasion, was a part of the government installed in 1979. He became prime minister in 1985.

He said Wednesday that, as a leader, hes had to rebuild the country from scratch.

I advise you not to commit a third mistake, he said. This is what I said to those countries who claim to be the father of democracy when they met me.

Leaders must be open to all opinions

The prime ministers remarks come amid a recent campaign to co-opt activists, opposition figures and journalists ahead of the July general election.

In the latest example, at least 25 former staffers of the recently shuttered media outlet Voice of Democracy have applied for government jobs, a CPP spokesman said on Tuesday.

In a democracy, someone like Hun Sen can't avoid being criticized, said Soeung Sengkaruna, a spokesman for the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC), a local rights group. He cant just regard any criticism as an abuse of human rights and democracy, he said.

"A leader must be open to accept all opinions. If they give constructive feedback, [the government] should accept it for reform," he said.

In mentioning the Khmer Rouge, Hun Sen should have pointed out that China was their main supporter during the 1975-1979 Pol Pot regime and also provided support during the 1980s, said Um Sam An, a senior official in the banned Cambodia National Rescue Party who lives in the United States.

Vietnams recent closer relationship with the U.S.  even as bitter memories of war from the 1960s and 1970s remain  is a good example for Hun Sen of flexible thinking in international relations, Um Sam An said.

"A leader needs to think about the national interest rather than the past," he said.

Translated by Samean Yun. Edited by Matt Reed.
Authorities in China are stepping up nationwide "stability maintenance" measures -- including hauling in a prominent financier for questioning and placing restrictions on a prominent Protestant church leader -- ahead of the annual session of the country's rubber-stamp parliament, the National People's Congress, Radio Free Asia has learned.

Hong Kong-listed China Renaissance Holdings said its chairman Bao Fan, who has been dubbed China's "Mergers and Acquisitions King," is currently facing questioning by the authorities, after he was reported incommunicado.

The private venture capital firm said in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange dated Feb. 26 that Bao is "currently cooperating with an investigation by the relevant Chinese authorities," and that company operations would proceed as normal.

Soon after Bao went incommunicado, the ruling Chinese Communist Party's disciplinary arm issued a criticism of the concepts of a "financial elite," and the idea that "only money matters."

The party needed to "correct unwritten rules and unhealthy tendencies in the industry, and deepen systematic reform of financial institutions," the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said.

Xie Tian, a professor at the Aiken School of Business at the University of South Carolina, said Bao's disappearance was reminiscent of that of Canadian national Xiao Jianhua, who was kidnapped from a Hong Kong hotel in 2017 before being jailed for 13 years in August 2022 by a Shanghai court, which found him guilty of billions of dollars' worth of financial offenses.

"We know that since the Jiang Zemin era, [all the Chinese leaders have] factions, and different families control energy, telecommunications, transportation, and electricity, although this isn't made public," Xie said.

"I think Bao Fan is one of them. The National People's Congress opens soon, and the case of Bao Fan has something to do with Xi Jinping's ... taking the opportunity to purge these factions ... as part of a political clean-up," he said.

Sydney University of Technology professor Feng Chongyi agreed.

"It looks as if he is now broadening the scope [of the anti-corruption campaign] and systematically cleaning up the entire financial system," Feng said.

"Some in key positions that he does not trust and people who are not from his faction will be sidelined ... with anti-corruption work the most convenient reason [this]," he said.

Meanwhile, the rights website Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch reported on Feb. 28 that police in the southwestern province of Sichuan confined the deputy deacon of the Chengdu-based Early Rain Covenant Church in his home, along with his family.

"When we were about to go out in the morning [of Feb. 26], we opened the door to find two police officers, a man and a woman there, along with two auxiliary police officers, and staff from the residential committee and property management," the website quoted deputy deacon Xiao Luobiao as saying.

"They told us that the Sunday meetings of the Early Rain Covenant Church are illegal, and refused to let us leave," Xiao said, adding that the officials had snatched away his wife's phone, prompting an angry outburst, after which police returned the phone to Xiao.

"I said I was going to get breakfast, but they wouldn't allow this ... and bought it for me instead," he said in written comments to Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch. "We had no choice but to have our Sunday worship at home."

U.S.-based Ren Ruiting, a former member of the Early Rain church, said the church is on the authorities' "most sensitive" stability maintenance list.

"Now that the parliamentary sessions are coming up, they are getting flagged up on lists of people who need to be kept at home," Ren said.

"Everyone gets harassed around the time of the [National People's Congress]," Ren said.

In Beijing, veteran rights activist Hu Jia said he was unable to communicate with the outside world, following reports on social media that he is being held at home and prevented from being with his terminally ill father ahead of the congress, which opens in Beijing on March 5.

"I don't know why you're calling but I think you're probably a friend," Hu said when contacted by phone on Wednesday. "If you are a friend, thank you very much for calling."

"I can't hear anything [you are saying], and maybe you won't even be able to get through if you call again," he said. "I'm really sorry, I didn't make it this way, but I have no way to be in two-way communication right now."

Hu's Twitter account has been moribund for the past year, while accounts on overseas-based chat apps have been deleted.

Repeated calls to the Tongzhou district police department in Beijing and to Hu's local Zhongcang Street police station rang unanswered during office hours on Wednesday.

Hu, a veteran health rights activist and prominent critic of mass demolitions and evictions to make way for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, has been repeatedly targeted for house arrest and enforced, out-of-town "vacations" in the company of state security police in recent years, ahead of politically sensitive dates and major events.

Official party newspaper The People's Daily reported on Feb. 27 that a special taskforce has been set up in the central province of Henan to "manage emotions and resolve conflicts" after a man killed his wife in Hua county.

"Some netizens spread false information on the Internet and deliberately exaggerated the facts," the paper's online edition reported. "We would like to remind netizens that the internet is not a place outside the law ... and that they shouldn't believe or spread rumors."

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Matt Reed.
Indonesian President Joko Jokowi Widodo stands with his aides before leaving for Melinau to break ground on a hydropower construction project in North Kalimantan province, March 1, 2023.

Indonesian President Joko Jokowi Widodo broke ground Wednesday on a major hydroelectric project that will power a sprawling China-backed industrial estate on Borneo island.

The project in North Kalimantan province, estimated to cost U.S.$2.6 billion and have a capacity of 925 megawatts, is being built by PT Kayan Hydropower Nusantara, a joint venture between Indonesias PT Kayan Patria Pratama (KPP) Group and Sarawak Energy Berhad, a Malaysian firm.

I am very, very, very happy today because the construction of the Mentarang Induk Hydropower Plant has begun, Jokowi said at the groundbreaking ceremony, according to a statement released by his office.

And what makes me even happier is that this is being done by a consortium of Indonesia and Malaysia, showing that we as fellow Malays can truly work together well.

Elsewhere in the Indonesian section of Borneo, construction is already underway on the Kayan River for a separate 9,000 MW hydroelectric plant, a joint venture between PT Kayan Hydro Energy, a local affiliate of the Power Construction Corp. of China, and Japans Sumitomo Corporation. That $17.8 billion hydropower project began in 2019 and consists of the construction of five dams.

Together, the two power plants will provide electricity to what Jokowi called the worlds largest industrial zone, the Kalimantan Industrial Park Indonesia (KIPI) in Bulungan regency. Construction on the park began in December 2021 and is expected to take five to 10 years to complete.

The $132 billion estate is being built with investments from China and the United Arab Emirates.

When finished the 30,000-hectare (116-square-mile) industrial zone in North Kalimantan will be about as big as Malta. The project is being touted as a future manufacturing hub for solar panels, batteries for electric cars, industrial silicon, and other products. Jokowi has said the project would enable Indonesias economy to leapfrog onto the global stage.

On Tuesday, Jokowi toured the sprawling industrial park, on the first day of his working visit to North Kalimantan. He expressed confidence that it would produce green products that could compete globally and boost Indonesias economic growth.

With competitive advantages like this, green energy and green products, the Kalimantan Industrial Park Indonesia will become a major contributor to Indonesias future, he said.

The future of Indonesia is here. If this is done properly, everyone will come here, every industry that is related to green products will come to this area.

The president said he would closely monitor the progress of the parks development and ensure that it meets its deadlines.

From what I see on the ground and after asking around, there seem to be no problems, Jokowi said.

Environmentalists have expressed concerns that the power plants will threaten Borneos pristine forests and ecosystem. The Kayan River runs through the northern part of Kalimantan, the name for the Indonesian region of Borneo, where vast swaths of forest have been cleared for logging, mining, and the cultivation of palm oil.

Indonesia, Southeast Asias largest and most populous country, is the worlds eighth most polluting one with 2% of global greenhouse-gas emissions to its name, according to the World Resources Institute.

China is funding projects in Indonesia as part of its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative, a worldwide infrastructure-building program. These include the $6 billion Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail project, which is expected to be completed by July this year.

President camps out

Jokowis visit to Borneo was his second to the region in recent days.

Last week in East Kalimantan province, Jokowi spent a night in a cabin in an area where Indonesias new capital, Nusantara, is to be built.

Tonight, the First Lady and I are staying at the location that will become the seat of government in the Nusantara capital city, Jokowi tweeted last Thursday, posting a photo of himself sitting in front of a semi-permanent house.

Last year, the president and his wife Iriana camped in the same location.

In August 2019, Jokowi announced that the country would move the capital from crowded and partially sinking Jakarta, on Java Island, to East Kalimantan, a densely forested and thinly populated province in Borneo.

The government has struggled to attract investment for its construction since Japanese tech conglomerate Softbank last year withdrew its plans to invest.

In December, Investment Minister Bahlil Lahadalia said Softbank withdrew because the Indonesian government deemed that its proposal was unfair.
Protesters gather outside a Chinese "police service station" in New York's Chinatown district on Saturday, Feb. 25, 2023, to demand an end to spying on the Chinese community in New York.

Protesters gathered outside a Chinese police service station in New York  believed to serve as a base to spy on dissidents  and two Chinese consulates in California over the weekend amid growing calls in the United States, Canada and around the world for curbs on Beijings overseas influence activities.

Canadian lawmaker Jagmeet Singh called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday to hold a public inquiry into alleged Chinese interference in Canada's elections, the latest in a string of political figures to do so.

Recent media reports alleging foreign interference needed a thorough, transparent and independent investigation, Singh said. When Canadians learn about possible foreign interference through leaked documents, confidence in our democracy is put at risk.

The way to stop alleged secret Chinese interference is to refuse to keep their secrets for them. A fully independent and non-partisan public inquiry is the way to shine a light into the shadows," he said in comments reported by the Global News.

In New York on Saturday, dozens of protesters gathered with banners outside the Changle Association on East Broadway, which had billed itself a charity.

The association was reportedly raided by the FBI last year, and then put onto a blacklist by the IRS for tax evasion over the previous three years. Staff have since disappeared.

Congressman Mike Gallagher told protesters at the scene that he had written to the FBI asking for a faster response on such stations in future.

"This innocent-looking building that you see behind me has an unauthorized secret police station linked to the Chinese Communist Party, he said.

Global network of policing operations

The protests came as governments around the world have launched their own investigations into alleged Chinese secret police stations identified by the Madrid-based non-governmental organization, Safeguard Defenders, which reported in September 2022 that China is carrying out "illegal, transnational policing operations" across five continents via 54 so-called police service stations in 30 countries.

Beijing says the stations were set up to provide essential services to Chinese citizens overseas, but Safeguard Defenders says they are actually used to coerce emigrants into returning home to face criminal charges and to silence dissent abroad.

Zhou Fengsuo, executive director of the New York-based Human Rights in China, said the protest event was organized by the newly formed Congressional Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, headed by Gallagher in a bid to raise public awareness of potential political threats posed by Beijing.

"This was the first public event organized by the newly established anti-communist committee in the U.S. Congress," Zhou said. "For them to choose this place, and to choose to stand with us sends a very important message."

"These representatives of American public opinion have listened to Chinese dissidents, and they understand the harassment, threats and attacks that Chinese dissidents have suffered at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party in the United States," he said. "They aren't going to allow this to continue."

Exiled activist Wang Yonghong told the rally that he was beaten up by Chinese agents on July 1, 2019, as he turned out to welcome President Tsai Ing-wen of democratic Taiwan in Manhattan.

This was [the work of] a peripheral organization linked to the Chinese Communist Party," Wang said. "It doesn't matter what guise they take: they are all the spies, lackeys, goons and accomplices of Beijing and are all evil organizations."

New York-based Xiao Li welcomed the protests. "I am glad that so many people care about the struggles of ordinary Chinese people and the Chinese people's desire for democracy," Xiao said. "It makes me very happy."

California protests

Further protests were held on Feb. 25 outside the Chinese consulates in Los Angeles and San Francisco, amid calls for an end to Chinese spy balloons flying over the United States.

"It rained heavily in LA today, but I still saw a lot of people turn out at the gate of the Chinese consulate to protest against the Chinese Communist Party's transnational infiltration and arrests," protester Xie Zeng, a member of the banned China Democracy Party from the southwestern city of Chongqing told Radio Free Asia.

"I will continue to take part in these activities, because it's our responsibility to do so," she said.

On Feb. 24, British shadow foreign minister Catherine West called on the foreign secretary to assess how the Foreign Office would respond to reports of intimidation by Chinese intelligence officers towards Hong Kong nationals and Uyghur Muslims living in the United Kingdom.

Minister of State at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Anne-Marie Trevelyan told the House of Commons: "The UK Government takes the protection of individuals' rights, freedoms and safety in the UK very seriously."

"The UK will continue to defend human rights, speaking out and taking action where appropriate - as we have done over Hong Kong and Xinjiang," she said.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
More than 2,200 workers will lose their jobs, union leaders say.

Workers making garments for the Primark brand sit outside the Guo Tai factory in Shwepyithars War Ta Yar Industrial Zone, Yangon on Feb. 28, 2023.

UPDATED AT 07:28 p.m. ET ON 03-06-2023

Two Chinese-owned garment factories in Yangons Shwepyithar Industrial Zone are shutting down, leaving more than 2,200 workers without a job, according to a local union. The factories make clothes for the Irish multinational fashion retailer Primark.

The Solidarity Trade Union Of Myanmar made the announcement on its Facebook page Tuesday.

Guo Tai Garment Industrial Park and GY Sen in Shwepyithars War Ta Yar Industrial Zone said workers would continue sewing remaining orders and then lose their jobs, Myo Myo Aye, president of the Yangon-based union told RFA.

Before departure, they will finish the remaining orders and their order deadline is the end of March, she said.

The GTGI office on this side has 1,200 workers. GY Sens branch on the other side originally had over 1,000.

She added that the two factories paid compensation to the workers, but said staff, and the juntas Ministry of Labor, Immigration and Population were not told in advance about the closure plan. The companies did not give a reason for shutting the factories.

International fashion brands are coming under increasing pressure from their customers and shareholders to shun Myanmar due to its human rights record. Primark said it decided to make what it called a "responsible exit" from Myanmar following September's publication of the Ethical Trade Initiative, an independent assessment of human rights and business conduct in the country.

Even so, a spokesperson said Primark was shocked by the decision to sack workers without warning.

"These allegations are extremely concerning and our local team on the ground in Yangon is currently investigating," the spokesperson told RFA.

"As we work to exit Myanmar responsibly, we expect our suppliers to comply with our Code of Conduct, which includes protecting the safety and rights of workers. While both of these factories have been suspended for some time, we still take our responsibilities to these workers very seriously."

Textile workers from the Golanatha suburb of Yangon in a file photograph from Sept. 18, 2018. Credit: AFP





Myanmar is facing a major economic crisis following the Feb. 1, 2021 military coup. A quarter of the population of eight Yangon townships, including Shwepyitha and Hlaingtharyar, have struggled to survive without wages for the past year, according to the report released by the United Nations Development Program Yangon Branch on Feb. 16.

Unions fighting for workers rights and helping the jobless have been blocked by the junta, which has declared 16 of them  including the Solidarity Trade Union of Myanmar  illegal.

Myanmar was listed among the 10 worst countries in the world for violating labor rights in the 2022 Global Labor Rights Index compiled by the International Trade Union Confederation.

Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

Story updated to include Primark's response.
The raid left three people dead and nearly all the villages 700 homes destroyed.

Kone Ywar village was nearly burned to the ground by Myanmar junta forces during a night raid Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023, in Yinmarbin township, Sagaing region.

The junta troops entered the central Myanmar village of Kone Ywar on Tuesday evening and set it alight. When the flames had finally died down by Wednesday morning, they methodically set fire to whatever was left standing.

The destruction in Kone Ywar  a settlement populated by more than 1,400 people in Sagaing regions embattled Yinmarbin township  is becoming all too commonplace in Myanmar, where more than two years after a coup, the military has embarked on a scorched earth campaign to root out the countrys armed resistance.

But while civilians are regularly caught up in the conflict, despite claims by the junta that it does not target noncombatants, it is rare for the military to wipe out nearly an entire village.

By the time the smoke had cleared on Wednesday and the junta unit had moved on, all but 30 of Kone Ywars more than 700 homes had been razed, three civilians had been killed, and thousands of Yinmarbins residents had fled the township in fear for their lives.

[The soldiers] burned down almost the entire village ... They were burning the whole night yesterday and they even torched the houses left standing this morning, a resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity fearing reprisal, told RFA Burmese.

Only about 30 houses were left, although we dont know exactly how many were destroyed.

The raid followed a clash near the entrance to Kone Ywar between the military and members of the local anti-junta Peoples Defense Force paramilitary group that led to military casualties, he said, suggesting that the arson had been an act of revenge.

Other residents told RFA that the soldiers had killed three men in their 30s, two of whom lived in Kone Ywar. The identity of the third man was not immediately clear.

Soon after departing Kone Ywar, the troops again clashed with PDF forces in nearby Yae Aungt village, with military helicopters joining the battle, they said.

Around 10,000 residents from the two villages, as well as from others in the vicinity  including Sar Taw Pyin, Zee Taw, Let Hloke, Ohn Taw, Lar Boet and Yin Paung Taing  had fled their homes for safety and remained displaced, residents added.

Yinmarbin is one of the townships in Sagaing region declared under martial law by the junta last month.

Wetlet township raid

The destruction in Kone Ywar came on the same day that junta troops raided two villages in Sagaings Wetlet township, setting fire to homes and killing at least two elderly residents, sources said.

A resident of Wetlet, who declined to be named citing security concerns, told RFA that a column of around 80 soldiers torched 59 houses in Moke Soe Chon Bu Tar and another two homes in nearby Bo Te on Tuesday.

Tin Hla, a woman in her 70s, perished in the fires in Bo Te, the resident said.

They left her there when they were burning the houses and since she was too old to run, she died in the fire, he said.

Junta troops leaving Moke Soe Chon Bu Tar at around 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday shot and killed Myint Than, 60, as he rode his motorbike outside the village, the resident said.

More than 1,000 residents of the two villages  each with more than 100 homes  were forced to flee to safety during the raid, sources told RFA.

Last month, a military column burned down more than 100 houses in Wetlet townships Ta Kaung Min village in a Feb. 3 raid, during which a civilian was killed by a rocket propelled grenade fired by junta soldiers, residents said.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, as of Feb. 2, some 650,000 residents of Sagaing region had fled their homes due to armed conflict in the aftermath of the Feb. 1, 2021, coup.

Data for Myanmar, an independent research organization, says that at least 43,292 houses have been destroyed by arson in Sagaing in the two years since the takeover.

Translated by Myo Min Aung. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
'Please do not ram into our throats what is unacceptable to us,' Cagayan Gov. Manuel Mamba says.

Amphibious Assault Vehicles carrying U.S. and Philippine troops head toward the beach during Kamandag 6, a joint military exercise in Zambales province, northwest of Manila, Oct. 7, 2022.

A Philippine governor whose province is believed to be among four new locations chosen to host U.S. troops at military bases did not hold back in stating his opposition to the reported decision, during testimony before the Senate on Wednesday.

Filipino defense and security officials also testified at the hearing but they all refused to reveal the names of the locations of the bases when grilled with questions about them.

During his testimony Gov. Manuel Mamba of Cagayan, a province at the northern tip of Luzon island that directly faces Taiwan, said he believed his jurisdiction had been selected under a newly expanded bilateral military deal with the United States but that he had not been notified.

Please do not ram into our throats what is not acceptable to us, Mamba told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing chaired by Sen. Imee Marcos, the sister of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Cagayan in the past had hosted large-scale joint military training exercises, said Mamba who argued that if China attacked Taiwan, his province would be directly affected if American troops were deployed there.

He said he had told off American diplomats, including defense attaches from the U.S. Embassy who visited him when he previously opposed live-fire joint military exercises in his province. Mamba claimed they had dangled possible investments in Cagayan, but that he stood his ground.

We will have sleepless nights. We are the closest and we would be hit in case that happens, Mamba said, referring to a feared Chinese invasion of Taiwan, which Beijing considers a renegade province.

As governor, Mamba said he was looking out for the welfare of the people of Cagayan, and that should only rest on commerce and trade.

We do not want to be an enemy to any country, nor do we want to be used to threaten any country. We will defend the Philippines from any enemy even with sticks and stones, but we will not be fodder to a fight that is not our own, Mamba testified.

Solutions to regional tensions will only end badly for us not involved in this show of might between two superpowers. The only military forces we want in Cagayan are members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, he said.

When Imee Marcos asked Defense Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. whether rising tensions in the Taiwan Strait were the key reason for why the four additional bases would be located in the northern Philippines, he responded: I cannot categorically answer the question.

Sen. Marcos said she echoed Mambas sentiments because other local government units had told her that they were also not consulted. The Marcos clan is from the northern Ilocos region, which is also in northern Luzon.

The Philippines once hosted the largest American bases in Southeast Asia until they were shut down when their lease was not extended in the early 1990s.

Still, the country remains a strategic location for U.S. interests, including the free flow of trade and commerce in the contested South China Sea.

Cagayan is a relatively short distance from Taiwan, which hosts some 150,000 Filipino migrants, the third largest contingent of foreigners there.

Both Taiwan and the Philippines also have overlapping claims in the South China Sea, along with China, Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei.

Trapped between two superpowers

The flurry of discussions about U.S. basing here comes amid fears that China could attack Taiwan in the next few years. One American general recently predicted that war was likely to break out in 2025.

The new bases available to Washington fall under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, signed in 2014 as a supplement to the Visiting Forces Agreement. Signed in 1999, the VFA is a bilateral pact providing legal cover for large-scale joint military exercises between the U.S. and Philippines.

Analysts had said that allowing the Americans greater access to more military facilities in the Philippines was likely in preparation for a potential invasion of Taiwan by China.

During the same hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Risa Hontiveros, a lawmaker from the opposition, hit out at China for its repeated aggression against its smaller neighbors, including the Philippines.

While she said that support by the international community was welcome, Manila now finds itself trapped between two superpowers.

Let me just emphasize that we should not allow ourselves to be trapped in between two warring powers, the two hegemons  the U.S. and China  but instead focus our efforts on building multilateral partnerships that could provide for joint patrols and training of our troops, she said.

A broader coalition is a better coalition.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news organization.
It was the first meeting between a European minister and an official from the Central Tibetan Administration.

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky met with Norzin Dolma, Minister of Information and International Relations at the Central Tibetan Administration this week in the Indian capital New Delhi.

Lipavsky is the first minister of a European nation to openly meet with the CTAs foreign ministry officials. The meeting took place on the sidelines of the ongoing G20 foreign minister gathering in India.

The Central Tibetan Administration is considered by most Tibetans in exile as the official representative of the Tibetan people, while China claims full sovereignty over Tibet.

The Czech Republic also held the Presidency of the European Council until December 2022, until that role rotated over to Sweden. Czech government officials also recently met with their Taiwanese counterparts, drawing ire from Chinese authorities.

Following the meeting with the Tibetan delegates, the Czech Foreign Minister tweeted;

It was a pleasure to meet again with representatives of Tibetans in exile during my visit to India. The friendship between Vaclav Havel and His Holiness the Dalai Lama lives on.



CTA delegates led by Kalon Norzin Dolma meet Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky. (Credit: Central Tibetan Administration)

Lobsang Shastri, a representative of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader in exile in northern India, also attended the meeting. It was a productive exchange of views on mutual priorities and we are deeply encouraged by the continued support of the Czech Republic for Tibet and the Tibetan people, Shastri told RFA.

The meeting also echoed the lifelong friendship of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Former President Vaclav Havel.

Havel was a renowned dissident when Czechoslovakia was under Communist rule, and he served as the countrys President from 1989 until, and then as President of the newly-independent Czech Republic until 2003.

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi. Edited by Nawar Nemeh and Malcolm Foster.
Ayshemhan Abdulla is one of scores of Uyghurs punished by Chinese authorities for the crime.

Twenty years ago, when Ayshemhan Abdulla, sent her three teenage children to a local home-based religious school, little did she know that her action would later land her in prison for 21 years.

At the time, the Uyghur housewife, now 62, thought she was doing what was best for her two daughters and one son by ensuring they received Islamic religious instruction in keeping with their Muslim Uyghur identity in Chinas far-western Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

When Chinese authorities began the strike hard campaign in Xinjiang in 2014, they imposed severe penalties on Uyghurs, arrested them arbitrarily, and began a propaganda drive against the groups ethnic customs and religious faith under the guise of promoting modernity.

As part of the campaign, authorities destroyed mosques, restricted religious practices, forbid Islamic garb and long beards for men, banned Islamic names for children, and prohibited fasting during the holy month of Ramadan.

By 2017, the situation for the repressed minority group had grown worse. That year, authorities began forcing what would amount to roughly 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities into re-education camps. Chinese officials claimed the camps were vocational training centers meant to prevent terrorism and religious extremism.

Beyond the detentions, authorities subjected Uyghurs to intense surveillance, torture, forced labor, involuntary sterilizations and other severe human rights abuses.

Abdulla got caught up in Chinese authorities dragnet in Xinjiang, where more than 11 million Turkic-speaking, mostly Muslim Uyghurs live.

They arrested Abdulla, a resident of Ghulja county, or Yining in Chinese, and sentenced her to 21 years in prison in 2017 for sending her children to a house religious school, said a security chief from her village in Qarayaghach township.

She is serving her prison term in Baykol Womens Prison in Ghulja city, said the man who declined to be named out of concern for his safety. For each child she sent, she received seven years in prison.

Authorities also took Abdullas children to a camp and held them for more than a year, but later released them, the village security chief said.

Many Uyghurs over 60 were arrested and sentenced to harsh prison sentences for sending their children to religious schools though they had done so more than a decade ago, according to the Xinjiang Police Files, a cache of millions of confidential documents hacked from Xinjiang police computers and released in May 2022. Though Abdulla was not on the list, the files indicate that the arrests of innocent people were not legal.

Incompatible with relevant laws

A Uyghur former police officer, who declined to give his name for fear of his safety, said Abdullas harsh sentence was likely not the decision of judicial authorities but made by the Chinese Communist Partys political and legal committee.

The former policeman, who now lives in Sweden, said he believes Beijing authorities set their own arrest numbers and told local authorities who should receive harsh punishments.

Sentencing someone to such a long prison term is incompatible with the relevant laws, he told Radio Free Asia.

Beijings central government might have given the local political and legal committee assignments to harshly punish Uyghurs in the concentration camps since the mass detention started in 2017, he said. There was an order and pressure from Beijing, and thus they arbitrarily detained and harshly sentenced innocent Uyghurs to meet Beijings quota.

The Chinese apparatus at various levels completed their assignments by imposing a seven-year prison sentence for each person who sent her kid to religious school.

The former officer said misuse of legal power and abuse of the law were rife when he worked in the police force in Xinjiang in the early 2000s, though Chinese authorities tried to justify their policies.

Back then, no matter if legal authorities held open or secret trials, they always used to inform the convicts families about their sentencing and their right to oppose the courts decision, he said.

They attempted to go by some rules and legal procedures to deal with the arrested then, the former policeman said. It was impossible to imagine someone being sentenced to 21 years in prison for sending her children to a religious school when I worked 20 years ago.

Compared to then, the situation has worsened dramatically now, he said. At present, they have no shame at all in breaking their laws and openly abusing them."

Other women in Qarayaghach met a similar fate.

Halide Qurban, a Uyghur from the same village as Abdulla, received 18 years in prison, 14 years for sending her two children to a religious school and four years for illegal praying activity, the village security official said.

She was an illiterate woman and she died in prison because she had diabetes, he said.

Translated by RFA Uyghur. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Matt Reed.
Allies of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, including current and former officials, could soon face fresh U.S. sanctions for alleged corruption, sources told RFE/RL's Hungarian Service, a possible further sign of worsening ties between Washington and Budapest.

U.S. officials familiar with the draft bill but who did not want to speak on the record because of the sensitivity of the matter, told RFE/RL that the draft legislation, if passed by Congress, would allow the Secretary of State to blacklist targeted individuals.

The sources did not specify which individuals could be sanctioned if the measures are approved. The United States has sanctioned individuals close to Orban before. In 2014, Washington banned several Hungarians from entering the United States.

"The move is long overdue. Though it is not the first time it is happening, the U.S. should have played a much rougher game when it comes to corruption [in Hungary] and this is a good move. It is probably the only language that the Orban government understands," Dalibor Rohac, a senior research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told RFE/RL.

The report by RFE/RL comes days after Washington imposed sanctions on three officials -- two Russians and a Hungarian -- from the Russian-controlled International Investment Bank (IIB), which is headquartered in Budapest.

In announcing the move on April 12, Washington said Budapest had ignored U.S. concerns raised over the opaque Kremlin platform.

Relations between Washington and Budapest, a member of both NATO and the European Union, are already strained due to Orbans strengthening of ties with Russia and China and what Brussels sees as backsliding on democracy and freedoms.

On April 13, Orbans government announced it would quit the IIB, which claims to fund development projects in Eastern Europe.

Russia is the IIBs largest shareholder, while Hungary was its second largest. Senior Hungarian officials had held major roles in the institution, including holding board seats. The bank moved its headquarters to Budapest in 2019.

Other Eastern European countries cut ties with the IIB after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

On April 14, Orban said Hungary had abandoned the institution because U.S. sanctions had ruined it, adding that Hungary would comply with sanctions on Russia but continue to speak out against them.

The United States had "not given up on its plan to squeeze everyone into a war alliance," a step Hungary -- which is not supplying weapons to Ukraine -- would resist, Orban said.

On April 13, U.S. Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman said the United States had raised concerns about the presence of the bank but that, unlike other NATO allies, the Hungarian government dismissed the concerns.

"We have concerns about the continued eagerness of Hungarian leaders to expand and deepen ties with the Russian Federation despite Russias ongoing brutal aggression against Ukraine and threat to transatlantic security," Pressman said.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto visited Moscow earlier this week for talks on gas and oil supplies. He also discussed an ongoing project by the Russian atomic power agency, Rosatom, to expand a nuclear plant in Hungary.

With reporting by Reuters
A large-scale artwork depicting a 1920 Polish victory over invading Red Army forces in a church in northwestern Belarus has been painted over by the authorities after pro-government media criticized the historic mural. Poland's Foreign Ministry on February 28 condemned what it called "the destruction of Polish cultural heritage in Belarus by the Lukashenka regime," after a mural inside a Catholic church in western Belarus was painted over by the authorities.

Pictures released online showed the large mural inside Soly's Catholic church being covered up by unidentified workers on February 25. The mural depicted Poland's military victory over invading Soviet forces in 1920.

The 1920 Battle of Warsaw, popularly known as the Miracle on the Vistula by Poles, was a decisive battle during the Polish-Soviet War, in which resistance from a newly reborn Poland is credited by some historians with halting the spread of the "revolutionary fires" of Soviet communism into Western Europe a century ago.

The mural in the Soly church, and several other works inside the church, were made by Belarusian artist Pyotr Sergievich in the 1930s. The painting is a copy of a famous 1930 artwork called The Miracle On The Vistula by Polish artist Jerzy Kossack, which features a communist flag bearer being overwhelmed by a Polish fighter as priest Ignacy Skorup, who died in the 1920 battle, advances with a cross.

In late 2022, a report on Belarus's state-funded media singled out the mural in the Soly church, accusing it of "inciting national and religious hatred." The report also claimed priests of the church "do not care about saving souls, but about returning western Belarus to Poland."
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has ordered an investigation into a wave of reported illnesses at girls' schools across the country amid allegations by some that these are attacks in retaliation for students and women leading anti-government protests sparked by the death of a young woman while in police custody for allegedly wearing a head scarf improperly.

Speaking at a cabinet meeting on March 1, Raisi assigned Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli to head the probe after hundreds of girls have reported falling ill at school since November.

RFE/RL's Radio Farda reported that at least 26 schools were affected by the crisis on March 1.

The first incident is believed to have occurred in November, when 18 schoolgirls in the city of Qom were taken to a hospital after complaining of symptoms that included nausea, headaches, coughing, breathing difficulties, heart palpitations, and numbness and pain in their hands or legs.

It is unclear what may be causing the illnesses, though some of those affected have said they smelled chlorine or cleaning agents, while others said they thought they smelled tangerines in the air.

"Referring to the concerns created in connection with the poisoning of a number of students in some schools, [the president] gave the Minister of the Interior a mission to follow up and find the root of the issue as quickly as possible, and to provide documented and continuous information about the results of the follow-ups," the president's office said in a statement following the cabinet meeting.

Officials have only recently admitted there may be a problem, with parliament member Abdulali Rahimi Mozafari on February 28 calling on the speaker to order an investigation into the matter.



That reticence has prompted some to accuse the government of purposely "poisoning" students, who have been at the forefront of recent anti-government protests -- the biggest threat to the Islamic leadership since the 1979 revolution.

Iran has been roiled by unrest since the September 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in police custody for allegedly wearing a hijab, or head scarf, improperly.

The executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) on February 28 accused the government of "an act of terrorism" through its failure to take the wave of illnesses seriously for months, raising "serious questions regarding government complicity with groups that have the organizational capacity to carry out such major attacks."

The CHRI did not present any evidence to back up its claim that students had been poisoned, and it is unclear what is at the root of the crisis.

At least one death has been linked to the outbreak of illnesses, the CHRI said, but the girl's father refused to confirm there was a connection between her death and the alleged poisonings.

In the latest incident, two Iranian journalists reported on social media on February 28 that several schoolgirls in Tehran and in Pardis, just east of the Iranian capital, fell ill, with the cause unknown.



Some rights activists have accused Iranian authorities of trying to suppress information about the death of the girl, while others have accused the authorities of not doing enough to find the cause of the outbreak of illness and prevent new cases.

Some angry parents have refused to send their children to school.

A teacher from Qom -- which is about 135 kilometers south of the capital Tehran -- told Radio Farda that out of 250 students, about 200 missed classes, presumably from concerns over the illnesses.



Meanwhile, others have speculated that religious extremists, in a bid to create fear and prevent girls from attending school, could be behind the incidents.



Earlier this week, top Iranian Sunni cleric Molavi Abdulhamid, who is regarded as a spiritual leader for Irans Sunni Muslim population, said schoolgirls were being poisoned as revenge for the role young women have played in recent protests against the government.

Last week, Nafiseh Moradi, a researcher of Islamic studies at Al Zahra University, an all-female public university in Tehran, said in a commentary that it was suspicious that girls, not boys, were mainly affected by the illnesses. The article on Qom News was later deleted from its website.



The government has held several counterrallies to try and quell the dissent, but people continue to take to the streets across the country, as universities and schools have become leading venues for clashes between protesters and the authorities.



Security forces have also launched a series of raids on schools across the country, violently arresting students, especially female students, who have defiantly taken off their hijabs in protest.

Written by Ardeshir Tayebi based on an original story in Persian by RFE/RL's Radio Farda
President Vladimir Putin himself provoked the events that led to Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, a former top White House official said in an interview, pushing back on a central Kremlin argument that NATO's eastward enlargement in the 2000s catalyzed the war.

One year into what has become Europe's largest land war since World War II, Putin used a speech to Russians last week to repeat long-standing grievances about Western policies toward Moscow in the decades since the Soviet collapse of 1991.

Putin suggested that NATO and its ties to Ukraine were posing an increasing threat to Russia. He reiterated false claims about those relations, including the assertion that Ukraine's government is controlled by the United States and the Western military alliance, and that Ukraine is "enslaved" to them.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensives, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.

Stephen Hadley, who served eight years in the White House under President George W. Bush including four as national-security adviser, dismisses Putin's comments. He argues that NATO posed no threat to Russia, and that for years Moscow was content to work with the alliance.

"A real effort was made to make it clear that Russia was an accepted part of Europe. And NATO was not a threat to Russia, and that NATO wanted a constructive relationship to Russia," Hadley said in a February 28 interview. He spoke from his home in Washington, D.C., via Zoom.

"So there was that effort to try to mitigate Russian reaction to NATO enlargement," said Hadley, whose tenure in the White House coincided with the largest single enlargement of the alliance in its history: in 2004, when seven Eastern European countries, including the three former Soviet Baltic states, joined.

Historians and academics have long debated the rationale for NATO's enlargement, and in some cases, questioned the wisdom of its expansion eastward. For their part, Russian officials expressed open misgivings, and even questioned why the Cold War-era alliance was even needed anymore.

In the mid-1990s, President Boris Yeltsin warned his U.S. counterpart, Bill Clinton, of "humiliation" if NATO moved to accept Eastern European countries.

Under Putin, those doubts grew into outright denunciations and claims that Washington and its allies had deceived Moscow. In particular, Russia voiced anger over NATO's promise to Ukraine and Georgia in 2008 that they would someday become members.

As it happened, Hadley says, Ukraine's interest in joining NATO was then put on the back burner by Ukraine's government -- until 2014, when the ouster of a Moscow-friendly president led to Russia financing and supplying local militias in eastern Ukraine, and at several points sending in regular troops for battle.

"Since 2008, the issue of Ukraine and Georgia joining NATO was really off the table. And it remained off the table until 2014, when Russia invaded Ukraine the first time. And that then provoked exactly the thing that Russians say they did not want," he said.

"It was that invasion that put the issue of NATO membership, and how NATO was going to help and support Ukraine and Georgia, back on the table," he said.

"Similarly, the Russians complain about NATO infrastructure moving eastward towards the Russian border; none of that happened until Russia went into Ukraine in 2014," he said. "So I would argue that Russia by its invasion of Ukraine in 2014 created the very things it said it was threatened by."

"Russia, in fact, provoked the very things that it said it was threatened by in terms of NATO and the West," he said.

Besides, Hadley says, countries that were formerly in Moscow's sphere of influence -- places like the Baltic states or the Warsaw Pact countries of Eastern Europe -- had long-standing historical fears of Russia that pushed them to seek NATO membership.

"And, of course, what the states that are now part of NATO say is, 'We told you so,'" he said.

'At That Point We Lost Putin'

Though Putin's reaction at the time was measured, the subject of another long-standing Kremlin grievance is the U.S. decision in 2002 to withdraw from a major arms-control agreement: the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. The Bush administration argued that the pact hampered the U.S. ability to develop missile defense to protect against nascent threats like North Korea and Iran, and that the withdrawal was not intended to undermine Russia.

In the interview, Hadley asserted that Putin accepted U.S. assurances at the outset.

"Initially, it did engender a fair amount of goodwill between the two countries," he said. "Putin did not really criticize [the withdrawal] and actually said just the opposite: that while he didn't like the United States getting out of it, it did not represent a threat to Russian interests, to Russian security."

Hadley, who has just published a book detailing some of the national-security memos that were relayed to Bush's successor, Barack Obama, in 2008, says he accepted criticism that successive U.S. administrations, including the one in which he served, made mistakes in their dealings with Russia.

But he argues that likely would not have made a difference for two reasons: one was what he described was the Kremlin's position that a series of popular uprisings in Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan in the 2000s -- known popularly as the "color revolutions" -- were a U.S. plot. The other was what he said was "Putin's fixation" on Russia's imperial history.

"We thought those revolutions would be good for Russia because it would create stable, democratic, prosperous states that would be good neighbors for Russia," he said. "Putin didn't see it that way. He saw it as a CIA-led effort to establish regimes in those kinds of countries that were anti-Russia, as a dress rehearsal for destabilizing Russia itself. And I think at that point we lost Putin."

'Could We Have Done [Things] Differently? Maybe, Probably'

In U.S. foreign-policy circles, one of the most prominent critics of U.S. policies toward Russia since the Cold War is Thomas Graham, who served in the White House under President George Bush, in the early 1990s, and later with Hadley in the Bush White House in the 2000s.

In an earlier interview, Graham repeated those misgivings about NATO's growth. "There is a fairly persuasive argument to be made that to push for NATO membership in 2008...was a mistake on the part of the alliance," he said.

Hadley says he too has questioned whether NATO enlargement was mishandled.

"I struggled about that until I read the speech that Putin gave on the eve of his going into Ukraine -- again -- in 2022," he said, referring to an address Putin delivered three days before the invasion. "The front part of that speech is the real Putin talking. And that's the piece that says, this is about restoring the Russian Empire, restoring Russian control of traditional Russian lands, and basically obliterating Ukraine and absorbing it into Russia.

"In light of that agenda, it's a good thing we expanded NATO, or otherwise, it would be a much more open field for Russia to pursue that vision of a restored Russian Empire," he said.

"Could we have done [things] differently?" Hadley said. "Maybe, probably, you know, there's always things you could always have done better."

"But the question is: would it have made any difference at the end of the day, given Putin's fixation on restoring the Russian Empire within the former Soviet space?" he said. "And I think that at the end of the day, sadly, it wouldn't have made any difference."
Not long after Russia launched its assault on Ukraine, Yelena Baibekova, a math teacher at Elementary School No. 59 in the southern Russian city of Astrakhan, was fired.

The stated reason? She didn't show up in the classroom, even though there was an authorized school holiday and no students were in class.

The real reason, she believes, is that she had joined an anti-war demonstration in the city center on February 22, 2022, two days before the full-scale invasion was launched. About three months later, after being detained once by the police, she and her 17-year-old son fled the country, ending up in Germany, where they applied for asylum.

"All my life I taught children in Russia, and my place is there," she told RFE/RL's Idel.Realities by phone. "Most likely, I will return, but I don't know what Russia will be like at that moment."

Baibekova is one of an unknown number of teachers who have fled Russia since the beginning of the invasion. No official figures of the tally are publicly available, though the number is estimated to be in the scores, if not hundreds.

In all, more than 500,000 people are believed to have left Russia since February 24, 2022, with some estimates putting the number closer to 1 million. Among the most prominent sectors to have experienced high outflows of workers is the IT sector, where upwards of 300,000 workers have left for Kazakhstan, Georgia, Armenia, and other countries.

But teachers have also fled.

"We realized that we cannot stay in a country whose president has decided to destroy a neighboring state," said Alyona Podlesnykh, a teacher in the journalism department at a university in the Ural Mountains city of Perm.

She left Russia in September.

'We Understood That It Was Dangerous To Stay In Russia'

Podlesnykh, who moved to Serbia with her husband and two children in late September, says that they had started making plans to leave Russia shortly after the beginning of the invasion.

Initially, the family planned to move at the end of October. After Putin in late September announced a call-up of tens of thousands of military reserve personnel and other Russians, she says her family moved up the departure date. "We understood that it was dangerous to stay in Russia," she said, "and not only because of mobilization."

Her husband left for Kazakhstan. Podlesnykh stayed behind to sell their apartment in Perm and exchange rubles for foreign currency. She says they arrived in Kazakhstan a few days after her husband.

Before moving, Podlesnykh says she was open in her opposition to the war, trying to "open the eyes of those who do not yet see the truth. At first it seemed to me that this would not be dangerous."

In June, she complained to local authorities after a giant banner with the letter "Z" appeared on a cultural center. Pro-war politicians and civic groups have adopted the letter "Z" as a symbol for the Russian invasion.

The banner stayed up, she says, but then she started receiving threats, calling her an "enemy of the people" -- a Stalin-era epithet. Her family members also received veiled threats and insults from distant relatives.

"Obviously, it became very dangerous for us to stay in Russia. There was, of course, a way out: to be silent, but I do not want to be silent," she said. "Therefore, my husband and I made the right decision to leave Russia. In general, this decision was more his. But it saved me."

After a month in Kazakhstan, Podlesnykh says the family traveled to Serbia, which she says was better suited for them and more affordable. They bought a house near the Hungarian border; her two children have started learning Serbian.

Podlesnykh says she continues to work as a teacher helping Ukrainian and Russian refugees and looking for a full-time job. She says she continues to pay taxes in Russia. Her husband is unemployed for now.

"I hope the light of day will come soon" in Russia, Podlesnykh said.

'The Children Write To Me'

Baibekova and her 17-year-old son initially ended up in a refugee camp in the German city of Sigmaringen, she says, waiting for their asylum application to be processed. Many of the others in the camp are Ukrainian, and she says she befriended them.

Later, they were moved to a small town in central Baden-Wuerttemberg state, where she is learning German and her son is attending a local high school.

She says her former students regularly call and e-mail her; sometimes they send propaganda videos and lectures that they are forced to listen to. "The children write to me," she said. "They say, 'Do you have any idea what they're filling our heads with?'"

"They need support, and I try to give it to them as much as I can. I say that all this will end, that the most important thing is to save the human being within yourself," she said.

For Olga Lizunkova, a teacher of English and German in a small village in the central Nizhny Novgorod region, the decision to leave and move to Kyrgyzstan was prompted in part by her own students. She says they reported her to school administrators in September after she spoke critically in her classroom about the war.

She was fined 30,000 rubles ($500 at the time) for "discrediting" the military, issued a warning, and suspended from work. The next day, she resigned.

"There were fears that it would not end there" with the fine and the warning, she said.

Why? "Because I can't be silent," she said. "And if I were in Russia now, I would still continue to express my position against the war."

She says she and her husband sold their apartment for cash and hired a car and driver to take them across the border. She says they encountered little hassle from Russian border guards, despite her husband's background, which made him potentially a priority candidate for the military call-up.

A month later, they moved to Kyrgyzstan.

She says she is now studying to get certified as an registered teacher of English as a foreign language; her husband adding a new IT qualification to his work skills.

Sometimes, she's wistful, she says, missing her house where she also grew up as a child. She also has a message for those remaining Russia who might also be considering fleeing.

"If you want to leave, but you do not have the financial means or you are too attached to something or someone, don't be upset, don't beat yourself up," she said. "Forced emigration is difficult, both financially and morally.

"If you don't want to leave, that's your right, you shouldn't leave just because of the government," she said. "I heard this expression somewhere: Why should I leave my apartment just because -- pardon the expression -- they're crapping in it?"
In his nightly video address on March 1, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian forces have every area of the front under control, but added that civilians continue to suffer from Moscows deliberate terror in targeting civilian infrastructure.

Across most of the country, where we have managed to provide relative security, [residents] may not be able to relate to what life is like for people living in the border areas with Russia and in the south of our country, Zelenskiy said, noting constant Russian artillery attacks against towns along the front lines.

Zelenskiy also noted that winter is over and the government was able to provide Ukraine with energy and heat.

Earlier, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on Twitter that Ukraine has dealt Russian President Vladimir Putin another major defeat by surviving the winter cold despite Russias continued attacks against civilian energy infrastructure.

Kuleba also thanked Kyivs allies for standing by Ukraine.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensives, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.

The comment came amid continued intense fighting in and around the city of Bakhmut, where Ukrainian defenders have been confronted with wave after wave of Russian attacks. Ukraines military on March 1 reported another increase in assaults against the city in Ukraines eastern Donetsk region.

In Brussels, European Union diplomats were preparing to allocate 1 billion euros to purchase badly needed artillery ammunition for Kyiv, according to a draft proposal seen by Frances AFP news agency.

EU officials estimate that Ukraine is firing about 7,000 shells per day, compared to up to 50,000 fired daily by Russian forces. EU defense ministers are expected to discuss the proposals at a meeting in Stockholm on March 7-8.

Moscow's forces also launched attacks on the Donetsk cities of Lyman, Avdiyivka, and Shakhtar, which together with Bakhmut have been the primary targets of Russia's offensive for several weeks, Ukraine's General Staff said in its daily report.



Ukrainian forces repelled more than 85 enemy attacks in a day, the military said, a stark increase compared to 60 attacks in the previous 24 hours. Two Iranian-made drones were also shot down by Ukrainian air defenses, the military said, adding that several civilians were wounded in 12 air strikes and two missile strikes recorded over the past day.



Russia has been using large numbers of infantry soldiers in its relentless attempts at surrounding Bakhmut, putting growing pressure on the Ukrainian forces.



"Russia does not count people at all, sending them to constantly assault our positions. The intensity of the fighting is only increasing," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his evening address on February 28.



A U.S. Defense Department official on February 28 described the front line in Ukraine as a "grinding slog" but said he did not expect Russia to be able to make significant territorial gains in the near term.



"You may see small portions of territory change hands in the coming weeks and months," Colin Kahl, the U.S. undersecretary of defense for policy, told a U.S. House of Representatives hearing. "I do not think that there's anything I see that suggests the Russians can sweep across Ukraine and make significant territorial gains anytime in the next year or so."



On February 27, General Oleksandr Syrskiy, the commander of Ukraine's ground forces, said the situation in the Bakhmut area had become "extremely tense."



"Despite suffering significant losses, the enemy has been throwing into combat the best prepared assault units of Wagner [mercenaries], who are attempting to break through the defenses of our troops and surround the city," Syrskiy said.

WATCH: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that the situation around the besieged city of Bakhmut is becoming "more and more difficult." As Russia concentrates its efforts on the industrial city, Ukrainian artillery units are pushing back against waves of assaults by Russian troops. They claim to have destroyed Russian forces, equipment, and fortifications in an effort to stymie the enemy advance.

Confronted with a steady increase in Russian pressure, Ukrainian forces may "strategically pull back" from Bakhmut, an adviser to Zelenskiy said on February 28.



"Russia is attempting to encircle [Bakhmut] right now, and they're using their best Wagner troops, apparently, the most well-trained and the most experienced to do that," economic adviser Oleksandr Rodnyanskiy told CNN.



"Our military is obviously going to weigh all of the options. So far, theyve held the city, but, if need be, they will strategically pull back -- because we're not going to sacrifice all of our people just for nothing," Rodnyanskiy said.



Zelenskiy has called on Kyiv's Western allies to supply Ukraine with war planes that would allow Ukrainian forces to put up a more efficient defense.

With reporting by Reuters and CNN
It was a chilly and snowy morning in early February, and worried that villagers suffering from high blood pressure might lose their balance and slip in the snow, Gao Jie, the only physician in the village of Tongchuan in Hebei province, started his busy workday with home visits and health checks. About a three-hour drive from Beijing, the village has been relying on Gao's steady service for 24 years. Ahead of the two sessions in early March  the meetings of China's top legislature and top political advisory body  China Daily reached out to ordinary people like Gao in different sectors of society to hear what they expect from the top-level meetings. Gao's daily health check service aims to cover as many villagers as possible, since most of them still refuse to see a doctor unless obvious symptoms start to develop. Many young people in rural areas are seeking better career opportunities in cities, so it might be difficult to find someone willing to take over from him in his retirement, said Gao, 50. Asked what he expected from the two sessions, Gao said he would like to see preferential healthcare policies that would help rural areas win back young talent from cities. "It would be nice if my fellow villagers can get taken care of at our clinic, instead of going to faraway cities for medical service," said Gao. Feng Xiaotao is one example of a young person going against the prevailing trend of heading to major cities. He returned to his hometown of Miaowa, a village in Luoning county, Henan province, to take over running an orchard from his father. Feng has big ideas and big plans for the orchard, and he wishes to reach out to as many customers as possible, way beyond the number that could be reached through the traditional and small-scale agricultural business model pursued by his father. With help from the local government, he set up a cooperative that over 20 local households have signed up for so far. The cooperative provides a wide range of support to its members, including purchases of agricultural goods and expanding online sales. Feng, who regards himself as a "new farmer" connecting technology and trends, said he wants to see greater publicity given to preferential policies related to the employment of young people in rural areas. Meanwhile, in Zhejiang province, the nation's export and import hub, people are also thinking about how they can expand their business opportunities, by winning more orders in the global marketplace. Those sentiments echo the findings of a recent survey conducted by China Daily and its 10 global media partners, showing that economic topics are receiving worldwide attention in the run-up to the two sessions. More than 20 percent of the survey's around 8,000 respondents chose GDP growth as their most-watched China-related topic, followed by trade. As the world keeps its focus on the second-largest economy's post-pandemic performance, Zhejiang has started warming up for what looks like a robust year for business. This confident outlook is reflected by the round-the-clock operations at Yanwen Express, a Hangzhou-based company that helps importers and exporters with cross-border logistics. Cong Zheming, the company's manager, said it processes millions of courier receipts every day. Since the Chinese New Year holiday, the company has been handling 30 percent more cargo than at the end of last year, Cong added, pointing out that the rising volume of cargo being handled by the company is an indication of the increasing optimism of many of its customers. Cong said he hoped to see pro-business policies unveiled at the two sessions. "I hope the government can introduce policies that take the corporate sector's needs into account so that everyone can proceed with their business planning with confidence," said Cong. Spring is also a busy season for college graduates. An offline job fair, the first of its kind in Beijing after the pandemic, offered more than 3,000 vacancies in early February. Li Zixuan, who is trying to secure a human resources position, said she had to think about more than just a job in order to have a decent life in a megacity like Beijing. As one of the millions of college graduates diving into the competitive job market, Li, a postgraduate student at China University of Mining and Technology, said she would welcome policies such as housing subsidies that would help make the life of newcomers a bit easier in the nation's big cities. While some people are eager to live in Beijing, others are moving out, such as 87-year-old Ye Shounan, who left the city he had been living in for decades to move to an affordable nursing home in Sanhe, a city in neighboring Hebei province. The nursing home, operated by Yanda International Health City, is a trial project aimed at serving retirees in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei. While Ye and his peers said they were satisfied with the daily care and medical services offered at the nursing home, Li Haiyan, Yanda's vice-president, said the country's wellness industry, which is still in its early stages, is not yet ready for a rapidly aging society. To provide better service to elderly people, Li said there should be policies to help increase the number of skilled care workers.
Google

Raising a question to the Company, Harsh asked, "I had a very first question why me though I was star performer for month still why me?

In another major setback for the staff, the Google's India Operations Center laid off Harsh Vijayvargiya even after bagging the performer of the month award. He was left demented after receiving the e-mail from google.

Google Evicts Employee

Advertisement

Notably, In the last few months, Google have evicted several employees without even giving any clarity or explanations. Harsh Vijayvargiya had joined as a digital media senior associate at Google's India Operations in July 2022.

Harsh Vijayvargiya shared the shocking news about his eviction on LinkedIn. He wrote, "I never thought my First post would be reagrding layoffs. Saturday Morning I skipped a heart beat when I got a pop up email notification on my phone stating email from Google Operations Center. I have been effected with layoff."

Raising a question to the Company, Harsh asked, "I had a very first question why me though I was star performer for month still why me ? And I see there was no answer at all !"
Rahul Gandhi

The Pictures of the Congress leader's new look is becoming the talk of the town.

Congress Leader Rahul Gandhi, who grew his hair and beard during his 12-state 'Bharat Jodo Yatra', has finally adopted a new trimmed look. Former Congress National President has trimmed his hair and beard for delivering a lecture at Cambridge University.

Rahul Gandhi

Advertisement

The Pictures of the Congress leader's new look is becoming the talk of the town. People are sharing various images on the social media sites.

It is worth noting here that Rahul Gandhi reached London on Tuesday (March 3) for a week's tour. He is scheduled to deliver a lecture at the University of Cambridge on the subject 'Learning to Listen in the 21st Century'.

Our @CambridgeMBA programme is pleased to welcome #India's leading Opposition leader and MP @RahulGandhi of the Indian National Congress.



He will speak today as a visiting fellow of @CambridgeJBS on the topic of "Learning to Listen in the 21st Century". pic.twitter.com/4sTysYlYbC Advertisement February 28, 2023

University of Cambridge Judge Business School (JBS) took to Twitter on Tuesday and wrote, "Our @CambridgeMBA programme is pleased to welcome #India's leading Opposition leader and MP @RahulGandhi of the Indian National Congress. He will speak today as a visiting fellow of @CambridgeJBS on the topic of "Learning to Listen in the 21st Century"."


Kenan Pala, 13, of Rancho Bernardo with some of the Christmas stockings stuffed with donated toys and personal items Sunday by volunteers with his nonprofit group Kids 4 Community.

As the son of successful entrepreneurs, 13-year-old Kenan Pala was born with a head for creative problem-solving. Fortunately for San Diegos homeless community, his head has been focused for the past few years on making their lives better.

Pala is the founder of Kids 4 Community, a youth-focused volunteer organization that meets regularly to provide meal service and assemble hygiene kits, care packages and, this month, Christmas stockings for the needy. In May, he was one of 10 youth volunteers in America to receive the 2017 Prudential Spirit of Community Award.

K.P. is an amazing kid, said Greg Anglea, CEO of Interfaith Community Services in Escondido. I joke that hes going to take over the world someday. Its a good thing hes on the side of good.

Advertisement

Kenan, an 8th-grader at Francis Parker School in San Diego, is the eldest son of Serhat Pala and Zeynep Ilgaz, who immigrated from their native Turkey in 1998. The couple earned their MBAs together at San Diego State University, then Serhat started several entrepreneurial businesses before he and his wife co-founded Confirm Biosciences in Scripps Ranch in 2008. Ilgaz said giving back to their adopted country has always been a priority for her family.

Were your typical immigrant story. We came here with no money, got our degrees together and then worked hard like anybody else, she said. We got a lot of help along the way, especially from the San Diego community, and always felt like if there was a way we could give back, we would do that, and our children would do the same.

Since he was in kindergarten, Kenan said hes been volunteering alongside his parents serving dinners to the homeless at local shelters.

Its been a part of my life for as long as I can remember, he said. Seeing those people at the shelters made me really grateful for the great life I have. It was also a call to action for me to volunteer more and help these people get out of their situation.

Kenan Pala, 13, of Rancho Bernardo sorts through Christmas stocking-stuffer donations at a Kids 4 Community event on Dec. 3 in Scripps Ranch. (Nancee E. Lewis / San Diego Union-Tribune )

Kenan and his brother Arden, a third-grader, set aside 10 percent of their weekly allowance for charity. His parents do the same with their salaries, and they donate 5 percent of their company sales to SDSU and other schools.

But it was an experience on a day trip last year that spurred Kenan to dramatically ramp up his homeless outreach. That day, he saw a large crowd trying to rescue a seal pup on the beach. But on his car ride home, he saw people walking by a homeless man, ignoring his pleas for help.

I sat in the car thinking about why a sick baby seal was surrounded by concerned citizens while a hungry homeless man was receiving no help, he said.

With his parents help, he started Kids 4 Community and has since enlisted the help of friends, family and his classmates at Francis Parker. On campus last year, he led a drive that collected 6,000 boxes of cereal for local soup kitchens. The students assembled 4,000 empty cereal boxes on the schools gymnasium floor, a feat that set the Guinness World Record as the largest cardboard box mosaic.

Kevin Dunn, director of community engagement at Francis Parker School, said Kenan is a natural leader and an articulate speaker whos always front and center at the events he organizes.

The students all respect him and look to him as an expert in the field, Dunn said. This school does a great job of developing young leaders, but they get it from their parents and Kenans mom and dad are great role models.

Kenan said his family keeps a calendar by the dinner table to keep track of the events they plan, and he and his parents use multiple computers to plan logistics, secure donations for supplies and do outreach for volunteers.

Using social media to plan events, they gather 200 to 300 volunteers every month or two at the Confirm Biosciences offices to pack items for the needy. Over the past year, theyve raised more than $5,000 in cash donations, assembled more than 5,000 hygiene kits, sent 2,500 care packages to hurricane victims in Puerto Rico and Mexico, made more than 3,000 brown-bag lunches for local homeless shelters and adopted more than 100 families to help with basic needs.

This past Sunday , several hundred volunteers filled 2,000 stockings with donated toys and personal items for families assisted by Interfaith Community Services. Kenan also leads a group of volunteers who serve dinners at Interfaiths homeless shelter, Haven House.

Hes very down to earth and enjoys getting to interact with people directly, said Anglea with Interfaith. I think he appreciates the opportunity to help people face to face, not just provide a warm meal, but also a friendly smile. Hes just a remarkable young man.

In November, Anglea presented Kenan with one of the North County Philanthropy Councils Volunteer of the Year awards.

When hes not doing charity work, Kenan said he enjoys running triathlons and playing guitar. Hes also the founder of an entrepreneurship club at his school. After high school, he said hed like to attend Stanford University and start his own company where he can use his profits to one day end homelessness and other social problems.

It may seem an unrealistic goal but Dunn, at Francis Parker School, said the sky could be the limit for Kenan.

If he doesnt become a humanitarian, hell dedicate a lot of his life and his companys proceeds to those causes, Dunn said. Hes going to have a lot of doors open up for him and will stay centered and honor the values his family has instilled in him.

pam.kragen@sduniontribune.com
Paleontologists from the University of Vienna and elsewhere have revised a controversial species of the elasmobranch Protospinax annectans based on new specimens from the Late Jurassic Konservat-Lagerstatte of the Solnhofen Archipelago in Bavaria, Germany.

The fossil record of sharks and rays (Elasmobranchii) mainly consists of isolated teeth, which are rapidly grown and continuously replaced, said Dr. Patrick Jambura, a researcher in the Department of Palaeontology at the University of Vienna, and colleagues.

By contrast, skeletal remains are rare due to the poor preservation potential of the cartilaginous endoskeleton.

However, a few localities, so-called Konservat-Lagerstatten, are known to harbor skeletal material with exquisite preservation  sometimes even with soft tissue preservation  and, therefore, offer a unique window into the past.

The main Konservat-Lagerstatten for fossil elasmobranchs are several localities in Bavaria, Germany, which are collectively referred to as the Solnhofen Archipelago.

In the new research, Dr. Jambura and colleagues examined the new fossil skeletal material of Protospinax annectans from the Konservat-Lagerstatte of the Solnhofen Archipelago and revised the skeletal morphology of this species.

Protospinax annectans carried features that are found in both sharks and rays today, Dr. Jambura said.

This species lived some 150 million years ago and was a 1.5-m-long, dorso-ventrally flattened cartilaginous fish with expanded pectoral fins and a prominent fin spine in front of each dorsal fin.

Despite the excellent preservation of the previosuly known specimens, its phylogenetic relations with other elasmobranchs have been an enigma since the first description of this species in 1918.

Of particular interest is whether Protospinax annectans represents a transition between sharks and rays as a missing link  a hypothesis that has gained considerable appeal among experts over the past 25 years.

Alternatively, Protospinax annectans could have been a very primitive shark, an ancestor of rays and sharks, or an ancestor of a certain group of sharks, Galeomorphii, which includes the great white shark today.

The authors then reconstructed the family tree of extant sharks and rays using genetic data (mitochondrial DNA) and embedded fossil groups using morphological data.

Their results were startling: Protospinax annectans was neither a missing link nor a ray nor a primitive shark  but a highly-evolved shark.

We tend to think of evolution like a hierarchical, ladder-like system, in which older groups are at the base, while humans, as a very young species in Earth history, are at the top, Dr. Jambura said.

In truth, however, evolution has never stopped even for these primitive representatives, but they continue to evolve day by day via changes in their DNA, just as we do.

This is the only way they have been able to adapt to constantly changing environments and survive to this day.

Even though cartilaginous fishes as a group have survived to this day, most species disappeared during its evolution, including Protospinax annectans.

Why Protospinax annectans became extinct at the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary some 145 million years ago and why there is no comparable shark species today, while the ecologically similarly adapted rays exist relatively unchanged to this day, remains a mystery at this point.

The findings were published in the journal Diversity.

_____

Patrick L. Jambura et al. 2023. Systematics and Phylogenetic Interrelationships of the Enigmatic Late Jurassic Shark Protospinax annectans Woodward, 1918 with Comments on the Shark-Ray Sister Group Relationship. Diversity 15 (3): 311; doi: 10.3390/d15030311
Counter-Terrorism

Expected Council Action

In March, Mozambique is organising a high-level debate on Countering terrorism and preventing violent extremism by strengthening cooperation between the UN and regional organisations and mechanisms. The debate, which is expected to have a particular focus on cooperation between the UN and regional organisations and mechanisms in Africa, will be one of the signature events of Mozambiques presidency.

Background

Several regional counter-terrorism initiatives are currently active in Africa. Of these, the Joint Force of the Group of Five for the Sahel (FC-G5S)which was established in 2017 by the Group of Five for the Sahel (G5 Sahel), consisting of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Nigerhas received the most attention from the Council. The FC-G5S carries out counter-terrorism operations and implements measures to combat transnational organised crime in the territory of its member states. On 15 May 2022, Mali withdrew from all G5 Sahel institutions, including the FC-G5S.

Council discussions on counter-terrorism in Africa have often focused on funding African counter-terrorism initiatives through UN assessed contributions. During the negotiations on resolution 2359 of 21 June 2017, which welcomed the deployment of the FC-G5S to the region, the question of UN funding was a significant issue. Initial drafts apparently included language that specifically authorised the force, rather than merely welcoming its deployment; however, the UK and the US opposed explicit authorisation of the FC-G5S, partly because of the potential financial commitments from the UN budget that this implied. (For more, see our Whats in Blue story of 20 June 2017.)

Since the adoption of resolution 2359, the Council has continued to consider the appropriate level of UN support for the FC-G5S. In a 4 October 2021 letter to the Council, the Secretary-General proposed two options for increasing support for the force. The first was a dedicated UN office to provide logistical support for the FC-G5S operations. According to the letter, this option would entail expanding the support provided by the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali (MINSUMA) to cover engineering, maintenance, communications and information technology services, transportation of cargo, medical supplies, and medical and casualty evacuation in all areas of FC-G5S operations. The support would be funded through UN assessed contributions or voluntary funding. The Secretary-General noted in the letter that this was his preferred option.

The second option involved establishing an Advisory Office to the G5 Sahel Executive Secretariat. This office would provide technical assistance to the FC-G5S in the areas of political affairs, human rights, and operational and administrative planning, to enhance the forces self-sufficiency.

At the time of writing, neither office has been created. Pursuant to resolution 2640 of 29 June 2022, MINUSMA currently provides support to the FC-G5S in the form of life support consumables and use of engineering plant equipment, material, and enabling units. (For more, see our coverage of Mali and the G5 Sahel Joint Force.)

Other regional counter-terrorism initiatives operating in Africa include the AU Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS/AMISOM), the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), the Accra Initiative, and the Nouakchott Process. ATMIS provides support to ongoing military operations in Somalia against Al-Shabaab, a terrorist group with links to Al-Qaeda, and assists in stabilising liberated areas and safeguarding critical infrastructure. The MNJTF includes contributions from Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria and fights the terrorist group Boko Haram in the Lake Chad Basin region. The Accra Initiative was created in 2017 in response to the spread of terrorism to the coastal states of West Africa. In November 2022, its member states (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote dIvoire, Ghana, Niger, and Togo) decided to establish a 10,000-troop entity, also called the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF/AI). The Nouakchott Process is designed to strengthen regional security cooperation and information-sharing in the fight against terrorism, and is also tasked with making the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) operational in the Sahelo-Saharan region.

The UN and the AU have also established other initiatives with a specific focus on terrorism, including the UN-AU technical working group on preventing violent extremism and countering terrorism, which aims to increase coordination between the two organisations in relation to counter-terrorism. In September 2022, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced that the UN, together with the AU, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and the G5-Sahel, had established the Independent High-Level Panel on Security Governance and Development in the Sahel. The panel will provide recommendations for responding to the challenges facing the region, including terrorism and violent extremism.

On 31 August 2022, the Council adopted a presidential statement on capacity-building support to African countries. Among other matters, the statement requested that the Secretary-General provide updates on progress made by the UN and the AU to fulfil the commitments set out in resolution 2320 of 18 November 2016 on cooperation between the UN and regional and sub-regional organisations and resolution 2378 of 20 September 2017 on peacekeeping reform. The report, which is due by 30 April, is also expected to include recommendations on moving forward that reflect good practices and lessons-learned with the view to secure predictable, sustainable and flexible resources. (For more, see our Whats in Blue story of 30 August 2022.)

Marchs meeting will be the fourth signature event on counter-terrorism since October 2022. In October 2022, Gabon organised a high-level debate on Strengthening the fight against the financing of armed groups and terrorists through the illicit trafficking of natural resources. In November 2022, Ghana held a high-level debate on Counter-terrorism in Africaan imperative for peace, security, and development. In December 2022, India convened a high-level briefing on Threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts: global approach to counter-terrorismchallenges and way forward.

Key Issues and Options

Enhancing the capacity of counter-terrorism initiatives in Africa is an important issue. The latest report of the Monitoring Team assisting the 1267/1989/2253 Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee, which was published on 13 February, noted that Africa has emerged in recent years as the continent where the harm done by terrorism is developing most rapidly and extensively.

The FC-G5S has carried out some operations, but its persistent challenges in securing financial and material resources prevent it from becoming fully operational. Malis withdrawal was a significant setback for the force.

In their statements during the debate, Council members may elect to:

advocate for financial and material support for regional counter-terrorism forces;

emphasise the need for such forces to adhere to international human rights standards; or

call for efforts to promote a continent-wide approach to counter-terrorism.

In the future, after considering the content and recommendations of the Secretary-Generals report due on 30 April, Council members could choose to issue a product expressing their support for the use of UN assessed contributions to fund certain African counter-terrorism initiatives. On 18 February, at the AU Summit in Addis Ababa, the Secretary-General said that the UN wholeheartedly support[s] the creation of a new generation of robust peace-enforcement missions and counter-terrorist operations, led by the African Union with a Security Council mandate under Chapter VII and with guaranteed, predictable funding, including through assessed contributions.

Council Dynamics

Council members share concerns about the spread of terrorism in Africa, including to previously unaffected sub-regions, and its impact on civilians. Despite this general agreement, the question of how to provide more adequate, sustainable, and predictable financing for African counter-terrorism operations, such as the FC-G5S, has proven divisive for Council members over the years, particularly in relation to the possible use of assessed contributions to fund such operations. Some members, including France and the African members of the Council, have argued in favour of using assessed contributions to fund the FC-G5S. Other members have opposed this proposal, citing concerns regarding the forces record of human rights violations.

The US, the UNs largest funder, opposed UN funding for AU-led peace support operations during the Trump Administration. In 2018, it threatened to veto a draft resolution on the financing issue that was proposed by the three African members (A3). However, there seems to be a window of opportunity for progress on this issue because of the Biden Administrations keenness to strengthen US relations with Africa. At the 11 October Council debate on UN-AU Cooperation, the US Permanent Representative, Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, made clear that the implementation of [human rights and international humanitarian law] frameworks and other oversight mechanismsremain key considerations for any discussions about the use of UN assessed contributions.

Mozambique is currently battling an insurgency by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) affiliate Ahl al-Sunna Wal-Jamaa (ASWJ) in its northern Cabo Delgado Province. On 15 July 2021, Mozambique approved the deployment to Cabo Delgado of the Southern African Development Community Mission in Mozambique (SAMIM), a 2,000-troop force comprising units from eight Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states. Rwanda, which is not a member of the SADC, has also sent soldiers to fight against ASWJ. According to the latest report of the Monitoring Team assisting the 1267/1989/2253 Sanctions Committee, the deployment of regional forces in Cabo Delgado has had a significant impact on ASWJ, disrupting its leadership, command structures and bases. Mozambiques experience with SAMIM and Rwandan troops may underpin its motivation for organising this meeting.

Sign up for SCR emails Subscribe UN DOCUMENTS ON COUNTER-TERRORISM
AFRICA

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Expected Council Action

In March, the Security Council will hold a briefing and consultations on the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Special Representative and head of the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) Bintou Keita is the anticipated briefer.

Council members are also scheduled to undertake a visiting mission to the DRC from 9 to 12 March.

Key Recent Developments

The security situation in the eastern DRC has continued to deteriorate. The M23 Movement, an armed group that has traditionally operated in North Kivu province, became active again in 2022, following a lull of several years. Regional diplomatic efforts had reportedly led the group to withdraw from some of the territories it controlled in North Kivu; however, it seized control of several villages including a strategic town, Kitshanga, cutting off the road to Goma, the regional capital following the recent resumption of intense fighting in January with the Congolese armed forces (FARDC) and allied militias.

Other armed groups operating in eastern DRC, such as the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), the Cooperative pour le Developpement du Congo (CODECO), and the Mai-Mai Group, have also continued to commit heinous crimes against civilians. On 24 January, the Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, expressed alarm about reports she received of multiple attacks against civilians along ethnic lines, as well as of mass killings, sexual violence, abductions, destruction of property and attacks against IDP [internally displaced persons] camps perpetrated by these armed groups.

The escalating insecurity in the eastern DRC has continued to stoke tensions between the DRC and Rwanda. On 24 January, Rwanda accused the DRC of violating its airspace and said that it had taken defensive measures against a Congolese aircraft, which was fired upon but did not sustain significant damage. The DRC denied the accusation, saying that the plane was within DRC airspace and that it considered Rwandas actions a deliberate act of aggression. On 26 January, Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region Huang Xia expressed deep concern about the incident and urged both countries to exercise maximum restraint and work towards defusing tensions through dialogue.

On 4 February, the East African Community (EAC) leaders met in the Burundian capital of Bujumbura in an extraordinary summit to discuss the deteriorating security situation in the eastern DRC. The presidents of the DRC and Rwanda and other regional leaders attended the summit, which resulted in a communique calling for an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of all foreign armed groups. The summit also instructed the EAC chiefs of defence forces to meet urgently and set new timelines for the withdrawal of these forces. The EAC has been implementing a two-track approach, known as the Nairobi process, to address the situation in eastern DRC: facilitating political dialogue between the Congolese government and armed groups and deploying a regional force to deal with those who refuse to join the dialogue process.

So far, three rounds of talks have been held under the Nairobi process, and in a 9 February press statement, the EAC Facilitator of the peace process in the eastern DRC, former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, expressed his intention to convene the fourth round. The EAC regional force started deploying in eastern DRC in August 2022, and has recently taken up positions in areas from which the M23 has reportedly withdrawn, but has not yet engaged in offensive operations against armed groups. The EAC chiefs of defence forces met in Nairobi on 8-9 February based on the EAC summit decision to assess the security situation in eastern DRC, but the outcome of their meeting has not been made public. As the M23 continues to advance and control new territories in North Kivu, public sentiment towards the EAC regional force is souring in the region, with protests taking place against the force. The Congolese government insists on the need for the regional force to undertake offensive operations against M23.

Council members have agreed on the terms of reference for the upcoming visiting mission, which France and Gabon are expected to co-lead. During the visit, Council members intend to meet with the Congolese government; leaders of political parties; civil society organisations, including women and youth; representatives from relevant regional organisations; the EAC Regional Force; MONUSCO; the UN country team and other UN entities; and humanitarian actors. The last Council visiting mission to the DRC was in October 2018 ahead of the general elections in that country on 23 December 2018.

Sanctions-Related Developments

The Group of Experts assisting the work of the 1533 DRC Sanctions Committee submitted its midterm report on 16 December 2022 pursuant to resolution 2641 of 30 June 2022. The report said that the group had found substantial evidence of direct Rwandan involvement in the DRC, either to reinforce the M23 or to conduct military operations against the Forces democratiques de liberation du Rwanda (FDLR) and through the provision of weapons, ammunition, and uniforms to the M23. The report also detailed video, audio, and other documentation that substantiate the support and cooperation between FARDC and foreign and local armed groups operating in eastern DRC, including the FDLR.

Human Rights-Related Developments

The UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ilze Brands Kehris visited the DRC from 13-22 February, during which she met with senior government officials, members of parliament, civil society representatives, and victims of human rights violations and abuses. Brands Kehris also visited the eastern provinces of North Kivu and Ituri.

Key Issues and Options

A key priority for Council members in March is likely to be the deteriorating security situation in eastern DRC and the increasing tensions between the DRC and Rwanda. This is also expected to figure prominently during the Councils visiting mission to the DRC in March. Among other things, Council members may focus on the following major issues:

assessing the security situation in the DRC and the efforts of MONUSCO to implement its mandate;

assessing the humanitarian situation in the country, including efforts to ensure humanitarian access, protect refugees and IDPs, hold perpetrators of violence against civilians (including against children) accountable, and combat and prevent sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict situations;

expressing support for the implementation of the Congolese governments Demobilisation, Disarmament, Community Recovery and Stabilisation Program (P-DDRCS) and security sector reform;

expressing support for ongoing regional efforts under the auspices of the EAC and the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR); and

encouraging all political stakeholders to continue to work towards the holding of peaceful, transparent, inclusive, and credible elections scheduled for December 2023.

A possible option for Council members is to adopt a presidential statement following the visiting mission, among other things reaffirming the need to address the situation in eastern DRC within the framework of the ongoing regional initiatives and calling for the full and effective implementation of the decisions adopted by the EAC and ICGLR.

Council Dynamics

Council members support MONUSCOs work and the gradual, responsible, and conditions-based drawdown of the mission. But the negotiations on the missions mandate renewal in December 2022 were difficult, with some members opposing references to civil society and human rights. The streamlining of the text also resulted in a significant reduction of thematic language, including on the protection of civilians. The negotiations were also complicated by the discussion about the lifting of the notification requirements under the 1533 DRC sanctions regime. Although some Council members were not comfortable discussing the matter so far in advance of July, when the 1533 DRC sanctions regime is set to be extended, the Council voted on a separate resolution deciding to lift the notifications requirement and requesting that the Congolese government provide a report on its weapons and ammunition management no later than 31 May.

The security situation in eastern DRC continues to be a major preoccupation. In the Councils meeting on 9 December 2022, the US and France were openly critical of Rwandas alleged support for M23. In particular, the US urge[d] Council members to consider how this kind of support runs afoul of existing sanctions regimes. On the other hand, Rwanda is said to have proposed several names for designation under the 1533 DRC sanctions regime.

Council members support ongoing regional initiatives to address the security situation in eastern DRC, but some members hesitate to express unqualified support to the EAC regional force in the absence of adequate information about its deployment. Council members are likely to continue emphasising the need to ensure accountability for crimes against peacekeepers, especially in light of deadly attacks on MONUSCO personnel in 2022. They may also continue to express grave concern over the alarming rise of hate speech, disinformation, and misinformation in eastern DRC and reiterate the need to strengthen MONUSCOs strategic communications and enhance its community engagement.

France is the penholder on the DRC. Ambassador Michel Xavier Biang (Gabon) chairs the 1533 Sanctions Committee.

Sign up for SCR emails Subscribe UN DOCUMENTS ON THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO UN DOCUMENTS ON THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
ASIA

DPRK (North Korea)

Expected Council Action

In March, the Security Council is expected to extend the mandate of the Panel of Experts assisting the 1718 Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) Sanctions Committee. The Panels mandate expires on 30 April.

Key Recent Developments

On 18 February, the DPRK tested a Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). According to Republic of Korea (ROK) officials, the missile travelled approximately 900 kilometres at a maximum altitude of 5,700 kilometres. In an 18 February press briefing, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters that the ICBM landed in waters west of Hokkaido in Japans exclusive economic zone. The following day, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the DPRKs ICBM launch while the ROK and the US held joint air exercises involving strategic bombers in response to the test. On 20 February, the DPRK fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea off its east coast.

The 18 February ICBM test prompted Albania, Ecuador, France, Japan, Malta, the UK, and the US to request an open briefing, which took place on 20 February. Assistant Secretary-General for the Middle East, Asia, and the Pacific Mohammed Khaled Khiari briefed. During the meeting, the US indicated that it will pursue a presidential statement on the DPRK.

The briefing came four days after Council members convened for closed consultations on the DPRK on 16 February. Albania, Ecuador, France, Japan, Malta, the UK, and the US requested the meeting to discuss the DPRKs weapons programmes and how the Council can address the threat they pose to international peace and security. Khiari and Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi briefed during the consultations. On 17 February, the DPRKs foreign ministry said that it would consider additional military action if the Council continues to pressure the DPRK.

The Panel provided its final report to the Committee on 3 February. The Committee discussed the report, which is due to be provided to the Council by 3 March, on 22 February. According to media outlets claiming to have seen the report, it notes that the DPRK has used increasingly sophisticated cyber techniques both to gain access to digital networks involved in cyber finance, and to steal information of potential value, including to its weapons programmes. Media reports also say that the report describes ongoing sanctions evasion by the DPRK and indicates that hackers linked to the DPRK stole a record $630 million in cryptocurrency assets in 2022. On 10 February, the ROK announced that it had imposed sanctions on individuals and entities linked to the DPRKs cyber activities for the first time. On 27 February, Ambassador Pascale Baeriswyl (Switzerland) briefed Council members in closed consultations on the 90-day report regarding the committees work.

On the evening of 8 February, the DPRK staged a military parade celebrating the 75th anniversary of the founding of its armed forces. According to media reports that analysed images of the parade released by DPRK state media, at least 15 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) were on display, including as many as 11 Hwasong-17s, the DPRKs most advanced ICBM. Several analysts have noted that the ICBMs paraded by the DPRK could potentially overwhelm US missile defence systems if fired simultaneously. Analysts have also noted that the DPRK may have revealed a new land-based, solid-fuel ICBM during the parade. (Solid-fuel ICBMs take less time to launch and are harder for missile defence systems to detect.)

Days earlier, DPRK leader Kim Jong-un reportedly ordered the countrys military to expand its combat drills and bolster its preparedness for war during a 6 February meeting of the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers Party of Korea (WPK). The meeting came shortly after ROK Minister of Foreign Affairs Park Jin met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on 3 February. In a press conference following that meeting, Park said that the ROK and the US are committed to strengthening extended deterrence while maintaining a robust combined defence posture. Park and Blinkens meeting followed a 31 January visit by US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin to Seoul, where he met with ROK President Yoon Suk-yeol and ROK Minister of National Defence Lee Jong-sup. During the trip, Lee told reporters that the ROK and the US had pledged to expand the scale and elevate the level of [their] combined exercises and training. The following day, the ROK and the US carried out a series of air drills involving long-range strategic bombers and stealth fighters in the Yellow Sea off the ROKs west coast.

In a 2 February statement, the DRPKs foreign ministry said that the military and political situation on the Korean peninsula had reached an extreme red line because of the expansion of military exercises between the ROK and the US and warned that the DPRK was prepared to respond with the most overwhelming nuclear force.

On 13 February, DPRK authorities announced the expansion and reorganisation of many of its military units due to the new situation in the region. Several experts have commented that the announcement, taken together with photos of the 8 February parade that show a new flag attached to an ICBM, appears to suggest that the DPRK has created a new military unit specifically responsible for operating ICBMs.

The ROK released its latest biennial defence white paper on 16 February. The document described the DPRK as the ROKs enemy for the first time since 2016 and reported that the DPRK has increased its stockpile of weapons-grade plutonium to approximately 70 kilograms, a 40 percent increase over the 50 kilograms estimated in the previous white paper. It also said that the DPRK holds substantial amounts of highly enriched uranium and possesses a significant level of capability to miniaturise nuclear weapons.

The prospects of the DPRK engaging in denuclearisation dialogue remain dim. In its 2 February statement, the DPRKs foreign ministry said that the DPRK is not interested in any contact or dialogue with the US as long as it pursues its hostile policy and confrontational line. The statement also described the US offers to resume talks as shameless and an attempt to gain time. During a 27 January news conference, ROK Unification Minister Kwon Young-se said that the ROK intends to promote civilian efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to the DPRK with the aim of reopen[ing] a path for dialogue between the two countries. The DPRK has strongly rejected similar offers in the past. (For more, see our Whats in Blue story of 5 October 2022.)

Food insecurity in the DPRK appears to be worsening. On 6 February, DPRK state media reported that the WPK Politburo had scheduled a plenary meeting of the partys Central Committee to discuss the correct strategy for the development of agriculture and take relevant measures for the immediate farming  to promote the overall development of socialist construction. On 15 February, the ROKs unification ministry noted that the DPRK rarely schedules such meetings and said that the food situation in the DPRK seems to have deteriorated. According to media reports published on the same day, Kwon told the ROK parliament that the DPRK had requested assistance from the World Food Programme (WFP) but talks between the organisation and the DPRK were unsuccessful due to disagreements regarding aid monitoring. The meeting of the WPK Central Committee began on 26 February.

Key Issues and Options

Sanctions evasion, together with the overall effectiveness and impact of the 1718 sanctions regime, are important issues for the Council, particularly given that the DPRK is widely believed to have increased its nuclear arsenal since the regime was introduced in 2006 and has shown little inclination to scale back its weapons programmes.

The Council could pursue several options. In extending the mandate of the Panel of Experts, Council members could add language urging member states to comply with existing sanctions. The Council could also request that the Panel provide the Committee with a report on sanctions enforcement that specifically considers whether there are any steps the Council could take to counter sanctions evasion.

Council members may also wish to consider convening an informal briefing by cybersecurity experts on the DPRKs cyber activities. Such a meeting could provide an opportunity to better understand how the DPRK conducts cyber espionage and discuss whether there is anything the Council can do to address the problem.

The Council could also hold an informal interactive dialogue with humanitarian organisations focusing on the DPRK with a view to better understanding the impact that sanctions are having on the humanitarian situation in the country.

Council Dynamics

The Council remains sharply divided over the DPRK. The P3 (France, the UK, and the US) and other like-minded members regularly condemn its ballistic missile tests and argue that they destabilise the Korean Peninsula and increase tensions throughout the region. These members are generally supportive of using sanctions to manage the threat posed by the DPRK and often urge the country to engage in dialogue and abandon its weapons programmes while emphasising that it is responsible for escalating tensions.

China and Russia, on the other hand, blame the US for heightening tensions and accuse it of not doing enough to incentivise the DPRK to participate in denuclearisation talks. The two countries have also contended that sanctions should be eased because of their impact on the humanitarian situation and continue to express their support for a draft resolution circulated by China in October 2021 that would provide sanctions relief to the DPRK if adopted. Other Council members, including Brazil and Gabon, have expressed apparent concerns about the overall efficacy of the 1718 DPRK sanctions regime.

It is possible that members divergent views will lead to contentious negotiations on the resolution extending the mandate of the Panel of Experts. The overall dynamic could change, however, if the DPRK conducts a nuclear test.

The US is the penholder on the DPRK. Ambassador Pascale Baeriswyl (Switzerland) chairs the 1718 DPRK Sanctions Committee.

Sign up for SCR emails Subscribe UN DOCUMENTS ON THE DPRK
ASIA

Myanmar

Expected Council Action

In March, the Security Council is expected to receive an oral briefing on the UNs support for the implementation of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Five-Point Consensus on Myanmar from the Secretary-Generals Special Envoy on Myanmar Noeleen Heyzer. Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi may also brief. At the time of writing, the format of the meeting had not been confirmed.

Key Recent Developments

On 21 December 2022, the Council adopted resolution 2669 on Myanmar with 12 votes in favour and China, India, and Russia abstaining. The resolution demands an end to all forms of violence and urges restraint and de-escalation of tensions. It also calls for the release of all prisoners and expresses concern about violence across Myanmar, attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure, and human rights abuses and violations. The resolution further requested a briefing from the Secretary-General or his Special Envoy, in coordination with ASEANs Special Envoy, on the UNs support for the implementation of the ASEAN Five-Point Consensus by 15 March. (The Five-Point Consensus was adopted by ASEAN in April 2021 and called for an immediate cessation of violence, constructive dialogue among all parties, a special envoy of the ASEAN chair to facilitate mediation of the dialogue process, humanitarian assistance, and a visit to Myanmar by the ASEAN Special Envoy to meet all parties concerned).

Although the Five-Point Consensus was agreed almost two years ago, four of the five priorities are currently unmet or partially met. The only priority fully executed has been the appointment of the ASEAN special envoy, which has tended to be the foreign minister of the ASEAN chair. Indonesia, which assumed ASEANs rotating chairmanship for 2023 in January, appears to be taking this one step further by establishing an Office of the Special Envoy to Myanmar, headed by its foreign minister Retno Marsudi.

In remarks delivered during a meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers that ran from 3 to 4 February, Marsudi reportedly acknowledged that the lack of progress tests [ASEANs] credibility and said that ASEANs future efforts will be coordinated with other countries and the UN. According to media reports, Indonesia has raised the possibility of appointing a military general as special envoy to Myanmar.

On 22 December 2022, Thailand hosted an informal regional meeting with three cabinet ministers from Myanmars military government. Representatives of Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam participated in the meeting, while officials from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore did not attend.

The situation in Myanmar has continued to deteriorate since resolution 2669 was adopted. On 27 January, the Myanmar military issued the Political Party Registration Law, which introduced new requirements for political parties intending to compete in parliamentary elections. Prior to the announcement of the law, the military authorities had pledged to hold elections in August. Under the terms of the legislation, parties are required to have 100,000 members and at least 100 million kyat in funds (approximately USD$47,000) and must commit to running within 60 days in order to participate in the elections. According to Human Rights Watch, these requirements will make it nearly impossible for smaller parties to run. The law also disqualifies political groups declared as an unlawful association or terrorist organisation under any existing law from taking part in the elections. The National Unity Government (NUG)an alliance of ousted politicians from the National League of Democracy (NLD), the opposition party led by Aung San Suu Kyi, which won the November 2020 electionhas been declared as a terrorist organisation by Myanmars military.

On 1 February, exactly two years after seizing power from the NLD, the military authorities announced an extension of the nationwide state of emergency for a further six months. Given that parliamentary elections cannot be held while a state of emergency persists, the announcement has raised questions about whether the elections will take place in August. The second anniversary of the coup was also marked by a series of silent protests that saw deserted streets in major cities across Myanmar, after activists called for people to close businesses and stay indoors to signal their opposition to the junta. The following day, the military announced that it had imposed martial law in 37 townships across eight of the countrys 14 regions and states, including 11 townships in Sagaing region and Chin state, where opposition to the regime has been particularly strong.

The security situation in Myanmar remains highly volatile. The military continues to clash with the Peoples Defence Force (PDF)a group comprising local civilian militias created in response to the February 2021 coupand various ethnic armed groups in different parts of the country. The clashes with the PDF and other forces appear to pose a serious challenge to the militarys authority. In comments reported by state media on 1 February, General Min Aung Hlaing, the head of the junta, acknowledged that more than one-third of townships are not under full military control. Reports have also emerged of increasing air strikes carried out by the junta within Myanmar, including an 18 January attack that reportedly targeted a village in the central Sagaing region, killing at least seven people and injuring five more.

The fighting has contributed to ongoing refugee and humanitarian crises in Myanmar. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the violence has caused tens of thousands of refugees to flee to neighbouring countries and displaced over 982,000 people within the country. In January, UNHCR also reported that more than 3,500 Rohingya had attempted to leave Bangladesh and Myanmar by sea in 2022, a 360 percent increase over the previous year. In an update published on 2 February, OCHA noted that 17.6 million peoplenearly one-third of the populationare estimated to be in humanitarian need in 2023. On 17 February, the World Food Programme (WFP) announced that rations for Rohingya refugees, who have been in camps in Bangladesh since 2017, will be cut by 17 percent due to a lack of funding.

On 23 December 2022, US President Joe Biden signed the Burma Unified through Rigorous Military Accountability Act (the BURMA Act) into law. Among other matters, the BURMA Act requires Biden to direct the US Permanent Representative to the [UN] to use the voice, vote, and influence of the US to spur greater action by the [UN] on Myanmar. This includes pushing the UN Security Council to consider a resolution condemning the February 2021 coup and a resolution that immediately imposes a global arms embargo against [Myanmar].

Human-Rights Related Developments

On 31 January, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, released a report on the February 2021 coup. In the report, Andrews argues that the coup was illegal and that the militarys claim as Myanmars government is illegitimate and outlines several recommendations for member states and UN organs, including the Security Council. In a statement accompanying the report, Andrews warned that the military is planning to seek legitimacy in 2023 through the means of sham elections and urged the international community to explicitly denounce what will be a farcical exercise to perpetuate military control of Myanmars political system.

In a 27 January statement, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk observed that Myanmar has undergone a wholesale regression in human rights and noted that credible sources estimate that at least 2,890 people have died at the hands of the military, which he described as almost certainly an underestimation of the number of civilians killed as a result of military action. Turk emphasised that restoring respect for human rights is necessary to end the crisis and also said that those responsible for the daily attacks against civilians and the human rights violations must be held accountable.

Key Issues and Options

The lack of progress in the implementation of ASEANs Five-Point Consensus is a significant issue for Council members. One option is for the Council to convene a private meeting with a briefing from the ASEAN Special Envoy for Myanmar. Such a briefing could provide an opportunity for Council members to learn more about the dynamics within ASEAN and consider whether there is anything the Council could do to support the implementation of ASEANs consensus plan. The Council could also request a regular report from the Secretary-General regarding the Five-Point Consensus and the situation in Myanmar more broadly. A regular report could give the Council greater insight into the problems facing the country and provide an opportunity for Council members to monitor the implementation of the Five-Point Consensus more closely.

The ongoing violence in Myanmar is another major issue for the Council. If the fighting escalates, the Council could choose to pursue a resolution that includes the possibility of Article 41 measures including, for example, an arms embargo that prohibits the sale of materials used by the militarys air force, or an asset freeze targeted at the military leadership.

Another option is to hold an Arria-formula meeting with experts in international criminal law. Such a meeting could provide a platform for discussing whether referring the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court (ICC) is an appropriate course of action for the Council.

The humanitarian and refugee crises in Myanmar are also areas of concern. Members could urge member states to make greater contributions to humanitarian relief efforts, particularly given the WFPs recent announcement that rations will be cut for Rohingya refugees. The Council could also request briefings from OCHA and UNHCR regarding their work in Myanmar and Bangladesh, with a view to better understanding how the conflict in the country is fuelling the crises and whether there is anything the Council can do to facilitate the provision of humanitarian assistance.

Council and Wider Dynamics

Council dynamics on Myanmar have been difficult since the issue came onto the Councils agenda in 2006. China has resisted stronger action from the Council for many years. It seems Russia has become increasingly engaged, as it has strengthened its ties with the military regime and in negotiations of outcomes has often opposed language that singled out the military. For several years, a group of elected members has pushed for more attention to be paid to the situation in Myanmar. The UK, the penholder on the file, which has for the last few years advocated for allowing ASEAN to take the lead on this issue, now appears more inclined for the Council to take on a more proactive role. ASEAN continues to be a key player, with some ASEAN members apparently playing an instrumental role in persuading China to abstain on the December resolution. Internal divisions within ASEAN on Myanmar may, however, make it even more difficult for the organisation to play a constructive role.

Since the military takeover, members have been able to agree on the need to exercise restraint and release all political prisoners but attributing responsibility for attacks and human rights language have been sensitive issues for some members. During the negotiations on resolution 2669, references to further measures and a regular reporting cycle by the Secretary-General were also contentious issues.

Among the elected members, since 2019, there has been either an ASEAN member (Indonesia, Vietnam) or a neighbouring country (India) in the Council. These members were vocal about ASEAN and the regional actors taking the lead on this issue. While neither a direct neighbour nor a member of ASEAN, Japan has had historically close ties to Myanmar and strong diplomatic and economic links with ASEAN. It has also been involved in efforts to promote dialogue among the different parties. Marchs meeting might provide an indication as to whether the new mix of members in the Council in 2023 may be more amenable to greater Council engagement on this situation following the adoption of resolution 2669 in December 2022.

Sign up for SCR emails Subscribe UN DOCUMENTS ON MYANMAR
Overview

In March, Mozambique will hold the presidency of the Security Council.

Mozambique is expected to organise two signature events this month. One will be an open debate on Women, Peace and Security: Towards the 25th Anniversary of Resolution 1325. The meeting will be chaired by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Mozambique, Veronica Nataniel Macamo Dlhovo. High-level representatives from UN Women, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and the AU are expected to brief. A civil society representative is also expected to brief.

The second signature event will be a high-level debate on Countering terrorism and preventing violent extremism conducive to terrorism by strengthening cooperation between the UN and regional organisations and mechanisms. President Filipe Jacinto Nyusi of Mozambique is expected to chair the meeting.

A briefing on security sector reform is anticipated in the middle of the month with representatives from the UN Secretariat, the AU, and civil society expected to brief.

Ecuador, the chair of the 1540 Committee, is expected to brief on the committees work this month. (Adopted in 2004, resolution 1540 aims to prevent non-state actors from obtaining access to weapons of mass destruction.)

A Council visiting mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is scheduled for 9-12 March. There will also be a briefing and consultations on the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO).

Several other African issues are on the programme of work this month, including:

Silencing the Guns in Africa , an open debate on the relationship between this initiative and development;

South Sudan , meeting on the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and renewal of the UNMISS mandate;

Sudan , meeting on the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS) , and briefing by Ghana, the chair of the 1591 Sudan Sanctions Committee; and

Somalia , meeting on the implementation of the Somalia Transition Plan (STP).

Middle East issues on the programme include:

Asian issues that will be addressed in March include:

Afghanistan , renewal of the mandate of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and meeting on the situation in the country;

Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) , extension of the mandate of the Panel of Experts assisting the 1718 DPRK Sanctions Committee; and

Myanmar , meeting on the Secretary-Generals report on the implementation of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Five-Point Consensus.

As in past months, there are likely to be one or more meetings on Ukraine in March.

Other issues could be raised during the month, depending on developments.
Security Sector Reform

Expected Council Action

In March, Council President Mozambique is expected to convene an open briefing on security sector reform. Representatives from the UN Secretariat, African Union (AU), and civil society are expected to brief. There is no planned outcome from the meeting.

Background and Key Recent Developments

While the definition of security sector reform (SSR) has evolved over the years, the core aim of SSR remains to enhance the effectiveness and accountability of domestic security institutions, such as defence, law enforcement, corrections, intelligence services, and border management. Security sector governance and reform (SSG/R) encompasses how to facilitate the application of the principles of good governance to the provision of public security, including accountability and the rule of law.

The Security Council first discussed SSR as a thematic issue in 2007 in an open debate during Slovakias February presidency. The Council issued a presidential statement following the debate that stressed the importance of SSR in post-conflict environments and underlined the sovereignty and primary responsibility of the country concerned in determining its SSR priorities. The statement also requested the Secretary-General to report on lessons learned as well as core SSR functions the UN system could perform. The subsequent report, Securing Peace and Development: the role of the UN in supporting SSR, was discussed during a briefing on 12 May 2008 under the UK presidency. The report observed that UN support for SSR had largely been pursued as an ad hoc undertaking, hampered by weak capacity and insufficient resources to deliver effective support to national authorities.

The Council held a second open debate on SSR on 12 October 2011 under the presidency of Nigeria. The presidential statement issued after the debate noted that the bulk of international assistance in the area of SSR takes place in, and is directed to, countries in Africa, and highlighted the need to give greater consideration to African perspectives on SSR. It also stressed the need to continue to include, as appropriate, SSR aspects as an integral part of the planning of UN operations.

On 28 April 2014, the Security Council adopted resolution 2151, the first thematic resolution on SSR, following an open debate. The debate and resolution were initiated by Nigeria, following its return to the Council after two years. While reaffirming that SSR should be a nationally owned process, resolution 2151 focused on the key role of the UN system in supporting SSR. Among other things, it requested the Secretary-General to develop additional guidance to help UN officials in delivering on mandated SSR tasks and to highlight updates on progress in SSR in reporting to the Council.

On 20 August 2015, the Council convened for a briefing under Nigerias presidency to take stock of the UN systems implementation of resolution 2151. At the meeting, Council members acknowledged the important role that SSR plays in stabilising countries in post-conflict situations and expressed support for more focused engagement by UN peace operations in SSR efforts based on national ownership and in cooperation with regional organisations such as the AU. Some Council members referred to the need to involve the voices of women, youth and civil society in reform efforts and to increase womens participation in the security sector.

On 3 December 2020, under South Africas presidency, the Council convened a ministerial-level debate on SSR. Following that meeting, the Council adopted resolution 2553, which built upon and updated resolution 2151. This second thematic resolution on SSR contained new language reflecting progress in the implementation of the SSR agenda since 2014 and broader developments in the UNs approach to the issue. It referenced the need to facilitate inclusivity in SSR processes, including by considering the needs of the entire population and promoting the participation of women in the security sector. It also sought to address gaps in the implementation of resolution 2151, including through strengthened provisions on reporting by the Secretary-General on SSR in country-specific updates to the Council. Additionally, resolution 2553 requested the Secretary-General to submit a stand-alone report to the Security Council on his efforts to strengthen the UNs comprehensive approach to SSR. That report was published in March 2022.

Since 2014, the Council has adopted over 20 countryspecific resolutions mandating 11 peace operations to implement an increasingly wide range of SSR tasks. Concurrently, the Secretary-Generals independent reviews of peace operations, such as the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), have highlighted the role that UN support for SSR plays in advancing political solutions to conflict. Additionally, peace agreements signed since 2010 increasingly contain provisions on SSG/R, recognising the importance of integrating armed groups in post-conflict security arrangements. Such agreements include those signed in South Sudan (2015, 2018), Mali (2016), the Central African Republic (2019) and Sudan (2020).

Key Issues and Options

This meeting will provide Security Council members with an opportunity to review implementation of resolutions 2151 and 2553. It will also allow them to consider the challenges and recommendations that the Secretary-Generals latest report identified in the UNs provision of support for SSR.

One area that may be a focus for some members is how the Council could improve its oversight of SSR in the context of peace processes. In this context, Council members may consider establishing a more regular reporting cycle on the topic. They may also encourage the Secretary-General to include SSR reporting more systematically in relevant country-specific updates to the Council, in accordance with resolution 2553.

Another central challenge is to acknowledge SSR as an inherently political activity rather than a purely technical exercise. As the Secretary-General noted in his report, [w]hile capacity-building is important [] it is vital to understand the political and economic role of [security] institutions from the perspective of different actors and communities. The Council may therefore wish to consider mechanisms to strengthen linkages between UN-supported SSR activities and broader political processes in relevant country situations, including through the UN Inter-Agency Security Sector Reform Task Force and the Global Focal Point for the Rule of Law, with a view towards reaffirming the primacy of politics and a unified UN approach to the issue.

Relatedly, the Secretary-Generals report noted difficulties in the coordination of SSR support between the UN and other actors, such as regional organisations and donor countries. The Council may therefore wish to consider mechanisms to strengthen coordination in both the multilateral and bilateral provision of SSR support to host countries. Enhancing partnerships with regional organisations such as the AU may also be discussed in this context.

Another key SSR priority for the Council arises in the context of peacekeeping transitions. As an operation draws down, it is critical to ensure the orderly handover of tasks to the UN country team. In this regard, the Council may wish to study best practices from relatively successful transitions, such as the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) and the United Nations Operation in Cote dIvoire (UNOCI), including the role of the Peacebuilding Fund in ensuring sustainable financing for continued SSR activities.

Finally, regarding the enhanced representation and participation of women in the security sector, the Secretary-Generals report notes that gender is featured in the language of only four out of 11 peacekeeping mandates on SSR. As such, Council members may consider adding gender-responsive SSR provisions to relevant mandates currently lacking such language.

Council Dynamics

While SSR has become a standard element in the mandates of multidimensional peacekeeping operations, some Council members remain cautious about UN engagement in security management and are averse to what they consider overly prescriptive approaches from the Security Council in post-conflict settings. In this regard, Council members at the March meeting are likely to express typically divergent views on certain cross-cutting thematic issues, such as the extent to which the UN should promote human rights and a gender perspective in its support of national SSR processes.

Sign up for SCR emails Subscribe UN DOCUMENTS ON SECURITY SECTOR REFORM UN DOCUMENTS ON SECURITY SECTOR REFORM
SECURITY COUNCIL AND WIDER UN STRUCTURE

Silencing the Guns in Africa

Expected Council Action

In March, the Council is expected to hold an open debate on peace and security in Africa to discuss the nexus between the AU initiative Silencing the Guns in Africa and development. Briefings may be provided by Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed; Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security of the AU Commission Bankole Adeoye; and a civil society representative.

Background and Recent Developments

The AU heads of state and government adopted the programme for silencing the guns by 2020 as part of the May 2013 Solemn Declaration marking the 50th anniversary of the AU and its predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity. According to the declaration, AU states expressed their determination to achieve the goal of a conflict-free Africa, to make peace a reality for all our people and to rid the continent of wars, civil conflicts, human rights violations, humanitarian disasters and violent conflicts, and to prevent genocide. The declaration continued, We pledge not to bequeath the burden of conflicts to the next generation of Africans and undertake to end all wars in Africa by 2020. To address implementation, the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) adopted an AU Master Roadmap of Practical Steps to Silence the Guns during a November 2016 retreat in Lusaka, Zambia.

As this aspirational deadline for eradicating conflict in Africa approached, the AU Assembly held an extraordinary session on Silencing the Guns on 6 December 2020. At the session, the Assembly extended the implementation of the AU Master Roadmap for a period of ten years from 2021 to 2030, with periodic reviews every two years. The AU Assembly further extended until 2030 the annual September commemoration and conduct of Africa Amnesty Month for the surrender and collection of illicit arms and light weapons. The amnesty month has been in place since 2017 to encourage civilians voluntarily to surrender illicit weapons in their possession on condition of anonymity and immunity from prosecution.

The AU Assemblys decision to extend the Silencing the Guns programme until 2030 included requesting the Chairperson of the AU Commission to create an institutional mechanism to coordinate the effective planning, monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the roadmap. The Monitoring and Evaluation Mechanism for the AU Master Roadmap of Practical Steps for Silencing the Guns in Africa by 2030 was adopted in Nairobi in May 2021. The AU Assembly endorsed this mechanism in February 2022, urging member states and the regional economic communities and regional mechanisms (RECs/RMs), as well as all other relevant key stakeholders to effectively use the monitoring and evaluation mechanism as a guiding tool for monitoring the implementation of the master roadmap and reporting on progress.

More recently, on 21 January, AU Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat announced the appointment of Mohamed Ibn Chambas as the AU High Representative for Silencing the Guns. Chambas succeeds Algerian Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra, who last served in this position.

The UN Security Council held a high-level open debate on Silencing the Guns on 27 February 2019, organised by Equatorial Guinea during its Council presidency. At that meeting, the Security Council adopted resolution 2457, which welcomed the AUs determination to rid Africa of conflicts and create conditions favourable for the growth, development and integration of the continent as encapsulated in its goal of Silencing the Guns in Africa by the Year 2020 and its Master Roadmap. The resolution expressed the Councils readiness to support the implementation of the African Union Master Roadmap of Practical Steps to Silence the Guns in Africa by year 2020.

Among other things, the resolution underlined the need for effective implementation of relevant arms control and disarmament instruments and regimes, encouraged AU member states to strengthen the regulation of natural resource management, and referenced the use of the Secretary-Generals good offices, when appropriate, in the context of integrating AU-UN efforts towards preventive diplomacy. (For more, see our Whats in Blue story of 26 February 2019.) Council members have also discussed the Silencing the Guns programme during its annual consultations with the AU PSC, and they held an Arria-formula meeting on the initiative in October 2018.

Key Issues and Options

A key issue for the upcoming briefing is the nexus between Silencing the Guns in Africa and development. Silencing the Guns is one of the flagship projects under the AUs Agenda 2063, which have been identified as key to accelerating Africas economic growth and development. (Agenda 2063 is the AU master plan for achieving inclusive and sustainable socioeconomic development over a 50-year period.) The Master Roadmap of Practical Steps to Silence the Guns recognises, among other things, economic, social and governance challenges and sets out steps to address these, such as by creating a conducive environment and incentives for investment and reducing vulnerabilities to livelihoods from climate change.

Despite the Silencing the Guns initiative since 2013, an important issue is the continents arguably worsening security trends. This includes the spread of terrorism and violent extremism, resource-linked and inter-communal conflict, a resurgence of unconstitutional changes of government, and intra-state conflicts such as in Cameroon, Ethiopia, and South Sudan.

Council members could consider discussing elements from the Silencing the Guns initiative, such as conflict prevention, and explore how the Council could further help support the initiative through a resolution or other outcome. A Council product could also welcome the AUs decision to extend the initiative until 2030.

Council Dynamics

Council members are supportive of the Silencing the Guns initiative. However, it covers a broad spectrum of issues for ending conflict, from addressing socioeconomic and governance challenges to increasing resources for the AUs preventive diplomacy and AU peace operations. Differences therefore arise among Council members on some of these issues, including members differing positions on sanctions. While the master roadmap sets out actions such as imposing arms embargoes on parties engaged in conflict and in the distribution of small arms and light weapons, the Councils three African members (currently Gabon, Ghana, and Mozambique) have championed AU PSC calls since 2022 to end existing Security Council arms embargoes in conflict situations such as the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and South Sudan. The US and European members, for example, do not agree with these calls. The use of UN assessed contributions to provide more predictable funding for AU-led peace enforcement or counter-terrorism operations also remains a controversial issue among Council members.

Sign up for SCR emails Subscribe UN DOCUMENTS ON SILENCING THE GUNS
Status Update since our February Forecast

Iraq

On 2 February, the Security Council held an open briefing (S/PV.9253) followed by closed consultations on Iraq. Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of UNAMI Ms. Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert briefed on recent developments in the country and the Secretary-Generals reports on UNAMI (S/2023/58) and the issue of missing Kuwaiti and third-party nationals and missing Kuwaiti property (S/2023/51). Iraq participated under rule 37 of the Councils provisional rules of procedure.

Mali

On 7 February, Council members held a meeting on Mali under any other business. Members discussed the treatment of Malian civil society representative Aminata Cheick Dicko since she briefed the Council on 27 January, and the related decision by Malian authorities on 5 February to expel Guillaume Ngefa-Atondoko Andali, the Director of the Human Rights Division of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) and the representative of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Mali. Albania, Ecuador, France, Japan, Malta, Switzerland, the UK, and the US requested the meeting. Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix briefed. Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights and head of the UN Human Rights Office in New York Ilze Brands Kehris also attended.

Children and Armed Conflict

On 13 February, the Security Council held a briefing on children and armed conflict that focused on prevention of grave violations against children (S/PV.9258). The meeting was one of the signature events of Maltas Council presidency. Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict Virginia Gamba and Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children Najat Maalla Mjid briefed. The Council was also briefed by Divina Maloum, a peacebuilder from Cameroon who works on prevention, childrens rights, and gender-related issues.

Sea-Level Rise

On 14 February, the Security Council convened a ministerial-level open debate on sea-level rise and its implications for international peace and security, one of the signature events of the Maltese Council presidency (S/PV.9260). Maltas Minister for Foreign and European Affairs and Trade Ian Borg chaired the meeting. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, President of the UN General Assembly Csaba Korosi, and Coral Pasisi, Director of Climate Change of the Pacific Community and President of Tofia Niue, briefed. Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu also briefed in his capacity as co-chair of the International Law Commission Study Group on Sea-level Rise.

Middle East, including the Palestinian Question

On 20 February, the Security Council adopted a presidential statement expressing deep concern and dismay with Israels recent announcements regarding expansion of settlement activity and reiterating that continued Israeli settlement activity is imperilling the viability of the two-State solution (S/PRST/2023/1). This was the first presidential statement on The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question adopted by the Council in over eight years and the first formal Council outcome since resolution 2334, which was adopted in December 2016.

After the adoption, the Security Council convened for an open briefing on The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question (S/PV.9263). Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland and Deputy Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) Leni Stenseth briefed.

Central African Republic

On 21 February, the Security Council held a briefing and consultations on the situation in the Central African Republic (CAR) (S/PV. 9265). Special Representative for the CAR and head of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) Valentine Rugwabiza briefed the Council on the latest developments in the country based on the Secretary-Generals most recent report (S/2023/108) published on 16 February. The Chair of the CAR Configuration of the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC), Ambassador Omar Hilale (Morocco), also briefed the Council.

Somalia

On 22 February, the Security Council held a briefing and consultations on the situation in Somalia (S/PV.9267). Acting Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Somalia and head of the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) Anita Kiki Gbeho briefed on the latest political, security, and humanitarian developments in the country based on the Secretary-Generals most recent report (S/2023/109) published on 16 February. Special Representative of the AU Commission Chairperson (SRCC) for Somalia and head of the AU Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) Mohamed El-Amine Souef, UN Women Executive Director Sima Sami Iskandar Bahous, and a civil society representative also briefed the Council. The meeting had a particular focus on Women, Peace and Security (WPS), and briefers and Council members highlighted various aspects of the WPS agenda during the meeting.

EU-UN Cooperation

On 23 February, the Security Council held its annual meeting on EU-UN cooperation under the agenda item Cooperation between the United Nations and regional and subregional organizations in maintaining international peace and security (S/PV.9268). At the meeting, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell briefed Council members on strengthening the EU-UN partnership.

Libya

On 27 February, the Security Council held an open briefing (S/PV.9270) followed by closed consultations on Libya. Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Libya and head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) Abdoulaye Bathily briefed the Council on recent developments in the country. Libya participated under rule 37 of the Councils provisional rules of procedure.
MIDDLE EAST

Syria

Expected Council Action

In March, the Security Council will hold its monthly meetings on political and humanitarian developments in Syria and on the use of chemical weapons in the country.

Key Recent Developments

Syria continues to grapple with the devastating humanitarian consequences of the recent earthquakes in the country. A 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck south-east Turkiye and northern Syria on 6 February. During an 8 February press briefing, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator ad interim for Syria El-Mostafa Benlamlih noted that 10.9 million people in Syria have been affected by the earthquake in the north-western governorates of Hama, Latakia, Idlib, Aleppo, and Tartus. On 20 February two additional earthquakes, measuring 6.4 and 5.8 in magnitude, hit the same region. According to OCHAs 23 February flash update, more than 4,500 deaths and 8,500 injuries have been reported in north-west Syria as a result of the earthquakes. During a press briefing on 21 February, OCHAs Director of Operations and Advocacy Ghada Eltahir Mudawi said that the 20 February earthquakes injured at least 195 civilians in Aleppo and Idlib according to initial assessments.

On 13 February, the Security Council held a private meeting, followed by closed consultations, to discuss the humanitarian situation in Syria in the aftermath of the 6 February earthquake. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths briefed the Council on his recent visit to earthquake-affected areas in Turkiye and Syria. He provided an update on the Syrian governments decision to open two additional crossing pointsBab Al-Salam and Al Raeefrom Turkiye to north-west Syria for an initial period of three months for the delivery of humanitarian aid. Prior to this decision, humanitarian assistance was being delivered to Syria from Turkiye only through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing, in accordance with resolution 2672 of 9 January. (For more, see our Whats in Blue story of 13 February.)

In a 13 February statement, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed this decision and noted that as the toll of the 6 February earthquake continues to mount, delivering food, health, nutrition, protection, shelter, winter supplies and other life-saving supplies to all the millions of people affected is of the utmost urgency. During a 9 February press encounter, Guterres mentioned that many non-UN relief agencies are delivering aid through other crossings.

According to data provided by OCHA, a total of 456 trucks loaded with aid provided by six UN agencies have crossed to north-west Syria from Turkiye since 9 February: 358 using the Bab al-Hawa crossing, 82 across Bab al-Salam, and 16 across Al Raee.

On 14 February, Guterres launched a flash appeal seeking $397.6 million for the provision of humanitarian assistance to 4.9 million Syrians over a three-month period from February to May. The appeal covers several different sectors, including food security and agriculture; early recovery and livelihoods; water, sanitation and hygiene health; nutrition; and protection. At the time of writing, the flash appeal for Syria was 38 percent funded.

On 15 February, Security Council members held a meeting on Syria under any other business at the request of France. Griffiths briefed members on the UNs efforts to facilitate the continued flow of humanitarian aid to those in need. It seems that France called the meeting to discuss the modalities of the ongoing cross-border operations and OCHAs plans to operationalise the additional border crossings.

On 16 February, Security Council members held an informal interactive dialogue (IID), in accordance with resolution 2672 of 9 January, which encouraged Council members to convene IIDs every two months with participation of donors, interested regional parties and representatives of the international humanitarian agencies operating in Syria. The meeting featured a briefing by Tareq Talahma, OCHAs Acting Director for Operations and Advocacy. Three other UN officials Benlamlih, Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria Crisis Muhannad Ibrahim Ahmed Hadi, and Deputy Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria crisis ad interim on surge to Turkiye David Carden were also on hand to respond to questions. In addition to Council members and Syria, interested regional parties (Iran and Turkiye) and donors (Canada, Germany, Norway, Sweden, and the EU) also participated in the meeting. (For more, see our Whats in Blue story of 15 February.)

On 22 February, Security Council members held a meeting on Syria under any other business at the request of the US. Griffiths briefed the Council on developments in Syria since the 16 February IID. Reportedly, he provided an update on the delivery of cross-border humanitarian aid to Syria and called for more funding for the humanitarian response in the country.

On 22 February, the Deputy Special Envoy for Syria Najat Rochdi convened the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) Humanitarian Task Force (HTF) in Geneva. This was the second meeting of the HTF since the 6 February earthquake hit the country. According to a 22 February statement of the Office of the UN Special Envoy for Syria, the meeting focused on the needs and key asks to facilitate humanitarian assistance to all affected areas and quick disbursement of funding in response to the 14 February flash appeal. In her remarks, Rochdi called for resumption and increase of cross-line operations (that is, across domestic frontlines from Syrian government-held areas into areas outside government control) into north-west Syria and emphasised the need for the concerned parties and those with influence to secure the necessary approvals and security guarantees without delay. She added that simplified and expedited procedures must be ensured for the movement of the humanitarian staff into north-west Syria.

On 7 February, the Council convened a briefing, followed by consultations, on the Syria chemical weapons track. At the meeting, Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Fernando Arias updated the Council on the findings of the third report of the OPCW Investigation and Identification Team (IIT), dated 27 January. The report provided the findings of the investigations conducted from January 2021 to December 2022 on the 7 April 2018 Douma incident and concluded that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the Syrian Arab Air Forces were the perpetrators of the chemical weapons attack. The report says that at least one Mi-8/17 helicopter of the Syrian Arab Air Forces, departing from Dumayr air base, dropped two yellow cylinders which hit two residential buildings in a central area of the city, killing at least 43 people, including 17 women, nine boys, and ten girls. Arias noted that the evidence collected and analysed corroborated the conclusions of the report and rejected other scenarios. (For more, see our Whats in Blue story of 6 February.)

On 28 February, the Council convened its monthly meeting on the political and humanitarian situations in Syria. Griffiths; Geir O.Pedersen, the UNs Special Envoy for Syria; and Rasha Muhrez, Country Director of Save the Children, briefed. Griffiths highlighted the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the country as a result of the 6 February earthquake and its aftershocks. Regarding the resumption of the cross-line operations, he noted that the UN continues to liaise with the relevant parties to explore all viable options. In his remarks, Pedersen welcomed the introduction of earthquake-related exemptions in several unilateral sanctions, imposed by several countries, including the US, the UK and the EU. He noted that the unresolved political challenges in Syria will pose obstacles as the focus moves from emergency response to recovery. In this regard, he added that the approach of seeking reciprocal and verifiable confidence-building measures through the step-for-step initiative remains critical in making further progress.

Hostilities continue in some parts of Syria. On 19 February, a missile attack struck the Kafr Sousa neighbourhood of central Damascus, which reportedly killed a number of civilians and injured at least five others, according to media reports. In a 21 February statement, UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in Syria ad interim Mike Robson expressed deep concern about the strikes in Damascus and noted that civilians continue to suffer the tragic consequences of ongoing hostilities in parts of Syria, in addition to the tragic earthquake which hit Turkiye and Syria on 6 February. According to a 22 February Reuters article, sources close to the Syrian government said that the strike hit a gathering of Syrian and Iranian technical experts in drone manufacturing and killed one Syrian engineer and one Iranian official.

Human Rights-Related Developments

According to the Secretary-Generals 60-day report on the implementation of resolution 2672, released on 21 February (covering period from December 2022 to January 2023), the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) had verified several incidents across the country in which 42 civilians, including 4 women and 13 children were killed as a result of hostilities.

Key Issues and Options

The key issue for the Security Council is how to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Syria in the aftermath of the 6 February earthquake. Periodic briefings from Griffiths or other OCHA officials could help keep the Council informed of the humanitarian situation on the ground. Council members could also consider inviting representatives of Syrian humanitarian aid organisations to engage with them to explore avenues for improving aid delivery mechanisms in Syria.

The Council could consider adopting a presidential statement that:

expresses strong concern about the dire humanitarian consequences of the 6 February earthquake;

expresses strong support for the efforts of the UN and humanitarian actors on the ground;

welcomes the opening and commencement of delivery of aid through additional border crossingsBab Al-Salam and Al Raeeand further emphasises the Councils intention to closely monitor the delivery of humanitarian aid through additional border crossings;

encourages donors to enhance their support for the Syrian humanitarian response plan, including early recovery efforts and the Secretary-Generals 14 February flash appeal; and

urges the Syrian government to facilitate unimpeded humanitarian access for the UN and other humanitarian agencies in the earthquake-affected areas.

Council Dynamics

It seems that Council members have divergent views about the need to adopt a product to respond to the humanitarian crisis that has been exacerbated by the earthquake. During the 13 February closed consultations, members apparently expressed opposing views, with some members calling for a resolution recognising the opening of the two additional border crossings and the need to monitor the delivery of humanitarian aid through these crossings. It seems that these members argued that such a resolution is necessary to ensure the predictable delivery of aid to affected areas. Other Council members apparently strongly opposed the idea of a Council resolution on the matter, emphasising the need to respect Syrias sovereignty and territorial integrity. It seems that some members indicated an interest in having further discussions on the issue.

In a 13 February Twitter post, Ambassador Nicolas de Riviere (France) emphasised that if the Syrian government fails to implement its commitment to open the two crossing points, the Security Council will have to take its responsibilities and adopt a resolution. At a media stakeout on 14 February, Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield (US) welcomed the opening of additional border crossings, describing this decision as long overdue. She emphasised the need for a resolution with monitoring mechanisms that codifies additional crossing[s] and offers predictability for the UN and humanitarian actors on the ground. At the 28 February Council briefing, Russia noted that the Syrian governments decision to open additional border crossings corresponds to the guiding principles for humanitarian assistance and thus does not require any further Council action.

Brazil and Switzerland, the co-penholders on the Syria humanitarian file, apparently proposed a draft press statement on the situation in Syria following the 16 February IID. It seems, however, that Council members were unable to reach consensus on the text.

Sign up for SCR emails Subscribe UN DOCUMENTS ON SYRIA
EUROPE

Ukraine

Expected Council Action

In March, the Security Council may hold one or more meetings on the situation in Ukraine, depending on developments on the ground.

Key Recent Developments

One year into Russias military incursion, the war continues to have devastating consequences for civilians and far-reaching effects on the global economy. As at 15 February, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) had documented 21,293 civilian casualties, including 8,006 deaths, while noting that true figures are likely to be considerably higher. OHCHR has confirmed that at least 456 children have been killed in Ukraine and 684 injured. Moreover, the humanitarian and displacement crises in Ukraine continue to deteriorate. According to a 10 February OCHA humanitarian impact situation report, 17.7 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, while approximately 13.4 million people have been forcibly displaced by the war. That figure includes 5.4 million internally displaced people and eight million refugees who have fled Ukraine to neighbouring countries.

The war has entered a new phase, with a renewed Russian offensive marked by intensified fighting in several areas in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine. Russian forces continue to conduct ground attacks near the city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region as well as along the outskirts of Donetsk City, while heavy fighting has also been reported in the cities of Svatove and Kreminna in the Luhansk region.

The Security Council has been actively engaged on the situation in Ukraine in recent weeks. On 6 February, the Council held a briefing on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine, at the request of Ecuador and France, the co-penholders on humanitarian issues in Ukraine. On 8 February, at Russias request, the Council convened an open briefing under the Threats to international peace and security (TIPS) agenda item to discuss the prospects for the peaceful settlement of the crisis around Ukraine in the context of the increasing supplies of Western armaments. On 17 February, Russia initiated an open briefing under the TIPS agenda item to mark the eighth anniversary of the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements, also known as the Minsk II agreement, adopted on 12 February 2015. Russia initiated another open briefing under the TIPS agenda item on 21 February, citing new evidence regarding the 26 September 2022 explosions that caused physical damage to the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea. On 24 February, the Council held a ministerial-level briefing initiated by Malta, Council president for February, to mark the one-year anniversary of the war. (For more, see our Whats In Blue stories of 7 February, 16 February, and 23 February.)

The General Assembly convened a meeting under the 11th Emergency Special Session (ESS) established by Security Council resolution 2623 of 27 February 2022. The meeting took place from 22 to 23 February. On 23 February, UN member states voted on a draft resolution titled Principles of the Charter of the United Nations underlying a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine. The resolution underscores the urgent need to reach a peaceful settlement to the conflict that is consistent with the UN Charter. Member states also voted on two draft amendments proposed by Belarus, both of which failed to be adopted. (For more, see our Whats in Blue story of 23 February.)

Human Rights-Related Developments

On 22 February, Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights Alexandra Xanthaki, Special Rapporteur on the right to education Farida Shaheed, and Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief Nazila Ghanea issued a joint statement expressing concern at the extent of damage and destruction of sites, institutions, and objects of cultural, historical, and religious significance in Ukraine. Cultural properties are protected under Article 1 of the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. As at 22 February, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) had verified damage to 241 sites since the start of the war. The joint statement also expressed concern about the targeting of Ukrainian cultural symbols and reports of Russian troops detaining civil servants, educators, and local school directors for their refusal to implement Russian curricula.

Key Issues and Options

The overarching priority for the Council is to promote a solution to the conflict and facilitate dialogue among the parties to that end. Following the 23 February adoption of the General Assembly resolution calling for a comprehensive, just, and lasting peace, Council members may wish to request the Secretary-General to employ his good offices to promote the resumption of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in pursuit of a peace agreement in line with the UN Charter. While a negotiated settlement may appear distant, establishing diplomatic lines of communication between the parties may contribute to preventing further escalation of the conflict.

A key issue for the Council is how to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. Periodic briefings from Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths or other OCHA officials could help keep the Council informed of the humanitarian situation on the ground.

Another key issue for the Council is how to ensure the effective implementation of the Black Sea Grain Initiative (BSGI) and the memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the UNs scope of engagement to facilitate unimpeded exports of Russian food products and fertilisers to global markets. On 15 February, Ukraine sent a letter to the Security Council expressing concern that Russia is deliberately obstructing navigation in the Black Sea, causing delays in shipments of Ukrainian foodstuffs related to the BSGI. The letter notes that Russian officials at the Joint Coordination Centre in Istanbul have systematically [delayed] the inspection of vessels, leading to a systematic decrease of freight turnover. Russia, for its part, argues that the MoU signed by Russia and the UN on 22 July 2022 has not been implemented. Council members may wish to convene a meeting with UN Coordinator for the BSGI Abdullah Abdul Samad Dashti and UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan. They may choose a closed, informal format, such as an informal interactive dialogue, to allow for a frank discussion about the challenges of implementing the BSGI and the MoU.

Another important issue for the Council is how to promote the safety and security of nuclear facilities in Ukraine. Efforts continue by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi to establish a nuclear safety and security protection zone around the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. Council members may wish to seek a briefing from Grossi.

Council and Wider Dynamics

The Security Council remains starkly divided on the situation in Ukraine. Russia continues to justify its invasion, which it refers to as a special military operation, while several Council membersincluding Albania, France, the UK, and the UScondemn Russia for what they consider to be an unprovoked war.

Ukraine and its allies have advocated for a just peace in line with the UN Charter, conditioned on the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraines internationally recognised border. Other member states have called for an immediate cessation of hostilities without any preconditions, which could freeze the frontlines of the conflict and see Russia seize a significant amount of territory in eastern and southern Ukraine. Western governments have framed support for the General Assembly resolution as support for upholding the rules-based international order.

The outcome of the ESS votes on 23 February signalled the international communitys continued support for Ukraine and commitment to its sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity. However, the high number of abstentions and absences, particularly on the draft amendments, demonstrates a persistent unwillingness by some member statespredominantly from the Global Southto be perceived as aligning themselves with either side to the conflict. Approximately 41 percent of African states and about 28 percent of Asia-Pacific states either abstained or did not cast a vote on the resolution. When assessing the votes on the draft amendments, the proportion increases to roughly 76 percent for African states and 62 percent for Asia-Pacific states.

The 32 member states that abstained from voting on the resolution include some of the leading members of the Global South, such as China, India, Senegalwhich currently chairs the AUand South Africa. Analysts have noted that many of the member states that have abstained from voting on the General Assembly resolutions and continue to do so have close economic, historical, or military ties to the Kremlin. Some analysts have argued that these member states reluctance to condemn Russia at the General Assembly is not equivalent to approval of Russias actions in Ukraine but reflects dissatisfaction with the approach taken by western governments to addressing the war and its ricocheting effects on the global economy. Many African and Asia-Pacific member states have expressed support for an immediate cessation of hostilities given their primary concern over the spillover effects of the conflict, including on global energy and commodity prices. They have also been uncomfortable with sanctions on Russia, with many enhancing economic relations with Russia since the start of the war.

On 24 February, China released a 12-point position paper on a political settlement to the war in Ukraine. The 12 points include calls for respecting the sovereignty of all countries, abandoning the Cold War mentality to which China has also referred in its statements, ceasing hostilities, resuming peace talks, resolving the humanitarian crisis, protecting civilians and prisoners of war, keeping nuclear power plants safe, facilitating grain exports, stopping unilateral sanctions, keeping industrial and supply chains stable, and promoting post-conflict reconstruction. While many countries, including Ukraine, have welcomed Chinas intensified diplomatic engagement on the war, some have noted with concern that Chinas position paper makes no reference to the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine.

Sign up for SCR emails Subscribe UN DOCUMENTS ON UKRAINE
THEMATIC ISSUES

Women, Peace and Security

Expected Council Action

On 7 March, the Security Council will hold an open debate on the theme, Women, Peace and Security: Towards the 25th Anniversary of Resolution 1325. One of the signature events of Mozambiques presidency, the meeting will be chaired by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Mozambique Veronica Nataniel Macamo Dlhovo. High-level representatives from UN Women, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the African Union are the anticipated briefers. A civil society representative is also expected to brief.

Background and Key Recent Developments

It appears that Mozambique intends to use the open debate to galvanise UN member states efforts towards the full implementation of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda in preparation for the agendas 25th anniversary in October 2025. The open debate is intended to provide an opportunity for taking stock of implementation thus far and to set goals for achieving key objectives of the agenda, such as the full, equal, and meaningful participation of women in peace processes, and efforts to integrate WPS concerns in Council deliberations and decisions.

On 31 October 2000, the Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 1325, which was the first resolution on WPS. Reaffirming womens key role in conflict resolution and peacebuilding, resolution 1325 calls for the adoption of a gender perspective in peace agreements and for the protection of women and girls from gender-based violence. Since resolution 1325, the Council has adopted nine further resolutions under the WPS agenda item. Five of these focus on conflict-related sexual violence, while the other four have a wider focus, including on issues such as womens political participation, integration of a gender perspective in various aspects of the work of the Security Council and the UN, and the full implementation of the WPS agenda. Many recent Security Council resolutions, such as those renewing the mandate of UN peace operations, include provisions on WPS. Since the inception of the WPS agenda, several national, regional, and international initiatives have focused on taking stock of the agendas impact and have concentrated on strengthening its implementation, consolidating its gains, and resisting pushback. Nevertheless, as the 2022 Secretary-Generals report on WPS says, the world is currently experiencing a reversal of generational gains in womens rights while violent conflicts, military expenditures, military coups, displacements and hunger continue to increase. Gender perspectives remain at the margins of conflict prevention, women are often excluded from peace processes, and their organisations report increasing restrictions to their work.

In 2022, Council members strengthened WPS language in several Council products, including on the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and on the UN Mission to support the Hodeidah Agreement (UNMHA) (Yemen). In resolution 2663, the Council included WPS language for the first time in a mandate renewal of the 1540 Committee and its Group of Experts. (Adopted in 2004, resolution 1540 aims to prevent non-state actors from obtaining access to weapons of mass destruction.) A new reference in the draft urging the 1540 Committee to consider the full, equal and meaningful participation of women in its activities had to be downgraded to encouraging the Committee to do so, and was moved from the operative to the preambular section of the resolution, as a result of Russias opposition.

In January, the Council adopted resolution 2674, renewing the mandate of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) for one year. Resolution 2674 strengthened language regretting the lack of participation of women in the settlement process and on the implementation of an Action Plan on ways to ensure womens participation in the process.

The Informal Experts Group (IEG) on WPS held a meeting on Afghanistan on 26 January, which was the first IEG meeting convened at the level of Deputy Permanent Representative rather than of experts. Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan Markus Potzel briefed. On 20 February, the IEG met on South Sudan, with Deputy Special Representative in the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) Sara Beysolow Nyanti briefing.

Since the start of 2023, members which have signed on to the 1 December 2021 Statement of Shared Commitments on WPSAlbania, Brazil, Ecuador, France, Gabon, Japan, Malta, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the UKhave delivered joint WPS-focused statements to the press on Afghanistan (in January) and Somalia (in February). The US, which has not signed on to the shared commitments, joined the commitment holders in the delivery of the statement on Afghanistan.

One of the shared commitments is a pledge to [m]aking WPS-related issues an explicit focus of at least one mandated geographic meeting of the Council or specifically host a WPS signature event in each Presidency and requesting UN briefers to focus on this aspect. Malta elected to have a WPS focus to the 22 February Council meeting on Somalia and circulated a concept note encouraging Council members to address various aspects of the WPS agenda in their interventions at the meeting. The concept note highlighted pertinent WPS-related issues raised in the Secretary-Generals reports on Somalia, reports on children and armed conflict and recommendations made by UN Women as the secretariat of the IEG. This appears to be the first time that a concept note has been circulated to Council members ahead of a mandated meeting on a country or region with a WPS focus.

Key Issues and Options

The main issue for the Security Council remains strengthening the substantive implementation of the WPS agenda.

Mozambique, as the Council president for March, could prepare a chairs summary of the 7 March open debate to capture the key themes of the discussion and share it with Council members.

Preserving and strengthening WPS language in upcoming mandate renewals are important objectives for members supportive of the WPS agenda at the Council. Among other elements, members may consider ways to ensure that UN missions have adequate gender-related expertise, capacity and resources.

In line with resolution 2242 and the 1 December 2021 Statement of Shared Commitments on WPS, members should continue to invite diverse women civil society representatives to brief the Council regularly and follow up on their information and recommendations.

On 7 February, Council members held a meeting on Mali under any other business. This followed the negative remarks by Malis Transitional Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdoulaye Diop on the presence of civil society representative Aminata Cheick Dicko at the 27 January Council meeting on Mali, reports of threats and a misinformation campaign on social media faced by Dicko after her briefing, and the decision by Malian authorities to expel Guillaume Ngefa-Atondoko Andali, the Director of the Human Rights Division of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali. It is essential that members and the UN take all possible measures to keep briefers safe, in consultation with the briefer, including carrying out risk assessment, developing protection plans and responding to any reprisals.

Members may convene a closed Arria-formula meeting with Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders Mary Lawlor, the representatives of relevant UN entities, and NGO coalitions to discuss ways to reinforce the prevention and response to reprisals against human rights defenders, including women human rights defenders. The organisers may want to include a focus on the interaction between long-term and short-term strategies to prevent reprisals and circulate a summary of the proceedings after the meeting.

Council Dynamics

Council dynamics on WPS remain difficult and have been further complicated by Russias invasion of Ukraine. Supportive Council members and civil society actors emphasise the importance of implementing the existing normative framework on WPS rather than pursuing further Council outcomes, in order to avoid language that is redundant or less robust than the existing content of WPS resolutions.

In January 2023, Switzerland and the UAE succeeded Ireland and Mexico as IEG co-chairs. The UAEs co-chair position will become vacant when its Council term ends in December 2023.

Norway, which led on the 1 December 2021 Statement of Shared Commitments, and the founding members of the Presidency Trio for WPSIreland, Kenya, and Mexicoended their Council terms in December 2022. Of the members who started their terms in January 2023, Ecuador, Japan, Malta, and Switzerland have joined the initiative thus far.

The UK is the penholder on WPS, and the US is the penholder on conflict-related sexual violence.

Sign up for SCR emails Subscribe UN DOCUMENTS ON WPS
MIDDLE EAST

Yemen

Expected Council Action

In March, the Council will hold its monthly briefing, followed by closed consultations, on Yemen with UN Special Envoy Hans Grundberg and a representative of OCHA. The chair of the 2140 Yemen Sanctions Committee, Ambassador Ferit Hoxha (Albania), may also brief. The head of the UN Mission to Support the Hodeidah Agreement (UNMHA), Major General Michael Beary, is expected to brief during consultations.

Key Recent Developments

Yemen continues to experience its longest lull in fighting since the truce agreement between the Yemeni government and the Houthi rebel group started on 2 April 2022, despite sporadic clashes and the parties failure to renew the agreement in early October 2022. Since October, the Houthis and Saudi Arabiawhich leads a military coalition in support of the Yemeni governmenthave been holding talks, facilitated by Oman, that are reportedly focused on a potential comprehensive agreement to end the war.

On 15 February, the Council adopted resolution 2675, extending the Yemen asset freeze and travel ban sanctions measures until 15 November 2023 and the mandate of the Yemen Panel of Experts until 15 December 2023. The resolution requests that the Panel of Experts provide a midterm update to the 2140 Committee no later than 15 June and a final report no later than 15 October.

Deviating from past years, resolution 2675 was a short one-page text, or a technical rollover, of the Yemen sanctions regime. The UK, as penholder, proposed the technical rollover to give space to peace talks and avoid potential changes that could expand the sanctions and negatively impact the talks. The nine-month extension, instead of the customary one-year renewal, appears intended to allow Council members still to consider amendments to the sanctions regime later this year, especially if the Houthi-Saudi talks prove unsuccessful. Following the adoption, Council members held their monthly meeting on Yemen in closed consultations, receiving briefings from Grundberg, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Joyce Msuya, and Beary.

On 13 February, several donor states, including Council members, met in New York with Administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) Achim Steiner and UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen David Gressly. The meeting was organised amid donors frustrations over the delay in starting the salvage operation on the FSO Safer, the floating oil and offloading vessel that is moored off Hodeidah city. At the meeting, donors expressed steadfast support for urgent action to prevent a disastrous oil spill from the [FSO Safer] tanker in the Red Sea, according to the US Department of State.

The UN announced the planned operation in May 2022, saying at the time that the operation could begin once donors committed the required funds to conduct the operations first phase, which entails transferring the oil stored on the decrepit ship to a temporary vessel. While this funding has been raised, the UN said in January that it cannot begin the operation until it secures the crude carrier that will permanently replace the FSO Safer. On 27 January, the UN issued an appeal through Lloyds Lista publication about global shipping marketsfor help in finding a shipowner or group of industry philanthropists that may put up a direct financial subvention or enter a charter arrangement for a vessel.

On 27 February, Sweden and Switzerland co-hosted a pledging event in Geneva for the 2023 Humanitarian Response Plan for Yemen (HRP). Attended by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the conference raised $1.2 billion of the $4.3 billion that the UN says is required in 2023 to assist 17.3 million people considered particularly vulnerable.

Key Issues and Options

A key issue for the Council is how to support ongoing peace talks and efforts to establish a formal ceasefire and political process. Grundbergs mediation efforts appear very much contingent on progress in the Houthi-Saudi talks. Council members could reiterate the importance of coordination between this process and the work of the Special Envoy, as well as the importance of an inclusive Yemeni political process under UN mediation for a sustainable resolution to the conflict.

The humanitarian situation remains a key issue. An estimated 21.6 million people in Yemen require aid or protection. Relief efforts also face significant challenges from interference and access constraints and a dangerous security environment. This includes the Houthis enforcement of mahram over the past year, requiring women to be accompanied by male guardians, that is negatively affecting aid operations. Land mines and explosive remnants of war have become an increased issue of concern as the leading cause of civilian casualties in the truce and post-truce period. Support for Yemens economy is also critical to mitigate the humanitarian crisis.

Members may urge donors, especially those in the region, to provide more support to the 2023 HRP. They may further call on all parties to the conflict to facilitate the safe, rapid, and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief to all civilians in need and to protect humanitarian personnel and assets in line with their obligations under international humanitarian law. Members are also likely to continue closely monitoring progress towards starting the salvage operation on the FSO Safer oil tanker.

Council Dynamics

Council members welcome the Houthi-Saudi talks and have expressed cautious optimism about their potential to yield meaningful results. At the same time, members have reiterated the importance of the UN Envoy being kept informed of these negotiations and of an inclusive Yemeni political process facilitated by UN mediation to achieve a sustainable resolution to the conflict. The Councils general unity of approach towards Yemen is demonstrated by the continued joint meetings of the Riyadh-based ambassadors to Yemen of the Councils permanent members (China, France, Russia, the UK, and the US).

Differences can still arise among Council members. With the latest sanctions renewal, members agreed to a technical rollover of the Yemen sanctions regime to give space for current peace talks but also to avoid a potential repeat of the negotiations in February 2022 to renew the sanctions, which led to four abstentions. The United Arab Emirates (UAE)an elected Council member that is a member of the Saudi Arabia-led coalitionactively pushes for its views to be reflected in Council products. Regarding the sanctions regime, the UAEs objections to the UN Secretariats proposed candidates to serve as the Yemen Panel of Experts regional expert resulted in the panel operating with only four of its five members in 2022. Since 2021, the US has had a Special Envoy for Yemen, Timothy Lenderking, who has actively supported Grundbergs efforts to establish a political process and to resolve the environmental threat of the FSO Safer. Saudi Arabia exercises leverage on the Yemeni government, and Oman plays an important role as an interlocutor with the Houthis.

The UK is the penholder on Yemen. Ambassador Hoxha (Albania) chairs the 2140 Yemen Sanctions Committee, which met on 20 February to consider the 2022 final report of the Yemen Panel of Experts.

Sign up for SCR emails Subscribe UN DOCUMENTS ON YEMEN
Technology

spotlight

Technology Q&A

He dropped out of Stanford to hunt blockchain money launderers

/Courtesy TRM Labs TRM Labs co-founder and CEO Esteban Castano dropped out of Stanford to focus on detecting money laundering in the crypto industry. TRM Labs The technology created by San Francisco startup TRM Labs  co-founded by Rahul Raina, left, and Esteban Castano  is being used to track criminals using blockchain for illicit finance.

Esteban Castano and Rahul Raina launched TRM Labs to use blockchain data to help crypto companies gain insights into their customers.

But one day in 2018, a client asked if the San Francisco startups technology could also be used to track bad guys, criminals using blockchain for illicit finance. It was a realm of financial crime regulation called AML, anti-money laundering.

We said, Yes, we can build that, Castano told The Examiner. The next day I went home and Googled AML, he quipped.

Hunting down money launderers and other criminals on blockchains has become a critical part of the crypto industry and beyond.

Crypto companies and traditional banks use the technology to make sure theyre complying with regulations. Law enforcement agencies and policymakers rely on the tools offered by companies like industry leader Chainalysis and TRM Labs to keep track of criminal organizations and entities violating economic sanctions, such the ones imposed after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

In an interview with The Examiner, Castano, who dropped out of Stanford Business School to focus on TRM Labs, talked about the unexpected and quirky journey that led him and his co-founder to what has become an important sector of the crypto industry.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

How did you get started? My co-founder Rahul Raina and I met in Mexico City working for an education nonprofit called Generation.org. We met, like all good things, over tacos. Early on, we both knew that we wanted to start a company. We got a really good piece of advice from a mentor, which is that innovation is found around the corner. The device was basically that its really difficult to stand in front of a whiteboard and imagine the next billion-dollar company. You have to be out in the world, exposed to problems that no one has seen before, to discover those opportunities.

So the first idea we had was PokemonGo for crypto, where we would be a gaming company dropping NFTs in the real world that people could pick up. The first problem that we encountered was the need to track the NFTs  (to figure out) which addresses were holding which NFTs. So we built an analytics tool. The second problem that we encountered was fraud. We had multiple users. We saw multiple accounts being registered with the same Ethereum address.

Over time, while we were building this really terrible game, we came to realize that being able to read data from the blockchain to translate that complex activity and make it intelligible and useful was something that a lot of people, regardless of what they were building on blockchains, were going to need. Thats where the idea of TRM, or token relationship management, came out of.

What was the name of the gaming company? I cant tell you because its too embarrassing.

Now you have to tell me! It was called Token Drop. Long story short, were terrible game developers. One night we were listening to a podcast about startups. It was the story of Slack. If youve heard the story of Slack, they were a gaming company that pivoted to their internal messaging tool that they had built. Rahul and I kind of looked at each other, and our game wasnt going anywhere. We said, Well, we have this internal analytics tool. What if we tried to sell that? Thats how we landed on TRM, or Token Relationship Management.

It was 2018 when we started. By the end of the year, we had made the change. Rahul had quit his job at OpenDoor, and I had dropped out of Stanford Business School.

Bay Area crypto crimefighter targets 'pig butchering' When Erin West first learned about crypto, the Santa Clara County deputy district attorney immediately had a gut feeling that the technology meant bad news for law enforcement

How did you navigate the crypto market then? It was around the time of an earlier crypto boom that subsequently led to another downturn. We got another piece of good advice from a mentor, which was that big companies are built when you believe something that others dont and youre right. Rahul and I asked ourselves: What do we believe that others dont? And it was that crypto would be used by over a billion people in the next decade despite the short-term volatility we were seeing.

The second thing that we believed was that a critical ingredient to making crypto successful was building more trust in digital assets, and more safety in this ecosystem. We were focused on helping token issuers like stablecoin companies understand their user base, to answer questions like, how many addresses are holding my token and how is that number changing over time?

It was a little bit of serendipity that we discovered this compliance and AML world. One of our customers using our analytics product sat next to the compliance person, and the compliance person looked over their shoulder and said, Who built this? Can you introduce me?

So he showed up at our office in the SoMa district of San Francisco. The customer said, Can you convert your analytics to help me detect money laundering on Ethereum. They had signed a contract with Chainalysis, which didnt support Ethereum. We said, Yes, we can build that. (Chainalysis confirmed that it expanded beyond bitcoin only in 2019.)

Of course, the next day I went home and Googled AML. But that was the foray into that space. It was around January of 2019 that we planted our flag in this market of building a safer financial system for billions of people. We realize the actual hair on fire problem in crypto today is compliance and anti-money laundering or for the public sector, investigating financial crime.

Talk about your early dealings with law enforcement agencies. Towards the end of 2018, we had this idea that we should pivot to compliance. We had raised a seed round and we said, Well, lets try an experiment. What if we announced our fundraise, and we positioned ourselves as a compliance startup?

We did that and when I woke up that morning, I had a ton of inbound emails from some of the largest crypto exchanges in the world, but notably one of the top five largest banks in the U.S. It was from their fraud team that was seeing credit cards being sold on the Dark Web for crypto.

That person at this bank introduced me to the Secret Service. And we were able to establish a relationship with the Secret Service. That then led to an introduction to the FBI. We flew out to D.C. to meet with the FBI. Rahul and I shared a futon at an Airbnb.

Were going to the FBI, but were still a startup. Its essentially like three or four employees. So we were trying to save money.

There was this aha moment when we were with the FBI. We were showing the tool we had built, and for all these companies it was really valuable to them.

Lets fast forward a bit. Two years ago, crypto was hot, then everything started crashing in late 2021. What has been the most difficult part of navigating what happened? Ill give you my honest opinion, and then I will try to come up with a better answer. Weve been super fortunate. Weve been tripling our growth year after year for three plus years now. Part of that is because what were offering to the market is a must have. If you are a crypto firm or a crypto exchange or a financial institution, being able to mitigate AML risk is often the very top of your checklist.

There has been a heightened focus on regulation. How have you navigated that trend? Its bridging knowledge gaps in both the private sector and the public sector. If you started a company in the 1990s, you dont need permission to create a website. If youre a crypto entrepreneur, suddenly theres a lot of things that you have to get permission for, especially if youre talking about handling peoples money.

Theres this enormous effort in how you upskill this wave of entrepreneurs on regulatory requirements. In the public sector, crypto breaks a lot of the assumptions in historical legislation. A lot of our existing AML regime is based on this premise that the only entities that have visibility into illicit activity were the financial institutions themselves. Weve deputized those financial institutions, and required them to detect money laundering. Crypto breaks that assumption. Today, supervisors and law enforcement have direct visibility of every transaction on the blockchain. Without needing a subpoena or a suspicious activity report, they can detect illicit activity.

Its those types of paradigm shifts where theres the most growing pains. I think were on a decade-plus journey of having crypto-native legislation that is based on these new assumptions we have in this new financial system.

One thing that has changed is the VC community has sort of soured on crypto. What do you see in terms of the investment interest? The VC tourists may have soured on crypto. But those VCs that have spent a meaningful amount of time in the space, understand the technology and are talking to entrepreneurs, are as bullish as ever in crypto.

What are you most concerned about? That is a good question. Its probably some black swan cybersecurity risk, some protocol that is systemically important getting hacked or something.
Hopefuls wait for the beginning of the civil service exam in Hefei, East China's Anhui province, on Jan 8, 2023. [Photo/Xinhua] 40-year-olds now eligible to sit exams in bid to relieve employment anxiety Some provinces and regions in China have relaxed age restrictions for candidates registering for civil servant examinations, sending a positive signal to middle-aged people who may be experiencing employment anxiety. Over the weekend, 27 provinces and regions  out of the 30 that recently started their civil servant recruitment campaigns  organized written examinations. Among these provinces, 10 of them, including Henan and Hubei, as well as Tianjin municipality, raised age restrictions for candidates to 40 years old, up from 35. Henan clarified in a recruitment notice that those born after January 1982 and holding a master's or doctoral degree can apply for civil servant positions, except for some vacancies that have strict age limits. Previously, these vacancies were only open to candidates under 35 years old. The Inner Mongolia autonomous region raised its age limit from 35 years old to 40 for some grassroots positions in remote areas. The Henan Civil Service Bureau said that the relaxation was due to changing requirements for certain positions, while it's not sure if the bureau will keep relaxing age limits in the future. A State-level regulation for civil servant recruitment released in 2007 said that candidates should be between 18 and 35 years of age. "The age relaxation shows the nation's resolve to promote employment," Zhu Lijia, an associate professor at the National Academy of Governance, said in an interview with the news outlet Shanghai Observer. He said that the age limit caused many companies to follow suit, while relaxing it can help promote a fairer job market and avoid prejudice against middle-aged job seekers. In the past few years, prejudice against employees in their late 30s has attracted attention both from the government and the public. Jiang Shengnan, a deputy to the National People's Congress and a researcher at Wenzhou University in Zhejiang province, proposed last year removing the age limit for civil service applicants. She said in her proposal that the limit delivers a negative signal to society that once people reach 35 they may lose the chance of fair job competition. She added that people may have a difficult time at around 35 years old if they have children to raise and older parents to support. It's neither scientific nor fair to exclude these people in recruitment, and it is a huge waste of human resources. Guo Sheng, CEO of recruitment portal Zhaopin, said: "People aged between 35 and 45 years old are vulnerable and have the lowest capability of bearing risks. They usually have children in education and elderly relatives to support, as well as economic pressure from housing loans. Also, people at these ages have weaker learning ability while the quickly developing industry requires them to learn fast." He added, however, that people over 35 have advantages such as rich working experiences and intense energy. "It's important for them to enhance their learning ability to find the right life, rather than going with the flow." The report delivered to the 20th CPC National Congress in October clarified that it's necessary to eliminate the shortcomings of systems and policies hampering the mobility of labor forces and talent, and to remove improper restrictions and prejudices influencing fair employment.
Credit rated banks in India are well placed to transition to the expected credit loss approach under the International Financial Reporting Standard 9 (IFRS 9) which is more forward looking, said S&P Global Ratings.

"We believe IFRS 9's more forward-looking approach to provisioning will improve the timeliness of loan-loss provisions, more closely align reporting with global norms, and facilitate regulatory oversight that should help to mitigate disclosure complexities," S&P Global Ratings said in a report.

The report also said the transition by the Indian banks to IFRS 9 will not change the their credit ratings. The Reserve Bank of India is set to release guidance on the rollout of IFRS 9 after years of delay while the banks shaped up.

S&P Global Ratings believes the new standard will enhance credit loss provisioning, transparency, and confidence in banks' financial reporting. It will also align with global financial reporting norms. But while the transition should be largely smooth, not all banks are equally prepared.
The Indian government has received the 2023 'Government Leadership Award' at the GSMA's Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2023 event in Barcelona, Spain, Union IT Ashwini Vaishnaw informed on Tuesday.

The GSMA is an association representing the mobile operators and global mobile industry.

"The reforms introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government in the telecom sector have transformed it completely. This global award recognises those efforts," the minister said.

"Target of pan-India 5G coverage will be achieved by the end of next year. In a landmark achievement, 387 districts have already been covered under 5G services," Vaishnaw informed.

Lt Gen Dr SP Kochhar, Director General, the Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI) said that the GSMA's 'Government Leadership Award' recognises world-class leadership in the establishment of sound regulatory policies for mobile connectivity.

"We express our warm compliments on this tremendous achievement, especially to the Union Minister of Communications & IT, the Minister of State for Communications, the Telecom Secretary, as well as the entire Department of Telecommunications and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, for the prolific leadership and dynamic support provided to the industry," Kochhar said in a statement.

The industry is delighted and greatly enthused by this development, and "we look forward to playing our role in taking the Indian telecom sector to further heights and help achieve more milestones going ahead," he added.

Meanwhile, Reliance Jio has launched True 5G service in 277 cities across the country and is on the path to achieve the declared goal to increase the Jio 5G footprint to cover every town, taluka and tehsil across the country by December this year.
India has an estimated 75,000 startups and a vast majority of these fall under the software category. This means that France headquartered design software technology company Dassault Systemes had to look far and wide to zero in on startups in the hardware category.

Dassault Systemes, a multinational technology company that offers design, simulation, and product lifecycle management software to industries like manufacturing, infrastructure, and the health sciences, believes in early interaction with startups.

The company, which entered India in the late 90s, has provided software support to more than 2,000 hardware companies in the country via its startup engagement programme. Its 3D Experience Lab, which is the R&D setup of the company, has already had five cohorts since its launch in 2018.

We aim to grow our engagement with the startups in India by over five times, Suchit Jain, VP - Strategy & Business Development, Dassault Systemes Solidworks told YourStory. Dassault Systemes says it has also created an ecosystem where it engages with influencers, students, medical professionals as well as has partnered with NITI Aayog and Shiv Nadar University to foster entrepreneurship.

It has also built a flexible pricing model for partner startups. In the first year of its engagement, startups can use its software free of charge. In the second year, they get a discount of 75% followed by a 50% discount in the third year. Generally, Dassault Systemes works with startups that are less than five years old and have revenue under a million dollars.
San Mateo, CA (94402)

Today

Morning clouds will give way to sunshine for the afternoon. High 58F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy early with increasing clouds overnight. Low 47F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph.
Kumi Taguchis first Dateline report, The Church and the Assassin, which investigates links between the 2022 assassination of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, and the Unification Church, aka the Moonies, opened her eyes to a side of her ancestral homeland she hadnt seen before.

On family trips, and while filming her 2019 ABC documentary, Kumis Japan, in which she sought to understand her fathers last wishes, the Insight host came to know only a peaceful, harmonious country.

Kumi Taguchis investigation into Japans Moonies opened her eyes to a side of her ancestral homeland she hadnt seen before.

It was the first time I have dug into a current, controversial story, and it felt different being there, says Taguchi. It was such a privilege, and a great way in which to look at my own sense of that country, still with these gentle, polite, lovely people, but theres a lot going on beneath the surface.

In the potentially explosive documentary, Taguchi meets with investigative journalist Yasuomi Sawa at the Yokohama Archives of History in Tokyo to learn about Abes connections with the Unification Church. (Abes alleged killer told investigators he was motivated by a grudge he held against the church over his mothers bankruptcy.) Bizarre footage is also shown of Abe and Donald Trump at a Church event.
Workday frustration can strike before your first sip of coffee, opening an email that hopes it finds you well or hitting the one-hour mark of a 15-minute meeting. Decision paralysis descends the moment you look at your wardrobe. Will your boss take you seriously in an organic cotton T-shirt? Does the print blouse match your red tartan trousers? Is the peasant blouse too flamboyant?

The international runway adds to the confusion with lion headdresses, provocative cutouts and sheer fabrics, but this season designers were thinking of 9am to 5pm, rather than 9pm to 5am.

Back to work on the Milan runway. Fendi, Prada, Max Mara and Emporio Armani. Credit: AP, Getty, Supplied

At the Prada show in Milan, luminous white shirts were tucked into sensible slim trousers while other models borrowed from designer Miuccia Pradas signature look of grey knitwear with a skirt.

Beauty here is determined not by aesthetic, but by action  garments are signs, representations of the beauty of care, of love, of reality, Prada and co-designer Raf Simons wrote in the notes accompanying the show. Translation? Basics are back.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic first sent public life into lockdown three years ago, school refusal has emerged as an increasing problem among Australian students.

When Sydney schoolgirl Samara, whose family asked to remain anonymous, was starting her final year of primary school in 2020, she had no idea a pandemic would trigger a series of lockdowns that would disrupt her next two years of schooling  including the important transition from Year 6 to Year 7.

Getting children back to school has been tough since the pandemic began. Credit: Rodger Cummins

If not for the COVID-19 pandemic, Samara would have spent 2020 and 2021 celebrating the end of one chapter of her education before establishing a new life at high school, making friends and exploring fresh academic frontiers.

Instead, like her peers across the nation, Samara endured months of remote learning during COVID-19 lockdowns, isolated from friends and unable to partake in the traditional rite of passage from primary to high school.
Political pistol

A 26-year-old man who took a pistol to the Department of Aboriginal Affairs office in Canberra yesterday was fined $40 today and placed on a 12-month good behaviour bond. Canberra Court of Petty Sessions was told by a police witness that the pistol carried by Robert Arthur John McLeod, an entertainer, of Scrivener Street, OConnor, was not loaded. McLeods counsel, Mr T. Higgins, said his action was a political gesture.

Patridge lands

David Cassidy, the reigning king of pop and the teenyboppers idea of heaven, held court in Kings Cross yesterday and talked about himself, his career, his future, his image, his lifestyle  and his arrival in Sydney. Cassidy had no clear ideas about Australia before flying into Mascot on Thursday. It was like walking off the aircraft on to Mars. he confessed. In keeping with Cassidys youthful image, we were refreshed with fruit juice and sausage rolls.

Metric milk
The legacy of Brazilian Carnival founder Robson Silva will live on this year in the annual Brisbane event celebrating that nations culture.

Silva, who was a pillar of the Brazilian community, began the carnival in 2015 on the streets of Brisbanes CBD. Over the years, the event quickly grew from 600 attendees to thousands.

The late Robson Silva was the founder of the Brazilian Carnival in Brisbane. Credit: Nickoly Oliveira

But Silvas death last year gave rise to questions about whether the carnival would continue without him. However, his close friend, Victor Bakker, put any doubts to rest.

I was always helping him with the many events he held for the community, and I received so many messages saying, keep it going, keep it alive for him, he said.
The fight to save a 1930s-era art deco swimming pavilion at Redcliffe has been lost, with an engineering report condemning the historic building.

Moreton Bay Regional Council sounded the Suttons Beach Pavilions death knell last January, causing community outrage when it announced its impending demolition.

Moreton Bay Regional Council has confirmed Redcliffes Suttons Beach Pavilion will be demolished.

As a result of that outrage, the council promised to commission a new independent engineering report on the buildings condition to determine whether it could be saved.

That almost 600-page report, by Sunshine Coast engineering firm Covey Associates, was released on Wednesday.
Rajwinder Singh arrives in Australia to face murder charge over death of Toyah Cordingley

Were sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. Were working to restore it. Please try again later.

Dismiss
The Victorian education system is leaving behind some deaf and hard-of-hearing children, warn experts and advocates, who are calling for more resources and awareness of these students needs.

A lack of staff, adequate support and resources in regional and rural areas means some deaf or hard-of-hearing students arent receiving enough support to ensure they get a good education.

Raquel Pantelic moved from Colac to Melbourne so that her child, Zveki, who is deaf, would get the best education. Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui

Dr Kaye Scott, who has worked in the deaf and hard-of-hearing sector for more than 30 years, said there were patches of excellence in deaf education, but most teachers would agree some students were being let down.

Scott said there was still a lot of inequity across the state. She said location often determined whether students received the support they desperately need to develop skills commensurate with their peers.
A century-old building in the heart of Perths CBD is slated for a multimillion-dollar revamp to prepare for the arrival of two high-end international retailers, understood to be upmarket French jeweller Cartier and Italian fashion house Fendi.

The City of Perth council has given real estate investment company Centuria the green light to embark on a $5 million revamp of the Fauldings Building on Murray Street, a two-storey post-gold boom building dating back to the late 1890s.

The Fauldings Building on Murray Street will soon be occupied by Fendi and Cartier. Credit: Cox Architecture.

The building, purchased by Centuria in 2007 for $12.5 million, has been vacant since the departure of middle-market clothing retailer Country Road in August 2022.

Cox Architecture lodged plans to undertake a host of works in late 2022, including lowering the elevated base floor level to match that of Murray Street, installing full-length windows and removing the external cement render to expose the original brickwork.
Nurses and midwives have been warned against posting on the adults-only content platform OnlyFans by the industrys professional complaints body.

Medical workers risked being a distraction for patients even if they produced explicit content on their own time and in a way that did not identify their profession, the Nursing and Midwifery Council of NSW said in an email to the states nurses and midwives on Wednesday.

Some nurses were alarmed by the email, with one referring to it as slut-shaming, and the nurses union said it didnt object to workers earning a second income from online platforms.

Recently, attention has been drawn to the council of inappropriate use of online media content services such as OnlyFans, the Nursing and Midwifery Council of NSW said in a statement to the Herald, when asked about the email.
Karamanlis said he had made every effort to improve a railway system that had been in a state that doesnt befit the 21st century. But, he added, When something this tragic happens, its impossible to continue as if nothing has happened. The union representing train workers announced a 24-hour strike for Thursday, while protests by left-wing groups broke out in Athens late on Wednesday. Athens metro workers also called a 24-hour strike for Thursday, saying they face similar problems as railway employees. Emergency workers used cranes and other heavy machinery to move large pieces of the trains, revealing more bodies and dismembered remains. The operation was to continue overnight, with firefighters proceeding painstakingly through the wreckage.

Its unlikely there will be survivors, but hope dies last, rescuer Nikos Zygouris said. Larissas chief coroner, Roubini Leondari, said 43 bodies had been brought to her for examination and would require DNA identification as they were largely disfigured. Transport Minister Kostas Karamanlis addresses the media during his visit to the site of the tragedy. Credit: AP Most (of the bodies) are young people, she told ERT. They are in very bad condition. Greeces firefighting service said 57 people remained hospitalised late Wednesday, including six in intensive care. More than 15 others were discharged after receiving treatment.

More than 200 people who were unharmed or suffered minor injuries were taken by bus to Thessaloniki, 130 kilometres to the north. Police took their names as they arrived, in an effort to track anyone who may be missing. Hellenic Train, which operates all of Greeces passenger and cargo trains, including those that collided, offered its heartfelt condolences to the victims families. The company belongs to Italys state railways. Firefighters and rescuers at the site of the crash. Credit: AP Eight rail employees were among the dead, including the two drivers of the freight train and the two drivers of the passenger train, according to Yannis Nitsas, president of the Greek Railroad Workers Union. The union called the one-day strike to protest what it said was chronic neglect of Greeces railways by successive governments.

Unfortunately, our long-standing demands for staff hirings, better training and above all use of modern safety technology always end up in the wastepaper basket, it said in a statement. A teenage survivor who did not give his name to reporters said that just before the crash he felt sudden braking and saw sparks  and then there was a sudden stop. Our carriage didnt derail, but the ones in front did and were smashed, he said, visibly shaken. He used a bag to break the window of his car, the fourth, and escape. Gogakos said the crash felt like an explosion, and some smoke entered the carriage. He said some passengers escaped through windows but that after a few minutes, crew members were able to open the doors and let people out. Multiple cars derailed, and at least one burst into flames.

Temperatures reached 1,300 degrees Celsius (2,372 degrees Fahrenheit), which makes it even more difficult to identify the people who were in it, fire service spokesperson Vassilis Varthakoyiannis said. A man who was trying to ascertain the fate of his daughter, who was on the train, said he had a harrowing phone conversation with her before she was cut off. She told me, Were on fire. ... My hair is burning, he told ERT, without giving his name. Many of the passengers were students returning to Thessaloniki from Carnival, but officials said but no detailed passenger list was available. This year was the first time the festival, which precedes Lent, was celebrated in full since the start of the pandemic in 2020. The government declared three days of national mourning from Wednesday, while flags flew at half-staff outside all European Commission buildings in Brussels.

Visiting the accident scene, Prime Minister Mitsotakis said the government must help the injured recover and identify the dead. I can guarantee one thing: We will find out the causes of this tragedy, and we will do all thats in our power so that something like this never happens again, Mitsotakis said. It was the countrys deadliest rail crash on record. In 1968, 34 people died in a crash in the southern Peloponnese region. Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou broke off an official visit to Moldova to visit the scene, laying flowers beside the wreckage. Pope Francis offered condolences to the families of the dead in a message sent to the president of the Greek bishops conference by the Vaticans secretary of state.
Tempe, Greece: A passenger train carrying hundreds of people collided at high speed with an oncoming freight train in a fiery wreck in northern Greece early on Wednesday, killing 32 people and injuring at least 85, officials said.

The impact caused a fire in a number of the passenger carriages, burning many commuters who were rushed to hospitals.

We heard a big bang, [it was] 10 nightmarish seconds, said Stergios Minenis, a 28-year-old passenger who jumped to safety from the wreckage.

Smoke rises from trains as firefighters and rescuers operate after a collision near Larissa city, Greece, early on Wednesday. Credit: AP

We were turning over in the wagon until we fell on our sides [...] then there was panic, cables [everywhere] fire, the fire was immediate, as we were turning over we were being burnt, fire was right and left.
Istanbul: Russian President Vladimir Putin is reportedly living with his gymnast girlfriend at a vast, heavily guarded country estate featuring several palatial homes, a room coated in gold leaf, and a playground for their young children.

Alina Kabaeva, 39, an Olympic rhythmic gymnastics champion who has long been linked with the 70-year-old Russian leader, lives in a villa on Putins estate on Lake Valdai, about 400 kilometres north-west of Moscow, according to The Project, a Russian investigative news site.

The Lake Valdai property that Vladimir Putin has built and lives in with his girlfriend and their young children. Credit: proekt.media

The Russian president has reportedly bought his lover a property empire worth $US120 million ($178 million) through a slush fund in Cyprus, the site reported. Construction on Kabaevas mansion began in 2020 and was completed two years later, it claimed.

At nearly 1200 square metres, the mansion was built entirely of wood in the style of a Russian dacha. Construction was carried out by a company owned by Yuri Kovalchuk, the Russian businessman also known as Putins banker.
Israel was rocked by further protests against the governments planned judicial overhaul in the wake of increased violence in the West Bank, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seemed determined to hold his ground.

Demonstrators against the states bid to restrict the authority of the Supreme Court blocked main roadways on Wednesday (Tel Aviv time), including the key Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway. Thirty-nine were arrested in the latest skirmish in a controversy thats caused a deep social rift and sparked shekel volatility and unnerved markets and investors.

Israeli police deploy horses and stun grenades to disperse Israelis blocking a main road to protest against plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus new government to overhaul the judicial system, in Tel Aviv. Credit: AP

Unrest in Palestinian villages has led to fights between soldiers and Jewish settlers in recent days, intensifying the worst hostilities in years. Eight Israelis were arrested on suspicion of their involvement in the violence and an assault in the village of Huwara.

Police said they expected to detain more.
Washington: TikTok announced on Wednesday (US time) that many teenage users will now be limited to 60 minutes of screen time - that is, until they enter a passcode to bypass the feature and continue scrolling.

The social media company said that app users who have identified themselves as younger than 18 will start getting an automatic message when they hit an hour of daily scrolling. Theyll have to enter a passcode to dismiss the message.

TikTok and teens. Credit: iStock

The plan will not limit kids to a strict period of screen time - besides entering the passcode, users on social media have been known to alter their ages to avoid features meant for kids.

Still, TikTok said similar reminders have been shown to spur users to try to take control of their screen time.
PHILIPSBURG:--- MP Wescot for more than a year, has been addressing the issue of e-cigarettes and vaping amongst the school-going population on St. Maarten, with primarily the Inspectorate of the Ministry of Health and the Minister of Education, Drs. R. Samuel.

One can recall my initial contact with the Minister on this topic when the Minister of ECYS stated he had contacted or was intending to contact the Turning Point (TP) Foundation on this matter.

It was not made clear why this particular institution was chosen and what was expected of the TP Foundation. Nor have I been informed of the outcome of any further discussions on the matter of vaping amongst our youth.

In any case, no concrete action or reaction was had from the ministry with respect to vaping amongst our youth, while from all indications this phenomenon is a growing one and not only in St. Maarten, MP Wescot continued.

Just recently, the FMA on Curacao sounded the alarm regarding vaping, especially amongst youngsters. And on Aruba since the beginning of this year, strict new regulations have been introduced to limit the use of tobacco products, based on public health considerations.

In most countries, laws on tobacco use have been updated to include so-called Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS).

In September 2021, I established contact with the Inspectorate of the Ministry of Public Health, which responded to my queries as to the health effects of e-cigarettes, especially in adolescents and young adults.

The Inspectorates conclusion was clear: THE USE OF ENDS, E-CIGARETTES, AND OTHER VAPING PRODUCTS pose A SERIOUS HEALTH RISK!

Most E-cigarettes contain nicotine, which has known negative health effects. Nicotine is addictive, it is toxic, can harm young adults brain development, and is a health danger for pregnant adults and their developing fetuses.

MP Wescot: Luckily, it was also concluded that our current legislative framework provides various possibilities for amendments and updates to regulate ENDS.

Some examples:

The Tobacco Ordinance (Lv. Beperking Tabaksgebruik)

The Commodities Act (Warenverordening)

LB Labeling regulations (LB Etikettering)

Public Health Act

In particular, the Commodities Act of St. Maarten provides the possibility to establish regulations on e-cigarettes by LBHAM (General National Decree) in the interest of public health. This by the way is on the level of the relevant ministries.

These regulations can include the import, labeling and sale, such as:

Prohibiting the sale of vaping products including non-nicotine vape liquid and toy

vaping products to anyone under the legal age.

Prohibiting the supply of vaping products directly or indirectly to anyone under the legal age.

Setting the requirements for vaping products safety standards that need to be met before the products can be sold.

Prohibiting smoking and vaping in schools. School management and boards must

take all reasonably practicable steps to ensure that no person smokes or vapes in any part of the premises, whether inside or outside, at any time of day.

Ensuring that illegal products that did not submit applications to the relevant authorities are removed from the market immediately.

Instituting product standards on e-cigarettes, preventing the sale and marketing of any product that does not adhere to those standards.

A permanent ban on flavored tobacco unless a manufacturer can demonstrate that the flavor will not lead non-tobacco users, such as youth, to start.

MP Wescot then went on to explain why she chose the route to liaise with the ministries, before attempting an amendment on a legislative level.

The reason I have from the beginning chosen to liaise with the Ministries on this all important health matter is the consideration that a previous initiative draft law to amend the Tobacco Ordinance evoked from the Council of Advice the question (amongst others) as to Governments policy on smoking in general.

The MP concluded her proposal to the ministers of ECYS and VSA respectively, with the following direct questions, hoping that these questions and proposals will spur the government into action on E-cigarettes and vaping.

I therefore invite you to respond to me regarding the above and address the issue as follows:

Do you concur that vaping is an undesirable and dangerous phenomenon, especially amongst our youth?

If you do, do you concur that it can and should be addressed urgently by one of the means mentioned above?

If not by one of the means above, what do you recommend be done?

What is Governments view on smoking and on updating the ordinance limiting tobacco use (Lv. Beperking Tabaksgebruik)?

In addition to these written questions, MP Wescot also requested the ministers presence at a committee meeting of Parliament to further deliberate on a course of action to reduce smoking in general and vaping in particular.

Along with her proposals, MP Wescot submitted a list of references relevant to the topic of vaping de electronic cigarettes.
SIMPSON BAY:--- Following an acceptance handing over in Austria from March 6 through 9, 2023, the Airports Rescue and Firefighters (R&FF) will acquire two (2) new fire trucks for emergency response at the aerodrome of the Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA). The safety vehicles are part of Managements strategic plan to further enhance its operations. At present, PJIA has two (2) trucks, which served a lifespan of fifteen (15) years.



"The Rosenbauer Panther 6x6 is the fire truck of the future," disclosed Manilo Penijn, Airport Chief of the Rescue and Firefighters. "Built from the ground up using the most advanced technologies, the Panther is one of the safest models in the industry for our firefighters and airport environment. Airports Management opted for this European model which boasts of a high level of maneuverability, innovative safety features, and is fully networked.



Similar fire trucks are already being utilized by the Rescue and Firefighters of the Clayton J. Lloyd International Airport in Anguilla, therefore our local firefighters traveled over for some hands-on training. Next up will be the start of the construction of the Rescue and Firefighters building, summarized Chief Manilo.



The features of the fire trucks make the Rosenbuaer Panther 6x6 one of the most modern emergency vehicles on the market and set an entirely new standard within the fire response industry.
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.




Man of culture Andrei Plesu, philosopher, essayist, journalist, literary and art critic and a former minister of culture, was awarded the Marin Constantin Excellence Award as part of the "Madrigal 60" show on Tuesday evening at the Ion Caramitru Hall of the Bucharest National Theatre House, told Agerpres.

Presenting the award was the host of the gala, theatre critic Marina Constantinescu, and Marin Constantin's son, Ion Marin.

"Returning from a tour in America in 1990, the Madrigal found, so to speak, the key locks replaced as there was no place for them anymore. There was no purpose and no place. They sat with their luggage and costumes somewhere in a bus station and only the then culture minister stepping in to immediately place them under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture, where they are even now made it possible for them to celebrate 60 years, otherwise, the 1990s could have been the end of the line. And another minister, coincidentally the one and the same person, in the entire 2005 and 2006 campaign for Romania's accession to the European Union, understanding, as a man of culture, that every country, every people first needs a visiting card on which cultural performances, traditions and things of great value should be clearly printed, returned the Madrigal to its natural function that it always had, as a Romanian cultural ambassador. All that culminated with a concert, right at the time of Romania's accession to the EU, in Luxembourg. It is our great joy to present the Marin Constantin Excellence Award to Mr Andrei Plesu, with all our gratitude," said Ion Marin.

Plesu said that he was taken by surprise when he found out that he would be presented with the award on the Madrigal choir's anniversary.

He said that in his childhood he had "something to do" with music, first time when he was a student in primary school, when he took two years of piano and, later, when he sang at the Palace of Pioneers, a period of two or three years, in the children's choir of the Palace of Pioneers. He also mentioned recording a compact disc together with Johnny Raducanu.

"I was at Tescani and few people dared to come and see me there, but Johnny came. I was employed there as a librarian at the George Enescu House. George Enescu had an impressive library and I had to keep track of it. Walking in the library, I found a notebook with lyrics to party songs from between the two world wars. I knew their melodies from my mother, but I didn't know the lyrics anymore. When Johnny saw the lyrics, he decided to sing them together, him on the piano and me vocally. And we spent a whole night singing together and he recorded everything. So, there is a musical component to my life," said Plesu.

The second excellence award was bestowed posthumously on stage actor Ion Caramitru, a former manager of the Bucharest National Theatre House.

Presenting the award was theatre critic Marina Constantinescu.

"I am going to give Marina Constantinescu, for all theatre people and especially for the Caramitru family, in memory of Ion Caramitru, the Marin Constantin Award," said Ion Marin.

Constantinescu mentioned that she will first take the award to UNITER, "to stay in his house for a while," and then she will hand it over to the Caramitru family.

The "Madrigal 60" anniversary show opened by the Madrigal Choir performing in Renaissance costumes created by set designer Iulia Gheorghescu. They were directed by Anna Ungureanu.

The evening ended with a show offered by Madrigal alumni from different generations, coming from all over the world. They were conducted by three of the conductors who made history in the Madrigal Choir: Voicu Popescu, Dan-Mihai Goia, and Veronica Bojescu.

The performance was directed by Emil Pantelimon.
The National Institute of Public Health (INSP) informs that, in the week between 20 and 26 February, 46.1pct of the cases of COVID-19 were recorded in Bucharest and in the counties of Cluj, Timis, Maramures and Brasov.

According to the weekly surveillance report, 44.9pct of the confirmed cases were recorded among non-vaccinated people, told Agerpres.

Among the vaccinated who got sick, 49.5pct were either immediately after vaccination or more than six months after the last dose.

Also, 54.9pct of the total deaths were recorded in Bihor, Nasaud, Calarasi, Suceava and Mures.

Moreover, 45.2pct of the recorded deaths were reported in unvaccinated people.

According to the INSP, from the beginning of the pandemic until now, 86.5pct of all deaths were recorded in people over 60, and 54.7pct of deaths in men.

Also, 93.7pct of the deceased had at least one associated comorbidity.
The President of the Chamber of Deputies, Marcel Ciolacu, said on Wednesday that the return of the Romanian language to the status of the official language in the Republic of Moldova is "a historical normalcy" and must happen as soon as possible.

"The return of the Romanian language to the status of the official language in the Republic of Moldova is a historical normalcy and must happen as soon as possible! Phrases such as 'state language', 'official language' or 'mother tongue' are anomalies! I congratulated today Prime Minister Dorin Recean for supporting the initiative that the Romanian language should return to all official documents of the Republic of Moldova, including the Constitution. In addition, I sent the prime minister the results of the recent visit I made to Azerbaijan: we will ensure a part of the gas consumption requirement for the Republic of Moldova through the Azerbaijani gas import contract," wrote Ciolacu on Facebook.

He added that he wants a subcommittee to be quickly established at the level of the Parliament to help the authorities in Chisinau with the transposition of the legislation according to European standards.

"Our common goal remains the integration of the Republic of Moldova into the European Union, and the authorities from Bucharest will support, without reservations and with all expertise, the Government and the administration from Chisinau", emphasized Ciolacu. AGERPRES
Prime minister Nicolae Ciuca declared, on Wednesday, that Romania is a country with seismic risk and a procedure will have to be implemented soon by which companies can be certified in specialized areas in construction and to regulate the part of responsibility towards the structure of resistance over time of the constructions of those who are involved in their realization, told Agerpres.

"I reiterate what I mentioned two meetings ago, namely the monitoring and coordination of the practical implementation of all these decisions that we make at the level of the Government, the coordination with the local authorities, so that everyone understands that here we are not discussing bringing accountability from the central level to the local level and vice versa, but it is a common accountability for everything that means a consolidated and insured infrastructure for seismic risk. Romania is a country with seismic risk. I also had discussions with specialists in the field. As such, I think that, very soon, in fact we have discussed this aspect before, I think that very soon we will have to implement that procedure by which companies can be certified in specialized fields in construction. And also to regulate the part of accountability towards of the resistance structure over time of those who are involved in the realization of these constructions," said Ciuca, at the beginning of the meeting Government.

The Minister of Development, Cseke Attila, referred to the two normative acts, on the agenda of the Government meeting, regarding safe and healthy schools and the efficiency of the consolidation program, noting that they received all the necessary approvals to be approved.

He added that there are also measures proposed to make the procedure more efficient, including related to the majority vote required in the owners' associations, this being one of the reasons why the local authorities had difficulties in implementing it.

"We are removing all these difficulties, so that local authorities can apply for these investment programs. Today, in secured financing, we have 397 buildings at the level of the Ministry of Development for consolidation, worth almost 6 billion RON," added Cseke Attila.
Culture Minister Lucian Romascanu urges Romanians on March 1 to preserve their beautiful traditions by offering a martisor "a symbol of ancient customs."

"March 1 is not only the beginning of spring in the calendar, but also a promise of rebirth, hope and new beginnings. And all these profound experiences were collected, with great craftsmanship and creativity, by the Romanian people, in the delicate Martisor, a symbol of ancient customs now part of the UNESCO heritage. Give a martisor today, because you will be able to bring back to light and always keep alive the beautiful Romanian traditions. They are precious customs, part of our national fibre and identity and which I believe we should take further. Ladies, I wish you a beautiful spring, with smiles and accomplishments, full of events that will make your souls happy; may peace, faith and tranquility accompany you!," Romascanu says in a social media post.

In the olden days, the authentic martisor was made of bicolor yarn to which parents would add a silver coin, which the children would wear on their wrists or around their necks. Later, it became a small decorative object made of gold, silver or other metal / crystal, tied with a yarn made of a white and a red thread, according to the Ministry of Culture.

The two threads (silk, cotton or wool) have been assigned various meanings, being offered with the same love today, as in the past, to children, young people, wives and even friends, for luck and prosperity.

While red protects from evil in popular belief and expresses life and love, white signifies purity, light, energy.

Others say that white stands for winter and red for summer.
Former Social-Democrat senator Dan Sova was definitively sentenced on Wednesday by the High Court of Cassation and Justice (ICCJ) to three years in prison with suspension for influence peddling in the CET Govora case.

Initially, during the court trial - Bucharest Court of Appeal, Dan Sova received a four-year sentence with execution in November 2021, but at the hearing of the appeal, the ICCJ reduced the sentence by one year and ordered the suspension of its execution.

In the case of the other defendant in this file, the former director of CET Govora, Mihai Balan, who had a three-year prison sentence with enforcement for abuse of office, the Supreme Court ordered the termination of the criminal trial, as a result of the statute of limitations.AGERPRES
The government is compelled by the Bucharest Court of Appeal to organize elections at the Sector 5 City Hall, according to a press release from Save Romania Union (USR) Bucharest sent to AGERPRES on Wednesday.

In the process by which the USR candidate for the Mayor of Sector 5, Alexandru Dimitriu, asked the court to compel the Government to organize elections for the local forum, according to the law, the Bucharest Court of Appeal gave him a win.

The court reasoned that the provisions of the Administrative Code requiring the organization of elections within 90 days from the moment of the vacancy of the post of mayor of Sector 5 were violated.

"The court confirms the abuse committed by the Social Democratic Party (PSD) - National Liberal Party (PNL) government by not organizing the elections for the Sector 5 City Hall. I call upon (PM, ed. n.) Ciuca and (Interior minister, ed. n.) Bode to at least now, at the 11th hour, respect the laws and the Romanian Constitution and stop blocking the rights of the citizens of Sector 5 to choose their mayor," declared Alexandru Dimitriu.
The agreement between the Government of Romania and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine for the implementation of the provisions of the Espoo Convention in a cross-border context was approved on Wednesday by the Government in Bucharest, the Ministry of Environment informs in a press release press for AGERPRES.

The document was signed by the minister of the Environment, Barna Tanczos, and the minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, Ruslan Strilets in November last year, in Bucharest.

"This agreement will form the basis of our cross-border collaboration in all projects, especially in the sensitive areas that we manage together. At the same time, we will work to protect these particularly valuable areas and, at the same time, we will help the relevant ministries to make investments, to develop projects in these areas, in compliance with European principles and those of environmental protection. The support we offer each other in the reconstruction of habitats is essential for the protection of biodiversity," said Barna Tanczos.

Romania ratified the Convention on March 29, 2001 (Law no. 22/2001).

After entering into force, the Agreement will ensure the fulfillment of the obligations of Romania and Ukraine under the Espoo Convention, the improvement of cooperation with Ukraine in the field of environmental protection, as well as the facilitation of implementing the major projects necessary to ensure the future energy resources in this part of Europe.

In addition, the entry into force of the Agreement will represent a cooperation model that can be proposed to other neighboring states, either by concluding similar bilateral agreements, or by revising the Bucharest Agreement from 2008.

The final text of this agreement was agreed in September of last year and represents the result of sustained efforts by experts from the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE).

According to the approved agreement, a joint Commission on environmental impact assessment in a cross-border context will be established, consisting of four members for each party. On the Romanian side, specialists in the field of environmental impact assessment, as well as cross-border aspects, will be appointed.AGERPRES
The seventh edition of Italian Design Day will take place in Bucharest, on March 8 and 9, and the theme of the event is "The quality that shines," informs the Italian Embassy to Romania.

The Ambassador of Italian Design to Romania will be Ingrid Maria Paoletti, professor at Polytechnic University of Milan (Politecnico di Milano). Her areas of research concern technological design for architecture, with a focus on new processes and products for the built environment and in particular for environmental regeneration in the construction sector. In 2018 she founded and since then coordinates the PoliMi "Material Balance" research group "which aims to rebalance the relationship with the built environment through a responsible approach to the way we live, inhabit, design and build" and whose vision is "focused on a renewed balance between our habitat and nature, away from a consumption-based approach".

She will participate, on March 8, at Palatul Primaverii (the Spring Palace - ed.n.), in the panel "Construction and reconstruction: innovative technologies and materials". On March 9, the Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urbanism will host a masterclass held by Ingrid Maria Paoletti titled "Materializing Light".

"The Italian institutions in Romania now want to deepen, alongside Romanian experts, starting with the protagonists of Romanian Design Week, the extraordinary tendency of Italian design to put creativity, passion and innovation at the service of sustainability, regeneration and renewal needs," says the Italian ambassador in Bucharest, Alfredo Durante Mangoni.

The goal of Italian Design Day is to "present abroad the excellence of Italian design in all its forms and in connection with the Milan Furniture Fair, an event of global importance in the respective sector, whose 61st edition will take place 18 to 23 April," say the embassy representatives.
The Republic of Moldova is fulfilling its role of ensuring peace and security in the region, and "Chisinau is not alone", Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean said on Wednesday in a joint press statement with his Romanian counterpart Nicolae Ciuca, told Agerpres.

"This is a difficult time for the European continent, in the aftermath of Russia's aggression and Russia's atrocious war in Ukraine. (...) I also appreciate the clear and firm message from Bucharest, conveyed at last week's meeting of Presidents [Maia - ed.n.] Sandu and [Klaus - ed.n.] Iohannis. We know that Chisinau is not alone in the face of challenges. Here I want to give assurances that the Republic of Moldova is fulfilling its role of ensuring peace and security in the region, given that we have the Transnistrian region. The government I lead is determined to transform the country's institutions and economy to make them strong, resilient and ready to make a decisive contribution to Moldova's accession to the European Union," Recean said.

The head of the government in Chisinau said it was "natural" that his first visit since taking office should be to Bucharest, "because Bucharest is Chisinau's most important partner".

"Bucharest has helped us enormously in overcoming the energy crisis, Bucharest remains our advocate in all European institutions, so that we can accelerate our European path. The close relationship between Bucharest and Chisinau is strengthened today by numerous projects for the benefit of our citizens," the Moldovan Prime Minister added.

Dorin Recean thanked Romania for its support in the energy sector provided since last autumn, which was "critical, decisive".

"On account of Russia's war against Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova was left without alternative sources of electricity supply. Bucharest, together with the Romanian energy companies, was with us, as always, and we managed to provide our citizens with electricity," he said.

In this regard, he also pointed to the existence of the Iasi - Chisinau gas pipeline "a decisive factor in providing alternatives for energy consumers in the Republic of Moldova".

The Moldovan Prime Minister encouraged Romanian and Moldovan business people to collaborate. "Our business people speak the same language, our businesses speak the same language". He also added that soon the two countries will have integrated financial markets.

He also said that he had discussed with his counterpart the secondment of Romanian experts to assist Moldova in the accession process to the European Union.

Dorin Recean also appreciated the platform dedicated to his country, an initiative of Romania, France and Germany. He reaffirmed his gratitude "for the attitude that Bucharest always offers in relation to Chisinau".
The number of companies and authorized natural persons (PFA) that entered insolvency increased by 3.32pct in January 2023, compared to the first month of last year when 436 insolvencies were registered, according to the data published on the website of the National Trade Register Office (ONRC).

Most companies and PFAs that entered insolvency were registered in Bucharest, namely 96, increasing by 29.73pct compared to January 2022.

Ranking next in the hierarchy of insolvencies are the counties of Bihor, with 37 insolvencies (plus 27.59pct), Cluj - 33 (plus 43.48pct), Ilfov - 28 (plus 21.74pct) and Timis - 25 (minus 24.24pct), told Agerpres.

In Harghita county, no insolvency was registered in the first month of this year, and Calarasi and Maramures counties registered each one insolvency.

By field of activity, the largest number of insolvencies was recorded in wholesale, retail, motor vehicle and motorcycle repair, namely 133 (plus 49.44pct compared to January 2022), construction - 90 (plus 9.76pct) and manufacturing industry - 55 (plus 14.58pct).
As many as 62,294 people, including 6,761 Ukrainian citizens, entered Romania on Tuesday, February 28, the General Border Police Inspectorate (IGPF) reported on Wednesday, told Agerpres.

According to IGPF, at the border points nationwide on Monday, nearly 128,400 people, Romanian and foreign citizens, were checked both on the way in and on the way out of Romania, as well as almost 40,000 means of transport.

Starting February 10, 2022 (pre-conflict time) 3,646,738 Ukrainian citizens entered Romania.

The border police detected 48 illegal acts (21 crimes and 27 misdemeanors) in the areas under their jurisdiction - the crossing points and the green border - committed by both Romanian and foreign citizens, levying more than RON 15,000 in fines in the process.

Assets of an estimated value of RON 220,600 were impounded.

Sixteen foreign citizens who did not meet the conditions provided by the law were denied entry.

Also on Tuesday, 12 Romanian citizens were not allowed to leave for various legal reasons.
Patriarch Daniel of the Romanian Christian Orthodox Church (BOR) on Wednesday sent a message to Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens and all of Hellas in which he expresses his "sadness" at the tragic railway accident of February 28, told Agerpres.

"I learned with great sadness about the tragic railway accident that happened on the night of February 28 near the city of Larissa, in the centre of Greece, an accident that killed at least 32 and injured 85. In these extremely difficult moments for the families of the deceased, but also for Your Beatitude, we are sending our heart-felt condolences to them and to you our full compassion."

Daniel says that "his heart goes to the injured in the hospital, and we pray to the Merciful God for their speedy recovery."

"May Jesus Christ the Saviour, the one who rose from the dead, rest in righteousness the souls of those who lost their lives in this terrible accident, and grant them comfort and spiritual strength to the bereaved families. With much appreciation and brotherly love in Christ the Lord."

At least 26 people were killed and 85 injured Tuesday night in a collision between a cargo and a passenger train connecting Athens and Thessaloniki in Greece, according to the AFP news agency.

AFP quotes Vassilis Vathrakogiannis, the spokesman for the Greek fire brigade, as saying that so far 26 dead bodies have been found and rescue operations are still ongoing.

He added that 85 injured people were rushed to nearby hospitals.

According to the Greek media, this is the worst railway accident that Greece has ever known.
Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca hailed the official opening in Kyiv of a new office within the Economic Department of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), underscoring that Romania will continue to stand by the side of OECD Secretary General Mathias Cormann, in all OECD projects Ukraine is actively involved, told Agerpres.

"I welcome the opening of the OECD Office in Kyiv, initiative that Romania supported from the very beginning. We stand by Mathias Cormann in all the projects in which the OECD is actively engaged in Ukraine," PM Nicolae Ciuca wrote on the Government's Twitter page on Wednesday.

A Foreign Affairs Ministry press release of 24 February shows that at OECD level, Romania has expressed its commitment to contribute, on a voluntary basis, the sum of 50,000 euros to the establishment of a Country-Desk for Ukraine within the OECD Economic Department.

"The main work of the Office will initially focus on macroeconomic surveillance of Ukraine, monitoring of structural policies and reforms, and country forecasting. Subsequently, the Office will prepare the ground for an OECD Economic Survey of Ukraine," the statement said.
Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca publicly introduced at the beginning of Wednesday's government meeting the first honorary government advisor running on AI, the robot ION, whose task will be to collect the citizens' opinions and wishes and relay them over to the members of the government, told Agerpres.

"We'll start the government meeting with a surprise. Today is March 1, the first calendar day of spring, it's Martisor Day. I wish all the ladies and girls a beautiful spring. Also, today we have a surprise that doesn't belong to the government, but comes from a team of Romanians who had a praiseworthy initiative. The government of Romania thus marks a (...) national and international first, because this is the first government advisor to run on artificial intelligence. (...) His name is ION, which is the mirror-image transposition of the pronoun NOI (WE, in Romanian - ed. note)," Ciuca said.

He mentioned that ION will serve as honorary advisor to the prime minister, noting that through this project the government will be able to better help the Romanian citizens whose proposals, problems and wishes will reach the government in real time.

Ciuca explained that the initiative belongs 100 percent to a group of Romanian researchers and professors.

"Let me tell them that they are the best Romanian researchers and professors in the field, who were only driven by the desire to give Romanians a voice through this project. The project ION represents a system that uses artificial intelligence to quickly and automatically capture the views and opinions of the Romanians, their grievances, using information available in the public space. (...) For me, and I am convinced that for you too, this approach is a reason for joy because it is an initiative of top specialist researchers and professors, of companies in the field. (...) It's a 100 percent Romanian project," the prime minister said.

According to Ciuca, ION has a huge learning capacity and the more it is used, the more knowledge it accumulates, is better connected and closer to people.

The prime minister also had a brief interaction with ION, engaging in a short demonstrative dialogue.

"I invite ION to say a few words," the prime minister said.

"Hello! You gave me life. I am ION. My role now is to represent you like in a mirror. The messages sent to me represent a portrait of us, Romanians. Teach me to be Romanian. What do I need to know about Romania?," the robot replied.

The AI robot can be accessed on the website ion.gov.ro.
Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca sent a message of support to the Greek people and the authorities in Athens, following Tuesday night's tragic train accident in Greece in which at least 26 people died, told Agerpres.

"The Government of Romania stands with our Greek friends following the tragic train accident in Greece. Our thoughts of sympathy go out to the families of those who lost their lives. I wish fast recovery to the injured," the Romanian prime minister wrote in a message on the Government's Twitter page.

At least 26 people lost their lives and 85 were injured Tuesday night in a collision between a freight train and a passenger train connecting Athens and Thessaloniki in Greece, firefighters said Wednesday, according to AFP.

"So far at least 26 people have been found dead," Vassilis Vathrakogiannis, spokesman for the Greek firefighters, told a news conference, adding that rescue operations were still underway.

"85 people were injured and transported to nearby hospitals," he added.

According to the Greek press, this is "the most serious rail accident Greece has ever known".
Chairman of the Foreign Policy Committee in the Romanian Senate Titus Corlatean said that following the visit of the members of the Committee to Vienna on 26-28 February, the conditions have been created for finalising an agenda for this year aimed at Romania's accession to the Schengen area, told Agerpres.

In Vienna, the delegation of Romanian MPs from across the political spectrum met with Austrian MPs, the Mayor of Vienna, Michael Ludwig, former Austrian President Heinz Fischer and other officials.

"What is important to know is that the ice has been broken, which was a bit thick, to put it very bluntly. The fact that there were no official contacts of this kind after 8 December was a loss for Romania (...) We can, and we have reasons after these discussions to be confident that contacts at government level can produce results. But we still have work to do. The more time passed, the more complicated things became," Corlatean told a press conference on Wednesday.

Asked about a date when Romania could be welcomed into Schengen, Corlatean said, "It is not our task to anticipate what the governments of the member states need to discuss with the European institution."

Referring to the Romania-Bulgaria tandem for Schengen accession, Corlatean said: "We are in favour of respecting European rules and the European Union treaties. If these rules say that the acquis communautaire, in particular related to the Schengen Area, which is verified by the European Commission and if this acquis is fulfilled, regardless of the name of the state, it is right that the decision should observe the provisions of the Treaty. So if Bulgaria has been assessed as meeting these criteria, it is only natural that Bulgaria should join [the Schengen Area, ed.n.]. It would also be a good thing for Romania that it [Bulgaria, ed.n.] should join. (...)."

National Liberal party (PNL) Senator Marcel Vela said that he found that the Viennese MPs did not know that following the verifications in Brussels, before the JHA Council of 8 December 2022, Romania met the accession conditions.

The PNL senator pointed out that he told the officials in Vienna that Austria had created "a dangerous precedent by using the veto against Romania without technical arguments".

The Romanian senators mentioned that they explained to the officials that the migration flow from the Balkans has nothing to do with Romania.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) informs that for the moment no requests for assistance have been received from Romanian citizens, in the context of the train accident that took place in Greece on Wednesday, told Agerpres.

"According to preliminary information obtained from the Greek authorities, rescue operations are underway, and data on the nationality of the persons affected will be communicated later. MAE mentions that, so far, no requests for consular assistance have been received at the two Romanian missions in connection with this accident," reads a press release issued by the Romanian ministry and sent to AGERPRES.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through the Embassy of Romania in Athens and the Consulate General of Romania in Thessaloniki, took notice in the context of public reports regarding a railway accident that occurred on Wednesday morning, in the town of Tempe, in northeastern Greece, which, according to a provisory assessment provided by the Greek authorities, resulted in the death of 38 people and injuries to approximately 66 people, who were transported to nearby medical facilities.

In this context, the representatives of the diplomatic mission and the general consulate took steps, as an emergency, in addition to the Greek authorities, to obtain official information regarding the citizenship, identity and state of health of the affected persons.

The representatives of the Romanian Embassy in Athens and the General Consulate of Romania in Thessaloniki continue the dialogue with the Greek authorities, being prepared to provide consular assistance, according to their competences.

Romanian citizens can request consular assistance at the telephone numbers of the Romanian Embassy in Athens: +30 210 6728875; +30 210 6728879, and of the Consulate General of Romania in Thessaloniki: +30 2310 340088, calls being forwarded to the the Contact and Support Centre for Romanian Citizens Abroad (CCSCRS) and taken over 24/7 by Call Center operators.

Moreover, Romanian citizens who face a difficult, special, emergency situation have at their disposal the emergency telephone number of the Embassy of Romania in Athens - +30 6978996222 - and the Consulate General of Romania in Thessaloniki - +30 6906 479076.
CLAYTON  Two local investment firms have agreed to pay nearly $900,000 under a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for failing to disclose conflicts of interest to their clients.

Under the terms of the agreement, Huntleigh Advisors will pay $844,000 and Datatex will pay $50,000. Both firms are based in Clayton.

In its order, the SEC said Huntleigh Advisors, Huntleigh Securities Corp., and Datatex share office space, officers, employees, representatives and many of their business expenses. Huntleigh Advisors and Huntleigh Securities entered into expense-sharing agreements in 2015 and 2019.

At the same time, Huntleigh Advisors and Datatex used Huntleigh Securities as a broker. That meant money for transaction fees were paid between the firms, and that relationship was not always clear to clients, the SEC alleges.

Huntleighs and Datatexs disclosures were inadequate and misleading, the SEC order says.

In the industry, that sort of structure between investment firms is not uncommon, said Bidisha Chakrabarty, associate dean of research and professor of finance at St. Louis Universitys Chaifetz School of Business.

There are these vertical and horizontal integrations in the financial services industry, Chakrabarty said. The arrangements are quite common. ... But the fact that you dont disclose them, that is not very common.

As part of the agreement, Huntleigh and Datatex did not admit or deny the findings. Representatives for the firms did not return calls or emails seeking comment on Tuesday.

Two of the five SEC commissioners issued a statement dissenting to the decision, arguing that the firms actions did not fall under those prohibited by the Investment Advisers Act.

Huntleigh is an investment manager for institutions, not-for-profit organizations and high-net-worth individuals. Datatex manages variable annuities and mutual funds.

Huntleigh had about $486 million in regulatory assets under management, as of March of last year, and Datatex about $39 million.

Both firms are headquartered on the same floor of a commercial building on Forsyth Boulevard, in downtown Clayton. Huntleigh has 55 employees, according to a public filing from earlier this month. Datatex reported 25 employees in a filing last March.

In 2010, the state of Missouri fined James McClellan Jr., one of Huntleigh Securities founders, $100,000 after an audit found that he sold $4.4 million of unregistered timeshare investments. McClellan sold timeshare investments at a resort property in Wisconsin without disclosing that it was struggling financially, or that the sales werent under his employers control and werent registered in the state of Missouri.

McClellan was permanently barred from working in the securities industry.
Most lawmakers  Republicans and Democrats alike  have declared the marquee safety-net programs of Medicare and Social Security off-limits for cuts as a divided Washington heads for a showdown over the national debt and government spending. Health programs for lower-income Americans, though, have gotten no such bipartisan assurances.

More than 20 million people gained Medicaid coverage in the past three years after Congress expanded access to the entitlement program during the covid-19 pandemic, swelling Medicaids population by about 30%. But enrollment will fall starting in April, when the pandemic-era changes end and states begin cutting coverage for Americans who are no longer eligible.

On Tuesday, President Joe Biden pressured Republicans to release the partys plans to cut government spending, which are expected to call for deeper cuts to Medicaid  and could offer Americans a preview of Republicans wish list should the party gain full power in the 2024 election.

If far-right Republicans try to take away peoples health care by gutting Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, I will stop them, Biden said.

Biden and other Democratic leaders have said they want to expand Medicaid, a goal likely to be reflected in the presidents budget proposal out next week. But while top Democrats say they will not negotiate government spending with Republicans when the GOP is refusing to raise the debt ceiling, they have left open the possibility of talks over Medicaid spending at a later date.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the new House Democratic leader, said in January that Democrats are open to a conversation with Republicans separate from the debt ceiling debate.

There is a budget process, and theres an appropriations process, Jeffries said when asked by KHN why Medicaid did not get the same red-line defense as Medicare and Social Security during Bidens State of the Union address. We are willing to have a conversation with the other side of the aisle about how to invest in making life better for everyday Americans, how to invest in the middle class, how to invest in all those Americans who aspire to be part of the middle class.

Some Republicans hope to extract concessions with Democrats to cut the program by limiting benefits, such as by allowing more states to impose work requirements on Medicaid beneficiaries  a plan pushed by the Trump administration but largely struck down by the courts. Republicans could also target Medicaid provider taxes, meaning taxes placed on things like inpatient hospital services or nursing facility beds.

Progressive Democrats have drawn a hard line and hope the programs growth makes cutting Medicaid a riskier political idea than it once was. More than 1 in 4 Americans are currently covered through Medicaid or the Childrens Health Insurance Program, including children, pregnant people, people with disabilities, and people living on a lower income.

To my mind, Medicaid must be off the table, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chair of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pension Committee, told KHN. The idea of coming down heavy on people who are of low income would be outrageous, and I feel very much thats what Republicans have in mind.

The Biden administration is expected to send its annual budget blueprint to Congress on March 9, outlining the presidents spending priorities for federal programs, including for Medicaid.

During his Feb. 28 speech, Biden pointed to recent Republican proposals to cut Medicaid and repeal the Affordable Care Act. And he listed the possible consequences of those proposals  such as the loss of mental health care for millions of children under Medicaids guarantee of comprehensive health coverage  and urged Americans to compare the still-unknown cuts that Republicans want with his budget proposal.

Biden is likely to start any negotiations by arguing for more spending. He has called out conservative states that have resisted expanding Medicaid coverage, traveling to Florida after his State of the Union address to chastise nearly a dozen states that have not yet expanded the program under the ACA. He pushed to expand ACA subsidies during the pandemic and, more recently, to make them permanent.

House Republicans say they want to balance the federal budget in 10 years without raising taxes and without cuts to Medicare, Social Security, or military spending  a feat some analysts have called impossible. Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security, along with funding for the Affordable Care Act and Childrens Health Insurance Program, account for nearly half of the federal budget on their own.

The Washington Post recently reported that a former Trump administration official had briefed lawmakers on a balanced-budget proposal that includes $2 trillion in cuts to Medicaid. A separate proposal from House Republicans last year would cut total federal Medicaid, CHIP, and ACA marketplace subsidy spending by nearly half over the next decade.

Edwin Park, a research professor at the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policys Center for Children and Families, wrote that the House proposal would likely drive tens of millions into the ranks of the uninsured and severely reduce access to health care and long-term services and supports needed by low-income children, families, seniors, people with disabilities, and other adults.

Because Medicaid is the largest source of federal funding for the states, dollars could also dry up for priorities like education, Park added.

A longtime push by conservatives has been to trim Medicaid by adding eligibility restrictions like work requirements or more stringent verifications. Republicans tried to do that in the failed repeal of the ACA in 2017. The same plan included a bid to convert state Medicaid funding to a per capita allotment instead of the federal government matching a percentage of whatever a state spends.

Republicans could also push to rein in the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage that states get for Medicaid. Currently, that percentage match has been boosted under the public health emergency. And at least one top Republican has expressed interest in making changes to the way disabled people get home- and community-based care services that allow them to remain in their homes, said Yvette Fontenot, senior policy and legislative affairs adviser at the liberal-leaning Protect Our Care.

Fontenot said Republicans could focus on fraud as a pretext for their proposals, raising oversight questions about how many people got benefits improperly and how many stayed on Medicaid under pandemic rules that required states to maintain enrollment when they would otherwise be kicked off. I think it just becomes an underpinning of all the different potential policies here, she said.

Brian Blase, a former Trump administration economic adviser who is now president of the Paragon Health Institute, told KHN he doubted Republicans would have much success going after Medicaid  especially ahead of next years presidential election, when Democrats would be less likely to cave on any entitlements.

But he noted potentially promising discussions on Capitol Hill for some GOP goals  specifically, cutting Medicaid provider taxes or pushing new work requirements, an idea that some conservative Democrats like Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia have signaled they are open to.

Conservatives see the taxes, which states levy on Medicaid providers, as a backdoor way to boost what the federal government sends to states, since states use those taxes to fund their share of Medicaid funding under FMAP.

Blase pointed to reporting from the major budget showdowns in 2011 and 2013 as evidence that Biden, who was then vice president, might be open to cuts there.

The fact that Biden is on record as calling them a scam that should be eliminated, I think, makes it a little bit easier for congressional Republicans to argue that they should be on the table, he said.

The fight over government spending is nearing an inflection point. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office recently estimated the United States would hit the debt ceiling between July and September, meaning the Treasury Departments ability to pay the nations bills and prevent defaulting on its debt could be exhausted as early as this summer without congressional action.

A recent NPR-PBS NewsHour-Marist poll showed that while a majority of voters support raising the debt ceiling, they are split on how lawmakers should address the nations debt. Nearly three-quarters of Republicans and a majority of independent voters said Congress should cut programs and services rather than raise taxes and other revenue.

Though Republicans have yet to propose specific cuts, Democrats are betting that Medicaid and other entitlements will prove as difficult to target as Social Security and Medicare if voters understand the impact on many Americans lives.

I think its going to be tough for Republicans right now, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) told KHN. If the GOP wants to cut benefits for low-income families in a time when eggs are expensive and a time when groceries and food have gotten quite expensive for everyday people, then they need to go in front of the public, in front of the American people, and make the case as to why they want to cut peoples ability to feed themselves and their children.

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).
ST. LOUIS  Dr. William A. Peck, who as dean led the Washington University School of Medicine to become one of the top medical schools in the country, died Wednesday, Feb. 22, while surrounded by family at his home in St. Louis County. He was 89.

Peck served as dean of the medical school from 1989 to 2003, improving its international reputation in teaching, research and clinical practice by focusing heavily on recruiting the top researchers and staff. He was also named executive vice chancellor in 1993.

During his tenure, the medical school came to have the highest admission standards in the nation. It also became a research powerhouse, ranking third among medical schools in National Institute of Health grants, according to a Post-Dispatch story in 2003 about his retirement as dean.

The school also expanded its academic clinical practice with affiliates Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Childrens hospitals into the second-largest in the United States.

Under Pecks leadership, the university opened the Center for Advanced Medicine, a 14-story building that houses state-of-the-art outpatient clinics and operating rooms. He also led the effort to create a comprehensive cancer treatment center, helping launch the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center in 1999.

Dr. David Perlmutter, the current dean executive vice chancellor for medical affairs, lauded Peck for leading the medical school through a booming period.

Bill Peck was at the helm at a time when the School of Medicine was on the precipice of growth and change, on multiple levels, Perlmutter said. He had a knack for inspiring physicians and scientists. ... He was a deeply admired mentor, and a lot of our stature as a medical school can be attributed to that.

University leaders told the Post-Dispatch in 2003 that Peck was a great ambassador and skillful fundraiser, able to inspire big-dollar donors to help reduce human suffering.

Peck added 64 endowed professorships to a base of 39 at the medical school.

Some said Pecks greatest achievement was recruiting world-class talent to lead departments, which he did by offering them substantial autonomy and authority. Peck recruited 18 department heads in his 14 years.

Dr. Victoria Fraser, current head of the Department of Medicine, said Peck had a tremendous eye for talent and commitment to faculty development. He knew nearly all of the faculty by name, along with their accomplishments.

He recruited a large number of outstanding department heads and also mentored junior and midcareer faculty into important leadership roles in science, medical administration and clinical care, Fraser said. He knew everyone and their story and cared deeply about the people inside the buildings.

After stepping down as dean, Peck established and directed the Center for Health Policy (now the Center for Economics & Health Policy) at the universitys Institute for Public Health. He became a nationally recognized leader in health policy, particularly in the areas of rising costs and disparities in access to care.

The medical school also honored him with the creation of the Peck Scholars program, where he continued to mentor students. The program provided scholarships to medical students based on need and merit, and Peck and his wife have been major contributors.

Peck was known for his own research on bone metabolism, contributing to the understanding and treatment of osteoporosis. At age 7, Peck contracted osteomyelitis, an infectious inflammatory disease of the bone, which inspired his career.

He was born in New Britain, Connecticut, where his father, Bernard, was a general practitioner who made house calls and maintained an office next to the familys home.

Peck graduated from Harvard College in 1955, with a degree in biochemical sciences. He earned his medical degree in 1960 from the University of Rochester School of Medicine in 1960.

He completed two years of residency training and a one-year fellowship at what was then Barnes Hospital in St. Louis. He then served for two years as a clinical associate at the National Institutes of Health, where he worked in the area of arthritis and metabolic diseases.

In 1963, he took over as chief resident at Strong Memorial Hospital at the University of Rochester. He eventually became the head of endocrinology.

He returned to St. Louis in 1976 as the co-chairman of the Department of Medicine at Washington University and physician-in-chief at the then Jewish Hospital.

Peck was the founding president of the National Osteoporosis Foundation. He was also a member of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, serving as that groups president in 1984.

Dr. Peck not only will be remembered for his impressive tenure as head of medicine at Jewish Hospital and then dean but for his major contributions to the field of medicine, particularly to the understanding of bone diseases, Fraser said.

He was a gifted pianist and often performed at School of Medicine functions.

Peck is survived by his wife, Patricia Hearn Peck; their blended family of children, David Peck, Edward Peck, Kate Peck Nelson, Andrea Harbin Niehoff, Elizabeth Harbin and Katy Hinkley; and two grandchildren.

A memorial service open to the many who knew him will be held at Graham Chapel on the Danforth Campus at 1 p.m. Tuesday, May 23.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may made to the Peck Scholars Program at the School of Medicine: Washington University c/o Advancement Services; MSC 1082-144-2555; 1 Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130.
Yasmina Molero, Ph.D., from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, and colleagues conducted a population-based longitudinal study to examine the associations between -blockers and psychiatric and behavioral outcomes. Data were included for 1,400,766 individuals aged 15 years or older who were followed for eight years between 2006 and 2013.

The researchers found that during the study period, 6.9, 0.7, and 0.7 percent of the -blocker users were hospitalized for a psychiatric disorder, presented with suicidal behavior, and were charged with a violent crime, respectively. Heterogeneity was seen in the direction of the results; periods of -blocker treatment were associated with reduced risks for psychiatric hospitalizations and charges of violent crime but with increased risks for suicidal behavior (hazard ratios, 0.92, 0.87, and 1.08, respectively). Reduced associations with psychiatric hospitalizations during -blocker treatment were mainly related to lower hospitalization rates due to depressive and psychotic disorders after stratification by diagnosis (hazard ratios, 0.92 and 0.89, respectively). In most sensitivity analyses, reduced associations with violent charges remained, while inconsistent associations were seen with psychiatric hospitalizations and suicidal behaviors.
TUESDAY, Feb. 28, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Whether women will continue to be able to get a medication abortion using the drug mifepristone in the United States hinges on the impending ruling of a federal judge in Texas. The case will soon be decided by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, CBS News reported.

In the lawsuit, an anti-abortion group is seeking reversal of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of the medication mifepristone, one of two drugs typically used to induce a medication abortion. The drug is also used to treat miscarriages, CBS News reported.

"A lot of people rely on this medication," Kristyn Brandi, M.D., an ob/gyn based in New Jersey, told CBS News. "It is something that has been the standard of care for over 20 years." Brandi called a potential ban "devastating." Women will still be able to access a medication abortion using the other drug in the two-part combination, misoprostol, she said, but it is a little less effective and may carry higher risks for side effects on its own.

Mifepristone can be ordered online with a prescription, CBS News reported, even in states where surgical abortions are restricted. In its lawsuit, the group known as the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine alleges that the drug has not been sufficiently studied.

The senior counsel for another group, conservative Christian legal advocacy organization Alliance Defending Freedom, spoke in favor of the lawsuit. Julie Marie Blake told CBS News she was "confident that when any court looks at the law and looks at the science, it will realize that the FDA has completely failed its responsibility to protect women and girls."

The FDA did not comment on the lawsuit, CBS News reported.

Meanwhile, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists called mifepristone "safe and effective."

"If there is a nationwide injunction, then the drug used for medication abortions will be off the market in all 50 states at least, and during the period where the injunction is in force," Meghan Boone, an associate professor at Wake Forest University School of Law, told CBS News.
Boja Kragulj, an accomplished clarinetist who once performed with orchestras in New York, Philadelphia, and Jacksonville, Florida, has already lost four teeth. And she expects to lose at least a dozen more.

Five years ago, seeking to correct her bite and improve her breathing, Kragulj tried a dental device that she was told would put pressure on her upper palate, lengthening her jawbone to fix her issues without surgery, according to an ongoing lawsuit she has filed in federal court. Kragulj said she discovered the device through Facebook, and it sounded miraculous.

What she said happened next was ghastly. Kragulj alleged in her lawsuit that instead of changing her jaw, the device pushed her teeth forward through the bone that anchors their roots in place, which put her front teeth in jeopardy. Dozens of photos provided by her attorney show that over time her teeth bulged out of her mouth, warping her smile into a twisted mess. In the three years since filing her suit, Kragulj has had four unsalvageable teeth removed and two others ground to nubs, she said.

Now Kraguljs only option is to undergo far more extensive surgeries than she faced before, according to her lawsuit. She described pain when eating anything that must be chewed and sometimes struggles to speak clearly through false teeth. And her livelihood is lost: Despite decades of training, Kragulj recently said she can no longer play clarinet well enough to perform or teach.

So now something I had only seen in very old studies that were published in black and white, on animals, I saw in my patients with 3D X-rays. Dr. Marianna Evans, orthodontist and periodontist

More than 10,000 dental patients have been fitted with an Anterior Growth Guidance Appliance, or AGGA, according to court records. But the unproven and unregulated dental device, often costing patients about $7,000, has not been evaluated by the FDA, according to a months-long joint investigation by KHN and CBS News. The FDA relies on device companies to submit new products for evaluation, and because the AGGA was never submitted, it has been sold to patients without that government review.

Theyre still selling it. And still teaching classes. And still putting it in peoples mouths, Kragulj, 42, said in an interview.

Dentists across the country promote the AGGA on their websites, often claiming it can grow, remodel, or expand an adults jaw without surgery, sometimes saying it has the potential to make patients more attractive and treat common ailments like sleep apnea and TMJ. However, after reviewing dental scans that the AGGA inventor submitted in court to prove the device works, eight experts told KHN and CBS News the scans show signs of the AGGA displacing teeth instead of expanding the jaw. Some experts said, based on their experience with former AGGA patients, the device caused tens of thousands of dollars in damage to the patients mouths.

Dr. Marianna Evans, a Philadelphia orthodontist and periodontist who has examined multiple AGGA patients experiencing pain or complications, said she was reminded of gruesome, decades-old experiments that intentionally displaced the teeth of monkeys and dogs to test the limits of orthodontia.

These studies could not be done on humans because it was ethically wrong, Evans said. So now something I had only seen in very old studies that were published in black and white, on animals, I saw in my patients with 3D X-rays.

At least 20 AGGA patients, including Kragulj, have in the past three years filed lawsuits detailing their complaints about the device, claiming it left them with flared teeth, damaged gums, exposed roots, or erosion of the bone that holds teeth in place. Some plaintiffs said in lawsuits they would lose teeth and added in interviews that they no longer have enough healthy bone to replace their teeth with dental implants.

Most of their lawsuits do not name the dentists who installed the device as defendants, but are filed against the AGGAs inventor, its manufacturer, and companies that train dentists to use it, alleging they profit from false claims about a device that does not  and cannot  work.

Galella, 70, a Tennessee dentist who invented the AGGA in the 1990s, declined to be interviewed after being contacted by phone, email, and in person. His attorney, Alan Fumuso, said in a written statement that Galella had not been made aware of any complaints about the device prior to the recent lawsuits.

The [AGGA], when properly used, is safe and can achieve beneficial results for the patient, Fumuso said. This is not only the personal observation and experience of Dr. Galella, but also the experience of other dentists as well.

The plaintiffs do not allege in their lawsuits that Galella treated them but that he or his company consulted with each of their dentists about their AGGA treatment.

For this article, KHN and CBS News journalists interviewed 11 dental patients who said they were harmed by the AGGA  eight of whom have active lawsuits concerning the device  plus attorneys who said they represent or have represented at least 23 others. In every case, the patients said in lawsuits or interviews that they were convinced the device would expand their jaws or improve their breathing and mistakenly assumed the AGGA would not be for sale unless it was proven safe and effective.

None of their jawbones expanded, the patients alleged in lawsuits and interviews.

The entire concept of this device, of this treatment, makes zero sense.  It doesnt grow the jaw. It doesnt widen the jaw. It just pushes the teeth out of their original position. Dr. Kasey Li, maxillofacial surgeon and sleep apnea specialist

Leigh Peterson, 47, of Ohio, spent $7,000 on AGGA treatment in hopes of alleviating her TMJ, or temporomandibular joint disorder, which had caused her pain since she was a teen.

Within months of AGGA use, Peterson said, her teeth were so loose she could feel them move when rubbing moisturizer on her cheeks. Kissing her boyfriend became uncomfortable.

Peterson, who does not have an active lawsuit, said that according to a dental specialist she will need at least one round of bone grafts to stabilize her teeth.

I feel like all I have to look forward to now is treatment and pain and fear and debt, Peterson said. And I just regret it. I wish Id never done any of this.

The AGGA, which was recently rebranded as the Osseo-Restoration Appliance, resembles a retainer and uses springs to apply pressure to the front teeth and upper palate, according to a patent application filed in 2021. The version of AGGA intended for adults is affixed to a patients molars, typically worn for several months, and must be removed by a medical professional. Galella said pressure from the device causes an adults jaw to remodel forward to where the body really wants it to be, according to video footage from one of his dentist trainings produced in discovery in an AGGA lawsuit. In the video, Galella describes this transformation as the key to curing patients and making them more beautiful.

We fix the facial biology, Galella said in the video.

However, in a series of interviews with orthodontists, periodontists, and maxillofacial surgeons  all of whom have more training than the average dentist  these experts said that while it is possible to expand the jaws of children without surgery, jawbones stop growing forward as people mature into adulthood. Experts who have examined patients fitted with an AGGA said the device aggressively moved teeth, sometimes creating an illusion of jaw growth by tilting some teeth forward and forcing gaps between others. In the worst cases, those experts have seen teeth shoved so far out of position that their roots are pushed free of the bone and into the gums.

Dr. Kasey Li, a California maxillofacial surgeon and sleep apnea specialist, last year published a study  the abstract of which appeared on a National Institutes of Health website  describing loose teeth and bone loss among AGGA patients he has examined.

In an interview, Li described the AGGA device as medieval and said using it to try to expand a jaw is not unlike trying to make your house bigger by simply pushing on the wooden framing in the walls.

The entire concept of this device, of this treatment, makes zero sense, Li said. It doesnt grow the jaw. It doesnt widen the jaw. It just pushes the teeth out of their original position.

Rolling Out the AGGA

The AGGA device has been used on patients for about 15 years. Its biggest promoter is Galella, who operates out of a small, unremarkable clinic in a strip mall in the Memphis suburbs.

Galella said in a 2021 sworn deposition in one of the lawsuits that he has applied the AGGA to about 600 patients and prepared treatment plans for patients getting an AGGA from another dentist on about 9,800 occasions, collecting a royalty of $50 to $65 each time the device is made.

The Facial Beauty Institute has also taught an undisclosed number of dentists to use the device during three-day courses costing about $5,000, according to the companys website. The Las Vegas Institute, also known as LVI Global, offered similar AGGA classes for years and lists on its website about 75 dentists across the U.S. and Canada who have taken that class.

Dave Hornblower, 36, of Ontario, who was fitted with an AGGA in 2019 by a dentist who trained at the Las Vegas Institute, now expects to lose multiple teeth, according to his lawsuit against the company, the inventor, and other defendants.

Hornblower said in an interview the AGGA did not improve his breathing and he now feels pain whenever he makes a TH sound, brushing his tongue against the back of his front teeth.

My dentist said hed went to courses, seen the evidence, and he seemed very sure of himself, so I was sure of him, Hornblower said. He told me it would do all that magical stuff, and I believed him.

William Schuller, an attorney for the Las Vegas Institute, said in a phone interview that the Institute disputes claims the AGGA is inherently dangerous or has no utility to adults. Schuller said AGGA training is no longer offered at the institute and disputed that the institute ever taught dentists to use the device.

I wouldnt go so far as to say that LVI directly taught dentists to use the AGGA device ever, he said. LVI is a campus that provides the ability to teach courses in a variety of procedures and techniques. The doctors who taught the courses were associated with Dr. Galella. It was his course and his course materials that he prepared.

However, according to a sworn deposition filed in one of the AGGA lawsuits, the AGGA training at the Las Vegas Institute was for years taught by the companys co-orthodontic directors, Dr. David Buck and Dr. Timothy Gross. Buck said in that deposition he created lectures and wrote materials for the course, which were approved by Galella and the leadership of the institute, which kept 70% of the tuition paid for the trainings. A slideshow presentation from one of these training sessions, filed as an exhibit in another AGGA lawsuit, identifies Buck and Gross as clinical instructor[s] at the institute.

We are not aware of any peer-reviewed articles regarding AGGA working and were not aware of any peer-reviewed articles regarding AGGA not working. William Schuller, attorney

When pressed during his deposition, Galella said he was not aware of any peer-reviewed studies or clinical trials demonstrating that the AGGA works as claimed on patients whose jaws have finished growing. Galella said his confidence in the device comes from years of using it on patients and dental scans he had not published.

It proved it to me, Galella said. But for the rest of the world, I hadnt posted anything. Sorry.

Galellas company has posted a non-peer-reviewed white paper that summarizes the theory behind the AGGA and contains one image from a dental scan of an unidentified, presumably adult patient that describes 1 to 3 millimeters of outward relocation of the upper jawbone after wearing an AGGA for four months. The paper says research on the AGGA takes some time and we have begun this research in earnest.

Schuller acknowledged the lack of peer-reviewed evidence behind the AGGA.

We are not aware of any peer-reviewed articles regarding AGGA working, he said in an interview, and were not aware of any peer-reviewed articles regarding AGGA not working. So my understanding is that there is no literature to speak to it one way or the other.

Faced with the lack of professional studies, a federal judge last year ordered Galella to turn over a sample of his dental scans. Galella was required to provide the plaintiffs with before-and-after scans from five patients over age 30 that demonstrate the AGGA is effective.

Those scans offer no proof, according to an expert witness enlisted by the plaintiffs. In a sworn affidavit filed with the court, Dr. Ricky Harrell, who leads the residency program at the Georgia School of Orthodontics, said Galellas dental scans demonstrate no appreciable growth of the adult jawbones.

KHN and CBS News had those scans reviewed by eight independent experts, including orthodontists, periodontists, maxillofacial surgeons, and faculty from dental colleges at Columbia, Harvard, and the University of Florida. None of these experts was involved in any of the AGGA lawsuits at the time of their interviews.

Every expert had the same response: Galellas scans showed patients teeth had moved but their jaws remained unchanged.

It is proof, said Dr. Richard Roblee, an Arkansas orthodontist who reviewed the scans. Proof that the [AGGA] is not working correctly, not doing what they say. That is the proof that he has given.

Roblee said he has examined at least 15 people he said were harmed by the AGGA and has never seen another dental technique cause this much damage to so many patients.

Dr. George Mandelaris, a Chicago-area periodontist and member of the American Academy of Periodontology Board of Trustees, said Galellas dental scans show harm to the bone that holds teeth in place. Mandelaris said he has consulted with 11 AGGA patients, including Kragulj, who looked as if a bomb went off in her mouth.

Dr. Sercan Akyalcin, the head of orthodontics at Harvard, said the scans showed the patients upper frontmost teeth were pushed forward but did not show that their jawbones expanded.

Dr. Millie Embree, a professor of orthodontics at Columbia, and Dr. Anita Gohel, the head of oral radiology at the University of Florida, each said they saw that patients were losing teeth in the scans that Galella chose to validate the AGGAs effectiveness.

Im a little surprised that this was the best evidence, Gohel said. I wonder what the rest is.

The AGGA appears to be off the radar of the FDA, which is responsible for regulating medical and dental devices in the United States. Device manufacturers are supposed to register new products with the agency, and any devices that pose even a moderate risk to a patient can be required to go through a pre-market review to check if they are safe and effective.

In an emailed statement, the FDA confirmed it had no record of the AGGA being registered in its device database but would not comment on whether the device should have been registered or if it would be investigated. The agency would not say if it was aware of the AGGA prior to being contacted by KHN and CBS News.

The AGGAs exclusive manufacturer, Johns Dental Laboratories, located in Indiana, said in a court document it has no record of communicating with the FDA about the AGGA before beginning to make or sell it. Johns Dental said in court the AGGA falls into the FDAs least-risky classification for devices, similar to a dental retainer, and is exempt from a pre-market clearance under a statutory exemption for dental labs. Johns Dental attorney Jeffrey Oberlies declined to comment.

Galella said in his deposition that he believed the AGGA was outside of the FDAs jurisdiction.

Cara Tenenbaum, a former senior policy adviser in the FDAs device center, said the AGGA is within FDA jurisdiction and it was incredibly problematic that it was not registered, at least in part because that is how the FDA collects reports of negative effects.

If properly registered, Tenenbaum said, the AGGA might be classified with devices that reposition the jaw or prevent snoring, which are in a more tightly regulated category than what Johns Dental cited in court. Tenenbaum said the FDA was most likely unaware of the AGGA and she suspects it will investigate once alerted to allegations of patient harm.

Scott Charnas, a New York attorney who represents numerous AGGA patients, said he believed a more proactive FDA would have discovered and investigated the device years ago.

Its just going to go on and on unless someone does something about it, Charnas said. Somebody needs to step up.

AGGA Inventor: Its OK to Make a Crapload of Money

Both Galella and the Las Vegas Institute have said in dentist trainings that the AGGA can cure TMJ and sleep apnea, according to the AGGA training video footage and a slideshow presentation obtained from the ongoing lawsuits.

Galella is heard in the video telling dentists that customers are gonna beat your door down because the AGGA can cure patients instead of merely treating their symptoms. He says some patients who want to lessen their pain or improve their looks will pay anything  anything!  to have that problem resolved.

Its OK to make a crapload of money, Galella tells dentists in the video. Youre not ripping anybody off. Youre curing them. Youre helping them. Youre making their life totally beautiful forever and ever.

Beauty was also a focal point of AGGA classes at the Las Vegas Institute, where the slideshow presentation features photos of celebrities and models. Images of decorated Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps and Princess of Wales Kate Middleton are shown as examples of the kind of unattractive, underdeveloped midface that the AGGA is claimed to correct. Middleton is specifically described as remarkably not beautiful.

Why are we here? reads the first page of the slideshow. To treat ugly faces.

The Las Vegas Institute frequently promoted the AGGA in a Facebook group where many of the patients interviewed for this story say they were first persuaded to use the device. The group outwardly appears to be a discussion space for people with jaw problems, and membership is controlled by the Las Vegas Institute.

We were looking for this holy grail type of deal, said Karan Gill, who wore an AGGA for months and alleges in a lawsuit his teeth were left loose and sensitive. The people who were promoting the AGGA in these Facebook groups and such  thats the way they were talking about it.

Five former members described the Facebook group as a pro-AGGA echo chamber, where anyone who asked for proof that the AGGA works was hushed or banned.

If you seek the truth outside, you will be excommunicated, said Nick Hamilton, 40, a former member of the Facebook group who has an ongoing lawsuit against Galella. I was asking too many questions. And I started talking openly with other people that were having issues. And they kicked us all out.

A KHN-CBS News review of the Facebook group postings the past six years uncovered at least five posts in which Las Vegas Institute CEO Bill Dickerson said that the AGGA is growing bone or can grow the maxilla, which is another name for the upper jaw.

[I]nstead of just moving teeth  we are growing bone  its awesome, Dickerson wrote in a 2017 post about the AGGA in the Facebook group.

Dickerson has since changed his view. Last year, in a sworn deposition filed in an ongoing lawsuit, Dickerson said he did not believe the AGGA could grow the maxilla and agreed it would be misleading to say it could. Dickerson said in the deposition he began to question the claims of what the AGGA could do in 2020, and after reviewing some patients dental scans, he severed ties with Galella and the Facial Beauty Institute.

Kragulj, the clarinetist from the beginning of this article, said she discovered the AGGA through a Facebook video from Galellas Facial Beauty Institute. According to her lawsuit, she got a device in 2018 and wore it for about 14 months, by which point she had sustained irreversible damage to the bone that holds her teeth in place.

Eventually, Kragulj sought help from the man who knew the AGGA better than anyone: Galella. She said she traveled to his Facial Beauty Institute for a consultation, expecting an elite academic facility but finding only a small clinic with aging wallpaper and broken equipment.

Kragulj said Galella looked in her mouth and, after an audible sigh, offered to fix her for $15,000  plus as much as $15,000 more per tooth. Galella confirmed that meeting and approximate cost in his deposition.

After the meeting, Kragulj decided she was done with Galella, according to her lawsuit. She said she returned to the traditional surgeons and specialists she once eschewed, and the first orthodontist she saw described her teeth as the worst thing hed ever seen.

They were hanging on by a thread, and the bone was gone, Kragulj said in an interview. So it was an extravagant process to get to a place where I could even have fake teeth.

Kragulj said that since abandoning the AGGA treatment she had to remove four front teeth and was fitted with a dental bridge of false teeth. She said she will need surgery to fix the underlying problems in her jaw and will likely need to replace her upper teeth with prosthetics.

Her entire treatment will cost, by her estimate, a minimum of $150,000, followed by a lifetime of maintaining and replacing dental implants, she said.

Kragulj said it is unlikely she will ever play the clarinet professionally again and as of now she cannot play properly for even a minute without pain.

My inner world is very silent, Kragulj said. It was my voice.

___

10 small, healthy things you should do for yourself every day 1. Find one small way to add more steps to your day. 2. Just be  even for five minutes a day. 3. Make sleep a top priority. 4. Refill your water bottle. 5. Take a few deep breaths. 6. Wear something you love. 7. Make something in the kitchen. 8. Deliberately choose a healthy ingredient. 9. Pay attention to your needs. 10. Tell the truth as often as you can.
Joe Holleman Joe Holleman is a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow Joe Holleman Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today

Some things in Missouri happen about once every 165 years  like having one of your own in charge of the Ways and Means Committee in the U.S. House.

When U.S. Rep. Jason Smith, R-Salem, took the chairmans gavel of that committee earlier this year, it was the first time since the 1858-59 session that a Show Me-stater has held that esteemed post.

John S. Phelps was the last chairman from Missouri, Smith said in a recent interview. And its kind of weird, really.

Phelps County, which is named after him, is in my district; and its also the next county over from where I grew up in Dent County, he said.

Ways and Means is the oldest committee of Congress, and generally considered its most powerful. That makes Smith, 42, arguably the highest-ranking U.S. representative from Missouri since Democrat Richard Gephardt was House Majority Leader from 1989 to 1995.

The committee has jurisdiction over all taxation, tariffs and revenue-raising measures, and also is in charge of Social Security, unemployment benefits, Medicare and other similar programs.

But in spite of its exalted position, Smith said his goal for the committee is no different than was his original aim 10 years ago when he first went to Congress.

I want to bring the values of Missouri to Washington, D.C., Smith said. I want those fingerprints on all policies.

Smiths political career began in 2005, when he was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives. In 2013, he won a special election to replace Jo Ann Emerson in the U.S. House. Last year, he was elected to his fifth full term.

Smiths 8th Congressional District includes much of Jefferson County and all of Ste. Genevieve and St. Francois counties. It runs south to the Arkansas border and its western edge stops about 15 miles east of Springfield.

To reflect the common-man approach to government that he espouses, Smith held his first Ways and Means meeting in Petersburg, West Virginia.

Smith laughed and added, I wouldve loved to have had the first one back in southeast Missouri, but the cost of that would have been a little much.

Still, he said, Appalachia is a lot like the Ozarks, and I wanted to hear from small business owners and coal miners, he said.

I talked with a restaurant owner in West Virginia, and she told me about the struggle since the (COVID) shutdown, and then with the spike in prices and the labor shortage, he said.

One of Smiths first acts as head of Ways and Means has been to go after the Internal Revenue Service, especially its plan to hire about 87,000 new auditors.

Smith argues that the IRS has a disturbing track record of violating the trust of the American taxpayer.

To that end, Smith set up a whistleblower hotline that allows IRS personnel to anonymously share instances of IRS misdeeds.

Specifically, Smith is irked by the Biden Administration plan to have a beefed-up IRS auditors corps more closely check the incomes of temporary employees and service-industry workers.

So now were going after the tips of waiters and waitresses? Smith said. Theyre focusing on people making less than $400,000 a year. The majority of all Missourians fall into that category.

If Smiths positions sound conservative, thats because they are. He was a staunch supporter of Donald Trumps presidential bids and Trump has backed Smiths congressional runs.

But Smith more readily describes himself as working class.

I grew up in a single-wide trailer, but then we upgraded to a double-wide, Smith said, then declared, Im proud of where Ive come from.

He graduated from Salem High, and then went on the University of Missouri, where he earned a bachelors degree in agricultural economics and business administration. After that, it was on to Oklahoma City University to get a law degree.

He also pointed out that he now lives in a house that has been in his family for four generations, and he recalled spending many nights in the house on the property when his grandparents lived there.

The first thing I did was burn down their outhouse, Smith said, clearly holding few warm feelings for past outdoor-plumbing experiences.

Now, Smith ranches on that property and rides herd over about 250 cattle, 400 sheep and some bison. I tell my colleagues I use my congressional pay to subsidize my ranch.

Speaking of animals, Smith found himself on the wrong side of animal advocates while he was a state representative. In 2011, he led a repeal of the states puppy mill laws, after his mothers kennel operation had been cited in 2010 by the Humane Society.

As to predictions of the GOP-led Houses ability to get bills passed by a Democrat-controlled Senate, Smith said he foresees doing good bipartisan work.

I know we can find some common ground to do things that will help working-class Americans, he said.

As to nonpolitical goals, Smith hopes his recent rooting success carries over into the summer and fall. Its Chiefs and Cardinals. Theres no question: I bleed red.
ST. LOUIS  A surge in traffic fatalities in the city in recent years has spurred Mayor Tishaura O. Jones administration to consider bringing back red-light cameras.

In the wake of a crash Sunday at Grand Boulevard and Forest Park Avenue that killed four people and injured four, the mayors office said the city is exploring automated enforcement solutions to discourage dangerous driving but didnt elaborate.

Sources have since confirmed that red-light cameras are among the ideas under consideration.

Red-light cameras havent been used in St. Louis and most of the rest of Missouri since 2015, when state Supreme Court rulings effectively set up new restrictions on their use.

Under those decisions, red-light cameras have to take photos of drivers, not just vehicles as the city used to do. In one case, the court ruled that the old St. Louis ordinance improperly required defendants to prove they werent operating a vehicle at the time of the violation.

Jones is expected to address the issue Wednesday when she signs a $74 million infrastructure bill that includes money to remove lanes and bump out curbs to slow traffic on some major streets such as Grand, Kingshighway and Jefferson Avenue.

MoDOT statistics show 78 traffic fatalities in the city last year, up from 71 in 2021. There were 81 in 2020 and 60 in 2019.

Among those supporting a return to using the cameras is Trailnet, a local organization that advocates for pedestrians and bicyclists.

Charles Bryson, Trailnets policy catalyst, said red-light cameras, speed cameras and other technology could help the city cope with the vacancies in police officer positions St. Louis has faced in recent years.

Youre augmenting the lack of police officers with other tools around traffic issues, said Bryson, a former city public safety director under then-Mayor Francis Slay.

But he said Trailnet also believes there has to be racial equity involved in that conversation.

He added that if the cameras are brought back, they should be deployed in a way that doesnt result in African Americans receiving a disproportionate number of red-light camera tickets and fines.

He also noted that a number of the streets with high-crash totals are in Black-majority neighborhoods.

The sticky issue is how do you do both, said Bryson.

Bevis Schock, an attorney who challenged St. Louis old camera law and those in some other cities, disputed the idea that restoring the camera tickets in the city would help reduce traffic accidents and fatalities.

The people who are committing this crazy traffic mayhem are not responsive to the law, Schock said. So it doesnt matter if they get a notice in the mail telling them to pay $100 as a red-light camera fine.

Jones predecessor as mayor, Lyda Krewson, in 2019 also considered bringing the ticket cameras back, saying her goal was to improve traffic law enforcement in a city with a chronic shortage of police officers. At the time, she cited speeding and red-light running on major thoroughfares.

Krewsons administration issued a request for proposals to vendors, asking them to bid on both red-light cameras and speed cameras, a technology St. Louis hasnt used in the past.

Although two companies responded, the issue was put aside when the pandemic hit St. Louis and the rest of the nation a few months later.

In 2011, about 30 cities across Missouri had red-light cameras but as of now, Hannibal is the only one still using them.

Jones infrastructure bill, which her office on Sunday called the largest investment in road and pedestrian safety in the citys history, aims to reimagine city traffic planning and rebuild major streets to make them safer.

Last week, Aldermanic President Megan Green in an interview mentioned red-light cameras as a possible way to improve traffic law enforcement.

She said she thinks there are ways that the city could abide by the court restrictions and use technology in a way that can enhance safety while also protecting civil liberties of folks in our city.

Green also said she is interested in setting up some kind of non-police traffic enforcement for lower-level offenses.

Alderman Sharon Tyus of the 1st Ward, who chairs the aldermanic Streets Committee, said she is looking into the idea of hiring retired police officers to do traffic enforcement.

Alderman Joe Vollmer of the 10th Ward said he supported considering a return to the use of the cameras.

Especially with the way things are going now, he said. No ones stopping at anything. Its frightening. Theres no deterrent currently.

Vollmer said the city also needs to come up with ways to get more police recruits.

We need to up their pay and their appreciation and get us to a model that works, he said.

Jacob Barker of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
This photo shows Zeng Mei'e taking inventory of goods at her grocery store in Datang Village of Loudi City, central China's Hunan Province, Jan. 3, 2023. (Xinhua)

by Xinhua writers Zhang Ge, Xie Ben

CHANGSHA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The van came to a halt in front of a grocery shop at the village's entrance. Zeng Mei'e, the store's 54-year-old owner, came out to assist with the unloading of fresh fish, prawns, exotic fruits, and other items villagers had ordered online the day before.

Zeng double-checked each piece of information, disinfected each package, and then organized everything for delivery.

After 12 years in business, this shop in Datang Village of Loudi City in central China's Hunan Province, has become more than just a grocery store for the locals. It has become an "omnipotent house" where residents can do anything from getting a haircut to paying their electricity bills.

As a result, a common saying has become popular among locals: "If you need anything, call Zeng!"

Zeng's grocery store has adopted the e-commerce business model popular in modern cities and is now the village's "new retail" center.

The majority of young people leave the village to find jobs elsewhere, leaving behind an increasing number of senior villagers. According to Zeng, some of the away-from-home youths enjoy buying items online for their parents.

Over a year ago, Zeng began to use the supermarket as a community e-commerce pick-up station for an online business, simplifying life for everyone.

"With the addition of the pick-up location, the grocery store has become a popular 'online supermarket' among the locals. Some things that cannot be purchased in the village or county can now be delivered the following day after an online order has been placed," Zeng said.

"Prior to this, the villagers purchased what the grocery store sold. Now, the grocery store stocks what the villagers order online," she added.

Zeng also revealed that villagers can now purchase fresh ingredients right on their doorsteps. Even once-rare commodities, such as crabs, oysters, and durian, are gradually becoming more ubiquitous.

Some of the village's elderly people are unable to move freely, so Zeng assists with home delivery. Gradually, word spread that there was an "online supermarket" in Datang Village, and villagers from neighboring areas now seek Zeng's advice on how to place orders.

"I hope the elderly in the countryside can also enjoy the conveniences brought about by the Internet," said Zeng.

Over the past two years, the rapid rise of community e-commerce across the nation has not only satisfied the basic necessities of the populace, but also stimulated local consumption while fueling employment and income growth.

"While bringing conveniences to fellow villagers, I myself also benefit from the Internet, like getting more income."
The former police chief in Louisiana, Missouri, is under house arrest after posting bail Tuesday in a second-degree murder and drug trafficking case.

William E. Jones, 50, is accused in the fatal fentanyl overdose of his girlfriends brother last October.

Jones has been behind bars since Jan. 13 when a Pike County grand jury indicted him on seven charges, including second-degree murder, drug trafficking and stealing from the Louisiana Police Department  all while Jones was police chief of the small town.

Bond had been set at $1 million, but the defense lawyer for Jones argued to have it lowered. The judge lowered it by half after a hearing in January.

The case was then moved to St. Charles County on a change of venue. On Tuesday, St. Charles County Circuit Judge Deborah Alessi judge lowered his bond to $300,000 cash, which Jones posted using a cashiers check.

The cash for his release largely was pooled with the help of family and included retirement savings from Jones mother, said defense attorney Christopher Lozano.

As Jones awaits trial, the bond conditions require that he be under house arrest, undergo random drug testing and be monitored by GPS. He will be living in Cole County, his lawyer said.

Jones is accused in the fatal fentanyl overdose Oct. 18 of 24-year-old Gabriel Thone. Thone was discovered dead on the floor of the master bedroom at Jones home. Another Thone brother overdosed at the home too but was revived by paramedics.

Jones also is charged with stealing from the Louisiana Police Departments evidence locker while he was chief.

Louisiana has since fired Jones as police chief, Lozano said.

The felony murder charge carries a punishment of up to life in prison, with the possibility of parole. The crime means someone committed a felony and another person was killed as a result of that felony. The underlying felony that prosecutors allege in Jones case is trafficking fentanyl.

The Thone brothers sister, Alexis Thone, was Jones 25-year-old girlfriend; she faces charges of second-degree murder, trafficking and drug possession.

Jones had been jailed in Lincoln County because his co-defendant was in Pike County. The Pike County prosecutor asked that a special prosecutor take over the case, so Mike Schafer with the attorney generals office is handling the prosecution.

Reporter Kim Bell covers breaking news for STLtoday.com and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She can be reached at kbell@post-dispatch.com
Children injured or killed by gunfire in the St. Louis area in 2023

Below is the St. Louis Post-Dispatch coverage of children who have been injured or killed by gunfire across the St. Louis metropolitan area in 2023. The children are 17 years old or younger.

Through April 13, reporters have covered at least 18 shootings involving children; nine were fatal.

These are not all the homicides involving children. For more details on local homicides, check the homicide tracker.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill.  Thousands of law enforcement officers left out when Illinois adopted a federal law allowing police agency retirees to carry concealed weapons saw their fortunes reversed Jan. 1 with a state law granting them permission.

But two months later, they still await the OK to carry firearms in public because the regulatory agency that runs the retiree program isnt complying with the law.

The Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board said conflicting laws render the board powerless to issue concealed carry permits to sheriffs deputies who worked the jails or monitored courtrooms. But it waited until Jan. 11  more than a week after the laws effective date  to seek an opinion from the state attorney general as to how to proceed.

That has drawn the ire of the laws sponsor, Sen. Bill Cunningham, a Chicago Democrat who fired off a blistering letter this month to the board, urging compliance.

They dont get to pick and choose what laws to implement and not implement, Cunningham told The Associated Press. This is simply a case of a state agency not liking a law and just deciding on their own theyre not going to enforce it.

Sean Smoot, the chairperson of the law enforcement board, said the law doesnt mention the standards board, its duties or a discrepancy in state rules that have disallowed certain retirees from carrying weapons for two decades.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Wednesday he would look into the matter.

Any law on the books should be complied with, obviously, Pritzker said.

The federal Law Enforcement Officer Safety Act of 2004 allows retirees  up to 10,000 in Illinois  who spent at least 10 years as law enforcement officers with arrest powers to carry concealed weapons in retirement. But for two decades, additional board rules have precluded county sheriffs deputies who were correctional officers and state prison guards.

While the 2004 act requires a 10-year career, the standards board also stipulates that the officers work consist primarily of crime prevention and detection. Officials also contend correctional officers spend less time in firearms training, but the officers themselves say they have to requalify with their weapons annually just like their colleagues. And, they say they face threats from ex-offenders they meet on the street, just like other officers.

The standards board turned to Attorney General Kwame Raoul, seeking an opinion on whether the boards functions dovetail with allowing correctional officers to pack firearms publicly.

The question is, are we the agency to implement it? Smoot said. And if we are the agency to implement it, do we have the legal authority and the regulatory ability to do so? Thats the key right there.

Cunningham argued the time for raising such questions was during debate on the bill or at least shortly after it was signed into law in May, so that lawmakers could make necessary changes in their fall session before the laws Jan. 1 effective date. He said he heard nothing from the board.

Smoot, while he couldnt be specific, said staff had been in contact last year with legislators and Gov. J.B. Pritzkers staff. Board Executive Director Keith Calloway did not return a call seeking comment.

Smoot said Tuesday that staff members are now working with Cunninghams staff on follow-up legislation to address the boards concerns, but Cunningham disputed that.

Ive told ILETSB I will work with them on a trailer bill  but only after they implement the current law, Cunningham said.

Since his 2015 retirement, the boards prohibition has flummoxed Marcus Hargrett, whose 35-year career as a Cook County sheriffs correctional officer saw him patrolling the nations largest single-site jail and making necessary arrests. The 64-year-old Hargrett of Chicago qualified for concealed carry under the federal law, but the Illinois rules barred him. His agitation over the issue helped spur the legislation.

Illinois allows concealed carry among qualified civilians, but Hargrett has noted that not all states have reciprocity with Illinois. The federal law allows universal carry.

Hargrett and other former officers said they were especially aggravated by the boards response to the new law. At least as early as November, its website indicated that it would not issue concealed carry permits to local or state correctional officers while it awaited a legal opinion from the attorney general.

When Amy Tanner, of Palatine, saw that, she called the attorney generals office, only to learn there had been no request for an opinion. Tanner, 54, who retired last August after 31 years with the Cook County Sheriffs Department, called the state board the first week of January, informing a staff member of what she learned. Smoots letter seeking the opinion went out shortly after. Tanner followed with a letter objecting to the delay.

They had nine months to seek the opinion from the attorney generals office. They lost their chance, Tanner said. If they would have objected in April or May, they could have gone to the senators and representatives and made changes. Now its law.
JEFFERSON CITY  The Missouri Supreme Court on Wednesday set a June execution date for man convicted of killing two Missouri jailers during a botched attempt to free a friend.

Michael Andrew Tisius, 42, is scheduled to be executed June 6 at the state prison in Bonne Terre for the shooting deaths of Randolph County jailers Jason Acton and Leon Egley.

In 2000, Tisius and Tracie Bulington entered the lobby of the jail in Huntsville, aiming to break out Bulingtons boyfriend, Roy Vance, prosecutors said. Tisius fired on the two officers, killing them. The plot failed because the intruders couldnt find the cell keys.

Tisius and Bulington were arrested on the day of the shootings in Wathena, Kansas, about 130 miles west of Huntsville.

Defense attorneys had argued that Tisius intended only to order the jailers into a holding cell and free Vance and other inmates.

Bulington and Vance are serving life sentences.

Two people have been executed in Missouri so far this year. Amber McLaughlin, 49, the first openly transgender woman, died Jan. 3. Leonard Raheem Taylor, 58, who maintained his innocence in a quadruple killing, was executed Feb. 7.

Larry Komp, an attorney for Tisius, said they are making a determination on legal remedies to pursue and also plan to prepare a clemency petition that will be sent to Missouri Gov. Mike Parson.

We are profoundly saddened at the setting of the date, Komp said in a statement Wednesday. The legal challenge that was presented to the Missouri Supreme Court was overwhelmingly supported by science and uncontradicted experts. We are disappointed that a legal claim supported by so much was denied by a check the box order.
ST. LOUIS COUNTY  One person was shot near the Galleria on Tuesday.

The shooting happened around 5 p.m. on the Galleria Parkway under Interstate 170 after what Richmond Heights Police described as a confrontation between a motorist and two pedestrians.

The suspect is the motorist, according to police, who noted the suspect is now in custody and the handgun used in the shooting has been recovered. Police say the motorist fired a shot, hitting one of the pedestrians in the leg.

Injuries are serious but not life-threatening, police say.

This is a breaking story. More information will be added as it becomes available.
JEFFERSON CITY  Just two days after a man was shot and killed on a busy downtown St. Louis street, Republicans in the Missouri Legislature again moved to make it easier for people to buy guns.

Under legislation sponsored by Sen. Rick Brattin, R-Harrisonville, sales of firearms and ammunition made in Missouri would be exempt from all taxes.

The measure, which had failed to gain traction in the past three years despite Missouris reputation as having some of the nations most permissive firearms laws, was given preliminary approval on a 21-8 vote.

The proposal also would provide a tax credit for those selling firearms and ammunition to offset federal excise taxes they pay.

Levying these taxes upon a constitutional right is one that we need to definitely protect. Taxation is a hindrance limiting the ability of people to exercise that right, Brattin said.

Democrats panned the proposal as yet another example of Republicans who control state government backing legislation that puts more guns on the street. In January, for example, Missouris Republican-controlled House rejected a proposal to limit minors from carrying weapons in public.

You want to keep making easier for people to get guns, said Sen. Karla May, D-St. Louis. The only thing a gun can do is take a life.

Although Democrats opposed the underlying legislation, Sen. Lauren Arthur, D-Kansas City, tacked on an amendment that would exempt diapers from sales taxes. Republican Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, R-Arnold, added a provision to cut the states 1% tax on grocery items.

A great bill just got much, much better, Brattin said.

According to a nonpartisan legislative analysis, the tax cut on gun purchases could result in a $94.9 million cut in revenue to local governments and a $78 million reduction in state revenue.

The proposal was debated against the backdrop of police in St. Louis charging Deshawn Thomas, 23, in connection with the fatal shooting of a man on Tucker Boulevard Monday morning.

Witnesses told investigators the suspect killed the man after a fight near the Shell gas station in the 700 block of North Tucker.

The victim, identified Tuesday as David Saldana, was found on the sidewalk shortly after 10 a.m. Monday in front of The Globe Building near Tucker and Convention Plaza.

In Kansas City, three city police officers were shot and injured while executing a search warrant on Tuesday night.

Arthur suggested Brattin was insensitive to the high rates of gun violence in the states urban areas and the effects of gun violence on residents.

Brattin said there are other factors that have driven up crime, including problems in the St. Louis Circuit Attorneys office. The measure came as members of the House were debating a state takeover of the St. Louis Police Department over concerns about crime in the city.

Brattin acknowledged seeing a video of the St. Louis incident, which circulated on social media after the shooting.

He literally executes him on the side of the road, Brattin said.

The bill needs one more vote in the Senate before it can be heard in the House.

The legislation is Senate Bill 131.
JEFFERSON CITY  A month after a Chinese spy balloon began its journey over the U.S., the Missouri House gave preliminary approval Tuesday to a measure limiting foreign ownership of agricultural land.

As part of a bipartisan effort moving in both the House and Senate, the legislation would boost restrictions on foreign-owned farmland. Instead of the current 1% of Missouri farmland that can be owned by foreign entities, the bill would lower the cap to a half of a percent.

Under the proposal, all foreign entities would be required to report sales, acquisitions or land transfers to the Missouri Attorney General and Secretary of State.

It protects U.S. national security interests, said Rep. Mike Haffner, R-Pleasant Grove, who is sponsoring the measure.

The push to limit foreign ownership of farmland in Missouri has been under consideration for the past five years as China has increasingly become viewed as an aggressor more than a trade ally. It gained renewed momentum following the balloon incident, which included the massive inflated surveillance vehicle hovering over Missouri for a time before it was shot down by a military strike off the coast of South Carolina days later.

Earlier this month, in the shadow of the balloon incident, Senate President Caleb Rowden, R-Columbia, announced the formation of a new committee that will handle legislation related to potential incursions by foreign countries into the state in a reversal of a 2013 change in law that paved the way for Chinese-owned Smithfield Foods to own property in the state.

In addition, legislative efforts are underway to ban the use of the TikTok app on state-owned devices because of the social media applications connections to China.

The measure is opposed by influential and well-funded lobbying groups in Missouri, including the Missouri Association of Realtors and the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The trade groups said government should stay out of the way of private business transactions.

The bill endorsed by the House also would prohibit five countries from owning any land in Missouri, including China, Russia, Iran, North Korea and Venezuela. More countries could be added under an ongoing review process laid out in the bill.

We need and want foreign investment in Missouri. But we want that with our allies and friends, Haffner said.

I think that food security is national security, said Rep. Sarah Unsicker, D-Shrewsbury.

But Rep. Peter Merideth, D-St. Louis, said picking and choosing which countries can own Missouri land may not pass constitutional muster.

Thats what were not allowed to do, Merideth said.

I think listing these countries is a statutory mistake, said Rep. Doug Clemens, D-St. Ann.

A Missouri Department of Agriculture analysis found that the state total of foreign-owned agriculture land is 0.36%, with China owning an estimated 42,596 acres, and New Zealand, with 16,271 acres. No land in Missouri is currently owned by Iran, Russia, Venezuela or North Korea.

Haffner said he worked with U.S. officials to ensure the legislation doesnt step on national security policy or foreign treaties.

Because of our foreign relationships, its a dynamic situation, Haffner said.

The measure needs one more vote in the House before moving to the Senate.

The legislation is House Bill 903.
JEFFERSON CITY  A potential candidate for governor outlined a plan Wednesday to address long-running concerns about one of the states major traffic arteries.

But Sen. Bill Eigels proposal to use a massive state budget surplus to widen Interstate 70 across Missouris midsection faces political headwinds, with fellow Republican Gov. Mike Parson seeking a different solution for the traffic-choked corridor.

Under Eigels plan, which he presented to the Senate Transportation, Infrastructure and Public Safety Committee, the state would be required to deposit 2% of its net general revenue into the Interstate 70 Improvement Fund. The state would also place up to $1.5 billion annually into the fund at the beginning of each calendar year.

We have looked at different ways to rebuild or expand our states largest highway for many years and we havent had a vision or a plan to do that and thats what Im trying to provide, Eigel told the panel.

The Weldon Spring Republican, who is exploring a 2024 bid for governor, said the legislation, in addition to federal matching funds, would raise enough money to widen the interstate through the whole state, except for urban cores, he said.

Eigel also said money could be spent on fixing the bottleneck at I-70 and Interstate 64, which he called the Wentzville Strangler. Creating a dedicated fund would eliminate the possibility that the money could be diverted by future General Assemblies, he said.

I-70 was designed and built between 1956 and 1965. The Missouri Department of Transportation says its oldest sections are 60 years old and its youngest sections are 51 years old.

In contrast to Eigels plan, Parson wants to pump $859 million into widening over 50 total miles of roadway in suburban St. Louis, suburban Kansas City and Columbia while also improving a bottleneck interchange at I-70 and U.S. 63. That would still leave around 140 miles of rural I-70 with two lanes in each direction.

Eigel said adding one lane in each direction between St. Charles County and the Kansas City suburbs would be a better solution.

Transportation Committee Chairman Travis Fitzwater, R-Holts Summit, acknowledged Eigels plan is in competition with Parson, but suggested the two concepts would both benefit by creating a special fund for specific highway improvements.

I-70 is just a massive priority, said Fitzwater, whose district includes portions of the road in Montgomery and Callaway counties. I think the best use of our dollars is spent on infrastructure.

A push to widen the east-west artery has been gaining steam for years as heavy truck and car traffic have frustrated motorists and affected the transport of goods.

In addition to competing against Parsons plan, Senate President Caleb Rowden, R-Columbia, has also raised red flags about Eigels vision, saying widening plans should rely more on the states motor fuel tax in order to spread the cost to out-of-state motorists who could provide an estimated 40% of the cost.

Industry groups took no direct position on either proposal, but said the state should find a way to upgrade the roadway.

Ray McCarty, president and CEO of Associated Industries of Missouri, told the panel that creating a special fund for I-70 would give lawmakers more control over where the money is being spent.

Pat Kelly, executive director of the Municipal League of Metro St. Louis, said upgrading I-70 would help the region build up its freight shipping and logistics industry that includes railroads and ports.

Highway 70 is a key component of that. We look at this as an investment in the economic development of the future of the state, Kelly said.

The committee did not vote on the proposal Wednesday.

The legislation is Senate Bill 317.
ST. LOUIS  Explosive allegations made public last month about a St. Louis clinic that treats transgender children have flung parents into a vortex of emotions: shock, confusion, anger, fear.

Kim Hutton, among those confused by the reports, views the treatment her son, now 19, received from Washington Universitys Transgender Center at St. Louis Childrens Hospital as vital to making him the outgoing college freshman he is today.

The idea that nobody got information, that everybody was pushed toward treatment, is just not true. Its devastating, Hutton said. Im baffled by it.

Almost two dozen parents of children seen at the clinic, which opened in 2017, say their experiences sharply contradict the examples supplied by Jamie Reed, a case manager who left the WU center after being employed there for more than four years. Reed outlined her concerns in an article published online Feb. 9; her sworn affidavit, which included additional allegations, was released that day by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who is leading a state investigation.

Bailey demanded an immediate moratorium on prescriptions of puberty-blocking drugs and cross-sex hormones for new patients. Leaders at Washington U. and BJC HealthCare rejected that, but pledged to establish additional oversight.

Reed, of south St. Louis County, alleges that families were rushed toward medical interventions without regard to whether adolescents were in extreme mental health distress. She claims side effects were glossed over, and drugs were prescribed even if one parent did not consent.

But parents interviewed by the Post-Dispatch cast doubt on Reeds ability to know what happened inside exam rooms as an employee who did not have a medical or managerial role, and whom they rarely saw. The case managers job duties, as described in a Washington U. posting, comprise patient intake, scheduling appointments and providing information about community resources to families.

How we reported this story Jamie Reed does not name patients or parents in her Free Press story or sworn affidavit. To check her claims, the Post-Dispatch contacted more than 30 people: patients, parents, therapists, doctors, and critics and supporters of Washington Universitys Transgender Center at St. Louis Childrens Hospital. They include former employees, people who have testified in the Missouri Capitol and at St. Louis County Council meetings about proposed legislation affecting LGBTQ citizens, and names supplied by those who oppose medical care for transgender minors. Reed and the Transgender Centers doctors declined to comment.

Reed emailed parents with reminders, asking them to contact her with questions. The printouts that were attached detailed medical protocols, including side effects, risks and reversibility. They listed contact information for dozens of local wraparound services, LGBTQ advocacy organizations and licensed mental health professionals.

Patients recounted that the staff explained procedures using both medical and everyday vocabulary.

The doctor reached out to me after hours to answer my questions and make sure I understood what my treatment plan was, said a 16-year-old from the St. Louis area.

Rather than the rapid medicalization and poor assessment of mental health concerns that Reed cited in a complaint sent to Bailey in January, parents reported a well-defined, step-by-step approach that could be halted at any time.

Slow, methodical adjustments began at home, long before medications were used: testing out new names, using different pronouns, cutting hair short or growing it long. The social transitions ran concurrently with mental health care, sometimes lasting years. Only then, parents said, was medication considered.

Many parents spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect their children. Anti-trans rhetoric has heated up in the fallout from Reeds allegations, energizing lawmakers in the Republican-led Capitol. At least 27 bills targeting LGBTQ rights have been introduced in the Missouri Legislature this session, including half a dozen that seek to limit health care.

Reed declined to be interviewed for this story, but responded in a statement, provided by St. Louis County Councilman Ernie Trakas, one of her lawyers with the Child and Parental Rights Campaign.

It is not surprising to me that the negatively affected families have not yet come forward. Parents have a strong instinct to protect their childrens privacy , the statement reads. Conflating short-term patient satisfaction, which some patients refer to as the period of hormone high, with good medical outcomes is the kind of misguided thinking that contributed to the opioid epidemic.

Regret often comes years later, according to the statement. Harm will ensue, it concludes.

Major medical organizations, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Endocrine Society, endorse puberty blockers and hormones as best practices in the care of transgender children. They say the mental health ramifications of not addressing the needs of such patients put them in peril.

Mental health concerns

In her allegations, Reed references patients with severe mental illnesses, claiming in a first-person narrative published online by the Free Press that our doctors viewed gender transition  even with all the expense and hardship it entailed  as the solution.

Jamie Reed is a progressive. She is a queer woman married to a transman. She has devoted her career to the vulnerable.



Which is why she joined the Transgender Center at St. Louis Children's Hospital four years ago.



Today she is blowing the whistle.https://t.co/C08n30n1hh  Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) February 9, 2023

One St. Louis-area parent interviewed by the Post-Dispatch questions the need for transgender centers across the board, saying they push families to funnel all their concerns about their child into one issue. The parents teenager has been diagnosed with a long list of mental and behavioral issues and, in the past, has threatened suicide.

While in elementary school, the child was evaluated by an endocrinologist. The family went to conferences and tried a support group, and their child made a social transition.

I was apprehensive, the parent said. I was open to all the options for treatment. You have a child, you want the best outcome with the least amount of impacts.

The teenager has been seeing a psychiatrist for about a decade, but with the teens complicated history, the parent wants additional time in therapy before any future medical interventions. The parent believes more therapy  focused on the other mental health concerns  could resolve the gender dysphoria.

They have not forced us to do anything, the parent said about the WU center.

But there was still pressure. Doctors and therapists often mentioned the suicide risk of untreated transgender youths, which the parent took as a scare tactic. The conflict has been a strain on the family.

The parent does not want the Transgender Center shut down but said the approach should be broader, with extended psychotherapy for patients.

A St. Louis County mother recounts a different experience. Her daughters mental health crisis escalated when she started middle school and began cutting herself. The girls depression spiraled. By freshman year, she could barely crawl out of bed, her mother said. The family met with the team at the Transgender Center.

Everyone was in agreement that we needed to get her depression under control before we talked about hormones, said the mother. The focus was getting her healthy.

Her ex-husband had a lot of questions, and the clinic was adamant we be in agreement before moving forward, the mother said. Their daughter, now 18, was ultimately the one who convinced him.

Their daughters depression didnt disappear, but its symptoms abated. The teen finally felt comfortable in her body.

Many of the families interviewed said their children had worked with multiple mental health specialists to address diagnoses ranging from anxiety and autism to more debilitating conditions such as borderline personality disorder. Depression, self-harm and suicidal ideation among transgender youths occur more frequently than in the general population, with research indicating a 40% suicide-attempt rate.

One study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association last year found that gender-affirming care lowered the risk of depression and suicide for transgender teenagers. The same study asserts that transgender youths are disproportionately burdened by poor mental health outcomes, likely due to social rejection, lack of parental support and bullying.

Amy Cafer of Columbia, Missouri, credits the treatment her daughter, now 19, received at the WU center with saving her life.

By the time she was 12, Cafers daughter had attempted suicide. Cafer and her husband pulled the girl out of school. She met with a psychologist every week.

It took six months to tease out what was going on, Cafer said.

At 13, the girl was able to tell her parents she was transgender. She chose a new name and wore girl clothes. Two years later, she started on estrogen. At clinic appointments, Dr. Christopher Lewis, the pediatric endocrinologist who co-founded the WU center, would draw pictures on the exam tables paper cover to illustrate what the hormones do, what side effects to watch for, and what she could expect her body to look like as estrogen levels inched up toward a maintenance dose, Cafer said.

Blockers and hormones

The daughter of a Clayton couple articulated her gender identity at a much earlier age than Cafers daughter.

Shes a cut-and-dried story, said the mom. The parents talked to their pediatrician while the girl was still a preschooler. They found a therapist; a social transition followed. When their daughter was 9, they visited the Transgender Center.

We didnt take this lightly. We wanted to give her every choice, said her mom.

They waited for signs of puberty. After a threshold of estrogen or testosterone has been reached, blockers are an option.

Blockers are considered off-label for gender issues but have been used for decades to suppress precocious puberty in very young children and to treat cancer and endometriosis. Puberty blockers can cause bone-density loss, so adolescents undergo regular bone screenings. If patients discontinue blockers, they go through the typical pubertal changes of their gender assigned at birth.

If patients press forward with feminizing or masculinizing hormones, they acquire secondary-sex characteristics that align with their identity. Estrogen redistributes weight in transgender girls, so they develop breasts and wider hips. Testosterone deepens the voice, broadens the shoulders and thickens body hair on transgender boys. If hormones are stopped, some changes reverse; others are permanent. Side effects include increased risks for blood clots, diabetes and heart disease.

Five years ago, the National Institutes of Health embarked on a comprehensive $5.7 million study of medical treatments on transgender youths, the first of its kind. But long-term outcomes remain largely unknown.

Side effects are no minor concern for Tim and Melissa Dierker of Maplewood. Their 12-year-old daughter is on the cusp of being ready for puberty blockers. In each of their four appointments so far, theyve meticulously reviewed options with the medical staff at the center, which include an endocrinologist, a doctor of adolescent medicine, a gynecologist, a nurse, a nurse practitioner, a nutritionist, a psychologist and a psychiatrist.

Each appointment involves blood tests to check their daughters hormone levels, a mental health survey, question-and-answer sessions and paperwork.

Every time we go in there, its more informational, said Tim Dierker. I wouldnt say its the easiest decision. Its OK to admit that you dont understand. Lifes not a binary.

Lewis, the endocrinologist, declined to comment for this story, citing legal advice. In January, he and Dr. Sarah Garwood, the Transgender Centers other founder, submitted written testimony for a hearing at the state House on a bill that aims to prohibit gender-affirming care for minors. Most of their patients are neither on puberty blockers nor hormone therapy, the doctors testified.

For prepubertal children, the focus (at the center) is on psychosocial support and family education only , the statement reads. Not every teen needs, or wants, to begin hormones or have a puberty blocker before age 18 or ever. The experience of being trans is different for each individual.

Reeds affidavit asserted that the center never discontinues cross-sex hormones, no matter the outcome, but 17-year-old Chloe Clark of St. Louis, who told her parents she was transgender in middle school, halted her estrogen therapy a year ago. She was happy with her transformation  leaving her somewhere in the middle of the gender spectrum, she said  and didnt feel she needed the drugs anymore.

Her parents and doctors were supportive of her decisions, she said.

It was amazing, Chloe said.

We dont do that here

The whistleblower report also claimed Lewis and Garwood lied about not doing surgeries on minors, saying the center regularly refers minors for gender transition surgery. In an April interview, Lewis said: Surgery is not offered to anyone under 18.

Surgery is what Christine Hymans 17-year-old son wanted from his very first appointment at the Transgender Center, when he was just 12. He brought a blue Post-it with him, with three questions written: When can I start testosterone? When can I have top surgery? How can I get my dad on board quicker?

The answer he received for all three, said Hyman, was to give it time.

Put it out of your mind. We dont do that here, Hyman, of St. Charles, recalled the nurse telling her son about surgery. You dont walk in Tuesday morning as a girl and walk out Tuesday afternoon as a boy. Thats not a thing.

He had to be patient with the other two questions as well. His dad pored over studies, which they discussed as a family. He came around.

Hymans son saw a therapist for more than a year  89 times, Hyman said  before he started testosterone. Ahead of that, he was also counseled on preserving his fertility, which is usually compromised once cross hormones are introduced. A window can be opened between blockers and hormones to allow eggs or sperm to be collected and frozen.

The center helped with nonmedical issues, too, Hyman said. It recommended barbers, clothing stores and legal aid agencies.

Jess Jones, who identifies as nonbinary and uses they pronouns, worked at the Transgender Center from 2018 until 2020 as an educational liaison. Jones led trainings at schools and coordinated with teachers, administrators and families to ensure students felt safe.

Jones bristled at the way they said Reed sometimes spoke about patients.

How passionately she worked as a case manager felt at odds with how she talked about transgender people, Jones said.

Jones recounted Reed telling them that misgendering, or using the wrong gender or pronouns to describe a person, was exposure therapy that would keep trans children from being coddled and encourage them to develop a thick skin.

Jones complained about Reed to the centers directors and human resources and was not the only one to do so, they said. Reed acknowledged in the Free Press narrative that she received a negative performance review in 2021.

Jones quit the educational liaison position the year before that.

Jamie was the primary reason I left, said Jones, who now lives out of state. But they still support the mission of the Transgender Center, they said, and do not harbor doubts that protocols are stringently followed or that patients mental health is being tended to.

They have a holistic and comprehensive approach, Jones said. This was an initiative that was really trailblazing.

Increase in patients

In the past few years, the number of Americans who say they are transgender has mushroomed. In 2017, an analysis by the Williams Institute, a public policy research group at UCLA, found about 1.4 million people, or less than 1% of the population, identified as transgender.

A 2021 update noted an increase of 200,000 across the population, with a spike among those younger than 25. In that cohort, 3% identified as trans.

The Transgender Center has also experienced an uptick, seeing about 250 first-time patients a year. Some migrated over from SSM Cardinal Glennon Childrens Hospital in late 2019, when the Archdiocese of St. Louis clamped down on the treatment of transgender adolescents.

Reed argued the rise shows a social contagion at play. When I said the clusters of girls streaming into our service looked as if their gender issues might be a manifestation of social contagion, the doctors said gender identity reflected something innate, she wrote in the Free Press article. In her affidavit, she said social media, including TikTok, is at least partly responsible.

Lewis, in April, said the causes were manifold: Schools are more supportive. Families are listening. Quality of care has improved, along with insurance coverage.

And people are aware of the services we offer, Lewis said.

One mother from a town in northeast Missouri believes her 24-year-old child was influenced by Facebook and his social circle to come out as a transgender man at 19.

Shes prone to hasty decisions and a chameleon-like lifestyle, the mother, still using female pronouns for her child, said.

Her child began receiving testosterone at the Transgender Center against his parents wishes  but after he was legally an adult. To the mothers knowledge, her child believes the process has been a positive one.

Shes happy with the care she received, the mother said.

Blindsided

A longtime friend of Reeds may be the person most dumbfounded by her allegations. The mother, from south St. Louis, has known Reed for more than a decade, since their kids were tiny.

The mothers younger child, now 16, began questioning gender in sixth grade. Two years ago, after several suicide attempts and four stays at a psychiatric hospital, he came out as trans. He continued with psychotherapy and, in June, met with Garwood at the Transgender Center. He has been on testosterone for three months.

Its not a decision you make lightly, the mother said. You dont rush into something like that.

Reeds Free Press jaw-dropper blindsided her. She felt betrayed.

Last year, the mother had texted Reed that her son would be starting a hormone regimen. If Reed  her friend  was worried it was dangerous, why wouldnt she have said something, the mother questions.

The worst thing about it, she said, is people start getting paranoid, and they start doing terrible things to trans people. My kids are scared.

Originally posted at noon Wednesday, March 1.

Comments on this article are closed; use this form to submit a letter to the editor

Videos: Some testimony before the House committee about bills to criminalize transgender health care It makes me feel hated. It really does, transgender teen testifies House representative calls puberty blockers child abuse; transgender woman says thats offensive This bill will harm me, transgender child tells Missouri House committee Will our kids and grandkids see that we were on the side of love or hate? Parent asks committee Missouri senator says doctors treating transgender children are evil If I were your kid, I would not be comfortable coming out to you, senator tells colleague Bill would keep teachers from convincing children they are transgender or gay, senator says
The recent exonerations of wrongfully convicted men in Missouri has prompted calls to reform the Missouri wrongful conviction compensation statute. Improvements to that statute would help those imprisoned for crimes that they did not commit and would also benefit the state of Missouri.

According to the National Registry of Exonerations (where I am a special correspondent), 53 people convicted of crimes in a Missouri state court have been exonerated since 1989. Only nine have received compensation under the state statute. My research shows that to be among the lowest in the country. Nationwide, states have paid compensation covering about half of the years lost to wrongful conviction. It is just over 20% in Missouri.

The reason is that compensation is available in Missouri only to those who were exonerated as a result of DNA analysis. Missouri is the only state in the country with that restriction. To be sure, this restriction ensures that only those clearly innocent are compensated. However, only 15 Missouri exonerees were freed as a result of DNA analysis. Despite the popular belief that DNA accounts for most exonerations, nationwide it is actually about 18%. For that reason, no state statute (except Missouris) any longer requires the claimant to be a DNA exoneree, but they do require that the claimant prove their innocence.

The Missouri statute is out of step with most states in another way as well. It compensates exonerees only $50 per day of wrongful incarceration, the cost of a parking ticket. State statutes nationally are not terribly generous, but most pay exonerees at least $50,000 per year (about $136 per day). Since Missouris statute was passed in 2006, the state has paid an average of only $160,000 per year to its exonerees. Missouris 2023 fiscal year budget is $48 billion; according to the State Treasurers website, it spent over a half-million dollars in fiscal year 2023 on prizes and awards.

This is not a red state/blue state issue. Kansas and Indiana have recently passed good wrongful conviction compensation statutes. Idaho and Montana not long ago improved theirs significantly. Indeed, the proposed House Bill 327, now before the Missouri General Assembly, is patterned on the Kansas statute. So far, Kansas has compensated over half of its exonerees, accounting for 72% of the total years lost to wrongful incarceration.

HB 327 would be a big improvement. But imagine you were wrongly incarcerated for decades during your prime earning years. Some of your family members passed away or spent all they had on lawyers to free you. You leave prison with no housing, no job, no health care, not even an ID. House Bill 327 would permit a court to award counseling, housing assistance and tuition assistance, but only after the exoneree wins a civil lawsuit. Those often move slowly.

Consideration of HB 327 affords Missouri legislators an opportunity to do right by those wrongfully convicted of crimes and to catch up with peer states that have heeded the moral call to support those so terribly wronged by the criminal justice system. But, the Show-Me state can also show other states how to provide modest emergency help to recently released exonerees who are transitioning to long-awaited freedom. It quickly supports parolees who actually committed crimes; it can do the same for the wrongly convicted.

HB 327 potentially would help the state in one other way. Generally, states do not cause wrongful convictions. The actions, sometimes unconstitutional, of local police and other officials do. The proposal would allow exonerees to file civil rights cases against those directly to blame for the wrongful conviction. If the exoneree wins, the person or entity responsible for the wrongful conviction would have to repay the state for any state compensation the exoneree received. The state recovers its payout when the local municipality is found responsible. Then, the cost of wrongful conviction rests on the entity that caused it rather than the state.

Missouri has a chance to be a leader to help the wrongly convicted. It should take it.

Jeffrey S. Gutman is a professor of clinical law at George Washington University Law School. He has represented four men exonerated of crimes by DNA evidence who spent decades in jail on civil claims against the District of Columbia government.
Recent talk of the Missouri Legislature ordering a special prosecutor to the city of St. Louis has generated controversy, including fears that the move will trample local control. It need not be so.

Missouri law allows the St. Louis circuit attorney to request a special prosecutor to assist in the prosecution of local cases. And such an arrangement could help her stave off hostile forces in Jefferson City. Assuming the circuit attorney and the governor could work together, for example, a special prosecutor (or several) could take some of the burden off the city for clearing cases, freeing up resources for other projects, like exoneration.

More than 3,000 cases remain to be prosecuted in the city, a number that mirrors similar backlogs in other urban areas around the country, many the result of closed courts during the pandemic.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has declared the problem of case backlog in her state an emergency, prompting her to direct additional resources to prosecutors. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has done the same, also directing resources to address backlogs in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Both are Democrats.

The Republican Legislatures willingness in Missouri to send additional prosecutors to St. Louis could be viewed similarly, as a welcome infusion of state resources to fix a daunting local challenge. Without adequate prosecution, victims are left waiting for justice and defendants languish in limbo, waiting for exoneration.

But cooperation is key. If the circuit attorney works with the governor, she might be able to retain control of the special prosecutors office, perhaps even housing it in her division. Gardner might also be able to convince the governor to veto the impending bill in the Legislature. After all, the state might not want the inevitable bad press that would ensue if a majority white Legislature demotes the citys first African American circuit attorney.

But a deal needs to be made soon. Otherwise, the Legislature might easily install state prosecutors in a separate state office. And  to really fix things  the Legislature could also commandeer the police department. Neither move would be new. The state controlled the police department for decades before a vote returned it to local control in 2012.

And the state used to also appoint circuit attorneys. In fact, most prosecutors in America were appointed by the state during the early days of the republic, and this trend continued into the 19th century. The first state to endorse elected prosecutors was Mississippi in 1832, a move that coincided with the rise of Jacksonian democracy. Missouri came later, in 1851, only nine years before the Civil War.

And local control proved short lived.

Beginning during Reconstruction, for example, the federal government began to extend its tendrils into the states, in part by assigning federal prosecutors to the newly created Department of Justice. That department began prosecuting Klansmen in the South in the 1870s and continued to grow through the 20th century.

Today, the federal government boasts its own parallel criminal justice system, with its own prosecutors, police, and even prisons. Three St. Louis city aldermen fell victim to that system last December, and anyone engaged in narcotics violations, gun crimes or carjackings can be apprehended, prosecuted, and convicted by federal authorities, independent of local control.

Put another way, we already have special prosecutors in the city, and have had them for years. Whats a few more?

Imagine, for example, that the Missouri Legislature enacted a rule requiring all state crimes be prosecuted by state prosecutors in St. Louis and Kansas City. Such a law could be passed in the name of crime control and would violate no constitutional provisions. In fact, it would simply replicate what has already happened at the federal level. If federal prosecutors manage federal crimes, why not have state prosecutors do the same for state crimes? Local prosecutors could then be relegated to prosecuting violations of local municipal ordinances, the laws that the people of St. Louis enact.

That would be a brave new world, to be sure. And maybe not a good one. After all, how many layers of prosecutors do we need? Perhaps the time has come to make a deal.

Anders Walker is the Lillie Myers professor of law at St. Louis University School of Law.
The saga of the comic strip Dilbert and the racist rants of its creator, Scott Adams, isnt the out-of-control cancel culture that Twitter boss Elon Musk and others on the right claim. Its actually an example of the free market in action  the free market of newspapers responding to readers who are appalled at Adams outspoken racism. Adams has the right to those views, but no newspaper or reader has an obligation to support them with attention and money.

Adams has promoted Trumpian conspiracy theories for a while now, but last week he crossed a bright new line into overt racism. Adams popular comic strip about a dysfunctional office is biting in its treatment of a supervisor portrayed as ignorant, tone-deaf and cruel to those around him  which aptly describes Adams own behavior during a live-streaming YouTube show last week.

If nearly half of all Blacks are not okay with white people  thats a hate group, he said, citing the dubious results of an unscientific opinion poll. I dont want to have anything to do with them  the best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from Black people.

To which numerous newspapers have responded by getting the heck away from Dilbert. The comic strip, dropped from the Post-Dispatch print lineup last September as part of a comics-page overhaul, was removed from the newspapers Go Comics subscribers-only online portfolio last weekend. The removal is part of an exodus that could ultimately total as many as 2,000 newspapers around the world.

There are a couple of details in the controversy that are worth clarifying. Adams rant stemmed from a Rasmussen poll which, he said, showed 47% of Black respondents were not willing to say its OK to be white. As Slate notes, that pollsters methods are suspect and its politics are clearly right-leaning. Also, the poll didnt say what Adams claimed it did. In fact, just 26% of respondents answered no to the ill-defined OK to be white question, representing fewer than 35 individual Black respondents. Adams lumped them in with a not sure category to get his 47% claim. He also failed to mention that the question was worded to invoke a well-known white racist trolling slogan.

Others note that Adams descent into right-wing darkness didnt happen entirely off the printed page. The editor of the San Francisco Chronicle told The Associated Press that the newspaper dropped Dilbert last year after it went from being hilarious to being hurtful and mean. On The Daily Cartoonist, blogger Mike Peterson argued that Adams let his politics infiltrate his work to the point that the new material was off-topic and not just conservative  but openly offensive.

Its reasonable for newspapers and the public to reject Adams once-entertaining work, having finally seen his true colors.
Booking a flight involves navigating a maze of decisions. Is it better to fly with a budget airline or full-service one? How about basic economy versus regular economy? And would you prefer pretzels or a cookie?

Choosing between a single round-trip or two one-way tickets is the most basic decision and  you might be surprised to learn  one of the more nuanced.

The cost between the two is usually the same for domestic flights but can vary significantly for international routes.

Given that airfare was 26% more expensive in January 2023 than January 2022, according to the latest consumer price index data, budget travelers need to save every penny they can.

In general, it can be more convenient to book a round-trip flight for a trip with specific start and end dates, but other considerations, such as cancellation policies and pricing, could make booking one-ways more appealing in some cases. And everything works differently for flights booked with miles.

Lets break it down.

Domestic flights

For flights within the United States on the same airline, round-trip tickets almost always cost the same as two one-ways.

Theres one caveat here: Booking two one-way tickets between separate destination or arrival airports can, in some cases, save money (or cost more).

Fares dont have to be booked as returns, says Laura Lindsay, travel trends expert at SkyScanner, a travel booking platform. Look at flying out with one airline and back with another, or out of one airport and back into another to save money.

Many online travel tools will automatically compare prices for these mismatched airline or airport itineraries and automatically include them in search results.

But it might be worth checking manually, especially for plans that involve different local airports or for airlines that dont appear in search results, such as Southwest.

All that said, for domestic flights, the difference is almost always a wash.

International flights

For international tickets, the logic changes completely. Round-trip tickets are usually cheaper than one-ways, sometimes significantly so.

NerdWallet compared fares across multiple international routes and found that, typically, buying two one-way tickets costs 20% more than a single roundtrip.

To determine these differences, we compared routes between four U.S. airports and two airports in each destination region.

The effect is more pronounced when flying to some regions, such as Africa and Asia. That said, for flights between the U.S. and every region we looked at, it costs more to book two one-ways than a single round-trip.

In some circumstances, such as open-ended trips where you dont know when youll be returning, one-way flights might still make the most sense. But for most international travel, round-trip fares are the clear winner.

Are round-trip or one-way flights cheaper if booking with points?

What about the cost difference between one-way and round-trip fares when using points or miles?

Generally, airlines break these fares into one-way sections, meaning there is no meaningful difference between the two, in terms of cost. Yet a few caveats apply:

Taxes on award flights can be higher when booking two one-ways. Delta Air Lines, for example, tends to charge more fees for flights originating in Europe.

Some airlines, such as ANA, do not allow one-way award flights, period.

Flights booked with credit card points using a travel portal (i.e. not transferred to an airline partner) follow the same rules as cash fares.

Other considerations

Its also worth considering the impact of changes and cancellations on the two options.

Most airlines have eliminated change fees, making it easier to change and cancel both kinds of tickets. But canceling one leg of a round-trip ticket can sometimes be more complicated than canceling a one-way ticket.

In some cases, you might need to call customer service, instead of canceling online, to make sure the change doesnt cancel your other flight segments as well.

And finally, theres the question of simplicity.

Is the simplicity of having a single itinerary, managed by one round-trip confirmation code, worth these other trade-offs? This simplicity, paired with the fact that round-trip tickets are almost never more expensive than two one-ways, means that these fares make sense for most travelers.

Sam Kemmis writes for NerdWallet. Email: skemmis@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @samsambutdif.
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / March 1, 2023 / Mako Mining Corp. (TSX-V:MKO)(OTCQX:MAKOF) ("Mako" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has signed a binding letter of intent ("LOI") with Sailfish Royalty Corp. ("Sailfish") to provide a 24-month silver stream (the "Initial Silver Stream") to Sailfish for cash consideration of US$6,000,000 payable by Sailfish to Mako on the closing of the Initial Silver Stream transaction and an option (the "Option") to Sailfish, exercisable at the discretion of Sailfish on or after 12 months following the closing of the Initial Silver Stream upon payment of additional cash consideration of US$1,000,000, to purchase subsequent silver produced from the San Albino mine, or from concessions currently owned by Mako and processed through Mako's San Albino processing facility, until silver production is no longer economically viable as mutually agreed between Mako and Sailfish (the "Transaction"). The parties have agreed to a exclusivity period in connection with the silver stream for a period of 120 days from the effective date of the LOI.

The material terms of the Transaction are as follows:

Mako has agreed to deliver to Sailfish 13,500 ounces of silver from its concessions, or alternatively gold equivalent ounces or silver credits, at the end of each month beginning on the last day of the first full month immediately following the closing date of the Transaction.

The parties have agreed to use good faith efforts to enter into a definitive agreement in connection with the Transaction within 120 days from the effective date of the LOI.

If the LOI is terminated within 120 days from its effective date as a result of a breach by either Sailfish or Mako of a representation, warranty or covenant made by it in the LOI, the non-breaching party shall be entitled to receive a break fee of US$150,000 from the breaching party.

The obligations of Mako under the definitive silver stream agreement to be entered into between the parties shall be secured by a mortgage in favour of Sailfish against Mako's San Albino property.

Closing of the Transaction is subject to the fulfillment of certain conditions including, but not limited to: Satisfactory completion of all due diligence by Sailfish, in its sole discretion, including but not limited to satisfactory review by Sailfish of political risks related to the Transaction, satisfactory review of technical aspects of Mako's San Albino property by Sailfish's third-party technical consultant. Sailfish having received a fairness opinion from its financial advisor, in form and substance satisfactory to Sailfish, that the Transaction is fair and reasonable from a financial perspective to the shareholders of Sailfish. The independent directors of Mako having received a fairness opinion from its financial advisor, if the independent directors determine necessary, in form and substance satisfactory to the independent directors. Receipt of all required regulatory and corporate approvals by each of Mako and Sailfish, as applicable, including but not limited to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. Entering into a definitive stream purchase agreement and any related documentation in connection with the Transaction, in form and substance satisfactory to Mako and Sailfish, within 120 days of the effective date of the LOI. The completion by Sailfish of a minimum US$4,000,000 financing to fund the Initial Stream purchase price.



Akiba Leisman, CEO of Mako states, "all of the US$6 million of cash we are to receive from the sale of silver under the Initial Silver Stream, which the Company currently produces as a byproduct, will be used to repay outstanding principal owing under the Company's loan from Wexford Capital. This will provide Mako with a much more flexible balance sheet as it seeks organic and external growth opportunities in the near future."

As Mako and Sailfish have a common control person and a common director, the proposed Transaction will be a "related party transaction" under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). The Company intends to rely on the 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 as neither the fair market value of the subject matter of, nor the fair market value of the consideration for, the proposed Transaction, insofar as it involves the related parties, is expected to exceed 25% of the Company's market capitalization, as determined under MI 61-101. Mako and Sailfish are also non-arm's length parties (as defined in TSX Venture Exchange Policy 1.1) given that they share a common director and control person.

On behalf of the Board,

Akiba Leisman

Chief Executive Officer

About Mako

Mako Mining Corp. is a publicly listed gold mining, development and exploration company. The Company operates the high-grade San Albino gold mine in Nueva Segovia, Nicaragua, which ranks as one of the highest-grade open pit gold mines globally. Mako's primary objective is to operate San Albino profitably and fund exploration of prospective targets on its district-scale land package.

For further information: Mako Mining Corp., Akiba Leisman, Chief Executive Officer, Telephone: 203-862-7059, E-mail: [email protected] or visit our website at www.makominingcorp.com and SEDAR www.sedar.com.

Forward-Looking Information: Some of the statements contained herein may be considered "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information can be identified by words such as, without limitation, "estimate", "project", "believe", "anticipate", "intend", "expect", "plan", "predict", "may" or "should" or variations thereon or comparable terminology. The forward-looking information contained herein reflects the Company's current beliefs and expectations, based on management's reasonable assumptions, and includes, without limitation, the expectation that definitive documentation will be entered into on or before 120 days from the effective date of the LOI; that Mako will deliver 13,500 ounces of silver, gold equivalent or silver credits to Sailfish on the timelines agreed to following execution of definitive documentation; that Mako will pay a US$150,000 break fee to Sailfish in the event it breaches the LOI; the obligations of Mako under the definitive silver stream agreement to be entered into will be secured by a mortgage in favour of Sailfish against Mako's San Albino property; that all conditions to the proposed Transaction will be met or waived; and Sailfish will complete its US$4,000,000 financing in order to fund the purchase price of the Initial Silver Stream; that Mako will be able to operate San Albino profitably and fund exploration of prospective targets on its district-scale land package. Such forward-looking information is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking information, including, without limitation, any of the conditions to the proposed Transaction not being met on the timeline expected, or at all, and other risks and uncertainties as disclosed in the Company's public disclosure filings on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Such information contained herein represents management's best judgment as of the date hereof, based on information currently available. Mako does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE: Mako Mining Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:
Renowned Brewery to Kick off Festivities at Teddys Bar & Grill on March 24th and 25th

BROOKLYN, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Brooklyn Lager is turning 35! The flagship of global craft beer innovator, Brooklyn Brewery, was first created as a dream to return brewing to Brooklyn. It helped establish the Williamsburg-based brewery as a pioneer of the American craft beer movement, and has been a staple of the craft beer scene since. As a testament to its exceptional and enduring character, the award-winning Lager is available across the US and in over 30 countries around the globe three and a half decades later. Starting March 24th, Brooklyn Brewery will kick off 35th anniversary celebrations for the iconic beer with a 2-day party at Teddy's Bar & Grill, one of the very first locations to ever carry Brooklyn Lager back in 1988.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005773/en/

Brooklyn Brewery celebrates 35th Anniversary of Brooklyn Lager (Photo: Business Wire)

The revolutionary amber beer has continued to thrive since co-founders Steve Hindy and Tom Potter first introduced it in the late 80s. In 1994, Brooklyn Brewery's James Beard Award-winning brewmaster Garrett Oliver joined the company, and went on to refine the original Lager, the brainchild of William Moeller, a fourth-generation German-American brewmaster. Unlike the light lagers most Americans were familiar with at that time, Brooklyn Lagers bold flavors inspired by a pre-Prohibition American style of lager stood out and reflected the borough where it was born and bred, once a powerhouse of American beer production. Since then, the flagship lager- whose logo was designed by legendary graphic artist Milton Glaser - has won numerous prestigious awards in the industry, including the 2018 World Beer Cup Gold Medal in the American Amber Lager Category.

Brooklyn Brewerys James Beard Award-winning Brewmaster, Garrett Oliver explains, "Back in 1988, most people had never seen a beer that wasn't pale yellow and virtually flavorless - the deep color and bold flavor of Brooklyn Lager was quite a shock. Once people tasted a few pints, though, they never wanted to be without it again. Brooklyn Lager is still pretty much the same beer that we launched 35 years ago. I actually like to think that it's become 'even more like itself. What I mean by that is that although the recipe has barely changed over the years, we now have 35 years experience brewing Brooklyn Lager, so the beer is better than ever.

To mark the occasion, Brooklyn Brewery will be hosting a series of special events throughout the year, starting off with a 2-day party that is open to the public, at longtime partner Teddys Bar & Grill, where Steve Hindy and Tom Potter hand delivered the first batch of Brooklyn Lager 35 years ago.

Taking place on March 24th from 5pm - 11pm & March 25th from 12pm - 11pm the festivities will feature an array of special creations from a number of Brooklyn Brewerys friends and neighbors, including:

In addition to hosting, Teddys Bar & Grill will be serving up a number of their popular menu items, from the pretzel bites made with Brooklyn Lager beer cheese, to their deliciously famous crispy chicken sandwich and pulled pork sandwich, both in slider form, along with much more.

Longtime friend, Fornino, the famed pizzeria that arguably ignited the artisanal pizza craze in New York City, will celebrate with a specialty pizza dough made with Brooklyn Lager. Available at the party, and at Forninos in Greenpoint from March 15th through the 31st, this beer dough showcases how the use of beer instead of water can speed up the fermentation process to make an incredibly delectable pizza dough in 6 hours instead of 3 days!

The award-winning NYC-based bakery Ovenly, who have routinely worked with Brooklyn Brewery beers in their recipe developments, have concocted a new limited edition cake recipe using Brooklyn Lager, which will be showcased in cupcake form at the events. It will be available for pre-order online starting March 8th, and can be picked up from any Ovenly bakeshop between March 28th and 31st. The Brooklyn Lager Lemon Cake has citrus Brooklyn Lager cake layers, lemon curd filling and mascarpone buttercream and can be ordered at https://bakeshops.oven.ly/s/order.

Shake Shack, who serve elevated versions of American classics using only the best ingredients, have partnered with Brooklyn Brewery since 2008 on the Brooklyn Shackmeister Ale. Known for their delicious made-to-order Angus beef burgers, crispy chicken, hand-spun milkshakes, house-made lemonades, beer, wine, and more, for the 35th Anniversary event they will be serving a limited selection of ShackMeister Frozen Custard, as well as their Shackmeister Burger which will be available throughout the 2-day event.

Coming off the heels of an inaugural beer and apparel collaboration with neighbors Only NY in celebration of their 15th Anniversary, it was only fitting to team back up for Brooklyn Lagers 35th Anniversary. Offering an eclectic mix of original and reimagined artwork celebrating the history of Brooklyn Lager, the brewery, and Brewmaster Garrett Oliver, a set of limited-edition 35th Anniversary patches personally designed by Only NYs founder and Creative Director Micah Belamarich will be exclusively available for sale at the event, in Brooklyn Brewerys Tasting Room, and via Brooklyn Brewerys website.

Eric Ottaway, CEO of Brooklyn Brewery, reflects: The staying power of Brooklyn Lager is incredible. Just like Lager helped lead the craft beer revolution starting 35 years ago, today its Brooklyn Lager that continues leading the growth of the Brooklyn brand. The same recipe that challenged consumer taste buds when it first debuted is today an enduring classic that still delivers a beautiful balance of flavor, aroma, and delicious refreshment.

ABOUT BROOKLYN BREWERY:

Brooklyn Brewery is a leading global independent craft brewer and a pioneer of the American craft beer revolution. From our home in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, we draw inspiration from our local community of innovators and those always in the making to spread the culture and creativity of craft beer to over 30 states and more than 30 countries on 5 continents. Learn more at brooklynbrewery.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005773/en/

Sarah Usher

SU PR, Inc.

[email protected]

Source: Brooklyn Brewery
THE WOODLANDS, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- AEGIS Swap Execution Facility (AEGIS SEF) today provided multiple updates on financial counterparty participation, February trading activity, and new approvals in Canada.

AEGIS SEF now has 15 financial counterparties (Dealers) and nearly 300 commercial end users (Participants) executing hedging transactions through AEGIS SEF. Each Dealer and Participant has signed definitive documentation to enable the execution of hedging transactions on AEGIS SEF.

We are proud to host a mix of U.S. money center and regional banks, Canadian banks, and merchant traders with approximately $1.50 trillion of market capitalization on AEGIS SEF, said Justin McCrann, President of AEGIS SEF. Since launch, AEGIS SEF has executed nearly 120,000 contracts with over $6.4B in hedging exposure thanks to the liquidity provided by these world-class financial counterparties.

Trading volumes on AEGIS SEF continued to accelerate in February. Average daily trade volume grew 45% from January and Q1 2023 average daily trading volume is up 161% from Q4 2022. February saw new monthly records in trades completed, products traded and number of trading entities  all demonstrating the viability, breadth and support of advisor-assisted transactions on AEGIS SEF.

On February 7, AEGIS SEF received an exemption from exchange registration by the Ontario Securities Commission. A similar exemption application in Quebec is being finalized for submission.

These exemptions will pave the way for Canadian dealers to fully participate on AEGIS SEF, build on current liquidity, and better serve commercial end users, said Andrew Furman, Chief Compliance Officer of AEGIS SEF.

AEGIS SEF is the first Swap Execution Facility designed and built for Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA) Broker Firms to assist their clients with permitted hedge transactions in compliance with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Dodd-Frank regulations. For more information on AEGIS SEF or if you are interested in executing hedges on AEGIS SEF, please visit https://www.aegis-hedging.com/swap-execution-facility.

About AEGIS SEF

AEGIS SEF (U.S.) LLC, a subsidiary of AEGIS Hedging Solutions, is a Swap Execution Facility approved by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). AEGIS SEF operates markets for commodities and other instruments. AEGIS SEF offers a venue for trading in uncleared bilateral OTC swaps through a central limit order book (CLOB), request for quote (RFQ) system, and Offline Execution Functionality (OEF). For more information, please go to https://aegis-hedging.com/swap-execution-facility.

About AEGIS

AEGIS simplifies commodity and environmental markets for companies who manage their commodity exposures and/or emission footprints. AEGIS has unmatched technology and expertise to deliver market insights, tailored hedge strategies, efficient trade execution, and full-cycle management of hedge positions  all designed for regulatory compliance. Building on its core energy hedging capabilities, AEGIS has recently completed four acquisitions to extend its expertise in environmental and metals markets, increase its analytics capabilities and fully integrate a SaaS E/CTRM software platform. AEGIS was recently named the industry leader in hedging solutions for a sixth consecutive year. To learn more, visit AEGIS website at www.aegis-hedging.com.

Disclaimer

Commodity interest trading involves risk and, therefore, is not appropriate for all persons; failure to manage commercial risk by engaging in some form of hedging also involves risk. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. There is no guarantee that hedge program objectives will be achieved. Neither AEGIS SEF, LLC nor any of its affiliated entities offer a trading program to clients, nor do they propose guiding or directing a commodity interest account for any client based on any such trading program. Hedge advisory services are performed by the registered commodity trading advisor AEGIS CTA, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of AEGIS Hedging Solutions, LLC.

This press release is not required to be, and has not been, filed with the CFTC. The CFTC does not pass upon the adequacy or accuracy of this disclosure. Consequently, the CFTC has not reviewed or approved this press release.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301006026/en/

Media Contacts

Lauren Trice, 346-277-0971

[email protected]

Source: AEGIS Hedging Solutions
Continued product adoption and new product features, along with rapid community growth, fuel Dremios momentum in 2023

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Dremio, the easy and open data lakehouse, todayat Subsurface LIVE 2023announced the rollout of key new features. These features enable customers to more easily create their data lakehouses by performantly loading data into Apache Iceberg tables, query and federate across more data sources with Dremio Sonar, automatically format SQL queries in the Dremio SQL Runner, and securely connect Microsoft PowerBI using single sign-on (SSO).

Dremio also has added roll back and data optimization features for Apache Iceberg tables, making it even easier to manage data lakehouses using the open table format standard. Furthermore, customers can now use several new SQL functions for an even better SQL experience.

Dremios expanding functionality with Apache Iceberg now includes:

Copying data into Apache Iceberg tables  Dremios new COPY INTO SQL command makes it even easier and faster to load data into Apache Iceberg tables, which are a foundational component of data lakehouses. With one command, customers can now copy data from CSV and JSON file formats stored in Amazon S3, Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS), HDFS, and other supported data sources into Apache Iceberg tables using the columnar Parquet file format for performance. Dremio efficiently distributes the copy operation across the entire engine to load data more quickly.

Optimizing Apache Iceberg tables  When using Dremios data manipulation (DML) commands to insert, update, and delete data from an Apache Iceberg table, additional files are created to represent these mutations to the table. Often, customers will have many small files as a result of these operations, which can impact read and write performance on that table and utilize excess storage. To improve the performance of Apache Iceberg tables, customers can now use the OPTIMIZE command in Dremio Sonar to consolidate these files into an optimal size. Customers running frequent DML operations can use OPTIMIZE at a regular interval to keep their Apache Iceberg tables efficient.

Table roll back for Apache Iceberg  Customers can now restore their Apache Iceberg tables to a specific time or snapshot ID with Dremios new ROLLBACK command. This makes it easy to revert a table back to a previous state with a single command. When rolling back a table, Dremio will create a new Apache Iceberg snapshot from the prior state and use it as the new current table state.

Visit our documentation to learn more about building and operating your data lakehouse with COPY INTO, OPTIMIZE, and ROLLBACK commands for Apache Iceberg.

Dremios new functionality also includes new connectors for Microsoft PowerBI, Snowflake, and IBM Db2. Customers using Dremio and PowerBI can now use single sign-on (SSO) to access their Dremio Cloud and Dremio Software engines from PowerBI, simplifying access control and user management across their data architecture. The Snowflake and IBM Db2 connectors give customers the ability to quickly add Snowflake data warehouses and IBM Db2 databases as data sources for Dremio. This makes it easy to include data in these systems as part of the Dremio semantic layer, enabling customers to explore this data in their Dremio queries and views.

Additionally, customers can now add Dremio clusters as data sources, enabling query federation across these clusters. This feature set enables connectivity across Dremio environments, including hybrid environments where you have Dremio clusters running in a public cloud and on-premises. This makes it easy to extend Dremio semantic layers across clusters, giving analysts and BI engineers access to more datasets and insights. Along with popular connectors already operational like Tableau, ThoughtSpot, dbt, and Alteryx, these new connectors add more flexibility for customers.

Its been great to see the incredible growth of our product driving value for our customers, said Tomer Shiran, co-founder and CPO of Dremio. Every company we speak to is struggling to help their business move faster and self-serve while maintaining security and governance. Data meshes solve for these competing priorities, and weve been innovating to make it easier and easier for companies to create and operate data mesh architectures.

Dremios growth and momentum continue to be recognized across the industry with key awards in 2022 and already in 2023. These include: CNBCs 25 Top Startups for the Enterprise, Deloittes 2022 Technology Fast 500, CRNs The 10 Hottest Big Data Tools Of 2022, DBTAs Trend-Setting Products in Data and Information Management for 2023, and Tech Ascensions 2022 Big Data Award Winners. In addition to these awards, Dremio has also received 11 badges from G2, including Easiest to Use, High Performer, and Momentum Leader.

We are delighted to be recognized by trusted organizations like Deloitte and CNBC and are excited to see the growth of our community. I am proud of Team Dremio for their hard work last year and am looking forward to more growth in 2023 as we see a continued interest in open data lakehouse architectures, said Read Maloney, CMO of Dremio.

Dremios continued community building has led to thousands of registrants at its flagship event, Subsurface LIVE, between its in-person events in San Francisco, New York and London, and its virtual event on day one. Subsurface LIVE is an event for Dremio customers, data industry leaders, and other industry experts.

For thirsty users, Dremio also launched its Data Hops user community events in Dallas, Santa Monica, Boston, Chicago, and London earlier this year. New cities are being added to the schedule throughout the year, enabling data professionals to network and learn more about self-service analytics in a comfortable, casual environment.

In addition to the event lineup for Dremios community in 2023, the community also has a thriving Slack channel with active users in the data and analytics space.

About Dremio

Dremio is the easy and open data lakehouse, providing self-service analytics with data warehouse functionality and data lake flexibility across all of your data. Use Dremio's lightning-fast SQL query service and any other processing engine on the same data. Dremio increases agility with a revolutionary data-as-code approach that enables Git-like data experimentation, version control, and governance. In addition, Dremio eliminates data silos by enabling queries across data lakes, databases, and data warehouses, and by simplifying ingestion into the lakehouse. Dremio's fully managed service helps organizations get started with analytics in minutes, and automatically optimizes data for every workload. As the original creator of Apache Arrow and committed to Arrow and Icebergs community-driven standards, Dremio is on a mission to reinvent SQL for data lakes and meet customers where they are on their lakehouse journey.

Hundreds of global enterprises like JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, Regeneron, and Allianz Global Investors use Dremio to deliver self-service analytics on the data lakehouse. Founded in 2015, Dremio is headquartered in Santa Clara. CNBC recognized Dremio as a Top Startup for the Enterprise and Deloitte named Dremio to its 2022 Technology Fast 500. To learn more, follow the company on Github, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, or visit www.dremio.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005813/en/

Elise Woodard

[email protected]

Source: Dremio
Online Beauty and Perfumery Retailer to Halt All Sales of RevitaLash Cosmetics Products Worldwide

VENTURA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Athena Cosmetics, Inc., parent company to RevitaLash Cosmetics, is proud to announce yet another triumph against counterfeiters. After discovering illegal knockoffs of RevitaLash Cosmetics premium products on online retailer Perfumes Club (perfumesclub.com), Athena Cosmetics took swift legal action against the retailer and has successfully identified the source supplier of counterfeit goods.

After a nearly year-long battle, Perfumes Club agreed to immediately cease and desist any further sales of RevitaLash Cosmetics-branded products worldwide. Along with removing all content related to RevitaLash Cosmetics, Perfumes Club identified their source of counterfeit goods as online wholesale company Alito S.R.O. out of the Czech Republic.

This is a victory not just for our company, but for all brands whose intellectual property is infringed upon online. It sends a clear message that retailers need to take responsibility for the actions of their third-party vendors and do more to prevent counterfeiting on their sites, said Lori Jacobus, President of Athena Cosmetics. We are proud of our team for fighting tirelessly to protect our brand.

This win against one of Europes largest online fragrance retailers further cements the RevitaLash Cosmetics commitment to brand protection. Consumer confidence is harmed when seemingly reputable online retailers sell unregulated and potentially unsafe counterfeits.

For Athena Cosmetics, safety is the number one priority, said Founder and CEO of Athena Cosmetics, Michael Brinkenhoff, M.D. That's why we are committed to stopping the sale of counterfeit and 'black market' RevitaLash Cosmetics products, ensuring the welfare of customers by making sure that any product purchased is safety tested and compliant with all applicable regulations.

It is highly recommended that customers shop from revitalash.com or an authorized reseller in order to avoid potentially hazardous counterfeits or tampered-with products. Rest assured that when you purchase from Athena Cosmetics, you are getting only top-quality products in their original condition. For more information on how to identify counterfeit products and websites, please visit https://www.revitalash.com/pages/counterfeit-product and view the companys list of authorized retailers at https://www.revitalash.com/pages/authorized-dealers.

About RevitaLash Cosmetics

RevitaLash Cosmetics is a worldwide leader in developing advanced lash, brow, and hair beautification products. Established in 2006, the collection includes award-winning RevitaLash Advanced Eyelash Conditioner and RevitaBrow Advanced Eyebrow Conditioner, and is available in physicians offices, spas, salons, online and in specialty retailers across 70+ countries. With their Eternally Pink mission, RevitaLash Cosmetics is a supporter of non-profit breast cancer initiatives, donating a portion of proceeds to research and education initiatives, giving back to the breast cancer community year-round, not just in October. For information, visit www.revitalash.com. [RevitaLash Advanced and RevitaLash Advanced Sensitive are not available in California]

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005080/en/

[email protected]

Source: RevitaLash Cosmetics
The next generation of vehicle valuation from the Canadian vehicle history experts

LONDON, Ontario--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- CARFAX Canada, the countrys leader in vehicle history, announces the launch of a new vehicle valuation offering for dealers, History-Based Value.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230223005988/en/

CARFAX Canada launches History-Based Value.

CARFAX Canada History-Based Value is the first and only valuation model in Canada that automatically adjusts for each vehicles unique history when determining how much its worth.

What has happened in a vehicles past  including any damage, how well its been maintained, how many owners it had, its mileage, where its located and what its been used for  can have a significant impact on its value today. With access to the most robust vehicle history data network in North America, CARFAX Canada is uniquely positioned to deliver vehicle values with unparalleled accuracy.

Made available to Canadian dealers this week, History-Based Value allows users to determine a vehicles value without the guesswork of manually adjusting for its past. More than ever, Canadian car shoppers want to know how their dealership arrived at a vehicles value. In fact, 1 in 3 car shoppers will reject a trade-in offer if they believe its not well thought-out and properly justified.1 Dealers and consumers alike can trust in the values provided by CARFAX Canada History-Based Value because it objectively factors a vehicles history into the equation to generate VIN-specific values, easing tough negotiations and maximizing profits.

In todays rapidly changing market conditions, its never been more challenging for dealers to accurately price vehicles in their inventory. History-Based Value is refreshed every seven days with the latest data, so it's always in tune with changing market trends.

Were thrilled to finally launch History-Based Value to our dealers, shares Mark Rousseau, president and GM of CARFAX Canada. Our customers have been asking for it and weve been hard at work perfecting the advanced machine learning technology within the model.

History-Based Value is a natural extension of our valuation capabilities, continues Rousseau. We all know that a vehicles history, especially damage history, is one of the biggest factors influencing its value. By combining the most comprehensive vehicle history network in Canada with our extensive valuation technology, were able to provide the smartest approach to valuing vehicles in Canada. No other valuation tool in Canada can automatically adjust for vehicle history like History-Based Value.

How does History-Based Value generate a vehicle value?

History-Based Value starts by analyzing millions of data records including actual sold data for similar vehicles

Then, it factors the vehicles unique history into the equation including odometer reading, damage, service history, ownership history and use type

Finally, the valuation is further fine-tuned based on market factors like location and seasonality

Dealers interested in a free trial of History-Based Value can contact their rep directly or sign up HERE.

About CARFAX Canada

CARFAX Canada, a part of S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI), is Canadas definitive source of automotive information, delivering vehicle history, appraisal and valuation. Drawing on billions of data records from thousands of sources, its products enable used vehicle buyers and sellers to make informed decisions. CARFAX Canada is dedicated to transparency and is trusted to provide vehicle history and valuation information to dealerships, vehicle manufacturers, consumers, major auctions, governments, insurance providers and police agencies. www.carfax.ca

Connect with CARFAX Canada on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.

1 CARFAX Canada Driving Insights, 2022

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230223005988/en/

For further information or for an interview with a CARFAX Canada representative:

Brittney McKee, Director, Brand Marketing at CARFAX Canada

[email protected]

+1.226.680.1712

Source: CARFAX Canada
More than 100 Southern California businesses will rally individuals during March in support of pediatric care and research at CHLA

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Childrens Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) launched its eighth annual Make March Matter campaign Wednesday. Academy Award nominated actress, author, advocate and longtime CHLA supporter Jamie Lee Curtis joined the hospital to kick off the campaign. Saving lives is everyones business, and the month-long fundraising drive empowers local businesses to rally community participation to raise $1 million or more in March to support childrens health in Los Angeles.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301006064/en/

Children's Hospital Los Angeles kicks off its eighth annual Make March Matter fundraising campaign. Left to right: Alex Carter, Senior Vice President and Chief Development Officer; Paul Viviano, President and Chief Executive Officer; Jamie Lee Curtis, actress and longtime CHLA supporter; CHLA patient Ella and parents Megan and Marcus; Dawn Wilcox, Associate Senior Vice President of Development & Corporate Sponsorships and Founder of Make March Matter. (Photo: Business Wire)

Every year, I am humbled by the fervent commitment of the Southern California business community to Make March Matter for the precious children who are entrusted to our care, says CHLA President and CEO Paul S. Viviano. Childrens Hospital Los Angeles continues to push pediatric medicine forward with globally-leading research and groundbreaking treatments thanks to this support of our mission to create hope and build healthier futures, and we could not be more grateful.

Since the campaigns inaugural launch in 2016, local businesses and corporate partners have helped raise more than $10 million to aid in funding lifesaving care for children in Los Angeles and surrounding communities. Individuals can participate in this years campaign in very accessible ways including dining or ordering takeout from local food establishments, shopping in person, participating in more than 30 different events across the greater Los Angeles area, including workouts and cooking classes and much more.

Each year, CHLA treats children who face a broad range of health issues, from common illnesses to traumas and chronic diseases. The hospital is also dedicated to innovation, supporting advances in research designed to improve pediatric health outcomes and partnering with physicians across the nation to bring the best care to children in Los Angeles.

Corporate Partners

Corporations across the southland have agreed to support community members in giving back. Each business has selected a unique way to contribute to the campaigns collective impactsome sell specific items with proceeds supporting CHLA, others devote a portion of overall sales for the entire month and still others create their own unique fundraising campaigns to encourage their employees and consumers to contribute. Panda Express, through its philanthropic arm Panda Cares, takes great pride in supporting the community and has been the campaigns top fundraiser for the past seven years.

Panda and CHLA are united in a shared vision and passion for the health and well-being of children, says Tina Hsing, Director of Panda Cares. We are incredibly proud to be Make March Matters top fundraiser since the campaigns inception, and we remain committed to throwing our full support behind the Panda Cares Center of Hope at CHLA and the programs and services that provide compassionate and healing care for CHLA patients and families.

For a complete list of participating partners and events taking place throughout the month of March, or to donate, go to MakeMarchMatter.org. Individuals may also share how they are supporting the campaign on social media by following @MakeMarchMatter on Instagram and using #MakeMarchMatter.

Make March Matter

Make March Matter is an annual fundraising campaign that builds awareness and support for childrens health in Los Angeles. The campaign supports Childrens Hospital Los Angelesa nonprofit pediatric academic medical center dedicated to offering more than 350 specialty programs and services to help the health of children. The goal of the campaign is to raise money in support of Childrens Hospital Los Angeles to ensure that all of its pediatric patients receive the critical lifesaving care they need. Saving lives is everyones business.

About Children's Hospital Los Angeles

Childrens Hospital Los Angeles is at the forefront of pediatric medicine, offering acclaimed care to children from across the world, the country and the greater Southern California region. Founded in 1901, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles is the largest provider of care for children in Los Angeles County, the No. 1 pediatric hospital in California and the Pacific region, and is consistently ranked in the top 10 in the nation on U.S. News & World Reports Honor Roll of Best Childrens Hospitals. Clinical expertise spans the pediatric care continuum for newborns to young adults, from everyday preventive medicine to the most medically complex cases. Inclusive, compassionate, child- and family-friendly clinical care is led by physicians who are faculty members of the Keck School of Medicine of USC. Physicians translate the new discoveries, treatments and cures proven through the work of scientists in The Saban Research Institute of Childrens Hospital Los Angelesamong the top 10 childrens hospitals for National Institutes of Health fundingto bring answers to families faster. The hospital also is home to one of the largest training programs for pediatricians in the United States. To learn more, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter, and visit our blog at CHLA.org/blog.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301006064/en/

Lauren Song

Email: [email protected]

Source: Childrens Hospital Los Angeles
Application deadline is March 24, 2023

OAK RIDGE, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Most kindergarten through eighth-grade students know how to use computers, tablets and smartphones, but do they understand how those devices really work? Five educators across the country will be able to immerse their students in all things coding and application development, or 3D printing and design thanks to a new competition recently launched by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301006031/en/

The CIA Mission Possible Operation Advance Technology competition will place $60,000 computer and coding laboratories in five schools across the country. Winning educators will be able to select from among several suites of coding or design equipment based on their needs and wishes for their classrooms.

The CIA sponsors the CIA Mission Possible Operation Advance Technology competition to promote learning in science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) fields. The Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) administers the programs on behalf of the CIA.

Interested educators need to act fast! The deadline to apply is March 24, 2023. Winners will be notified in April and the items delivered to their classrooms for the start of the 2023-24 school year.

To be eligible for CIA Mission Possible Operation Advance Technology, educators must:

Educate kindergarten through eighth-grade students in a STEAM subject.

Work for a public school in any of the 50 United States.

Submit a three-to-four-minute video creatively illustrating the need for and possible uses of a computer and coding lab.

A panel of educators and ORISE staff will determine the wining classrooms. Entries will be judged on how well they:

Demonstrate or explain the need for advance technology equipment.

Demonstrate or explain the use of the advance technology equipment in their classroom or school.

Demonstrate overall creativity in the entry.

Provide an explanation of the teaching philosophy and/or approach that will be used to expand the STEAM learning experience and encourage students to pursue careers in STEAM fields.

Additional information, including the application and video submission portal can be found here: https://orise.orau.gov/cia-operation-tech/. Also, check out the CIAs Spy Kids website https://www.cia.gov/spy-kids/ for cool facts about CIA that could be used in your classroom! For questions about CIA Mission Possible-Operation Advance Technology, contact program staff at [email protected].

About ORISE

The Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education is a U.S. Department of Energy asset that is dedicated to enabling critical scientific, research, and health initiatives of the department and its laboratory system by providing world-class expertise in STEM workforce development, scientific and technical reviews, and the evaluation of radiation exposure and environmental contamination. ORISE is managed by ORAU, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation and federal contractor, for the U.S. Department of Energys Office of Science.

The U.S. Department of Energys Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://energy.gov/science

Like us on Facebook: ORISE Facebook

Follow us on Twitter: ORISE Twitter

Connect with us on LinkedIn: ORISE LinkedIn

Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oriseconnect/

Visit our website: https://orise.orau.gov

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301006031/en/

Amy Schwinge, [email protected]

Source: Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education
Transaction builds on firms end-to-end wealth solutions software platform, adds investor communications and proxy solutions

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- BetaNXT, a provider of wealth management infrastructure software with real-time data capabilities and an enhanced advisor experience, today announced that certain affiliates of BetaNXT have acquired Mediant Communications (Mediant), a provider of investor communications technology and technology-enabled solutions to banks, brokers, corporations, funds, and investment managers. The acquisition augments BetaNXTs suite of wealth management solutions, expanding BetaNXT into investor communications through Mediants digital-forward communications capabilities, industry experience and reliability.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005278/en/

Adding Mediant to the BetaNXT platform enhances our ability to be a trusted partner for companies looking to integrate communications into their wealth management platforms. We are now able to offer an additional functionality that will benefit our clients and allow their operations to be more connected, said Stephen C. Daffron, BetaNXT Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

Backed by Clearlake Capital and Motive Partners, BetaNXT brings together proven wealth management solutions  Beta, Maxit, and now Mediant  into a single, integrated platform. The BetaNXT approach to improving the advisor experience combines intelligent, user-centric technology with notable industry perspective, and a robust partner network. With an operating history of over 40 years, the firm supports more than 50 million retail accounts, has more than $6 trillion of assets on the platform, and processes more than 35 million securities-related transactions daily.

BetaNXTs culture, vision, and client base made the combination an intriguing opportunity for Mediants next phase of growth. We look forward to working alongside the BetaNXT team to grow our combined company together and better serve our clients, stated Arthur Rosenzweig, Mediant Communications CEO.

BetaNXT will incorporate Mediants technology to digitize and incorporate the investor communications process into its broader suite of software solutions, which includes real-time data capabilities, cost basis and tax reporting solutions, and front, middle and back-office applications. The integration will result in a more complete, holistic solution for wealth management firms, allowing for additional cost savings and a more streamlined communications process that will benefit investors.

We are focused on providing critical data connections for our clients, with visibility into the source and destination of all data that flows through our wealth solutions, said Tim Rutka, President of Beta by BetaNXT. Incorporating Mediants capabilities will provide tremendous value to our mutual client networks.

BetaNXT was advised by Sidley Austin LLP. Mediant was advised by Ardea Partners LP and Morgan, Lewis & Bocklus LLP.

About BetaNXT

BetaNXT powers the future of connected wealth management infrastructure software, leveraging real-time data capabilities to enhance the wealth advisor experience. Combining industry expertise with the power of our proven Beta, Maxit, and Mediant businesses, we are focused on solving our customers most demanding integration challenges with flexible, efficient, connected solutions that anticipate their changing needs. Our comprehensive approach reduces enterprise cost, streamlines operations processes, increases advisor productivity, and enhances the investor experience. Together with BetaNXT, wealth management firms are transforming their platforms into differentiating assets that enable enterprise scale and stimulate commercial growth. For more information visit www.betanxt.com.

About Mediant Communications

Mediant, an Argentum Portfolio Company, delivers investor communications solutions to banks, brokers, corporate issuers, and funds. Our solutions are driven by leading technology and strict compliance with industry regulations, which allows clients to balance innovation with requirements. We enable banks and brokers to effectively manage all potential touchpoints within the investor communications lifecyclefrom proxy statements and prospectuses to voluntary corporate actions. We provide corporate issuers with turnkey proxy processing, and we empower mutual funds, REITs and insurance companies with a full-service, end-to-end proxy solution.

About Clearlake

Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. is an investment firm founded in 2006 operating integrated businesses across private equity, credit, and other related strategies. With a sector-focused approach, the firm seeks to partner with management teams by providing patient, long-term capital to businesses that can benefit from Clearlakes operational improvement approach, O.P.S.. The firms core target sectors are technology, industrials, and consumer. Clearlake currently has over $70 billion of assets under management, and its senior investment principals have led or co-led over 400 investments. The firm is headquartered in Santa Monica, CA with affiliates in Dallas, TX, London, UK and Dublin, Ireland. More information is available at www.clearlake.com and on Twitter @Clearlake.

About Motive

Motive Partners is a specialist private equity firm with offices in New York City and London, focusing on growth equity and buyout investments in technology-enabled financial and business services companies based in North America and Europe and serving five primary subsectors: Banking & Payments, Capital Markets, Data & Analytics, Investment Management and Insurance. Motive Partners brings differentiated expertise, connectivity, and capabilities to create long-term value in financial technology companies through its integrated I-O-I approach, combining Investors, Operators and Innovators as it seeks to create value within the portfolio. More information on Motive Partners can be found at www.motivepartners.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005278/en/

U.S. Media Relations

For news media only:

For BetaNXT

Laura Barger

BetaNXT

+1 646-706-5802

[email protected]

Justin Meise

Buttonwood Communications Group

+1-914-319-0339

[email protected]

For Mediant

Robin Brown

Mediant

+1-917-697-2122

[email protected]

Dana Taormina Cleary

JConnelly

+1-973-647-4626

[email protected]

For Clearlake

Jennifer Hurson

Clearlake Capital Group Media Contact  Lambert

+1 845-507-0571

[email protected]

For Motive Partners

Sam Tidswell-Norrish

Motive Partners

+44 7855 910178

[email protected]

Source: BetaNXT
The fourteenth annual Dunkin' Philadelphia Regional Scholarship Program returns to award 20 regional students with $5,000 scholarships

The Dunkin' Philadelphia Regional Scholarship Program will accept applications through April 13

PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Dunkin' and its greater Philadelphia-area franchisees today announced the launch of its fourteenth annual Dunkin' Philadelphia Regional Scholarship Program, which will award $100,000 in scholarships to area high school and college students.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005342/en/

In collaboration with Scholarship America, Dunkin will award a $5,000 academic scholarship to 20 students throughout the greater Philadelphia region to attend an accredited two- or four-year college, university, or vocational-technical school of their choice in Fall 2023. Dunkins Philadelphia Regional Scholarship Program will be open to current part-time and full-time undergraduate students and high school seniors. Recipients will be selected based on their academic record, demonstrated leadership skills, and overall commitment to their school and local community.

Photos/Videos for your consideration: https://spaces.hightail.com/receive/nwtx4wAuyA

"Dunkin franchisees throughout the greater Philadelphia area are excited to launch the annual Dunkin Philadelphia Regional Scholarship Program to continue helping the students in our communities as they work toward advanced education, said Perry Shah, Dunkin' Franchisee and Chairman of the Dunkin' Philadelphia Advertising Committee. We look forward to recognizing more deserving students this year and are thrilled to help ease the financial burden of college.

Since its creation in 2009, the Dunkin Philadelphia Regional Scholarship Program has awarded $600,000 in scholarships to 320 outstanding part-time and full-time undergraduate students and high school seniors.

Applications for the fourteenth annual Dunkin Philadelphia Regional Scholarship Program will be accepted through April 13. Applicants must be high school seniors or current undergraduate students who plan to enroll in a part-time or full-time undergraduate course of study at an accredited two-year or four-year college, university, or vocational-technical school in Fall 2023. Applicants must reside and/or be currently enrolled in college in Southeastern Pa., Southern N.J., or Kent and New Castle counties Del. to be considered. For more information or to apply, visit https://learnmore.scholarsapply.org/dunkinphilly/.

About Dunkin'

Founded in 1950, Dunkin' is America's favorite all-day, everyday stop for coffee and baked goods. Dunkin' is a market leader in the hot regular/decaf/flavored coffee, iced regular/decaf/flavored coffee, donut, bagel, and muffin categories. Dunkin' has earned a No. 1 ranking for customer loyalty in the coffee category for 16 years running. The company has more than 12,600 franchised restaurants in 40 countries worldwide. Dunkin' is part of the Inspire Brands family of restaurants. For more information, visit www.DunkinDonuts.com.

About Scholarship America

Scholarship America is a non-profit organization that helps students fulfill their college dreams. Since 1958, Scholarship America has distributed over $4.9 billion to more than 2.9 million students. The organization works with partners to lower barriers to a college education and give students the support needed to succeed. Learn more at scholarshipamerica.org.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005342/en/

Brigette Buckner, Dunkin

[email protected]

Source: Dunkin
PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Phyn, the leader in intelligent water solutions, today announced an exclusive partnership with EcoWater Systems, one of the worlds largest manufacturers of water softeners, to offer Phyns award-winning smart water monitoring solutions to EcoWaters extensive North American dealer network. The first-of-its-kind partnership was announced today at the annual EcoWater Systems Dealer Convention in Phoenix.

With the most advanced and innovative technologies on the market, EcoWater and Phyn have a shared vision in providing the best-in-class water treatment and monitoring solutions for the home. From optimizing water quality for your family to preventing leaks, the overall health and wellness of a homes water system is interconnected. As an industry-first partnership, EcoWater and Phyn help solve many of the water challenges facing homeowners today and together will unlock new solutions to address these challenges in a more meaningful and integrated way.

Were thrilled about the Phyn partnership and see it as a perfect complement to the solutions that our EcoWater Dealerships have to offer, said Keith Johnson, Vice President of Product Management at EcoWater Systems. There has been an increasing demand for smart plumbing devices from both dealers and consumers, to detect leaks and prevent plumbing issues, and we are glad to be able to add Phyns best-in-class technology to our exclusive product suite.

EcoWater has long been a champion of making water cleaner and safer through advanced water solutions, added Ryan Kim, CEO of Phyn. We look forward to building a long-term relationship based on our natural synergies and shared pursuit of innovations that conserve and protect water, our most precious natural resource.

Peace of Mind and Money Savings

Homeowners will now have a suite of product options that both protect against water-related damages and enhance their homes water in one integrated water solution. Combined, they can potentially lower their insurance costs up to 15% with a Phyn product, while saving money on hard water related costs by prolonging the lifespan of water-using appliances, soaps, and detergents.

Phyns Groundbreaking Technology

Phyns industry-leading, AI-powered leak detection technology measures and analyzes microscopic changes in water pressure - 240 times every second - to learn and categorize each water fixture in a home. This unparalleled view into a homes plumbing system allows Phyn to alert homeowners the second a leak is detected, mitigating costly water damage. From drip leaks to catastrophic pipe bursts and everything in between, Phyn monitors a home 24/7 and gives homeowners the tools to ensure that their home is watertight.

Phyn Solutions for EcoWater

Phyn Plus - Professionally installed onto the main water line, Phyn Plus is a powerful smart water monitor that protects families and their homes from leak damage with unmatched accuracy and reliability and provides detailed insights into water use to help conserve and save. In the case of a catastrophic leak, Phyn Plus will automatically shut off the water to mitigate costly damage.

- Professionally installed onto the main water line, Phyn Plus is a powerful smart water monitor that protects families and their homes from leak damage with unmatched accuracy and reliability and provides detailed insights into water use to help conserve and save. In the case of a catastrophic leak, Phyn Plus will automatically shut off the water to mitigate costly damage. Phyn Smart Water Sensor - The Phyn Smart Water Sensor safeguards homes against water damage by detecting leaks, changes in temperatures and potentially damaging humidity levels. The puck-sized sensor alerts users audibly, visually and with SMS and app notifications the moment it comes in contact with moisture, and when coupled with Phyn Plus can automatically shut off the water remotely.

- The Phyn Smart Water Sensor safeguards homes against water damage by detecting leaks, changes in temperatures and potentially damaging humidity levels. The puck-sized sensor alerts users audibly, visually and with SMS and app notifications the moment it comes in contact with moisture, and when coupled with Phyn Plus can automatically shut off the water remotely. Phyn Enterprise Dashboard - A web-based portal to monitor and manage multiple properties with Phyn devices. The platform enables users to proactively repair plumbing issues, turn off the water remotely, and address increases in water costs.

The Phyn Plus and Phyn Smart Water Sensor are available now for pre-order and will be launching in the U.S. and Canada through EcoWater dealers soon.

About Phyn

Phyn is the leading intelligent water brand, bringing solutions to market that help people protect their homes, conserve water and save money. Built upon nearly a decade of research and patented technological innovation, Phyn is poised to change the way consumers interact with water and help solve the major challenges threatening the worlds supply of clean, healthy water. Phyn has been widely recognized for its innovation, including honors from the Red Dot Awards, SXSW Innovation Awards, Core 77 Design Awards, IoT World Awards, CES Innovation Awards and GreenBuilders Sustainability Awards among others. To learn more, visit www.phyn.com.

About EcoWater Systems

Founded in 1925, EcoWater (a Marmon, Berkshire Hathaway company) is one of the largest manufacturers of home water treatment system. The company offers a wide range of water treatment products to enhance lifes most precious resource, and deliver your water, perfected. EcoWater solutions are sold under the EcoWater name through an extensive international dealer network. For more information, visit: www.ecowater.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005469/en/

Zella Panossian

Illume PR for Phyn

[email protected]

Source: Belkin
NAGOYA, Japan--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- 2ND STREET TAIWAN CO., LTD., a subsidiary of GEO Holdings (TOKYO: 2681), is set to open 2nd STREET Carrefour Yilan Store, in Yilan City, Taiwan. This will be the eighteenth store in Taiwan for 2ND STREET TAIWAN CO., LTD.

GEO Holdings has over 2,000 shops and EC stores all over Japan, including GEO Shops, which sell and rent DVDs/CDs, on top of buying and selling video games, and 2ND STREET, which offers a comprehensive selection of used products, including clothing, furniture, and appliances. In 2018, the first 2nd STREET stores outside Japan began opening in the United States and Malaysia. The first store in Taiwan opened in August 2020, and this shop, 2nd STREET Carrefour Yilan Store, will be the eighteenth.

2nd STREET Carrefour Yilan Store will open in the Carrefour Yilan Store in the 2nd basement floor of Luna Plaza, a large-scale facility in Yilan city.

The Carrefour Yilan Store is surrounded by a food court and restaurants, and shops dealing in apparel and accessories, hair salons, and the like. This facility also includes Silks Place Yilan, a well-known hotel in Taiwan.

2nd STREET Carrefour Yilan Store will offer approximately 10,000 luxury items for reuse, including clothing, handbags, shoes, and accessories, carefully selected from the full inventory purchased at approximately 750 2ND STREET shops from all over Japan and Taiwan. Those items will include high quality but affordable selections from Japanese designer brands, internationally renowned luxury brands, American and European designer brands, and products from selected retailers.

The shop will be laid out in line with other 2ND STREET shops in Japan, with the different items and brands categorized, making it easier to find what you are looking for. A storefront will also be established to display various fashion styles.

In addition, purchasing will begin when the shop opens due to the short amount of time it took to introduce the buyer training program in Taiwan.

2ND STREET TAIWAN has plans for further expansion in Taiwan.

2nd STREET Carrefour Yilan Store

Opening Date: Friday, March 17, 2023, local time

Address: B2-2 38 Minquan Rd. Section 2, Yilan City, Taiwan

Hours of Operation: 10:00 until 22:00

Floor Space: 4,590 square feet

Products Available: A total of approximately 10,000 items, including clothing, handbags, shoes, and accessories

2ND STREET TAIWAN CO.,LTD.

Address: 5F-11, 41 Nanjing W. Rd., Datong District, Taipei

Capitalization: 28 million NTD (a wholly-owned subsidiary of GEO Group)

Date of Establishment: August 30, 2019

Director: Sadaharu Deguchi

Business Description: Shop Management and Wholesale Sales for Used Clothing and Accessories

2ND STREET TAIWAN CO.,LTD. URLs

Shop https://2ndstreet.com.tw

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/2ndstreet_taiwan/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/2ndSTREET.TAIWAN/

LINE https://line.me/R/ti/p/@062zihqb

GEO Holdings

GEO Holdings is a retailer listed in the Prime Market of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, with an annual turnover of 300 billion yen. It manages more than 2,000 shops and EC stores in a wide variety of sectors, including GEO Shops that sell and rent DVDs/CDs, on top of buying and selling video games, 2ND STREET shops that buy and sell a comprehensive selection of used clothing, furniture, and appliances, as well as off-price retailers and discount stationery stores.

See http://www.geonet.co.jp/english/ for more information.

The original source-language text of this announcement is the official, authoritative version. Translations are provided as an accommodation only, and should be cross-referenced with the source-language text, which is the only version of the text intended to have legal effect.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230228005004/en/

2ND STREET TAIWAN CO., LTD.

TEL: +886-2-2550-5222

Source: GEO Holdings Corporation
Novel manganese-based macrocyclic Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) agent could offer an alternative to gadolinium-based agents

Manganese is a trace element naturally occurring in, and efficiently eliminated from, the human body

The clinical trial program demonstrates GE HealthCares commitment to innovation in contrast media and to building a portfolio of MRI imaging agents to address radiologists needs for their patients

CHALFONT ST GILES, England--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- GE HealthCare has today announced, at the European Congress of Radiology (ECR) in Vienna, Austria, the completion of Phase I subject recruitment in its early clinical development program for a first-of-its-kind manganese-based macrocyclic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agent. Typically, MRI agents  used to enhance visualization of abnormal structures or lesions and to aid differentiation between healthy and pathological tissue  are gadolinium-based. This manganese-based agent could broaden GE HealthCares portfolio of MRI contrast agents available to radiologists, providing a potential alternative in light of perceived concerns relating to gadolinium retention.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230228006355/en/

GE HealthCare is innovating in contrast media (Photo: Business Wire)

The macrocyclic, extra-cellular  or general-purpose  manganese-based contrast agent has comparable relaxivity - the ability of a contrast agent to enhance signal intensity during an MRI scan - and is expected to be diagnostically similar to current gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCAs). Unlike gadolinium, manganese is endogenous, meaning that it is a trace element that is naturally occurring in and efficiently eliminated from the body. Along with its magnetic properties, this makes a manganese-based agent a viable alternative to gadolinium. In addition, a non-gadolinium agent could help limit the potential impact of post-patient excreted gadolinium in the environment.

The clinical trial, based at the clinical research unit at the Oslo University Hospital, Rikshospitalet, Norway, and overseen by Lead Investigator, Hasse K. Zare, aims to investigate the safety profile and how this injectable manganese contrast agent is eliminated from the body in healthy volunteers. Previous manganese-based MRI agents have been reliant on a free manganese release mechanism for their imaging efficacy. This novel investigational agent is tightly bound to the chelate, in a macrocyclic cage-like structure, so it is rapidly eliminated from - rather than actively released into - the body.

Dr Paul Evans, Head of Global R&D at GE HealthCares Pharmaceutical Diagnostics unit, said: For many years weve been committed to investing in, and bringing to market, products to help solve some of radiologys biggest challenges and unmet needs. This manganese-based MRI agent is one of a number of novel agents we have at various stages of development in our innovation pipeline, all of which aim to give practitioners more choice in delivering precision care for their patients.

GE HealthCares Pharmaceutical Diagnostics unit is a global leader in imaging agents used to support around 100 million procedures per year globally, equivalent to three patient procedures every second. For more than 40 years, GE imaging agents have been routinely used across MRI, X-ray/CT and ultrasound to enhance clinical images and support diagnosis.

About GE HealthCare Technologies Inc.

GE HealthCare is a leading global medical technology, pharmaceutical diagnostics, and digital solutions innovator, dedicated to providing integrated solutions, services, and data analytics to make hospitals more efficient, clinicians more effective, therapies more precise, and patients healthier and happier. Serving patients and providers for more than 100 years, GE HealthCare is advancing personalized, connected, and compassionate care, while simplifying the patients journey across the care pathway. Together our Imaging, Ultrasound, Patient Care Solutions, and Pharmaceutical Diagnostics businesses help improve patient care from diagnosis, to therapy, to monitoring. We are a $18.3 billion business with 50,000 employees working to create a world where healthcare has no limits.

Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Insights for the latest news, or visit our website www.gehealthcare.com for more information.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230228006355/en/

GE HealthCare Media:

Mathilde Bouscaillou

M +3364 700 8271

[email protected]

Source: GE HealthCare
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Getty Realty Corp. (NYSE: GTY) (the Company) today announced the pricing of an underwritten public offering of an aggregate of 3,000,000 shares of its common stock sold on a forward basis in connection with the forward sale agreements described below, for gross proceeds of approximately $100 million. The forward purchasers (or their affiliates) and the Company have also granted the underwriters of the offering a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 450,000 shares of common stock. The offering is expected to close on March 3, 2023, subject to customary closing conditions.

BofA Securities and J.P. Morgan acted as book-running managers for the offering.

In connection with the offering, the Company expects to enter into separate forward sale agreements with each of BofA Securities and J.P. Morgan (or their respective affiliates), each referred to in this capacity as the forward purchaser. In connection with such forward sale agreements, the forward purchasers (or their affiliates) are expected to borrow from third parties and sell to the underwriters an aggregate of 3,000,000 shares of the Companys common stock (or 3,450,000 shares if the underwriters option is exercised in full and the Company elects to execute additional forward sale agreements). Pursuant to the terms of each forward sale agreement, and subject to its right to elect cash or net share settlement, the Company is obligated to issue and deliver, upon physical settlement of such forward sale agreement on one or more dates specified by the Company, the number of shares of the Companys common stock underlying such forward sale agreement in exchange for a cash payment per share equal to the forward sale price under such forward sale agreement. The Company expects to physically settle the forward sale agreements and receive proceeds, subject to certain adjustments, from the sale of its shares of common stock upon one or more such physical settlements within approximately one year from the date of the prospectus supplement relating to the offering.

The Company will not initially receive any proceeds from the sale of shares of its common stock by the forward purchasers (or their affiliates). The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the offering and the net proceeds, if any, received upon the settlement of the forward sale agreements to fund property acquisitions, to repay indebtedness outstanding under its revolving credit facility, for working capital and other general corporate purposes, or a combination of the foregoing.

An automatic shelf registration statement on Form S-3 relating to the public offering of the shares of common stock described above was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) and became effective on January 8, 2021. A preliminary prospectus supplement relating to the offering has been filed with the SEC. When available, copies of the prospectus supplement and related base prospectus for the offering may be obtained on the website of the SEC, www.sec.gov, or by contacting BofA Securities, Inc., NC1-004-03-43, 200 North College Street, 3rd floor, Charlotte NC 28255-0001, Attention: Prospectus Department or by emailing [email protected]; or J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, New York 11717, Attention: Prospectus Group by emailing [email protected] or by calling toll free at (866) 803-9204.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any shares of common stock, nor shall there be any sale of such common stock in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of such state or jurisdiction.

The offering of these securities may be made only by means of a prospectus and related prospectus supplement meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

Forward-Looking Statements

CERTAIN STATEMENTS CONTAINED HEREIN MAY CONSTITUTE FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS WITHIN THE MEANING OF THE PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF 1995. WHEN THE WORDS BELIEVES, EXPECTS, PLANS, PROJECTS, ESTIMATES, ANTICIPATES, PREDICTS, OUTLOOK AND SIMILAR EXPRESSIONS ARE USED, THEY IDENTIFY FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS. THESE FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS ARE BASED ON MANAGEMENTS CURRENT BELIEFS AND ASSUMPTIONS AND INFORMATION CURRENTLY AVAILABLE TO MANAGEMENT AND INVOLVE KNOWN AND UNKNOWN RISKS, UNCERTAINTIES AND OTHER FACTORS WHICH MAY CAUSE THE ACTUAL RESULTS, PERFORMANCE OR ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE COMPANY TO BE MATERIALLY DIFFERENT FROM ANY FUTURE RESULTS, PERFORMANCE OR ACHIEVEMENTS EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED BY THESE FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS. EXAMPLES OF FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS INCLUDE BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO STATEMENTS REGARDING THE EXPECTED SETTLEMENT OF THE FORWARD SALE AGREEMENTS AND THE USE OF PROCEEDS THEREFROM (IF ANY).

INFORMATION CONCERNING FACTORS THAT COULD CAUSE THE COMPANYS ACTUAL RESULTS TO DIFFER MATERIALLY FROM THESE FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS CAN BE FOUND IN THE COMPANYS PERIODIC REPORTS FILED WITH THE SEC. THE COMPANY UNDERTAKES NO OBLIGATION TO PUBLICLY RELEASE REVISIONS TO THESE FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS TO REFLECT FUTURE EVENTS OR CIRCUMSTANCES OR REFLECT THE OCCURRENCE OF UNANTICIPATED EVENTS.

About Getty Realty Corp.

Getty Realty Corp. is a publicly traded, net lease REIT specializing in the acquisition, financing and development of convenience, automotive and other single tenant retail real estate. As of December 31, 2022, the Companys portfolio included 1,039 freestanding properties located in 38 states across the United States and Washington, D.C.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230228006514/en/

Investor Relations

(646) 349-0822

[email protected]

Source: Getty Realty Corp.
DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- On February 28, 2023, Holly Energy Partners, L.P. (NYSE: HEP) (the "Partnership") filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022. The filing can be viewed through a link on the Partnership's internet website at www.hollyenergy.com by selecting the heading "Investors" and then the subheading "Financial Information."

Upon written request, limited partners and bondholders may receive free of charge a hard copy of the Partnership's Annual Report on Form 10-K (including complete audited financial statements). Requests should be communicated in writing to the Partnership's Vice President, Investor Relations, at 2828 N. Harwood, Suite 1300, Dallas, Texas 75201. Requests can also be made online by selecting Printed Materials on the Investors page of our website.

About Holly Energy Partners, L.P.:

Holly Energy Partners, L.P. (HEP or the Partnership), headquartered in Dallas, Texas, provides petroleum product and crude oil transportation, terminalling, storage and throughput services to the petroleum industry, including subsidiaries of HF Sinclair Corporation. The Partnership, through its subsidiaries and joint ventures, owns and/or operates petroleum product and crude pipelines, tankage and terminals in Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, as well as refinery processing units in Kansas and Utah.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230228006497/en/

Holly Energy Partners, L.P.

Craig Biery, 214-954-6511

Vice President, Investor Relations

or

Trey Schonter, 214-954-6511

Manager, Investor Relations

Source: Holly Energy Partners, L.P.
HONG KONG & LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government announced today they will drop the mandatory mask-wearing rule beginning March 1 for all visitors traveling to Hong Kong. Travelers will no longer be required to wear masks indoors and outdoors and can enjoy Hong Kongs iconic and new experiences to the fullest.

The announcement comes as the city prepares to host a line-up of large international events in the coming month, such as Clockenflap (March 3-5), Art Basel (March 23-25) and the Hong Kong Sevens (March 31  April 2). Travelers from near and far are invited to dance and sing along to the performers at Clockenflap, cheer for their favorite teams and party with cool drinks at the celebrated Hong Kong Sevens; and meet with world-class gallerists at the Art Basel Hong Kong.

Plan your visit now and be ready to say Hello to Hong Kong!

For more information on Hong Kongs travel experiences, please visit www.discoverhongkong.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230228006483/en/

Anne Gomm, Senior Manager, PR & Marketing

Hong Kong Tourism Board US

[email protected]

Source: Hong Kong Tourism Board
Impossible Cloud raises heavily oversubscribed 7M (approximately $7.6M) seed round co-led by HV Capital and 1kx

Its decentralized, enterprise-grade platform provides businesses with cheaper, faster, easier, and more secure cloud solutions

Funding from both traditional and web3-specific investors plus a strategic investment from Protocol Labs (Filecoin, IPFS)

Founding team  Kai Wawrzinek, Christian Kaul, Daniel Baker  has a proven track record in helping to build publicly-traded companies (Goodgame Studios, Stillfront, Airbnb, Iron Mountain)

HAMBURG, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Impossible Cloud, the revolutionary cloud platform that offers decentralized, multi-service cloud solutions, announced today a heavily oversubscribed 7 million Seed round co-led by HV Capital and 1kx, and joined by Protocol Labs, TS Ventures, and very early Ventures. In addition to capital contributed by the founders, the Seed round brings the companys funding to date to more than 10 million (approximately $10.9 million). The funding will be used to accelerate the market entry of its cloud storage solution, which will bridge the gap between traditional and web3 businesses.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005389/en/

Impossible Cloud's founding team of Kai Wawrzinek, Christian Kaul, and Daniel Baker has a proven track record in helping to build publicly-traded companies (Goodgame Studios, Stillfront, Airbnb, Iron Mountain). (Photo: Business Wire)

Impossible Clouds platform supports an almost unlimited capacity of storage; it is designed for 100% durability and without any single point of failure, guaranteeing 99.95% availability above industry standard. Additionally, it can provide access to a global network of enterprise-grade storage hubs, enabling reliable performance and efficiency near the customers edge.

Impossible Cloud will be the first decentralized, enterprise-grade cloud platform offering a comprehensive suite of services backed by a fiat-based payment system and business model catering to B2B customers. This revolutionary approach delivers the key benefits of web3 technology, including increased speed, affordability and security, without the need to transact with tokens or cryptocurrency.

Our ultimate goal is to create a decentralized, cost-effective, enterprise-grade cloud platform that will revolutionize the way businesses utilize cloud services, providing enhanced efficiency, elasticity, and security, said Kai Wawrzinek, Co-Founder of Impossible Cloud.

The company ensures the highest level of security and compliance by combining the intrinsic benefits of web3 security with industry-leading security protocols, and by operating out of enterprise-grade data centers that are fully compliant with standards such as ISO27000, SOC 2 Type II, and many more.

"Cloud services have quickly disrupted countless industries, but todays systems have already become legacy and are riddled with limitations. Weve reimagined what cloud storage can do and the value it delivers, accomplishing what many considered impossible," added Wawrzinek. "Our partners at HV Capital, 1kx and TS Ventures are successful visionaries who understand the possibilities of web3, and we look forward to collaborating with them as we continue to build our team and bring our cloud storage solution to market. The co-investment from Protocol Labs, the most iconic company in web3 cloud storage, is the icing on the cake."

"Impossible Cloud is disrupting cloud computing. By entering the market with an enterprise-grade cloud storage ecosystem leveraging web3 technology, the companys business model delivers the critical benefits of web3 for the enterprise cloud market. In addition to this revolutionary approach, the founding team has a strong track record of founding and scaling successful businesses," said Jan Miczaika, Partner at HV Capital.

"Decentralization can breed resilience and antifragility in large-scale software networks," said Lasse Clausen, Founding Partner at 1kx. "We're excited to back this great team to bring decentralization and its benefits to global cloud computing."

"Our mission at Protocol Labs is to build and support the protocols, tools, and services that will radically improve the internet and drive breakthroughs to push humanity forward. With products serving thousands of organizations and millions of people, we hear first-hand the pain points in today's cloud ecosystem and recognize the massive opportunity for innovation and disruption. Impossible Cloud is helping drive B2B adoption of web3 services worldwide, and were excited about the developments their technology will bring to the space. The companys exceptional group of founders brings the proven leadership and vision needed to meet the market demands head-on," said Brad Holden Investment Lead at Protocol Labs Ventures.

Impossible Cloud is led by a team of experienced technology-company founders, including Kai Wawrzinek, Christian Kaul and Daniel Baker. The team has a proven track record in helping to build publicly traded unicorn companies, including Goodgame Studios, Stillfront, Airbnb, and Iron Mountain. Impossible Cloud has already garnered significant interest from potential customers and is working closely with leading SaaS providers to integrate their services into the platform.

"We are excited to be at the forefront of commoditizing web3 technology for mainstream business adoption, and confident that our decentralized, enterprise-grade cloud platform will be a game-changer in the cloud industry," said Dr. Christian Kaul. "We believe Impossible Cloud will play a major role in the way the internet will look in 5 to 10 years and be a major force in the cloud services market."

With its growing employee team, Impossible Cloud intends to incorporate in the United States, build an elastic network of enterprise-grade storage hubs, and expand the capabilities of its platform.

About Impossible Cloud

Impossible Cloud is a revolutionary cloud platform that offers decentralized, multi-service cloud solutions. The platform is based on web3 technology and decentralized infrastructure, which allows it to be scalable, secure, and cost-effective. With just a single line of code, customers can access Impossible Cloud's cloud storage service. To learn more, please visit https://www.impossiblecloud.com/

About HV Capital

Since 2000 HV Capital, has invested in Internet and technology companies through various generations of funds and is one of the most successful and financially strongest early-stage and growth investors in Europe. HV Capital has already invested in around 200 companies, including Zalando, Delivery Hero, FlixMobility, Depop, and SumUp. The total of all HV Funds amounts to 1.7 billion. The company supports startups with capital between 500,000 and 50 million. This makes HV Capital one of the few venture capitalists in Europe that can finance startups through all growth phases. To learn more, please visit https://www.hvcapital.com/

About 1kx

1kx is a leading early-stage investment firm that partners with forward-thinking protocols, founders, and communities to help grow the crypto ecosystem. Supported by a team of leading technology engineers, investors, and entrepreneurs, 1kx takes a collaborative, hands-on approach to help the best and brightest minds in web3 grow and scale their platforms and build lasting community-driven networks. To learn more, please visit https://1kx.network/

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005389/en/

Press Contact

Robert Brownlie

Bob Gold & Associates

310-320-2010

[email protected]

Source: Impossible Cloud
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Today, Jabil Inc. (NYSE: JBL), a manufacturing solutions company, announced it will release its second quarter of fiscal year 2023 financials on Thursday, March 16, 2023, before the market opens.

The company will host a conference call and webcast to review the results on Thursday, March 16, 2023, at 8:30 a.m. ET.

What: Jabils Second Quarter of Fiscal Year 2023 Conference Call and Webcast

When: Thursday, March 16, 2023  8:30 a.m. ET

Dial-in: U.S. (877) 407-6184 or International (201) 389-0877

To access the live audio webcast and the accompanying slide presentation, visit the Investor Relations section of Jabils website, located at https://investors.jabil.com. An archived replay of the webcast will be available after completion of the call.

About Jabil: Jabil (NYSE: JBL) is a manufacturing solutions provider with over 250,000 employees across 100 locations in 30 countries. The world's leading brands rely on Jabil's unmatched breadth and depth of end-market experience, technical and design capabilities, manufacturing know-how, supply chain insights and global product management expertise. Driven by a common purpose, Jabil and its people are committed to making a positive impact on their local community and the environment. Visit www.jabil.com to learn more.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301006052/en/

Investor Contact:

Adam Berry

Vice President, Investor Relations

[email protected]

Source: Jabil, Inc.
LAKE OSWEGO, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Jensen Investment Management (Jensen), a 100% employee-owned active equity investment management firm, is pleased to announce Alexandria Sorosky, MaryAnn Dahl and Todd Schoen as the most recent additions to firm ownership and welcomes them as shareholders.

At Jensen, our goal for the last 35 years has been to look for ways to provide long-term value creation, quality and growth opportunities for all aspects of the business, said Eric H. Schoenstein, managing director. Alexandria, MaryAnn and Todd all epitomize the culture and values of our firm, demonstrating superior stewardship for Jensens clients and employees alike. We are delighted to welcome them as our newest owners.

Alexandria Sorosky joined the firm in 2018 and is currently the manager of Sales and Client Services. As such, she is responsible for sales and client service for adviser and intermediary channels for the western United States. Prior to Jensen, she was in Internal Sales and National Accounts in the non-traded REIT industry. Ms. Sorosky earned a Bachelor of Science in marketing from Arizona State University.

MaryAnn Dahl has been with the firm since 2018 and is currently a manager with the Jensen Private Client team. Prior to joining Jensen, she was responsible for the portfolio reporting and investment research functions for Deschutes Investment Consulting. She began her career working as an analyst at investment consulting firms that served high-net-worth families, foundations and endowments, and she spent more than six years at Greycourt & Co., Inc. While there, she contributed to the Investment Reporting, Investment Research and Client Service departments and ultimately managed their team of investment analysts. Ms. Dahl earned a Bachelor of Science in finance with minors in Spanish and international business from the University of Wyoming.

Todd Schoen joined Jensen in 2019 and currently serves as the firms senior compliance officer. Previously, Todd was a compliance officer for Russell Investments. Mr. Schoen has also worked as a securities compliance examiner for the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions and the Texas State Securities Board, examining broker dealers and investment advisers. He received a Master of Business Administration from the University of Washington and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Pacific Lutheran University.

Jensen manages approximately $13.1 billion (as of December 2022) across three investment strategiesJensen Quality Growth, Jensen Quality Value and Jensen Global Quality Growthwith firm ownership shared among more than 50% of Jensens 39 employees.

About Jensen Investment Management

Jensen Investment Management is a high-conviction, active equity manager with an unwavering commitment to quality. The firm focuses on companies derived from a select universe of businesses that have produced a long-term record of persistently high returns on shareholder equity. For more information, please visit www.jenseninvestment.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005534/en/

Media:

Claudine Cornelis

MJ Hudson

[email protected]

+1 845.424.6342

Source: Jensen Investment Management
WICHITA, Kan.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Spirit AeroSystems, Inc. announced today an agreement with Jordan Aircraft Maintenance Company, Joramco, to be a Spirit Authorized Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) center.

Joramco, based in Amman, Jordan, is a maintenance, repair, and overhaul provider and the engineering arm of Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE). Joramco will provide a wide range of repairs and services of composite and metallic aerostructures to customers in the region.

Under this agreement, Joramco will initially provide total nacelle repair services to both Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 aircraft in partnership with Spirit AeroSystems. Joramco and Spirit intend to expand the services to other platforms, including Boeing 777.

In early 2021, we laid out a strategy to be available locally for our global customers. This agreement with Joramco is one of the pillars of that strategy for our regional customers. Joramco is a highly regarded MRO player, both for near- and far-reaching operators. Our strategic alliance will enable Joramco to offer a broader scope of repair services to its customers, and a broader reach of customers for us, said Kailash Krishnaswamy, Senior Vice President of Spirit AeroSystems Aftermarket Solutions.

Commenting on the agreement, Joramco CEO Fraser Currie said: We are excited to see the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that was signed with Spirit AeroSystems last year come to fruition. Spirit AeroSystems is one of the world's largest manufacturers of aerostructures for commercial airplanes with vast capabilities and this is hopefully just the beginning of an evolving collaboration. The agreement is another key step forward for Joramco meeting the objective to expand the capabilities and enhancing the support to our global customer base.

Spirits Aftermarket business continues to grow worldwide since the acquisition of select Bombardier maintenance, repair and overhaul operations in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Casablanca, Morocco; and the acquisition of assets from Applied Aerodynamics in Dallas, Texas, USA.

Over the last year, Spirit Aftermarket services has opened Spirit Evergreen Aftermarket Solutions (SEAS), a joint venture with Evergreen Aviation Technologies Corp. in Taiwan; signed an agreement with Guangzhou Aircraft Maintenance Engineering Company Limited (GAMECO) to be the Spirit Authorized Repair Center in Mainland China; signed an agreement with GMR Aerotechnic to be the Spirit Authorized Repair Center in India; and has signed a MOU with Malaysia Airlines Berhad (MAB) to develop maintenance, repair and overhaul services. Spirits Aftermarket business revenues have grown from $186 million in 2019 to $311 million in 2022.

Spirit AeroSystems, Inc. ("Spirit") is a subsidiary of Spirit AeroSystems Holdings, Inc. [NYSE: SPR] (Spirit AeroSystems).

Joramco, based at Queen Alia International Airport in Amman, has more than 50 years of experience. It has built a solid track record as a leading independent commercial aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul facility serving a wide range of customers in the Middle East, Europe, South Asia, and Africa, offering services on several aircraft models from the Airbus, Boeing, and Embraer fleets. Joramco is certified by many international regulatory authorities including the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Jordanian Civil Aviation Regulatory Commission (JCARC).

On the web: www.spiritaero.com

On Twitter: @SpiritAero

About Spirit AeroSystems Inc.

Spirit AeroSystems is one of the world's largest manufacturers of aerostructures for commercial airplanes, defense platforms, and business/regional jets. With expertise in aluminum and advanced composite manufacturing solutions, the company's core products include fuselages, integrated wings and wing components, pylons, and nacelles. We are leveraging decades of design and manufacturing expertise to be the most innovative and reliable supplier of military aerostructures, and specialty high-temperature materials, enabling warfighters to execute complex, critical missions. Spirit also serves the aftermarket for commercial and business/regional jets. Headquartered in Wichita, Kansas, Spirit has facilities in the U.S., U.K., France, Malaysia and Morocco. More information is available at www.spiritaero.com.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" that may involve many risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "aim," "anticipate," "believe," "could," "continue," "estimate," "expect," "goal," "forecast," "intend," "may," "might," "objective," "outlook," "plan," "predict," "project," "should," "target," "will," "would," and other similar words, or phrases, or the negative thereof, unless the context requires otherwise. These statements reflect management's current views with respect to future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties, both known and unknown. Our actual results may vary materially from those anticipated in forward-looking statements. We caution investors not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected in such forward-looking statements and that should be considered in evaluating our outlook include, without limitation, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business and operations; the timing and conditions surrounding the full worldwide return to service (including receiving the remaining regulatory approvals) of the B737 MAX, future demand for the aircraft, and any residual impacts of the B737 MAX grounding on production rates for the aircraft; our reliance on Boeing for a significant portion of our revenues; our ability to execute our growth strategy, including our ability to complete and integrate acquisitions; our ability to accurately estimate and manage performance, cost, and revenue under our contracts; demand for our products and services and the effect of economic or geopolitical conditions in the industries and markets in which we operate in the U.S. and globally; our ability to manage our liquidity, borrow additional funds or refinance debt; and other factors disclosed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These factors are not exhaustive, and it is not possible for us to predict all factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected in our forward-looking statements. These factors speak only as of the date hereof, and new factors may emerge or changes to the foregoing factors may occur that could impact our business. Except to the extent required by law, we undertake no obligation to, and expressly disclaim any obligation to, publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005555/en/

Media:

Forrest Gossett

(316) 523-5197

[email protected]

Investor Relations:

Ryan Avey

(316) 523-7040

[email protected]

Source: Spirit AeroSystems, Inc.
Partnership to provide enhanced management and operational capabilities

CARLSBAD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Funds advised by Lee Equity Partners, LLC (Lee Equity) and Coastwood Senior Housing Partners, LLC (Coastwood), two specialized investment firms, announced today the signing of an agreement to invest in Integral Senior Living Management, LLC (ISL), the 9th largest operator of senior housing in the Nation. As part of the investment, ISL will partner with Discovery Senior Living (Discovery) and form the fifth largest senior housing operator in the United States with nationwide presence and preeminent management capabilities.

We are excited to be partnering with Lee Equity, Coastwood, and Discovery to elevate the quality of management in the Senior Living industry, said Sue Farrow, Founder of ISL. This recapitalization will allow us to continue to carry the ISL Culture and ensure the very best service for our residents, associates and ownership groups, as well as invest in technology and systems to create something truly unique in the senior living space, added Collette Gray, who will remain President and Chief Executive Officer of ISL.

Lee Equity and Coastwood recently completed the recapitalization of Discovery Senior Living led by Richard Hutchinson, Chief Executive Officer. The investment in both companies by Lee Equity and Coastwood will create an opportunity to find synergies in systems and platforms that will allow the sister companies to better serve capital partners and residents. Combined, these two leading operators will manage approximately 27,000 senior living units with a presence 36 states nationwide. Teams at both companies will identify best practices with the intention of advancing the quality of operations in the senior living industry while maintaining their own unique Cultures and Programs.

We are pleased to support the investment in ISL and Discovery and believe the two companies are poised to disrupt the senior living industry, said Christian Chauvet, Partner at Lee Equity. ISL and Discovery represent two of the leading management platforms in senior living and we are confident that their partnership will result in better outcomes for all constituents, said Dan Decker, Partner at Coastwood Senior Housing Partners.

This transaction and the continued expansion of the ISL and Discovery platforms will also benefit from a diversified experience across capital partner and community profiles. Lee Equity and Coastwood will continue to work with the two companies to build and support a network of senior living communities across the country.

It is an honor to partner with the team at ISL to expand our capabilities to provide superior resident experiences throughout the United States, said Richard Hutchinson, Chief Executive Officer of Discovery and the combined parent company. Our combined companies resources and expertise will significantly improve the outcomes and experiences for our residents, capital partners, and employees.

Blueprint Healthcare Real Estate Advisors served as exclusive advisor to ISL on the recapitalization. Our partners at Blueprint have been by our side through this entire process. We couldnt have had a more professional, dynamic and personable team to work with, stated Sue Farrow.

About Integral Senior Living

Integral Senior Living, headquartered in Carlsbad, California, manages a progressive selection of more than 100 senior living communities to meet the growing needs of todays aging population. ISL manages independent, assisted living and memory care communities throughout 25 states. Ranked as the Nations 9th largest senior living provider, ISL is founded on a care philosophy that fosters dignity and respect for residents and promotes their independence and individuality. The dedicated associates at each community are trained to maintain the highest standards of senior care services. For more information, visit www.islllc.com and ISLs Facebook page.

About Discovery Senior Living

Discovery Senior Living is a family of companies that includes Discovery Management Group, Morada Senior Living, TerraBella Senior Living, Discovery Development Group, Discovery Design Concepts, Discovery Marketing Group, and Discovery At Home, a Medicare-certified home healthcare company. With almost three decades of experience, the award-winning management group has been developing, building, marketing, and operating upscale senior-living communities across the United States. By leveraging its innovative "Experiential Living" philosophy across a growing portfolio of more than 15,000 existing homes or homes under development, Discovery Senior Living is a recognized industry leader for lifestyle customization and, today, ranks among the 10 largest U.S. senior living operators and providers. Additional information is available at www.discoveryseniorliving.com.

About Lee Equity Partners

Lee Equity Partners, LLC is a New York-based private equity firm that partners with successful management teams to build companies with strong growth potential. Lee Equity targets equity investments of $50 million to $150 million in middle-market control buyouts and growth capital financings in companies with enterprise values of $100 million to $500 million that are located primarily in the United States. The firm invests within three distinct sectors, healthcare services, financial services, and business services, where the team has developed deep relationships over decades. Additional information is available at www.leeequity.com.

About Coastwood Senior Housing Partners, LLC

Coastwood Senior Housing Partners, LLC is an investment firm led by Daniel A. Decker that specializes in seniors housing and related services. The Coastwood partners have extensive investment experience in the senior housing and healthcare services industries, including investments in Omega Healthcare Investors (OHI), Sunrise Senior Living, and Sentio, as well as board experience in a variety of publicly owned and private healthcare service companies.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230228006481/en/

Ty Fiesel, MP&F Strategic Communications

615-259-4000 | [email protected]

Source: Integral Senior Living
STAMFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Matrix Rental Solutions, a Stamford, Connecticut-based technology company on a mission to improve access to fair and affordable housing, announced today a new investment from Connecticut Innovations (CI), the states strategic venture capital arm and leading source of financing and ongoing support for Connecticuts innovative, growing companies.

Leveraging the investment from Connecticut Innovations, Matrix Rental Solutions plans to expand its team, further advance its technology platform and develop its Universal Rental Application to better serve the affordable housing market. The company is already seeing significant interest from property owners and managers across the country and expects to continue to grow its customer base significantly in the coming year.

"What we like about Matrix Rental Solutions is its ability to address a critical need for fair and affordable housing in Connecticut and across the United States, said Alison Malloy, managing director of investments at Connecticut Innovations. We believe that Matrix Rental Solutions has the potential to make a real difference in the lives of millions of people, and we look forward to supporting them as they grow."

Using real-time data to produce an ability to pay score that is more equitable and inclusive than traditional credit scoring, Matrix Rental Solutions AI-driven Universal Rental Application provides property managers with insights into the full financial profile of prospective tenants, de-risking the rental process and enabling owners to make their properties available to affordable housing programs. The Universal Rental Application equips renters and owners with tools that analyze, streamline and expedite the acceptance process by up to 50%.

An innovative scoring system is a key component of the Universal Rental Application; a first-of-its-kind standardized affordable housing application that slashes red tape, simplifies the application process for tenants and saves time and administrative costs for rental property.

"Traditional credit scoring, the main metric by which rental-worthiness is measured, is inherently biased against young people, immigrants, minorities and other underrepresented communities. And for rental property owners, it is not an accurate or reliable barometer of prospective tenants long term ability to pay. Matrix makes tenant evaluation easy, said Sipho Simela, founder and CEO of Matrix Rental Solutions. The support of Connecticut Innovations brings us one step closer to bringing our affordable housing solutions to more people across the country. With this investment, we will accelerate our development and continue to improve the affordable housing process for both tenants and property owners."

About Matrix

Matrix is a Universal Rental Application that is changing the landscape of the growing, $500 billion rental housing market. Matrix features a single, reusable application with a single fee, powered by real-time data and producing an ability to pay score. Using a variety of factors, including assets, income and previous rental history, the result is more inclusive scoring that gives property managers faster, more accurate insights into the full financial profile of a prospective tenant. Matrix removes the potential for source of income discrimination, taking the subsidy into consideration and automating the underwriting process. Todays processing time for affordable housing applications is approximately 36 days. This leads to compounding losses, making public housing acceptance simply not an option for many owners. Matrix streamlines the acceptance process and shortens it by up to 50%, helping more owners make their properties available to affordable housing and get leased faster. For more information, please visit https://www.mymatrixrent.com.

About Connecticut Innovations

Connecticut Innovations (CI) is Connecticuts strategic venture capital arm and the leading source of financing and ongoing support for Connecticuts innovative, growing companies. CI provides venture capital and strategic support for early-stage technology companies, financial support for innovation and collaboration, and connections to its well-established network of partners and professionals. For more information, please visit http://www.ctinnovations.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005776/en/

Rachel Verne

858-663-2453

[email protected]

Source: Matrix Rental Solutions
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Mercury Capital Advisors announced today that it has added Devrup Banerjee as a Partner in its Secondary Advisory team. Mr. Banerjee joined Mercury on February 1st 2023 in its London office. This follows the hire of Vik Salh who joined the Secondary Advisory team as a Vice President last year in New York.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005994/en/

Devrup Banerjee, Partner, Secondary Advisory Team, Mercury Capital Advisors (Photo: Business Wire)

Mr. Banerjee will be responsible for the origination and execution of secondary transactions globally. Mr. Banerjee joins Mercury with more than 10 years of experience in Secondaries. Prior to joining Mercury, Mr. Banerjee was a Principal at Glendower Capital, a global secondary private equity firm, where he was responsible for sourcing, structuring, evaluating, negotiating and closing a broad range of secondary private equity transactions, including both LP Portfolio and single & multi-asset GP-led transactions. Mr. Banerjee started his career within the Investment Banking Division at Goldman Sachs, where he worked on a wide range of M&A and capital markets transactions within the Natural Resources sector. Mr. Banerjee holds an MA in Economics and Management from the University of Oxford.

Mercury started its Secondary Advisory business in 2015 and has established a credible track record, closing several high-quality transactions since its inception. Recent transactions advised by Mercury include a preferred equity deal for Springwater Capital, a European special situations manager with Morningside Capital Management and LSV Advisors, and a strategic investment by 17 Capital in a portfolio of private equity, real estate and credit assets held by Investcorp.

We welcome Devrup to the Firm. We continue to see strong momentum in both GP-led and LP-led Secondaries transaction volumes. With his extensive experience, we are confident that Devrup will add significant value and contribute to the growth of our Secondaries business vertical, said John Franklin and Enrique Cuan, Managing Partners at Mercury.

Mercury continues to provide a comprehensive one-stop solution for its GP clients across fund placement, secondary advisory, fund co-investments and direct placement. It has added several new clients in the last year including NGP Energy Capital, 3i Group and Capitol Meridian while continuing to provide services to its long-standing clients such as Gaw Capital Partners, Coller Capital, and Valar Ventures among others.

About Mercury Capital Advisors

Mercury Capital Advisors is a leading global private fund and investment advisory firm. Founded in 2009 as a spinoff from the Merrill Lynch Private Funds Group, the firm assists general partners and limited partners in fundraising and secondary advisory, co-investment and direct deal placement. The firm specializes in alternative assets including private equity, real estate, infrastructure, credit, venture capital, secondaries and special situations investments. Mercury has advised on over 100 fundraisings and closed over $100 billion in fund commitments since its inception in 2009.

With offices in New York, London, Dubai, Singapore, Tokyo and New Delhi, the firm maintains strong relationships with a broad range of the worlds pre-eminent institutional investors, including sovereign wealth funds, corporate and public pension plans, insurance companies, endowments, family offices, foundations, secondary funds, funds of funds and consultants.

Mercury Capital Advisors is a 100% owned subsidiary of Investcorp, a global investment manager, specializing in alternative investments across private equity, real estate, credit, absolute return strategies, GP stakes, infrastructure, and insurance asset management. Today, Investcorp manages $50 billion in assets, including assets managed by third party managers. Investcorp has 14 offices in the US, Europe, GCC and Asia, including, India, China, Japan and Singapore and employs approximately 500 people from 50 nationalities globally.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005994/en/

Chris Gillick

[email protected]

Source: Mercury Capital Advisors
LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Pacific Retail Capital Partners (PRCP), one of the nations leading real estate investment, management and advisory firms focused exclusively on evolving retail real estate, today provided a recap of its business activities in 2022.

DEVELOPMENT

Over the last 12 months, PRCP, together with its development partners, announced plans to redevelop The Galleria at White Plains in White Plains, N.Y., and the former Carsons anchor box at Yorktown Center in Lombard, Ill., into dynamic mixed-use assets. These transformational projects advance PRCPs mission to set the standard for the next generation of retail real estate while creating meaningful value for investors, partners and the communities where it does business.

The repositioning of The Galleria is slated to be one of the largest mall redevelopments in the U.S. PRCP is partnering with SL Green Realty Corp. and Cappelli Organization on the project. At Yorktown, PRCP and its partner, Synergy Construction, will reposition the shuttered Carsons anchor box into a vibrant neighborhood-like environment that will incorporate multifamily elements and an approximately 2-acre green space.

PRCP was also selected by MetroNational to serve as development consultant on its Memorial City Project in Houston to repurpose the projects mall space and add an outdoor village element. Memorial City Project is a proposed 27-acre, urban infill development to be comprised of a collection of unique boutiques and iconic brands, locally curated culinary collections, green space, and elevated health and wellness services. MetroNational is leveraging PRCPs master-planning expertise and advisory services to help it move the project forward and secure necessary department store approvals and entitlements along the way.

The collective investment value of these transformational projects is expected to be in the billions, resulting in reimaged real estate that will add significant value to their local communities and the next generation.

ASSET MANAGEMENT & CAPITAL MARKETS ACTIVITY

PRCP was selected by one of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds to serve as asset manager for five of its major regional malls. Collectively, the properties comprise more than 7-million square feet and are located in the Western region of the country.

Furthermore, PRCP has made significant progress helping to restructure the debt and implement strategies to maximize the value on the seven regional malls it assumed control of in 2020 on behalf of Israeli shekel (ILS) bondholders. The parties selected PRCP because of the firms proven track record of enhancing the value of retail assets through active management, strategic capital improvements, award-winning marketing programs, local activations and community-focused leasing.

The company also successfully recapitalized a loan and welcomed new international investors into their joint ventures.

PERSONNEL & LEASING

PRCP continued adding highly experienced executives to its leadership team with the strategic hires of Donna Blair as Chief Operating Officer and Annmarie Plenge as Executive Vice President of Design. The company also added 54 new hires to its workforce and promoted 14 individuals, demonstrating its commitment to cultivate and recognize exceptional internal talent.

Blair rejoined PRCP following her time at Continuum Partners, a national leader in large-scale residential, mixed-use projects, and is responsible for overseeing its day-to-day operations with a focus on repurposing and repositioning projects. She previously served as Senior Vice President  Portfolio Management for PRCP from 2012-2016.

Plenge, former Principal at leading global architecture firm Gensler, leads PRCPs recently formed Architectural Design Studio, and will be instrumental in spearheading the firms design strategies and master-planning efforts. Ian Kim and Ryan Min, who previously worked with Plenge in Genslers Los Angeles office, have also joined PRCP and work under Plenge.

The company also added Lemore Czeisler as Vice President of Development. Czeisler comes to PRCP following her successes at Concord Wilshire Companies, a leader in residential, resort and mixed-use real estate.

On the leasing front, PRCP had a highly successful year in 2022, closing 276 new deals spanning local, regional, and national retailers. The leasing team collectively filled more than 2.5 million square feet of space throughout PRCPs portfolio.

MARKETING

PRCPs marketing division achieved numerous successes on the events and programming front. PRCP once again hosted its trademarked Taste for the Space (T4TS) competition at Parkway Plaza in El Cajon, California and Belden Village in Canton, Ohio. T4TS involves local culinary professionals competing for a chance to win a dedicated space at one of PRCPs properties. This signature event is intended to allow PRCP to strengthen its local leasing pipeline by forming relationships with in-demand restaurateurs. Whats more, the events raised over $8,000 to support local non-profit organizations in their respective markets that are dedicated to making positive impacts on the communities they serve.

The marketing team further strengthened the impact of its digital footprint and influence, substantially increasing traffic to its property websites, growing its social media following by more than 75,000 people, adding 33,000 new email subscribers, up 3.5 percent from 2021, and getting more than 189,000 new people to opt-in to its text messaging program.

2022 was an exciting year for PRCP, and we are very pleased with all that we were able to accomplish despite a challenging macroeconomic environment, said Steve Plenge, Chief Executive Officer of PRCP. Our ability to make significant progress on our strategic initiatives reflects the overall strength of our platform and the relationships we have with financial institutions and industry partners. We look forward to accelerating the momentum as we move deeper into 2023 and continuing to lead the transformation of real estate in a way that better aligns with the needs and expectations of the evolving communities we serve.

PRCP entered 2023 from a position of enviable strength with a growing investment and advisory pipeline. With best-in-class in-house capabilities to maximize value creation, the firm is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the diverse opportunities it has identified and advance its plans to redefine the future of retail real estate.

About Pacific Retail Capital Partners

Pacific Retail Capital Partners (PRCP) is one of the nations premier retail operating groups of large open- air and enclosed shopping centers, with more than $3.0 billion in retail assets presently under management in the United States. Based in Southern California, PRCP provides end-to-end sourcing, assessment, underwriting, valuing, developing, and asset management of retail real estate with a proven track record of repositioning properties.

PRCP strategically manages over 20+ million square feet of retail destinations. The executive team has over 225 years of collective real estate expertise in leasing, marketing, operations, design, development, management, investment, and finance. With a keen focus on enhancing the value and quality of its growing portfolio, PRCP is dedicated to creating a unique, strategic vision for each property and exceeding the highest expectations of retail investors, retailers, and consumers. To learn more visit pacificretail.com or follow social media at: Facebook: @PacificRetailCapitalPartners and Instagram: @PacificRetail.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005838/en/

[email protected]

Source: Pacific Retail Capital Partners
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Millburn Ridgefield Corporation (Millburn), the multi-billion AuM quantitative investment firm based in New York, is pleased to announce the addition of Irina Bogacheva as director of research, effective February 27, 2023. Bogacheva will report to Michael Soss, deputy chief investment officer, who joined Millburn in early 2022 from Point72 Asset Management. I am excited and honored to join Millburn. The firms drive to continuously improve and innovate is one of the big factors that attracted me to the role. I am looking forward to working with this talented team on expanding the firms systematic capabilities, says Bogacheva.

As director of research, Bogacheva will focus on the continuing refinement and broadening of Millburns successful systematic research and development functions, including portfolio, modelling, and predictive frameworks and processes.

Bogacheva was most recently head of quantitative research at Franklin Templeton Investment Solutions, an entity formed out of QS Investors, LLC and the legacy Franklin Templeton Multi-asset Solutions after the merger of Legg Mason and Franklin Templeton. Bogacheva held head of multi-asset research (January 2015  December 2020) and co-head of systematic global macro (August 2010  December 2014) roles at QS. Prior experience included quantitative research positions at Deutsche Asset Management, Goldman Sachs, and AIG Global Investment Group.

Bogacheva attended the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where she earned her MBA with a concentration in Analytic Finance and completed coursework for her PhD in Finance. She also holds an MA in Economics from New Economic School in Moscow, and a Diploma in Mathematics from Moscow State University. Bogacheva has been an adjunct professor in the Mathematics of Finance Program at Columbia University in New York for more than 10 years, co-teaching a graduate-level course on multi-asset portfolio management.

Millburn CIO Grant Smith comments: Irina is an exciting addition to our team. Her research pedigree, along with her deep knowledge of many of the statistical techniques that Millburn utilizes to inform its models, will doubtless be an asset to our strategies and to our investors.

Michael Soss adds: Im very happy that Irina is joining what is an already strong core of researchers. Im looking forward to collaborating with her and to the positive impact I expect she will have across all areas of our R&D efforts.

ABOUT MILLBURN

Millburn has a legacy of systematic, quantitative investing that dates back to 1971. Today, the firm applies advanced statistical research, including innovative machine learning approaches, to make price forecasts in liquid global markets across a range of asset classes. Millburns teams utilize technology, data and practical market experience to search for opportunity across a variety of economic cycles and environmentsincluding stress periods for traditional investments. The firm has 58 employees and offices in New York and London, and an affiliate office in Shanghai, China with an additional 18 staff.

Note: Please follow http://www.millburn.com/disclosures for important disclosures relating to this message. By messaging with Millburn you consent to the foregoing.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005932/en/

Craig Gilbert, CAIA

Global Head of Business Development

Millburn Ridgefield Corporation

212-332-2038

[email protected]

Source: Millburn Ridgefield Corporation
The majority of respondents believe brands arent ready to protect their identities and personal data in the metaverse

VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- According to a recent survey by TELUS International, a digital customer experience (CX) innovator, consumers are concerned about the safety and security of their personal data in the metaverse, with the majority of respondents (60%) citing privacy and data security concerns as a reason for why theyd be uncomfortable completing various tasks in this emerging digital world.

As the metaverse continues to gain traction among brands and consumers alike, more than one-third (34%) of respondents said their top concern was that their personal data will be compromised. Additionally, 56% believe that it will be easier for hackers to steal their identity or data in this new digital space.

The metaverse provides an exciting and immersive way for consumers to interact with their favorite brands. Unfortunately, with the emergence and adoption of new technologies and platforms there are also opportunities for bad actors to deploy new and oftentimes more sophisticated forms of identity theft, said Michael Ringman, chief information officer, TELUS International. Add to the fact that the metaverse is still in its nascency of being regulated, making it easier for fraudsters to impersonate an individual and carry out unauthorized activity without any real world implications. To safeguard their customers and brand reputation, companies must prioritize embedding robust trust and safety measures in the foundation of their metaverse strategy, while also ensuring that these measures are seamlessly integrated so they do not overly complicate the customer journey.

Ensuring Consumer Data Safety Within the Metaverse

For companies seeking to address consumers metaverse concerns, a quarter (25%) of respondents indicated that robust and transparent privacy and security guidelines would encourage them to interact with brands in this space. In addition to having security measures in place, companies should post about them on their website or email customers directly so they are informed about the measures in place, as well as highlighting tactics for consumers to proactively decrease their exposure and vulnerability to bad actors.

Ensuring proper data security in any online environment is complex and partnering with an experienced and proven trust and safety provider offers numerous benefits, including peace of mind. In addition to monitoring and addressing issues in real time, external providers can help anticipate new and emerging threats and have the expertise, agility, technology, processes and controls in place, including AI and human content reviewers, to detect suspicious activity, said Ringman.

TELUS International designs, builds and delivers end-to-end digital solutions to help global and disruptive brands enhance and protect the customer experience. For brands exploring the possibilities of the metaverse for their customers and employees, TELUS Internationals industry leading Trust, Safety & Security solutions, like content moderation, identity verification, fraud detection and prevention, combine the most effective mix of resilient human support and technology automation to deliver a full-service framework to help brands actively manage risk, reputation, security and safety. Learn more at www.telusinternational.com/solutions/trust-safety-security.

Survey Methodology: The survey findings are based on a Pollfish survey that was conducted on Oct. 17, 2022, and included responses from 1,500 Americans familiar with the metaverse.

About TELUS International

TELUS International (NYSE & TSX: TIXT) designs, builds and delivers next-generation digital solutions to enhance the customer experience (CX) for global and disruptive brands. The companys services support the full lifecycle of its clients digital transformation journeys, enabling them to more quickly embrace next-generation digital technologies to deliver better business outcomes. TELUS Internationals integrated solutions span digital strategy, innovation, consulting and design, IT lifecycle including managed solutions, intelligent automation and end-to-end AI data solutions including computer vision capabilities, as well as omnichannel CX and trust and safety solutions including content moderation. Fueling all stages of company growth, TELUS International partners with brands across strategic industry verticals, including tech and games, communications and media, eCommerce and fintech, banking, financial services and insurance, healthcare, and travel and hospitality.

TELUS Internationals unique caring culture promotes diversity and inclusivity through its policies, team member resource groups and workshops, and equal employment opportunity hiring practices across the regions where it operates. Since 2007, the company has positively impacted the lives of more than 1.2 million citizens around the world, building stronger communities and helping those in need through large-scale volunteer events and charitable giving. Five TELUS International Community Boards have provided $5.1 million in funding to grassroots charitable organizations since 2011. Learn more at: telusinternational.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005239/en/

TELUS International Media Relations:

Ali Wilson

(604) 328-7093

[email protected]

TELUS International Investor Relations:

Jason Mayr

(604) 695-3455

[email protected]

Source: TELUS International
SAN ANTONIO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Steward Health Care today announced its decision to close Texas Vista Medical Center (TVMC) effective May 1, 2023. On limited resources, TVMC supports limited-income, high-needs patient populations. Nearly one quarter of the hospitals patients cannot and do not pay for the services the hospital provides. Additionally, over half of TVMC patients are government pay patients, which means the hospital is paid less than the cost of patient care. Steward has put forth a proposal for University Health System (UHS) and Bexar County to take over control of TVMC, but UHS and Bexar County have not accepted our offer.

TVMCs resource challenges have been long-standing. When Steward Health Care assumed operations of Texas Vista Medical Center in 2017, the facility was struggling financially, as it was choked out by the well-heeled public hospital competitor across town. The COVID-19 pandemic further placed a significant fiscal burden on TVMC. Steward was able and willing to assume financial losses and risks during that extraordinary public health crisis; it is not sustainable to do so any longer. In order for the hospital to continue to provide safe, high-quality servicesparticularly for the regions behavioral health patients, trauma patients, and womenan external agent must step up to assist the facility. Barring this, the facility is forced to close. If TVMC is forced to close as a result of inaction by UHS and Bexar County, emergency department (ED) boarding times will increase, wait times for appointments with specialists will get longer, and the time and attention given to each patient in the area will suffer.

Jon Turton, President of Texas Vista Medical Center, said, TVMC does not want to close, and the consequences of our closure will cause an immediate public health crisis for the citys most vulnerable patients. We offer critical emergency care and OB/GYN care for the San Antonio area. Given that TVMC is a significant provider of behavioral health care in the region, other hospitals will immediately see an increase in behavioral health patients at a time when that system is already strained. We regret that the local communitys lack of adequate support for vulnerable patients has forced TVMC to close its doors. We are still hoping that the county or other entity will assume control of the hospital.

Steward has proposed that UHS and Bexar County assume control of TVMC, given the high-needs patient population it serves. UHS and Bexar County have the resources and the standing to provide for this community. UHS is a public charity created by the Texas Constitution. It gets, for the purpose of management and operations [Bexar County Hospital District Board of Managers, November 16, 2021], $472 million in local property tax dollars, pays no taxes of its own, receives large charitable donations, receives significant amounts of supplemental Medicaid payments (including HARP payments for which TVMC would immediately qualify if UHS runs it as a non-profit), gets paid higher commercial rates than TVMC, and has significant cash reserves and financial resources.

It is part of UHS original charter to care for the indigent population of Bexar County. This service has largely fallen on TVMCs shoulders over the past few years. Meanwhile, UHS has used its vast resources to build a half billion-dollar state-of-the-art hospital that will serve a wealthier patient base in a more affluent area. If such a large public charity has the funds to build this new hospitaloff of which it will make significant money from its operationit can afford to assume control of TVMC.

About Steward Health Care

Nearly a decade ago, Steward Health Care System emerged as a different kind of health care company designed to usher in a new era of wellness. One that provides our patients better, more proactive care at a sustainable cost, our providers unrivaled coordination of care, and our communities greater prosperity and stability.

As the countrys largest physician-led, tax paying, integrated health care system, our doctors can be certain that we share their interests and those of their patients. Together we are on a mission to revolutionize the way health care is delivered - creating healthier lives, thriving communities and a better world.

Steward is among the nations largest and most successful accountable care organizations (ACO), with more than 5,500 providers and 43,000 health care professionals who care for 12.3 million patients a year through a closely integrated network of hospitals, multispecialty medical groups, urgent care centers, skilled nursing facilities and behavioral health centers.

Based in Dallas, Steward currently operates 39 hospitals across Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Utah.

For more information, visit www.steward.org.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005997/en/

Josephine Martin

[email protected]

Source: Steward Health Care
Giving partners more ways to easily deliver security and compliance as a managed service

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Vanta, the leading trust management platform, announced today the launch of its Managed Service Provider (MSP) Partner Program, enabling partners to grow their business and deliver more value to their clients by transforming trust into a marketable advantage.

According to Forrester, despite turbulent macroeconomic conditions, the MSP market is predicted to grow in 2023 with a heightened focus on partnerships, delivering co-innovation, and building long-lasting client relationships1. Vantas Service Provider ecosystem strengthens customers security posture by partnering with the most prominent virtual Chief Information Security Officers, managed security service providers, and advisory/consulting firms. With Vanta as their foundational tool, partners are able to offer an expansive breadth and depth of security offerings, increasing overall client satisfaction.

With todays new MSP Partner Program launch, Vanta now offers the fastest and simplest approach to continuous security monitoring and automated compliance for managed service providers, said Elliot Goldwater, VP of Partnerships, Vanta. By putting Vantas market-leading platform as the cornerstone of their security managed service offering, partners can expand their clients security with trust management, while building their own competitive advantage.

At the foundation of the MSP Partner program is Vantas trust management platform that simplifies and centralizes security program management by providing full visibility into an organizations risk. Vanta enriches those findings with contextual data, and helps organizations remediate issues and track progress as a single source of truth for their security posture. Vantas MSP Partner Program features a multi-tenant management console, world-class partner support and flexible billing integration  making it seamless for partners to deliver value to their clients while scaling up their business.

Easy, risk-free sign up without sales commitments, mandatory certifications, or enrollment costs. Simple, consolidated monthly billing easily integrates Vanta into managed services contracts

Immediate access to complimentary Not For Resale (NFR) licenses for internal use.

Create, access, and manage customers Vanta accounts on-demand from a single console - saving time by eliminating multiple logins, manual deal registrations, and waiting for account provisioning.

A Vanta support team dedicated to ensuring partner success including curated resources, training programs, and a team of subject matter experts.

Vanta has enabled us to super-charge our security programs and deliver higher value to our customers in a much shorter period of time, said Michael Argast, Co-Founder and CEO, Kobalt.io. Theyre reshaping the security and compliance market, and innovating faster and more thoroughly than anyone else. Security is not a static environment. You need an organization who is willing to adapt and adjust, and I really see that in our partnership with Vanta.

For more information about Vantas MSP Partner Program, visit: https://www.vanta.com/msp.

About Vanta

Vanta is the leading trust management platform that helps simplify and centralize security for organizations of all sizes. Over 4,000 companies including Autodesk, Chili Piper, Flo Health and Quora rely on Vanta to build, maintain and demonstrate their trustall in a way that's real-time and transparent. Founded in 2018, Vanta has customers in 58 countries with offices in Dublin, New York, San Francisco and Sydney. For more information, visit www.vanta.com.

1 https://www.forrester.com/blogs/service-providers-set-for-growth-in-2023-despite-an-uncertain-business-outlook/

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005504/en/

Erin Cheng

[email protected]

Source: Vanta
Ambrx Biopharma Inc., or Ambrx, (NYSE: AMAM) announced today that it has been informed by its partner, NovoCodex Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (NovoCodex), that an interim analysis for ACE-Breast-02, a randomized Phase 3 breast cancer clinical trial investigating Ambrxs ARX788, an anti-HER2 antibody drug conjugate (ADC), has met its pre-specified interim primary efficacy endpoint with statistical significance, demonstrating a greater progression free survival (PFS) benefit compared to the active control.

ACE-Breast-02 is a randomized, controlled pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial of humanized anti-HER2 monoclonal antibody-AS269 conjugate (ARX788) in the treatment of HER2 positive patients with locally advanced or metastatic breast cancers in China.

The trial enrolled 441 HER2 positive breast cancer patients who have been previously treated with taxane and trastuzumab. Eligible subjects were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to receive ARX788 or the control drugs, lapatinib combined with capecitabine. The primary endpoint was PFS based on Blinded Independent Review Committee (BIRC) assessment. An interim analysis was conducted by an Independent Data Monitoring Committee (IDMC) when two thirds (2/3) of the PFS events occurred.

After reviewing the interim results, the IDMC informed NovoCodex that the ACE-Breast-02 study met its pre-specified interim primary efficacy endpoint with statistical significance, demonstrating a greater PFS benefit compared to the control.

Based on the results from the interim analysis, NovoCodex plans to submit a communication application to seek marketing approval in China pending discussion with National Medical Products Administration (NMPA).

Daniel OConnor, Chief Executive Officer of Ambrx commented: We congratulate our partner, NovoCodex, on this positive Phase 3 study. The positive results from this large Phase 3 study provide further support for our rationale to develop ARX788 globally in HER2 positive breast cancer patients.

ARX788 is an anti-HER2 ADC currently being studied broadly in breast cancer, gastric/GEJ cancer and other solid tumor clinical trials with our partner NovoCodex. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Fast Track Designation for ARX788 in HER2 positive metastatic breast cancer and Orphan Drug Designation for ARX788 in gastric cancer. The NMPA has granted Breakthrough Therapy Designations for ARX788 in breast cancer.

In June 2013, Ambrx entered into a collaboration with Zhejiang Medicine Co., Ltd., which was transferred to it subsidiary NovoCodex, to develop and commercialize ARX788, Ambrxs most advanced internally developed site-specific ADC targeting HER2-positive breast cancer. Under the agreement, NovoCodex licensed commercial rights for ARX788 in China while Ambrx retained commercial rights outside of China and is entitled to receive royalties on sales of ARX788 in China.

About Ambrx Biopharma Inc.

Ambrx is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company using an expanded genetic code technology platform to discover and develop Engineered Precision Biologics. These include next generation antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) and other engineered therapies to modulate the immune system. Ambrx is advancing a focused portfolio of clinical and preclinical programs designed to optimize efficacy and safety in multiple cancer indications, including ARX517, its proprietary ADC the prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) and ARX788, its proprietary ADC targeting HER2. In addition, Ambrx has preclinical and clinical collaborations with multiple partners for drug candidates generated using Ambrx technology. Ambrx spun out of The Scripps Research Institute in 2003 and has several other product candidates involving ADCs and other aspects of Ambrxs protein engineering technology. For more information, please visit www.ambrx.com.
Amplify Energy Corp. (Amplify or the Company) (NYSE: AMPY) today announced that it has reached a settlement of its claims against the M/V Danit (in rem) and its affiliated corporate entities; the M/V Beijing and its affiliated corporate entities, as well as the COSCO marine entities and the Marine Exchange. The M/V Danit and its affiliated corporate entities and the M/V Beijing and its affiliated corporate entities have agreed to pay Amplify $96.5 million in connection with the anchor strikes by the containerships that damaged the pipeline, interrupted Amplifys business and led to the 2021 Southern California Pipeline Incident. The overall resolution includes subrogation claims by Amplifys property damage and loss of production insurers, with Amplify ultimately receiving a net payment of approximately $85 million.

The Marine Exchange has agreed to non-monetary terms in this settlement as well. The parties are working to finalize the settlement agreement documentation. The settlement resolves Amplifys affirmative claims related to the 2021 Southern California Pipeline Incident. As part of the settlement, after payment is made, Amplify will dismiss all of its legal claims against those parties.

Martyn Willsher, Amplifys President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, The resolution of Amplifys claims against the vessels and their affiliated entities concludes our involvement in the litigation related to the 2021 pipeline incident, which has demanded considerable focus and allocation of Company resources. We are eager to move forward and turn the page on this unfortunate and preventable event and to dedicate all of our attention to operations at Beta, our business as a whole and the strategic direction of the Company. Amplify has operated off the coast of California for years in a safe and responsible manner and we remain committed to ensuring the safety and protection of our employees, the environment and our surrounding communities.

About Amplify Energy

Amplify Energy Corp. is an independent oil and natural gas company engaged in the acquisition, development, exploitation and production of oil and natural gas properties. Amplifys operations are focused in Oklahoma, the Rockies, federal waters offshore Southern California, East Texas / North Louisiana, and the Eagle Ford. For more information, visit www.amplifyenergy.com .

Investor Relations Contacts

Jason McGlynn  Chief Financial Officer

(832) 219-9055

[email protected]

Media Contact

Amy Conway

[email protected]




Perrigo Company plc (NYSE: PRGO), a leading provider of Consumer Self-Care Products, today announced that it has received final approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") for its Abbreviated New Drug Application ("ANDA") for Acetaminophen and Ibuprofen Tablets, 250 mg/125 mg, the store brand over-the-counter ("OTC") equivalent of Advil Dual Action Tablets 250 mg/125 mg. The Company anticipates launching the product by Spring 2023.

Perrigo Executive Vice President & President, Consumer Self-Care Americas, Jim Dillard commented, "Following the successful approval and launch of Perrigo's first self-led branded prescription-to-OTC switch of Nasonex24HR, this prescription-to-OTC approval further exemplifies the strength of our regulatory and development capabilities, enabling our business to quickly follow national brand innovation and consumer preferences. This approval was received on the first day possible following the expiration of the marketing exclusivity for Advil Dual Action Tablets 250 mg/125 mg."

Acetaminophen and Ibuprofen Tablets, 250 mg/125 mg provides relief for multiple pain related symptoms by combining two ingredients indicated for OTC pain relief. Retail sales for the national brand equivalent product for the last twelve months ending January 29, 2023, were approximately $69 million based on IRI multi-outlet market data.

Important safety information about Acetaminophen and Ibuprofen Tablets, 250 mg/125 mg

Before using the product, consumers should read the Acetaminophen and Ibuprofen Tablets, 250 mg/125 mg drug facts label.
TotalEnergies (Paris: TTE) (LSE: TTE) (NYSE: TTE) has signed an agreement with CEPSA to acquire CEPSAs upstream assets in the United Arab Emirates with an effective date of January 1st, 2023. The assets to be acquired are:

a 20% participating interest in the Satah Al Razboot (SARB), Umm Lulu, Bin Nasher and Al Bateel (SARB and Umm Lulu) offshore concession.

The SARB and Umm Lulu concession includes two major offshore fields. ADNOC holds a 60% interest in this concession, alongside OMV (20%). The concession is operated by ADNOC Offshore.

a 12.88% indirect interest in the Mubarraz concession held by Abu Dhabi Oil Company Ltd (ADOC), through the acquisition of 20% of Cosmo Abu Dhabi Energy Exploration & Production Co. Ltd (CEPAD), a company holding a 64.4% interest in ADOC.

The Mubarraz concession is comprised of four producing offshore fields.

The SARB and Umm Lulu transaction and the Mubarraz transaction are subject to satisfaction of customary conditions precedent, including formalization of documentation and final approvals.

This transaction represents another important milestone in our long-standing partnership with ADNOC and will further strengthen our presence in Abu Dhabi where we have been present since 1939, said Patrick Pouyanne, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of TotalEnergies. The acquisition of a 20% working interest in SARB and Umm Lulu concession is fully aligned with our strategy of focusing on low-cost, low emission assets.

***

TotalEnergies in the United Arab Emirates

TotalEnergies has been present in the United Arab Emirates for more than 80 years where it has built a longstanding presence, reflected by the size and diversity of its multi-energy assets and partnerships. It is today the 1st foreign company active in the country, with all its businesses present.

In January 2022, TotalEnergies joined Masdar and Siemens Energy in an initiative to drive green hydrogen development and produce Sustainable Aviation Fuel. In July 2022, TotalEnergies and ADNOC have signed a strategic partnership agreement that aims to jointly evaluate new growth opportunities through a multi-energy cooperation across the entire energy value chain.

In partnership with ADNOC, TotalEnergies holds the following interests:

10% in the ADNOC Onshore oil concession;

20 % in the offshore Umm Shaif & Nasr oil concession and 5% in the offshore Lower Zakum oil concession;

15% in ADNOC Gas Processing (former GASCO);

5% in ADNOC LNG (former ADGAS);

5% in the National Gas Shipping Company (NGSCO);

40% in the Ruwais Diyab unconventional gas concession.

In partnership with Mubadala, TotalEnergies holds a 24.5% stake in Dolphin Energy, the first gas marketing project between Qatar, UAE, and Oman (2007).

TotalEnergies has been active in the countrys power generation since 2001 through the Taweelah desalination plant and power station, which meets around 10% of Abu Dhabi's water and electricity needs, in partnership with TAQA. In renewables, TotalEnergies (20%) is a partner of Masdar and ADPF in UAEs first Concentrated Solar Power plant, which was inaugurated in 2013 with a capacity of 109 MW. The Company continues to grow in the solar sector in the country, especially in the field of distributed generation where it holds a leading position.

The Company also has a top position in the manufacturing and marketing of a wide range of automotive and industrial lubricants with a blending plant in the Emirates, supplying the whole region.
FILE PHOTO: An employee of the Ford Motor Company makes his way to work following the company's announcement to build future electric cars in Cologne, Germany, February 17, 2021. Oliver Berg/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) said Tuesday it plans to buy 9,250 Ford E-Transit battery electric vehicles starting later this year and will also purchase an equal number of gasoline-powered models from Chrysler-parent Stellantis.

USPS also said it was ordering more than 14,000 charging stations to be deployed at its facilities after it announced in December said it would more than double its planned electric delivery vehicles purchases, and will buy at least 66,000 electric vehicles through 2028.

Congress in August gave USPS $3 billion as part of a $430 billion climate bill to buy electric vehicles and charginginfrastructure.

USPS said it will also buy 9,250 2023 and 2024 model year Ram ProMaster vans from Chrysler-parent Stellantis "to fill the urgent need for vehicles."

USPS said the total for Ford and Stellantis contracts was $1.027 billion.

Environmental group Earthjustice praised the Ford purchase but said "the Postal Service should have finished its environmental review before also sinking millions in funding in the same number of combustion mail trucks that will pollute our neighborhoods for decades."

The automakers did not immediately comment.

In December 2021, President Joe Biden signed an executive order directing light-duty vehicles acquired by the government be emission-free by 2027. That order did not apply to the Postal Service, an independent federal agency.

Delivery of Ford EVs built in Missouri is set to begin in December. They are part of the 21,000 vehicles included in USPS December vehicle plan.

USPS awarded contracts to three suppliers totaling $260 million for the purchase of more than 14,000 charging stations - Blink Charging, Siemens and Rexel USA, a unit of Rexel Group.

USPS expects to spend $9.6 billion on vehicle acquisitions through 2028.

USPS said next-generation vehicle acquisitions delivered in 2026 and beyond are expected to be all electric. The modern vehicles will replace many 30-year-old USPS trucks that lack air bags and other safety equipment as well as air conditioning.

Democratic Senator Gary Peters praised USPS for using funding to "quickly adopt more cost effective and energy efficient electric vehicles."

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chris Reese and Bill Berkrot)
FILE PHOTO: Representations of cryptocurrencies are seen in front of displayed Binance logo in this illustration taken November 10, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

By Elizabeth Howcroft

LONDON (Reuters) - Binance's stablecoin, Binance USD, has seen around $6 billion of outflows following a U.S. regulatory crackdown on the company that issues the token, according to market tracker CoinGecko.

Paxos Trust Company, which issues Binance USD, said on Feb. 13 that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had told the company it should have registered the product as a security and is considering taking action against the platform.

On the same day, New York's chief financial regulator said in a consumer alert that it had ordered Paxos to stop creating the token.

An NYDFS spokesperson later told Reuters via email that Paxos violated its obligations for "tailored, periodic risk assessments" and due diligence checks on Binance and Binance USD customers needed to stop "bad actors from using the platform".

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said that the regulator's decision meant the market cap of the token would decrease over time.

On Wednesday, the value of all Binance USD was around $10.5 billion, down from $16.1 billion on Feb. 13, according to market tracker CoinGecko.

The Financial Times reported on Wednesday that investors have pulled more than $6 billion out of the Binance-branded token in the past month, citing data from blockchain analytics firm Nansen.

Analysts said the NYDFS move represented a setback in Binance's efforts to gain market share from larger stablecoins.

SEC Chair Gary Gensler has previously said he believes some stablecoins to be securities.

(Reporting by Elizabeth Howcroft; editing by Sinead Cruise and Jason Neely)
By Saeed Azhar

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Goldman Sachs Group Inc is embarking on a tough sales pitch to investors for assets in its troubled consumer business, which has dragged on earnings and may lack appeal for potential buyers.

In an unexpected move, Chief Executive Officer David Solomon said on Tuesday the bank is looking at "strategic alternatives" for the consumer business, a signal of a possible sale.

Solomon and other executives declined to give more details about the process when they were questioned by shareholders and analysts at the company's investor day.

Goldman still holds $100 billion in deposits from its Marcus consumer banking business, $4.5 billion in personal loans, credit card partnerships with Apple Inc and General Motors Co, and merchant lending platform GreenSky for $2.2 billion.

The deposits business under Marcus remains a core business and is not under review, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Analysts are assessing which of the remaining businesses are up for grabs, and what price they would fetch after underperforming for Goldman.

Solomon had championed Goldman's foray into consumer banking since taking the reins at the Wall Street powerhouse in 2018. The consumer operations largely failed to gain traction against well-established consumer banks and lost billions of dollars due to credit provisioning.

Observers have been critical of the bank's foray onto Main Street, which was aimed at diversifying its earnings from the more lucrative mainstays of trading and investment banking.

Goldman has not specified what options it's pursuing, but apart from outright asset sales, the bank could also recruit more investors or agree to new partnerships, a senior investment banker, who asked not to be named, said.

Those interested could be traditional banks, or Goldman could seek partnerships with certain insurance or private equity shops, the banker said.

Goldman Sachs declined to comment beyond what it told investors on Tuesday.

Goldman shares fell almost 3.8% on Tuesday after the investor gathering. Shares ended down nearly 1% on Wednesday afternoon.

"Consumer banking businesses are incredibly hard to build," said Chris Kotowski, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. "The incumbent brick-and-mortar banks that everyone thought were dinosaurs actually have a unique and hard to replicate value proposition with checking accounts, cards, a branch near home and one by the office."

Last year, Goldman folded Marcus into its newly formed asset and wealth-management unit. It also created a Platform Solutions unit to house the credit card partnerships, the GreenSky business and transaction banking.

While Platform Solutions made up only 3% of Goldman's revenue in 2022, it accounted for about 64% of the $2.72 billion the bank set aside last year for potential credit losses. The firm has also stopped personal loans under the Marcus brand and will probably wind down the $4.5 billion portfolio in the coming months, analysts said.

Greensky, a platform for home improvement loans, was acquired by Goldman in March 2022 for $2.24 billion. Spending by homeowners on refurbishing their properties boomed during COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. However, the tailwinds for that market have started to abate. Lowe's Companies Inc on Wednesday forecast annual sales below expectations amid a decline in the home improvement market, echoing similar commentary from peer Home Depot Inc last week. If Goldman sold GreenSky, it would probably get a much lower price than the $2.2 billion it paid to buy the company last year, said Ebrahim Poonawala, an analyst at Bank of America.

But taking a loss on any sale would be offset by an advantage -- removing the distraction of that business, he said. Mike Mayo, an analyst at Wells Fargo, wrote in a note that the key question about Goldman's consumer business is: "who would be willing to buy it, and at what price?" Analysts are also skeptical of Goldman's projection that its platforms division would break even on a pre-tax basis by 2025. JPMorgan analysts are projecting a pre-tax loss of $2.4 billion in 2023, $1.7 billion in 2024 and about $800 million in 2025."We still do not bake in pre-tax profitability in our model, which goes out to 2026," Betsy Graseck, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, wrote in a note.

Goldman Sachs said in an email "we presented our path to reach pre-tax breakeven by 2025 at our Investor Day and we look forward to providing regular updates on our progress."

(Additional reporting by Nupur Anand and David French in New York and Mehnaz Yasmin in Bengaluru; Editing by Lananh Nguyen and Anna Driver)
By Hyunjoo Jin, Joseph White and Akash Sriram

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -Tesla Inc will cut assembly costs by half in future generations of cars, engineers told investors on Wednesday, but Chief Executive Elon Musk did not unveil when it will debut a much-awaited affordable electric vehicle.

Shares fell more than 5% in after hours trade following the company's investor day from its Texas headquarters.

More than a dozen Tesla executives led by Musk discussed everything from a white-paper plan for the globe to embrace sustainable energy to the company's innovation in managing its operations from manufacturing to service.

The presentation featured an array of senior engineers, including the new global production chief, Tom Zhu, a nod to Tesla's attempt to show the depth of its executive bench beyond Musk, the face of the company.

But there were no details about when next generation cars would be launched and what models would be offered.

Musk had been expected to lay out a plan to make a more-affordable electric vehicle (EV) that would broaden his brand's appeal and fend off competition.

Executives said Tesla's next generation platform would include more than one vehicle built in standardized factories, but Musk brushed off questions about models in mind.

Tesla's chief financial officer, Zach Kirkhorn, and others underscored their dedication to cutting production costs.

Kirkhorn estimated Tesla must invest six times more than it has to date to hit its long-term target of increasing output to 20 million vehicles annually by 2030, a 10-fold increase from current capacity. The bill could be $175 billion, he said.

The next investment step will be a new Tesla factory in northern Mexico, Musk said, announcing the first plant outside of the United States, Germany and China.

Musk did not comment on plans to revamp the Model Y sedan next year, called Project Juniper that Reuters flagged in a report on Wednesday, or a revamped version of its Model 3 sedan - a project codenamed Highland which Reuters has reported will go into production in September.

Design chief Franz von Holzhausen said the Cybertruck pickup is coming this year.

MASS MARKET

Capturing the mass market is critical to Tesla's annual production goal, which is more than the combined production of the two largest volume vehicle makers - Germany's Volkswagen and Japan's Toyota.

It would also represent a sales volume for Tesla alone of about a quarter of last year's total global car sales.

Musk said the key to driving Tesla's sales volume would be bringing prices down for consumers, adding that Tesla's discounts offered this year had stoked demand.

"The desire for people to own a Tesla is extremely high. The limiting factor is their ability to pay for a Tesla," Musk said.

Tesla is the most valuable automaker, but its stock has swung wildly. Shares are down about half from their November 2021 peak, but have rebounded more than 60% this year.

Musk said Tesla could need as few as 10 models, which at target production would amount 2 million sales per year for each model line. By comparison, Toyota sells just over 1 million Corollas a year globally.

Tesla already has a lead over its rivals in manufacturing EVs at a profit. Chief Engineer Lars Moravy said the company expects to build its next-generation vehicles for half the cost of the current Model 3 or Model Y.

Moravy described a production process for future EVs he called an "unboxed" model of snapping together sub-assemblies to reduce complexity and time in production.

Tesla executive Peter Bannon gave an example of how the company uses data to cut costs. Customer data showed Tesla owners did not use the sun roof, he said, "so we removed it."

High-profile Tesla investor Ross Gerber tweeted that the presentation amounted to a "Huge tease" on the next-generation vehicle. "It's coming. They laid it all out. 50% less cost to build. Would get you a $25-$30k EV!"

Tesla has outperformed the industry in recent years, increasing deliveries rapidly despite the pandemic and supply-chain disruptions.

But Tesla cut prices in recent months to boost sales, which were pressured by a weak economy and growing threats from rivals in the United States and China.

Tesla will also have to improve its battery technology, which Musk has called the "fundamental limiting factor" for the transition to sustainable energy and more affordable cars.

Tesla has been struggling to scale up the production of advanced batteries, called 4680s. Executives on Wednesday said it was likely they could hit volume production this year, but added they were still testing two different production processes.

(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin in San Francisco, Joseph White in Detroit, Akash Sriram in Bengaluru, Abhirup Roy in San Francisco and Kevin Krolicki in Singapore; Editing by Peter Henderson, Matthew Lewis and Himani Sarkar)
FILE PHOTO: TikTok app logo is seen in this illustration taken, August 22, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee voted on Wednesday along party lines to give President Joe Biden the power to ban Chinese-owned TikTok, in what would be the most far-reaching U.S. restriction on any social media app.

Lawmakers voted 24 to 16 to approve the measure to grant the administration new powers to ban the ByteDance-owned app - which is used by over 100 million Americans - as well as other apps considered security risks.

"TikTok is a national security threat ... It is time to act," said Representative Michael McCaul, the Republican chair of the committee who sponsored the bill.

"Anyone with TikTok downloaded on their device has given the CCP (Communist Party of China) a backdoor to all their personal information. Its a spy balloon into their phone."

Democrats opposed the bill, saying it was rushed and required due diligence through debate and consultation with experts. The bill does not precisely specify how the ban would work, but gives Biden power to ban any transactions with TikTok, which in turn could prevent anyone in the United States from accessing or downloading the app on their phones.

The bill would also require Biden to impose a ban on any entity that "may" transfer sensitive personal data to an entity subject to the influence of China.

TikTok has come under increasing fire in recent weeks over fears that user data could end up in the hands of the Chinese government, undermining Western security interests.

The White House this week gave government agencies 30 days to ensure that TikTok is not on any federal devices and systems. More than 30 U.S. states, Canada and European Union policy institutions have also banned TikTok from being loaded onto state-owned devices.

The fate of the latest measure is still uncertain and faces significant hurdles before it can become law. The bill would need to be passed by the full House and U.S. Senate, which is controlled by Democrats, before it can go to Biden.

"A U.S. ban on TikTok is a ban on the export of American culture and values to the billion people who use our service worldwide," a TikTok spokeswoman said after the vote.

The Biden administration did not say whether it was in favor of moving ahead with the bill or not, or answer if it believed Biden has the legal authority now to ban TikTok.

White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said "TikTok poses a problem and an issue - and so we have concerns about that as it relates to Americans' data."

'INSTINCT TO BAN'

Representative Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the committee, said he strongly opposed the legislation but understands concerns about TikTok.

"The Republican instinct to ban things it fears, from books to speech, appears uninhibited," Meeks said, adding the bill would require the administration to sanction TikTok and other subsidiaries of TikToks parent company.

The U.S. government's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a powerful national security body, in 2020 unanimously recommended ByteDance divest TikTok because of fears that user data could be passed on to China's government.

TikTok and CFIUS have been negotiating for more than two years on data security requirements. TikTok said it has spent more than $1.5 billion on rigorous data security efforts and rejects spying allegations. Meeks wants the talks to continue.

Meeks said the bill is "dangerously" broad and would require U.S. sanctions on Korean and Taiwanese companies that supply Chinese companies with semiconductor chips and other equipment because of its broad restrictions on data transfers to China.

The American Civil Liberties Union called on lawmakers to oppose the bill, calling it "a serious violation of our First Amendment rights."

McCaul told Reuters after the vote that he expects the bill would be voted on by the House this month.

TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew is due to appear before the U.S. Energy and Commerce Committee on March 23 after meeting with lawmakers last month on Capitol Hill.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Deepa Babington and Stephen Coates)
ELK GROVE, Calif., March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Accellera Systems Initiative (Accellera) announced today that Phil Moorby, the inventor of the Verilog Hardware Description Language (HDL) who passed away in September 2022, is honored posthumously with the Accellera 2023 Technical Excellence Award. The award was established to recognize the outstanding achievements of an individual and their significant contributions to the development of its standards.

Mr. Moorby invented Verilog HDL in 1984 and developed the industry standard simulator Verilog-XL. His continued work to improve Verilog led to the SystemVerilog standard. He was honored with many awards for his work, including the prestigious Phil Kaufman Award in 2005. He also received a Fellow Award from the Computer History Museum in 2016 for his invention and the promotion of Verilog HDL.

Phil Moorby invented and evolved the Verilog language, which has become the mainstay for the design of devices we all use every day, stated Martin Barnasconi, Accellera Technical Committee Chair. He was a mentor to SystemVerilog developers around the globe and his technical contributions and dedication to the industry have left an overarching impact that is beyond measure.

Mr. Moorby was a British engineer and computer scientist. He studied Mathematics at Southhampton University in England and received his masters degree in computer science from Manchester University in England. He moved to the United States in 1983. Mr. Moorby passed away on September 15, 2022 at the age of 69 in Rockport, MA.

About the Accellera Technical Committee Accellera's Technical Committee oversees 15 active working groups that produce effective and efficient Electronic Design Automation (EDA) and Intellectual Property (IP) standards for todays advanced electronic integrated circuits and embedded systems. Working group participants contribute to the development of standards for the electronics and semiconductor industry. Technical contributors typically have many years of practical experience in standardization of methodologies and languages for system-level design, integration, verification, or automation. For a list of Accellera working groups, please click here.

About Accellera Systems Initiative Accellera Systems Initiative is an independent, not-for profit organization dedicated to create, support, promote and advance system-level design, modeling and verification standards for use by the worldwide electronics industry. The organization accelerates standards development and, as part of its ongoing partnership with the IEEE, its standards are contributed to the IEEE Standards Association for formal standardization and ongoing change control. For more information, please visit www.accellera.org. Find out more about membership. Follow @accellera on Twitter or to comment, please use #accellera. Accellera Global Sponsors are: Cadence, Siemens EDA, and Synopsys.

About DVCon U.S.DVCon is the premier conference for discussion of the functional design and verification of electronic systems. DVCon is sponsored by Accellera Systems Initiative, an independent, not-for-profit organization dedicated to creating design and verification standards required by systems, semiconductor, intellectual property (IP) and electronic design automation (EDA) companies. In response to global interest, Accellera also sponsors events in China, Europe, India and Japan in addition to DVCon U.S. For more information about DVCon U.S., please visit www.dvcon.org. Follow DVCon U.S. on Facebook, on LinkedIn or @dvcon_us on Twitter, or to comment on Twitter, please use #dvcon_us.

Accellera, Accellera Systems Initiative, and DVCon and are trademarks of Accellera Systems Initiative Inc. A list of relevant Siemens trademarks can be found here. All other trademarks and trade names are the property of their respective owners.

For more information, contact:

Barbara BenjaminPublic Relations for Accellera Systems InitiativePhone: +1 503 209 2323Email: [email protected]

Source: Accellera Systems Initiative
TORONTO, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Acuity Insights announces the launch of its admissions assessment solution for business schools in higher education. After the immense impact of its Casper situational judgment test (SJT) in medical and health education, the company has now built a version specifically for business schools that helps admissions teams assess the applicant holistically. Schools can now look beyond an applicants GPA and other cognitive measures to select students by additionally evaluating their soft skills such as collaboration, communication, problem-solving, and empathy, as well as personal values that are critical for business leaders.

Built on and backed by nearly 20 years of research, Casper is the most widely used open-response situational judgment test in higher education admissions worldwide. It reliably measures social intelligence and professionalism to provide admissions teams with distinct data that supports their holistic review, and helps them identify applicants who are most likely to be successful in the program. It provides a measure of competencies and attributes beyond academic achievement early on that helps in refining the pool of applicants more holistically.

We worked closely with business schools and experts to develop a situational judgment test that is specific to the needs of business education, says Dr. Kelly Dore, Co-Founder and VP of Science & Innovation at Acuity Insights. We saw the impact Casper has in medical and health education and its ability to identify and select students who dont just have deep knowledge but also the skills needed to be great healthcare professionals. We felt it was important to extend its benefits to business education. The world needs great business leaders just as it does great healthcare professionals.

A holistic approach to admissions is critical to ensure an equitable process for applicants that will in turn allow for a diverse student cohort. Traditional admissions measures have been historically inequitable, and requirements such as personal statements are now becoming additionally ineffective due to the introduction of AI tools, such as ChatGPT, says Rich Emrich, Co-Founder and CEO of Acuity Insights. Our solution for business schools provides a reliable and holistic view of every applicant, giving equity-seeking groups a better chance of success.

How does Casper work?

Casper evaluates what an applicant would do in personal and professional dilemmas and, more importantly, why. Its open-response format encourages authenticity by allowing the applicant to explain what they would do in a given scenario and provide the rationale behind their decision. Casper presents real-world scenarios, which means that no prior knowledge of a particular profession is required. The test format includes both text and video-based scenarios and responses that represent real life and encourage freer expression of thought.

Casper also benefits the admissions process with:

high program and applicant acceptability

lower demographic differences than other admissions assessments

time savings, as Casper delivers a single z score for every applicant

evaluation by highly trained raters, who represent members of the community students will eventually serve

easy incorporation into existing admissions process

performance outcome prediction, such as in-program performance

lower instance and cost of student remediation

Please visit our website to discover how Casper can support your business admissions goals.

About Acuity Insights

Acuity Insights is the leading provider of connected outcomes management solutions for higher education. The companys solutions connect data from admissions through to graduation for a deeper understanding of applicants, students, and programs, enabling data informed decisions and interventions for student and program success. Recognized as one of Deloittes Technology Fast 500 companies for 2021 and 2022, Acuitys solutions are used by nearly 600 higher education programs worldwide. Its Casper situational judgment test (SJT), taken by more than 150,000 applicants every year, is the most widely used open-response SJT in higher education and is backed by almost 20 years of efficacy research. For more information, visit acuityinsights.com.

Media contact: Brianna Bell, [email protected]

Source: Acuity Insights
EDMONTON, Alberta, Feb. 28, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Alberta Continuing Care Association (ACCA) welcomes the Province of Albertas Budget 2023 announcement today that will see the investment of $1B over three years for continuing care transformation. This funding will support the shift of care to community, enhance workforce capacity, increase choice and innovation, and improve quality of care.

On behalf of our members who represent continuing care operators across Alberta, we are pleased with the commitment to transform care, says Wayne Morishita, Executive Director, ACCA. We applaud investments that will bolster care choices, improve quality of life, and support Albertans ability to remain at home in their community longer.

The province also announced $310 million over three years in capital funding to modernize continuing care facilities.

Modern, upgraded continuing care infrastructure is necessary to meet growing demand, as is significant capital investment, adds Morishita. More than 50% of long term care homes in the province are over 50 years old and no longer meet design standards. The capital funding will help operators improve and modernize facilities across the province, which in turn will better meet the needs of current and future residents.

Additionally, two new modernization projects in Calgary and Edmonton will allow operators to better serve the aging populations in these major cities. As part of the budget, $63 million is allocated to support the Good Samaritan Society project in Edmonton and $57.1 million to support the Bethany Care continuing care modernization project.

Budget 2023 also includes funding to help address healthcare and workforce issues with $158 million dedicated to supporting and growing the healthcare workforce through the health workforce strategy and nearly $4.3 billion in combined operating support for community care, continuing care and home care programs.

Workforce management is one of the most significant challenges for continuing care operators in Alberta. Investing in workforce growth, as well as funding operators who deliver care across the continuing care spectrum, will help to ensure the best quality of life and care for Albertans, says Morishita.

About the Alberta Continuing Care Association  The ACCA is a non-profit, voluntary organization representing the providers of continuing care services in Alberta. ACCA members include both non-profit and private, independent owners and operators across the spectrum of continuing care, including home care, designated supportive living, and long-term care. Our members provide care and services for over 13,000 long- term care and designated supportive living individuals and over 5.7 million hours of home care to Albertans annually. www.ab-cca.ca

For more information, please contact: Wayne Morishita, Executive Director, 587.982.7465

Source: Alberta Continuing Care Association
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 28, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Algernon Pharmaceuticals Inc. (CSE: AGN) (FRANKFURT: AGW) (OTCQB: AGNPF) (the Company or Algernon) a clinical stage pharmaceutical development company announces that effective at the opening of markets on March 3, 2023, the Class A Common Shares (the Common Shares) of the Company will commence trading following a four-for-one forward share split (the Forward Split), in which three (3) additional Common Shares will be issued for every one (1) Common Share currently outstanding. The Company currently has 2,413,431 issued and outstanding Common Shares. Upon completion of the Forward Split, the Company will have approximately 9,653,724 Common Shares outstanding. The purpose of the Forward Split is to increase liquidity of the Common Shares.

The Forward Split is being conducted on a push-out basis and therefore the Companys CUSIP number will remain the same. DRS statements for the additional shares resulting from the Forward Split will be mailed to shareholders of record as of March 6, 2023 by the Companys transfer agent, TMX Trust Company. Shareholders of the Company do not need to take any action with respect to the Forward Split.

About Algernon Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Algernon Pharmaceuticals is a Canadian clinical stage drug development and repurposing company investigating multiple drugs for unmet global medical needs. Algernon Pharmaceuticals has active research programs for IPF with chronic cough, and chronic kidney disease, and is the parent company of a newly created private subsidiary called Algernon NeuroScience, that is advancing a psychedelic program investigating a proprietary form of psychedelic DMT for stroke and traumatic brain injury.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Christopher J. MoreauCEOAlgernon Pharmaceuticals Inc.604.398.4175 ext 701[email protected][email protected]www.algernonpharmaceuticals.com.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

CAUTIONARY DISCLAIMER STATEMENT: No Securities Exchange has reviewed nor accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this news release. This news release contains forward-looking statements relating to product development, licensing, commercialization and regulatory compliance issues and other statements that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements are often identified by terms such as will, may, should, anticipate, expects and similar expressions. All statements other than statements of historical fact, included in this release are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Companys expectations include the failure to satisfy the conditions of the relevant securities exchange(s) and other risks detailed from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulations. The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of any forward-looking information may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted, as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and the Company will update or revise publicly any of the included forward-looking statements as expressly required by applicable law.

Source: Algernon Pharmaceuticals
SINGAPORE, March 02, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SG Austria (Austrianova), a leading provider of cell biological products and services, today announced that Checkmate Capital Group (Checkmate Capital), a multi-family investment and advisory group based in Pasadena, California, has made a preferred equity investment in SG Austria, the parent company of Austrianova.



SG Austria, with its Austrianova Singapore and Austrianova Thailand subsidiaries, has developed the Cell-in-a-Box and Bac-in-a-Box platforms, which use protective cell encapsulation technology to protect, isolate, store, and transfer living human, animal, yeast, and bacteria cells for use in a number of applications. Austrianova Thailand manufactures its Cell-in-a-Box products at its state-of-the-art facility at Thailand Science Park, in Pathumthani, Thailand (metro Bangkok), which also serves as Austrianovas Cell-in-a-Box R&D hub. Proceeds from Checkmate Capitals investment will be used to expand this GMP, ISO9001:2015-certified facility.

Walter H. Gunzburg, Chairman of Austrianova, said It is a great pleasure for us to have the Checkmate Capital team on board. This investment allows Austrianova to expand and extend its existing facility to accommodate additional demand and execute additional projects.

Austrianova CEO, Brian Salmons, added We value having Checkmate Capital on board, not only for their investment, but also for their strategic advice and support as a company with seasoned expertise. We look forward to working closely with them in the future.

We are delighted to make this investment in Austrianova, a leading cellular and bacterial encapsulation platform. Austrianova has proven the efficacy and safety of their technology while building the necessary infrastructure, team and facilities to support commercial scaleup with customers. We believe Austrianova fits perfectly within the cross-disciplinary and cross-border platform we have established at Checkmate Capital. We are excited to work with Austrianovas management team to capitalize on their near-term growth opportunities across the biopharmaceutical, agritech and food science industries, stated Tom Paschall, CEO of Checkmate Capital.

About Austrianova

Austrianova (the SG Austria Group), is a biotech company with a global footprint and operations in Singapore and Thailand. Austrianova utilizes a novel and proprietary technology for the encapsulation of living mammalian (Cell-in-a-Box) and bacterial (Bac-in-a-Box) cells. Cell-in-a-Box protects the encapsulated cells from rejection by the immune system, allows cells to be easily transported, stored and implanted at specific sites in patients. The technology, which has been proven safe and efficacious in clinical trials carried out in Europe, allows companies to develop any kind of cells as a one-for-all living pharmaceutical. Bac-in-a-Box is a similar protective device adapted for encapsulation of probiotic bacteria where it has human food and animal feed applications as well as rebalancing the microbiome due to its ability to extend storage under lyophilized conditions and to protect encapsulated bacteria against destruction by stomach acid. Austrianova now also offers GMP4Cells that includes competitively priced Master Cell Bank and Working Cell Bank production as well as Fill and Finish services for cell therapy products (such as stem cell therapies, biologics produced from cells e.g., vaccines, antibodies, enzymes, recombinant proteins, exosomes, etc.).

About Checkmate Capital

Checkmate Capital is an investment and strategic advisory group managing family office assets with a global commercial and industry-specific network. Checkmate Capital's primary areas of investment are biotechnology, life sciences, medical technology, agriculture technology, energy technology, and other diversified technologies. Our team provides seasoned expertise in our focused industries, leveraging an international group of strategic partners, business talent, and resources. For more information, visit www.checkmatecapital.net.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release includes forward-looking statements regarding Austrianova (the Company) and its respective businesses. Such statements are based on the current expectations of the management of each entity. The forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this release, including completion of the public offering, may not occur and could differ materially as a result of known and unknown risk factors and uncertainties affecting the Company, including risks affecting the Company, economic factors and the equity markets generally. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed. Except as required by applicable securities laws, forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made and Austrianova undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. This is not an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities.

SOURCE Austrianova

Financial Information Contact: [email protected]

Company and Technology Contact: [email protected]

For more information: http://www.austrianova.com
SINGAPORE, March 02, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SG Austria (Austrianova), a leading provider of cell biological products and services, today announced that Checkmate Capital Group (Checkmate Capital), a multi-family investment and advisory group based in Pasadena, California, has made a preferred equity investment in SG Austria, the parent company of Austrianova.

SG Austria, with its Austrianova Singapore and Austrianova Thailand subsidiaries, has developed the Cell-in-a-Box and Bac-in-a-Box platforms, which use protective cell encapsulation technology to protect, isolate, store, and transfer living human, animal, yeast, and bacteria cells for use in a number of applications. Austrianova Thailand manufactures its Cell-in-a-Box products at its state-of-the-art facility at Thailand Science Park, in Pathumthani, Thailand (metro Bangkok), which also serves as Austrianovas Cell-in-a-Box R&D hub. Proceeds from Checkmate Capitals investment will be used to expand this GMP, ISO9001:2015-certified facility.

Walter H. Gunzburg, Chairman of Austrianova, said It is a great pleasure for us to have the Checkmate Capital team on board. This investment allows Austrianova to expand and extend its existing facility to accommodate additional demand and execute additional projects.

Austrianova CEO, Brian Salmons, added We value having Checkmate Capital on board, not only for their investment, but also for their strategic advice and support as a company with seasoned expertise. We look forward to working closely with them in the future.

We are delighted to make this investment in Austrianova, a leading cellular and bacterial encapsulation platform. Austrianova has proven the efficacy and safety of their technology while building the necessary infrastructure, team and facilities to support commercial scaleup with customers. We believe Austrianova fits perfectly within the cross-disciplinary and cross-border platform we have established at Checkmate Capital. We are excited to work with Austrianovas management team to capitalize on their near-term growth opportunities across the biopharmaceutical, agritech and food science industries, stated Tom Paschall, CEO of Checkmate Capital.

About AustrianovaAustrianova (the SG Austria Group), is a biotech company with a global footprint and operations in Singapore and Thailand. Austrianova utilizes a novel and proprietary technology for the encapsulation of living mammalian (Cell-in-a-Box) and bacterial (Bac-in-a-Box) cells. Cell-in-a-Box protects the encapsulated cells from rejection by the immune system, allows cells to be easily transported, stored and implanted at specific sites in patients. The technology, which has been proven safe and efficacious in clinical trials carried out in Europe, allows companies to develop any kind of cells as a one-for-all living pharmaceutical. Bac-in-a-Box is a similar protective device adapted for encapsulation of probiotic bacteria where it has human food and animal feed applications as well as rebalancing the microbiome due to its ability to extend storage under lyophilized conditions and to protect encapsulated bacteria against destruction by stomach acid. Austrianova now also offers GMP4Cells that includes competitively priced Master Cell Bank and Working Cell Bank production as well as Fill and Finish services for cell therapy products (such as stem cell therapies, biologics produced from cells e.g., vaccines, antibodies, enzymes, recombinant proteins, exosomes, etc.).

About Checkmate CapitalCheckmate Capital is an investment and strategic advisory group managing family office assets with a global commercial and industry-specific network. Checkmate Capital's primary areas of investment are biotechnology, life sciences, medical technology, agriculture technology, energy technology, and other diversified technologies. Our team provides seasoned expertise in our focused industries, leveraging an international group of strategic partners, business talent, and resources. For more information, visit www.checkmatecapital.net.

Forward-Looking StatementsThis release includes forward-looking statements regarding Austrianova (the Company) and its respective businesses. Such statements are based on the current expectations of the management of each entity. The forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this release, including completion of the public offering, may not occur and could differ materially as a result of known and unknown risk factors and uncertainties affecting the Company, including risks affecting the Company, economic factors and the equity markets generally. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed. Except as required by applicable securities laws, forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made and Austrianova undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. This is not an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities.

SOURCE AustrianovaFinancial Information Contact: [email protected]Company and Technology Contact: [email protected] For more information: http://www.austrianova.com

Source: SG Austria Pte Ltd
REGULATED INFORMATION

Mont-Saint-Guibert, Belgium, March 1st, 2023, 6.00pm CEST  BIOSENIC (Euronext Brussels and Paris: BIOS), the innovative company addressing unmet medical needs in in the areas of innate immunity, inflammation and organ/function repair, today announces an update in the total number of voting rights and shares. The following information is published in accordance with Article 15 of the Belgian Law of 2 May 2007 on the publication of major shareholdings in issuers whose shares are admitted to trading on regulated market.



Total amount of share capital on 31 January 2023 EUR 33,800,669 Total number of shares with voting rights on 31 January 2023 124,008,857 Total number of shares admitted to listing on 31 January 2023 33,340,263 Total number of new shares issued between 01 February 2023 and 28 February 2023 0





Total amount of share capital on 28 February 2023 EUR 33,800,669 Total number of shares with voting rights on 28 February 2023 124,008,857 Total number of voting rights (denominator) on 28 February 2023 124,008,857 Total number of shares admitted to listing on 28 February 2023 124,008,857 (1) Total number of attributed warrants 1,197,554 Total number of convertible bonds outstanding 826 Total number of remaining CB commitments 40 Total number of shares with voting rights that can be issued following the exercise of the attributed warrants and CB commitments, and the conversion of the convertible bonds 21,550,767 (2)

(1)

90,668,594 new shares issued to Medsenic shareholders on 24 October 2022 (the " New Shares ") are listed as from 10 February 2023 but subject to a lock-up until 24 July 2023 except for: 5% of the New Shares held by ABO Securities released from the lock-up since 17 February 2023. These New Shares were transferred by Medsenic shareholders to ABO Securities Ltd as a final and definitive payment for their duties as M&A advisor for the transaction. 2% of the New Shares held by each of Veronique Pomi-Schneiter and Francois Rieger released from the lock-up since 28 February 2023.





") are listed as from 10 February 2023 but subject to a lock-up until 24 July 2023 except for:

(2)

1,197,554 shares could be issued in case all 1,197,554 attributed warrants were exercised.

285,714 shares could be issued in case all 800 convertible bonds outstanding, issued in the private placement on 6 May 2020, were converted into shares based on the predetermined conversion price of EUR 7.00.

20,067,499 shares could be issued in case all 40 CB commitments remaining and all 26 convertible bonds outstanding of the ABO CB program signed on 30 May 2022 were exercised and converted into shares based on the conversion price of EUR 0.1644 (95% of the Volume-Weighted-Averaged-Price of BioSenics shares on 27 February 2023).





About BioSenic

BioSenic is a leading biotech company specializing in the development of clinical assets issued from: (i), the allogeneic cell therapy platform ALLOB and (ii) the Arsenic TriOxide (ATO) platform. Key target indications for the platforms include Graft versus Host Disease (GvHD), Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), Systemic Sclerosis (SSc) and high-risk tibial fractures.

Following the merger in October 2022, BioSenic combines the strategic positionings and strengths of Medsenic and Bone Therapeutics. The merger also enables Biosenic to add to its innovative cell therapy platform and strong IP for tissue repair protection with an entirely new arsenal of various anti-inflammatory and anti-autoimmune formulations using the immunomodulatory properties of ATO/OATO.

BioSenic is based in the Louvain-la-Neuve Science Park in Mont-Saint-Guibert, Belgium. Further information is available at http://www.biosenic.com.

About BioSenic technology platforms

BioSenics technology is based on:

1) The allogeneic cell and gene therapy platform, developed by Bone Therapeutics with differentiated bone marrow sourced Mesenchymal Stromal Cells (MSCs) that can be stored at the point of use in hospitals. Its current investigational medicinal product, ALLOB, represents a unique, proprietary approach to organ repair and specifically to bone regeneration, by turning undifferentiated stromal cells from healthy donors into bone-forming cells on the site of injury. These cells are produced via a proprietary BioSenic scalable manufacturing process. Following the CTA approval by regulatory authorities in Europe, the Company has initiated patient recruitment for the Phase IIb clinical trial with ALLOB in patients with difficult tibial fractures, using its optimized production process. ALLOB continues to be evaluated for other orthopedic indications including spinal fusion, osteotomy, maxillofacial and dental, and should be of value in new indications when cells will be further adapted or transformed with additional targeting properties.





2) The Arsenic TriOxide (ATO) platform developed by Medsenic. The immunomodulatory properties of ATO have demonstrated a double basic effect on cells of the immune system. The first effect is the increase of the cell oxidative stress in activated B, T or other cells of the innate/adaptative immune system to the point they will enter a cell death program (apoptosis) and be eliminated. The second effect is potent immunomodulatory properties on several pro-inflammatory cytokines involved in inflammatory or autoimmune cell pathways. One direct application is its use in onco-immunology to treat GvHD (Graft-versus-Host Disease) in its chronic, established stage. GvHD is one of the most common and clinically significant complications affecting long-term survival of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT). GvHD is primarily mediated by the transplanted immune system that can lead to severe multiorgan damage. Medsenic had been successful in a Phase II trial with its intravenous formulation, allowing arsenic trioxide to be granted an orphan drug designation status by FDA and EMA and is heading towards an international Phase III confirmatory study, with a new, IP protected, oral (OATO) formulation.





Moderate to Severe forms of Systemic Lupus erythematosus (SLE) is another selected target, using the same oral formulation. ATO has shown good safety and significant clinical efficacy on several affected organs (skin, mucosae and the gastro-intestinal tract) in a phase IIa study.

Systemic Sclerosis is, in addition, part of the clinical pipeline of BioSenic. Preclinical studies on pertinent animal models are positive. This gives good grounds to launch a Phase II clinical protocol for this serious disease that badly affects skin, lungs or vascularization, and with no actual current effective treatment.

For further information, please contact:

BioSenic SA

Francois Rieger, PhD, Chief Executive Officer

Tel: +33 (0)671 73 31 59

[email protected]

For Belgian Media and Investor Enquiries:

Bepublic

Bert Bouserie

Tel: +32 (0)488 40 44 77

[email protected]

International Media Enquiries:

IB Communications

Neil Hunter / Michelle Boxall

Tel: +44 (0)20 8943 4685

[email protected] / [email protected]

For French Media and Investor Enquiries:

NewCap Media

Annie-Florence Loyer

Tel: +33 (0)1 44 71 00 12

[email protected]

Certain statements, beliefs and opinions in this press release are forward-looking, which reflect the Company or, as appropriate, the Company directors current expectations and projections about future events. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and assumptions could adversely affect the outcome and financial effects of the plans and events described herein. A multitude of factors including, but not limited to, changes in demand, competition and technology, can cause actual events, performance or results to differ significantly from any anticipated development. Forward looking statements contained in this press release regarding past trends or activities should not be taken as a representation that such trends or activities will continue in the future. As a result, the Company expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release any update or revisions to any forward-looking statements in this press release as a result of any change in expectations or any change in events, conditions, assumptions or circumstances on which these forward-looking statements are based. Neither the Company nor its advisers or representatives nor any of its subsidiary undertakings or any such persons officers or employees guarantees that the assumptions underlying such forward-looking statements are free from errors nor does either accept any responsibility for the future accuracy of the forward-looking statements contained in this press release or the actual occurrence of the forecasted developments. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release.
Reps. Nancy Mace, Dina Titus, and Sens. Mike Lee, Cory Booker, Rand Paul, Elizabeth Warren, and Kirsten Gillibrand Introduce Legislation they Intend to Attach to Upcoming Farm Bill

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, Animal Wellness Action (AWA), the Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM), the Center for a Humane Economy (CHE), and the National Dairy Producers Organization (NDPO), applauded U.S. Reps. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., and Dina Titus, D-Nev., and U.S. Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, Cory Booker, D-N.J., Rand Paul, R-Ky., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., for introducing the bicameral, bipartisan, Opportunities for Fairness in Farming (OFF) Act.

The measure is designed to reform and bring accountability and transparency to reform the USDAs Commodity Checkoff Programs that have long been plagued by scandal after scandal for misappropriation of funds, lack of transparency, and misusing farmer and rancher tax dollars and was first introduced in the 115th Congress. Proponents of the OFF Act argue that national livestock trade associations work against the best interests of rank-and-file family farmers and work to benefit the industrial agriculture and international processors.

We applaud Reps. Mace and Titus as well as Sens. Lee, Booker, Paul, Warren, and Gillibrand for their tireless work and leadership on the Opportunities for Fairness in Farming Act, said Marty Irby, executive director at Animal Wellness Action, and senior vice-president at the Center for a Humane Economy. USDAs commodity checkoff programs remain under fire because of their lack of transparency, misuse of funds, and damaging anti-competitive practices that have bankrupted millions of American farmers.

Industrial agriculture is sucking up family farmers hard-earned dollars and using those funds against the interests of the very producers it was designed to represent, said U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C. The support for the OFF Act is overwhelming, with more than 80 farm organizations, representing over 250,000 family farmers and ranchers, cheering on the measure alongside groups like Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy. We hope to secure enactment of this legislation as a rider to the upcoming Farm Bill to save our American family farmers in peril.

Checkoff programs are filled with waste and often abuse those forced to contribute to their coffers. These common-sense reforms will ensure that checkoff funds promote and protect all ag producers (big and small) who are meant to be served by these programs, said U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.

Farmers and Ranchers are being forced to pay into checkoff programs that often advocate against their best interest and support food system consolidation. These programs need transparency and oversight so a farmer can be sure they arent required to fund their own demise, said U.S. Senator Cory Booker, D-N.J. That is why I am proud to introduce this bipartisan legislation that will help increase transparency and prohibit conflicts of interest and anti-competitive practices in these programs.

With too many Nevadans bearing the brunt of higher food prices, big ag corporations should be working to keep costs low, not lining their own pockets by promoting anticompetitive practices, said U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev. Im pushing this bipartisan legislation to increase federal oversight and stop ag lobbyists from squeezing small producers out of business.

American family farmers are in peril, and today, every cent counts, said Taylor Haynes, president at the Organization for Competitive Markets. If were going to be forced to pay into USDAs checkoff programs then the very least we should expect is transparency, accountability, and oversight of our hard-earned dollars, and the OFF Act accomplishes just that.

The OFF Act was first introduced in the 115th Congress, and here we are in the 118th Congress still working for transparency and accountability to reform the USDAs commodity checkoff programs, said Deborah Mills, chairwoman of the National Dairy Producers Organization. This speaks volumes about what frustrates producers who are paying into checkoff programs. The recipients of the checkoff dollars are the greatest proponents of maintaining the status quo. Producers are being denied the basic right to have their questions about their investment answered.

I dont want my hard-earned dollars funneled to a quasi-governmental organization that works against my best interest and represents industrial agricultures continued movement toward the monopolization of farming, said Will Harris, past president of the American Grassfed Association and proprietor of White Oak Pastures. Weve farmed the same land in Georgia since 1866, and I want to ensure that future generations are able to continue to do the same.

The text of the House bill can be found here and Senate companion can be found here. A link to the full press conference recording from Tuesday can be found here.

Background:

The OFF Act would amend the authorizing checkoff laws to ensure the programs cannot contract with organizations that engage in lobbying, conflicts of interest, or anticompetitive activities that harm other commodities. It would also require that they publish all budgets and disbursements of funds for the purposes of public inspection and submit to periodic audits by the USDA Inspector General. The measure is supported by more than 250,000 farmers and ranchers across America in an unlikely coalition of allies that include OCM, Animal Wellness Action, NDPO, the American Grass-fed Association, the National Taxpayers Union, and the National Farmers Union to name a few.

Commodity checkoff programs (checkoff programs) were established to serve as mechanisms by which agricultural industries pool money for common commodity-specific promotional and research purposes. Fees are mandatory, from the smallest local farmer to the largest factory operation. Checkoff dollars go to federal, industry-specific boards, which are required by law to use these funds for mutually beneficial advertising campaigns and research.

Under federal law, farmers of certain commodities (including pork, eggs, beef, and corn) are required to pay a portion of their sales into checkoff programs. These mandatory fees are intended to be used by the U.S. government to research and market those commodities. Well-known examples of past checkoff-funded advertising campaigns are Got Milk, Pork. The Other White Meat, The Incredible, Edible Egg, and Beef. Its Whats for Dinner. Checkoff programs collect over $850 million from Americas farmers and ranchers every year.

Despite the limited purpose of the checkoffs, checkoff programs have repeatedly acted beyond the scope of their statutory mandate. Lax oversight by the USDA has resulted in collusive and illegal relationships between checkoff boards and lobbying organizations, both of which have repeatedly used checkoff funds to influence legislation and government action despite a broad statutory prohibition. Such advocacy efforts have an anticompetitive effect and are forcing traditional family farmers to pay into a system that actively works against them.

The OFF Act was first introduced in the 115th Congress by Rep. Titus and former Rep. Dave Brat, R-Virg., in the U.S. House and Sens. Lee and Booker in the U.S. Senate and a 2018 Farm Bill amendment that mirrored the OFF Act was one of only three amendments afforded a vote in the U.S. Senate, but the measure was not included in the final farm bill signed into law.

The Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) is a membership-based research and advocacy organization working to expose and break the stranglehold of corporate consolidation in our food and agricultural economy. Headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska, OCM was founded in 1998 by farmers, ranchers, attorneys, agricultural economists, rural sociologists, and state legislators to challenge the growing income power disparities between agricultural producers and agribusinesses in the food system. OCM was founded on the premise that independent farmers and ranchers must ultimately survive and prosper by receiving fair and adequate compensation for their products through the marketplace.

Animal Wellness Action (AWA) is a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)(4) organization with a mission of helping animals by promoting legal standards forbidding cruelty. We champion causes that alleviate the suffering of companion animals, farm animals, and wildlife. We advocate for policies to stop dogfighting and cockfighting and other forms of malicious cruelty and to confront factory farming and other systemic forms of animal exploitation. To prevent cruelty, we promote enacting good public policies and we work to enforce those policies. To enact good laws, we must elect good lawmakers, and thats why we remind voters which candidates care about our issues and which ones dont. We believe helping animals helps us all.

The Center for a Humane Economy (CHE) is a non-profit organization that focuses on influencing the conduct of corporations to forge a humane economic order. The first organization of its kind in the animal protection movement, the Center encourages businesses to honor their social responsibilities in a culture where consumers, investors, and other key stakeholders abhor cruelty and the degradation of the environment and embrace innovation as a means of eliminating both.

Attachments
TORONTO, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Its no secret that Canadians' outlook isnt as bright as it once was - only 1 in 10 Canadians report being truly happy and Canada slipped 10 spots on the World Happiness Report since 2010. And while many factors might be to blame, its clear that an endless cycle of scrolling and double tapping through our phones is contributing to our growing unhappiness: a recent survey conducted by Blue Moon revealed 73% of 19-34 year old Canadians experience FOMO or negative emotions because of things they see online at least some of the time. Thats why, as a beer made brighter, Blue Moon is interrupting our mobile routines and encouraging Canadians to disconnect to reconnect with their friends and family IRL on March 3, the National Day of Unplugging, by putting phones on Do Not Disturb a.k.a #MoonMode.

Always-on, overly connected and tech dependent Canadians are forgetting to leave room for the important bright spots that contribute to our happiness, like putting down phones, spending time with friends, and making IRL memories over a Blue Moon beer! Because its not just those using their phones whose moods are suffering for it: 62% of Canadians ages 19-34 have a negative reaction when friends and family spend time on their phones around them.

To remind Canadians of the importance of taking time to truly unplug, Blue Moon is launching the first-ever line of coasters for your phone. These artfully-crafted coasters will put phones on #MoonMode and allow users to spend meaningful moments with friends, helping the 55% of Canadians (19-34) who say they find it hard to stay off their phones in social settings at least some of the time.

We want to remind Canadians that unplugging to be truly present during lifes bright moments, can have a drastic impact on how you walk away from an experience or interaction, says Luca Garofalo, Brand Manager, Blue Moon Canada. #MoonMode is all about disconnecting to reconnect, and our coasters will help you do just that by disabling your notifications. Allowing you to enjoy a refreshingly bright Blue Moon, in good company, completely undisturbed from the digital world.

The exclusive #MoonMode coasters will be available for purchase at bluemooncanada.ca/moonmode while quantities last. For those who miss the chance to purchase, Blue Moon encourages setting phones to DND or silencing notifications to join Blue Moon in going #MoonMode on March 3rd. But dont stop there: Blue Moon reminds Canadians to turn on #MoonMode beyond National Day of Unplugging to combat the unhappiness brought on by digital distractions. After all, Canadians could ALL use a little more brightness in their lives - and a little less brightness on their screens.

Be sure to stay tuned to Blue Moons social channels for more stats and unplugging tips! And dont forget to tag @bluemoon_canada and use #MoonMode to share your moments of brightness on National Day of Unplugging.

About the Blue Moon Brightness SurveyThis Maru Public Opinion survey conducted on behalf of Blue Moon was undertaken by the sample and data collection experts at Maru/Blue. 1,498 randomly selected Canadian adults of drinking age (19 years or older) who are Maru Voice Canada online panelists were surveyed from February 10th to February 11th 2023. The results of this study have been weighted by education, age, gender and region (and in Quebec, language) to match the population, according to Census data. This is to ensure the sample is representative of the entire adult population of Canada. For comparison purposes, a probability sample of this size has an estimated margin of error (which measures sampling variability) of +/- 2.5%, 19 times out of 20. Discrepancies in or between totals when compared to the data tables are due to rounding.

About Molson CoorsFor over two centuries Molson Coors has been brewing beverages that unite people to celebrate all lifes moments. From Coors Light, Miller Lite, Molson Canadian, Carling, and Staropramen to Coors Banquet, Blue Moon Belgian White, Blue Moon LightSky, Vizzy, Leinenkugels Summer Shandy, Creemore Springs, Hop Valley and more, Molson Coors produces many beloved and iconic beer brands. While the companys history is rooted in beer, Molson Coors offers a modern portfolio that expands beyond the beer aisle as well. Molson Coors Beverage Company is a publicly traded company that operates through Molson Coors North America and Molson Coors Europe, and is traded on the New York and Canadian Stock Exchange (TAP). The companys commitment to raising industry standards and leaving a positive imprint on our employees, consumers, communities, and the environment is reflected in Our Imprint and our 2025 sustainability targets. Learn more about Molson Coors Beverage Company, visit molsoncoors.com, MolsonCoorsOurImprint.com or on Twitter through @MolsonCoors.

About Maru GroupThe experience & insights platformMaru is a world leading CX and insights software and advisory services company. The company was founded to disrupt the data and insight delivery industry with a combination of software and advisory services delivering data in real time via a unique service model. Maru helps its clients make informed decisions in near real time by combining proprietorial software, deep industry experience, and access to the best minds in research. A flexible service model makes it possible for clients to choose to self-serve using the software platform directly to create, launch and analyze projects; or choose to utilize the software along with knowledgeable support from insights experts. Maru is a proud member of the Stagwell Marketing Cloud.

Media Contact:Rebecca McLarenCitizen Relations[email protected]

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/a2f0f384-474d-4d31-bafb-85422797b07c

Moon Mode Coasters Moon Mode Coasters

Source: Molson Coors Beverage Company
New York, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Boyden, a premier leadership and talent advisory firm with more than 70 offices in over 45 countries, is delighted to welcome senior asset management icons Jerome Bichut and John Cooper to its team, now fully integrated as Boyden New York.

These two giants of banking and finance will further build Boydens market share in the United States and Canada, leveraging the teams distinctive expertise, delivering results for clients and securing its position as the leading executive search team in asset management.

From the beginning, we knew it was game-changing in the executive search industry for everyone in our team to have been in the shoes of our clients, comments Dominic Freud, Managing Partner, Boyden United States. Despite a very tough environment in financial markets last year, Boyden has significantly increased market share based on our exceptional expertise both on the sell and buy side. We are delighted to welcome John and Jerome, who have impressive executive and board careers in asset management and pension funds. Through our combined markets experience in different cycles our team understands todays challenges and the talent clients need in a complex and demanding climate.

Boydens strong performance and our new exceptional colleagues will extend our reach in the market and reinforce our industry expertise, particularly in Canada, where Boyden has such an outstanding team, adds Stephan Pizenberg, Managing Partner, Boyden United States. In the shift to a buyers market for talent, clients are seeking expert insight into executive and board director capabilities, including tech advances such as fintech and artificial intelligence. Our extended team will continue to help clients through a tough year in North America and worldwide through our strong collegiate culture.

Jerome Bichut, Senior Advisor, Boyden, is based in Montreal and New York. He has over 30 years experience in financial services and consulting, including in-depth expertise in asset management, portfolio management, global asset allocation pension funds, auditing, behavioral finance and risk management. He provides corporate strategy development for listed firms and startups seeking institutional investors and reference shareholders, and is bilingual in English and French.

Jerome was previously Managing Director at PSP Investments, Portfolio Manager at Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec (CDPQ) and Assistant Professor at HEC Montreal, graduate business school of the University of Montreal. He was Board Member, Audit Committee President, and Appointment and Compensation Committee Member, Claranova; Board Member, Investment Committee and Audit Committee, Korian; and Board Member, CFA Montreal Society.

John Cooper, Senior Advisor, Boyden, is based in New York. He has over 25 years leadership experience in financial services including executive, advisory and board roles across geographies, lines of business and product types; and a substantial track record advising organizations ranging from top-tier global investment firms to fintech startups. John has in-depth investment management expertise including mutual funds, ETFs, SMAs, alternative investments and collective investment trusts; and human capital expertise including leadership development, team composition and talent acquisition.

John was previously President, MSIM Distributors, Head of US Intermediary Distribution, and Managing Director at Morgan Stanley Investment Management; Head of Retail National Accounts at Legg Mason Global Asset Management; and President & CEO, Invesco Distributors. He is currently Mutual Fund Board Director and Chair, Governance and Nominating Committees, THOR Financial Technologies; and Advisory Board Director at Alpha TrAI, FLX Distribution and Transform AI.

Jerome and John join partners Dominic Freud, Jeremy Hardisty, Stephan Pizenberg and Sowbagya Gokulram, who was recently appointed to the AESC North America Leadership Diversity Council.

About Boyden New York

The team at FPIA joined Boyden in Q1 2022 as Boyden/FPIA Partners LLC. As of March 1, 2023, the business now operates as a single, integrated brand, Boyden New York, part of Boyden United States covering North America and working with publicly-traded, privately-owned, family office, social impact and PE/VC-backed clients in a wide range of industries.

About Boyden

Boyden is a premier leadership and talent advisory firm with more than 70 offices in over 45 countries. Our global reach enables us to serve client needs anywhere they conduct business. We connect great companies with great leaders through executive search, interim management and leadership consulting solutions. Boyden is ranked amongst the top 10 percent of companies on Forbes Americas Best Executive Recruiting Firms 2022. For further information, visit www.boyden.com.

Attachments

Chris Swee, CMO Boyden [email protected]

Source: Boyden
METTAWA, Ill., March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Brunswick Corporation (NYSE: BC) Chief Executive Officer David M. Foulkes and Executive Vice President, CFO Ryan M. Gwillim will present at the Raymond James 44th Annual Institutional Investor Conference, March 6, at JW Marriott Grande Lakes in Orlando, Fla. The presentation will be webcast live at approximately 7:30am EST.

The presentation can be accessed at https://wsw.com/webcast/rj127/bc/1313518 . Go to the site at least 15 minutes before the presentation to register, download and install any needed audio software. The audio only presentation will be available on the Brunswick site.

About Brunswick

Brunswick Corporation (NYSE: BC) is the global leader in marine recreation, delivering innovation that transforms experiences on the water and beyond. Our unique, technology-driven solutions are informed and inspired by deep consumer insights and powered by our belief that Next Never Rests. Brunswick is dedicated to industry leadership, to being the best and most trusted partner to our many customers, and to building synergies and ecosystems that enable us to challenge convention and define the future. Brunswick is home to more than 60 industry-leading brands. In the category of Marine Propulsion, these brands include, Mercury Marine, Mercury Racing and MerCruiser. Brunswicks comprehensive collection of parts, accessories, distribution, and technology brands includes Mercury Parts & Accessories, Land N Sea, Lowrance, Simrad, B&G, Mastervolt, RELiON, Attwood and Whale. Our boat brands are some of the best known in the world, including Boston Whaler, Lund, Sea Ray, Bayliner, Harris Pontoons, Princecraft and Quicksilver. Our service, digital and shared-access businesses include Freedom Boat Club, Boateka and a range of financing, insurance, and extended warranty businesses. While focused primarily on the marine industry, Brunswick also successfully leverages its portfolio of advanced technologies to deliver an exceptional suite of solutions in mobile and industrial applications. Headquartered in Mettawa, IL, Brunswick has more than 18,500 employees operating in 29 countries. In 2022, Brunswick was named by Forbes as a Worlds Best Employer and as one of Americas Most Responsible Companies by Newsweek, both for the third consecutive year. For more information, visit brunswick.com.
TORONTO, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- More Canadians than ever before, 97 per cent, feel vulnerable to fraudsters and identity theft, but theyre fighting back, with 94 per cent taking at least one step in the past year to better protect their personal data, a significant increase from 87 per cent in 2022. The most common steps include avoiding answering calls from unknown numbers or hanging up immediately (67 per cent) and double-checking their credit card and bank statements (63 per cent), according to a recent survey conducted by Equifax Canada in advance of Fraud Prevention Month.

Roughly half of the survey respondents indicated that they have taken additional steps to protect their personal information, including shredding documents (55 per cent), sharing less on social media (48 per cent), using two-step password authentication (48 per cent), and updating their passwords (47 per cent). Other steps taken include limiting their use of public Wi-Fi (39 per cent), checking their credit reports (33 per cent), installing or updating security software on their computers (31 per cent), and reporting fraud or identity theft when they see it (24 per cent). Despite these efforts, 26 per cent also confirmed they have been a victim of fraud or identity theft.

Nobody wants to be scammed, and its great to see more people are taking steps to protect their personal data, said Julie Kuzmic, Equifax Canadas Senior Compliance Officer, Consumer Advocacy. "Since fraudsters often target people who make it easy for them, we encourage everyone to continue to be vigilant and take steps to protect their personal data. Routinely checking credit reports for suspicious activity offers a great opportunity to spot potentially fraudulent accounts, which Equifax can investigate at no charge. You can request a free copy of your Equifax credit report by phone, mail, in person, and online. Consumers can log in to myEquifax to check their Equifax credit report for any unauthorized inquiries or new accounts.

Kuzmic also suggests for consumers to explore ID theft protection products that can help detect fraud sooner by alerting them to key changes on their Equifax credit reports and scores. Many tips for protecting personal information can be found on the companys website (https://www.consumer.equifax.ca/personal/education/identity/), including:

Using strong and unique passwords

Being cautious of suspicious calls and emails

Carefully disposing of sensitive documents like bank statements and credit card bills

Being careful about sharing personal information and only sharing personal information and photo identification with trusted institutions

SOCIAL MEDIA - WHERE AND WHEN PEOPLE FEEL MOST VULNERABLE

Most of those surveyed (78 per cent) believe that social media poses a higher potential for fraud and identity theft through cyberattacks, scams/phishing, and data breaches. Almost half have noticed more suspicious or fraudulent links within their social media, and 18 per cent admitted they clicked on a fraudulent link in their feeds. Facebook was cited as the social media platform with the most perceived potential for fraud or identity theft, with 42 per cent believing it poses the highest risk. Younger adults aged 18-34 were more likely to say that any social media platform might hold potential for fraud or identity theft, with this age group also more likely to cite Instagram as having the potential to make them vulnerable to fraud.

Without question, Canadians feel most vulnerable when they are online with 85 per cent indicating this followed by performing everyday tasks on the go at 53 per cent and on holiday at 50 per cent. The survey also found significant differences between genders, with women being more likely to express feelings of vulnerability as a target of fraud in virtually every area, including online (88 per cent versus 82 per cent for men), on the go (57 per cent versus 49 per cent), on holiday (53 per cent versus 49 per cent), at home (32 per cent versus 24 per cent), and in a store (30 per cent versus 24 per cent). By contrast, men were more likely to state that they never feel vulnerable as a target for fraud (6 per cent versus 2 per cent of women).

Fraud and identity theft are serious issues that can have devastating impacts on people financially and emotionally, adds Kuzmic. Our survey highlights the need for increased awareness and protection against fraud, particularly for those who do not take this type of crime seriously and those in certain regions who may be less aware of the risks.

Quebecers were found to be significantly less likely to feel vulnerable to fraud in many areas compared to those in the rest of Canada, mainly when using social media (19 per cent versus 30 per cent, respectively) or when using Wi-Fi outside the home (22 per cent versus 31 per cent for the rest of Canada).

STOPPING FRAUD BEFORE IT HAPPENS

While more Canadians are taking steps to protect their personal data, there is a growing expectation that governments and businesses need to do more. Regarding government action, most respondents (92 per cent) felt that penalties for identity theft and fraud should be increased and that the government should do a better job of educating people on how to protect their personal data (86 per cent).

When it comes to shopping, most respondents (87 per cent) said they would be more likely to choose an organization or retailer with multiple steps in place to protect personal information, such as sending a code to their phone. However, there were some demographic differences in responses. Gen Z and young millennials (aged 18-34) were less likely to view identity theft and fraud as serious issues and less likely to believe that the government should increase penalties for those found guilty of fraud/identity theft compared to those aged 35 and over. Quebecers were more likely to feel that companies should do a better job in protecting personal information and would prefer a retailer that was more rigorous in safeguarding their information compared to those in the rest of Canada.

We all have a role to play in safeguarding personal information, said Kuzmic. While younger adults may need reminding that criminals may take advantage of them if they dont protect their personal information, all consumers should realize its in their interest to play a more active role in protecting their personal data. All generations and companies of all sizes should do their utmost to prevent and detect these crimes.

Equifax surveyed 1,000 Canadians ages 18-65, Feb. 1-8. A probability sample of the same size would yield a margin of error of +/- 3.1 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

About EquifaxAt Equifax (NYSE: EFX), we believe knowledge drives progress. As a global data, analytics, and technology company, we play an essential role in the global economy by helping financial institutions, companies, employers, and government agencies make critical decisions with greater confidence. Our unique blend of differentiated data, analytics, and cloud technology drives insights to power decisions to move people forward. Headquartered in Atlanta and supported by more than 14,000 employees worldwide, Equifax operates or has investments in 24 countries in North America, Central and South America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific region. For more information, visit Equifax.ca/business.

Media Contacts:

Andrew FindlaterSELECT Public Relations [email protected] (647) 444-1197 Heather AggarwalEquifax Canada [email protected] (416) 227-8711

Source: Equifax Canada
NEW YORK, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cognaize, the intelligent document processing (IDP) company powered by hybrid intelligence, today announced that it entered 2023 with significant growth and momentum driven by the growing adoption of its IDP platform with leading global financial services organizations. The company is investing in all areas to deliver greater technology innovation, enhance customer support and expand its brand and footprint in the financial services market, particularly in the United States and Europe.

Financial institutions are processing more documents than ever, including loan applications, 401K reports, ESG-related documents, presentations, and trustee reports. On one hand, traditional manual processes for managing unstructured data in documents remain laborious, expensive, and fail to deliver value. On the other, despite rapid advances in AI, generic AI models are not trained on the nuances of financial documents and are falling far short of their promise.

Until now. Cognaize is the first and only IDP solution to use hybrid intelligence to deliver on the promise of AI for financial services, combining sophisticated financial models that have been trained on over 1.3 million documents with human experts in the loop throughout the document automation process. Cognaize is designed from the ground up to address complex challenges for data scientists and deliver immediate efficiency to financial analysts.

A fundamental barrier blocking the success of AI projects is the belief that it is a replacement for human-based decisions and analysis. We built the Cognaize platform from the ground up to drive collaboration between an organizations financial experts and sophisticated industry and company-specific AI models  we call this hybrid intelligence, said Vahe Andonians, founder, CTO and CPO, Cognaize. A critical step to ensuring optimal collaboration is significantly reducing the cycle time for developing and testing new AI models. The Cognaize platform accomplishes this through automated, repeatable processes and reusable foundation models, which lowers the cost of each cycle. In 2023 we are committed to delivering further innovation that transforms business and decision-making processes in financial services.

As financial services organizations use Cognaize, their in-house subject matter experts verify data within an intuitive UI, annotating as they validate the results. This dramatically reduces the time it takes to manually extract data from unstructured documents while generating domain-specific training data for the firms data scientists. As a result of using Cognaize, financial services firms drive continuous improvement in efficiency, maintain control over their data, and gain powerful competitive advantages, helping to build a resilient and ever-better business. Cognaize can be deployed in a companys private or public cloud, or on-premise, ensuring strict control over IP, auditability, data quality, and other compliance-related requirements such as GDPR.

Key milestones Cognaize achieved in 2022 include:

Customer adoption  Cognaize added six new enterprise customers in 2022, including two of the worlds top ratings agencies, two of the top 10 banks in the world, and one of the largest insurance providers in Europe.

Revenue growth  Driven by accelerated customer adoption and expansion across departments within a number of existing clients, Cognaize grew its annual recurring revenue by 4x in 2022 and tripled GAAP revenues from the year prior.

Employee growth  Cognaize doubled its headcount to drive further innovation and customer value from the Cognaize platform, support existing customers and increase its investment in marketing and sales to expand the number of financial services companies around the world that can profit from the Cognaize platform.

2022 was a breakout year for Cognaize, and our business has only accelerated since the beginning of the new year, said Al Eisaian, CEO, Cognaize. By delivering enormous value to six global financial services organizations, we have clearly validated that the Cognaize IDP hybrid intelligence platform unlocks AI for finance. We have an enormous opportunity to lead the market this year and beyond by delivering transformative innovation and exponential value to financial services leaders.

About Cognaize Cognaize is the IDP solution, powered by hybrid intelligence, that empowers financial services to drive continuous improvement and make transformative decisions that result in an ever-better business. Powered by Cognaizes sophisticated financial AI models, which have been trained on over 1.3 million documents, and each customers proprietary data, AI models, and financial experts, Cognaize is the first company to deliver a complete AI solution integrated into the daily operations of business and data science teams, bringing the promise of AI to financial services firms. For more information, please visit www.cognaize.com and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Merrill Freund[email protected]415-577-8637

Source: Cognaize
Silver Spring, MD, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Capital Digestive Care has announced that David Heydt has been named medical director of Capital Digestive Care Laboratory effective March 1, 2023.

In his new role, Dr. Heydt will provide clinical oversight of the laboratory as well as clinician and staff education while assisting with innovative laboratory projects and partnerships. Dr. Heydt had previously served as the laboratorys acting anatomic pathology director for the last three years. Currently, he is actively involved with efforts in utilization of digital pathology and diagnostic algorithms, ensuring that Capital Digestive Cares mission of innovation remain a top priority.

Dr. Heydt is certified by the American Board of Pathology in Anatomic Pathology. Dr. Heydt attended medical school at Jefferson Medical College-Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. He completed his residency at New York Medical College and a fellowship in surgical pathology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Prior to joining Capital Digestive Care, he was a staff pathologist at Miraca Life Sciences in Union, New Jersey. Dr. Heydt is a member of the American Medical Association, the American Society for Clinical Pathology, and the College of American Pathologists.

Dr. Heydt has distinguished himself as a leader in delivering high-quality pathology while embracing industry best practices. He has been a respected partner in the development of innovative healthcare solutions and future opportunities, said Dr. Dan Neumann, President and Chief Strategy Officer of Capital Digestive Care.

Please click here for more information.

About Capital Digestive Care

Founded in 2009, Capital Digestive Care is the largest private gastroenterology practice in the Mid-Atlantic. Recent partnerships with Gastrointestinal & Liver Specialists of Tidewater and Gastroenterology, Ltd. in Southeastern Virginia have expanded its network to more than 160 physicians and advanced care practitioners who treat a wide range of conditionsfrom the common complaint of heartburn to the complex management of Crohns Diseaseand offer critical services for the prevention of colon cancer for more than 200,000 patients annually.

With business operations located in Silver Spring, MD, Capital Digestive Cares integrated care model connects its doctors to more than 25 office locations and outpatient surgery centers as well as specialized laboratory services and the largest clinical research program of its kind in the region. For more information, please visit www.capitaldigestivecare.com.

Attachment

Missi Hoch Capital Digestive Care 202-875-9942 [email protected]

Source: Capital Digestive Care
PORTSMOUTH, N.H., March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GreenPages, a nationally recognized leader in cloud and cybersecurity services, today announced the opening of its new corporate headquarters in Portsmouth, NH. After more than 25 years in Kittery, Maine, GreenPages will move into a brand-new 13,000-square-foot office space at the Pease International Tradeport.

Portsmouth, known for its vibrant downtown, rich history and position as the backbone of New Hampshires strong economy, is the perfect location for GreenPages to continue its growth and success. The new headquarters office will accommodate up to 100 employees, is conveniently located near major highways and is less than an hour from Boston, Portland, Manchester/Nashua and Concord.

"We look forward to returning to Portsmouth and reestablishing GreenPages as a part of the local business and technology community," said Ron Dupler, CEO of GreenPages. "We believe that the city's thriving business environment and access to top talent will enable us to effectively recruit and retain top talent in the region and continue delivering exceptional value to our growing portfolio of customers and technology partners."

In selecting its new headquarters, GreenPages sought to create an energizing, fun, and collaborative workspace that is conducive to the modern workforce. In so doing, it will accommodate employees who prefer to work in the office, those who want to work from home, and those who want a hybrid approach and do both. The office will include dedicated locations for those who want to be in the office more than two days a week and utilize hoteling software for employees who will come in less frequently.

GreenPages has a long history of providing innovative technology solutions and services to mid-sized companies and small enterprises in a variety of industries. From cloud and data center transformation to managed services and cybersecurity, GreenPages helps organizations leverage technology to drive business growth and improve efficiency.

The company's new headquarters will be located at 2 International Drive, Suite 260, a state-of-the-art facility that will provide GreenPages with the space and resources it needs to continue delivering the best possible service to its customers. The move is expected to be completed during the first quarter of 2023.

For more information about GreenPages please visit the company website.

About GreenPagesGreenPages is an innovative, digital-first IT and cybersecurity firm that plans, implements, and manages secure, high-performance digital operating environments for leading companies nationwide. It is uniquely positioned with extensive technology expertise in security and cloud to deliver complete infrastructure solutions that enable companies to drive business outcomes and compete in the digitally-driven economy.

For more information, contact: Sarah FooteGreenPages[email protected]

Source: GreenPages
SEVERN, N.C. , March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hamptons Farms, the No. 1 brand of in-shell peanuts in the United States, is highlighting the natural sustainability of peanut farming to celebrate National Peanut Month this March. One of the most sustainable crops on the planet, peanuts are a zero-waste crop; every component of the plant can be composted and reintroduced into the growing process to enrich the soil, and most parts can be used in consumer products.1

Many crops deplete soil of nitrogen, which is essential for growing crops. Not only do peanuts add up to 250 pounds of nitrogen to soil per acre, the plant is also naturally resistant to diseases and pests like nematodes. These characteristics allow farmers to rotate their crops with peanuts and use fewer inputs.2

We need very sustainable rotational systems in agriculture to keep weeds, insects and disease pests in a controllable state, said Severn Peanut Company agronomist, Wayne Nixon. The nitrogen benefit of the legume, and the fact that the residue lasts in the soil for years, makes peanuts an over-achiever by putting in the soil what other crops take away.

Peanuts have one of the smallest carbon footprints of any crop. They require significantly less water, 3.2 gallons per ounce,1 and only meager amounts of fertilizer to grow large yields. Less dependency on chemicals and fertilizers saves the farmer money and enhances sustainability for all, noted Nixon.

Peanut consumption also contributes to a reduced carbon footprint. If the average U.S. consumer replaced one third of their beef consumption with peanuts or other legumes, they would reduce their contribution to greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent.2

As Nixon put it, growing peanuts truly blesses the environment.

To learn more about Hampton Farms celebration of National Peanut Month, its commitment to environmental responsibility and the renewable nature of peanut farming, visit the Hampton Farms website and follow Hampton Farms on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook.

About Hampton FarmsOperating since 1947, Hampton Farms is a division of Meherrin Agriculture that produces great-tasting products including in-shell Virginia and Valencia peanuts, shelled peanuts and tree nut snacks, and nut butters. Based in Severn, North Carolina, Hampton Farms is the market leader of the in-shell peanut category, which is sold across the United States and Canada.

###

1Source: https://www.nationalpeanutboard.org/peanut-info/peanuts-and-sustainability-faqs.htm2Source: https://peanut-institute.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Handout-Sustainability-3-2.pdf

For media inquiries, contact Eric Boonshaft: [email protected] 984-222-0778

Source: Hampton Farms
(Oslo, Norway, 1 March 2023) Hexagon Purus (the Company), a world leading manufacturer of zero emission mobility and infrastructure solutions, is in advanced discussions with Hino Trucks for a long-term distribution agreement under which Hexagon Purus expects to produce complete battery electric heavy-duty trucks for the U.S. market, distributed exclusively through select qualifying dealers in Hinos network. The vehicles are expected to be based on Hinos XL 4x2 tractor chassis and upfitted with Hexagon Purus proprietary zero-emission technology, including battery systems, auxiliary modules, power modules and vehicle-level software. The potential agreement foresees the delivery of up to 10,000 trucks by 2030, and the total potential value over the course of the agreement could reach approximately USD 2.0 billion (approximately NOK 20 billion).

Serial production of the electric heavy-duty trucks would be expected to commence during the last part of 2024, and this expanded agreement would replace the already announced (on 11 February 2022) cooperation between Hexagon Purus and Hino to supply battery packs for multiple Hino truck platforms planned for serial production from 2024.

Contacts

Salman Alam, SVP Corporate Development, Hexagon Purus Telephone: +47 476 12 713 | [email protected]

Mathias Meidell, Investor Relations Director, Hexagon Purus Telephone: +47 909 82 242 | [email protected]

About Hino

Hino Trucks manufactures, sells, and services a lineup of Class 4-8 commercial trucks in the United States. Hino Trucks is the premier heavy and medium duty nameplate in the United States with a product lineup that offers fully connected vehicles with low total cost of ownership, unmatched reliability and maneuverability and the most comprehensive bundle of standard features in the market. Headquartered in Novi, Michigan, Hino has a network of around 200 dealers nationwide committed to achieving excellence in the ultimate ownership experience.

Learn more about Hino Trucks at http://www.hino.com or follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube.

About Hexagon Purus

Hexagon Purus enables zero emission mobility for a cleaner energy future. The company is a world leading provider of hydrogen Type 4 high-pressure cylinders and systems, battery systems and vehicle integration solutions for fuel cell electric and battery electric vehicles. Hexagon Purus' products are used in a variety of applications including light, medium and heavy-duty vehicles, buses, ground storage, distribution, refueling, maritime, rail and aerospace.

Learn more at www.hexagonpurus.com and follow @HexagonPurus on Twitter and LinkedIn

This information is considered to be inside information pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. This stock exchange announcement was published by Berit-Cathrin Hyvik, Director of Communications, Hexagon Composites ASA, on 1 March 2023 at 16:30 CET.

Source: Hexagon Purus ASA
LAKELAND, fla., March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Qgiv, a leading provider of digital fundraising software for nonprofits, hosted its first annual conference Feb. 26-28, 2023, at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress in Orlando. The sold-out conference brought together Qgiv clients and industry leaders from Erikas Lighthouse, VISTE, Bloomerang, DonorPerfect, and more to share fundraising insights and strategies to raise money efficiently and effectively.

Qgiv Conference was the first fundraising conference Ive attended since the pandemic, and it was just what I needed to feel recharged and inspired, said Amy Dunaway, development director for Blount Memorial Foundation. Ive been able to learn so much from the sessions and connect with other fundraisers to brainstorm new fundraising ideaswhich has been invaluable!

Qgiv Conference attendees were able to join a diverse schedule of CFRE-accredited workshops, all led by expert speakers. Nonprofit founder and consultant, Rachel Muir, led the conferences opening keynote, providing thought-provoking commentary on the future of fundraising. The conference closed with an unveiling of Qgiv roadmap priorities for the year, including:

Enhanced analytics, benchmarking, goal setting, and fundraising intelligence

Expanded payment solutions

Continued emphasis on features that optimize the donor experience

Organizational management tools and reporting enhancements designed to save staff time

After years of planning and significant growth as a company, were proud to host our first user conference, said Todd Baylis, CEO of Qgiv, Inc. Over the past few years, the nonprofit sector has been challenged by an ever-changing fundraising landscape, rocked by the pandemic, the Great Resignation, and now rising costs. Providing an affordable event where nonprofit professionals can hear from industry leaders, share their victories and challenges, and discover the latest trends in nonprofit technology was our top priority.

In addition to attending conference sessions, attendees had the opportunity to connect with nonprofit consultants and technology providers in the exhibit hall. Exhibitors ranged from digital agencies to donor management systems and grant databasesall companies that either work exclusively with nonprofits or have heavy involvement in the nonprofit sector.

We are thrilled with the success of this years conference and are proud to have brought together a group of individuals and organizations dedicated to making a difference in the world, said Jacqueline Inskeep, Qgivs event manager. The energy, knowledge, and passion shared at the conference was truly inspiring, and we look forward to continuing to support the nonprofit community with innovative solutions, resources, and events.

Qgiv Conference is one of Qgivs many initiatives designed to provide nonprofit professionals with exceptional fundraising tools and learning opportunities. To be the first to learn about Qgiv Conferences 2024 dates, email [email protected] and ask to subscribe to conference updates.

About Qgiv: Qgiv, Inc. is a leading digital fundraising platform empowering 20,000+ nonprofit fundraisers to raise money for their causes while keeping costs low. Through online giving and event registration forms, text fundraising, peer-to-peer fundraisers, and auction events, Qgiv provides a full suite of fundraising solutions that integrate with industry-leading CRMs and email providers to provide a personalized giving experience for donors. Founded in 2007, they now serve more than 6,500 nonprofits in the US and Canada who have collectively raised over $3.5 billion using Qgivs platform. Qgiv is known for their free, award-winning customer service, customizable platform, and flexible pricing. Qgiv is committed to helping people fulfill their passion to make a difference for others by equipping fundraisers with tools and educational resources to advance their knowledge and move their missions forward. To learn more, visit www.qgiv.com.

Qgiv became a Sphere company in 2019 to strengthen its impact on the nonprofit sector. Sphere, a Waud Capital Partners private equity portfolio company, offers over 20 years of expertise in payment processing, finance, and data privacy to keep Qgiv and its nonprofit customers at the forefront of compliance and payments.

###

Attachments

Melaina Chromy Qgiv [email protected]

Source: Qgiv
FREMONT, Calif., March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The LoRa Alliance, the global association of companies backing the open LoRaWAN standard for the internet of things (IoT) low-power wide-area networks (LPWANs), today announced the full program for LoRaWAN Live Orlando, offering a wide variety of programming across technical and certification tracks, business developments and solutions, global and regional deployments, and live demos and exhibitions with a focus on smart cities, buildings and utilities. This is the first LoRaWAN Live event of 2023 and the only LoRaWAN Live of 2023 in the Americas and will take place at Loews Portofino Bay Hotel at Universal Orlando in Orlando, Florida, USA, from 15-16 March 2023.

Program highlights include LoRa Alliance CEO and Chairwoman Donna Moore speaking about the LoRa Alliance ecosystems work to deliver solutions for digital transformation that optimize business operations, work environments, critical infrastructure, and environmental sustainability. As part of her keynote, she will host a panel with the City of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and its partners TEKTELIC, eleven-x and OrbiWise from the LoRaWAN ecosystem to learn how Calgary became a world-class smart city using LoRaWAN.

Additionally, MetaWorldX will share a live demonstration of a real smart city pulling in real-time LoRaWAN data as part of a city scale digital twin project. A second demo from Actility and Semtech will show how easy and economical it is to use LoRaWANs new relay feature to extend coverage in dense urban environments and underground, which is a critical advantage for LoRaWANs use in cities, buildings and utilities. Other program highlights include featured presentations from Cisco, Georgia-Pacific and Mueller Water Products.

The LoRa Alliance LoRaWAN Live events are must-attend learning and networking opportunities for anyone involved in IoT deployments, whether youre at the earliest stages of inquiry or actively deploying LoRaWAN, said Donna Moore, CEO and Chairwoman of the LoRa Alliance. Were coming to Orlando next month because of the amazing growth weve seen in LoRaWAN deployments across the Americas, including massive projects in Latin America. LoRaWAN Live Orlando is the best opportunity this year to hear from, meet and network with our tremendous ecosystem and learn about LoRaWAN technology and how it can help you enable digital transformation to advance your business and sustainability goals.

Register now to take advantage of your chance to experience LoRaWAN Live Orlando.

LoRaWAN Live offers visitors the opportunity to join global LoRaWAN leaders, innovators, developers, system integrators, network providers, device manufacturers, end users, media, and more to connect, exchange ideas, share large-scale success stories, go in-depth about LoRaWAN features, and create partnerships. The event will also feature an extensive vendor marketplace, allowing visitors to explore LoRaWAN solutions and experience a multitude of live demonstrations.

Key session highlights include:

Latin America

How ST Engineering is using IoT to increase the quality of life for citizens in Brazilian cities (ST Engineering and Everynet)

Panel: Get ready for smart metering with DLMS over LoRaWAN, featuring a discussion of current deployments in Brazil (Aklio, Everynet, HTMicron, NEPEN and Semtech)

Leveraging an FCC Radio Approval in Latin AmericaExcept when you cannot (Approve-IT)

Panama Canal: LoRaWAN Deployment Helps Canal Operators Track Sulfur Dioxide Emissions by Each Ship (Kerlink and Senzary)

Smart Cities

Panel: LoRaWAN for Smart Cities (3S, Brunata MINOL Zenner Group, OrbiWise, Seeed Studio and X-TELIA)

Building a city scale digital twin (MetaWorldX)

uCifi Alliance Unified Data Model and LoRaWAN Synergies (Kerlink)

Innovative LoRaWAN Partnerships Between Universities and Local Communities (Center for IOT Engineering and Innovation - East Carolina University)

Smart Building

LoRaWAN Delivers Enhanced Restroom Experiences (Georgia-Pacific and Comcasts MachineQ)

New National Gas Standard Sets the Stage for LoRaWAN Implementation (Senet and ProSentry)

From GM to Delta Airlines: Construction Sites Made Safer and More Productive Using Smart Badges (Kwant)

Ghirardelli Square: LoRaWAN Innovations provide a path to protect and preserve a sweet piece of American history (Kairos)

Crossing the Chasm  Where LoRaWAN is Scaling Fast with Strong ROI (MultiTech)

Smart Refrigeration with LoRaWAN: How to Comply with Regulations, Reduce Food Waste (MultiTech, PwC and Therma, moderated by IoT for All)

Panel: Building Intelligence with LoRaWAN (AvalonBay, Klika Tech, Nordic Propeye and Vutility, moderated by Moor Insights & Strategy)

Smart Utilities

LoRaWAN: the Right Technology for Utilities (Zenner USA)

Panel: Protect Water with LoRaWAN (APANA, LimnoTech, Mueller Water Products, moderated by James Brehm & Associates)

Utility Infrastructure Modernization & Service Optimization (Senet)

From AMR to AMI: Transforming Legacy Systems with LoRaWAN (Mainlink)

Transforming IoT Utility Metering - From Innovation to Mainstream Technology (Actility and MarineSync)

Integrating Legacy Energy Meters to a LoRaWAN Smart Grid (Instituto Federal do Amazonas - Innovation hub)

Register now join us at LoRaWAN Live Orlando.

Thanks to LoRaWAN Lives Sponsors

Media Event on March 15 at 10:30Media and analysts are invited to attend the 2-day conference at no cost. It will also feature a media event at 10:30 am on March 15, 2023. The following companies will make announcements from the event: the LoRa Alliance, Actility, City of Calgary, Dryad, Everynet, Peplink, Seeed, and Semtech. Contact [email protected] for your complimentary registration details.

About LoRa AllianceThe LoRa Alliance is an open, nonprofit association that has become one of the largest and fastest-growing alliances in the technology sector since its inception in 2015. Its members closely collaborate and share expertise to develop and promote the LoRaWAN standard, the de facto global standard for secure, carrier-grade IoT LPWAN connectivity. LoRaWAN has the technical flexibility to address a broad range of fixed and mobile IoT applications and a robust LoRaWAN Certification program to guarantee that devices perform as specified. The LoRaWAN standard has been deployed by more than 170 major mobile network operators globally, with connectivity available worldwide. More information: lora-alliance.org

LoRa Alliance, LoRaWAN and LoRaWAN CertifiedCM are registered marks.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/5b983287-55e5-4883-ab7e-886636a35a03

MEDIA CONTACT: Kiterocket Stephanie Quinn, LoRa Alliance PR +1 480 316-8370 [email protected]

LoRaWAN Live Orlando LoRaWAN Live Orlando will take place March 15-16 in Orlando, Fla. with a focus on LoRaWAN technology for smart cities, buildings, and utilities.

Source: LoRa Alliance
Toronto, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On March 3, WWF-Canada is celebrating World Wildlife Day by setting its panda mascot loose on the TTC to raise awareness about wildlife loss and how people can help at-risk species by joining its CN Tower Climb for Nature.

Need some extra motivation to take the stairs? WWFs panda, a global symbol for conservation, will be at Queen Station cheering on people skipping the escalator and taking the steps, which have been adorned with the names of at-risk species  from swift foxes to monarch butterflies  that need our help.

Media are invited to join in the fun by racing our panda up and down the stairs as it trains for the climb. WWF-Canadas big cat expert Rinjan Shrestha will be on hand to talk about the CN Tower Climb for Nature and answer questions about the state of wildlife in Canada and around the globe.

WHAT: WWFs panda mascot will be loose in Queen Station to raise awareness about wildlife loss and how people can step up this spring.

WHEN: Friday, March 3 from 11 a.m. to noon

WHERE: Queen subway station, main stairwell.

WHO:

WWF panda mascot

Dr. Rinjan Shrestha, WWF-Canadas lead specialist, Asian big cats

WHY:

Globally, wildlife populations have dropped 69 per cent on average since 1970. And its not just tigers, pandas and other far away species. Here in Canada, we have more than 800 species at risk of extinction. Most of them  from humpback whales to bumblebees  are not recovering. WWFs CN Tower Climb for Nature is one way people can step up for wildlife by supporting crucial conservation work.

About World Wildlife Day:

March 3 is World Wildlife Day. It is a United Nations international day to celebrate the world's wild animals and plants and the contribution that they make to our lives and the health of our planet.

About WWFs CN Tower Climb for Nature:

Visit wwf.ca/cntower to register as an individual or with a team.

WWFs CN Tower Climb for Nature is a two-day event that brings together thousands of people to raise funds that will help halt and reverse wildlife loss.

The climb takes place on Saturday, April 15 from 6 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. and Sunday, April 16, 2023, from 7 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.

WWF-Canada is one of only two charities that hosts climbs in the iconic landmarks 144-floor stairwell. The 2023 CN Tower Climb for Nature will be the first time the stairwell has been open to climbers since 2019.

In 2019, the event raised $1.4 million for conservation efforts in Canada.

Since WWF-Canada held its first-ever climb in 1991, more than 135,000 people have stepped up for wildlife and helped deliver big conservation results from nearly tripling Nepals wild tiger population to advancing protection for hundreds of thousands of square kilometres of critical habitat for Arctic species.

About World Wildlife Fund Canada WWF-Canada is committed to equitable and effective conservation actions that restore nature, reverse wildlife loss and fight climate change. We draw on scientific analysis and Indigenous guidance to ensure all our efforts connect to a single goal: a future where wildlife, nature and people thrive. For more information visit wwf.ca.

Emily Vandermeer WWF-Canada 5196161556 [email protected]

Source: WWF-Canada
Las Vegas, Nevada., March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nordicus Partners A/S (Nordicus), a financial consulting company, specializing in providing Nordic companies with the best possible conditions to establish themselves on the U.S. market, today announced the completion of a reverse acquisition with EKIMAS Corporation (EKIMAS) (OTC PINK: ASNB). The transaction was effected pursuant to a Contribution Agreement whereby EKIMAS issued 2,500,000 shares of its common stock to the shareholders of Nordicus, representing a 30.1% interest in EKIMAS. As a result of the transaction, Nordicus became a wholly-owned subsidiary of EKIMAS. Over the next several weeks, the combined company (the Company) intends to change the name of EKIMAS to Nordicus Partners Corporation and file necessary applications to change its ticker symbol.

Tom Glaesner Larsen and Christian Hill-Madsen, board members of Nordicus, were appointed to EKIMAS board of directors. Henrik Rouf, another Nordicus board member, became the Chief Executive Officer of EKIMAS. Bennett Yankowitz, EKIMASs former CEO, will remain on the board of directors and will become Chief Financial Officer of EKIMAS.

Nordicus was formed in 2020 with a mission to assist the right Nordic companies realize their growth strategy by fine tuning systems and processes, sharpening the commercial focus and providing companies with the best possible guidance and setup suited to successfully establish themselves on the U.S. market. The companies Nordicus primarily services are in the Green Energy, Clean Tech, Life Science, E-commerce, Blockchain and SaaS industries.

Tom Glaesner Larsen, CEO of Nordicus and incoming board member of EKIMAS, said, We are very excited to become part of a publicly traded company listed in the U.S., leveraging of our expertise and knowledge of the Nordic technology sectors and assisting our client companies gain access to exponential growth potential in the U.S. markets.

Henrik Rouf, a board member of Nordicus and incoming CEO of the Company, added, We believe that with Nordicus and its team launching in and now having a presence in the U.S., will attract numerous high growth technology companies throughout the Nordic and Scandinavian regions looking to engage Nordicus services and offerings.

About Nordicus Partners A/S

Nordicus Partners A/S is a Denmark-based financial consulting company, specializing in providing Nordic companies with the best possible conditions to establish themselves on the U.S. market, taking advantage of managements combined +90 years of experience in the corporate sector, serving in different capacities both domestically and globally. The companys core competencies lie in assisting Danish as well as other Nordic and international companies in different areas of corporate finance activities, such as: business valuations, growth strategies, attracting capital for businesses & company acquisitions and sales.

Forward-Looking Statements

The Company believes that this press release contains forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Terms such as may, might, would, should, could, project, estimate, pro-forma, predict, potential, strategy, anticipate, attempt, develop, plan, help, believe, continue, intend, expect, future, and terms of similar import (including the negative of any of these terms) may identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements, including but not limited to statements regarding the plans and objectives of management for future operations, are based on managements current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. Actual results and the timing of certain events and circumstances may differ materially from those described by the forward-looking statements as a result of these risks and uncertainties. Factors that may influence or contribute to the accuracy of the forward-looking statements or cause actual results to differ materially from expected or desired results may include, without limitation, market acceptance of the companys products and services; competition from existing products or new products that may emerge; the implementation of the companys business model and strategic plans for its business and our products; estimates of the companys future revenue, expenses, capital requirements and need for financing; current and future government regulations; and developments relating to the companys competitors. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements because of the risks and uncertainties related to them. For further information on such risks and uncertainties, you are encouraged to review the Companys filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including its Current Report on Form 8-K relating to the reverse acquisition and related transactions which will be filed with the SEC on or before March 1, 2023. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of new information or future events or developments, except as required by law.

For further information contact:

Mr. Henrik RoufChief Executive OfficerPhone +1 310 666.0750Email [email protected]

Source: EKIMAS Corporation
March 1, 2023

Fully interoperable smart imaging systems and informatics solutions connect teams in radiology, oncology, cardiology and pathology to enhance clinical confidence and advance precision in diagnosis and treatment

Vienna, Austria and Amsterdam, the Netherlands  Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, today announced its radiology portfolio of smart connected imaging systems and vendor-neutral integrated radiology workflow solutions featured at the European Congress of Radiology (ECR) international meeting (March 1-5, Vienna, Austria). Visitors to Philips @The Blue Level at ECR, the largest exposition space at the Congress, will experience how Philips AI-powered technology turns data into actionable insights to increase diagnostic confidence and improve clinical outcomes, enhancing patient and staff experience, driving operational efficiency, and helping lower the cost of care.

At this years ECR, together with our customer partners, Philips will demonstrate how our latest AI-powered integrated smart diagnostic systems and informatics solutions can help reduce clinical complexity and drive operational efficiency to address workforce shortages and staff burnout, all while optimizing the right care pathway for patients, said Bert van Meurs, Chief Business Leader of Image Guided Therapy and Precision Diagnosis at Philips. With our AI-enabled technology, we can automate and accelerate routine tasks to generate patient-centric insights from large volumes of data to help improve productivity and enhance patient outcomes. Underpinning each of our innovations at ECR is Philips commitment to delivering sustainable, resilient diagnostic solutions that help hospitals receive ongoing value from their investments.

Smart connected imaging systems powered by leading clinical and AI technologyPhilips will showcase its latest innovations connecting radiology, cardiology, pathology and oncology across MR, CT, diagnostic X-ray and ultrasound, including MR SmartSpeed, the next-generation imaging technology that leverages Philips state-of-the-art speed engine and an award-winning Artificial Intelligence (AI) [1] reconstruction technology that boosts speed and image quality. In partnership with Leiden University Medical Center (Leiden, The Netherlands) Philips is innovating with AI to further speed up and improve MR examinations, with the aim to reduce scan times to less than five minutes and to reconstruct detailed MR images despite patient or internal organ movement. The approach is already showing promising results in leading hospitals worldwide.

In systematic research studies, we have seen strong evidence of the ability of SmartSpeed to significantly accelerate acquisition times for knee and spine examinations without compromising image quality, with scan times that can be reduced up to 64% for certain sequences, said Dr. Andra-Iza Iuga, Department of Radiology at the University Hospital of Cologne, Germany. Since musculoskeletal (MSK) exams make up a large part of all MR procedures, these acceleration benefits have the potential to result in significant operational cost reductions and we are currently successfully implementing the results of our research studies into our clinical routine.

Integrated radiology workflow solutions driving operational efficiencyOptimizing clinical workflows can help eliminate waste and allow hospitals to use their resources more efficiently, which translates into improved patient flow and delivery of higher quality care to patients. At ECR, Philips will spotlight its advanced technology to simplify and connect workflows to help reduce variability and staff workload, drive operational efficiency, and enhance the patient experience.

For more information on Philips fully integrated radiology portfolio of imaging and informatics solutions being featured at ECR, visit the Philips ECR Press Backgrounder. Read more about Philips partnerships with public and private customers, peers, and industry-leading global organizations to help reduce the environmental impact of radiology.

Join Philips in person at the Blue Level at ECR, or virtually via the Philips interactive online radiology experience and follow @PhilipsLiveFrom for #ECR2023 updates throughout the event.

[1] According to the definition of AI from the EU High-Level Expert Group.

For further information, please contact:

Kathy OReilly Philips Global Press Office Tel.:+1 978 221 8919 E-Mail: [email protected] Twitter: @kathyoreilly

About Royal Philips

Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) is a leading health technology company focused on improving people's health and well-being through meaningful innovation. Philips patient- and people-centric innovation leverages advanced technology and deep clinical and consumer insights to deliver personal health solutions for consumers and professional health solutions for healthcare providers and their patients in the hospital and the home. Headquartered in the Netherlands, the company is a leader in diagnostic imaging, ultrasound, image-guided therapy, monitoring and enterprise informatics, as well as in personal health. Philips generated 2022 sales of EUR 17.8 billion and employs approximately 77,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries. News about Philips can be found at www.philips.com/newscenter.

Attachments

Source: Royal Philips
Washington D.C., March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, the Small Business Digital Alliance (SBDA), a co-sponsorship between the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and Business Forward, Inc., celebrates its one-year anniversary. The SBDA provides a comprehensive suite of free digital resources, virtual trainings, and expanded opportunities to help small businesses grow their online presence, reach new customers, strengthen business operations, and more.

Our Small Business Digital Alliance has empowered countless small businesses to make or strengthen their digital pivot, said SBA Administrator Guzman. The SDBA helps American entrepreneurs leverage valuable free resources to grow revenue, build resilience, and advance the American dream of business ownership. This unprecedented collaboration between the SBA, Business Forward, and leading private sector technology companies is bringing opportunity to more entrepreneurs by helping them with everything from cybersecurity to workforce strategies and marketing."

Since its launch in March 2022, the SBDA has:

Reached more than 15 million small businesses and entrepreneurs across America through national programming, regional events, and digital content tailored to small business needs.

Worked with 15 of America's most respected companies and 40 local organizations to provide small business owners and entrepreneurs with more than 300 free digital tools to grow their businesses in the e-commerce economy, create competitive advantages, and lower barriers to entry.

Organized a series of 13 regional events and virtual trainings across the country to help entrepreneurs expand their networks and learn new skills, discuss small business trends, and showcase local success stories.

Hosted four national webinars highlighting free digital tools and featured expertise and testimonials from our National Members and Local Allies.

As the SBDA celebrates its one-year anniversary, it is:

Publishing reports on the state of small businesses across America highlighting the economic contributions of small businesses, the benefits of free digital tools, and the advantages of a digital economy.

Sharing thought leadership from National Members, Local Allies, and the SBDA on small business trends, promoting American competitiveness by going digital, lowering the barrier to entrepreneurship, and more.

Hosting regional events with entrepreneurs, small business advocates, and private sector leaders on how to create a more customer-centric, tech-forward, and equitable small business ecosystem.

Since the launch of the SBDA, nearly two-thirds of small businesses have gone digital. Last year, e-commerce sales contributed more than $770 billion to the U.S. economy, representing about one-fifth of total annual retail sales, said Liz Fairchild, Executive Director of Business Forward. Thanks to the SBDAs National Members and Local Allies, our small business community has become more resilient by leveraging digital tools to reach new talent, strengthen their operations, and attract demand from around the world.

The SBDAs full National Membership includes Amazon, Comcast, Cowbell, Google, LinkedIn, Meta, Microsoft, PayPal, Principal Financial Group, Square, TriNet, Venmo, Verizon, Visa, and ZenBusiness.

The SBDAs full Local Allyship includes: ACE Women's Business Center, Act!, Albany, Community Together, All You Need Method, Anderson Area Chamber, Arena, Arts & Business Council of Greater Philadelphia, Caspio, Continuity Strength/Succession Strength, Detroit Economic Growth Corporation, Federation of Philippine American Chambers of Commerce, For All Things Digital, GetSetup, GoodCarts, Greater Georgia Black Chamber, Greater Houston LGBT Chamber, GS1 US, International Rescue Committee, Miami Growth Machine, Moneda

Moving Forward Small Business, National Minority Business Council, NextFab, Nogales Chamber of Commerce, Oakland African American Chamber of Commerce, Resilience Innovation Hub, State Business Executives, Suazo Business Center, Synergies Work

TechTown, Temple SBDC, Terminal B, and Unique Markets.

To learn more about our work, visit https://www.smallbusinessdigitalalliance.com/

###

Co-sponsorship Authorization No: 22-5-C: The SBAs participation in this cosponsored activity is not an endorsement of the views, opinions, products, or services of any cosponsor or other person or entity. All SBA programs and services are extended to the public on a nondiscriminatory basis.

This website is provided as a public service under co-sponsorship Authorization #22-5-C. It is not an official U.S. government website and may contain links to non-U.S. government information. The inclusion of such links does not constitute or imply an endorsement by the SBA. The SBA is not responsible for the content, accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of linked information.

###

About the U.S. Small Business Administration

The U.S. Small Business Administration helps power the American dream of business ownership. As the only go-to resource and voice for small businesses backed by the strength of the federal government, the SBA empowers entrepreneurs and small business owners with the resources and support they need to start, grow, expand their businesses, or recover from a declared disaster. It delivers services through an extensive network of SBA field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations. To learn more, visit www.sba.gov.

Press Office United States Small Business Administration [email protected]

Source: United States Small Business Administration
TORONTO, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Canadian Childrens Literacy Foundation is launching an online public gallery featuring stories and art by children from across Canada about their pandemic experiences. Retired astronaut and childrens author, Col. Chris Hadfield will share his love of reading and thoughts on its impact with Scarborough families and invited guests at the launch of Lost & Found: pandemic stories of discovery as told by kids in Canada.

Toronto event details

What National launch of the Lost & Found digital exhibition Date Tuesday, March 7, 2023 Time 2:00 to 3:30 pm ET Location Malvern Family Resource Centre, Scarborough, ON90 Littles Rd, Scarborough, ON M1B 5E2 Available for comment Chris Hadfield, O.C., O.ONT., M.S.C., C.D., Colonel, Astronaut (retired) and member of the board of directors of Canadian Childrens Literacy Foundation

Ariel Siller, Canadian Childrens Literacy Foundations Chief Executive Officer

Anusha Narendran, Childrens Program and Services Manager, Malvern Family Resource Centre

The Canadian Childrens Literacy Foundation, in partnership with child-serving organizations across the country are hosting in-person launch events throughout the month of March in Vancouver (March 9), Whitehorse (March 17), Quebec (March 18) and Halifax (March 29).

For more information, to request an embargoed media kit or to arrange an interview please contact:

Angela PinzonPilot PMR[email protected]647-295-0517

Wendy VincentKonvo Media[email protected] 416.722.0608

Omar SiddiquiCanadian Childrens Literacy Foundation[email protected] 647.493.5013

Source: Canadian Childrens Literacy Foundation
Simplify and supercharge your data estate

Data at your fingertips in a single view

Virtually instant installation and connection to all your databases

Search, see and use data in minutes, no matter where its located in the world

Eliminates multi-million dollar digital transformation projects which often fail

BARCELONA, Spain, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Data Enablement startup, WCKD RZR, has today unveiled a revolutionary AI-powered software solution which delivers unrivalled, supercharged data discovery, see, search and use capabilities for any multinational organisation, through a single pane of glass.

Launched in a fanfare from the stage at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Data Now eliminates the need for organisations to undergo costly, often unachievable global data migration and transformation projects.

Data Now is designed to simplify and streamline the process of data discovery and retrieval, giving businesses instant access to all their data, in any environment and location, through a simple search.

The revolutionary product offers an uncomplicated, more efficient alternative to traditional data management practices, saving companies millions of dollars and often years they would otherwise spend on unachievable big data transformation projects.

WCKD RZRs Data Now provides a user-friendly, central location for businesses to effortlessly see, search and instantly access data across an entire organisation. Once discovered, the software enables users to view and download data from multiple databases, in any environment around the world, seamlessly and fully compliant with all global data regulations.

Chuck Teixeira, Founder and CEO of WCKD RZR, said: Were thrilled to launch Data Now at MWC in Barcelona this year. In Data Now, weve created the universal master key for data discovery. Our goal is to revolutionise the way businesses manage and access their data, and our solution does just that. Its truly disruptive and can benefit every large organisation on the planet.

Whether its multinational banks, government institutions or regional retailers; Data Now acts as their supercharged data connector and access accelerator.

Data Now works from start to finish in a matter of minutes, right out of the box. Hook it up, connect it, and itll do the rest - you have access to all your data in one place immediately. With instant access to all data across their entire estate, businesses can unlock the full potential of their data, while saving vast amounts of unnecessary time and cost.

According to recent studies, only 32% of enterprise data is currently utilised, with more than two thirds going unleveraged. Forrester Research estimates that just a 10% increase in data accessibility will result in more than $2bn additional revenue and $65m additional net income for a typical Fortune 1000 company.

Meanwhile, the cost of GDPR compliance is expected to grow to 2.4 billion by 2024 as businesses wrangle with an ever-increasing number of diverging global privacy and governance regulations.

Data Now is the latest in WCKD RZRs growing, trail-blazing, stable of data solutions which enable companies to seamlessly find, govern and instantly access all their data, wherever it is located.

Released last year, Data Watchdog, WCKD RZRs pioneering data enablement suite, already unlocks the potential of any multinational organisations assets by allowing them to Find and Govern their data in each country, real time, fully compliant with relevant data sharing, privacy and governance rules.

Combined with Data Now, organisations can now see, search and swiftly monetise their data in a fully compliant manner.

Jonathan Farina, Chief Technology Officer at WCKD RZR, added: Data Now is a full-service data access accelerator. We are revolutionising the way organisations can search multiple databases for information that they hold. Now they can search it, see it, find it, use it, monetise it.

Mobile phones were transformed by the iPhone; video rentals were redefined by Netflix, and data access is now being revolutionised by Data Now.

London-based WCKD RZR is one of just 6 startups to secure a highly sought after place on Cyber Runway Ignite, the most prestigious element of the largest UK government-backed cyber startup accelerator. The business was also one of just 50 startups selected globally for the inaugural Amazon Web Services (AWS) FinTech Accelerator programme.

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at:https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f18ddf10-eea6-4a9c-8573-a1f17ff6350bhttps://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/af0d6666-e1c0-4bf3-8c16-3ca80518336b

For further details, please contact: Tim Reid Email: [email protected] or Tel: +44 7720 414205

Image of Data Now software Data Now will spider multiple databases in minutes, giving fully compliant data access anywhere in the world WCKD RZR CEO Chuck Teixeira and CTO Jonathan Farina Former HSBC data chiefs design data enablement software solution Data Now

Source: WCKD RZR
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - March 1, 2023) - Aurania Resources Ltd. (TSXV: ARU) (OTCQB: AUIAF) (FSE: 20Q) ("Aurania" or the "Company") reports that preliminary results from the drill holes and surface prospecting at the Company's Tatasham target in southeastern Ecuador indicate the discovery of a large, important epithermal system with similarities to the Fruta del Norte gold deposit located 100 kilometres to the south. All three holes drilled to date at Tatasham have intersected an important hydrothermal system with breccias, strong silicification, and high temperature illite-clay alteration, however no economic precious metal intersections have been encountered as yet. The upper part of the system is interpreted as a sinter paleosurface.

President and CEO, Dr. Keith Barron, commented, "It is very early in the story of Tatasham, but it is showing all the hallmarks of a large and vigorous hydrothermal system. We have discovered silica sinter over 2.7 km strike length, at the surface and in drill core. As well, zones of oxidized hydrothermal breccia were intersected below the sinter, similar in character to those found at Fruta del Norte. One thing that is apparent from the drilling is that the sinter horizon steepens downhole such that the bedding ends up aligned with the core axis. What this tells us is that the horizon is substantially tilted as you go to depth, as it would be in a pull-apart setting. You can think of it as a steep-sided valley opening up along a structure and the horizontally bedded rocks gradually tilting into the chasm as it widens. This is exactly the geological setting that revealed itself at Fruta del Norte. I consider the parallels between Tatasham and Fruta del Norte so far to be very compelling."

Representative samples of drill core will be available for viewing at our booth in the Investors Exchange (booth #2948) at the Prospector's and Developer's Convention in Toronto, March 5th-8th.

The discovery of an epithermal system at Tatasham was unexpected, in our pursuit of a copper porphyry target indicated by geophysics. That porphyry target is still valid, but it may lie at considerable depth, or it may lie laterally. Our recent diamond drilling campaign was designed for a porphyry target and is too widely spaced for a typical epithermal target, but it very fortunately clipped the edges of what appears to be a very large system. Aurania has paused the drill program at Tatasham in order to conduct additional field work in the coming months including a ground based induced polarization (IP) survey to appropriately refine the epithermal target areas prior to additional drilling. This work is necessary to define the limit of the system, which remains open to the north, and to understand the geometry of the system.

The hydrothermal system at Tatasham is characterized by strong silicification surrounding hydrothermal breccias. The upper part preserves fine, irregular, layers of amorphous silica that has the characteristics of a sinter. Several textures typical of silica sinter have been identified, in particular, "network fabric" and geyserite lithofacies, the latter interpreted as proximal to the original vent (see fig.1). Two other sinters were found nearby, one of which is represented by a boulder located 2.7 km from the collar of TT-003 (see fig.2).

A sinter is the surface manifestation of geothermal activity; usually accompanied by geysers, hotsprings, boiling mud pools, and steaming ground. Gold and silver scaling deposits were discovered clogging the surface pipework of New Zealand geothermal fields in the routine maintenance of electrical generating installations (Brown, 1986) and this fundamentally established a genetic link between the formation of epithermal gold-silver deposits and ascending hot geothermal fluids. Extinct geothermal fields have long been recognized as favourable settings for gold-silver deposits. Simon Ridgway and Mar-West Resources discovered two gold mines in the 1990's simply by staking active and extinct hotsprings off the topographic maps of Central America. Fruta del Norte contains a sinter of approximately 1.1 km areal extent, underneath which is the deposit. Not all of the many tens of thousands of the hotsprings around the world will be linked to formation of gold deposits at depth, but the proximity of Tatasham to Fruta del Norte, in the same belt of rocks, is considered highly favourable. Investigation has shown that the depth of formation of gold deposits below a sinter in the proper geological environment can be anywhere from nil to as much as 1,000 metres, though 200-300 metre might be considered typical.

Hole TT-003 (see fig.3) was collared in Cretaceous-aged Hollin sandstone which is considered to be post-mineral cover, as it is at Fruta del Norte. The hole continued in a series of continental sediments showing alternations of mudstone, siltstone, lithic sandstone, and polymictic conglomerates up to 18m thickness. The conglomerate contains rare clasts of vein chalcedony. This assembly of continental sediments is above a black limestone showing minor disseminated sphalerite mineralisation. The sediments overlie a tuffaceous volcano-sedimentary series. The clastic sediment-limestone-tuff sequence is interpreted as the filling of a pull-apart basin with an episode of marine incursion at the end of the volcanic activity. Immediately below the tuffaceous horizon lies a sinter displaying fine, irregular, layers of amorphous silica, locally overprinted by fault breccia. The Santiago Formation andesite below the sinter is propylitically altered (chlorite), with zones of silicification accompanied by barite, iron-oxides and high temperature illite-clay.

Three hydrothermal breccias cross the andesite below the sinter in hole TT-003. One of the breccias is cemented by barite, while the other two are rich in iron and manganese oxides in a silica matrix. It is significant that the drill core, even at a downhole depth of greater than 300 metres, is highly oxidized and it is believed that this could be a Jurassic-aged weathering horizon as also seen in the uppermost levels of Fruta del Norte.

Holes TT-001 and TT-002 crossed zones of silicification and potassic alteration representing the distal part of the epithermal system as reported in the press release dated January 9, 2023. The presence of the sinter in Hole TT-003, shows that this hole is closer to the centre of the system. To emphasize, mineralization in an epithermal system is typically found somewhere below the sinter; the sinter itself is barren as was the case with the sinter discovered at Fruta del Norte. Therefore, these first three holes should be regarded as discovery holes of the epithermal system, but there is considerable work and interpretation still to be done before economic drill results are expected.

For a very basic explanation of the vertical variability through an epithermal ore system watch Dr. Barron's short lecture at:

http://www.straighttalkonmining.com/course-1-module-5-the-importance-of-locating-yourself-vertically-in-the-system/

Figure 1: a). Concentric, dense silica laminae in rounded spheres from hole TT-003 at 284.30m ; b). Geyserite in the McLaughlin Mine (San Quentin Sinter) California USA ; c). Network fabric identified in hole TT-003 at 268.50m; d). Network lithofacies resulting from bacterial activity on the margins of a pool; Whangapaoa Spring, Atiamuri, Taupo Volcanic Zone, New Zealand ; e). Jurassic network lithofacies consisting of silicified, irregular, webbed pattern; La Marciana, Deseado Massif, Argentina.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/2477/156667_4ac6eaaf345ae8b8_001full.jpg

Figure 2: Location of the sinter and boreholes at Aurania's Tatasham target. Kutnahorite, a rare pink calcium manganese carbonate mineral, has been found on surface in several places at Tatasham. This is a common gangue mineral at the Fruta del Norte gold mine.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/2477/156667_4ac6eaaf345ae8b8_002full.jpg

Figure 3: Top graphic presents the interpretative section of hole TT-003 at Tatasham with the sinter location above the altered andesite lava of the Santiago Formation, compared in the bottom graphic with the sinter location at Fruta del Norte (from Aurelian's PDAC presentation in 2008).

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/2477/156667_auraniafigure3.jpg

Qualified Person

The geological information contained in this news release has been verified and approved by Aurania's VP Exploration, Mr. Jean-Paul Pallier, MSc. Mr. Pallier is a designated EurGeol by the European Federation of Geologists and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects of the Canadian Securities Administrators.

About Aurania

Aurania is a mineral exploration company engaged in the identification, evaluation, acquisition and exploration of mineral property interests, with a focus on precious metals and copper in South America. Its flagship asset, The Lost Cities - Cutucu Project, is located in the Jurassic Metallogenic Belt in the eastern foothills of the Andes mountain range of southeastern Ecuador.

Information on Aurania and technical reports are available at www.aurania.com and www.sedar.com, as well as on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/auranialtd/, Twitter at https://twitter.com/auranialtd, and LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/aurania-resources-ltd-.

For further information, please contact:

Carolyn Muir

VP Corporate Development & Investor Relations

Aurania Resources Ltd.

(416) 367-3200

[email protected]

Neither the TSX-V nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX-V) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking information as such term is defined in applicable securities laws, which relate to future events or future performance and reflect management's current expectations and assumptions. The forward-looking information includes statements about: Aurania's objectives, goals or future plans, statements, exploration and drilling results, potential mineralization, the corporation's portfolio, treasury, management team and enhanced capital markets profile, the estimation of mineral resources, exploration, timing of the commencement of operations and estimates of market conditions. Such forward-looking statements reflect management's current beliefs and are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to Aurania, including the assumption that, there will be no material adverse change in metal prices, all necessary consents, licenses, permits and approvals will be obtained, including various local government licenses and the market. 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. Risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results expressed or implied by the forward-looking information include, among other things, a failure to obtain or delays in obtaining the required regulatory licenses, permits, approvals and consents, an inability to access financing as needed, a general economic downturn, a volatile stock price, labour strikes, political unrest, changes in the mining regulatory regime governing Aurania, a failure to comply with environmental regulations and a weakening of market and industry reliance on precious metals and copper. Aurania cautions the reader that the above list of risk factors is not exhaustive.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/156667
Ottawa, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - March 1, 2023) - C-COM Satellite Systems Inc., (TSXV: CMI) (OTCQB: CYSNF), the leading global provider of mobile auto-deploying satellite antenna systems, today announced that it has received formal qualification for its iNetVuseriesantenna products from Intelsat.

Intelsat is one of the world's largest integrated satellite and terrestrial network operators and leading provider of inflight connectivity (IFC). The company operates 50+ satellites that provide coverage to 99% of the world's populated regions.

The C-COM manufactured iNetVu mobile satellite antenna systems are now officially qualified to operate on Intelsat's FlexMove COTP (comms-on-the-pause) and FlexEnterprise satellite services.

Intelsat FlexMove delivers an innovative, fully managed global mobile connectivity on-demand solution that seamlessly increases the reach, reliability, and redundancy of terrestrial networks while enabling a new generation of land mobile services for various applications. FlexEnterprise enables service providers to extend the reach of their enterprise solutions and add reliable, high-throughput connectivity to any location within the global Flex footprint.

"Our iNetVu antenna has met the auto-pointing qualification tests per Intelsat requirements of OpenAMIP interoperability, using iDirect modems with high level of repeatability," said Bilal Awada, CTO of C-COM Satellite Systems Inc.

"This qualification will open up additional revenue streams for the company from a number of new geographic areas covered by the Intelsat FlexMove and FlexEnterprise global services," said Leslie Klein, President, and CEO of C-COM Satellite Systems Inc. "C-COM customers are now able to get additional high quality, cost effective and reliable mobile broadband satellite solutions around the globe," Klein continued.

About C-COM Satellite Systems Inc.

C-COM Satellite Systems Inc. is an innovator and leading global provider of mobile on the pause satellite-based antenna systems. The Company designs, develops and manufactures proprietary, auto-acquisition antenna systems for rapid antenna pointing to a satellite, with just the press of a button. This technology makes it possible to deliver, Broadband Internet via Satellite across a wide range of market applications worldwide, including regions unserved or underserved by terrestrial access technologies.

C-COM has sold more than 10,000 antenna systems, in over 100 countries, through a dedicated dealer network that provides service to a wide range of vertical markets such as Oil & Gas Exploration, Military Communications, Disaster Management, SNG, Emergency Communications, Cellular Backhaul, Telemedicine, Mobile Education, Government Services, Mobile Banking, and others. The Company's iNetVu brand is synonymous with high quality, reliability, and cost-effectiveness.

C-COM is in late-stage development of a potentially revolutionary Ka-band, electronically steerable, modular, conformal, flat panel phased array antenna. In cooperation with the University of Waterloo, C-COM is engaged in the design of this unique antenna with the intent of providing low-cost, high-throughput mobility applications over satellite for land, airborne and maritime verticals. For additional information, please visit www.c-comsat.com.

iNetVu is a registered trademark of C-COM Satellite Systems Inc.

The Company is publicly traded on the Canadian Venture Exchange (TSXV: CMI) and on the US OTCQB Exchange (OTCQB: CYSNF).

About Intelsat

Intelsat's global team of professionals is focused on providing seamless and secure, satellite-based communications to government, NGO and commercial customers through the company's next-generation global network and managed services. Bridging the digital divide by operating one of the world's largest and most advanced satellite fleet and connectivity infrastructures, Intelsat enables people and their tools to speak over oceans, see across continents and listen through the skies to communicate, cooperate and coexist. Since its founding six decades ago, the company has been synonymous with satellite-industry "firsts" in service to its customers and the planet. Leaning on a legacy of innovation and focusing on addressing a new generation of challenges Intelsat team members now have their sights on the "next firsts" in space as they disrupt the field and lead in the digital transformation of the industry.

###

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements. These statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect management's current expectations and assumptions. Statements about C-COM's new location and its expectations for the activities to be conducted there, and its intentions and expectations with respect to its Ka-band antenna all contain forward-looking information. Several factors could cause actual events, performance, or results to differ materially from the events, performance and results discussed in the forward-looking statements. Anticipated benefits of the new location and technology may not be realized, and new products and services may not be released or, if released may not gain market acceptance. Any of those events and others could influence future performance and C-COM Satellite Systems Inc.'s ability to achieve the results mentioned above. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and C-COM Satellite Systems Inc. does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. Readers are directed to the risk factors associated with the business of C-COM Satellite Systems in the company's most recent MD&A available at www.SEDAR.com.

Contact:

Investor Relations

C-COM Satellite Systems Inc.

Tel: (613) 745-4110 ext. 4950

Fax: (613) 745-7144

[email protected]

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/156549
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 1, 2023) - Getchell Gold Corp (CSE: GTCH) (OTCQB: GGLDF) invites all shareholders and precious metals investors to visit us at Booth #2341 at the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada's (PDAC) Convention at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (MTCC) from Sunday, March 5 to Wednesday, March 8, 2023. President Mike Sieb will lead a contingent exhibiting in the Investor Exchange that includes our senior exploration team that will gladly address any technical or investment questions.

This will mark the first major global conference attended since the Fondaway Canyon Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) Technical Report was published on February 1, 2023. That report models both an open pit and underground operation, similar to existing Nevada gold producers.

Mineral Resource Estimate Key Highlights*

Large 'at surface' Mineral Resource Estimate in a premier gold mining jurisdiction;

Inferred Mineral Resource of 38.3 million tonnes at an average grade of 1.23 g/t Au for

1,509,100 ounces of gold;

of 38.3 million tonnes at an average grade of 1.23 g/t Au for of gold; Indicated Mineral Resource of 11.0 million tonnes at an average grade of 1.56 g/t Au for an additional 550,800 ounces of gold;

of 11.0 million tonnes at an average grade of 1.56 g/t Au for an additional of gold; Gold mineralization remains open for further expansion in all contributing zones; and

Technical report available on the Company's website and on SEDAR.

"This year's PDAC is perfectly timed for Getchell Gold," states President Mike Sieb, adding "This is the mining community's largest 'in person' investor event and this year's attendance coincides with the release of our new Mineral Resource Estimate that has received significant attention and is expected to generate many quality meetings with mining influencers and investors this week. For anyone interested in discussing this major milestone and the future plans at our advanced exploration stage gold project situated a short drive from Reno, Nevada, please reach out to our team and drop by booth #2341."

About PDAC

PDAC 2023: The World's Premier Mineral Exploration & Mining Convention is the leading event for people, companies and organizations connected to mineral exploration.

This annual convention in Toronto, Canada is known for attracting up to 30,000 attendees from over 130+ countries for its educational programming, networking events, outstanding business opportunities and fun. Since it began in 1932, the PDAC Convention has grown in size, stature and influence. Today, it is the event of choice for the world's mineral industry hosting more than 1,100 exhibitors and 2,500 investors.

For more information and/or to register for the conference please visit: https://www.pdac.ca/convention/attend/registration.

Fondaway Canyon Mineral Resource Estimate

The results of the Mineral Resource Estimate are as follows:





Table 1: Fondaway Canyon Global Mineral Resources Estimate at a price of US$ 1,650 per ounce.



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8666/156671_80cd2fab4489a88d_001full.jpg







Table 2: Fondaway Canyon Mineral Resource Estimate by Zone



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8666/156671_80cd2fab4489a88d_002full.jpg







Figure 1: Fondaway Canyon Project MRE showing conceptual pits and Central Zone gold grade block model in plan view.



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8666/156671_80cd2fab4489a88d_003full.jpg







Figure 2: Fondaway Canyon MRE 3D gold grade block model sliced through the Colorado SW zone showing select drill hole gold intervals.



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8666/156671_80cd2fab4489a88d_004full.jpg







Figure 3: Fondaway Canyon Project MRE 3D gold grade block model sliced through the North Fork zone showing select drill hole gold intervals.



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8666/156671_80cd2fab4489a88d_005full.jpg

*The Fondaway Canyon Mineral Resources Estimate is based on 518 reverse circulation and diamond drill holes totaling 52,395 metres (171,900 feet) spanning over forty years to the present along a 3.5 km East-West gold trend (Figure 1).

The MRE represents a significant expansion to a historic Mineral Resources Estimate published by a previous operator in 2017 by:

i) Primarily modelling the Mineral Resources as a bulk tonnage target with a conceptual open pit mining scenario versus a solely underground extraction scenario; ii) The addition of new assay results from 26 diamond drill holes (2017 to 2022) that were completed subsequent to the release of the historic 2017 Mineral Resources Estimate; and iii) Major discoveries in 2020 and expansion of the new zones drilled through 2022.

Nineteen (19) drill holes, FCG20-01 to FCG22-19, totaling 6,973 metres (22,877 feet) drilled by the Company in 2020, 2021, and 2022, were considered in the current MRE and represent a significant component of the expanded gold mineralization.

Nine (9) holes drilled in 2022, FCG22-20 through FCG22-28, totaling 3,473 metres (11,394 feet) were completed subsequent to the cut-off for inclusion into the MRE. The assay results from these nine 2022 holes will be incorporated into a future Mineral Resources Estimate.

Notes on the Mineral Resource Estimate:

The independent and qualified person for the mineral resources estimate, as defined by NI 43-101, is Michael Dufresne, P.Geo., from APEX Geoscience Ltd. 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. The mineral resources in this report were estimated using the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum standards on mineral resources and reserves, definitions, and guidelines prepared by the CIM standing committee on reserve definitions and adopted by the CIM council (CIM 2014 and 2019). The effective date of the Mineral Resources Estimate is December 15, 2022, and the related technical report, titled "Technical Report Mineral Resource Estimate Fondaway Canyon Project, Nevada, USA" published on February 1, 2023, is available for download on the Company's website and on SEDAR. For additional notes on the MRE, refer to the Company's news release dated December 15, 2022, or the technical report.

Scott Frostad, P.Geo., is the Qualified Person (as defined in NI 43-101) who reviewed and approved the content and scientific and technical information in the news release.

About Getchell Gold Corp.

The Company is a Nevada focused gold and copper exploration company trading on the (CSE: GTCH) and (OTCQB: GGLDF). Getchell Gold is primarily directing its efforts on its most advanced stage asset, Fondaway Canyon, a past gold producer with a significant in-the-ground Mineral Resources Estimate. Complementing Getchell's asset portfolio is the Star project, a past high-grade copper, gold, and silver small-scale producer, the Dixie Comstock project, a past gold producer with a historic resource, and one earlier stage exploration project, Hot Springs Peak (Au). Getchell has the option to acquire 100% of the Fondaway Canyon and Dixie Comstock properties, Churchill County, Nevada.

For further information please visit the Company's website at www.getchellgold.com or contact the Company by e-mail at [email protected] or by phone at +1 647 249-4798.

Mr. William Wagener, Chairman & CEO

Getchell Gold Corp.

1-647-249-4798

getchellgold.com

The Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed this press release and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Certain information contained herein constitutes "forward-looking information" under Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the use of proceeds. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "will" or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "will" occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management as of the date such statements are made and they are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information. Although management of Getchell have attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. The Company will not update any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information that are incorporated by reference herein, except as required by applicable securities laws.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/156671
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 1, 2023) - International Lithium Corp. (TSXV: ILC) (OTCQB: ILHMF) (FSE: IAH)(the "Company" or "ILC") is pleased to announce a maiden Mineral Resource Estimate ("MRE") for the Raleigh Lake Lithium Project ("Raleigh Lake", "The Property", the "Project"), located approximately 25 km west of Ignace, Ontario, Canada. This MRE will be published in a related NI 43-101 Technical Report (the "Report") within 45 days of the release of this press release.

The Project includes MREs for both lithium and rubidium. The two MREs are closely related due to their spatial relationships, but their respective resource estimates are considered separate and unique.

The following highlights taken from the Report, and set out below, should be considered in the context of the detailed information given there.

Lithium MRE Summary

The lithium MRE for Lithium-Caesium-Tantalum ("LCT") pegmatites of the Raleigh Lake pegmatite field is presented in Table 1 below. Lithium within the Raleigh Lake deposit is hosted within spodumene laths that are generally green in colour and range in size from less than 1 cm to greater than 8 cm. Pegmatites within the Deposit are weakly zoned and spodumene mineralization is relatively homogenous throughout. The open pit and underground MREs are constrained via optimized pit shell and minable shape wireframes, respectively.

Table 1: Lithium Open Pit and Underground MRE

Area Resource Category Mass (kt) Grade Contained

Li (t) Li (ppm) Li 2 O (%) Open Pit



650ppm

Li Cut-off Measured 80 3,887 0.84% 313 Indicated 2,021 2,919 0.63% 5,897 Measured + Indicated 2,101 2,956 0.64% 6,210 Inferred 3,247 2,595 0.56% 8,427 Underground



2,000ppm

Li Cut-off Measured 3 2,560 0.55% 8 Indicated 189 3,203 0.69% 606 Measured + Indicated 192 3,192 0.69% 614 Inferred 655 3,162 0.68% 2,073 Total Measured + Indicated 2,293 2,976 0.64% 6,824 Inferred 3,902 2,691 0.58% 10,499

Refer to notes on Mineral Resources below.





Figure 1: Lithium MRE isometric section view looking southwest with lithium grades.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/3232/156717_a7ed59124466baa3_003full.jpg.

Rubidium MRE Summary

The rubidium MRE is presented in Table 2 below. An independent MRE has been calculated for the rubidium contained within microcline zones of the LCT pegmatites. Rubidium also occurs throughout the LCT pegmatites within the lithium-bearing spodumene at a lower cutoff but is not included in this rubidium MRE. Rubidium reaches grades greater than 4,000 ppm are attributed to pockets of high modal abundance of microcline (potassic feldspar). Rubidium has thus been constrained to a higher cutoff to separate it from the lithium resource, allowing rubidium and lithium to be mined and presented separately. The open pit and underground MREs are constrained via optimized pit shell and minable shape wireframes, respectively.

Table 2: Rubidium Open Pit and Underground MRE

Area Resource Category Mass (kt) Grade Contained

Rb (t) Rb (ppm) Rb 2 O (%) Open Pit



4,000ppm

Rb Cut-off Measured 5 5,412 0.59% 29 Indicated 90 6,073 0.66% 547 Measured + Indicated 95 6,036 0.66% 576 Inferred 18 3,005 0.33% 53 Underground



4,000ppm

Rb Cut-off Measured 5 6,547 0.72% 35 Indicated 33 6,474 0.71% 211 Measured + Indicated 38 6,484 0.71% 246 Inferred 106 4,427 0.48% 468 Total Measured + Indicated 133 6,163 0.67% 822 Inferred 123 4,224 0.46% 521

Refer to notes on Mineral Resources below.





Figure 2: Rubidium MRE isometric section view looking southwest with rubidium grades.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/3232/156717_a7ed59124466baa3_004full.jpg.

Geology & Mineralization

The Project is located within the Wabigoon Subprovince of the Canadian Shield's Archean Superior Province. The LCT pegmatites within the Property occur in a zone striking south-southeast and are approximately 1.5 km wide and at least 4 km in length. Pegmatites within the Deposit are members of the albite-spodumene sub-type of rare metal pegmatites. Underlying host rock of the Deposit are Archean supracrustal rocks of mafic metavolcanics and their metasedimentary equivalents, and bordering the pegmatites is the Revell Lake Batholith. Micaceous phases of the intrusives are interpreted to be the parent of the rare element bearing pegmatites of the Raleigh Lake pegmatite field.

The two dominant pegmatites within the Project are referred to as pegmatite #1 and #3, both of which outcrop on surface and are exposed at 200 m and 50 m in strike length, respectively. Diamond drilling has proven lateral continuity of approximately 800 m and ranging in width from 3.9 m to 8.0 m for Pegmatite #1 and approximately 700 m with an average thickness of 1.2 m for Pegmatite #3. Figure 3 below shows the modelling of the pegmatites within the Raleigh Lake pegmatite field based on a grade cutoff of 500 ppm lithium in drillhole assays.

Pegmatites form shallowly to moderately dipping, north-northeasterly trending, undeformed sheets with significant potential for additional lateral continuity. The pegmatites are strongly fractionated and display overall weak zonation, suggesting that strongly enriched rare-metal zonation may exist within extensions and untested areas of the main pegmatites. Crude zonation is evident in wider pegmatites with albite-rich bounding zones and 'core' zones of albite-quartz-muscovite or spodumene-potassium feldspar-albite. "Pockets" of a high modal abundance of microcline exist within Pegmatite #1 and which correspond to high grade rubidium concentration. Occurrences of holmquistite (lithium-bearing mica) have also been noted within Pegmatite #2.





Figure 3: LCT pegmatites within the Raleigh Lake pegmatite field looking west-northwest.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/3232/156717_a7ed59124466baa3_005full.jpg.

ILC has retained Nordmin Engineering Ltd. ("Nordmin"), based in Thunder Bay, Ontario, to prepare an independent lithium (spodumene-hosted) and rubidium (microcline-hosted) MRE for the Project and to prepare a Technical Report (the "Report") consistent with the standards and guidelines set out by the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum ("CIM") and in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

In preparation of the MRE and Report, Nordmin applied processes that were appropriate for lithium pegmatite-style deposits. The Report will be available on SEDAR within 45 days. The effective date for the resource estimation is February 16, 2023.

Notes on Mineral Resources

The MRE was prepared by Christian Ballard, P.Geo., of Nordmin, who is the Qualified Person ("QP") as defined by NI 43-101 and is independent of ILC. Mineral Resources, which are not Mineral Reserves, do not have demonstrated economic viability. The above Inferred Mineral Resources are subject to potential upgrade to Indicated and Measured Mineral Resources with continued drilling. There is no guarantee that any part of the Mineral Resources discussed herein will be converted to another category or to a Mineral Reserve in the future. The estimate of Mineral Resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, marketing, or other relevant issues. The Mineral Resources in this report were estimated using the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum standards on Mineral Resources and reserves, definitions, and guidelines prepared by the CIM standing committee on reserve definitions and adopted by the CIM council (CIM 2014 and 2019). The MRE is developed with data from diamond drill holes totaling 13,821 m. The pit constrained mineral resources were defined using a parented block model, within an optimized pit shell with average pit slope angles of 45 in rock and 30 in overburden, a 9.8 strip ratio (waste material: mineralized material) and a revenue factor of 1.0. The pit optimization shells were created using Deswik.AdvOPM software. The lithium resource pit optimization parameters include: 5.5% Li 2 O spodumene concentrate; US$1,800 Li 2 O spodumene concentrate price; exchange rate of C$1.3/US$1; concentrate transportation and offsite charges of C$175/t, mining cost of C$6/t, processing plus general and administration cost of C$41/t; and a process recovery of 75%. Only lithium value was used to generate the resource optimized pit shell. Underground constrained mineral resources were defined within 5 x 5 x 5 m minable shape optimization wireframes. The mineable shape optimization constraining wireframes were created using Deswik.SO software. The lithium resource underground minable shape optimization parameters include: 5.5% Li 2 O spodumene concentrate; US$1,800 Li 2 O spodumene concentrate price; exchange rate of C$1.3/US$1; concentrate transportation and offsite charges of C$175/t, mining cost of C$80/t, processing plus general and administration cost of C$50/t; and a process recovery of 75%. The rubidium resource was constrained above market value due to the current limited world market. A 4,000 ppm rubidium cut-off grade was selected. The rubidium resource was excluded from (i.e. neither taken into account nor used as a credit for) the underground and open pit lithium resource. A default density of 2.668 g/cm3 was used for the mineralized zones. All figures are rounded to reflect the relative accuracy of the estimates; totals may not add correctly. The effective date of the MRE is February 16, 2023 and a technical report on the Project will be filed by the Company on SEDAR within 45 days of the date of this News Release.

Infrastructure and Ownership Advantages of the Raleigh Lake Project (Figure 4)

The Project:

Is 100% owned by ILC and is not subject to any off-take agreements, partnerships, or royalties.

Consists of 48,500 hectares (485 square kilometres) of adjoining mineral claims.

Is located approximately 25 kilometers west of the Township of Ignace, Ontario.

Distinguishes itself from other lithium projects in Canada by being very well situated near to major public infrastructure, including: The Trans-Canada Highway, with direct access to Thunder Bay on Lake Superior, is less than six kilometers north of the Project; The Canadian Pacific Railway, natural gas pipelines, and Hydro One power transmission lines (115 and 230 kV) are just a few kilometres from the Project.







Figure 4: Major public infrastructure relative to the Project.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/3232/156717_a7ed59124466baa3_006full.jpg.

Executive Comment

John Wisbey, Chairman and CEO of ILC commented :

We are very pleased to announce our maiden Mineral Resource Estimate for the Raleigh Lake lithium deposit containing both open-pit and underground resources. It is a great credit to our project and drilling teams that we have developed this estimate within eighteen months from the start of 2021-22 drilling to a level that includes 37% mineralized material contained within the Measured and Indicated resource categories.

As well as our primary focus on lithium, we are also highly encouraged by the amount of rubidium at the Raleigh Lake deposit and it is pleasing to note that separate high-grade rubidium pods have been discovered within the open-pit lithium resource, locally hosted within microcline-rich areas which are distinct from the lithium-rich areas of the pegmatites. This rubidium has therefore been reported as a separate resource. This presents an exciting opportunity.

The world market for rubidium is much smaller than that for lithium and trading volume is somewhat opaque. The current market price of rubidium carbonate (as for example reported on www.metal.com) is USD 1,160 (RMB 8,000) per kg, which is over 21 times the current lithium carbonate price of USD 53,400 per metric tonne (RMB 368 per kg). ILC's rubidium at Raleigh Lake is therefore significant and not a minor add-on - provided always as for any commodity that world demand for rubidium is there and that the price is available at projected production levels. These prices should not be taken as the prices that ILC will be able to achieve for selling its lithium and rubidium, but to give information about current relative prices.

We look forward to a busy year as we advance to the next stage of study and anticipate releasing a Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") around the middle of this year, based on this maiden Mineral Resource Estimate.

Qualified Person

Mr. Christian Ballard, P.Geo., of Nordmin, is the QP for this release and for the MRE it discloses, as defined by NI 43-101, and has reviewed and approved the technical information in this release.

About International Lithium Corp.

International Lithium Corp. believes that the world faces a significant turning point in the energy market's dependence on oil and gas and in the governmental and public view of climate change. In addition, we have seen the clear and increasingly urgent wish by the USA and Canada to safeguard their supplies of critical battery metals and to become more self-sufficient. Our Canadian projects are strategic in that respect.

Our key mission in the next decade is to make money for our shareholders from lithium and rare metals while at the same time helping to create a greener, cleaner planet and less polluted cities. This includes optimizing the value of our existing projects in Canada and Ireland as well as finding, exploring and developing projects that have the potential to become world class lithium and rare metal deposits. We have announced separately that we regard Zimbabwe as an important strategic target market for ILC, and we hope to be able to make announcements over the next few weeks and months.

A key goal has been to become a well-funded company to turn our aspirations into reality, and following the disposal of the Mariana project in Argentina in 2021 and the Mavis Lake project in Canada in January 2022, the Board of the Company considers that ILC is now well placed in that respect with a strong net cash position.

The Company's interests in various projects now consists of the following, and in addition the Company continues to seek other opportunities:

Name Location Area

(Hectares) Current

Ownership Percentage Future Ownership percentage if options exercised or work carried out Operator or JV Partner Raleigh Lake Ontario 48,500 100% 100% ILC Wolf Ridge Ontario 5,700 0% 100% ILC Avalonia Ireland 29,200 45% 21% Ganfeng Lithium Mavis Lake Ontario 2,600 0% 0%

(carries an extra earn-in payment of CAD $1.4M if resource targets met) Critical Resources Ltd Forgan Lake & Lucky Lake Ontario 0% 1.5% Net Smelter Royalty Ultra Lithium Inc.

The Company's primary strategic focus at this point is on the Raleigh Lake Project's lithium and rubidium project in Canada and on identifying additional properties in Canada and Zimbabwe.

The Raleigh Lake Project consists of 48,500 hectares (485 square kilometres) of mineral claims in Ontario and is ILC's most significant project in Canada. Drilling has so far been on less than 1,000 hectares of our claims. The exploration results there so far, which are on only about 8% of ILC's current claims, have shown significant quantities of rubidium and caesium in the pegmatite as well as lithium. Raleigh Lake is 100% owned by ILC, is not subject to any encumbrances, and is royalty free.

With the increasing demand for high tech rechargeable batteries used in electric vehicles and electrical storage as well as portable electronics, lithium has been designated "the new oil", and is a key part of a green energy sustainable economy. By positioning itself with projects with significant resource potential and with solid strategic partners, ILC aims to be one of the lithium and rare metals resource developers of choice for investors and to continue to build value for its shareholders in the '20s, the decade of battery metals.

On behalf of the Company,

John Wisbey

Chairman and CEO

www.internationallithium.ca

For further information concerning this news release please contact +1 604-449-6520.

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.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

Except for statements of historical fact, this news release or other releases contain certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law. Forward-looking information or forward-looking statements in this or other news releases may include: the effect of results of anticipated production rates, the timing and/or anticipated results of drilling on the Raleigh Lake or Wolf Ridge or Avalonia projects, the expectation of resource estimates, preliminary economic assessments, feasibility studies, lithium or rubidium or caesium recoveries, modeling of capital and operating costs, results of studies utilizing various technologies at the company's projects, budgeted expenditures and planned exploration work on the Company's projects, increased value of shareholder investments, and assumptions about ethical behaviour by our joint venture partners or third party operators of projects. Such forward-looking information is based on assumptions and subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to those discussed in the sections entitled "Risks" and "Forward-Looking Statements" in the interim and annual Management's Discussion and Analysis which are available at www.sedar.com. While management believes that the assumptions made are reasonable, there can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate. Should one or more of the risks, uncertainties or other factors materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in forward-looking information. Forward-looking information herein, and all subsequent written and oral forward-looking information are based on expectations, estimates and opinions of management on the dates they are made that, while considered reasonable by the Company as of the time of such statements, are subject to significant business, economic, legislative, and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. These estimates and assumptions may prove to be incorrect and are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. Except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation to update forward-looking information should circumstances or management's estimates or opinions change.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/156717
Thunder Bay, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - March 1, 2023) - Kesselrun Resources Ltd. (TSXV: KES) (OTCQB: KSSRF) ("Kesselrun" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that the Company will be exhibiting at the annual Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada ("PDAC") convention, the world's premier mineral exploration and mining event, which will be held in person in Toronto from Sunday, March 5th to Wednesday, March 8th, 2023.

Kesselrun's management team looks forward to discussing the Company's ongoing exploration plans at booth 2536 in the Investor Exchange at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

For more information and/or to register for the convention, please visit: www.pdac.ca/convention.

About Kesselrun Resources Ltd.

Kesselrun Resources is a Thunder Bay, Ontario-based mineral exploration company focused on growth through property acquisitions and discoveries. Kesselrun's management team possesses strong geological and exploration expertise in Northwest Ontario. For more information about Kesselrun Resources, please visit www.kesselrunresources.com.

For additional information please contact:

Kesselrun Resources Ltd.

Michael Thompson, P.Geo., President & CEO

807.285.3323

[email protected]

Corporate Communications

1.866.416.7941

[email protected]

Forward Looking Statements - Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of Kesselrun, including, but not limited to the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions, volatility of commodity prices, dependence upon regulatory approvals, the execution of definitive documentation, the availability of financing and exploration risk. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/156219
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 1, 2023) - Riverside Resources Inc.(TSXV: RRI) (OTCQB: RVSDF) (FSE: 5YY)("Riverside" or the "Company"), is pleased to announce that it has signed an Option Agreement (the "Agreement") to acquire a 100% undivided right, title and interest in the Union Mine, within the Union District of Sonora, Mexico. This district has historically produced high-grade zinc, gold and silver in carbonate replacement deposits ("CRD"), which is a significant style of deposit forming major mines in northern Mexico and the southwest USA. The Union Mine historically produced ~50,000 ounces of gold ("Au") from the upper oxide zones of manto and chimney bodies according to past reports. The potential for further expansion through a focused exploration is wide open along strike and at depth for both oxide and into sulfide ore targets.

This specific tenure, located within the Company's 100%-owned Union Project, has been of interest to Riverside for several years and this Agreement finally consolidates this key inlier ground. The Union Mine property is in good standing with established infrastructure, surface access, and the opportunity to complete option purchase for 100% interest in these claims provides the Company with a clear path to start testing priority targets across the consolidated land package in this district.

Riverside's President and CEO, John-Mark Staude, stated: "Riverside is excited to be progressing the Union District and this deal consolidates the heart of the broader Union Project, giving us line of sight towards 100% ownership. We believe there is excellent potential to extend mineralization beyond the areas that were historically mined at Union and Union Norte. Controlling the historical mine areas and local infrastructure puts us in a position to move ahead more aggressively with other discovery targets within the surrounding areas as well."

Agreement Details:

Riverside paid USD$170,000 and can complete its earn-in to own an undivided 100% interest by making a second payment of USD$100,000 any time within 60 months of signing the Agreement.

Upon completion of the earn-in, a 1.25% Net Smelter Royalty ("NSR") will be retained by the underlying owner.

Riverside can purchase ("buy back") 0.25% increments of the NSR for USD$250,000 each at any time.

Figure 1. Geologic map with the tenure acquired in new Agreement shown in pink rectangle with manto and chimney type CRD targets shown in red polygons. Riverside now controls all mineral tenure in this map.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/6101/156677_73e9c74b44a70bdd_002full.jpg

Figure 2. Cross section looking west with proposed drill sites and hole traces. Assays from Riverside's sampling of rock dump materials from the two mine areas are labeled in black. Red areas are interpreted manto and chimney target bodies that will now be able to drill explore.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/6101/156677_73e9c74b44a70bdd_003full.jpg

Recent work by Riverside, announced earlier for the tenures around the Union Mine ground, returned high grade assays from rock chip sampling and identified favorable structures (see press release October 3, 2022) The next phase of proposed work on this land tenure includes ground-based geophysics building upon previous work to further refine the larger structures likely responsible for the carbonate replacement bodies similar to those found in the Cananea Mining district (including Buenavista Mine), Sonora and the Sierra Vista Mining district (Taylor and other deposits), Arizona. Drill permitting is now underway and the Company views the consolidated Union Project as one of the Company's lead assets and will move to rapidly refine targets for drilling later this year.

Qualified Person & QA/QC:

The scientific and technical data contained in this news release pertaining to the La Union Project was reviewed and approved by Julian Manco, P.Geo, a non-independent qualified person to Riverside Resources focusing on the work in Sonora, Mexico, who is responsible for ensuring that the information provided in this news release is accurate and who acts as a "qualified person" under National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

Rock samples from the exploration program discussed above at the La Union Project were taken to the Bureau Veritas Laboratories in Hermosillo, Mexico for fire assaying for gold. The rejects remained with Bureau Veritas in Mexico while the pulps were transported to Bureau Veritas laboratory in Vancouver, BC, Canada for 45 element ICP/ES-MS analysis using 4-acid digestion methods. A QA/QC program was implemented as part of the sampling procedures for the exploration program. Standard samples were randomly inserted into the sample stream prior to being sent to the laboratory.

About Riverside Resources Inc.:

Riverside is a well-funded exploration company driven by value generation and discovery. The Company has over $8M in cash, no debt and less than 80M shares outstanding with a strong portfolio of gold-silver and copper assets and royalties in North America. Riverside has extensive experience and knowledge operating in Mexico and Canada and leverages its large database to generate a portfolio of prospective mineral properties. In addition to Riverside's own exploration spending, the Company also strives to diversify risk by securing joint-venture and spin-out partnerships to advance multiple assets simultaneously and create more chances for discovery. Riverside has properties available for option, with information available on the Company's website at www.rivres.com.

ON BEHALF OF RIVERSIDE RESOURCES INC.

"John-Mark Staude"



Dr. John-Mark Staude, President & CEO

For additional information contact:

John-Mark Staude

President, CEO

Riverside Resources Inc.

[email protected]

Phone: (778) 327-6671

Fax: (778) 327-6675

Web: www.rivres.com

Mehran Bagherzadeh

Corporate Communications

Riverside Resources Inc.

[email protected]

Phone: (778) 327-6671

TF: (877) RIV-RES1

Web: www.rivres.com

Certain statements in this press release may be considered forward-looking information. These statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology (e.g., "expect"," estimates", "intends", "anticipates", "believes", "plans"). Such information involves known and unknown risks -- including the availability of funds, the results of financing and exploration activities, the interpretation of exploration results and other geological data, or unanticipated costs and expenses and other risks identified by Riverside in its public securities filings that may cause actual events to differ materially from current expectations. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/156677
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - March 1, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Terren S. Peizer, Executive Chairman of the Santa Monica, California-based healthcare treatment company Ontrak Inc., with insider trading for selling more than $20 million of Ontrak stock between May and August 2021 while in possession of material nonpublic negative information related to the companys largest customer.

According to the SECs complaint, prior to May 2021, when Peizer established a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan in the name of Acuitas Group Holdings, LLC, his investment vehicle, to sell Ontrak stock, he had learned that Ontraks relationship with its then-largest customerrepresenting more than half its revenuewas tenuous. Nevertheless, Peizer attested at the time that he was unaware of any material nonpublic information concerning the company, executed the 10b5-1 plan, and sold nearly 600,000 of Ontrak shares worth more than $19.2 million. In August 2021, the complaint alleges, Peizer learned the same relationship was on the verge of being terminated, which prompted him to adopt a second Rule 10b5-1 trading plan and sell 45,000 more shares of stock worth more than $1.9 million.

When Ontrak announced on August 19, 2021 that the customer had terminated the contract, Ontraks stock price fell more than 44 percent and, as a result, the SEC complaint alleges, Peizer avoided more than $12.7 million in losses by executing the two trading plans. The SECs complaint alleges that Peizer and Acuitas adopted the Rule 10b5-1 plans while Peizer was aware of material nonpublic information and as part of a scheme to evade insider trading prohibitions and that, therefore, Peizer cannot take advantage of any affirmative defense available to corporate insiders under Rule 10b5-1.

We allege that Mr. Peizer was aware of non-public information when he established and executed Rule 10b5-1 trading plans, said SEC Chair Gary Gensler. The rule, however, only provides a defense when insiders adopt plans in good faith. While Mr. Peizers alleged conduct violated our rules as they have existed for two decades, todays action comes the week that our amendments to Rule 10b5-1 become effective. These reforms to Rule 10b5-1 will further help prevent unlawful trading by executives on the basis of non-public information and help build confidence that corporate insiders are playing by the same rules as all other investors.

We allege that Mr. Peizer, armed with inside knowledge, avoided millions in losses that ordinary investors suffered. Thats insider trading, even when the trading is done through a 10b5-1 trading plan, said Gurbir S. Grewal, Director of the SECs Division of Enforcement. Few things undermine trust in the markets more than insiders abusing their positions for personal advantage; the SEC remains committed to investigating such abuse and holding bad actors accountable.

The SECs complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in the Central District of California, charges Peizer and Acuitas with violating antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws and seeks permanent injunctive relief, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains with prejudgment interest, civil penalties, and an officer and director bar for Peizer.

In a parallel action, the U.S. Department of Justice today announced criminal charges against Mr. Peizer.

The SECs investigation, which is ongoing, is being conducted by Emily Shea, with assistance from Brian Shute, William Connolly, and Pete Rosario, under the supervision of Kevin Guerrero and Stacy Bogert. The investigation arose from a data-driven initiative into executive trading pursuant to 10b5-1 plans, led by Mr. Guerrero and Ms. Shea, and assisted by Alex Lefferts and Howard Kaplan. The litigation will be handled by Dean Conway, Ms. Shea, and Mr. Guerrero and supervised by James Connor.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 28, 2023) - The BC Bud Corporation (CSE: BCBC) (OTCQB: BCBCF) ("The BC Bud Co" or the "Company"), a house of high-quality cannabis brands based out of British Columbia, Canada, is pleased to announce the appointment of Simon Tso as Chief Financial Officer effective March 1, 2023.

Simon brings years of experience assisting companies of all sizes with their financial reporting, regulatory filing and taxation requirements. Mr. Tso is a co-founder of Zeus Capital Ltd., a boutique corporate finance firm that specializes in providing financial advisory, valuation and consulting services. Simon graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce (Finance) degree from the UBC Sauder School of Business, and is both a CFA Charterholder and a Chartered Professional Accountant.

Mr. Tso replaces Emily Graham. The Company thanks Ms. Graham for her contributions to the Company in its first year of operations and wishes her well with her endeavours.

In addition, in connection with the completion of the Company's 2023 financial year end, the Company has determined to issue as compensation to its independent directors 100,000 shares each for an aggregate of 300,000 shares issuable all at a deemed price of $0.12 per share (the "Compensation Issuance"). The Company has also determined to issue 150,000 shares to its advisor, Marc Lustig, for services provided through the year. All of the securities issuable will be subject to resale restrictions under the policies of the CSE expiring on June 29, 2023.

The participation in the Compensation Issuance by insiders of the Company constitutes a "related party transaction" as such term is defined under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). The Company is relying on exemptions from the formal valuation and minority approval requirements under MI 61-101. The Company relied on Section 5.5(a) of MI 61-101 for an exemption from the formal valuation requirement and Section 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101 for an exemption from the minority shareholder approval requirement of MI 61-101 as the fair market value of the Compensation Issuance in so far as the Compensation Issuance involved interested parties did not exceed 25% of the Company's market capitalization

The Company has also determined to grant an aggregate of 500,000 stock options exercisable for a period of five years at a $0.12 per share to officers and consultants.

About The BC Bud Co

The BC Bud Co is a house of brands created by industry professionals who are passionate about the user experience and the ever-changing consumer experience. Founder-led and based in British Columbia; we take the heritage of BC Bud seriously.

Investor Relations

Phone: 1-(778)-656-0377

Email: [email protected]

Web: www.thebcbc.com

Disclaimer

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements included in this press release constitute forward-looking information or statements (collectively, "forward-looking statements"), including those identified by the expressions "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "may", "should" and similar expressions to the extent they relate to the Company or its management. The forward-looking statements are not historical facts but reflect current expectations regarding future results or events. This press release contains forward looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and various estimates, factors and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors.

Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions which are difficult to predict. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include failure to obtain regulatory approval, the continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions, including the effects of COVID-19. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. These statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those implied by such statements. Although such statements are based on management's reasonable assumptions, there can be no assurance that the statements will prove to be accurate or that management's expectations or estimates of future developments, circumstances or results will materialize. The Company assumes no responsibility to update or revise forward-looking information to reflect new events or circumstances unless required by law. Readers should not place undue reliance on the Company's forward-looking statements.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange (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.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/156647
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - March 1, 2023) - York Harbour Metals Inc.(TSXV: YORK) (OTC Pink: YORKF) (FSE: 5DE0) (the "Company" or "York") announces that it has chosen Star Finance GmbH ("Star Finance") to handle its new investor relations services in Europe. Accordingly, Star Finance will work to elevate York's public profile and reach investors through various channels including investor relations, digital marketing and the dissemination of corporate information.

Pursuant to an agreement with Star Finance (the "Agreement"), Star Finance will, subject to the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "Exchange") in accordance with applicable securities laws, provide investor relations services over a six-month period beginning February 28, 2023, for a fixed upfront fee of 330,000 (approximately, CAD$475,652), which shall be paid from the Company's working capital, for investor relations services in Europe, including dissemination of Company information, support with events and advertising, market research, investor communications, and media and advertising services. Star Finance will also disseminate information and corporate materials about the Company through email and website platforms in Europe. The Agreement will be renewed for an additional six months unless either party provides one month's notice of cancellation. The Company may grant stock options to Star Finance under terms determined by the Company, which are subject to and in accordance with the policies of the Exchange and vesting over a 12-month period from the date of grant. Either party may terminate the Agreement with 15 days notice in the event of a material breach.

Star Finance is owned and operated by Michael Adams who is an experienced communications professional with more than 20 years of experience assisting Canadian public companies with introductions to investors, primarily in Germany and German-speaking Europe. Among other services, Star Finance owns and operates two established investment-focused financial websites and provides information about investment opportunities to its audience through an e-mail newsletter, websites and various social media channels in the form of written articles as well as video content. Star Finance is a Swiss company owned by Star IR GmbH, which is owned by Michael Adams, with offices in Steinhausen, Switzerland and Cologne, Germany. Star Finance is an independent arm's length party to the Company and, to the Company's knowledge, does not own any of its securities.

About the Company

York Harbour Metals Inc. (TSXV: YORK) (OTC Pink: YORKF) (FSE: 5DE0) is an exploration and development company with a focus on two high-grade projects in Newfoundland. The York Harbour Copper-Zinc-Silver Project is located approximately 27 km from Corner Brook in Newfoundland. The Company intends to continue drilling the 11 known mineralized zones and explore new massive sulphide targets.

Recently, the Company announced the acquisition of a high-grade Rare Earth Elements ("REE") project also located in Newfoundland. The Bottom Brook Critical Metals Project, covering 13,025 hectares, is located next to the Trans Canada Highway and is just 27 km from the deep-water port at Turf Point. York Harbour intends to actively identify diamond drill targets by property-wide prospecting and focused soil sampling and geological mapping. A substantial drill program scheduled for this year.

For further details on York Harbour Metals, please reach out to [email protected] or call +1-778-302-2257. You may also visit the Company's website at www.yorkharbourmetals.com for past news releases, media interviews and opinion-editorial pieces by management.

On Behalf of The Board of Directors,

Andrew Lee

Managing Director

Telephone: 778-302-2257 | Email: [email protected]

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 press release.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This news release may contain "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All information contained herein that is not historical in nature may constitute forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements herein include but are not limited to statements relating to the prospects for development of the Company's mineral properties, and are necessarily based upon a number of assumptions that, while considered reasonable by management, are inherently subject to business, market and economic risks, uncertainties and contingencies that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by forward looking statements. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/156786
FILE PHOTO: A vintage car used for touristic city tours passes by the U.S. Embassy in Havana, Cuba, November 10, 2021. Photo taken on November 10, 2021. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini

By Jonathan Landay

MCLEAN, Virginia (Reuters) -A globe-spanning U.S. intelligence investigation has concluded it is "very unlikely" a foreign adversary is responsible for the "Havana syndrome" ailment that has afflicted U.S. diplomats, spies and other personnel worldwide, according to declassified findings released on Wednesday.

The symptoms of the mysterious ailment, first reported by U.S. embassy officials in the Cuban capital Havana in 2016, have included migraines, nausea, memory lapses and dizziness.

About 1,500 cases now have been reported by U.S. government agencies and departments, including some from this year.

Seven of the 18 U.S intelligence agencies conducted the more than two-year investigation in more than 90 countries, including the United States, where the FBI opened a criminal probe.

The agencies even considered the possibility that extraterrestrials were responsible, but ruled that out, a U.S. intelligence official told reporters in a briefing.

"Most IC (intelligence community) agencies have concluded that it is 'very unlikely" a foreign adversary is responsible," the assessment said.

It also found "no credible evidence" that any American foe possessed "a weapon or collection device," including an emitter of electromagnetic energy pulses, that could cause the symptoms.

An advisory group of experts from inside and outside the government last year found that such pulses could have been targeted at some of those who reported symptoms.

"IC agencies assess the symptoms reported by U.S. personnel were probably the result of factors that did not involve a foreign adversary, such as pre-existing conditions, conventional illnesses and environmental factors," the assessment concluded.

Confidence in that conclusion was bolstered by findings that "medical, environmental and social factors can explain" many symptoms, it continued.

"We cannot tie a foreign adversary to any incident," said one of two U.S. intelligence officials who briefed reporters. He added that pre-2016 reports of similar symptoms also were examined, but there was insufficient data on those.

None of the foreign intelligence services contacted during the investigation reported similar incidents, he said.

WIDE-RANGING INVESTIGATION

The probe involved hundreds of U.S. intelligence officers, other officials, and outside experts, and covered more than 90 countries, the intelligence officials said.

It ranged from examining possible Russian involvement, interviews, reviews of recordings, and developing special sensors, to creating 3-D models of incident locations, identifying individuals and buildings near those sites, and tracking license plates, the assessment said.

U.S. intelligence agencies also tracked individuals, such as arms dealers, around the world through their electronic devices "seeing what they were doing, who they were talking to," said the second intelligence official.

"We had leads that took nine months to unpack," she said.

The probe considered a wide range of possibilities, including "potential correlations with things overheard," she said.

"Yes, we considered extraterrestrials."

The declassified assessment said the seven U.S intelligence agencies that conducted the investigation had varying levels of confidence in the judgments.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees the U.S. intelligence community, said agencies would continue studying the incidents and responding to individuals who report them.

A separate Pentagon review also is continuing.

CIA Director William Burns said in a statement that the "findings do not call into question the experiences and real health issues that U.S. government personnel and their family members - including CIA's own officers - have reported while serving our country.

"We will continue to remain alert to any risks to the health and wellbeing of agency officers, to ensure access to care, and to provide officers the compassion and respect they deserve."

Elaborating on how the agencies reached the key finding that foreign involvement was unlikely, the first U.S. intelligence official said that they detected confusion among foreign foes over the issue.

"Many of them think this is a U.S. plot," he said, adding that the agencies were able to learn the "inside thinking" of some adversaries, without identifying them.

The White House and the State Department said that providing medical care and support for U.S. employees who report symptoms would remain a top priority.

In a sarcasm-laced commentary, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the U.S. intelligence community and media had long suggested Moscow was responsible.

"So, it turns out that our image of an 'evil empire' is crumbling before our eyes?" she wrote.

(Reporting by Jonathan Landay; Additional reporting by Steve Holland and David Ljunggren. Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Josie Kao and Rosalba O'Brien)
Disney, McLaren Racing, RSM US LLP, The University of Texas at Dallas host Global Alteryx SparkED Datathon Series designed to increase data literacy and close skills gap

IRVINE, Calif., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Alteryx, Inc. (NYSE: AYX), the Analytics Automation company, announced today the launch of its first ever Alteryx SparkED Datathon series with a flagship event in partnership with McLaren Racing. This comes on the heels of the two-day SparkED Datathon hosted at The University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas) with Alteryx customers Disney, RSM US LLP, and more. This global upskilling initiative is designed to help learners gain data and analytics experience and understand how data-driven organizations are using decision intelligence to drive meaningful business outcomes.

Alteryx SparkED, the company's no-cost analytics education program, now works with 977 institutions globally, an 87 percent year over year increase in 2022, and more than 140,000 learners in over 50 countries. The program helps individuals and career changers create growth opportunities and improve their career outcomes amidst current economic turbulence.

McLaren Racing Accelerates Analytics Education

On Tuesday, March 14, McLaren Racing and Alteryx will host a unique Datathon at the McLaren Technology Centre, inviting students from universities across the UK to compete in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to analyze real-world data from the McLaren F1 Team. Students will qualify through a series of individual "escape room" challenges, with finalists participating in the data analytics Grand Prix event and getting a behind-the-scenes tour and look at the historical collection of McLaren Racing cars.

"Promoting STEM education pathways to help prepare today's students to become tomorrow's data leaders forms part of McLaren Racing's commitment to making STEM careers more accessible to all," said Matt Dennington, Executive Director, Partnerships and Accelerator at McLaren Racing. "Teaming up with our partner Alteryx to host a SparkED Datathon at the McLaren Technology Centre is an exciting opportunity for data-curious students. They will need to solve challenges using real-world McLaren data on the same innovative analytics platform our team uses to power our performance-enhancing insights."

The University of Texas at Dallas Improves Students' Career Outcomes with Alteryx SparkED

The McLaren Datathon follows the success of the UT Dallas event, where 100 students competed and solved use cases from Disney, RSM, and more. Students then met with prospective employers and showcased how they can deliver value with analytics on day one of employment.

"It's important for us to build a robust data analytics program and give our students strong networking opportunities to improve their career outcomes," said Gaurav Shekhar, Director of MS Business Analytics and Assistant Professor of Instruction, UT Dallas. "Alteryx SparkED has been a key partner for upskilling our students and helping them develop highly demanded data analytics skills that every employer across every industry needs."

UT Dallas has the largest analytics program in the United States and serves as a model for higher education institutions by ensuring students have relevant business skills by graduation. More than 1,000 students have participated in SparkED, achieving more than 500 Alteryx micro-credentials and certifications.

"Businesses globally are hungry to find talented employees who are data literate and skilled in analytics," said Libby Duane Adams, Chief Advocacy Officer and Co-Founder, Alteryx. "We've designed the Alteryx SparkED program to upskill students and help them succeed in the workplace, but we cannot do it alone. Our partnerships with organizations such as McLaren Racing and UT Dallas are key to bringing analytics to all."

Learn more about the Alteryx SparkED program and get involved here.

About Alteryx Alteryx (NYSE: AYX) powers analytics for all by providing our leading Analytics Automation Platform. Alteryx delivers easy end-to-end automation of data engineering, analytics, reporting, machine learning, and data science processes, enabling enterprises everywhere to democratize data analytics across their organizations for a broad range of use cases. More than 8,000 customers globally rely on Alteryx to deliver high-impact business outcomes. To learn more, visit www.alteryx.com.

Alteryx is a registered trademark of Alteryx, Inc. All other product and brand names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/alteryx-announces-new-education-initiative-to-bring-analytics-for-all-to-learners-and-career-changers-301759111.html

SOURCE Alteryx, Inc.
Funding to progress Chroma's single-dose epigenetic editing therapies and support expansion of novel genetic medicine platform designed to enable precise gene regulation while preserving genomic integrity

Financing led by GV, with participation from ARCH Venture Partners, DCVC Bio, Mubadala Capital, Sixth Street, and all existing investors

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Chroma Medicine, Inc., (Chroma) a genomic medicine company pioneering single-dose epigenetic editing therapeutics, today announced the completion of a $135 million Series B financing led by GV (Google Ventures), with participation from additional new investors ARCH Venture Partners, DCVC Bio, Mubadala Capital, Sixth Street, and all existing investors, including Alexandria Venture Investments, Atlas Venture, Casdin Capital, Cormorant Asset Management, Janus Henderson Investors, Newpath Partners, Omega Funds, Osage University Partners, Sofinnova Partners, T Rowe Price, and Wellington Management. The financing will support advancement of Chroma's therapeutic programs toward the clinic, and continued investment in the company's core epigenetic editing platform.

"In the year since launch, we have made significant progress in advancing the pioneering work of our scientific founders towards harnessing the power of the cell's epigenome to regulate gene expression and developing a robust portfolio of single-dose epigenetic editing therapeutics," said Catherine Stehman-Breen, M.D., CEO of Chroma. "We're grateful to this exceptional syndicate of investors, whose commitment enables our ongoing drive to introduce this new class of precision genomic medicines with curative potential to patients with serious illnesses."

Current gene editing approaches regulate gene expression by cutting or nicking DNA, introducing risks associated with leveraging unpredictable DNA repair pathways. Chroma's single-dose epigenetic editors harness the cells' innate mechanism for gene regulation to precisely and durably silence, activate, and multiplex genes using a single platform, without changing the underlying DNA sequence. This groundbreaking approach enables Chroma to more effectively address a wide range of diseases and to target multiple pathways for complex diseases.

"Epigenetic editing opens the possibility of pursuing targets on the genome previously intractable with other therapeutic modalities; this includes the ability to target both protein coding and non-coding RNAs," said Vic Myer, Ph.D., CSO of Chroma. "Our approach enables precise regulation while avoiding break-induced mutations, translocations, and rearrangements associated with other technologies, removing limitations on the number of simultaneous edits that are possible."

"Genomic medicine is an exciting and fast-evolving field, and epigenetic editing has emerged as a promising new frontier for gene regulation," said Issi Rozen, Venture Partner, GV. "Chroma's technology enables durable modulation of gene expressionboth individual genes and multiple genes at onceproviding potentially transformative treatments for patients living with serious diseases."

About Chroma Medicine

Chroma Medicine is a biotechnology company pioneering a new class of genomic medicines that harness epigenetics, nature's innate mechanism for gene regulation, to deliver precise, programmable single-dose therapeutics while preserving genomic integrity. The company was founded by the world's foremost experts in genomic research and is led by a veteran team of industry leaders and scientists with deep experience in genomic medicine, drug discovery, and development. For more information, please visit chromamedicine.com or follow the company on LinkedIn and Twitter.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chroma-medicine-secures-135m-in-series-b-financing-to-advance-breakthrough-epigenetic-editing-technology-and-expand-pipeline-of-durable-precision-genomic-medicines-301755416.html

SOURCE Chroma Medicine
International Women's Day Coincides with Iconic Washington Company's 35th Anniversary

PROSSER, Wash., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- This spring, Chukar CherriesWashington State's tree-to-table specialty food companycelebrates 35 years in business. Started on the family orchard in 1988 by Founder and CEO Pam Montgomery, the company remains family-owned and firmly rooted in Washington's fruit lands.

March 8th is International Women's Day, an invitation to reflect on the achievements of women. For Chukar, these achievements are obvious. From the beginning, a pioneering spirit and constant innovation has distinguished the woman-led company. The local food scene was in its infancy when Montgomery started Chukar in the 1980s. Experts at UC Davis told her that she could not dry cherries without preservatives and added sugar. Undeterred, Montgomery began drying tree-ripened cherries from the family orchard in homemade window boxes. The concept worked which led her to begin drying cherries on a larger scale and covering them in European-style chocolate.

Thirty-five years later, Chukar has grown from a fledgling enterprise into an iconic Northwest cherry and chocolate gifting brand. Everything is still made at the original location in south central Washington. Chukar dehydrates nearly 500,000 pounds of fresh Northwest cherries annually and employs 50+ team members at the factory headquarters in Prosser, WA and at the company's store in Seattle's Pike Place Market. While Chukar is famous for their no sugar added dried cherries (the original product), they now offer over 18 varieties of chocolate covered cherries, berries, and nuts as well as a host of sauces, baked goods, and Pacific Northwest gifts. Along the way, they've notched top awards such as Small Business of the Year from the Washington State Small Business Association, Outstanding Product Line from the Specialty Food Association, and Food Processor of the Year Silver from the Washington Manufacturing Awards.

Chukar's leadership over the past decades has included several other notable women. Chukar's Director of Operations, Kathleen Young, has been with the company for 24 years. Sales Manager Teresa Garcia has been a team leader for 20 years. Recently, Montgomery's daughter, Wynne Auld, joined the team as Marketing Manager. Founder Pam Montgomery emphasizes, "All of our team members at Chukar have an opportunity to succeed commensurate with their commitment and efforts. We are fortunate to have great leadership, and many of our executive leaders over the past decades have been women."

In the coming years, Chukar's goals include increasing customization so that customers can send gifts with a personal touch, expanding Chukar's retail experiences so that customers get a sense of the majesty of the Yakima Valley and the dedication and skill of local cherry growers, and taking active steps to reduce carbon emissions and move to plant based packaging. "We continue to expand our offerings of locally sourced, tree-ripened fruit and premium, craft chocolate. Our customers enjoy the unique flavors of the Northwest, best-in-class customer service, and goodies that are always made fresh, shipped fresh," assures Montgomery.

Chukar's cherry specialties can be purchased at their flagship store and factory headquarters in Prosser, at their store in the center of Seattle's Pike Place Market, or at CHUKAR.COM.

About Chukar CherriesTransforming local cherries into authentic Northwest goodies and gifts has been Chukar's specialty since the company launched on the Alexander-Auld orchard in central Washington's fruit lands in 1988. The family-owned business handcrafts its all-natural products using tree-ripened fruit, fresh roasted nuts, and premium chocolate.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chukar-cherries-celebrates-35-years-of-leadership-by-women-301759020.html

SOURCE Chukar Cherries
YOKNEAM, Israel , March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- ColorChip Ltd. today announces the innovative chip-on-board technology for active electrical cables, enabling the highest density 1.6T OSFP-XD with significant improvements in both performance and cost. This innovation addresses the challenges of density, reach, power consumption and higher bandwidth required for the new OSFP-XD form factor and can also be leveraged to produce best-in-class solutions for 800G AEC applications.

With datacenters and carriers/MSO's rapidly migrating to 800Gbps and 1.6Tbps capability, a cost effective and reliable active copper solution is required. ColorChip is leading the market with these innovative and cutting edge capabilities. By removing the lossy and bulky package of the Re-timer, DSP or Re-driver, this innovation enables a longer reach, better cost, better thermal management and higher density for active copper cable solutions. Collaborating with Maxlinear, this is the first time in the industry that an active cable has been developed with a bare die.

"Partnering with ColorChip, we are bringing our companies' advanced technologies and capabilities together to provide our joint customers with industry leading solutions for AEC applications", said Drew Guckenberger, Vice President of High-Speed Interconnect BU at MaxLinear.

"MaxLinear's Keystone 5nm KGD bare die solutions for AEC applications enable the high density, long reach and best-in-class power consumption required to meet our customers' key requirements for 800G and 1.6T AEC applications," said Xin Wu, EVP at ColorChip.

About ColorChipColorChip is a technology innovator, designer and manufacturer in the fields of co-packaged optics, photonic integrated circuits based on its proprietary PLC waveguide technology, high speed optical data center and network interconnects up to 800Gbs and 1.6Tbs along with cost/power efficient active electrical cables. The company is delivering an array of advanced optical sub-systems spanning from the infrared regime, used in high-speed connectivity solutions for hyperscale data centers, access and core CSP networks in addition to the visual regime used in the fields of AR/MR, Automotive and Medical industries.

For more information please visit us at www.color-chip.com

Media contact: Einav Bahat [email protected]

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1761892/ColorChip_Logo.jpg

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/colorchip-and-maxlinear-announce-chip-on-board-aec-technology-enabling-800g-and-1-6tbps-applications-301759867.html

SOURCE ColorChip Ltd.
ATLANTA, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Cooleaf is pleased to announce a new partnership with SHRM-Atlanta for 2023.

SHRM-Atlanta is the premier HR association in Atlanta. As the Official 2023 Engagement and Recognition Partner, Cooleaf's best-in-class recognition platform is recognized as the foremost employee experience software for innovative organizations.

To kick off their partnership, Cooleaf will join SHRM-Atlanta for its annual HR leadership conference, SOAHR 2023, which will be held on March 28-29 at the Gas South District Convention Center in Duluth, GA.

SOAHR will bring together HR professionals and leaders from diverse industries to network and share learnings during over 50 sessions covering topics such as DEI, employee law, people management, and more.

As part of conference programming, Cooleaf Co-founder, John Duisberg, will host a session where attendees can glean insights from his journey through start-up leadership. The event will take place on Tuesday, March 28th from 3:15 pm to 3:45 pm on Fireside Stage 1 in Exhibit Hall A.

"We're thrilled to be SHRM-Atlanta's official engagement and recognition partner for 2023," says John. "This is an opportunity to represent Atlanta's incredible HR and tech communities by bringing together the best of both worlds. I'm excited to speak with attendees and share what's next for Cooleaf, as well as the chance to hear more from my peers about how they're continuing to push the boundaries of employee engagement."

About SHRM-Atlanta

SHRM-Atlanta is one of the largest chapters of SHRM and shares its purpose of elevating the HR profession. As a leader in the Atlanta metro business community, SHRM-Atlanta strives to be the premier resource for those working in the human resource function. SHRM-Atlanta's goal is to be the voice of HR in metro Atlanta and be the first contact for those seeking information and solutions. This will be achieved through the growth and diversity of members, education, delivery of content, and by strengthening partnerships with organizations that share its vision.

To register for SOAHR, visit https://soahr.net/

About Cooleaf

Cooleaf is the leading solution for companies looking to drive extraordinary experiences for their employees, customers, and prospects. Through Cooleaf's platform, brands engage employees with recognition, incentives, and virtual experiences and glean data insights through a powerful suite of analytics tools.

To learn more about Cooleaf visit www.cooleaf.com

Contact:

Melissa Perry, Marketing Director at Cooleaf[email protected]

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cooleaf-is-the-official-2023-engagement-and-recognition-partner-of-shrm-atlanta-301758556.html

SOURCE Cooleaf
Contributions can provide up to 12 million meals for children in need.

SPARTANBURG, S.C., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Denny's announced today that it raised more than $1.2 million through its 12th annual fundraiser in partnership with No Kid Hungry. The campaign ran from October 26, 2022, to January 4, 2023, and donations collected will be used to help end childhood hunger at a time when currently one in eight children in the United States faces hunger.

During the campaign, guests had the opportunity to "round up" their checks to the nearest dollar, donate an amount of their choice at the register or donate through Dennys.com. In doing so, guests receive an official Denny's and No Kid Hungry supporter pinup. In total, the funds raised by Denny's and its franchisees can help provide up to 12 million meals for children in need*.

"As a company that loves to feed people, we can't imagine not doing our part to help hungry kids in America," said Denny's President John Dillon. "We know that when children get the nutrition they need, they will grow and flourish. I want to thank all our Denny's team members, restaurants, franchisees, and guests for their ongoing passion and commitment over the years to helping end childhood hunger in America. We are truly making a difference."

Since 2011, Denny's has raised over $12.6 million, which can help provide up to 126 million meals for kids in need. The No Kid Hungry campaign continues to be a collaborative effort that is directly changing the lives of so many across the country.

"There is no excuse for children to go hungry in our country but 1 in 8 kids in the U.S continue to live with hunger. Denny's has once again gone above and beyond for No Kid Hungry raising over $1.2 million for kids living with hunger in the US. Denny's continues to raise critical funds and awareness for a problem we know how to solve" says Diana Hovey, SVP Corporate Partnerships at Share Our Strength. "Since our partnership began in 2011, Denny's has helped raised over $12 million to help end childhood hunger. We are so grateful for this partnership and everyone at Team Denny's for helping us make No Kid Hungry a reality."

Denny's is committed to giving back to the communities it serves and that mission extends beyond its annual No Kid Hungry fundraiser. Denny's Mobile Relief Diner travels from coast to coast, feeding those who have been impacted by natural disasters and has served more than 98,000 meals since its launch in 2017. Most recently, the Mobile Relief Diner traveled to Cape Coral and Orlando, Florida to provide free, hot meals for those affected by Hurricane Ian that hit the west coast in October.

In addition, through its Hungry for Education scholarship program, Denny's has awarded nearly $2 million in scholarships to students across the country who present unique, actionable ideas on ways Denny's can help end childhood hunger in local communities. Denny's restaurants also support national and local charities to improve the health and well-being of the communities they serve.

*No Kid Hungry does not provide individual meals; your donations help support programs that feed kids. Learn more at NoKidHungry.org/OneDollar.

About Denny's Corp.

Denny's is a Spartanburg, S.C. based family dining restaurant that was founded nearly 70 years ago for one purpose: We love to feed people. That purpose has led us to become a restaurant brand that guests worldwide rely on for delicious value and craveable contemporary meals across breakfast, lunch, dinner and late night. Every day, we welcome guests to dine whenever and however they prefer, whether it's at our brick-and-mortar locations, via Denny's on Demand  the first delivery platform in the family dining segment, or at The Meltdown and The Burger Den, our two virtual restaurants. Our longstanding commitment to supporting our local communities is brought to life with our Mobile Relief Diner that delivers hot meals to our neighbors during times of disaster.

Denny's is one of the largest franchised full-service restaurant brands in the world, based on number of restaurants. As of September 29, 2022, Denny's had 1,613 franchised, licensed and company restaurants, which includes 153 restaurants in Canada, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guam, Guatemala, Honduras, Indonesia, Mexico, New Zealand, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.

To learn more about Denny's, please visit our brand website at www.dennys.com or the brand's social channels via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn or YouTube

About No Kid Hungry

No child should go hungry in America. But millions of kids in the United States live with hunger. No Kid Hungry is working to end childhood hunger by helping launch and improve programs that give all kids the healthy food they need to thrive. This is a problem we know how to solve. No Kid Hungry is a campaign of Share Our Strength, an organization committed to ending hunger and poverty.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dennys-raises-over-1-2-million-to-fight-childhood-hunger-in-12th-annual-no-kid-hungry-fundraiser-301760033.html

SOURCE Denny's
Evolve's Aussie music property is marching to the beat of a new drum, with an all-new redesign and managing editor.

SYDNEY, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Evolve Media LLC, a passion-based publisher of some of the most significant internet brands since 1996, has announced the debut of the all-new MusicFeeds.

MusicFeeds Redesign Includes New Look, Layout, & Faster Content Delivery System

The all-new MusicFeeds website is yet another exciting relaunch as part of an ongoing partnership between Evolve Media and leading web engineering firm, XWP.

In addition to a refreshed design and an updated, more user-friendly layout, the site features a dramatically improved CMS for faster content delivery and around the clock music industry coverage.

"The new MusicFeeds design provides a more engaging user experience geared toward increasing time spent on page and other valuable performance metrics, " said Laura Borelli, Director of Brand Partnerships for Evolve Media Australia. "We look forward to leveraging the new technology and content for our various industry partners."

New Managing Editor To Drive More Diverse Content Lineup, New Music Discovery

The updated MusicFeeds relaunch also includes the debut of a new Managing Editor, Billy Burgess. Under Burgess, MusicFeeds is tackling deeper coverage of the underground music scene to highlight exciting new music before it hits the airwaves.

"MusicFeeds has a very musically literate readership and I see it as our role to not only engage with the audience's existing tastes and preferences, but also to act as a portal to new discoveries." said Billy Burgess, Managing Editor for Billy Burgess. "It also helps that myself and the rest of the team are obsessed with music and always eager to shine a spotlight on the things we love and things that sit outside the confines of commercial accessibility."

For more information, please visit MusicFeeds.com.au.

About Evolve Media LLC

Evolve Media LLC is a passion-based publisher established in 1996. As a pioneer in web-publishing, Evolve Media owned and operated websites represent the largest and longest-standing communities in the world. Beyond publishing, Evolve Media LLC partnership services have led to award-winning experiences built for globally recognized brands.

About MusicFeeds

MusicFeeds brings you all the latest Australian and international music news, covering acts at the top of the charts and artists making left field brilliance. MusicFeeds is also a premier destination for concert reviews, retrospective guides and illuminating interview features.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/evolve-media-announces-musicfeeds-relaunch-redefining-australian-music-coverage-301760151.html

SOURCE Evolve Digital Media
Company will recognize one hero  a service member, veteran, first responder or healthcare worker  during the 2023 WaWa Welcome America festival in Philadelphia on Fourth of July

BOCA RATON, Fla., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Freedom Mortgage, one of the largest full-service independent mortgage companies and a top Veterans Administration (VA) and Federal Housing Administration (FHA) lender in the U.S., will begin accepting submissions today for the fourth annual Freedom Mortgage Celebrate Freedom Contest. The winner will be announced on July 4, 2023, at the Wawa Welcome America Festival in Philadelphia during the Celebration of Freedom Ceremony presented by Freedom Mortgage.

Freedom Mortgage's Celebrate Freedom Contest is open to service member, veteran, first responder or healthcare worker.

The Celebrate Freedom Contest is open to all service members, veterans, first responders, and healthcare workers. Entrants must submit a photo and an essay of 1,500 characters (with spaces) or less based on their personal experience that answers the question: "What does freedom mean to me?"

"At Freedom Mortgage, the Celebrate Freedom Contest has become a cornerstone program that allows us to honor our nation's heroesservice members, veterans, first responders, and healthcare workers," said Stanley C. Middleman, president and CEO of Freedom Mortgage. "We want to hear from those who dedicate their lives to protecting the health and safety of our communities. We're honored to recognize one of these heroes on Independence Day."

As an incentive to encourage submissions for the Celebrate Freedom Contest, Freedom Mortgage will make a $10 donation for each of the first 600 submissionsup to $6,000which will be divided between both Feeding America and the USO (United Service Organizations). This donation to Feeding America will help provide at least 30,000 meals to people facing hunger.

The Celebrate Freedom Contest grand prize award winner will receive a trip for two to Philadelphia to attend the Wawa Welcome America Festival on July 4 and receive a check for $10,000 from Freedom Mortgage.

The contest runs from March 1 until 5:00 p.m. EST on April 28. The grand prize winner will be notified in June. For full rules and to enter the Freedom Mortgage Celebrate Freedom Contest, visit freedommortgage.com/celebrate. Click here for a video about the contest and previous Celebrate Freedom Award winners.

Through Team Freedom Cares, the company's employee engagement and philanthropic program, Freedom Mortgage strives to better the communities in which it operates. Click here to watch a recap of Freedom Mortgage's philanthropic activities in 2022. For more information, visit www.freedommortgage.com/community.

About the Wawa Welcome America Festival

Wawa Welcome America is Philadelphia's premier Independence Day festival, the largest July Fourth celebration in America, and one of the largest free festivals in the country. Wawa Welcome America offers residents and visitors alike sixteen days of free, family-friendly programming across the city, with a focus on arts, culture, diversity, education, wellness, history, and performance. Festival attendees can enjoy free concerts, fireworks, complimentary museum access, Wawa Hoagie Day, and more!

In 2021, Wawa Welcome America expanded the festival to include a new slate of programming entitled "Freedom  Liberty," in commemoration of Juneteenth. The expansion, in partnership with African American Museum in Philadelphia (AAMP) and VISIT PHILADELPHIA, has been designed by AAMP to provide education and awareness of Juneteenth, and to explore the historical significance of and thematic ties between these two important U.S. holidays.

Wawa Welcome America is committed to creating platforms to nurture diverse perspectives and raise diverse voices, and to celebrating our nation's evolving history through the lives, voices, and experiences of all Americans. Visit welcomeamerica.com for more information about this year's celebration.

About Freedom Mortgage Corporation

Founded in 1990 and headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, Freedom Mortgage is an independent mortgage company that provides mortgage loans through retail, wholesale and correspondent channels. One of the nation's largest non-bank mortgage lenders/servicers, the company is licensed in all 50 states the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Freedom Mortgage is a top VA and FHA (government-insured) lender in the U.S. (Inside Mortgage Finance, Jan-June 2022), and one of the mortgage industry's largest philanthropic supporters of the USO of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The company is also renowned for its vibrant work environment where all team members can thrive. Earlier this year, Freedom Mortgage was honored for the third year in a row as a Top Workplaces USA. Last year, the company made it back on the Inc. 5000 Honor Roll for the eighth time as one of the fastest-growing companies across the country. Freedom Mortgage's mission is to foster homeownership for all consumers across America. Lender NMLS ID: 2767. Equal Housing Opportunity. For more information, please visit FreedomMortgage.com.

FREEDOM MORTGAGE CONTACT:Ellen Longo609-678-0968[email protected]

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/freedom-mortgage-corporation-accepting-submissions-for-fourth-annual-celebrate-freedom-contest-301759825.html

SOURCE Freedom Mortgage Corporation
The new Memorandum of Understanding will bring a more developed communications infrastructure to African health centres and their workers, improving the lives of millions by using mobile data capabilities to reduce the spread of disease

BARCELONA, Spain, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), intended to bring the transformational power of mobile connectivity to support Africa's most significant healthcare challenges, was signed today between the GSMA and the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). The MOU is intended to provide a framework for partnership between the two organizations on a range of priorities spanning from digital strategy, policy, and governance frameworks across the continent to drive adoption of mobile technologies with potential to strengthen Africa's health security and outcomes for millions.

The GSMA will work closely with Africa CDC on HealthConnekt Africa, a bold new initiative to connect all health facilities and workforce in Africa to the internet by 2030. The initiative will start with a small group of pioneer African Union Member States and communities, which will see their health facilities connected to the internet and health workers equipped with smart devices, allowing them to improve the quality of care provided to their clients through access to vital online resources. The partners will also work together on promoting homegrown healthtech innovations and organizing convenings that bring together the public health and tech communities in to chart ways of accelerating the digital transformation of the health sector in Africa.

Africa CDC recently announced a new Public Health Order, outlining priorities for strengthening African institutions for public health, strengthening the public health workforce, and promoting action-oriented and respectful partnerships, among others. The partnership between GSMA and Africa CDC is expected to contribute to realising this vision.

AFRICA CDC QUOTE

"Connectivity and digital innovation are at the core of our digital transformation strategy. Access to the internet is a key enabler of our vision to extend universal quality care to all by 2030," said Dr Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, Africa CDC Director ai. "We look forward to working with members of the GSMA to bridge the digital divide that still limits the reach and impact of our health workforce."

In the MOU, both parties have agreed to collaborate in the design, development and promotion of technology policies, initiatives and investments that will strengthen health systems and, ultimately, improve the lives and livelihoods of African citizens. The aim is to accelerate the adoption of digital technologies in support of public health objectives of the African Union Member States, including the enablement of continuity of care across borders.

"While mobile growth across the region has been phenomenal over the past two decades, more needs to be done to harness the power of the technology across Africa's healthcare sector." said Angela Wamola, Head of Sub-Saharan Africa, GSMA. "Bringing together expertise and resources will help establish a powerful new infrastructure providing African healthcare workers access to the information they need in a timely fashion and the intelligence necessary to help prevent the spread of disease across international borders."

About Africa CDC

Africa CDC is a specialized technical institution of the African Union that strengthens the capacity and capability of Africa's public health institutions as well as partnerships to detect and respond quickly and effectively to disease threats and outbreaks, based on data-driven interventions and programs. For more information, please visit: http://www.africacdc.org

About GSMA

The GSMA is a global organisation unifying the mobile ecosystem to discover, develop and deliver innovation foundational to positive business environments and societal change. Our vision is to unlock the full power of connectivity so that people, industry, and society thrive. Representing mobile operators and organisations across the mobile ecosystem and adjacent industries, the GSMA delivers for its members across three broad pillars: Connectivity for Good, Industry Services and Solutions, and Outreach. This activity includes advancing policy, tackling today's biggest societal challenges, underpinning the technology and interoperability that make mobile work, and providing the world's largest platform to convene the mobile ecosystem at the MWC and M360 series of events.

We invite you to find out more at gsma.com

Media Contacts

GSMA Press Office [email protected]+44 7773 667620

Africa CDC[email protected]

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1882833/GSMA_Logo.jpg

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gsma-signs-agreement-with-africa-centres-for-disease-control-and-prevention-to-harness-the-power-of-mobile-to-combat-disease-in-africa-301758750.html

SOURCE GSMA
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Hagerty, an automotive lifestyle brand and a leading specialty insurance provider focused on the global automotive enthusiast market, has named its Top Gear Agents for 2023, based on their outstanding past year performance.

"These agents are the best of the best," said McKeel Hagerty, CEO of Hagerty. "Their knowledge, drive and passion for putting the customer first help us deliver on our purpose of saving driving and preserving car culture for future generations. They are true superstars."

This year's Top Gear Agent list includes:

HWI Motorsports

John Abrams & Associates Insurance Agency Inc.

The NBP Group Inc.

Stonewall Insurance Group

Willis Personal Lines LLC

Lawley LLC

Business Benefits Group

Hare Chase & Heckman Inc.

Gingerbread Insurance Agency LLC

Larry S Helms & Associates LLC

Farris Insurance Agency Inc.

Fiona J. Swaenepoel, DBA Top Flite Insurance Agency Inc.

Legacy Risk Solutions LLC

IOA Group LLC

Patriot Growth Insurance Services, DBA Shapiro Insurance

Woodside Credit LLC

Alliant Insurance Services Inc

HUB International Northwest

USI Insurance Services LLC

Heffernan Insurance Brokers

Clarke Marine Insurance

Hot Rod Insurance

St. Clair Insurance Agency - CO

Edgewood Partners Insurance Center

Russell A Beyer, DBA Beycor Insurance

Newfront Insurance Services

Destination Financial Services Ltd

Roy Redman

Coverica, Inc.

The James B. Oswald Company

Greg Allen Insurance Agency

Joseph Lombardi

Mobile Insurance

NCM Insurance Agency LLC

Jim Kelly Ins Agency

The Trost Insurance Agency LLC

Johnson Insurance Services LLC

The Phoenix Insurance

John R Engle

Classic Automobile Insurance Agency

Full Octane Insurance LLC

Top Gear agencies have access to co-op marketing dollars, a dedicated account executive, preferred placement on Hagerty's online agent locator, spotlights on Hagerty's social media channels, a VIP membership to Hagerty Drivers Club and more.

About Hagerty, Inc. (NYSE: HGTY)

Based in Based in Traverse City, Michigan, Hagerty's purpose is to save driving and car culture for future generations and its mission is to build a global business to fund that purpose. Hagerty is an automotive enthusiast brand offering integrated membership products and programs as well as a specialty insurance provider focused on the automotive enthusiast market. Hagerty is home to Hagerty Marketplace, Hagerty Drivers Club, Hagerty Drivers Club magazine, Hagerty Drivers Foundation, Hagerty DriveShare, Hagerty Valuation Tools, Hagerty Media, MotorsportReg, Hagerty Garage + Social, The Amelia, the Detroit Concours d'Elegance, the Greenwich Concours d'Elegance, the California Mille, Motorlux, RADwood, Broad Arrow Group and more. For more information on Hagerty please visit www.hagerty.com, or connect with us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

More information can be found at newsroom.hagerty.com.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hagerty-names-its-us-top-gear-agents-for-2023-301759523.html

SOURCE Hagerty
BOSTON, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ - The five John Hancock closed-end funds listed below declared their quarterly distributions today as follows:

Declaration Date: March 1, 2023Ex Date: March 10, 2023Record Date: March 13, 2023Payment Date: March 31, 2023

Ticker Fund Name Distribution Per Share Change From Previous Distribution Market Price as of 02/28/2023 Annualized Current Distribution Rate at Market HEQ Hedged Equity & Income $0.2900 - $11.71 9.91 % JHS Income Securities Trust $0.0909 -0.0468 $11.00 3.31 % JHI Investors Trust $0.1925 -0.0664 $13.10 5.88 % HTY Tax-Advantaged Global Shareholder Yield Fund $0.1600 - $5.21 12.28 % BTO Financial Opportunities Fund $0.6500 - $35.05 7.42 %

John Hancock Hedged Equity & Income Fund

Hedged Equity & Income Fund (the "Fund") declared its quarterly distribution pursuant to the Fund's managed distribution plan (the "HEQ Plan"). Under the HEQ Plan, the Fund makes quarterly distributions in a fixed amount of $0.2900 per share, which will be paid quarterly until further notice. Distributions under the HEQ Plan may consist of net investment income, net realized long-term capital gains, net realized short-term capital gains and, to the extent necessary, return of capital. The Fund may also make additional distributions (i) for purposes of not incurring federal income tax on investment company taxable income and net capital gain of the Fund, if any, not included in such regular distributions and (ii) for purposes of not incurring federal excise tax on ordinary income and capital gain net income, if any, not included in such regular quarterly distributions. The Board may amend the terms of the HEQ Plan or terminate the HEQ Plan at any time.

John Hancock Financial Opportunities Fund

Financial Opportunities Fund (the "Fund") declared its quarterly distribution pursuant to the Fund's managed distribution plan (the "BTO Plan"). Under the BTO Plan, the Fund makes quarterly distributions in a fixed amount of $0.6500 per share, which will be paid quarterly until further notice.

Distributions under the BTO Plan may consist of net investment income, net realized long-term capital gains, net realized short-term capital gains and, to the extent necessary, return of capital. The BTO Plan intends to fund each distribution, to the extent possible, in a tax-advantaged manner through the realization of long-term capital gains where the distribution amount exceeds net investment income. The Fund will seek to realize capital gains for this purpose in a manner which the advisor and subadvisor believe is consistent with prudent portfolio management and the investment objective, policies and restrictions of the Fund.

The Fund may also make additional distributions (i) for purposes of not incurring federal income tax on investment company taxable income and net capital gain of the Fund, if any, not included in such regular distributions and (ii) for purposes of not incurring federal excise tax on ordinary income and capital gain net income, if any, not included in such regular quarterly distributions. The Board may amend the terms of the BTO Plan or terminate the BTO Plan at any time.

A portion of a Fund's current distribution may include sources other than net investment income, including a return of capital. Investors should understand that a return of capital is not a distribution from income or gains of a Fund. As required under the Investment Company Act of 1940, a notice with the estimated components of the distribution will be mailed to shareholders at the time of payment if it does not consist solely of net investment income. At this time, one or more of the Funds anticipates that the notice accompanying the current distribution will include an estimate of return of capital. Such notice will also be posted to the Funds' website at www.jhinvestments.com. The notice should not be used to prepare tax returns as the estimates indicated in the notice may differ from the ultimate federal income tax characterization of distributions. After the end of each calendar year, investors will be sent a Form 1099-DIV informing them how to report distributions received during that year for federal income tax purposes.

Statements in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined by the United States securities laws. You should exercise caution in interpreting and relying on forward-looking statements because they are subject to uncertainties and other factors which are, in some cases, beyond the Fund's control and could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements.

An investor should consider a Fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses carefully before investing.

About John Hancock Investment Management

A company of Manulife Investment Management, we serve investors through a unique multimanager approach, complementing our extensive in-house capabilities with an unrivaled network of specialized asset managers, backed by some of the most rigorous investment oversight in the industry. The result is a diverse lineup of time-tested investments from a premier asset manager with a heritage of financial stewardship.

About Manulife Investment Management

Manulife Investment Management is the global brand for the global wealth and asset management segment of Manulife Financial Corporation. We draw on more than a century of financial stewardship and the full resources of our parent company to serve individuals, institutions, and retirement plan members worldwide. Headquartered in Toronto, our leading capabilities in public and private markets are strengthened by an investment footprint that spans 18 geographies. We complement these capabilities by providing access to a network of unaffiliated asset managers from around the world. We're committed to investing responsibly across our businesses. We develop innovative global frameworks for sustainable investing, collaboratively engage with companies in our securities portfolios, and maintain a high standard of stewardship where we own and operate assets, and we believe in supporting financial well-being through our workplace retirement plans. Today, plan sponsors around the world rely on our retirement plan administration and investment expertise to help their employees plan for, save for, and live a better retirement. Not all offerings are available in all jurisdictions. For additional information, please visit manulifeim.com.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/john-hancock-closed-end-funds-declare-quarterly-distributions-301760130.html

SOURCE John Hancock Investment Management
Recently, the 16 prefecture-level city cities in Anhui Province have all released the 2022 data on permanent residents. Compared with 2021, the five cities of Hefei, Chuzhou, Wuhu, Ma'anshan, and Xuancheng maintained a growth trend in their permanent population, while the other 11 cities saw a decrease in their permanent population. Among them, Hefei had the largest increase in population (up 169,000 people), while Fuyang had the largest decrease in population (down 30,000 people). It is worth noting that the five cities that maintained a growth trend, except for Hefei, are all within the radiation range of the Nanjing metropolitan area. The permanent populations of the six cities in northern Anhui, namely Bengbu, Huainan, Huaibei, Fuyang, Bozhou, and Suzhou, all showed negative growth. Currently, the permanent population of Hefei is 9.634 million, an increase of 169,000 people from the previous year. Its proportion in the total population of the province changed from 15.48% in the previous year to 15.72%, meaning a higher primacy ratio in population ranking. According to the Hefei Municipal Bureau of Statistics, the growth of Hefei's permanent population is still mainly due to immigration. In 2022, the net number of migrates to Hefei was 135,000, contributing 1.4 percentage points higher to the total population growth compared with 2021. The "Main Data Bulletin on Population Changes in Anhui Province from the Sample Survey in 2022", released by the Anhui Provincial Bureau of Statistics, shows that at the end of 2022, the province's permanent population was 61.27 million, an increase of 140,000 people or 0.23% over last year. Compared with the 61.03 million residents reported by the seventh national population census in Anhui Province in 2020, the increase totals 240,000 people, indicating an average annual increase of 120,000 in number and 0.2% in rate during the time span.
Milliman Mind and Milliman Integrate recognized as "Actuarial Modeling Solution of the Year" and "Regulatory Reporting Software of the Year," respectively

SEATTLE, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Milliman, Inc., the premier global consulting and actuarial firm, is pleased to announce the firm has won two 2022-2023 InsuranceERM Awards for its pioneering actuarial insurtech solutions. Every year, InsuranceERM judges recognize the best in insurance risk management, actuarial and risk modeling practices. This is Milliman's sixth year receiving at least one award. With more than 75 years as an industry leader, Milliman is proud to be recognized for its efforts to match creative technology solutions with insurance expertise.

This is Milliman's sixth year receiving at least one IERM award

Milliman Mind was named "Actuarial Modeling Solution of the Year" for its success in boosting productivity, optimizing strategic decision-making, and providing risk insights that improve efficiency and operations for (re)insurers. True to Milliman's reputation as a global leader in innovation, Milliman Mind is the first "no-code" solution dedicated to supporting the insurance industry. This platform, which runs in the cloud, reduces runtimes while allowing insurers to automatically optimize existing, complicated Excel-R-VBA processes without having to write a single line of code.

Milliman Integrate was awarded "Regulatory Reporting Software of the Year." The judges were impressed by Integrate's ability to provide a comprehensive and automated end-to-end solution, including platform scalability, reliability, and governance around both model change and production. Integrate, one of the first actuarial cloud-based modeling platforms, has long helped insurers meet increasing regulatory demands including Solvency II, IFRS 17, and LDTI. Today, the platform is primed to help companies prepare for emerging regulatory requirements like climate risk reporting and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing.

"Our team of experts is dedicated to transforming the insurance industry by developing highly efficient digital tools," said Milliman CEO Dermot Corry. "We are honored to be recognized by InsuranceERM for our commitment to this important work."

For more information on Milliman Mind and Integrate, visit: https://us.milliman.com/en/products/milliman-mind https://integrate.milliman.com/en/

About MillimanMilliman is among the world's largest providers of actuarial, risk management, and technology solutions. Our consulting and advanced analytics capabilities encompass healthcare, property & casualty insurance, life insurance and financial services, and employee benefits. Founded in 1947, Milliman is an independent firm with offices in major cities around the globe. Visit us at milliman.com.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/milliman-wins-two-prestigious-insuranceerm-awards-for-its-transformational-insurtech-products-301760008.html

SOURCE Milliman, Inc.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Feb. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Lipid Association (NLA) and the American Society for Preventive Cardiology (ASPC) have released a joint clinical perspective in the Journal of Clinical Lipidology (JCL) and the American Journal of Preventive Cardiology (AJPC) strongly encouraging clinicians to recognize the importance of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol measurement and control as a required performance measure.

The NLA + the ASPC have released a joint clinical perspective to recognize the importance of LDL cholesterol measurement

Despite the established role of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) as a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD), and the persistence of CVD as the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States, national quality assurance metrics no longer include LDL-C measurement as a required performance metric. This clinical perspective reviews the history of LDL-C as a quality and performance metric and the events that led to its replacement. "With recent increases in both morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular disease, overwhelming evidence showing the benefit of lowering the levels of LDL cholesterol in high-risk individuals, and continued real world data showing inadequate control of this risk factor, it is imperative that we take action now to implement quality measures for LDL cholesterol to improve the care of patients and reduce pain, suffering, and death from cardiovascular disease in our health care systems in the United States," stated Christie Ballantyne, MD, FNLA, corresponding author and NLA Executive Council Chair.

The clinical perspective also presents patient, healthcare provider, and health system rationales for re- establishing LDL-C measurement as a performance measure to improve cholesterol control in high-risk groups and to stem the rising tide of CVD morbidity and mortality, cardiovascular care disparities, and related healthcare costs.

"Elevated levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol are associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, and is a causal factor for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD)  that has been proven. Additionally, LDL-C as a performance measure is to improve equity in cardiovascular care for historically undertreated populations by identifying those groups for whom treatment initiation, further treatment intensification, or efforts to improve medication adherence are needed. For the care of our patients, it is imperative that we include LDL-C measurement as a required performance metric in clinical practice," said Martha Gulati, MD, MS, FASPC, President, ASPC. In addition, NLA President, Kevin C. Maki, PhD, CLS, FNLA, stated, "There are few areas in medicine where the evidence is more clear. LDL cholesterol control reduces cardiovascular event risk. Currently, too many high-risk patients do not have adequate management of this modifiable risk factor and a quality measure for LDL cholesterol will be essential to improve performance in this area."

The clinical perspective, titled "The Importance of Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Measurement and Control as Performance Measures" is in press with the Journal of Clinical Lipidology and the American Journal of Preventive Cardiology and can be accessed through the National Lipid Association's website at lipid.org/ldlcp and the American Society for Preventive Cardiology website at: aspconline.org

ABOUT THE NATIONAL LIPID ASSOCIATIONThe NLA is a nonprofit, multidisciplinary medical society focused on enhancing the practice of lipid management in clinical medicine. The NLA represents more than 2,000 members in the United States and provides continuing medical education for physicians and other healthcare professionals to advance professional development and attain certification in clinical lipidology.

ABOUT THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF PREVENTIVE CARDIOLOGYThe ASPC is a nonprofit that represents a multidisciplinary group of healthcare practitioners and researchers who share an interest in and a passion for preventive cardiology. A vision of the society is to interface with all other organizations involved with treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disease.

RELATED LINKS:www.lipid.orgwww.aspconline.org

CONTACTS:Lindsay HartDirector, Marketing and CommunicationsNational Lipid Association[email protected]

Stacy Manthos Executive DirectorAmerican Society for Preventive Cardiology[email protected]

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/national-lipid-association-and-american-society-for-preventive-cardiology-release-joint-clinical-perspective-on-the-importance-of-low-density-lipoprotein-cholesterol-measurement-and-control-as-performance-measures-301758827.html

SOURCE The American Society for Preventive Cardiology
PHOENIX, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Assisted Living Locators, a no cost nationwide senior placement and referral service, is on a mission to improve patient recovery outcomes and help family caregivers through the care transition process.

Transitions of care, when a patient moves from one care setting to another, can be a vulnerable time, With national data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services revealing that only 50 percent of patients with Medicare Part A coverage successfully return to home or community following a short stay in a Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF).

"At Assisted Living Locators, we understand that transitions of care can be a vulnerable time for patients and their loved ones," says Founder/Brand President Angela Olea, RN. "That's why our team of Care Coordinators are dedicated to providing guidance and support during the transition from acute care to a skilled nursing facility or to home. Our goal is to make the process as stress-free as possible by finding appropriate housing options or in-home care, coordinating with healthcare providers, and providing resources on community services and support."

Plan in Advance

"Planning ahead is key to a smooth transition for both the senior and their family," says Mimi Santry, Assisted Living Locators Greenwich, CT Owner/Senior Care Advisor. "We recommend reaching out to one of our senior care advisors well in advance of a loved one's discharge from a hospital or other care facility. This allows us enough time to make necessary arrangements and plan for the transition, which can help reduce stress and confusion for everyone involved."

Have Realistic Expectations

"It's important to have realistic expectations when leaving the hospital," explains Nikki Wulff, Assisted Living Locators Omaha, NE Owner/Senior Care Advisor. "Patients or their family members may expect a full return to their pre-hospital selves after a health event, but this isn't always possible. Our advisors can help you understand the extent of improvement that is expected to take place and what further therapy or treatment is needed to ensure the best outcome."

Know the Challenges

Peter Wilhelm, Assisted Living Locators Portland, OR Owner/Senior Care Advisor, notes patients may experience challenges after leaving a medical facility such as difficulty adjusting to a new environment, managing medications, and with activities of daily living such as bathing, dressing, and grooming. "Patients may also have depression, anxiety, and emotional issues," he added. "Working with a senior care advisor can help families address these challenges and ensure that their loved one receives the care and support they need to stay on the path to wellness."

If you would like a no-cost care consultation, speak to an Assisted Living Locators Senior Care Advisor at 877-266-7788 or visit www.assistedlivinglocators.com

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/navigating-care-transition-assisted-living-locators-provides-guidance-to-improve-patient-recovery-outcome-help-family-caregivers-301756160.html

SOURCE Assisted Living Locators
Pediatrician and practice owner will lead knowledge transfer for end users

FORT WASHINGTON, Pa., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Office Practicum (OP), the leading pediatric-certified EHR and practice management software provider, today announced that Suzanne Berman, MD, has been appointed Medical Director of Informatics and Instruction. With her extensive experience in pediatric medicine and industry insight, Dr. Berman will serve as the overall clinical expert for transferring knowledge to Office Practicum end users.

"We are thrilled to have Dr. Berman joining us at Office Practicum as an integral member of our leadership team," said Kraig Brown, CEO of Office Practicum. "Dr. Berman brings a wealth of knowledge to our organization, along with a strong passion for providing superior clinical direction for the use of innovative technology and comprehensive services."

Dr. Berman, an Office Practicum software user since 2001, comes to OP from Plateau Pediatrics in Crossville, Tennessee where she has served as a pediatrician for the past 21 years. She recently completed four years as chair of the Section on Administration and Practice Management (SOAPM), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) special interest group for pediatricians who own and manage their practices. She is also the chair of the Tennessee Pediatric Council, a forum that provides a place to discuss payment issues between Medicaid MCOs and the Tennessee Chapter of the AAP. Dr. Berman frequently contributes to AAP projects and publications regarding medical home practice transformation, corporate compliance, rural health, coding, data mining, and policymaking.

"I look forward to supporting OP's clients and client-facing teams by providing customer-led improvements to its clinical solutions," Dr. Berman said. "With a focus on listening to the voice of the customer across multiple channels of communication, we can prioritize technology enhancements efficiently and evolve our solutions to support the challenges and opportunities pediatricians are facing today."

Office Practicum is committed to helping pediatricians succeed by providing a Drummond-certified and robust pediatric-specific EHR with billing software alongside RCM services that meets their specific needs clinically, operationally and financiallyallowing them to focus on what matters most: delivering quality patient care.

About Office PracticumOffice Practicum has always been a champion for pediatricians and the children, families and caregivers they serve. Committed to reducing the complexity of running a pediatric practice, OP's pediatric-certified EHR and practice management platform is designed to support pediatric patients' integrated physical, emotional and mental healthcare needs at all stages of their growth. OP's pediatric EHR, practice management and revenue cycle management services are offered alongside telehealth, 24/7 answering services, website design and SEO services, and other practice marketing tools. Together, they provide a full suite of solutions pediatricians need to grow and support their practice. As a certified EHR vendor, we continue to ensure compliance with all of our policies and procedures to ensure compliance with the 21st Century Cures Act. Today, Office Practicum supports 6,500 pediatricians serving 15 million kids across 48 states. For more information, visit us at www.officepracticum.com

Media Contact:Kate Lunt[email protected]

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/office-practicum-strengthens-leadership-team-with-dr-suzanne-berman-as-medical-director-of-informatics-and-instruction-301758838.html

SOURCE Office Practicum
Sustainable hemp food startup announces its first expansion into the non-dairy dessert category with four fantastic flavors

VANCOUVER, BC, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ - Planet Based Foods Global Inc. (CSE: PBF) (OTCQB: PBFFF) (FRA: AZ0) ("PBFG", "Planet Based Foods" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that its wholly-owned subsidiary Planet Based Foods, the first and only company to produce nutritious plant-based meat with sustainable hemp as its number one ingredient, today announced its expansion into the non-dairy frozen dessert category with the unveiling of new hemp-based, organic vegan ice cream at Natural Products EXPO West. Show attendees will have the first opportunity to sample Planet Based Foods' better-for-the planet, allergen-free ice cream flavors  butter pecan, chocolate, coffee chip and vanilla  at Booth #893 in Hall A.

Made with an organic hemp milk base and premium plant-based ingredients, Chief Innovation Officer Robert Davis drew on decades of non-dairy category experience to develop Planet Based Foods' exceptionally creamy formulations that pop with rich, natural flavors.

"With a sumptuous mouthfeel and creamy flavor, Planet Based Foods' new organic vegan ice creams are a mouthwatering option for those with a dairy-free lifestyle, and for traditional ice cream lovers who want a conscious luxury that's as good for the planet as it is for their taste buds," said Robert Davis, chief innovation officer, Planet Based Foods. "We used our favorite dairy ice cream as inspiration because we want to appeal to as many people as possible. Our goal is to wow mainstream consumers with the taste and quality of our desserts, while also building awareness for hemp as a sustainable choice."

Planet Based Foods' newest product innovation with hemp debuts after the brand successfully launched its plant-based burgers, sausages and crumbles made with hemp seed, pea protein and brown rice, as well as tasty vegan taquitos, in 2022. The brand's hemp-based burgers and taquitos are currently available in more than 700 Kroger stores across 10 states, with sales velocity outpacing projections by 20 percent. Planet Based Foods will also showcase new Original and Southwest taquito formulations with Violife dairy-free Colby Jack Shreds at EXPO West.

"We're excited to show the world that plant-based meat is just the beginning for Planet Based Foods. With our expansion into non-dairy frozen desserts, we're now showcasing the utility of hemp in a range of delicious, better-for-the-planet foods," said Planet Based Foods CEO and Co-Founder Braelyn Davis. "We're relentlessly driven to innovate with hemp as part of our larger vision to help build a more sustainable and resilient food system. With climate change, soil depletion and water shortages putting significant strain on our agricultural system, the time is now to prioritize hemp as a regenerative, carbon-negative ingredient."

EXPO West 2023 attendees have the first opportunity to sample Planet Based Foods' new hemp milk-based organic vegan ice cream in four flavors at Booth #893, Hall A, March 9  11:

Butter Pecan  satisfies with creamy, buttery taste and the crunch of lightly-sweetened organic pecans. SRP $7.99 per 14 oz. pint.

 satisfies with creamy, buttery taste and the crunch of lightly-sweetened organic pecans. SRP $7.99 per 14 oz. pint. Chocolate  serves up rich chocolate flavor drawn from a blend of organic Dutch cocoa and organic natural cocoa. SRP $7.99 per 14 oz. pint.

 serves up rich chocolate flavor drawn from a blend of organic Dutch cocoa and organic natural cocoa. SRP $7.99 per 14 oz. pint. Coffee Chip  features non-dairy dark chocolate chips in a vibrant coffee base made with organic Colombian freeze-dried coffee and the highest-quality organic coffee extract. SRP $7.99 per 14 oz. pint.

 features non-dairy dark chocolate chips in a vibrant coffee base made with organic Colombian freeze-dried coffee and the highest-quality organic coffee extract. SRP $7.99 per 14 oz. pint. Vanilla Bean  made with organic vanilla beans and organic Madagascar vanilla t give rich, natural flavor to this classic. SRP $7.99 per 14 oz. pint.

Planet Based Foods' sumptuous vegan ice creams will be available to retail and foodservice buyers looking for organic, sustainable frozen desserts free from soy, gluten, dairy and GMO ingredients, with a direct-to-consumer launch slated for summer 2023.

Founded in 2019 by former nutritionist and hemp marketer Braelyn Davis, food scientist and plant-based pioneer Robert Davis, and restaurant veteran Ted Cash, Planet Based Foods represents the culmination of six years of research and development around how to utilize hemp seed first in plant-based meat applications, and now in non-dairy formulations. Hemp regenerates soil, requires less water than traditional crops, and sequesters carbon efficiently  making it an ideal rotation crop that can help mitigate climate change and its impacts on the food system. Planet Based Foods sources 100 percent of its hemp from the United States as part of its commitment to support American farmers and reduce its supply chain carbon footprint.For more information, visit planetbasedfoods.com and stop by Planet Based Foods' Booth #893, Hall A, March 9  11, 2023 at EXPO West.About Planet Based FoodsPlanet Based Foods is a purpose-driven hemp foods company on a mission to establish hemp as part of a sustainable food system that nourishes people and rejuvenates the planet for generations to come. Planet Based Foods is the first and only company to produce plant-based meat made with nutrient-dense hemp seed as the number-one ingredient. Since its founding in 2019 by nutritionist and hemp marketer Braelyn Davis, food scientist and plant-based pioneer Robert Davis, and restaurant industry veteran Ted Cash, Planet Based Foods has developed a full line of non-GMO, soy-free, and gluten-free hemp-based burgers, sausages, crumbles, and taquitos. As part of the company's vision to demonstrate the utility of hemp across the food industry, Planet Based Foods is now expanding into non-dairy with the launch of its vegan organic ice cream made with hemp. The San Diego-based company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Planet Based Foods Global Inc., which is publicly traded on the Canadian Stock Exchange (CSE: PBF), the US-based OTCQB (OTCQB: PBFFF) and the German Borse Frankfurt exchange (FRA: AZO). Visit planetbasedfoods.com and follow @PlanetBasedFoods on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

On Behalf of the BoardBraelyn DavisPresident, Chief Executive Officer and Director

For more information, please visit:www.planetbasedfoods.com or contact: [email protected]

Forward Looking Statements:Certain statements included in this news release constitute forward-looking information or statements (collectively, "forward-looking statements"), including those identified by the expressions "anticipate", "assume" "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "may", "should" and similar expressions to the extent they relate to the Company or its management. The forward-looking statements are not historical facts but reflect current expectations regarding future results or events. This news release contains forward looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions which are difficult to predict. Such statements are based on current expectations and various estimates, factors and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors. Such statements and information are based on numerous assumptions regarding present and future business strategies and the environment in which the Company will operate in the future. The Company assumes no responsibility to update or revise forward-looking information to reflect new events or circumstances unless required by law. Readers should not place undue reliance on the Company's forward-looking statements.

The Canadian Securities Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/planet-based-foods-to-debut-organic-hemp-based-vegan-ice-cream-at-natural-products-expo-west-301759403.html

SOURCE Planet Based Foods
HOUSTON, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- LyondellBasell today announced its La Porte Site Operations Manager, Rose Luvaas, has been recognized by the Manufacturing Institute  the workforce development and education partner for the National Association of Manufacturers  as a 2023 Women MAKE Awards honoree. This is the second year a LyondellBasell leader has earned this high honor, which recognizes women who demonstrate excellence and leadership in the manufacturing industry.

For nearly the last 15 years, Luvaas has worked in a variety of leadership roles within the company including maintenance manager, technical manager, operations manager and site manager within the ethanol, polymers and olefins technologies across the U.S.

As a first-generation college student, Luvaas is a firm believer that people never stop learning, developing and growing. Luvaas recognizes the importance of women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, which is why she volunteers with the South Dakota School of Mines Center for Alumni Relations and Advancement where she serves as Committee Chair for Alumni Engagement. Luvaas serves as a mentor and is on the Advisory Council for Women in Science Engineering.

"Rose demonstrates tremendous commitment and passion for serving others while at the same time, making an impact and leading with purpose," said Aaron Ledet, senior vice president, Olefins & Polyolefins, Americas. "She clearly demonstrates excellence and leadership in our industry, and we are proud to have her at LyondellBasell."

The Women MAKE Awards honors exceptional women who inspire the next generation of women in manufacturing and exemplify leadership within their companies. Women currently account for about half of the U.S. labor force but represent less than one-third of the manufacturing workforce. Women MAKE aims to create a 21st-century manufacturing workforce by empowering and inspiring women in the industry.

On April 20, the Manufacturing Institute will recognize 130 recipients of the Women MAKE Awards in Washington, D.C. The evening will highlight each Honoree and tell their stories, including their leadership and accomplishments in manufacturing.

About LyondellBasell As a leader in the global chemical industry, LyondellBasell strives every day to be the safest, best operated and most valued company in our industry. The company's products, materials and technologies are advancing sustainable solutions for food safety, access to clean water, healthcare and fuel efficiency in more than 100 international markets. LyondellBasell places high priority on diversity, equity and inclusion and is Advancing Good with an emphasis on our planet, the communities where we operate and our future workforce. The company takes great pride in its world-class technology and customer focus. LyondellBasell has stepped up its circularity and climate ambitions and actions to address the global challenges of plastic waste and climate change. For more information, please visit www.lyondellbasell.com or follow @LyondellBasell on LinkedIn.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/rose-luvaas-of-lyondellbasell-named-2023-women-make-award-honoree-301758983.html

SOURCE LyondellBasell
JACKSONVILLE, Fla., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Notepads made to look like top secret documents taken from the home of President Joe Biden have been selling like hotcakes and have been found inside the offices of several congressional republicans.

The "Joe Biden Top Secret Document Notepads" are the brainchild of syndicated radio host Mark Kaye from Jacksonville, Fl. Kaye has been selling the notepads online at www.topsecretnotepad.com since January of this year.

"When we found out Joe Biden was keeping Top Secret documents in an old cardboard box in his garage we just couldn't believe it," explains Kaye. "I turned to my producer and said 'He's treating them like scrap paper. I bet he uses them to take notes, or write out grocery lists, or doodle!' That's how I got the idea for the notepads. Two days later we had a prototype ready to go and began selling them like crazy!"

Each notepad features a "Top Secret" designation, a watermark of Joe Biden in his prized Corvette, and a small ice cream stain in the bottom corner. "The ice cream stain is to prove that these are authentic documents that were once in Joe's possession," says Kaye.

In the past few weeks the "Joe Biden Top Secret Notepads" have made their way to several congressional offices on Capitol Hill. Florida Representative Kat Cammack can be seen on Instagram showing off her Top Secret notepad. Representative Mike Waltz sent a note to Kaye saying "I'll be sure to use them at my next intelligence briefing."

"That's my goal!" Says Kaye. "I want to turn on C-SPAN and see my Top Secret notepads at every single committee meeting. After all, if the president thinks he has the right to treat Top Secret documents like scrap paper, so should everyone else."

Top Secret Document Notepads are available exclusively at www.topsecretnotepad.com.

Contact:Mark Kaye301-938-3044

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/top-secret-document-novelty-notepads-sent-to-congressional-republicans-by-radio-host-mark-kaye-301759565.html

SOURCE Mark Kaye
Foundation invests more than $298 million in new grant commitments

BATTLE CREEK, Mich., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) released its 2022 annual snapshot  featuring stories, videos, research from the field and editorials on the past year's work led by grantees, investees and partners working in communities. The snapshot is embedded exclusively on Every Child Thrives, the foundation's digital storytelling platform that highlights the efforts of WKKF grantees and community partners to realize a more equitable future for children, families and communities.

The annual snapshot details more than $298 million in new grant commitments, which includes more than $59 million of the foundation's social impact bond commitment that was announced in Oct. 2021. Almost 40% of the foundation's grantmaking focused on national efforts to change the systems that limit equitable opportunities for children and families. Nearly 60% of WKKF's grantmaking supported the foundation's U.S. priority places of Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico and New Orleans, as well as Chiapas and the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico and the central and southwest regions of Haiti.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, WKKF supported organizations with more than $1.17 billion to address urgent needs in communities around the world.

"This past year has led many of us to be hopeful that we're moving beyond the most dire impacts of the pandemic  yet despite this, grantees and communities continue to struggle with the consequences of increasing inequities," said La June Montgomery Tabron, WKKF president and CEO. "Changing the systems that define our lives  education, housing, healthcare, transportation, justice and the economy  so that they work for all children, all families and all communities, will require bold, hand-in-hand, collective action."

At the heart of this year's annual snapshot, Making Systems Work for Every Child, Every Family, Every Community, the foundation describes how racial equity and racial healing intersect with driving change in systems and structures within and around communities.

"Racial healing helps build trust among people and restores communities to wholeness, so they can work together to change the systems and structures to affirm the inherent value of all people," said Tabron. "Racial healing isn't just important; it plays an essential role at the very heart of building racial equity."

Visit the complete annual snapshot, the Kellogg Foundation's 2022 financial statements and more highlights of WKKF grantmaking and investments. The Annual Snapshot is available in English, Haitian Creole and Spanish.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF), founded in 1930 as an independent, private foundation by breakfast cereal innovator and entrepreneur Will Keith Kellogg, is among the largest philanthropic foundations in the United States. Guided by the belief that all children should have an equal opportunity to thrive, WKKF works with communities to create conditions for vulnerable children so they can realize their full potential in school, work and life.

The Kellogg Foundation is based in Battle Creek, Michigan, and works throughout the United States and internationally, as well as with sovereign tribes. Special attention is paid to priority places where there are high concentrations of poverty and where children face significant barriers to success. WKKF priority places in the U.S. are in Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico and New Orleans; and internationally, are in Mexico and Haiti.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/wk-kellogg-foundation-releases-2022-annual-snapshot-centered-on-racial-equity-racial-healing-and-systems-change-301759573.html

SOURCE W.K. Kellogg Foundation
BOSTON, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Whistleblower Law Collaborative is pleased to announce it has been named a Law360 Health Care Group of the Year for 2022. WLC was the only whistleblower firm selected for this award. The awards "honor the attorney teams behind litigation wins and major deals that resonated throughout the legal industry this past year." Whistleblower Law Collaborative was chosen because the firm "successfully steered a host of high-stakes whistleblower suits in the health care field last year," said Law360.

Whistleblower Law Collaborative is pleased to announce it has been named a Law360 Health Care Group of the Year for 2022

"And succeed they do. Whistleblower Law Collaborative's work on behalf of whistleblowers in the health care space has led to more than $278 million worth of settlements by key drugmakers like Mallinckrodt ARD LLC and Cardinal Health Inc., as well as medical device maker Arthrex Inc. and many more."

Indeed, the award caps off an exceptional period of success for Whistleblower Law Collaborative. Our health care victories during this period resulted in total recoveries for the federal and state governments of over $290 million and awards to our clients of close to $50 million. This includes the following six notable qui tam wins by WLC clients.

Mallinckrodt ARD LLC --$234 million. Mallinckrodt and a subsidiary agreed to pay the United States and numerous states $234 million for knowingly underpaying Medicaid rebates for its drug Acthar. Mallinckrodt also entered into a five-year Corporate Integrity Agreement (CIA) with the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG). As a result of the litigation and settlement, Mallinckrodt also began to report accurately Acthar pricing information, expected to save the Medicaid program of approximately $100 million per year.

Mallinckrodt and a subsidiary agreed to pay the United States and numerous states $234 million for knowingly underpaying Medicaid rebates for its drug Acthar. Mallinckrodt also entered into a five-year Corporate Integrity Agreement (CIA) with the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG). As a result of the litigation and settlement, Mallinckrodt also began to report accurately Acthar pricing information, expected to save the Medicaid program of approximately $100 million per year. Arthrex Inc. --$16 million. Arthrex, Inc., a Florida-based medical device, paid $16 million to the United States to resolve allegations that Arthrex paid kickbacks to physicians to market two of its surgical products in violation of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, 42 U.S.C.  1320a-7b(b) (AKS). The company also entered into a CIA with HHS-OIG.

Arthrex, Inc., a Florida-based medical device, paid $16 million to the United States to resolve allegations that Arthrex paid kickbacks to physicians to market two of its surgical products in violation of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, 42 U.S.C.  1320a-7b(b) (AKS). The company also entered into a CIA with HHS-OIG. Cardinal Health --$13.125 million. Cardinal, one of the three largest drug wholesalers/distributors in the United States, paid the United States and certain States $13.125 million to settle allegations that it was offering and paying physician practices kickbacks to induce the practices to purchase specialty pharmaceutical products from Cardinal instead of a competitor. The company also entered into a CIA with HHS-OIG.

Cardinal, one of the three largest drug wholesalers/distributors in the United States, paid the United States and certain States $13.125 million to settle allegations that it was offering and paying physician practices kickbacks to induce the practices to purchase specialty pharmaceutical products from Cardinal instead of a competitor. The company also entered into a CIA with HHS-OIG. BioReference Laboratories, Inc. and OPKO Health, Inc. --$10 million. One of the largest clinical laboratories in the country, BioReference, paid the United States, Connecticut, and Massachusetts $10 million to settle allegations that the company induced physician practices to refer their laboratory business to BioReference. The company also entered into a CIA with HHS-OIG.

One of the largest clinical laboratories in the country, BioReference, paid the United States, Connecticut, and Massachusetts $10 million to settle allegations that the company induced physician practices to refer their laboratory business to BioReference. The company also entered into a CIA with HHS-OIG. DermaTran Health-- $6.87 million . DermaTran Health Solutions, LLC, a compounding pharmacy based in Rome, Georgia, and other defendants paid $6.87 to the United States to settle allegations that they violated they waived patient copays, charged the government higher prices than permitted, and traded federal healthcare business with other pharmacies.

. DermaTran Health Solutions, LLC, a compounding pharmacy based in Rome, Georgia, and other defendants paid $6.87 to the United States to settle allegations that they violated they waived patient copays, charged the government higher prices than permitted, and traded federal healthcare business with other pharmacies. CleanSlate Centers--$6 million. A nationwide chain of opioid treatment centers and its founder, Dr. Amanda Wilson, settled claims with the United States, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the State of Indiana for false claims to Medicare and Medicaid related to unnecessary and illegal drug testing practices. As part of the settlement, CleanSlate entered into a compliance program with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

"We are grateful for the recognition of the practice we have built," said Managing Member Suzanne Durrell. "Our success is a testament to the top-notch team of former government attorneys we have assembled, our talented paralegals, our brave clients who have risked jobs and reputations to put a stop to corporate attempts to steal from the public and taxpayers, and the dedicated federal and state government attorneys, investigators, and others with whom we collaborate on these cases."

Whistleblower Law Collaborative LLC, based in Boston, devotes its practice entirely to representing clients nationwide in bringing actions under the federal and state False Claims Acts and other whistleblower programs. Under the False Claims Act, a private citizen (known as a "relator") who suspects or knows of fraud against the government can act as a whistleblower and file a sealed complaint on behalf of the government. Successful cases lead to a recovery for the government and entitle the relator to a share of the government's recovery.

For questions or comment on the firm's practice areas or the cases discussed here, please contact Managing Member, Suzanne Durrell at 617.371.0936. For new case inquiries please contact the Whistleblower Law Collaborative at 617.366.2800.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/whistleblower-law-collaborative-llc-wins-law360-health-care-group-of-the-year-301759922.html

SOURCE Whistleblower Law Collaborative LLC
TORONTO, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Shoplazza, a global eCommerce SaaS platform company, announced the first Shoplazza Awards to recognize and praise merchants and partners who have outstanding performance in global eCommerce. The Shoplazza Awards winners include 3D printer giant Creality, electric skateboard brand Exway, car radiator brand AlloyWorks, and outstanding global companies such as Payoneer, Airwallex, Sinotrans Express, 17TRACK, QuickCEP, and ShareASale.

Shoplazza Empowers Brands to Go Global and Open Up New Business Opportunities Abroad

The trend of globalization has strengthened in recent years with the profound transformations in global business and technology. - The increasing brand awareness has brought the Chinese brand going overseas to a new level. Since 2017, Shoplazza, a global shopping cart SaaS leader, has provided all-in-one eCommerce solutions for over 360,000 merchants around the world with brand strategy, convenience in product & order management, multichannel marketing campaign, smooth and safe checkout process, and more. Meanwhile, Shoplazza has witnessed the success of many global industry innovators, pioneers, and leaders from the beginning, and supported their journey to global expansion.

There are two categories in the Shoplazza Awards: "Merchant of the Year" and "Partner of the Year". The "Merchant of the Year" recognizes the global brands that have achieved outstanding performance in product innovation, business growth, brand positioning, customer experience, and other factors as the core criteria to identify excellent global brands. Creality, Exway, and AlloyWorks won the title "Merchant of the Year" for their innovative products and cutting-edge insights into globalizing their brands. These three companies also represent the successful cases of different business models - agency + DTC model, Amazon + independent online store, and business transformation from factory OEM to agency + DTC model respectively.

Creality, the 3D printer giant that accumulated more than 3.5 million units sold, has decided to go product-driven + reseller model for globalizing its brand. In April 2022, Creality launched its official website and online store with Shoplazza. In just seven months since its launch, the total number of global traffic exceeded 3 million, and the sales exceeded RMB 80 million. Creality has built the branded official website and online store through Shoplazza's platform with app integration to acquire more customers, open up new pathways to display its brand and products, provide a seamless purchase experience, and build their private traffic pool.

AlloyWorks, an automotive radiator manufacturer and seller, has achieved being ranked first on Amazon and eBay before launching its own online store. In order to build its brand and expand the impact, AlloyWorks partnered with Shoplazza to embrace the global opportunity of eCommerce through its branded online store. Within three months of migrating from online marketplaces to its branded online store, the business growth exceeded 100%. While using the branded online store to break through the limitations of the marketplaces, Alloyworks has also shaped the brand identity through social media and affiliate marketing, which has increased the brand's reputation, customer loyalty, and repurchase rate.

Exway, an electric skateboard brand at factory OEM model faced the pain point of being unable to reach consumers directly and establish brand awareness. After cooperating with Shoplazza, Exway used its online store to accumulate authentic customer feedback and data, and continuously polish the product. At the same time, with the impact of online presence, Exway has rapidly developed the reseller network in the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and other countries. In 2019, Exway and Shoplazza's partnership was officially recognized by Meta (Facebook) as one of the successful cases of small and medium-sized enterprises going overseas.

"Through the Shoplazza Awards, we hope to demonstrate the power of the innovative combination of brands going global and eCommerce SaaS platform. Online stores, with the advantages of comprehensively displaying products ,brand concepts and quickly obtaining consumer feedback, are giving the opportunity to stand out for emerging brands and small and medium-sized companies." Jeff Li, the founder and CEO of Shoplazza, said, "For those well-prepared Chinese brands who wish to adopt and launch globalization at a faster pace, the key is to explore various opportunities hand in hand with the entire industry . The eCommerce industry can grow healthily only if more and more brands have the opportunity to show their capabilities globally."

Shoplazza's empowering brands to go global with its partner ecosystem

While brand building is important to acquire customer loyalty, payment, logistics, marketing, and other factors are also essential steps for global brands to accelerate their business growth. Shoplazza is constantly creating and expanding the open and win-win eCommerce ecosystem with excellent partners from various fields. As of 2022, Shoplazza has more than 500 global partners to empower the global brands.

This year's Shoplazza Awards set up the "Partner of the Year" category. The winners are determined from the criteria such as value to Shoplazza merchants, brand impact, and business performance after integrating with Shoplazza. A total of 6 outperforming partners won the title of "Partner of the Year".

The six winners of "Partner of the Year'' include Payoneer, which provides an international credit card payment channel with secure transactions and more competitive fees. Airwallex won the title for offering an efficient and low-cost payment solution for cross-border merchants with its global payments and financial platform. The third winner, 17TRACK, was awarded for facilitating global merchants to provide customers with convenient, timely, and comprehensive shipment tracking services and aftersales experience. Sinotrans Express has demonstrated excellent logistics services for global merchants with its flexible, convenient, and lightweight solutions while integrating local and international warehouse and distribution services. In the field of marketing, Shoplazza's global merchants took advantage of QuickCEP's multichannel customer data management service to manage customer data and generate multiple conversions to achieve traffic operation from end to end sales. Meanwhile, ShareASale provides standout affiliate solutions and diverse partnership opportunities that drive results for businesses of all sizes. The network's 241,000+ partners - including traditional affiliates, global mass media houses, trusted micro-influencers and innovative fintech businesses  enable merchants of all sizes to generate more sales, expand customer reach and strengthen their brand.

"In the entire eCommerce ecosystem, the SaaS platform is the 'foundation' for digital operations and innovative global solutions. As an 'organizer', Shoplazza is adhering to our mission 'Open to More' and striving to integrate more diverse solutions to empower our merchants , and ultimately achieving win-win together with our partners." Jeff said.

In the age of globalization, there are great opportunities for brands to go global with product innovation, brand value, and fitting customers' needs. Furthermore, brands can also utilize omnichannel marketing and sales to reach more customers and convey brand concepts. Thus, brands that are adopting globalization can use eCommerce platforms to win customers' recognition and trust, and Shoplazza has proven the importance of the eCommerce ecosystem through successful cases with global brands.

Shoplazza will continue to support Chinese global brands to seize the opportunity to penetrate the international market, reach more diverse groups of audiences, and work hand-in-hand with more partners to empower merchants further to accelerate product innovation and operation. Through technology innovation and data management, Shoplazza will enhance more brands to win the hearts of global customers.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/winners-of-the-first-shoplazza-awards-announced-paying-tribute-to-new-forces-pioneering-global-market-301758075.html

SOURCE Shoplazza
Conservation champions protecting jaguars, penguins, chimpanzees and more in the running for 2023 Indianapolis Prize and $250,000 award

INDIANAPOLIS, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Indianapolis Zoological Society Inc., the presenter of the world's leading award for animal conservation, today named the six Finalists for the Indianapolis Prize, an award that recognizes the most successful conservationists who have achieved major victories in saving an animal species or group of species. This biennial award provides the Winner with $250,000 and the remaining Finalists with $50,000 each.

"These remarkable conservationists have dedicated their lives to protecting nature," said Dr. Rob Shumaker, President & CEO of the Indianapolis Zoological Society. "Their victories are making an authentic difference in saving many animals species. They are heroes who have earned our respect and admiration."

The six Finalists for the 2023 Indianapolis Prize are:

Christophe Boesch, Ph.D. of the Max Plank Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology and Wild Chimpanzee Foundation for his work with chimpanzees;

Pablo "Popi" Borboroglu, Ph.D. of the Global Penguin Society for his work with Penguins

Gerardo Ceballos, Ph.D. of the Institute of Ecology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico for his work with jaguars and black-footed ferrets;

Karen Eckert, Ph.D. of the Wider Caribbean Sea Turtle Conservation Network for her work with sea turtles;

Birute Mary Galdikas, Ph.D. of the Orangutan Foundation International for her work with orangutans; and

Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, DVM. of the Conservation Through Public Health for her work with mountain gorillas.

A nine-person committee with ties to the scientific and conservation communities, the Indianapolis Zoological society and local community selected the six Finalists for the 2023 Indianapolis Prize. The Finalists were chosen because of their significant contributions to saving an animal species or multiple species, the measurable outcomes resulting from their work, the application and quality of scientific knowledge involved in their conservation efforts, the number of years dedicated to conservation work and a demonstrated spirit of cooperation.

"The Indianapolis Prize makes tremendous contributions to advancing conservation efforts around the world by providing a bigger platform for conservationists to reach members of the public and policymakers," said 2021 Indianapolis Prize Winner and 2023 Indianapolis Prize Jury Member Dr. Amanda Vincent. "This year's Finalists are impressive not only in their dedication to saving species, but also in their huge determination to achieve an impact despite the pandemic and global conflicts. Their commitment is both admirable and inspiring."

The Winner of the 2023 Indianapolis Prize will be announced on May 16 and will receive their award on Sept. 30 at the Indianapolis Prize Gala presented by Cummins Inc. The Gala will be co-hosted by Anne Thompson, NBC News' chief environmental affairs correspondent, and Danni Washington, founder of the nonprofit Big Blue & You and a science communicator and influencer.

"The vital work of this year's Finalists to save animal species is inspiring," said 2021 and 2023 Indianapolis Prize Gala co-host Danni Washington. "I'm thrilled that their efforts are being recognized by the Indianapolis Prize Committee. Their accomplishments serve as an inspiration for the next generation of conservationists and makes me hopeful for a better future for our world."

About the Indianapolis Prize

The Indianapolis Prize recognizes and rewards conservationists who have achieved major victories in advancing the sustainability of an animal species or group of species. Winners receive an unrestricted $250,000 award. Remaining Finalists each receive $50,000. Since 2006, the Indianapolis Prize has administered more than $5.6 million in cash awards. The Indianapolis Prize is administered by the Indianapolis Zoological Society.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/worlds-leading-award-for-animal-conservation-names-six-finalists-301758228.html

SOURCE Indianapolis Prize
FILE PHOTO: A row of excavators are seen at the Caterpillar booth at the CONEXPO-CON/AGG convention at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. March 9, 2017. REUTERS/David Becker/File Photo

(Reuters) -Caterpillar Inc said on Wednesday it had reached a tentative agreement with a union that represents workers at four of its facilities, dodging a possible walkout at a time when companies across the United States are dealing with widespread labor shortages.

The construction equipment maker's new six-year agreement, which needs to be put to a vote by employees, comes after some union workers had threatened a strike as they negotiated wage increases, improved safety measures and better healthcare benefits.

Caterpillar, which has been struggling with margin pressures as input costs keep rising, has more than 100,000 employees around the world.

Labor unions in the United States have, in the meanwhile, stepped up efforts to ensure cost-of-living adjustments keep pace with inflation.

"Members at four locals in Illinois and Pennsylvania will review the tentative agreement and vote at upcoming ratification meetings," United Auto Workers (UAW) said in a statement on Wednesday.

The UAW will schedule a ratification vote soon, Caterpillar said in a statement, adding that the current agreement would be extended until the voting was complete.

The contract covers roughly 7,000 union employees represented by the UAW at three manufacturing plants in central Illinois and a parts and distribution center in York, Pennsylvania.

In January, union workers at the four Caterpillar facilities voted almost unanimously to authorize a strike, according to one local union's Facebook page.

Contract negotiations between the UAW and the Irving, Texas-based manufacturer began on Jan. 5, the company said.

(Reporting by Aishwarya Nair and Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema and Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
American Funds Short-Term Tax-Exempt Bond Fund Limited Term Tax-Exempt Bond Fund of America The Tax-Exempt Bond Fund of America American High-Income Municipal Bond Fund The Tax-Exempt Fund of California American Funds Tax-Exempt Fund of New York

Prospectus Supplement

March 1, 2023

(for prospectus dated October 1, 2022)

1. The information under Edward Jones in the Appendix - Sales Charge Waivers section of the prospectus is amended to read as follows:

Sales Charge Waivers

Sales charges are waived for the following shareholders and in the following situations:

 Associates of Edward Jones and its affiliates and their family members who are in the same pricing group (as determined by Edward Jones under its policies and procedures) as the associate. This waiver will continue for the remainder of the associate's life if the associate retires from Edward Jones in good-standing and remains in good standing pursuant to Edward Jones' policies and procedures

 Shares purchased in an Edward Jones fee-based program

 Shares purchased through reinvestment of capital gains distributions and dividend reinvestment

 Shares purchased from the proceeds of redeemed shares of the same fund family so long as the following conditions are met: 1) the proceeds are from the sale of shares within 60 days of the purchase, and 2) the sale and purchase are made in the same share class and the same account or the purchase is made in an individual retirement account with proceeds from liquidations in a non-retirement account

 Shares exchanged into Class A shares from another share class so long as the exchange is into the same fund and was initiated at the discretion of Edward Jones. Edward Jones is responsible for any remaining CDSC due to the fund company, if applicable. Any future purchases are subject to the applicable sales charge as disclosed in the prospectus

 Exchanges from Class C shares to Class A shares of the same fund, generally, in the 84th month following the anniversary of the purchase date or earlier at the discretion of Edward Jones

 Purchases of Class 529-A shares through a rollover from either another education savings plan or a security used for qualified educational expenses

 Purchases of Class 529 shares made for recontribution of refunded amounts

2. The information under Morgan Stanley Wealth Management in the Appendix  Class A share front-end sales charge waiver section of the prospectus is amended to read as follows:

Morgan Stanley Wealth Management

Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Class A share front-end sales charge waiver

Morgan Stanley Wealth Management clients purchasing or converting to Class A shares of the fund through Morgan Stanley transactional brokerage accounts are entitled to a waiver of the front-end load in the following additional circumstances:

 Morgan Stanley employee and employee-related accounts according to Morgan Stanleys account linking rules

 Shares purchased through reinvestment of dividends and capital gains distributions when purchasing shares of the same fund

 Class C (level load) share positions that are no longer subject to a contingent deferred sales charge and are converted to a Class A share in the same fund pursuant to Morgan Stanley Wealth Managements share class conversion program

 Morgan Stanley, on your behalf, can convert Class F-1 shares to Class A shares without a front-end sales charge if they were initially transferred to the transactional brokerage account or converted from Class C shares

 Shares purchased from the proceeds of redemptions within the same fund family under a Rights of Reinstatement provision, provided the repurchase occurs within 90 days following the redemption, the redemption and purchase occur in the same account, and redeemed shares were subject to a front-end or deferred sales load

 Investors purchasing through a Morgan Stanley self-directed brokerage account and/or E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley may invest in Class A shares without a front-end sales charge.

Morgan Stanley Wealth Management clients purchasing or converting to Class 529-A shares of the fund through Morgan Stanley transactional brokerage accounts are entitled to a waiver of the front-end load in the following additional circumstances:

 Shares purchased through a rollover from another 529 plan

 Recontribution(s) of a refunded qualified higher education expense

Unless specifically described above, no other front-end load waivers are available to mutual fund purchases by Morgan Stanley Wealth Management clients.

Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Class R-4 share employer-sponsored retirement plan eligibility

Employer-sponsored retirement plans (e.g., 401(k) plans, 457 plans, employer-sponsored 403(b) plans, profit sharing and money purchase pension plans and defined benefit plans). For purposes of this provision, employer-sponsored retirement plans do not include SEP IRAs, SIMPLE IRAs, SAR-SEPs or Keogh plans.

Keep this supplement with your prospectus.
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa  The commander of an Air Force airborne air control squadron on Okinawa has been relieved after a thorough investigation into the units command climate, an Air Force spokesman said.

Lt. Col. Alexander Demma was removed as leader of the 961st Airborne Air Control Squadron at Kadena Air Base on Feb. 2 due to a loss of confidence in his ability to lead the organization, 18th Wing spokesman Lt. Col. Raymond Geoffroy wrote in an email to Stars and Stripes on Feb. 22.

Geoffroy declined to provide further information about Demma's removal, citing privacy considerations. Demma was reassigned to administrative duties within the wing, Geoffroy said.

The Air Force places significant trust in its leaders and holds them accountable when they fall short of expectations and standards, the spokesman wrote.

The 961st consists of approximately 160 airmen operating a pair of E-3G Sentry aircraft valued at $330 million each.

Demma took control of the squadron in June 2021 after serving as its director of operations, his Air Force biography states. He was replaced Feb. 2 by Lt. Col. Shawn McNabb.

The Sentry, known for its 30-foot rotodome rotating radar perched atop the rear fuselage, participates in a host of command-and-control missions, such as long-range surveillance, detection and identification, according to the unit website.

Demma first came to the squadron at Kadena in July 2010 as deputy chief of tactics. He returned from December 2012 to July 2013 as the chief of squadron weapons and tactics and from June 2019 to June 2021 as director of operations.
The costliest, most advanced U.S. fighter jet in history is flying less than a plane developed during the Reagan administration.

Theres little dispute that the F-35 Lightning II, which is flown with modifications by the Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy, can be a devastatingly effective weapon when its available.

But five years after joining the fleet on a regular basis, the Air Force F-35A is flying fewer hours per month than the F-15E Strike Eagle, which was first introduced in 1986, a recent report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found.

At its five-year mark, the F-15E was available at double the rate of the stealthy, cutting-edge F-35A.

The lack of availability is why some analysts say the F-35 may end up filling a niche in national defense instead of becoming the day-to-day workhorse first envisioned, despite a program cost of $1.7 trillion to buy, operate and sustain a planned 2,500 planes, according to 2022 government figures.

Ballooning F-35 costs have the Air Force, Marines and Navy reexamining their planned purchases, said Bryan Clark, director of the Hudson Institutes Center for Defense Concepts and Technology.

The $1.7 trillion tab could challenge the Defense Departments ability to fund other wants, such as the Next Generation Air Dominance fighter and the B-21 Raider, a sixth-generation bomber, Clark said.

The F-35 is beset by engines that wear out faster than expected, a shortage of replacement parts and maintenance delays, among other problems, the CBO report found.

The services are all looking for alternatives that allow them to reduce their flight hour costs and then husband their F-35s for  high-end missions that are less frequent than the day-to-day flying, Clark said.

The CBO report noted that the F-35s availability, or mission capable rate, has fallen sharply as the fighter ages, with the plane requiring more frequent maintenance and part replacement.

The jet also fared poorly on availability when compared with the F-22 Raptor, according to the report, which was released in February.

However, some analysts say the comparisons between the F-35 and older aircraft dont take several factors into consideration.

There are just 450 fifth-generation F-35s in use across the services, said Heather Penney of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, a think tank based in Arlington, Va.

The lack of additional F-35s means the first to join the fleet are being flown harder and arent being replaced with newer versions, Penney said.

If you dont have a chance to divest the very, very early (F-35) models because you dont buy enough or you dont buy them fast enough, youre going to see that reflected in availability rates, said Penney, a senior resident fellow.

Part of the reason the F-35s availability compares poorly with other planes in their early years is a shortage of thousands of maintainers in the Air Force, she said. The F-15 and F-22, for example, benefited from greater staffing, she said.

Penney advocates that the Air Force buy as many F-35s and spare parts as quickly as it can, given modernization efforts, upcoming financial obligations and the global security environment.

When we hit the late 2020s and the early 2030s, we will have a significant demand on the Air Force to replace legacy platforms that really have already served longer than they should have, Penney said.

However, there are indications that the services are prioritizing upgraded versions of earlier platforms, along with new programs.

For example, the Air Force is buying as many as 200 F-15EX Eagle II jets, which will be the backbone fighter of the force, manufacturer Boeing says on its website.

And the Pentagon proposed buying fewer F-35s this year than expected. Congress approved funding for as many as 11 more than the 33 planes requested for the Air Force, Air and Space Forces magazine reported in December.

Under the current DOD plan, the Air Force would get 1,763 of the F-35A variant; the Marine Corps would take 353 of the F-35B and 67 F-35C variants; and the Navy would receive 273 of the F-35C, according to manufacturer Lockheed Martins website.

Those numbers no longer appear to be realistic, forcing the services to consider other ways to fill out their fleets, Clark said.

Possibilities include relying on new purchases of older planes and using manned-aircraft collaborations with drones or drones alone to keep air wings full.

So unmanned will increasingly take on some of the capacity requirements that previously manned aircraft would have met, he said.

The CBO report also showed that the availability rate for the Air Forces F-35 fleet fell 11% between 2021 and 2022. It dropped by 7% for the F-35B used by the Marines, while the Navys F-35C saw a gain of 5% over the same time period.

In 2022, availability of all three variations ranged from 54% to 58%, the CBO said.

Those trends are problematic but could improve as more planes are delivered and upgraded, said Daniel Norton, a senior management systems analyst at the Rand Corp., a California-based think tank.

But there are no guarantees, he said.
(Tribune News Service)  A top U.S. Army official reversed himself on a key decision  a reversal that could bolster Hudbay Minerals Inc.s legal argument that the washes on its long-delayed Rosemont Mine site dont merit federal regulation.

Assistant Army Secretary Michael Connor wrote an August 2022 memo withdrawing a decision that had overruled an earlier decision freeing the Rosemont sites washes from federal Clean Water Act protection. Connors latest decision appears to restore a 2021 Army Corps of Engineers decision that the washes at the Rosemont site arent covered by the Clean Water Act.

Despite that, late Friday an Army Corps of Engineers spokeswoman referred in an email to a possibility of enforcement action against Hudbays plans to grade washes inside an area of the Santa Rita Mountains south of Tucson thats covered by a now-suspended Clean Water Act permit for the Rosemont Mine.

Hudbay has told us they intend to proceed with filling in washes that fall within the permit areas. We are coordinating with EPA on enforcement. Enforcement is discretionary, Dena ODell, a spokeswoman for the Corps Los Angeles District, said in the email, without elaborating.

The Corps has already said the EPA was conducting a law enforcement investigation of Hudbays grading activities. EPA has declined to comment on it or acknowledge its happening.

The Corps hasnt responded to questions from the Star about the apparent discrepancy between Connors August 2022 decision and the agencys increasingly aggressive actions regarding Hudbay since then, including a mid-January order that the company stop work on washes lying within the Clean Water Act permit area.

Hudbay: Corps lacks authority over site

Hudbay officials have said repeatedly they dont believe the Corps has any authority over the site.

Thats partly because of the agencys earlier decision waiving jurisdiction over the Rosemont site, and partly because the company formally surrendered its permit almost a year ago, the company said.

The Corps, however, hasnt accepted the validity of Hudbays permit surrender, although a federal judge did that in a ruling in May 2022 in refusing an effort by mine opponents to stop Hudbays grading of washes in that area.

The Corps, which Connor oversees, had decided in March 2021 that it no longer had any authority over the Rosemont washes. Until then, the agency had relied on a decade-old, preliminary determination asserting its jurisdiction over the washes, which the company proposing the Rosemont Mine had voluntarily accepted.

That earlier, preliminary determination of Corps  jurisdiction was a basis for its March 2019 issuance of a Clean Water Act permit, authorizing the mining company to deposit dredged and fill material into those washes as part of its construction work.

Work on Copper World project

Hudbay has been grading and clearing private land on the west slope area of the Santa Rita Mountains on and off since April 2022, for what it says are future waste rock and tailing disposal areas for its Copper World project. The company owns 4,500 acres on the east and west slopes of the Santa Ritas on which it plans to build four open pits for mining copper and numerous other facilities for processing and other activities.

One of the pits would occupy the same area originally proposed for the Rosemont open pit. With the Rosemont Mine itself now on hold due to an unfavorable federal court ruling, Hudbay has renamed that pit the East Pit.

The Clean Water Act permit area was intended to cover only the original Rosemont Mine site. But it also includes part of the west slope area now due to be mined by Copper World, including a utility corridor through which electricity and water would be delivered to the mine site from the Sahuarita area.

The August 2022 memo outlining Connors policy reversal came to light after the Corps issued the stop work order in mid-January 2023. Hudbay replied at the end of January that it did not believe it is legally bound to comply with the order.

Friday, in a statement released to the Star , the mining company said it agrees with Connors most recent decision and that his earlier decision of June 2022 contradicted established policy and past practice.

The company also said it believes the Corps lacks authority over that area because the Corps only has jurisdiction over Waters of the U.S. Legally, those are rivers, washes and other water courses deemed environmentally and biologically significant enough to merit federal protection.

There is no credible evidence that the dry washes on the Copper World site are Waters of the U.S., Hudbay said. To the contrary, Hudbay has demonstrated that they are not ... and shared this analysis with the ( Department of Justice, the Army Corps, tribes, and environmentalists) in April 2022.

Hudbay has studied the ability of the dry washes on the west side to transport contaminants downstream by analyzing stormwater, sediment, and plant samples. These studies show that material from the site is generally only transported 7-8 miles through the flat sandy washes, the company said in its written statement.

Federal agencies require the existence of a significant connection between a development sites normally dry washes and a navigable waterway for the washes to come under federal control. Hudbay said the nearest downstream navigable water is the Colorado River, near Yuma, over 350 miles away.

The Corps and EPA, however, have designated sections of the much closer Santa Cruz River as navigable.

Santa Cruz River role debated

Stu Gillespie, an attorney for three tribes fighting the mine, has sent the Corps two documents making the case that the washes at the original Rosemont site and the larger Copper World site do qualify as Waters of the U.S. One is a report the tribes commissioned laying out such arguments. Another is an EPA meno, from 2021, criticizing the Army Corps decision that year that the Rosemont washes dont qualify as Waters of the U.S.

Mark Murphy, a scientist hired by the tribes, concluded that the Rosemont-area washes, both individually and in combination with similarly situated streams, have a significant nexus with the Santa Cruz.

Murphys conclusion is based on an extensive review of the scientific literature, field observations, on-the-ground data, and watershed modeling. His report summarizes the extensive scientific literature on ephemeral streams and their role in maintaining the Santa Cruz Rivers ecological integrity, Gillespie wrote to the Corps in December.

In response, Corps spokeswoman ODell told the Star, late Friday, The Corps is evaluating the information provided by the tribes concerning the March 2021 decision waiving authority over the Rosemont washes.

No decision has been made yet to reevaluate its determination, she said.

Corps on very shaky legal grounds

The final, legal impact of Connors August 2022 decision on Hudbays activities remains unknown, as are Hudbays actual grading plans.

The Corps hasnt responded to questions from the Star about what authority it has to stop work in the Rosemont permit area, in light of Connors August 2022 decision.

In Hudbays response to the Corps stop work order, company executive Javier Del Rio said it has no plans for work affecting washes covered by the Corps permit until Monday, Feb. 27, at the earliest. Asked last week by the Star if it now intends to start grading and clearing in those areas, Hudbay replied only, We are in frequent communication with the Corps.

A Vermont-based environmental law professor, Patrick Parenteau, told the Star last week that the Corps is on very shaky legal grounds in ordering Hudbay to stop work at Copper World because of Connors August 2022 restoration of the Corps earlier decision waiving authority over the Rosemont site.

They flipflopped, said Parenteau, of Vermont Law School.

He cited an Army Corps Safe Harbor guideline thats been on the books for 20 years. It says a jurisdictional decision like the one the Corps made for Rosemont in 2021 is valid for a minimum of five years unless new information warrants revision of the determination before the expiration date. Connor cited that policy in his August 2022 memo.

That guideline isnt a formal regulation, Parenteau said. But a 2016 U.S. Supreme Court ruling said that such a determination is a binding agreement.

When the feds make this kind of representation for private parties, theyre entitled to rely on it, the professor said, speaking of an agency decision waiving jurisdiction over a development site.

He said the Corps can go to court to assert it no longer considers a jurisdictional decision valid, or environmentalists could sue to have it overturned.

But the cease and desist order means nothing. You need a court order to stop clearing of washes, Parenteau said. Without it, Hudbay can refuse, he said.

Bui if the Corps were to go to court and win on this case, they can tack on penalties on Hudbay to the tune of $55,000 per day for every day they are in violation of a cease and desist order, Parenteau said.

Hudbay has to be certain it doesnt have to obey a cease and desist order, he said, adding, If they are wrong ... they are going to pay big time.

(c)2023 The Arizona Daily Star (Tucson, Ariz.)

Visit at www.tucson.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan  A U.S. senator threatened to undermine a pending weapons deal with Japan unless it hands over a Navy officer serving time in a Japanese prison for two traffic deaths.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, in a series of tweets starting Tuesday on his personal Twitter account and aimed directly at Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, demanded that Kishida remand Lt. Ridge Alkonis to the custody of the U.S. Navy.

Less than an hour later, Lee revised his deadline to just 24 hours and invoked Japans plan to purchase 400 U.S.-made Tomahawk cruise missiles for $1.55 billion. The missile purchase is part of Japans largest-ever defense budget, $50 billion, designed to address Chinas growing influence in the region.

@kishida230, we might need to reconsider this, Lee tweeted at the prime ministers Twitter handle. Hand him over. Now.

Lees deadline passed with no response from the Japanese leader.

@kishida230, youve made your choice, Lee tweeted again. I hope youre ready for some conversations on the Senate floor that youre not likely to enjoy. This issue isnt going away, and neither am I.

Lee sits on the Joint Economic Committee, the Judiciary Committee, the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and the Special Committee on Aging. He was removed Feb. 1 by minority leader Sen. Mitch McConnell from the Senate Commerce Committee, the most significant of his assignments in apparent retribution for supporting Sen. Rick Scott of Florida as Republican leader over McConnell, the Salt Lake Tribune reported Feb. 3.

Alkonis, of Claremont, Calif., is eight months into a three-year sentence for negligent driving that caused the deaths of two Japanese people and injured a third in May 2021. Shizuoka District Court sentenced him in October 2021.

Lee on Twitter first threatened a critical review of the routine operating agreement between the U.S. and Japan if Alkonis wasnt returned to the Navy by the deadline.

If you do so, Im willing to forget all about this unfortunate incident, he tweeted at Kishida. If not, were going to have a long series of conversations about the SOFA that you will not enjoy.

SOFA, the status of forces agreement, specifies the rights and responsibilities of those affiliated with the U.S. military in Japan.

Lee later threatened to derail the Tomahawk purchase but didnt specify how he might delay or stop the sale.

The senator then promised to inform Americans of how poorly youre treating military personnel  not just Ridge Alkonis, but all 55,000 U.S. forces in Japan, in another tweet to Kishida.

The Prime Ministers Office of Japan said it would not comment, a spokeswoman told Stars and Stripes by phone Wednesday. A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official also declined to comment but said by email: We believe it is a case that needs to be handled appropriately based on law.

Its customary in Japan for some government officials to speak to reporters on condition of anonymity.

The U.S. Embassy in Japan referred all questions to Lees offices, which did not return multiple calls requesting comment. U.S. Forces Japan acknowledged but did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Formerly a weapons officer assigned to the destroyer USS Benfold, Alkonis was driving with his family through Fujinomiya after a trip to nearby Mount Fuji when he fell unconscious and crashed into the victims outside a soba restaurant.

The officers defense hinged on the claim that he suffered from altitude sickness after visiting Mount Fujis fifth station, but the argument failed to convince the court.

The Tokyo High Court upheld the conviction and sentence on appeal.

The case sparked a movement to secure the officers release, spearheaded by his wife, Brittany Alkonis, who has demonstrated across the country, met with Vice President Kamala Harris in Washington, D.C., to plead her case and met President Joe Biden after his State of the Union address in Congress on Feb. 7.

Lee, on Tuesday, said the U.S.-Japan alliance is good for both countries but is especially good for Japan. He then pointed to the lack of health care availability for Defense Department civilians in Japan as an example of the need to review SOFA.

This is yet another reason why our Status of Forces Agreement with Japan is woefully inadequate to protect U.S. military personnel in Japan, he tweeted.

Stars and Stripes reporter Hana Kusumoto contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON  The Navy has mapped out a mental health strategy in a new manual thats designed to spot potential problems among sailors and address them as soon as possible.

The Navy announced The Mental Health Playbook on Tuesday and said the manual aims to help Navy leaders in preventing, mitigating or addressing mental health issues within their commands.

This work begins well before a mental health issue occurs, the service said in a statement. It starts with the climate our leaders create and how they lead the people in their care.

The Navys mental health manual comes days after the Defense Department released a report examining the suicide crisis in the military. According to Pentagon data, deaths by suicide across the U.S. military have been on an upward trend for the past 15 years, prompting the Defense Department to introduce programs and tools to provide help to reduce suicides. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has pledged to invest millions of dollars in military suicide prevention efforts.

The playbook notes mental health troubles have been a concern in the U.S. military throughout its history and such emotional crises sometimes lead to suicides. Compounding the problem are various obstacles that can make it difficult for sailors to find help and commanders to provide help.

Sailors may feel more comfortable talking to peers and may be more willing to seek support when it is delivered by a friend, according to the 28-page manual.

The playbook emphasizes the importance of leaders showing compassion, positive reinforcement and support to sailors who might be struggling with mental health.

Critical to establishing the right type of preventative climate is eliminating stigma for talking about issues and seeking mental health care, the manual reads. There is no better way to do this than for leaders to be transparent and vulnerable, role modeling the behavior they need all hands to practice.

The playbook identifies three roles for Navy leaders: setting conditions, identifying problems and helping sailors get treatment with minimum interruption.

In setting conditions, leaders should build a climate of trust and respect and eliminate the negative stigma that often accompanies mental health situations, according to the manual. Leaders are then urged to look for behavioral changes and possibly consult experts, and finally help sailors get the treatment that they need while allowing them to remain part of the team.

Read this handbook from cover to cover in the same way you would read a technical manual for your equipment or a tactical manual to shape your operations, the playbook states.

The Pentagon-established Suicide Prevention and Response Independent Review Committee wrote in its report released Friday that access to guns is a contributing factor in many suicides in the military. As a result, the group recommended the military target safe storage of firearms, restrict access to firearms at barracks, and set an age limit and waiting period for gun purchases on all U.S. bases.

The committees report found guns are involved in two-thirds of active-duty suicides, almost 75% of reservist suicides and 78% of National Guard suicides. By contrast, only about half of all suicides among the general public involved firearms.

The Navy said recently it was taking steps to assign chaplains permanently to all destroyers in the next few years to fill a shortage of mental and spiritual counselors on the warships.

Having access to mental health resources remains an important topic to sailors, given a spate of at least 10 suicides in the past year on Navy aircraft carriers, including the USS Ronald Reagan, USS Theodore Roosevelt and USS George Washington. On the Reagan, three sailors assigned to the same department on the ship attempted to kill themselves between September and November 2022. In April 2022, three suicides aboard the George Washington while it was docked in Virginia for maintenance raised questions in Congress and prompted a Pentagon investigation.

Too often, mental health concerns are brought to a commands attention because of the occurrence of a destructive behavior, according to the Navys new manual. Over the history of the United States Navy, one thing is clear: it is our people that make us great. Use this handbook to build your people up.
Iraq, March 22, 2003: Pfc. Nicholas Wayne Blunt, 20, of Dallas, was one of many soldiers assigned to guard the 6th Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiments vehicles as the convoy moved from Camp Udairi, Kuwait, to their new post in central Iraq. The invasion of Iraq began March 19 with air assaults, followed by ground forces the next day. The convoy began their journey March 21.

Read Steve Liewers reporting on the convoy here.
I lay on the sand of Luquillo Beach, warmed by the sun and lulled by the whoosh of incoming waves  just as I'd done here before, in my carefree, pre-parenthood days. Puerto Rico was 80 degrees warmer than blizzarding Minnesota. And here I was, basking like an iguana.

Between the winter and spring breaks of last year, my kids, now 4 and 7, spent nearly as much time out of school as in it (COVID closure, teachers' strike, various holidays). That made the work/child-care juggle especially stressful. I vowed that this winter would be different: We'd build in a break by taking our first real vacation as a family of four.

A decade ago, when I lacked an entourage, I'd visited Puerto Rico with friends. Our activities  ocean swims, kayak paddles, rainforest hikes, ferry rides, food-stall meals  seemed more kid-friendly than big-city art museums and elegant bistros.

Puerto Rico, the "Rich Port" of some 3 million inhabitants, sits a bit off American tourists' radar. The U.S. territory feels international, with its colorful concrete buildings, free-roaming horses and primacy of the Spanish language. Yet it offers the ease and familiarity of a domestic destination. There are English speakers everywhere, U.S. dollars and even in-network health care. And with Delta and Sun Country offering nonstop flights, we could be there in about five hours.

Beaches for days

We arrived to pouring rain in San Juan, America's oldest European-established city. (Christopher Columbus arrived in 1493, followed by Spanish settlers.) My husband gamely slipped on his flip-flops and sloshed up to the counter of Charlie Car Rental's flooded office, a modest inconvenience for saving a couple hundred bucks.

Less than an hour later, we arrived in the coastal town of Luquillo, where we'd rented a condo for the week. We found a restaurant and flagged down a waiter serving the patio, just as a car blasting salsa music rolled past. "Sorry," he shouted. "Our culture is loud."

The place was about to close, so the waiter directed us to a late-night beachside bar, called Boardriders. There we found Latin/Caribbean beats blaring from the karaoke machine  but no American pop hits at all. It was one of many reminders of how Puerto Rico's culture has remained distinct from the mainland's.

Between Luquillo and Fajardo, a slightly larger city about 15 minutes away, there are beaches for days. The small, crescent-shaped Playa Azul was just a few blocks from our condo. The larger Balneario La Monserrate, known as Luquillo Beach, as well as Seven Seas Beach in Fajardo, weren't officially open the days we visited. But we simply followed the stream of beachgoers slipping through the fence.

Every beach had aquamarine waters, little to no seaweed, and light to modest crowds. The only variations were in sand texture (crushed-shell bits to silky powder) and waves (mild to moderate). The only thing to complain about was the frequently overflowing garbage cans.

By chatting up a local, my husband got directions to Playa Escondida, a "Hidden Beach" accessed by an easy 30-minute hike. The next day, we followed the path through a tunnel of thick mangroves to find another spectacular, secluded strip of sand.

Island cuisine

Our favorite restaurant was Fajardo's La Estacion, in a former gas station. A couple of New York City restaurant veterans serve what they call Nuyorican BBQ, bringing Caribbean flavors to the Southern U.S. tradition. The grilled swordfish was white-tablecloth caliber. And the pulled-pork sandwich, tucked into Puerto Rican sweet bread, deserves a spot on any best-of list.

We also ate well at the Luquillo kiosks, a blocks-long strip of open-air restaurants and food stalls. We found delicious, portable pinchos (kebabs) and, for a taste of the mainland, excellent slices at Revolution Pizza Shop. I'd also recommend Terruno and La Parrilla for a more formal meal.

Puerto Rican cuisine includes a lot of fried starches, including green plantains served mashed as mofongo or as chip-like tostones. We liked Puerto Rico's version of the empanada, called pastelillos, which are sold everywhere, even out of a beach hawker's insulated bag.

Our kids loved pairing the fish tacos at La Fonda in Luquillo with a flight of tropical juices: mango, passion fruit, tamarind and soursop. And, even better, a virgin pina colada from the kiosks, served in its own pineapple, topped with a paper umbrella.

My husband and I availed ourselves of Puerto Rico's famous rums. Enormous mojitos were a common and refreshing beach sipper. Even with cocktail prices in the single digits, we didn't encounter the rowdy drinkers that often descend on beach towns.

Instead, the liveliest thing we saw in downtown Luquillo was three young men who arrived on horses and hitched them up outside a bar. The friendly riders welcomed my kids' request to pet the horses and even hoisted them up to sit on their backs.

Day trips

We took a break from beachcombing and drove 20 minutes to the El Yunque rainforest. On my prior trip to El Yunque, my friends and I ziplined through the treetops of this U.S. national forest. My family opted to drive its most popular route, which required an online reservation 24 hours in advance. We made pit stops to take in the view at an observation tower, marvel at a shuttered CCC-built swimming pool, scramble up a steep hiking path and douse ourselves under a waterfall.

We also made a day trip to the small island of Culebra, the sleepier sister to the better-known Vieques. The kids initially loved the upper-deck view and ocean spray of the ferry (tickets cost a mere $4.50 for adults, $2 for kids; book in advance). But the waves' jostle became less fun once my 7-year-old lost his breakfast. (We picked up Dramamine for the return.)

We caught a van ride to Culebra's Playa Flamenco, often named among the best beaches in the world for its crystalline waters and white sand. A decade ago, when my friends and I relaxed under one of its palm trees, I was approached by some of the island's roaming horses  one boldly licked the ocean salt off my arm.

The islands' lack of development, due to Culebra's and Vieques' long occupation by the U.S. Navy, helped sustain the free-range herds. But the isles' legacy as a training range means contaminants abound. Even after an alarming 40,000-plus bombs, grenades and rockets have been removed, an unknown number remain. (A posted flier warns of the munitions: "They are not souvenirs.")

Though the risks to visitors are minimal, a massive, decades-long environmental cleanup remains underway. Wood-and-concrete showers, bathrooms and kiosks are under construction at Flamenco, a welcome upgrade to the Hurricane Irma- and Maria-battered beach's minimal amenities.

My kids were captivated by their novel surroundings, content to search for geckos, build forts out of palm fronds, or watch a guy shimmy up tree trunks to harvest coconuts (he kindly opened one with a machete so they could drink the juice).

As they age into more island activities  from snorkeling to surfing to scuba diving  I can't wait to bring them back.
NEW YORK (Tribune News Service)  A Jewish graduate of Columbia University was gunned down while visiting Israel for a friends wedding, and two Palestinian suspects were arrested Wednesday in the killing.

Elan Ganeles, 27, of West Hartford, Connecticut, was shot to death Monday while driving on a highway near the Dead Sea  the lone fatality in a shooting spree that set off a manhunt for the killers, according to Israeli leaders.

The two arrested men are suspected of involvement in the killing, according to Israeli officials, and a third man was taken into custody after their arrests in a refugee camp raid when he was shot while trying to flee.

The victim held dual U.S. and Israeli citizenship and served in the Israel Defense Forces from 2016 to 2018.

Elan Ganeles was a New Yorker, New York Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement. His loss is a tragedy. His generation deserves a world free of terror, a world where we stand up in the face of hate and reject the forces who divide us. We stand with our brothers and sisters in Israel today. We stand for peace.

Ganeles, who studied both neuroscience and sustainable development at Columbia, was honored at a Tuesday night vigil on campus.

The attackers set their own vehicle afire and fled after the shooting, according to The Associated Press.

I cant comprehend that you were killed in an act of terror. You were the kindest, sweetest, most caring friend, said a Facebook post from friend Stanley Block, a Connecticut native who lives in Israel. There are no words to describe the unique friendship you created with every person you met. You found only the good in everyone and everything.

Ganeles was active in the Jewish group Columbia/Barnard Hillel while attending the university, with its members offering a fond recollection of the victim.

We will miss his wry humor and thoughtful manner of discussing challenging or controversial topics, read a statement from the group.

2023 New York Daily News.

Visit nydailynews.com.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
(Tribune News Service)  A Dana Point, Calif., couple, whose son, Navy Lt. Ridge Alkonis, is serving prison time in Japan following a car crash, hopes a visit by the Japanese Prime Minister this week with President Joe Biden could help in getting him transferred to the United States.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is visiting Biden at the White House on Friday, Jan. 13, and his staff is meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III on Thursday, Jan. 12, according to State Department officials.

We have a long relationship with our Japanese allies; that close relationship will be on full display this week, said Ned Price, spokesman for the State Department, said during a press briefing Monday in response to reporter questions. We are prepared to discuss this case; its a tragic case for all involved. We are working to find a compassionate resolution.

Ridge Alkonis has been serving time in a Japanese prison since July after a Tokyo High Court judge denied his appeal seeking to suspend a three-year sentence he received for negligent driving following the crash that led to the death of an 85-year-old Japanese woman and her 54-year-old son-in-law. The elderly womans daughter was also injured.

Japanese prosecutors argued in court the May 29, 2021 crash was caused by Alkonis falling asleep at the wheel, Alkonis says he passed out driving because of acute mountain sickness after a family trip to visit Mount Fuji.

Alkonis, 34, was sentenced in October 2021; the judge said he had not traveled high enough up the mountain to be affected by altitude sickness, according to Japanese news reports.

Since his confinement, his parents Derek and Suzi Alkonis, along with is wife, Brittany, and the couples children, have been doing their best to publicize his case and get him released from Japanese prison on a transfer by protesting outside the White House and at Japanese consulates in Los Angeles and other areas of the county.

They have seen support from lawmakers such as Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who in December secured an amendment to the Omnibus Appropriations Bill that was unanimously passed that allows Ridge Alkonis to retain his pay and benefits, which were set to run out while he was in custody in Japan. Levin also supported the amendment and has been working with the Alkonis to help their efforts.

I am working closely with colleagues, including Senator Mike Lee, to advocate for the safe transfer of Lt. Alkonis back to the United States, Levin said on Wednesday. I have been in regular communication with the State Department as it engages the Japanese government to initiate a formal prisoner transfer process.

These are incredibly sensitive negotiations, and we are confident that the Biden Administration will continue to do everything in its power to bring Lt. Alkonis home, he said.

This week, Brittany Alkonis and Ridge Alkoniss parents said they are in Washington, D.C. to show their support for the naval officer. Brittany Alkonis was stationed in front of the State Department, the Japanese Embassy and the White House at various times on Wednesday, Jan. 11. His parents plan to be in front of the White House on Friday when Kishida is expected to meet with Biden.

The goal is to get the attention of Prime Minister Kishida and the president that this has gone on too long and they need to bring Ridge home, Derek Alkonis said, adding that he and his wife have not talked to their son since July. The U.S. has made efforts to execute a prisoner transfer, but talks have stalled with Japan.

Alkonis said his son lives in austere conditions.

He works in the laundry with Japanese prisoners Monday through Friday, he said. Hes learning how to sew but spends a lot of time in his cell reading, writing and singing to himself. He loves music, so we send him sheet music.

In addition to the familys efforts in the nations capital, there are a series of #BringRidgeHome protests planned in other cities.

2022 MediaNews Group, Inc.

Visit ocregister.com.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
WASHINGTON  An independent watchdog who investigated U.S. military operations in Afghanistan said Tuesday that American forces left behind billions of dollars in weapons, vehicles and equipment and the Taliban has learned how to use some of it, including aircraft.

John Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, or SIGAR, released a report outlining U.S. failures in the country after 20 years of war there. The report includes reasons why Afghan government forces fell so quickly to the Taliban when the United States withdrew in 2021 and states roughly $7.2 billion in American military equipment was left in Afghanistan.

The equipment includes at least 78 aircraft worth more than $920 million, 40,000 vehicles, more than 300,000 weapons and thousands of air-to-ground munitions.

Some of [the equipment] was destroyed, a lot of it wasnt, Sopko told reporters Tuesday in Washington. Was I surprised? No. [The Pentagon] had a horrible system in place to keep track of weapons and where they were and how they were maintained.

Sopko, the SIGAR since 2012, said some of the U.S. equipment left behind was sophisticated  such as night vision and communications hardware  and Taliban militants have probably learned how to operate some of it by now.

Thats a concern, he said. We have seen and we have picked up intelligence that the Taliban are actually flying some of the helicopters and some of the planes.  But its a concern. Thats a lot of hardware and a lot of weaponry.

A preliminary version of the SIGAR report, titled Why the Afghan Security Forces Collapsed, was given to Congress last year and concludes there were several reasons why the Afghan government fell so quickly  such as government corruption, poor planning and low morale among Afghan troops, especially when the U.S. said it would pull out.

This is like the house of cards. When you pull one card, you can see the next one going. Or maybe dominoes is the [analogy], Sopko said. When you pulled out the support for the Afghan government, the morale started to crater.

The report said Afghanistan was a failure mainly because the United States lacked the political will to dedicate the time and resources necessary to reconstruct an entire security sector in a war-torn and impoverished country.

The U.S. and Afghan governments share in the blame. Neither side appeared to have the political commitment to doing what it would take to address the challenges, including devoting the time and resources necessary to develop a professional [Afghan military], a process that takes decades, the report reads. The February 2020 decision to commit to a rapid U.S. military withdrawal sealed the [Afghan militarys] fate.

SIGAR was created by Congress in 2008 and has issued dozens of reports in the past 15 years on American efforts in the war-scarred country. Though American involvement in Afghanistan has ended, the office will continue to exist until its funding pipeline falls below $250 million. Once that happens, it will terminate in six months. SIGAR said it had about $2.2 billion at the start of 2023.

Sopko said Tuesday that the Pentagon and State Department werent entirely cooperative with the SIGAR review. Rebecca Zimmerman, the Pentagons deputy assistant secretary of defense for Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia, wrote in a letter to SIGAR that it disagreed with the reports claim that there was a lack of communication between the U.S. and Afghanistan.

Further, the Pentagon has conducted its own investigation into the failures of Afghanistan, which has not been made public yet.

We did conduct an internal classified lessons-learned report. That report remains classified and I dont have any updates right now in terms of potential releasability, Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagons top spokesman, told reporters Tuesday.

The U.S. made its exit from Afghanistan in August 2021 after several months of preparations. The quick collapse of the Afghan government has led to numerous questions about what went wrong and is a subject of scrutiny by House Republicans.

When President Joe Biden announced the U.S. pullout in early 2021, he said the military had achieved its purpose there and flatly refused to pass the war on to another president. Former President Donald Trump had wanted to withdraw even sooner, first in late 2020 and then by May 2021 before he lost to Biden in the presidential election.

Trumps administration negotiated with the Taliban for an exit and the result was the Doha Agreement in February 2020. Negotiations for that pact did not include the Afghan government, an omission that some experts have said demoralized Afghan leaders and troops and contributed to the collapse.

The SIGAR report comes as the United States provides ongoing military support for Ukraine in its war against Russia. Bidens administration has pledged more than $30 billion in weapons and equipment since the war started a year ago. It has raised concerns in Congress about oversight and tracking whether the U.S. weapons and equipment are being used as intended.

We take accountability of U.S. assistance to Ukraine very seriously. We have an active and proactive whole-of-government system to prevent the illicit diversion of weapons in Eastern Europe, Ryder said. To this date, we have not seen any evidence of any type of widespread diversion of any of the assistance that we provided.

Ryder said theres a robust system to track all weapons systems when they enter Ukraine, and personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv keep tabs on them through physical and virtual inspections.

If there are lessons from Afghanistan that can be applied to the situation in Ukraine, Sopko said he wasnt confident that they will be.

Im not super optimistic that we are going to learn our lesson, he said. Ive been in Washington since 1982 and learning lessons is not in our DNA in the United States, unfortunately.
Stars and Stripes is making stories on the coronavirus pandemic available free of charge. See more stories here. Sign up for our coronavirus newsletter here. Please support our journalism with a subscription.

WASHINGTON  Military branches are continuing to review cases of service members who refused a coronavirus vaccine without asking for an exemption as the Defense Department nullifies its pandemic-era immunization policies, defense officials told lawmakers on Tuesday.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin rescinded the vaccine mandate last month at the direction of Congress but defense officials testifying before a House Armed Service Committee subpanel said service branches are still evaluating how to deal with troops who had defied orders.

This is a new process for us and something were trying to figure out and weve been working on it, said Gilbert Cisneros, the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness. Its very important that our service members go and follow orders when they are lawful and there are thousands who did not and so those services are going through a process to review those cases to make a determination of what needs to be done.

About 8,100 service members were separated after failing to request or receive a religious exemption or other accommodation from the vaccine mandate and then refused to get vaccinated after being ordered to do so, he said. More than 2 million service members, about 96% of the military, have received the vaccine.

Cisneros did not say how many cases are being evaluated, but Gabe Camarillo, the undersecretary of the Army, said there are a number of pending cases of individual soldiers who chose not to comply with a lawful order.

Each of these cases has to be evaluated on its own individual merits because theyre highly fact-specific, Camarillo said. There may be in any instance numerous violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice or other areas in which there might be circumstances in which to look at disciplinary procedures.

Erik Raven, the undersecretary of the Navy, said the service will conduct an individualized review and is determined to look at each of these cases on the merits of the facts of each case. The service has a 97% coronavirus immunization rate.

Gina Ortiz Jones, the undersecretary of the Air Force, said the service is taking steps to remove adverse records for active-duty airmen and guardians who had applied for exemptions but were disciplined for refusing the vaccine. Those who did not apply for accommodations have to appeal to the Air Forces board for military record correction, she said.

The Air Force separated 610 members over the mandate, Jones said. Forty officers voluntarily left service rather than get immunized and 14 officers retired in lieu of getting vaccinated, she said. About 98% of the service received the vaccine, including 99% of active-duty airmen and guardians.

Republican lawmakers led congressional efforts last year to rescind the vaccine mandate, and on Tuesday bemoaned the forced departure of thousands of service members. They argued the separations damaged morale and exacerbated the militarys recruiting problems, particularly in the Army, which missed its recruiting goal by 15,000 soldiers last year.

We live in an increasingly dangerous world where the communist Chinese government is the No. 1 threat to our national security, said Rep. Mark Alford, R-Mo. We cannot afford the loss of any more soldiers.

But military officials defended the mandate and said the Pentagon will continue to encourage service members and civilian employees to get the vaccine and subsequent boosters. They credited the vaccine for saving lives, noting 93 of the 96 service members who died from the coronavirus were unvaccinated.

The militarys death toll from the pandemic was broad: 36 family members of service members, 417 civilian employees and 141 Defense Department contractors, Cisneros said. Thousands more were hospitalized.

Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., a former Air Force officer, challenged Republican claims that the military was worse off after the vaccine mandate. She said remaining service members were now in a better position because they had obeyed and followed orders.

Good honor and discipline have been upheld and maintained, she said. I would argue that we are in a stronger position than we were before.

The military has not actively reached out to the service members who were discharged due to the mandate and few have explored the option of returning to service, officials said. The Navy has seen interest from individuals in the single digits," Raven said.

Those who would like to come back to military service can talk to recruiters and contact the appropriate service boards for the correction of military records, officials said.
WASHINGTON  The Pentagon has found no evidence that U.S. military aid earmarked for Ukraine has been diverted for unauthorized uses, defense officials told House lawmakers Tuesday to allay congressional fears that weapons could be falling into the wrong hands.

The Pentagons comprehensive oversight efforts for nearly $32 billion in security assistance for Ukraines defense against Russias invasion is successfully working to track and account for military equipment, officials said during a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee.

We think the Ukrainians are using properly what theyve been given, said Colin Kahl, the undersecretary of defense for policy.

Robert Storch, the Defense Departments inspector general, detailed a vast accountability system that the U.S. has set up to watch over the material being sent to Ukraine in the past year. More than 90 employees are conducting oversight and the department has about 20 ongoing and planned audits and evaluations focused on ensuring U.S. tax dollars are being spent properly, he said.

The Pentagon is also partnering with inspector generals at the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development to monitor more than $113 billion in total aid to Ukraine, about 60% of which is military assistance, Storch said.

Were laser focused on this issue, he said. Were doing audits and evaluations that look at the weapons from the time they begin at the port, while theyre transferred, as they get to the transshipment points and then go into the country.

Ukrainians have been provided with tracking systems, including hand-held scanners and logistics software, to keep tabs on the equipment, Kahl said. The limited military personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, also has conducted six site visits to provide additional oversight.

We dont see any evidence of diversion in our reporting, he said. But well continue to foot stomp the importance of accountability and transparency.

Ukraines long history of corruption has been a top concern for defense officials since the U.S. began actively assisting Ukraines military nine years ago, Kahl said. But there has been progress in that area, he said, especially in the defense sector.

Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., noted Ukraines position on a corruption index compiled by the group Transparency International has improved in the past year and praised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyys recent crackdown on graft within his government.

I would say he courageously took steps to remove officials, some very close even to his office and political supporters of his own, which shows, I think, a tremendous commitment to not just talking about trying to address this problem, Courtney said. I think that should be acknowledged in terms of the seriousness with which he and his administration are pursuing this goal.

Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the top Democrat on the committee, said Ukraines success on the battlefield  defying many expectations that the country would fall to a Russian assault in a matter of days  has shown that U.S. aid is going where it needs to go.

If the weapons and equipment and support that we were sending them was being sent elsewhere or stolen or misused, they would have lost a long time ago, he said.

Republicans have been more skeptical of U.S. assistance to Ukraine, with a vocal minority arguing to put an end to it. Reps. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and Mike Johnson, R-La., on Tuesday raised concerns over the challenges of conducting end-use monitoring in a country with no active U.S. military presence.

Kahl acknowledged those difficulties but said safeguards are in place to make certain Ukrainians are not misusing U.S. aid. Ukrainian officials are regularly providing information from their inventories and transfer logs, and data from NATO-standard scanners is being transmitted directly to the U.S., he said.

A couple dozen military personnel from the U.S. Embassys Office of Defense Cooperation are also making day trips to sites outside Kyiv when it is safe to do so, Kahl said.

This is an active combat zone, its not like Iraq and Afghanistan where we had thousands of soldiers all over the country so there are inherent restrictions, he said. But were trying to maximize the use of technology and the people we do have on the ground to get the best sight picture as possible.
This will be the year that the law is changed to allow all medically retired veterans to receive full retirement and disability checks  not just veterans with more than 20 years of service, Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., vowed Tuesday.

This is a top priority for nearly every veterans service group, Tester, the chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said during a news conference about the bill known as the Maj. Richard Star Act. Well take our marching orders from them. They're the folks that served.

The Star Act, which was first introduced in 2021, would allow veterans who were forced to retire for medical reasons prior to reaching 20 years of service to be eligible to receive full benefit payments from their Defense Department retirement and Department of Veterans Affairs disability.

The law now requires a veterans retirement check be reduced based on the amount of his or her disability payment. This is known in government as concurrent receipt. A 2004 change to the law allowed for veterans with a disability rating more than 50% and more than 20 years of service to receive the full amount of both payments.

More than 50,000 combat-injured veterans would benefit from the Star Act, if it passed, according to the Military Officers Association of America.

Tester reintroduced the bill Feb. 9 with Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, and they have collected 49 cosponsors for the bill.

Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., introduced the House version of the bill Monday with Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Calif., and said during the news conference that it already has 200 cosponsors.

The Star Act also has the backing of The Military Coalition, which is comprised of 35 military and veteran service organizations that represent more than 5.5 million service members, veterans, family members and survivors.

Military retirement pay and disability compensation are two separate benefits. For those injured in the line of duty, this offset creates an undue financial burden on the family of a disabled veteran, Vietnam Veterans of America National President Jack McManus said in a statement. Those injured in defense of the U.S. Constitution have earned these benefits. It is time for Congress to address this injustice and change this law.

If passed, the law would cost about $7 billion for 10 years, Tester said.

People are going to argue that this costs too much money to do, he said. If we're going to send them off to war, we take care of them when they get home. Otherwise, we shouldnt send them off to war to begin with.

Richard Star, the veteran for whom the legislation is named, served in the Army Reserve and deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. He medically retired in 2018 after being diagnosed with lung cancer that was linked to toxic exposure from those deployments. He died Feb. 13, 2021, at age 51.

We've got to get this done for him and the rest of the heroes, all the heroes who worked so very hard, and really wanted to go the full 20 years, but through no fault of their own, because they were injured in combat, they were not able to continue the careers, Bilirakis said.
A former deputy national security adviser in the Trump administration told lawmakers Tuesday that he could envision a scenario in which China conducts a preemptive strike against the United States ahead of an invasion of Taiwan.

It's possible, Matthew Pottinger, now chairman of the FDD China Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said during a House Select Committee hearing dubbed The Chinese Communist Partys Threat to America.

We know that the [Chinese army] is training for the likelihood that the U.S. would be part of the fight, said Pottinger, a former Marine and journalist.

And that raises the escalatory pressure on China to try to eliminate U.S. capabilities right there in the Western Pacific to buy them time, he said.

Lawmakers at the hearing  the first held by the newly minted House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party  brought up numerous flashpoints between the two nations, from Chinese apps the likes of TikTok and WeChat to the purchase of agricultural land in the U.S. by Chinese interests.

But the subject invariably returned to Taiwan and how the U.S. might be drawn into outright conflict with China if Beijing decides to take the island by force.

Chinese leaders consider the island, a self-governing democracy off Chinas southern coast, to be a breakaway province that must, at some point, be brought under the control of the Chinese Communist Party.

Retired Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, who served as U.S. national security adviser from 2017 to 2018, told the committee that its work was urgent and important because the United States has fallen behind in the consequential competition with the Chinese Communist Party.

For too long, leaders across the private sector, in academia, industry and finance, as well as in the public sector across multiple administrations and Congresses, clung to the assumption that China, having been welcomed into the international system, would play by the rules, said McMaster, now a senior fellow for the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

Committee Chair Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., asked McMaster what lessons from the failure to deter Russia from invading Ukraine could be applied to Taiwan.

I think, first of all, hard power matters, McMaster said. And what matters much, much more than pledges of more defense sales, for example, are real capabilities on the ground and integrated, in this case, with the Taiwanese armed force.

A second lesson is to avoid giving an authoritarian regime coercive power over your economy, he said.

Germany learned that the hard way in the energy sector and Europe did broadly in connection with the Kremlin and Russia, he said. But there are all sorts of supply-chain vulnerabilities associated with batteries, magnets, certain minerals  and the upstream processes of producing those minerals  and [much] of the equipment and hardware and a few components that are critical to the energy transmission, for example.

But most important, McMaster said, is the need for the U.S. to rethink how it builds its defense architecture.

The assumptions that have underpinned defense planning for a long time have been that we can do one thing at a time, he said. And I think what China has been able to do is take advantage of crises elsewhere to advance their interests, through coercion in other places.

McMaster noted examples such as Chinas ongoing border skirmishes with India on the Himalayan frontier and its effort to build and militarize small atolls in the South China Sea.

One committee member asked Pottinger about Chinese President Xi Jinpings stated goal that the Chinese military possess the capabilities to take Taiwan by force by 2027.

The [Chinese army] has been receiving massive amounts of investment that increased by double digits in many years, precisely to try to fill gaps that they would need to fill in order to successfully invade Taiwan, Pottinger said. That's really what we should be working to prevent, is an invasion.

Those gaps include amphibious lift to carry tanks and equipment across the strait, helicopters and missiles, he said.

Not to be overlooked, Pottinger said, is Chinas need for capabilities designed to threaten the United States to keep us out of the fight long enough for Xi Jinping to make it a fait accompli.
(Tribune News Service)  One of the most vocal supporters of Ukraines bid to secure F-16 fighter jets to help defend itself against Russias invasion is U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat from Maines 2nd Congressional District.

Golden is leading a bipartisan group of 16 lawmakers calling on President Joe Biden to provide Ukraine with increased air superiority capability, including the F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft requested by Kiev, or similar fourth-generation aircraft, as soon as possible.

We believe now is the time for America to again lead the way and provide our allies in Ukraine with the tools necessary to defend their nation, the 11 Democrats and five Republican lawmakers said.

The provision of such aircraft is necessary to help Ukraine protect its airspace, particularly in light of renewed Russian offensives and considering the expected increase in large-scale combat operations, the Feb. 16 letter told the president.

Biden told reporters after his recent meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kiev that talk about F-16s between them was a private discussion. He hasnt ruled it out.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan called it a question for a later time.

But Zelenskyy this week, in a speech to his country, said it is time for Western nations to get past their aviation taboo and deliver the planes Ukraine needs.

The backing of more aid to Ukraine comes at a time when the Republicans who control the U.S. House by a narrow margin are split on whether to boost aid or slice aid to Russias embattled neighbor.

Some GOP leaders criticize Biden for what they say is a lax pace in providing the aircraft while other Republicans insist the U.S. ought to focus on domestic issues instead.

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, said on Twitter this week that Americans do not support the war in Ukraine at all and are very turned off with Washington for funding and pushing the war. We want peace.

Since Russia launched its invasion a little more than a year ago, the United States has sent more than $75 billion in assistance to Ukraine, according to the German-based Kiel Institute for the World Economys Ukraine Support Tracker. That includes military and humanitarian help.

Golden, in his third term representing a Republican-leaning district, said last fall that the U.S. ought to begin training Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16s or other modern fighters. That hasnt happened yet, at least in public view.

Now, though, with a renewed Russian attack on the horizon and bloody battles virtually certain along the long line cutting through Ukrainian territory that marks where both sides held out during the winter, military experts say new weaponry might make the difference.

In the letter signed by Golden and 11 colleagues, the lawmakers said that F-16s or similar fourth-generation fighter aircraft would provide Ukraine with a highly mobile platform from which to target Russian air-to-air missiles and drones, to protect Ukrainian ground forces as they engage Russian troops, as well as to engage Russian fighters for contested air superiority.

In contrast to the current, ground-based air defense platforms currently used by Ukrainian forces, fighter aircrafts ability to quickly traverse a large battlespace with a significant weapons payload could prove decisive for control of Ukrainian airspace this year, they said.

Providing Ukraine with fourth-generation fighter aircraft represents a sound strategic investment in bolstering Kievs military capability and bringing this conflict to a just conclusion, the legislators wrote to Biden.

American leadership on this issue is crucial, the lawmakers said. During the past year, the United States has consistently led the way for Ukraine to receive the military equipment necessary to defend itself against Russian aggression, including advanced air defense systems, armored fighting vehicles, and most recently tanks.

We believe that a U.S. willingness to provide F-16 fighters to Ukraine may well encourage our NATO allies and European partners to provide comparable fourth-generation fighter aircraft to Kiev, they said.

Signing the letter with Golden were Democrats Jason Crow of Colorado, Chrissy Houlahan and Susan Wild, both of Pennsylvania, Jim Costa and Jimmy Panetta, both of California, Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, Brad Schneider of Illinois, Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Lloyd Doggett of Texas.

The five GOP legislators who signed the letter were Tony Gonzales and August Pfluger, both of Texas, Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, Don Bacon of Nebraska and Rob Wittman of Virginia.

(c)2023 the Sun Journal (Lewiston, Maine)

Visit at www.sunjournal.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
WASHINGTON  Congressional lawmakers want to amend the federal tax code to encourage employers to hire military spouses, arguing the revision would help address one of the top issues affecting active-duty families.

A bill introduced Wednesday in the Senate would make employers of spouses of service members eligible for the work opportunity tax credit, an incentive available to companies who hire individuals from groups facing significant barriers to employment.

Unemployment for military spouses has hovered at about 21% for years, according to Defense Department data.

It is common for military spouses to struggle to find employment due to relocation and other factors, bill co-sponsor Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., said in a statement. This business tax credit is a commonsense and concrete way to help our military families.

The credit currently applies to qualified veterans, ex-felons and members of other targeted groups. The maximum tax credit is generally $2,400, according to the Internal Revenue Service.

Military spouse employment is the top issue impacting active-duty families and a major contributor to financial stress, according to a 2021 survey by the nonprofit organization Blue Star Families.

Research by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation and Syracuse University shows military spouses make up one of the most unemployed and underemployed sectors of the job force, with an unemployment rate up to four times higher than their civilian counterparts.

Unemployed spouses spend an average of 19 weeks searching for work, according to a 2021 Defense Department survey. Out-of-work spouses surveyed by Blue Star Families cited multiple reasons for not having a job, including their spouses unpredictable and demanding work schedule, expensive child care and the disruption of uprooting their lives for a relocation.

My mother was a military spouse, and I am keenly aware of challenges facing partners of active-duty service members, who often have to relocate their families long distances, said Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., who introduced a companion bill in the House.

The longer spouses are out of work, the more negatively their financial future is affected. Spouses told researchers that they struggled to find careers that paid competitive salaries matching their skill level and worried about saving enough for retirement. Half of the spouses surveyed by Blue Star Families said their military affiliation prevented them from receiving a promotion.

The vast majority of military spouses  87%  are women and between 26 and 40 years old, according to the Defense Department survey. About 31% earned bachelors degrees and 18% have an advanced degree. Most employed spouses, about 62%, are employed within their area of education or training, according to the Defense Department.

The proposed tax credit legislation is led by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, including Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and John Boozman, R-Ark. Beyer, a member of the tax-writing House Committee on Ways and Means, said he was confident the measure would win support from the panel.

Our legislation would make important changes to the tax code to overcome hurdles to employment that disproportionately affect military spouses, and show military families that their service to the nation is valued, he said in a statement. I will continue working with my colleagues in both parties to advance it in the current session.
Four cadets at the Air Force Academy were allowed to continue their studies during the last year after having children due to a policy change enacted by Congress, according to academy officials.

Prior to lawmakers approving the change in 2021, the cadets would not have been permitted to have children and could have been forced to leave school.

The change impacts all three of the Defense Departments service academies, though officials for the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y, and the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., said they are waiting for the Pentagon to issue a new formal policy, which was mandated by Congress to be implemented by January.

A spokesperson at the Pentagon said Friday that the new policy is still pending and declined to comment further.

The previous rule forced some cadets who became pregnant or sired a child to withdraw from the academies  a move that could cost tens of thousands of dollars because students who quit after the start of their third year can be required to repay the government. One year at a service academy costs roughly $82,000, according to a 2019 Defense Department memo.

The other options left for expecting students to stay in school included giving up custody of the child or terminating the pregnancy. Its unclear how many students have been impacted by the policy because women dont have to disclose abortions and men could become a father without telling the school.

Understanding the intent of Congress, we worked with [Department of the Air Force] and DOD to implement a process in which cadets with natural-born children could remain at [the Air Force Academy] as long as they had an approved family care plan, said Dean Miller, spokesman for the academy. The details of the family care plan include who will care for the child financially and physically while the cadet remains enrolled at the academy."

Under the policy change, a cadet can now grant temporary guardianship of his or her child to another person while the cadet finishes his or her studies at the academy. A student would have to create a family care plan like ones that active-duty service members with children are required to produce.

Women can take up to two years away from their studies to give birth under the new law.

However, it doesnt allow people who already have children to apply to service academies and still forbids cadets and midshipmen from getting married.

The change was introduced by Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., in the Candidates Afforded Dignity, Equality and Training Act, or CADET Act, which was passed as part of the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, an annual bill that outlines defense priorities and spending. The initial CADET Act legislation from Cruz and Gillibrand proposed pregnant women also be relieved from any service or financial obligations if they chose to withdraw from college. But that did not make it into the law.

The NDAA gave the Defense Department one year from the laws signing on Dec. 27, 2021, to make the changes.

Air Force Reserve Maj. Melissa Hemphill said she began speaking out against the old policy in 2011 by writing the service secretary during her senior year at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. Her senior year was delayed because she gave birth to her son Oliver.

Her boyfriend Anthony Hemphill, who was also a cadet and is now her husband and an Air Force major, finished his senior year, and then took custody of their child.

To go back and finish her final year, Hemphill had to go before a judge and relinquish custody of Oliver. The process cost about $11,000 in legal fees and took an emotional toll on her.

There were people coming out of the woodwork to tell me they had children who they were hiding, or they had one or two or three abortions, Hemphill said. It was really devastating to families and also it was affecting a lot more people than we thought.

Christian Paasch, an Air Force Academy alumnus and chairman of the National Parents Organization in Virginia, said he supported the policy change because it allows for a more humane process, not just for the students, but also for the children involved.

What is the best thing for the children? Because what's best for children is best for society every single time, he said. You are increasing the likelihood that this child will have both parents in his or her life. We know that is what's best for children. Children benefit from that in every kind of measurable statistic.

The policy change does not offer any benefits, such as additional pay or health insurance for children of academy students. However, the Pentagon anticipates it could be asked to do so in the future, according to a closed briefing that Defense Department officials presented last month to members of Congress. Stars and Stripes obtained a copy of the Pentagons presentation documents.

To help those students who find themselves pregnant or a soon-to-be parent, Hemphill and two other service academy alumni formed the nonprofit Military Academy Pregnancy Support. The group helps students navigate an unexpected pregnancy by helping with housing expenses, access to counseling services, funding travel to visit their child and newborn support.

In the last year, Hemphill said theyve helped six Air Force cadets.

I lived through being a cadet and having a family at the same time and I would never, ever recommend someone do it, she said. "But at the same time, we can't wish away unexpected pregnancy because it's going to happen. It has been happening and it does happen.

There also are questions about whether the students should continue to receive health insurance while they are on administrative leave to have a baby. A Defense Department group was developed to implement the initial change and present additional changes that the Pentagon should consider, according to the briefing documents.

Hemphill said she would like to see some of these questions addressed because not all students have the resources and support to take a year off from school to have a baby.

You can have all the options, but if an option isnt realistic  its like your choice is made for you, she said. We're trying to keep all the choices on the table. Especially when it comes to keeping the child and to be able to support that because that's a hard choice.
He admitted he was aware they were on his phone, and had been for some time; he remembered seeing them, the sergeant alleged.

GARDAI discovered child abuse images on a Dublin mans phone when he handed it in to them to investigate his own claims of online harassment, it is alleged.

According to prosecutors, Davin Tinton (31) had reported that he was being harassed on Facebook when gardai found the five images on his phone.

He appeared in Dublin District Court charged with possession of child pornography. The case was adjourned for Mr Tinton to decide how he intends to plead.

The accused, with an address at Northbank, Castleforbes Road, Dublin 1 is charged with possession of images of child pornography.

Garda Sergeant Maire McDevitt told Judge Bryan Smyth the DPP consented to the case being dealt with summarily at district court level, subject to jurisdiction being accepted.

She outlined the prosecutions case so the judge could consider the issue.

David Tinton

Sgt McDevitt said the accused went to Store Street garda station on May 19, 2022 to report alleged harassment on Facebook. The harassment was of himself, he told gardai.

He handed his phone to the gardai for analysis in this investigation.

Images of child abuse were on the phone when it was analysed, it was alleged.

He admitted he was aware they were on his phone, and had been for some time; he remembered seeing them, the sergeant alleged.

The judge ordered disclosure of prosecution evidence to the defence. He granted free legal aid at the request of Mr Tintons solicitor, Benedict

OConnor, who said the accused was between work at the moment and had no assets.

Mr Tinton has not yet entered a plea to the charge, which is under Section 6 of the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act.

He was not required to address the court during the jurisdiction hearing and was remanded on continuing bail to appear in court again in late March.
Andrew Gibney (30) was given a suspended sentence for assaulting the doorman in a nasty incident at a Centra on King Street

A shoplifter who grabbed and pushed over a security man as he tried to stop him had a previous conviction for manslaughter, a court heard.

Andrew Gibney (30) was given a six-month suspended sentence for assaulting the doorman in a nasty incident at a Dublin convenience store.

Gibney, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to assault and theft.

Dublin District Court heard the incident happened at Centra, King Street, Dublin 7 last November 27.

The accused entered the store at 12.40pm and took a four-pack of beer, passing all points of payment. A security man attempted to stop him leaving by blocking the door, a garda told the court.

Gibney grabbed the doorman and pushed him back, causing him to fall to the ground.

The court heard Gibney had previous convictions for offences including manslaughter. He was sentenced to eight years in jail with one suspended over the death of a man in 2012.

Gibney was on a community employment scheme, was doing well and trying to contribute to society, his solicitor Luke Staines said.

The doorman had not wished to provide a victim impact statement, a garda said.

Mr Staines asked the court to take account of the fact that the theft was at the lower level.

It was a nasty enough incident for the security officer, Judge John Brennan said.

I take it there was drink in the background.

The judge fined Gibney 200 for the assault and 100 for the theft charge.
In a dispute over a drug debt, James Gillen ordered his mate Aodhan McLarnon to lie down on the ground but when he refused, he shot him

James Gillen, leaving court after pleading guilty to shooting his friend in the groin with a crossbow.

James Gillen, leaving court after pleading guilty to shooting his friend in the groin with a crossbow.

A man who finished a three day drink and drug binge by shooting his mate in the leg with a crossbow was handed a seven and a half year sentence on Wednesday.

Newry Crown Court heard that in dispute over a 200-300 drug debt, 49-year-old James Gillen ordered his mate Aodhan McLarnon to lie down on the ground but when he refused, he shot him in the right upper thigh with a crossbow bolt.

In a strange twist to the confused tale, it was Gillen who phoned the police at 4am on December 29th 2020 to tell them hed shot Mr McLarnon in the groin, erroneously claiming hed done it because his victim had come to his home to do him harm and that hed been informed McLarnon had been paid 1,000 to do so.

When police arrived at the scene, they found the heavily bleeding victim in a street nearby and although he told cops he jury his leg climbing over a fence, he admitted the truth and was taken to hospital where doctors stitches his leg back together, sealing the 11 cm wound with 16 stitches.

James Gillen, leaving court after pleading guilty to shooting his friend in the groin with a crossbow.

Gillen, from Lagmore Avenue, Belfast was arrested and confessed: I shot him in the balls, no problem, he wouldnt get on the ground so I could kneecap him. There you go, Ive claimed ittry to f**king do my family in, f**king 2p gangster.

When officers arrested him, they discovered an axe and a machete in a bag behind the door and also that in his pocket, he had a small silver knuckle duster.

It was that axe, the court heard, that Gillen used to smashed every window in his victims Skoda car and to gouge the panels and paint work.

Judge Peter Irvine KC said while Gillen has a considerable record for violencethe prosecution do not make the case that this was a punishment attack, nor that it was carried out in behalf of a paramilitary organisation.

Instead, it seemed that Gillen had lent his victim 200-300 for a drink and drug binge over Christmas and when he couldnt pay, the victim offered to give him his crossbow in part payment before he was shot with Gillens weapon.

During police interviews Gillen accepted there was no threat made to him by Mr McLarnon of any kind, there was no physical threat to him and no verbal threat to him, there was no discussion, there was no fight.

He later entered guilty pleas to wounding with intent to cause GBH, criminal damage to the victims Skoda car and possessing the knuckle duster.

Jailing Gillen, Judge Irvine said while he was due credit for admitting his guilt, the offences were aggravated because of his considerable record, the premeditated nature of the attack and that he had brought a crossbow on to the street with the direct intention of wounding Mr McLarnon.

Imposing seven years for the attack and an extra six months for the knuckle duster, the judge ordered the sentences to be served half in jail and half on licence.

Speaking after the sentence, Detective Sergeant Kitchen said: Gillen inflicted serious wounds on his victim after shooting him with a crossbow bolt in December 2020, following an altercation in the Lagmore area of Belfast.

"This was a vicious assault which resulted in a man suffering a serious injury and I hope this sentencing sends out a clear message to anyone who thinks they can use violence and get away with it.

"Police will continue to work tirelessly to bring offenders before the courts so that victims receive the justice they deserve.

James Gillens sentencing took place just 24 hours after his younger brother Gavin Anthony Gillen was jailed at Newry Crown Court for 10 months, for sexual communication with a child.
Cho Simon Cheung escaped with a fine at Ennis Circuit Court last November after pleading guilty to abandoning his children

Cheung left his two kids in Ireland to shack up with a new woman in Singapore, with whom he now has two kids

A young woman whose father abandoned her to be with his his new lover in Singapore has said he broke her heart and I dont want him back in my life.

Cho Simon Cheung escaped with a fine and a suspended sentence at Ennis Circuit Court last November after pleading guilty to abandoning his children.

His daughter, Ciara, told the Sunday Worldhow she didnt expect him to return here after leaving their Co Clare home in 2016, saying he was going to Dublin for a job when she was 11.

Incredibly, the articulate art student said she doesnt hold a grudge against her biological father despite the mental anguish and damage caused by his sudden disappearance.

Cheung left his two kids in Ireland to shack up with a new woman in Singapore, with whom he now has two kids

My dad left, but he would lie and say Im coming back, but he didnt. I obviously trusted him because I was so young; he said he was going to Dublin for a job. He broke my heart as well. I dont want him back in my life.

At his sentence hearing last year, Cho Cheungs defence counsel said he was extremely ashamed and embarrassed and hoped some day he might be able to mend the relationship he had with his family.

I did expect some type of apology from him  but however many times he will apologise, it will never get rid of the agony he put me through, said Ciara.

I dont have a grudge against him, I just simply dont care about him, Ive moved on from the past and accepted what has happened, and there is nothing that can be done to mend it.

The impact of her abandonment on Ciaras life, both mentally and physically, has been a huge burden for such a young person to have endured.

She and her then 15-year-old brother were taken in by an aunt at the time, but later went into foster care when it became apparent their father wasnt coming back.

When Ciaras mother left Ireland in 2007 to return to Hong Kong, her grandmother arrived to help out.

But, by autumn 2016  and by then in her mid-70s  her granny returned to Hong Kong, briefly coming back in November 2016 shortly after her father left.

Ciara said she didnt mind what sentence her dad got, and having fathered two new children with his new partner, she thought at the time he cant just go to prison, just closing the whole circle again.

Simon Cheung

She speaks about what she went through with the wisdom of a person much older than her 18 years, forced to grow up sooner than a child should have to.

I know that everybody on this earth is going through something whether it is small or big. Ive been suffering for most of my life. Ive had about two years of peace.

But she said its important for people going through such mental anguish to realise that it wont always be that way.

I can guarantee there is going to be peace at some point, whether it is peace that is just for a couple of days, a week or something, this pain is not going to keep going on for the rest of your life  it is going to have an end.

Life isnt hopeless, there is always a reason to be living, even if it is just for yourself or for a friend or something.

You are here for a reason and dont ever think you are not worth it, because you definitely are, even if it takes you years to realise that. Im still working on that, though.

With her 18th birthday just past, Ciara says secondary school was difficult and that some people who would have had no idea what had been happening to her put her through hell.

She said she was surprised to find herself shocked when the case featured widely in the media but was glad that it was out in the open.

Because she was so young when her dad left, she had not told even her closest friends about what she had been through.

It was more of a shock the fact that my name was out in the public and some of my friends texted me I heard your story on the radio and I was like oh my God people are hearing it.

Now she is looking forward to getting on with her life, continuing her college education.

I feel I always have to be the one standing up for myself, or standing up for other people. Ive never had time to rest and I was so young and I am still really young, she says.

I have found so many more people to talk to and made so many friends and it made me realise that I can finally rest now I dont have to constantly be alert.

I have fully acknowledged that I am not by myself anymore, I am surrounded by the most kindest, caring and amazing friends and family, and I could not ask for more.
Price, who had been linked to four murders in Ireland, became ill in October 2021 with a brain disease and died in a Welsh hospital last weekend

One of the banners at the roadside

Crowds are seen with one of the banners

Supporters of Cornelius Price have paid a roadside tribute to the dead mobster as they claim his remains are now back in Ireland.

Price, who had been linked to four murders in Ireland, became ill in October 2021 with a brain disease and had been comatose ever since.

Last night, footage appeared on a TikTok video showing people gathered by the side of the road with flags and banners paying tribute to the gangster ahead of his funeral.

However, one source told the Sunday World said it was unclear if the mobsters body had returned to Ireland at this point.

One sign  reading back to home turf  can be seen on social media surrounded by balloons and floral tributes while an Irish tricolour depicts the words, beloved uncle rest in peace.

Another is signed by people in black marker while in the background a garda car is filmed as it drives past.

One of flags with a tribute

While his funeral arrangements have yet to be made public, the TikTok page run by his supporters claim it will be held in Ireland.

His daughter Alisha wrote on Facebook: For everyone thats enquiring about my father Nailyboy Prices funeral, yes it is taking place in Ireland.

No matter what anyone else thinks, God knows his heart and that is all that matters.

Be back in Ireland soon on his own turf for the greatest and biggest send off youll ever see. What he deserves.

It is expected that Price will be given a plush funeral by his family and friends.

One of the banners at the roadside

A large-scale Garda operation is expected to be put in place at the funeral to prevent any of Prices many enemies from targeting it.

Some of his rivals have already taken the opportunity to taunt Prices associates and family by posting a video of him lying in a hospital bed on a ventilator with the caption: Bye bye naily boy.

They cruelly mocked his death while using a video posted from his deathbed by a Christian preacher.

In the wake of his death, Price has been lauded on social media in a sustained campaign to whitewash his criminal career.

Just hours after he died, tributes to the gang boss were posted online, including his last-minute conversion at the hands of the preacher.

One post included a video showing members of the Price family gathered around his hospital bed at Cwmbran in Wales, where he was intubated.

But another version of the clip gloats over his death with a musical soundtrack and the caption: Bye bye, naily boy, ya m**go.

The preachers videos from the hospital, which he said he shot with the familys permission, are no longer visible on his social media account.

Price, who has been linked to four murders in Ireland, infamously mocked the death of hitman Robbie Lawlor in Belfast in April 2020, a shooting he was suspected of being involved in.

The video showed Price drinking a toast to the murder.

Price was previously involved in an attack on Lawlor while the pair were behind bars after offering him a Judas handshake.

Lawlor needed 29 stitches when he suffered extensive injuries in the attack in Cork prison in October 2018.

Price, also known as Naily Boy and Nellie, had been in a coma since late 2021 when he contracted limbic encephalitis, a disease which causes brain swelling.

There were also attempts online to smear Willie Maughan, who disappeared from Prices compound in April 2015 along with his girlfriend Ana Varsalane.

Price is suspected of ordering the abduction and murder of the couple, who were planning on moving back to Maughans family home in Tallaght on the day they went missing.

Notorious gangster Price on his deathbed

Maughans father, Joe, who has campaigned for justice for his son and girlfriend, told the Sunday World: William wasnt the perfect apple on the tree, but he was no murderer.

None of the glowing tributes refer to the dead mobsters leading role in the Price/Maguire organised crime gang, which the High Court recently heard is a major drug dealing outfit in the north-east of the country.

At the time of his death, Price was also on bail for his part in the brutal kidnap and extortion of two men, an incident for which Limerick mobster Ger Dundon was convicted last month after a lengthy trial.

Price was one of the chief suspects for the unsolved murder of Benny Whitehouse. He was previously arrested for this crime. Mr Whitehouse was shot dead at Clonard Street, Balbriggan, on September 25, 2014, in front of his partner.

Price also served a three-year jail sentence for reckless endangerment of a garda  his most serious criminal stretch.

He fled his compound in Co. Meath in the aftermath of the murder of teenager Keane Mulready-Woods  who had been an associate of his gang  in January 2020.

Sources say that after arriving in the English midlands  a place where he had strong links  Price traded on his name and set himself up as some type of gang boss.

Paying tribute this week, one person wrote: RIP to our legend. Our hearts are broken into millions pieces. Look down over your family and friends especially your ma n da (sic). Rest in peace Nailyboy.

Another sympathised with the Price family: Sorry sorry for Ur loss its such sad news thinking of u all at a time like this rip nailyboy ul b missed (sic).

One relative wrote in glowing terms how Cornelius Price always took her side in arguments, even when she was in the wrong.

People sign the flag

I cant believe Im writing this. My handsome uncle, youre my brightest star now. Still in shock, I cant believe this uncle nay (sic).

Others referred to Price as a legend and a king with tributes coming from people all over Ireland and the UK.

Speaking to the Sunday World last week, Joe Maughan said people who were at Prices compound in Gormanstown, where his son lived, know the truth.

They know and only they know the truth. They were murdered in their yard and they witnessed it and they were involved in the cleaning up of it. It is as simple as that, he said.

Mr Maughan said his family have been targeted on Facebook all week with claims about William and Ana.

I dont care what they say, its all lies. Those who were in that compound know the truth; they know the truth what happened that day, he added.

Five people have been arrested and questioned over the double murder, although charges have yet to follow.
Gardai from the Ballymun and Coolock Drugs Units searched two properties in Ballymun, Dublin 9 earlier today as part of an operation.

The seized tablets had a street value in excess of 60,000

Gardai have arrested two men after seizing more than 60,000 worth of sleeping pills in north Dublin today, Wednesday March 1.

Gardai from the Ballymun and Coolock Drugs Units searched two properties in Ballymun, Dublin 9 earlier today as part of an operation.

An estimated 58,800 worth of Zopiclone tablets, which are used for treating insomnia, was seized following the first search and a man in his 30s was subsequently arrested.

He was detained at Ballymun Garda Station under Section 2 of the Drug Trafficking Act 1996. He is due to appear before the Criminal Courts of Justice in Dublin later this evening.

A second search resulted in the seizure of Zopiclone tablets worth 1,316 and the arrest of a man in his 20s, who has since been charged and will appear before the courts at a later date.

Investigations are ongoing.

A garda spokesperson said: Gardai from the Ballymun and Coolock Drugs Units have seized Zopiclone tablets valued in excess of 60,000 following searches in Ballymun, Dublin 9, earlier today, Wednesday, 1st March 2023.

Two properties were searched by Gardai as part of the operation.

A man, aged in his 30s, was arrested following a search in which an estimated 58,800 worth of Zopiclone tablets was seized. The man was later detained under Section 2 of the Drug Trafficking Act 1996 at Ballymun Garda Station. He is due to appear before the Criminal Courts of Justice in Dublin, this evening, Wednesday, 1st March 2023.

A man, aged in his 20s, was arrested following a second search in which approximately 1,316 worth of Zopiclone tablets was seized. He has since been charged and will appear before the Courts at a later date.

Investigations ongoing.
The 46-year-old Irish national was arrested in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire while a 51-year-old man from Albania in Hove, Sussex was also picked up by police in the UK.

The boat used by the smugglers

An Irishman was among four people arrested when Belgian police foiled an attempt to smuggle migrants from mainland Europe to the UK in a speedboat.

The 46-year-old Irish national was arrested in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire while a 51-year-old man from Albania in Hove, Sussex was also picked up by police in the UK.

They were joined by two Albanian nationals, aged 44 and 48, who were arrested in Nottingham on Tuesday.

Twelve migrants and two British men had previously been detained on October 30 when Belgian police prevented a boat leaving the coast of Flanders.

Investigators believe the smugglers had used the boat to travel to Belgium to collect migrants, before attempting to land at Margate in Kent.

The arrests follow an investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA) who claimed all four people arrested on Tuesday morning are part of a gang organising a series of people smuggling runs to the UK from Europe, including a number of crossing events last year.

NCA branch commander Colin Williams said the arrests follow an extensive investigation into individuals who were involved in a number of migrant crossings from Belgium to the Kent coast in 2022.

He said: Tackling people smuggling continues to be a priority for the NCA as we target and disrupt organised crime groups at every step of the route.
Investigations are ongoing

Gardai have arrested a man in his twenties after 10kgs of herbal cannabis was nabbed by Revenue officers in Limerick.

The street value of the consignment was somewhere in the region of one fifth of a million euros.

The catch was made as a result of a joint operation conducted by Revenues Customs Service, the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau (GNDOCB) and the Limerick Divisional Drugs Unit.

The young man arrested by Gardai is currently detained under Section 2 of the Criminal Justice (Drug Trafficking) Act 1996 at Henry Street Garda Station.

Investigations are ongoing.

The seizure was made as a result of a joint operation conducted by Revenues Customs Service, the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau (GNDOCB) and the Limerick Divisional Drugs Unit.

Cannabis resin is a compressed solid made from the resinous parts of the plant, and cannabis (hash) oil is a solvent extract of cannabis. It us usually smoked whilst mixed with tobacco.

The herbal cannabis seized in this instance consists of the dried flowering tops and leaves of the cannabis plant, which was originally grown in Asia or Western China.

The operation was part of Revenues ongoing joint investigations targeting organised crime groups and the importation, sale and supply of illegal drugs.

If businesses, or members of the public, have any information regarding drug smuggling, they can contact Revenue in confidence on phone number 1800 295 295.
Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan were arrested in Romania in December on suspicion of human trafficking, rape, and forming an organised crime group

Socialite Marcus Sweeney has pledged his allegiance to shamed podcaster Andrew Tate, insisting that hes an innocent man who is being stripped of his free speech.

The self-professed Celtic Tiger playboy made the claims in his latest series of TikTok videos, where he also admitted that he actually doesnt know anything about Tate at all.

Tate, whose real name is Emory Andrew Tate III, and his brother Tristan were arrested in Romania in December on suspicion of human trafficking, rape, and forming an organised crime group.

They are currently being held in pre-charge detention and will remain in custody until March 29.

Responding to a TikTok comment saying hes Irelands answer to Andrew Tate on Tuesday, Sweeney told his followers that he discovered Tates online videos in recent weeks and wants to show him his support.

He believes the self-described misogynist is being punished for something he didnt do, adding a claim that his online personality and podcasts are staged.

He then likened Tate to himself, referring to his recent CAB case in which he was described by a High Court judge as being up to his oxters in organised crime.

Im new to this. I only found the words of Andrew Tate three weeks ago. That guy is innocent because Ive gone through what hes been put through which is that theyre trying to control his freedom of speech, he said in the TikTok clip.

They are doing that by incarcerating him on a charge that is 100pc not true because its a staged show online. The same happened to me, as in the State didnt like what I was doing running a wealth management company.

They did not like that. I was passing on information on a business level to all standards of society.

Andrew Tate is a man who has been punished by the law for something he didnt do and his fight out of that is a very hard task because how can you defend something you havent done? Realistically, the situation is in the favour of that State.

Andrew is not talking; hes not damaging anything, so I think you should all get behind him and support him for his freedom.

Sweeney then said that he found it unfair that Tate was being surrounded with maximum security while in custody as he doesnt pose any real threat.

He said that a charge like that - mentioning only his rape charges and not his alleged involvement in human trafficking and activities in organised crime  is disgusting to be accused of and shouldnt require him to be surrounded by weapons.

A rape case is not action of terrorism or organised crime. Its a civil action thats obviously disgusting to be accused of, but hes not a dangerous man that needs to be surrounded by weapons, Sweeney continued.

Ask yourself the question: Do you agree with me? He is obviously an innocent man.

The restauranteur then accused state media of taking away Tates free speech, although it is unclear which publications and/or countries he is referring to.

Is he going to rape a man with a semiautomatic weapon and full body armour on? No. So, that is the state using fabricated media to numb his ability to (have) free speech.

Ive been through it. The man is innocent. I dont know anything about him but its very clear from the images youre seeing.

Youre a smart generation. Semiautomatic weapons for a man whos on a podcast with a claim of rape. Why would you have a man (treated) like a terrorist for a charge like that? Its only in the favour of one thing and thats the state that hes incarcerated from.

TikTok users were quick to poke fun at the Celtic Tiger high-flyer's claims, with one person dismissing the video as garbled nonsense.

"Yes he's innocent because Marcus says so, another said.

While someone else joked: "Call up Romania so tell them its Marcus the tiger Im sure they will just release him.
Just Eat revealed the winners of their prestigious annual awards at a ceremony in the Mansion House on Dublins Dawson Street on Tuesday night.

(L-R) Host Muireann OConnell and Best of Ireland and Best of Munster winners, Gary Huynh and Donnacha Cregan-Nolan from Sambros in Limerick, and Amanda Roche-Kelly, Managing Director of Just Eat Ireland at the Just Eat awards. Photo: Allen Kiely

A Limerick sandwich shop has just been crowned the best takeaway in the entire country.

Just Eat revealed the winners of their prestigious annual awards at a ceremony in the Mansion House on Dublins Dawson Street on Tuesday night.

The online delivery service asked the public to select their favourite local and independent takeaways in 16 different categories, with some 35,000 people casting their votes in recent weeks.

Among the list of categories included awards for Best Burger, Best Mexican, and Best Chipper, as well as gongs for the most sustainable takeaway and Best Vegetarian grub.

The biggest winner on the night was Sambros in Limerick, known for its delectable burgers, which scored the Best of Ireland prize. The restaurant also took home the Best of Munster trophy.

Ballymun-based restaurant Firehouse Pizza also scooped up two awards, being named the Best Pizza joint in Ireland for the second year in a row as well as being awarded the Best of Leinster plaque.

The Best of Connact award went to Sligo Fish and Chips while Ali Kebabish Indian Takeaway in Co Cavan was deemed the Best of Ulster by Just Eat customers.

Camile Thai took home the sustainability award for discovering innovative ways to promote sustainable practices in their restaurants.

The chain was the first in Europe to assign a carbon rating to each individual menu item and all packaging in its restaurants are 100pc compostable, according to Just Eat.

Meanwhile, other restaurants based in the capital who were recognised for their outstanding food and services included Summer Inn in Swords, Bo Bainne, Saba, Hot Chix by Rubys, YumGrub, Romayos, and Thindi.

Commenting on last nights wins, Just Eat Managing Director Amanda Roche-Kelly said: We were delighted to celebrate the ninth annual Just Eat Awards this week.

These awards not only recognise but celebrate all the amazing restaurants, takeaways and eateries around the country who continuously deliver a little slice of joy to their customers all year round.

The full list of winners are:

Best of Ireland: Sambros, Co. Limerick

Best of Leinster: Firehouse Pizza, Ballymun, Co. Dublin

Best of Munster: Sambros, Co. Limerick

Best of Connacht: Sligo Fish and Chips, Co. Sligo

Best of Ulster: Ali Kebabish Indian Takeaway, Co. Cavan

Best Burger: Hot Chix by Rubys, Co. Dublin

Best Chain: Romayos Group

Best Chinese: Summer Inn, Swords, Co. Dublin

Best Chipper: OReillys Fish, Chips, and Pizza, Co. Cork.

Best Indian: Thindi, Co. Dublin

Best Japanese: Wagamama

Best Mexican: Banditos, Oranmore, Co. Galway

Best Newcomer: Bo Bainne, Co. Dublin

Best Pizza: Firehouse Pizza, Ballymun, Co. Dublin

Best Sustainability: Camile Thai

Best Thai: Saba To Go, Co. Dublin

Best Vegetarian: YumGrub, Co. Dublin
Brazen Kenny once appeared on a billboard campaign promising I will end the scandal of patients on trolleys in 2007.

Ex-Taoiseach Enda Kenny has been diagnosed with cancer, but is expected to make a full recovery, it was recently revealed.

The Mayo man underwent surgery in St Jamess Hospital in Dublin to remove tissue from under his arm, but is confident the malignancy has been caught early.

It goes without saying, no-one would wish this diagnosis on the former Fine Gael leader and his family.

But while Mr Kenny has returned to his busy schedule as an adviser and consultant while maintaining an active lifestyle, others his age and younger are not so fortunate.

Enda Kenny (Pic: Steve Humphreys)

The ongoing overcrowding in our public hospitals resulted in a record 931 people waiting on trolleys on January 3 this year with University Hospital Limerick (UHL) forced to declare a major internal incident leaving the hospital unable to accept the majority of patients who presented to A&E the previous weekend.

An internal notice seen by The Sunday World told ambulance staff that UHL was closed to ambulances except for the most urgent cases  despite being the only A&E unit for miles.

Whats this got to do with Enda Kenny, you ask? Well, he became Taoiseach in 2011 when many regional A&E units were closed amid the recession, including Roscommon, Nenagh, St Johns and Ennis, leading to enormous pressure on UHL and other hospitals nationwide.

Enda Kenny's infamous election promise

Kenny and Roscommon Fine Gael TD Frank Feighan, promised to keep Roscommon Hospitals busy A&E unit open  but later reneged and voted to downgrade the facility.

Local outrage resulted in Kenny fleeing from angry protestors at public appearance in Athlone and Fine Gael stalwart Denis Naughten leaving the party over the broken promise.

Feighan and Kenny were also heckled on the campaign trail in Roscommon Town in 2014, with locals surrounding the then Taoiseachs Government car shouting liar.

It wasnt easy for Mr Naughten, first elected as a Fine Gael TD in 1997, to leave the party but his conscience came first. He is now a successful Independent candidate, a regular poll-topper, and is locally viewed seen as one of the trustworthy few.

Sadly, during this years annual A&E meltdown, my own mother died after spending over seven hours waiting on a trolley for a bed at Portiuncula Hospital  on January 4, a day after record A&E overcrowding nationwide.

She was almost 77, just a few years older than Mr Kenny but had been ill in recent months. Prior to her death, she had been rushed to Portiuncula and Mullingar on several occasions  despite living opposite Roscommon Hospital.

TD tells Leo Varadkar of dying OAP's agonising wait on trolley in Portiuncula Hospital

Thankfully, she was admitted to the Medical Assessment Unit in Roscommon Hospital in the weeks before she died. But after a major seizure, she was rushed from her bed in Roscommon to a trolley in Portiuncula in the middle of the night as staff in Roscommon were unable to treat her.

Our familys story is just one of many.

Retired teacher Declan Sweeney (78) died suddenly after being discharged from a high-dependency unit at Tallaght Hospital in 2018, his inquest heard this week.

The family of the former Dublin vice-principal have criticised care provided and the response of medical staff to concerns they had raised about his deterioration in the days before his death.

Senior Counsel for Mr Sweeneys family, Roger Murray told Dublin Coroners Court due to leaving the high dependency unit, his condition was not reviewed by a hospital consultant of any description for five days over the busy Christmas period.

Mr Murray said a senior doctor at Tallaght Hospital had accepted inappropriate communications by staff on December 21, 2018, resulted in a missed opportunity to provide proper planning for Mr Sweeneys care.

The inquest also heard evidence from Mr Sweeneys daughter, Michelle Easterly, that they had repeatedly asked for their father to be seen by a senior doctor and to be transferred to an intensive care unit as he was regularly confused, sweating profusely and shaking.

Medical notes revealed he was not seen by a doctor on Christmas Day, and he was only seen by a medical intern the next day as a registrar had only reviewed his medical records but conducted no physical examination.

In February 2023, St Lukes General Hospital in Kilkenny apologised to relatives of a man who died while waiting for gallbladder surgery.

Patrick Doyle, from Carlow, was diagnosed with gallstone pancreatitis and had his case marked as urgent in September 2016.

He was booked in November 2016 for gallbladder removal and a laparoscopy, but was still awaiting surgery in March 2017 when he collapsed and was readmitted to St Lukes with severe upper abdominal pain.

Mr Doyles condition deteriorated, and he later died being transferred to a Dublin hospital on June 20, 2017. He spent 90 days in ICU and was just 47 years old when he died.

St Lukes later issued an unreserved apology to the Doyle family for its failings in respect of the care of the late Patrick Doyle.

Who can forget the brazen billboard campaign Fine Gael ran with Enda Kenny promising I will end the scandal of patients on trolleys in 2007?

Sixteen years on, the situation has deteriorated year on year with no end in sight for sick and dying patients, overworked HSE staff, and heartbroken families who are trying to pick up the pieces.

During this unfortunate period of ill-health, Kenny would do well to reflect on his part in this disaster  and how he betrayed people who trusted him.
Patients were evacuated from all of the hospitals wards into the car park

Firefighters are currently battling a huge blaze which has broken out at Wexford General Hospital.

Huge fire breaks out at Wexford General Hospital

The fire appears to have taken hold in the old part of the hospital to the rear and sent huge plumes of smoke out over Wexford town.

Wexford Fire Service were summoned to the scene at around 4 p.m. as bemused patients and staff members gathered in the hospital car park and watched on.

Patients were evacuated from all of the hospitals wards into the car park. One hospital porter was heard to remark we're evacuating them to any place we can.

Although flames were not initially visible, loud bangs and pops were audible from the hospital grounds before huge flames could eventually be seen shooting from the top of the building.

Early indications from staff at the scene were that the fire may have started in the hospitals plant room or boiler room and it is not yet clear just how far the blaze had spread into the hospital building. Regardless, its likely to have caused significant damage to the hospital building.

At least nine units from Wexford Fire Service are in attendance at the scene and fire fighters loaded with breathing apparatus have entered the building in a bid to quench the blaze.

The fire service are also using a cherrypicker in a bid to dampen things down from above, but they were struggling to access the heart of the blaze to the rear of the building.

More to follow.
China has been doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate efforts to identify the source of the global pandemic

A customer buys fruit at a local market in Wuhan, in China's central Hubei province   AFP via Getty Images

The director of the FBI has said an investigation into the origins of the Covid pandemic have revealed that it was most likely the result of a leak from a Chinese government-controlled lab, in Wuhan, China.

Director Christopher Wray added that the Chinese government has allegedly worked to undermine the damning results which were based on the agency's initial findings from 2021.

The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan, Wray told Fox News. Here you are talking about a potential leak from a Chinese government-controlled lab.

It is the first public confirmation of the FBI's classified judgement of how the pandemic virus emerged.

Mr Wray's comments come a day after the US ambassador to China called for the country to "be more honest" about Covid's origins.

A customer buys fruit at a local market in Wuhan, in China's central Hubei province   AFP via Getty Images

In his interview on Tuesday, Mr Wray said China "has been doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate" efforts to identify the source of the global pandemic.

"And that's unfortunate for everybody," he said.

Some studies suggest the virus made the leap from animals to humans in Wuhan, possibly at the city's seafood and wildlife market.

The market is a 40-minute drive from a world-leading virus laboratory, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which conducted research into coronaviruses.

But the FBI first came to the conclusion of a likely lab leak back in 2021, saying it had moderate confidence that the pandemic that gripped the world was a result of an accident at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Wray said the work was conducted by top experts in the FBI and US government who specialise in monitoring potential outbreaks.

The FBI has folks, agents, professionals, analysts, virologists, microbiologists, etc, who focus, specifically, on the dangers of biological threats, which includes things like novel viruses like Covid, and the concerns that in the wrong hands some bad guys, some hostile nation state, a terrorist, a criminal, the threats that that could pose, Wray said.

So here, youre talking about a leak at a Chinese government-controlled lab that killed millions of Americans, and thats precisely what that capability was designed for.

Earlier this week China's foreign ministry pushed back at an Energy Department's analysis that also suggested the outbreak likely originated with a leak from the Chinese research lab in Wuhan.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning accused unnamed parties of trying to smear or vilify China.

Certain parties should stop rehashing the lab leak narrative, stop smearing China and stop politicising origins-tracing, she said during a press briefing on Monday.

She referred to Chinese cooperation with investigating agencies, although in 2021 China rejected a World Health Organisation effort to hold a second phase of its investigation. The group has denied abandoning its inquiry amid China's obstacles..

On Sunday, the Energy Department, which maintains a group of national labs, joined the FBI in the possibility of a lab leak as the possible origin of the virus  although it reached the conclusion with low confidence as numerous other agencies back a traditional spread originating in the environment.

The Energy Department's report revealed it reversed its previous position and has used new research to conclude that the Covid-19 virus most likely leaked from a Chinese research lab.

The new conclusion was issued in an update to a 2021 document prepared by the director of National Intelligence and was recently provided to White House lawmakers, the Wall Street Journal reported.

While the Energy Department joined the FBI in saying the virus likely spread from a lab in Wuhan, four other agencies are still said to favour the natural spill over theory that the virus escaped via an animal at a nearby meat market.

Two agencies, one of which is the CIA, are yet to declare a definitive position.

With the mixed conclusions coming from US agencies, the White House has been forced to admit the lack of a consensus.

On Monday, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that US President Joe Biden supports "a whole-of-government effort" to discover how Covid began.

But he added that the US still lacks a clear consensus as to what happened.

"We're just not there yet," he said. "If we have something that is ready to be briefed to the American people and the Congress, we will do that."
The Government is backing industry to build back a better, stronger and more resilient tourism sector, says Tourism Minister Peeni Henare.

New Zealand continues to be one of the worlds top tourism destinations, and with the borders open, international visitors are returning," says Henare.

"We need to support our sector to rebuild a more resilient future that leaves people, communities, and the environment better off than before."

Henare says this includes making sure the NZ tourism workforce is skilled and supported, through education, good career pathways, pay and working conditions.

We all want tourism to be a good career option, and that starts by ensuring it is."

The Better Work plan includes the establishment of a Tourism and Hospitality Accord.

"This will be a voluntary employer accreditation scheme that identifies those businesses in tourism and hospitality who are treating their staff well," says Henare.

The minister says businesses who join the Accord will be able to demonstrate that they are good employers, which will help them to attract quality staff.

There will be closer collaboration between industry and education providers, to ensure the right skills are being taught to fill the jobs the sector needs.

And we will test whether employee-sharing can reduce the unstable and seasonal elements of tourism," says Henare.

We want to turn around the negative perception  and reality for some - that working in tourism doesnt pay well and the work can be unstable and low paid. This Action Plan will help to improve conditions so that tourism is a job of choice that is fulfilling and desirable for people here and those coming from abroad."

The work to transform the tourism sector has been developed as part of the Industry Transformation Plan, a partnership between industry, unions, Maori and government.

It is time to be excited, to look ahead to the future of the sector, and to rebuild the industry to be more resilient and more sustainable for both visitors and workers, says Henare.

For a copy of the Better Work Action Plan and information about indicative timelines, please click here

This is the first phase of the Tourism Industry Transformation Plan, announced in 2021.
This year the Ocean Film Festival World tour returns to New Zealand with a whole new range of inspiring and educating films. The two and a half hour program showcasing films from independent filmmakers worldwide, will screen a number of locally created films that celebrates South Pacific conservation efforts.

The tour is set to kick off in March and will tour the country including Tauranga on April 5 before heading to 13 other countries.

Festival founder, Jemima Robinson remarks, When we started the Ocean Film Festival World Tour we had big dreams, not only to inspire the world to explore and enjoy our oceans but further to protect and respect them. I am so pleased that this year we have a number of locally made films, sharing the beauty of this corner of the earth. New Zealand has a large ocean loving community and we love touring to NZ uniting together with our ocean loving community there.

This year's carefully curated selection of short films is sure not to disappoint. Audiences will be taken on an international tour of spectacular stories that celebrate the beauty and power of the ocean and celebrate divers, surfers, oceanographers and marine life.

Jake Wilton. Photo: Supplied.

Featuring a line up of adrenaline inducing yet heart touching films, witness the very best stories from the likes of an epic surf trip to the untouched waves of eastern Russia in winter, Italian free diving, or visually feast on breathtaking seascapes as a middle aged dad attempts to make a wing foiling world record, or venture to the Arctic with a team of explorers and scientists to discover why the earth is losing sea ice.

This year's lineup provides yet another year of show stopping films, explains Jemima.

Other ocean loving countries such as Italy, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Vanuatu, Australia, the US and the UK,will also host the renowned Ocean Film Festival World Tour as it screens over two hours of the most inspirational, educational and entertaining films.

The family friendly, all inclusive event begins in New Zealand in March. Visiting 7 cities around New Zealand the Ocean Film Festival World Tour will screen in Hamilton for the first time in 2023

See website for more information and to book tickets

Jake Wilton. Photo: Supplied.

Film details:

FILM 1: GONE WITH THE WING

Gone with the Wing is a story of Victorian local, Andrew Englisch as he sets out on a world first attempt to cross the treacherous Bass Strait on a Wing Foil.

Depicting a stunning, intimate, and raw portrait of Andrews journey to raise himself out of the depths of depression and be the first person to cross one of the most dangerous stretches of

water on the planet. Despite only learning to wing foil 12 months earlier Andrew sets out on the water just before his 55th birthday.

Gone With the Wing is both an inspiring portrait of an Old Bugger who pushed himself to the limits mentally and physically and an epic adventure in one of the worlds most rugged, wild and beautiful regions. The result is an inspiring triumph of the human spirit.

FILM 2: BROKEN BREATH

Italian free-diving champion, Mike Maric is at the top of his game when a fatal accident occurs that leaves his world shattered. On a journey to find himself again, he discovers the power and importance of breathing. From his encounter with mammals of the ocean to self discovery, this film follows the journey of how trauma can be an opportunity to find rebirth.



FILM 3: HYPNOTISE

Celebrating the old and the new, Hypnotise is set beneath the surface of the eastern Australian coastline demonstrating that new life can come be born out of the depths of tragedy and become something truly beautiful.

After 34 years serving in the Australian Navy, the ex-HMAS Brisbane was scuttled off the coast of Queensland in 2005. 17 years later, this epic 130 metre artificial reef is home to over 200 species of fish.

FILM 4: CORNERS OF THE EARTH: KAMCHATKA

Follow filmmakers Spencer Frost and Guy Williment and surfers Letty Mortensen and Fraser Dovell as they journey to Kamchatka in the far east of Russia in search of new waves along the frozen, unexplored coastline.

Bordered by the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk with more than 150 volcanoes (29 active) the Kamchatka Peninsula in Far Eastern Russia is as remote as it is unique.

After 2 years of planning the trip was almost over before it started. An hour before boarding their flight to Moscow, Russia invaded Ukraine.

At a time when the world was seeing the worst of human nature, these guys flew behind the iron curtain and found, to their surprise, the best of it. Mi-8 helicopters, skidoos, frozen campsites, and frozen bank accounts, thissurf trip quickly became far more than anyone could imagine.

FILM 5: IN SEARCH OF A FROZEN OCEAN

A team of 5 explorers and scientists venture to the Arctic Ocean, 500 miles from the North Pole to conduct research as to why the earth is losing sea ice and how this impacts the rest of the world. The route they take is one that was taken by native inuit tribes a thousand years ago and will allow them to access parts of ice that scientists have never before seen. Follow their journey as they determine how sea ice evolves and ultimately how our climate system is evolving. What they discover is extraordinary.

FILM 6: WHALE DREAMING from Southern Ocean Live

Warren Ngarrae Foster, a Djirringanj Elder of Yuin country shares how his people have connected to the whales and dolphins of the area for generations and consider them family. This is a visually stunning celebration of an ancient culture and an ancient breed of marine life.



FILM 7: CASEY THE OCTOPUS from Southern Ocean Live

Imagine you go for your usual morning walk along the beach, just like any other morning, except this morning is different because you discover something extraordinary. This is the story of a Rosebud woman who stumbles across a decision that will either give or take life. A remarkable reminder of the connections that can be formed between humans and animals.



TOUR DATES:

Auckland, SkyCity Theatre: Friday April 28

Christchurch, Phillip Carter Family Auditorium: Christchurch Art Gallery - Saturday April 1

Dunedin, Rialto Cinemas: Wednesday March 29

Nelson, The Suter Theatre: Saturday March 4

Tauranga, United Cinemas: Wednesday April 5

Wellington, Embassy Theatre: Wednesday March 22
Two Aongatete farmers have been convicted and fined a total of $28,000 for discharging dairy shed effluent to land where it entered a tributary of the Aongatete estuary.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council has prosecuted Francis Nettleingham and John Nettleingham for the discharge of dairy shed effluent that occurred on their Aongatete farm on October 13 2021.

The farm operates as a small calf-rearing enterprise, milking about thirty cows to feed the calves. Both men were fined $14,000 each.

Dairy effluent has high nutrient, ammonia and bacterial levels. Nitrogen levels were above the identified protection values, toxic to fish and other aquatic life. Contamination has cumulative effects on Tauranga Harbour contributing to algae blooms and a heightened health risk to recreational users.

Discharge of dairy shed effluent from the diversion system to gully and Tauranga Harbour. Photo: Supplied.

A relatively simple system for diverting stormwater and cowshed effluent to appropriate destinations was not operated properly," says Judge DA Kirkpatrick.

"There does not appear to have been any fault or problem with the elements of the system, only with the way in which the defendants used it.

Francis Nettleingham, the landowner, and John Nettleingham, the farm manager, pleaded guilty to the charge.

"The Aongatete estuary has high cultural and ecological values. Everybody has duties and responsibilities to manage their dairy shed effluent to avoid unwanted pollution entering the environment," says Regional Council Compliance Manager, Alex Miller.

"Regardless of the scale of the farm and the dairy operation, farmers need to put the design, operation, maintenance and inspection of their effluent management systems at the forefront of their work."

For more information on environmental enforcement and to view the sentencing decision, visit boprc.govt.nz/environmental-enforcement
Fish & Game has launched a diving programme to monitor New Zealands trout populations and assess the health of the nations waterways.

Fish & Game staff equipped with diving gear will drift and glide down hundreds of kilometres of rivers across the country, recording water clarity and temperature, assess instream fish habitat, the number of native fish, algal growth and the various instream insects present.

Divers will explore well over 250km of waterways, covering around 100 different rivers throughout the country.

North Canterbury and Central South Island Fish & Game Officers drift dive the Hurunui River in Canterbury: Photo Richie Cosgrove/Fish & Game NZ.

The information from the trout population surveys will be used to help set catch limits for anglers.

Corina Jordan, Fish & Game New Zealand chief executive, says the programme highlights the important environmental monitoring role of the organisation.

"Drift diving enables us to give rivers a close-up health check," says Corina.

"Combined with our assessment of the trout population -- the species that has the highest water quality requirement of any of New Zealands fish-- these observations will give us a good gauge on how healthy our rivers are.

"It is going to be interesting to see how the North Island rivers in particular have fared after Cyclone Gabrielle."

Otago Fish & Game Officers drift dive the Greenstone River: Photo: Bruce Quirey/Otago Fish & Game.

Many regions have information dating back over 30 years, the longest running dataset of its kind, which can give valuable insight into the long-term trends of river health.

"No other organisation or government agency does more of this important type of monitoring of our waterways than Fish & Game," says Corina.

"It will give us unique insights into the interactions between trout and some of our native fish, such as eels, which co-exist quite happily.

"In fact, its not uncommon for divers to see trout being eaten by eels, or trout with bite marks on them, which shows trout have become an important component of the food chain in many New Zealand rivers."

The drift dive programme is expected to run until early April.

Fish & Game is a non-profit organisation that receives no government or taxpayer money, it is funded solely from the purchase of licences to fish for trout and salmon and hunt game birds.

Drift diving

Drift diving is a monitoring technique used to count trout or salmon within historical sites in river systems. Comparisons can be made between years to determine how the fishery is looking, and what factors are likely responsible for increase or decreases in fish numbers.

Most weeks over summer, when conditions are suitable (low river flows and clear water), youll find Fish & Game staff donning wetsuits and other assorted underwater gear and floating down a river counting trout, and, at the same time, categorising them into size cohorts and sometimes species.

Smaller rivers often only require two to four divers, however, larger rivers might need eight to 10 divers to ensure sufficient coverage.

Otago Fish & Game Officers drift dive the Greenstone River: Photo: Bruce Quirey/Otago Fish & Game.

Only fish that have swum past the divers are counted. Communication between divers is essential to make sure there are no double ups and all parts of the river are surveyed.

Most of the time the fish know the divers are coming and have retreated to the deepest part of a pool or are hiding under ledges. On some occasions they are pushed downstream and group up ahead of the divers, only to bolt through towards the tail of the pool, meaning some fast counting for the divers they flee past or between.

Regardless of the trout counts, drift diving is an important way to observe the general health of the river. Habitat qualities, invertebrate life, substrate, algal levels, native fish observations, and water clarity are all best seen through an underwater lens. At times, this information can aid Fish & Games advocacy functions, especially as many rivers are dived annually and have records dating back to the 1980s.

Divers also see some impressive fish, giant trout and salmon specimens. Some of the endemic longfin eels encountered have been on earth longer than we have and demand nothing but admiration and respect, with the occasional one giving the divers a good hurry up if they venture too close.
Proposed AI Act: the rapporteurs and shadow rapporteurs appointed by the European Parliament are currently working hard to finalise a compromise text; one which will greatly influence the final legislative text. Several amendments to the draft AI Act are presently under discussion. These would result in far-reaching over-regulation of artificial intelligence, weakening possible economic and societal development as a result. One of the key elements of the original proposal is a clear, risk-based approach for various AI systems and uses.

AI will be a key technology for economic development and the AI Act will shape how it will be developed and used in Europe. The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, along with its sister organisations within BusinessEurope, has supported the European Commissions risk-based approach. It is crucial that the AI Act is based on a clear risk-based assessment of different systems and use cases. This will ensure that the AI Act is relevant and that the use of AI in the EU is not over-regulated.

The European Parliament is now discussing a number of amendments that differ significantly from those originally proposed in the AI Act. It is essential that any new requirements and amendments that are made take into account their technical feasibility, their impact on legal certainty and the ability of AI developers, distributors and users to comply with them. The rapporteurs and shadow rapporteurs appointed by the European Parliament are currently working hard to finalise a compromise text; one which will greatly influence the final legislative text.

Therefore, in a statement to the European Parliament, the business community is calling for allocating the time required the necessary time to finalise a compromise text that supports innovation and the use of AI in Europe.

The key areas for focus are the need to:

Maintain the risk-based approach set out the original proposal while defining high risk in a way that reflects this.

Allocate responsibility along the value chain and provide the contractual freedom to do so.

Include, in Annex III, only those uses that are truly high risk.

Rely on a definition of AI that is recognised by industry, is in line with the OECD definition and does not include anything other than AI itself.

Provide legal certainty for the extraterritorial application of the scope of the law and its impact on international trading partners.

Ensure that the AI Act does not duplicate or create competing obligations with existing legislation.

Avoid uncertainty for investment, trade and innovation.

Read more in the joint statement below.
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.
minzanurag BHPian



Join Date: Apr 2015 Location: In Bengaluru Posts: 28 Thanked: 106 Times

Goa on a Yamaha Aerox Bit of background on 4-wheel to 2-wheel movement I relocated to Bengaluru around August 2022. Moving from Delhi, I found it quite difficult to use a 4-wheeler (SCross) in Bengaluru for office commute and some random weekend city exploration, given the already stretched road infrastructure in Bengaluru. The car was barely used barring a few outstation trips to Kanyakumari, Hampi, Munnar, Chennai to name a few. On top of that, as I moved without my family, I would be shuttling between Delhi and Bengaluru every 30-40 days or so, I was not quite able to justify keeping the SCross. So, off it went back to Delhi and exchanged it with my Tiago. Now, it was a bit more usable and I could commute to office on that for couple of days in a week but still felt, a 2-wheeler would fit the purpose more appropriately.

I was eyeing the Aerox when I was in Delhi given its bike like characteristics, liquid cooled engine, quirky looks, generous storage and from what I gathered from reviews, not too bad a touring machine. It also helped a lot that Aerox was an automatic and if, or whenever, I grew bored of it, I could hand over the keys to my wife who prefers automatic over geared vehicles any day.

So, I went ahead and got myself a black Aerox !

Post buying, I painstakingly finished the running in period. Once completed, I did couple of spirited runs on the Bengaluru Airport road to Nandi Hills and beyond, both solo and two up riding. This made me confident of the characteristics and ergonomics of the bike on highway/longish rides. Big thanks to Crazy_Driver, Sebring and AnAntInspired for their posts which reinforced the capabilities of the Aerox and helped me to remove any apprehensions which I had.



The Actual Ride

 Destination  Agonda

 Days  18th  20th Feb 2023

 Onwards

o Route  Bengaluru  Davengere  Tadas  Kalaghatgi  Yallapur  Karwar  Agonda

o Distance  580kms

o Departure  4 AM

o Arrival  3:30 PM (Agonda)

o Breaks  3 (Food, petrol, bio, photos, etc.)

 Return

o Route  Retraced the same route in reverse

o Distance  580kms

o Departure  6:45 AM

o Arrival  6:00 PM (Bengaluru)

o Breaks  3 (Food, petrol, bio, checking OIL warning on dashboard, etc.)

 Total Expenses

o Petrol  3000

o Hotel  4500 (Cilantro Agonda)

o Food/Others  4500



Day 1  18th Feb, 2023

I wasnt able to catch a nap because of excitement for the trip. Even though I had set the alarm for 2:45 am, I got out of the bed at 2:30am and did a check on the luggage, prepared tea and some breakfast, bathed and put on the riding gear. I memorized the route off Google maps. I dont like to mount my phone on the bike and usually, memorize the landmarks, turns and only check if I am thoroughly lost. (Sometimes finding your way back after getting a little lost is exciting as well, on trips and generally in life). Then, I went down to the parking and loaded the storage with toolkit, coolant, air pump and other miscellaneous items. Then, fastened a small tail bag with clothes and utility items.



Ready to go !





As always, I start most of my trips sharp at 4:00 AM. This time it was no different. I did not expect to witness daylight by at least 6:15-6:30 AM. There was not a lot of traffic, which helped me in making quick progress. For the first half an hour or so, I paced through at 50-60 km/hr with occasional 70 km/hr and waited to get into the rhythm and adjust my eyes. After Tumkur, I increased the pace and by daybreak, I was closing in on Chitradurga. I stopped at Hotel Naivedyam, on the highway just after Chitradurga, at around 7:00 AM for breakfast, did some stretches, refuelled and started again. As the sun was up now and the roads were smooth and visibility was good, I could ride at 80-90 km/hr. Progress was quick and shortly after 11:00 AM, I got off the main highway and turned towards the Tadas-Yallapur road. The Aerox which was cruising supremely on the smooth highway earlier, was jarring to ride the first 10-15 kilometres off the highway, given it stiff suspension. One thing that shone throughout was the automatic transmission, it was a dream to not change gears ever so frequently after slowing down for a speed bump or pothole or a stray animal.



Somewhere before Yallapur





Soon, the condition of the road improved when I joined the road coming from Hubli to Kalghatgi. Post that, it remained fairly good all the way. I stopped for lunch at an eatery just after crossing Yallapur and also, booked the hotel (Cilantro, Agonda) while waiting for the lunch. After lunch, aiming to reach the hotel latest by 4:00pm, I had good amount of time to spare, so I could stop and take pictures as well.



Sufficient time in hand allowed me to stop at key milestones. Outside Yallapur









Also, it was getting a bit hot and humid as I descended toward the sea but nothing too uncomfortable. After bypassing Ankola, Aerox saw the sea for the first time while crossing Karwar.



Next to Karwar Beach





We entered Goa shortly after and I could sense change in my general mood, which all of sudden became very upbeat, if I can say. Goa can do strange things!



Very close to my destination





Finally, at 3:45pm, I arrived at my hotel/shack/tent, whatever it was. I will, however, say it was good and clean enough for the price and I did not have any issues whatsoever. I parked my bike just next to my room. The only visible threats to the bike was from falling coconuts and the resident dog trying to mark my Aerox as his own territory.

Quickly settled in the room, took off the riding gear and after a quick shower, went out for a stroll and food. Agonda is a village and the only visitor activity I could see was near/on the beach. It was nice to breathe in the air coming from the sea, sit on the sand while seeing the sun go down, stand next to the shore letting your feet feel the waves and in general, watching people enjoy while being on vacation.



Agonda Beach





Being tired from the ride, I quickly headed a restaurant facing the sea and had some food and beverage. By 9:00 PM, I called it a day. Being the first day of the ride and not getting enough sleep the night before, I had slight body pain esp. lower back but nothing which a good sleep couldnt fix.

Zzzzzz !



Day 2  19th Feb 2023

I slept like I was knocked out. I woke up around 8:30 am to the sound of something falling, probably a small coconut, on the roof or somewhere. The best part of the morning was, the body aches vanished and I was feeling as fresh as possible. In about an hours time, I went out in search of breakfast. I had a hearty breakfast which was more like full English breakfast but with more greens and fresh juice. It was starting to get warmer by the time I came back to the room and thought to myself, 15 minutes nap, and then lets check out Agonda village. Well, that nap turned out to be one hour, but still, I went out exploring at around 12:00 PM. The heat does not usually bother me but sweating sometime makes it a bit unpleasant. Anyway, went to see the local fishermen bay, the fish market, local churches and generally walking on the village roads. It was almost 1:30 PM by the time I came back to my room for quick change of clothes.



Fishermen boats, Cola





Rode to another fishermen bay





Same one another angle





Rode to a church on a hill near by





I, then, decided to go to Cabo da Rama. I took out my bike as it was around 30-35kms from my hotel and I planned to have lunch on the way. Riding on the back roads of Goa is a fun thing to do and Aerox made it even more exciting given the power and balance it has. I reached the place in about an hour and waited patiently to take picture of my bike with some arch. It was bit funny taking picture of my bike, as mostly, it was people who were taking pictures of each other with the arch as the backdrop.



Cabo da Rama





The place was crowded and the humidity was high. I quickly moved out and went to a restaurant just a short distance away and ordered Goan Fish thali. The food was good and the service was quick. With lunch out of the way, rode back to the hotel, checked the engine oil and coolant levels. The engine oil level was slightly lower (10%) on the dipstick than what it was when I started the trip. (Q: Is this normal?). It had started to become cooler as evening descended, I changed and again headed out to the beach. Walked up and the down the beach, watched the sunset, mentally began checking out of Goa.



Enjoying the sunset





I explored a few eating joints which I saw the day before and had a beverage in 2-3 place before settling in for dinner at one of the places. I kept the dinner light as I had to ride the next day. Post dinner, I packed my bags and kept things in order to leave early. I planned to reach Bengaluru before the evening office hour rush start, before 6:00 PM. I did a quick mental calculation, which made me arrive at the conclusion that leaving at 7:00 AM would give me enough time to reach Bengaluru was 6:00 AM.

Lights out!



Day 3  20th Feb 2023

It was still dark when I woke up at 6:00 AM. It took another 30 minutes to get ready and load the bike. Around 6:45 AM, I cranked the engine, warmed it up, checked the fasteners, patted my pockets for wallets and mobile, closed the gate behind me and off I went. Now, back roads of Goa through the jungles seem very nice during the day but early morning, it had an eerie silence with all the narrow single lane roads, trees and blind turns. I just hoped these forest dont have some haunted stories to tell. After 15 minutes, joined the main highway, filled up the tank at one the last petrol stations in Goa. The traffic was sparse when I entered Karnataka, twisted the throttle, passed Karwar, turned left off the highway towards Hubli road, entered the ghats. It was bit foggy as I climbed higher and I could feel the weather becoming cooler and drier. Aerox was performing flawlessly on the twisties and I could maintain good speed and have fun leaning in on the turns, averaging 50 km/hr by the time I stopped in Yallapur at the same place to have late breakfast/lunch. A plate of fresh hot Managlore buns and coffee, I was confident of hitting the highway sometime around 12:00 PM which would have kept me on target to reach Bengaluru in time. Although I did not stop anywhere post breakfast, I did enjoy the sceneries of farms, small towns, village folks going about their work and general sights we dont see in cities, through the visor of my helmet.

Pretty soon, I reached the main Pune  Bengaluru highway, 400 odd kilometres from home. After I had covered around 50 kilometres, the dashboard began to flash OIL sign. I wasnt too sure (should have read the manual), and stopped and quickly checked what it was. It turned out to be some default reminder for oil change which has been programmed. However, I still checked the dipstick for oil level. All good! I rode the next 50 kilometres at reduced speed of 70-75 km/hr and reset the flashing sign. After it felt like the bike was behaving normally, started riding it back at 80-85 km/hr. Davangere went by. Chitradurga bypassed. Stopped after Hiriyur to refuel and check traffic conditions. Zipped past Tumkur. I encountered slight traffic at Neelamangala and Yeshwantpur, but not much of a bother. Reached home just before 6:00 pm.



Back home !





Happy to complete the trip on an automatic maxi scooter!



Aerox Report Card

Overall, it was amazing to ride the Aerox on the highway, much better that speed breaker infested city roads. With varying speeds, I could extract around 40-45 km/l on the highway, measured by tankful to tankful method. It was pretty eager to do fast spirited runs when the roads were good. Overtaking was not really an issue for me, as I dont ride very fast but it could keep up with fast moving traffic very well. Engine ran smoothly and felt like could do longer trips as well. Brakes were sufficient and I had no moment where I felt brakes lacked stopping power. Luggage space under the seat ensure saddle bags are not required for short 2-3 days trips. No body aches after the ride back home and was not even that tired. I think, the slight tiredness during onward ride was mainly due to lack of sleep.

However, I always felt a little bigger fuel tank would have helped immensely along with a bit supple suspension to tackle the uneven speed breakers and bad roads. Seat cushion is sloping forward which causes rider to adjust frequently. Headlights, esp. the high beam, could have had more throw. I did not face any issue but would have helped seeing couple of potholes and speed breakers in advance at night. These are things which I understood fairly well the bike lacks and have adjusted my riding style to accommodate for these shortcomings.



Finally, I hope members/visitors find this thread useful, just as I found threads by fellow members in clearing a lot of doubts/apprehensions about taking an automatic scooter on a long road trip. Happy to answer any queries. I must say, after this trip, I am shelving my KTM ADV390/CB500X plans four 4-6 months, given my requirements are well met by Aerox (for the time being atleast).



Thanks for reading!



Cheers!

Anurag I relocated to Bengaluru around August 2022. Moving from Delhi, I found it quite difficult to use a 4-wheeler (SCross) in Bengaluru for office commute and some random weekend city exploration, given the already stretched road infrastructure in Bengaluru. The car was barely used barring a few outstation trips to Kanyakumari, Hampi, Munnar, Chennai to name a few. On top of that, as I moved without my family, I would be shuttling between Delhi and Bengaluru every 30-40 days or so, I was not quite able to justify keeping the SCross. So, off it went back to Delhi and exchanged it with my Tiago. Now, it was a bit more usable and I could commute to office on that for couple of days in a week but still felt, a 2-wheeler would fit the purpose more appropriately.I was eyeing the Aerox when I was in Delhi given its bike like characteristics, liquid cooled engine, quirky looks, generous storage and from what I gathered from reviews, not too bad a touring machine. It also helped a lot that Aerox was an automatic and if, or whenever, I grew bored of it, I could hand over the keys to my wife who prefers automatic over geared vehicles any day.So, I went ahead and got myself a black Aerox !Post buying, I painstakingly finished the running in period. Once completed, I did couple of spirited runs on the Bengaluru Airport road to Nandi Hills and beyond, both solo and two up riding. This made me confident of the characteristics and ergonomics of the bike on highway/longish rides. Big thanks to Crazy_Driver, Sebring and AnAntInspired for their posts which reinforced the capabilities of the Aerox and helped me to remove any apprehensions which I had. Destination  Agonda Days  18th  20th Feb 2023 Onwardso Route  Bengaluru  Davengere  Tadas  Kalaghatgi  Yallapur  Karwar  Agondao Distance  580kmso Departure  4 AMo Arrival  3:30 PM (Agonda)o Breaks  3 (Food, petrol, bio, photos, etc.) Returno Route  Retraced the same route in reverseo Distance  580kmso Departure  6:45 AMo Arrival  6:00 PM (Bengaluru)o Breaks  3 (Food, petrol, bio, checking OIL warning on dashboard, etc.) Total Expenseso Petrol  3000o Hotel  4500 (Cilantro Agonda)o Food/Others  4500I wasnt able to catch a nap because of excitement for the trip. Even though I had set the alarm for 2:45 am, I got out of the bed at 2:30am and did a check on the luggage, prepared tea and some breakfast, bathed and put on the riding gear. I memorized the route off Google maps. I dont like to mount my phone on the bike and usually, memorize the landmarks, turns and only check if I am thoroughly lost. (Sometimes finding your way back after getting a little lost is exciting as well, on trips and generally in life). Then, I went down to the parking and loaded the storage with toolkit, coolant, air pump and other miscellaneous items. Then, fastened a small tail bag with clothes and utility items.As always, I start most of my trips sharp at 4:00 AM. This time it was no different. I did not expect to witness daylight by at least 6:15-6:30 AM. There was not a lot of traffic, which helped me in making quick progress. For the first half an hour or so, I paced through at 50-60 km/hr with occasional 70 km/hr and waited to get into the rhythm and adjust my eyes. After Tumkur, I increased the pace and by daybreak, I was closing in on Chitradurga. I stopped at Hotel Naivedyam, on the highway just after Chitradurga, at around 7:00 AM for breakfast, did some stretches, refuelled and started again. As the sun was up now and the roads were smooth and visibility was good, I could ride at 80-90 km/hr. Progress was quick and shortly after 11:00 AM, I got off the main highway and turned towards the Tadas-Yallapur road. The Aerox which was cruising supremely on the smooth highway earlier, was jarring to ride the first 10-15 kilometres off the highway, given it stiff suspension. One thing that shone throughout was the automatic transmission, it was a dream to not change gears ever so frequently after slowing down for a speed bump or pothole or a stray animal.Soon, the condition of the road improved when I joined the road coming from Hubli to Kalghatgi. Post that, it remained fairly good all the way. I stopped for lunch at an eatery just after crossing Yallapur and also, booked the hotel (Cilantro, Agonda) while waiting for the lunch. After lunch, aiming to reach the hotel latest by 4:00pm, I had good amount of time to spare, so I could stop and take pictures as well.Also, it was getting a bit hot and humid as I descended toward the sea but nothing too uncomfortable. After bypassing Ankola, Aerox saw the sea for the first time while crossing Karwar.We entered Goa shortly after and I could sense change in my general mood, which all of sudden became very upbeat, if I can say. Goa can do strange things!Finally, at 3:45pm, I arrived at my hotel/shack/tent, whatever it was. I will, however, say it was good and clean enough for the price and I did not have any issues whatsoever. I parked my bike just next to my room. The only visible threats to the bike was from falling coconuts and the resident dog trying to mark my Aerox as his own territory.Quickly settled in the room, took off the riding gear and after a quick shower, went out for a stroll and food. Agonda is a village and the only visitor activity I could see was near/on the beach. It was nice to breathe in the air coming from the sea, sit on the sand while seeing the sun go down, stand next to the shore letting your feet feel the waves and in general, watching people enjoy while being on vacation.Being tired from the ride, I quickly headed a restaurant facing the sea and had some food and beverage. By 9:00 PM, I called it a day. Being the first day of the ride and not getting enough sleep the night before, I had slight body pain esp. lower back but nothing which a good sleep couldnt fix.Zzzzzz !I slept like I was knocked out. I woke up around 8:30 am to the sound of something falling, probably a small coconut, on the roof or somewhere. The best part of the morning was, the body aches vanished and I was feeling as fresh as possible. In about an hours time, I went out in search of breakfast. I had a hearty breakfast which was more like full English breakfast but with more greens and fresh juice. It was starting to get warmer by the time I came back to the room and thought to myself, 15 minutes nap, and then lets check out Agonda village. Well, that nap turned out to be one hour, but still, I went out exploring at around 12:00 PM. The heat does not usually bother me but sweating sometime makes it a bit unpleasant. Anyway, went to see the local fishermen bay, the fish market, local churches and generally walking on the village roads. It was almost 1:30 PM by the time I came back to my room for quick change of clothes.I, then, decided to go to Cabo da Rama. I took out my bike as it was around 30-35kms from my hotel and I planned to have lunch on the way. Riding on the back roads of Goa is a fun thing to do and Aerox made it even more exciting given the power and balance it has. I reached the place in about an hour and waited patiently to take picture of my bike with some arch. It was bit funny taking picture of my bike, as mostly, it was people who were taking pictures of each other with the arch as the backdrop.The place was crowded and the humidity was high. I quickly moved out and went to a restaurant just a short distance away and ordered Goan Fish thali. The food was good and the service was quick. With lunch out of the way, rode back to the hotel, checked the engine oil and coolant levels. The engine oil level was slightly lower (10%) on the dipstick than what it was when I started the trip. (Q: Is this normal?). It had started to become cooler as evening descended, I changed and again headed out to the beach. Walked up and the down the beach, watched the sunset, mentally began checking out of Goa.I explored a few eating joints which I saw the day before and had a beverage in 2-3 place before settling in for dinner at one of the places. I kept the dinner light as I had to ride the next day. Post dinner, I packed my bags and kept things in order to leave early. I planned to reach Bengaluru before the evening office hour rush start, before 6:00 PM. I did a quick mental calculation, which made me arrive at the conclusion that leaving at 7:00 AM would give me enough time to reach Bengaluru was 6:00 AM.Lights out!It was still dark when I woke up at 6:00 AM. It took another 30 minutes to get ready and load the bike. Around 6:45 AM, I cranked the engine, warmed it up, checked the fasteners, patted my pockets for wallets and mobile, closed the gate behind me and off I went. Now, back roads of Goa through the jungles seem very nice during the day but early morning, it had an eerie silence with all the narrow single lane roads, trees and blind turns. I just hoped these forest dont have some haunted stories to tell. After 15 minutes, joined the main highway, filled up the tank at one the last petrol stations in Goa. The traffic was sparse when I entered Karnataka, twisted the throttle, passed Karwar, turned left off the highway towards Hubli road, entered the ghats. It was bit foggy as I climbed higher and I could feel the weather becoming cooler and drier. Aerox was performing flawlessly on the twisties and I could maintain good speed and have fun leaning in on the turns, averaging 50 km/hr by the time I stopped in Yallapur at the same place to have late breakfast/lunch. A plate of fresh hot Managlore buns and coffee, I was confident of hitting the highway sometime around 12:00 PM which would have kept me on target to reach Bengaluru in time. Although I did not stop anywhere post breakfast, I did enjoy the sceneries of farms, small towns, village folks going about their work and general sights we dont see in cities, through the visor of my helmet.Pretty soon, I reached the main Pune  Bengaluru highway, 400 odd kilometres from home. After I had covered around 50 kilometres, the dashboard began to flash OIL sign. I wasnt too sure (should have read the manual), and stopped and quickly checked what it was. It turned out to be some default reminder for oil change which has been programmed. However, I still checked the dipstick for oil level. All good! I rode the next 50 kilometres at reduced speed of 70-75 km/hr and reset the flashing sign. After it felt like the bike was behaving normally, started riding it back at 80-85 km/hr. Davangere went by. Chitradurga bypassed. Stopped after Hiriyur to refuel and check traffic conditions. Zipped past Tumkur. I encountered slight traffic at Neelamangala and Yeshwantpur, but not much of a bother. Reached home just before 6:00 pm.Happy to complete the trip on an automatic maxi scooter!Overall, it was amazing to ride the Aerox on the highway, much better that speed breaker infested city roads. With varying speeds, I could extract around 40-45 km/l on the highway, measured by tankful to tankful method. It was pretty eager to do fast spirited runs when the roads were good. Overtaking was not really an issue for me, as I dont ride very fast but it could keep up with fast moving traffic very well. Engine ran smoothly and felt like could do longer trips as well. Brakes were sufficient and I had no moment where I felt brakes lacked stopping power. Luggage space under the seat ensure saddle bags are not required for short 2-3 days trips. No body aches after the ride back home and was not even that tired. I think, the slight tiredness during onward ride was mainly due to lack of sleep.However, I always felt a little bigger fuel tank would have helped immensely along with a bit supple suspension to tackle the uneven speed breakers and bad roads. Seat cushion is sloping forward which causes rider to adjust frequently. Headlights, esp. the high beam, could have had more throw. I did not face any issue but would have helped seeing couple of potholes and speed breakers in advance at night. These are things which I understood fairly well the bike lacks and have adjusted my riding style to accommodate for these shortcomings.Finally, I hope members/visitors find this thread useful, just as I found threads by fellow members in clearing a lot of doubts/apprehensions about taking an automatic scooter on a long road trip. Happy to answer any queries. I must say, after this trip, I am shelving my KTM ADV390/CB500X plans four 4-6 months, given my requirements are well met by Aerox (for the time being atleast).Thanks for reading!Cheers!Anurag
Elon Musk reportedly has been approaching artificial intelligence researchers in recent weeks with an eye toward setting up a research lab to develop an alternative to OpenAIs ChatGPT.

The move stems from Musks dissatisfaction with the safeguards OpenAI has included in ChatGPT to prevent it from producing text that might offend users, according to a report in The Information.

Musk, and some conservative commentators, have also accused OpenAI of training ChatGPT to be woke.

Writing for the National Review in January, Nate Hochman declared hed found a built-in ideological bias in ChatGPT.

Its not clear if this was characteristic of ChatGPT from the outset or if its a recent reform to the algorithm, but it appears that the crackdowns on misinformation that weve seen across technology platforms in recent years  which often veer into more brazen efforts to suppress or silence viewpoints that dissent from progressive orthodoxy  is now a feature of ChatGPT, too, he wrote.

Avoiding Controversy

Will Duffield, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute, a Washington, D.C. think tank, counters, however, that what appears to be an ideological bias to some is actually an attempt to avoid controversy.

Woke is the wrong framing, Duffield told TechNewsWorld.

OpenAIs chatbot, and DALL-E as well, has been tuned to avoid controversial subjects, he continued. That doesnt mean theyve been tuned to be woke. In avoiding controversy, they mirror what society as a whole has deemed controversial.

For example, he explained that if you ask ChatGPT to write a poem about Biden and one about Trump, it will write the poem about Biden but not about Trump.

That isnt because somebody at OpenAI tuned the model to avoid Trump, but because Trump is a controversial figure, he said. If you read everything written about Biden and Trump over the last 10 years, youre going to walk away with the impression that Trump is more controversial.

Musk Might Deliver Transparency

Greg Sterling, co-founder of Near Media, a news, commentary, and analysis website, also found the woke criticism unwarranted.

OpenAI and Microsoft are trying to prevent ChatGPT from generating hateful or racist content, which is both the responsible thing to do and pragmatic, Sterling told TechNewsWorld. Any brand associated with hateful AI speech or disinformation will be tainted in the public mind.

But Mark N. Vena, the president and principal analyst with SmartTech Research in San Jose, Calif., argued that multiple examples have been reported in the media about apparent wokeness in OpenAIs technology.

In all fairness, OpenAI is still very much in a testing phase, and given some of the negative market feedback on its alleged wokeness, I suspect OpenAI will dial it back over time, Vena told TechNewsWorld.

He added that if Musk became part of the AI landscape, it could be a good thing for the technology.

Given the management approach that hes brought to Twitter  whether you like it or dont like it  his focus on transparency could be a good thing, he said.

Id expect him to focus on being highly transparent around the algorithms that Twitter might utilize with their own ChatGPT implementation, and you might see him promote a strong code of conduct, he continued.

I think we should be open-minded about the changes he might bring to a ChatGPT play, Vena added.

Traffic Magnet

The report of Musk getting into the AI chat business could benefit Twitter, observed Ross Rubin, the principal analyst with Reticle Research, a consumer technology advisory firm in New York City.

ChatGPT has become an incredible traffic magnet, and when youre in the attention game, like Twitter, thats impossible to ignore. You have to respond to that, he told TechNewsWorld.

AI could also give users a way to mine the incredible amount of data and perspective that scrolls through Twitter every day, he continued.

Its always been challenging to keep up with the stuff you want to follow on Twitter because theres so much noise, Rubin added. AI can be helpful in that area.

A Musk AI might also benefit from his relationship with Twitter. Hes got Twitters data, which might be an interesting corpus of information to train AI on, Duffield said.

If Musk really wants to differentiate his AI product, it should use a model that users can run on their own machines and set their own weights and biases, he added. That kind of freedom will ultimately be most important in the AI space.

Bing AI Comes to Windows 11

Bob ODonnell, founder and chief analyst at Technalysis Research, a technology market research and consulting firm in Foster City, Calif., predicted many companies will be developing large language models like ChatGPT.

Since theyre incredibly expensive to develop, you need someone with the money of a Musk to bankroll those kinds of efforts, he told TechNewsWorld.

I dont know if anything Musk does is going to make a huge difference, he added. What I do know is were going to see a number of companies trying this with a number of different perspectives. Ultimately, its going to come down to what people find useful.

While Musk prepares to enter the AI chat field, Microsoft continues to expand the use of the technology in its products. It announced Tuesday that the latest version of Windows 11 will incorporate AI-powered Bing directly into the taskbar.

The search box is one of the most widely used features on Windows, with over half a billion users every month, and now with the typable Windows search box and the new AI-powered Bing front and center to this experience, you will be empowered to find the answers youre looking for, faster than ever before, Microsofts Chief Product Officer Panos Panay wrote in a company blog.

Microsofts aggressive rollout of AI-based products has had a few hiccups, but slowing down doesnt seem to be an option.

There will be setbacks, but its really more about Microsofts ability to adjust on the fly and update with new guardrails and better training, Jason Wong, a vice president and analyst with Gartner, a research and advisory company based in Stamford, Conn., told TechNewsWorld.

There is so much potential to be gained with generative AI that its worth the risk to be early rather than be late to market at this point, he said.
TechSpot is about to celebrate its 25th anniversary. TechSpot means tech analysis and advice you can trust

In context: As more companies focus on lowering their own carbon emissions, one startup is looking to take CO2 out of the atmosphere and create sustainable aviation fuel. It already has a small-scale working process and says that if it and other manufacturers scale up production, it could "mitigate" at least 10 percent of carbon emissions.

A startup specializing in sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) signed a $65 million contract with the US Department of Defense to create jet fuel out of thin air. The contract will provide a startup called Air Company funds to advance research and development of a system that can extract CO2 from the air and convert it into fuel-grade alcohols and paraffin.

Air Company already has a process of converting CO2 to jet fuel and published a white paper on the procedure. The company claims to have eliminated a step in the nearly 100-year-old Fischer-Tropsch process. It involves creating, harvesting, and storing CO2 from industrial corn fermentation. It then uses water electrolysis to produce hydrogen gas (H2) and oxygen (O2).

The O2 is released into the atmosphere, and the H2 feeds into a reactor with the captured CO2 and a catalyst. The chemical reaction produces ethanol, methanol, water, and paraffin. Distillation separates these components for use in other products, including vodka, perfume, hand sanitizer, and SAF.

The company cannot yet produce at the scale needed to impact global CO2 levels. However, CEO Gregory Constantine says that if Air Company and others can build to scale and all fuel-dependant industries switch to SAF, it could mitigate over 10 percent of carbon emissions.

"These contracts allow [us] to focus on the growth of technology and the development of technology," Constantine told USA Today. "The core of our technology is really centered around carbon utilization."

Unfortunately, the company's lofty goals are still far into the future. While the DoD contract will help Air Company refine its process and build a large-scale production plant, it will take more than one company to produce enough SAF to feed the entire aviation industry.

Another complication is that most regulatory agencies maintain specific limitations on using SAF.

"With current legislation and regulation, there are blend limits that we have to adhere to," said Constantine. "The fuel we create has the components not to be blended. We are hopeful that over the course of the next several years, those blend limits will increase and that regulations will eventually allow the use of 100 percent SAF."

Currently, aviation fuel mixtures can only contain less than 50 percent SAF. However, Air Company partnered with the Air Force to test fly a 100-percent SAF, which proved successful. Dutch airline KLM also trialed a pure SAF with its engine manufacturer, concluding it was safe to burn.

Air Company has already contracted to supply three airlines with SAF --Boom, JetBlue, and Virgin Atlantic. Boom agreed to buy five million gallons annually for an unspecified contract term to fuel it's supersonic Overture jet. JetBlue signed a five-year contract to purchase 25 million gallons, and Virgin promised to pick up 100 million gallons over 10 years.
The big picture: Efforts to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions aren't working, and the world is on track to exceed the 1.5 C limit set with the Paris Agreements goal. As such, emergency "temporary" measures like Solar Radiation Modification should be considered to buy humanity more time to avoid the worst.

Solar Radiation Modification (SRM), or more broadly solar geoengineering, is a type of technologies that can theoretically reflect sunlight back into outer space thus cooling Earth's atmosphere. According to a newly-published report by the United Nations, SRM is still a "speculative group of technologies" which should, however, be studied more rigorously as we are running out of time for any meaningful effort to curb global warming.

Prepared by a panel of experts within the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the report is promoting a rapid review of the state of scientific research on SRM technology and solutions. Climate action is lagging, the experts say, but solar geoengineering still requires more research before any consideration for "potential deployment."

SRM could knock the global average temperature down in a very short timeframe, but it also brings some dangerous risks for the future of our planet. After all, we only have one atmosphere, the experts warn, so we can't risk a global catastrophe because we are in a hurry to bring down the temperatures of an increasingly hotter, inhospitable and unpredictable planet.

Speculations about the potential effects of reflecting solar radiation back into space are based on the observations of aerosol particles spreads by large volcanic eruptions into the upper atmosphere. Scientists know that a "deliberate injection of large amounts of reflective particles into the stratosphere would cool the Earth rapidly," the UN report says.

If global warming were to produce intolerable outcomes such as widespread famines, mass migration, mass mortality or infrastructure destruction, the report states, a "planned" emergency response based on SRM technologies could alleviate some of the harsher effects of a worsening global warming within a few years.

But SRM can be extremely dangerous and bring many ethical issues to the table, as it's a relatively low-cost solution - with an estimated $20 billion expense per 1 degree Celsius of cooling per year - within reach of many countries and potentially "rogue" organizations.

For instance, sulfur dioxide is one of the substances commonly proposed as an aerosol, but it could result in acid rain and deplete the recently recovered ozone layer over the Antarctic. Furthermore, acid rain would also affect those countries which didn't agree to the SRM option, so a discussion within the United Nations is the only viable way to bring global consensus on the matter.
Forward-looking: One of the most famous phrases about the value of networks came from Sun Microsystems' Scott Gage in 1984 when he declared that "the network is the computer." That long-time Sun tagline referred more to the value of connecting computers together and the concept of thin clients attaching to a centralized computing infrastructure than cellular networks. Nevertheless, it remains a prescient, pithy synopsis of where the computing and telecom worlds have been headed for the last three decades.

As it turns out, that phrase looks to be a remarkably good summary of a lot of the biggest news coming from this year's MWC trade show in Barcelona as well. While it's not feasible to put all the announcements from multiple vendors at a huge trade show into a single theme, the idea that 5G networks around the world are essentially morphing into a cloud-connected, general purpose computing infrastructure running specialized applications does seem to encompass a lot of the show's news.

To start with, the GSMA's own surprising debut of the Open Gateway Initiative points strongly in this direction. An industry association of the world's largest telco carriers, the GSMA isn't typically thought of as the organization driving technical standards (that's the 3GPP's job).

With this Open Gateway effort, they've garnered the support of 21 large worldwide carriers, including AT&T, Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile's German parent), Verizon, China Mobile, Orange, Telefonica and Vodafone among others, to agree to a new set of open-source APIs for key network services such as location, eSIM support, quality of service and more.

In addition, they're kicking off with the backing of AWS and Azure cloud computing businesses. Working together, if it all goes as planned, these APIs and the related Camara open-source project essentially create a global mobile platform  separate from mobile phone operating systems  upon which developers of all shapes and sizes can start building new applications. It's early days, but the potential impact of this, particularly for carriers to start monetizing services on their very expensive 5G networks, could be huge. This is definitely a development worth watching.

Another way to interpret the "network is the computer" theme is through the increasingly important and popular concepts of Virtualized RAN or vRAN, and Open RAN or O-RAN, which both allow key network functions to run on traditional computer servers locally or in the cloud. Not only was there a great deal of partnerships and specific product news about vRAN and O-RAN coming from the show, but there were also arguably several interesting evolutions of the concepts being discussed by traditional network equipment vendors like Ericsson, the newly rebranded Nokia, and Samsung Networks among others.

This development is rather ironic in that one of the original arguments for Open RAN was to break away from the constraints of the proprietary hardware systems that some of these companies sold. In reality, however, it reflects that even these companies have recognized the flexibility and economic value of putting some of the core network functions and other capabilities that their hardware used to do in software form. It's essentially an acknowledgement that even in the world of multi-vendor O-RAN, the large network equipment providers still have an important role to play.

Samsung Networks, for example, debuted several new software tools that can run on general-purpose hardware. The company's vRAN 3.0 enables up to 3x higher throughput on Massive MIMO radios and offers several power efficiency enhancements, including sleep mode for low traffic situations and an energy saving function that intelligently analyzes data traffic and adjusts power usage automatically. These types of power usage reduction features are important for carriers, because telco networks consume huge amounts of electricity, making them eager to find ways to reduce that power consumption. Samsung Networks also announced updates to its Cloud Orchestrator, which is intended to help optimize and automate the deployment of its vRAN software and manage the hundreds of thousands of cell sites on which it is deployed. The latest update also incorporates support for private 5G networks as well as public networks.

From a computing perspective, Intel debuted a new iteration of its latest server chip (codenamed Sapphire Rapids) that specifically incorporates hardware acceleration for telco-related software and workloads. Officially dubbed "4th-gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors with Intel vRAN Boost," Intel claims the new platform can deliver the same performance on Level 1 packet processing as the best plug-in accelerator cards with the added benefits of lower power consumption and not requiring software to be developed for the proprietary chip architectures used in those cards. Along with Samsung Networks, Intel put some meat behind those claims by demoing what they said was the first 1 Tbps performance on a 5G User Plane Function (UPF) connecting data packets from the RAN to the 5G network core.

Cisco also had a number of big announcements at MWC 2023, including the launch of its IoT Mobility Services Platform, intended to allow companies to more easily manage a wide variety of devices and connected sensors, regardless of the underlying types of wireless technologies used to connect them. The goal is to simplify this often confusing and frustrating process. Speaking of simplification, the company also announced several partnerships with companies like Intel, NTT and NEC to make the process of getting private 5G networks installed as easy as possible.

While not directly tied to the "network as the computer" theme, some of the most intriguing news from Cisco was the debut of new Meraki gateways for enterprise 5G networks. One of the key challenges that early adopters of private 5G networks have faced has been the difficulty of managing the network with the staff and skillsets they have in house. The launch of the MG51 should go a long way to helping address that problem by bringing the ease of use that Meraki WiFi gateways/routers are known for to the less understood world of private 5G. In addition, Cisco and T-Mobile for Business announced a partnership to bring these MG51 gateways to businesses in conjunction with T-Mo's Managed Services offering. This enables T-Mobile to offer a fixed wireless access (FWA) cellular-based internet connectivity solution to small and medium-sized businesses around the US.

Google Cloud had three network offerings aimed at the network transformation trends underlying and inherent in the "network is the computer" theme and exemplifying the increasing role that big cloud providers are starting to play in the telco world. Telecom Network Automation tackles multi-site deployment, management and automation by using cloud-native Kubernetes-based tools that are at the heart of the company's cloud operations. Telecom Data Fabric offers tools to help collect information on data usage across the network, which potentially can be used for monetizing services. Finally, as its name suggests, Telecom Subscriber Insights automation data collection on users of the network, with AI-powered analytics that telcos can use to promote services and improve engagement and retention.

All told, there was a tremendous amount of 5G network-related news from MWC 2023, many of which demonstrated a clear intermingling of traditional IT "computing" vendors with those who have specialized in pure network infrastructure equipment in the past. The partnerships are enabling a more powerful and more unified set of offerings that have the potential to combine the best of both worlds. When the 5G cellular network becomes the computer, interesting things are bound to happen indeed.

Bob O'Donnell is the founder and chief analyst of TECHnalysis Research, LLC a technology consulting firm that provides strategic consulting and market research services to the technology industry and professional financial community. You can follow him on Twitter @bobodtech.
Bottom line: Samsung has found a way to comply with new EU power consumption regulations that'll allow the Korean electronics giant to continue to sell 8K televisions in the European Union. The workaround highlights the bureaucratic silliness that often takes place in the regulatory space.

Samsung lobbied for the EU to reconsider its stance on 8K TVs. Per the energy efficiency index (EEI), 8K displays and microLED-equipped devices sold from March 1, 2023 must have the same EEI as 4K displays.

8K sets have four times as many pixels as same-sized 4K models. What's more, they require more powerful processors to upscale images to 8K quality from their native resolutions. Limiting an 8K set to 4K power consumption levels seems unreasonable, but the EU refused to play ball. This left Samsung no choice but to either pull its entire 2023 8K TV lineup from the region or come up with a workaround.

To comply with regulations, Samsung will ship 2023 8K TVs in the EU with their brightness set to a very low level by default. What's more, the brightness setting for the low-power preset is locked and can't be changed by the user.

A complete disaster, you say? Not quite as the devil is in the details. As Forbes highlights, Samsung is shipping sets running a low-power mode by default. Apparently, the EU is perfectly fine with users switching to another preset picture mode that isn't bound by limitations on brightness. What's more, the brightness setting on non-eco modes is fully adjustable.

In the end, this whole fiasco is much ado about nothing. Samsung simply has to ship sets running eco mode out of the box. That's it. Buyers are free to switch out of eco mode and fine-tune the set's brightness as they see fit. Samsung said it is even going to include a section about picture presets during the initial setup process to raise awareness of the eco mode situation. This should ensure that even those with zero technical prowess will know to switch picture modes to unlock the set's full capabilities.

Image credit: Erik Mclean
The European Commission could fine Apple Music $39.4 billion for allegedly violating antitrust laws pertaining to restrictions on developers advertising subscriptions, AppleInsider reports.

In 2021, the European Commission issued an objections statement accusing Apple of breaching antitrust regulations. The Commission has now clarified its refusal to take a position on the legality of Apple's in-app purchasing (IAP) obligation for the antitrust investigation.

Apple Could be Facing a $39.4 Billion Fine

The latest statement of objections from the European Commission puts emphasis on the contractual restrictions that Apple enforces on app developers.

The restrictions prohibit developers from informing iPhone and iPad users of alternative, less expensive music subscription options outside the app and allowing them to choose those.

Read Also: Apple's Upcoming OLED iPad Pro in 2024 Will Be More Expensive Because of New Production Process

Apple initially prohibited developers of services like Spotify from mentioning or linking to alternative subscription methods.

Spotify, Developers Urge EC to Take Action

In January, Spotify and several other digital organizations sent a letter to the European Commission requesting it to take action against Apple's "unfair restrictions" imposed on their businesses.

The letter raises several concerns, including the App Store's stranglehold on Apple's proprietary payment system, restrictions on developers' access to user data, and unfair changes to terms and conditions.

The letter urges immediate action to end what the signatories describe as Apple's abusive behavior and states that the EU can take the lead in this area.

More About the Recent EC Antitrust Lawsuit

According to AppleInsider, Apple has effectively disproved the claim that it forces developers to use its in-app purchasing system, which was a major part of Spotify's initial 2019 complaint to the EC. However, the business now has to address the claim that it restricted developers in the past.

Spotify's general counsel, Eve Konstan, welcomed the European Commission's update, saying, "Apple's anticompetitive behavior and unfair practices have harmed consumers and disadvantaged developers for far too long."

Konstan requests that the Commission act quickly in this instance to safeguard consumers and reinstate fair competition on the iOS platform.

The length of an antitrust investigation depends on a number of variables, including the case's complexity, the degree of cooperation between the parties and the Commission, and the exercise of defense rights.

Apple is yet to respond to the latest case update from the European Commission.

What This Means for Apple

If the European Commission decides to impose a fine on Apple, it could reach up to 10 percent of the company's annual global revenue. Apple's 2022 revenue was $394.328 billion, so the maximum fine could be around $39 billion.

Apple has previously been accused of antitrust violations. In 2020, the company faced an investigation into the App Store's practices in the United States.

Apple was accused of using its market dominance to suppress competition and charge exorbitant prices. In November 2020, the company reduced App Store fees for small businesses earning less than $1 million annually from 30% to 15%.

The outcome of the European Commission's investigation will have far-reaching consequences for Apple and the broader technology industry. It remains to be seen how the company will react to the most recent allegations and whether it will be subject to a hefty fine.

Stay posted here at Tech Times.

Related Article: Spotify Bids Goodbye to 'Heart' Button in favor of the 'Plus,' to Add Songs to Playlists and Library

 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
A Tesla Mexico-based factory is expected to be constructed, thanks to a successful call between Elon Musk and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

(Photo : Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Elon Musk, founder and chief engineer of SpaceX speaks at the 2020 Satellite Conference and Exhibition March 9, 2020 in Washington, DC. Musk answered a range of questions relating to SpaceX projects during his appearance at the conference.

For the past few months, many critics speculated that Tesla will soon start a gigafactory project in Mexico.

These rumors appeared in 2022 after the Tesla CEO announced that they will construct a new facility in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

Last October 2022, these speculations became more serious after Elon decided to meet with the Mexican governor.

Now, it seems like the recent rumors about a Mexico-based Tesla factory are true.

Tesla Mexico-Based Factory Expected to Arrive

According to Teslarati's latest report, a call between Elon and Obrador hints that there would be a new Mexico-based Tesla factory.

(Photo : Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)

The Tesla, Inc. logo is displayed on a sign outside the Tesla Design Center in Hawthorne, California, on August 9, 2022. - Elon Musk has sold nearly $7 billion worth of Tesla shares, according to legal filings published August 9, 2022, amid a high-stakes legal battle with Twitter over a $44 billion buyout deal.

Also Read: Tesla Magic Dock Supercharger Begins Testing in the US, Allowing Other EVs to Charge

Officials said that their talk went really well. One of them even noted that the billionaire and the Mexican leader were 90% towards closing an agreement.

Mexican officials described the calls between the Tesla CEO and Lopez Obrador as extensive talks; one call lasted for 35 minutes, while the other one (Feb. 27) lasted more than 40 minutes.

As of writing, the exact details of their talks are expected to be announced in the following days.

Details of Tesla Mexico Factory

Electrek reported that Nuevo Leon, a state controlled by the Mexican government's opposition, is already out of options.

Lopez Obrador explained that Tesla could be denied a permit to construct a facility in Nuevo Leon if water is insufficient in the region. Instead, the Mexican president wants Tesla to build its new facility clear to Mexico City in a new business hub.

All these details were confirmed ahead of the upcoming Tesla Investory Day 2023. But, it is unclear if the new Mexico-based Tesla facility will be included as one of the announcements in the event.

If you want to learn more details about the upcoming Tesla Mexico-based factory, you can click this link.

In other news, Tesla price hikes in Australia were announced, focusing on models with dual motors.

We also reported about the Tesla camera privacy allegations, which forced the EV maker to adjust its Sentry Mode technology.

For more news updates about Tesla and other giant automakers, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: Tesla Engineering HQ Remains in California-Elon Musk Reveals Cybertruck in Palo Alto Site

 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
A spokeswoman for China's Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, Feb.28, that the US ban on the Chinese video-sharing app TikTok is a misuse of state authority and a reflection of Washington's own insecurities.

In a daily briefing, as reported by ABC News, Mao Ning said that US officials have been overstretching the idea of national security and misusing state authority to stifle other nations' firms.

"How unsure of itself can the US, the world's top superpower, be to fear a young person's favorite app to such a degree?"

TikTok Prominence

Two-thirds of American teenagers use TikTok. However, Washington is worried that China may use its legal and regulatory authorities to get private user data or to attempt to spread disinformation or narratives favoring China.

The White House announced new guidelines on Monday, Feb. 27, instructing all federal agencies to remove TikTok from all government devices within the next 30 days. TikTok was previously banned from White House computers.

Meanwhile, TikTok is blocked on government-issued mobile devices in more than half of the states in the US and by Congress.

Furthermore, there have been calls for the ban to include all properties of ByteDance, the private Chinese firm that owns TikTok relocated its headquarters to Singapore in 2020.

TikTok has raised concerns about the restrictions, arguing that it has not been given a chance to respond to inquiries and that governments are isolating themselves from a platform that is popular among many people.

Related Article: White House Officially Bans TikTok on Government Devices Within a Month

Canada's Participation

Canada joined the US on Monday in announcing that the app TikTok will be blocked on all government-issued mobile devices.

"I suspect that as [the] government takes the significant step of telling all federal employees that they can no longer use TikTok on their work phones, many Canadians from business to private individuals will reflect on the security of their own data and perhaps make choices," Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters following the news.

The President of the Canadian Treasury Board, Mona Fortier, said that TikTok presents an unacceptable degree of danger to privacy and security after a review by the Chief Information Officer of Canada.

TikTok, according to Fortier, provides extensive access to the phone's contents because of the way it collects data from mobile devices.

On Tuesday, this app will no longer be accessible on Canadian government-issued mobile devices.

As a temporary cybersecurity precaution, the European Union's executive branch also said last week that it had prohibited the usage of TikTok on the phones of its staff.

China vs. US

China has also restricted many Western social media sites and messaging applications for a very long time. Some of these include YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

The US and China are at odds over several topics, including trade, computer chips and other technology, national security, Taiwan, and the recent discovery and shooting down of a suspected Chinese spy balloon over the US territories.

Related Article: Canadian Government Bans TikTok Across Government Devices

 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Purification, or isolating the protein from the bioreactor that produced it, is one of the most expensive procedures in the production of protein drugs like insulin or antibodies. This process may cost as much as half of the overall price of producing a protein.

Now, MIT engineers have developed a novel technique for carrying out this type of filtration to lower production costs.

Their method, which quickly crystallizes proteins using specialized nanoparticles, may make protein drugs more affordable and available, particularly in underdeveloped nations.

Novel Method

"This work uses bioconjugate-functionalized nanoparticles to act as templates for enhancing protein crystal formation at low concentrations," Kripa Varanasi, senior author of the study, said in a press release statement.

"The goal is to reduce the cost so that this kind of drug manufacturing becomes affordable in the developing world."

The scientists showed that their method may be used to crystallize insulin and the antibacterial enzyme lysozyme. They believe that it might be used for other beneficial proteins, such as vaccinations and antibody-based medications.

A family of medications known as biologics, which also includes molecules like DNA and RNA and cell-based therapies, includes antibodies and other protein-based medications.

In massive bioreactors, live cells like yeast manufacture the majority of protein medications.

After these proteins are produced, they must be separated from the reactor, which is typically accomplished through a procedure known as chromatography.

Chromatography, which divides proteins according to their size, needs specific materials, which raises the cost of the procedure significantly.

Read Also: MIT Mini Cheetah Robot Speed Enhancement Made Possible, Thanks to New Simulation Training-Similar to 'Matrix?'

Alternative Strategy

The alternative strategy, based on protein crystallization, was chosen by Varanasi and his colleagues. Proteins are frequently crystallized by researchers to analyze their structures, however, the procedure is deemed too laborious for industrial application and is ineffective at low protein concentrations.

Varanasi's lab set out to use nanoscale structures to hasten crystallization to get around those challenges.

The goal was to modify nanoparticles to boost the protein concentration at the surface locally and to act as a template for the proteins' proper alignment and crystallization.

The scientists covered gold nanoparticles with bioconjugates, chemicals that can assist in forming bonds between other molecules to generate the surface that they require.

Maleimide and NHS bioconjugates, which are frequently used to tag proteins for research or affix protein medicines to drug-delivery nanoparticles, were utilized by the researchers for this work.

The scientists used the enzyme lysozyme, whose crystallization characteristics have been extensively researched, and insulin to show their methodology.

The researchers found that the proteins crystallized far more quickly when exposed to bioconjugate-coated nanoparticles as opposed to bare nanoparticles or no nanoparticles.

The MIT team is now focused on scaling up the procedure so that it can be applied in an industrial bioreactor and can be used to produce monoclonal antibodies, vaccines, and other valuable proteins.

The study was published in the journal ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces.

Related Article: MIT Professor Creates 'Liquid Metal Batteries' To Enable Long-Term Storage For Renewable Energies

 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
An Amazon delivery driver recently posted on TikTok about the company's AI camera system and how it can be used to alert delivery drivers of everything they do. The firm sees everything from how frequently they take their hand off the wheel to how often they buckle up with a seatbelt.

The TikTokker @ambergirts uploaded a video on Saturday, Feb. 25, explaining the mechanism behind the tracking system. The video has been seen over 400,000 times in only the last two days.

AI Cameras and the Drivers

According to the TikTok video, as featured by Business Insider, the Amazon delivery van has four cameras - one forward-facing, two on the sides, and one in-cabin - that monitor the driver's actions, according to the TikTok.

She stated the forward-facing camera would monitor her following distance behind other vehicles, stop sign compliance, and speed. She stated she might get "dinged" if she fails to stop at a stop signal, follows a vehicle too closely, or exceeds the speed limit by six miles per hour.

The uploader of the video said the in-cabin camera follows her seat movement. "That camera is watching me while I drive, so I cannot do a lot."

She claimed the car monitors how frequently she buckles her seatbelt and issues "seatbelt violations" if she does not.

Apparently, one driver was fined for driving while scratching his beard, which the monitoring system mistook for holding a phone to his face, according to TikTokker.

Click here to see the TikTok video.

See Also: Amazon Facing Lawsuit Over Donkey Meat Products

'Safety Technology'

Amazon confirmed that the cameras are meant to switch off when drivers take a break. A representative verified that the cameras do not stream live.

They also made sure that drivers had the option to challenge erroneous violations.

"The safety technology in delivery vans [helps] keep drivers and the communities where we deliver safe, and claims that these cameras are intended for anything else are incorrect. Since we started using them, we've seen a 35% reduction in collision rates across the network along with a reduction in distracted driving, speeding, tailgating, sign and signal violations, and drivers not wearing their seatbelts," Amazon spokesperson Steve Kelly told Gizmodo.

Public Critique

Starting in 2020, Amazon began installing cameras in its "last mile" delivery cars. By April 2023, the cameras are scheduled to be standard equipment in all branded vehicles.

The retail gant has taken a lot of heat for how it has handled its delivery people and its well-publicized warehouse facilities.

As per reports, Amazon is being sued for allegedly stealing from its drivers by keeping their tips. When animals have assaulted drivers or when they have complained about tornadoes in their areas, the corporation has come out as unconcerned.

See Also: Amazon Staff Disapproves of Abrupt Return-to-Office Policy

 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The latest laptop from Samsung, the Galaxy Book3, has a nifty feature available to users to control Android smartphones using the computer's keyboard, mouse, and clipboard. This is called the "Multi-Control" function, which extends the laptop's built-in peripherals over to smartphones that bring significant accessibility to both devices.

Galaxy Book 3's latest feature will let you keep your hands on your PC while accessing your smartphone without connecting the other devices wirelessly, which is helpful for busy people.

Samsung Galaxy Book3: Multi-Control Feature for Android

Samsung offers a unique experience for the Galaxy Book3 series, which no other Windows computer delivers without third-party apps deliver the same experience. The Multi-Control feature is a built-in feature that allows users to use the computer's peripherals to access their smartphone and use its control whenever it is nearby.

The company already announced this alongside the launch in early February, but for those unfamiliar, this is a great time to start, especially when you own an Android device.

It is similar to the Universal Control offered by the macOS, but it is not limited to Android tablets only, unlike the Mac and iPad exclusivity, as this is also available for smartphones, but it would depend on operating system eligibility.

Read Also: Samsung Bixby to Allow You to Create an AI Answering Machine Using your Voice, But There's a Catch

How to Control your Android Phones using Galaxy Book3

The first thing a user needs is to download the Multi-Control application from the Galaxy Store for their mobile devices. Next, log in using the same Samsung account for both devices, PC and phone alike, to connect it. Also, enable both WiFi and Bluetooth on your Android smartphone.

On the Galaxy Book3, go to Settings, and head to Connected Devices. Scroll down and look for Multi-Control and enable it.

The laptop should detect similar Samsung accounts logged in to connect both smartphones and PCs. Users could also switch positions from left to right, depending on their preference.

Refer to Samsung's video below to learn more about the process.

Samsung's Latest Releases this 2023

Earlier this February, the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event took place to deliver the latest updates the South Korean company has in store for the world. There were two featured devices for this year's early showcase, including the flagship smartphone of the company, its Galaxy S23 series, and the latest update to the Galaxy Book series.

One of the main focuses of Samsung for this year as well as its integration with Matter for smart home devices, saw a strengthened approach for its technology to control. The application called Smart Things is now available for iOS and Android, and it also brings over the Smart Things Station, which poses as a hub for connecting all the smart home tech, as well as a wireless charging hub.

The Galaxy Book3 is a series of Samsung releases featuring three computers with different focuses, including the Pro version, Ultra for gaming, and 360 for the creatives. Apart from its numerous offers and features is the built-in feature available to all laptops called the Multi-Control, which allows users to connect their smartphones for the ultimate experience.

Related Article: Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Might Borrow Google Pixel Watch's Design

 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Startup Air Company announced a $65 million deal with the United States Depart of Defense to develop further and produce sustainable jet fuel for the US Air Force through the atmospheric carbon dioxide on military bases.

(Photo : AIR COMPANY YouTube Channel)

Introducing a landmark shift in aviation: A carbon-neutral jet fuel made from CO2. With AIRMADE SAF, were turning our planets most abundant pollutant into a never-ending resource by transforming captured CO2 into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

Air Company-Air Force Deal

Air Company is known for its sustainable efforts as they turn carbon dioxide into perfumes, vodka, and hand sanitizer. The Hill reported that the startup company is now partnering with the Department of Defense to produce aviation. The company won its spot in a 2021 competition by producing fuel for drones with ready-made jet fuel for Air Force's Project FIERCE.

The carbon will initially come from industrial facilities, the same process how they make fuel at its pilot plant in Brooklyn, New York. Air Company will also focus on direct air capture, a part of the technology that would be built on-site.

The $65 million deal will help Air Force capture CO2 and turn it into sustainable fuel on bases. But the deal's goal is to supply fuel for Air Force and make the fuel itself. This is one of the company's efforts to reduce harm and avoid fuel transportation as a target for explosives.

In an interview with USA Today, Air Company Chief Executive Officer Gregory Constantine stated, "These contracts allow you to focus on the growth of technology and the development of technology."

He added that this deal puts the company and its technology close to powering commercial flights, which is a good sign regarding how this type of technology (sustainable aviation fuel) is quickly evolving and being implemented already.

Production Process

By capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and combining it with sustainably produced hydrogen, Air Company will produce sustainable fuel. This process will result in a reaction that creates a mix of alcohol and paraffin that can be burned as fuel in engines.

Constantine added that the core of their technology is centered around carbon utilization. He estimates that if all methanol, ethanol, and kerosene-dependent industries switched to this process to produce their fuel, 1-% of global CO2 emissions would be reduced.

This method will also be more flexible than other processes since it does not rely on agriculture or feedstock, which can be difficult for other companies to transport or have other competing uses.

Also read: Air Force Has Successfully Designed, Built, and Tested a Mysterious Fighter Jet in a Year--in Secret

TechCrunch reported that the Department of Defense is known for how heavily notorious carbon polluters they are.

Researchers from Lancaster University in England estimate that the department emits more climate-polluting changes than some medium-sized countries. The researchers argue that "action on climate change demands shuttering vast sections of the military machine."

Related Article: First Carbon Neutral Jet Fuel Generated by Solar-Powered Tower! Here's How It Can Help the Airline Industry

 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Automakers are looking for ways to protect themselves from defaults as Canada's auto loan delinquency rate rises. Ford Motor Company has recently taken steps to ensure that their vehicles remain in possession of buyers who abide by their contracts by applying for a patent in the United States for an automated repossession system.

Ford Files a Patent 'Systems and Methods to Repossess a Vehicle' on Feb. 23

According to the story by Global News California, the idea of a car being able to repossess itself is no longer science fiction. Automaker Ford recently applied for a patent in the United States, allowing vehicles to do just that.

Dubbed "Systems and Methods to Repossess a Vehicle," the patent was published on Feb. 23 and details the methods and reasoning for automated repossession. In the patent, Ford explains that such a system would help avoid confrontation between the bank and the vehicle owner.

Owner to Get Numerous Alerts Before the Vehicle Being Automatically Repossessed

Upon defaulting on payments, the vehicle would be disabled, and the owner would receive numerous alerts and notices before the vehicle would be automatically repossessed.

The system would be installed in any vehicle with an internet connection and could be used to self-drive the vehicle directly to a repossession agency or impound lot. This would be determined based on the car's mileage, condition, and other costs associated with repossession.

Impound Lot Location is Automatically Determined by Vehicle Condition and Mileage

Surprisingly, Ford is the only automaker to have filed for an automatic repossession patent. However, the patent does not necessarily mean the automaker will introduce any technology element to its product lines.

Ford could have filed the patent to claim ownership of the idea before a competitor. Unfortunately, repossession is becoming increasingly common. Auto loan delinquency rates are reportedly rising in Canada, with nearly 2% of auto loans becoming delinquent in 2021, as seen on Better Dwelling.

Ford's Automated Repossession Patent: A Potential Solution to Conflicts Between Vehicle Owners and Creditors

Ford's automated repossession patent could help to prevent some of the conflicts that can arise between vehicle owners and creditors. Though Ford has filed the patent, that does not necessarily mean the automaker will introduce any technology element to its product lines.

Often, patents are filed by a company to claim ownership of an idea before a competitor. Global News contacted Ford Canada to inquire if a similar patent was in the works north of the American border but received no comment.

Read Also: Mexico-based Tesla Factory Expected, Thanks to Successful Call Between Musk, Mexican President

How Ford's Automatic Repossession Patent Could Affect the Repossession Process

Ford is the only automaker to have filed for an automatic repossession patent. In an era of increasing auto loan delinquency, it is understandable why Ford has sought to protect itself from bad debts by applying for this patent.

However, it is yet to be seen how this system will affect the repossession process and whether or not it will be implemented in the future.

Related Article: Volvo Plans to Open a New Tech Hub in Poland To Support All-Electric Plans By 2030

 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
In a recent search operation by the Western Australia Police on a suspected drug dealer's home, they stumbled upon what seems to be a weird-looking iPhone which is a concealed gun. This ingenious invention is similar to a now-defunct company, and the suspect had no papers for its ownership, recently confiscated by WA Police to test if it fires.

This fake iPhone is one dangerous weapon, especially as it can deliver fatal blows to its victims while being unaware that it is a gun that masquerades as a mobile device.

Fake iPhone Discovered on Drug Dealer's Home is a Gun

Who would know that one person's iPhone is not what you think and could be a deadly weapon?

This was the latest discovery by the WA Police in Cassinia Street, St. Baldivis, in the Mandurah district in Australia.

Last month, the Gang Crime Squad searched the home of a marked drug dealer after obtaining a warrant, and among the illegal substances discovered was a fake iPhone that is a concealed gun.

Moreover, this gun is illegally possessed, as it does not have any permit or have the gun registered to their name.

WA Police's Ballistics are also looking to test if the smartphone-looking gun would fire or if it is only a fake.

Read Also: Air Company to Produce Sustainable Fuel for US Air Force in a $65 Million Deal

IDEAL Conceal is Now Defunct, But its iPhone Guns Still Exist

The iPhone gun that the WA Police confiscated is similar looking to one made by a now-defunct company called Ideal Conceal, which operated until last year. Despite the company already closing down its concealed smartphone-looking gun production, its units are still available to those that bought it or those who still have stocks of it.

Concealed Weapons and Smart Firearms in the World

There was a specific concern back in the mid-2010s until 2022 because an invention alerted law enforcement officials of a seemingly fake smartphone that was deadly and dangerous. This is from the "Ideal Conceal" company, which developed iPhone-looking firearms that can fold up to one's pocket and deliver 9mm shots.

One development company called Armatix from Germany developed a smart gun that would only fire if it detects the accessory watch that comes along with it. The device would be ideal for, say, the likes of people stealing one's firearm and using it against them, and it would avoid misfiring the weapon when cleaning it or being held by someone unfamiliar with it.

Concealing weapons may only be seen in action movies where they keep them on umbrellas, guitar cases, bags, and other inconspicuous materials that one would not mistake for guns.

However, when it does not look like a legitimate iPhone, it could raise concerns, and most of those who own these did not register the firearm to their name, hence the WA Police's confiscation of it and the charge against its owner.

Related Article: FCC Proposes New Rules To Protect Phone Data of Domestic Violence Victims

 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
German newspapers Bild and Die Welt have announced that they will lay off some employees because of the emergence of artificial intelligence, as reported by The Guardian.

(Photo : by JOSEP LAGO/AFP via Getty Images)

A visitor watches an AI (Artificial Intelligence) sign on an animated screen at the Mobile World Congress (MWC), the telecom industry's biggest annual gathering, in Barcelona.

Goals to boost revenue at German newspapers mean job cuts because automation and AI are making a lot of jobs in the journalism department redundant.

AI to Replace Journalists?

The potential of AI to make independent journalism better is being seen. Popular AI tools like ChatGPT can revolutionize information and could soon be better at aggregating information compared to human journalists.

This is not the first publisher to use AI in content creation. In January, BuzzFeed announced its plan to use AI to enhance its content and online quizzes. YK's Daily Mirror and Daily Express publishers are also exploring AI with a specific working group that is focused on checking for the potential limitations of Ai tools.

Since ChatGPT was launched in 2022, it has drawn over a hundred million users. The tool can generate highly sophisticated texts from simple users prompts-producing anything from essays and job applications.

However, the accuracy of its responses has been questioned, and an Australian academic found examples of the system fabricating references from websites and referencing fake quotes.

Also read: First AI News Anchor in South Korea: How Does it Compare to China's 'Xinhua'?

AI in Journalism

The use of AI in journalism has been controversial as well. CNET has been using an AI tool to generate articles that human editors later scan for accuracy before publication. In January, the publication acknowledged that the program had some limitations, following a report from Futurism that revealed more than half of the stories generated through AI tools had to be edited for errors.

CNET was also forced to issue major corrections to an explainer article on compound interest that contained a number of simple errors. It then issued a formidable correction and a warning on all the bot's prior work, which alerted readers that the posts' content was under factual review.

After a few days, Red Ventures, its parent company, announced that it was temporarily pausing the AI-generated articles at CNET and other properties, such as Bankrate, at least until the negative press dies down.

A new investigation by Futurism found extensive evidence that the AI used at CNET has shown deep structural and phrasing similarities to articles previously published elsewhere without giving credit. In short, the plagiarized bot work of Red Ventures competitors and human writers at Bankrate and CNET.

The bots' errors range from verbatim copying to moderate edits to significant rephrasing without properly crediting the original.

Related article: Microsoft Update: Artificial Intelligence is Replacing Journalists at MSN and Edge Browser; Microsoft Ends Contract with PA Media

 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Twitter is experiencing major outage following the recent round of layoffs, as reported by The Independent UK.

(Photo : by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)

The Twitter logo at their offices in New York City on January 12, 2023.

Twitter users were welcomed to Twitter on what seemed like a welcome page that encouraged them to click through and find people to follow.

The users also reported that there didn't seem a way to get around the initial message, which left left unable to see the feed or any posts from people they actually follow. However, it was possible see a specific user's tweets by visiting their account page. The search feature also seems to be working but it was unreliable.

Twitter Outage

The Twitter outage came after the company fired as many as 200 more employees over the weekend. That leaves the company with less than 75 percent of employees it had when Elon Musk took over.

In an email to employees on Monday, Musk said that the layoffs over the weekend were a difficult organizational overhaul focused on improving future execution. The CEO also said that those still at the company would receive significant stock and other compensation awards on March 24.

However, there was no indication the outage was related to the layoffs.

So far, there has been no word on the outage but it has been observed that the site has been more glitchy since Musk's takeover and massive layoffs.

For this month alone, the social platform has experienced at least four major outages compared to the nine outages in 2022, according to the New York Times.

There have also been reports of internal tools, such as Slack and Jira shitting down without warning that leaves employees to take unscheduled days off, as reported by TheVerge. #TwitterDown was also trending on the platform.

Also read: Twitter Mass Deactivation Creates Follower Count Fluctuations

Tech operations in shambles?

It's unlikely for Twitter to shut down, but it's clear that the tech operations on the social platform are in shambles. Seven current and former employees said that Musk has ended operations at one of the three main data centers that further slates the team that work on the company's back-end technology. They also said that Musk has gotten rid of leaders overseeing the area.

The move has triggered fears that Twitter doesn't have enough people or institutional knowledge to triage the platform's problems, especially should it one day, encounter a problem the remaining workers would be unable to fix.

It can be recalled that in the past, Twitter prevented breakages from becoming into a full-blown disaster by having people around to diagnose and solve problems right away.

However, with less hands on desk, the platform is likely to be bogged down by more issues as workers take long to identify issues.

Related article: Twitter Login Error 'Something Went Wrong:' Possible Fixes to Try

 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
"A deliberate and premeditated act": in Angers, an investigation opened after the ransacking of a church

"Can cause very serious complications": doctors - about the increase in the incidence of measles in Russia

10 restaurants to eat (very good) for less than 40 euros in Madrid

11 exclusive menus to try in the most fashionable places in Madrid

Bordeaux: a car ploughs into the crowd during a wild race, 7 injured, 2 of them serious

"I worked with incredible overstrain": a historian on the importance of the railway for the victory of the USSR over the Wehrmacht

The week of God Tuitero: Cain and Abel are a model of fraternity next to Iglesias and Yolanda Diaz

Opposition fever after the pandemic: "Studying in holes did not work for me. When I got from 9 to 9 I passed two and the first one"

How to tell if you have an allergy or a cold

After work, you should also pay close attention to WeChat to see if it is considered overtime

The Yuxi mountain fire in Yunnan was all extinguished, and the fire site was successfully encircled

The most famous warrior of his time. Genghis Khan the orphan who founded the Mongol Empire

Al-Aqsa Mosque is the focus of the conflict. Does the world hear the voice of Muslims?

CANNESERIES - We saw "A Small Light", which returns to the story of Miep Gies, who hid Anne Frank

Exceptional reliability: Yang Nepomniachtchi defeated Ding Liren and took the lead in the match for the world chess crown

At the age of 40, he conquered the American professional boxing scene and became a boxing champion

With a broken arm and unique cardio: how Murzakanov defeated Jacoby and Holloway defeated Allen at UFC in Kansas City

With a lot of numbers and good results, the fiery marathon is really back

You may not know about Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, but you do know Zhang Weili

(Focus on the Consumer Expo) The "spillover effect" of the Consumer Expo is released The "circle of friends" of the Hainan Free Trade Port has expanded

There are changes in the method of collecting the proceeds from the transfer of mining rights, and the pressure on enterprises is expected to be reduced

Experts at home and abroad gathered in Quancheng to explore a new path of deep "marriage" of science and technology finance

Data trading has ushered in a new wave of development, and the market size is expected to exceed 2025 billion yuan in 2200

Jerusalem: the ceremony of the "Holy Fire" of the Holy Sepulchre under heavy police presence

There were further positive changes in the property market

Nine Arab countries want to weigh in for a resolution of the Syrian crisis

"Courtyard economy" is written into Central Document No. 1 for the first time What is the potential?

How can China's home appliance enterprises "go global" and tell the story of "strong alliance"?

The G7 wants to "accelerate" its exit from fossil fuels... at its own pace

Tea Fragrance on Both Sides of the Strait -- Taiwanese Youth Watch Kunming Opera "People in the Grass and Trees"

SD wants to get rid of more people who have top government jobs: "We have only seen the beginning"

China's 20th Fengyun satellite "Xiaochuan": does not take an "ordinary orbit" and can measure drizzle

Fujian enterprises went to Hong Kong to participate in the exhibition, busy grabbing orders to expand the market

Clashes, explosions and ambiguity. The war of Burhan and Hemedti enters its second day

Ex-intelligence officer Ritter believes that Zelensky risks dying at the hands of Ukrainians because of the rebellion

The "three respects" are the key to China's position on the Afghan issue

Military analyst Dzherelievsky: The Armed Forces of Ukraine may try to conduct an offensive in three waves

Kazakhstan: the nervous power in the face of the strike of the workers of the oil sector

Pensions: "There is no contempt, there is the will that everyone be respected", justifies Olivier Dussopt

Wagner fighters are fighting for the Artyomovsk railway junction in the west of the city

Two councilors of Cs enter the list of Almeida with different future

Pension reform: the executive denies any "brutality" after the express promulgation of the law

Mass poisoning on MasterChef 11: "We're sorry. It is an absolutely exceptional case in these 11 years"

Naoko, Emma Nogueiro and the other women in Sanchez Drago's life (always younger and with short hair)

Former Pentagon adviser McGregor: Ukraine may disappear as a state by the end of the year

The sexist murder of an influencer shakes the Dominican Republic: her ex shoots her in the head three days after trying

The Future of Online Casinos and the Technologies That Will Shape It

"Pocket the funds allocated by the United States": Hersh announced the misappropriation of at least $ 400 million by Zelensky and his entourage

The questions surrounding Beatriz Flamini and her 500 days in a cave: "I can think of many questions"

Political scientist Dudchak on Hersh's statement about Zelensky: there are probably a lot of such stories

The athlete Beatriz Flamini leaves the cave where she has remained alone and isolated for 500 days

Akharin khabar: the leak from the Pentagon was a secret message to Zelensky on Russia

"Nuclear phase-out" realized in Germany, the last three nuclear power plants in operation were shut down

"I worked with incredible overstrain": a historian on the importance of the railway for the victory of the USSR over the Wehrmacht

Bad Bunny silences criticism at Coachella: "Don't believe what you don't see that came out of my mouth"

Ex-intelligence officer Ritter believes that Zelensky risks dying at the hands of Ukrainians because of the rebellion

Exceptional reliability: Yang Nepomniachtchi defeated Ding Liren and took the lead in the match for the world chess crown

 Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.
Oilfield and navigation canals are shown May 18, 2018, on the the West Bank of Plaquemines Parish. The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear a challenge of lower court decisions returning lawsuits against oil and gas companies for natural resource damages to state courts.
On a balmy Friday in late July last year, David Solomon hopped on his companys Gulfstream G650 private jet bound for Chicago.

The chief executive of Goldman Sachs was headed to the Windy City for meetings with employees and clients. Yet his main engagement that weekend was a very different sort of gathering, taking place just a 10-minute drive from Goldmans Chicago office in Grant Park: Lollapalooza.

David Solomon, who moonlights as a DJ, is one of Wall Streets highest-profile CEOs. Credit: Instagram

The four-day music festival boasted worldwide stars including Metallica, Dua Lipa and Green Day on its line-up. Solomon - who moonlights as a DJ in his spare time and goes by the name DJ D-Sol - was also performing.

Dressed in a black T-shirt, the 60-year-old father of two was videoed doing his best Fatboy Slim impression as a group of young revellers bounced around to his roster of hits.
A national sweep of Australian businesses has found more than half of those targeted have made unclear or misleading claims about their environmental credentials.

The cosmetic, clothing and footwear, and food and drink sectors were found to have the highest proportion of concerning claims among the industries targeted in the national consumer watchdogs operation.

We will take enforcement action where it is appropriate to do so: ACCC Deputy Chair Catriona Lowe. Credit: Elke Meitzel

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said it will further investigate a number of businesses for potential greenwashing. The investigation follows an internet sweep which found more than half (57 per cent) of the 247 businesses reviewed made concerning claims about their environmental or sustainability practices.

Our sweep indicates a significant proportion of businesses are making vague or unclear environmental claims. This warrants further scrutiny, ACCC Deputy Chair Catriona Lowe said.
There is a long history of such art, but not in Australia, where the bright light of day seems to dissipate those elements we call visionary or gothic. Its seen as significant that Booth hails from Sheffield, an industrial town in the north of England bombed by the Germans in World War II. Born in 1940, Booth was too young to remember the bombings, but he grew up in a community that could never forget. He came to Australia in his late teens, a time of life when ones personality is already inscribed on the psyche. It may be impossible for the artist to escape his origins, but equally impossible for us to gauge the degree to which his later career was affected. Whats certain is that Booth stands at the end of a long line of artists who have explored themes such as the supernatural, the fantastic, the paranormal, and disturbed states of mind. One thinks of Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel, of William Blake and Francisco Goya, Henry Fuseli, Edvard Munch, James Ensor and Alfred Kubin. His landscapes are often compared with those of Samuel Palmer. Henry Fuselis The Nightmare. Credit: Getty The TarraWarra show includes a carefully chosen group of prints by Blake, Goya, Ensor and Palmer that reveal the family resemblances between their imagery and the later artists dark imaginings. If there is one image of the past that leaps to mind when I think of Booth, its Henry Fuselis The Nightmare (1781), a work that exists in multiple versions. Fuselis depiction of a demon  an incubus  perched on a sleeping womans torso, while a ghostly horses head looms in the darkness, was a sensation when it first appeared. An icon of the early Romantic period, it has been copied and parodied up to the present day. The unique aspect of this picture was that it was entirely an invention of the artists imagination, with no reference to history, the classics or the Bible. As such, it issued an implicit challenge to the pre-eminence of History Painting, which Sir Joshua Reynolds had declared the highest form of art.

The Nightmare was an eruption from the subconscious that Fuseli was said to have accessed by eating raw pork before he went to bed. The painting would exert an influence on Mary Shelley when she sat down to write Frankenstein (1818) and have a similar impact on Edgar Allan Poe. In art, it opened the floodgates to a tidal wave of nightmare images that no longer required a sanction from the Academy or the classics. The British historian of popular culture Christopher Frayling allots the work a key role in the vogue for horror that would find expression in the Gothic novels of Ann Radcliffe, and continues to attract audiences to the cinemas today. Peter Booth, Painting, 1981. The eccentric Fuseli, who was Swiss by birth but spent much of his career in London, wrote: One of the most unexplored regions of art are (sic) dreams. In the 20th century the Surrealists would make dreams their special study, but theres a world of difference between the quirky puzzle paintings produced by artists such as Rene Magritte and Max Ernst, and the anxiety and terror one associates with the nightmare. In writing of nightmares in 1931, Freuds disciple Ernest Jones observed how no malady that causes mortal distress to the sufferer was viewed with such indifference by medical science. This may still hold true because nightmares remain a mystery to psychoanalysts and scientists. We read about them eagerly in horror stories but have no desire to experience them ourselves. Indeed, our curiosity may be defeated by those shadowy corners of our minds the nightmare reveals. Peter Booths Painting 2021. Credit: Andrew Curtis, courtesy of the artist and Milani Gallery, Brisbane

Most popular horror images are little more than self-conscious cliches, drawing on a conventional iconography of ghouls, ghosts, devils and demons. What makes Booths nightmare paintings so powerful is that he barely seems to be in control of the subjects that appear in his paintings and drawings. A truly horrifying work such as Painting 1982 (1982), with its vision of hideous, grey-skinned men feasting on human flesh, watched over by a many-armed insect man, goes beyond every zombie image dreamed up by popular culture. Its a picture without explanation or context, dredged from the recesses of the artists mind and dumped on canvas. There are details, even in this work, that set Booth apart: the carnivorous bird, the snake with a human face, and the little humanoid fairies that flitter around the top of the picture. Such things are not to be found in the zombie films that have become a familiar part of our popular culture  a phenomenon in itself that requires a lengthy discussion. Peter Booths Painting 2018. Credit: The sense of menace is less overt but just as keen in a work such as Painting 1998 (1998), which features a group of thuggish men led by a bald character with red eyes, who points to his right. He is clearly issuing a command, and we are expected to obey. If not, this leader has the muscle to enforce his orders. This image translates into a sense that we are being forced to do something against our inclinations, with a threat of consequences. Its a common enough experience in dreams, in which all our daily anxieties take on a theatrical dimension. Other works are pure emotional upheavals  flames, volcanoes, waterfalls, desolate landscapes that appear to have been blasted by war or natural disaster. These are all motifs with symbolic resonance, but their latent content is different for every dreamer. Booths volcano may have a different origin and meaning to any volcano we see in our own nightmares, but his image strikes a chord of recognition. More often than not, we feel an attraction to such images. There is something hypnotically beautiful in Volcano 1 (1993), with its yellow-and-red flames and lava, laid on in thick swathes with a palette knife.

The same applies to wintry landscapes such as Mount Donna Buang (1991), where the very absence of human beings induces a kind of frisson. Where have they gone? Or those tropical paintings in which nature is lush and overwhelming. Theres a beauty in these paintings, but also the feeling that the natural world has dispensed with our unwelcome services. Each forest or wasteland contains an existential threat, the unsettling feeling of being alone in a hostile environment. Peter Booths Untitled 1995. Credit: Amid all the breathtaking images assembled at TarraWarra, theres one that niggles, by virtue of its relative calmness as much as anything else. Painting 1989 (1989) depicts a bald-headed man in an overcoat and a red muffler, standing in the snow. The longer I looked at this unassuming figure, the more closely it resembled Vladimir Putin, who has done more than anyone on the planet over the past year to dissolve the line between nightmares and reality. Peter Booth is at the TarraWarra Museum of Art, Healesville, until March 13. A cultural guide to going out and loving your city. Sign up to our Culture Fix newsletter here.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Got it Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size There are plenty of good offerings from publishers this month: great fiction, a thought-provoking history of the world but from a different approach, short stories from a giant of world literature and a biography of a political stayer. Now all you have to do is find the time. The Booklist is a weekly newsletter for book lovers from books editor Jason Steger. Get it delivered every Friday. Credit: Tanya Plibersek, Margaret Simons Black Inc., $34.99, March 7

Advertisement

Margaret Simons follows her well-received biography of Penny Wong with another study of a long-serving and popular Labor politician, the minister for the environment who was elected to the seat of Sydney 25 years ago. Many people thought Tanya Plibersek might succeed Bill Shorten as party leader after the 2019 election, but she eventually withdrew from the contest. You can bank on new insights from Walkley Award winner Simons, who has also written a life of Malcolm Fraser and plenty of fine journalism. Credit: Infidelity and Other Affairs, Kate Legge Thames & Hudson, $34.99, February 28 Motivated by the discovery of her own partners philandering, Legge plunges into an investigation of the nature of infidelity and then an exploration of its history in his family. As our reviewer says, she has not turned her husband and his treachery into a novel ... but has summoned all her journalistic experience [and] interviewed her friends, family and psychological experts. In the end there is forgiveness, which could be the most surprising thing in the whole book. Credit: Old Babes in the Wood, Margaret Atwood

Advertisement

Chatto & Windus, $45, March 7 Almost half the stories in this new collection from the great Canadian writer are to some extent autobiographical, but in all 15, as our review will say, the truths are blunt and bleak, the humour sharp and wry, the wisdom profound. Her characters Nell and Tig, whom we encountered in Moral Disorder in 2006, reappear. And, as is her wont, Atwood plays around with form in many of the stories. She turns 84 this year; we need to be thankful for everything she produces. Credit: The Earth Transformed, Peter Frankopan Bloomsbury, $39.99, March 2 Early on in this 650-page ambitious whopper, Peter Frankopan remarks that we should all be grateful for dramatic changes to global climate. After all, we wouldnt be here if the world had remained as it was more than 4 billion years ago. His aim is to look at how our planet has changed as a result of human actions and other factors and explain that the world has always been one of transformation, transition and change ... But, he cautions, we are taking extraordinary risks with our futures. Credit:

Advertisement

Return to Valetto, Dominic Smith Allen & Unwin, $32.99, February 28 The Australian-American novelist is probably best known for The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, his bestselling historical novel touching on art ownership, forgery and much more. His latest, his sixth, is another gripping historical, this time set in Italy in a dying Umbrian village where a family is forced to confront its own history and the secrets that emerge when a stranger turns up. The narrator, a professional historian of abandonment, returns to live with his three widowed aunts and the past rears its disturbing head. Credit: Old Gods Time, Sebastian Barry Faber & Faber, $32.99, February 28 The masterful Irish writer is back on familiar territory after his recent excursions in the American Civil War and its aftermath in Days Without End and A Thousand Moons. At the heart of his latest is a wonderfully realised creation, recently retired detective Tom Kettle, who thanks to the verve of Barrys prose lives so vividly on the page. His former colleagues come calling for help with a case he had worked on, while his own mind lurks in the joys and sadnesses of his own life. Nothing is certain, except this is a gem.

Advertisement

Credit: Once a Stranger, Zoya Patel Hachette, $32.99, March 1 Its been six years since Ayat has seen her mother Khadija and sister Laila. She doesnt even live in the same city any longer. But now shes had an email from Laila saying her mother is dying; she has motor neurone disease. And why the estrangement? Because Ayat doesnt want to follow the Indian Muslim way, and she has been with blue-eyed Harry for those six years. So she steels herself and heads back to Canberra, but after all that water under the bridge is there any chance of reconciliation? Credit: Birnam Wood, Eleanor Catton Granta, $32.99, February 28

Advertisement
The man suspected of murdering Queensland woman Toyah Cordingley has spent his first night behind bars in Australia before his expected extradition to face charges.

Rajwinder Singh, 38, arrived in Melbourne from Delhi on Wednesday, when a magistrate ordered his return to the state he allegedly fled shortly after Ms Cordingleys body was found on a beach near Cairns in October 2018.

Rajwinder Singh arrives at the Melbourne Magistrates Court in Melbourne on Wednesday. Credit: AAP

Queensland police are preparing to charge Mr Singh when his flight arrives on Thursday or Friday.

They believe he hid out in Punjab state after fleeing Australia, leaving behind his wife and three children at their Innisfail home.
Nelli Shkolnikova soon after defecting to Australia. Credit: The Age Archives With the help of an interpreter, she said yesterday that her decision to defect had been made over a long period. She finally decided, in West Germany last November, not to go back to the Soviet Union, then stayed very quiet because she knew that Soviet authorities were looking for her. Meanwhile, in Melbourne, her friend of 20 years, John Hopkins, heard of her decision. Mr Hopkins is dean of music at the Victorian College for the Arts, and he had made previous attempts to get Mrs Shkolnikova to come to Australia as an artist-in-residence. He consulted Mr George Fairfax, general manager of the arts centre, and cabled an immediate offer to Mrs Shkolnikova. She says she thought about it for only one day, then cabled her answer: yes. Mr Fairfax formalised the offer by letter, and both parties began the process of getting a visa, which took about two months.

Mrs Shkolnikova said yesterday she defected because I was not master of the situation. It is the State which decides all foreign trips by Soviet artists. I had no professional freedom. She gave several examples of this. One concerned the time a friend phoned her from Switzerland and said: I am very happy you are coming to play here. Your poster is on the walls. Mrs Shkolnikova said it was the first she had heard about it. Loading In many cases, she said, foreign countries would invite performers, but the State bureaucracy would not pass on the invitation. The bureaucracy would give a vague reply about the performer being busy. Something like this happened to John Hopkins. Four years ago we wrote to the Soviet authorities requesting that Nelli come here as an artist-in-residence, he said yesterday. The authorities replied that this was not possible for technical reasons. What does technical reasons mean?

Mr Hopkins and Mrs Shkolnikova first met when she toured Australia In 1963. She was soloist, he was conductor. They met again on her second Australian tour, in 1970, and he performed with her in the Soviet Union in 1964 and 1966. Yesterday Mr Hopkins gave the impression of being elated about the impact Mrs Shkolnikovas presence would have on his college, Nelli is regarded in the Soviet Union as one of the great teachers and we dont have a violinist with this sort of background, training and international experience, he said. The presence of such a person invariably inspires the teachers, the staff, the students, and it reaches far beyond that, deep into the musical community. Mr Hopkins thinks Mrs Shkolnikova chose to come to Australia because she remembered it affectionately from her two tours. And there are hundreds of thousands of Australians from those tours who remember her affectionately in return, he said. Mrs Shkolnikova will give a series of master classes to the colleges 25 senior violin students, as well as to those in the junior school. She will also perform with the college orchestra. Beyond that, she does not know yet; she would first like to hear all of the students individually, but at the stage I left her yesterday she had not yet met them. Her first public appearance in Melbourne will be at a Sunday afternoon concert in the Melbourne Concert Hall on 27 March. She will play one of her favourite compositions, the Mendelssohn violin concerto.

Loading George Fairfax, the arts centres general manager, says: We see Mrs Shkolnikova as the first of a series of distinguished artists that the centre will bring to Victoria. This had been made possible, he said, by a generous endowment, the details of which could not be announced yet. Explaining the role of an artist-in-residence, Mr Fairfax said: If the Arts Centre is to do part of its job, It must encourage international artists of a high calibre who will have a profound effect on the whole community. Mrs Shkolnikovas two-year tenure, he said, would give a lot of stability to the position.
It was Maggie Dents watch that alerted her to a heart condition which could lead to a stroke if left untreated.

The watch told Dent she had a sky-high resting heart rate of 145 beats per minute, but because she could not feel that anything was wrong she assumed her FitBit must be malfunctioning.

Dent was saved from a possible stroke, thanks to her Fitbit, and her son who pushed her to act.

However, it turned out the education expert and parenting author was experiencing a condition called atrial flutter.

I just remember thinking, well thats ridiculous, it must be malfunctioning, Dent said.
The Liberal Party will try to hold on to Aston, the once-safe Liberal seat vacated by Alan Tudge, as Labor pushes for an upset victory. The Age will publish updates from reporters in the field covering issues affecting voters in the lead-up to the poll on Saturday, April 1.

Three major road projects in Melbournes outer east have become a key focus in the Aston byelection after Labor confirmed it would not build them.

The upgrades to Dorset, Wellington and Napoleon roads were announced by the former Coalition government but were cut by Labor last year.

Infrastructure Minister Catherine King on Wednesday told the National Press Club voters had been conned over the promised roads. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Federal Infrastructure Minister Catherine King said on Wednesday that Labor would not revisit the projects.

She accused Alan Tudge, the former Liberal member for Aston who quit politics last month, of conning voters into thinking the projects were fully funded when the Coalition had allocated only $210 million of the $1.3 billion Labor says was required.
Women are being forced to pay three times as much for newer birth control pills or use older products with potentially worse side effects because the most recent contraceptive options are not subsidised.

A Senate inquiry into reproductive healthcare also heard on Tuesday that Australia was falling behind its global peers on the use of long-acting and reversible contraceptives, such as intrauterine devices.

Doctors and pharmacy groups want more products added to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

Doctors and pharmacy groups warned that varying costs of contraception meant thousands of women were not accessing the best options for their health, as they called for more products to be added to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

The scheme, which lists all medicines subsidised by the federal government, caps a four-month supply of the oral contraceptive pill at $30, or $7.30 for a healthcare-card holder, although some generic brands are cheaper.
Sydney property developer Jean Nassif and his daughter secured approval for a $150 million credit application by allegedly deceiving Westpac with fraudulent pre-sales contracts, with the businessman admitting in secret phone taps the documents were fake, police claim.

The financial crime investigation will allege Mr Nassif and his daughter Ashlyn Nassif, who is a lawyer, lodged fraudulent documents with the bank to meet conditions of the loan for the five-tower Skyview residential complex in Castle Hill.

Developer Jean Nassif and his wife Nisserine. Credit: Instagram

Ms Nassif was arrested and charged over the alleged fraud this week, with a court hearing the charges were part of a sophisticated and planned situation and extremely serious in nature, given her position as a legal practitioner of the NSW Supreme Court.

Mr Nassif, who is the director of developer Toplace, is residing in rural Lebanon and has not been charged over the alleged scheme. However, investigators will claim he is a co-accused. Detectives wish to speak with the developer.
CBDs faith has been shaken by the disturbing goings-on at the Australian Christian Lobby  which is not, as some have alleged, a hate group  in the wake of the departure of the groups high-profile frontman, Martyn Iles.

Iles  a smoother operator than his combative predecessor, Lyle Shelton  announced last week via the lobbys email list that his employment had been terminated by the lobbys board after differences of opinion emerged over the ACLs direction.

Martyn Iles has left the Australian Christian Lobby after a difference of opinion over direction.

Iles reckons he was told the groups new strategy would focus primarily on political tactics, less on the gospel.

I absolutely agree with them that I am not the right person for that vision, Iles wrote. I have always been a preacher first and politician second (or third).
Three data breaches in the second half of last year compromised the private information of millions of Australians in addition to the enormous Medibank and Optus cyberattacks that triggered public outrage.

Figures released on Wednesday by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner show five breaches affected between 1 million and 10 million people between July and December.

Criminal intrusions were responsible for most privacy breaches. Credit: iStock

The figures do not name the entities breached or the exact size of the incidents but confirm a sharp rise in major cyberattacks and privacy breaches. The total number of incidents reported to the commissioner was up 26 per cent over the previous period, while the number of breaches that affected more than 5000 Australians rose 67 per cent to 40.

Along with Medibank and Optus, Woolworths subsidiary MyDeal disclosed a breach affecting an estimated 2.2 million people in October last year. The breaches could also be from overseas companies that affected Australians.
London: Prince Harry and his wife Meghan have been asked to vacate Frogmore Cottage, the house within the grounds of King Charless Windsor Castle estate they use when in Britain, a spokesperson for the couple said.

Earlier, The Sun newspaper reported the house had been offered by the monarch to his brother, Prince Andrew.

Harry and Meghan must say goodbye to their home in Windsor. Credit: PA

Charless decision comes in the wake of the couples damning revelations about Harrys father, his elder brother Prince William and other royals in his recent memoir, a Netflix documentary and a series of TV interviews, the tabloid said.

We can confirm The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been requested to vacate their residence at Frogmore Cottage, a spokesperson for Harry and Meghan said on Wednesday, UK time.
Washington: FBI director Christopher Wray says the agency has assessed that a leak from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, probably caused the COVID-19 pandemic.

The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan, Wray told Fox News on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT).

FBI director Christopher Wray. Credit: AP

His comments follow a Wall Street Journal report on Sunday that the US Energy Department had assessed with low confidence the pandemic resulted from an unintended lab leak in China.

Four other agencies, along with a national intelligence panel, still judge that the pandemic was probably the result of natural transmission, and two are undecided, the Journal reported.
??Ahora | El ministro de Economia y Finanzas, @AlexContreras_M, comparte el balance de la inversion publica - Febrero 2023, asi como los objetivos alcanzados.

??Sigue la transmision en vivo: https://t.co/JWCWV3oFWa
#AHORA inicio ceremonia: Presidenta Dina Boluarte recibe baston de mando como jefa suprema de las Fuerzas Armadas y la Policia Nacional del Peru. pic.twitter.com/bJdk2rp33u
YEREVAN, MARCH 1, ARMENPRESS. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan indicated on Wednesday that elections will be held on May 14, sticking to his previous plan for the vote with a date just over three months after a devastating earthquake killed more than 45,000 people in Turkey, Reuters reports.

"This nation will do what is necessary on May 14, God willing," Reuters quoted Erdogan as saying in a speech to lawmakers from his ruling AK Party in parliament, in an apparent reference to elections.

There had been conflicting signals over the likely timing of the presidential and parliamentary elections since last month's earthquake, with some suggesting they could be postponed until later in the year or could be held as scheduled on June 18.

Erdogan, aiming to extend his rule into a third decade, had previously said he was bringing the votes forward to May to avoid holidays in June.

Doubts have been expressed over election authorities' ability to make logistical arrangements for those affected in the quake zone, home to some 14 million people, to vote.
Batavia, NY (14020)

Today

Mainly sunny to start, then a few afternoon clouds. High 82F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Showers with a possible thunderstorm early, then variable clouds overnight with still a chance of showers. Low 43F. Winds SW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
YEREVAN, MARCH 1, ARMENPRESS. Today, the Board of Directors of Ucom CJSC announced a CEO transition. Ara Khachatryan, the current CEO of Ucom CJSC, and the Board have mutually agreed upon transition of his executive functions, while continuing to support the Company.

Ralph Yirikian has been appointed new Chief Executive Officer of Ucom CJSC.

On behalf of the Board of Directors, I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to Ara Khachatryan for being an exemplary leader for Ucom. During his tenure, he managed to make Ucom a better company by delivering positive customer experience and strong operational performance, said Gurgen Khachatryan, Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Ara Khachatryan has served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Company since April, 2020. During his tenure as CEO, Ucom reached an all-time high fixed broadband revenue and subscriber market share while simultaneously managing to propel the fastest market share growth among competitors.

It has been my honor and, perhaps, the biggest privilege to serve the people, customers and community of Ucom as the CEO. Together, we ushered in an era of unrivaled growth while staying to our core, human-centric values and mission. I am proud to have worked with such a remarkable group of people who showed great spirit and commitment in helping us drive the company forward during Ucoms transformation journey", said Ara Khachatryan.

Currently, Ucom is moving forward in a brand-new direction and implementing new development strategies, which include bringing in the latest technological advancements and capabilities to Armenia. In this, Ralph Yirikian has a long history of contributing to the establishment of successful telecommunications ventures.

We are confident that Ralph Yirikian is the right leader to take the reins at Ucom in what is a significant moment in the companys history. He is an inspiring, hardworking and determined leader that knows how to identify and drive growth. Moreover, Ralph has a charming personality that puts everyone he works with at ease, facilitating open communication among team members. He is the ideal CEO to continue this strong trajectory of growth for Ucom, and his business instincts and institutional knowledge position Ucom exceptionally well for the long-term, said the BoD Chairman Gurgen Khachatryan.
YEREVAN, MARCH 1, ARMENPRESS. Armenia conveyed to Azerbaijan a draft regulation (statute) of the work of the delimitation commissions, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced Wednesday.

He said Armenia is now waiting for Azerbaijans response to the draft regulation, as well as the proposals around the peace treaty conveyed earlier.

Our version of the peace treaty was conveyed [to Azerbaijan]. But so far we dont have a reaction. When we ourselves receive such a document the development of a response takes some time. Supposedly therell be a reaction some time later, the PM said during question time in parliament.

He noted that three rounds of work around the peace treaty have already taken place.

Documentation works are carried out regardless of in-person meetings. And these works not always require in-person meetings. For example, recently we conveyed to the Azerbaijani side a draft regulation of the work of the border delimitation commissions. And we are waiting for a reaction to this as well , Pashinyan said.

PM Pashinyan added that the proposals on the opening of connections and ensuring border security made by Armenia earlier are still in force.
YEREVAN, MARCH 1, ARMENPRESS. The fight against corruption is a matter of fundamental importance for Armenia, there cannot be any case of corruption, the investigation of which does not take place properly, ARMENPRESS reports Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said during the parliament-Cabinet Q&A session.

"The fight against corruption is a matter of fundamental importance for Armenia. And we will not weaken our efforts in this fight in any way," said Pashinyan.

As for the facts published by the opposition, which refer to corruption cases, the Prime Minister assured that the law enforcement bodies are also interested in these facts.

"I must assure that there cannot be any case of corruption that will not be properly investigated. It is excluded that there will be any corruption case and that case will not be investigated at a proper level," said Pashinyan.

The Prime Minister noted that corruption, first of all, is connected with state administration, local self-government bodies, judicial and other systems. The Prime Minister emphasized that his position remains very clear: in the field of public administration, in the judicial system there should be a significant increase in salaries.

"It is not possible to say on the one hand: let's fight against corruption, let the state bodies provide quality services and say that, for example, there should be a specialist working in the ministries for 90 or 110 thousand drams, and on the other hand, let's expect things to go quickly and with good quality. In this regard, we implemented the anti-corruption strategy adopted in 2018 and now we are in the process of developing a new strategy," said Pashinyan.

According to the Prime Minister, the biggest problem is criminal mentality, there is simply no more fertile ground for corruption and criminality than criminal mentality. "We have to make a transition from the criminal mindset to relations based on the law," concluded the Prime Minister.
4 Years After Legalization, Cannabis Tax Revenue Finally Meets Annual Federal Estimates: StatCan

Last year, sales of legal cannabis taxed by provincial and federal authorities finally met estimates tabled by the Liberal government in 2018 when it legalized recreational marijuana, according to a recent Statistics Canada report.

Recreational cannabis sales across the country facilitated by provincial cannabis authorities and other retail outlets in the 2021-2022 fiscal year totalled $4 billion, the federal agency wrote, which it said is equal to just over $130 for every Canadian who is of legal age to consume marijuana.

With $4 billion in sales, total federal and provincial tax revenue collected from recreational cannabis retailers totalled $1.6 billion, said the report titled, Control and sale of alcoholic beverages and cannabis, April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022, published on Feb. 24 and first reported by Blacklocks Reporter.

This includes net income from provincial liquor and cannabis authorities, excise taxes, retail sales taxes, other specific taxes, and licenses and permits, Statistics Canada wrote.

Liberal MP Bill Blair, the parliamentary secretary of justice at the time, told the Senate National Finance Committee in 2018 that the government estimated that legal cannabis sales would total around $4 billion every year after its recreational use was legalized.

Blair noted that it was a little bit challenging to determine the state of Canadas marijuana market.

Organized crime does not share its data with us, they really dont, he told the committee on Mar 23, 2018. Theres been a number of estimates.

Black Market Cannabis

Blair also told the committee in 2018 that Ottawa never expected it would be able to quickly push out the illicit cannabis market, saying it would be much more of a process than an event.

They will not get up and walk away on the day the [cannabis legalization] law comes into effect. That would be absurd to suggest. Thats certainly not what were suggesting, he said.

An October 2022 briefing note from the Department of Public Safety said that about 33 percent of Canadas cannabis market is still controlled by the black market despite the substance being legal for over four years.

One of the main goals of legalization of cannabis was to reduce criminal activity by keeping profits out of the pockets of criminals. The illicit drug trade provides organized crime with one of its most financially lucrative criminal markets, the briefing note read.

There continues to be a well entrenched illegal market in place.

A Health Canada report published in December 2022 said more Canadians surveyed bought from legal cannabis retailers last year than in 2021.

It also said that a smaller proportion [of respondents] reported illegal storefronts and illegal online sources in 2022 compared to 2019, and added that only one percent of survey respondents reported buying cannabis from an illegal dealer in 2022.
Police in Alaska went above and beyond the call of duty to give a ride to an unexpected passenger.

On Feb. 14, the Anchorage Police Department (APD) received a call from a concerned citizen about a pig standing at the side of the road and was concerned that he looked cold.

Were all familiar with refrigerated bacon, we just never thought wed respond to a call for service related to that topic, the department wrote in a Facebook post.

Not wanting the little pig to freeze, they kindly picked him up from the Fairview neighborhood and gave him a ride.

The department shared that the portly dude, who is named Elvis Pigsley, seemed friendly.

The tale had a happy ending, as Elvis was reported to have been reunited safely with his owners. Since the post went up, it has received some humorous and heartwarming reactions from netizens.

Thanks for saving the bacon! one user wrote. While another said, I thought his name was gonna be Cris P. Bacon.

Meanwhile, a local resident who had seen the pig eating snow outside and looking happy on his morning walk, thanked the Anchorage Police Department for helping him.

Homer Police Department, also in Alaska, responded to APDs post by writing: Hogwash. It was a Hambush.

APD shared in their post that a year ago, they responded to a call about a turkey trying to waddle its way into the grocery mart at a gas station.

After that adventure, they said, youd think not much would surprise us. And then yesterday happened

Share your stories with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.com, and continue to get your daily dose of inspiration by signing up for the Inspired newsletter at: https://www.theepochtimes.com/newsletter
Anonymous Online Website Claims Credit for Sabotage of Coastal GasLink Pipeline

TC Energy points to trend of escalating violence by eco-activists

Millions of dollars in damage was done to Coastal GasLink construction site by attackers who destroyed buildings and heavy equipment, as photographed during a site visit on Feb. 19, 2022. (Courtesy of Coastal GasLink)

A Feb. 24 blog post on a website called BC Counter-Info takes credit for a long list of alleged acts of apparent vandalism to several sections of the Coastal GasLink pipeline since last October.

Once completed, the $14.5 billion, 670-kilometre pipeline will bring natural gas from Dawson Creek, B.C., to a processing and export plant in Kitimat, B.C.

TC Energy, the Calgary-based company constructing the pipeline, says its taking anonymous threats made against the project seriously and that the situation is part of a trend of escalating violence by eco-activists.

A TC Energy spokesperson told The Epoch Times the company is aware of anonymous claims being made on an anarchist website of a coordinated sabotage attack on the project.

Ellis Ross, the B.C. MLA for the Skeena riding, took to Twitter on Feb. 26 to express outrage at the anonymous website, stating that ecoterrorists were intentionally turning a pipeline into a weapon knowing full well that people can get hurt.

Its intimidation and violence! he wrote. Surely some level of govt is looking into this!

Claims of Vandalism

The website in question claims to have vandalized several sections of the Coastal GasLink pipeline over the past few months.

A few holes in the pipeline here, some corroded welding seams there, damaged concrete here. Our goal was to contribute to the small delays in a project that was already well over budget, states the author, called Anonymous Contributor.

The website provides a list of alleged damage which included claims of drilling holes in the pipe and covering it with fiberglass film, or alternatively, epoxy putty, before the pipes are lowered in trenches, and damaging pipes by chipping and sanding coatings intended to protect pipes from corrosion and rust.

We poured hydrochloric acid on the concrete pipes we knew were meant for the tunnel under Wedzin Kwa and used a concrete drill inside the pipe to weaken them even further, claimed the anonymous poster.

We damaged the protective coating on a section of pipe by chipping and grinding, and chipped a welded seam on several sections of pipe before they were backfilled between Kilometer 377 and 380 of section 5 of the pipeline. This work was performed in early January.

Millions of dollars in damage was done to the Coastal GasLink construction site in February 2022, by attackers who hijacked heavy equipment, as photographed during a site visit on Feb. 19, 2022. (Courtesy of Coastal GasLink)

The most recent claimed act of vandalism was in mid-February, which involved scraping and chipping large portions of the pipe coating of the string between kilometres 626 and 629.

However, after listing 10 acts of vandalism, the anonymous poster said: Or is that in fact what happened? Only some of these activities have actually taken place.

The blog states that false reports have been deliberately included to use every means at our disposal to delay construction as best we can.

So the only way to know where repairs are really needed is to excavate and re-examine all the above-mentioned pipes, taunts the blog, titled Treasure Hunt for Coastal Gaslink.

RCMP Investigating

RCMP E Division Staff Sergeant Kris Clark said the police are aware of ongoing efforts by some individuals and groups to delay or obstruct the work of Coastal GasLink. Clark said while he could not be specific, the RCMP is fully investigating all incidents of damage to infrastructure or equipment.

The Coastal GasLink spokesperson said the company is cooperating with the RCMP in an investigation of the vandalism claims, as well as prioritizing the safety of work crews and the surrounding communities.

TC Energy says that while it has no evidence at this time to suggest tampering has occurred, the projects quality assurance team has initiated a review of the anarchist claims.

From the time trenching begins to the point the pipeline is backfilled, there are inspections at every step of the way. Our teams use state-of-the-art pipeline safety systems to carefully inspect every section of pipe, not to mention the rigorous testing we do before the pipeline is commissioned, said TC Energy.

The company said while it was aware there may be individuals not in favour of projects like the Coastal GasLink, threats of tampering, sabotage, and violence are never justified.

Other Attacks

In February 2022, Coastal GasLink workers on the night shift at a remote construction site in B.C. were attacked by a group of 20 masked, axe-wielding assailants who threatened workers and damaged equipment worth tens of thousands of dollars, according to TC Energy.

The company also points to an attack in October 2022 when emergency vehicles and a BC Hydro vehicle in Smithers were torched in a deliberate arson. Four RCMP vehicles and one ambulance were damaged or destroyed in what police called a targeted attack.

One of the vehicles damaged was part of a task force addressing energy industry incidents.

Attacks to energy infrastructure should concern all Canadians, said TC Energy.

The company said regardless of the authenticity of the anonymous website claims, the intention is to delay our project and spread fear and violence.

According to TC Energy, the pipeline project is employing thousands of individuals from indigenous and local communities in the province.

They deserve to work in a safe environment, without fear of sabotage or other violent attacks, while they provide for their families and communities, said the company.

Coastal GasLink is focused on safely completing this critical piece of energy infrastructure that will delivery critical Canadian LNG to the world and lasting prosperity to Canadians.

The pipeline has been plagued by unexpected construction costs and increasing labour expenses. Construction is 83 percent complete and has a tentative goal to be finished by the end of 2023.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
Apple Pays $12.1 Million Fine for Alleged App Market Abuse in Russia: Antimonopoly Service

The Apple Inc. logo at the entrance to the Apple store in Brussels on Nov. 28, 2022. (Yves Herman/Reuters)

MOSCOWU.S. tech giant Apple has paid a 906 million ruble ($12.12 million) fine in a Russian antitrust case alleging abuse of its dominance in the mobile apps market, Russias Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) said on Monday.

Apple, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, has previously respectfully disagreed with a FAS ruling that Apples distribution of apps through its iOS operating system gave its own products a competitive advantage.

The FAS determined in August 2020 that Apple had abused its dominant position, then issued a directive requiring Apple to remove provisions giving it the right to reject third-party apps from its App Store.

That move followed a complaint from cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab, which had said a new version of its Safe Kids application had been declined by Apples operating system.

Apple has paid a 906 million rouble antitrust fine, the FAS said in a statement on its Telegram channel.

Apple had appealed the decision at various stages, but had been unsuccessful and ultimately complied with the order, the FAS said.

In a separate case, the FAS in January said it had fined Apple around $17.4 million for allegedly forcing Russian developers to use Apples payment services with the iOS App Store.

Apple paused all product sales in Russia a year ago, after Moscow dispatched its armed forces to Ukraine, and limited its Apple Pay service in Russia.

($1 = 74.7265 rubles)
Australia Should Push for US Nuclear Submarines Over UK Ones, Opposition Leader Says

A member of the crew's first watch comes onboard during the commissioning commemoration ceremony for the Virginia-Class submarine USS Delaware at the Port of Wilmington in Wilmington, Delaware, on April 2, 2022. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

Australia should push to acquire the proven U.S. Virginia class nuclear-powered submarine rather than a pioneer British model, according to opposition leader Peter Dutton.

Dutton, previously the defence minister, made the comments just days before an expected announcement between U.S., UK, and Australian leaders on which submarine model will be acquired by the Australian Defence Force under the landmark AUKUS deal.

The advice to me at the time was very clear; that Rolls-Royce [in the UK] didnt have any production capability left, no headroom; Barrow-in-Furness is obviously landlocked, it didnt have the ability to scale up; and the problem that we had with the French design, in particular, was that it was a new design, he told reporters at the Avalon Airshow in Victoria on March 1.

Anybody in the defence space can tell you, going with the first-in-class makes it very difficult because there are production mistakes, there are design mistakes, and by the second or third or fourth or fifth that rolls off the production linewhether its a tank or ship or a submarineyou get it right by then.

Australian Opposition Leader Peter Dutton speaks to media during a press conference in Perth, Australia on Feb. 20, 2023. (AAP Image/Richard Wainwright)

The opposition leader was referring to the troubled multi-billion French-designed non-nuclear submarine project that was eventually cancelled by former Prime Minister Scott Morrison in favour of a nuclear-powered submarine under AUKUS.

The beauty in my mind with the American model, or the Virginia class, was that it was a proven design, Dutton said.

It gave us interoperability with the Americans, and therell be more American subs in the Indo-Pacific than there will be British submarines, who will concentrate, quite rightly, particularly given the Russian threat to continental Europe.

The opposition leader said U.S. industry was also able to scale up quickly, and that a cheaper design will draw out the timeline.

Dutton has advocated for the Virginia class previously, revealing in June 2022 that while in office he was preparing to try and acquire two subs from the United States as a stop-gap measure before new nuclear submarines could be built for Australia.

We would have our first two subs this decade. I had formed a judgment that the Americans would have facilitated exactly that, he wrote in an op-ed in The Australian newspaper. The further eight subs (we had always said at least eight), making 10 in total, could have been built in South Australia, which honours our commitments.

Current Minister Lambasts Dutton

Duttons comments were heavily criticised by current Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy.

I think those comments from Peter Dutton are incredibly irresponsible. This was a man who received classified briefings up until the 21st of May on this program, he told reporters, also in Avalon where he was signing a deal with Boeing for Apache helicopters.

I just find it completely unhelpful in the public debate for him to be injecting this stuff when he knows that there are security reasons that mean that we cant detail information until we make the announcement.

Conroy said Dutton was being mischievous or was not privy to the latest information.

Ive just come back from Barrow in the United Kingdom where Ive got a full briefing on what the United Kingdom is doing. I stay in regular contact with the U.S. Navy, and well make announcements very shortly about the optimal path forward on our nuclear propelled submarines.

New Tri-Nation Submarine Model Likely to be Chosen

There are indications that the three governments could settle with a new submarine design, likely the British developmental SSNR submarine that is supposed to succeed the current Astute class.

The UKs Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said in February that the project was collaborative.

Its a joint endeavour. Whether that is the sharing of technology, and the understanding of how to do it, the sharing of the build, or the sharing of the design, he said after a meeting between Australian and UK ministers on Jan. 2.

The Australian governments getting exactly to the position where it knows what it wants, he said. Im pretty confident that it will be a tri-nation project.

Yet the same concerns over delivery timeframes remain with the Chinese military build-up in the Indo-Pacific continuing.
YEREVAN, MARCH 1, ARMENPRESS. Nelly Baghdasaryan, Advisor to the President of Artsakh, described the news spread by the Azerbaijani media, which tried to present the meeting between the representatives of the Republic of Artsakh and Azerbaijan as so-called "preliminary discussions about the reintegration of the Armenians of the Karabakh region" as disinformation.

Speaking with ARMENPRESS reporter, Nelly Baghdasaryan mentioned that the spokesperson of the Artsakh President gave details about the meeting between the official representatives of the Republic of Artsakh and the Republic of Azerbaijan, with the mediation and participation of the command of the Russian peacekeeping troops, during which humanitarian and infrastructural issues were discussed. After the meeting, the Azerbaijani mass media actively spread disinformation, presenting it as the so-called "preliminary discussions about the reintegration of the Armenians of the Karabakh region".

"The President of the Republic of Artsakh, in his February 23 address and during the Cabinet meeting on March 1, once again ruled out any integration process with Azerbaijan, noting that political dialogue with Azerbaijan for the purpose of conflict settlement is possible only within the framework of the international mediation format," Nelly Baghdasaryan emphasized.

Speaking about another disinformation spread by the Azerbaijani mass media, according to which the next meeting of the official representatives of the parties "may take place in Ganja or Aghdam", and without the participation of the Russian peacekeeping troops, the advisor to the Artsakh President stressed that this also does not correspond to the reality, because since the tripartite declaration of November 9, 2020, the communications and meetings of the representatives of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Artsakh related to the settlement of the humanitarian and infrastructural problems of the Artsakh Republic are organized at the place determined by the Russian peacekeeping troops, with their mediation and participation.
Australian Treasurer Blocks Chinese Investment in Strategic Rare Earth Producer

A Chinese-backed companys attempt to increase its stake in a strategically vital rare earth producer has been blocked by the federal government.

Yuxiao Fund, a Singapore-registered company, sought to increase its ownership in Northern Minerals from 9.9 percent to 19.9 percent but the move was stopped by Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers, who signed a prevention order in February.

Northern Minerals owns and operates the Browns Range mine in northern Western Australia, which the company expects to turn into the first significant mine of dysprosium, which is used in the manufacture of control rods in nuclear reactors, magnets, and other industrial applications.

Treasurer Chalmers said that the decision was based on the advice of the Foreign Investment Review Board.

Its consistent with other decisions taken by other governments in the past, he told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday. Beyond that, I dont intend to comment.

Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers speaks to media during a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on Feb. 16, 2023. (AAP Image/Lukas Coch)

The Yuxiao Fund is an investment vehicle of Chinese national Yuxiao Wu, who also has interests in Mozambique mines that supply lower-grade rare earth to China, said Nick Curtis, executive chair of Northern Minerals in an interview with Reuters.

Curtis said Wu invested in Northern Minerals for financial reasons as opposed to simply supplying China with rare earth.

Australias Record Blocking China-Backed Foreign Investment

Australias government regularly blocks foreign investment proposals it regards as detrimental to its national interest on the advice of the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB).

Notable cases include former Treasurer Josh Frydenbergs decision to block the takeover of large dairy producer Lion Dairy and construction firm Probuild.

Read More Collapse of Chinese Bid for Australian Dairy Firm Due to Strategic Risks, Expert Says

The FIRB was first established in Australia in 1976 to advise the treasurer and the government on foreign investment, its guidance note states that: Foreign investment carries risks related to the potential access and control investors may obtain over organisations and assets.

When used as a vector for malign activities, foreign investment can harm national security, the Board said.

Under Australian law, foreign investors in sectors related to Australias national security must first pass the national security test for their proposed investment.

Currently, the FIRB considers the following sectors:

banking and finance

communications

commercial construction contractors, commercial real estate

critical minerals, energy, critical technologies, critical service providers and suppliers

defence, cyber, nuclear, space

health, higher education, transport, water and sewerage

Opposition Supports Decision

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said foreign investment needed to be in the national interest.

The treasurer at the time, Josh Frydenberg, made decisions in relation to a number of projects that didnt proceed, Dutton said. That was based on advice from (security) agencies, from treasury (and) defence.

Governments do have to make tough decisions and act in our countrys best interests, and well support the government where they do that.

The latest move comes after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese flagged keeping more critical minerals production onshore, like for lithium used in battery production, to not only boost the domestic manufacturing sector but also safeguard Australias national interests.

I want to make sure we use the lithium and nickel and other products that we have to make batteries here, he said.

Thats part of the vision of protecting our national economy going forward. We should be making so many more things here in order to protect our national sovereignty.

AAP contributed to this report.
Australian Treasurer Walks Back Comments on Taxing Family Homes Following PM Intervention

Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers has admitted that he should have promised Australians that Labor had no plans to change or touch the Capital Gains Tax (CGT) exemption on the family home.

The CGT is the tax paid when Australians sell their investments, such as stocks, bonds, or real estate. Homeowners in Australia, however, are exempted from paying CGT if they are selling their own residences.

In an intense interview with Sevenss Sunrise host David Koch on Wednesday, Chalmers was pressed several times on whether he could be trusted to not ever make a change to the Capital Gains Tax (CGT) exemption.

However, Chalmers refused to guarantee that Labor would not touch the CGT exemption, meaning homeowners could now be at risk of having to pay tax when selling their own place of residence in the future.

So just say yes that you have absolutely guaranteed no changes ever to the Capital Gains Tax exemption on our family homes. You could just say yes, that you guarantee that, said Sunrise host David Koch.

I could say to your viewers that we havent been focused on it; we havent been working on it, Chalmers replied.

Koch then repeatedly asked the treasurer to guarantee Labor would not be looking at capital gains taxes, to which Chalmers replied: Its not my intention, Its not something Ive been thinking about, working up, contemplating.

We dont know what the situation might look like in 10 or 15 years time, he said.

Prime Minister Moved to Assure Australians

However, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese later moved to assure Australians that Labor would not make changes to GCT on the family home.

We are not. We are not going to impact the family home, full stop, exclamation mark, he told ABCs RN Breakfast program.

In a press conference a few hours later, Chalmers was asked whether he would follow the Prime Minister in making the commitment.

The Treasurer replied,: I do, do that. I should have done that this morning.

But he defended his earlier response, saying that he was trying to focus on what Labor was doing, not what they were not doing.

I dont want to get into the practice of coming before you each day and working through hundreds of billions of dollars of tax concessions and playing the same rule in, rule-out game, he said.

Super Fund Tax Charges Under Intense Scrutiny

The misstep from the treasurer comes as the centre-left Labor government is facing pressure after it decided to double the concessional tax rate on super balances that contain more than $3 million (US$2.02 million) following an election promise that Labor would not be taxing the superannuation scheme.

The decision comes as Labors spending on social welfare programs such as Medicare and NDIS continues to climb.

It also said that the change would only affect 0.5 percent of the populationaround 80,000 individualswhile 99.5 percent of Australians will be unaffected.

But Shadow Finance Minister Jane Hume has noted that the change is not indexed, which means that three million today is going to be very different to three million in five years times even in two years time when this kicks in.

For younger people that are saying this wont affect mewell when you retire, what will three million be worth then? Hume told Sky News.

Meanwhile, former coalition senator, Eric Abetz, said that the governments reasonings around the changes to the superannuation had the hallmarks of the politics of envy.

It stands to reason that in any area of human endeavour, some will do better than others, be it in sports, music, academia, or wealth creation. Therefore, as a society, we need to celebrate and honour success in whatever field, as long as it is achieved within the parameters of the law, he said.

So, if people have the capacity and inclination to squirrel away extra sums in superannuation, adding to the totality of savings, then that is a behaviour we should be applauding.
Australians Pay $73,000 for Each Prisoner Every Year

Overreliance on prisons in Australia is failing to reduce crime rates, reform prisoners and prevent reoffending, and at an increasing cost to taxpayers. (rawf8/Shutterstock)

A new report has shown that Australias imprisonment rate has increased by nearly 50 percent since 2000 and is above all Western European countries and Canada, yet instead of reducing crime, it has only led to higher rates of reoffending.

Australia now imprisons more people than at any time since 1900, costing taxpayers over $3.6 billion ($US 2.4 billion) annually or $110,000 per prisoner per year.

Released on March 1 by the Justice Reform Initiative, an alliance of former parliamentarians, Aboriginal leaders, judicial figures and experts, the report found the increase in prisoners was driven by systemic failings and policy and legislative choices that end up funnelling people  unnecessarily into imprisonment.

[It] shows very clearly that imprisonment does not work to reduce crime, does not work to rehabilitate, and does not work to make the community safer, Justice Reform Initiative executive director Mindy Sotiri said.

Western Australia (WA) has an imprisonment rate of 325 prisoners per 100,000 adults, making it second only to the Northern Territory, and well above the national average of 214 per 100,000.

Since 2012, the prison population in WA has ballooned by nearly 30 percent.

Nearly two-thirds of prisoners in WA have been imprisoned before, and this figure increased by six percent in the past decade.

Sotiri said that investment in early prevention, diversion, and evidence-based alternatives outside of the justice system rather than in prisons would far better serve taxpayers.

WAs policy response to increasing numbers of people in prison has been to throw more money into the existing criminal justice model, even though all the evidence tells us this model isnt working, she said.

This report outlines an option for a smarter approach  to increase investment in community-led supports and services that prevent people from coming into contact with the justice system, and to invest in real diversionary options.

Australias Prison Dilemma

Taxpayers spend nearly $297 per day or $108,405 per year on an adult prisoner. (Shutterstock)

Australias Productivity Commission representative Stephen King said that the countrys imprisonment rate is out of line with other developed countries.

UN data show that Australias growth rate in imprisonment was the third highest among OECD countries between 2003 and 2018exceeded only by Turkey and Colombia, King said.

A substantial sub-group of the Australian prison population appears to be stuck in a prison-crime-prison revolving door.

He recommended a range of options that have been trialled both in Australia and overseas.

For example, home detention, with strict electronic monitoring and supervision, has been found to cost around one-fifth of imprisonment. It can result in a long-term improvement to community safety due to reduced reoffending, King said.

Linking home detention with programs, such as mental health, alcohol and drugs treatment, can potentially increase the gains, as prisoners can re-enter society ready to hold down employment and contribute, rather than cost.

Australia Needs to Rethink High-Security Prisons

Criminologist and senior research fellow from the Australian National Universitys Research School of Psychology, Clarke Jones, PhD, previously told The Epoch Times that the high-security prison systems, which are seen across Australia, have been shown, by recidivism rates (rates of resentencing), not to be effective.

In Australia, during 2020-21, 45.1 percent of offenders who left the system in 2018-19 returned to prison within two years of their release.

Jones said that he thinks Australia has got to look at alternatives to incarceration.

Read More Prisoner Rehabilitation: Why Australia and the United States are Struggling

If we look at the number of Indigenous offenders, Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander offenders, first Australians, in the prison system, weve got to look at alternatives to incarceration, he said.

Weve got to look at alternatives to youth detention; the cycle of crime is really born in some of the youth detention, and so, keeping younger people out of prison would be absolutely crucial.

He also said that Australia should minimize its use of high-security facilities.

If you lock an offender away in harsh conditions, theyre going to come out worse than they went in, Jones said.

Lily Kelly contributed to this report.
Aviation Authority Investigating Boston Airport Close Call Incident

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is investigating a close call between a JetBlue and Learjet flight that occurred at the Boston Logan International Airport, Massachusetts, on Feb. 27.

The incident occurred before 7 p.m. Eastern time. According to the FAAs preliminary review, an air traffic controller had asked the pilot of the Learjet 60 to line up and wait on Runway 9 while JetBlue Flight 206 landed on Runway 4-Right that intersects Runway 9. However, the pilot of the Learjet flight took off despite not getting the clearance.

The Learjet pilot read back the instructions clearly, but began a takeoff roll instead. The pilot of the JetBlue aircraft took evasive action and initiated a climb-out as the Learjet crossed the intersection. The Learjet was operated by Hop-A-Jet, a private charter company. The FAA will determine the closest proximity between the two aircraft as part of the investigation, said the FAA in an emailed statement to The Epoch Times.

An analysis of Automatic Dependent SurveillanceBroadcast (ADS-B) data by Flightradar24, a global flight tracking service, shows that when the Learjet flight was still in the runway intersection, the two aircraft had come within around 565 feet of each other.

Multiple Close Calls

The incident at the Boston Logan Airport is the latest in a series of close calls that the FAA is investigating. In January, a Delta Air Lines flight at New Yorks JFK Airport was forced to abort its takeoff after an American Airline flight crossed the same runway even though it had no clearance for such a move. The two planes are said to have come within 1,400 feet of each other.

At the Honolulu International Airport in the same month, a Cessna flight and a United Airlines craft came around 1,170 feet from each other. The United Airlines flight crossed a runway without clearance from air traffic control.

On Feb. 4, a FedEx cargo plane was cleared to land just as a Southwest flight was approved to take off from the same runway. The incident took place at the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, Texas. The two planes came alarmingly close to 100 feet.

During a hearing at the Senate Commerce Committee on Feb. 15 that examined the potential failure of the FAA in providing safety alerts to pilots, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) raised the Feb. 4 incident. How can this happen? Cruz asked. How did air traffic control direct one plane on to the runway to take off and another plane to land, and have them both within 100 feet of each other?

Acting FAA administrator Billy Nolen defended the safety of airline travel in the United States. It is not what we would expect to have happened, but when we think about how we train both our controllers and our pilots, the system works as it is designed to avert what you say could have been a horrific outcome, he said.

New Safety Rule

On Feb. 16, the FAA announced that it had finalized a rule to increase safety at airports. The final rule will require some airports to develop and implement a safety management system (SMS) that is expected to help airports detect and mitigate safety problems before they result in accidents or incidents, according to a news release.

The final rule will apply to over 200 of Americas busiest commercial airports. It will come into effect 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. Airports will have four to five and a half years to fully implement the SMS.

The safe operation of our nations airports is paramount during these historic times in aviation as we work to repair and construct necessary airport infrastructure, said associate administrator for airports Shannetta R. Griffin, P.E.

This rule promotes safety and allows airports to work collaboratively with partners to mitigate risks and avert accidents.

The Epoch Times has reached out to the FAA for comment.
Belgium to Sell Part of BNP Paribas Stake for More Than $2 Billion

PARISShares in French bank BNP Paribas fell on Wednesday, after the Belgian state participation agency SFPI had said it was preparing the sale of a third of its 7.8 percent equity stake in the euro-zones biggest bank.

The Belgian state participation agency on Tuesday said it will dispose of around 2.7 percent in the French bank, reducing Belgiums stake in the French lender to about 5.1 percent.

BNP Paribas shares were down 3 percent in early session trading on Wednesday.

Belgium became a shareholder of Frances BNP Paribas in 2008, following the bailout of the countrys financial group Fortis, which was taken over by the French lender as part of a state-backed rescue.

As of Tuesday, the Belgian state was BNP Paribas number one investor, ahead of asset managers Amundi and BlackRock, with 7 percent and 6 percent of the groups shares respectively, Refinitiv data showed.

Bookrunners for the deal told investors shortly before the deadline to submit stock orders that the deal was likely to price 64.96 euros per share, according to messages seen by Reuters, implying a 1.8 percent discount to BNP Paribas closing price.

Based on the banks market capitalisation, the value of the deal would be over $2 billion.

Belgium bought Fortis in 2008 for 9.4 billion euros ($9.95 billion) and sold 75 percent to BNP Paribas in exchange for shares.

Fortis ran into trouble after paying a top-of-the-market 24 billion euros to buy the Dutch operations of ABN AMRO just before the credit crunch and the global financial crisis.

Lazard is advising Belgium on the move, while BNP Paribas Fortis, BofA Securities and Goldman Sachs International are acting as joint bookrunners, SFPI said.

BNP Paribas declined to comment.

($1 = 0.9445 euros)
Bill Combating Beijings Forced Organ Harvesting Advances to House Floor

Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) at the Policy Forum on Organ Procurement and Extrajudicial Execution in China on Capitol Hill on March 10, 2020. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

U.S. legislation thats focused on combating the Chinese regimes state-sanctioned forced organ harvesting was approved at the committee level and is headed to the House floor.

The measure, H.R. 1154, also known as the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2023, was unanimously passed by the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Feb. 28 and will be taken up by the full House for debate.

The bill would bar entry by perpetrators to the United States and block financial transactions on U.S. soil. It also would require the U.S. secretary of state to report to Congress on organ transplant abuses committed in foreign countries.

People are finally waking up to the brutality of the CCP, Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), the bills lead sponsor, said in a statement on Feb. 28, referring to the Chinese Communist Party. We in the United Statesin the medical field in particularmust examine our moral complicity in this most heinous of crimes.

Related Coverage Chinese Regime Killed Falun Gong Adherent for His Liver, Witness Says

Forced organ harvesting is a lucrative trade in China, systematically carried out under state order. Doctors remove key organs from victims who are primarily prisoners of conscience, killing them in the process.

At the committee hearing, Smith cited investigations by the London-based China Tribunal, which in 2019 found that the state-sponsored abuse has been committed for years throughout China on a significant scale, with detained Falun Gong practitioners being the main source of organs.

Falun Gong practitioners walk in a parade in Brooklyn, N.Y., highlighting the Chinese regimes persecution of their faith on Feb. 26, 2023. (Chung I Ho/The Epoch Times)

The spiritual discipline, which espouses the values of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance and involves a set of slow-moving exercises, had an estimated following of as many as 100 million people when the Beijing regime began an expansive suppression campaign in 1999 to eradicate the faith.

Smith recalled presiding over a congressional hearing about 25 years ago at which a Chinese security official testified that he and other security agents were shooting prisoners, with doctors standing ready to harvest their organs.

That was the beginning stages, he told NTD, a sister media outlet of The Epoch Times. Then it went into an all-out assault, because the Chinese Communist Party realized they could make billions of dollars doing this, and they also then would have a repair kit for themselves.

Smith was referring to open-source reports out of China that high-ranking CCP officials are entitled to on-demand organ transplants. A former Chinese deputy cultural minister who died during the recent COVID-19 wave that devastated the country was revealed in an obituary to have had many organs replaced, leading him to joke that many components [were] not his own anymore.

If Xi Jinping gets sick tomorrow and needs a new lung, he will get that lung from a 28-year-old Falun Gong practitioner or perhaps an Uyghur man or woman, Smith said, referring to the Chinese leader. Such an act, he said, is reminiscent of the medical experiments by Nazi physician Josef Mengele at Auschwitz, which are remembered as war crimes.

The trafficking of organs as a global criminal enterprise generates anywhere from $840 million to $1.7 billion annually, Global Financial Integrity (GFI) estimates; however, such a number could still represent the tip of the iceberg, experts say.

Smith says the bill is a first step to stop this barbaric practicestarting first and foremost with the Peoples Republic of China, but secondly its global enablers.

Falun Gong practitioners walk in a parade highlighting the Chinese regimes persecution of their faith, in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Feb. 26, 2023. (Larry Dye/The Epoch Times)

Cant Think of Anything More Horrific

In Chinas opaque organ transplant industry, theres no telling how many people are killed each year. An investigative report in 2016, which analyzed data such as bed counts, revenue, and transplant capacity across 169 Chinese hospitals, said that those facilities together could have conducted 60,000 to 100,000 transplants annually.

Anyone who does get a transplantation should be very aware of its source to ensure the dead person voluntarily offered their organbe it a heart, liver or whatever it might be[and] that they were indeed dead at the time of the organ transplant, Smith told NTD.

But in China, everything is reversed. They go and pick and cullas they call itthese very healthy people, and the Falun Gong practitioners are extraordinarily healthy because of their religious practices, because of their lifestyle, so they become victimized by the Chinese Communist Party.

They target the very people that they oppress with impunityFalun Gong practitioners or the Uyghurs or Tibetan Buddhists, but mostly Falun Gong practitioners, Smith added, noting that the adherents are a threat to no one.

They [the Chinese authorities] hate them so much, but they want their organs. I mean, this is outrageous.

U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) (L) speaks as House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) (R) and House GOP veterans of the military listen during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Aug. 31, 2021. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), a co-sponsor on the bill, expressed appreciation to Smith for bringing this long overdue bill to the attention of the American public, who may not understand what type of nation we are dealing with and how complete the disregard for human life and human rights the [CCP] has.

I cant think of anything more horrific or more barbaric than this practice that the Chinese Communist Party engages in, he said at the hearing.

To hold people down against their will, and sometimes anesthetize them, sometimes not, and take out their very vital organs and then sell them for hundreds of thousands of dollarsit is absolutely disgusting.

The bipartisan bill also is co-sponsored by Reps. Bill Keating (D-Mass.), Kathy Manning (D-N.C.), and French Hill (R-Ark.).

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who led the Senate companion bill in the last Congress, told The Epoch Times he plans to reintroduce the legislation next week.

This article has been updated to include a response from Sen. Tom Cotton.
Black Pennsylvanians Make Surprisingly Positive Progress Over Decade: Report

Pennsylvania state Sen. Art Haywood unveils his report, "The State of Black Pennsylvania," at the Pennsylvania Capitol building in Harrisburg on Feb. 28, 2023. (Screenshot/The Epoch Times)

Black Pennsylvanians have made strides in income, health care, and education over the last decade, but there is still room for improvement, according to a report titled The State of Black Pennsylvania.

Released this week by Pennsylvania Democrat state Sen. Art Haywood, the report covers the period from 2010 to 2021 (pdf). It does not compare Pennsylvanias black and white populations but focuses solely on changes for the states black population.

I was talking to my wife about these, what she called surprisingly positive features of the report, Haywood said in a Tuesday press conference. Surprisingly positive, because most of what we hear about in the media is the victim story for African Americans.

This is a report of overcoming adversity, Haywood said. This is a report of what a group of people have been able to overcome over time, and therefore the spirit of Black History Month is most appropriate.

Earnings

Compared to 2010, the report shows the median income of black households has increased more than $10,000.

The number of black households earning $100,000 or more climbed from 38,626 in 2010, to 92,576 in 2021.

More black workers are earning wages above poverty level than in previous years, with 51,225 households elevating out of poverty, the report says. But the poverty rate among Pennsylvanias black community remained at nearly 25 percent in 2021.

Health Care

More black Pennsylvanians have acquired health insurance since 2010, and the number of black Pennsylvanians without a personal doctor fell by 11 percent. Black medical school graduates rose from 48 to 75 people from 2010 to 2021.

Smoking is down 11 percent, and reported cardiovascular disease and mental health concerns dropped slightly. However, diabetes is on the rise in the community, from 13 percent of the population in 2013 to 16 percent in 2021.

Black women and girls between the ages of 15 and 50 years old had 31,000 fewer babies between 2010 and 2021, the report said.

Another report shows abortions are up in the black community. The Pennsylvania Department of Health publishes an annual report with abortion statistics. According to that report, abortions of black children have climbed year over year. In 2016 there were 12,984 abortions performed on black women, but by 2021, black women underwent 14,620 abortions.

Education

In 2010, there were 76,766 black women aged 25 or older who attained a bachelors degree or higher. By 2021, that number climbed to 114,885.

For black men, the number of bachelors degree holders jumped from 45,965 in 2010, to 80,402 in 2021.

State Sen. Vincent Hughes used the press conference to call for better school funding.

Crime

The number of incarcerated black individuals in state prisons has fallen by 32 percent, from 25,357 inmates in 2010 to 17,173 inmates in 2021, the report says.

The black prison population fell from 49.4 percent of the total state prison inmate population in 2010 to 46 percent in 2021.

Over 1,000 people are lifers in Pennsylvania prisons who never actually took a life because of the rules around felony murder, state Sen. Sharif Street said during the press conference. And there are people who are incarcerated because of expensive court fines and fees and their inability to pay, which is basically the criminalization of poverty. If we address these things, we can make even greater strides in reducing our rate of incarceration.

Fewer people in prison means more money could go to education, Street said.

Anti-Black Hate Crimes

The report cites the Southern Poverty Law Center as the source reporting that Pennsylvania hate groups are down from 36 to 30 groups in the same decade. But the report also says that the number of hate crimes motivated by anti-Black biases went up a staggering 323 [percent] when comparing 2010 and 2021 data available through the Pennsylvania Uniform Crime Reporting System.

The report does not offer more detail on hate crimes.

Shaping Policy, Shaping Lives

Several people spoke from Pennsylvanias Black Caucus and said this report will help form policies going forward, and one person specifically mentioned anti-racist legislation.

What this report tells us is that we have advanced policies and legislation that improved the lives of Pennsylvanians, state Rep. Donna Bullock said. And when we do that, those policies, if applied fairly across the board, will benefit black folks, where we have historically had our communities disproportionately impacted by inequitable or racist policies in the past. Our communities have the most ground to gain when we right size or correct those policies.

Government policy is not the only thing that helps people get ahead. It starts with what we teach young people, the speakers said.

Schools are failing to instill value within students, said Frank Allen, president of the Greater Harrisburg Area NAACP.

We must then, revisit and reiterate human value, Allen said. Im going to say something that you may not like: parents are responsible for guiding children. There is a decline, a decline in America, of substantial parental guidance in the home, and therefore communities all over the United States, especially in Pennsylvania. Our children are denied the opportunity to grow and to be gifted in that community, and grow through high school and colleges all over this state, because they dont know, because parents are not instilling in them true values within themselves, and it affects everything in life.

Allen said the community must get back to the basics.

The basics are parents doing what their responsibilities require: to grow children. And the three most important things  are not Father, Son and Holy Spirit, which is good, but it is air, water, and nutrition. And without our children having those three, they will not grow to respond to the American dream, as they should.
Blinken Ends Central Asia Visit Without Changing Minds on Russia, Ukraine

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) and Kazakhstan's Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tileuberdi go to shake hands at the end of their joint press conference following a U.S.-Central Asia (C5+1) Foreign Ministers meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Feb. 28, 2023. (Olivier Douliery/Pool Photo via AP)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrapped up a two-day visit to Central Asia after meeting the leaders of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

He also met with his counterparts from the C5+1 group of nations, which comprises Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and the United States.

Blinkens visit was widely seen as an effort to woo Central Asian leaders away from Moscow, which views the region as falling within its traditional sphere of influence.

During his visit, Blinken repeatedly stressed Washingtons commitment to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the five Central Asian states.

On Feb. 28, he held talks with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in Astana.

During the meeting, Blinken emphasized the United States unwavering commitment to Kazakhstans sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity, according to a statement released by the State Department.

He also stressed Washingtons full support for the aims of President Tokayevs reform agenda and the U.S. commitment to working with government, civil society, and other Kazakh partners to advance the values shared by our two countries.

The following day, Blinken met Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev in Tashkent, to whom he likewise declared U.S. support for Uzbekistans sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity.

He commended Uzbekistans regional leadership, especially through engaging in the C5+1 diplomatic format, according to the State Department.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Blinken drew a distinction between U.S. foreign policy and that of Moscow, whose invasion of Ukraine had, he claimed, fostered deep concern across the region.

If a powerful country is willing to try to erase the borders of a sovereign neighbor by force, whats to stop it from doing the same to others? he asked.

From left: Kyrgyzstan Foreign Minister Jeenbek Kulubaev, Tajikistans Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Kazakhstans Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tileuberdi, Turkmenistans Foreign Minister Rasit Meredow, and Uzbekistans Acting Foreign Minister Bakhtiyor Saidov pose for a photo before their talks in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Feb. 28, 2023. (AP Photo)

Committed to Neutrality

The Central Asian region has historically been seen as Russias backyard. Like Ukraine, all five Central Asian states were Soviet republics before the Soviet Unions collapse in 1991.

Although the Central Asian states maintain close ties with post-Soviet Russia, none of them has publicly endorsed Moscows year-old special military operation in Ukraine.

Nor, however, have they condemned it.

In a U.N. General Assembly vote in February, timed to coincide with the first anniversary of Russias invasion, all five Central Asian states abstained on a draft resolution condemning Russian actions in Ukraine.

At a joint press conference with Blinken on Feb. 28, Kazakh Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tileuberdi thanked the United States for backing his countrys right to self-determination.

He added, however, that Kazakhstan was intent on pursuing a balanced multilateral foreign policy and would continue to act in its national interest given the complex international situation.

Stressing his countrys longstanding ties with both Russia and Ukraine, Tileuberdi said that Astana wouldnt let its territory be used for either Russian aggression or the evasion of Western-led sanctions.

Nevertheless, he added, Kazakhstan didnt perceive any threats from its formidable northern neighbor, with which it shares a 4,750-mile border.

Early last year, Russia sent troops to Kazakhstan to help quell violent protestsostensibly triggered by rising fuel pricesin the Kazakh city of Almaty.

The deployments were carried out within the framework of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a Moscow-led military alliance that also includes Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.

Russian officials allege that last years violent protests in Kazakhstan were a Western attempt to foment a color revolution aimed at destabilizing Tokayevs government.

Russian peacekeepers of Collective Security Treaty Organization board a Russian military plane starting to withdraw its troops at an airport outside Almaty, Kazakhstan, on Jan. 13, 2022. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

Eurasian Solidarity

Asked whether Blinkens statements were likely to affect relations between Moscow and Astana, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov replied in the negative.

We value our relations, Peskov told Russias TASS news agency on March 1. We are also united by our participation in joint projects.

He went on to say there were positive dynamics in the further development of these ties.

Asked a similar question a day earlier, Peskov said Moscow has its own cooperation platforms with the countries of Central Asia.

We take part in integration processes within the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), which is what we are guided by, what we are interested in, and what we view as our key foreign policy priority, he added.

Established in 2014, the EEU is an economic union of several Eurasian post-Soviet states. In addition to Russia, its current members include Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, and Belarus.

With the exception of Turkmenistan, the Central Asian states are also members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a formidable bloc of Eurasian states.

The SCO was first launched by Moscow and Beijing in 2001 with the stated aim of countering Western influence in the region.

After departing Tashkent, Blinken flew to New Delhi to take part in a scheduled meeting of G-20 foreign ministers, where the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine is expected to top the agenda.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Blinken Wraps Up Central Asia Tour Before G-20 Talks in India

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a meeting with Uzbekistan Acting Foreign Minister Bakhtiyor Saidov at the National Library in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, on March 1, 2023. (Olivier Douliery/Pool Photo via AP)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is wrapping up a brief tour of Central Asia in Uzbekistan before heading to India for what is expected to be a contentious Ukraine-dominated meeting of foreign ministers from the Group of 20.

Blinken met Wednesday in Tashkent with senior Uzbek officials a day after warning his counterparts from all five Central Asian nations about the dangers posed by Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Speaking before talks with Uzbekistans acting foreign minister, Blinken said he believed the United States and Central Asia share concerns about Ukraine, although the former Soviet states have toed a delicate line when it comes to condemning Russia for the war.

I think there was a tremendous sense of both common challenge and common purpose among the C5+1 countries, Blinken said in reference to Tuesdays meeting in the Kazakh capital of Astana among him and the foreign ministers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

In those talks, Blinken repeatedly referred to U.S. support for the five countries sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independence in a not-so-subtle warning to the former Soviet republics that Russias value as a partner has been badly compromised by its year-old war against Ukraine, another ex-Soviet state.

Acting Uzbek Foreign Minister Bakhtiyor Saidov thanked Blinken for U.S. support for his country and its neighbors. I want to underline that we share common priorities for a prosperous, stable, and peaceful Central Asia, he said.

None of the five Central Asian nations, traditionally viewed as part of the Kremlins sphere of influence, have publicly backed the Russian invasion. Yet none of them have condemned it and all of them passed on a chance to do so again last week when they abstained in a vote at the U.N. General Assembly on the first anniversary of the war.

Blinken was later to see Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev before leaving for New Delhi, where he will attend a two-day meeting of the foreign ministers from the Group of 20 (G-20) largest industrialized and developing countries, including China and Russia.

The G-20 talks come as tensions have soared between the United States and Russia and between the United States and China over Russias war in Ukraine and the Chinese regimes aggressiveness in the Indo-Pacific. All three countries are competing fiercely to outdo each other in influence, particularly at venues like the G-20.

The United States and its Western allies in the G-20 will be pushing for the group to adopt a firmer position on the war, while Russia and China will likely be pressing for broad endorsement of a Chinese peace proposal for Ukraine that Beijing unveiled last week. That plan has been largely dismissed by the West.

A meeting of the G-20 finance ministers in India last week ended without consensus on Ukraine.

The last time the groups foreign ministers metin Bali, Indonesia, in 2022Blinken held extensive talks with Chinas then-foreign minister, Wang Yi, that led to a summit in Bali between President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Xinping in November.

Wang, who has since been promoted, met with Blinken last month on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in Germany, the first high-level talks since the United States shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon and Blinken postponed a much-anticipated trip to Beijing.

Those discussions ended with no sign of progress on improving relations, which have been further strained by U.S. allegations that the Chinese regime is considering supplying with Russia with lethal military supplies for use in Ukraine, and renewed suggestions that the COVID-19 pandemic could have been the result of a Chinese lab leak.

Blinken said Tuesday in Astana that the Biden administration will not hesitate to impose sanctions on Chinese companies that support Russias war effort.

China cant have it both ways when it comes to the Russian aggression in Ukraine. It cant be putting forward peace proposals on the one hand while actually feeding the flames of the fire that Russia has started with the other hand, he said.

U.S. officials have been tight-lipped about the prospects for Blinken sitting down with new Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang or Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in New Delhi. They say only that there are no such talks planned. But all three will be present in the Indian capital.
Buttigieg Defends Job Performance After McConnells Jab at Woke Initiatives

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg defended his job performance and pointed to a project in Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnells home state of Kentucky after the senator said Buttigieg was more focused on woke initiatives and media coverage than his day job.

Even amidst a catalog of crises on his watch, from this and other recent train derailments, to the meltdown in air travel back during the holiday season, Secretary Buttigieg has seemed more interested in pursuing press coverage for woke initiatives and climate nonsense than in attending to basic elements of his day job, McConnell said on the Senate floor Monday.

Buttigieg responded on Twitter and in an interview on CNN This Morning on Tuesday, calling for the Senator to stand up to the railroad industry lobby.

Buttigieg noted in the interview on CNN that McConnell joined President Joe Biden in Kentucky earlier this year to celebrate a major infrastructure project, a new companion bridge to the Brent Spence Bridge, which connects Ohio and Kentucky.

I would not call the Brent Spence Bridge a woke initiative, he said in the interview. As for climate, climate is not nonsense. Dealing with climate change is one of the biggest things that people like me and people like him will be remembered for after were gone.

The secretary went on to criticize McConnell for what he said was the Republicans hindering the transportation departments push for more regulations.

He is the caucus leader in the Senate, Buttigieg said. He could be a partner to us right now in making sure that there are fewer rail disasters in the future. As I mentioned earlier, the railthe freight rail industry has wielded a lot of power here in Washington. I would love to see Leader McConnell join us in standing up to them.

Buttigieg said he would like to see the Senate minority leader work with the Department of Transportation to do things like raise the cap on fines, accelerate the timeline for bringing in fortified tank cars that are less likely to spill in derailments, and to work to give the department a freer hand on things like braking regulations and regulations on hazardous material transportation.

Buttigieg Criticized Previously

Buttigieg has faced heavy criticism for major air travel disruptions during the 2022 holiday season as well as a string of recent train derailments, including the East Palestine, Ohio, derailment that resulted in spillage of toxic chemicals. The secretary was criticized by Republicans and Democrats for what they called a slow response to the fiery Norfolk Southern Railway train derailment on Feb. 3.

Buttigieg made his first visit to East Palestine on Feb. 23.

At a recent Senate hearing, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), chairwoman of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, spoke about the situation.

This sector needs a more effective policeman on the beat, Cantwell said. They need someone over at the Department of Transportation who is going to lead.

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) weighed in on Twitter.

East Palestine railroad derailment will have a significant negative impact on the health and wellbeing of the residents for decades and there is almost zero national media attention, Omar posted on Feb. 13. We need Congressional inquiry and direct action from @PeteButtigieg to address this tragedy.

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell delivers remarks to a crowd after meeting with President Joe Biden, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine in front of the Brent Spence Bridge in Covington, Ky., on Jan. 4, 2023. (Michael Swensen/Getty Images)

On Feb. 15, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) posted on Twitter, What is going on in Ohio? Corporations wont answer for their negligence, EPA wont answer about safety, Mayor Pete wont show up.

A day later, in a TV interview, he called for Buttigieg to step down.

Yes, my gosh, he should have resigned after the rail strike. He should certainly resign now, Hawley said.

The secretary is also facing an audit of his travel using government private jets.

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) said in a memo on Monday that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), citing news reports, requested the audit to determine whether Buttigiegs use of government aircraft complied with all applicable federal regulations and DOT policies and procedures (pdf).

In Tuesdays CNN Interview, Buttigieg welcomed the audit of his travel.

Yes, its good for it to get an independent look, he said. I wont say anything about the motivations of the senator. I will just say that we are here with the facts, and well put forward the math, and I think people will see how we make these decisions, why we make these decisions, and I think its a good thing for people to understand that.

Jeff Louderback and Caden Pearson contributed to this report.
YEREVAN, MARCH 1, ARMENPRESS. On February 28 and March 1, Azerbaijan opened fire in the direction of citizens carrying out agricultural work in the Martuni region of the Republic of Artsakh, ARMENPRESS reports the Police of Artsakh Ministry of Internal Affairs informed on its Facebook page.

On February 28, around 4:55 p.m., Azerbaijani servicemen fired from their combat positions from different caliber firearms in the direction of 53-year-old A. Avanesyan from Murishen village, Martunu region, while carrying out agricultural work with a tractor in the area called "Under the Asphalten" of the administrative area of Berdashen village, as a result of which the agricultural work was stopped.

Azerbaijan violated the ceasefire regime today as well.

On March 1 at around 14:00, Azerbaijan opened fire from their military positions in the direction of 59-year-old S. Vardanyan from Berdashen community, which caused the agricultural work to stop.

Martuni regional police department prepared materials and presented to the Russian peacekeeping troops.
California Gov. Newsom Ends Use of COVID Emergency Powers

California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a news conference after meeting with students at James Denman Middle School in San Francisco on Oct. 1, 2021. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Gov. Gavin Newsom ended his use of COVID-19 emergency powers Feb. 28, three years after the virus first appeared in California.

The milestone ended 1,090 days of operating under special powers that allowed Newsom to make unilateral decisions about the states response to the pandemic.

Throughout the pandemic, weve been guided by the science and datamoving quickly and strategically to save lives, Newsom said in a press release. The State of Emergency was an effective and necessary tool that we utilized to protect our state, and we wouldnt have gotten to this point without it.

Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.) told The Epoch Times the separation of powers must be restored following the end of the emergency.

From years of learning loss from students kept out of classrooms and countless businesses and jobs destroyed, to a loss of our basic freedoms, rarely in our history has a single person caused so much harm to so many, Kiley said in an email. We must finally begin to restore the separation of powers that is central to our constitutional form of government.

Republican Kevin Kiley speaks at a debate of California gubernatorial recall election candidates on Aug. 25, 2021 in San Francisco, Calif. (Scott Strazzante-Pool/Getty Images)

Some policy experts thought the powers should have ended long before today.

I think its wonderful that the state is finally coming to its senses and returning life to normal, and Im looking forward to the federal government doing the same in May, Marc Joffe, a policy analyst at the CATO institute, a libertarian think tank, told The Epoch Times. I think it should have been done a long time ago. An emergency really is something that should go on for a few weeks, not a few months or years.

Although the states response allowed the distribution of stimulus funds, many residents and businesses criticized Newsom for issuing several mandates, including requiring masks, closing businesses, and locking down residents and schools.

Some policies implemented during the emergency were good, Joffe said, including allowing out-of-state doctors to practice in California, but they shouldnt have been enacted using an emergency declaration, he said.

However, imposing lockdowns, mask-wearing, and vaccine mandates were an abuse of power, Joffe said.

In 2021, Newsom announced plans to require COVID-19 vaccines for students in schools. Last April, the state delayed the policy until July 1, 2023.

A nurse administers a pediatric dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to a girl at a clinic in Los Angeles on Jan. 19, 2022. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)

Since the emergency was terminated, the plan to mandate the vaccines for students will also be halted.

Most of the pandemic restrictions Newsom put in place have already been lifted but some had long-lasting effects. Schools were closed and required students and teachers to use remote learning for more than a year during the emergency, contributing to historically low test scores.

Public sentiment over the strict policies also fueled a recall effort launched in 2021 against the governor, which he easily won to retain his job with more than 60 percent of the vote.

Mike Netter, who spearheaded the recall effort, said the end of the emergency was well overdue.

Today is a special day in California  Californias COVID-19 emergency is finally over, Netter posted on Twitter. While every other state ended their emergency, Gavin Newsom continued using emergency powers that undermined fundamental principles of free government.

During the declared health emergency, the governor used his powers to distribute federal stimulus funds for several programs, including $18.5 billion in direct payments to Californians, $8 billion for rent relief, $10 billion for small business grants and tax relief, and $2.8 billion to help residents with overdue utility bills.

Billions of dollars were also given to support hospitals, community organizations, frontline workers, and schools.

As of Feb. 23, California reported 11.1 million cases of COVID-19 and attributed 100,187 deaths to the virus. The state also administered more than 88.1 million vaccines, according to the states Department of Public Health.

Now California will use another strategy called the SMARTER Plan (pdf), to continue responding to the virus, Newsom said. The plan calls for continued use of vaccine recommendations, mask requirements for health care and long-term care facilities, and encouraging testing.

Newsom was one of only a few governors who continued operating under pandemic-era emergency powers this year.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom holds up a vial of the new COVID-19 vaccine at Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center in Los Angeles, Calif., on Dec. 14, 2020. (Jae C. Hong/Pool/Getty Images)

New Mexico, Illinois, Rhode Island, and Texas governors have not yet ended their emergency orders despite public pressure to do so.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said he plans to end his emergency declaration May 11, the same day President Joe Biden expects to end the federal emergency, according to a Feb. 10 press release from his office. The other governors did not return requests for comment by press time.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has not yet signaled an end to the emergency in her state, and efforts to end them in the states Legislature have fallen flat.

New Mexico State Rep. Greg Nibert, a Republican from Roswell, has introduced measures several times to curb the governors powers. The latest attempt was squashed in a judiciary committee, but he told The Epoch Times he plans to continue pushing to pass the bills in the future.

[Lujan Grisham] has followed Gov. Newsoms lead on many things, including the COVID orders, so now that hes eliminated the emergency powers in California, maybe Lujan Grisham will end them in New Mexico and we can return back to normal, Nibert said. Its been a long three years. Its about time we resume normal activities without the government interposing its power over its citizens on day-to-day operations.
Los Angeles County Removes 1.2 Million Ineligible Voters From Rolls

Voters wait in line to cast their ballots at a vote center at a Masonic Lodge in Los Angeles, Calif., on March 3, 2020. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Los Angeles County officials have removed 1.2 million people from voter rolls.

Voters who were designated as ineligible or inactive were removed, officials told Judicial Watch, a nonprofit watchdog group, in a recent correspondence.

This long overdue voter roll clean-up of 1.2 million registrations in Los Angeles County is a historic victory and means California elections are less at risk for fraud, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement. Building on this success, Judicial Watch will continue its lawsuits and activism to clean up voter rolls and to promote and protect cleaner elections.

The removals were done as part of a settlement agreement reached with Judicial Watch in 2019. The agreement forced state and county officials to contact 1.5 million potentially ineligible voters as part of voter roll maintenance.

According to the agreement, all voters who didnt confirm their address by responding to a notice and hadnt voted for two or more general federal elections were to have their registrations canceled.

The National Voter Registration Act requires the removal of voters from rolls if theyre inactive for two general federal elections, but some states ignore the requirement.

Of the 1.2 million inactive voters that have been removed, about 50 percent hadnt voted for five or more consecutive federal elections, according to the new correspondence.

About another 465,000 voters are inactive but havent been inactive for at least two federal elections.

Officials have to inform Judicial Watch in January each year about how theyre complying with the registration acts requirements for voter roll maintenance.

Officials were spending up to eight years cleaning up the lists, the Election Integrity Project California, which partnered with Judicial Watch, stated in 2019.

Los Angeles County, the largest county in California, has 9.8 million residents.

Judicial Watch regularly sues jurisdictions for failure to comply with the registration act.

New York City removed 441,083 ineligible voters from its voter list in December 2022 as part of a settlement agreement with Judicial Watch, after the watchdog sued it earlier that year.

New York City officials also said they would remove voters in each odd-numbered year in the months following a federal election.

This historic settlement is a major victory for New York voters who will benefit from cleaner voter rolls and more honest elections. Judicial Watch is pleased that New York City officials quickly moved to remove 441,000 outdated registrations from the rolls, Fitton said at the time. We look forward to working together under this federal lawsuit settlement to ensure New York City maintains cleaner rolls for future elections.
Call to Exclude Kids From Law Banning Criminal Contact

A law meant for disrupting serious crime is disproportionately targeting Indigenous people and continues to be used on children, legal groups say.

The Aboriginal Legal Service New South Wales (NSW)/Australian Capital Territory (ACT), the Public Interest Advocacy Centre and the NSW Bar Association on Wednesday called on the state parliament to narrow the scope of the consorting law and ban its use on those under the age of 18.

It follows similar calls by the police watchdog after its three-year review showed most of the 105 warnings issued every week related to comparatively less serious potential offending.

The consorting law allows police to warn a person for associating or keeping company with those convicted of an indictable offence. After two warnings, a person can be charged and face up to three years in jail if convicted.

NSW and South Australia are the only two Australian jurisdictions where someone aged under 18 can be issued with a warning for, or charged with, consorting.

Police have suggested the law helps divert people from the criminal justice system.

But NSW Bar Association president Gabrielle Bashir SC said that reflected a fundamental misunderstanding, which must be immediately rectified.

She said it was shocking that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 42 percent of those subject to the consorting law, rising to 46 percent when a general duties officer was involved.

The figures reveal a grossly disproportionate use of the consorting provisions against First Nations people, Bashir said.

The (watchdogs) findings are further evidence of an underlying and persistent problem with the exercise of police discretionary powers when it comes to First Nations people in this state.

Aboriginal Legal Service NSW/ACT principal legal officer Nadine Miles said the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission review provided concrete evidence consorting laws disproportionately and unfairly impact Aboriginal people.

Far from targeting serious and organised crime, consorting laws have been used to criminalise social interactions and relationships between Aboriginal people, she said on Thursday.

While four of the five Indigenous people charged under the law had bikie associations, the law was often used to try to disrupt activity such as drug possession, the commission said.

In one case, an occupant of a southwestern Sydney apartment was warned about another person in their apartment after police addressing a noise complaint heard the pair discuss having a joint.

The commission also found the majority of warnings to 48 children appeared to target activity that did not fit the definition of coordinated serious criminal activity including drinking alcohol in a park.

Meanwhile, all 11 warnings naming a juvenile as the convicted person did not meet the required threshold.

The commission was encouraged by a marked drop in warnings issued to children since a 2018 change limited them to people over the age of 14.

It also noted NSW Police had made important changes to its consorting procedures at the end of 2022.

But the commission remained concerned the law risked increasing the number of young people entering the criminal justice system, calling on parliament and police to make a series of changes.

NSW Police said it had limited the application of the consorting laws for Indigenous people to only target serious criminal activity and has been working on a quality assurance framework to ensure warnings are both valid and appropriate.

It acknowledged the reviews findings and said it would assess the report.
A generational threat from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the top priority for the U.S. House of Representatives Tuesday. What actions are they taking? And what do lawmakers say are the most pressing issues?

The White House is setting a deadline to purge TikTok from all government devices. And Congress is pushing for a broader ban, citing CCP espionage related to TikToks China-based parent company.

President Joe Bidens student loan forgiveness plan is being challenged in front of the Supreme Court on Tuesday. Republican-led states accuse Biden of using the pandemic to move forward with his plan.

New polls are out on the most popular Republican candidate for president in 2024. Former President Donald Trump remains the top choice.

A health expert joins us to discuss the debate surrounding the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. He also examines a new accord that would give the World Health Organization (WHO) power over U.S. pandemic policies.

And a former WHO official also joins us to weigh in on the organizations role in future pandemics and if the accord is in the best interest of the United States.
CCP Exporting Ethno-Nationalism and Totalitarianism Globally: Rep. Torres

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) speaks at a press conference and rally in front of the America ChangLe Association highlighting Beijing's transnational repression, in New York City on Feb. 25, 2023. A now-closed overseas Chinese police station is located inside the association building.(Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is speaking out against Chinas communist regime and its attempt to export ethno-nationalism and totalitarian ideology abroad.

Members of the bipartisan House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are sounding the alarm on the regimes attempts to subvert the rules-based international order following their first hearing on Feb. 28.

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.), who serves on the committee, said that he had previously misunderstood the regimes expansionist and authoritarian ambitions, and now better understood the threat posed to the international order.

I originally had a conception of the CCP as ruthless business people who prized stability and economic growth above all else, Torres told NTD, sister media outlet of The Epoch Times, after the primetime hearing on Tuesday.

Ive come to realize that these are genuine idealists who are willing to pursue ethno-nationalism and totalitarianism, even at the expense of their own economy.

To that end, Torres said that CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping had in some sense done the United States and its allies a favor by laying bare the regimes ambition to undermine and displace the United States as the worlds leading superpower.

In some sense, that [idealism] makes them even more dangerous. It means theyre capable of even more aggression, Torres said.

So, Xi Jinping has done us a huge favor by revealing the true character of the CCP.

Torres said that the CCPs ambitions to displace the United States and reshape the world into a new, authoritarian order with China at its head, was a cause for concern for all Americans. The United States, he said, would have to compete to maintain its freedom and that of its allies and partners.

We all have to ask ourselves a simple question: What kind of world do we wish to live in? Torres said.

Do we wish to live in a fundamentally free world led by the United States? Or do we wish to live in a totalitarian police state led by the Chinese Communist Party? I would argue that we should err on the side of freedom.

CCP Exporting Totalitarianism

Select Committee Chair Mike Gallagher (R-Wisc.) spoke similarly, adding that the CCP was a much more potent threat than the Soviet Union had been during the first Cold War. Unlike the USSR, Gallagher said, the CCP had the benefit of learning from the Soviets downfall.

I do think [the CCP] is a far more complex and formidable threat than the Soviet Union was, Gallagher told NTD.

Xi Jinping has studied the demise of the Soviet Union and he is attempting to learn the lessons from that failure so that he doesnt repeat those lessons.

Gallaghers comments echoed those previously made by billionaire investor and conservative donor Peter Thiel, who previously said that the CCP had learned the opposite lessons of the West regarding the end of the Cold War and had consciously chosen to pursue totalitarianism rather than liberalism.

It was not only in the West that we learned lessons from [the fall of the Berlin Wall], the Chinese communists also paid very careful attention to it, Thiel said during a 2020 interview with the Hoover Institution.

They learned that  you had to get rid of the Marxism without getting rid of the Leninism, and they learned somehow the very opposite lessons of that fateful year 1989.

Gallagher said that the technological basis of the CCPs repressive surveillance apparatus and the regimes business ties with the West meant that the threat was much closer to home than many Americans understood.

The strategic competition and potential conflict with communist China, he said, was not one that could be confined to Chinese shores.

It is not a distant over there threat. Its a right here at home threat, Gallagher said. Take the Chinese spy balloon, the CCP police stations on American soil, Chinese students being harassed and physically assaulted on American campuses.

Its my belief that what happens inside Chinas borders, what happens even in Xinjiang, wont stay there now that theyre perfecting a model of total techno-totalitarian control that they want to export around the world.
CCP Mouthpiece Threatens Elon Musk Over COVID Comments

'Elon Musk, are you smashing China's wok?' The Chinese regime's mouthpiece said.

Elon Musk (L) pauses and looks down as he speaks during a press conference at SpaceX's Starbase facility near Boca Chica Village in South Texas on February 10, 2022. Head of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping (R) sits in on the APEC Economic Leaders handoff ceremony in the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center on November 19, 2022 in Bangkok, Thailand. (Photo by Jim Watson /AFP via Getty Images; Photo by Lauren DeCicca/Getty Images)

Elon Musk, CEO of Twitter and Tesla, stood in the crosshairs of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) when he chipped in on the discussion on the origin of COVID-19 and brought attention to the theory that the virus leaked from a Chinese laboratory.

The worlds richest person joined in comments about a Wall Street Journal article on Sunday, Feb. 26, which reported that a classified intelligence report by the Energy Department said the virus likely leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). The Chinese regime denies the lab leak theory and has accused its proponents of being conspiracy theorists.

Musks Comments

The billionaire hopped on discussions on Twitter following the news, with some users accusing Dr. Anthony Fauci, former head of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), of funding gain-of-function research at the WIV before the virus began spreading in early 2020.

Dr. Anthony Fauci funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab, lied to Congress about it, and now both the FBI & the Department of Energy have concluded that the coronavirus originated at the Wuhan lab, wrote a Twitter user with the handle @KanekoaTheGreat. Does that mean Dr. Anthony Fauci funded the development of COVID-19?

[Fauci] did it via a pass-through organization (EcoHealth), Musk wrote in a reply, referring to Dr. Anthony Fauci, former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and former White House Chief Medical Advisor. Faucis NIAID sent $3.4 million in research grants via non-profit EcoHealth Alliance to the Wuhan laboratory.

Though that comment from Musk came as the latest of a series of jabs at Fauci, it stepped on a few nerves across the Pacific.

Anti-China political forces in America have yet again hyped up the rumor that COVID-19 leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, reads a Feb. 28 article published in the Global Times, the CCPs mouthpiece publication, titled Elon Musk, are you smashing Chinas pot?

Even the famous Tesla boss Elon Musk has joined in, the article reads. Some may think [Musk] made those remarks only to attack Fauci, but the posts he reposted almost all linked the origins of COVID-19 to China. And the argument is repeatedly used by the hostile-to-China U.S. right-wing and anti-China media to frame China.

The Global Times piece then said the collaboration between the Wuhan laboratory worked and EcoHealth Alliance had no relation to researching the coronavirus or gain-of-function research (research that makes the virus more potent or more transmissible, or both), calling anyone who suggests otherwise internet conspiracy theorists and anti-China forces.

Smashing Chinas Wok

The comments from the state-owned media are a signal that the Chinese regime is discontent with the billionaires remarks.

The authoritarian regime keeps a close tab on Western businesses that operate in China and often has drastic reactions when it deems any entities to have stepped out of line. These reactions have included exerting pressure on companies to stick to the regimes narrative or boycotting the companies altogether.

In 2019, in response to an undated statement from retail company H&M that said it is deeply concerned by  accusations of forced labor in Xinjiang, the Communist Youth League, following the calling of Chinas state television, initiated a boycott campaign. It came amid reports of the detention of more than 1 million Muslim Uyghurs, along with forced sterilization, forced labor, and torture.

Notably, part of the comment by the Youth League is in almost identical wording to that posted by the Global Times on Tuesday, namely: dont expect to get fed by the Chinese and smash the Chinese wok at the same time.

Following the boycott campaign, H&M was removed from online platforms such as Tmall and Alibaba and has seen significant drops in sales in the country.

In Musks case, the Chinese regimes Tuesday signal had a significant shift in tone from the last time Musk waded into Chinese politics.

In an interview with the Financial Times in October 2022, Musk said that he recommends a special administrative zone for Taiwan that is reasonably palatable and that such an arrangement between Taiwan and the Chinese regime could probably be more lenient than Hong Kong. That comment won support from Chinese propagandists who saw Musks remarks as supportive of the regimes clear intentions to claim Taiwan, a self-ruled democracy, as its own territory.

China is Teslas second-largest market, with a year-to-date average sales of 1,016 daily in 2023, according to Reuters. But the automaker currently faces strong headwinds from competitors in China such as BYD, who have been introducing new models and interior designs in its electric car products.

The Epoch Times contacted Tesla for comment.
China-Linked Hackers Gather More Info Than Spy Balloons: Cyber Security Report

In this undated photo, Chinese soldiers are pictured working at computers. (Source: mil.huanqiu.com)

China-linked hackers are reportedly far more effective than its spy balloons at gathering intelligence, with a newly released report showing how Chinese operatives regularly extract information from computer networks across the globe.

The 2023 Global Threat Report by leading cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike reveals that China-linked cyber-espionage groups are targeting 39 industries on nearly every continent.

According to the research, the majority of the hacking targets Chinas Asian neighbors, with about 25 percent of their efforts directed at North America. The investigation discovered that as cybersecurity has advanced, so too have the methods China utilizes.

The targeted areas in North America incorporate a broad range, from defense, government, and aerospace to pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, and manufacturing.

Theyre endemic at this pointtheyre everywhere, said Adam Meyers, Crowdstrikes head of intelligence.

The intrusions were likely intended to collect strategic intelligence, compromise intellectual property, and further the surveillance of targeted groupsall of which are key Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intelligence goals, the report stated.

According to U.S. officials, the intelligence-gathering activities of the United States only target the networks of its geopolitical adversaries. China, however, also hacks private corporations in order to steal intellectual property.

While such claims have been dismissed by the CCP in the past, they have been affirmed by a top American intelligence official, who said, Hacking remains the chief Chinese espionage activity.

Hacking is where they make their moneythe balloon doesnt even register, said James Lewis, a cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, in an NBC News report.

Upgraded Tactics

According to Meyers, Chinese hackers have upgraded their techniques significantly.

In the past, smash and grab operations dominated, but now sophisticated attempts to obtain credentials and enter networks covertly are common.

According to the data, more than two-thirds of intrusions Crowdstrike recorded in 2022 were malware free, meaning attackers gained access to networks using valid credentials, such as passwords. Typically, such information is obtained by convincing people to open emails or to click on links that include password-stealing URLs.

On June 7 last year, a cybersecurity advisorycoauthored by the National Security Agency (NSA), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)said state-backed Chinese hackers continue to exploit publicly known vulnerabilities, using advanced tactics to bypass defenses and remain undetected.

The agencies pointed out that the hackers allegedly utilize open-source toolssuch as Routersploit and RouterScanas well as known software flaws in networking devices, such as routers.

These devices are often overlooked by cyber defenders, who struggle to maintain and keep pace with routine software patching of Internet-facing services and endpoint devices, according to the agencies.

The advisory (pdf) did not identify the victim companies involved, but did include a list of the common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) most frequently exploited by the Chinese regimes hackers since 2020, together with vulnerability types and the major vendorsCisco, Citrix, D-Link, Fortinet, and Netgear.

According to Breitbart News, the Boston, Massachusetts-based security company Cybereason revealed in May 2022 that a large Chinese intellectual property theft operation known as Operation CuckooBees had taken place.

Hundreds of gigabytes of high-tech intellectual propertyincluding pharmaceutical data and military informationwere stolen by Chinese hackers as part of the operation, the outlet reported.

FBI Warnings

Just last month, a senior FBI officer called on U.S. officials to be on their guard ahead of the next election. The statement came from Cynthia Kaiser, deputy assistant director of the FBIs cyber division. Kaiser said Chinese hackers pose a growing threat, and that American officials could see more Chinese cyber activity against their states as foreign actors search for political intelligence.

She noted that Chinese hackers had scanned the computer infrastructure of both Republicans and Democrats, searching for vulnerabilities. Its unclear if any data was compromised.

Chinese hackers have been waging cyberattacks against the United States for over a decade. The information they have extracted includes personal files on over 4 million U.S. government employees, background information on over 20 million Americans and, most recently, at least $20 million of COVID-19 relief money.

Responding to Kaisers remark, the Chinese embassy in Washington said the Chinese regime does not encourage cyber attacks.

The scale and scope of China-nexus targeted intrusion activity is unlikely to contract in 2023, as cyber espionage remains a critical instrument to support the CCPs strategic and economic ambitions, according to the Crowdstrike report.

Sophia Lam contributed to this report.
China Steps Up Persecution of Christians While Demanding Worship and Obedience of Xi Jinping: Watch Group

2022 saw increased persecution, censorship of believers

Chinese Catholic worshippers kneel and pray during Palm Sunday Mass during the Easter Holy Week at an "underground" or "unofficial" church near Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, China, on April 9, 2017. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ramped up its persecution of Christians during 2022, increasing the suppression of churches and online religious information while demanding devotion to Chinese leader Xi Jinping that amounted to worship, according to a watchdog organization.

A Feb. 13 report by the U.S.-based non-governmental organization ChinaAid highlighted the escalating persecution of Christian churches and Christians in mainland China over the last year.

Eliminating Christian Gatherings

Chinese authorities have used Chinas zero-COVID policies as an excuse to intensify the limiting or elimination of Christian gatherings.

The increased measures not only target independent churches, but also those that belong to the legal Three-Self Patriotic Movement.

China has approximately 96.7 million Christians, according to persecution watchdog Open Doors. It remains illegal for minors under 18 to attend church.

ChinaAids report singled out a police raid at Taiyuan Zion Reformed Churchs Sunday worship service in April, in which seven Christians were taken away.

Citing illegal gatherings, police gave the arrested Christians 15-day administrative detentions and a fine of 500 yuan (about $73), but postponed the administrative detention due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the report stated.

People providing a venue for church meetings were subject to heavy fines as well. For example, in January, Huang Yuanda, a Christian from Xunsiding Church in Xiamen, in southeast China, was fined 100,000 yuan (about $13,800) for providing a rented house for the church school to use.

Censorship of Online Christian Content

The censorship of online Christian content, even in group chats, reached record levels after the Administrative Measures for Internet Religious Information Services took effect in March of 2022, ChinaAid noted.

The group cited a report that a Christian was banned for a year from the DingTalk platform, owned by Alibaba group, for posting religious messages, which were classified as illegal religious information.

In early May, the 21-year-old Christian website Jonahs Home was shut down, the report stated. Visitors to the webpage saw the following message: Due to reasons known to everyone, from now on, this site can no longer serve brothers and sisters (in Christ). Thank you for your company and support in the past 21 years! The disappearance of a website is nothing more than the disappearance of a website. Nothing else stopped at this moment except an URL that can no longer be opened. Therefore, dont worry about us, just keep moving forward.

Under the new law, CathAssist, which in 2013 became Chinas first Catholic mobile app, was forced to shut down.

According to ChinaAid, the app did not meet the governments requirements for the license, despite having taken various actions including suspending sharing, changing its name, and modifying content.

After repeated failed attempts, on Sept. 1, CathAssist decided to indefinitely suspend operations on its website and through the CathAssist app.

Worship of Xi

Religious sinicization is evolving from supporting the CCP to worship and allegiance to Xi Jinping, the report said. It noted that around and after the opening of the Party Congress last year, Chinas state-run religious groups lavished compliments and praise on Xi with more extravagant words and phrases than Chinas state-run media.

Further, ChinaAid noted the National Religious Groups Joint Conference, held Oct. 28shortly after the CCP congressto advance the spirit of the CCPs 20th National Congress.

The agency required religious groups to find concrete ways to armor their minds with Xi Jinpings thoughts regarding Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in the New Era.'

Religious groups are instructed to use Xis thoughts to guide religious work and practice, as well as unite leaders and religious adherents more closely around the CCPs central committeewith comrade Xi at its corethe report said.

Cutting Off Funding

The watch group also noted the new trends of oppression, in which the CCP is using charges of fraud to financially suffocate the house church movement, which consists of Christian congregations that have not registered with Chinas official Protestant church.

The authorities claim that tithing and offerings are illegal, even though such practices have been maintained as a tradition, the report stated.

Under the fabricated charge of fraud, many Christians faced harsh persecution last year. For example, Pastor Hao Zhiwei of Hubei provinces Ezhou House Church was sentenced to eight years in prison. Meanwhile, Elder Hao Ming and Elder Wu Jiannan of Qingcaodi Church in Sichuan province faced heavy sentences of more than 10 years in prison.

Erasing the Church Entirely

ChinaAid president and founder Bob Fu raised concerns that the CCPs goal is not to curate a socialist-friendly church, but to erase the church entirely.

The international community needs to know about these trends and developments as China continues to rise on the global stage, Fu said.
CCP Seeks to Replace US With Tech-Powered Dystopia, Select Committee Hears

Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) speaks during the first hearing on national security and Chinese threats to America held by the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party on Capitol Hill in Washington on Feb. 28, 2023. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images)

Chinas communist regime is engaged in a concerted effort to undermine and replace the United States as the worlds most powerful nation by weaponizing Americans against each other, U.S. lawmakers were told this week.

The House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) convened on Feb. 28 for its first hearing, which was titled The Chinese Communist Partys Threat to America.

Committee Chair Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) described the competition between the United States and the CCP as an existential struggle. The Republican congressman said that the CCP, which rules China as a single-party state, is pitting America against America, hoping to topple the United States from within.

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), the panels ranking Democrat, agreed with the assessment, saying that the regime seeks to exploit political divisions in the United States that are endemic to democratic societies.

The CCP wants us to be fractious, partisan, and prejudiced, Krishnamoorthi said.

We must rise to the occasion and prove them wrong.

To that end, however, Gallagher noted that many powerful and monied interests within the United States had made their fortunes outsourcing U.S. jobs to China, and were pushing back on American efforts to secure itself against the regime.

The CCP has found friends on Wall Street, in Fortune 500 C-suites, and on K Street who are ready and willing to oppose efforts to push back, Gallagher said.

This strategy has worked well in the past, and the CCP is confident it will work again. Our task on this committee is to ensure that it does not.

Tech-Powered Dystopia

Former national security adviser H.R. McMaster testified on the issue, saying that the United States had fallen behind in the strategic competition with the CCP and that continued investments in China by U.S. corporations are underwriting our own demise.

McMaster said that the false promises of liberalization had led to a corporate and political class within America that had largely expected continued investment in China to transform it into a more modern and democratic society.

Instead, he said, the regime has doubled down on its Marxist ideology and is now exporting destructive ideologies to erode support for the West.

To that end, McMaster said that a curriculum of self-loathing, which asserts that the United States is the reason for the worlds problems, has taken hold of much of the popular and academic culture in the West, and prevents the nation from adequately defending itself against continued espionage, theft, and repression by the CCP.

Likewise, Rep. Darin LaHood (R-Ill.) said that corporate America is concerned about the possibility of angering CCP officials, and the regime is exploiting that fear to undermine the United States on the world stage.

China has a plan to replace the United States, LaHood said.

As such, Gallagher said that the select committee would help to coordinate legislative efforts across congressional panels and focus on tackling the CCPs ideological, technological, economic, and military efforts against the United States, its allies, and partners.

The time to prevent the CCP from replacing the United States with a tech-powered dystopia is now, Gallagher said.

The CCP is laser-focused on its vision for the future, Gallagher said. A world crowded with techno-totalitarian surveillance states where human rights are subordinate to the whims of the Party.

For the time being, its still up to us to decide if thats the future we want for our children, but it wont be for much longer. Time is not on our side.

CCP Preparing for War

In addition to seeking to replace the United States, the CCP is also preparing for war, committee members heard.

About the issue of the regimes ambition to invade Taiwan, former deputy national security adviser Matthew Pottinger said that the CCPs military wing, the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA), is preparing for such a conflict, including the possibility that it would have to fight the United States.

The PLA has been receiving massive amounts of investment  to try to fill gaps that they would need to fill to be able to invade Taiwan, he said.

We know that the PLA is training for the likelihood that the U.S. would be part of the fight.

Those capabilities included amphibious and airlift platforms, missiles, and long-range assets designed to deter the United States from entering a war between the CCP and Taiwans democratic government.

Pottinger also noted that CCP leader Xi Jinping regularly praises former CCP leader Mao Zedongs approval of using preemptive strikes against adversaries, and had expressed a willingness to see China destroyed in order to rebuild it without U.S. influence.

When asked whether the regime might attempt a preemptive attack on the United States to prevent it from coming to Taiwans aid, Pottinger said, Its possible.

Theres no longer any excuse for being fooled about Beijings intentions, Pottinger said. The canon of Chairman Xis publicly available statements is too voluminous, and the accumulated actions of his regime too brazen, to be misunderstood at this late hour.

The proverbial fig leaf has blown away, exposing the regime and its deep hostility toward the democratic West and the liberal international order.
Chinas Ceasefire Proposal for the Russia-Ukraine War Aims to Divide the West: Experts

Ukrainian service members ride a BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicle, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, near the frontline town of Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, on Feb. 9, 2023. (Yevhen Titov/Reuters)

The Chinese communist regimes cease-fire proposal for the Russia-Ukraine war has met with skepticism as the international community questions the regimes neutrality.

Experts said the regime is using the peace deal to divide the West.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) published Chinas Position on the Political Settlement of the Ukraine Crisis on the official website of the regimes foreign affairs ministry on Feb. 24.

The CCP listed 12 points in the statement to call a cease-fire between Russia and Ukraine at the one-year anniversary of the war.

The top two points were Respecting the sovereignty of all countries and Abandoning the Cold War mentality.

Neutrality Questioned

China doesnt have much credibility because they have not been able to condemn the illegal invasion of Ukraine, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Estonia on Feb. 24.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (R) and U.S. Secretary for Defense Lloyd J. Austin III participate in a media conference during a meeting of NATO defense ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Oct. 13, 2022. (Olivier Matthys/AP Photo)

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen questioned Chinas neutrality as its been supporting Russia.

We will look at the principles, of course, but we will look at them against the backdrop that China has taken sides, she said.

The United Nations General Assembly approved a non-binding resolution demanding Russia immediately end the war and withdraw its troops from Ukraine. The resolution was approved by 141 votes, but China abstained.

Meanwhile, the United States and NATO also warned China not to supply arms to China.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, made the comments on CNNs State of the Union on Feb. 19.

We welcome the Chinese announcement that they want peace because thats what we always want to pursue in situations like this. But we also have to be clear that if there are any thoughts and efforts by the Chinese and others to provide lethal support to the Russians in their brutal attack against Ukraine, that is unacceptable, Thomas-Greenfield said.

Leverage Against the West

Experts pointed out that China used the ceasefire proposal to show the West that it has the influence to end the Russia-Ukraine war, which the U.S.-led West hasnt been able to achieve. The purpose is to isolate the United States.

China is sending a message to the western countries that It has a way to make a direct dialogue with Russia now, and can even deliver the peace between Russia and Ukraine which the Western European countries want, Yeh Yao-yuan, director of the Department of International Studies and Modern Languages and an associate professor at the University of St. Thomas told The Epoch Times.

Combined with the news that Xi may visit Russia soon, Its sending a signal to other countries that [the CCP] plays a key role in solving [the] Russia and Ukraine conflict, Yeh said.

In the context of the increasing tension between China and the United States he said, To some extent, it uses the peace deal as a weapon and a means of negotiation, [as] leverage to blackmail the Western European countries to let go of sanctions against China and to have closer relations with China, and slowly distance themselves from the United States.

Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (L) pose for a picture ahead of the EU summit in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 2, 2023. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via Reuters)

Michael Clarke, an Australian Defense Studies expert, shares a similar view of Beijings diplomatic maneuver, as he wrote in The Interpreter, an over-estimation of European capitals desire to remain at arms length from deepening Sino-U.S. rivalry and an under-estimation of the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on European security postures and perceptions.

Fan Shih-Ping, a professor at the Department of East Asia, National Taiwan Normal University, told The Epoch Times on Feb. 24 that the CCPs statement has no significance, because it speaks some empty words and general principles.

It does not propose a specific plan, such as whether Russia has to compensate or apologize, he said.

It says to respect the sovereignty of all countries, but doesnt the sovereignty of Ukraine need to be respected? Its vague, he said.

Edward Huang, a Taiwanese financial expert, told The Epoch Times that It actually still blames the Russia-Ukraine War on the Western world to some extent, and its arguments are actually very similar to Russias, especially in its attacking the United States.

It means that the CCP is devoted to supporting Russia to fight this war with Chinas national power, he said.

He added that China-Russia trade is expected to reach more than $200 billion this year, an increase from last years $185 billion.

Katabella Roberts, Ning Haizhong, Luo Ya, and Cheng Jing contributed to this report.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who landed in New Delhi the day before flying from Baku, will begin a three-day visit to the Indian capital on Wednesday. The minister is scheduled to meet with his Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, attend a meeting of the G20 foreign ministers, and conduct a number of bilateral negotiations with partners from China, Brazil, and other countries as part of the trip, Tass informs.

March 1, 2023, 09:42 Lavrov to discuss global challenges, Ukraine with G20 partners in New Delhi

STEPANAKERT, MARCH 1, ARTSAKHPRESS: Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova previously stated, the minister's journey comes against the backdrop of rising global economic risks. In this respect, the Russian side is anticipated to draw the partners' attention at the G20 ministerial meeting hosted by India to the problems of energy and food security, as well as the destructiveness of illegitimate sanctions.

Highly sensitive issues will be on the agenda of bilateral Russian-Indian talks. As anticipated, Lavrov and Jaishankar will pay attention to the issues surrounding the formation of an Asia-Pacific security architecture, the state of affairs in Afghanistan, and the situation in Ukraine.
Chinas Potential to Aid Russias War in Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with China's Director of the Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission Wang Yi at the Kremlin in Moscow on Feb. 22, 2023. (Anton Novoderezhkin/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)

Commentary

A quick survey of Chinas well-stocked pavilions at the International Defense Exhibition (IDEX) in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, from Feb. 20 to Feb. 24 makes clear that the regime in Beijing need only apply a fraction of its military and technical might to enable a Russian victory in Ukraine.

The Biden administration is fearful that this prospect is nigh. On Feb. 19, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that communist China is close to crossing the line and providing lethal aid to help Russias war with Ukraine.

In a Feb. 2 report, The Wall Street Journal, with the help of the C4ADS think tank, reviewed Russian customs records revealing that China has shipped to Russia parts for Mi-8/17 medium helicopters, parts for the radar for S-300 fourth-generation anti-aircraft missiles, and parts for the Sukhoi Su-35 fourth-plus-generation fighter jet.

Chinas well of sales returns that Russia could access is much deeper: more than 1,000 of the anti-aircraft with some anti-missile capability Almaz-Antey fourth and four-plus generation S-300 and S-400 missiles that will deal handily with future transfers of U.S. F-16 fighters to Ukraine and about 300 workhorse Mi-8/17 helicopters that would revive Russian deep offensive operations.

But with an eye on Russia, China, and his upcoming reckoning in the U.S. House of Representatives, President Joe Biden carefully marshaled his Feb. 20 surprise visit to Kyiv to show U.S. support amid the first anniversary of Russias invasion of Ukrainewith Russia on the verge of another massive offensive.

Biden said: Ukraine stands. Democracy stands. The Americans stand with you, and the world stands with you.

He also promised $500 million in new U.S. military aid in addition to $27 billion in American military aid since February 2022, bringing the total to $120 billion from U.S. allies and partners.

What does it mean if China stands with Russia with the same intensity?

A stark warning of Chinas potential to arm Russia was on display at IDEX.

China produces and could immediately ship vast stocks of Russian caliber weapons, from 152 mm and 122 mm artillery shells and 125 mm and 100 mm tank rounds and tank-fired guided missiles, to 122 mm and 300 mm unguided and precision-guided artillery rockets.

Reflecting the IDEX shows dominant theme of unmanned combat systems, Chinese arms concerns offered a plethora of unmanned aircraft, unmanned small helicopters, loitering munitions, and unmanned ground vehiclesall for combat missions.

These could help Russia revive its stalled offensive by enabling better precision for artillery and mortar strikes and reducing horrific Russian casualties that may exceed 200,000 troops.

Ground force weapons producer Norinco prominently displayed its VU-T10 30 mm cannon-armed unmanned tank that could provide a battlefield advantage without wasting more soldiers lives.

Norinco displays its VU-T10 unmanned 30 mm cannon-armed tank, a system that could help Russian offensives and reduce Russian casualties, at the IDEX exhibition, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in February 2023. (Courtesy of Richard Fisher)

Just as important, Chinese companies such as Norinco and Poly can offer five different 50- to 10-kilowatt laser weapons thatcombined with their radar, optical, and computer-controlled command systemscan slap down Ukraines dominant use of drones against Russia.

Chinese export model tanks such as the Norinco VT-4 are armed with 125 mm cannon-launched anti-tank missiles. Still, theyre also equipped with an Active Defense System that could take out Western anti-tank missiles such as the much-vaunted U.S. Javelin, which during the past year has crushed Russian armor in Ukraine.

Even though the Beijing regime feigned opposition to Moscows invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, it was inevitable that China would become a supplier to Russian leader Vladimir Putins ambition to suborn Europe through a revival of the Warsaw Pact domination of the Soviet era.

A Feb. 24 Chinese peace proposal for Ukraine clearly favors Russia by allowing it to keep occupied Ukrainian territory and proposes a ceasefire and demilitarized zone that would favor future Russian offensives.

Norinco could also offer Russia its 2.4-mile range HJ-12 anti-tank guided weapon (top) similar to the U.S. Javelin, or its 3.1-mile range GP125 tank-launched anti-tank missile. (Courtesy of Richard Fisher)

Its possible that Russia and China could coordinate, with China waiting a year before starting massive military aid to better tip the balance of power against a near-exhausted Ukraine.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) requires a Russian victory, whatever that means, to ensure Moscows participation in its looming invasion of Taiwan, which both have been preparing for through many land, air, and sea military exercises.

Beijing must also bring about the defeat of the U.S. and NATO/partner coalition, not just to deter a similar coalition template that may spring into action to aid Taiwan but also to validate the CCPs power to lead and protect its growing military network of largely authoritarian states centered in the growing Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) coalitions.

But by ensuring Russias victory over Ukraine, the CCP goes far to achieve another goal: establishing the perverse moral imperative for the CCPRussia dictatorship complex to contain and diminish all other democracies.

Chinas Type 052DL destroyer is displayed at IDEX for the first time, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in February 2023. China could also sell Russia its Type 052DL destroyer to ensure Moscow assists future Chinese wars for hegemony. (Courtesy of Richard Fisher)

If his leadership rallies Americas allies and helps produce an eventual Ukrainian victory, Bidens surprise visit to Kyiv may be viewed as his finest hour, provided hes willing to give heretofore denied weapons such as fourth-generation combat aircraft and short-range ballistic missiles that can attack deep Russian logistical and command nodes.

But if his visits and additional weapons give the CCP the excuse it seeks to go all-in for providing arms and munitions for Russia, Bidens visit may be seen as the beginning of a new turn, a longer-term global conflict characterized by coordinated Chinese and Russian assaults on democracies, starting with a second major war over Taiwan.

To arrest such a turn, the Biden administration must start by building up U.S. nuclear weapons, as China and Russia are increasing their strategic and regional nuclear forces to coerce the United States from assisting its allies and partners.

Like Putin, the United States should suspend its adherence to former President Barack Obamas 2010 New START strategic arms limitation treaty and replace more than 3,000 nuclear warheads removed from U.S. strategic missiles to comply with that treaty.

Biden must also order the crash production of new U.S. theater nuclear weapons for cruise and ballistic missiles to deter Russia and China from using their superior theater nuclear forces.

The alternative could entail the United States fighting two wars in 2023 and the Pentagon pressing for a revival of the draft.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Chris Rock to Address Will Smiths Oscar Slap in March 4 Live Netflix Special

Comedian Chris Rock is reportedly planning to address the infamous slap during last years Oscars through a Netflix special that will stream just a week before the 2023 Academy Awards.

During the 94th Oscars in 2022, Will Smith got on stage and slapped Rock, who was hosting the show, for a joke Rock made about Smiths wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.

Over the past year, Rock has talked about the incident on brief occasions. During his recent Chris Rock Ego Death World Tour, Rock sprinkled in a few jokes about the slap at a handful of gigs, but mostly stayed away from the subject, Page Six reported.

In a live standup special streaming on Netflix on March 4, Rock is expected to finally address the slap, according to The Wall Street Journal. The Netflix special is only a week ahead of this years Oscars ceremony, which is scheduled for March 12.

The decision to hold a live event where Rock will explore the incident from his perspective in a comedic manner right before the 2023 Oscars has garnered attention due to its timing. However, Robbie Praw, Netflixs vice president of standup and comedy formats, told The Wall Street Journal that the timing is only a coincidence.

It really was a factor of when Chris felt like he was ready and when the technology was ready, Praw said.

The March 4 show will be the first live show offered by Netflix to its global subscribers.

The special, titled Chris Rock: Selective Outrage, will also feature pre- and post-show specials, with celebrities like Jerry Seinfeld, David Spade, and Arsenio Hall making an appearance, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Will Smith (R) hit Chris Rock as Rock spoke on stage during the 94th Academy Awards in Hollywood, Los Angeles, Calif., on March 27, 2022. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)

Will Smiths Reaction

Following the slap incident, Will Smith resigned from the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts, and Sciences. The academy also condemned the actor for the physical attack. Smith was eventually banned from attending the Oscars for 10 years.

During The Daily Show with Trevor Noah in November, Smith admitted that he made a mistake by slapping Rock at the Oscars.

That was a horrific night as you can imagine. Theres many nuances and complexities to it. But at the end of the day, I lost it, Smith told Noah.

I was going through something that night  not that that justifies my behavior at all.  It was a lot of things. It was the little boy that watched his father beat up his mother  all of that just bubbled up in that moment. Thats not who I want to be.
Commending Resolution Brings Closure for Virginia Falun Gong Adherent

FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va.In the hallway of the Virginia General Assembly building, Wang Chunyan, a 67-year-old Chinese refugee, burst into tears and sobbed in the arms of Virginia state Del. Kaye Kory (D-Fairfax).

Shortly before, the delegate had introduced and honored Wang on the House floor. She also sponsored for Wang a commending resolution that passed just two days earlier, on Feb. 21.

Calling Wang an advocate with the courage to expose the tyranny of the Chinese Communist Party, the resolution praised her for her contributions to Virginia and her efforts to promote the cause of human rights and religious liberty and to encourage more people in the Commonwealth to make their own contributions to help maintain our current freedoms.

Usually calm and collected, Wang rarely lets her emotions show in public. But it was different this time.

The persecuted Falun Gong practitioners in China came to her mind, including 20 of her own friends who lost their lives for not giving up their beliefs. I felt I received the commendation on their behalf, Wang told The Epoch Times, adding that she thought of the resolution as a condolence to those who had died and an endorsement of Falun Gongs core valuestruth, compassion, and tolerancewhich have been under attack in China for more than two decades.

Tears flew from my heart, Wang told The Epoch Times. I experienced emotions like none before in my life, as if a bottle of five flavors was knocked over in my heart. In the Chinese idiom, the five flavorssour, sweet, bitter, spicy, and saltyrepresent the different feelings in life.

Our journey has been so difficult, she said, referring to decades of peaceful resistance to the nationwide persecution that then-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Jiang Zemin launched against the spiritual practice in July 1999. Jiang began the campaign with so much force that he didnt expect Falun Gong to last more than three days. Yet, Falun Gong didnt disappear in China, not even by the time he died, 20-plus years later, in November 2022.

Wang is one of the Falun Gong practitioners whose lives were turned upside down; an estimated 100 million people had taken up the practice before the persecution. Since 1999, she has lost her husband of 21 years and her life savings to the persecution.

During the Feb. 23 House session, Kory introduced Wang as a survivor of the slave camps in communist China and an example of a very tough survivor with the will to help othersand not just an example of that, but an example of what we can all aspire to.

Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert thanked Wang for her attendance and added, If any of you wonder why we push back against the Peoples Republic of China at the state legislative level, theres a great example.

Wang Chunyan (L) with Virginia state Del. Kaye Kory (D-Fairfax) at the Capitol Rotunda in Richmond, Va., on Feb. 23, 2023. (Courtesy of Wang Chunyan)

Silent Strength

Sixteen years ago in China, policemen at a detention center told Wang that she might die in prison if she held onto her belief, Wang recounted to The Epoch Times. She responded with a smile: Thats all right. I will take it as a change of lifestyle. Before her trial, she was reminded again that she could retain all her assets if she signed paperwork to give up her practice of Falun Gong. Wang refused; as a result, she was sentenced to five years in prison in August 2007.

It wasnt that she wasnt afraid, she said. The memory of being a prisoner of conscience wasnt in the distant past; she had suffered in prison from 2002 to 2004. Each day, she didnt know whether she would survive the next.

During the first month of imprisonment in the Dalian Detention Center in northeast Chinas Liaoning Province in 2002, three prisoners took turns beating her with a three-foot-long club made with two iron rods of about one-inch diameter twisted together. The beating lasted for about three hours, until she ran and hit her head against the wall in desperation. The torture session left her back soaked with blood. During the two years at the Liaoning Womens Prison, she made Christmas ornaments and jackets for export.

At the same prison in 2008, she refused to do forced labor and was thrown into solitary confinement, where she suffered a heart attack and was unconscious for hours. In June 2012, two months before her jail term would be over, a lecturer from a local brainwashing center visited Wang. He said he would be waiting for her the day of her release and take her straight to his brainwashing class.

I almost died several times in the prison and would be released soon. However, they still wanted to destroy me mentally and physically. I felt so despairing and had another heart attack, Wang recalled. I could not say a word, but my tears were running uncontrollably. The lecturer saw that and left me right away. After she was released on Aug. 15, 2012, she started looking for ways to leave China. In May 2013, she managed to escape to Thailand. On her first day there, she applied for U.N. refugee status.

Ultimately, she overcame the persecution in China without denouncing her belief.

After entering the United States as a U.N. refugee in November 2015, she carried on with the same spirit. The first public events she participated in were a forum a month later and another in the following May in congressional buildings in Washington, exposing the CCPs tyranny. Later, she joined many events calling for the release of detained Falun Gong practitioners whose family members lived in the D.C. area.

Wang Chunyan, a Chinese refugee currently living in Virginia, shows photos, of 16 friends who practiced Falun Gong and died of persecution in China, at a forum in the Rayburn Congressional Building in Washington on May 26, 2016. (Lisa Fan/The Epoch Times)

From late 2020 to 2021, the retired businesswoman and her friends collected more than 5,000 signatures in support of local resolutions in more than 20 Virginia counties, condemning the persecution of Falun Gong in China. These local resolutions led to a unanimously passed Virginia House resolution on the same issue last year. Kory was the chief co-patron of the resolution.

Kory told The Epoch Times: I felt overwhelmed, but also honored that she was willing to be so authentic with me. And I know shes been through so much. And her tears were of pain and joy.

Kory said she thought of silent strength when thinking of Wang: I think she mostly keeps her pain to herself. And the reason that she came to the General Assembly was to support the ideals that she has, not to talk about herself. Thats what I meant by silent.

That kind of perseverance, which is relatively without ego, is very impressive.

Wang recalled collecting those signatures in shopping malls across Virginia in the summer of 2021: I couldnt clearly see the path ahead and my next steps. I just thought that I could at least inform people of the facts of the persecution, which were so hard to come by in China. My path is clearer now in hindsight. So [getting the commending resolution] is, in a way, closure for me.

She said she would continue to expose the CCPs tyranny and help Americans see the harm of communism.
Congresswoman Calls on State Department to Help Free Florida Familys Loved One Detained in China

Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Feb. 1, 2023. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) is urging the State Department to do more to help a Florida familys husband and father who has been detained in China for nearly two years for his faith.

Zhou Deyong, a geological engineer, was arrested in a police sweep targeting Falun Gong practitioners and their family members in eastern Chinas Shandong Province in April 2021. He was then placed in the provinces Binhai Detention Center for over a year before being put on trial in August 2022.

His wife You Ling and his son Zhou You currently reside in Florida. Zhou came to the United States to visit them in 2020, before traveling back to China to take care of his ailing parents.

Zhou Deyong and You Ling in Monument Valley in Navajo County, Ariz., in January 2020. (Courtesy of Zhou You)

The State Department should put all its effort to try to release not only this individual, but anyone who is under those conditions, said Salazar in a Feb. 28 interview with NTD.

I would certainly hope that he will be released, Salazar added. I mean, could you be in jail just for meditating? It only happens in the Chinese communist country.

Falun Gong

In September last year, Salazar was one of eight lawmakers who sent a letter to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, expressing concerns for Zhous welfare in Chinese custody. They pointed out how the Chinese regime has subjected Falun Gong practitioners to arbitrary detention, torture, sexual assault, and slave labor, in its ongoing effort to eliminate the group.

The lawmakers wanted Blinken to direct Nicholas Burns, the U.S. ambassador to China, to raise Zhous case with his Chinese counterparts and call for his unconditional release.

Over 1,000 Falun Gong practitioners hold a candlelight vigil at the Washington Monument on July 21, 2022. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline with slow meditative exercises and moral teachings centered on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. The practice was very popular in China, with an estimated 70 million to 100 million people taking it up by 1999, according to official estimates.

Seeing the practices popularity as a threat, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched an expansive campaign of persecution targeting practitioners on July 20, 1999.

Now, more than 23 years later, the CCP has not slowed down its persecution campaign. In 2022, at least 172 Falun Gong practitioners were persecuted to death, at least 633 practitioners were handed prison sentences, and at least 240 were forcibly sent to brainwashing centers, according to Minghui.org, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization dedicated to reporting on the persecution of the group in China.

Over the years, many Falun Gong practitioners have been killed as they became victims of the Chinese regimes organ-harvesting industry.

Read More How Chinas Operating Rooms Became Execution Chambers

China

Zhous case underscores a real threat posed by the communist regime in China, according to the congresswoman.

The threat of the socialist, neo-Marxist, communist ideology is very present, Salazar said. China is one of the actors trying to penetrate and to peddle that ideology into our civil society and into our youth. So thats why were here. We choose America, we choose freedom.

In late January, Salazar and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) introduced House Concurrent Resolution 9, to denounce the horrors and failures of socialism. The bill was passed on Feb. 2 following a 32786 vote, with all Republicans and 109 Democrats supporting the measure.

The passage of this resolution is a victory for anyone in the United States who believes in the power of individual liberty over the oppressive statism of socialism, said Salazar in a statement after the vote. We sent a strong message to the world that socialism has no home in the United States.

Salazar has also been active in legislation to confront Chinas related issues.

In early February, she was one of the original co-sponsors of a House bill (H.R.809) that would prevent entities with ties to Beijing from buying farmland in the United States.

Read More China Buys Up US Farmland by Exploiting Loopholes to Undermine US National Security: Security Expert

The congresswoman also teamed up with Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) to address challenges posed by Chinese ports in the Western hemisphere in February 2022, when they introduced a bill that would require the secretary of state, the secretary of defense, and the director of National Intelligence to deliver a report to congressional committees. The report would identify ports under Chinas control and their military capability.

China has started infiltrating ports across Latin America through predatory lending schemes that harm countries and put key national infrastructure at risk, Salazar said in a statement accompanying the legislation. The United States will be safer because we are working to ensure that China cannot put naval bases near American shores.

The Epoch Times has reached out to the State Department for comment.
CRTC to Conduct Forensic-Level Review of Rogers Communications Following 2022 Blackout

The Rogers Communications Inc. sign at the company's headquarters in Toronto, in a file photo. (The Canadian Press/Aaron Vincent Elkaim)

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) will conduct a forensic level technical review of the Rogers Communications Inc. blackout in July 2022 that affected millions of Canadians and left many without internet access and ability to make phone calls for days.

The CRTC is seeking to evaluate the resiliency of Rogers telecommunications network architecture and business management processes in relation to causes of the July 8, 2022 outage, the commission wrote in a notice to contractors obtained by Blacklocks Reporter.

The notice says the CRTC will also evaluate whether the changes proposed by Rogers in response to this network outage are sufficient to make the network more resilient or if Rogers requires additional specific measures to prevent major outages in the future.

This network outage left more than 10 million customers of Rogers without connectivity all over Canada, the commission wrote, adding that even customers of other telecom networks, along with businesses and financial institutions that rely on Rogers for network connectivity, were also affected.

The network outage began on the morning of July 8, 2022, and Rogers said it had resolved most of the network blackouts by the morning of July 9. Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri attributed the nationwide outage to a network system failure followed a maintenance update to its core network.

The company didnt disclose how many customers were affected in total.

In 2021, Rogers had over 11 million wireless subscribers and close to 3 million internet subscribers.

Measures

As a measure in response to the Rogers nationwide network blackout, Canadas major telecom companies reached a formal agreement in September 2022 to ensure emergency roaming in the case of another major blackout.

Minister of Innovation Francois-Philippe Champagne also said the agreement includes a commitment by companies to provide clear and timely communications to keep Canadians and appropriate authorities informed about response and restoration during major network outages.

Champagne also said at the time that he was giving the Canadian Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee six months to come up with further measures that would ensure greater telecom network reliability across Canada.

Were not going to rest. Trust me. Were going to hold them accountable and take any measures we can to strengthen resiliency, Champagne said on Sept. 7, 2022.

Rogers is currently in the midst of a deal that would see it acquire rival Canadian telecom company Shaw Communications in a buyout worth $26 billion.

However, the deal still requires Champagnes approval if it is to go through, and the minister said in February that he is still considering whether or not he will allow it.

In due course, he told reporters in Ottawa on Feb. 17 when asked when he will make his decision.

Im not bound by any artificial deadline, he said. Im the regulator. Its going to come whenever its going to come.

Andrew Chen and The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
Danish Parliament Urges to Remove TikTok Over Cybersecurity

A visitor passes the TikTok exhibition stands at the Gamescom computer gaming fair in Cologne, Germany, on Aug. 25, 2022. (Martin Meissner/AP Photo)

COPENHAGEN, DenmarkThe Danish parliament on Tuesday urged lawmakers and employees with the 179-member assembly against having TikTok on work phones as a cybersecurity measure, saying there is a risk of espionage.

The popular video-sharing app, which is Chinese-owned, faces intensifying scrutiny from Europe and the United States over security and data privacy amid worries that TikTok could be used to promote pro-Chinese Communist party views or sweep up users information.

Danish parliamentary Speaker Sren Gade said that an email had been sent out Tuesday to lawmakers and employees with a strong recommendation that you delete the TikTok app if you have previously installed it.

The assembly acted after an assessment from Denmarks Center for Cyber Security, which had said there was a risk of espionage. The agency is part of Denmarks foreign intelligence service.

We adapt accordingly, Gade said in a statement.

It wasnt immediately known how many Danish lawmakers have TikTok installed. In recent days, several politicians have publicly announced that they had deleted the app from their work phone for cybersecurity reasons.

Earlier this month, the European Unions executive branch said it has temporarily banned TikTok from phones used by employees as a cybersecurity measure.

The EUs action follows similar moves in the United States, where more than half of the countrys 50 states and Congress have banned TikTok from official government devices.

In Norway, which isnt a member of the 27-nation EU, the justice minister was forced to apologize this month for failing to disclose that she had installed TikTok on her government-issued phone.
Delaware Not Entitled to Seize Funds From Unclaimed Money Orders Purchased Elsewhere, SCOTUS Rules

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson testifies on her nomination to become an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court during the Senate Judiciary confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 22, 2022. (Mandel Ngan-Pool/Getty Images)

The Supreme Court sided with 30 states that challenged Delawares practice of seizing unclaimed funds from customers of payments giant MoneyGram, ruling on Feb. 28 that the money left over from abandoned money orders may be taken by the state in which the money order was purchased.

Because MoneyGram is incorporated in Delaware, that state reasoned that it was entitled to the abandoned funds from unclaimed financial instruments such as money orders issued by the company. Delaware, the home state of President Joe Biden, is a center for financial services companies and with its business-friendly courts is where many of the nations largest businesses are incorporated.

One of several states that do not levy a retail sales tax, Delaware relies heavily on unclaimed assets to fill its budgetary gaps. Unclaimed property reportedly accounted for $448 million of the state governments $5.4 billion in revenue in 2021.

Pennsylvania and other states sued to stop Delaware, claiming it was taking the money in violation of the Disposition of Abandoned Money Orders and Travelers Checks Act of 1974, also known as the Federal Disposition Act or FDA.

The new decision (pdf) written by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who was appointed last year by Biden, is the first majority opinion she has authored since joining the court. The opinion was unanimous.

Under the ancient legal principle of escheatment, a state may take custody of property deemed abandoned. Although a state may generally take abandoned property found in the state, Jackson wrote that the Federal Disposition Act generally favors the claim of the state where the money order was purchased.

Jackson noted that the challenging states said Delaware took $250 million between 2002 and 2017 under escheatment rules but had the FDA statute been followed, it would have been entitled to keep only about $1 million of that total.

Delaware had argued that the financial instruments in dispute, called official checks, were not money orders because they were sold under different names.

A special master appointed by the Supreme Court to hear the case, Judge Pierre Leval of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, initially agreed with the challenging states but later changed his mind, embracing Delawares position that the instruments were third-party bank checks and not money orders.

Jackson disagreed with Leval, saying that the instruments were similar to money orders because they facilitated the payment of a prepaid sum to a specific individual.

The real question is which differences and similarities matter. And none of the differences Delaware identifies relates to the statutory text or ordinary meaning of a money order, nor do they otherwise undermine the [courts] analysis of similarity, the justice wrote.

Because individual states lack jurisdiction over each other, state courts cannot hear cases dealing with another state, so the U.S. Constitution allows the Supreme Court to hear disputes between states. Exercising its so-called original jurisdiction, the court agreed to take up the case in 2016.

The attorney general of Arkansas, one of the states challenging Delaware, hailed the new decision.

This is an important win for Arkansas and our coalition of states, Tim Griffin, a Republican, said in a Feb. 28 statement to The Epoch Times.

For the past decade, Delaware has claimed millions of dollars that rightfully belong to us, and that money will now go where it belongs. Im proud to lead this bipartisan coalition as we applaud todays unanimous victory in the Supreme Court.

The Epoch Times reached out for comment to the counsel of record for Delaware but had not received a reply as of press time.

But Brenda Mayrack, director of Delawares Office of Unclaimed Property, told The Philadelphia Inquirer that Delaware was disappointed in the ruling.

Calculating how much the state may have to pay, involves data from many sources, and may be complex and take some time, she said.

The case is Delaware v. Pennsylvania, court file 22O145.
Democrats Propose New Regulations for Trains Carrying Hazardous Materials

A tank car sits on a trailer as the cleanup of portions of a Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed over a week ago continues in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 15, 2023. (Gene J. Puskar/AP Photo)

Two House Democrats proposed a measure on Tuesday that would tighten regulations for trains carrying hazardous materials in response to the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, last month.

Reps. Ro Khanna (Calif.) and Chris Deluzio (Pa.) introduced the Decreasing Emergency Railroad Accident Instances Locally (DERAIL) Act after residents of their states were left worried about their safety and livelihoods.

The DERAIL Act (pdf) aims to broaden the definition of the high-hazard flammable train (HHFT) classification for trains carrying hazardous materials in a bid to ensure rail carriers take necessary safety precautions.

The legislation proposes to add Class 2 flammable gases to the U.S. Department of Transportations (DOT) HHFT definition (pdf) and gives the Secretary of Transportation the authority to add other materials as necessary for safety.

The DOTs definition of an HHFT would also be broadened to include a train with a single rail car carrying hazardous material, whereas the current definition requires at least 20 consecutive cars to qualify, or 35 cars in total.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) speaks during a press conference at Capitol Hill in Washington on April 4, 2019. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

The proposed regulations would include slower speeds, newer rail cars, and better braking equipment when transporting hazardous materials across the country.

Further, rail carriers would also be required to report to the National Response Center, state officials, and local officials within 24 hours after a train carrying toxic chemicals derails.

The people in East Palestine and western Pennsylvania are the working-class folks who feel invisible and abandoned by our nation, Khanna said in a statement. Im proud to introduce this legislation to expand our safety regulations and help prevent against this type of disaster in the future.

The Norfolk Southern derailment occurred near the Ohio-Pennsylvannia border. Deluzio said that his constituents who live, work, and play in Beaver County, Pennsylvanianear the crash sitereported concerns about their health, livelihoods, air, water, and soil.

They want answers, accountability, and assurance that something like this will never happen again, Deluzio said.

Deluzio called for tighter regulations of the railroads, saying they have prioritized profit ahead of public safety and their workers for too long.

Some of the derailed Norfolk Southern freight train cars in the process of being cleaned up in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 9, 2023. (Gene J. Puskar/AP Photo)

Bill Expands the Definition of High-Hazard Flammable Train

The Norfolk Southern train carried 11 tank cars with hazardous chemicals. Among these were five tank cars containing vinyl chloride, a Class 2 flammable gas, and two tank cars with benzene residue, a Class 3 flammable liquid.

The pair of Democrats highlighted that despite carrying highly flammable materials in several tank cars, the train was not classified as an HHFT according to current regulations, meaning it was not subject to stricter safety regulations.

This legislation is an important step forward to finally strengthen our rail regulations and improve rail safety in communities like Western Pennsylvania and across America, Deluzio said.

Days after the train derailed on Feb. 3, crews burned off the toxic chemicals in a controlled release to avoid an explosion. These included the cancer-causing vinyl chloride transported in the train cars.

The controlled release resulted in a plume of black smoke, leading to concerns about the environmental impact, including the air, land, and water quality in the immediate vicinity.

A black plume rises over East Palestine, Ohio, as a result of a controlled detonation of a portion of the derailed Norfolk Southern trains on Feb. 6, 2023. (Gene J. Puskar/AP Photo)

Locals were urged to evacuate their homes during the burn-off, but some people reported health reactions like rashes, nausea, and headaches upon return. Some also reported that the areas animals, including livestock, were getting sick or dying.

Officials have stated that air testing in the village and hundreds of homes has not found worrying levels of contaminants, and the state has confirmed that the local municipal drinking water system is safe. However, despite these assurances, many residents remain concerned about their exposure and the potential impact on the area.

The DERAIL Act has garnered support from Greg Hynes, the national legislative director of SMART Transportation Division, the union representing the rail workers on the train that derailed, and David Masur, the executive director of PennEnvironment.

Masur said the legislation would take reasonable and crucial measures to enhance reporting and increase public knowledge of dangerous and volatile materials.

As the derailment and explosion in East Palestine, Ohio showed us, federal laws excluding freight companies from reporting the dangerous and explosive materials that they are carrying have loopholes large enough to drive a train through, Masur said.

Toxic Waste Removal

EPA officials said Monday that contaminated waste from the derailment would be taken to an incinerator in Grafton, Ohio, and a landfill in Roachdale, Indiana, both hundreds of miles away.

According to Debra Shore, an EPA regional administrator, sufficient certified facilities are now available to dispose of all waste from the site. The remaining liquid waste is going to a Vickery, Ohio, facility, while Norfolk Southern is shipping solid waste to an East Liverpool, Ohio, incinerator.

Critical of the plan, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb said he wasnt aware that the EPA intended to move the contaminated waste across the entirety of his state. He claimed the EPA hadnt informed him of the plan.

The CEO of Norfolk Southern, which faces several lawsuits in the wake of the crash, has said in a letter to local residents that the company would stay to clean up the spill. The EPA ordered the railroad to clean up the chemicals from the water and soil around the train crash site.

Jack Phillips contributed to this report.
Dress Code Too Vague to Stop Teacher With Oversized Prosthetic Breasts, Says Parent

A long-awaited professionalism policy meant to address complaints over an Ontario teachers controversial attire does not include any explicit mention of dress. Parents who have called for a dress code are not satisfied.

The Halton District School Boards draft professionalism policy, which was sent out to parents on Feb. 24, gives only guiding principles quoted from already existing policies.

For example, it says a teacher should model positive behaviour and create a learning environment free from distractions, as described in the boards existing code of conduct. It quotes the Ontario College of Teachers Act regarding being sensitive to factors that influence individual learning.

Guiding principles are not enough as that leaves room for interpretation. Covering of nipples and genitalia as is used in the student dress code would be appropriate and clear, although it seems outrageous that one would have to cite this, parent Julia de Winter told The Epoch Times. Some individuals do not understand what is appropriate, which is why we are in this current situation.

De Winter is part of a parent group called Students First Ontario formed after a shop teacher at Oakville Trafalgar High SchoolKayla Lemieux, formerly Kerry Lemieuxmade international headlines starting in September.

Teacher Speaks Out

The prevailing assumption has been that Lemieuxs very large breasts with protruding nipples are prosthetic, though Lemieux recently told the New York Post they are real. Lemieux told the Post the breasts grew after taking estrogen and may have grown so large because I have XX chromosomes as well, as an intersex, rather than transgendered person.

Lemieux declined to comment when the Post asked about the perennially protruding nipples.

What is this individuals strategy around sharing this information now? de Winter asked. Im genuinely surprised that this individual has waited this long to share this information.

Even if the teacher does not or cannot remove the breasts, the dress code may have some effect. If a correct, clear, professional attire policy comes through, then I feel that the individual will have to wear professional attire that accommodates their body regardless of shape and size, de Winter said.

Criticisms of Lemieuxs attire have included that the teacher wears tight shirts making the nipples visible.

De Winter said there should be a clear policy, not a guideline, and that consequences should also be clear. The employee should not be allowed on work property should they not follow the clear policynot a guideline.

In an email to parents accompanying the draft policy, the school board said, While these guiding principles exist, this particular policy will consolidate and affirm existing expectations regarding staff professionalism in school settings and at school-based activities.

Backlash

At a Halton District School Board (HDSB) meeting on March 1, Director of Education Curtis Ennis is expected to present the draft policy and answer questions about enforcement. The draft will be open to public comment until March 12.

At a contentious board meeting open to the public on Feb. 15, parents yelled criticisms at the board for failing to act even as the school has received a string of bomb threats in relation to the teacher throughout the school year.

HDSB spokesperson Heather Francey told The Epoch Times following a Feb. 15 bomb threat, The HDSB and police continue to work in partnership to ensure the ongoing safety and well-being of students and staff.

At the Feb. 15 meeting, Chair Margo Shuttlesworth asked Ennis to come to the March 1 meeting with more details on enforcement and timelines for implementing the policy. Ennis had said a statutory freeze currently in place due to labour negotiations makes it impossible to implement a new policy immediately.

Education Minister Stephen Lecce has expressed his disapproval of the teachers attire and HDSBs handling of the situation on multiple occasions, including most recently at Queens Park on Feb. 21. Its unacceptable and an abdication of responsibility of the school board for not defending and upholding the interests of children, he said, according to the Toronto Star.

Three Progressive Conservative MPPs issued a statement Feb. 28 calling on HDSB to take action. Following numerous threats to Oakville Trafalgar High School, we echo the statement made last week by Education Minister Stephen Lecce, the HDSB has abdicated its responsibility by failing to put the interests and safety of students first.

Students First Ontario has a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds for legal action. It says, Please help us cover our legal fees as we continue to defend open inquiry, transparency and accountability at the Halton District School Board.
Driver Extricated From Overturned Vehicle Off I-5 in La Jolla

Cars travel north towards Los Angeles on interstate highway 5 in San Diego, Calif., on Feb. 10, 2016. (Mike Blake/Reuters)

Firefighters extricated a person who suffered serious injuries from an overturned vehicle from southbound Interstate 5 in La Jolla, California, Mar. 1, officials said.

The San Diego Fire Department received a report at around 6:45 a.m. about the crash and an overturned vehicle with the driver still inside on southbound Interstate 5.

The vehicle went down an embankment and landed on its roof, trapping the driver, according to the fire department. Crews worked to free the driver at 7 a.m.

The victim, who was not identified, was rushed to Scripps Memorial Hospital to be treated for serious injuries, according to the department.

No other details were immediately available.

City News Service contributed to this report.
On February 28, scientific-educational readings dedicated to the 35th anniversary of the Sumgait pogroms were held in the Artsakh State University.

March 1, 2023, 10:43 "Sumgait Crime. A story to know." Scientific Readings Organized in Stepanakert

STEPANAKERT, MARCH 1, ARTSAKHPRESS: As "Artsakhpress" informs, the event entitled "Sumgait Crime. A story to know" was organized by the head of the Department of History and Political Science, Nune Sarumyan. She noted that events related to the Sumgait crime were presented to the students as part of the scientific-educational readings.

"The massacre was planned to be carried out in Artsakh, but since demonstrations were taking place here in February 1988, and the Azerbaijani authorities could not carry out the genocide in Stepanakert, because it had become the focus of events, they demonstrated their genocidal behavior in the city of Sumgait. It continued in Baku, Kirovabad, Shamakhi and other Armenian settlements. With that crime, the Azerbaijani authorities tried to silence the Artsakh Armenians, to force them to give up their right to self-determination," said N. Sarumyan.

Recalling the days of February 1988, the historian presented that there were foreigners in the ranks of the military controlling the movement, who did not understand Armenian, but gave a sign in Russian that something would happen soon. "The slaughter that was planned to be carried out in Artsakh was stopped with the mediation of the central government. However, at that time, troops landed on Admiral Isakov Street in Stepanakert, shots were fired, a murder was committed, after which the troops were immediately withdrawn, and people in blue berets came to establish peace,our interlocutor introduced.

In the context of examining the historical events, the speaker highlighted the importance of learning from the events of Sumgait, noting that the unity of the youth should be at the core of the activities, because only thanks to the unity the nation can achieve successes.
EPA to Move East Palestine Chemical Waste to Another State

A tank car sits on a trailer as the cleanup of portions of a Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed over a week ago continues in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 15, 2023. (Gene J. Puskar/AP Photo)

Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb criticized a plan from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to move waste from the derailed train site in East Palestine, Ohio, to a landfill in Indiana.

Officials from the EPA told media outlets Monday that contaminated waste the derailment will be taken to an incinerator in Grafton, Ohio, and a landfill in Roachdale, Indiana. Both locations are hundreds of miles away from East Palestine.

The EPA now is getting close to having enough certified facilities to take all of the waste from the site of the Feb. 3 derailment in East Palestine, Debra Shore, a regional administrator with the agency, told The Associated Press. Some of the remaining liquid waste is going to a facility in Vickery, Ohio, for disposal in an underground injection well. Norfolk Southern is also shipping solid waste to an incinerator in East Liverpool, Ohio, officials also said.

On Tuesday, Holcomb said that the material would have to be transported across the entirety of his state. The EPA, he claimed, has not spoken with him about the plan.

After learning third-hand that materials may be transported to our state yesterday, I directed my environmental director to reach out to the agency, Holcomb said in a release. The materials should go to the nearest facilities, not moved from the far eastern side of Ohio to the far western side of Indiana. I have made a request to speak to the administrator to discuss this matter. I want to know exactly what precautions will be taken in the transport and disposition of the materials.

What would be carried to the Indiana site is not clear. Norfolk Southern told the EPA in a letter earlier this month that vinyl chloride, ethylhexyl acrylate, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, and other chemicals were being carried by the train.

As of Tuesday, the EPA has not issued a public response to Holcombs statement. The Epoch Times has contacted the EPA for comment.

No one was injured when 38 rail cars derailed more than three weeks ago. Amid fears of a potential explosion, officials opted to release and burn vinyl chloride from five tanker cars, sending toxic black smoke billowing into the sky that could be seen for miles.

A black plume rises over East Palestine, Ohio, as a result of a controlled detonation of a portion of the derailed Norfolk Southern trains, on Feb. 6, 2023. (Gene J. Puskar/AP Photo)

When officials burned the vinyl chloride, they evacuated East Palestine. Residents were allowed to return home days later, and many complained of a range of health problems, including bronchitis, rashes, nausea, headaches, and other conditions.

Animals have been impacted, too, according to locals. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources said last week that tens of thousands of of small fish were found dead in East Palestine after the derailment and release of the chemicals on board.

Federal and state officials have repeatedly said air testing in the village and inside hundreds of homes hasnt detected any concerning levels of contaminants. The state also has said the local municipal drinking water system is safe. Despite assurances, many residents are worried about what they were exposed to and how it will impact the area.

Last week, researchers with Texas A&M University and Carnegie Mellon University produced an analysis that concentrations of nine of about 50 chemicals on the train are higher than normal. A spokesperson for the EPA told The Epoch Times that its data shows that 79 monitored chemicals are below levels of concern, referring to chemicals that would present short-term adverse health impacts.

The spokesperson noted that the researchers findings assume a lifetime of exposure, which is constant exposure over approximately 70 years. The EPA doesnt anticipate such chemicals to remain elevated for anywhere that long, the spokesperson said.

We are committed to staying in East Palestine and will continue to monitor the air inside and outside of homes to ensure that these levels remain safe over time, it said.

In the meantime, the EPA ordered Norfolk Southern, the operator of the train, to conduct a cleanup of the chemicals from the water and soil around the train crash site. Norfolk Southern has faced a number of lawsuits after the derailment, while its CEO released a letter to East Palestine residents saying the company will stick around for the cleanup.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
COVID-19 Likely Originated From Chinese Lab: FBI Director

FBI Director Christopher Wray speaks during a press conference to announce an international ransomware enforcement action, at the Justice Department in Washington, on Jan. 26, 2023. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

FBI Director Christopher Wray has confirmed that the bureau assessed the COVID-19 pandemic likely resulted from a lab incident in Wuhan, China.

The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origin of the pandemic are [sic] most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan, Wray told Fox News host Bret Baier in an interview late Tuesday.

Lets step back for a second. You know, the FBI has folksagents, professionals, analysts, virologists, microbiologist, etc.who focus specifically on the dangers of biological threats, which include things like novel viruses like COVID and the concerns that theyre in the wrong handssome bad guys, a hostile nation state, a terrorist, a criminalthe threats that those could pose, he said. Here youre talking about a potential leak from a Chinese government-controlled lab that killed millions of Americans.

I should add that the work related to this continues and there are not a whole lot [of] details that are unclassified.

Wray also said he believes the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been interfering with efforts by the United States and other foreign nations to investigate the origins of COVID-19.

The Chinese government, it seems to me, has been doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate the work herethe work that were doing, the work that our U.S. government and close foreign partners are doing. And thats unfortunate for everybody.

The FBIs Twitter account announced late Tuesday that Wray confirmed that the Bureau has assessed that the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic likely originated from a lab incident in Wuhan, China.

#FBI Director Wray confirmed that the Bureau has assessed that the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic likely originated from a lab incident in Wuhan, China. pic.twitter.com/LcBVNU7vmO  FBI (@FBI) March 1, 2023

Wrays comments come just days after the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released a classified report to the White House and key members of Congress that concluded the virus mostly likely came from a lab leak, reported the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Feb. 26, citing unnamed sources. The new conclusion was reportedly reached due to new intelligence, according to the outlet.

Intelligence officials told WSJ and CNN there is low confidence in the conclusion. The FBI, according to WSJ, had previously concluded that COVID-19 originated from a Wuhan lab with moderate confidence.

According to the WSJ, the FBI made its determination for different reasons compared to the DOE. Meanwhile, four other U.S. agencies and the National Intelligence Council currently believe COVID-19 resulted from natural transmission from animals to humans at a wet market in Wuhan, and two other agencies, one of which is the CIA, are undecided, per the outlet.

The Epoch Times has reached out to the DOE for comment. A DOE spokesperson told WSJ and CNN that the department continues to support the thorough, careful, and objective work of our intelligence professionals in investigating the origins of COVID-19, as the president directed.

China has long dismissed the possibility of a lab leak. In response to the WSJ report, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Feb. 27: The origin of the novel coronavirus is a scientific issue and should not be politicized.

The origin of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, has been a contentious topic since the start of the global pandemic in early 2020.

This aerial view shows the P4 laboratory (L) on the campus of the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, in Chinas central Hubei Province, on May 13, 2020. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)

The Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), located in central Chinas Wuhan city, is at the center of questions surrounding the origins of the virus. The CCP has never allowed independent investigation into the facility.

Virologist Shi Zhengli, the director of the Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases at the WIV, also known as Chinas bat woman, has also been prominent in the discussions surrounding COVID-19s origins. For over a decade, Shi has been testing how different coronaviruses from animals can infect humans.

The WIV, which houses a P4 lab (the highest biosafety level), has denied having ties to Chinas military.

But for years, it has worked with military leaders on a state-sponsored project conducting laboratory animal experiments.

Separately, a fact sheet by the U.S. State Department in January 2021 stated that the WIV has engaged in laboratory animal experiments on behalf of the Chinese military since at least 2017, and worked on gain-of-function research to engineer chimeric viruses.

According to the January 2021 fact sheet, in the autumn of 2019, several researchers at WIV fell ill with symptoms similar to those caused by COVID-19.

Furthermore, during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, Beijing sent Chen Wei, a top Chinese expert in biology and chemical weapon defenses, to take over the lab. Wei is a major general for the Peoples Liberation Army, which is the CCPs military wing.

Jackson Richman contributed to this report.
Former FTX Executive Is 3rd to Plead Guilty in Cooperation Deal

The FTX logo and mobile app adverts are displayed on screens in London on Nov. 10, 2022. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)

NEW YORKThe former engineering director at FTX pleaded guilty to charges including conspiracy and wire fraud Tuesday, becoming the third executive from the collapsed cryptocurrency giant to strike a cooperation deal with prosecutors building a case against the companys founder, Sam Bankman-Fried.

The plea by Nishad Singh, 27, in what authorities have labeled one of the biggest frauds in history, encompasses charges that carry potential penalties of up to 75 years in prison if he fails to fully cooperate, including by testifying at any trials.

Singhs plea underscores once again that the crimes at FTX were vast in scope and consequence, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.

They rocked our financial markets with a multibillion-dollar fraud. And they corrupted our politics with tens of millions of dollars in illegal straw campaign contributions, he said. These crimes demand swift and certain justice and that is exactly what we are seeking in the Southern District of New York.

Among the charges Singh pled guilty to were conspiracy to make unlawful political contributions and to defraud the Federal Election Commission. Prosecutors alleged Singh contributed to candidates and political committees and reported those contributions to the FEC in the names of people who didnt actually pay for them.

According to FEC records, Singh contributed roughly $9.7 million last year and in late 2020 to various candidates and committees.

Singhs lawyers, Andrew Goldstein and Russell Capone, said in a statement that their client is deeply sorry for his role in this and has accepted responsibility for his actions.

They added: He wants to do everything he can to make things right for victims, including by assisting the government to the best of his ability in this case.

Singhs plea underscores once again that the crimes at FTX were vast in scope and consequence, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.

They rocked our financial markets with a multibillion-dollar fraud. And they corrupted our politics with tens of millions of dollars in illegal straw campaign contributions, he said. These crimes demand swift and certain justice and that is exactly what we are seeking in the Southern District of New York.

Last week, prosecutors filed new fraud charges against Bankman-Fried, who has pleaded not guilty in the case. The fresh charges raised the number of years Bankman-Fried could face in prison to 155 years from 115 and described in detail a fraud that the government alleges occurred from 2019 until last November.

Bankman-Fried is awaiting trial while living with his parents in Palo Alto, California, after signing a $250 million personal recognizance bond.

He is accused of stealing billions of dollars in FTX customer deposits to support the company he founded, a global cryptocurrency exchange affiliated with the cryptocurrency trading hedge fund Alameda Research.

He also was charged with illegally funding speculative venture investments and misdirecting customer deposits to make charitable donations, along with spending tens of millions of dollars on illegal campaign donations to Democrats and Republicans in an attempt to buy influence over cryptocurrency regulation in Washington.

On the same December day Bankman-Fried was extradited from the Bahamas to face charges in New York City, prosecutors announced that two of his associates had pleaded guilty and forged their own deals to cooperate with prosecutors. Carolyn Ellison, Alameda Researchs former chief executive; and Gary Wang, an FTX cofounder, pleaded guilty to wire fraud, securities fraud and commodities fraud.

By Larry Neumeister
Global Doomsday Seed Vault to Get New Batch of Seeds

The entrance to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, or doomsday vault, on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard is shown in this file photo. (Courtesy of Global Crop Diversity Trust)

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway, which acts as a backup facility for the worlds largest variety of crops against potential seed extinction due to a global calamity, is set to receive close to 20,000 seed samples.

Officially opened in 2008, the seed vault is set about 394 feet into a mountainside on Spitsbergen Island. With 20 gene bank depositors donating 19,585 seed samples in the latest batch, the total number of seed samples at the vault now exceeds 1.2 million, according to Crop Trust, a nonprofit established by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 2004.

This makes the Svalbard vault home to the largest crop diversity collection in the world located in a single place. The latest batch will include seeds from countries depositing for the first time such as Albania, North Macedonia, Benin, and Croatia, Crop Trust reported.

From here in Svalbard, the world looks different. This Seed Vault represents hope, unity, and security, Stefan Schmitz, executive director of Crop Trust, said in the report.

In a world where the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, natural catastrophes, and conflicts increasingly destabilize our food systems, it has never been more important to prioritize safeguarding these tiny seeds that hold so much potential to adapt our future food to such global threats.

Svalbard Seed Vault

The Svalbard seed vault is estimated to contain 642 million seeds in total. It has the capacity to store up to 2.5 billion seeds. Food crops make up much of the stored seeds, with 69 percent being grains, of which 85 million are rice seeds.

Another 9 percent are legumes, with the remaining being seeds from vegetables, fruits, herbs, and other plants.

The pearl millet is the single largest seed species inside the vault, accounting for 13.2 percent of all seeds. Asian rice comes second at 12.7 percent, finger millet at 11.1 percent, common wheat at 8.4 percent, and broom-corn at 7.4 percent.

Just 17 nations account for half of the seeds in the vault, with India being the biggest contributor by sending 95 million seeds. The Svalbard vault has enough space to hold every seed from more than 1,700 gene banks in the world.

The vault was launched in 2008 as a backup for the worlds national and regional gene banks that store the genetic code for thousands of plant species.

The whole of humanity relies on the genetic diversity of crops maintained in the worlds genebanks, and the Seed Vault is the last line of defense against the loss of that diversity, Sandra Borch, minister of agriculture and food for Norway, wrote in the Crop Trust report.

Protection Against Seed Extinction

The Svalbard vaults chambers are opened only three times per year to limit exposing the seeds to external factors, and they maintain a temperature of negative 18 degrees Celsius (negative 0.4 degrees Fahrenheit).

The seed vault offers protection against seed extinction, something that is already happening. The world used to cultivate more than 6,000 plants. Now, just three cropsrice, maize, and wheataccount for 40 percent of calories.

Being dependent on a few crops for food supplies creates vulnerabilities in food security. If the harvests for rice, maize, or wheat were to fail for some reason, it would create a global food crisis.

Between 2015 and 2019, the Svalbard vault played a critical role in rebuilding seed collections in Syria when the region was torn apart from war.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Clarify When to Tell Canadians of Election Interference, Evaluation Recommends

The federal government should explore lowering the threshold for when to notify Canadians about potential interference in the middle of an election campaign, says a report released Tuesday evaluating how an independent panel monitored the 2021 election.

Former civil servant Morris Rosenberg, who was tasked with writing the independent report on the protocol designed to inform Canadians in the event of threats to the 2021 federal election, concluded it worked well overall.

But he made several recommendations on better informing Canadians about what the panel created by the Critical Election Incident Public Protocol would consider cause for concern and urged further study on whether to lower the bar on when to tell them about potential threats.

The report comes more than 17 months after the last election, at a time when media reports regarding allegations of Chinese interference in both the 2019 and 2021 elections have led to increased scrutiny of the protocol and calls for greater transparency over potential threats.

The protocol was created in 2019 to monitor threats to federal elections. If a threat meets its threshold, the panel created by the protocol can make an announcement to Canadians.

The threshold currently sets out several considerations, including the degree to which the incident undermines Canadians ability to have a free and fair election, the potential for an incident to undermine election credibility and the degree of confidence officials have in the intelligence of information about an incident.
Steve Kirsch, the executive director of the Vaccine Safety Research Foundation, recently asked me for the five main takeaway points from my book Neither Safe Nor Effective: The Evidence Against the COVID Vaccines. It was tough to narrow the list down to five. So here are 10 that I consider essential red flags. Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8 below are too seldom discussed, even by those of us who have been early critics of the COVID vaccines. Each of the 10 is and has been prohibitive to the use of mRNA technology and coronavirus vaccination of any kind in healthy populations. Therefore, fully informed and completely uncoerced consent is required before use. All 10 points address safety rather than efficacy.

First I summarize, and then discuss below these ten most salient red flags against use of the mRNA COVID vaccines. Each alone is a prohibitive red flag against use in human populations.

Two years ago today, I wrote the first comprehensive warnings that I had seen of seven of the following hazards (#4 through #10) of these vaccines. [1] Then I covered all of the 10 below in my book. In order of importance, I believe these are the 10 worst hazard signals regarding the COVID vaccines.

Bradford Hill criteria indict the COVID vaccines as being the cause of increased injuries and deaths, by nine different criteria, redundantly confirmed around the world. An abundance of data from vastly different sources corroborates this causality. When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was forced by court order to release the list of adverse events observed by Pfizer in their short clinical trial, the list ran to 1290 different adverse events observed, including very serious and devastating adverse events, many of which may be permanent. One of the most important papers in the COVID era shows that the COVID vaccines damage the immune system and allow new cancers to form, due to devastating interference with Type I interferon signaling pathways. It is more dangerous to vaccinate against SARS-CoV-2/COVID than against other viruses. Myocarditis is a life-threatening condition. mRNA can affect DNA Antibody-dependent enhancement is more than a mere distraction of your immune system in the presence of pathogens or cancer cells; because it distorts immune function, it can become a weaponization of your immune system against you. Cationic lipids used in the lipid nanoparticle delivery system of mRNA vaccines have never arrived well at human cell membranes. Male and female fertility has been impaired, and birth rates have declined, by mechanisms known prior to peak uptake of these vaccines. Spike proteins cross the blood-brain barrier, attach to neurons, and create brain inflammation and misfolded (prion-like) proteins.

Chapter and page references are to the paperback version of Neither Safe Nor Effective. The Kindle version is still being suppressed by Amazon.

1. (Chapter 3) Bradford Hill criteria indict the COVID vaccines as being the cause of increased injuries and deaths.

The Bradford Hill criteria are the most widely accepted set of criteria, over a half-century, to assess for causality in epidemiological phenomena. Did A cause B? Or are A and B merely correlated? The experiences of entire populations are vastly multi-factorial. Therefore, it has been necessary to examine correlated data from multiple perspectives or criteria, to evaluate likelihood of causality, to assess whether or not correlated data arrive to such a (necessarily strict) threshold where causality (or lack thereof) may be determined.

For all nine of these criteria, there are multiple clinical studies and other pieces of evidence that the COVID vaccines are not only correlated with, but also causative of higher rates of injuries and deaths. Those criteria are: strength of association, consistency, specificity, temporality, biological gradient/dose-response, plausibility, coherence, experiment, and analogy. Data is especially abundant for causative action from the COVID vaccines to cardiovascular injury and deaths from all causes.

2. (Page 44) When the FDA was forced by court order to release the list of health injuries observed by Pfizer in the short trial, the list ran to 1290 different types of adverse events observed.

The following is only the first part of the letter A of that alphabetical list of 1290 different kinds of injuries, and presumably only those of special interest. Note the severity and both acute and potentially chronic nature of the adverse events listed.

It is well worth reading Pfizers entire list of these adverse events. [2] I strongly encourage the reader to do so.

3. (Page 68) One of the most important papers in the COVID era shows that the COVID vaccines damage the immune system and allow new cancers to form, due to devastating interference with Type I interferon signaling pathways.

Seneff, Nigh, Kyriakopoulos, and McCullough showed that the most profound threat to the human immune function from the mRNA COVID vaccines is by means of obstruction of Type I interferon signaling pathways. [3] The disabling of this most important cytokine known to immunology creates downstream mayhem. The surveillance capabilities of the immune system become disabled with regard to cancer detection. This lights-out subterfuge allows both new tumors and metastases of existing cancer, in the COVID-vaccinated, to grow without opposition from our immune system. Hence the emergence of the new turbo cancers. Whereas those of us who were naturally infected with SARS-CoV-2 were able to upregulate Type I interferon when needed, mRNA-vaccinated people have not shown this ability.

4. (Page 21) It is more dangerous to vaccinate against COVID than against other viruses.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus uses the ACE-2 receptor to enter endothelial cells, including those lining the blood vessels. This creates an inflammatory reaction that the great majority (99.85 percent) of those naturally infected have survived. So if you have been exposed to the virus, and then get vaccinated, it is almost certain that spike proteins generated by the vaccine will cause new inflammation and damage to endothelial cells lining your blood vessels, launching new disease in the blood vessels. Dr. H. Noorchashm, MD, Ph.D. says,   the vaccine is almost certain to do damage to the vascular endothelium. He explains in a letter that was deleted from its original sources, but may still be viewed. [4]

Noorchashm writes: I am writing to warn that it is an almost certain immunological prognostication that if viral antigens are present in the tissues of subjects who undergo vaccination, the antigen-specific immune response triggered by the vaccine will target those tissues and cause tissue inflammation and damage.

In this case, the vaccine stimulates the immune system to attack the already injured cells lining blood vessels, with a resulting array of vasculitis, thrombophlebitis, vascular insufficiency (both arterial and venous), as well as thromboembolic complications such as stroke, myocardial infarction and myocarditis.

5. (Page 20, Chapter 6) Myocarditis is a life-threatening condition, which injures the muscular layer of the walls of the heart, with no available treatment, because it entails the killing of heart cells.

Myocarditis is typically very rare in youth but has been disabling and killing vaccinated individuals, particularly at moments of devastating synergy with anxiety-driven catecholamine release, such as an athlete under game performance pressure, or a journalist as cameras roll. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confessed to the connection between myocarditis and the COVID vaccines. [5]

The following study shows the likely mechanism of harm done to the myocardium, [6] and everyone who takes the COVID vaccines would find it nearly impossible to reverse or prevent such permanent damage to the heart. I explain this mechanism. [7] [8]

Pathologist Roger Hodkinson, MD, explains the devastation of myocarditis:

Myocarditis is never mild, particularly in young, healthy males. Its an inflammation of the heart muscle, the pump of the body. And we dont know what percent of the heart muscle cells would have died in any one attack of myocarditis. The big thing about heart muscle, heart muscle fibers, is that they do not regenerate.  We do know that myocarditis can present decades later, with premature onset of heart failure that would otherwise not have been expected. So its a terrible worry for these people to know whats going to happen to them in the future.  Its not trivial. [9]

6. (Page 17) mRNA can affect DNA.

One of the most worrisome risks with an mRNA vaccine is what can happen with reverse transcriptase. This is an enzyme in every cell, and it can theoretically lead to mRNA creating changes in the cells DNA, a process known as viral retro-integration.

Although this possibility had been thought unlikely, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University scientists found it happened here. [10]

If some of the 30 trillion or so cells in your body become permanent COVID factories, what is the long-term impact on your health, and would you want that outcome?

At the time of the vaccines release in December 2020, there were no peer-reviewed published long-term human trials of mRNA vaccines at all, and no mRNA vaccine had ever been FDA-approved. Thats how brand new the technology was. These needed to go through much longer and more rigorous animal testing before release and use with humans.

7. (Pages 18-19) Antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) problem.

Prior attempts to create a coronavirus vaccine killed all the test animals, after they were later infected with wild virus. Heres what happened: mRNA instructed the mammals cells to produce the spike proteins of the coronavirus. Then later, when the animals confronted the wild virus, the intense build-up of antibodies had been stockpiled, and their sudden and overwhelming release killed the test animal. These risks have been documented in Nature, Science, and the Journal of Infectious Diseases. Heres a study from the journal Nature Microbiology in September 2020 on that. [11]

Thus, long before even one person had received a COVID vaccine, this devastatingly poisonous effect was known by some and widely ignored and hidden from the public.

ADE mechanism: ADE is a form of pathogenic priming, meaning the vaccine can result in a more severe disease, which has been seen in prior attempts at making coronavirus vaccines. The antibodies made can be neutralizing (which is helpful as it inactivates a virus).

However, antibodies are a problem when they are non-neutralizing, because then these antibodies carry active viruses directly to macrophages, which then become infected. This is how ADE happens.

This ADE leads to: increased viral replication (more viruses to sicken the individual); [12] and more severe disease. [13]

Another problem is that these macrophages tend to go to the lungs and fill the lungs, causing overwhelming inflammation and airway obstruction (as found later on autopsy). [14] However, the augmented antibodies also attack similar looking proteins on internal organs, resulting in cytokine storm and death [15] or autoimmune disease and organ failure. Cats that showed high titers following vaccination succumbed at later timepoints to fatal disease. [16]

8. (Page 16) Cationic lipid coating of mRNA

Cationic lipids are known for many years to be toxic, [17] because these positive-charged fats interact with the negative charges on our amino acids, our cell membranes and the phosphates of our DNA. Lipid nanoparticles have been found to carry mRNA vaccine content to multiple sensitive bodily organs, such as the brain, ovaries, spleen, and liver. Cationic lipids are attracted to and are destructive toward: the lungs, [18] mitochondria, red blood cells, white blood cells, [19] liver [20] and the nervous system. (These are the Bells Palsy and tremors that are seen in vaccine victims.) [21]

9. (Page 19) Male and female fertility has been impaired by mechanisms known prior to peak uptake of these vaccines.

Why was there no warning from the CDC or FDA about the antisperm antibodies discovered by Pfizer in the vaccinated trial participants? What about miscarriages, and why have men been advised to freeze their sperm prior to getting the injection? Both men and women are at risk for possibly permanent infertility, because the spike protein of a coronavirus looks to the immune system similar to Syncytin-1, an essential protein in the placenta. This stimulates antibodies to fight the placenta, and possibly sperm. Midterm miscarriages, which are normally very rare, have occurred in women who have been vaccinated for COVID. Miscarriages have increased in the United Kingdom. [22] The New England Journal of Medicine had previously found that 14 percent of vaccinated pregnant women miscarried, mostly in the 3rd trimester, which is normally a very rare time to miscarry. [23]

As it turns out, and as predicted, 19 European countries began experiencing significant declines in birth rates beginning nine months after peak COVID vaccine uptake. [24] I will write more about this in the coming days.

Researcher Naomi Wolf has taken a particular interest in topics related to the COVID vaccines impact on fertility and womens reproductive health. As their team traced the data reported by Pfizer, it was found that 270 of the pregnant women in the Pfizer trial reported a vaccine injury.   but Pfizer only followed 32 of them and 28 of their babies died. This is a shocking 87.5% fetal death rate. [25]

10. (Page 17) Spike proteins cross the blood-brain barrier, attach to neurons and create brain inflammation and misfolded (prion-like) proteins.

This is a problem because mRNA vaccines programmed the cells in the bodies of vaccinated people to keep making spike proteins. [26] The lipid delivery system permits breach of the blood-brain barrier.

As it later turns out, Bells palsy, [27] Guillain Barre syndrome, [28] [29] and cerebral venous thrombosis [30] have been observed as adverse events following mRNA COVID vaccination. Prion or prion-like diseases, characterized by misfolded proteins, have been observed following mRNA COVID vaccination. [31] Twenty of 26 patients with Creutzfeldt-Jakob-like illness have died, and the remaining six are in critical condition, following a COVID vaccine. [32] The SARS-CoV-2 spike protein is known to interact with amyloidogenic proteins and to stimulate Lewy body-like formation in a cell line. [33]

Reposted from Colleen Hubers Substack.

 References:

[1] C. Huber. COVID-19 vaccine considerations. PrimaryDoctor.org. primarydoctor.org/covidvaccine

[2] Pfizer Worldwide Safety. 5.3.6 Cumulative analysis of post-authorization adverse event reports of PF-07302048 (BNT162B2) received through Feb. 28, 2021. Appendix 1: List of adverse events of special interest. Pages 30-38. phmpt.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/5.3.6-postmarketing-experience.pdf

[3] S. Seneff, G. Nigh, et al. Innate immune suppression by SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccinations: The role of G-quadruplexes, exosome, and microRNAs. June 2022. Food Chem Toxicol. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9012513/

[4] H. Noorchasm. A letter of warning to FDA and Pfizer: On the immunological danger of COVID-19 vaccination in the naturally infected. Jan. 26, 2021, reprinted Nov. 29, 2021.

[5] CDC. Clinical considerations: Myocarditis and pericarditis after receipt of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines among adolescents and young adults. cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/clinical-considerations/myocarditis.html

[6] E. Avolio, M. Gamez, et al. The SARS-CoV-2 spike protein disrupts the cooperative function of human cardiac pericytesendothelial cells through CD 147 receptor-mediated signaling: a potential noninfective mechanism of COVID-19 microvascular disease. Dec. 21, 2020. bioRxiv. biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.21.423721v1

[7] C. Huber. Heart damage from the COVID vaccines: Is it avoidable? July 14, 2021. PDMJ. pdmj.org/papers/myocarditis_paper

[8] C. Huber. Heart fatigue from vaccines, as shown by fluid dynamics. Jan. 16, 2022. The Defeat Of COVID.

[9] R. Hodkinson, MD, interviewed on The High Wire by Del Bigtree, Episode 220. thehighwire.com/videos/episode-220-dirty-deeds/

[10] L. Zhang, A. Richards, et al. SARS-CoV-2 RNA reverse-transcribed and integrated into the human genome. Dec. 13, 2020. bioRxiv. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33330870/

[11] W. Lee, A. Wheatley, et al. Antibody-dependent enhancement and SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and therapies. Sept. 9, 2020. Nature Microbiology. nature.com/articles/s41564-020-00789-5

[12] T. Hohdatsu, M. Nakamuyra, et al. A study on the mechanism of antibody-dependent enhancement of feline infectious peritonitis virus infection in feline macrophages by monoclonal antibodies. 1991. Arch Virol. 120 (3-4). pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1659798/

[13] R. Weiss, F. Scott. Antibody-mediated enhancement of disease in feline infectious peritonitis: comparisons with dengue hemorrhagic fever. 1981. Comparative Immunology, Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. 4 (2). pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6754243/

[14] C. Tseng, E. Sbrana, et al. Immunization with SARS coronavirus vaccines leads to pulmonary immunopathology on challenge with the SARS virus. April 20, 2012. PLOS One. 7 (4). ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3335060/

[15] S. Alturki, S. Alturki, et al. The 2020 pandemic: current SARS-CoV-2 vaccine development. 2020. Frontiers in Immunology. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7466534/

[16] M. Cloutier, M. Nandi, et al. ADE and hyperinflammation in SARS-CoV-2 infectioncomparison with dengue hemorrhagic fever and feline infectious peritonitis. Dec. 2020. Cytokine. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7439999/

[17] S. Zhang, Y. Xu, et al. Cationic compounds used in lipoplexes and polyplexes for gene delivery. Nov. 24, 2004. Journal of Controlled Release. 100 (2). sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0168365904004006?via%3Dihub

[18] S. Dokka, D. Toledo, et al. Oxygen radical-mediated pulmonary toxicity induced by some cationic liposomes. May 2000. Pharmaceutical Research. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10888302/

[19] S. Cui, Y. Wang, et al. Correlation of the cytotoxic effects of cationic lipids with their headgroups. Mar. 22, 2018. Toxicology Research. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30090597/

[20] H. Lv, S. Zhang, et al. Toxicity of cationic lipids and cationic polymers in gene delivery. Aug. 10, 2006. Journal of Controlled Release. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16831482/

[21] C. Lonez, M. Lensink, et al. Interaction between cationic lipids and endotoxin receptors. Feb. 1, 2009. Biophysical Journal. cell.com/biophysj/fulltext/S0006-3495(08)03808-3#relatedArticles

[22] United Kingdom. Coronavirus vaccineweekly summary of yellow card reporting. Page 82. assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1072043/COVID-19_mRNA_Pfizer-_BioNTech_vaccine_analysis_print.pdf

[23] T. Shimabukuro, S. Kim et al. Preliminary findings of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine safety in pregnant women. April 21, 2021. New England Journal of Medicine. nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2104983

[24] R. Hagemann, U. Lorre, et al. [Decline in birth rates in Europe; in German]. Aug. 25, 2022. Aletheia Scimed. aletheia-scimed.ch/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Geburtenrueckgang-Europe-DE_25082022_2.pdf

[25] A. Kelly, War Room/Daily Clout. Pfizer Documents Analysis Volunteers Reports eBook. Page 10. amazon.com/DailyClout-Documents-Analysis-Volunteers-Reports-ebook/dp/B0BSK6LV5D/

[26] T. Buzhdygan, B. DeOre, et al. The SARS-CoV-2 spike protein alters barrier function in 2D static and microfluidic models of the human blood-brain barrier. Dec. 2020. Neurobiology of Disease. Page 146. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7547916/

[27] G. Colella, M. Orlandi, et al. Bells palsy following COVID-19 vaccination. 2021. Journal of Neurology. 268 (10). 3589-3591. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7897359/

[28] C. Allen, S. Ramsamy, et al. Guillain-Barre syndrome variant occurring after SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. Aug. 2021. Annals of Neurology. 90 (2). 315-318. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34114269/

[29] A. Razok, A. Shams, et al. Post-COVID-19 vaccine Guillain-Barre syndrome; first reported case from Qatar. July 2021. Annals of Medicine and Surgery (London). 67. 102540. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8253659/

[30] M. Abbattista, I. Martinelli, et al. Comparison of adverse drug reactions among four COVID-19 vaccines using the EudraVigilance database: Thrombosis at unusual sites. Oct. 2021. Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis. 19 (10). 2554-2558. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8420446/

[31] S. Seneff, A. Kyriakopoulos, et al. A potential role of the spike protein in neurodegenerative disease: A narrative review. Feb. 2023. Cureus. 15 (2). e34872. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9922164/

[32] J. Perez, C. Moret-Chalmin. Towards the emergence of a new form of neurodegenerative Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: 26 cases of CJD declared a few days after a COVID vaccine jab. June 14, 2022. Zenodo. zenodo.org/record/6641999

[33] Z. Wu, X. Zhang, et al. SARS-CoV-2 proteins interact with alpha synuclein and induce Lewy body-like pathology in vitro. March 2022. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 23. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8949667/

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Epoch Health welcomes professional discussion and friendly debate. To submit an opinion piece, please follow these guidelines and submit through our form here.
A panel of outside advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) voted to endorse a vaccine from Pfizer for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) on Tuesday.

The majority vote to endorse Pfizers product brings it closer to potentially becoming the first approved vaccine for RSV for older adults in the United States. The FDA had granted priority review to Pfizers application for the vaccine in December 2022.

Unlike typical past vaccine recommendations, the 12 members of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) were not unanimous in their vote for Pfizers product, called Abrysvo (RSVPreF).

For two questions (pdf) on whether Pfizers data in a clinical study it conducted were enough to support the safety and efficacy of the vaccine to prevent lower respiratory tract disease caused by RSV in those 60 years or older, the panel voted 74 in favor of the drug, with one abstaining member.

While the FDA does not have to follow the advisers recommendation, it typically does. The agency will consider the panels recommendation and make a decision on Pfizers vaccine by May.

Concerns Over Lack of Data in High-Risk Groups

The vote to endorse Pfizers RSV vaccine on Tuesday came despite concerns about potential rare reactions, including Guillain-Barre syndrome, as well as concerns over lack of data on how the vaccine performs in populations vulnerable to RSV.

RSV is a common virus that typically causes mild cold-like symptoms for most people. However, in the very young, the elderly, or people with compromised immune systems, RSV can be life-threatening.

The virus can cause infections in the lower respiratory tract and can result in pneumonia. RSV is estimated to cause around 14,000 deaths among older adults in the United States each year.

Pfizers vaccine, according to the companys phase 3 study, was 85.7 percent effective at preventing lower respiratory tract illness in patients with three or more symptoms, and 66.7 percent effective in doing so for patients with two or more symptoms.

But panelists noted there were few people with underlying health problems in the study.

Its disappointing we dont have more data on the high-risk groups and severe outcomes, said Dr. Daniel Feikin, a respiratory disease consultant who voted in favor of the vaccine. He and other panelists said the FDA should require more data on safety and effectiveness in Pfizers planned follow-up study.

Concerns Over Guillain-Barre Syndrome

Much of Tuesdays meeting among the VRBPAC members revolved around two cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome, a neurological disorder in which the bodys nerves are compromised. Symptoms of the disorder can range from brief weakness in limbs, to paralysis all over the body. But most people recover, even in severe cases.

Guillain-Barre syndrome was diagnosed in two people in their 60s out of 19,942 vaccine recipients in Pfizers phase 3 trial of the RSV vaccine, according to an FDA briefing document (pdf) published Feb. 28.

FDA advisers who voted against the Pfizer RSV vaccines safety profile cited the two Guillain-Barre syndrome cases.

I think we need to do everything we can to make sure that vaccines are safe before we send them out to the public, said Dr. James Hildreth of Meharry Medical College.

The FDA, in its briefing document, noted that the incidence of Guillain-Barre syndrome in the general population is 3 per 100,000 people a year and said that Pfizer should regard the situation as an important potential risk to safety.

To assess the risk of GBS and other immune-mediated demyelinating conditions among RSVpreF recipients post-licensure, FDA has requested that the Applicant propose a postmarketing safety study, the agency stated.

Pfizer, in its briefing document (pdf), said the Guillain-Barre syndrome cases could have been due to other medical factors. Pfizer said that at this time, it has not identified any safety concerns from the clinical trial safety data.

Pfizer will conduct a post-marketing safety study in the older adult population to further assess GBS and immune-mediated demyelinating conditions. To determine the safety of Abrysvo in immunocompromised older adult participants, Pfizer will conduct a postmarketing safety study, the company said.

Efforts to develop RSV vaccines suffered a major setback in the 1960s when one experimental shot was shown to worsen infections in children.

Public interest in a potential RSV vaccine peaked in the fall of 2022 during a surge of cases affecting babies and older Americans. Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline are currently only applying for FDA vaccine approval among those who are 60 years old and up.

The FDA panel is set to review and vote on GSKs vaccine on Wednesday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Schisandra (Schisandra chinensis) is an herb you may have never heard of, but it has a long history, and has been used in Chinese medicine for thousands of years as a longevity tonic, to enhance beauty, and to increase sexual potency. In the West, it is known as a powerful adaptogen, helping us to resist stress, combat fatigue, and increase mental and physical performance.

Lowers Stress

Schisandras beneficial effect on the adrenal glands, where it helps lower levels of stress hormones like cortisol, marks it as an adaptogen. Adaptogens are herbs and fungi that help to naturally balance hormones and increase the bodys ability to handle stress, both external and internal. They also help the body return to a state of homeostasis, or equilibrium. Adaptogenic herbs have been used for thousands of years to naturally raise our resistance to stress, from emotional trauma to toxic chemicals. Adaptogens also combat anxiety, relieve fatigue, and help us achieve an overall sense of well-being.

A review published in Current Clinical Pharmacology affirmed schisandras protective effects against stress. The review found that schisandra increased endurance and mental performance in patients with mild fatigue and weakness, and stated that adaptogens increase tolerance to mental exhaustion as well as enhancing attention and mental endurance in situations of decreased performance. It goes on to say that the beneficial stress-protective effect of adaptogens is their ability to regulate homeostasis.

A study published in Drug Target Insights looked at the effect of adaptogenic herbs that included panax ginseng, rhodiola, and schisandra to evaluate how they would affect the stress response in rabbits. The study tested blood levels of stress activated nitric oxide, kinase, and cortisol. Two groups of animals were tested over a seven day period, one group receiving the adaptogenic herbs and the other receiving a placebo. After acute stress, the animals in the placebo group had levels of nitric oxide and cortisol that had increased by 200-300 percent. In the group receiving the stress-protective adaptogenic herbs, their blood levels of nitric oxide and cortisol remained practically unchanged after acute stress was induced.

Benefits the Liver

Schisandra is perhaps most famous for its protective effects on the liver.

A study in Biomedicine and Pharmacotherapy published in 2018 set out to study the hepatoprotective abilities of schisandra. The researchers discovered that the lignans and crude polysaccharides in schisandra significantly reduced the destruction of the liver tissue by ethanol in mice. They stated that the mechanism underlying schisandras hepatoprotective abilities may lie in its ability to inhibit the expression of CYP2E1 protein (associated with oxidative stress and alcoholic liver injury), as well as alleviating oxidative stress induced by the ethanol form of alcohol contained in beverages including beer, wine, and liquor.

In a study from Phytochemistry in 2015, researchers found that lignans isolated from schisandra fruit were found to have potent anti-hepatitis B activity. Lignans are polyphenols found in plants, mostly whole grains, cruciferous vegetables, sesame seeds, and flax seeds. Lignans have been shown to potentially have anti-cancer properties, especially against breast and prostate cancer.

Schisandra has even been found to be beneficial in those who have received liver transplants. Tacrolimus, or tac is extensively used to prevent rejection of the new organ after a transplant. Organ transplants are complex as the antigens from the organ donor elicit an immune response in the recipient, which can destroy the organ if not controlled. This whole process is called allograft rejection.

A controlled clinical trial published in the International Journal of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics in 2010 found that schisandra extract increased concentrations of tacrolimus in the blood of liver transplant patients, improved their liver function, and reduced the side effects of elevated tac levels, like diarrhea and agitation. In other words, the extract increased the drugs effectiveness and reduced its side effects.

Benefits the Brain

Schisandra is also being studied for its ability to prevent age-related neurodegenerative diseases. Various studies have demonstrated schisandras cognitive enhancing effects through animal tests and clinical trials.

A study from 2013 in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology set out to investigate the effects of extracts of schisandra fruit (a red berry) on neurotoxicity and memory impairment in mice. The mice were injected with amyloid beta 1-42which is present in cerebrospinal fluid (CFS), and is a widely accepted key biomarker for Alzheimers disease.

The study concluded that oral treatment with schisandra fruit extract significantly decreased induced memory impairment and had neuroprotective abilities. As a result of their findings, the researchers concluded that schisandra fruit extractswith their abundant lignanscould be useful in the prevention and treatment of Alzheimers disease.

Neurological diseases are a leading cause of death worldwide and effective therapeutic drugs and therapies are very limited. With rising rates of neurological issues among the population, there is much interest in finding new ways to treat neurological disorders. A review published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences in 2018 found that the dry, ripe schisandra berries exert a protective effect against neurodegenerative diseases by reducing injury associated with oxidative stress, apoptosis (programmed cell death), inflammation, and neurotransmitter disorders. The review highlighted the lignans found in the berries.

Schisandra in Chinese Medicine

In Chinese medicine, schisandra is called Wu Wei Zi and is known as five flavor berry wu (, five) wei (, flavor) zi (, seed or fruit), as it contains all five flavorssweet, sour, bitter, salty, and pungent. Because it contains all five flavors, it is seen to benefit all five of the yin organs in Chinese medicinespleen, liver, heart, kidneys, and the lungs, respectively.

The first known recorded use of schisandra is from the Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing, or Divine Husbandmans Classic Materia Medicaa Chinese herbal medicine text that dates back to the Han Dynasty that ruled China from 25-220 AD.

Known as a longevity tonic and one of the great anti-aging herbs, schisandra was said to prolong life without aging. With regular use it was thought to enhance beauty (because of its ability to benefit the skin) and increase sexual potency. Schisandra was also used to increase energy, treat chronic cough, asthma, fatigue, diarrhea, dream disturbed sleep, insomnia, palpitations, calm the spirit, and treat anxiety. It was also known for its abilities to protect and cleanse the liver.

Schisandra Use in Russia

Although schisandra is a well-established medicinal herb in Chinese medicine, it gained recognition for its adaptogenic properties in the former USSR in the early 1960s, mainly due to considerable pharmacological and clinical studies by Russian scientists in the preceding two decades. As a result, schisandra was included as medicine in the National Pharmacopoeia of the USSR and in the State register of Drugs.

A review in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology details the considerable diversity of the pharmacological effects of schisandra which have been confirmed from over forty years of use as an official medicinal remedy in Russia. For example, animal studies have shown that schisandra increases physical working capacity and has a stress-protective effect against a broad range of harmful factors. Schisandras adaptogenic properties affect the central nervous, sympathetic, endocrine, immune, respiratory, cardiovascular, and gastrointestinal systems, the development of atherosclerosis, and blood sugar and acid-base balance. The review also states that schisandra has strong antioxidant properties, increases endurance and mental performance, and lowers levels of stress hormones in the blood and saliva. Clinical trials have demonstrated schisandras effectiveness in both neurologic and psychiatric disorders.

Where to Find It

Although schisandra is native to China and Japan, it can be easily found at many health food stores or online, and can be bought as a tincture, powder, or in capsules. Buy organic when possible as this will at least minimize exposure to toxic chemicals and pesticides. Remember to look at where the herb is grown and sourced keeping in mind that laws and regulations for growing and processing herbs vary by country.

*Cautions and Contraindications

Always be careful when considering taking a new herb, especially if you are on medication. If you would like to take schisandra and are presently taking medications, it is best to consult with a health care practitioner you trust first to make sure there wont be any interactions. When starting a new herb or supplement, start slowly with low dosages and work your way up, tracking how you feel.
Hong Kong Lifts Mask Mandate, Ban on Wearing Facial Coverings at Rallies Remains

On Feb. 28, 2023, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu announced the withdrawal of the "mask order" effective on March 1, that had been in place for more than two years, to attract more tourists and promote more economic activities to Hong Kong. This picture shows at noon on Mar. 1, when office workers in Central went out for lunch, many of them had already removed their masks. (Adrian Yu/The Epoch Times)

The mask order in Hong Kong that has been in place for over two years is now revoked on Mar. 1.

Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu announced the decision on Feb. 28, saying that all data showed that the pandemic in Hong Kong was under control and there was no sign of a significant rebound. It is, therefore, the right time to revoke the mask order now.

From now on, this year and next year, we can strive for economic development in all areas, and Hong Kong will develop at full speed in this regard, Lee said.

Almost everywhere in the world, the mask order or the recommendation to wear a mask has been revoked. Since the end of last year, with the sudden shift of Chinas anti-pandemic measures, local government officials and experts have made it their goal to lift the mask order.

However, Hong Kong has repeatedly extended the mask order, making a mockery of itself that the normalized Hong Kong has finally become a rare place in the world that still compeled the public to wear masks.

On Feb. 28, 2023, HK Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu announced the withdrawal of the mask order that had been in place for more than two years and would come into effect the next day to attract more tourists and bring more economic activities to Hong Kong. This picture shows on the morning of Mar. 1, many people who went to work and school still wore masks. Some said they would continue to wear them until they used up all their stock. (Adrian Yu/The Epoch Times)

On the morning of Mar. 1, along the busy and crowded streets of Hong Kong, most people going to work and schools were still wearing masks. Some said that due to the sudden cancelation of the mask order, they would use up their stock before stopping wearing it.

On Feb. 28, although the citizens interviewed welcomed the new measures, some shops began to sell masks at half price, and shop assistants said they were caught off guard.

Ms. Lam, an employee of a mask shop in Mong Kok, thinks that business will be affected. It would be better if a buffer period is in place. She said frontline hospital staff would still wear masks, and some tourists would still buy them.

Ms. Lam, a sales assistant in a mask shop in Mong Kok, was interviewed yesterday. She said the new measures caught her off guard. (Screenshot from The Epoch Times video)

One man felt delighted that the mask was no longer mandatory. A lady said that she still must wear it during work.

Two citizens were interviewed in Mong Kok on Feb. 28 and said they would not wear masks from March 1. (Screenshot from The Epoch Times video)

Mask Still Needed Entering Medical Facilities

Lo Chung-mau, Secretary for Health, added that the government would use administrative measures to require citizens to wear masks when entering medical facilities. And the government will also strongly recommend that both the staff and visitors of nursing homes wear masks when entering the relevant places.

He also said that the complete revocation of the mask order also means that all social distancing measures have officially ended, and Hong Kong has fully returned to normal.

Suspicion Revocation of Mask Order as too Slow and Missed the Best Opportunity

Since the Macau government announced the withdrawal of the mask order on Feb. 27, some media outlets pointed out that Hong Kong has become the last isolated island in pandemic prevention and is also one of the very few places in the world where people are still required by law to wear masks while staying outdoors.

When asked by a reporter why he chose Mar. 1 to relax the measures in such a hurry, Is it entirely just following other peoples similar decision elsewhere before you? Lee said he had actively considered canceling the mask order almost two months ago.

As for whether Hong Kongs lifting of the mask order was too slow and missed the best opportunity to win business and tourists, Lee did not answer directly. He only said that after the mask order was lifted, different significant events and international activities would return to Hong Kong.

On Mar. 1, 2023, the first day for Hong Kong to lift the mask order, foreign tourists enjoyed their mask-free trip at Hong Kong Disneyland. (Benson Lau/The Epoch Times)

On Mar. 1, 2023, the first day the mask order was lifted in Hong Kong, some parents took their children to Hong Kong Disneyland for a day out. (Benson Lau/The Epoch Times)

Mask Order a Tool by the Government to Suppress Freedom of Assembly in Recent Years

On Jun. 28, 2021, the police issued a notice of objection (against an application for the 7.1 rally) on the grounds of pandemic prevention. It was the first time since the handover of sovereignty in 1997 that there was no Jul. 1 rally in Hong Kong. However, many citizens still tried to express their opinions in their ways.

In addition to arresting at least 19 people in multiple districts suspected of distributing seditious publications, disorderly conduct in public places, and obstructing police officers from carrying out their duties, the police also issued penalty tickets to at least another 19 people on the same day for violating the social gathering ban, and the mask order. (officially The Prevention and Control of Disease (Prohibition) on Gathering Regulation (Cap. 599G))

Even though the social gathering ban was revoked, the police still used the mask order to target social activists.

On Feb. 7 last year, the day the trial of the pro-democracy primary election case began, three members of the League of Social Democrats petitioned outside the court, demanding the release of political prisoners. Still, the police refused their petition at the main entrance. Later, one member, Dickson Chau, lowered his mask for a few seconds to speak to reporters and was accused by the police of not wearing a mask and violating the mask order and took him into a nearby police van. Chau was later released but was charged with violating the mask order and fined.

According to the police, more than 21,000 citations have been issued, and 41 prosecutions have been made since the mask order was enacted until Feb. 22 this year. However, this figure does not consider the statistics of other authorized public officials.

Revocation of Mask Order Means Controversy over Wearing Masks May Return

Regarding the Ban on Wearing Facial Coverings at Rallies enacted by the government invoking the Emergency Regulation in 2019, Lee Ka-chiu said on Feb. 28 that the mask order is to deal with public health issues. As for the Ban on Wearing Facial Coverings at Rallies, the authorities will review it in due course, and nothing will be done at this stage.

However, once the mask order is revoked, the controversy over wearing masks during the anti-extradition movement in 2019 may return.

Some netizens were concerned, Want to know if wearing it tomorrow will violate the (prohibition) mask law.

On Oct. 4, 2019, the then Chief Executive, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, bypassed the Legislative Council by citing the Emergency Regulation and enacted the Ban on Wearing Facial Coverings at Rallies Regulations, which came into effect on Oct. 5 of the same year. The newly passed ordinance bans using objects to cover the face during legal or illegal gatherings and provides a legal basis for police officers to cover their faces instead.

The general public widely criticizes the regulation as a way to suppress civil protest activities. As of June 2022, 683 people had been arrested for suspected violations of the rules, of which 74 were prosecuted, and 26 were convicted.
House Republicans Ramp Up Inquiries Into Federal Response to Ohio Derailment

A pedestrian walks down the street in East Palestine, Ohio, as cleanup from the Feb. 3 Norfolk Southern train derailment continues, on Feb. 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Matt Freed)

House Republicans are pushing forward with several inquiries into the Biden administrations response to the Feb. 3 Norfolk Southern train derailment and subsequent chemical spill in East Palestine, Ohio.

Reps. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) and Troy Nehls (R-Texas) sent a letter (pdf) to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan on Feb. 27 to request information on the agencys decision-making and actions since the crash, which leaked hazardous chemicals into the ground, air, and water in East Palestine.

Graves is chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, while Nehls chairs that panels Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials.

While the EPA has since deemed the air and water to be safe, the lawmakers noted that residents in the affected area continue to report noxious odors, pollutants in the water and soil and are still concerned about the long-term effects of the leaked chemicals.

Regan, who made his second visit to East Palestine on Feb. 21, has encouraged residents to trust the results of air and water testing that federal and state authorities claim havent yielded any cause for alarm. However, researchers at Texas A&M University and Carnegie Mellon University said on Feb. 24 that concentrations for nine of the roughly 50 chemicals that the EPA has been testing the air for are above normal in East Palestine and may pose a health risk if those levels continue.

Further, questions have arisen regarding the decision to conduct the controlled burn of hazardous chemicals versus employing other, potentially safer alternatives, the congressmen wrote.

Regan will have until March 13 to respond to their requests.

Questions on Capitol Hill

The inquiry is the latest in a spree of oversight activity by Republicans in the House and Senate.

House Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) and Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio), who represents the district that includes East Palestine, also wrote to the EPA chief, seeking answers about the agencys response to the toxic derailment.

Helping the people who live and work in East Palestine and the surrounding region is our top priority, the representatives noted in a Feb. 17 statement. The community must be able to trust their air, water, and soil is not a threat to their health following this train derailment.

The same day, Sen. Maria Cantwell (R-Wash.), chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, sent letters (pdf) to seven of the largest railroad companies CEOsincluding Norfolk Southern President and CEO Alan Shawrequesting information about their protocols and standards for handling hazardous materials.

Since then, Republicans on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, led by Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), announced that theyve opened an investigation into the slow pace of the response of Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

Despite the U.S. Department of Transportations responsibility to ensure safe and reliable transport in the United States, you ignored the catastrophe for over a week, the lawmakers wrote in a Feb. 24 letter (pdf) to Buttigieg. The American people deserve answers as to what caused the derailment, and DOT needs to provide an explanation for its leaderships apathy in the face of this emergency.

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg (C) visits with DOT investigators at the site of the derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 23, 2023. (Brooke LaValley-Pool/Getty Images)

Buttigieg, who visited the derailment site for the first time on Feb. 23, has faced criticism for his sluggish response to the crash and subsequent chemical spill, which has disrupted the lives of East Palestine residents with evacuations, adverse health reactions, and lingering questions about the safety of the air and drinking water in the area.

The Oversight Committee also criticized Buttigiegs repeated assertion that the Trump administration is responsible for the accident because of its 2018 withdrawal of a regulation that required the use of electronically controlled pneumatic brakes on certain trains carrying flammable liquids.

According to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the cause of the crash wasnt a braking issue but an overheated wheel bearing.

While DOT declined to comment on the investigation, it pointed to the secretarys alarm that the committee had referred to the NTSB as being part of the department in its letter.

NTSB is independent (and with good reason), Buttigieg noted in a tweet. Still, of course, we will fully review this and respond appropriately.

White House Responds

President Joe Biden has also faced criticism over his response to the crisis, including over the timing of his trip last week to Ukraine and subsequent confirmation on Feb. 24 that he has no plans to visit East Palestine.

That was the biggest slap in the face, East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway told Fox News on Feb. 20. That tells you right now he doesnt care about us. He can send every agency he wants to, but I found that out this morning in one of the briefings that he was in Ukraine giving millions of dollars away to people over there and not to us, and Im furious.

After a Feb. 22 visit to the village by former President Donald Trump added political fuel to the fire, the White House released an update on the administrations response efforts, noting that federal officials had spent the weekend checking on East Palestine residents at their homes.

At the presidents direction, the Environmental Protection Agency, FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency], and CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] went door-to-door this weekend to personally check in on each family in East Palestine, provide flyers with additional resources, and conduct health surveys, a White House official told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement.

Noting that the agencies had been on track to reach more than 400 families by the end of the weekend, the official also stressed that the EPA and Transportation Department had arrived on the scene of the derailment within two hours of their receiving notification of the incident and quickly got to work holding the rail company accountable, containing the damage, and monitoring for environmental impacts.

The White House also credited the president for reaching out to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro after the crash to offer federal assistance and keeping elected officials updated on response efforts.

At Governor DeWines request and President Bidens direction, federal teams have continued to arrive in East Palestineinvestigating the cause of the derailment, making Norfolk Southern clean up its mess and reimburse families, conducting public health screenings, monitoring the air and water, and screening over 550 homes, the official said. The administration also continues to call on Congress to pass commonsense rail safety measures, like increasing maximum fines for safety violations and strengthening rules governing high-hazardous shipments.
Russia hopes that the jointly developed peace initiatives will be implemented during the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict resolution, Russian Foreign Ministrys Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

March 1, 2023, 11:42 Zakharova hopes Baku and Yerevan will implement initiatives jointly developed with Russia

STEPANAKERT, MARCH 1, ARTSAKHPRESS: She described the region as pivotal and said that theres still hope that the peace initiatives which [Armenia and Azerbaijan] have developed jointly with Russia will be implemented, TASS news agency quoted Zakharova as saying on Sputnik radio.

The Russian Foreign Ministrys Spokeswoman slammed as indecent what she described as the Wests attempts to be involved in the South Caucasus. Zakharova said the West is engaged in such a policy not for resolving the conflict but quite the opposite."

Unfortunately weve been observing such trends there for many years, and now the West is even more active, Zakharova said.

The spokeswoman said there are no successful examples of conflict resolution with participation of Western partners, while the number of conflicts is growing because of the collective West.
House Republicans Say Buttigieg Neglecting His Duties in Call for Resignation

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg participates in a Townhall event on infrastructure at Georgetown University in Washington, on Oct. 11, 2022. (Paul Morigi/Getty Images for SiriusXM)

A group of Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives has introduced a resolution calling for Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to resign over his handling of the East Palestine train derailment last monthas well as other transportation issues that have arisen under his leadership at the department.

On Tuesday, Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) introduced H.Res. 188 condemning Buttigieg. The resolution was co-sponsored by Reps. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.), Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.), Clay Higgins (R-La.), Greg Steube (R-Fla.), Mary Miller (R-Ill.), Bill Posey (R-Fla.), Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Mike Collins (R-Ga.), and George Santos (R-N.Y.).

Buttigiegs leadership has come under heightened scrutiny from Republicans after a number of transportation-related issues that have arisen over the past two years.

During his time as transportation secretary, Buttigieg has been involved in efforts to resolve U.S. supply chain disruptions and avert a rail workers strike.

Under Buttigiegs watch, thousands of U.S. commercial flights have been canceled or delayed. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), an agency of the Department of Transportation, experienced a malfunction in its crucial Notice To Air Missions (NOTAM) system for the first time in history, leading to all flights being grounded for several hours.

Less than a month after the FAA flight system malfunction, a train carrying hazardous waste derailed as it was traveling through East Palestine, Ohio. Buttigieg did not publicly address the derailment for 10 days.

Over the last two years, Secretary Buttigieg has gone AWOL during multiple national crises, Waltz said in a press release. From failing to immediately respond to last months major economic, environmental, and humanitarian disaster in East Palestine to neglecting his duties during a historic supply chain crisis, commercial flight crisis, rail worker strike, and so much more, Buttigieg has endangered and failed the American people time and time again. Thats why I am calling for his resignation.

NTD News reached out to Buttigiegs office for comment but he did not respond before this article was published.

The Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee has already begun investigating Buttigiegs response to the East Palestine derailment incident. During his first visit to East Palestine nearly three weeks after the derailment incident, Buttigieg agreed that he had taken too long to address the disasterbut said he was trying to balance his own desire to speak out on the issue with the need to let the proper authorities investigate the matter.

I was taking pains to respect the role that I have and the role that I dont have, but that should not have stopped me from weighing in about how I felt about what was happening to this community, Buttigieg said last week.

Biden Admin Calls for Regulations

Following the East Palestine derailment, Buttigieg and President Joe Biden have both called for increased railway safety regulations.

Congress should join us in implementing rail safety measures, Biden said in social media posts after calling elected officials in Ohio and neighboring Pennsylvania on Feb. 21. But the Department of Transportation is limited in the rail safety measures they can implement. Why? For years, elected officialsincluding the last adminhave limited our ability to implement and strengthen rail safety measures.

That same day, Buttigieg also released a statement through the Department of Transportation, calling for the rail industry to support new regulations.

In a set of tweets on Feb. 14, Buttigieg referenced a Trump-era decision to repeal a 2015 regulation on the use of electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) brakes on certain types of trains. Some of Buttigiegs Twitter followers interpreted his comments as a suggestion that the East Palestine derailment could have been avoided had it not been for the Trump administrations decision.

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chair Jennifer Homendy, a Biden appointee, subsequently said the rule would not have applied to the type of train that derailed in East Palestine. A spokesperson for Buttigieg said his tweets on the Trump-era regulatory decision were simply misinterpreted.

Multiple media fact-checkers have also dispelled claims that any specific Trump-era deregulations contributed to the East Palestine derailment.

While Buttigiegs office has insisted his comments about Trump-era regulations have been misinterpreted as regards their casting blame on Trump, Buttigieg has continued to insinuate a connection between Trumps regulatory actions and the East Palestine incident.

Last week, Buttigieg appeared for an interview with MSNBC host Joy Reid, during which Reid criticized Trumps visit to East Palestine and asked Buttigieg, What do you make of the fact that he [Trump] went there despite the fact that the regulations that he rolled back were partly responsible for this tragedy?

Buttigieg did not refute the premise of Reids question, but instead replied, It was definitely an ironic thing to do. You take down regulations, you water down regulations, you weaken the power of the administration to deal with freight railroad companies, and then you show up wanting to be a great friend of the people who have been impacted by a rail disaster.

From NTD
Housewife from 1934: A Pre-Code Holdover

Commentary

Housewife is a 1934 film starring George Brent, Ann Dvorak, and a young Bette Davis. To be accurate, all three of the lead actors are young here, but Bette is noticeably more youthful than in her later, more famous roles. Movies from the early 1930s have a distinct style, and they offer fascinating insight into this unique period of American history.

Movies from the 1930s can be divided into two definite categories: those made before the formation of the Production Code Administration (PCA) and those made after. Those made before the PCA enforced the Motion Picture Production Code during film production are called Pre-Code. Those made after dont have as definite a title. Some people call them post-Code, but that implies after the Code, not during. I prefer to call these movies Code films or Breen Era films, since the Code was only properly enforced during the twenty years when Joseph I. Breen was in charge of the PCA (19341954).

The Pre-Code Era is generally classified as 19301934, from the beginning of talking pictures to the beginning of the Code. Films released during 1934 can be confusing, however, since there was some overlapping of pre-Code and Code films. The PCA was founded in July 1934, and every film released in the United States had to receive an official Seal of Approval from the organizationwhich came with a feebefore being distributed. The idea behind the Code was that the PCA would help studios make movies to be decent in the first place by working with them throughout production, thus avoiding post-production cuts from the PCA or censorship around the country and world. However, in the first months after the PCAs formation, that wasnt possible, since all the studios had dozens of movies which were finished or far into production. The PCA could only edit these finished films with cuts and perhaps the suggestion of some additions to make them as close to the Codes standards as possible. Housewife is such a film.

Cropped screenshot of George Brent from the trailer for the film Housewife from 1934. (Public Domain)

A Cautionary Moral Tale

This is the story of William Reynolds (Brent), the office manager for an advertising firm. He has a wife and a young son, Buddy (Ronnie Cosby). His wife, Nan (Dvorak), is a devoted mother, a shrewd housekeeper, and Bills biggest champion. It drives her mad that her brother, George (Hobart Cavanaugh), gets a new job with better pay while Bill is afraid to leave his menial position. To bolster the Duprey Cosmetics account, Bills employer, Sam Blake (Robert Barrat), hires a female copywriter from New York, Patricia Berkeley (Davis), who turns out to be a former admirer of Bills from high school. Nan encourages Bill to suggest an idea about Duprey Cosmetics to Blake, who will barely even listen to the suggestion. Furious, Bill finally decides to quit his job and start his own advertising firm.

After six months of being in business for himself, Bill has only one client, and the family savings are running low. When he hears that Paul Duprey (John Halliday) is in town, Nan talks him into chasing Duprey down and signing him to his advertising firm, first getting him drunk enough to go through with the idea. Dupreys only condition is that Patricia must be hired to write his copy. With this huge account, Reynolds agency booms.

Before long, the Reynolds own a mansion, have servants, expensive clothes, and send Buddy to a prestigious military academy. It comes at a price, however, since Bill is always working. As he is spending less time with his wife and son, he is spending more time with Pat, who is very interested in her married employer. Soon, they are having an affair, which they arent even discreet enough to hide from Nan and Mr. Duprey. Paul cant understand Bills wandering eye, since he greatly admires Mrs. Reynolds. Nan plans to ignore the situation until Bill comes to his senses, but she fears that she is losing her beloved husband to success and a designing woman.

Publicity photo of Bette Davis from 1935. (Public Domain)

Pre-Code or Code

Housewife was released on Aug. 11, 1934, with PCA Seal No. 57. This seems like a high number, but PCA Seals of Approval piled up faster than you might think. In fact, the PCA issued Seals so rapidly that, by the time of Joseph Breens retirement in October 1954, over 17,000 had been released. Mind you, these werent all for feature films, since they also included shorts, cartoons, documentaries, foreign films released in the U.S., and earlier films which were submitted for re-release. After just 57 Seals of Approval, the self-regulators, as the staff of the PCA liked to be called, hadnt even gotten their feet wet.

Basically, Housewife is a decent picture. Its general worldview conforms with the Codes morality. A man has an extramarital affair, but he realizes the error of his ways and goes back to his wife, ending their divorce proceedings before its too late. This scenario occurs in many later Code films. However, if this movie had been produced with the PCAs guidance, some things would have been different about the affairs depiction. Primarily, a Code film probably would have left the extent of the affair to the viewers imagination. Unlike many pre-Code films, Housewife doesnt show any explicit scenes; Bill and Pat dont even kiss on the lips. However, we see them having dinner at her apartment, late at night, when he says he is working. They are constantly holding hands, whispering, and spooning at very unprofessional moments. If theyre doing that much right in front of Nan, what must they be doing when they are alone?

Besides this, there are minor details in this film which fit the earlier style of Pre-Code films more than the standards of later Code films. Bill gets very drunk before going to talk to Paul Duprey, and Nan is drinking with him, although she seems to be feigning intoxication. There was much more alcohol and drunkenness in Pre-Code films, despite the fact that most Pre-Code films were released before Prohibition was repealed on December 5, 1933. Thus, the heavy drinking was not only intemperate and morally questionable but illegal. Although this was no longer the case by the time Housewife was released, its a similar idea. Although most of the costumes are decent, Nan wears one dress with a bizarrely revealing slit over the chest. Finally, Pat neither shows repentance nor receives punishment for her immoral behavior. She tries to break up a marriage but gets off scot-free.

A housewife holds an unbaked pie while looking at a wall clock in a kitchen. An unprepared roast chicken and potatoes sit on the counter. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Celebrating the American Housewife

This movie deserves its Seal of Approval because it focuses on a female character who is a wonderful example of American womanhood. Nan is a typical housewife during the Great Depression, but she has many extraordinary qualities. She works hard around the house, and she saves money fastidiously by following a careful budget. Shes a devoted mother and a loving wife. Although she isnt a businesswoman like Pat, she is one of the smartest characters in the film. Her ideas, plans, and determination transform Bill from a browbeaten office manager to the head of a huge marketing agency. Even when the going gets tough, she never stops believing in her husband. This role is played with tenderness and determination by Ann Dvorak.

Patricia Berkeley presents a sharp contrast to Nan. Played by Bette Davis when she was still in her blonde cutie pie phase, Pat is the exact opposite of the housewife, the modern woman. She has a job, she smokes frequently, she lives at an expensive hotel, and she doesnt subscribe to traditional morality. She tries to sell Bill on the idea that his having friends besides his wife is very modern, shaming him into thinking that hes just being old-fashioned when he is pestered by twinges of conscience. At the center of this love triangle, Bill is perhaps the least complex of the three main characters. He doesnt appreciate Nans help as much as he should. He goes from being grumpy because he hates his job to concerned that his business is failing to annoyed when Nan questions his behavior as a successful businessman. George Brent gives a good performance as this morally ambiguous character.

If youd like to see an example of a very early Code film, I suggest Housewife. It may not be up to the usual moral standards we expect from the Code, but its a charming precursor of the wonderful things to come during the Breen Era.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Italy: Migrants Paid 8,000 Euros Each for Voyage of Death

Firefighters search among debris washed ashore by sea at a beach near Cutro, southern Italy, on Feb. 27, 2023. (Giovanni Isolino/LaPresse via AP)

CROTONE, ItalyRescue teams pulled more bodies from the sea on Tuesday, bringing the death toll from Italys latest migration tragedy to 65, as prosecutors identified suspected smugglers who allegedly charged 8,000 euros (nearly $8,500) for each person making the voyage of death from Turkey to Italy.

Authorities delayed a planned viewing of the coffins to allow more time for identification of the bodies, as desperate relatives and friends arrived in the Calabrian city of Crotone in hope of finding their loved ones, some of whom hailed from Afghanistan.

At least 65 people, including 14 minors, died when their overcrowded wooden boat slammed into shoals 100 meters (yards) off the shore of Cutro and broke apart early Sunday in rough seas. Eighty people survived, but many more are feared dead since survivors indicated the boat had carried about 170 people when it set off last week from Izmir, Turkey.

Aid groups at the scene have said many of the passengers hailed from Afghanistan, including entire families, as well as from Pakistan, Syria, and Iraq. Rescue teams pulled two bodies from the sea on Tuesday, bringing the toll to 65, police said.

Premier Giorgia Meloni sent a letter to European leaders demanding quick action on the continents longstanding migration problem, insisting that migrants must be stopped from risking their lives on dangerous sea crossings.

The point is, the more people who set off, the more people risk dying, she told RAI state television late Monday.

Crotone prosecutor Giuseppe Capoccia confirmed investigators had identified three suspected smugglers, a Turk and two Pakistani nationals. A second Turk is believed to have escaped or died in the wreck.

Italys border police said in a statement that organizers of the crossing charged 8,000 euros (around $8,500) each for the voyage of death.

Rescue crews search for people believed still missing from a migrant shipwreck close to a beach near Cutro, southern Italy, on Feb. 28, 2023. (Valeria Ferraro/AP Photo)

Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi pushed back at suggestions that the rescue was delayed or affected by government policy discouraging aid groups from staying at sea to rescue migrants.

The EU border agency Frontex has said its aircraft spotted the boat off Crotone at 10:26 p.m. Saturday and alerted Italian authorities. Italy sent out two patrol vessels, but they had to turn back because of the poor weather.

Piantedosi told a parliamentary committee that the ship ran aground and broke apart at around 5 a.m. Sunday.

There was no delay, Piantedosi told Corriere della Sera. Everything possible was done in absolutely prohibitive sea conditions.

The Italian Coast Guard issued a statement on Tuesday saying Frontex had indicated that the migrants boat was navigating normally and that only one person could be seen above deck.

It added that an Italian border police vessel, already operating in the sea set out to intercept the migrant boat.

At about 4:30 a.m., some indications by telephone from subjects on land, relative to a boat in danger a few meters from the coast, reached the Coast Guard, the statement said.

At that point, a Carabinieri police boat which had been alerted by border police informed the Coast Guard about the shipwreck.

When briefing lawmakers, the interior minister cited figures supporting Italys long-held frustration that fellow European Union nations dont honor pledges to accept a share of asylum-seeking migrants who reach Italy.

Piantedosi said that while these pledges covered some 8,000 migrant relocations from June last year through this month, only 387 people actually were transferred to other EU nations, with Germany taking in most of them.
Judges Dismiss Florida Womans Petition to Be Released From Jail Over Unborn Baby

An eight-month pregnant woman wont be released from prison on the grounds that her unborn child was innocent, after a Florida court deemed her argument illogical and merely an attempt to use pregnancy as a leverage to avoid lawful detainment.

The mother, 24-year-old Natalia Harrell, was about six weeks pregnant when she was arrested last July for allegedly murdering another woman in Miami. Harrell has since been held in jail as she awaits trial.

Harrell pleaded not guilty, arguing that she acted in self-defense. She also filed a petitionknown as habeas corpuson behalf of her baby, asking the the court to order her unborn childs release from custody, which in practices would mean releasing the mother from jail for the remainder of her pregnancy.

The unborn child, according to Harrells petition, remains unlawfully and illegally incarcerated on no criminal charges. It also described the prison as an inherently dangerous environment for the child, whose safety is allegedly threatened by violent criminal offenders.

If the baby is not released from jail, the petition claimed, he or she will be likely brought into this world on the concrete floor of the prison cell, without the aid of qualified medical physicians and paramedics, and in the presence of violent criminals.

Reyes, the director of the Miami-Dade County Corrections Department, disputes those allegations, telling the court that Harrell has been provided with adequate medical care and has even turned down an out-of-jail check-up arranged for her.

Petitioner has been taken to at least four obstetrician appointments outside of the jail and, notably, refused to attend a fifth, he wrote. Despite her refusal, Petitioner is currently scheduled for yet another outside obstetrician appointment in the near future.

Despite claims to the contrary in the petition, she has been receiving and/or has been offered additional nutrition on a daily basis since her August 2022 positive pregnancy test. Petitioner has been offered prenatal vitamins on a daily basis for months, Reyes stated, adding that the unborn child, under the care and monitor of nurses and medical providers, has shown good fetal movement with a healthy heart rate. He also affirmed that the mother will be transported to an actual hospital to give birth.

In a unanimous opinion (pdf) released on Feb. 24, a panel of three judges at Floridas 3rd District Court of Appeal sided with the state, saying that it was impossible to properly resolve whether the unborn child has the standing to file the petition before us given the inadequate record in this matter.

In a separate opinion, Judge Monica Gordo wrote that she agrees with the move to dismiss the petition, but disagrees with the idea that the petition might have any legal merit at all.

The writ of habeas corpus is meant to prevent the unlawful detainment of persons due to government action, the judge wrote. No more could the government be accused of unlawfully detaining the unborn child in this case than could the mother be guilty of kidnapping over interstate lines if she chose to visit her grandmother in Georgia while eight months pregnant.

The argument is illogical. The mother comes to us as a badly disguised Trojan Horse, she continued. In fact, the argument is nothing more than an attempt for the mother to leverage her unborn child as a basis to be released from lawful detention.

William Norris, an attorney representing Harrells baby, cant be immediately reached for comments. He previously argued that his client is a person whose rights are guaranteed by both Florida and the U.S. Constitution.

What is the most important is the fact that the unborn child is there, is a person involved in the equation, he said in an interview with ABC News. Were simply asking that the rights of the unborn child be considered and addressed.
Los Angeles to Lower Police Recruitment Standards, Identify Officers in Right-Wing Extremist Groups

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass wants to remove obstacles for police applicants who fail the recruitment process and discipline officers in right-wing extremist groups, according to a list of two dozen provisions detailed in a planning document between her office and the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).

The three-page document, titled Los Angeles Police Department Metricsfirst reported by the Los Angeles Times last week and of which The Epoch Times has obtained a copywas shared with LAPD officials shortly after Bass reappointed Police Chief Michel Moore for a second term on Jan. 31.

Bass intends to focus on the most common reasons that recruits fail when applying to become an officerand then seek to eliminate those hurdlesespecially for ethnic groups disproportionately left out of new officer training, according to the document.

The LAPD will have until mid-November to develop recommendations to diversify the department through rolling back of testing thresholds that are deemed too difficult, the document reads.

But the citys police union told The Epoch Times on Feb. 27 that hiring standards already have been lowered to combat the chronic staffing shortage that has plagued the LAPD in recent years.

Individuals in downtown Los Angeles were arrested on various charges and loaded into LAPD buses on Nov. 3, 2020. Law enforcement agencies are on high alert the remainder of the week for post-election crimes. Downtown Los Angeles, Calif. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

According to state standards, 70 is the minimum an applying officer can score on a physical fitness test.

But that has been lowered in Los Angeles to 30, Los Angeles Police Protective League spokesperson Tom Saggau told The Epoch Times. We even have folks that have been admitted into the academy that are well below 30.

The unionrepresenting more than 9,000 officersconfirmed to The Epoch Times that the mayor and the LAPD are actively working on the directives outlined in the document. An LAPD spokesperson couldnt immediately confirm if Moore had agreed to all 24 of the initiatives.

Many of the provisionsunder the subheads of police reform, community policing, alternative response programs, personnel, and crime reductionare similar to public safety proposals made by Bass during her campaign last year.

But Saggau said lowering the standards to become an officer is dangerous.

What happens with any department that either has low standards, unfair discipline or low pay, it leads to corruption, he said. Why would you want to hire folks that dont meet basic minimum standards?

In January, LAPD officials began asking retired police officers to return to work amid a workforce shortage. As of mid-February, the department is down by 233 officers, according to a department personnel report.

The department currently has around 9,200 officers, but 600 are expected to leave in 2024, a 20 percent increase over 2022. During her campaign, Bass vowed to increase the LAPD to 9,700 sworn officers.

Additionally, the LAPD has until August to draw on data from the U.S. Department of Justice to identify, discipline, and potentially terminate officers associated with right-wing extremist organizations, according to Basss planning document.

Men taunt a Los Angeles Police Department officer with profanity in Los Angeles, Calif., on Nov. 6, 2020. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Saggau said he would expand that directive to include left-wing extremism and any group that espouses violence and extremism, as well.

Other goals Bass wants LAPD to implement are expanding its Mental Evaluation Unit and System-Wide Mental Assessment Team for a more rigorous response to mental health calls, decreasing the number of officer-involved shootings, increasing transfers from other departments by 500 per year, reducing property crime, and improving homicide clearance rates.

Bass told The Los Angeles Times that her top priorities on the list of directives are crime reduction, personnel reform, alternative response, and community policing.

Basss office didnt respond by press time to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.
Key House Panel Approves Bill to Help States Prosecute COVID Unemployment Fraud

Extends US statute of limitations

House Ways and Means Committee members approved legislation on Feb. 28 that provides states new incentives to go after an estimated $400 billion in COVID-19 unemployment insurance (UI) fraud and extends the federal statute of limitations on prosecution of such crimes.

The Protecting Taxpayers and Victims of Unemployment Fraud Act was introduced in the House by Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), whos chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee. There are 26 co-sponsors of the proposal, all of them Republicans. The bill is expected to be moved to the floor of the House of Representatives for debate and voting on final passage in the spring.

The proposal is needed, according to Smith, because the Department of Labor inspector general (IG) and Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC), headed by Department of Justice IG Michael Horowitz, and other law enforcement officials have estimated that as much as $400 billion has been lost to fraudulent claims for federal assistance approved during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021.

Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), whos chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, has described the problem as the greatest theft of American tax dollars in history. Nearly 70,000 Social Security numbers that are likely fraudulent have been identified by PRAC investigators.

Two of the multiple programs approved by Congress and signed into law during the COVID-19 pandemic by Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden are the major focus of the anti-fraud effort, including the Small Business Administrations Economic Injury Disaster Loan and the Paycheck Protection Program. These programs, created to provide financial assistance to small businesses and their employees affected by COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, disbursed a total of nearly $1.2 trillion.

Smith emphasized during the hearing that the legislation is needed now as a result of Democrats failure to conduct proper oversight during the 117th Congress.

He told the Ways and Means Committee during the hearing on its oversight plans for the 118th Congress: Unemployment fraud is not a victimless crime. At a time when Americans were at their most vulnerable, criminals stole their weekly benefits and identities. Republicans worked for more than two years to protect this program from criminals who exploited it for their own gain.

We made two requests for oversight hearings, introduced legislation to provide us with the incentives and tools to fight fraud, introduced multiple amendments in this committee to add common-sense safeguards, tried to get the Department of Labor to respond to our requests. All of that was ignored, blocked, and shot down by Democrats in the majority.

Only $5 billion of the potentially $400 billion has been recovered. Meanwhile, the Biden Administration official responsible for prosecuting fraud has resigned and the position sits vacant to this day. After two years of raising the alarm, House Republicans are turning on the lights about the greatest theft of taxpayer dollars in American history.

Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the panel now and its chairman during the 117th Congress, disagreed with Smiths claims about Democrats failing to conduct sufficient oversight.

[The bill] would tell states to hire investigators and bill workers for state payment errors innocent workers did not know about and were not responsible for, Neal told the committee in his opening statement. And it would have states send those bills as long as 10 years after the mistake was made. These surprise bills would punish Americas families all while stunting accountability for actual criminals.

[The panel] stepped in when millions of workers found themselves jobless overnight through no fault of their own. Congress ensured they could feed their children and pay their rent. The numbers speak for themselves. These benefits kept millions out of poverty in 2020 and 2021, making the difference for families in communities in every corner of our country. And it served as the trampoline to enable our incredible economic recovery, with record job creation in both years of President Bidens term so far.

Among the major provisions of the proposal is one that allows states to keep 25 percent of recovered fraudulent overpayments of federal funds. Most of the money distributed under the two federally funded pandemic relief programs would be administered by state authorities.

Another provision encourages states to use recovered funds to improve program integrity and fraud prevention. The proposal would also allow state governments to keep 5 percent of state UI overpayments, contingent on meeting data matching integrity conditions and dedicating those funds to preventing future fraud.

The proposal extends the federal statute of limitations for criminal charges filed in connection with UI fraud cases from the present five years to 10 years.

The COVID-19 pandemic, which originated in China, began in March 2020 and has killed more than 1 million Americans and 6 million people worldwide. The United States imposed unprecedented measures in response that all but brought the economy to a halt, costing millions of jobs, leaving legions of Americans struggling to buy food and gas, and restricting normal outdoor life for months on end.

The nation remains on official alert for a federally proclaimed Public Health Emergency (PHE). House Republicans passed legislation on Jan. 31 declaring the PHE ended as soon as the measure is signed into law. However, the measure still must be passed by the Senate and signed by President Joe Biden, who has said that hell end the PHE on May 11, 2023.
Kings Anze Kopitar Nets 4 Goals in 65 Shootout Win at Winnipeg

Los Angeles Kings' Anze Kopitar celebrates his goal against the Winnipeg Jets with Drew Doughty (8) during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on Feb. 28, 2023. (Fred Greenslade/The Canadian Press via AP)

Anze Kopitar recorded his second-career four-goal game, and the visiting Los Angeles Kings rallied from three two-goal deficits to beat the reeling Winnipeg Jets 65 in shootout on Tuesday night, Feb. 28.

Los Angeles was down 53 after two periods when Kopitar posted his first four-goal contest since March 2018, with a slapper just 1:26 into the third.

The Kings tied it with 4:06 left in regulation when Gabriel Vilardi broke free, after the Jets Dylan Samberg fell, and beat Connor Hellebuyck (32 saves). Adrian Kempe had the lone goal in the shootout for Los Angeles, which finished a 221 trip.

Josh Morrissey had a career-high four points with two goals and two assists, while Kevin Stenlund also scored twice for the Jets, who have dropped four straight while mired in a 151 rut.

Winnipeg entered without a goal in five straight periods but had two over a span of 1:43 of the first. Blake Wheeler recorded his 600th career assist as Morrissey successfully poked the puck over the goal line from underneath Kings netminder Pheonix Copley (26 saves) with 4:08 remaining in the first. Moments later, Morrissey unleashed a spot-on laser from the circle for his career-high 13th.

Things then opened up in the second. After Winnipegs Neal Pionk was whistled for holding 20 seconds into the period, Kopitar cashed in 6 seconds later via a one-timer.

Winnipeg regained its two-goal edge when Kyle Connor found the top-right corner from a tough angle at 6:08 into the middle frame. However, Kopitar tied it by posting back-to-back redirected goalswith 10:46 and 9:17 to go, respectivelywhile in front of the net.

The Jets, though, got the lead back when Stenlund went top corner to beat Copley with 12 minutes gone in the second. After Nino Niederreiter, in his Winnipeg debut following a deal with Nashville, drew a check-to-the-head penalty, Stenlund converted on a two-on-one with Adam Lowry, in his 600th game, for the short-handed goal with 1:34 remaining to cap the six-goal second period.

The Jets played minus forward Pierre-Luc Dubois, who was scratched due to a lower-body injury.
Lawmakers Press Pentagon Leaders to Define Endgame in Ukraine

Rep. Tom Cole (R-) leaves the office of U.S. Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) in the U.S. Capitol on February 27, 2023 in Washington, DC. The House of Representatives have returned to Capitol Hill after a two week recess. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Members of Congress asked leaders in the U.S. Department of Defense to define the endgame for American involvement in the Russia-Ukraine war and expressed wariness of open-ended involvement, despite their strong support for the Ukrainian cause.

The exchange took place at a meeting of the House Appropriations subcommittee on Defense on Feb. 28.

Celeste Wallander, assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs at the U.S. Department of Defense, and Lt. Gen. Douglas A. Sims II, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified at a subcommittee meeting for oversight of Ukraine.

Definition of Success

This is a fight you have to win. I dont have any equivocation about that. I think the consequences of losing for the country and in terms of the international order are horrific, Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) asked.

President Joe Biden (R) walks next to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (L) as he arrives for a visit in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 20, 2023. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images)

What I do wonder about is how we define winning.

The answer isnt simple, according to Wallander.

Thats partly because it depends on how this summers fighting plays out, she said. She listed other variables as well, including the ongoing commitment of the international community to enforce sanctions, and the possibility of China supporting Russia.

Wallander did, however, list two criteria for declaring an end to the conflict.

Our position is that this has to end in a strategic failure for Russia, she said, which would deter other nations from acts of aggression.

Second, we have to support Ukraine, she said. We owe it to ourselves, and we owe it to the Ukrainians to support their definition of sovereignty, territorial integrity, and security, and to work with them.

That answer did not satisfy Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah). An Air Force veteran and self-described war hawk, Stewart was unwilling to make an open-ended commitment to supporting Ukranian war aims.

Im afraid that our goals and Mr. Zelenskyys goals may not be aligned, he said.

When he says we will expel every Russian from Eastern Ukraine and from Crimea, that simply may not be possiblenot without broadening and expanding this or in a way that I think the American people would not support, Steward said.

M1 Abrams tanks and other armored vehicles sit atop flat cars in a rail yard in Washington, on July 2, 2019. (Leah Millis/Reuters)

Citing the examples of Afghanistan, Somalia, and Lybia, Stewart said the country should have learned by now that predicting the course of an armed conflict is difficult.

What does [President Biden] mean when he says we will stay there for as long as it takes?

Bidens goals, Wallander said, are that the war ends in a strategic defeat for Russia, that Ukraine is secure within its internationally recognized borders, that the NATO alliance remains firm, and that the American homeland is not attacked by Russia.

The Pricetag

Members also zeroed in on the cost of the war, wondering how much of it should be borne by the American people.

Rep. Ed Case (D-Hawaii) pointed out that the United States has contributed $113 billion to the war effort compared to $85 billion from other allies.

This is Europes backyard, Stewart said. Europe should be the ones leading on this and once again, we find ourselves having to lead.

Frances President Emmanuel Macron (R), Romanian President Klaus Iohannis (L), Prime Minister of Italy Mario Draghi (C), Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (2nd L) and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Kyiv, Ukraine, on June 16, 2022. (Ludovic Marin, Pool via AP)

There is caution in Congress for leading out on this in perpetuity, without a sense that [Europe is] equally yoked with us on this, he said.

Mike Garcia (R-Calif.) said that if the Ukrainians were to purchase some armaments from the United States rather than asking for free weapons, it would go a long way with the American taxpayer.

I support the efforts of Ukraine, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) said, but its difficult to go back to the American people and say, We want you to put your hard-earned money, yet they see we dont take it as seriously as we should.

Diaz-Baklart mentioned U.S. support for Venezuela and an upcoming diplomatic visit from Cuba, both allies of Russia, as evidence that the administration is not committed to opposing Russia.
Like the Apocalypse: NZ Resident Recounts Cyclone Gabrielle Experience

Cleaning up the logs that rushed down Esk Valley. (Courtesy of Ashley Church)

On the morning of Feb. 14, after Cyclone Gabrielle struck the North Island of New Zealand, Ashley Church woke up to see backyards and roads completely flooded.

Miraculously, his own house was untouched, just mere metres away from the flood waters.

I walked down the road; all of the houses there were flooded except oursours wasnt touched. If people had cars in the driveway, they were submerged underwater, Church told The Epoch Times.

But that was all we knew.

With the power cut off and the roads completely flooded, Churchs community in Whirinaki Beach, Hawkes Bay, had no way of receiving information.

There was lots of people walking around wondering what was happening. We had no power, no internet, no water, he said.

We couldnt receive messages so we had no idea what was going on.

Only after the flood waters receded the next day was Church and the community able to truly take stock of what the weather event had done.

It was like a tsunami, but if the water came from the hills instead of the sea, Church said.

So all the water, millions and millions of litres of water powered down the Esk valley, which is like a funnel, and just destroyed everything on its path, he said.

Houses were wiped outmassive, great logs had just cut straight through them. Cars were on their roofs; there was a layer of silt about three or four feet deep. And that was just where we were.

Flooded street. (Courtesy of Ashley Church)

Church heard that the situation further up the Esk Valley had been even worse.

It was like a movie set. It was like the apocalypse, he said.

It took another couple of days before the internet connection was restored.

Meanwhile, authorities had turned off the water due to contamination concerns.

I was okay because, on my property, Ive got a 30,000-litre rainwater tank. So I was just saying to the neighbours, bring a bucket, come and help yourself, which they were, Church said.

The Civil Defence army eventually arrived a couple of days later with boxes of bottled water for everyone.

Cyclone Also Brought Hope and Community

Despite the wreckage and loss left behind by Cyclone Gabrielle, Church also gained a lot from the experience.

Theres neighbours I didnt know I had, and now I know them quite well because I feel like I spent a lot of time with them, he said. We felt like there was a real sense of community which hasnt been there before, and it will probably stay now.

He also came to realise just how resilient and adaptable people can be, even without electricity, food, and running water.

Whats interesting is once the food that goes off goes, because you have to throw it out, you can actually survive for a long time. You can last for days and days and probably weeks if you had to, he said, adding that people just needed water and something to cook on.

So quite quickly, [we] got used to it. It was about a week before things actually started to come around.

A sign reminding people to bring necessities. (Courtesy of Ashley Church)

National Weather Service Bears Some of the Blame

Church also had some criticism for the national services, such as the national forecaster MetService which issues warnings for weather events in the country.

Theres a bit of a tendency of the MetService to cry wolf, he said.

Often, theyll come out making these exaggerated claims about these things, and then invariably, the event will happen, and its nothing near as bad as what we expected it was going to be.

And so because of that, because theyd cried wolf too often, I think there was a tendency with this event for people to say, this isnt actually serious, which of course it was.

Recovery to Take a Long Time

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins visited Hawkes Bay to witness first-hand the impact of Gabrielle on New Zealands primary sector, particularly growers.

While we can see images of that on the TV news, actually seeing it up front really brings home the reality of that, he told reporters on March 1.

When youre driving past orchards, and youre seeing caravans in the trees, you just realise the strength of the natural disaster that unfolded. Thats pretty confronting.

The depth of the silt in areas, seeing people clearing their household contents out on the side of the road because thats the only place they can put itits pretty tough.

Hipkins said it was still too early to tell how much food prices will be impacted, as it depended on which crops could still be harvested and which ones would be written off entirely.

New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins (L) speaks to media with Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni (R) ahead of Cyclone Gabrielles arrival at Waka Kotahi Auckland Transport operations room in Auckland, New Zealand, on Feb. 12, 2023. (Fiona Goodall/Getty Images)

Hawkes Bay was the region most impacted by the cyclone. Power is still being restored across the region, with Patoka the latest town to be reconnected.

The Wairoa and Gisborne districts also continue to receive heavy amounts of rainfall.

Wairoas deputy mayor, Denise Eaglesome-Karekare, told Radio New Zealand that on Feb. 28, some areas that the cyclone hadnt affected are now become flooded from the continuous rain.

People have rung and said more rain fell last night than Cyclone Gabrielle, she said.

People who have been doing all that work in their homesits now mud again, and its probably a lot harder to shift because its not solid; its runny.

Meanwhile, according to the Ministry of Education, 24 schools and 53 early learning services remain closed in the region, affecting over 5,200 children.
Lori Lightfoot Loses Reelection Bid for Chicago Mayor

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks during an election night rally at Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council in Chicago, Ill., on Feb. 28, 2023. (Kamil Krzaczynski/Getty Images)

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, a Democrat, lost her reelection bid to former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas and Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson, who are headed to a runoff election on April 4 after no candidates received a majority of votes.

The race was officially nonpartisan, which means Republican, Democrat, and independent voters could all vote.

With 93 percent of votes counted at 10:33 p.m. Eastern Time, Vallas garnered 33.9 percent of the vote, Johnson 20.3 percent, and Lightfoot 16.9 percent, The New York Times reported.

Speaking to supporters on Feb. 28, Lightfoot said she called Vallas and Johnson to congratulate them.

Regardless of tonights outcome, we fought the right fights, and we put this city on a better path, Lightfoot said.

Lightfoot is the first incumbent Chicago mayor to lose a reelection bid since 1983, when Jane Byrne, the citys first female mayor, lost her Democratic primary.

As a then-outsider to politics, Lightfoot ran for mayor in 2019 promising to end government corruption, becoming the first black female Chicago mayor in Americas history. But the ethics of her reelection campaign came into question when it was found that the campaign attempted to recruit students at Chicago Public Schools and City Colleges in exchange for school credit. She later apologized, saying it was a bad mistake made by a young staffer in her campaign, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Lightfoot took office in May 2019 as the 56th mayor of Chicago. Her four-year term was plagued by a long strike by the teachers union, clashes with the police union, and soaring violent homicide rates in a city with some of the most stringent gun laws in the country.

A heavily criticized aspect of her administration was the rising crime in Chicago under its governance. From January 2019 to the end of 2022, Chicagos murder rate increased by 39 percent, theft by 37 percent, robbery by 13 percent, motor vehicle theft by 139 percent, and shooting by 32 percent, according to a report by the Chicago Police Department.

Criminal sexual assault decreased by 2 percent, aggravated battery decreased by 6 percent, and burglary decreased by 21 percent.

In her concession speech, Lightfoot defended her administrations record in handling crime, saying that it had started making real progress on public safety.

Im grateful that we worked together to remove a record number of guns off our streets, reduced homicides, and started making real progress on public safety, she said.

In a previous interview, she said that external circumstances made it difficult for her to govern.

I think no sane person wants to try to govern through, hopefully, a once-in-a-lifetime global pandemic, an economic meltdown, a civic unrest following the murder of George Floyd and an increase in crime across the city, she said in a Feb. 21 interview with The New Yorker.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
On March 1, Artsakh Republic President Arayik Harutyunyan chaired a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers.

March 1, 2023, 14:00 President Harutyunyan introduced the newly-appointed State Minister of the Artsakh Republic

STEPANAKERT, MARCH 1, ARTSAKHPRESS: The Head of the State introduced Gurgen Nersisyan, the newly-appointed State Minister of the Artsakh Republic to the participants of the meeting. In his speech, President Harutyunyan noted that the State Minister will have broad powers, all ministries will operate under his coordination, except for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Internal Affairs, and he will have the freedom to develop and conduct personnel policy within the scope of his jurisdiction. The chairmanship of the Boards of Trustees of the Artsakh Investment Fund and the Village and Agriculture Support Fund will also be transferred to Gurgen Nersisyan.



Touching upon the situation developed as a result of the blockade of Artsakh by Azerbaijan, the Head of the State noted, that despite the fact that the people of Artsakh have been suffering huge social and economic losses during the last 80 days, and experiencing emotional distress, they show great will and determination to tirelessly overcome them day by day.



"Once again, I want to emphasize that regardless of the difficulties and various pressures, we will remain loyal to the ideas of the Artsakh Movement and there will be no step back from the path of independence. I want to declare with all responsibility that any integration process with Azerbaijan is excluded. However, this does not mean that we will avoid contacts to solve problems of an infrastructural and humanitarian nature. And for the negotiations on the settlement of the conflict, as I stated in my message of February 23, it is necessary to ensure certain conditions and an international format," the President said.



Arayik Harutyunyan also noted that the Government will continue to take all measures to alleviate the socio-economic burden and jointly overcome the existing challenges.



In this regard, the President instructed the new State Minister to develop and submit a package of new social programs in the coming days, aimed at the significant relief of utility bills, other current expenses, as well as tax and credit burden. At the same time, the Head of the State instructed to consistently and promptly exert efforts to increase the level of the economys self-sufficiency, attaching priority attention to food production.
Marjorie Taylor Greene Says She Was Attacked at Restaurant Over Political Views

Incident follows Greene's advocacy for a 'national divorce' of red and blue states

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) talks to reporters as she leaves the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Feb. 2, 2023. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said she was attacked at a restaurant on Feb. 27 by an insane woman and her adult son.

I was attacked in a restaurant tonight by an insane [woman] and screamed at by her adult son, Greene wrote on Twitter on Feb. 27.

They had no respect for the restaurant, or the staff, or the other people dining,she continued. Or people like me who simply have different political views.

Greene said she was sitting at a table, working with her staff, and never even noticed these people until they turned into demons.

People used to respect others even if they had different views, Greene said. But not anymore.

Polite, Then Started Berating

Communications Director at Greene for Congress Nick Dyer said the woman introduced herself politely at first and then started berating Greene.

At that point, her 20-year-old son started screaming expletives at the top of his lungs and came closer, Dyer said. I had to get in between him and the table because I had no clue what hed do.

There was more screaming by the man, Dyer said, while his mother continued to berate Greene.

Finally staff came and demanded that they leave, Dyer said. The staff apologized and moved us to a more private table.

The police were not called, Dyer said.

The incident comes after Greene made headlines this past week when she advocated for a national divorce of red and blue states.

We need a national divorce. We need to separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government, Greene said on Twitter on Feb. 27.

Promoting a National Divorce

From the sick and disgusting woke culture issues shoved down our throats to the Democrats traitorous America Last policies, we are done.

Greene initially suggested the idea of a national divorce in late 2021.

After Democrat voters and big donors ruin a state like California, you would think it wise to stop them from doing it to another great state like Florida, Greene said on Twitter in December 2021. All possible in a National Divorce scenario.

The Feb. 27 attack on Greene is not the first time the congresswoman has received threats during her time in office.

This past month Joseph Morelli, 51, pleaded guilty to leaving threatening phone messages for Greene in March 2022.

Morelli faces up to five years in prison and will be sentenced in June, according to the U.S. attorneys office of the Northern District of New York.

Greene said the latest attackers were self-righteous, insane, and completely out of control.

Our country is gone, Greene said.
Mendicino Calls Foreign Interference Serious Threat But Downplays Impact

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino gestures toward a reporter as he waits to appear before the Special Committee on Canada-People's Republic of China Relationship on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Feb. 6, 2023. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press)

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino has defended his governments actions in dealing with the issue of Chinese interference in Canadas elections regarding recent revelations in media reports.

We had been saying for years that foreign interference represents a serious threat to our institutions, including our elections, and that is why we have put in place a number of tools that will assist our intelligence community and other agencies that operate within the public safety apparatus, Mendicino said Feb. 28 while making a funding announcement in Halifax.

Mendicino had been asked whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was sending a dismissive message to security agencies with his latest comments on the issue.

A reporter suggested that intelligence sources are leaking details to the media about Chinese Communist Party (CCP) interference in Canadian elections because the Liberal government is perceived as not taking action.

Trudeau on Feb. 27 linked the concerns surrounding Liberal MP Han Dong to anti-Asian racism.

He also said that it is not up to unelected security officials to dictate to political parties who can or cannot run.

Global News reported on Feb. 24 that in 2019 Dong was a witting affiliate in Chinas election interference networks and that the Liberal Party had been warned but chose to keep Dong as a candidate.

Dong has called the claims inaccurate and irresponsible.

Mendicino said non-partisan panels made up of public servants have determined that the 2019 and 2021 elections were free and fair.

But he skirted around the question when asked whether individual ridings have been affected by foreign interference and why this information is not revealed to the public.

Were going to continue to be up front and transparent with Canadians when it comes to the threats that are posed to our democratic institutions, said Mendicino.

On Feb. 28, the government released a report assessing the work from the Critical Election Incident Public Protocol (CEIPP) in the 2021 federal election.

The CEIPP was established in 2019 as a mechanism to communicate with Canadians in the event of incidents jeopardizing the integrity of elections.

The report, written by former senior public servant Morris Rosenberg, says the body did not find there was foreign interference of great magnitude in 2019 or 2021 that met the threshold for an announcement.

This was despite noting there were efforts at foreign interference.

Rosenberg said several elements of the protocol worked well, while also making a number of recommendations.

There were numerous comments on the need for an early announcement to communicate clearly to Canadians and to the media about the nature of the threat, the integrated plan put in place to address it, and the role of the Protocol and the Panel as one element of that plan, he said about improving communications.

The Conservative Party has raised questions about Rosenbergs impartiality since he previously served as the CEO of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation.

During his time as the head of the Trudeau Foundation, Rosenberg was involved in facilitating a controversial $200k donation from influential CCP official Bin Zhang, who was also intimately involved in Trudeaus 2016 billionaire cash-for-access scandal, the party wrote in a statement.

The Conservatives said they would be calling Rosenberg to testify before the Commons procedure and House affairs committee currently studying foreign interference.
Mississippi Bans Gender-Affirming Care for Minors

Mississippi has become the latest state to ban health care professionals from providing gender-affirming care for transgender youth in what officials say will stop the attempt to push a sick and twisted ideology on children.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican, signed the GOP-led House Bill 1125, also known as the Regulate Experimental Adolescent Procedures (REAP) Act into law on Feb. 28.

Under the legislation, which is effective immediately, individuals in the state are banned from knowingly engaging in conduct that aids or abets the performance or inducement of gender transition procedures for Mississippians under the age of 18.

The bill also prevents public funds or tax deductions for prohibited gender transition procedures, noting that the direct or indirect use, grant, payment, or distribution of public funds to any entity, organization, or individual that provides gender transition procedures to individuals under the age of 18 is also prohibited.

It also puts in place enforcement procedures on the Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure. Any health care professional found to be in violation of the ban will have their license to practice medicine in the state revoked.

Sick and Twisted Ideology

The measure, which also prevents Medicaid from reimbursing or providing coverage for gender transition for persons under the age of 18, allows for health care providers to be sued by their former patients, via their parent or next friend within 30 years.

At the end of the day, there are two positions here. One tells children that theyre beautiful the way they are. That they can find happiness in their own bodies. The other tells them that they should take drugs and cut themselves up with expensive surgeries in order to find freedom from depression. I know which side Im on. No child in Mississippi will have these drugs or surgeries pushed upon them, said Reeves in a statement.

In a separate statement on Twitter shortly before signing the law, Reeves said there are individuals in the state who are attempting to push a sick and twisted ideology that seeks to convince our kids theyre in the wrong body and the solution is to drug, sterilize, and castrate themselves.

To these radical activists I only have one thing to say: Not in Mississippi, the governor wrote.

The signing of the bill makes Mississippi the latest state to enact a ban on gender-affirming care after South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, also a Republican, signed a similar Help Not Harm bill into law last month.

Similar bans have also been passed in Alabama, Arizona, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah, although some of them are currently being blocked by lawsuits.

Nebraska and Oklahoma are also considering similar bills and last month, Republican Florida state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia introduced a bill that would require businesses that cover the cost of gender-transition medical care for their employees to pay for any subsequent detransition care.

Our Politicians Continue to Fail Trans Youth

Supporters of such bills claim that they are intended to safeguard children. Experts have said that four out of five children grow out of gender dysphoria once they reach adolescence.

However, opponents, including a string of major medical organizations like the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Psychological Association, have all voiced support for gender transition care among minors, arguing that it is safe and effective.

After Mississippis Senate lawmakers passed House Bill 1125 on Feb. 23, state Sen. Joey Fillingane, a Republican who handled the bills floor passage, noted that the legislation was not intended to discriminate against the transgender community.

We love people, Fillingane said. We dont hate people. We want people to be well and healthy  But these are unnatural things taking place in our state.

However, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which works to protect and defend individuals rights, said in a statement on Tuesday that the new legislation shuts the door on medical best practice and puts politics between parents, their children, and their doctors.

This life-saving care was already difficult to access for trans youth across the state, and is now entirely out of reach, ACLU said. Our politicians continue to fail trans youth  but we will never stop fighting back against this ongoing attack against trans rights across the nation. Trans youth shouldnt have to fight this hard to be who they are.
New Bill Would Sanction Chinese Regime for Fentanyl Crisis

Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) introduced legislation on Feb. 24 to block the flow from China of precursor drugs made into deadly fentanyl that ends up in the United States.

The Stop CCP Fentanyl Act imposes sanctions on Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Chairman Xi Jinping and CCP senior officials. It also includes a recourse for the immediate family of those killed by fentanyl to pursue damages against the CCP.

More than 100,000 Americans have been killed by Fentanyl from Communist China. Xi Jinping and the CCP must be held accountable, said Rep. Banks, who is running for U.S. Senator in the Hoosier state.

Sanctions imposed under the act would remain in place for 18 months, following which U.S. intelligence agencies would determine the amount of fentanyl in the country made from precursors originating in China over that period.

The president can lift the sanctions if the amount is at least 98 percent less than in the prior 18 months.

China produces most of the drug precursors manufactured into fentanyl in Mexico. And most of the illegal fentanyl in the United States is trafficked from Mexico.

Banks office released information documenting that in 2022, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) seized a record 14,700 lbs. fentanyl, compared with 11,200 lbs. in 2021 and 4,800 lbs. in 2020.

Banks, who sits on the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, filed The Stop CCP Fentanyl Act ahead of the Select Committees The Chinese Communist Partys Threat to America hearing on Feb. 28.

The sanctions would ban Xi and his top administrators from engaging in financial transactions within the U.S. or with U.S. citizens pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

CCP leadership, under the force of sanctions, could not receive a visa or immigration benefits under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and would have existing visas canceled.

Lethal Potency

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid. Developed in 1959 to treat pain in cancer patients, fentanyl is legally produced and prescribed in the U.S.

Mock sizing of a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl is shown in this illustration on April 1, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Fentanyl is 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more powerful than heroin.

An epidemic of fentanyl-related overdoses in America has resulted from drug users believing they are purchasing a strong form of heroin and are not told by sellers of the heroin that what makes it so potent is that it contains fentanyl.
New Congressional Caucus to Address Human Trafficking, Drugs at US-Canada Border

Officials say subzero temperatures are not enough to deter illegal crossings

Republican Reps. Ryan Zinke of Mont. (C) and Mike Kelly of Pa. (R), co-chairs of the Northern Border Security Caucus, speak during their introductory news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Feb. 28, 2023. (Courtesy of Rep. Mike Kelly's office)

A family of four from India were found dead on Jan. 19, 2022, near the Canadian border with Minnesota. The mother, father, and two small childrenVaishaliben Patel, 37; Jagdish Patel, 39; Dharmik, 3; and Vihangi, 11were not dressed for the weather, but they walked through a blizzard in subzero temperatures and ultimately froze.

A year later, two men were arrested in India for human trafficking in connection with the case, The Canadian Press reported.

Frigid conditions dont deter smuggling operations. The illegal movement of people and deadly drugs is exploding along the worlds longest international border, the 5,525 miles between the United States and Canada.

U.S. Border Patrol reported 997 northern land border encounters for the month of January 2021. Encounters have grown each month, and in the month of October 2022, there were 15,938 northern land border encounters.

In fiscal year 2020, the number of border encounters was 32,376. By the end of fiscal year 2022, there were 109,535 encounters.

That is why U.S. Reps. Mike Kelly and Ryan Zinke have formed the Northern Border Security Caucus, a coalition of 28 members of Congress concerned about the increased human and drug trafficking, coupled with the decrease in border patrol agents and lack of security.

More Work With Same Staff

Since 2009, staffing levels along the northern border sectors have remained mostly flat, bouncing around between 1,887 and 2,263 personnel. In 2020, northern border staffing was 2,019, according to data provided by the caucus. And northern border patrol staff members are handling certain southern border duties digitally, adding to their work, as northern crossings increase.

The caucus was announced in Washington this week and its first action was to send a scathing letter to Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

You continue to insist you are managing the border in a safe, orderly, and humane manner, the letter says. Surges in border encounters and drug smuggling, coupled with a shortage of border patrol agents and lack of security measures places Americas northern border at serious risk. As winter turns to spring, were deeply concerned the northern border agents will be even more overwhelmed, under resourced, and undermanned. We ask that you provide a full account of what the Department of Homeland Security will do to mitigate the flow of illegal migrants and illicit drugs into the U.S. across our northern border.

The letter cites a 475 percent increase in encounters in the first four months of the 2023 fiscal year.

Canadian Border Patrol seized 14 pounds of fentanyl in fiscal year 2022 along the northern border. Thats enough to kill an estimated 3.17 million people, the letter says. The damage this drug can do to a community has been well documented over the years. We cannot allow another avenue for fentanyl smuggling into our communities that are already inundated by the drug crisis down south.

The letter was signed by Reps. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania; Ryan Zinke of Montana; Elise Stefanik, Nicole Malliotakis, Claudia Tenney, Anthony DEsposito, Andrew Garbarino, Marcus Molinaro, and Nicholas Langworthy of New York; Jeff Van Drew and Chris Smith of New Jersey; Jack Bergman, Bill Huizenga, and Lisa McClain of Michigan; Clay Higgins of Louisiana; Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington; Brian Babin of Texas; Robert Latta of Ohio; Pete Stauber of Minnesota; Matthew Rosendale of Maryland; Greg Steube of Florida; and Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin.

They are all Republicans, although any member of Congress is invited to join the caucus.

Importance of Border Patrol

We are at war, said Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) Tuesday during an announcement of the caucus. Who are we at war with? China. China is attacking us with fentanyl. And theyre using our southern and northern border to do that. And who are the ones defending us? Its our border patrol agents. Whether its the northern border or the southern border, our border patrol agents are the heroes that are helping keep this war at bay.

Kelly said the U.S. borders are virtually unprotected and at some point, somebody has to do something about it.

The numbers dont lie: the Biden administrations open-border policies have allowed for a surge in human and drug trafficking across the U.S.-Canadian border, Kelly said in a press statement. Over the last two years, every state has become a border state. Ive spoken with border patrol officials in my home state of Pennsylvania who tell me they are pulling double dutythey are digitally processing migrants who are apprehended at the Southern border while now also trying to defend the Northern border. Migrants and smugglers are seeking alternative routes into the United States, and the Northern border is increasingly their first stop. Our goal is to provide commonsense, practical solutions that will increase security across all of Americas borders.

The Epoch Times asked the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection for comment.
New York Fire Department Chiefs File Lawsuit Against Alleged Retaliatory Demotion by Commissioner

Firefighters train at the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) training academy in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Staff Chiefs of the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) have filed a lawsuit to block the fire commissioners decision to demote them, a decision they characterize as retaliatory.

Commissioner Laura Kavanagh, the first woman to serve as commissioner of the FDNY, is alleged to have ignored the advice of staff chiefs on critical safety issues and attempted to smear the victims, including characterizing the plaintiffs as racists and misogynists. The FDNY and Kavanagh, who is known to be a supporter of diversity in the department, are respondents in the case.

The lawsuit demands the immediate reinstatement of eleven staff chiefs who serve as incident commanders for multi-alarm fires in the city of New York, according to a Feb. 27 press release by Walden Macht & Haran LLP, the law firm of the four Staff Chiefs.

The multi-alarm classification is used to denote the seriousness of fires. The complaint was filed in the Kings County Supreme Court of New York in Brooklyn on Feb. 27.

Respondent Kavanaghs brief tenure as FDNY Commissioner has shown what happens when a political operative is put in charge of a public-safety agency as vital as the FDNY, the lawsuit states.

Through the demotions and reassignments, as well as through other decisions antithetical to public safety, Respondent Kavanagh has abused the office of Fire Commissioner, violated the oath of office, put the public and members of the FDNY at risk, and retaliated against senior staff for raising safety concerns about leadership decisions.

When Kavanaghs ill-conceived demotions go into effect on March 4 and 6, there will be no staff chiefs with experience as incident commanders at FDNY to respond to 5-alarm fires. For 4-alarm fires, only a few staff chiefs with experience will remain, according to the complaint.

The petitioners of the lawsuit include FDNY Assistant Chief of Fire Prevention Joe Jardin, Assistant Chief of Operations Michael Gala, Assistant Chief of Operations Fred Schaaf, and Chief of Uniformed Personnel Michael Massucci.

The Lawsuit

Kavanagh became the acting Fire Commissioner in February 2022. According to the lawsuit, for almost a year between February 2022 and 3023, Kavanagh held no meetings with the full group of staff chiefs. This is entirely inconsistent with the practices of past Fire Commissioners who typically met with and consulted their chiefs on at least a monthly basis, the complaint notes.

The staff chiefs raised their concerns with Kavanagh and her staff, insisting that such decisions harmed public safety. But instead of taking the advice of the staff chiefs, Kavanagh is alleged to have took their concerns as unjustifiable dissent.

To put the Staff Chiefs who dared to question her decisions in their place, Respondent Kavanagh began a pattern of abuse of power and retaliation. The first set of Retaliation Decisions were to reassign Assistant Chiefs and Deputy Assistant Chiefs to meaningless positions within the FDNY, and to strip them of their duties, the lawsuit states.

Due to Kavanaghs actions, the FDNY was in severe disarray at the start of 2023. On Feb. 3, when Kavanagh ordered her first-ever staff chiefs meeting, Gala, Jardin, and Schaaf were asked not to attend. During the meeting, Kavanagh is said to have disparaged the chiefs, accusing them of pestering her for promotions and personal cars.

The Staff Chiefs sat in the meeting and tried to appease Respondent Kavanagh. It soon became apparent, however, that the meeting was not an attempt by Respondent Kavanagh to seek out the advice and counsel of the Staff Chiefs or find an amenable path forward, according to the lawsuit.

Instead, this meeting was a pretext for Respondent Kavanaghs next movethe demotions of Gala, Jardin, and Schaaf which the rest of the Staff Chiefs did not yet know was coming, because Respondent Kavanagh did not tell them. The lawsuit also accuses Kavanagh of secretly recording the meeting and leaking it to the media.

During a Feb. 3 meeting with Kavanaghs chief of staff Luis Martinez, Gala, Jardin, and Schaaf were informed that they were being demoted to two ranks below their current rank. The three chiefs are the oldest Staff Chiefs at FDNY but were not provided with any information or insight into the reasons for their demotions, the suit claims.

As several staff members voiced disagreement with Kavanaghs decision, she continued to act as a political operative, not a safety professional. The lawsuit alleges Kavanagh of initiating a smear campaign against the victims.

The lawsuit also cited reports from multiple media outlets to make the case that Kavanagh smeared the plaintiffs through such channels.

It cited a Feb. 6 article from New York Daily News which insisted that Schaff resisted transferring and disciplining some firefighters when allegations of racism were made in a Queens firehouse. Due to Jardins tough-guy management style, he was subject to a series of complaints with the citys Office of Equal Employment Opportunity while Gala was seen as a divisive element in the department.

Another Feb. 6 article from The Chief Leader quoted a longtime FDNY member who alleged Jardin to be a racist who would pass up non-white and female employees for promotions.

On information and belief, Respondent either made or authorized each of these acts of slander against Petitioners, the lawsuit noted. Each of these smears is probably false.

Beginning March 6, 2023, when the constructive demotions go into effect, there will be no remaining Staff Chiefs with experience as Incident Commanders for 5-alarm fires; there will be only three Chiefs with some possible experience as Incident Commanders for 4-alarm fires; and there will be only seven Chiefs with experience as the Incident Commander for 3-alarm fires, the lawsuit noted.

Staff Chiefs provide leadership and operational control during 3-alarm to 5-alarm fires. Without the court stopping the demotions, there is an abundantly clear risk to public safety, with the likelihood that people will die and get injured, the complaint warned.

Demoting Officers, Pushing Diversity

While some staff chiefs were demoted by Kavanagh, a few others stepped down from their posts in protest. During an FDNY promotions ceremony in Brooklyn earlier this month, Kavanagh was subjected to loud boos from the audience.

When asked about the demotions, Kavanagh said that Im picking a staff thats going to lead us forward into the future and accomplish the goals of myself and the mayor and, most importantly, a staff thats going to serve what the members need every day, according to CBS2.

Speaking to the outlet, Uniformed Fire Officers Association President Lt. James McCarthy said that Kavanaghs decision has gone against the norm of FDNY. In the fire department, no one is usually demoted unless a person faces criminal charges or department charges.

It creates about 150 years of firefighting experience and a skill set that you cant replace in a short manner of time. So it impacts the safety of the people of the city, as well as the people of the Fire Department.

Kavanagh was appointed as the FDNY Fire Commissioner in October last year. During her brief reign, Kavanagh named the first Hispanic chief, the first black female executive officer, and the first black Emergency Medical Services chief at the department.

In November, when New York Citys Democrat mayor Eric Adams signed a five-bill package aimed at boosting diversity within the FDNY, Kavanagh had extended support to the decision.

Diversity is at the heart of our citys strength, and our commitment as an agency is first and foremost to the people we serve, Kavanagh said at the time.

In reply to a request for comment by The Epoch Times, the FDNY said they had no comment on pending litigation.
No Election Promise Broken: PM Defends Super Change

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on Feb. 28, 2023. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has refuted the idea that the Labor government broke an election promise after announcing changes to the superannuation concession tax on Feb. 28.

This comes after Albanese said during the 2022 federal election campaign that the Labor party would not make any major change to the super tax break if it were elected.

In an interview with ABC radio on March 1, the prime minister said he did not break the promise as the modest change would occur after the next election.

It very clearly takes effect after the next election. What we are doing here is a very modest change to give a less generous tax break for those who have superannuation balances of above $3 million (US$2.01 million), Albanese said.

This is a modest change that is about improving the sustainability of the system. It is important as well to recognise that it is not retrospective. It applies to future earnings from July 1, 2025.

Albanese also said the new super tax break would be the only change proposed to the superannuation system by the Labor government in this term.

However, when asked whether the government would seek further amendments to the super system in the next term, the prime minister did not give a clear answer, leaving the door open to speculation that Labor may be holding that option open.

Changes to Super Tax Breaks

On Feb. 28, the Labor government announced that from the 2025-2026 financial year, superannuation accounts with a balance above $3 million would be taxed at a concession rate of 30 percent.

In Australia, concessional taxation of super exists to encourage people to save for their retirement rather than rely on the age pension, which is a burden to government finances.

People can contribute to their super accounts using before-tax income. If their combined taxable income and super contributions are less than $250,000, their super contributions will be taxed at a concession rate of 15 percent.

However, there is a cap on concessional contributions, which currently stands at $27,500 a year.

Australian dollars are shown in Sydney, Australia, on March 10, 2015. (Dominic Lorrimer/Getty Images)

The government estimated that the super concessional tax rate cost the federal budget around $50 billion in tax revenue each year.

Currently, the concession rate of 15 percent applies to all super accounts, no matter the account balance size.

However, under the new laws, those with over $3 million in their super accounts will be taxed at 30 percent.

The government said the change would only affect around 80,000 people or 0.5 percent of Australians with super accounts.

In addition, it noted that the changes did not impose a limit on the size of superannuation account balances in the accumulation phase.

The Labor government expected the adjustment to generate additional revenue of $2 billion per year when it took effect in 2025.

Criticism from the Opposition

Following the announcement, the Opposition quickly called the Labor government out for breaking an election promise.

Today, weve seen the prime minister and the treasurer walking away from their commitment to not add taxes to superannuation, Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor said.

It is clear that Labor is prepared to break a promise to charge more taxes.

Apart from the changes to the super tax break, the shadow treasurer warned that Labor had refused to rule out over $150 billion in taxes on Australians, including on capital gains, negative gearing and franking credits.

Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor at the Leaders Summit on Climate in Sydney, Australia, on April 22, 2021. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)

He also said that the government could not manage its own spending and had to come after Australians with higher taxes, citing the sneaky $45 billion in spending recently passed by Labor.

This is a Labor party that says one thing before an election and does something very different afterwards, Taylor said.

When the Labor party runs out of money, it comes after yours.

Meanwhile, the prime minister said Labor did not have any plan to impose taxes on capital gains.

We are not going to impact the family home. Full stop, exclamation mark, he said.

Because its a bad idea. We will not be making any changes there.

However, the prime minister did not explicitly rule out the introduction of a negative gearing tax, which indicates that the government may consider that option in the future.
During oral arguments on Feb. 28, conservative members of the Supreme Court seemed skeptical of Biden administration statements that the governments plan to partially forgive student loans is authorized by federal law.

The Defense Departments inspector general and other Pentagon officials testified on oversight of U.S. military aid to Ukraine before the House Armed Services Committee. Amid some lawmakers concerns of possible corruption or misuse in Ukraine, officials assured the committee that weapons provided to the country are being used for their intended purposes.

A new report from a leading cybersecurity firm says hackers linked to China have targeted various industries in the United States and around the world.

Voters in Chicago are heading to the polls for the citys mayoral election. Incumbent Mayor Lori Lightfoot faces eight challengers as she seeks reelection in a race that is largely focused on crime and policing.
At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on March 1, Attorney General Merrick Garland faced pressing questions from lawmakers as to whether the law has been applied equally across political ideologies. Senators asked Garland about the decision not to prosecute people who protested outside of Supreme Court Justices homes after the overturning of Roe v. Wade and how the Justice Department is handling the fentanyl crisis.

In the high-profile murder case against prominent former South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh, the prosecution laid out an hours-long closing argument after six weeks of testimony.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine visited the site of the train derailment to check on the removal of hazardous waste. His visit to East Palestine comes as scientists say air tests are showing an unusually high amount of chemicals.

Chicagos mayoral election will be heading to a runoff after incumbent Mayor Lori Lightfoot lost her reelection bid in a landslide.
Shakespeare. Bring up that name in conversation, and the reactions of your audience are likely to be mixed. To some of your listeners, that most famous name in all of English literature will likely arouse unpleasant memories of a dreary week or two in a high school class lost in a jumble of lords, ladies, jesters, and attendants, all seeming to speak a language only vaguely related to English.

Others will react with enthusiasm, remembering with fondness the production of As You Like It at a playhouse or the teacher who brought Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to life in an otherwise unremarkable college classroom.

The plays and poetry of William Shakespeare have long been entwined in American culture. In the 19th century, actors in New York City, Washington D.C., and a dozen other metro areas performed his plays to swank audiences. At the same time, some traveling stage troupe might mount a stage in a California mining town and put on a rustic version of Romeo and Juliet, performances that were wildly popular at the time.

American actor Edwin Booth (18331893) was considered the greatest Shakespearean actor in 19th-century America. Here he is dressed as Hamlet, his most famous role, circa 1870, photographed by J. Guerney. (Everett Collection/Shutterstock)

Whether or not weve watched or read Hamlet, nearly all of us are familiar with To be or not to be. And popular expressions like break the ice, not slept a wink, neither here nor there, and too much of a good thing are all hand-me-downs from the Bard of Avon.

Many Americans, however, may be unaware of just how deeply Shakespeares works have penetrated our history and culture.

An Adopted Father of Our Country

Cover of the 2016 paperback edition of Shakespeare in America: An Anthology From the Revolution to Now, by James Shapiro.

In Shakespeare in America: An Anthology From the Revolution to Now, editor James Shapiro has brought together more than 70 pieces of literature, poems, reviews, essays, letters, humorous pieces, and a bit of fiction and drama, all of them written by Americans about an Englishman who died long before their time.

Here, John Quincy Adams analyzes the character of Desdemona, critical of her marriage to Othello. In a review of Nathaniel Hawthornes Mosses From an Old Manse, Herman Melville imports Shakespeare into his critique, even writing Believe me, my friends, that Shakespeares are this day being born on the banks of the Ohio. No admirer of Shakespeare, Mark Twain parodies the playwright in an early piece of journalism, The Killing of Julius Caesar Localized. More modern takes on Shakespeare are delivered by the likes of humorist James Thurber, actor John Houseman, and writer Cynthia Ozick.

Those especially interested in American theater will undoubtedly find much of value in Shapiros collection. There are not only varied reflections on the plays but also pieces on acting and stagecraft, such as James Agees Laurence Oliviers Henry V, which Agee calls one of the great experiences in the history of motion pictures. At the end of his review, Agee writes of Shakespeare that one Englishman used language better than anyone has before or since, or ever shall; and that nearly the best that our time can say for itself is that some of us are still capable of paying homage to the fact.

Laurence Olivier in the 1944 film Henry V. Two Cities Films. (Public Domain)

Those who love the English language will find yet another reason for reading Shakespeare in America. Not only does the book give us new insights into his craftsmanship, but most of the writers featured here bring us praiseworthy prose of their own.

Presidential Devotees

The works of Shakespeare have also heavily influenced some of Americas greatest political figures. Shapiro includes in his study writings by such luminaries as John Adams, his son John Quincy, Abraham Lincoln, and American statesman Henry Cabot Lodge. In his remarks about Lincoln, for example, Shapiro reports that the president carried a copy of Shakespeares works around the White House (even as he had carried it earlier in his career on the judicial circuit). Lincolns secretary, John Hay, reported how Lincoln would read aloud from the plays late at night.

A young Abraham Lincoln reading by the fire, 1868, by Eastman Johnson. Library of Congress. (Public Domain)

Even in his boyhood, Thomas Jefferson was a Shakespeare fan, reading plays in his fathers library and then watching them onstage as a college student in Williamsburg. As an adult, he stocked Monticello not only with Shakespeares writings but with pictures and busts of him as well. Later, when he was president, he told one visitor that Shakespeare and Alexander Pope gave him the perfection of imagination and judgment, both displaying more knowledge of the human heartthe true province of poetrythan he could find elsewhere.

Theodore Roosevelt disliked Shakespeare, finding his plays crude, yet on his trip to Africa following his presidency, he reexplored some of the works as well as the African plains and hills. He soon became enamored of them, writing to Henry Cabot Lodge and his wife: You will be both amused to hear that at last, when 50 years old, I have come into my inheritance in Shakespeare.

W. Shakespeare, Ad Man Extraordinaire

A tobacco package label showing the balcony scene between Romeo and Juliet. Library of Congress. (Public Domain)

If we need more evidence of Shakespearean influence on Americans, we need look only to the world of advertising.

In the article How Shakespeare influenced the American ad industry, David Smith reports on a 2016 exhibition linking Shakespeare and advertising at Washingtons Folger Shakespeare Library. Shakespeare and his writings, the exhibition points out, have appeared in thousands of ads, from cigars and fishing reels to cough syrup, whiskey, and sewing machines. I speculate that Shakespeare was a sign of class and elegance, says curator Georgianna Ziegler. That is the raison detre behind most of the adverts using him.

Of this same exhibition, Sarah Hovde informs us in Would you buy a used car from Shakespeare? How about mustard? that one salesman a century ago even wrote a brochure touting the idea that Marc Antonys funeral oration in Julius Caesar was a prime example of persuasive salesmanship.

Dis Reading Vill Not Stop

Volume 1 of the 1805 edition of The Plays of William Shakespeare. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. (Public Domain)

Ordinary Americans have also long regarded as their inheritance the words of Shakespeare. Like Lincoln, for example, many people in the 19th century took their learning from the Bible and from Shakespeare.

We find a classic example of this conjunction in Betty Smiths novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Here, an 18-year-old married and pregnant Katie Nolan learns from her illiterate immigrant mother that the secret for her childrens success lies in the reading and the writing. She tells Francie that she must read to her children from the Bible and from Shakespeare. And every day you must read a page of each to your childeven though you yourself do not understand what is written down and cannot sound the words properly. You must do this so the child will grow up knowing what is greatknowing that these tenements of Williamsburg are not the whole world.

A poster for the 1945 film A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. (Public Domain)

Directed by Elia Kazan, the film of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn includes this same touching salute to reading and to Shakespeare. Dis reading vill not stop, the grandmother at one point commands her daughter and grandchildren. They will continue their nightly visits with Alls Well That Ends Well, Troilus and Cressida, and King Lear.

A Tie That Binds

And the reading and performances of Shakespeare have not stopped.

Shakespeare is still beloved in America today. A scene from a Twelfth Night performance at the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival at Sand Harbor State Park, Nev. (DimiTalen/CC BY-SA 3.0)

The plays continue to draw audiences across the United States. In addition to the performances by professional companies, schools, and community theaters, America offers an abundance of Shakespearean festivals and celebrations. New Yorks Shakespeare in the Park remains ever popular, and at least 50 Shakespeare festivals occur annually around the country.

Moreover, Shakespeare is still widely taught in our schools. Despite the recommendations by some that we remove Shakespeare in favor of more diverse and relevant literature, that push to eliminate his works from the curriculum has so far largely failed. The reasons for our continuing fascination with Shakespeare may have something to do with tradition but even more to do with his relevance. To declare Shakespeare and his work irrelevant, as some would do, essentially means that human beingswith all their complexities, their tragedies and comedies, their foibles and virtuesare irrelevant as well.

At this point in Americas story, our culture needs greater unification, not more cuts from a dividing blade. Given their ongoing popularity, William Shakespeares poetry and plays can continue to serve as one of the threads joining us one to the other.
Iran on Wednesday declared two German diplomats as personae non gratae and ordered them to leave the country, accusing Berlin of interfering in Tehran's judicial affairs, Reuters reported.

March 1, 2023, 17:47 Iran expels two German diplomats

STEPANAKERT, MARCH 1, ARTSAKHPRESS: The move came after Germany expelled two employees of the Iranian embassy in Berlin last week in response to Iran sentencing a German national to death.

"The two German diplomats are being expelled due to Germany's irresponsible interference in Iran's internal and judicial affairs," state media quoted Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani as saying.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran will act firmly against excessive demands."

Germany has called on Iran to revoke the death sentence handed out to German-Iranian national Jamshid Sharmahd on charges of "corruption on earth". The verdict can be appealed.

Iran accuses Sharmahd, who also has U.S. residency, of heading a pro-monarchist group accused of a deadly 2008 bombing and planning other attacks in the country.

Tensions between Iran and the West have intensified in recent months, pushing already-stalled efforts to revive talks on Tehran's nuclear programme further into the background.
The White House has sent billions of dollars to Ukraine to fight off Russias invasion. But whats in it for America? A full year into a war thats set fire to Eastern Europe, President Joe Biden has yet to articulate U.S. strategic purpose for involving America in a conflict that may yet drag in U.S. troops.

In the latest episode of Over the Target, Brendon Fallon and Lee Smith go in search of Bidens game plan.
Peter Menzies: CSIS Leaks Make Clear Just How Deeply Beijings Tentacles of Influence Entangle Canada

Commentary

The extent to which Chinas dark tentacles of influencelong rumoured but thinly reportedhave entangled Canada is finally becoming clear.

Security service leaks to The Globe and Mail and Global News indicate proof exists that the Chinese regime prefers Canada to be ruled by Liberal minority governments and that its agents were involved in both the 2019 and 2021 elections.

Remarkably, both news organizations cited unnamed sources within the usually tight-lipped Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS).

People within the normally circumspect national spy service are clearly concerned. After all, Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus knees appear to have been trembling at the prospect of offending Chinese leader Xi Jinping for years.

In the early days, when Trudeaus Liberals dreamed of a free trade agreement with the Beijing regime, this made sense. But that went off the rails in 2017 and, a year later, China arrested and jailed Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. We all get that.

But there was always a sense that something else was involved.

That air of uneasy suspicion is now a storm of concern that has journalists and commentators searching forand findingincidents of covert and overt Chinese influence.

The CSIS leaks so far involve Chinas efforts to, specifically, influence the outcome of candidate selection processes and elections in targeted ridings and to curry favour by donating to the Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation. The latter effort came with the suggestion that a statue of Mao Zedong and the elder Trudeau together would be a welcome addition to the University of Montreals aesthetic.

The most glaring electoral example is the case of Steveston-Richmond East Tory Kenny Chiu, who had won the British Columbia riding handily in 2019. However, he then proposed the creation of a foreign agent registryet voilalost in 2021. The winner, Liberal Parm Bains, is thought to have benefited from a disinformation campaign waged by Chinese Communist Party agents through Chinese-language news and social media platforms. More than 39,000 of the 100,000 people in the riding speak a Chinese language.

Toronto MP Han Dong, also according to CSIS leaks, allegedly won the Liberal nomination for Don Valley North thanks in part to an influx of votes from seniors and foreign students funded by the CCP.

Trudeau incredulously suggested that questions regarding the matter are inherently racist andwhile still refusing to clarify whether CSIS had warned him Dong had been compromisedinsisted that unelected security people dont get to decide who gets elected. In other words, he didnt like what he heard, but he never heard it.

Foreign agents monkeying with politics isnt new. And as anyone familiar with party nomination politics knows, busloads of non-citizen seniors have been showing up to vote en masse for a preferred candidate for decades.

The revelation here is the unexplained patterns of hesitation and willful blindness displayed by Trudeau when it comes to all things Chinese. For instance, the decision on prohibiting Huawei from involvement in building Canadas 5G network took years. Banning TikTok apps from government devices came months after the Americans took the same step, while Trudeaus first efforts to procure COVID vaccines were, inexplicably, from China.

Its not like our friends havent noticed. Long a member of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance designed to keep eyes on China (the other four are New Zealand, Australia, United Kingdom, and the USA), Canada was left on the curb when the UK, USA, and Australia announced a big kids versionAUKUSof the same. Then, last year, Canada was again on the outside looking in when a new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework was announced.

Over at the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) Peter Dahlins request for the regulator to de-license CCTV and CGTNChinese state broadcastershas lingered without explanation for getting on to four years. Dahlins organization, Safeguard Defenders, focuses on human rights abuses. It asked the CRTC to take action given that, in addition to spreading propaganda, the two networks had broadcast forced confessions (including Dahlins) from dozens of political prisoners.

Last month, Conservative MP Michael Chong raised the issue again. All he got was a dodgy response from Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino. Notorious for his flirtatious association with facts, Mendicino could only mutter about the CRTCs independencea notion that was made redundant last spring when, at the bidding of Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez, the broadcast regulator took only two weeks to remove RT (Russia TV) from its list of approved channels.

It is not unreasonable for a rational person to conclude that if the government can get its independent regulator to remove one foreign state broadcaster of which it disapproves, it can use a nod and a wink to ensure the continued presence of other state broadcasters of which it is not interested in disapproving.

Given the revelations that the Chinese Communist Party has been using Chinese-language media to influence Canadians political perspectives, the CRTC should be called before Parliament to explain its refusal to rule on Dahlins complaint. Canadians have every right to know whether it, too, is subject to pressure from Beijing.

This is, after all, the same CRTC that is about to be given the power to regulate content on the internet.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Poilievre Joins Mounting Calls for Public Inquiry Into Beijing Election Interference Allegations

Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks at the the National Coalition of Chiefs Clean Energy Summit In Calgary on Feb. 17, 2023. (The Canadian Press/Dave Chidley)

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has joined a growing list of officials and politicians who are calling for a public inquiry into allegations of Beijings interference in Canadas 2019 and 2021 federal elections.

Conservatives are announcing today we support an independent and public inquiry, Poilievre said while speaking to reporters in Ottawa on March 1.

Poilievre said that his party has a number of conditions it is requesting the Liberal government follow if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau agrees to call the inquiry.

It has to be independent, he said. All parties in the parliament must agree on who the commissioner is. We cannot have yet another Liberal crony named to head up this inquiry.

Poilievre also said the inquiry should be public.

We cant simply bury it behind closed doors and have it in secret while Canadians are left in the dark, potentially with another election interfered in before the results of the commission [are released], he said.

Poilievre told reporters that he accepts the results of the 2021 federal election, but said Ottawa needs to find a way to more quickly blow the whistle on future attempts of foreign interference.

We need a quick, simple, direct process to alert the public and the system if a foreign government is actively interfering in an election or intimidating voters, he said.

Poilievres call for a public inquiry comes after a number of Tory MPs had done the same, along with NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, former Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) head Richard Fadden, and Canadas former chief electoral officer Jean-Pierre Kingsley.

Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet also called on March 1 for a public inquiry chaired by a commissioner chosen by Parliament rather than the government.

The calls for an investigation follow recent media reports by the Globe and Mail and Global News citing secret CSIS documents and sources that showed widespread election interference efforts by the Chinese regime in Canadas 2019 and 2021 federal elections.

Trudeau previously ruled out the possibility of calling a public inquiry into the allegations, saying Canadas election processes have not been compromised.

Noe Chartier contributed to this report.
Younger wine buyers seem smitten with the notion that commonplace grapes like chardonnay and cabernet still hold some interest, but they also know that unusual varieties can offer excitement.

As a result, specialty wine shops in the United States now are being asked to carry more unusual wines that the shop owners once happily dismissed as bizarre. This includes grapes that have long been produced in some regions of the world but never were imported here.

What makes this interesting is that some of these wines are actually being produced here using grapes from other countries, and some of these wines are fascinating and perfect for certain types of foods.

Take, for example, the grape called ribolla gialla, a white grape from Italys Friuli that smells a bit like wild berries, peach blossoms, and tropical fruits like pineapple. Not many U.S. winemakers produce one, but a small producer in northern Sonoma County, Miro Cellars, makes a stellar version thats soft and approachable. Its a perfect aperitif wine, and also could be paired with slightly sweeter main dishes.

For dark-red wine lovers, teroldego is an Italian variety that offers intense flavors but with a little less intensity of both acidity and tannin than other red Italian wines. This relatively rare grape is grown in only scant amounts in the United States. Teroldego appears to age nicely, but it works exceptionally well when its young with beef stew, short ribs, and other hearty meat dishes. Its fun to try after two hours in a decanter. The best American version is produced by Montoliva in the hills above Grass Valley, California.

Silvaner is a white wine grape that produces a fascinating wine not unlike dry riesling, especially when produced in Germany, where its highly regarded. Very few silvaners are produced here. Slightly confusingly, its exactly the same grape thats produced in Alsace, in northern France, where its often spelled sylvaner, with a y.

Im one of very few U.S. wine writers who adore blaufrankisch, a grape that appreciates colder temperatures and normally produces relatively tart red wines that are lower in tannins. The best examples of these blueberry-scented wines historically come from Austria, but one of the finest examples I have tasted is from a small Michigan winery called Left Foot Charley and made by a brilliant winemaker, Bryan Ulbrich. Its a wine that I love to serve to people who appreciate great structural red wines and are fascinated by interesting varieties.

One of the messages of the preceding essay is that diversity today is definitely worth investigating, mainly because the wines offer a change of personality from the ordinary. And because the only people making these wines are doing so mainly because they have an interest in the multiplicity of aromas and flavors rarely seen in this country.
Readers Say They Get a Sense of God and the Universe From How Humankind Came To Be

Donna Showalter, a nurse who just retired in December, said she got a sense of God and great hope from Falun Gong founder Mr. Li Hongzhis recent article How Humankind Came To Be. She added that by great hope, she meant the hope of faith, hope that God is real and that God is what he says he is, and God is present.

To her, the article How Humankind Came To Be offers great comfort without sugarcoating the current world. In addition, she said she believes that it will become worse before any improvement. However, she told The Epoch Times that she found hope in the article that there is something stronger than this evil force.

I did not feel that evil was going to win, she added that it was her overall feeling, although no part of the article said that specifically.

Moreover, Showalter shared her understanding of God: I think a lot of people think of God as some obscure old man with a white beard in the sky. And thats not who God is. God is a force. Hes an energy.

Thats a really hard concept to understand because we are kind of stuck in this time thing. We are very linear. But God, I believe, doesnt know time. God does not have to exist in that realm, she added. God is bigger than what we realize. We limit God because were limited in our thinking. She described God as a benevolent force.

While reading Mr. Lis article, she said she felt this force, this power is present. I just got the feeling that he [Mr. Li] really knew God. Thats what the article did for me: he really had a sense of God and a power in that might.

Surprising Connection to Eastern Teaching

A retired elementary teacher, Eileen Guss, was pleasantly surprised that Mr. Lis article articulated a belief close to her own.

Hence, she wrote to The Epoch Times: I unknowingly have been following this practice on my own. While this sets out definitively how the universe works, I have not reached this concrete knowledge yet on my own.

It is astounding that my ideas, thoughts, and beliefs are so close to his [Mr. Lis], she said in an interview. I held a belief of my own in the universe. We are all part of the bigger picture. We are a part of this universe, she added. And thats what really resonated with me because no other religious denomination talked about the universe and how we were all interconnected.

Guss appreciated the explanation of the four phases in Mr. Lis article: creation, stasis, degeneration, and destruction. When he talks about creation, stasis, degeneration, and destruction, you can see that in nature. You do. In human beings, you see their birth, development, degeneration, and, ultimately, death. So everything that he has been talking about, I can relate to.

I cant explain how I came to the idea that God was the universe, we were part of that universe, and being part of that universe is our soul because your soul does not ever die, the 61-year-old former teacher said she couldnt explain the coincidence that she found such resonation in an Eastern teaching from Mr. Li.

For Showalter, 68, China magically appeared in her thoughts in her 20s and 30s. A struggle that I had in my earlier life was how come I was born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. And I was raised in a Christian church. So therefore, because of that, I get to have eternal life and go to heaven. But somebody whos born in Chinaand I did think about Chinawho never had any knowledge of this, who never learned about this are destined for eternal damnation? I couldnt reconcile that. I just couldnt understand how a truly wonderful benevolent God would do that.

She said she thought of China because it was exactly opposite to America. Later, she briefly looked at Buddhism and other religions and discovered a common thread. That [Mr. Lis] article just cemented it for me. I thought it was a great article. I thought it was wonderful! she added.

Heidi Larsen (Courtesy of Heidi Larsen)

Eye-Opening

Heidi Larsen, a house renovator and former teacher on an Indian reservation, said Mr. Lis article was eye-opening. The article was very interesting and enlightening, explaining the practice of Falun Gong in a simple yet concise manner, she wrote in her comment to this newspaper.

She added that she could now see why the Chinese Communist Party persecutes Falun Gong: If people lead a spiritual/religious life, they are happier and have hope for the future. Taking this away from humanity is a way that these regimes can take down freedom and control the masses.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, encourages adherents to live by the universal principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance and teaches meditative exercises.

Over the past 23 years, millions of Falun Gong adherents have been held in labor camps, mental asylums, drug rehabilitation centers, unofficial black jails, or other detention facilities. In addition, the vilification, torture, and organized killing through forced organ harvesting arising from the persecution has led to an untold number of deaths.
Rep. Comer Says Hes Delaying Hunter Biden Subpoena to Ensure Win If It Goes to Court

With a poster of a New York Post front page story about Hunter Biden's emails on display, Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) announces a recess because of a power outage during a hearing before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee at Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington on Feb. 8, 2023. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

President Joe Bidens son, Hunter Biden, has ignored a House Oversight Committee request for records of his business activities and potential access to classified information, but Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) is holding off on a subpoena for now.

On Feb. 8, Comer sent Hunter Biden a letter (pdf) requesting that he turn over a variety of records, including any communications with his father about his various foreign business activities and associates and any classified documents he may possess. Comer gave Hunter Biden a Feb. 22 deadline to respond to the information request.

Hunter Bidens lawyer, Abbe Lowell, outright rejected the information request in a Feb. 9 response letter shared with the Washington Post.

Despite Lowells rejection letter and the missed deadline, Comer has yet to follow up his information request with a more forceful request through a legal subpoena. In comments with Punchbowl News, which were published on Wednesday, Comer said he is holding back on a subpoena for now, in order to ensure better odds that the subpoena will succeed if Hunter Bidens legal team challenges the legal demand in court.

Its not just issuing a subpoena, its about winning, Comer said.

We give people plenty of time. When you do subpoenas, if you want to win in court, you have to show good faith effort that you tried to get the information. So were checking some boxes, Comer continued.

When we do subpoena, if we have to, then were going to win the subpoenas in court, Comer added.

Bidens Lawyer Says Records Request Not Legitimate

In his letter rebuffing Comers initial effort to recover Hunter Bidens records, Lowell said the Oversight Committee lacked a legitimate reason for seeking the records.

As your Letter is a sweeping attempt to collect an expansive array of documents and communications from President Biden and his family, I write to explain that the Committee on Oversight and Accountability lacks a legitimate legislative purpose and oversight basis for requesting such records from Mr. Biden, who is a private citizen, Lowell wrote.

Case law states that a House committee must have a specific legislative purpose to pursue records and it cannot simply be an excuse to launch an investigation.

In his Feb. 8 letter, Comer said the activities of Hunter Biden and his business associates raise significant ethics and national security concerns and the Oversight Committee will examine drafting legislation to strengthen federal ethics laws regarding public officials and their families.

We will also analyze and make recommendations regarding federal laws and regulations to ensure that financial institutions have the proper internal controls and compliance programs to alert federal agencies of potential money laundering activity, he wrote. The Oversight Committee is committed to exposing the waste, fraud, and abuse that has taken place at the highest levels of our government, and your documents are critical to our investigation.

While Comer contended the records request could serve a specific legislative purpose, the records could also serve a political purpose in demonstrating the extent to which Joe Biden had knowledge or involvement in his sons business activities while he has continued to serve in political office. In November, Comer and other House Oversight Committee Republicans published a report (pdf) laying out allegations that the Biden family peddled influence and promised their business associates access to Joe Biden and a future Biden administration.

Joe Biden had claimed throughout the 2020 campaign cycle that Ive never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings.

Cooperating Witnesses

While Comer said hes holding back on issuing a subpoena, he has also said other witnesses have begun to cooperate with his investigative efforts.

Last week, Comer told Just The News that one of Hunter Bidens business associates, Eric Schwerin, had begun cooperating with the Oversight Committee to provide information about their business activities.

According to the November Republican investigative report, Schwerin and Hunter Biden made increasing references to Joe Biden in the course of their business communications and Schwerin had frequent access to the White House when Joe Biden was the vice president.

Schwerin allegedly visited the White House at least 27 times between 2009 and 2016. In 2015, President Barack Obama named Schwerin to serve on the Commission for the Preservation of Americas Heritage Abroad. The Republican investigative report raised allegations that Schwerin had access to Joe Bidens personal bank account and transferred money from that account to his son Hunter.

Comer had also sought information from Kathy Chung, a former assistant to Joe Biden who was involved in his handling of classified documents as vice president and who handled the Biden familys access to Joe Biden during his vice presidency. Comer had asked Chung to provide information about the classified documents as well as her communications between Joe Biden and his family members and Schwerin.

Chung has agreed to provide some information about her handling of classified documents. Her lawyer, Bill Taylor, declined to comment when asked if Chung would also provide the specific information Comer requested about her communications with the Biden family.

From NTD News
Rep. Gaetz: We Dont Have the Votes to Impeach Secretary Mayorkas

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) walks to a closed-door GOP caucus meeting at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 10, 2023. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

A Republican-led effort to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas may falterdespite the partys narrow control of the House of Representatives.

Republicans, who have been critical of Mayorkas handling of border security, have called for his impeachment as a way to remove him from office. But impeachment proponents have not yet been able to drum up enough support in the House, according to Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).

Gaetz, who has been a leading proponent of impeaching Mayorkas, told the Washington Times on Monday that we dont have the votes.

I dont think were close to having the votes, Gaetz added when asked if impeachment proponents might still be able to drum up enough support in the House.

Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) introduced articles of impeachment against Mayorkas in January, and Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) brought additional impeachment articles in February.

Both sets of impeachment articles accused Mayorkas of failing in his duties to maintain operational control of the U.S. border amid record-high months of illegal border crossings. Fallons impeachment articles specifically said Mayorkas implemented catch-and-release directives and, through his leadership, recklessly released more than 1,000,000 illegal immigrants into the United States.

To date, Fallons impeachment articles have garnered 41 co-sponsors, while Biggss impeachment articles have 32 co-sponsors.

An impeachment effort would need the near-total support of House Republicans, who hold a narrow majority. The impeachment effort would face even more difficult odds in the Senate. While it takes a simple majority to approve articles of impeachment in the House, it takes a two-thirds Senate majority to convict an impeached officer. All 49 Senate Republicans and at least 18 Democrats or independents would have to join the effort in order to officially remove Mayorkas from office.

House Republicans Try to Build Impeachment Case

While Gaetz signaled the lack of support for impeaching Mayorkas, he and other Republicans have been trying to move the impeachment cause forward.

Fallons impeachment articles claim Mayorkas willfully provided perjurious, false, and misleading testimony to Congress about having operational control of the border.

Last week, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on border security at Yuma City Hall in Arizona, which the Democrats on the committee boycotted. During that field hearing, Gaetz specifically asked witness Jonathan Lines, a Yuma County Supervisor, whether Mayorkas had ever lied to him.

Yes, Lines replied.

And what was the substance of that lie? Gaetz asked.

Lines replied that during a tour of the Yuma border sector about a year prior, Mayorkas had committed to help deal with gaps in the border. He committed to, after reviewing the border both from the ground and the air, to specifically address quote-unquote nine of the 11 Yuma gaps.'

And how many of those gaps have been addressed? Gaetz asked.

To date, so far? None, Lines replied.

Gaetz followed up his questioning of Lines by voicing his support for Biggss impeachment articles.

Later on in the hearing, Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.) also shared his support for impeaching Mayorkas, Because I really believe we have a case where somebody, Mayorkas, has committed treason, has broken the rule of law, and deserves not to be there anymore.

NTD Television reached out to Gaetzs office for further comment but did not receive a response before this article was published.

Mayorkas Impeachment Response

The Department of Homeland Security has hired outside legal counsel to help respond to the still-developing Republican impeachment effort.

A DHS spokesperson told The Epoch Times that the outside counsel will help ensure the Departments vital mission is not interrupted by the unprecedented, unjustified, and partisan impeachment efforts by some Members of Congress.

DHS will continue prioritizing its work to protect our country from terrorism, respond to natural disasters, and secure our borders while responding appropriately to the over 70 Congressional committees and subcommittees that have oversight of DHS, the department spokesperson added.

Democrat lawmakers have consistently defended Mayorkas and the Biden administrations efforts on border security and immigration.

This whole nonsense about the open border, that the Biden administration is open-border, its just not true, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, told NTD after the committee held its first hearing on border security earlier this month.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) agreed with Nadler, saying: I think its pretty clear, from what my colleagues across the aisle have said, this is to make a political point, not to actually examine the facts.

Lofgren said she could not understand what the grounds for impeaching Mayorkas could be.

From NTD
Rep. Jim Jordan Expects DOJ to Comply With School Board Protest Subpoena

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) speaks at a press conference following a Republican caucus meeting at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on June 8, 2022. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and the House Judiciary Committee expect full cooperation from the Department of Justices (DOJ) during their investigation into the agencys treatment of parental school board protests in 2021.

Jordan, who chairs the committee, said he expects the DOJ to comply fully with the panels subpoena sent to several high-ranking members of the law enforcement agency several weeks ago.

Jordan spokesperson Russell Dye said judiciary committee staff has conferred with the Department of Justice on numerous occasions regarding the subpoenas issued to Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Last Thursday, our staff spoke at length with DOJ about what precisely the Committee is looking for, why we were interested in those documents, and our priorities going forward. Our staff then spoke again with DOJ on Friday afternoon, Dye said in a statement confirmed for The Epoch Times on Feb. 28.

This follows numerous letters seeking voluntary compliance with our requests since October 2021. We expect full compliance with our subpoenas.

Garland has until March 1 to turn over any papers and communications pertaining to how the government handled parental protests at school board meetings. The subpoena also applies to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.

Protests over COVID-19 regulations and other key issues took place at school board meetings in 2021. At the root of the government controversy is a September 2021 letter to President Joe Biden from the National School Boards Association (NSBA) which characterized disruptions at school board meetings as a form of domestic terrorism and hate crime.

A few days after the NSBA letter, Garland released a memo requesting assistance from federal law enforcement in addressing the allegedly disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence against educators.

Republican lawmakers, alarmed by Garlands directive, promised to create a parents bill of rights if they took control of Congress in 2022.

Earlier this month, Jordan confirmed that the committee conducted an interview with a whistleblower from the FBI about the DOJs treatment of the issue, as The Epoch Times previously reported.

Weve now had dozens of whistleblowers come talk to House Republican staff on the Judiciary Committee, Jordan said in a news conference. In fact, one of [the whistleblowers] is testifying in a transcribed interview as we speak.

The Ohio lawmaker said the whistleblower who spoke to his committee has testified that the Justice Department is operating in a political fashion and manner, reportedly confirming Jordans recent comments about the politicization of the FBI and DOJ.

Shortly after the August FBI raid on former President Donald Trumps Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, Jordan said that over a dozen whistleblowers came forward about the bureau.

Fourteen FBI agents have come to our office as whistleblowers, and they are good people, Jordan said at the time. There are lots of good people in the FBI. Its the top that is the problem.
Republicans and Democrats Agree They Are Unsatisfied With Briefing on Classified Documents

Documents seized during the Aug. 8 raid by the FBI of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla, in a photo released on Aug. 30, 2022. (FBI via The Epoch Times)

The leadership of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence said on Feb. 28 they were unsatisfied with the information offered to them in their briefing about the exposure of classified documents.

According to the statement, the senators briefing by members of the intelligence community, and the Department of Justice left much to be desired.

In accordance with our responsibility to oversee the Intelligence Community and protect our national security, today we met with leaders from the IC and the Justice Department to discuss the exposure of classified documents, a joint statement from Chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Vice Chairman Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said.

While todays meeting helped shed some light on these issues, it left much to be desired and we will continue to press for full answers to our questions in accordance with our constitutional oversight obligations.

The so-called Gang of Eight, consisting of the top Republicans and Democrats in current congressional leadership, were briefed behind closed doors on further details about the contents of the documents, but not the actual documents themselves, according to a report by ABC News.

Rubio said in a March 1 post on Twitter that the briefing provided us with a few answers but left us with a lot more questions.

Warner and Rubio previously asked to view the records that the Justice Department had taken from President Joe Bidens former office in Washington, his house in Wilmington, Delaware, and former President Donald Trumps Mar-a-Lago resort.

They reportedly made the request in an effort to assess the risk that the two alleged violations of the Presidential Records Act presented to national security. The pair also requested risk assessments from top intelligence officers.

The senators termed their demands as narrowly tailored to the matter at hand, in their Feb. 2 letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines.

Our letters explicitly recognized the need to protect the Departments ongoing investigations. Mindful of the Departments interests, the letters were narrowly tailored and only requested access to the relevant classified documents and an assessment of the risk to national security if the documents were to be exposed in public or to a foreign adversary, the lawmakers said.

In the same letter, the senators also rejected the DOJs justification that the records cant be released because of the current investigations.

Our request is not unprecedented, the senators said, referencing the argument that an ongoing investigation would prevent their viewing the documents.

In other investigations involving the mishandling of classified information, the attorney general and the director of national intelligence have accommodated the legitimate oversight needs of this committee without detriment to any ongoing investigation.

Both senators offices responded to The Epoch Timess request for additional information by referencing the joint statement as their complete comments on the subject.
San Diego Nanny Gets 25 Years in Prison for Babys Death

SAN DIEGOA woman who inflicted fatal injuries on a month-old baby she was hired to care for in San Diego County was sentenced Feb. 28 to 25 years to life in state prison.

Victoria Frances Fox, 40, pleaded guilty to a first-degree murder count for the August 2021 death of a baby boy identified in court documents only by his first name, Phoenix.

Deputy District Attorney Ramona McCarthy said Fox was hired by the childs parents, who needed extra childcare help at a time when they were expecting twins through a San Diego-based surrogate.

The prosecutor said Fox came with stellar recommendations, though it turned out one of those recommendations was fabricated by Fox herself.

On the day the surrogate was set to give birth to their twins at a local hospital, the couple left Phoenix under Foxs care.

On the first night she was left alone with the child, Fox abused him so violently and badly that he would succumb to his injuries, McCarthy said.

According to a sentencing brief filed by the prosecutor, Fox admitted to throwing the baby onto a bed, squeezing him, and shaking him. She also stated that she hurt Phoenix because he would not stop crying.

The infants parents did not attend Foxs sentencing hearing, but McCarthy read a statement in court authored by the couple.

We think of Phoenix every day and this horrific event still affects us as a family deeply, the statement read. We hope this sentence means no other family or child will experience what we have been through at the hands of Ms. Fox.
San Francisco High School of the Arts Wins Applause Talent Dance Competition

Butterflies is performed by San Francisco High School of the Arts while competing in the Applause Talent Dance Competition on Feb. 18, 2023. (Courtesy of Applause Talent Dance Competition)

SAN MATEO, Calif.For some dance studios, the competition held in San Mateo in February was the first time they had come out in full force since the pandemic began three years ago.

Held at the impressive 1,600-seat San Mateo Performing Arts Center, the event showcased some newcomers, such as San Francisco High School of the Arts (HSArts), which swept the competition in the events they entered with five 1st-place awards among seven contestant studios, earning recognition for its exceptional choreography. The team also brought home the highest overall score for a studio at the competition.

HSArtss performance of five 1st-place awards out of 7 entries was a 71 percent winning performance, and it received the top award for every event it entered. HSArts was followed by West Coast Dance Conservatory, which won five 1st-place awards out of 9 entries.

California Dance Academy received six 1st-place awards out of 21 entries, while Jazz N Taps Dance Studio had a very strong showing with 18 top awards out of 55 entries. Other participants included KAST Academy with two 1st-place awards out of 21 entries, Dreamspace Dance & Performing Arts, and Performing Arts Academy of Marin.

One standout member of the HSArts team was Hanna Zhang, who was recognized as the best choreographer at the event. Her skills and creativity shone through in the teams routines, which wowed both the judges and the audience.

Im so happy and proud of my students hard work and the judges recognition. Chinese elements bring beauty and hope to everyone, and Chinese dance is worthy to be known to the world. Thanks [for] my students and their parents support, and all of the staffs help. I will try my best to choreograph more pieces, Zhang said.

Their performances featured classical Chinese dance, a traditional dance form that has a long history dating back 5,000 years. This ancient art form has evolved over time to become a sophisticated and graceful form that incorporates a range of movements, techniques, and styles. The movements in classical Chinese dance were what really stood out in the performance, characterized by their flowing, circular, and graceful nature.

Thats beautiful; I love the fan work and the shape you make. I like the choreography; its very different, said judge Michael Littlefield, who has choreographed a wide range of genres.

I like the costume, the music, and the choreography, said judge Joey Hernandez, an accomplished choreographer himself. This piece is so mesmerizing to watch.

Unique to the Bay Area, San Francisco High School of the Arts is the only private arts school for students in grades 612. Just steps from Golden Gate Park, HSArts offers students a path to self-mastery through professional arts training and rigorous academics. The highly credentialed faculty give each student the individualized support and attention he or she deserves.

HSArts students go on to attend top universities, pursuing the arts and other fields.

HSArts earned five 1st-place awards for group and solo pieces, as well as the Top Choreographer and Highest Score for a Studio awards.

Dancing in the Rain is performed by San Francisco High School of the Arts while competing in the Applause Talent Dance Competition on Feb. 18, 2023. (Courtesy of Applause Talent Dance Competition)

The dance training not only has helped our students to be beautiful dancers but also excellent scholars. It is wonderful to see hard work get rewarded! said Dr. Sherry Zhang, head of HSArts.

The team credited the win as a testament to their hard work, dedication, and talent. For audience members and judges, the unique blend of traditional dance styles set them apart.

Susan Chen, the mother of one of the competing HSArts students, shared how proud she was of her daughters hard work.

It has been pure awe and joy to watch Madeleines dance skills and techniques improve under Ms. Hannas guidance during training for her very first competition, Chen said. As for Madeleine, the competition was eye opening as she got to see various dance styles and performances all under one roof. She also appreciates the feedback from the judges to help her improve.
Saskatchewan Signs Nearly $6-billion Federal Health-Care Deal

Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister David Marit, left, shakes the hand of Health Minister Paul Merriman, right, at a press conference at Government House in Regina on May 31, 2022 as the government announced a cabinet shuffle. (The Canadian Press/Michael Bell)

The federal government has signed an agreement in principle with Saskatchewan to invest nearly $6 billion into the provinces health-care system over the next 10 years.

This agreement provides Saskatchewan with a one-time $61 million investment to address urgent needs, especially in pediatric hospitals and emergency rooms.

The province says the funding will be used to speed up or enhance new measures underway to improve access to primary health care, surgeries and mental health and addiction services.

Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos says the deal with Saskatchewan is an opportunity to continue collaboration and improve the experience of health workers and those they care for.

Provincial Heath Minister Paul Merriman says it is a positive step and will help build a stronger, more resilient health-care system that works for everyone in the province.

Saskatchewan is the eighth province to sign a deal with Ottawa on health-care funding, a first step to completing the $196-billion, 10-year health-care funding proposal that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made last month.
Senators Call For Health Monitoring of Residents Exposed to Ohio Toxic Train Crash

Traffic is restricted in the clean-up area of the train derailment site in East Palestine, Ohio. (Jeff Louderback/The Epoch Times)

Ohios U.S. Senators J.D. Vance and Sherrod Brown teamed up to write a letter urging the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to immediately start health screenings for residents in the aftermath of the East Palestine toxic train derailment.

After the Feb. 3 crash and subsequent fire, more than 4,700 residents were ordered to evacuate because 11 of the burning cars were carrying hazardous materials including vinyl chloride.

Authoritiesfearing a major explosiondecided to release and burn vinyl chloride from five cars on Feb. 6, sending flames and thick black smoke billowing into the sky once more.

Vinyl chloride is a chemical used to make PVC pipes and other products. The National Cancer Institute notes that vinyl chloride has been linked to cancers of the brain, lungs, blood, lymphatic system, and liver.

A view of a waterway near the site of a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 16, 2023. (Alan Freed/Reuters)

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine held a press conference on Feb. 8 and announced that the evacuation order had been lifted and that it was safe for East Palestine residents to return to their homes.

But since returning, they and those in surrounding communities near the Pennsylvania border have reported headaches, nausea, skin rashes, blurred vision, and other ailments.

The letter from the senatorsaddressed to EPA Administrator Michael Regan and CDC Director Rochelle Walenskyexpressed concern that despite reassurances from local, state, and federal agencies that the air and drinking water are safe, their anxiety persists.

While we understand that EPA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and other local, state, and federal authorities have been more focusedby designon emergency removal action and associated risks related to acute exposure in the immediate aftermath of the derailment, we want to ensure that efforts moving forward also anticipate and address our constituents concerns over potential long-term impacts from the disaster, the senators wrote.

The residents of East Palestine and the surrounding community deserve to know if their health has been compromised by this disaster now and for years to come.

Therefore, we urge you to work with your colleagues across the federal government to allocate the resources and expertise needed to begin the surveys and assessment needed to establish a medical baseline for the community, Vance and Brown added.

Portions of a Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 4, 2023. (Gene J. Puskar/AP Photo)

Vance and Brown included insight from Professor Glenn Talaska of the University of Cincinnatis College of Medicine and Professor Kyle Walsh of Duke Universitys School of Medicine, who is a native of northeast Ohio, where East Palestine is located.

Talaska is the director of the University of Cincinnatis Division of Environmental and Occupational Hygiene and Program in Biomonitoring, and Walsh heads Dukes Division of Neuro-epidemiology and is co-leader of the Duke Cancer Institute Program in Neuro-oncology.

In the coming months and years, additional epidemiologic assessments will be necessary to identify potential longer-term negative health outcomes in exposed residents, the professors wrote.

Because the impacts of exposure will continue to accrue, the professors explained, the voluntary collection of samples from a broad spectrum of residents of the East Palestine region to establish a medical baseline from which to track any future negative health outcomes resulting from their exposure should begin as soon as possible, Talaska and Walsh said.

Such a health screening effort will not be an easy undertaking; the residents of this community have been burned before by Norfolk Southern contractors knocking on their doors and demanding they sign indemnification forms, Vance and Brown wrote.

We have spoken with multiple constituents who have attempted to get this kind of baseline testing done by their primary care doctors, only to learn that their local doctors lack the capabilities.

No Testing For Dioxins

Earlier this month, Vance and Brown wrote a letter to Regan and Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) Director Anne Vogel voicing dismay that testing for dioxins may not have been included in the agencies air monitoring processes to date.

We are concerned that the burning of large volumes of vinyl chloride may have resulted in the formation of dioxins that may have been dispersed throughout the East Palestine community and potentially a much larger area, the lawmakers wrote.

Dioxins are a group of chemical compounds known as persistent organic pollutants because they break down very slowly once they are released into the environment, according to the EPA.

They can cause cancer, damage the immune system, create reproductive and developmental problems, and interfere with hormones.

EPA Region 5 administrator Debra Shore said that the agency will not test for dioxins, at least for now.

In a Washington Post op-ed published on Feb. 26, Vance proposed that a pandemic-era style Paycheck Protection Program be established for East Palestine businesses.

Help For Businesses

Vance also explained that East Palestine needs long-term investment from the federal government and Norfolk Southern Railway.

Without special refinancing, homeowners will be underwater as a flight from the community drives home prices lower, decimating the tax base on which local schools and public services rely, Vance wrote.

Farms will require direct support. Underfunded schools will need help, Vance continued. East Palestine will need its own version of the Paycheck Protection Program to protect workers and businesses who lost their livelihoods because of the decisions of others.

Otherwise, an entire town of good people will suffer mightily through no fault of their own, he concluded.

On Feb. 28, Regan returned to East Palestine to announce the opening of the EPAs Community Welcome Center.

Located in downtown East Palestine, the welcome center is designed as a resource for residents and business owners to get questions answered, sign up for home air monitoring, and learn more about cleaning services, Regan said.

I can promise that as this community continues to look forward, were going to be here every step of the way. For as long as it takes, Regan said.

We arent going anywhere and I can tell you and you can tell by the storefront behind me that we are here for the long haul we want to make sure that the community knows were here for them, and that were bringing resources to bear for them.
Senior DUP Politician Says Stormont Brake Not a Great Deal

A senior Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) politician has accused the British government of spin surrounding a new agreement set to replace controversial post-Brexit trading arrangements.

MP Sammy Wilsonthe DUPs chief whipsuggested the newly negotiated Windsor Framework was not a great deal while also taking aim at King Charles for meeting European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen following crunch deal talks with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Wilson made the comments to Times Radio on Wednesday, firstly zoning in on the newly negotiated deals so-called Stormont brake.

The mechanismwhich Sunak says puts the region in a special positionallows Northern Ireland politicians to oppose new EU goods rules.

Not a Brake at All

Speaking to Times Radio, Wilson said: The Stormont brake is not really a brake at all. Its a delaying mechanism.

He said the UK government would have the final say over whether to veto a law, which it would be reluctant to do due to being fearful of the consequences of trade for the rest of the United Kingdom.

The price of that would be that the EU would take retaliatory action, he said, adding that he suspects the Stormont brake would therefore be fairly ineffective.

The DUP will take its time to consider the substance of the Windsor agreement rather than the governments spin, Wilson added.

He declined to say whether that would take days or weeks, telling Times Radio: As long as it takes us to, first of all, look at the substance of the deal rather than the spin which the Government has given.

Well be going back to the government. Weve already identified a whole range of things that the Government has claimed will happen, which we now know wont happen because weve looked at the EUs explanation of it.

The DUP will not have a kneejerk reaction to the deal, he added.

Not a Great Deal

Taking aim at the Kings meeting with Ursula von der Leyen at Windsor Castle moments after the UK-EU pact, Wilson said: I think first of all its really an indication the government knew this deal was not a great deal and were trying to persuade unionists to accept it on the basis that we have great respect for the monarchy, he said.

To use the monarch in the way in which he has been used, I think, is a very, very dangerous thing.

His critical comments come hot on the heels of negative feedback from another of the unionist partys MPs, Ian Paisley Jr.

Paisley, son of the DUPs founding member the late Ian Paisley, told GB News earlier this week that the new deal is not satisfactory.

Has it been changed sufficiently, does it meet our seven tests? Obviously, were going to continue to assess the legal framework, he told GB News.

But I think it falls some way short in satisfying those tests. Thats my gut instinct, he said.

And therefore whilst the Prime Minister continues to have a protocol effectively still be in operation, that will effectively still see ECJ rule in Northern Ireland, that will still see us subject to single market rules as opposed to fully UK rules, unfortunately that means that powersharing does not look like its coming back any time soon.

Undated file photo of DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson. (Liam McBurney/PA)

Hope for Powersharing

The Prime Minister is giving the party time and space to consider the Windsor Framework, which is hoped will restore powersharing to Stormont after a year-long absence.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, who won the leadership against the backdrop of division within the party, has withheld judgement while consulting colleagues to try and reach a collective decision.

Richard Graham, a member of the executive of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, said it would be very sad if the DUP rejected the agreement.

He told Sky News: I think there is a strong feeling that this does make a difference for so many people in Northern Ireland and I think its going to be difficult for the DUP to strongly object to this, though they will probably say that its not perfect.

Sunak told Tory MPs he was confident the DUP would back his deal as he acknowledged a spectrum of views within the unionist party.

The Prime Minister addressed Tory backbenchers at the 1922 Committee in the Commons on Tuesday evening after a visit to Northern Ireland in an attempt to shore up support.

And I would just say one thing to you all: we should give him and the DUP time and space, Sunak said.

So lets not pressure them for an instant answer, he added. Lets also remember that the last thing the public want is another Westminster drama.

It was being argued that any resistance to the deal will not result in changes to the framework as reopening an agreement that took months to negotiate is not seen as a workable solution.

With opposition parties offering support, there is little chance of it failing to receive support in parliament when put to a vote, so the DUP will not be effectively handed a veto over the process.

(L) Gordon Lyons MLA, Gavin Robinson MP, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson MP, and Emma Little-Pengelly MLA speak to the media outside the Culloden Hotel in Belfast on Feb. 17, 2023. (PA Media)

Praise for Deal

Meanwhile, Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald again praised the newly negotiated agreement, urging Northern Ireland parties to get back into a fully functioning government.

Speaking at a press conference in Belfast on Wednesday, she said: We warmly welcome the fact that the negotiations between the British Government and the European Commission have now concluded and that there is a deal on the table.

Weve been meeting today with our team of MLAs because our preparations are now active for a return of the assembly and a return of the executive.

We believe time is of the essence, we know that we face very very big challenges, economically, socially, in terms of public service provision. We also know theres big opportunities as well for the North of Ireland and the opportunities are coming at us now.

Were satisfied that the agreement struck does essential things. It ensures there will be no hardening of the border on our island.

She added that she thinks tribute should be paid to the people and to the electorate who have been incredibly patient, and I think at times incredibly frustrated with the entire political process. We need government and we need it now.

PA contributed to this report.
Ms. Chang Su-mei, the president of the Kiwanis International Guanshan Branch, attends Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Chih-The Hall of the Kaohsiung Cultural Center in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, on Feb. 28, 2023. (Chien Hui-min/The Epoch Times)

KAOHSIUNG, TaiwanA president of the Kiwanis International Taiwan branch said Shen Yun Performing Arts was worth attending every year after the performance at the Chih-The Hall of the Kaohsiung Cultural Center on Feb. 28.

The beauty of Shen Yun is astounding, said Ms. Chang Su-mei, the president of the Kiwanis International Guanshan Branch. I saw hope from Shen Yun. It made me feel that the world will be very beautiful, glorious, and peaceful in the future. Shen Yun gave us much positive guidance. It shows us the right direction.

Ms. Chang said she saw that hope in Shen Yuns dances, colors, lights, and values.

The female dancers movements are very elegant. Such as in the dance of water sleeves (a dance in which female dancers wear long, flowing sleeves), their movements are super beautiful. They synchronized with each other perfectly, and their body language is very soft and graceful. They must have been trained for a long time.

The music matches the dance excellently. There are no words that can describe how wonderful the coordination is. Its just super, super good, she said.

Ms. Chang felt the dynamic backdrop was magical.

Such as [in one program], the Monkey King jumped from the stage and landed on the backdrop. Wow! My friends and I were all shocked at that time. The combination of the most advanced technology with the dances is really cool, she said.

Ms. Chang was impressed by Shen Yuns colors.

I love their costumes very much, which are simply gorgeous! For example, theres one costume in purple and blue. The coloration is very bright and novel, she said. The colors that Shen Yun uses made me feel that the world is very bright. Their dances also brought brightness, goodness, and hope to me.

A devout Christian, Ms. Chang felt Shen Yun was full of positive energy beneficial for all theatergoers. Attending only once isnt enough. We should attend twice, three times, every year, she added.

New York-based Shen Yun is the worlds top classical Chinese dance company, and has a mission to show the beauty and goodness of China before communism. For 5,000 years Chinas civilization was built on values and virtues from the spiritual teachings of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism.

Best Show in the World

Shen Yun is the best show in the world, said Mr. Chung Ching-pai, the director of the civil affairs department at the Taitung County Government. The show is fascinating. Its hearty to watch. Its a very high level artistic achievement.

Mr. Chung said he is a civil affairs officer, has faith, and frequently organizes religious events.

I was very touched when I saw the Buddhas [in the performance], he said. If a person has a belief, he will influence others to be good  Shen Yun has this influence.

Mr. Chung read three words in Shen Yun, which he felt were universal values of benefit to all: truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance.

The words can inspire people to be true, good, and endure. These are the most precious characters. These are the most important values that we should learn from Shen Yun, he said.

Shen Yun s programs showcase traditional Chinese culture, replete with virtues like loyalty, propriety, wisdom, justice, and benevolencevalues that are universal and shared the world over.

Im Very Touched

Mr. Chen Kuei-hung, the chairman of the Kaohsiung Architects Association, said: Shen Yun is pioneering! I have never seen any show as great as Shen Yun.

He said Shen Yun created a new format for dance performances.

The live orchestra is magnificent. .. The 3-D dynamic backdrop interacts with dancers very accurately, he said. [These two] perfectly coordinated with the dances. The overall performance is fabulous!

Mr. Chen said he had watched many classical Chinese dance shows before, but had never seen any dance as beautiful and excellent as Shen Yun.

The female dancers presented comprehensively the softness and grace of traditional Chinese ladies. The male dancers showed us force and majesty, he said. Its rare to see these traditional values, such as loyalty and respect to the emperor, parents, family, and friends, in current world. Shen Yun promotes these values and delivers positive energy. Im very touched.

Mr. Chen said that all Shen Yun artists are extraordinary. Their level is far beyond the normal artists, he added.

Each Shen Yun performance consists of nearly 20 vignettes, presented through highly-expressive art forms such as classical Chinese dance, original orchestral music performed live, soloists who sing in the bel canto tradition, animated digital backdrops, and more.

Reporting by Epoch Times Staff in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yuns inception in 2006.
MIAOLI, TaiwanOn Feb. 25, 2023, Shen Yun Performing Arts performed in Miaoli, Taiwan, attracting local, political, and business elites, including former Miaoli County Mayor Liu Cheng-hung and legislator Chen Chao-ming. The audience appreciated that New York-based Shen Yun promotes peace and inspires human thinking.

Miaoli is a large Hakka county located in the north. Shen Yun attracted theatergoers far and wide, including people from Vietnam.

The performance was done very well! said former mayor of Miaoli County, Liu Cheng-hung who attended the performance with his wife. The couple complimented the dancers as well as the performances promotion of peace. He added that he hopes everyone will strive for peace. Mr. Liu also recommended that people experience Shen Yun and that one day, people on both sides of the Taiwan strait can live in peace together.

Legislator Chao-Ming Chen said he was touched by Shen Yun and that the portrayal of the historic characters, the music and other aspects of the performance were of very high quality.

Every piece was very impressive. The content was very rich, from the Creation of the earth, to the scenes of different eras, and each piece contained great depth, so each one was very touching, said Mr. Chen.

He added his appreciation for Shen Yun sharing the genuine Chinese culture, showing what classic beauty is, and presenting the culture of each period. Shen Yun did a very good job in these aspects.

He also said Shen Yuns beautiful backdrops were thought-provoking, and that watching the performance can help people think about human nature.

Guo-shou Shen, chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Gong Memorial Hospital, used two words to sum up his experience watching Shen Yun: Joy and peace!

Mr. Shen commented that the tumbling techniques performed by the dancers are very difficult, but in terms of impressiveness but the main thing is their faith. The faith in the hearts of the artists are helping them and encouraging them to work hard.

It is often said that one minute on stage is ten years of work off stage, but Mr. Shen believes that for Shen Yun artists, it should be ten minutes on stage and one lifetime offstage. Mr. Shen explained that although these artists may one day leave the stage, they will be doing sacred work for the rest of their lives.

It is clear that these artists are extraordinary. They have been practicing their art since they were children, but they are extraordinary, said Mr. Shen.

Mr. Shen shared his belief that Shen Yun is special because of how well each element of the performance can work in harmony iwth the rest. The overall cooperation of the artists, including the orchestras musicians, the dancers on stage, as well as the lighting and presenters, the overall coordination is seamless and flawless, he said.

Mr. Shen also emphasized the feeling of divinity that Shen Yun brought to him, We were amazed by their technique, but most importantly, it was the smiles on their faces and the beauty. Its because Shen Yun is the work of God.

Shen Yun expresses the essence of Chinese culture on stage in a living way, so Shen Yuns work is not short term, but long term. It is clear that Shen Yun is a disciplined group and with youthful energy because the artists are young. This lets us think that this work of God is continuous, said Mr. Shen.

At the same time, Mr. Shen also expressed his admiration for Shen Yuns artistic director,

The artistic director has done a great job in maintaining the company, and paying attention to the details. We can see that the performance was flawless and amazing, and we can feel the artistic directors silent work. Since we are opening up after the pandemic, Shen Yuns arrival gives people something to rely on, so I have great admiration for the artistic director, said Mr. Shen.

Mr. Shen expressed his wish to recommend Shen Yun to all his friends. Shen Yun is an event for the young because the artists on stage are all young. I hope that those who are still living in anxiety will come here and see that besides being professional, we can trust our hearts with these young people.

I believe that every individual in Shen Yun is not only doing their work, but are also fulfilling their mission. This mission will be felt by the hearts in the audience. Mr. Shen emphasized, The whole performance allows young people to feel alive and with vitality, there is peace of mind.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yuns inception in 2006.
KAOHSIUNG, TaiwanOn Feb. 28, Shen Yun hosted two consecutive sold-out performances at ChihThe Hall of Kaohsiung Cultural Center. Kaohsiung is famed for its hospitality and the audience eagerly welcomed Shen Yuns arrival.

In attendance at the matinee was Suqin Wu, the CEO of Taiwans International Cultural and Arts Foundation. She was touched by the simplicity and purity of the performance.

Shen Yun reminded me of the beautiful values that we once possessed, she said. The performance did not use complicated words to lecture us on the dos and donts, but rather, you just know that there is something profound thats worth learning.

Based in New York, Shen Yun is the worlds premier classical Chinese dance and music company. Its artists are seeking to revive the glory of Chinas 5,000 years of history and share through a series of short dance pieces all that is good and beautiful in China before communism.

The name Shen Yun translates directly into the beauty of divine beings dancing. Ms. Wu agreed with that description. The dancers body language and their movements are all taken from ancient times. Thats wonderful, she said.

An artist herself, Ms. Wu paid special attention to Shen Yuns use of colors.

Shen Yuns color schemes were very pure and harmonious. They used a lot of primary colors. From what I know in fine arts, these colors are very bright and present a strong energy, she said. When people see these colors, their emotions are immediately lifted up.

Ms. Wu also felt inspired by the spiritual aspects of Shen Yun and deeply agreed with the traditional belief that we are all from the heavens.

We are here to offer our service to humanity. Each of us has a hidden mission that we must discover. To see this idea presentedit gave me a lot of strength and support.

Referring to Shen Yuns storyline dances depicting the ancient wisdom of good begets good and evil begets evil, Ms. Wu said thats what she has always believed.

This is the divine truthno matter which God you believe in. The righteous energy and optimism of the performance opened my heart. Shen Yuns story-based dances are truly great.

Ms. Wu will definitely be recommending Shen Yun to all her friends and family.

[The performance] really allows you to calm downthats the value Shen Yun brings. It purifies the negativity in our mind and body and allows our spirits to lift up and be happy, she said.

I would like to tell the performers good luck and to keep up the good work. Theyre doing a wonderful job and I thank them for that.

Reporting by Epoch Times Staff in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yuns inception in 2006.
SoCalGas Says Reliefs on Way From Sky-High Bills

LOS ANGELESSouthern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) Feb. 28 announced that average residential bills will decrease by some 67 percent in March compared to Januarythe result of wholesale market prices for natural gas dropping for a second straight month.

SoCalGas estimates that average residential bills will drop from $300 for January usage to an estimated $100 for March usage, the utility said in a statement.

The company noted that an 83 percent drop in Marchs procurement rate, compared to Januarys high, drove the expected decrease in March customer bills.

Were pleased that were seeing what appears to be a trend to natural gas prices that are more in line with last year, SoCalGas Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer Gillian Wright said in a statement.

Still, with the unusually cold and wet weather, we encourage customers to continue to conserve energy and take advantage of our cost-savings programs, which include recently improved direct financial relief for eligible customers.

Natural gas prices are determined by wholesale national and regional markets, from which SoCalGas and other utilities make purchases. The cost of buying that gas is billed to customers with no markup, according to SoCalGas.

A late-December cold snap across the country was one factor that drove natural gas market prices in the West to increase by some 128% between December and Januaryleading SoCalGas to warn residential customers in a Dec. 29 statement that January bills are likely to be shockingly high.

Other factors contributing to the spike in prices, according to SoCalGas, included the following:

widespread, below-normal temperatures on much of the West Coast

high natural gas demand for heating by customers in areas with below-normal temperatures

reduced natural gas supplies to the West Coast from Canada

reduced interstate pipeline capacity to the West Coast because of pipeline maintenance activities in West Texas

low natural gas storage levels on the West Coast

Tuesdays announcement by SoCalGas came as the utility is also looking to increase its rates in 2024, per a request filed last May with the California Public Utilities Commissionpart of a rate-setting process that takes place every four years.

SoCalGas, on its website, said that if its request is approved in its entirety by the commission, the average residential monthly bill using 36 therms per month would increase by approximately $8.62 per month in 2024, when compared to estimated 2023. Individual customer bills may vary.

The company said the request for a rate increase will allow us to modernize and upgrade our infrastructure so that we can maintain and enhance long-term reliability and safety for our customers [and] support the growth of more diverse renewable energy options, as well as retain and reward the companys workforce.

The commission has set a public hearing on the SoCalGas request for March 6. The hearing can be live-streamed at https://adminmonitor.com/ca/cpuc/hearing/20230306/2.

On Monday, SoCalGas announced the availability of $10 million in funding to help customers pay their bills.

The company said it committed $5 million in funding to the Gas Assistance Fund, a program administered by the United Way that provides income-qualified customers with one-time grants to help pay their natural gas bills.

SoCalGas also announced it will contribute $4 million to relaunch its popular Fueling Our Communities program, a collaboration with local food banks and nonprofits that has provided free meals and groceries to thousands of Californians facing food insecurity since 2020.

In addition, SoCalGas said it will contribute $1 million in aid to small restaurant owners through the Restaurants Care Resilience Fund, a fund that was started in 2021 to help small restaurants with improvements, employee retention and to manage debt and rising costs.

Earlier this month, Gov. Gavin Newsom urged the federal government to investigate the recent price spike.
South Korean Court Upholds Constitution Mandating Foreign-Born Men Enlist Before Renouncing Citizenship

South Korean army soldiers stand guard before K-pop band BTS's member Jin enters the army to serve near an army training center in Yeoncheon, South Korea, on Dec. 13, 2022. (Ahn Young-joon/AP Photo)

South Koreas court on Wednesday dismissed the petition of a man challenging the constitutionality of the Nationality Act, which mandates military service before renunciation of South Korean citizenship.

The man, who holds dual citizenship because he was born in the United States to South Korean parents, claimed that South Koreas definition of intent to obtain permanent resident status was ambiguous.

The 23-year-old man failed to renounce his South Korean citizenship in 2018 owing to legislation requiring foreign-born men to fulfill military service before renunciation, Yonhap News Agency reported.

The Constitutional Court rejected his claim and ruled that the provision was necessary to prevent men with dual citizenship from escaping military duty by relinquishing their South Korean citizenship.

Without the Nationality Act, there would be no way to impose a duty to fulfill military service when a man renounces his South Korean citizenship on the pretext of his birth in a foreign country, the court said.

Military service is hugely contentious in South Korea where all able-bodied men aged between 18 and 28 are meant to serve for about two years as part of efforts to defend against a hostile North Korea.

Over the years particular categories of men have won exemptionseither allowed to put off service for a certain time or allowed to do shorter serviceincluding men who win a medal at the Olympics, classical musicians, and dancers who win a top prize at certain competitions.

North Korea fired more than 70 missiles last year, one of which reportedly flew over Japan and triggered alerts warning citizens in the Hokkaido and Aomori prefectures to take shelter.

Taiwan Extends Conscription

Meanwhile, Taiwan announced last year that it will extend compulsory military service from four months to one year beginning in 2024 owing to the rising threat the democratically governed island faces from China.

The move comes as China ramps up military, diplomatic, and economic pressure on Taiwan to assert its sovereignty claims, including almost daily Chinese air force missions near the island over the past three years.

Even after the extension, however, the period of service will still be shorter than the 18 months mandated in South Korea, which faces a hostile and nuclear-armed North Korea.

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said that Taiwan wanted peace but needed to be able to defend itself.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen visits army reservist troop during a training in Nanshipu, Taiwan, on March 12, 2022. (Ann Wang/Reuters)

As long as Taiwan is strong enough, it will be the home of democracy and freedom all over the world, and it will not become a battlefield, Tsai told reporters announcing the decision to extend the conscription period, which she described as incredibly difficult.

The current military system, including training reservists, is inefficient and insufficient to cope with Chinas rising military threat, especially if it launched a rapid attack on the island, she added.

Taiwan wants to tell the world that between democracy and dictatorship, we firmly believe in democracy. Between war and peace, we insist on peace. Let us show the courage and determination to protect our homeland and defend democracy, Tsai said.

Conscripts will undergo more intense training, including shooting exercises, combat instruction used by U.S. forces, and operating more powerful weapons including Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and anti-tank missiles, she added.

Taiwan has been a self-governing democracy since the Chinese civil war ended in 1949. Still, the Chinese Communist Party views Taiwan as a breakaway province that must be united with mainland China by any means necessary.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Students Train to Ride Seadragon in Offshore Wind Boom

If Australia wants an offshore wind industry, companies and governments are going to have to find skilled workers to plan, design and build it.

Competing in a tight global labour market, offshore wind developer Flotation Energy and the University of Melbourne have inked a deal to produce job-ready graduates and re-skill workers exiting the coal industry.

Students will be involved in the development of Australias first offshore wind farm, Flotation Energys Seadragon project in the Bass Strait.

Once developed, Seadragon is expected to power up to one million homes and replace coal-fired electricity generation.

Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology Prof. Frank Vetere said the partnership announced on Wednesday paves the way for innovation, education and research in an important new industry.

By pooling our expertise, not only will we be supporting offshore wind energy production and reducing Australias carbon emissions, well also be preparing job-ready graduates and future leaders, he said.

Nationwide, offshore wind projects are expected to bring thousands of construction jobs over the next 15 years and ongoing new energy roles when up and running.

Common elsewhere in the world, experts say Australia has a second-mover advantage, with technology costs falling while new laws provide investment and regulatory certainty.

Transmission lines and big batteries will also be vital to link offshore wind into a grid thats meant to go 82 percent renewable by 2030.

Although the Gippsland zone off Victorias La Trobe Valley is expected to be the first region in Australia to power up, the Hunter region in NSW is one of six priority regions around the country with world-class offshore wind potential.

The renewables arm of French energy giant EDF last month bought the Newcastle Offshore Wind project, which will also need workers.

Providing scope for teams to move from project to project, other regions earmarked are off the Illawarra in NSW, the Southern Ocean region off Portland in Victoria, the Bass Strait region off northern Tasmania, and the Indian Ocean region off Perth/Bunbury.

The University of Melbourne Associate Prof. in Spatial Information Martin Tomko said students and academics from several disciplines will have opportunities to participate in Seadragon, which is expected to commence construction in 2028.

They will gain valuable exposure and skills in many facets of the offshore wind sector, including structural and digital infrastructure engineering, seafloor mapping and environmental monitoring, he said.

Situated adjacent to oil and gas platforms, the 1.5-gigawatt project is expected to bring $6 billion of investment into the Gippsland region.

Australia is part of an international alliance that aims to get to at least 380GW of global offshore wind capacity by 2030.

But the world needs that to grow to more than 2000GW by 2050 to help limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency.

The Australian Energy Market Operator has warned the reliability of the national electricity grid is in doubt during the next decade without urgent investments to replace coal plants.
Supreme Court Leans Toward Allowing New Jersey to Leave Waterfront Commission

The Supreme Court seemed receptive to New Jerseys argument on March 1 that it should be allowed to unilaterally withdraw from the interstate compact that created the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor to combat corruption.

The justices asked many questions that focused on what impact their ruling would have on other interstate compacts. Other questions reflected a basic principle of contract law, which is that one can party can end a contract on its own unless the contract specifies how it can be terminated.

Although the storied Port of New York and New Jerseys reckoning with organized crime was immortalized in director Elia Kazans 1954 film, On the Waterfront, organized crime was driven out years ago and critics have long accused the commission of over-regulating businesses involved in the port and causing labor shortages.

New Jersey also claims it no longer benefits from the existence of the commission because when the compact was created in 1953 most of the economic activity in the port was on the New York side, but nowadays more than 80 percent of the activity is reportedly on the New Jersey side.

Allowing New Jersey to exit the compact would effectively kill it, commentators say.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, previously said that allowing New Jersey to leave the compact would cause immediate and irreparable harm to New York and result in more crime, higher prices on goods, and racial inequities in port hiring.

The Biden administration supports New Jerseys position.

The compact, which is a contract between the states, was approved by Congress, an action that transformed it into federal law.

New Jersey may not simply walk away from the compact, Judith Vale, deputy solicitor general of New York, told the justices during oral arguments on March 1.

When the two states formed the compact, both intended to prohibit unilateral termination, Vale said. Unilateral termination is not allowed unless the compact expressly grants that power.

Out of 80 compacts before 1953, approximately 56 omitted a termination provision. New Jersey seems to admit that, despite that omission, most of these compacts did not allow unilateral termination, she said.

When New York and New Jersey omitted a termination clause here, they intended the same result: no unilateral termination.

Justice Clarence Thomas challenged Vale.

If you were suing New Jersey, would you concede that you have subjected your sovereignty to this compact by not being able to withdraw? he asked.

Vale denied that entering a compact involved giving up state sovereignty. It is a sovereign arrangement that both states enter, she said.

Thomas replied, So what Im hearing you say is that if they say nothing about terminating it, they basically sacrifice their sovereignty permanently unless the other party agrees.

Vale didnt answer the question directly, instead saying that entering into a compact was not a sovereign giveaway.

It is a mutual exchange of sovereignty where each state gets a benefit, the lawyer added.

Justice Samuel Alito said not allowing withdrawal was an extraordinary thing.

Shouldnt there be a presumption against a state having done that, which could be overcome by a clear indication of a contrary intent? he said.

New Jersey Solicitor General Jeremy Feigenbaum said there is nothing in the plain text of the compact that expressly limits New Jerseys withdrawal.

And as New York this morning has confirmed, there is nothing that justifies a perpetual veto in an agreement New York now admits is not itself perpetual.

The silence of the contract on the issue of withdrawal confirms that settled background rules apply, Feigenbaum said. And those rules, contract law and state sovereignty, both well established by the 19th century, allow New Jersey to withdraw.

Although states are unable to withdraw from agreements settling boundaries or settling water rights  contracts of continuing performance are different, and parties can withdraw from agreements that would otherwise require them to keep performing forever, he said.

Chief Justice John Roberts suggested that winding down the affairs of the commission, which has about 70 employees, would be easier than closing the much larger Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which was also created by an interstate compact.

Its hard to unscramble the eggs when youre talking about the Port Authority as a whole, but here its not that disruptive, Roberts said.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked Vale if the simplest way to rule would be to not expect this contract to be indefinite, in which case, unilateral withdrawal is presumed.

Here, the parties clearly stated it wasnt going to be forever, unlike your Port Authority compact, the justice said.

It doesnt make any sense to allow one state to force another to stay in a compact in perpetuity, Sotomayor said.

Its a contradiction in terms in my mind, she said.

Because individual states lack jurisdiction over each other, state courts cannot hear cases dealing with another state, so the U.S. Constitution allows the Supreme Court to hear disputes between states. Exercising its original jurisdiction, the court agreed to hear the case, New York v. New Jersey (court file 22O156) in June 2022.

The Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling by June.
Suspect in Florida TV Crew Attack Faces More Murder Charges

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.A 19-year-old Florida man is now facing three first-degree-murder charges related to a shooting last week that killed a television news reporter, a 9-year-old girl, and a 38-year-old woman, sheriffs officials said Tuesday.

Orange County Sheriffs officials released an arrest warrant Tuesday morning that included two new murder charges against Keith Melvin Moses in the attack in an Orlando neighborhood on Feb. 22.

Investigators said Moses fatally shot Nathacha Augustin seconds after the car she was riding in stopped to offer him a ride. A witness in the car described Moses as acting strange and sweating before the shooting.

Moses ran after the shooting and hours later returned to the scene while television crews were working on a story about the shooting, authorities said.

Investigators said Moses first went into a nearby house, where he shot Tyonna Major, a young gymnast, and her mother. The mother told investigators she woke up to her daughter yelling, he shot me, as she ran and jumped on her bed, the warrant said. She said the man then shot her in the arm. She told investigators she barricaded herself and her daughter in the master bedroom until deputies arrived.

She said TYonna described the suspect and said he had come through the rear door to the home, the warrant said. The mother said she normally kept the doors locked but sometimes left them unlocked after letting the dog out.

TYonna died at a hospital a short time after the shooting.

After leaving the Majors house, the suspect walked to the vehicle belonging to the Spectrum News 13 crew, where he fatally shot reporter Dylan Lyons and critically wounded video journalist Jesse Walden.

The pop-up memorial for slain Spectrum News 13 journalist Dylan Lyons is shown at the University of Central Florida Nicholson School of Communications in Orlando, Fla., on Feb. 23, 2023. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel via AP)

Deputies responded to the scene after getting 911 calls from both locations.

Investigators talked to a reporter and videographer from WFTV, another news station that was covering the story of the initial killing.

They told deputies the man had been walking toward them with a gun and they were able to video him as he left the scene. They called 911 and then made their way to the Spectrum News 13 vehicle, where they saw Lyons and Walden had been shot, the warrant said.

Deputies found Moses a short distance from the area within minutes. They said he was sweating as he walked toward them. They found a Glock .40-caliber handgun in his pants which they noted was still hot to the touch, meaning it had been fired recently.

The warrant said a witness was able to identify Moses through a photo lineup.

The warrant noted the guns slide was in the locked position and the magazine was still inserted, which is consistent with the firearm being shot until it ran out of ammunition and the slide locking to the rear.

Moses was taken to a hospital where he was evaluated, but the warrant said he did not communicate with deputies or the hospital staff but made facial expressions, such as smiling. At times he made hand symbols of guns as he pointed the gun at his head, the warrant said.

Once at the sheriffs office, he continued refusing to speak with investigators, pretending to be asleep. He tried to leave the interview room twice and when deputies grabbed his arms and tried to subdue him after he got out of the room, he screamed continuously, I cant breathe.

The Office of the Public Defender for Orange and Osceola counties is representing Moses and has declined to comment. Moses waived the right to be in court during a first appearance hearing Tuesday, according to a spokesperson for the Orange County Jail.

By Freida Frisaro
Taiwan Deploys Fighters After China Sends 25 Warplanes, 3 Ships Toward Island

Slovak Air Force MiG-29s fly over an airport during an airshow in Malacky, Slovakia, on Aug. 27, 2022. (Petr David Josek/AP Photo)

Taiwans military responded to a Chinese incursion early on Wednesday after detecting 19 military aircraft crossing the countrys air defense identification zone (ADIZ) amid continued pressure by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) against the self-governing island.

The countrys Ministry of Defense said in a statement that a total of 25 Chinese warplanes and three naval vessels were tracked by 6 a.m. local time on March 1, noting that 19 of those planes crossed Taiwans ADIZ, while the warships and remaining aircraft continued to operate around the Taiwan Strait.

R.O.C. Armed Forces have monitored the situation and tasked [combat air patrol] aircraft, Navy vessels, and land-based missile systems to respond [sic] these activities, the ministry stated.

A map of the incursion released by the ministry shows the fighter jets had flown into the southwestern corner of the island nations ADIZ, flying a similar path to when the Taiwanese military responded to another incursion in early January.

25 PLA aircraft and 3 PLAN vessels around Taiwan were detected by 6 a.m.(UTC+8) today. R.O.C. Armed Forces have monitored the situation and tasked CAP aircraft, Navy vessels, and land-based missile systems to respond these activities. pic.twitter.com/XsvnjS01Me   Ministry of National Defense, R.O.C.  (@MoNDefense) March 1, 2023

The CCP claims Taiwan is a breakaway province that must be united with mainland China and vows to use military force to achieve this goal. Taiwan has been a self-governing democracy since the Chinese civil war ended in 1949 and has never been controlled by the CCP.

The CCP regularly stages such incursions on a near-daily basis, part of what is termed gray zone tactics, aimed at intimidation and wearing down Taiwans equipment, exhausting its personnel, and degrading public morale. This also includes cyberwarfare and disinformation campaigns, along with a relentless drive to deprive Taiwan of diplomatic allies.

Wednesdays intimidation by the CCP was relatively modest compared to other incursions. On Christmas Day, the communist regime sent 71 warplanes and seven ships toward the island in its largest show of force since U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) visited Taiwan in August last year.

During Chinas National Day weekend in 2021, Beijing dispatched 149 military aircraft southwest of Taiwan in strike group formations, a move that was derided by the White House as destabilizing and provocative.

As the CCP continues to pressure the self-governing island, nearly doubling the number of military incursions in 2022 compared to 2021, Taiwan has upgraded its fleet of F-16 fighter jets and ordered 66 additional U.S.-made aircraft, while also buying a range of other weaponry and extending its mandatory term of military service for all males from four months to one year.

Planes from the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) air force fly in formation in Beijing on Oct. 1, 2019. (Wang He/Getty Images)

Relations between Beijing and Washington, Taiwans primary ally and source of defensive weaponry, have spiraled over Chinas actions toward the island, trade, technology, and the South China Sea.

In memos and testimony, top U.S. officials have called for heightened preparations, saying the CCP sees a shrinking window for action and may move on Taiwan within a few years.

The CCP claims it prefers peaceful unification between the sides, but the Taiwanese public overwhelmingly favors the current state of de-facto independence.

Aldgra Fredly and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

From NTD News
Ms. Chang Yueh-chao, a host of the National Education Radio, attends Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Chih-The Hall of the Kaohsiung Cultural Center in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, on Feb. 28, 2023. (Sun Kuo-ying/The Epoch Times)

KAOHSIUNG, TaiwanTaiwan theatergoers commended Shen Yun Performing Arts not only for its artistic excellence, but for representing the best values of humanity.

On Feb. 28, Ms. Chang Yueh-chao, a host of the National Education Radio, attended a performance at the Chih-The Hall of the Kaohsiung Cultural Center.

From the point of view of the artistic value, Shen Yun represents the highest state, she said. Beyond the art, Shen Yun purifies our human minds and souls, and helps us to find the value of humanity.

Ms. Chang said Shen Yuns dance, music, costumes, and backdrop are all the best in the world, that these well-designed coordinated factors came together to perfection.

The show refreshed our eyes and ears. Its really high-level and its worth everyone to enjoy it in the theater, she said. The choreography is very special and the music is very pleasant to ears.

Taiwanese people inherited parts of Chinese culture. Most of them know the historical stories that Shen Yun presents. Ms. Chang said Shen Yuns story-based dances perfectly presented these stories, and brought out the values behind these stories, such as loyalty, respect, etc.

[These] dances are amazing. They presented all the key points of the stories. They are very classical, she said. This is a life experience. A person must attend at least once in his life.

Ms. Chang said she would tell all her friends after she goes home: You will watch a magnificent dance and music show, as well as the gorgeous costumes. Moreover, you will discover the profound and deep Chinese culture. You will be deeply moved. You will think over and feel the details of the Chinese culture.

New York-based Shen Yun is the worlds top classical Chinese dance company, and has a mission to show the beauty and goodness of China before communism. For 5,000 years Chinas civilization was built on values and virtues from the spiritual teachings of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism.

Doctor: Shen Yun Is Full of Positive Energy

I was shocked by Shen Yun. The excellent costumes match very well the talented dancers and their extraordinary skills. The scenes on the stage are astounding, said Mr. Ho Huo-fa, The outstanding point is that Shen Yun is full of positive energy and spreads this energy to our audiences.

Mr. Ho is the chair of the Taitung County Medical Association. He has been a doctor for over 40 years and won the Taiwanese Medical Model Award 2018.

He said Shen Yun can stabilize a society, and encourage people to be good, which benefits the nation because Shen Yuns story-based dances inspire and uplift people.

Shen Yun told us three words: truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, he said. These words have very profound meanings. If we people can follow these words, the world will be more peaceful and our society will be more harmonious.

Mr. Ho felt many aspects of Shen Yun were special.

The male dancers are very classical and masculine and female dancers are very beautiful. Their dancing skills are the best in the world.  Ho Huo-fa

All dancers have superb techniques, and they are on the same level, he said. The male dancers are very classical and masculine and female dancers are very beautiful. Their dancing skills are the best in the world.

The dynamic backdrop is high-tech. It coordinates with the stage perfectly and makes the whole performance stunningly good. The coordination is fabulous, he said. I was shocked. The show is super perfect.

Each Shen Yun performance consists of nearly 20 vignettes, presented through highly-expressive art forms such as classical Chinese dance, original orchestral music performed live, soloists who sing in the bel canto tradition, animated digital backdrops, and more.

Mr. Ho Huo-fa, the chair of the Taitung County Medical Association, attends Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Chih-The Hall of the Kaohsiung Cultural Center in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, on Feb. 28, 2023. (Lo Jui-hsun/The Epoch Times)

Mr. Chen Kun-chieh is the chair of the Taitung County Interpretation Association. He said: Shen Yun is majestic. I was stunned. How can performance be so fine? Really, Shen Yun is a rare find.

Mr. Chen was surprised at the caliber of Shen Yun dancers physiques. They must only select one dancer from ten thousand of them. He said the male dancers are valiant, and female dancers are very elegant, very graceful.

Shen Yun promotes the orthodox Chinese traditional culture, which is very good. I think its a very positive guidance to family, to children, and so on. This is a huge virtue, he said. Shen Yun is a booster to our society. It can guide our society to develop to the right direction.

Mr. Chen said he felt very happy after attending Shen Yun. From now on, I hope I can attend Shen Yun every year, he said.

Reporting by Epoch Times Staff in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yuns inception in 2006.
Texas Sends Letters to Thousands Whose Drivers Licenses Were Sent to Chinese Organized Crime Ring

Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw at a border meeting in Del Rio, Texas, on July 18, 2021. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) has begun notifying Asian Texans whose drivers licenses were sent to a Chinese organized crime group due to a security lapse.

Department of Public Safety Chief Steve McCraw told lawmakers on Monday that the agency identified at least 3,000 Texans affected by the breach, but the number could increase as the investigation continues.

Were not happy at all, I can tell you that, one bit, McCraw told the House Appropriations subcommittee. Controls should have been in place, and this should have never happened.

The New York-based crime ring targeted Texans with Asian surnames in hopes of finding look-alikes to match Chinese nationals who are in the U.S. illegally, McCraw said. The crime groups identity was not released.

DPS first became aware of the criminal activity in December when a third-party payment vendor alerted DPS to an increase in customers challenging credit card charges for online transactions, according to a letter the agency sent to lawmakers this month, Texas Tribune reported.

The licenses are being used fraudulently all over the country by those who can pass as the person on the original license or ID card, according to officials.

The agency said it did not immediately notify victims of the breach.

McCraw said the agency opted to conduct a thorough criminal investigation to find out, one, the facts and circumstances before alerting those affected.

The last two weeks, weve been able to not just identify but arrest those involved in this organized criminal activity. And thats been vital to it, he continued, adding that letters are going out this week to those whose identity could be compromised.

The investigation showed that the criminals used the dark web to obtain information on Asian Texans, including personal details and credit card information.

That information was used to bypass security questions on the Texas.gov website, which is operated by the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR).

The criminals used stolen credit card information to purchase duplicate drivers licenses that were shipped to an address of their choosing, McCraw said. It is not uncommon for individuals to order a replacement for a stolen or lost license through the states website.

McCraw said the investigation spans at least four states right now, and other states are also victims as well.

Lawmakers Respond

The breach was not made public until Mondays hearing.

House Appropriations Vice Chair Mary Gonzalez (D) expressed her displeasure with the agency for allowing more than two months to pass before notifying victims of the breach.

Somebody could be going around as Mary Gonzalez right now for two months, and nobodys been notified? Gonzalez asked McCraw.

The number one thing we have as a government agency, as government folks, is trust, she continued. And when we lose that trust by not thinking it through, its difficult to rebuild that trust with people.

Republican state Rep. Mano DeAyala voiced additional concerns about being the weak link that enabled criminals to get a valid Texas ID that can be used for getting IDs in other states.

Security Features

Prior to this issue, the DIR system did not require purchasers to enter their billing ZIP code or the credit cards CVV, a three-digit code on the back of the card. The state agency sets the security features on their applications hosted by Texs.gov.

DPS Deputy Director of Law Enforcement Services Jeoff Williams ensured lawmakers that the agency asked DIR to add these types of protective measures to its system.

Weve eliminated some of those vulnerabilities by doing those things, Williams said.

In a statement to The Epoch Times, DIR pointed out that this case was fraudulent criminal activity based on factors unrelated to state systems, not a cybersecurity incident.

No state systems, including the states portal, were hacked or breached, DIR spokesperson Brittany Booth Paylor wrote in a statement. However, just as we would in a cyber incident, we adapt to harden systems and strengthen security.

Immediately after discovering the incident, DIR and the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), along with our industry service providers, formed a team to assess and determine any vulnerabilities and prevent such fraudulent activity from happening in the future.

This incident underscores the sophistication, resources, and brazenness of this criminal organization, Paylor added.

Victims

Those affected should expect to receive a letter notifying them of the fraudulent activity that resulted in your driver license card being sent to an unauthorized party, The Dallas Morning News reported.

A criminal investigation was initiated and it was determined that subjects obtained personal information about you from an outside source which was used to access Texas.gov online services, the Feb. 27 letter signed by Driver License Chief Sheri Gipson reads. At that time, the mailing address was changed and a replacement driver license was requested. This fraudulent activity occurred in the later part of 2022.

Replacement licenses will be issued to those affected.

Victims are advised to monitor their accounts and report any suspicious activity to iWatchTX.org.
The America Last Health Treaty

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus gives a press conference at the World Health Organization's headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on Dec. 14, 2022. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)

Commentary

President Joe Bidens diplomats are negotiating a treaty with the World Health Organization (WHO) to promote so-called global health equity. The premise is that in a pandemic or other worldwide disease emergency, Americans should not get better or faster health care than inhabitants of third-world countries. If Biden rams this through, Americans will suffer and die needlessly.

Under the draft treaty, presented in Geneva on Feb. 1, the United States will be obligated to hand over a whopping 20 percent of its medical supplies, including diagnostic tests, antiviral medications, and vaccines, to WHO for global distribution. Article 10 of the treaty specifies that this will be done in real-time, not after American needs are met. The United States will no longer be able to rush treatments and vaccines to its own citizens, prioritizing them before sending aid to other countries.

Grandma will have to wait longer for her Paxlovid or other treatments because those items, now being stockpiled and paid for by American taxpayers, will be shipped to Nigeria, Uruguay, Afghanistan, and other underdeveloped nations. The WHO will call the shots on which countries get what supplies.

Treaty supporters skewer the United States for using up most of the Paxlovid on Americans during the recent pandemic and monopolizing early access to vaccines. They think Americans should make their own familys health secondary to achieving global equity. Harvard University health expert Jesse Bump says the treaty is designed to correct the shameful and selfish actions of rich countries in the COVID pandemic.

Worse, the treaty suspends patent protection for new vaccines and treatments whenever the WHO declares a pandemic. Drug companies will put the brakes on investing billions developing future antivirals and vaccines under such a threat.

The treaty deplores intellectual property as a barrier to scientific progress for all. Just the opposite is true. Where would the world have been in 2021 if Moderna and Pfizer hadnt rushed to develop vaccines in order to reap profits?

Article 19 would require the United States and other wealthy countries to pay a fixed percentage of gross domestic product yearly into a WHO pandemic preparedness fund.

The WHO already collects sizable sums of money from the United States but unfortunately takes its orders from China. The WHOs subservience to China makes the treaty especially perilous. Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus kowtowed to China in January 2020 to cover up the initial coronavirus outbreak. Then, Ghebreyesus bowed to Chinas refusal to cooperate with investigations of the pandemics source. He also barred Taiwan from observing COVID meetings on Chinas orders. Despite this, Anthony Fauci calls the pro-China Ghebreyesus his friend. Faucis fingerprints are all over this treaty.

More worrisome is Bidens acquiescence. When Ghebreyesuss term as director-general expired, Biden supported his reelection instead of proposing a candidate who isnt in Chinas pocket. To hell with American interests.

Now, the proposed WHO treaty poses a new danger. It is a toxic brew of confiscatory demands for global health equity combined with behind-the-scenes dictates from China. The treatys defenders claim that nothing would allow the WHO to meddle in how the United States responds domestically to a pandemic. But the actual wording of Article 4 proves otherwise. It states that each country will manage its own domestic health policies provided these policies do not cause damage to their peoples and other countries. You can drive a truck through that exception.

The draft treaty says it will go into effect provisionally before each countrys legislature considers it. To block that end-run around the Constitution, 19 Republican U.S. senators introduced a bill on Feb. 15 stating the treaty is not binding unless the Senate ratifies it.

Biden, Fauci, and other government big shots pushing this treaty dont have to worry that their family members will be denied ventilators and medications when a pandemic strikes. They always go to the front of the line. But ordinary Americans need to speak up forcefully and reject the notion that they should settle for a lower standard of care to promote global health equity.

America is a generous nation, but American resources need to be reserved to meet Americas needs first, Bidens America Last policies be damned.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
The World Bank Takes a Wrong Turn

Bidens firing of bank president puts a question mark over its future

Ajay S. Banga, then president and CEO of Mastercard USA, attends the India Economic Summit in New Delhi on Oct. 5, 2017. (Money Sharma/AFP via Getty Images)

Commentary

President Joe Bidens nomination of Ajay Banga, the former CEO of Mastercard, to succeed David Malpass as World Bank president suggests that the Biden administration is prioritizing climate change over the World Banks founding mission of poverty eradication and economic development.

This was made clear in the presidents statement singling out climate change as the most urgent challenge of our time.

Bangas nomination turns the clock back four years, to the end of the tenure of Dr. Jim Yong Kim, who had been nominated by President Barack Obama in 2012. Under Kim, the World Bank became an anti-development bank, allowing itself to be captured by climate activists at the expense of the worlds poorest people.

A year after Kims appointment, the World Bank adopted a blanket ban on financing new coal-fired power stationsthis despite coal being, for many developing nations, the cheapest and most reliable fuel for generating capacity. In 2017, on the second anniversary of the Paris Agreement, Kim announced that the World Bank would extend its financing ban to the development of upstream oil and gas.

Keeping fossil fuels in the ground might be gratifying for rich Europeans, but for many developing countries, it is little short of a death sentence. Over 2 billion people burn biomasswood or animal dungfor cooking and heating, causing hazardous indoor pollution responsible for an estimated 2 million deaths annually. To anyone other than a green ideologue, preventing poor countries from developing their own natural resources retards these nations economic development and constrains their ability to lift people out of poverty.

Malpass had been chosen by the Trump administration to return the World Bank to its original missionthough without overturning the constraints on the banks energy policies that hed inherited. Nonetheless, that wasnt good enough for the likes of Al Gore. During a New York Times event in September 2022, Gore denounced Malpass as a climate denier.

For Gods sake, this is ridiculous to have a climate denier as the head of the World Bank, Gore bellowed. We need to get rid of that leadership, put new leadership in, and I hope President Biden will take that initiative.

It was something that John Kerry, Bidens climate envoy, had also been pushing for.

Speaking later at the same event as Gore, Malpass declined to comment as to whether human greenhouse gas emissions were causing a rapid and dangerous warming of the planet. (Afterward, though, Malpass told CNN that its clear that greenhouse gas emissions are coming from manmade sources, including fossil fuels, so were working hard to change that.) Indeed, in a recent tweet thread, climate scientist Roger Pielke Jr. finds no increasing trends of extreme weather eventsif anything, were seeing a reversal. Nowadays, not offering an opinion on climate change is tantamount to an admission of being guilty of wrong-think.

The beneficiaries of Gores hit job wont be the worlds poor. They consume far too little energy, and the extra greenhouse gas emissions that would result from their gaining access to reliable energy wouldnt make any difference to the trajectory of overall emissions. In 2021, Africas population of 1.4 billion people consumed a total of 897.5 terawatt-hours of electricity, amounting to only 3.2 percent of global electricity consumption and equivalent to an average of 644 kilowatt-hours per head annuallyabout what American households use on average every three weeks.

Inducing developing nations to rely almost exclusively on intermittent energy sources like wind and solar when advanced nations havent solved the inherent intermittency problem of renewables condemns the worlds poor to indefinite servitude. From their perspective, the developed world is pulling a con. It promises $100 billion a year in climate finance and is now helping itself to development financeall the while telling developing nations, Heres the climate aid we promised you.

The winners: Wall Street and China. Typically, World Bank funding is used in project-finance structures so that the bank takes the first hit if projects fail to generate anticipated revenues, thus shielding private finance from risk, which is presumably why Gore helped engineer Malpasss ouster. China benefits, as it has used coal-based energy and Uyghur slave labor to dominate the global supply of solar photovoltaic panels and holds a commanding position in the production of rare earth elements used in wind turbines.

Better still, from Chinas point of view, all this will be subsidized by the American taxpayer, as the United States is the World Banks largest funder with 2.7 times as many subscription rights as China.

Its hard to see a future Republican administration tolerating this. As the Biden administrations nominee, Banga has been given a climate script that he will be compelled to follow. The situation raises an existential question about the World Bank and its purpose. In a 1998 paper, Anne Krueger, a former vice president for research at the bank, argued that after the opening-up of global capital markets to most countries outside Africa, the World Bank faced three choices: it could be a development bank focused solely on poor countries; it could continue to operate in all developing countries, but focus on soft issues like the environment; or it could close down.

Republican administrations favor the first option and Democrats the second. Economist Deepak Lal, who also served as a research administrator at the bank, argued that the second option is not viable, as it leads the bank to support highly contentious issues on which there is limited agreement about either ends or means. Lal concluded that this left only Kruegers shutdown option. Malpasss departure and Bangas nomination bring closure a step closer.

From RealClearWire

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Finn the cat has grown so big he is now 1.3 meters (4.3 feet) long, the average height of a nine-year-old kid. And many people mistake the enormous Maine coon for a dog.

Owner Natalie Bowman, 32, adopted Finn in 2017 when he was just three-and-a-half months old.

The cats stupendous size makes him an expensive pet to maintain. Finn gets fed three or four times a day, and Natalie spends $150 a month on his food.

Natalie, a healthcare provider who lives in San Carlos, California, often walks Finn through their neighborhood on a lead, and he has now become a local celebrity.

Its really funny, Natalie said. They think hes a dog, and then when they get closer they say, Oh my God, its a catand they love him.

When Natalie has visitors, they are often given a fright by the huge feline.

Ive had service people come around to fix things, she said. Its always fun to see grown men get shocked by my cat, they often say he looks like a bobcat or a wildcat.

Despite his size, Finn is a gentle giant and gets along splendidly with Natalies other cat.

It took them a little while to adjust to each other, but they love each other now, she said.

Natalie said Maine coons need a lot of time and affection, and Finn has separation anxiety so she takes him into the office sometimes.

He is a very sociable cat and he loves to talk, hes very loud, she said.

Finn is really docile and curious. He is so funny and is very needy and affectionate; he loves cuddles and to be spooned.

Share your stories with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.com, and continue to get your daily dose of inspiration by signing up for the Inspired newsletter at: https://www.theepochtimes.com/newsletter
Top Georgia Official Calls on McCarthy to Oppose Federal Takeover of Elections

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has called on House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to oppose a federal takeover of elections and support election law reforms.

In a letter on Monday, Raffensperger called on the GOPs congressional leadership to remain steadfast in opposing the Democrats 700-page voting reform bill, known as the For the People Act, or H.R.1.

The legislation is hotly disputed and contentious, with detractors claiming it is a blatant attempt to permanently slant elections in favor of Democrats and supporters claiming it will make voting more accessible and secure.

An opponent of H.R.1, Raffensperger proposed five measures he said would strengthen the integrity of every election in America and reassure the public that our Congress is committed to ideals upon which our great nation was founded.

What I am requesting is your leadership in updating and modernizing current federal law, as well as your oversight in addressing what states need to do better in enhancing voter confidence in election outcomes, Raffensperger wrote (pdf).

Raffensperger called for an update to the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), also known as Motor Voter, and support for stronger maintenance of voting lists.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, over 7 million Americans move to a different state every year, he wrote. The 90-day blackout periods, and the onerous procedures to remove voters who no longer live in a state, allow voter lists to be more and more out of date.

He noted that this was especially true in states that dont prioritize even following the low bar set for list maintenance in the current NVRA.

Raffensperger said that improving list maintenance will improve election administration, lower costs, and enhance confidence in election outcomes.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger holds a press conference on the status of ballot counting in Atlanta on Nov. 6, 2020. (Jessica McGowan/Getty Images)

Photo ID for Voters

The Georgia secretary of state also advocated for photo ID requirements in all modes of votingwhich he noted 80 percent of Americans supporteda ban on ballot harvesting in federal elections, and risk-limiting audits performed in each state following a federal election.

Again, technology exists to make this easy, he wrote. Election research shows that Voter ID laws do not impact turnout, which is consistent with the record turnout Georgia experienced in 2022.

He argued that signature matching as a form of voter verification was more subjective than photo IDs.

Implementing a nationwide photo ID requirement would be a significant step in helping ensure the integrity of elections across the country, he wrote.

Critics of photo ID requirements argue such laws are the most restrictive version of voter identification rules, with the Democrat-aligned legal organization Democracy Docket saying they require more documentation than is necessary to prove ones identity at the polls.

Only American Citizens Can Vote

Raffensperger lastly called for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to state that only American citizens can vote in any American election. He argued that this would strengthen public trust and election integrity, and send a unifying message to American citizens whether born or naturalized.

Since 1996, federal law has required American citizenship as a prerequisite to voting in federal elections, he wrote. However as of 2022, 16 municipalities in the U.S. allowed noncitizens to vote in some or all local elections (two in California, 11 in Maryland, one in New York, and two in Vermont.)

Only four state constitutions explicitly require United States citizenship to vote in state and local elections, he continued. Yet across the country, some jurisdictions have either current permissions or existing proposals to loosen that requirement and make exceptions for non-citizen voting.

Raffensperger emphasized that his proposed reforms are reasonable and common sense and that the implementation of similar laws in Georgia has made the state a national model for a reasonable balance between election security and voter convenience.

Voting booths are seen at Glass Elementary Schools polling station in Eagle Pass, Texas, on Nov. 8, 2022. (Mark Felix/AFP via Getty Images)

HR1

H.R.1 was introduced in 2019 and passed the House of Representatives in 2021, but it has not yet passed the U.S. Senate.

Among its provisions, the bill would mandate automatic voter registration and same-day voter registration, early voting and voting by mail expansion, restrictions on voter ID laws, election security measures, and disclosure requirements for political spending.

Election integrity officials think that same-day voting and automated voter registration may lead to mistakes and fraud on voter rolls. Election authorities do not have enough time to check relevant voter information while voting on the same day, and automated registration may increase the chance of noncitizen voting.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles revealed in September 2018 that it had sent over 23,000 erroneous voter registrations to the California secretary of states office as a result of the states automatic voter registration law.

Among its other items, H.R.1 would also make Election Day a federal holiday, assign redistricting responsibilities to independent commissions, and prohibit members of Congress from serving on corporate boards.

As a measure to increase voting access, states would also be required to offer early voting and online voter registration, and allow absentee ballots to be issued without requiring a reason for their request.

Further, a proposed amendment, that was ultimately rejected, proposed to reduce the voting age to 16 years old.

When the legislation was introduced, McCarthy, then House minority leader, said H.R.1 was designed to put a thumb on the scale of every election in America and keep the Swamp swampy.

Meanwhile, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hailed the bill as a historic reform package to restore the promise of our nations democracy. She said it would restore the peoples faith that government works for the public interest, the peoples interest, not the special interest.

When the bill passed the House in 2021, Hans von Spakovsky, senior fellow and manager of the election law reform initiative at the Heritage Foundation, told The Epoch Times that it would essentially void all of the safety protocols and security measures and states have been put in place to protect the integrity of the election process.
Toronto Man Faces 96 Charges in Toronto Sexual Assault Investigation

A Toronto Police Services logo is shown at headquarters in Toronto on Aug. 9, 2019. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press)

A man who allegedly lured and exploited children across Ontario both in person and online is facing 96 charges in a sexual assault investigation, Toronto police said Wednesday as they urged more potential victims to come forward.

Police said Daniel Langdon, 31, created multiple aliases on at least eight different social media applications, such as Snapchat and TikTok, and edited photos of himself to appear younger before allegedly luring children and teens.

Investigators said the youngest alleged victim is believed to be a seven-year-old who was allegedly assaulted at a local park while the oldest was a 17-year-old.

There are multiple young victims, Det. Vijay Shetty said during a news conference on Wednesday.

Shetty said police began investigating after getting a tip in December from police in Thunder Bay, Ont., about a luring and sexual assault case involving a young person.

Two months later, Shetty said, police issued multiple search warrants at a northwest Toronto home where investigators found several electronic devices containing a large amount of sexual exploitation material and evidence of other abuse.

Langdon was arrested Feb. 7 and faces a total of 96 charges so far, police said. The alleged offences took place between April 2021 and February, police said.

The charges include 39 counts of sexual assault, 39 counts of sexual interference, five counts of making child pornography, eight counts of administering a noxious substances and one count of luring, Shetty said.

Langdon allegedly used aliases such as Daniel Orilla, Epicmania and Sam Lennox, as well as different email addresses.

Police believe there are more alleged victims and want them to come forward, Shetty said.

Langdon was charged in 2016 with possession of child pornography and making child pornography but police did not provide more details on that investigation.

Shetty warned parents about the dangers that come with letting children use social media.

Always have that open communication with your kids no matter what, Shetty said.

Be aware kids are going to be on their devices, Just have that constant communication and know who your kids friends are, teach them the dos and donts of how to interact with strangers on the Internet.

By Fakiha Baig
Auburn Community Hospital will receive more than $10 million to cover expenses related to its COVID-19 response, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said Wednesday.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is providing two awards  nearly $6.6 million for a period covering 2020 to 2022 and over $3.7 million for most of 2022  to reimburse the hospital for hiring temporary medical staff.

When COVID-19 cases surged, the hospital hired nurses, medical technicians and other temporary workers to aid its COVID-19 response. In a statement, Schumer, D-N.Y., explained that the hospital hired additional staff despite "experiencing significant revenue losses."

"During a time of crisis, Auburn Community Hospital heroically stepped up to fight the pandemic on the front lines and provide lifesaving care to COVID-19 patients in and around Cayuga County," he said.

Gillibrand, D-N.Y., added her appreciation for Auburn hospital's medical team that continues to care for COVID-19 patients amid the pandemic.

Scott Berlucchi, president and CEO of Auburn Community Hospital, thanked Gillibrand and Schumer for helping to secure the new funding.

"These funds will allow our health care system to continue to offer essential services and care for over 80,000 residents in our rural network," Berlucchi said. "We are lucky to have the support of these outstanding public servants."
Train Carrying 30,000 Gallons of Propane Derails in Floridas Manatee County

A derailed freight train operated by Seminole Gulf Railway near Bradenton, Fla., on Feb. 28, 2023. (Steve Litschauer/Manatee County Government via AP)

A train carrying around 30,000 gallons of propane derailed in Floridas Manatee County on Feb. 28, officials said, just weeks after a train carrying toxic chemicals came off the tracks in East Palestine, Ohio.

Five railcars carrying sheet rock and two propane tankers were derailed in the 7200 block of 16 Street East in an industrial area north of Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport, the local government said.

A derailed freight train operated by Seminole Gulf Railway near Bradenton, Fla., on Feb. 28, 2023. (Steve Litschauer/Manatee County Government via AP)

According to South Manatee County Fire Rescue, one of the tankers is carrying 30,000 gallons of propane.

A second propane tanker also derailed but managed to stay upright.

Emergency crews from Southern Manatee Fire Rescue, and hazmat crews responded to initial calls regarding the partial derailment and could be seen working to secure the scene and clear the tracks in video footage shared on social media on Tuesday.

Members of the Manatee County Emergency Medical Services, Sheriffs Office personnel, and Manatee County Public Safety personnel were also working to secure the area and monitor the situation.

Officials noted that clearing the tracks may take some time as the propane must be siphoned from the tanker before it can be moved. Roughly 150 feet of track has been left mangled from the derailment, according to reports.

No Evacuations Orders Issued

No injuries have been reported, and no leakage has been found as a result of the derailment as of yet, officials said. Additionally, no evacuation shelter-in-place notices have been issued.

We are proud of our first responders, said Manatee County Board of County Commissioners Chair Kevin Van Ostenbridge. Their quick action has helped maintain the safety and security of our citizens.

Crews will continue to monitor the situation as clean-up efforts begin, including monitoring the air quality in the area, the Tampa Bay Times reports.

The freight train that derailed is operated by Floridas Seminole Gulf Railway and was minimally staffed, according to the local news outlet.

Representatives of Seminole Gulf Railway reportedly arrived at the scene on Tuesday along with Florida Department of Transportation staff and other railroad officials to investigate the cause of the incident.

The Epoch Times has contacted a Seminole Gulf Railway spokesperson for comment.

While the exact cause of the derailment is unclear, South Manatee County Fire Rescue Chief Robert Bounds told the Tampa Bay Times that the train had been traveling south when one car derailed, creating a domino effect.

Separately, Bounds told Fox 13 that thermal imaging has so far shown no leaks from the site.

No Damage to Propane Tank

We have drones. We run the hazmat team for the county of Manatee and we were in the air with our drone which has thermal capabilities, he said.

We were able to look at the tank and ascertain the levels of the tank from the outside, itll show up different colors if anything is actually leaking. There are no leaks. There are no actual physical damage to the tank other than the rollover, but there is no significant damage to it.

The Fire Rescue Chief noted that the area may be evacuated when the propane is offloaded due to potential danger to the public. He added that the drones have spotted a homeless camp within close proximity to the derailment and officials have warned the individuals in the camp about the potential danger.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), said on Twitter that his team is actively monitoring the derailment and reaching out to state and local officials to see how we can assist.

Our priority is doing everything we can to help keep the community and ALL Floridians safe, Scott said.

Tuesdays derailment in Manatee County comes just weeks after a Norfolk Southern-operated freight train carrying the hazardous chemical vinyl chloride derailed in East Palestine, leading to a spill of toxic chemicals and a burn of chemicals that had left residents concerned over the long-term health impacts.

Vinyl chloride can cause a rare form of liver cancer after long-term exposure, however, local officials have said that testing shows the air and drinking water are safe.
UKs Sunak Backs Official COVID-19 Inquiry After 100,000 WhatsApp Messages Released to Newspaper

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has defended an official COVID-19 inquiry as the right way to scrutinise the handling of the pandemic after former Health Secretary Matt Hancocks WhatsApp messages were published in a British newspaper.

Based on a trove of more than 100,000 WhatsApp messages, The Daily Telegraph newspaper claimed on March 1 that Englands Chief Medical Officer Sir Chris Whitty advised Hancock in April 2020 that everyone going into care homes should be tested for COVID-19.

The relevant exchanges, from April 14, 2020, suggested that Hancock rejected the guidance, telling an aide the move just muddies the waters and introduced mandatory testing only for those coming from hospitals rather than the community.

Following the report, Hancock, who resigned in June 2021, disputed the claims made by the Telegraph, calling them flat wrong, and claiming the messages had been spun to fit an anti-lockdown agenda.

The Epoch Times hasnt seen the texts and hasnt been able to independently verify the claims.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak departs Downing Street ahead of the weekly Prime Ministers Questions in the House of Commons, in London, on March 1, 2023. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

Colossal Whitewash

Hancock had willingly given his WhatsApp messages to journalist Isabel Oakeshott to co-write a book called Pandemic Diaries.

In a piece in The Telegraph, titled I had to release Matt Hancocks COVID WhatsApp messages to avoid a whitewash, Oakeshott wrote that following his resignation in June 2021, he downloaded the records from his phone and shared them with various people, including her.

Suffice to say there was plenty of important material left over, she said, calling the texts a vital historical record at a time when we need urgent answers.

Oakeshott, who has described COVID-19 lockdowns as an unmitigated disaster, said she was releasing the messages because it would take many years before the end of the official inquiry into the pandemic response, which she claimed could be a colossal whitewash.

Thats why Ive decided to release this sensational cache of private communicationsbecause we absolutely cannot wait any longer for answers, she said.

Official Inquiry

At Prime Ministers Questions on March 1, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called on Sunak to ensure the official inquiry had all the support it needed to report by the end of this year.

Mentioning the Telegraph report, he said, Now we dont know the truth of what happened yetthere are too many messages and too many unknowns.

Families across the country will look at this, and the sight of politicians writing books portraying them as heroes or selectively leaking messages will be an insulting and ghoulish spectacle for them.

Starmer said that the UK COVID-19 Inquirywhich has been set up to examine the UKs response to and impact of the COVID-19 pandemichas cost the taxpayer 85 million but hasnt heard from a single minster yet.

Sunak insisted the official inquiry is the right way to investigate the governments handling of the pandemic after Hancocks messages made the headlines.

There is a proper process to these things, it is an independent inquiry, it has the resources it needs, it has the powers it needs. And what we should do in this House is to let them get on and do their job, he said.

Anti-Lockdown Agenda

A spokesman for Hancock strongly disputed the claims made in the Telegraph report.

These stolen messages have been doctored to create a false story that Matt rejected clinical advice on care home testing. This is flat wrong, the spokesman said.

On April 14, Matt received a response to his request for advice from the chief medical officer that testing was needed for people going into care homes, which he enthusiastically accepted.

Later that day he convened an operational meeting on delivering testing for care homes, where he was advised it was not currently possible to test everyone entering care homes, which he also accepted.

Matt concluded that the testing of people leaving hospital for care homes should be prioritised because of the higher risks of transmission, as it wasnt possible to mandate everyone going into care homes got tested.

The spokesman said that the Telegraph report left out a key part of a WhatsApp message, which demonstrated there was a meeting at which advice on deliverability was given.

By omitting this, the messages imply Matt simply overruled clinical advice. That is categorically untrue. He went as far as was possible, as fast as possible, to expand testing and save lives.

The spokesman added that its outrageous that this distorted account of the pandemic is being pushed with partial leaks, spun to fit an anti-lockdown agenda.

But the Telegraphs Associate Editor Camilla Tominey denied the paper had doctored the WhatsApp messages, calling the allegation simply not true.

Talking to the BBC, she also defended Oakeshott after the journalist was accused of breaching a nondisclosure agreement signed when working on Hancocks memoir.

I support Isabels decision-making wholeheartedly. In the interest of openness, transparency, and accountability, she felt that she was sitting on a huge amount of information that the public had a right to know.

PA Media contributed to this report.
UN Promotes Anti-Israel, Pro-Beijing Policies: US Ambassador

U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Linda Thomas-Greenfield, speaks during a press conference at the U.N. Headquarters in New York on March 1, 2021. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images)

The U.N. consistently demonstrates an anti-Israel bias and is overly beholden to authoritarian regimes, including China and Russia, according to testimony during a U.S. House subcommittee hearing on March 1.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the international body continually seeks to place Israel at a disadvantage and favors actions that undermine Israeli security and sovereignty.

The U.N. is replete with anti-Israel actions and bodies, including disproportionate resolutions against Israel across the U.N. system, Thomas-Greenfield told members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs.

Frustration With Rapporteur

The ambassador expressed particular frustration with the continuing influence of U.N. Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, who has explicitly compared Israel to the Nazi Third Reich, expressed support for Palestinian terrorist organizations, and claimed that Israel is solely an oppressive occupier, rather than a sovereign nation with legitimate security concerns.

We find her statements, her public stances, completely unacceptable, Thomas-Greenfield said. We have raised our concerns at the highest levels of the United Nations and we will continue to do that.

We have called on the U.N. to take actions against those individuals in the U.N. system who have shown a bias towards Israel, particularly in public statements.

Likewise, the ambassador said the U.N. International Court of Justice (ICJ), which is supposed to settle disputes between states according to international law, has not contributed to the mission of establishing peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

The ICJ does  in some particular situations [appear] to support justice, Thomas-Greenfield said, but not in this particular case.

China, Russia Subvert UN Charter



Among the many interrelated problems facing the U.N. is the issue of the organizations apparent inability to adequately address human rights abuses, according to the ambassador.

To that end, she said some member nations on the U.N. Human Rights Council are among the worlds worst human rights abusers, who frequently use the body to block actions against themselves while weaponizing it against the United States.

Countries who are human rights violators want to get on the council so they can block the actions of the council, Thomas-Greenfield said.

Clearly, the council is flawed.

Among many human rights offenders, the Human Rights Council currently includes Chinas communist regime, which the United States formally recognizes as being engaged in genocide against predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities.

Likewise, Chinas placement on the U.N.s permanent five-member Security Council effectively renders the body incapable of pursuing justice on a number of issues, the ambassador said.

Still, Thomas-Greenfield said its important for the United States to maintain its presence in the U.N. to prevent the total subversion of the organization against the United States and its allies and partners.

We are engaged in a strategic competition, especially with China, to ensure that the values of freedom, democracy, and human rights prevail, she said.

Without our leadership, China, Russia, and others hope to shape the United Nations and, indeed, the world, in their authoritarian image.

As such, the ambassador suggested that the United States seek to add additional permanent members, including India and Japan, to the Security Council.

US Tax Dollars Used Against US Interests



Subcommittee Chair Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) expressed concern about the activities of the U.N. and its many failures, given that the United States is the organizations largest contributor, providing the body with more than $12 billion annually.

This significant investment from the American taxpayer is not exempt and should not be exempt from the expectation that we see that U.S. interests are being advanced, he said.

The American people want to see a United Nations that supports, not undermines, our security. And that our allies and partners also are not attacked or undermined by this institution.

Unfortunately the U.N. too often seriously fails there.

Diaz-Balart condemned what he referred to as the U.N.s institutionalized anti-Israel bias and said the Security Council was paralyzed by Russia and China, which continue to engage in flagrant violations of the U.N. Charter.

He also questioned whether the Biden administration has the political will to assert itself at the U.N. and to more broadly champion American and democratic interests.

This administration justified rejoining and reengaging in the [Human Rights] Council by promising that the United States would bring change, Diaz-Balart said.

The question before us is whether this administration has the political will to leverage our contributions and position to advance our interests and reform the U.N. to be more effective in achieving peace and securitya central tenant of the U.N. Charter.

The U.N. secretary-generals office didnt respond by press time to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.
US Failed in Pandemic Response, Experts Tell Congress

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, professor of medicine at Stanford University and one of the co-authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, in Hartford, Conn., on Feb. 17, 2023. (Tal Atzmon/The Epoch Times)

The United States made multiple mistakes in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including widespread lockdowns and the aggressive promotion of faulty vaccines, experts testified to a new congressional panel on Feb. 28.

During the last three years, we have seen the worst public health mistakes in history, Martin Kulldorff, a professor of medicine on leave from Harvard University, told the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic in Washington.

The mistakes included not crafting policies focused on protecting those highest at riskthe elderly and otherwise infirmand the denial and downplaying of post-infection immunity, Kulldorff said.

He and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a professor of medicine at Stanford University, are two of three authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, which called in 2020 for focused protection of those at high risk while allowing others to live their lives normally.

Instead, U.S. officials backed harsh restrictions like the forced closure of schools and businesses, as well as the mandated vaccination of tens of millions of Americans.

Bhattacharya told the panel that there needs to be an honest, scientifically-minded evaluation of the pandemic response, asserting that there is near universal agreement that what we did failed.

He pointed to how more than one million deaths in the United States have been attributed to COVID-19 and how the overwhelming majority of Americans still contracted the illness.

The lockdowns failed to contain the spread of COVID, he said. At best, they temporarily protected the laptop class who could work from home without losing their jobs, perhaps 30 percent of the population, while being served by the working class.

The way we dealt with the pandemic was the worst assault on poor people, working Americans, and middle-class Americans since segregation and the Vietnam War, Kulldorff said.

Dr. Marty Makary, professor of surgery at Johns Hopkins University, said making toddlers wear masks, pushing for healthy, young people to get boosters, and telling people to wash their hands like crazy were among the issues he sees as having unfolded.

The trio was called as witnesses by Republicans, who control the House and chair each panel.

Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), a doctor who chairs the subcommittee, said in opening remarks that the panel is going to investigate the pandemic response.

Decisions like sending COVID-19 patients into nursing homes, vaccine mandates, and shutting down schools will be investigated thoroughly, he said, adding, The American people deserve to know and understand how and why these impactful decisions were made.

Democrats called Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, as their witness.

Benjamin asserted that lockdowns saved lives. He said that focusing on protecting the elderly would have put more people at risk.

The others noted that the lockdowns led to delayed medical appointments, a rise in suicides, and other negative effects.

We were thinking short term instead of long term. Yes, you can do lockdowns and reduce short-term infections of COVID. But that has long-term consequences, Kulldorff said.

He noted that Sweden, which largely adopted the strategy outlined in the declaration, ended up faring well, with fewer excess deaths than many other countries.

Denial of Natural Immunity

Data on the strength of post-infection immunity, or natural immunity, emerged shortly after the pandemic started; but that didnt stop the federal government, universities, and other entities from requiring the naturally immune to get vaccinated.

The experts lamented the widespread denial and downplaying of natural immunity, including how U.S. officials repeatedly declined to alter guidance to specify that the naturally immune should receive no or fewer vaccine doses.

Makary noted how Dr. Anthony Fauci and other top officials gathered in secret to hold a vote on whether natural immunity should count as one or more doses, and after a twotwo vote, opted to continue as they were.

The lack of recognition of natural immunity eroded trust in public health, said Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa), a doctor.

Kulldorff said that forcing children to get the COVID-19 vaccine has undermined trust in other shots like the measles vaccine.

During the last several decades, the never vaccinate people, the anti-vaccine people have tried to undermine the trust in vaccines but with very little success, he said. But the vaccine fanatics who want to vaccinate every person in this countryeven though they have very little risk  even though theyve already had COVIDthat has undermined the trust in other vaccines enormously, creating enormous vaccine hesitancy.

Adding the COVID-19 vaccine to the routine vaccination schedule was another mistake, Bhattacharya said.

Putting the vaccine on the childhood schedule, this vaccine where theres deep distrust, essentially sends a signal to the American public that these [vaccines] are equivalent to the polio vaccine, the measles vaccine, the DPT vaccine, all of which are absolutely essential for the health of children, he said. If putting this on the childhood schedule decreases the uptake of those, then well look back on this as a seminal mistake in American public health.
US Homeland at Risk in CCP Taiwan Invasion: Army Secretary

U.S. Army Secretary Christine Wormuth (L) and Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville testify during a Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill on May 10, 2022. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

A Chinese invasion of Taiwan could result in attacks on the continental United States, according to the U.S. Armys civilian leadership.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which rules China as a single-party state, would likely threaten the U.S. mainland during a conflict for Taiwan, according to Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth.

If we got into a war with China, the [United States] would be at risk as well, with both kinetic attacks and non-kinetic attacks, Wormuth said during a Feb. 27 discussion with the American Enterprise Institute.

They are going to go after the will of the United States public. Theyre going to try to erode its support for a conflict.

In the event of such a catastrophic conflict, its likely that the CCP would conduct large-scale cyber and kinetic attacks on vital U.S. infrastructure, including the power grid and natural gas pipelines, Wormuth said.

Taiwan Invasion Could Ignite Protracted Conflict



The CCP falsely claims that Taiwan is a breakaway province that must be united with the regime by any means, including conquest.

However, Taiwan has never been controlled by the CCP and has its own democratically elected government and a thriving market economy.

U.S. military leadership believes that the CCP is preparing for a full-scale amphibious invasion of the island, with various military officials predicting that fighting could break out in either 2025 or 2027.

With that in mind, Wormuth said such a conflict would likely become a protracted war, drawing in numerous powers across the globe.

There is definitely the possibility of a protracted conflict, she said.

Certainly, we spend a lot of time in the Department thinking about the invasion scenario because its the most stressing, its the most demanding.

To that end, Wormuth said the U.S. Army had two key priorities: Helping Taiwan become a porcupine by arming it with asymmetric strike capabilities and complicating Chinas decision-making by ensuring that the United States would have multiple regional partners engaged in the fight.

Showing that we have a strong network of allies and partners in the region is really critical, and one of the ways that we do that is with our security force assistance brigades, she said.

Security force assistance brigades are specialized military units that enable allied operations with partner nations, and its through them that she said the United States can best prepare its allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific to deter the CCP from a full-scale invasion.

The U.S. goal is first and foremost to deter the regime from assuming open hostilities in the region, according to Wormuth.

Our goal is to avoid fighting a land war in Asia, she said. This is all about deterrence. We want to lower the temperature in the relationship with China.
US, South Korea Agree to Bolster Extended Deterrence Amid North Korean Threats

The South Korean and American flags fly next to each other at Yongin, South Korea, on Aug. 23, 2016. (Courtesy of Ken Scar/U.S. Army/Handout via Reuters)

The United States and South Korea have agreed on the need to further strengthen U.S. extended deterrence to counter North Koreas growing nuclear threats, a U.S. defense official said on Tuesday.

Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said delegates from both nations discussed various approaches on the alliance deterrence posture following their tabletop exercise in Washington last week.

Both sides concurred on the need to continue to strengthen extended deterrence, including through robust consultative mechanisms and crisis communications, as well as information sharing and joint planning and execution, he told reporters.

Ryder reiterated U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austins pledge to deploy more strategic assets to South Korea in support of their extended deterrence, but he did not go into further detail.

South Korean Ambassador to the United States Cho Tae-yong said the two allies made practical progress in strengthening the implementation of their extended deterrence during the tabletop exercise last week.

Cho hinted a second tabletop exercise will take place in the very near future, adding that the United States and South Korea remain open to a dialogue with North Korea on the regions denuclearization.

The government will continue its unwavering efforts to create and environment where North Korea has no choice but to return to dialogue, he told reporters on Monday, according to Yonhap News Agency.

North Korea launched four strategic cruise missiles on Feb. 23 in retaliation for the U.S.South Korea tabletop exercise in Washington, which focused on deterring North Koreas nuclear threats.

Trilateral Cooperation More Important Than Ever

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said on Wednesday that trilateral cooperation with the United States and Japan has become more important than ever to counter North Koreas growing nuclear threats.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol speaks during a ceremony marking Korean Memorial Day at the Seoul National cemetery on June 6, 2022. (Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

In his address honoring the countrys March 1 independence movement against Japans 19101945 rule of Korea, Yoon described Japan as a partner with whom South Korea shares common values.

Now, a century after the March 1 independence movement, Japan has transformed from a militarist aggressor of the past into a partner that shares the same universal values with us, he said. Today, [South Korea] and Japan cooperate on issues of security and economy.

The trilateral cooperation among the Republic of Korea, the United States, and Japan has become more important than ever to overcome the security crises, including North Koreas growing nuclear threats and the global polycrisis, Yoon added, using South Koreas official name.

North Koreas official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows the launching of the Hwasong-15 missile on Nov. 29, 2017. (KCNA via KNS/AFP/Getty Images)

On Feb. 19, the United States staged joint air drills with South Korea and Japan after North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile, which landed outside Japans exclusive economic zone.

North Korea has long condemned U.S. joint drills on the Korean Peninsula as rehearsals for an invasion and warned that increased presence of U.S. strategic assets on the region will push the security situation to an extreme red line.

No Hostile Intent

South Korea and the United States have called on North Korea to denuclearize and return to diplomacy, a request the North has ignored over what it calls hostilities from the United States and its allies.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price reiterated on Monday that the United States holds no hostile intent toward North Korea.

Price said that Washington has offered to engage in direct talks with North Korea without preconditions for over a year, but North Korea rejected the U.S. diplomatic overtures and only responded with provocations.

It is the DPRK that, time and again, at an unprecedented rate, has engaged in provocations, including multiple tests of ICBM systems, other ballistic missiles, and other provocative activities that have posed a threat to peace and security in the IndoPacific and, in some ways, even well beyond, Price said, using the acronym of North Koreas official name, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea.

Even as we have pointed out the threat that we and our partners in the region face from these programs and these dangerous provocations, we have made clear that we have no hostile intent towards the DPRK, he added.
Virginia Legislature Adopts New Definition of Antisemitism

Republicans and Democrats in the Virginia Legislature voted on Feb. 23 to pass House Bill 1606, which adopts the definition of antisemitism first proposed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) in 2016.

As the chief patron of HB 1606, I am proud and honored by the overwhelming bipartisan support from the Virginia General Assembly, which represents a strong step forward in eliminating antisemitic hate and discrimination in Virginia and nationwide, said Republican Del. Anne Ferrell Tata in a press statement. Today, Virginia sent a firm message that intolerance will not stand in the Commonwealth.

The IHRAs working definition of antisemitism reads: Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.

Tata called the definition a tool and a guide for training, educating, recognizing, and combating antisemitism, which will help law enforcement stop the escalation of these types of incidences.

Vicki Fishman from the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington (JCRC) spoke in favor of the bill and urged lawmakers to vote for it.

We represent the vast mainstream of our local Jewish community with a population of more than 150,000 people.  I am here today to tell you that there is a broad Jewish community consensus around the IHRA definition, Fishman said.

The Virginia Coalition for Human Rights (VCHR), which advocates for the rights of Palestinian people, opposed the measure, saying it would prevent critics of Israel from exercising their First Amendment rights to criticize the government for its treatment of Palestinians.

While opposing antisemitism, I believe I should have the right to speak out on actions of the Israeli government and their policies. I am not speaking negatively about Jewish people, said Patti Brockmeyer, a VCHR member.

This bill is an un-American attempt to equate criticism of a brutal foreign occupying power with bigotry, said Katherine Akbar, a former U.S. Foreign Service officer who said she has lived under Israeli occupation.

Democrat House Delegates Charniele Herring and Don Scott said they could not support the bill because there was too much opposition from Virginians.

Im torn, Herring said. I fully support efforts to reduce and eliminate antisemitism, and I also have heard an alarming large number of constituents and experts saying that this is not the way to do it.

In response, Democrat Del. Eileen Filler-Corn responded by saying that the public needs to be educated on how pervasive antisemitism is.

Men pass a boarded-up kosher grocery store, in Jersey City, N.J., on Dec. 13, 2019, where three people and two gunmen were killed days earlier. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio called the incident a premeditated antisemitic hate crime. (Mark Lennihan/AP Photo)

Its a serious, serious problem. Its getting worse, throughout the Commonwealth and throughout our nation. Its real, and its here, said Filler-Corn.

Unfortunately, the IHRA definition has been misinterpreted by some folks, as we have heard. Let me be very clear as we heard from some of our witnesses. This IHRA definition does not in any way prevent anyone from speaking out or criticizing the state of Israel, said Filler-Corn.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin praised the passing of the bill, adding that its a key step to combating antisemitism and hate.

I am truly inspired by the devotion shown to transform what started as an idea into a law that will change how we combat antisemitism in the commonwealth, said Youngkin.

The adoption of the IHRA definition was originally put forth by Virginias Commission to Combat Antisemitism, which released a report to Youngkin in December detailing the state of antisemitism in Virginia (pdf). The panel recommended that Virginia formally adopt the IHRA working definition of antisemitism.

In early February, Attorney General Jason Miyares announced the creation of an Antisemitism Task Force to monitor, combat, and educate Virginians about hate against Jewish people.
AUBURN  Eight Auburn Enlarged City School District positions that have been paid for through federal money are set to be covered by the general fund next year.

Lisa Green, Auburn's business official, spoke to the district's board of education about the program component of the upcoming school's budget at a meeting at the Auburn High School Library Tuesday night. The slides in Green's presentation said seven teacher jobs and one teaching assistant spot are being moved from federal COVID-19 money to the district's general fund for the 2023-24 school year.

After the meeting, Green expressed positivity about the district planning to cover those jobs.

"It's great, we'll make them sustainable, hopefully," she said.

Green said Auburn is slated to be able to pay for those eight jobs next school year due to the state's work to fully fund its foundation aid formula. Foundation aid is the most basic form of aid schools receive from New York state. The 2023-24 year is set to be the last school year of a three-year effort to bring funding up to the level intended in the state formula for determining how much districts receive.

Green previously said the district hopes to utilize money from the three-year foundation aid effort to keep different positions originally brought on through federal COVID-19 funding and fold those jobs into the general budget by the 2024-25 school year, which is when that money is set to run out.

The slides for Tuesday's presentation said the number of proposed full-time instructional positions for next year is 336, not counting grant-funded or special education jobs. That number also does not include non-instructional jobs such as facilities staff or information technology staff. The total number of full-time staff members currently proposed for 2023-24 is 617, Green said before the meeting. Auburn also plans on supporting 55 instructional/clerical jobs through federal funding for the next school year, coming to a total of 391 full-time instructional spots.

Salaries for instructional positions are poised to be a major year-to-year cost driver for 2023-24. The proposed budget would include an approximate $1.8 million boost for these salaries, from $23,883,087 for the 2022-23 budget to $25,613,069 for the proposed 2023-24 budget.

Another big cost hike in the proposed budget is student services, from $9,062,729 for the current year to $10,503,410, with an approximate $1.3 million year-to-year jump from the 2022-23 year to the next school year's proposed numbers. Green said before the meeting some of that increase stems from contractual salary increases, but most of it is due to the district hiring more teacher aides as a part of special education services for different students.

The proposed budget also includes a decrease under contractual detail for curriculum and supervision, the slides said, with a drop from $349,480 for the 2022-23 budget to $326,839 under the proposed 2023-24 budget. This is largely due to a $25,000 year-to-year decrease in miscellaneous costs, from $69,500 for the 2022-23 year to a proposed total of $44,500 for the 2023-24 year.

Green said during the presentation the miscellaneous funds include instrument repairs and "this is where we fund the (diversity, equity and inclusion) consultant" that works with Dr. Renee Burgess, the district's DEI director, Bill Berry is the DEI consultant, with less of a consultant need anticipated next year.

"You'll see a decrease in that next year. We anticipate that we won't be spending as much on consulting services because, again, this year, the (state-obligated) DEI plan should be completed," Green said.
Finn found dead, his throat cut

CHON BURI: A 58-year-old Finnish man was found dead on his bed with his throat cut and a knife on his chest at his home in Sattahip district on Tuesday morning (Feb 28).

deathcrimepolice

By Bangkok Post

Wednesday 1 March 2023, 09:09AM

A police officer examines the house where the Finnish man was found dead with his throat cut in Sattahip district, Chon Buri, on Tuesday morning (Feb 28). Photo: Chaiyot Pupattanapong / Bangkok Post

Police were questioning his Thai wife, who said she found him dead after taking a young relative to school, reports the Bangkok Post.

The couple lived in a single-storey detached house in Moo 9 village of tambon Bang Saray.

Local police were informed of the death about 8:30am. They found the dead man lying on a bed, wearing only a pair of underpants.

His neck was cut through, severing the windpipe. A kitchen knife was lying on his chest. His 49-year-old Thai wife was sitting in the room, crying.

She said they had lived together for about five years but had not registered their marriage.

Her husband had returned to Finland and stayed there for about two years. He arrived back in Thailand about nine months ago and bought the house.

On Tuesday the man woke up at about 6am. She prepared a meal and coffee for him and left to take her young relative to school.

When she returned home, the house was quiet. She then saw blood in the room and found her husbands dead body, his throat cut and a knife on his chest.

She said the man had taked about committing suicide several times, because of domestic problems in Finland.

The mans body was taken to Police General Hospital in Bangkok for autopsy.

Police were questioning the woman further about the mans death. Neighbours told police the couple often argued.
Govt looks to cruise ships to lift tourism

BANGKOK: The government is looking to cruise ships to lift the tourism sectors recovery, which will also be boosted by cooperation with Netflix in launching a creative travel guide to locations featured in movies, a spokesman said on Tuesday (Feb 28).

tourismeconomics

By Bangkok Post

Wednesday 1 March 2023, 09:25AM

The Queen Mary 2, with more than 2,200 passengers and 1,200 crew, docked at Laem Chabang Port in Si Racha, Chon Buri, on Feb 1. Photo: Pongpat Wongyala / Bangkok Post

Anucha Burapachaisri, deputy secretary-general to the prime minister, said cruises were among the most popular forms of tourism, and the global market was growing exponentially, reports the Bangkok Post.

During the October to March high season, cruise ships carrying an average 1,800-2,400 passengers made one-day stops in Thailand, Mr Anucha said, citing data from the tourism ministry.

These were high-value tourists, spending four to 10 times what other visitors spent, with a preference for boat tours, Thai food, spas, cultural shows and buying souvenirs. Thailand had upgraded ports to accommodate cruise liners, resulting in a rise in the number of ships visiting here, the spokesman said.

The government was confident that cruise ships would increase tourism revenue. In 2019, before the pandemic, revenue from cruise ships was B4.84 billion.

The government was also looking to encourage new forms of tourism. State agencies recently joined hands with Netflix to launch Uncover Thailand: A Creative Travel Guide.

The guide would spotlight locations featured in popular films and shows from Thailand and beyond on Netflix, Mr Anucha said, and promote Thai culture. He expected this would draw more tourists, particularly movie fans.

He said the prime minister was keen to promote new forms of tourism and Thailands soft power.

This will have economic and social value and provide opportunities for new businesses, Mr Anucha said.
Kongsak installed as new Phuket Chamber of Commerce President

PHUKET: Kongsak Koophongsakorn has been installed as President of the Phuket Chamber of Commerce at the chambers annual general meeting.

economicstourism

By The Phuket News

Wednesday 1 March 2023, 11:27AM

Mr Kongsak was formally elected and installed as the new president at the event held yesterday (Feb 28) at the Royal Phuket City Hotel in Phuket Town.

The event also saw a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between the Chamber of Commerce members involved in launching the Phuket Privilege Card and the Phuket pvovincial government.

The Phuket Privilege Card is to provide a one stop service for business operators looking to invest in the province.

Acting as signatory on behalf of the provincial government was Phuket Vice Governor Amnuay Pinsuwan, who highlighted how the launch of the card was in line with the provincial policy of public-private collaboration in providing a One Stop Service Center to facilitate business investment in the province.

Ten private sector organisations, including the Phuket branch of the Federation of Thai Industries; the Thai Hotel Association Southern chapter, of which Mr Kongsak was formerly the president; the Phuket Tourist Association and the Phuket Real Estate Business Association, were all signatories as witnesses to the signing.

Outgoing president Thanusak Phungdet welcomed Mr Kongsak to his new role, and listed the projects that the chamber is currently involved with and supported.

Currently, there is a project of the Damrongdhama Center [provincial ombudsmans office] to bring the Traffy Fondue platform to public use in order to notify local offices of repairs to public facilities needed and to manage the city by providing a service for receiving complaints, through which advice can be given and to provide information to the public conveniently and quickly, Mr Thanusak said.

This is in line with the work of the private sector that has designed a one-stop service center for the private sector for foreign investors to be able to contact and receive advice with accurate information and facilitating business operations in Phuket for the sustainable growth of indutries in Phuket, he added.

This is in accordance with the policy of the Chamber of Commerce, which wants to promote and support private businessmen, he said.

We want to build an alliance with investors and encourage more investment in the area, Mr Thanusak noted.

All of this can be linked to the future. If Phuket hosts the Expo 2028 Phuket Thailand with the highlight of Phuket being known around the world as a world-class tourist destination, there will be more than 4.9 million people attending the event. For that, we need to prepare to facilitate hosting the event, Mr Thanusak noted..

Hosting the event will generate more than B49 billion in money flowing into Phuket and the Andaman provinces, further reinforcing Phuket as a sustainable international tourism destination, he concluded.
Red card system launched for bad foreigners in Phuket

PHUKET: Phuket Immigration has launched a red card system that will see foreigners found guilty of two offences deported from the country.

immigrationtourismcrime

By The Phuket News

Wednesday 1 March 2023, 05:43PM

Pol Maj Gen Praphansak Prasansuk, Commander of the Immigration Region 6 office, which oversees Immigration affairs in Phuket, announced the new system at a press conference today (Mar 1).

Under the system, a foreigner will be designated a yellow card for a first offence. The foreigner will be issued a formal warning and the relevant embassy will be notified, Maj Gen Praphansak said.

After the foreigner completed the current stay and left the country, the foreigner will be denied permission to stay in Thailand for the next visit on the basis that the foreigner had conducted an unlawful act that caused trouble and behaved [in a way] that is a threat to society.

If a foreigner is found guilty of a second offence during the same period of stay, the foreigner will have the permit to stay in Thailand revoked and will be sent back to their home country, Maj Gen Praphansak said.

However, critical to the policy announced today, Maj Gen Praphansak did not define exactly what level of or type of crime or unlawful act would be considered for a first or second offence.

Of note, the types of offences mentioned at the press conference focussed on traffic violations such as not wearing a helmet while riding a motorbike, not having the correct drivers licence and dangerous driving.

Meanwhile, the press conference today proudly announced the arrests of foreigners caught breaking the law under the Phuket Crime - Free campaign.

Present for the event were a host of high ranking officials from local government offices, including from the local transport, labour and even education offices. Phuket Vice Governor Anupap Rodkwan Yodrambam was present as the leading provincial administration figure.

Phuket Provincial Police Commander Maj Gen Sermphan Sirikongwas also present, but oddly not even named as present by an official report of the event.

USUAL ARRESTS

The press conference today focussed on highlighting what action police had taken against foreigners, assuring that the arrest of such foreigners was of paramount importance to the safety of people on the island and for the preservation of Phuket as a world-class tourism destination.

While scant on details, it was confirmed that a foreign man had been arrested on an Interpol red notice as he was wanted by the French authorities.

Also touted was the arrests of two Russian suspects for a robbery involving cryptocurrency, and the arrest of French nationals for reckless driving, driving without a helmet and driving without the correct drivers licence needed for operating a vehicle in Thailand.

The latter group of arrests, described as involving foreign tourists joining groups of motorcycles in Patong, was branded as causing annoyance and behaviour that is a threat to society.

Phuket Immigration, Patong Police and Phuket Tourist Police had arrested French foreigners involved in the above, and they had arrested a foreigner for stealing a Thai job.

Tracking down and arresting a gang of Mongolians stealing from tourists in Patong, namely by pickpocketing, was also worthy of mention at the high-powered press conference today. Apparently the landlord of where the Mongolians were staying was issued a formal warning, admonishing him to strictly comply with the law, but which law the landlord had broken was not explained.

Officials at the event also promoted the Traffy Fondue app as a means of filing complaints to authorities, which has become a standard entry into nearly every local government report involving officials.

It was explained that of the three complaints relevant to the Phuket Immigration Office, Patong Police and Phuket Tourist Police, two had been resolved while the third was still under investigation.

Phuket Immigration Chief Pol Col Thanet Sukchai called on all people to report illegal activities perpetrated by foreigners.

The Phuket Provincial Immigration Office has set a standard for conducting screening inspections and the suppression and arrest of foreigners who commit crimes in various fields, including monitoring persons with arrest warrants, he said.

If anyone sees or knows of wrongdoing [by foreigners], please report it to the Phuket Immigration Office, he added.

While focussing on catching bad farang on the island, police at the press conference today made no mention of any ethical action taken against any of its own officers for engaging in criminal activity, including an officer from the Chalong Police attempting to extort B5,000 from a foreign tourist for illegally riding a motorbike through the Chalong Underpass.

DRIVE THRU

Col Thanet yesterday led a ceremony to declare the new drive-through window at the main Phuket Immigration Office in Phuket Town officially open.

The window has been moved to the back of the building, which allows the queue of vehicles waiting to be served to be longer before it affects traffic on the street.

The window remains on the left-side of the vehicles, meaning that any persons using the drive-through must still slide across and reach out of the passenger window to pass their passport and other important documents to the officer serving them.

Additional reporting by Eakkapop Thongtub
ALBANY  The new leader of the State University of New York told lawmakers "modest" tuition increases proposed by Gov. Kathy Hochul will eventually help the 64 campuses in the system to attract more students following years of enrollment declines.

"Even with the tuition increase that the governor has proposed, our SUNY campuses will be dramatically more affordable than campuses in neighboring states," Chancellor John King Jr. said at a legislative hearing Monday on Hochul's budget for higher education.

Hochul's proposed budget envisions tuition increases of 3% at SUNY and City University campuses. The two systems, though led by separate bureaucracies, are both funded by the state government. Several downstate lawmakers have been complaining the Hochul spending plan shortchanges CUNY, noting SUNY has traditionally received 60% of the state support for public colleges with CUNY getting 40%.

While King avoided wading into the argument of whether Hochul's plan maintains that balance, he did suggest the tuition hikes proposed for SUNY would not be felt by the system's most economically disadvantaged students.

With financial aid from the Tuition Assistance Program, state Excelsior scholarships and Pell Grant aid, 53% of SUNY students are paying no tuition now, King noted.

But some lawmakers challenged the rationale for any boost in tuition following several years of enrollment declines at both SUNY and CUNY. SUNY alone has shed 20% of its enrollment over the past dozen years.

Former Education Secretary King named SUNY chancellor Former U.S. Education Secretary John King Jr. has been appointed chancellor of the State University of New York, the nation's largest universi

"A tuition increase is a tax increase by another name," Sen. Andrew Gounardes, D-Brooklyn, told King and CUNY Chancellor Felix V. Matos Rodriguez.

Also taking aim at the tuition increase was Assemblywoman Phara Souffrant Forrest, D-Brooklyn, a graduate of SUNY Geneseo. She said a typical student who pays $50,000 for four years of education at the Geneseo campus will graduate with $30,000 in debt. "We expect our students to make investments, of course," Forrest said. "But how can we put all the burden on them? How does that make sense?"

King said the SUNY system is committed to affordability. "At the same time we have to make sure we have the resources to be competitive, to invest in faculty, to provide services to students like mental health, and that's what the governor was aiming for with the very modest tuition increase," the chancellor added.

He suggested the tuition increase would add up to about $200 per year per student. Meanwhile, the annual cost of a SUNY education would remain about $3,000 less than the price charged by "peer" institutions in other states, King said.

Campus administrations, he said, need to have "a reliable, predictable set of expectations around revenue.

King, who had served as U.S. Secretary of Education under former President Barack Obama, was hired for the $750,000-a-year SUNY post last year by the SUNY trustees following his unsuccessful campaign for governor of Maryland, the state where he remains a resident. CNHI reported in December that Merryl Tisch, chairwoman of the SUNY board, had donated $6,000 to his campaign. The trustees had hired a consulting firm to assist in what they said was a national search for a new chancellor.

SUNY pegged its total enrollment last fall at 363,612 students, including a graduate student enrollment of 44,601 and 159,333 students at community colleges.

Enrollment challenges could become magnified if state leaders impose austerity measures on SUNY, such as cuts in programs or tuition hikes, faculty union leaders argued.

Andrew Sako, president of the Faculty Federation of Erie County Community College, said state financial support for campuses should not be hinged to enrollment statistics.

"I think that's killing us and we're dying on the vine," Sako told lawmakers.

Another union official, James McCartney, representing the State University Police Officers, Investigators and Lieutenants Benevolent Association, urged legislators to again approve legislation that would provide union members with a 20-year retirement benefit, mirroring the pension eligibility threshold that most other police officers receive in New York.

McCartney pointed out that a gunman went on a shooting rampage at Michigan State University last week, killing three students and wounding numerous individuals.

"Sadly, like society as a whole, our state higher education institutions experience violence and firearms related crimes on and near our campuses," he said.

The bill Hochul has twice vetoed would make university, environmental and park police eligible for pensions after 20 years of service.

Lawmakers are expected to propose amendments to the governor's fiscal blueprint as part of the negotiations for a new state spending plan
Saint-Laurent, CA (H4T1V6)

Today

Mainly sunny. High 77F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Clear skies this evening. A few showers developing late. Low 56F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%.
Brian Scanlan, a retired Auburn firefighter, is looking to continue his career in public service by running for a countywide office.

Scanlan has been endorsed by the Cayuga County Democratic Committee to run for county clerk. He is aiming to succeed Sue Dwyer, a Republican, who has served nearly 20 years as county clerk. Dwyer announced in December that she will not seek another term this year.

A lifelong county resident, Scanlan was an Auburn firefighter for nearly 25 years. In that role, he was the fire department's representative on several local committees and served on a county emergency communications panel during the installation of the new radio system.

Scanlan praised Dwyer and her staff for providing "services with integrity" to Cayuga County residents.

"I have an earnest desire to continue and build upon that," he said.

Dia Carabajal, chair of the Cayuga County Democratic Committee, thinks Scanlan would be a great county clerk.

"He brings his lifelong of public service to the table," she said. "I feel he's going to be a very strong candidate."

With Scanlan's candidacy, there will likely be a contested race for county clerk for the first time in 20 years. Dwyer ran unopposed in the 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019 elections. When she was first elected in 2003, she defeated Democratic candidate Bob Hunter and Conservative Sam DeRosa.

After Dwyer announced her retirement, Legislator Chris Petrus, a Republican, said he will run for county clerk this year. No other candidates have publicly announced whether they are running for clerk.

The first step for the candidates is to circulate petitions to qualify for the ballot. The petitioning period began Tuesday and will continue through March. Petitions must be filed in early April.
Have an interesting bit of news youd like to see mentioned in the Along the Way column? Email it to Natasha Connolly at news@thesunchronicle.com.
State police said they have found the Auburn woman who had been reported missing earlier on Wednesday.

EARLIER WE REPORTED

The New York State Police is asking for the public's assistance in locating a missing Auburn woman.

State police told The Citizen Wednesday that troopers are trying to find Shantel Coyle, 32, who is thought to be in Auburn or in surrounding areas. She was last seen Friday, Feb. 24, when she was brought to Auburn Community Hospital for an undisclosed reason, refused treatment and left around around 6 p.m, police said.

Coyle is about 5-feet-2-inches tall, weighs approximately 107 pounds and has blonde hair and brown eyes. Anyone who may have seen her or may have information on her whereabouts is asked to contact the Auburn station of the state police at (315) 255-2766.
Beijing (Gasgoo)- Shenlan, the new energy vehicle brand under Chinas major legacy automaker Changan Automobile, announced today it delivered 4,103 units of its only production model on the market, the SL03, in February 2023.



Photo credit: Shenlan

In comparison, monthly deliveries of the SL03 amounted to 6,137 units in January this year. By the end of last month, Shenlan has cumulatively delivered 37,328 vehicles so far.

As the first new energy vehicle model under the newly founded brand, the SL03, officially went on sale on July 25, 2022. Later, on September 9, the first batch of the SL03s was officially delivered to customers. On October 17, Shenlan celebrated the 10,000th SL03 rolling off the production lines at Changan Automobiles factory in Liangjiang New Area, Chongqing city.

According to the young brand, it plans to introduce to the public its second production model, the S7, soon. The S7 will be an SUV model, which bears the significance of further enriching Shelans product lineup, as the SL03 is a sedan.

Information of the S7 SUV was already disclosed in a catalogue issued by Chinas Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Riding on the EPA1 platform, which is the same platform the SL03 was built on, the S7 will come with a range-extended version and a battery-electric version.
SEAN BERGEL, Wheeler, Baseball, Junior; Bergel struck out eight and allowed only five hits as Wheeler defeated Griswold in its season opener. Bergel walked just one batter and allowed two earned runs.

CAMI BROWN, Stonington, Softball, Junior; Brown finished 11 for 16 in four games for the Bears. Brown doubled four times, tripled twice and drove in nine runs.

CASEY MACERA, Westerly, Girls Lacrosse, Freshman, Macera scored five goals in a Division III win against Rocky Hill. Westerly ended a 15-game losing streak with the victory.

ADAM CARPENTER, Chariho, Baseball, Sophomore; Carpenter pitched a two-hitter in his varsity debut as the Chargers beat East Providence. Carpenter carried a no-hitter into the sixth. He struck out 10 and did not walk a batter.

Vote

View Results




A new poll has shown that former President Donald Trump maintains a significant lead over his Republican rivals, beating Florida Governor Ron DeSantis by 30 points and former South Carolina Governor and Trump UN Ambassador Nikki Haley by a whopping 61 points in a full field. These results come despite DeSantis having soft-launched his presidential campaign and Haley officially announcing hers.

The Emerson College poll reveals that in the 2024 Republican Primary, Trump holds 55% of the vote, which reflects his standing in the January Emerson poll, as well as the June 2022 Emerson poll. Meanwhile, 25% of Republican primary voters support DeSantis for the GOP nomination, a four-point decrease since last month when he held 29% support. Former Vice President Mike Pence holds 8%, and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley holds 5%. Both Pence and Haley have increased their support by two percentage points since last month.

However, in a field that only includes officially-declared candidates, Trump crushes Haley by an even greater margin of 61 points. On a ballot of exclusively individuals who have announced their candidacy, 79% of respondents would support Donald Trump, 18% Nikki Haley, and 4% Vivek Ramaswamy.

Despite a mid-January poll showing DeSantis beating Trump head-to-head while losing in a wider field, recent head-to-head polls reveal that Trump holds double-digit leads over DeSantis. Of those who support DeSantis on the preliminary ballot, 62% support Trump on the declared ballot, and 29% support Haley.

Only a few months ago, many analysts were writing political obituaries for Trump in the wake of a chaotic Speaker of the House election and post-midterm soul-searching. However, recent polls show that Trump remains a dominant force in the Republican Party and stands to steamroll the Republican field.

(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)




In a stunning revelation, FBI Director Christopher Wray has publicly stated that the COVID-19 pandemic was most likely caused by a lab leak in Wuhan, China. Speaking to Fox News in an interview that aired on Tuesday, Wray stated that the FBI has been assessing the origins of the pandemic and the most likely scenario was a potential leak from a Chinese government-controlled lab.

These comments from Wray carry weight as he is one of the highest-ranking officials in the US government responsible for ensuring national security. Wrays assessment of the origins of COVID-19 is significant because it contradicts the narrative put forward by the Chinese government, which has repeatedly denied any involvement in the pandemics origins.

Wrays comments come on the heels of a Department of Energy assessment that also concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic was most likely caused by an accidental lab leak in China. This report was ordered by President Biden and is part of a broader push to investigate the origins of the pandemic.

The theory of a lab leak in Wuhan has been gaining traction in recent months, with increasing evidence pointing to the possibility of a leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a lab in Wuhan that was studying bat coronaviruses. Despite this evidence, the Chinese government has vehemently denied any involvement in the pandemics origins and has been accused of actively obstructing investigations into the matter.

The revelation by Wray and the Department of Energy report are likely to increase pressure on the Chinese government to cooperate fully with investigations into the origins of the pandemic. It is unclear at this time what impact these developments will have on the broader relationship between the US and China, which has been strained in recent years due to a range of issues, including trade and national security concerns.

(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)




By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for 5tjt.com

Feel Free to print out, duplicate and study..

It is Adar, and many are doing their Mishloach Manos shopping this week already.

There are four types of people in the world: Those who prepare their mishloach manos many days before Purim; those who prepare the day before Purim; those who recycle mishloach manos that they have received on Purim itself; and those who do not fulfill the mitzvah at all. This article is written for all four types. In order to make it a more, manageable read  it was felt that the length of the article should be kept to less than 3000 words.

*** IMPORTANT MITZVAH***

Please help an almanah and yesomim relocate.. Donate here

The Mitzvah

The Michtav MEliyahu writes that the best way to form a relationship is to give. When you give, you develop your ahavas Yisrael to that other person, and eventually to others. Mordechai and his beis din enacted that on the day of Purim each person must send a gift of at least two portions of food to a friend. This is seen from the verse in Megillas Esther, Umishloach manos ish lreieihu.

The Two-Blessings Myth

The mitzvah is to send two different foods. The two foods may certainly have the same berachah; there is no requirement the two different food items to have two separate berachos. This is one of the biggest misconceptions in hilchos Purim. There is an issue, however, of taking one food item and cutting it in half into two slices. The Aruch HaShulchan (O.C. 695:14) writes that just because one cut it in half it should be considered two foods? Perhaps it is this statement of the Aruch HaShulchan that has caused the two-blessings myth to exist. If someone sends another two pieces of meat from two different limbs that tastes slightly different, this is considered two foods (Mikraei Kodesh, Siman 38).

Two Different Foods

The parameters of what constitutes two different foods have been delineated by the poskim. Rav Shlomo Miller, shlita, has ruled that one piece of roasted chicken and one piece of boiled chicken are considered two minim, but two different pieces of chicken prepared the same way, such as one top piece and one bottom piece are considered one min, one type of food (See Sefer Shoshanas Yisrael cited by Rabbi Moshe Friedman).

Similarly, a mixed vegetable salad is considered one type of food only, while cut-up vegetables to be mixed into a salad are considered two minim.

A sandwich or hamburger in a bun is one min. This is even if it has two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, pareve cheese, pickles, and onions on a sesame-seed bun. The same would be true with a hotdog in a bun. What about the thousand-dollar Doma sandwich discussed in a previous article? That would be one min.

The Reasons

What is the reason behind the mitzvah of mishloach manos? Two reasons are brought down. The Terumas HaDeshen (Siman 111) writes that it is to ensure that the recipients not run out of food items to serve for their meals.

The Manos HaLevi on Megillas Esther (9:19), written by Rav Shlomo Alkabetz and cited by the Chasam Sofer, writes an altogether different reason: to increase peace and brotherly love. This is the opposite of the characterization of the Jewish people by Haman as a nation that is mefuzar umefurad, spread and standing apart on account of internal arguments.

Preamble And Intentions

Rav Alexander Ziskind of Grodno was one of the only two individuals who ever received an approbation on a sefer from the Vilna Gaon himself. In his sefer, Yesod VShoresh HaAvodah, he includes a preamble that one should recite before fulfilling the mitzvah of mishloach manos. Translated from the Hebrew text, its For the unification of the Name of the Holy One Blessed be He, I am hereby prepared and ready to fulfill the positive mitzvah of the sages of umishloach manos one to the other.

When performing the mitzvah, one should not just perform it perfunctorily, but should focus on the qualities of the recipient and place within his heart a strong love for his fellow man. He should intend to honor him and to strengthen his inner joy with this package manos.

Who Is Obligated?

Men and women are both included in this mitzvah. The halachah is that men send to men, and women send to women. Women are obligated in the mitzvah because, according to the Mishnah Berurah, they, too, were involved in the miracle. A child should be instructed to fulfill the mitzvah just as one instructs a child to fulfill all the other mitzvos. The child may send to another child, as the other child is considered his or her peer.

Even a poor person is required to fulfill the mitzvah of mishloach manos. The mitzvah of mishloach manos may not be fulfilled with money, clothing, or other non-food or non-drink items. The mitzvah may only be fulfilled with kosher items.

How Fancy?

Another little-known halachah about mishloach manos is found in an esoteric Biur Halachah (written by the Chofetz Chaim) in Orach Chaim 695. He writes that the Chayei Adam has proved from a passage in the Talmud Yerushalmi that if one sends a Purim package to a wealthy individual, the package must be a respectable one.

Thus, one should not send something below the kavod of the recipient. The poskim have ruled that a lollipop is not considered chashuv for an adult, nor is a bottle of Poland Spring water or seltzer. To fulfill the mitzvah, the portions must convey sufficient regard for the recipient.

Rav Shlomo Miller, shlita, ruled that one does fulfill the mitzvah with flavored seltzer water, even though regular water and regular seltzer are not sufficient to fulfill the mitzvah.

Wealth Of The Giver And Of The Recipient

Getting back to the respectable package for the wealthy, the Biur Halachah writes that the Ritvas comment on his version of the Talmud Bavli agrees with the Chayei Adam. A careful reading of the Ritva, however, reveals that the Ritva and Chayei Adam are not exactly the same. Both of them require an upgraded Purim package on account of wealth; of that there is no question. However, the Ritvas requirement is of the wealth of the givernot the recipient. According to the Ritva, if the giver is very wealthy, his package must reflect that as well and he cannot fulfill the mitzvah with a meager package. Since the Biur Halachah quotes both the Chayei Adam and the Ritva, both would seem to be authoritative.

Therefore, one should not send something below the kavod of the giver or the recipient.

Nature Of The Package

The mitzvah is fulfilled only with foods that are immediately edible or drinkable. The Magen Avraham, Vilna Gaon, and Chayei Adam hold this way. The Pri Chadash is lenient. We rule in accordance with the former view.

An item that requires further cooking or preparation may be added, but two immediately usable foods must be included, too. It is praiseworthy to send portions to as many friends as possible. It is better, however, to give more matanos laevyonim than to give more mishloach manos to friends.

Through A Messenger

Ideally, mishloach manos should be sent through a messenger, rather than be delivered personally. Generally speaking, we say, Mitzvah bo yoser mibshluchoit is a bigger mitzvah to do it oneself rather than through a messenger. Regarding the search for chametz before Pesach, it is better to do it oneself. Here, though, it is different. The Chasam Sofer writes in his commentary to the Talmud (Gittin 22b), that the pasuk says, and the sending of giftsmishloach manos, which indicates that it should be done through a messenger. A gift sent through a messenger is fancier and nicer. If one did deliver the mishloach manos oneself, the obligation is still fulfilled.

Virtually all the poskim rule that a goy or a child may be a shaliach for mishloach manos. Rabbi Akiva Eiger, ztl, was unsure of this, however.

Sent Together

Must the two foods be sent together? Rav Elyashiv, ztl, is of the position that they must. May one of the foods be a liquid? Most authorities hold that one of the foods may certainly be a liquid (except for water), and this is the authoritative view. There is a reading of Rabbeinu Chananel that holds a liquid may not be one of the two food items. This view is apparently not lhalachah.

*** IMPORTANT MITZVAH***

Please help an almanah and yesomim relocate.. Donate here

Gift Certificates

Does sending money to buy food or sending a gift certificate for a restaurant work? Some Acharonim hold that it does, but many hold it does not. The language of the Rambam (Hilchos Megillah, Chapter 2) seems to indicate that it must be real food and not a gift certificate or money.

Refusal Of Gift

What if a package is prepared and the recipient responds with a No, thank you? Has the sender fulfilled the mitzvah in such a case? According to the Terumas HaDeshen it would seem not; according to the second opinion he very well might. It is interesting to note that the Rema in O.C. 695 writes that one has fulfilled the mitzvah. The Pri Chadash questions this position and does not understand it. Our aforementioned Chasam Sofer answers the dilemma by suggesting that the Rema holds like the Manos HaLevi. Perhaps one can point out, however, that even according to the Manos HaLevi, the full effect of the mishloach manos has not been achieved. Peace and brotherly love is a two-way street, and the giver doesnt necessarily feel so good if his gift is refused. So how can the Rema be understood? It is only if the recipient responds gently, Dont worry about it; you dont need to actually give it to me. Rav Ovadia Yosef, ztl, however, holds that Sephardim should not rely on this Rema and should send the mishloach manos to someone else.

Anonymity

Does the recipient have to know who sent it, or does anonymity work? The Ksav Sofer (responsum O.C. #141) relates the issue to the two reasons mentioned above. He recommends that one be stringent and avoid anonymity. Rav Elyashiv, ztl, ruled that one does not fulfill the mitzvah with anonymity.

Lost Or Stolen

What happens if the mishloach manos that you had sent got lost or stolen? The Birchei Yosef writes that one must send it again.

Through A Child

May one fulfill the mitzvah by sending to a child? The verse in the Megillah uses the term Umishloach manos ish lreieihuand the sending of portions each man to his peer. The Aruch HaShulchan permits it and considers a child a peer. Other poskim disagree with the Aruch HaShulchan. It is, therefore, better to send it to an adult.

To A Mourner

What about sending shalach manos to a mourner? The Rema states that one should not send during the entire 12 months of mourning. This halachah is true for Ashkenazim. Sephardim, however, can receive mishloach manos during mourning. The mourner, however, should send to one person, but should avoid sending items that arouse great joy. One may send to the spouse of a mourner. The Divrei Malkiel (Vol. V) writes that one may send to ones teacher even if he is a mourner because this is considered similar to a payment of an obligation.

The Packaging

Should at least two of the food items be wrapped separately or in two different containers? Some authorities (the Ben Ish Chai) hold that if they are sent together then the container itself may make it as if it is one food. Thus, Raisin Bran would only be considered one food item unless one separated the raisins from the cereal into two plastic baggies. Others (Sheim MShimshon, O.C. #31) write that the container does not make it into one food.

Timing

When should the mishloach manos package be given? It must be given in the daytime and not at night. The mitzvah should also be fulfilled, ideally, before one begins the Purim seudah.

School And Shul Programs

What about the school and shul? Schools and shuls often send out a flyer and request you to participate in their mishloach manos program. While this idea is fantastic in terms of reducing the waste and excess in mishloach manos giving, the givers should be aware that one cannot and does not fulfill the actual mitzvah with this form of giving. Many people are unaware of this fact.

Other Rulings Of Rav Shlomo Miller

Rav Moshe Friedman cites a number of other rulings of Rav Shlomo Miller, shlita.

One still fulfills the mitzvah of mishloach manos if one did not have in mind to fulfill the mitzvah and just gave over the package to the recipient without thinking.

If the recipient of the package was not aware that he or she has received it until after Purim, the sender has still fulfilled the mitzvah.

One may send a package to a non-religious Jew, even though a berachah will not be recited on it. [This author, however, recommends that actual hamotzi products not be sent. See this authors sefer titled Misguiding the Perplexed: The Halachos of Lifnei Iver.]

A groom may be lenient and send mishloach manos to his kallah. It does not violate the halachos of creating a possible pre-marriage.

If a shliach had delivered it before Purim and it was not eaten until Purim, the person has fulfilled the mitzvah. (The author recommends that a note be affixed to the package that states Do not eat before Purim.)

If someone baked a shiur of challah even though she meant to send smaller cakes to a number of individuals, a berachah on taking off challah is recited.

Rav Miller ruled that a sender may tovel a dish with a berachah when he or she sends a food that requires a dish, such as applesauce. However, when sending a candy dish where the candies in it are wrapped, a berachah is not recited on the tevilah.

What to Think About When Preparing Mishloach Manos

There are a remarkable pshatim that one can think about when preparing the Shalach Manos. But first a question. With what power did Haman succeed in getting his agenda passed?

The answer is that he pointed out to Achashveirosh  yeshno am echad mefuzar umeforad bein haamim bechol medinos malchusecha  there is one nation scattered and separated from all the nations in all the states of your realm. He pointed out the division within us. The Chasam Sofer points out that the word yeshno means that we are sleeping  we are thus sleeping in our achdus.

What does mishloach manos do? It points out that we are indeed, One  we have an Achdus, a unity, that no other nation has and this mishloach manos awakens us to it. We are united in our love for each other. This undoes the power of Haman and Amalaik.

There is a fascinating Targum Yonasan that is found in a different megillah that of Megilas Rus. Boaz mentions the fact that Rus both joined up with the Jewish nation (an amazing thing  being that she was a foreign princess) as well as did chessed with her mother-in-law. The fact that they were both mentioned together indicates that they were both on the same level of piety.

Now hold on one second. Imagine if a British princess, Princess Diana or someone like her, were to leave her royalty and join up in Lakewood as kollel wife  availing herself of WIC and HUD. It would be earth-shattering news. And yet it did happen. It happened with Rus. What a remarkable accomplishment!

No Limit to What We Place in a Mitzvah

But from this Targum Yonasan we see an even more remarkable chidush. The chessed she did with her mother-in-law was equal to the first accomplishment! What we see from here is that there is no limit to what we can put into a Mitzvah.

Lets think about what we can, therefore, accomplish with Mishloach Manos. In preparing them, we can counter the power and tumah of the sonai Yisroel  of the Hamans of the world, by showing our achdus.

So lets prepare, bake new, repackage, whatever it is that we do  all with intense kavana. We should have the kavana of achdus.

Geulah Comes From Us

Now just one more pshat. The Nesivus HaMishpat in his sefer on Megilas Esther explains that Purim is different from all the other yomim tovim  in that the geulah did not come on account of zchus avos like on Pesach. Rather, it came from the individual teshuvah of each member of Klal Yisroel. He, therefore, explains that they enacted Mishloach manos as an expression of Hakaras haTov to each other  a manifestation of the gratitude we need to show all of our brethren for bringing about the geulah then. We can also have this idea in mind too. And the sky is the limit in terms of the intensity of the kavanah that we have.

*** IMPORTANT MITZVAH***

Please help an almanah and yesomim relocate.. Donate here

The author can be reached at [email protected]




The death penalty bill for terrorists is being brought for a preliminary vote in the Knesset on Wednesday following the passing of the bill in the Knessets Ministerial Committee on Legislation on Sunday.

The vote on the bill poses a dilemma for Chareidi MKs, who are opposed to the bill due to halachic issues.

According to Hebrew reports on Tuesday, sources in the UTJ party say that the party will refrain from voting for the bill on Wednesday. The Shas party is expected to vote in favor of the law in the preliminary reading to allow it to pass, but will not participate in the final vote.

However, Kikar HShabbat reported that both UTJ and Shas will vote in favor of the bill in a preliminary reading in order to show their support for the fight against terrorism. The bill will then be brought to the Cabinet for further discussion, and the Chareidi MKs will utilize that time to consult with their Gedolim on the issue.

A Shas minister told Kikar: Senior security officials warn that the bill will do more harm than good because even if the court will use the law and sentence the terrorist to death, the terrorist will become a hero in the Arab world by the time the trial is over and it will only lead to further attacks. This law endangers lives and this is the position we will present to the Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah.

The report also quoted an MK from Agudas Yisrael who said: Apart from the security issues, theres also a halachic issue here. The Supreme Court can decide at any time that the law will also apply to Jews. Who are we to advance a law that will lead to imposing the death penalty on Jews? Is the Sanhedrin around?

Chief Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak publicly opposed a death penalty law for terrorists in 2018, citing the same two reasons mentioned above. Firstly, the bill was opposed by Shin Bet officials at the time who expressed concern that it could endanger the lives of Jews around the world who could be kidnapped as bargaining chips for terrorists on death row. Secondly, Harav Yosef expressed concern that the bill could apply to Jewish terrorists  such as Amiram Ben-Uliel, who was indicted for the deaths of three Arabs in Duma  saying that only the Sanhedrin has the power to sentence a Jew to death.

The Yisrael Beiteinu party has announced that it will support the bill.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who proposed the bill, conveyed a message to the Chareidi parties on Tuesday, saying: I assume that everyone in the coalition understands that our strength is in our unity. Voting in favor of a death penalty law for terrorists is not a favor that someone is doing for Otzma Yehudit, but rather the existence of a simple and clear coalition agreement, which promotes one of the most important bills in the history of the country.

(YWN Israel Desk  Jerusalem)




A 20-year-old Arab resident of East Jerusalem rammed his car into a police car near the German Colony neighborhood of Jerusalem early Tuesday afternoon.

BChasdei Hashem, no one was injured in the incident but the vehicle sustained damage. The Arab, who fled the scene, was arrested after a short chase and transferred for questioning.

Meanwhile, IDF forces are continuing the manhunt for the terrorists who carried out the attack in Huwara on Sunday, killing Hillel and Yigal Yaniv, hyd, and the attack in the Jordan Valley on Monday evening, which killed US-Israeli citizen, Elan Ganales, hyd.

Ganaless family members are flying to Israel from Connecticut and his levaya is scheduled to take place in Raanana on Wednesday at 1 p.m. His relatives will return to the US to sit shiva.

(YWN Israel Desk  Jerusalem)
Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Jaguar Land Rover and its China-based joint venture with Chery Automobile, Chery Jaguar Land Rover, jointly announced on March 1 an important personnel appointment.

According to the statement, Mr. Wu Chen will officially assume the position of President of the Integrated Marketing, Sales & Service ("IMSS") from April 1, 2023, reporting directly to the Board of Directors of Chery Jaguar Land Rover (CJLR) and Mr. Pan Qing, who serves as CEO and President of Jaguar Land Rover China, and a member of the Global Board of Management of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR).

Mr. Wu Chen; photo credit: JLR

At his new capacity, Mr. Wu Chen will be fully responsible for promoting and developing all businesses of IMSS, further strengthening China's important position in the five major regions of JLR's global marketing system.

Mr. Richard Shore, the incumbent President of IMSS, will complete his term and there will be a new appointment ready for him. During his terms in China, he played a key role in the achievements of the company.

"Firstly, I would like to express my gratitude for the contributions made by Mr. Richard Shore in China. We welcome Mr. Wu Chen to join IMSS at Jaguar Land Rover. Mr. Wu has accumulated extensive experience in the automotive industry and has made significant achievements in brand building, sales operations, digital business, and new energy development. With his arrival, we believe that it will further assist the sustainable development of Jaguar Land Rover's business in China and play a crucial role in reshaping the future global strategy of Jaguar Land Rover, said Mr. Pan Qing.




Conservative justices holding the Supreme Courts majority pressed skeptical questions Tuesday about President Joe Bidens plan to wipe away or reduce student loans held by millions of Americans.

The high court, with its 6-3 conservative majority, heard arguments on two challenges to the plan, which has so far been blocked by Republican-appointed judges on lower courts.

Arguments were scheduled to last two hours but were likely to go much longer. The public could listen in on the AP youtube channel or on the courts website.

Several conservative justices spent time grilling the Biden administrations top Supreme Court lawyer, Elizabeth Prelogar, and suggested that the administration had exceeded its authority with the program.

Chief Justice John Roberts pointed to the wide impact and expense of the program, which is estimated to cost $400 billion over 30 years.

If youre talking about this in the abstract, I think most casual observers would say if youre going to give up that much  money. If youre going to affect the obligations of that many Americans on a subject thats of great controversy, they would think thats something for Congress to act on, Roberts said.

Roberts fellow conservative, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, suggested that the administration was using an old law to unilaterally implement a debt relief program that Congress had rejected. He said the situation was familiar: In the wake of Congress not authorizing the action, the executive nonetheless doing a massive new program.

That, he said, seems problematic.

Kavanaugh noted that the administration was citing the national emergency created by the coronavirus pandemic as authority for the debt relief program. But he argued that some of the finest moments in the courts history have been pushing back against presidential assertions of emergency power.

The administration says that 26 million people have applied to have up to $20,000 in federal student loans forgiven under the plan.

Im confident the legal authority to carry that plan is there, Biden said on Monday, at an event to mark Black History Month.

The president, who once doubted his own authority to broadly cancel student debt, first announced the program in August. Legal challenges quickly followed.

Republican-led states and lawmakers in Congress, as well as conservative legal interests, are lined up against the plan as a clear violation of Bidens executive authority. Democratic-led states and liberal interest groups are backing the Democratic administration in urging the court to allow the plan to take effect.

Without it, loan defaults would dramatically increase when the pause on loan payments ends no later than this summer, the administration says. Payments were halted in 2020 as part of the response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The administration says a 2003 law, commonly known as the HEROES Act, allows the secretary of education to waive or modify the terms of federal student loans in connection with a national emergency. The law was primarily intended to keep service members from being worse off financially while they fought in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Nebraska and other states that sued say the plan is not necessary to keep the rate of defaults roughly where it was before the pandemic. The 20 million borrowers who have their entire loans erased would get a windfall that will leave them better off than they were before the pandemic, the states say.

Dozens of borrowers came from across the country to camp out near the court on a soggy Monday evening in hopes of getting a seat for the arguments. Among them was Sinyetta Hill, who said that Bidens plan would erase all but about $500 of the $20,000 or so she has in student loans.

I was 18 when I signed up for college. I didnt know it was going to be this big of a burden. No student should have to deal with this. No person should have to deal with this, said Hill, 22, who plans to study law after she graduates from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in May.

Bidens plan could meet a frosty reception in the courtroom. The courts conservatives have been skeptical of other Biden initiatives related to the pandemic, including vaccine requirements and pauses on evictions. Those were billed largely as public health measures intended to slow the spread of COVID-19.

The loan forgiveness plan, by contrast, is aimed at countering the economic effects of the pandemic.

The national emergency is expected to end May 11, but the administration says the economic consequences will persist, despite historically low unemployment and other signs of economic strength.

In addition to the debate over the authority to forgive student debt, the court also will confront whether the states and two individuals whose challenge also is before the justices have the legal right, or standing, to sue.

Parties generally have to show that they would suffer financial harm and benefit from a court ruling in their favor. A federal judge initially found that the states would not be harmed and dismissed their lawsuit before an appellate panel said the case could proceed.

Of the two individuals who sued in Texas, one has student loans that are commercially held and the other is eligible for $10,000 in debt relief, not the $20,000 maximum. They would get nothing if they win their case.

A decision is expected by late June.

(AP)




Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the border with Ukraine tightened Tuesday after several drones attacked inside Russian territory, including one that crashed just 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Moscow in an alarming development for Russian defenses.

The drones caused no injuries but raised questions about the Kremlins security more than a year after Russias full-scale invasion of its neighbor.

Moscow blamed Kyiv for the attacks. Ukrainian officials did not immediately claim responsibility, but they similarly avoided directly acknowledging responsibility for past strikes and sabotage while emphasizing Ukraines right to hit any target in Russia.

Although Putin did not refer to any specific attacks in a speech in the Russian capital, his comments came hours after the drones targeted several areas in southern and western Russia. Authorities closed the airspace over St. Petersburg in response to what some reports said was a drone.

Also Tuesday, several Russian television stations aired a missile attack warning that officials blamed on a hacking attack.

The drone attacks on Monday night and Tuesday morning targeted regions inside Russia along the border with Ukraine and deeper into the country, according to local Russian authorities.

A drone fell near the village of Gubastovo, 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Moscow, Andrei Vorobyov, governor of the region surrounding the Russian capital, said in an online statement.

The drone did not inflict any damage, Vorobyov said, but it likely targeted a civilian infrastructure object.

Pictures of the drone showed it was a Ukrainian-made model with a reported range of up to 800 kilometers (nearly 500 miles) but no capacity to carry a large load of explosives.

Russian forces early Tuesday shot down a Ukrainian drone over the Bryansk region, local Gov. Aleksandr Bogomaz said in a Telegram post.

Three drones also targeted Russias Belgorod region on Monday night, with one flying through an apartment window in its namesake capital, local authorities reported. Regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said the drones caused minor damage to buildings and cars.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Ukraine used drones to attack facilities in the Krasnodar region and neighboring Adygea. It said the drones were brought down by electronic warfare assets, adding that one of them crashed into a field and another diverted from its flight path and missed an infrastructure facility it was supposed to attack.

While Ukrainian drone strikes on the Russian border regions of Bryansk and Belgorod are not unusual, the hits on the Krasnodar and Adygea regions further south were noteworthy.

A fire broke out at an oil depot in Russias Krasnodar region on Monday, Russias state RIA Novosti agency reported. Russian Telegram channels claimed that two drones exploded near the depot.

Some Russian commentators described the drone attacks as an attempt by Ukraine to showcase its capability to strike areas deep behind the lines, foment tensions in Russia and rally the Ukrainian public. Some Russian war bloggers described the raids as a possible rehearsal for a bigger, more ambitious attack.

Last year, Russian authorities repeatedly reported shooting down Ukrainian drones over annexed Crimea. In December, the Russian military said Ukraine used drones to hit two bases for long-range bombers deep inside Russian territory.

Separately, the government of St. Petersburg  Russias second-largest city about 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) north of the border with Ukraine  said early Tuesday that it was temporarily halting all departures and arrivals at the citys main airport, Pulkovo. It did not give a reason for the move.

Hours earlier, unconfirmed reports on Russias Telegram social network referred to the airspace over St. Petersburg being shut down and to overflights by Russian warplanes. It wasnt immediately clear whether this was connected to drone attacks in Russias south.

The Russian military said its air defense forces in western Russia conducted drills on detection, interception and identification of enemy targets in its airspace, and in coordination with civilian air traffic services in an emergency situation.

The Russian Defense Ministry did not specifically mention St. Petersburg, but its statement appeared designed to explain the temporary closure of the airspace.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on the situation in St. Petersburg, urging reporters to wait for details from the countrys aviation authorities or the military. He noted that Putin had full information on the situation.

Speaking at Russias main security agency, the FSB, Putin urged the service to tighten security on the Ukraine border.

Russian media reported Tuesday that an air raid alarm interrupted the programming of several TV channels and radio stations in several Russian regions.

Footage posted by some news sites showed TV sets displaying a yellow sign with a person heading to a bomb shelter, with a female voice repeating: Attention! Air raid alarm. Everyone should head to a shelter immediately.

Russias Emergency Ministry said in an online statement that the announcement was a hoax resulting from a hacking of the servers of radio stations and TV channels in some regions of the country.

In other developments, four people were killed and five others wounded Tuesday by renewed Russian shelling of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, regional Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin said in a Telegram.

A 68-year-old man was also killed as Russian forces shelled Kupiansk, a town in Ukraines northeastern Kharkiv region, its Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said.

The fiercest fighting continued to be in eastern areas of Ukraine, where Russia wants control over all four of the provinces it illegally annexed in September.

Ukrainian officials said that Russian forces have deployed additional troops and equipment, including modern T-90 tanks, in those areas.

Meanwhile, satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press appeared to show a Beriev A-50 early warning aircraft was parked at a Belarus air base just before a claimed attack by partisans there.

Images from Planet Labs PBC shows the A-50, a late Soviet-era aircraft known for its distinctive rotodome above its fuselage, parked on the apron of the Machulishchy Air Base near Minsk, Belarus capital, on Feb. 19.

A lower-resolution image taken on Feb. 23 showed a similarly shaped aircraft still parked there, though heavy cloud cover has blocked any images since.

Belarusian opposition organization BYPOL claimed that guerrillas damaged the A-50 in an attack Sunday.

The Associated Press has been unable to independently confirm the claimed attack, which both Belarus and Russia have yet to acknowledge.

(AP)




China has ordered closer adherence to the dictates of the ruling Communist Party and leader Xi Jinping in legal education, demanding that schools oppose and resist Western erroneous views such as constitutional government, separation of powers, and judicial independence.

The order was dated Sunday, a week before Chinas ceremonial parliament begins its annual session and reinforces the leading role on ideology assumed by Xi, who is named no less than 25 times in the document. Already Chinas most powerful leader in decades, Xi was granted a third five-year term as party leader last year and has removed term limits on the presidency, effectively allowing him to rule for life.

Similar directives have been issued in past, with students encouraged to report on professors who speak positively about Western concepts of governance.

Despite the intertwining of the Chinese and global economies, Xi has sought to purge liberal Western concepts from the education system, ordered that foreign religions be sinicized in order to operate in China. He has also attempted, with limited success, to reorganize popular culture along more conservative lines, going so far as to ban effeminate men from the state broadcaster.

The legal profession has been a particular target, and in the early hours of July 9, 2015, three years into Xis first term as party general secretary, a series of raids nationwide resulted in the detention of some 300 human rights lawyers and associated activists. Under such relentless pressure, activist lawyers have been intimidated into silence, effectively preventing the emergence of dissenting voices and public intellectuals independent of the party.

Such approaches are in line with Xis more muscular foreign policy that seeks to challenge and possibly supplant the American-led international order that advocates for multiparty democracy, civil society and human rights.

The directive from the partys General Office said teachers and students of law and legal theory workers must be guided to have a clear-cut position and take a firm stance in the face of issues of principle and major issues of right and wrong. The General Office circulates information within the 96 million-member party, including drafting directives and memos.

In a section titled Adhere to the Correct Political Direction, the directive says teachers and students must comprehensively implement the partys education policy, insist on educating people for the party and the country, and focus on cultivating builders and successors of the cause of socialist rule of law.

Oppose and resist Western erroneous views such as constitutional government, separation of three powers, and independence of the judiciary, it says.

While Chinas constitution pays lip service to ideas such as freedom of speech and religious observation, it places the interests of the party above all. Past attempts at promoting even grassroots democracy at the village level have sputtered in the face of the partys overwhelming power and the authorities willingness to use force and coercion to achieve their desired outcomes.

Apart from a tiny and beleaguered dissident community, the Chinese public has been largely been willing to accept total party control in return for consistent improvements in quality of life. That arrangement has at times been challenged, however, amid a drastically slowing economy, a crisis in local government finances and heavy handed enforcement of COVID-19 containment measures that have prompted rare public protests.

Criticism of the party and government policies is much more lively online, despite censorship and the threat of punishment for those who create and disseminate them.

The annual session of the National Peoples Congress, comprised of 2,977 handpicked members, opens Sunday with an annual report on the work of government presented by outgoing Premier Li Keqiang.

The chairman of the body is also due to issue a report, which in past years has also contained pledges to eschew Western political government such as separation of powers and an independent judiciary.

(AP)




Mexicos president said Tuesday his country is more democratic than the United States.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obradors testy comments came after U.S. officials took note of heated public debate in Mexico over Lopez Obradors recently approved electoral reforms, which critics allege could weaken Mexicos democracy. The reforms would cut spending for the countrys electoral authorities.

Lopez Obrador angrily rejected any U.S. comment, even though U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price was careful to say in a statement Monday that We respect Mexicos sovereignty.

The Mexican president responded there is more democracy in Mexico than could exist in the United States.

If they want to have a debate on this issue, lets do it, Lopez Obrador said pugnaciously. I have evidence to prove there is more liberty and democracy in our country.

The Mexican president is notoriously touchy about criticism, whether it comes from human rights groups, non-governmental organizations, the press, or Mexican regulatory or oversight agencies.

Price said in a statement that Today, in Mexico, we see a great debate on electoral reforms on the independence of electoral and judicial institutions that illustrates Mexicos vibrant democracy.

We respect Mexicos sovereignty. We believe that a well-resourced, independent electoral system and respect for judicial independence support healthy democracy.

At the root of the conflict are plans by Lopez Obrador, which were approved last week by Mexicos Senate, to cut salaries and funding for local election offices, and scale back training for citizens who operate and oversee polling stations. The changes would also reduce sanctions for candidates who fail to report campaign spending.

Lopez Obrador denies the reforms are a threat to democracy and says criticism is elitist. He argues that the funds would be better spent on the poor.

Tens of thousands of people demonstrated over the weekend in Mexico Citys main plaza, calling the cuts a threat to democracy.

(AP)




Biden administration officials urged Congress on Tuesday to renew a surveillance program the government has long seen as vital in protecting national security but whose future is uncertain because of scrutiny from an unusual alignment of civil liberties advocates and some Republicans.

The program, which is under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, grants American spy agencies sweeping powers to surveil and examine communications of foreigners located outside the United States. Its set to expire at years end unless Congress agrees to renew it.

Officials in the Democratic administration, bracing for a contentious debate on Capitol Hill about reauthorizing the program, sought on Tuesday to make a public case about the value of the statutory authorities that are at risk of expiring. They asserted that the program in recent years has yielded valuable insight into ransomware attacks on critical infrastructure, helped disrupt potential acts of terror and efforts to recruit spies, and contributed to the killing of al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri in a drone strike last August.

At issue is a provision of FISA known as Section 702, which allows spy agencies to collect huge swaths of foreign communications without a warrant. But that tool has drawn scrutiny from civil liberties advocates because it results in the incidental collection from Americans when those Americans are in contact with the foreign surveillance targets.

As of today, I dont accept the claim that Americans privacy is adequately protected under the current 702 program, said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a longtime Senate Intelligence Committee member who has long pressed U.S. spy agencies on their compliance with civil liberties.

Wyden said he had already spoken to administration officials about disclosing how often officials search incidental collection for information about Americans. The intelligence agencies issue an annual transparency report but have not published a precise number of U.S. searches.

This is representative of one of the most important challenges of our time, particularly for policymakers, which is to demonstrate that security and liberty are not mutually exclusive, Wyden said in an interview.

Section 702 was first added to FISA in 2008 and was renewed for six years in 2018, when then-President Donald Trump, who routinely lambasted government intelligence agencies, originally tweeted opposition to the program but then reversed himself.

This years fight for renewal is again unfolding in a polarized political climate. Republicans still angry over FBI errors during the investigation into links between Russia and Trumps 2016 Republican presidential campaign say theyre skeptical of the governments need for broad spy powers and maintain the authorities are ripe for abuse and overreach.

But the flaws during the Russia probe, which involved warrants to a secretive surveillance court to monitor the communication of a former Trump campaign aide, are different from the Section 702 authorities, which allow for communications to be collected without a warrant.

Even so, the new Republican majority in the U.S. House has already formed a panel on the weaponization of the federal government, aligning with progressive Democrats who have pushed for more curbs on warrantless surveillance.

Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, said he believed Congress would ultimately reauthorize the program but that getting Republican support is going to be harder than its ever been.

The importance of it is such that we cant fail, said Stewart, a House Intelligence Committee member. But its going to be very difficult.

As part of an effort to persuade Congress to renew the program, and to assuage potential privacy concerns, Biden administration officials held a background briefing for reporters and released a statement from national security adviser Jake Sullivan and a letter to lawmakers from Attorney General Merrick Garland and the national intelligence director, Avril Haines.

Separately, Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen, the Justice Departments top national security official, delivered the same message in a speech at the Brookings Institution think tank.

The bottom line is that Section 702 gives us the intelligence thats necessary for us to stay one step ahead of our adversaries, and we cannot afford to let it lapse, Olsen said. So, it is time to sound the alarm. We must act with urgency, and that is why I am here today.

National security officials say Section 702 makes possible their most critical work, from collecting intelligence on China to stopping ransomware attacks and other cyber intrusions that have disrupted government agencies and a wide range of industries. But they have declined to publicly give specifics of how they use surveillance programs, saying those are classified.

Courts and lawmakers have gotten a more detailed look at the program, but in private. Intelligence leaders have already been speaking to key lawmakers about Section 702 and will give classified and unclassified briefings to Congress later this year.

In their letter to Congress, Garland and Haines note that every court to consider Section 702s bulk data program has found it to be constitutional.

The intelligence community has also never released a precise figure on how many searches are conducted of its bulk data for information on Americans. In its most recent transparency report, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said the FBI had conducted fewer than 3,394,053 searches during 2021.

Besides civil liberties concerns, there are also questions about whether power given to U.S. intelligence after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks should be extended as intelligence agencies broadly refocus from counterterrorism to whats often called great power competition  Washingtons rivalries with Beijing and Moscow  and a range of other threats including cyberattacks.

(AP)




Top lawmakers in Congress were briefed Tuesday on the investigations into classified documents found in the private possession of President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence.

U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines was among the officials who met privately with congressional leaders for roughly an hour. Attending the briefing were the House and Senate leaders of both parties and the leaders of both intelligence committees, who comprise whats known as the Gang of Eight. Lawmakers leaving the briefing declined to specify what was discussed.

Both Republicans and Democrats have long demanded more information from the Biden administration about the successive discoveries of classified documents in the homes of two presidents and a vice president. The U.S. strictly controls who has access to classified material and how they can view it.

Leaders of the intelligence committees have expressed concerns about the possible exposure of highly classified secrets in those documents.

We still have considerable work to do, oversight work to do, to satisfy ourselves that absolutely everything is being done to protect sources and methods, Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said in an interview.

The chairman and vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee issued a joint statement that also called for more information about any potential damage.

While todays meeting helped shed some light on these issues, it left much to be desired and we will continue to press for full answers to our questions in accordance with our constitutional oversight obligations, said Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla.

The Justice Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence have declined to share details of their investigations. Attorney General Merrick Garland has directed separate special counsels to review the documents linked to Trump and Biden.

Federal agents searched Trumps Mar-a-Lago residence in August after developing evidence that led them to believe that Trump and his representatives had not returned all classified files. The Justice Department has said in court filings that it roughly 300 documents with classified markings, including at the top-secret level, have been recovered from Mar-a-Lago after being taken there after Trump left the White House.

Bidens lawyers have said they discovered a small number of classified documents in November after searching a locked closet at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement. A second batch of documents  again described by Bidens lawyers as a small number  were found in a storage space in Bidens garage near Wilmington, Delaware, along with six pages located in Bidens personal library in his home.

FBI agents in January found six additional items that contained documents with classified markings and also took possession of some of Bidens handwritten notes, according to Bidens lawyers.

Pences lawyers have also said they found a small number of documents in his Indiana home that appeared to have been inadvertently taken there at the conclusion of his vice presidency. Federal agents found an additional classified document during a voluntary search.

Underscoring the political and legal sensitivities for Biden, the White House issued a statement saying the Justice Department and the Director of National Intelligence decided on their own to brief Congress and what information to share.

The White House has confidence in DOJ and ODNI to exercise independent judgment about whether or when it may be appropriate for national security reasons to offer briefings on any relevant information in these investigations, said spokesperson Ian Sams.

(AP)




A spate of drone strikes that Russian authorities blamed on Ukraine targeted areas in southern and western Russia, reflecting the Ukrainian militarys growing reach.

While the attacks apparently did not inflict any significant damage, their number and scope posed a new challenge to Russia as the war dragged into a second year. One assault came as close as 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Moscow.

Some observers said the strikes could be a rehearsal for a broader Ukrainian attack on facilities deep inside Russia.

Here is a look at drone attacks on Russia, their results and implications.

HAS UKRAINE LAUNCHED DRONE ATTACKS BEFORE?

Russian authorities have long accused Ukraine of launching regular drone attacks on power plants, oil refineries and other targets in western regions of Russia near the border.

Russian authorities also have reported repeated Ukrainian drone attacks on Crimea, most of which targeted the port of Sevastopol that hosts the main Russian naval base on the Black Sea peninsula that Moscow illegally annexed in 2014.

In December, the Russian military reported several Ukrainian drone attacks on long-range bomber bases deep inside Russia. The Russian Defense Ministry said the drones were shot down, but it acknowledged that their debris damaged some aircraft and killed several servicemen.

After each of those strikes, Ukrainian officials stopped short of openly claiming responsibility but emphasized the countrys right to strike any target in response to the Russian aggression.

In some cases, Ukrainian authorities took responsibility for the attacks deep behind the front line. Thats what happened when Ukraines top military officer took credit for ordering the August strikes on air bases in Crimea weeks after they occurred.

WHAT AREAS DID THE LATEST DRONE ATTACKS TARGET?

Late Monday, four small drones targeted the city of Belgorod, including one that reportedly flew into an apartment window.

Another drone was downed early Tuesday over the neighboring Bryansk region in western Russia, according to local officials.

On Tuesday, a drone also hit an oil refinery in the southern port of Tuapse in Russias Krasnodar region, damaging some equipment but missing oil reservoirs. Some Russian reports identified the aerial vehicle as an Israeli-made Aerostar drone.

Another drone, reportedly a massive Soviet-built jet-powered Tu-141 Strizh, fell into a field in the neighboring region of Adygea, damaging a farm building.

Finally, a drone crashed on the edge of a forest close to a gas compressor station near the village of Gubastovo, less than 100 kilometers (60 miles) southeast of Moscow. While it inflicted no damage, the drone appeared to target a major natural gas pumping facility and marked the closest strike yet to the Russian capital.

Russian reports identified the drone that fell near Gubastovo as a UJ-22, a small Ukrainian-made reconnaissance drone that also can carry about 20 kilograms (44 pounds) of explosives and has a range of autonomous flight of up to 800 kilometers (about 500 miles).

Ukrainian officials have not claimed responsibility for any of the attacks.

On Tuesday, Russian authorities also briefly closed the airspace over St. Petersburg, the countrys second-largest city. Some reports alleged that an unidentified drone was spotted in the area, while the Defense Ministry said the skies around the city were closed as part of air defense drills.

On Sunday, Belarusian opposition activists claimed a military air base outside Belarusias capital that hosts Russian warplanes came under attack by Belarusian guerrillas supporting Ukraine. They said the assault left a Russian A-50 early warning and control aircraft seriously damaged, although Tuesdays satellite images showed no visible signs of damage to the aircraft. Some activists claimed the attack involved drones, while Belarusian and Russian officials made no comment.

Russia used the territory of its ally Belarus to invade Ukraine a year ago and maintained a contingent of troops, warplanes and other weapons on Belarusian territory.

WHAT DID RUSSIAN OFFICIALS SAY?

The Russian Defense Ministry said its anti-drone jamming systems helped fend off Tuesdays attack in Tuapse, causing the drone to veer off its course and miss its intended target, and made another Ukrainian drone crash into a field in Adygea.

Andrei Vorobyov, the governor of the Moscow region who reported the drone attack near Moscow, said it apparently targeted civilian infrastructure but inflicted no damage.

In Belgorod, local officials reported minor damage from drone strikes and said that residents of an apartment hit by drone were evacuated.

Without directly referring to the latest drone attacks, Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded that authorities tighten protection of the border with Ukraine to prevent any incursions or attacks.

WHAT ARE THE POTENTIAL IMPLICATIONS?

Tuesdays attacks again signaled Russias vulnerabilities and apparent breaches in the countrys air defenses.

Some Russian commentators described the drone strikes as part of Ukrainian efforts to fuel tensions in Russia and rally the Ukrainian public amid a grinding battle for control of the countrys eastern industrial heartland known as the Donbas, where Russian forces are besieging the Ukrainian stronghold of Bakhmut.

But some Russian war bloggers warned that Tuesdays strikes could be part of Ukrainian efforts to probe Russias defenses and detect its vulnerabilities ahead of a more massive drone attack that could be launched to support Ukraines future counteroffensive.

In an apparent reflection of official concerns about the increasing threat of Ukrainian drone attacks, the Russian military recently has deployed air defense systems in several locations around Moscow, including the rooftop of the main Defense Ministry building facing the Gorky Park.

(AP)




Protesters against the governments judicial reform plan blocked highways and train service on Wednesday as part of what they dubbed a National Disruption Day.

The protests began early in the morning when members of Brothers in Arms and other protesters blocked Highway 1 in the Shaar HaGai area with barbed wire, blocking the entrance to Jerusalem. About an hour later, the police dispersed the protesters and Highway 1 was opened to traffic.

However, protesters continued to try to block highways throughout Israel and at about noon, clashes between the police and protesters took place as hundreds of protesters broke through police barriers in Tel Aviv and tried to stop traffic on the Ayalon Highway at the Shalom Interchange. Protesters also blocked Derech Begin in Tel Aviv. The police threw stun grenades at the crowd and used horses in an effort to disperse the protesters. Later in the afternoon, the police began using water cannons against the crowd in an effort to clear the protesters blocking major roads in Tel Aviv.

The police arrested at least 39 protesters, mainly in the Tel Aviv area, for disturbing public order and disobeying police orders. Some of the protesters were violent toward the police, throwing bottles and other objects at officers and smashing the windshield of a police car.

At least one protester was injured by a stun grenade:

 1,           ,    .    ? : , , . pic.twitter.com/L5tKIMZ22n    Meir Layosh (@MeirLayosh) March 1, 2023

Protesters in Tel Aviv blocked the entrances to trains at the HaHaganah Station to prevent passengers from boarding and prevent the trains from running.

Like all previous protests, some of the participants waved Palestinian flags, as seen below in a protest in Tel Aviv on Wednesday morning.

A statement published on Tuesday by the anti-judicial organizations said: In the face of a dangerous coup detat  fierce protest! Starting in the morning, the National Disruption Day will take place, as part of the fight against the regime coup. Throughout the day, there will be demonstrations, convoys and protest marches in cities, on bridges and at intersections. The day will open with parent and child marches in the morning and end with demonstrations in Tel Aviv and in front of the Prime Ministers residence on Aza Street in Jerusalem.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir held a situational assessment on Tuesday evening with the Police Commissioner, Jerusalem District Commander and Tel Aviv District Deputy Commander and instructed the police not to allow the blocking of main highways.

I am in favor of a democratic protest but we will not allow civil riots and wont allow anarchists to block major thoroughfares, Ben-Gvir said. The daily life of Israeli citizens must be maintained. I have instructed Israel Police to open all roads that are blocked.

Earlier, Israel Police announced that it considers the right to protest as a cornerstone in a democratic country and allows all citizens to protest while adhering to the framework of law and public order. Israel Police will operate with zero tolerance for disturbances, damage to property and symbols of government and will not allow the blocking of traffic routes that are not approved by the police.

(YWN Israel Desk  Jerusalem)




While the levaya of Elan Ganeles, hyd was taking place early Wednesday afternoon, Israeli security forces captured the terrorists suspected of murdering him in a terror attack near Yam Hamelech on Monday evening.

Israeli security forces surrounded a home in the Arab village of Aqabat Jabr, next to Yericho in the Jordan Valley, in which the suspects were hiding. A gun battle ensued and one terrorist was eliminated after he tried to escape the home and at least three Palestinians were injured.

Two terrorists were detained and transferred for questioning.

The operation was carried out by IDF soldiers, Border Police officers and Shin Bet operatives.

(YWN Israel Desk  Jerusalem)
It wasnt until Sarah Eggingtons husband Pete tried to stop her making a coffee that she realised quite how obsessed hed become with the smart meter screen in the corner of their kitchen.

By carefully studying the device  which measures exactly how much energy the family of five use throughout the day  Pete, 38, a school teacher, had worked out the coffee machine costs 1p per cup to run.

And in these straitened times of rocketing energy prices, its fair to say he wasnt best pleased.

Watching the pennies: Pete Eggington became so obsessed checking his smart meter he tried to stop wife Sarah (pictured together with daughter Rosa) from making coffee

Sarah, 37, now catches Pete checking the smart meter at least five times a day as he wages war on their bills.

Hes become so determined to keep a lid on their outgoings, Sarah says, that she and their daughters Cora, eight, Ida, six, and Rosa, three, are treated to a running commentary on the cost of using devices in their four-bedroom detached home in Brigg, Lincolnshire.

Its become a family joke, says Sarah, who is also a school teacher. If I go to put the washing machine on, one of the kids will say: Have you checked with the power police?

Pete had been interested in tracking our usage in the past, but hes completely ramped it up in recent months.

I say Pete has become obsessive; he says hes being financially savvy.

The Eggingtons home is one of 30million properties in Britain  around half of all homes  with a smart meter, after another 6.3million were installed last year.

While many Money Mail readers tell us they are yet to be convinced by the idea of having a digital device constantly monitoring their energy and sending the readings back to their supplier, others find smart meters an increasingly useful tool to keep on top of bills.

For some  such as Pete  checking the gadget has almost become an addiction. People with smart meters now check them on average four times a day, according to a survey by Nationwide Building Society.

One in ten admitted to looking at them nearly every waking hour. Their obsession is unlikely to be moderated any time soon.

This week, households found out energy bills were set to jump another 20 per cent in April.

The maximum bill for the average home will rise from 2,500 to 3,000 a year, as the price cap rises to cover higher wholesale costs to suppliers (see the box below).

The Government is also ending its universal 400 Energy Bill Support Scheme, which has been paid to households over winter, making it even more crucial to stay on top of your outgoings.

Sarah says the bills on their four-bed home have risen from 160 a month in February 2022 to 400 a month today.

Petes habit of warning his family exactly how much energy appliances guzzle per cycle has led to some positive changes, she acknowledges.

We only use the dishwasher at night as there is a cheaper rate, she says. The tumble dryer rarely goes on any more  we use a clothes airer instead. Thats all Petes influence.

The Eggingtons have a smart time-of-use tariff with their supplier which charges different prices for energy at different times of the day, with lower rates overnight.

And Petes father-in-law David, 68, who lives in an annexe to the house, now only charges his hybrid car overnight.

Obsession: People with smart meters now check them on average four times a day, according to a survey by Nationwide Building Society

Sarah adds: I now sometimes catch myself looking at the smart meter when I walk past without realising  and my parents have started to get more obsessive, too, after seeing Petes hawkish readings.

I recently went round to their house and it was pitch black. They were avoiding using power to see how it reflected on the smart meter.

However, she insists there are some simple pleasures she wont give up.

No matter how often Pete tells me how much the coffee machine costs to run, that is definitely something that is not changing!

Little numbers rule my home

April Ashby hadnt grasped how her smart meter habits had snowballed until her mother Maureen, 82, arrived for a six-day stay over Christmas  armed with 100 in cash.

Maureen knows April, 58, constantly checks her smart meter to ensure she doesnt spend more than 5.50 a day on gas. Thats the amount shes worked out she can afford to stay on top of her bills.

So Maureen offered her 100 on two conditions: 1) April stopped tracking her usage over Christmas; and 2) she kept the radiators on for the duration of Maureens stay.

April had a smart meter installed in her three-bedroom, semi-detached home in Egham, Surrey, 18 months ago.

Checks: April Ashby had a smart meter installed in her three-bedroom, semi-detached home in Egham, Surrey, 18 months ago

She lives with her 15-year-old daughter Alexis and says she never thought the gadget would end up ruling her household in the way it now does.

When she arrives home from her job as a school languages teacher at 4pm, she makes a beeline for the smart meter on the lounge coffee table and studiously examines it.

The gadget contains all the details of the energy used that day. Shell then do everything possible to keep to her self-imposed daily limit.

As soon as the 5.50 mark is hit, the heating is switched off  no matter the time or temperature . . . and regardless of the pleas from Alexis.

April says: The only exception I have made to the 5.50 allowance was when my daughter and I were ill. Then I let the gas go up to around 6.70.

This kind of shift in habits was recently highlighted by Michael Lewis, chief executive of supplier E.On. He says customers are cutting back around ten to 15 per cent of their usual energy use.

The biggest behavioural changes are from people putting the heating on less and turning down the thermostat in their homes.

April says: I have set the central heating so it only comes on automatically if the inside temperature falls below 14c. Ive tried turning off all the lights but that doesnt make a big difference.

She spends around 245 a month on her bills. But her newly formed habits have allowed her to build and retain 700 in credit on her account.

How much will your bill rise next month? Why are bills going up? The energy price cap, currently 4,279 a year, will fall to 3,280 from April 1, Ofgem announced this week. This reflects a drop in global wholesale energy costs. The cap relates to the maximum price energy suppliers can charge households for each kilowatt hour (kWh) of energy they use. At the moment, however, the price cap is largely symbolic as the Government has capped annual bills for the average household at 2,500 a year, under the Energy Price Guarantee. But from April 1, this support will become less generous when the price guarantee rises to 3,000. By how much will they rise? Households will typically pay an extra 900 a year from April, according to Citizens Advice. The 500 increase to the price guarantee will be coupled with the end of the energy support scheme, which provided an automatic 400 discount in six instalments of 66 and 67 a month. This scaling back in support means millions of families are facing a further hit to their finances. Dame Clare Moriarty, of Citizens Advice, estimates that around 3million people will spend more than 10 per cent of their income on energy. What support is available? The energy bills support scheme will only be available to means-tested vulnerable and low-income households from April. Low-income households on means-tested benefits, such as universal credit, child tax credits or jobseekers allowance will receive 900 in three instalments. Pensioners will be paid 300 in one instalment next winter, while those on certain disability benefits will receive 150. Almost one million homes that fell through the cracks of existing relief can now apply for 400 under the energy bills support scheme alternative funding. This includes people in care homes and in park homes. There are also various government schemes in place for households struggling to pay their energy bills, including the warm home discount, the household support fund and the cold weather payment. If you are finding it difficult to pay your bills, get in touch with your supplier. It should offer you an affordable payment plan.

I had to hide it in a cupboard!

The display units on smart meters allow customers to see for themselves how much money they spend hour by hour, which is fed back to their supplier.

It means that people who never previously worried about turning the heating on are now tracking exactly how much it costs to boil the kettle.

A recent survey by Smart Energy GB shows a third of households now check their in-house display units more frequently.

And for some, the endless bombardment of information from the devices has become too much.

Mother-of-two Maddy Alexander-Grout lives in a two-bedroom new-build in Southampton with her husband James, 41, and their children Ben, seven, and Harriet, three.

The 39-year-old says previously the family used to spend around 3 a day on gas. But this has risen to 7.

Worried, she began constantly monitoring her smart meter to keep track of costs. But, she realised the habit had gone too far when cooking dinner for her sons friend who had come over to play.

Savings: The biggest behavioural changes that come from smart meters are people putting the heating on less and turning down the thermostat in their homes

Maddy says: My children had a friend round and I was cooking them chicken nuggets and chips.

In that time the smart meter total went up to 8.50 when we usually only spend 7 a day. I started panicking  but then just thought it wasnt worth it. I had become too obsessive.

Maddy says she has ADHD and the anxiety was making it worse. That day she took a bold step . . . and hid her smart meter in a cupboard under the sink. It hasnt resurfaced since.

Energy bills are going up anyway. It doesnt help to watch it happen on a screen, she says.

We time chores by readings

Aimee Konieczny, 36, had a smart meter installed in January 2021. Then last year, Aimee and her partner Joe, 34, invested around 7,000 in roof solar panels on their 1960s two-bedroom bungalow in Norwich, Norfolk.

They have a large roof area with panels that generate plenty of energy and have worked out that they should see a return on their investment in less than five years.

Unlike traditional meters, some smart meters show households with solar panels how much energy is being generated and how much is being imported from the grid.

Powering on: In summer, Aimee Konieczny's solar panels can generate energy constantly from 8am to 6pm

When the sun is beating down hard, Aimee and Joe have noticed that they can use energy for free as their home is powered entirely by the panels.

They dont have a battery to store any excess energy. So if they are generating more than they are consuming, the excess is automatically exported back to the grid under the Smart Export Guarantee tariff.

Aimee says: Thats where the smart meter comes in because it records what we export and we then get paid for that. The couple now track their smart meter hourly to identify the best times to save  and make  money.

In winter, this window tends to begin at 11am and end at 3pm.

But in the summer their solar panels can generate energy constantly from 8am to 6pm. Aimee, who works for an energy consultancy, says: As soon as its a good time, we race to do everything at once  put a wash on, crank up the heating.

And if no one is at home and the sun is shining, it will just export to the grid so we get paid for that rather than using it ourselves.

The couple use excess energy payments to help offset the cost of running appliances at other times of the day.

Despite wholesale costs soaring, the couple have almost slashed their energy bill in half, from 332 a month in 2021 to 179 the following year, and believe constant smart meter tracking has been key.

moneymail@dailymail.co.uk
Beijing (Gasgoo)- On February 27, Xiaomi applied to register several graphic and text trademarks, including "MODENAT", "XIAOMI MODENA", and "MIMODENA", according to data from Chinese corporate database Tianyancha. These trademarks are said to be related to Xiaomis first production vehicle model.

Photo credit: Xiaomi

The trademarks are classified under transportation equipment, scientific instruments, and building repair, and the current status is "application in progress".

According to information previously released by Xiaomi, the smartphone giant and automaking newcomer, its first car is expected for mass production in the first half of 2024.

In early January of this year, several local media reports revealed that Xiaomi's first car would be a mid-size coupe with the internal code name "Modena". The car will be available in two versions at different price points. In addition, the second Xiaomi-branded vehicle model, with the internal code name "Lemans", is currently under development and is planned for release in 2025.

Currently, Xiaomi's automobile R&D team has grown to over 2,300 employees. In terms of car manufacturing, Xiaomi has built its own base in Beijing's Yizhuang area, with plans to build a complete vehicle factory with an annual output of 300,000 cars in two phases, with each phase having a capacity of 150,000 cars.
After moving into my new home last summer, I received a call on my landline from someone purporting to be from Virgin Media. This was not suspicious as Virgin Media had just set up my broadband and telephone service.

I was given my new phone number on the day of the set-up and, apart from Virgin, only my sister had the new number.

When I answered the call, I was addressed by my name and told my Virgin account had been hacked  and the company needed access to my computer to sort the problem out.

Confidence scam: A fraudster stole 7,000 from a pensioner's bank account by posing as a worker from Virgin Media

They asked for debit card information and a copy of my driving licence.

Initially, I had no reason to doubt I was talking to a Virgin Media representative. A short while into the call, I realised I was being duped, but not before scammers had taken 7,000 from my NatWest bank account, moving money into accounts with online operations Revolut and Monese.

I contacted NatWest straight away and was refunded 1,000.

It told me to contact the two other companies and ask them to chase the rest of the money, but I got nowhere.

I am a pensioner on a fixed income and can't afford to lose 6,000.

Name and address supplied.

Sally Hamilton replies: YOU told me the alarm bells rang when you started receiving emails from Revolut and Monese regarding online accounts which had been set up fraudulently in your name. You contacted them, asking each to return the money you had lost  2,990 with Revolut and 3,000 with Monese  and to shut the accounts.

Monese confirmed the account closure but no reimbursement was forthcoming and after various attempts at making contact with Revolut, you were informed it could not return the missing money and to complain to the Financial Ombudsman if you were not satisfied.

NatWest would not reimburse any more than 1,000. Upon hearing your plight, I felt NatWest could have done more. On my request it agreed to re-open your case. Following its investigation, it concluded its stance had not changed.

It said it had no influence on the retrieval of the 6,000 transferred from your NatWest account to the online banks because the destination accounts were set up in your name.

It confirmed it was able to refund 1,000 because this sum had been paid by debit card directly to a scammer's account.

NatWest added 100, it said, to make up for the shortfalls in the service you received when trying to report the fraud.

I did not think this was good enough as you were clearly a victim of a convincing fraud. I pressed again for the bank to do more to help you.

I also contacted Monese and Revolut. Monese's press office didn't respond to my requests. Revolut was more responsive and looked into the incident.

It concluded your complaint had not been handled as smoothly as it should have and awarded you a goodwill payment of 1,000  but would not reimburse your losses as the account had been opened in your name.

So far, so unsatisfactory. After some pause for thought, I went back to NatWest to request a formal comment on your case.

My second approach was more fruitful. For, in the interim, NatWest had decided to carry out a further 'careful' review of the evidence in your 'complex' case.

It did not wish to elaborate further for fear of giving away information that could be used to fraudsters' advantage but I am delighted to report this resulted in a different conclusion  a decision to reimburse you in full.

The bank has now credited your account with 5,990  the 2,990 debit card payment to Revolut and 3,000 debit card payment to Monese. Although scarred by the experience and nervous of using your computer, email and phone, you are greatly relieved.

A NatWest spokesman says: 'We acknowledge in this case the service received by our customer fell short of the high standards we expect and for this we apologise.

'In all instances of frauds and scams, we will seek information from the victim to understand what has happened to enable us to reach a good outcome.'

NatWest told me to remind readers not to share bank details, debit card information or personal details over the phone. If individuals are asked for remote access to a personal device, refuse and hang up.

I can second that, though I am hugely sympathetic to anyone put on the spot like you. It is easy to fall into the trap  the same thing happened to a close relative recently with a scammer pretending to call from BT. Fortunately, my relation managed to stop payments being taken.

It can be hard to act rationally when pressure is being applied so slickly and with force. Whether the scammers knew you were a new customer of Virgin or made an educated guess, we will never know.

But for them it was a gift and it allowed them to ply their despicable trade with ease.

Straight to the point I was offered a new TalkTalk contract for 25 for broadband and 8 for anytime UK calls in November. However, my first bill was more than 60 as they had charged me for all my calls on top of the 25. My bill for January was the same. I've now phoned them three times and they said it has been resolved but it has not. C. E., Maidstone. A Spokesman for TalkTalk says this was caused by a technical error. The company has now refunded all your call charges, reapplied your call boost and will provide the first three months free as a gesture of goodwill. *** I bought a jacket from Mona.co.uk for 89 on September 16 but decided to return it the following day. I am still waiting for a refund. Please help. L. R., Lisburn. Mona.co.uk says that the delay was due to technical issues with its payment provider at the time your return was processed. It has since posted you a cheque. *** My husband had a pendant with Careium  an alert system if he had a fall. He died in June 2021 but Careium has continued to send invoices every month in his name. I've tried calling, sending letters and a copy of his death certificate but I still received an invoice for February. It's very distressing. M. C., Eastbourne. Careium has now closed the account for your husband and called you to apologise for the distress this has caused.

Premium Bond app is driving me loopy

I have invested in Premium Bonds for many years, whenever I have a bit of spare money.

Since National Savings and Investments (NS&I) brought in two-factor authentication I have been unable to access my account.

I log on, using all the correct details, then I receive a one-time passcode on my phone, which I enter  but then I am taken back to the blank sign-in page.

This 'loop' happens every time and I can't resolve it.

Name and address supplied.

Sally Hamilton replies: Government-backed NS&I introduced two-factor authentication last summer, something many financial organisations are doing to ensure customers' money is better protected from fraudsters.

It usually involves supplying a password first and then perhaps a fingerprint or facial recognition or, as in the case of NS&I, a one-time passcode to the customer's phone which they then tap in to access their account.

But many customers are struggling to implement NS&I's newest security arrangement.

Various technical issues are to blame, including the looping problem that led to your Groundhog Day nightmare.

Looping is when an online customer is returned to a screen they've previously seen as part of the NS&I two-factor authentication enrolment process and cannot go on to complete it.

I asked NS&I to step in and help stop your looping issue pronto.

It soon arranged a phone call to talk you through the process.

Finally, six months after your first attempt, you were able to get things working, use the new authentication arrangement and access your account.

An NS&I spokesman says: 'We are sorry that some people may be experiencing difficulties which can be due to a number of different factors.'

NS&I says there are a number of reasons why looping might happen. These include computers not having enough memory, disruption from automatic security updates and the automatic deletion of cookies.
Shares in AO World jumped after it bumped up its annual profit forecast for the third time since November.

The Bolton-based online electrical retailer, which sells domestic appliances such as washing machines and dishwashers as well as phones and laptops, now expects to report between 37.5million and 45million of profit for the year to March 31. This is up on the previous range of 30million and 40million it gave in January.

AO World attributed its latest upgrade to the success in streamlining its business. Shares soared 25.2 per cent, or 14.15p, to 70.4p.

Shares boost: AO World now expects to report between 37.5m and 45m of profit for the year to March 31. This is up on the previous range of 30m and 40m it gave in January

The FTSE 100 fell 0.7 per cent, or 58.83 points, to 7876.28 and the FTSE 250 gained 0.09 per cent, or 17.18 points, to 19903.28.

The latest quarterly FTSE reshuffle  based on how companies are ranked in terms of value at the close of trading last night  is unlikely to see any change among the blue chips.

But there is plenty of movement among the mid-cap stocks with greetings card company Moonpig and gambling giant 888 set to be booted out of the FTSE 250 after a slump in their share prices.

Moonpig listed on the stock market in London to great fanfare in February 2021 and was seen as a potential pandemic winner as shoppers flocked online to buy cards and gifts for friends and family during lockdowns.

But its shares failed to live up to the hype even at the start. And they were further hit as lockdown restrictions ended and shoppers returned to stores.

Shares slipped 0.3 per cent, or 0.3p, to 117.4p yesterday, leaving them well below the listing price of 350p and with a market value of around 400million  putting it in line for demotion from the FTSE 250. 888, which owns 1,400 William Hill shops in the UK as well as online brands including Mr Green, faces tougher gambling regulations as well as an internal investigation into suspected money laundering on VIP customer accounts in the Middle East.

Stock Watch - Safestay Safestay said business is returning to normal after the turmoil caused by Covid. The hostel chain saw the average price of a bed at its sites rise to 23.70 in 2022 from 19.70 a year earlier. Occupancy rates across its 16 hostels reached 63 per cent  up from 35 per cent in 2021. As a result, revenues look set to have hit 19million last year. It is also expecting to report a profit of 5.9million having made a 1million loss a year earlier. Shares jumped 30 per cent, or 6p, to 26p.

Its shares are down nearly 20 per cent so far this year and 85 per cent in the past 18 months, leaving it on course for relegation.

The stock rose yesterday by 3.4 per cent, or 3p, to 70.65p , giving it a value of 315million.

Chemicals group Croda International plunged 5.3 per cent, or 366p, to 6562p after sales tumbled at its consumer care division.

This overshadowed a 10.6 per cent rise in sales across the whole group to 2.09billion in 2022, while profit jumped 89.6 per cent to 780million.

Meanwhile Intertek saw its revenue increase by 4.9 per cent on a like-for-like basis to 3.19billion in 2022.

The quality assurance and product testing business, which advises companies on managing risks across their supply chains, said it expects mid-single digit like-for-like revenue growth this year. Shares fell 4.6 per cent, or 200p, to 4174p.

Serco, the outsourcing giant which does security, transport and immigration work for the Government, saw its revenue increase by 2 per cent to 4.5billion in 2022 even though Covid-related business fell by 480million.

The company, which worked on the test and trace programme during the pandemic, reiterated its forecasts for this year, with profit expected to be around the same level as the previous 12 months. Shares gained 4.7 per cent, or 7p, to 156p.

Student accommodation provider Unite Group cheered as it returned to full occupancy during the 2022-23 academic year.

It said an increasing number of students hoping to nail down places earlier meant it now expected rental growth of between 6 per cent and 7 per cent for the 2023-24 academic year.

This is up on the previous target of 5 per cent. Shares fell 0.2 per cent, or 2p, to 983p.
Troubled Credit Suisse has been publicly shamed by financial regulators for the third time in two years  this time over its relationship with a collapsed supply chain finance firm.

Greensills demise in March 2021 prompted the Swiss bank to abruptly close funds in which its clients had invested more than 8billion.

Finma, Switzerlands financial regulator, concluded after a probe into the episode that the lender seriously breached its supervisory obligations.

Disgraced: Greensill,founded by Lex Greensill (pictured), collapsed in March 2021 prompting Credit Suisse to close funds with more than 8bn invested in them.

It follows two previous reprimands in 2021 for Credit Suisse, one for a scandal in which it was caught spying on top executives and another over loans to Mozambique, linked to a corruption scandal, which eventually tipped the country into a financial crisis.

Greensill  which was founded by Australian Lex Greensill and counted former prime minister David Cameron as an adviser  made its money through a business model involving invoices issued by suppliers to companies buying their goods or services.

Greensill would step in and pay the bill immediately rather than leaving the supplier waiting, then claim the full purchase prices from the buyer, making a profit on the difference.

From 2017, some of these claims were packaged up as financial products and transferred to funds controlled by Credit Suisse.

Finmas investigation found that Credit Suisse had little knowledge and control over the specific claims and that even though the Swiss bank was the manager of the funds, it left Greensill to select and review the claims that went into them.

Over time, the funds became riskier, coming to include expected future invoice claims that had not yet arisen, the watchdog found.

The concerns of one banker about granting a loan to Greensill were overruled.

Finma also said the bank had made partly false and overly positive statements to it about the claims.

As a result of the probe, Credit Suisse has been ordered to periodically review about 500 of its most important business relationships.

Credit Suisse chief executive Ulrich Koerner said the announcement underlines the importance of the actions we have taken in recent years to strengthen our risk and compliance culture.
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.

NIO so far deploys 1,331 power swap stations worldwide

By the end of Feb. 28, NIO had deployed 1,331 power swap stations (11 of which are located outside of China) and 1,261 supercharging stations worldwide, the Chinese EV startup announced on March 1 via its Twitter-like Weibo account.

Photo credit: NIO

DENZA D9 EV rises on price

The price of the DENZA D9 EV, the all-electric version of the premium MPV DENZA D9, would be raised by 6,000 yuan, effective from March 1, 2023, the BYD-backed high-end brand DENZA announced on Feb. 28, 2023.

YUDOs Yuntu full-electric SUV hits market

Chinese new energy vehicle startup YUDO officially put its fire new all-electric A0-segment SUV, the Yuntu, onto the market with a price range of 85,800 yuan to 95,800 yuan.

Li Auto boasts 97.5% YoY surge in Feb. auto deliveries

On the first day of March, Chinese new energy vehicle startup Li Auto announced that its monthly deliveries reached 16,620 units in February 2023.

Geely-backed ZEEKR sees monthly deliveries zoom up 87.1% YoY in Feb. 2023

ZEEKR, the premium electric vehicle brand of Geely, delivered 5,455 vehicles in Feb. 2023, representing an 87.1% year-on-year soar and a 75.1% month-on-month surge, according to an announcement Geely Automobile Holdings Limited issued on Wednesday.

Xiaomi applies for trademarks for upcoming vehicle models

On February 27, Xiaomi applied to register several graphic and text trademarks, including "MODENAT", "XIAOMI MODENA", and "MIMODENA", according to data from Chinese corporate database Tianyancha. These trademarks are said to be related to Xiaomis first production vehicle model.

GAC AION boasts three-digit YoY, MoM surge in Feb. 2023 auto sales

GAC AION, the new energy vehicle (NEV) subsidiary of GAC Group, announced on Wednesday its monthly sales stood at 30,086 units in Feb. 2023, rocketing 252.87% and 194.79% year on year and month on month, respectively.

Jaguar Land Rover names Wu Chen as President of IMSS

Jaguar Land Rover and its China-based joint venture with Chery Automobile, Chery Jaguar Land Rover, jointly announced on March 1 an important personnel appointment.

Chinas SiC semiconductor supplier InventChip closes Series B financing round

On February 28, Chinas silicon carbide (SiC) semiconductors supplier InventChip announced the completion of its Series B financing worth hundreds of millions of yuan.

Changan Shenlan delivers 4,103 SL03s in Feb. 2023

Shenlan, the new energy vehicle brand under Chinas major legacy automaker Changan Automobile, announced today it delivered 4,103 units of its only production model on the market, the SL03, in February 2023.

RoboSense launches first L4 auto solid-state LiDAR perception solution

On February 28, RoboSense, Chinese intelligent LiDAR system developer, officially launched its first automotive-grade solid-state LiDAR perception fusion solution, the RS-Fusion-P6 (P6), which supports L4 autonomous driving.

Geely-backed VREMT team up with Alibaba for overseas business development

On Feb. 28, VREMT, a subsidiary of Geely Holding, signed an agreement with Alibaba.com, a cross-border e-commerce platform of Alibaba Group, to conduct strategic cooperation on some going global projects, according to a post on VREMTs WeChat account.

China's vehicle inventory alert index in Feb. 2023 rises YoY, but dips MoM

China's vehicle inventory alert index (VIA), which reflects the inventory pressure on automobile dealers, dropped 3.7 percentage points month on month in Feb. 2023, according to the China Automobile Dealers Association (CADA).
Beijing (Gasgoo)- On February 28, Chinas silicon carbide (SiC) semiconductors supplier InventChip announced the completion of its Series B financing worth hundreds of millions of yuan.

Photo credit: InventChip

The round was led by GrowthFOF, and followed by various other institutions including Shenzhen Guozhong Venture Capital, a Shanghai Lingang New Area-backed fund, Goldstone Investment, Eastern bell Capital, and Long Capital. Existing shareholders such as Sunic Capital, Lightspeed China Partners, and GF Xinde Investment also increased their investment in this round.

Prior to this, InventChip had just secured a pre-B financing round of another hundreds of millions of yuan at the end of 2022, with investors including SAIC Motors investment fund, Shangqi Capital, etc. In early 2022, InventChip also received strategic financing from XPeng.

As an SiC-focused chip company, InventChip is committed to developing SiC power devices, driver and control chips, and SiC power module products, providing one-stop (Turn-key) chip solutions for customers around SiC power semiconductor applications.

Up to now, InventChip has planned three major product lines, namely SiC MOSFETs, SBDs, and driver ICs, and has developed a series of mass-produced products compliance to automotive standards, including 650V-1200V SiC MOSFETs, 1200V SiC Schottky diodes (SBDs), and SiC-specific gate driver chips.

Moreover, in early 2020, InventChip launched a SiC wafer fab project, aiming to build a six-inch SiC power chip factory that meets automotive-grade standards. After nearly two years of preparation, the factory officially started operation in July 2022, marking InventChip's strategic transformation from Fabless to IDM.
Rishi Sunak claimed the UK offers a very special status to Scotland when challenged to replicate Northern Irelands special EU single market access for other home nations.

The SNP asked the Prime Minister to explain why Scotland is being denied the same attractive arrangement given to Northern Ireland as part of the latest Brexit deal.

Mr Sunak had said the Windsor Framework, which seeks to remove post-Brexit trade barriers, would create the worlds most exciting economic zone.

SNP MP Joanna Cherry (Edinburgh South West) noted Mr Sunak had boasted the deal puts Northern Ireland in an unbelievably special position given its access to the UK and EU markets.

She added in the House of Commons: So my question for the Prime Minister is this: If there can be a very, very special status for the province of Northern Ireland, why cant there be a very, very special status for the nation of Scotland?

Mr Sunak replied: There is a very special status for the nation of Scotland and thats inside our United Kingdom.

SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn earlier said: Yesterday the Prime Minister said that EU single market access was special, exciting and attractive.

If thats the case, why is he denying it to the rest of us?

Mr Sunak responded: Its disappointing (Mr Flynn) is seeking to play politics with the situation in Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland, as he well knows, has a unique place in the United Kingdom and what we are trying to do is restore the balance inherent in the Belfast Good Friday agreement, and he would do well to acknowledge that.

Mr Flynn then joked Mr Sunaks advocacy for the benefits of single market access in Northern Ireland suggests Labour believes in Brexit more than the Prime Minister.

Mr Flynn said: What the Prime Minister said yesterday is that EU single market access will be a good thing for business. Now of course thats in contrast to the leader of the Labour Party (Sir Keir Starmer) who said in December that EU single market access would not boost economic growth.

Does it hurt the Prime Minister to know that the Labour Party believe in Brexit more than he does?

Mr Sunak replied: The important thing to note is to avoid a land border on the island of Ireland between north and south. That is what is crucial to achieve in getting the right framework for the arrangements in Northern Ireland.

And the businesses there that trade across that border on a daily basis with complex supply chains need and value that access. That is something that the Windsor Framework has sought to achieve and I believe delivers it.

Its not about the macro issue of membership of the European Union, its about getting the right mechanisms in place to support businesses and communities in Northern Ireland. He knows better than that.

At Wales questions, Plaid Cymru Westminster leader Liz Saville Roberts said of Mr Sunaks advocacy for the benefits of Northern Ireland retaining access to the EUs single market: This is an excellent argument for Plaid Cymrus policy to rejoin the single market.

Why isnt it good enough for Wales?

Wales Office minister James Davies said: Wales voted to leave the EU quite decisively.

She knows that the situation in Northern Ireland is really quite different to that in Wales, and there has been a carefully put together deal to accommodate that situation, and I feel quite sure that the EU is not in the business of allowing what she suggests.

The Prime Ministers official spokesman defended Mr Sunaks comments about Northern Irelands status.

The reason that Northern Ireland has this unique position is because of the importance under the Good Friday Agreement of not establishing a border on the island of Ireland, he told reporters.

Protecting the Good Friday Agreement has been at the heart of what we are trying to achieve with this new Windsor agreement.
More than 200 patients are being evacuated from a Wexford hospital after a major fire broke out in part of the building.

Wexford General Hospital has been closed after emergency services attended the scene to deal with the incident.

Irish police said the fire service was notified shortly before 4pm and a major emergency was declared later.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar pledged that the government would do whatever was required in the aftermath of the incident.

A Garda spokesperson said: The fire is now under control.

The Wexford Fire Service will have a presence at the hospital overnight as a precaution.

There is significant water damage to the hospital.

As a result, a full evacuation of WGH is currently under way.

No injuries or accidents to patients or staff have been reported.

Over 200 patients are being transferred to a number of different hospitals.

The National Ambulance Service are working with the Hospital to treat patients and transport them to hospitals in Kilkenny, Cork and Dublin.

The hospital is coordinating with the relevant authorities regarding finding the location, cause of the fire and assessing the full damage.

We would ask the public not to come to the hospital and to stay away from the area.

Anyone requiring Emergency Care in the Wexford region should attend their closest alternative Accident and Emergency service.

A helpline for patients families is to be set up as soon as possible to deal with queries.

Images posted to social media on Wednesday afternoon showed smoke billowing from the building.

Images also showed a fire service cherrypicker being used to dampen down the blaze from above.

People have been advised to avoid the area if possible, and those living in the area have been told to close their doors and windows.

Mr Varadkar spoke of his shock over the fire and paid tribute to the emergency services.

He said: This terrible incident strikes to the heart of the community in Wexford and the broader region.

Fire crews and other emergency personnel have been fighting this major emergency for many hours. We pay tribute to their dedication and heroism.

Our thoughts are also with the hundreds of patients who have had to be evacuated from the hospital, as well as their families, and the staff and management dealing with this unprecedented situation.

I will be receiving an update on the situation on Thursday.

The Government will do whatever is required in the aftermath of this emergency.

IMPORTANT Due to a fire incident in Wexford General Hospital we ask that everyone avoid the area!! Anyone living in close proximity, close windows and doors and turn off all air ventilation!!!  Wexford County Council (@wexfordcoco) March 1, 2023

A spokesperson for the Ireland East Hospital Group said in a statement to the PA news agency: Wexford General Hospital can confirm there was a fire in the hospital today.

The hospital is co-ordinating with the relevant authorities.

The Dail was told by the junior justice minister that parts of the building had been evacuated.

Theres a significant fire I think has broken out in Wexford General Hospital, Wexford TD James Browne said.

Our thoughts are with everybody there in the hospital and hopefully theres no injuries. But I know I think parts of the hospital have been evacuated and the Gardai have asked people to stay away.

Wexford County Council tweeted: Due to a fire incident in Wexford General Hospital we ask that everyone avoid the area.

Anyone living in close proximity, close windows and doors and turn off all air ventilation.

George Lawlor, cathaoirleach of Wexford County Council, told RTE the fire was substantial but there appeared to be no danger to patients or staff.

He said: Its still ongoing, however from what I believe from the Deputy Chief Fire Officer the source of the fire is under control and theyre fighting back some of the smoke.

The impact on the hospital is unknown yet as to what services will be affected but as a precaution a number of wards are being evacuated.
[March 01, 2023] Australia Social Commerce Market Intelligence and Future Growth Dynamics Databook Q1 2023: New Players are Entering the Social Commerce Market Through the Launch of the Shoppable Video Platform

DUBLIN, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Australia Social Commerce Market Intelligence and Future Growth Dynamics Databook - 50+ KPIs on Social Commerce Trends by End-Use Sectors, Operational KPIs, Retail Product Dynamics, and Consumer Demographics - Q1 2023 Update" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

According to the publisher, social commerce industry in Australia is expected to grow by 14.4% on annual basis to reach US$1655.5 million in 2023.



The social commerce industry is expected to grow steadily over the forecast period, recording a CAGR of 11.7% during 2022-2028. The social commerce GMV in the country will increase from US$1655.5 million in 2023 to reach US$3212.0 million by 2028.



As social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, continue to invest and improve their social commerce capabilities, the trend of social buying and shopping is projected to grow at a significant rate in Australia. While retailers will continue to partner with influencers to drive their social commerce revenue, spending by brands in the space will be significantly higher for activities such as brand awareness, engagement, and online store traffic.



Furthermore, the competitive landscape in the Australian social commerce industry is also expected to grow significantly, amid the entry of new players that are seeking to tap into the growing trend of live stream shopping. Millennials and Gen Z shoppers are projected to drive social commerce revenue for brands and retailers in the country. Overall, the industry is expected to record steady growth over the next three to four years, as investment in the sector continues to rise.



Retailers are leveraging social commerce capabilities to reach more customers and drive engagement



The popularity of social commerce has increased significantly in Australia and this trend is projected to further grow from the short to medium-term perspective. Consequently, to gain a competitive advantage, retailers are increasingly investing in the space to drive engagement and reach more customers. For instance, LSKD, an Australian sportswear brand, has increasingly invested in social commerce capabilities and is planning to further boost its investment in the space to drive customer engagement. The firm is planning to offer consumers a social media-like experience on its website and is, therefore, betting on video content capabilities. The firm already has a strong presence in the social commerce space and future investment will assist the firm in further strengthening its position in the sector. From the short to medium-term perspective, the publisher expects more retailers to increase their investment in the social commerce space, which will also drive the growth of the overall market over the next three to four years.



New players are entering the social commerce market through the launch of the shoppable video platform



The consumer demand for innovative and interative shopping experiences has driven the growth of the social commerce industry. With the rising trend of live streaming shopping in Australia, more players are entering the segment, thereby driving the competitive landscape as well.- Tolstoy, the new shoppable video platform launched in Australia, is seeking to revolutionize the way consumers make purchases while driving incremental revenue for brands and retailers.



As of November 2022, the firm has partnered with over 5,000 brands, which also includes hundreds of businesses in Australia, including Hero Packaging, Culture Kings, and others. The shoppable video platform has made it easier for Australian retailers to embrace the shift to social commerce while allowing them to drive incremental revenue. With the firm having over 40 million consumers watching videos every month, the entry into the Australian market can further accelerate the growth of the domestic social commerce industry from the short to medium-term perspective.





Global social media platforms are projected to contribute to the domestic market growth significantly



Leading social media platforms are increasingly boosting their investment as they continue to make inroads in the social commerce space. This investment from global players is expected to assist the domestic market growth significantly. For instance, In November 2022 , YouTube, the video-sharing platform owned by Google, that the firm is further delving deeper into the social commerce space. In 2023, the firm is planning to launch new social commerce capabilities on its platform, as it seeks to garner more market share in the global social commerce industry. In Australia , the firm already allows consumers to shop from the platform through its Shorts feature. From the short to medium-term perspective, more such firms are expected to launch innovative features. Consequently, the investment and innovation by these leading players in the global market will keep supporting the industry growth in Australia over the next three to four years.



This report provides a detailed data centric analysis of social commerce industry, covering market opportunities and risks. With over 50+ KPIs at country level, this report provides a comprehensive understanding of social commerce market dynamics, market size and forecast, and market share statistics.



The research methodology is based on industry best practices. Its unbiased analysis leverages a proprietary analytics platform to offer a detailed view on emerging business and investment market opportunities.



Scope



This report provides in-depth, data-centric analysis of social commerce in Australia. Below is a summary of key market segments: Australia Ecommerce Industry Market Size and Future Growth Dynamics by Key Performance Indicators, 2019-2028 Australia Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Future Growth Dynamics by Key Performance Indicators, 2019-2028 Australia Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Retail Product Categories, 2019-2028 Clothing & Footwear

Beauty and Personal Care

Food & Grocery

Appliances and Electronics

Home Improvement

Travel

Hospitality Australia Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by End Use Segment, 2019-2028 B2B

B2C

C2C Australia Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by End Use Device, 2019-2028 Mobile

Desktop Australia Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Location, 2019-2028 Domestic

Cross Border Australia Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Location, 2019-2028 Tier-1 Cities

Tier-2 Cities

Tier-3 Cities Australia Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Payment Method, 2019-2028 Credit Card

Debit Card

Bank Transfer

Prepaid Card

Digital & Mobile Wallet

Other Digital Payment

Cash Australia Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Platforms Video Commerce

Social Network-Led Commerce

Social Reselling

Group Buying

Product Review Platforms Australia Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Consumer Demographics & Behaviour,2022 By Age

By Income Level

By Gender Reasons to buy In-depth Understanding of Social Commerce Market Dynamics: Understand market opportunities and key trends along with forecast (2019-2028).

Insights into Opportunity by end-use sectors - Get market dynamics by end-use sectors to assess emerging opportunity across various end-use sectors.

Develop Market Specific Strategies: Identify growth segments and target specific opportunities to formulate social commerce strategy; assess market specific key trends, drivers, and risks in the industry. For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/syqfr2-social?w=5 About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends. 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 View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/australia-social-commerce-market-intelligence-and-future-growth-dynamics-databook-q1-2023-new-players-are-entering-the-social-commerce-market-through-the-launch-of-the-shoppable-video-platform-301759604.html SOURCE Research and Markets

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] Genians and Deloitte team up to deliver NAC-driven Zero Trust Network Access solutions

Genians, the industry pioneer in Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) solutions, today announced a sales partnership with Deloitte, which recently joined forces with Makros, a Genians sales partner in Chile. Over the past three years, Makros has proven to be an outstanding business partner by consistently delivering Genian NAC solutions to the Chilean market: Makros has grown its NAC revenues by 132% since 2020 Makros customer retention rate is 100% With Makros' record of success, Deloitte by virtue of this partnership will move to the forefront of cybersecurity consulting in Chile. As Anthony Viel, CEO of Deloitte Canada, notes: "Makros' presence and reputation in Chile are exceptional and we are delighted to have the opportunity to work alongside the best." Indeed, the resulting combination of highly-skilled Makros and Deloitte resources will make it possible to provide end-to-end cybersecurity services and solutions in both existing and new sectors, not only in Chile but abroad. Marcelo Diaz, former CEO of Makros and Deloitte Cyber Risk Partner, says "Genians' comprehensive NAC solutions with flexible deployment options like subscription-based Cloud-Managed NAC makes it possible for us to quickly meet customers' NAC requirements more effectively and economically. Now, as Genian NAC has evolved to support Zero Trust security initiatives, this will further bolster its place in enterprise cybersecurity practices." Kyeyeon Kim, Genians' Co-founder and CTO, adds that, "As Marcelo mentioned, ??Genians has extended its NAC capabilities to support Zero Trust security architecture by introducing NAC-driven ZTNA solutions, which provides secure access from anywhere in all campus, remote, cloud and even hybrid environments seamlessly. Team Genians is looking forward to working with Deloitte to boost up our cybersecurity business further by supporting Deloitte's Zero Trust Access framework."



To learn more about this acquisition and Deloitte cybersecurity services in Chile, please contact below: Email: [email protected] Phone : +56 22729 7000 Fax : +56 22374 9177 About Deloitte

Deloitte provides audit and assurance, consulting, financial advisory, risk advisory, tax, and related services to public and private clients spanning multiple industries. Deloitte serves four out of five Fortune Global 500 companies through a globally connected network of member firms in more than 150 countries and territories bringing world-class capabilities, insights, and service to address clients' most complex business challenges. Deloitte LLP, an Ontario limited liability partnership, is the Canadian member firm of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited. Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee, and its network of member firms, each of which is a legally separate and independent entity. Please see www.deloitte.com/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited and its member firms. Our global Purpose is making an impact that matters. At Deloitte Canada, that translates into building a better future by accelerating and expanding access to knowledge. We believe we can achieve this Purpose by living our shared values to lead the way, serve with integrity, take care of each other, foster inclusion, and collaborate for measurable impact. To learn more about Deloitte's approximately 330,000 professionals, over 11,000 of whom are part of the Canadian firm, please connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. About Genians Genians (KOSDAQ: 263860), the industry pioneer in Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), provides a fundamental cybersecurity platform for building a trusted path to secure access for any connecting devices by leveraging its Device Platform Intelligence (DPI), Network Access Control (NAC), and Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR). Since 2005, the company has served more than 2,400 customers, in organizations of all sizes and industries, including global Fortune 500 companies, the government, the military, critical infrastructure, finance, healthcare, education, and more. Genians is working to build a better security culture in the connected world by teaming up with global communities and industry leaders around the world. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005145/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023]

LOCAL 10-DIGIT DIALING STARTS APRIL 1 IN NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADOR

ST. JOHN'S, NL, March 1, 2023 /CNW/ - Starting April 1, 2023, local 10-digit dialing will be introduced in Newfoundland & Labrador. Residents will be required to dial 10 digits  the area code followed by the seven-digit phone number  for all local calls. Local calls dialed with seven digits will be interrupted by a recorded network announcement before being connected.

The Telecommunications Alliance, a group of major Canadian communications companies, is leading a public awareness campaign to inform residents and businesses in Newfoundland & Labrador about local 10-digit dialing.

"Local 10-digit dialing impacts all residents and businesses. It is important that everyone adopt this new dialing mode starting on April 1st," said Kelly T. Walsh, Program Manager of the Canadian Numbering Administrator.

Programming communications systems and devices







Residents and businesses need to add the area code 709 to programmed numbers in all of their communications devices and equipment including wireline and wireless phones, auto dialers, computers, alarm systems and lifeline equipment. They should also include their 10-digit phone numbers on stationary, cheques, advertising, and update their employee, client, supplier, and other databases.

Additional information is available on the Telecommunications Alliance website at dial10.ca.

Network message

Starting April 1, local calls dialed with seven digits may be interrupted by a network message. The message reminds callers that they must dial 10 digits when making local calls. Calls will continue to go through until May 31, after which time seven-digit local calls will not be completed.

The Telecommunications Alliance

Canada's major communications service providers have joined forces to develop a communications campaign informing the public about the introduction of 10-digit dialing and new area codes in certain calling areas. For more information, please visit dial10.ca.

SOURCE Telecommunications Alliance
[February 28, 2023] Sabanto Delivers Autonomous Tractor Units to Patrick Space Force Base

CHICAGO, Feb. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Sabanto, Inc announced delivery of two autonomous tractor units to the 45th Civil Engineer Squadron at Patrick Space Force Base, Florida. These units will aid the grounds maintenance measures around the base. This technology allows one operator to supervise multiple tractors, addressing labor shortages and helping to alleviate a backlog of tasks. "We are excited to provide our technology not only to the United States Air Force, but also to the United States Space Force," said Eddie Brown, Sabanto's Vice President of Government Products & Services. "Expanding our market within the Department of Defense represents a big step for Sabanto." Sabanto's autonomous technology was recently installed on the supported Kubota M5 tractor platform and is being used to automate airfield mowing operations using Sabanto's state-of-the-art path planning technology. "Automating our moers will allow for the reallocation of labor hours to tackle other base priorities," said Andrew C. Johnson, Captain, USAF. "By maximizing our labor hours, we will be able to complete more tasks in-house to support the space launch mission, our mission partners, and the base populace."



"Sabanto is thankful for the opportunity to serve Patrick Space Force Base. We are looking forward to opportunities to advance Sabanto's technology to better support our military partners," said Cory Spaetti, Sabanto's Vice President of Product. Sabanto has proven, through extensive field testing, its ability to automate a variety of field operations over significant acres, leveraging a fleet of smaller 60 and 90 horsepower tractors. The company's advanced software has also been pivotal in deploying multiple systems for multiple days of non-stop operation.

Visit sabantoag.com to learn more about the company, the technology behind its autonomy kits, and to keep up with news as the company expands its product offerings throughout North America. About Sabanto Headquartered in Itasca, Illinois, Sabanto's mission is to accelerate autonomy in agricultural machinery to solve two primary problems: (i) the increasingly acute scarcity of labor in rural areas and (ii) ever-increasing capital expenses for modern ag machinery. Sabanto's core competency revolves around low-cost retrofits of existing agriculture machinery regardless of make or model, along with the development of necessary supporting software to maximize the utility of autonomous technology, thereby increasing producer ROI. Learn more at https://sabantoag.com. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sabanto-delivers-autonomous-tractor-units-to-patrick-space-force-base-301758870.html SOURCE Sabanto

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
LOS ANGELESIndustry veteran Kim Varner, membership coordinator for HPPPA, passed away on Sunday, February 26, 2023.

She was a pivotal part of HPPPAs growth and the industry overall. Her mission was to bridge sectors together for the good of their business. She made many connections and friendships in this industry; one particularly special friend was Tamara Bell. Kim and Tamara became business partners and sisters. They worked to achieve the betterment of the industry and the understanding of the party plan sector. They worked on numerous projects, spoke on various panels, and wrote a host of articles. They were co-editors-in-chiefs on Sexpert.com.

Tamara, thank you for providing a safe space, she said before her passing.

Several members of the pleasure products community offered words of condolences, such as Scott Watkins, VP of sales & marketing at Doc Johnson.

Kim was a special person who touched all of our lives in one way or another," Watkins said.

She was a great communicator and an overall brilliant person," said Loren Levy.

So many have said they are going to miss Varner's beautiful smile, exceptional knowledge she provided and kind and gentle persona.

I am going to miss our daily talks, business building and mostly the friendship we developed," Bell said. "We were together on every project, at every show and pretty much everything. She was my person, and I will hold on to every ounce of memories we made together. I will truly miss her, but will continue her legacy."

In 2004, Kim started her own business, Kymbras Closet, which remained operational in some format until her passing. She built two other equally successful businesses, Fun with Fellatio: A Hands-on Guide to Giving Good Head workshop that she licenses to others in the industry; and Kymbras Girl stag, a bachelorette-themed party company.

She was a certified Loveologist, through Dr. Ava Cadells Loveology University, an ACS certified Sex Educator, a published author and facilitator on the Manufacturer's Forum developed for HPPPA associate members. Kim also was a formerly trained course designer and developer, and she utilized this skill set to enhance the effectiveness and performance of other people in this industry. She had developed and conducted training countless sessions over the years.

Kim graduated from Lincoln University of Missouri in 1983 where she was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated (1980).

She married her husband Arthur Varner in 1997 and gave birth to their only child, Clayton, in 2001. Clayton was the apple of Kims eye. She adored their son and did all she could to ensure he had a wealth of experiences throughout his childhood and teen years. She was big on college and made sure he continued his education.

"We are setting up a GoFundMe account to ensure he finishes school to receive his degree to become an architect," Bell said. "Kim had a different sense of humor. To know Kim meant you were prepared to receive whatever would fall from her lips. Sometimes you had to brace yourself. It was not always pretty or politically correct, but she didnt mince words and she said what she meant. She would laugh loudly with you and at herself. Her smile was infectious and made you feel welcomed in her presence."

Bell said that Kims final quote and how she always looked at business and life:

'Dont remember me as fighting a battle, I was living my life,'" Tamara shared. "'Remember as you continue through life to laugh loudly, love deeply, forgive quickly and live in every moment.' She will be missed and loved by all who had the opportunity to meet and work with her. Her legacy will live on for years to come."
[February 28, 2023] Oizom's Patented E-Breathing Technology Is Changing The Way Industries And Authorities Monitor Air Quality

AHMEDABAD, India, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Oizom, a leading air monitoring solutions provider, uses its innovative patented e-breathing technology in its devices. They have developed this revolutionary solution to significantly enhance the longevity and accuracy of air quality sensors by protecting them from direct exposure to harsh climate conditions. Industries and authorities from 50+ countries are already using this technology with a positive outcome. Kruti Davda, Environmental Lead of Oizom, explains the significance of this breakthrough, stating, "Our unique patented e-breathing technology represents a major leap forward in environmental monitoring. By shielding our sensors from direct exposure to harsh weather conditions, we ensure they last longer and operate more acurately. This significant advancement helps us provide even more reliable and accurate air quality data to industries."



Oizom stands aside from its competitors with its e-breathing technology, where sensors are placed inside the monitors. This protects the sensors from harsh environmental conditions like rain, snow, and dust, which can negatively impact the accuracy and lifespan of the sensors. One of the most significant benefits of this technology is its ability to increase the longevity of the sensors, resulting in cost savings for clients over time. Additionally, the e-breathing technology allows for greater accuracy in air quality monitoring, providing more reliable data that can be useful to make informed decisions about health and safety.

Oizom is committed to providing the industries with the most reliable and accurate air monitoring solutions . The e-breathing technology is a testament to that commitment, and they look forward to helping various industries and organisations monitor accurate data to achieve their sustainability goals. About Oizom Oizom is committed to delivering sustainable and trustworthy air quality monitoring solutions to a range of industries and organisations. Their accurate and affordable air quality monitors promise reliable insights in extreme climate conditions. Whether it's through real-time air quality monitoring, weather tracking, or energy efficiency measurement, Oizom's solutions provide critical insights that help organisations make data-driven decisions for a better and sustainable future. Media Contact:

Ayyan Karmakar

Chief Scientific Officer

[email protected]

+91-8866660116 Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2012776/Oizom_E_Breathing_Technology.jpg View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/in/news-releases/oizoms-patented-e-breathing-technology-is-changing-the-way-industries-and-authorities-monitor-air-quality-301759009.html

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] AVAYA HOLDINGS SHAREHOLDER ALERT: CLAIMSFILER REMINDS INVESTORS WITH LOSSES IN EXCESS OF $100,000 of Lead Plaintiff Deadline in Class Action Lawsuit Against Avaya Holdings Corp. - AVYA

NEW ORLEANS, Feb. 28, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ClaimsFiler, a FREE shareholder information service, reminds investors that they have until March 6, 2023 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against Avaya Holdings Corp. (NYSE: AVYA), if they purchased the Companys securities between November 22, 2021 and November 29, 2022, inclusive (the Class Period). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina.

Get Help Avaya investors should visit us at https://claimsfiler.com/cases/nyse-avya/ or call toll-free (844) 367-9658. Lawyers at Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC are available to discuss your legal options. About the Lawsuit Avaya and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws. On August 9, 2022, the Company disclosed that it would not timely file its 2Q22 quarterly financial report; that the Boards Audit Committee had opened an internal investigation to review the circumstances surrounding the financial results reported for the most recent quarter, and another to investigate a whistleblower letter; that there was substantial doubt about the Companys ability to continue as a going concern; and 3Q22 revenues that came in substantially lower than expected. On this news, shares of Avaya fell from $1.12 per share on August 8, 2022 to close down at $0.61 per share on August 9, 2022.



Then, on November 30, 2022, the Company disclosed that it would not timely file its fiscal year financial statements and admitted that it did not appropriately log the whistleblower's email received by a member of its Board of Directors nor did it convey its existence to management or to its outside auditor. On this news, shares of Avaya fell 14.28% to close down at $0.96 per share on November 30, 2022. The case is Fletcher v. Avaya Holdings Corp., et al., No. 23-cv-00003.

About ClaimsFiler ClaimsFiler has a single mission: to serve as the information source to help retail investors recover their share of billions of dollars from securities class action settlements. At ClaimsFiler.com, investors can: (1) register for free to gain access to information and settlement websites for various securities class action cases so they can timely submit their own claims; (2) upload their portfolio transactional data to be notified about relevant securities cases in which they may have a financial interest; and (3) submit inquiries to the Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC law firm for free case evaluations. To learn more about ClaimsFiler, visit www.claimsfiler.com.



[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] EngageSmart Announces Pricing of Public Offering of Common Stock by Selling Stockholders

EngageSmart, Inc. ("EngageSmart") (NYSE: ESMT), a leading provider of vertically tailored customer engagement software and integrated payments solutions, announced today the pricing of an underwritten public offering of 8,000,000 shares of its common stock at a public offering price of $19.00 per share, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions, all of which are being sold by certain of EngageSmart's stockholders, including affiliates of General Atlantic, L.P. and Summit Partners and certain members of the Company's management (collectively, the "Selling Stockholders"). Certain of the Selling Stockholders have granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 1,200,000 additional shares of common stock at the public offering price, less underwriting discounts and commissions. The Selling Stockholders will receive all of the proceeds from the offering. EngageSmart is not selling any of its shares in the offering and will not receive any of the proceeds from the sale of shares in the offering. The offering is expected to close on March 3, 2023, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions. Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, J.P. Morgan, BofA Securities and Citigroup are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering. Deutsche Bank Securities, Raymond James, Truist Securities, and William Blair are acting as book-runners for the proposed offering. KeyBanc Capital Markets, Needham & Company, Penserra Securities LLC, R. Seelaus & Co., LLC and Roberts & Ryan are acting as co-managers for the offering. The public offering is being made pursuant to an automatic shelf registration statement on Form S-3 that was filed by EngageSmart with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") and automatically became effective upon filing. A preliminary prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus relating to and describing the terms of the offering have been filed with the SEC and are available on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. When available, copies of the final prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus may be obtained by contacting: Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, Attention: Prospectus Department, 200 West Street, New York, New York 10282, by phone at (866) 471-2526 or by email at [email protected]; J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, New York 11717, by phone at (866) 803-9204 or by email at [email protected]; BofA Securities, Attention: Prospectus Department, NC1-004-03-43, 200 North College Street, 3rd Floor, Charlotte, NC 28255-0001, by telephone at (800) 299-1322 or by e-mail at [email protected]; or Citigroup Global Markets Inc., c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717, toll-free: (800) 831-9146 or by e-mail at [email protected].



This release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy these securities, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or other jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or other jurisdiction. Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this release are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this release may be forward-looking statements, including statements relating to the completion of the offering and the grant of the option to purchase additional shares. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as "may," "will," "should," "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "could," "intends," "targets," "projects," "contemplates," "believes," "estimates," "forecasts," "predicts," "potential" or "continue" or the negative of these terms or other similar expressions. The forward-looking statements in this release are only predictions. EngageSmart has based these forward-looking statements largely on its current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that EngageSmart believes may affect its business, financial condition, and results of operations. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause EngageSmart's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, the important factors discussed in Item 1A of EngageSmart's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, and Forms 10-Q and 8-K subsequently filed with the SEC. Such statements in this release are based upon information available to EngageSmart as of the date of this release, and while EngageSmart believes such information forms a reasonable basis for such statements, such information may be limited or incomplete, and such statements should not be read to indicate that EngageSmart has conducted an exhaustive inquiry into, or review of, all potentially available relevant information. These statements are inherently uncertain and investors are cautioned not to unduly rely upon these statements. EngageSmart qualifies all of its forward-looking statements by these cautionary statements. Except as required by applicable law, EngageSmart does not plan to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements contained in this release, whether as a result of any new information, future events, or otherwise. About EngageSmart EngageSmart is a leading provider of vertically tailored customer engagement software and integrated payments solutions. Our mission is to simplify customer and client engagement to allow our customers to focus resources on initiatives that improve their businesses and better serve their communities. EngageSmart offers single instance, multi-tenant, true Software-as-a-Service vertical solutions, including SimplePractice, InvoiceCloud, HealthPay24 and DonorDrive, that are designed to simplify its customers' engagement with their clients by driving digital adoption and self-service. As of December 31, 2022, EngageSmart serves approximately 99,300 customers in the SMB Solutions segment and approximately 3,300 customers in the Enterprise Solutions segment across several core verticals: Health & Wellness, Government, Utilities, Financial Services, Healthcare, and Giving. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230228006505/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] KKR Completes Acquisition of Hitachi Transport System

Global investment firm KKR announced today that KKR has completed KKR's acquisition of Hitachi Transport System Ltd. ("HTS" or the "Company"). KKR holds the shares of HTS through HTSK Co., Ltd. ("HTSK"), a special purpose entity which owns 100% of the shares with voting rights in HTS, and through HTSK Holdings Co., Ltd. ("HTSK Holdings"), a 100% parent and holding company of HTSK. KKR will work in strategic partnership with Hitachi Ltd. ("Hitachi"), which owns 10% of the shares with voting rights in HTSK Holdings and KKR owns the remaining 90% of the shares with voting rights. HTSK acquired 100% of the shares with voting rights in HTS through a cash tender offer, the results of which were announced on November 30, 2022, a share consolidation that became effective on February 28, 2023, and a buyback by HTS of the shares held by Hitachi on March 1, 2023. HTS will be renamed LOGISTEED, Ltd. ("LOGISTEED") from April 1, 2023, a name that combines LOGISTICS with Exceed, Proceed, Succeed, and Speed, which represents the Company's determination to grow its business into new areas beyond logistics. Als from April 1, 2023, HTSK Holdings and HTSK will change their names to LOGISTEED Holdings, Ltd., and LOGISTEED Group, Ltd., respectively.



LOGISTEED will build on HTS' leading position in the third-party logistics ("3PL") business in Japan. The Company provides supply chain solutions for customers who outsource logistics functions such as logistics system integration, inventory and order control, logistics center operations, factory logistics, and transportation and delivery services. It has a strong domestic 3PL business as well as an international business which includes a forwarding business and related 3PL business. About KKR

KKR is a leading global investment firm that offers alternative asset management as well as capital markets and insurance solutions. KKR aims to generate attractive investment returns by following a patient and disciplined investment approach, employing world-class people, and supporting growth in its portfolio companies and communities. KKR sponsors investment funds that invest in private equity, credit and real assets and has strategic partners that manage hedge funds. KKR's insurance subsidiaries offer retirement, life and reinsurance products under the management of Global Atlantic Financial Group. References to KKR's investments may include the activities of its sponsored funds and insurance subsidiaries. For additional information about KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE: KKR), please visit KKR's website at www.kkr.com and on Twitter @KKR_Co. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230228006515/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] WCKD RZR launches the world's fastest, simplest, data access revolution at Mobile World Congress 2023

Simplify and supercharge your data estate

Data at your fingertips in a single view

Virtually instant installation and connection to all your databases

Search, see and use data in minutes, no matter where its located in the world

Eliminates multi-million dollar digital transformation projects which often fail BARCELONA, Spain, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Data Enablement startup, WCKD RZR, has today unveiled a revolutionary AI-powered software solution which delivers unrivalled, supercharged data discovery, see, search and use capabilities for any multinational organisation, through a single pane of glass. Launched in a fanfare from the stage at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Data Now eliminates the need for organisations to undergo costly, often unachievable global data migration and transformation projects. Data Now is designed to simplify and streamline the process of data discovery and retrieval, giving businesses instant access to all their data, in any environment and location, through a simple search. The revolutionary product offers an uncomplicated, more efficient alternative to traditional data management practices, saving companies millions of dollars and often years they would otherwise spend on unachievable big data transformation projects. WCKD RZRs Data Now provides a user-friendly, central location for businesses to effortlessly see, search and instantly access data across an entire organisation. Once discovered, the software enables users to view and download data from multiple databases, in any environment around the world, seamlessly and fully compliant with all global data regulations. p>Chuck Teixeira, Founder and CEO of WCKD RZR, said: Were thrilled to launch Data Now at MWC in Barcelona this year. In Data Now, weve created the universal master key for data discovery. Our goal is to revolutionise the way businesses manage and access their data, and our solution does just that. Its truly disruptive and can benefit every large organisation on the planet.



Whether its multinational banks, government institutions or regional retailers; Data Now acts as their supercharged data connector and access accelerator. Data Now works from start to finish in a matter of minutes, right out of the box. Hook it up, connect it, and itll do the rest - you have access to all your data in one place immediately. With instant access to all data across their entire estate, businesses can unlock the full potential of their data, while saving vast amounts of unnecessary time and cost.

According to recent studies, only 32% of enterprise data is currently utilised, with more than two thirds going unleveraged. Forrester Research estimates that just a 10% increase in data accessibility will result in more than $2bn additional revenue and $65m additional net income for a typical Fortune 1000 company. Meanwhile, the cost of GDPR compliance is expected to grow to 2.4 billion by 2024 as businesses wrangle with an ever-increasing number of diverging global privacy and governance regulations. Data Now is the latest in WCKD RZRs growing, trail-blazing, stable of data solutions which enable companies to seamlessly find, govern and instantly access all their data, wherever it is located. Released last year, Data Watchdog, WCKD RZRs pioneering data enablement suite, already unlocks the potential of any multinational organisations assets by allowing them to Find and Govern their data in each country, real time, fully compliant with relevant data sharing, privacy and governance rules. Combined with Data Now, organisations can now see, search and swiftly monetise their data in a fully compliant manner. Jonathan Farina, Chief Technology Officer at WCKD RZR, added: Data Now is a full-service data access accelerator. We are revolutionising the way organisations can search multiple databases for information that they hold. Now they can search it, see it, find it, use it, monetise it. Mobile phones were transformed by the iPhone; video rentals were redefined by Netflix, and data access is now being revolutionised by Data Now. London-based WCKD RZR is one of just 6 startups to secure a highly sought after place on Cyber Runway Ignite, the most prestigious element of the largest UK government-backed cyber startup accelerator. The business was also one of just 50 startups selected globally for the inaugural Amazon Web Services (AWS) FinTech Accelerator programme. Photos accompanying this announcement are available at:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f18ddf10-eea6-4a9c-8573-a1f17ff6350b

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/af0d6666-e1c0-4bf3-8c16-3ca80518336b

For further details, please contact: Tim Reid Email: [email protected] or Tel: +44 7720 414205

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] Medimaps Group presents data showing new AI approach enhances osteoporosis diagnosis and monitoring at ECR 2023

Medimaps Group, a Swiss/Global med-tech company specializing in image-processing software for assessing bone health, announced today results showing that its new spine segmentation (SpS) deep learning algorithm may be a reliable, time-efficient tool to enhance patient monitoring and osteoporosis diagnosis. The SpS algorithm has been designed to enhance bone measurement accuracy on dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) lumbar spine (LS) scans with potential application in X-ray based imaging systems. The data is scheduled to be presented1 at the European Congress of Radiology (ECR), held in Vienna, Austria, March 1-5, 2023. "Our main aim is to bring clinically-driven innovations to radiologists that increase efficiency by reducing technical errors, save time and augment productivity," said Prof Didier Hans, CEO and co-founder of Medimaps Group, and Head of the R&D Bone Diseases Center Lausanne University Hospital, Switzerland. "Our data show, for the first time, the efficacy of an algorithm to assess lumbar spine segmentation on DXA scans to enable better screening for osteoporosis. Based on these promising results, we have moved this algorithm into further development stage, and look forward to submitting our next generation product for regulatory approval later this year." The results1 were obtained from a study using Medimaps Group's SpS deep learning algorithm on thousands of scans from the OsteoLaus cohort and evaluated on an independent test set. Results showed a significant improvement for the measured bone mineral density (BMD), trabecular bone score (TBS) and surface compared to the machine default bone mask, and similar results as obtained from a human expert bone mask. According to the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF), osteoporosis causes more than 8.9 million fractures globally every year, resulting in an osteoporosis fracture every three seconds. 1 in 5 men and 1 in 3 women will be affected by this disease in their lifetime. This suggests that approximately 500 million men and women worldwide may be affected by osteoporosis annually.2 "The volume of patients requiring scanning is steadily increasing in the radiology practice, therefore computerized tools such as the spine segmentation algorithm embedded into the TBS Osteo software represent a way forward to optimize the workflow while improving clinical patient mnagement. This best-in class software has proven to be a precious aid in our clinical routine to detect more cases of osteoporosis, and to improve patients bone health prognostic reliably, " said Prof. Giuseppe Guglielmi, Foggia University School of Medicine and Dimiccoli Teaching Hospital, Barletta, Italy, and former President of the European Society of Musculoskeletal Radiology (ESSR).



During the congress, Medimaps Group will also hold a series of radiologist peer-to-peer workshops to present TBS Osteo, a software product used by radiologists to monitor bone health. The software calculates TBS, an index of the bone microarchitecture and a BMD-independent bone fracture risk predictor. The use of TBS is proven to help identify approximately 30%3 more patients at risk of fracture compared to BMD alone, without additional examination time nor radiation. Entitled "Osteoporosis: augmented intelligence solutions for better patient care", these workshops will be co-presented by densitometry experts Prof Giuseppe Guglielmi and Prof Didier Hans. Delegates can register here to this in-person event held on Medimaps Group booth (#AI 41) on March 2,3,4 at 12:00pm-12:20pm. Medimaps Group's imaging software TBS Osteo has received regulatory approval and benefits from reimbursement in the US, and certain European countries. It is commercially available in 60 markets worldwide.

References 1. Gatineau G. et al, Evaluation of a deep learning spine segmentation (SpS) algorithm for accurate and reproducible monitoring of lumbar spine DXA scans, Poster #C-24875, ECR 2023. 2. Facts & Statistics: epidemiology of osteoporosis and fragility fractures, IOF, https://www.osteoporosis.foundation/facts-statistics/epidemiology-of-osteoporosis-and-fragility-fractures, last accessed, February 22, 2023 3. Hans D, Goertzen AL, Krieg MA, Leslie WD. Bone microarchitecture assessed by TBS predicts osteoporotic fractures independent of bone density: the Manitoba study. J Bone Miner Res. 2011 Nov;26(11):2762-9. doi: 10.1002/jbmr.499. PMID: 21887701. About Medimaps Group Medimaps Group's medical imaging software applications, based on patented multi-purpose technology with artificial intelligence capabilities, provide healthcare solutions that fit seamlessly into the workflow for the benefit of the patient. TBS iNsight (Osteo) has been used for years in clinical practice worldwide in the field of osteoporosis. It has become the new gold standard for bone texture assessment in routine clinical practice. TBS has gained international recognition with more than 900 peer-reviewed scientific publications and is included in many guidelines and used by more than 30,000 physicians worldwide including leading healthcare institutions. Learn more at https://www.medimapsgroup.com/. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230228006219/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] Xiaomi Officially Launches Xiaomi 13 Series

"co-engineered with Leica" in Hong Kong Mi Fans can experience pro-grade camera systems with authentic Leica experience on Xiaomi flagships HONG KONG, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Xiaomi today unveiled its latest flagship smartphone lineup  Xiaomi 13 Series  in Hong Kong. Through in-depth product collaborations between Xiaomi and Leica, as part of the Strategic Partnership in Imaging Technology, Xiaomi 13 and Xiaomi 13 Pro aim to offer a brand-new smartphone photography experience to its international users. The high-anticipated dual flagship models are proudly co-engineered with Leica and offer Leica professional optical lenses, as well as a host of advanced computational and software capabilities to complete an authentic Leica experience. Other premium features include the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and Xiaomi's own Surge battery management system, ensuring powerful performances on all fronts. Also introduced with Xiaomi 13 Series is Xiaomi 13 Lite, which delivers excellent portrait imaging and extended photography options for aspirational young adults. Master-level photography with Leica co-engineered camera system Every aspect of Xiaomi 13 and Xiaomi 13 Pro's camera system, from hardware and image quality to UI/UX design, has been created in collaboration with Leica to deliver a pro-grade smartphone photography experience. Both smartphones are kitted with a triple camera setup featuring Leica optical lenses. The Leica Vario-Summicron 1:19-2.2/14-75 ASPH. camera system on Xiaomi 13 Pro covers focal lengths from 14mm to 75mm, and are comprised of a 23mm wide-angle main camera with an ultra-large 1-inch IMX989 sensor, a 75mm floating telephoto camera, as well as a 14mm ultra-wide angle camera. First seen on Xiaomi 12S Ultra, the IMX989 sensor is the largest sensor ever incorporated into a smartphone. With high dynamic range, superb light-capturing capabilities and fast responses, the large sensor ensures colorful images with distinct contrast and defined textures that reveal every fine detail. By adopting a DSLR-level internal focusing technology, the smartphone's new 75mm telephoto lens utilizes a floating lens design to achieve a focal range from 10cm to infinity - perfect for framing stunning portraits and beautiful close-ups. Meanwhile, Xiaomi 13 has an optical zoom range of 0.6x to 3.2x, and also features a 75mm telephoto lens. Xiaomi 13 and Xiaomi 13 Pro offer a wide range of detailed camera setting options to thrill both shutterbugs and professional photographers. The master-lens system, a software feature, provides great focal length and depth of field for capturing perfect portraits. Users can also select two distinct photographic styles  Leica Authentic Look and Leica Vibrant Look, offering aesthetic possibilities with images maintaining accuracy and offering moderate saturation. With an appealing and easy-to-use UI, more fun features include Leica Filters, Leica watermark, and the Leica classic shutter sound. With Xiaomi Imaging Engine, Xiaomi 13 Pro and Xiaomi 13 feature the strongest computational photography capabilities among all Xiaomi flagships. Not only its photo-capturing speeds are enhanced, but also allowing the devices to automatically focus on certain subjects in motion with Xiaomi PrFocus, further elevating the overall camera experience.



Offering great image optimization, both smartphones allow manual adjustment of shooting parameters in pro-mode. Xiaomi 13 Pro supports 10-Bit RAW DNG Camera and Color Profiles created by Adobe, leaving professionals greater post-editing room on Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom. Xiaomi 13 and Xiaomi 13 Pro also excel at shooting video. An exceptional tool for pro-level videographers, both devices allow users to "Create in Dolby Vision" with vivid colors, sharp contrast ratios and rich details, capture 4K Ultra Night Videos, and offer HyperOIS video stabilization for capturing in exceptional video quality.

Dazzling speed + performance with Snapdragon? 8 Gen 2 and reliability + power with Xiaomi Surge Xiaomi 13 and Xiaomi 13 Pro are both powered by the leading Snapdragon? 8 Gen 2 mobile platform, with enhanced graphics processing through a GPU performance and power efficiency improvement of 42% and 49% respectively compared to the previous generation, while CPU performance and power efficiency is improved by 37% and 47% respectively. This powerful performance guarantees ease and speed when handling tasks like computational photography, real-time AI and gaming, while prolonging the daily battery life. The devices also offer Wi-Fi 7 support with Qualcomm FastConnectTM 7800 Mobile Connectivity System. Xiaomi 13 Pro's featured High Band Simultaneous (HBS) Multi-Link technology allows for multiple and simultaneous 5GHz and 6GHz connections, and is capable of realizing ultra-high speeds of up to 5.8 Gbps, along with reduced latency and great network capability. Xiaomi 13, on the other hand, features Dual Band Simultaneous (DBS) Multi-Link operation, and is capable of realizing network speeds of up to 3.6Gbps. Xiaomi 13 and Xiaomi 13 Pro are equipped with Xiaomi Surge battery management system that utilizes Xiaomi's self-developed Surge charging chip for a longer service life and upgraded experience. Equipped with a 4,500mAh battery, with the highest energy density under the same power, Xiaomi 13 will easily last through the day. It also supports 67W wired turbo charging and 50W wireless turbo charging. Meanwhile, Xiaomi 13 Pro boasts an even larger 4,820mAh battery with 120W HyperCharge, capable of charging to 100% in just 19 minutes. Premium flagship flaunting a minimalistic design and best-in-class display Both Xiaomi 13 and Xiaomi 13 Pro feature an all-new minimalistic design language highlighting their powerful technological capabilities. Available in classic and captivating colors, Black, White and Flora Green, Xiaomi 13 adopts a stylish flat screen design with flat-edges and a 2.5D curved back design. Both attractive and comfortable to hold, Xiaomi 13 features an incredible screen-to-body ratio of 93.3% and 1.61mm ultra-thin bezels and chin, which delivers an incredible viewing experience especially for a device this size. Equipped with a large 6.36" FHD+ AMOLED display, Xiaomi 13 ensures content are displayed in top-notch color accuracy and brightness with the E6 AMOLED material at lower power consumption. Xiaomi 13 Pro, on the other hand, features a 3D-curved ceramic body for a uniform look that transitions smoothly especially into the camera mode. It comes in two colors, Ceramic White and Ceramic Black and is also pleasant to hold. Sporting a 120Hz WQHD+ AMOLED display, this larger 6.73" screen is a true marvel. Thanks to the same E6 material, it is capable of achieving 1,200 nits full-screen brightness and 1,900 nits peak brightness, as well as displaying accurate colors with its TrueColor display. With Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HDR10, HLG, as well as Dolby Atmos support, the device delivers a truly immersive audiovisual experience. Both devices offer IP68 dust and water resistance, ensuring optimal protection and peace of mind. Premium services to match Notably, Xiaomi 13 Pro and Xiaomi 13 will offer 3 generations of Android system updates, along with 5 years of security patch updates. Users of the two devices are also entitled to experience up to 6 months of free trial for both Google One cloud storage of up to 2TB, which brings expanded storage space for memories taken with the pro-grade camera system, and YouTube Premium access. Furthermore, thanks to Android's digital car key feature support, Xiaomi 13 Pro and Xiaomi 13 will let users share their digital car keys with loved ones to unlock, lock, and start their cars. In addition, both Xiaomi 13 Pro and Xiaomi 13 users will get 1 out-of-warranty repair without labor cost within the first 12 months after purchase. To further improve the overall after-sales experience, Xiaomi now offers Smartphone International Warranty Service in over 40 markets worldwide. Users of Xiaomi 13 Pro smartphones that meet the device's warranty conditions can enjoy the warranty service globally at any designated Xiaomi authorized service provider. Visit mi.com for more details. Xiaomi 13 Lite boasts versatility with dual front cameras for social media enthusiasts Xiaomi 13 Lite is tailored to young smartphone users who are passionate about capturing unique selfies, stories, and scenes. Equipped with dual front cameras and versatile software features, this device is specifically designed to meet their needs. While the 32MP front camera captures crystal-clear images, the 8MP front camera helps provide additional depth information for natural looking bokeh in these self-portraits. Adding value for avid social media content creators, the device also offers useful and fun features such as Dynamic Framing, which smartly detects the number of people in the frame, auto-adjusts the field of view and zoom in or zoom out as appropriate, thus minimizing selfie distortion, as well as Selfie zoom, Pocket mirror, and Xiaomi Selfie Glow  all designed to enable taking high-quality selfies and video calls with ease. To support smooth day-to-day operations, Xiaomi 13 Lite is equipped with a powerful Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 mobile platform, a gorgeous 120Hz AMOLED display, along with 67W fast charging capabilities. All this comes in a 7.23mm thin and 171g featherweight package with a 4,500mAh battery, offering an unmatched in-hand sensation while maintaining the longlasting daily power. Pricing and Availability Xiaomi 13 Series is available for pre order from Feb 28 to March 7 and sale starting March 8 via Xiaomi official channels. Xiaomi 13 Pro comes in two colors: Ceramic Black, Ceramic White, with 2 storage variants.

12GB+256GB  priced at HK$7,699

12GB+512GB  priced at HK$8,499 Xiaomi 13 comes in three colors: Black, White, Flora Green.

12GB+256GB  priced at HK$5,999 Xiaomi 13 Lite also comes in three colors: Blue, Pink, Black.

8GB+256GB  priced at HK$3,299 SOURCE Xiaomi Hong Kong

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] OKG TECH Establishes a Partnership with OKCoin Japan to Enter Japan's Compliance Market

HONG KONG, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- OKG Technology Holdings Limited ("OKG TECH" or the "Company," 1499. HK) is pleased to announce today that its subsidiary, OKLink Fintech Limited ("OKLink"), has established a strategic partnership agreement with OKCoinJapan, a Japan's licensed digital assets exchange, whereby the Company will provide Know-Your-Transaction (KYT) service for OKCoinJapan to help its platform to improve the overall compliance standard and create a safer trading environment. The partnership marks OKG TECH enters Japan's compliance market for the first time and means an essential step in the Company's international layout. The partnership also strengthens the Company's commitment to assist in the international regulation of anti-money laundering (AML) practices and create a secure virtual asset trading environment. Japan is an important global market for cryptocurrency trading. Japan Financial Services Agency("FSA"), the local regulator, fomulates strict requirements for digital assets assets market participants: high license application threshold, long application period and applicants can only conduct business if they are officially licensed. From 1 April 2023, all digital assets exchanges in Japan will begin to implement Financial Action Task Force (FATF) 's Travel Rule to combat money laundering activities. OKCoinJapan is the first digital asset exchange among the world's leading exchanges to be recognized by Japan FSA through its own application. As regulated by Japan FSA, all partners of OKCoinJapan need to be filed and recognized by the regulator. This time, the partnership agreement reflects the high recognition of OKLink's services from the Japanese regulatory authorities.



OKLink, as the world's leading on-chain security service provider, has blockchain explorer, Chaintelligence, OKLink Audit and other products. The amount of on-chain data collected has exceeded 200TB, supporting full-node data analysis of more than 20 public chains, with on-chain transaction data up to 16.7 billion, multi-dimensional address data over 2 billion, and address label data up to 2 billion. John Feng, the representative director of OKCoinJapan said, "We are pleased to establish a strategic partnership with OKLink. Through this partnership, the two companies hope to enhance the security of the entire digital asset ecosystem while achieving anti-money laundering goals."

Jeff Ren, the Chairman and CEO of OKG TECH, said, "We are delighted that OKG TECH has taken the first step into Japan's compliance market, laying a solid foundation to assist international regulatory authorities in anti-money laundering. This is a small step for our business but a big step in the fight against global cyber financial crimes. We will continue to deepen our business layout and expand our services to more places." SOURCE OKG TECHNOLOGY HOLDINGS LIMITED

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] Air Europa Selects Quantum Metric to Achieve Digital Excellence at Scale

New partnership will provide complete visibility into the complex journeys of Air Europa's global customer base. COLORADO SPRING, Colo., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Quantum Metric , the Continuous Product Design platform for customer-driven digital experiences, today shares that Air Europa has chosen to partner with the company to further its mission of providing the best digital experience across every customer touchpoint. As an international airline flying to over 55 destinations around the world, Air Europa will work with Quantum Metric to easily visualize every multi-channel, multi-step booking experience, and prioritize digital needs based on its impact to the business and the customer. "From the first time they visit our site, customers need to feel that the booking experience is seamless and in tune with their needs, said Oscar Riolobos, Web Director at Air Europa. "Quantum Metric provides an enterprise-grade infrastructure for analyzing our customer experience, enabling a clear and direct understanding of even the most complex parts of our digital experience today. This empowers my team to be customer-first, prioritizing what to act on next based on its impact across our global customer base." Data from Quantum Metric's most recent Travel Benchmarks Report shows that at least 51% of consumers use multiple channels throughout their booking experience from initial travel research, to the check-in and flight experience. Working with Quantum Metric, Air Europa now has complete visibility into the omnichannel custoer experience and context into the why behind customer behavior. With the ability to quantify every challenge or opportunity, in real-time, Air Europa is equipped to exceed customer expectations at every touchpoint and easily scale its experiences as travelers' needs shift or evolve.



"Digital has dramatically evolved how we travel today. What was once transactional has become a complex experience that lasts long after the flight is booked," said Mario Ciabarra, CEO and Founder of Quantum Metric. "Travel brands like Air Europa are setting the bar for how to build customer-led relationships that convert consumers into customers for life. Our partnership with Air Europa will help to provide structured guidance and enable teams to feel confident in knowing that the digital priorities they are focused on today will not only move the business forward, but positively impact how people are able to travel in the coming months and years." Air Europa joins the larger community of global travel brands that work with Quantum Metric today. With an enhanced understanding of the digital customer journey, Air Europa will continue to lean into its technology advantage and deliver technologically bold digital products across web, mobile and other digital channels.

For more information on Quantum Metric and its work within the travel industry visit: quantummetric.com About Air Europa Founded in 1986, Air Europa is a Spanish airline member of the SkyTeam alliance that aims to bring people together by offering them the freedom to create their best travel experience. The company's fleet is one of the most modern and sustainable in the industry, with Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Boeing 737 models that guarantee maximum efficiency and comfort for its passengers. Air Europa flies to more than 55 destinations around the world and has a strategic position in the Adolfo Suarez Madrid-Barajas airport hub, connecting Europe and America. The company stands out for its firm commitment to sustainability and decarbonisation, as well as for its commitment to innovation through the incorporation of the most advanced technologies for the digitalisation and optimization of its processes. In addition, Air Europa offers a high level of excellence to its passengers and is regularly ranked among the most punctual airlines in Europe. About Quantum Metric As the pioneer in Continuous Product Design, Quantum Metric helps organizations put customers at the heart of everything they do. The Quantum Metric platform provides a structured approach to understanding the digital customer journey, enabling organizations to recognize customer needs, quantify the financial impact and prioritize based on the impact to the customer and business' bottom line. Today, Quantum Metric captures insights from 30% of the world's internet users, supporting globally recognized brands across industries including retail, travel, financial services and telecommunications. For more information about Quantum Metric, visit www.quantummetric.com . Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1559642/Quantum_Metric_Logo.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/air-europa-selects-quantum-metric-to-achieve-digital-excellence-at-scale-301758865.html

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
TDCX to Participate in CITIC CLSA Asean Forum 2023

TDCX Inc. ("TDCX" or the "Company") (NYSE: TDCX), an award-winning digital customer experience (CX) solutions provider for technology and blue-chip companies, today announced that management will attend the following upcoming investor conference:

19th CITIC CLSA Asean Forum

Date: Friday, March 10, 2023

The presentation will be available on the investor relations section of the TDCX website investors.tdcx.com.

About TDCX Inc.

Singapore-headquartered TDCX provides transformative digital CX solutions, enabling world-leading and disruptive brand to acquire new customers, to build customer loyalty and to protect their online communities.







TDCX helps clients achieve their customer experience aspirations by harnessing technology, human intelligence and its global footprint. It serves clients in fintech, gaming, technology, home sharing and travel, digital advertising and social media, streaming and e-commerce. TDCX's expertise and strong footprint in Asia has made it a trusted partner for clients, particularly high-growth, new economy companies, looking to tap the region's growth potential.

TDCX's commitment to delivering positive outcomes for our clients extends to its role as a responsible corporate citizen. Its Corporate Social Responsibility program focuses on positively transforming the lives of its people, its communities and the environment.

TDCX employs more than 17,400 employees across 27 campuses globally, specifically Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Mainland China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, India, Romania, Spain, Colombia and Turkiye. For more information, please visit www.tdcx.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005500/en/
LOS ANGELESKasara Wood tells AVN she got into camming accidentally in the summer of 2019.

An exotic dancer for most of her adult life, Wood also worked as an assistant to nurse practitioners and therapists in the psych world while sometimes taking classes with her sights set on that industry herself.

Then she met Nikki Eliot at a party and everything changed.

She spoke to me about camming, the freedom it allowed, the growth, creativity and community, Kasara recalls. I wanted more control on my brand and what made me happy, so I felt it was a perfect switch.

Nikki invited Kasara to join her for a special 4/20 show she was doing, even though Wood rarely smoked weed.

But as a natural performer I had to partake, Kasara says with a laugh. I was sooo gone!

That was the day she started her profile on MyFreeCamsand the rest now is part of live-camming history.

In this exclusive Q&A for CAMStar accompanied by 12 pages of photography by Eliot, the 2023 nominee for Favorite Cam Girl and Favorite Creator Site Star for the 2023 AVN Awards discusses what shes learned on her camming journey, her exploration of BDSM, practicing yoga, her favorite tattoos and her greatest achievement so far, plus much more.

Click here for the digital issue.

For bonus questions, see below:

CS: How much of camming came naturally for you and how much was trial & error, so to speak?

KW: I think starting as a dancer was really useful. It taught me a lot about how to listen but also how to read what people needed. It also taught me a lot about who I am, what my worth is, and what my boundaries are and of course all of that brought me into my confidence. Being confident doesnt mean you never feel like shit or doubt yourself. It just means that you know your boundaries and you know who you are and you're not going to let someone else injure that (even yourself). So you have discipline to be good to you and move through the motion of confidence even if that day you dont feel that way. Because emotions are fleeting and practice and discipline are not. I guess in a way I am saying I am glad I did dancing first! If you dont like any part of that I dont know if you will like the adult industry at all and camming takes much more confidence and much more discipline You are your own boss no one is gonna fire you or mark you up if you dont show up or follow through, just like no ones gonna pat you on the back for doing those things. There are rewards, but its not instant. Its earned. If you can muster that then the rest of cam is trial and error But I think you have to be a lover and YES that came naturally.

How did you come up with your awesome MFC profile designand your monthly calendar?

Its funny cause I think sometimes I put wayyyyy tooo much on it and am wayyyyyy too wordy of a bitch! But thats me, I like to be thorough and I want to take everything that sparks joy in me with me! The esthetic is just me I guess. I keep what month is happening and what I have planned I mind but Ive always been into design, ESPECIALLY FASHION! The calendar is my own but I have a friend help me put all the coding in for the website cause Im the worst cam girl when it comes to tech!

How do you use MFC Share? Which clips have been your most popular and why?

I tend to be annoying about my Share and my Whiteboard. It wasnt until recently that I found out most girls dont change theirs that much. I change mine EVERY MONTH! I update my MFC Share with new deals, new videos and photo sets EVERY MONTH! And I vault a lot of things up after a rank month, which is why I stress that people get it when its HOT, so to speak. I change my Whiteboard once a month and each day put whats going on for the show and daily deals on the Whiteboard (this is a note for all of those gents who dont lookIm watching you). Some of my bestsellers have been Lilith, Starbucks Girl and Arctic Fox Gets a Hole Lot of Anal. I think Lilith is because its about seduction, lots of oil and wax and Im wearing black (a crowd favorite); there is lots of riding and dirty talk and as a switch when I do stuff thats a little bit more dominant or aggressive, I am still soft and submissive, which leads even my super Dom Daddys to enjoy. PLUS Nikki Eliot filmed this beautifully!

Starbucks girl is a POV of a drive-thru at your favorite coffee spot but I invite you in because your personal cup cant go through the drive thru. Really Ive just been scoping you out for months and want to FUCK YOU! Again that aggressive kinda crazy girl type I WANT YOU! I love doing stuff in that role because thats so me I can be a bit forward sometimes, come on really strong! Then Arctic Fox! SOO SO CUTE! I love to do cosplay with movie characters or my own character Arctic Fox being one of my own I am really into pet play and I think a lot of my fans are. I also only drop a few anal videos a year and this one had me bent and folded in LOTS of positions!

How would you describe your affinity for BDSM? What kind of BDSM do you prefer?

I started exploring BDSM awhile ago but I think Ive always been very curious about it. I like the exchange of power that happens, the trust and love that goes into the surrender and the control. To me its about care and really attuning yourself to your partners needs in both directions and really deepening your communication. I love bondage or anything super compressing. I've been loving bondage tape because I like the feeling sometimes more than rope (its warmer) I LOVE the violet wand and electric play and wax play. Those are some of my favorites! But I also love degradation and spit and anything thats totally degrading and primitive. I know I have my own limits on certain words and the strength of impact play but I love the exploration of it all! I think the biggest thing I take away from BDSM is the exchangethe play between control and release, submission and dominance.  I guess Id put pet play in there, too, and thats one of my favorites Me usually as the pet (bunny, kitty or pony), but if I am master I love to have my own little slut puppy.

What advice would you give a new cam model trying to establish herself?

Discipline and practice. Dont give up. Set monthly, quarterly and yearly goals. KNOW YOUR BOUNDARIES! KNOW YOUR WORTH! Dont be bullied or mansplained things. There are plenty of other gents out there that will like you, respect you and value you! AND MOST OF ALL, GIVE A FUCK about the people you are interacting with and exchanging with. If you ONLY care about the money or the tip in the end, then you are in the wrong career You will burn out quickly and you will feel purposeless. You have to really, really LOVE and hopefully be a positive and necessary in the peoples lives you come across.

How did you incorporate the pole into your CAMStar photoshoot?



I was really excited to do this and Nikki helped me kind of come up with some stuff I wanted to make sure that my personality came across, that you could kinda see who I was through just the photosin case you didnt want to read my wordiness LOL. So I started with some yoga (Im a certified RYT yoga teacher). Then got out on that pole in the dust and cool wind of the dried lake bed in Vegas and moved for what would look good on the camera.

What are your hobbies or interests outside of camming?

TOOOOOO MANY! LOL no I really love working out So weightlifting, hiking, pole dancing, yoga, dance  Thats a big area of my life and then if I have time I love to sew and read and write. Then if I have time from theretravel, camp, and shopping! LOL some people wouldnt consider shopping a hobby, but I really am passionate about clothes and style! I love when someone just really rocks something because it has meaning in their life and to their expression of self!

How often do you practice yoga and when did you learn?

I started when I was 16 on and off but started taking it seriously at 23 and was certified when I was 24.  I use to practice daily, sometimes twice a day.  Then COVID hit and I stopped practicing for two years (BIGGEST regret). Now Im getting back into it again and aim for three times a week with daily stretching  baby steps getting back into a flow. I think part of it is that I really value having a studio I feel at home in and right now I just practice on my own Im an Ashtanga student originally so the practice can be done at home as its the same routine each time. But having guidance is just helpful and really adds to the spiritual surrender. For me its not just the asana practice, its really a spiritual way I like to live.

What inspired your official Kasara Wood gearyour shirts and accessories?

Well I love red and black Im also a bit of an anti-establishment, anarchist-type person already. LOL I dont know, I guess just my filthy mind. I really want to do more and start doing girls clothes but all in time, I suppose.

What are some of your favorite tattoos and what do they mean to you?



Thats hard cause I consider most of my tattoos as one and will hopefully be one when Im done. But right now I would say the stilted dodecahedron on the inside of my arm and then the skeleton and hand pinky promising on the bottom of my back. The sacred geometry piece on my arm represents the portal between your heart and third eye chakra and I think carry a significance into the way I like to move through my life and how I wish to tune myself to my perception of reality. Its also something I am at constant practice to keep in tune. The hands at the bottom of my back started after a very long and very intense relationship ended. The years before that I had gone through a lot of personal trials and a lot of loss and it was supposed to represent only having yourself in this world. Coming in alone and leaving alone and you better make right with yourself, know yourself, and honor yourself because thats your home from now till the day you die. It was originally supposed to be a new age tramp stamp, but the original artist made it way too big and I ended up deciding it looked off. So I contacted Tom Maggot in the UK to make me a whole back piece.

Name someone who inspires you and why?



Its hard picking one person, because I think my KULT and my top gents like my Daddys and Masters all really have a BIG influence on me as a whole and individually. But I suppose if I was picking someone on the outside Id choose artists like Ghostemane and Lil Peep, and $uicideboy$ and as cliche as it sounds, Friedrich Nietzsche. If I was choosing my biggest Influence on myself Id say my Dad.

Name two or three of your best strengths. What are you truly great at?

I am never out of ideas, so creativity, persevering. I have had a lot of shit thrown my wayit would be hard to take me down. And silliness because its important to be able to take some things lightly, be flexible, be light-hearted, be silly, laugh at yourself and be OK making mistakes cause really its our perception that makes it negative.

What is your greatest achievement so far?

DAMN thats hard. Id say getting No. 1 in April 2021! But I think that was me, the Kult and especially Daddy Demon! He was determined and that was BIG. You need people in your corner rooting you on.
[March 01, 2023] Redwire's Roll-Out Solar Arrays to Enable Lunar Power Infrastructure for Astrobotic VSAT Program

Redwire Corporation (NYSE:RDW), a leader in space infrastructure for the next generation space economy, announced today that its Roll-Out Solar Array (ROSA) technology is being used by Astrobotic Technology for its Lunar Vertical Solar Array (VSAT) program. Astrobotic was awarded a contract from NASA in 2021 to create initial designs for vertical solar array technologies and a follow-on contract in 2022 to further advance VSAT systems. "We are proud to be supporting Astrobotic with our groundbreaking ROSA technology for their VSAT program," said Adam Biskner, Executive Vice President of Redwire. "With this new application of ROSA technology, Redwire is continuing to provide next generation lunar infrastructure solutions for critical lunar activities, which will enable new scientific discovery, long-term operations, and humanity's permanent presence on the Moon." "Astrobotic's VSAT system is the foundation of our future lunar power and infrastructure aspirations. Our VSAT is mobile, can be flown to the Moon on a single lunar lander, and leverages highly mature components, such as Redwire's ROSA. The ROSA system's proven legacy is a win for the program," said John Landreneau, Project Manager of the Astrobotic VSAT Program. Redwire's ROSA system for Astrobotic will be a new use case for flight-proven ROSA technology. It will have dual motors to allow for expanded operations on the Moon by establising the capability to extend and retract the ROSA multiple times over the lifetime of the system. The system will also deploy and retract vertically on the lunar surface.



To help provide power for the various activities on the lunar surface as part of the Artemis program and beyond, NASA requires vertical solar arrays that can autonomously deploy at least 32 feet high and retract for relocation if necessary. Through VSAT, ROSA will be a key enabler of sustainable and reliable power to support critical lunar surface activities and infrastructure, including lunar habitats, rovers, and construction systems. Redwire's ROSA technology is compact, modular and scalable, making it a foundational building block for a variety of missions requiring dependable, flexible and reliable power solutions in space. ROSA is a flexible solar array with composite booms that are rolled up. When installed, each ROSA unit unrolls using the inherent stored strain energy in the booms, giving ROSA an advantage over other traditional technologies.

As of December 31, 2022, two pairs of International Space Station (ISS) ROSAs are augmenting power on the ISS. In September, ROSA technology powered NASA's DART spacecraft to impact asteroid Dimorphos, successfully altering the asteroid's orbit. Redwire is also producing various versions of ROSA for other government and commercial spaceflight applications including Maxar's Power and Propulsion Element for NASA's Gateway program, a part of the agency's Artemis program, and the Ovzon 3 geostationary orbit spacecraft for Maxar's Legion-class satellites. About Redwire Redwire Corporation (NYSE: RDW) is a leader in space infrastructure for the next generation space economy, with valuable IP for solar power generation and in-space 3D printing and manufacturing. With decades of flight heritage combined with the agile and innovative culture of a commercial space platform, Redwire is uniquely positioned to assist its customers in solving the complex challenges of future space missions. For more information, please visit www.redwirespace.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005453/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] Silicon Valley Executive Rajib Akhter to Head Enterprise AI Sales at Findability Sciences

Findability Sciences, a leading global provider of Enterprise AI solutions and services, has appointed Rajib Akhter as its new VP of Enterprise AI Sales. Based out of New York, Rajib will oversee B2B sales for the company's innovative AI solutions in North America. With extensive experience in successfully managing sales for North American and European markets, Rajib brings a wealth of expertise to his new role. Before joining FS, Rajib led sales for Kovair Software, where he established new revenue growth areas by positioning SaaS and on-premises products with appropriate value propositions. His efforts won vital customers such as AT&T, the World Bank Group, the US Navy, Panasonic, Whirlpool, the Department of Homeland Security, DISA, Cisco, Verizon, etc. Rajib's entrepreneurial spirit and proven track record of success make him a valuable asset to the Fidability Sciences team. He was a founding employee of Actuate Corporation, where he grew their services revenue by an impressive 400% in just two years. Rajib also co-founded a venture-backed Customer Relationship Management SaaS company, Yube, and played an instrumental role in raising funding, planning, and implementing "go-to-market" strategies for several start-ups.



"Rajib brings a unique blend of technical and business expertise to the role. We are excited to welcome him to the team and look forward to his contributions in driving our enterprise AI sales initiatives in the North American Market," said Anand Mahurkar, CEO of Findability Sciences. "We are delighted to have Rajib join our team and look forward to the continued growth of our enterprise AI sales efforts under his leadership," He added. "I am thrilled to join Findability Sciences. I am impressed with its technology, team, and customer base. I am very excited to take these solutions to a larger customer set in North America," said Rajib Akhter.

About FS: Findability Sciences is a leading, award-winning Enterprise AI Company that helps businesses worldwide realize the potential of data. Findability Sciences works with 40 Global clients and has presence across US, India and Japan. The company enables customers across industries and geographies to accelerate their Data-to-AI Journey enabling them to build their own IP and data science capabilities, besides executing strategically to derive real financial ROI. https://findability.ai/ View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005546/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] Metaverse Fashion Week 2023 Returning to Tokens.com's Luxury District

Tokens.com Corp. (NEO Exchange Canada: COIN)(Frankfurt Stock Exchange: 76M) (OTCQB US: SMURF) ("Tokens.com" or the "Company"), a publicly-traded company that invests in web3 assets and builds businesses linked to crypto staking, the metaverse and play-to-earn gaming, is pleased to announce that Tokens.com subsidiary, Metaverse Group, will play a major role in Metaverse Fashion Week 2023 (MVFW23). Metaverse Group's Luxury District within Decentraland will serve as the event's base, hosting global brands such as Dolce & Gabbana and DKNY. Beyond land rentals, Metaverse Group will be providing in-house design and architectural services to build out digital metaverse experiences for several clients participating in the event. MVFW23 is scheduled to take place from March 28-31, 2023 spanning across three metaverses including Decentraland, Over, and Spatial, and will be open to all attendees at no cost. The Luxury Fashion District located in Metaverse Group's Fashion Street Estate is a key destination that will be hosting virtual fashion shows, retail shops selling digital wearables, musical artists, and virtual parties. Now in its second year, MVFW23 will include more immersive digital experiences hosted by some of the world's leading fashion houses. Some experiences announced to date are below: Dolce & Gabbana's metaverse space features an exhibition of the winning designs from its Future Reward competition. Led by Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, the digital design competition spotlights emerging talent and supports them with the creation of a new co-branded digital wearables collection.

metaverse space features an exhibition of the winning designs from its Future Reward competition. Led by Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, the digital design competition spotlights emerging talent and supports them with the creation of a new co-branded digital wearables collection. Tommy Hilfiger's MVFW experience includes daily product drops, AI-generated fashion, unique collaborations and a community competition - with the winner hand-picked by Mr. Tommy Hilfiger himself.

MVFW experience includes daily product drops, AI-generated fashion, unique collaborations and a community competition - with the winner hand-picked by Mr. Tommy Hilfiger himself. Miami Fashion Week (MIAFW) became the first globally recognized Fashion Week to participate in a digital fashion week. MIAFW's Decentraland headquarters, L'Atelier will host events, panels, and runway shows.

became the first globally recognized Fashion Week to participate in a digital fashion week. MIAFW's Decentraland headquarters, L'Atelier will host events, panels, and runway shows. DKNY has created a dedicated venue, DKNY.3, that will host an art gallery, a pizzeria and a rooftop lounge. DKNY will also bring its SoHo landmark wall into the metaverse with a special web3 creation by a MVFW neodesigner.

has created a dedicated venue, DKNY.3, that will host an art gallery, a pizzeria and a rooftop lounge. DKNY will also bring its SoHo landmark wall into the metaverse with a special web3 creation by a MVFW neodesigner. DUNDAS is teaming up with DressX for the creation of its wearables and UME for avatar design, showcasing the latest looks from Paris Fashion Week and offering a new range of wearables.

is teaming up with DressX for the creation of its wearables and UME for avatar design, showcasing the latest looks from Paris Fashion Week and offering a new range of wearables. Amorepacific is introducing 'New Beauty Land,' inspired by its Seoul headquarters.

is introducing 'New Beauty Land,' inspired by its Seoul headquarters. Ben Bridge , the popular US jeweler, opens its first store in the metaverse, featuring a quest with exclusive werables that come with in-store benefits.

, the popular US jeweler, opens its first store in the metaverse, featuring a quest with exclusive werables that come with in-store benefits. Monnier x Republic returns to MVFW with a soon to be announced Creators Prize celebrating the unleashed creativity of web3



For more information on Metaverse Fashion Week 2023 click here.

About Tokens.com Tokens.com Corp is a publicly traded company that invests in web3 assets and builds web3 businesses. The Company focuses on three operating segments: i) crypto staking, ii) the metaverse and, iii) play-to-earn crypto gaming. Tokens.com owns digital assets and operating businesses within each of these three segments. Staking operations occur within Tokens.com. Metaverse operations occur within a subsidiary called Metaverse Group. Crypto gaming operations occur within a subsidiary called Hulk Labs. All three businesses are tied together by the utilization of blockchain technology and are linked to high-growth macro trends within web3. Through sharing resources and infrastructure across these business segments, Tokens.com is able to efficiently incubate these businesses from inception to revenue generation. Visit Tokens.com to learn more. Keep up-to-date on Tokens.com developments and join our online communities on Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. About Metaverse Group Metaverse Group is a web3 technology company with products and services that bring businesses to life in web3 environments, including metaverses, NFTs and the next iteration of retail, ecomm3. We integrate web3 technology solutions with a web3 marketing agency and virtual real estate development services so that our clients can own ecomm3, engage new audiences, and be first movers. The company also holds a vast metaverse real estate portfolio spanning over 10+ metaverses. Our ownership of over 750 parcels of virtual land and relationships with different metaverses and industry players allow us to deliver category leading solutions that have been recognized by CNBC, Forbes, the Economist and the Wall Street Journal. Tokens.com, a publicly- traded company, is the majority owner of Metaverse Group. For further information please visit https://metaversegroup.com. Forward-Looking Statements This news release includes certain forward-looking statements as well as management's objectives, strategies, beliefs and intentions. Forward looking statements are frequently identified by such words as "may", "will", "plan", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "intend" and similar words referring to future events and results. Forward-looking statements are based on the current opinions and expectations of management. All forward-looking information is inherently uncertain and subject to a variety of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, including the speculative nature of cryptocurrencies, as described in more detail in our securities filings available at www.sedar.com. Actual events or results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements and we caution against placing undue reliance thereon. We assume no obligation to revise or update these forward-looking statements except as required by applicable law. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005238/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] ConsidraCare Launches Platform to Manage Transnational Care for Loved Ones at Home and Abroad

Novel senior care solution aims to empower families caring for aging parents across distance and national borders by providing care activity transparency, real-time communication, and reduced administrative costs. BRAMPTON, ON, March 1, 2023 /CNW/ - Senior care company ConsidraCare has launched a platform to help families manage care for loved ones who live far away. The web-based and mobile app is currently available in Canada and will be piloted across Asia in 2023. The first-of-its-kind solution aims to directly tackle the growing challenge of transnational caregiving across distance and national borders. Over the last several decades globalization and workforce mobility have resulted in younger generations increasingly seeking opportunities outside of their hometowns and countries  and leaving aging parents geographically isolated and alone. Families in turn struggle with the stress and high costs of finding trustworthy care in an industry that can be fragmented, inefficient, and plagued by high caregiver turnover. A challenge that is deeply personal for ConsidraCare CEO and co-founder Saba Tauseef, an internationally-trained physician. "I moved to Canada with my husband in 2001 for education," says Dr. Tauseef. "We fell in love with the country and its values and decided to make it our home. Now we have two daughters, one in university and the other in middle school, and are also managing care for our aging parents in Pakistan." Saba, who has previously worked as a family physician and anaesthesiologist in Asia, and is a dementia care specialist, founded ConsidraCare in 2021 with her husband, global business leader nd entrepreneur Tauseef Riaz. To-date, ConsidraCare has delivered more than 10,000 care hours across southern Ontario, with an average cost savings of 25% per family versus the traditional home care alternatives and retirement communities.



The company is currently expanding its service offering in all provinces across Canada to address transgeographic care, where families live too far away to play a day-to-day role in care for their loved ones. "Our platform, with its built-in intelligence and automation, lowers the cost of care delivery and management, and makes senior care more affordable and accessible  not just locally in Ontario but also in remote and smaller communities across Canada and in emerging markets abroad," says Saba, who is also currently working as a telemedicine physician for rural women in Asia. "Our goal is to remove the stress of finding high-quality, reliable care, and not knowing what is happening on a daily basis. With the ConsidraCare platform, everyone is kept informed in real-time, and instead of hours spent on administration and caregiver scheduling, families can focus on what matters most: their relationships with their loved ones."

ConsidraCare's Brampton , Ontario headquarters location gives the company a unique competitive advantage, according to COO and co-founder Tauseef Riaz. "Brampton is the fastest-growing city in Canada, and also one of the most diverse cities not just in Canada  but in the world  with over 250 cultures speaking 115 languages," says Tauseef. "It was an ideal place to headquarter our company and pilot our solution. We aspire to build a platform that works for families representing many different backgrounds and cultures, who are not just managing care for aging relatives in Canada, but also in locations abroad." According to Statistics Canada , over 1.3 million new immigrants settled permanently in Canada from 2016 to 2021, the highest number of recent immigrants recorded in a Canadian census. Asia, including the Middle East, is the continent of birth for the majority of recent immigrants (62%) and almost one in five recent immigrants (18.6%) were born in India, making it the leading country of birth for recent immigration to Canada. ConsidraCare is launching a pilot in Pakistan in summer 2023 and is actively pursuing partnerships with international telemedicine and pharmacy companies to expand across Asia to address the aging population and growing diaspora of overseas immigrants worried about their parents back home. "We want to provide seniors with superior and affordable care, and also provide caregivers  particularly those from underrepresented groups  with equitable and dignified job opportunities that pay well and where they feel like they are respected and supported," says Saba. "This is a female-led and operated company, with more than 95% of its employees being women from minority communities." In addition to launching in-home services across Canada in 2023, ConsidraCare is creating an ecosystem of partnerships with related services, such as with Bloom Finance , a reverse-mortgage company, to allow seniors to access the value of their homes to fund private care. ConsidraCare also plans on expanding through licensing its platform to smaller senior care organizations in remote Canadian locations. To learn more about ConsidraCare's services for Canadians, visit their website or email their customer support team at [email protected] . For more information on the upcoming pilot in Pakistan or ConsidraCare's expansion in Asia, contact [email protected] . About Considracare ConsidraCare is a care assistance and caregiver placement platform. We provide affordable and high-quality at-home care to seniors across Ontario. We are dedicated to helping Canadian seniors age in the safety, comfort and dignity of their own homes. We are also committed to creating well-paying and respectable placement opportunities for caregiving professionals and empowering them to deliver the best quality care through training, support and a state-of-the-art technology platform. For more information please visit www.considracare.com or contact us at [email protected] . SOURCE ConsidraCare

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
Altamira Technologies Corporation Has Acquired VaST

Altamira Technologies Corporation announced it has completed the acquisition of Virginia Systems & Technology, Inc. (VaST), a Warrenton, Virginia-based signals intelligence mission company.

"The acquisition of VaST brings new SIGINT capabilities and core National Security Customers to the Altamira portfolio," said Jane Chappell, CEO of Altamira. "VaST's culture of marrying elite engineering with critical operations is a strong match with Altamira. We welcome them to the Altamira team."

VaST, founded in 1999 on the principal of providing tip of the spear SIGINT mission execution expertise, implements a unique and innovative approach to the SIGINT mission by bridging the gap between Operations and Engineering with new capabilities. With the acquisition of VaST, Altamira adds new capabilities in end-to-end SIGINT tasking, collection, processing, exploitation, and dissemination (TCPED), National/Tactical SIGINT collaborative mission constellation management, and emerging threat identification.

"VaST is very excitedto be joining such a like-minded company and looks forward to a combined opportunity to make larger and more impactful contributions to the defense of our nation," said Jay Hebert, President/CEO of VaST.







"We are excited about the combination of Altamira and VaST. Adding VaST's capabilities to the Altamira platform should enable Altamira to grow faster with customers," said Bernard Noble, Managing Director at ClearSky.

The acquisition adds talent in every SIGINT vertical including software developers, data scientists, operations specialists, mission integrators, and analysts to Altamira's workforce.

Mintz served as legal advisor to Altamira. Holland & Knight served as legal advisor and KippsDeSanto & Co. served as financial advisor to VaST.

About Altamira

Altamira Technologies is a McLean, VA based defense contractor supporting critical defense and national missions for 20 years. Founded in 2003, Altamira has been a trusted partner providing expert-driven, data-accelerated analytic and engineering solutions for space, cyber, air, and intel missions.

About ClearSky

ClearSky is a venture capital/growth equity group that invests in innovative companies, with a special focus on (i) disruptive solutions for cybersecurity in information technology, industrial and critical infrastructure, and the defense industry, (ii) technologies driving the energy transition, climate related technologies, and sustainability, and (iii) the digital transformation of enterprise customers' operations and communications. Altamira is a portfolio company of ClearSky.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005227/en/
[March 01, 2023] Continuous Composites Unveils Commercial CF3D Enterprise at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Continuous Composites Inc., a leading manufacturer of continuous carbon fiber printing solutions, today announced the unveiling of their commercial CF3D Enterprise system at a ceremonial ribbon-cutting and technical symposium at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, enabling them to take their strategic partnership to the next level in advancing the future of composites manufacturing using CF3D. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005370/en/ Ribbon cutting ceremony for the commercialization of Continuous Composites CF3D Enterprise system at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Department of Aerospace Engineering. (Photo: Business Wire) The ribbon-cutting ceremony of the CF3D Enterprise system at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's Department of Aerospace Engineering is a milestone event showcasing te power of collaboration and innovation. The technical symposium featured presentations from academic and industry experts, highlighting the potential of Continuous Fiber 3D technology (CF3D) and the exciting opportunities for the future of manufacturing. Attendees were able to see firsthand the CF3D Enterprise system and gain a deeper understanding of its potential impact on their respective industries.



"The CF3D technology has the potential to revolutionize the composites industry, and we are excited to take our partnership with Continuous Composites to the next level," said Dr. Jeffrey Baur, Founder Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. "The CF3D Enterprise machine is a platform ripe for innovation and will enable us to advance our research and education programs and create new opportunities for our students, faculty, and industry." Dr. Jeffrey Baur has been a long-standing partner of Continuous Composites during his service at the United States Air Force Research Lab, conducting research and development in the field of composite materials and manufacturing. The purchase of the CF3D Enterprise machine marks a significant milestone in their partnership and paves the way for exciting new opportunities.

"We are thrilled to partner with Dr. Jeff Baur and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to help them unlock the full potential of our CF3D technology," said Tyler Alvarado, CEO of Continuous Composites. "The CF3D Enterprise machine is the perfect tool for researchers and manufacturers alike, enabling them to push the boundaries of composites manufacturing and accelerate the research and development of new products and applications." The CF3D Enterprise system is the result of a collaborative effort between Continuous Composites and its technology partners, including Arkema, Hexcel, Siemens, and Comau Robotics. These companies have each contributed their respective expertise and cutting-edge technology towards the development of the CF3D Enterprise machine, making it a reality. Continuous Composites is proud to be at the forefront of revolutionizing the composites manufacturing industry and looks forward to continuing its partnership with the university and its technology partners to push the boundaries of what's possible. For more information on the CF3D Enterprise system and other Continuous Composites products and services, please visit CF3D.com About Continuous Composites: Continuous Composites Inc., headquartered in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, is disrupting manufacturing with its patented composites printing technology (Continuous Fiber 3D Printing - CF3D). Founded in 2012, the company leads the 3D printing industry with the earliest and most comprehensive patent portfolio owning 100 U.S. Patents and 41 international patents. The CF3D technology leverages advantages of continuous fiber composite materials and the 3D printing process to fabricate high-strength, lightweight parts on demand. CF3D significantly reduces cost, lead times, labor, and other traditional constraints found in manufacturing while enabling design freedom. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005370/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] WeWork and SiSebenza Announce Franchise Partnership for WeWork South Africa

WeWork Inc. (NYSE: WE) ("WeWork"), the leading global flexible space provider, today announced a franchise partnership with SiSebenza, a pan-African real estate investor, giving SiSebenza the exclusive right to operate WeWork's existing locations in South Africa. The deal also grants SiSebenza exclusive rights to grow and operate the WeWork franchise in Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius and Nigeria. The franchise partnership combines the strength of WeWork's brand and product with SiSebenza's proven local operating expertise. WeWork opened its first South Africa location in 2019 at WeWork The Link in Johannesburg, followed by WeWork 80 Strand in Cape Town and WeWork 155 West Street in Sandton, Johannesburg. WeWork has since seen strong demand from companies seeking flexible space solutions - this partnership will power growth and unlock the significant market opportunity in the region. Sandeep Mathrani, CEO and Chairman, WeWork said: "Today's announcement demonstrates our continued progress in pursuing asset-light growth where local capital and expertise strengthen our business. With its in-depth understanding of the market, SiSebenza will build on WeWork's success in South Africa and power its growth across the continent. This partnership enables us to simultaneously meet the growing demand for more flexible space solutions whilst further strengthening our underlying business." As companies continue to adapt to a new world of work, businesses are increasingly looking to incorporate co-working, flexible and shared office spaces into their operating models. Particularly against the bacdrop of an uncertain economic environment, WeWork's flexible products provide employers with an alternative to the long-term, fixed costs of traditional office space while also offering employees - from freelancers to large enterprises - an environment for enhanced employee engagement and collaboration. SiSebenza has on-the-ground real estate experience and knowledge from across the African continent so is well placed to expand WeWork's South African footprint and drive its entrance into the wider African market.



"SiSebenza has collaborated with WeWork in South Africa for five years. We're excited to now be their partner for the African continent and build the business into Africa's market leader," said SiSebenza founder Andrew Robinson. "SiSebenza knows Africa well. We have a long track record of doing business across the continent and understand that each of its countries operate differently. We are excited to be the team that brings new and inspiring workspaces to Africa that meet each geography's unique needs and wants." WeWork offers members of all sizes, from small startups to large enterprises, private office space and suites, as well as space for members using WeWork All Access, the company's subscription membership that provides access to hundreds of WeWork locations across the globe, and WeWork On Demand, which offers pay-as-you go access to workspaces and meeting rooms in nearly 320 locations globally. WeWork's space management solution, WeWork Workplace, provides companies with a universal platform that enables inventory management across office spaces, enhanced employee experiences and space optimization through insights and analytics.

About WeWork WeWork (NYSE: WE) was founded in 2010 with the vision to create environments where people and companies come together and do their best work. Since then, we've become one of the leading global flexible space providers committed to delivering technology-driven turnkey solutions, flexible spaces, and community experiences. For more information about WeWork, please visit us at wework.com. About SiSebenza SiSebenza works in partnership with large, successful, well-funded global unicorns and minotaurs, bringing them into the exciting and complex African market. These global companies bring innovative business models and opportunities and we provide capital, infrastructure, local expertise, established and powerful networks. www.sisebenza.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005128/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] Renesas Unveils Quick-Connect Studio: Industry's First-Ever Cloud-based System Development Tool to Dynamically Create IoT Software

Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE:6723), a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, today introduced a groundbreaking new online, cloud-based IoT system design platform that enables users to graphically build hardware and software to quickly validate prototypes and accelerate product development. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005493/en/ (Photo: Business Wire) Today's development cycle is cumbersome - engineers research and define the project, collect device information and requirements, layout hardware, develop software, test, and iterate until the product is ready to release to market. This process is typically done sequentially, and each step takes a significant amount of time. Often the software development phase consumes the most engineering power and ultimately becomes the biggest bottleneck. With Renesas' first-of-its-kind Quick-Connect Studio, engineers can now perform hardware and software development simultaneously. This is a radical shift in the industry, enabling designers to build software immediately with the ability to quickly reconfigure and test product ideas. This yields dramatic time savings and reduces risk as engineers can validate designs before committing to hardware layout. Quick-Connect Studio empowers engineers to graphically drag and drop device and subsystem blocks on the Cloud to build their solution. After placing each block, users can generate, compile, and build software automatically, a major shift towards the no-code paradigm of development. This makes building production-level software as easy as piecing building blocks together. With Quick-Connect Studio, users can rapidly build a full solution in the cloud and deploy to hardware in under 10 minutes. There is very little upfront learning or investment needed. The cloud compute power provides fast compilation, and the modern GUI reduces the learning curve and promotes project reuse. Renesas' Quick-Connect Studio is built on Quick-Connect IoT, a platform of standardized hardwar featuring industry-established interfaces such as PMOD, Arduino, and MIKROE. With standard connectors, engineers can mix and match MCUs, MPUs, sensors, and connectivity boards seamlessly. In the future, users will be able to extend and expand beyond Renesas to different partners such as major cloud providers, service integrators, and leaders in the open-source community.



Engineers will benefit from graphically building in the cloud, connecting to real hardware, and easily programming and testing a complete solution. Quick-Connect Studio automatically generates system projects that can be downloaded and imported into Renesas' e2 studio either as a pre-built binary or full-source code project, enabling users to leverage the full Renesas tool chain. "Renesas is heavily investing in advancing the digital user experience," said Chris Allexandre, Senior Vice President, CSMO and Head of the Global Sales and Marketing Unit at Renesas. "Quick-Connect Studio exemplifies how Renesas is accelerating the development cycle for engineers, enabling the fast validation and testing of new ideas, and allowing designers to innovate quickly using Renesas as their preferred platform."

Availability and More Information Quick-Connect Studio is available today and supported by various Quick-Connect IoT development boards spanning MCUs, Connectivity, and Sensors. More development kits, PMODs and peripheral boards will be added continuously to the platform at www.renesas.com/qcstudio. Demonstration at embedded world 2023 To see a live demonstration of Quick-Connect Studio, join Renesas at embedded world 2023 in Nuremberg, Germany, March 14-16 in Hall 1, Stand 234. At the show, attendees will have the opportunity to watch how a full system prototype can be built in just minutes. About Renesas Electronics Corporation Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723) empowers a safer, smarter and more sustainable future where technology helps make our lives easier. A leading global provider of microcontrollers, Renesas combines our expertise in embedded processing, analog, power and connectivity to deliver complete semiconductor solutions. These Winning Combinations accelerate time to market for automotive, industrial, infrastructure and IoT applications, enabling billions of connected, intelligent devices that enhance the way people work and live. Learn more at renesas.com. Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. All names of products or services mentioned in this press release are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005493/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] AITX Increases Investment in Video Management System Development with Key Team Member Additions

Detroit, Michigan, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Artificial Intelligence Technology Solutions, Inc., (the Company) (OTCPK:AITX), a global leader in AI-driven security and productivity solutions for enterprise clients along its wholly owned subsidiary, Robotic Assistance Devices, Inc. (RAD), today announced the expansion of two software development teams, specifically the Perception Team that develops innovative analytics and the ROSS (RAD Operations System Software) Team that builds the back-end software.

In order to effectively manage the growth of these teams, RAD has been proactively seeking out and recruiting new talent. The highest profile role filled is the newly created position of Product Manager for ROSS, RADs innovative fully integrated Video Management System. Anthony Sabino-Staine will be starting in this role today and will be responsible for a variety of projects and goals related to the wide-spread adoption of ROSS throughout the security industry. Sabino-Staine brings a wealth of relevant experience to the role, having spent more than a decade working in the security technology industry, including working with hundreds of end users for a leading video management system provider. ROSS is RADs software solution enabling the millions of legacy IP security cameras previously deployed to be able to connect with the RAD ecosystem. ROSS empowers these non-RAD cameras to run the same AI analytic capabilities as other RAD hardware solutions, including firearm, human, vehicle, perimeter breach and loitering detection, immediate notifications, SMS alerts, and more. RAD has also announced that ROSS will be offered at a competitive introductory price of $10 per channel (MSRP) per month including all analytics, notification abilities and cloud storage. Additionally, the platform will be accompanied by enticing discounts for dealers, integrators, and resellers. "Anthony is an outstanding addition to our team, and we are thrilled to have him join us in this important role, said Steve Reinharz, CEO of AITX and RAD. "His extensive experience in the video management space and his deep understanding of the security industry will be invaluable as we roll out ROSS and deliver the best possible integrated solutions to our clients." "I am honored to be joining such a talented team, and a proven industry leader," said Sabino-Staine. "ROSS is an exceptional video management system with an extraordinary maret opportunity. I look forward to working with the team to build upon the product's strengths and help it bring new applications and new purpose to the millions of existing security cameras.



"Anthony's appointment comes at a time when businesses are experiencing dissatisfaction with their outdated security cameras and video management systems and are exploring cost-effective alternatives, Reinharz added. "We are confident that with Anthony at the helm, ROSS will take its place as the inevitable, missing link providing RADs proven AI-based security analytics to common security cameras. The Company noted that five team members have been added to the two software development teams over the past 2 months with an expected three additional software developers will be added in the next few months. These team members add to the Companys 50+ person Research & Development team.

AITX through its subsidiary, Robotic Assistance Devices, Inc. (RAD), is redefining the $25 billion (US) security and guarding services industry through its broad lineup of innovative, AI-driven Solutions-as-a-Service business model. RAD solutions are specifically designed to provide a cost savings to businesses of between 35%-80% when compared to the industrys existing and costly manned security guarding and monitoring model. RAD delivers this tremendous costs savings via a suite of stationary and mobile robotic solutions that complement, and at times, directly replace the need for human personnel in environments better suited for machines. All RAD technologies, AI-based analytics and software platforms are developed in-house. RAD has a prospective sales pipeline of over 35 Fortune 500 companies and numerous other client opportunities. RAD expects to continue to attract new business as it converts its existing sales opportunities into deployed clients generating a recurring revenue stream. Each Fortune 500 client has the potential of making numerous reorders over time. CAUTIONARY DISCLOSURE ABOUT FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

The information contained in this publication does not constitute an offer to sell or solicit an offer to buy securities of Artificial Intelligence Technology Solutions, Inc. (the "Company"). This publication contains forward-looking statements, which are not guarantees of future performance and may involve subjective judgment and analysis. The information provided herein is believed to be accurate and reliable, however the Company makes no representations or warranties, expressed or implied, as to its accuracy or completeness. The Company has no obligation to provide the recipient with additional updated information. No information in this publication should be interpreted as any indication whatsoever of the Company's future revenues, results of operations, or stock price. About Artificial Intelligence Technology Solutions (AITX)

AITX is an innovator in the delivery of artificial intelligence-based solutions that empower organizations to gain new insight, solve complex challenges and fuel new business ideas. Through its next-generation robotic product offerings, AITXs RAD, RAD-M and RAD-G companies help organizations streamline operations, increase ROI, and strengthen business. AITX technology improves the simplicity and economics of patrolling and guard services and allows experienced personnel to focus on more strategic tasks. Customers augment the capabilities of existing staffs and gain higher levels of situational awareness, all at drastically reduced cost. AITX solutions are well suited for use in multiple industries such as enterprises, government, transportation, critical infrastructure, education, and healthcare. To learn more, visit www.aitx.ai, www.stevereinharz.com, www.radsecurity.com , www.radgroup.ai, and www.radlightmyway.com, or follow Steve Reinharz on Twitter @SteveReinharz . ### Steve Reinharz

949-636-7060

@SteveReinharz Attachment Artificial Intelligence Technology Solutions, Inc.



[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] Verizon continues to upgrade Lancaster's best network

LANCASTER, Pa., March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Customers and visitors to Lancaster, PA have the best experience when using the Verizon network, according to the nations most rigorous scientific testing company RootMetrics. In the most recent test measuring performance of the major wireless carriers throughout Lancaster, Verizon not only wins for overall network performance, but is unbeaten in every single category measured including accessibility, speed, reliability and performance in texts and calls. Todays results mark the 10th testing period in a row over the course of five years Verizons network is unbeaten in Lancaster. "These results reinforce what many of our customers already know: Verizon consistently provides Lancaster the best network experience," said Julie Slattery, Vice President of Engineering and Operations for Verizon. We know customers rely on our service and our engineers are working daily to ensure customers have the experience they need and expect from us. Network enhancements in Lancaster These top marks are a result of months of deploying new enhancements in the network for those who live in and visit the Lancaster area. Network engineers have been busy deploying 5G Ultra Wideband service throughout Lancaster, adding the service to more than 50 cell sites in the last few months. In addition to adding 5G service to the market, engineers have been busy expanding wireless service, erecting multiple macro and small cells throughout the market. This additional coverage provides service near Oregon Pike around Rte 30 and Rte 272, in the town of Conestoga, in Manor Township along Charlestown Road, eastern side of the town of Lititz, PA, along Rte 372 and Rte 272 south of Buck, PA and near Rohrerstown Road and Rte 741. These deployment used recently acquired C-band spectrum . Until this year in Lancaster, Verizon has been restricted to using 60 MHz of the spectrum they secured, but by the end of this year, customers in Lancaster will be able to take advantage of 100 MHz of C-band, almost doubling the spectrum available for 5G Ultra Wideband. That additional spectrum will turbo charge the service, offering significantly higher speeds, much greater capacity to accommodate more customers and more robust services.



Even as engineers provide wireless service in more places, they are also enhancing the service by deploying leading edge, modernized technology in the area. Engineers have upgraded the hardware in many of the cell sites providing service throughout Lancaster adding capacity for more data to be used by customers, providing power efficiency, and providing virtualization. This technology milestone allows Verizon to rapidly respond to customers varied latency and computing needs, and provides greater flexibility and agility in the introduction of new products and services. The move to a cloud-based, virtualized architecture with standardized interfaces in every part of the network leads to greater flexibility, faster delivery of services, greater scalability, and improved cost efficiency in networks. Lastly, the addition of 5G service and the many additional wireless solutions allow far more data to travel on the wireless network in Lancaster. That exponential increase in data carried into and out of the cell sites serving the community requires upgraded fiber optic cable links. Fiber optic cables are used to move data between cell sites and connect those sites to the rest of the network. Verizon has increased the capacity on the fiber connections in many cell sites in the Lancaster area so they can carry 10 times the amount of data.

Services from the network customers rely on For customers in Lancaster, the additional coverage and capacity means more customers now have access not only to reliable, fast mobile service, but also Verizon Home Internet service, a different kind of home internet with truly unlimited broadband service and no data caps. Its ideal for anyone who wants super fast connectivity to stream, game or even work remotely. Additionally, through Verizon Frontline, first responders in the Lancaster area will also be able to experience the benefits of these network enhancements. So for customers living in or traveling to Lancaster Pennsylvania, Verizon has a network they can count on. *Rankings based on the RootMetrics Lancaster RootScore Reports: 2H 2018 - 1H 2023. Tested with best commercially available smartphones on three mobile networks across all available network types. Your experiences may vary. The RootMetrics award is not an endorsement of Verizon. MEDIA CONTACT:

Karen Schulz

864.561.1527

[email protected]



[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
Lori Langan, affectionately known as "Lovely Lori Langan," died on Feb 23rd at the age of 51. Lori grew up in Center Point, Iowa. After meeting the love of her life, Michael Langan, Lori headed south for warmer weather and never looked back. She visited Iowa often, but she created a beautiful life with her husband, Mike Langan who she married in 1997.

Lori was known for her unwavering work ethic and dedication to not only the companies where she worked but the people she worked with; which is why Lori accumulated many life-long friends along the way. Lori held a variety of positions during her life but her favorite role was that of mother. Lori lived for her two boys, Dylan (22) and Bradley Langan (20).

She loved deeply and gave endlessly, often showing it in acts of kindness. Her friends and family were the recipients of her unimaginable generosity. She is survived by her devoted husband, Michael Langan; children Dylan and Bradley and too many dear family and friends to name.

A Celebration of Life which will be held at the Rock of Ages Lutheran Church (Sedona, AZ) on March 4th at 1:00 pm.
[March 01, 2023] binx health and Birmingham AIDS Outreach Launch New Program to Improve Access to HIV and STI Testing Amid Surging Infection Rates

Sassy Little Box Program Powered by binx everywhere Digital Platform & Logistics

Makes At-Home Self-Collection Kits Available Through Community Partners BOSTON and BIRMINGHAM, Ala., March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Birmingham AIDS Outreach (BAO), Alabamas leading advocacy organization for people living with HIV/AIDS, and binx health, a healthcare technology and diagnostics company focused on making routine testing convenient, launch the Sassy Little Box program to enable access to HIV and sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing and care at the community level. The Sassy Little Box program aims to serve at-risk communities throughout the greater Birmingham area and leverages years of partnership between BAO and the LGBTQ+ community, providing a coordinated community response to address disproportionately high HIV and STI incidence rates in Jefferson County, Alabama.

The new Sassy Little Box program enhances BAOs testing services by engaging patients through local partnerships to distribute HIV/STI self-collection kits to the community. Each Sassy Little Box includes self-collection materials and easy to follow instructions in English and Spanish to screen for HIV, chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, and trichomoniasis in a private space of their choosing, without having to visit a clinic to access necessary care and treatment. To change the trajectory of healthcare, we need to rethink how we engage with the communities we serve, said Josh Bruce, Director of Prevention Education at BAO. BAO is always trying new and innovative ways to provide HIV and STD testing services in the community. By collaborating with local businesses to provide free, convenient, and access to discreet take-home HIV/STD sample collection kits we hope to empower people to know their status. Along with our partners, we are bringing sexual health and wellness out of the shadows. Alabama has some of the highest HIV and STI infection rates in the United States1 and Jefferson County has the one of highest infection rates within the state of Alabama.2 BAO and binx health are taking the necessary steps to increase access to care and essential supportive services through convenient, discreet, affordable, and reliable HIV/STI testing. The program engages a network of trusted grassroots partners that cater to high-risk populations, including Latinos, Blacks, and the LGBTQ+ community to reach those in need. "Bringing sample collection and local care connectivity directly to where people live, work, shop, and socialize helps increase access to care and reduce the stigma assocated with sexually transmitted infections and HIV." said Kalli Glanz, Director of Market Access at binx health. "We are honored to be working with BAO and the community-based partners involved in this novel screening program."



Alabama residents looking to learn more information about the Sassy Little Box program and how to access kits, please reach out to BAO [email protected] or visit www.BAOBHM.org. If you are an organization looking to learn more about a program that can increase access to care for your populations, please contact binx health at [email protected].



About Birmingham AIDS Outreach

The mission of BAO is to enhance the quality of life for people living with HIV/AIDS, at-risk, affected individuals, and the LGBTQ community through outreach, age-appropriate prevention education, and supportive services. In April 2014, BAO opened a LGBTQ Youth Center, the Magic City Acceptance Center (MCAC) offering all programs free of charge including legal clinics, counseling services, HIV/STI testing and education, art classes, drop-in hours, and health and wellness workshops. In January 2016 BAO also opened the Magic City Wellness Center offering primary medical care focused on the LGBTQ community.

About binx health

binx is a healthcare technology and diagnostics company that is leading the way to accessible routine testing by partnering with primary care, public health, retail health, universities, and leaders in HIV prevention and sexual health to reach underserved populations and impede the spread of infection. The Companys omnichannel platform is the only healthcare delivery model designed to reach people in-clinic and at-home with novel access modalities focused on the patient. binx is paving the way to improve population health issues at scale in partnership with those on the front lines of care. The Companys dual-care offerings include the binx io, the first ever FDA-cleared, CLIA-waived, point-of-care chlamydia and gonorrhea test for males and females providing central lab performance results in about thirty minutes, and binx everywhere, a physician-mediated, secure, and highly configurable technology platform that integrates self-collection with laboratory testing and follow-up. binxs proprietary platforms enable organizations to broaden access to care, promote health equity, and connect all key stakeholders of healthcare delivery in a seamless, evidence-based manner that engenders consumer delight. binx everywhere may not be available outside of the U.S. AIDS: Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome HIV: Human immunodeficiency viruses LBGTQ+: Lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender, queer and other sexual identities including pansexual and Two-Spirit. binx Media Contact:

Jenna Hanson, binx health

Director of Marketing Communications

[email protected] binx Investor Contact:

David Deuchler

[email protected] 1 https://www.alabamapublichealth.gov/std/assets/std_annualreport_2020.pdf 2 https://www.alabamapublichealth.gov/std/assets/stdreport_jan2019-sept2022.pdf



[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] Authomize Announces OpenITDR Framework Initiative

TEL AVIV, Israel , March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Authomize, the Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) Platform, announced today the launch of the long-awaited OpenITDR Framework. OpenITDR is an open source framework established to enable organizations to protect against Identity-based attacks and facilitate the adoption of ITDR by sharing knowledge, experience, and tools. The OpenITDR project includes: Identity threat response playbooks

Open source connectors to collect identity and access data

Inquiry APIs for pulling rich identity context

Testing tools for identity-based risks and threats

Research impacting IAM security OpenITDR is available on Github and is open to vendors, integrators, customers, partners, and the wider community pursuing an Identity-first Security approach. Protecting organizations from identity-based attacks highly depends on mounting an effective response. Open response workflows that automate remediation and mitigation increase preparedness for cyber attacks, improving the efficiency of security staff. Authomize has built several automated response workflows around achieving Least Privilege across cloud environments and around mitigating active account takeover threats to your Identity and Access Management (IAM) solutions. These open source workflows are available on the OpenITDR Github repository for customers and partners to use and extend by adding their own playbooks. "OpenITDR will grow the ecosystem for the benefit of security teams, enabling them to successfully push actionable identity and access intelligence to drive their remediation ops to keep their organizations protected," says Authomize's CTO Gal Diskin. "Our goal is to promote the growth of the ITDR community, making it easier for organizations to incorporate valuable identity into their security decision making." Authomize's ecosystm partners have already begun integrating the OpenITDR framework into their security orchestration tooling. Custom connectors created by customers and partners are built using the Authomize REST API for pulling in-depth data on identities, assets, access privileges, and activities.



"We are excited to join in building out the OpenITDR ecosystem, providing critical Identity Security value for our customers," says Ravi Neriyanuri , Head of IAM Practice at Templar Shield. "Organizations using Archer can utilize our (Templar Shield) custom connector to incorporate it into Authomize's ITDR platform and gain in-depth insights into identity and access risks as well as visibility of identities and access privileges that spans across their cloud environment." The OpenITDR framework provides unprecedented identity context when connecting to the Authomize inquiry API. The comprehensive and granular data of identities, access privileges, assets, and activities across the entire cloud environment (cloud services, applications, and IAM solutions) delivers rich context that security operations teams often work hard to obtain. It can be used to determine blast radius and help prioritize and investigate security incidents rapidly for faster response to the most critical threats. It is also used for correlation that helps identify threats and risks when making decisions around granting access.

"Authomize's granular visibility into account takeover attempts, risky access, and usage anomalies across the entire cloud environment, including IdPs, IaaS, and SaaS, provides a highly intelligent risk score," says Axiomatics' Chief Product Officer Mark Cassetta . "The OpenITDR framework's open API enables us to easily enrich our Orchestrated Authorization with the input from Authomize's Identity Risk Scoring, benefiting our customers with stronger security." Organizations interested in learning more about OpenITDR can visit the repository on GitHub , and reach out to Authomize directly. About Authomize Authomize protects organizations from identity-based cyberattacks with the first Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) Platform. Authomize collects and normalizes data of identities, access privileges, assets, and activities from cloud services, applications, and IAM solutions in order to detect, investigate and respond to identity risks and threats. Customers use Authomize to gain visibility of actual access, achieve least privilege across cloud services and applications, secure their IAM infrastructure, and automate compliance and audit preparations. Backed by Innovation Endeavors, Blumberg Capital, Entree Capital and Microsoft's M12 venture fund, Authomize is headquartered in Tel Aviv and Austin. Learn more at www.authomize.com and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn for news and updates. Media Contact Gabriel Avner

[email protected] View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/authomize-announces-openitdr-framework-initiative-301758561.html SOURCE Authomize

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] New Calling, New Future -- 5G New Calling Industry Development Forum Is Held During MWC Barcelona 2023

BARCELONA, Spain, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The 5G New Calling Industry Development Forum, hosted by Global TD-LTE Initiative (GTI) and China Mobile and co-hosted by Huawei, was held during MWC Barcelona 2023. This forum brought together global leading operators, standards organizations, device suppliers, terminal vendors, and industry partners to discuss the development direction, prospect, and ecosystem of New Calling, and jointly promote the prosperity of the New Calling industry. New Calling leverages multimedia to redefine traditional calling services and provides users with an immersive, interactive experience. In addition to rejuvenating traditional calling services, New Calling injects new vitality into the development of 5G, fuels the digital transformation of industries, and stimulates business model upgrades. It opens up a new paradigm for communications. Adrian Scrase, CTO of ETSI and Head of the 3GPP Mobile Competence Centre, mentioned in his speech that New Calling is the addition of IMS Data Channel to the voice and video channels, offering richer, interactive call experiences. In 2020, 3GPP defined IMS Data Channel for the first time. In 3GPP R18, the New Calling (NG-RTC)network architecture will be improved by enriching functions. He hoped that more industry partners contribute to the development of New Calling standards.



Richard Cockle, Head of GSMA Foundry, said that the GSMA Foundry project has played an active role in consolidating industry consensus and building a unified global ecosystem for New Calling. He called on more partners to participate in the Foundry Phase 2 project and jointly spur the development of the New Calling industry. David Moro Fernandez, Head of Service Platforms & Voice Core Network at Telefonica CTIO, shared Telefonica's voice development strategies and thoughts on innovative services at the forum. In the 5G era, Telefonica expects to provide users with a richer communication experience and awaits the exciting prospect of New Calling. He emphasized that operators need to innovate the calling entry through dialers and leverage IMS Data Channel and other techniques such as video and XR to improve user experience. He appealed to all industry parties to take active actions to develop standards and enrich the application ecosystem.

Richard Liu, President of Huawei Cloud Core Network Product Line, delivered a keynote speech on "From Voice to Video to Content, New Calling Opens Up a New Horizon for Communication". He stated that New Calling unleashes a vast potential of operators' calling services and enhances the value of native call entries. He said that Huawei's New Calling solution will transform calling services from voice and video to intelligent and interactive communications, allowing operators to benefit from high-quality content instead of one-dimensional phone calls, continuously create new business and social value, and expand their service boundaries. An open, cooperative, and win-win New Calling ecosystem requires the collaborative efforts of all parties in the industry. New Calling caters to communication in the future. The 5G New Calling Industry Development Forum has built a dialogue platform and injected new vitality into the development of the global New Calling industry. This forum gathers the power of all industry partners to continuously lead the development of the calling industry and create greater social and business value. SOURCE Huawei

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] CARGO Therapeutics Raises $200 Million in Oversubscribed, Upsized Series A Financing to Advance its Pipeline of Next Generation CAR T-Cell Therapies

 Series A financing co-led by Third Rock Ventures, RTW and Perceptive Xontogeny Venture Fund, and includes new investors Nextech, Janus Henderson Investors, Ally Bridge Group, Wellington Management, T. Rowe Price, Cormorant Asset Management and Piper Heartland with participation from existing seed investors 

 Initial Phase 1 results with CARGOs CD22 CAR T-cell therapy demonstrated durable complete responses in greater than 50% of patients with large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL) that is relapsed/refractory (R/R) to CD19 CAR T-cell therapy. CARGO plans to commence Phase 2 pivotal trial of CRG-022 (CD22 CAR) in mid-2023 in patients with LBCL that is R/R to CD19 CAR T-cell therapy   CD22 CAR has been granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation by the FDA, which is intended to expedite the development and review of drugs for patients with significant unmet need   CARGO Therapeutics was launched in 2021 by Samsara BioCapital in collaboration with CAR T pioneers, Crystal Mackall, MD, and Robbie Majzner, MD, and accomplished cancer advocate, Nancy Goodman, JD  SAN MATEO, Calif., March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CARGO Therapeutics, Inc. (CARGO), a biotechnology company advancing a next generation of CAR T-cell therapies for cancer, today announced the close of a $200 million oversubscribed and upsized Series A financing. The financing was co-led by Third Rock Ventures, RTW Investments, LP and Perceptive Xontogeny Venture Fund, and includes additional new investors Nextech, Janus Henderson Investors, Ally Bridge Group, Wellington Management, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., Cormorant Asset Management and Piper Heartland. Founding investor Samsara BioCapital and existing seed investors Red Tree Venture Capital and Emerson Collective also participated in the financing. CARGO is advancing what will potentially be a first and best-in-class autologous CD22 chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR T) therapy as well as a pipeline of next generation CAR T-cell therapies for cancer using its proprietary cell engineering platform technologies. The proceeds from the financing will be used to advance CARGOs autologous CD22 CAR T-cell therapy candidate, CRG-022, through a pivotal multicenter Phase 2 trial in patients with LBCL whose disease has relapsed or is refractory to CD19 CAR T-cell therapy. CARGO also intends to advance its proprietary platform technologies and discovery-stage programs to deliver better outcomes for patients with cancer who have high unmet need. Approximately sixty percent of patients with LBCL who are treated with CD19 CARs do not experience durable responses due to disease resistance. Additionally, many patients lack access to these potentially curative therapies due to challenges related to manufacturing and reimbursement. CARGO Therapeutics is building upon deep expertise in understanding resistance to CAR T-cell therapies to deliver next generation cell products for patients, said Gina Chapman, CEO of CARGO Therapeutics. "Our recent accomplishments and this new funding enable us to build a truly differentiated platform that is poised to meaningfully advance the cell therapy field. We are extremely pleased to have the support of seasoned new and current investors who share our vision of developing the next generation of best-in-class CARs that have the potential to extend life for many more patients. The ongoing Phase 1 clinical trial (NCT04088890) is evaluating CD22 CAR T-cell therapy in patients with LBCL that is R/R to CD19 CAR cell therapy. Initial results from this trial were reported in Blood in April 2021. Updated results were presented at the Transplantation & Cellular Therapies meetings of ASTCT and CIBMTR on February 17, 2023 at the Best Abstracts session. Forty-one patients were enrolled, 40 underwent leukapheresis and 38 had successful manufacturing (95%). Thirty-eight participants were dosed at two different levels and had a median follow-up of 18.4 months. Infused patients were a median age of 65 years old, received a median of 4 prior lines of therapy (range 3-8), and 37 (97%) progressed after prior CAR19 therapy. The majority of patients had diffuse LBCL. The overall response (ORR) and complete response (CR) rates are 68% and 53% in the 38 patients. Only 1 of the 20 patients who achieved a CR has relapsed to date. At this interim analysis, the median overall survival was 22.5 months. Overall the CD22 CAR T toxicity profile was manageable. On the basis of the Phase 1 data, CD22 CAR has been granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is intended to expedite the development and review of drugs for patients with significant unmet eed. In 2023, CARGO plans to commence a pivotal multicenter Phase 2 clinical trial to study the safety and efficacy of CRG-022 in patients with LBCL that is R/R to CD19 CAR cell therapy. CARGO also plans to study CRG-022 in pediatric B-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (B-ALL).



CARGOs unique approach to engineering CAR T-cell therapy has the potential to deliver best-in-class treatments for LBCL, for which there is no approved CD22-directed therapy, said Reid Huber, PhD, partner at Third Rock Ventures. "Given CARGOs progress to date and its experienced leadership team, CARGO is well-positioned to be first-to-market with an autologous CD22 CAR T-cell therapy that may extend life and give hope for a cure for patients with CD19 relapsed/refractory B-cell malignancies." In 2021, internationally recognized experts focused on immuno-oncology and CAR T-cell engineering, collaborated with Samsara BioCapital to operationalize CARGO Therapeutics (formerly Syncopation Life Sciences). Crystal Mackall, MD, and Robbie Majzner, MD, founded the Company with Nancy Goodman, JD. The founders' overarching mission was to overcome CAR resistance to extend the clinical benefit of CARs for patients in need. Co-founder Crystal Mackall added, CARGO was founded to make a meaningful difference to patients lives. The differentiated CD22 clinical profile studied in more than 100 patients has shown impressive activity with a very favorable safety profile, and in combination with CARGOs proprietary platforms, positions us to build and deliver the next generation of CAR T therapies.

About CRG-022

CRG-022 is CARGO's investigational cell therapy that is composed of autologous T-cells transduced with a lentiviral vector (m971-BBZ) expressing a CD22-targeting CAR. CD22 is a transmembrane protein expressed on normal B-cells and B-cell malignancies. CRG-022 is currently being evaluated in a Phase 1/1b clinical trial of autologous CD22 CAR T-cells in children and young adults with recurrent or refractory (R/R) B-cell malignancies. Initial results in adults demonstrate the safety and antitumor activity of CAR T-cell therapy targeting CD22 in patients with LBCL that is R/R to CD19 CAR cell therapy. CARGOs CD22 CAR has a unique design which is associated with efficacy in the clinic that has not been seen with other CD22 CARs. CARGO believes that CRG-022 has the potential to treat LBCL in patients for whom prior CD19 CAR T-cell therapies have failed. About Large B-Cell Lymphoma (LBCL)

Lymphoma that affects B lymphocytes are called B-cell lymphomas. B-cells make antibodies to fight infections and are an important part of the human immune system. B-cell lymphomas account for approximately 85% of non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL) in the United States. LBCL is an aggressive (fast-growing) lymphoma that occurs most commonly in people over the age of 60, though it can occur in childhood. About CARGO Therapeutics (formerly Syncopation Life Sciences)

Our mission is to outsmart cancer and develop the next generation of best-in-class chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR T) therapies. Our proprietary platform technologies enable us to engineer and develop next-generation best-in-class CARs that incorporate complex therapeutic cargo with the potential to achieve durable responses that are curative for more cancer patients. Our founders are pioneers and world experts in CAR T-cell therapy, and our team has experience and success developing, manufacturing, launching and commercializing oncology and cell therapy products. For more information, please visit the CARGO Therapeutics website at https://cargo-tx.com/ About Third Rock Ventures

Third Rock Ventures is a leading healthcare venture firm focused on advancing disruptive areas of science and medicine to deliver breakthroughs to patients. By starting with big ideas and fostering collaboration among people with expertise in science, medicine, business and strategy, we aim to discover, launch and build innovative companies that can transform the lives of patients. Our mission is to be the preferred partner for entrepreneurs, investors, employees and industry to build great companies that discover and develop products that make a difference for the patients we serve. For more information, please visit www.thirdrockventures.com. About RTW Investments, LP

RTW Investments, LP is a New York-based, global, full life-cycle investment firm that focuses on identifying transformational and disruptive innovations across the biopharmaceutical and medical technologies sectors. As a leading partner of industry and academia, RTW combines deep scientific expertise with a solution-oriented investment approach to advance emerging medical therapies by building and supporting the companies and/or academics developing them. For further information about RTW, please visit www.RTWfunds.com. About Perceptive Xontogeny Venture Funds

The Perceptive Xontogeny Venture Funds (PXV Funds) are Perceptive Advisors investment vehicles focused purely on early-stage, private venture investments in life sciences companies. Primary investments for the Funds include companies that are seeking a lead investor for Series A and B financings, which include both companies that are seeded and incubated at Xontogeny and companies that are seeded and incubated by other organizations, accelerators and seed investors. The PXV Funds are also open to participating in syndicated Series A and B financings as a co-lead or passive investor with other venture capital firms. For more information, visit www.perceptivelife.com. About Samsara BioCapital

Samsara BioCapital is a new breed of biotech investment fund focused on translating cutting-edge biology into new therapies to treat patients with unmet medical needs. Founded in 2016 by Srinivas Akkaraju, M.D., Ph.D., our team of scientists, investors and entrepreneurs takes a long-term view on value creation across all stages of public and private life science companies. We believe in a collaborative, hands-on approach, working closely with entrepreneurs to harness exciting scientific advances and build leading companies. Samsara actively manages assets on behalf of endowments, foundations and family offices. For more information, please visit www.samsaracap.com. About Crystal Mackall, MD

Dr. Mackall is the Ernest and Amelia Gallo Family Professor of Pediatrics and Internal Medicine at Stanford University. She serves as Founding Director of the Stanford Center for Cancer Cell Therapy, Associate Director of Stanford Cancer Institute, Leader of the Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy Program, and Director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at Stanford. During a 27-year tenure at NCI, culminating as Chief of the Pediatric Oncology Branch, and now at Stanford, she has led an internationally recognized translational research program focused on immuno-oncology. Dr. Mackalls lab invented the CD22 CAR that is the focus of this license application (Haso, Blood 2014), and she played a leading role in the NCI CD22 CAR clinical trial (Fry, Nat Med 2018; Shah, JCO, 2020). About Robbie Majzner, MD

Dr. Majzner is the Taube Distinguished Scholar for Pediatric Immunotherapy and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine. His work has identified target antigen density as a major contributor to CAR T-cell efficacy, and he has generated novel CAR architectures capable of overcoming low target antigen density (Majzner et al., Cancer Discovery, 2020). He has also generated and optimized novel receptors to recognize antigens over-expressed on pediatric solid tumors such as GD2 (Mount/Majzner et al., Nature Medicine, 2018) B7-H3 (Majzner et al., Clinical Cancer Research, 2019), and ALK (Walker/Majzner et al., Molecular Therapy, 2017), several of which are now in first-in-child clinical trials. About Nancy Goodman, JD

Ms. Goodman is the CEO of Kids v Cancer, author and lead advocate of the RACE for Children Act and the Creating Hope Act Rare Pediatric Priority Review Voucher Program. Among the honors she has received are: American Association of Cancer Research Distinguished Advocacy Award, Fast Company Magazine as top ten most innovative nonprofits (award to Kids v Cancer), US Food and Drug Administration Group Recognition Award, Member of U.S. Vice President Bidens Blue Ribbon Pediatric Oncology Panel for the Cancer Moonshot, Member of National Cancer Institute Board of Scientific Counselors. CARGO is outsmarting cancer to deliver more cures. Source: CARGO Therapeutics, Inc. Find more information at cargo-tx.com

Follow us on LinkedIn: CARGO Therapeutics

Follow us on Twitter: @CARGOTx

Media Contact: Maura Gavaghan [email protected]

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] Ohio Leads Nation in VR Education

Prisms VR, a learning platform pioneering a new paradigm for math education, today celebrated Ohio's leadership in virtual reality (VR) education, at its first Prisms of Reality Conference in Marysville, Ohio. Leading the nation in scaling experiential learning, Ohio launched Prisms' VR new world math learning design in fall 2021 to over 50+ school districts + 15,000 students; it's the first state to drive VR adoption to help raise math engagement and scores for all its students. Learning math through relevant problems, experienced in the first person, is the best way for students to understand the "why" and utility of math education, a question left unanswered for many students. Built for 8th to 11th grade math students, tutors and teachers, Prisms VR provides standards-aligned VR content and multiplayer collaborative learning environments that target bottleneck topics in secondary math. In 2021, Ohio schools introduced Prisms VR technology into math classrooms, empowering students to engage with complex math concepts at the root of failure, in an immersive and interactive way. The application creates virtual environments that simulate real-life scenarios, allowing students to connect to compelling problems through physical situations before abstracting up to symbolic notations, conventions and procedures. The home of the first large-scale efficacy studies of the impact of VR on math learning outcomes, early studies across the state have shown double-digit growth outcomes on standards-aligned proficiencies, deeper conceptual understanding and confidence. The use of VR technology has also increased student motivation and purpose in math, making it a stimulating and rewarding subject to learn. "This is the first time that I've ever enjoyed going to math class," one student said. "We are hearing students who've taken two years of Algebra say that they understand exponential functions for the first time, because they could clearly 'see where they came from' and could apply them to problems they care about," said Anurupa Ganguly, founder andchief executive officer at Prisms. "VR finally allows us to scale how we've always wanted to teach - using problems that mean something, plus movement and tactile visualizations that elucidate structure and great stories. It's not a new technology fad; it's the best shot we have at scaling humane teaching practices that don't treat students as computer algorithms, but rather as rich sense-making beings. Using VR, we can take our students beyond the classroom walls and transport them to places and situations that are difficult, if not impossible, to replicate otherwise. Using this approach can engage and inspire learners, and it's my mission to make learning more accessible and scalable than it ever has before."



Superintendent of Montgomery County ESC, Shannon Cox said, "The immersion of students in virtual reality-enhanced lessons in schools or at home allows for the application of real-world learning to finally answer the question, 'When will I ever use this?'. With Prisms VR, students connect their physical understanding to 3D simulations outside of their body. This new learning model, where students and children are active agents solving problems in the real world, is making our students love learning and helping teachers love teaching again." In an eSchool news article, educators expressed their engagement and augmentation of the content in which they are tasked to teach. "I have gained a deeper understanding of the authentic learning application of what I am teaching. I have been teaching this content for years and have now experienced the content in a more concrete, understandable way. I have an actual real response when students are asking why they need to learn what it is that I am teaching." (Anonymous Teacher)

"Math is so fun now! It's like going on a field trip without leaving the classroom. I love how it lets me experience things that I would never be able to see in real life. It makes learning so much more fun and interactive. I feel like I understand the material better when I can see it in 3D and interact with it. It's definitely my favorite part of school now!" (Anonymous Student) To learn more about how Prisms is changing the way students learn math, click here. About Prisms Prisms, founded in 2020, is pioneering efficacious learning experiences in virtual reality. Backed by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, Prisms is the first spatial learning platform for K-12 STEM education, scaling a new way of learning core math and science that actualizes pedagogies that we know work best. In 2023, Prisms launched its VR math modules for consumers via the Meta Quest Store bringing joyful and spatial math learning to anyone: Students, teachers, tutors, and parents. To bring Prisms to math classrooms in your local school district, visit www.prismsvr.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005771/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] SRC Publishes Interim Microelectronics and Advanced Packaging Technologies Roadmap, Seeks Public Comments

Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC), a world-renowned semiconductor research and workforce development consortium, released an interim report for the Microelectronic and Advanced Packaging Technologies (MAPT) Roadmap - a far-reaching initiative for the semiconductor industry that, to date, has involved the participation of over 100 organizations of all sizes representing government, academia, and industry. This multi-chapter roadmap is the result of a $300,000 competitively-selected award granted to SRC by the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in April 2022. SRC was the only awardee chosen to focus on these emerging technologies, due to its strong history of thought leadership and continued innovation. The report introduces a new comprehensive roadmap to guide the forthcoming microelectronic revolution, similar to how the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) served the industry in the past. The MAPT roadmap represents the inevtable shift of microelectronics from the historical two-dimensional (2D) device-centric paradigm to a future that exploits 3D and heterogeneous integration to seamlessly integrate multiple chiplets that enable complex System-in-Package platforms. The new paradigm uses system-scale design and architecture to integrate electronics, photonics, and micromechanical chiplets, taking into account cross-platform issues and relying critically on the rise of advanced packaging technologies.



SRC Chief Scientist and Director of the MAPT Roadmap, Dr. Victor Zhirnov, commented, "This roadmap was created for use by the community to fortify the semiconductor supply chain and bolster emerging applications that will only be achieved if we can work together." Key partners for the governance of this roadmap include representatives from AMD, IBM, Intel, Texas Instruments, Purdue University, SUNY Binghamton, and the Georgia Institute of Technology. Minority Serving Institutions (MSI's), such as Morgan State University and Howard University, have shared valuable perspectives that are helping the roadmap be more comprehensive, creating a more inclusive atmosphere to unlock the talents inherent in all of us. The MAPT roadmap is rooted in the SRC-published 2030 Decadal Plan for Semiconductors. It projects 10-15 year targets and timelines for both semiconductor manufacturing technologies and workforce development, highlighting opportunities and solutions for the identified targets.

SRC is actively seeking public feedback on the interim MAPT roadmap. The interim report and instructions for public comments can be found at https://srcmapt.org/. The comments period for collecting feedback will close May 1, 2023. The MAPT roadmap will be finalized and become public in October 2023. About SRC Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC.org), a world-renowned, high technology-based consortium, serves as a crossroads of collaboration between technology companies, academia, government agencies, and SRC's highly regarded engineers and scientists. Through its interdisciplinary research programs, SRC plays an indispensable role in addressing global challenges, using research and development strategies, and advanced tools and technologies. Members of SRC work synergistically together, gain access to research results, fundamental IP, and highly experienced students to compete in the global marketplace and build the workforce of tomorrow. About NIST The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) was founded in 1901 and is now part of the U.S. Department of Commerce. NIST is one of the nation's oldest physical science laboratories. Its mission is to promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards, and technology in ways that enhance economic security and improve our quality of life. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005212/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] SambaNova Systems to Deliver SambaNova DataScale to RIKEN

SCA2023-- SambaNova Systems, the company that was first to market with domain-specific, pre-trained foundation models to underpin generative AI, is delivering the SambaNova DataScale system to RIKEN Center for Computational Science (R-CCS). The system is being used as a new resource to accelerate the integration of AI with the supercomputer Fugaku to do research on digital twins for the Society 5.0 era. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005417/en/ Professor Satoshi Matsuoka, director of RIKEN Center for Computational Science and Toshinori Kujiraoka, Country Sales Director for Japan a SambaNova Systems (Photo: Business Wire)



"The provision of SambaNova's system resources to R-CCS provides a new option for accelerating the integration of HPC simulations and AI with Fugaku," said Professor Satoshi Matsuoka, director of R-CCS. "The new SambaNova system will boost research into the convergence of HPC and AI, including ultra-high-resolution computer vision for building a digital twin for the Society 5.0 era."

R-CCS researchers will use DataScale to develop surrogate models to improve the accuracy of ultra-high-resolution 3D computer vision, such as more precise inspection of highways and other social infrastructure, and to process ultra-high-resolution image datasets that are difficult to handle with conventional technologies. "We are excited to work with Fugaku, the world's premier supercomputer, to contribute to efforts in the Society 5.0 era," said Toshinori Kujiraoka, Country Sales Director for Japan at SambaNova Systems. "SambaNova's unique reconfigurable dataflow architecture and its large memory capacity provide a comprehensive AI solution capable of processing higher resolution 3D images beyond 512x512x512. Combined with Fugaku, it provides a new resource for digital twin simulations." About RIKEN Center for Computational Science (R-CCS) As a world-class research center in the field of high-performance computational science, R-CCS manages and operates supercomputer Fugaku, which began shared use in March 2021. R-CCS provides systems that contribute to solving social and scientific issues and also accelerate new IT fields such as big data and artificial intelligence. R-CCS is also actively engaged in social implementation efforts in various fields to accelerate the realization of Society 5.0, which is being promoted by the Japanese government. About SambaNova Systems Customers turn to SambaNova to quickly deploy state-of-the-art generative AI capabilities within the enterprise. Our purpose-built enterprise-scale AI platform is the technology backbone for the next generation of AI computing. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, SambaNova Systems was founded in 2017 by industry luminaries, and hardware and software design experts from Sun/Oracle and Stanford University. Investors include SoftBank Vision Fund 2, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, Intel Capital, GV, Walden International, Temasek, GIC, Redline Capital, Atlantic Bridge Ventures, Celesta, and several others. Visit us at sambanova.ai or contact us at [email protected]. Follow SambaNova Systems on Linkedin. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005417/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] ECM PCB Stator Technology names Dr. Jack Jacobs as Senior Director and Advisor for Aerospace and Defense

US Motor CAD Software and Technology company ECM PCB Stator Technology has announced the appointment of Dr. Jack Jacobs, as Senior Director and Advisor for Aerospace and Defense. In this role, Dr. Jacobs will lead industry-related business development and research and development of ECM's PCB Stator motor technology and SaaS platform for defense and aerospace systems. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005762/en/ ECM utilizes its PrintStator software platform to design custom PCB Stator motors for multiple electric applications. (Photo: ECM PCB Stator Technology) Dr. Jacobs joins ECM with over 35 years of sector experience - most recently as Vice President of Aerospace and Defense at global electronics manufacturing company Celestica. Throughout his professional journey, Jack has achieved and applied unprecedented expertise across multiple facets of the defense and aerospace industry. Dr. Jacobs began his career at American aerospace manufacturing and defense contractor McDonnell Douglas Aircraft {now Boeing}, where he spent nine-years as an Engineering and Program Manager and obtained his Ph.D. in Structural Mechanics. Jacobs went on to hold senior positions in the Aerospace Divisions at both Honeywell and Viasat, where he oversaw a variety of development, integration and manufacturing projects in avionics, spacecraft, and electromechanical systems for defense, commercial, and business aviation applications. Dr. Jacobs will accelerate the adoption of ECM's electric motor innovation and CAD software to benefit defense and aerospace systems. ECM's PrintStator platform powers the design, manufacture, and integration of PCB Stator lectric motors that are lighter, faster, quieter, and more energy and space efficient across a broad range of use cases. ECM designed motors achieve efficiencies as high as 96 percent and require up to 70 percent less raw materials to produce.



Dr. Jacobs recognizes ECM's technological advantages to unlock benefits across the aerospace and defense industry from a machine level to boots on the ground. He highlighted the increasing electrification of defense industry systems and the ability of ECM PrintStator, PCB Stator designs to create motors that are more powerful, and efficient in a smaller package as unique advantages.

"Everything in aerospace and defense is about size, weight, and power. Any advantages you can gain in these areas can be used for longer mission life, increased payload carrying ability or improved system performance in platforms that range from satellites orbiting the earth to unmanned underwater vehicles, guidance systems, haptics and everything in between. ECM's innovation brings a trifecta of benefits: more power with less space and weight," Dr. Jacobs said. "Since the beginning of my career I've been focused on providing America's warfighters with the best tech to win on whatever mission they're on. I'm convinced that applying ECM's technology will be an absolute game-changer to multiple defense related systems," Dr. Jacobs said. "We are excited that Dr. Jacobs has joined the ECM team. Jack's unique combination of deep technical aptitude and executive business leadership will be instrumental in growing ECM's marquee A&D client engagements," ECM CEO Brian Casey said. About ECM ECM PCB Stator Technology pairs pioneering PCB Stator - printed circuit board - technology to a software optimization platform, PrintStator, to design bespoke next generation electric motors with premium performance characteristics for multiple applications. ECM has partnered with multiple organizations to create optimized motor solutions across a variety of verticals: HVAC, Consumer Electronics, E-Mobility, Fitness, Medical, Robotics, Renewable Energy, Aerospace, Defense, and more. ECM's design partners include aerospace and defense innovator L3 Harris, global electronics manufacturer Celestica, and consumer electronics startup Nodo Film Systems. In tandem with significant client growth, ECM recently re-located its headquarters to a newly constructed corporate facility in Needham Heights, Massachusetts, while also moving its Bozeman, Montana operation into a new expansive facility. Both locations boast enhanced engineering capabilities - including a lab dedicated to advanced integration of ECM's PrintStator motor CAD software into client design, prototyping, and manufacturing processes. In first-quarter 2023, ECM expanded to Europe, opening branch offices in London (UK) and Barcelona (Spain). You can learn more about ECM's PCB Stator technology and PrintStator design platform at https://pcbstator.com. For inquiries regarding PCB Motors and custom solutions, email [email protected]. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005762/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] BITCOIN INVENTOR DR WRIGHT GRANTED PERMISSION TO SUE ROGER VER FOR DEFAMATION IN ANTIGUA

LONDON, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today in the High Court of Antigua and Barbuda, Dr Craig Wright, the inventor of Bitcoin - the world's first functioning and successful electronic cash system  was granted permission to continue his defamation proceedings against Bitcoin Cash (BCH) proponent, Roger Ver in the jurisdiction. Both Dr Wright and Mr Ver are Antiguan citizens, and Mr Ver has a home in Antigua. Dr Wright is a computer scientist who created Bitcoin. Mr Ver is a prolific commentator in the Bitcoin community and has invested in a number of digital asset start-ups, blockchain businesses and associated companies, including Bitpay.com and Kraken.com. He also owns and operates the website Bitcoin.com. Dr Wright claims Mr Ver defamed him in his YouTube video in April 2019. In May 2019, Mr Ver published another video which included the same message, in response to the commencement of libel proceedings in England by Dr Wright against Mr Ver. This publication also forms part of Dr Wright's Antiguan defamation claim, alongside two tweets published on 3 May 2019 and 11 June 2019 respectively. The blockchain is the technology that enables the existence of cryptocurrency. It is a decentralized ledger of all transactions across a peer-to-peer network. Using this technology, participants can confirm and make transactions without a need for a central clearing authority, such as a bank. For this reason, trust and confidence are crucial in this industry. Dr Wright is concerned that Mr Ver's publications sought to undermine trust and confidence in Dr Wright and by extension the electronic cash system and blockchain network which he created Bitcoin, now referred to as Bitcoin Satoshi Vision. Mr Ver challenged Dr Wright's claim broght against him in Antigua on jurisdictional grounds but was defeated as set out in today's judgment.



Jurisdiction Application heard before Justice Robertson Legal Advisors: Dr Wright is represented by Dr Errol Cort of Cort & Cort and Anthony Astaphan SC in Antigua and Barbuda, and by Derek Stinson, James Dixon and Simon Cohen of ONTIER LLP in London as co-counsel.

Notes to Editors Mr Ver brought an application to challenge jurisdiction to the Antigua and Barbuda High Court in October 2020. This followed a defamation claim by Dr Wright in Antigua, whose original English Court proceedings were eventually barred by jurisdiction. Today's successful jurisdiction judgment is the latest outcome in a series of legal claims issued by ONTIER LLP, on behalf of Dr Wright and his associated entities, to uphold his right to protect his lawfully-held digital assets, his reputation as the creator of Bitcoin and his associated intellectual property: In 2020, ONTIER began defamation proceedings in London on behalf of Dr Wright against podcaster Peter McCormack . In 2021, following extensive disclosure by Dr Wright, McCormack was compelled to drop his reliance on a truth defence in the libel claim, leaving only the issue of serious harm caused to Dr Wright by McCormack's tweets. The judge ruled that McCormack's statements were defamatory of Dr Wright but awarded nominal damages. Permission to appeal this aspect of the judgment is currently being sought.

on behalf of Dr Wright against podcaster . In 2021, following extensive disclosure by Dr Wright, McCormack was compelled to drop his reliance on a truth defence in the libel claim, leaving only the issue of serious harm caused to Dr Wright by McCormack's tweets. The judge ruled that McCormack's statements were defamatory of Dr Wright but awarded nominal damages. Permission to appeal this aspect of the judgment is currently being sought. In 2021 ONTIER successfully brought a copyright claim in England against the anonymous digital currency enthusiast operating under the pseudonym "Cbra".

ONTIER defeated a strike-out attempt by digital currency enthusiast, Magnus Granath, following Dr Wright's defamation action, the trial of which will heard by the English High Court in late 2023.

Dr Wright was recently granted permission to appeal the Norwegian Court's finding that permitted Mr Granath's statements under Norwegian law.

ONTIER is also pursuing a landmark claim against the developers of BTC, BCH and BCH ABC to restore control of addresses containing Bitcoin and other digital assets. The defendants' jurisdictional challenge to this claim is currently being appealed by the claimant, Tulip Trading Ltd.

and other digital assets. The defendants' jurisdictional challenge to this claim is currently being appealed by the claimant, Tulip Trading Ltd. ONTIER is currently advising companies connected with Dr Wright in their passing off claims against exchanges Kraken and Coinbase, filed in the High Court earlier this year.

Dr Wright is also advised by ONTIER on his defence to the Crypto Open Patent Alliance's (COPA) challenge to Dr Wright's authorship of the Bitcoin White Paper, which will be heard by the English court in 2024. View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bitcoin-inventor-dr-wright-granted-permission-to-sue-roger-ver-for-defamation-in-antigua-301759661.html SOURCE ONTIER

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] Web3 Foundation Appoints Chief Financial Officer to Strengthen the Executive Management

Today, Web3 Foundation, whose flagship project is the Polkadot blockchain protocol, announces the appointment of Thomas Fecker Boxler as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and member of the Executive Management Team with effect from 1 March 2023. Thomas joins the Web3 Foundation at a critical juncture, as it focuses on providing support for cutting-edge applications for decentralized web software protocols, many of whom are impacted by the current market conditions. Thomas brings with him a wealth of experience from more than two decades of experience in leadership roles at multinationals, mid-sized firms, as well as startups in investment banking, asse management and within the digital asset ecosystem.



As the Web3 Foundation's CFO, Thomas will assume the oversight and the book of work of the Foundation's finance and operational activities. He will directly report to Bertrand Perez, Chief Executive Officer. Bertrand Perez, CEO of the Web3 Foundation, comments "Given our past journey, and anticipated future growth of our ecosystem, the number of demanding priorities related to financial and operational activities have substantially increased. With his impressive track record, Thomas is ideally positioned to complement our team with his valuable and broad experience."

Thomas joins from Swiss VC fund, Serpentine Ventures AG where he was Chief Operating Officer. Prior to this, Thomas founded IT Firm, t10r Kapital, and Co-Founded and later became COO and CFO of crypto liquidity provider and crypto market-maker, flovtec, where he proved instrumental in building and scaling fully regulated businesses, including a quantitative Asset Manager, a Global Macro Hedge Fund, a Liquidity Provider for Digital Assets and a Venture Capital firm. Thomas also served as the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer at Stone Milliner Asset Management and Kraus Partner Investment Solutions. Speaking on his appointment, Thomas Fecker Boxler, adds: "I very much look forward to this new challenge and joining Web3 Foundation's highly driven and innovative team. The common thread throughout my journey has been my emphasis on building and shaping businesses to achieve transformative results. I am keen to make an impactful contribution to build a more decentralized and trustless infrastructure, giving users their ownership back over their data, identity, security and transactions. It's time to build." Thomas holds an Executive MBA from University of Bern and an MBA from the University of Rochester, USA. He is a CFA charter holder and received a degree in Business Administration from the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005789/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
In 1996, Liz Archuleta was the first Latina to be elected to the Coconino County Board of Supervisors. She went on to serve District 2 for 25 years.

Archuleta then joined the Biden-Harris administration in 2021 as the director of the Office of External and Intergovernmental Affairs. Now, shes been appointed to use her relationship-building and leadership skills to lead United Way of Northern Arizona as president and CEO beginning this spring.

Archuleta is a fourth-generation Arizonan and a longtime leader in the region.

United Way of Northern Arizona (UWNA) itself has deep roots in Flagstaff. Thirty-five business and community leaders met at the Monte Vista Hotel in 1967 to create the United Fund for the City  a way to consolidate philanthropic funding and support local charities in need. During that first year, the United Fund for the City raised $60,000. That money would be awarded to support 11 Flagstaff charities.

In the 1970s the United Fund for the City expanded its scope to include donors and recipient organizations from Coconino, Navajo and Apache counties.

Today, UWNA is part of United Way Worldwide, a global charity that serves more than 48 million people every year in 95% of U.S. communities and 37 countries and territories. United Ways global mission is to bring people together and build strong, equitable communities.

Archuleta said that during her time at the helm of UWNA, she hopes to inspire new and current donors and volunteers to amplify the organizations role as an agent of change.

Shes been involved with UWNA since the 1990s  Archuleta has been a board chair and led annual fundraising campaigns and a capital campaign. She chaired United Ways Summit Society, a cohort of community investors who donate more than $500 annually to improving lives and fostering equity in northern Arizona. Archuleta also spearheaded a fundraising effort to support KinderCamp, a program designed to prepare preschoolers for a successful transition into kindergarten.

Archuleta will succeed Carol Dykes, who will retire as president and CEO after serving in the organization for 24 years.

Liz has always been an integral part of United Way and an important partner as we work to step up for our communities and create lasting, positive change, Dykes said. I could not leave this organization in better hands.

Archuleta will assume leadership in April.
[March 01, 2023] The Consortium for Top-Down Proteomics Announces the 2nd International Top-Down Proteomics Symposium, October 3-5, 2023, in Chicago, IL

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Consortium for Top-Down Proteomics today announced the 2nd International Top-Down Proteomics Symposium, which will be held in Chicago, IL October 3-5, 2023. The Symposium is being hosted by Northwestern Universitys Chemistry of Life Processes Institute. The Symposium will gather the global community to present and discuss the latest approaches in proteoform biology (the study of all the specific forms of proteins in the body), clinical research, and next-generation proteomics technologies. A major theme of the event will be the Human Proteoform Project, a global scientific effort to map the entire human proteome (including all proteoforms). This critical undertaking will transform our understanding of proteoform-based disease and launch a new era of precision drug discovery.





In addition to invited lectures, the Symposium will feature a series of roundtable discussions, poster and oral presentations, as well as an exhibition of companies providing technologies and services to the proteoform community. We are excited to bring the community together to examine the state of the field and discuss future opportunities in proteoform biology, said Paul Danis, CEO of the Consortium. Neil Kelleher, President of the Consortium as well as Director of Northwesterns Chemistry of Life Processes Institute, home to Northwestern Proteomics, added, the new era of proteoform-enabled research and discovery is upon us and is generating more precise markers for better diagnostics, leading to precision medicine with improved, personalized treatment of disease.

Details on the event including sponsorship and exhibition offerings, registration, logistics as well as the speakers and program can be found on the event website at tdp2023.topdownproteomics.org. About the Consortium for Top-Down Proteomics The Consortium for Top-Down Proteomics, Inc. is a 501c3 non-profit organization fostering collaboration, education, and innovative research to accelerate the comprehensive analysis of all human proteoforms, speeding developments in the fields of therapeutics, diagnostics, environment, and energy. It has members from academic institutions, corporations, and government agencies worldwide, and its work is supported by Seer, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Bruker, SCIEX, Lilly, Pfizer, Newomics, and Agilent. In addition, the CTDP gratefully recognizes Bruker, PacBio, Quantum-Si and Thermo Fisher Scientific for their Symposium sponsorships. A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/4032cd5c-8961-4a31-8621-2710c56c40b9

Contact: Paul Danis Chief Executive Officer Consortium for Top-Down Proteomics, Inc. 617.336.3280 [email protected]

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] Rogue Community College Selects Jenzabar One to Modernize Operations and Put Student Experiences First

Jenzabar, Inc., a leading technology innovator in higher education serving the new student, today announced that Rogue Community College (RCC) has selected Jenzabar's cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution to modernize key parts of its operations, consolidate its technology footprint, and drive institutional and student success. Rogue Community College is a public community college in Oregon with campuses in Medford, Grants Pass, and White City. The college enrolls over 7,700 students and offers two-year degree programs, career and technical training programs, and myriad workforce and short-term training programs. Before selecting Jenzabar, RCC was using a legacy homegrown platform. The college recognized its need for a modern solution that would unite its systems, simplify and improve student experiences, and optimize mission-critical processes. To ensure their new system met the needs of the entire college, stakeholders throughout the institution collaborated to document business procedures and outline detailed technology requirements. Rogue's steering committee also made sure to include a range of system users in product demonstrations and discussions. After analyzing multiple systems and visiting peer institutions, RCC chose Jenzabar One as its platform to transform its campus. During the selection phase, Jenzabar showcased solutions that are in use across hundreds of campuses. Collee staff indicated that company transparency on performance capabilities contributed to Jenzabar's selection over other vendors.



"Jenzabar has a strong reputation for excellent customer service and is a trusted product that will allow us to successfully serve students now and into the future," said Lisa Stanton, Vice President of Operations and Finance at RCC. "Jenzabar's implementation strategy is clear and concise, and their solutions are easy to use and navigate. We are excited to give our students and staff better experiences through Jenzabar One." With Jenzabar One, RCC will:

Modernize its ERP system and consolidate more than 20 disparate systems into one unified, cloud solution.

Enhance student and staff user experiences with improved, user-friendly, modern, and always-available self-service tools.

Accelerate and streamline business operations with paperless, automated processes.

Improve strategic decision-making by turning data into coherent, actionable information.

Increase college-wide collaboration by eliminating communication silos and making it easier to share information between departments. "Jenzabar has a rich history with Oregon's community colleges and a strong understanding of what these institutions and their students need," said Ling Chai, Jenzabar Founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer. "We are incredibly excited about our new partnership with Rogue Community College, and we will work hard to support Rogue and its students in achieving their visions for the future." Resources For more information on Jenzabar One, visit https://jenzabar.com/jenzabar-one About Jenzabar Created out of a passion for education and a vision for technology, Jenzabar offers disruptive, innovative software solutions and services that empower students' success and help higher education institutions meet the demands of the modern student. Over 1,350 higher educational campuses harness Jenzabar solutions for improved performance across campus and a more personalized and connected experience for the student. For further information, please visit www.jenzabar.com or on Twitter @Jenzabar or on LinkedIn. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005794/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] Michigan State University Federal Credit Union Goes Live With Two New Standalone Digital Brands, AlumniFi and Collegiate

NYMBUS,a premier provider of cutting-edge financial technology solutions, today announced Michigan State University Federal Credit Union (MSUFCU) is live with not one, but two new standalone digital brands, AlumniFi and Collegiate. Collegiate serves individuals starting their secondary education journey partnering with colleges and universities across the country to deploy digital banking, financial tools, and educational resources made for Gen Z members. Olivet University will be the first to extend Collegiate digital banking and resources to students, faculty, and staff. AlumniFi serves graduates with financial wellness, debt paydown, and charitable contribution tools, with plans to expand. Both strategic investments for MSUFCU, these digital credit unions continue a relentless focus on member experience and serving unique financial needs uncovered for students as an extension of their commitment to serving the their membership. Integrations with Reseda Group technology partners like Spave, PocketNest, Changed, and Evergreen 3C deepen the financial resources available and the connection between the credit union and its members - enabling MSUFCU to deliver truly customized niche banking services.



"We wanted to create niche brands that would match the needs of college students and graduates that are most likely managing their own finances for the first time. AlumniFi will help members set savings goals and track their cash flows. We also have several partners that are integrated to provide relevant services, such as a ChangEd, a card round up to help pay down your student loans faster," noted April Clobes, MSUFCU President/CEO. MSUFCU has a national reputation for excellence that has led to its more than $7.2 billion in assets serving nearly 338,000 members. With the goal of continued growth by engaging new segments of members, MSUFCU chose Nymbus to quickly open up this addressable market to help deliver cutting-edge products and services.

"Nymbus is empowering credit unions to deliver growth models with the people, process, and technology needed to deliver digital financial services that complement their core business," says John Janclaes, President of Nymbus CUSO. "We are proud MSUFCU has trusted Nymbus to build truly differentiating credit unions that serve the unique banking needs of these significant niche segments." About Nymbus

Nymbus enables banks, brands, and fintechs of any size to accelerate growth through new routes to market. This includes a full suite of banking technology applications available to modernize and optimize existing channels, as well as the operational resources to get to market quickly with a full-scale digital brand immediately positioned at capturing new niche customer segments. Whichever growth path you choose, Nymbus buys back decades of lost time and accelerates your ability to engage and support the entire customer journey. About MSUFCU

Founded in 1937, MSUFCU has a national reputation for excellence and has received several top industry and workplace awards, including being named a Best Credit Union to Work For by American Banker for the fifth year, a Top Workplace by the Detroit Free Press for 11 consecutive years, a National Best and Brightest Companies to Work For winner for six consecutive years, and was named one of the top five Michigan credit unions in Forbes' Best-in-State Credit Unions 2021 list. MSUFCU was named a Best Workplace in Financial Services and Insurance by Fortune Magazine two consecutive years and has been certified as a Great Place to Work for nine consecutive years. MSUFCU has been recognized by the Credit Union National Association, earning first place for the people-helping-people philosophy Louise Herring Award. MSUFCU is headquartered in East Lansing, Mich., has 21 branches, nearly 338,000 members, more than $7.2 billion in assets, and nearly 1,200 employees. For more information, visit msufcu.org. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005073/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] Billigence Partners With H2O.ai to Transform Its Business With Automated Machine Learning

Today, the AI cloud leader, H2O.ai, announced a partnership with global business intelligence consultancy Billigence, to accelerate internal innovation by making it easy to create, deploy and glean insights from AI-powered predictive models. Billigence is trusted by a broad customer base spanning finance, media, telecommunications, energy, retail and government. It helps companies in these sectors thrive in the digital era by transforming how they harness data consolidation, visualization, analytics, and governance to make better informed business decisions. "H2O.ai amplifies the effectiveness of our AI experts while making cutting edge data science easy and accessible to anyone who wants to use it," said Jana Kapr, CEO of Billigence. "We've already seen significant impact from its cloud AI tools and we have only scratched the surface of what's possible." H2O.ai uses AI to make data a business asset while maintaining expert levels of accuracy, speed, and transparency into the algorithms. The H2O.ai Cloud solves complex business problems and accelerates the discovery of new ideas with results that can be understood and trusted. The low-code and flexible architecture makes it easy to explain and enhance machine learning (ML) operations in any sector. "It is our mission to enable companies across the world to ecome AI superpowers. We can achieve this goal faster and at a greater scale through the partnerships we build," said Sri Ambati, CEO and founder of H2O.ai. "Our partnership with Billigence will further empower barrier free access to machine learning and AI for communities in APAC."



Billigence's CEO Jana Kapr was interviewed recently about the successful integration of H2O.ai into the business' best of breed technology ecosystem. Highlighting how ML & AI initiatives are critical for future success, she delves into how tasks that previously took months, or even years, to complete manually are accomplished in a few hours with H2O.ai. The models created can be easily tweaked and used for day-to-day decision making that can help businesses to optimize and increase revenue. Watch the full interview below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2xa5qrc1GI

ABOUT H2O.AI H2O.ai is the leading AI Cloud company, on a mission to democratize AI. As a company, it distills the technical prowess of 30 Kaggle Masters into straightforward AI cloud tools that solve powerful problems. Goldman Sachs, NVIDIA, and Wells Fargo are not only customers and partners, but strategic investors in the company. H2O.ai's marquee products of Driverless AI, Hydrogen Torch and Document AI have transformed over 20,000 global organizations and over half of the Fortune 500, including AT&T, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Citi, GlaxoSmithKline, Hitachi, Kaiser Permanente, Procter & Gamble, PayPal, PwC and Unilever. Join the movement of AI4Good at www.h2o.ai. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005277/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] Hivelocity Announces New Channel Partner Program

Enhanced Channel program offers competitive revenues and superior performance. TAMPA, Fla., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Hivelocity , the leading Bare Metal Cloud provider announced today the launch of their new global Channel Partner Program , allowing partners to deploy and modernize their clients' infrastructure with predictable pricing. The launch of Hivelocity's Channel Program comes at a time of strong growth for the company, with rising demand for their edge-ready infrastructure spreading across the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Hivelocity will celebrate the launch with a kick off at the Channel Partners Conference and Expo in Las Vegas in May. With the addition of industry veteran Chrissy Hines, Vice President of Channel and Strategic Alliances, Hivelocity is well positioned to capture market share and expand global reach. "We are excited to officially launch the Hivelocity Channel Partner Program. As a company, we have been successful not only because of our superior product offering and network capabilities, but also because we are nimble, flexible, and simplistic to do business with. My philosophy is to make it just as easy to partner with us. I've structured this program from the eye of the partner, eliminating common channel blockers that agents and other partners tend to experience from suppliers. As we go to market, my vision is to establish quality partnerships over quantity, and we are looking forward to investing in select partners who understand the strategic value we bring to the IaaS industry, and who are willing to lean in with us." said Hines. Designed to be simplistic, supportive, and reciprocal, the Hivelocity Channel Program focuses on three key segments of go-to-market partnerships: Technology Service Brokerage Firms, Multi-Platform Resellers, and Strategic Technology Partners. Program Launch Highlights Consultative: Technology Service Brokerages/b>



Hivelocity rounded out 2022 with six of the most well-respected and productive Technology Service Brokerage Firms in the IaaS space including, Bridgepointe Technologies, UPSTACK, Inflect, and AppDirect. Equating to 85% growth in active agents, this has contributed to 110% year-over-year growth in associated channel revenue. By building trust through securing agents' long-term growth within customer accounts, reciprocal business practices, and implementing a robust marketplace for opportunity tracking, reporting, and access to sales enablement resources, Hivelocity is establishing pivotal partnerships within the agent community. "Hivelocity is a best-of-breed provider which gives us access to key markets around the world." explained Mel Melara, Vice President of Sales and Head of Bridgepointe's Global Data Center Practice. "We've seen a spike in demand resulting from industry supply chain constraints, and this partnership gives us a new option in our portfolio for BareMetal and Infrastructure. As a tech advisory firm our clients come to us to get access to a broad range of options to help them accelerate their time to ROI, and adding Hivelocity will help us do that."

Bridgepointe Technologies is the nation's leading technology advisory firm with over 8,000 clients worldwide. Their solutions and services, which include data center and hybrid cloud, enable their clients to evaluate, implement and manage tech strategies to realize sustainable results for business growth. Global Growth: Resellers Over the past year, resellers have helped to increase market sales across Africa, South America, Australia, and Canada. Significant investment has been made to continue improving and enhancing their multi-platform reseller program, with increased focus on rewarding partners for driving revenue, offering up to 45% of revenue share. Reselling with Hivelocity is easy and interested resellers can get started via WHMCS, AppDirect, through the company's own API or direct agreement. Collective Innovation: Strategic Technology Partners Building and nurturing an ecosystem of diverse alliance partners is paramount to Hivelocity's next phase of growth. With a focus on quality partnerships that align well with Hivelocity's Bare Metal service offerings, the company aims to establish new revenue streams and bilateral alliance workflows. Notable partnerships in 2022 included Digital Realty, Wasabi, and Console Connect. Heading into 2023, Hivelocity plans to expand its existing alliance partner portfolio with a focus on cyber-security and cloud workload optimization. "Over the past 20 years, Hivelocity has focused on perfecting our delivery of bare metal servers in an automated manner globally. With the official launch of our Channel Partner Program, we are excited to invest in select partners who understand the strategic value we bring to the IaaS industry and are willing to work alongside us to deliver top-notch solutions and services to our customers." - Steve Eschweiler, COO Hivelocity Hivelocity Bare Metal is highly customizable and powerful, and their dedicated hardware means their services are available at a fraction of the cost of the public clouds. Partnering with Hivelocity means securing your customers with a hosting and digital infrastructure solution that's tailored to their specific needs. Additionally, its cost-effective payment structure can save customers upwards of 500% annually. Finally, through partnering with Hivelocity, customers gain access to Hivelocity's award-winning, in-facility, 24x7x365 support. With more data center locations and customization options than ever, there's never been a better time to see what the Hivelocity difference can mean for you and your customers. To learn more email [email protected] . If you are interested in joining the Hivelocity Channel Partner program, you can fill out the application HERE . About Hivelocity Founded in 2002, Hivelocity is a privately held company that has been a fixture in the dedicated server hosting industry for over 20 years. With 40+ international locations operating in 29 global markets across 6 continents, Hivelocity's Bare Metal Cloud solutions can help you reach 80% of the world's internet population in under 25 milliseconds. To learn more about Hivelocity, visit https://www.hivelocity.net . View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hivelocity-announces-new-channel-partner-program-301759698.html SOURCE Hivelocity

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] Pavion Acquires Turnkey Technology

Acquisition expands Pavion's footprint in U.S. Midwest markets CHANTILLY, Va., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Pavion (formerly Corbett Technology Solutions, Inc. "CTSI"), a leading provider of integrated solutions for fire, safety, security, and critical communications, has acquired Turnkey Technology, LLC ("Turnkey"). This acquisition continues Pavion's expansion through the U.S. Midwest bolstering our fire, security and integration capabilities in the geography. It is the twelfth acquisition for Pavion since partnering with Wind Point Partners ("Wind Point") in June 2020. Founded in 2016, Turnkey delivers video surveillance, access control, fire alarm, structured cabling, networking and wireless solutions for enterprise, manufacturing, and K-12 customers. Eric Anevski, Turnkey founder says, "We launched our company to provide customers a single, turnkey source for enhanced fire, security and integration technology, installation, and service." Turnkey serves customers across the Midwest Region from its headquarters in Cincinnati, OH. "The business was built with a simple get the job done right mentality," says Anevski, "supported by outstanding employees that lead by example." "The U.S. Midwest is a very important and rapidly growing geography for Pavion, and it's important that we enhance our resources to support strategic customers in this territory," says Pavion President and CEO Joe Oliveri. "Turnkey is a great business, aligned with our Connect and Protect portfolio strategy, which brings skilled employees and highly valued customers in a strategic market." Jim Muncey, President of the Pavion Securit Business Unit, is pleased to welcome Turnkey Technology staff and customers to Pavion. "We're really excited to bring Turnkey into the Pavion Security Business Unit. We share a common belief that when employees and customers are treated well and properly supported, our business continues to thrive, and that's what we do."



Officially launched in October 2022, Pavion unites 13 legacy brands across its three business units: CTSI, DavEd Fire Systems, Collaborative Technology Solutions, The Protection Bureau, Star Asset Security, iON247, AFA Protective Systems, Structure Works, Enterprise Security Solutions, Systems Electronics, Firecom, Short Circuit Electronics, and Turnkey Technology. Ely Friedman at VonLehman & Company served as the exclusive M&A advisor to Turnkey Technologies.

About Pavion

Pavion connects and protects by providing fire, security, and communication integration solutions to customers in 48 U.S. locations and 22 countries. The company brings industry-leading experience to clients in the enterprise, healthcare, education, government, data center, and retail industries. Its mission is to bring clarity and transformation to safety, security and communication through integral technology and radical service. Learn more at Pavion.com. About Wind Point Partners

Wind Point Partners is a Chicago-based private equity investment firm with approximately $5 billion in assets under management. Wind Point focuses on partnering with top-caliber management teams to acquire well-positioned middle market businesses where it can establish a clear path to value creation. The firm targets investments in the consumer products, industrial products and business services sectors. Wind Point is currently investing out of Wind Point Partners X, a fund that was initiated in 2022. Additional information on Wind Point is available at www.windpointpartners.com. About Turnkey Technology

Turnkey Technology, LLC. is a leading, single source provider of video surveillance, access control, fire alarm, structured cabling, networking and wireless solutions for enterprise, manufacturing, and K-12 customers in the Mid-west. Learn more at https://www.turnkeyt.com/. Pavion.com | LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube Media Contact: Alan Rosenkoff [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pavion-acquires-turnkey-technology-301758542.html SOURCE Pavion

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] Government of Canada renews its support for electronic systems industry

Quebec's Electronic Systems Industry Cluster receives $450,000 in financial assistance from CED to promote the industry, develop markets, and enhance business productivity. BROMONT, QC, March 1, 2023 /CNW/ - Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions (CED) Supporting innovation and technology development contributes to economic development in Quebec's regions. That is why the Honourable Pascale StOnge, Member of Parliament for BromeMissisquoi, Minister of Sport and Minister responsible for CED, today announced a nonrepayable financial contribution of $450,000 for Quebec's Electronic Systems Industry Cluster (lSEQ) to implement its 2022-2025 action plan. Thanks to this Government of Canada support, ISEQ will be able to continue to guide and mobilize all the players in Quebec's industry. More specifically, CED's assistance will enable the cluster to pursue its activities to stimulate innovative projects, contribute to the transfer of technology, and help SMEs market their innovations, develop markets, and integrate into the value chains of prime contractors. Created in 2018 out of a shared desire among businesses and research institutions to join forces in a dynamic effort to foster economic development in this industry, ISEQ is today recognized as a catalyst in the sector across the province. Its mission is to structure, mobilize and guide all players in the electronic systems industry to contribute to Quebec's economic development. The Government of Canada recognizes and supports businesses and organizations that are a source of pride in their communities. Quebec's economic recovery relies, among other things, on an electronic systems industry with organizations that hve strong roots in the regional economy. The players in this industry are major contributors to growth, as well as key assets in rebuilding a stronger, more resilient, greener, and more just economy for all.



Quotes "Our government recognizes the importance of a cluster such as ISEQ. Electronic systems form an industry of great significance in Quebec's economy given the number of businesses in this sector, the number of jobs it represents, and the spin-offs it generates. Thanks to CED's support, ISEQ will continue to mobilize all the players in this area in Quebec and pursue its efforts to stimulate innovation and growth in the industry."

The Honourable Pascale StOnge, Member of Parliament for BromeMissisquoi, Minister of Sport and Minister responsible for CED "The entire ecosystem of an agile industry such as electronics and semi-conductors is a major source of technological innovation as the world transitions to clean energy. In this sense, ISEQ becomes a catalyst in the sector's efforts, liberating its potential on the international stage." MarieHelene Lamarre, General Manager, Quebec's Electronic Systems Industry Cluster Quick facts The funds have been granted under CED's Regional Economic Growth through Innovation program. This program targets entrepreneurs leveraging innovation to grow their businesses and enhance their competitiveness, as well as regional economic stakeholders helping to create an entrepreneurial environment conducive to innovation and growth for all, across all regions.

CED is a key federal partner in Quebec's regional economic development. With its 12 regional business offices, CED accompanies businesses, supporting organizations and all regions across Quebec into tomorrow's economy. Associated links Quebec's Electronic Systems Industry Cluster

CED funding initiatives and programs Stay connected Follow CED on social media

Consult CED's news SOURCE Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] UBS Hires $640 Million Advisor Team in Sarasota, FL

UBS Wealth Management USA today announced that Financial Advisors Brian Mariash and James Barton "Bart" Lowther have joined the firm in Sarasota, Florida. Together with their six-person team, Mariash Lowther Wealth Management, they manage nearly $640 million in client assets for ultra-high net worth individuals and families. "On behalf of UBS, we're excited to welcome Brian, Bart and their entire team to the firm," said Greg Kadet, Managing Director and Florida Market Director at UBS Wealth Management USA. "The team's experience, dedication to clients, and passion for philanthropy are a great addition to our business as we look to continue to expand and enhance our ability to serve clients in this growing market." "As partners for over 10 years, Brian and Bart have a deep commitment to helping clients and their families navigate complex financial matters," said Karmen Keup, Southwest Florida Market Director at UBS Wealth Management USA. "With our unique suite of capabilities at UBS, I have no doubt the team will continue to successfully deliver for clients in the years to come." Brian Mariash joins UBS from Merrill Wealth Management, where he spent the past 15 years working as a Financial Advisor. He joined the financial services industry in 2001, after a career in music education. Brian brings an learning-based approach to wealth management, and his personal mission to educate, connect and contribute has become part of the mission of the team he founded, Mariash Lowther Wealth Management. His practice focuses on advising ultra-high net worth retirees, C-suite executives and small business owners. Brian holds the Certified Investmen Management Analyst designation (CIMA), administered by the Investments & Wealth Institute (The Institute) at The Wharton School of Business, and the Accredited Asset Management Specialist, AAMS designation from The College for Financial Planning Institutes Corp. As an active member and supporter of his local community, Brian previously served on the board of the Child Protection Center of Sarasota as well as the board for Jewish Family and Children Services. He is the proud father of three children and resides in downtown Sarasota.



Bart Lowther began his financial services career at Merrill Wealth Management in 2010. Through his practice, he focuses on helping clients manage and preserve their wealth through various, complex market cycles based on their individual needs. Together with his team, Bart focuses on delivering a comprehensive approach to managing wealth that begins with listening to a client's unique financial needs to help ensure each strategy is grounded in an understanding of what each client wants to achieve. He also specializes in providing clients with investment planning advice for retirement. Bart received his finance degree from the A.B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University in 2010. He holds the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) certification as well as the Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor (CRPC) designation from the College for Financial Planning. Bart is passionate about giving back to his local community, and serves on the boards of The Circus Arts Conservatory and All Faith's Food Bank. A Sarasota native, Bart enjoys playing music, going to the beach, and spending time with his dogs, Layla and Beaux.

Brian and Bart are joined by Financial Advisor Jesse Perez, CFP, as well as Client Associates Shannon Murphy, Dionysios Skaliotis and Sovanna Sok. Notes to Editors About UBS

UBS convenes the global ecosystem for investing, where people and ideas are connected and opportunities brought to life, and provides financial advice and solutions to wealthy, institutional and corporate clients worldwide, as well as to private clients in Switzerland. UBS offers investment solutions, products and impactful thought leadership, is the leading global wealth manager, provides large-scale and diversified asset management, focused investment banking capabilities, and personal and corporate banking services in Switzerland. The firm focuses on businesses that have a strong competitive position in their target markets, are capital efficient and have an attractive long-term structural growth or profitability outlook. UBS is present in all major financial centers worldwide. It has offices in more than 50 regions and locations, with about 30% of its employees working in the Americas, 29% in Switzerland, 20% in the rest of Europe, the Middle East and Africa and 21% in Asia Pacific. UBS Group AG employs more than 72,000 people around the world. Its shares are listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). https://www.ubs.com  UBS 2023. All rights reserved. The key symbol and UBS are among the registered and unregistered trademarks of UBS. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005821/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] OCC Announces Megan Cohen Promoted to General Counsel

OCC, the world's largest equity derivatives clearing organization, today announced the promotion of Megan Cohen to General Counsel and Corporate Secretary effective March 1, and the retirement of Chief Legal Officer Janet Angstadt in early July. Ms. Cohen will work closely with Ms. Angstadt, OCC's Board of Directors and Management Committee to facilitate a smooth transition of responsibilities. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005096/en/ OCC Promotes Megan Cohen to General Counsel (Photo: Business Wire) Since joining OCC in 2014, Ms. Cohen has served in several roles of increasing responsibility within the organization. Most recently, she was Deputy General Counsel and Corporate Secretary leading OCC's corporate governance functions, advising OCC's Board and management on regulatory issues and overseeing the regulatory rule filing process with the SEC, CFTC, and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. Prior to that, Ms. Cohen was an attorney at Cboe Global Markets where she focused on regulatory matters. She is a graduate of the Loyola University School of Law and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she received her B.A. n English.



"Megan is a very talented attorney with a wealth of industry and institutional knowledge and is an integral part of our leadership team," said John Davidson, OCC Chief Executive Officer. "We are very pleased for Megan to take on this role, and we offer our sincere thanks to Janet for her wise counsel and steady hand leading our legal team." Andrej Bolkovic, OCC Chief Executive Officer-Elect, noted, "Megan's promotion is yet another great example of OCC's ability to attract and retain top talent. Her contributions to OCC over her tenure, and especially as Deputy General Counsel, have been extraordinarily valuable to our organization. We are excited that she has agreed to serve as our next General Counsel."

Angstadt commented, "Megan and I have always worked closely together throughout my years at OCC. She's a fantastic talent, and I'm delighted for her and the group." Bolkovic added, "We also congratulate Janet on a remarkable career and offer our sincere thanks for her years of dedication and commitment to OCC where she made a significant impact within our organization and across the broader options industry. We wish Janet well in her retirement." Since joining OCC in 2019, Ms. Angstadt has led and enhanced OCC's legal, corporate governance and regulatory functions. In recent years, her role was expanded to administratively oversee OCC's audit and compliance functions, which report directly to the Board of Directors. Ms. Angstadt's distinguished career includes serving as a partner at Katten Muchin Rosenman for 12 years and Co-Head of the Chicago Financial Services Practice. Before that, she was Deputy General Counsel at Archipelago Holdings and became General Counsel of NYSE Arca after the company was acquired by the NYSE Group. She was also a Senior Vice President at EVEREN Securities and an associate at Schiff Hardin & Waite. She began her career in the Division of Trading and Markets at the SEC. Craig Donohue, OCC Executive Chairman, said, "On behalf of our Board, I want to congratulate Megan on this well-deserved achievement. This remains an exciting time for OCC and our industry, and we look forward to Megan's continued leadership and collaboration across the organization as we work to ensure confidence in the financial markets." Donohue added, "In addition, I thank Janet for her many contributions to OCC throughout her tenure, as her legal expertise has helped to ensure OCC's continued success throughout a period of tremendous organizational and industry transformation. We wish her well in her retirement." Angstadt added, "Last October when I informed OCC of my intention to retire, my priorities were to ensure a seamless transition and to complete certain regulatory matters for the company. I'll miss OCC but I'm excited about this new chapter of my life." About OCC The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) is the world's largest equity derivatives clearing organization. Founded in 1973, OCC is dedicated to promoting stability and market integrity by delivering clearing and settlement services for options, futures and securities lending transactions. As a Systemically Important Financial Market Utility (SIFMU), OCC operates under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. OCC has more than 100 clearing members and provides central counterparty (CCP) clearing and settlement services to 19 exchanges and trading platforms. More information about OCC is available at www.theocc.com. 2023. The Options Clearing Corporation. All rights reserved. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005096/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] Inc. Magazine Ranks CoreStack No. 42 on List of the Pacific Region's Fastest-Growing Private Companies

Inc. Magazine today revealed that CoreStack is No. 42 on its third annual Inc. 5000 Regionals: Pacific list, the most prestigious ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in the Pacific region, namely those based in California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii. Born of the annual Inc. 5000 franchise, this regional list represents a unique look at the most successful private companies within the Pacific economy generating sustainable growth and jobs. "It's a humbling recognition of our company's remarkable growth over the past two years by Inc. Magazine," Ezhilarasan (Ez) Natarajan, CEO at CoreStack. "This recognition further validates our team's hard work and dedication towards creating NextGen cloud governance solutions that empower our customers to achieve their digital transformation goals. We will continue to push boundaries and strive for excellence, knowing that our success is ultimately measured by the value we deliver to our customers." The companies on this list show a remarkable rate of growth across all industries in the Pacific. Between 2019 and 2021, these private companies had an average growth rate of 559 percent and, in 2021 alone, they added 14,536 jobs and $4.6 billion to the Pacific region's economy. "This year's Inc. 5000 Regional winners represent one of the most exceptional and exciting lists of America's off-the-charts growth companies. They're disrupters and job creators, and all delivered an outsize impact on the economy. Remember their names and follow their lead. These are the companies you'll be hearing about for years to come," said Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc. Magazine. Complete results of the Inc. 5000 Regionals: Pacific, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, metro area, and other criteria, can be found at inc.com/pacific. CoreStack offers a suite of NextGen Cloud Governance modules that leverage AI to provide continuous and autonomous governance for FinOps, SecOps, and CloudOps across multi-cloud through one unified dashboard. This platform is designed to be Continuous, Holistic, Autonomous, Integrated, and Nimble (CHAIN) so enterprises can ue cloud with confidence. NextGen Cloud Governance helps enterprises mitigate risk, accelerate delivery, optimize performance, and innovate. In addition, CoreStack offers a suite of assessment tools that include Well-Architected Assessments as well as FinOps and SecOps assessments. These solutions streamline the process of assessing, improving, and maintaining cloud workloads across all environments, including enabling auto-remediation directly from the CoreStack dashboard.



More about Inc. and the Inc. 5000 Regionals Methodology

The 2023 Inc. 5000 Regionals are ranked according to percentage revenue growth when comparing 2019 and 2021. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2019. They had to be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independent-not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies-as of December 31, 2021. (Since then, a number of companies on the list have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2019 is $100,000; the minimum for 2021 is $1 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons. About CoreStack CoreStack provides a NextGen Cloud Governance platform that empowers enterprises to predictably increase top-line revenues, improve bottom-line efficiencies, and gain a competitive edge through AI-powered real-time cloud governance on autopilot. CoreStack's FinOps, SecOps, and CloudOps solutions embrace, enhance, and extend native-cloud capabilities, and help optimize cloud spend while assuring security and compliance across multiple clouds with a single solution to go further faster. Through executive dashboards for comprehensive real-time insights, CoreStack delivers transformative value, such as 40% increase in operational efficiencies, 50% decrease in cloud costs, and 100% security assurance and compliance. CoreStack helps 750+ global enterprises govern $2+ billion in annual cloud consumption, generating $300+ million in cloud cost savings. Frost & Sullivan, Forrester, Gartner, S&P Global, and IDC have recognized CoreStack as an innovator and leader in cloud management. CoreStack is backed by strategic advisors, including the ex-CEO of Wipro and ex-CIO of Microsoft. The company is a Microsoft Azure Gold Partner, Amazon AWS Advanced Technology Competency Partner, Oracle Cloud Build Partner and Google Cloud Build Partner. To learn more, visit www.corestack.io About Inc. Media 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 is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit www.inc.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005127/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] Jensen Investment Management Announces Three New Equity Ownership Shareholders

Jensen Investment Management ("Jensen"), a 100% employee-owned active equity investment management firm, is pleased to announce Alexandria Sorosky, MaryAnn Dahl and Todd Schoen as the most recent additions to firm ownership and welcomes them as shareholders. "At Jensen, our goal for the last 35 years has been to look for ways to provide long-term value creation, quality and growth opportunities for all aspects of the business," said Eric H. Schoenstein, managing director. "Alexandria, MaryAnn and Todd all epitomize the culture and values of our firm, demonstrating superior stewardship for Jensen's clients and employees alike. We are delighted to welcome them as our newest owners." Alexandria Sorosky joined the firm in 2018 and is currently the manager of Sales and Client Services. As such, she is responsible for sales and client service for adviser and intermediary channels for the western United States. Prior to Jensen, she was in Internal Sales and National Accounts in the non-traded REIT industry. Ms. Sorosky earned a Bachelor of Science inmarketing from Arizona State University.



MaryAnn Dahl has been with the firm since 2018 and is currently a manager with the Jensen Private Client team. Prior to joining Jensen, she was responsible for the portfolio reporting and investment research functions for Deschutes Investment Consulting. She began her career working as an analyst at investment consulting firms that served high-net-worth families, foundations and endowments, and she spent more than six years at Greycourt & Co., Inc. While there, she contributed to the Investment Reporting, Investment Research and Client Service departments and ultimately managed their team of investment analysts. Ms. Dahl earned a Bachelor of Science in finance with minors in Spanish and international business from the University of Wyoming. Todd Schoen joined Jensen in 2019 and currently serves as the firm's senior compliance officer. Previously, Todd was a compliance officer for Russell Investments. Mr. Schoen has also worked as a securities compliance examiner for the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions and the Texas State Securities Board, examining broker dealers and investment advisers. He received a Master of Business Administration from the University of Washington and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Pacific Lutheran University.

Jensen manages approximately $13.1 billion (as of December 2022) across three investment strategies-Jensen Quality Growth, Jensen Quality Value and Jensen Global Quality Growth-with firm ownership shared among more than 50% of Jensen's 39 employees. About Jensen Investment Management Jensen Investment Management is a high-conviction, active equity manager with an unwavering commitment to quality. The firm focuses on companies derived from a select universe of businesses that have produced a long-term record of persistently high returns on shareholder equity. For more information, please visit www.jenseninvestment.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005534/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] SHEIN HOSTS FIRST CAMPUS AMBASSADOR SUMMIT IN LOS ANGELES FOR MORE THAN 200 U.S. COLLEGE STUDENTS

30K+ SHEIN Campus Ambassadors Participate In The Program, Which Aims To Enrich Students With Community Building, Networking & Financial Opportunities Through Their Love Of Fashion LOS ANGELES, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- SHEIN, the global online retailer of fashion, beauty, and lifestyle products, hosted its first Campus Ambassador Summit in Los Angeles on February 24 and 25. The two-day event commenced with a welcome reception on Friday evening, where more than 200 SHEIN ambassadors were hosted for an evening at Mes Amis in Hollywood for a seated dinner, followed with a dance performance by Miss Tosh and music by DJ Brees. On Saturday morning, ambassadors embarked on a tour of SHEIN Studio and SHEIN Headquarters in Downtown Los Angeles, where they were given a behind-the-scenes tour of the space and engaged in a roundtable discussion with SHEIN's livestream host, Renee Ariel. While at SHEIN Studio, ambassadors were given tutorials on new makeup trends and had their makeup done for their professional headshots. On Saturday evening, SHEIN ambassadors celebrated at TAO Los Angeles, participating in activities including fun photo opportunities and custom embroidery stations for their SHEIN varsity jackets. The night concluded with SHEIN recognizing its top campus ambassador performers with awards in eight categories: MOST INFLUENTIAL

Deborah Tolbert

Nayeli Martinez

Tierra Gwinn

Yari Vasquez

Karen Rodriguez Aquino ABOVE & BEYOND

Skyler McGillicuddy

Jasmine Vital

Maya Parker

Bianka Garcia

Ashley Reeves CALIFORNIA CHAPTER LEADER

Marina Saavedra

Isabella Orozc



TEXAS CHAPTER LEADER

Juliana Milano

Addison Kanke MOST CREATIVE

Karla Polanco

BEST CONTENT

Alexis Simone "OG" AMBASSADOR

Marina Haro AMBASSADOR OF THE YEAR

Isabella Orozco The SHEIN Campus Ambassador Program has more than 30,000 participants from colleges and universities throughout the U.S. The program supports its SHEIN fashion-loving community by hosting live and virtual events featuring discussions around fashion, career mentoring and networking opportunities. Ambassadors also receive benefits including commission and rewards, special giveaways and access to internship opportunities and mentorship programs. To become a SHEIN Camps Ambassador, applicants must be at least 18 years old, currently enrolled in a university or college in the United States and authorized to work in the United States. To learn more about the SHEIN Campus Ambassador program, visit https://us.shein.com/campaign/us-campus-2022. ABOUT SHEIN SHEIN is a global fashion and lifestyle e-tailer committed to making the beauty of fashion accessible to all. We use on-demand manufacturing technology to connect suppliers to our agile supply chain, reducing inventory waste and enabling us to deliver a variety of affordable products to customers around the world. From our global offices, we reach customers in more than 150 countries. To learn more about SHEIN, visit http://www.SHEIN.com. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/shein-hosts-first-campus-ambassador-summit-in-los-angeles-for-more-than-200-us-college-students-301759687.html SOURCE SHEIN Distribution Corporation

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] Western State College of Law Earns Top Recognitions From Princeton Review and preLaw Magazine

Western State College of Law at Westcliff University, the first law school in Orange County, California, was recently listed as a top school for diversity by Princeton Review and preLaw Magazine. Western State was ranked 6th for most diverse faculty; 7th for greatest resources for minority students and 8th for greatest resources for women in the Princeton Review annual "Best Law Schools" rankings. On the preLaw Magazine Most Diverse Law Schools list, Western State was ranked 7th with an A+ grade-earning a spot on the well-respected list for the 8th time. Since 2015, Western State has been a minority-majority law school with over 50% of its student body self-identifying as students of color. These recent recognitions demonstrate Western State's ongoing commitment to creating and fostering a diverse student body and faculty to enrich the law school experience. "Diversity is part of Western State's DNA and we are honored to be recognized as one of the top 10 law schools in the country on these prestigious lists," notes Allen K. Easley, dean of Western State College of Law. "Historically, the legal profession has lacked diversity; however, we see enormous value in diversity - not only in the classroom where it helps students understand different cultural perspectives but also as our students graduate and seek to serve the very diverse community in which we live." Western State's 2022 incoming class is comprised of 55% women, students range from 20 to 45 years old, 58% identify as a minority and 44% are first-generation students. Eight students are citizens of foreign countries, 17 (13%) were born in a foreign country and 17 (13%) identify as LGBTQ+. This class also represents 65 different undergraduate colleges and 35 different majors. Western State also strives for diversity within its faculty and among its full-time employees, 60% are women and 40% identify as a minority. With Westcliff University's support, Western State was able to increase its diversity scholarships, awarding more than $1.3 million in 2022, and recently announced it will accept the GRE in lieu of an LSAT score to help make law school more accessible by allowing individuals with different strengths to apply-while further expanding the diversity of its applicant pool. These efforts are in line with the American Bar Association (ABA) updated Diversity and Inclusion Center requirements.



The Princeton Review rankings are derived from surveys of students and administrators. For the greatest resources for minority students and women lists, the student body responds to a survey question about whether all students receive equal treatment by fellow students and the faculty, regardless of ethnicity or gender. To earn the ranking of most diverse faculty, students respond to a survey on whether the faculty comprises a broadly diverse group of individuals. The grading system for preLaw Magazine is based on how each school matches with the U.S. average for Asian, Black, Hispanic, Caucasian and American Indian populations. For faculty, it compares overall U.S. minority percentages with the percentage of minority faculty. Credit is given when a school matches or is higher than the national average. To learn more, visit https://www.wsulaw.edu/.

About Western State College of Law: Western State College of Law at Westcliff University is an established institution with a more than 50-year track record of success and a reputation for producing both successful trial lawyers and more than 150 graduates who have been elevated to the bench. It offers subspecialties within the J.D. program to allow every student to find their niche and develop a unique skillset. Western State was acquired in 2019 by Westcliff University, a private university in Irvine, California offering bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees. Since the acquisition, Western State has benefited from Westcliff's ability to swiftly respond to market needs by developing innovative specialty programs in real-time. Together, the schools are now fully integrated and committed to providing advanced higher education opportunities to students both globally and nationally. Visit www.wsulaw.edu to learn more or follow on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005390/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] Renewable Properties Closes Fund 8 Portfolio of Nearly 30 MW of Community Solar Projects with Financiers Nelnet Renewable Energy and AB CarVal

Renewable Properties, a developer and investor in small-scale utility and community solar projects, has closed its Fund 8 portfolio with two financing partners, Nelnet Renewable Energy and AB CarVal. Fund 8 consists of nearly 30 MW of community solar projects in California and New York. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005924/en/ An operating Renewable Properties project in California (Photo: Business Wire) The closing of Fund 8 reflects the company's strong ties to financing partners that have consistently supported Renewable Properties' local renewable energy projects and company operations by continuing to commit additional capital year after year. "AB CarVal and Nelnet have been reliable Renewable Properties partners, enabling us to expand our community solar project portfolio to 15 states," said Allan Riska, Chief Investment Officer at Renewable Properties. "We are grateful to have two steadfat financing partners and community solar advocates that believe in our mission to drive renewable energy forward for local communities."



In 2020, funds managed by project loan partner AB CarVal, a global alternative investment manager, invested $60 million to support the expansion of Renewable Properties' operations. The capital allowed Renewable Properties to further develop its existing community-scale solar project pipeline, expand development efforts into new and existing markets, and secure new project opportunities and acquisitions. "Renewable Properties has produced an extensive and diverse track record of small-scale utility and community solar projects throughout the U.S.," said Jerry Keefe, Principal at AB CarVal. "We are pleased to expand our rewarding partnership with Renewable Properties, which continues to demonstrate its capabilities and success in the U.S. community solar market."

Fund 8 is Renewable Properties' fourth tax equity fund partnership with Nelnet, a corporate tax equity partner that also has a solar engineering, procurement, and construction and operation and maintenance business. "With our shared commitment to community solar and providing superior customer experience, Renewable Properties has been an excellent partner for Nelnet through three prior funds," said Scott Gubbels, President of Nelnet Renewable Energy. "We look forward to continuing to grow our partnership and create a more inclusive clean energy future." The Fund 8 projects are located in California and New York, adding to Renewable Properties' growing pipeline of community solar projects in 15 states. Totaling nearly 30 MW, the projects are expected to produce enough energy to power 4,438 homes per year and offset 35,246 tons of carbon dioxide annually. Two Fund 8 projects are in Madera County, CA. The Avenue 26 Solar Phase I & II projects will commence construction in the second quarter of 2023 and should be completed by the end of the year. The projects total 11.5 MW and are expected to produce enough energy to power 2,004 homes per year and offset 15,910 tons of CO2 annually. Unique to California, these two projects are part of California's Disadvantaged Communities Green Tariff program, which is designed to promote the installation of community solar projects in disadvantaged communities as identified by CalEnviroScreen. Fund 8's New York projects are in various stages of development. The Slayton Settlement Solar A & Slayton Settlement Solar B projects in Lockport began construction at the end of 2022 and are expected to be online in October of this year. Two projects in Batavia will commence construction by May 2023 and are expected to be finished by December 2023. The Clemons Road Solar project in Minoa will commence construction in April 2023 and is expected to be operational by end of the year. Together, the 18.4 MW from New York projects are expected to produce enough energy per year to power 2434 homes and offset 19,336 tons of CO2. About Renewable Properties Founded in 2017, Renewable Properties specializes in developing and investing in small-scale utility and community solar and storage energy projects throughout the U.S. Led by experienced renewable energy professionals with development and investment experience, Renewable Properties is active in 15 states and has over 700 MWs of solar under development with over 115 MWs under construction or in operation. Renewable Properties works closely with communities, developers, landowners, utilities, and financial institutions looking to invest in solar energy systems. For more information about Renewable Properties, visit www.renewprop.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005924/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] MSCI to Participate in Upcoming Investor Events; Publishes Investor Presentation

MSCI Inc. ("MSCI" or the "Company") (NYSE: MSCI), a leading provider of critical decision support tools and services for the global investment community, announced today that members of management will participate in the following investor events: Andy Wiechmann, Chief Financial Officer, at the Raymond James 44 th Annual Institutional Investors Conference on March 6, 2023 including a fireside chat that will begin at 1:05 PM Eastern Time

on March 6, 2023 including a fireside chat that will begin at 1:05 PM Eastern Time Eric Moen, Head of ESG & Climate at the 2023 RBC Capital Markets Global Financial Conference on March 8, 2023, including a keynote session titled "The Future of Sustainable Finance and ESG Investing" that will begin at 12:30 PM Eastern Time

on March 8, 2023, including a keynote session titled "The Future of Sustainable Finance and ESG Investing" that will begin at 12:30 PM Eastern Time Tia Counts, Chief Responsibility and Diversity Officer at the Deutsche Bank dbAccess Global ESG Conference 2023 on March 9, 2023, including a fireside chat that will begin at 1:00 PM Eastern Time

on March 9, 2023, including a fireside chat that will begin at 1:00 PM Eastern Time Jigar Thakkar, Chief Technology Officer and Head of Engineering, in a Group Investor meeting organized by RBC Capital Markets on March 20, 2023 at 11:00 AM Eastern Time A webcast and repla of these events will be available on the events and presentations section of MSCI's Investor Relations homepage, https://ir.msci.com/events-and-presentations.



Separately, the Company also published an investor presentation for investors on its Investor Relations homepage, ir.msci.com, on Wednesday, March 1, 2023. The Company's management may use this presentation during meetings with investors and analysts. About MSCI Inc.

MSCI is a leading provider of critical decision support tools and services for the global investment community. With over 50 years of expertise in research, data and technology, we power better investment decisions by enabling clients to understand and analyze key drivers of risk and return and confidently build more effective portfolios. We create industry-leading, research-enhanced solutions that clients use to gain insight into and improve transparency across the investment process. To learn more, please visit www.msci.com. MSCI#IR View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005950/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] New Funding for Sustainable Affordable Housing Units in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia Communities

DARTMOUTH, NS, March 1, 2023 /CNW/ - Our homes and buildings are where we live, work, study and gather. They are important to our well-being, to our economy and as a space for social interaction  but they are also Canada's third-largest source of emissions. That is why the Government of Canada and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) are investing in decarbonizing the buildings sector to meet Canada's 2030 climate target and achieve a net-zero economy by 2050. Today, Darren Fisher, Member of Parliament for Dartmouth-Cole Harbour, on behalf of the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Natural Resources, and Geoff Stewart, Second Vice-President of FCM, on behalf Taneen Rudyk, President of FCM, announce a series of investments from the Green Municipal Fund 's (GMF) Sustainable Affordable Housing (SAH) initiative to support the planning and construction or retrofit of at least 100 housing units in communities in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Funding was announced for these plans, studies and pilot projects: Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia, Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia: $144,950 for evaluating energy-efficient measures for a new construction of 44 affordable housing units in Dartmouth. Bath Non-Profit Housing Inc., Village of Bath, New Brunswick: $20,000 to assess the feasibility of converting an existing abandoned hospital into 20 to 25 sustainable affordable apartments with community space for a rural community. Belleterre Community Partners Inc. and the City of Miramichi, New Brunswick: $22,400 to assess the energy efficiency of a 12-unit residential development focusing on newly arrived immigrants, seniors, homeless and those at risk of becoming homeless, young adults and women escaping domestic violence. The capital phase of the project has received support from CMHC's Rapid Housing Initiative (RHI), and the outcomes from this planning grant will guide the organization in accessing additional FCM funding to support climate goals as well. Project Village Housing Inc., Village of Blacks Harbour, New Brunswick:$25,000 for a planning grant to develop energy-efficient affordable housing units on rural land. The first phase of this housing development will consist of a mix of 12 market and 12 affordable rental units.



Collaboration will support the uptake of ambitious energy efficiency measures, addressing climate change risks, sharing expertise and knowledge and providing training to develop skills. The Government of Canada endowed the $300-million Sustainable Affordable Housing initiative as part of a $950-million expansion of FCM's Green Municipal Fund (GMF) in Budget 2019 to help housing providers retrofit existing units for higher energy performance or build new affordable housing to net-zero standards. In its two years of funding, the SAH initiative approved funding for 122 projects, representing more than 24,500 units.These projects will help mobilize national action with a variety of partners to transform markets and reduce costs to meet the goal of net zero by 2050. Quotes

"Today's announcement will support the development of new sustainable and affordable housing in communities across Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. By building energy-efficient low-carbon housing infrastructure today, we are helping our fight against climate change while creating good well-paying jobs and saving consumers money. We congratulate the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and all of the local partners for their role in these critical developments." The Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Natural Resources "Today's announcement means that many families in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, including 44 in DartmouthCole Harbour, will have a safe place to call home, a place that's affordable, a place that's energy-efficient. Our government is working with partners, like FCM, to sustainably build affordable housing across the country that is designed with energy efficiency and resiliency in mind, ensuring that families can enjoy lower energy costs while thriving in our communities." Darren Fisher, Member of Parliament for DartmouthCole Harbour "It's critically important to have everyone in the climate fight. Municipalities across Canada are doing their part with innovative solutions that create jobs and climate resilience. Green infrastructure investments in Canadian communities will make our air cleaner, our economy stronger and set us on the path to a net-zero future." The Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change "Municipalities are on the frontlines of climate change and climate action, and communities of all sizes are showing climate leadership at a time when we need it most. The Green Municipal Fund empowers them to get results on the ground. We deliver results with our federal partners  helping municipalities in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia tackle affordable housing challenges, create jobs and build greener, more sustainable communities. Together, we are on the path to net zero." Taneen Rudyk, President, Federation of Canadian Municipalities "Housing affordability and sustainability must be achieved hand in hand if we are to meet the challenges of our time and serve the public good. I am gratified to see this Green Municipal Fund investment in energy efficiency for affordable homes that already demonstrate what can be achieved when orders of government and the community sector work toward a common goal." Mike Savage, Mayor, Halifax Regional Municipality Associated links 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan: Clean Air, Strong Economy

The Canada Green Buildings Strategy

Federation of Canadian Municipalities

Green Municipal Fund

Sustainable Affordable Housing initiative Follow us on Twitter: @NRCan (http://twitter.com/nrcan) SOURCE Natural Resources Canada

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] On a Mission to Get More Hispanics Investing, DNERO & Bits of Stock Team Up to Offer Wealth-Building Rewards

Just 28% of Hispanic Households in the US own Stocks, compared to 61% of White Households

First-of-its-Kind Partnership Takes Aim at Hispanic Underinvestment by Offering Fractional Shares of Stock as Rewards for Everyday Spending IRVINE, Calif. and AMSTERDAM, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- DNERO, the Digital Wallet offering financial services for the Hispanic market, and Bits of Stock, the platform that powers Stock Rewards & loyalty programs, have announced a partnership that will allow users to earn fractional shares of stock on everyday purchases. The DNERO App will be the first platform dedicated to empowering Hispanic wealth-building via Stock Rewards. Starting next month, DNERO users will be able to automatically earn Stock Rewards on qualifying purchases made with their DNERO debit card, with up to 10% back at over 10,000 top brands and merchants. The next-generation rewards offering will be poweed by the Bits of Stock Growth Rewards API.



According to a recent CNBC survey, only 28% of Latino families in the US are invested in the Stock Market, compared to 61% of white families. DNERO CEO, Carlos Orellana, believes Stock Rewards will set our business apart by incentivizing more Hispanics to learn how to build wealth. "By offering rewards in the form of fractional shares of stock, we can provide an entry point for under-invested members of our community to start building wealth," said Orellana. "We're thrilled to partner with Bits of Stock to offer this innovative reward that will strengthen our relationship with our market and provide real value for our community members."

"DNERO is an ideal partner," said Arash Asady, CEO of Bits of Stock. "As a mission-driven startup, we're proud that they're leveraging our technology to empower financial wellness and help us build the ownership economy." About DNERO

DNERO is an inclusive digital platform that will improve the financial habits of the un- and underbanked, with an emphasis on the Hispanic community, by incentivizing spending, investing, receiving, earning, and managing money! For more information visit www.DNEROapp.com. About Bits of Stock

Bits of Stock enables financial institutions and brands to reward their customers in fractional shares of stock. Their Growth Rewards API includes merchant funded offers, customizable rewards technology & brokerage service. For more information visit www.bitsofstock.com . View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/on-a-mission-to-get-more-hispanics-investing-dnero--bits-of-stock-team-up-to-offer-wealth-building-rewards-301759912.html SOURCE Bits of Stock

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] Spike's On-chain OS: the Latest Crypto Infrastructure to Revolutionize Web3 Productivity

SINGAPORE CITY, SINGAPORE, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Spike has been making headlines recently after completing its seed funding round in January and launching its Spike IDE and Spike Engine. This operating system aims to solve the long-standing issues of Web3 apps by improving interoperability and composability. In addition, Spike has published its Phase 1 Whitepaper and launched an on-chain operating system aimed at revolutionizing Web3 app development. Challenges of Web3 Apps The blockchain industry has been experiencing lightning-fast advancements in recent years, thanks to innovative solutions. Innovative compositions work like building blocks to fuel new innovative solutions. Private data ownership has empowered Dapps with greater interoperability while scaling solutions like Layer 2 and ZK Rollups are gaining traction to meet the soaring concurrency demands of future apps. As blockchain innovation has rapidly evolved in recent years, existing blockchain infrastructures cannot provide general-purpose apps with composability and interoperability, as apps arent operating in fully on-chain environments. Introducing Spikes One-stop Solution Lets see how Spikes solution is setting the standard high with its one-stop solution in the web3 space: 1. Data Standardization: The First Issue to be Solved On-chain Dapps are known for their composability, thanks to the unified standards of asset formats and smart contracts. However, this isn't the case for games, social apps, tools, and other apps developed in different environments and languages.

Spike IDE solves this by allowing developers to use familiar programming languages like Jva, Python, C# and others. Once the data is compiled into virtual machines, it becomes a unified format, achieving native data readability between apps.







2. Functional Environments and Composability Spike OS further allows apps to run in a unified and open environment, enabling interoperability. Blockchain Dapps have native interoperability since they run on a public ledger, while general-purpose apps require private environments like private servers, data base. Even if two apps operate on the same blockchain, they dont process data interconnectivity. To this end, Spike OS provides a decentralized computing environment that removes private servers, allowing user data to be fully owned and controlled by users and public data to be managed by a computing pool.

3. Modularization: The Future of App Development Spike OS also aims to achieve composability through modularization. Each app is composed of multiple modules with varying levels of complexity.

Communication between modules is done through protocols in the OS. Developers can add, modify, and replace existing modules based on mature apps to launch new apps fast and avoid reinventing the wheel. A Track Record of Success Spike has a track record of success in metaverse products, including Oasis, which has attracted tens of millions of users. The team is now launching its on-chain version in the Spike ecosystem, with Spike OS incorporated into its low-level structure. Spike will also be participating in the latest hackathon held by BNBChain and Cyberconnect to showcase the latest version of Oasis. Spike OS: A Pluggable On-Chain Environment Spike OS supports EVM-compatible blockchains and has already launched test apps on BSC, Polygon, and other blockchains. The firm plans to transplant Spike OS to more blockchains and make it a pluggable on-chain environment, providing a standardized and open operating environment for general-purpose apps to move into Web3. Overall, Spike OS serves as a development and operating standard as well as a decentralized computing environment. The computing nodes provide computing services (like storage, communication, rendering, etc.) for the OS by staking tokens and receiving corresponding rewards. With its innovative approach and focus on improving composability and interoperability, Spike OS is set to revolutionize productivity in the Web3 space. Mark your calendars and get on the Web3 bandwagon for a smooth journey with Spikes futuristic solution.

_____________________________ About Spike: https://www.spike.fun/



Tank Qiu Spike chain at spike.fun

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] Texas Vista Medical Center to Close Barring Take Over or Significant Government Relief

Steward Health Care today announced its decision to close Texas Vista Medical Center (TVMC) effective May 1, 2023. On limited resources, TVMC supports limited-income, high-needs patient populations. Nearly one quarter of the hospital's patients cannot and do not pay for the services the hospital provides. Additionally, over half of TVMC patients are government pay patients, which means the hospital is paid less than the cost of patient care. Steward has put forth a proposal for University Health System (UHS) and Bexar County to take over control of TVMC, but UHS and Bexar County have not accepted our offer. TVMC's resource challenges have been long-standing. When Steward Health Care assumed operations of Texas Vista Medical Center in 2017, the facility was struggling financially, as it was choked out by the well-heeled "public" hospital competitor across town. The COVID-19 pandemic further placed a significant fiscal burden on TVMC. Steward was able and willing to assume financial losses and risks during that extraordinary public health crisis; it is not sustainable to do so any longer. In order for the hospital to continue to provide safe, high-quality services-particularly for the region's behavioral health patients, trauma patients, and women-an external agent must step up to assist the facility. Barring this, the facility is forced to close. If TVMC is forced to close as a result of inaction by UHS and Bexar County, emergency department (ED) boarding times will increase, wait times for appointments with specialists will get longer, and the time and attention given to each patient in the area will suffer. Jon Turton, President of Texas Vista Medical Center, said, "TVMC does not want to close, and the consequences of our closure will cause an immediate public health crisis for the city's most vulnerable patients. We offer critical emergency care and OB/GYN are for the San Antonio area. Given that TVMC is a significant provider of behavioral health care in the region, other hospitals will immediately see an increase in behavioral health patients at a time when that system is already strained. We regret that the local community's lack of adequate support for vulnerable patients has forced TVMC to close its doors. We are still hoping that the county or other entity will assume control of the hospital."



Steward has proposed that UHS and Bexar County assume control of TVMC, given the high-needs patient population it serves. UHS and Bexar County have the resources and the standing to provide for this community. UHS is a public charity created by the Texas Constitution. It gets, for the purpose of "management and operations" [Bexar County Hospital District Board of Managers, November 16, 2021], $472 million in local property tax dollars, pays no taxes of its own, receives large charitable donations, receives significant amounts of supplemental Medicaid payments (including HARP payments for which TVMC would immediately qualify if UHS runs it as a non-profit), gets paid higher commercial rates than TVMC, and has significant cash reserves and financial resources. It is part of UHS' original charter to care for the indigent population of Bexar County. This service has largely fallen on TVMC's shoulders over the past few years. Meanwhile, UHS has used its vast resources to build a half billion-dollar state-of-the-art hospital that will serve a wealthier patient base in a more affluent area. If such a large public charity has the funds to build this new hospital-off of which it will make significant money from its operation-it can afford to assume control of TVMC.

About Steward Health Care Nearly a decade ago, Steward Health Care System emerged as a different kind of health care company designed to usher in a new era of wellness. One that provides our patients better, more proactive care at a sustainable cost, our providers unrivaled coordination of care, and our communities greater prosperity and stability. As the country's largest physician-led, tax paying, integrated health care system, our doctors can be certain that we share their interests and those of their patients. Together we are on a mission to revolutionize the way health care is delivered - creating healthier lives, thriving communities and a better world. Steward is among the nation's largest and most successful accountable care organizations (ACO), with more than 5,500 providers and 43,000 health care professionals who care for 12.3 million patients a year through a closely integrated network of hospitals, multispecialty medical groups, urgent care centers, skilled nursing facilities and behavioral health centers. Based in Dallas, Steward currently operates 39 hospitals across Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Utah. For more information, visit www.steward.org. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005997/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] Vilcek Foundation announces open call for $150,000 in prizes to immigrant scientists

The Vilcek Foundation will award three Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise of $50,000 each to rising immigrant scientists in 2024. NEW YORK, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- In 2024, the Vilcek Foundation will award three Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science of $50,000 each. The prizes recognize and celebrate the contributions of rising immigrant scientists in the United States whose work represents a significant contribution to their field. The Vilcek Foundation is hosting an open call for applications for the 2024 prizes; applications will be accepted through June 12, 2023, at 5:00 p.m. ET. Three $50,000 Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science will be awarded to immigrant scientists in 2024. The Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise are a part of the Vilcek Foundation Prizes program. Awarded annually since 2006, the Vilcek Foundation Prizes are given each year in two primary categories: biomedical science, and a rotating category in the arts and humanities. The Vilcek Foundation Prizes honor the contributions of immigrants to science, medicine, and the arts, and raise awareness of the value of immiration for a robust society.



"The American Immigration Council reports that immigrants and foreign-born individuals are widely represented in STEM fields in the United States, making up 30.8% of all physical scientists and 27.7% of life scientists," says Vilcek Foundation President Rick Kinsel. "By highlighting the impact that immigrants have on science and society, we recognize the importance of immigration for medicine, academic research, and scientific advancement in the United States." "Immigrating to the United States has provided scientists with the opportunity to freely pursue the subjects they are passionate about, and to collaborate openly with others in their fields," says Jan Vilcek, chairman and CEO of the Vilcek Foundation. "With the Vilcek Foundation Prizes in Biomedical Science, we honor exceptional immigrant scientists who are pioneering new research methods and making important discoveries that benefit humanity."

Past recipients of the Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science include Ibrahim Cisse, Hani Goodarzi, Viviana Gradinaru, Harmit Malik, Silvi Rouskin, and Feng Zhang. Recipients of the Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise each receive an unrestricted cash award of $50,000 and a commemorative certificate. Prize recipients are also celebrated in a media campaign published by the Vilcek Foundation highlighting their scientific accomplishments and life experiences. Candidates must have been born outside the United States to non-American parents, and be living and working in the United States. Eligible candidates for the 2024 Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science must hold a doctoral degree, and must currently be employed as a principal researcher with an academic institution or an accredited scientific research organization. DACA recipients and asylum seekers are strongly encouraged to apply. Full application details and eligibility requirements are available at the Vilcek Foundation and at vilcek.org . Please direct questions about the application process or the Vilcek Foundation Prizes to Chief Program Officer Shinnie Kim at [email protected] . The Vilcek Foundation The Vilcek Foundation raises awareness of immigrant contributions in the United States and fosters appreciation for the arts and sciences. The foundation was established in 2000 by Jan and Marica Vilcek, immigrants from the former Czechoslovakia. The mission of the foundation was inspired by the couple's respective careers in biomedical science and art history. Since 2000, the foundation has awarded over $7 million in prizes to foreign-born individuals and has supported organizations with over $6 million in grants. The Vilcek Foundation is a private operating foundation, a federally tax-exempt nonprofit organization under IRS Section 501(c)(3). To learn more, please visit vilcek.org . Contact

Elizabeth Boylan

The Vilcek Foundation

212-472-2500

[email protected] View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/vilcek-foundation-announces-open-call-for-150-000-in-prizes-to-immigrant-scientists-301759953.html SOURCE The Vilcek Foundation

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
We say a person has common sense, we mean the person has a basic ability to perceive, understand, and judge in a manner that is shared by nearly all people.

In the case a business needs to hire new members without any experience, common sense is a much needed basic quality even weighs over school education.

But common sense isn't actually common, in either sense: it is different from person to person, and may not be employed even when many could agree on what it is in a particular situation.

Your idea of common sense is likely to contradict someone else's idea of common sense (which is yet another misconception because you either understand or misunderstand the current common sense and to confuse it with an opinion is to trivialize the foundation of society).

Instead of relying on "common sense" to make decisions, you should instead rely on building consensus for your position and perception, and work with other people to reach a conclusion most people can accept. By assuming your position is "common sense" and acting upon it, all you're doing is insulting the people who disagree with you.

Perticularly, when people from different culture or educational level work in one team, the contradiction of 'common sense ' can be an issue.
[March 01, 2023] Perimeter 81 Recognized Among IT Security Leaders on CRN's 2023 Security 100 List

Perimeter 81, the rapidly-growing converged network security and Zero Trust Networking Access (ZTNA) leader, today announced that CRN, a brand of The Channel Company, has named Perimeter 81 to its annual Security 100 list. Recognizing leading IT channel security leaders, the Security 100 list honorees bring a combination of channel focus and trailblazing, innovative technology to solution providers. Today, security continues to be a top concern for organizations of all sizes in all industries as hybrid-remote work becomes the new normal. Growing concerns around cybersecurity and critical data loss, coupled with the need for protection from increasingly sophisticated cyberthreats, is expected to fuel further market growth. Recipients chosen for this year's Security 100 list have been specifically selected by CRN editors for their outstanding channel-focused security offerings across five categories: Identity Management and Data Protection; Endpoint and Managed Security; Network Security; Web, Email and Application Security; and Security Operations, Risk and Threat Intelligence. This list serves as a comprehensive guide for solution providers, helping them to identify the top security vendors to team with as they build innovative solutions for their customers. Traditional security appliances only protect the physical office, which no longer makes sense in today's hybrid work model. Perimeter 81 was recognized for its innovative work in the Network Security category, covering the new corporate premises over the internet. Its unique solutions empower managed service providers (MSPs) to easily and rapidly build distributed networks over the internet to securely protect against phishing attacks, malware threats, and unsecured WiFi networks - enabling everyone to remain protected in the digital atmosphere. Previously recognized by CRN as a 2021 Emerging Vendor for Cybersecurity, a member of the 2021 Edge Computing 100 List and a 2021 Tech Innovator finalist, Perimeter 81 sharpened its focus on MSPs in 2022 with the official launch of its partner program. It also recently established its malware protection solution to protect customers from even the most complicated internet-borne threats to complement Perimeter 81's Secure Web Gateway, ZTNA and SASE offerings. Looking ahead, Perimeter 81 continues to push the envelope of what's possible for network security solutions and plans to expand its network with additional points of presence.



"It only takes one employee to be infiltrated for entire organizations to be vulnerable to hackers. That risk goes up even more when employees aren't in the office and are working from anywhere, so it's crucial we equip MSPs with agile, robust solutions that can be implemented over the internet," said Amit Baraket, CEO of Perimeter 81. "Being named to the Security 100 list validates our determined efforts in designing that easily configurable and incredibly reliable platform. We are more motivated than ever to become the leading SASE vendor for MSPs." "With all the unexpected changes organizations have faced since the beginning of COVID-19, security still remains the most critical factor in business today. This year's Security 100 list acknowledges industry-leading companies that deliver pioneering security offerings to the IT channel that can withstand a wide range of threats. These companies are laying the groundwork for the most advanced cybersecurity solutions," said Blaine Raddon, CEO of The Channel Company.

The 2023 Security 100 list is available online and featured in the February 2023 issue of CRN. About Perimeter 81 Perimeter 81 delivers a robust, yet easy to use, converged network and network security platform which connects all users, in the office or remote, to all corporate resources, located on-prem or in the cloud. It is delivered as an easy to use cloud-native service, and managed from a unified console. It enables any business to build a secure corporate network over a private global backbone, without any hardware and within minutes. Perimeter 81's solution is used by more than 2,800 customers worldwide, across a wide range of industries. Our partners are among the world's leading integrators, managed service providers, and channel resellers. The company has offices in NY, LA, UK and TLV. www.perimeter81.com About The Channel Company The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers and end users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequalled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. www.thechannelcompany.com Follow The Channel Company: Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.  2023 The Channel Company, LLC. CRN is a registered trademark of The Channel Company, LLC. All rights reserved. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301006005/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] Canada invests in upgrades to Main Street Project Community Health Centre in Winnipeg

WINNIPEG, MB, March 1, 2023 /CNW/ - Today the Honourable Dan Vandal, Minister of Northern Affairs and Minister responsible for PrairiesCan and CanNor and Member of Parliament for Saint Boniface-Saint Vital; Terry Duguid, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change and Member of Parliament for Winnipeg South; and Jamil Mahmood, Executive Director of the Main Street Project, announced more than $10.6 million in federal funding for energy-efficient upgrades to Main Street Project's Martha Street Facility. Main Street Project is a long-established community facility providing programming and social services to support those experiencing mental health challenges, homelessness, and substance use disorders. It has equally served as a welcoming and safe space for marginalized community members. Funding will go towards modernizing Main Street Project's Protective Care facility by turning the former emergency shelter into an expanded withdrawal management services space. The building's envelope, windows, roof, plumbing, and electrical systems will be upgraded, improving the building's resiliency and energy efficiency. In addition, the facility will benefit from accessibility upgrades including elevator access to all building levels, accessible washrooms, and automated doors. These improvements are expected to reduce the facility's energy consumption by an estimated 44.8% and greenhouse gas emissions by 232 tonnes. By investing in infrastructure, the Government of Canada is growing our country's economy, increasing the resiliency of our communities, and improving the lives of Canadians. Quotes "Main Street Project Community Health Centre delivers vital programming, health and social services to those in need right here in Winnipeg. Today's investment will enhance the Centre's infrastructure to make it more energy efficient, sustainable and accessible. This project is just one example of our work together to foster greener, more resilient communities." The Honourable Dan Vandal, Minister of Northern Affairs, PrairiesCan and CanNor and Member of Parliament for Saint Boniface-Saint Vital, on behalf of the Honourable Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and Communities "Main Street Project plays a vital role in helping Winnipeg's vulnerable residents. We are proud to support this life-changing organization, while continuing to build on our government's commitment to foster a cleaner, low-carbon economy. Investments in green infrastructure will build healthy, resilient, and sustainable communities today that will allow us to prosper well into the future." Terry Duguid, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Cange and Member of Parliament for Winnipeg South



"Fostering sustainable community infrastructure ensures that people have access to welcoming spaces to gather and seek support, while taking better care of the environment. The new energy efficient Main Street Project facility on Martha Street will enable this transformative non-profit to demonstrate their continued commitment to supporting underserved community members. We will continue collaborating with our partners to provide access to resilient and safe spaces for those who need it most." Kevin Lamoureux, Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Member of Parliament for Winnipeg North

"Main Street Project is so excited to be a recipient of Green and Inclusive Community Buildings funding. The work we do in this community is so important. It is crucial our facilities function effectively to help people, rest, heal, recover in the way our renewed mission and vision intends. We are grateful for this timely federal investment to completely overhaul our Martha Street facility." Jamil Mahmood, Executive Director Main Street Project Quick facts The Government of Canada is investing $10,695,874 through the Green and Inclusive Community Buildings (GICB) program to this project.

is investing through the Green and Inclusive Community Buildings (GICB) program to this project. The Green and Inclusive Community Buildings (GICB) program was created in support of Canada's Strengthened Climate Plan, supporting the Plan's first pillar through the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, the increase of energy efficiency, and higher resilience to climate change. It is providing $1.5 billion over five years towards green and accessible retrofits, repairs or upgrades.

Strengthened Climate Plan, supporting the Plan's first pillar through the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, the increase of energy efficiency, and higher resilience to climate change. It is providing over five years towards green and accessible retrofits, repairs or upgrades. The GICB program aims to improve the places Canadians work, learn, play, live and gather by cutting pollution, making life more affordable, and supporting thousands of good jobs. Through green and other upgrades to existing public community buildings and new builds in underserved communities, the GICB program helps ensure community facilities are inclusive, accessible, and have a long service life, while also helping Canada move towards its objective of being net-zero by 2050.

move towards its objective of being net-zero by 2050. Announced in December 2020 , Canada's Strengthened Climate Plan includes 64 new measures and $15 billion in investments towards a healthy environment and economy. Associated links Green and Inclusive Community Buildings:

https://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/gicb-bcvi/index-eng.html Investing in Canada Plan Project Map:

https://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/gmap-gcarte/index-eng.html Strengthened Climate Plan:

Canada's climate plans and targets - Canada.ca Overview of what's in Canada's climate plan, known as the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change. This framework includes federal, provincial and territorial actions and commitments regarding climate change. Service Canada Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn Web: Infrastructure Canada SOURCE Infrastructure Canada

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] Quant Millburn Hires Irina Bogacheva as Director of Research

Millburn Ridgefield Corporation ("Millburn"), the multi-billion AuM quantitative investment firm based in New York, is pleased to announce the addition of Irina Bogacheva as director of research, effective February 27, 2023. Bogacheva will report to Michael Soss, deputy chief investment officer, who joined Millburn in early 2022 from Point72 Asset Management. "I am excited and honored to join Millburn. The firm's drive to continuously improve and innovate is one of the big factors that attracted me to the role. I am looking forward to working with this talented team on expanding the firm's systematic capabilities," says Bogacheva. As director of research, Bogacheva will focus on the continuing refinement and broadening of Millburn's successful systematic research and development functions, including portfolio, modelling, and predictive frameworks and processes. Bogacheva was most recently head of quantitative research at Franklin Templeton Investment Solutions, an entity formed out of QS Investors, LLC and the legacy Franklin Templeton Multi-asset Solutions after the merger of Legg Mason and Franklin Templeton. Bogacheva held head of multi-asset research (January 2015 - December 2020) and co-head of systematic global macro (August 2010 - December 2014) roles at QS. Prior experience included quantitative research positions at Deutsche Asse Management, Goldman Sachs, and AIG Global Investment Group.



Bogacheva attended the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where she earned her MBA with a concentration in Analytic Finance and completed coursework for her PhD in Finance. She also holds an MA in Economics from New Economic School in Moscow, and a Diploma in Mathematics from Moscow State University. Bogacheva has been an adjunct professor in the Mathematics of Finance Program at Columbia University in New York for more than 10 years, co-teaching a graduate-level course on multi-asset portfolio management. Millburn CIO Grant Smith comments: "Irina is an exciting addition to our team. Her research pedigree, along with her deep knowledge of many of the statistical techniques that Millburn utilizes to inform its models, will doubtless be an asset to our strategies and to our investors."

Michael Soss adds: "I'm very happy that Irina is joining what is an already strong core of researchers. I'm looking forward to collaborating with her and to the positive impact I expect she will have across all areas of our R&D efforts." ABOUT MILLBURN Millburn has a legacy of systematic, quantitative investing that dates back to 1971. Today, the firm applies advanced statistical research, including innovative machine learning approaches, to make price forecasts in liquid global markets across a range of asset classes. Millburn's teams utilize technology, data and practical market experience to search for opportunity across a variety of economic cycles and environments-including stress periods for traditional investments. The firm has 58 employees and offices in New York and London, and an affiliate office in Shanghai, China with an additional 18 staff. Note: Please follow http://www.millburn.com/disclosures for important disclosures relating to this message. By messaging with Millburn you consent to the foregoing. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005932/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023] Sprinklr Announces Local Data Hosting Solution in Australia & New Zealand

Sprinklr (NYSE: CXM), the unified customer experience management (Unified-CXM) platform for modern enterprises, today announced its continued expansion in the Australia and New Zealand market with the launch of a local data hosting solution for the Sprinklr platform. Customers now have the option to host data in Australia through Sprinklr's hosting services provider. Sprinklr also provides hosting solutions in the US, Europe and the UAE. "A local data hosting solution is an indication of our commitment to the region and will allow us to continue to rapidly expand our business, deliver a high level of service, and give customers security and agility to continue to innovate in their industries," said Henry Kho, Vice President of North Asia/ANZ, Sprinklr. In FY23, Sprinklr more than tripled the size of its bsiness in ANZ. The company supports leading regional brands across the retail, financial services, telecommunications, travel & hospitality and public sectors. Examples included NRMA, Great Southern Bank (Mutual Marketplace), and Breville. A data hosting solution in the ANZ region will support the positive growth trend and help Sprinklr continue to meet and exceed customer requirements for data security and compliance.



As with all of Sprinklr's data hosting locations, Australia & New Zealand (ANZ) data hosting will be backed by Sprinklr's global support teams, technical resources, and subprocessors. For more information, visit www.Sprinklr.com.

About Sprinklr

Sprinklr is a leading enterprise software company for all customer-facing functions. With advanced AI, Sprinklr's unified customer experience management (Unified-CXM) platform helps companies deliver human experiences to every customer, every time, across any modern channel. Headquartered in New York City with employees around the world, Sprinklr works with more than 1,000 of the world's most valuable enterprises - global brands like Microsoft, P&G, Samsung and more than 50% of the Fortune 100. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230301005015/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 01, 2023]

TDS and UScellular to present at investor conferences

CHICAGO, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. (NYSE: TDS) and United States Cellular Corporation (NYSE: USM) are attending the following conferences.

Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference

Webcast on March 8, 2023 at 4:30 pm ET

Douglas W. Chambers, UScellular executive vice president, chief financial officer, and treasurer; Michelle Brukwicki, TDS Telecom senior vice president of finance & chief financial officer; and Julie Mathews, TDS director  investor relations, will attend. The presentation will be webcast both live and on-demand.

Raymond James 44th Annual Institutional Investors Conference

Webcast on March 8, 2023 at 7:30 ET

Vicki Villacrez, TDS executive vice president and chief financial officer; Fred Lubeley  vice president, financial planning & analysis; and Colleen Thompson, TDS vice president  corporate relations, will attend. The presentation will be webcast both live and on demand.

New Street Second Annual Fiber to the Future Conference (virtual)

Webcast on March 28, 2023 at 2:55 ET

James W. Butman, TDS Telecom president and CEO; Michelle Brukwicki, TDS Telecom senior vice president of finance & chief financial officer; and Julie Mathews, TDS director  investor relations, will attend. The presentation will be webcast live.

To listen to all presentations, please visit the events and presentations pages of investors.tdsinc.com or investors.uscellular.com. It is recommended that you register at least 15 minutes before the start of the presentation to register, download and install any necessary multimedia streaming software.







About TDS

Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. (TDS), a Fortune 1000 company, provides wireless; broadband, video and voice; and hosted and managed services to approximately 6 million connections nationwide through its businesses, UScellular, TDS Telecom and OneNeck IT Solutions. Founded in 1969 and headquartered in Chicago, TDS employed 9,300 people as of December 31, 2022.

For more information about TDS and its subsidiaries, visit:

TDS: www.tdsinc.com

UScellular: www.uscellular.com

TDS Telecom: www.tdstelecom.com

OneNeck IT Solutions: www.oneneck.com

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tds-and-uscellular-to-present-at-investor-conferences-301760213.html

SOURCE Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. and United States Cellular Corporation
There's a lot to catch up on right now but in this compilation we do our best to share recent news, legal fights and stories about police action.

As always, we try to find nicer news toward the end of this post.



Check TKC news gathering . . .

1 person suffers life-threatening injuries after shooting in KCMO Tuesday KANSAS CITY, Mo. - One person has suffered life-threatening injuries after a shooting in Kansas City, Missouri, Tuesday afternoon. The shooting occurred in the 3100 block of east 51st Street, a few blocks away from Hogan Elementary. This is a developing story and will be updated.

Tonganoxie man charged in KCPD officer, pedestrian, K-9's death appears in court KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The 19-year-old Tonganoxie man accused of speeding through a red light and causing a crash with the Kansas City, Missouri, police cruiser that killed two people and a KCPD K-9 appeared Monday in Jackson County Circuit Court.

Kansas City man to spend 21 years in federal prison for heroin, cocaine conspiracy A Kansas City, Mo., man has been sentenced to over 21 years in federal prison without parole for his role in a conspiracy to distribute heroin and cocaine after leading law enforcement officers on a high-speed chase.Michael A. Baldwin was sentenced Tuesday afternoon in federal court.

Kansas City man convicted in 2018 killing of his wife KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A Jackson County jury finds a 47-year-old Kansas City, Kansas man guilty for the 2018 killing of his wife. The jury on Monday convicted Gene Birdsong and recommended he be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus 17 years more for the deadly stabbing of his wife Tabitha in November of 2018.

Johnson County, Kan., woman sentenced in 2-year-old child's fentanyl poisoning death A Johnson County, Kan., woman has been sentenced by a judge in connection with the death of a toddler by fentanyl poisoning last year.Shelly Vallejo was sentenced to 123 months in prison on three separate crimes: second-degree murder, aggravated endangerment of a child and felony possession of fentanyl.

KCKPD searching for vehicle involved in deadly shooting KANSAS CITY, Kan. - The Kansas City, Kansas Police Department is asking the public for help in identifying a vehicle last seen leaving the scene of a deadly shooting. Around 8:20 p.m. on Feb. 15, officers responded to a reported shooting near North 11th Street and Haskell Avenue, just north of Parallel Parkway.

Motorcyclist dies more than a week after a crash on 23rd Street, case referred to prosecutor's office for possible charges The motorcyclist hurt in a crash on 23rd Street in Kansas City more than a week ago has died as a result of his injuries.Now, the case is being forwarded to the Jackson County Prosecutor's Office for possible charges.Police said a white Chrysler 300 was traveling west on 23rd Street in the left lane on Feb.

Kansas City, Kansas, police seeking truck connected to Feb. 15 homicide of 18-year-old KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department is seeking assistance in finding a truck possibly connected to the Feb. 15 homicide of an 18-year-old. On the evening of Feb. 15, police were called to the 2300 block of N. 11th Street on a reported shooting .

Independence neighbors want answers after gunfire causes damages to homes, vehicles INDEPENDENCE, Mo. - An Independence, Missouri neighborhood caught in the middle of a shootout and then a police chase. Now Independence police are searching for as many as five suspects. This all happened late Monday afternoon. "This is such a quite neighborhood," said Charlie Dusheke, who lives in the neighborhood.

Kansas City man who crashed into deputies' vehicles while resisting arrest sentenced A Kansas City, Mo., man has been sentenced to 19 years in federal prison for ramming into two law enforcement vehicles while attempting to flee while in possession of methamphetamine and firearms.In February 2022, Anthony M.

No injuries reported after shots fired incident triggers police chase in Independence KANSAS CITY, Mo. - No one was injured after Independence police responded to reports of shots fired and later engaged in a short chase on Monday afternoon. According to police, officers responded to the 2500 block of S. Tomaqua Avenue at around 5 p.m. on reports of a shooting.

Independence police find young girl, looking to reunite her with parents Independence Police Department Police found the young girl in the area of Dover Lane and Peck Court. SOURCE: Independence Police Department This content is imported from Facebook. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

Lee's Summit, Mo., Police Department announces retirement of K9 Falko A very good boy has retired from the Lee's Summit Police Department. Police announced the retirement of K9 Falko, who has served with the department since December 2016. The German Shepherd was originally from Belgium. During his lengthy career, he was used by the department 1,212 times.

Dashcam video shows truck crashing, flipping over on Interstate 70 in Kansas City | Flipboard Dashcam video from the Missouri Highway Patrol showed one of the many reported crashes in the Kansas City metro area caused by freezing drizzle.. See more videos about Videos, Dashcam, Weather, Kansas City Commute, Kansas City Weather, Kansas City.

Standout Athlete, SWAT Team Member Now Leads New Teammates As Sergeant Grimmett enjoyed his time as a SWAT Team member so much, he was nervous about his promotion to sergeant in 2021. The nervousness is gone, replaced by responsibility. The safety of the officers Grimmett supervises matters; it sticks with him. He's intent on sharing all of his knowledge as he approaches his 11th anniversary at KCPD.

Developing . . .
Right now we celebrate legendary hottie Claudia and just a few more links worth a peek as we continue watching pop culture, community news and top headlines.

Check TKC news gathering . . .

Toy Train Preps For Armageddon

KC Streetcar to conduct emergency exercise Saturday, March 4 KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The KC Streetcar will conduct a full-scale emergency exercise between 9 a.m. and noon on Saturday, March 4. The exercise, which tests coordination and preparedness of the streetcar system in case of an incident involving a streetcar, is held once every three years.

Local College Endure

William Jewell College to resume classes Wednesday after credible threat closed campus KANSAS CITY, Mo. - William Jewell College will resume classes Wednesday after what police called a credible threat forced the college to cancel in-person classes Tuesday. The first warning came in an email about 7 p.m. Monday with a photo of a former student at the college.

Golden Ghetto Traffic Danger Worsens

Traffic cameras shows truck striking traffic multiple lights in Overland Park The City of Overland Park said about $4,000 worth of damage was reported after a truck struck multiple lights.The incidents happened last week on Metcalf. The city said the truck hit four traffic signals in the area. The City of Overland Park said about $4,000 worth of damage was reported after a truck struck multiple lights.

Dreams Persist Inside The Loop

St. Louis developer proposes residential, hotel high-rises at 14th and Wyandotte - Kansas City Business Journal A St. Louis developer in the midst of an expansion into Kansas City filed plans for a pair of high-rise projects in the Downtown Loop. Lux Living filed development plans Tuesday afternoon for a 200-room hotel in a 14-story building and an adjacent 30-story tower with 300 apartments on about an acre northeast of 14th and Wyandotte streets.

Legendary Sound Of KC

Remembering Julia Lee's KC legacy beyond her bawdy hits Remembering Julia Lee's KC legacy beyond her bawdy hits.

Former Prez Obama Fan Remembered

World's sexiest ref Claudia Romani risks Instagram red card as she shows off bum STUNNING model Claudia Romani has risked getting the boot from Instagram after posting an X-rated bikini picture. Dubbed the world's sexiest referee, Claudia has previously modelled on covers for Playboy, GQ and Cosmopolitan. Her latest photos showed off that model physique, but could land her in hot water in the process.

GOP Targets Climate Activism

House votes to kill Biden's 'woke' ESG investment rule that props up 'phony climate movement' The House voted Tuesday to kill the Biden administration's controversial rule that encourages private retirement plan fiduciaries to consider environment, social and governance (ESG) factors when making investment decisions for tens of millions of Americans. The Department of Labor rule is widely seen by Republicans as part of the Biden administration's push to inject "woke" ideology into all aspects of government.

G-Men Don't Trust Science

FBI director Christopher Wray says Covid origin 'most likely' from Chinese lab Christopher Wray says the FBI has "for quite some time" settled on a potential lab incident in Wuhan.

OUSTED!!!

Lightfoot ousted as Chicago mayor Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) is projected to lose her bid for reelection, a stunning blow to an incumbent who made headlines as an underdog reformer candidate who defied expectations and won the city's top job in 2019. Lightfoot on Tuesday failed to be one of the top two vote-getters to notch a spot in...

Drone Wars Escalate

Drones Attack Russia From All Sides Chaos erupted in Russia overnight as drones swarmed multiple regions, sparking an explosion at an oil depot and the deployment of fighter jets near St. Petersburg, according to local reports. One strike at around 2 a.m. in the Krasnodar region was less than 100 feet from a Russian Defense Ministry barracks, the independent Agentstvo News reports.

No Love In Land Of Rising Sun

Japan's birth rate plunges to new record low; politician blames citizens' lack of 'romantic ability' Japan's birth rate has plunged to a new record low, undermining the country's initiatives to remedy its aging population. According to Japan's health ministry, the total number of births declined to 799,728 in 2022, which is down 5.1% from a year earlier.

Trade Partner Tech Debate

China hits out at US over TikTok ban on federal devices "We firmly oppose those wrong actions," spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters during a news briefing on Tuesday. "The US government should respect the principles of market economy and fair competition, stop suppressing the companies and provide an open, fair and non-discriminatory environment for foreign companies in the US."

Rerun Life Lessons Exposed



What rewatching old shows teaches us about ourselves In the early 2000s, just a few years before Netflix began offering streaming services and when time spent watching TV in America was at its peak, Cristel Russell had an observation: Amid the boom of new television series, why did so many people choose to rewatch shows they'd already seen?

New Boss For Our 2nd Favorite Kansas City Neighborhood

Meet Waldo's New Executive Director! How many businesses do you think have a Waldo address? Chelsea Kapka, Executive Director of the Waldo Area Business Association, has heard over 600 businesses call Waldo home...and about 350 of them belong to WABA. Since joining WABA last month, she's hoping to increase membership along with some other goals for the strong, thriving neighborhood....

Forecast For Midweek

Quiet conditions won't last for the whole work week OKAY, SO YOU'LL KNOW. FIRST THIS IS FIRST ALERT WEATHER. WELL, IT IS. IT'S A WONDERFUL DAY OUTSIDE NASHVILLE. IT REALLY? YEAH. GOOD DAY TO GET OUT THERE AND CLEAN UP THE NEIGHBORHOOD. THAT WOULD BE PERFECT, I SUPPOSE, TO BE HARDER WITH SNOW ON THE GROUND.

And this is the OPEN THREAD for right now.
As we noted in the compilation . . . The SCOTUS majority seems skeptical of the plan from the Prez.



However, that didn't stop Kansas City's top elected leader from stumping on behalf of free money.

Check-it . . .



(Mayor) Lucas made an appearance at the NAACPs Peoples Rally for Student Debt Cancellation, just outside of where the Supreme Court justices heard oral arguments concerning two challenges to the Biden administrations student debt relief plan.



In my city, hard working families every day are trying to build businesses, build careers, Lucas said. And what do they run into? Staggering debt that holds them back.



According to Lucas, 80,000 borrowers in Kansas City would receive more than $575 million in debt relief, and approximately 40,000 borrowers would become completely free of student loan debt.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .
Late-breaking local news offers a glimpse at increasingly dangerous Kansas City streets amid a historic wave of violent crime trending over the past few years.



Here are the basics of this developing story . . .



"Multiple officers shot and an operation 100 / police standoff as been called."

We'll blog more info as it becomes available . . .



Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com links . . .

3 Kansas City police officers shot in the 2300 block of Blue Ridge, conditions unknown Three Kansas City police officers have been shot in the 2300 block of Blue Ridge Boulevard, according to the Kansas City Police Department and Kansas City mayor Quinton Lucas. The department does not have conditions of the officers. "We've been reminded too much lately in Kansas City how dangerous police work can be," Lucas said in a tweet.

Multiple officers shot, police in standoff at 23rd, Blue Ridge, KCPD says KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Multiple police agencies are working a standoff Tuesday night after multiple officers were reportedly shot in Kansas City, Missouri. The Kansas City Police Department is reporting the incident took place after 9:30 p.m. in the area of E. 23rd Street and Blue Ridge Boulevard.

3 police officers suffer non-life-threatening injuries in shooting Tuesday night in KCMO; standoff underway KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Three tactical officers were shot Tuesday night in Kansas City, Missouri, while executing a search warrant. The incident happened in the 2300 Block of Blue Ridge Boulevard at around 9:30 p.m. According to KCPD Chief of Police Stacey Graves, the three officers knocked on a door at the home and attempted to make entry.

Standoff continues after 3 Kansas City police officers shot Tuesday night A police standoff in east Kansas City was ongoing late Wednesday morning, according to officials from the Missouri State Highway Patrol. In a tweet late Wednesday morning, the agency said its is attempting to clear and secure a residence on the 2300 block of Blue Ridge Boulevard near Blue Summit.

Full remarks: Kansas City police chief Stacey Graves says injured police officers will survive SUSPECT OR A SUSPECT TO SURRENDER AFTER 930 OFFICERS WERE EXECUTED. A SEARCH WARRANT IN THE 2300 BLOCK OF BLUE RIDGE BOULEVARD AS THEY KNOCKED ON ANNOUNCE AND BEGAN TO BREACH THE DOOR. THEY TOOK GUNFIRE. THREE OF OUR OFFICERS WERE STRUCK. THEY DID RETURN FIRE. THEY SELF TRANSPORTED TO A LOCAL HOSPITAL.

Developing . . .
Near 2 BILLION BUCKS buys a great deal of propaganda.



Here's another taste with the reminder that we're only including the stories that are halfway interesting and we skipped quite a few lesser reports . . . Take a peek . . .



A look at what it's like inside the new KCI terminal Some Kansas Citians worried the new airport might not be as efficient as the old terminal in terms of getting to the gate. So, KCTV5's Nathan Vickers flew to Dallas and went through the entire process to show you how it went!

With a new airport in Kansas City, KCI hopes to land transatlantic flight While KCI's new terminal has expanded amenities, Kansas City is one of the largest U.S.

A guide on how to get around at new single terminal at Kansas City International Airport KANSAS CITY, Mo. - With the opening of the new single-terminal at the Kansas City International Airport, KSHB 41 News has a compiled a guide of everything you need to know when flying out. Parking At the main parking garage, there are seven floors with thousands of parking spots.

New Kansas City International Airport attracting visitors who were not even flying on Tuesday Among the thousands that traveled to and through the new Kansas City International Airport on Tuesday were those who were not even flying. Those included Larry and Donna Hall. Larry Hall started working at the old terminal in 1974 for TWA and worked there for nearly 50 years.

What to expect going through security at Kansas City International Airport's new single terminal KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Going through security will look different at the new single terminal at the Kansas City International Airport. It's now a centralized checkpoint with 16 lanes and has the ability to expand to 18 lanes. The Transportation Security Administration said the wait was never more than five minutes on Tuesday.

'Very easy to get through': New Kansas City International Airport features simplified security set-up The new Kansas City International Airport terminal features a reconfigured security line.Instead of multiple security checkpoints at a handful of gates in multiple terminals, passengers pass through one security area with up to sixteen scanning lines if necessary.For Betty Bowers, the hardest part of getting to her flight to Phoenix

1st impressions: Travelers review experience at new KCI terminal on opening day KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The new single terminal at Kansas City International Airport is the first impression many visitors will get of Kansas City. The first batch of passengers already traveled to and from the terminal on opening day Tuesday morning.

KCI welcomes the first flyers into a new airport terminal showing off 'all the best of Kansas City' Wearing a "KC" t-shirt, Dawn Taylor had the honor of arriving on the first flight into Kansas City's brand-new airport terminal on Tuesday morning. She had boarded bright and early in Chicago. "The gate agents were dancing. There was Kool & The Gang, 'Celebrate Good Times' playing," Taylor said, smiling.

Flying into new KCI single terminal: Transforming way people see Kansas City KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Two flights just hours apart marked the end of one era of Kansas City aviation and the beginning of a new era. I had the opportunity to be among the passengers who took the last flight out from the old terminal buildings at Kansas City International Airport - a 10:30 p.m.

The new KCI airport terminal has been a boon for several minority-owned businesses Many local companies were able to cash in on the building of the new $1.5 billion KCI terminal.The city made sure that minority businesses were able to get in on this project as well.Long before the first flights took off from the new KCI this morning, the new terminal project was a launching pad."We were intentional about making sure that we were inclusive in this process," Fifth District councilwoman Ryana Parks said.

Travelers weigh in on parking situation at new KCI KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - With the new KCI terminal comes all the new procedures to learn, from parking to picking up and dropping off. Pick-up and drop-off was one aspect that brought the most convenience with the old KCI, so how did it go over on day one at the new one?

How Kansas City's new airport terminal became a sprawling art gallery for 28 diverse creatives Every major milestone in Kathy Minhsin Liao's life has been marked by travel, she shared, making airports synonymous with transition. "My [art]work at the new terminal is called 'Hello and Goodbye,' and it touches on my personal experience of the fluidity of travel.

Moment of transition: Planes moved from the old KCI as operations begin at the new terminal Kansas City's new airport terminal is officially open for business. At just over one million square feet and a budget of $1.5 billion, the new terminal is the largest single infrastructure project in the city's history.The final flight from the old terminal, Southwest flight 3369, departed the old Kansas City International Airport at 10:26 p.m.Over the next few hours, workers moved all of the planes from terminals B and C.They also put up new signs, directing visitors to the new single terminal.

Developing . . .
Beatrice police arrested a man for assault following an altercation in west Beatrice.

On Tuesday, Beatrice police were called to Beatrice Community Hospital for reports of a possible assault.

Arrest documents state they spoke with the victim, who was being seen for a possible fractured nose and ribs. She told police she was walking with 19-year-old Austin J. Rhoden in west Beatrice when he became violent with her.

He allegedly punched the victim in the face with a closed fist several times, and then kicked her in the ribs when she fell to the ground.

Rhoden later demanded to see the victim, but others at the residence refused to let him see her.

Arrest documents noted that police observed the victim had injuries consistent with the report.

When contacted by police, Rhoden allegedly first said he blacked out due to alcohol consumption and didn't remember the altercation. He later told police he did punch the victim in the face and had swollen knuckles on his right hand. Rhoden was placed under arrest for third-degree domestic assault.
An important story that might be overlooked amid all of the airport and political news . . .



WORSENING KANSAS CITY CRIME RESULTS IN LIMITED ACCESS TO HEALTHCARE ON THE EAST SIDE!!!



Another point worth highlighting . . .

SORRY, BUT KANSAS CITY CAN'T SUSTAIN ECONOMIC GROWTH OR ANY REAL VIABILITY UNTIL HISTORIC CRIME IS UNDER CONTROL!!!

Yeah, it gets worse . . .

Neither the council majority nor the mayor's office have much credibility on this topic given a years long battle with the po-po over money and power.

Meanwhile . . .

The vast majority of law-abiding urban core denizens are now forced to go out of their way for basic healthcare access.

TKC ground level analysis . . .

These two places were a nightmare and stealing was rampant. But the story doesn't end here given that the closest pharmacies on Broadway & Main are going the same route.

Check the report . . .



"The CVS at 4531 Troost Avenue will shut its doors on April 3. If you have a prescription at that location, CVS is transferring it to the location at 5011 Main Street. In addition to the impending CVS closure, the Walgreens location at 4630 Troost Avenue is also closed. "



Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .
Here's a note about an up-charge that's raising eyebrows . . .



The cost increase might seem familiar to local workers and our constant suburban complainers who are also forced to pay the controversial local levy . . .



"Starting May 1, 2023, a new local access fee will appear on your bill Starting May 1, 2023, a new Local Access Fee will appear on your monthly bill. This fee will be in addition to the monthly charge for your internet plan. This fee is 1% of the monthly cost of your internet plan.



"While we do our best to include all fees in the flat, predictable price you pay for internet (like installation and hardware), this is how Google Fiber compensates Kansas City for access to roads, infrastructure and public areas for construction, maintenance, and repairs to the network.



"Previously, these fees were tied to our TV service, and now they are tied to our internet service. It's important to note that Google Fiber passes on 100% of this fee to Kansas City.



"We appreciate your business and want to thank you for being a valued Google Fiber customer."

To be fair, there is an OFFICIAL EXPLANATION . . .

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Google Fiber Help: Local access fee for select Google Fiber customers


Update on false alarms and fears from across the Sunflower State . . .



"Someone called multiple police departments to (FALSELY) report active shooters inside multiple high schools."

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com links . . .

'Swatting incidents' reported at several high schools across the state of Kansas Multiple law enforcement agencies across Kansas were called to various high schools Wednesday morning after someone called 911 to report an active shooter at those locations. Lawrence, Kansas, police said officers were called around 8:30 a.m.

Kansas law enforcement investigating multiple false reports of active school shooters LAWRENCE, Kan. - Law enforcement agencies in Kansas are investigating a series of false reports of active school shooters across the state, including a few in the Kansas City region. Around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, Lawrence police received a call about an alleged active shooter at Free State High School.

Developing . . .
Tax season is upon us and with it comes the ever-present threat of fraud. Canadians should be wary of scammers posing as Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) employees who will trick their victims into sending them money or providing personal information that can be used to take over a bank account.
Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts is the pinnacle of Sri Lankan hospitality through comfort, creativity, discovery, and inspired living. Each property is designed to showcase and complement the local environment, character, culture, and traditions of the area it serves.



(TRAVPR.COM) MALDIVES - February 28th, 2023 - Colombo, Sri Lanka - 18th January 2023: Sustainability has become the heart and soul of the hospitality industry and travel trade, especially with travellers being more concerned of the environment, climate change and well-being of local communities. Hospitality brands across the world are now opting for sustainable approaches to enable this mandate. This is further validated by the findings from the Sustainable Travel Report 2022 published by booking.com, where 78% of global travellers intend to stay in a sustainable property at least once during this year while 71% of travellers expect to put in more effort during the year to travel more sustainably.

Sustainability being the cornerstone of Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts and across its properties in Sri Lanka and the Maldives, continuously redefines new benchmarks in terms of sustainability and inculcating its core values of compassion, inclusivity, empowerment, and diversity.

Ellaidhoo Maldives by Cinnamon, a property managed by Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts, home to one of the best coral reefs in the Maldives has taken a step ahead in its sustainability endeavours. The Maldives beach resort focuses on several sustainable initiatives including minimising the usage of plastic, producing organic fruits and vegetables in-house and conservation of coral reefs.

Minimising waste and single use plastic

During the bygone year the resort was able to reduce its plastic usage simply by replacing plastic garbage bags with washable and re-usable garbage bags and plastic laundry bags has been replaced by hand-made paper bags which are mad out of magazines found in the property. Moreover, the resort has replaced its plastic water bottles by introducing refillable, customized drinking water bottles and has introduced wooden key cards, paper bags, wooden straws, and wooden bins with the objective of further reducing the usage of plastic within the property. Through all these efforts the property has been able to reduce the usage of over 11,500 KG of plastic material during 2021 and 2022.

Taking a step ahead, the resort has introduced tote bags which are purely made of damaged umbrellas found within the property. These bags have become a popular accessory among guests within the resort.

Farm to Plate

The resort has introduced a special initiative, Farm to Plate, an organic vegetable farm which focuses on producing fresh fruits and vegetables within the property. The farm has a dedicated composting area where dry leaves are converted to compost and wastewater is used as the main source to water the farm. The resort works closely with the local community to recycle coconut palm leaves to make roofing covers for public areas within the resort.

Conservation of Coral Reefs in the Maldives

As part of its marine life conversation programme, the resort has placed several artificial Reef Cubes made from crushed glass to increase fish population around the property. In addition, monthly reef & beach clean-ups are arranged by the resort where guests are encouraged to participate. In an effort to reduce its carbon footprint, the resort has introduced various initiatives including the use of solar power, reduction of Carbon Dioxide emission and water saving initiatives.

Sustainability, which is a driving force has been embedded into the DNA of Cinnamon Hotels and Resorts and is an ongoing pledge and Ellaidhoo Maldives by Cinnamon is dedicated to make a real difference by driving an eco-friendly change and delivering value to its guests, people, and planet. With a number of sustainability projects on the horizon, the resort remains well focussed on the current sustainability initiatives, and the future projects would draw more attention to the conservation of coral reefs, marine life, and ocean literacy, all while creating greater awareness on various issues related to sustainability and wellbeing. As a brand built on its core values and principles, Cinnamon Hotels & Resort is committed to creating a better tomorrow, both socially and environmentally.



More Information - https://www.cinnamonhotels.com/ellaidhoomaldivescinnamon

###
The family of Beau Beaumont has sued the owners of the Billings nightclub where he was killed on Feb. 12.

Beaumont was shot in the parking lot of Americas Wild West at 4910 Southgate Drive and later died at a nearby hospital.

It was the second homicide at the nightclub in less than a year.

Police have charged 18-year-old Xavier Buffalo in the most recent fatal shooting. Buffalo has been jailed with a bond set at $250,000.

Beaumonts family is being represented by AVA Law Group, a national personal injury law firm.

The lawsuit alleges that Americas Wild West violated the law by serving alcohol to the teenage Buffalo on the night Beaumont was killed.

The nightclub also violated several duties that all tavern owners owe to their patrons, the suit continues. Those duties include the responsibility to provide adequate staff to safely police the premises, the duty to not tolerate disorderly conditions, the duty to stop fights, and the duty to protect patrons from others with a known propensity for causing harm, the suit states

"Beaus death is a tragedy that never should have happened, said AVA's attorney Teague Westrope. Xavier Buffalo pulled the trigger, but he is not the only one who bears responsibility for Beaumonts death.

After about 10:30 p.m. on the night of the homicide, bouncers in the bar broke up a fight between Beaumont and Buffalo.

Bouncers removed Buffalo from the nightclub but did not escort him off the premises, the suit alleges.

When Beaumont soon after left the bar, he was jumped by Buffalo, who allegedly shot him and then ran away. Police found Beaumont rolling on the ground and moaning. He died about 30 minutes later in the hospital.

Among the allegations in the lawsuit is that Americas Wild West is a notoriously violent bar and should have increased security.

Recent media reporting has made clear that the owners of Americas Wild West have known for quite some time that the bar and dance club is a magnet for violence, the attorney Westrope said in a press release. Yet, they seemingly have made little to no effort to have security patrol the parking lot.

In the 14 months between Jan. 1, 2022 and Beaumonts death this February, Billings Police responded to at least 194 incidents at Americas Wild West, including the two homicides, a shooting, nine weapons complaints, 11 assaults and 32 disturbances, KTVQ has reported.

In April of last year, a 29-year-old man died after being shot in the Wild West parking lot. The suspect in that shooting was 19 years old.

As recently as last Saturday, Billings police arrested a man who allegedly started striking officers in the parking lot of Wild West. Brock Alan Fredrick Hammons, who was underage at the time of his arrest, has been charged with two counts of assaulting an officer, resisting arrest, obstructing a peace officer and possessing intoxicating substances while underage.

Hammons pleaded not guilty to all counts in Yellowstone County District Court on Tuesday. Police were in the parking lot special detail conducting compliance checks  due to recent issues at the establishment involving loitering, trespassing, and under-aged drinking, court documents said.

Hammons allegedly walked out of Wild West while under the influence of alcohol after police saw containers of alcohol in his vehicle.

He was carrying two bags when he approached police, according to court documents, and told officers there was a gun in one of the bags. Police demanded that he hand over the bag, and a melee ensued.

Hammons allegedly resisted arrest, and kicked two of the officers who managed to get him into the back of a patrol vehicle. Inside the bag, officers allegedly found a loaded handgun.
Obstacles in the Unification of Assyrian Churches

Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako (L) and Patriarch Awa Royel III. (AINA) -- In December, Patriarch Awa spoke of the possible reunification of Assyrians and Chaldeans within one Church of the East. He also mentioned an objection to the union that must be addressed first: uniatism. His words were reported as follows:

With the Chaldeans, who are certainly our brothers, we are always ready to talk about unity and reunification in a single Church of the East. However, we totally reject uniatism, which was at the origins of the schism of 1552. I believe this is Patriarch Sako's proposal: the two Patriarchs, the Chaldean and the Assyrian, resign from their offices, and the Assyrian and Chaldean bishops elect together another Patriarch of the Eastern Church, but then that Patriarch must be in hierarchical communion with the Pope. And this procedure does not seem feasible to me. The way is to rediscover the roots of the Eastern Church, go back to before 1552, see what was the shared ecclesiology at the moment of separation.

In what follows, I will examine the topic of uniatism and how the Catholic Church might answer Patriarch Awa's objection.

What is Uniatism?

In 1993, the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church produced a document titled "Uniatism, Method of Union of the Past, and the Present Search for Full Communion," otherwise known as the "Balamand Statement." Unfortunately, the document does not define the term "uniatism." Instead, it speaks of historical initiatives that "led to the union of certain communities with the See of Rome and brought with them, as a consequence, the breaking of communion with their Mother Churches of the East" (8). From these communities have come most of the Eastern Catholic Churches of the present day.

The document indicates that these historical processes often involved inappropriately exclusivist ecclesiology, the use of "unacceptable means," and "extraecclesial interests" and that they failed to restore complete unity between East and West (8-11). The document goes on to condemn ecclesiology that denies the means for salvation in the non-Catholic Eastern Churches and therefore also the pursuit of the "conversion of people from one Church to the other" (15). In addition, it strongly cautions against allowing financial or social assistance or opportunities for education or other material benefits to tempt someone to leave one Church and join another (24). We can call these prohibited practices "proselytism." They are rejected -- at least formally -- by all the apostolic Churches.

The topic of "uniatism" is difficult to discuss because at different times it is identified with different but related realities. These include: (i) the proselytism that preceded the formation of the Eastern Catholic Churches, (ii) the choice of certain communities for union with the See of Rome at the expense of communion with their Mother Churches, (iii) the deeper and more bitter divisions that followed, and (iv) the continued existence of the Eastern Catholic Churches.

Insofar as "uniatism" refers to (i), it is universally condemned. Insofar as "uniatism" refers to (ii), the Balamand Statement cannot condemn it. Although likely influenced by proselytism and although unsuccessful in restoring Eucharistic communion between East and West, respect must be shown for the potential "authenticity of the desire to be faithful to the commandment of Christ: 'that all may be one'" (9). Consequently, neither can (iv) be condemned. Eastern Catholics cannot be condemned simply for being Eastern Catholic: "[T]he Oriental Catholic Churches...have the right to exist and to act in answer to the spiritual needs of their faithful" (3). To be complete, (iii) is universally regretted.

More Facets of Uniatism

In addition to these, at least three more realities are sometimes identified with "uniatism": (v) the psychological and spiritual harm suffered by Eastern Catholics as a result of the situation of double schism (schism between their Mother Churches and the See of Rome and schism with(in) their Mother Churches), (vi) the persistence of excessively Roman ecclesiology among Eastern Catholics, and (vii) the concretization of such excessively Roman ecclesiology in Eastern Catholic practice and canon law.

Among the psychological and spiritual harms suffered by Eastern Catholics, Patriarch Awa has written of "numerous instances of latinization which the Chaldean Catholic Church has suffered as a spiritual persecution." The scholar Justin Tse likewise identifies uniatism with the habit of "taking on the Latin Church's theological formulations, devotional practices, and liturgical sensibilities at the expense of," in his case, "[the] Byzantine heritage." These might include "the rosary, the Sacred Heart, the Stations of the Cross, and the juridical modus operandi of Roman Catholicism in general." Tse also observes that Eastern Catholics of any of the major liturgical traditions may exhibit "[an] inferiority complex in relation to Rome [that] leads them to discard their own tradition for another."

To heal from this psychological and spiritual wound is a significant task. In fact, Tse cites the opinion of Archimandrite Robert Taft S.J. that "the entire task of Eastern Catholic theology is about recognizing the dignity of the Eastern Catholic churches' original practices as Catholic in and of themselves" and not inferior to those of Rome. Thus, he writes, "the attempts by some of our theologians [in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church] to slowly roll back the practices in our church that are more Latin than Byzantine is, in fact, an attempt to be more fully Catholic in our Orthodoxy." In the same way, Patriarch Awa "[invites] the Chaldean Catholic Church to a true spiritual renaissance of liturgy, canonical order, spiritual life, and theology in the time-honored traditions of the fathers of the Church of the East."

To these observations, Dr. Tse adds a warning: A radical development of the concept of uniatism by Ukrainian Catholic Patriarch Sviatoslav Shevchuk "involves naming an Orthodox uniatism, a posture of Greek Catholic subordination to the Orthodox in this case that leads to an illegitimate union that was as perverse as [Latinization]." Analogously, the Chaldean Church cannot find healing through mere imitation of the Assyrian Church of the East. Assyrians and Chaldeans must progress toward unity together, each faithful to what the Holy Spirit speaks in his heart. As Tse concludes, we surpass the minimal agreement achieved by the Balamand document and overcome uniatism in the form of ideological colonization "not by advancing arguments about the validity of our existence [but] by living in ways that are attentive to movements in the heart and its sense of [its ecclesial] home."

Having considered uniatism understood as a form of psychological and spiritual harm -- (v) above -- there still remains the problem of a tradition of ecclesiology among Eastern Catholics that places more emphasis on the role of the See of Rome than was ever typical in the Christian East before the formation of the Eastern Catholic Churches (vi). Because all three formal dialogues between the Catholic Church and the non-Catholic Eastern communions are addressing Roman ecclesiology, I will not do so. Instead, I will turn to the most objectionable manifestations of this ecclesiology in Eastern Catholic canon law (vii), specifically in the Code of Canons for the Oriental Churches (CCOE).

De-Latinizing Eastern Catholic Canon Law

In the remainder of this article, I will comment briefly on the opening sections of the CCOE. I am neither a canonist nor an Eastern Christian. But I hope that, by reviewing what canons would seem to me most objectionable from an Eastern perspective, I might shed light on the position of Patriarch Awa regarding "uniatism" and a possible response by the Catholic Church.

The CCOE opens with six Preliminary Canons. These are technical in nature, determining the scope of the CCOE. There is little in them that appears objectionable, except for the very fact that they open a common code of canons for Eastern Churches promulgated by the Roman Curia. Certainly, it is assumed that the CCOE will be replaced upon the healing of the schisms between East and West (Cf. Orientalum Ecclesiarum 30 ). But the very existence of the CCOE, and the consequent imposition of Rome's "juridic" style, may cause offense in the Christian East.

As I have written before, I see value in codified canons. And I hope that the Eastern Churches won't reject the practice of developing sophisticated canonical codes of their own simply because these have appeared in the West. Every local Church has received gifts from other local Churches, even of other liturgical traditions. I do not see why certain canonical practices might not likewise be authentically received.

Perhaps the Eastern Catholic Churches could develop new canonical codes more authentic to their specific traditions, in cooperation with their corresponding non-Catholic Churches, even before the restoration of Eucharistic communion among them. However, I expect that it is more likely that the Eastern Catholic Churches will continue to operate under the CCOE before and after the restoration of Eucharistic communion with their corresponding non-Catholic Churches, up until the complete integration of the corresponding hierarchies. In the meantime, the Eastern Catholic Churches, together with their corresponding non-Catholic Churches, could propose gradual, incremental reforms to the CCOE that make of it good source material for whatever future canonical codes might govern their reunited Churches.

After the Preliminary Canons, Title 1 addresses the Rights and Obligations of All the Christian Faithful. This section too contains little that is objectionable. Can. 7 2 employs ecclesiological formulations of the Second Vatican Council, but these can be interpreted in an ecumenically acceptable manner. Because I am seeking for now the most objectionable aspects of the CCOE for the sake of its incremental reform, I won't address these any further. Can. 12 1, which obligates the faithful "always to maintain communion with the Church," could stir suspicion but likewise admits of an ecumenically acceptable reading.

Title 2 addresses "Churches sui juris" and rites, as well as assignment and transfer of jurisdictions. Because every Eastern Catholic Church will either integrate with a corresponding non-Catholic autocephalous or autonomous Church or could come to be understood as an autocephalous Church (e.g. the Hungarian Greek Catholic Church), the concept of a "Church sui juris" can likely be replaced in the future with the concepts of autocephalous and autonomous Churches, as these are employed among non-Catholic Eastern Christians today. Can. 32 is the first canon to assign to the See of Rome a significant power: It requires Rome's consent for a transfer of jurisdiction, though this consent is presumed if the local bishops of overlapping dioceses consent in writing. This seems like a responsibility appropriate for the See of Rome.

Title 3 addresses the authority of the Roman Pontiff. The entire section reflects the centralizing ecclesiology of the First Vatican Council and therefore ought to be replaced -- perhaps rewritten in terms derived from the present dialogues with the non-Catholic communions of the East.

Title 4 addresses patriarchates. Here we find frequent references to specific powers of the Roman Pontiff and the Apostolic See. The very frequency of the references likely offends -- so these might better be grouped together someday in a more acceptable Title 3. However, many of these powers claimed by Rome are reasonable and inoffensive. Others are less so. I will briefly list those that seem to me to be (a) inoffensive and unremarkable, (b) more significant and appropriately assigned to the See of Rome, (c) questionable, and (d) offensive.

The (a) inoffensive and unremarkable powers assigned to the Roman Pontiff by Title 4 of the CCOE include: the right to be notified of episcopal ordinations and enthronements (cann. 76 1 and 86 3), of legislation and decisions of holy synods (can. 111 3), whenever a patriarchal Church is unable to form a permanent synod (can. 121), whenever a patriarchal see becomes vacant (can. 128 1), and whenever a patriarchal see becomes impeded (can. 132 3); and the right to be consulted before the modification of dioceses (can. 85 1). Can. 85 2 gives patriarchal Churches the right to defer cases of disobedient bishops to Rome. And cann. 81, 86 2, and 88 2 also make minor mention of Rome.

Of the powers (b) more significant and appropriately assigned to Rome, most seem intended either to regulate relations among the patriarchates, like can. 32 mentioned above which governs transfers of jurisdiction, or to prevent innovations in law and practice that could threaten the unity of the Church. (The latter function may strike Eastern Christians as ironic in light of the First Vatican Council.) Can. 56 serves as an example of the latter: "A patriarch is a bishop who enjoys power over all bishops including metropolitans and other Christian faithful of the Church over which he presides according to the norm of law approved by the supreme authority of the Church." Many will object to the double use of the preposition "over," but more interesting for the moment is the requirement that the norm of law by which a patriarch exercises his authority be approved by the Roman Pontiff.

This requirement could be interpreted as a "bridle" on Eastern Catholic patriarchs, to use an image once employed by Patriarch Awa. But I read the canon more positively: Any innovation in the patriarchal office must concern the entire Church, and therefore especially the Roman Pontiff. The Roman Pontiff cannot deny patriarchs the prerogatives assigned to them by Sacred Tradition -- it would be better for can. 56 to indicate as much. But the power of oversight in question, to check ecclesiological innovation for the sake of preserving Christian unity, seems to me to be appropriate.

To regulate relations among patriarchates, canons of Title 4 allow Rome: to establish or modify patriarchates and their canonical territories (can. 57); to adjudicate territorial disputes (can. 146 2); to regulate the extraterritorial exercise of patriarchal authority (can. 78 2) and the authority of extraterritorially constituted metropolitans (can. 138) and bishops (can. 150); and to ensure metropolitan oversight of extraterritorial bishops (can. 139) and care for the faithful of Eastern patriarchates in diaspora (can. 148). Can. 58 allows the Roman Pontiff to establish "special norms" concerning precedence, such as for consistories of the College of Cardinals, while can. 59 2 preserves the taxis among the ancient patriarchates of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. (Perhaps can. 59 3 could someday explicitly list the order of precedence among all the patriarchates of all four communions, in order to settle controversy.) Provided these powers are exercised in accord with Sacred Tradition, all of them seem appropriate.

Finally, can. 98 requires Roman approval of agreements between patriarchal Churches and secular authorities. This may generate controversy, but it serves as a protection of the patriarchal Churches against abuse by state governments. Therefore, this too seems to be an appropriate prerogative of Rome.

Of the canons of Title 4 that ascribe (c) powers to the Roman Pontiff that an Eastern Christian must question, can. 92 is foremost. It reads as follows:

The patriarch is to manifest hierarchal communion with the Roman Pontiff, successor of Saint Peter, through the loyalty, veneration and obedience which are due to the supreme pastor of the entire Church. The patriarch must make a commemoration of the Roman Pontiff as a sign of full communion with him in the Divine Liturgy and divine praises according to the prescriptions of the liturgical books and to see that it is done faithfully by all the bishops and other clerics of the Church over which he presides. [This is mentioned in can. 91 as well.] It is to be the custom for the patriarch to visit the Roman Pontiff and, according to the norms established especially for this, to send to him a report concerning the state of the Church over which he presides. Within a year of his election and then often during his tenure in office, he is to make a visit to Rome to venerate the tombs of apostles Peter and Paul and present himself to the successor of Saint Peter in primacy over the entire Church.

1 likely offends, though it can be interpreted in an ecumenically acceptable manner -- like Title 3, it ought to be rewritten in terms derived from the ongoing dialogues with the non-Catholic Eastern communions. 2 need not offend, provided respect is shown for how Eucharistic communion is expressed in each liturgical tradition. 3 should be reworked, drawing for example on the document of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches "The Exercise of Communion in the Life of the Early Church and its Implications for our Search for Communion Today."

Pilgrimages to Rome are good, even of whole hierarchies together, as is done by Catholic bishops in their ad limina visits. Frequent contacts with the See of Rome and the different dicasteries of the Roman Curia are good. But the requirement in can. 92 3 to visit and to submit a regular report to the Roman Pontiff does not reflect the dignity of the patriarchal Churches. If any requirement is needed to foster communication and preserve communion, that of can. 76 2 should suffice -- that a newly enthroned patriarch "must as soon as possible request ecclesiastical communion from the Roman Pontiff by means of a letter." Can. 76 1 requires of a newly enthroned patriarch a "profession of faith...according to the approved formulas" shared "by means of a synodal letter." Perhaps these synodal letters could go beyond approved formulas and serve as a means to present concerns and even to address points of tension among the Churches.

Other questionable prerogatives include the rights of the Roman Pontiff to be consulted before a holy synod accepts the resignation of a patriarch or to accept his resignation directly (can. 126 2), to issue instructions for various circumstances during the vacancy of a patriarchal see (can. 128), and to appoint an extraterritorial bishop of a patriarchal Church from a list of three candidates proposed by her holy synod (can. 149). All of these seem to me to call for further discussion and negotiation. For example, can. 149, if maintained, could become reciprocal, so that Rome would propose to a patriarch a list of three candidates for appointment within the territory of his patriarchal Church.

Finally, I will list the canons of Title 4 of the CCOE that seem to me most offensive to Eastern Christianity:

Can. 67 standardizes the procedure for patriarchal elections, given in cann. 947-957, with "every contrary custom being reprobated" -- thereby forbidding the Eastern Catholic Churches to develop particular law reflective of their own traditions to govern their own patriarchal elections.

Can. 72 2 allows the Roman Pontiff to appoint a patriarch if a patriarchal election is unsuccessful after fifteen days.

Can. 77 2 forbids a patriarch to convoke a synod or ordain bishops before he receives ecclesiastical communion from the Roman Pontiff -- thereby preventing him from first addressing tensions between his Church and the See of Rome through a synod, so that his Church might come together to petition for communion with Rome.

Can. 95 2 requires patriarchs, after a warning without effect, to defer cases of disobedient bishops to the Roman Pontiff.

These seem most to violate the dignity and integrity of the Eastern Churches.

Title 5 addresses the major archepiscopal Churches. Because the title of "major archbishop" does not appear among the non-Catholic Eastern Churches, this section could instead come to address non-patriarchal autocephalous Churches. For example, can. 151 could read: "An archbishop-primate or metropolitan-primate is the metropolitan who presides over an entire autocephalous Eastern Church not endowed with the patriarchal title." Can. 152 applies all the canons of Title 4 to these Churches. Can. 153 requires Rome's confirmation of primatial elections -- because no analogous requirement appears among the non-Catholic Eastern communions, can. 153 could be abrogated. Finally, can. 154 addresses precedence like can. 59; perhaps it could likewise come to list explicitly the order of precedence among the autocephalous Churches of all four communions, e.g. the Church of Cyprus, the Church of Greece, etc.

Title 6 addresses Eastern Catholic Churches of metropolitanate or lesser status. For two reasons, I will not comment on the individual canons of Title 6. First, many of the issues addressed above reappear here and in subsequent sections. Second, I assume that all the Eastern Catholic Churches will someday integrate with, or else come to be understood as, autocephalous Churches governed by Titles 4 or 5. Title 6 could be interpreted as relevant to another ecclesiastical structure in the non-Catholic Eastern communions today: the autonomous Church -- a local Church that operates under her own holy synod but remains part of a larger autocephalous Church. However, the autonomous Churches today are each governed by their own customs or particular law.

Title 7 addresses bishops and eparchies generally. Here too the issues above repeat. So, to bring my commentary to a close, I will consider just one series of canons in Title 7 that is frequently referenced in earlier sections: cann. 182-187, which concern episcopal elections. Like the canons of Title 4, these ascribe several prerogatives to the Roman Pontiff, some of which seem acceptable from an Eastern perspective and some of which do not. The former include the rights of the Roman Pontiff to be notified when a candidate for the episcopate accepts his election (can. 184 2) and to be consulted before a patriarch conducts an episcopal election by letter (can. 186 1). Unacceptable are the requirements of Rome's consent for all episcopal candidates (cann. 182 3-4, 184 1, and 185), to defer to Rome unsuccessful episcopal elections (can 186 3), and of a promise of obedience to the Roman Pontiff before episcopal ordination (can. 187 2). This last prerogative could admit of an ecumenically acceptable interpretation but ought to be rewritten in new terms, like Title 3 and can. 92.

At this point, we've reviewed about a tenth of the CCOE. While objections may be raised against the CCOE altogether, I hope to have exhibited a method for sorting through its more and less objectionable elements and to have picked out the canons most appropriately identified with the final meaning of "uniatism," i.e. as the canonical concretization of excessively Roman ecclesiology -- (vii) above.

Conclusion: Responding to Patriarch Awa

When Patriarch Awa spoke in December against the reunification of the Assyrian and Chaldean Churches, he used the word "uniatism" in multiple senses. First, he referenced the historical schism of 1552, similar to the Balamand Statement. Because he spoke of a "total rejection," he seems to have had in mind the first concept of "uniatism" examined above: uniatism as proselytism (i).

Then, Patriarch Awa spoke of "Patriarch Sako's proposal," which, he said, "does not seem feasible," due to a requirement of "hierarchal communion with the Pope." Certainly, he does not object to communion with the Pope of Rome, since this is the very goal of ecumenical dialogue with the Catholic Church. Instead, he seems here to have had in mind the last concept of "uniatism" examined above: the concretization in Eastern Catholic practice and canon law of an ecclesiology that places excessive emphasis on the See of Rome (vii).

Finally, Patriarch Awa proposes a renewal of ecclesiology, which by implication would contrast with the excessively Roman ecclesiology that he perceives among Chaldeans. The latter is the sixth concept of uniatism examined above. Patriarch Awa likely understands this tradition of ecclesiology (vi) as having given rise to the proselytism of the 16th century (i) and to the problems of the CCOE in the 20th (vii).

Thankfully, the Catholic Church, in agreement with the Assyrian Church of the East, explicitly rejects (i). And all three dialogues with the non-Catholic Eastern communions are seeking to clarify, or to bring balance to, or to correct the excesses of, (vi). It remains then for Chaldeans, and Eastern Catholics generally, to take up the task of correcting (vii), insofar as this can be done before the formal dialogues have produced definitive agreements. In the foregoing section, I have sought to identify the canons with which gradual, incremental reforms of the CCOE might begin.

Until he can have a sense of what ecclesial life in communion with Rome will be like, Patriarch Awa is probably right to balk at the proposal of Patriarch Sako. The integration of divided hierarchies is the last step in the healing of schism. Before then, when unity in faith has been recognized by both sides, despite their different expressions, and when the faithful are prepared, Assyrians and Chaldeans (and other Catholics as well) can advance to unrestricted sacramental sharing among the laity. At the same time or maybe soon thereafter, they can also permit unrestricted concelebration of sacraments by the clergy. But then there will likely still remain many details of common ecclesial life to sort out. Even if the CCOE is to be abrogated upon the integration of divided hierarchies, integration cannot happen if one party distrusts the habits of mind and ecclesiastical style of the other. Therefore, these must undergo reform, beginning even now.

Patriarch Awa has written of the need for "a common ecclesial spirit." To achieve this, Assyrians and Chaldeans will have to overcome the uniatism of Latinized practice and canon law (vii), on the one hand, and to avoid a "reverse uniatism" that subordinates Chaldeans to Assyrians (v), of which Ukrainian Catholic Patriarch Sviatoslav Shevchuk has spoken, on the other hand. The process will be demanding, but once Assyrians and Chaldeans have achieved a common sense of their ecclesial home then the proposal of Patriarch Sako that appears to Patriarch Awa to be infeasible at present will then appear to all to be feasible, obvious, and necessary.
More than 450 volunteers across Montana help Red Cross carry out its mission every day, from responding to disasters to delivering lifesaving blood to area hospitals.

This March, the American Red Cross honors those who make its work possible and encourage others to get involved during the 80th annual American Red Cross Month celebration  a national tradition that began in 1943 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued the first Red Cross Month proclamation.

When help cant wait during emergencies, people in Montana rally together to provide relief and hope for neighbors in need, said Diane Wright, executive director of Montana Red Cross. This humanitarian spirit is at the heart of our communities, and we are proud to honor all those who make our mission possible during this years Red Cross Month celebration.

The Montana Red Cross chapter dates back more than 100 years and delivers help and hope in communities across the state. Here are a few examples from the past year:

 Red Cross responders gave 550 people food, shelter and other support following disasters like home fires, floods and wildfires.

 Red Cross teams collected, tested and distributed 44,600 units of lifesaving blood to more than 30 hospitals and medical centers across Montana and beyond.

 Service to the Armed Forces volunteers provided support to 2,215 military families including helping service members return home for events like a funeral or the birth of a child.

 Volunteer teams installed 230 free smoke alarms in 88 homes across Montana including in tribal communities and shared home fire safety information.

Montana Red Cross is encouraging others to get involved as well. The public can support this humanitarian work by donating lifesaving blood, becoming a volunteer or making a financial donation.

When volunteer blood donors lend an arm this March, theyll help keep the blood supply from dropping this spring. All who come to give blood, platelets or plasma March 1-31 will receive a $10 Visa prepaid card by email. Plus, they'll be automatically entered for a chance to win a $3,000 Visa prepaid card  which could help toward expenses like gas or groceries. There will be five winners.

Find a blood drive near you and make an appointment by visiting RedCrossBlood.org or call 800-RED-CROSS.

Upcoming blood donation opportunities in March:

From noon to 6 p.m., March 21, St. Matthews Parish Center, 310 7th St. S.E. in Sidney.

From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., March 22, at Apsaruke Hall, 1500 University Drive, Apsaruke Room 111, Billings.

From 1 to 6 p.m., March 23, at Fairview High School Gym, 713 S. Western Ave. in Fairview.

Montana Red Cross offers volunteer opportunities for almost any interest or skill set, including volunteer work you can do from home. Training is provided.

A few of these opportunities include:

 Blood donor ambassadors: These volunteers welcome donors to local blood drives, help schedule their next appointment, thank them for their donation and make sure they have a good donor experience.

 Disaster Action Team members: These volunteers help meet families most immediate needs like food, clothing and shelter following a disaster, and just as importantly, provide emotional support and a shoulder to lean on.

 Service to the Armed Forces caseworkers: These volunteers help members of the military, veterans and their families prepare for and respond to the challenges of military service.

Learn more about these volunteer positions and more at montanaredcross.org.

By making a gift to Montana Red Cross, you help provide shelter, food, relief items, emotional support and other assistance for people affected by disasters big and small.

A $24 gift provides comfort supplies including deodorant, toothbrush and toothpaste, liquid soap, shampoo, wash cloth, lotion and razor and shaving cream for two families of four; $50 provides a full day of food and shelter for one person; and a $360 gift deploys an emergency response vehicle into a disaster-impacted community for a day. Learn more at montanaredcross.org or call 800-272-6668.

On March 22, you can also join the annual Red Cross Giving Day campaign by donating at redcross.org/givingday.

From Plentywood to Eureka and everywhere in between, we thank everyone who raises their hand to support our work, Wright said. Together we are delivering help and hope when its needed most.
For many of his loved ones, the death of Chaguanas Businessman Rishard Ali came as a shock. 
A Bismarck pharmacist has joined a Texas-based lawsuit challenging the Biden administrations attempt to require pharmacies that receive federal funding to dispense abortion-inducing drugs.

Catholic Pharmacist Kevin Martian runs the independent Mayo Pharmacy in Bismarck. The group Alliance Defending Freedom, which opposes abortion, announced Wednesday that it had added him to its complaint.

Mayo Pharmacy contends that under the federal mandate, it will be forced to either stop serving customers who receive federal assistance or violate its religious beliefs.

Unelected bureaucrats shouldnt be forcing Americans to dispense abortion-inducing drugs against their conscience," ADF Senior Counsel Matt Bowman said in a statement.

The group North Dakota Right to Life issued a statement in support of Mayo Pharmacy and the lawsuit.

The battle over abortion medication has become more pronounced since the U.S. Supreme Court last year struck down the constitutional right to an abortion set by the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. The ruling last year triggered 16-year-old legislation that prohibits abortion in North Dakota, though the ban is tied up in the courts.

The Biden administration has denounced efforts to target legal abortion medication as attacks on fundamental rights to health care.

The group NARAL Pro-Choice America maintains that restricting the abortion pill mifepristone -- which was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2000 -- "is a backdoor ban on abortion, according to The Associated Press.
Provocations are not ruled out on the border with Moldova, but currently no activity is being observed on the part of the enemy in the Transnistrian sector.

This was reported by the head of the joint press center for Ukraines Southern Defense Forces, Natalia Humeniuk, who spoke at the national telethon, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"Our defense forces at the border area provide general interaction with an adequate response to the likelihood of any threats from that direction. Currently, these threats are not critical. We are talking about the probable operations by sabotage and recon groups, or some kind of provocations such as shelling of the state border areas  none of those can be ruled out. We are observing closely. Currently, there is no activity on that side of the border," the spokeswoman said.

Read also: Romania refutes fake news claiming military hardware being deployed toward border with Moldova

According to the spokesperson, the troops that have been amassed by the aggressor power in the area of Transnistria do not constitute a critical force capable of opening a second front against Ukraine. "They will still need support, and geographically they cant get it. That is why we are observing that now its more about psyops targeting Moldova, where they are trying to destabilize the socio-political system," Humeniuk said.

As reported by Ukrinform, Ukraine has strengthened border control with Moldova in the breakaway region of Transnistria, where a Russian military contingent is stationed.

On February 23, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that Kyiv is allegedly plotting provocations in Transnistria, which will involve Azov fighters. The Russian agency claims that as a pretext for the Ukrainian invasion, Kyiv is set to stage a hoax Russian offensive from Transnistria.

Moldova later refuted Russias fake reports claiming Ukraine intends to attack Transnistria.
Russian forces have deployed more experienced fighters from the notorious Wagner Group, hardened in battles on Syrian and Libyan soil, in their assault on Bakhmut, although the Ukrainian forces inflict heavy losses on those units, not allowing the force to besiege the town.

Thats according to Serhii Cherevatyi, spokesman for the Eastern Grouping of Ukraines Armed Forces, who spoke with CNN, Ukrinform reports.

A characteristic feature is that the enemy threw the most prepared Wagner units into the attack, the spokesman said.

These units are headed by servicemen who had combat experience in Syria, Libya, and other hot spots," he added.

Heavy fighting is ongoing along the Bakhmut front, the official noted.

The enemy launched 209 attacks using cannon artillery, MLRS. There were 57 firefights, and 1 airstrike made by the enemy. There were 85 attacks with all types of artillery in the area of the settlement of Bakhmut only and there were 25 firefights directly near the city," added Cherevatyi.

He stressed that Russian forces are suffering immense casualties and compromising their ability to fight beyond Bakhmut.

We inflict enormous losses on [our enemy  ed.]. And so, with this heroic struggle, the defenders of the Bakhmut front are bleeding the enemy out, weakening it, preparing a foothold for the reserves that will then come in and throw enemy out of our territory, said Cherevatyi.

What we are winning against the enemy now is that we are not allowing it to systematically break through our defense, not allowing it to quickly get to the rear, not allowing it to surround our troops.

Also, the spokesman for the Eastern Grouping said the Ukrainian command had not made a decision on the withdrawal from Bakhmut.

"If we see that the threat to our personnel and our operational situation is greater than the need to hold this ground, we will do this (withdraw troops - ed.), but well do so in an organized manner, without panic," Cherevatyi said.

He emphasized that the Command assesses the need for such a decision in each specific situation.
Germanys Federal Government is increasing support for Ukraine to develop climate policy, protect biodiversity and achieve green recovery.

The relevant statement was made by the Ukrainian Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Ministry, following a meeting between the Ukrainian delegation and German partners in Berlin, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

EUR 44.5 million  this is the total budget of technical assistance projects to be implemented in Ukraine under the International Climate Initiative. These are both new projects and those that were planned to be launched before the war or were temporarily suspended when the hostilities started, the report states.

According to the ministry, these projects will cover, in particular, support for Ukraine in implementing the Paris Agreement and adapting to the effects of climate change in the Black Sea region, as well as establishing an emissions trading system.

Additionally, the projects provide for the implementation of the best available technologies and management practices, the development of a low-emissions policy, the preservation of old-growth forests in the Carpathians, and the enhancement of Ukraines ability to overcome the consequences of the war and integrate into the EU.
The Swedish government has decided to contribute almost $30 million to Ukraine Energy Support Fund.

This was announced by Energy Minister of Ukraine German Galushchenko following his meeting with Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden Ebba Busch, Ukrinform reports with reference to the ministrys press service.

Read also: Ukraine announces its candidacy for IAEA Board of Governors

"Sweden will also allocate funds to support the IAEA mission, which works at all Ukrainian nuclear power plants. It is also important that observers have the opportunity to record the impact of Russian attacks on our energy system, as well as nuclear and radiation safety," Galushchenko said.

The minister added that Ukraine constantly receives from international partners both monetary aid and equipment that helps restore energy facilities after Russian attacks.
Israel condemns Russias war of aggression and will help Ukraine, but it must not forget about the hundreds of thousands of Jews who live in the Russian Federation.

This was stated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel, Eli Cohen, who spoke at a press conference in Berlin after talks with his German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock, on Tuesday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

Israel condemns Russian aggression against Ukraine, Cohen said.

At the same time, he recalled that Israel is in a "unique position" because 600,000 Jews live in Russia, so in this respect, Israel differs from other countries. For the country, Russia is a "pivotal player in our region." With all this in mind, Israel is doing the best it can, he stressed.

Cohen recalled his recent visit to Kyiv, emphasizing that he became the first Israeli minister and the first head of foreign affairs of a Middle Eastern nation to visit Ukraine and express solidarity after the start of a full-scale war. He called this visit very emotional and one that clearly testified Tel Aviv's position: "Israel is on the side of Ukraine, on the side of the Ukrainian people, and it has been so since the first day of this war." Israel fully supports the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine.

Cohen recalled that he promised President Volodymyr Zelensky solidarity and backing, as well as support for his "Peace Program", which was confirmed during the vote on the UNGA resolution last week. Israel also announced its readiness to significantly increase humanitarian aid.

Moreover, he added that he had informed President Zelensky of Israels readiness to hand over the early warning system.

In particular, he focused on the topic of Iran, which he says has become a problem not only for the region, but also for Europe and the world in general.

Iranian weapons are killing European civilians in Ukraine, he noted, so mow the Ukrainian people and the Israeli people face the same threat. It's time to act, Cohen emphasized.

He noted that there are two options on the table: expansion of sanctions, but also a "credible military option." Based on what the intelligence says, now is "the right time to work on these two steps," he added. Only joint decisive action can stop the regime, emphasized Cohen and called on Germany to recognize the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution as a terrorist organization.

Read also: Zelensky meets with Knesset delegation

The war in Ukraine brought new challenges to Europe, the diplomat said. Israel can be a reliable partner for Europe, both in terms of energy cooperation, but also high-tech defense systems.

As reported, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel, Eli Cohen, said on February 16 during a joint press conference with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, in Kyiv, that Israel would help Ukraine develop a system for early warning of the approach of missiles and drones.
Since neither of her parents rodeoed, Flasher Public School senior Jada Bonogofsky had to figure it out on her own.

And that she did. Bonogofsky competes in barrel racing, pole bending, reining and ranch riding in the North Dakota High School Rodeo Association. She also competes in 15 show horse events.

The three-time rodeo queen titleholder said training her pole horse, Dakota Chrome, on her own from scratch is one of her proudest achievements. Dakota Chrome is now ranked sixth in the state.

She came from little to nothing, so to have her now as the way she is is truly incredible, Bonogofsky said. I never dreamed of having a horse like her, but the fact that I was able to make her that way and didn't just buy her finished, the wins just mean so much more.

The daughter of Brad and Jen Bonogofsky, of St. Anthony, is this week's Teen of the Week. Thirty-two high school seniors will be recognized by spring, at which time a Teen of the Year will be selected from the weekly winners to receive a $5,000 scholarship sponsored by MDU Resources Group.

Running scientific research and experiments is Bonogofskys other passion in life. She said her interest started when she had to do a science fair project for school. When the coronavirus pandemic took away her chance to show her antibiotic resistance project, she decided to keep improving and expanding it.

The project she presented last year -- which focused on antibiotic resistance with three different antibiotics -- earned her two Regeneron Biomedical Research Awards and an invitation to the international-level science fair.

Her latest project looks at how combining antibiotics with antipyretics can weaken otherwise resistant pathogens. She came up with her own experimental procedure and worked on the research for eight weeks. In November she submitted a 20-page research paper to a national science competition.

I wanted to see if I could combine antibiotics with ibuprofen or Tylenol to see if they would have a synergistic effect, she said. I could not find any studies on this strain of bacteria. And the strain is becoming more common around Bismarck, so it was really cool to do a medical region-based project that could one day help my state.

Bonogofsky also is involved in 4-H and Acalympics, is the team captain of the LifeSmarts team, and serves as her FFA chapters secretary and community outreach chair.

When principal Brian Nieuwsma first met Bonogofsky in 2017, he immediately recognized her as a motivated student and a positive role model for her peers.

Jada has the ability to contribute a great deal to a group and encourages others to be involved, Nieuwsma wrote in a letter of recommendation. She is a very sincere person and she truly cares about others.

In her free time, Bonogofsky operates her own horse training business and a pail calf operation with her brother. The two raise orphaned calves they purchased from other farmers.
Following the negotiations in Beijing, China President Xi Jinping, and the self-proclaimed leader of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko adopted a joint statement on the basic principles of the strategic partnership development between China and Belarus.

Thats according to Belaruss state-run news agency BelTA, Ukrinform reports.

Lukashenko told Chinese President Xi Jinping that "today's meeting is taking place at a very difficult time, which requires new, non-standard approaches and responsible political decisions."

He added that Belarus "fully supports the international security initiative that you put forward."

It can be concluded that in this way, the Belarusian ruler declared his support for Beijing's initiative  the "peace plan" for the settlement of Russia's war on Ukraine, published by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on February 24.

In addition, Lukashenko called on the Chinese side for close cooperation in mechanical engineering and creation of joint enterprises. In particular, he suggested "founding joint ventures in the field of machine tool construction, electric transport, and production of parts for agricultural machinery in both Belarus and China."

It should be noted that the listed products are of dual purpose and can also be used in defense industry.

The self-proclaimed president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, is paying a state visit to the People's Republic of China from February 28 to March 2.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic says his countrys nationals recruited by Russia for the war against Ukraine will be apprehended once they return to their homeland.

The leader said this in an interview with Politico, Ukrinform reports.

Serbs who were recruited to fight in Ukraine are going to be arrested when they come back to Serbia and [are] within reach of our institutions," Vucic emphasized.

He added, referring to Russia, that you cannot recruit like that in a friendly country."

The publication notes that on the eve of the Munich Security Conference, which took place on February 17-19, hundreds of Serbian nationalists and pro-Russia activists affiliated with the notorious Wagner Group rallied in Belgrade, demanding an end to negotiations with Kosovo. Protesters carrying banners "Kosovo is the heart of Serbia" and "Betrtayal of Kosovo is betrayal of Russia!" also made death threats against Vucic.

The organizer of the riots, far-right leader Damjan Knezevic who publicly supports the Wagner Group, was arrested on charges of inciting violence.

Vucic also accused the protesters of spreading anti-Serbian sentiments and said that they were likely financed by Russia.

I dont need Wagners support; I dont need them applauding or criticizing me, Vucic told Politico, visibly irritated.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, the Serbian president had repeatedly stated that Russia should stop trying to recruit Serbs for military operations on Ukrainian soil as part of Wagner.

Vucic, who traditionally maintained friendly relations with Moscow, also rejected the Russian president's territorial claims to Ukraine.
About 50% of the Swiss support the transfer of Swiss-made ammunition to Ukraine by third countries.

Thats according to Bluewin.ch, referring to an online survey run on behalf of the Tamedia and 20 Minutes outlets, Ukrinform reports.

"Fifty percent of those surveyed want to allow third countries to send Swiss-made ammunition to Ukraine," the report says.

According to the outcome of the poll published on Wednesday, 46% of respondents opposed the idea, and another 4% remained undecided.

Younger Swiss nationals tend to be more skeptical than the older generation. While two-thirds of respondents over 65 want to allow the transfer of Swiss arms, 58% of 18- to 34-year-olds oppose a corresponding easing of export restrictions.

According to the survey, 43% of the Swiss also support the idea that Switzerland should transfer decommissioned tanks to other European nations so that they, in turn, could send these tanks to Ukraine. At the same time, 52% of respondents opposed the move.

The poll also showed that 49% of Swiss respondents support the seizure of assets belonging to Russian oligarchs with their subsequent use for the reconstruction of Ukraine. At the same time, 46% of respondents spoke against it.

Overall, the results show that neutrality as a concept remains popular among the Swiss. About 68% of the country's citizens consider it a promising concept for the future.

The survey was run by the Leewas Institute from February 15 to February 17, covering over 27,000 respondents.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, at the end of October 2022, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht asked her Swiss counterpart to allow the re-export to Ukraine of Swiss-made ammunition for Gepard anti-aircraft guns. The latter are mostly used in Ukraine to protect critical infrastructure from Russian strikes.

It was noted that Germany provided Ukraine with an initial package of ammunition in the amount of about 60,000 units, but such ammo is in short supply due to its intensive use against Russian drones and cruise missiles.

However, Switzerland, referring to its neutral status, did not allow Germany to transfer Swiss-made ammunition to Ukraine.
| By Alex Likowski

I told Bruce Jarrell, I had told Jennifer [Litchman], please don't do this. You know, don't put me on the wall yet! pleaded University System of Maryland (USM) Chancellor Jay A. Perman, MD, to the laughter of nearly 100 friends, colleagues, and former colleagues at a Feb. 23 ceremony held to unveil his official portrait as a past president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB). For God's sakes, I'm an active faculty member here. I'm not done, he continued to more laughter.

After Perman and current UMB President Bruce E. Jarrell, MD, FACS, unveiled the portrait together, Perman agreed artist Jacqueline Jaspers work was beautiful and thanked her, still appearing very self-conscious.

(l-r) Jay Perman, Jacqueline Jasper, and Bruce Jarrell discuss the making of former President Perman's official portrait.

And that was the look that inspired the portrait, Jasper explained. I saw this look. And I thought he's incredible. He looks as if he's just asked you a question. And he's waiting for the answer. And I thought that's an educator inspiring you to think of that.

Jarrell, a longtime colleague and friend, couldnt resist ribbing Perman. I have always wondered how you paint a face. It must be very difficult. So, what was it about this face? he asked Jasper with a big smile.

Dont answer that, Perman shot back, to even more laughter.

But the crowd, overflowing in the hallway outside of the SMC Campus Centers Elm Ballrooms  now dubbed Presidents Hall  was there not only for the camaraderie, but also to honor an accomplished and inspirational leader.

Jay's presidency was marked by excellence in education, research, and service, remarked Linda R. Gooden, MBA, chair of the USM Board of Regents. As UMB president, he strengthened the institution's ties to the city of Baltimore, enhancing economic inclusion, health care access, community engagement, innovation, and so much more. Jay put a premium on creating pathways for underrepresented students, especially students interested in the STEM fields."

UMB Foundation Board Chair Harry Knipp, MD 76, FACR, also highlighted Permans work to build bridges with the West Baltimore community and importance of that work to the Universitys students.

The community engagement activities are the things that the students really remember, the working one-on-one with our neighbors in the surrounding area in all of our various programs that we've created  many under his guidance. And it's those things that will bring our students back to this campus as alumni and as donors and as friends in the future, he said.

When it was time for Perman to speak, however, he urged the gathering to think of the other man honored with a portrait now hanging in Presidents Hall  former President David J. Ramsay, DM, DPhil.

I need to reflect first, not on this person [gesturing toward his portrait], but on this person, Dr. David Ramsay, who sadly passed away about three years ago, Perman started. He led this university for 16 years. But in coming here, and in working here previously, as the chair of pediatrics, those were not my initial encounters with my predecessor. My first faculty job in the late '70s, early '80s, was at the University of California, San Francisco. They hired me as a young, naive assistant professor. And Andrea and I were told to go north to Marin County until the houses got affordable, he continued.

Rather than have us all drive in from Northern Marin County, the university ran a bus down one on one and across the Golden Gate and into the city and there was no need to park, et cetera. You know, who was on my bus? Dr. David Ramsay. And he was a distinguished professor by the time I got there, and you know, that twinkle that he always had in his eyes, you all that know him. That's what I got. I got the benefit of a warm, wonderful man who realized that there was this naive assistant professor on the bus and look at how life works. Now I'm hanging on the wall with him. Let's never forget, David. I certainly won't.

As for his own legacy, Perman offered that some of the most special moments in his career happened at UMB, where he said, We were, we are a family. Remembering another gathering more than three years ago when he left to take the post as chancellor of USM, Perman recounted a quote he shared by late publisher Malcolm Forbes.

Malcolm Forbes said people who matter are most aware that everyone else does, too. And that's what always was so special to me about UMB. You all know and all the people that work here and all the people that study here know that everyone matters. You treat everyone like they matter whether they're inside the university or outside the university. It's the foundational principle. I think that makes UMB what it is.
| By Laura Lee

On Feb. 11, 2023, the United Nations International Day of Women and Girls in Science, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres proposed a simple equation: More women and girls in science equals better science.

Despite tremendous progress thats been made, a significant gender gap persists throughout all levels of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines across the globe. Guterres continued, We can all do our part to unleash our worlds enormous untapped talent  starting with filling classrooms, laboratories, and boardrooms with women scientists.

In support of Women in Science Day, the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) recognized its own doctors, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, and researchers working to close the gap with a #WomeninScience social media campaign tied to the U.N. celebration. We asked women to tell us why they pursued STEM careers. Here are some of their answers, edited for length and clarity:

Nadia Sam-Agudu, MD, CTropMed, associate professor, University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM); senior technical advisor, Pediatric HIV, Institute of Human Virology Nigeria: My choosing a STEM career (clinical medicine and scientific research) is rooted in my desire to provide better health prevention and treatment for children at risk of poor health due to limited evidence, limited access, and/or poor quality health systems.

Angela Wilks, PhD, Isaac E. Emerson Chair of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Maryland School of Pharmacy (UMSOP): I was always fascinated by the diversity of nature. This led me to combine my two favorite science subjects in school, biology and chemistry to study biochemistry. Biochemistry brings everything down to the molecular level of understanding that still fascinates me.

Meagan Fitzpatrick, PhD, assistant professor, UMSOM; Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health (CVD): I love that I can do work which is both useful and interesting. The natural world has always been fascinating to me, especially evolution and species interactions, but also human behavior. Infectious disease epidemiology sits right at the intersection of all these forces.

Amelia Wagenknecht, BAS, ACSM-CEP, clinical research specialist, University of Maryland School of Nursing (UMSON): In February 2018, my dad was diagnosed with Cholangiocarcinoma, a rare cancer that forms in the bile ducts. He passed away 4 months later. His diagnosis and medical journey inspired me to pursue a STEM field in cancer research because I saw how instrumental clinical research is in creating the next generations of medicine and treatment methods for families like mine.

Chitradevi Sekar Tamilselvi, PhD, postdoctoral research fellow, UMSOM; CVD: I love science. I chose my career as a researcher so that I can contribute to the betterment of the human life.

Kelley Robinson, PhD, MSN, CNM, CNE, postdoctoral fellow, UMSON: While I have always had an interest in OBGYN, I believe the STEM career chose me. The combination of my interest in human physiology; passion for improving female health outcomes; and desire to advocate for those who are marginalized all have guided me to this place. Additionally, I enjoy working to solve problems and research is one way to do that.

Alison Scott, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Microbial Pathogenesis, University of Maryland School of Dentistry (UMSOD): My laboratory uses advanced spatial omics techniques to map lipids and metabolites aimed at finding new therapeutic targets for infectious diseases. Whenever possible, my laboratory supports research studies initiated in our dental clinics. Research is fun, challenging, and engages many different skill sets at the same time. I chose a career path in STEM because I knew Id never be bored!

Isabel Rambob, DDS, assistant professor, Department of Neural and Pain Sciences' co-director of the Behavioral Dentistry course, UMSOD: When I was 16 years old, I volunteered in a nursing home in my hometown, Salvador, Brazil. I was assigned to spend some time with this lovely lady who was toothless. I asked her what would make her happy. Her answer literally changed my life. Her desire was to have dentures. I had not considered dentistry as a career up to that point. That experience inspired me to restore peoples smiles and improve their lives. Dentistry is an amazing career!

May Montasser, PhD, assistant professor, UMSOM: I chose a STEM career because I love scientific research, its in my DNA. Scientific research is both intellectually and technically challenging and also always advancing, so I am learning every day and making novel discoveries that will improve human life. It is highly satisfying to know that I am contributing valuable knowledge to humanity that will outlive me.

Sarah Michel, PhD, professor and chair, Pharmaceutical Sciences, associate dean, Graduate Programs, UMSOP: When I took my first chemistry course in college, I was fascinated by how simple chemical principles can explain how the natural world works. I then had the opportunity to conduct undergraduate research in the field of bioinorganic chemistry which combines inorganic chemistry (chemistry of metals) with biology, and I was hooked. I went on to get a PhD and start my own lab at Maryland where I train and mentor graduate students in cutting-edge research that has the potential to improve human health.

Valli Meeks, DDS, MS, RDH, clinical professor, Department of Oncology and Diagnostic Sciences, UMSOD; director, PLUS Clinic: I started out as a high school physical education teacher and the idea of health always inspired me. When you talk about STEM, STEM chose me.

Bing Ma, PhD, assistant professor, UMSOM: Since graduate school, I have been embracing the fast-evolving sequencing technologies and 'big data' as well as the revolutionized transformation they brought to the medical research landscape. I decided to dedicate my STEM skills to harnessing the power of big data in advancing medical research.

Donita Dyalram, DDS, MD, FACS, clinical associate professor and program director of Head and Neck Oncology and Microsurgery Fellowship Care, UMSOD: As far back as I can remember I was always excited by the sciences  especially biology. I pursued biochemistry looking for answers and eventually did research in protein folding. During this time the field of dentistry was opened to me. This has led me on a journey that brought me to this point and is still continuing. I get to teach, train surgeons, and do research in a field that can save lives.

Luana Colloca, MD, PhD, MS, MPower professor, UMSON; director, Placebo Beyond Opinions Center: I chose a career in scientific research because its rewarding to do work that translates to helping people suffering from pain and other disorders. Growing up, I loved to learn and investigate and science has been the ultimate place to apply my skills to medicine and related areas as flexible non-dogmatic or reductionist thinker and scientist.

Andrea Berry, MD, associate professor of pediatrics and medicine, UMSOM: Science has always excited me. I enjoy thinking about complex systems and the interaction between humans and microorganisms. Every day, on many levels, I am solving problems and discovering new things. I also enjoy the challenge of communicating scientific discovery clearly and relevantly, so that others can be excited and care about important issues that affect them and others in the world.
Anita Tulp sees a clear purpose of the Valley City Barnes County Public Library, and also a threat to that mission emanating from the state Capitol.

"We have to cover a wide view of materials that people want and seek and enjoy," the library director said.

The library on Friday put up a book display touting "Reading isn't a crime" and "These titles may disappear due to pending legislations" in response to two bills advancing in the Legislature that would target "explicit sexual material" in public libraries.

Featured books in the display include ones such as the historical fantasy novel "Outlander" and ones by best-selling authors James Patterson and Tami Hoag, books "that may not be here anymore if the bills are passed," according to Tulp. The display will be up for at least a week.

"All of these books have some kind of reference to sex in them or sexual acts or description of nudity. All of those things are exactly what they have on the bill, and they wouldn't be allowed," Tulp said.

A lot of patrons have been "angry because they're seeing some of the books that they like to read on the display," she said. The library also held an open house Monday to "allow people to get to know our library better," Tulp said.

Libraries across the state are the sites of book displays and gatherings in response to House Bill 1205 by House Majority Leader Mike Lefor, R-Dickinson, and Senate Bill 2360 by Sen. Keith Boehm, R-Mandan. The bills advanced through their respective chambers of the Legislature by veto-proof majority votes last month.

Supporters see the bills as protecting children from pornography that's increasingly available in public libraries.

Tulp, a former school librarian, said the bills "are going to discriminate against a bunch of people for having a chance to read what they want to read."

Bismarck 'read-in'

The Bismarck Veterans Memorial Public Library has a similar book display. Library advocates plan to gather from 5:30-6 p.m. Thursday at the building's plaza to read books of choice in a show of solidarity for the "freedom to read." A similar event is planned Saturday at the Minot Public Library.

Bismarck organizer Beth Schatz Kaylor said many people are "disappointed and frustrated" with the Legislature, that some lawmakers think they "know what's best for everyone in a morality kind of way."

The read-in is "more like an introvert's protest," she quipped. "We're literally just gathering to read, no megaphones, no placards. It just feels like people want to acknowledge and do something to just say we don't like this, we're just going to show up and be visible, so that's the whole thing behind it."

Bismarck Library Director Christine Kujawa said, "All of this, both at our library and throughout the state, is just a way to show our solidarity amongst citizens for our freedom to read and the ideals of freedom of speech as well, and that citizens oppose these bills and citizens don't think they're necessary."

Protect youth?

Boehm's bill includes a misdemeanor penalty for "willfully" displaying books or other publications containing "explicit sexual material," which is "patently offensive" written or visual depictions of "human masturbation," "sexual activity" and other acts.

Some opponents interpret his bill to go beyond libraries as it covers "newsstands or any other business establishment frequented by minors, or where minors are or may be invited as a part of the general public."

Minot Public Library Director Janet Anderson called the bills "bad for libraries" and 2360 "even bad for businesses" and "especially concerning."

"In general, I feel like they are far too vague, and I know the intention is not to pull all the books off the shelves and burn them. I know the intention is to protect youth, but the way (the bills) are currently written, it is a slippery slope into book banning," she said.

For example, Lefor's bill would cover an entire library, not just a children's section, she said.

Anderson said she would be guilty of a misdemeanor under Boehm's bill for the library having E.L. James' "Fifty Shades of Grey," a popular romance novel containing explicit, erotic scenes. Books with descriptions of nudity such as the Bible would appear to be within the bills' scope, too, she added.

Boehm said his bill's intent is "not even just for libraries" and "is to keep pornography away from our children in public institutions."

'No ill intent'

In the Senate debate of Boehm's bill, he cited "people working on research for months on this" who found such content in 40 libraries statewide.

Boehm told the Tribune those people are "local North Dakotans" and "local parents and people that are working against getting pornography to our kids, to minors." He referred further questions to testimony on the bill.

Boehm cited language in his bill that potentially obscene material is "taken as a whole." He said his bill "doesn't necessarily add to" the state's obscenity control law, "it just makes it clearer."

"Theres no ill intent in this bill," he said. "It's merely to protect our children from pornography as pornography becomes more prevalent in every area in our lives, in our culture."

Lefor has said he brought his bill to protect children from "disgusting" books such as "Let's Talk About It: The Teen's Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human." He cites visual nudity in drawings in the book, a copy of which he has shown to reporters to point out his concerns.

"Some will say it's censorship. Some will say it's book banning. I would submit to you this is an honest effort to protect our children," Lefor told the House.

Rep. Bernie Satrom, R-Jamestown, quoted from "Let's Talk About It" in a House floor debate, and cautioned listeners before he did so.

"What possible value does this kind of information provide for our children and our society?" he asked the House.

Kujawa said the bills would have librarians review many thousands of materials for potentially obscene content and would affect more than children because the bills "are so poorly written, that it is for the entire library."

"It's everything in the library. It's books, DVDs, it's all of our digital audiobooks, it's everything," she said.

Kaylor said the bills appear to be "taking what seems like a mild concern and absolutely burning down the house" when there could be other solutions.

"If you don't like a book, then maybe don't read it, don't pick it up," she said. "To say that doesn't belong in the hands of anyone else, I question that."

The bills' next hearings have not yet been scheduled.
North Dakota's Public Service Commission has fined Bismarck-based Montana-Dakota Utilities $2,000 for missing a deadline for replacing its lighting system at the Thunder Spirit Wind Farm in Adams County -- by four days.

State law required that wind farms established before June 5, 2016, must have functioning light-mitigating technology systems to replace the constantly blinking red lights in the turbine towers, which some people found to be a nuisance. The new systems had to be in place by Dec. 31, 2021.

MDU had asked the PSC for an extension, as it was exploring the LIDS system -- Light Intensity Dimming Systems -- instead of the Federal Aviation Administration-approved ADLS, or Aircraft Detection Light System. The utility was waiting for FAA approval of the LIDS system, so the commission gave MDU until Dec. 31, 2022.

But the approval for LIDS never came. So MDU went ahead in July 2021 to order equipment for ADLS. That installation was completed in October 2022 and testing was completed on Dec. 30.

"But they (MDU) didn't get final FAA approval until Jan. 4 of 2023, which is four days after the deadline," Commissioner Julie Fedorchak said during last week's PSC meeting.

PSC staff negotiated an agreement under which MDU agreed to the $2,000 fine, or $500 per day, Prairie Public reported.

"That's in line with the rate for others who missed the deadline," Fedorchak said. "They did make a good faith effort to meet the deadline."

PSC Chairman Randy Christmann had some concerns.

"They were warned that some of us were very doubtful that the LIDS technology was going to get approved by the FAA," Christmann said. "But of course, they knew better, and talked us into the extension."

Christmann said wind farm neighbors were subjected to looking at the red lights for an extra year.

"But even after the extra delay, (MDU) still had to cut it right to the edge, and then couldn't quite make it," Christmann said.

MDU spokesman Mark Hanson said the LIDS technology "would have been a tremendous savings for our customers" and that "there also would have been annual operating expense savings."

All three commissioners voted in favor of the settlement agreement.
(@Abdulla99267510)

Finance Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar while expressing gratitude to Allah Almighty has said the FBR registered the growth of 17 percent compared to same month last year.

ISLAMABAD: (UrduPoint/UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News-March 1st, 2023) Federal board of Revenue (FBR) has achieved revenue target of last month by collecting 527.2 billion rupees.

In series of tweets, Finance Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar while expressing gratitude to Allah Almighty said the FBR registered the growth of 17 percent compared to same month last year.

He said cumulatively, FBR has collected 4,493 billion rupees in first eight months of the current fiscal year against 3,820 billion rupees in the corresponding period last year depicting year-on-year growth of 18percent.

The Minister said the FBR continues to show impressive performance during third quarter of current fiscal year which displays its commitment towards achieving revised upward annual budgetary revenue target of 7,640 billion rupees despite economic challenges.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

(UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 02nd Mar, 2023) BAKU, 1st March, 2023 (WAM)  H.H. Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Ras Al Khaimah, met today with Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the capital, Baku. H.H. Sheikh Saud is leading the UAE delegation to the Summit Meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement here.

During the meeting, the Ruler of Ras Al Khaimah conveyed the greetings of President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to the President of Azerbaijan, and his wishes of further progress and development to his country. The Azeri president reciprocated the greetings.

Sheikh Saud hailed Azerbaijan's presidency of the Non-Aligned Movement summit and its contribution to strengthening cooperation among the member states.

He also wished the Republic of Azerbaijan and its friendly people further progress and prosperity.

The Azeri president commended the friendly relations between the two countries and their steady growth over the past years. He valued the participation of the UAE in the summit with a high-level delegation.

The two sides discussed the prospects of further promoting their bilateral relations and reviewed a number of issues of interest.

The meeting was attended by Abdulrahman bin Mohammad Al Owais, Minister of Health and Prevention, Khalifa Shaheen Al Marar, Minister of State, Yousif Mohammed Al-Serkal. Director-General of Emirates Health Services (EHS), and Hamad Al Rahma Al Shamsi, Director of the RAK Ruler Office along with a number of officials.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

ABU DHABI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 01st Mar, 2023) Wizz Air Abu Dhabi is ramping up operations to meet the high demand and expanding its sustainable fleet. With nine Airbus A321neo aircraft, the airline is driving ambitious growth into new territories with must-see destinations.

Set to launch this summer, the national airline is commencing operations to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, and the relaunch of popular routes to Larnaca, Santorini and Sohag, Egypt.

On top of the new destinations, the new aircraft will enable Wizz Air Abu Dhabi to increase its footprint on the current network with increased presence on Abu Dhabi  Tirana, Yerevan, Baku, Alexandria, Kutaisi, Athens, Almaty, Astana, Sarajevo, Ankara, Tashkent and Samarkand.

Johan Eidhagen, Officer and Managing Director of Wizz Air Abu Dhabi, said, Wizz Air is committed to carrying the flag of ultra-low-cost travel and liberating lives through affordable travel in the UAE and beyond. The ninth aircraft will provide an additional 30,000 ultra-low-fare seats per month, enabling us to expand our network with many incredible leisure, historic and cultural experiences making travel available for everyone.
SYDNEY, Mar 1 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Mar, 2023 ) :The Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) has initiated a biodiversity monitoring program with more than 600 surveillance sites to protect the ecological health of national parks.

According to a statement on Wednesday, the program is made up of four components, including park-wide surveillance monitoring, targeted surveys on certain threatened species, measurement and reporting of fire metrics, as well as monitoring of threats, such as feral animals and weeds.

More than 2,400 camera traps, 1,200 acoustic devices, and 1,200 bird surveys will be deployed in the surveillance sites across eight national park areas in the state.

With some surveys already underway, the initial step of the program would see 30 percent of the national park estate monitored, including the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area, Macquarie Marshes, Myall Lakes, the Pilliga, part of the Gondwana Rainforests World Heritage Area, as well as Kosciuszko and Royal National Park.

"What we don't know, we can't protect, and by monitoring the health of our national parks through new animal camera traps, acoustic monitoring and vegetation surveys, we'll be able to paint an even clearer picture to better protect these critical habitats," said James Griffin, NSW minister for environment.

National parks comprise 9.5 percent of the state across various desert, alpine, and coastal ecosystems. Around 800 of the approximately 900 threatened species in the state are found on the national park estate, according to the NSW Department of Planning and Environment.

The monitoring results are expected to be updated in publicly available National Park Scorecards, which will provide a long-term, data-based picture of the health of the national parks.
Makokou, Gabon, March 1 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Mar, 2023 ) :Under the green canopy of the ancient Massaha forest in northeastern Gabon, Arsene Ibaho leads a group of visitors towards a tree that he says is sacred and speaks to his people.

Red clay is daubed on everyone's foreheads enabling them "to connect to the ancestors, and warn them of our coming," says Ibaho.

With that accomplished, the 43-year-old conducts a ritual at the foot of the precious kevazingo tree, reciting words in the local language, Kota.

Ibaho is one of around 200 inhabitants in Massaha, a village in the vast province of Ogooue-Ivindo more than 600 kilometres (375 miles) from the capital Libreville.

The sacred tree is also embedded in folklore as the bringer of good luck for fishermen during the mid-year dry season, said Ibaho.

Rituals at the tree enabled fishers to fill a 15-metre (50-feet) -long boat with a bounty of fish, "and all the village could tuck in," Arsene said.

Beatrice Itsetsame, 69, recounted her trips into the forest, where she collected nkumu, a small edible vine, and also bushmeat for ceremonies.

"The forest is rich, it supports us", she said, wrapped in a blue boubou robe with a yellow motif.

Massaha, lying on the Libumba, a tributary of the Ivindo River, finds itself at the heart of a passionate debate about the future of logging and conservation in Gabon.

The central African state is hosting a two-day summit starting Wednesday on how to protect tropical forests -- a treasure chest of biodiversity and buffer against carbon emissions.

Loggers were given authorisation to exploit trees in the Massaha area covering 11,300 hectares (28,000 acres) -- a territory nearly the size of Paris.

Ibaho said the loggers set up a lumber yard in a forest clearing where there once had been a village.

Their bulldozers gouged a swathe through the area, making it impossible to identify the location of three graves, he said, wielding a machete to clear undergrowth.

"They had no idea where the old villages were -- now our history has been cut in half," said Serge Ekazama-Koto, a community spokesperson.

Angry and fearful, the local community three years ago asked the government to scrap the logging licence on the grounds of suspected violations and a threat to "biocultural heritage." In March 2022, their activism garnered a visit from Lee White, the minister of water, forests and the environment.

White, a British-born conservationist, subsequently stopped the logging, ordered the company to withdraw its machines and floated the theory of creating a new status of the protected area.

The idea is being discussed as part of an overhaul of the logging code.

White, in an interview with AFP, acknowledged there had been problems.

"The fact that bulldozers came to a sacred forest close to a village means that we failed at every stage," he said.

That's why, he said, "we are currently asking -- do we need a stronger status?" Local people say they have been heartened by recent progress since White's visit. Last month, a government team went to the area to geolocate the coordinates of sacred sites -- a key step in the process of protection.

The authorities, representatives of the community and NGOs are looking at the status options.

They include a model inspired by West African countries that aims to protect traditional sites, permits sustainable harvesting of resources and facilitates participation by local people.

Communities "want to be at the heart of governing the area" yet current protection status reflects "a model of state management," said Alex Ebang Mbele, head of an NGO called Nsombou Abalge-Dzal Association (NADA), which is calling for new conservation laws.

"Often, it's the state that imposes the creation of protected areas," said Lucien Massoukou, director general of wildlife and protected areas at the forest and environment ministry.

But "when a community has the will to preserve its space, it starts to take on ownership of the concept of conservation," he said.

Ibaho said local people had already chosen a name for the site in the Kota language -- Ibola Dja Bana Ba Massaha, meaning "the reserve for all the children of Massaha."
ISLAMABAD, Mar 1 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Mar, 2023 ) :Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday appreciated the humanitarian services of Pakistan's search and rescue teams sent to support and assist the earthquake-affected brotherly people of Turkiye and Syria.

Addressing a ceremony to honour Pakistan's search and rescue teams, the prime minister said they had gathered to praise them as they had worked tirelessly in Turkiye and Syria, and rendered commendable services. The 220 million people of Pakistan prayed for their success and appreciated the humanitarian services.

He said, "With hard work, dedication, and professional manner, our teams performed the rescue work and saved dozens of people trapped under the rubble. With your benevolent and caring efforts, you have carved a place in the hearts of the people of Turkiye. They will remember your services forever." The prime minister recollected that during his visit to the quake-hit region of Turkiye, he met the teams working there.

"On behalf of myself and on behalf of the government, I want to thank and appreciate you because you have strengthened the brotherly and fraternal ties with these two countries, and infused vigour and affection in these relations with your meritorious services," he added.

The prime minister observed that the people of Turkiye were looking towards them not because they had a dearth of resources but due to the deep-seated humanitarian and religious bonds spanning over centuries.

The relationship dated back to centuries and cemented further with the Khilafat Movement, he added.

The prime minister said the members of the rescue teams were the 'heroes of the entire nation'.

He opined that philanthropists, members of the NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and charity organizations, and the people of Pakistan had shown generosity for the quake-affected people of Turkiye and Syria with huge contributions.

The prime minister also commended the NDMA for its main role in the dispatch of relief assistance and goods, besides appreciating the contributions of Pakistan International Airlines and Pakistan Air Force.

He mentioned that Pakistan had dispatched tons of relief assistance and the most needed items, including tents, blankets, food, etc. An order for manufacturing 50,000 winterized tents was also placed which would be sent soon.

He said the Federal Cabinet members, parliamentarians, and government officials had also committed their salaries for the relief fund.

The prime minister also distributed certificates of appreciation among the members of the rescue teams. The federal ministers were also present on the occasion.

Earlier, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Chairman Lt Gen Inam Haider Malik lauded the efforts of the teams which worked in the adverse weather conditions and rescued precious lives.

He said the people of Turkiye expressed their gratitude to the prime minister and the people of Pakistan for their generous assistance.
Realme, the world's fastest-growing smartphone brand, announced today at Mobile World Congress 2023 the global launch of the realme GT3 - its next-generation speed flagship with the world's fastest charging power: 240W

Lahore (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Mar, 2023) Barcelona (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Mar, 2023) realme, the world's fastest-growing smartphone brand, announced today at Mobile World Congress 2023 the global launch of the realme GT3 - its next-generation speed flagship with the world's fastest charging power: 240W.

Starting since the first generation, the realme GT Series has represented realmes most cutting-edge technology innovations, from the mind-blowing suitcase design on the GT Master Series to the true premium flagship realme GT2 Pro Series, and now the speed limit breaker - realme GT3.

realme was founded with the Dare to Leap spirit and the mission of empowering the young generation with leap-forward technology and design. Chase Xu, Vice President of realme and President of realme Global Marketing, stated: "Entering its fifth year, realme is taking an even bigger leap forward by becoming the first brand to break through the industry's glass ceiling. It demonstrates realme's commitment to improving our market presence through innovative technologies and better connecting with our young audiences."

240W: Worlds Highest Charging Standard

240W means more than just a blazing fast charging speed; It also represents the fastest charging power ever mass-produced in the market and the maximum charging power possible under USB-C standards. Together it makes 240W the worlds highest charging standard.

In terms of user experience, 240W is the ultimate answer to battery anxiety. It accelerates smartphone charging to minutes and even seconds. Using 240W charging power, it only takes 80 seconds to charge the realme GT3 to 20% capacity. It only takes 9 minutes and 30 seconds to fully charge the device's 4600mAh battery.

Full-fledged Battery and Charging Innovation

As the first brand in the industry to mass produce 240W fast charging, realme has achieved a full-fledged innovation in everything from charging safety to battery longevity and to accessory compatibility.

Three industries first charging technologies: Starting with the charging architecture, the realme GT3 has three maxed-out charging chipsets to charge at the same time, resulting in a 98.5% improved transfer efficiency during charging. In addition, the realme GT3 comes with a custom 12A charging cable. The ultra-fast 12A cable provides the industry's highest charging current. Furthermore, realme provides dual GaN charging technology, which includes an end-to-end GaN chipset in both the phone and the adapter. As a result, despite having 60% more power available, the 240W adaptor is even smaller than the 150W adaptor.

Maximized Charging Safety: One of the most difficult challenges for high-power charging is temperature control. The realme GT3 is equipped with a 6580mm2-large VC liquid cooling system that covers 61.5% of the battery and ensures efficient heat dissipation. To ensure maximum charging safety, the realme GT3 also includes a PS3 fireproof design, 13 temperature sensors, and 60 layers of safety protection. TUV Rheinland has also certified the realme GT3 for a safe fast-charging system, making it the first product with 200W fast charging or higher to receive the certification.

Worry-free Battery Longevity: According to internal lab testing, the realme GT3 has an 80% lifespan after over 1600 charging cycles with 240W enabled, which is more than double the industry standard of 80% battery health after 800 charging cycles. realme GT3 also uses intelligent charging, which detects the user's status and switches the charging status to travel mode, sleep mode, or in-car mode. Not only can the phone be powered on intelligently, but it also helps to preserve battery health and avoid overcharging.

Pulse Interface Design: Re-imagine Smartphone Interaction

Aside from the incredible 240W, the realme GT3 pushes smartphone design to new heights. The realme GT3 has a translucent window next to the camera module. Users will find a polished chipset deco, an NFC chipset, and the innovative Pulse Interface System with a C-shaped RGB lighting ring inside.

Taking inspiration from gaming handsets, realme GT3's Pulse Interface Design displays different light effects depending on the phone's status. For example, when the phone is 20% charged, it will display a red breathing light effect; when it is charged to 21%-100%, it will display a purple breathing light effect; and when it is fully charged, the purple light will always be on. When there are incoming calls, the light flashes quickly. While receiving notifications, the lighting system will display a white color; for a 10-second countdown before taking photos, the phone will display a blue, white, and orange color beaming.

The Pulse Interface System is highly personalizable, adding a fun and interactive element to the phone. Go to settings > wallpaper & design > breathing light, users can choose from 25 colour shades, 2 rhythm types, and 5 lighting speed modes for a personalized style.

From Populariser to An Industry Leader

realme is well-known for making cutting-edge technology available to young consumers. Fast charging technology is no different. With the realme X7, realme is the first brand to introduce 65W to the mid-range price point in 2020. With its GT Neo3, realme released the world's fastest charging speed of 150W in 2022. And now, with realme GT3, realme is setting new standards with an industry-leading maximum charging power of 240W. realme has progressed from democratizer to tribalizer to industry limit-breaker.

Aside from constantly seeking technological advances, realme is also democratizing fast charging at all price points. Counterpoint ranks realme first in fast charging penetration for product portfolios in the mid-to-high price range (USD 250/- to USD 399/-). realme also achieved a fast charging penetration rate of up to 85% in product portfolios under USD 250/-. realme intends to democratize fast charging even further by announcing during its global launch that 90% of its global product portfolio will include fast charging of 33W or higher.

The realme GT3 comes in a wide selection of storage variants to choose from, including 8+128GB, 12+256GB, 16+256GB, 16+512GB, and a special 16+1TB variant; Available in Pulse White and Booster Black two colour options,
The Tribune editorial board has praised and defended North Dakota Auditor Josh Gallion since he was first elected. The board has appreciated his independence and willingness to conduct audits across the state.

However, Gallion has alienated too many people and hasnt learned how to work with the Legislature. If this continues the Tribune fears it will damage the ability of his office to do its job.

Gallion has been more aggressive than previous state auditors. His office has found problems that needed fixing, no doubt saving the state and local entities money. Still, the complaints about Gallion and his office keep piling up.

Gallion needs to do a better job of communicating. Legislators complain about learning about audits through press releases, newspapers and other media. Some who have been audited say they were surprised by the audits or werent kept updated during the process. The costs of some audits have been called excessive.

Gallion also has been accused of going to the media with audit results before informing who was audited and, in some cases, he has surprised and angered legislators. Hes been labeled a press hound for the way he does business.

In his first two years as auditor his office did performance audits at twice the rate of his predecessor. The Tribune editorial board, admittedly, was impressed by his aggressiveness and desire to look out for the publics interests.

Not all legislators were pleased, pushing a bill to require legislative approval for performance audits. This session, the House approved House Bill 1508 sponsored by Rep. Emily OBrien, R-Grand Forks, to cap fees charged by the auditors office. Its now in the Senate.

Some of the fees charged do seem high to the Tribune despite Gallions argument that his office charges less than private auditors. The city of Parshall was charged $26,750 last year for a citizen-petitioned audit. The Killdeer Area Ambulance Service got an audit bill for $48,650.

Getting audited isnt always the most pleasant situation, so some unhappiness can be expected. Gallions office needs to look at how it deals with those being audited.

Gallion didnt help himself when he recently submitted an op-ed that was published by a number of newspapers, including the Tribune. In the op-ed he referred to corrupt government officials, implying legislators, not a good way to create a working relationship.

He now says he regrets writing the op-ed. He should.

Gallion needs to work on mending fences, especially with the Legislature. He and his staff need to be transparent with those they are auditing. Audit results shouldnt come as a surprise to those being audited or to the Legislature in cases related to it. The fees need to be reasonable, and those being audited should get an estimate of the cost before the audit.

Gallion said in his op-ed that legislators declined to meet with him. He needs to keep trying; mending fences isnt easy.

At the same time, the Legislature shouldnt do anything to limit audits. They can be helpful by finding procedures not being followed or by outlining cost-saving steps. On occasion they may uncover mismanagement.

The Tribune appreciates Gallions aggressive approach to his job, but he needs to fine-tune that approach.
NEW DELHI (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st March, 2023) Ankara does not support sanctions that are imposed on various states unilaterally, without the support of the UN, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Tuesday.

"We do not need to resist, we ourselves make decisions as a sovereign state.

We do not join any unilateral sanctions, we support only those introduced with the support of the UN. So it is not just about Russia, but we also do not support sanctions on Iran or any other countries," Cavusoglu told reporters ahead of a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov when asked for how long Turkey will be able to resist the introduction of Russia sanctions.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

BERLIN (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st March, 2023) The German army is incapable of protecting the country in case of war due to the lack of personnel and insufficient infrastructure, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said.

"We have no armed forces that are able to protect us from an offensive and brutal war," the minister said at the congress of the Social Democratic Party of Germany on Monday.

The minister said that Germany should invest more in the modernization of its army, adding that the country has to fulfill its obligations towards other members of NATO.

He also said that amid arms supplies to Ukraine it is necessary to make up for the shortages in German army.

Earlier this week, head of Rheinmetall, Germany's weapons and military equipment manufacturer, Armin Papperger said that by delivering to Ukraine two anti-aircraft systems covering Berlin Germany endangered the security of its capital, adding that the country would not be capable of self-defense without the United States' assistance.

Russia has repeatedly condemned Western countries' arms supplies to Ukraine pointing out that they can only lead to further escalation of the conflict.
MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st March, 2023) Tehran hopes that a new treaty on relations with Russia will be signed in 2023 to cap preparations for a basic interstate treaty which began back in 2020, Iranian Ambassador in Moscow Kazem Jalali said on Wednesday.

"We hope to have this agreement signed by our two governments in 2023," Jalali said in an interview with Russia's Parlamentskaya Gazeta.

The ambassador noted that Tehran had already sent a draft treaty to Moscow, adding that the sides are currently conducting a detailed final study of the document.

On February 9, Russian Ambassador in Tehran Alexey Dedov told Sputnik that the document would be of strategic importance, but it was essential that the treaty be "solid, balanced and reflect the new realities of bilateral cooperation." According to the diplomat, the treaty will outline the main guidelines for further building of the entire complex of Russian-Iranian relations for the coming decades.
MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st March, 2023) Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), will visit Iran in the next two days, Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) chief Mohammad Eslami said on Wednesday.

Media reported earlier in February that IAEA inspectors in Iran allegedly found uranium enriched to 84%, which is enough to make a weapon.

"There was an allegation that we left the IAEA's inquiry without response. We held talks on the issue and Mr. Grossi will visit Iran at an official invitation within one or two days," Eslami was quoted by Iranian news agency Mehr as saying.

The AEOI has insisted that Iran's nuclear program continues to remain exclusively peaceful.
MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st March, 2023) The Israeli parliament, the Knesset, on Wednesday approved in preliminary reading a bill allowing the death penalty for terrorists, amid the new escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"The Knesset Plenum on Wednesday approved in preliminary reading the Penal Bill (Amendment - Death Penalty for Terrorists)," the Knesset said in a statement.

According to the document, the bill was approved by a 55-to-9 vote, with most opposition lawmakers, led by Yair Lapid, reportedly absent in protest.

The death penalty would be imposed on anyone who "intentionally or out of indifference causes the death of an Israeli citizen when the act is carried out from a racist motive or hate to a certain public... and with the purpose of harming the State of Israel and the rebirth of the Jewish people in its homeland," the bill specifies, as quoted by the Knesset.

According to the explanatory notes, the purpose of the bill is to crack down on terrorism and deny criminals the opportunity to go to "all-inclusive" prisons with "comfortable conditions" and avoid further "releases of terrorists who served half their sentences" through various deals.

If approved by the Israeli cabinet, the bill will return to the Knesset for a first reading.

In late January, Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir announced plans to introduce legislation allowing the death penalty for terrorists, which many believe targets Palestinians who oppose the construction of Jewish settlements on their lands in violation of UN Security Council resolutions.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

BEIJING (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st March, 2023) Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, at a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, said that after his visit to Beijing, new horizons for cooperation with China would be outlined, the Belta state news agency reported Wednesday.

Lukashenko thanked China for the assistance and support to Belarus, noting that this was his 13th visit to China as Belarusian president.

"We have many proposals, plans that will be beneficial for both Belarus and China. Let's intensify our relations together," he said.

Lukashenko's state visit to China will end on March 2. In Beijing the Belarusian president is expected to hold meetings with Chinese top officials and the leadership of leading Chinese corporations.
ATHENS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st March, 2023) The number of people killed by a collision of passenger and cargo trains in northern Greece has risen to 32, while 53 out of 85 wounded people still remain in hospitals, Hellenic Fire Service spokesperson Vassilis Vartakoyannis said on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, two trains collided around midnight at the Evangelismos station near the city of Larissa, over 200 kilometers (124 miles) northwest of Athens, under unknown circumstances. The collision caused a fire; three train cars derailed.

"At the moment, the deaths of 32 people have been confirmed. Of the 85 wounded taken to hospitals, 53 have been hospitalized, and the rest have been discharged," Vartakoyannis said in a televised appearance on the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT).

The spokesman added that firefighters' efforts were mostly focused on the first two cars of the passenger train, which had overturned, as extracting people from there was the most difficult task.

Vartakoyannis said earlier in the day that about 150 firefighters and 40 ambulances were participating in the rescue operation.

Following the incident, Greek railways Hellenic Train canceled 16 scheduled trains, in particular, from Athens to Thessaloniki and Kalabaka, and vice versa.

Meanwhile, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis postponed his trip to Thessaloniki, scheduled as part of the election campaign, the leader's office said.

President of Panhellenic Federation of Train Drivers Kostas Genidounias linked the railway accident to regular automatic alarm system failures.

"Electronic systems have not worked in years. Traffic control is carried out mainly by radio," Genidounias told ERT, stressing that "the unthinkable has happen. Two trains were on the same track. The passenger (train) was en route to Thessaloniki, the cargo (train) - from Thessaloniki to Athens. There was a head-on collision and you can see the results."

The union's head added that all railway operations was carried out in manual mode, since automatic systems do not work, despite numerous complaints from train drivers.

Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis emphasized that victims treatment was the priority at the moment, but his left-wing political party, MeRA25, would soon hold lawmakers responsible for privatization of the Hellenic Railways Organisation (OSE) in 2017 accountable.

The privatization tender of OSE, now Hellenic Train, lasted for four years until the Italian national railway company Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane acquired 100% of shares for 45 million Euros ($47 million) in 2017. Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane was the only company to submit a binding offer.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

BUDAPEST (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st March, 2023) Accusations by Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Yevhen Perebyinis that Hungary allegedly "supports destruction of the Ukrainian nation" are a provocation, Hungarian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mate Paczolay said.

Earlier, Perebyinis, in an interview with Slovak media, said that he was "disappointed" with the position of Hungary, which insists on the need for peace talks, does not support anti-Russian sanctions and blocks meetings of the Ukraine-NATO commission, and accused Budapest of allegedly "supporting destruction of the Ukrainian nation."

"This is a clear provocation, moreover, in a style that cannot be characterized. We will not allow anyone to drag us into the war, we keep calling for a ceasefire and peace talks," the MTI news agency quoted Paczolay as saying.

Earlier, Slovak Foreign Minister Rastislav Kacer criticized, using an obscenity, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban for Budapest refusing to supply weapons to Ukraine and called him a "Carpathian collaborator" of Russia.

The Hungarian Foreign Ministry called Kacer a provocateur and advised him to see a doctor.

Tensions in relations between Ukraine and Hungary arose amid discussions about the Ukrainian law on education, which significantly reduces the possibility of education in the languages of national minorities. The law entered into force on September 28, 2017 and was to be introduced in stages by the end of 2020. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said Hungary would continue to block the ministerial meeting of the Ukraine-NATO commission because there was no progress in resolving issues that concern Budapest.
(@FahadShabbir)

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st March, 2023) The so-called "Havana Syndrome" illness did not result from the actions of a foreign adversary using an energy weapon to harm the health of US diplomatic staff overseas, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing a new intelligence report.

Five US intelligence agencies concluded it was "very unlikely" that any foreign adversary targeted US diplomats and intelligence staff with the help of some sort of energy weapon that caused strange and painful acoustic sensations, according to the report.

The report contradicts repeated claims by victims of the alleged attacks and US lawmakers and officials who alleged that the illness could have been the work of Russian intelligence agencies.

US diplomats were first diagnosed with Havana Syndrome in Cuba in 2016 and then in China in 2018. The diplomats said they experienced piercing sounds that have caused longer-term health effects. American diplomats in Russia, Tajikistan, Austria, and several African countries have also reported experiencing Havana Syndrome symptoms, including nausea and dizziness.

In 2022, the first victims of the alleged attacks reportedly began receiving compensation between $100,000 and $200,000, US President Joe Biden announced in June.
(UroToday.com) The final day of the 2023 AUA Summit included a panel on the efforts surrounding state advocacy and state level bills that impact the practice of urology. Dr. Duty, incoming chair of the AUAs State Advocacy Committee (SAC) introduced the role of the SAC, which includes tracking relevant state level legislation that may have ramifications on the way urologists practice.

He outlined that in 2022, the SAC sent 17 letters supporting various state legislative initiatives, including biomarker coverage, step therapy, and prior authorization. Additionally, SAC members met with state representatives to support no cost-sharing prostate cancer screening, with legislation being passed in IL, NJ, CA, TX and VA. Lastly, he highlighted work to oppose mandated medical board chaperone rules, naturopaths performing vasectomies, and legislation that would limit pelvic exams.



Next, Dr. Kiechle provided an overview of Wisconsins Medical Examining Boards (MEB) proposed rules regarding medical chaperones. In 2021, the WI MEB sent a notice to all licensed physicians regarding a new proposed rule requiring chaperones for all physical examinations. He reviewed the original language of the rule (see below), and noted that physicians were concerned regarding the economic impact that a required chaperone would have on physician practices. After the AUA SAC, WI Urological Society, and WI Medical Society provided written and oral written testimony, the rule was reworded so that physicians were required to display their chaperone rules in their offices for patients to easily access, but did not make sweeping mandates requiring chaperones for every exam.

Then, Dr. Drzewiecki addressed the issue of threats to physicians and workplace violence. She acknowledged that in recent years, physicians have faced legislative efforts to limit their ability to treat patients. She outlined the role of patient advocacy groups in raising legitimate concerns about past practices, and the historical us vs. them mentality that exacerbated barriers to communication that would have allowed for team-based solutions. Therefore, laws that were introduced made sweeping bans and limitations on pediatric urologic procedures. Subsequently, physicians became the targets of online harassment and written threats that required law enforcement protection.

Dr. Drzewiecki presented recent data quoting that threats to physicians grew by 67% between 2011 to 2018. Further, she stated that healthcare professionals are 5 times more likely to experience workplace violence. She underscored the detrimental impact that this has on physician well-being and professional careers, given that they have fears for their safety. In turn, many physicians fear for their safety in speaking out either for or against specific healthcare policy when, in reality, physician input would be critical. Dr. Drzewiecki suggested that urologists work with patient advocacy groups to better communicate and collaborate on solutions to ensure appropriate and safe care is delivered by urologists.

Next, Dr. Riley discussed the criminalization of physicians in providing care for transgender patients. Urologists are an integral member of the care team for transgender patients, and will certainly be affected by recent legislative efforts in this place. She displayed a map project 28 states that had discussed legislation addressing care for transgender patients. Alabama has passed legislation that would make providing transgender care a felony, while 4 other states have passed legislation that provides other criminal charges or loss of license. Specifically, 23 bills across the nation that have been introduced include revocation of licensure of providers, 16 bills include civil damages against the facility and/or provider, 9 bills include criminalization of the provider (7 of which consider transgender care as felonies), 2 include provisions related to child abuse. Additionally, 7 bills include bans on transgender care for adults up to age 26, and the statute of limitations range from 2 to 45 years. There are also 9 bills related to protections of transgender care.

Brian Duty, MD, MBA, Oregon Health Sciences University

Julie Riley, MD, FACS, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

Jonathan Kiechle, MD, Advocate Aurora Health

Beth Drzewiecki, MD, Mass General for Children

In summary, state legislative issues including chaperone rules and criminalization of care have the potential to significant impact the practice of urology. Physicians on the panel and in the audience ended the panel reinforcing the importance of partnering with patients and patient advocacy groups to collaborate and formulate team-based solutions to health policy issues.Presented by:

Written by: Ruchika Talwar, MD, Urologic Oncology Fellow, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, @RuchikaTalwarMD during the 2023 AUA Annual Urology Advocacy Summit, Washington, DC, February 27  March 1, 2023
On July 15, 2020, Hong Kong issued a mask mandate requiring face coverings on public transportation quickly followed with an expansion to all public places. Violations were subject to $1,000 fines. Now, 959 days later, the mandate has been lifted. From CNN:

"We are now returning to normalcy," Lee said, as the Asian financial hub launches a major push to welcome back business travelers and tourists.

Hong Kong has rolled back several other major controls in recent months, most notably mandatory quarantine for all international arrivals, a move celebrated by travel-starved residents, overseas family members and struggling local businesses[]

"I'm looking forward to seeing a smile on everyone's face now," [Health Secretary Lo Mau-chung] said. However, he added, the government still advises the wearing of masks in "high risk" settings such as elderly care homes and hospitals.
Vietnams Competition Law: Notes for M&A Transactions

A merger and acquisition may be an effective and efficient way to enter the Vietnamese market. These deals, however, can limit healthy competition and as such are regulated  heres what foreign firms need to know to avoid violating Vietnams Competition Law.

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are subject to rules and regulations in Vietnam. In particular, Vietnams Competition Law ensures that no single company is able to establish a monopoly or have a market share that gives it an unfair advantage over another.

This law has become increasingly important in Vietnam as its growing economy, and the liberalization of ownership rules with respect to foreign investment, have given way to a growing number of M&A.

Specifically, in the first half of 2022, the National Competition Commission (NCC) received 62 notifications of M&A that could potentially infringe the Competition Law. This was almost double the number of dossiers submitted in 2020.

M&A transactions are set to grow as the country continues on its path of more local deregulation alongside greater global integration.

With this in mind, basic due diligence on how Vietnams Competition Law applies to their investment plans can help foreign entities save time and resources when entering into M&A transactions.

What is Vietnams Competition Law?

The Competition Law regulates anti-competitive practices in Vietnam. It also outlines the legal processes for dispute resolution and the consequences for violations of the law.

The most recent iteration of the Competition Law came into force in 2018. It is much more comprehensive than the 2004 Competition Law that preceded it. Specifically, it expands the entities covered to include professional associations operating in Vietnam, as well as related domestic and foreign agencies, organizations, and individuals.

Who implements the Competition Law?

The 2004 Competition Law had a dual agency system for investigations and enforcement. These two agencies were: the Vietnam Competition and Consumer Authority (VCCA) and the Vietnam Competition Council (VCC).

Under the 2018 law, these two agencies were consolidated into one: the NCC. This organ has now taken on the role of both investigating and adjudicating cases involving anti-competitive practices.

Breaches of the Competition Law in M&A Transactions

Anti-competitive behavior

In general, an M&A transaction will be prohibited if it is found to have the potential to have a substantially anti-competitive impact on the Vietnamese market.

In determining whether or not an M&A transaction will have substantial anti-competitive effects, one or more of the following factors are considered:

Combined market share both before and after in the relevant market;

Relationship of the participating enterprises, to determine the competitive advantages the joint entity will have, and whether or not this will put the new entity at an unfair advantage;

The impact it has on relevant prices or profits on goods sold;

The ability to hinder the business operations of other enterprises or to put other enterprises out of business; and,

Other sector specific factors.

Administrative

Aside from anti-competitive behavior, there are a number of administrative violations that companies may run afoul of. These include:

Failure to notify the NCC of an M&A transaction that may breach the Competition Law;

Proceeding with an M&A transaction without receiving a preliminary assessment from the NCC;

Proceeding with an M&A transaction without a decision in an official assessment from the NCC;

Failure to meet or fully meet the conditions on market concentration outlined by the NCC; and

Proceeding with the M&A transaction against the outcome of the official assessment issued by the NCC.

When should the NCC be notified about an M&A transaction?

Related Services Find success in your next M&A deal with our on-the-ground blended M&A advisory services 

General enterprises

There are four key criteria for most enterprises (ex. financial services, see below) with regard to notifying the NCC about a potential merger or acquisition. These are:

When the total assets in the Vietnamese market reach VND3 trillion (US$126 million);

When the total sales turnover or purchase costs in the Vietnamese market reach at least VND3 trillion (US$126 million);

The market share of the deal reaches at least VND1 trillion (US$42 million); or

The combined market share represents more than 20 percent of the market.

Financial enterprises

For mergers and acquisitions in the finance sector, there are several conditions, on top of those above, under which the NCC should be notified. These include:

When the total assets in the Vietnamese market reach more than VND15 trillion (US$631 million);

When the total assets in the Vietnamese market reach more than 20 percent of the total assets of credit institutions in Vietnam;

When the total sales turnover in the Vietnamese market is more than 20 percent of the total sales turnover of credit institutions in Vietnam;

The value of the deal reaches more than VND3 trillion (US$126 million); or

The value of the deal reaches more than 20 percent of the total charter capital of credit institutions in Vietnam.

How to notify the NCC

Businesses must notify the NCC via a dossier, which covers a number of key details of the intended M&A transaction.These include:

A notification of merger or acquisition;

Agreed contents of the merger or acquisition;

Valid copies of the business registration certificates;

Financial statements;

A list of parent companies, subsidiaries, associate companies, branches, representative offices, and other affiliated entities of every engaging enterprise (if any);

The list of goods and services that is sold by the enterprises;

Information about the current market share of each company;

Proposed remedies for possible anti-competitive effects; and

An assessment report.

Penalties for breaches of the Competition Law

Enterprises in contravention of the Competition Law may be subjected to a range of penalties.

Fines

Enterprises that breach the Competition law can be subject to fines ranging from 0.05 percent to 3 percent of turnover of the previous year. The amount of the fine will depend on the type and severity of the breach.

Forced separation

In the event a merger is undertaken in contravention of the Competition Law, the merged enterprises may be forced apart.

Forced sale

If an enterprise acquires another business in a manner that does not comply with the conditions of the Competition Law, it may be forced to sell either part or all of the newly acquired asset.

State management

Companies that perform mergers or acquisitions that violate the Competition Law may be placed under the management of a relevant state agency.

Certificate revocation

Enterprises that are found to have committed an offense with regard to the Competition Law may also have their enterprise registration certificates revoked.

Cases studies in M&A and Competition Law in Vietnam

In 2020, Vietnam Dairy Products Joint Stock Company (Vinamilk) and Kido Group Joint Stock Company (Kido) planned to establish a joint venture. The newly established joint venture company would be 51 percent owned by Vinamilk and 49 percent owned by Kido.

With Vinamilk and Kido holding significant market shares in the dairy market, they were required to notify the NCC. The NCC reviewed the dossier compiled by the two organizations and ruled that the joint venture would not breach Vietnams Competition Law.

In January 2020, Elanco Animal Health Incorporated Company (Elanco) paid US$7.6 billion for German firm Bayer AGs entire animal healthcare business.

Although not established under Vietnamese law, the enterprises participating in the deal were required to notify the NCC with respect to their Vietnam-based operations.

The NCC reviewed Bayer and Elancos notification dossier and determined that deal would not contravene the Competition Law. However, it did raise concerns that the deal may give Elanco an unfair share of the market for antimicrobial drugs for pigs.

In March 2018, Grab bought Ubers business operations in eight markets in Southeast Asia, including Vietnam.

After working with GrabTaxi Vietnam, the VCCA organized a meeting with legal representatives of Uber Vietnam. Subsequently, it was determined that an investigation was necessary.

In November of the same year, it was concluded that Grab and Uber had, in fact, breached the Competition Law (Decision No. 64/QD-CT). The VCCA found that after the merger, Grabs market share was above 50 percent. In this light  there were two key alleged violations:

Parties involved had failed to notify the VCCA; and,

Grabs market share after the acquisition was too heavily concentrated.

This was then reviewed by the Vietnam Competition Council (to be later superseded by the NCC), which determined that Grab and Uber had not breached the Competition Law (Decision No. 26/QD-HDXL). It found that, combined, they did not have more than 30 percent of the market, the threshold for which the VCCA should be notified at the time.

M&As in Vietnam moving forward

Large enterprises with the financial capacity to do so, are still busy carrying out M&A deals in 2023. A series of banks, including Vietcombank, VPBank, and PG Bank, have all expressed a desire to engage in M&A deals in the near term.

With the current economic turbulence, big firms looking for bargains may find what they are looking for in emerging markets like Vietnam where high growth potential and greenfield opportunities are plenty. Foreign firms, however, should be mindful that there are restrictions and regulations in place to tackle anti-competitive behavior. Being mindful of these regulations is important to ensuring M&A transactions run as smoothly as possible.

For support with mergers and acquisitions in Vietnam, contact the experts at Dezan Shira and Associates.
As the calendar turned to March, Ukraine contended Wednesday that it has dealt Russia a major defeat, overcoming Moscow's weeks-long barrage of attacks that targeted Ukrainian electrical and water systems to damage them and inflict maximum pain on Ukrainians during the depths of winter.



"On March 1, 2023, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin suffered another major defeat," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on Twitter. "Despite the cold, darkness, and missile strikes, Ukraine persevered and defeated his winter terror."

"Furthermore," Kuleba wrote, "Europe has not 'frozen' despite Russian predictions and mockery" as Western countries allied with Ukraine curbed their purchase of Russian fuel for homes and businesses. "I thank our partners for standing with Ukraine."

Meanwhile, on the battlefield, the fight for the eastern city of Bakhmut raged on. Ukraine's Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said Kyiv has sent reinforcements to Bakhmut, even as Russian forces have gradually strengthened their position there. But she did not say how many troops were being deployed or how they would be used  whether as fighters to defend the city or possibly as logistical support if Ukraine decides to retreat.

The death toll at Bakhmut has been staggering for both sides. Ukraine has held on, but Russia's troop reinforcements have allowed it to seize villages and towns around the city and surround it on three sides.

In his nightly address Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, "The most difficult situation is still Bakhmut and the battles that are important for the defense of the city. The intensity of fighting is only increasing." It was the second consecutive night he had given a Bakhmut battlefield assessment.

On Monday, he said, "The enemy is constantly destroying everything that can be used to protect our positions, to gain a foothold and ensure defense."

Much of the Russian fighting in and around Bakhmut has been conducted by troops from the Wagner Group, a mercenary paramilitary force whose leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has close ties to Putin.



On Wednesday, Prigozhin said in an audio message on social media that there was no sign that Ukrainian forces were retreating from the city.



Ukraine's economic adviser, Alexander Rodnyansky, told CNN on Tuesday that Russia is trying to encircle Bakhmut, using their best and "most well-trained and the most experienced" troops from the Wagner Group.

"Our military is obviously going to weigh all of the options," he said. "So far, they have held the city but, if need be, they will strategically pull back because we are not going to sacrifice all of our people just for nothing."

On the diplomatic front, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed doubt Wednesday about how serious Russia and China are about achieving peace in Ukraine, citing a lack of substantive steps by either country to back up statements showing support for a peace effort.

Speaking during a visit to Uzbekistan, Blinken told reporters that if Russia were genuinely prepared to engage in meaningful diplomacy to end its aggression, then the United States would be quick to engage in that effort. But he said Russia's actions, including Putin's demands that Ukraine recognize Russia's control over parts of Ukrainian territory, show Russia is not interested in that path.

"The real question is whether Russia will get to a point where it is genuinely prepared to end its aggression and do so in a way that is consistent with the United Nations charter and its very principles," he said.

"No one wants peace more urgently than the people of Ukraine. They are the victims every single day of Russia's aggression," Blinken said. "We all know the simple truth that the war could end tomorrow, it could end today, if President Putin so decided. He started it, he could stop it."

Blinken said a peace proposal put forward by China does contain some positive elements, including some found in Zelenskyy's own peace plan.

Blinken noted that if China were serious about its call for the sovereignty of all nations to be upheld, however, then it would have spent the past year working in support of Ukraine's full sovereignty in the face of Russia's invasion.

He said China has done the opposite, including advancing Russian propaganda about the war, blocking for Russia at international organizations and contemplating sending lethal military assistance for Russian forces to use in Ukraine.



Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
NASA's DART spacecraft slammed into the asteroid Dimorphos at a spot between two boulders during last September's first test of a planetary defense system, sending debris hurtling into space and changing the rocky, oblong-shaped object's path a bit more than previously calculated.

Those were among the findings released by scientists on Wednesday in the most detailed account of the U.S. space agency's proof-of-principle mission on using a spacecraft to change a celestial object's trajectory  employing sheer kinetic force to nudge it off course just enough to keep Earth safe.

"The DART test was phenomenally successful. We now know that we have a viable technique for potentially preventing an asteroid impact if one day we had the need to," said planetary scientist Terik Daly of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland, lead author of one of the DART studies published in the journal Nature.

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft collided on September 26, 2022, at 22,530 kilometers per hour with Dimorphos, an asteroid about 150 meters in diameter, roughly 11 million kilometers from Earth. Dimorphos is a moonlet of Didymos, which is defined as a near-Earth asteroid and has a shape like a top spinning in space with a diameter of about 780 meters. Neither object imperils Earth.

"We were trying to change the amount of time that it took for Dimorphos to orbit around Didymos by colliding head-on with Dimorphos," said Northern Arizona University planetary scientist Cristina Thomas, lead author of another of the studies published in Nature.

"The momentum of the collision and the momentum of the ejected material both acted to decrease the amount of time it takes Dimorphos to orbit by 33 minutes. This also results in the object orbiting a little bit closer to Didymos," Thomas said.

Before the impact, the orbital period was 11 hours, 55 minutes. It now is 11 hours, 22 minutes. NASA's previous estimate, announced in October, was an orbital change of 32 minutes. The benchmark for success had been set as a change of at least 1 minute, 13 seconds.

The scientists gave a blow-by-blow account of how the collision unfolded.

"First, one of the spacecraft's solar panels directly hit a large boulder near the impact site. Next, the second solar panel grazed another large boulder. Finally, the spacecraft bus  the box between the solar panels  hit between these two boulders," Daly said.

"We suspect that these two boulders were destroyed. After impact, ejecta [debris blasted into space] was launched from the surface for a period of time," Daly added, saying satellite and telescope images showed a large amount of such material.

The research also clarified details such as the precise location of the impact and the angle of impact.

"People may think of the DART mission as a fairly straightforward experiment that is similar to playing billiards in space  one solid spacecraft impacts into one solid asteroid," Thomas said. "However, asteroids are far more complex than just a solid rock. In fact, most asteroids are what we think of as rubble piles."

The $330 million DART mission was seven years in development.

"We don't know of any asteroids at this time that pose a threat to Earth, but we want to be ready for such a scenario," Daly said. "It's analogous to testing a car's airbags. You make sure they work during a crash test instead of waiting to get in a real car accident to find out if they work."
Australia Wednesday is hosting one of the worlds largest LGBTQ Human Rights Conferences. The event is part of Sydney WorldPride 2023, which half-a-million people are expected to attend.

Discrimination and abuse are the focus of the three-day human rights conference that is one of the centerpieces of the festival in Sydney.

The conference runs March 1-3 and brings together dozens of Australian and international experts. Organizers say it will highlight the horrific abuse of people in 70 countries where being gay is illegal.

There has been significant social change in Australia over the years. Marriage equality laws were passed in 2017 and the age of consent for homosexual and heterosexual sex is the same. But in dozens of other countries being gay is illegal.

Anna Brown, chief executive of the advocacy organization Equality Australia, told VOA that homophobia is rife.

Brown said that, Around the world we see LGBTQ+ people criminalized because of who they are or who they love. Therere still 70 countries that criminalize same-sex sexual acts and we need to make sure that as a community we move forward together.

She listed the actions still needed, including, ending conversion practices that try and tell LGBTI people that we are somehow disordered or broken; protecting LGBTI people seeking safety and asylum; First Nations justice; and responding to these increasing threats to trans and gender-diverse inclusion, including in places like Australia, the US and UK.

WorldPride promotes LGBTQ rights around the world. It was first staged in Rome in 2000 and has also been held in Jerusalem, London and Madrid.

The next festival will be in Washington, DC in two years.

One of the highlights of Sydney WorldPride 2023 was the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade last Saturday. Anthony Albanese became the first Australian prime minister to march in the event, joining 12,500 others.

Albanese said his government is committed to ending inequality based on sexuality or identity.
A prominent Iranian Azerbaijani civil rights activist freed from prison last week in Iran is publicly defying his court-ordered sentence of internal exile in an act of civil disobedience.



Abbas Lisani served more than four years in prison after Iran's Revolutionary Court in Tabriz convicted him in 2019 of "forming groups with the purpose of disrupting national security."



The verdict cited his speeches, media interviews, and participation in protests as evidence of activities to disrupt national security. The long-time activist has spent nearly 10 years total in prison for his civil campaigns, such as taking part in cultural gatherings to mark International Mother Language Day.

When he was released from prison last week, a court imposed an additional two-year-long punishment of internal exile. Police escorted him to the central city of Yazd. He has since traveled back to his home city Ardabil, in northwest Iran, where he was welcomed by fellow civil rights activists and relatives.



Iranian authorities have not yet commented on his public rejection of the courts sentence.



In an October 2020 report, Amnesty International said it considered Lisani's imprisonment politically motivated, pointing out his long history of activism for the rights of Iran's Azerbaijani-Turkish community. The rights group has named him a prisoner of conscience on several occasions since 2006.



"Lisani is known for his disobeying and not complying with regressive and strict laws. He stood up and did not comply with the cruel and inhuman flogging sentence in the past years, and now, he does not accept the additional sentence of living in exile in the city of Yazd," Sina Yuousefi, an attorney from the city of Tabriz, wrote in a Twitter post.



Many of Irans Azerbaijani Turks speak a dialect that the Iranian government does not allow to be taught in schools. Irans Islamist rulers have long feared that permitting the official use of Turkic dialects in the country could promote separatism among minorities.

Azerbaijani Turk activists have criticized the ban, saying it violates Article 15 of Irans constitution, which allows for the use of regional and tribal languages in the press and mass media, as well as for teaching of their literature in schools.



Abbas Lisani has been a longtime vocal opponent of government policies both inside and outside of prison.



Ammar Maleki, an Iranian political analyst currently working as an assistant professor of comparative politics at Tilburg University, traces Lisanis outspoken defiance to a 2007 incident when he was ordered to receive 50 lashes as part of a prison sentence.



Lisani had been sentenced to 18 months in prison and 50 lashes for taking part in mass demonstrations in May 2006. The protests, which took place in Iranian Azerbaijan and some other Turkish-populated regions, were sparked by a caricature that was published in state-run Iran newspaper.



The professor said Lisani challenged the sentence as illegal and that conscripts who were ordered to whip the man refused. Maleki wrote about the incident in an article and said he was later interrogated by Iranian authorities for publishing it.



While in prison, Lisani went on hunger strikes several times to defend his legal rights.



In May 2016, when Abbas Lasani started a hunger strike in Adel-Abad prison in the city of Shiraz, 11 other activists went into their own hunger strikes in different prisons in the cities of Tabriz, Ardabil and Karaj to support Lisani, according to the U.S.-based rights group, HRANA.



In March 2017, when he was being tried in the Ardabil province on charges of "acting against national security" and "propaganda against the regime," Lisani refused to defend himself in Farsi, Iran's only official language.



Lisani, who was serving an eight-year sentence in Ardabil prison, was released last week after serving more than half of his jail term. He is believed to have been released as a result of a government amnesty aimed at appeasing critics of the Islamic Republic following months of anti-government protests. According to AFP, the amnesty resulted in the release of several dozen well-known prisoners across the country.

Editors note: This story has been updated to clarify that Lisani is an ethnic Azerbaijani and prominent human rights activist in Iran.
A woman who falsely claimed a medical degree worked as a psychiatrist for more than 20 years in the UK. Zholia Alemi "had the power to detain mental health patients against their will", reports the BBC, but now she's been rumbled and it is her who is detained.

At the sentencing hearing Judge Hilary Manley called for an inquiry to be held into how the General Medical Council (GMC) registered her as a doctor, when the documents she submitted in 1995 were "clearly false". Alemi studied to be a doctor in New Zealand in the early 1990s but did not finish her course, however she managed to work as a consultant clinical psychiatrist. In 1995 she forged a degree certificate and a letter of verification  with the word verify misspelt, the court heard.

The documents were finally checkedpresumably requiring someone to pick up a phone and everythingbecause she was also defrauding patients and got caught attempting to forge a will.
The Biden administration approved more than $23 billion worth of licenses for companies to ship U.S. goods and technology to blacklisted Chinese companies in the first quarter of 2022, a Republican lawmaker said Tuesday.

The data comes amid growing pressure on the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden to further expand a broad crackdown on shipments of sensitive U.S. technology to China from Republican lawmakers, who now control the House of Representatives.

Overwhelmingly, [the Commerce Department] continues to grant licenses that allow critical U.S. technology to be sold to our adversaries, Republican Representative Michael McCaul, chair of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, said at a hearing on combating the generational challenge of Chinese aggression, as he grilled U.S. officials for allowing the licenses to be approved.

How does this align with your statement that were doing everything within [the Commerce Departments] power to prevent sensitive U.S. technologies from getting in the hands of [Chinese] military, intelligence services or other parties?

McCaul said the Commerce Department, which oversees export controls, denied only 8% of license requests to sell to companies on the U.S. trade blacklist during the January to March period last year.

Commerce Department official Alan Estevez, who oversees U.S. export policy, told the hearing that a Trump-era policy that allows Chinas blacklisted telecommunications equipment maker Huawei to receive some U.S. technology below the 5G level is under assessment.

Estevez also described TikTok as a "threat," noting that a powerful committee that reviews foreign investments in the United States was dealing with how to handle the popular Chinese-owned social media app.

TikTok said in a statement the company has been working with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States "for over two years on a plan to address national security concerns about TikTok in the U.S."

Democratic Congressman Gregory Meeks cautioned against reading too much into the licensing numbers, noting that the approval and denial data provides no information about the transactions.

The data comes a week after the Biden administration added new Chinese companies to the trade blacklist for aiding Russias military and months after announcing a sweeping new policy aimed at dramatically curbing shipments of chips and chipmaking tools to China.

Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. was added to a trade blacklist known as the entity list by former Republican President Donald Trump in 2019, amid allegations of sanctions violations, spying capabilities, and intellectual property theft.

Suppliers of most companies added to the entity list see their requests to ship to the targeted firms denied, but the Trump administration implemented a special policy for Huawei, pledging to deny it access to some things like 5G chips but allow it to receive other items, such as 4G chips.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he discussed Uzbekistans reform agenda with President Shavkat Mirziyoyev during a closed-door meeting Wednesday in Tashkent.

After Uzbekistan, Blinken heads to India for a G-20 foreign ministers meeting. The chief U.S. diplomat said he has no plan to meet separately on the sidelines with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov or Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, who also are attending the meeting.

Speaking to reporters in Tashkent, Blinken said he highlighted the importance of media freedoms and having a space for civil society.

He pointed to efforts to rid Uzbekistans cotton industry of forced labor, noting that was both a great achievement and an example to others.

We applauded the [reform] steps that had been taken. I noted as well the importance not only of having a strong vision but of fully implementing it. And of course, that remains an important work in progress, said Blinken during a press conference when asked if he advised Mirziyoyev against trying to change the constitution to extend his terms.

President Mirziyoyev is planning a constitutional referendum this year that would enable him to run again after two terms.

A genuine choice of political alternatives was not available to voters because true opposition candidates were unable to register or run for office, according to the State Departments human rights reports.

Also on Wednesday, Blinken said it was important to thoroughly investigate allegations of human rights violations by Uzbek law enforcement during unrest in July.



Twenty-one people were killed in conflict over plans to curtail the autonomy of the Uzbekistans Karakalpakstan region.

Following the violence, Mirziyoyev quickly rescinded the proposed amendments to the constitution, which currently describe Karakalpakstan as a sovereign republic with the right to secede via referendum, a special status defended by thousands of citizens.

Blinken was in Uzbekistan a day after meeting with his counterparts from five Central Asian countries, an effort he said Wednesday was about cooperating to deepen regional integration.

He said they also discussed the dangers posed by Russias invasion of Ukraine, which he said fostered deep concern across the region.

After all, if a powerful country is willing to try to erase the borders of the sovereign neighbor by force, whats to stop it from doing the same to others, Blinken said, according to the Associated Press.

The U.S. secretary of state next heads to New Delhi to meet with Indian government officials and the foreign ministers meeting of G20 nations.

Russian sanctions

Blinken said Tuesday during a stop in Kazakhstan that the United States is paying attention to how sanctions enacted in response to Russias invasion of Ukraine are affected other countries in the region.

We are watching compliance with sanctions very closely, and we're having an ongoing discussion with a number of countries, including our C5 partners, on the economic spillover effects, Blinken said during a news conference after meeting with officials of the five Central Asian states.

Blinken added that temporary waivers have been granted to companies or entities in countries that are engaged with sanctioned Russian companies so that they have time to wind down those activities and cut their ties with Russia.

On Tuesday, Blinken also announced additional aid to Kazakhstan.

We also stood up the economic resilience initiative for Central Asia  $25 million to expand regional trade routes, establish new export markets, attract and leverage greater private sector investment, providing people with practical skills for the modern job market. Today, I'm announcing an additional $25 million to that initiative, a total of $50 million to build up the regional economy, he said at a joint press conference with Kazakh Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tileuberdi.

Kazakhstan has a population of 19 million people, of whom 3.5 million are ethnic Russians and 250,000 are ethnic Ukrainians.

The level of concern is very high and has been from the beginning, said a Central Asian senior official, referring to Russias war on Ukraine.

Kazakhstan has provided humanitarian aid to Ukraine. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev is the only one among Central Asia leaders who keeps in touch with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to the official.

Meanwhile, Kazakhstan maintains good relations with both Russia and China.

Kazakhstan will continue its multilateral foreign policy. It means that we are trying to keep the system of checks and balances to develop the mutually beneficial cooperation relationship with all the countries of the world," Tileuberdi said during the news conference on Tuesday.

Blinken renewed the U.S. warning for China not to provide lethal weapons to Russia for its use in the war against Ukraine. He said the United States has "information" that China is considering moving beyond the nonlethal support that some of its companies have been providing to lethal material support for Russia.

We will not hesitate to target Chinese companies or individuals that violate our sanctions or otherwise engage in supporting the Russian war effort in Ukraine, Blinken added.
Ethiopia's hydropower dam on the Blue Nile River has angered downstream neighbors, especially Sudan, where people rely on the river for farming and other livelihoods. To reduce the risk of conflict, a group of scientists has used artificial intelligence, AI, to show how all could benefit. But getting Ethiopia, Sudan, and Egypt to agree on an AI solution could prove challenging, as Henry Wilkins reports from Khartoum, Sudan.
Chicago's incumbent Mayor Lori Lightfoot lost her re-election bid on Tuesday, with vote totals showing that two of her rivals will face each other in an April runoff ballot.

Paul Vallas, the former public schools chief in Chicago and Philadelphia who ran unsuccessfully for Chicago mayor in 2019, secured the top spot, taking 34.9% of the vote with 91% of precincts reporting, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Brandon Johnson, a Cook County commissioner and an organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union, secured the other spot in the runoff race, taking 20.2% of votes. Lightfoot had 16.4% of vote totals, and there were not enough votes outstanding for her to make up the ground between her and Johnson.

Polls showed public safety is by far the top concern among residents of the third-largest U.S. city.

The campaign has tested Democratic messaging on policing in the U.S., three years after widespread protests following the police murder of George Floyd and months after Republicans sought to bludgeon Democrats over the issue in the 2022 midterm elections.

The Chicago race is technically non-partisan, but every candidate identifies as a Democrat in the heavily left-leaning city.

Lightfoot, the first Black woman and first openly gay person to serve as the city's mayor, is bidding for a second four-year term. She emerged as a surprise victor in 2019, campaigning as an outsider who would end corruption.

But her handling of a series of crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, racial justice protests, a protracted teachers' strike and a spike in crime, sapped her popular support.

There were more than 800 murders in Chicago in 2021, the most in a quarter-century. The homicide rate dropped 14% in 2022 but remained nearly 40% higher than in 2019.

Lightfoot has said the 2022 drop in murders and shootings shows that her strategies, such as hiring more officers and focusing on illegal guns, are having an impact.

Natalie Pauls, 53, a healthcare worker who voted in downtown Chicago and declined to say who she cast her ballot for, reflected the sentiment of many voters when she said that crime was a top concern, but she did not think any single candidate really stood out for her.

"I want someone who is going to manage the police in a way where we are not seeing African Americans mistreated," she said.

Lost support

Lightfoot has clashed with the police and teachers unions.

The police are backing Vallas, and the teachers endorsed Johnson. Vallas is running to Lightfoot's right, while Johnson is courting the progressive vote.

Vallas' campaign website asserts the city has been "surrendered" to criminals, and he has vowed to hire more officers and increase community patrols.

His focus on safety has put him at the top of most polls, though Lightfoot has attacked him for telling an interviewer in 2009 that he was "more of a Republican than a Democrat."

In a recent advertisement, Lightfoot accused Johnson of wanting to "defund the police." The ad cited a 2020 appearance in which he described the slogan as a "real political goal" in the wake of the Floyd protests.

As a mayoral candidate, Johnson has responded by saying he wants to spend more resources on programs such as mental health treatment but does not intend to cut the police budget.
For Zoey Zhang, a student from China who is heading to a top Australian university, finding accommodation Down Under has been tough  so much so that she has even considered sleeping "rough on the streets."

Like Zhang, about 700,000 students from China enrolled to study overseas have been left in the lurch after a surprise January edict by Beijing said they would have to return to on-campus learning for their education to be recognized back home.

This has triggered a rush for accommodation even as housing markets worldwide grapple with surging rents. But the crisis is more acute in Australia because its academic year starts in February, not September as in North America and Europe.

Zhang said she "went into panic mode" as the rule change, after three years of COVID-19 border closures, meant she and about 40,000 other Chinese students heading to Australia would all be looking for a place to stay.

"I knew that finding a rental in Australia won't be easy, but I didn't expect it to be this difficult. Some are subletting their living rooms or balconies. I don't think I can do that," Zhang, 25, said via telephone from her home in the eastern Chinese province of Shandong.

"I have been looking for a room for about a month now, and I have given up," said Zhang, who has enrolled for a masters degree in marketing at the University of New South Wales. "If I get desperate, I could even sleep rough on the streets, like under some bridge, or outside the Chinese consulate."

The University of New South Wales, which welcomed a quarter of its students from China until 2020, said its on-campus accommodation was full and it was refurbishing university apartments to rent to foreign students.

A spokesperson for Sydney University, also with a fourth of its students coming from China, said its 2,400 dormitory beds near campus were taken and that it had booked another 700 with third-party providers and negotiated discounts with hotels to accommodate the influx.

Analysts say even those planning to defer a semester may struggle to find a bed since many construction projects for foreign students stalled during the pandemic.

Conal Newland, national head of Operational Capital Markets at Savills Australia, said the property agency was seeing unprecedented demand. "It's a perfect storm."

'Big rush'

The shortage has meanwhile jumpstarted one of the few subsets of Australian residential property, the student accommodation sector, that languished during COVID-19.

Before 2020, Chinese students accounted for about 40% of the $27 billion (A$40 billion) Australia made educating foreigners annually. That shrank amid COVID-related border restrictions to less than a quarter of the market, which itself halved, hurt also by worsening diplomatic relations.

But China's reopening has raised the issue about the availability of beds in a "welcome sign" for investors, said Brad Williams, managing director of AMP Capital's diversified infrastructure trust, Australia's third-largest owner of purpose-built student accommodation.

Tomas Johnsson, CEO of UniLodge Australia, the country's biggest operator of purpose-built student accommodation, said some developers were even paying more to speed up construction.

Highlighting the rush for accommodation, Louis Liu, 22, a Chinese student in Brisbane, and others have started attending property viewings on behalf of students on the mainland. Liu said she films two viewings per day, for up to $27 (A$40) a piece.

In the broader property market, where most foreign students stay, rents are forecast to jump 11.5% in 2023, Westpac Banking Corp economists say, the fastest ever two-year increase. They rose about 10% last year.

Sydney real estate agent Joe Du said he rented a one-bedroom apartment to the mother of a Chinese student for $706 (A$1,050) per week, about 40% more than the next most expensive one-bedroom apartment in the neighborhood. Public records show the unit rented for $363 (A$540) in 2022.

"We told her there was no need to bid this high, but she is genuinely concerned that her kid might not have a place to stay," said Du. "She was in a big rush."
In a possible sign that the so-called decoupling of the U.S. and Chinese economies is continuing, a recent media report said that the Chinese government has urged large state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to cease using the worlds biggest global accounting firms to audit their onshore businesses.

The report, published last week by Bloomberg, cites people familiar with communications between the Chinese Ministry of Finance and large SOEs, in which the ministry encouraged the companies to allow their existing contracts with Western firms to lapse when they expire, and to replace them with accounting firms from mainland China or Hong Kong.

According to the report, the Chinese governments focus is on the so-called Big Four accounting firms, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Ernst & Young, KPMG and Deloitte. All four firms have headquarters in London but are instrumental in helping many global companies comply with the audit requirements U.S. authorities require of public firms with shares listed on U.S. stock exchanges.



There has long been tension between the Chinese government, which highly values the security of information held by its large companies, and Western financial services regulators, who prize the kind of transparency that allows investors to make informed decisions about companies seeking to raise money in the capital markets.

Chinese authorities have, for years, been trying to strike a balance between the protection of Chinese firms information and the access to international investment capital that comes with exposure on stock markets like those in the U.S.

China disputes report

The Chinese government, through the state-controlled publication the Global Times, has disputed the Bloomberg report. A recent news story in the Global Times said that Big Four firms have won bids to provide accounting services to China's state-owned enterprises in recent days.



The Global Times cited a decision in February by state-run insurance firm China Taiping to hire PwC to provide its audits from 2023-2027, and another recent decision by Liaoshen Bank, closely connected to the state-owned Liaoning Financial Holding Group, to hire KPMG. Neither report could be independently verified.

The Global Times article, published under a GT Staff reporters byline, did not quote any government officials by name.



A request for comment emailed by VOA to the Chinese Embassy in Washington was not answered in time for publication.



An uneven pattern

In recent years, Beijing has taken a number of measures to curtail the outside worlds access to information about Chinese companies.



Last year, citing concerns about potential privacy violations, the Chinese Communist Party forced several firms to give up their listings on U.S.-based stock exchanges, and blocked the efforts of others to list in the U.S.



At the same time, the Communist Party has, at times, seemed willing to cooperate with Western regulators. Last year, Beijing struck a deal that provided U.S. regulators with data on Chinese firms, eliminating the possibility that several would have been forced off of U.S. stock exchanges.



Report comes amid tension

The Bloomberg report was published at a low point in relations between the U.S. and China. Early this month, the U.S. shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon after it traversed most of the continental U.S. The presence of the balloon led Secretary of State Antony Blinken to cancel a trip to China that was seen as the beginning of an effort to restore dialogue.



Since then, U.S. and Chinese officials have had conversations at international gatherings, but those interactions were marked by U.S. warnings that China should avoid providing arms to Russia to support its invasion of Ukraine or risk serious consequences.



The House of Representatives Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party was scheduled on Tuesday evening to hold a prime-time hearing entitled The Chinese Communist Partys Threat to America. The hearing is expected to be the first in a long series of high-profile public forums in which members of Congress dig into perceived threats from China.



Data security concerns

Also on Tuesday, media reports revealed that the White House Office of Management and Budget had given all federal agencies 30 days to ensure that the Chinese social media app TikTok is removed from all electronic devices owned by the federal government.



As minor as it might seem on its face, the TikTok ban is actually a mirror image of some of the concerns driving Chinas suspicion of Western auditing firms. The concern on the part of the White House is that ByteDance, the firm that owns TikTok, is collecting personal information about the apps users, and making it available to the Chinese government.



U.S. officials frequently point to a Chinese law that obligates companies to assist state intelligence services in their investigations.



Experts dubious

Some experts told VOA they were not convinced of the validity of the Chinese governments fears about data security, especially because Western accounting firms are legally bound to protect the privacy of client data that is not part of publicly released reports.



Its an excuse. No other government or country has this problem, said James Lewis, director of the Strategic Technologies Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. Beijing is paranoid about controlling the economic narrative and worries that the audits might give access to information about the problems of the SOEs that they regard as sensitive.



Lewis added in an interview, This is another part of Chinas decision to separate itself from the global market and force other countries to accept Chinas rules.



Impact on business may be small

Derek Scissors, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told VOA that if the Bloomberg report is correct, and the Chinese governments request went to state-owned enterprises only, the impact on foreign investment in Chinese firms might not be significant.



Most foreign investment does not involve state-owned enterprises, Scissors said. If this is the only step taken, it will not have a big effect. If other firms are urged to drop foreign auditors, that could frighten investors.



Scissors also said that the request would not necessarily cut off Chinese state firms from overseas listings.



They can use foreign auditors just for [initial public offerings] if they ever want to list units overseas, he said.

Rong Shi of VOAs Mandarin Service contributed to this report.
Now in year two, Ukrainians learn to cope with daily Russian assaults and shelling. The Russia-Ukraine conflict will be a major theme on the agenda for world leaders G20 Summit this week in India. A Ukrainian family with a new baby on the way look to a new start in the U.S. state of Texas.
Foreign ministers of the Group of 20 are convening in the Indian capital, New Delhi, amid deepening geopolitical tensions sparked by the war in Ukraine that pose a challenge to efforts at consensus among the worlds biggest economies.

The scheduled attendees include U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister, Qin Gang among others.

Besides the Ukraine war, tensions between Washington and Beijing have also flared after the U.S. shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon over its east coast last month.

Indias foreign ministry said the war in Ukraine will be an important part of the talks that will take place on Thursday.

"Yes, given the nature and the developing situation in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, naturally that will be an important point of discussions," Indias foreign secretary, Vinay Kwatra, told a news conference on Wednesday. India holds the G-20 presidency this year.

However, analysts said the foreign ministers meeting could see a replay of tensions that overshadowed a meeting of the groups finance ministers hosted by India last week. That meeting concluded without issuing a joint statement following objections by China and Russia to language that sought to condemn Moscows aggression.

At the foreign ministers gathering, the United States and its allies will push the group to adopt a firm stance on the Ukraine war.

The European Union said the success of the meeting will be measured by what it could do about the Ukraine conflict. "This war has to be condemned," Josep Borrell, the European Union's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, told reporters in New Delhi. "I hope, I am sure that India's diplomatic capacity will be used in order to make Russia understand that this war has to finish."

Russia. for its part, said it considers the G-20 a prestigious forum "where balanced consensus decisions should be made in the interests of all humankind."

A statement issued by the Russian Embassy in New Delhi late Tuesday slammed the U.S. and its allies, saying their destructive policies have already put the world on the brink of a disaster, provoked a rollback in socio-economic development and seriously aggravated the situation of the poorest countries.

Analysts said that given the deep divisions, India faces a tough challenge in forging a joint position at the end of the talks.

It looks like it is going to be a difficult ride. The meeting will see a greater contestation over Ukraine, according to Harsh Pant, vice president for studies and foreign policy at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi.

Pointing out that China and Russia blocked the joint statement at the meeting of G-20 finance ministers last week, Pant said the presence of the U.S. foreign secretary along with the Russian and Chinese foreign ministers at the same forum will call for a difficult balancing act by India to deliver a G-20 outcome.

Despite the diplomatic challenge it faces, India expressed optimism the meeting will focus on problems being faced by many countries such as food, energy and fertilizer security  issues New Delhi has been pushing during its G-20 presidency.

What is the understanding they develop, not just on Russia-Ukraine conflict but also the impact of that on the rest of the world, the challenges the developing countries face, those are equally important to focus on, Kwatra said.

In all, representatives of 40 countries, including some that are not members of the bloc, such as Bangladesh, and multilateral organizations are due to participate in the meeting.

A gathering of foreign ministers of the Quad countries  the United States, India, Australia and Japan  is scheduled on the sidelines in New Delhi. The Quad is an alliance of countries that want to check Chinas growing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region.
A two-day conference to highlight the key environmental role and value of the world's rainforests got underway in Gabon Wednesday, backed by several leaders of tropical countries.

"Forests potentially represent 20-30 percent of the solution to climate change," Gabon's minister of waters and forests, British-born Lee White, said in opening remarks.

Long recognized as a haven of biodiversity, tropical forests are increasingly acknowledged also as a buffer against climate change.

Vegetation absorbs carbon dioxide under the natural process of photosynthesis, making forests a shield against climate-altering carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

But they are also at threat, especially from loggers.

Between 2015 and 2020, around 10 million hectares (25 million acres) of forests were destroyed annually, according to United Nations figures.

The so-called One Forest Summit is a brainchild of Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba and France's President Emmanuel Macron, who announced it at last year's UN climate COP in Egypt.

The conference will give a push to advancing scientific knowledge about the ecological value of rainforest and fostering "sustainable value chains" in forestry.

Another priority will be how to both monetize and preserve tropical forests for their value in supporting biodiversity and storing carbon emissions.

The host nation, Gabon, became the first African nation to be recompensed through carbon credits for protecting its forests.

Gabon "absorbs around 100 million tons of CO2 per year... three tons every second," White told AFP on the sidelines of the meeting.

"We are well on the way to becoming a sustainable economy."

A big focus at the conference will be on the forests of the Congo Basin  a crucial carbon "sink" and haven to rare species that is second in size to Amazonia.

"Around a third of the species in tropical Africa are threatened with extinction," said Bonaventure Sonke, a professor at the University of Yaounde in Cameroon.

Preserving them requires further knowledge about them, he said.

"We don't know enough about the forests of the Congo Basin because they haven't been sufficiently researched," he said.

In contrast, he said, far more was known about the Amazonian rainforest, "because the resources were committed" to doing so.

Macron will be joining the meeting's summit section on Thursday after flying out from Paris on Wednesday for a four-nation Central African tour.

Other presidents expected to attend are Denis Sassou Nguesso of the Republic of Congo; Faustin Archange Touadera of the Central African Republic; Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno of Chad; and Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog is in discussions with Iran on the origin of uranium particles enriched to up to 83.7% purity, very close to weapons grade, at its Fordow enrichment plant, a report by the watchdog seen by Reuters confirmed on Tuesday.

Diplomats said last week that the agency had found the traces at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP), where Iran is enriching uranium to up to 60% purity. Weapons grade is around 90%. While spikes in enrichment levels can occur and this could have been accidental, this spike is relatively large.

The traces were found in the product from the two interconnected cascades, or clusters, of advanced centrifuges at Fordow that are enriching to up to 60%. The International Atomic Energy Agency chided Iran in an earlier report for making substantial changes to those cascades without informing it.

"Regarding the origin of the particles enriched above 60% U-235, identified after the implementation of the new cascade configuration at FFEP, discussions with Iran are still continuing," the confidential IAEA report to member states said.

"Iran informed the Agency that 'unintended fluctuations in enrichment levels may have occurred during transition period at the time of commissioning the process of [60%] product [November 2022] or while replacing the feed cylinder,'" it added.

In Washington on Tuesday, a U.S. Defense Department official told a congressional committee that Iran could make enough fissile material for one nuclear bomb in "about 12 days."

Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl made the comment to a House of Representatives hearing when pressed by a Republican lawmaker why the Biden administration had sought to revive the deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

"Because Iran's nuclear progress since we left the JCPOA has been remarkable. Back in 2018, when the previous administration decided to leave the JCPOA it would have taken Iran about 12 months to produce one bomb's worth of fissile material. Now it would take about 12 days," Kahl, the third ranking Defense Department official, told lawmakers.

"So I think there is still the view that if you could resolve this issue diplomatically and put constraints back on their nuclear program, it is better than the other options. But right now, the JCPOA is on ice," Kahl added.

The IAEA report also said Iran's stock of uranium enriched to up to 60%, which is being produced at two sites, had grown by 25.2 kg to 87.5 kg since the last quarterly report. The total stockpile of uranium enriched to that and lower levels is estimated at 3,760.8 kg, the report said.

According to IAEA terminology, around 42 kg of uranium enriched to 60% purity is a "significant quantity," defined as "the approximate amount of nuclear material for which the possibility of manufacturing a nuclear explosive device cannot be excluded."

A senior diplomat cautioned, however, that in practice it would take more than 55 kg of uranium enriched to 60% to make one bomb because some material is wasted during enrichment.

Iran denies ever having sought nuclear weapons and says it only wants to master nuclear technology for civil uses.

A second quarterly report on a years-long investigation into uranium traces found at three undeclared sites in Iran, which is also due before next week's meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation Board of Governors, will not be issued until later in the week, diplomats said.
Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, a Republican state representative in Florida, proposed a bill there that would ban the Democratic Party and any others with "woke" platforms.

Ingoglia said the legislation is in response to leftist activists that have called for removal of statutes and renaming of buildings because of "things" they said or did. "Some people want to have uncomfortable conversations about certain subjects. Let's have those conversations," he said.

The serious writers have spent so long scoffing at claims the right has turned fascist that they're emotionally invested in it not being described as fascist. Hearing the word (and others like it) makes them angrier than the thing itself does. So when politicians propose outright fascist things, like banning opposition political parties, the vocabulary that plainly describes it has already been cast as unacceptable journalistic activism, as cringe. There's nothing any of them can do but criticize people like Ingoglia through vague euphemism (smoke) and by posing powerless leftist nobodies as equivalently dangerous (mirrors).
The second biggest city in Ukraine, Kharkiv, is just 30 kilometers from the Russian border. Under siege by Russian troops for more than six months, the city suffered major damage but never fell. Now Russians are amassing troops across the border once more. Ballistic missiles hit the city more often, and Kharkiv is reinforcing its defense lines. Everyone says they're prepared for a new invasion, but the past haunts the future of its residents. Marcus Harton narrates this report from Yan Boechat in Kharkiv.
Iran Wednesday ordered two German diplomats to leave the country in response to a similar move by Germany last week.

The German expulsion of two Iranian diplomats came in protest of Irans sentencing German national Jamshid Sharmahd to death.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said Wednesday that Germany was interfering in Irans internal and judicial affairs.

Iran accused Sharmahd of leading the armed wing of a pro-monarchist group, which his family denied.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said after the sentencing last week that Sharmahd was arrested under highly questionable circumstances and that he never had even the semblance of a fair trial.

Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
There was none of the U.S. presidency's muscular, national security-focused approach on display as Jill Biden, in flowery dresses and pin-thin heels, hugged and smiled her way through Namibia and Kenya on her debut trip to the continent as first lady, which concluded Sunday.

Biden used hopeful words to address tough social issues.

"We face many of the same challenges, from climate change to economic inequality to strengthening democracy, which is why the U.S. African Leaders Summit was held in Washington, D.C., in December because it was so important to him," she said, referring to her husband, President Joe Biden, in a speech to a room full of dignitaries and diplomats who gathered to hear her at Namibia's State House on Thursday.

"And it's why I'm proud to be standing here, standing with a strong democracy.  As Joe said at the summit, African voices, African leadership and African innovation are all critical to addressing the most pressing global challenges and realizing the vision. We all share a world that is free."

She brought along one of her seven grandchildren to spotlight how girls and women can be powerful engines of change.

Jill Biden is up against major hurdles, say analysts who focus on gender and development issues.

"Every country has a woman problem, I would say," said Caren Grown, a senior fellow in the Center for Sustainable Development at the Brookings Institution. "There's no country around the world in which women are absolutely equal to men across all domains.

"We've made a lot of progress globally, and many countries have made progress over the last many years, especially in terms of education. But we still have really big gaps between men and women in employment, labor force participation, earnings. There's no country around the world where women make more or earn more than men, although the gaps have closed. We're still not at parity."

And as young people, women and activists showed Biden on her five-day trip, Africa, too, has a woman problem.

In an informal settlement outside of Windhoek, Namibia's capital, Biden met a teen who told her how her pregnancy forced her out of 11th grade.

In Nairobi, Kenya's capital, she met with youths at a screening of a South African MTV series that shows that for South Africa's young women, transactional sex is the norm, not the exception. South Africa's president has described gender-based violence as "a second pandemic."

And in Nairobi's sprawling Kibera slum, she and Kenya's first lady met with women who, because of their lack of access to conventional finance, set up an informal lending network. Systems like these lack the protections or guarantees of banks, and often traffic in much smaller sums.

President Joe Biden  who often refers to himself as "Jill Biden's husband"  said after her return on Monday that her effort showed his administration's strong commitment to Africa.

"She met with the presidents and first ladies of both countries," he said. "She spoke to more than a thousand young people  the first generation born out of apartheid in Namibia.  In Kenya, she met families affected by devastating drought and food insecurity  made worse by Putin's brutal assault on Ukraine. And made it clear that America's commitment to Africa is real."

And by choosing to hold all of her high-profile substantive events with female leaders, America's first lady conveyed a clear message of her own and made a not-so-subtle nod to Namibia's first lady Monica Geingos, whose husband's second and final term ends next year.

"It's always time to have a female president, no matter what country you're in," Jill Biden said as she toured a local charitable organization with Geingos on Thursday. "So I'm very supportive of women running for office."

Analysts say it's unclear whether the trip will result in new initiatives or policy changes for the continent.

But, Grown says, Biden's efforts challenge a belief that pervades to this day, and not just on the mother continent: that being born a girl means you lose in life.

"Dr. Biden has been a role model, not only in the education field but with everything that she's done in her capacity as first lady," she said. "That gives hope to girls who can grow up knowing that there's many roles that they can take on as adults, and they can move into fields that might have been denied to them; they might be able to get education."
Kosovo and Serbia have agreed to back a proposed European Union plan for normalization of relations, but, in a sign of persisting differences about its implementation, stopped short of signing it.

The plan  revealed for the first time publicly Monday evening in Brussels  includes steps to bring the parties closer and resolve some issues such as mutual recognition of respective documents and national symbols, including passports, diplomas, license plates, and customs stamps. It also stipulates that Serbia will not object to Kosovos membership in any international organization.

The document, however, does not call for Serbias recognition of Kosovos statehood.

The talks between Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti were held under the auspices of the European Union. The blocs foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, told reporters after the meeting that progress was made.

"At the same time, more work is needed to ensure that what was accepted today by the parties will be implemented, he said.

Whether the agreement of parties to the document is a significant achievement is not immediately clear, but some analysts are taking an optimistic view.

I think one can confidently say that despite the absence of a signature, the glass is more than half full. I would say it's three-quarters full, Charles Kupchan of the Council on Foreign Relations told VOA. I do feel that the parties have passed through some kind of important political inflection point. They are heading toward the finish line.

The finish line, according to Kupchan, being Serbias recognition of Kosovo.

I think it's safe to say that that formal recognition is the endpoint of this process, Kupchan said, adding that the document is really spelling out how the first phase is going to be conducted and how it will unfold.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Kosovo Greg Delawie told VOA the simple fact of an agreement between Kosovo and Serbia is good news.

Any meeting in which the leaders of Kosovo and Serbia are treated as equals is a positive step.

Devil in the details

But there are questions about how far the proposal goes.

The thorny issue of the creation of an Association of Majority Serbian Municipalities in Kosovo is not explicitly mentioned in the plan and the approach to it by Kosovo and Serbia could determine the speed of the normalization process.

Such an association, first proposed in 2013, would allow communities in Kosovo where ethnic Serbs are in the majority to collectively manage such affairs as economic development, education, health, urban and rural planning in their areas. Serbia sees it as an important protection for the Kosovo Serbs but the Kosovo government worries that it would unduly infringe on the prerogatives of a multiethnic independent country.

The devil is in the details, and we don't know the details, said Kupchan. We do know that the Association is part of the deal and it's a piece of the puzzle that was put into place quite some time ago.

On Tuesday, U.S. envoy for the Western Balkans Gabriel Escobar said Washington supports the agreements laid out in Brussels.

But while it was an important step, the hard work agreeing to an implementation annex still remains and we still want to see two parties move forward on that on an expedited basis, said Escobar, referring to the next step of negotiations.

Borrell on Monday called that step an integral part of completing the deal.

There, say some experts, lies the real issue.

We still have a long way to go before we have an agreement, said David Kanin, adjunct professor of international relations at Johns Hopkins University and a former CIA senior analyst, adding that Mondays agreement to the proposed plan is simply an agreement to try to reach an agreement.

That implementation annexthat's the agreement, he said.

There were signs that the parties may have chosen to ascribe more weight to those aspects of the deal that are most in line with their positions. For Kosovos Prime Minister Kurti, who said he was ready to sign the document, that seems to be the EU plan itself.

But Serbian President Vucic chose to focus on the implementation aspect. He said he insisted, during the meeting, on the creation of the Association of Serb Municipalities, which was called for in previous agreements. According to the European plan, both Parties confirm their obligation to implement all past agreements.

I dont think Kurti was ready to accept that, said Vucic. [Whether] that will be possible in the future, [we] will see.

Kanin of Johns Hopkins says these statements indicate that basic differences remain.

That's the kind of thing they've been saying before about each other in terms of the Serbs insisting on the Association of Serb Municipalities and Kurti saying, No, thats not the priority, Kanin told VOA. They have different priorities and different positions. That hasn't changed.

The EU and the U.S. have been pressing for the creation of the Association, but so far Kosovo has been reluctant, arguing that the establishment of a mono-ethnic community would violate its constitution, destabilizing the state and threatening its functionality.

It will need to be implemented in a manner consistent with Kosovos constitution and with the understanding that it is intended to benefit Kosovos Serbs, not the Serbian government, former Ambassador Delawie said.

As a result, said Kupchan, there needs to be more clarity about how to reconcile some level of autonomy for the Serbian community  the Serbian minority in Kosovo  with the powers of Kosovo's own government.

U.S. envoy Escobar made it clear that, from the U.S. perspective, the creation of the Association of Serb Municipalities is legally binding, and that implementation should begin immediately.

Borrell says the diplomacy will continue, and he is aiming for another round of talks in March.

Daniel Serwer of Johns Hopkins University told VOA that although Kurti does not like the idea of implementing the Association of Serb Municipalities, he has suggested he would implement it under a different name.

Provided Serbia recognizes Kosovo and establishes full diplomatic relations, I think he [Kurti] is correct in believing that implementation of the Association before recognition is a threat to Kosovo's sovereignty and territorial integrity, he said.

Escobar said this particular agreement is about normalization, not recognition. And while the U.S. supports this agreement, it ultimately believes that all the countries of the region should "recognize each other and have ... full and positive relations between each other."

Russias shadow

The renewed diplomatic push to broker a deal between the former foes comes against the backdrop of Russias aggression against Ukraine.

I am very hopeful and our expectations are very high for this agreement, Escobar said on Tuesday. I think what's new is not only the seriousness of both governments, but the seriousness of our European partners to make this happen in the shadow of one of the biggest crises Europe has seen since the Second World War.

Russia has stood by Serbias non-recognition of Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008, and the West wants to steer Serbia  the only country aspiring for EU membership that has not imposed sanctions on Moscow  into its sphere of influence.

Kupchan said Russia looms large in what is transpiring, and, with its aggression in Ukraine, has lost a foothold in the Balkans, making siding with Russia or affiliating with Russia less appealing for Serbia.

[Russias invasion of Ukraine] has expedited U.S. and EU engagement in the region to remove whatever footholds Russia has left, said Kupchan. The more that can be done to resolve outstanding cleavages in the Balkans, the more difficult it will be for Russia to exercise influence.

Keida Kostreci and Milan Nesic reported from Washington, Besim Abazi reported from Brussels.
French President Emmanuel Macron begins a four-nation tour of Africa today amid rising anti-French sentiment that saw French troops recently leave Mali and Burkina Faso. Macron will visit Gabon, Angola, the Republic of Congo, and the Democratic Republic of Congo amid a growing regional opposition to French involvement and support for closer ties with Russia.

Days before his departure, Macron announced France would be taking on a more deferential relationship with Africa that would require France to assume a profound humility in its dealings with the continent. As part of the new strategy, French military bases in Africa will transform into military academies while others will eventually be co-run with African partners.

Two of the countries Macron plans to visit  Gabon and the Republic of Congo  are former French colonies.

For a long time France has been the object of criticism and rejection because its position has always been one of dominance, said Mahamoudou Savadogo, a security expert with Granada Consulting in Burkina Faso. But there is a new opportunity to be had. There are youth who have never known colonization and theres a new paradigm that France must consider in order to improve their relationship with other states.

Frances military withdrawal from Africa will allow its former colonies to finally assume full statehood, he added.

But as France has distanced itself from the continent, other parties have moved in. Private Russian military group Wagner has established a presence in Mali and the Central African Republic, where it has been accused of atrocities such as torture, rape and executions.

Aguibou Bouare is president of the National Human Rights Commission of Mali. He acknowledged the accusations against the Wagner Group but said it was up to the state to carry out an independent investigation to evaluate the allegations.

For me, a country does not have friends  it has interests, he said. And any partner that can help us fight terrorism is encouraged. Im not concerned about who that partner is.



Deaths linked to Islamist militants on the continent skyrocketed by nearly 50 percent in the last year to more than 19,000 people, much of it in the western Sahel region, according to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies.

Wagners arrival in Francophone Africa is the result of Frances failed Africa policies, said Ahmat Yacoub Dabio, president of the Center for Development and Prevention of Extremism in Chad.

France has always supported African dictatorships. It has always turned a blind eye to human rights violations. And France hasnt made the effort to radically change its policies.

France would do better to support Africa via health, infrastructure and education projects, Dabio added.

In his speech, Macron said he did not accept responsibility for the worsening security crisis in Mali and that he would not let France become a scapegoat.
U.S. lawmakers began a wide-ranging two-year investigation into U.S. strategic competition with China Tuesday night, with testimony from Chinese human rights activists and former U.S. national security advisers.

The start of the probe came two weeks after the United States shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon off the South Carolina coast.

This is an existential struggle over what life will look like in the 21st century. And the most fundamental freedoms are at stake, said Republican Congressman Mike Gallagher, chair of the 24-member House Select Committee on Strategic Competition with China. The CCP [Chinese Communist Party] is laser-focused on its vision for the future, a world crowded with techno totalitarian surveillance states where human rights are subordinate to the whims of the party.

Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top Democrat on the committee, highlighted the need for bipartisan cooperation.

We must recognize that the CCP wants us to be fractious, partisan and prejudiced, Krishnamoorthi said. In fact, the CCP hopes for it. But what they don't get is that the diversity of our viewpoints and backgrounds is not a bug in America's operating system. It is our defining feature and strength.

Former national security advisers who served during the administration of President Donald Trump warned lawmakers at the hearing Tuesday that the United States must make up ground with China.

United States and other nations across the free world underwrote the erosion of their competitive advantages through the transfer of capital and technology to a strategic competitor, H.R. McMaster told the committee.

President Joe Biden said earlier this year that the United States is in competition with China, not in conflict. But witnesses told the panel that China sees the relationship differently.

There's really no excuse anymore for being fooled about Beijing's intentions, former deputy national security adviser Matthew Pottinger said. And the canon of Chairman Xis publicly available statements is too voluminous, and the accumulated actions of his regime to brazen, to be misunderstood this late hour.

The committees wide-ranging exploration will allow for new perspectives on security threats. Republican Congressman Dan Newhouse told VOA he is concerned about Chinese land purchases in agricultural areas of the United States.

Can you imagine anything more precarious than having our food supply  perhaps only a link in that food supply chain  being compromised in a potential conflict with someone that is not our friend? said Newhouse, who is co-sponsoring legislation on the matter.

Members of the committee also told VOA that Chinas surveillance balloon is only a small part of the security threat.

It's literally every day on the phones of Americans, and that the threat doesn't end there  China is a massive military threat, Republican Congressman Dusty Johnson said. Their navy is larger, and many argue more powerful, than America's. They have more intercontinental ballistic missile launchers than the United States does. Their capabilities and things like hypersonics far outstrip where America is today.

While the first hearing focused on security concerns, the committees work is expected to address a wide range of issues in the relationship  from economic and agricultural competition to the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The committee is considering hearings outside Capitol Hill for a firsthand look at possible threats to critical infrastructure.
Nigeria's electoral commission has declared ruling party candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu the winner of Saturday's presidential election. The announcement comes a day after opposition candidates called the election a "sham" and demanded a revote.

In the early morning announcement broadcast on state-run National Television Authority, Nigeria's Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Bola Ahmed Tinubu the next president of Nigeria.

INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu said Tinubu, the ruling All Progressives Congress party candidate, received almost 8.8 million votes to win the most hotly contested race since Nigeria became a democracy.

His main challengers were Peoples Democratic Party candidate Atiku Abubakar and Labor Party candidate Peter Obi.

Yakubu said Abubakar, a former vice president, won nearly seven million votes, while Obi, a former governor of southeast Anambra State, took more than six million.

Supporters celebrated the victory of 70-year-old Tinubu, a former governor of Nigerias economic capital Lagos, who is often called a political godfather.

But opposition supporters are not celebrating.

Abuja resident Augustine Ameh woke up to the news and said that, I'm really not excited about the outcome of the presidential elections because I feel that a lot of Nigerians were not given the opportunity to speak out with their votes.

I feel this is not a victory for Nigeria, Ameh added. This is a victory for a select few.

Tinubu gave an acceptance speech in the capital, Abuja, calling for all Nigerians, including the opposition, to unite for the country.

But opposition leaders Tuesday called the election a sham and demanded a revote after technical and staff delays that saw voting continue into Sunday and a slow tally of votes.

They allege voter suppression and vote manipulation and are expected to officially challenge the results in court.

The INEC says about 25 million Nigerians out of 87 million eligible voters cast their ballots in the election  the lowest number in decades.
Russia said Wednesday it would only agree to extend the Black Sea grain deal, which allows grain to be safely exported from Ukrainian ports, if the interests of its own agricultural producers are considered.

The Black Sea Grain Initiative, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey last year, expires on March 18 and cannot be extended unless all parties agree. Russia has already signaled it is unhappy with aspects of the deal.

Russia's agricultural exports have not been explicitly targeted by Western sanctions, but Moscow says restrictions on its payments, logistics and insurance industries are a "barrier" to it being able to export its own grains and fertilizers.

Moscow's foreign ministry said on Wednesday that Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had discussed the prospects for renewing the deal at a meeting with his Turkish counterpart on the sidelines of the G-20 in New Delhi.

"[The] Russian side stressed that continuing the package agreement on grain is possible only if the interests of Russian agricultural and fertilizer producers in terms of unhindered access to world markets are taken into account," the ministry said in a statement.
Security experts are meeting this week in Senegal to discuss the fight against rising violent extremism in Africa, particularly in the Sahel region, where Islamist militant attacks are increasing at an alarming rate.

Over the last decade, an abundance of resources in the form of military personnel and dollars have poured into the fight against militant violence in Africa. Scores of conferences, forums and training exercises have been held to discuss causes and solutions.

The problem has not only persisted but has gotten worse.

Deaths linked to Islamist militants on the continent skyrocketed by nearly 50 percent in the last year to more than 19,000 people, much of it in the western Sahel region, according to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies. The violence has also expanded geographically, trickling into new regions, such as West African coastal states and the Lake Chad Basin.

It is no secret that the security situation in West and Central Africa continues to deteriorate, said Giovanie Biha, head of the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel, in a speech that kicked off the meeting. Terrorist groups continue to exploit the multifaceted challenges facing the region, notably its environmental, political and socioeconomic weaknesses and inequalities.

A regional challenge demands a regional response, she added. It has been proven that no country can effectively combat violent extremism and terrorism alone.

In 2015, the United Nations launched the Prevention of Violent Extremism program to counter militant violence. This weeks meeting will examine that plan and determine how individual regions and states can better implement its strategies.

The meeting is being organized by the U.N. Office for West Africa and the Sahel, the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs and Senegals Center for Advanced Studies in Defense and Security.

Albert Kan-Dapaah is the minister of national security in Ghana. He says it is the only West African coastal state that has not recorded any extremist attacks.

Though Kan-Dapaah admits he cant be sure why Ghana has managed to elude violence, he said the country implemented a national framework based on the U.N. plan after it was released.

[A countrys response] should not be something that is exclusive to the government in power  it never works, Kan-Dapaah said in a speech at the conference. You need to involve the minority parties, you need to involve the civil society organizations, you need to involve women organizations and also the youth.

Part of Ghanas effort to prevent attacks involved supplying communities that were vulnerable to radicalization with resources such as potable water, schools and clinics, Kan-Dapaah said.

A report released last month by the U.N. Development Program found that 25 percent of people whove joined terrorist groups in sub-Saharan Africa did so primarily out of the need for employment  nearly quadruple the number who did so in 2017. Those citing religion as the main reason decreased by 57 percent to just 17 percent of recruits.

Each state has their own individual strategy and solution to a transnational problem. But in the fight against terrorism you need to forget about borders, said Mahamoudou Savadogo, a security expert with Granada Consulting in Burkina Faso. So long as there is no union between states, so long as theres no clear dialogue, and so long as theres no region or continent-wide response, its going to be difficult.

The conference continues through Thursday.
Over the past three months, hundreds of young girls attending different schools in Iran have become overpowered by what are believed to be noxious fumes wafting into their classrooms, with some ending up weakened on hospital beds.

Officials in Iran's theocracy initially dismissed these incidents, but now describe them as intentional attacks involving about 30 schools identified in local media reports, with some speculating they could be aimed at trying to close schools for girls in this country of more than 80 million people.

The reported attacks come at a sensitive time for Iran, which has faced months of protests after the September death of Mahsa Amini following her arrest by the country's morality police.

The authorities have not named suspects, but the attacks have raised fears that girls could be poisoned apparently just for seeking an education, something that hasnt been challenged since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iran also has been calling on the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan to allow girls and women return to school.

The first cases emerged in late November in Qom, some 125 kilometers southwest of Iran's capital, Tehran. There, in a heartland of Shiite theologians and pilgrims, students at the Noor Yazdanshahr Conservatory fell ill in November. They fell ill again in December.

Other cases followed, with children complaining about headaches, heart palpitations, feeling lethargic or otherwise unable to move. Some described smelling tangerines, chlorine or cleaning agents.

At first, authorities didn't link the cases. It's winter in Iran, where temperatures often drop below freezing at night. Many schools are heated by natural gas, leading to speculation it could be carbon monoxide poisoning affecting the girls. The country's education minister initially dismissed the reports.

At first the schools affected only taught young women, fueling suspicion it wasn't accidental. At least one case followed in Tehran, with others in Qom and Boroujerd. At least one boys' school has been targeted as well.

Slowly, officials began taking the claims seriously. Iran's prosecutor-general ordered an investigation, saying "there are possibilities of deliberate criminal acts." Iran's Intelligence Ministry reportedly investigated as well.

On Sunday, Iran's state-run IRNA news agency filed multiple stories with officials acknowledging the scope of the crisis.

"After several poisonings of students in Qom schools, it was found that some people wanted all schools, especially girls' schools, to be closed," IRNA quoted Younes Panahi, a deputy health minister, as saying.

A Health Ministry spokesman, Pedram Pakaieen, said the poisoning didn't come from a virus or a microbe. Neither elaborated further.

Ali Reza Monadi, a national parliament member who sits on its education committee, described the poisonings as intentional.

The "existence of the devil's will to prevent girls from education is a serious danger and it is considered a very bad news," he said, according to IRNA. "We have to try to find roots" of this.

Parents have pulled their students from classes, in effect shuttering some schools in Qom in recent weeks, according to a report by Shargh, a reformist news website based in Tehran. On Tuesday, another suspected attack reportedly occurred targeting a girls' school in Pardis on the eastern outskirts of Tehran.

The poisonings come as getting verifiable information out of Iran remains difficult given the crackdown on all dissent stemming from the protests and internet slowdowns put in place by the government. At least 95 journalists have been arrested by authorities since the start of the protests, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

Overall, the security force crackdown has killed at least 530 people and seen 19,700 others detained, according to human rights activists in Iran.

Attacks on women have happened in the past in Iran, most recently with a wave of acid attacks in 2014 around Isfahan, at the time believed to have been carried out by hard-liners targeting women for how they dressed. But even in the chaos surrounding the Islamic Revolution, no one targeted schoolgirls for attending classes.

Jamileh Kadivar, a prominent former reformist lawmaker and journalist, wrote in Tehran's Ettelaat newspaper that as many as 400 students have fallen ill in the poisonings.

She warned "subversive opposition" groups could be behind the attacks. However, she also raised the possibility of "domestic extremists" who "aim to replace the Islamic Republic with a caliphate or a Taliban-type Islamic emirate."

She cited a supposed communique from a group calling itself Fidayeen Velayat that purportedly said, "the study of girls is considered haram" and threatened to "spread the poisoning of girls throughout Iran" if girls' schools remain open.

Iranian officials have not acknowledged any group called Fidayeen Velayat, which roughly translates to English as "Devotees of the Guardianship." However, Kadivar's mention of the threat in print comes as she remains influential within Iranian politics and has ties to its theocratic ruling class. The head of Ettelaat newspaper also is appointed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Another prominent reformist politician, Azar Mansouri, also linked the suspected poisoning attacks to hardline groups, referencing the Isfahan acid attacks.

"We said the acid attacks were organized. You said: 'You are disturbing public opinion!'" Mansouri wrote online. "If operatives of the attacks were identified and punished then, today a group of reactionaries would not have ganged up on our innocent girls in the schools."

Activists also worry this could be a disturbing new trend in the country.

"This is a very fundamentalist thinking surfacing in society," said Hadi Ghaemi, the executive director of the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran. "We have no idea how widespread this group is but the fact they have been able to carry it out with such impunity is so troubling."
"Come Out, Ye Black and Tans" is sort-of quintessential example of what you might call Irish Rebel Songs. With lyrics attributed to Dominic Behan, the tune is sort of a pissing match aimed at the Royal Irish Constabularies, the British police force in Ireland during the War of Independence. Colloquially called "the Tans" because of the color of the uniforms, Behan's song is not a fight call aimed between the eyes of the authorities, it's also a triumphant challenge against the entire structure of British colonialism. "Show your wives how you won medals down in Flanders!" Behan spits at his centrist neighbors who uphold the status quo by supporting British war efforts overseas. He links the Irish struggle to the Palestinians, the Native Americans, and the Zulus as well  other peoples who were scoffed at and spit upon by British occupying forces, who believed themselves to be mentally superior just because they had bigger guns. ("How bravely you faced one with your sixteen-pounder gun, when you frightened them poor natives to their marrow")

Basically what I'm saying is that Behan was singing "Fuck the Police" long before NWA was born.

And so, to celebrate the release of my new Irish folk album Forfocseic, Vol. 3: Love & War  out today on Bandcamp, with Spotify / Apple Music / etc to follow on March 10  I decided to mash the two songs up into a single rousing anthem. I had recorded an earlier version back in 2019; despite the fact that I cranked the whole thing out in a single afternoon as a half-assed joke, it's somehow become my most popular song on streaming services. So clearly, the connection that I've drawn between these songs has hit a nerve!

For this newer, fully-fleshed out studio recording, I've enlisted the violin work of journalist and former Wirecutter Editor-in-Chief Jacqui Cheng, as well as live drumming by Craig Wesley Divino (who, coincidentally, will be appearing on the upcoming third season of Hulu's Wu-Tang series). I also added a nod to a song by KNEECAP, a fantastic Irish-language hip-hop group from Belfast who themselves have no love for the cops in the still-occupied Northern Irish area.

You can check out "Come Out, Ye Black & Tans (NWA/C.E.A.R.T.A. Remix)" above, or listen to the rest of the album below (which includes a more traditional, non-mashed-up take on the tune as well). And please, check out this and the rest of my Forfocseic Irish folk albums on whatever music service you prefer!
A Turkish court on Tuesday sentenced a journalist to 10 months in prison for spreading disinformation, handing down the first jail term under a new law that critics say threatens free speech.

The court's decision comes four months after parliament passed a "disinformation law" that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK Party said would protect the public against the spread of false or misleading information.

Sinan Aygul, a journalist in eastern Turkey's Bitlis province, was detained early in December after he wrote on Twitter that a 14-year-old girl had allegedly been sexually abused by men including police officers and soldiers.

He retracted the posts and apologized for writing them without confirming the story with authorities but was later arrested. He was released from pretrial arrest 10 days later.

In the first hearing of the case on Tuesday, a local court sentenced Aygul to 10 months in prison, ruling that he had disseminated misleading information that could lead to fear and panic among the public, according to a court document.

Aygul will remain at liberty pending an appeal against the sentence.

The law carries a jail sentence of up to three years for anyone who spreads false or misleading information. Erdogan's AK Party and its nationalist ally MHP said it aimed to combat disinformation.

Turkish opposition parties and critics said the law could be abused by authorities to muzzle dissident voices.

Turkey is among the top jailers of journalists, according to a report by the Committee to Protect Journalists released in December. The number of journalists behind bars in Turkey rose from 18 in 2021 to 40 in 2022, and this number is the highest in the world after Iran, China and Myanmar, the CPJ said.
South Korea should more explicitly support Ukraines fight against Russia, the Ukrainian ambassador to Seoul told VOA, renewing a push for South Korean weapons that could play a pivotal role in helping Ukraine regain lost territory.

In a written exchange with VOA, Ambassador Dmytro Ponomarenko expressed gratitude for the humanitarian aid South Korea has provided but stressed that Ukraine remains in dire need of heavy weapons that Seoul could offer.

Regrettably, South Korea is still reluctant to provide our military with the weapons they need on the frontline, Ponomarenko said.

Since Russias invasion a year ago, Ukraine has regularly made public pleas for South Korea to provide weapons. But the situation has grown more urgent as Russia pushes its offensive in eastern Ukraine, where both sides are seeing ammunition shortages.

We need uninterrupted and timely deliveries of heavily armored vehicles, artillery and air defense systems, ammunition and equipment of NATO standards to be able to continue counter-offensive operations, Ponomarenko said.

South Korea is among the worlds largest weapons exporters and has recently aligned itself closer with the West. But Seoul has not approved the sale or donation of weapons to Ukraine, citing domestic laws that strictly regulate sending arms to war zones.

Instead, South Korea has sent Ukraine several batches of non-lethal military aid, such as bulletproof vests, helmets and medical supplies. It recently announced plans to send Ukraine $130 million in humanitarian assistance on top of the $100 million it sent last year.

Ponomarenko urged South Korea to go much further, saying the provision of weapons would be consistent with South Koreas democratic ideals and status as a global pivotal state.

Sitting on the fence and pretending to be neutral does not help either the one who chooses such a path or the cause of peace as a whole, Ponomarenko said.

South Korea urged to 'step up'

Pressure on South Korea to do more has intensified as Western countries struggle to produce enough artillery for Ukraine. South Korea is seen as an ideal arms supplier, given its reputation for quickly delivering weapons that are high quality and relatively inexpensive.

During a January visit to Seoul, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg pressed South Korea to "step up" its military aid to Ukraine, noting several European countries had changed their weapons export policies following Russias invasion.

At a press conference last week marking the one-year anniversary of the war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy echoed Stoltenbergs call for South Korea to provide arms.

The same day, Zelenskyys senior aide, Mykhailo Podolyak, told South Koreas Hankook Ilbo newspaper that negotiations are underway for South Korea to provide Ukraine with weapons, though he did not elaborate.

The report has not been confirmed by either side. A spokesperson for South Koreas defense ministry said Monday that Seoul's policy on providing lethal aid to Ukraine has not changed.

Finding workarounds

South Korea has instead found indirect ways to help Ukraines military, including by approving the sale of massive quantities of South Korean-made weapons to countries that are arming Ukraine.

The most notable example came last year, when Poland, a major arms supplier for Ukraine, agreed to purchase $5.8 billion in South Korean weapons, including tanks, howitzers, and ammunition.

In November, the United States announced plans to purchase 100,000 artillery shells from South Korean arms makers. South Koreas military insisted the deal was reached under the premise that the United States was the end user, but several U.S. media reported the shells were to be delivered to Ukraine.

"It's becoming difficult for South Korea to argue that its weapons aren't getting to Ukraine, or that they won't get there," said Ramon Pacheco Pardo, a Korea specialist at Kings College London.

In recent months, South Korea has also begun providing Ukraine with direct forms of non-lethal aid that have raised suspicions in Moscow.

In December, South Korea sent Ukraine 100 civilian pickup trucks made by SsangYong, a South Korean carmaker, as part of a humanitarian donation.

Following the donation, the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC), a research group affiliated with Moscows foreign ministry, suggested Ukraines military intended to mount rocket launchers on the vehicles for use as what it called jihad-mobiles.

Ponomarenko denied those allegations, saying the trucks were given to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, a non-military agency that focuses on rescue services. The trucks will be used for demining works but not for carrying rockets or any other lethal weaponry, he added.

Asked about the possibility of other indirect forms of military aid, Ponomarenko said Ukraine was open to different forms of cooperation with Korean partners but declined to elaborate.

Moscows response

Even with indirect South Korean support for Ukraine, Russia still is not happy. Last March, Moscow placed Seoul on a list of unfriendly nations. In October, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned South Korea that providing arms to Ukraine will destroy our relations.

Russia has also condemned South Koreas decision to join Western-led sanctions on Moscow, saying such moves will hurt bilateral ties and may impact Russias involvement in peace efforts with North Korea.

Moscow, though, may lack leverage on those fronts, since it is not one of South Koreas major trading partners and Pyongyang has already repeatedly ruled out talks with Seoul.

However RIAC, the Kremlin-linked research organization, warned in January that Russia may retaliate by providing arms to North Korea under the guise of humanitarian aid. It specifically mentioned the possibility of Russia exporting large logging trucks, which North Korea could convert into missile-launching vehicles.

Domestic skepticism

But one of the biggest obstacles to South Korea providing weapons to Ukraine is at home.

Only 15% of South Koreans support sending weapons to Ukraine, according to a poll conducted last June by Gallup Korea.

Many of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeols loudest critics in the National Assembly, the countrys legislature, worry about South Korean involvement in Ukraine.

When Zelenskyy last April delivered a virtual speech to the National Assembly to ask for more South Korean help, only around 60 out of 300 lawmakers attended, with some leaving the room during the event.

A Seoul-based diplomat from a NATO country last month told VOA he did not expect a major shift from South Korea anytime soon.

I hope Im wrong, said the diplomat, who asked his name not be used as he was not authorized to speak to the media.
A Ukrainian colonel and his team of volunteers have destroyed three attack drones that Russia launched on Kyiv, shooting them down with ancient Red Army machine guns.

"The first drone was in October. It flew during the day, so it was clearly visible. We opened fire on it when it entered our sector," said the colonel, whose call sign, "Smak," means "zest."

Russia has been sending waves of Iranian Shahed drones across the country in recent months, many targeting power networks. Unlike cruise missiles, they fly relatively slowly, and their small engine is noisy, so soldiers can track them by sight and sound.

"The other two flew on the night of January 1, after New Years. It was dark, but our colleagues shone spotlights and used thermal imaging cameras, so we spotted them and shot them down. I personally shot at them with a machine gun," said Smak, a gray-bearded 49-year-old.

He leads a team of 80 civilian volunteers, some retired and others working, who keep watch for drones day and night. There are around a dozen such units monitoring the sky above Kyiv as part of the territorial defense force.

Smak's team is based in a small, ground-floor room in a building under construction on the outskirts of Kyiv. At 8 o'clock local time each night, a fresh group arrives for a shift change.

If the air raid sirens sound, they jump in cars and race to a nearby hill, where they take up firing positions to try to shoot down any drones approaching the city.

Tracer bullets

The group is equipped with Kalashnikovs and two Degtyaryov machine guns, originally used by the Soviet Red Army in the late 1920s, which have a distinctive, large round magazine and are featured in the hit video game Call of Duty.

Deputy commander Mykola, 50, said many units across the country monitor drones entering the country's airspace and pass on the information.

The drones are being fired from the Black Sea to the south or from the Russian border to the east.

Since October, Ukraine has been building up its air defenses, with Western allies pledging and supplying modern anti-air missile systems capable of shooting down numerous missiles and drones. Russia's attacks also have become less frequent and heavy.

"At the moment we aren't getting that many alerts. It's a more or less calm period," Mykola said.

During this lull, he used a tablet to keep an eye on an electronic map that showed drone attacks in real time, while a walkie-talkie crackled on his desk.

"Two Shaheds destroyed in Dnipro," he announced at one point, referring to the eastern Ukrainian city.

Sitting on a sofa, a 19-year-old computer science student, who gave his name as Valdemar, was taking apart and cleaning one of the unit's Degtyaryov guns, while his 56-year-old father, "Customs," cleaned a Kalashnikov.

The nightly curfew begins at 11 o'clock local time. On this recent night, it was quiet in Kyiv, with no sirens sounding.

'Fog is the worst'

To kill time, Smak moved miniature figures around on a board, playing a British strategy game called "Blood Bowl" online with his 13-year-old son in the Netherlands.

Volunteers slept on beds and in chairs, while Mykola stayed on watch until 5 a.m., when the team woke up with coffee in the freezing cold.

To stay sharp, some of the team went up to the hill with their guns and took up positions as practice.

In a dugout, Valdemar aimed the long barrel of the Degtyaryov machine gun toward the south.

"The worst thing is the fog," he said, "when you can hear the drone flying but you can't see it, and then you hear it hit a target."

"We are the last line of defense," said Mykola, binoculars around his neck.
The Biden administration official with direct responsibility for the U.S. Army laid out in surprising detail this week a multi-pronged strategy for deterring, and if necessary, prevailing in any future war with China.

I personally am not of the view that an amphibious invasion of Taiwan is imminent, U.S. Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth told an audience at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) on Monday. But we obviously have to prepare, to be prepared to fight and win that war.

Elements of the plan include placing more troops in Asia and arming them with upgraded equipment, including ship-to-shore vessels and hypersonic weapons, much of which will be pre-positioned in the region.

Our goal is to avoid fighting a land war in Asia, Wormuth said. I think the best way to avoid fighting that war is by showing China and countries in that region we can actually win that war.

Key components of 'campaigning'

Wormuth laid out three key components of what she called campaigning by the U.S. Army to deter such a war, beginning with coalition building with foreign allies and partners to complicate the Chinese leaderships decision-making.

Secondly, she said, the Army is looking at building theater distribution centers in the region to stockpile supplies and fuel, starting, potentially, with Australia. Wormuth also named Japan as a potential site, and she suggested that non-lethal equipment might be stored in the Philippines and Singapore.

The third element of the deterrence campaign is to place visible, combat-credible, forces in the region, Wormuth said. Our goal is to have Army forces in the Indo-Pacific seven to eight months out of the year.

Should deterrence fail, Wormuth told the AEI audience, the U.S. Army, which she calls the linchpin force, has five core tasks.

First of all, its going to be our job to establish, then build up, then secure and protect, staging bases for the Navy, for the Marines, for the Air Force, and thats why were really building out integrated air and missile defense capabilities, for example, to be able to protect those kinds of staging bases that are going to be key, she said.

The second core task is sustaining the joint force, and thats where those theater distribution centers come into play. We offer the opportunity to provide secure communications to the broader force, to again provide intra-theater sustainment, to set up munition stockpiles, setting up forward air refueling points, protecting them.

All of the above is going to be critically important, she said, given the vast distances were looking at.

Wormuth said the Army is also expanding its fleet of watercraft, noting a watercraft company will be established in Japan. A company-sized military unit could have anywhere from a few dozen to 200 soldiers.

The Army currently reports having a fleet of 132 such watercraft, suitable for ferrying troops and equipment from deep-water vessels to beaches and shorelines, as well as conducting towing and salvage operations.

Wormuth said the Armys fourth key task, already underway, is to update its arsenal and develop other capabilities traditionally not normally associated with a land-based force.

Weve actually got our first battery of long-range hypersonic weapons, she said, adding she expects this battery to be in service by autumn and become part of the Armys first multi-domain task force.

And the last thing we do, of course, is to provide counter-attack forces if theyre needed, she said. Theres a lot of discussion on how that would work in which different scenarios.

Wormuth pointed out another critical role for the Army should a conflict break out with China  that of defending the American homeland.

If we got into a major war with China, the United States homeland would be at risk as well, with both kinetic attacks and non-kinetic attacks, she said. Whether its cyberattacks on the power grids, or on pipelines, the United States Army, I have no doubt, will be called to provide defense support to civil authorities.

This critical function of the Army, Wormuth said, is often put as an asterisk, that is as an afterthought, which is a mistake, she said.

The Chinese military are going to go after the will of the United States public, theyre going to try to erode support for a conflict, she said. I think the Army will play a role here at home.

Asked by VOA whether she believes Americans are prepared to sustain the level of casualties that could be expected in a war with China, she said she believes they are willing to fight for their homeland and ideals if and when it becomes necessary, like we did in World War II.

Ultimately, she said, land power is staying power, thats what were about.
The United States has donated more than 60 tons of weapons and ammunition to the Somali National Army, or SNA, to boost ongoing operations against the militant group al-Shabab and for future training of an elite infantry unit, according to the U.S. Embassy in Mogadishu.

A statement from the embassy Wednesday said the weapons arrived in Mogadishu's international airport aboard two U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo planes that were greeted by Somalia's minister of defense and chief of defense forces, as well as Embassy Mogadishu Charge d'Affaires Tim Trinkle.

According to the U.S. statement, the weapons included "Sixty-one tons of AK-47s, heavy machine guns, and ammunition."

"This military assistance will support the current SNA operations against al-Shabab in Galmadug and Jubaland States and the next intake of the SNA Danab Advanced Infantry Brigade, for which the recruitment process has already started," said the statement.

The State Department has also offered a new $5 million reward for information leading to the "identification or location" of al-Shabab spokesman Ali Mohamed Rage.

Rage, also known as Ali Dheere, has been the group's chief spokesperson since 2009. The State Department said he has been involved in the planning of militant attacks in Kenya and Somalia.

The Somali National Army, working with various local clan militias, launched an offensive in central Somalia last year that has succeeded in wrestling back control of numerous towns and villages that had been controlled by al-Shabab, which ran them with its customary harsh brand of Islamic law.

Analysts have warned that Somalia's national and state governments must maintain security and provide economic aid in the recaptured areas to keep them from sliding back into militant control.

That issue came up this week as representatives of Qatar, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. met in Washington to discuss Somalia's security, state-building, development, and humanitarian priorities.

The U.S. State Department said Tuesday that the participants expressed support for the Somali government's focus on counterterrorism and capacity building.

"The partners agreed to strengthen coordination of international security assistance, and the importance of ensuring timely delivery of stabilization assistance to newly liberated areas," the statement said.

The statement added that the participants are committed to support Somalia's efforts to meet the benchmarks on weapons and ammunition management to enable the U.N. Security Council to fully lift the arms controls on the Federal Government of Somalia.

The Council has so far declined to lift a longstanding arms embargo on Somalia for fear that weapons could fall into the hands of militants or other non-governmental actors.

The U.S. Embassy said the weapons that arrived Tuesday in Mogadishu "are marked and registered pursuant to the Federal Government of Somalia's Weapons and Ammunition Management policy, designed to account for and control weapons within the Somali security forces and weapons captured on the battlefield."

In an interview with VOA Somali Service, Somalia's State Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Ali Mohamed Omar said this week's meeting in Washington was "fruitful."

"Our goal was to submit our requests to our partners such as training, logistics, stabilization resources, humanitarian, and development, and our partners' goal was to discuss how to better support Somalia, including the fight against al-Shabab," said Omar.

"We are waiting for their response to our needs and the assistance we have asked as well as decisions regarding increasing the coordination of their support to Somalia," he added.

"A very productive meeting," Somalia's national security adviser, Hussein Sheikh-Ali, tweeted after the Washington gathering.

VOA Somali Service's Falastine Iman contributed to the report.
In a bid to outcompete China technologically, the Biden administration on Tuesday launched a new dialogue forum with Japan and South Korea on friend-shoring semiconductors as it invites companies to compete for a share of the $50 billion already approved to revitalize the U.S. chip industry.

The inaugural meeting of the Economic Security Dialogue among the United States, Japan and South Korea was launched Tuesday in Honolulu. Japan and South Korea are home to two of the world's strongest semiconductor industries, and the forum aims to address issues related to critical and emerging technologies, supply chain resilience of semiconductors, batteries and critical minerals, as well as data transparency amid the U.S.-China tech war.

Also Tuesday, the administration launched the first CHIPS for America funding opportunity  an invitation for companies to compete for a share of the $50 billion approved by Congress under the CHIPS Act last year, specifically the $39 billion allocated to fund the construction of new and expanded domestic manufacturing semiconductor facilities.

Much of the funds will be used by the few companies already producing the world's most advanced chips  including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), Samsung Electronics and Micron Technology  to ramp up their production capacity in the United States.

As the Biden administration aims to constrain Beijing's semiconductor industry, there are hurdles to overcome, including whether Seoul will be willing to join Washington's ban on exports of advanced chip-making equipment to China that Japan and the Netherlands have recently agreed to join. Both are home to companies that are global leaders in chip manufacturing technologies.

There is also concern that Washington's moves to reshape the global semiconductor ecosystem might weaken Taiwan's semiconductor industry, which Taipei believes to be one of its strongest security guarantees to deter an invasion by Beijing.

Tri-country dialogue

The economic security dialogue is an expansion of the trilateral cooperation among Indo-Pacific partners that previously focused largely on the North Korean nuclear threat. The terms of the partnership were laid on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Phnom Penh in November 2022.

The dialogue is an important forum for Washington as it seeks to build a unified front with partners to restrict sales of advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China. A key issue will be where Seoul stands on the U.S. export control ban enacted by the Biden administration in October 2022, said Gregory Allen, director of the artificial intelligence governance project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"What if the United States and Japan stopped selling certain types of advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China, and the South Korean industry moves in to fill that gap?" he told VOA. "That's the sort of scenario that both the United States and Japan want to avoid."

Seoul is also seeking clarity on how the rules stemming from the export control ban might impact South Korean companies that are running significant semiconductor manufacturing operations in China. South Korea has received a one-year exemption, as details of how the ban might be implemented are still being worked out.

Much work still needs to be done in getting Japanese and South Korean industries to buy into Biden's strategy of cutting off chips to China, said Samantha Howell, a research assistant with the technology and national security program at the Center for a New American Security.

"China is a really big market for Japanese and South Korean companies, so there's a little bit of hesitation to pull out of that market or even restrict involvement in that market, because it could potentially harm these companies financially," she told VOA. "There's also fear, particularly in South Korea, about potential retaliation from China should South Korea get on board with U.S. export controls."

Last week, senior officials from the U.S., South Korea, Japan and Taiwan held a virtual preliminary meeting for the Biden administration's proposed Chip 4 initiative designed to stabilize semiconductor supply chains, including by setting up an early warning system to prevent disruptions, potentially including chipmaking raw materials and manufacturing equipment.

Meanwhile, China is ramping up its own domestic chip capacity. It is reportedly planning on a massive $140 billion package to bolster self-sufficiency and counter U.S. moves.

Earlier this month, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Washington has "overstretched the concept of national security, abused export control measures, disrupted normal economic and trade activities, and destabilized global industrial and supply chains" to maintain economic and technological supremacy.

Taiwan concerns

As part of the U.S.-led push to secure global chip supply chains, TSMC has agreed to invest $40 billion to build semiconductor plants in Arizona. The facilities are scheduled to be operational in 2024 and are among the largest foreign investments in U.S. history.

However, as producer of more than 90% of the world's most advanced semiconductors, some in Taiwan are concerned that moving its production to the U.S. and elsewhere may weaken one of the island's most important geopolitical assets known as the "silicon shield."

Theoretically, the silicon shield protects Taiwan from a Chinese military invasion in two ways. First, China depends on TSMC to produce the bulk of the chips it needs for its consumer electronics industry, linking Beijing's bottom line to Taiwan's stability, which may push China toward military restraint. Second, the dependence of major economies, including the U.S. and the European Union, motivates those countries to stand up for Taipei's sovereignty.

Allen said such an acute dependence on one country's chip factories is simply not sustainable. He stressed that with increased digitization globally, Taiwan will remain strategic in any scenario.

"Even if you go from 90% to 75%, Taiwan is still going to be a critical node in the global economy," he said, adding that by having TSMC set up production operations in the U.S., Taiwan will grow the overall number of computer chips that it produces even as its share of the global market is reduced.

America's technological leadership

In the coming months, additional funding opportunities for supply chain companies and research and development investments will be announced, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said last week in a speech on the administration's goals to "build a reliable and resilient semiconductor industry that protects America's technological leadership for the coming decades."

"In 1990, the U.S. accounted for 37% of global chip manufacturing capacity," Raimondo said. "Today, that number is only 12%."

The pandemic-induced semiconductor shortage has wreaked havoc on numerous industries, from automobiles to consumer electronics. The U.S. Department of Commerce estimated that the chip shortage caused a 1% decline in the country's 2021 GDP growth.

Paris Huang contributed to this report.
The URL has been copied to your clipboard

The code has been copied to your clipboard.

U.S. lawmakers launched a wide-ranging two-year investigation into U.S. strategic competition with China on Tuesday night, hearing from Chinese human rights activists and former national security advisers. VOAs Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson spoke to several members of the committee about the issues they want investigated moving forward. Videographer: Mary Cieslak
Available funding and new border crossings were still not enough to help quake-hit citizens in Syria's battered northwest, the head of the WHO said on Wednesday, adding he was "disturbed and heartbroken" by a visit to the rebel-held region.

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was speaking to reporters after visiting a hospital in the area, where more than 4,000 people have died as a result of last month's earthquake.

Following the quake, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad allowed the opening of two more crossings with Turkey, bringing the total to three, to allow aid into the region held by his armed opponents.

However, more access  and funding  are still needed, Ghebreyesus said.

"I don't think the existing, the three, will be enough. Any available access should be used," he told reporters in Syria.

He said he did not discuss with local authorities the possibility of aid coming in across front lines from government-held zones. Other U.N. agencies and international aid groups have criticized hardline rebels for rejecting such deliveries.

The U.N. had already struggled to gather funding to address Syria's worsening humanitarian situation before the earthquake hit, and it had secured just half of its 2022 appeal.

The U.N. said it would need nearly $400 million over three months to respond to those affected by the quake in Syria alone.

The opposition-controlled zone in the northwest is home to some 4 million people, many of them displaced by conflict in other parts of their homeland.

Hospitals there are in particularly dire condition, having been hit by airstrikes over the years and facing chronic shortages of equipment.

The U.N. said Syria's needs are now at its highest since the start of the conflict nearly 12 years ago.
WASHINGTON DC - The United States has extended sanctions imposed on some Zanu PF officials and institutions said to be undermining the democratic process in the country.

In a statement, the White house said, The actions and policies of certain members of the Government of Zimbabwe and other persons to undermine Zimbabwe's democratic processes or institutions continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the foreign policy of the United States. For this reason, the national emergency declared on March 6, 2003, and the measures adopted on that date, on November 22, 2005, and on July 25, 2008, to deal with that emergency, must continue in effect beyond March 6, 2023.

Therefore, in accordance with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)), I am continuing for 1 year the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13288.

This notice shall be published in the Federal Register and transmitted to the Congress.

On March 6, 2003, by Executive Order 13288, the president declared a national emergency and blocked the property of certain persons, pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat to the foreign policy of the United States constituted by the actions and policies of certain members of the Government of Zimbabwe and other persons to undermine Zimbabwe's democratic processes or institutions.

These actions and policies had contributed to the deliberate breakdown in the rule of law in Zimbabwe, to politically motivated violence and intimidation in that country, and to political and economic instability in the southern African region.

On November 22, 2005, the president issued Executive Order 13391 to take additional steps with respect to the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13288 by ordering the blocking of property of additional persons undermining democratic processes or institutions in Zimbabwe.

On July 25, 2008, the president issued Executive Order 13469, which expanded the scope of the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13288 and authorized the blocking of property of additional persons undermining democratic processes or institutions in Zimbabwe.

Presidential spokesperson, George Charamba, was unreachable for comment as he was not responding to calls on his mobile phone.

The ruling party has claimed over the years that it is being punished for embarking on the land reform program in 2000. The government seized land belonging to over 4,000 white commercial farmers and parceled it to Zanu PF activists and sympathizers.
Arizona Sate University in Tempe hosts a hip and smart exhibit Lucha Libre: Beyond the Arenas. I really enjoyed seeing all the historical artifacts, photos, costumes and masks, toys, posters and memorabilia alongside the current paintings, photography and other art by recognized Mexican and Chicanx artist.

"In this exhibition, the phenomenon of Lucha Libre transcends the glitz and glamor of the theatrical stage to become a way to investigate themes of the underdog and the hero, identity and performance, and collective resistance to authority."

See it for free in the ASU Art Museum until May 7, 2023.
The URL has been copied to your clipboard

The code has been copied to your clipboard.

A year since Russia invaded Ukraine, the flow of refugees into Poland has slowed, but hundreds still make the journey every day. Among the aid groups welcoming them across the border is a charity staffed by Russian volunteers. Henry Ridgwell reports
The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) has confirmed Minnesotas first presumptive case of novel coronavirus, COVID-19, health officials announced today.

The case is an older adult resident of Ramsey County who recently traveled on a cruise ship with a known COVID-19 case. The patient began to develop symptoms on Feb. 25 and sought health care yesterday. Samples were collected from the person and sent to the MDH Public Health Laboratory for testing today. The test was found positive earlier today. MDH is awaiting confirmatory testing from CDC, but health officials consider the presumptive results actionable.

The patient is currently in quarantine at home and is recovering.

MDH is working with Ramsey County Public Health and health care partners to identify and contact all those who may have come in contact with the infected person. These people will be asked to isolate themselves for 14 days from their exposure and will be monitored for fever and respiratory symptoms.

The State of Minnesota has been working around the clock to prepare for this and I am confident that our Department of Health is up to the challenge, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said. Our Administration is collaborating across state agencies and remains in close contact with both federal and local partners as we monitor developments with this outbreak. Our state is fortunate to have a strong public health sector and world-class health care providers who are working hard to keep Minnesotans safe and healthy.

Minnesota Commissioner of Health Jan Malcolm said the appearance of the virus in Minnesota has been expected. Now is the time to remember that we all have the ability to help slow the spread of the illness and protect our fellow Minnesotans.

State and local public health officials are working hard to slow the spread of this virus and protect Minnesotans, but based on how the outbreak has developed elsewhere we need to be prepared for some level of community spread, Commissioner Malcolm said. It is critical that all of us do our part to slow the spread of this virus by covering coughs, washing hands, and staying home when sick with cold or flu-like symptoms. We also need to prepare for community mitigation measures like telework arrangements and temporary school closures should they become necessary.

Since the outbreak started in China in December 2019, more than 100,000 cases and 3,400 deaths have been reported in more than 80 countries. That total includes 233 U.S. cases and 14 deaths as of this morning.

MDHs Director of Infectious Disease Kris Ehresmann said MDH is working with the CDC and Ramsey County Public Health on the case and contact investigation.

The virus that causes COVID-19 is spread by respiratory droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes, similar to how flu and other respiratory diseases spread, or when people touch surfaces that have been contaminated by an infected person, and then touch their eyes, nose or mouth.

The most important thing Minnesotans can do right now to help protect themselves, their families and their communities is to take those tried and true, everyday steps to prevent respiratory illnesses, Ehresmann said.

Those include:

 Covering your coughs and sneezes with a tissue or into your sleeve, and then throwing the tissue in the trash.

 Washing your hands often with soap and water for 20 seconds, especially after going to the bathroom or before eating. If soap and water are not readily available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol.

 Avoid touching your face  especially your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands.

 Stay home if you have cold or flu-like symptoms, and avoid close contact with people who are sick.

If COVID-19 disease begins to spread in Minnesota communities, state and local public health authorities would consider community interventions such as temporary closures of child care facilities and schools, workplace social distancing measures such as replacing in-person meetings with teleworking, and modifying, postponing or cancelling mass gatherings. Decisions about the implementation of community measures would be made by state and local officials based on CDC guidance as well as the scope of the outbreak. More information about the coronavirus situation in Minnesota, the U.S. and internationally can be found on MDHs Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) website.

A hotline for the public has been established. The hotline is open until 8 p.m. tonight, March 6. It will be open 9 a.m. to 4:30 pm. Saturday and Sunday. The hotline number is 651-201-3920.

KLOBUCHAR RESPONSE

WASHINGTON  Today, U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) released the following statement on the announcement that an individual in Minnesota has tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19):

I have talked to Governor Walz regarding the isolated travel-related case of coronavirus in Minnesota. The state has been preparing for potential cases of coronavirus, and yesterday in the Senate I voted for emergency funding legislation that will deliver at least $10 million in federal resources to Minnesota to combat this virus. Every Minnesotan should follow the advice of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Minnesota Department of Health to prevent the spread of this disease.
The first anniversary of the East-West military confrontation in Ukraine was an opportunity for the West to convince its people that they were "on the right side of history" and that their victory was "inevitable."

None of this is surprising. It is normal for governments to communicate about their activities. Except that here the information is lies by omission and the comments are propaganda. This is such a reversal of reality that one wonders whether the defeated of the Second World War have not come to power in Kiev today.

"Russias illegal, unjustifiable and unprovoked war

All Western interventions claim that we condemn the "illegal, unjustifiable and unprovoked war of Russia" [1]. This is factually wrong.

Lets leave aside the qualification of "unjustifiable". It refers to an indecent moral position. No war is just. Every war is the acknowledgement, not of a fault, but of a failure. Let us examine the qualifier "unprovoked".

According to Russian diplomacy, the problem began with the 2014 US-Canadian operation and the overthrow of the democratically elected Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovych, in violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and thus the UN Charter. There is no denying that Washington was instrumental in this so-called "revolution of dignity": the then Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia, Victoria Nuland, posted herself at the head of the coup plotters.

According to Chinese diplomacy, which has just published two documents on the subject, one should not stop at this operation, but go back to the "Orange Revolution" of 2004, also organized by the United States, to see the first violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and the United Nations Charter. Obviously, if Russia does not mention it, it is because it also played a role in it, which it did not do in 2014.

The Western public is so shocked by the ease with which the United States manipulates mobs and overthrows governments that it is no longer aware of the seriousness of these events. From the overthrow of Mohammad Mossadegh in Iran in 1953 to the overthrow of Serge Sarkissian in Armenia in 2018, it has become accustomed to forced regime changes. Whether the deposed leaders were good or bad should not matter. What is unbearable and inadmissible is that a foreign state organized their overthrow by masking its action behind a few national opponents. These are acts of war, without military intervention.

Facts are stubborn. The war in Ukraine was caused by the violations of Ukrainian sovereignty in 2004 and 2014. These violations were followed by an eight-year civil war.

Nor is war illegal under international law. The UN Charter does not prohibit the use of war. The Security Council even has the possibility of declaring war (articles 39 to 51). This time the particularity is that it opposes permanent members of the Council.

Russia co-signed the Minsk Agreements to end the civil war. However, not having been born yesterday, it understood from the start that the West did not want peace, but war. So she had the Minsk Agreements endorsed by Security Council Resolution 2202, five days after their conclusion, and then forced the Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev to withdraw his men from the Ukrainian Donbass. It attached to the resolution a statement by the presidents of France, Ukraine and Russia, as well as the German chancellor, guaranteeing the implementation of these texts. These four signatories committed their countries.

 Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko declared in the following days that there was no question of giving anything up, but rather of punishing the inhabitants of Donbass.

 Former Chancellor Angela Merkel told Die Zeit [2] that she only wanted to buy time so that NATO could arm the authorities in Kiev. She unknowingly clarified her statement in a discussion with a provocateur she believed to be former President Poroshenko.

 Former President Francois Hollande confirmed in Kyiv Independent the words of Mrs. Merkel [3].

 That left Russia, which implemented a special military operation on February 24, 2022 under its "responsibility to protect". To say that its intervention is illegal is to say, for example, that Frances intervention during the genocide in Rwanda was also illegal and that the massacre should have been allowed to continue.

Emails from Russian President Vladimir Putins special adviser Vladislav Surkov, which have just been revealed by the Ukrainian side, only confirm this process. In the years that followed, Russia helped the Ukrainian republics of Donbass prepare intellectually for independence. This interference was illegal. It was in response to the equally illegal interference of the United States, which armed not Ukraine but the Ukrainian "integral nationalists. The war had already begun, but Ukrainians exclusively conducted it. It resulted in 20,000 deaths in 8 years. The West and Russia intervened only indirectly.

It is important to understand that by pretending to negotiate peace, Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande have committed the worst of crimes. Indeed, according to the Nuremberg Tribunal, "crimes against peace" are even more serious than those "against humanity". They are not the cause of this or that massacre, but of the war itself. This is why the chairman of the Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, has called for the convening of a new Nuremberg Tribunal to try Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande [4]. The Western press has not relayed this call, which shows us the gulf between the two perceptions of the conflict.

The order of the International Court of Justice of March 16, 2022 stated, as a precautionary measure, that "the Russian Federation must immediately suspend the military operations which it began on February 24, 2022 on the territory of Ukraine" (ref: A/77/4, paragraphs 189 to 197). Moscow did not comply, considering that the Court had been asked about the requirement of genocide perpetrated by Kiev against its own population and not about the military operation to protect the Ukrainian population.

For its part, the United Nations General Assembly has adopted several resolutions, the latest of which is A/ES-11/L.7, of February 23, 2023. The text "Reiterates its demand that the Russian Federation immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all its military forces from Ukrainian territory within the internationally recognized borders of the country, and calls for a cessation of hostilities.

Neither of these texts declares the Russian intervention "illegal. They order or demand that the Russian army withdraw. 141 of 193 states consider that Russia should stop its intervention. Some of them think it is illegal, but most of them think it is "no longer necessary" and is causing unnecessary suffering. This is not the same thing at all.

States have a different point of view than jurists. International law can only sanction what exists. States must protect their citizens from the conflicts that are brewing, before it is too late to respond. That is why the Kremlin did not comply with the UN General Assembly. It did not withdraw from the battlefield. Indeed, it has watched for eight years as NATO has armed Ukraine and prepared for this war. It knows that the Pentagon is preparing a second round in Transnistria [5] and must protect its population from this second operation. Just as it chose the date of its intervention in Ukraine on the basis of information indicating an imminent attack by Kiev on the Donbass, which was only confirmed later [6], so ot is deciding today to liberate the whole of Novorossia, including Odessa. This is legally unacceptable as long as the proof of the Western shenanigans is not provided, but it is already necessary from the point of view of its responsibility.

Clearly, these two ways of thinking have not escaped the notice of observers. Judging that Russian intervention is no longer necessary must be distinguished from supporting the West. That is why only 39 out of 191 states participate in Western sanctions and send weapons to Ukraine.

Ukraine is a "democracy"

The second message from Western leaders is that Ukraine is a "democracy". Apart from the fact that this word has no meaning at a time when the middle classes are disappearing and income disparities have become greater than at any other time in human history, moving away from the egalitarian ideal, Ukraine is anything but a "democracy.

Its constitution is the only racist one in the world. It states in Article 16 that "Preserving the genetic heritage of the Ukrainian people is the responsibility of the state", a passage written by Slava Stetsko, the widow of the Ukrainian Nazi prime minister.

This is the subject that makes people angry. At least since 1994, "full nationalists" (not to be confused with "nationalists"), i.e., people who claim to follow the ideology of Dmytro Dontsov and the work of Stepan Bandera, have held high positions in the Ukrainian state [7]. In fact, this ideology has become more radical over time. It did not have the same meaning during the First World War as during the Second. Nevertheless, Dmytro Dontsov was, from 1942 on, one of the designers of the "final solution of the Jewish and Gypsy questions". He was the administrator of the organ of the Third Reich in charge of murdering millions of people because of their ethnic origin, the Reinhard Heydrich Institute in Prague. Stepan Bandera was the military leader of the Ukrainian Nazis. He commanded numerous pogroms and massacres. Contrary to what his successors claim, he was never interned in a concentration camp, but under house arrest in the suburbs of Berlin, at the headquarters of the concentration camp administration. He ended the war leading the Ukrainian troops under the direct orders of the Fuhrer Adolf Hitler.

One year after the beginning of the Russian military intervention, full nationalist and Nazi symbols are visible everywhere in Ukraine. Forward journalist Lev Golinkin, who has started an inventory of all monuments to criminals involved in Nazi crimes all over the world, has compiled an amazing list of such monuments in Ukraine [8]. According to him, almost all of them are after the 2014 coup. Therefore, it must be admitted that the coup authorities do claim to be "integral nationalism", not simply "nationalism". And for those who doubt that the Jewish President Zelensky celebrates the Nazis, two weeks ago he awarded the "Edelweiss title of honor" to the 10th separate mountain assault brigade in reference to the Nazi 1st mountain division that "liberated" (sic) Kiev, Stalino, the Dnieper crossings and Kharkov [9].

Few Western personalities have agreed with the words of President Vladimir Putin and his Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on this subject [10]. However, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and his Defense Minister, General Benny Gantz, have repeatedly stated that Ukraine must comply with Moscows injunctions at least on this point: Kiev must destroy all Nazi symbols it displays. It is because Kiev refuses to do so that Israel does not deliver weapons to it: no Israeli weapons will be handed over to the successors of the mass murderers of Jews. This position may of course change with the coalition government of Benjamin Netanyahu, himself an heir to Vladimir Jabotinskys "revisionist Zionists" who formed an alliance with the "integral nationalists" against the Soviets.

The current policy of the government of Volodymyr Zelensky is incomprehensible. On the one hand, the democratic institutions are functioning, on the other hand, not only are the integral nationalists being celebrated everywhere, but the opposition political parties and the Orthodox Church under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate have been banned; millions of books have been destroyed because they were written or printed in Russia; 6 million Ukrainians have been declared "collaborators of the Russian invader" and the personalities who support them are being assassinated.
Right now, minors over 16 years old can get married (yes, to adults) in Vermont so long as one of the child's parents consents to it. What's even grosser is that this is legal in 43 other states too, and in some of them there is no minimum age for marriage. Now though, if a new bill passes, Vermont will join New York, Massachusetts, and the others in banning child marriage.

"Children need to grow up safe and strong, educated and ready for the future," the bill's sponsor, Rep. Carol Ode (D-Burlington) told the House Judiciary Committee. "They deserve to be free from marriage before they grow up."

From VTDigger:
Strike two.

After two unsuccessful attempts to lease a former industrial building that temporarily housed the East Buffalo exhibit space for the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, the Buffalo Urban Development Corp. is putting the building in the Grider neighborhood back out on the market for lease, agency officials said.

Located at 612 Northland Ave., the building was slated to be leased by California-based Zephyr Partners for a cannabis career-training center, as an extension of the firm's larger $300 million project to develop a cannabis campus in South Buffalo.

Sign up for the Buffalo Next free newsletter The News' Buffalo Next team covers the changing Buffalo Niagara economy. Get the news in your inbox 5 days a week.

Zephyr, along with cannabis operator Etain LLC and its investor parent, RIV Capital of Toronto, had planned to use the 16,000-square-foot building for a job-skills program that would teach potential hires how to work in the legalized marijuana industry. The proposed programs would have been run in conjunction with the adjacent Northland Workforce Training Center.

But Zephyr  which is still negotiating an arrangement with the training center  couldn't meet its obligation to sign a lease under the terms of the memorandum of understanding with BUDC, which owns the building. So BUDC turned instead to SparkCharge, a 43North competition winner from 2018 that had expressed similar interest in the property and had submitted an identical lease proposal at the same time as Zephyr.

But SparkCharge, which makes portable electric vehicle charging units and is already a tenant at the Northland Central building at 683 Northland, needed to move quickly to gain significantly more space for product development. BUDC began working on a lease with the company, but SparkCharge found another property to lease instead.

Zephyr is still interested, but the agency is now marketing the property again, said BUDC Executive Vice President Rebecca Gandour.

"Weve had a lot of tire kickers, people who have toured the facility," she said. "Now that we have no pending obligations, it's wide open. It's available."

Centennial park grant

The agency also accepted a $9.8 million grant from the Great Lakes Commission to support construction of the inlet and shoreline portions of the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Centennial Park project along the Niagara River.

The award  the fourth grant from the GLC for the project  was announced last summer, but the formal agreement was just received last week. The first $450,000 would be released shortly, with the rest to become available after any environmental impacts have been evaluated and cleared. Contractor Gilbane Co. is now seeking bids for about a dozen pieces of the project, including the planned new pedestrian bridge, and hopes to start work in May.
Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share

What investors wanted from Goldman Sachs Group Inc.s second-ever investor day on Tuesday was a clear vision of a future of higher and more reliable returns. What they got was a sales pitch on how great things already are. They were unimpressed. The stock dropped 3.8% on the day, making it one of the worst performers in the S&P 500.

The only piece of real news was that Chief Executive Officer David Solomon might be ditching his pet project through a potential sale. His ambitions to go big in consumer finance were already curtailed late last year under pressure from investors and colleagues. Several executives said Tuesday that the bank was considering strategic alternatives for parts of the unit, which has cost the bank billions in startup investments and bad-debt provisions over recent years.

But rather than providing a roadmap for improvement, this just further muddied the waters on Goldmans strategy. The bank also admitted it would be two years before the losses stop at its consumer and transaction banking unit, which goes by the awkward name of Platform Solutions.

Advertisement

Solomon and his fellow executives are no doubt frustrated at the attention that this relatively small part of the group continues to attract, but it has been a rare and significant strategic misstep. And there was nothing to distract investors: No shiny new targets for Goldmans return on equity or for the growth profile of its asset management business.

What might be sold is the GreenSky point-of-sale lending arm that focuses on home improvement, which Goldman only bought in a $2.24 billion deal in late 2021, according to Bloomberg News. That would mark a sharp change of heart on a business that should connect well with other parts of Goldman Sachs: The bank could sell treasury and other services to merchants that use GreenSky, plus it originates raw loans to be repackaged and sold by its fixed-income bankers.

Goldmans credit-card books would seem a more obvious thing to offload: This is very risky lending in which Goldman has no particular advantage or skill. It might be nice to win partnerships with large existing corporate clients who want to issue cards, like Apple Inc. or General Motors Co., but its hard to see any connection with other business Goldman might do for those companies. It is also hard to believe that Goldman could run these card programs more efficiently or profitably than more experienced consumer banks.

Advertisement

Solomons work-in-progress remains making Goldmans revenue streams and profits more reliable and predictable. A big part of this is growing its wealth and asset management business, but the projections for future fee income seemed a touch disappointing. Goldman has been raising billions from investors for its alternatives business, which comprises hedge funds, private equity and debt and real estate. These committed funds only start earning fees for Goldman once the capital has been called and deployed. The suggestion at its recent results was there was a big stream of income just waiting to come online, but its projections on Tuesday for fee-income growth also seemed underwhelming. Alternative investment management revenue has already grown to $1.8 billion in 2022 from $1.2 billion in 2019. The next step only takes it to $2 billion by 2024.

For the whole asset management business, Goldman reiterated its target of $10 billion in fees annually by 2024, which would then grow at a mid-single-digit percentage on the years ahead. A 7.5% growth rate would mean doubling this revenue line in nine years, which is not to be sniffed at, but it doesnt seem like the kind of acceleration for which some hoped.

The biggest part of Goldmans business is still investment banking and markets: It uses about two-thirds of the banks capital and generates the best returns: 16.4% last year during a dearth of dealmaking and capital markets activity.

Advertisement

Dan Dees, co-head of the unit, tried to convince investors that this core business was much less volatile and its revenues much more reliable than they think. The growth in Goldmans financing of hedge funds and other traders in its markets arm, and the fact that it is active in almost every part of every market, supports Deess argument to a good degree. But it must leave some investors wondering why the costly hunt for reliable revenue elsewhere was necessary in the first place.

Goldmans investment bank seems to be reasserting itself just as it may abandon its consumer project. Solomons attempt to find a different future for Goldman Sachs might just have run its course.

More From Bloomberg Opinion:

 Manchester United Fans Can Learn to Love This Billionaire: Chris Hughes

 Wall Street Traders Have Lost Much of Their Swagger: Aaron Brown

Advertisement

 The Boss Takes a Pay Cut But His Goldman Sachs Vision Survives: Paul J. Davies

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Paul J. Davies is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering banking and finance. Previously, he was a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

2023 Bloomberg L.P.

GiftOutline Gift Article
Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share

Suddenly  or perhaps not so suddenly, after a year of this centurys bloodiest fighting  peace in Ukraine is being talked up by the most diverse actors. But since any peace deal at this point would require territorial concessions from Ukraine, only a string of decisive  and utterly unfeasible  Russian battlefield victories could lead the parties to the negotiating table.

The Chinese governments 12-point proposal involves a cessation of hostilities in exchange for an end to unilateral sanctions and refers, rather vaguely, to upholding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries.German left-wing politician Sahra Wagenknecht staged a rally in Berlin last weekend where between 13,000 and 50,000 people, according to different estimates, demanded an end to weapons deliveries for Ukraine and the start of negotiations with Russia to prevent further escalation of the conflict, perhaps even to nuclear war. Speakers at the gathering, which attracted supporters of both the extreme left and the hard right, as well as some pacifist centrists, declared that the defeat of a nuclear power such as Russia on the battlefield was impossible, so diplomacy was the only path forward.

Ukraine must understand: There is no other way but a peace agreement now, without any preconditions, Belarussian dictator Alexander Lukashenko declared in an interview with Chinese journalists published on Monday. Either that, he added, or Russia will militarize its economy and become unstoppable.

Advertisement

Its easy to dismiss China and Belarus as Russias allies and Wagenknecht and the other worried Germans as Russian influence agents and useful idiots. But even some serious Western scholars who cannot be accused of being Putin sympathizers have been gently suggesting that it might be time to talk peace. The eminent US historian Stephen Kotkin, who has been firmly on Ukraines side ever since Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion and who has supported increased supplies of Western weapons to Ukraine, recently told New Yorker editor David Remnick, himself an old Russia hand, that while Ukrainians deserve a chance at a battlefield victory, the endgame is clear:

Each side has to sit down and make unpleasant concessions, and you have to sit down across from representatives of your murderer, and youve got to do a deal where your murderer takes some of the stuff he has stolenand killed your people in the process. Thats a terrible outcome. But thats an outcome which may not be the worst outcome. The point being that, if you get EU accession, it balances the concessions you have to make.

Kotkin argues that giving up some territory but gaining European Union membership would qualify as a Ukrainian victory  likely the only kind the country can count on.

Advertisement

Even French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz have reportedly urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to start peace talks with Russia, dangling before him the possibility of a defense pact with NATO as a post-war security guarantee. The three supposedly doubt that Ukraine can sustain fighting at the current level indefinitely  something they never say publicly, perhaps because Joe Bidens administration in the US rarely strays from the most militant rhetoric possible.There is, then, an entire spectrum of people, from European politicians such as Scholz and Macron to nuanced, well-informed thinkers such as Kotkin to German pacifists instinctively rebelling against violence to long-time Putin-verstehers and allies to Chinese politicians worried that the sharp polarization caused by the war would unsettle their countrys international standing and hurt it economically. While many of them admire Ukrainians heroism, their thinking  Sunaks as much as Lukashenkos  is rooted in skepticism, even pessimism, about Davids chances against Goliath. The war, after all, is raging in Ukrainian territory; how much destruction can the Ukrainian people take for the sake of a full military victory that many see as a pipe dream, anyway?

You can even be optimistic about Ukrainians military prowess but believe that Russia would rather start a nuclear war than lose  a justified fear given Putins advanced age and emotional state.

Personally, I have avoided the subject of a compromise in the dozens of columns I have written about the war  not just because Im Russian and thus, in the modern world, immediately suspect. There are two better reasons not to call for peace talks as soon as possible.

Advertisement

The first is that ultimately, only Ukrainians can decide that theyve fought enough and can fight no more  and so far, Ukrainian politicians have no mandate from the nation to give up anything. I know war fatigue is setting in among many Ukrainian civilians and many of the refugees do not plan to come back once the war is over, one way or another. But Ukrainians have always been relatively quick to rebel against leaders who lost touch with societys mood and aspirations. Ukraines civil society and media are still very much alive  and they are not sending pacifist signals to Zelenskiy.

They are not doing so because fighting and dying on the battlefield  or fleeing to safety while the war makes neighboring countries receptive  is preferable to living under Putins rule. Putins Russia is not only unfree, it is callously, cruelly oppressive to its own people; even at home, the Putin regime behaves like an occupying power. Living under it as part of a conquered population is a potential nightmare that I wouldnt wish on anyone but my worst enemies. In that sense, for many Ukrainians the idea of a compromise-based peace can be worse than war: At war you can at least fight back with a weapon in hand.

I also know Ukrainians who dont care much under what flag they live and who dont think living under Putin would be worse than under one of Ukraines famously corrupt and inept governments. They are, however, politically passive by definition  and many of them were the first to flee, to Russia and to Europe.

Advertisement

The other kind of Ukrainians  the active ones  fought when barely any Western weaponry was available and when few in the West believed they could hold out for more than a few days, and they managed to push the invading Russian troops back from Kyiv, Sumy and Chernihiv. Even if the weapons supplies start drying up, they will find ways to fight on, whether as a regular army or as guerillas.

The second reason is that a negotiated ending to the current war that doesnt hand complete control over Ukraine to Putin probably will only put off another invasion. We were here before  in 2015, when the Minsk agreements left Russia in de facto control of parts of eastern Ukraine, not to mention Crimea. It was not enough: Putin wanted more territory and a Ukraine politically subjugated to Moscow, so he struck when he thought his military was ready (it wasnt, quite). If the current war ends with Russia in possession of more Ukrainian land but an even more firmly anti-Russian government in Kyiv, this will be more unfinished business for Putin and any similarly imperialist successor.

Knowing what the Putin regime is like for those who live under it and having closely watched the Minsk process and its aftermath, I cannot in good faith hold that Ukrainians would be better off compromising with Putin. Their sacrifice is not blind; they would likely gain nothing by bending. While there is any hope of even a partial military victory  of retaking more territory if not all that has been lost  continued resistance and further losses are acceptable to Ukraines society. That hope still exists, in part thanks to Western aid but mainly because of the proven ineptitude of Russian commanders, who, unlike their Ukrainian adversaries, havent shown even a flash of strategic brilliance in twelve months of fighting. Goliath is huge but dumb.

Advertisement

Perhaps Kotkin is right and Ukraine eventually will have to sit down with its murderers and negotiate from a position of relative weakness. But not yet.

More From Bloomberg Opinion:

 In Ukraine, Resistance Must Be Balanced With Appeasement: Clive Crook

 Putin Has Decided to Normalize His War: Leonid Bershidsky

 Russia Is Losing in Ukraine. So Is China: Minxin Pei

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Leonid Bershidsky, formerly Bloomberg Opinions Europe columnist, is a member of the Bloomberg News Automation Team. He recently published Russian translations of George Orwells 1984 and Franz Kafkas The Trial.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

2023 Bloomberg L.P.

GiftOutline Gift Article
Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share

Two years after foreign investors started calling China uninvestable, it looked like President Xi Jinping had found a formula to lure them back. His very public pivot away from Covid Zero at the end of 2022 was accompanied by a speech heralding a string of market-friendly reversals for hard-hit sectors like property and Big Tech. Bold steps to shore up the economy paired with a decisive shift in tone from regulators and state media in favor of private enterprise. Yet market confidence remains shaky, revealing just how much damage has been done to Chinas credibility abroad.

1. Where did the uninvestable label come from?

In mid-2021, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said the word was starting to feature in a number of client conversations about the countrys stocks. The context was months of rat-a-tat regulation and state intervention in high-profile initial public offerings, namely Ant Group and Didi Global Inc. Chinas shock decision to turn high-growth tutoring companies into nonprofits triggered a collapse in their shares almost overnight. When JPMorgan Chase & Co. analysts last year described Chinese internet companies as uninvestable and downgraded a number of stocks, their report helped erase about $200 billion from US and Asian markets. The downgrades were reversed two months later, but jitters remained. Xis consolidation of power in October  when he secured a third term as Communist Party chief surrounded entirely by close allies  scared off many international fund managers who feared his greater executive power would increase the risk of a policy misstep.

Advertisement

2. Does China care?

Yes and no. Xis government showed little regard for global investors as it sought to curb the disorderly expansion of capital, which complemented his campaign to rein in tech moguls and promote common prosperity ahead of last years party congress. Then came a series of unexpected moves, including the abrupt U-turn on strict Covid restrictions following a rare outpouring of public anger against the lockdowns. China also began ending a two-year ban on Australian coal imports, easing up on tech giants like Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Didi and dialing back the stringent new rules on how much developers could borrow that exacerbated a property meltdown. In December, a behind-closed-doors speech from Xi impressed upon top officials the importance of attracting and retaining funds from abroad. The question is whether the policy overhaul represents a swing toward the flexibility that helped fuel Chinas economic rise over the past four decades, or simply a knee-jerk response to a deteriorating economy and spontaneous protests.

3. How are investors reacting?

Advertisement

The initial result was a world-beating stock rally in January in Hong Kong, a record winning streak for Chinese junk dollar debt and the strongest momentum in five years for the yuan. Strategists across Wall Street recommended the countrys assets. But it didnt last long. Bond outflows have resumed and theres been little follow-through from the steady, long-term institutional players that Xi wants to attract. Mistrust of Xi is particularly acute among once-burned, twice-shy investors from the US, despite a bullish forecast in February from Goldmans equities team.

4. Where are things headed?

Chinas post-Covid recovery and expectations of more policies to support the economy have revived global interest in Chinese markets. Theres also been a flurry of approvals granted to global financial firms to fully operate their onshore China businesses. But the gulf between China and Western capital remains wide. The disappearance of a high-profile investment banker this year  said later to be assisting Chinese authorities in an unspecified investigation  added to doubts about whether Xis crackdown on private enterprise has run its course. Pressure from the Ministry of Finance on state-owned firms to shun the four biggest international accounting firms will further distance foreigners from Chinas corporate landscape. The saga of an alleged Chinese spy balloon shot down by the US highlighted the increasing dissonance. Soon after the inflatable was identified hovering over military installations in Montana, the Biden administration expanded its blacklist of Chinese entities that are banned from buying US goods. More restrictions on US investments in China are in the works in Washington and there is no let up from Beijing in its sanctions of US firms.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

2023 Bloomberg L.P.

GiftOutline Gift Article
Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share

When he first ran for president in 1974, Jimmy Carter drew strong support from a group that had mostly abstained from politics: evangelical Christians. With the news that Carter has entered hospice care prompting a wave of reflections, one measure of his presidencys enduring impact is that evangelicals went on to become one of the most powerful constituencies in American politics  only they did so on the side of Republicans, not Democrats. In the space of a few decades, they became the base of the modern GOP and, even more remarkably, the staunchest supporters in 2016 and 2020 of the scandal-soaked Donald Trump. Their split from Carter remains noteworthy today not just because it reshaped US politics, but because it presaged other fissures that came later.

Carters initial appeal isnt hard to understand. He was a Southern Baptist, taught Sunday school, and described himself as born again  a term that mystified millions of Americans in 1975 and sparked plenty of media wonderment (like this Newsweek cover) but of course needed no explaining to American evangelicals.

It wasnt Carters religion, but his religiosity, that captured the nations attention. He spoke openly about his faith, sometimes over the objection of anxious advisers, at a time when most politicians did not. That won him evangelical votes, even though Carters Christian faith, while shaping his views on social justice, human rights and personal morality, didnt impel him to adopt conservative positions on issues such as abortion. At the time, being a Democrat didnt register as a political negative; it was a category that included the nations best-known evangelical leader, the Rev. Billy Graham. Most evangelicals were simply excited to find a candidate who shared their faith. That excitement generated enough press interest for Newsweek to declare 1976 the year of the evangelical.

Advertisement

Carters election centered religion in American politics in a way it had not been since at least John F. Kennedys 1960 campaign. This prompted a conservative backlash orchestrated most publicly by the televangelist Jerry Falwell, who founded the Moral Majority in June 1979 to oust Carter from the White House. Falwell spotlighted some Carter positions that conservative evangelicals considered heretical, such as his supporting the Equal Rights Amendment, calling for a Palestinian homeland, and holding a White House Conference on the Families that included discussions of gay rights, contraception and abortion. His efforts to undermine Carter had the intended effect: In 1980, two-thirds of Falwells supporters voted for Ronald Reagan, despite his being a twice-married Hollywood actor who had signed a liberal abortion law as governor of California.

Reagans victory established the Religious Right as a rising political force in the Republican Party. Not every evangelical leader approved. It would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists and the political right, Billy Graham told Parade magazine in 1981. But Reagans instrumental value to conservative evangelical leaders  his willingness to take conservative positions and appoint conservative judges who opposed Roe v. Wade  eclipsed such concerns.

That rationale only strengthened over the decades. I dont look to the teachings of Jesus for what my political beliefs should be, Falwells son, Jerry Jr., said in 2018, justifying his support for Donald Trump shortly before his own career collapsed with revelations of a tawdry sex scandal. Evidently, most evangelicals agreed. In an analysis of 2016 exit poll data, the Pew Research Center found that Trump won self-described White evangelical/born-again voters 81% to 16%, by far his strongest performance among any religious denomination.

Advertisement

The evangelical shift from backing a pious Democratic Sunday school teacher to backing a twice-divorced Republican TV celebrity and tabloid fixture famous for allegedly cavorting with porn stars is an extreme example of the polarization thats suffused U.S. politics since Carters White House days. As evangelical voters learned about some of Carters more liberal positions, many responded by voting for Republicans. As evangelical churches strengthened their affiliation with Republican politicians, members who disagreed often left their churches  or disaffiliated, in the language of political science  which then concentrated the conservative skew of the congregants who remained. A 2018 paper on the phenomenon in the American Journal of Political Science concluded that the Christian Right is driving congregants out of the pews.

The process of political sorting is hardly limited to religion. One effect of Barack Obamas election was that it polarized US politics around the issue of race. Before Obama, racially conservative voters were roughly as likely to vote for a Democrat as a Republican. After his election, that changed. A team of academics documented this shift in their 2018 book Identity Crisis: The 2016 Presidential Campaign and the Battle for the Meaning of America. No other factor predicted changes in White partisanship during Obamas presidency as powerfully and as consistently as racial attitudes, they wrote. Polling underscored this: By 2016, Pew found that White voters supported Republicans by 15 points (54% to 39%).

Its been nearly half a century since Carter took the political world by storm. A lot has changed over that time, as anyone would expect. Its impossible to imagine a Democratic candidate today drawing significant evangelical support. But if he were running today, Carter wouldnt expect it. He was one of the countless churchgoers swept up in the polarization of evangelical voters: When the leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention voted in 2000 to bar women from serving as pastors, he made what he called a painful decision to leave the church of his grandfather and father because its increasingly rigid doctrines violate the basic premises of my Christian faith.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Joshua Green is a National Correspondent at Bloomberg Businessweek and the author of Devils Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump and the Storming of the Presidency.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

2023 Bloomberg L.P.

GiftOutline Gift Article
Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share

Under President Joe Biden, the US Department of Labor put in place a rule that would allow managers of retirement plans to weigh climate change and other environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues in their investment decisions. The move undid an effort under then-President Donald Trump to block such investments. The rule has become a focus in a fight over what proponents call sustainable investing and opponents call woke capitalism. With the help of conservative Democratic senators, Republicans in Congress passed a measure to repeal the rule, but the White House said Biden would keep the rule in place by vetoing the congressional measure.

1. How did this start?

In 2020, the Labor Department proposed a new rule that would change the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to require those overseeing pension and 401(k) plans to always put economic interests ahead of what it called non-pecuniary goals.

Advertisement

2. Why did it do that?

The agency, led at the time by Trump appointee Eugene Scalia, said the change was intended to provide clear regulatory guideposts for plan fiduciaries in light of recent trends in ESG investing. (A fiduciary is someone with a legal responsibility to make financial decisions in the best interest of beneficiaries.) Private employer-sponsored retirement plans arent vehicles for furthering social goals or policy objectives that arent in the financial interest of the plan, Scalia said. The proposal acknowledged that ESG considerations can be pecuniary factors, meaning having a bearing on investment returns. But it said that would be allowed only if those factors presented economic risks or opportunities that qualified investment professionals would treat as material economic considerations under generally accepted investment theories. The proposal, which had not taken effect when Trump left office, also had requirements for more documentation when fiduciaries choose among truly economically indistinguishable investments.

3. What happened under Biden?

Advertisement

The Biden administration reversed Trumps plan and in November finalized a rule that permits retirement plans to consider ESG factors as long as they are in the best financial interest of plan participants and beneficiaries. The Department of Labor rule also provides options for workers and retirees who want to ensure the fund managers of their pensions consider climate risks and provide options to invest in sustainable businesses.

4. Whats the argument in favor of that?

The administrations position is that the rule protects workers by ensuring that fiduciaries have the fullest set of available tools to protect their life savings and pensions. Democrats also have argued that the rule doesnt impose a mandate requiring that investments take ESG issues into consideration, but just allows them to. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, said that more than 90% of companies listed on the S&P 500 already publish ESG reports, adding that Republicans should let the market work.

Advertisement

5. What do critics say?

Republicans have taken aim at the rule as a latest front in a rapidly expanding political-cultural-financial war. Some state where Republicans control the legislature, governors office or both have already passed laws or adopted rules seeking to limit ESG investing. Mitch McConnell, the leader of Senate Republicans, said the Labor Departments rule would allow the administration to endanger Americans retirement savings for political causes they may not even support and would water down investment managers fiduciary obligation to get the best returns for clients.

6. What happened in Congress?

The Republican-led House voted 216-204 in favor of a resolution against the rule. The vote came under the provisions of the Congressional Review Act, which allows majorities in both houses of Congress to block a regulation adopted by the executive branch. In the Senate, Democrats Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana joined with Republicans to pass a similar resolution by a vote of 50-46. The White House had said earlier that Biden if the measure passed Biden would issue a veto, his first. Overruling a Biden veto would require a two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress, both of which are narrowly divided.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

2023 Bloomberg L.P.

GiftOutline Gift Article
Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share

In December, a team of researchers from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the University of Southern California and University College London published a study of what cognitive skills make successful traders. Theyre back with a look at non-cognitive skills such as agreeableness and conscientiousness. This time their focus is not on what distinguishes traders from everyone else, but how personalities of traders and non-traders changed due to the pandemic.

The findings suggest a trading environment that is becoming less bold and more cautious with implications for the reaction function of financial markets that is very different than what we have become accustomed to.

When I studied academic finance in the early 1980s, the focus was on economic fundamentals and mathematical theories. Behavioral finance  which examined how the psychology of participants affected markets  was a niche field that many researchers disregarded entirely. But the influence of behavioral theories grew rapidly over the next couple of decades, and now it is a main pillar of the field.

Advertisement

Much of the early work on behavioral finance studied tendencies that were considered near universal in humans. That gave way to work that recognized differences among individuals, but these were often assumed to be set early in life and constant thereafter. Only in the last 10 years or so have behavioral finance theories that assume personalities are malleable in adults become mainstream. The pandemic is the biggest mass trauma that provides a natural experiment for these new ideas. How did the pandemic change the personalities of traders? What does that mean for financial markets?

Although this is a new area of academic study, its an ancient idea. Its always been common to talk about traders being traumatized by some financial crisis, and to assume risk-taking declined as a result, removing liquidity from markets and depressing valuations. Most theories of financial bubbles and panics are psychological, as are many trade theses and strategies. But none of this is rigorous, and much of it is rooted in crude psychological stereotypes and superficial economic logic.

It might surprise you to learn that the New York Fed study found traders score higher on agreeableness  which includes trusting others and not finding fault  than a control group of students. Traders are supposed to be skeptical, even suspicious, constantly looking for faults and thinking in contrary ways. There are almost no disagreeable traders; they are all moderate or high on the characteristics. Students, though, can be low, moderate or high. High agreeableness doesnt seem to be necessary for trading, but low agreeableness seems to be a disqualification.

Advertisement

What happened in the pandemic? Traders agreeableness crashed, from well above student levels to well below. Student agreeableness did not change significantly, so it was not a general effect on everyone. The effect was much larger on traders who had been personally impacted in negative ways  medically, economically or in a life situation. Oddly, among students there was a much smaller decline in agreeableness, but only among the students least affected by the pandemic.

The other big change was in a trait the authors call locus of control, or the extent to which people feel they control events and direct their life. Here traders score much higher than students, as it appears that feeling in control is necessary for trading. On one hand, traders are supposed to have great respect for the market and randomness, which would seem to argue for low locus of control. But it seems instead that traders need high locus of control to summon the psychic strength to make bold bets under uncertainty.

Locus of control also crashed for traders, although it remained well above student levels, which again did not change significantly. This change was the same for traders who reported a high or low impact of the pandemic on their lives.

Advertisement

This is just one study, and we dont yet know whether this was a temporary or permanent change. But taken at face value, it suggests markets could be significantly more cautious as a result. Suspicious traders who dont trust each other and dont feel in control are not likely to take bold positions. If the younger generation was not affected, as seems to be the case in this study anyway, perhaps the market leaders of the next few years will be traders who were spared the specific traumas of trading during pandemic.

The other question is whether this type of research will yield important market insights. Will we learn how markets shape traders personalities, and how those personalities then affect market behavior? Or will this remain an academic curiosity of small practical interest? Perhaps the next paper from this team will help answer the questions.More From Bloomberg Opinion:

 Want Trading Success? Learn Poker, Not Economics: Aaron Brown

Advertisement

 Banks Are Right to Clamp Down on Using ChatGPT: Paul J. Davies

 Is Michael Platt Finances Highest Earner?: Marc Rubinstein

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Aaron Brown is a former managing director and head of financial market research at AQR Capital Management. He is author of The Poker Face of Wall Street. He may have a stake in the areas he writes about.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

2023 Bloomberg L.P.

GiftOutline Gift Article
Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share

The little girl celebrated her sixth birthday silently, on life support  something no child should ever have to experience. Her fathers girlfriend called 911 last year to report the girl had fallen off a bunk bed in their D.C. home. But medical professionals soon discovered injuries far worse than could be received from a simple tumble.

First responders found the girl in the bathtub, ice-cold water running over her stiffened body, dressed only in her underpants. She had soiled herself.

The childs eyes were fixed and dilated. Her brainstem was being compressed.

A fall from a bunk bed wouldve meant scalp and skull injuries. But this looked like abusive trauma, said the doctor at Childrens National Hospital. The child was neurologically devastated.

Scans and more exams showed a tiny body that had been injured in many places, many times over her short life.

Advertisement

Some of her internal organs were injured. Her ribs, wrists and a leg had all been fractured. Some were old enough to have healed.

The extent of her injuries, that they are varying ages, depicts repeated events of trauma and would be consistent with torture as a means of child abuse, the doctors report in the court documents said.

Because the little girl is still alive, this horrific case wont come before the D.C. Child Fatality Review Committee, the folks who work to answer one of the toughest questions that come with a tragedy like this: How could this happen?

That commission is the board that oversees the way the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA) handles abuse cases that end in death.

But no one oversees the way abuse cases that end in near-death were investigated.

No one in the city reports on near fatalities, said Marla Spindel, executive director of DC KinCare Alliance and a longtime child advocate in the city. Not the [Child Fatality Review Committee], not CFSA in its annual child fatality reports, not MPD, not the [attorney general]  no one.

When investigators interviewed the couples 2- and 3-year-old daughters, they described a hellish life of beatings and fear.

Advertisement

The interview is a tough read.

Papa slap me.

Papa hit me.

On my feet.

With a belt.

The couple had a boarder living with them. In court documents, that person told police about ongoing abuse, including a punishment that had the little girls doing squats against a wall for hours, and the 5-year-old girl being forced to hold a push-up in a tub filled with water for several hours.

The girls sixth birthday came and went. Machines kept her little heart beating and her lungs filled with air. No one had answered for her devastating state.

Finally, last month, D.C. police arrested the father and his girlfriend and charged them with first degree cruelty to children.

Because of federal privacy laws, CSFA cant disclose where the girl is or who has custody of her now. They also cant disclose whether the family has been on their radar.

Advertisement

But sources familiar with the case said the family isnt a typical or well-known case to city social workers. The alleged abuse hadnt been reported. As far as everyone knew, that happy social media life was their reality.

This case is one that makes the argument for an independent ombudsperson for the Districts children now that the primary agency  CFSA  has ended 31 years of court-ordered oversight.

Spindel also argues for a law that requires near-fatalities like this tragic case be reviewed, a law that exists in more than a dozen states because a fatality and a near-fatality are essentially the same problem.

The D.C. Council voted in favor of such oversight. D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) vetoed the bill, noting there already is an internal ombudsman, and the council overrode her veto. Now it comes down to whether money will be there for it in the budget. Its an ongoing fight.

Advertisement

But even if there was an official review, little wrongdoing could be found on behalf of social workers who never received reports about the family in the first place.

In this case, it may be about vigilance. And the people who saw something, but kept quiet.

Both the father and his girlfriend told police that they disciplined their kids the way they were disciplined by their parents.

Those kids needed a neighbor, teacher, friend or bystander to speak for them. It takes a village, remember?

The hotline for child abuse and neglect is 202-671-SAFE or 202-671-7233.

Read more Petula Dvorak:

GiftOutline Gift Article
In one decade, the risk to U.S. national security secrets has morphed from ideologically driven protesters to digital natives who live life online and think secrecy is for losers.
Feb. 28, 2023

A street, by any other name

What's in a name? For the newest street in Lackawanna, honoring decades of the city's oldest industrial legacy.

The newest road in the Renaissance Commerce Park in Lackawanna will be called Steelworkers Way, as a tribute to the thousands of laborers who toiled there to produce steel for more than 80 years.

The Lackawanna City Council already approved the request by Mayor Annette Iafallo, and the new street will be maintained by the Lackawanna Department of Public Works.

The roadwork is part of the ongoing effort by Erie County, Lackawanna, Empire State Development Corp. and the land-development affiliate of the Erie County Industrial Development Agency to redevelop 150 acres of vacant land closest to Route 5 into a manufacturing and industrial campus. ESDC is providing more than $12 million through the Buffalo Billion II and other funds, while the state spends $69 million on future remediation.

The new street extends about a quarter-mile north from Dona Street, running between cleaning products maker TMP Technologies  which produces the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser  and Uniland Development Co.'s first warehouse and distribution facility at 8 Dona.

TMP opened its 290,000-square-foot facility in May 2022, while Uniland finished its 150,000-square-foot warehouse and is ready to start work on an identical one next door, which will be the first official address on the new street, at 2 Steelworkers Way.

We continue to make tremendous progress at Renaissance Commerce Park, and the unveiling of Steelworkers Way is just one more milestone in the sites transformation, said Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz, whose father worked at Bethlehem Steel. This new road is one of the many ways we are paying homage to the men and women of labor who worked at the former Bethlehem Steel plant.

 Jonathan D. Epstein

Want to know more? Three stories to catch you up:

Welcome to Buffalo Next. This newsletter from The Buffalo News will bring you the latest coverage on the changing Buffalo Niagara economy  from real estate to health care to startups. Read more at BuffaloNext.com.

WHAT'S HAPPENING WITH ...

The Town of Hamburg

A new restaurant and a 70-unit multifamily apartment project could be coming to the Town of Hamburg.

Perennial Properties and Park Grove Realty are proposing a pair of unrelated developments in the town, and sought "sketch plan direction" from the town Planning Board on Feb. 15  a preliminary step prior to submitting a formal site plan application.

Perennial wants to construct a two-story, 110-seat restaurant at the former Water Valley Nursery site at 6666 Gowanda State Road, while Rochester-based Park Grove is proposing an apartment complex west of Riley Boulevard.

The Hamburg Lakeshore Overseas Veterans also are looking for board guidance for their plan to construct a metal storage building at 2985 Lakeview Road.

THEN AND NOW

Then: A group of real estate professionals, attorneys and consultants partnered with technology experts in 2020 to create a crowdsourcing platform for real estate development projects. The idea was to give smaller developers and projects access to a new source of capital investment, while also enabling nontraditional investors to get in on the action of real estate development.

Called Common Owner, the startup was formed by a group that includes real estate attorney Richard Rogers  its president  as well as Derek R. King II and Michael Puma from Preservation Studios. It is based in Buffalo, but takes applications for listing and development throughout the country.

Now: The local company and its investment platform obtained all the necessary approvals through the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and FINRA, and now hosts capital-raising offerings through two systems  one that is open only to accredited investors with more sophistication and wealth, and one that is open to almost any investor.

Were very excited about hitting this milestone, said Jacob Walsh, director of operations at Common Owner.

Last month, it surpassed its first $1 million in fundraising after three successful capital raises  most recently for $652,000 for an assisted-living and enhanced senior housing project in Queens, its largest project so far.

Its previous projects included the Monroe Building project on Main Street in Buffalo, whose developers raised $440,000 from accredited investors last year through Common Owner for their conversion of the former Record Theatre complex near Canisius College.

Our project would not have been possible without the capital we raised through Common Owner, said Jason Yots, one of the Monroe Building developers, whose project had stalled because of the pandemic before getting underway.

THE LATEST

Catch up on the latest news from the Buffalo Niagara economy:

Bitwise is getting $80 million in funding for its technology workforce development programs in 10 cities, including Buffalo.

Niagara University and Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center are launching a career pathways program that will help students get paying jobs at the hospital.

Community health providers, like Evergreen and Neighborhood Health Center, are concerned about losing a critical funding stream if the state makes changes to its Medicaid pharmacy benefit program.

Ciminelli Real Estate Corp. hopes to increase the size of its planned new warehouse facility in Lackawanna's Renaissance Commerce Park by at least 25%.

ACV may have sold 15,000 fewer vehicles through its online auctions in 2022 compared to 2021, but those vehicles were worth around $1 billion more due to historically high vehicle prices.

At long last, UB resident doctors and fellows are in line to get the state's health care worker bonus for all the work they did during pandemic.

The general contractor for the Buffalo Bills stadium project has started the process to hire subcontractors, but looming over the project is concern from local union leadership over the use of out-of-town contractors.

Accusations have been flying back and forth among the Fruit Belt Land Trust's new board leadership, its former staff and its founding activists, threatening the nonprofit's future.

Amherst's Life Storage opposed an $11 billion takeover bid in a detailed defense to Wall Street.

A plan to turn a former malt house into apartments and a bakery expansion were approved for ECIDA tax breaks, totaling over $1 million.

The Buffalo Preservation Board is not happy with the significant alterations made to the roofline of the Meidenbauer House by the firm of developer Douglas Jemal.

Resident groups are opposing an approved mixed-use residential development project on longtime unused land at Millersport and Smith in Amherst.

Kutter's Cheese Factory is closing its retail store in Pembroke after 75 years in business.

Updates provided on a number of projects advancing at Canalside and on the Outer Harbor.

The Tesla Workers United campaign isn't the first attempt to organize workers at Tesla Inc.s plant in South Buffalo.

ECC reversed direction on former President David Balkin's initiatives for IT, staff cuts and more.

Federal banking regulators recently issued a cease-and-desist consent order against Lake Shore Savings Bank for unsafe and unsound banking practices.

ICYMI

Five reads from Buffalo Next:

1. Focusing on health equity in the City of Buffalo: After the traumatic events that hit the area last year, Rev. George F. Nicholas, CEO of the Buffalo Center for Health Equity, says now is the time to make it a priority.

2. UB resident doctors and fellows feeling 'overworked and underpaid': The group, which includes 810 residents, fellows and interns at the University at Buffalo, have launched a union campaign.

3. Buffalo Niagara struggles to find  and keep  tech workers: Local companies have plenty of open technology jobs, but can't fill them, as computer science grads from area schools move out of town for work.

4. Inside Brooks-TLC's seven-year push for a new hospital: Now, more than ever, it feels as though Brooks-TLC Hospital System's plan for a new hospital in Fredonia is at a critical juncture. Could the long-delayed plan finally be moving forward?

5. Mechatronics, the new, in-demand tech field fueled by ECC and Northland Training Center: Despite ECCs struggles with declining enrollment, its mechatronics program is thriving and this spring will reach more than 200 graduates in four years.

The Buffalo Next team gives you the big picture on the region's economic revitalization. Buying a building? Redeveloping a property? Got a tip? Reach Real Estate & Development reporter Jonathan D. Epstein at 716-849-4478 or email him at jepstein@buffnews.com.

Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up to get the latest in your inbox five days a week.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Got it Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Dont bother telling Bela Fleck any banjo jokes. Hes heard them all before and, while he no longer bothers getting angry, hes just not interested. The worlds pre-eminent banjo player is happy to let his virtuosity do the talking, effectively silencing the ill-informed snark with 15 Grammys and 35 nominations across more categories than any other artist. There is no genre he is not happy to bust - from jazz to classical and rock to, of course, bluegrass. Bela Fleck is arguably the best player ever. Credit: Obviously, Im very, very serious about the banjo partly in response to all the jokes and that Duelling Banjos squeal like a pig garbage, he says, down the line from his Nashville home, in reference to that terrifying scene in Deliverance. Much of that stereotype comes from the mistaken idea that the instrument is purely associated with poor white southerners, while ignoring its vast history stretching to West Africa and beyond. African slaves brought it to the Americas, where it was then co-opted by their oppressors. Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn are touring Australia together, combining their different banjo styles. Credit:Jim McGuire It disappeared from Black culture largely because during and after slavery white folks would paint themselves black and sing songs about how lovely plantation life was, says Fleck. That put a really bad taste in the mouths of Black people. They wanted to get away from it and when the guitar came around they grabbed that and the banjo was basically excised, leaving the white southern stereotype, which is only part of the picture.

Advertisement

Now, were teaching people and trying to get back to a more realistic version of the story of the banjo, which is very diverse. In the past couple of decades, the banjo has gone a long way towards shedding its unwarranted cultural baggage, helped along by bands such as Mumford and Sons, Old Crow Medicine Show and even Taylor Swift. And behind it all, doing the hard yards of banjo evangelism and showing just what the instrument is capable of has been Fleck, arguably the best ever. Something shifted around the 2000s where Id go play a college and instead of people flapping their arms and going, Yeehaw!, theyd go, Whoa, whats that? Thats cool, he says. New York-born Fleck began playing at the relatively late age of 15 when his grandfather gifted him a banjo. The trigger for the young Flecks banjo passion, as with most players, was hearing the music of banjo great Earl Scruggs, who revolutionised the instrument with his invention of the three-finger picking style now known simply as Scruggs Style. That sound, most closely associated with bluegrass, is what most people bring to mind when they think of banjo music.

Advertisement

I heard him play and it shook me up, says Fleck. I didnt know what it was but it was the best thing I ever heard. After that I couldnt put the banjo down. He started taking lessons from the legendary Tony Trischka and within three years was touring professionally. I was always the guy who was real serious about it and put in as many hours playing as I could and was always trying to learn new things, he says. That restlessness has defined an extraordinary career and collaborations with a seemingly limitless number of diverse musicians from the late jazz great Chick Corea to legendary cellist Yo-Yo Ma. His latest album, the Grammy award-winning My Bluegrass Heart represents a return to where it all started. However, the record, a collaboration with some of the finest bluegrass players going around, is definitely not your grandpas bluegrass. We worked really hard to create something hopefully unique with a lot of connections to the roots but hopefully also a step into some different directions that havent been done before, says Fleck, who is touring Australia with his partner Abigail Washburn, a superlative banjo player and vocalist in her own right. The pair married after meeting at a square dance in Nashville, cementing a remarkable musical partnership as a well as a personal one.

Advertisement
Curtin University will review its payment of staff over the past eight years after high-profile wage theft cases across other Australian universities came to light.

But the universitys staff union is concerned the review will miss what it says is some of the worst offending, claiming there has been a lack of communication and transparency on how and what the investigation will cover.

Curtin University will conduct a review into its payment of staff, starting with casuals, dating back to 2015. Credit: Curtin University/ Facebook

University chief operating officer Fiona Notley emailed staff last month to say the review, initially focused on current and former casual employees, would involve an examination of payroll, pay-related systems and payment practices.

We take our obligations to comply with workplace laws very seriously and have engaged experienced external advisors in relation to the review, Notley wrote.
A revolving door of incarceration in Western Australia is failing to lower crime rates and coming at an increasing cost to taxpayers.

The finding is contained in a report by the Justice Reform Initiative, an alliance of former parliamentarians, Aboriginal leaders, judicial figures and academics.

Adult prisoners each cost WA taxpayers about $297 per day, or $108,405 per year, according to Productivity Commission data. Credit: Greg Henderson

It warns efforts to rehabilitate prisoners and prevent reoffending are failing with WAs prisoner population growing by more than 20 per cent over the past decade.

Almost two-thirds of prisoners in WA have been incarcerated before, and that figure increased by six per cent between 2012 and 2021.
The saga surrounding a well-known orthopedic surgeon who had his contract terminated last year at Wyoming County Community Health System continues to unfold.

The latest chapter will play out in court.

Dr. Paul J. Mason and Buffalo Bone and Joint, of which Mason is the managing member, filed a lawsuit recently in Erie County Court against the health system, Wyoming County and several members of the Wyoming County Board of Supervisors, alleging defamation, breach of contract and retaliation, among other claims. Mason and his business are seeking a judgment of at least $24.7 million.

In a statement, the Wyoming County health system said it does not comment on pending litigation. The county and the Board of Supervisors did not respond to an inquiry seeking comment.

The lawsuit, filed Feb. 15, stems from the health system in February 2022 terminating its agreement with Buffalo Bone and Joint, a firing that spurred significant community tension, heated public meetings and a call for an independent review of the health system.

His dismissal ended what had been a long run for Mason at the 62-bed Warsaw hospital, a relationship that had started around 2014 when Mason and two of his partners at Buffalo Orthopaedic Group started providing orthopedic medical services at the facility. That relationship deepened in summer 2017 when, due to increases in orthopedic volume, the hospital and Mason ironed out an agreement that would allow him to provide full-time surgical and clinical services and also gave him the title of chief medical officer, according to the lawsuit.

Mason left Buffalo Orthopaedic Group and formed Buffalo Bone and Joint for the purposes of contracting for the expanded services at the hospital. The agreement, which was signed in August 2017 and lasted through November 2022, was extended in 2019  by which point the hospital's orthopedic department was posting an annual profit of nearly $1.5 million  until Nov. 30, 2024, according to the complaint.

Much of Mason's lawsuit details a rocky relationship with the late Joseph L. McTernan, who took over as health system CEO in January 2020, replacing the retiring Donald T. Eichenauer, who had negotiated the deal with Mason for the hospital.

The suit claims that McTernan did not regularly interact with Mason and began to publicly call out the hospital's contract with Buffalo Bone and Joint because he believed it was favorable to Mason. McTernan also claimed, the lawsuit states, that Mason was losing money for the hospital, and the CEO began to isolate and embarrass Mason by removing him from emails and correspondence with other senior leaders.

Things escalated in November 2020, when another hospital physician was allegedly observed by operating room staff and a nurse manager performing procedures on patients in "what appeared to be an intoxicated or impaired condition," the suit states. As Mason was contacted by staff and medical providers with concerns over the potential risk to patients in light of the incident, Mason tried to address the concerns with hospital administration, according to the lawsuit.

After his attempts to address the incident through processes at the hospital were ineffective, Mason reported the matter to the state Office of Professional Medical Conduct, which increased the retaliation against Mason by administrators, the lawsuit states.

The hospital eventually sent a letter Dec. 17, 2021, to Mason, claiming that Buffalo Bone and Joint had breached the services agreement with the hospital.

McTernan, 44, died Jan. 24, 2022, after what was described as a brief illness.

Wyoming County health system names its next CEO The health system on Wednesday announced that David Kobis, a longtime health care executive and management consultant, will start May 31 in the top role.

In a letter Feb. 8, 2022, Mason and Buffalo Bone and Joint were notified that, because they had not cured the breaches of the services agreement, the hospital was terminating the agreement, effective Feb. 22.

A public outcry ensued following the termination, prompting several public meetings where Mason's lawsuit alleges certain Board of Supervisors members made false statements about him and his business.

As that was playing out, Mason joined Bertrand Chaffee Hospital in Springville, where he started providing orthopedic services last May.
The daughter of colourful property developer Jean Nassif has been released following her arrest on serious fraud charges, after her family posted $2.6 million bail in a Sydney court on Wednesday.

Ashlyn Nassif spent the night in police custody after she was charged with dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage by deception and publishing false or misleading material to obtain an advantage.

Ashlyn Nassif departs Surry Hills police station on Wednesday. Credit: Brook Mitchell

The 27-year-old lawyer was granted bail in the Downing Centre Local Court on strict conditions including that she cease communication with a list of 24 people, including her father, and that she surrender her passport.

Jean Nassif remains in rural Lebanon, while he continues to be sought by a parliamentary inquiry probing development activities in Sydneys north-west. He has not been accused of any wrongdoing in relation to their investigation.
Uniland Development Co. is backing out of its deal to acquire The Buffalo News' office building at the corner of Washington and Scott streets.

The Amherst-based developer, which had agreed last year to acquire the five-story Brutalist-style building, notified Lee Enterprises  the Iowa-based parent of The News  of its decision on Monday, one day before the due-diligence period on the contract expired, according to Kathleen O'Quinn, director of real estate and facilities for Lee.

Sign up for the Buffalo Next free newsletter The News' Buffalo Next team covers the changing Buffalo Niagara economy. Get the news in your inbox 5 days a week.

Its always difficult when a project we believe in and work so meticulously on doesnt come to fruition," said Uniland spokesman Ryan Weisz. "Unfortunately, the market demand for large, downtown office space remains soft. To add another 150,000 square feet in capacity does not make sense at this time, and the proper decision was to end the process. We remain dedicated to downtown Buffalo, and are committed to its future success.

O'Quinn did not comment on the reasons behind Uniland's decision.

But a real estate source said that the purchase contract that Uniland signed in September had called for it to pay $9.05 million, or nearly $57 per square foot, for The News' 160,000-square-foot building, which is located near Canalside and LECOM Harborcenter.

But three months later, Washington developer Douglas Jemal's Douglas Development Corp. purchased the HSBC Atrium building on the other side of Scott Street. Jemal's company paid $9 million for about 300,000 square feet, or $30 per square foot.

So Uniland had agreed to buy The News building for the same price Jemal was buying the HSBC Atrium for, but Uniland was getting half as much space. And Uniland also hadn't yet lined up a tenant or solidified its redevelopment plans for The News building.

"It's twice the size of the publishing building that Uniland had under contract," O'Quinn said of the Atrium deal. "It's definitely changed the landscape, that's for sure."

Uniland's due diligence had been set to expire at the end of January, but Lee agreed to a one-month extension before Uniland decided to let it run out.

That means Lee now will start looking for another buyer for the solid concrete office building, which sits in front of the much longer production and press building that stretches along Scott Street. But it also presents Lee with a new opportunity.

"As far as Lee is concerned, we still have a viable property that were going to make some decisions about what our next steps are going to be," O'Quinn said.

Buffalo News plans to close downtown production facility, move printing to Cleveland The Buffalo News announced its intent to move its press operations and close its downtown production facility later this year.

Last week, the Davenport, Iowa-based news company announced it intends to shift printing of The Buffalo News to Cleveland starting later this year, with trucks delivering the papers back to Buffalo overnight in time for regular delivery. Lee's plan would decommission the two presses  which were purchased and installed less than 20 years ago at a cost of $40 million  and would close down the second building. About 160 jobs would be affected by the planned move.

That would mean Lee could package all the properties together  the office building, the print and production building and the parking lot across Scott Street. That's 6.25 acres of land. And it's an option that Lee executives are looking at, although the print building won't be empty for months.

"Because the printing is further out as far as when that's going to be physically moving, we're trying to decide what our options are for the real estate in that area," O'Quinn said.
The vote count is set to begin Wednesday for United Auto Workers International runoff elections.

The results will determine the next president of the UAW International, as well as the next director of Region 9, which is headquartered in Amherst.

For the first time, UAW members around the country are voting directly for their top officials, rather than through a delegate system. The Buffalo Niagara region is home to a large population of active and retired UAW workers from employers including General Motors and Ford plants.

The UAW International is under the oversight of a court-appointed, independent monitor following a series of scandals involving UAW leaders. The monitor will start counting the mailed-in ballots on Wednesday morning; it's not clear when the count will be finished.

The runoff for Region 9 director pits Daniel Vicente, recording secretary for UAW 644 in Pottstown, Pa., against Lauren Farrell, assistant director for Region 9. Vicente received 41% of the votes in a three-person field last year, to Farrell's 31%. The position of Region 9 director is currently vacant.

Shawn Fain and incumbent Ray Curry are competing for president. The UAW will begin contract talks with the Detroit Three automakers later this year.
Despite being on the other side of the world in Hong Kong, overlooking a marina shrouded in a cool fog, Asale Angel-Ajani says her nostalgia for the place she once called home was at the forefront of her mind while writing her debut novel.

When I sat down to write, I couldnt stay away from the landscape of my childhood, Angel-Ajani said in a recent phone interview from New York, where shes a professor at City College of New York. I thought I would never want to go back, but it was the place that kept calling me.

The author, who spent a decade in Hong Kong, yearned for the desert heat and San Bernardino mountains, and these would become the backdrop and inspiration for her debut novel, "A Country You Can Leave."

A Stanford University graduate with a doctorate in Anthropology and an MFA in creative writing, Angel-Ajani grew up in Riverside County in an unincorporated area near Perris, and the changes to the Inland Empire were on her mind as she wrote.

There is a part of California, even for those of us in the last 15-20 years, that we dont recognize anymore, Angel-Ajani said. These are landscapes and experiences that are disappearing and being radically altered by climate change and development, so there is something that we both gain and lose from that.

A Country You Can Leave centers on a biracial teenage girl named Lara and her bartender mother, Yevgenia, a defector from the Soviet Union who raises her daughter without the childs Afro-Cuban father. While her parents struggled to assimilate, Lara creates a uniquely American identity for herself, which creates some friction with her mother.

Lara struggles against preconceived notions of who or how she should be. Her mother wishes she had a stronger relationship with Russian culture, and some neighbors in the Oasis Mobile Estates cant fathom how she can have Black and Cuban heritage. For Lara, rather than getting caught up on her mothers attachment to the Soviet past, shes working out who she is and who she will become.

That declaration is a way she creates space in a lot of the same ways that especially first-generation immigrant kids have to make a claim of who they are even in the face of their parents positioning in the U.S., said Angel-Ajani.

While the novel isnt autobiographical, the characters reflect people she knew growing up; Angel-Ajani said they are all pieces of herself.

A lot of the people featured in the book are an amalgamation or a collective and come from a historical fact of my life, she said. Thats part of the homesickness and trying to recreate a home when I was so far away, living in Hong Kong for all those years.

The novel also doesnt shy away from addressing day-to-day poverty and the anxieties of living in a system that can reinforce the cycle of hardship. Angel-Ajani has written two nonfiction books that touch on some of the topics in the novel, Strange Trade: The Story of Two Women Who Risked Everything in the International Drug Trade and the upcoming Intimate: Essays on Racial Terror.

This is the thing that is so profound about the Inland Empire, Angel-Ajani said. While you have these distinct communities that are carved out on racial lines, the thing that is a common factor is poverty and how poverty shapes a more common experience. We see that more in the Inland Empire, perhaps because people are accessing similar services in the same buildings, so you have to interact with each other, and thats where we overlap.

Although dealing with painful realities, the novel has many funny and heartfelt moments. The most comical instances occur with Yevgenias constant philosophical advice about men and the different sections of the novel that begin with her sex advice about men.

I think its both humorous and utilitarian, and it says more about what shes trying to get Lara to do as a woman in a society that struggles to see women as in control of their own bodies, Angel-Ajani said.

A Country You Can Leave, which takes its name from a Joseph Brodsky quote, is also a book about books. Yevgenia is obsessed with reading Russian authors, such as Tolstoy. She dismisses any other work that isnt Russian as childish and insists that Lara read nothing else, but Lara still sneaks in some Harry Potter books. While Yevgenia reads to navigate reality and Lara reads to escape, Angel-Ajani hopes readers can relate and find pleasure in the reading process.

I hope that it sparks joy and that they see my characters as companions while they read the book, she said. I hope that if there is someone out there who feels alone, that they feel less alone and more seen.
If you know of local business openings or closings, please notify us here.

PREVIOUS OPENINGS AND CLOSINGS

- Air Products & Chemicals Inc. plans to invest a half-billion dollars to produce environmentally friendly hydrogen in New York state.

- The Trexlertown Chick-Fil-A plans to add a second drive-thru lane as part of a plan to reduce traffic congestion.

- The Harrisburg-based Mid Penn bank has opened its first full-service branch in the Lehigh Valley in South Whitehall.

- The Allentown Planning Commission put off a decision on a new Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen at the site of the former Nostos Greek restaurant.

- The former Star Crete concrete plant at the intersection of Farmersville Road and Easton Avenue has been sold for $1.58 million, and that may clear the way for a medical office building.

- The local business SuperSets Gym will open its third location in Allentown's South Mall, with no opening date set yet.

- The jewelry boutique Versant will close later this year, but the business will be consolidated at Gary Werkheiser's other location in Saucon Valley Square.

- The DSW Woodmill Commons has moved to Berkshire West, 1101 Woodland Road in Wyomissing.

- Trainer Michael Melendez has opened his new Reading Extreme Boxing Club where PacSun used to operate in the Berkshire Mall.

- Frackville NAPA Auto Parts held a grand opening with the Schuylkill Chamber of Commerce and Frackville Business & Professional Association.

- Fyzical Therapy & Balance Centers in North Manheim Township held a grand opening, in conjunction with the Schuylkill Chamber of Commerce and Pottsville Business Association.

- PDC Machines, a maker of hydrogen compressors, showed off a new plant in Lower Salford.

- Maya Capital Partners has acquired Amwell Valley Self Storage, a 265-unit storage business on Route 31 in Ringoes, New Jersey.

- Norwescap is buying the former Sullivan's on the Main restaurant in Phillipsburg to renovate the building and then use it for programs to help educate and feed people.
Allentown, PA (18103)

Today

Clouds and some drizzle or fog possible early, then clouds break for sun..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy and breezy with a round of showers overnight and perhaps a thunderstorm.
READING, Pa -Continuing to tell a living history.

"There's so much history, African American history, which is part of American history that is exclusive to Berks County, said Elta Jackson-Henry, head of religious affairs for the Reading chapter of the NAACP

The Berks History Center and the Reading NAACP are currently looking for new ways to create more inclusive exhibits and events at the center.

"Because we are kind of more inclusive with all the community, an organization like the Berks History Center is only successful if it is a reflection of the community, said executive director for the Berks History Center Benjamin Neely.

One exhibit on loan from Albright's collection honors the late Berks County native Clarence Hubert.

"And we're hoping that this kind of builds a bridge with what we are hoping to display, Neely said.

With a large collection currently at Albright, those here at the Berks History Center say the plan is to have more African American exhibits in the near future.

"To bring it here to the center historic district would be awesome as well, Jackson-Henry said.

One example of something the center wants to do more of was a well-attended historic gospel jubilee held on Sunday.

"It was a living history that happened during the event, Jackson-Henry explained.

As the center works on building more black history related exhibits, the local chapter of the NAACP is already planning another gospel jubilee for Black History Month next year, and at a potentially even bigger venue.
At a somber afternoon news conference Wednesday, Buffalo Fire Commissioner William Renaldo delivered the news that many feared to learn and no one wanted to hear.

"Today one of our firefighters made the ultimate sacrifice, he said.

A 37-year-old Buffalo firefighter died while fighting a four-alarm blaze on Main Street downtown that may have been sparked by work being done on the structure with blowtorches and appeared to cause a phenomenon known as a backdraft.

The firefighter's identity was not released.

Videos of the fireball that occurred from the apparent backdraft have circulated on social media. The firefighter who died was caught in a partial building collapse and trapped about 30 to 40 feet inside, Renaldo said. The rest of the firefighters had to evacuate the building.

A backdraft occurs when a fire smolders inside a space for a long time and sucks up all the oxygen. It can almost put out the fire. But when air is quickly introduced to that space, such as when a door or window is opened, it can fuel a blast of fire.

The Main Street building where the fire occurred was "very unstable" throughout the day, which hindered efforts to recover the firefighter, Renaldo said. Mayor Byron Brown later announced that an emergency demolition of what is left of the building has been ordered and could start as soon as Wednesday evening.

The fire was reported at 10:08 a.m. at 745 Main, between Tupper and Goodell streets, just north of the Theatre District.

Destroyed in the blaze was DC Theatricks, a costume shop, which listed its address as 747 Main.

Dozens of firefighters and law enforcement personnel gathered near the scene in the hours after the blaze. Buffalo Diocese Bishop Michael W. Fisher arrived at the scene shortly after 1 p.m.

About 1:45 p.m., many of those gathered saluted as a group, as shown in a video posted on Facebook by Buffalo Fire Department-Helmets & Hose Wagons, an account affiliated with Local 282, Buffalo Professional Firefighters.

In a solemn moment, an ambulance left the scene and headed up Main Street, with two Buffalo police vehicles leading the way. A group of firefighters positioned at Main and Goodell saluted as they passed.

The Erie County Sheriff's Office's Air One helicopter was overhead and a church bell tolled.

"This is a difficult day in the City of Buffalo, and certainly we are asking for prayers," Brown said at a news conference about 20 minutes earlier.

The building is owned by Chris Jacobs, the former state senator and congressman.

"The loss of this firefighter, that is the tragedy here. I just feel terribly, said Jacobs, who was not in town. Im so incredibly saddened by the loss of this great firefighter, and my condolences to his family.

Jacobs, who owns five other properties on the block heading south to Tupper Street, said he had been seeking to acquire the building for over 15 years before finally succeeding. He has renovated the other buildings, and had been planning the same type of historic preservation project for this one, with new apartments upstairs.

Now, Jacobs said, the entire building  including a vacant open-span structure in back that was used for storage  will have to be demolished.

The roof collapsed at some point during the fire, so it seems like that is going to be a complete loss, he said.

He said he had been trying to stabilize the structure before starting the renovations, so there was a small amount of work going on, not a lot, but he would have to look at what happened.

The fire, which appeared to start on the north side of the building, may have been smoldering inside the building for some time before the fire department received the 911 call. The distress call from firefighters followed the partial interior collapse, the commissioner said.

"The hardest thing, actually, was to keep our firefighters from re-entering the building to help our fallen firefighter," Renaldo said. "That was the most difficult thing."

Authorities said the firefighter who died is from Engine 2, stationed at Elmwood Avenue and Virginia Street.

Hayden Lucas, who lives on Delaware Avenue in the vicinity of the fire, said she ran to the scene after smelling smoke and hearing sirens.

"There was a big explosion," Lucas said. "The windows blew out."

She and a friend who ran to the scene then had to run away from it.

"We were getting hit with debris," Lucas said.

She said when she initially smelled smoke, she thought it might be coming from inside her apartment.

When she got to the fire scene, she said the blaze "wasn't too bad" at first.

It appeared as though the fire started near the top of the building, but then it spread, she said.

Debris was strewn around the area surrounding the burning building.

This is a massive fire. Looks like the building is completely gutted. Flames still shooting out the top as firefighter get water on it from multiple angles. Big chunks of ashes flying in the air. pic.twitter.com/zhoCkum1pr  Maki Becker (@makibecker) March 1, 2023

The last time a Buffalo firefighter was killed battling a fire was in August 2009, when Firefighter Jonathan S. Croom and Lt. Charles W. "Skip" McCarthy perished in a blaze on Genesee Street.

News Staff Reporter Jonathan D. Epstein contributed to this article.
COLEBROOKDALE TWP., Pa. - Police are looking for a man who is facing robbery and kidnapping charges stemming from an incident at a Colebrookdale Township convenience store.

"We believe this was strictly a crime of opportunity," said Eastern Berks Regional Police Chief Barry Leatherman.

Leatherman said officers are looking for 45-year-old robbery and kidnapping suspect Rodney Moyer. Police believe it was Moyer who approached a 29-year-old man at the Circle K in the 1200 block of Montgomery Avenue around 6:30 a.m. on Monday.

Police said the 29-year-old was threatened by a man claiming to have a gun, forced to get money from the ATM, then ordered to drive to the Philadelphia area.

"They went back out, got into the victim's car and the victim did drive him to the Philadelphia area," said Chief Leatherman.

Police said the victim was forced to stop at another ATM to withdraw more money on the way.

"They resumed the drive and then at a later time and location during the drive, while stopped in traffic, the actor got out of the car and walked away and it was after that, that the victim contacted our department," said Leatherman.

Police said they do not know if Moyer actually had a gun.

69 News spoke to people who live near the Circle K, who asked to remain anonymous.

"Close to home. Too close to home," said a neighbor.

They said robberies have happened at the store before.

"Like here we go again," said a neighbor.

Police do not believe Moyer knew the victim and said he has ties to the Pottstown and Colebrookdale Township areas. Investigators believe he had been staying near the convenience store, which neighbors said is usually a quiet area.

"I could be out here walking my dog at 12 midnight and I can hear a pin drop," said a neighbor.

Police said no injuries were reported and they are urging people to not approach Moyer if you see him. Anyone with information is asked to contact police or Crime Alert Berks County.
READING, Pa.  Acting on a request from the Berks County Planning Commission, the Reading Planning Commission voted Tuesday night to table the final land development plans for Holy Trinity Church of God, a proposed 6.4-acre campus at 1541 Montgomery St.

Planning solicitor Michelle R. Mayfield said she received a letter from the county solicitor asking that the plan be tabled until they engage the services of an engineer to evaluate a pipe for the control of stormwater at the site.

"The county has requested we withhold approval until this issue gets a little bit further down the road," Mayfield said. "It's my understanding that there may be language added to the standard city agreements. That will be based on their discovery once they get the engineering involved to evaluate the existing pipe."

The property is historically significant, as it is the site of the last farm within the city, which operated until the 1940s.

Holy Trinity Church of God, which is currently located at 130 W. Buttonwood St., plans to construct a sanctuary building that can accommodate up to 275 people, an administration center and an 89-space parking lot.

Plans also call for the preservation of an 1867 farmhouse to be used as a rectory or as a rental property and an existing blacksmith shop.

Jerome Skrincosky, a planning consultant for the city from Hawk Valley Associates, said most other outstanding issues with the plan have been satisfied.

"This plan has advanced significantly, whereas a lot of things have been put into play by other agencies," Skrincosky said. "The Bern Township municipal authority has issued review letters with regards to sanitary sewage, and the plan was sent to the county Parks and Recreation Department for its review of the stormwater management easement."

Tim Krall, an engineer representing public works, noted that City Council on Monday night introduced a proposed ordinance to establish a no-parking zone on Lackawanna Street near the two drive entrances for the proposed church.

The no-parking zone was requested by the church for the purpose of improving the vehicle and pedestrian traffic safety conditions.

Planning Chairman Wayne Bealer said the plan was more complex than most because it also involved approvals from Bern Township and the Berks County Planning Commission.

"I want to commend the applicant and everyone who is working on this plan for getting it this far," Bealer said.
HARRISBURG, Pa. - A Berks County lawmaker has stepped down as Pennsylvania's speaker of the House.

Representative Mark Rozzi says he's proud of the work he's done during his short time as speaker.

Speaking with 69 News following his resignation, he said, "It's been one of my biggest honors, serving as speaker, but it also shows what is wrong with Harrisburg."

Just two months after his swearing in, Rozzi is passing the gavel to fellow Democrat Joanna McClinton. The Philadelphia lawmaker is the first woman to lead the chamber.

Rozzi continued to say when he was sworn in, that "the republicans couldn't at that time elect their own speaker. They were out of their majority and instead of voting the lady from Philadelphia, the right thing to do, they tried to circumvent putting Joanna in and they thought they could get someone that would do their dirty work for them."

When Rozzi was named speaker, he agreed not to caucus with either party. He had support from both Republicans and Democrats, but the Dems had vacant seats and were unable to vote for their top choice at the time.

A survivor himself, Rozzi has spent years in Harrisburg working to reform the statute of limitations for victims of childhood sexual abuse. Two bills aimed at extending the time in which victims can seek justice passed the House Friday and are expected to head to the Senate this week.

In a 20-minute farewell address on the House floor Tuesday, Rozzi said "if you abused a child in this commonwealth, or aided and abetted the perpetrator, justice is coming for you."

Rozzi said he will return to the Democratic caucus.
HELLERTOWN, Pa. - The Saucon Valley School Board fielded comments from community members during Tuesday night's school board meeting about a club that has a lot of support, but also a lot of opposition.

It follows the facility use approval for a controversial after school club and then a threat made against it and students.

Superintendent Jaime Vlasaty made the decision to rescind approval for the After School Satan Club on Feb. 24. Three days before that, the district received a threatening voicemail from a man in Charlotte, North Carolina.

"A male-sounding voice on the message indicated displeasure with the school for allowing the After School Satan Club to use the school facilities and then said something to the effect of 'I'm going to come in there and shoot everybody,'" Northampton County District Attorney Terence Houck said.

Houck said 20-year-old Ceu Uk is now sitting in jail in North Carolina charged with terroristic threats. He said the Charlotte, North Carolina man saw a Facebook post about the recently-approved club before leaving the threatening voicemail.

The campus closed just hours after the threat was made and classes didnt resume again until Thursday, February 23. The following day, Vlasaty made the decision to rescind school facility use to that club.

During Tuesday's school board meeting, Vlasaty echoed her initial statement made on Feb. 24 about why she revoked the club on campus, saying that it failed to meet district requirements outlined in school board policy 707.

Vlasaty said she's received hundreds of complaints about her decision to approve the club and got more once it was revoked. Her decision to remove it, however, has left some people confused and questioning her motive.

"I'd like to know on what grounds that you rescinded it, truly," one woman said during public comment.

"It seems to me that it's much more likely that the reason for the cancellation is the controversy," another man said.

Others who decided to speak up say schools should be left to learning.

"Any kind of religion should be out of public schools," one man said. "That would just be helpful for all parties."

"Nix it all," another woman said. "I think we have enough on our plates to focus on education and leave it at that."

The suspect who made the threat will be extradited to Pennsylvania to face charges.
HELLERTOWN, Pa. - A 20-year-old North Carolina man is in police custody, charged with making terroristic threats to a school in the Lehigh Valley.

Northampton County District Attorney Terence Houck says Ceu Uk from Charlotte, North Carolina left a voicemail Tuesday, February 21 for the Saucon Valley Middle School.

The DA says Uk threatened the district because he was angry about The After School Satan Club.

"A male sounding voice on the message indicated displeasure with the school for allowing the After School Satan Club to use the school facilities and then said something to the effect of, 'I'm going to come in there and shoot everybody,'" Houck said.

The threat quickly closed campuses that Tuesday night and forced the district to cancel classes the following day as police investigated. Houck said that local investigators traced the number from the voicemail back to a prepaid phone in Charlotte, North Carolina. With the help of authorities there, Houck said detectives were able to identify the caller as Ceu Uk, who goes by the name Van.

"Van confessed to leaving the message, but claimed that he didn't mean it," Houck said. "He also stated that the After School Satan Club is trying to turn kids into devils and that he found out about it on Facebook."

Police in Charlotte arrested Uk, and he is in prison. Bail has been set at $75,000. Houck said Uk will be extradited to Pennsylvania to face charges.

"You're talking about children here," Houck said. "You're talking about a nationwide kind of fright with these kinds of calls, which is 100% justified. So, when you get a call like this, you have to take it very, very seriously."

The Saucon Valley superintendent rescinded approval for the After School Satan Club a few days after the threat, saying the club failed to meet all district requirements.
Starting Wednesday, more than 1.8 million people in Pennsylvania are having their food stamps cut, according to the non-partisan Center for Budget Priorities.

The emergency allotments that were put in place during the pandemic are coming to an end. They were allowed to expire as part of the 2022 Federal Omnibus Sepnding Bill passed in December of last year.

According to the Center for Budget Priorities, the average person relying on food stamps, or SNAP, is going to be getting about $90 less this month than last month.

One in every seven people in Pennsylvania relies on that program, and with that change, those people may end up relying more on food banks.

69 News paid a visit to the Allentown Area Ecumenical Food Bank, which was busy Tuesday morning. The employees there say they've been trying to stock up on non-perishable or freezable food to get ready for this change.

They're expecting a significant increase in people using the food bank's services. That's on top of a 230% increase they've already seen over the past year due to rising food prices.

"One thing we haven't seen of course is comparable donations, so it's tough trying to meet the demands with not having the financial support," said Food Bank Executive Director Anne Eagan.

We also spoke with a man receiving food from the food bank, Robert Faison. He's having his benefits reduced, and he's worried about providing for his grandchildren and other family members.

"With extra benefits, it helps a lot, but by them cutting it, it's going to hurt everybody," said Faison. "A whole lot of people need to get together and protest this."

The Allentown Area Ecumenical Food Bank gets much of its food and funding from the Second Harvest Food Bank. That organization says if you want to help them out, there's two things you can do.

One is to offer financial or food donations to your local food bank.

Another is to ask your legislator to support the upcoming federal Farm Bill, which the food bank said contains a provision to increase food stamp benefits again to take some pressure off them.
Lehigh Valley Reilly Childrens Hospital cut the ribbon Tuesday to celebrate the addition of 20 pediatric inpatient beds, expanding the childrens hospitals medical-surgical inpatient capacity to 50, according to a news release from LVHN.

LVHN says the expansion reflects the growing demand for specialized pediatric care.

The need for this expansion was emphasized during the recent surge with the increased number of patients who were admitted to our hospital with respiratory illnesses, said J. Nathan Hagstrom, MD, Physician-in-Chief of Lehigh Valley Reilly Childrens Hospital. There is a real need for additional pediatric beds in our community and we are thrilled to expand access to families in our region.

The 50 inpatient pediatric beds are complemented by other pediatric services at Lehigh Valley Reilly Childrens Hospital, including 12 observation beds situated next to the 25-bed childrens emergency room, a 12-bed pediatric intensive care unit and a 40-bed neonatal intensive care unit.
HANOVER TWP., Pa. - The booming Northampton County real estate market continues to ring up big numbers, and not just for warehouses.

An office building at 1605 Valley Center Parkway in Hanover Township was sold for $12.7 million, Northampton County records show. That is a gain of about 11% since the last recorded sale in 2011.

The new owner is a limited liability company that identified itself as 1605 VCP, a combination of the address and an acronym for Valley Center Parkway. The owner's address is given in Somerset, New Jersey, and is the same address as SHI International.

SHI International is an information technology company that, according to a recent press release, employs more than 6,000 people worldwide. The company was founded in 1989 and is privately owned.

Founder Leo Koguan has a net worth of $5.6 billion as of Wednesday, according to Forbes. Koguan has a large stake in Tesla Inc., the battery and electric-vehicle maker led by Elon Musk.

The Valley Center Parkway building is north of Route 22 and just east of Schoenersville Road, near the Lehigh Valley Academy Regional Charter School's current location.

In Palmer Township, home of many big deals, a commercial building at 13 McFadden Road was sold for $5.3 million. The owner of that property is listed as McFadden Warehouse LLC, at the same address. That sale was recorded Feb. 13.

Big land deals can boost a township's revenue through a half-percent transfer tax. When an Amazon warehouse was sold last year in Palmer for $154.2 million, that meant a $771,000 payment to the township.
Bishop Michael W. Fisher denied claims that the Buffalo Diocese was attempting to drag out its Chapter 11 bankruptcy and asserted that the diocese was actively engaged in good faith negotiations with sex abuse survivors and insurance carriers to settle the case.

Fisher wrote a letter to parishioners Tuesday, after The Buffalo News published stories Sunday and Monday in which abuse survivors expressed outrage over a 3-year old bankruptcy process that so far has cost $11 million in legal fees but hasnt resulted in a single payment to an abuse victim.

The Buffalo Dioceses bankruptcy case has taken longer to resolve than at least 14 other diocese bankruptcies filed since 2005, according to a Buffalo News analysis and research by Pennsylvania State University Professor Marie T. Reilly, who studies Catholic institution bankruptcies. Only the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, at nearly five years to a confirmed plan, and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minnesota at three years and seven months, have taken longer.

Mediated settlement talks in the Buffalo Diocese began in earnest late last summer, and Chief Judge Carl L. Bucki of U.S. Bankruptcy Court Western District of New York recently appointed a second mediator to help move the process along.

Abuse survivors have accused the diocese of foot dragging to prolong the bankruptcy and wear them down so they accept a lower settlement offer.

Fisher maintained that the bankruptcy filing, which happened Feb. 28, 2020, prior to Fishers arrival as bishop, was still the right course of action given the number of Child Victims Act lawsuits that had been filed against the diocese.

Bankruptcy court rules, he said, help to ensure that all survivors will be treated fairly.

If the Diocese had not pursued reorganization in bankruptcy, there was every likelihood that judgments in favor of early litigants would have completely depleted the Dioceses limited resources, leaving the Diocese without the ability to provide financial restitution to the vast majority of other survivors, he added.

Fisher said the Covid-19 pandemic and accompanying lockdowns unavoidably delayed progress early in the case but he was optimistic the diocese, abuse survivors and insurers will be able to agree on a fair settlement.

The diocese, he said, is doing everything in its power to achieve that result as quickly as possible.

But Denis Riley sees it much differently.

The diocese in 2018 compensated Riley for the abuse he suffered from Monsignor Edward Walker when he was an altar boy at St. Joseph parish in Fredonia in the 1960s.

The diocese paid out $17.5 million to 106 clergy abuse victims through a voluntary compensation program in 2018 and 2019. The diocese hasnt paid any compensation to victims since that program ended.

Riley accepted the diocese's compensation offer because he figured then that the diocese was hurtling toward bankruptcy, as other dioceses had done before, in an effort "to avoid paying a dollar more than they have to."

So Riley isn't waiting to receive money through a bankruptcy settlement, like the 900 people who filed claims.

It's still upsetting, though, to see how the diocese is handling things, he said.

"They're using every tactic they can, under the cover of trying to communicate and bargain in good faith," he said.

The bishop's letter was sent Tuesday to pastors and parish administrators, who were encouraged to distribute it via a bulletin insert or to read it from the pulpit at weekend Masses, according to diocese spokesman Joseph Martone.

Fisher also objected to criticism that the diocese hasnt made its records on abusive clergy more readily available to the public. Many abuse victims have been calling for years for the diocese to release such files, which could provide greater insight into how church authorities handled abuse complaints and clergy facing molestation claims.

Fisher said the diocese handed over voluminous records to the creditors committee that represents abuse survivors in the Chapter 11 proceeding and to the Office of the New York Attorney General, which launched an investigation in 2018 and subpoenaed the records.

Sean Kirst: Voices of survivors of childhood abuse: Whalen's courage shattered walls within the church Survivors of abuse at the hands of priests say Michael Whalen's courage became the history-changing push that finally overwhelmed diocesan secrecy, going back generations.

The records given to the creditors committee were done so under a nondisclosure agreement, so they are not available to the public. The Attorney Generals Office, in an investigative report that accompanied its 2020 lawsuit against the diocese, cited some diocese files related to 25 clergy accused of abuse.

We are aware of no outstanding requests from any of those parties for additional records relating to acknowledged perpetrators or the Dioceses handling of reports of abuse, Fisher said. Due to the sensitive nature of these records however, including the need to protect the identities of survivors, it would not be appropriate to make them available to the general public.

Riley described those comments as laughable. He's asked the diocese in writing for files on Walker for many years.

"I just want to know what the diocese knew," he said. "The people who don't want to be identified, OK, their names can be taken out of them, but all the records should be released, to the extent they can be, to the public. But they're afraid of that, because the firestorm would be unbelievable."

Fisher added that no diocese employee who is credibly accused of abuse will ever be shielded.

The bishop also acknowledged that no amount of money can undo the harm survivors have suffered, and he said it was unlikely the diocese could ever gather enough assets, even with contributions from insurance companies, to "fully satisfy survivors' expectations and demands."

But he said his highest priority as bishop is to work toward the healing of victim-survivors of abuse.

"Ultimately it is in what we do  far more than what we say  that will demonstrate to survivors and all of our communities that the failures of the past cannot be repeated," he said.
The Manufacturers Resource Center is celebrating a decade of the What's So Cool About Manufacturing contest.

7th and 8th grade students are paired with some of the biggest producers in the region to learn about what they do.

"So the student's teams from each of the schools go out to the manufacturer they're partnered with and they talk with the manufacturer. They get an interview with them, if you will. They get a plant tour of the floor. See processes, get a chance to talk to individuals on the floor. All the while they're videoing what they're seeing," said Rich Hobbs, President and CEO of the MRC.

Students are then tasked with making a two-minute video, which is voted on, in the search for a winner.

In the last 10 years, the program has spread across the state.

In the Lehigh Valley alone, 33 schools are participating, working with companies like B. Braun, Crayola, Orasure, Mack trucks, Tyber Medical, and more.

Voting online opens at midnight, March 1.

Hobbs says it's started to encourage career pathways in the industry for middle school students.

"Well, 10 years ago the thinking was manufacturing had a tough reputation of dirty, dark, and dangerous, and I think a big piece of this was to overcome that or help overcome that perception," Hobbs said.

"To get young students seeing what manufacturing really is. Getting them inside the walls of the companies they drive past and see all the time but they don't know what's going on inside."

You have until Friday at midnight to cast your vote, and you'll be able to watch the awards ceremony live on Tuesday, March 14 at 7 p.m. on WFMZ-TV.
HARRISBURG, Pa. - We end Black History Month with a conversation with a man who truly is making history in Pennsylvania state government.

The first thing you notice about Austin Davis, whether as the guest speaker at a Pennsylvania Press Club luncheon or as a candidate touring Allentown's Farmers Market, connecting with the community is always on his menu.

"You know, I love people, I inherently think people are good. And that's what ultimately drove me to public service because I want to improve the lives of my neighbors, and my community and my Commonwealth," Davis said.

Growing up in the small steel town of McKeesport, the son of a union bus driver and hair dresser, connecting came early. He has one sister but 28 cousins.

"Can you name them all?" I asked.

"You know it would take me a little while but I can name them," he laughed.

The first of his family to graduate college, in 2018 Davis became the first African American state representative elected from the 35th District. In 2022, the 33-year-old became not only the nation's youngest Lieutenant Governor but also the first African American elected to the post in Pennsylvania.

A portrait of success, that will one day hang in stark contrast to the rest above his office.

"Are you surprised in 2023 at 33 years old you are a trailblazer? Did you think this trail would have already been blazed?" I asked.

"I would have hoped that somebody would have blazed it, but it's an honor to be able to do that and make a difference, but it's a reminder of how far we've come but how far we still have to go," he said.

Davis's inspiration to go into public service formed on his neighborhood block.

A gunshot victim propelled him at 16 to start a Mayor's Youth Advisory Council to stem community violence.

"It was bold as a young person to really believe that I could make a difference. But I truly believe that and I think my family really instilled in us that sense of purpose," he said.

Fighting for stricter gun laws is one of his main passions.

Pictures with John Lewis, Jessie Jackson, Michelle and Barack Obama, line his office, and they are his inspirations. As he is now for the next generation.

"I would hope that whenever I leave this position, people will say Austin Davis was a fighter for working class people," he said.

Davis thinks of government as a force for good in people's lives and he wants to redefine the role working with Gov. Josh Shapiro. Shapiro just appointed Davis as the Chairman of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency. Davis says more news about his role will be coming soon.
WEST BRUNSWICK TOWNSHIP, Pa. - A man acquitted of first degree murder in a 2021 Schuylkill County road rage killing has pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.

According to court records, Tamiir Whitted pleaded guilty to third degree murder and resisting arrest Tuesday.

Whitted was acquitted of first degree murder in December of last year, but a jury found him guilty of aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and related charges.

He was charged with killing of 38-year-old George Marcincin on Route 61 in West Brunswick Township, Schuylkill County in April of 2021.

According to court documents, the two got into a physical altercation following a road rage incident and Marcincin was stabbed 19 times. Whitted claimed self defense.

Sentencing is scheduled for March 12.
More warrants used by authorities in their search of Bryan Kohberger's family home in the Poconos are expected to be unsealed Thursday morning.

Court officials initially said they would be released Wednesday, but later said it wouldn't be until Thursday. In Pennsylvania, search warrants unseal after 60 days from when they were signed, unless a motion is filed earlier. The 60 days runs through the end of Wednesday.

The documents are expected to shed more light on what authorities found and seized when they arrested Kohberger at the Monroe County home for the killings of four college students in Idaho.

Kohberger has been locked up in Idaho since his arrest in late December, awaiting his next court date in June.

One search warrant related to his arrest was unsealed Tuesday.

It shows that investigators were looking for everything and anything connected to the slayings of the four Idaho college students in November.

The document confirms what many suspected: there were boots on the ground surveilling the property and area for days before the arrest.

It shows that investigators seized these items from Kohberger: a silver flashlight, four medical-style gloves, a white t-shirt, black Nikes, and a black sweatshirt, sock, shorts, boxers.

The clothes are significant because a surviving roommate said the masked man inside their home was wearing all black.

The FBI also got a cheek swab from Kohberger, as agents descended on the otherwise quiet Chestnuthill Township, Monroe County, neighborhood in December.

There's still a gag order on the case.

When Kohberger was arrested, investigators said they were limited on what they could share before the trial, but to pay attention to what gets made public, like court hearings or documents like this, as they may contain key details.

It was recently announced that the home where the gruesome killings took place will be demolished.

Authorities have not commented on a possible motive for the stabbings.
We're learning new details in the investigation into accused killer Bryan Kohberger.

Monroe County has released one of the search warrants police filed for Kohberger's parents' home in Chestnuthill Township.

The warrant was signed by a Monroe County judge on Dec. 29, and it gave Pennsylvania State Police the authority to search the home. They were looking for any and everything that could link him to the stabbing deaths of four college students in Idaho: Ethan Chapin, Kaylee Gonclaves, Xana Kernodle, and Madison Mogen.

The warrant included Kohberger's car, the white Hyundai Elantra he was seen driving on police body camera video when he got pulled over on his way from Washington State to Pennsylvania. It also included anything that belonged to the victims, and Kohberger's electronic devices, but what investigators actually document taking, at least in this initial warrant, is much more specific.

A set of all-black clothing was seized, possibly important because one of the surviving students in the Idaho apartment described seeing a man dressed in all-black they didn't know.

Police also took a flashlight, a pair of medical gloves, and a pair of size-13 Nike sneakers, which could be important because we know that at the crime scene in Idaho, officers identified a shoe print with a diamond-shaped pattern left behind.

This search warrant did not contain any information about Kohberger's car or electronic devices, but we learned from the court Tuesday that more search warrants will be released on Wednesday, so there may be more details to come.
TRENTON, N.J. - New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy laid out his budget plan Tuesday.

The Democratic governor does not propose any new taxes. But he does promise to continue investing in education and funding the state's pension system.

The theme of the speech was "Building the next New Jersey."

"The Next New Jersey is where opportunity grows, where rights are protected, and where we fight for each other, not with each other. And most of all, let us continue making New Jersey the state where hard work pays off," Murphy said.

Republicans in Trenton are critical of Murphy's budget plans.

They say the state is spending too much money and has too big of a rainy-day surplus.
A man survived weeks at sea, all thanks to some ketchup.

Now, a company known for its ketchup wants to give him a huge surprise.

Heinz has been searching for 47-year-old Elvis Francois. He is a sailor from Dominica, and in December, Elvis says he was repairing his boat near the island of St. Martin when it was suddenly pulled out to sea.

It took him a very long time to get back to land. Elvis spent 24 days lost at sea.

He told officials he lacked the navigational knowledge to return to shore.

He was eventually rescued after a plane spotted his sailboat. He had engraved the word "help" into the hull.

Elvis says he survived off of a bottle of ketchup, garlic powder and chicken stock cubes mixed with water.

After hearing his story and how he survived, Heinz, the ketchup company, turned to social media to find Elvis.

It used the hashtag #FindTheKetchupBoatGuy to amplify the search.

The company sorted through thousands of messages, shares and likes from six continents.

Heinz reached out to the government of Dominica, and they finally found him.

Heinz says it plans to buy Elvis a new state-of-the-art boat.
A Northampton County student took an idea and ran with it, and now hundreds of other kids will benefit from her successful book drive.

Claire Hardy is a sixth-grader at Nazareth Area Intermediate School. She loves to read, and at just 12 years old, she's making sure other kids get a chance to love reading too.

Claire has been going to the Cops 'n' Kids Reading Room in Bethlehem since she was 5. Cops 'n' Kids is a library of sorts, stocked with books, then police officers and other volunteers read to the kids, they do a craft and then the kids get to take home five books for free.

For some of the kids, these are the first books they've ever owned.

The program is geared towards kids 10 and under, so now that Claire is older, she was looking for a way to still be a part of the program.

Beverly Bradley runs the reading room and she suggested Claire hold a book drive.

Claire thought that was a great idea, so she wrote a letter to her principals asking for permission. They said yes and she set a lofty goal of collecting 3,000 books.

In the end, she ended up collecting more than 7,000.

With so many books, Claire set up a program so that every student in Lower Nazareth Elementary School will get a free book, and every year, this will rotate to a different elementary school in the district.

They also put aside some books to set up a free library inside of the school. The rest of the books went to the Cops 'n' Kids Reading Room.

The next Cops 'n' Kids event is next month, on April 22, at the reading room at Northampton Community College. Claire will be there that day handing out books.
Leonardo da Vinci High School students don't know where they will study next year.

If recent data is any guide, wherever it is, they're going to do well.

Da Vinci was the only Buffalo Public School to achieve a 100% graduation rate  with no dropouts  for the 2021-2022 academic year, the first in the classroom after two years of remote and hybrid learning.

"We overcame all that," said da Vinci principal Greg Lodinsky, referring to learning disruption and questions about the future.

But it's how they overcame it that makes this story noteworthy.

Lodinsky, in his sixth year as principal, said he dedicated funds to fortify the school's mental health team, expanding positions he knew would be vital as students reacclimated from pandemic isolation to in-person instruction. After all, da Vinci freshmen in 2022 may have last been in a classroom in seventh grade.

"They're the bedrock, mentally and emotionally," Lodinsky said of the student support team comprising two guidance counselors, a social worker, school psychologist and attendance teacher. "They help students put emotion into words, allowing them to think straight, think clearly."

It looks like the plan worked.

High school graduation rate inches upward for Buffalo Public Schools Buffalo Public Schools graduated 79% of its four-year high school students last year, a slight increase from the 78.5% mark in 2021

Of the 90 graduates of the college prep school on the grounds of D'Youville University  for now  66 crossed the stage with a Regents diploma with Advanced Designation, which means they passed seven Regents exams  or Regents courses during the state's pandemic cancellations  plus a pathway in the arts, career and technical education, world languages or science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Twenty-four students secured a Regents diploma, meaning they passed four Regents and an additional pathway.

Lodinsky praised the partnership with D'Youville: Da Vinci shares a building with its higher-education partner, and its students can take college courses as early as 10th grade and graduate with 24 credits.

But he said the focus on mental health is an equally important factor in student success.

Amy Crans-Stafford, in her second year as da Vinci's school psychologist, described earlier this month the daunting expectations of the new role she took on last year: guiding high school students through mental health challenges, the roots of which had little precedent.

"From September to February last year, the majority of my time was just dealing with mental health and stressed kids coming off of Covid," Crans-Stafford said. "Kids were so overwhelmed, they struggled with basic transitioning back to school  academic stressors, social-emotional stressors  so we did a lot of supporting children."

The student support team of Crans-Stafford, guidance counselors Cheryl Shul and Maureen Brett, social worker Brittany Truesdale and attendance teacher Ruyvette Townsend meets for an hour each week with an administrator  usually assistant principal Leslie Potempa  to evaluate referrals submitted by teachers, parents and students themselves.

Depending on the referral, the student support team may look at the student's behavior and academic records and develop either achievement or social-emotional plans. The team also works on resources for all da Vinci students, from suicide prevention to general strategies to cope with stress, and grows bonds through a Check and Connect program that pairs an individual student with a da Vinci adult.

A counselor from BestSelf Behavioral Health is on-site once each week as an additional resource, and the school employs a Parent Engagement Liaison to connect with families to promote student achievement.

The student support quintet works closely with teachers, who Crans-Stafford said deserve credit as foundation of the school's community.

"The teachers that we have here stay," she said. "We don't have a lot of transfers in this building. They're veteran teachers. The continuity is huge in terms of relationships with the children and families."

A full-time school psychologist is now the standard for every Buffalo school, Crans-Stafford said. In years past, a part-time school psychologist focused almost solely on special education students. The new half of Crans-Stafford's job, then, required listening and offering advice to "droves" of students that entered her office.

"You have really bright kids who don't like how they feel or that feeling of stress or anxiety," Crans-Stafford said. "We have a high level of mental health need in this building  the behaviors are not necessarily as prevalent as the mental health needs."

But even in a high-achieving school, post-pandemic mental health battles made it difficult for some students to summon the energy to attend school.

"If you're worried about something else, it's hard to focus on academics," explained Townsend, who said she averaged about five home visits  or trips to students' residences to learn why they were not at school  each week last year. Protocol is to call the absent student's household first, Townsend said, but if no one answers, an in-person visit shows that school leaders care and often motivates students to attend.

Crans-Stafford and Townsend emphasized parents' role in student mental health and academics. The school psychologist acknowledged she is in a different position than some of her district peers.

"If there's a kid in crisis and I call a parent, a parent comes," she said. And in the case of frequently absent students, Townsend urges parents to not become complacent.

"Many think that a high school student is old enough to look after themselves, so" the parent "can go to work and be comfortable," Townsend said. "Don't let go of that hand yet  carry it all the way to the stage."

Although da Vinci welcomes about 100 of its 800 applicants annually, in Lodinsky's estimate, its makeup is somewhat comparable to other district schools. More than 60% of da Vinci graduates in 2022 were economically disadvantaged, compared to nearly 80% districtwide, and the class had a relatively even split in race, with 33 Black, 21 white, 19 Asian and 16 Hispanic students, according to state education data. The school's small size is an advantage, Lodinsky and the school support team agreed, creating smaller caseloads, more individualized attention and personal bonds between students and adults.

Da Vinci is leaving its home on the campus of D'Youville University  its home for 39 years for its eventual home in Buckham Hall at SUNY Buffalo State University. But at least one year at a temporary location is expected despite the original intention to transition to Buffalo State for fall 2023.

D'Youville and da Vinci mutually agreed on March 22, 2022, to terminate their partnership June 30, 2023, with university officials explaining there was no longer adequate space on campus to accommodate the growth of both entities. Da Vinci was vocal about not having its own gym, auditorium and several extracurricular programs, while D'Youville sought to boost student enrollment after a move to NCAA Division II, a rebranding and switch from college to university.

But converting Buckham Hall at Buffalo State into da Vinci's new home required "more site work than anticipated," Buffalo Schools Chief Operating Officer David Hills said by email Thursday. The construction costs to meet code for K-12 schools, estimated at $26.5 million, sparked frustration from the Buffalo School Board in November before it ultimately voted to proceed with the project. The process to confirm and prepare a temporary site, called a swing school, is ongoing.

When Lodinsky thinks back to June graduation last year, he remembers tears welling up in his eyes during the celebration at North Park Theatre. He said the school's future destination  particularly its short-term home this fall  has been more of an issue lately, but he's confident the school community will not break.

"We're strong enough to deal with adversity, and we can emerge stronger," Lodinsky said.
Exclusive: Stiles and Drewe's Betty Blue Eyes musical will be revived in London for the first time this spring.

Based on Alan Bennett and Malcolm Mowbray's film A Private Function and featuring a book by Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman, the show is set in Yorkshire during the post-World War II food rationing times, shortly before the Royal Wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip, where a pig named Betty is being illegally reared for a local celebratory banquet. The West End premiere received nominations for Best New Musical at both the Olivier and WhatsOnStage Awards.

Stiles & Drewe commented: "Betty was one of the most enjoyable shows of our 40-year career, both to write, develop and to have produced. We are thrilled that she'll be able to bat her blue eyes once more at the Union Theatre, as our new King takes to the throne, the city will once again be buzzing with street parties and very Private Functions. Not seen in London since her run at the Novello Theatre in 2011, three cheers and welcome back, Betty!"

Under the direction of Sasha Regan, the creative team also includes choreographer Kasper Cornish, designer Reuben Speed and casting director Adam Braham.

Produced by Regan and Stuart Simons, the piece marks the first in-house production at the Union Theatre since the pandemic. Casting will be revealed in due course.

Original West End producer Cameron Mackintosh recently revealed his desire to adapt the stage musical into a film with Sarah Lancashire reprising her leading role as Joyce.

Betty Blue Eyes is scheduled to run from 29 March to 22 April 2023, with a press night set for 4 April.
As soon as I arrived at Pooh Corner, I knew an adventure was going to happen!

Perched at the edge of Ashdown Forest on an otherwise unassuming road is Pooh Corner - a tearoom and Pooh-seum totally dedicated to the world's most famous and favoured bear, Winnie the Pooh. Inside, we enjoyed some bear shaped toast (with honey, obviously) and a cuppa as we browsed the collectibles on display and enjoyed a talk about the history of the Milne family.

After that, we headed over to the woodland that inspired the Hundred Acre Wood, Ashdown Forest. Our first job was to find suitable sticks for a game of Pooh Sticks as we walked down to Pooh Bridge. Along the way, we saw a few recognisable homes; a small door in a tree trunk, a teepee of sticks, and a tree house before meeting their occupants and recreating some iconic scenes from the story books.

Then we were invited to Ashdown Park Hotel. On arrival, we sipped Pooh-tini's (delicious  a blend of raspberry and Amaretto!) before our host formally welcomed us to his very special party. In the magical converted chapel, all the classic characters gathered and showed off the delights that had been specially prepared in their honour. There were purple blueberry filled eclairs as Eeyore's tails, fresh carrots in edible nutty soil from Rabbit and a striped cake as Tigger's offering. But the centrepiece was a honeycomb choux pastry tower!

Check out the video below for a look into the magical day with Disney's Winnie the Pooh.

Winnie the Pooh will open at London's Riverside Studios in Hammersmith on 17 March, ahead of a major tour until September 2023  you can find out more here.

The show, which features all the classic characters from the Hundred Acre Wood and tells an original story, has music by the Sherman Brothers with additional songs by A A Milne. It is created and directed by Jonathan Rockefeller.

Tunes in the show (which also has an original score by Nate Edmundson) include well-known classics from Pooh films, including "Winnie the Pooh", "The Blustery Day", "The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers" and "Whoop-De-Dooper Bounce".

Sharing the role of Winnie the Pooh in London will be the previously announced Jake Bazel (who originated the role in New York) and Benjamin Durham (Young Frankenstein)  with Durham set to play the title role on tour.

The characters of Eeyore, Piglet, Rabbit, Owl, Kanga and Roo will be brought to life by an ensemble of performers, including Laura Bacon (Britain's Got Talent, Star Wars), Harry Boyd (The Play That Goes Wrong, Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story), Alex Cardall (Evita, The Osmonds: A New Musical), Chloe Gentles (Mamma Mia!, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical), Lottie Grogan (Smurfs Save Spring: The Musical, The Lips for Puppets with Guys) and Robbie Noonan (Avenue Q UK Tour, Jack and the Beanstalk).

The creative team for the production is to be revealed.

Tickets are available below.
Williamson, WV (25661)

Today

Rain showers this morning with numerous thunderstorms developing during the afternoon hours. High 78F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Some clouds. Low 47F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph.
Erie County Comptroller Kevin Hardwick has called for the state Cemetery Board and New York State Attorney General's Office to investigate "the operations and actions" of Forest Lawn.

Hardwick cited recent Buffalo News stories on complaints over how some employees were treated at the city's pre-eminent cemetery, and also how work once done by unionized groundkeepers is now done by a company owned by family members of the cemetery's acting president.

"The questions, concerns and issues raised in The Buffalo News' reporting concerning Forest Lawn depict a nonprofit that has serious problems and little to no accountability," Hardwick said in a letter to the state agencies. "This is even more concerning because this is a treasured place of rest and history that includes the burial grounds of many prominent persons, old trees, wildlife and architecture."

Forest Lawns former president, Joseph P. Dispenza, who resigned on Feb. 2, had been accused of treating employees and others rudely. And former employees accused Dispenza and Craig Wolcott, now the acting president, of undermining the cemeterys union workforce.

Hardwick also cited the outsourcing of maintenance work, with the former union members' complaints "strongly suggesting insider dealing," he said.

"Reporting by The Buffalo News raised questionable actions and behavior by officers and employees (and possibly members of the Board of Trustees) of Forest Lawn," Hardwick wrote. "The actions depicted in the newspaper accounts strongly suggest that the Board of Trustees and management of Forest Lawn are not operating in a manner commensurate with Forest Lawn's status as a non-profit organization and cemetery."

Hardwick asked the agencies to look into:

 Accusations of bullying and demeaning behavior toward employees and customers by Dispenza.

 Actions by management leading to the decertification of the groundskeepers union.

 Steps by Forest Lawn to outsource maintenance to Western New York Cemetery Services. The company was founded by Wolcott and transferred to Wolcott's son Levi Wolcott and his son's wife, Victoria, in March 2018, the same month Wolcott began working at Forest Lawn.

 Hiring of Wolcott's family members to work at the cemetery.

Forest Lawn is currently being audited by the state Cemetery Board.

After groundskeepers union was broken, a business owned by family of Forest Lawn insider got the contract Forest Lawn President Joe Dispenza and then-Superintendent of Grounds Craig Wolcott are accused of conspiring to get rid of unionized groundskeepers, members of Teamsters Local 449, through a decertification vote.

"The Forest Lawn board is confident that its decisions were proper, and all appropriate procedures were followed," the trustees said in a statement Tuesday. "Since we work very closely with the New York State Cemetery Board and regularly supply them with data and reports, we are, of course, open to any additional scrutiny the Cemetery Board feels is merited."

Before Dispenza's resignation that ended 34 years of service at Forest Lawn, including the last 17 as president, the Board of Trustees had said he had been put on administrative leave "pending the results of an independent investigation of internal personnel-related complaints."

During Dispenza's tenure, he helped launch historical tours of the cemetery, oversaw cemetery acquisitions and introduced pet cremation burials.

In a statement to the staff last month, James Wadsworth, chairman of the Forest Lawn Group Board of Trustees, indicated that the trustees would move forward with the cemetery's current leadership, including Wolcott, that has "led this organization admirably over the last several months."

Former employees told The News that Dispenza and Wolcott successfully maneuvered to get rid of the unionized groundskeepers, members of Teamsters Local 449, through a decertification vote. Forest Lawn advanced the decertification by hiring leadmen  groundskeepers with supervisory responsibilities  who were part of the bargaining unit and eligible to vote on union matters but could be counted on by management to support its wish for a nonunion workforce, said Eric Williams, a mechanic and groundskeeper who served as the local's shop steward.

Western New York Cemetery Services was paid $1 million for its work at the cemetery in 2020 and 2021.

The trustees, in a statement to The News in January, said Forest Lawn hired Western New York Cemetery Services as part of a strategy to pursue mergers with other cemeteries.

Forest Lawn Group said that in early 2021, in a bid to be more efficient and to save on costs, it issued a request for proposals for cemetery services that included mowing and trimming, pouring of memorial foundations and the digging of graves. Western New York Cemetery Services was the only one to submit a proposal for all three services, and was the lowest bidder for the mowing and trimming services.

"Forest Lawn has realized significant savings from its use of Western New York Cemetery Services, and is pleased with the quality of the services performed to date," the statement said.

Hardwick said he wants the state to investigate "the possibility that Forest Lawn conducted a request for proposals in such a way as to elicit only one respondent  that firm."
Williamson, WV (25661)

Today

Rain showers in the morning with numerous thunderstorms developing in the afternoon. High 78F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

A few clouds from time to time. Low 47F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph.
The good news is that the number of unionized workers in the United States increased by 200,000 last year  to over 16 million  meaning more workers benefited from the strength in numbers that leads to higher wages and better working conditions for both unionized and nonunion employees.

The bad news is that the share of the workers represented by a union fell from 11.6% to 11.3%, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data mined earlier this year by the Economic Policy Institute.

The even worse news is that the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act never passed Congress.

To see why thats so bad, one need look no further than South Buffalo, where more than 40 Tesla workers were recently fired, within two days after a union organizing campaign was announced.

Tesla Workers United obviously sees a connection, and has filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board. Just as obviously, the company has countered that the timing was purely coincidental and that the firing decisions were made weeks before based on performance evaluations, not organizing activity.

But if you believe theres absolutely no connection between the attempt to form a union and the hammer being dropped on workers, I have a solar-powered bridge to sell you.

Yet even if the organizers can show a connection, the toothless National Labor Relations Act offers only minimal relief at best. Chief among its deficiencies is that it imposes no real penalty  and thus no deterrence  on employers who flout the law.

And for anyone who thinks unjust firings dont occur, a previous EPI report noted that 1,431 illegally fired workers had to be rehired in 2019. Yet workers fired for tying to unionize can, at most, win reinstatement and the back wages they would have earned anyway.

But, as the institute noted, that penalty  if you can call it that  makes firing union supporters just part of the cost of doing business.

The PRO Act would add teeth to the law and protect workers by allowing for civil penalties for employers as well as by opening company officials to individual liability  which would make them think twice about using firing to send a message.

Other parts of the PRO Act would prohibit captive meetings in which employers force workers to listen to anti-union propaganda, ease the process by which employers must recognize a new union and employ mediation and binding arbitration to achieve a first contract.

In other words, it would try to level the playing field and rectify the power imbalance.

Even under the current constraints and the firings of its organizers, a Buffalo Starbucks became the first in that chain to unionize in 2021, though contract talks stalled  which critics say is a common tactic among employers hoping protracted battles will erode employee resolve.

Now Buffalo workers hope to break the same ground at Teslas solar panel plant on South Park Avenue, building on the momentum outlined in EPIs January report showing an increase in the number of unionized workers.

But despite its obvious benefits, the PRO Act  which passed the Democrat-controlled House in early 2021  went nowhere in the evenly divided Senate. With Republicans assuming control of the House this year and Senate Democrats still short of the votes needed to break a filibuster, getting it passed now will be even more challenging.

Yet the plight of the Tesla workers illustrates whats at stake in a country that has one of the highest levels of income inequality of all its peer nations. And to add insult to the workers injury, the plant Tesla occupies  as Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz has noted in calling for the workers reinstatement  got $950 million in public assistance. This is the thanks taxpayers get?

Everyone supports working men and women  until its time to actually stand up for working men and women. Gallup last year found that 71% of Americans support unions, the highest approval rate since 1965. But as on so many other issues, either Congress is out of step or the publics professed support does not translate into electoral pressure.

Unionized workers, on average, earn about 11% more than their nonunionized peers with similar educations, experience levels and occupations, EPI found. That ought to be wake-up call in a nation always yammering about building up the middle class.

Yet too many keep drinking the anti-union Kool-Aid, which is tantamount to economic hemlock. The result is that critical measures like the PRO Act languish while employers place an ever-fatter thumb on the scale.

Tesla workers are learning the consequences of that now. How many others will have to find out the hard way?
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates  The United Arab Emirates' pick to lead the upcoming COP28 climate talks in Dubai called on the world Tuesday to "fight climate change, not each other," directly addressing the anger of activists over his selection.

Sultan al-Jaber, CEO of Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., also described the upcoming United Nations negotiations as an "unprecedented opportunity to engage the energy industry in a technological revolution."

His speech at the World Government Summit in Dubai sought to present his nominated presidency as a bridge between oil companies and climate activists long suspicious of the industry's influence on efforts to limit carbon emissions. Whether it will, however, remains in question.

"We need a major course correction," al-Jaber said.

However, he added: "The strategies we pursue must leave no one behind. The policies we adopt must be pro-growth and pro-climate at the same time."

The speech renewed criticism among activists of al-Jaber's nomination to shepherd the climate talks.

African youth climate activist Eric Njuguna from Kenya termed the remarks "dismissive of valid and merited concerns brought forth by climate activists." He called on the United Nations body overseeing the talks to install a conflict of interest policy that checks the influence that oil and gas firms have on the climate talks owing to their "long history of skewing and watering down important climate decisions."

Al-Jaber, 49, is a longtime climate envoy and trusted confidant of UAE leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. He's been behind tens of billions of dollars spent or pledged toward renewable energy  and also leads an oil company that pumps some 4 million barrels of crude a day and hopes to expand to 5 million daily.

That oil money fuels the ambitions of this federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula  as well as the production of more of the heat-trapping carbon dioxide that the U.N. negotiations hope to limit.

Activists equated his nomination, announced in January, to asking "arms dealers to lead peace talks." However, U.S. climate envoy John Kerry and France's finance minister both backed his selection by the UAE, a key Mideast ally. The UAE also wants to be carbon neutral by 2050  a target that remains difficult to assess and one that authorities haven't fully explained how they'll reach.

"There are moments in history when humanity comes together to fight a common threat. Let's prove to ourselves that we can do it once again," al-Jaber said. "Let's put our differences aside. Fight climate change, not each other."

Al-Jaber's speech, which included portions he previously delivered in January, also acknowledged that "capital is critical to make the loss-and-damage fund real and operational." That fund, agreed to at the COP27 talks in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, did not include a means by which to fund them. Al-Jaber's speech also didn't offer a suggestion on how to raise the money.

However, he did call for "real reform of international financial institutions and multilateral banks" to lower the lending risk and provide more private financing for "vulnerable communities."

Al-Jaber called on the world to triple its renewable energy capacity, as well as expand nuclear power, improve battery storage and provide carbon-capture technology. He also drew applause from the largely Emirati audience by defending the OPEC-member nation hosting the climate talks.

"We in the UAE are not shying away from the energy transition," al-Jaber said. "We are running towards it."

Each year, the country hosting the U.N. negotiations known as the Conference of the Parties  where COP gets its name  nominates a person to chair the talks. Hosts typically pick a veteran diplomat, as the talks can be difficult to steer between competing nations and their interests.

The nominee's position as "COP president" is confirmed by delegates at the start of the talks, usually without objections. However, activists' ire over al-Jaber's selection could see a turbulent start to the negotiations.

Amnesty International on Monday reiterated a call for al-Jaber to resign as president-designate and criticized plans by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co.'s drilling arm to pump more oil as it saw record profits last quarter.

"Sultan al-Jaber cannot be an honest broker for climate talks when the company he leads is planning to cause more climate damage," Amnesty's Marta Schaaf said in a statement. "It is obvious, despite Sultan al-Jaber's denials, that his dual role is a glaring conflict of interest which will contribute to further climate disaster and unfolding human rights violations."

COP28 will be held at Dubai's Expo City from Nov. 30 through Dec. 12.
Jacob Matthew Millen, 38, was arrested following the search at a residence on the 550 block of East Seventh Street. The search warrant was served by the Winona County Sheriffs Office assisted by the Winona Police Department and the Southeast Minnesota Violent Crimes Enforcement Team.

When law enforcement entered the house at 10:59 a.m. Tuesday, they found Millen in the bathroom, where they suspect he was flushing something because his hands were wet and the toilet was running, officers said. Next to the toilet, investigators located approximately 88 grams of meth in small baggies. In a bedroom, investigators found numerous pieces of drug paraphernalia including scales, measuring devices, pipes and tubing. They located two grams of meth on a nightstand, 6.5 grams inside a bag, two piles of meth on a plate next to the TV stand with one pile weighing one gram and the other weighing 3.5 grams, and another 2.5 grams of meth inside a capsule in the bedroom, officers said.
For decades, SUNY has provided millions of New Yorkers with a pathway to the middle class by earning a college degree. Not only that, SUNY schools are integral to the fabric of our communities, serving as cultural and economic drivers by providing theater and dance performance, lectures, an educated workforce, and a pool of experts available to research and opine on local issues.

Unfortunately, our state has failed fund SUNY to the levels needed to preserve that high-quality, affordable education for the next generation of students. Years of disinvestment have taken their toll on our state colleges and universities. In the last 20 years, the cost of SUNY tuition has more than doubled, going from $3,400 in 2003 to more than $7,000 today. Lack of state support for SUNY is not a new issue  its driven the tuition explosion  but now its reaching a boiling point. Currently, 19 state-operated campuses face structural and operating deficits totaling nearly $160 million dollars, including a $16 million deficit for Buffalo State in the current fiscal year.

This deficit didnt happen overnight  previous administrations starved the system and forced SUNY schools to rely more and more on student tuition and mandatory fees than on state aid. Not only is this an unsustainable fiscal model, its also an abdication of the responsibility we have to provide affordable public higher education to New Yorkers. Thats why I oppose plans to allow SUNY schools to further increase tuition.

However, in her State of the State Address last month, Governor Hochul proposed yet another tuition increase for SUNY schools. This is not the answer. Raising tuition will only make college less affordable and reduce SUNYs competitive edge. Instead, our state must reverse decades of disinvestment by allocating funding in the state budget sufficient to ensure state schools can continue to provide a world class education at an affordable cost. The state has the power to reinvest in SUNY and close the deficits our campuses are facing, and it must do so to preserve the future of higher education in New York this year.

Last year, I was proud to work with my colleagues in the legislature and Gov. Kathy Hochul to fix flaws in our financial aid program by closing gaps in funding under the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) and the Excelsior scholarship. But we still have a long way to go to achieve Gov. Hochuls goal to transform SUNY into the envy of the nation. Its time to step up and provide the necessary resources to allow SUNY campuses to operate without fear of cuts, downsizing, or reduced faculty levels. Most importantly, students should not be asked to carry this burden. SUNY is an engine for New Yorks economy and the backbone of many communities. We need a skilled and educated workforce to meet New Yorks everchanging and growing needs. With a full financial commitment, Albany can keep its promise to SUNY and put the public back in public higher education.

Assemblymember Monica P. Wallace represents District 143, is a graduate of SUNY schools, and is a former Buffalo Law School faculty member.
The 2023-25 state budget in Wisconsin is emphasizing increased funding for clean energy initiatives and the states fund for outdoor spaces.

A Feb. 8 release from Gov. Tony Everss office announced initiatives in his budget toward the clean energy and forestry industries, as well as forest regeneration and improvement and transparency of the states Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund. The initiatives are designed to promote environmental sustainability and combat the effects of climate change in Wisconsins natural areas.

The southcentral and southwest regions of the state, notably around the Dells area (Wisconsin Dells/Lake Delton, Baraboo, Portage, Mauston, Reedsburg, etc...) have a litany of state outdoor areas as part of the United States Driftless Area, including Devils Lake, Mirror Lake, Rocky Arbor, and Buckhorn state parks, as well as Upham Woods Outdoor Learning Center.

Wisconsin has a proud and rich history of conservation and stewardship from our work to safeguard our unique forests and urban trees to the historically bipartisan Knowles-Nelson Stewardship fund, which has preserved outdoor spaces for folks to enjoy in all 72 counties over the last three decades, said Evers in the release.

The Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program was created by former Gov. Tommy Thompson and the state legislature in 1989 to preserve valuable natural areas and wildlife habitat, protect water quality and fisheries and expand opportunities for outdoor recreation, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources website.

Paul Neumann, a section chief in the DNRs Bureau of Management and Budget, laid out how funding from the budget would be allocated.

For state parks, nearly $3 million is proposed to add electricity to 450 campsites at parks throughout the state. An additional $2 million is potentially geared at environmentally-friendly upgrades at state parks that will lower utility costs and reduce the carbon footprint of the State Park System.

Neumann added that yearly expenses totaling just less than $1.4 million are proposed to address the following:

Recurring maintenance (asphalt sealing, electrical and ventilation equipment, building envelope repairs, bridge/culvert maintenance)

Addition of electronic pay stations, credit card terminals and other technological upgrades

Replacing landscaping equipment (mowers, tractors, etc...)

Expanding opportunities for people with disabilities

Wisconsin experienced some of its wettest years on record late last decade, which contributed significantly to the death and decay of trees and forests throughout the state. The proposed budget has provisions in line with Everss goal to plant 75 million trees statewide by 2030.

Neumann said that the Division of Forestry has two new proposed positions to enhance tree seedling production at DNR nurseries. Proposed yearly funding of just under $1.5 million is for the following:

Tree planting and sound forestry management practices on state lands

Grants for public landowners (University of Wisconsin) system, school, county, and municipal lands, Wisconsin Department of Transportation for reforestation and forest management

Grants addressing threats to urban forests and assistance with forest management education and outreach in urban areas

Clean energy initiatives include the potential addition of a new DNR position assisting the states Public Service Commission with reviewing and permitting an anticipated increase in large-scale solar energy projects.

One major project in area education was the School District of Baraboos approval of solar panel projects at Baraboo High School and Jack Young Middle School in late January 2022.

Baraboo High, Jack Young Middle schools getting solar panels Baraboo High School and Jack Young Middle School are receiving solar panels on the roofs of their gyms after the projects were approved at the school board meetings on Jan. 10 and Jan. 24. Grants, referendum money, donations (including a large one from Powered Up Baraboo, a renewable energy nonprofit) and operational expenses will cover the costs.

Everss budget proposes investing in clean energy workforce development. An annual $5 million is proposed for training and reemployment, with $2 million more geared toward encouraging young adults struggling to find employment to explore environmental, conservation, and clean energy jobs.
The MacKenzie Center thinks it would be pretty sweet if you volunteered, or attended, their maple syrup education program and festival.

Each spring the MacKenzie Center, in Poynette, welcomes students from across the state to learn the process and history of making maple syrup in Wisconsin. It culminates in their annual maple syrup festival taking place this year on April 1.

It was Harley MacKenzie who planted enough maple trees on the property to create a sugarbush  an area where maple trees are tapped to collect the sap and produce maple syrup.

During the maple syrup season  happening currently  over 1,300 students come to help. They typically tap around 100 trees at the park. Those tapped trees produce around 1,000 gallons of sap. That sap is cooked down to produce around 35 to 40 gallons of maple syrup.

On the MacKenzie property they tap four types of maple trees: red, black, silver, and sugar maples. According to Statista, Wisconsin is the fourth largest producer of maple syrup in the country.

Were one of the few parks in the country that has a maple syrup education program, said Aaron Leonhorst, the MacKenzie Centers park manager. We want to show everyone the whole process and its various stages. We want people to know the rich tradition here in Wisconsin.

The traditions go back generations. The Oneida Indian Nation has an annual Thanks to the Maple ceremony that gives thanks to the maple tree and the Creator for the renewal of life that comes with spring. A group of Potawatomi people resisted forced relocation to Oklahoma, in part, because there were no maple trees there. The Ho-Chunk Nation has produced maple syrup in the area for thousands of years.

The tradition of MacKenzie Centers annual maple syrup festival is much newer. It is a welcomed event every year as spring approaches and winters cold grasp weakens.

If this year is anything like last year, Loenhorst said, Itll be a wonderful event. Coming out of COVID last year, he liked the opportunity for everyone to come together again to learn about, and celebrate, the outdoors. The music was playing. The flapjacks were getting flapped and then slathered in syrup, and happy families were out and about amongst the maples.

Wonderful, too, Loenhorst knows, are the volunteers. The Friends of MacKenzie is an organization that always is seeking volunteers to help. The organization raises funds to support educational activities, helps with the maple education program and other annual events, teaches classes, assists educators, and performs maintenance throughout the grounds.

Thats a lot of work and good work at that. Theyre looking for help with the education programs  school buses with soon-to-be maple syrup sticky fingered children arrive on the grounds regularly. There are also opportunities to volunteer at the festival itself. Volunteers are needed to assist with maple tours, the horse-drawn wagon rides, to sell concessions, to help with syrup sales and the pancake breakfast, assist with traffic control, and more.

Donald Jackson, a Poynette native, has always been interested in maple syrup production. For the past 17 years hes been part of the maple education program, principally as Head Finisher. The finishing process involves getting the batches of syrup to the required 66% sugar and then bottling the syrup.

I like attention to detail and quantitative requirements, Jackson said. Also, the ability to introduce new ways of doing things. He looks to local producers as a source of information and guidance and finds the entire program worthwhile. The people involved are great.

Loenhorst said, Its so good to see people come together. We couldnt do it without the dedication of our volunteers and staff. They make this whole thing run.

Run, like the sap coming out of the sugar maple tree into a shiny metal bucket.
Senior citizens interested in learning budgeting strategies can attend Kilbourn Public Library during the afternoon on March 8.

The library is hosting Money Management for Older Adults, a one-and-a-half hour class slated for 1 to 2:30 p.m. that day. Topics discussed will include avoiding scams, taking advantage of senior discounts at various businesses, and budgeting funds in a strategic fashion.

Jackie Myers, the Associate-Vice President of the Bank of Mauston Delton Branch in Wisconsin Dells, will lead the course. The Central Wisconsin Community Action Council, Dells-Delton Parks and Recreation, and the board of the Beacon House Center for Family Enhancement are also involved in planning the program.

The Beacon House Center for Family Enhancement began as a homeless shelter in 2005, but shifted its focus to education as a means to fight area poverty two years later.
The Wisconsin Dells Parkway project slated for the middle of the decade may be pushed back one year due to concerns over flooding prevention and construction timetables around tourism season.

During a special meeting of the Lake Delton village board on Feb. 27, Raine Gardner, a senior project engineer for MSA Professional Services, informed the board of the proposed delay of the parkways future work. She and board members discussed concerns regarding stormwater diversion, flooding prevention, and construction periods with regard to tourism.

Due to the cost increase of the overall project, DOT (Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT)) took it back and looked at their program years and their budgeting, and is proposing, at the moment, to build the city (of Wisconsin Dells) section in 2025, said Gardner at the meeting, adding that the village sections of the project are being proposed for a pushback to 2026 and 2027.

Dells Parkway to receive major facelift in 2025-26 Wisconsin Dells Parkway is scheduled to receive a left turn lane in its Lake Delton segments and some other work to improve safety. The project is scheduled to begin in early 2025 and finish in late 2026.

Costs and programming needed for the project are the two main reasons for the delay, according to Gardner. She added that one positive to the situation is the village having more time with design aspects in preparation of the project. WisDOT informed MSA of the schedule changes earlier in February.

Gardner explained the revised schedule in response to village trustee Tom Diehl, saying that the Wisconsin Dells portion of the project (Wisconsin Dells Parkways intersection with Broadway to the intersection with County Highway A) would be done during the spring and fall of 2025.

Diehl and village administrator Tim McCumber emphasized the importance of an agreement between the village and WisDOT that all construction be completed during the spring and fall, so as not to interfere with tourism traffic during the summer. WisDOT and MSA are having a follow-up meeting on March 7 to further discuss construction timelines.

Stormwater diversion and how it impacts the villages drainage systems is currently the projects main challenge, according to Gardner. A key component of the upcoming project is a widening of the road to accommodate a two-way, left-turn lane (TWLTL), which will impact stormwater drainage.

DOT decides on layout for south segments of Dells Parkway reconstruction The Wisconsin Department of Transportation held its second public information meeting regarding the upcoming Wisconsin Dells Parkway project on Tuesday.

Thats been a lot bigger of a hurdle of recent that were learning as we go through the review of the plans and the impacts to the villages system, said Gardner. Were trying to figure out how to not overload a particular area.

Lower-lying areas of the parkway, such as the valleys near Pizza Pub and Hotel Rome at Mt. Olympus Water and Theme Park are key locations in stormwater discussions. Gardner told board member Merije Ajvazi, who owns Pizza Pub, that construction plans regarding TWLTLs and driveways have not changed much since being established last year.

Olympus Road, a future street near Mt. Olympus west from Wisconsin Dells Parkway, was slated to begin construction this coming fall. Gardner said that MSA is meeting with Mt. Olympus officials to further discuss this on March 7.

Gardner discussed other village projects during the engineering report, including the upcoming projects on Burritt Avenue and Bayer Lane, which are both scheduled to begin next month.
The Republican Party of Dane County has replaced its top leadership in the hopes of boosting GOP turnout in the liberal bastion and securing the statewide successes that have largely eluded Wisconsin Republicans in recent elections.

Members on Saturday elected conservative activist Brandon Maly to replace Scott Grabins, who led the party for the last decade. Maly secured 275 votes to Grabins 133. Chrissi Ilgen was elected vice chair, ousting Billie Johnson.

Speaking with conservative radio host Vicki McKenna on Monday, Maly attributed his victory to growing frustrations within the party over low overall turnout among Dane County conservatives in recent elections. Maly said the county party needs to find a way to better drum up GOP votes in the Madison area and show that Dane County is not going to be lost territory for Republicans any longer.

Maly, who has worked for Turning Point USA, a conservative advocacy group founded by election denier Charlie Kirk that organizes young voters, pointed to the Feb. 21 spring primary in which the two conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court candidates on the ballot, Jennifer Dorow and Dan Kelly, brought in a combined 17.4% of votes cast in the county.

We have to do better than 17.4%, Maly said. We have to galvanize resources into Dane County.

Such a goal will come with challenges. Dane County, the fastest-growing county in the state, has the third-largest number of Republican voters of Wisconsins 72 counties, but is also home to one of the states largest concentrations of Democratic voters.

Maly and Ilgen said the county partys first goal will be to get Kelly elected on April 4 to maintain conservative control of the Supreme Court. From there, the party aims to boost donations to pour into digital and online ads and outreach efforts, primarily among young Republicans.

In a statement of candidacy for the party chair position last month, Maly took aim at the organizations leadership, which he said tends to ignore the grassroots, which fractures the party.

As a result, Dane County has become the graveyard of Wisconsin Republican campaigns, Maly wrote. The work done by other county parties to bolster Republican candidates is countered by the poor election outcomes in Dane County.

Neither Grabins nor Maly responded to a request for comment. Grabins was one of the 10 Republicans who met at the state Capitol on Dec. 14, 2020, to sign official-looking documents asserting that former President Donald Trump won the state.

Last November, Brownsville business executive Tim Michels, a Republican gubernatorial candidate, lost to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers by more than 3 points statewide.

In Dane County, Evers secured more than 236,000 votes, or 78.6%, to Michels more than 62,000 votes, or less than 21%. Evers also brought in almost 5,000 more votes than Democratic U.S. Sen. candidate Mandela Barnes in the county, while Michels got almost 6,000 fewer votes than GOP U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, who secured another term in the general election.

Several people within the Republican Party and Michels campaign said the business executive did not make enough of an effort in Dane County to drive up Republican turnout.

Despite the large number of voters who identify as Republican in Dane County, the county party has struggled in recent years to counter Democratic turnout.

President Joe Biden secured more than 260,000 votes in Dane County in his 2020 victory over former President Donald Trump, who netted fewer than 79,000 votes in the county.

Former Republican Gov. Scott Walker brought in about 69,000 votes to Evers 220,000 votes in the 2018 election that landed Evers in the governors office.

The strong turnout by Democrats in Dane County  paired with slipping GOP margins in the WOW counties of Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington, which wrap around Milwaukee and include the states largest concentration of Republican voters  led to multiple Democratic statewide victories in recent elections.

Maly told McKenna in January that getting more Republicans to the polls in Dane County could translate into more statewide success.

It is my view that with better Republican organizations at the county party and state party level, Republicans will be winning elections in Wisconsin by 5 to 6 percentage points, not losing them, Maly said.

Also last weekend, the Milwaukee County Republican Party elected Hilario Deleon as its new chair. Deleon replaces longtime chair David Karst.

The party leadership changes come months after a shakeup at the top of the state GOP.

In December, political strategist and activist Brian Schimming was unanimously elected the new chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, succeeding former chair Paul Farrow, who didnt seek seek reelection.

Farrow said at the time Schimming had done an outstanding job of directing the state party through a presidential campaign while our state hosts a national convention.

Schimming said he looked forward to working side by side with the thousands of grassroots leaders in this state to win Wisconsin for the Republican presidential candidate and elect a conservative to the state Supreme Court.

The April 4 spring election will pit Kelly against liberal candidate Janet Protasiewicz for a pivotal seat on the states seven-member Supreme Court, now controlled 4-3 by conservatives. The winner will likely be the deciding vote on a range of issues, including abortion rights and the states legislative maps.
An earthquake is rumbling through health care. A shortage of nurses is already causing problems and, without a creative response, stands to become significantly worse  for hospitals, for communities and, most of all, for patients. Creative thinking is already underway in Niagara County.

There, Niagara University and Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center have formed a partnership that will offer paid hospital internships to students in any field of study that applies to health care. The goal is address a critical shortage of nurses in this region, but also to provide work opportunities to students in other important disciplines, including human resourses, marketing and accounting.

But the problems in nursing are critical. They predate Covid-19, but the stresses imposed by the pandemic made matters worse. Many nurses retired early; others simply left the field.

It could become worse, still, according to Joe Ruffalo, CEO of the Niagara Falls hospital. Western New York is projected to confront a 32% shortage of nurses in the coming decade. And its not just this region or even this state. The challenges blanket the nation.

McKinsey & Company, a management consulting firm, estimates the United States could face a shortage of up to 450,000 nurses by 2025  just two years from now. Thats a gap of some 20%.

Teaching hospitals are also contending with severe shortages. The Association of American Medical Colleges last year reported, for example, that a shortage of 1,200 nurses has forced a Gulf Coast hospital group, Ochsner Health, to close inpatient beds, driving patients into emergency departments that are already strained. The company runs 47 hospitals.

Here, and around the country, those problems have created a demand for traveling nurses  basically contract workers whose pay scales, even without benefits, cost around double the cost of a staff nurse. Kaleida Health reports spending $14 million on traveling nurses in 2021 and almost eight times that figure  $109 million  last year. In the meantime, nurse employees are demanding higher pay and increased staffing. At Buffalos Mercy Hospital, they joined a strike in 2021.

This is a fast unfolding crisis. Creativity and flexibility will be essential. In a field as crucial as health care, state and federal governments should be watching.

  

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.
Five years later, things have changed at the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, which has  if only under pressure  acknowledged terrible sins, professed remorse and pledged to improve.

There have been changes for the churchs victims, as well. Their years of suffering have at least been acknowledged, if belatedly. That matters. What they dont have yet  and what they also need  is compensation for the dioceses one-time policy of covering up child sexual abuse by its clerics.

It was a catastrophic, hypocritical and ultimately vain strategy to protect its reputation. Nothing will ever make up for it. The most trusted people in the community  in any community  preyed on children and the church that presented itself as godly protected the abusers and consigned the innocents to decades of suffering. Its a stain that doesnt wipe away.

The unraveling started with a single man  a target who decided he could no longer stay silent. Michael F. Whalen Jr. spoke to reporters five years ago last week, revealing that the Rev. Norbert Orsolits had abused him nearly 40 years earlier, when he was a teenager. Orsolits, speaking to a News reporter, admitted what he did.

With that, the church reaped the whirlwind. Others came forward, saying that they, too, had been sexually assaulted by priests when they were young. The New York Attorney General sued the diocese. Albany passed the Child Victims Act, allowing lawsuits for long-ago abuses.

Then-Bishop Richard J. Malone was replaced after Catholics lost confidence in his commitment to doing right. That occurred largely because two knowledgeable insiders  Siobhan M. OConnor and the Rev. Ryszard S. Biernat  blew the whistle. Both paid a high price for their determination to reveal painful truths. Neither regrets the decision.

Other distressed Catholic leaders formed the Movement to Restore Trust. Among other changes, it called for Malones departure.

Five years later, healing remains a work in progress. The church says it has learned from depravities that no decent person would have committed in the first place. Last week it notified the Erie County District Attorneys office of allegations against a priest. Even though there have been no known claims of recent abuses, it may take years for the diocese to earn back trust. Thats not inappropriate.

In the meantime, victims who sued under the Child Victims Act have received nothing. The diocese declared bankruptcy and the cases remain bogged down.

The delays have made Whalen feel as though nothing has changed. Heres hoping it wont take five more years for him to feel differently.

  

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.
(Getty)

The right-wing media giant Fox News is facing a $1.6bn defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems, a Denver-based manufacturer of voting machines, over the networks coverage of the 2020 presidential election and Donald Trumps bogus claims that the contest was rigged.

In a 192-page court filing published on 16 February containing private messages from many of the networks biggest stars, Dominion argues: From the top down, Fox knew the Dominion stuff was total bs.

Yet despite knowing the truth  or at minimum, recklessly disregarding that truth  Fox spread and endorsed these outlandish voter fraud claims about Dominion even as it internally recognised the lies as crazy, absurd and shockingly reckless, the filing said.

Attorneys for Fox, however, have argued that Dominion has mischaracterised the record and the facts by cherry-picking soundbites and omitting key context, and has accused the company of seeking a staggering figure in damages aimed at winning headlines, silencing protected speech and enriching its owner, Staple Street Capital Partners, and its investors.

Dominion brought this lawsuit to punish the Fox News Network for reporting on one of the biggest stories of the day  allegations by the sitting president of the United States and his surrogates that the 2020 election was affected by fraud, the company stated in a counterclaim.

The very fact of those allegations was newsworthy.

Fox attorneys argue that when voting technology companies denied the allegations made by Mr Trump and his surrogates, Fox News aired those denials, while some of its hosts offered protected opinion commentary about the allegations.

Fox has asserted that the core of the case is freedom of the press and freedom of speech, which are fundamental rights afforded by the constitution and protected by New York Times v Sullivan.

A five-week trial is scheduled to begin on 17 April.

Despite the networks top officials and presenters privately acknowledging that then-president Trump and his allies were lying, the network continued to bring them on air to amplify those claims, which also energised competing right-wing media networks that appeared to threaten Fox viewership, according to court documents.

Story continues

Here is a brief overview of some of the claims in court documents, which collect sworn depositions and internal messages from prominent Fox News personalities like Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham and owner Rupert Murdoch discussing coverage of the 2020 elections aftermath.

Murdoch admits top Fox personalities endorsed false election claims

The chair of the conservative media empire said that hosts including Mr Hannity, Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs and Jeanine Pirro endorsed at times this false notion of a stolen election, claims that the former president and his allies continue to amplify as he seeks re-election to office in 2024.

I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing it in hindsight, Mr Murdoch said in a sworn deposition, according to court documents.

Murdoch provided Jared Kushner with information about Biden campaign

The veteran mogul allegedly provided Mr Trumps son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, with confidential information about Bidens ads, along with debate strategy (providing Mr Kushner a preview of Mr Bidens ads before they were public), according to a filing from Dominion.

Anchors were livid over (correct) decision to call Arizona for Biden

Foxs high-profile anchors privately bemoaned the networks biggest election night call, according to the filing, with Mr Hannity complaining in a text on 12 November 2020: In one week and one debate they destroyed a brand that took 25 years to build and the damage is incalculable.

He later allegedly told Fox and Friends host Steve Doocy: You dont p*** off the base.

Mr Carlson told him, Ive heard from angry viewers every hour of the day all weekend, including at dinner tonight, to which Mr Hannity responded: Same same same. Never before has this ever happened.

On election night, Mr Kushner called Mr Murdoch saying, This is terrible, according to a filing from Dominion.

And I could hear Trumps voice in the background shouting, according to Mr Murdoch, quoted in the filing.

And I said, Well, the numbers are the numbers, the filing stated.

Mr Murdoch and Fox leadership met days after Election Day over concerns of mounting viewer backlash to Fox after the network correctly predicted that Mr Biden won Arizona, but the network agreed to air wild claims that the election was stolen from Mr Trump while positive impressions of Fox News among its viewers dropped precipitously after Election Day to the lowest levels the network had seen.

At one point, Mr Murdoch suggested that longtime Fox News vice president Bill Sammon should be [let] go right away over the Arizona race call, despite its accuracy, to send a big message with Trump people, according to court documents.

Carlson asked for networks White House correspondent to be fired

In a message purportedly sent to a group chat including Ms Ingraham and Mr Hannity on 12 November, Mr Carlson pointed out a tweet from the networks White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich in which she fact-checked a post by Mr Trump alleging voter fraud, pointing out that top election infrastructure officials had declared: There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes or was in any way compromised.

Mr Carlson reacted by saying: Please get her fired. Seriously What the f***? Im actually shocked It needs to stop tonight immediately, like tonight. Its immeasurably hurting the company. The stock price is down. Not a joke.

Murdoch considered having stars appear together to declare Biden the winner

The tycoon reportedly considered asking Mr Hannity, Mr Carlson and Ms Ingraham to give a joint prime-time address together in which they publicly declared that Mr Biden had won the White House legitimately and that fraud had played no part in the outcome.

Doing so would go a long way to stop the Trump myth that the election stolen, he told CEO Suzanne Scott on 5 January 2021, according to a filing from Dominion.

Carlson called Trump a demonic force

In an anxious text to his producer Alex Pfeiffer about the dangers of displeasing Mr Trump over its coverage of the Capitol riot on 6 January, Mr Carlson describes him as a demonic force, a destroyer, adding: But hes not going to destroy us.

What hes good at is destroying things, he wrote, according to court filings. Hes the undisputed world champion of that. He could easily destroy us if we play it wrong.

Murdoch tells Fox CEO to help any way we can in Georgia

The mogul emailed Ms Scott on 16 November with a link to an article in The Wall Street Journal about Foxs rival network Newsmax.

These people should be watched, if sceptically, he told her, before advising her to devote coverage to the Georgia Senate runoff and the promotion of GOP candidates Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, both of whom would ultimately lose to Democratic candidates Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff.

Mr Murdoch continued: Trump will concede eventually and we should concentrate on Georgia, helping any way we can. We dont want to antagonise Trump further, but [Rudy] Giuliani taken with a large grain of salt. Everything at stake here.

Fox Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch (AP)

Senior figures embarrassed by Giulianis antics

It was not just Mr Murdoch who had doubts about former New York mayor Rudy Giulianis efforts to push the election fraud narrative.

A filing from Dominion collects messages from other Fox stars concerned about his appearances, with Mr Hannity observing on 11 November: Rudy is acting like an insane person.

Ms Ingraham said on 12 December that he was such an idiot and Lou Dobbss producer, John Fawcett, said on 3 January that the veteran politician was so full of s***.

Trump lawyer forwarded wackadoodle election conspiracy tip

Sidney Powell, one of the most prominent attorneys who advanced Mr Trumps spurious legal efforts to overturn the election results, reportedly forwarded an email she had received from an anonymous tipster to Ms Bartiromo in which she herself admitted was pretty wackadoodle, alleging that Dominions machines were the one common thread tying together voting irregularities in a number of states.

That sender also apparently believed that the late US Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia had been purposefully killed at the annual Bohemian Grove camp during a weeklong human hunting expedition and wrote: Who am I? And how do I know all of this?... Ive had the strangest dreams since I was a little girl I was internally decapitated, and yet, I live The Wind tells me Im a ghost, but I dont believe it.

Elsewhere, Mr Carlson accused Ms Powell of lying and called her a f***ing b****. Ms Ingraham said of her: Sidney is a complete nut. No one will work with her. Ditto Rudy.

Sidney Powell during a press call in Georgia, December 2020 (Reuters)

Jeanine Pirro considered crazy by colleagues

Ms Pirros producers stated on 7 November that they believed she was angling for a job somewhere else, fearing her exchanges with guests over whether or not the election was stolen would not be productive, according to court documents.

They took her off cuz she was being crazy, texted producer Justin Wells. Optics are bad. But she is crazy.

Fox sent Mike Lindell a gift

MyPillow founder and prominent election fraud conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell quickly emerged as one of the most passionate proponents of the false narrative that the election was stolen from Mr Trump as he made appearances on rival right-wing media networks. Fox News appeared to grow anxious when Mr Lindell criticised the network during an interview with Newsmax.

Ms Scott duly sent him a gift with a handwritten note, hoping to win him over, documents allege.

This story was first published on 17 February and has been updated with developments and comment
Mississippi GOP Gov. Tate Reeves signs a bill to ban gender-affirming care in the state for anyone younger than 18, during a February 28 news conference in Jackson, Mississippi.
At least 36 people were killed and 85 injured after a passenger train in Greece collided with an oncoming freight train on Tuesday night.

Officials said the incident took place near the city of Larissa, around 380km (235 miles) north of Athens.

While the circumstances of the crash remain unclear, multiple cars derailed and at least three burst into flames due to the collision.

"There were many big pieces of steel," said Vassilis Polyzos, a local resident who was one of the first people on the scene. "The trains were completely destroyed, both passenger and freight trains."

According to hospital authorities in the nearby city of Larissa, at least 25 people had serious injuries.

The evacuation process is ongoing and is being carried out under very difficult conditions due to the severity of the collision between the two trains, Vassilis Varthakoyiannis, a spokesperson for Greeces firefighting service was quoted as saying to Associated Press.

Key Points

At least 36 dead

85 injured

Three days of national mourning declared

Two trains crash near Larissa, north of Athens

Watch: Rescue crews search wreckage after freight and passenger trains collide in Greece

10:07 , Emily Atkinson

Collision so severe two carriages just disappeared'

09:45 , Matt Mathers

The collision between two trains was so severe that the first two carriages of one just disappeared.

Marin Rigou, a journalist, told the BBC there was nothing left of the carriages following the smash.

The rescue teams are trying to move the wreckages of the carriages from the tracks, but its very difficult, she told the BBC.

The collision was so severe that the two first carriages just disappeared.

The mayor of the city near the incident said nothing has been left from the first two carriages.

Part of the wreckage (Evangelo Sipsas/LOCAL NEWS X /TMX)

Greek president cuts short Moldova trip after train collision

09:25 , Matt Mathers

Greek president Katerina Sakellaropoulou said on Wednesday she was cutting short a visit to Moldova to return to Greece following a train collision in which officials said at least 36 people were killed.

Story continues

"Unfortunately, I have to interrupt my visit in order to be close to my people, to support those who need it," she told a joint news conference in the Moldovan capital Chisinau with Moldovan President Maia Sandu.

"I express my condolences to those who lost loved ones or suffered in this disaster. Even at this moment, a life-saving operation is going on to help those who are on this death train."

Her planned two-visit to Moldova began on Wednesday morning with a meeting with Sandu, and she had been due to hold meetings with parliamentary and government leaders.

Three days of national mourning declared

09:10 , Matt Mathers

Three days have national mourning have been declared following last nights rail disaster, Greeces prime minister has said.

All public celebrations have been cancelled and flags on public buildings will fly at half mast from today until Friday.

08:55 , Matt Mathers

Local media said the train left Athens around 7.30pm last night. The fire brigade said it was informed of the accident shortly before midnight. The cargo train had been travelling from Thessaloniki to Larissa.

In 1972, 19 people were killed when two trains collided head on outside Larissa.

Greeces ageing railway system is in need of modernising, with many trains travelling on single tracks and signalling and automatic control systems still to be installed in many areas.

(REUTERS)

Police temporarily detain Larissa train master

08:39 , Matt Mathers

Police temporarily detained the station master in Larissa and had summoned witnesses for questioning, local media reports.

Hellenic Train in a statement expressed "its deep sorrow for the tragic accident."

Overnight, rescue workers were seen carrying torches in carriages looking for trapped passengers.

It was like an earthquake'

08:27 , Matt Mathers

One passenger who survived said the train crash was like an earthquake.

It was like an earthquake, Angelos Tsiamouras, told local media.

The two trains had been on the same track when they crashed into each other.

Emergency services search for survivors

08:26 , Matt Mathers

Emergency services continue to search for survivors following the train crash and are treating the injured.

"Our priority now is treating the injured, searching and finding missing people in the debris and offering psychological support to the relatives of the victims by psychologists who are heading to the Larissa city," government spokesman Giannis Oikonomou said.

It is understood there is an ongoing investigation by a prosecutor and police into what caused the accident.

Suvivor recalls nightmarish crash

08:23 , Matt Mathers

Stergios Minenis, a 28-year-old passenger who jumped to safety from the wreckage, said the crash was "nightmarish" with a loud bang followed by fire.

"We were turning over in the wagon until we fell on our sides... there was panic," he said. "The fire was immediate, as we were turning over we were being burned, fire was right and left."

About 250 passengers out of a total of 350 were evacuated safely to Thessaloniki on buses.

(InTime News)

Key details

08:21 , Matt Mathers

Passenger train, freight train collide at high speed, at night

Trains were travelling on the same track - regional governor

350 passengers were on train from Athens bound for Thessaloniki

Collided near Larissa, site of deadly rail disaster 50 years ago

At least 32 dead

85 injured

66 hospitalised

Train crash in pictures

08:18 , Matt Mathers

APTOPIX Greece Train Collision (InTime News)

Greece Train Collision (InTime News)

(Getty)

(Evangelo Sipsas/LOCAL NEWS X /TMX)

(AP)

At least 32 dead and scores injured in head-on crash between two trains in central Greece

08:16 , Matt Mathers

At least 32 people were killed and 85 injured after a passenger train in Greece collided with an oncoming freight train on Tuesday night.

Officials said the incident took place near Tempe, a small town next to a valley where major highway and rail tunnels are located, around 380km (235 miles) north of Athens.

While the circumstances of the crash remain unclear, multiple cars derailed and at least three burst into flames due to the collision.

There were many big pieces of steel, said Vassilis Polyzos, a local resident who was one of the first people on the scene. The trains were completely destroyed, both passenger and freight trains.

Sravasti Dasgupta reports:

Train crash Greece: At least 32 dead and scores injured in head-on collision

08:12 , Matt Mathers

Good morning.

At least 32 people have been killed after two trains crashed near Athens in Greece.

Well have updates on this developing story throughout the morning.
(PA)

Londons much-loved St Patricks Day celebrations will return on Sunday March 12, with Trafalgar Square again hosting the London Mayors official festival.

Now in its 20th year, the capitals annual celebration of Ireland and its people will again begin with a parade, before music, arts, and plenty of food and drink.

Where does the parade take place?

Londons St Patricks Day parade starts at Hyde Park Corner before travelling through Piccadilly, St Jamess Street, Pall Mall, Cockspur Street, and Whitehall.

More than 50,000 people are expected to join the annual procession of Irish marching bands, dance troupes, and pageantry, and many more will celebrate in pubs and restaurants around London.

St Patrick's Day Parade in London

St Patrick's Day Parade in London:

St Patrick's Day Parade in London:

St Patrick's Day Parade in London:

St Patrick's Day Parade in London:

St Patrick's Day Parade in London:

St Patrick's Day Parade in London:

St Patrick's Day Parade in London:

St Patrick's Day Parade in London:

St Patrick's Day Parade in London:

St Patrick's Day Parade in London:

What happens in Trafalgar Square?

The best of Irish arts, music, food and drink  yes, there will be Guinness  will follow the capitals annual parade, with a line-up including the Celtic Youth Orchestra, and the Maguire OShea School of Dance.

This years host will be Riyadh Khalaf, while the chef Anna Haugh  best-known in London for her Chelsea restaurant Myrtle  will run food demos alongside childrens workshops and games.

When does the festival begin and end?

St Patricks Day festivities will kick-off at midday, and finish  officially, at least  at about 6pm.

The event is curated by the London Irish Centre and sponsored by the likes of the Irish Food Board and the Irish Embassy.

For more information, visit london.gov.uk
Last Wednesday, a Special Immigration Appeals Commission upheld the decision of former Home Secretary Sajid Javid to strip Shamima Begum of her British citizenship.

Begum travelled to Syria from London in 2015, aged just 15, with two friends who were all groomed to become a bride of an Islamic State (IS) fighter. She is currently in the al-Roj refugee camp in the country, with 2,000 others. In 2019, Javid ordered that she be deprived of her citizenship using powers in the British Nationality Act 1981.

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]

Javids decision and its sanctioning by the courts is a gross violation of democratic rights designed to advance a stupefying demonisation of Muslims, preventing any questioning of the role played by world imperialism in fomenting Islamist terror.

The British Nationality Act 1981 allows the removal of citizenship if the affected person has acted in a manner which is seriously prejudicial to the vital interests of the UK and if there are reasonable grounds for believing that the person is able, under the law of a country or territory outside the UK, to become a national of such a country or territory. In other words, the person cannot be rendered stateless.

But this is exactly what the government has done, relying on the technicality that Begum could apply for Bangladeshi citizenship through her parents. Under Bangladeshi law, Begum could apply for citizenship at any time up to her 21st birthday. But before Javid made his decision, Bangladesh made very clear that it would refuse any such application and that Begum would face the death penalty if she entered the country. In any case, she is now 23 years oldlong past the deadline.

In effect, the UK government has punished Begum for an act carried out as a minor by making her a permanent refugee, denying her any rights or services afforded by any country on the planet. This was done without any public accountability whatsoever, let alone a trial.

Defending his decision in parliament in 2019, Javid considered it adequate to state, Whatever role they took in the so-called caliphate, they all supported a terrorist organisation and in doing so they have shown they hate our country and the values we stand for. Speaking on the issue again in 2021, he told journalists cryptically, Im not going to go into details of the case but what I will say is that you certainly havent seen what I saw. If you did know what I knew you would have made exactly the same decision.

Last Wednesdays ruling underscores the gross injustice done, referring to the case made by Begums lawyers that she was the victim of grooming, child trafficking and sexual exploitation. Married to an IS fighter immediately upon arriving in Syria, she gave birth to three children, all of whom died youngone of pneumonia while she was in the refugee camp.

This undated photo released by the Metropolitan Police of London, shows Shamima Begum. [AP Photo/Metropolitan Police of London via AP, File]

One of her school friends, Kadiza Sultana, died in May 2016 in an airstrike, aged 17, while planning to escape. The whereabouts of the other, Amira Abase, is not known, but her husband is dead.

The courts judgement reads, In the Commissions opinion, there is a credible suspicion that Ms Begum was recruited, transferred and then harboured for the purpose of sexual exploitation. These were matters which were simply ignored by the Secretary of State.

But a deeply authoritarian ruling by the Supreme Court in 2021, secured by the government to prevent Begum returning to the UK to fight her case, effectively prevented the Commission from overturning Javids decision.

The Supreme Court chastised an earlier ruling initially giving Begum the right to return with the extraordinary criticism that it had mistakenly believed that, when an individuals right to have a fair hearing of an appeal came into conflict with the requirements of national security, her right to a fair hearing must prevail, and mistakenly treated the Secretary of States extraterritorial human rights policy as if it were a rule of law which he must obey, as opposed to something intended to guide the exercise of his statutory discretion.

Moreover, by ruling that the home secretarys assessment was not given the respect which it should have received, given that it is the home secretary who has been charged by parliament with responsibility for making such assessments, the Supreme Court tied the Special Immigration Appeals Commissions hands. It was essentially required to limit itself to asking whether Javid had lawfully exercised the extremely broad powers of the British Nationality Act 1981, under which he is entitled to ignore virtually all other considerations by citing national security.

The Commission noted February 22, Reasonable Secretaries of State could lawfully apply different policies to the exercise of the section 40 function [in the British Nationality Act]. It is possible to envisage a perfectly lawful policy that precludes the decision-maker from depriving children at all, or from depriving them without deciding whether they were or may have been trafficked. But that is not the policy that this Secretary of State implemented.

As Birnberg Peirce, the law firm representing Begum, explained in a statement, the Supreme Court judgment renders the legal appeals process pointless: The commissions hands, it considers, are tied by the alteration by the supreme court of its roleit is no longer allowed to come to its own decisions on the merits of a case as a whole. On the key issues, it must defer to the secretary of state. Once that is accepted, it is hard to see what part an appeal against this draconian decision can play.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer immediately backed Begums continued persecution, telling the BBC that the Courts judgment was the right decision. The former Director of Public Prosecutions declared, National security has to come first. The courts reached its decision; its looked at all the evidence. I support that decision and as I say, national security has to come first.

The vindictive treatment of Begum, an exploited child who was presented as nothing more than a dangerous and irredeemable monster, is intended to stop any deeper questioning of the details of the case which would expose the intrigues of British imperialism and its allies. Last September it was revealed that Begum was helped to Syria by a Canadian state intelligence asset; British intelligence knew she was being groomed online.

The court made vague reference to these facts in its judgement, writing, It is also arguable that there were State failures, and possible violations of the corollary protective duty, between December 2014 and February 2015.

Begums is thus one of many cases in which figures who become associated with terror groups, including some who have gone on to commit terrible atrocities, are shown to have been known to the intelligence agencies. These are windows into the covert activity of the imperialist powers, who routinely use Islamist proxy forces against their geopolitical opponents, as most recently in Syria and Libya.

Nor does the government want to allow any consideration of the social conditions of contemporary capitalism which move some people to support the barbaric ideology of Islamic State, including young women who are particularly oppressed. Government-sponsored Islamophobia and anti-migrant rhetoric, conditions of social exclusion and poverty, and the relentless dehumanisation of the enemy abroadin recent years largely in the Middle Eastand desensitisation of the population to violence and cruelty all play their part.

A play exploring these issues specifically in the context of Begum and the two friends she travelled with, Homegrown, was shut down by the police and the National Youth Theatre in 2015.

The Begum decision also has dangerous implications. The ruling class routinely pioneers massive assaults on democratic rights with the initial targeting of a demonised individual or group. Through this case, it has secured vast, virtually unchecked powers for the home secretary, currently the right-wing xenophobe Suella Braverman, to use against the working class.

Begums treatment is seen as a weapon not primarily against terrorist groups, but in the wider attack on democratic rightsincluding the rights to strike, protest and free speech. In the time her case has been ongoing, the government has already strengthened its right to remove citizenship through the Nationality and Borders Act, removing the requirement to notify the affected person.
On Tuesday, a bipartisan House committee held a hearing proclaiming an existential struggle between the United States and China.

In his opening remarks to the hearing, committee Chairman Mike Gallagher said the United States competition with China will not be polite, calling the US conflict with China an existential struggle over what life will look like in the 21st century.

Gallagher told the Wall Street Journal the committee would create a two-year blueprint for selective economic decoupling from China.

The prime-time hearing was aimed at promoting public hostility toward China to justify the United States massive military build-up in the Pacific.

In January, Gen. Mike Minihan, head of the Air Mobility Command, sent a letter to his subordinates stating, My gut tells me we will fight in 2025, and urging them to get their personal affairs in order in preparation for a conflict with China.

U.S. Army mariners-in-training pose for pictures at Joint Base Little Creek-Fort Story May 27, 2017. [Photo: US Army]

On Thursday, it became known that the US is planning to triple the number of US troops stationed in Taiwan, which the United States has for decades treated as part of China. Last year, Congress passed a national defense authorization act that would directly arm Taiwan, effectively ending the one-China policy with the aim of provoking a Chinese invasion of Taiwan similar to Russias invasion of Ukraine.

The warmongering testimonies by former Trump administration officialsH.R. McMaster, a war criminal who helped organize the illegal invasion of Iraq, and Matthew Pottinger, a key ally of the fascist Steve Bannonwere interrupted by protesters opposing US war plans with China who were gagged and led away by police.

The hearing, which was convened by Republicans who now control the House, won the enthusiastic backing of Democratic members of the committee.

But not a single one of the Democratic members of Congress opposed the warmongering orientation of the hearing. Ro Khanna, a national co-chair of Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign, fully embraced the premise of the meeting, casting the war plans of American imperialism as a struggle to defend US manufacturing jobs.

Over the last three decades, both Democrats and Republicans underestimated the CCP, and assumed that trade and investment would inevitably lead to democracy and greater security in the Indo-Pacific. ... Instead the opposite happened, said Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, the ranking Democrat on the committee, in his opening remarks.

Democratic Michigan Congresswoman Haley Stevens called on the United States to carry out policies aimed at ensuring the domination of US manufacturing exports and control of raw materials.

While fully accepting the framework for US-China relations, the entire criticism of the Democrats was that the US conflict with China should not be acclaimed by overt anti-Asian racism. Democrat Shontel Brown said she supported boosting American competitiveness with equity and inclusion.

But perhaps the most overt statement of sympathy for Gallaghers existential conflict came from the White House, by way of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

In an interview with Fox News, FBI Director Christopher Wray accused China of having created COVID-19 and then covering it up, in the most high-profile, public statement to date of the White Houses approval of the Wuhan lab lie.

The announcement was a direct overture toward Pottinger, who is a leading public advocate of the Wuhan lab conspiracy theory, which he has consistently advocated alongside his demands for the US to prepare for conflict with China.

The hearing marks a major milestone in the embrace of the entire political establishment of the framework of the US-China relationship pioneered under the Trump administration by the fascist ideologue and chief white house strategist Steven K. Bannon, which calls on the United States to economically decouple from China in preparation for military conflict.

This narrative was first officially trailered in October 2018 in a speech by Vice President Mike Pence, who argued that the reproachment between the United States and China in the aftermath of Richard Nixons 1971 trip to Beijing was a mistake.

The Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party was effectively a vehicle for its star witness former United States deputy national security advisor Matthew Pottinger, who Bannon described as one of the most significant people in the entire U.S. government.

In the words of Josh Rogin, Pottingers views have lived on in the Biden administration, with the incoming Biden administration is set to preserve many of the changes in the governments approach to China that Pottinger, along with other like-minded officials, worked to implement.

Over the past two months, the Biden administration has massively intensified its conflict with China, passing a bill at the end of last year that would directly arm Taiwan, Surging US troops to the island, and this month, carrying out an attack on what was by all indications a Chinese research balloon that had been blown over the United States.

Tuesdays prime-time hearing is a major component of the US medias month-long effort to demonize China, which erupted with the announcement days-long media hysteria over a the Chinese balloon, and continued with the US medias incessant promotion of the Wuhan lab lie over the past week.

These developments must be seen as a warning. Even as the United States massively intensifies its involvement in its war with Russia in Ukraine, it is escalating its conflict with China, threatening to embroil the whole world in a globe-spanning military conflict between nuclear-armed powers.
Over 100,000 customers of DTE Energy and Consumers Energy were without power in Michigan on Tuesday evening, many of whom have had no electricity for seven days now.

A DTE contractor crew works on a power line, Monday, February 27, 2023, in northwest Detroit. Thousands of Michigan residents faced a fourth straight day without power as crews worked to restore electricity to more than 165,000 homes and businesses in the Detroit area after last week's ice storm. [AP Photo/Carlos Osorio]

Last Wednesday, a winter storm knocked out power across the southern portion of Michigan for 800,000 homes and businesses. The area was hit by high winds and freezing rain that crippled the electrical infrastructure when trees fell, and power lines snapped after being coated with up to three-quarters of an inch of ice.

While power was being restored to those impacted by the first weather event, another storm of snow, high winds, rain and ice hit Michigan from the Grand Rapids area on down to the Detroit area and knocked out the electricity again for tens of thousands.

According to FOX 2 Detroit, the second eventwhich included a rare thunder snowstorm in Mount Pleasantknocked out power for an additional 82,000 homes on Monday. The report on Tuesday morning said DTE Energy had an additional 37,000 and Consumers Energy an additional 45,000 outages, that came in over the weekend or due to last nights [Mondays] weather.

As of this writing, according to PowerOutage.us, a web site that tracks live power outage data across the US, there were a total of 104,793 customers in Michigan without electricity. Meanwhile, the National Weather Service is warning of another winter storm of cold, windy, wet and icy weather in the region this Friday and over the coming weekend.

The electricity crisis in Michigan in the middle of winter is having a devastating impact on residents. Going a week without electricity means that all the food in a family refrigerator and freezer is lost. Some families, especially those with small children, were forced to pay hundreds of dollars for hotel rooms to keep warm, while others entered shelters set up by local government and charity organizations such as the Red Cross.

Since most families do not have gas or propane power generators, they must also try to keep their pipes from freezing with no heat in their houses and there is also the matter of keeping sump pumps running to prevent basements from filling up with water during heavy rains.

A Detroit public school teacher told the WSWS, I have gotten messages from parents saying their children wont be at school today because the power is out since last Friday morning. Many other children came in explaining that their power was out during the mid-winter break.

One staff member who lives with her elderly relative lost power and they were wearing extra layers of clothes to try to stay warm. She said power outages are so routine the family was used to it. On top of that, DTE is asking for a multi-million dollar rate increase.

In some instances, families have lost power twice in one week. A report by the Associated Press (AP) quoted Leah Thomas of Beverly Hills, Michigan, who lost power on Wednesday and then again on Monday.

The report said, It was back on Sunday evening but was lost again the next day. And like thousands of Michigan residents left in the dark following back-to-back ice storms, Thomas wonders when the lights will come onand stay on.

The AP also spoke with Richard Rood, a professor at the University of Michigans Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering, who explained the influence of climate change on the timing and intensity of the storms, Events like freezing rain ... theyre pretty rare but theyre showing up in places that are new and in times that are new. They might be a little more intense because its warmer. Before, (the moisture) might fall as snow, which is not nearly as damaging.

Rood also pointed to the crumbling condition of the electrical infrastructure saying that heat events in the summer and ice storms in the winter are pushing the system over the edge. That infrastructure was built for a different climate, different environmental conditions. Now its changing, and we need to be thinking about the future, Rood said.

However, massive capitalist enterprises such as DTE Energy and Consumers Energy are focused on quarterly earnings and dividend payouts to their investors, and incapable of thinking about the future of society as a whole.

While the devastating storms were bearing down on Michigan in the month of February, both these multi-billion dollar monopolies were preoccupied with issuing their annual financial statistics for 2022 and telling stockholders their diluted earnings per share.

On February 23, the day after the first ice storm hit Michigan, CEO Gerardo Norcia, whose total compensation topped $10 million in 2021, apparently did not see the irony in a company press release that said DTE Energy had improved our infrastructure and was building a brighter future for our customers, while more than a half-million customers spent the next several days in the cold and dark.

The outrageous failure of the electrical system twice in one week has exposed the indifference and negligence of the corporate and political establishment toward the suffering of the public. After it was reported that Democratic Party Governor Gretchen Whitmer was out on the town the night after the power went out for nearly 1 million residents of the state, the administration went into damage control.

Governor Whitmer issued a statement calling for accountability and said, we can move faster as these climate events happen more and more often. Other Democrats, such as State Senator Sean McCann from Kalamazoo, chair of the Senate Committee on Energy and Environment, called for an investigation.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, another Democrat, called on DTE and Consumers Energy to start routinely issuing a $35 credit when customers lose power for periods of 96 hours or more, an increase of $10 over the paltry state-set $25 per customer for power outages.

Reluctantly agreeing to the insulting payout, DTE Energy issued a statement saying, Customers should note that it may take one to two billing cycles for the credit to appear on their bill.
Voting in the second round of the United Auto Workers presidential elections concluded on Tuesday afternoon. Ballot counting is set to begin today in Dayton, Ohio, with results expected to be released late this week or early next week. The outcome will determine whether incumbent UAW President Ray Curry or long-time UAW International representative Shawn Fain will obtain the top position in the UAW apparatus.

The corporate media is touting the electionthe first direct membership vote in the unions historyas a sweeping democratic change for the UAW, which was placed under federal monitorship after nearly a dozen top officers, including two former presidents, were convicted for taking corporate bribes and embezzling dues money. But the conduct of the election itself has demonstrated that power in the UAW remains in the hands an entrenched leadership thoroughly hostile to the rank and file.

Perhaps the most significant fact about the second round is that it has been held before the results of the first round have even been certified, even though the uncertified count was released nearly three months ago. The court-appointed UAW Monitor has not certified the results as it has sat on a protest filed last December by Mack Trucks worker Will Lehman, who won nearly 5,000 votes in the first round running as a socialist candidate.

UAW presidential candidate Will Lehman speaks with striking adjunct professors at The New School [Photo: WSWS]

The protest documents the fact that Curry and Fain were the two top vote getters in an election that was characterized by systematic voter suppression and the disenfranchisement of the rank and file.

This included the UAW bureaucracys defying the Monitors mandate to update membership lists so ballots would be mailed to the correct addresses and to widely publicize the election to maximize participation. As a result, less than 10 percent of the 1.1 million active and retired members eligible to vote cast ballots in the first round. In mfact, more ballots were returned for incorrect addresses than those that were counted.

Once the field was narrowed to Curry and Faintwo trusted members of the UAW apparatusunion officials sought to increase the turnout by postering factories and union halls with signs about upcoming deadlines, and sending out emails and other information to remind workers to vote or how to get ballots if they hadnt received one.

This led to an increase in the votes cast in the second round, from 103,020 valid ballots to 141,548 by the Tuesday deadline, although the latter votes have not been validated. Despite the increase between the two rounds of voting, the turnout for the UAW election was still one of the lowest, if not the lowest, of any direct union election in history. Overall, less than 13 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in the second round.

Many of the same problems from the first roundincluding incorrect addresses, failure to mail out replacement ballots in time, etcstill remained in the second. Given the extra effort by the UAW bureaucracy to get the vote out, however, the extremely low turnout reflects the mass alienation of workers from the UAW apparatus, with its two hand-picked candidates now the only options. This apparatus has spent decades colluding with the employers to destroy workers living standards and working conditions.

Young workers stuck in temporary or second- and third-tier positions, older workers who have suffered decades of declining real wages, and pensioners struggling to pay their bills, know that a shuffling of positions at the top of the UAW apparatus will do nothing to improve their lives.

Workers I talk to were upset with what happened in the election, a worker at the Forvia (formerly Faurecia) parts plant in Saline, Michigan told the WSWS. They didn't hear about the first round, and they think it was an unfair election. It is hard to speak on what other people are feeling, but I believe a lot of people felt that way. Once a fraud, always a fraud. If they rigged the first round, they will rig the second.

She went on to compare Trumps attempt to overturn the federal election in 2020 to the UAW bureaucracys effort to strip workers of their voting rights. The democratic process is being thrown out the window, politically and in the plants, she said. Look at the rail workers and the teachers. Their democratic rights were trampled on. You can see it every day. Everybodys complaining. They have laid off a lot. Our plant went from 2,000 workers down to 1,200 just since the start of COVID. None of us like it. Everybodys complaining.

While the Curry machine was able to increase the turnout at some key locals, like UAW Local 600 at the Ford Rouge Complex in Dearborn, Michigan, other efforts by both factions to boost the vote fell on deaf ears.

At UAW Local 140 at the Stellantis Warren Truck Plant in suburban Detroit, for example, where Shawn Fain won the first round, the vote only increased from 1,014 in the first round to 1,205 in the second. The 5,200 workers at the factory include hundreds, if not thousands, of temporary workers who pay union dues but get no profit-sharing checks or dental and optical benefits and can be fired at will.

At UAW Local 1268 at the Stellantis assembly plant in Belvidere, Illinois the turnout only increased by eight votes, from 1,114 to 1,122. Tuesday was the last day of work at the plant, which is being indefinitely idled, without any resistance by the UAW bureaucracy.

Speaking as a mouthpiece for the UAW bureaucracy, the Detroit Free Press suggested that the marginally higher turnout in the second round somehow invalidated Will Lehmans campaign to defend the democratic rights of UAW members. Pointing to the vote total, the Free Press declared, Thats 32,825 more ballots returned already than during the election last year where criticism about the low level of participation prompted one candidate, Will Lehman, to file a federal lawsuit, which was later dismissed, seeking to extend the deadline.

The newspaper went on to falsely portray Fain and his UAW Members United Slate as militant opponents of the auto corporations, with a Wayne State University business and labor expert declaring, regardless of the outcome, the dissidents have captured enough of the International Executive Board to affect greatly the 2023 bargaining and also to bring about a cultural change within the UAW.

In fact, Fain has no fundamental differences with Curry and has spent decades as a member of the UAW ruling Administrative Caucus endorsing one concessionary contract after another.

The fact that the court-appointed UAW Monitor has permitted this electoral farce to proceed only underscores the fact that the government oversight over the UAW was never aimed at giving rank-and-file workers real power. Instead, its goal has been to give a democratic facelift to the discredited UAW bureaucracy.

The Obama administration relied on the UAW in 2009 to halve the wages of new autoworkers and set a new lower pay scale for all manufacturing workers. The Justice Department only initiated its investigation into the well-known corruption of the UAW apparatus after Chrysler workers revolted in 2015 and defeated the first UAW-backed national contract in 33 years.

The Biden administration is desperately seeking to prop up the UAW apparatuswhether it headed by Curry or Fainto beat back the growing resistance by the working class against the efforts to force workers to pay for the economic crisis of American capitalism and the increasing cost of the war preparations against Russia and China. After the steady rise of industrial struggles by UAW members over the last few yearsat Volvo Trucks, John Deere, CNH and the University of California2023 promises to be an even more explosive year, with the impending contract battle at Caterpillar and struggles later this year at GE Aerospace, at GM, Ford and Stellantis, and at Mack Trucks.

In a statement to the WSWS, Will Lehman said, This entire election has been a travesty. The entrenched UAW bureaucracy, which never wanted a direct vote in the first place, did everything to prevent the full participation of the members because they knew they would vote them out. The miserable turnout in the second round, despite the efforts of the UAW bureaucracy to increase the vote, only demonstrates the deep alienation of workers from the UAW apparatus.

But my campaign revealed that in every factory and in every workplace, there is the basis for building a powerful network of rank-and-file committees to mobilize the full power of the working class to improve our living standards, abolish all tiers and defend our jobs. My campaign to transfer decision-making power from the UAW apparatus to the workers on the shop floor now has to be expanded.

We cannot afford to leave our struggles in the hands of the bureaucracy, whether it is led by Curry or Fain. In the fights ahead, at CAT, the Big Three, at Mack Trucks, we must organize the full power of workers in rank-and-file committees, which we have a meaningful, democratic control over, and link up our struggles with other sections of workers in the US and internationally.


At the beginning of February, the obligation to wear a mask in buses and trains was ended throughout Germany, along with the Coronavirus Occupational Health and Safety Ordinance. This momentous decision will now be followed by the repeal of the testing and masking requirement for employees and residents in health care and nursing facilities on March 1. This means that wearing a mask will only be mandatory in medical facilities.

Originally, the masking requirement was to apply until April 7. On its website, the federal Health Ministry justifies the early lifting of this obligation by citing an infection situation that has been stable for weeks. Leading politicians from all parties are outdoing each other in declaring the pandemic over and dismissing coronavirus as a normal disease among many others.

We are now treating COVID-19 like any other infectious diseaseeven in our country. That means there is no regulatory framework in Schleswig-Holstein that goes beyond that, said the states Minister President Daniel Gunther (Christian Democratic Union, CDU), for example. Baden-Wurttembergs Green Minister of Health Manfred Lucha announced the state had reached endemicity. In terms of acute respiratory illnesses, we are at pre-pandemic levels.

Other politicians go even further, attacking the protective measures implemented in the past, whichdespite their limitationshave undoubtedly saved tens of thousands of lives. In Saxony, for example, the Liberal Democrats (FDP) are calling for a state parliament investigative committee which would, review the measures taken during the pandemic and put them to the legal test. Such an investigative committee had previously only been called for by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).

At the federal level, Wolfgang Kubicki (FDP), vice president of the Bundestag (parliament), is calling for a comprehensive... parliamentary review that would open a new chapter in coronavirus politics.

It is clear what is at stake. The imposition of protective measures is to be outright criminalized. Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (Social Democratic Party, SPD) told broadcaster ARDs Morgenmagazin earlier this month that the closure of schools and day-care centres at the start of the pandemic was a mistake. He dismissively referred to the position that schools must be closed because transmissions occur there as science at that time. In another interview, he called the official figure of about 180,000 coronavirus deaths in Germany not a bad number.

The position of the ruling class could not be any clearer: To maximize its profits without interruption, it was and is willing to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of lives. Workers should also take Lauterbachs statements as a warning for the future. In the event of a new pandemic, the ruling class would undertake no serious measures to protect the health of the population from the very beginningno matter how many people might die.

And contrary to official government propaganda, the coronavirus pandemic is by no means over. This is shown, among other things, by a projection of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) on excess mortality. According to the report, 98,632 people died in January, 11,000 more, or 13 percent, than the median number for 2019 to 2022. For 2022, the excess mortality rate was nine percent, suggesting a high number of indirect deaths because of the pandemic. Data from the EuroMOMO network confirm that this is a Europe-wide trend.

The current 7-day incidence of 119.1 cases per 100,000 inhabitants (February 26) does not begin to reflect the true level of infections. For example, the level of coronavirus measured in wastewater in the capital city of Berlin suggest that the true infection numbers are more than 40 percent higher than reported.

Even if the officially reported COVID deaths are taken as a yardstick, it is clear that the virus is still rampant. More than 500 people are still dying from COVID-19 every week in Germany. A recent study by the University of Lucerne, published in the journal Jama Network Open, found that mortality resulting from infection with the Omicron variant is 1.5 times higher than infection with seasonal influenza.

The adjusted incidence of hospitalizations per 100,000 is also nearly 12, which corresponds to nearly 10,000 hospitalizations per week because of coronavirus infections. 1,005 people require intensive careup from 776 the previous week. In medical treatment facilities, where masking requirements are scheduled to be eliminated March 1, the number of active outbreaks rose to 167 from 117 the previous week. In nursing homes and homes for the elderly, there were 182 outbreaks.

Of particular concern, the Omicron subvariant XBB, also known as Kraken, increased to 26 percent of cases. This is considered the most contagious subvariant to date.

The spread of Omicron variants and the accompanying removal of protective measures had already led to a massive increase in infections last year, directly impacting the lives of millions of workers.

According to an analysis by health insurer Barmer, there were significantly more people taking sick leave in 2022 than in the previous year. The proportion of sick leave that was coronavirus-related rose from 0.9 percent in 2021 to 20.2 percent in 2022. In January, health insurance providers Techniker-Krankenkasse and DAK-Gesundheit also published figures on sick leave. The latter recorded a sickness rate of 5.5 percent in 2022 for its 2.4 million working clients. The Kaufmannische Krankenkasse stated that in 2022, the number of those taking sick leave due to mental health problems had skyrocketed. It reported that the nursing, education, and social work sectors were particularly affected.

In addition to the immediate consequences, aggressive infection with the virus also damages public health in the long term. Even seemingly harmless courses of infection can attack the organs and seriously damage them. Hundreds of thousands of people in Germany are already struggling with the consequences of Long Covid. The murderous character of the official coronavirus policy is most clearly reflected in life expectancy, which has already fallen by half a year in this country.
Canadas media and political establishment are in the grips of a China under the bed furor following leaks from a highly-placed source or sources within the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), Canadas premier intelligence agency.

The principal conduit for these leaks has been the Globe and Mail, Canadas newspaper of record and the traditional voice of Bay Street. On a daily basis for most of the past three weeks, the Globe has published major, generally lead, articles devoted to disseminating lurid allegations of a nefarious Chinese plot to undermine Canadian democracy.

This relentless anti-China propaganda, which has been enthusiastically taken up by the opposition parties and most corporate media outlets, has a two-fold purpose. First, to demonize China in furtherance of the US-led, Canadian imperialist-supported military-strategic offensive against Beijing; and second, to destabilize and push the Trudeau Liberal government sharply further right.

The centrepiece of the Globes hysterical campaign was a lengthy February 17 article, under a headline that occupied half of the front page of its print edition, that purported to describe Beijings sophisticated strategy to influence the outcome of the 2021 federal election. Citing secret and top-secret documents that were shared among senior government officials and Canadas Five Eyes intelligence allies of the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand, the article alleged that Chinas goals were to ensure a minority Liberal government and defeat Conservative candidates viewed as being more hardline towards Beijing. Conveniently enough for the intelligence agencies fear-mongering campaign, this was precisely the outcome of the 2021 vote.

The allegations led to a flood of articles in the Globe and other outlets, all citing unnamed sources within the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) Canadas top domestic spy agency. The public has been bombarded with a deluge of generally vague, unproven allegations straight from the powerful national security apparatus without having any possibility to verify them. CSIS, notorious for violating the law, trampling on democratic rights, carrying out mass surveillance and lying to the special courts that are meant to monitor its activities, is essentially saying: Trust us.

Over recent days, calls have come from across the political spectrum, former intelligence officials, and media outlets for a public inquiry into the alleged interference. The official opposition, the Conservative Partys far-right leader and former Freedom Convoy champion Pierre Poilievre, has led the charge. Poilievre accused Trudeau of being perfectly happy to let a foreign, authoritarian government interfere in our elections as long as theyre helping him.

The latest to speak out was New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jagmeet Singh, who appealed Monday for a thorough, transparent and independent investigation. The Conservatives demanded that Trudeaus chief of staff, Katie Telford, be called to testify at a hearing of the House of Commons Procedures and House Affairs Committee, which voted last week to expand a pre-existing investigation of alleged Chinese involvement in the 2019 election to include the 2021 vote.

The Trudeau Liberal government has repeatedly come under attack from right-wing opponents and the social democratic NDP for years for its purportedly overly friendly stance towards Beijing. However, Trudeau and the Liberals have shown themselves to be more than willing to fall into line behind US imperialisms aggressive diplomatic, economic, and military push to isolate and prepare for war with China. In December 2018, Trudeau approved the effective kidnapping of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou at Vancouver International Airport on the basis of trumped-up charges from the United States that she violated US sanctions against Iran.

Last October, Royal Canadian Navy vessels carried out anti-China maritime exercises with the navies of the US, Japan, and Australiathe first time the four countries had ever trained together in the South China Sea. [Photo: US Navy]

A significant expansion of Canadian military operations in the Asia-Pacific has been implemented by the Liberal government, including the participation of Canadian vessels in provocative US-led freedom of navigation exercises in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait. In May 2022, the Trudeau government banned Huawei and ZTE, another Chinese tech giant, from its 5G network. Late last year, the Liberal government presented its Indo-Pacific strategy, which it boasted had been developed in close cooperation with the White House, and which underscores Ottawas readiness to assist US imperialism in massively escalating its military presence in the region and tightening its economic assault on Beijing.

Trudeau supports claims that China meddled in the two most recent federal elections. But he has rejected suggestions by the opposition parties that his government has failed to act decisively enough against Chinese interference, and suggested the leaked documents, or the interpretation being given them, do not tell not the whole story. Last Friday he said it was necessary to remain vigilant against foreign interference, but he avoided calling for a public inquiry.

Trudeau added that he welcomed the ongoing investigations by the House of Commons Procedure and House Affairs Committee, which has served as a platform for intelligence officials to amplify their unsubstantiated claims. In yet another move targeting China, the Trudeau government announced Monday that the Chinese-owned Tiktok social media app will be removed from all government mobile devices.

But the Conservatives, NDP, and the corporate media remain dissatisfied. Following the 2019 elections, the Conservatives and NDP united in the House of Commons to establish a committee on Canada-China relations, which became a mechanism for promoting anti-China propaganda and applying pressure on the minority Liberal government to take a harder line against China. Even after Trudeau banned Chinese tech firms from the 5G network, criticism continued due to the delay in reaching the decision in comparison with Ottawas Five Eyes allies.

China's President Xi Jinping, left, and Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, right, at the G-20 Summit in Osaka Saturday, June 29, 2019. [AP Photo/Kazuhiro Nogi/Pool Photo via AP]

The further ratcheting up of the campaign over recent weeks must be seen in the context of US imperialisms reckless provocations over Taiwan. In February, Washington confirmed it would treble its troop presence in Taiwan, which Beijing considers part of China. A top US general has openly speculated that a war with Beijing will begin by 2025. At the same time, having pressured the Stalinist regime in Beijing into abandoning its Zero COVID policy, which has resulted in the deaths of over 1.6 million people in less than three months, Washington is now reviving the thoroughly discredited Wuhan lab leak conspiracy theory as to the most likely source of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Tuesday, the first meeting of the House Select Committee for Strategic Competition with China was held in the House of Representatives. Its stated goal is to develop a two-year plan for economic decoupling from China, which is the prelude to a shooting war in the Asia-Pacific.

It is to prepare public opinion for such a conflict that Canadas main media outlets have been retailing unproven allegations from CSIS for weeks. A sampling of lead articles in the Globes print edition based on unsubstantiated revelations from CSIS over the past two weeks include:

Wednesday Feb. 15: Ottawa ends research funding with China military institutions

Friday, Feb. 17: CSIS documents reveal Chinese strategy to influence 2021 election

Followed by three large subheads: Beijing had two goals: to seek return of minority Liberal government and defeat Conservatives perceived to be hawkish; Chinese officials and diaspora groups were used in disinformation campaigns against Conservatives; Undeclared cash donations among tactics employed to support preferred political candidates

Saturday, Feb. 18: CSIS documents show China warned Canadian friends of foreign-interference investigations

Monday, Feb. 20: CSIS documents detail how China targets Canadian politicians, business leaders

Followed by three large subheads: Beijings goals are to obtain wide range of intelligence, neutralize critics of its politics; Consulates, visa offices, Bank of China instructed to alert Beijing to influential visitors; China colour-codes its tactics: blue for cyberattacks; gold for bribes; yellow for sexual seduction

Tuesday, Feb. 21: Committee to probe Chinese interference in 2021 election

Wednesday, Feb. 22: Canadian military found Chinese monitoring buoys in the Arctic: Former lieutenant-general says devices likely used to observe US nuclear submarine traffic

Thursday, Feb. 23: Freeland warned bank founders about risk of Chinese coercion: Toronto-based Wealth One, shareholders under investigation by CSIS and Finance Department

Friday, Feb. 24: Ex-Chief electoral officer urges inquiry into China interference: The legitimacy of government is what is at stake, Kingsley says in calling for independent review

The Globe has refused to make public any of the alleged documents upon which its lurid allegations are based, or identify the source or sources involved in the illegal leaks because, as it has admitted, they could face prosecution. This has not prevented the entire media and political establishment from treating CSIS claims as the gospel of truth. Trudeau has come under attack from the Tories and much of the media for suggesting that the source of the illegal leaks should be investigated.

The Globe has been joined by other news outlets, among them Global News. In an interview broadcast Sunday on the channels West Block political talk show, former CSIS head and national security adviser to the Trudeau government Richard Fadden demanded a public inquiry into Chinese interference in the 2019 and 2021 elections. I think in this case, the allegations are so serious they need to be looked into, Fadden commented. I think a public inquiry is really the route to go.

The broadcaster also alleged without providing any evidence that Liberal MP Han Dong received support during his election campaign from the Chinese consulate. The article, based entirely on anonymous CSIS sources, claimed that the Liberals supported Dong running as a candidate despite receiving warnings from CSIS about his ties to China. Trudeau denied the allegations.

Global News has conducted a months-long campaign against alleged Chinese interference. It began with a November 2022 story, also based on CSIS secret documents, alleging that Beijing was responsible for payments through intermediaries to candidates affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), placing agents into the offices of MPs in order to influence policy, seeking to co-opt and corrupt former Canadian officials to gain leverage in Ottawa, and mounting aggressive campaigns to punish Canadian politicians whom the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) views as threats to its interests.

Workers must decisively reject this filthy pro-war, anti-China campaign. Those behind it, principally CSIS and its corporate media conduits, have a lengthy record of lying to the public and engaging in thoroughly anti-democratic practices to justify the criminal actions of Canadian imperialism around the world. As Canadas premier domestic spy agency, CSIS was involved in US-led renditions of terrorist suspects and helped create a Canadian version under which suspects were identified to authoritarian regimes when they travelled abroad, detained, and tortured with information provided by CSIS. The spy agency was also complicit in Five Eyes intelligence gathering operations around the world, and lying to the courts about its activities.

As for the Globe and Mail, Canadas newspaper of record, it recently marked the first anniversary of the far-right Freedom Convoy with an editorial whitewashing the support given by a substantial faction of the ruling class to this fascist-led extra-parliamentary movement. Those who initiated the menacing three-week occupation of downtown Ottawa called explicitly for the violent overthrow of the elected government and the installation of a junta to dismantle all COVID public health measures. The Globes passionate defence of democracy clearly only applies when it suits the predatory interests of Canadian imperialism and its US ally.
Are you a striking graduate student at Temple, or a Temple student who supports the strike? Contact the World Socialist Web Site by filling out the form below to begin building a rank-and-file strike committee to mobilize students and workers against the administrations threats.

Undergraduates rallying in support of Temple University graduate workers [Photo: WSWS]

Nearly 300 Temple University students rallied and marched in support of striking graduate students Tuesday, even as the school has sought to ramp up its intimidation against the campus workers and their supporters. Graduates in the Temple University Graduate Students Association (TUGSA) Local 6290, an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers, have been on strike since January 31.

Ive been striking for five weeks now because Temple graduates make less than $20,000 a year and we need living wages, said Jesus, a striking teaching assistant in the schools department of Spanish and Portuguese in comments to the World Socialist Web Site. We need to make sure our families have access to healthcare provided by our employer and we need to have a stable source of income.

Jesus, teaching assistant from Temple's department of Spanish and Portuguese [Photo: WSWS]

The workers have demanded raises from $19,500 a year to $32,800 as well as healthcare coverage for their families. In addition, they are demanding more flexible parental leave policies. Currently, a campus worker who gives birth will only receive five paid days of leave from Temple.

The university, for its part, has offered its workers an insulting 3 percent raise which will top out at $23,600 by 2026. In a tentative agreement which workers voted down by 92 percent last week, the university offered 10 days of paid parental leave.

Hundreds rallied at the event, which was called Students and Union Workers Shut Down Temple University. It was organized by several campus student groups in solidarity with the striking workers. They rallied despite the event occurring during the busy midterms testing period.

Im a worker and I believe that a victory for one worker is a victory for all workers, Alexi, a Temple student, said to WSWS reporters when asked why attending was so important to her. When I strike, theyre going to be there for me, so its important for me and everybody to be here for them now.

Carmen, a research technician, said she worked with several Temple graduate students at her job and had come to support them. Carmen agreed with the WSWSs demand to expand the strike to other sections of university workers, adding were not going to get what we want unless we are all together fighting for our rights.

Carmen, a laboratory technician who joined the rally to show support for her coworkers [Photo: WSWS]

Currently, only the universitys graduate workers are on strike. Numerous workers in affiliated campus unions support the strike but are restricted from showing open support by onerous no strike clauses inserted into their contracts with the support of the AFT.

The university has sought to crack down on various acts of solidarity. On February 4, the university provocatively cut striking workers health benefits, leading many to beg for charity to purchase essential medications. A week later, the university demanded that students pay back the cost of tuition to the university by March 8 or face penalties and possible firing.

Without those benefits, they will be treated the same as every other enrolled student, Temple spokesperson Stephen Orbanek told Temple News, the campus newspaper.

Striking graduate workers perform essential work that the university requires to function. Im showing solidarity with the teaching assistants and research assistants who put the time and the effort in to improve our education, explained David, an undergraduate, to the WSWS.

Undergraduates rallying in support of Temple University graduate workers [Photo: WSWS]

Support for the workers stretches far beyond the event, something which the university and various union bureaucracies involved are acutely aware of and wish to stifle. I know the importance of striking. I had zero intention of going until the strike was resolved, said an undergraduate on social media.

The only thing is our scab [instructor] is really buckling down on attendance and is not allowing any makeup tests for any reason, they said. Other students explained that the instructor brought in to teach their classes was incompetent because theres no guidance and the midterm was glitchy. The midterm tests consisted of open notes ripped straight out of the Pearson Reveal quizzes but none of the answers to the questions matched up.

Last week, TUGSA leaders sought to justify returning the unpopular TA, addressing none of their members demands, with the claim that a strong no vote gave them a democratic mandate to return to the table quickly and settle a contract that provides members with what they need and can pass ratification.

A little over a week later, their strategy is increasingly threadbare as the university appears to be waiting out the strike as the deadline for tuition repayment comes nearer. Ken Kaiser, Temples chief operating officer, dedicated the majority of an email titled Update on the TUGSA strike to praising a Temple police officer who was killed in the line of duty, continuing an effort to present the ongoing strike as indirectly contributing to crime.

This past week was a difficult one for the entire Temple University community. All our time, efforts and attention were rightfully focused on the family of Sergeant Fitzgerald. He will never be forgotten, the email said.

Similarly, the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote an article Tuesday covering a small student protest demanding more police officers on the campus. The Inquirer has been central to an effort to shut down the strike. The corporate-controlled, Democratic Party-aligned publication ran a story declaring that the emergence of a tentative agreement meant that the strike was over even before the university announced the TAs existence.

On Tuesday, the school-run Temple News published an underhanded hit piece to dampen support for the strikers, titled Non-striking TUGSA members feel left behind. The article invokes identity politics by citing anonymous TUGSA members to declare a majority of TUGSA members are white and lack consideration for students of color. There were issues, like lack of representation within graduate programs, that werent included in negotiations with Temple.

In fact, as Tuesdays event revealed, there is immense support for the strike among students, faculty and the community. The situation is urgent. They must mobilize to come to the defense of the striking graduate students and force the administration to back down from its threats. But this requires a new strategy and orientation from the one on offer from TUGSA, which is desperately trying to reach a deal with the administration to shut the strike down before any demands have been met.

The way forward for graduate students is to take matters into their own hands by forming an independent rank-and-file strike committee to enforce democratic control over their own struggle, and to appeal to students, faculty and campus workers as well as the working class across Philadelphia to support their struggle.
ullstein bild - Getty Images

Recent photos show Russia is dredging deep into its huge inventory of rusting Soviet armored vehicles to reactivate BTR-50P amphibious armored personnel carriers, which were built over a half century ago between 1954 and 1970.

BTR-50 were spotted in the occupied territory of #Ukraine.



BTR-50P is an armored personnel carrier based on the PT-76 light floating tank chassis. It has a high capacity - 20 paratroopers. pic.twitter.com/QRu12lxZuw  Cloooud (@GloOouD) February 23, 2023

Its no mystery why: Russia has lost staggering numbers of armored vehicles in its shambolic invasion of Ukraine. Simply counting those that can be confirmed damaged, abandoned, or captured in photos by late February 2023, that includes nearly 1,800 tanks, 350 self-propelled howitzers, 2,100 infantry fighting vehicles, and 1,100 APCs and other armored fighting vehicles.

An early example is the re-introduction of outdated T-62 tanks to Russian service. But even more critical are losses of heavily armed, but lightly armored BMP tracked fighting vehicles intended to transport mechanized infantry to combat and provide heavy fire support.

Russia already uses many 13-ton tracked MT-LB multi-purpose vehicles as a substitute armored personnel carrier in second-string units, some converted to carry 23-millimeter cannons. But the French defense review DSI observes on Twitter that Russia supposedly had 2,000 MT-LBs in storage:

That these stocks exist I do not doubt. That theyre useable or can be quickly refurbished to operational condition, thats another thing.

The 16-ton BTR-50P will be far from ideal in combat, as its protected only by a half inch of steel armor to the front and 7 to 10 millimeters on the side/rearvulnerable even to grenade launchers, sniper rifles, and heavy/medium machine gun bullets. Furthermore, onboard troops can only disembark by clambering over the roof, which can be suicidal when under fire. It also lacks modern protection against mines, which have caused heavy losses to Russian armored vehicles.

Story continues

To be fair, even light armor has value protecting soldiers against shrapnel and small arms fire while transiting to the frontline. Hypothetically, BTR-50s could be up-armed with 23-millimeter cannons similar to those on MT-LBs or converted into remote-control kamikaze vehicles. Its also possible they may be supplied to secondary forces such as pro-Russian separatists and Wagner mercenaries.

Theoretically, the BTR-50s amphibious capabilities could be useful for fording rivers like the Dnieper and the Siverski Donets, which shape the frontlines. In practice, Russian forces have made limited much use of their vehicles amphibious capabilities, perhaps not trusting the hull seals.

Overall, the Soviet military quickly removed BTR-50s from frontline roles as BMP fighting vehicles and wheeled BTR APCs became available. Later production focused on BTR-50PU command vehicles and MTK vehicle designed to employ the UR-67 mine-clearing line charge (MICLIC): rocket-propelled cables full of plastic explosives to clear minefields up to 150-meters deep.

A swimming tank that became a troop carrier

The BTR-50P was the first tracked armored personnel carrier used at scale by the Soviet Union. During World War II, the Red Army lacked indigenous APCs to transport infantry into combat alongside tanks. Instead, submachine-gun armed tankodesantniki (tank riders) piggybacked on tanks, while American halftracks received via Lend Lease were primarily used in reconnaissance and artillery tractor roles.

Post war, the Soviet Union introduced the four-wheeled BTR-40 and six-wheeled BTR-152 armored personnel carriers with middling results before adopting in 1954 a spinoff of the PT-76 amphibious light tankwhich itself led an eventful Cold War career, used to attack American special forces bases in Laos and North Vietnam, and in the Indo-Pakistani war of 1971, battling Pakistani M24 Chaffee light tanks.

The BTR-50P (or Object 750) minimized costs by sharing in common the boat-like buoyant hull of the PT-76 and its 240-horsepower six-cylinder diesel engine, but ditching the 76-millimeter gun turret in favor of a new superstructure with an open-topped troop compartment, which could carry 20 infantry in addition to two crew. Light artillery, anti-tank guns, and mortars could also be transported in and even fired from the open compartment. However, most BTR-50Ps were either unarmed or lightly protected by a 7.62-millimeter machine gun.

Wikimedia Commons

The treaded BTR-50Ps were suitable to accompany tanks off road, and thus served in motor-rifle regiments of Soviet and East German tank divisions. Like the PT-76, they could swim across rivers at a stately 6 miles per hour propelled by two side-hull-mounted waterjets once a trim vane was raised on the front hull and bilge pump activated. As the Red Army was designed to perform a massive lunge from Eastern Europe to the English channel, crossing the rivers along the way was vital. Ground speed was unimpressive, though, maxing at 27 miles per hour.

Wikimedia Commons

But while suppressing the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, the Soviets observed the vulnerability of open-topped BTR-152 APCs to ambushes from above.

Wikimedia Commons

Thus the 1958 BTR-50PK model introduced an armored roof, with hatches to the front and rear roof for disembarkation; it was also sealed against radiation and chemical weapons.

Wikimedia Commons

In addition to 6,500 BTR-50s built by the Soviet Union, the Czech Republic collaborated with Poland to license-build improved models: the 16.5-ton OT-62 (Czech) or TOPAS (Poland) with additional side hatches for safer disembarkation, uprated 300-hp engines, slightly thicker armor, and downsized capacity for 16 troops. Some subvariants packed a heavier punch thanks to an added turret armed with a 14.5-millimeter heavy machine gun or an 82-millimeter recoilless gun. Many of the 2,640 OT-62s built were also exported.

Wikimedia Commons

BTR-50Ps saw combat in Cold War-era conflicts including the Six Day War, the Angolan civil war, the Iran-Iraq war, and in Vietnam during a failed night attack on an American base at Ben Het defended by M48 Patton tanks. Later, Hanois fielded BTR-50s up-gunned with 23-millimeter cannons in offensives targeting South Vietnam and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.

However, the most dramatic use of the BTR-50s capabilities occurred at the onset of the Yom Kippur War on October 6, 1973, when the Egyptian Army launched 1,000 commandoes in its 130th Amphibious Brigade across the Greater Bitter Lake on 74 BTR-50PKs and OT-62s, escorted by 24 PT-76s, reinforced with Sagger anti-tank missile teams.

The 30-minute crossing went without a hitchbut the subsequent attempt by one battalion to seize Fort Lituf was held at bay by seven defending M48 Patton tanks. The other battalion raced forward to deploy troops to Mitla and Gida Passes, but ran into the Patton tanks of Israels 401st Armored Brigade in a confused dusk battle which went poorly for the lighter Soviet vehicles. Ultimately, one of the Brigades decimated battalions was destroyed in a defensive action, while the other defended Fort Botzer through the end of hostilities.

Meanwhile, Israel employed its own special unit of captured BTR-50s to infiltrate across the Suez canal and begin destroying Egyptian air defense batteriesrepeating a tactic used in a 1969 raid called Operation Raviv.

Wikimedia Commons

BTR-50s and OT-62s figured in later conflicts in Lebanon, the Western Sahara, the dissolution of Yugoslavia, Indonesia, Iraq (1991, 2003, and 2014) and Syria. Some major operators today still include Angola (50), Cuba (200), Egypt (500), Indonesias Maine Corps (128, many modernized), Iraq (donated by Iran), Iran (300+, including some Makrans upgraded with 30mm guns), Syria (hundreds), and Vietnam (280).

Russia is now apparently rejoining the ranks of these operators. As losses continue to deplete Moscows operational fleet, look for additional retired Soviet hardware to percolate back into service.

You Might Also Like
Research

Survey Reveals Employers' Views on Microcredential Benefits, Concerns

These days, the majority of employers are aware of microcredentials and other non-degree credentials, according to a new study from Collegis Education and UPCEA, the association for higher education professionals in online and continuing education. Out of 510 organizational leaders surveyed, 95% reported being at least somewhat familiar with microcredentials, and more than two-thirds (69%) said they were extremely or very familiar with alternative credentials or training.

Most survey respondents associated a number of benefits with the inclusion of microcredentials on a prospective employee's resume. Those included: showing an employee's willingness to develop their skills (cited by 76% of respondents); demonstrating initiative (63%); easily communicating employee competencies and skills (60%); and showing that the employee stays up to date with particular subject areas (56%). In addition, 80% of respondents said that stackable credentials  those that could build toward a full degree  increased the appeal of microcredentials in general.

Concerns about microcredentials were varied. When asked about adverse effects that microcredentials could have on the workforce, 17% of respondents cited wrong or irrelevant credentials and a lack of critical skills or training as a top concern. Other concerns included quality of education/validating credentials (cited by 12% of respondents); lack of educational/professional experience (11%); work quality/performance (9%); and unqualified candidates for role (8%). Still, one in five respondents said they had little to no concerns about microcredentials' impact.

"UPCEA's mission is to support colleges and universities as they evolve their programs to meet the changing needs of employers and adult students," commented Jim Fong, chief research officer at UPCEA, in a statement. "Microcredentials can play a critical role in the new economy. However, similar to how online degrees were perceived two decades ago, some are critical about the quality of non-degree programs, despite a lack of evidence to support a systematic problem. The findings from the Collegis/UPCEA research show that organizational leaders value microcredentials and non-degree programming but are often unaware of them. Those that are aware agree that quality can be addressed with greater collaboration between employers and higher education."

The full report, "The Effect of Employer Understanding and Engagement on Non-Degree Credentials," is available for download on the Collegis Education site (registration required).
Ojibwe tribes have fished in the Great Lakes for centuries, but throughout their histories, have faced numerous incursions and displacements  possibly including the circumstances that led to their migration to the region.

We originated on the East Coast, near the Great Salt Water, said Edith Leoso, retired tribal historic preservation officer with the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe. There was this spirit entity that came to us and said that there was a light-skinned race that would come from where the sun rises and that upon their coming, our way of life would be jeopardized.

The Ojibwe, and the related Ottawa and Potawatomi peoples, also refer to themselves as Anishinaabe, which has several meanings, including original person, the people and from whence descended man.

Commercial fisher Leland LaPointe, a citizen of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, picks cisco from gillnets after lifting them from Lake Superior onto the fish tug, Ava June, during a fishing run near the Apostle Islands on Nov. 15, 2022. (Bennet Goldstein / Wisconsin Watch)

One telling of the migration story begins when prophets told the Anishinaabe that a sacred shell would guide them westward from the Atlantic Coast to a place where food grows on top of the water. They would stop to rest seven times.

The final stopover occurred at what would come to be called Madeline Island, the largest of Lake Superiors Apostle Islands. The location is considered a spiritual center for Anishinaabe nations. To the south in the Kakagon Sloughs, manoomin, or wild rice, still grows at the waters surface.

Tribes cede territory through treaties

By the mid-1800s, the United States sought to acquire the territory, rich with timber and minerals, through treaties with Ojibwe bands living in present-day Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. A succession of treaties, negotiated with the federal government in 1836, 1837, 1842 and 1854, established the Ceded Territory.

It is a misconception that the government granted Ojibwe tribes treaty rights. On the contrary, the Ojibwe tribes retained rights to hunt, fish and gather and granted other rights to the United States.

The four Ojibwe Ceded Territories  as stipulated by treaties forged in 1836, 1837, 1842, and 1854  are shown. (Courtesy of Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission)

Henry Dodge, the first governor of the Wisconsin Territory, helped oversee the 1837 negotiations, as chronicled by historian Ronald Satz. Federal officials offered to pay tribes $800,000, distributed in annuities over 20 years. The 1842 treaty called for the disbursement of about $800,000 more, across 25 years.

Ojibwe tribes would cede more than 22,000 square miles of land within Wisconsin alone, in addition to nearly 14,000 square miles of Lake Superiors waters.

Chiefs believed they faced coercion and deception during negotiations, historical records show. Ojibwe delegations thought they were enabling the Americans to use their lands for lumbering and copper mining, not relinquishing ownership of them nor agreeing to leave.

Forced removal and Wisconsin Death March

The tribes had been assured in 1842 they could remain in Wisconsin so long as they lived on friendly terms with the whites, but in February 1850, President Zachary Taylor revoked the Ojibwe bands treaty rights through an executive order. He ordered their removal to the unceded Minnesota Territory to open Wisconsin to white settlement.

A portion of an 1837 treaty between the United States and multiple Ojibwe bands from the Great Lakes region is shown. The treaty was signed at the confluence of the St. Peters and Mississippi rivers.

That autumn, federal officials attempted to dull dissent from the Wisconsin Ojibwe tribes by requiring them to travel to Sandy Lake, in Minnesota, to receive their annuity. Previous payments occurred at Madeline Island in northern Wisconsin.

Federal officials did not arrive at the lake as scheduled and failed to provide promised rations. Hundreds of Ojibwe people died from exposure to cold weather, famine and infectious disease.

The incident, which one scholar has called the Wisconsin Death March, set into motion events leading to the Treaty of 1854, which established, at the insistence of tribal leaders, permanent reservations for four Ojibwe tribes in Wisconsin. Before that occurred, however, several Ojibwe leaders, including Chief Buffalo of the La Pointe band, traveled to Washington to petition Taylors successor, President Millard Fillmore, to rescind the removal order.

Treaty rights ignored, discarded

Still, Ojibwe people faced obstacles in exercising their treaty rights over the next 150 years, fueling ongoing advocacy.

While the U.S. Constitution holds that state laws are subordinate to the founding document, federal law and treaties, Wisconsin increasingly exerted control over the Ojibwe tribes, asserting they were subject to state fishing and hunting regulations.

Meanwhile, federal allotment policies  designed to encourage private land ownership and farming among tribal citizens  dramatically reduced tribal landholdings nationwide, shrinking the jurisdictions in which Indigenous nations could exercise their sovereignty.

The Dawes Act of 1887 granted citizenship to American Indians who took allotments. Great Lakes states continued to call treaty rights moot, reasoning that Indians fell under their jurisdiction when they became citizens. In 1908, the Wisconsin Supreme Court dismissed the treaties altogether, ruling that Wisconsins admittance to the union had invalidated them 60 years earlier.

By the early 20th century, historian Chantal Norrgard writes, commercial fishing had decimated several fish species on Lake Superior, prompting states and the federal government to regulate everything from fishing seasons to net sizes.

Alongside ecological concerns, efforts to preserve fisheries for tourism motivated the passage of new protections and hiring of wardens to enforce them.

The crew of the fish tug, Ava June, pick cisco, or lake herring, from gillnets after lifting them from Lake Superior during a fishing run near the Apostle Islands in Wisconsin, on Nov. 15, 2022. (Bennet Goldstein / Wisconsin Watch)

Large fishing companies also exerted their influence in the passage of legislation, fearing competition from independent and tribal operators. Both industry and the state viewed treaty rights as a threat.

Tribes defeat Apostle Islands National Lakeshore relocation plan

As government actors sought to regulate Ojibwe communities harvest, some federal officials sought to relocate tribes from their reservations.

In the late-1960s, the Bad River and Red Cliff bands, two of six federally recognized Ojibwe tribes in Wisconsin, defeated plans by then-U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson, a former Wisconsin governor, to appropriate reservation land to create the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.

The plan would have relocated the tribes inland, with potential termination of their hunting and fishing rights within the new park.

The Devils Island sea caves  part of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore  are seen on Sept. 24, 2014. In the late-1960s, the Bad River and Red Cliff bands of Lake Superior Chippewa defeated an effort by then-U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson, a former Wisconsin governor, to relocate the tribes inland as part of the lakeshore plan. (Jim Sorbie via Flickr, license: CC BY 2.0)

The only way that the state can think of to increase access for non-Native tourists to the lands and to the resources on the lands is to restrict the access of Native people, said Katrina Phillips, an associate professor of history at Macalester College and a Red Cliff citizen.

Court rulings affirm treaty rights

Throughout the 20th century, states punished Ojibwe people for hunting or fishing on reservations or within the Ceded Territory. They challenged their citations and arrests in court.

Landmark rulings would affirm the Ojibwe tribes treaty rights  the 1972 Gurnoe decision, the right to fish in Lake Superior. The 1983 Voigt decision applied to inland lakes within the Ceded Territory, along with other forms of harvest.

Red Cliff land repatriation

The Red Cliff Reservation now spans more than 15,000 acres, but the tribe does not own all of those lands.

As of 2006, the tribe only held property rights to slightly more than half. The rest was a checkerboard of public and private plots within the reservation boundaries. For example, when Congress created the national lakeshore in 1970, it designated several miles of coast  about 10% of Red Cliff Reservation lands  as the mainland portion of the park.

But in an assertion of sovereignty, Phillips wrote, Red Cliff repatriated other properties within and outside its borders. In 2012, it opened the tribally managed Frog Bay Tribal National Park, the first of its kind in the United States. The park includes an 89-acre parcel of former reservation land that was repatriated that year and a second, 86-acre parcel, acquired in 2017.

The tribes repatriation of formerly held reservation lands in the ensuing years, including 1,582 acres of forest owned by Bayfield County, represents a continued exercise of self-determination, Phillips said.

That history of advocacy  its not something that just kind of came out of nowhere, she said. Its been there for centuries.

How Ojibwe tribes in Wisconsin resisted efforts to deny treaty rights is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a nonprofit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009.
Saying she didnt want to risk appearing unfair, Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Janet Protasiewicz said Wednesday if elected she would recuse herself from court cases involving the state Democratic Party because of its $2.5 million donation to her campaign.

At the same time, she said she wouldnt recuse herself from abortion-related cases despite Planned Parenthood planning to spend over $1 million on her behalf. She said the same was true for redistricting cases, though she has called the current legislative maps, which benefit Republicans, rigged.

I think that $2.5 million is obviously a significant amount of money, Protasiewicz said about the Democratic donation following a candidate forum Wednesday. Whether or not I could continue to be fair and impartial on the case is one matter, but on the other hand the public deserves to have ... the appearance of fairness, the appearance of impartiality.

Protasiewiczs conservative opponent, former Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly, would not make a similar pledge regarding cases involving the Republican Party of Wisconsin, which donated money and helped run his 2020 campaign. He said he would decide recusals on a case-by-case basis.

Wisconsin Supreme Court elections are nominally nonpartisan, but political parties on both sides of the aisle contribute millions of dollars and hundreds of workers to support their preferred candidates. With five weeks left until the April 4 election, the race has already become the most expensive judicial contest in American history.

The winner in next months contest would likely be the deciding vote on a challenge to the states near-complete abortion ban, and the issue has become a centerpiece of Protasiewiczs campaign. The victor could also decide cases challenging the states current legislative maps and 2024 presidential election results.

Planned Parenthood plans to spend at least $1 million supporting Protasiewicz in Wisconsin, a spokesperson said, though its spending would not be coordinated with her campaign.

Ive been very, very clear and very, very careful that I have talked to people about what my personal values are, Protasiewicz told reporters in Madison after addressing the Wisconsin Counties Association Legislative Conference. I make sure everybody understands that I will only be making decisions based on what the law is and based on what the Constitution is.

But she said she would absolutely not recuse herself from Planned Parenthood cases, saying she has made no promises to the group. She also made no promises to the state Democratic Party, Protasiewicz spokesperson Sam Roecker later said.

Planned Parenthood isnt currently a party in Democratic Attorney General Josh Kauls case challenging Wisconsins near-complete abortion ban.

But the group will continue to evaluate its legal options and strategy, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin legal director Michelle Velasquez previously told the Wisconsin State Journal.

Planned Parenthood and the state Democratic Party have each been parties in three cases before the Wisconsin Supreme Court since 2000. The Democratic Party of Wisconsin endorsed Protasiewicz when she emerged from the primary in first place.

After his appearance at the same conference, Kelly said recusal was an individual decision and wouldnt specify whether hed recuse himself from cases brought by the state GOP. Kellys campaign office in the 2020 election was inside the state Republican Party headquarters.

Kelly also worked for Republicans after he left the court, providing legal advice to the chairman of the state party about its plan to field fake electors for former President Donald Trump after he lost in 2020. Kelly said he spoke with the GOP chairman for about 30 minutes, but declined to offer details Wednesday citing attorney-client privilege.

The Biden electors have sued the fake Trump electors and are seeking $2.4 million in damages. Kelly said he would recuse himself from that case if it were to make it to the Supreme Court and his conversation was part of the lawsuit.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Republican co-chairs of the states powerful budget committee on Tuesday signaled a 3.25% flat income tax, an idea floated by the Senates top Republican, is unlikely to be included in the states next two-year spending plan.

Speaking at a WisPolitics.com luncheon in Madison, budget committee co-chairs Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, and Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, said their long-term goal is to shift the state away from its more than 110-year-old progressive income tax to a flat tax. However, both acknowledged that is not likely to be a component of the 2023-25 biennial budget, which lawmakers hope to have wrapped up by the end of June.

Its not going to happen overnight, Marklein said. I doubt it will happen in this budget.

Born said the Legislature will include tax cuts in the coming budget that will move the state closer to a flat tax, but added its probably unlikely to get to a full flat tax in this budget.

We have to be competitive, especially in the Midwest  so thats going to have to be a goal that were going to continue to work towards, Born added.

Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, earlier this year unveiled his proposal to phase down Wisconsins four income tax brackets until the state reaches a 3.25% flat tax for all earners in 2026. The shift would reduce revenues by just shy of $5 billion over the first two years, according to LeMahieus office.

LeMahieus spokesman Michael Pyritz said the flat tax plan would be a four-year effort, adding we are still fully committed to starting Wisconsin on a path to a flat tax during budget deliberations this spring.

Gov. Tony Evers has said he would veto a flat tax if it came to his desk. The Democratic governor has called for roughly $1.2 billion in income tax cuts for low- and middle-income residents.

The governor and state lawmakers enter the budget process with a more than $7 billion projected state surplus, which provides the opportunity to address calls for tax cuts as well as increased spending on state services and programs. The trick will be reaching a consensus between the Democratic governor and GOP-led Legislature, which proved challenging in Evers first term in office.

Evers unveiled his $103.8 billion, two-year spending plan two weeks ago. The 2023-25 biennial budget proposal includes a nearly 18% increase in spending in its first year, followed by an almost 1% decrease its second year.

Legislative Republicans have signaled they plan to handle Evers proposal the same way they did in the last two budget sessions  by stripping the measure down to its base and starting over from scratch. The Republican-controlled budget committee will soon begin rewriting the budget that will eventually be sent back to Evers desk for action sometime this summer.

Speaking at the Wisconsin Counties Associations legislative conference on Tuesday in Madison, Evers said he remains optimistic that both sides can find compromise in the coming months.

I dont think Ill get everything I want, nor will they, Evers said.

Im convinced that were going to be able to increase our funding for schools, to be able to continue fixing our roads and bridges, and broadband, Evers added.

Another issue that Democrats and Republicans appear to agree on is increasing funding for counties and municipalities, Evers said. In his budget, Evers called for funneling 20% of the states sales tax revenue to local communities for basic services through the states shared revenue program. Its a proposal Republicans raised before Evers proposed it in his budget.

State Journal reporter Alexander Shur contributed to this report.
Dotdash Meredith and Yahoo Inc. may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below.

Composite of cake stands

Courtesy of Anthropologie, John Derian, Williams Sonoma

It seems almost counterintuitive that a freshly baked cake deserves its very own serving plate, otherwise known as a cake stand or cake pedestal. But there's a practical reason why you should display your carefully created confection on something beautiful that elicits oohs and aahs when you set it on the table: A unique serving dish announces that it's time for dessert. And if you invest in something of heirloom quality, it's a piece that can be passed down to the budding bakers in your family one day in the far-off future.

If you've been placing your cakes on everyday dinnerware or flimsy paper plates, a whimsical, practical, or sleekly modern cake stand is a much better way to show off your labor of love. And there's no need to limit your display to cakespies, cupcakes, muffins, and babka also deserve to take the stand.

Anthropologie "Glenna" Cake Stand

If you're looking for a rustic cake stand, this one is for you. It'ss crafted from earthenware, which gives it its slightly weathered appearance. Made in Italy, this stunning piece provides timeless appeal, plus, it is dishwasher and microwave safe, so it will last for the long haul.

Glenna Cake Stand

Williams Sonoma "Famille Rose" Cake Stand

Inspired by traditional Chinese porcelain, this cake stand includes striking flora and fauna detail. It features a clear glaze and a red, ruffled rim as the finishing touches.

Famille Rose Cake Stand

Martha Stewart Jadeite Cake Stand

Take a cue from Martha and display your desserts in vintage-inspired fashion with her jadeite cake stand. It is made of durable glass that makes it perfect for routine use.

martha stewart jadeite green cake stand

Carson Acacia Wood Cake Pedestal

Opt for a natural cake stand, like this iteration made with acacia wood. The glass dome comes in handy to keep your cake and light bites, like cheese and fruit, protected during your get-together.

Story continues

Carson Acacia Wood Cake Pedestal

AHeirloom Maple Wooden Cake Stand

Truly a work of art, thanks to the swirling FSC-certified wood grains and unique base, this cake stand will stand apart from any other serveware in your kitchen. It is made complete with a Corian top and mineral oil- and beeswax-based finish.

AHeirloom Maple Wooden Cake Stand

John Derian "Roses" Stacking Cake Pedestal

Consider adding a chic, decoupaged cake stand as the centerpiece for your tables. It is made with collaged paper under handblown glass. The made-to-order pieces, which take between two to four weeks to create, are produced with antique and vintage prints.

Roses Stacking Cake Pedestal

Connected Goods Brass Cake Stand

Both chic and simple, this brass cake stand is an amazing piece to keep in your cabinets for a special occasion. Each is one-of-a-kind, handcrafted by artisans.

Connected Goods Brass Cake Stand

Estelle Hand-Blown Color Glass Cake Stand

Hand-blown by artisans in Poland, a country renowned for its delicate glassware, this 12-inch cake stand takes its style cues from antique shop finds of yesteryear. Available in pastel shades of rose, smoke, lavender, and yellow.

Estelle Colored Glass Hand-Blown Cake Stand

Pillivuyt Porcelain Cake Stand

What better pedestal to present our chocolate-flecked layer cake with lush milk chocolate frosting than this 14-inch hand-fired porcelain classic with a gently raised rim? It's made in France by Pillivuyt, a venerable tableware producer and is available in 11 -inch and 14-inch sizes.

chocolate cake on white cake stand

Frontgate "Amelie" Single-Tier Cake Server with Cloche

While nothing can outshine your mouth-watering baked goods, this gorgeous stainless-steel and aluminum cake server comes close, thanks to its polished, metallic-plated finish in nickel or gold. The finishing touch: a clear glass cloche to keep your cake fresh.

Amelie Single-Tier Cake Server with Cloche

Mosser Glass Glass Cake Stand

Our triple-layered strawberry sponge cake wrapped in strawberry-meringue buttercream is irresistible, especially when served on a vintage-inspired, 10-inch glass stand in matching pink from legendary Ohio maker, Mosser Glass. Also available in 6-inch and 12-inch sizes, with and without dome covers, in a wide range of colors.

Strawberrt cake on pink cake stand

JK Adams Marble and Walnut Rotating Cake Stand

Take this unique rotating cake stand for a spin every time you slice, or even while you frost your cake layers. Constructed with a sturdy walnut base and a finished marble top that keeps your cake coolit's not only practical but beautiful to behold.

JK Adams marble and walnut rotating cake stand

Julie Hadley "Wabi Sabi" Ceramic Cake Stand

With its adorable overhang and petite dimensions, this fanciful, 8-inch ceramic stoneware stand, handmade by ceramist Julie Hadley, is the ideal platform for tarts, cookies, and other sweet pleasures.

Julie Hadley Handmade Wabi Sabi Ceramic Cake Stand

West Elm Marble and Brass Cake Stand

Showcase your frosted layer cakes, cupcakes, and most any confection in style with this 12-inch stand featuring a solid marble top and snazzy brass-finished steel pedestal.

Marble and brass cake stand

Le Creuset Enamel Cake Stand

Made from dense stoneware, this sturdy 12-inch pedestal is glazed with an impermeable, nonstick enamel that stands up to knives, allowing you to cut right on the surface, and also resists cracks and scratches. Choose from red, white, or blue.
Its 2023, and tech moves fast.

If youve been steeped in this industry long enough, such a statement reads more like a Captain Obvious quote than a sprinkle of uncorked enlightenment. We see possibilities in tech expanding at exponential rates, and businesses are remaining agile as a result.

Take Cox Communications, for example. Earlier this month, Cox acquired Logicworks, a cloud managed services company. With Logicworks in its commercial portfolio, Cox (News - Alert) is able to help customers better migrate and manage cloud systems as Coxs own suite of innovative IT solutions grows.

As stated, tech (and agile businesses) move fast. So weve been left with zero surprise as Cox, once again, makes headlines with a new business relationship with Intel and Future Technologies. The three will collaborate in order to design and deploy end-to-end managed private network solutions together for public and private sector commercial customers.

The combined knowledge and expertise created by this new relationship, said Jeff Breaux, Executive Vice President of Cox Business (News - Alert), will help us solve the biggest operational challenges with end-to-end network solutions, accelerate the journey of digital transformation, and provide better experiences for employees, customers and visitors."

This new go-to-market agreement combines Intels (News - Alert) already-far-reaching portfolio of cloud-to-edge solutions with Future Technologies know-how in specialized planning, design, implementation and support of wireless and wireline communications. These, when integrated with Coxs edge infrastructure, fiber assets, and its ability to deliver and manage private wireless connectivity, are set to create a win-win-win scenario for customers in manufacturing, utilities, government, and other industries.

This is a winning partnership, said Peter Cappiello, CEO of Future Technologies. In combining Intels product set and R&D depth along with Coxs operations with our own network planning and deployment capabilities, we see this as a perfect match. Future Technologies has been delivering private networks for our customers for well over a decade, so this is a real natural progression for innovations and for the growing needs of the market.

Edited by Greg Tavarez
Malayan tapir

Zoo Miami

A tapir at Zoo Miami briefly escaped his enclosure on Tuesday morning after he was startled by maintenance workers using a large riding lawn mower.

"The tapir just compromised [the enclosure]," Ron Magill, director of communications at Zoo Miami, told PEOPLE. "It climbed out the back side of the moat."

Magill added that there was "nothing nefarious about the animal getting out" of the habitat, which had never been breached in the past.

The tapir is a new arrival to the zoo, he added, and was likely not acclimated to the noise from the lawnmower.

In a post on Facebook, the Florida zoo said the adult male Malayan tapir jumped out of his habitat shortly before 8 a.m.

The animal was quickly contained in a secure area, Zoo Miami officials said, where the zoo's Animal Health team, in coordination with its Animal Science team, successfully tranquilized the animal and transported him to a secure holding space about an hour later.

RELATED: Flaco the Escaped Central Park Zoo Owl Remains At Large and Is Now Hunting for Food in N.Y.C.

The zoo said that the animal did not pose a threat to the general public while it was out of its enclosure.

Tapirs are mammals that are akin to "pigs with trunks," according to National Geographic. Related to horses and rhinoceroses, the Malayan tapir can weigh as much as 800 pounds.

While tapirs are generally considered to be gentle, the animal can be unpredictable in behavior and has been responsible for human attacks in the past.

In 2013, a Brazilian tapir seriously injured a 2-year-old girl and her mother at the Dublin Zoo.

The Zoo Miami tapir's escape comes on the heels of other alarming zoo incidents.

On Feb. 2, a rare Eurasian eagle owl named Flaco went missing from his exhibit at New York City's Central Park Zoo, according to zoo officials.

RELATED: Flaco the Owl Escapes New York City Zoo and Flies to Nearby Sanctuary

"The exhibit had been vandalized and the stainless steel mesh cut," the New York zoo said in a statement at the time. "Upon notification, a team was mobilized to search for the bird."

Story continues

Since his escape, Flaco has taken up residence in Central Park, and zoo officials are no longer trying to catch him since he has successfully been able to hunt for food, despite initial concerns.

The Dallas Zoo has reported several missing animals since the start of 2023, beginning with a 4-year-old clouded leopard named Nova, who first went missing on Jan. 13  and is now safely back at the zoo.

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, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

An investigation by the Dallas Police Department on Jan. 16 showed that a cutting tool was used to make an opening in the fencing surrounding the animal's habitat.

Also in February, Houston Zoo officials found a four-inch gap in the mesh of a pelican habitat at its Children's Zoo, but all animals were found secure.
We are in a unique moment in American history.

There are currently four criminal investigations into the former president of the United States: two federal, one in Georgia, and one in New York. This novel situation has led to a debate not just in the walls of academe but amongst the citizenry as to whether prosecuting a former president will reduce our country to a so-called banana republic, or whether the very act of not prosecuting the former president would lead to that result. And just as important, how will Jack Smith, the designated Special Counsel in charge of the federal Trump investigations, weigh this issue in deciding whether or not to bring charges? Will the collateral consequences to the country be considered at all, and if so, which way will they cut, for or against prosecution?

More from Variety

In answering this question, it is useful to do something we are unaccustomed to as Americans: look to international examples. For what appears novel to us is something that many countries have faced  Argentina and Germany, to name but two  and are currently facing  France and Israel. The exercise of looking abroad for models is all the more relevant given Jack Smiths background serving as a prosecutor on the International Criminal Court in the Hague, where he implemented the rule of law to prosecute political leaders. He followed in the footsteps of many others in that court, most notably Luis Moreno Ocampo, the very first Chief Prosecutor of the ICC who was fresh off the historic criminal prosecution of the bloody and sadistic leaders of a military junta in his native Argentina. It is worth remembering that Smith is a descendant of Ocampo and the example he set in Argentina, and then across the globe, from his perch in the Hague.

Story continues

The example of the prosecutions brought by the ICC, and the domestic cases against leaders in countries like France and Israel, are important because they help us understand that our current situation is not unique, that political leaders can be prosecuted for crimes  and without dire Chicken Little predictions coming to pass  and indeed should be prosecuted if a country is going to be a nation of laws, applicable to all, both the powerful and the powerless.

These international examples are also useful in understanding the consequences of withholding prosecution of such political leaders. Would the world have been better off if Ocampo did not prosecute the military leaders who tortured and disappeared innumerable Argentinians? Would the lack of such a deterrent have been wise? Would it have provided a modicum of justice to the victims of their crimes, the desaparecidos, their families, and the Madres de Plaza de Mayo? That Argentinian example was said to be the most important trial against crimes against humanity since Nuremburg, and for good reason.

Argentina, like so many other countries, survived those trials. The dire predictions of the adverse consequences that would follow a criminal case against political leaders were overblown, and contrary to such fearmongering, democracy did prevail. Yet, even if the rule of law had faltered, if the trial failed and democracy slipped back into dictatorship, can any true system of justice grant a hecklers veto to those who threaten violence as a strategy to shut down a criminal case against a popular or feared defendant?

No doubt, those in the camp that contend a prosecution of Trump would render us a banana republic have many examples of foreign show trials to point to. The former Ukrainian President Yanukovychs prosecution of rival Yulia Tymoshenko, for instance, is a recent example. She likely committed the crime alleged, but it was one that numerous Ukrainian politicians committed with impunity and she was clearly charged solely as a means to rid Yanukovych of this meddlesome adversary.

The answer to those folks who say a criminal prosecution would lead to a spiraling of our justice system into a game of political payback is to challenge the proposed remedy they propose: to do nothing in the face of such criminality. Failure to prosecute leaders because of the conjectural risk to the system would create two systems of justice, with those in power never being held to the same standard as other wrongdoers. It would promote criminal behavior by our leaders, as it would establish our elected representatives to be beyond the reach of the law.

A better path to justice is to make sure that the crimes charged against a political leader are ones that are regularly brought in situations of equal or lesser culpability. Applying that standard to Trump is, frankly, an easy call. With respect to his actions seeking to overturn the will of the people, numerous foot soldiers (to use Representative Raskins term), have already been charged and convicted. To prosecute the leader of that plot, who engaged in a far more prolonged effort than what occurred on the day of January 6 alone, would not remotely raise a concern of selective prosecution. Similarly, Trumps mishandling of government documents, including sensitive classified material, has been routinely criminally charged by DOJ against low-level government employees and contractors.

The rule of law, as effectuated here and abroad, compels a prosecution against those who conspired to overthrow democracy in the United States. The final piece that is necessary to implement this goal are women and men who meet the moment. The actor who plays Ocampo in the recent Oscar-nominated film Argentina, 1985 says when he learns he will be assigned the junta case, history is not made by people like me.

But as that film, and as history shows, it very much is ordinary people devoted to the rule of law and willing to bet on it, regardless of personal consequences, who are the true and necessary champions of democracy. Jack Smith may be just that person.

Andrew Weissmann is a professor at NYU School of Law where he teaches criminal procedure and national security. He was a lead prosecutor for Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the former General Counsel of the FBI, and the author of Where Law Ends, Inside the Mueller Investigation. He is a legal analyst for NBC and MSNBC.

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.
Despite concerns about whether students are using ChatGPT to cheat on exams or as a shortcut to doing their coursework, a national survey shows students and teachers have quickly incorporated the new technology into their everyday lives.

Laila Ayala, a student at Comp Sci High in New York City, has used ChatGPT to research prompts for her debate team on the effect of AI on students, student mental health and whether the SAT and ACT should be abolished. In Kentucky, high school junior Zachary Clifton said he has used ChatGPT to create study guides for some of the college courses he takes at a nearby community college.

Even as some school districts ban the artificial intelligence platform  which can quickly answer questions about nearly any subject it's asked  and some college professors find themselves becoming hypervigilant about whether students are using it to cheat. The new survey commissioned by the Walton Family Foundation and conducted by Impact Research found 22% of students use the chatbot to help them with coursework or in extracurricular activities "on a weekly basis or more."

And more than half of teachers surveyed reported using ChatGPT at least once since its release. Forty percent of teachers used it "at least once a week."

What is ChatGPT? Everything to know about OpenAI's free AI essay writer and how it works

In this photo illustration, ChatGPT answers the query, "tell me about ChatGPT" on a laptop screen.

The nationally representative survey results, shared exclusively with USA TODAY, involved more than 1,000 teachers and 1,002 12- to 17-year-olds.

What does the research show?

The survey, which was done in early February, also found 63% of students and 72% of teachers agreed with the sentiment that ChatGPT is "just another example of why we cant keep doing things the old way for schools in the modern world," and 73% of teachers said the the tool "can help students learn more." The Walton Family Foundation funds research and platforms that use AI to develop tools for educators and students.

Story continues

Other surveys, however, capture teachers' apprehension about artificial intelligence. One survey of 203 K-12 teachers from Study.com found that more than 70% of teachers "have not received any faculty guidance on ChatGPT," 43% "think ChatGPT will make their jobs more difficult," and about 1 in 4 have caught a student using ChatGPT to cheat on assignments.

Another survey by the online magazine Intelligent found 30% of college students used ChatGPT on written assignments, and 60% of that group used it on "more than half of their assignments."

Romy Drucker, a director of the education program at the Walton Family Foundation, said the organization commissioned its survey to understand what students and their teachers want from their education, especially during the urgent need to help students make up for learning time lost during remote schooling triggered by the coronavirus pandemic.

"With this research we're hoping to cast a light," said Drucker, adding that teachers and students should have a voice in the how ChatGPT and AI is used in their classrooms.

How are teachers and students using ChatGPT?

Harried teachers are using the tool to help write emails to parents, create lesson plans and even devise math problems.

"I think teachers are ahead of students in thinking about how ChatGPT and AI can be both a support to teachers and something more," Drucker said.

Diego Marin, an eighth grade math teacher in Illinois, said he uses ChatGPT to craft multiple-choice questions and as an assistant for lesson planning and interacting with students' families.

Marin said he's not concerned about students using the platform to cheat in his class because of the subject he teaches, but he has told his students he expects them to use the platform ethically.

Catch them in the act: OpenAI launched a second tool to complement ChatGPT  and help teachers detect cheating

In Texas, eighth grade English teacher Patrick Powers said he's allowed students to use ChatGPT for debate topics and mock business proposals, but he said he recommends teachers learn a student's writing voice before allowing them to use the platform. Students need new ways to learn, he said, and teachers should adapt to new tools rather than fearing them.

"Due to the pandemic, students are just behind, and they need fresh, innovative methods to be interactive," Powers said. Both teachers said some of their colleagues are starting to learn more about ChatGPT and use the platform in their courses, too.

New concerns emerge about ChatGPT

Plenty of school leaders remain concerned about the platform's threats on academia.

When the chatbot launched in November, school districts, teachers and professors were worried about students using the tool to plagiarize and cheat.

The worry remains, and it has grown.

'This shouldn't be a surprise': The education community shares mixed reactions to ChatGPT

This picture taken on January 23, 2023 in Toulouse, southwestern France, shows screens displaying the logos of OpenAI and ChatGPT. - ChatGPT is a conversational artificial intelligence software application developed by OpenAI.

For example, there are growing concerns about how AI could influence test scores. The chatbot has passed many high-level exams, including the Wharton MBA Exam, U.S. medical licensing exam, exams in several law classes and a final at Stanford Medical School, Business Insider reported.

Other questions about ChatGPT and similar AI technology involve its cultural competency. Microsoft has come under fire for its Bing AI chatbot, which has offered derogatory ethnic slurs, among other concerns.

Ayala, 16, said she is worried about how the information presented by the bot could contribute to "systematic racism in America," given other AI-based technology has shown a racial bias.

"I think that with ChatGPT, everything has its benefits and its downsides."

Contact Kayla Jimenez at kjimenez@usatoday.com. Follow her on Twitter at @kaylajjimenez.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: ChatGPT in the classroom: Here's what teachers and students are saying
BBC

Fifty Shades of Grey's Jamie Dornan will be returning for a second series of The Tourist.

More than a year after the twisty-turny drama series debuted on BBC One, the channel has confirmed more of The Missing writers Harry and Jack Williams' The Tourist, with the show shifting to Ireland from Australia.

The original season centered around a Northern Irish man waking up in Australia with total amnesia, leading to a cat-and-mouse game with mysterious figures chasing him across Oz.

Easy and Poker Face's Danielle Macdonald will also return as Elliot's (Dornan) newfound friend Helen while they travel to Ireland to rediscover his family history.

Related: Gal Gadot and Jamie Dornan's Netflix movie confirms release date

Elliot has hopes that looking into his roots will jog his memory, but before long, he's forced to face his demons and dangerous forces from his past.

"Im incredibly excited to continue the story with The Tourist," Dornan said. "Harry and Jack Williams are brilliant writers, and I cant wait for audiences to see how well Ireland and its characters are utilised to keep them guessing as the tale progresses"

Macdonald added: "Im so excited to team up with Jamie again and return for another wild adventure with an amazing cast and crew. Jack and Harry Williams are brilliant story tellers and its exciting to see what their minds will come up with next.

The BBC has confirmed that production will begin in Dublin on six new episodes of The Tourist beginning this April.

BBC

Related: The Tourist's Jamie Dornan teases season 2 change

"The Tourist was unlike anything wed written before and were hugely grateful for the incredible response to series one," the Williamses wrote.

"Its been an exciting journey getting stuck into that world again with the quirky characters that were so loved, and seeing where we could take them next, whilst continuing to deliver a tonally unique and off-beat drama.

The Tourist doesn't yet have a release window from the BBC. In the US, the series has streamed on HBO Max.

You Might Also Like
The woman pastor at the center of the Southern Baptist Convention's decision to oust Saddleback Church  the California megachurch founded by pastor and best-selling author Rick Warren  says she will continue to serve as a ministry leader despite her longstanding ties to the nation's largest Protestant denomination.

Saddleback has yet to say if it will appeal its expulsion. But at least one other church  a Kentucky congregation ousted the same day for having a woman pastor  plans to do so, guaranteeing Southern Baptists will weigh the issue at their annual meeting in June in New Orleans.

Stacie Wood, teaching pastor at Saddleback and wife of lead pastor Andy Wood, wrote an Instagram post about her churchs ousting. She credited her Southern Baptist upbringing for shaping her faith, but stood firm on heeding her calling despite being at the center of the discussion.

Im serving Jesus under the authority and in alignment with my spiritual leaders, Wood wrote. We believe that women can be gifted and empowered as teachers and as pastors."

Pastor Andy Wood and his wife, Stacie Wood, stand for a portrait on Sunday, Oct. 16, 2022, at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif. Andy Wood was recently announced as founding Pastor Rick Warren's successor to the church, which is the second largest in the Southern Baptist Convention, regularly drawing in about 2,500 people with more online every Sunday. (AP Photo/Allison Dinner)

Her husband told the congregation during weekend services about his plan to release a video explaining the church's position on women pastors. Wood told The Associated Press last year that the Bible teaches that men and women were given spiritual gifts by God.

My wife has the spiritual gift of teaching and she is really good. People often tell me shes better than me when it comes to preaching, he said.

Calvary Baptist Church pastor focused on ministry

Southern Baptist Convention leadership disfellowshipped Calvary Baptist Church in Jackson, Mississippi.

Calvary Baptist Church Pastor Linda Smith said her church doesn't expect to appeal. Were going to press on and do what God calls us to do, focusing on ministry in a needy neighborhood, she said.

Saddleback did not respond to requests for comment regarding a possible appeal.

The SBC's statement of faith says that women should not be pastors. The SBC is not a hierarchy and can't tell a member congregation what to do, but it can deem a church to be not in friendly cooperation with the Convention, the verbal formulation for ouster.

Story continues

On Feb. 21, the conventions Executive Committee voted to expel Saddleback, the SBC's second largest congregation, alluding to Stacie Wood functioning in the office of pastor. It was one of five congregations kicked out for the same issue.

Fern Creek Baptist Church plans to appeal

One of them, Fern Creek Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, plans to appeal, said the Rev. Linda Barnes Popham, who has served as Fern Creek's pastor since 1993.

She said the congregation wants to continue working with the SBC, regularly uses its religious-education curriculum and supports its missionaries and other causes. At the same time, it believes the larger body of Southern Baptists  not just the Executive Committee  should decide whether to maintain fellowship with churches with women pastors.

We feel like the average Southern Baptist would have no problem with this, she said. The other reason is to be a change agent for women in the Southern Baptist Convention  for all those young girls, for all those young people God is calling into ministry.

Other churches will continue with women's leadership

The other three churches also said they planned to continue with women's leadership but did not indicate they would appeal.

An elder for New Faith Mission Ministry of Griffin, Georgia, said it is nondenominational and never had an affiliation with the SBC, though the convention says its records showed one.

Pastor Minnie R. Washington of St. Timothys Christian Baptist in Baltimore said her church has had no interaction with the SBC and said it was an honor to be named alongside the other ousted churches.

Is it possible that the Executive Committee of SBC believes it can tell God who to call to lead His people? she said via email.

In an email, Andy Wood told the congregation he would soon release a belief statement about women as pastors.

God intends for both men and women to exercise their spiritual gifts of shepherding and teaching the church." He also asked them not to speak publicly against the denominations decision.

Though we are disappointed by their decision, we are not offended. We love and have valued our relationship with the SBC and its faithful churches. We will engage and respond through the proper channels at the appropriate time, the email stated.

Saddleback Church controversy began in 2021

The Saddleback controversy began in 2021, when Warren ordained three women as pastors, prompting discussions within the SBC about possibly expelling the megachurch. Warren, who retired last year after more than 42 years at Saddleback, made an emotional speech in June 2022 at the Southern Baptists annual convention in Anaheim, saying: We have to decide if we will treat each other as allies or adversaries.

The denominations statement of faith was revised in 2000 to state: While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.

But opinions have varied on whether this is a litmus test for a churchs alignment with the SBC. The SBCs constitution allows for the expulsion of churches whose faith and practice dont align with it, though it doesn't specifically name women pastors as cause for removal.

In her Feb. 23 post, Stacie Wood called herself a Southern Baptist girl born and bred and expressed gratitude for how those roots shaped her faith. She remains impressed with the SBC's passion for Bible study and missions.

But, in her adult years in ministry, she said, denominational affiliations havent felt like a central component to what weve been called to do including the time when the Woods started and ran Echo Church, a nondenominational church in the San Francisco Bay Area.

We partnered with Southern Baptists who helped us get started, but weve also been delighted to partner with many different church leaders from a variety of denominations to advance the Gospel, she said.

Support for Saddleback's Stacie Wood

She has received an outpouring of support.

Her husband, replying to her Instagram post, said he was proud of her: Im grateful that I get to be part of a generation of leaders who propel sons and daughters forward in the Kingdom!"

Kay Warren, her predecessor and wife of Pastor Rick Warren, also responded supportively: I love you Stacie!  Its a privilege to run this race side by side with you!"

Many congregants are backing her, too.

When Stacie came on board, I remember thinking, Finally, we have a woman pastor, said Charity Hurt, a Saddleback member for seven years. If thats what youre called to do, you should be able to do it."

Hurt said it does not really matter to her whether Saddleback remains in the SBC or not.

Im just so happy with the direction in which (the Woods) are taking us, she said, adding that she is not sure if many in Saddleback even know that their church is part of the SBC.

Some are approaching the issue with caution. Kimberly Lattimore, a congregant for 33 years, said she supports Saddleback 100%," but is eager to hear Andy Wood's reasoning in favor of women pastors and do her own research.

I have no problem with women being pastors and teaching other women," she said. But, the question I have is whether women should be teaching men. I'm going to look carefully to see what Bible says.

More:This Methodist church has voted not to follow the herd in leaving UMC

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the APs collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Calvary Baptist Church will not appeal, Saddleback Church doubles down
In early February, the Illinois Manufacturers Association launched their fourth annual contest called Makers Madness: The Coolest Things Made in Illinois. This fun competition highlights outstanding Illinois companies, great jobs, and the fantastic products made in Illinois. The idea is that manufacturers are nominated by filling out a nomination form and sending it to the Illinois Manufacturers Association.

This year, the Canton Area Chamber of Commerce nominated COOK Medical in Canton on the making of the Beacon Tip 5.0 Fr Angiographic Catheter, which is only made in Canton. This device is intended for use in angiographic procedures by physicians trained and experienced in angiographic techniques.

Now folks can send in their online vote for Cook Medical Canton by heading to www.MakersMadnessIL.com. There are nearly 250 items that have been nominated so many votes are needed for COOK Medical Canton to win. Voters will be able to cast a ballot for their favorite products up to 5 times each day. Voting ends on Sunday, March 5. Look for the image of the Beacon Tip 5.0 Catheter picture (in row 15) and click on Vote Now below the URL to Cook Medical.

We would like as many people as possible to help vote for COOK Medical Canton so they can be recognized at a luncheon at the Governors Mansion in Springfield on March 29th" said Carla Bobell, the Canton Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director. "We are so proud to have COOK Medical Canton in our community and we are thankful for the jobs they provide in our area. COOK Medical is a top notch company that takes great care of their employees and is committed to the Canton community.

This article originally appeared on Canton Daily Ledger: 'Top-notch' Canton company needs votes for 'coolest' Illinois contest
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has lost her bid for reelection, the Associated Press reports.

Lightfoot, 60, made history as the city's first black woman and first gay person to be elected mayor in 2019. She failed to garner enough votes to get a second term on Tuesday, with her opponents, Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson, advancing to a runoff after neither got the 50% of votes needed to win the race outright.

The runoff election will be held April 4.

RELATED: Virginia Democrat Wins Special Election to Replace Late Congressman  and Makes History in the Process

Lightfoot faced an uphill battle for reelection, with her opponents seizing on voter concerns about an increase in crime both in Chicago and other large cities across the U.S. in recent years.

In a speech delivered Tuesday, Lightfoot said her tenure as mayor was "the honor of a lifetime."

Serving as your mayor has been the honor of a lifetime, and I am so grateful to all of you who have stood beside me these last four years.



Weve made significant progress building a safer, more equitable city. I thank each and every one of you for believing in me. pic.twitter.com/l33IGevNPC  Lori Lightfoot (@LoriLightfoot) March 1, 2023

"Obviously, we didn't win the election. But I stand here with my head held high and my heart full of thanks," Lightfoot told supporters, the Chicago-Sun Times reports.

"You will not be defined by how you fall. You will be defined by how hard you work and how much you do for other people," she added.

Lightfoot, a former federal prosecutor-turned-corporate lawyer and police reformer, placed third in Tuesday's race with 17.06% of the vote.

She overwhelmingly won Chicago's mayoral race in 2019, securing roughly 75% of the vote to become the city's first female mayor since the '80s and only its second female mayor ever.

Story continues

Lori Lightfoot

Zbigniew Bzdak/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot

RELATED: Following Historic Midterm Races in 2022, There Are a Few Long-Overdue Firsts Yet to Pan Out

In a thank-you message on her campaign website after her victory, Lightfoot described her win as "a historic achievement and the start of a new day for our diverse, incredible city."

Her most public role previously had been serving as president of Chicago's civilian Police Board, which handles officer discipline.

Her single term as mayor was one marked by the global pandemic, civil unrest, infighting over the reopening of schools, and crime, which polls showed was top-of-mind for voters.

But some political experts said it may have been Lightfoot's own style of governanceand the reason she was first electedthat wound up backfiring on her this time around.

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.

"Everybody's strength is their weakness. Her strength is she's a very pugilistic person. She's fought for everything she's gotten in her life  often against great barriers," veteran political strategist David Axelrod told the Sun-Times.

Axelrod added: "Lori Lightfoot got elected because she was tough, and she was seen as independent of the whole political structure here. Those were considered assets. Now, in retrospect, her strengths may have been weaknesses in governing."
Jimmy Carter's childhood home, a farm in Plains, Georgia. Ron Burton/Mirrorpix/Getty Images ; Jeffery M. Frank/Shutterstock

Some US presidents, like Jimmy Carter, grew up on farms with no electricity or running water.

Others, such as Donald Trump, grew up in mansions.

Many of their birthplaces and childhood homes are now museums or national landmarks.

George Washington grew up on Ferry Farm in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

George Washington's Ferry Farm in Fredericksburg, Virginia, in 1955. Lawrence Thornton/Archive Photos/Getty Images

The historic site features a replica of Washington's childhood home, where the family moved when he was 6 years old.

John Adams was born in 1735 in a rural cottage in Quincy, Massachusetts.

Quincy, Massachusetts. Faina Gurevich/Shutterstock

Joseph Penniman built the home now known as John Adams Birthplace in 1681, and John Adams' father purchased it in 1720.

Thomas Jefferson was born on a plantation named Shadwell, but spent most of his childhood at Tuckahoe Plantation in Virginia.

Tuckahoe Plantation. Edith D. Tunis-Sale/National Park Service/Library of Congress

Jefferson moved to Tuckahoe Plantation with his family when he was 2 years old. His education began in a one-room schoolhouse on the property that still stands today.

James Madison grew up in a plantation house called Mount Pleasant, later expanded and renamed Montpelier in Orange County, Virginia.

Montpelier in Virginia. Andriy Blokhin/Shutterstock

Growing up as the oldest son in a wealthy family, he studied math, geography, and languages with a number of tutors. Reverend Thomas Martin studied with Madison at Montpelier and helped prepare him to attend the College of New Jersey.

James Monroe was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, in 1758.

James Monroe's childhood home. The James Monroe Memorial Foundation

Monroe lived in a 1,600-square-foot house with his parents and four siblings. The historic home no longer exists, but a replica of Monroe's childhood home opened in 2021.

William Henry Harrison was born at Berkeley Plantation in Charles City, Virginia.

Historic Berkeley Plantation in Charles City, Virginia. OJUP/Shutterstock

Berkeley Plantation was built in 1726 and is said to be the oldest three-story brick house in Virginia. William Henry Harrison's grandson Benjamin Harrison, who served as the 23rd US president, also lived on the plantation.

The original log cabin where James K. Polk lived as a child no longer exists, but the President James K. Polk Historic Site recreates the homestead.

The President James K. Polk Historic Site. North Carolina Historic Sites

The 11th president was born in 1795 on a 150-acre farm in Pineville, North Carolina. Polk lived there until he was 11 years old and his family moved to Tennessee.

Story continues

Zachary Taylor's boyhood home is located in Louisville, Kentucky.

Springfield. Kentucky Historical Society/Library of Congress

Known as Springfield, the two-and-a-half story house dates back to 1790.

Millard Fillmore, the 13th president, grew up in a log cabin in New Hope, New York.

Millard Fillmore's childhood home in New Hope, Cayuga County, New York. Hulton Archive/Getty Images

The cabin has been replaced with picnic tables and a plaque marking where it once stood.

Franklin Pierce lived in a two-story home near Hillsborough, New Hampshire, until he married his wife, Jane, in 1834.

Franklin Pierce's childhood home. Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images

Pierce's father ran a popular tavern out of the house. It also featured a ballroom on the second floor.

Abraham Lincoln was born in a humble log cabin near Louisville, Kentucky.

Abraham Lincoln's birthplace. Everett Historical/Shutterstock

A symbolic cabin similar to the one in which Lincoln was born is enclosed in a neoclassic memorial building.

Ulysses S. Grant's boyhood home is located in Georgetown, Ohio.

Ulysses S. Grant's childhood home. ADC Bradley/Shutterstock

Grant lived there from when he was 1 year old until he left for West Point in 1839.

Grover Cleveland was born in a two-story house in Caldwell, New Jersey.

View of the house which was the birthplace of the 22nd and 24th US President Grover Cleveland (1837-1908), circa 1950. Cleveland was born here on 18 March 1837, at 207 Bloomfield Avenue in Caldwell, New Jersey, USA. Kean Collection/Getty Images

Cleveland is the only US president to serve two non-consecutive terms. He was the 22nd and 24th president.

William McKinley's original birthplace burned down in 1937, but it was recreated at the McKinley Birthplace Home and Research Center in Niles, Ohio.

William McKinley's birthplace in Niles, Ohio, as it appeared in 1902. C.H. Graves/Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images

There's also a replica of his home where it once stood, one block south of the McKinley Memorial and Museum in Niles.

Theodore Roosevelt grew up in a townhouse in New York City.

Teddy Roosevelt Birthplace, New York City. Joan Slatkin/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

The townhouse is now a museum located at 28 East 20th Street in Manhattan. Roosevelt lived there until he was 14 years old.

William Howard Taft's birthplace is part of the William Howard Taft National Historic Site in Cincinnati, Ohio.

The William Howard Taft National Historic Site. Tom Engberg/NPS Photo

Taft lived in this home from his birth in 1857 until he left for college in 1874.

Woodrow Wilson was born in Staunton, Virginia.

Woodrow Wilson's birthplace. Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

The house, located at 24 North Coalter Street in Staunton, was built in 1846.

Calvin Coolidge took the oath of office in the house where he was born and raised in Plymouth, Vermont.

The Calvin Coolidge Homestead in Plymouth, Vermont. John Greim/LightRocket via Getty Images

Coolidge became the 30th US president when Warren G. Harding died in 1923.

Herbert Hoover was born in a two-room cottage in West Branch, Iowa, in 1874.

Herbert Hoover's birthplace. IN Dancing Light/Shutterstock

Hoover lived in the cottage until he was 3 years old with his parents and two siblings.

Franklin D. Roosevelt's estate, known as Springwood, is located in Hyde Park, New York.

Franklin D. Roosevelt's birthplace and residence in Hyde Park, New York. John Greim/LightRocket via Getty Images

Roosevelt was born on the estate in 1882 and is buried there, as well.

Harry Truman was born in a 20-by-28-foot house in Lamar, Missouri, in 1884.

The birthplace of Harry Truman. Alfred Eisenstaedt/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images

Truman is the only president who was born in Missouri.

Dwight D. Eisenhower was born in Denison, Texas, in 1890.

Dwight D. Eisenhower's birthplace in Denison, Texas. RaksyBH/Shutterstock

Eisenhower was born in the bedroom of a two-story house in Denison  the first US president to be born in Texas. His family then moved to Kansas when he was 18 months old.

John F. Kennedy grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts.

John F. Kennedy's birthplace and childhood home. Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images

Kennedy was born in the master bedroom of 83 Beals Street in Brookline in 1917 and lived there for the first 10 years of his life.

Lyndon B. Johnson hired an architect to reconstruct his childhood home in Johnson City, Texas.

Lyndon B. Johnson's childhood home. Cynthia Dorminey/NPS

Johnson lived there from when he was 5 years old until he graduated high school in 1924. The home had no electricity or indoor plumbing.

Richard Nixon's birthplace and childhood home is located in Yorba Linda, California.

Richard Nixon's birthplace and childhood home. Pamela Brick/Shutterstock

Nixon's father built the one-and-a-half story house, where the future president was born in 1913. The Nixon family lived there until 1922.

Gerald Ford lived in this Grand Rapids, Michigan, home from ages 8 to 17.

The boyhood home of President Gerald R. Ford. Morry Gash/AP

Ford moved around a lot, but wrote in his memoir that he had the most vivid memories of 649 Union Street.

Jimmy Carter's family moved to a farm without indoor plumbing or electricity in Plains, Georgia, when he was 4 years old.

The Jimmy Carter Boyhood Farm. Jeffrey M. Frank/Shutterstock

Carter helped harvest and sell cotton, peanuts, sugar cane, and corn until 1941, when he left for college.

Ronald Reagan's boyhood home is located in Dixon, Illinois.

The Ronald Reagan Boyhood Home in Dixon, Illinois. David Mercer/AP

Reagan moved many times throughout his childhood, but lived in this Dixon home from 1920 to 1924.

Bill Clinton spent the first four years of his life in Hope, Arkansas, living with his mother and maternal grandparents.

Bill Clinton's childhood home in Hope, Arkansas. Danny Johnston/AP

The two-and-a-half story house dates back to 1917.

George W. Bush lived in this Midland, Texas, home from ages 5 to 9.

George W. Bush's childhood home in Midland, Texas. Evan Vucci/AP

His parents George H.W. and Barbara Bush, also a former president and first lady, bought the house in 1951.

Barack Obama's childhood home in Honolulu, Hawaii, sold for $1.8 million in 2021.

Barack Obama's childhood home. Google Maps

Obama lived in the 2,268-square-foot home from 1964 to 1967.

Donald Trump grew up in Queens, New York, and moved to this brick house when he was 4 years old.

Donald Trump's childhood home. Katie Warren/Business Insider

Trump lived in the 23-room house until he left for a military boarding school at 13 years old.

Joe Biden grew up in a three-story home on North Washington Avenue in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Joe Biden's childhood home. ERIC BARADAT/AFP via Getty Images

He signed one of the walls in the home on Election Day, writing, "From this house to the White House with the grace of God. Joe Biden 11-3-2020."

Read the original article on Insider
[Source]

The team behind MOSS, Chinas first ChatGPT-like software, announced it will become an open-source program once more public testing is done.

Speaking to Jiefang Daily at the 2023 Global Artificial Intelligence Developers Conference in Shanghai on Sunday, Qiu Xipeng, a member of the team developing MOSS, said they are planning to open source the program by the end of this month after optimizing it through human interaction for a month.

"MOSS still has a lot of room for improvement," said Qiu, a professor at the School of Computer Science and Technology of Fudan University and the director of the Natural Language Processing Committee of the Shanghai Computer Society, China Daily reported.

But its advent proves that the domestic scientific research team has the ability to overcome important technical challenges on the way to developing ChatGPT-like products."

More from NextShark: 'Plague Inc.' Game Sales Skyrocket in China, But Developer Has a Warning

Named after the super-intelligent quantum computer from Chinas blockbuster movie The Wandering Earth 2, Chinese state media outlets billed MOSS as Chinas answer to the popular ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot developed by OpenAI.

The team from Fudan Universitys Natural Language Processing Lab issued an apology online after the platform crashed due to heavy traffic from users hours after MOSS launch on Feb. 21. The website remains down as this of writing.

Although MOSS was launched as a rival to ChatGPT, the team behind it admitted their software has a few shortcomings in its programming.

More from NextShark: Loyal Chinese restaurant worker shot multiple times trying to protect business from armed robber

Speaking to Chinese media on Thursday, Qiu explained that the gap between MOSS and ChatGPT is mainly in the pre-training stage of natural language model base.

The number of parameters of MOSS is an order of magnitude smaller than that of ChatGPT, and there is still a lot of room for improvement in task completion and knowledge reserve, Qiu said, according to The Register.

Story continues

Additionally, a journalist who tested MOSS before the website crashed noted that the program was more proficient in English than Chinese, even though the software was created in China.

More from NextShark: Nigel Ng Responds to Claims He Bowed to China After Removing Mike Chen Video

It was also unclear how many natural languages MOSS can support, but ChatGPT can reportedly generate text from 90 different languages, including Chinese  though performance may vary.

Commenting on their plan to open-source MOSS, Qiu said foreign companies had kept their version of the program to themselves, but the team at Fudan University aims to share their creation for everyone to experience.

Large-scale language models are almost monopolized by foreign countries. They only develop APIs or do not open them to us. We hope to share MOSS and model codes and development experience with everyone, and hope that China can be at the forefront of the world in terms of large-scale language models. More from NextShark: Conservatives feel more comfortable with Asians who dont wear masks, study finds

Qiu added that they want to promote AI inclusiveness and empower the domestic artificial intelligence industry through their teams program and other future projects in cooperation with the Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, which has strongly supported the teams work.
New College of Florida's Board of Trustees abolished the office handling diversity, equity and inclusion programs during a contentious and emotional meeting Tuesday that included testimony from students worried that a board reshaped by Gov. Ron DeSantis is making the school unwelcoming to minorities.

DeSantis appointed six members to New College's board on Jan. 6 in an effort to transform the school, putting the small Sarasota institution at the center of the GOP's nationwide pushback on education policies aimed at supporting historically marginalized groups, including racial minorities and LGBTQ individuals.

DeSantis has emerged as a key national figure in this debate after he pushed through legislation governing how K-12 schools discuss race and gender identity and recently prohibited an Advanced Placement course in African American studies, which caused an uproar. The governor is now taking aim at university programs.

Eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives  which have become a major flashpoint for conservatives and a target of DeSantis throughout Florida's public university system  is among the first substantive actions by New College's revamped board, which also fired the former president last month and hired DeSantis ally Richard Corcoran as interim president. Corcoran's first board meeting was Tuesday.

New College students protest before a board of trustees meeting on campus Tuesday.

Among DeSantis' New College board appointees is prominent conservative activist Christopher Rufo, who pushed at his first meeting on Jan. 31 to abolish diversity programs.

The board opted to wait until more research could be done. College administrator Brad Thiessen presented the results of his DEI review Tuesday, delving into everything from faculty training to hiring practices and student admissions.

Thiessen said there is little mandatory diversity training, and only recently was the faculty handbook revised so that prospective hires are asked to submit a statement in their job application outlining how they will promote diversity.

Story continues

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush issued an executive order in 1999 directing the state university system oversight body to "implement a policy prohibiting the use of racial or gender set-asides, preferences or quotas" in college admissions, and Thiessen said "New College does not have an identity-based admissions process, there's no quotas."

Additionally, only one of the four employees in the Office of Outreach and Inclusive Excellence, which handles DEI programs, appears to be primarily focused on DEI, according to job descriptions included in the board materials. The others manage grants, work on community outreach and perform other activities that aren't controversial.

Chant of defy DeSantis, defy fascism at student protest before New College board meeting pic.twitter.com/bBf6Vi5YJg  Zac Anderson (@zacjanderson) February 28, 2023

Trustee Matthew Lepinski said he is "concerned that were solving a problem that isnt serious, or doesnt really exist."

Trustee Grace Keenan voiced similar concerns.

What this presentation showed (is) that one fourth of one office on campus has a position related to DEI, Keenan said. On campus we do almost no DEI training, mandatory and then the only recently added DEI statement to the faculty is the only DEI statements that are required, and we have no identity-based quotas."

"So this is not a very impressive DEI bureaucracy," Keenan continued, adding: It seems like we have spent more time and resources to find out what DEI we do, than we are undoing actual DEI.

Keenan, Lipinski and Trustee Mary Ruiz voted against eliminating the diversity office.

Rufo conceded that DEI isn't as deeply embedded in the college's practices as he expected, but said it was still important to remove it on "principle." Rufo and Trustee Matthew Spalding both suggested it is discriminatory to take race into account when setting the college's priorities.

"It treats people differently on the basis of their skin color," Rufo said.

This is discrimination, it should be gone," Spalding added.

Rufo later boasted on Twitter that "New College of Florida has become the first university in the nation to abolish its DEI bureaucracy."

The majority of trustees voted to have Corcoran move forward with eliminating the Office of Outreach and Inclusive Excellence. The Office's four employees are expected to be offered other jobs.

Trustees also voted to eliminate the diversity statement when hiring faculty and to direct Corcoran to consider adopting a prohibition on diversity training for employees.

Additionally, the board voted to have Corcoran create a school policy that prohibits spending money on any DEI efforts.

Under the new regulation, DEI will be defined to include "any effort to manipulate or otherwise influence the composition of the faculty or student body with reference to race, sex, color, or ethnicity."

The definition of DEI also would include: "Any effort to promote as the official position of the administration, the college, or any administrative unit thereof, a particular, widely contested opinion referencing unconscious or implicit bias, cultural appropriation, allyship, transgender ideology, microaggressions, group marginalization, anti-racism, systemic oppression, social justice, intersectionality, neo-pronouns, heteronormativity, disparate impact, gender theory, racial or sexual privilege, or any related formulation of these concepts."

The rollback of New College's diversity programs came at the end of a 3-hour meeting that featured emotional testimony for students, parents and others. About 200 people attended the meeting.

"Folks, I am so far from woke," economics and finance student Joshua Epstein, 17, said. Epstein argued that the school's diversity programs are important. Next year he graduates and plans to become a corporate lawyer or banker. New College of Florida's Board of Trustees abolished the office handling diversity, equity and inclusion programs during a contentious and emotional meeting Tuesday on the campus New College of Florida.

Economics and finance student Joshua Epstein, 17, said he graduates next year and plans to become a corporate lawyer or banker.

"Folks, I am so far from woke," Epstein said.

Yet Epstein argued that the school's diversity programs are important. Epstein said his grandparents on his father's side survived the Holocaust and his grandfather on his mother's side was a tank commander in the Israeli Army "where he fought for the survival of a Jewish state to fight to have a place where I'd be safe from persecution if people ever saw Jews as less than human again."

"Today I fear that other groups of people are being seen as less than human; today I fear that we may eliminate the office that ensures that the composition of our classrooms resemble that of our great nation," Esptein added.

The concerns raised by the public extended beyond eliminating diversity programs to DeSantis' broader effort to reshape the school, Corcoran's $699,000 base salary and other issues.

Corcoran thanked DeSantis during his first public remarks as interim president, saying the governor has a heartfelt desire to have New College be a leader" in liberal arts education.

Corcoran also said he wants to focus on student recruitment, improving campus facilities, enhancing student life and working to "set a record" for the amount of money he brings to the college. He plans to be in Tallahassee during the upcoming legislative session to lobby for state funds.

The funding for Corcoran's own salary has become an issue, with most of it required to come from private donations because of a $200,000 cap on state funds that can be used to pay a university employee.

New Board Chair Debra Jenks, a DeSantis appointee, has said there is money available through the New College Foundation to pay Corcoran, but foundation board members said last week that it's not clear to them where the money's coming from.

Richard Corcoran the new interim president of New College of Florida was not welcomed by the majority of students and adult speakers.

Corcoran referenced some apparent friction with the foundation, saying there are issues where "it doesn't necessarily follow the right chain of command."

"There does seem to be somewhat of a perspective of the Foundation that they're autonomous and hopefully that will work itself out this week as we try to gather more information," Corcoran added.

Bill Galvano, the college's new general counsel, said the state Supreme Court "has said in the past" that a university's foundation "is not an autonomous entity but subject to the control of the college it supports or the university it supports."

Jenks said the board may formally intervene to prompt cooperation from foundation leaders.

"I would ask you to just keep your calendars available," Jenks said. "I expect that we will be able to get the information we need in an ordinarily and timely fashion... but just as a precautionary matter we may have a special set meeting of the Board of Trustees just to go over that situation."

Earlier in the day students joined religious and political leaders in a large protest before the board meeting.

About 300 people gathered in front of the Hamilton Center on New College's Sarasota campus to again criticize DeSantis' conservative takeover of the school and vow continued resistance. Many of the speakers were minority students who criticized the push to eliminate the Office of Outreach and Inclusive Excellence.

More:Meet the Trump-loving yacht lawyer who helped engineer DeSantis' New College takeover

More:Richard Corcoran Q&A: New College interim president outlines vision, defends salary

DeSantis has targeted DEI programs across all of Florida's public universities, and New College is first in line.

Lianna Paton, a minority student in her first year at New College, said targeting DEI programs is an attempt to suppress and "erase students of color."

"You do not get to say diversity is divisive when its very existence is what makes communities like my own feel welcome and safe," Paton said.

New College supporters protested before a board of trustees meeting on campus Tuesday.

Members of the crowd held up signs saying "Black history is American history" and "Jesus was/is woke."

Chai Leffler, 21, a gay third year New College student, said he struggled with his sexuality growing up and went through a dark time in high school. He went to a youth center in Sarasota where he met New College students who made him feel welcome.

"There's one thing they cannot change," Leffler said. "Us. We the students of New College are the spirit of New College and we will not let that be taken away from us.

State Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, and Rev. Dr. John C. Dorhauer also spoke during the demonstration.

Dorhauer leads the church that helped found New College as a private school in 1960 before it became part of the state university system. He said he is outraged by what DeSantis is doing to the school.

"I want to express my moral outrage at Gov. DeSantis willing to compromise and sacrifice the future, the vision, the hopes, the dreams and the safety of the students on this campus for his aspirations to serve as president," Dorhauer said.

Dorhauer's United Church of Crist provided funding to create New College and church members were active in the school during its early days.

Dorhauer also spoke at the board meeting, where he told trustees that their actions will be judged harshly by history.

The long arc of history will grind you into dust and... you will be remembered for the sycophants that you are," he said. "Thats what history does.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: New College has first board meeting with president Richard Corcoran
A search and recovery dive team has arrived in central Nebraska to look for the Aurora couple that has been missing since Jan. 11.

Three men began looking for Bob and Loveda Proctor on Saturday, starting with a lake in Hastings.

They are members of an organization called Adventures With Purpose. The group is dedicated to helping families of missing loved ones. Its slogan is "Let's Bring Them Home."

Members of the group live in various places. The Proctors' granddaughter, Laci Fleming, said the men helping the family are from Oregon.

The scuba divers, who have a boat, are using sonar, a camera and a drone to search for the couple. Some of the bodies of water they're investigating are at least partially covered with ice.

They're looking at places where somebody "could accidentally drive into the water," Fleming said.

Adventures With Purpose provides its services to families at no charge. According to its website, the group has solved 26 missing person cold cases since 2019. It receives support from people watching its YouTube documentaries, making purchases and donations.

Laci Fleming encourages people to go to adventureswithpurpose.com and make a donation "so that they can continue to help other people like us."

The Proctors' son, Victor, wishes that license plate readers were legal on the highways of Nebraska. Those readers are used in some municipalities in the state.

If they were allowed on highways and interstates, the readers might have helped determine which direction the Proctors' vehicle was moving "right away," he said.

Video footage early in the morning of Jan. 12 shows the couple at the Pump & Pantry on the east side of Hastings. Other video is believed to show the vehicle at a roundabout near Adams Central School at about the same time.

On Feb. 14, Fleming wrote on Facebook that her grandparents "dont deserve this. Life is so unfair sometimes. The heartache and emotions are unbelievably raw. We are strong but this is so tough. We think about them nonstop all day every day."

"We will never give up, we will bring them home. We will continue to push through this pain until we have answers. We will do everything in our power. We will stay focused on whats most important to all of us, finding them and bringing them home. We have no other choice," she wrote.

Top Journal Star photos for February 2023
dave grohl volunteering and barbecuing for hope the mission. courtesy of Hope the Mission.

Courtesy of Hope the Mission

Off the stage and behind the grill, Dave Grohl continues to rock.

The Foo Fighters lead showed his support for Hope the Mission by barbecuing for 24 hours to feed homeless people in Los Angeles. A representative at the nonprofit confirmed to PEOPLE that the former Nirvana drummer and some friends cooked over 500 meals for three shelters in L.A.

Grohl arrived on Feb. 22 with a massive smoker trailer, which they used to make smoked brisket, ribs, pork butts and sides like coleslaw and barbecue beans. The crew also prepped food out of the kitchen at the Trebek Center, a skating-rink-turned-homeless-shelter that the late Alex Trebek supported.

dave grohl volunteering and barbecuing for hope the mission. courtesy of Hope the Mission.

Courtesy of Hope the Mission

Grohl personally paid for all the expenses and barbecued outside during the rain storm that hit California on Wednesday. He took naps in the parking lot while the meat was smoking, according to TMZ.

The rockstar's charitable cooking not only served the community but also celebrated Hope the Mission's "All in for Housing" campaign, which involves the company's CEO Ken Craft and president and CFO Rowan Vansleve running 350 miles from the Las Vegas strip back to Los Angeles.

RELATED: Foo Fighters Pay Tribute to Taylor Hawkins on the Late Drummer's Birthday: 'Miss You So Much'

The run, which was going on while Grohl grilled, is an effort to fundraise $350,000 so the organization can open three shelters and offer more than 700 beds for unhoused families.

RELATED: Inside Foo Fighter Dave Grohl's 25-Year Bond with Taylor Hawkins: 'We Were Absolutely Meant to Be'

Grohl sent Craft and Vansleve a message of encouragement on their trek, which the CFO shared on Instagram. "You're all in, we're all in," Grohl says in the video, along with more supportive comments.

dave grohl volunteering and barbecuing for hope the mission. courtesy of Hope the Mission.

Courtesy of Hope the Mission

While his passion for grilling may seem like a surprise to fans, Grohl thinks it is a natural interest.

"Most musicians are obsessive-compulsive weirdos, whether it's the instrument that they play, or an arrangement, or composition," he said in a Bon Appetit article in 2018. "You're always trying to one-up the thing you've just done, or perfect it, or get to the place where you're playing your instrument but you're not actually thinking about it. It's kind of the same with food. The parallels are insane."

Back in 2018, Grohl also served barbecue to firefighters battling fires in Malibu.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is kicking his 2024 campaign-in-waiting into higher gear as a handful of his would-be Republican rivals gather this week for the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

Over the weekend, the likely 2024 hopeful held a retreat for Republican donors and elected officials in West Palm Beach, Fla. Hes also kicking off an aggressive public schedule that includes a book tour through Florida, a speech at the Club for Growths annual donor retreat and appearances in Alabama, Texas and California in the coming days.

The flurry of activity comes as GOP luminaries and presidential contenders  including former President Trump, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy  gather outside of Washington, D.C., this week for CPAC, the high-profile gathering of conservatives and a longtime mecca for Republican White House hopefuls.

DeSantis, who hasnt formally launched a presidential bid yet, will be notably absent from the conference. But his jam-packed schedule is the latest  and perhaps clearest  sign that hes entering a new, more aggressive phase of his 2024 preparations.

What youre seeing is that DeSantis has found a way to run without officially throwing his hat in the ring, said Ford OConnell, a Republican strategist. The book deal, putting himself in front of donors  and at the same time hes also back home reminding Floridians of who he is and what hes done.

Hes finding a way to make that balance work, OConnell added. He doesnt want his hand forced.

A campaign announcement from DeSantis is still likely months away; the governor said last week that he would make a final decision sometime after the Florida state legislature wraps up its regular session in May.

But theres little doubt among Republicans that he will jump into the race. His advisers have been reaching out to potential campaign staff hires for at least several weeks. And in another sign that DeSantis is preparing for a campaign, he released a new book  The Courage to be Free  on Tuesday, taking a step that several other prospective candidates have already taken.

Story continues

DeSantis is scheduled to attend two fundraisers in Texas on Saturday before jetting off to California on Sunday to speak at a reception for the Orange County GOP. He will also be the keynote speaker at the Alabama GOPs annual Winter Dinner on March 9.

And there are signs that DeSantis will soon begin a swing through the early primary and caucus states that will be crucial to deciding the GOPs 2024 nominee. The New York Times reported on Tuesday that he will make stops in Iowa in the first half of March, followed by trips to Nevada and New Hampshire.

Yet DeSantis and his team have signaled that they will move at their own pace when it comes to an official campaign launch, despite the fact that the primary field already includes three other candidates and is expected to grow larger in the coming weeks and months.

Former Vice President Mike Pence has said that he will make a decision on a 2024 run by the spring, while former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, whos scheduled to speak at CPAC, is expected to announce his intentions in a matter of months.

Meanwhile, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) has begun to prepare for a possible campaign. He traveled to Iowa last week, where he delivered a pair of speeches outlining his vision for a revamped GOP.

Dan Eberhart, a Republican donor, acknowledged that theres some nervousness among donors that DeSantis hasnt announced his 2024 intentions yet. But he also said that the Florida governors hands are tied until the end of the state legislative session, arguing that DeSantis is doing what he can to keep his momentum up.

Gov. DeSantis cant officially launch his campaign for the GOP nomination until after the legislative session ends in May, so hes doing what he can now to keep one foot on the national stage, Eberhart said.

Theres some nervousness among donors that DeSantis isnt out there more, but we still have a long way to go before the nomination is decided, he added. I dont have any doubt that DeSantis will make a big splash in the pond of candidates when he does officially announce. In the meantime, those other candidates can decide how they want to take on Trump.

For now, DeSantis appears to have at least some room to set his own schedule when it comes to a 2024 campaign. Early polling shows him and Trump running far ahead of every other Republican candidate, either current or prospective. In multiple hypothetical head-to-head match-ups against the former president, DeSantis has emerged as the favorite.

But there are still some key challenges facing DeSantis. Some recent polls have shown Trump coming out ahead of the governor in a GOP primary. One Republican consultant with deep experience in Florida politics said DeSantis doesnt have all the mechanics in place for a campaign; hes still trying to build out a more robust staff, while his massive political war chest remains tied up in state accounts.

Another GOP strategist questioned DeSantiss decision to skip CPAC, saying that its a missed opportunity to put himself in front of the Republican Partys conservative activist class.

Its a well-known Beltway commodity. Trump is going, Haley is going, so why not show up? the strategist asked. He knows where he wants to be, so I guess he doesnt see it as a big deal. But if Trumps going to be there, why cede that ground to him?

Other Republicans, however, argue that DeSantis is a special case, having managed to draw the kind of national attention that most would-be presidential contenders crave without going through the typical motions.

Hes been able to generate national attention and national news coverage without going to these sort of cattle call events, and hes risen to the top of the polls without having to do the sort of stuff that other candidates have to do, said Kevin Madden, a Republican strategist who served as a senior aide to Mitt Romney during his 2012 presidential run.

Itll be a test for sure, he added. But it strikes me that hes running the sort of race he wants to run, not running one driven by the formula of past rollouts.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Edward Berger says he didnt realize the BAFTAs were going his way until the final award of the night, when Best Film became the seventh trophy to add to his films haul. If hed known that All Quiet on the Western Front, his adaptation of Erich Maria Remarques First World War novel would do so well, he might have taken the next day off. Instead, he left the Netflix party at around 2am for a flight to Rome, in time for a 9am call at the historic Cinecitta Studios and a full day of shooting on his follow-up.

An adaptation of Robert Harriss 2016 novel, Conclaves star-studded cast boasts Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, Lucian Msamati, John Lithgow and Isabella Rossellini. Fiennes plays Cardinal Lawrence, who is thrown in at the deep end when the Pope unexpectedly dies. Charged with organizing an election to find the Catholic Church a new leader, Lawrence must deal with warring factions within the Vatican while at the same time questioning his own candidacy and the attraction of the power that comes with the post.

More from Deadline

Says Berger, Its about a spiritual journey of doubt, which Ralphs character has, but its also about the election of a Pope in contemporary times. The main characters journey attracted me, and also the fact that its an interesting story about vying for power and the power games that go on behind the scenes.

Inviting Deadline to Rome just a couple of days after All Quiets BAFTA success, Berger will today be working on Stage 15. The big giveaway is a cavalcade of cardinals, all 118 of them, as they mill around in the corridor, waiting to shoot the days scene. Up in his office, Berger gestures through the window to the next building along. Theres the Fellini stage, where he always shot, he says. Theres a plaque there that says, If any place is home, this is it. Its much more his home than his house was.

Story continues

The director has been in Rome since October, and he says the production settled there out of necessity. There are a lot of exteriors, and we need the Roman architecture, he explains. Obviously, if youre only working in the studio, you can go anywhere. But also, we have to recreate the Vatican, because you cannot shoot inside the Vatican. We scouted a lot of countriesHungary and Pragueand we just felt that the texture of Rome gives us the architecture that we needed for the film as a whole.

For this reason, Stage 15 has become basically a reconstruction of the Sistine Chapel in real size. Were six days into this set, and were filming the voting process. That must be quite a tall order, to recreate the Sistine Chapel. How did he do that? I didnt do it, so I have no clue, he laughs. But it looks great. Youll see. The ceiling obviously is not there. Itll be CG. But everything else up to the first floor is built.

Edward Berger poses in the Winners Room at the BAFTA Film Awards.

Conclave will still be shooting come the Oscars on 13 March, with All Quiet on the Western Fronts nine nominations coming under fresh scrutiny post-Bafta, but Berger doesnt seem too concerned about that. Doesnt he need a break? He shrugs. I finished editing All Quiet about 15 or 16 months ago, in November [2021], and then the VFX took till Mayits a slower process, so its not so all-consumingand then I slowly started Conclave. So, three or four months after I finished All Quiet I started this movie. There was definitely some time in between.

And, besides, he adds, Rome isnt the worst place to be. Youre away from the family, which is hard, but its really nice to experience a different country and work with different people from different countries and get to know the place in a really different way. I still feel like I live at home. Im just taking two suitcases and coming to stay for a few months.

Best of Deadline

Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.
Orchid Thai is located on Monroe in downtown Detroit.

One of the best-known places for pad thai and other Thai dishes in heart of downtown Detroit will no longer be.

Orchid Thai Restaurant on Monroe Street near Campus Martius is permanently closing.

The closure is sudden and the last day for the restaurant will be Tuesday.

At Orchid Thai, according to its website, "you will get and feel the same original Thai taste and spiciness like you were in Bangkok, Thailand."

More:Otus Supply in Ferndale suddenly closes

More:Avalon reopens in new spot with bargain on its signature cookies

Reached by phone late Monday evening, Orchid Thai owner Ally Lee, who built the business in her 20s, said their lease ended and, after 18 years, it was probably "time to move on."

With an authentic menu of Thai food, Lee and her family opened Orchid Thai at 115 Monroe, after encouragement from a relative.

"I realized my cuisine was lacking in the lower Woodward area," Lee said.

Ally Lee, owner of Orchid Thai.

During its 18 years in business, Orchid Thai served plenty of downtown office workers for lunch and dinner.

On its final day, Lee said, the restaurant will be cooking up and serving the last of the food it has left.

"We have a lot of inventory and will open at 10:30 a.m. and be open until we run out of food," Lee said.

While the decision was last minute, Lee said, it seemed like the right thing to do. She called the closing "bittersweet."

"I personally talked to hundreds of customers a day, people I've known for at least a decade and a half," Lee said. "It's hard. It's like saying goodbye to family. But I've been doing this for a really long time and I think that all things have to come to an end and this just seems to be the right time."

The dishes on Orchid Thai's menus are from family recipes, passed down from generation to generation, she said. And its pad thai noodle dish is one of the restaurant's No. 1 sellers, Lee said.

"I call it candied pasta because it's sweet and tart and topped with crushed peanuts and bean sprouts," Lee said. "When I eat that dish, it tastes like peanut brittle and lemon drops dipped in warm honey."

Story continues

Lee said she is personally invested in the city and is an alumna of Detroit public schools. It's the reason that she gives back to the community.

Lee, who previously worked for the city of Detroit, received the U.S. Pinoys for Good Governance Asian Hall of Fame 2022 Award, as well as a Testimonial Resolution Honor from Detroit's City Council in 2022. She is also a Mary Turner Community Leadership Award recipient.

During Orchid Thai's 18 years, Lee said, the restaurant has donated food to Forgotten Harvest, Alternative for Girls and homeless shelters. During the height of the pandemic, Lee said, Orchid Thai also donated to the city's police and fire departments and the Detroit Public Schools Community District.

Even in the end, Orchid Thai's community work will continue.

After the restaurant closes, Lee said, they will donate all its furniture to Detroit public schools and she said she plans to give all the restaurant dishes to an organization that helps Ukrainian refugees.

Lee, a member of the Hmong community, said she is a refugee from Laos who, along with her parents, fled the Vietnam War.

"So, we can relate to the suffering the Ukrainians are going through right now," she said.

Lee thanked all her loyal customers for supporting the restaurant for the last 18 years and for the "opportunity to serve them and be part of the growth and revitalization of downtown Detroit."

Contact Detroit Free Press food writer Susan Selasky and send food and restaurant news to: sselasky@freepress.com. Follow @SusanMariecooks on Twitter.

Support local journalism and become a digital subscriber to the Free Press.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Orchid Thai restaurant, near Detroit's Campus Martius, to close
BBC

EastEnders spoilers follow.



EastEnders has revealed details on Ash Panesar's exit storyline.

We revealed last month how Gurlaine Kaur Garcha would be leaving the soap after three years.

Gurlaine's character Ash has been written out of the BBC One soap and will make her final appearance in upcoming episodes.

BBC

Another big week for the Panesar family will begin with Suki trying to get more involved with their business in Leeds.

Ash later lets Nish know that she's been re-offered a job in Canada, leaving him fearing he's about to lose her.

Unhappy about this, Nish enlists Suki to dissuade their daughter from accepting the job.

Suki sees the situation differently, and wants her daughter to spread her wings. She uses reverse psychology to manipulate Ash into accepting the job by suggesting that she isn't capable.

When Ash predictably accepts the job to prove a point to her mum, Suki tells Nish there was nothing she could do about it.

They head to The Vic to reluctantly celebrate Ash leaving, but Nish soon becomes enraged when he realises Suki's deceit and issues her with a sinister threat back at No.41.

BBC

As Ash prepares to leave, she has a heart to heart with Eve  who convinces her to have an honest conversation with Suki before she goes.

Ash also speaks to Nish, wanting him to give Suki more responsibility with the family businesses, but will he agree?

BBC

Gurlaine initially sparked speculation over her future on EastEnders by posting new casting headshots on her Instagram page.

She also confirmed that she'd signed up with new representatives, telling fans: "Excited for what's to come."

An EastEnders spokesperson later confirmed to us: "We can confirm that Gurlaine will be leaving EastEnders, and we wish her all of the best for the future."

EastEnders airs on Mondays-Thursdays at 7.30pm on BBC One. The show also streams on BBC iPlayer, with first look episodes dropping at 6am.

Read more EastEnders spoilers on our dedicated homepage

You Might Also Like
Elizabeth Holmes has expanded her family.

The former Theranos CEO, who was sentenced to over 11 years in prison back in November, has welcomed her second child, per court documents obtained by E! News. As stated in the documents, Holmes is mom to "a toddler and infant."

Per NBC News, the 39-year-old shares her children with partner William "Billy" Evans, who she met following her breakup from former Theranos President Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani.

Holmes revealed her baby bump while appearing with Billy at a federal courthouse in San Jose, Calif. in November 2022.

The court documents, which confirm her second child's birth, were recently filed leading up to a March 17 hearing, where the court will hear Holmes' request to remain out of prison while she appeals her conviction.

Holmes' bid to change her current fate comes after she was sentenced on Nov. 18 to 11.25 years behind bars and three years of supervised release for being found guilty on four fraud-related charges, per NBC News. Holmes was set to surrender to authorities on April 27, 2023.

After the Downfall: What Elizabeth Holmes and the Theranos Team Are Up to Now

Her guilty verdict was delivered after she was accused by prosecutors of defrauding investors, doctors and patients as the CEO and founder of Theranos, a blood testing company that claimed to be able to run a blood test faster than other methods on the market using just a finger prick.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

In addition to Holmes' guilty verdict, Balwani, who was tried separately from Holmes, was found guilty by a federal jury of defrauding investors, patients and doctors through Theranos.

In December, he was sentenced to 12 years and 11 months in federal prison and three years of supervision following his eventual release, per a statement from United States Attorney Stephanie M. Hinds obtained by E! News.

At the time, Balwani's attorney Jeffrey Coopersmith said in a Dec. 7 statement to E! News, "We are disappointed with the outcome. We respectfully disagree and plan to appeal."

More recently, Balwani had a hearing where he also fought to remain free on bail while he appeals his case, per the Associated Press. According to the outlet, the judge did not make a decision at the end of the hearing. In addition, the judge noted that the question of how much restitution Balwani will need to pay won't be decided until the same question is answered for Holmes. Federal prosecutors are seeking a court order where Balwani would have to pay almost $900 million in restitution.

For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News App
Greece Train Crash Leaves At Least 29 Dead and 85 Injured After 2 Trains Catch on Fire: 'Shocking'

At least 29 people are dead and 85 injured after a commercial train and a passenger train collided and derailed in Greece on Tuesday.

The incident happened at the entrance of Tempe Valley on the Athens-Thessaloniki route just before midnight, said Vasilios Vathrakogiannis, a fire brigade spokesperson in a release shared on its website. Tempe is a small town next to a valley where major highway and rail tunnels are located, some 235 miles north of Athens, according to the Associated Press.

Roughly 40 firefighters, 17 emergency vehicles and 30 ambulances rushed to the scene. Local hospitals were also put on alert to treat burn patients, according to the press release. Thessaly's army and military units were brought in on an "alert protocol", which is standard for accidents like this one, Vathrakogiannis said.

At the time of the press briefing, emergency crews were still trying to help passengers get out, however, many had been safely rescued.

Though Vathrakogiannis said 16 people had died, multiple outlets have reported that the death toll is now at least 29. The 85 people who were hurt were taken to nearby hospitals.

RELATED: Woman, 21, Mourned by Family and Softball Community After Fatal Calif. Crash: 'Love of My Life,' Says Mom

deadly train crash in greece https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j58QhlFDpNo

youtube

Many said they saw their fellow passengers being tossed out of the window when the trains collided, while others tried to escape when the passenger train was forced to hit a nearby field, according to the Associated Press.

One teenager told reporters in Greece that he was getting off a train when another one jerked. He then saw sparks before it abruptly stopped.

"Our carriage didn't derail, but the ones in front did and were smashed," he said, per the AP. He managed to get out of his train when he used a bag to smash his car window after the first car in line went up in flames.

deadly train crash in greece https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j58QhlFDpNo

youtube

RELATED: Officials Say Plane Broke Apart Before Crash that Killed 5, Including New Dad of 1-Month-Old Baby

Costas Agorastos, regional governor for Thessaly described the crash as "very powerful" in a TV interview, according to the AP. He added that it was "a terrible night."

Story continues

"The front section of the train was smashed," he added. "We're getting cranes to come in and special lifting equipment clear the debris and lift the rail cars. There's debris flung all around the crash site."

One of the passengers, Angelos Tsiamouras, compared the crash to "an earthquake" as another recalled, "There was panic in the carriage, people were screaming," according to BBC.

RELATED VIDEO: 5 People Killed in Ambulance Plane Crash in Nevada: 'We Are Heartbroken'

A passenger also said it was "very shocking. I wasn't hurt but I was stained with blood from other people who were hurt near me."

Greek railway company Hellenic Train confirmed there were roughly 350 people on board.

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, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

"At Evangelismos, there was a head-on collision between two trains: a freight train and train IC 62, which had departed from Athens to Thessaloniki," the company told ABC News. "Firefighters and Hellenic Train personnel rushed to the scene, participating in rescue operations and providing assistance to travelers."

Hellenic did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.
Ikeita Cantu, left, and her wife Carmen Guzman, of McLean, Va., hold up signs as they celebrate outside of the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday June 26, 2015, after the court declared that same-sex couples have a right to marry anywhere in the US. The couple was married in Canada in 2009 when gay marriage was illegal in Virginia

AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin Wives celebrate the legalization of same-sex marriage outside SCOTUS in 2015

Months after Congress affirmed gay marriage with the historic Respect for Marriage Act, a group of eight Iowa Republicans are looking to go in the opposite direction, introducing a bill that would recognize marriage as "the solemnized union between one human biological male and one human biological female."

As currently written, the joint resolution describes its version of marriage as being only "in accordance with the laws of nature and nature's God."

Same-sex marriage is legal everywhere in the United States due to a Supreme Court's landmark 2015 ruling, Obergefell v. Hodges. So even if passed, the Iowa bill would likely be unenforceablesomething one of the bill's co-sponsors acknowledged in an email to NBC News.

RELATED: Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer Celebrate After Congress Passes Historic Respect for Marriage Act

"Should the people of Iowa vote for such an amendment, laws would have to be adjusted to make laws fair for all," State Rep. Brad Sherman, one of the Republicans to introduce the resolution on Tuesday, told the outlet.

A separate group of eight Iowa Republicans introduced another bill on Tuesday with a similar aim. This one, known as HF 508, would make it legal for residents to not acknowledge same-sex marriages on religious grounds, effectively making portions of the Respect for Marriage Act "null and void" in the state.

President Joe Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act  which affirms federal acknowledgement of both same-sex and interracial marriages  in December.

Biden signed the landmark bill on the South Lawn of the White House, following the House of Representatives' final approval of the legislation in a 258-169 vote. The U.S. Senate passed the bill one month prior, with 12 Republicans joining Democrats in support.

"My fellow Americans, that all-consuming, life altering love of commitment: that's marriage," Biden said before sitting down to sign the bill.

Story continues

The Respect for Marriage Act officially appeals the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, which defined marriage as involving a man and woman and gave states the authority to refuse recognition of same-sex couples who had married.

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, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

It was first introduced in 2009 and, though it passed the House and was moved to the Senate floor in 2011, the Senate vote never occurred. After Obergefell v. Hodges  a landmark civil rights case that reached the Supreme Court, legalized same-sex marriage nationwide on June 26, 2015  there seemed to be no reason to continue pushing for it  until the events of last year.

RELATED: Senate Passes Respect for Marriage Act in Heartening Bipartisan Vote

On June 24, in the most significant unraveling of human rights in modern history, the heavily conservative Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating pregnant people's constitutional right to abortion and paving a path to come for contraceptives and same-sex relationships next.

According to LGBTQ advocacy organization, One Iowa, there are currently 29 anti-LGBTQ bills in the Iowa legislature. "From trying to roll back marriage equality to banning drag to gutting the civil rights act, no policy seems too extreme to be introduced and debated in the current climate," the group said in a tweet.
The Indiana landfill selected to house hazardous waste from the train derailment in Ohio has a history of violations, according to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency site.

It has had 12 quarters of noncompliance dating back to the spring of 2020, the EPA's Enforcement and Compliance History Online database shows. It is unclear what the specific violations are.

The landfill sits outside of Roachdale, a small town about 40 miles west of Indianapolis. Operated by Heritage Environmental Services, it is certified to handle hazardous waste. On its website, Heritage said in a release that it has roughly 14 million cubic yards of permitted landfill capacity and added that the landfill is geologically isolated.

Neither the EPA nor Heritage Environmental Services have responded to IndyStar questions regarding the facility's compliance issues.

'It's all a bunch of whodunit': East Palestine caught in politics of Ohio train derailment

Ohio train derailment: Contaminated waste shipments from East Palestine derailment to resume

Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb said in a statement Tuesday that he continues to object to the EPA's decision to bring contaminated soil and liquids from the wreck to the state. Fellow Republican and U.S. Sen. Mike Braun also said Tuesday that he's opposed to the waste being sent to Indiana.

Holcomb said there has been a "lack of communication" with him and other Indiana officials about the decision, which the EPA announced Monday.

After concerns were raised on where waste from the Feb. 3 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, was going, the EPA paused the shipments to review the disposal plans of Norfolk Southern, the railroad company behind the derailment. The shipments resumed Monday, and the agency announced some of it would be heading to Indiana.

Roachdale has a population of approximately 1,000 and spans an area of less than one square mile, according to the town website. The community was named after Judge Roach, a railroad official, and is home to local businesses, a library, churches and an elementary school.

Story continues

A view of the scene Friday, Feb. 24, 2023, as the cleanup continues at the site of of a Norfolk Southern freight train derailment that happened on Feb. 3 in East Palestine, Ohio. (AP Photo/Matt Freed)

Compliance concerns for Indiana landfill

EPA officials had previously said they approved shipments to two agency-certified sites in Ohio. On Monday, EPA Region 5 Administrator Debra Shore said an additional site in Ohio and one in Indiana had also been selected.

Heritage Environmental Services has violated environmental regulations in the past. In 2012, the company had "multiple hazardous waste violations" at an Indianapolis facility, according to a 2017 EPA statement. The next year, a company subsidiary allegedly violated the Clean Air Act at a hazardous waste incinerator in East Liverpool, Ohio, as described in a 2018 U.S. Justice Department release.

That same Ohio incinerator also has been selected to dispose of some of the contaminated waste.

Ohio train derailment: Officials say East Palestine's water is safe. But where's the full data?

In a release, Heritage Environmental Services said it "is providing support in accordance with the cleanup plan approved by government agencies with jurisdiction over the response to the (East Palestine) event. Materials eligible for management at the HES facility outside of Roachdale will be properly disposed of in accordance with the stringent requirements imposed under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act."

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act is a law that governs the management of hazardous and non-hazardous solid waste.

A screenshot of the Heritage Environmental Services landfill outside of Roachdale, Indiana from Google Maps. This landfill has been selected to house some of the contaminated waste from the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

Lingering questions about waste disposal

It is unclear at this time what type of waste  toxic soil or liquids  will be placed in the Roachdale landfill or in what amounts.

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management said it is communicating with the EPA and local authorities in Putnam County to determine exactly what material is being brought to Indiana, when, and in what quantities.

EPA Region 5 administrator Shore said Monday when announcing the additional facilities that she had spoken with officials from both Ohio and Indiana regarding the hazardous waste shipments to their towns.

In his statement, however, Holcomb said that he learned "third-hand that materials may be transported to our state"  similar to concerns raised by local officials in Michigan and Texas. He said that he directed the state's environmental director to reach out to the agency and he has requested to speak with an EPA official.

East Palestine train derailment: A timeline of what happened when

"I want to know exactly what precautions will be taken in the transport and disposition of the materials," Holcomb said in a tweet.

He said he believes the hazardous waste materials should go to the nearest disposal facilities and not be moved "from the far eastern side of Ohio to the far western side of Indiana."

In a statement sent to IndyStar, the state Department of Environmental Management echoed that thought. The agency said the decision to contract with Heritage Environmental Services for disposition of the hazardous waste was made by Norfolk Southern even though it's almost 400 miles from the train derailment site.

IDEM said that it does not have the regulatory authority to prevent hazardous waste disposal facilities from accepting materials for which they are permitted to handle and dispose.

I continue to object to the EPA Administrators decision, from Washington, D.C., to move hazardous waste from the #EastPalestine train derailment to Indiana. Further, there has been a lack of communication with me and other Indiana officials about this decision.  Governor Eric Holcomb (@GovHolcomb) February 28, 2023

Experts worry trains becoming less safe

While the investigation into the Feb. 3 wreck continues, labor leaders and industry experts say trains have become less safe and there is a growing risk for accidents like the one in Ohio. The next one could happen right here in Indiana, a union official said, where nearly every day trains hauling hazardous materials roll over the network of more than 5,000 miles of track that weave across the state.

In fact, the train that derailed in Ohio passed through Indiana on its journey carrying the very same chemicals, and already had shown signs of trouble when it separated.

Norfolk Southern train derailment: Cincinnati didn't wait for state officials, went to East Palestine to test water

Several toxic chemicals, including vinyl chloride and others, were released into the nearby water, soil and air. Nearly 45,000 fish and other animals were killed during the derailment and many residents have complained of headaches, difficulty breathing or skin and eye irritation. Clean-up has been ongoing in the weeks since.

A Feb. 4 drone photo shows portions of a Norfolk Southern Railroad freight train that derailed the previous night in East Palestine, Ohio.

The EPA said it is now getting close to having enough certified facilities to take all the waste that was produced at the site of the derailment in East Palestine.

Roachdale Town Council President Rick Miles said he did not feel comfortable commenting on the EPA's decision because he has not been able to meet with other council members. Still, he said it is his understanding that Heritage Environmental Services is planning a meeting with the town this week that he believes will be well attended.

'We want to get back to normal:' Residents face long road ahead in East Palestine

"I expect that they will answer any and all questions that anyone may have," Miles told IndyStar.

Call IndyStar reporter Sarah Bowman at 317-444-6129 or email at sarah.bowman@indystar.com. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook: @IndyStarSarah. Connect with IndyStars environmental reporters: Join The Scrub on Facebook.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Indiana landfill getting toxic waste from train has past violations
Gene Simmons of KISS sings Shout It Out Loud at Gila River Arena during the End of the Road World Tour stop in Glendale, Wednesday, February 13, 2019. Thousands of fans came to see the band's farewell concert.

Sonic Temple Art & Music Festival is set to make a comeback after a three-year hiatus this Memorial Day weekend, and its lineup includes a star-studded list of rock legends, one of which will perform in Ohio for the last time.

Co-headlining the festival on May 27 is KISS, who will not return to the Buckeye State again once its End of the Road farewell tour concludes in December. The world tour, which began in 2018, is not the band's first farewell tour, however.

Sonic Temple returns to the Historic Crew Stadium May 25 through 28, with other featured headliners including Foo Fighters, Tool and Avenged Sevenfold.

Other top rock artists set to perform include Rob Zombie, Deftones, Queens of the Stone Age, Godsmack, Falling In Reverse, Chevelle, Puscifer, Beartooth, I Prevail, Jawbreaker, Sublime with Rome, Bullet For My Valentine, The Pretty Reckless, Pennywise, Trivium, Black Veil Brides and many others.

Tickets are on sale now.

Concerts in Columbus:Casting Crowns, Third Eye Blind announced in latest round of Ohio State Fair performances

tmoorman@dispatch.com

@taijuannichole

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Sonic Temple festival lineup features final KISS show in Ohio
SEOUL, South Korea  North Korean leader Kim Jong Un opened a major political conference dedicated to agriculture, state media reported Monday, as outside assessments suggest the country is facing a serious shortfall of food.

South Korean experts estimate that North Korea is short around 1 million tons of grain, nearly 20 percent of its annual demand, after the pandemic likely disrupted unofficial grain imports from China and the government has restricted food sales at markets.

Recent, unconfirmed reports in South Korean media have said that some North Koreans have died of hunger. But most experts have seen no indication of mass deaths or famine in North Korea.

During a high-level meeting of the ruling Workers Party that began Sunday, senior party officials reviewed last years work on state goals to accomplish rural revolution in the new era, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.

The report said that the plenary meeting of the partys Central Committee will identify immediate, important tasks on agricultural issues and urgent tasks arising at the present stage of the national economic development.

KCNA didnt say whether Kim spoke during the meeting or how long it would last. Senior officials such as Cabinet Premier Kim Tok Hun and Jo Yong Won, one of Kims closest aides who handles the Central Committees organizational affairs, also attended.

Plenary meetings are key decision-making venues for the Workers Party. In recent years, Kim has held a plenary meeting two to four times a year to formulate major policies.

It is the first time the party has convened a plenary session only to discuss agriculture. Mondays report didnt elaborate on its agenda, but the partys Politburo said earlier this month that a turning point is needed to dynamically promote radical change in agricultural development.

Most analysts say North Koreas food situation today is nowhere near the extremes of the 1990s, when hundreds of thousands of people died in a famine. However, some experts say its food insecurity is likely at its worst since Kim took power in 2011, after COVID-19 restrictions further shocked an economy battered by decades of mismanagement and crippling U.S.-led sanctions imposed over Kims nuclear program. Russias war on Ukraine possibly worsened the situation by driving up global prices of food, energy and fertilizer.

Its unclear whether North Korea will take any significant steps to address food shortages. The impoverished country devotes much of its scarce resources to its nuclear program.

To produce more grains, they should increase inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides and agricultural machines. But North Korea rarely comes up with such measures, said Nam Sung-wook, a professor at Korea University in South Korea. They have a limited budget. They can still take such steps (to produce more grain) with the money theyre spending on its missile development program.

North Korea has accelerated missile tests since last year, launching more than 70 missiles, many of them nuclear-capable weapons that place the U.S. mainland, South Korea and Japan within striking distance.

Nam said the current food problems dont pose a serious political threat to Kim, noting that his familys rule wasnt shaken even during the 1990s famine.

Last year, North Koreas grain production was estimated at 4.5 million tons, a 3.8% drop from a year earlier according to South Korean government assessments. The North was estimated to have produced between 4.4 million tons to 4.8 million tons of grain annually from 2012-2021, according to previous South Korean data.

North Korea needs about 5.5 million tons of grain to feed its 25 million people annually, so its short about 1 million tons this year. In past years, half of such a gap was usually met by unofficial grain purchases from China, with the rest remaining as unresolved shortfall, according to Kwon Tae-jin, a senior economist at the private GS&J Institute in South Korea.

Kwon says trade curbs due to the pandemic have likely hindered unofficial rice purchases from China. Efforts by North Korean authorities to tighten controls and restrict market activities have also worsened the situation, he said.

South Koreas Unification Ministry said the Norths current food shortage is more an issue of distribution than an absolute shortage, because much of the grain harvested last year has not been consumed yet.

Ministry officials said that the Norths food insecurity has worsened as authorities tightened controls over private grain sales in markets, instead trying to confine the grain trade to state-run facilities.

With the countrys factory and machinery sectors likely decimated by the border controls, Kim has been focusing on boosting grain production and reviving construction and other sectors that are less dependent on imported materials. Some experts say Kim likely aims to burnish his image as a leader who cares for public livelihoods as he seeks public support of his fight against U.S.-led sanctions and pressure campaigns.

Photos: Kim Jong Un's public appearances through the years
Sneakerheads should keep an eye on Lil Yachtys sneakers at the three-day Rolling Loud hip-hop festival in California this weekend because they will be given away to one lucky fan.

Lil Yachty, DJ Scheme and K.O. from Atlanta-based sneaker community ATATF  in partnership with Rolling Loud  will host a livestream via livestream shopping platform Whatnot today at 8:30 p.m. ET. During the livestream, they will be giving away VIP tickets and travel to Rolling Loud California for one winner. Not only will the winner meet the rap star, but he or she will also get his stage-worn sneakers after his set. Lil Yachty is scheduled to hit the stage on Saturday.

More from Footwear News

Lil Yachty, a well-known sneakerhead with one of the most revered celebrity collections, will also reveal the sneakers he will wear on stage during the Whatnot livestream.

Aside from the initiative with Lil Yachty, the Whatnot livestream will also offer limited, pre-release Rolling Loud 2023 merchandise including sweat sets, chains and more.

In 2016, Lil Yachty  a then 18-year-old rising rap star  spoke with FN about his personal style and must-have kicks. He also shared info on his first-ever pair.

The first pair of Jordan shoes I remember getting was a fake pair of Jordan 7s  they were black and purple. In Atlanta, everybody had fakes. I was, like, 7 years old then, but looking back, I know now that colorway was never made, Lil Yachty told FN.

Whatnot is a livestream shopping platform with more than 100 different categories including trading cards, comics, fashion, sneakers and more. Last year, Whatnot said in a statement that more than over 100 sellers sold $1 million-plus in merchandise each through livestreams. This effort with Lil Yachty and Rolling Loud is the latest in a series of Whatnot activations with artists. Past initiatives include Post Malone challenging a fan to beat him in Magic: The Gathering with a chance to win a $100,000 prize.

Story continues

Best of Footwear News

Sign up for FN's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.
MEXICO CITY  Mexicos president said Tuesday his country is more democratic than the United States.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obradors testy comments came after U.S. officials took note of heated public debate in Mexico over Lopez Obradors recently approved electoral reforms, which critics allege could weaken Mexicos democracy. The reforms would cut spending for the countrys electoral authorities.

Lopez Obrador angrily rejected any U.S. comment, even though U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price was careful to say in a statement Monday that We respect Mexicos sovereignty.

The Mexican president responded there is more democracy in Mexico than could exist in the United States.

If they want to have a debate on this issue, lets do it, Lopez Obrador said pugnaciously. I have evidence to prove there is more liberty and democracy in our country.

The Mexican president is notoriously touchy about criticism, whether it comes from human rights groups, non-governmental organizations, the press, or Mexican regulatory or oversight agencies.

Price said in a statement that Today, in Mexico, we see a great debate on electoral reforms on the independence of electoral and judicial institutions that illustrates Mexicos vibrant democracy.

We respect Mexicos sovereignty. We believe that a well-resourced, independent electoral system and respect for judicial independence support healthy democracy.

At the root of the conflict are plans by Lopez Obrador, which were approved last week by Mexicos Senate, to cut salaries and funding for local election offices, and scale back training for citizens who operate and oversee polling stations. The changes would also reduce sanctions for candidates who fail to report campaign spending.

Lopez Obrador denies the reforms are a threat to democracy and says criticism is elitist. He argues that the funds would be better spent on the poor.

Tens of thousands of people demonstrated over the weekend in Mexico Citys main plaza, calling the cuts a threat to democracy.
A cross-country storm that first brought blizzard conditions to the West is now taking aim on the Heartland and the South, where a dangerous severe weather outbreak is expected on Thursday.

Cities in the in the bulls-eye Thursday afternoon and evening are Dallas, Shreveport and Little Rock. The storms will also move through Memphis, Austin and Houston.

The forecast calls for intense tornadoes, huge hail and powerful winds topping 75 mph.

PHOTO: Friday's forecast for severe weather outbreak (ABC News)

MORE: How to stay safe from a tornado

On Friday, the damaging winds and tornadoes will move into the Southeast and up to the Ohio Valley.

Atlanta, Birmingham, Charlotte, Nashville and Lexington, Kentucky, will be in the bulls-eye.

PHOTO: Thursday's forecast for severe weather outbreak (ABC News)

Very heavy rain -- up to 5 inches -- is also possible with these severe storms. Flash flooding is a threat from Oklahoma to Ohio.

To the north, that same system could bring the biggest snowstorm of the season to Chicago on Friday. More than 6 inches of snow is possible in the Windy City.

Friday evening, the heavy snow will spread into the Northeast, bringing a wintry mix to the Interstate 95 corridor from New York City to Boston. Heavy snow -- possibly topping 1 foot -- is forecast for the inland Northeast from upstate New York to Maine.

South and Heartland brace for dangerous tornadoes originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Three SWAT officers were shot Tuesday night while executing a search warrant at a Kansas City, Missouri, home, authorities said. It led to a standoff with the suspected gunman that was ongoing hours later, according to the CBS affiliate there, KCTV.

The officers were in stable condition with non-life-threatening wounds, police said.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol, which KCTV says was called in to investigate the shooting as a third-party agency, said the officers knocked at the door of a residence and were shot after trying to enter.

Police shot back, the MHSP said, adding that it wasn't known if anyone inside was hit.

According to KCTV, two people who were in the home were taken into custody and were being questioned.

Negotiators were trying to communicate with the person who was still inside, the station said.

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas tweeted that, "We've been reminded too much lately in Kansas City how dangerous police work can be. I am praying for a full recovery for our three officers injured this evening and that everyone on duty gets home to their families safely."

Betsy Webster, with CBS Kansas City, Missouri affiliate KCTV, tweeted that there was a "large presence of officers" at a local hospital and that the emergency entrance was blocked by crime tape:

Large presence of officers at @UHKCMO. Emergency entrance blocked by crime tape. https://t.co/GSKWsrSLpC pic.twitter.com/eqaOMpyq6q  Betsy Webster (@BetsyKCTV5) March 1, 2023

She added that the head of the local police union was there and that, "The mood, as you would expect, is tense."

Amazon Books' editorial director shares recommended reading to celebrate Women's History Month

Marcel the Shell creator Jenny Slate discuss movie's Oscar nomination

Rugged wheelchairs help people with impaired mobility navigate outdoor terrain
Feb 28, 2023; Columbus, Ohio, United States; U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Parker speaks in front of a painting of Martin Luther King Jr. during a press conference at the Columbus Metropolitan Library Martin Luther King branch regarding a civil settlement involving Park National Bank. Mandatory Credit: Joseph Scheller-The Columbus Dispatch

The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday announced a complaint against Park National Bank for alleged racial discrimination in its lending practices in Columbus.

The department simultaneously announced that it negotiated a settlement with the Newark-based bank, according to which the bank will pay $9 million in fines but neither admits nor denies the allegations.

Park National Bank allegedly violated the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act between 2015 and 2021 by failing to open branches in majority Black and Hispanic neighborhoods in the Columbus Metropolitan Area, issuing disproportionately low numbers of loans to people from those neighborhoods, and failing to ensure fair lending oversight, policies, and procedures.

The bank's chairman and CEO David Trautman said that the bank is cooperating completely with the Department of Justice.

While we disagree with any suggestion that intentional discrimination took place, we are united with the DOJ in our commitment to ensuring equal access to credit for all consumers," he said in a statement.

U.S. Attorney Kenneth Parker announced the complaint and settlement from the Martin Luther King, Jr. Branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library. He noted that the case is part of an effort to combat modern-day redlining, or racially discriminatory mortgage lending practices that were outlawed by civil rights legislation in the 1960s and 70s.

Dr. Martin Luther King called homeownership a door to opportunity, which for most Americans, is their single most valuable assetthe United States Attorney's Office works to maintain fair housing opportunities for our communities of color, he said.

Park National Bank has 92 full-service branches in Ohio, Kentucky, North Carolina, and South Carolina, including 20 in Greater Columbus. It has $9.8 billion in assets, according to the civil complaint.

As part of the $9 million fine, the bank agreed to invest at least $7.75 million in a loan subsidy fund for use in communities of color, and to invest $750,000 in outreach, advertising, consumer education and credit counseling initiatives in those communities.

Story continues

Racial discrimination shaped the development of many Columbus neighborhoods, with informal racial covenants as well as government-approved redlining by banks limiting where non-white families could live or buy a house.

As the costs of housing rise, access to credit has become increasingly important. The median home sales price in central Ohio rose 11.5% in 2022, the third year in a row that it rose by double digits.

More:Redlining practices decades ago still influence life in Columbus neighborhoods

Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Kristen Clarke, who traveled to Columbus for the announcement Tuesday, said the Justice Department began investigating Park National roughly two years ago.

She said the investigation falls under Attorney General Merrick Garlands Combating Redlining Initiative, announced in 2021, which has resolved six redlining cases across the country so far.

Redlining not only harms Black people and people of color who are denied equal access to credit and the opportunity to build wealth, it also spans generations as communities have been deprived of investment, said Clarke.

Let today's settlement send a clear message to banks and financial institutions in the Southern District of Ohio: that we will not tolerate discriminatory lending practices, Parker said.

Feb 28, 2023; Columbus, Ohio, United States; U.S. Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, top left, stands next to U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Parker while speaking during a press conference at the Columbus Metropolitan Library Martin Luther King branch regarding a civil settlement involving Park National Bank. Mandatory Credit: Joseph Scheller-The Columbus Dispatch

Peter Gill covers immigration and new American communities for The Dispatch in partnership with Report for America. You can support work like his with a tax-deductible donation to Report for America here:bit.ly/3fNsGaZ.

pgill@dispatch.com

@pitaarji

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Park National pays $9M settlement for Columbus discrimination case
Protesters Rally In The Bronx For Victims Of Police Violence - Credit: David Dee Delgado/Getty Images

The New York Police Departments violent tactics during the 2020 protests against police violence and racial injustice could cost New York City and its taxpayers between $4 and $6 million thanks to a new settlement.

New York City has agreed to pay $21,500 each to the approximately 300 people who were arrested June 4, 2020 while demonstrating in the Bronx. Those who were given Desk Appearance Tickets instead of summonses, and were thus detained longer, will be eligible for an additional $2,500. (Every person who was arrested eventually had their case dismissed.)

More from Rolling Stone

During the demonstration, NYPD officers boxed in the peaceful protesters and prevented them from leaving, a process known as kettling. Additionally, some protesters said the cops swung at them with batons and hit them with pepper spray; others said they were detained with zip ties by officers not wearing masks at the height of the pandemic.

In a statement shared with Rolling Stone, one of the demonstrators and lead plaintiffs in the class action suit, Amali Sierra, said, This protest took place a week into the uprisings that began as the result of George Floyds death. And because the NYPD had knowledge of this protest taking place in a South Bronx neighborhood composed of predominately Black and Brown bodies, we were an example. A message. This settlement serves as testimony of the wrongdoing by the hands of the NYPD, and it is a reminder that this institution is not built to protect Black and Brown communities.

The total amount the city will owe to the protesters involved in the class action suit is unclear. Lawyers have said that about 330 people were eligible to receive payments, but at least 90 had reached settlements with the city in separate lawsuits (per The New York Times). Still, lawyers for the protesters hailed the victory as the highest per-person settlement in a mass arrest class action lawsuit in NYC history.

Story continues

This was a pre-planned assault on peaceful protesters and the magnitude of the award reflects the real damage that the NYPD did to this community, Rob Rickner, one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs, tells Rolling Stone. We had to fight for many years to get this result, and through the litigation we were able to expose the high-level NYPD officers who planned this assault.

In a statement, the NYPD said, The NYPD remains committed to continually improving its practices in every way possible. It went on to call the 2020 protests a challenging moment for the department as officers who themselves were suffering under the strains of a global pandemic did their utmost to help facilitate peoples rights to peaceful expression all while addressing acts of lawlessness including wide-scale rioting, mass chaos, violence, and destruction.

Both the NYPD and then-New York City mayor Bill de Blasio faced steep criticism for their handling of the largely peaceful protests, which broke out in New York City, and across the country, following the police murder of George Floyd. Amidst some looting and damage to police cars, numerous videos emerged that showed NYPD officers targeting and beating peaceful protesters with little provocation; in one infamous incident, a police van drove through a crowd of protesters.

Eventually, de Blasio and former/disgraced New York Governor Andrew Cuomo decided to impose an 8 p.m. curfew. That was in place the day of the June 4 protest in the Bronx, and in their lawsuits, the protesters claimed they were kettled by the cops well before the 8 p.m. curfew, preventing them from dispersing.

News of the Bronx protest settlement comes weeks after it was announced that the NYPD cost the city $121 million in police misconduct settlements in 2022  the highest since 2018. The staggering figure comprised numerous payouts tied to other lawsuits filed by protesters in 2020, as well as high-profile cases like that of Muhammad A. Aziz, who received $26 million after spending over two decades in prison after being wrongfully convicted of assassinating of Malcolm X.

Best of Rolling Stone

Click here to read the full article.
(Getty Images)

A bipartisan group of Senators are proposing a series of new regulations in response to the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

Ohios Democratic senior Senator Sherrod Brown and newly-minted Republican Senator JD Vance joined Pennsylvanias Democratic Senators John Fetterman and Bob Casey as well Republican Senators Josh Hawley of Missouri and Marco Rubio to introduce the Railway Safety Act of 2023.

Action to prevent future disasters is critical, but we must never lose sight of the needs of the Ohioans living in East Palestine and surrounding communities, Mr Vance said in a statement. One day, the TV cameras will leave, and the news cycle will move on, but the needs of those Ohioans will remain. I will never stop fighting to deliver the support they need.

The legislation comes after a train from Norfolk Southern that carried hazardous material derailed in East Palestine, which is right on the border of Ohio and Pennsylvania.

For far too long, the rail industry, and the government agencies that regulate it, have prioritized their bottom line over safety and resiliency. This comprehensive bill would help prevent future catastrophic derailments, Mr Rubio said in a statement.

The legislation would put in place safety measures for trains carrying hazardous materials like vinyl chloride, which the train in East Palestine carried when it derailed. Rail carriers would also need to provide advance information to state emergency officials about what they are transporting. The bill would also create requirements for blocked rail crossings and put in place new rules for size and weight.

Rail lobbyists have fought for years to protect their profits at the expense of communities like East Palestine and Steubenville and Sandusky, Mr Brown said in a statement. These commonsense bipartisan safety measures will finally hold big railroad companies accountable, make our railroads and the towns along them safer, and prevent future tragedies, so no community has to suffer like East Palestine again.

Story continues

Rail cars on trains carrying hazadrous material would also be subject to increased inspections.

The safety regulations governing our nations railroads must be updated to ensure that a disaster like this never happens again, Mr Hawley said.

Republicans have criticised the Biden administration for not visiting East Palestine in favor of visiting Ukraine and former president Donald Trump accompanied Mr Vance to East Palestine. Meanwhile many Democrats have blamed the Trump administration for loosening the regulations on trains carrying hazardous materials.
Democrats are rushing in to replace California Sen. Dianne Feinstein  and so are the Super PACs.

The once-in-a-generation contest for a California Senate seat could unleash a tsunami of outside spending as independent expenditure committees with unlimited fundraising powers work to differentiate Democrats jostling in an open field. And that could lead to the kind of negative broadsides that candidates themselves could be reluctant to level.

Allies of Rep. Barbara Lee launched a Super PAC even before the Oakland congresswoman opened her Senate campaign. That committee is staffed with some of Californias most prominent political operatives  as with a rival PAC backing Rep. Adam Schiff  and supporters of Rep. Katie Porter are laying the foundation for a third. The dynamic could deepen intraparty strife as liberal donors fund advertising targeting more centrist Democrats, and vice versa, in what is likely to be one of the most expensive contests in California history.

I do believe this race is going to be probably one of the most expensive Senate races ever, said Ann Ravel, who chaired both the Federal Elections Commission and the California Fair Political Practices Commission, and each Super PAC is going to want to assure that their candidate is the one who has enough money.

Candidates and political operatives have spent months preparing for a Senate race under the presumption Feinsteins retirement was imminent. That has intensified the competition for top political staffers.

Schiff was very aggressive, said an opposition researcher who asked to remain anonymous because they may be working in the race. Hes trying to lock up all the talent.



Among those running the pro-Schiff committee are partners at Bearstar Strategies, a blue-chip California consulting firm whose roster has included Gov. Gavin Newsom, Sen. Alex Padilla  and, in 2018, Porter. The Orange County Democrat and the firm parted ways after the 2020 cycle, when Porter endorsed Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)  her political mentor  over then-Bearstar client Kamala Harris.

Story continues

They are going to be very familiar with all her vulnerabilities, and thats usually the job of a super PAC, is to negatively define an opponent, said Rob Stutzman, a California-based Republican political consultant.

It is exorbitantly expensive to run a statewide race in California, where candidates must introduce themselves to millions of voters across several media markets. Independent expenditure committees can bolster those efforts by pulling in big-dollar donations

That could be especially critical for Lee as the East Bay Democrat races to make up a cash-on-hand deficit relative to Schiff and Porter, who are both prolific fundraisers with millions in the bank compared to the $54,000 Lee reported at the end of 2022.

That is clearly the advantage they have, said Nathan Barankin, who is overseeing the committee. She has a long list of non-financial advantages they can never overcome, but for her purposes theres a unique benefit to having a Super PAC.

The consultants running Lees committee hint at where that money may come from. Several of them have worked for progressive prosecutor candidates in California, who benefit from a network of deep-pocketed criminal justice reform supporters. Barankin was chief of staff to Harris, whom Lee supported in the 2020 presidential race.

I do think there is substantial overlap between many of the people who have been longtime supporters of the vice president over a number of years with those who will be supportive of Barbara Lee, not just in California but around the country, Barankin said.

While Porter, like Warren, has focused on the corrupting influence of money in politics, she does not intend to decline outside support as Warren sought to do. Warren was caught in a bind in 2020 when she initially pledged to reject PAC support but ultimately received it. The Massachusetts senator argued it would make little sense to operate at a disadvantage to other Democrats who benefited from ubiquitous outside spending.



You cant control outside money, which was the thing with Elizabeth Warren, said Karin Johanson, who helped run a pro-Warren Super PAC in 2020, but I dont think anyones going to spend money on Katie Porter that Katie Porter doesnt agree with.

Porter already navigated a barrage of outside spending in fiercely contested House races that saw groups spend well over $10 million for or against her, illustrating how that kind of cash has become indispensable in tough contests. That network could activate again on Porters behalf, although donors who helped her flip and defend a frontline House seat against Republicans will not necessarily support her against fellow Democrats. Rep. Nancy Pelosis (D-Calif.) endorsement of Schiff could give him access to her formidable fundraising network.

The challenge for Democrats in resolutely blue California is how to stand out to voters without alienating them by assailing other Democrats. Thats where Super PACs could be instrumental.

Its unlikely the candidate campaigns are going to go negative, but its possible the IEs will feel freer to do things that more specifically contrast candidates, said Ludovic Blain, who runs the progressive California Donor Table.

None of that will alter the balance of power in a narrowly divided Senate. But funders are keenly interested in shaping who represents Americas most populous state  particularly given the possibility that Feinsteins successor, like Feinstein, serves for decades.

Dianne Feinsteins presence as the senator from California for 30 years was significant in the Senate, Ravel said, and so who gets elected to that position is something that a lot of outside interests throughout the country are going to be concerned about.
STROUDSBURG (AP)  Law enforcement officials seized dark clothing, medical gloves, a flashlight and other items from a Pennsylvania home where they arrested a graduate student charged with stabbing four University of Idaho students to death, according to newly unsealed court documents.

The records were made public Tuesday, two months after Pennsylvania State Police arrested Bryan Kohberger at his parents' home in Monroe County.

Kohberger, a 28-year-old former doctoral student at Washington State University, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and burglary in connection with the stabbing deaths in Moscow, Idaho.

The bodies of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were found on Nov. 13, 2022, at a rental home across the street from the University of Idaho campus. The slayings shocked the rural Idaho community and neighboring Pullman, Washington, where Kohberger was a graduate student studying criminology at Washington State University.

Pennsylvania State Police swabbed Kohberger's DNA and seized a silver flashlight, four medical-style gloves, a white Arizona Jean Co. T-shirt, a black Champion sweatshirt, a pair of black-and-white size 13 Nike shoes, black Under Armour socks, black Under Armour shorts and black Under Armour boxers, according to an inventory of the items.

The significance of the items, if any, was not immediately clear.

A roommate who lived in the home where the attack took place has told authorities she was awakened in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, opened her bedroom door and saw a masked figure clad in black clothing walking past her.

Kohberger's preliminary hearing is scheduled for late June. He has yet to enter a plea.

Additional warrants from Kohberger's arrest in Pennsylvania are due to be made public Wednesday.

Investigators seized stained bedding, strands of what looked like hair and a single glove  but no weapon  when they searched Kohbergers Washington state apartment, according to documents released in January.

This article originally appeared on Pocono Record: PA State Police unseal some warrants in arrest of Idaho slayings suspect
Brazilian Central Bank: CBDC Designed to Help New Businesses

Source: Sergei Shimanovich/Adobe

The Brazilian Central Bank says that its central bank digital currency (CBDC)  the digital real  is being designed to help now domestic businesses grow. The bank is also looking to tighten the regulations surrounding cryptoassets.

The newspaper O Globo reported that Roberto Campos Neto, the banks governor, confirmed that the digital real is set to begin the first stage of its pilot in March.

And Campos Neto claimed that the Brazilian digital currency model was being created with the aim of fostering new business in the financial services sector. He claimed that this model was unlike those being used in other countries.

Campos Neto was quoted as stating:

Our idea is to have something up and running by 2024 at the latest.

Brazilian Central Banks CBDC and Crypto Regulation Plans

On the crypto front, the governor stated that the Central Bank was working hard with the regulatory Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) on the policing of cryptoassets.

He said:

It is important for us to be 100% aligned with the CVM [on the matter of crypto regulation].

Campos Neto further claimed that, approximately a year ago, he took part in a meeting on cryptoassets  along with the US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

The governor claimed that he had told Yellen that he noticed certain problems with the crypto sector.

One of these pertains to custody  which he claimed was overly concentrated.

Campos Netto claimed that custodians should not be exposed to risk. And he claimed that if banks had been allowed to become cryptoassets custodians, it is possible that the FTX problem might have been averted.

And the governor claimed that the Central Bank was currently working on an instant payment solution with partners in Colombia, Uruguay, Chile, and Ecuador.

The nations want to find more effective ways to enable trading partners in the LATAM region to process recurring payments.

Authorities in Brazil and Argentina have discussed creating a shared currency, with crypto advocates suggesting they shelve the plan in favor of adopting bitcoin (BTC).
Protesters disrupted the first hearing of a House select committee investigating potential threats that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) poses to the country and U.S.-China competition late Tuesday, arguing that the country should cooperate with China instead of competing with it.

China is not our enemy, read a sign held by Olivia DiNucci, an organizer for CODEPINK: Women for Peace, which advocates against the United States engaging in wars and regime change efforts.

A CODEPINK release states that DiNucci delivered a message that The American people need cooperation, not competition with China before she was taken out of the chamber where the meeting was happening.

After DiNucci was escorted out, a man that CODEPINK identified as a Washington, D.C. resident named Hector M. stood up with a sign saying Stop Asian hate and yelled This committee is about saber-rattling; it is not about peace.

Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), who serves as the chair of the committee, said later during the hearing that the committee has asked the Capitol Police about what happened to the protesters. He said they will defer to the police in these types of situations, but he is certainly not pressing charges.

Capitol Police told The Hill in a statement that the two protesters were arrested for demonstrating inside the Capitol, which is prohibited under D.C. law.

The CODEPINK release argues the committee hearing will promote hatred toward Asian Americans.

The formation of this committee and these hearings do nothing but drive hate on Asian Americans, the release states. This obscene amount of warmongering devastates the people and the pristine environment of the Asia-Pacific.

It states that the U.S. has more than 250 bases in the Indo-Pacific region to encircle China that are destroying the natural habitat of islands. It added that the people, communities, water and lands of Hawaii and the U.S. territory of Guam are already victims of war.

Story continues

Our common enemy is the climate crisiswe need cooperation, not competition, to address climate change and the challenges we face together as humanity, the release said.

The House overwhelmingly approved a resolution in January to create the committee to focus on the U.S.-China relationship, with support from both parties.

H.R. McMaster, who served as national security adviser during the Trump administration and who was testifying before the committee during the protest, said after the protesters were escorted out that the protest is indicative of the effect that Chinas United Front Work Department has had.

The department uses propaganda and manipulation to coordinate the CCPs domestic and foreign influence operations, according to the State Department.

McMaster said the department has reinforced the idea that America is the problem in the world and that the U.S. disengaging from world affairs or becoming more passive would allow the international situation to improve.

But the reality is that this committees work is really important because we have to catch up, mainly because of the complacency that you hear, reflected maybe in an extreme way in these two outbursts, he said.

Updated on March 1 at 2:16 p.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Top Gun Real Life Love

Senior Airman Leon Redfern/ U.S. Air Force Majors Mark and Lauren Olme

A few days after last Thanksgiving, U.S. Air Force Maj. Lauren Olme  who was 19 weeks pregnant at the time  headed to work with her husband Maj. Mark Olme. The two roared through the sky together high above the Nevada desert in B-1 Lancer bombers.

"I looked over my shoulder and gave him a little wave before I peeled off to go back and land," recalls Lauren, who found herself wondering just how much longer she'd be able to fit into the cramped cockpit of the bomber she was piloting.

"Flying in formation with my husband, going super-sonic together while I carried our child is something I'll never forget," she exclusively tells PEOPLE in this week's issue.

Adds Mark: "Looking over and knowing that I'm following my wife and baby around in that other airplane beside me was just . . . awesome. I was so proud of her."

It was clearly just another day at office for the Olmes, who are both graduates of the Air Force's version of Top Gun, known as the U.S. Air Force Weapons School.

RELATED: Woman with Rare Genetic Disorder Wondered 'Who Is Going to Ever Love Me?' Then Fiance Proved 'He's the One'

Top Gun Real Life Love

Senior Airman Leon Redfern/ U.S. Air Force Majors Mark and Lauren Olme

Lauren, 33, was back in the cockpit during the second trimester of her pregnancy thanks to a new Air Force policy that allows female pilots to fly  and, most importantly, keep their skills sharp during a period when they would otherwise be stuck on the ground.

"Our fight to retain and recruit top talent demands that we're not needlessly grounding our aircrews," explains Under Secretary of the Air Force Gina Ortiz Jones.

Do you have a sweet story the world needs to know? Send the details to love@people.com for a chance to be featured in Real-Life Love, People.com's series dedicated to sharing extraordinary connections and heartfelt gestures.

Lauren, who works alongside her 34-year-old husband as a flight instructor at Dyess Air Force Base in Texas, was thrilled with the new regulations that gave her the greenlight to fly up until the 28th week of her pregnancy.

Story continues

Top Gun Real Life Love

Courtesy Lauren and Mark Olme Majors Mark and Lauren Olme

"You're always working toward being the best and I didn't want to fall behind," says Lauren, whose baby-to-be has logged 9.2 flight hours, sometimes flying faster than the speed of sound.

"I'm so thankful that I get to keep living out my dream," she continues.

For more on the Olmes, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, or subscribe here.

After learning that Lauren was pregnant last August, the couple  who met as sophomores while attending the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., and were married in 2012  discussed whether Lauren should hang up her flight suit until after the birth of their baby, due on April 21.

Top Gun Real Life Love

Senior Airman Leon Redfern/ U.S. Air Force Majors Mark and Lauren Olme

"Our big concerns were the fumes, how loud it is inside the cockpit and the risk of ejection," explains Mark.

But after Lauren's doctor and the Air Force medical team determined the risks were low, Lauren, who spent her first trimester dealing with morning sickness ("It was actually all-day sickness," she says), was soon back doing what she loved.

Any worries that her piloting skills had grown rusty quickly vanished. "As soon as I sat in the seat," she says, "it all came back to me."

RELATED VIDEO: Okla. Couple Gets Married on Plane 7 Miles Above Ariz. After Missing Connection Flight to Las Vegas

And not long afterwards, she even ended up with a custom flight suit.

"I stayed in the normal flight suit that was just a size bigger until my coworkers started telling me that I was stretching the bandwidth of it, so I got a maternity flight suit with a little bit more room in the belly area," says Lauren, who plans on returning to flight "ready to rock and roll" after her 12-week maternity leave.

RELATED: Husband Thinks It's 1993 as He Wakes Up from Accident. Then He Recovers  and Proposes to Wife Again

When asked if the two pilots want their child  who already has a flight jacket  to one day follow in their footsteps, Lauren just grins.

Top Gun Real Life Love

Courtesy Lauren and Mark Olme Majors Lauren and Mark Olme

RELATED: Woman Marries the Love of Her Life 43 Years After Her Mom Pressured Her to End Interracial Relationship

"Obviously it's up to them to decide," she says. "But we'll probably do some small subliminal messaging early on, starting with onesies with 'B-1' written on them."
While a trace of red tide was measured in waters off Palm Beach County in February, it was fleeting and not necessarily a foreshadowing of a widespread bloom. But red tide is currently blanketing the Southwest Florida coast.

Levels from Tampa Bay south to Marco Island range from around 10,000 cells per liter to more than 1 million cells per liter, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Fish kills and breathing issues in humans can start when levels reach 10,000 cells per liter, according to the FWC.

Fish kills have been problematic in Collier County waters in recent weeks.

Water taken from the Juno Beach Pier on Feb. 15 tested positive for background amounts of red tide.

The amount found at the pier was so miniscule it was not expected to have any detrimental health effects, and it was gone when a follow-up test was taken Feb. 22.

More:Scientists not concerned about red tide detected near West Palm Beach - yet

More:Red tide numbers strong as fish kills reported throughout Naples-Collier area

1. Is red tide harmful to humans?

When the toxin from red tide is inhaled, it can cause respiratory symptoms in people, such as coughing, wheezing and sore throats.

In marine life, its a killer that affects the nervous system and can cause paralysis.

Florida Red Tide Map: Current Status

2. What exactly is red tide?

It is a sea-faring toxic algae, formally known as the single-cell Karenia brevis.

It produces a toxin as a defense mechanism.

3. What is the main cause of red tide and how long does it last?

Palm Beach lifeguard George Klein wears a mask at Midtown Beach in Palm Beach that remains closed due to red tide warnings, Sunday, September 30, 2018. (Melanie Bell / The Palm Beach Post)

Red tides are naturally occurring. They have been observed in the Gulf of Mexico since the 1800s.

They can grow far offshore in the Gulf and pile up near the coast in the fall and winter as wind patterns blow cold fronts into Florida.

Red tide is often gone by spring, but in some years, the infection has lingered.

Florida Algal Bloom Map: Last 90 Days

4. Is red tide present in Florida right now?

Yes. Samples on Florida's west coast from Venice to Naples tested at high levels of toxicity.

Story continues

Fish kills have been problematic in Collier County waters in recent weeks. Rhonda Watkins, a pollution control environmental supervisor for Collier County, said reports of dead fish are widespread.

Medium levels have been found in the Florida Keys.

Its possible a stronger dose of red tide could find its way to Florida's east coast beaches, according to James Sullivan, executive director of Florida Atlantic University's Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute.

5. Red tide hit Florida beaches hard in 2018

A persistent red tide bloom lasted through the summer and into fall of 2018.

Tons of marine life died on the west coast of the state, triggering daily fish kill clean-up reports on Sanibel Island where dump trucks full of dead fish were removed.

During the red tide bloom five years ago, Palm Beach County officials posted signs at beaches warning of the watery eyes and wheezing that accompany red tide and grappled with a fish kill at John D. MacArthur Beach State Park in North Palm Beach. Palm Beach County ocean rescue Captain Rick Welch, left, and lifeguard Russ Gehweiler, right, are seen installing newly printed signs warning visitors of the red tide outbreak along A1A, south of Indiantown Road in Jupiter in 2018.

Manatee, Goliath grouper, shorebirds and sea turtles all perished in droves that year in areas from Sarasota through Naples.

By late September 2018, the red tide had arrived in Palm Beach County.

I wasnt sure what it was, Wes Price, a lifeguard of 30 years and a lieutenant with Palm Beach County Ocean Rescue, said Thursday about the throat scratchiness he felt with the red tide in 2018. I had never experienced that before.

A graphic from a University of Florida-led study shows the connectin between manmade pollution and red tide blooms in Southwest Florida.

6. Can red tide on Florida's west coast reach the state's east coast?

Yes. A west coast bloom can reach the east coast if it gets caught in the Gulf of Mexico's loop current and travels through the Florida Straits into the Gulf Stream  a north-moving river of warm water that skims the Palm Beach County coastline.

Once in the Gulf Stream, waves can force the toxin produced to be dispersed in the air, which can be carried by east winds to the beaches.

Since 1972 when the transport of red tide from the west coast to the east was first identified, seven more instances had been documented prior to 2018, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Those include in 1990, 1997, 1999 and 2006. In 2007, a red-tide bloom near Jacksonville traveled south with a near-shore current.

Kimberly Miller is a veteran journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network of Florida. She covers real estate and how growth affects South Florida's environment. Subscribe to The Dirt for a weekly real estate roundup. If you have news tips, please send them to kmiller@pbpost.com. Help support our local journalism, subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Is red tide harmful to humans? Here are 6 things you should know
Ricou Browning, the underwater stuntman who portrayed the Gill-man in the 1954 horror classic Creature trom the Black Lagoon and its sequels and went on to co-produce the dolphin tale Flipper for both the big screen and television, died quietly Sunday of natural causes at his home in Southwest Ranches, FL. He was 93.

His son Ricou Browning Jr, who works as a marine coordinator for film and TV productions, confirmed his fathers death to Deadline.

More from Deadline

Related Story

Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2023: Photo Gallery & Obituaries

Related Story

Brett Radin Dies: Talent Manager With Knitting Factory Management Was 53

Related Story

Gordon Pinsent Dies: Iconic Canadian Actor In Film And Television Was 92

Considered to be the last surviving original actor to portray any of the Universal Classic Monsters, Florida native Browning studied physical education at Florida State University before landing a job in the 1940s at Wakulla Springs, a scenic park that had been used since the 1930s for underwater locations on various Tarzan movies.

Working at Wakulla Springs, Browning began performing in the underwater shows and newsreels conceived by fellow swimmer and promoter Newt Perry. In 1953 Browning was tasked with assisting a film crew scouting locations for an upcoming Universal horror film. Soon hed be asked to don the humanoid fish costume that would become an iconic image in Hollywood horror: the Gill-man of director Jack Arnolds Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954).

Ricou Browning and cameraman Scotty Welbourne shooting Creature From the Black Lagoon

Although actor Ben Chapman wore a Creature costume for the land scenes, it was Brownings gracefully creepy aquatic performance that lent the film its most compellingly hypnotic scenes. Particularly memorable is a sequence in which Brownings Gill-man swims just below the films heroine played by Julia Adams.

Story continues

Browning would go on to reprise the underwater role in the sequels Revenge of the Creature (1955) and The Creature Walks Among Us (1956).

By the early 1960s Browning would branch out into other water-related aspects of the film and TV industries. In 1963, he ad writer Jack Cowden co-created a story about a highly intelligent bottlenose dolphin. The 1963 film Flipper  written by Arthur Weiss, produced by Ivan Tors and directed by James B. Clark  would do for dolphins what the earlier Lassie had done for collies.

A TV series adapted from the film would run on NBC from 1964-67. Browning directed more than 30 episodes of the series, which starred Chuck Connors as a warden of a fictional state park in Florida. Child actor Tommy Norden portrayed the wardens son Bud, who befriended the title mammal. Around the same time, Browning directed episodes of CBS Gentle Ben, adding a bear to the TV menagerie.

His other credits include directing underwater sequences of the 1969 Tony Randall-Janet Leigh comedy Hello Down There, and four years later he directed the family film Salty, about a friendly sea lion and his human companions.

Browning worked steadily over the next several decades as second unit director, stunt coordinator or underwater sequence director on such films as Thunderball (1965), Around the World Under the Sea (1966), Island of the Lost (1967) and Never Say Never Again (1983).

In 1980, Browning was a second unit director on Harold Ramis Caddyshack, lending his underwater skills to one of the comedys most notorious segments: a swimming pool scene that parodied the opening moments of Jaws, but with the shark replaced by a terrifying chocolate candy bar.

Along with his son, who followed his father into acting and stunt work, Browning is survived by his daughters Renee, Kelly and Kim and other extended family.

Best of Deadline

Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.
On 1 March 1978, Charlie Chaplins coffin disappeared. The filmmaker had been buried two months prior following his death on Christmas Day in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland. (Chaplin, a native of London, moved to Switzerland with his wife and their children in 1953.)

Chaplin was 88 years old at the time of his death, and the celebrated director behind silent films such as The Kid, The Gold Rush, and City Lights, and talkies (as films containing spoken lines were once called) such as Modern Times, The Great Dictator, and Monsieur Verdoux.

The disappearance of his coffin 45 years ago is still remembered as an especially brazen instance of grave robbing.

Chaplins wife Oona Chaplin received a ransom demand of some $600,000, after which police officers began monitoring phone lines in the area, according to The History Channel. Authorities arrested two men, Roman Wardas and Gantscho Ganev, in connection to the theft and ultimately led police to the field in which they had buried the coffin.

Wardas was described by The Guardian in a report dated 12 December 1978 as a young Polish refugee and a car mechanic. He told the court he took part in the robbery because he, like Ganev, was experiencing financial issues.

As a result I decided to hide Charlie Chaplins body and solve my problems, he said, according to the newspaper. Wardas told the court he had asked Ganev, a friend of his, to assist in the theft.

Charlie Chaplin looking at a movie camera (Keystone/Getty Images)

Charlie Chaplins stolen coffin, which was found after being stolen by two men (Central Press/Getty Images)

Police at the desecrated grave of Charlie Chaplin in the cemetery at Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland, March 1978 (Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Charlie Chaplins family attend his funeral on 30 December 1977 in the cemetery at Corsier-sur-Vevey, near Lake Geneva (Central Press/Getty Images)

Ganev, according to The Guardian, told the court he had been jailed in Bulgaria after trying to flee to Turkey, but had eventually succeeded in escaping to the West, finding work as a car mechanic in Lausanne. The newspaper reported that Wardas was sentenced to four and a half years of hard labor for the theft, and Ganev received a suspended sentence of 18 months.

Years later, in 2014, the incident became the basis of the French film The Price of Fame, directed by Xavier Beauvois and starring Belgian actor and comedian Benoit Poelvoorde. As reported by The Independent that year, Charlie and Oonas son Eugene and their granddaughter Dolores both appeared in it.

Story continues

Charlie Chaplin signs a copy of his autobiography for a fan on 13 January 1975 (Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Charlie Chaplin (right) and his wife Oona ONeill (second from right), with their children Geraldine, Sydney, Josephine, Michael, and Jane (left to right) (Daily Express/Archive Photos/Getty Images)

Eugene, speaking to The Independent at the time, recounted how his family first learned that Charlies coffin had been stolen. We got a phone call from the police who said, look, somebody has dug up the grave, he said. The coffin has gone. It was a horrendous thing to happenespecially in Switzerland where everything is so quiet.

Per Eugene, the wife of one of the robbers once wrote to Oona to ask for forgiveness for her husbands actions. My mother wrote back saying. Look, I have nothing especially against you and all is forgiven, Eugene told The Independent.

The coffin was buried again in its original spot in Corsier-sur-Vevey, where it remains.
It looks like the plays the (stranger) thing!

Londons Phoenix Theatre is planning to turn things Upside Down when it debuts Stranger Things: The First Shadow, a prequel theatrical experience tied to the runaway Netflix hit. The fifth and final season of the series begins production this May, and the new play will be up later this year.

More from GoldDerby

The author is Kate Trefry, a staff writer, story editor, and co-executive producer on the series, credited as writer on three teleplays, one from the second, third, and fourth seasons. The prequel play is based on a story from Trefry and Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer, as well as Jack Thorne. Thorne is the writer behind Netflixs hit Enola Holmes, but, more relevant to this endeavor, he is the author of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the two-part theatrical experience/license to print money with productions in London, New York, Melbourne, San Francisco, Hamburg, Toronto, and Tokyo.

The three-time Tony winner and three-time Oscar nominee Stephen Daldry (The Reader, Billy Elliot) will co-direct the piece with Justin Martin. (Martin, a respected theater director, also has some credits on Netflixs The Crown.)

Of the project, the Duffer Brothers said, You will meet endearing new characters, as well as very familiar ones, on a journey into the past that sets the groundwork for the future of Stranger Things. Were dying to tell you more about the story but wont  its more fun to discover it for yourself. Cant wait to see you nerds in London.

An official synopsis reads Hawkins, 1959: a regular town with regular worries. Young Jim Hoppers car wont start, Bob Newbys sister wont take his radio show seriously and Joyce Maldonado just wants to graduate and get the hell out of town. When new student Henry Creel arrives, his family finds that a fresh start isnt so easy  and the shadows of the past have a very long reach. Brought to life by a multi-award-winning creative team, who take theatrical storytelling and stagecraft to a whole new dimension, this gripping new adventure will take you right back to the beginning of the Stranger Things story  and may hold the key to the end.

Story continues

As fans of the show know, those aforementioned names are central characters in the Stranger Things Netflix franchise. David Harbour and Winona Ryder play, respectively, Hopper and Joyce on the flagship series. Bob Newby was played by Sean Astin in Season 2 before the character met a grisly end, while Jamie Campbell Bower starred as the erstwhile Henry Creel in Season 4  better known in the shows present setting as Vecna, the villainous Big Bad of the whole shebang.

No word on if Kate Bushs music will somehow be involved. Or if/when The First Shadow will hit Broadway.

The 92-year-old, 1000+ capacity Phoenix Theatre, located on Charing Cross Road, is currently running a production of the reliable comedy Noises Off. Recent hits have included Come from Away, Bend it Like Beckham: The Musical, and The Girls, the inspiration for the film Calendar Girls. The musical Blood Brothers ran there from 1991 through 2012, and prior to that it saw the West End premiere of Stephen Sondheims Into The Woods. During the Second World War, John Gielgud performed in Love For Love at the theater. Terence Rattigans The Browning Version debuted there in the 1950s, as did Tom Stoppards Night and Day in the 1970s.

PREDICT the 2023 Oscar winners through March 12

Make your predictions at Gold Derby now. Download our free and easy app for Apple/iPhone devices or Android (Google Play) to compete against legions of other fans plus our experts and editors for best prediction accuracy scores. See our latest prediction champs. Can you top our esteemed leaderboards next? Always remember to keep your predictions updated because they impact our latest racetrack odds, which terrify Hollywood chiefs and stars. Dont miss the fun. Speak up and share your huffy opinions in our famous forums where 5,000 showbiz leaders lurk every day to track latest awards buzz. Everybody wants to know: What do you think? Who do you predict and why?

SIGN UP for Gold Derbys free newsletter with latest predictions

Best of GoldDerby

Sign up for Gold Derby's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.
The Supreme Court appears willing to let New Jersey unilaterally exit the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, a bistate police agency created to crack down on corruption immortalized in the Marlon Brando movie On The Waterfront.

All nine justices had tough questions for New York over the course of more than an hour of oral arguments on Wednesday. New York is trying to save the commission from New Jerseys exit, a move that would effectively kill it. For New Jersey and the federal government, which is supporting New Jersey's position, the justices seemed to mostly wonder how they could side with New Jersey without causing chaos and uncertainty for other multistate deals, like the one that created the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

The two states created the Waterfront Commission in 1953 to go after mobs and corrupt labor practices at the New York-New Jersey container port. The agreement between the two states, known as a compact, lacks language on what happens when either side wants to leave the commission, which New Jersey now wants to do. Disputes between states head straight to the high court.

The shipping industry, the powerful union that represents dock workers and nearly every New Jersey politician  including current Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy  all argue the commission has outlived its useful life by choking off harbor business and causing labor shortages. They argue the commission does more to keep alive old and outdated stereotypes of violent thuggery than it does to actually clean up the port.

New York has warned New Jersey is heading down a path that would invite violence and enable corruption by threatening to return the waterfront to the dark ways of the past and would worsen conditions at the port, creating yet another crisis in the American supply chain.

Lawyers for each state faced robust questioning from the court Wednesday.

At times, though, the justices answered their own questions. Chief Justice John Roberts told New Yorks deputy solicitor general Judith Vale that its harder to unscramble the eggs at the Port Authority  which is tasked with overseeing bridges, tunnels, trains, docks and airports in both states  than it is to unwind the relatively small Waterfront Commission, an agency of about 70 people that licenses dock workers.

Story continues

At another point, the chief justice seemed to reverse course and asked how easy it would truly be to divide up the Waterfront Commissions buildings, bank accounts and investigations. Roberts wondered if it made sense to let New Jersey just walk away."

But the chief justices question was one of the few skeptical questions the justices had for New Jersey Solicitor General Jeremy Feigenbaum or assistant to federal solicitor general Austin Raynor.

What the justices asked

In other questions Wednesday, the justices mostly seemed to be checking to see how they could side with New Jersey without affecting multistate deals setting boundary lines or dividing up water rights.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett said water rights were like property rights  you can't sell a house then take it back  and those disputes could be distinguished from New Jersey and New York's dispute, which involves continuing performance by each state of certain tasks, like licensing workers.

She and other justices kept turning back to basics of contract law: Unless an agreement says how it will end, one party can end it.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor kept saying she wanted to find the simplest rule for dealing with such disputes and said it doesnt make any sense to assume one state should be able to hold another to an agreement like this forever.

Justice Samuel Alito likewise wondered what an extraordinary thing it would be to allow one state to lock another into an agreement like this against the other states will.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson also wondered if simple rules of basic contract law would allow the court to side with New Jersey without creating complications in other cases that reach the court  especially water rights cases, some of which have consumed the courts attention for decades.

New York's Vale said the commission remains vital and the states even modified the agreement in 2006, an indication they believed the problems it was meant to solve  creating a fair way to license workers and keep crime off the waterfront  remained a problem.

The case reached the court last spring, just as New Jersey was finalizing long-awaited plans to exit the commission thanks to a law former Republican Gov. Chris Christie signed on his last day in office after having vetoed a previous version of it. Under the 2018 law, the state would quit the commission and put the New Jersey State Police in charge of policing the waterfront.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul surprised Murphy when she decided to sue to save the commission. Not only that, but New York began a bitter fight that drew on history  some would say stereotypes  of organized crime in New Jersey.

However, the mob was barely mentioned Wednesday and debates about how much crime there is doesn't seem likely to play into the justices ultimate decision. Unlike other cases, where facts are in dispute, the court didnt appoint a special master to try to get to the bottom of that argument. Instead, the justices are expected to decide by interpreting the decades-old agreement that formed the commission.

This isnt the first time the high court has been asked to consider the issue. A previous case in lower courts held up New Jerseys exit for several years.

In late 2021, the court handed New Jersey a victory by declining to hear an appeal of a lower court ruling that sided with New Jerseys argument that the commission didnt have standing to sue the state to save itself. At the time, New York was still on the sidelines but everyone agreed New York would have standing if it wanted to take New Jersey to court. So the courts decision not to hear the previous case intensified the standoff between New York and New Jersey that led to the case justices now must decide.

A ruling is expected by the end of the court's term in June.
The screen limit is among other safety measures for minors the app announced it would roll out in the coming weeks. Courtesy of TikTok

TikTok announced a new one-hour screen time limit for teens, among other controls.

The app is also expanding parental control features that filter what type of videos minors see.

A bill that would ban TikTok in the US was advanced by the US House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday.

Minors using TikTok will soon be limited on how much time they're able to scroll the app, thanks to a new automatic setting implemented for anyone under 18.

In a blog post published Wednesday, TikTok announced it is making "changes to help teens manage their time on TikTok" in the coming weeks. Although the setting can be toggled off, teens will be automatically prompted to enter a passcode when they hit the 60-minute limit.

Teenage TikTokers will also receive a weekly recap of their screen time in their inbox on the app. The new rollout has tested well for the company, which saw a 234% increase in the use of its screen time tools in the first month, according to the blog post.

"While there's no collectively endorsed position on the 'right' amount of screen time or even the impact of screen time more broadly, we consulted the current academic research and experts from the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children's Hospital in choosing this limit," Cormac Keenan, TikTok's head of trust and safety, wrote in the blog post.

TikTok also announced updates to its Family Pairing feature that will allow a parent or guardian to link their account to their teen's TikTok and set parental controls. The controls will make it possible to filter videos with certain words or hashtags from their child's For You Page and set a customizable schedule that would mute TikTok notifications.

The app, owned by Chinese technology company ByteDance, has proved particularly popular among Gen Z users. In September, Google Senior Vice President Prabhakar Raghavan said almost 40% of young people use TikTok instead of Google when looking for restaurant suggestions.

Despite TikTok's popularity among those born after 1996, screen time limits may not be enough for US lawmakers who are seeking to ban the app completely due to security concerns over providing China with access to user data. The US House Foreign Affairs Committee voted on Wednesday to advance a bill that would give President Joe Biden the power to ban TikTok, according to a report from CNBC.

Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, sponsor of the act to ban TikTok, dubbed the app "digital fentanyl," Insider's Brian Metzger reported last week.

Read the original article on Business Insider
CHICAGO  The head of the Chicago Police Department and the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois announced their resignations Wednesday, hours after Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot lost her bid for reelection.

Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown is resigning effective March 16, Lightfoot said in a statement. He turns 63 in October of this year  the mandatory retirement age for Chicago police officers.

John Lausch Jr., head of the U.S. Attorney's office in Chicago, is resigning effective March 11, his office said in a statement. Appointed by former President Donald Trump, Lausch oversaw an initial review of President Joe Biden's handling of classified documents and had previously indicated his intention to leave the office.

Official news of the departures comes after Lightfoot failed to win enough votes in Tuesday's mayoral election to advance to an April runoff. None of the nine candidates won a majority in the officially nonpartisan election.

Paul Vallas, 69, the former head of Chicago Public Schools, and Brandon Johnson, 46, on the Cook County Board of Commissioners, came out as the top two vote-getters. Both have said they would replace Brown if elected.

Here's what to know.

Chicago police Superintendent David Brown speaks to media during a news conference at police headquarters, Wednesday, May 26, 2021, on the police department's new draft of a foot pursuit policy.

Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown resigns

Brown informed Lightfoot of the decision on Wednesday, Lightfoot said. He took over as head of the nation's second-largest municipal police department in April of 2020, overseeing the agency amid rising crime at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and protests in the wake of the murder of George Floyd.

First Deputy Eric Carter will be appointed as interim superintendent until the new mayor is sworn into office, Lightfoot said. She called on the city's newly formed civilian police oversight body  the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability  to immediately begin the search for a new superintendent.

In a statement, Lightfoot applauded Brown for setting a record number of illegal gun recoveries for two years, leading a double-digit reduction in violent crime in 2022, standing up a full-time recruitment team that yielded over 950 new hires, expanding resources for officer wellness and promoting more women to senior ranks.

Story continues

"I personally want to thank him for his service to our city," Lightfoot said.

In a statement, Brown said he accepted a job as Chief Operating Officer of Loncar Lyon Jenkins, a personal injury law firm with seven offices in Texas. He said he's stepping down "so the incoming mayor can begin the process as soon as possible to hire the next Superintendent."

"It has been an honor and a privilege to work alongside the brave men and women of the Chicago Police Department," Brown said. "I will continue to pray that all officers return home to their families safe at the end of their shift. May the Good Lord bless the city of Chicago and the men and women who serve and protect this great city."

The Chicago Police Department has about 12,000 sworn officers and has long been plagued by scandals. A Justice Department report released in 2017 found the CPD is beset by widespread racial bias, excessive use of force, poor training and feckless oversight of officers accused of misconduct.

The department and city since 2019 have been under a federal consent decree, a court-approved settlement that requires the department to reform training, policies and practices in a number of areas.

John Lausch, U.S. Attorney in Chicago, resigns

Lausch formally announced his departure moments after news of Brown's resignation late Wednesday. He's served in the role since late 2017.

During his tenure, Lausch focused on prosecuting in the areas of violent crime, public corruption, national security, financial fraud and drug trafficking. He spearheaded the office through the COVID-19 pandemic and oversaw criminal charges against numerous people for allegedly using the crisis to commit fraud.

He also oversaw multiple racketeering prosecutions of members of organized criminal street gangs and gang factions, as well as of illegal gun offenders, and launched a Gun Crimes Prosecution Team and a Gun Trafficking Strike Force.

"It has been the privilege of a lifetime to lead the U.S. Attorneys Office in Chicago," Lausch said.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Morris "Sonny" Pasqual will assume the position on an acting basis, the office said in a statement.

What the Chicago mayoral candidates are saying

In a statement, Johnson said: "The next superintendent of the Chicago Police Department must be as fully committed to the health and safety of all Chicagoans as I am, and to immediately meeting all requirements of the federal consent decree while addressing the root causes of crime."

"As mayor, my preference will be to appoint someone from within the current ranks of the Department, but most important is appointing the right person for the job  someone who is collaborative, competent and compassionate, and who truly cares about protecting and serving the people of our city," Johnson said.

Vallas characterized Brown's resignation as a "positive step forward," according to a statement.

"As Mayor, I will appoint a new police superintendent and command team from within CPD that will prioritize community policing, end the failed friends and family promotion system and invest in building trust between the police and our communities," Vallas said. "Public safety is a civil right and as Mayor I will work with CPD and all of our communities to make Chicago the safest big city in America."

Dig deeper

Contributing: Jeanine Santucci, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Chicago police chief David Brown to resign March 16
Register for more free articles. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading.

Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! Already a Subscriber? Already a Subscriber? Sign in Terms of Service Privacy Policy
KISS has finally announced an end date for their End of the Road Tour.

The band is set to wrap the trek, which they say is their final tour ever, with a two-night run at New York City's Madison Square Garden Dec. 2 and 3.

MORE: The Chicks announce 2023 world tour with special guests

"KISS was born in New York City. On 23rd Street. Half a century ago," the band said in a statement. "It will be a privilege and honor to finish touring at Madison Square Garden, 10 blocks and 50 years from where we first started."

PHOTO: Promotional poster for the 'End of the Road' world tour by rock and roll legends KISS. (Live Nation Entertainment)

Presale tickets for the KISS Army go on sale March 6 at 10 a.m. local time, with the general sale set for March 10 at 10 a.m. local time.

MORE: Beyonce announces 'Renaissance' world tour for 2023

PHOTO: Members of the band Kiss, from left, Tommy Thayer, Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons and Eric Singer attend the premiere of A&E Network's 'Biography: KISStory' in New York, June 11, 2021. (Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

KISS' End of the Road Tour is set to relaunch April 12 in Brazil and returns to the U.S. May 27 in Columbus, Ohio.

The final leg of the tour kicks off Oct. 29 in Austin, Texas, and includes Canadian dates, plus stops in Los Angeles, Seattle and more, before they end in the Big Apple.

A complete list of dates can be found at kissonline.com.

KISS announces final shows of their final tour originally appeared on goodmorningamerica.com
Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, are losing their official royal residence in the United Kingdom.

Harry and Meghan, who now live full-time in California, have been asked to leave Frogmore Cottage, their home since 2019, according to a spokesperson for the couple.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been requested to vacate their residence at Frogmore Cottage," the spokesperson told ABC News in a statement Wednesday.

The spokesperson did not comment on when the Sussexes will move out of the home.

Buckingham Palace has not commented.

Harry's father, King Charles III, is said to have made the decision to move his son and daughter-in-law out of their home in January, shortly after Harry's bombshell memoir "Spare" was released, according to ABC News contributor Omid Scobie.

According to Scobie and The Sun newspaper, Frogmore Cottage has instead been offered to Charles' younger brother, Prince Andrew, who is no longer a working royal after facing scrutiny over his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

PHOTO: A general view of Frogmore Cottage on the Home Park Estate, Jan. 14, 2020, in Windsor, U.K. (Steve Parsons - Pa Images/PA Images via Getty Images)

Harry and Meghan are also no longer senior working royals after stepping down from their roles in 2020, becoming financially independent and moving to California.

The reported changes with Frogmore Cottage come less than six months after the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September, at which point Charles, her eldest son, became king.

In 2019, the queen allowed Harry and Meghan to move from Kensington Palace to Frogmore Cottage, which sits on the grounds of Windsor Castle, about 25 miles outside of London.

The couple renovated the home -- an 18th century house that had been converted into apartments for royal staff -- and moved in shortly before the May 2019 birth of their first child, a son named Archie.

When Harry and Meghan stepped down from their senior royal roles one year later, they agreed to pay back to U.K. taxpayers the approximately $3 million price tag for the Frogmore Cottage renovations.

Story continues

PHOTO: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex after a boat trip during the Invictus Games Dusseldorf 2023 - One Year To Go events, Sept. 6, 2022, in Dusseldorf, Germany. (Patrick Van Katwijk/Getty Images)

After that, the couple kept the home as their official U.K. residence and retained financial responsibility for the property.

As they lived full-time in California, the Sussexes shared the home at one point with Andrew's daughter Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank.

MORE: Prince Harry opens up about rift with royal family and whether he can return to royal role

When Harry and Meghan returned to the U.K. last year for the queen's jubilee and then several months later for her funeral, they stayed at Frogmore Cottage. Glimpses of the home were also seen recently in the couple's Netflix docuseries "Harry & Meghan."

In the docuseries, Harry and Meghan spoke about how they thought they would raise their children at Frogmore Cottage and live their lives there.

"It never needed to be this way," Harry said in the series. "We talked about this over and over again, sitting up late in the kitchen after these late-night engagements, saying, 'We would have carried on doing this for the rest of our lives.'"

The Sussexes have made only rare visits to the U.K. since leaving their royal roles and amid a legal battle over security protection while they are in the U.K.

In his recent memoir, Harry described tensions within his family, particularly between himself and his father and brother Prince William.

MORE: Prince Harry says Princess Diana would be 'sad' about rift between her sons

Harry told "Good Morning America" co-anchor Michael Strahan in an interview prior to the memoir's release that he did not believe the details he shared in "Spare" could make things any worse with his family.

"I have thought about it long and hard," Harry said. "And as far as I see it, the divide couldn't be greater before this book."

Neither Kensington Palace -- the office of William and Kate, the Princess of Wales -- nor Buckingham Palace, the office of Charles and Camilla, the Queen Consort, have commented on the claims Harry made in "Spare."

Prince Harry, Meghan asked to 'vacate' Frogmore Cottage, their UK home originally appeared on goodmorningamerica.com
The natural beauty was featured in the 2010 SI Swimsuit Issue.

Dominique Piek was photographed by Walter Iooss Jr. in the Maldives. Walter Iooss Jr./Sports Illustrated

Dominique Piek was featured in the SI Swimsuit Issue in 2010 when she traveled to the Maldives to pose for photographer Walter Iooss Jr.

The South African model has also worked with notable brands including Ralph Lauren, Intimissimi and Victorias Secret, and has graced the cover of publications like GQ South Africa, Shape and Cosmopolitan. Today, Piek is a mom and continues to work as a model.

Its one of the, if not the, most beautiful places Ive ever seen in my life, Piek said of her first-ever trip to the Maldives for her photo shoot. Ive always wanted to come here.

The 37-year-old added that the location was breathtaking and she was spoiled by the beauty she was surrounded by on set.

You couldnt do a better [photo] shoot than this, I was just roaming around in the sands, splashing around in the water, she stated. Its supposed to be fun and natural and its just amazing.

Three years after her SI Swimsuit photo shoot, Piek revealed that she met with the Swim Team editors twice before she was booked for her featurebut it was well worth the wait.

I waited for almost a month before we got word that I got the job and I have to say it was one of the most exciting phone calls I ever received from my agent, she gushed.

Below are eight of our favorite images of Piek in the Maldives.

Walter Iooss Jr./Sports Illustrated

Walter Iooss Jr./Sports Illustrated

Walter Iooss Jr./Sports Illustrated

Walter Iooss Jr./Sports Illustrated

Walter Iooss Jr./Sports Illustrated

Walter Iooss Jr./Sports Illustrated

Walter Iooss Jr./Sports Illustrated

Walter Iooss Jr./Sports Illustrated

Make sure to follow SI Swimsuit on YouTube!
Andreas von Einsiedel/Getty

Southerners are a nostalgic bunch. From perfectly seasoned cast iron skillet passed down from the generation before us to Nanas hand-embroidered napkins, every item handed down to usand there are a lot of themtells a story. But eventually, our house starts bursting at the seams (or maybe it just feels like it) and it becomes time to make some tough decisions. This can sometimes lead to panic, stress, and regret, but it doesnt have to. We chatted with two of the Souths foremost professional organizers about how to declutter sentimental items guilt-free.

Give Yourself Grace

As a professional organizer, Clara Schoen of The Home Organized in Birmingham, Alabama, has experienced just how different peoples timelines can beand insists they should be respected. You should never force someone to do something that makes them so uncomfortable that it brings up guilt and shame because they let it go, she says. Doing so ultimately backfires, and makes it more difficult to declutter in the future.

Be Realistic

The amount of items you can justify keeping in a 1,700 square foot house is going to be much less than a 5,000 square foot house. Weigh the pros and cons of what actually can work for you in your current space, not whatever space you might have one day, explains Shoen. For her, it comes down to one simple question: What capacity do you have, currently, to store these items? The memories of the past are valuable, and at the same time dont deserve to impede on your present and future.

Set Limits

Once youre realistic about the space you have, you can set fair limits for how much to keep. In addition to minimizing clutter, Margaret Ellison of Sunday Plans in Charleston, South Carolina, believes this management helps you become more discerning. When that box is full, you either have to remove things if you want to add to it, or you can't add to it. This will force you to repeatedly question what you think is sentimental, she shares.

Story continues

Start With The Easy Stuff

Theres a reason why Marie Kondos famous decluttering process starts with clothes and ends with sentimental items. Get rid of the other items first that you arent so connected to, so you can learn how it feels to actually let go of things, Shoen says. This also teaches you how you respond to items worthy of keeping versus items that arent.

Digitize

Once upon a time, before the invention of Dropbox or iCloud, it might have been easier to justify keeping more stuff. Now, however, we can keep tangible reminders without using a single fraction of a square foot. If you have a picture, its not taking up physical clutter in your house, so you can let go of the item and still have the memory, declares Shoen.

For kid art specifically, Ellison recommends sending the best of the best (that you arent hanging up) off to a service like Artkive to be turned into a digital gallery, art book, or framed mosaic.

Keep Whats Special

According to Ellison, if everything is sentimental, nothing is sentimental. This reframing of all the heirlooms and kid art youve amassed allows you to think critically about what you truly think is special. Spoiler alert: Its not everything youve been holding onto.

Think About Your Why

For some, the idea of having a manageable home is all the motivation they need to start combing through stuff. The house gets messy, but it doesnt get chaotic to where it cant be tidied really quickly, and that feels so much better, Shoen insists.

For others, the incentive to declutter sentimental items is about the effect on loved ones. You dont want them to have to take on that burden once you pass, because its already so much, Shoen often tells those who hold onto everything for their family to inherit. Besides, these items will be much more of a gift if they are curated and few, reasons Ellison.

Ask Around

The rule in Shoens family is that before you sell or donate an heirloom you dont want, consider if theres anyone in your family who does. You dont get rid of it. You offer it first to family members. Then if no one wants it, you can let it go, she explains. And were not saving it for the next generationI have permission to let it go. I dont have to save it for our children.

Remember One Truth

Above all else, Shoen emphasizes that decluttering doesnt negate the people you love or make the memories any less. The point of keeping sentimental items isnt to recall each individual moment, she says, and is more about the essence of all the memories together. Thoughtful curation creates a whole picture without all of the things.

For more Southern Living news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on Southern Living.
The trial of Charlie Adelson, the accused ringleader in the 2014 murder-for-hire of Florida State law professor Dan Markel, has been postponed at the request of the defense.

On Tuesday, Leon Circuit Judge Robert Wheeler granted the request to continue the trial, which had been set for April 24. One of Adelsons lawyers, Daniel Rashbaum of Miami, asked for the continuance earlier this month. In a court motion, Rashbaum said the defense was still poring over discovery, including more than a thousand wiretap conversations, many in Spanish, and voluminous data files including phone calls, emails, texts, social media posts and bank records.

The truth is we just need a little bit more time, Rashbaum told Wheeler during a hearing at the Leon County Courthouse.

Analysis:What got Katherine Magbanua convicted of Dan Markels murder? Heres what her lawyer said

The family perspective:Dan Markel murder: Road to justice continues for family with Magbanua life sentence

A proffer?Could Katherine Magbanua get an 'unusual' deal in Dan Markel murder case? Attorneys weigh in

Solitary:Dan Markel murder: Held in solitary confinement since April, Charlie Adelson denied bond

Prosecutors' plan:With Magbanua conviction in Markel murder, prosecutors set their sights toward Charlie Adelson

Rashbaum had suggested starting the trial in late July or early August. But Assistant State Attorney Sarah Kathryn Dugan said that would conflict with other murder trials scheduled for the same time. Wheeler asked the lawyers to check their calendar and propose new dates for perhaps late September and early October.

I dont think that a motion for continuance given the gravity of the case and the amount of material that defense has to review is unreasonable at this time, Wheeler said. I know both parties have worked hard  its not through any fault of anyone.

Wheeler also granted a request by Adelsons lawyers to seal proffers Katherine Magbanua made to state prosecutors last year after she was convicted in Markels murder. The state didnt oppose the request, but a lawyer for WCTV and Court TV argued that the proffers were public records and shouldnt be sealed in part because they didnt pose a serious and imminent threat to the administration of justice in the case, which has drawn international attention for nearly a decade.

Story continues

Rashbaum told the court that the proffers did not incriminate his client. However, he said they should be sealed until trial because its the right thing to do.

Wheeler, who said he must balance the public's right of access versus the right of the defendant to have a fair trial, said disclosing the proffers "would further aggravate the pretrial publicity" in the case.

"The court recognizes the public's right to the public record, but in this case, the defendant's need for a fair and impartial jury overrides that public interest," Wheeler said.

Markel, a father of two, was found murdered in his garage in Betton Hills on July 19, 2014. Three people have been convicted thus far in his murder: the two hitmen, Luis Rivera and Sigfredo Garcia, and Magbanua, who was dating Adelson and is the mother of Garcia's children.

Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com and follow @JeffBurlew on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Dan Markel murder: Charlie Adelson trial delayed until the fall
Weve been very quiet since COVID[-19] because of all the things that happened. When COVID[-19] came, I thought to myself, this is a moment to reset the clock,' said Diane von Furstenberg, chairman and founder of her namesake company, in an interview at her office in Manhattans Meatpacking District.

The company was losing money at the time, had too many outlet stores and they had to decide whether to declare bankruptcy or sell the business. I had offers, but then I would have to relinquish all of the assets, the archives, the trademarks.I started to make a list of the assets  and my family wouldnt let me relinquish the assets, said the 76-year-old von Furstenberg.

More from WWD

She recalled when her children were growing up she would always say, I have three children  a daughter, a son and a brand. I dont know that they liked it. A few years ago Alex [her son] was very passionate in a meeting, and said, This brand is my brother.'

Von Furstenberg said they have since cleaned up the business, closed 12 out of 13 stores in the U.S. and six units in the U.K. and European Union and invested significantly into taking care of everything and taking care of everybody. Six additional U.S. stores had been closed between 2016 and 2019.

In October 2020, the brand entered a partnership with Glamel Trading Ltd., a Hong Kong-based firm. They are the operations partner with DVF, which is exclusive to Glamel. Glamels China team handles production while its London team is in charge of global e-commerce and wholesale jointly with DVFs New York team, which handles the design direction, print, social media, public relations and marketing.

DVF has since wiped the slate clean and today only manufactures ready-to-wear, generating $130 million in retail sales. There are no licensing agreements and they are basically rebuilding the brand, which von Furstenberg called the third rebirth at the company.

Story continues

A fall look from DVF.

Thats quite a difference from 2014, when at its height the company was generating about $500 million in retail volume. At that time I felt we should push the accelerator and thats when we made mistakes. They started to open a lot of outlet stores, and wanted to build, build, build. And then I let [earlier management] do that, admitted von Furstenberg.

Fast-forward to 2023 and the slimmer business is a lot more focused.

People involved here have been amazing and did a great job cleaning it up. It has wonderful assets, is completely virgin, is very clean and has a 50-year history. Thats worth a lot, said von Furstenberg, noting the business isnt for sale but they are talking to partners for additional help.

Were at a new dawn. DVF is at its maximum flexibility in where it can go, she said.

The new regime is headed by Gabby Hirata, 34, president and chief executive officer, and von Furstenbergs 23-year-old granddaughter Talita, who is vice chairwoman of the company, both of whom participated in the interview.

Throughout the companys 50-year history, DVF has only used only two factories. Von Furstenberg recalled that she started as an intern at Manufactura Ferretti in Como, Italy, and learned everything about printing from the owner, Angelo Ferretti. Next door, there was a factory that made stockings. With the advent of pantyhose, that factory went bankrupt and was sold to Ferretti. That factory had tubular knitting machines and they experimented using thicker yarns, and thats how they invented the jersey, said von Furstenberg. They started to make T-shirts and printed them, and went into polo shirts and shirtdresses.

She explained that she came to the U.S. to visit her then-boyfriend Egon von Furstenberg, and met Giorgio di SantAngelo and Stephen Burrows, who designed clothes using jersey. When I went back, all I could think about was how do I go back to America? When I arrived at the factory, all of a sudden, this factory in the middle of nowhere, I thought, Heres an opportunity, and this is what I decided to do. Thats when I started to make my first little dresses, von Furstenberg recalled.

Egon von Furstenberg came to visit her and they got engaged. He went to Asia and by the time he arrived, I was pregnant, she said. They got married, and she launched her business in 1973 in the U.S. In 1974 she created the wrap dress, which catapulted her career.

The knowledge that I learned in Italy 25 years ago, I brought to China, she said. She brought that exact machine to China, they sent technical people from Italy to set it up, and thats the second factory shes ever been involved with.

During COVID-19, she said she had responsibility to that factory and owed them money. By then, my biggest client was my Chinese distributor, said von Furstenberg.

Jessie Chen, who established Glamel in 2020, had been exclusively operating the DVF franchisee business in China from 2011 to the present. The DVF China franchisee business entity, Shanghai Fairywood Co., where Chen is the general manager and cofounder, was established in 2011 and exclusively operates the DVF brand, and has grown the business from one store to 57 stores and expanded the e-commerce business. High Fashion is the factory in China that has been DVFs supply chain partner for 25 years, and partners with Glamel and DVF to make DVF womenswear.

It was very important that I continued the relationship with them, said von Furstenberg.

The DVF flagship is on Tmall Luxury Pavillion and a stand-alone DVF China site will be launched in 2024.

Hirata came to the company in January 2020 as head of business development for the Asia-Pacific region, having previously worked at Jill Stuart, Adeam International and Ralph Lauren. One day in March 2020 she walked into DVFs office and asked if they could host a small gathering with Chinese influencers at her office and make a Be Strong Wuhan, With Love From Diane, T-shirt and show support. They did a livestream video and talked candidly about the difficult times.

The only reason that Im bringing this up is thats when I noticed Gabby  that she was both clever and intelligent, compassionate and business-savvy, said von Furstenberg. On the livestream, they sold out 150 T-shirts, as well as some selected wrap dresses, with 100 percent of the proceeds going to the Adream Foundation to help elementary schools in Wuhan to sterilize equipment and classrooms against the coronavirus.

Von Furstenberg said she needed someone like Hirata, who would speak Chinese to the factory staff and reassure them, and speak to Chen and reassure her.

Von Furstenberg noted that Hirata had the idea that since everything is made in China, why dont they get involved with the production and all the other activities there? Hirata said the office in Beijing is like a miniature of the New York headquarters, where theres a retail team, logistics team, I.T. team, etc. With a strong production background, Hirati spent hours sharing her knowledge with Chen.

Today the global business is one-third online, one-third wholesale and one-third direct-to-consumer.

The last three years weve been very much under the radar, said von Furstenberg.

The brand sells to Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Revolve, Mytheresa, Net-a-porter and Zalando, along with selling plus-size dresses to Dia & Co. They also sell Rent the Runway, where DVF has an 88 percent use rate, said Hirata.

Meanwhile, von Furstenberg has spent a lot of time creating the archive (past styles, images, videos), listing the assets (hundreds of thousands of prints), figuring out why her brand matters, and what it stands for. First of all, she said, they have an iconic dress that has sold for 50 years.

We have an incredible library of prints, a system. Very often we went off the system. When you hire a new CEO or a new designer, they want to reinvent the wheel. But there is a formula, a very interesting formula that we should go back to, she said.

I realize I really have something very desirable, continued von Furstenberg. My goal is to put it into the most loving and experienced hands. I am talking to a lot of people, Im an old woman and have great plans for my philanthropy and doing a think tank and spending more time in Venice, she said. It is in very good hands now. Im welcoming expert partners who are able to come in there and help.

While she said the company wasnt for sale, she said she would welcome the expertise of partners to help. Im in no rush to do anything. She said at some point shell hire a creative director.

Von Furstenberg said her jersey dresses have become uniforms for women in charge, and are friends in a womans closet. She contended that in any vintage store in the world, DVFs dresses are strong sellers.

It just shows how timeless our pieces are. No matter if its a 30-year-old dress, a two-year-old dress, a brand new dress, DVF will be able to stay in your closet and be worn again and again, added Talita von Furstenberg. Its always timeless, effortless and sexy.

She said they are no longer doing the TVF for DVF line of colorful dresses, rompers and tops which was launched in 2019, but have integrated that spirit into the main line.

As von Furstenberg steps away, she has plenty to fill her time. My goal is Im going to give you [Talita von Furstenberg and Hirata] the capsule of the legacy. You guys will take it into the future. I m going to focus on my philanthropy, my womens work, she said.

A few months ago von Furstenberg got a call from Nicolas Lor, a curator at the Fashion and Lace Museum in Brussels. He decided that he wanted his first exhibition to be on DVF. He called me, and I said, Why do you want to do an exhibition on me? In Belgium, you have [Maison] Margiela, Raf Simons, Dries Van Noten, you have so many avant garde designers, and he said, what youve been doing happens to be so relevant for today. By the time I will open the exhibition it will be even more relevant,' he told her.

As an old woman to hear this from a young guy is very flattering, she said.

She agreed to do it and the exhibition opens April 21. Its not a retrospective. He wants it to be, Woman Before Fashion.'

Lor came to New York, and spent 10 days in the archives in Connecticut. I was so impressed with him that I introduced him to Rizzoli and hes also editing a book that will become Woman Before Fashion,' said von Furstenberg. Instead of being from me, I find it much more legitimate if it comes from somebody else, especially someone of a young generation. The book will be published in October.

Von Furstenberg had always wanted to do a documentary on the women she has honored at the DVF Awards, but no network wanted to buy it. Instead, they wanted to do one on her. She finally agreed to do a documentary with Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, a Pakistani-Canadian journalist, filmmaker and activist known for her work in films that highlight the inequality women face. After this film, Obaid-Chinoy will direct Star Wars. She is the recipient of two Academy Awards, seven Emmy Awards and a Knight International Journalism Award.

Because it is Sharmeen, and shes such a feminist, I agreed to do it even though Im not a producer, Im not a director. Im only the subject, said von Furstenberg.

The documentary will be out next January on Hulu.

All of these things that are happening of which Im only the subject made me realize that there is a new phase for the brand, and Im being very careful [with] whom we associate it. Obviously were going to look for more expertise for global expansion and for design, said von Furstenberg.

In 2020, when DVF launched a 10-year plan, they streamlined the team and the business, including the categories. We streamlined all categories that didnt make sense to focus on womenswear, said Hirati. They also got out of all their licensing agreements.

Even though were a 50-year-old brand, we are completely virgin of all categories, said von Furstenberg. Right now, all they do is ready-to-wear.

It allows them to recreate like a start-up, and in the way the world works today, its an incredible opportunity. Our brand has a purpose, which is women first. I always focused on the important thing  to give women confidence, she said. Hirata said they re-platformed on Shopify in 2021, and today have 42,000 customers on dvf.com

A fall look from DVF.

Phase one was streamlining the infrastructure and focusing on sustainable growth. Its trimming all the fat, said Talita von Furstenberg.

At the end of phase one, the business is profitable and its operating partners are also profitable. Phase one has finished with 138,000 customers, from global e-commerce customers, retail store customers and wholesale partner customers, and the retail sales volume is around $130 million, said Hirata. Were so proud of that achievement, and have never missed a shipment, she said.

From 2020 to today is 20 percent revenue growth. For 2023, our goal is a 21 percent increase in revenue from last year, said Hirata. The goal for e-commerce is 36 percent growth, and there will be strategic reopening of DVF stores in several locations, such as Macao, Hong Kong and, this year, in London. They have 57 stores in China, one store in the Meatpacking District in New York, a store in Belgium, one in Greece, and one in Thailand.

A fall look from DVF.

Now they are in Phase 2, which is three years. Our goal is that by the end of 2025, we want to be back at $200 million in retail sales, said Hirata.

The DVF business is still owned by the von Furstenberg-Diller family. Right now we own it, and we had to solidify what it stood for so it could be rebirthed again, said von Furstenberg.

In 2020, there were 100 employees at New York headquarters and 98 employees in retail positions in the U.S. Now, in the New York corporate office there are 40 employees and there are seven employees in the Meatpacking store. There are 20 employees in London, who handle the global wholesale business, managing four markets a year and appointments each season, as well as wholesale day-to-day operations. In China, the staff grew from 40 to 67 people who are employees of Fairywood Co., as well as 288 retail employees. The company has invested in Beijings production team, design team and overall merchandising team, as well as I.T. support for the global operation.

Considering DVFs close relationship with its Chinese partners, Hirata was asked what impact it would have on the business if the U.S. imposes economic sanctions against China for aiding the Russians in the war against the Ukraine. We are fortunate to have a trusted partner who has taken care of DVF in China for over a decade. Since that business is an independent entity, from DVF Studio, such an executive order will not have a material impact on the China operation, she said. China accounts for 44 percent of total net revenue.

We are a completely separate entity. Whatever happens well deal with it, its independent, von Furstenberg added.

The apparel design and prints originate in New York office, and the New York design team and Beijing design and production team speak daily and partner to produce four collections a year. Offerings were slimmed down from about 400 styles a season to 200 a season.

Dresses are a big part of it, said Hirata. She said of the 800 styles a year, 72 percent of dresses are sold at full price at dvf.com. The average price point is $400, the entry-level price point is $350, and the classic silk jersey long wrap dress is about $600 to $700.

Von Furstenberg feels that when they do decide to add licensed products, they will go to firms that match the brands philosophy. We want to go to companies that share the value of the woman first, who are pro-woman and feminist. That is super important. Were lucky because the trend is going that direction, she said.

Discussing the top categories theyd be interested in, von Furstenberg said, Beauty would be the first thing to do because its about the woman. All I care about is that we work with people who are experts in their field and share the same value to put the woman first.

Hirata said some of the styles they have expanded into are outerwear, knitwear and jumpsuits. Half of the fall collection are those product innovations within rtw, such as knitwear and reversible coats. Then theres the channel expansion and regional expansion in East Asia, South Asia and Australia.

Reaching a younger customer is also a priority. The average age of the customer is 42, and thats coming down to 38 years old. Hirata said the customer is between 30 and 50 years old, but the brand services customers from their 20s to 80s. Its always the very young who find it cool again, said von Furstenberg.

As for what she wants her legacy to be, von Furstenberg said, My legacy is that I was lucky to become the woman I wanted to be. My goal in life is making every woman feel that she can be the woman she wants to be. As I leave the business to them, Im going to focus much more on the legacy. Im very involved in [the nonprofit organization] Vital Voices. Vital Voices is this incredible population of badass women in 184 countries that make things happen.

Best of WWD

Click here to read the full article.
Its March and that means that Irish whiskey season has officially begun as we count down towards St. Patricks Day. What better way to celebrate than with a new vintage from Midleton Very Rare, one of the best high-end blends out there. And if you really want to splurge, theres an extra special blend available now that will run you more than $100,000.

Midleton Very Rare is made at the Midleton Distillery outside of Cork, Ireland, the same distillery that brands like Jameson, Redbreast and Green Spot are made. 2023 marks the 40th edition of MVR, which is now overseen by master distiller Kevin OGorman (his third in the series after taking the job over from Brian Nation). The blend is made up of single grain and single pot still whiskey. Single grain whiskey means its made at one distillery from a mashbill no more than 30 percent malted barley with the rest usually being corn, and single pot still whiskey indicates its made at one distillery in a pot still from a mashbill of malted and unmalted barley.

More from Robb Report

The 2023 vintage includes pot still whiskeys that range from light and delicate to a more traditional heavy style. The pot still proportion in the blend is larger this year because OGorman wanted to highlight notes of spice, ripe fruit, citrus and grain on the palate. The grain whiskeys effect is said to be less pronounced on this years vintage, but still brings in notes of vanilla and milk chocolate. Refill casks are always used in the blend, but this year there are less so the wood element on the palate is pulled back a bit. Each year, it is a privilege and an honor to pour through the samples of exceptional liquids stored in the Midleton warehouses to create the next pinnacle of luxury Irish whiskey, said OGorman in a statement. The 2023 vintage is no different Finding the perfect blend of single pot still and single grain whiskeys for this year is a testament to those who have gone before me, while the presentation of the liquid in recyclable packaging is a step towards the future for this historic brand.

Story continues

But that aint all. The brand-new Pinnacle Vintage is a whiskey unlike anything Midleton has ever released before, and is touted as being the rarest bottle yet from the distillery. This is a blend that contains a little bit of each of the 40 MVR vintages released thus far, along with a bit of pot still whiskey distilled in 1984 by former master distiller and creator of the MVR series Barry Crockett. Midleton Very Rare The Pinnacle Vintage is an Irish whiskey that can never again be replicated, said OGormanand that does indeed seem to be the case. And, as seems to come part and parcel with nearly every ultra-luxury (and not so luxury) whiskey release these days, this bottle has its own NFT. If youre into that.

Midleton Very Rare 2023 ($250) is available now for purchase online, but check the details to see which vintage youre getting. As far as The Pinnacle ($130,000) is concerned, youll have to head over to BlockBar to snag a bottle. And even if youre not NFT-curious, you can feel good that a portion of the proceeds will go to benefit an organization dedicated to the conservation of the Irish forestry.

Best of Robb Report

Sign up for Robb Report's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.
In late December, my friend Tonya Ingram  a brilliant poet, surfer, advocate, cat auntie and "Price Is Right" contestant  died waiting for a kidney transplant. She was 31.

Before she died, she used her voice to help call for the breakup of the monopoly in charge of the U.S. organ donation system  because its failures are "killing patients."

Two years ago, my father died of organ failure as a result of chemical exposure from his military service in Vietnam. So Tonyas message resonated with me deeply, and I have become more committed than ever to what needs to happen to help patients waiting for transplants: We must break up the national organ monopoly.

More than 100,000 Americans are on the waitlist for an organ transplant

The stakes are literally life and death. More than 100,000 men, women and children in America are on the waitlist for an organ transplant.

Over 30 of them die every day  disproportionately patients of color. Heres the awful secret: Most of this death is unnecessary.

Opinions in your inbox: Get exclusive access to our columnists and the best of our columns throughout the week

You can be a living donor: I had end stage kidney failure at age 32. A kidney transplant saved my life.

In 1986, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) awarded a contract to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) to manage the U.S. organ donation system.

Coasting on goodwill from the American public and taxpayer-funded coffers, by 1999, Forbes labeled UNOS a cartel, calling it the federal monopoly that's chilling the supply of transplantable organs and letting Americans who need them die needlessly.

More than two decades later, there has still been no accountability for UNOS and no pressure from the federal government to perform.

The result, according to an HHS-funded study, is that we are only recovering organs from as few as 1 in 5 potential donors.

Story continues

Last August, the Senate Finance Committee, two years into an ongoing bipartisan investigation on UNOS, rendered a damning conclusion: From the top down, the U.S. transplant network is not working, putting Americans lives at risk. The bipartisan report called out UNOS for failing to provide adequate oversight  resulting in fewer organs available for transplant (and) risks to patient safety.

At a time when Republicans and Democrats rarely agree, senators have come to a consensus: UNOS failures cost lives. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said it plainly: Thousands of organs go to waste each year resulting in lives lost and billions of dollars wasted, noting that the system is even worse for people of color and rural residents. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., agreed: This isn't oversight; this is sitting on your hands while people die.

UNOS CEO: Grammy's song of the year spotlights organ donation. Too often, we waste that gift.

Treat the organ waitlist like what it is: A preventable, fixable crisis

What, exactly, in UNOS' performance earned all of this ire? The list is long and breathtaking.

Investigative reporting by the Los Angeles Times found that the United Network for Organ Sharing fails to detect or decisively fix problems  even when patients are dying at excessive rates (and) routinely keeps findings of its investigations secret, leaving patients and their families unaware of the potential risks.

Poet Tonya Ingram, 31, died in late 2022 in Los Angeles while waiting for a kidney transplant.

As the Senate Finance Committee investigation found, such problems are shocking, including: criminal kickback schemes, patient deaths resulting from basic errors, racially biased care provision and "improper use of Medicare funds."

Flaws of the United Network for Organ Sharing are almost innumerable, but its the organization's culture that is most illuminating. Based on its public messaging, you might conclude that its leaders are earnestly doing their best but sometimes mistakes happen.

Their internal emails reveal otherwise.

For example, the Senate committee investigation found executives in the system joking that their deeply flawed process for protecting patient safety is like putting your kids artwork up at home. You value it because of how it was created rather than whether its well done.

In another example, emails unsealed by a federal judge revealed a UNOS board member disparaging patients of color and patients living in rural areas as dumb f--- and dismissing concerns that one of its policies would harm those patients.

And rather than address these problems, UNOS has used taxpayer dollars to, according to the Project On Government Oversight, buy lobbyists and invest in misinformation campaigns, and, as Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., noted, stonewalling and by all accounts hiding information from Congress.

Along the same lines, whistleblowers have testified before Congress regarding UNOS fierce retaliation against anyone who speaks out, with surgeons fearing that UNOS will retaliate against their patients if they dare to criticize it for even the most glaring abuses.

Bipartisan support: Here's how organ donation reform could save thousands of lives, billions in tax dollars

A doctor's view: Jimmy Carter's greatest accomplishments have been in health and welfare

$130,000 for medicine is outrageous: Blame the government, not pharmaceutical companies.

So, where is the government action?

The federal government needs to treat the organ waitlist like what it is: a preventable, fixable crisis. There needs to be urgency, not the acceptance of the predictable deaths every day of our neighbors.

It may be difficult for our own officials to fathom that an organization they have entrusted with something so important  organ donation  can exhibit such a cavalier lack of care, with such transparently self-serving regard. But as one whistleblower testified before Congress, the government gives its organ donation contractors blank checks and participation trophies as patients are given death sentences.

Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don't have the app? Download it for free from your app store.

In 2021, President Joe Biden issued an executive order about the importance of tackling monopolies. Americans have seen the problems of this extractive, rent-seeking model in everything from utilities to concert tickets. The government needs to focus that energy on a monopoly whose failure is killing Americans.

Jennifer Erickson

If the president listens to his former Senate colleagues and breaks up the national organ monopoly, then hell have delivered a win for commonsense bipartisanship, a win for equity and, most important, a win for some of the most vulnerable patients in the country.

Jennifer Erickson, a senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists, served in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy under President Barack Obama, working on organ donation policy.

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: US organ donation system is deadly monopoly. We must break it up.
Dotdash Meredith and Yahoo Inc. may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below.

Heres everything you need to know about Weezie.

Real Simple / Tyler Roeland

Until recently, I was admittedly not someone who had too many opinions about bath towels (bedding is more my lane). I have year round sets, and I have one turkish towel that I love to add to my rotation during the summer. Needless to say, I was happy with everything in my linen closet. But a trip to a spa last year made me curious if I could create a similar feel at home with more plush towels, and I kept coming back to Weezie.

If youre new to Weezie, the Savannah, Georgia based brand was started by two friends. Liz couldnt find luxury towels she loved, so she contacted her friend Lindsay. Together, the two female founders launched a brand that focuses on high quality 100 percent organic cotton towels. And an added bonus is you can personalize each towel for a fun Southern touch.

I first heard about Weezie from two Southern friends. Both touted the benefits of these luxurious towels, and they also agreed that once I tried Weezie I would simply never go back. I kept their high remarks in the back of my mind, and I decided to give Weezie a try after listening to Liz share the brands story on the podcast Howd She Do That?

Signature Bath Towel

Weezie

To buy: From $64; weezietowels.com.



I knew I wanted to have a proper Weezie experience, so I decided to go with two classics: the Signature Bath Towel and the Signature Hand Towels. Although the brand does offer a few colored towels (light blue, light pink, navy, and gray), I was most drawn to the idea of fresh white. So, I chose to order both in white with light pink piping for a little twist (there are 10 total piping colors). Then after experimenting with the 15 personalization options and 11 thread colors, I finalized my towels by adding my monogram in light pink thread in the swirly Ardsley style (personalization is an extra $15 per towel).

Story continues

The Signature Bath Towel measures 29 by 58 inches, while the Signature Hand Towels come in a set of two and measure 19 by 30 inches. Without pulling out a tape measure when I was choosing which towels to order, the sizing felt generous but not overpowering in my mind (I also considered the Signature Bath Sheet)and Im so happy to report I was correct. Even though I havent used this feature yet because my bathroom lacks hooks, I love the addition of a fabric loop thats camouflaged in the piping to allow you to hang the towels for faster drying, according to Weezie.

When I opened my package of Weezie towels, which the brand kindly sent me for free to try, my very first reaction was, Oh, wow. I was immediately struck by the plushness and pure luxury of these towels, which absolutely feel different from my typical big box store finds. But I didnt want to get too excited until I washed and dried them. I followed Weezies suggestion to wash the towels in cold water rather than hot water (my typical choice), and I finished the cycle by drying the towels on a low heat setting. After the process, I noticed that my towels barely created any lintand they still feel equally as soft after two cycles of washing and drying. Although I can't speak to using the towels to remove makeup, I do want to point out that the brand has specific makeup towels that shoppers say they love.

Signature Hand Towels

Weezie

To buy: From $54; weezietowels.com.



When it was time to use my Weezie towels, I tried to keep any expectations at bay. But after I wrapped myself in the Weezie towel for the first time, I understood what my friends meant when they said I would never want to use anything else. I truly did feel transported back to the spa I visited last year because the towels were absorbent, wonderfully soft, and more relaxing than I ever thought possible. Plus, I love that my Weezie towels look more elegant and chic than anything else I own when theyre hanging on my towel rack.

Prior to trying Weezie, I was never someone who would say a set of towels is a must-buy. But I have absolutely changed my tune. Weezie towels are a perfect example of relatively affordable spa-like indulgence that are perfect to give as a wedding gift or as a sweet nod to a friend or family member who is in need of relaxation after moving into a new home.

These are my first Weezie towels, but they are absolutely not my last, just as my friends implied. If youre curious too, join me and purchase a Signature Bath Towel or a set of Signature Hand Towels. But be warned: Youre about to feel more invested in towels than you ever thought possible.

For more Real Simple news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on Real Simple.
Press Release

March 1, 2023 Senate adopts resolution commending the winners of Galing Pook awards The Senate adopted a resolution on Wednesday, March 1, 2023 congratulating and commending the winners of the 29th Annual Galing Pook Awards. Senate Resolution No. 45, taking into consideration SR Nos. 316, 323, 335, 337 and 511, was authored by Sen. Lito Lapid and co-sponsored by Senate President Juan Miguel "Migz" F. Zubiri, Senate President Pro Tempore Loren Legarda, Sen. Ramon "Bong" Revilla Jr. and Sen. Win Gatchalian. All other members of the Senate were made co-authors. According to the resolution, the ten local government unit (LGU) awardees were awarded for their excellence and unrelenting commitment to good governance and stellar leadership practices. "By recognizing these LGUs and their initiatives, we reaffirm the Philippine Senate's position as advocates of good governance, innovation for growth, supporting patriotism while accelerating social progress and nurturing complete human liberation. We are one with the Galing Pook Awards in recognizing these commendable programs that benefit the entire country," Lapid's resolution stated. The Galing Pook awardees were selected from a nationwide search for local governance units (LGUs) and their innovative programs. They are evaluated through a rigorous multilevel screening process based on successful outcomes, and their programs are assessed based on the impact on their community as a whole, promoting and encouraging people's participation, empowerment, innovation, transferability and sustainability, and effectiveness of program service delivery. "Beyond receiving recognition, successful initiatives are promoted as role models for good government and adopted by other communities. They offer practical perceptions and methods for coming up with original answers to typical issues. More importantly, they reaffirm the dedication to good governance shared by the neighborhood and the local government," the resolution added. The Galing Pook Awards was founded on October 21 1993 as a pioneer program that seeks for and honors avant-garde methods used by local government units across the country. Finalists from LGUs with noteworthy efforts are carefully chosen, and winners are honored at a renowned award event. The Galing Pook awardees are: 1. Libertad, Antique, for their Libertad Fish Forever Savings Club; 2. The Provincial Government of Basilan for Advancing and Sustaining Good Governance and Community Actions towards Resiliency and Empowerment; 3) Iloilo City for their "I-BIKE" Program, promoting and developing the Iloilo City Bike Culture; 4) The Municipality of Itbayat, Batanes for "Yaru: A Whole-Community Approach Towards Disaster Management"; 5) The Provincial Government of Bataan for their Bataan Public-PrivatePartnership Programs; 6) Brgy. Cayabu of Tanay, Rizal, for the From Black to Green: Fishponds, EcoTourism and Full Employment Program; 7) The Municipality of Alcala, Cagayan for the Green Wall of Alcala; 8) Goa, Camarines Sur for their TUCAD Program, Trekking to Unlock Community Ailments and Difficulties; 9) Binan, Laguna for their project entitled "Balik-Binan: Tourism Development through Heritage Conservation"; and 10. The Municipality of Piddig, Ilocos Norte for their program "Basta Piddigueno, AgriHenyo: Consolidated Farm Production System. 0ver the past 28 years, the Galing Pook Awards has been given to more than 319 projects from at least 180 local government units or local government partnerships. By encouraging other local governments to adopt these novel methods, we create an environment for the replication of successful reforms. The awardees play a crucial role as champions of innovation for good change.
The Pennsylvania Attorney Generals Office is warning residents about a secret shopper scam offered through texts, emails and letters.

The office reported that the scam offers participation as a secret shopper without the need for an interview, and the recruiter typically sends a check worth more than the items intended for purchase, with the promise that the shopper gets to keep the rest of the money as a bonus.

The shopper is instructed to deposit the check right away, buy gift cards and provide the scammer with the number and pin on the gift cards.

The Attorney Generals Office said the checks are fraudulent, but take a few days to clear, which means the shoppers often already make the gift card purchases and lose money.

Pennsylvanians should know the tricks these scammers use so they can proactively keep themselves, their money, and their personal information safe, acting Attorney General Michelle Henry said. Anyone receiving suspicious emails, calls or texts should report them to my office to help protect yourself and others.

The office said warning signs with this scam include a job listing or unsolicited mailing that guarantees youll make a lot of money as a secret shopper, that the job requires you to pay up front to get started and that the employer sends a check or money order with instructions on how to return a portion back.

Those who may have been victim to this scam or others can submit a complaint to the Attorney Generals Bureau of Consumer Protection at www.attorneygeneral.gov, by emailing scams@attorneygeneral.gov or by calling the office at 1-800-441-2555.
Changes keep coming at Intermix, the multibrand retailer, which was sold last fall to Regent L.P., a Los Angeles-based private equity firm.

According to sources, Haro Keledjian, a cofounder of Intermix, and Sari Sloane, former fashion director at Intermix, are consulting to try and help the business regain its stature and are meeting with vendors to keep them on board.

More from WWD

Keledjian and Sloane are the founders and owners of The Westside, a California-inspired boutique featuring contemporary womenswear, accessories, apothecary and home goods, and Ever After, a retailer that offers trendy designer clothes for kids.

Sari Sloane

Neither Sloane nor Keledjian returned phone calls seeking comment. Sources indicated Sloane has been in the market meeting with vendors and Keledjian is doing more operational work and talking to landlords about leases.

Neither Intermix nor Regent officials would comment.

Market sources noted that Regent, which has no connections to the designer and contemporary sportswear market, is looking for Keledjian and Sloane to get in front of the vendor community to calm them down and talk about the future of the business. One source indicated the retailer is looking to offer a tighter edit and go in a more sophisticated direction.

Sources indicated that Intermix is selectively paying vendors, and asking them to take reduced payments. Some vendors havent been paid yet on last falls merchandise, when they should have been paid in October, and have decided to discontinue business with them, sources said.

For smaller designers, you cant take a chance and not get paid, said one executive, who questioned why Regent would buy Intermix if they dont plan to put money into the company.

Gary Wassner, chief executive officer of Hilldun Corp., which factors many of Intermixs brands, said, We paid all our clients and we began approving new orders for Intermix. Im waiting for Intermix to come back to us with a broader plan for moving forward.

Story continues

In my opinion, we need specialty stores like Intermix. Id be very disappointed if they chose not to continue it as an ongoing entity, Wassner said.

Meanwhile, one vendor told WWD that things were going well for his company at Intermix.

We are now shipping and performing extremely well in their stores, said Jeff Rudes, CEO of LAgence. Great numbers and great profitability, he said.

Intermix was founded in 1993 by Khajak and Haro Keledjian and was sold to Gap Inc. for $130 million in 2012. In 2021, it was acquired by Altamont Capital Partners, and in late 2022, it was sold to Regent LP, which acquired the entire Intermix business, including all assets, stores and e-commerce.

While Intermix has a national footprint of 28 boutiques, sources said the company plans to reduce the number of stores. In fact, the Intermix in Manhasset, New York, has closed, and will reopen in April as a Club Monaco, another Regent investment.

In addition to Intermix and Club Monaco, Regents investments include Escada, DIM Brands, DryBar DiamondBack, Redline, La Senza, Brands4Friends, Plainville Farms, Sassoon, Sunset Magazine, Lillian Vernon, HistoryNet and Sightline.

Since the acquisition, many Intermix employees in various departments have left. As reported, Divya Mathur, who was chief merchant of Intermix, stepped down in December. She had been in the role since January 2020.

Best of WWD

Click here to read the full article.
Anime legend Hayao Miyazakis beloved 1986 film Castle in the Sky is making a return to the big screen  in China. The movie, which never opened theatrically in the country during its original run and subsequent rereleases around the world, has been cleared by Beijings censors and is set for a nationwide theatrical launch on June 1.

Miyazakis work is well-known and widely loved in China, thanks to the ready accessibility of pirated DVDs and downloads in the country  previously the only way to see his work there. But in recent years Studio Ghibli has begun making up for lost time by bringing select titles from Miyazakis catalog to Chinese multiplexes for the first time.

More from The Hollywood Reporter

The maestros My Neighbor Totoro earned $26 million from a China rerelease in 2018, followed by Spirited Away with $69 million in 2019.

A cult favorite from Miyazakis oeuvre, Castle in the Sky follows a young boy and a girl with a magic crystal as they race against pirates and foreign agents in search of a legendary floating castle.

Japanese anime has become a big business in China, much as it has virtually everywhere else in the world in recent years. Makoto Shinkai, the anime talent most often dubbed Miyazakis heir, scored big in the country with his 2017 film, Your Name, which earned $83 million. Shinkais latest anime hit, Suzume, which earned over $100 million in Japan and premiered internationally at the Berlin International Film Festival last month, will open in China on March 24.

Click here to read the full article.
The Associated Press

Content Warning: This article contains references to murder and abuse some may find upsetting. Reader discretion is advised.

ICYMI, Netflix's three-episode true crime docuseries, Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal, tells the true story of 54-year-old lawyer Alex Murdaugh, who was accused of and is being tried for killing his wife and one of his sons in 2021. The murders come two years after a boating accident in South Carolina that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach. What is the correlation between both incidents? At the center of it all, is Alex Murdaugh. His son, 22-year-old Paul Murdaugh, who was one of the victims of the double homicide, was driving the boat that crashed and killed Mallory.

Since the show aired on the streamer, questions have risen regarding other members of the Murdaugh family, including Alex's oldest son, Buster, and his brothers, John Marvin Murdaugh and Randolph Murdaugh IV, who were all mentioned in the docuseries. Here's what we know about the case, and specifically the whereabouts of Alex's brother John Marvin.

Courtesy of Netflix

Along with the murders of Paul and his mother Maggie, there are some other peculiar passings tied to the Murdaugh family.

On July 8, 2015, 19-year-old Stephen Smith, who was rumored to have a romance with Alex's son Buster, was found lying in the middle of the street, several miles away from his truck. It was later ruled that he died from blunt force trauma. Authorities initially assumed Stephen's death was the cause of a hit-and-run and closed the case as such, despite there being evidence to suggest foul play may have been at hand. Rumors in the South Carolina town quickly spread, proposing that Stephen was the victim of a homophobic hate crime because of his supposed secret relationship with Buster.

In February of 2018, the Murdaugh family's housekeeper Gloria Satterfield fell down the stairs at the Murdaughs home while working and suffered trauma to her head. She sadly passed away three weeks later from her injuries. It was later alleged that the Murdaughs were involved in the accident.

Story continues

On June 17, 2021, Alex's brothers John Marvin Murdaugh and Randolph Murdaugh IV made an appearance on Good Morning America to speak to the nation in hopes of finding the murderer that killed their family members. They said they did not believe that Alex was in any way responsible.

So where is John now? Where was he during the time of the murders, and how does he connect?

Courtesy of Netflix

John, the youngest of four siblings, was the first and only on his father's side to not follow along the path of becoming a lawyer. He did graduate from the University of South Carolina with a Bachelor's Degree in Criminal Justice, but he eventually decided to start two businesses.

John was consistently at Alex's side whenever he needed help. He way the one who removed the boat from the water after the fatal crash involving Paul. Despite Alex being tried for the murder of their nephew and sister-in-law, both brothers John and Randolph have publicly supported Alex since the beginning, and continue to do so to this day.

On June 7, 2021, just after 10 p.m., Alex called the police to report that he had found his wife and one of his two sons shot and dead. Now, it's probably important to note that Alex's father, grandfather, and great-grandfather had all served as top prosecutors for most of South Carolina. Phone records showed that Alex left his house at 9 p.m. to go visit his mother, and he claims that on his return home he found his family murdered. After over a year with no answers, Alex was finally arrested on July 14, 2022, for two counts of murder, and he could serve at least 30 years in prison.

The Murdaugh murder trial began on January 23 of this year, and Alex's younger brother took to the stand and testified for the defense that he was the one who cleaned up Paul's remains at the gruesome murder scene, saying it was "the hardest thing" he ever had to do. John got permission from a friend in law enforcement to visit the crime scene to see "what had gone on and just kind of take it in."

AP

"I saw blood, I saw brains, I saw pieces of skull, I saw tissue. And when I say brains it could just be tissue. I don't know what I saw, it was just terrible," John tearfully told the jury.

He decided to clean his nephew's remains to honor his memory.

"I felt like it was the right thing to do. I felt like I owed him, and I just started cleaning, and I promise you, no mother, father, aunt, or uncle should ever have to see and do what I did that day. It's the hardest thing I've ever been through in my life," John said.

To further honor Paul, John vowed to get him justice and find his killer.

"I told Paul I loved him, and I promised him I'd find out who did this."

He testified that Alex called him on the night of the killings after allegedly finding the bodies, and he immediately drove over to the house.

"He was just broken, I mean destroyed. All we did was hug and cry. I don't even know that we talked," John said in court.

John still does not believe that his brother is at fault for the murders.

He currently lives in Okatie, South Carolina with his wife Li,z and their three children.

You Might Also Like
Warning: This recap of Disney+/Lucasfilms The Mandalorian season 3 opener The Apostate contains spoilers.

Disneys The Mandalorian returns with its tried-and-true formula of breezy action sequences laced with Star Wars lore, and after battle scenes involving bullying pirates, asteroid field spaceship chases and a really big alligator at what looks to be Lake Powell, Utah (where the first Planet of the Apes was shot), we get some answers on the danglers left hanging since last season.

More from Deadline

This seasons first episode ends with Pedro Pascals Din Djarin and Katee Sackhoffs Bo-Katan having a conversation about OMG the darksaber. Scroll down.

Gina Carano as Cara Dune

We also get a few lines about where bounty hunter and Dins BFF Cara Dune might be lurking after the actress who played her, Gina Carano, was dismissed from The Mandalorian over her controversial remarks on social media. The EP of the show and the director of S3, episode one The Apostate, Rick Famuyiwa, told Deadline that the outcome of Dune was at the top of the mind of the writers room this season.

How was Dunes sifting away, explained away?

(L-R): Grogu, Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and Greef Karga (Carl Weathers), Disney

Well, during the middle of the episode, Din revisits his old buddy Greef Karga (Carl Weathers) who is living high on the hog as the high magistrate on the trade planet of Nevarro. However, he still has scuffles with ruffians, like a bunch of squid-looking pirates, who come through. Din and Greef shoot most of them down letting one of them, named Vane, go. Greef tells Mando he needs a good marshal now that Cara Dune is gone.

Wah happened?

Greef tells Din, After she brought in Moff Gideon, she was recruited by special forces.

Story continues

Meanwhile Gideon (played on the show by Giancarlo Esposito) was sent off to a New Republic war tribunal, adds Greef.

Mandalorians in a scene from Lucasfilms THE MANDALORIAN, season three, exclusively on Disney+. 2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

The Apostate begins lakeside in what is, gosh, Lake Powell, Utah, but probably called something else in Star Wars land. The Armorer has just forged a new helmet for a young candidate thats being sworn into the Mandalorian sect Children of the Watch. There are several Mandalorians (like, many) standing around for this ritual whereby the incumbent is helmeted. Again, key words here in this baptism is that the young cub will never remove his helmet. Why, is this a flashback from when Din was inducted into the tribe? Sure looks like it. The lakeside group of helmeted guys are then attacked by a huge alligator (what looks to be one) which erupts out of the lake. No amount of laser guns or tiny bombs can keep this beast down  until Din arrives in his sleek spaceship with Grogu aka Baby Yoda and shoots the reptile to his death. It was never a flashback.

Din gets time with the Armorer (Emily Swallow) and says that after taking off his helmet (a big no, no with their sect), hes going to Mandalore to bathe in the hot springs aka the living waters underneath the mines of Mandalore. As we know, thats the only way Din can be forgiven for the sin of going helmet-less.

Redemption is not possible since the destruction of our home world, says the Armorer. And Din is all, Well, Ill show you.

(L-R): Grogu and Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal), courtesy Disney

In Nevarro, Din wants to revive the Taika Waititi voiced bounty hunter killing droid-turned-servant, IG-11, who has been memorialized in the city square.

I need a droid I can trust to explore Mandalore, Din tells Greef. Din attempts to resuscitate IG-11, but the droid reverts to his old memory trying to kill those around him. Din attempts to shoot him, but its the gold bust of Greef that falls on IG-11s head. Grogu, Greef and Din take the robot to the elven troll droidsmiths, but theyre all thumbs in fixing him; they need a memory circuit. Din says hell return with the part.

However, Din doesnt head pronto to find a memory circuit in the galaxy, rather by episodes end he heads to Kalbala another planet in the Mandalorian system he tells little Grogu.

Theres a Mandalorian castle, which he enters, and sitting on the throne is Bo-Katan. In the Dave Filoni Star Wars cartoons, she gets possession of the Darksaber. The person who has the Darksaber rules Mandalore. After the Empire destroys Mandalore, Bo-Katan lost possession of the Darksaber.

Din enters her throne room and announces Im here to join you.

Theres nothing left to join, Bo-Katan answers.

What are your plans to retake Mandalore? he asks her.

When I returned without the darksaber my forces melted away, Bo-Katan responds defeated.

Where is the stolen fleet? asks Din about her posse.

Making their way through the galaxy as mercenaries, she says.

Do you still have the saber? Bo-Katan asks Din. She doesnt budge from her throne.

I do, says Din.

However, in this finale, whats intriguing is that Bo-Katan isnt even challenging Din to a fight over the sword. Thats odd, considering she was hellbent on getting it from Gideon last season.

Then you lead them, Bo-Katan tells Din, Wave that thing around, theyll do whatever you say.

Din is befuddled by the fact that Bo-Katan has given up her desire to retake Mandalore.

Your cult gave up on Mandalore long before the forge, she responds coldly.

The Children of the Watch, and the factions that came before, fractured and shattered our people; go home  there is nothing left, she tells Din.

Din asserts his desire to go to the Mandalore hot springs, but Bo-Katan exclaims Youre a fool.

You can never go home, Mandalorian. Its a broken place.

But, hes too thick skulled.

Din rebuts, I will find out if the planet is really poisoned.

Until next Wednesday.

Best of Deadline

Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.
A man and a woman were killed in a head-on crash on Interstate 295 in Middletown early Sunday morning.

Langhorne-Middletown Fire Chief Frank Farry said crews were called to mile marker 5 on eastbound I-295 about 3:20 a.m. for a report of a collision. The drivers of both vehicles were pronounced dead at the scene.

The victims were identified as Jenna Paulaski, 21, of Ewing, New Jersey, and Alexander Wetzel, 31, of Media, Delaware County.

Paulaski was driving a 2016 Ford Taurus and Wetzel was driving a 2016 Jeep Compass. They were the only ones in their vehicles at the time, according to police.

State police said investigators believe Paulaski was traveling the wrong way on I-295 eastbound from at least exit 8. She struck Wetzel's vehicle, which was in the left lane heading eastbound, head-on, according to a state police news release.

Both were wearing seatbelts at the time of the crash.

Emergency personnel remained on scene while police investigated until about 6 a.m. Crews from Penndel, Parkland and William Penn fire companies assisted Langhorne-Middletown Sunday morning.

State police are investigating the crash. Anyone who may have witnessed the crash is asked to contact police at 215- 942-3900.

Man charged in drug death:Bensalem man charged in a Bristol Township woman's overdose death

For subscribers:10 years later, detectives say Upper Bucks County killers won't evade capture much longer

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: NJ woman, Delaware County man killed in crash on I-295 in Middletown
MILAN  The sophomore edition of Prada Frames, a symposium conceived by Milan and Rotterdam, Netherlands-based design studio Formafantasma and backed by Prada to explore the complex relationship between the natural environment and design, will be two-pronged.

The event will be held in Hong Kong and Milan and centered on the theme Materials in Flux. The fashion brand said it will analyze the notion of waste as an ever-evolving material.

More from WWD

The first leg of the symposium is to take place March 21 and 22 in Hong Kongs West Kowloon district inside the Herzog & de Meuron-designed M+ museum, devoted to Asian visual arts, design, architecture and motion pictures across the 20th and 21th centuries.

The two-day conference cycle kicks off with a lecture by architect Jacques Herzog, tasked with introducing the topic, which stemmed from the work of British anthropologist Tim Ingold. It will be followed by keynotes and panels hosted by local and international professionals such as Ute Meta Bauer, LAAB Architects, Lisa Reihana, Charles Lim and Formafantasma, selected by M+.

The second leg of the 2023 edition of Prada Frames is scheduled in tandem with Salone del Mobile and Design Week. It will be held at a still-undisclosed location in Milan on April 17 to 19 with a different roster of speakers and lecturers compared to the Hong Kong leg.

They include Tim Ingold, Elizabeth Povinelli, Beatriz Colomina, Mark Wigley, Sophie Chao, Veena Sahajwalla and Hans Ulrich Obrist.

The symposium, which was introduced last year during Salone del Mobile and Design Week in June, is defined by a scientific, educational and didactic approach, according to Prada. Last year it centered on the interconnections between the forest ecosystems and the wood industry and how design and science can spur change.

Prada has strong links with design and architecture, as well as the arts. Miuccia Pradas and Patrizio Bertellis patronage of the arts is best exemplified by the Fondazione Prada art space, established in 1993, which counts headquarters in Milan and Venice.

Story continues

The designer is known for surrounding herself with a close-knit group of friends, artists, directors and architects, including Rem Koolhaas, who develops backdrops for the luxury brands fashion shows.

In recent years the fashion companys commitment to education came to the fore; for example, the conferences Shaping a Future it held in Milan, New York and Venice centered on different sustainability-linked topics including creativity, society, digitization and multilateralism.

Best of WWD

Click here to read the full article.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP)  The CEO of Norfolk Southern railroad will testify in Congress next week about last month's fiery Ohio derailment and the precautions the railroad takes to prevent similar crashes.

The railroad said Wednesday that Alan Shaw had agreed to appear before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works next Thursday. He is likely to face tough questions about whether the railroad has been investing enough in safety as it slashed jobs and streamlined operations in recent years to rely on fewer, longer trains.

Already, several lawmakers have proposed a series of rail safety reforms in response to the Feb. 3 derailment that forced the evacuation of half the town of East Palestine, Ohio, near the Pennsylvania border because of concerns about the toxic chemicals that were on fire. The National Transportation Safety Board has said that an overheating bearing likely caused the derailment that sent 38 cars, including 11 carrying hazardous materials, off the tracks.

Shaw has said the railroad is committed to helping the town recover from this derailment, and Norfolk Southern has committed millions to that effort. But he has said that major safety reforms should wait until after the NTSB investigation is complete, which might take more than a year.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, told reporters on a call Wednesday that he wanted to hear Shaw commit to paying for both the short-term and long-term effects of the wreck. "We want to hear his commitment to make this community whole, to make this so that people can get back to their lives the way they were -- that means reimbursement for all the expenses," Brown said.

Norfolk Southern said Shaw and other railroad officials "continue to engage in discussions with Members of Congress and other committees about additional requests to testify, while balancing his commitments to the remediation process and the community."

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said earlier this week that Shaw needs to testify because Norfolk Southern is responsible for the derailment.

Story continues

"The American people should hear from Norfolk Southern's CEO precisely why they thought it was a good idea to spend years  years  lobbying to loosen regulations designed to prevent accidents like this," Schumer said in a speech on the Senate floor. "And I especially want to hear why Norfolk Southern, after seeing a record $3.3B in profits last year, prioritized billions billions  in stock buybacks instead of putting that money toward safety and towards their workers."

The Federal Railroad Administration issued an advisory Tuesday urging railroads to reexamine how they use and maintain the networks of detectors they have installed along the tracks to spot overheating bearings before they fail. Regulators are expected to announce plans Wednesday afternoon to conduct additional inspections nationwide on tracks that carry large quantities of hazardous materials.

Workers fall ill after being at derailment site

Meanwhile, CNBC reported, "presidents of U.S. railroad unions told Biden administration officials that rail workers have fallen ill at the Norfolk Southern derailment site in East Palestine, Ohio, in a push for more train safety."

The union leaders met with U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. CNBC obtained letters from union representatives to the Department of Transportation and Federal Railroad Administration in which they expressed concern about a lack of personal protective equipment provided by Norfolk Southern for those cleaning up the site.

"Many other Employees reported that they continue to experience migraines and nausea, days after the derailment, and they all suspect that they are willingly exposed to these chemicals at the direction of Norfolk Southern," according to the letter.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Railroad CEO to testify in Congress about Ohio derailment
STROUDSBURG  Law enforcement officials seized dark clothing, medical gloves, a flashlight and other items from a Pennsylvania home where they arrested a graduate student charged with stabbing four University of Idaho students to death, according to newly unsealed court documents.

The records were made public Tuesday, two months after Pennsylvania State Police arrested Bryan Kohberger at his parents home in eastern Pennsylvania.

Kohberger, 28, a former doctoral student at Washington State University, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and burglary in connection with the stabbing deaths in Moscow, Idaho.

The bodies of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were found on Nov. 13, 2022, at a rental home across the street from the University of Idaho campus. Kohberger was a graduate student studying criminology at Washington State University in neighboring Pullman, Washington.

Pennsylvania State Police swabbed Kohbergers DNA and seized a silver flashlight, four medical-style gloves, a white Arizona Jean Co. T-shirt, a black Champion sweatshirt, a pair of black-and-white size 13 Nike shoes, black Under Armour socks, black Under Armour shorts and black Under Armour boxers, according to an inventory of the items.

The significance of the items, if any, was not clear.

A roommate who lived in the home where the attack took place has told authorities she was awakened in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, opened her bedroom door and saw a masked figure clad in black clothing walking past her.

Kohbergers preliminary hearing is scheduled for late June. He has yet to enter a plea.

Additional warrants from Kohbergers arrest in Pennsylvania are due to be made public Wednesday.

Investigators seized stained bedding, strands of what looked like hair and a single glove  but no weapon  when they searched Kohbergers Washington state apartment, according to documents released in January.

Watch Now: Bodycam video shows accused Idaho murderer getting pulled over in Indiana before arrest Bodycam video shows accused Idaho murderer getting pulled over in Indiana before arrest Idaho murder suspect Bryan Kohberger waives extradition, Indiana traffic stop bodycam released Idaho murders: Pennsylvania State Police full press conference after suspect waives extradition Genealogy website used to ID Idaho murder suspect, sources say Idaho murders latest: Suspect waives extradition, was pulled over twice after alleged murders
The SI Swimsuit model rose above her fear for the photos.

Anne de Paula. Yu Tsai/Sports Illustrated

During her 2019 photo shoot in Kenya, model Anne de Paula was in for a wild ride when photographer Yu Tsai revealed she'd be posing with lions. Already dressed in her swimsuit and on her way to the location in an RV, de Paula's excitement was tinged with nervousness. "Mom and Dad, I love you If something happens," she said, her laughter masking her anxiety.

Located in southwestern Kenya, the Maasai Mara National Reserve is home to some of the worlds most majestic wildlife, including the king of the junglethe lion. As they approached the lion, de Paulas awe was palpable as she gasped, Oh my god. She was overwhelmed with wonder at being so close to one of natures most amazing beasts.

But given how nervous the trip began, you'd never know from the final photos. The SI Swimsuit model appeared confident, joyful, and radiating with beauty in her shoot.

We became friends. We have a good relationship now. Hes going to like the pictures when they come out, de Paula said, speaking of her new lion friend.

Anne de Paula. Yu Tsai/Sports Illustrated

Since her 2019 Kenya shoot, the Brazilian model has also posed in the Dominican Republic in 2020 and become a mom. She spoke with SI Swimsuit about her personal postpartum experience, and continues to be a support for mothers everywhere. With her start as the winner of 2017's Model Search, de Paula proves time and time again her strength and resilience in everything she does.
Though the US economy has regained the 25 million jobs it lost in the pandemic, in most states, employment still trails behind pre-pandemic levels. For Americans who remain out of work, unemployment benefits can be a lifeline, helping them to make ends meet during difficult times. Unemployed workers, however, are still expected to pay some of the money they receive back to the government in the form of taxes. Planning ahead can save time and money.

Making Payments

Unemployment benefits paid in 2020 were treated differently for tax purposes due to the American Rescue Plan, which was signed into law in March 2021. That excluded qualifying individuals (and each spouse if married) from paying taxes on up to $10,200 of unemployment benefits. Today, however, were back to business as usual. If you received unemployment benefits in 2022, plan to pay taxes on that money when you file your income taxes in 2023.

You can have your states unemployment agency withhold a flat 10 percent from your unemployment check to help cover taxes. But, that isnt always enough, and underpaying can lead to stiff penalties if you wind up owing $1,000 or more when you file your return.

To avoid underpayment penalties, prepay at least 90 percent of your taxes for the current year, or 100 percent of the tax on your previous years return, whichever is smaller. Make those payments quarterly using Form 1040-ES. Alternatively, you can make payments on your phone via the IRS2Go app, or by visiting irs.gov/payments. The IRS provides a useful tax-withholding estimator on its website that can help you figure out how much youll need to pay. If your income changed during 2022  say you went back to work  be sure to revisit this tool and re-calculate how much you should pay.

State and Local Taxes

Each state treats unemployment income differently when it comes to taxes. If you live in Alabama, Alaska, California, Florida, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington state, or Wyoming, your unemployment income wont be subject to any state taxes.

Story continues

If you live in Indiana or Wisconsin, a portion of your unemployment benefits will be subject to tax. Other states may treat unemployment insurance as regular income and tax it accordingly. Visit the website of your states department of revenue to find out what income taxes your state requires. Additionally, your county, city, or town may levy income taxes of their own. Check with your local jurisdiction to see what you may owe.

Budgeting for Taxes

Determine what youll owe to the IRS, your state, and your county, city, or town. Budget for that and set aside a portion of each unemployment check so youll have it available when you need it.

A version of this article appeared in our partner magazine The Essential Tax Guide: 2023 Edition.
ROCHESTER  A Portsmouth teenager, who went missing from the Mall at Fox Run on Monday afternoon, was found safe in Rochester Tuesday evening, though law enforcement agencies are continuing to investigate her abrupt disappearance.

Newington Police Department Chief Michael Bilodeau reported that the 17-year-old, a resident of the Chase Home, was found in the apartment of a 26-year-old Rochester man at approximately 8 p.m. on Tuesday.

Town police previously noted that the teenager, during her first day working for the Aeropostale clothing store inside the mall on Monday, left for a break but never returned for work afterward. The teenager left her identification inside the store and had last been seen around 4:30 p.m. Monday.

The Newington Police Department reported a Portsmouth teenager that had gone missing from the Mall at Fox Run was found safe Tuesday evening in Rochester, though the department is continuing to investigate her disappearance.

Bilodeau shared that social media was a major factor in authorities finding the teenager.

After news broke of the girls disappearance and the department shared information on Facebook, word traveled and the post was shared.

Rockingham County dispatchers alerted Newington police on Tuesday night that the teenager had been spotted inside an apartment building by an unidentified woman who had seen the posts about the missing girl. The woman called Rochester police, who went to the apartment and identified the teenager, who was then taken into police custody.

Town police and other agencies are still investigating the relationship between the teenager and the man and how she ended up at the apartment.

We have no idea right now and we are in contact with the Rockingham County District Attorney, Bilodeau said.

No charges have been filed and the teenager was not physically harmed, Bilodeau said. The chief stated that the incident does not appear to have been a kidnapping.

Assisting town police were the Portsmouth and Rochester police departments, New Hampshire State Police, Rockingham County dispatchers, the New Hampshire Division for Children, Youth and Families, the Mall at Fox Run, Allied Security and the Chase Home.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Teen missing from mall found safe in Rochester. Police investigating.
Left image shows a drawing of a sea monster depicted in light green and sticking its head out of the water to gobble up fish. The right image shows a digital illustration of a whale eating in a similar way.

A sea creature mentioned in 13th-century Old Norse manuscripts, which historians thought was a kraken-like mythological monster, is actually a whale using a hunting strategy known as trap or tread-water feeding, a new study finds.

Scientists only described this feeding behavior around a decade ago, after they spotted humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) and Bryde's whales (Balaenoptera brydei) waiting with their mouths wide open in a motionless, upright position at the surface of the water. Unsuspecting shoals of fish perceive the gaping jaws as shelter and swim straight into the lethal trap.

A clip of a Bryde's whale performing this tactic went viral on Instagram after featuring in a BBC documentary series in 2021.

"I was reading some Norse mythology and noticed this creature, which resembled the viral whale feeding behavior," John McCarthy , a maritime archaeologist in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at Flinders University in Australia, told Live Science. "Once we started to investigate a bit further, we noticed the parallel was really quite striking."

Marine biologists, archaeologists and medieval literature and language experts teamed up to investigate the similarities between the behavior of the medieval monster, named "hafgufa" in Old Norse manuscripts, and this whale feeding strategy. The study was published Tuesday (Feb. 28) in the journal Marine Mammal Science .

Related: Baleen whales eat three times more than scientists once thought

A detailed account of the hafgufa, which translates to "sea mist," appears in a 13th-century manuscript called "Konungs skuggsja" (the "King's Mirror") written for the Norwegian King Hakon Hakonarson, who reigned from 1217 to 1263. But researchers have traced references to the hafgufa back to a second-century A.D. Alexandrian text called "Physiologus," which contains drawings of a whale-like creature, referred to as "aspidochelone," with fish leaping into its mouth.

Story continues

According to the researchers, medieval mariners probably knew that the hafgufa was a type of whale and not a fantastical sea monster. "Norse people were huge seafarers. Most of the trips people would take in the Middle Ages in Scandinavia were fishing trips, so they had a very high level of knowledge concerning the tides, the currents, the wave patterns, as well as the fish," Lauren Poyer , an assistant professor in the Department of Scandinavian Studies at the University of Washington, told Live Science.

RELATED STORIES

Are there any mythological creatures that haven't been debunked?

How scientists caught footage of 'the kraken' after centuries of searching

One of the largest-known Norse longhouses discovered near Viking ship burial

Best giant monster movies: the square cube law? Never heard of it

Nevertheless, some medieval accounts suggest that mariners landed their ships and lit fires on the hafgufa's island-like back. Only in the 18th century, however, did writers equate the creature to a leviathan, the kraken or even a mermaid. "I would call it a misuse of the medieval sources," Poyer said.

"The tendency is to dismiss medieval accounts of the natural world as misinformed and inaccurate," McCarthy said. "In fact, although their framework of knowledge was quite different, they were able to give a precise description of this type of whale in the 13th century. It was later on, in the absence of being aware of this feeding phenomenon, that 18th century writers invented this sea creature and made these errors."

In the Old Norse manuscripts, the hafgufa emits a perfume that attracts fish into its mouth. According to the new study, this special scent could refer to the "rotten cabbage" smell associated with whale feeding. Humpback and Bryde's whales also produce a distinct smell when they regurgitate their food to lure more prey into their stationary jaws.

So why did modern scientists only recently find out about it? One explanation is that technology such as drones enable us to watch whale populations more easily than before, McCarthy said. The second explanation is that "whale populations are just beginning to recover towards their natural, pre-whaling size and their behavior is changing as their numbers go up."

"If we take these as medieval eyewitness accounts, then it's not the 21st century when we first observe [the whale behavior], it's actually at least 1,000 years ago," Poyer said.
*Spoilers for Outer Banks season three ahead!*

Season two of Netflix's hit series Outer Banks ended with the beloved Pogues stranded on an island they nicknamed Poguelandia. On February 23, the streaming service released the third season of the highly anticipated show, and it immediately picked up where season 2 left off. After getting accustomed to life on Poguelandia, the Pogues decided that it was time to make their way back home to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. Due to their limited resources, the band of buddies came together and made the trek across international waters from Barbados to their home in the US by boat.

While commuting across countries by boat seems like something made solely for TV, there have been some questions about whether or not you can actually travel from Barbados to OBX by boat. If you're wondering whether or not it's possible, read ahead to see if you can travel from Barbados to OBX.



Can you travel from Barbados to Outer Banks by boat?

The distance between Barbados and Outer Banks is approximately 1,597 miles, sailing distance calculator BednBlue reports. So yes, you could technically travel between the two places by boat, but there are a lot of determining factors that impact how quickly you'd get there. Strong winds, high waves, and storms could make the trip, which could possibly take more than a day in a large boat with functioning navigation equipment, even longer.



Hearst Owned

How long would it take to travel from Barbados to Outer Banks by boat?

According to BednBlue, it would take 4 days, 10 hours, and 28 minutes to travel from Barbados to Outer Banks, North Carolina when sailing at 15 knots.

Watch Outer Banks Season Three Now

Season 3 of Netflix's hit series Outer Banks is available on the streamer now, with subscription plans starting at $9.99 per month.

You Might Also Like
Horrifying stories of sexual violence perpetrated by Russian soldiers have been piling up on prosecutors desks as Ukrainian officials and human rights groups document the crimes committed in the first year of Moscows invasion.

In one village we found several victims of sexual violence. There were five victims on one street. Its awful. These crimes took place in every city that was under the occupation, recalled Anna Orel, an activist with the Andreev Foundation, a group that provides sexual assault victims with psychological aid.

One victim was taken by a Russian soldier and asked to go to her friends house where they killed the husband, who tried to stop them from entering his house, and raped both the woman and her friend, Orel told The Hill.

The Ukrainian Prosecutor General has confirmed 156 cases of sexual violence against women in cities and towns that were occupied by the Russians  but that is likely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to sexual crimes committed during the war.

As Ukraine marked a somber anniversary last week, the questions facing advocates and prosecutors is whether Russian aggressors will be brought to justice, and what that will look like for victims facing emotional, physical and societal trauma.

The Ukrainian Prosecutor General has reported over 150 cases of sexual violence against women in Russian-controlled cities and towns. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

War in Ukraine: Five common questions about Russias year-old invasion

Iryna Didenko, from the Ukrainian prosecutors department investigating such crimes, said stories of violence against women have emerged in towns and villages across Ukraine.

We are collecting evidence for the future Russian war crimes tribunal. We dont rush for a quick result; we dont push our victims and witnesses. Some of them are not ready to bring a case or even talk about what they went through and we understand this, she said. For me and my team, the safety of our victims is the most important thing in these cases.

Story continues

The use of rape as a weapon of war has been documented in conflict zones around the world, according to Women for Women International CEO Laurie Adams.

Whether that is South Sudan or the Democratic Republic of Congo, or Rwanda during the genocide, in which thousands of women were raped. This is a systematic attempt to destroy people in communities, Adams told The Hill in a phone call.

Adams said 35 people have come forward to Women for Women International or its partner agencies in Ukraine to say that they were raped.

But among that 35  eight are children, which is absolutely horrifying. And not just children but they are aged eight and 11 to 16, she said.

But theres one aspect of the Ukraine-Russia war that is different from previous conflicts in terms of systematic violence against women and girls, she added.

The fact that they are now in real time collecting the evidence in Ukraine while the conflict is still alive, rather than, say, in Bosnia where I think it was a good 20 years after, thats a sign of progress, Adams said.

Putins wartime bluster obscures Russias precarious future

Outside the legal realm, women who have been victimized face many challenges in piecing back together their lives, including neighbors and community members who believe the women are at fault for their own assaults.

We have also found a really complicated situation because some people in Ukraine have a post-Soviet mindset. They often say to the women, you were not raped. or you went with the soldiers by your own desire, Orel said.

Its unbelievable. Because Russians came here with machine guns and tanks and some people blame women, she added.

Orel said that Ukraines prosecutors look to her organization to help with speaking to the victims without pressure and re-traumatization.

We also think about reparations. Russia must answer for what their soldiers have done in Ukraine. And Im sure that some tribunals should be created. I dont believe that people would do such violent acts without the permission of their commanders, for example, she said.

These crimes against women are part of a larger effort by Ukraine to document war crimes as the war with Russia extends past its one year mark. So far Ukraine has recorded 71,000 cases, Didenko shared.

Ukrainian women who have been victimized face a significant number of challenges in picking up the pieces of their lives. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Last year, the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom created the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group for Ukraine (ACA), an international justice initiative, to support Ukraines efforts to document and prosecute war crimes and other atrocities perpetrated against its citizens.

In a statement marking the one-year anniversary of the war in Ukraine, the State Department said that the United States has provided $30 million to support documentation and prosecution of war crimes and other atrocities since March 2022, and is working with Congress to provide an additional $28 million to support efforts by Ukraines domestic authorities and other international and foreign domestic courts to hold individuals accountable for war crimes.

US marks one year of Russia-Ukraine war

We believe that the Russian war crimes international tribunal will be created and all responsible for this war will be punished for all atrocities and sufferings which they brought to our people, Didenko said.

As you understand, this depends on the will of the international community, so what our country can do  at least try to do  is make all victims return to simple life which Russians stole from them February 24, 2022, and from 2014 when they occupied Crimea and part of Donbas, she added.

But while efforts to document these crimes continue, Orel cautioned that it will be difficult to find the perpetrators of these violent acts.

One woman said that I hope that that soldier is already dead. And I think that many of the soldiers that committed crimes are really dead and it will be really hard to find them, she added.

This is the complicated work  how to make them answer for their crimes. And I think Russia really needs to answer for what their soldiers did, Orel said.

How the Ukraine war has shaped Bidens presidency

What to expect in the second year of the Russia-Ukraine war

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
The first national park was born 151 years ago, on March 1, 1872, when President Ulysses S. Grant signed into law the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act.

Yellowstone National Park is one of the largest and best-known parks in the country, covering nearly 3,500 square miles in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.

It sits atop a volcanic hot spot with about half the worlds active geysers and is home to the greatest concentration of hydrothermal features in the world.

The law says the headwaters of the Yellowstone River  is hereby reserved and withdrawn from settlement, occupancy, or sale  and dedicated and set apart as a public park or pleasuring-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people, according to the National Park Service.

More: Aurora borealis made a rare appearance in Colorado, setting skies ablaze

A view of the Lower Falls at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone National Park on May 11, 2016. Yellowstone, the first National Park in the US and widely held to be the first national park in the world, is known for its wildlife and its many geothermal features.

Activities at Red Rock Ranch, in Jackson Hole, Wyo., include horseback riding, trap shooting, hiking and fly fishing. And it offers easy access to Yellowstone National Park, or Jackson Hole.

Left: This undated file photo shows a Bison making his way across the historic gate to Yellowstone Park in Gardiner, Mt. Right: A herd of bison share the road with vehicles as they travel down a road in Yellowstone National Park on May 9, 2005. Lisa Cormie, 48, of Huntington Beach, Calif., watches the bison through the rooftop hatches.

Left: President Clinton speaks at the base of Baronnette Mountain in Yellowstone National Park, Wyo., on Monday, Aug. 12, 1996, near Cook City, Mont., where he announced an agreement to prevent gold mining near Yellowstone. The president said, "Yellowstone is more precious than gold." Right: In this 2009, Aug. 16, file photo, President Barack Obama, his wife Michelle Obama, and daughters Malia Obama, 11, Sasha Obama, 8, with Interpretive Park Ranger Scott Kraynak look out over Hopi Point as they tour the Grand Canyon in Grand Canyon National Park, Ariz.

Area was cultural hub for thousands of years before it was Yellowstone

Native people from at least 27 tribes have ties to the area and resources now found within Yellowstone National Park, situated at the convergence of the Great Plains, Great Basin, and Plateau Indian cultures.

For thousands of years before Yellowstone became a national park, it was a place where people hunted, fished, gathered plants, quarried obsidian (which they used to field dress bison), and used the thermal waters for religious and medicinal purposes, according to the National Park Service (NPS). They visited geysers, conducted ceremonies, hunted, gathered plants and minerals, and engaged in trade.

The Upper Falls of the Yellowstone River are pictured in an undated photo in Yellowstone National Park.

Visitors to the Upper Geyser Basin walk along boardwalks near Old Faithful geyser Thursday, June 14, 2013, in Yellowstone National Park, Wyo.

In the late 1700s, fur traders traveled the great tributary of the Missouri River, the Yellowstone, in search of Native Americans to trade with.

Pre-1800 travelers did not observe the hydrothermal activity in this area but probably learned of these features from Native American acquaintances, according to NPS.

More: Home swept away as Yellowstone National Park is hit by major floods and mudslides

America's least-visited national parks: Perfect for the nature lover who hates crowds

Story continues

Although it's generally considered to have been the first national park in the world, some believe that Bogd Khan Mountain National Park in Mongolia predates Yellowstone and could have been established as early as 1778, according to Britannica.

The history of science in Yellowstone formally began with an expedition in 1871 led by Ferdinand Hayden, head of the U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories.

The continued reports by mountain men about the wonders of the Yellowstone area, artist renderings of the area, and reports by explorers contributed to the establishment of Yellowstone National Park in 1872.

The wonders of Yellowstone shown through Jacksons photographs, Morans paintings, and Elliots sketches  had caught the imagination of Congress. Thanks to their continued reports and the work of explorers and artists who followed, the United States Congress established Yellowstone National Park in 1872.

The expedition brought back evidence to back up earlier tales of thermal activity and gave the world visual proof of the areas unique wonders through the photographs of William Henry Jackson and the art of Henry W. Elliot and Thomas Moran.

The geysers of Icelandsink into insignificance in comparison with the hot springs of the Yellowstone and Fire-Hole Basins, Hayden noted at the time.

The management of Yellowstone from 1872 through the early 1900s helped set the stage for the creation of NPS, an agency specifically tasked with caring for the national parks.

In 1932, President Herbert Hoover issued an executive order that added more than 7,000 acres to the park. Today, the park is 63 miles from north to south and 54 miles from east to west.

USA TODAY boxes near the north entrance of Yellowstone National Park in May 2007.

View of the 'Sunset Lake' hot spring with it's unique colors caused by brown, orange and yellow algae-like bacteria called Thermophiles, that thrive in the cooling water turning the vivid aqua-blues to a murkier greenish brown, in the Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming on June 1, 2011.

A wolf pack is photographed during an aerial count at Yellowstone National Park on Nov. 19, 2009.

Yellowstone National Park elk forage around a Mammoth, Wyoming home in the Park in this October, 1994 file photo. Elk can be aggressive toward people in the fall mating season when bulls are competing for cows. Park biologists say the problem of habituated animals is not going away.

In this Aug. 1, 2012 photo, Ethan Stratton casts a line into the Missouri River near Helena, Mont., near his grandfather Lloyd Wilbur. More anglers are fishing on larger rivers and earlier in the day as heat and drought lead to restrictions on several small streams in Montana and in Yellowstone National Park.

Two cars are trapped in mud July 19, 2004 on the East Entrance Road near Sylvan Pass in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. Park rangers rescued 16 people, some through their car windows, after thunderstorms caused the mud to begin flowing July 18. No injuries were reported.

DATE TAKEN: 1997--- Mammoth Terraces in Yellowstone National Park. ORG XMIT: UT50178

View of the 'Grand Prismatic' hot spring with it's unique colors caused by brown, orange and yellow algae-like bacteria called Thermophiles, that thrive in the cooling water turning the vivid aqua-blue to a murkier greenish brown, in the Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming on June 1, 2011. Yellowstone National Park, was established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Grant on March 1, 1872. The park is located primarily in the U.S. state of Wyoming, though it also extends into Montana and Idaho and was the first national park in the world. It is known for its wildlife and its many geothermal features, especially the Old Faithful Geyser. AFP PHOTO/Mark RALSTON (Photo credit should read MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images) [Via MerlinFTP Drop]

Yellowstone was designated a UNESCO biosphere reserve in 1976 and a World Heritage site in 1978.

Recovery from record-breaking floods

Last summer, record-breaking floods and dangerous mudslides in Yellowstone swept away homes, ripped apart bridges and forced evacuations of surrounding communities isolated without power.

Yellowstone River reached highs not seen in our lifetimes, at almost 14 feet. The previous record of 11.5 feet occurred more than a century ago.

Camille Fine is a trending visual producer on USA TODAY's NOW team.

What's everyone talking about? Sign up for our trending newsletter to get the latest news of the day

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Yellowstone became the 'world's first national park' 151 years ago
[Source]

Researchers have determined five healthy sleeping habits that could help you live longer.

In a five-year study, researchers analyzed sleep and sleep habit data from more than 172,000 adults in the U.S. who responded to an annual survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Center for Health Statistics between 2013 and 2018. The average age of the participants was 50, with two-thirds self-reporting they were white, 14.5% Hispanic, 12.6% Black and 5.5% Asian.

Researchers looked at five factors of quality sleep: sleep duration, difficulty falling asleep, difficulty staying asleep, use of sleep medication and feeling well-rested after sleeping.

Participants who got seven to eight hours of sleep per night, fell asleep easily, stayed asleep throughout the night, refused to use sleep medication and woke up feeling well-rested received higher scores.

More from NextShark: 'Maybe he realized how stupid it was halfway in': Hit-and-run driver in Japan paints his vehicle orange to avoid arrest

The researchers found that those who followed all five good-quality sleep habits were less likely to die early: up to two and a half years may be added to a woman's life expectancy, and almost five years to a man's.

Additionally, they found that about 8% of all deaths could be attributed to poor sleep patterns.

If people have all these ideal sleep behaviors, they are more likely to live longer, said Frank Qian, MD, co-author of the study, internal medicine resident physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and clinical fellow in medicine at Harvard Medical School. So, if we can improve sleep overall, and identifying sleep disorders is especially important, we may be able to prevent some of this premature mortality.

More from NextShark: Japan creates laughing robot that can coexist alongside people

Individuals who exhibited all five factors were 30% less likely to die for any reason, 21% less likely to die from cardiovascular disease, 19% less likely to die from cancer, and 40% less likely to die of causes other than heart disease or cancer," according to the study.

"Even from a young age, if people can develop these good sleep habits of getting enough sleep, making sure they are sleeping without too many distractions and have good sleep hygiene overall, it can greatly benefit their overall long-term health," Qian said.

Story continues

"Its important for younger people to understand that a lot of health behaviors are cumulative over time. Just like we like to say, 'its never too late to exercise or stop smoking,' its also never too early. And we should be talking about and assessing sleep more often."

More from NextShark: Suspect in Brutal Vancouver Bus Attack Identified, Found Dead of Drug Overdose

Existing research has already shown that too little or too much sleep can affect heart health.

This new study, however, looks at how several sleep behaviors, not just sleep duration, might influence life expectancy. Qian said more research on sleep factors and life expectancy is needed.

Qian and his fellow researchers will present their findings at a cardiology conference hosted by The American College of Cardiology and the World Heart Federation in New Orleans on March 6.

More from NextShark: Japanese American Olympian Racially Harassed While Training in Orange
USAF - Getty Images

Something was off with a key component used to literally hold many U.S. Air Force aircraft togetherand it resulted in the service grounding 207 vital aircraft according to a Time Compliance Technical Order issues in February.



Noits wasnt the Air Forces numerous F-16 tactical fighters. Nor its new F-35 stealth jets, or venerable B-52 bombers and A-10 ground attack jets.

Foremost, it was the workhorse keeping all of those planes refueled in the sky: the services airliner-based KC-135 Stratotanker. It also affected RC-135 and WC-135 surveillance aircraft extensively deployed to monitor the activity and technologies of foreign militaries (particularly China, North Korea, and Russia).

The offending items, first publicly revealed on February 9 in a memo posted onto an unofficial Facebook page associated with Air Force non-commissioned officers, are apparently non-conforming vertical pins. Two of these 5-inch pins are used to bear 90 percent of the load fixing the vertical stabilizer (ie. tail fin) on the C-135 family of aircraft. The failure of just one pin therefore would suffice to compromise its load-bearing capacity, causing the entire vertical stabilizer to ... depart the aircraft, as the memo dryly puts it.

According to the memo, a metallurgical analysis of two non-conformal pins supplied by BlueDog Industries found flaws including incorrect material, undersized dimensions, insufficient plating and lack of shot peening. All 280 pins were recalled by the Air Force, but unfortunately, some had already been installed.

The Air Force identified 207 aircraft that underwent Programmed Depot Maintenance that may have received the pins. (Some reports say the grounding may apply to all aircraft of the relevant type, numbering over 400, though this may be inaccurate.) While the service is undertaking tests to figure out whether/how much those flaws degrade the pins stability, it chose to accelerate the pins removal from operational aircraft so as not to risk any tails falling off at inopportune moments.

Story continues

The danger of incident is no jokein 1985, a Japanese 747 airliner lost its tail midflight and plummeted into a mountain, killing 520 in the deadliest aircraft accident involving just one plane. The culprit in that case was explosive decompression of a stress fracture incurred from a prior tail collision.

That said, the Air Force deems the risk of a pin-related accident low enough that aircraft with faulty pins were authorized to fly to the maintenance depot to have them replaced. No mishaps due to these pins have been reported so far.

Fortunately, determining whether one of the problematic pins is installed requires only a 30 minutes inspection in which a cover plate is removed to inspect the pin head.

By Feb 17, the Air Force Material Command reported in a statement having inspected 90 aircraft, of which 24 had the non-conforming pins. Aircraft cleared could immediately resume flight operations.

According to the Omaha World-Herald, by February 19 all of the WC-135 and RC-135 surveillance jets based at Offut Airbase in Nebraska were reportedly verified not to use the suspect pins, and able to resume flight ops. That included two Cobra Ball spy planes sent on February 20 to observe a failed test of Russias latest silo-based nuclear missile.

However, at least one of seven RC-135s undergoing a routine overhaul in Texas did require pin replacement.

Jets with the non-conformal pins must have the component replaced at a depotin most cases at the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex. Even then, the fix doesnt require removing the entire tail and takes only a dayunless theres damage to the lugs.

Retired airliner, military workhorse

The C-135 is militarized variant of the four-engine Boeing 707 airliner, which entered service in 1958not the first, but undoubtedly the most influential early jet-powered airliner. While the last Boeing 707 airliner ended operational service in Iran in 2013, the U.S. Air Force still operates over 400 C-135s and other aircraft based on the 707 adapted to a variety of utility roles which require long range and payload.

The most important are the Air Forces roughly 390 KC-135 Stratotankers, which can effectively multiply the range and endurance of all Air Force combat aircraft with in-flight refueling. The vital tankers also frequently do double-duty as cargo aircraft. The KC-135 fleet is actually outlasting the smaller fleet of more modern KC-10 Extenders, and remaining in service longer than planned due to long-running problems affecting the Air Forces new KC-46A Pegasus tanker based on the Boeing 767 airliner.

The grounding also affects 17 specialized RC-135 surveillance planes. That includes the RC-135V/W Rivet Joints, which not only listens in on communications, but collects data on the electromagnetic emissions of military systems so they can readily be classified, identified and located. The RC-135U Combat Sent is dedicated studying the capabilities of radars. And the RC-135S Cobra Balls job is to gather detailed data on other countries missile testshello, North Korea!

Lastly, the Air Force also operates three WC-135R Constant Phoenix jets, a weather reconnaissance aircraft employed to suck in air samples into holding sphere, from which onboards sensors can sniff out radiological activity associated with nuclear testing in real time. These three aircraft were recently converted from KC-135R tankers at a cost of $208 million, replacing the prior WC-135W aircraft based on older, increasingly unreliable C-135B airframes with less fuel-efficient TF-33 engines.

The Air Force also operates the 707-based E-3 Sentry and E-8 JSTAR command and control jets, however, but these dont appear to have received the non-conformal pins.

Overall, while the severity of the flaws with non-conformal pins hasnt been fully assessed, its at least encouraging that the Air Force acted so aggressively to preempt potential problems before they manifest in more dramatic fashion.

You Might Also Like
Since 1961, Argentina has been sending films to vie in the Oscars best international film race and Ricardo Darin, the countrys most celebrated actor, stars in at least seven of them, including this years nominee, Argentina 1985. Thats no mean feat but given his lifetime commitment to his craft, perhaps not surprising.

Four of them: Son of the Bride (2001), The Secret in their Eyes (2009), Wild Tales (2014) and now the Amazon Studios-backed Argentina 1985, have either been shortlisted or in the case of Juan Jose Campanellas The Secret in Their Eyes, taken home the golden statuette. Given its wins at the Venice Film Festival, the National Board of Review and the Golden Globes as well as the growing buzz, Argentina 1985 may again clinch the honor.

More from Variety

Before his international career-launching turn in 2000 heist drama Nine Queens, which spawned a Hollywood remake, Darin, 66, had already worked in 35 films, aside from numerous roles in television, the theater and commercials from the time he was a toddler. As a child, he aspired to become either a veterinarian or a psychiatrist but the calling of his familys legacy was too loud.

I decided to follow the path my family has forged, says Darin whose parents are both actors. His sister Alejandra and son, Chino, are also thespians.

Ricardo is an uncommon actor. Like James Stewart, he brings integrity and familiarity to the characters he embodies. He builds every role from his own identity, making both character and player indivisible, says Argentina 1985 helmer Santiago Mitre.

He is intuitive, honest, intelligent, approachable and empathic. It is a pleasure to work with him, not only for his overwhelming charm or his marvelous precision, but also for his understanding of all aspects of cinema. Ricardo is the ultimate collaborator, someone who will advise you and will help you think about every detail of a film. And besides that, he is one of the funniest people I know.

Story continues

Ricardo is part of the whole creative process, usually from early drafts, but he sticks to the written word, usually giving both depth and humor without improvising, says the dramas producer Axel Kuschevatzky of Infinity Hill, who has been involved in 11 films with Darin since The Secret in Their Eyes.

I dont tend to improvise unless certain scenes call for it; I prefer to discuss the script in depth and then respect it, Darin says. Dont believe anything Santiago and Axel say, he quips.

Ricardo is the sheer definition of a storyteller  someone with a deep understanding of what audiences expect from movies, yet he is always willing to try new things, to challenge himself in every project, as an actor, producer and even as a director, Kuschevatzky says. His sense of humor is unparalleled and he makes life better for everyone, both in and out of the set. Ricardo is simply one of the good guys.

As he always does, Darin followed his gut to accept the part of prosecutor Julio Cesar Strassera in the film, which dramatizes Argentinas Trial of the Juntas in which members of the defeated military dictatorship were taken to court. Of course, other factors weigh in: the script, the director, the cast etc.

Im interested in stories about human conflict. I also love comedies but as Peter OToole said: Life is easy. Comedy is hard, he says twisting the actors words some.

The film resonated with people because it may be a local Argentine story but it touches on a universal theme, the call for justice. I recited Strasseras actual closing remarks verbatim 30 times and in each instance, there wasnt a dry eye in the court, he recalls of the cathartic shooting experience.

Whats next? Darin does not rule out working in Hollywood. I received an offer some months ago but I couldnt because of a scheduling conflict, he says. Meanwhile hell be working on a new project, still under wraps, which starts filming in Argentina in May.

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.
Spring turkey season will arrive in April. It is one of the most exciting times of year to be wandering around the woods here in Missouri. Not only can you turkey hunt, but you can look at all the beautiful plants starting to come back. I get super excited because it is when the elusive morel mushrooms start to pop. Finding them is one of the most fun things to hunt for in the woods.

If you can get up early and walk the woods anywhere in southeast Missouri throughout the spring, you can almost bet you will hear the illusive Eastern Wild Turkey blowing the top out of the trees, trying to call in his mate. Every spring, a male turkey will gobble and gobble letting his females know where he is. They also gobble before they go to roost in the evenings. So, when you are prepping to hunt them, a good tactic is to go to the woods and roost them the night before to know where to set up in the morning.

You typically do not want just to go set in the woods in the dark, knowing there are turkeys there but not knowing where they roost. There is a good chance you could end up sitting under the tree they are roosting in. That normally does not work out in your favor. There are lots of quirks to give you the upper hand in getting a turkey, but it takes a little research to make sure you can make it happen.

Here are a few tips I want to share:

 Make sure everything is camouflaged, from your gun down to your hands and face. Turkeys do not smell well, but they have eyes like eagles.

 If you must move, go slowly  slower than snail slow. They will see you wipe your nose from 50 yards away.

 You do not have to use 12-gauge 3.5 turkey mags to kill a turkey. We have been using 3-inch 20-gauge turkey shells for years, and they kill them all the same.

Pattern your shotgun. Be comfortable with your shotgun pattern and all your chokes, and see what youre most comfortable with. Remember, it only takes 1 BB out of that shell to kill a gobbler.

Now, heres another good thing to look for while you are in the woods turkey hunting  the almighty morel mushroom. Everyone has their own tricks to find them, and I have a few to share:

 Make sure you bring a knife to cut them off at the base.

 Bring a bag that is netted so that while you walk through the woods, you will spread the spores so more will grow the next year.

 Look at the south- and west-facing ridges early in the spring and the north and east-facing ridges in the later part of spring. The more the acidic tree, the better  like elm, ash and cottonwood.

 Moist areas that grow moss are great places to look  even around springs.

 There is an exact science to it, but the best way to do is to just go out there and look. Once you start finding them, then you will have a good base of understanding where to find more.

 Be aware of snakes. When morels start to pop, the snakes are getting out and moving around. Make sure you look around the whole area before you stick your hand down to pick one up. It is not unheard of for there to be snakes lying in areas where morels grow.

 You also need to be bear-aware. They are more common now than they were years ago.

 There are literally thousands of acres of public ground throughout the state that are free game to turkey hunt and/or look for morels. But remember, you can find mushrooms in your own backyard or even in your local park.

Getting in the outdoors doesnt cost anything but time, and it will do your soul more good than anything. Have a great week.
A Columbia County man was sentenced to federal prison for creating and possessing images depicting the sexual exploitation of a child.

Michael Benjamin Buckner, 39, of Grovetown, was sentenced to 15 years in prison after previously pleading guilty to Attempted Production of Child Pornography, according to Jill E. Steinberg, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Georgia.

U.S. District Court Judge Dudley H. Bowen also fined Buckner $3,500, ordered him to register as a sex offender and to serve 15 years of supervised release upon completion of his prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.

The case was investigated by the FBI, the Grovetown Department of Public Safety, and the Columbia County Board of Education Police Department, according to a media release.

Evans man charged:Evans man, 20, charged with uploading child pornography

Deputies under investigation:Georgia officer standards council investigating five Burke County sheriff's deputies

Investigators from the Grovetown Department of Public Safety arrested Buckner and his wife, Amber Buckner, 37, of Grovetown, in October 2021 on a charge of cruelty to children after they were alerted by officers from the Columbia County Board of Education Police, according to the release.

In a subsequent search of Michael Buckners cell phone, investigators and FBI agents discovered photos depicting sexually explicit images of children, according to the release.

In addition to his federal sentence, Michael Buckner also faces state prosecution for cruelty to children, according to the release. Amber Buckner is serving a 10-year prison sentence after pleading guilty in December 2022 to a state charge of cruelty to children.

Our community and its children are much safer with this lengthy prison sentence handed down to Buckner, said Keri Farley, special agent in charge of FBI Atlanta. We strive every day to protect our children and will continue to use every law enforcement resource available to identify and prosecute individuals who exploit children in such a manner.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Columbia County man sentenced to federal prison for child pornography
Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Courtesy of the Diazes

Jason and Melissa Diaz thought they were giving their future child a shot at a healthy life when they opted for in vitro fertilization over natural conception. But according to a new lawsuit, what they got was nothing short of a disaster.

The California couple both carry genetic mutations: Melissa for BRCA-1, which predisposes carriers to breast cancer, and Jason for CDH1, which carries an elevated risk of stomach cancer.

Jason found out about his mutation in the summer of 2018, when he developed diffuse gastric cancer and was forced to undergo a gastrectomya full stomach removalwhen chemotherapy did not work. The life-altering procedure prevents patients from digesting food normally and causes chronic gastrointestinal pain, among other debilitating side effects.

Couple Says Toxic Fertility Oil Destroyed Their Embryos

When the Diazes decided to have children, they elected to go with IVF, so they could test the embryos for the genetic mutations before implanting them. According to the lawsuit, they wanted to achieve their dreams of parenthood without subjecting their children to the stomach cancer Jason and his family members had endured.

The fertility clinic they chose, HRC Fertility, advertises itself as having state-of-the-art embryology labs and remarkable lab personnel of highly trained and dedicated embryologists, according to the suit. It allegedly advertised their doctor, Bradford Kolb, as being known for helping to develop and implementing cutting edge technologies in the genetic screening of embryos.

From the beginning, they expressly advised HRC Fertility, its employees, and Dr. Kolb that they sought IVF with preimplantation genetic testing to avoid having a child with Jasons CDH1 mutation for hereditary diffuse gastric cancer, the suit states.

Jason and Melissa ultimately created five embryos with the clinic, only one of which did not carry either mutation, according to the suit. They transferred that embryo in August 2020, but Melissa ultimately miscarried.

Story continues

Devastated but eager to try again, the suit claims, the Diazes asked their IVF coordinator to arrange for the implantation of a male embryo that the coordinator said carried the breast cancer mutation but not the stomach cancer mutation. (The couple considered this a safe choice because men are significantly less likely to develop breast cancer than women.)

Dr. Kolb transferred the embryo on Jan. 8, 2021, and Melissa gave birth to a boy in September. Jasons family threw a party for the couple to celebrate eliminating the CDH1 mutation from the Diaz family line, believing they had broken the curse that had doomed other family members to cancer and early death, the lawsuit states.

But the family was wrong. According to the suit, Dr. Kolb did not transfer a male embryo without the stomach cancer gene, because no such embryo existed. The IVF coordinator misrepresented the testing results and arranged for the transfer of a male embryo with the CDH1 mutation. The baby boy now has a more than 80 percent chance of developing stomach cancer, according to the suit.

We went through the difficult and expensive process of IVF so we could spare our children what Jason has had to endure, Melissa said at a press conference. We still cannot believe that after all we did ... our baby has the same genetic mutation we thought we escaped.

She added: Hes just such a happy baby, and to know the hurt in front of himthat he has to face for something we tried to preventit crushes me.

A spokesperson for HRC said in a statement that the Diazes had sought genetic testing and counseling outside of its facility, with a third party.

They wished to have a male embryo transferred, which we carried out according to the familys explicit wishes and in accordance with the highest level of care, the spokesperson said, adding that the company stand[s] by the professionalism and expertise of our medical staff and pride ourselves on adhering to the highest standards for patient care, patient records, results, and testing at all our locations.

According to the suit, the couples child will inevitably need to undergo a gastrectomy to prevent him from developing stomach cancer. They hope to delay the surgery until after he is finished developing, since removing the stomach before then could result in lifelong physical and cognitive impairments.

Jason, who saw two aunts die as a result of the cancer, called the results his greatest fear.

I wouldnt want anyone on earth to experience this type of pain, and now I will be forced to watch my own sonmy own flesh and bloodgo through this, he said. Every day my heart is hurting for my baby boy knowing the pain and challenges he has ahead of him.

Even if the child is able to delay the surgery until adulthood, he will still suffer from the pain, discomfort, and possible chronic diarrhea that afflicts many gastrectomy patients. The side effects may be so severe they will prevent him from taking certain jobs, according to the suit.

But the couple is not suing over the alleged wrongful implantation. Instead, they are alleging a coverup on the part of the fertility clinic, which they claim misled them even after the birth of their child.

According to the suit, the couple lived happily from September 2021 until July 2022, when they decided to try for another child. As part of this preparation, Melissa asked their new IVF coordinator to send over the report on the embryos they had created with HRC, so they could decide whichif anyof them they wanted to transfer.

What she saw on the report terrified her.

The embryo report, a copy of which is included in the complaint, contained handwritten notes that noted that the embryo transferred in January 2020the couples baby boywas positive for the stomach cancer mutation.

Melissa wrote back immediately, asking the coordinator to clarify whether the embryo theyd transferred carried the CDH1 gene. The coordinator did not respond. A week later, Melissa wrote again, saying the couple had been so stressed thinking of what our son will go through because of this genetic mutation.

Can you please double check that this is the correct report for our embryos? she wrote. Is there any way this could be a mistake? Again, the coordinator did not respond.

Eventually, the Diazes received a call from someone at HRC Fertility who admitted there had been a mistake, according to the suit, and called the couple in for a sit-down. When Melissa asked for a copy of her medical record, the clinic sent over a copy of the embryo report without the handwritten notes, the suit says, effectively removing the evidence of which embryo had been transferred.

HRC Fertility is one of the largest fertility clinics in the world, according to the suit, with nine offices across Southern California. The Pasadena office that the Diazes visited is a sprawling, 26,000-square-foot compound complete with luxurious VIP rooms, according to its website. According to the suit, the company is owned by Jinxin Fertility, one of the largest fertility companies in China.

Jinxin Fertility did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

HRC was also sued last summer by a same-sex couple who alleged that the center transferred a female embryo into their surrogate when they had explicitly requested a male. That suit, which also names Dr. Kolb as a defendant, is still pending in Los Angeles Superior Court.

A spokesperson for the company said last year that every child has value and limitless potential regardless of gender,'' and that they hoped the couple found love and value in their healthy child while so many across the country are struggling with reproductive issues.''

The Diazes have retained the services of Adam Wolf, an attorney known for his handling of IVF cases. Wolfs firm obtained a full copy of their medical record, handwritten notes included. They have initiated arbitration proceedings against HRC Fertility for the alleged wrongful transfer and are suing in California Superior Court for the alleged cover up.

The couple is requesting damages for their unimaginable mental anguish and for future lost wages and medical bills.

Tragically, this is yet another disaster in HRCs history of misusing patients genetic material and committing other grave fertility misconduct, Wolf said in a statement. In light of this history, I worry it will not be the last.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here

Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now.

Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now.
NEW YORK  Eric Adams was really disturbed by the proposal, or so he said on the debate stage during New York Citys 2021 mayoral primary.

One of his opponents, entrepreneur-turned-politician Andrew Yang, said the city needed to get homeless people with mental illness off the streets and into treatment.

Yes, mentally ill people have rights, but you know who else has rights? We do! The people and families of the city, Yang said.

Adams panned Yangs position as an attempt to demonize people experiencing mental health issues. But less than a year into his tenure as mayor, the Democrat directed first responders, crisis intervention teams and outreach workers to do something very similar to what Yang proposed: send people who appear unable to meet their basic needs due to mental illness to hospitals against their will.



Adams isnt alone in embracing a policy that has long been popular among Republicans but is now experiencing a Democrat-led resurgence. Several Democratic West Coast mayors are using civil commitments as a tool to address the colliding crises of homelessness and mental health while nodding to voters concerns about public safety. And California Gov. Gavin Newsom, one of the most prominent Democrats in the nation, is embracing a similar approach.

The new strategies represent a remarkable shift in mental health policy, coming half a century after the U.S. began shuttering or downsizing state psychiatric institutions as liberal policymakers condemned the facilities as inhumane and conservatives sought to cut down on their exorbitant cost.

Now leaders of some of the nations most progressive cities say it is inhumane to leave people languishing without mental health treatment  even if it is involuntary.



Public officials and experts tie the policy shift to rising  and increasingly visible  levels of homelessness that have intersected with the countrys mental health crisis. More than 582,000 Americans are unhoused and an estimated 30 percent of the U.S. homeless population has a severe mental illness, such as schizophrenia, according to federal data.

Story continues

As the problem has gotten objectively worse, the public has become more focused on solving the homeless crisis, Ted Wheeler, the Democratic mayor of Portland, Ore., said in an interview. Mayors are under such tremendous pressure right now. It's not just the call to be humane and help people who desperately need support to survive. But we're also getting calls from community members who are upset about the state of affairs when it comes to our cities and streets.

Wheeler is pressing the Oregon Legislature to lower the states threshold for civil commitment, which is currently limited to people who are a danger to themselves or others or are unable to provide for their basic needs.

Surveys of unhoused people in Portland show that about 40 percent report a mental health or substance use issue, Wheeler said. One in five has both.



Wheeler said he is drawing inspiration from San Francisco, where county lawmakers launched a pilot program in 2019 to expand conservatorships for people with severe mental illness and substance use disorders  an initiative backed by the citys Democratic mayor, London Breed.

In California, where Newsom last year unveiled a civil commitment framework for people with schizophrenia or psychotic disorders, residents recently named homelessness as the number-two issue they want the governor and Legislature to work on. More than half of unsheltered homeless Americans live in California, where massive encampments in parks and under freeways have become ubiquitous and pressured officials across the liberal state to back more punitive measures.

The proposal, called the Care Act, won near-unanimous approval in the California Legislature last year and will be implemented statewide by 2024.

Its a recognition that the current approaches are not as humane as people I think have believed they are, Mark Ghaly, secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency and a Newsom appointee, said in an interview. Theres individuals who are really suffering, maybe dont know that theyre suffering, and we just keep walking by.



To sell the new policies to voters, as well as the mental health and homelessness advocates who have overwhelmingly panned them, lawmakers have employed a strikingly similar vocabulary to the one advocates used in the 1960s and 1970s to empty psychiatric institutions across the U.S. They speak of a moral responsibility to provide a compassionate response to inhumane conditions.

We have to stop allowing individuals to essentially kill themselves on the street," Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, a Democrat, said last year when she was campaigning.

It is not acceptable for us to see someone who clearly needs help and walk past, Adams, a retired NYPD captain, said during a November press conference announcing his policy directive. If severe mental illness is causing someone to be unsheltered and a danger to themselves, we have a moral obligation to help them get the treatment and care they need.

Still, the anti-crime undertones are clear.

You cant effectively have public safety without adequate mental health care  the two go hand-in-hand, New York City Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Philip Banks III said in a statement accompanying Adams November announcement. For too long, public safety personnels hands have been tied in getting those in need care before they hurt themselves or others, said Banks, another former NYPD leader and close confidant of the mayor.

Critics of the new policies argue that people who are unhoused and living with serious mental illnesses are more likely to be the victims of a crime than the perpetrators. But murders and shootings surged during the worst of the pandemic, and New Yorkers became fixated on whether they could take the subway without feeling threatened, said Hank Sheinkopf, a veteran Democratic political consultant.

There's a relationship between chaos and crime in the eyes of voters, Sheinkopf, whose clients included Bill Clinton and Michael Bloomberg, said in an interview. The politics are governing the response, not great social policy.

The policy shift  and the language around it  point to the rising influence of the Treatment Advocacy Center, an Arlington, Va.-based nonprofit started in 1998 to reform states civil commitment laws so people with severe mental health concerns receive treatment before they harm themselves or others.

Over 30 states have reformed their civil commitment laws with support from the group, according to its website. An ongoing $13.4 million federal grant program to help local mental health systems establish court-ordered outpatient treatment programs, which launched in 2016, has its roots in a Treatment Advocacy Center policy recommendation. And the group even has a three-person implementation department that has advised recipients on how to spend the grants.

The organizations influence has been even more direct in New York City, where its former policy director, Brian Stettin, is the mayors senior adviser on severe mental illness. Stettin authored Adams recent policy directive.

Stettin said the administration recruited him after he penned a New York Daily News op-ed advising Adams to broadly interpret the states civil commitment laws as including any individual whose untreated mental illness prevents them from meeting basic survival needs. Previously, the law targeted people who posed a risk to themselves or others. Adams called him the day the piece ran, Stettin said.

Theres a widespread view among some people who make policy in this area that recovery must always be self-directed and we have to wait for people to recognize they need treatment, Stettin said in an interview.

I think that if you go about mental health reform with that in mind  that its only a question of creating resources for people to take advantage of  youre going to miss opportunities to help the most vulnerable people, he added.



But Cal Hedigan, CEO of the Manhattan-based social services nonprofit Community Access, said expansions of involuntary treatment are often a knee jerk  and counterproductive  response to high-profile tragedies.

Around the turn of the century, the killings of two women by people with a history of untreated mental illness drove Democratic lawmakers in New York and California to pass legislation authorizing court-ordered outpatient treatment, a type of civil commitment policy best known as assisted outpatient treatment.

Hedigan sees no place for coercive treatment, except when someone is in imminent danger.

Everyone would like there to be an answer to trying to alleviate human distress, Hedigan said in an interview. Its wanting an immediate fix to a complex problem.

And the effectiveness of involuntary treatment policies is an open question, given limited and inconsistent data. Some researchers speculate that any improved outcomes are a result not of coercion but of the increased access to services that may be unlocked by a court order. In New York, people in assisted outpatient treatment get priority for programs with the limited capacity, bypassing waitlists as long as a year.

New York City Councilmember Diana Ayala, a Democrat, understands but ultimately rejects the impulse to enact policies forcing more people into treatment. More than once she has involuntarily hospitalized her brother, who lives with schizophrenia, in a struggle to get him adequate care. After her most recent effort to hospitalize him, he allegedly punched a nurse and was arrested on a felony assault charge. He is being held on Rikers Island.



To Ayala, policies like Adams do little more than send people with serious mental health concerns to hospitals where they have already gone in an unsuccessful quest for care  often of their own free will.

Im sure itll lend the appearance that we're cleaning up the streets, but we're actually doing the complete opposite, she said. You can't hold people in a clinical setting for too long. Once you let them out onto the street, there's no follow up, there's no care available. So what happens then?

Ayala echoed the argument of many mental health advocates who are critical of coercive treatment: Policymakers should focus on bolstering the care itself, not how people receive it.

Alexander Nieves contributed reporting.
An Evans man was arrested Tuesday related to the alleged discovery of multiple sexually explicit images and videos involving children.

The 20-year-old is charged with two counts of possession of child pornography. Additional charges may be forthcoming, according to the Grovetown Police Department.

Investigators from the Grovetown Police Department Criminal Investigations Division, with the assistance of the Columbia County Sheriffs Office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, executed a search warrant at about 10 a.m. at a home on the 1800 block of Hunters Cove in Evans in connection to a child pornography investigation, according to a news release.

Deputies arrested:Two Richmond County deputies caught on video assaulting inmate

Reward offered:Family of Augusta man killed in shooting offers $10,000 reward for information

The search warrant came from an investigation following a tip received through the GBI Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce, according to the release. The tip revealed that sexually explicit images and videos involving children were uploaded in October 2022 to an online cloud system from devices registered to the suspect.

At that time, the suspect lived in a home on the 4000 block of Vine Lane, located in Grovetown, according to the release.

The suspect was taken into custody during Tuesday's search, according to the release. Multiple electronic devices were found at the home and seized as part of the ongoing investigation.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: 20-year-old Evans man charged with possession of child pornography
ROYAL PALM BEACH  Every Thursday, the rhythmic sounds of heel taps, hand claps and Spanish sevillanas seep from a classroom in Royal Palm Beach High School.

Inside, Gabriela Reyes leads 10 women through the series of steps and twirls of a flamenco. The chance to learn the ornate, demanding dance born in southern Spain has become their mission and their joy.

Theres something really special about dancing with a bunch of people, said Leslie Salmon, who taught English as a second language at the school for over 35 years and can claim Reyes as one of her former students. The feeling that you get when everyone is doing the same thing is amazing.

'It feels life fire': Want to try flamenco? 5 things to know Spanish dance

Welcome, Lili! Baby chimp is Lion County Safari's newest addition

For subscribers - Wellington news: City to Glenn Straub "Pay $6.7M in liens or lose Palm Beach Polo properties"

Every Thursday night, a classroom at Royal Palm Beach High transforms into a dance hall where adults come to learn the rhythms of flamenco.

The women closely follow Reyes  who first danced flamenco as a teenager in Venezuela  across the classroom, mimicking her feet, hands and facial expressions. They have different nationalities; some are working professionals while others are retired. But once a week, they all wear homemade costumes and meet to dance and chant Ole! in unison.

For Tania Esten, 31, the class allows her to practice a childhood hobby, one she feared she might have lost forever. For others like Sandie Young, 75, its their first time tapping to a flamenco. All of them say the class gives them the opportunity to rebuild the sense of belonging they lost during the pandemic.

Before Reyes' class, the high school offered dance lessons in ballroom, jazz and Zumba but never flamenco.

Over the last 10 years, Palm Beach County's Hispanic population has increased by 20%, according to census data. Royal Palm Beach, Wellington, Greenacres and the surrounding western communities have become pockets for Hispanic food, music and culture.

Its a community, said Renata Espinoza, of Royal Palm Beach. You can feel how we have something in common and we have a fabulous teacher.

Story continues

Flamenco dancer Gabriela Reyes, of West Palm Beach, leads a group of 10 women through footwork practice during an adult class teaching the art of flamenco dance at Royal Palm Beach High School on Feb. 9.

Laughter, mistakes, grace fill the flamenco dance floor

Reyes flamenco lessons are colorful and loud. The women face the mirror, each wearing costumes they've improvised.

Some sew their skirts with cloth they had at home. Some wear flowery beach skirts and others come with their office skirts. They all paint their lips red or pink and adorn their hair with flowers.

Reyes  also known as La Canela, Spanish for "The Cinnamon  kicks off the group with footwork.

She marks the speed and rhythm of the steps with loud claps, called palmadas. The women flood the room with disjointed taps, but they slowly begin to stomp at the same time, as if beating the same drum.

There is tension between the knock of each metal heel against the wooden floor. When a student misses a step, they laugh loudly, retrace the choreography and get back in position.

Then Reyes moves to hands and arms.

Flamencos sharp footwork is contrasted by the swift, sleek movements of the upper body. The dancers' arms wrap around their bodies, their hands swaying in circles as they move through each pose.

Once they've run through the technique, they practice a traditional sevilla, a precisely choreographed group dance.

Class ends with a Rumba, a freestyle where dancers improvise together.

The women start with shy steps but by the end of "Bailando," a song by Enrique Iglesias and Gente de Zona, their heels make the floor shake, they scream and burst into laughter.

Every student in Reyes' Royal Palm Beach class has a story to tell about choosing to learn flamenco.

Leslie Salmon: A 'bucket list' triumph

West Palm Beach resident Leslie Salmon flourishes with her hands while practicing flamenco.

Last year, Salmon taught Reyes in Royal Palm Beach High Schools afternoon English program.

Up until last fall, Salmon had never attempted to dance flamenco but was no stranger to its music. She listened and even played Spanish guitar songs during classes for her students.

Its been on my bucket list for 100 years, said Salmon, a fifth-generation Floridian, born in West Palm Beach.

She dances besides Espinoza in class. They both miss a right-side turn but nail it on the left and hug each other.

Renata Ezpinoza: An 'escape from stress'

Renata Espinoza of Royal Palm Beach says the class has connected her with new friends and keeps her active.

Espinoza, a native from Mexico, attended college in Spain, where she first tried flamenco decades ago.

She said the class lets her relive some of the most fun she's ever had. Now that she is retired, it helps her make friends and stay active.

Dancing flamenco just feels good, she said.

Its something to escape from the stress of everyday, said Espinoza. You come here and meet these ladies, and everybody is smiling with such positive energy."

That is what I need.

Tania Esten: 'I can still move and dance'

Two years ago, Esten thought she would never walk normally again, much less dance.

In 2021, a car struck the Nicaraguan-born woman while she drove a motorcycle around Loxahatchee. She fractured her right leg and foot.

Dancing flamenco helped her regain most of her mobility, Esten says.

Im excited that after everything I went through, I can still move and dance, said Esten, who was 3 the first time she danced flamenco. "And seeing them motivates me to keep coming.

Sandie Young: 'Let me go find those roots!'

Sandie Young gets compliments on her hand-made outfit. Flamenco isn't only about the steps, but the flourishes.

Young has danced most of her life. Her first love was tap and she taught belly dancing for decades. Now, at the age of 75, she found flamenco has captured her heart.

Young rehearses in the first row behind Reyes. She wears a black skirt with green flares, a knitted black wrap and her old tap shoes. And with every step, she reaches out to a distant part of herself.

Somewhere in my heritage we are Spanish, Young said. "I just said, 'Let me go find those roots.'

Meet the teacher: Gabriela Reyes, aka 'La Canela'

Gabriela Reyes, a flamenco dancer from West Palm Beach, poses for a portrait in West Palm Beach. Reyes, who studied flamenco in Spain, teaches a flamenco class for adults every Thursday at Royal Palm Beach High School.

Born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela, Reyes was 16 when she first danced flamenco. She later traveled to Spain to specialize in it.

She built an award-winning career performing as a soloist in Venezuela, where she opened her own dance company. The country's political and economic instability prompted her to close the studio five years ago and flee to Guayaquil, Ecuador.

Reyes relocated to West Palm Beach two years ago and last fall, she enrolled in the school's English afternoon program.

Classmates and teachers pushed her to apply with the school district to give lessons. It was a long process, Reyes said, but now she is back to doing what she loves most: teaching in her new home.

Ultimately, Reyes said, the most important of the class thing isn't flamenco, or dance.

Its about growing inside and outside, Reyes said. For me its about empowering all of them to learn new things.

Valentina Palm covers Royal Palm Beach, Wellington, Loxahatchee and other western communities in Palm Beach County for The Palm Beach Post. Email her at vpalm@pbpost.com and follow her on Twitter at @ValenPalmB. Support local journalism: Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Flamenco class bonds students brave enough to learn Spanish dance
At least 29 people are dead and 85 injured after a commercial train and a passenger train collided and derailed in Greece on Tuesday.

The incident happened at the entrance of Tempe Valley on the Athens-Thessaloniki route just before midnight, said Vasilios Vathrakogiannis, a fire brigade spokesperson in a release shared on its website. Tempe is a small town next to a valley where major highway and rail tunnels are located, some 235 miles north of Athens, according to the Associated Press.

Roughly 40 firefighters, 17 emergency vehicles and 30 ambulances rushed to the scene. Local hospitals were also put on alert to treat burn patients, according to the press release. Thessaly's army and military units were brought in on an "alert protocol", which is standard for accidents like this one, Vathrakogiannis said.

At the time of the press briefing, emergency crews were still trying to help passengers get out, however, many had been safely rescued.

Though Vathrakogiannis said 16 people had died, multiple outlets have reported that the death toll is now at least 29. The 85 people who were hurt were taken to nearby hospitals.

RELATED: Woman, 21, Mourned by Family and Softball Community After Fatal Calif. Crash: 'Love of My Life,' Says Mom

deadly train crash in greece https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j58QhlFDpNo

youtube

Many said they saw their fellow passengers being tossed out of the window when the trains collided, while others tried to escape when the passenger train was forced to hit a nearby field, according to the Associated Press.

One teenager told reporters in Greece that he was getting off a train when another one jerked. He then saw sparks before it abruptly stopped.

"Our carriage didn't derail, but the ones in front did and were smashed," he said, per the AP. He managed to get out of his train when he used a bag to smash his car window after the first car in line went up in flames.

deadly train crash in greece https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j58QhlFDpNo

youtube

RELATED: Officials Say Plane Broke Apart Before Crash that Killed 5, Including New Dad of 1-Month-Old Baby

Costas Agorastos, regional governor for Thessaly described the crash as "very powerful" in a TV interview, according to the AP. He added that it was "a terrible night."

Story continues

"The front section of the train was smashed," he added. "We're getting cranes to come in and special lifting equipment clear the debris and lift the rail cars. There's debris flung all around the crash site."

One of the passengers, Angelos Tsiamouras, compared the crash to "an earthquake" as another recalled, "There was panic in the carriage, people were screaming," according to BBC.

RELATED VIDEO: 5 People Killed in Ambulance Plane Crash in Nevada: 'We Are Heartbroken'

A passenger also said it was "very shocking. I wasn't hurt but I was stained with blood from other people who were hurt near me."

Greek railway company Hellenic Train confirmed there were roughly 350 people on board.

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, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

"At Evangelismos, there was a head-on collision between two trains: a freight train and train IC 62, which had departed from Athens to Thessaloniki," the company told ABC News. "Firefighters and Hellenic Train personnel rushed to the scene, participating in rescue operations and providing assistance to travelers."

Hellenic did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.
Irregular migrant ship sinks off in Italy

The wreckage of the ship carrying the immigrants and a life buoy are seen on the beach in Crotone, Italy on February 27, 2023. Credit - Valeria FerraroAnadolu Agency/Getty Images

At least 64 people died after a wooden boat carrying over 150 refugees was wrecked off the coast of Italy over the weekend. The deaths of these migrantshailing from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, and elsewherecomes as Italy continues to clamp down on efforts to rescue those who try to enter Europe by water.

Crossing the Mediterranean Route into Italy is the deadliest migrant crossing route in the world, but also increasingly the only option for migrants hoping to escape conflict in their homelands.

If you are a migrant and want to reach Europe, you have limited [options,. says Luigi Achilli, an Italy-based senior researcher at the Migration Policy Centre. You either fly or cross the sea.

Flying is by far the safest and quickest option, says Achilli, but its risky, as migrants need to forge expensive travel documents and risk being caught along the journey. On the other hand, smugglers will offer cheaper packages for those trying to cross by sea, guaranteeing multiple trips if the boat is intercepted along the routea more feasible option for those desperate to escape.

The UNHCR estimates that more than 100,000 refugees arrived in Italy by boat in 2022, and that almost 1,400 migrants died while trying to cross the central Mediterranean in 2022.

Italys new Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, has made clear her commitment to enacting laws that make it more difficult for migrants to enter Italy through the Mediterranean, and recently proposed a measure that places restrictions on NGO search-and-rescue boats. One expert told TIME that the move is not a novelty, but rather an extreme approach to the European Unions policies on migration already in effect. Heres what to know.

What has Italys government been doing to address deaths on the Mediterranean?

Meloni expressed deep sorrow over the tragedy, but Achilli says that the hardline stance she has taken against migration since coming to power in October will make safe passage for migrants even more unobtainable.

Story continues

The law, passed by Italys Parliament last week, requires NGO search-and-rescue ships operating in the Mediterranean to sail to a designated port rather than the closest port, and prevents them from looking for other migrant boats in distress. Captains face fines of up to 50,000 euros if they fail to comply.

A memorial in honor of the victims of a deadly migrant shipwreck in Crotone, Italy, on February 27, 2023. Gabriele MaricchioloNurPhoto/Getty Images

The new law against rescue NGOs that has been approved does not only create substantial obstacles for NGOs operating in the Mediterranean, it also increases the dangers faced by migrants who seek to reach Europe. says Achilli.

The move was widely condemned by rescue organizations in a joint statement in January, who said it would cause more deaths in the Mediterranean. Meloni has accused rescue boats of aiding human traffickers, a claim the charities have denied. They need a scapegoat. says Achilli.

Melonis government is not a radical change in terms of migration policies from previous governments in Italy, or the rest of Europe, Achilli explains further. Melonis government is pushing the dominant approach on migration to an extreme.

How has the E.U. approached an influx of refugees in recent years?

During her campaign, Meloni proposed a deal with Libya in which the country would house refugees and prevent them from trying to make it to Europe. She compared the plan to a similar off-shoring agreement the E.U. signed with Turkey in 2016 that gave the country 6 billion euros in exchange for stopping migrants who tried to travel to Europe from their shores.

The war in Ukraine put the E.U.s migration policy into the spotlight, when the bloc invoked a temporary protection directive that gave Ukrainian refugees entering Europe temporary status that granted them many of the same rights as E.U. citizens.

The decision was in sharp contrast to how the bloc has approached refugees fleeing Syria and Afghanistan in the past. Poland and Hungary, which pushed back against refugees from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, welcomed Ukrainians with open arms.

Just months prior, following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, E.U. interior ministers released a statement vowing to prevent illegal migration from the region rather than offering protections for Afghans fleeing the country.

The dangers of off-shoring refugees

Migrants trying to start anew dont always find a welcome home in these so-called third countries. These countries are not always safe countries, says Achilli. A 2022 U.N. human rights report detailed widespread and systematic human rights violations and abuses against migrants in Libya. Syrian refugees in Turkey have often been treated as second-class, facing discrimination, poverty, and the risk of deportation.

In the short term, this offshoring of border control does stem irregular migration, but not in the long term because migrants get right directed along different routes. says Achilli.

Offshoring increases the number of smugglers, says Achilli, and also puts Europe at the mercy of countries like Libya and Turkey, who can use their willingness to take in migrants as a bargaining chip in other issues.

Achilli says that the answer to preventing migrant deaths along the central Mediterranean is simple, but not one the E.U. is keen on following anytime soon. For those fleeing immediate danger, smugglers and dangerous routes are the only optionbut if the E.U. instead looked to expand its policies by granting humanitarian visas, expanding European countries resettlement programs, or developing alternative legal routes for refugeessuch desperate moves wouldnt be necessary, Achilli says.

The catastrophe were witnessing in the Mediterranean Sea could be easily addressed if we improve and multiply the legal channels of mobility, says Achilli. But what we are doing is going in the other direction.
LOSITETI, Kenya - The wind picked up, and Jill Biden was suddenly enveloped in a cloud of red dirt, the kind that's impossible to get out of your clothes, the kind that looks like rusty blood when it's wet. That is, if it would ever rain here. The Horn of Africa, including Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia, is experiencing its worst drought in recorded history, which is coming just six years after the previous worst drought on record. There are almost no crops, no grass, no brush in this village to hold earth to ground, just some bushes and one big acacia tree that somehow managed to survive. Which is why the 71-year-old first lady of the United States is here in this dust bowl swarming with biting black flies, gulping down bottled water after spending 90 minutes completely outdoors in the blazing African heat. She had devoted at least half of the visit to a listening session with Maasai women, who told her about how much their tribal herding lives had changed now that roughly 45 percent of the cows in Kajiado County have died.

"It's one thing to read about it. It's another thing to see it, and see how the cows, the livestock, they're just flesh and bones, and these women that I talked to are telling me they cannot feed their families," Biden said in an interview with The Washington Post. Already, she pointed out - reiterating talking points the White House had given the news media - the United States is providing 70 percent of the humanitarian aid in this region, or $2.5 billion in 2022. But after seeing the drought in person, she said she would suggest to President Biden that he increase that. "There's just so little for them to eat, and the United States is providing 70 percent of the money. I'll tell him, 'Joe, if we can give more, or if we can reach out to other countries and say, help us, help all these people to live - [we need to do that].' And I think that's what I'll take back to him."

Story continues

Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post.

It was an incongruous scene. Well over 1,000 Maasai had come to see the strange spectacle that had descended on their land. Many of them brought their cattle. Lositeti is the only water source for 12 villages, each with 1,000 to 1,200 people (ever since an elephant trampled the borehole up the road). And nearly every one of them had a cellphone, pointed at Jill Biden as she soft-shoed The Post's questions about the president's possible run in 2024.

In many ways, this five-day trip to Africa was emblematic of Biden's tenure as first lady. She had gone to enormous effort to promote women's empowerment and democracy in Namibia and highlight food insecurity in Kenya. And then Friday afternoon, the entire news cycle around her Africa trip - at least the American news cycle - became subsumed when she all but confirmed during an interview with Darlene Superville of the Associated Press that her husband would run again in 2024, setting off a blaze of headlines. The first lady didn't actually confirm it, though, which means every reporter is pretty much obligated to keep asking the question and reading the tea leaves until she does.

Standing on that arid field in Lositeti two days later, wearing a traditional Maasai beaded necklace with her blue blazer, black sneakers and khakis, Biden seemed determined not to make any more news on that front. In a brief interview that also covered her takeaways from Africa and her granddaughter Naomi Biden's presence on the trip, The Post tried to follow up on her comments that the president "is not done" and that it was "pretty much" now just a matter of when and where to make the announcement.

Did that mean the decision has been made? "Well, I'll say it again, Joe says he intends to run." Isn't she tired of campaigning? "Can I tell you, the things that Joe has done and what we're fighting for in our democracy, I will work 24/7 to keep our democracy strong." (When CNN released its first clip of a one-hour special the network is airing about the trip later this week, including exclusive moments and interviews, it also focused on 2024. When asked if there was any chance her husband would not run, she said: "Not in my book. ... I'm all for it, of course.")

She seemed equally averse to making news with the purported purpose of her trip, as announced by the president in a speech last week in Poland: to highlight how the Russian war in Ukraine is contributing to the food crisis in the Horn of Africa. "Putin tried to starve the world by blocking the ports of the Black Sea to stop Ukraine from exporting its grain. ... And this week my wife Jill Biden is traveling to Africa to help bring attention to this critical issue," the president said, unambiguously. The announcement of her visit mentioned how "Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine has increased food insecurity and threatened livelihoods," as well.

But in her brief, impromptu statement after seeing the drought area, Jill Biden didn't reference that issue. Her only mention of the conflict was when she looked into TV cameras and asked for everyone to remember that there are other crises in need of money. "We have to have other countries join us in this global effort to help these people of the region, and unfortunately there is the war in Ukraine," she said. "There is the earthquake in Turkey. I mean, there are a lot of competing interests, but obviously here people actually - livestock, people are starving."

- - -

Biden's trip was part of the administration's aggressive new push to shore up relationships with Africa in the face of increasing influence and investment on the continent from China and Russia. At the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit the president hosted in Washington in December, he announced that eight top administration officials would be making trips to Africa this year. Jill Biden's was essentially the kickoff trip for the principals of the administration - ahead of both the president, who's expected to go this summer, and Vice President Harris. It's her sixth time in Africa, following five trips as second lady in the Obama administration, and makes her the first of the administration's four principals to visit sub-Saharan Africa, and the first principal of an administration to visit Namibia since Vice President Al Gore in 1996.

On the continent, everyone from cabdrivers to baristas seemed to know that America's first lady was in Africa, and was generally thrilled to have her there. Media coverage was wall-to-wall. In Windhoek, Namibia, where she was being shown around by first lady Monica Geingos, she attended a luncheon that a local reporter said contained every important person in the country's government. ("I think they've fallen in love!" crowed a female radio host, speaking of Biden and Geingos.) Namibia is a young democracy, having received independence from South Africa in 1990, after decades of war. On her last day in the country, she passionately extolled democracy and women's empowerment at a speech before 1,300 college students, who are the first generation to be born free of apartheid. They gave her a standing ovation, and were so excited to shake her hand or take a selfie with her in the background that she stayed around for an extra 15 minutes working the line.

In Kenya, which she was visiting for the third time, Biden reminded a group of female leaders in government, business, research and education that they can lead full lives with both families and a career. "We're all sisters," she said, urging the small crowd to come closer, and talking about how she knew the challenges of balance they faced "because I am a working woman." (Biden kept her trip to five days because she wanted to be back for the Tuesday morning English composition class she teaches at Northern Virginia Community College. Her departure for Africa also came just hours after she finished up in the classroom.)

In both countries, Biden also went into informal squatter settlements, where most homes and business were constructed out of metal sheets. At the center of Nairobi, she made her second trip to Kibera, the largest informal settlement in Africa, which she had visited as second lady during her 2010 trip to Kenya. This time in Kibera, she spent an hour listening to female participants talk about Joyful Women, an initiative from Kenyan first lady Rachel Ruto, to set up a system called "table banking," similar to a community loan system, to fund women-run small businesses, no credit history required. In Katutura, Namibia, outside Windhoek, she met with young people who have benefited from the work of Hope Initiatives Southern Africa (HISA), which is the one permanent, concrete-walled structure in the neighborhood, with programs aimed at job training, as well as learning how to prevent gender-based violence and the spread of HIV.

- - -

Overall the trip was a perfect encapsulation of Biden's time as first lady, promoting noble causes and being generally uncontroversial, but ultimately less interesting to American media outlets than a single decision of her husband's - which, granted, is perhaps the most consequential decision any American politician will make over the next few years. It also didn't help, in terms of eyeballs, that her Africa trip started the same day that her husband delivered his speech in Poland, and the day after he secretly took a 10-hour train ride into Ukraine to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky.

And yet, Biden showed up, as she always does (as her aides are often reminding reporters). She showed up in Africa the same way she shows up to promote coronavirus vaccines in red states, or to drive three hours and back to Navajo Nation to thank them for helping Joe Biden win in Arizona. By the end of her trip, she spent 44 hours in transit on her plane, Executive One Foxtrot, or in a bulletproof SUV, traveling more than 20,000 miles round trip in less than a week.

On that final day alone, it took Biden's massive 35-vehicle motorcade, which included an ambulance and backup cars in case there were breakdowns, three hours to get to the village from Kenya's capital city, Nairobi - some of it over dirt roads so rough that they could be traversed only in giant SUVs and Land Cruisers used for safaris. Past riverbed after riverbed that had completely dried up. Past the many men on the side of the road selling hay savanna. Past herds of cows wandering through busy settlements along the highway in search of water, so emaciated their ribs were showing. Past crowds of thousands of people who had stopped whatever they were doing to catch a glimpse. Past goats and donkeys that held up the motorcade, and ostriches that ran alongside it.

Asked what she found most memorable about this Africa trip, Biden told The Post: "This is one of the highlights, just getting out of the city and seeing people and how they're living and their challenges, how tough life is for a lot of people. But it makes me feel good about what our country does for other countries."

Biden's visit was meant to bring attention to a dire issue that aid workers fear will get lost in other crises. While her remark about her husband's 2024 plans may have upstaged things back in the States, there was evidence on the ground that Biden showing up had an impact. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which helps set up tents by Lositeti's church every other Sunday, offering physicals and malnutrition checks, reported that a whopping 474 people came in and received treatment that day - more than seven times their normal rate, and many of them children.

For the roughly 75 schoolchildren who had lined the road, singing and dancing, upon her arrival, or the boy who rode his bike alongside the slow-moving motorcade until they finally reached pavement, it seemed like the experience of Biden's visit was the kind they might remember for the rest of their lives. While everyone was waiting in cars to depart, several children came over and were delighted to use the safari vehicles like jungle gyms. One of the mothers with them, Gladys Motete, 32, was four months pregnant, with a 5-year-old son, and told this reporter that the drought was "very hard." And as the motorcade pulled away, she asked for food.

Related Content

Pregnant Russians are streaming into Argentina. Officials are suspicious.

Starbucks committed 'egregious' violations in battling union, judge rules

D.C.'s long-term finances at risk as downtown stays sluggish, CFO warns
During its regular meeting Feb. 16, the Bismarck Board of Education heard a report on a statewide scholarship, approved the 2023-2024 school calendar, and affirmed along with Superintendent Dr. Michael Silvey their opposition to open enrollment. The board also recognized the student of the month.

Silvey asked the board to approve a resolution opposing the legislation regarding open enrollment. If lawmakers in Missouri pass the far-reaching enrollment initiative in Jefferson City, parents and guardians will be allowed to send their students and the applicable school funding out of their home district and into the school district of their choice.

We resolved the focus of resident taxpayer resources upon the education of students who reside in our districts, said Silvey. To our knowledge, theres no credible research that shows open enrollment improves student achievement, and open enrollment will result in a significant, adverse financial impact on a couple of school districts.

The resolution was put together by Missouri Association of Rural Education (MARE), and listed reasons Silvey said they oppose the legislation as a district.

The board approved the resolution opposing open enrollment.

Also during the meeting, rootEd College and Career Advisor Carmen Barton told the board, as of Feb. 13, she has met with all of the senior class at least once during the first and second semesters, and has already met with 26 of the parents and guardians groups.

The rootEd Undergraduate Scholarship is dedicated to improving post-high school opportunities for seniors from selected communities in rural Missouri and Idaho. The renewable scholarship, up to $12,000 annually, may be used at an accredited, nonprofit, four-year college or university.

Barton estimated more than 57% of the seniors she's seen have financial plans for after graduation. The plans could include students learning how to access a college education, or attending a career center, and budgeting for living expenses such as dorm costs, apartments, and similar expenses.

Nearly 87% of seniors who plan to attend college have already been accepted, according to Barton, and 70% of the senior class has completed the FAFSA. Barton said, even some students without college plans have filled out the FAFSA, in case they change their minds.

My big push with this group of kids is, you need to have a plan A, B, and C, said Barton, because Plan A doesnt always work out, sometimes Plan B doesnt work out.

For students planning on entering the workforce after graduation, Barton said resumes are being created and refined, and mock interviews are being set up to prepare students for the real thing.

Students are also applying for scholarships. According to Barton, Bismarck seniors have fielded more than $200,000 worth of offered scholarships. Not all of that money has been accepted, since sometimes multiple schools will offer a student scholarships.

Were trying to prep [students] any way that we can to make them successful when they leave here, Barton said. I dont want any of them to feel lost.

rootEd Alliance launched in 2018 to address many challenges students in rural America schools face after high school. The alliance partners with local and national organizations to improve postsecondary and career outcomes. Bismarck High School joined the alliance in 2022.

During the Bismarck R-5 board meeting, the board also approved a previously-tabled item from the Jan. 19 meeting, the 2023-2024 school calendar. Silvey told the board school will not be in session on April 8, 2024, and while the district originally set a professional development day on Sept. 29, school will instead be in session. The professional development date will be bumped up to the beginning of the academic year, Aug. 8 specifically being set aside for new-teacher orientation.

At another point in the meeting, Bismarck Elementary School Principal Katie Martinez asked for Kayden Golden to step forward. Golden has worked hard the last few months in class and at home, and has significantly increased his knowledge of sight words, spelling patterns, and math facts. Golden was also described as a good friend to all his peers. Martinez presented a plaque to Golden during the meeting.
PIERRE  House lawmakers voted 53-17 on Tuesday to approve a bill that would fundamentally change how South Dakota sentences people with violent crime convictions.

SB 146, known as the Truth in Sentencing bill, was sponsored by Sen. Brent Hoffman, R-Sioux Falls. Under the bill, sentencing guidelines for violent crimes would require those convicted to either serve their full sentence or 85% of their sentence.

"Surely, you've heard the calls from our citizens to do something about crime, especially violent crime," Rep. Sue Peterson, R-Sioux Falls, said.

More:'Truth in Sentencing' bill that would alter sentencing for violent offenders advances to House floor

In the first section of the bill, anyone convicted of one of 13 high level violent crimes, such as first-degree manslaughter and first-degree human trafficking, would have to serve the full sentence imposed on them by a judge without credits for a shortened term. The offender would then be eligible for supervised release.

In the second section, those convicted of one of 10 other violent crimes, such as aggravated assault or second-degree manslaughter, could receive credits that could be applied toward shortening their sentence. However, they must serve at least 85% of their sentence before becoming parole eligible.

Attorney General Marty Jackley, who has supported the bill in its various committees, said in a House Judiciary committee on Feb. 22, the bill was the first step toward what happened on the federal level years ago, when the feds did away with the parole system. He added the bill gave discretion to the courts and the Board of Parole and Pardons, when it came to supervised release.

Sen. Jim Mehlhaff, R-Pierre, and Sen. Brent Hoffman, R-Sioux Falls, listen to House debate on SB 146. Hoffman sponsored 146 which would change sentencing guidelines for violent offenders.

While House members debated the merit of changing the sentencing system, including a rise in the number of police shootings across the state, opponents argued the bill removed parole and incentive opportunities, and that more resources needed to be dedicated to policing, prison programming and parole.

Story continues

Rep. Tim Reisch, R-Howard, brought an amendment to remove the two sections detailing the type of crime and instead elevate the time served by 20%. All inmates convicted of violent crime would also have the opportunity for parole. The amendment failed.

"The reality is that if this bill passes, even more crimes are likely to occur, because inmates will release from prison without supervision, without having to take random drug tests, and without being required to attend AA or other community based programs," said Reisch, a former Corrections Secretary. "They'll be unencumbered by that pesky parole agent and for the most part, free to do whatever they want to."

More:House approves multi-million-dollar projects for new men and women state prisons

Rep. Will Mortenson, R-Pierre, House Majority Leader, supported the amendment, but not the original bill. He said it was difficult to reconcile what he heard from law enforcement and data showing that overall crime rates are down.

"I know that what they're telling me is true in their lived experience, but it's not true in the numbers statewide," Mortenson said, adding that he believes parts of Sioux Falls have become more violent.

Opponents also argued that the bill would cause more people to be put in prison. The House voted Monday to approve construction of a new women's prison in Rapid City and the purchase of land for a new men's prison in Sioux Falls.

Rep. Mike Stevens, R-Yankton, argued judges would be turned into robots when determining sentences for violent offenders.

"This bill will not change a single thing, but cost the taxpayers more money and reduce the number of people who are going to get help to be rehabilitated," he said.

More:South Dakota lawmakers want to tighten how the state handles parole eligibility

Moments after SB 146 was passed, the ACLU issued a statement on the vote. They called the bill a "one-size fits all" approach.

"If we want to improve public safety, we need to increase investment in rehabilitation and re-entry, not incarceration," said Samantha Chapman, the ACLU of South Dakota advocacy manager. "By eliminating the possibility of parole for entire groups of people who are incarcerated, there is no motivation for self-evaluation and genuine desire for change.

SB 146 now heads back to the Senate for the body to approve minor amendments made in the House Judiciary committee regarding dates. Once approved by the Senate, the bill will go to Gov. Kristi Noem's desk for her signature. If signed into law, the bill will impact crimes committed after July 1.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: SD votes to fundamentally change sentencing guidelines for violent crime
Republicans on Capitol Hill have spent two weeks torching the Biden administration for what they call a slow response to the Ohio rail disaster  but on Tuesday, some GOP lawmakers urged their colleagues not to rush out laws putting new strictures on freight rail.

That means Democrats may face trouble getting a divided Congress to adopt the rail safety proposals that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg sent to Capitol Hill last week, including tougher braking requirements. And while a handful of Republican senators have expressed interest in bipartisan legislation on freight trains, others said they need more information first on what went wrong in East Palestine.

The latter include the chair of the House committee that oversees transportation, Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) and the rail panel chair, Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas).

Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott, who has criticized Buttigieg for waiting three weeks to visit the site of the Feb. 3 accident, tweeting last week that Buttigieg should show up, do your job and stop playing politics.

Asked on Tuesday what Congress should do after the Ohio derailment, Scott would only say that lawmakers should start doing our oversight and stop approving people that don't know how to do the job.

Other Republicans say they want to wait until the National Transportation Safety Board, the independent agency probing the accident, finishes its work. That could take up to 18 months.

A lot of people have a lot of ideas right now, Nehls told POLITICO. The NTSB had their preliminary report. There'll be more information coming.

One of DOTs requests for Congress is an increase in the maximum penalties to railroads for safety violations  an idea Nehls dismissed, instead praising the industrys safety record.

The rail industry has a very high success rate of moving hazardous material  to the point of 99-percent-plus, Nehls said. Lets not have more burdensome regulations and all this other stuff.



Story continues

Rep. Rick Crawford (R-Ark.), who served as top Republican on the rail panel before the House flipped control, agreed on waiting for the experts to weigh in before we start speculating on what legislative fixes might be offered, if it's necessary, and if so what would they be.

Probably a little premature at this point, he added.

And Graves told Fox News Digital on Feb. 16 that he wants to fully understand the facts involved before considering legislation, noting that the NTSB is still investigating. Then, he said, Congress can consider what steps may be necessary.

Democrats on the whole have been much swifter to call for changes  including Buttigieg, who has pledged to tighten the way his agency regulates trains, but has also asked Congress to increase the $225,455 cap on fines his agency can level and to strengthen braking and tank car requirements.

A few Republicans are showing signs theyre willing to join Democrats sooner rather than later.

Ohio Republican Sen. J.D. Vance, for example, is working with Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) on a rail-safety bill expected to be out soon. Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who has called for Buttigiegs resignation over the derailment, has said hes interested in teaming up on their bill.

Theres a Vance-Sherrod Brown bill that were looking at, that were very interested in maybe being a part of, Rubio said in an interview Tuesday.

Brown said the bill hes working on will likely include provisions including setting minimum requirements for how many employees should be on board a train, along with train length, speed limits and notifications to states when hazardous materials are on their way, he told reporters Tuesday.

He noted that the 150-car train that derailed in East Palestine, carrying hazardous chemicals such as vinyl chloride, had one trainee and two staff people aboard when the disaster occurred.

A Brown-Vance team-up may seem to some like an odd couple pairing, but Rubio and Vance previously wrote to Buttigieg asking whether a two-person crew is adequate. Democrats have pushed to enshrine a two-person minimum crew in federal regulations, a move opposed by the railroad industry and, historically, most Republicans. The Trump administration backed the railroad industry when it mothballed a rule that would have mandated at least two crewmembers on board every train. That rule had originally been proposed under the Obama administration.

Republicans have seen what's happened, too, Brown said, explaining the bipartisan interest hes seen so far. The rail companies have done pretty effective lobbying in keeping Congress and the administration, the [Federal Railroad Administration] and others from doing what we ought to be doing.



Indeed, Rubio said Tuesday that the freight rail industrys push for efficiency  the desire to put more cargo, longer lines, longer stretches and less people  creates vulnerabilities.

We have not just dangerous but important cargo being transported on longer [trains] with less people, he said.

Other legislation has been floated in the House. Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.), whose district includes the area affected by the Ohio spill, has introduced a bill along with a dozen other Democrats that seeks to include more types of trains under stricter laws governing hazardous materials transport. That means more types of materials would be subject to tougher safety requirements such as slower speeds, newer rail cars and better braking equipment.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will hold a hearing on the derailment, featuring the Environmental Protection Agency, top committee Republican Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia said Tuesday. She said the Senate Commerce Committee would also hold a hearing, though as yet nothing has been scheduled.

Like many of her GOP colleagues, Capito didnt have many positive words for the Biden administration.

The federal response to the derailment has been, I think, miserable to watch, she said.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had sounded a similar theme Monday, accusing Buttigieg of seeming more interested in pursuing press coverage for woke initiatives and climate nonsense than in attending to the basic elements of his day job.

But so far, McConnell hasn't said what, if any, legislation he thinks is needed to make rail safer.

Buttigieg shot back Tuesday.

"The freight rail industry has wielded a lot of power here in Washington, he said on CNN. I would love to see Leader McConnell join us in standing up to them."

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story mischaracterized the status of the two-person minimum crew standard. That rule has not yet been finalized.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko arrived in Beijing on Tuesday as part of a scheduled visit where Belarus and China will look to increase their ties.

The Belarus state-run media outlet Belarusian Telegraph Agency reported that Lukashenko will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss issues like trade, the economy, investment, humanitarian cooperation and responding to international challenges. The two countries are also expected to sign a document to declare cooperation in key areas.

The visit comes as China has faced some international scrutiny over its ties to Moscow amid Russias invasion of Ukraine. China has officially declared neutrality in the conflict, but U.S. officials have said China has sent Russia nonlethal aid and might also send lethal aid.

China has denied that it is actively supporting Russia, and U.S. officials have warned the Chinese government that it will face consequences if it does send lethal aid.

Beijing also put forward a ceasefire proposal earlier this month to end hostilities between Russia and Ukraine, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky indicated he is at least somewhat open to.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday during a visit to Kazakhstan that China cannot be seeking to both help Russia and arrange a deal for peace in the region, CNN reported.

China cant have it both ways when it comes to  the Russian aggression in Ukraine. It cant be putting forward peace proposals on the one hand, while actually feeding the flames of the fire that Russia has started with the other hand, Blinken said.

Lukashenko has also been one of the most vocal defenders from the international community of Russian President Vladimir Putin, having been a close ally of Putin for many years. He has also maintained close relations with China.

The Belarusian government allowed Russian troops to gather in its territory ahead of the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine last February.

Story continues

The New York Times reported that Lukashenko told reporters that the United States is trying to rally anti-Chinese attitudes in Europe.

We understand that the Americans are pushing Europe to go down the anti-Chinese path, he said on Belarusian state media. Europe is resisting  and rightly so, because if they fence themselves off from China, and God forbid they also come into conflict with China as America is also pressing  Europe will disappear.

State Department spokesperson Ned Price said at a press briefing on Monday ahead of Lukashenkos arrival that the visit is very much in line with the concerns that U.S. officials have had about the relationship between China and Russia.

But the fact that the [Peoples Republic of China] is now engaging with Lukashenka, who has, in effect, ceded his own sovereignty to Russia, is just another element of the PRCs deepening engagement with Russia, with all of those who are engaged with and supporting Russias brutal war against Ukraine, he said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Attorney General Merrick Garland acknowledged Wednesday that current anti-drug policies have been unable to halt the deadly flow of fentanyl that continues to contribute to record overdose deaths throughout the country.

"They are not stopping fentanyl from killing Americans," Garland told the Senate Judiciary Committee during a sometimes contentious hearing, casting the drug problem as a "horrible epidemic unleashed on purpose" by criminal cartels based in Mexico.

Pushing back on criticism of federal law enforcement's response leveled by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the attorney general said the fentanyl scourge has been elevated to the highest levels of the Justice Department.

"We are focusing on fentanyl with enormous urgency," Garland said.

No family is immune: As Congress debates fentanyl, mothers share their grief at hearings

They cost millions and last years: The U.S. now has 3 of them.

Fentanyl is pervasive in US

Attorney General Merrick Garland testifies in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.

The attorney general referred to efforts by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, which last year seized more than 379 million potentially deadly doses of fentanyl  enough to kill every American.

The highly addictive, manufactured opioid is 50 times more potent than heroin, and only a tiny amount  enough to rest on a pencil tip  can be fatal. More than 100,000 people died of drug overdoses in 2021, and two-thirds involved fentanyl.

Enough fentanyl to kill every American: DEA seizes 379 million deadly doses in 2022

Sen. Ted Cruz and Garland have heated exchange over protests at Supreme Court justices' homes

The lethal drug epidemic was central to the attorney general's first appearance before Congress this year. Yet it also was a session that included heated exchanges with some Republican members who accused Garland of not doing enough to protect Supreme Court justices from protests at their homes following the leaked draft opinion to overturn the landmark abortion decision Roe v. Wade, and focusing disproportionate law enforcement resources on pro-life demonstrators.

Story continues

Displaying poster board photographs of protesters gathered outside the homes of Supreme Court justices last year, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said federal authorities failed to enforce the law prohibiting such attempts to intimidate judges.

"You did nothing!" Cruz thundered, drawing a bristling response from the attorney general.

"For the first time in the history of the Justice Department," Garland said he dispatched 70 U.S. marshals to protect the homes of the justices around the clock.

In June, a California man was arrested after acknowledging that he traveled to the D.C. area to "kill" Justice Brett Kavanaugh, representing perhaps the most jarring recent threat against a sitting justice.

"The principal responsibility here is to protect the lives of the justices," Garland said.

Supreme Court latest: Supreme Court declines challenge to flavored tobacco ban, leaving prohibition in place

Garland calls FBI memo about Catholic parishes 'appalling' after attack from Sen. Josh Hawley

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., later hammered the attorney general for contents of a January FBI memorandum issued from the bureau's Richmond, Virginia, field office suggesting that Catholic parishes could produce potential law enforcement sources in violent extremist investigations.

"Attorney General, are you cultivating sources and spies inside" the Catholic church? Hawley asked.

Garland described the memo as "appalling," adding the memo had been withdrawn.

He said federal authorities were "not targeting" Catholics.

Some sharp questions on Trump, Biden special counsel investigations

Garland also confronted some sharp questions about separate investigations involving former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden now headed by special counsels appointed by the attorney general.

The two-pronged Trump inquiry centers on allegations the former president tried to interfere with the transfer of power after his 2020 election defeat, along with his retention of hundreds of classified documents recovered at his Florida estate.

Garland appointed a second special counsel to examine Biden's handling of classified documents found at a former office space and at his home in Wilmington, Delaware.

Cruz suggested that the first discovery of classified documents at Biden's office in November was not immediately disclosed because of Justice's "political intent" to pursue an indictment in the Trump case.

Garland, who ultimately appointed a special counsel in the Biden case in January, rejected the senator's assertion.

The problematic handling of government documents also has extended to former Vice President Mike Pence. A small number of classified records were found at his Indiana home in January. An FBI search of Pence property last month yielded one additional document.

Georgia grand jury in Trump probe: Georgia grand jury foreperson's unusual media tour likely heartburn for Trump inquiry

Hunter Biden investigation: Garland said he continues to not interfere

Pressed on the status of a separate, ongoing investigation involving the president's son, Hunter Biden, led by a federal prosecutor in Delaware, a holdover from the Trump administration, Garland said he has "carried through on my pledge" not to interfere in the inquiry.

Garland told Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, that he has directed the Delaware prosecutor "not to be denied anything he needs."

Hunter Biden's art dealer says his work is 'important': Why the paintings factor into GOP probes.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Merrick Garland testimony: Fentanyl 'unleashed' by Mexican cartels
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Reuters

Jurors in Alex Murdaughs murder trial homed in on a feed room and inspected a wooded area during their visit on Wednesday to the crime scene where the disgraced lawyers wife and son were fatally shot in June 2021.

Their hour-long field trip to the Moselle hunting estate in South Carolina came shortly before closing arguments began in what has been dubbed the trial of the century by local media. Murdaugh has pleaded not guilty to murdering his wife, Maggie, and his son, Paul.

After an exhaustive investigation, there is only one person who had the motive, who had the means, who had the opportunity to commit these crimes, and also whose guilty conduct after these crimes betrays him, prosecutor Creighton Waters said during his closing arguments.

For several hours, Waters walked jurors through the prosecutions case, outlining how cell phone data, ballistics, and Murdaugh's own testimony prove that he was the only one who murdered his wife and son on June 7, 2021. He painted him as a serial liar whose own friends and colleagues even testified to various misdeeds they said he expertly concealed.

No one knew who he was. No one knew who this man was. He avoided accountability his whole life. He relied on his family name. He carried a badge and authority. He lived a wealthy life, Waters said.

He argued that, with the true extent of his financial crimes on the cusp of being exposed, Murdaughs ego couldnt stand that, and he became a family annihilator.

Aerial view of the Murdaugh estate Colleton County Court

Earlier on Wednesday, jurors went to the scene of the crime that has been detailed throughout the six-week trial. The 12 jurors and two alternatives gathered around 9 a.m. at the Colleton County Courthouse before loading into three secured transport vans and leaving 10 minutes later. The windows of the vans, which picked up the group inside the gated area behind the courthouse, were blacked out to maintain the jurors anonymity.

Behind them, Judge Clifton Newman hopped into a pickup truck driven by Colleton County Sheriff Captain Jason Chapman, who was one of the first prosecution witnesses to testify against Murdaugh. Jurors spent the majority of their trip by the dog kennels and shed where Paul and Maggie were killed on June 7, 2021.

Story continues

According to a pool reporter on the scene, one juror was standing near the feed room, looking up at its doorway, where expert witnesses called by prosecutors have alleged Paul was murdered with a shotgun. Those experts testified that they believe Paul was standing about five inches into the feed room when he was first shot in the chest. Maggie was shot about 12 steps away from where Paul fell.

Unlike the bloody murder scene described in court, the feed room on Wednesday had no visible signs of trauma after appearing to be redone with paint and new plywood. The reporter who went to the feed room after the jurors left noted that the back window had large bullet holes.

Jurors were also seen driving toward a wooded area across the street from the estate. It was not immediately clear why they went into the tree area.

Murdaugh jury just left the area near the dog kennels at Moselle and they are now in a wooded area on the opposite side of the street from Moselle. They went into the trees  unclear what they are looking at. pic.twitter.com/hmOIInHmem  Brian Entin (@BrianEntin) March 1, 2023

They also briefly headed to the estates main house. Murdaugh has testified that on the night of the murders, he was down at the kennels before heading back to the main house, where he claims he dozed off on the couch around the time Paul and Maggie were fatally shot with two guns.

Waters noted that Murdaugh told jurors that he woke up just minutes later to go visit his ailing mother. He dozed off in the shortest nap in the history of the South, Waters quipped.

Along the way to see his mom, he made several calls to family members, friends, and even his dead wife.

Hes manufacturing an alibi. Hes smart. Hes a good lawyer. His family has a history of prosecution. He understands these issues, Waters told the jury.

While on the stand, Murdaugh admitted that he had initially lied to authorities about being at the kennels shortly before the murders because of his drug-fueled paranoia. But Waters disputed that too, noting that Murdaugh was comforted by officers in his initial police interview.

Is that an aggressive interview? Is that something that would make somebody paranoid? he said Wednesday while replaying parts of the interview.

Waters portrayed Murdaugh as a desperate man whose years-long scheme of swindling money from his clients and former law firm was finally coming to light.

The pressures on this man were unbearable, and they were all reaching a crescendo on the day his wife and son were murdered by him, Waters said. He has proven over and over again that he will do anything to keep that hamster wheel going and avoid accountability. He has been doing it for 10 years.

Those pressures mount and that person becomes a family annihilator, he added.

Train Wreck: Will Murdaughs Surprise Testimony Sink Him?

At the time of the murders, Waters said, Murdaugh was facing questions about finances in a lawsuit related to a fatal boat crash caused by Paul. His law firm was also looking into his previous cases.

The timeline puts him there. The forensic timeline puts him there, he said, noting that after the murders its a different world for Murdaugh.

Everyone immediately rallies around Alex Murdaugh, he said.

Waters concluded his closing argument on Wednesday by stressing to the jury to use common sense and human nature to give justice to Maggie and Paul who deserve a voice.

They need a voice because they can no longer speak. This has been a tough job, Waters said. But the system depends on people who take that oath as jurors, and theyre willing to honor that oath and make the tough decision to vindicate these victims, to vindicate Maggie and Paul, who were cut down in the prime of their lives.

Defense attorney Jim Griffin is expected to begin his closing argument on Thursday morning. The defense has argued that Murdaugh had no motivation to slay his wonderful wife and sonand that there is no direct evidence tying him to the grisly crime.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here

Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now.

Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now.
Academy Award-winning actor Marlee Matlin will headline a program of story, dance and song at Converse University to celebrate the beginning of Womens History Month.

The program at Twichell Auditorium is at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 1. Matlins message is titled Nobody's Perfect: Achieving Inclusion, Diversity and Access.

Matlin was the first deaf performer to win an Oscar in 1987 for her debut movie role in Children of a Lesser God. In 2022, she starred alongside the second deaf performer to win the award, Supporting Actor winner Troy Kotsur, in CODA, which won Best Picture at last year's Academy Awards ceremony.

Matlin has had numerous film and television roles over her career and is the author of four books, including an autobiography, Ill Scream Later.

Emilia Jones, Troy Kotsur, Marlee Matlin and Daniel Durant in CODA, an Apple TV+ film that portrays a teenager and her Deaf family. In one scene, at the dinner table, family members trade insults and jokes as they converse in American Sign Language.

She has also been a champion for closed captioning access on TV and broadband Internet and for authentic representation of deaf characters, including in CODA. She made the casting of a deaf actor opposite her a condition of her participation in the film.

"A lot of people forget that diversity also includes deaf and disabled people," Matlin told People Magazine. "I'm still seeing lack of representation, whether you're talking about in magazines, or online, or on television, or in film. I still feel we've got to remind people constantly."

In addition to the program at Converse, Matlin will visit the South Carolina School for the Deaf and the Blind at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. Converses special education program for deaf and hard-of-hearing students has a professional development partnership with SCSDB.

The evening event is presented by Spartanburg-based Determined to Soar, a non-partisan, nonprofit group whose goal is to celebrate womens achievements and educate, inspire and unify the next generation of leaders.

The group is led by Valerie Barnet, Nancy Corbin, Louise Fagan, Robyn Hussa Farrell, Julia Lyons and Sabrina Richardson.

Tickets are available from the Converse University Box Office and are $35-$100 for the public with tickets for seniors and students available for $20.

This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: Oscar-winner Marlee Matlin to headline program at Converse
The STEAM Academy at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School in Port Huron on Thursday, Nov. 17, 2022.

The Port Huron Board of Education voted unanimously Monday night to return the STEAM Academy at Woodrow Wilson and the Literacy Academy at Cleveland back to traditional schools.

The board considered the change based on data collected from the academies and surveys from staff and families. Superintendent of Instruction Catherine Woolman said in an email that the academy model had not resulted in the academic growth the district hoped to see.

Only 92% of the Literacy Academy at Cleveland building and 46% of the STEAM Academy at Woodrow Wilson building are currently being utilized. While all the classrooms are being used at the literacy academy, several at the STEAM academy are not.

STEAM Academy at Woodrow Wilson was also identified as a partnership school with the Michigan Department of Education in December. The school was identified as needing support and improvement with the assistance of the MDE because it scored in the bottom 5% of the state's index accountability system.

Sharon McComb, an intervention specialist at Literacy Academy at Cleveland Elementary, works with a student Monday, Jan. 4, 2019 in the school's transitional kindergarten class.

Superintendent Theo Kerhoulas said one of the strategies the district will be working on with the MDE is creating smaller class sizes at Woodrow Wilson. Additionally, he said smaller class sizes may also be beneficial for Cleveland.

Cleveland and Woodrow Wilson were restructured to focus on literacy and STEAM instruction in 2018. Additionally, the Literacy Academy teaches kindergarten through second grade while the STEAM Academy teaches third through fifth grade.

Returning the academies to traditional K-5 schools like the other elementary schools in the district will cost approximately $10,000.

Kerhoulas said the upcoming change are by no means a reflection of the staff or students at either school.

"The staff are incredible from both buildings and those kids give it everything," he said. "They do a great job every day."

The schools will be changed before the start of the 2023-2024 academic year. In addition to no longer placing a focus on STEAM and literacy, the schools will be renamed to Woodrow Wilson Elementary School and Cleveland Elementary School.

Contact McKenna Golat at mgolat@gannett.com or (810) 292-0122.

This article originally appeared on Port Huron Times Herald: Port Huron to change its academies back to traditional schools
With spring break just days away, red tide has been reported in several Florida locations, bringing respiratory problems to some and fish kills to some beach hot spots.

The worst water samples are along Florida's West Coast, between St. Petersburg and Naples, according to data from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Water samples taken along Southwest Florida coasts show levels of the algae associated with red tide  Karenia brevis  range from 10,000 cells per liter to more than 1 million cells per liter.

Dead fish:Red tide numbers strong as fish kills reported throughout Naples-Collier area

Dead eels: The slithery creatures are washing up on Fort Myers, Naples beaches. Why? What we know

Is red tide on Florida's east coast?Scientists not concerned about red tide detected near West Palm Beach - yet

Fish kills and breathing problems can start when levels reach 10,000 cells per liter, at which point the FWC issues a low designation for the site where the sample was taken.

A medium designation is issued when cells per liter range from 100,000 to 1 million. A high level is hit when cells per liter are more than 1 million.

As of March 1, nine sites between between North Naples and Venice had high levels of Karenia brevis.

Red tide Florida map. Where is Karenia brevis now?

Is red tide harmful to humans?

It can be. Karenia brevis produces brevetoxins. For people with severe or chronic respiratory conditions, such as emphysema or asthma, the toxins can cause serious illness.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, breathing in sea spray or getting into water containing brevetoxins can cause such symptoms as:

Respiratory irritation (coughing, sneezing)

Shortness of breath

Throat irritation

Eye irritation

Skin irritation

Asthma attacks

Brevetoxins also can affect the central nervous system of fish and other vertebrates, causing them to die.

The red tide toxins can accumulate in filter-feeders such as oysters, mussels and clams, which can lead to neurotoxic shellfish poisoning in people who consume contaminated shellfish, according to the Florida Department of Health.

Story continues

Red tide: What exactly is it?

Red tide is caused by a higher-than-normal concentration of the algae Karenia brevis. It's common in Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, according to FWC. At high concentrations, red tide can  but not always  give water a red or brown hue.

The microscopic algae can multiply rapidly under the right conditions, especially when supplied by excess nutrients.

Harmful algal blooms occur when colonies of algae grow out of control while producing toxic or harmful effects on people, fish, shellfish, marine mammals and birds. Human illnesses caused by harmful algal blooms, though rare, can be debilitating or even fatal, according to NOAA.

One of the best known harmful algae blooms in the U.S. occurs nearly every summer along Floridas Gulf Coast.

Fish kills reported along Florida's Southwest coast

Reports of fish kills suspected to be related to red tide were reported in Southwest Florida the end of February in Pinellas, Manatee, Sarasota, Charlotte, Lee, and Collier counties.

To submit a suspected fish kill, call the FWC's Fish Kill Hotline at 800-636-0511 or submit the information online.

What is the main cause of red tide?

No single thing causes red tide. The microscopic algae Karenia brevis occurs naturally.

A red tide bloom needs several things to exist, according to MOTE Marine Laboratory and Aquarium:

Biology : Karenia brevis needs to be present in the water.

Chemistry : The right temperature, water salinity and nutrients need to be present for the algae to grow and multiply.

Physical conditions: The right conditions need to be present for the algae bloom to concentrate and move.

Ecology: The presence or absence of other life, such as other marine algae, that could encourage or inhibit, K. brevis blooms.

Tests are being conducted to see if coastal nutrients enhance or prolong blooms, according to the Florida Department of Health.

Is red tide present in Florida right now?

On Sunday, our staff rescued a lethargic and unresponsive #Manatee near St. James City. The animal was transported to @SeaWorld and is considered a red tide suspect. pic.twitter.com/ZVT3jPfsTG  MyFWC (@MyFWC) March 1, 2023

Yes. According to FWC's latest Feb. 24 update, Karenia brevis has been detected in 123 samples from and offshore Southwest Florida.

Concentrations of more than 100,000 cells per liter were found in 75 samples: two in Pinellas County, seven in and offshore of Manatee County, 27 in and offshore of Sarasota County, seven in and offshore of Charlotte County, 22 in and offshore of Lee County, nine in and offshore of Collier County, and one offshore of Monroe County.

Karenia brevis has not been observed in Northeast Florida and along Florida's East Coast.

How long does red tide last?

There's no easy answer to that. Red tides can last for a few weeks or more than a year. They can even subside and then reoccur.

How long an algae bloom lasts depends on a number of factors, including such conditions as sunlight, nutrients and salinity, and the speed and direction of wind and water currents.

Is red tide new to Florida?

No, red tides were documented in the southern Gulf of Mexico as far back as the 1700s and along Florida's Gulf coast in the 1840s. Fish kills near Tampa Bay were even mentioned in the records of Spanish explorers, according to FWC.

What months does red tide normally occur in Florida?

Harmful algae blooms are temporary and usually happen in late summer or early fall, according to the Department of Health.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Florida red tide: What is it and where is right now?
US President Joe Biden delivers remarks in front of a giant American flag at the Kempsville Recreation Center on February 28, 2023, in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

A brewing fight over socially conscious investing appears to be a preview of 2024 attack lines.

Republicans are workshopping ESG as their next culture war flashpoint.

A strategist predicts it "has the same potency for the right that Obamacare did in 2010 and 2014."

Republicans are refining their political talking points for 2024 this week by taking multiple swipes at socially conscious investments Democratic leaders and prominent money managers say stockholders simply can't ignore.

Congressional leaders are working to undo a nascent Department of Labor rule allowing retirement plan administrators to consider "the economic effects of climate change"  a coordinated effort that prompted the White House to issue a preemptive veto threat on Monday.

The House voted to overturn the Biden-backed rule Tuesday on a vote of 216-204, peeling off Democratic Rep. Jared Golden of Maine to put a bipartisan stamp on the political rebuke. The narrowly divided Senate is scheduled to vote on the proposed reversal Wednesday afternoon.

And the saber-rattling is expected to continue this weekend at the 2023 Conservative Political Action Conference, which features a panel referring to BlackRock CEO and ESG evangelist Larry Fink as part of "The New Axis of Evil."

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports that Trump-aligned judicial activist Leonard Leo is spearheading a nationwide effort to turn ESG into a 2024 rallying cry akin to the critical race theory messaging that helped conservatives take over local school boards in recent years.

"I think this issue has the same potency for the right that Obamacare did in 2010 and 2014," Liz Mair, a former Republican National Committee aide turned public relations consultant, told Insider about the base-mobilizing prospects of fighting ESG.

The GOP's ongoing battle against environmental, social and corporate governance issues seems to be picking up steam ahead of the next presidential election, with Senate Republicans unanimously opposed to government involvement in personal investments.

Story continues

"Most individuals when they give their hard earned savings to a fiduciary, they want them focused on one thing: rate of return, only," Republican Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana told Insider at the US Capitol. He added that any other qualifier  particularly if it leads to "sacrificing financial return for pushing ideology"  should be off the table.

Braun acknowledged that while the Biden rule doesn't require investment managers to focus exclusively on ESG issues, allowing it in any capacity "gives them the ability to push it and do it."

Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin was similarly skeptical about opening the door to ESG considerations  which he called "harmful to our economy."

"If there's some other social goals, that'd be run through government, not through investing," Johnson told Insider between Senate votes.

Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, who is running Senate Republicans' reelection arm for the 2024 cycle, declined to comment on whether an anti-ESG plank would be part of that campaign. But he did offer the BlackRocks of the world one piece of advice.

"Stay focused on investors and shareholders, not on stakeholders," Daines told Insider before being whisked away by the Senate subway.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren said all the grumbling from the other side of the aisle sounds like panic.

"What it proves is that the Republicans and their fossil fuel funders realize that companies are going to stop investing in fossil fuels, and are beginning to recognize in very real ways the damage that climate change is causing," the Massachusetts Democrat told Insider. "And so they're trying to find a federal rule to protect the fossil fuel companies from reality."

Mair noted that ESG battles are already being fought at the state level, with Republican governors like Greg Abbott of Texas and likely 2024 presidential contender Ron DeSantis of Florida barring ESG-related business dealings and divesting state-held assets involving ESG, respectively.

She said if they're not careful, Fink and his supporters "are going to get majorly screwed by the GOP on ESG."

"I think these guys are at serious risk of winding up with every red state in America, and quite a few purple ones, too, blocking them from managing any state-associated investments," Mair predicted.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Following Tuesday's legislative deadline for bills to move, some of the most-watched bills of the session managed to survive, while others were left on the cutting-room floor.

By the end of the day, all bills needed to be approved by committees in the other chamber, coming after earlier deadlines for them to be approved by committees and the floor in the chambers in which they originated.

A number of bills, including postpartum Medicaid extension and attempts to restore the ballot initiative, were moved through committee on the last possible day, as they faced the grim prospect of dying as they had in past sessions.

Other bills, though, including those to eliminate the state's income tax, seem to be dead, at least for now.

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, a Republican, center, stands with fellow Republicans, Senate Ports and Major Resources Committee Chairman Philip Moran of Kiln, left, and Senate Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks Committee Chairman Neil Whaley of Potts Camp, as they listen to action from the floor during the morning session of the Mississippi Legislature in Jackson, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023.

Postpartum Medicaid Extension

After passing the Senate multiple times in recent years only to fail to advance in the House, a bill to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage from 60 days to 12 months finally got a vote in the House Medicaid Committee, and they chose to move it forward to the full House.

Senate leaders including Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann have been pushing for an extension, but House leaders including Speaker Philip Gunn had refused to endorse it unless they were assured it would not lead to an expansion of Medicaid eligibility. After Gov. Tate Reeves flipped his position on extension over the weekend, citing a need to support mothers and children in a post-Roe v. Wade world, the state Division of Medicaid sent a letter to Gunn endorsing extension and providing assurances that it was not the same as expansion.

Even though it passed its committee before deadline, Gunn has been noncommittal about it reaching a vote in the full House.

"We've not decided to do that yet. We've decided to move the bill out of the committee and keep it alive. The deadline is today by the way, the deadline to move bills out of the committee," Gunn said in an interview with SuperTalk Mississippi on Tuesday. "It means it goes to the calendar of the House floor and it sits on the calendar until it's taken up."

Story continues

Medicaid policy has the potential to loom heavy in this year's elections. Reeves' opponent, Northern District Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley, has endorsed full expansion of Medicaid. Meanwhile, in the Republican primary for lieutenant governor, Hosemann's opponent, state Sen. Chris McDaniel, was one of 11 senators to vote against extension.

Ballot Initiatives

Also still alive is the restoration of Mississippi's ballot initiative process, another topic that the two chambers have argued over before.

After the process was ruled invalid by the state supreme court in 2021, both chambers put forward bills to restore it last year. However, they could not agree on a number of issues, including the number of signatures needed for an initiative to reach the ballot. A majority of the Senate endorsed a sharp increase in signatures needed, with chamber leaders saying it should be harder for issues to reach the ballot in order to avoid the influence of groups based outside Mississippi. The House, on the other hand, supported a threshold similar to what was needed under the previous process.

This year, only the Senate advanced a bill, again with a higher threshold. It would require signatures from at least 12% of the states electors, about 240,000 people. The previous process required less than half that many.

The House Constitution Committee called an unscheduled meeting Tuesday to keep the ballot initiative process alive, making some significant changes along the way.

While the version the House committee advanced maintained the high threshold, it added limits on what topics could be addressed through ballot initiatives. Mostly notably, the House version would not allow for ballot initiatives about abortion. Some advocates for abortion access have floated the idea of challenging the state's strict bans through ballot initiatives, after attempts in court largely failed.

The bill is likely to undergo further changes, as it now heads to the House floor and then to a likely conference committee with members of both chambers.

Jackson Court System

One of the most contentious bills of the session remains alive. House Bill 1020, as it passed the House, would create a separate, permanent and unelected court system within an expanded Capitol Complex Improvement District.

However, the version of HB 1020 that passed its Senate committee bears little resemblance to the House version. Instead of creating a new permanent court system, it would continue the current practice of the state providing some appointed judges within the Hinds County courts through 2026, at which point it would give the county one extra elected judge.

With two very different versions of the bill, HB 1020 is likely to go to a conference committee where members of the two chambers will negotiate differences and attempt to reach a compromise position.

Hospital Crisis

As legislators prepared for session, the crisis facing Mississippi's rural hospitals was one of the key issues that leaders sought to address. At the time, State Health Officer Daniel Edney warned that 38 rural Mississippi hospitals were at risk of closing, more than half of the total. An updated report later decreased the number to 28, with 19 at "immediate risk of closing."

Senate Bill 2323 would change the state's anti-trust laws to allow all hospitals  whether public or private, for-profit or non-profit  to more easily collaborate or consolidate. The bill is part of a long-term goal of readdressing the medical landscape in the state. It not only remains alive, it passed overwhelmingly both chambers. That said, amendments were made in the House, so it will require either additional Senate approval or a conference committee agreement.

Senate Bill 2372 would bring more immediate aid to the state's healthcare system, providing grants to hospitals in exchange for their participation in collecting and sharing data with the state. It passed the Senate early in February and advanced through the House appropriations committee Tuesday.

Income Tax Elimination

Despite the support of Mississippi's governor, speaker of the House and the House ways and means chair, all Republicans, a bill to eliminate the state income tax appears to be dead in the Republican supermajority legislature.

The income tax elimination actually died last week, after the deadline passed for financial bills to advance, but it remained a key topic of discussion through the week.

In an appearance on SuperTalk Mississippi earlier this week, Rep. Becky Currie, R-Brookhaven, said the bill failed to gain enough support after members were asked to commit to voting for it before they were given the opportunity to read it. She also said that questions went unanswered about how the state would pay for a potentially growing Capitol Complex Improvement District, among other priorities, with no income tax.

During a bill signing event Tuesday, Reeves said he still wholeheartedly supports eliminating the income tax, and that he may consider calling a special session focused on it after this session ends.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Bills survive another deadline in MS Legislature as session continues
Mountain snow, seen behind patrol vehicles at the Los Angeles County Sheriff's station in the Santa Clarita Valley, closed the Grapevine on Wednesday, March 1, 2023.

UPDATE: The Grapevine had reopened in both directions as of about 4 p.m. Wednesday, Caltrans officials said in a tweet.

Original story:

Travel over the Grapevine was disrupted again by snow Wednesday as a cold storm system impacted the region.

Interstate 5 was closed in both directions north of the Castaic area, the California Highway Patrol and Caltrans reported.

As of about 3 p.m., there was no estimated time to reopen the freeway. You can check the status of a state highway by putting its number into the Caltrans road information site at roads.dot.ca.gov.

National Weather Service forecasters said snow levels Wednesday afternoon were as low as 1,000 to 1,500 feet.

The corridor over Tejon Pass connects travelers from Highway 126 in Ventura County and those headed north from Los Angeles County to the Central Valley and beyond.

The route was also shut at times last week when a stronger cold system brought rain, snow, hail and graupel to Southern California from Thursday to Sunday, with the Grapevine reopened Sunday afternoon.

In Ventura County, bouts of heavy rain, strong winds and reports of hail were in play overnight Tuesday and Wednesday.

 I-5 is closed in #Grapevine #TejonPass due to snow. SB lanes are closed at Grapevine Rd. NB lanes closed at Lake Hughes Rd in Castaic. No estimate of opening time. See all state highway closures at https://t.co/O37QesJ9zY. pic.twitter.com/cytu9r2sGm  Caltrans District 7 (@CaltransDist7) March 1, 2023

This story will be updated.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Snow closes Grapevine Wednesday
STURGIS  The city of Sturgis has largely recovered from the ice storm that knocked out power to more than 800,000 people starting Feb. 22, with power restored to residents and fallen limbs and branches stacked up for disposal.

Statewide, the number of people affected by last week's ice storm and resulting power outages in southern Michigan had been reduced to around 50,000, although a second winter storm Feb. 27 affected more than 20,000 across mid-Michigan.

A dropbox outside Sturgis District Library was iced shut last week by the ice storm, which knocked out power to hundreds of thousands across Michigan.

As of Tuesday morning, Consumers Energy reported 10 St. Joseph County residents remained without power, 728 in Branch County, 5,843 in Hillsdale County, and 8,338 in Lenawee County, down from 10,218 Monday night. Indiana Michigan Powers outage map was clear of all outages attributed to the ice storm. Hillsdale County was the hardest hit county in southern Michigan, with 91% of its electrical customers without service at the height of the outage.

The city of Sturgis itself had approximately 850 outages during the two-day storm, with 15 employees working during the restoration, interim city manager Andrew Kuk said.

Crews worked throughout Wednesday night into Thursday to complete repairs, he said.

"Our crews worked diligently through the night and into the next day to restore service to our customers, Kuk said. As always, we appreciate their hard work to keep the lights on, especially during events like this with long hours and tough weather conditions."

While the city compost site is currently closed, city officials said, spring cleanup across town will start the first full week of April. Residents should hold any branches or limbs in their back yards and not on the terrace until just prior to pickup, officials said.

For Sturgis Public Schools Superintendent Art Ebert, calling school off is a very important and complex decision, particularly with last weeks ice storm.

The catalyst during last weeks winter storm was a buildup of ice on trees, causing branches to fall on power lines or weigh electric equipment down.

Our hope is to always keep school open, but safety conditions sometimes get in the way, he said.

Story continues

Ice events are many times the most difficult to predict, Ebert said, because a one-degree shift in temperature can drastically change ice formation on roads and power lines.

I usually start monitoring weather one week out, he said. As weather forecasts solidify, Ebert said he studies hourly wind, wind chill, precipitation and temperature predictions and confers with the appropriate stakeholders that gather their thoughts.

Sometimes the decision is easy, especially when faced with a snow system with a high confidence of dumping large amounts of snow, Ebert said. In those situations, Ebert tries to close school the night before so that parents, guardians and students can have ample time to determine alternate plans, including day care.

When it is not as clear, like during Wednesday's school closing, I get up at 4 or 4:30 a.m. to drive the roads, Ebert said. What made Wednesdays closing difficult is the storm appeared to be shifting north a few days prior; followed by a predicted shift south.

On Wednesday morning, the roads were merely wet. However, the hourly forecast showed freezing rain throughout the school day with temperatures hovering between 30 and 32 degrees.

Ebert said that a judgment call needed to be made before any serious weather had taken over.

I either had to play it safe or roll the dice that the roads would not ice, Ebert said. In hindsight, school could have safely occurred on Wednesday, according to Ebert, because the roads remained mostly wet throughout the day.

Faced with the same set of data, however, I likely would make the same decision again, because had the roads iced over, I would then be wishing that school were closed, he said. Other factors in his decision-making include teenage drivers, students walking, students waiting at bus stops and when snow removal crews are able to get underway.

Michigan allows districts to cancel school up to six days per year for events such as inclement weather or power outages, without having to make up the days missed. For days beyond the allowance, Ebert said, the district would either need special state approval not to be made up, or they would need to be added to the school calendar. In those cases, planned school break days would either be taken off the calendar, or students could attend later into June.

Currently, Sturgis Public Schools has canceled school four times during the 2022-23 school year, leaving a few days more for more surprises from Mother Nature.

This article originally appeared on Sturgis Journal: Sturgis officials evaluate response to recent ice storm
Editors' Note: A version of this story was originally published in July 2022.

Joyelle Tilton's youngest son, Dylan, wanted to attend the University of Massachusetts at Amherst or Boston.

But as an out-of-state student, tuition would cost roughly $36,000, more than twice the tab they'd pay if they lived in Massachusetts.

So in August, 2021, just before Dylan started his junior year in high school, they packed their bags, said goodbye to relatives in Nevada and moved to Massachusetts.

"Luckily, my husband was a virtual worker and we can live anywhere, so we gave up our home in Las Vegas,'' says Tilton, 47.

It may seem like a dramatic step, but for Tilton, moving beat plunging her family into debt to pay for her son's college education.

"Were not willing to take out loans. Im willing to make sacrifices in other areas,'' she says. "My husband is still paying off his school loan and probably will till the day he dies.''

How much is college tuition?

With some states, programs and schools setting deadlines in early March to apply for financial aid, and the U.S. Supreme Court hearing arguments Tuesday on President Joe Biden's plan for student loan debt relief, the hefty cost of attending college is top of mind for many Americans right now.

Selling the house, tapping retirement funds and renting out a spare room are just some of the ways families are paying ever-mounting college costs. And that's not counting the decisions made by students themselves, who besides working their way through school, are joining the National Guard, opting for community college, or applying to cheaper universities overseas to afford tuition  if they choose to go to college at all.

(From left to right) Dylan Tilton, 17, Colby Tilton, 19 and Brie Tilton, 25. Dylan and Colby have worked and earned scholarships to cover college tuition. Their parents have also relocated to help Dylan get in state tuition.

The soaring costs of a college education are "going to lead both to fewer people going and fewer people graduating,'' says Anthony Carnevale, director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.

Story continues

The average cost of an undergraduate degree in the U.S., including room and board and fees, soared 169%, from $9,307 to $25,004, between 1980 and 2019, according to the Georgetown University Center's analysis of data from the U.S. Department of Education. Between the 2008/09 and 2018/19 school years, tuition alone rose from an average of $17,045 to $24,623.

As the Supreme Court weighs whether Biden's plan to cancel some student debt can move forward, Americans are pondering ways to keep students and families from accumulating such a heavy financial burden in the first place.

Student debt solutions: Free college or federal student loans? These alternatives could help solve student debt crisis

Biden offers to cancel some student debt: Biden administration proposes canceling $6B in student debt for 200,000 people in settlement

"I dont think any of us are prepared for the cost of higher education, and I dont know what the answer is," said Tilton. "I dont know how the government fixes it.

How do people afford college without loans?

Tilton and her husband Chad, 50, always made it clear to their three children that they'd have to help pay for college.

"Our kids knew they needed to get scholarships because it had gotten way more expensive than when my husband and I were in college,'' she says.

529 plans: The college savings plans can provide big tax breaks

Is college necessary? Middle class, minus debt: Apprenticeships, certificates offer low-cost options to college

While Brie, 25, decided not to go to college, Colby, 19, hoped to get an ROTC scholarship to help fund his education. When that didn't come through, he signed up for the National Guard in Massachusetts which will cover his tuition at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

He's now a freshman after taking a year to do basic training. Academic scholarships will pay for his room and board. He's also saved $17,000 from his job at Target.

The couple's youngest son, Dylan, 17, also works at Target and has a goal of saving the same amount. But after failing a hearing test, joining the National Guard was not an option.

So the family relocated to Wareham, Massachusetts, to establish residency even though Dylan is a high school senior this year .

Tilton was confident Dylan would get in to the state university and that the family's move was worth it. "He's a straight-A student, works ... and did really well on the SATs,'' she says.

When Tilton and her husband filled out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, the portal used to determine federal, and often state and individual schools' financial aid, Tilton said they were told they should be able to contribute $30,000 a year toward their son's college costs.

"We cant,'' she says. "My husband doesnt make even $100,000 a year.

So the family initially moved into a long-term Airbnb rental. Dylan i applied for various scholarships, and Tilton and her husband will remain in Massachusetts even after he's gained official state residency if he needs to live at home and commute to campus to save money.

"Even with us moving, he'll probably still have to take out some student loans'' to cover the cost of books and other fees, she says.

Leaving the country to afford college

Tiffany Fite's children made a different type of move, enrolling in schools in Europe where universities can be more affordable.

She and her husband, Benjamin, began earnestly looking at options in 2018, as the glossy brochures sent by U.S. colleges began to tumble in.

Fite, a consultant and her husband, an attorney, hoped their sons, Aidan, 19, and Ethan, 20, would be able to enjoy their high school years without constantly worrying about whether they got into certain schools.

How to save for college: Fintechs launch crypto, cash-back rewards for college to help parents save for their kids

Can you cancel student loan debt? You can, but it can be complicated

Fite says they save so diligently that she and her husband were able to take off work for two years and crisscross the country with their sons in an RV.

"If there was one financial lesson we wanted our boys to take away from us... is always live below your means,'' Fite says.

The family opened 529 savings accounts but knew they won't cover the $100,000 they'd likely have to pay for each son to earn a bachelor's degree.

"We wouldn't co-sign for loans, and we would not borrow against our retirement or our future for their college,'' says Fite.

They weighed the cost of their sons living at home and attending Boise State, which is literally next door to their Idaho home. They priced out community college. "And then we found out about the option for going abroad,'' she says.

The boys took a gap year after high school, partly to work and save.Aidan started a three-year Bachelor of Arts program in archaeology in August at the University of Pecs, Hungary, where tuition is $5,000 a year. Ethan is in his second year at Anglo American University in Prague, where annual tuition is $8,500.

What's a CSS profile? The financial aid application can lead to scholarships and grants

Dartmouth financial aid to be loan free: Dartmouth College eliminating loans from its financial aid packages

Their parents will pay $45,000 to $50,000 for each son's overall college tuition, and they also plan to match the $5,000 of income their children earn from working.

"It took a lot of work on our end to look at the other options,'' says Fite, "but (it was) worth it.''

What is the best way to pay for college?

Apprenticeships and certifications are gaining traction as more people look at the high cost of college and ask, 'Why bother?'

A recent Gallup poll found that 46% of parents said they would prefer their child seek a different credential than a bachelors degree. And only 56% of adults under age 30 who went to college felt that the benefits were greater than the costs, according to a Federal Reserve study released in May.

As an educational consultant, Carolyn Johnson helps young people navigate the maze of applying to college, including applying for scholarships and financial aid.

Her daughters, Alison, 23, and Amy, 21, a graduate of and current student at Fordham University, respectively, have received scholarships and each has roughly $20,000 in loans.

Still, to cover the college costs that remained, Johnson and her husband sold their home and tapped their retirement funds. "My husband figures he'll work until he's 70,'' she says.

They sold their house partly because it was becoming financially draining to deal with the damage from several floods. But using the money to help cover tuition was also a priority, she says.

Im in the business so I know education is the foundation and the stepping stone, she says. Weve lost material things we were attached to and we learned those things dont last, but education lasts forever.

Why should colleges not be free?

Some schools have started to offer financial assistance to a broader array of households. Stanford, for instance, in 2020 raised the income threshold for students to get scholarships that cover their full tuition to $150,000 from $125,000. Households earning less than $75,000 have their room and board, along with tuition covered.

Dartmouth College, meanwhile, said that starting this summer, it will replace loans in its financial aid offerings with broader scholarship grants.

But both of those schools are extremely selective, meaning only a small number of students can benefit from that assistance.

Ohio State meanwhile is offering an option that could benefit a wider array of students with its Scarlet and Gray Advantage, a program it said will begin a pilot this fall. It sets students up for a debt-free undergraduate education through a combination of scholarships, grants, job opportunities, and family contributions.

Such expansions of debt-free aid are models worth emulating at even more schools that can afford  or develop partnerships that allow them to be  more generous.

Free community college could also provide a debt-free entry point to higher education, though for now, that recommendation has been pared from Biden's Build Back Better legislation which has yet to be approved by Congress.

Many community colleges have transfer agreements with particular colleges or universities if students take certain courses and earn the required credits.

Care still has to be taken however to ensure a two-tier system doesn't become cemented, where lower-income and students of color remain concentrated in two-year schools, while four-year colleges primarily educate students who are more affluent and white, says Carnevale.

In the meantime, if families gain a clearer understanding of what majors or schools offer the greatest employment and earning potential, competition could grow between colleges, slowing the dizzying uptick in tuition, he says.

Student loans: The ABC's of taking on student loan debt

Refinancing student loan debt: Combining loans can possibly shave costs

"In any market, in any industry, once you're able to measure value in great detail ... you've started down the road to cost competition,'' he says adding that while the data exists through tools like the College Scorecard, more families need to be made aware of it.

Paying for college with a room to rent

This past summer, Michelle St. Onge said she planned to rent out a spare bedroom in her home to help pay for her youngest son, Ethan, 18, to attend Clarkson University in the fall.

"Were making the leap based on the return on investment we think were going to get after (graduation), but we still have to figure out a way to pay for it now,'' says St. Onge who lives in Peru, New York. "Im a single mom and the only one helping him with his tuition.

Once Ethan becomes a sophomore, theyll look at additional financial options, like his possibly becoming a resident adviser to reduce the cost of room and board.

He also may have to apply for some student loans.

But that's down the road.

This first year, weve figured it out, she says. One year at a time.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: As FAFSA deadlines loom, families move, rent rooms to afford tuition
Wisconsin taxpayers' cost for the fruitless partisan review of the 2020 presidential election continues to grow.

Dane County Circuit Court Judge Diane Schipper has ordered Assembly Speaker Robin Vos to pay $135,574 in legal fees to the liberal watchdog group American Oversight for the group's successful lawsuit to obtain records from former Justice Michael Gableman's 14-month probe, bringing the taxpayer-paid cost to the Gableman review to nearly $2.5 million, according to a WisPolitics review.

The Washington, D.C.-based group can recover up to $7,637 for its most recent fees and costs, but Vos has seven days to file any objections to the remainder, according to Schipper's ruling on Feb. 23.

Former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman talks to reporters Friday, June 10, 2022 in Dane County Court in Madison, Wis. Gableman was held in contempt after he refused to answer any questions about his handling of public records requests and lambasted a judge overseeing a lawsuit alleging Gableman is refusing to follow transparency laws governing his taxpayer-funded review of the 2020 election.

The money will come from taxpayers.

Speaker Robin Vos plans to appeal the latest ruling

Vos said he would likely appeal the order.

How surprising that a liberal Dane County judge would agree with a liberal organization funded by unions and liberal activists, Vos said. Im sure well end up appealing that because (the fees) are outrageous.

In the lawsuit, Vos argued that no fees should be awarded to a non-profit corporation like American Oversight because of statutes in Illinois and Ohio, or, alternatively, that if fees must be awarded, that American Oversights fees should be reduced.

"Wisconsins public records law is not ambiguous and its interpretation requires no assistance from Illinois or Ohio courts," Schipper ruled. "I reject Vos invitation to apply those states laws, and under Wisconsin law, I award American Oversight its reasonable fees using the lodestar approach. This is a two-step approach in which courts first determine the number of hours reasonably expended on the litigation multiplied by a reasonable hourly rate."

Another judge also ruled against Vos and Gableman

In March 2022, Dane County Judge Frank Remington ruled Vos and Gableman violated the state's public records law by refusing to turn over some documents to American Oversight in a separate case and delaying the release of others. That judge held Gableman in contempt of court after he berated Remington and a female attorney while refusing to answer questions about his handling of public records requests.

Story continues

What was Gableman paid to conduct his review?

Gableman drew $11,000 a month to conduct the review when it was launched in the summer of 2021. About a year later Vos reduced the pay to $5,500 a month.

Joe Biden beat Donald Trump in Wisconsin by about 21,000 votes. Recounts, court rulings, an independent audit and a study by a conservative group confirmed his win, but Vos moved ahead with the Gableman review, announcing it during the 2021 state Republican Party convention at a time Trump and other Republicans were pushing for more to be done to scrutinize the election in Wisconsin.

Vos fired Gableman in August last year. Gableman, whose work revealed no evidence of significant voter fraud and turned up little about voting in Wisconsin that wasn't already known, had by that time turned on Vos, backing a primary challenger to the speaker in 2022.

Michael Maistelman, a Milwaukee attorney who specializes in campaign finance, said Wisconsin taxpayers are paying millions of dollars based on a lie Donald Trump perpetuated.

"It's a political stunt made even worse because a guy that sat on the highest court of Wisconsin was inept. He didn't even know how to follow the law and now we're paying for it," Maistelman said. "Even the guy that hired him eventually called him out and finally admitted that."

More:'An incompetent circus': Michael Gableman's 2020 election review reaches 1 year and the $1 million mark with little to show

Molly Beck of the Journal Sentinel contributed to this report.

Corrinne Hess can be reached at chess@gannett.com or on Twitter @corrihess

Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.

DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get the latest news, sports and more

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Vos ordered to pay more than $135K in legal fees for Gableman records
Third grade teacher Stephanie Fine leads a reading lesson for her students at Norman Binkley Elementary School Monday, Oct. 25, 2021 in Nashville, Tenn.

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters.

Tennessee, which once counted on Mississippis worst-in-the-nation reading scores to elevate its own national ranking for literacy, is now looking to its neighbor to the south as a role model for how to improve.

In a turnaround dubbed the Mississippi miracle, the state saw its fourth-grade reading scores on a national test rise dramatically between 2013 and 2019, even for historically marginalized groups like Black and Hispanic students. Mississippi also maintained its reading gains in 2022, while scores in most other states declined after the pandemic caused unprecedented disruptions to schooling.

Now under several 2021 laws, Tennessee is employing many of the same tactics that Mississippi did under its 2013 law. Among them: prioritizing reading improvements and investments in grades K-3, training teachers on the science of reading, including an emphasis on phonics, and  most controversial of all  requiring third graders to pass a state reading test to get promoted to the fourth grade.

Carey Wright, Mississippis education chief from 2013 to 2022, praised Tennessee during testimony Wednesday before state lawmakers in Nashville who are considering whether to make changes to Tennessees policies for holding third graders back.

You are really to be commended for the comprehensive nature in which youve approached this topic, she said, noting that Tennessee has even required its teacher training programs to change how they teach reading instruction, which Mississippi did not.

Wright cited a recent Boston University study finding that Mississippi third-graders who were retained under that states law went on to achieve substantially higher scores in English language arts by the sixth grade. The study also found that retention had no impact on other outcomes such as attendance or identification for special education.

Story continues

But national research about retention is mixed. Critics argue that there are more risks than benefits  from negative social and emotional effects to a disproportionate impact on student groups who are already marginalized, such as those who come from low-income families, are of color, or have disabilities.

Why Tennessee zeroed in on third grade

Literacy is foundational to all subsequent learning, and third grade is considered a critical marker. As the old saying goes: You learn to read up until the third grade, and after that, you read to learn.

But for years, reading scores have been mostly stagnant in Tennessee, with only about a third of the states third graders showing proficiency based on state tests.

In 2011, lawmakers passed a retention law to try to address the problem, but the statute was largely unenforced, with few third graders being held back by local school leaders.

So here we are 12 years later having the same discussion, said Rep. Mark White, who chairs the House Education Administration Committee and helped pass the states new reading and retention policies.

I personally am grateful that we passed a retention law  because now we have everybodys attention, the Memphis Republican said to kick off Wednesdays hearing.

Gov. Bill Lee delivers his State of the State address in Nashville, Tenn., on Monday, Feb. 6, 2023.

House leaders have compiled a list of 14 bills that aim to revise or tweak the law. They range from gutting the retention provision altogether to giving local districts more authority to determine which students should be held back. Gov. Bill Lee pressed for the 2021 law and wants to stay the course.

To avoid retention, the law says third graders whose scores on state tests show they are approaching proficiency must attend a summer camp and demonstrate adequate growth on a test administered at the camps end, or they must participate in a tutoring program in the fourth grade. Students who score below proficiency must participate in both intervention programs.

Third graders are exempt from retention if they were held back in a previous grade; have or may have a disability that affects reading; are English language learners with less than two years of English instruction; or retest as proficient before the beginning of fourth grade.

Parents also can appeal a retention decision if their child performed at the 40th percentile on a different test that allows for comparisons with national benchmarks, or if the child experienced an event that reasonably impacted the childs performance on the TCAP test. The appeal can be based on other criteria such as results from locally administered screening tests required by the state.

Pushback against retention is widespread

While Tennessees tutoring and summer learning programs are popular, many parents and educators dislike the part of the law that makes results of the states standardized TCAP test for English language arts the only criterion to determine whether third-graders can progress to the fourth grade. Numerous school boards also have passed resolutions urging the legislature to revisit the new retention policy.

On Wednesday, several district superintendents echoed that call.

I respectfully ask that you allow districts to use multiple data points when making the monumental decision to retain a student, which can have serious long-term consequences, said Gary Lilly, director of Collierville Schools in Shelby County.

Beyond the states test, school districts generally give students multiple assessments that are specifically designed to gauge reading progress. All of those results could be considered, Lilly said, along with other factors such as a students overall achievement, attendance record, and emotional and social maturity.

Lilly noted that Tennessee also has among the nations highest thresholds for measuring proficiency. The state began working to raise them when a 2007 U.S. Chamber of Commerce report gave Tennessee an F for truth in advertising, because its standards were so low that most students were deemed proficient.

But Lilly suggested that Tennessee may want to rethink those high thresholds.

I am not advocating to decrease the rigor of our standards, he said. What I am saying is that the TCAP test should not be viewed as the definitive authority to target students for retention.

Another concern is the states one-year timeline for implementing the new retention policy at scale, affecting third graders who score either approaching proficiency or below basic. Some district leaders have argued that starting just with the students who score below basic, which is Tennessees lowest-performing category, would be a more targeted and logistically feasible approach.

Jeanne Barker, director of Lenoir City Schools, said her district wont receive TCAP results until after the school year ends, leaving little time for students to take the test over or for families to decide about attending summer learning camps or appealing retention decisions to the state education department.

Tennessee Commissioner Education Penny Schwinn applauds as Gov. Bill Lee (R) enters the Senate chambers to do his State of the State address in Nashville, Tenn., on Monday, Feb. 6, 2023.

Penny Schwinn, Tennessees education commissioner, acknowledged the tight timeline but testified that no parent should be surprised by the end of the school year if their child is identified as having a reading deficiency.

Parents should be receiving notification that their child may be at risk for needing additional supports two times before we even get into testing season, said Schwinn, adding that preliminary TCAP results will become available the week of May 19.

Advocates look beyond third grade

Policy conversations that began with third grade reading continue to gravitate toward earlier grades.

Wright said Mississippis playbook emphasized the importance of literacy instruction and interventions for struggling readers as early as possible.

My goal was that, by the time third grade came around, there shouldnt even be an issue around third grade, she said. We should have captured those kids a long time ago and made sure that they were getting the interventions and the help that they needed.

Tennessee education advocates shared similar sentiments.

Nancy Dishner, president and CEO of the Niswonger Foundation supporting students and educators in East Tennessee, said her biggest concern about Tennessees current initiative is that were not doing it early enough.

We have to move back, Dishner said. Birth is when we need to start helping our kids, not when they enter elementary school.

Amy Doren, a 35-year educator and former coordinator of early childhood programs at Kingsport City Schools, agreed.

Childrens brains develop 90% to capacity by age 5. So why would we not seek to make an impact in those early years? Doren asked. Thats where we want our children to learn to be problem-solvers and critical thinkers, so that when they get to the third grade, theyll be ready to handle it.

Editors note: This story was updated on March 1, 2023, to add that parents can appeal a retention decision based on the results of locally administered, state-required screening tests; and to clarify that the one-year timeline for implementing the third-grade retention policy at scale refers to potentially holding back students in two scoring categories, versus starting just with the lowest-performing category.

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization covering public education.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee looks to Mississippi for ideas to improve reading scores
netflix

Content warning: This article contains references to murder some may find upsetting. Reader discretion is advised.



Hopefully, you've been able to pick your jaw up off the floor after binge-watching Netflix's newest true crime docuseries, Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal, a tragic-yet-shocking tale of five deaths spanning a six-year period that can all be somewhat linked back to Alex Murdaugh's family, one of the most well known families in South Carolina.

Since January 2023, Alex has been on trial at Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina for the double homicide of his wife, Maggie, and youngest son, Paul. They were shot to death on their 1700-acre property on Moselle Road in Islandton, South Carolina on June 7, 2021.

Why would a supposedly loving father kill two of the people closest to him? According to The Post and Courier, prosecutors at the murder trial claim Alex's motive for murdering Maggie and Paul was "a desperate attempt to portray himself as a victim and cover up his wrongdoing" because his financial crimes "were about to be exposed." (FYI, there are "dozens of charges for alleged financial crimes" against Alex.)

Courtesy of Netflix

Alex's oldest son, 26-year-old Buster, was not killed alongside his mother and younger brother, and the Netflix docuseries doesn't explain where he was when his loved ones were murdered. Interestingly, Buster recently testified on his father's behalf during Alex's homicide trial and shared exactly where he was when he learned the horrible news.

Buster testified that Alex called him on the day of the murders and asked if Buster was "sitting down," as reported by People. "He sounded odd, and then he told me that my mom and my brother had been shot."

Courtesy of Netflix

According to the former University of South Carolina student, he and his girlfriend were at her house in Rock Hill, South Carolina  roughly 200 miles away  when Alex told Buster what had happened. Buster said he and his girlfriend then immediately drove to the house on Moselle Road.

Story continues

On the witness stand, Buster testified that Alex was "heartbroken" and "destroyed" over the murders. "I walked in the door and saw him, gave him a hug," he reportedly said.

At the time of this writing, Alex's trial is still ongoing and a verdict has not been made yet.

You Might Also Like
While Avatar: The Way of Water solidifies itself as the Best Visual Effects frontrunner at this years Academy Awards, we can at least pretend until Dune: Part Two opens in roughly 10 months that the 2024 race is still any films to lose. If the VFX branchs past admiration for photorealistic animals is any sign, Elizabeth Banks Cocaine Bear stands a good chance of taking part in next years conversation. Universal just released the horror comedy to a $22 million opening weekend and generally positive reviews.

Garnering particular praise is the CGI/mo-cap wonder Banks and her crew came to endearingly call Cokey the Bear. Christy Lemire (RogerEbert.com) writes that a great deal of the films draw is the look of the creature itself, which is surprisingly high-tech for a cheesy, silly movie. Dan Bayer (AwardsWatch) similarly highlights the movies visual veracity, saying, Its clear that most of the films budget went to making the bear feel as real as possible, and she has a wonderfully tactile feel.

More from GoldDerby

SEE 2023 films directed by women: 16 most anticipated movies include Cocaine Bear, The Marvels, Barbie  [PHOTOS]

Developed by Peter Jacksons New Zealand-based Weta FXthe same visual effects firm that worked on the Lord of the Rings films, Jon Favreaus The Jungle Book, both Avatars, and Matt Reeves Apes trilogyCokey is a combination of digital engineering and physical acting, but not, as IndieWires Sarah Sahchat notes during her interview with Cocaine Bears invisible lead, Allan Henry, in the traditional sense. Henry, trained by motion-capture acting veteran Andy Serkis, did not have tracking markers all over his face for animators to turn into digital muscle movements, but he provided a crucial reference point to create Cokeys eyeline, physicality, and emotional state, helping the the actors emote opposite the bear and the VFX team place her within the frame.

Story continues

Without that level of technical precision, the horror comedys physical gags wouldnt work nearly as well. As Henry himself explains, The artists at Weta just took the reference that I had and enhanced it and augmented what I was doing. They could see where to put the bear. But my second role was for the performers so that they had, you know, natural and organic timing and reactions and the influence and impetus from something being beside them. The grueling work required the 210-pound stuntman to move as a quadruped while wearing a prosthetic head and meter-long extensions for his arms and legs.

Banks insistence that the film be shot outdoorsCounty Wicklow, Ireland stands in for Chattahoochee, Georgiarather than in front of a green screen pays off beautifully, allowing natural lighting and color to complement the VFX work. My biggest concern was that the bear be photorealisticit had to feel like a Nat Geo documentary about a bear that did cocaine, the director told Variety. At the same time, Banks admits that the crew tried to stretch the truth as much as possible in order to capitalize on the pictures sensational premise. Everything was based in reality, but then we always reminded ourselves, But its also on cocainecan the bear run a little fasterjump a little higher than a bear typically would? And the answer to that, we decided, was, Yeah, why not?

SEE Box office: Ant-Man drops dramatically to make room for Cocaine Bear and Jesus Revolution

The VFX and animation teams, supervised by Robin Hollander and Carmelo Leggiero, respectively, conducted extensive behavioral studies in order to augment the bears movement and stature without requiring too much of the audience in the way of suspending disbelief. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, producer Chris Miller said, They studied actual crazy things that bears do, bear movements and stuff, and then we goosed it a little bit.

The Oscars VFX branch is one of its least genre-biasedpast winners and nominees include Free Guy, Tenet, Transformers, and The Lone Rangerand would have no qualms honoring a horror comedy. Cokey is another technical achievement for Weta, which has Middle Earth, Pandora, and a thick section of the MCU catalog to its credit. In Cocaine Bear, their alchemy inspires awe not only for the bears design, but also a stunning climactic sequence on a waterfall ledge that, for obvious reasons, couldnt be achieved practically. As for the cinematic showdown thats on everybodys mind, Banks is betting on her films drugged-up, eponymous apex predator, commenting, [She] outmatches The Revenant bear every time. The question is whether Cokie can, as Leonardo DiCaprios wrestling partner did, also snag an Oscar nomination.

PREDICTthe 2023 Oscar winners through March 12

Make your predictions at Gold Derby now. Download our free and easy app for Apple/iPhone devices or Android (Google Play) to compete against legions of other fans plus our experts and editors for best prediction accuracy scores. See our latest prediction champs. Can you top our esteemed leaderboards next? Always remember to keep your predictions updated because they impact our latest racetrack odds, which terrify Hollywood chiefs and stars. Dont miss the fun. Speak up and share your huffy opinions in our famous forums where 5,000 showbiz leaders lurk every day to track latest awards buzz. Everybody wants to know: What do you think? Who do you predict and why?

Best of GoldDerby

Sign up for Gold Derby's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.
DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson gave a qualified welcome to the deal between the UK and the EU (Jordan Pettitt/PA Wire)

The DUP has said that key issues of concern remain over Rishi Sunaks protocol deal, as Downing Street stressed that Stormont would get a say in the application of EU law under new changes.

Sir Jeffrey Donaldsons party is poised to study details of the Windsor Framework, which removes trade barriers for Northern Ireland and creates a new brake for Stormont on EU laws, before giving its view on the UK-EU deal.

In a statement on Monday, the DUP leader said: We welcome the publication of the outcome of the Governments negotiations with the EU, which ends a period of speculation and spin, often from those who know little about Northern Ireland.

In broad terms, it is clear that significant progress has been secured across a number of areas  whilst also recognising there remain key issues of concern.

There can be no disguising the fact that in some sectors of our economy, EU law remains applicable in Northern Ireland.

Heres what you need to know about the DUP.

What is the DUP?

The DUP, or the Democratic Unionist Party, is one of the biggest political parties in Northern Ireland.

It was founded by the late Ian Paisley in 1971 at the height of the Northern Ireland Troubles.

It had been the largest party since 2007 but has now been pushed into second place as Sinn Fein emerged as the biggest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

What does the DUP stand for?

The DUP describes itself as right wing in the sense of being strong on the constitution but to the left on social policies, though it has regularly adopted conservative positions on most social issues. It is known for being anti-abortion and blocking same-sex marriage.

It describes itself as Unionist because it supports Northern Ireland being a part of the United Kingdom instead of being part of the Republic of Ireland.

In February 2022, the DUPs Paul Givan resigned as first minister in protest against the Northern Ireland Protocol.

This is the part of the UKs Brexit deal with the EU, which keeps Northern Ireland aligned with the European single market and protects the movement of goods across the border with the Irish Republic.

Story continues

Yet it also involves establishing border controls between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

Unionists have seen it as a weakening of Northern Irelands bond with Great Britain.

The DUP, whose support will be key to restoring power-sharing in Northern Ireland, has warned key issues remain.

In contrast with the Conservatives and Labour Party, who have MPs across the UK, the DUP only represents Northern Ireland, in the same way that the SNP only represents Scotland.

Who is Jeffrey Donaldson?

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson (Jordan Pettitt/PA) (PA Wire)

The current leader of the DUP is Sir Jeffrey Donaldson.

He is the DUPs fifth leader in its 50-year history and was preceded by Edwin Poots, Arlene Foster, Peter Robinson and the partys founder, Ian Paisley.

From Kilkeel in County Down, Sir Jeffrey began his political career with the Ulster Unionist Party and was part of the UUPs negotiating team for the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

Sir Jeffrey was an MP for Lagan Valley for 24 years, and a former soldier in the Ulster Defence Regiment.

His cousins Samuel and Alexander Donaldson  the former a police constable and the latter a chief inspector  were murdered in separate IRA bombings.

He is the second former member of the Ulster Unionist Party to become leader of the rival Democratic Unionist Party, founded by Rev Ian Paisley.

Sir Jeffrey was the DUPs chief whip when Thereas May failed to secure a Commons majority, and the party was holding the balance of power.

In 2016, he was knighted by the Queen.

How many DUP MPs are there in Parliament?

The DUP currently has eight MPs in Parliament.
Albemarle County resident Angela Kathleen Johnson may have wanted to avoid a repeat of the drunk driving incident that led to a manslaughter conviction 22 years ago in York County. Unfortunately, she got drunk again last summer, climbed into a car and once again forever changed someones life.

The former Belk department store employee admitted in court on Tuesday that she drove her Lexus the wrong way on the U.S. Route 250 Bypass last summer and severely injured a local woman heading home from her shift at the Wawa market on Pantops.

Inside Charlottesville Circuit Court, the now 50-year-old Johnson, handcuffed, waist-chained and wearing a red jail jumpsuit spoke softly as she pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated and to vehicular maiming.

"She caused a very serious accident, and she's extremely remorseful," her attorney, Scott Goodman, told The Daily Progress outside of court after his client's guilty plea.

Judge Claude Worrell listened to prosecutor Natalia Heguaburo narrate the facts of the case.

Kristie Howard's life was changed forever after her shift at Wawa ended at 3 a.m. in the early morning hours of Aug. 27, Heguaburo said.

The prosecutor said that Howard clocked out, cleaned up and climbed into her black Nissan to make the five-minute drive home.

"She got on the 250 Bypass heading westbound like she normally did," said Heguaburo, "except this time Ms. Howard didn't make it home."

The last thing Howard recalled before waking up in a hospital bed, as she later told investigators, was the sight of headlights coming toward her and the sound of breaking glass.

Johnson had been drinking that night, Heguaburo said, including getting a final drink at the home of her friend Maria Cox in Mallside Forest Court, an apartment complex near Fashion Square shopping mall.

Howard was severely injured, according to the prosecutor: 18 broken ribs, a broken sternum, two back fractures, four skull fractures, a lacerated liver, chronic dizziness and a swollen ankle.

"And I lost a little bit of taste of my tongue, because I guess I bit that," Howard testified at a preliminary hearing in November. She was not present for Tuesday's hearing.

A witness saw Johnson stumble out of the driver's seat of her sedan, said the prosecutor, while a dog inside her car was suffering from broken legs.

"Did I do all this?" Johnson repeatedly asked witnesses at the scene near the highway ramp to Watson Avenue, where she had apparently crossed the center median and hit Howards vehicle.

"Did I do this?" Johnson asked again, according to the prosecutor's narrative.

In court on Tuesday, Johnson's face registered pain when the prosecutor carried four photographs from the scene to the defense table.

Johnson admitted to drinking, the prosecutor said, while refusing to participate in a field sobriety test at the crash site. Later, in the presence of a magistrate, Johnson, said, "They're gonna kill me for my priors, according to the prosecutor.

Virginia court records show that in 2011, Johnson, then with a Reedville address, was found guilty of felony driving on a license revoked for prior DUI convictions.

What happened on Interstate 64 nearly 23 years ago was more serious.

According to a contemporary newspaper account, backed by York County records, Johnson was heading back to the Norfolk area from a two-family visit to Richmond on the morning of Aug. 8, 2000, when she lost control of the SUV she was driving. A 9-year-old boy, Kaseem Christopher Woodhouse-Faulks, the son of a friend, was ejected and died. Johnson registered a 0.13 blood-alcohol level and pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in 2001.

"I miss my son," the boy's father said amid sobs as he held up photographs of his son from the witness stand, according to Daily Press coverage of the court case.

"I don't understand how the drunk driver never gets hurt," the grieving dad testified. "They always live to tell the story."

In that case, Johnson had three children in her car, including one of her own and two belonging to her friend.

Her then-defense attorney said she wasn't a malicious person, she simply fell asleep, woke up and overcorrected the vehicle.

Since her most recent arrest, Johnson has been held at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail.

Heguaburo, a third-year University of Virginia law student, laid the groundwork for further incarceration.

"Because of the defendant's decision to get behind the wheel with a blood-alcohol concentration of .19, the victim, Ms. Howard, has since been unable to work, must walk with a cane, gets dizzy often, suffers from chest problems and swelling and is unable to do things she used to regularly do, like get on a plane to visit her family or regularly leave her home with ease," Heguaburo said.

In court, Goodman acknowledged the commonwealth's case against Johnson but noted that Johnson had immediately admitted to drinking, asked after the condition of the victim at the scene and has been "completely cooperative."

The plea agreement that Johnson signed would cap her punishment  which could have been as high as a 15 years in prison  at six years and eight months.

Worrell said that he would accept the plea, ordered a presentence report and called the parties back to court on April 25 for sentencing.
In 2019, former President Jimmy Carter showed up at a Habitat for Humanity site in Nashville with a smile  and a black eye. One day earlier, Carter, then 95, had fallen and needed 14 stitches, but he kept up his commitment to the organization. It's a commitment he's held since the 1980s.

Habitat for Humanity, which helps homeowners build homes alongside volunteers, was founded in Americus, Georgia, nearby Carter's hometown of Plains. Americus happens to be where Carter first volunteered with the organization in 1984.

Later that year, Carter happened to walk by another Habitat build in New York City, according to the organization. He noticed there were few volunteers, so he and his wife, Rosaylnn, joined them. They brought some more volunteers with them, helping to renovate the apartment building that would house 19 families.

Former president Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, work on building a home during Habitat for Humanity's Carter Work Project event in the Globeville Neighborhood in Denver, October 09, 2013. / Credit: RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post via Getty Images

Since then, the former president and first lady have run The Carter Work Project with Habitat for Humanity. The New York City building is considered the first of the homes they've worked on  and the couple has returned to the city for builds three times, according to CBS New York.

"He's funny and one hard worker," CEO of Habitat for Humanity New York City and Westchester County Karen Haycox told CBS New York. "He's the first on the site in the morning and very often the last one to leave at the end of the day."

Habitat homeowner Jacqueline Wills told CBS Dallas Fort Worth what it was like to work alongside the president as he volunttered in Forth Worth.

Former US President Jimmy Carter Jimmy Carter works on one of the homes at the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project for Habitat for Humanity Edmonton. / Credit: Ron Palmer/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

"It was such an honor it was a humbling experience," Wills said. "I will never forget that and I'll be totally indebted to him for the rest of my life."

"They had the houses on this street marked one through 10 and ours was number one, and they called it The Carter house because President Carter himself worked on it," she added.

More than 4,300 homes could be considered a "Carter House" because the Carters have helped build that many homes with more than 100,000 volunteers in 14 countries over nearly 40 years, according to the organization.

Story continues

"I sure hope when I'm 90 years old, I still have a hammer in my hand and I'm out building houses. That'd be a life well lived," volunteer Mike Criner told CBS Colorado. Criner worked alongside Carter and said the former president was one of his main inspirations for joining the build.

In 2019, Carter became the longest living president at at 94 years and 172 days old. A few months later, just after his 95th birthday, he showed up to that build in Nashville, as he recovered from a fall. He was joined by Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, and hundreds of volunteers.

At the build, Carter spoke about not letting anything stand in his way to be there. "Habitat is inspirational. You know, just a motivation to come to Habitat and we always, as I've said many times, we get a lot more out of it as we put into it," the former president said.

Earlier this month, the Carter Center revealed the former president was receiving hospice care at his home alongside his family.

Head of Student Borrower Protection Center discusses significance of student loan forgiveness plan

Supreme Court hears arguments on President Biden's student loan forgiveness plan

President Biden addresses high health care costs
Features/The Vanished Editor

Tammy Ayer has worked at the Yakima Herald-Republic since 2015. This is her fourth newspaper gig. Alongside general assignment reporting and profiles, she writes about the centuries-long crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People, focusing on those who have gone missing, been murdered and have died mysteriously on and around the Yakama Reservation. Ayer grew up in Indiana, lived in Florida for 13 years and has a masters degree in history.
Education Reporter

Vanessa Ontiveros is the education reporter at the Yakima Herald-Republic. She grew up near Los Angeles but has happily made Yakima her new home. She is passionate about reporting stories that serve the community and highlight various aspects of the educational system.She also hosts a podcast that discusses local arts education, Yakima Arts Talk, available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. The daughter of two longtime public school teachers, she is always looking to include community voices in her work.
Roman Trokhym and his family, who fled Ukraine after Russian troops invaded their homeland, gather with others at Millennium Plaza in downtown Yakima, Wash., on Friday, Feb. 24, 2023, the one-year anniversary of the invasion.
The Center of Developing Entrepreneurs, or CODE, Building on Charlottesvilles Downtown Mall has been honored by the American Institute of Architects.

The building, designed by Charlottesville-based architecture firm Wolf Ackerman and New Orleans-based firm EskewDumezRipple, was given one of the institutes 2023 Architecture Awards, which celebrates the best contemporary architecture regardless of budget, size, style, or type, according to the institutes website.

The institute noted the buildings versatile coworking spaces as well as its envelope design  inspired by the brick cladding and punched window openings of the historic buildings. The office and retail space also features outdoor terraces and is designed for environmental efficiency.

For more information on the building, visit https://codebuilding.com/.
Police shot and killed an armed man who fired multiple shots near the Red Roof Inn in Charlottesville after a standoff on Tuesday.

Police say Billy Sites, 44, of Albemarle County was a wanted man with a criminal record who fled from an Albemarle County detective who tried to approach him earlier in the morning. Sites ran into a wooded area, firing multiple shots, before police confronted him in the parking lot of the Red Roof Inn shortly after 10 a.m., according to police.

Negotiations broke down, Charlottesville Police Chief Michael Kochis told The Daily Progress at a police command post near the scene of the shooting. The Albemarle County Police Department attempted several times to use less lethal force, which was unsuccessful.

Kochis said that at some point during the encounter Sites pointed his firearm at members of the Albemarle police departments tactical team, at which point officers fired on Sites.

Sites was transported to University of Virginia Medical Center where he later died.

A shelter-in-place warning was issued for the area surrounding the Red Roof Inn at 10:57 a.m. and lifted at 12:27 p.m.

Kochis said a county detective earlier Tuesday morning had spotted Sites, who was wanted in the area near the Red Roof Inn. Kochis did not say what Sites was wanted for.

Sites has a long criminal history.

He was convicted of sexual battery in Albemarle County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court in 1999 and given a six-month suspended sentence.

He was convicted in 2013 on a second offense of failing to register as a sex offender in Albemarle and given a two-year sentence with all but 10 days suspended.

In 2018, in Chesterfield Circuit Court, he received a six-month sentence after pleading guilty to a felony drug possession charge as well as misdemeanor petty larceny and giving a false identity to law enforcement.

Also in 2018, Sites pleaded guilty to two counts of grand larceny in Albemarle Circuit Court after being accused of shoplifting from a number of stores, including Lowes and Walmart. He was ordered to pay nearly $3,000 in restitution to the stores.

Just last year, Sites was slated to face trial in Nelson County on an array of charges in a 2017 home invasion and battery case. All charges were later dropped.

At least one eyewitness on Tuesday afternoon disagreed with the polices account of the events that led to Sites death.

Joshua Lucas said he saw the confrontation between Sites and police from his corner room at the Red Roof Inn. Lucas, who was on vacation with his daughter, said he didnt think Sites pointed a gun at police.

He kept putting a gun to his head, Lucas told The Daily Progress.

Lucas said he had been smoking a cigarette outside when he saw Sites approach the parking lot.

I heard someone saying, I'm going to be homeless anyway. I don't f--king matter, Lucas said.

He said Sites appeared to be having a "mental health crisis."

Police arrived shortly after, Lucas said. According to Lucas, Sites said he wanted to get in his car and leave and that he would drop his gun. Sites began walking toward a Dominion Energy meter when police hit him with a bean bag round, a kind of projectile meant to disable a person but not kill them.

Lucas said he does not recall seeing Sites aim his firearm at officers. Instead, he recalled seeing Sites pick up the bean bag round before police fired on him and deployed a K-9 unit.

He held [the bean bag round], Lucas said. Then they shot him, and thats when the dog tore him up.

Neither Kochis nor Albemarle County Police Chief Sean Reeves took any questions from the press on Tuesday afternoon.

Gun violence has taken the lives of 12 people and injured 21 others in Charlottesville and Albemarle County, according to a Daily Progress tally that includes Tuesdays shooting. There have now been four shooting deaths in Charlottesville city limits this year, more than double the number this time last year.

Tuesdays shooting was less than 24 hours after Kochis held a community forum on the recent rise in gun violence in the city.

The Charlottesville Police Department gets an average of one shots-fired call each day, Kochis said at the event on Monday.

Kochis has said city police are increasing patrols in hot-spot neighborhoods in the city and engaging more with community members. However, he has acknowledged that his department is understaffed, down a third of its force. The police department should have 110 officers, according to Kochis, but currently operates with just 81.

Kochis joined the Charlottesville Police Department on Jan. 16. Previously, he was the police chief for the town of Warrenton.
Today

Except for a few afternoon clouds, mainly sunny. High 91F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph.

Tonight

Clear skies. Low 59F. Winds light and variable.

Tomorrow

A mainly sunny sky. High 92F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.
Parliament passed a law scrapping doctors mandatory membership in the Hungarian Medical Chamber (MOK).

Parliament adopted the law with 122 votes in favour, 31 against and no abstentions.



The fast-tracked bill, which the interior ministry submitted on Monday, aimed at eliminating opportunities for MOK to abuse its powers, while also abolishing mandatory chamber membership for doctors, the ministry said in a statement earlier this week.



Peter Takacs, the state secretary for health care, said in Parliament on Tuesday that the measure was taken to ensure high quality, safe health care accessible to all.



MOK was hobbling the introduction of a new on-call system, and so putting the health care of Hungarians at risk, he said.



Ongoing code of ethics procedures against members of the chamber will be transferred to the Health Science Council, with the chamber retaining the right to give its opinion on procedures.
YORK  A Kansas man, lost on Christmas Eve and found stuck in a snow drift, has been arraigned on a charge of third offense driving under the influence.

Ethan Kratzer, 31, appeared in York County District Court this week to plead not guilty.

According to court documents, it was 4:48 a.m., when it was reported by a woman that Kratzer, her son, was intoxicated and did not know where he was. She stated he was driving a bluish-colored Toyota compact car and was possibly in the area of Road 21 and Road W. The woman reported that his vehicle was stuck in the snow.

Deputies with the York County Sheriffs Department went to the area she indicated and found a blue Toyota stuck in a snow drift on Road 21, just west of Road W. It was noted that the vehicle was stuck in a very large snow drift, which covered the roadway and made it impassable.

They made contact with the driver who was identified by his Oklahoma drivers license.

Kratzer was in the drivers seat, with the key in the ignition and the engine running, the deputies say in the affidavit. They said there were numerous beer cans scattered across the front passenger floorboard.

Deputies said they could smell an overwhelming odor of alcohol coming from his person and the affidavit says he had bloodshot and watery eyes. Court documents indicate a preliminary breath test indicated a breath alcohol content of above .08 and he was arrested.

After he was taken to the jail, it was determined his alcohol content was .254, more than three times the legal amount.

A review of his prior record shows a DUI conviction in York County and a DUI conviction in Cloud County, Kansas.

A jury trial has been set for late June, in the York County District Court.
We are finally seeing some bills come out of committees and onto the legislative floor. Many of these are called cleanup bills to fix text and clarify existing laws, to remove outdated language or to extend dates for ongoing programs. An example of a cleanup bill would be LB51, which removes an outdated law regulating the use of long-distance phone calls by state employees for personal matters, effectively a law that required state employees to reimburse the state for the cost of a phone call to check on their kids. The broad use of cellphones made this law obsolete a long time ago.

Some other bills that have been reported to the General File and which can then be debated on the floor are considered widely supported or non-controversial. An example of this is LB140, which advanced to the Select File by a vote of 44-0, would allow Nebraskans to obtain Czech Heritage license plates for their personal vehicles.

There are a number of bills that impact more sensitive issues like abortion, gun control, etc., which have also been reported out of committee. While the debate on these bills has not yet officially begun, they have been discussed at length during the consideration of the cleanup and non-controversial bills. This has slowed progress down on the floor of the Unicameral. Though this can be frustrating, these legislative tactics are allowed under the rules and are part of the legislative process.

Meanwhile this week my last two bills had their hearings before the Revenue (LB584) and Health and Human Services (LB586) Committees. Now we wait to see when these will be reported to the General File for further debate and consideration.

The Unicameral is a unique and interesting place. Please reach out if you have any questions or concerns about specific legislation or issues in general. I very much enjoy hearing from you.

As always, if we can be of assistance to you in any way, please do not hesitate to contact my office. My email address is jhughes@leg.ne.gov, and the office phone number is 402-471-2756. You can also follow me on Facebook at Senator Jana Hughes. While my office is on the 10th floor, which does require a staff member to access, please feel free to let us know if youre in the Capitol and would like to stop by. My staff members  Matt and Katie  are always available to assist you with your needs. If I am not immediately available, please do not hesitate to work with them to address any issues that you may need assistance with. If you would like to sign up for the daily Unicameral update go to: http://update.legislature.ne.gov/
Air India, the former national air carrier and now part of Tata Sons will start direct flight services between New Delhi and Copenhagen from March 1, 2023 after a hiatus of 3 years. Danish foreign minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, Rasmussen made this announcement during the India-Denmark: Partners for Green and Sustainable Progress conference, which was held recently during the visit of Crown Prince and Princess in India. Air India had stopped its non-stop flight between New Delhi and Copenhagen in the aftermath of the Coronavirus pandemic.



Air India will restart direct flights on the route from March 1, 2023 as reported by IANS. The flight will leave from the New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport on March 1 at 1:30 p.m. and reach Copenhagen, the Danish capital at 22:20 p.m., after eight hours and 50 minutes, according to reports.



Air India is the only air carrier to operate direct flight services between the two nations. As per reports, Air India's chief executive Campbell Wilson was quoted as saying recently that the airline's focus would be on long-haul and business fliers in addition to leisure passengers.



Earlier this month, Air India had launched a four-times-a-week non-stop operation from Delhi to Milan, after starting direct flights between Bengaluru and San Francisco in December and new flights between Mumbai and JFK airport in New York from February 14.
The Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights is an incredible natural phenomenon that occurs in the atmosphere over the North Pole, mostly around Scandanavian Nations, hence called Northern Lights. Under the phenomenon, once can green coloured lights floating in the sky, making it one of the most magnificent event, mostly occurring in cold weather. While one can spot Northern Lights from countries like Finland, Iceland among others, increasing light pollution reduces the chance of spotting these magical lights from cities. One has to travel to remote areas with negligible interference from lights to see the Aurora Borealis.

One way to spot the Northern Lights uninterrupted is from a flight, 30000 ft over the earth's surface. While the view from a flight can be enchanting, normally the view is only visible to one side of the aircraft. However, a few pilots flying to the Scandanavian nations have given all their passengers a view of the Northern Lights, by taking unscheduled mid-flight 360 degree turns.

The pilot of this Finnair flight made a 360 turn to allow everyone onboard see the fantastic Northern Lights last night.https://t.co/ewXUHBnioS https://t.co/BVbUaRk2F7 pic.twitter.com/Flj3gqqc4A  Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) February 27, 2023

The Northern Lights have been particularly visible this week over large areas at the northern latitudes and reports of pilots taking u-turn has cheered the avgeeks in the world. Two such incidents came to light, one from Iceland and one from Finland.

In the first incident, Finnair pilot flying from Kuusamo to Helsinki, operating Flight AY 488, gave a mesmerizing view of the Northern Lights by taking a U-Turn. One passenger shared the pics on Twitter writing, "Many thanks to the Captain of Finnair flight AY488 from KAO to HEL tonight for making an unscheduled 360 up in the air so all passengers can enjoy the magic".

In another incident, an EasyJet Flight 1806 from Reykjavik to Machester also made a 360 degree turn southwest of the Faroe Islands to let the passengers on the right side of the aircraft have a look at the aurora.
New Delhi: Bihar Police on Wednesday constituted a high-level team to probe the alleged 'thrashing' of the father of a Galwan martyr, in Vaishali, by local policemen, according to sources. The jawan, identified as Jai Kishore Singh, was one of 20 soldiers who laid down their lives in the Galwan Valley clash between the Indian Army and the Chinese military in 2020. According to ANI, the Director General of Police, Bihar has assured strict action against the police officials, if found guilty after the probe. Meanwhile, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday spoke with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over the alleged thrashing of the father of a Galwan martyr in Vaishali, sources said.

The Defence minister condemned and expressed his displeasure over the alleged incident. Earlier, the brother of the Galwan Valley martyr had alleged that the Bihar Police ordered them to take down a memorial built in honour of the fallen soldier, claiming that it was raised on private and government land, thereby amounting to encroachment.

Defence minister Rajnath Singh spoke with Bihar CM Nitish Kumar over the thrashing of the father of a soldier, in Bihar, who lost his life in Galwan valley clash. Further, Defence minister condemned the act and expressed his displeasure: Sources



(File Pic) pic.twitter.com/VWCplWwnTd  ANI (@ANI) March 1, 2023

He claimed that the police threatened to dispose of the bust of the slain braveheart into the waters if the family did not comply. The kin had earlier alleged that the martyr`s father was thrashed and arrested by the police for building a memorial for his son on encroached land at Jandaha in Bihar`s Vaishali.

"I don`t have any idea why they arrested my father or why an FIR was filed against him. All the information that has come out in the public domain on the matter is fabricated. This memorial was built following due process. The DSP ordered us to remove the memorial, threatening to dispose of it in the waters if we do not comply," Nand Kishore, brother of the slain jawan Jai Kishore, said on Tuesday.

Manju Devi, the mother of the fallen soldier said that the police manhandled her husband and gave no information on the legal action taken against him. She added the police "threatened" the family with consequences if they do not remove the memorial.

"The police came and took away my husband. They manhandled him and didn`t even inform us of his arrest or the legal action being taken against him. They repeatedly threatened us with consequences if we do not remove the memorial," the jawan`s mother said.

The police had earlier claimed that no permission was sought to build the memorial on the land, which they claimed belonged to someone else. "On January 23, a case was registered under SC/ST Act over a bust installed on the land belonging to Hari Nath Ram and on government land in Jandaha.

Later, boundary walls were erected around the memorial. They (the family of the fallen jawan) did not seek official permission. If they wanted, they could have made it their own land or seek land from the government. There would not have been any issue then. The landowner`s rights were violated due to encroachment," the SDPO Mahua said on Tuesday.

However, the jawan`s brother, Nand Kishore, who is also in the armed forces, accused the police of thrashing his father and abusing him. "DSP ma`am visited us, asking us to remove the statue within 15 days. I said I will show her the paperwork (for raising the memorial). Later, the police station in-charge came to our home and beat up my father before arresting him. They also abused my father. I am also in the armed forces personnel," Nand Kishore said. The locals protested against the police action and also chanted `Bharat Mata Ki Jai`.

(With ANI Inputs)
Patna: The Bharatiya Janata Party has severely criticised the recent incident in Bihar`s Vaishali wherein the father of a jawan, who lost his life in the Galwan standoff, was allegedly thrashed over encroachment. Bihar BJP leader Haribhushan Thakur has said that misbehaving with the family members of an Army jawan is unacceptable.

"Misbehaving with the family of Jai Kishore, who sacrificed his life for the nation in the Galwan valley standoff is unacceptable. The administration must take action against the police for arresting and manhandling his father," Haribhushan Thakur said.

Earlier on Tuesday, family members of Jai Kishore Singh, who was among the soldiers who lost their lives in the 2020 Galwan Valley clash with Chinese PLA troops in eastern Ladakh, alleged that the martyr`s father was thrashed and arrested by the police for building a memorial for his son on government land in Jandaha in Bihar`s Vaishali.

However, the police claimed that the matter is linked to an issue of illegal encroachment, which was in violation of the rights of the landowner.

"On January 23, a case was registered under SC/ST Act over a statue being erected on the land of Hari Nath Ram and on government land in Jandaha. Later, walls bordering the statue were built. They have not sought any permission. If they wanted, they could have made it in their own land or sought land from the government. There would not have been an issue then. The landowner`s rights are being violated due to illegal encroachment," the SDPO Mahua said.

However, the brother of the martyr, Jai Kishore Singh, who himself is in the armed forces, accused the police of thrashing his father and abusing him. "DSP ma`am visited us, asking us to remove the statue within 15 days. I said I will show her the document. Later, the police station in-charge came to our home and beat up my father before arresting him. They also abused my father. I am also in the armed forces personnel," Nand Kishore, brother of Jai Kishore Singh, said.

The locals protested against the police action and also chanted `Bharat Mata Ki Jai`.
The Piedmont Virginia Community College board is scheduled to meet on Wednesday

According to a meeting agenda, highlights include a presentation on the EMS Paramedic Program and a report from the board's chair on PVCCs upcoming 50th anniversary gala.

A sign-up sheet for public comment will be available 30 minutes prior to the beginning of the meeting, according to a statement from the college.

The meeting is planned for 4 p.m. on Wednesday in the Main Building North Mall Meeting Room on the colleges main campus in Charlottesville.

PVCC is a two-year college that primarily serves residents from the city of Charlottesville and the counties of Albemarle, Buckingham, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa and Nelson. Its one of 23 community colleges in the Virginia Community College System.
New Delhi: Elon Musk has been in the news frequently over the takeover of the micro-blogging site Twitter. His actions have made him rather infamous, from taking control of Twitter to sacking its staff to even posting absurd things on social media. The man does appear to have a following, though, despite everything. Men were photographed praising the millionaire at a recent event in Bengaluru, India's innovation hub. They obviously increased their admiration for him.

The Save India Family Foundation (SIFF) volunteers who are advocating for "Men's Lives Matters" performed pooja and worshipped Musk. They recited prayers and burnt incense in front of a cheery image of Musk. "Baba Elon Musk ki jai," was one of the shouts.

The group posted a video of their peculiar puja on Twitter. They declared, "In Bangalore, India, some males start worshipping Elon Musk. They refer to him as the exterminator of feminists and Wokashura (Woke Ashura)."

Some men start worshipping Elon Musk in Bangalore, India. Another Twitter user named Sriman NarSingh posted this video on Twitter. The caption of the video reads: "SIFF members are worshipping guru @elonmusk in Bengaluru, India for purchasing Twitter and allowing men to express their views against the oppression of authorities." SIFF members are worshipping guru elonmusk in Bengaluru, India for purchasing Twitter and allowing men to express their views against the oppression of authorities.realsiff pic.twitter.com/hXQcflJsKd Sriman NarSingh (SigmaINMatrix) February 26, 2023 They call him the destroyer of Wokashura (Woke Ashura) and evictor of feminists.



pic.twitter.com/OboDBvTws7

Save Indian Family Foundation (realsiff) February 27, 2023

For the unversed, micro-blogging platform Twitter on Wednesday faced a major outage globally, with users reporting that the site`s timeline is not loading on either the web or mobile apps. According to the outage monitor website Down Detector, over 56 percent of people had reported problems while using the application, 37 percent while using the website, and 7 percent with server connection.



Users from various countries, including the US, the UK, Japan, and India, began reporting issues with the site. For most users, Twitter showed "What's happening?" while using the application.
MUMBAI: Information technology major Wipro's Chairman Rishad Premji on Wednesday said more employees need to work from offices rather than from their homes. He also said that coming to office helps in establishing a connect and an intimacy which is very essential for us as humans, and made it clear that no technology can be of help on the same.

"You can't build that connectedness and intimacy no matter how advanced technology gets. We are human beings. I am a big believer that we should be coming back (to offices) in some shape and form," Premji said while speaking at the NTLF 2023.

Accepting that hybrid working, where an employee works both from office and homes, is the future of work, Premji said the technology industry is one of the most "spoilt" sector where people enjoy this unique way of working.

"People should have flexibility to work from home but people should also be coming into organisations," he said.

Premji said it was possible to work from homes in the initial days of the pandemic but with the attrition rising to record highs over the last two years, up to 60 per cent of workforce in a company are new hires and they need to be get a taste of the culture in an organisation.

He also made it clear that culture is a journey and not a destination, which can be readily achieved by ticking-off all the boxes.

According to him, Wipro has taken a call to shift to trust rather than control when it comes to accountability and productivity on working from home.

"The whole element of accountability is moving in more and more to trust as opposed to control, and dealing with exceptions more stringently is the way forward," he said.

In comments on corporate leadership styles and how they have evolved, Premji said, "I think that the days of the authoritarian leader are more and more diminishing... I am a big believer in the inclusive, caring and empathetic style of leading".
NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal may elevate Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs Saurabh Bhardwaj and Atishi as cabinet ministers in the wake of the resignations of his two senior ministers - Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain - who are facing serious allegations of corruption. News agency ANI, citing sources, said that the AAP chief has forwarded the names of Saurabh Bhardwaj and Atishi to Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena for his approval.

Bhardwaj represents south Delhi's Greater Kailash constituency and is also the chief spokesperson of the AAP. He is also vice-chairman of the Delhi Jal Board, the agency responsible for supplying water to the national capital. He was a cabinet minister in the AAP government during the 49-day tenure in 2013-14 after which Kejriwal stepped down, taking responsibility for the failure to bring the anti-corruption Jan Lokpal Bill.

Atishi is an MLA from Kalkaji and a member of the AAP's political affairs committee. She has served as an advisor to Sisodia, primarily on education, between 2015 and 2017.

It may be noted that Deputy Chief Minister Sisodia was arrested by the CBI on Sunday evening in connection with alleged corruption in the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped Delhi liquor policy for 2021-22, while Jain is lodged in Tihar Jail in a money laundering case since May last year.

In a dramatic turn of events, arrested Delhi ministers Manish Sisodia and Satyendra Jain resigned from the Arvind Kejriwal-led cabinet amidst BJP's persistent onslaught against the AAP over the corruption charges against its leaders. The resignations came minutes after the Supreme Court refused to entertain the bail plea of Sisodia, who is in CBI custody in the now-scrapped excise policy case, saying it would set a "wrong precedent" and efficacious alternative remedies were available to him.

Sisodia's portfolios have been given to Kailash Gahlot and Raaj Kumar Anand till the appointment of new ministers. Anand, who has been given the charge of education, land and building, vigilance, services, tourism, art culture and language, labour, employment, health and industries in addition to his existing portfolios, has said that the objective of his party to provide good education and health facilities to people of the city will remain unchanged.

The BJP had been questioning why the two ministers continue to hold cabinet berths despite being arrested in corruption cases. The AAP on Tuesday stressed that the resignations were not an acceptance of guilt and described it as an "administrative step".

For now, Delhi minister Raaj Kumar Anand will be handling the departments of education and health, AAP's key focus areas. Kailash Gahlot will look after the vital power and water supply departments. Sisodia, who was arrested on Sunday over allegations of corruption in the liquor policy case, had earlier indicated that he could be in jail for "7-8 months". The AAP Number Two, credited with revamping Delhi's government schools, is currently in the CBI's custody.
New Delhi: Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi Wednesday alleged that the State Bank of India and the Life Insurance Corporation of India were "forced" to make investments to save the Adani group which put people's life savings in danger. He sought to know who ordered the SBI and LIC to invest in industrialist Gautam Adani's group.

In a video, released under the series "Mitrakaal-2, Aapka paisa, Adani par lootaya (Your money handed over to Adani)", Gandhi said the SBI is the biggest bank in the country and asked whether the LIC and SBI ordered to save the Adani Group.

"Why did LIC invest so much in the risky Adani Group? When the veil from these things will be lifted, it will be known how much loss has been done to the country," he said. "You kept your hard-earned money and savings for the future of your family and children. The question is, who is putting your money at risk," the former Congress chief asked.

Alleging that the LIC and SBI were "forced" to invest to save the Adani group, Gandhi said, "Do you want to jeopardize the future of your children? My question is to you people, why is your money being used to save the Adani Group?"

Also Read: 'I Want To Tell Gautam Adani That His Company Is Hurting India': Rahul Gandhi At Congress' 85th Plenary Session

"Why hasn't the private sector invested money in the Adani group? Is it not the duty of the prime minister to ensure that public money invested in LIC is safe?" he asked. The Congress leader asked, "Will the Prime Minister reveal the truth about the loss suffered by the LIC from January 24, 2023, due to its investment in the Adani Group? What is the prime minister doing to address the concerns of retail investors investing in Adani Group."

He claimed that the Adani group has long been facing allegations of money laundering, forgery, and the use of shell companies. "Who is behind these shell companies? Who ordered SBI and LIC to save the Adani group," Gandhi asked.

The charges come after US-based finance company Hindenburg Research made several allegations against Adani Group including fraudulent transactions and manipulation of share prices. Adani Group had termed these allegations as false and said that it has followed all the laws and provisions.
New Delhi: Alumni of various Delhi government schools on Wednesday visited the residence of former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and extended their support to his family. The alumni also brought letters for Sisodia, who also held an education portfolio, mentioning their personal experiences with him and the way he worked, and appealed to his wife Seema Sisodia to get them delivered to him.

Soni, now a first-year college student, said that Sisodia's personal connection with a student studying in Delhi government schools gave them confidence to "rise above their struggles".

"There cannot be a replacement for Manish Sisodia. His personal connection with a student of Delhi government schools has given us the confidence to rise above our struggles and dream big. We will stand with him always," she said.

Another alumnae Sanjeeda said that Delhi's education system "changed their lives". "We have gained confidence from the education system of Delhi. Manish Sisodia has changed our lives and we cannot believe that he can do anything wrong," she said.

Yogita, who comes from a weaker socio-economic background, said that the students received the "finest" educational facilities at Delhi government schools.

"My parents couldn't afford fees of a private school, but I am proud to be an alumnae of a government school. He gave us the finest facilities," she said.

Among the alumni were also some young entrepreneurs who received a push from the Business Blaster programme launched by Sisodia.

"We received overwhelming support from the Delhi government, particularly from Manish Sisodia. Many changes were made to the education system of Delhi. We got help with business," Ashish, an alumnus, told PTI.

Also Read: 'Manish Sisodia's Undated Resignation Letter Reveals A Lot...': BJP Asks Arvind Kejriwal To Step Down

The alumni also brought letters for Sisodia with them.

"In the letters, the students mentioned their personal experiences with him and the way he worked to change their lives through education. Along with this, the children wrote to their former education minister that they will always stand with him in every situation," the Delhi government said in a statement.

"In the past eight years, as the education minister, Manish Sisodia has impacted the lives of lakhs of children studying in Delhi government schools through various reforms in the education system. These students were a few of them who came forward in support of him and met his family today," the statement added.

Delhi ministers Sisodia and Satyendar Jain on Tuesday resigned from the Cabinet, amid corruption allegations against them.

Sisodia was arrested by the CBI on Sunday evening in connection with alleged corruption in the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped liquor policy for 2021-22. Jain is currently lodged in Tihar Jail in a money laundering case.
New Delhi: India has made it clear to the United Kingdom that compliance with Indian laws and regulations is mandatory for all entities operating in the country, including the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). This comes after UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly raised the issue of the BBC's tax obligations during a meeting with Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar in Delhi on Wednesday. According to sources, during the meeting, Jaishankar "firmly" told Cleverly that "all entities operating in India must comply fully with relevant laws and regulations."

The Income Tax Department carried out Tax surveys at BBC offices in Delhi & Mumbai in February. According to the Finance Ministry statement, IT Department 'gathered crucial evidence' pertaining to the operation of the organization which "indicate that tax has not been paid on certain remittances" which have "not been disclosed as income in India by the foreign entities of the group." The Indian action also came up during discussion during UK Parliament.

Also Read: 'Without Fear or Favour...': BBC Says it Stands by Colleagues, Journalists After 60 Hour Long Tax-Survey Ends

According to the statement, several discrepancies and inconsistencies with regard to transfer pricing documentation were found during the survey. It also stated that the income and profits shown by various BBC group entities are not commensurate with the scale of their operations in India.

Began the morning with a bilateral meeting with Foreign Secretary @JamesCleverly of the UK.



Reviewed the progress in our relationship since our last discussion. Noted in particular the commencement of the Young Professional Scheme. pic.twitter.com/R3aUvX1U4Z  Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) March 1, 2023

The survey was launched on February 14 at BBC offices in Delhi and Mumbai and it ended after about 60 hours on Thursday night.

Pertinent to mention, the IT survey came weeks after the BBC released a documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi - `India: The Modi Question," which caused controversy. The Centre had issued directions for blocking multiple YouTube videos and Twitter posts sharing links to the controversial BBC documentary on PM Modi.

The Supreme Court had on February 3 directed the central government to produce original records relating to its decision to block the BBC documentary.
RAIPUR: Chhattisgarh Governor Biswa Bhusan Harichandan on Wednesday hailed the state government's initiatives for socioeconomic empowerment in remote areas and said Bastar which was once known as 'Naxalgarh' (den of Naxalites) is getting a new identity as 'Vikasgarh' (hub of development). In his address on the first day of the 16th session (budget Session) of the fifth Chhattisgarh assembly, the governor said focus on the development of farmers and agriculture-related activities has made the state's rural economy prosperous.

"My government formulated rules under Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA) in the interest of tribals. My government ensured the release of tribals embroiled in unnecessary litigations and languishing in jails (in tribal-dominated areas)..," Harichandan said.

This was Harichandan's first address in the House after he took oath as the ninth governor of Chhattisgarh on February 23.

The central state's budget for 2023-24 will be tabled on March 6.

"The steps taken for their (tribals') socioeconomic empowerment created an atmosphere of trust due to which measures could be taken for road construction, electricity supply, health facilities, employment generation and recruitment in 'Bastar Fighters' forces in remote areas. At least 300 schools, which were shut for the past 13 years, could be renovated and reopened..," he said.

Through these efforts, Naxalite activities were brought down, paving way for normalcy to be restored, he said.

"..Bastar, which was once called 'Naxalgarh', has been getting a new identity as 'Vikasgarh'," the governor said.

To maintain the law and order situation in the state, he said, "my government made the police force harsh against criminals and sensitive towards common citizens".

Chhattisgarh is far ahead of other states in taking action against chit-fund companies, he said. In the last four years, 460 cases were registered against chit-fund companies and more than 655 directors and operators of these firms were arrested, he said.

Nearly 44,000 investors, who were duped by these firms, were returned around Rs 32 crore, he added.

The state government has enacted the Chhattisgarh Gambling (Prohibition) Bill, 2022, to prevent gambling (including those played online), he said.

Harichandan said the government saw every disaster as an opportunity to serve people. The government took care of the onward air travel expenses of 183 people from Chhattisgarh after they were brought to India from war-torn Ukraine last year, he said.

Integrated and all-round development of farmers, agriculture, rural activities and allied sectors have been the top priority of the government and it has helped the cultivators and rural families in the state become more prosperous.

Senior BJP legislators Brijmohan Agrawal, Ajay Chandrakar and Shivratan Sharma tried to disrupt saying the Congress government has filed a petition in the Chhattisgarh High Court challenging the powers of the governor.

"If the government does not have faith in the governor, then what kind of constitutional tradition is this to get his (governor's) address passed by the cabinet and get it delivered by the governor in the House," said one of them.
New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on the BJP over the arrest of Deputy CM Manish Sisodia in connection with the liquor scam case. Terming the liquor scam as an excuse, Kejriwal said that PM Narendra Modi has jailed people who have brought laurels to India. Kejriwal alleged that PM Modi wants to stop the good work being done by the Delhi Government. Kejriwal further said that he won't let the BJP stop the good work as the party has no dearth of talented leaders.

"Liquor policy is just an excuse. The Prime Minister wants to stop the good work being done by the Delhi government. It is no coincidence that both our health and education ministers have been arrested. We will not let the good work stop. We don't have a shortage of talent. If you will arrest more leaders, we will replace them with better ministers," said Kejriwal.

                               



             ,         March 1, 2023

Senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia on Tuesday resigned as Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi amid the allegations of corruption in the ongoing Liquor Scam Case. Along with Sisodia, Health Minister Satyendar Jain has also quit his post. Jain is lodged in jail in a separate corruption case.

The AAP chief alleged that all the cases against Sisodia will be withdrawn and he will be released tomorrow if he joins BJP. "If Manish Sisodia joins BJP today, won't he be released tomorrow? All cases will be withdrawn. If Satyendar Jain joins BJP today, all cases will be withdrawn & he'd be released from jail tomorrow. The issue isn't corruption but to stop work & send CBI-ED after opposition," he further added.

If Manish Sisodia joins BJP today, won't he be released tomorrow? All cases will be withdrawn. If Satyendar Jain joins BJP today, all cases will be withdrawn & he'd be released from jail tomorrow. Issue isn't corruption but to stop work & send CBI-ED after opposition: Delhi CM pic.twitter.com/6GhEp0y1Pj  ANI (@ANI) March 1, 2023

Earlier today, the BJP demanded Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's resignation in connection with liquor scam case. BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia alleged that the Delhi CM is the kingpin of the scam and it took place under Kejriwal's instructions.

Bhatia also targeted Kejriwal over Sisodia's resignation letter, saying that it is undated which raises a lot of questions.

The CBI on Sunday evening arrested Sisodia in connection with alleged corruption in the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped liquor policy for 2021-22.
New Delhi: Rajasthan has suspended internet services in the Pahari, Kaman & Sikri tehsils of Bharatpur in connection with the death of young men in Ghatmika. 2G/3G/4G/5G mobile internet-related services will remain suspended till 11 am on 3rd March. The step has been taken to avoid the circulation of rumours on social media, over Ghatmika incident. Nasir and Junaid, both residents of Ghatmika village in the Bharatpur district of Rajasthan, were allegedly abducted by cow vigilantes on February 15 and their bodies were found in a charred car in Loharu in Haryana's Bhiwani the next day.

An FIR was registered on February 16 at Gopalgarh police station against five people under Indian Penal Code sections 302 (murder) 143 (unlawful assembly), 365 (kidnapping), 367 (grievously hurt after kidnapping) and 368 (wrongfully keeping in confinement) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence).

Also Read: Bhiwani Case: One Accused Sent to Police Custody, Haryana to Cancel Monu Manesar's Arms License

On February 18, a Rajasthan court sent one accused to police remand for five days, while Haryana authorities moved to cancel the arms licence of Monu Manesar who is among the four evading arrests in the case.

Members of Hindu outfits including Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal held a protest in Gurugram, demanding a CBI inquiry in the case. "The arrested accused Rinku Saini was produced before the court today from where he was sent to five days police remand. The accused will be further interrogated," Station House Officer of Gopalgarh Ramnaresh Meena said.

Saini, 32, a resident of Firozpur Jhirka in Haryana's Nuh district, was arrested on the basis of interrogation and technical analysis on Friday night. He works as a taxi diver and was involved with a cow vigilante group, the Rajasthan police said. One of the keys accused in the case is Mohit Yadav alias Monu Manesar, the Gurugram district president of Bajrang Dal who was a member of the district cow protection task force.

He was earlier named in an attempt to murder case registered at Pataudi police station in Gurugram on February 7 and police said they were trying to nab him. Officials said they have started the process of cancellation of his arms licence.
New Delhi: Linking the rising trend to the phenomenon of global warming, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Tuesday said that India recorded its warmest February this year since 1877 with average maximum temperatures touching 29.54 degrees celsius.

"The entire globe is living in an era of global warming. We are living in a warming world," SC Bhan, the Head of the Hydromet and Agromet Advisory Services of IMD, told reporters when asked whether the high temperatures were an indication of climate change.

Average maximum temperature in February was highest in 2023 over All India and North West India and second highest over Central India since 1901 pic.twitter.com/2xXKlF6kIa  India Meteorological Department (@Indiametdept) February 28, 2023

Addressing a virtual press conference, Bhan also said that there was little probability of heat waves in March, but most parts of the country could experience "extreme weather conditions" in April and May.

The monthly average minimum temperature over the Indian region was the fifth highest during this February since 1901.

Monthly Averaged Minimum temperature over Indian region was fifth highest during for February since 1901 pic.twitter.com/xIMHhd0ep6  India Meteorological Department (@Indiametdept) February 28, 2023

The IMD official also informed that the rainfall average over the country is most likely to be normal (83-117 per cent of long period average) in March.

The long period average of rainfall over the country as a whole during March based on data from 1971-2020 is about 29.9 mm.

He also said that below-normal rainfall was expected over most areas of northwest India, west-central India, and some parts of east and northeast India.

Normal to above-normal rainfall is likely over most parts of peninsular India, east-central India, and some isolated pockets of northeast India, Bhan said.

Centre Issues Advisory For Protection Against Heat Wave

The Union Health Ministry on Tuesday issued an advisory, listing the dos and don'ts for protection against the expected heat wave.

As part of a national action plan on heat-related illness, the ministry advised citizens to avoid high-protein food and cooking during the peak summer hours besides asking them to not get out in the sun, especially between 12 noon and 3 pm.

In the advisory, the ministry also asked people to drink sufficient water whenever possible, even if not thirsty.

It also asked people to use Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS), and consume homemade drinks like lemon water, buttermilk/lassi, fruit juices with some added salt, and stay indoors in well-ventilated and cool places.

Citizens were also advised to consume fresh fruits such as watermelon, cucumber, lemon, and orange, wear thin, loose, cotton garments preferably light coloured ones, and cover their heads using an umbrella, hat, cap, towel, and other traditional head gear during exposure to direct sunlight and not go out barefoot.

"Do not leave children or pets in a parked vehicle. The temperature inside a vehicle could get dangerous," the advisory read.

"Block direct sunlight and heat waves: Keep windows and curtains closed during the day, especially on the sunny side of your house. Open them up at night to let cooler air in," it said.

"If going outdoors, limit your outdoor activity to cooler times of the day i.e., morning and evening," it added.

Delhi-NCR Wake Up To Light Rainfall

Meanwhile, parts of Delhi-NCR on Wednesday (March 1) woke up to light rainfall with the weather department predicting more showers during the day.

The showers came after IMD predicted light to moderate intensity rain in areas of Delhi and the National Capital Region for a few hours.

"Light to moderate intensity rain and gusty winds with speed of 30-50 Km/h would occur over and adjoining areas of most places of Delhi, NCR ( Loni Dehat, Hindon AF Station, Bahadurgarh, Ghaziabad, Indirapuram, Chhapraula, Noida, Dadri, Greater Noida, Gurugram, Faridabad, Ballabhgarh) Panipat, Gohana, Gannaur, Sonipat, Rohtak (Haryana) Muzaffarnagar, Bijnaur, Khatauli, Sakoti Tanda, Hastinapur, Chandpur, Baraut, Daurala, Bagpat, Meerut, Khekra, Modinagar, Kithor, Garhmukteshwar, Pilakhua, Hapur, Gulaoti, Siyana, Sikandrabad, Bulandshahar (U.P.) during next 2 hours," the IMD said in a tweet at 06:20 AM.
University of Virginia police have arrested a dining hall worker for reportedly threatening a coworker with a firearm on school property.

UVa police charged Isaiah Anderson, 19, of Charlottesville on Monday on an outstanding warrant for unlawfully carrying a concealed weapon and brandishing a firearm earlier in the month at the schools Runk Dining Hall.

Anderson was employed by Aramark, a food, facilities and uniforms company based in Philadelphia. Since his arrest, UVa ha suspended Anderson from working on university grounds while Aramark Human Resources determines next steps, according to a UVa spokeswoman.

A dining services employee called the UVa Police Department on Feb. 17 and told officers that a coworker had raised his shirt and revealed a handgun in his waistband after the two got into an argument.

Andersons coworker told police he never removed the firearm from his waistband. Anderson reportedly left the dining hall in an unknown direction after the argument.

UVa police issued a community alert announcing the arrest on Monday shortly before 7 p.m. By Tuesday at 11 a.m., Anderson had been released by Albemarle General District Court under the expectation that he return for a hearing that will determine his legal representation in the case.

Anderson is expected to appear in court at 9 a.m. on March 10.

Anderson was not an employee of the university but Aramark, the food services company employed by the school, according to UVa spokeswoman Bethanie Glover.

"I haven't yet heard of their employment status," Glover told The Daily Progress on Tuesday.

The city of Charlottesville and surrounding Albemarle County have been rocked by a recent rise in shootings.

Gun violence has taken the lives of 12 people and injured 21 others in Charlottesville and Albemarle, according to a Daily Progress tally. There have now been four shooting deaths in Charlottesville city limits this year, more than double the number this time last year.
Mumbai: The Maharashtra Assembly turned into a noisy house on Wednesday morning over the reported remark of Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut calling the legislature a 'chormandal' (body of thieves), with ruling and opposition members criticizing the utterance.

The issue was raised by Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ashish Shelar as soon as the Lower House assembled for the day. The lawmakers are being called thieves and it is an insult to the state, he said. Atul Bhatkhalkar, another BJP legislator, said he has submitted a notice of breach of privilege against Raut, who is a Rajya Sabha member, and urged Speaker Rahul Narvekar to admit it.

Leader of Opposition Ajit Pawar and Congress legislature party (CLP) leader Balasaheb Thorat also said that such remarks were unacceptable. Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress are allies of the Shiv Sena (UBT).

There is a need to check what actually has been said. At the same time, everyone should be careful what words are spoken in the House. We have also been called 'anti-nationals', Thorat said.

As the MLAs from the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena insisted that the notice be accepted, the Lower House was adjourned thrice first for 10 minutes by Speaker Narvekar, followed by 20 minutes and 30 minutes by presiding officer Yogesh Sagar. Earlier in the day, talking to reporters in Kolhapur, Raut allegedly called the 'vidhimandal' (legislature) a 'chormandal' (a body of thieves).
New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janta Party on Wednesday demanded Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's resignation in connection with liquor scam case. BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia alleged that the Delhi CM is the kingpin of the scam and it took place under Kejriwal's instructions. "As two of the members of GoM have already resigned, and you happen to be the kingpin of the decision, I want to ask when are you going to resign, Mr. Kejriwal?" Bhatia said while addressing a presser here. Senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia on Tuesday resigned as Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi amid the allegations of corruption in the ongoing Liquor Scam Case. Along with Sisodia, Health Minister Satyendar Jain has also quit from his post. Jain is lodged in jail in a separate corruption case.

Bhatia also targeted Kejriwal over Sisodia's resignation letter, saying that it is undated which raises a lot of questions.

BJP National Spokesperson Shri @gauravbh addresses a press conference at party headquarters in New Delhi. https://t.co/743ye18z0A  BJP Delhi (@BJP4Delhi) March 1, 2023

"The resignation letter of Manish Sisodia raises very pertinent questions as it does not have a date. Is it because the kingpin of the excise policy scam Arvind Kejriwal has yet again played with the Constitution. The surfacing of this undated letter reveals a lot about their practices," he said.

Kejriwal heads the Cabinet and council of ministers and "you are in a position to influence the ongoing investigation, in which your involvement is writ large", the BJP spokesperson said.

Bhatia also demanded that Kailash Gahlot should also resign as minister as he was part of the group of ministers of the Delhi government that approved the liquor policy.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Supreme Court refused to hear Manish Sisodia's bail plea, who is in CBI custody, in connection with the excise policy case, news agency PTI reported. The Aam Aadmi Party will now move to Delhi HC over Sisodia's arrest, news agency ANI reported.

The CBI on Sunday evening arrested Sisodia in connection with alleged corruption in the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped liquor policy for 2021-22.
Indore: Indore Police has detained a 40-year-old man who had lived in China and Hong Kong on the suspicion of having links with Pakistan's spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and terrorist organisations, officials said on Tuesday. Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra said the man, identified as Sarfaraz, was detained following inputs from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and was being questioned. Indore's Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Rajat Saklecha said they had received inputs from the Mumbai Police as well as the NIA regarding the suspect. He was currently living in Indore's Chandan Nagar police station limits, the DCP said.

He had worked in China and Hong Kong between 2005 and 2018, said the police official.

As per DCP Saklecha, the suspect told interrogators that he and his Chinese wife were getting divorced and related proceedings were underway in a court in China, but the woman's lawyer gave false information about him to the Indian intelligence agencies. Indore Police were probing the case in coordination with the concerned central and state agencies, the official added.

After returning to Indore in 2018, the suspect married for the fourth time, Saklecha said, adding that he had been in the business of medicines, clothes and oil in the city. A close relative of his lives in Kuwait, the DCP added.

"The man is educated only till Class 5, but he knows the Chinese language and English because he has lived abroad," the official said.

The suspect obtained an Indian passport for the first time in 2003, and in 2006 he got a new one issued through the Indian embassy in Hong Kong after complaining that he had lost the original one, the DCP said.

Though no incriminating material has been recovered from the man's possession so far, his bank accounts and documents were being scrutinized and his statements crosschecked by contacting the concerned embassies, the official added.

The police had not reached any final conclusion about him yet, the DCP noted.

Talking to reporters in Bhopal, Home Minister Mishra said the suspect, named Sarfaraz, was detained following the NIA's inputs.

The rule of law prevails in Madhya Pradesh which is an "island of peace" and no one involved in any suspicious activity will be spared, the minister said.

Officials here had said on Monday that Mumbai Police was trying to trace a man identified as Sarfaraz Memon, who was allegedly "trained in Pakistan", after it was alerted by the NIA about his movements in the country's financial capital.

The NIA communication to Mumbai Police said he hailed from Madhya Pradesh, so the police here were also alerted, officials said.

"NIA officials also shared details like his Aadhaar card, driving licence and passport. As per the information received, the suspect has received training in China, Hong Kong and Pakistan," a police official had said.
New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday (February 28, 2023) arrived in the UK to kick off his week-long tour with an address at the University of Cambridge.

The Wayanad MP, who is a Visiting Fellow of the Cambridge Judge Business School (Cambridge JBS), is scheduled to deliver a student-only lecture at the university on the subject of 'Learning to Listen in the 21st Century' on Wednesday.

Our @CambridgeMBA programme is pleased to welcome #India's leading Opposition leader and MP @RahulGandhi of the Indian National Congress.



He will speak today as a visiting fellow of @CambridgeJBS on the topic of "Learning to Listen in the 21st Century". pic.twitter.com/4sTysYlYbC  Cambridge Judge (@CambridgeJBS) February 28, 2023

Ahead of his tour, during which he will also interact with the Indian diaspora in London, Rahul Gandhi, 52, was seen with some students with a new look.

In the pictures now going viral on social media, Gandhi is seen without his long beard and hair, which he had grown during his Bharat Jodo Yatra.

Shri @RahulGandhi ji delivering lecture in Cambridge on Learning to listen in the 21st century" pic.twitter.com/r1rGhQEmdk  NSUI (@nsui) March 1, 2023

Several people had praised the former Congress chief's "coming-of-age" look after the end of his 145-day-long foot march from Kanyakumari to Kashmir.

"The beard has given him (Rahul Gandhi) a certain degree of seriousness," Prahlad Kakkar, an advertising industry veteran, had told news agency PTI after the 4,000 km Bharat Jodo Yatra concluded in Srinagar.

"He has arrived as a man, he is no longer Indira Gandhi's grandson, Rajiv Gandhi's son. He is now Rahul Gandhi, the man. That is a very critical change in how people perceive him today," Kakkar had said.

The Bharat Yodo Yatra was Rahul Gandhi's big "makeover act" and his scruffy beard was a symbol of this makeover, another expert had said.

Meanwhile, Gandhi will hold 'closed-door sessions' on 'Big Data and Democracy' and 'India-China relations' with the University of Cambridge Professor Shruti Kapila.

Looking forward to visiting my alma mater @cambridge_uni and delivering a lecture at @CambridgeJBS.



Happy to engage with some of the brightest minds in various domains, including geopolitics, international relations, big data and democracy. https://t.co/4pkrF79hG9 February 16, 2023

During his UK tour, the Congress leader will also interact with representatives of the Indian Overseas Congress (IOC) UK chapter and also address an 'Indian Diaspora Conference' planned over the weekend in London.

The Congress leader had last addressed the University of Cambridge at an event at Corpus Christi College entitled 'India at 75' during a visit to the UK in May 2022.
PATNA: Senior RJD leader and Bihar Education Minister Prof Chandrashekhar has once again stirred controversy by alleging that Ramcharitmanas, an epic poem in the Awadhi language, has some dirt that needs to be removed. He reiterated that Ramcharitmanas, composed by Indian Bhakti poet Goswami Tulsidas, created divisions in society. The Bihar RJD leader had last month sparked a controversy by saying that several dohas (couplets) of Ramcharitmanas were spreading hatred and creating discrepancies in society. Ramcharitmanas is a curse on the society as instead of connecting the society, it is breaking it, he had said while addressing the 15th convocation ceremony of Nalanda Open University.

The RJD leader said that Ramcharitmanas even advocated for preventing Dalits, backwards and women from education but also for keeping them deprived of their rights. Manusmriti has sowed the seed of hatred in the society, the minister said adding that former RSS chief MS Golwarkars thoughts were spreading hatred in the society. He also said that Dr. BR Ambedkar had burnt Manusmriti as it backed the snatching of the rights of Dalits and deprived sections of the society.

Sticking to his stand on Ramcharitmanas, Chandrashekhar opined that India could become strong and prosperous by promoting love and affection among various sections of society. Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav has also said that he is not against Ramcharitmanas but asserted that the controversy over a certain verse of the Hindu epic is "5,000 years old".

During the budget discussion in Uttar Pradesh Assembly, Yadav said, "We are not against Ramcharitmanas. Why do you do 'prachar'. God is for all and not for anyone (person). You take donations (for the construction of Ram temple) so has God become yours. But whatever is wrong is wrong."

Mentioning the word 'tadan' in one of the verses of Ramcharitmanas, he said, "If you make one person stand to know what is the meaning of 'tadan', then we can also make 10 stand about this. Will you make anyone stand up and explain the meaning of 'tadan'? You tell what the situation is in UP."

While reciting a poem by Ramdhari Singh Dinkar on the issue, Yadav said, "This fight is not of today. This fight is 5,000 years old." "I did not ask about Ramcharitmanas. I had said that the Leader of the House should tell what is a 'Shudra'. If this 'Shudra' does not become your shield, then you could not have come to power."

Yadav was mentioning a verse "Dhol, ganwar, shudra, pashu, naari, sakal tadan ke adhikari" on which a controversy erupted last month after SP leader Swami Prasad Maurya alleged that certain verses of the Ramcharitmanas 'insult' a large section of society on the basis of caste and demanded that these be 'banned.'

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday accused Samajwadi Party of humiliating 100 crore Hindus by burning a copy of Ramcharitmanas. CM Adityanath, explaining the verse, which was described as objectionable by SP leader Maurya, had said that 'tadan' meant 'dekhbhal' (caring).
NEW DELHI/PRAYAGRAJ: Gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed on Wednesday sought protection from the Supreme court saying he feared being killed in a fake encounter by the Uttar Pradesh Police, days after a key witness in the 2005 Raju Pal murder and his two security guards were gunned down. His plea comes on a day a BJP MP indirectly warned of such a possibility. Also on Wednesday, the house of an Atiq Ahmed aide 'where the politician also stayed earlier' was bulldozed by municipal authorities in Prayagraj, citing a civic law violation.

The former Samajwadi Party MP, who is lodged at a Gujarat jail, said the UP Police in all likelihood will seek his remand to take him to Prayagraj.

He "genuinely apprehends that he may be eliminated during this transit period", the plea filed in the Supreme Court said, seeking directions to the Centre and the state government to ensure his security.

On Twitter, Subrat Pathak, the BJP MP from Kannauj, recalled the 2020 death of gangster Vikas Dubey in an alleged exchange of fire with policemen who were accompanying him. The car carrying them had overturned, according to the police version.

Pathak called the killing of Umesh Pal and the police personnel 'a direct attack' on Uttar Pradesh government.

"Remember, when Vikas Dubey didn't survive, it is not necessary to tell what would happen to these evil people," he tweeted in Hindi. "And I would not be surprised at all if Atiq's car too overturns now."

Last Friday, Umesh Pal, the prime witness in the 2005 murder of Bahujan Samaj Party MLA Raju Pal, was shot dead in UP's Prayagraj. Two policemen assigned to protect him also succumbed to their injuries, the second one only on Wednesday.

When the Umesh Pal killing figured in the state assembly on Saturday, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said gangsters will be ground into the dust. "Mitti mein mela denge," he had said in Hindi.

On Monday, Arbaaz, an accused in the Umesh Pal murder was killed in a police encounter in Prayagraj. Atiq Ahmed, accused in the 2005 case, is also booked in the Umesh Pal murder case.

In his plea, Atiq Khan, 61, referred to Adityanath's statement in the assembly and claimed there is a "genuine and perceptible threat" to him and his family members.

He claimed they have all been falsely roped in by the UP Police in the Umesh Pal case. It seemed that a conspiracy has been hatched to wipe them out politically as well physically, the petition said.

It alleged that Ahmed's two minor sons have already been taken into "illegal custody" by police and kept at an undisclosed location.

"It is even unknown to the petitioner whether they are dead or alive. The other two sons of the petitioner are also in jail in other false cases," it said, adding that the petitioner fears that they may be killed in a fake encounter.

Ahmed sought directions to the Centre, state of Uttar Pradesh and others to protect his life against the "open, direct and immediate threat" to his life from high state functionaries of Uttar Pradesh.

The petition said the opposition added fuel to the fire in the state assembly, provoking the CM to make his 'mafia ko mitti mein mila doonga' remark, when Atiq Ahmed was 'main subject' of the discussion.

"Petitioner genuinely apprehends and believes that the petitioner may be killed in a fake encounter on one pretext or the other by UP police particularly in view of the statement made by the chief minister of state of UP on the floor of the house," the plea alleged.

He has sought directions restraining the state of Uttar Pradesh and others from taking him from Ahmedabad to Prayagraj or any part of Uttar Pradesh. His interrogation, if any, should be carried out at the Central Jail where he is lodged or at any other suitable place in Ahmedabad itself under the protection of Gujarat Police as well as central or paramilitary forces, the plea said.

If the transit to Prayagraj is at all necessary, it should be under the protection of any central or paramilitary force, he has asked.

Ahmed also sought a direction allowing his advocate to remain present during his interrogation and to quash warrants, if issued by any court, for taking him to Prayagraj from the Ahmedabad prison.

Ahmed pleaded that he and his family members have no connection to the Umesh Pal murder and were named in the FIR due to political and other reasons.

The main reason seems to be that his wife has joined the BSP and the party declared her as a candidate for the post of mayor in the coming election, the petition claimed.

"It was very well known to the rivals of the petitioner that if anything were to happen to Umesh Pal, then the petitioner would certainly be the prime suspect in view of the pending case against him by Umesh Pal and he will be made an accused. The same has been done," it said.
New Delhi: In an interesting twist to the sensational Umesh Pal murder case, the Prayagraj Police on Wednesday used bulldozers to demolish the properties of the accused, who are believed to be close aides of gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed. The news agency ANI had earlier reported that bulldozers have been brought to demolish the properties of all the accused involved in the sensational murder in Prayagraj.

WATCH: UP Police Bulldozes House of Accused Zafar Ahmad

#WATCH | Umesh Pal murder case: Bulldozer demolishes the house of Zafar Ahmad, the accused and close aide of gangster Atiq Ahmed. pic.twitter.com/pbV8XQJ5Zy  ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) March 1, 2023

It was earlier reported that the UP Police have identified the miscreants involved in the murder of Umesh Pal  a key eyewitness in the 2005 murder of the then BSP MLA Raju Pal. It may be recalled that Umesh Pal was shot dead at his residence in Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj on February 24.

Umesh Pal murder case | Uttar Pradesh: Bulldozer brought to demolish properties of accused, in Prayagraj, in the case who are also close aides of gangster Atique Ahmed. pic.twitter.com/4lRxWz7M8F  ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) March 1, 2023

Umesh Pal was immediately rushed to a hospital where he died during treatment. The Prayagraj Police have also identified the miscreants after examining the CCTV footage of the crime scene. A list of main suspects and others details have been prepared for necessary action, said sources.

It was reported that the list has been sent to the Prayagraj Development Authority (PDA) for action against the accused. The PDA authorities have also been gathering details of the unauthorised and illegally constructed buildings and residential properties belonging to the accused. The Special Operations Group of the Uttar Pradesh Police and the district police conducted the search operation and spotted the accused near Nehru Park in Prayagraj.

It is believed that the UP government has already given a go-ahead to the PDA for using bulldozers against the accused in the Umesh Pal murder case. Days after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath warned that his government will ''decimate the criminals and mafias'; across the state, the UP Police on Monday gunned down one of the accused - Arbaaz - in the sensational killing of Umesh Pal.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Navendu Kumar later shared that Arbaaz, who was the driver of the white SUV used by the assailants to attack witness Umesh Pal, was surrounded by police teams following an intelligence input. He opened fire at the police and was injured in the ensuing encounter in Nehru Park under Dhoomanganj police station at around 3 pm, Kumar said. He was taken to hospital where doctors declared him dead, the officer said.

Umesh Pal and his police security guard Sandeep Nishad was shot dead on Friday outside his home in the Dhoomanganj area of Prayagraj. Another security guard Raghvendra Singh, who was injured in the attack, was admitted to SRN Hospital in critical condition and was referred to Lucknow on Sunday.

Case Registered Against Gangster Atiq Ahmed

On the basis of a complaint lodged by Umesh Pal's wife Jaya Pal, a case was registered at Dhoomanganj police station against gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed, his brother Ashraf, wife Shaista Parveen, two sons, aides Guddu Muslim and Gulam and nine others.

They have been booked under sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and provisions of the Explosive Substances Act and the Criminal Law Amendment Act, police said.

Mitti Me Mila Denge

UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had vowed to destroy the mafias after the opposition Samajwadi Party had questioned the law and order situation in the state in the wake of the February 24 killing. Police also arrested a lawyer who lived in an Allahabad University hostel and searched his room where the attack on the witness, police claimed, was planned.

BSP supremo Mayawati on Monday said her party would expel mafia-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed's wife Shaista Parveen, named in the FIR in the killing of a prime witness in the Raju Pal murder case, if she was found guilty during the probe. She also charged Samajwadi Party, terming Atiq Ahmed its product.
Mumbai: Mumbai police on Wednesday detained the Congress leaders, who were protesting against Gautam Adani, outside the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in Maharashtra`s Mumbai. Congress leaders were protesting against the alleged financial fraud and corruption done by the Adani Group. In a video, Congress leader Bhai Jagtap is being dragged by Mumbai Police and then lifted by a few policemen and detained. "If he (Gautam Adani) is wrong then take action against him, we have never supported wrong," said Bhai Jagtap.

Earlier on February 27, Congress announced block-level agitations across the country from March 6 to April against the BJP government over the Adani-Hindenburg row. Congress general secretary in-charge organisation K C Venugopal said the party has decided to intensify its agitation and will hold 'PARDAFASH' rallies in March and April against Adani and organise agitational activities at various levels in the country to take the issue directly to the people.

#WATCH | Mumbai police detain Congress leaders who were protesting against Gautam Adani, outside NSE stock exchange in Mumbai pic.twitter.com/s38mMGm4NR  ANI (@ANI) March 1, 2023

The party has directed all Pradesh Congress Committees (PCCs) to arrange press conferences in all districts which will be addressed by senior state leaders, and subsequently, all state units will organise the agitational activities at various levels, Venugopal said.

Also Read: 'I Want To Tell Gautam Adani That His Company Is Hurting India': Rahul Gandhi At Congress' 85th Plenary Session

Venugopal said the report of Hinderburg and said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been selling the country's important infrastructure to the Adani group.

"The recent Hindenburg report has exposed Prime Minister Modi and the BJP government`s policy of crony capitalism in favour of Adani. During deep economic distress, PM Modi has been selling the Nation's critical infrastructure to the Adani group, bending India`s foreign policy and forcing public institutions like SBI and LIC to invest in the Adani group.

The recent revelations have shown that crores of rupees of poor and middle-class people`s savings are at risk," the Congress statement said.

Focusing on the PARDAFASH Maharallies`s participants scheduled to be organised in state capitals, Venugopal said, "Massive PARDAFASH Maharallies will be organised in all state capitals in the month of April, and these will be addressed by Congress President Shri Mallikarjun Kharge, former Congress President Shri Rahul Gandhi and other national-level leaders".

"All the state-level senior leaders, MPs, MLAs/MLCs, and other elected representatives, leaders of frontal organisations, departments & cells, and party workers have been asked to participate in all of these agitational programmes", his statement read further.
New Delhi: The sudden rise of Waris Punjab De (WPD) chief Amritpal Singh especially after the Ajnala police station storming incident has once again threatened the revival of Khalistan movement. The freeing of his aide Lovepreet Singh alias Toofan Singh by Punjabs Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government on Amritpals dictates and the issuance of statements by political parties expressing grave concern over the incident have allowed the radical elements to fill the gap caused by drug abuse, joblessness coupled with issues like so-called identity threat.

Amritpal Singh has used religion and the issue of prevalent drug abuse among Sikh youth in Punjab to turn opinion against the government and claims that freedom from, what he says, shackles of Indian state thralldom is the only way out if Sikhs wanted to live a dignified life and tread on the path of having their own rule as shown by Sikh Gurus.

The unfaltering radical rhetoric of twenty-nine years old Amritpal Singh who hails from Jallukhera village near Amritsar has made him the darling of a section of Sikh youths.

He has also rejuvenated the Sikh militant discourses which were at their peak during the heydays of militancy as he attended the bhog of dreaded militant Gurbachan Singh Manochahal, the self-styled head of the Bhindranwale Tiger Force of Khalistan who was killed on February 28, 1993. Amritpal Singh not only eulogized Manochahal's acts but also advised the youth to follow his footsteps stating that he didnt give life for personal reasons but for Quomi reasons.

The rise of Amritpals fame and his growing acceptance among a section of Sikh youth has given sleepless nights to traditional political parties, especially Akalis who bank on Panthic politics on way to the pinnacles of power.

The release of Lovepreet Singh, who was earlier booked and arrested for serious charges such as kidnapping, was like the Punjab government bowing to the dictates of WPD. The fact that police were forced to accept that Lovepreet was not even present when Varinder Singh, the complainant was beaten, reminds of the gory days of militancy in Punjab when terrorists ruled the roost.

AAP government in Punjab has proved itself a weak government though it harps of taking action against those who stormed the Ajnala police station, opines pollical pandits. Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring questioned Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann when he would act against Amritpal Singh or what he is scared of. PPCC chief Tweeted, If you dont take any action against him, we @INC Punjab will be forced to come out on the streets. We wont let go hard earned pace of Punjab. Nip the evil in bud.

https://twitter.com/ANI/status/1628998857513402371

While condemning the Ajnala incident, Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal accused both the BJP-led Center and AAP-led Punjab government of allegedly creating complete anarchy and fear psychosis in Punjab.
New Delhi: A few days back, actress-host Kashmera Shah was in news for kissing her husband Krushna Abhishek in full public while getting papped along with Bigg Boss 16 finalist Priyanka Chahar Chaudhary. The paps captured in and the video went viral on social media. Many commented on how Kash looked drunk at that time while posing for the shutterbugs. The actress has now reacted to the viral kiss video.

KASHMERA SHAH ON KISSING IN PUBLIC

It was at the Bigg Boss 16 success party when Kashmera was spotted posing for paps in a short black leather skirt and zebra print top. She held tightly to her husband Krushna and the two locked lips in the full public glare, leaving onlookers zapped.

Talking about the incident with Times Of India, Kashmera Shah said, "Yes, I know people thought I was heavily drunk and therefore could not stand properly. The real reason was I was jetlagged. I had just returned from LA, reached home and then went to the party, so I could barely stand. I did have a glass of wine so if that made me tipsy, I wouldn't know. Yes I was pulling my husband towards me and indulging in PDA because I had not met him for a long time. It was almost 3 weeks and I missed him very much. I was PDA-starved and that's why I kissed Krushna at the party publicly. I was also missing my kids. Next, we are planning to go to LA again soon for a holiday."

Kashmera Shah has worked in several Hindi and Marathi films. She was one of the most highlighted contestants in season 1 of the reality show 'Bigg Boss'. She was also a participant on Nach Baliye in 2007.

Kashmera married Krushna Abhishek in 2012. They have two kids from the marriage.
Press Release

March 1, 2023 Senate mourns death of National Scientist Dr. Angel Alcala The Senate on Wednesday, March 1, 2023 adopted a resolution expressing the profound sympathy and condolences of the Senate on the death of National Scientist and former Department of Environment and Natural Resources Sec. Angel Alcala. Also the first chairman of the Commission on Higher Education, Alcala, a pioneer of marine biodiversity and marine conservation in the Philippines, died at the Silliman University (SU) Medical Center in Dumaguete City last February 1, 2023. He was 93. With all senators made co-author, Senate Resolution No. 46, authored by Sen. Imee Marcos, was adopted, recognizing Alcala's research on ecology and diversity of Philippine amphibians and reptiles, marine biodiversity and marine-protected areas (MPAs). He was named a National Scientist of the Philippines through Proclamation No. 782 signed by former President Benigno Aquino III for his work. "Dr. Alcala shall be greatly missed by the nation he served so faithfully and so well as he is already by the people closest and dearest to him. The world lost an important scholar, a brilliant scientist and educator, a public servant and a staunch environmental advocate and leader, Marcos said. "But the Philippines, through him, has gained environmental wisdom and activism, through the life of our very own national scientist, Dr. Angel Alcala," she added. Marcos said Alcala passionately pursued his advocacy of protecting the Philippine marine ecosystem, starting the first marine protected area in Sumilon Island, Southern Cebu in 1974, and Apo Island, Southern Negros in 1982. "These MPAs continued to this day to protect our marine ecosystems and diversity and to promote sustainable fishing in all these areas," she said. "His extensive research on Philippine amphibians and reptiles since the mid 1950s led to the discovery of 50 additional species out of the 400 known species in the country," she said. This gave international conservationists a reliable basis for establishing conservation programs on Philippine vertebrate biodiversity. Other subjects of his research were taxonomy and ecology of Philippine amphibians and reptiles supported by grants from the US National Science Foundation in Stanford University and the California Academy of Sciences, of which he is an Honorary Fellow, the resolution stated. "In 2017, Dr. Alcala was named an ASEAN Biodiversity hero, making him the first Filipino to be awarded such accolade, in recognition of his pioneering advocacy in the establishment of MPAs in the Philippines as well as his contributions to biodiversity conservation and in helping communities make their natural resources sustainable," it added. For his passionate work toward protecting the Philippine marine ecosystem, Alcala received many other recognitions, including the Guggenheim Fellowship for Natural Sciences in the category for Organismal Biology and Ecology in 1963, the Ramon Magsaysay Award for pioneering scientific leadership in 1992, the Field Museum Founders' Council Award of Merit for his contributions to environmental biology in 1994, and membership to the Fulbright Philippines Hall of Fame in 2018.
The Lebanon Public Library gets by with a little help from its Friends, as it has for the past 70 years.

Library Director Kendra Antila quoted the Beatles song as she reflected back on all the work the Friends of the Lebanon Public Library has done since 1953. The volunteer group is celebrating its 70th anniversary from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 4, in the Community Meeting Room of the library, 55 Academy St.

We literally could not do it without them, Antila said. Any time theres a budget shortfall, they step in and help with the collections so we can buy new things.

The library was formed in 1910 by the Womens Christian Temperance Union. The Friends of the Library help raise funds and put on various programs at the library, especially for children.

Vandy Roadifer stepped up as the groups president during the pandemic, when several members resigned. Before the pandemic, Antila said, the median age of volunteers hovered around 80. Over the past couple of years, many volunteers resigned or got sick with COVID-19.

The newest volunteers are younger and more social media-savvy than some of the others, Antila said. Roadifer and another Friend decided to take a 10-week course on social media marketing and made some tweaks to the librarys online presence.

Roadifer also found a way to creatively resell old Readers Digest magazines the library could no longer accommodate on the shelves. Instead of throwing them away, Roadifer asked her father to use a scroll saw to cut the magazines into letters and shapes.

The art projects sold like hotcakes, resulting in a spot at the local farmers market and an interview with a scroll saw magazine. The Friends have sold more than 650 of these books for $10 each, generating more than $6,000 for something that was previously being thrown away.

Having worked at the library for more than 20 years, Antila said she has seen the Friends help the library keep up with the times in various ways. They were there to help the library transition to books on tape, CDs and digital e-books. They raise funds for large-print books, the summer reading program and preschool story time with arts and crafts.

Theyve made more in the last seven months than some of our Friends groups have for an entire year, Antila said.

Attendees of Saturdays anniversary celebration can expect refreshments, raffle drawings, a little history of the Friends and live music from the Fionnghal Celtic Trio, thanks to Bill Antons with Mid Valley Productions.

The library is about to kick off a capital campaign to build a childrens room. The Friends plan to present a $20,000 check at the anniversary celebration as a small start to the $660,000 expansion project.

The names and faces have certainly changed over the 70 years, but what has remained constant is this group of diligent volunteers working behind the scenes with little pay and recognition, Antila said. Theyre doing what they can to make the library better for everyone.

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.
Punjab National Bank (PNB) and Indian Overseas Banks serve crores of customers across India. These two banks have branches across India and they cater to a large number of rural populations as well. Since these are public sector banks, people have trust in these PSBs and they continue to trade with these banks. With the changing times, these banks have also extended a host of facilities to their consumers including different types of debit/ATM cards and internet banking. While internet banking services are free and banks do not charge for net banking, they do charge for some other services including Debit cards.

If you are not aware, a debit card is popularly known as an ATM card and can be used for withdrawing cash from ATM machines, shopping and making online payments. So, if you also have a debit card from either of these two banks - Punjab National Bank or the Indian Overseas Bank, then you might have received a message or seen an entry into your passbook showing a deduction of Rs 177 from your saving bank accounts. You might have been worried that why the bank deducted this money from your account without informing you.

Allow us to tell you that the PNB and the IOB deduct Rs 177 from their customers' saving bank accounts as an annual maintenance charge (AMC) for the basic debit card issued to them. Though the AMC amount is Rs 150, it attracts a GST of 18 per cent. So 18% of 150 is Rs 27. Now, Rs 155+Rs 27= Rs 177. Therefore, the banks deduct Rs 177 from your saving account for the ATM/Debit Card facility provided to you. This might have cleared your doubt about your bank deducting money from your savings accounts.

It may be noted that the PNB has different charges for different kinds of debit cards and it ranges from Rs 150 to Rs 400 depending upon the type of the debit card.
New Delhi: SBI UPI Money Transfer: Fund transfers these days can be made in a jiffy, all thanks to UPI payment system. The YONO LITE SBI App allows customers to transfer fund without having to register the beneficiary recieving it. Although if you are sending money using beneficiarys Virtual ID, then the beneficiary should mandatorily be registered with UPI.

For the SBI YONO UPI, customers have a Daily transaction limit of Rs 1,00,000 set as Per day Limit and as EasyPIN Limits (Individual overall daily limits).

Meanwhile, it may so happen sometime that you have initiated a UPI fund transfer, where your transaction has failed but money has been debited. In such a scenario what are the options that you can explore?

SBI offers real-time reversals for technical difficulties, so if your account is debited but the transaction fails, the money will be returned to your account right away. You can file a complaint directly using the SBI YONO LITE app if the amount is not reversed.

You can file a complaint by choosing the "Payment History" option, choosing a specific transaction, and then choosing "Raise Dispute." The "Dispute Status" element in the SBI Personal App's UPI capabilities allows you to do so as well.

Recently State Bank of India (SBI) announced that it has launched real-time payments system linkage between India and Singapore and vice-versa through SBI's BHIM SBIPay mobile application.

The linkage will allow fund transfers from India to Singapore through registered mobile numbers and from Singapore to India using UPI ID, the bank said in a Statement.

The UPI-PayNow linkage is a significant milestone towards development of infrastructure for cross-border payments between India and Singapore. The initiative closely aligns with the G20s priorities of driving faster, cheaper, and more transparent cross-border payments. The inward bilateral remittance between Singapore and India is around USD 949 Mn as of 2021 (as per World Bank Bilateral Remittance Matrix Dec 22), it added.
New Delhi: Social messaging platform WhatsApp on Wednesday said it banned over 2.9 million accounts in the country in the month of January to "combat abuse." "WhatsApp is an industry leader in preventing abuse, among end-to-end encrypted messaging services," a spokesperson of the social messaging platform said. In order to keep "our users safe on our platform," WhatsApp over the years has consistently invested in artificial intelligence and other state-of-the-art technology, data scientists, and experts, the spokesperson said.

"In accordance with the IT Rules 2021, we have published our report for the month of January 2023. This user-safety report contains details of the user complaints received and the corresponding action taken by WhatsApp, as well as WhatsApp's own preventive actions to combat abuse on our platform. (Also Read: 'Baba Elon Musk': Bengaluru Men's Bizarre Puja Hailing Twitter Boss As God Goes Viral; Watch)

As captured in the latest monthly report, WhatsApp banned over 2.9 million accounts in January," he added. From January 1 to January 31, a total of 1,461 reports were received and a total of 195 cases were taken up for action. (Also Read: Latest FD Rates 2023: Check List Of Bank Offering Highest Return On Fixed Deposits)

There were 51 reports on the issue of account support, 1,337 reports on ban appeal, 45 cases on other support cases, and 21 cases on product support. In the company statement, the messaging company said in addition to responding to and actioning on user complaints through the grievance channel, WhatsApp also employs tools and resources to prevent harmful behaviour on the platform.

The company said, "We are particularly focused on prevention because we believe it is much better to stop harmful activity from happening in the first place than to detect it after harm has occurred."

The abuse detection operates at three stages of an account`s lifestyle: at registration, during messaging, and in response to negative feedback, which we receive in the form of user reports and blocks."

A team of analysts augments these systems to evaluate edge cases and help improve our effectiveness over time," the company said, adding, "We have detailed our on-platform capabilities to identify and ban accounts in a white paper."
Lucknow: Prayagraj Police has conducted a raid on gangster-turned-politician and former Samajwadi Party leader Atiq Ahmed`s residence in the Mahanagar area of Lucknow, seizing two luxury cars from the Universal Apartments. According to the police sources, the raids were conducted on February 27 and the late night action followed a shootout in which the prime witness in the murder of BSP MLA Raju Pal, advocate Umesh Pal, was shot dead in Prayagraj on February 24.

Atiq Ahmed, along with his son Asad Ahmed and wife and BSP leader Shaista Parveen were named in the FIR in connection with the murder. The police conducted the raid after receiving an input that some shooters had taken shelter in that apartment. However, they had left the place before the raid, police sources said on Wednesday.

The police, however, impounded two luxury cars and took them to the Mahanagar police station. "STF and Prayagraj Police raided Universal Apartment flat number 202 and impounded two luxury vehicles, which were brought to Mahanagar police station. The vehicles are registered in the names of Atiq Ahmed`s family members," a source said.

A guard at the building said the CCTV has been out of order for nearly two years. "They left the flat on February 24 evening. There were 3 to 4 people. They (shooters) were not seen thereafter. The police took away the cars day before yesterday. Personnel from the STF and Mahanagar police station were here. Nobody was found in the flat," a guard at the building said. Earlier, in a major development in the Umesh Pal murder case, an accused was shot in an exchange of fire near the Nehru Park area in Prayagraj`s Dhoomanganj on Monday, a top police officer said. The accused, identified as Arbaaz, was driving the car used in the murder of Umesh Pal, who was a prime witness in several cases, including the murder of BSP MLA Raju Pal.

The police said Arbaaz was injured and succumbed at the hospital."Accused Arbaaz was shot during the encounter that took place near Nehru Park in Dhoomanganj, Prayagraj earlier today. He was driving the car that was used in the murder (of Umesh Pal) and was fired upon," ADG law and order Prashant Kumar said on Monday.

"Arbaaz died during treatment at the hospital. The UP administration and the police have initiated a campaign against all such miscreants, gangsters, and mafia. There is also a crackdown on those sheltering such people," he added.

Umesh Pal and one of his two armed security escorts were shot dead in Prayagraj`s Sulem Saray area on February 24. Several rounds were fired and bombs were hurled at Umesh and his gunners. The incident came days after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath lashed out at the Samajwadi Party in the Assembly on February 25, saying that his government would destroy the mafia.

Describing the Prayagraj incident as sad, CM Yogi said "The government has taken cognisance of it and the results of our policy of zero tolerance for crime would be there for everyone to see very soon. No one should have any doubts about it."

"Is it not true that the accused against whom the FIR has been lodged, was made an MP by Samajwadi Party? You raise and nurture all the criminals, garland them and then blame others when a crime takes place. By doing this, you are just making a spectacle of yourself," the CM added, in an attack on SP members.

Meanwhile, SP MLA Pooja Pal (wife of Lt. BSP MLA Raju Pal) met CM Adityanath on Tuesday, demanding for Y+ security for herself and her family.
Washington: Director of the FBI Christopher Wray announced on Wednesday that the Covid- 19 pandemic was caused by a lab incident in Wuhan, China. "FBI Director Christopher Wray confirmed that the Bureau has assessed that the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic likely originated from a lab incident in Wuhan, China," tweeted the FBI. This development comes after the Energy Department concluded that an unintentional laboratory leak in China most likely caused the novel coronavirus outbreak, according to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

"The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan... I will just make the observation that the Chinese government... has been doing its best to try thwart and obfuscate the work here, the work that we're doing, the work that our US government and close foreign partners are doing," said FBI chief.

#FBI Director Wray confirmed that the Bureau has assessed that the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic likely originated from a lab incident in Wuhan, China. pic.twitter.com/LcBVNU7vmO  FBI (@FBI) March 1, 2023

Congress did not seek the update, which is less than five pages long. But, lawmakers, mainly Republicans in the House and Senate, have been conducting their own investigations into the origins of the pandemic and have pressed the Biden administration and the intelligence community for more information.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Energy Department has joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation in claiming that the virus was most likely disseminated by a mishap at a Chinese laboratory.

The judgement reached by the Energy Department is the product of new intelligence, and it is noteworthy because the department has great scientific knowledge and administers a network of US national laboratories, some of which conduct advanced biological research.

The insights provided by the Energy Department come from its network of national laboratories, some of which do biological research, rather than more traditional kinds of intelligence such as spy networks or communications intercepts.

The new coronavirus initially appeared in November in Wuhan, China. According to the US 2021 intelligence report, 2019. The cause of the pandemic has been determined. Scholars and intelligence professionals have engaged in vigorous debates as well as lawmakers.
German pianist Frank-Immo Zichner will join Oregons Delgani String Quartet for the ensembles March concerts, offering two quintets from both sides of the Atlantic, including one work written in Oregon.

Delgani, praised by Oregon ArtsWatch as the states finest chamber ensemble, will present its Transatlantic Journey program during five concerts this month in several Oregon towns. The Corvallis concert is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 3, at First Presbyterian Church, 114 SW Eighth St.

On the program is Ernest Blochs Piano Quintet No. 2, the last work by the Swiss-American composer, who died in Portland in 1959. The piece was written at Agate Beach near Newport, where Bloch  praised by the New York Times as one of the most important composers of the 20th century  spent the last 18 years of his life. The work is filled with impulsive urges, yearning melodies and rolling waves of unease.

Zichner and Delgani then will take listeners across the Atlantic for a performance of Dvoraks Piano Quintet No. 2, which brims with romantic passion and showcases the composers Bohemian roots in its middle movements.

To open the concert, Delgani will perform Tomas Svobodas Tenth Quartet. The work is one of three quartets Delgani performs on a new recording of music by Svoboda, the iconic Portland-based Czech composer who died last November at age 82. The CD, Three Quartets, is the only album of Svobodas quintets by an American ensemble.

The album is available as a physical CD that can be reserved for pickup at a Delgani concert for $20 or shipped via mail for $25. For more information about Three Quartets, visit delgani.org/svoboda.

Pianist Zichner, a Steinway artist, has more than two dozen recordings to his credit, often featuring works by unjustly neglected composers. He has performed in more than 30 countries in Europe, Southeast Asia, Central and South America. His performances with Delgani mark his first time in Oregon.

Tickets for individual concerts and the livestreams now are available at https://www.delgani.org/products/p/dvorak. Tickets are $28 general and $5 for students. Children 12 or under can attend Delgani concerts for free.

For more information about Delgani, which includes Corvallis resident and violinist Anthea Kreston, visit delgani.org.
Now that's a big bird!

Research from the University of Colorado Boulder and an Australian university revealed a new lineage of elephant bird that used to roam Madagascar, and could help scientists better understand bird diversity.

The new study, using research from CU Boulder and Curtin University, published in Nature Communications, describes the discovery of a lineage of elephant bird that used to roam the wet, forested northeastern side of Madagascar.

Madagascar's wildlife diversity included Aepyornis, a flightless bird standing at over nine feet tall, weighing over 1,500 pounds, and carrying a pointy beak and deadly foot talons, according to the study.

The birds are difficult to study due to limited skeletal remains and the fact that bone DNA degrades quickly in warm, humid areas, according to the study. Ancient eggshell DNA confirms more about diversity within the lineage.

"While we found that there were fewer species living in southern Madagascar at the time of their extinction, we also uncovered novel diversity from Madagascar's far north," lead author Alicia Garcia, who conducted the research for her doctoral thesis at Curtin University, said in the news release. "These findings are an important step forward in understanding the complex history of these enigmatic birds. There's surprisingly a lot to discover from eggshell."

The research was revolutionary to methods of scientific study, being the first time a taxonomic identification has been derived from an elephant bird eggshell, according to the study.

"It opens up a field that nobody would have thought about before," co-author Gifford Miller, professor of geological sciences and faculty fellow at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) at CU Boulder, said in the release. "Here may be another way of looking into the past and asking, 'Was there more diversity in birds than we're aware of?'"

The use of eggshells alone to identify a new lineage of elephant bird will allow scientists to learn more about bird diversity and why so many birds have gone extinct in the past 10,000 years.

The research began when Miller was awarded $25,000 in 2005 as part of the Geological Society of America's Easterbrook Distinguished Scientist Award. He used that to gather a team to study the elephant bird.

The team used high-resolution satellite imagery to scout places where winds had blown sand to expose ancient eggshells, according to the study. The team traversed the island and gathered more than 960 ancient eggshell fragments from 291 locations.

The physical chemistry of eggshells locks in organic matter for up to 10,000 years, making it difficult to extract for analysis.

Since ancient DNA is often degraded, it is also difficult for scientists to find long enough strands to analyze, meaning they have to piece together shorter fragments. This led them to the discovery of the new type of elephant bird.

"Science often advances in obscure pathways. You don't always find what you were looking for," Miller said. "It's much more interesting to find what you didn't know you were looking for."

The new research and work in eggshell DNA science could help scientists understand why large animals went extinct after human arrival, according to the study.

"With lots of little contributions from a whole bunch of people, you actually can solve some interesting questions," Miller said. "This might open up a new way of looking at things."
True and dtacs merger has successfully closed, in a deal marked as the largest telco merger in Southeast Asia by combined enterprise value.

The transaction has seen True and dtac essentially cease to exist, giving up their status as judicial entities to create the new entity known as True Corporation which has been awarded a commercial licence by the Department of Business Development at the Ministry of Commerce. As noted by TeleGeography, True Corporation has taken over True and dtacs assets, rights, liabilities and obligations.

Regulator NBTCs approval hinged on True and dtac submitting a plan for separate management, administration and accounting systems, which the firms have duly provided along with a plan for the provision of services to MVNOs. The merger was opposed by former market leader AIS in court, and also hit several regulatory hurdles before being cleared.

True Corporations estimated mobile customer base  based on FY22 - is 55 million mobile customers, with 5 million broadband connections and 3.2 million pay-tv subscribers. Its EBITDA was US$2.4 billion and revenue US$6.2 billion, giving the new company an enterprise value of more than US$20 billion.

True Corporation faces escalating demand for high-speed data in Thailand, with Telenor Asia's Digital Lives Decoded 2022 survey indicating that 82% of Thais are expected to significantly increase their mobile usage over the coming years - more so than in any other market surveyed.

Telenor is ready to support True Corporation with access to advanced technology, a network of global partners and cutting-edge industry insights. The new company will combine the strengths of dtac and True to deliver high quality connectivity and leverage the latest developments in 5G, AI and IoT, says Jrgen A. Rostrup, Executive Vice President of Telenor Group and Head of Telenor Asia.

To accelerate and stimulate growth in Thailands digital ecosystem, the new company, together with partners, intends to raise US$200 million in venture capital, supporting promising digital startups focusing on new products and services that benefit Thai consumers.

Telenor and CP Group will be equal partners with a 30.3 percent ownership stake each in the new company. The Board of Directors of True Corporation will consist of 11 directors. Suphachai Chearavanont has been appointed as Chair of the Board of Directors and Jrgen A. Rostrup will be Deputy Chair, in addition to chairing the Executive Committee.
The President of Georgia Salome Zourabichvili opened the political forum 'Political Forum for Gender Equality' and addressed the invited guests and forum participants.The President spoke about the importance of women's participation in politics and reviewed the state policy and practice in this regard.According to her, there has been significant progress in recent years in terms of women's quotas, but now there is a need for women to have a real role in decision-making."The main thing is not quotas (I have always thought that quotas are needed and this path is still to be followed), but a real place and real participation in decisions. In this respect, the situation is not very favorable. Women, unfortunately, we cannot yet say that they make the main decisions. I believe that the time will come when women in Georgian politics will be at the forefront, they will make decisions, they will have financial and other resources in order to say their word and this word will be weighted and heard..I'm going to New York, where I will participate in the 67th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, and there, if any of your recommendations are presented, I will be your voice and your representative..It is necessary to fight against what is called violence against women and political violence because this is one of the biggest obstacles for women to entering politics. When women look at what is happening, and what women go through who are directly involved in politics, it is not very attractive for young people. All other fields are open to them and they can be professionally represented elsewhere and more appreciated than in politics - this should also be overcome," said the President.According to the press spokesman of the US State Department, Ned Price, the United States has repeatedly expressed its deep concern with the Georgian authorities about the draft law on "agents of foreign influence".According to Ned Price, the approval of the bill could undermine the country's Euro-Atlantic integration."We are deeply concerned about the possible impact of this bill on freedom of speech and democracy in Georgia. We have repeatedly expressed this concern directly to the Georgian authorities.The initiated bill will stigmatize and stifle those independent voices in Georgia who are working hard to create a better future for their community.We believe that the law may undermine the Euro-Atlantic integration of Georgia and the Euro-Atlantic aspirations of the Georgian people, which they have clearly expressed in recent decades", said Ned Price at the February 27 briefing.According to the spokesperson of the State Department, they got acquainted with the draft law and it is not American, but similar to Russian or Hungarian laws."It is a clear lie to say that this draft law is based on our law - the "Foreign Agents Registration Act". "The bill we read seems to be based on similar Russian and Hungarian legislation, not American," said Ned Price.
Etisalat launched standalone (SA) 5G in the United Arab Emirates, claiming this to be the first SA 5G in the Middle East and North Africa.

In a statement, the e&-owned operator said SA 5G delivers additional capacity and lower latency which enables various applications.

The operator detailed applications such as massive machine-to-machine communication solutions, real-time device-to-device networking, ultra-reliable, low-latency functionality for autonomous devices and next-generation Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

Commercial customers will be able to tap into high-speed connectivity which enables 4K streaming, cloud gaming and high-quality audio streaming. Etisalat pitched its SA 5G fixed wireless access service as an alternative to fixed broadband to businesses.

Etisalat launched its non-standalone 5G network in 2018.

Etisalat by e& chief technology and information officer Khalid Murshed said: "We are pleased to announce our successful investment in 5G Standalone technology. This is a significant milestone as we look to deliver end-to-end 5G solutions in UAE, providing our customers with the latest digital innovations and superior experience and laying the foundation for new revenue streams
Chinese equipment vendor ZTE and China Mobile won the Best Mobile Innovation for Connected Economy award at the Global Mobile Awards (GLOMO) at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

ZTE and China Mobile Guangzhou Branch won the award for their 5G-empowered Smart Metro in Guangzhou, the accolade given for recognition in enhancing productivity and contributing to industry and society.

They beat rivals Cumucore, Hong Kong Telecom, Veon, China Mobile and Huawei to the award.

The smart metro project was launched in 2020 tapping into 5G technologies such as network slicing and private networks, enabling 750Mb/s uplink rate enhancement, and mobile connections even when travelling at 160 km/h high-speed.

A multi-layer cloud-edge collaboration system was also deployed to provide to implement in-depth interaction and sharing of online data among people, vehicles, operating environments and devices. This also provided greater communication between 5G smart stations, 5G train-to-ground communication, and 5G digital tunnels.



Since launching the project two years ago the Guangzhou Metro has witnessed improved automated operations and maintenance, more efficient dispatching and management, and higher passenger satisfaction. The metro system serves around 20 million people in the city and was provided with average data rates of 600MBps on metro carriages, faster luggage inspection, shorter turnstile access during rush hour and detailed guidance.

We are honoured to win this award together with our partners. 5G smart subways enhance the intelligence and flexibility of stations, train safety, and subway operation efficiency, said Guangzhou Metro Group deputy general manager Cai Changjun.

Moving forward, we will verify more 5G+ smart subway services, form the 5G+ smart metro system architecture and industry standards, and promote the rapid growth of 5G+ in the metro industry.

China Mobile Guangzhou Branch general manager Luo Weimin added, We're honoured to receive this award and attribute it to our partners, who have shown us valuable support. We are committed to building leading 5G networks in terms of quality, technology, service, and operation. We will continue our efforts in building a new 5G industry ecosystem in conjunction with partners by using leading 5G networks.

This award is a great endorsement of our efforts in keeping innovating in digitizing the workplace, said ZTE vice president Dr Bai Gang.

We will work further with partners to promote 5G even deeper to the production domain and bring greater value and benefit to more people.
As digital transformation becomes ever more essential, cloud-based transformation has become a common choice for global telecom carriers.

Gartner has forecast that carriers around the world will increase their investment in cloud-based transformation at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27% in the next five years. Carriers of course retain their core traditional services as a stable base for communications, but they increasingly offer rapidly developing, innovative services to expand into new market segments.

Huaweis distributed cloud is designed to meet the requirements of carriers, with Huawei Cloud supporting innovative agile services and Cloud Stack supporting core steady-state services. This combined offering enables cloud-based transformation of carriers internal services and B2B service growth.

With 30 years of experience in the telecom industry and rich cloud transformation project practices, Huawei has an in-depth understanding of carriers' requirements for IT infrastructure. In Huaweis experience, distributed cloud is better suited to carriers given that many have entered new business verticals to cope with intense market competition. They have rolled out new services in sectors such as video, gaming, and mobile finance, and all of these exact greater requirements on the carriers IT infrastructure.

Some traditional carrier services, such as billing and operations & management, grow steadily  the so-called stable services. Newer services experience dramatic fluctuations and require fast iteration through trial and error, such as video, network disk, and cloud smartphone apps  the agile services. Huawei's distributed cloud architecture supports deployment both on-premises and on public cloud, delivering consistent experience online and offline and enabling carriers to support both stable and agile services at the same time.

Huawei Cloud Stack is deployed on premises with low latency and abundant cloud services, making operations more efficient. It provides secure and reliable infrastructure to meet the needs of core stable services. Huawei Cloud Stack has the widest range of high-level on-premises cloud services, and is the only on-premises cloud that reuses installed base storage.

Huawei public cloud supports rapid service innovation. The software development production line provides one-stop DevSecOps development and O&M capabilities, while the data governance production line provides one-stop digital and intelligent convergence development and governance, shortening carriers' service innovation period.

In terms of cloud-based service transformation, the key to app pre-integration is security, reliability, and rapid innovation. Huawei's own software services are pre-integrated with Huawei Cloud to provide better network performance through CEE Turbo, optimize cloud resource utilization, reduce TCO by over 30%, and shorten the TTM of typical projects by two months.

The key to data governance is real-time analysis and cross-domain convergence. Data is the most important means of production in the intelligence era, and is growing at an exponential rate. Taking the telecom industry as an example, BOM data has grown more than 10 times, so unlocking the value of data is of great significance.

Huawei Cloud intelligent data lake integrates data from multiple domains and sources and realizes one-stop data governance through digital and intelligent convergence. By supporting access to more than 40 data sources and scheduling of more than 100,000 concurrent tasks, it enables data correlation across different sources without data replication. Fast real-time analysis can drive user conversion, enable complaint handling, ensure experience, and eliminate data silos.

Carriers are vigorously developing B2B services to realize the second growth curve. The B2B telecom market has tripled in size in the past five years, and Huawei Cloud supports the flexible deployment and business model of B2B telecom services to drive rapid growth of the B2B segment.

As networks develop, fast cloud services and slow network speeds during enterprise cloud migration become a prominent problem. Huawei's one-stop cloud network solution combines NaaS with cloud services to provide one-click cloud network provisioning, shortening the provisioning time from two weeks to a few days. Network, 5G, and cloud capabilities come together to shorten end-to-end latency of private lines and intra-cloud networks, as well as reliability of cloud migration of private lines and 5G private networks.

Data storage is also becoming a pressing issue  particularly given the important role that carriers play within the digital economy. Carriers produce and transmit increasingly massive amounts of data, and must build a future-oriented data foundation to truly demonstrate the value contained within.

Carriers face numerous challenges as the industry landscape changes. As 5G stimulates demand for more services and applications, we will see rapid data growth, with the number of service app types expected to increase from thousands in the 2G era to 3.2 million. It is estimated that by 2030, yottabytes of data will be generated every year, a 22-fold increase over 2021.

A growing number of countries and regions - including China, Europe, and the Middle East  are attaching increasing importance to data security, enacting laws and regulations to ensure citizens' information security. For example, Turkey has introduced laws requiring citizens' digital footprints to be retained for a period of not less than six months and not more than two years. During this time, the datas accuracy, integrity and confidentiality must be maintained.

According to OnAudience, the global data market rose from $41.4 billion in 2020 to $52.3 billion in 2021, up by 26%, suggesting people are increasingly interested in deriving value from data.

Data is a means of production and a core asset of digital transformation. Carriers need to build secure, efficient, and intelligent data storage infrastructure to support the intelligent evolution of data storage and meet new service needs. Huawei's next-gen OneStorage solution supports multi-cloud architecture in all scenarios, enabling data mobility and app deployment across multiple clouds, and provides high-performance and large-capacity data resource pools, enabling the intelligent upgrading of digital storage solutions. The OneStorage solution supports multi-cloud interconnection, ensuring greater security and reliability at system level as well as greater energy efficiency, making it the best foundation for carriers' data infrastructure.

Click here to learn more about Huaweis IT Infrastructure Solutions.
New figures from GSMA Intelligence, announced during MWC 2023, show that 5G connections are expected to double over the next two years, expedited by technological innovations and new 5G network deployments in more than 30 countries in 2023 alone. Of the new networks to be deployed in 2023, it is expected that 15 will be 5G standalone networks.

The forecasts point to a significant period of growth in terms of mobile subscribers and enterprise adoption. Consumer connections surpassed one billion at the end of 2022 and will increase to around 1.5 billion this year, before reaching two billion by the end of 2025. This momentum confirms 5G as the fastest generational rollout, when compared to 3G and 4G.

As of January 2023, there were 229 commercial 5G networks globally and over 700 5G smartphone models available to users.

Growth will also come from key markets within APAC and LATAM, such as Brazil and India, which have recently launched 5G networks. GSMA Intelligence predicts there will be four 5G networks in India by the end of 2025, accounting for 145 million additional users.

Many of the new 5G markets scheduled to launch networks in 2023 are in developing regions across Africa  including Ethiopia and Ghana  and Asia. Today, 5G adoption in the sub-Saharan region sits below 1% but will reach over 4% by 2025 and 16% in 2030, largely thanks to a concerted effort from industry and government organisations to provide connectivity to citizens.

As of January 2023, more than 90 fixed broadband service providers (the vast majority of which are mobile operators) had launched commercial 5G-based fixed wireless services across over 48 countries. This means around 40% of 5G commercial mobile launches worldwide currently include an FWA offering.

While the majority of current 5G FWA deployments focus on the 3.53.8 GHz bands, several operators around the world are already using 5G mmWave spectrum as a capacity and performance booster to complement coverage provided by lower bands.

Only 7% of 5G launches have been in 5G mmWave spectrum so far but this looks set to change given 27% of spectrum allocations and 35% of trials are already using 5G mmWave bands.

The figures from GSMA Intelligence, which provides definitive data and analysis for the mobile industry, also suggest that, for operators, the enterprise market will be the main driver of 5G revenue growth over the next decade.

Another major development for the enterprise will be the commercial availability of 5G Advanced in 2025. Focusing on uplink technology, 5G Advanced will improve speed, coverage, mobility and power efficiency  and support a new wave of business opportunities.
At Mobile World Congress 2023, NEC affirmed its focus on 5G and its belief that open RAN is the technology to power it  in emerging markets as well as developed ones.

David Cohen, NECs Head of 5G Marketing, told us that the firm was focused on delivering 5G to Tier 1 operators, and that it considers open RAN the sole means of doing so. Cohen argued that the proof of concept is there, with NEC having been selected by several major players in more developed markets  including NTT and Rakuten in Japan - to deliver an end-to-end 5G solution that relies on open RAN. This grounding in developed markets allows the technology to mature and thereby improve  operators may wish to buy part of the solution, such as network consultancy or optimisation software.

He noted that as operators in emerging markets approach open RAN, they will need and indeed expect the technologys vendors and integrators to be at the top of their game, and so it is important for open RAN suppliers such as NEC to focus on developed markets during the technologys early stages. Cohen argued that as the technology becomes more widely adopted, it will become the de facto standard for 5G networks and so 6G upgrades will rely on it. While this may seem premature, Cohen cautioned that 5G is several years into the typical 10-year generational cycle.

NEC is committed to the concept of openness, ensuring via collaboration that its products integrate smoothly and reliably with those of its competitors. The vendor seems undeterred by some of the recent negativity surrounding open RAN, and acknowledges that there are issues around cost, but argues that it is working on all aspects of the practicalities of open RAN - such as complexity and energy efficiency  to ensure the benefits are realised.

There are plenty who still need convincing of the benefits of open RAN, and Cohen is happy to oblige, arguing that in six to seven years, the increase in network complexity will be offset by them having built-in intelligence and automation, making large portions of the network self-running. This will require the cloud-native apps that are being deployed today.

Ganesh Balasubramanian, VP of Global 5G Sales at NEC, adds that in emerging markets, the ecosystem itself is an advantage  these regions are under less geopolitical pressure to comply with the demands of developed nations, and consequently less pressure to avoid Chinese-made equipment. The acceleration curve in these regions is behind other markets, and indeed open RAN adoption has been slower than expected in many areas, but this is in part due to many carriers in developed regions adopting a wait and see approach, seeing how the technology is evolving and the complexities it is able to solve.

The difficulty is bringing open RAN into this ecosystem, but if it can be integrated in one place then this can be repeated. Balasubramanian notes that private use cases are a good start, offering higher profit margins which could offset the entry point for open RAN and therefore improve the business case both for open RAN and 5G in general. He notes that operators typically dont consider using private data networks instead of consumer Wi-Fi, and notes that this approach could prove far superior, arguing that business cases must accommodate the initial CAPEX investment for open RAN, perhaps by segregating the network into different slices with segments dedicated to premium users.

While B2B applications are certainly the more obvious application, Balasubramanian considers this the low-hanging fruit, stating that its crucial to bring cellular connectivity in areas where this is not currently used  and that this must be high bandwidth connectivity with the ability to add services on top, as this makes it more affordable for operators to grow.
Recently, during President Miguel Diaz-Canels visit to Mexico, his counterpart there, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, announced: "I promise President Miguel Diaz-Canel that Mexico will lead a more active movement to unite all countries and defend the independence and sovereignty of Cuba, rejecting any treatment of it as a terrorist country."

Faced with such an affront to Cubans, by supporting the Communist tyranny that has all but destroyed Cuba, it is worth taking a look at some of the "achievements of the revolution" that the Mexican populist president has so emphatically praised.

A good place to start is with at the national education system, which, together with public health, has been the main bulwark of Castroist propaganda. For decades Fidel Castro fabricated his most successful publicity myths around these social services, selling them as the "genuine work of the Cuban revolution." The planet swallowed it, and Castro I became a benefactor of his people and the poor around the world, allowing him to maintain power ad infinitum.

Cuban schools, leaking urine

Now let's return to reality and see what two mothers of schoolchildren in Holguin said a few days ago: "At my son's school, in order not to be soaked with pee, one would have to enter on stilts, because it builds up outside the toilet. And they don't flush, remaining full of feces all the time. There's just no maintenance, it's disgusting, complained Suriley, the mother of a high school student in Holguin.

Another Holguin mother, Dayne, reported that "from the roof drips pee with water from the bathroom above," and the toilets "there are worms, because they don't flush." Ana Laura, the daughter of Laura Ines, is in second grade at an elementary school and has never gone to the school bathroom, as "she prefers to hold it rather than go to such a disgusting place."

These complaints by Suriley and Dayne are somewhat secondary, as they speak to the lack of hygiene in Cuba, but not the systemic educational crisis in the country, which reeks even worse than those school bathrooms.

Going back a little, according to the low standards of the Third World, it could be said that until the 80s Castroism managed to have an extensive system of schooling, even if it was not an educational one, which is something very different.

Everything was false, based on a double fallacy: 1) education was not financed by the Government of Cuba, but rather by the Kremlin, with subsidies of up to 3 billion dollars per year; 2) Castro's real purpose was not education per se, but rather to carry out the largest brainwashing operation ever in the Western Hemisphere. That is why he closed all the private schools, and dismissed the teachers and professors "trained by the bourgeoisie" who would not collaborate in Communist indoctrination.

Schools in the countryside: waste, pregnancies and abuse

In one of his outbursts of megalomania, Castro I came up with an outlandish plan "unique in the world," and with strong fascist overtones: he built 535 gigantic three- and four-story schools in the Cuban countryside, severely affecting the national economy and the lives of Cubans.

The hundreds of thousands of secondary and pre-university students who resided at those schools, located in remote places, were forced to work part-time as agricultural laborers, as students from the cities were taken to work in agriculture for periods of between 45 days and 3 months.

Thus, children and adolescents were separated from their parents and placed under the control of the State to better indoctrinate them and form the "New Man." Sexual promiscuity and verbal and physical violence soared. Many teenage girls became pregnant and became single mothers, while others miscarried, with risks to their lives.

In the 20 years that the plan lasted, until 1991, ten million tons of cement were used, and 2,000 Russian buses (Giron) were assembled to transport the students. 16 million tons of food and 15 million tons of fuel were consumed, not to mention the technical and teaching staff, uniforms, and all the sundry supplies necessary. With those resources, the infrastructure of the economy could have been developed to better meet the needs of the population, but it was not.

When the manna from Moscow stopped falling, those immense rural schools were closed and abandoned. Some were converted into prisons, others into shelters for criminals, while other were taken over by squatters. Others remain empty because no one wants to work on land full of marabou.

Teachers leave classrooms

As a result of all this idiocy, Cuba today, with twice the population of 1958, has 160 fewer rural schools than before the Castros seized power. Currently there are 4,729 rural schools, and 65 years ago there were 4,889, according to the regimes National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI), and the former Ministry of Finance. Since 2013, 1,934 rural schools have been closed. Ten years ago there were many more in rural areas across the country.

The Castros' top priority was always to instill in Cuba?s national consciousness a twisted vision of society, history, the world, humanity, contempt for the values of western culture and democracy, and the freedoms of the modern citizen, all while glorifying socialism, the dictator and his circle.

Even the Literacy Campaign itself had propagandistic purposes: the first words that the Conrado Benitez Brigades taught were praise for the Revolution and for Fidel. Cuba, with a 23% illiteracy rate in 1956, had been recognized by the UN as one of the least illiterate countries in Ibero-America and around the world. In Spain the figure was 50%, and Stalinist tyranny was not necessary teach people to read and write.

In the third decade of the twenty-first century, with impressive advances in technological and scientific innovations around the world, Cuba exhibits an appalling and sad technical-scientific, educational and cultural backwardness dating back to the first half of the twentieth century.

When "capitalist exploitation" took place, in education Cuba stood at the forefront of Latin America, along with Argentina, Uruguay, Costa Rica and Chile. Today it is at the bottom of the list, lacking teachers, proper classrooms, textbooks, uniforms, and essential equipment for classes and laboratory practices.

There are shortages of pencils, notebooks, and uniforms, and no free access to the Internet, or 21st century curricula. The buildings, classrooms and their furniture are in ruinous condition, falling apart; as we saw above, even leaking urine.

A high school student in 1958 was a scholar compared to one today

Education in Cuba today is a national disgrace, not only in terms of teaching, but also due to the serious loss of ethical, civic and moral values; children and adolescents, including females, yell at each other using unimaginable obscenities.

More than 35,000 teachers have left the classroom between 2009 and 2021, due to the very low salaries they receive, and other factors. Vacant slots are usually filled by young people rushed into their positions without the necessary preparation. Many do not speak properly, such that they are not well understood. Corruption goes unchecked; with gifts to teachers, many students ensure that they will pass their exams.

If, travelling through time, a high school graduate from 1958 and one from 2022 were to compete today based on their knowledge, we would be amazed at how badly the more recent graduate would fare, due to his educational indigence.

I think it would not be an exaggeration to say that today there is no more disastrous educational system in Latin America than Cubas. It is for good reason that neither Miguel Diaz-Canel, or anyone in the dictatorial leadership, even uses the word "education."

And yet, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador continues to praise the "achievements" of the Communist revolution, including education. It is not clear whether he has no idea what he is talking about, or he is competing to become the worlds worst external enemy of the Cuban people.
A report release and panel discussion on Democracy and Health in India: Is Health an Electoral Priority? was held on 22 February 2023 at Lecture Room-II, IIC Annexe, India International Centre, New Delhi.

The panelists included:

Reetika Khera: Professor of Economics, IIT Delhi.

K Sujatha Rao: Former Union Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, GOI.

Abhay Shukla: Senior Programme Coordinator, Support for Advocacy and Training to Health Initiative (SATHI).

This report is an outcome of a collaborative study conducted by Lokniti-Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS),Delhi with Kings India Institute, London, Royal Holloway (University of London) and the Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP), New Delhi.

+++++
The lawyers for an Alabama Death Row inmate argue the state will fare no better in a second attempt to execute a man who was set to die in November, but survived after the execution couldnt be completed during the allotted time.

The comments came in new documents filed Monday in Kenneth Smiths federal lawsuit. Smith was set to be executed by lethal injection in November 2022, but survived after Alabama Department of Corrections workers couldnt find veins to run the lethal chemicals through before the states death warrant expired at midnight. The 57-year-old later claimed in court filings he laid on a gurney and was poked with needles for four hours before the state called off the execution.

Smiths lawyers are asking the court to bar the state from attempting to execute Smith using lethal injection a second time, adding that he faces an objectively intolerable risk that the same thing will happen if ADOC is permitted to try to execute him by lethal injection again.

On the night of the first set execution, the filing says, Smith was strapped to the gurney and readied himself for his anticipated imminent death by focus[ing] on the glowing cross-shaped lights in the execution chamber and trying to maintain his dialogue with God, including by thank[ing] God for the week he had just had with his family and singing Im not alone quietly.

It was important to Mr. Smith to maintain his composure for his family and other witnesses and to express his final words. But as time went on without action, without his witnesses arriving, and without explanation, Mr. Smith became increasingly hopeless[], distressed and fear[ful] that his witnesses would not make it in time. Mr. Smith lay strapped to the gurney in that condition and as he felt as though his circulation was being cut off for more than two hours without explanation about what was happening, according to the filing.

The filing is the first in Smiths case since Gov. Kay Ivey and Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm announced Friday afternoon that the state had finished its internal review of the prison systems execution process and was ready to begin executing death row inmates once again.

Smiths lawyers argue that nothing from that investigation was reassuring to the departments capability to carry out lethal injections.  the planned changes to ADOCs execution procedures do not inspire confidence that they will reduce the intolerable risk to Mr. Smith from a second attempt to execute him by lethal injection, the filing says.

Contrary to ADOCs repeated public statements, its problem is not that it lacks sufficient time to place IVs. The problem lies elsewhere in its protocol or the personnel charged with implementing it. If ADOC could not place IV lines in Mr. Smith in more than one hour when it attempted to execute him in November, there is no reason to believe that ADOC will have greater success with more time during a second attempt

The federal lawsuit was initiated before the execution attempt and has continued since, with Smiths lawyers arguing the state shouldnt be allowed to seek another execution date for lethal injection. Earlier this month, the Alabama Attorney Generals Office asked Middle District of Alabama Judge Austin Huffaker Jr. to dismiss the lawsuit. Smiths legal team had until Monday to respond to that motion.

Smiths lawyers argue that his was the third consecutive execution that the Alabama Department of Corrections botched in the space of four months all for the same reasonADOC personnel are incapable of reliably placing IV lines, referencing the controversial execution of Joe Nathan James Jr. in July and the failed execution attempt of Alan Miller in September.

The state apparently intend(s) to execute Mr. Smith by the very same method that failed in their first attempt and that failed for the same reason three consecutive times over four months, the filing states.

Smiths lawyers claim in Mondays filing that he suffers from severe and ongoing physical and psychological pain.

Last week, Smiths attorneys told the judge that the state hasnt cooperated in discoveryor providing documents and other informationin the case.

Legal groups and others across the state have expressed disappointment in the three-month investigation, calling for an independent review.
Skoda cars to be sold in Vietnam from May

Octavia RS, a sedan of Skoda Auto, on road in the Republic of Czech. Photo courtesy of Skoda Auto

Skoda cars are expected to be imported from the Czech Republic and sold from May before being assembled in the country, according to sources at Skoda Vietnam.

In the C-segment, CUV Karoq, one of the companys bestselling models, will compete with the Hyundai Tucson, Kia Sportage, Mazda CX-5, Honda CR-V, and others.

In the D-segment, the SUV Kodiaq will go up against the Kia Sorento, Hyundai Santa Fe, Mazda CX-8, and Toyota Fortuner.

In late February Skoda and its Vietnamese partner TC Motor, a distributor and assembler of South Korean Hyundai vehicles, began building a plant in the northern province of Quang Ninh.

Vietnam is the first Southeast Asian country in which Skoda will put up a factory, and it plans to also export vehicles to other countries in the region.

Skoda makes 11 models, with the Octavia being its bestseller. Various models including B-segment sedan Slavia are expected to be sold in the country from late 2024.

Last year the company sold 731,300 vehicles in some 100 markets around the world, with Germany, the Czech Republic, India, the UK, and Poland being the biggest.
Containers are seen at Tan Cang Cai Mep Terminal in Ba Ria - Vung Tau Province. Photo by VnExpress/Dang Khoa

Total import-export revenue in the first two months of this year is estimated at $96.06 billion, down 13.2% year on year, with a trade surplus of $2.82 billion, reported the General Statistics Office (GSO).

According to the office, so far this year, the country has exported $49.44 billion worth of goods, down 10.4% over the same period last year, with $37.92 billion coming from the foreign-invested sector, accounting for 76.7%.

In February alone, total export revenue is estimated at $25.88 billion, up 9% over January and 11% year on year.

In the first two months of 2023, eight kinds of products recorded exports of over $1 billion, accounting for more than 69.9% of the total. Particularly, three enjoying revenue of over $5 billion.

The manufacturing-processing sector contributed $44.38 billion to the countrys total export revenue, accounting for 89.8%, while agro-forestry sector made up 6.9%, fisheries 2% and fuel and minerals 1.3%.

In January and February, the country spent $46.62 billion on importing goods, down 16% year on year, mostly on production materials. In February, the figure dropped 6.7% over the same period last year to $23.58 billion.

In the first two months of this year, imports of 13 groups of goods exceeded $1 billion, with two recording exports of more than $5 billion.

So far this year, the US has remained the largest export market of Vietnam with a revenue of $13.1 billion, while China has been the biggest import market with a value of about $14.6 billion.

In the January-February period, Vietnams trade surplus with the EU is estimated at $4.8 billion, up 1.8%. Meanwhile, the country has suffered a trade deficit of $6.4 billion with China, $4.7 billion with the Republic of Korea, $1.5 billion with ASEAN countries, and $237.2 million with Japan.

To meet the target of about 6% growth in export revenue this year, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has asked businesses to actively improve the competitiveness of their products, while expanding their export markets.

The ministry will strengthen the exploitation of potential markets nearby, while switching to official export channels in association with the building of trademark. The ministry will also renovate its trade promotion activities and develop digital infrastructure to increase distributions though e-commerce platforms.

Besides, the ministry will organize training courses for businesses and supporting them to make full use of free trade agreements.
A critically endangered pangolin found on a parking house roof is handed over to the Ho Chi Minh City Forest Protection Department, February 28, 2023. Photo by the department

Ho Chi Minh City Forest Protection Department has received a pangolin found on the roof of a parking house in the city's downtown.

The pangolin was detected Tuesday by Bui Kim Hoang, 61, who works at the parking lot in District 1's Da Kao Ward.

Hoang said he saw the pangolin swinging on a tree branch before the branch was broken and the pangolin fell onto the roof.

"I'm aware that it could be an endangered species so I captured it and called the rangers."

The Ho Chi Minh City Forest Protection Department then confirmed the pangolin as a male Manis javanica, a pangolin species classified as "critically endangered" by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and Vietnam's Red Book.

The pangolin weighs 7 kilograms and stretches one meter long.

As the pangolin is not healthy enough to live on his own now, the department has taken him to a rescue center for further care before releasing him back to the wild.

Rangers said it is possible that the pangolin had escaped from a local house where he had been kept illegally.

Trafficking of pangolins is quite common in Vietnam though they are legally protected. Transporting and trading of wildlife is subject to fines of VND7- 400 million (US$296-16,928).

The shy, tiny pangolin, which resembles a scaly anteater, is the world's most heavily trafficked mammal despite bans.

It is hunted in Vietnam and its neighborhood for meat and the alleged medicinal properties of its scales.

Over 96,000 kilograms (210,000 pounds) of scales were seized in Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam between 2017 and 2019 alone, TRAFFIC, the global wildlife trade monitoring program, said.
Colleagues and family members of legendary poet and translator Duong Tuong, who translated works like "Gone with the Wind" and "Kafka on the Shore" into Vietnamese, attended his funeral on Wednesday.

Tuong, who died on Feb. 24 at 91, had spent the last three months of his life at the Military Hospital 108 in Hanoi. He is survived by his wife, Nguyen Thi Trinh, and their three children: Hai Au, Tran Thi Huong and Tran Phuong Mai.

Tuong was a former reporter at the Vietnam News Agency and translator for a committee that investigates war crimes committed by the U.S. in Vietnam. He retired in 1979. With his love for languages, he self-studied French and English.

Throughout his life, he had translated over 50 literary works from numerous countries, including the U.S., Russia, Germany and Japan. Some notable works were "Lolita," "Gone with the Wind," "Wuthering Heights," and "Kafka on the Shore." He also translated "The Tale of Kieu" by poet Nguyen Du for the international audience.

Pham Xuan Nguyen, a critic and friend of Tuong, remembered him as a kind man.

"His kindness is shown through his personality and life attitude, but he is relentless when it comes to making art and studying languages. For over 60 years of his career, he squeezed out every last drop of his mind and body to translate classic works," he said.

Duong Thang, a translator, said Tuong was a self-studied talent. Tuong had a way to innovate things and forge his own path, while still being respectful to the innovations of his fellow colleagues, Thang said.

"His mind and work ethics are remarkable. Many people have planned to translate The Tale of Kieu, but all were unfinished. In his twilight years, as his time was running out, Tuong managed to finish it. It is something that future translators should learn from."

Xuan Ba, a writer, said Tuong was the embodiment of kindness.

"Besides his dedication to his career, Tuong also spent his time and efforts to support young writers and translators. His humility has earned him friends for life. Even in the final years of his life, many students still came to his house and helped him with typing and reading."
U.S. veteran Peter Mathews showcases pages of a Vietnam War diary that he has held onto for 56 years. Photo by VnExpress/Dang Huyen

A U.S. veteran who has kept a Vietnam War notebook for over 50 years would return it this weekend to the family of its owner, a Vietnamese martyr in the central province of Ha Tinh.

U.S. veteran Peter Mathews is expected to come to Ha Tinhs Ky Anh District on Saturday to return the notebook owned by Vietnamese martyr Cao Xuan Tuat, a representative of Ky Anh District said.

After Tuat's family receive the notebook, authorities would discuss about plans regarding the publication of the pages, the representative said.

The notebook is full of drawings and writings in Vietnamese that Mathews thought were songs, poetry and stories. He said he did not report the notebook to higher ups because he thought it was a simple diary, not military information.

Ha Huy My, 63, Tuat's nephew, said he and the family feel emotional, knowing his uncle's notebook would be returned.

"We would store it in the best condition possible," he said.

Mathews, 77, who lives in New Jersey, posted on social media in January that he was holding onto a 93-page notebook that belonged to a Vietnamese soldier in the Vietnam War. He picked up the notebook during a battle in Dak To in Kon Tum Province in Vietnam's Central Highlands in 1967.

After the news spread, the chairman of the Ha Tinh Fatherland Front Committee Tran Nhat Tan eventually contacted Mathews regarding the notebook. Authorities then performed verification processes and determined that the owner of the notebook was Cao Van Tuat, the content written by Tuat and his comrades.

Tuat, born in 1942, enlisted in the army in 1963 and died in 1967.
The Communist Party's 13th Central Committee introduced a presidential candidate at an extraordinary meeting Wednesday.

The National Assembly will hold a meeting on Thursday to formally elect the president for the 2021-2026 term.

According to Vietnamese Constitution 2013, the president is head of state, representing the country in internal and external affairs. The constitution rules that the president is elected by the National Assembly among the assemby's members.

The Party's introduction of a presidential candidate came weeks after former president Nguyen Xuan Phuc stepped down.

On Jan. 17, the Central Party Committee agreed to let Phuc stop serving as a member of the Politburo and the committee, Vietnam's president and chairman of the Council for National Defense and Security of the 2021-2026 term, upon his resignation request.

A day later, the National Assembly formally dismissed Phuc from his positions, and appointed then Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan as the interim president.

Phuc left his seat at the age of 69, following nearly two years serving as Vietnam's head of state. He said he felt responsible for letting several officials commit violations.

Two deputy prime ministers, Pham Binh Minh and Vu Duc Dam, were dismissed at a National Assembly extraordinary meeting on Jan. 5.

Two former ministers, Nguyen Thanh Long and Chu Ngoc Anh, and several other officials, are facing criminal charges for involvement in a Covid-19 test kit scandal.
Nguyen Thi Tuong Vi is summoned at a police station in Da Nang. Photo courtesy of the police

A woman has been placed on house arrest for facilitating illegal emigration to Canada by selling tourist visas to workers for up to $27,000 each, Da Nang police said Tuesday.

Nguyen Thi Tuong Vi, 42, who lives in Thua Thien-Hue, has been prohibited from leaving her place of residence while she is investigated for organizing illegal emigration.

Authorities said Vi formed the Nguyen Tuong Vi company, which brands itself as helping customers with study abroad paperwork and the procurement of foreign visas.

But police said that the company has been knowingly obtaining tourist visas for people intending to use them to work abroad.

In 2022, Vi cooperated with a person named Hanh in Canada to bring workers from Vietnam to Canada through tourist visas, according to investigators.

In March last year, a person named Loan allegedly asked Vi to perform necessary procedures to go to Canada for $18,000, police said.

Vi is accused of then applying for a tourist visa on Loans behalf.

Aside from filing the visa application, Vis services included creating profiles on official Canadian government websites and recommending jobs to Loan, according to allegations.

On Feb. 12, Loan, per Vis instructions, managed to travel to Canada, but was discovered by Canadian authorities the next day using a tourist visa for work purposes. Loan was eventually deported.

On Feb. 15, Vi visited the Da Nang International Airport to help two others illegally emigrate to Canada, but was discovered by authorities. Vi confessed to having received $22,000-27,000 from the two people to perform necessary procedures.

The investigation into the case is ongoing.
From left to right: 2022 Miss Universe R'Bonney Gabriel, President Anne Jakkapong Jakrajutatip, beauty Quynh Nga and second runner-up Andreina Martinez at the event to announce Miss Universe Vietnam JSC as the copyright owner of Miss Universe Vietnam on February 24, 2023. Photo by VnExpress/Dang Khoa

The Miss Universe Organization (MUO) has said that Unicorp cannot use the Miss Universe Vietnam brand name after its contract ended, while Unicrop has refuted the claim.

MUO said on Feb. 28 that they didnt renew the contract with Saigon Universe Corporation (Unicorp) after it failed to match the bid for the copyright of Miss Universe Vietnam pageant.

The legal director of JKN Global Group, which manages MUO, said Unicorp no longer has the right to use MUO's intellectual property, including the Miss Universe brand and the name Miss Universe Vietnam, including its Vietnamese name "Hoa Hau Hoan Vu Viet Nam".

"We are the legitimate owner of the Miss Universe Vietnam brand. Therefore, we will perform all the legal actions needed to protect our rights," the legal director said.

Unicorp CEO Tran Viet Bao Hoang opposed JKN's statements. He also said the current Miss Universe Vietnam copyright owner, Miss Universe Vietnam JSC, cant use the Vietnamese name of the pageant.

Hoang said that the contract between Miss Universe Vietnam JSC and JKN only included the right to send Vietnamese candidates to Miss Universe International and the ownership the Miss Universe Vietnam brand.

"JKN cannot include all the Vietnamese translations of the name into their ownership," he added.

Unicorp said they have built the brand Hoa Hau Hoan Vu Viet Nam through organizing the pageant for 15 years. Unicorp sent contestants to Miss Universe International from 2008-2022.

"Any individual or organization using or planning to use the name Hoa Hau Hoan Vu Viet Nam is unprofessional. We will drastically condemn them and will take action to protect our brand," Hoang said.

However, Unicorp has not yet responded to questions as to whether or not they have registered their ownership of the Hoa Hau Hoan Vu Viet Nam brand with the National Office of Intellectual Property.

The dispute began after a new unit acquired the copyright of Miss Universe Vietnam. On Feb. 18, after announcing it would stop cooperating with MUO, Unicorp announced that they would continue organize the Hoa Hau Hoan Vu Viet Nam pageant because they still own the name. Unicorp also removed the name "Miss Universe Vietnam" on its social networks and replaced it with "Hoa Hau Hoan Vu Viet Nam".

On Feb. 24, MUO announced that Miss Universe Vietnam JSC is the copyright owner of Miss Universe Vietnam. Attending the announcement event were Thai billionaire Anne Jakkapong Jakrajutatip  the new president of the Miss Universe pageant  the 2022 winner R'Bonney Gabriel, and second runner-up Andreina Martinez. After that, they opened a Facebook page named Miss Universe Vietnam  Hoa Hau Hoan Vu Vietnam, which currently has nearly 6,000 followers.

2022 Miss Universe Vietnam Nguyen Thi Ngoc Chau (L) and Unicorp CEO Tran Viet Bao Hoang at an event in 2022. Photo by Unimedia

Over the years, Miss Universe Vietnam JSC has successfully purchased around 30 copyrights to beauty contests and the right to send Vietnamese contestants to Miss World and Miss Grand International. In early January, Miss Universe Vietnam JSC organized the first Vietnamese-owned beauty contest, 2023 Miss Charm.

Miss Universe was established in 1952, founded by clothing company Pacific Mills in California. The copyright of the competition belonged to a number of companies before Donald Trump bought it in 1996. After beginning a political career, Trump sold the copyright to IMG Models, a model company based in New York. With 72 years of history, Miss Universe is one of the two oldest and largest beauty contests on the planet, alongside Miss World.

In late 2022, Anne Jakkapong Jakrajutatip purchased Miss Universe for $20 million. After taking control, she made many changes to the organization, including hosting bids to maintain the copyright of the contest, which caused controversy. Many companies in Indonesia, Belize, Malaysia and Ghana decided to withdraw from the bid since the copyright fee was too high.
Somalia has been suffering through a prolonged, unprecedented drought. Five failed rainy seasons, with a sixth expected in the spring have resulted in wide-spread hunger throughout the country. Exacerbating the situation are conflicts, such as the one caused by al-Shabaab, or Russias unprovoked attack on Ukraine, which is one of the worlds largest exporters of food. And making a bad situation worse are repercussions of the COVID pandemic, which sparked a supply chain crisis.



The humanitarian situation in Somalia is as dire as any in the world right now, said U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield. This combination of COVID, conflict, and climate  brought that horrific word back to Somalia. Famine, she said.

Famine is the ultimate failure of the international community. In a world abundant with food, entire communities should never, ever have to starve to death.

Tens of thousands of Somalis are thought to have died of hunger, although there are no accurate numbers as to how many. According to UNICEF, more than a half-million Somali children under the age of 5 are suffering from severe acute malnutrition. The fields lie fallow and millions of livestock have died, causing further distress.

Since the beginning of the 2022 fiscal year, the United States has provided more than 2.5 billion dollars of lifesaving assistance to the Horn of Africa, and 1.3 billion of that went directly to Somalia. On January 29, Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield announced that the United States, through the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, is providing more than 41 million dollars in new, urgently-needed assistance for the people of Somalia.

Our funding last year accounted for more than 80 percent of the World Food Programs emergency operations in the Horn of Africa. Four times greater than the contributions of all other countries combined. That aid has brought food, water, shelter to the Somali people, said Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield.

The United States cannot do this alone. This is a collective responsibility. This is about our shared humanity, she said.

The United States is asking other donors and the world to go bigger and be bolder. This is the moment to bolster your humanitarian contributions. To make a difference in the lives of the most vulnerable. To provide food and nutrition and health care access, access to water, sanitation, and shelter. To save lives. To give people dignity.
RIA Novosti: FBI Director Christopher Wray said on Tuesday that COVID-19 most likely came from a Chinese lab leak. Do you have any comment?

Mao Ning: China has noted the reports. I would like to stress two things:

First, China always supports and participates in science-based global origins-tracing of SARS-CoV-2. The origins-tracing is a complex matter of science. This study should be and can only be conducted jointly by scientists around the world. A laboratory origin of the pandemic was considered to be extremely unlikely is a science-based, authoritative conclusion reached by the experts of the WHO-China joint mission after field trips to the lab in Wuhan and in-depth communication with researchers. It was accurately recorded in the missions report and has received extensive recognition from the international community and the science community. At present, more and more clues from the international science community are pointing the origins of virus to sources around the world. Many have raised questions and concerns about US bio-military bases at Fort Detrick and around the world. The US should work with the WHO to invite experts from the world to the US for origins-tracing study as soon as possible, and share the research result with the international community in a timely, open and transparent manner.

Second, China strongly opposes political manipulation of the origins-tracing issue in any form. Putting the intelligence community in charge for a matter of science is a clear sign that the issue has been politicized. Given the US intelligence communitys track record of making up stories, there is little, if any, credibility in their conclusions. The US will not succeed in discrediting China by rehashing the lab leak theory, but will only hurt the USs own reputation.

We urge the US to respect science and facts, stop politicizing this issue, stop its intelligence-led, politics-driven origins-tracing, and stop undermining international solidarity against the pandemic and global cooperation on science-based origins-tracing.

Shenzhen TV: According to global media, many US companies plan to expand their business in China as they foresee a post-COVID economic rebound. The American Chamber of Commerce in South China (AmCham South China) recently released its 2023 White Paper on the Business Environment in China, which noted that more than 90% of the participating companies select China as one of the most important investment destinations and 75% of the companies plan to reinvest in China in 2023. Do you have any comment on the prospects for foreign investors in China?

Mao Ning: These facts show that China remains a popular destination for foreign investment. This is because China has a huge market and full-fledged industrial and supply chain networks. It is also a result of our relentless effort to advance high-level opening up, our support for the multilateral trading system and a market-oriented, world-class business environment governed by a sound legal framework.

Last month saw an influx of foreign investment into China. The paid-in foreign investment reached 127.69 billion yuan, up 14.5% year on year. Foreign companies including US investors have been upbeat about the China market and plan to expand in China. According to statistics from the US Department of Commerce, total trade in goods between the US and China hit a record $690.6 billion in 2022. All this speaks to the fact that trade and investment cooperation between China and the US are mutually beneficial and win-win. Decoupling and cutting off industrial and supply chains benefits no one. It has no support and will not lead anywhere.

No matter how the international landscape may change, we will not waver in our resolve to open wider at a high standard and our determination to share development opportunities with the rest of the world. We welcome US and other foreign companies to access the Chinese market, share development dividends and work together for a stronger world economy.

AFP: President Lukashenko of Belarus is one of the allies close to Russian President Putin. Does China plan to persuade the President during his visit in China to talk to President Putin to realize peace in Ukraine?

Mao Ning: President Lukashenkos state visit is ongoing. We will release timely information on that. China and Belarus, as two independent sovereign states, will exchange views on cooperation in various fields and international and regional issues of shared interest. Please check back for updates.

NBC: The US House special committee on China has launched a hearing on the threat of the Chinese Communist Party to the US. And at the same time the director of the FBI was reported as saying that COVID-19 most likely originated from the Wuhan lab, joining the Energy Department on this issue. How do you view these developments and their impact on the already difficult relations between the two countries?

Mao Ning: On the US House hearing, we call on relevant US institutions and individuals to abandon their ideological bias and zero-sum Cold War mentality, develop an objective and rational perception of China and US-China relations, stop framing China as a threat based on disinformation, stop denigrating the Communist Party of China, and stop trying to score political points at the expense of US-China relations.

On the remarks made by the FBI official, I have answered the question.

I wish to stress that China views and grows its relations with the US in accordance with the three principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation. In the meantime, we remain committed to defending Chinas sovereignty, security and development interests.

PTI: Foreign Minister Qin Gang is visiting New Delhi to take part in the G20 meeting. Do you have any details about his meetings, especially with the Indian counterparts during his visit?

Mao Ning: Foreign Minister Qin Gang will be in India for the G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting. We will release information on his visit in a timely manner.

China values its relations with India. China and India are ancient civilizations and both have more than one billion people. We are neighbors and are both emerging economies. A sound China-India relationship meets the fundamental interests of both countries and peoples.

Bloomberg: India is reportedly seeking to convince Beijing to go along with a consensus on describing Russias war in Ukraine similar to the one that was reached at the G20 leaders meeting last year. Will China agree to that similar language, which condemns Russia for invading Ukraine?

Mao Ning: Our position on the Ukraine issue is clear and consistent and fully laid out in the recently-released Chinas Position on the Political Settlement of the Ukraine Crisis, which is centered on promoting talks for peace. The international community needs to play a constructive role in deescalating the situation, reducing the temperature and facilitating a political settlement to the crisis.

Bloomberg: Im just wondering, MOFA repeatedly says that China is for promoting peace and we did see a 12-point document that laid out ideas. Has China carried out any actions to promote peace as yet that youd like to tell us about?

Mao Ning: Chinas Position on the Political Settlement of the Ukraine Crisis fully and systematically laid out Chinas position on the Ukraine issue. It reflects the worlds shared hope to end the crisis and let peace prevail at an early date, and Chinas sincerity in promoting talks for peace. We are ready to work with the rest of the world to continue to play a constructive role in working for a political settlement of the crisis.

Follow-up: Right, I get that. But the question is, has China actually done anything to promote peace?

Mao Ning: We have been in communication with all parties and actively promoting talks for peace.

Reuters: I have two questions. One question is about the EU, the European Parliament being the latest among EU institutions to ban TikTok on staff phones following Canada and the US. Does the ministry have any comment on this? And my second question is, the US has said that a Chinese satellite firm Spacety which the US has blacklisted, provided satellite images to Russian mercenary company Wagner Group. Does the ministry have any comment on this?

Mao Ning: On your first question, the EU says it is the most open market in the world, yet has recently imposed a string of restrictions and suppressed foreign companies in the name of national security. Such practice undermines global confidence in the EU business environment. The EU needs to act on its words and respect the principles of market economy and fair competition, stop overstretching and abusing the concept of national security. It needs to provide an open, fair, transparent and non-discriminatory business environment for all foreign companies.

On your second question, China is firmly opposed to US illegal unilateral sanctions.
In Haiti, political advancements are tempered by deteriorating security and humanitarian crises, according to the United Nations.

On December 21, Prime Minister Ariel Henry and representatives of numerous sectors of Haitian society signed a new political accord, the National consensus for an inclusive transition and transparent elections Agreement, which outlines plans for elections and the seating of Haitis first post-reform government.

We are encouraged that a broad spectrum of political actors, the private sector, civil society groups, religious groups, trade associations, and others were able to come together to agree on the necessary steps for Haiti to move towards free and fair elections, said U.S. Alternate Representative for Special Political Affairs Robert Wood. The adoption of the December 21 accord is an opportunity for Haitians to get back to restoring their countrys stability and improving governance. It is vital that the political accord and its implementation remain inclusive, and we value the role civil society and the private sector have played in helping bring disparate parties together.

However, in order to make progress, Haiti must address a number of serious problems, particularly the countrys humanitarian crisis and cholera epidemic, as well as its alarming levels of gang violence.

Gang-related violence has reached unprecedented levels, which has only exacerbated the ongoing humanitarian crisis and hampered the ability to address the cholera outbreak, which has disproportionately impacted children and youth, said Ambassador Wood.

The U.S. Government is providing hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign assistance to support efforts by the Haitian government and non-governmental organizations to address these challenges. To help address the rising levels of gang violence, the State Department has tripled its assistance to the Haitian National Police to $90 million since 2021. In addition, USAID is providing an additional 56.5 million dollars for humanitarian assistance.

U.S. foreign assistance is only part of the story. Sanctions also play an important supporting role. We are encouraged that the establishment of a sanctions regime by the [UN] Security Council has deterred those who would carry out and finance the violence causing Haitis instability, said Ambassador Wood.

Haiti is a priority partner in implementing the U.S. Strategy to Prevent Conflict and Promote Stability. The United States continues to work to address Haitis humanitarian crisis, as well as its insecurity and to support Haitian-led efforts to facilitate the political conditions that would lead to free and fair elections.
ELKO  Nasty weather took a bite out of gambling in Wendover during the month of January, but Elko County casinos still ended up in the black.

Wendover casinos won $21.1 million, a 2.33% drop from January 2022. The bulk of gamblers come from the Salt Lake City area, and multiple snowstorms affected travel throughout the month.

Casinos in the remainder of Elko County, however, saw a 14.66% increase in business. Overall, the county was up 3% with a total win of $32.7 million.

Reno and North Lake Tahoe casinos also saw weather-related declines, but rebounding casinos in Las Vegas pushed statewide numbers to record levels at just over $1 billion. Thats an increase of 18% over last January, when revenue was down due to spread of the omicron variant of COVID-19.

Statewide gaming revenue is up 4.8% for the fiscal year that began July 1.
ELKO  Chains or snow tires were required on highways throughout the Elko area Wednesday morning, and classes were canceled at Elko, Spring Creek and Wells public schools.

More snow fell across northeastern Nevada overnight and blowing snow continued to create hazardous road conditions.

In western Nevada, Gov. Joe Lombardo announced a two-hour delayed start for state offices in Carson City, Douglas County, Lyon County, Mineral County, Storey County, and Washoe County. Aside from essential public safety and corrections personnel, state government offices in these counties will open at 10:00 a.m.

Recent winter storms have created regional transportation delays and difficulties, and Governor Lombardo urges all Nevadans to continue to follow local guidance from the Nevada Department of Transportation and Department of Public Safety.

Lombardo asks all Nevadans to drive safely and to use sound judgment when navigating roadways.

Snow is expected to taper off in the Elko area but the wind will continue to cause drifting. Temperatures will remain cold with wind chill values around zero degrees Wednesday night, according to the National Weather Service.

Highs could top the freezing mark on Friday before more snow arrives Saturday and Sunday.
ELKO  Parents can learn about the classical method of teaching later this month when Steve Lambert, executive director of American Classical Schools of Idaho, will be in Elko to gauge local interest in forming a new elementary school here.

Lambert, who also serves as the founding principal of Treasure Valley Classical Academy (TVCA) in Fruitland, Idaho, has been invited by Nevada Classical Academy Elko (NVCA), a local group interested in starting a new school in Elko similar to Lamberts. His presentation is scheduled from 3 to 5 p.m. Saturday, March 18, in the upstairs meeting rooms of the Stockmens Hotel.

Lambert asked, Do you believe parents deserve a choice in where their children are educated? Do you think there is something missing in todays education system? Do you want to find out more about a new educational choice for our community? If so, come to this meeting.

Lamberts school in Idaho is affiliated with Hillsdale College of Michigan, and was the first member school to be certified by Hillsdale College nationally.

The Nevada Lands Council recruited NVCA directors last March to try to get a new school in Elko that would follow the Hillsdale classical education model. Amy Nelson, one of the directors, explained their group was frustrated over the continued decline in education across the country and particularly in Nevada, which is consistently listed near the bottom when compared to the other states.

Things have only gotten worse since we first met last year, added Rex Steninger, another director. The Nevada Legislature is currently considering Senate Bill 9 that would eliminate end-of-course testing, educational involvement accords and reports to parents. All of those will only worsen the education available for our children. We have to do something to change this trend and we feel offering alternatives to the traditional public school system is the only answer.

The NVCA organizers who visited Lamberts school said they came home totally impressed and determined to duplicate his efforts here in Elko. Lambert and others have advised them that the first step in the process is to assess the local interest in establishing a new school offering a classical education. To that end, they invited Lambert to Elko.

We need a great turnout to keep our plans moving forward, Steninger said. The Elko Institute for Academic Achievement is doing a fantastic job and test scores there are blowing away the traditional public schools in the state. We want to know if there is room in Elko for another school alternative. We want to know if it should be a charter school like EIAA that receives state funding but must also follow state mandates or a private school that parents must fund but is free to make its own decisions.

Fellow board member Cadie Hatch explained the classical model of education was once the dominant method of learning in the Western world. Many of our Founding Fathers were educated by the classical method, including Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and James Madison. These men were academically brilliant, but whats more, they possessed incredible moral character. Along with their mathematics and history lessons, they were taught virtues such as honor, perseverance and self-control.

Ultimately, the goals of a classical education are to create lifelong learners, promote individual growth and self-improvement, and raise responsible citizens who understand and fulfill their duties and responsibilities as citizens, she added. She homeschools her four children with the classical model.

Classical education offers explicit instruction with the goal of finding the good, the true and the beautiful in each subject. This education model offers students high academic achievement and enduring habits of self-government. It prepares them to make a great life, not just a good living, added director Lisa Becker, a graduate of Hillsdale College.

Julie Woodbury, another local director, said, The Hillsdale model uses of the trivium (grammar, logic and rhetoric) as a learning tool to master academic subject content.

Stockmens Hotel has donated the meeting room and the NVCA directors urge anyone planning to stay the night to thank the hotel by staying there.

Questions can be directed to the NVCA at nvca.elko@gmail.com.
ELKO  An Elko man was arrested Sunday on multiple charges after police chased his vehicle from a mine parking lot through town on Interstate 80.

Police said they were contacted by mine security at 2:20 a.m. regarding a suspicious vehicle in the lot on West Idaho Street, which has had numerous auto burglaries in the past. The vehicle reportedly sped off when approached, and when police arrived it was found idling in the bus lane.

Police activated their lights and sirens but the vehicle failed to yield, and it struck a fence surrounding the parking lot before getting onto I-80 and driving toward Elko at speeds in excess of 105 mph. Police said the vehicle was being operated in a manner likely to endanger other people or property.

The vehicle eventually crashed about 10 miles east of town and the driver rolled down the window. Police said they got a clear view of the driver before he sped off again headed east. Then he turned around at mile marker 317 and headed back toward Elko, again exceeding 105 mph.

Spikes were deployed on the freeway in Elko, deflating one of the tires, but the vehicle continued on and headed north on Mountain City Highway before turning onto Argent Avenue. At this point police lost sight of the vehicle and began canvassing the area.

The vehicle was located at a residence on Dux Avenue and the driver was identified as Benjamin C. Lucero, 34. Police said he was originally cooperative but then resisted being placed in wrist restraints.

Lucero was taken to the hospital for evaluation before being booked on charges of driver disobeying peace officer endangering others, false statement to obstruct a public officer, resisting a public officer, failure to stop at accident with attended vehicle or property damage, aggressive driving, speeding 41 or more mile per hour over limit, and destroying the property of another.

His bail was listed at $6,590.
ELKO  The City of Elko welcomed new Fire Chief James Johnston who was sworn in Tuesday.

The Elko native took the oath of office in front of Mayor Reece Keener and the Elko City Council Tuesday evening with his family in attendance, after the City Council unanimously approved the appointment.

Johnston, who has served as a firefighter for more than 20 years in Elko, briefly spoke to the City Council and audience.

Mr. Mayor and members of the Council and community, its been an amazing experience so far. I cant wait to work with people that have already been here, the relationships we have. Ive said a million times, it doesnt matter how big the engines or trucks we have, its the people inside them that count and the people we serve. Thank you very much.

Johnston replaces Jack Snyder, who was appointed fire chief on Dec. 24, 2021, after the retirement of Matt Griego.

Snyders resignation letter was submitted to the City on Jan. 19, which stated his last day was Feb. 3.

The Council decided on Feb. 14 to appoint Johnston, after looking at options including opening the position up to internal candidates or going through a competitive recruitment process.

Council members were largely in favor of the appointment, noting Johnston successfully stepped in following Snyders departure.

Councilman Chip Stone, who serves as Fire Department liaison, said Johnston was well supported by his peers.

Councilman Giovanni Puccinelli added that after speaking to Johnston he was impressed with his vision of the future of the department. He is a local guy with a stake in the community [and] is a firm believer in promoting from within.

City Manager Jan Baum said she also supported the appointment, having worked with Johnston recently, and that he seems very knowledgeable about the community.

Former fire chief Greigo recommended Johnston to the position in a letter submitted to the City Council.

Johnston is a highly motivated fire officer who has been very involved in the departments education and training programs, Griego wrote. I am confident that Chief Johnston is the leader the City of Elko Fire Department needs to rebuild and carry it into the future.

Growing up in Elko, Johnston graduated from Elko High School in 1993. He attended the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and earned his first bachelors degree in psychology.

A ride-along with the Henderson Fire Department for a study in a stress-related field sparked Johnstons interest in firefighting. I was like, This is it. This what I want to do.

He completed his psychology degree, enrolled in an EMT school in Las Vegas, and joined AMR (American Medical Response) in Las Vegas for a couple of years before returning to Elko.

A love of learning prompted Johnson to continue his education as his career in firefighting progressed. He has earned an associates and bachelors degree in fire science and another associates in paramedicine.

He furthered his education with a masters degree in emergency management. Im currently in a PhD program for emergency management and fire administration, he said.

In 2001, Johnston returned to Elko, eager to get on board with the City of Elko Fire Department.

One of the best things was coming back to the city I grew up in and helping the people who helped me growing up. Also, being part of a smaller community where its a little bit more significant. You feel like youre part of something thats special in a smaller town, in my opinion.

Its a little bit difficult to get on the Fire Department here more than a bigger city because theres not very many openings in Elko, he said.

His love of firefighting kept him riding the engines and taking on various jobs within the department before becoming Deputy Fire Chief after Snyders appointment.

Ive been in every position on the line except Fire Marshal in the department. Thats kind of cool coming up from the very bottom to fire chief, which hasnt happened for a while, Johnston said.

Having been raised in Elko and advancing through the ranks, Johnston said he has observed the Elko Fire Department having a unique culture.

I think each fire department has their own culture and ours is unique to our area, he explained. Theres a lot of different influences and people who value different things.

Its good to understand that culture and understand whats expected of you from the City Council, the community, the people you work with, he continued.

Johnston said as Fire Chief he has a really good core group now of career and volunteer firefighters and is planning to get the department back to the basic fundamentals of firefighting and doing things from the ground up that weve been lacking in years past.

Its hitting the reset button, going back and doing things right. Starting from square one and building from that point forward, he said. Focusing on the core fundamentals that weve either been lacking or still havent been as sharp they should be.

Im looking forward to doing that for both volunteer and career, and we have some amazing people that volunteer in the community and its awesome to see their commitment and their abilities used for our community, Johnston said.

Additionally, Johnston serves on the Northeastern Nevada Regional Hospital Board and is an elder at St. Marks Lutheran Church.

I love the community. Its been my home for a long time and its cool to be here, he said.

Johnston, whose father Jim Johnston served as an Elko police officer and Elko County Sheriff between 1979 and 1981, said his family was excited for him to start the new position.

Hes very excited, and my wife and kids are very excited, he said.

The promotion is an honor for Johnston, who is anxious to step into the new leadership role.

Im very honored to serve our community and lead the fire department, he said. Its going to be a learning experience at first, and Im excited to be in that role.
The remains were determined to be female and, over the years, multiple methods were used in an effort to identify her but they were unsuccessful
There have been some changes in The Super Mario Bros. Movie schedule: The Illumination and Nintendo animation film will lead us down the pipeline sooner than expected. This was announced by Universal Pictures both on its website and on official social media accounts, where it confirmed the movie would now release a couple of days earlier.

Wahoo! The #SuperMarioMovie is moving from April 7 to April 5 in the US and in more than 60 markets around the world. The movie hits theaters in additional markets in April and May, with Japan opening April 28. pic.twitter.com/CjlikfC3cu  The Super Mario Bros. Movie (@supermariomovie) February 28, 2023

Wahoo! The #SuperMarioMovie is moving from April 7 to April 5 in the US and in more than 60 markets around the world. The movie hits theaters in additional markets in April and May, with Japan opening April 28.

Characters, Nintendos greatest strength according to Miyamoto

In a recent interview with IGN, Shigeru Miyamoto stated that the characters created by the company are Nintendo's greatest strength. The Japanese creative highlighted the importance of using them in different types of media beyond just games. If there is a business opportunity, wed certainly love to explore it. But Nintendos a company with many different talents involved, he added.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie will have Chris Pratt as the voice of Mario himself. He is joined by Anya Taylor-Joy (Peach), Charlie Day (Luigi), Keegan-Michael Kay (Toad), Jack Black (Bowser), Seth Rogen (Donkey Kong), Fred Armisen (Cranky Kong), and Khary Payton (Penguin King). As well as Kevin Michael Richardson (Kamek).

The Mushroom Kingdom is in danger again, but the plumber will put on his overalls not to practice plumbing, but to use his skills and become the hero he always was. M

Source | Universal Pictures
Over the past three years, from the start of 2020 until the close of 2022, Sino-European relations were significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Fear about the unknown virus, unprecedented measures and inward-looking strategies generated a type of uncertainty. The lack of in-person conversations only added to the challenge. Although important political meetings were conducted in the digital realm, the impersonal character of such interactions presented obstacles.

Despite these difficulties, China and the European Union cooperated on several fronts. For instance, trade between the two entities experienced growth, except for the pandemic's first phase. The two sides also valued the role of the World Health Organization during the pandemic and joined forces in COVAX to help others with vaccines. However, problems and disagreements frequently overshadowed areas of coordination. In a remarkable case, the Comprehensive Agreement on Investments was not ratified in 2021, despite seven years of challenging bilateral negotiations.

As 2022 came to a close, physical communication began to return to some normalcy. China and Europe decided to work together and create the necessary presuppositions for 2023 to be a different, better year.

The Chinese government recently announced optimized pandemic control and prevention measures, which will undoubtedly boost people-to-people exchanges. Tourism flows to and from China will resume this year. Such a resumption will benefit both the Chinese and European economies. As a result, China's reopening has been positively perceived in Europe.

The recent visit of China's top diplomat Wang Yi to Germany, where he spoke at the Munich Security Conference, and to France, Italy and Hungary is another indication of the Chinese government's and European countries' will to collaborate. As already mentioned, efforts are demonstrating continuity. French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will visit Beijing this year. The press release that the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued after Wang's visit to Paris highlighted several sectors where interests intersect, including Ukraine, Iran, food security, biodiversity and the global financial pact. A similar trend is evident in relations between China and other European states as well as the European Union.

2023 is a crucial year, as while the pandemic may be over, its economic consequences linger. Additionally, the conflict in Ukraine continues to cause regional and international instability and death. In such challenging circumstances, it is difficult to envisage better days for the world without cooperation, and China and Europe are crucial actors in this process.

A few days ago, statistics revealed that Manzhouli, China's largest land port, handled 4,818 freight trains between China and Europe in 2022, up 37.6% on a yearly basis. These trains carried 382,058 TEUs of cargo, with a total value of approximately $7 billion. The resilience of globalization and interconnectivity remains strong. Of course, discussions ought to look beyond trade. While China and the EU may disagree on many issues, there is a willingness to talk to each other. Expectations for fruitful consultations, even without leading to a synthesis of opinions, are high in 2023.
At the meeting (Photo: VNA)

So said Mr. Mihai Condescu, Chairman of the Romania - Vietnam Friendship Association "Lotus" during a meeting with Mr. Ho Quang Loi, President of the Vietnam - Romania Friendship Association on February 27 in Hanoi.

Mr. Mihai Condescu said that the traditional and friendly relations between Romania and Vietnam should be cultivated and developed by the results of specific and practical cooperation activities. The two countries have had good cooperation results in the field of politics and diplomacy. In the field of economy and trade, the achieved results are not commensurate with the potential and stature of the two countries' relations.

According to the President of the Romania - Vietnam Friendship Association, Romania currently has the need to employ about 100,000 foreign workers, including simple and highly qualified workers in the fields of engineering, healthcare and scientific research. Meanwhile, Vietnamese workers have strengths in hard work, diligence and ingenuity at work. Currently, about 3,500 Vietnamese workers are working in Romania, mainly in the construction sector.

Mr. Ho Quang Loi said that the Vietnam - Romania Friendship Association will inform relevant authorities of the contents of Mr. Mihai Condescu's exchange, proposing to include the content of cooperation on labor and employment into the discussion program of the Vietnam - Romania Joint Committee.

At the meeting, the two sides also informed about the activities of the two associations, discussed the direction of upcoming cooperation to contribute to strengthening and expanding the traditional friendship, solidarity and mutual understanding between the Vietnamese people and the Romanian people./.
Notice of the "My Dream" Drawing Competition for African Youths

Last year, Chinese Government has held a successful "Talk with Taikonuats" Event, during which African youths expressed their interest in the field of space and aspiration to fly into space one day. This year we will make their dreams come true!

From 1 March, Chinese Follow-up Committee of FOCAC and China Manned Space Engineering Office will jointly organize a drawing competition on the theme of "My Dream", inviting African youths to record their hopes and dreams with their paintings.

The top 10 outstanding award-winning works will be sent to the Chinese Tiangong Space Station, and will be displayed live on global social network platforms within this year. The winners will also have a trophy and awarding money for their good job. We are looking forward to your participation!

How to participate?

Please submit your painting to the Embassy by 25 March 2023, providing your name, contact information, the title and a brief description of your work (around 200 words). The paper material of the painting is not limited, and the size of the painting should not exceed A3 paper size in principle (i.e. less than 420*297 mm in length and width)

The e-mail address of the Embassy: chinaemb_sl@mfa.gov.cn

Chinese Follow-up Committee of FOCAC

China Manned Space Engineering Office

Chinese Embassy in Sierra Leone

March 1, 2023




At the meeting (Photo: VNA)

Speaking at the opening of the meeting in Khon Kaen, Vietnamese Ambassador to Thailand Phan Chi Thanh said that this is the first time the Vietnamese representative agencies in Thailand have held a meeting and worked with a large number of leaders of the General Association of Overseas Vietnamese and its branches in Thailands localities.

He affirmed that the meeting is a valuable opportunity for the Vietnamese representative agencies in Thailand to grasp the concerns and aspirations of the Vietnamese community in Thailand, and thus promptly find solutions and measures to maximize support for the community, contributing to the strong and prosperous development of the General Association and its branches.

Speaking at the meeting, Consul General Chu Duc Dung said that for years, the community helped connect overseas Vietnamese, promote patriotic traditions, preserve the national cultural identity, and maintain the teaching/learning of the Vietnamese language in Thailand.

He asked the associations to work out plans to promote solidarity, support overseas Vietnamese and engage them in community activities and movements toward the homeland.

At the meeting, leaders of the General Assembly of Overseas Vietnamese in Thailand and its branches raised many enthusiastic and practical ideas, contributing to the work of the general association, economic cooperation between Vietnams localities and overseas Vietnamese businessmen, and the next generation of overseas Vietnamese.

Concluding the meeting, Ambassador Phan Chi Thanh affirmed that the Vietnamese representative agencies in Thailand will try to support overseas Vietnamese to establish cultural centers, organize community activities, and continue to promote the teaching and learning of the Vietnamese language in Thailand, especially for the younger generation.

On the associations, he also called to continue promoting their role in uniting and connecting overseas Vietnamese, as well as maintaining their image as a model outstanding Vietnamese community for those all over the world./.
A doctor gives a boy medical treatment during an event held by Guizhou Provincial People's Hospital and the Guizhou Hospital of Shanghai Children's Medical Center to provide children with free multidisciplinary consultation and gene tests in Guiyang, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Feb. 28, 2023. (Xinhua)

GUIYANG, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Wang Chaobin (pseudonym) and his wife, residents in southwest China's Guizhou Province, gave birth to two babies, who both passed away when they were less than one year old.

Their third child developed symptoms of coughing, wheezing, and breathing difficulties when he was nine months old. After treatment at the Guizhou Hospital of Shanghai Children's Medical Center, the little boy was temporarily out of danger.

After knowing the couple's reproductive history, doctors at the hospital carried out tandem mass spectrometry and gene testing. They found that the third child suffers from a rare disease -- primary carnitine deficiency combined with dilated cardiomyopathy.

Wang Xike, a pediatrician at the hospital, said this rare disease is mostly found in infancy and results from gene disorders. "Despite low incidence, the disease should be diagnosed and treated in time, which helps reduce the damage to the heart muscle and organs and improve the life quality of children," Wang added.

Now, the boy has his disease under control with the oral drug L-carnitine. He can go to kindergarten and enjoy his childhood like other children.

There are more than 7,000 rare diseases and 350 million related patients worldwide. About 80 percent of rare diseases are hereditary, and some 50 percent start in childhood.

Most rare diseases can neither be identified and diagnosed in time nor treated effectively, thus bringing a massive burden to society and the family.

China has about 20 million patients with rare diseases, with more than 200,000 new cases found annually. In January, seven drugs for rare diseases, including pulmonary hypertension and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, were added to the national medical insurance drug list. At present, there are 52 drugs on the list covering 27 rare diseases.

Before the Spring Festival holiday in 2023, six-year-old Xiaoshen (pseudonym) was hospitalized for bronchitis in a county hospital in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. He was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) when he was one and a half years old.

"Due to this disease, he is too weak to hold the spoon and easily chokes while sitting and eating," said Qin Li, Xiaoshen's mother. Thanks to the Chinese government's centralized drug-procurement program, the price of a single jab of the drug Nusinersen to treat SMA decreased from 700,000 yuan (about 101,000 U.S. dollars) to 33,000 yuan. China's national health insurance will cover most of the expenses, and they only need to pay some 8,000 yuan.

"With the drug, we have hope," said Qin.

From the diagnosis and publication of a catalog of rare diseases to drug development and establishment of a medical collaboration network, China has made great efforts to improve the public's awareness and treatment ability of rare diseases.

Cui Dao, a resident from Guizhou, took his child to have a physical examination in a local hospital and was told to take the child to Shanghai to figure out a problem with the youngster's hip joint. Fortunately, experts from Shanghai came to Guizhou.

"We can enjoy convenient medical services in the province, which helps save time and money for traveling," said Cui.

Since November 2022, experts from Shanghai Children's Medical Center have come to Guizhou to carry out diagnosis, treatment, and operations for children with complex and baffling diseases, including rare diseases.

In March, Guizhou Hospital of Shanghai Children's Medical Center will be put into formal operation in the capital city of Guiyang. This public hospital is one of the fourth batches of China's regional medical centers to bring high-quality medical resources from the east to the western regions.

"We try to reduce the incidence of rare diseases from the very beginning of life," said Ge Yihua, a senior doctor at Guizhou Hospital of Shanghai Children's Medical Center.

There are more than 8,000 known birth defects, and a large proportion are rare. China has encouraged premarital examination, birth examination, and newborn screening to prevent birth defects.

There are now more than 4,800 prenatal screening institutions and some 500 prenatal diagnostic institutions nationwide, offering early screening, treatment and intervention for rare diseases. 

Editor: Zhang Zhou
Tourists watch a film at Luoyi ancient city in Luoyang, central China's Henan Province, Feb. 22, 2023. Official data showed that the city saw 10.31 million trips in January of 2023, generating 6.28 billion yuan (about 902.44 million U.S. dollars) in revenue, up 746.63 percent and 690.06 percent year on year respectively. (Xinhua/Li An)

A tourist selects clothes at a store in Luoyi ancient city of Luoyang, central China's Henan Province, Feb. 22, 2023. Official data showed that the city saw 10.31 million trips in January of 2023, generating 6.28 billion yuan (about 902.44 million U.S. dollars) in revenue, up 746.63 percent and 690.06 percent year on year respectively. (Xinhua/Li An)

This aerial photo taken on Feb. 23, 2023 shows the scenery of the Laojun Mountain scenic spot in Luanchuan County of Luoyang, central China's Henan Province. Official data showed that the city saw 10.31 million trips in January of 2023, generating 6.28 billion yuan (about 902.44 million U.S. dollars) in revenue, up 746.63 percent and 690.06 percent year on year respectively. (Xinhua/Li An)

Tourists visit the Laojun Mountain scenic spot in Luanchuan County of Luoyang, central China's Henan Province, Feb. 23, 2023. Official data showed that the city saw 10.31 million trips in January of 2023, generating 6.28 billion yuan (about 902.44 million U.S. dollars) in revenue, up 746.63 percent and 690.06 percent year on year respectively. (Xinhua/Li An)

This aerial photo taken on Feb. 23, 2023 shows visitors enjoying the scenery of the Laojun Mountain scenic spot in Luanchuan County of Luoyang, central China's Henan Province. Official data showed that the city saw 10.31 million trips in January of 2023, generating 6.28 billion yuan (about 902.44 million U.S. dollars) in revenue, up 746.63 percent and 690.06 percent year on year respectively. (Xinhua/Li An)

This aerial photo taken on Feb. 23, 2023 shows the scenery of the Laojun Mountain scenic spot in Luanchuan County of Luoyang, central China's Henan Province. Official data showed that the city saw 10.31 million trips in January of 2023, generating 6.28 billion yuan (about 902.44 million U.S. dollars) in revenue, up 746.63 percent and 690.06 percent year on year respectively. (Xinhua/Li An)

A tourist visits the Laojun Mountain scenic spot in Luanchuan County of Luoyang, central China's Henan Province, Feb. 23, 2023. Official data showed that the city saw 10.31 million trips in January of 2023, generating 6.28 billion yuan (about 902.44 million U.S. dollars) in revenue, up 746.63 percent and 690.06 percent year on year respectively. (Xinhua/Li An)

This aerial photo taken on Feb. 23, 2023 shows the scenery of the Laojun Mountain scenic spot in Luanchuan County of Luoyang, central China's Henan Province. Official data showed that the city saw 10.31 million trips in January of 2023, generating 6.28 billion yuan (about 902.44 million U.S. dollars) in revenue, up 746.63 percent and 690.06 percent year on year respectively. (Xinhua/Li An)

Tourists visit Luoyi ancient city in Luoyang, central China's Henan Province, Feb. 22, 2023. Official data showed that the city saw 10.31 million trips in January of 2023, generating 6.28 billion yuan (about 902.44 million U.S. dollars) in revenue, up 746.63 percent and 690.06 percent year on year respectively. (Xinhua/Li An)

This photo taken on Feb. 22, 2023 shows exhibits in a shop at Luoyi ancient city in Luoyang, central China's Henan Province, Feb. 22, 2023. Official data showed that the city saw 10.31 million trips in January of 2023, generating 6.28 billion yuan (about 902.44 million U.S. dollars) in revenue, up 746.63 percent and 690.06 percent year on year respectively. (Xinhua/Li An)

A tourist poses for photos at Luoyi ancient city in Luoyang, central China's Henan Province, Feb. 22, 2023. Official data showed that the city saw 10.31 million trips in January of 2023, generating 6.28 billion yuan (about 902.44 million U.S. dollars) in revenue, up 746.63 percent and 690.06 percent year on year respectively. (Xinhua/Li An)

Tourists visit the Laojun Mountain scenic spot in Luanchuan County of Luoyang, central China's Henan Province, Feb. 23, 2023. Official data showed that the city saw 10.31 million trips in January of 2023, generating 6.28 billion yuan (about 902.44 million U.S. dollars) in revenue, up 746.63 percent and 690.06 percent year on year respectively. (Xinhua/Li An)

Actors perform at Luoyi ancient city in Luoyang, central China's Henan Province, Feb. 22, 2023. Official data showed that the city saw 10.31 million trips in January of 2023, generating 6.28 billion yuan (about 902.44 million U.S. dollars) in revenue, up 746.63 percent and 690.06 percent year on year respectively. (Xinhua/Li An)

Editor: JYZ
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy invited the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to join the work to leverage Russian assets to compensate Ukraine for damage.

"Today I met with the Secretary-General of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. It is one of the most powerful global organizations bringing together the world's leading countries. Those countries where people really want to live," he said in a video address on Tuesday.

According to Zelenskyy, "our goal is for Ukraine to fully join the organization and to use the OECD experience to modernize our country."

"Today we talked, in particular, about a fair tax system for Ukrainians  transparent, simple, and one that will strike a balance between stimulating business and economic growth and ensuring social justice," the president said.

He also "offered the OECD to join the work on leveraging Russia's assets to compensate for the damage caused by Russian aggression."
The National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) has included Metro Cash&Carry in the list of international sponsors of the war, the agency's press service has reported.

As noted in the press release, the decision was made due to the position of the company's management to continue operations in Russia. In addition to the retail business, the interests of the management of Metro Cash & Carry are closely related to the strategic sectors of the Russian economy: oil and gas and banking.

So, according to the results of journalistic investigations, it became known that the major shareholder of Metro Cash & Carry, Daniel Kretinsky, controls EP Infrastructure (EPIF), which owns 49% of Eustream. This company operates a gas transmission system that transports Russian gas to Central and Eastern Europe.

"While the entire civilized world is refusing the energy resources of the terrorist state, the leadership of Metro Cash & Carry demonstrates that cooperation with the Russian Federation will not only not be terminated but will only intensify in the future. It is evidenced by the recognition of payment by Mir cards (a Sberbank project) acceptable by Metro Cash & Carry and the implementation of new projects in Russia, such as Fasol, a network of grocery stores near the house.

Also, those who studied Metro Cash & Carry activities in Russia draw attention to the company's participation in "ideological" Russian initiatives. In particular, at the end of last year, information that the German METRO network in Russia was selling "Wagner sledgehammers," "attributes" of mercenaries from the terrorist PMC Wagner, which gained conditional popularity in Russia after the publication of cruel videos, was circulating on the Internet. Obviously, in this way, the management of the trading network demonstrates maximum loyalty to the regime of the aggressor country.

Previously, NACP has already included the following companies in the list of international sponsors of the war: Procter & Gamble, OpenWay Group, Danieli, TMS Tankers Ltd., Minerva Marine Inc., Thenamaris Ships Management, Delta Tankers Ltd., Dynacom Tankers Management Ltd. Mondi PLC, eKassir, Liberian International Ship & Corporate Registry, and Bonduelle. Recently, the French corporation Auchan Holding was added here.

All companies included in this list are included in the World-Check Risk Intelligence database from the London Stock Exchange Group to protect the financial sector from the sponsors of the Russian war.

The role of the NACP in the sanctions policy is defined in the roadmap for individual sanctions developed by the Stanford International Working Group on Russian Sanctions.
The Russian servicemen have been noticed evacuating their families from the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimes, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said.

"The evacuation of certain categories of citizens from temporarily occupied Crimea has been recorded again. Lately, the servicemen of the Russian occupation forces deployed in Perevalne have been sending their families to Russia," it said on Facebook.
The OECD-Ukraine Liaison office will function provisionally until 2026.

"Today, March 1, the official office of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development begins its work in Kyiv. This will provide an opportunity to coordinate joint work in the field of restoration of Ukraine, while improving the implementation of OECD tools, standards and recommendations in Ukraine," the press service of the government said in a statement.

The presence of the OECD office will help the country become a full-fledged member of the organization.

"Since Ukraine has been recognized as a potential member of the OECD, the office will provisionally function until 2026 to provide support to our country during the recovery," the government said.

As reported, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on February 28 that the OECD Ukraine programme could be signed as early as June 2023.
IMF mission on future program with Ukraine to work in Warsaw from March 8-15  Minister Marchenko

From March 8 to March 15, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission will work in Warsaw with representatives of Ukraine to discuss the parameters of a potential future program, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko has said.

"There we will agree on the conditions, and the content, and volumes, and so on. It is still too early to talk about specific details, because there are many issues of the Fund's internal discussion," he said on the air of the national telethon on Wednesday evening.

Marchenko explained that there are "certain contradictions" at the IMF board of, since, unfortunately, not all countries out of 180 support Ukraine.

"Therefore, in order for us to receive full consensus and support, we need to work a little, including within this organization," the head of the Ministry of Finance said.

He stressed that the Ukrainian side is actively working on this.

"I think we will find the necessary solutions so that, starting from April, we have a full-fledged program with the Fund," Marchenko said.

As reported, Ukraine, in the face of the IMF's unwillingness to immediately allocate significant funding in the fall of last year, requested from the Fund a four-month Monitoring Program with Board Involvement (PMB), which the Fund approved on December 20.
Russia does not count people it sends to assault Ukrainian positions in Bakhmut region, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address on Tuesday.

"Today I held a regular meeting of the Headquarters. Again in an expanded format. The Main Intelligence Agency, the Ministry of Defense, the Commander-in-Chief, and the commanders of the directions reported. We are dealing with the situation in each of the front directions in detail. The hardest thing is still Bakhmut and the battles that are important for protecting the city. Russia in general does not count people, sending them to constant assaults on our positions. The intensity of the fighting is only growing," he said.

According to Zelenskyy, "at Headquarters, we also considered other areas in Donbas, as well as the areas of responsibility of Tavria and Odesa groups."

"General Moskaliov reported on the situation around Kherson and the region. General Nayev reported on the situation in the north and along the perimeter of the border  our forces have control over the situation. We are preparing the return of our soldiers to active actions for the liberation of our land. We remember this our just goal, and everyone day we are approaching its implementation," Zelenskyy said.
U.S. Department of Defense Inspector General Robert Storch said his department has not yet identified cases of misuse of U.S. aid to Ukraine, according to the Associated Press statement on Tuesday.

It is noted that Storch made such a statement at a hearing in the U.S. House of Representatives, speaking about military and other assistance provided to Kyiv. However, he warned that investigations into the matter are still in the early stages.

Storch said his agency had received a number of pieces of evidence that needed to be verified. "Storch, who was testifying with other Pentagon leaders before the House Armed Services Committee, repeatedly said he did not want to talk about investigations that have not yet been completed," according to the Associated Press.

The Congress has recently been emphasizing that the United States must be sure that the aid sent to Ukraine is used for its intended purpose. "Some lawmakers have already begun to question why the U.S. is spending so much to help Kyiv," the agency said.
Nikos Christodoulides (front) speaks during a swearing-in ceremony at the parliament in Nicosia, Cyprus, on Feb. 28, 2023. Christodoulides, 49, was sworn in on Tuesday as new president of Cyprus, promising that finding a solution to the long-lasting Cyprus issue will be his top priority. (Photo by George Christophorou/Xinhua)

NICOSIA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Nikos Christodoulides, 49, was sworn in on Tuesday as new president of Cyprus, promising that finding a solution to the long-lasting Cyprus issue will be his top priority.

The swearing-in ceremony before a special session of parliament marks the beginning of his five-year presidency, after Christodoulides won a runoff on Feb. 12 with 52 percent of the vote.

The ministers in his new cabinet will all be technocrats without party affiliation, as agreed with three small "middle ground" and right-wing parties that supported him during the election campaign.

The country's new foreign minister will be Constantinos Kombos, a professor of public and constitutional law at the state University of Cyprus.

"A solution to the Cyprus problem is my top priority," he said.

Negotiations, which started almost half a century ago between Greek and Turkish Cypriots for a solution, came to an impasse during a United Nations-led (UN) international conference in Switzerland in July 2017, when the sides failed to agree on the details of a UN-brokered solution for a federal state.

Last week, Christodoulides met for the first time with Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar, who insisted on a new demand by Turkiye and the Turkish Cypriot side that negotiations not be resumed unless the Greek Cypriots agree to a two-state solution.

Political analysts say that they do not expect any dramatic changes in Cyprus' pro-Western foreign policy line. At Tuesday's ceremony in parliament, Christodoulides praised outgoing President Nicos Anastasiades, who completed two consecutive five-year terms, for taking up office at the peak of Cyprus' worst ever economic crisis in 2013 and transferring to the new government a healthy economy. 
Elnur Enveroglu

In addition to the reported evil acts of Iran's incumbent regime against human rights in the name of Islam, the news keeps coming about other fresh venomous provocations of the mullahcracy, that is, the mass poisoning of female students in some provinces of the country.

Moreover, almost all suspicions vis-a-vis the poisoning of female students indicate that Iran's religious structures have a hand in these crimes, and a branch of the IRGC with headquarters in the city of Qom is believed to be behind the mass poisoning of young girls.

Reports leaked out of the country reveal that almost 700 girls have been poisoned by toxic gas in Iran since November, in what, many independent experts see as a deliberate attempt to force parents against sending their daughters to schools.

As reports indicate, the first poisoning incident was registered on 30 November, when 18 students from the Nour Technical School in the religious city of Qom were hospitalized.

Since then, over 10 schools for girls have been targeted in the surrounding provinces.

At least 194 girls are reported to have been poisoned in the past week at four schools in the city of Borujerd, in the western province of Lorestan.

As the reports further reveal, Iran has never ceased violating human rights and tarnishes the Islamic world with many such sinister plots that are devised to prevent young and resourceful generations in the country from attending schools and universities.

However, these are the tip of the iceberg that surfaces in the public domain and show the atrocities against citizens of the country.

The immoral behavior of representatives of the mullahcracy is believed to be committed under the eye of top members of religious organizations, who are believed to have an involvement in crimes such as human trafficking, child abuse, and molesting of young ladies. And sadly to say that those are mostly virgin girls who were persuaded to study religion before they get caught by the regimes poisonous hook.

The victim speaks

An Azerbaijani woman, called Gultakin Majidova, narrated what happened to her once she was in Irans Qom for study purposes:

In 2006, they took us to Qom, Iran, to study. We were a few female students. One day, a female teacher invited us to Imam Juma's house in the city of Qom, supposedly on the occasion of Fatima Zahra's birthday. We were very happy even though we didn't know anything. However, during the event, at 11 o'clock at night, they took me to Imam Juma's room and made a sigha (forced betrothal) between the man and me. I could not raise my voice because of fear. Because we were taught that the Imam Juma of any city in Iran is a representative of Ayatollah Khomeini. He is supposedly the representative of Imam Sahib az Zaman, who is absent, and if you oppose him, you are deemed to have opposed Imam Sahib az Zaman  as we were instilled with.

Gultekin said later she learned that her group mates were also put in other cells and made to fornicate with the "religious people" there.

After that bloody day, I could escape and found a way out to return to Baku, but several girls who went there with me could not return. Because some of them got pregnant and gave birth to children, whose fathers are still unknown. And what made me to grieve more was about the sexual violence against the girls who were said to have been raped more than 10 times."

Children abused in prison...

Protests in Iran also shed some lights on the flip side of Irans decaying government system. Pedophilia and sexual abuse in prisons and detention places were widespread and are almost practical, said a detainee in the protests against the regime. Together with him, several activists who were arrested during the protests were both victims and witnesses of the regime's immorality saying that they saw the most disgusting acts of the regimes guardians inside custody. One of them noted that mainly boys and girls under 16 were raped in prison, who then die in prison succumbing to violence or committing suicide after being released.

The regime in Iran has been committing heinous crimes in the garb of religion for almost 44 years such as human right violation, executions, sexual harassment, and a number of terror acts in and out of the country. Iran is also one of the countries that promote racism, and the regimes biggest victims are the Iranian people, especially Azerbaijani Turks who regularly face ethnic discrimination by the regime. The elites in Iran's government structure squander the peoples resources and opportunities while suppressing freedom and basic human rights.

Irans Islamic regime is also the worlds largest state sponsor of terrorism, and for over 40 years their malign behavior and support for terrorist proxies have spread across the region.

On August 20, 2020, the United States initiated the snapback procedure in UN Security Council resolution 2231 to return virtually all of the previous UN sanctions on Iran, including the UN arms embargo and restrictions on Iran enriching and processing nuclear material. Starting on September 20, 2020, Iran is also prohibited by the UN from testing and developing ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons.

Despite all these drastic measures, this seems insufficient. The international community must stand together against the Iranian regimes racist acts and support for terror.
Head of the President's Office of Ukraine Andriy Yermak had a phone conversation with U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, the presidential press service has said.

"The interlocutors summed up the results of the meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. President Joseph Biden, which took place in Kyiv last week. They also discussed the situation at the frontline, in particular the defense of Bakhmut in Donetsk region, and the recent attacks by enemy kamikaze drones on objects in the territory Ukraine," the office said.

Yermak and Sullivan also exchanged thoughts on the Ukrainian Peace Formula and the common willingness for a just peace that the countries of the world support.

Yermak also thanked the U.S. side for supporting the UN General Assembly resolution entitled "Principles of the Charter of the United Nations that underline the comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine" for which 141 countries voted.

In addition, he expressed gratitude to all the American people, the President of the United States and both Houses of Congress for their unwavering support for Ukraine in the fight against the terrorist state.
Russians 'hit' on mobilization subject in Ukraine, as it is key to victory in war  Maliar

The key topics targeted by the informational "operations" of the enemy are the supply of weapons to Ukraine and mobilization, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said.

"The greatest fear of the Russians is that all the promised weapons will be delivered to Ukraine. Therefore, the key goal they hit with informational 'operations' is to discredit Ukraine as a recipient, recipient of weapons. Therefore, we see these 'stuffings,' including in Western countries through experts and politicians affiliated with Russia," Maliar said on the air of the national telethon on Tuesday evening.

She said Ukraine uses weapons solely within its internationally recognized borders and adheres to all the rules and customs of war.

"The second thing the Russians are targeting is the weak spot they want to break through  mobilization. They are interested in preventing mobilization in Ukraine, because any weapon is used by people," Maliar said.

The Defense Ministry said the enemy is conducting discrediting mobilization campaigns in Ukraine.

"We do not hide the fact that there are certain problems in the mobilization process, since this is a huge burden on the territorial recruitment center, but some of the inform companies are aimed solely at preventing mobilization in Ukraine. Mobilization is a guarantee that we will win this war," she said.

Maliar said the violation of rights is unacceptable during mobilization.
War in Ukraine to be important subject of discussion at G20 foreign ministers' meeting  Indian diplomat

The war in Ukraine will be an important part of the discussions at the G20 foreign ministers' meeting, but host country India is confident that the economic problems created by the war will receive equal attention, Indian Foreign Secretary Mohan Kwatra has said.

"Yes, given the nature and the developing situation in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, it will be an important point of discussion," Kwatra told reporters on Wednesday when the foreign ministers arrived in New Delhi for a meeting.

"Questions relating to food, energy and fertiliser security, the impact that the conflict has on these economic challenges that we face,' among others, would also receive 'due focus," Kwatra said.

The meeting will be attended by 40 delegations, including Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang.

Following a welcome dinner later on Wednesday, discussions will take place on Thursday.

The G20 includes the G7 countries, as well as China, India, Brazil, Australia and Saudi Arabia, among other countries.
Within the framework of cooperation and assistance in the restoration of the power system, Ukraine received a heavy-duty power autotransformer from the Republic of Lithuania installed at a high-voltage substation of the power transmission system.

"It transforms the voltage from the backbone to the distribution level and can provide electricity to up to 200,000 households," the Ministry of Energy said on Wednesday.

As noted in the ministry, Minister of Energy of Ukraine Herman Haluschenko discussed the need for this kind of transformer with his Lithuanian counterpart, Minister of Energy Dainius Kreivys, who promptly responded to the request, and Lithuania handed over the necessary equipment to Ukraine.

"We are extremely grateful to our Lithuanian friends for this significant assistance, because such equipment is extremely important for restoring energy infrastructure facilities after enemy shelling and ensuring an uninterrupted supply of electricity to Ukrainian consumers," Haluschenko was quoted on the website of the Ministry of Energy.

The delivery of this autotransformer to Ukraine was the largest logistics operation ever coordinated by the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, the ministry said.
Ukraine's MFA on Russia's statement on Kyiv's preparation of 'provocation using radioactive substances:' Russians often accuse others of what they themselves planning

Ukraine is strictly committed to the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and refutes fake information from Russia about Kyiv's alleged preparation of a "provocation using radioactive substances," Spokesman for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Oleh Nikolenko has said.

"Russia's claim that Ukraine has received radiological material to stage a 'provocation' is fake news. Ukraine is strictly committed to non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. Don't be misled by Russian propaganda textbook. Russians often accuse others of what they plan themselves," the spokesman said on Twitter.

Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Ukraine allegedly "received dangerous radioactive substances from one of the European countries through the port of Chornomorsk and is preparing provocations."
The star of the Vikings television series, Canadian actress of Ukrainian origin Katheryn Winnick became the ambassador of the UNITED24 charity platform, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke with her via video link.

As reported on the presidential website, Winnick will be involved in "Ukraine Recovery" direction and will open his collection through the platform for the restoration of one of the 18 houses in Kyiv region, which will be the first to be rebuilt under this program. In total, UAH 719 million is needed to restore these facilities. Thanks to UNITED24 donors from 110 countries, more than UAH 510 million has already been collected.

Winnick said she understands how important it is for Ukrainian families to unite. She said people need to return home, rebuild their homes so that families can live together again. The actress said it is a great honor for her to be in the UNITED24 team.

In turn, Zelenskyy thanked Winnick for supporting Ukraine and stressed that now it is essential to do everything so that the world does not forget about the war.

"Thank you very much for being with us. We are grateful that you have chosen to become an ambassador for United24 and are the first ambassador from Canada, with which we have a lot of ties," he said.

The president also invited the actress to come to Ukraine.

Winnick's parents are descendants of Ukrainian emigrants, who in 1940, fleeing the Soviet regime, first moved to Germany and then to Canada. The actress herself said she was proud of her Ukrainian roots.

Winnick has supported Ukraine since the start of Russian aggression in 2014. She visited Ukraine on the 30th anniversary of independence. After the start of Russia's full-scale aggression, Katheryn founded The Winnick Foundation, which provides humanitarian assistance to Ukrainians affected by the war.

Over the nine months of operation of the fundraising platform UNITED24, initiated by the President of Ukraine, more than $287 million has been raised thanks to donations from more than 110 countries.
Russia has now strengthened the narratives about the alleged inexpediency of continuing the work of the "grain corridor" in the current format, Ukraine should not fall for this blackmail and insists on extending the initiative for a year, Ambassador-at-Large of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, coordinator of the Council of Exporters and Investors Olha Trofimtseva has said.

"Continuing the work of the 'grain corridor' is very important for us. We see a typical situation of loosening, increased pressure and blackmail from Russia, which was also in November. Nothing new in this," she said at a briefing at the Media Center Ukraine in Kyiv.

Trofimtseva said Russia has now strengthened the narratives about the alleged inexpediency of continuing the work of the "grain corridor" in the format it is now.

"Hopefully, there has already been an appeal to partners  the UN, Turkey, first of all, that there should be no sabotage by Russia. Secondly, we should not fall for this blackmail of Russia. We saw an example in November, when there was already such blackmail," Trofimtseva said.

The ambassador said any difficulties with the work of the "grain corridor" instantly complicate the situation on world markets.

"In the best case, we draw up to 60% to 65% of the volumes that we exported before the war. Not more. And this is in the best months of the 'grain corridor," she said.

In particular, in January 2023, Ukraine exported 4.8 million tonnes of grain, of which more than 2.7 million tonnes were exported through ports by sea.

"The rest, more than 2 million tonnes, were exported by land routes through the EU countries," the ambassador said.

Trofimtseva said Ukraine, therefore, has repeatedly emphasized the importance of the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

"The figures speak for themselves about the grain corridor. If taken as a whole, more than 22 million tonnes of agricultural products have been supplied since the start of the 'corridor.' Grain and oilseeds  more than 18 million tonnes," Trofimtseva said.

The top three buyers of Ukrainian grain and oilseeds through ports are Spain, China and Turkey. The ambassador said a lot of Ukrainian wheat was delivered as part of the Grain from Ukraine initiative.

The Foreign Ministry said Ukraine insists on extending the Black Sea Grain Initiative for at least a year and including Mykolaiv Commercial Seaport in it.
Zelenskyy on 80th anniversary of Koriukivka massacre: We to create security architecture not to allow evil to repeat

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on the 80th anniversary of the Nazi massacres of the population in Koriukivka, Chernihiv region, said Ukraine, together with partner states, will create a security architecture that will not allow evil to be repeated.

"The 80th anniversary of the Koriukivka massacre. The terrible crime of the Nazis against civilians during World War II, which took the lives of thousands of residents of Koriukivka, Chernihiv region. We remember. We will not forget. We will create a security architecture that will prevent the repetition of evil," Zelenskyy said in Telegram.

Eternal memory to all innocent victims of the Second World War," he said.

The Koriukivka tragedy is a massacre of the civilian population of the village of Koriukivka, Chernihiv region, which was committed by SS detachments on March 1 and 2, 1943.
Provocations on the border with Moldova are possible, however, at the moment there is no critical threat, the number of Russian troops in temporarily occupied Transdniestria is not enough to open a second front, Head of the Joint Press Center of the Defense Forces of the Pivden (South) Operational Command Natalia Humeniuk has said.

"The situation on the border with Moldova is calm and controlled by the Defense Forces. The state border is guarded by the State Border Guard Service, the defense forces ensure general interaction with an adequate response to the likelihood of those threats that are possible from that direction. Currently, they are not critical. We are talking about the likely activity of sabotage reconnaissance groups or some kind of provocation, such as shelling the state border," she said on the air of the national telethon on Wednesday.

Humeniuk also said that provocations are not excluded, however, Ukraine closely monitors the situation.

"At the moment, there is no activity on the other side of the border. The aggressor country's forces concentrated in Transnistria are not a critical force that is able to open a second front," the South Command said.

The Russian troops are unable to receive support in this area geographically, Humeniuk said.
There are positive elements in the published statement of the Chinese Foreign Ministry on the settlement of the situation in Ukraine, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during his visit to Uzbekistan on Wednesday.

As for the proposals that China has put forward, Blinken said, there are some positive elements, including things that, as China itself used to say several times in the past, are very similar to the proposals of Ukraine itself.

On February 24, the Chinese Foreign Ministry published a 12-point statement of the Chinese Foreign Ministry with a position on the political settlement of the Ukrainian crisis. The need to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries, the resumption of direct dialogue between Moscow and Kyiv, the call not to allow further escalation are among the main points.
Qabil Ashirov

The chairman of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA), Taleh Kazimov, met with Kazakh National Bank Governor Galymzhan Pirmatov on March 1, 2023, Azernews reports, citing a tweet by the CBA chairman.

The meeting discussed the cooperation between the central banks of the two countries, and macroeconomic situation, the impact of global economic processes on the country's economy, improving monetary policy instruments, the development of payment systems, creation of digital currency.

Today, as part of our business trip to Kazakhstan, we met with Galymzhan Pirmatov, Governor of the National Bank of Kazakhstan. We discussed expansion and future directions of cooperation between the central banks of #Azerbaijan and #Kazakhstan during the meeting. We also talked about the current #macroeconomic situation, the impact of global economic processes on the country's economy, improving monetary policy instruments, developing payment systems, creating digital currency and other issues, the governor tweeted.

In the meantime, the CBA chief also met with the Chairman of Tajikstans National Bank Kholiqzoda Hokim Hikmatullo. The expansion of and prospects for cooperation between the Central Bank of Azerbaijan and the National Bank of Tajikistan, the macroeconomic situation, the development outlook of the financialbanking sector, reforms in the insurance system, and other topics were discussed in the meeting in Tajikistan.
The High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) at a sitting on Wednesday, March 1, sentenced the former head of the State Enterprise Boryspil International Airport to five years in prison, the press service of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office has said on the Telegram channel.

The ex-head of the airport, Yevhen Dykhne, and the head of the rental relations service, Olesia Liovochko, were found guilty of abuse of office which caused more than UAH 15.7 million in damage, that is, of committing a crime under Part 2 of Article 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

"The court sentenced the former head of the State Enterprise Boryspil International Airport to five years in prison with deprivation of the right to hold positions related to the performance of organizational and administrative or administrative and economic functions for a period of three years and with a fine of UAH 8,500. The head of the rental relations service is sentenced to four years in prison with deprivation of the right to hold positions related to the performance of organizational and administrative or administrative functions for a period of three years and with a fine of UAH 8,500," the message says.

According to the press service of the HACC, the court also ruled to recover from both defendants in favor of the Regional Department of the State Property Fund of Ukraine in Kyiv, Cherkasy and Chernihiv regions material damage in the amount of UAH 10.997 million.

The verdict of the court may be appealed within 30 days from the date of its announcement by filing an appeal to the Appeals Chamber of the HACC.

As reported, from 2014 to 2019, Dykhne and Liovochko transferred premises to business entities on the basis of concluded preliminary lease agreements. However, it turned out that the above-mentioned property belongs to the Infrastructure Ministry of Ukraine and only the State Property Fund has the right to lease it under the appropriate competitive procedure. Despite this, in violation of the current legislation, officials unlawfully transferred these premises to entrepreneurs at a low cost, which led to damage in the amount of more than UAH 15.7 million.

The investigation of these facts has been carried out since June 2019. On September 7, 2020, National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) notified Dykhne and Liovochko of suspicion under Part 2 of Article 364 (abuse of power or official position).
As of today, almost a third of the territory of Ukraine is mined, the country's Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko has said.

"Today we are speaking about 30% of the territory of Ukraine being mined. I mean the de-occupied and temporarily occupied territories," he said in an interview recorded on February 21 that was shown on the air of the national telethon on Wednesday.

"I can say from my experience: the longer the enemy stays on our territories, the more difficult it is to demine one or another territory [] the more mines with a secret are hidden. The more explosives with such a catch, an evil devilish catch, are hidden in our buildings and our roads by the way," the minister said.

According to Klymenko, the State Emergency Service teams are among the first to enter de-occupied territories for the purpose of mine clearing.
Kremlin likely attempting to reintroduce Russian info operation aimed at falsely portraying Russia as being open to negotiations  ISW

The Kremlin is likely attempting to reintroduce a Russian information operation aimed at falsely portraying Russia as being open to negotiations while the collective West refuses to negotiate, according to a report of the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) for February 28.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated on February 28 that Russian officials are open to negotiations to end the war in Ukraine but that Ukraine and the West must recognize new territorial realities associated with Russias illegal annexation of occupied territories in Ukraine, the report reads.

The Kremlin appears to be using Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko as a conduit to reengage with this information operation, likely in pursuit of negotiations on favorable terms to Russia and further delays in the Wests provision of critical weapons systems to Ukraine.

At the same time, the analysts say, the Kremlin may be reintroducing the negotiations information operation to reduce the effectiveness of future Ukrainian counteroffensives by delaying the provision of essential Western aid and to seek to gain concessions before potential further setbacks in Ukraine.

In addition, the Institute noted that the top US defense official supported ISWs continued assessment that Russia is extraordinarily unlikely to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine. ISW has assessed that Russian invocations of nuclear threats and nuclear doctrine are part of an information operation meant to discourage Ukraine and the West but do not represent any material Russian intent to employ nuclear weapons.

Analysts note that Moscow has also stepped up its other information operations, in particular, related to the escalation in Transdniestria temporarily occupied by Russian occupiers and the conduct of hostilities by Russians in this region under a false flag (which is necessary to accuse other countries of escalation), as well as nuclear and chemical safety.

Speaking about the situation on the battlefield, analysts report that the Russian occupiers continue to try to conduct offensive operations in the area of Svatove and Kreminna, as well as in the area of Bakhmut.

The Ukrainian army repels the invaders' attacks and strikes at their positions in the rear.
Russia suffers more combat deaths in Ukraine in first year of war than in all of its wars since World War II combined  CSIS

Russia suffered more combat deaths in Ukraine in the first year of the war than in all of its wars since World War II combined, according to a new CSIS analysis of the force disposition and military operations of Russian and Ukrainian units.

According to CSIS estimates, there have been approximately 60,000 to 70,000 Russian combat fatalities in Ukraine between February 2022 and February 2023. These estimates include regular Russian soldiers from the Russian armed forces, Rosgvardiya, Federal Security Service, and Federal Guard Service; fighters from pro-Russian militias, such as the Donetsk Peoples Militia and Luhansk Peoples Militia; and contractors from such private military companies as the Wagner Group. Overall, Russia has suffered roughly 200,000 to 250,000 total casualtiespersonnel wounded, killed, and missingduring the first year of the war, the report reads.

At the same time, the rate of losses also remains higher than in any Soviet or Russian war after World War II.

Russia suffered an average of roughly 5,000 to 5,800 regular and irregular soldiers killed per month in Ukraine over the first year of the war. In comparison, Russia suffered somewhere between 13,000 to 25,000 fatalities in Chechnya over a 15-year period (with a three-year pause), an average rate of between 95 and 185 soldiers killed per month. The Soviet Union also suffered roughly 14,000 to 16,000 combat fatalities in Afghanistan, an average rate of between roughly 130 and 145 soldiers killed per month, the analysts noted.

However, according to the report, the war has moved into the stage of a war of attrition, which increases the material needs of the Ukrainian troops.

The West, including the United States, should prepare for a protracted war and long-term support to Ukraine. The rest of this brief is divided into four sections. Ukraines needs have evolved from the initial stage of the war when it needed short-range defensive weapons, such as Javelin anti-tank and Stinger anti-air missiles, which were helpful to conduct defensive operations against advancing Russian forces. Along with training and intelligence, Ukraine now needs advanced systems to conduct offensive operations in a protracted war, such as air defense systems, long-range artillery, armored vehicles, fighter aircraft, and munitions, along with spare parts and training. These types of munitions, weapons systems, and materiel are essential to assisting Ukrainian forces conduct effective counterattacks against dug-in Russian forces, the analysts say.
Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov in Dnipropetrovsk region presented the defenders of the eastern direction with awards and award weapons, and also held a meeting with commander of the operational-strategic group of Khortytsia group Oleksandr Syrsky.

Reznikov also met with Commander of the AFU Ground Forces, Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrsky, with whom he discussed the current situation on the front line, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reports on its website.

Reznikov also visited a local hospital, where he rewarded and talked with wounded soldiers, held a meeting with newly appointed head of Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration Serhiy Lysak and mayor of Dnipro Borys Filatov.

Yesterday I thanked our defenders, doctors, public utilities and rescuers on behalf of the whole of Ukraine. Especially air reconnaissance for their important modern and breakthrough mission for the Ukrainian Defense Forces. Each of them contributes to the resistance to the Russian invasion. By giving a hand to everyone, I was once again convinced that we cannot be defeated: after all, the whole of Ukraine is fighting back against the enemy, the minister said.

In total, 164 defenders, doctors, utility workers, employees of the State Emergency Service were awarded.
Defense Minister of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov has held a meeting with Executive Director of the International Bar Association Mark Ellis, during which its participants discussed areas of cooperation in the legal field, the Ministry of Defense reports.

"The parties discussed the implementation of the memorandum signed between the Ministry of Defense, the International Association of Lawyers and the Association of Lawyers of Ukraine," the ministry's official website reported on Wednesday.

"The memorandum will become the basis for further initiatives aimed at developing interaction and cooperation of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry with domestic and foreign legal organizations," the press service of the Ministry of Defense quoted Reznikov as saying.

According to the Ministry of Defense, Reznikov and Ellis considered, in particular, the issues of improving the legal regulation of military service, the dissemination of knowledge about the rights and duties of military personnel, ensuring proper protection in cases related to military and war crimes, as well as the preparation of methodological recommendations, training programs and information materials to improve the existing Ukrainian legislation.

"It is important that Ukrainian legislation regulating the military sphere meets the challenges of our time and is reformed in accordance with the best international practices. Actually, this is why this platform for legal cooperation is being created, which will allow attracting the best Ukrainian and international specialists to such work," Reznikov said.

Work is also continuing on the draft law on the creation of a military police and the development of military justice in Ukraine as a whole.
The European Commission intends to present to the ambassadors of the member states of the European Union on Thursday a plan that will ensure the supply of ammunition to Ukraine to resist the Russian invasion, as well as the replenishment of stocks in the EU countries, the German edition of Spiegel said on Wednesday.

According to the document available to the publication, the plan contains three steps, the first of which provides for an immediate increase in the supply of ammunition to Ukraine, especially 155-mm artillery shells. The message says that Josep Borrell, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, will soon offer an additional EUR 1 billion support package for the supply of ammunition.

The second step involves the joint purchase of 155 mm ammunition by the European Defense Agency (EDA) in order to replenish the stocks of EU countries and ensure the supply of Ukraine in the long term. The third component will ensure an increase in ammunition production capacity in Europe, taking into account the changed security situation.

The ezine says that assistance under the first component will be carried out according to the already established scheme: EU countries provide supplies to Ukraine and receive money from the European Peace Fund (EPF) in return. Its financial coverage has already increased by EUR 500 million three times each time, and in December it was decided to increase it to EUR 2 billion. As soon as this is implemented, another EUR 1 billion will be received, which Borrell has to offer.

The second component of the plan provides for the need to increase the procurement of ammunition in the long term with the help of the EDA project. According to it, the EU member states and Ukraine should place a mass order and send a clear signal about the demand of industry, after which it will be ready to increase its production capacity, the European Commission believes. It is reported that purchases could be carried out on the model of the Occar procurement agency, which is already engaged in joint defense projects ... For the part that will be delivered to Ukraine, compensation from the EPF will again be paid.

The European Commission also hopes that the joint order will lead to a significant reduction in product prices.

Twenty-five of the 27 EU countries and Norway have already expressed interest in participating in the seven-year project, the article says.

As part of the third step, it is planned to solve the problem of rapidly declining ammunition stocks in the EU countries and insufficient ability to replenish them.

The publication notes that the European Commission sees itself as an intermediary and organizer, for example, by identifying gaps in production capacity and assistance in procurement management, and the real responsibility lies with industry and EU governments.

The defense ministers of these countries are expected to discuss the proposals at an informal meeting in Stockholm early next week. Decisions can be made already at the next summit of heads of state and government at the end of March, the article says.

Spiegel also notes the instability of ammunition supplies in Ukraine compared to last autumn.
Gold prices in Egypt have continued to fluctuate as the prices of 21-karat gold continue to rise while the prices of 24-Karat and 18-Karat gold dropped slightly.
The war in Ukraine and enhancing bilateral relations topped issues discussed during Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukris meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday accused the West of fomenting the conflict in Ukraine by supplying Ukraine with weapons, stressing that Russia will not tolerate leaving Ukraine to become a threat to its security.

In a press conference held in Moscow after a meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri, Lavrov said that supplying Ukraine with weapons is not conducive to peace in the region.

Referring to a message from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Shoukri conveyed, which asked Russia to stop action in Ukraine in order for negotiations to succeed, Lavrov described it as an incomplete proposal.

However, he added that his country welcomed any serious proposal for a settlement in Ukraine. I emphasise the word serious which means it includes all aspects of the issue, Lavrov said.

Lavrov expressed his dissatisfaction with the US as well as the Wests stand as reflected in the statement by NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg during his visit to South Korea on Monday.

He regarded Stoltenbergs comments that Russia would have to be defeated in Ukraine and that the West would not allow Ukraine to lose because that would mean that Europe and the whole world lose as indicating that NATO has taken on the responsibility of defeating Russia on behalf of the world and that the Kyiv regime does not enjoy any independence.

He praised the balanced Egyptian stand on the crisis in Ukraine.

Commenting on the Egyptian stand on Ukraine, Shoukri said that Egypt is in favour of reaching a political and diplomatic agreement to end the military conflict and to deal with the crisis in a way that meets the interests of all parties.

We will keep following up on the development of the issue in the framework of our bilateral as well as multilateral relationship with the involved parties, he said.

Shoukris visit to Moscow came immediately following his meeting with Blinken on Monday during his two-day visit to Cairo on the first leg of his Middle East tour. The tour took him to the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel.

Commenting on the possibility of using the local currencies of the two countries in their trade exchange, Shoukri praised the volume of trade exchange with Russia and said that we are always after the best mechanisms to make the trade exchange easier and to benefit from it to the utmost. Using the Russian ruble is one of these mechanisms.

The two chief diplomats also discussed regional issues, including resolving the crises in Libya and Syria and the recent escalation in the occupied Palestinian lands. Both diplomats called for the resumption of peace talks in a way that protects the rights of the Palestinian people.

Shoukri said any settlement on the issue should be based on the two-state solution and the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

They also tackled the importance of improving Russias relations with Africa in light of the African-Russian conference due in June this year in St Petersburg.

Lavrov and Shoukri met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September 2022 when they discussed the implementation of a grain deal.

In July last year, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, and the United Nations struck a deal to provide a humanitarian maritime corridor for ships with food and fertiliser exports from Ukrainian Black Sea ports.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 2 February, 2023 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

Search Keywords:

Short link:


Egyptian Islamic thinker and former Muslim Brotherhood official Kamal El-Helbawy passed away on Tuesday at the age of 84, his son Amr El-Helbawy wrote on Facebook.

According to news reports, El-Helbawy was admitted to a hospital recently after a struggle with an unknown disease.

Born in 1939, El-Helbawy graduated from the Faculty of Arts, Cairo University, in 1960.

El-Helbawy joined the banned Muslim Brotherhood in the 1950s where he became one of its leading members decades later. Residing in London for decades, El-Helbawy became the Brotherhoods official spokesperson in the West.

In 1988, he was sent as an envoy on behalf of the Brotherhood to Afghanistan during the invasion of the Soviet Union to coordinate with Afghani fighters in the fight against the Soviets.

On 31 March 2012, El-Helbawy announced his resignation from the Brotherhood in opposition to nominating its leading figure Khairat El-Shatar as a presidential candidate in the 2012 race.

Following his resignation, he became one of the most outspoken critics of the group in Egypt.

El-Helbawy declared his support for the ouster of late Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

He was also a member of the committee assigned to draft the 2014 constitution, the current constitution of Egypt. El-Helbawy was elected as a deputy head of the committee in September 2013.

Aside from his political activity in Egypt, El-Helbawy is known for his writings and views about Islam, current affairs, modern times, and the West.

He was also famous for Islamic activism in Europe and helping in establishing several Islamic organisations, including the Muslim Association of Britain in 1997.

El-Helbawy is survived by his wife and four children.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


Qabil Ashirov

Azerbaijans Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov received a delegation led by Muhammad Al Jasser, President of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Group, who is on a visit to Azerbaijan, Azernews reports, citing the Energy Ministry.

Emphasizing the banks support for energy projects, the minister spoke about the fruitful cooperation between Islamic Development Bank and Azerbaijan. The minister gave detailed information about the reforms carried out in Azerbaijan's energy sector, the prospects for the production and export of large volumes of green energy, including green hydrogen, and the work done in the field of energy efficiency and energy regulation.

The minister noted that there are wide opportunities for cooperation with the bank on mega-projects to be implemented in the direction of renewable energy production and transmission in Azerbaijan.

The president of IsDB spoke about the banks infrastructure projects, technical support, financial assistance, and the work done in the development of the private sector. He said that the bank is interested in the projects to be implemented in the energy sector in Azerbaijan, especially in the liberated territories, and in the Green Energy Corridor project, which will connect Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania, and Hungary.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was in Iraq Wednesday for talks with senior officials in a show of "solidarity" after a drawn-out political crisis.

The UN chief's visit, his first to Iraq in six years, comes as the war-torn country prepares to mark the 20th anniversary of the toppling of longtime dictator Saddam Hussein in a US-led invasion.

Guterres said he wanted to demonstrate "solidarity with the people and the democratic institutions of Iraq and a solidarity that means that the United Nations is totally committed to support the consolidation of the institutions in this country".

He said he also wanted to express his "confidence that Iraqis will be able to overcome the difficulties and challenges they still face through an open and inclusive dialogue".

Guterres, who arrived late Tuesday, is due to hold talks with Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, before meeting Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, President Abdel Latif Rashid and parliament speaker Mohammed al-Halbusi, the foreign ministry said.

The three leaders are respectively Iraq's top Shia, Kurdish and Sunni Arab officials under the sectarian power-sharing system established after the US-led invasion toppled Saddam's Sunni Arab-dominated regime.

Guterres will also meet representatives of women's and youth rights groups.

On Thursday, he will visit a camp for displaced people in the north of the country, before heading to Kurdistan regional capital Arbil for talks with Kurdish officials.

He will then travel on to Qatar, where he will attend the summit of the Least Developed Countries.

The UN chief's last visit to Iraq was in spring 2017.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


Egypt has made major human rights achievements in line with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Minister of Justice Omar Marwan told the UN Human Rights Committee (HRC) on Tuesday, noting that Cairo has been working on building a fully integrated system for promoting human rights in the past eight years.

Marwan said at the HRC meeting that this system is based on three main pillars: the legislative structure; relevant state institutions; and cadre-building.

Marwan is leading an Egyptian high-level delegation in Geneva, Switzerland, to review the fifth periodical report on human rights, which was submitted to the committee in November 2019, during meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The 137th session of the HRC  which is being held in Geneva from 27 February to 24 March  is reviewing reports on the status of the implementation of the ICCPR in Egypt and five other countries -- Panama, Peru, Sri Lanka, Turkmenistan, and Zambia.

Despite the multiple challenges and shifts Egypt has been undergoing, it has managed to make major strides towards building a modern civil state that cares for its citizens, protects their rights, promotes their economy, and ensures their security, all while combating terrorism that undermines national stability as well as the Egyptians' ability to enjoy their rights, Marwan said.

He added that the constructive track chosen by the Egyptian people has led to embracing ambitious policies that contribute to a decent life for all without any discrimination.

Marwan briefed the attendees on Egypt's efforts to advance human rights in various areas, topped by achieving gender equality in all the civil and political rights enshrined in the ICCPR, providing the necessary care and support to inmates, protecting women against all forms of violence, and combating human trafficking and corruption.

He noted that the country has also made remarkable progress in ensuring religious freedoms, taking care of foreign residents, and promoting civil society organisations.

Despite these achievements, there are still major challenges ahead, Marwan noted.

He said that the promotion of human rights is an ongoing and cumulative process, reaffirming Cairo's determination to go ahead with reform.

The HRC is one of the most prominent treaty bodies on the international level. It was established under the ICCPR, a significant international treaty in this field.

In 1981, Egypt joined the ICCPR and since then it has been submitting periodical reports on progress made in the field of the rights guaranteed in the covenant, the minister pointed out.

The Egyptian delegation includes representatives from the foreign and justice ministries, the public prosecution, and a host of senior officials from relevant bodies, including President of the National Council for Women (NCW) Maya Morsy and Chairperson of the National Coordinating Committee for Combating and Preventing Illegal Migration and Trafficking in Persons Naela Gabr.

Earlier in the day, President of Egypts National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) Moushira Khattab, who is heading a high-level Egyptian delegation to the session, presented to the HRC an assessment of the Human Rights Committees report on the state of political and civil rights in Egypt from November 2020 to September 2022.

Khattab noted that Egypt seriously deals with the issues of human rights in light of the existing political will to enhance the state of political and civil rights in the country.

Egypt's keenness to deal with human rights issues is also reflected in the composition of the NCHR, which adheres to the Paris Principles, Khattab said.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


A senior Al-Qaeda figure was killed in a suspected US air strike in war-torn Yemen, security and local government sources told AFP on Wednesday.

Hamad bin Hamoud al-Tamimi, a top leader of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which Washington regards as among the global jihadist network's most dangerous branches, died in the strike along with a bodyguard, a security official said, requesting anonymity.

The air strike, targeting a house in the northern province of Marib that al-Tamimi had recently rented, was "apparently American", the official said.

A Marib government official, also speaking anonymously, confirmed the deaths.

Tamimi, a Saudi also known as Abdel Aziz al-Adnani, headed up AQAP's leadership council and acted as the militant group's "judge", the sources said.

The "president of the consultative council and judge, known as Abdel Aziz al-Adnani, was killed with a Yemeni bodyguard", the Marib official said.

AQAP, and rival militants loyal to the Islamic State group, have thrived in the chaos of Yemen's civil war, which pits the Saudi-backed government against Iran-allied Huthi rebels.

AQAP has carried out operations against both the Huthis and government forces as well as sporadic attacks abroad.

Its leaders have been targeted by a US drone war for more than two decades, although the number of strikes has dropped off in recent years.

The attack comes a month after three alleged AQAP militants were killed in a suspected US drone strike on a car in Marib province.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


Egypt's Armed Forces announced on Wednesday that border guards have foiled an attempt to smuggle a large quantity of drugs in South Sinai governorate, Military Spokesman Gharib Abdel-Hafez said in a statement.

Abdel-Hafez said a border guards patrol was combing roads when the guards noticed a suspicious vehicle. Upon approaching the vehicle for inspection, its passengers opened fire.

The fire exchange, the army spokesperson said, resulted in the death of a smuggler, an officer, and the injury of an officer and a soldier.

The Armed Forces affirmed their continued efforts to completely eradicate smuggling activities, Abdel-Hafez said.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


Egyptian authorities are currently finishing the release procedures of 33 pretrial detainees, according to an announcement posted on Facebook on Wednesday by lawyer Tarek El-Awady, who is a member of the Presidential Pardon Committee.

The to-be released detainees were jailed pending investigation in different cases that went back to 2019 and 2020.

According to El-Awady, Al-Masry Al-Youm journalist Ahmed Mohamed Allam, who was arrested in April 2020 for a number of charges, including spreading false news, is among the batch.

Leftist activist Ziyad Abu El-Fadl, Khaled Abdel-Mohsen Abdel-Rahim, Mohamed Sobhy Batikh, Abdo Lotfy Abu Sena and Karim Ahmed are also among the 33 pretrial detainees.

Since the reactivation of the Presidential Pardon Committee in April 2022, more than 1,000 pretrial detainees have been released and 12 convicts have been pardoned.

Pardons and release orders have included high-profile figures, including political activists Hossam Mones, Yahia Abdel-Hady, Hisham Fouad, as well as leftist activist and lawyer Haitham Mohamadein.

The committee was originally established in 2016 to review the cases of those imprisoned for political crimes and others who meet certain criteria set by the committee.

The committee receives appeals from entities and political entities such as the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) and parliaments Human Rights Committee as well as through its website.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


The Security Council has an obligation to find ways to "provide protection" for Palestinian civilians, the population's ambassador to the United Nations pleaded Tuesday after Israeli settlers attacked a town in the occupied West Bank.

"We believe that the Security Council has a responsibility to shoulder, especially with regard to ... taking steps to provide protection to the civilian population, especially after the criminal and terrorist act by settlers" in Huwara and nearby villages, envoy Riyad Mansour told reporters after a closed-door meeting of the council.

The emergency meeting was requested by the United Arab Emirates after hundreds of Israelis settlers attacked Huwara town in the northern West Bank late Sunday, throwing stones at Palestinian homes and setting fire to buildings and cars.

Mansour said it would have been helpful for Security Council representatives to visit Huwara so they could "see with their own eyes (and) feel the horror in the minds and hearts of children and mothers and their families."

The Security Council's 15 member countries "should try to see if there are ways that we can stop any incitement to further violence, and to promote dialogue" between Israelis and Palestinians, said ambassador Vanessa Frazier of Malta, which chaired the council in February.

Meanwhile both sides "need to ... refrain from any violent acts," she stressed.

Last week, for the first time in six years, the Security Council denounced the building of Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories, in a statement also approved by the United States.

"We will continue knocking on the door of the Security Council, not only to speak in one voice but to take further steps," Mansour said.

"Protection, protection, protection is what the Palestinian civilian population is asking for."

Search Keywords:

Short link:


Iran's president stepped in after more than 100 students were hospitalised Wednesday, the latest in a spate of poisonings at girls' schools that has gripped the country.

The president's website said Ebrahim Raisi had assigned Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi to provide "continuous information on the results of the investigation" into the attacks.

Hundreds of cases of respiratory distress have been reported in the past three months among schoolgirls in what one government official said could be an attempt to force the closure of girls' schools in the Islamic republic.

At least 10 girls' schools were targeted in the latest suspected attacks on Wednesday, seven in the northwestern city of Ardabil and three in the capital, media reports said.

The incidents in Ardabil forced the hospitalisation of 108 students, all of whom were in stable condition, said Tasnim news agency, which also reported poisonings at three schools in Tehran.

Citing parents, Fars news agency said students at one high school in the capital's western neighbourhood of Tehransar had been exposed to a toxic spray. It did not elaborate.

President Raisi's website said he had appointed Vahidi in an effort to "allay the concerns of the families" of the students affected.

Vahidi held a press conference at which he debunked earlier reports from Fars on Wednesday that security forces had detained three people in the first reported arrests over the wave of suspected poisonings.

"There are various reports that are completely false," he told journalists, also saying that reports of the detection of a specific chemical substance being used in attacks were incorrect.

Parliament's website had said health ministry tests on a substance found at the schools in the holy city of Qom, where 800 students were affected, had detected traces of nitrogen, which is mainly used in fertilisers.

Since the outbreak of the mysterious poisonings in November, almost 1,200 students have required hospital treatment for breathing difficulties, a lawmaker said Wednesday.

Apart from Qom south of Tehran, 400 were affected in the western city of Borujerd, said Zahra Sheikhi, spokesperson for parliament's health committee.

The poisonings have provoked a wave of anger across the country, with critics denouncing official silence in the face of the growing number of schools reportedly being targeted.

On Sunday the deputy health minister, Younes Panahi, said some people had been poisoned in Qom with the aim of shutting down education for girls.

Activists have compared those responsible for the attacks on schools to the Taliban in Afghanistan and Boko Haram in the Sahel, groups which oppose education for girls.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


A passenger train carrying hundreds of people, including many university students returning home from holiday, collided at high speed with an oncoming freight train in a fiery wreck in northern Greece, killing 32 and injuring at least 85, officials said Wednesday.

Multiple cars derailed and at least three burst into flames after the collision just before midnight Tuesday near the town of Tempe as the passenger train was emerging from a highway underpass.

Rescue crews illuminated the scene with floodlights before dawn on Wednesday as they searched frantically through the twisted, smoking wreckage for survivors. After sunrise, they turned to heavy machinery that had been brought in to start moving large pieces of the trains.

Officials said many of the passengers on board the Athens to Thessaloniki train had been university students returning home after celebrating Carnival over the long weekend.

"This is a terrible tragedy that is hard to comprehend," said Deputy Health Minister Mina Gaga. "I feel so sorry for the parents of these kids."

Survivors said several passengers were thrown through the windows of the train cars due to the impact. They said others fought to free themselves after the passenger train buckled, slamming into a field near a gorge, about 380 kilometers (235 miles) north of Athens.

"There were many big pieces of steel," said Vassilis Polyzos, a local resident who said he was one of the first people on the scene. "The trains were completely destroyed, both passenger and freight trains."

He said dazed and disoriented people were escaping out of the train's rear cars as he arrived.

"People, naturally, were scared  very scared," he said. "They were looking around, searching; they didn't know where they were."

The trains crashed just before the Vale of Tempe, a gorge that separates the regions of Thessaly and Macedonia. Costas Agorastos, the regional governor of the Thessaly area, told Greece's Skai Television the two trains crashed head on at high speed.

"Carriage One and Two no longer exist, and the third has derailed," he said.

Rescuers wearing head lamps worked in thick smoke, pulling pieces of mangled metal from the cars to search for trapped people. Others scoured the field with flashlights and checked underneath the wreckage. Several of the dead are believed to have been found in the restaurant car near the front of the passenger train.

Hospital officials in the nearby city of Larissa said at least 25 of those hurt had serious injuries.

"The evacuation process is ongoing and is being carried out under very difficult conditions due to the severity of the collision between the two trains," said Vassilis Varthakoyiannis, a spokesperson for Greeces firefighting service.

The possible cause of the collision was not immediately clear. Two rail officials were being questioned by police but had not been detained.

Passengers who received minor injuries or were unharmed were transported by bus to Thessaloniki, 130 kilometers (80 miles) to the north. Police took their names as they arrived, in an effort to track anyone who may be missing.

A teenage survivor who did not give his name told reporters that just before the crash he felt a strong braking and saw sparks  then there was a sudden stop.

"Our carriage didnt derail, but the ones in front did and were smashed," he said, visibly shaken.

He added that the first car caught fire and that he used a bag to break the window of his car, the fourth, and escape.

Rail operator Hellenic Train said the northbound passenger train to Thessaloniki, Greece's second-largest city, had about 350 passengers on board.

Agorastos described the collision on state television as "very powerful" and said it was "a terrible night."

"The front section of the train was smashed.  Were getting cranes to come in and special lifting equipment clear the debris and lift the rail cars. There's debris flung all around the crash site."

Officials said the army had been contacted to assist.

Hellenic Train, which has added high-speed services in recent years, is operated by Italy's FS Group, which runs rail services in several European countries.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


Egypt is set to announce a package of incentives for companies willing to invest in green hydrogen production projects in the country, according to a cabinet statement released on Wednesday.

In a cabinet meeting earlier today, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said the country is keen to offer "the largest possible" package of incentives and facilities for green hydrogen production projects.

The country has made great progress in this field.

During COP27, which was held in Sharm El-Sheikh in November, Egypt signed a series of memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with several international entities.

These MoUs are in line with the country's efforts to attract foreign investments into green hydrogen production so that Egypt becomes a transit route for clean energy to Europe.

In todays meeting, Madbouly called for swiftly announcing the incentives package to activate all MoUs agreed upon and to lure more investments in this sector, according to a cabinet statement.

The awaited package will be included in the national strategy for green hydrogen production  soon to be announced  which aims to enhance Egypt's competitiveness in this field and boost its capabilities, Cabinet Spokesman Nader Saad said.

Madbouly instructed to form of a working group that includes representatives of the concerned authorities to draft the incentives. Recommendations are to be submitted within two weeks, added Saad.

The strategy is almost complete, and work is underway to finish it, said Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy Mohamed Shaker, who attended the meeting.

He added that lands had been identified to establish the projects based on the MoUs signed with global companies and alliances working in the green hydrogen field.

Egypt has the potential to generate some 350 gigawatts of wind energy and about 650 gigawatts of solar energy, Shaker added.

Egypt aims in the coming years to reduce carbon emissions, promote the use of renewable energy sources, and use alternative energy forms, including green hydrogen, as part of its National Climate Strategy 2050.

The strategy should help Egypt produce green hydrogen with the least cost worldwide for $ 1.7 per kg by 2050 instead of $2.7 per kg in 2025, according to previous statements by the government.

It will pave the way for implementing an ambitious plan to gain 8 per cent of the global hydrogen market.

The strategy targets increasing the Gross Domestic Product in Egypt to between $10 billion and $18 billion by 2050, generating more job opportunities and reducing oil imports.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


Canada and the United States moved forward Monday with bans of TikTok on government devices.

The White House gave federal agencies 30 days to halt the use of the popular social media app, implementing a ban approved by Congress in December. The U.S. measure has limited exceptions for law enforcement, national security and research purposes.

"This guidance is part of the Administration's ongoing commitment to securing our digital infrastructure and protecting the American people's security and privacy," said Chris DeRusha, the federal chief information security officer.

TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has drawn scrutiny from Western governments concerned about the security of user data and the potential the app could be used to promote pro-China views. The company has dismissed the concerns and called the bans "political theater."

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said during a briefing Tuesday that the United States "has been overstretching the concept of national security and abusing state power to suppress other countries' companies."
YARAT Contemporary Art Space presents Delicate Observations - the travelling group exhibition with works by established and young Azerbaijani artists in Saatli city.

The exhibition is inspired by the poetics of everyday life. The main idea is to offer another point of view on what is experienced in contemporary daily life through the artists eyes. Amid overwhelming information fog, it is possible to go astray and lose the track of things. The exhibition showcases the ordinary moments, topics that could be peripheric, but that are essential to notice. To cherish a day is enough to delicately observe your surroundings and situations. The artists are considered to be the ones who habitually notice and highlight forsaken themes, let it be the notions of time and space, memory and identity, simple human emotions and their stories, and cultural and vernacular values. In the context of the temporality of every day, the exhibition proposes a humanistic approach to observe, reflect, and change for the better.

In his photographs, Dadash Adna highlights the poetics of ordinary - people and their surroundings, the natural landscapes of his rural hometown, and the delicate nuances of human desires. Mehrin Alili applies the same technique while observing her surroundings in her What if video installation: she examines existing and parallel realities by juxtaposing the scenes from the metropolis and country life. The artist reflects on her thoughts on how her life could have been different if her ancestors had not migrated to the city. Human habits, which are manifested in the portrait of the city, are also closely observed in Elturan Mammadovs photo series: unfitting colours, replaced objects, and banality can be seen in the most unexpected ways. Ramal Kazims works depict solitary struggles and anxieties that have become integral parts of contemporary living. The artist represents the complexity of seemingly simple human emotions and feeling in grotesque and highly exaggerated ways to evoke strong sensations.

Nadir Eminovs Okay, boomer installation is an irony to postmodern society and its coping mechanisms. The artist observes how media influences human perception, creating a delusional view of the majority. As if life is being observed from the other side of the screen, the artist constitutes a secluded and firm atmosphere, alluding to the escapism and abyss between reality and perception.

The exhibition also accentuates the importance of universal topics to reflect on.

Soltan Soltanli explores the existential questions of human life and social behaviour in his work. Through his paintings, he references themes such as love, labour, death, and human relationships, titling the artworks to give insight into his intention, which reveals his nuanced understanding of life.

Some things are universally unpleasant to think about such as the truth that everybody we know and love is eventually going to die one day. These truths are always around but people usually try to chase them away. Habib Sahers Waiting for Godot installation muses on the subject of loss and ponders upon the reconciliation with the past through continuous renewal.

Rashad Babayevs Darvish represents the mediative state of being consciously free from space and time. In asceticism associated with mystical Sufi traditions, darvish contemplates wisdom for future generations. The artist illuminates the power of cultural and religious roots in shaping todays regional culture.

Traditionally, based on the exhibition, the education programs are planned to be conducted by YARAT team and artists. In the frame of the program, the participants will be able to attend lectures and masterclasses in the sphere of contemporary art.

Included works are part of the YARATs permanent collection and courtesy of the artists.

The organizational support by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Sabirabad Regional Culture Department, and Saatli State Art Gallery.

Exhibition: Delicate Observations, group exhibition

Location: Saatli district, Saatli State Art Gallery (Hasan bey Zardabi Street, 71B)

Exhibition opening date: March 1, 15:00

Dates: March 1  3, 2023

Working hours: 09:00  18:00

Admission is free
China says the fight of a U.S. military plane over the Taiwan Strait Monday "endangered peace and stability" in the region.

The Eastern Theater Command of the People's Liberation Army said in a statement that it closely monitored a U.S. Navy maritime patrol and reconnaissance plane as it flew over the waterway that divides mainland China and the self-ruled island of Taiwan. The Command said the flight "deliberately interfered with and disrupted the regional situation and endangered peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait."

The statement also warned that forces in the region "maintain a high level of alert at all times and will resolutely defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity."
In Bahmut, soldatii ucraineni cred ca ar trebui amanata contraofensiva: Vehiculele militare se blocheaza in namol / Cu toate acestea, pana si rusii se pregatesc de contraofensiva Ucrainei
KYODO NEWS - Mar 1, 2023 - 18:41 | All, Japan, Travel/Tourism, Coronavirus

A foreign cruise ship docked in Shizuoka Prefecture port Wednesday, becoming the first such vessel to arrive in Japan in around three years due to COVID-19 border control measures that were eased only recently.

The anticipated arrival came after the country reversed its government-mandated suspension of cruises, and now seeks to expand the number of ports that accept foreign cruise ships to 100 by 2025, as well as boost the number of tourists to a pre-pandemic peak of more than 2 million.

The cruise ship Amadea's stop at the port of Shimizu in the central Japan city of Shizuoka was the first of 212 vessels scheduled to arrive in the country in 2023, with some ships expected to make multiple port calls.

The Amadea, operated by German firm Phoenix Reisen GmbH, with its approximately 500 passengers and 300 crew, docked around 8 a.m. in clear weather with nearby Mt. Fuji in view. It was welcomed by a taiko drum performance by musicians including some from the local area.

Passengers began disembarking after 9 a.m. following the completion of health checks on board.

A 69-year-old German woman traveling with her husband said she had been moved by the sight of Japan's iconic mountain, and that she was looking forward to visiting a shrine.

The 29,000-ton ship, which departed Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands on Feb. 25, is scheduled to leave Shizuoka for Tokyo on Wednesday night.

In 2019, before the start of the pandemic, cruise ships made 1,932 port calls in Japan, bringing with them about 2.15 million tourists who spent an estimated 80.5 billion yen ($590 million).

In the same year, Japan saw foreign cruise liners docking at a record 67 ports.

The government seeks to increase that number to 100 by including the target in its national plan for boosting tourism, to be endorsed by the Cabinet by the end of March. It is also looking to bring the number of visitors arriving on foreign cruise ships to 2017 levels, a year which saw a record 2.53 million visitors.

"We want to raise the number of visitors by widening their options for ports to dock at," a government official said.

The government has placed focus on rural ports to encourage travelers to visit and spend money in a more diverse range of areas in Japan, since passengers have long tended to get off the ship to explore places near major cities and airports.

To reach that goal, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism plans to give greater support to local governments to help them compete with foreign cruise companies and ports, as well as enhance features at domestic locations for welcoming passengers.

The Japanese government decided last November to reopen ports to cruise ships due to worries the nation may lose its share of the lucrative cruise traveler market after countries in Europe and North America began reopening around June 2021.

Guidelines drawn up by industry associations were a key factor behind the government's decision, with the tourism ministry also involved in designing the measures.

They specify requirements including that travelers' vaccination statuses are confirmed, any infected passengers are quarantined and that ship doctors decide on whether journeys can continue.

Acceptance of foreign cruise ships was suspended in March 2020 following a mass coronavirus outbreak on the Diamond Princess, which caused thousands to be quarantined in Yokohama in February 2020 and left 13 of the over 700 infected crew and passengers dead.

Further recovery will be hampered by Beijing's ongoing ban on tour groups from China, where 80 percent of maritime visitors to Japan originated in 2019. How to test passengers arriving in the country and whether infection responses can ease local anxieties also remain a concern.

Before accepting foreign cruise ships, the government called on local authorities to discuss and reach agreements with ship operators and local health and customs authorities over responses to coronavirus infections.

A recent Kyodo News survey showed the frequency of foreign cruise arrivals could soon approach that seen before the pandemic, with 89 arrivals expected in 23 of Japan's 42 major ports in March this year, compared to 125 port calls in 42 locations in March 2019.

Related coverage:

Japan scraps COVID-19 blanket testing of visitors from China

Foreign cruise ships' arrivals in Japan to near pre-COVID level

Boat service linking South Korea's Busan and Japan's Tsushima resumes
KYODO NEWS - Mar 1, 2023 - 14:52 | World, All

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said Wednesday that Japan has transformed into a partner from a "militaristic aggressor in the past," highlighting his readiness to improve bilateral ties.

In a speech at a government ceremony to commemorate the launch in 1919 of the popular independence movement against Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, Yoon said Japan has become a "partner that shares the same universal values" as South Korea, especially with regard to security and the economy.

He also said that trilateral cooperation involving South Korea, the United States and Japan "has become more important than ever" in overcoming security crises, including North Korea's growing nuclear threat.

Wednesday's speech did not include specific remarks on thorny issues related to Japan, such as compensation for wartime Korean workers.

Ties between the two countries deteriorated after South Korea's top court in 2018 ordered Japanese companies Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and Nippon Steel Corp. to pay compensation over forced labor during the colonial era.

The firms have refused to comply with the rulings as Japan's government has said all issues stemming from the colonization were settled "completely and finally" under a 1965 bilateral agreement.

The two countries are now engaged in talks on resolving the issue. Seoul proposed in January that a South Korean foundation could pay money to the plaintiffs on behalf of the Japanese companies, while also calling for a "sincere response" from Tokyo.

Tokyo is now considering expressing remorse based on past statements.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin said that Seoul is "working to solve the problem without further delay" and will "promptly prepare a rational proposal for resolving it."

But his government is struggling with deep-seated opposition in South Korea to any proposal that does not guarantee compensation in cash by the Japanese firms.

Related coverage:

Korea-Japan leaders may watch baseball together in Tokyo: report

South Korean temple loses Buddha statue ownership case to Japan

FEATURE: South Korean, Japanese, other Asian writers publish anthology
KYODO NEWS - Mar 1, 2023 - 20:43 | All, Japan

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pledged Wednesday that his government will take every possible measure to pursue the return of all of its citizens who were abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s.

Kishida's remarks came during a meeting at his office with family members of the Japanese abductees, who have recently claimed that they would not oppose giving humanitarian aid to North Korea if it would lead to the victims' return.

To realize the early return of all the abductees to Japan, "We will do our utmost to tackle the issue without ruling out any options," Kishida said, reiterating he has been eager to have direct talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "without conditions."

At the gathering, Takuya Yokota, younger brother of Megumi Yokota, who was abducted at age 13 in 1977, urged Japan to start negotiations with North Korea to resolve the abduction issue while making efforts to build peace between the two nations.

He said if North Korea immediately returns all the abductees to Japan, Kishida's government "should be able to provide humanitarian assistance" to Pyongyang "within the limits of the sanctions imposed by the international community" on the country.

Last month, a group representing the abductees' families and its supporting entity released a new campaign policy saying humanitarian aid does not violate U.N. Security Council sanctions against North Korea, which has continued nuclear and ballistic missile development.

Along with the National Association for the Rescue of Japanese Kidnapped by North Korea, the group led by Takuya Yokota has kept its long-held policy of seeking the immediate return of all Japanese nationals abducted by Pyongyang.

The groups have said that their members will visit the United States in May to call on the U.S. administration of President Joe Biden to lend support for the realization of a summit between Japan and North Korea.

On Monday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, the top government spokesman, said Japan would not rule out the possibility of offering humanitarian assistance to North Korea if the move is judged to be effective in resolving the abduction issue.

Matsuno, who has doubled as the minister in charge of the abduction issue since October 2021, joined Wednesday's meeting.

The iconic abductee Megumi Yokota is among 17 Japanese nationals the government has officially recognized as having been abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s.

Following the return of five abductees to Japan in 2002, Tokyo has sought the early return of 12 others. Japan also alleges North Korea's involvement in many other disappearances.

Related coverage:

Families' group not to oppose aid to North Korea if abductees returned
KYODO NEWS - Mar 1, 2023 - 01:34 | All, Japan, World

Senior officials of Japan, the United States and South Korea have held the first meeting in a new dialogue on economic security, discussing ways to boost trilateral cooperation on vital and emerging technologies, the White House said Tuesday.

The meeting in Hawaii came after the countries' leaders agreed last November in Cambodia to launch the three-way dialogue focusing on measures to protect sensitive technologies and ensure supply chain sustainability, amid China's growing influence.

As the U.S.-China rivalry intensifies also in the realm of cutting-edge technology development, Washington has been expanding the scope of cooperation with its two key Asian allies beyond traditional security issues.

During the inaugural meeting in Honolulu, the topics discussed by the officials included quantum and space technologies, as well as how to improve supply chain resilience for semiconductors, batteries and critical minerals, according to the White House.

The meeting was attended by Yasuo Takamura, councillor of Japan's Cabinet Secretariat, Tarun Chhabra and Nora Todd, U.S. National Security Council senior directors, and Wang Yun Jong, South Korean presidential secretary for economic security.

Related coverage:

Japan, U.S., South Korea hold maritime drills after North Korea ICBM firing

Japan, U.S., South Korea condemn North's ICBM-class missile launch

Japan, U.S., South Korea agree to beef up deterrence against North Korea
KYODO NEWS - Mar 1, 2023 - 17:29 | Feature, All, Japan

Kei Komuro, the husband of Japanese former princess Mako Komuro, has been registered as a lawyer in the U.S. state of New York, a local judicial website showed.

Komuro's registration, dated Monday according to the New York State Unified Court System, came after he passed the state's bar examination on his third attempt last July.

His title in a legal firm in New York he has been working for has been changed from law clerk to associate.

Komuro, 31, graduated from New York City's Fordham University School of Law with a Juris Doctor degree in May 2021. He and Emperor Naruhito's 31-year-old niece have been living in the city since late 2021.

They tied the knot in October that year amid public unease over the marriage due to a financial dispute involving Komuro's mother and her former fiance.

The 1947 Imperial House Law, which limits heirs to the imperial throne to males with an emperor in the paternal line, requires female royals to give up their status when they marry commoners.

Related coverage:

Husband of ex-Japan princess Mako passes N.Y. bar exam on 3rd attempt

FOCUS: Japan's imperial family eyeing social media to stay in touch
By Yoshiaki Nishikage, KYODO NEWS - Mar 2, 2023 - 13:17 | Feature, All, Japan, 3/11 Fukushima

Masahiro Oka was warned to expect the worst.

A friend had told him that the scene at Tsukihama beach in the port city of Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, northeast Japan, was "sheer destruction."

With the roads cut off by the massive tsunami, Oka arrived on foot in his hometown on March 12, 2011, a day after the devastating Great East Japan Earthquake. The sight before him was as promised: destruction all around.

"I thought that at least something would be left," said Oka, now 70. "All the homes were gone except for the foundations of the buildings."

At a loss what to do, he walked through the ruins of Kitakami district, only to see his granddaughter Kokoro, just 7 years old, lying on a hillside. He called her name. No answer. So he clutched her tightly in his arms and sobbed inconsolably.

Thinking "she must be cold" but unable to move her body to shelter, Oka removed his own sweatshirt and slipped the garment onto his dead granddaughter.

Forced to leave her overnight, Oka took refuge at a temple and went to retrieve Kokoro's body the following day. But her face somehow looked different from a day earlier. "I don't think I wanted to believe it...I thought this really can't be Kokoro."

But Eriko Okuda, 58, a relative who thought of Kokoro like a daughter, confirmed what they both knew already. Oka said, "I asked her, 'Hey, is that really Koko (Kokoro's nickname)?'" Okuda replied, "Yes, it is." "It is, isn't it," Oka acknowledged. He had no choice but to accept reality.

Subsequently, the bodies of Kokoro's 1-year-old younger sister Iroha and their mother, Oka's eldest daughter Hiromi, 32, were found. Oka's wife, Katsuko, who was then 56, his second daughter Emi Oikawa, 29, and her daughter Atsuki, 1, remain missing and presumed dead.

The five family members other than his wife are believed to have died after evacuating to the city's Kitakami General Branch, which was a designated evacuation center in Tsukihama engulfed and destroyed by a huge wave.

It had been Oka's daily routine to receive a boxed lunch made by his wife and leave the house early each morning for his job as a construction worker. But with that routine forever ended, Oka could no longer find meaning in going to work.

He took a leave of absence and instead started searching for the three missing family members, including his wife. "I couldn't move on without any trace at all of their remains."

Not only did he search Tsukihama but also all of the surrounding flooded areas. He returned to work after around six months but continued his search on his days off.

And he was still searching in the summer of 2015, four and half years after the disaster. He participated in search activities across the Kitakami River from Tsukihama. Upstream, there was also Okawa Elementary School, where 84 children and teachers were killed. Oka understood that even if he found something, the chances were slim he could recover any remains of family members. Even so, he held onto the feeling of "just maybe."

About a half year later, in February 2016, Oka was able to move from a temporary housing unit to post-disaster public housing built on elevated ground in Tsukihama. It was close to where he had found both his granddaughters, Kokoro and Iroha. "I wanted to feel that I was by their side," Oka said about his desire to move into the new housing complex.

"I stopped my search right around this time," he said. More than 2,500 people still remain missing in the affected areas from the 3/11 disaster. "But the number of unaccounted-for people in newspapers has stopped decreasing. I don't think (finding remains) is a possibility anymore," he said.

Oka's feelings of resignation have gradually intensified, while he also had to confront the reality of being on his own when he left temporary housing and settled into his new life.

"I had been living a temporary life, so I didn't really feel it, but I thought that now I have no choice but to go on living alone."

Now living alone, Oka makes an offering of freshly cooked rice at his family's Buddhist altar each morning while offering his greetings to the departed.

With his wife Katsuko, who always prepared his lunch, no longer alive, he then makes himself an "onigiri" rice ball before leaving his apartment.

Previously a construction worker, Oka has made the switch to farming. When he returns in the evenings, he has a drink with his meal. Then it's off to bed. Such is a day in the life of a man who lost six family members to the 2011 Tohoku disaster.

The atmosphere was lively when his family was still around. When his eldest granddaughter Kokoro would complain about not wanting to eat her rice, Oka would beckon her to follow him into the kitchen. "Come," he'd say.

They would mix rice with vinegar, and Kokoro would roll it into bite-size pieces. She would break into a wide grin once she tasted it. "Little kids like to make things themselves," Oka fondly recalled, the corner of his eyes softening.

Oka cherishes these memories of his grandchildren. Although he had waited nearly five years to move from the city's temporary housing to his current residence, he was determined to do it. "I wanted to spend the rest of my life in my hometown so I wouldn't forget a single memory of where my family and I shared our time."

While Oka tries to hold on to his pre-disaster memories, he has no post-disaster memories to speak of. He is on autopilot. Every day, which should present hardship, becomes a repetition, and time has flown by as he plays out his daily existence. He tells himself, "'It's okay to go easy.' I've also come to terms with living alone."

Kokoro, whose name in Japanese means "kind heart," would have turned 20 this year if she were still alive. "She'd have been such a beauty! We might even have drunk together," Oka said. Asked if she would still feel close to him, Oka joked, "I have some doubts about that one. She'd probably be like the kids today calling me 'old man.'"

When Oka drinks at home, he often opens the sliding door of the connecting Japanese-style room and gazes at the photos of his grandchildren arranged in front of the Buddhist altar from the living room. The altar is blue, the same color as the clothes his eldest daughter Hiromi, Kokoro's mother, liked to dress her and her youngest daughter Iroha in. "I went all out," Oka said with a bashful smile.

Lately, an episode he often recalls is when Kokoro ate sashimi (raw fish slices) for the first time. "I put her on my lap and fed her. She wolfed down half the plate and said, 'This is great, more, more!'"

Oka knows that Kokoro tried sashimi as a toddler, but he is unsure when it actually occurred. "Was it 3, 4, or maybe 5 years old?" He finds himself losing track of the clothing his grandchildren used to wear, too, even though he chose the blue color for the altar himself.

"Immediately after the disaster I had such vivid memories but they have grown hazy. It's age...age," Oka muttered, looking down sadly. Still, his feelings for his family are the one thing that has not deserted him, he says.

"I cry while I drink alone at night. When that happens, I have no choice but to drink till I can settle down."

Related coverage:

Japan starts alert system for quakes off northern Pacific coast

FEATURE: Gathering helps brighten lives of problem drinkers of 2011 disaster

Japan marks 11 years since quake disaster, Fukushima crisis
KYODO NEWS - Mar 1, 2023 - 08:27 | All, Travel/Tourism, Japan, Coronavirus

Japan has ended its blanket COVID-19 testing of visitors from mainland China as part of an easing of border controls due to travelers making the journey returning a low rate of positive results since late January.

The switch to sample testing beginning Wednesday comes after Japan tightened its coronavirus border restrictions on visitors from China last December and again in January amid a surge of cases there.

Travelers from China will still have to show proof of a negative coronavirus test taken 72 hours or less before departure.

Under the eased rules, up to 20 percent of arrivals will be subject to testing, which will be conducted on all passengers arriving on selected flights.

Japan has also lifted a restriction that permitted direct flights from mainland China to arrive at only the four main airports of Narita, Haneda, Kansai and Chubu.

Japan's health ministry says the rate of positive COVID-19 tests among travelers from China has been below 1 percent since late January.

China saw its COVID-19 cases rise rapidly after relaxing in December its "zero-COVID" policy that involved lockdowns and strict quarantine requirements.

At the end of last year, the Japanese government implemented a requirement that all travelers from mainland China and those who visited it within the previous seven days test for COVID-19 upon arrival.

In early January, it further tightened border controls for visitors from mainland China by requiring proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours prior to departure.

Related coverage:

FOCUS: Japan inbound travel recovering amid airport staff shortage increases

FEATURE: Vending machines make tax-free shopping easier for Japan travelers

Hotel-shopping complex opens at Tokyo's Haneda airport
KYODO NEWS - Mar 1, 2023 - 19:50 | Feature, All, Japan

Two elderly women were killed on Wednesday after a car crashed into a hospital in western Japan, local authorities said.

The 71-year-old driver of the car, South Korean national Oh Chang Su, was arrested on the spot on charges of negligence resulting in death.

It is believed the two victims in their 70s and 80s were passing by when the car plowed through some shrubbery near the entrance of Ikuno Aiwa Hospital in Osaka around 2:45 p.m., pinning them to a wall, according to investigative sources.

Both were pronounced dead at the scene.

A security camera near the site showed the car driving in the wrong direction before veering onto the sidewalk and crashing into the hospital.

Police called for nearby residents to evacuate, as the accident also caused a gas leak. According to Osaka Gas Co., the leak has since been fixed, with the surrounding area unaffected.
Laman Ismayilova

Azerbaijani and Latvian national libraries have discussed the reconstruction of cultural institutions and libraries in Karabakh.

The virtual meeting was held within the EU4 Dialogue project, which is a response to emerging needs identified through political dialogue, Azernews reports.

In his remarks, Azerbaijan National Library Director Professor Karim Tahirov noted that 975 libraries with 4.6 million book collections were destroyed in Azerbaijani lands as a result of the Armenian occupation.

"Our lands have already been freed from Armenian occupation. Now we should put all our efforts into rebuilding the libraries. However, since the liberated territories have been mined by Armenian military units, it is impossible to carry out construction activities there and the de-mining activities are now in full swing along with similar projects," he said.

He added that projects like EU4 Dialogue will contribute to the restoration of libraries in the liberated territories.

Speaking about the project, Karim Tahirov said that it is divided into two directions: practical training and summer school.

The first direction is practical training, which will last 3-4 weeks. At this time, two experts, who will take part in the organization of Karabakh libraries, are expected to have an internship in Latvian libraries.

The second direction is all about summer school. Around 20 specialists will join summer school, which will last 7-8 days.

Karim Tahirov emphasized that such a project can be considered a great support for the reconstruction of libraries in Azerbaijan's liberated lands.

The National Library has collected over 120,000 books for libraries within the project "Let's go with a book to Karabakh".

First of all, it is planned to create libraries in Aghali village and Shusha city.
KYODO NEWS - Mar 1, 2023 - 22:35 | All, Japan

A knife-wielding teenager on Wednesday trespassed into a junior high school in Saitama Prefecture near Tokyo and attacked a teacher who tried to stop him from entering a classroom, local police said.

The 17-year-old was subdued by teachers at the scene and was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. "I wanted to kill anyone," he was quoted by police as saying.

Students of the Misasa Junior High School in Toda were not hurt as they exited the classroom where they were taking a test, but the case may prompt calls to review school safety measures as the suspect managed to make his way into the third floor of the school building.

The suspect, whose name is being withheld because he is a minor, is a high school student from the neighboring city of Saitama. According to investigative sources, he has also hinted at his involvement in a recent spate of dead, mutilated cats found in the city.

The police said the teenager had attempted to enter the classroom and got into a scuffle with a 60-year-old teacher who had been proctoring. He slashed the teacher's upper body several times.

The 60-year-old's injuries were not life-threatening. The students at one point were evacuated to the school's ground.

Schools in Japan have stepped up safety measures ever since a knife-wielding man entered an elementary school in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, and killed eight students and wounded 15 others in 2001.

While most schools have crisis management manuals in place, introducing costly measures such as installing security cameras and hiring security guards have remained challenging.

Related coverage:

Kawasaki high schooler stabbed in street, minor arrested

Crimes in Japan rise in 2022 for 1st time in 20 years

Suspect in attack on Japanese sociologist Miyadai killed himself
KYODO NEWS - Mar 2, 2023 - 08:15 | All, World, Coronavirus

Washington's renowned cherry blossom festival will return to its full-fledged pre-pandemic form, with this year's predicted March 22-25 bloom peak coming earlier than usual due to the unusually warm winter, organizers said Wednesday.

The annual festival, commemorating the 1912 gift of cherry trees from Tokyo to Washington and the longtime friendship between Japan and the United States, will run from March 20 to April 16.

Diana Mayhew, president of the National Cherry Blossom Festival, said she expects the number of people coming to the upcoming celebration, featuring a parade, concerts and many other cultural events, will match or surpass those before the outbreak of the coronavirus.

Last year's festival was staged in an in-person format for the first time since the pandemic started, but she noted some "caution" persisted, with the number of visitors still lower than the 1.6 million people who attended in 2019.

The festival dates back to 1927 and is regarded as the kick-off to the capital's tourism season, with this year's theme being "spring it on!"

At a press event held to announce the peak bloom, Koichi Ai, minister for public affairs at the Embassy of Japan in Washington, said the "everlasting cycle" of the blossom is akin to the story of the relationship between the two countries, which "has survived turbulent times and has matured to the present state."
KYODO NEWS - Mar 1, 2023 - 22:43 | Feature, All, Japan

Prince Hitachi, the uncle of Emperor Naruhito, was hospitalized Wednesday evening for fever, the Imperial Household Agency said.

The 87-year-old prince was hospitalized around 6:40 p.m. at the Japanese Red Cross Medical Center in Tokyo as a precaution due to his advanced age, the agency said.

Prince Hitachi, who is the younger brother of former Emperor Akihito and third in line to the throne, serves as president of the Japan-Denmark Society, honorary president of the Japan-Sweden Society and honorary president of the Japan-Belgium Society.

In 2011, he made a private visit to Britain with his wife Princess Hanako, 82, to attend an arts event in London and a reception hosted by the late Queen Elizabeth II.

Related coverage:

Husband of ex-Japan princess Mako registered as lawyer in N.Y.

Japan crown prince, princess to attend coronation of British king

Japan's emperor hopes COVID-disrupted lives return to normal in poem
KYODO NEWS - Mar 2, 2023 - 22:30 | All, World, Japan

The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.

----------

G-20 foreign ministers hold 2nd day talks, Ukraine war on agenda

NEW DELHI - Foreign ministers from the Group of 20 economies on Thursday were engaged in substantive debate on the second day of their meeting in India, with Russia's war on Ukraine dominating the discussions.

A joint statement is unlikely to be issued following the two-day G-20 talks in New Delhi, which started with a welcome dinner on Wednesday, but India may release a wrap-up as the presiding country, according to Japanese government sources.

----------

Ex-BOJ chief sees "modest" effect in Japan's massive monetary easing

WASHINGTON - Former Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa has criticized the powerful monetary easing undertaken by his successor and current chief Haruhiko Kuroda, saying its impact on inflation and economic growth has been "modest."

Monetary policy has become a "quick fix" to structural problems that require more robust reforms, Shirakawa said in a magazine published Wednesday by the International Monetary Fund. He called for central bankers to reflect on the reason for and consequences of prolonged monetary easing.

----------

Japan drops to 104th in gender disparity rank in World Bank survey

WASHINGTON - Japan ranked a dismal 104th in the World Bank's latest report on women's economic opportunities, continuing to trail the rest of the Group of Seven developed member countries over the progress toward gender equality in the law.

The annual survey, covering 190 countries and territories, assesses gender gaps in laws and regulations across eight areas, including workplace, pay, parenthood, and entrepreneurship.

----------

Prince Hitachi, Emperor Naruhito's uncle, undergoes surgery

TOKYO - Prince Hitachi, the uncle of Emperor Naruhito, underwent surgery for ureteral stones on Thursday and is recovering well, the Imperial Household Agency said.

The 87-year-old prince was hospitalized at the Japanese Red Cross Medical Center in Tokyo on Wednesday evening after running a fever of around 38 C. He had been experiencing a fever of over 37 C for several days prior

----------

Japan sees record-high 512 student suicides in 2022

TOKYO - The number of suicides among school students in Japan rose by 39 in 2022 from a year earlier to a record high of 512, according to preliminary education ministry data based on multiple government statistics.

Suicides among people aged 19 and under, including those enrolled in schools, are attributed the most to worries about academic underperformance, poor career prospects, and stress related to school and university entrance exams, health ministry data showed.

----------

U.S. approves potential sale of arms worth $619 million to Taiwan

WASHINGTON - The United States has approved a potential sale of missiles and related equipment to Taiwan worth $619 million to be used on its F-16 fighter jets, the Pentagon said Wednesday.

The approval by the State Department and formal notification to Congress the same day are almost certain to inflame tensions with Beijing, which regards Taiwan as part of its territory to be brought under its control by force if necessary.

----------

North Korea's Kim calls for increase in grain production in key meeting

BEIJING - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for increasing grain production at a key four-day ruling party meeting through Wednesday focused on agricultural development, state-run media reported, amid speculation that the country has been suffering from a chronic food shortage.

At the plenary meeting of the Workers' Party of Korea, which followed the previous plenum by an unusually short interval of two months, Kim said it is "important to concentrate on increasing the per-hectare yield at all the farms," the official Korean Central News Agency said Thursday.

----------

Man sentenced to death in retrial over 2017 murder of elderly couple

NAGOYA - A man was sentenced to death in a retrial Thursday for the fatal robbery of an elderly couple at their central Japan home in March 2017.

Hiroshi Yamada was given the sentence sought by prosecutors after the Nagoya District Court ruled that he had murdered the couple with the intention of robbing them.

----------

Sushi chain installs AI camera system after licking scandal

TOKYO - Major sushi restaurant chain operator Kura Sushi Inc. said Thursday it has installed camera systems equipped with artificial intelligence on conveyor belts at its restaurants, after the industry was shaken by a series of incidents involving customers licking soy sauce bottles and conducting other unhygienic acts.

The major scandal has impacted on the sector, as some of the cases were recorded and posted online, racking up millions of views and prompting some restaurants to file damage reports to the police.

----------

Japan school trespasser brought at least 3 knives with him for attack

SAITAMA, Japan - A teenager under arrest on suspicion of entering a junior high school in Saitama Prefecture near Tokyo and stabbing a teacher had at least three knives in his possession during the incident, investigative sources said Thursday.

The 17-year-old high school student is a Saitama resident suspected of attempted murder over the attack on a teacher at the school in Toda. He is also being investigated in connection with dismembered cat corpses that have been found in the city and elsewhere nearby after he implied he was behind the incidents, the sources said.

----------

Japan sees 1st foreign cruise ship arrival in 3 years
The three-year-old male polar bear Dikson watches its reflection on water at Moscow Zoo in Moscow, Russia, Feb. 25, 2023. (Xinhua/Meng Jing)

by Meng Jing, Anastasia Osipova

MOSCOW, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- To meet Dikson, a three-year-old male polar bear, it is better to go as soon as Moscow Zoo opens at nine o'clock.

February mornings in Moscow are still freezing, but lively Dikson seems to enjoy playing in the snow, a scene totally different from that six months ago.

Dikson is named after an island in Krasnoyarsk Krai of Russia, where it was found in September last year. At that time, the paralyzed bear dehydrated severely and all it could move was its head and front paws, as it was reportedly shot by a villager for self-protection.

RECOVERING IN ZOO

A few days after it was found, the young bear was sent to Moscow Zoo for a better cure. Also in here, Dikson had a damaged tooth removed.

After more than five months into his rehabilitation, the bear is now recovering well, having grown from merely 60 kg to 160 kg.

Ivan Pazhetnov, head of the department of carnivores at Moscow Zoo, said the bear did not show any aggression upon its arrival. Some days later, it could recognize its caretakers' voices.

The zoo arranged internal enclosures for Dikson, with glass walls covered from outside and a few small observation windows left. Within its living quarters, there is a swimming pool, where it can be trained to move and catch fish.

When Dikson's caretakers released fish into the water, the tender creature suddenly showed interest and began to approach the pool.

After pointing its nose close to the water surface for a while, the bear turned around and lunged into the icy pool backward, where it looked rather accustomed.

After a short while, it made its way back ashore. For every step forward, Dikson had to lean forward, and bow its head with full strength to counter the weight of its lower body, half a step at a time.

Dikson will stay in Moscow Zoo for a while as it still needs continuous medical care, the zoo said.

VULNERABLE POLAR BEAR

Polar Bear is a Red Book animal in Russia, and scientists believe the bears are now in decline in some areas due to various reasons.

The work Moscow Zoo has been conducting is pioneering, as it is the first time in Russia that a polar bear in such a grave condition was transported to a zoo and rescued.

Dikson's caretakers recently have accustomed it to a vibratory massager, aimed at stimulating muscle contraction through an electrical impulse to prevent lactic acid stagnation.

Veterinarians have observed positive dynamics in the bear's condition, as Dikson occasionally puts his hind left paw from "lying" to "sitting" position, moves its ankle more often and responds to touch.

"The goals and objectives of rehabilitation are to achieve some kind of partial regression of the cut, so that we have a bear that eventually stands on its hind legs," said Pazhetnov.

On International Polar Bear Day, which fell on Monday, Svetlana Akulova, head of Moscow Zoo, called on everyone to raise awareness of protecting polar bears, saying the animals are powerful, but also vulnerable.

Global warming and man-made climate change have been making life tough for these impressive predators, with around 22,000 polar bears left in the wild, the World Wide Fund for Nature said on its website.

Dikson is fortunate to be cured, while its brothers and sisters are still facing a serious challenge. 

The three-year-old male polar bear Dikson's reflection is seen on water at Moscow Zoo in Moscow, Russia, Feb. 25, 2023. (Xinhua/Meng Jing)

The three-year-old male polar bear Dikson crawls with its paralyzed legs at Moscow Zoo in Moscow, Russia, Feb. 25, 2023. (Xinhua/Meng Jing)

The three-year-old male polar bear Dikson is seen outdoors at Moscow Zoo in Moscow, Russia, Feb. 25, 2023. (Xinhua/Meng Jing)

This video clip issued by Moscow Zoo on Oct. 5, 2022 shows a staff member feeding Dikson at the zoo in Moscow, Russia. (Xinhua)

This video clip issued by Moscow Zoo on Sept. 6, 2022 shows a staff member dealing with wounds of Dikson upon its arrival at the zoo in Moscow, Russia. (Xinhua)

This video clip issued by Moscow Zoo on Nov. 21, 2022 shows a staff member doing an operation for Dikson to remove a damaged tooth at the zoo in Moscow, Russia. (Xinhua)
Military personnel attend the opening ceremony at U-Tapao Thai navy airfield in Rayong Province, Thailand, Feb. 28, 2023. According to the Thai Armed Forces, the multinational exercise Cobra Gold 2023 will take place from Feb. 27 to March 10, with the core exercises including command post exercise, humanitarian civic assistance, and field training exercise. The drill is also back to full-scale with the return to normalcy after the pandemic. (Photo by Rachen Sageamsak/Xinhua)

RAYONG, Thailand, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The multinational exercise Cobra Gold 2023 was launched in U-Tapao Thai navy airfield in Thailand's eastern Rayong Province on Tuesday, marking the return to its pre-pandemic scale after three years.

In his remarks at the opening ceremony, Thai Armed Force chief General Chalermpol Srisawat said more than 7,000 personnel from 30 countries participated in the drill this year.

"Please take this time to get to know each other, to learn from each other and to share each other's experiences," he said.

According to the Thai Armed Forces, the Cobra Gold 2023 exercise will take place from Feb. 27 to March 10, with the core exercises including command post exercise, humanitarian civic assistance, and field training exercise. The drill is also back to full-scale with the return to normalcy after the pandemic.

The Chinese military has dispatched a contingent to participate in the humanitarian assistance and disaster relief exercise of the Cobra Gold 2023 multinational exercise in Thailand, a Chinese defense spokesperson has said. 

Military personnel attend the opening ceremony at U-Tapao Thai navy airfield in Rayong Province, Thailand, Feb. 28, 2023. According to the Thai Armed Forces, the multinational exercise Cobra Gold 2023 will take place from Feb. 27 to March 10, with the core exercises including command post exercise, humanitarian civic assistance, and field training exercise. The drill is also back to full-scale with the return to normalcy after the pandemic. (Photo by Rachen Sageamsak/Xinhua)

Military personnel attend the opening ceremony at U-Tapao Thai navy airfield in Rayong Province, Thailand, Feb. 28, 2023. According to the Thai Armed Forces, the multinational exercise Cobra Gold 2023 will take place from Feb. 27 to March 10, with the core exercises including command post exercise, humanitarian civic assistance, and field training exercise. The drill is also back to full-scale with the return to normalcy after the pandemic. (Photo by Rachen Sageamsak/Xinhua)

Military personnel attend the opening ceremony at U-Tapao Thai navy airfield in Rayong Province, Thailand, Feb. 28, 2023. According to the Thai Armed Forces, the multinational exercise Cobra Gold 2023 will take place from Feb. 27 to March 10, with the core exercises including command post exercise, humanitarian civic assistance, and field training exercise. The drill is also back to full-scale with the return to normalcy after the pandemic. (Photo by Rachen Sageamsak/Xinhua)

Military personnel attend the opening ceremony at U-Tapao Thai navy airfield in Rayong Province, Thailand, Feb. 28, 2023. According to the Thai Armed Forces, the multinational exercise Cobra Gold 2023 will take place from Feb. 27 to March 10, with the core exercises including command post exercise, humanitarian civic assistance, and field training exercise. The drill is also back to full-scale with the return to normalcy after the pandemic. (Photo by Rachen Sageamsak/Xinhua)
Leung Chun-ying (2nd L), vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and chairman of the GX Foundation, Djiboutian Prime Minister Abdoulkader Kamil Mohamed (2nd R), Djiboutian Minister of Health Ahmed Robleh Abdilleh (1st R), and Chinese Ambassador to Djibouti Hu Bin (1st L) cut the ribbon during the launching ceremony of a health project in Djibouti City, Djibouti, Feb. 27, 2023. GX Foundation, a non-profit and non-governmental organization registered in Hong Kong, China, kicked off here Monday a project that aims to offer cataract surgeries to patients and help them regain vision in the Red Sea nation of Djibouti. (Xinhua/Han Xu)

DJIBOUTI CITY, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- GX Foundation, a non-profit and non-governmental organization registered in Hong Kong, China, kicked off here Monday a project that aims to offer cataract surgeries to patients and help them regain vision in the Red Sea nation of Djibouti.

The foundation renewed its memorandum of understanding with the Djibouti Ministry of Health to extend their cooperation until 2027, under which up to 6,000 cataract surgeries are to be offered for free to local patients over the next few years.

Speaking at the launching ceremony, Leung Chun-ying, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and chairman of the foundation, said the foundation hopes to use the Cataract Blindness Elimination Project to fully demonstrate the contribution of Chinese non-governmental organizations (NGO) in international humanitarian aid.

Leung believed that the project would deepen the friendship between China and Djibouti and bring bilateral exchanges and cooperation to a new height.

In his speech, Djiboutian Minister of Health Ahmed Robleh Abdilleh paid tribute to the excellent cooperation between Djibouti and China in the field of health.

Abdilleh said cataracts are one of the leading causes of blindness in Djibouti and have a significant impact on socioeconomic development. Thanks to the support of the foundation, the country can carry out various activities of cataract screening and surgery to significantly reduce the rate of blindness.

The medical aid project is implemented by the foundation and the Health Commission of Shanxi Province in northern China. The province will send medical teams in batches over the next few years to perform about 6,000 free cataract surgeries in Djibouti using two mobile eye treatment centers provided by the foundation.

The foundation, established in 2018, aims to provide international medical and public health humanitarian assistance to countries along the Belt and Road. The name GX is derived from the Chinese word "Gong Xiang," meaning "sharing." 

GX Foundation renews its memorandum of understanding with the Djibouti Ministry of Health in Djibouti City, Djibouti, Feb. 27, 2023. GX Foundation, a non-profit and non-governmental organization registered in Hong Kong, China, kicked off here Monday a project that aims to offer cataract surgeries to patients and help them regain vision in the Red Sea nation of Djibouti. (Xinhua/Han Xu)
TEHRAN, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on Tuesday blamed the U.S. "miscalculation and wrong policy" for causing the current stalemate on the revival of a 2015 nuclear deal.

Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks in an address to the High-Level Segment of the Conference on Disarmament in the Swiss city of Geneva, Iran's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its website.

If all parties have the "determination and goodwill," the few outstanding issues can be settled without any precondition and within the framework of the previous talks, thus enabling the parties to take the "final step," the top Iranian diplomat was quoted as saying.

The United States needs to have "the will and strength to conclude the lengthy talks," he said, stressing that Iran is ready to continue the talks until the conclusion of an agreement.

Amir-Abdollahian said Iran's nuclear program will remain "peaceful" and Tehran is determined to remain committed to its obligations under the safeguards agreement.

He also warned against any action to be taken during the upcoming meeting of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in March, saying that Iran reserves the right to respond accordingly.

A technical solution is within reach if the IAEA stops its politically-motivated approach, said the Iranian minister.

Iran signed the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), with world powers in July 2015, agreeing to put some curbs on its nuclear program in return for the removal of the sanctions on the country. The United States, however, pulled out of the deal in May 2018 and reimposed its unilateral sanctions on Iran, prompting the latter to reduce some of its nuclear commitments under the deal.

The talks on the JCPOA's revival began in April 2021 in the Austrian capital of Vienna. No breakthrough has been achieved after the latest round of talks held in August 2022. 
President-elect Bola Tinubu (C, Front) celebrates with his supporters after his victory in Nigeria's presidential election in Abuja, capital of Nigeria, March 1, 2023. Bola Tinubu from Nigeria's ruling All Progressives Congress party has won Nigeria's presidential election with over 8.79 million ballots, the country's electoral body said Wednesday. (Photo by Emma Osodi/Xinhua)

ABUJA, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Bola Tinubu from Nigeria's ruling All Progressives Congress party has won Nigeria's presidential election with over 8.79 million ballots, the country's electoral body said Wednesday.

The 70-year-old president-elect defeated his closest rival, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, candidate of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, said Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission.

Abubakar got over 6.98 million votes and was closely trailed by Peter Obi, candidate of the Labor Party, who secured about 6.1 million votes.

The election was one of the most hotly contested races in the country's history, with Tinubu losing Lagos, his stronghold in the country's southwest region, to Obi.

Tinubu, a former Lagos State governor and senator, had been eyeing the presidency for years to build a strong political structure with a vast network of supporters nationwide.

In his acceptance speech, the president-elect said with his victory at the polls, renewed hope has dawned in Nigeria. With an eye on sustained growth, Tinubu pledged to be in tune with the aspirations of all citizens and commit to work on national development.

"Now, to you, the young people of this country, I hear you loud and clear. I understand your pains, your yearnings for good governance, a functional economy, and a safe nation that protects you and our future," Tinubu said.

Outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari early Wednesday hailed Tinubu's victory, saying that the results revealed democracy in Africa's largest economy.

"Elected by the people, he (Tinubu) is the best person for the job," Buhari said in a statement. "I shall now work with him and his team to ensure an orderly handover of power."

Buhari described the election as "Africa's largest democratic exercise," noting it demonstrated democracy's continued relevance and capability to deliver for the people it serves. 
MOGADISHU, March 1 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has appealed for additional funding to sustain humanitarian response beyond March in Somalia, which is ravaged by devastating drought.

Magatte Guisse, humanitarian coordinator for Somalia ad interim, said available funding levels can only sustain current level of humanitarian response interventions through March.

"Famine has been averted for the time being, but needs remain high and urgent, with more than a third of the country's population facing acute food insecurity and almost half the population in need of humanitarian and protection assistance," Guisse said in a statement issued in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, on Tuesday evening.

According to the UN, Somalia is witnessing a five-year historic dry spell -- a situation not seen in more than 40 years -- and an expected sixth failed rainy season is bound to displace many more families, as famine looms on the horizon.

The statement came after the release of the latest multi-partner post-deyr Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis results which warns that the humanitarian situation in Somalia remains extremely dire and even more appalling outcomes are only temporarily averted.

The report says despite the ongoing delivery of humanitarian food assistance, levels of acute food insecurity across Somalia remain high, with an estimated 5 million people experiencing crisis or worse outcomes between January and March, including 96,000 people facing catastrophic hunger.

"We are grateful to our donors, whose generous support enabled us to reach 7.3 million people with humanitarian assistance in 2022. I urge donors to continue to stand with the people of Somalia at this time of unprecedented and devastating drought and provide additional funding to maintain the lifesaving response beyond March," Guisse said.

According to the UN, food assistance scaled up significantly in 2022, from reaching an average of 2 million people per month between January and March 2022 to reaching an average of 5.4 million people per month between October and December 2022.

It said the humanitarian assistance delivery is expected to reduce significantly between April and June based on current funding levels.

This, the UN agency said, coupled with the anticipated impact of a likely below-average rainfall between April to June, the number of people facing crisis or worse acute food insecurity outcomes is projected to increase to about 6.5 million people across Somalia between April to June. 
President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev will arrive in Azerbaijan for a working visit on March 1-2, Azernews reports per the press service of the Uzbek leader.

During the visit to Baku, the president of Uzbekistan will participate in the plenary session of the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).

The agenda of the event includes issues of developing multilateral dialogue and expanding cooperation in the face of the continued impact of the consequences of the pandemic, as well as the growing challenges and threats to international security and stability.

The NAM is one of the largest international structures that unites 120 member states that have proclaimed non-participation in military-political blocs and organizations, as well as the development of cooperation based on the principles and goals of the UN Charter, as the basis of their foreign policy.
Aerial photo taken on Jan. 26, 2022 shows cargo vessels at Rizhao Port in Rizhao, east China's Shandong Province. (Xinhua/Guo Xulei)

- As Joe Ngai, managing partner of McKinsey Greater China, put it: "As global investors and corporations look for growth, everyone is wondering: Where's the next China?"

- "If you are looking for growth, the answer is very simple. The next China is China," he said.

BEIJING, March 1 (Xinhua) -- China's economy grew 3 percent in 2022 despite downward pressures, exceeding 17 trillion U.S. dollars, its National Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday. With that, China leads the world in growth among major economies.

This resilient performance once again echoes what Joerg Wuttke, president of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China, once said: the Chinese economy has a rebound gene.

Since the beginning of this year, the Chinese economy has shown strong recovery and vitality. As international institutions have raised China's growth expectations, multinational companies have increased investment in China, and global commodity prices are also on the way up driven by the rebound of China's domestic demand.

One may wonder why the Chinese economy can always bounce back. Effective policy coordination is among some of the key factors that help make it possible.

Staff members operate at a workshop in a technology equipment company in Ganzhou, east China's Jiangxi Province, Feb. 13, 2023. (Photo by Hu Jiangtao/Xinhua)

Thanks to China's institutional advantages, Beijing is capable of providing elements of stability for the effective operation of the market based on the country's evolving economic landscape.

Vitor Gaspar, director of the Fiscal Affairs Department of the International Monetary Fund, said that China's overall price level is relatively low, and China still has ample policy space.

For example, while China's monetary policy can ensure a reasonably abundant liquidity, it can also roll out supportive policies, like expanding tax and fee incentives to small and micro enterprises, to companies facing financial drought, as well as to green development and technological progress.

Wichai Kinchong Choi, senior vice president of leading Thai bank Kasikornbank, pointed out that China's economy is resilient and its policies to address internal and external challenges are highly coordinated and long-term in nature.

For Andy Rothman, an investment strategist at Matthews Asia, "with Beijing likely to remain the only major government engaged in serious easing of fiscal and monetary policy -- which much of the world is tightening -- China may once again be the engine of global economic growth."

China's robust consumer market is another major factor. The market is underpinned by a population of 1.4 billion, an expanding middle-income group that exceeds 400 million, a set of pro-domestic demand measures, particularly seen with the country's optimized COVID-19 response as well as a high-quality growth strategy that prioritizes innovation.

For the first time since the pandemic, China's consumption growth this year will outpace the country's economic expansion, and consumers are likely to spend more on services as they resume dining out and traveling, said Christine Peng, head of Greater China Consumer Research at Swiss banking giant UBS.

A citizen buys film tickets at a cinema of a shopping mall in Beijing, capital of China, Dec. 25, 2022. (Xinhua/Ren Chao)

In January, Bank of America estimated that Chinese households will unleash 1 trillion yuan (145 billion dollars) of excess savings in 2023.

During China's weeklong Spring Festival holiday that ended on Jan. 27, the revenue of domestic tourism hit 375.8 billion yuan, up 30 percent from the holiday last year, China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism counted.

Coupled with more policies to boost people's spending capacity, better housing, new energy vehicles, elderly care as well as other forms of new consumption demands are going to further unleash consumption potential.

The 2023 McKinsey China Consumer Report identified "a continuously rising middle class" and "premiumization" as trends reshaping China's consumer market this year.

Another factor that makes the Chinese economy different from others is its unique industrial ecology. It features the world's most complete industrial system, a stable and secure supply chain and highly connected infrastructure network, enabling domestic and foreign enterprises in China to enjoy incomparable advantages in cost, efficiency and innovation.

According to statistics, the actual use of foreign investment in China's high-tech industry in 2022 increased 30.9 percent in dollar terms compared with the previous year.

With the strengthening of China's economic recovery, it has become a global strategic choice for more and more multinational companies to strengthen their distribution of supply chain in China.

On Jan. 28, U.S. multinational consumer goods retailer Procter & Gamble (P&G) announced its decision to move the product supply chain from its current base in Europe to south China's Guangdong province.

Not coincidentally, top U.S. electric automaker Tesla Inc. also stated a concrete target to produce around 1.8 million cars in 2023. Apparently, its Gigafactory in Shanghai and other related supporting enterprises are why Tesla can announce such an ambitious goal.

In addition, through its supply-side structural reform and high-quality economic development, China is continuously exploring new models of industrial development. The super-large single market in China and its manufacturing industry chain have paved the way for new technology application, integration and iteration.

Michael Kirsch, president and CEO of Porsche China, said Porsche's presence in China goes far beyond a sales unit, as China is also its innovation powerhouse, helping set important trends with huge influence on the global economy.

Some foreign media, including The Diplomat, have noted that China has made remarkable achievements in electric vehicles, artificial intelligence, digital economy and space technology, and that high-quality development is greatly enhancing innovations and the sustainability of China's economic growth.

A China-Europe freight train arrives at Xi'an international port in Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Aug. 31, 2022. (Xinhua/Li Yibo)

Of course, opening-up is also key to China's economic success.

China continues to promote high-level opening up to the outside world and the full integration of domestic and international markets and resources. That creats new opportunities for countries in their economic cooperation with China.

One year into the implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, China's foreign trade with other members of the agreement grew by 7.5 percent year-on-year to 12.95 trillion yuan (1.93 trillion dollars) in 2022, statistics from China's General Administration of Customs showed.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative. Over the past decade, China has signed cooperation agreements with 151 countries and 32 international organizations, with its trade with countries along the Belt and Road up 19.4 percent in 2022 over the previous year.

"We anticipate that with the reopening of China, there'll be a big recovery of demand among Chinese consumers. Since many countries in the region trade with China, that will benefit their exports to China. It should be beneficial to all the value chains that China is connected to," Albert Park, chief economist of the Asian Development Bank, was cited by media as saying.

Meanwhile, China is also committed to improving its business environment, coordinating its internal and external markets and sharing factors of production and resources more efficiently.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) into the Chinese mainland, in actual use, expanded 14.5 percent year on year to 127.69 billion yuan in January, the Ministry of Commerce said Monday. In U.S. dollar terms, the FDI inflow went up 10 percent year on year to 19.02 billion dollars.

Beneath the data is the policy support for institutional openness. In 2022, China fully implemented the shortened negative list for foreign investment, expanded the encouraged investment catalog, and added more cities to the pilot program of opening the service sector.

As Joe Ngai, managing partner of McKinsey Greater China, put it: "As global investors and corporations look for growth, everyone is wondering: Where's the next China?"

"If you are looking for growth, the answer is very simple. The next China is China," he said. 
Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, addresses a meeting marking the 90th anniversary of the Party School of the CPC Central Committee and the opening ceremony of its 2023 spring semester in Beijing, capital of China, March 1, 2023. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

BEIJING, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, on Wednesday called on Party schools to stay true to their founding mission of fostering talent for and contributing wisdom to the Party.

Xi, also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks while addressing a meeting marking the 90th anniversary of the Party School of the CPC Central Committee and the opening ceremony of its 2023 spring semester. 

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, addresses a meeting marking the 90th anniversary of the Party School of the CPC Central Committee and the opening ceremony of its 2023 spring semester in Beijing, capital of China, March 1, 2023. (Xinhua/Zhang Ling)
PHNOM PENH, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn said Wednesday that China is the most important economic and trade partner for countries in Asia.

Sokhonn made the remarks at the annual conference of the Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, which was attended by the ministry's leaders and officials, and heads of Cambodia's overseas missions, among others.

He said that due to high and stable economic growth for decades, China has kept pace with the United States in almost all sectors.

"China's economic influence in many parts of the world is broad and growing constantly. China is the most important partner in terms of economics and trade for almost all of the countries in Asia," Sokhonn said.

The Cambodian top diplomat also highlighted China's contributions to the world through its initiatives such as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the Global Development Initiative (GDI) and the Global Security Initiative (GSI).

Joseph Matthews, a senior professor at the BELTEI International University in Phnom Penh, said the BRI has provided a lot of tangible benefits to all participating countries, and the GDI and GSI are essential for building a more just and fair global governance system.

"The BRI is becoming the new engine of global economic growth in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era, while the GDI and the GSI are crucial to ensuring global peace and sustainable development for all, and to efforts towards a community with a shared future for mankind," he told Xinhua. 
BEIJING, March 1 (Xinhua) -- The Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee held a consultative meeting on Tuesday at Zhongnanhai in Beijing with the central committees of other political parties, the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC), and personages without party affiliation, who were informed of the plan on the reform of Party and state institutions, a list of proposed candidates for the leading positions of state institutions to be recommended to the first session of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC), and a list of proposed candidates for the leadership of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee to be recommended to the first session of the 14th CPPCC National Committee. The meeting was also held to hear their opinions on the above-mentioned issues.

President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, presided over the meeting and delivered an important speech.

Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang, and Li Xi, all members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, attended the meeting.

In the speech, Xi Jinping said that important arrangements were made at the 20th CPC National Congress for deepening the reform of Party and state institutions. They include specific requirements for deepening the reform of financial system, improving the system in which the Party Central Committee exercises unified leadership over science and technology work, optimizing the government responsibility system and organizational structure, improving the coordinating institutions for the Party Central Committee's decision-making on and deliberation of state affairs, and optimizing the allocation of staffing resources for Party and state institutions. Efforts were specified for Party building to guide community-level governance, for stepping up Party building in enterprises of mixed ownership and non-public enterprises, and for improving the management systems for Party building in trade associations, academic societies and chambers of commerce, among others. In order to implement these requirements made at the 20th CPC National Congress, the CPC Central Committee has formulated the draft plan on the reform of Party and state institutions on the basis of in-depth study and analysis as well as extensive solicitation of opinions. After being reviewed and adopted at the second plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, part of the reform plan will be submitted to the first session of the 14th NPC for deliberation in accordance with due legal procedures. In general, the reform of Party and state institutions this time, highlighting key industries and fields, is more targeted and intensified, covering many areas and involving a wide range of interests. It focuses on resolving challenging issues that are of great significance and of great concern to society, which will have an important impact on the economic and social development.

Xi stressed that the first session of the 14th NPC and the first session of the 14th CPPCC National Committee are about to be held. The election of new leading officials of state institutions and the new leadership of the CPPCC National Committee is an important task of the two sessions this year. It is also an important issue that concerns the overall situation.

The CPC Central Committee attaches great importance to the personnel arrangement of the NPC and the National Committee of the CPPCC, and has made arrangements, discussed it within certain scope and solicited opinions as well. In deliberation, it was agreed that in deciding candidates for the new leadership of state institutions and the CPPCC National Committee, we should fully implement the Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era; thoroughly understand the decisive significance of establishing Comrade Xi Jinping's core position on the Party Central Committee and in the Party as a whole and establishing the guiding role of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era; strengthen consciousness of the need to maintain political integrity, think in big-picture terms, follow the leadership core, and keep in alignment with the central Party leadership; stay confident in the path, theory, system and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics; and uphold General Secretary Xi Jinping's core position on the CPC Central Committee and in the Party as a whole and uphold the Central Committee's authority and its centralized, unified leadership. We must firmly stay on the path of socialist political advancement with Chinese characteristics, uphold the unity between the Party leadership, the running of the country by the people and law-based governance, strengthen the work of the NPC and the CPPCC National Committee, and unite forces from all sectors.

We must adhere to the principle of the Party managing and supervising officials, select officials on the basis of both integrity and ability, with more consideration given to integrity, and on the basis of merit regardless of background, apply the criteria for judging competent officials in the new era and the requirements of being loyal, upright and responsible, and set high standards of political commitment, integrity, and image for candidates. On the basis of fully listening to opinions, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee comprehensively considered the qualifications of candidates, various structural requirements and work needs before putting forward proposed lists of candidates, which were submitted to the second plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee for deliberation, Xi said.

Xi said he hoped that other political parties, the ACFIC and personages without party affiliation would thoroughly understand the great significance of the reform of Party and state institutions, align their thoughts and actions with the reform plan, and vigorously support the reform, so as to ensure the smooth completion of the tasks of the NPC and CPPCC National Committee sessions and make both sessions democratic, unified, cohesive and with an atmosphere of integrity.

Xi said he hoped that the central committees of the other political parties, the ACFIC and personages without party affiliation could have a clear understanding of the situation and convey confidence, unite and lead their members and contacts among the general public to closely follow, in both thinking and action, the decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee, actively provide advice and suggestions, consolidate broad consensus, effectively dispel doubts, and educate and guide them in a targeted manner, in order to rally their strength and strive together to achieve the goals and tasks throughout the year.

Those who made speeches include Zheng Jianbang, chairperson of the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, Ding Zhongli, chairperson of the Central Committee of the China Democratic League, Hao Mingjin, chairperson of the Central Committee of the China National Democratic Construction Association, Cai Dafeng, chairperson of the Central Committee of the China Association for Promoting Democracy, He Wei, chairperson of the Central Committee of the Chinese Peasants and Workers Democratic Party, Jiang Zuojun, chairperson of the Central Committee of the China Zhi Gong Party, Wu Weihua, chairperson of the Central Committee of Jiusan Society, Su Hui, chairperson of the Central Committee of the Taiwan Democratic Self-Government League, Gao Yunlong, chairperson of the ACFIC, and Li Wei, a representative of personages without party affiliation.

They believed that the plan on the reform of the Party and state institutions, and the proposed lists of candidates for the leading positions of state institutions and the leadership of the CPPCC National Committee were produced on the basis of extensive consultation and deliberation, reflecting the guiding principles of the 20th CPC National Congress and bearing on the advancement of the cause of the Party and the country on the new journey in the new era.

They expressed staunch support for the reform plan and the proposed lists, and put forward their advice and suggestions on the further reform of Party and state institutions, as well as on endeavors to support strengthening the self-improvement of non-CPC parties.

Wang Chen, Shi Taifeng, Li Ganjie, He Lifeng, Zhang Qingli and Chen Xi, together with officials in charge of relevant central departments, were present at the meeting.

Non-CPC members including Chen Zhu, Wan Gang, Chen Xiaoguang, Gu Shengzu, Liu Xincheng, Shao Hong, He Baoxiang, Wang Guangqian, Qin Boyong, Zhu Yongxin, Yang Zhen, Zhang Endi, Li Yuefeng, and Zhou Zhonghe also attended the meeting. 
ATHENS, March 1 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from the collision of two trains in central Greece on late Tuesday night has reached 32, while 85 people have been injured, the Greek Fire Service said on Wednesday.

At least 53 injured people were hospitalized, the spokesperson of the Fire Service, Vasilios Vathrakogiannis, said.

Rescue workers continued to search for survivors in the wreckage of the passenger train which collided with a freight train close to midnight at Tempi municipality, Greek national news agency AMNA reported.

The circumstances of the incident were under investigation.

Multiple carriages derailed, and at least three caught fire after the "strong" collision.

"Wagons 1 and 2 do not exist. Due to the collision's severity, they were ejected," Regional Governor of Thessaly Kostas Agorastos told national broadcaster ERT.

The Hellenic Red Cross has called on people to donate blood in a central square in the nearby city of Larissa to help the injured. 
ATHENS, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Greece will do everything possible so that a tragedy like the one it is currently faced with will never happen again, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Wednesday following a head-on collision of two trains in central Greece that left behind 36 dead and dozens injured.

"I can guarantee one thing: We will find out the causes of the tragedy and we will do everything possible to ensure that nothing of the sort ever happens again," the Greek leader said on the site of the crash, according to a press statement.

Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou expressed her deep grief at the "inconceivable tragedy," sending a message of support to the families of the victims and the injured, according to a press release.

A total of 66 people remained in hospitals, including six in serious condition in intensive care units, according to the latest update from the Greek Fire Service.

More than 150 firefighters, including special units, were participating in an ongoing search and rescue operation searching for survivors in the wreckage, the spokesperson of the Fire Service, Vasilios Vathrakogiannis, told a press briefing.

Efforts were focused on the first three carriages of the passenger train that crashed onto a freight train close to midnight at Tempi municipality near the city of Larissa, he added. They were engulfed in flames after the collision.

A total of 346 passengers were on board the passenger train, national broadcaster ERT reported, citing the Hellenic Train rail operator.

An investigation into the causes of the accident has been launched, Greek police said.

Announcing a three-day period of national mourning, Greek government spokesperson Giannis Oikonomou said that authorities will clarify how the two trains were running on the same track for many kilometers in different directions.

The passenger train was heading from Athens to Thessaloniki city port in northern Greece, while the cargo train had departed from Thessaloniki for Athens.

"Whatever we say now will be premature and in essence, I would tell you that in this way we do not respect the people who have perished. I would like us all to stay calm and stick to what we said that we will do everything to investigate the causes and will not sweep anything under the carpet," Infrastructure and Transport Minister Kostas Karamanlis told media on the site of the disaster.

The president of the train drivers' association, Kostas Genidounias told Greek national broadcaster ERT that there were shortcomings in the operation of the railways that should be addressed. Electronic traffic control systems warning drivers of dangers ahead had not been working and the Athens-Thessaloniki network runs in manual mode, he said.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was one of the first foreign leaders expressing condolences for the tragedy, while messages of support from abroad continue to pour in, Greek national news agency AMNA reported. 
LANZHOU, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- As soon as the snow stopped falling in northwest China's Gansu Province in mid-February, 44-year-old Geng Shengchen was impatient to fly to Zhejiang Province, one of the country's main production areas for fresh tea leaves and a "battlefield" for Chinese milk tea merchants.

"As the milk tea economy gradually recovers, there's been a rush on the buying of tea leaves recently," Geng said.

Geng is the founder of Fundosa, a milk tea brand in the city of Lanzhou, capital of Gansu, that has been well received among locals and tourists alike for its global flavors.

Geng noted that his milk tea products have special ingredients such as fermented glutinous rice and highland barley, which, he believes, represent the local traditional food culture. Other raw materials from all over the world can also be found in the company's milk tea, showing the brand's cultural fusion.

To serve his consumers high-quality products, Geng used to travel to various food markets across the country to look for the best ingredients. However, his frequent journeys were interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and his decreased orders cast a shadow over his career ambitions to promote a creative drink culture.

As China has optimized its COVID-19 response in light of the evolving pandemic situation, Geng has not only regained confidence in his business, but he has seen more fierce competition in the sector.

The sales volume of Fundosa milk tea has returned to the same level as seen in 2019, and more franchised outlets are in the works and are expected to open this year, Geng said.

Chen Junzhang, 33, an entrepreneur from the Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County of Gansu Province, is also preparing for the upcoming peak season.

Chen is nostalgic about his hometown. After graduating, he returned to Tianzhu determined to sell local agricultural specialties such as white yak meat and fungus on e-commerce platforms.

"Something different happened this year," Chen said. He used to have to make great efforts to persuade consumers to buy his products, but this year, merchants across the country have flocked to him seeking cooperation.

Chen has received many cooperation proposals, but it is a project to develop white yak wool products that has most drawn his attention.

"Some international suppliers have cast their eyes on the rare wool, and I want to seize the opportunity to expand the market," Chen said.

During the weeklong Spring Festival holiday this year, the sales revenue of China's consumption-related sectors rose 12.2 percent from last year's figure for the same holiday period, data from the State Taxation Administration shows.

The vigorous consumption market is igniting the enthusiasm of more assertive entrepreneurs, including those who are still completing their education.

In the student start-up center at Lanzhou University, 53 out of 105 entrepreneur teams have launched businesses in the field of science and technology.

"Research teams at the university are transforming their academic achievements into practical uses, which will have promising prospects following the economic revival," said Deng Yubo, the general manager of a services company at the start-up center. 
BEIJING, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese scientists have developed a new approach to estimate carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants, which offers further insight on carbon reduction, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

This method of carbon dioxide emission inversion is based on an improved Gaussian plume model and data from the orbiting carbon observatory satellites, said Shi Yusheng, a researcher with the Aerospace Information Research Institute (AIR) under the CAS and leader of the study team.

The existing emission inventory does not accurately reflect current CO2 emissions due to the lag in the statistical data and the accuracy limit for emissions factor.

The progress of remote-sensing technology sheds light on the carbon-emission monitoring sector. This method is based on measured data that is less prone to being impacted by human factors and statistical data errors. It also has a high time resolution, providing a unified standard for estimation, said Shi.

The validation results of the new method showed a high level of agreement with the existing emission inventory.

The method helps monitor and estimate important point sources of carbon emissions, which is a prerequisite for the power industry to carry out carbon reduction efforts, according to Shi.

The study results have been published in the Journal of Cleaner Production. 
Kerem Koramaz, a resident living in the Bakirkoy district on Istanbul's European side, receives an interview with Xinhua in Istanbul, Turkiye, Feb. 23, 2023.(Xinhua/Shadati)

ISTANBUL, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Turkiye's largest city Istanbul has launched a program to provide rapid scans of buildings as many residents worry about the safety of their residences in the wake of recent devastating earthquakes that have killed over 44,000 people in the country.

As the country's financial and cultural hub with over 16 million residents, Istanbul is located at the west end of the North Anatolian Fault Line, which has produced many major earthquakes throughout history. The city government launched the scanning program in a bid to soothe the nerves of local residents.

The service, which includes measuring the consistency of concrete and counting the number of rebars with X-ray scan, will evaluate the strength of the ground and rate the safety level of the checked building accordingly.

Ozlem Tut, head of the Municipality's Earthquake Risk Management and Urban Improvement Department, told reporters last Thursday that they received 85,000 applications for the test since the deadly dual tremors took place on Feb. 6.

"There has been a lot of concern after the earthquakes," Tut said, "we will respond to all of it."

The municipal teams prioritize structures built before 2000, checking 150 buildings per day.

If the concrete's strength is reported as "weak," then it will be reinforced. If reinforcement is not possible, then the building will be demolished before a new one is built. In case of demolition, the city provides up to 4,500 Turkish liras (238 U.S. dollars) in rental assistance to its residents.

In 1999, a 7.4 magnitude earthquake rattled the industrialized Marmara region, home to Istanbul, killing more than 17,000 people and leaving some 300,000 homeless. The devastation forced the authorities to adopt regulations with nominal construction quality after 2000.

Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu urged residents to cooperate on the issue, as there is considerable work in the megalopolis of over 1.16 million buildings. According to the 2021 building inventory, about half of the buildings do not meet earthquake resistance standards.

"This is a call for mobilization," Imamoglu announced on his social media accounts. "Thousands of buildings in Istanbul must be demolished and constructed to be earthquake-proof."

Meanwhile, Istanbul University Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty Hospital suspended all the health and education services in its 17 buildings in the compound in the Fatih district on the city's European side after an earthquake risk examination.

On Monday, Faculty President Nuri Aydin told reporters that the test results revealed that the buildings were at risk and the evacuation had started. This state-owned hospital is one of the most comprehensive health facilities in the city.

In the wake of the deadly tremors in early February, many Istanbul residents plan to move to earthquake-proof buildings, while the authorities are scrambling to evaluate the buildings' strength.

Kerem Koramaz, a resident living in the Bakirkoy district on Istanbul's European side, told Xinhua that he had applied for testing the safety of his apartment, built in 2005, in case of an earthquake strike.

"What we as citizens need most is technical support from local administrations and public institutions, which will be there for us during this process," Koramaz said.

As a result, the rents of new apartments have skyrocketed in the city recently.

The rents of new apartment buildings have increased 10 to 20 percent in the past 15 days, said Muttalip Iscan, a real estate agent in Istanbul. 

A staff member conducts tests to measure the safety of a building in Istanbul, Turkiye, Feb. 23, 2023.(Xinhua/Shadati)

An Istanbul resident watches Istanbul municipality team members conducting rapid scan test to measure the safety of a building in Istanbul, Turkiye, Feb. 23, 2023.(Xinhua/Shadati)
UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- As the Horn of Africa enters its sixth failed rainy season, 5 million Somalis are in a crisis or worse food situation, a UN spokesman said on Tuesday.

Among them, 96,000 people are in catastrophic hunger situations, said Stephane Dujarric, the chief spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, citing the experts' Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis.

"It is estimated that approximately 1.8 million children will be acutely malnourished in 2023, including almost 478,000 children who are likely to be severely malnourished," said Dujarric.

The IPC said that "food insecurity conditions, outbreaks of acute watery diarrhea/cholera and measles are contributing to high levels of acute malnutrition."

The spokesman said the latest multi-partner IPC survey for Somalia shows a slight improvement from previous projections, with the number of people reached with food assistance going from an average of 2 million people per month between January and March 2022 to an average of 5.4 million people per month between October and December 2022.

"However, partners caution that the underlying crisis has not improved and even more appalling outcomes have only temporarily been averted," Dujarric said. "Moreover, 6.5 million people are expected to face crisis or worse food insecurity outcomes from April to June."

He said the UN Humanitarian Response Plan for Somalia seeks over 2.6 billion U.S. dollars to meet the priority needs of 7.6 million vulnerable people. Additional funds are urgently required to sustain the response beyond March.

The spokesman said that the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) notes that as the Horn of Africa enters its sixth consecutive rainy season with no rain, the number of displaced people mounts.

"Millions of people from Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya struggle to survive amid scarce water sources, hunger, insecurity and conflict," he said. "With no immediate end in sight to one of the longest and most severe droughts on record, UNHCR is appealing for 137 million U.S. dollars to provide life-saving aid to 3.3 million refugees and internally displaced people who have been forced to flee their homes, as well as impacted local host communities."

According to UNHCR, the drought displaced more than 1.7 million people in Ethiopia and Somalia, most of them last year, he said. More than 180,000 refugees from Somalia and South Sudan also crossed into drought-affected areas of Kenya and Ethiopia.

The spokesman said, "UNHCR added that in recent weeks, nearly 100,000 people arrived in Doolo, a remote area in Ethiopia's Somali region, itself hard hit by the drought. These people are fleeing conflict in the Laascaanood area within Somalia. In Somalia alone, since the start of the year, over 287,000 people have been internally displaced due to conflict and drought." 
Since the end of the second Karabakh war in November 2020, a total of 282 people have been victims of landmines, 46 of whom have lost their lives, and 236 have been injured, Azernews reports, citing Vuqar Suleymanov of ANAMA's Board of Directors has said.

The Azerbaijani deminers have so far cleared 68,300 ha of lands of Armenia-planted landmines in the formerly occupied lands and 82,522 mines were detected and rendered neutral, the chief mine expert of the country said.

The deputy special representative of the Azerbaijani president for the Karabakh Economic Region (except Shusha), Bashir Hajiyev, said that 26.2% of Agdam District, 22.7% of Fuzuli, 3.5% of Xojavand, 15.2% of Khojaly, and 15.1% of Tartar have already been cleared of mines.

"As part of President Ilham Aliyev's visit to Agdam, the foundation of 11 facilities was laid during the past year, thus the design work of those facilities was started, and most of them are already nearing completion. Currently, the priority areas to be demined in Agdam are Kangarli, Saricali, and Xidirli villages, the buffer zones, the Hindarx-Agdam highway, and the canal from Xacincay reservoir, and other inner-city projects."

The deputy chief of the Interagency Centre for Reconstruction and Rehabilitation of Liberated Areas under the AzAzerbaijaniresidential executive staff, Sultan Hajiyev, said that the UK, the USA, and Hungary are the countries that provide the most support to Azerbaijan in demining activities.

"A lot of countries are providing aid, but they are insufficient to support Azerbaijan," he opined.

In violation of the 1949 Geneva Convention, during the years of occupation and at the moment of withdrawal from Azerbaijani lands in late 2020 and even after the second Karabakh war, Armenia deliberately and constantly planted mines on Azerbaijani territories, thereby being a major threat to regional peace, security, and cooperation.




BEIJING, March 1 (Xinhua) -- China Development Bank, one of the country's policy banks, on Wednesday issued 15 billion yuan (about 2.16 billion U.S. dollars) worth of green bonds to global investors to support the ecological protection of the Yangtze River.

Funds raised by the bond sales will be used to finance green projects such as urban rail transit projects, sewage treatment and pipe network projects, and rural environment improvement projects along the Yangtze River.

After the completion of these projects, 25,200 tonnes of carbon dioxide will be cut every year, and 12,000 tonnes of standard coal will be saved.

So far, the bank has issued a total of 171 billion yuan of green bonds. 
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang meets with visiting Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, March 1, 2023. (Xinhua/Zhai Jianlan)

BEIJING, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang met with visiting Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Beijing on Wednesday.

During the meeting, Li called on the two sides to implement the consensus already reached, deepen practical cooperation, strengthen communication and coordination in international and regional affairs, safeguard world peace and stability, and bring benefits to the two peoples.

He said that China stands ready to work with Belarus to make good use of mechanisms such as the inter-governmental cooperation committee, and called on the two sides to do a good job in building the China-Belarus Industrial Park and support enterprises of the two countries to carry out cooperation in accordance with market-oriented and commercial principles.

China will work with Belarus to steadily advance trade in agricultural products and other areas and deepen people-to-people and subnational exchanges and cooperation, Li said.

Thanking China's support and assistance for Belarus's economic and social development, Lukashenko said Belarus is delighted to see a prosperous and strong China, and the cooperation between Belarus and China is aimed at benefiting both peoples and is not targeted at any third party.

Belarus hopes to deepen cooperation with China in various fields and further push forward the all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries, Lukashenko added. 

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang meets with visiting Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, March 1, 2023. (Xinhua/Zhai Jianlan)
BEIJING, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, the United States has been pursuing the most convenient and economical way in finding the origins of the novel coronavirus -- fabricating groundless allegations against China.

The latest episode is that U.S. media outlets are hyping up an updated intelligence report by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) saying the COVID pandemic "most likely" arose from a laboratory leak in China.

Blaming China is nothing new in the U.S. politics given that the oversensitive Washington is obsessed with the illusion of threats from China. However, the U.S. China-chiding paradigm neither helped the country curb the spreading of the virus -- over 100 million people in the United States were contracted and more than 1 million died of the disease -- nor is conducive to finding the real cause of the pandemic and prevent possible crises in the future.

A SELF-DOUBT REPORT

Calling the DOE's new report "significant," the Wall Street Journal said: "The Energy Department now joins the Federal Bureau of Investigation in saying the virus likely spread via a mishap at a Chinese laboratory." Previously, the agency said it was unsure how the virus originated.

However, the DOE changed its position and came up with the lab leak judgement with "low confidence," which means that the information it obtained "is not enough or is too fragmented to make a definitive analytic judgement or that there is not enough information available to draw a more robust conclusion," a CNN report explains.

Also, U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that the U.S. government and intelligence committee have not reached a "definitive conclusion."

This is not the first time the current U.S. administration sought to knock together a COVID origins report via U.S. intelligence community, known around the world for its notorious credibility problem.

U.S. President Joe Biden asked in May 2021 the country's intelligence agencies to look into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and come up with a report in 90 days. Yet U.S. intelligence officials remain divided on conclusion after three months.

So here are the questions: How could the DOE use "too fragmented information" to conclude that the pandemic "most likely" arose from a lab leak incident in China? And why the DOE rushed to release such a shaky report when in fact there is no convincing conclusion at all?

HIGHLY POLITICIZED SCIENTIFIC ISSUE

Searching for the origins of COVID-19 will help humanity cope with future pandemics and related investigations should be conducted in a scientific approach. However, since former U.S. President Donald Trump labelled the virus as "China virus," such work has been facing challenges caused by political manipulation.

By hyping up its so-called lab leak theory, and accusing China of covering up the truth right from the start of the outbreak, the United States attempted to shift blame for its own COVID prevention fiasco to China, and further demonize China as a "threat."

Despite the outcomes of the scientific studies and a China-World Health Organization (WHO) joint study into origin-tracing and research by other countries, Washington continued to pressure the global health watchdog to stage a second-phase study into the origin of COVID-19 in China, and mobilized its intelligence agency to investigate COVID-19 origins.

Gennady Onishchenko, first deputy chairman of the Committee on Education and Science of the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, told Xinhua that "the topic of the lab origin of the coronavirus has been constantly raised. First, Trump started it and then Biden supported it. Obviously, the purpose is to blame China. All this is being done in order to politicize the topic of COVID-19 origins. Perhaps, other steps will follow. They don't need the truth."

For years, U.S. politicians have created a narrative to contain China, making China an easy scapegoat when they talk about national security or try to shift public anger over their policy failure.

U.S. economist Jeffrey Sachs, also head of the Lancet COVID-19 Commission, said that once the outbreak began, Washington blamed China entirely for the outbreak, and even refused to cooperate with China to stop the pandemic. In 2020, Trump repeatedly attacked China and even withdrew from the WHO by accusing the WHO of favoring China.

Since the early 2010s, the United States has been escalating its containment efforts against China by taking unilateral trade measures, imposing technology barriers, investment and financial barriers, and other sanctions, and by forging new military alliances such as AUKUS, Sachs told Xinhua, adding that "the goal of the U.S. is to weaken China and to mobilize an alliance against China. This is a huge mistake and very dangerous."

THE WORLD IS GETTING TIRED

However, the political manipulation or even weaponization of the origin-tracing issue by the United States is not popular at the international level.

More than 80 countries have stated their explicit opposition to politicization of origins tracing, and over 300 political parties, civil organizations and think tanks from more than 100 countries and regions have submitted a joint statement opposing politicization of origins tracing to the WHO Secretariat.

Countries around the world are getting tired of such politics that some major powers are trying to play with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic. Politics does not have a constructive role to play in overcoming the human and economic toll that this virus has inflicted on different countries, said Cavince Adhere, a Kenya-based international relations scholar.

Politicizing COVID-19 origin tracing is not helpful to the international community, and the level of blame game that we have seen from Washington really doesn't work well for the global anti-pandemic effort and the global responsibilities over the pandemic, he added. 
BEIJING, March 1 (Xinhua) -- China's latest manufacturing data suggesting more brisk expansion in factory activity has shored up market confidence in a broader economic recovery.

The purchasing managers' index (PMI) for China's manufacturing sector came in at 52.6 in February, up from 50.1 in January, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Wednesday in a statement. This figure marked the strongest level since April 2012.

A reading above 50 indicates expansion, while a reading below 50 reflects contraction.

Thanks to government pro-growth measures and the fading COVID impact, factory production and market activity returned to normalcy at a quicker pace last month, indicating continued improvement in the economic climate, senior NBS statistician Zhao Qinghe said.

Of 21 surveyed industries, 18 saw stable expansion. Zhao especially stressed the sound performance of key industries, including equipment and high-tech manufacturing, and consumer products production.

Breaking down the headline figure, the production index gained 6.9 percentage points from a month earlier to 56.7, suggesting expedited production, and market demand also kept rising as the new orders index reached 54.1, up 3.2 percentage points.

The PMIs for large, medium-sized, and small enterprises stood at 53.7, 52 and 51.2, respectively, all well above the boom-and-bust line. This was the first time small firms saw their PMI returning to positive territory since May 2021.

Market confidence also improved significantly. The business outlook index stood at its best level in 12 months, with the optimism shared by all the surveyed industries, especially the automobile, general equipment, textile, and agricultural product processing industries.

The steadily warming manufacturing sector added to evidence of China's economic resilience, as an array of encouraging figures from rebounding consumption to surging bank loans at the beginning of the year, had already painted a promising picture.

Morgan Stanley Chief China Economist Robin Xing believes China's economic recovery momentum is being sustained as the country's growth-focused policy pragmatism has revived business and job confidence. "We see GDP growth reaching 5.7 percent in 2023, contributing 40 percent of global economic growth."

While the prospects are bright, China's economic recovery would be not without challenges.

Wednesday's data showed over 50 percent of surveyed manufacturing enterprises were still plagued by a lack of orders, which according to Zhao with the NBS, means that insufficient market demand remains a prominent problem and more needs to be done to reinforce the foundation of the economic recovery.

Measures are in the pipeline. According to an earlier State Council executive meeting, China aimed to consolidate and expand the momentum of its economic rebound, accelerate the recovery of consumption, and stabilize foreign trade and investment.

The Chinese economy will see an overall improvement this year, Kang Yi, head of the NBS, said.

With the new-phase COVID response and implementation of various pro-growth measures, factory production and people's normal lives will be restored at a faster pace and the internal economic driving force will continue to gather strength, he added. 
RAMALLAH, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- A senior U.S. official on Tuesday visited the Palestinian village of Hawara near the northern West Bank city of Nablus and condemned the recent violence by Israeli settlers.

During a short visit to the village, Hady Amr, the U.S. special representative for Palestinian affairs in the State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, met with the representatives of civil institutions and the municipal council.

He expressed his concern about the escalation of violence in the West Bank after hearing testimonies of some residents whose homes and vehicles were burned and destroyed by the settlers in the village.

In a news briefing at a site with several burnt vehicles, Amr condemned "the random, widespread, and unacceptable acts of violence carried out by the settlers."

He stressed the need to see full accountability and prosecution through the law of those responsible for these "heinous" attacks and compensation for those who lost their property or were otherwise damaged.

Mueen Al-Damidi, mayor of Hawara, told reporters that "the settlers' attack on the village led to the death of a Palestinian and the injury of dozens, including pregnant women and children."

"The settlers' attack has never been witnessed before, and it took place under the protection, full view, and hearing of the Israeli army forces. This is unacceptable to all countries concerned about humanity and peaceful coexistence," he said.

Meanwhile, during Amr's tour through the alleys of Hawara, the outer walls of some of its houses were covered with black marks as a result of the flames caused by the settlers' attack.

On Tuesday, Amr also met with Hussein Al-Sheikh, the secretary-general of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

An official statement issued by Al-Sheikh's office said that he briefed Amr on the recent attacks of the Israeli settlers and the Israeli army forces on the Palestinians and their properties.

The tensions have escalated between Israel and the Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since early January. Official Palestinian figures showed that 65 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers so far this year, while Israeli data put the death toll of Israelis killed by Palestinians at 13. 
TEHRAN, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Iran has declared two German diplomats to be personae non gratae and has expelled them from the Islamic republic over Berlin's "interventionist and irresponsible" measures against Tehran.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani blamed the German government for its "irresponsible interference" in Iran's internal and judicial affairs, according to a statement published on the Foreign Ministry's website on Wednesday.

The ministry has summoned the German Ambassador to Tehran Hans-Udo Muzel and informed him of the decision, Kanaani was quoted as saying in the statement.

Iran will "act decisively" in response to unreasonable demands, said Kanaani, warning that Iran will have "other alternatives" if certain countries seek to disregard its fundamental principles and national sovereignty.

On Feb. 22, Germany announced that it would expel two diplomats from Iran's embassy in Berlin after an Iranian court handed down the death sentence to Jamshid Sharmahd, an Iranian-German national, for "planning and organizing acts of terror in the country."

According to the Mizan news agency affiliated with the Iranian judiciary, Iran handed down the death sentence on Feb. 21, accusing Sharmahd as "the ringleader of the Tondar(Thunder) group who intended to carry out 23 terror operations(in Iran), of which only five were conducted."

One day later, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock announced in a statement that Berlin had declared two staff members from the Iranian embassy in Berlin to be personae non gratae and ordered them to leave Germany immediately.

The Iranian Intelligence Ministry announced the arrest of Sharmahd in 2020.

Founded by a number of Iranian pro-monarchists in Britain in 2003, the Tondar group is accused of carrying out a bombing attack in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz in 2008, which killed 14 people and injured 300 others, and planning other attacks in the country, according to Mizan. 
"We are looking forward to a very strong year," said Arno van der Merwe, CEO & President of Beijing Benz Automotive Co, Ltd., who hails a "very positive and constructive" business environment in China.

Produced by Xinhua Global Service
This file photo taken by Chinese remote sensing scientist Liu Shaochuang on May 6, 2012 shows a wild camel in Lop Nur, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.(Chinese Academy of Sciences/Handout via Xinhua)

by Xinhua writer Yuan Quan, Shen Feng

BEIJING, March 1 (Xinhua) -- In the office of remote sensing scientist Liu Shaochuang, there is a huge photograph of a camel he snapped a decade ago in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Wearing camouflage clothing, he crouched for hours by a pool of water in the Gobi Desert to capture an image of the wild animal. This is the subject of his research.

Since 2012, he has led a team in tracking and studying wild camels using satellite remote sensing technology. Unlike zoologists who focus on species, Liu has studied the interrelationship between endangered animals and their environment, which he believes will help develop better protection strategies against the background of climate change.

In the run-up to World Wildlife Day on March 3, Liu's research has come under the spotlight as it is a successful example of how advanced space technology benefits animal protection on Earth.

Liu works at the Aerospace Information Research Institute under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. His studies have covered many fields, including polar region scientific expeditions and mapping the headwaters of great rivers across the globe, while he has also developed the navigation and localization systems for China's lunar rovers and Mars rover.

His interest in wild camels began when his team tested a prototype design of the lunar rover Yutu in deserts. Living in the harsh deserts in northwestern China and southwestern Mongolia, the even-toed camel is listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Experts estimate that the population of this species is currently less than 1,000, of which around 650 are in China.

"Ten years ago, the camel research only relied on human observation, [which was] very primitive," Liu said. Because wild Bactrian camels are fully migratory and can travel over long distances, scientists used to learn their habits by studying hoof prints and feces. It was hard to find one camel in the desert, let alone track it.

But Liu thought his expertise in satellite navigation and remote sensing might come in useful in the wild camel study.

It was not easy at first. Liu learned zoology from scratch. His team had to spend several weeks each year braving dust and sandstorms in the vastness of the Gobi Desert to seek camels. A scar on his right eyebrow is the result of a rollover accident on a rugged mountain road in Xinjiang.

"The most thrilling moment was attaching trackers to the wild camels," Liu recalled. On May 6, 2012, Liu's team for the first time succeeded in putting a satellite positioning collar on a wild camel, attaching one to a female camel in Xinjiang's Lop Nur Desert.

The tracking collar, equipped with special receivers, weighs only a few hundred grams. It can drop off automatically and will not have a negative impact on the daily lives of the animals. According to Liu, at least seven wild camels are currently fitted with tracking collars, and their locations are transmitted via satellite every day. Based on tracking data, scientists can get to know their migratory paths, living environments and possible threats they may encounter.

The short message function provided by China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System enables the collar to transmit and receive signals in real time. Even when the communication network is lacking, collars with BeiDou chips can send back the positions of the wild camels through Chinese satellites. Sitting in his office in Beijing, Liu can also obtain information about the surrounding environment on his computer, including temperature, vegetation, and water sources.

His latest discovery is that the suitable habitat range has shrunk greatly due to climate change, and that wild camels have moved to the colder Altun Mountain Range in China, and higher-altitude regions in Mongolia as a result of climate change.

This implies that the animals may face more dangers, Liu said. For example, the narrowing habitats may lead to an increased chance of attacks by wolves, a reduction in drinking water sources, and a high risk of disease spread.

Liu is calling for an expansion of current protection zones and the establishment of a larger-scale national park for the wild camels. Meanwhile, he suggests building a space-air-ground integrated monitoring system, which will use remote sensing satellites in space, aircraft in the sky, and wireless smart sensors on the ground to strengthen observation capabilities.

For Liu, it is worth spending significant sci-tech effort on the study of such a rare species. Scientists have found that the DNA of the wild camel is 2 to 3 percent different from that of the domestic camel, while the DNA difference between humans and chimpanzees is only 1 percent. Wild camels are more resilient in harsh environments, and some researchers believe their genes may provide insights useful for the treatment of cancer and diabetes.

Liu admitted that it would take a long time for humans to fully understand this rare species. Much is unknown about its population, distribution, and habits. The 60-year-old Chinese researcher plans to enhance cooperation with his Mongolian counterparts to boost wild camel protection this year, and to apply the tracking techniques to the study of other species.

"I like to explore the unknown," Liu said.

More than 40 BeiDou navigation satellites are currently operating in orbit. China will launch three to five more this year to enhance its constellation. Liu said wildlife protection and research will become more precise and efficient with the help of technology. 
BEIRUT, March 1 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian embassy in Beirut on Wednesday denied an Israeli press report claiming that it is recruiting Palestinian refugees in Lebanon to fight in Ukraine.

"The embassy is keen to strongly deny this insidious news, which is not surprising as the source is one of the usurping entity's media channels," the embassy was quoted by the National News Agency (NNA) as saying.

The Israeli newspaper Jerusalem Post reported that Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are being recruited to fight in Ukraine by activists linked to the Palestinian Embassy in Lebanon, said the NNA report. 
TEHRAN, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Wednesday ordered an immediate investigation into the cases of reported schoolgirls' poisoning in several cities.

Raisi issued the directive at a cabinet meeting, asking Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidito to remove parents' worries and public concerns about the cases, according to the website of the president's office.

Over the past three months, several mysterious poisoning cases have been reported in a number of girls' schools in different Iranian cities, mainly in the northern province of Qom.

The first case was reported on Nov. 30, 2022 in Qom, where 18 schoolgirls were transferred to medical centers after displaying poisoning symptoms, the official news agency IRNA reported.

Later, other schools in Qom, the western province of Lorestan, the northwestern province of Ardabil, the western province of Kermanshah and even the capital Tehran also reported similar cases, the IRNA said.

So far, more than 700 students in over 30 schools across the country have fallen victim to such incidents, it added, noting in most of the cases, the students were released from the hospital soon after receiving treatment.

The IRNA cited Health Ministry Spokesman Pedram Pakaein as saying that the reported poisoning is "not caused by a virus or a microbe and the symptoms are transient." 
Today marks the 80th day of the peaceful protests of Azerbaijani eco-activists and young volunteers on the Lachin-Khankandi road, Azernews reports.

The round-the-clock picketing of the road that started on December 12, 2022, was triggered by the illegal exploitation of Azerbaijans mineral deposits in Karabakh under the temporary control of the Russian peacekeeping contingent and the separatist forces.

The vigil of the Azerbaijani eco-activists is about compelling the Russian peacekeepers to provide access to the Gizilbulag and Damirli deposits in Karabakh for Azerbaijani experts to assess their current state and possible impact on the regional environment.

Since the early days of the protest, the pickets start each new day with various slogans in English and Russian, calling for an end to the ecocide against Azerbaijan, as well as demanding monitoring of Azerbaijans mineral deposits.

The unimpeded passage of various types of vehicles, including ambulances and humanitarian convoys, is being ensured and the road is open for humanitarian purposes.
TEHRAN, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Iran's nuclear chief said Wednesday that Tehran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have discussed and finalized a number of issues at the level of experts and claimed that there had been no "deviation" from the country's peaceful nuclear activities.

There was no discrepancy between the design information questionnaire submitted by Iran to the international nuclear watchdog and the layout of centrifuges at Iran's nuclear facilities, Iranian Students' News Agency quoted President of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Mohammad Eslami as saying on the sidelines of a cabinet meeting.

Turning to the safeguards issues, Eslami noted that Iran had held talks with the IAEA and provided clarifications, as some people were attempting to claim Tehran had not responded to the IAEA.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi will travel to Iran within the next few days for discussions on certain topics, including the safeguards issues and the closure of the case, he said.

Eslami also rejected the claim that Iran has enriched uranium to a level of about 84 percent.

Over the past months, the IAEA has criticized Iran for its lack of cooperation with the agency. On Nov. 17, 2022, the IAEA's Board of Governors passed a resolution proposed by the United States, Britain, France, and Germany that called on Iran to collaborate with the agency's investigators regarding the alleged "traces of uranium" at a number of its "undeclared" sites. Iran has repeatedly rejected such allegations.

On Feb. 19, Bloomberg cited two senior diplomats as claiming that IAEA inspectors in Iran had detected uranium enriched to levels "just below that needed for a nuclear weapon." On the same day, AEOI spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi was quoted by IRNA as saying that the Bloomberg report was a "distortion of the facts" and part of a smear campaign. 
MAPUTO, March 1 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese community in Mozambique on Wednesday donated a batch of supplies of humanitarian aid to people affected by floods due to days of heavy rainfall in the southern region of the country.

The donation was done through the country's Institute for Disaster Risk Management and Reduction (INGD), with donated goods ranging from 50 tonnes of cereals, and 6,200 liters of cooking oil, to other products including solid food, clothing and blankets, said Cesar Tembe, the national director of the Division of Prevention and Mitigation of INGD, while speaking to the press after the reception of the donation in Maputo, capital of Mozambique.

These victims are people mainly concentrated in several districts of the provinces of Gaza, Inhambane, Sofala and Maputo, said Tembe.

"We have a lot of people who are in need of support, I think this donation will help us to meet the needs we have to support the affected populations," said Tembe, thanking the Chinese community for its support to the Mozambican government for disaster relief.

Huang Weiping, the representative of the Chinese community, said at the reception that the flooding seriously affected the lives of local residents and caused loss of life and destruction of property. "We hope this batch of supplies can help them get through the difficulties and resume normal life as soon as possible," he said.

Tembe appealed to more forces in society to channel their support to those affected. The official noted that the INGD had planned to distribute food kits to assist each family for a period of one month and that seeds and agricultural inputs will also be provided.

According to the official, around 150,000 people had been affected by floods, and 29 accommodation centers were created. Due to the falling of the water level in the local rivers, some of the centers have already started to be deactivated because victims started to return to their original homes.

"For these products from the Chinese community, we are going to make a plan to allocate the products in the accommodation centers created for those affected," said Tembe, adding that the plan will be shared with the donors. 
GABORONE, March 1 (Xinhua) -- The government of Botswana launched the digitalization of its health service project on Tuesday with the hashtag "Go Digital Health."

"Today we are showing the whole world that we are now fully in digitalization mode," Sethomo Lelatisitswe, Botswana's Acting Minister of Health said at the launch ceremony.

Delaying treatment may lead to disease progression and even death for the patient, so it is critical to use technology to provide patients with timely treatments, Lelatisitswe said.

With the preparation of electronic medical records, paper-based medical cards are expected to be phased out. The system will be implemented in all clinics across the country, he added.

The African Union (AU) has launched the Digital Transformation Strategy for Africa 2020-2030, which seeks to assist its members, including Botswana, in digitizing their services by 2030. 
LUSAKA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday released 285,000 U.S. dollars to support Zambia's response to the cholera outbreak.

The funds will help ensure that lives continue to be saved and a resilient health system is maintained during and beyond the current outbreak.

In a statement, the WHO office in Zambia said it was working with the health ministry to put in place interventions that will protect people and limit the spread of the outbreak to other districts.

"Cholera outbreaks are of great concern to us, especially that cholera is preventable and Zambia has the right preventative tools in place," Nathan Bakyaita, the WHO Representative in Zambia said in the statement.

He said the funds will help the WHO and other partners to scale up priority response activities to effectively monitor and control the outbreak, adding that the WHO will continue to support the health ministry in implementing immediate and long-term cholera control, response, and preventive measures.

Zambia announced its latest outbreak of cholera in the eastern Vubwi district on Jan. 26 this year. Since then, the water-borne disease has spread to five districts, having affected 191 people and caused four deaths. 
HANOI, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's finance ministry is seeking public consensus on raising the special consumption tax on cigarettes, beer and alcohol and proposing such a tax on sugary drinks, saying that the levy would help the country tackle health issues, local newspaper Vietnam News reported on Tuesday.

The special consumption tax on beer was last raised in 2018 to 65 percent, while tax collection on cigarettes is at 75 percent, and alcohol products are between 35 and 65 percent.

The finance ministry has also proposed imposing a "proper tax" on sweetened beverages after a failed attempt in 2017 when the ministry suggested either a 10 percent or a 20 percent rate for the sugary drink tax.

Such measures have the backing of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the National Institute of Nutrition, which showed that Vietnam's consumption of drinks with added sugar jumped seven times in the past 15 years, to 50.7 liters per person in 2018, in line with rapidly rising overweight and obesity rates in the country.

Many countries in the Southeast Asian region have already imposed taxes on sugary drinks, according to the finance ministry, referring to the rate of 20-25 percent in Thailand, 5-10 percent in Laos and 10 percent in Cambodia.

Higher tax rates would help cut consumption of these products for health reasons and boost state budget income, said the finance ministry. 
The first training class for operation and maintenance personnel of the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway (HSR) starts in Indonesian Railway Vocational Technical School in Madiun City, East Java Province, Indonesia, Feb. 27, 2023. (Xinhua)

JAKARTA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The first training class for operation and maintenance personnel of the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway (HSR) started Monday in Indonesian Railway Vocational Technical School in Madiun City, East Java Province.

Over 170 Indonesian students joined the class, who are mainly trained for professional positions of Electric Multiple Units train drivers, operation control center dispatchers, emergency responders, and train mechanics.

The duration of theoretical training will take from one to six months, depending on the specific professions. Upon completion of theoretical training, students will be arranged for practical training on the railway.

The training courses will be provided by the Chinese operation and maintenance management team, as well as Chinese railroad-related colleges and universities.

The preparatory work for training other three groups of Indonesian workers has also started, with a total plan to select and train more than 600 Indonesian operation and maintenance personnel.

At present, all of the subgrade, bridge and station civil works have been completed. The railway is scheduled to start operation in mid-year.

The high-speed line, a landmark project under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, connects Indonesia's capital Jakarta and another major city Bandung.

With a design speed of 350 km per hour, the railway will cut the journey between Jakarta and Bandung from over three hours to around 40 minutes. 
TOKYO, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Japanese police arrested a 17-year-old high school student in Saitama Prefecture near Tokyo on suspicion of attempted murder after a 60-year-old teacher was stabbed on Wednesday.

The knife-wielding teenager broke into a junior high school in Toda, Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo, early Wednesday afternoon and stabbed the male teacher who tried to restrain him, local police said.

The intruder was subdued by other teachers at the scene and was handed over to police officers who had rushed to the site, according to police.

The teacher, who sustained several wounds on the upper part of his body, was conscious while being taken to the hospital and the injuries were not life-threatening, according to the city's board of education.

The suspect has admitted to slashing the teacher with a knife and told the police that he wanted to kill someone and did not care who the victim is.

Police are investigating the suspect's identity and motive. 
CHARIKAR, Afghanistan, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Mohammad Yusuf Azimi, 58, a villager from eastern Afghanistan's Parwan province, began growing beans on his two hectares of land in late February.

Following generations of bean planting, Azimi's family witnessed its rapid development from the get-go.

Life for local residents here, however, used to be filled with bitter tears. Although located near the midstream of the Panjshir River, one of Afghanistan's longest rivers, the locals suffered from drought and thus large swathes of land were left uncultivated due to the lack of irrigation systems.

"In the past, the people here had faced huge water shortages in farming their lands and we only cultivated once a year," Azimi told Xinhua.

To advance bilateral friendship and boost local economic development, a water canal project in Parwan, built by China and provided as aid to Afghanistan, was put into use in the 1970s.

The Chinese-initiated project irrigated thousands of hectares of farmland in Parwan and neighboring Kapisa and Kabul provinces, said local people.

"Fortunately, since the China-built canal was put into use, we can harvest three times a year and even plant vegetables in winter," Azimi said.

Recalling his fond memories from the time when the canal was built, Azimi said that he was just seven years old when the work on the canal began.

"The Chinese engineers were very kind to the locals, particularly to the children," Azimi said softly. "Whenever they drove by the village, they would get out of their car, pat us on the head and give us some gifts."

Echoing Azimi, another farmer Qalandar, 55, thanked neighboring China for building the water canal and boosting agricultural production in Parwan province, saying the canal has helped people enhance their agricultural output.

Qalandar was 10 years old when the canal project began and his father joined the construction team as a worker.

"My father always told us stories of how the Chinese engineers helped us, praised their professional technology and constantly reminded us that it is the Chinese who had helped us in building this canal," Qalandar said.

Describing the China-built canal as vital for the development of Parwan province's agricultural sector, Mujib Rahman Habibi, head of department for Ghorband-Charikar sub-river basin, said that the canal, besides providing potable water to 32,000 families, also irrigates thousands of hectares of land.

"This is a very important canal as it provides drinking water to the people in Parwan, facilitates farmers in irrigating their lands and makes fishing farms," Habibi told Xinhua in his office.

"We are grateful to China for the construction of this canal." 
YANGON, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar extended its COVID-19 preventive measures until March 31, state-run media citing the Central Committee on Prevention, Control and Treatment of COVID-19 reported on Wednesday.

The extension applies to all COVID-19 restrictions that expire on Feb. 28, except for those that will be eased, the committee said.

It added that the extension covers all orders, announcements, directives previously issued by respective government organizations and ministries in order to contain the pandemic.

As of Tuesday, Myanmar has recorded 633,918 COVID-19 infections, including 19,490 deaths and 614,399 recoveries, the health ministry's data showed. 
Qabil Ashirov

The clemency commission under the Azerbaijani president held another meeting ahead of an expected act of pardon, Azernews reports.

Appeals received from inmates or their relatives for pardon were reviewed at the meeting, where, in particular, over 950 appeals were examined, the report adds.

In conformity with the latest amnesty order, a total of 213 people were pardoned.

As many as 168 people punished by deprivation of liberty were released after serving a specified period of time, while the unserved part of the punishment for 36 people was reduced by half.

Besides, three people, who were sentenced to conditional imprisonment, were released. Also, six people, who were sentenced to restriction of freedom were released from the unserved part of their sentences.
SUVA, March 1 (Xinhua) -- A red alert, the highest level of warning, has been issued for most parts of Vanuatu as the Pacific island nation has been experiencing the wrath of tropical cyclone Judy since Tuesday.

Tropical cyclone Judy was upgraded to a category 4 storm on Wednesday afternoon with its destructive hurricane-force winds damaging homes, uprooting trees and causing power cuts in Vanuatu, according to Radio New Zealand.

Judy hit the country with winds of up to 230 km per hour. The weather has become quite dramatic and will deteriorate with damaging gale force winds and flooding.

Vanuatu Emergency Management spokesperson Brenda Williams said that residents are being advised to stay home, and police are assisting with evacuations.

The National Disaster Management Office has identified evacuation centers in the capital city of Port Vila, while in other parts of Efate and the offshore islands, church buildings are considered to function as evacuation centers.

The tropical cyclone season in the South Pacific region, which typically runs from November to April, can cause widespread rainfall and flooding in the cyclone-hit island countries.

In March 2015, category-five tropical cyclone Pam caused widespread damage and claimed 24 lives in Vanuatu, which has a population of more than 320,000. 
SHIBERGHAN, Afghanistan, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Afghan authorities have inaugurated a water canal in Afghanistan's northern Jawzjan province to irrigate about 32,400 hectares of land, provincial director for economic affairs Mohammad Zarif Faiz said on Wednesday.

Built at a cost of nearly 6 million afghanis (67,300 U.S. dollars), with 10 percent of the sum raised from residents in Aqcha district of the province, the canal is planned to benefit thousands of households, including the farmers, Faiz told reporters here.

Jawzjan provincial administration would do its best to provide irrigation for more lands as part of its efforts to develop the agriculture sector and facilitate local farmers to raise output, officials said.

Last year, Acting Deputy Prime Minister of the Afghan caretaker government Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar inaugurated the construction work of a 285-km water canal in Qush Tepa area of the northern Balkh province to irrigate 550,000 hectares of land in Balkh and the neighboring Jawzjan and Faryab provinces. 
MOSCOW, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday signed a law officially suspending Russia's participation in the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) with the United States.

The law comes into force immediately and the decision to resume Russia's participation in the treaty is up to the head of state, according to the published law.

In his annual address to the Federal Assembly on Feb. 21, Putin said Russia was suspending its participation in, rather than withdrawing from, the New START treaty. He also pointed out the combined strike potential of NATO as Britain and France also have nuclear arsenals that pose a threat to Russia.

A day later, a bill on the New START treaty suspension was unanimously adopted by Russia's parliament and then sent to Putin for his final approval.

The New START, the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty in force between the two nuclear superpowers, can be extended by a maximum of five years with the consent of the two countries. Russia and the United States officially extended the treaty by five years on Feb. 3, 2021. 
ATHENS, March 1 (Xinhua) -- At least 26 people were killed and 85 others injured when a passenger and cargo train collided in central Greece late Tuesday night, national broadcaster ERT reported.

ERT said the injured, 25 in serious condition, have been transported to nearby hospitals for treatment.

The passenger train traveling from Athens to the northern city of Thessaloniki and the cargo train collided in the Evangelismos area, near Greece's fourth-largest city Larissa, according to the country's national news agency AMNA.

The cause of the accident remains unclear. Multiple carriages derailed, and at least three caught fire after the "strong" collision.

"Wagons 1 and 2 do not exist. Due to the collision's severity, they were ejected," Regional Governor of Thessaly Kostas Agorastos told ERT.

Rescue teams have arrived at the site, and hospitals in the region have been informed to prepare. 
NEW YORK, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Oil prices rose on Wednesday as traders parsed data on U.S. fuel stockpiles.

The West Texas Intermediate for April delivery gained 64 cents, or 0.83 percent, to settle at 77.69 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for May delivery added 86 cents, or 1.03 percent, to close at 84.31 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

Prices continued to garner some support from prospects of rising demand in China.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported Wednesday that the country's commercial crude oil inventories increased by 1.2 million barrels during the week ending Feb. 24. On average, analysts polled by S&P Global Commodity Insights had expected a climb of 350,000 barrels in U.S. crude supplies.

According to the EIA, total motor gasoline stocks decreased by 0.9 million barrels last week, while distillate fuel inventories rose by 0.2 million barrels. 
USA: Senator Ted Cruz said on Tuesday that Washington should impose sanctions on anyone involved in the visit of two Iranian warships to Brazil, calling it "a direct threat to the safety and security of Americans."

The supply ship Makran and the Iranian Navy's frigate Dena are on a circumnavigational mission. On Sunday, they arrived in Brazil with the intention of restocking before moving on to the Panama Canal.

In the past, the US has called on Brazil to deny them permission to dock, citing its own arbitrary sanctions against Iran.

Also Read: Activists demand that Trinidad return its citizens living in Syria

The port in Rio de Janeiro where the Iranian warships docked, as well as any Brazilian companies that provided them with services or accepted payments, are now at risk of crippling sanctions, and all foreign companies that become involved with the port or those Brazilian companies in the future will also be at risk, Cruz said in a statement.

The senator insisted that US anti-terrorism laws are "not optional" and urged President Joe Biden to "impose relevant sanctions" and reassess whether Brasilia is cooperating with Washington sufficiently. Congress should order the administration to comply if it refuses.

The Texas Republican is the ranking member of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee and serves on the Foreign Relations Committee. His party currently holds the majority in the House of Representatives despite being in the minority in the Senate.

Also Read: Israeli minister claims that a Palestinian had intended to kill him

Cruz added that Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the president of Brazil, was "aligned against the US and our interests," and that either Biden failed to make clear the US concerns to him when welcoming Lula to the White House or "the Brazilians did not care," according to Cruz.

American journalist Glenn Greenwald, who is based in Brazil, noted that Cruz's statement serves as an example of US hypocrisy in the international community.

According to Greenwald's tweet, the US "officially regards all of South America as its property, and sees itself as the Supreme Ruler of the entire region." As a result, Brazil and many other nations "laugh in Biden's face" when he claims that "the US war in Ukraine" is about defending sovereignty, he continued.

Also Read: For the first time in six years the UN chief travels to Iraq

Brazil can host any ships it wants, Greenwald said, "if Ukraine has the right to host all of NATO right on the Russian border."
Air raid alert in Kyiv Oblast caused by Russian drone 1 March, 04:56 PM       (Photo:   /Facebook)

A Russian drone, not a balloon, as previously reported, caused an air raid alert in the Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv and Kyiv Oblast on March 1, the Kyiv Regional Military Administration reported on the Telegram messenger.

According to the local authorities, it was possible to identify the object after it was shot down by air defense forces.

Read also: Air defense downs all four Shahed drones approaching from north during Russian night attack on Ukraine

In a comment to the Ukrainska Pravda online newspaper, Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said that Ukrainian Air Defense had shot down an enemy drone over Kyiv Oblast.

A UAV was detected during an air raid alert in Kyiv Oblast on March 1, he said.

Video of day

Combat work was conducted on it by air defense means. The target was hit.

Ihnat added the type of drone would be established after its wreckage was found.

An air raid alert was triggered in the Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv and the surrounding oblast in the afternoon on March 1 when an unidentified aerial object was spotted approaching from the north.

Later, the Kyiv Regional Military Administration said it was likely a small balloon.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google News
Ukrainian military assesses threat from Russian-occupied Transnistria as low 1 March, 06:16 PM The military does not exclude provocations and border shelling by Russian-occupied Transnistria (Photo:Slava Murava Kiss / Flickr)

There may be cross-border shelling, and sabotage and reconnaissance groups may be active in provocations coming from unrecognized Transnistria, but there is no risk of a second front opening on Ukraines western flank, Ukraines military believes.

The head of the Joint Coordination Press Center of the Southern Defense Forces, Natalia Humeniuk, gave the Ukrainian militarys assessment on the situation in Moldova and Transnistria during the national telethon program on March 1.

"The defense forces at the border (will be able to give a proper) response (if there is a) likelihood of threats coming from that direction," she said.

Video of day

They are not critical at the moment. Were talking about the possible activity of sabotage and reconnaissance groups, or some provocations such as shelling of the state border  those are not ruled out. Were watching closely. Currently, there is no activity on the other side of the border.

She said the number of Russian troops in Transnistria is not enough to open a second front. The occupying forces need support for such actions, but they cannot get it physically, as landlocked Transnitria is surrounded by NATO- and Ukrainian-controlled air space.

"That is why we are seeing more information and psychological operations in Moldova, where they are trying to undermine the socio-political system," Humeniuk said.

On Feb. 9, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukrainian intelligence had intercepted a Russian plan to destroy political stability in Moldova.

On Feb. 20, he said that Moscow was considering a coup d'etat in Moldova, seizing the airport in Chisinau and deploying its military through it.

Read also: Rumors of Ukrainian intervention in Transnistria sow panic in Russian social media

This was later confirmed by new Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean, who also called for the demilitarization of Transnistria and the expulsion of the Russian troops from there.

The head of the Moldovan Security and Intelligence Service, Alexandru Musteata, said that Russia could launch an offensive against Moldova as early as 2023.

On Feb. 28, the so-called Ministry of Defense of unrecognized Transnistria announced a three-month military training campaign.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google News
Qabil Ashirov

On February 28, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov met with Saudi Deputy Foreign Minister Waleed bin Abdulkarim Al Khuraiji who is on an official visit to Azerbaijan within the framework of the Summit of the Contact Group of the Non-Alignment Movement on the fight against COVID-19.

According to the Ministry, the development of relations between Azerbaijan and Saudi Arabia, and the expansion of cooperation in various fields have been underscored, Azernews reports citing Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry.

At the meeting, Minister Jeyhun Bayramov stressed the existence of useful cooperation in regional and international formats, in addition to the bilateral partnership between the two countries, and emphasized the importance of continuing mutual support within the framework of international organizations. In this regard, Saudi Arabia's support to the territorial integrity and sovereignty of our country, especially within the framework of the UN and OIC, was highly appreciated.

Minister Jeyhun Bayramov spoke about the existing opportunities for cooperation in the fields of energy, agriculture, tourism, and alternative energy as the priority areas of economic cooperation between the two countries, and emphasized that joint successful projects are being implemented in the mentioned fields, and there are wide prospects for expanding these works.

Furthermore, the guest was also informed about the steps and initiatives taken by Azerbaijan in the direction of the peace process with Armenia, the restoration and construction works in the liberated territories, and the implemented large-scale projects.

Speaking about the successful chairmanship of the Non-Aligned Movement of our country, Minister Jeyhun Bayramov emphasized the importance of the Summit of the Contact Group of the Non-Aligned Movement on COVID-19.

Besides that, the parties also exchanged views on other issues of bilateral and regional cooperation on the agenda at the meeting.
Description

February 17, 2023  Elmont, N.Y.  Harmony Healthcare Long Island announced today they will be having a Health Fair, Wednesday, March 1, 2023 3:30PM  6:30PM at Elmont Memorial High School (Gym Entrance), 555 Ridge Road, Elmont, NY.

Working with local officials, the Town of Hempstead, HRSA (Health Resources Services Administration), Department of Health and Human Services, New Jerusalem Cathedral Inc. and HAUP (Haitian Americans United for Progress), Harmony Healthcare Long Island will be offering free vaccines, (COVID19 Vaccine and Boosters and Flu), free health screenings, health education and workshops, community resources and health insurance information.

We remain focused on our mission to provide access to equitable, optimal healthcare by improving the overall wellness of all individuals in our communities and delivering high quality comprehensive patient centered care, regardless of ones ability to pay, stated Harmony Healthcare Long Island President and CEO, David Nemiroff, LCSW. This event reinforces our commitment to those we serve under a simple idea  working together as one  in perfect harmony.

Partner vendors at the event include Haitian Americans United for Progress, New Jerusalem Cathedral. Affinity by Molina, Healthfirst, Fidelis Care, Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, Councilman Thomas Muscarella, Nassau County Department of Health, Alzheimers Association Long island Chapter, Central Nassau Guidance, Cologuard Exact Sciences, Child Care Council of Nassau County, Sisters United in health, Nurse Family Partnership, and NYC Poison Control and Diapers, Wipes an Period products from Allied Foundation.

The first 25 people to get a COVID-19 vaccine will receive a $50 VISA gift card and there will be food, prizes, and giveaways to those who attend.

For more information on scheduling an appointment, please call 516-546-9075.

# # #

About Harmony Healthcare Long Island

Harmony Healthcare Long Island is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization that was originally designated as the very first Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) located in Nassau County in 2009. This unique distinction fulfilled a dream of health care advocates who had worked for more than two decades to expand access to medically underserved communities throughout Nassau County. The staff of Harmony Healthcare Long Island is dedicated to providing personalized health care and services to all patients served in the comfort of one of our convenient community-based locations located throughout Long Island including Elmont, Freeport, Hempstead, Oceanside, Roosevelt and Westbury.

For additional information on Harmony Healthcare Long Island, please visit: www.HarmonyHealthcareLI.org, or call 516.296.3742
Description

Registration is required: https://WindsledTalk.eventbrite.com

On March 1st at 2:00 PM, join Hamptons Observatory and Suffolk County Community College for a free, virtual lecture presented by renown polar explorer and inventor, Ramon Larramendi, wholl speak about his remarkable expeditions and the scientific studies made possible by his groundbreaking invention, the Inuit Windsled. During his 30 year career, Ramon Hernando de Larramendi, a native of Spain, has led more than 20 of the most important polar expeditions and has made over 100 trips to polar regions. One of his most renown trips was the Circumpolar Expedition (1990-1993) during which he traveled nearly 14,000 kilometers by dogsled from Greenland to Alaska across the Northwest Passage (see National Geographics Global Edition, January 1995). Ramon specializes in traditional Inuit travel and survival techniques. He is a decades-long member of the Explorers Club in New York. Ramon has lived more than 8 years in the Arctic and currently resides between Spain and Greenland. He is the Founder and Director of the Tasermiut South Greenland Expedition Agency. In this lecture, Ramon will describe his adventures, the challenges of polar exploration, the history of the Windsled and how it has revolutionized scientific research.

Hamptons Observatory extends its deepest thanks to Ramon for generously taking the time to share his expertise, to co-host Suffolk County Community College and to Carin Eve Cole for their kind collaboration.




Green Hydrogen Systems A/S

Company announcement 05/2023

Green Hydrogen Systems announces changes to its Board of Directors

Kolding, Denmark, 1 March 2023  In connection with todays Board of Directors meeting in Green Hydrogen Systems, the Company announces future changes to its Board of Directors following the Annual General Meeting on 18 April 2023.

Thomas Thune Andersen

Following past years efforts towards growth and commercialisation of the Company, Thomas Thune Andersen has decided that the timing of the Annual General Meeting this year is right to step down from the Board of Directors. Consequently, Thomas Thune Andersen will not seek re-election to Green Hydrogen Systems Board at the Annual General Meeting in April 2023.

Jakob Fuhr Hansen

Since Jakob Fuhr Hansen co-led the Nordic Alpha Partner investment in Green Hydrogen Systems in 2019, the Company has developed to an established manufacturer of electrolysis equipment. Jakob Fuhr Hansen has decided that the timing of the Annual General Meeting this year is right to step down from the Board of Directors and consequently, he will not seek re-election to Green Hydrogen Systems Board at the Annual General Meeting in April 2023.

Poul Due Jensen

To strengthen the Board of Directors competencies within industrialisation, manufacturing, sales and partnerships internationally, the Board will nominate Poul Due Jensen, Group President & CEO of Grundfos Holding A/S, as candidate for the Board of Directors of Green Hydrogen Systems for election at the Annual General Meeting in April 2023.

Poul Due Jensen is a Danish citizen and holds a Diploma in Business Administration & Marketing as well as executive educations from IMD Business School, Stanford University and Insead.

If elected at the Annual General Meeting, Poul Due Jensen will be regarded as an independent board member.

Christian Clausen, Chairman of the Board of Directors, says:

Following the past years comprehensive work bringing the company from a research and development phase through a public listing and now well into commercialisation and industrialisation, I would like to thank Thomas and Jakob for their contribution to the Board of Directors and the development of Green Hydrogen Systems.

Story continues

Likewise, Im pleased that Poul Due Jensen will be nominated to the Board of Directors of Green Hydrogen Systems. Poul will bring vast executive experience from building and managing international organisations among others within manufacturing and sales  competencies that are valued to the Board of Directors as Green Hydrogen Systems continues the industrialisation and scaling of production.

Green Hydrogen Systems will hold its Annual General Meeting on 18 April 2023.

For more info please contact:

Investors:

Jens Holm Binger, Head of Investor Relations,

+45 6065 6525, jhb@greenhydrogen.dk

Media:

Jesper Buhl, Head of Public Affairs and Media Relations,

+45 5351 5295, jbu@greenhydrogen.dk

Green Hydrogen Systems in brief

Green Hydrogen Systems is a leading provider of standardised and modular electrolysers to produce green hydrogen solely based on renewable electricity. With its wide range of possible applications, green hydrogen plays a key role in the ongoing fundamental shift in our energy systems towards a net-zero emission society in 2050. As a result, the demand for green hydrogen is surging, requiring a significant scale-up of electrolysis capacity. Founded in 2007 and building on more than 10 years of technology development, Green Hydrogen Systems today has a commercially proven and cost-competitive electrolysis technology endorsed by leading energy, as well as industrial companies.

Source: Green Hydrogen Systems

Ticker: GREENH

Tag: Company announcement

Attachment




After the years early rally appeared to hit a brick wall in recent times, the markets seem uncertain which direction to take next, making the seesawing conditions not easy for investors to navigate.

Against such a backdrop, maybe the best solution for investors is to follow in the footsteps of legendary Wall Street names  ones like Israel Englander.

The Millennium Management Chairman and CEO founded the hedge fund in 1989 with $35 million and now the firm is an almost $53 billion going concern, so he knows a thing or two about investing. Recently, Englander has been busy padding the portfolio with some big buys, and weve tracked down two of his recent purchases.

Do these choices sit well with the Streets stock experts? Turns out they certainly do. According to the TipRanks database, both are rated as Strong Buys by the analyst consensus. So, lets see why these names are drawing plaudits right now.

Dexcom Inc (DXCM)

The first Englander-backed stock well look at is medical device maker Dexcom. The San Diego, California-based company makes continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) systems to be used by diabetes patients. The companys solutions include wearables the Dexcom G6 and the more recent Dexcom G7, a small wearable sensor that every 5 minutes sends real-time glucose readings to a users smartphone and which the FDA recently cleared for usage by people with all types of diabetes ages two years and older. The company touts the product as the most accurate CGM offering on the market.

Diabetes is not only a chronic disease but an increasingly prevalent one too. Dexcoms products have been growing in popularity as seen by the steady sales gains made by the company.

This was evident again in the latest quarterly statement  for 4Q22. Dexcom dialed in revenue of $815.2 million, amounting to a 16.8% year-over-year increase and meeting Street expectations. There was a conclusive beat on the bottom-line as adj. EPS of $0.34 came in ahead of the $0.28 forecast. The company also stuck to its previous 2023 guidance that calls for 15%-20% growth on the topline and gross margins of 62%-63%.

Story continues

Englander obviously sees plenty to like here. In Q4, he upped his stake in the company by more than 200% with the purchase of 2,658,077 shares. He now holds a total of 3,890,649 shares, which at the current share price are worth $431.9 million.

Mirroring Englanders confidence, Piper Sandler analyst Matt OBrien says Dexcom is a favorite name for 2023 and highlights several reasons to get on board.

While DXCM has continued to trade sideways since November following its strong Q3 earnings, we think there is room for significant appreciation from the domestic G7 rollout, continued OUS expansion and the basal opportunity (Basal-IQ Tech uses a Dexcom G6 sensor) leading the way. Better than expected volumes and strong GM leverage give DXCM the opportunity in our view to be a beat and raise story as we move through 2023, OBrien opined.

Unsurprisingly, then, OBrien rates DXCM shares an Overweight (i.e. Buy), backed by a $150 price target. This target brings the upside potential to 35%. (To watch OBriens track record, click here)

Most agree with OBriens thesis. Based on 10 Buys, vs. 3 Holds, the stock claims a Strong Buy consensus rating. Going by the $129.92 average target, the shares will climb 17% higher in the year ahead. (See DXCM stock forecast)

SBA Communications (SBAC)

On to our next Englander-endorsed name is SBA Communications (SBAC), a real estate investment trust (REIT) but a unique one at that. The Boca Raton, Florida-based company owns and operates wireless communications infrastructure and in fact is one of the largest providers of communication tower space in the United States, as well as having operations in Central America, and Brazil, Africa, and the Philippines. Its main focus is geared toward leasing of antenna space on its communications sites to a host of wireless service providers, including Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile.

SBACs solid position is reflected in the companys steadily rising revenues and earnings over the past few quarters. In the most recently reported quarter, for 4Q22, revenue rose by 15.3% from the same period a year ago to $686.1 million, beating the Streets call by $4.81 million. However, while net income increased significantly from $48.9 million in 4Q21 to $102.6 million and resulting in $0.94 per share, the figure fell short of the $1.11 expected by the analysts.

Englander enters the frame here via a big increase to his holdings in Q4. He purchased 594,994 shares in the quarter, upping his stake by almost 300% and now holds a total of 797,089 shares, at present worth north of $206 million.

Englander is obviously upbeat about SBACs future and so is Raymond James analyst Ric Prentiss, who writes: SBAC is our current preferred tower stock due to its: 1) larger exposure to U.S. towers; 2) higher quality AFFO; 3) longer runway for strong dividend growth (the company currently pays a quarterly cash dividend of $0.85 per share); and 4) proven ability to opportunistically allocate capital including stock buybacks.

Based on that assessment, Prentiss rates SBAC a Strong Buy and has a price target set at $334. Should that figure be met, investors will be sitting on returns of ~29% a year from now. (To watch Prentisss track record, click here)

Turning now to the rest of the Street, where SBAC gets plenty of support. Barring two skeptics, all 10 other recent analyst reviews are positive, making the consensus view here a Strong Buy. Shares are expected to appreciate by ~27% in the year ahead, considering the average target stands at $328.82. (See SBAC stock forecast)

To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks equity insights.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analyst. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.
Survey finds more than three-quarters of Canadian women have experienced burnout in their careers

TORONTO, March 1, 2023 /CNW/ - Today GoDaddy released data from a new survey exploring the opportunities and challenges associated with women entrepreneurship in Canada. The data, which arrives in the lead up to International Women's Day and builds on a previous GoDaddy survey from 2021, shows that 80 per cent of Canadian women see more opportunity than ever in starting their own business despite battling burnout and a challenging economic climate.

Sadaf Rahimi, Charcuterie Vancouver (CNW Group/GoDaddy)

The Unstoppable Women study from GoDaddy found that most Canadian women started or intend to start their small business in pursuit of financial opportunities and lifestyle flexibilitythis is a shift from 2021, when a GoDaddy study found the majority of millennial women cited passion as the driving force behind their small business dreams.

Amid ongoing cost-of-living challenges, close to half (49%) of women looking to start a small business or side hustle say increased financial opportunities are the top motivator, over flexibility or autonomy.

However, the survey also sheds light on perceived barriers for women looking to start their own business, with time commitments and set up costs ranking top of the list. Household commitments also remain an important factorone in three Canadian women say they are a primary caregiver with children under 18, and an overwhelming majority (81%) state they are chiefly responsible for household duties, regardless of caregiving obligations.

Underlining these barriers is the need for mental health support. More than three-quarters (78%) of Canadian women surveyed say they have experienced burnout at some point in their careers. At the same time, women entrepreneurs say that confidence and adaptability have been critical to their business successunderpinning the importance of support systems that help women entrepreneurs feel confident in their business journeys, and tools that empower them to adapt to headwinds.

Story continues

Canadian Women are Unstoppable: Meet Sadaf Rahimi, Charcuterie Vancouver

As part of its Unstoppable Women campaign in honour of International Women's Day, GoDaddy is sharing stories from unstoppable Canadian women entrepreneurs to celebrate their accomplishments and inspire more women to follow their small business dreams.

Sadaf Rahimi, owner of Charcuterie Vancouver, founded her business in late 2019. As the pandemic halted events in 2020, Sadaf had to quickly rethink her business plans, which centered on event catering, and instead offered smaller, individual charcuterie boxes through her business website to stay afloat.

Like many Canadian women, starting her own business was a pathway to greater financial stability. For Sadaf, it was also about giving back to her family, whose journey from Afghanistan she says has been a powerful motivator for her business success.

"Seeing my parents go through the struggles they went through to give us a better life here in Canada has motivated me to do everything I possibly can to succeed in life and give back to my mom because she has sacrificed everything for us,'' Sadaf said.

Women business owners are optimistic, excited for growth in 2023

Despite persistent obstacles, Canadian women entrepreneurs remain undeniably optimisticonly 16 per cent report that pandemic-related impacts remain their biggest business concern, and a combined 70 per cent report excitement for their growth in 2023 whether through growing their brand (30%), growing their skills (21%), or expanding their business offerings (19%). Women who have yet to start their business are also giving careful thought to the resources and tools they'll need to succeed, with 91 per cent of women planning to start a business saying they will build a website for their new venture.

Sadaf recalls her website built with the GoDaddy Website Builder was her first purchase when she launched her business in 2019.

"It has been the biggest reason for our growth and success,'' Sadaf said of her website, which allows her customers to seamlessly purchase everything from individual boxes to gift packs and tables for corporate events. "I truly believe every business owner needs a website at the start of their entrepreneurship journey to not only look more professional to their clients but to make their own lives easier. GoDaddy has many templates which are very user-friendly and anyone can build their own website."

"Canadian women are unstoppable, and we're honoured any time we can be a part of helping entrepreneurs take that first stepsuch as naming their idea through a domain purchase, or building their website," said Young Lee, Canada Market Lead for GoDaddy. "At GoDaddy, we provide the tools and resources entrepreneurs need to feel confident at every stage of their small business journey. We believe that with the right tools and support, anyone can grow, create and manage their business online."

Canadian women may be overestimating start-up costs by more than 50 per cent

While women looking to start their own business cited start-up costs as a major barrier, the Unstoppable Women survey found they tended to overestimate start-up costs by an average of 56 per cent or morein fact, more than two-thirds of women business owners surveyed said it cost them less than $1,000 to launch their business, with 15 per cent saying they had no start-up costs at all.

Sadaf encourages other aspiring women entrepreneurs to share her optimism and remember that no matter the scale of what you want to achieve or how hard it seems, don't give up.

"If I, a young Afghan-Canadian immigrant could grow my small charcuterie plates to a seven-figure business, you can too. Believe in yourself and don't worry about people's opinions. Just do it."

To celebrate and honour unstoppable women entrepreneurs, GoDaddy is highlighting women customers who own businesses on its social channels throughout the month of March. To learn more about how GoDaddy supports everyday entrepreneurs, visit godaddy.ca.

About GoDaddy

GoDaddy helps millions of entrepreneurs globally start, grow, and scale their businesses. People come to GoDaddy to name their idea, build a professional website, attract customers, sell their products and services, and accept payments online and in-person. GoDaddy's easy-to-use tools help microbusiness owners manage everything in one place and its expert guides are available to provide assistance 24/7. To learn more about the company, visit www.GoDaddy.com.

About the GoDaddy Survey

Research methodology: Antenna, an independent consumer research agency on behalf of GoDaddy, conducted an online survey of n=1009 women business leaders in Canada. The survey was conducted between 23/12/22  09/01/23. The survey data collection was national and respondents were sourced using an accredited online research access panel. Data was weighted for representation against country census data.

Sadaf Rahimi, Charcuterie Vancouver (CNW Group/GoDaddy)

Sadaf Rahimi, Charcuterie Vancouver (CNW Group/GoDaddy)

GoDaddy Logo (CNW Group/GoDaddy)

SOURCE GoDaddy

Cision

View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/March2023/01/c1285.html
Accellera Systems Initiative

Mr. Moorby honored during DVCon U.S. 2023 for inventing Verilog HDL

ELK GROVE, Calif., March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Accellera Systems Initiative (Accellera) announced today that Phil Moorby, the inventor of the Verilog Hardware Description Language (HDL) who passed away in September 2022, is honored posthumously with the Accellera 2023 Technical Excellence Award. The award was established to recognize the outstanding achievements of an individual and their significant contributions to the development of its standards.



Mr. Moorby invented Verilog HDL in 1984 and developed the industry standard simulator Verilog-XL. His continued work to improve Verilog led to the SystemVerilog standard. He was honored with many awards for his work, including the prestigious Phil Kaufman Award in 2005. He also received a Fellow Award from the Computer History Museum in 2016 for his invention and the promotion of Verilog HDL.

Phil Moorby invented and evolved the Verilog language, which has become the mainstay for the design of devices we all use every day, stated Martin Barnasconi, Accellera Technical Committee Chair. He was a mentor to SystemVerilog developers around the globe and his technical contributions and dedication to the industry have left an overarching impact that is beyond measure.

Mr. Moorby was a British engineer and computer scientist. He studied Mathematics at Southhampton University in England and received his masters degree in computer science from Manchester University in England. He moved to the United States in 1983. Mr. Moorby passed away on September 15, 2022 at the age of 69 in Rockport, MA.

About the Accellera Technical Committee

Accellera's Technical Committee oversees 15 active working groups that produce effective and efficient Electronic Design Automation (EDA) and Intellectual Property (IP) standards for todays advanced electronic integrated circuits and embedded systems. Working group participants contribute to the development of standards for the electronics and semiconductor industry. Technical contributors typically have many years of practical experience in standardization of methodologies and languages for system-level design, integration, verification, or automation. For a list of Accellera working groups, please click here.

Story continues

About Accellera Systems Initiative

Accellera Systems Initiative is an independent, not-for profit organization dedicated to create, support, promote and advance system-level design, modeling and verification standards for use by the worldwide electronics industry. The organization accelerates standards development and, as part of its ongoing partnership with the IEEE, its standards are contributed to the IEEE Standards Association for formal standardization and ongoing change control. For more information, please visit www.accellera.org . Find out more about membership . Follow @accellera on Twitter or to comment, please use #accellera. Accellera Global Sponsors are: Cadence, Siemens EDA, and Synopsys.

About DVCon U.S.

DVCon is the premier conference for discussion of the functional design and verification of electronic systems. DVCon is sponsored by Accellera Systems Initiative , an independent, not-for-profit organization dedicated to creating design and verification standards required by systems, semiconductor, intellectual property (IP) and electronic design automation (EDA) companies. In response to global interest, Accellera also sponsors events in China, Europe, India and Japan in addition to DVCon U.S. For more information about DVCon U.S., please visit www.dvcon.org . Follow DVCon U.S. on Facebook, on LinkedIn or @dvcon_us on Twitter, or to comment on Twitter, please use #dvcon_us.

Accellera, Accellera Systems Initiative, and DVCon and are trademarks of Accellera Systems Initiative Inc. A list of relevant Siemens trademarks can be found here. All other trademarks and trade names are the property of their respective owners.

For more information, contact:

Barbara Benjamin

Public Relations for Accellera Systems Initiative

Phone: +1 503 209 2323

Email: barbara@hipcom.com




iBASIS and Sequans have been selected by Actility to meet its delivery schedule for eSIM and iSIM.

iBASIS and Sequans now considered frontrunners in programmable cellular IoT solutions; integrated deployments expected to represent up to 82% of total eSIM-capable device shipments by 2030.

The move to iSIM comes as a result of 3+ years of R&D and close collaboration between iBASIS, Sequans, and other IoT ecosystem partners.

LEXINGTON, Mass. and PARIS, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- iBASIS, the leading provider of communications solutions for operators and digital players worldwide, and Sequans Communications S.A. (NYSE: SQNS), a leading developer and provider of 5G/4G chips and modules, today announced that Actility, a leading provider of IoT connectivity platform, has chosen iBASIS and Sequans to roll out programmable cellular IoT solutions with eSIM and iSIM.

iBASIS

Actility had previously worked closely with iBASIS to enable roaming between private unlicensed networks powered by ThingPark EPC Connector and public networks, using Simfony's CMP platform, now fully integrated with iBASIS' Global Access for Things IoT portfolio. The longstanding partnership between iBASIS and Sequans has produced several successful proofs of concept.

The new ultra-low-power multi-technology trackers of Abeeway, a fully owned Actility subsidiary, will benefit from Sequans Monarch 2 LTE-M/NB-IoT platform with integrated iSIM and the connectivity profile provided by iBASIS, allowing the device to connect to cellular networks worldwide. Actility will also benefit from Sequans Monarch 2 being the first iSIM implementation that has achieved common criteria EAL5+ certification, allowing the use of iBASIS' intelligent profile selection technology with remote update using multiple Tier-1 operator profiles as provided for eSIM.

iSIM is fully integrated in the cellular modem and microcontroller unit on a single system on chip (SoC). It relies on the existing eSIM infrastructure accessing 2/3/4/5G networks using the global footprint of iBASIS. iSIM is considered to be the future of connectivity technology for many IoT deployments.

Story continues

An important step forward in the IoT industry, iSIM will positively influence device design in the areas of space optimization, and reduction of energy and power consumption. By eliminating the need for a separate SIM chip, iSIM will provide the customer with a more streamlined supply chain experience when manufacturing a device using cellular connectivity. The entire supply chain will benefit from the reduction of materials which will lead to lower costs for manufacturers.

According to Counterpoint Research, beyond 2027 iSIM is projected to take over as the dominant SIM form factor, with the shipments of iSIM-capable devices poised to scale to 7 billion units between 2021 and 2030.

With the iBASIS Global Access for Things industry-leading coverage, eSIM/iSIM enables enterprises to easily adopt a single global, remotely programmable SIM that provides mobile data connectivity to smart devices all over the world.

"After recent collaboration with iBASIS, adding iBASIS connectivity on our Monarch 2 module with eSIM, and having fully tested the global connectivity on iSIM, we are now advancing into an integrated production phase driven by a customer need," said Louis Chuang, EVP of Sequans' Massive IoT Business Unit. "We are thrilled to reach this important milestone with iBASIS whereby we can offer customers a powerful iSIM capability, along with low power consumption, cost-efficiency, and GNSS support."

"After being recognized as a leader in the cellular IoT connectivity market with eSIMs, we are delighted to implement iSIM technology together with our trusted partner Sequans," said Ajay Joseph, CEO IoT & CTO, iBASIS. "After many years of research and development, while deploying iSIM technology in trial environments, it is a great achievement by our teams. This once again underlines that iBASIS is a frontrunner and truly lives by its motto: 'Be there first'. We strongly believe that iSIM will become a dominant factor within the IoT industry and I am proud to see that we are now able to provide our longstanding customer Actility with our proven IoT connectivity on iSIM."

"Our focus is ultra-low-power industrial IoT connectivity," said Olivier Hersent, CEO of Actility. "The new cellular trackers of our subsidiary Abeeway leverage LTE-M and NB-IoT, and our ThingPark EPC Connector for unlicensed private cellular networks (such as CBRS) rely on recent 3GPP slicing technologies. We needed cutting edge partners to support reliable LTE-M connections with PSM/eDRX options in permanent roaming as well as iSIMs and, after extensive testing, we selected Sequans for their ability to support iSIMs and because 100 percent of their software stack is developed in-house, and we selected iBASIS for their ability to support complex integration and their focus on quality, based on proactive testing. Together, I think we form the dream team for industrial low-power IoT."

To find out more, visit iBASIS in Hall 2, MR 2A6 and 2A8, and Sequans in Hall 5, Stand 5H40, at Mobile World Congress from February 27 to March 2 in Barcelona.

About iBASIS

iBASIS is the leading communications solutions provider enabling operators and digital players worldwide to perform and transform. Powered by Tofane Global , iBASIS is the first independent communications specialist, ranking third largest global wholesale voice operator, Top 3 LTE IPX vendor with 700+ LTE destinations, and a leading Carrier Cloud Communications player and IoT solution provider. iBASIS provides the end-to-end Global Access for Things connectivity solution, delivering single source cellular IoT access (LTE, LTE-M and NB-IoT) worldwide provisioned through GSMA-standard eSIM/eUICC technology. iBASIS today serves 1,000+ customers across 26 offices worldwide. For more information, please visit iBASIS.com .

About Sequans

Sequans Communications S.A. (NYSE: SQNS) is a leading developer and supplier of cellular IoT connectivity solutions, providing chips and modules for 5G/4G massive and broadband IoT. For 5G/4G massive IoT applications, Sequans provides a comprehensive product portfolio based on its flagship Monarch LTE-M/NB-IoT and Calliope Cat 1 chip platforms, featuring industry-leading low power consumption, a large set of integrated functionalities, and global deployment capability. For 5G/4G broadband IoT applications, Sequans offers a product portfolio based on its Cassiopeia Cat 4/Cat 6 4G and high-end Taurus 5G chip platforms, optimized for low-cost residential, enterprise, and industrial applications. Founded in 2003, Sequans is based in Paris, France with additional offices in the United States, United Kingdom, Israel, Hong Kong, Singapore, Finland, Taiwan, South Korea, and China. Visit Sequans online at www.sequans.com , and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

About Actility

Actility is the world leader in Low-Power Wide-Area Networks (LPWAN) industrial-grade connectivity solutions for the Internet of Things. Actility provides its ThingPark platform and network technology to deploy, operate and maintain public and private wireless IoT networks within a unified, scalable and versatile network infrastructure. The vast majority of nationwide LPWAN network service providers and hundreds of enterprises trust ThingPark all over the world. Through its subsidiary Abeeway , Actility also provides patented ultra-low power tracking solutions . ThingPark Market offers the largest selection of interoperable IoT gateways, devices and applications to simplify and accelerate deployment of numerous use cases. Contact us here: https://www.actility.com/contact

Media contacts:

iBASIS: Celine Gregoire, EVP Marketing, +1.617.501.2788, cgregoire@iBASIS.net

Sequans: Kimberly Tassin, Director Marketing, +1.425.736.0569, kimberly@sequans.com

Actiity: Frank Koopman, EVP EMEA, +31 6 51 13 90 39, frank.koopman@actility.com

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/actility-selects-ibasis-and-sequans-to-deploy-lte-m-solutions-with-esim-and-isim-301759051.html

SOURCE Sequans Communications
IRVINE, CA / ACCESSWIRE / March 1, 2023 / The need to borrow money from a bank is almost universal for everyone at some point in a lifetime, but the experience might differ depending on the credit score one has. Many think that their credit score has no relevance if they don't plan on working with a bank for a loan. A California-based debt resolution platform founded by Nick Kohlschreiber , AcuFi argue that "this erroneous notion has placed countless individuals in difficult situations. A good credit score goes beyond securing favorable terms on a loan - it will also affect a person's ability to rent accommodation, lease a car, get insurance, or purchase certain goods or services. While it is true that the modern economy runs on borrowed money, a person can build a solid credit score without accumulating debt as long as they know what options are available to them."

People can have excellent credit scores even when they hold multiple credit cards and owe substantial amounts to their bank, according to experts at AcuFi and Nick Kohlschreiber . This has to do with the fact that such borrowers make their payments on time , thus maintaining a stellar credit history. Therefore, one way for a person to build a good score as shared by the experts at AcuFi is by consistently meeting their payment deadlines, be it for rent, utility bills, or existing loans. To maximize the effect of such fiscal discipline, AcuFi advises to include these payments in one's credit file when the option is available - some credit scoring services provide this opportunity, enabling consumers to improve their scores.

Credit cards are among the primary drivers of household debt in the United States, as well as a key factor in calculating credit scores. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York , U.S. credit card debt reached $890 billion in the second quarter of 2022, which represents an increase of $49 billion from the previous quarter. "People trying to build a credit score or improve their existing one are routinely advised to pay down their credit card debt and, if possible, cancel all but one card. Since the length of a person's credit history plays a major role in determining their credit score, it would be best to keep open the oldest account," Nick Kohlschreiber says. "In addition, consumers can greatly benefit by signing up for a zero balance credit card , which can help them lower their overall credit utilization ratio and thus improve their credit score."

Story continues

Another option for people looking to build or repair their credit score without accumulating debt is a credit-builder loan - contrary to what the term suggests, this is more of a savings arrangement, AcuFi experts point out. Experian, one of the three main credit reporting companies in the U.S., offers the following simple explanation : "A credit-builder loan isn't a loan in the traditional sense. When you apply, a lender puts the loan balance you choose into a savings account. You'll make fixed payments toward it over several months, and the lender will return to you the total balance (plus the interest you paid, potentially) at the end of the loan term. That means you're building credit and saving money at the same time."

About AcuFi:

AcuFi is a company dedicated to advocating for consumers burdened with unsecured debt to help them develop viable repayment plans and strategies. It provides debt resolution services to those looking for an alternative to bankruptcy, making it possible to reduce the amounts owed and settle the debts faster. AcuFi representatives work on behalf of the consumer with experts to create personalized debt relief plans.

AcuFi: http://acufi.com

Nick Kohlschreiber of AcuFi Explains the Reasons for Choosing Debt Consolidation over Bankruptcy: https://www.yahoo.com/now/nick-kohlschreiber-acufi-explains-reasons-023000546.html

AcuFi and Founder, Nick Kohlschreiber, Offers the Best Way to Weather a Recession Through Debt Relief: https://www.yahoo.com/now/acufi-founder-nick-kohlschreiber-offer-162000783.html

Contact Information:

Nick Kohlschreiber

AcuFi

support@acufi.com

949-992-2834

http://acufi.com

SOURCE: AcuFi





View source version on accesswire.com:

https://www.accesswire.com/741556/AcuFi-and-Founder-Nick-Kohlschreiber-Explain-How-To-Boost-Credit-Without-Amassing-Debt




Acuity Brands, Inc.

ATLANTA, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE: AYI) (Company) today announced that the Company is planning to release its fiscal 2023 second-quarter earnings results on Tuesday, April 4, 2023, at 6:00 a.m. (EST), followed by a conference call at 8:00 a.m. (EST). Neil Ashe, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Acuity Brands will lead the call.



The webcast, earnings release, and supplemental presentation can be accessed via the Investor Relations section of the Company's website at www.investors.acuitybrands.com on Tuesday, April 4, 2023. The online replay will remain available for a limited time following the call. A replay of the call will also be posted to the Investor Relations site two hours after the completion of the conference call and will be archived on the website.

To learn more about Acuity Brands, please visit the Company's website. Acuity Brands uses its website as a distribution channel for material Company information. In addition, financial and other material information regarding Acuity Brands is routinely posted on the Company's website and is readily accessible.

About Acuity Brands

Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE: AYI) is a market-leading industrial technology company. We use technology to solve problems in spaces, light, and more things to come. Through our two business segments, Acuity Brands Lighting and Lighting Controls (ABL) and the Intelligent Spaces Group (ISG), we design, manufacture, and bring to market products and services that make a valuable difference in peoples lives.

We achieve growth through the development of innovative new products and services, including lighting, lighting controls, building management systems, and location-aware applications. We achieve customer-focused efficiencies that allow us to increase market share and deliver superior returns. We look to aggressively deploy capital to grow the business and to enter attractive new verticals.

Story continues

Acuity Brands, Inc. is based in Atlanta, Georgia, with operations across North America, Europe, and Asia. The Company is powered by more than 13,000 dedicated and talented associates. Visit us at www.acuitybrands.com

Investor Contact:

Charlotte McLaughlin

investorrelations@acuitybrands.com

Media Contact:

Cathy Lewandowski

Catherine.Lewandowski@acuitybrands.com




OTTAWA, ON, March 1, 2023 /CNW/ - Canada Post's latest stamp issue welcomes spring with the lavish, rose-like blossoms of the ranunculus. The stunning plant is a favourite of florists and gardeners and a popular choice for wedding bouquets, centrepieces and containers.

Ranunculus stamps (CNW Group/Canada Post)

Ranunculus asiaticus, the variety pictured on this year's flower issue, is also known as Persian buttercup. Native to southwestern Asia, southern Europe and northern Africa, the plant may have arrived in northern Europe during the Crusades but was not widely cultivated until the 17th century.

While the wild ranunculus is usually yellow, cultivated blooms can be orange, red, violet or pink. This two-stamp issue depicts Ranunculus asiaticus as a single flower and a bouquet, in many shades of pink.

Designed by Stephane Huot, with images by Veronique Meignaud, the stamps are available in booklets of 10 and coils of 50, as well as collectible coil strips of 4 and 10 stamps. The Official First Day Cover is cancelled in Goderich, Ontario, considered one of the prettiest towns in Canada.

For links to images of the stamp and other products, Details magazine and other resources

External folder with high resolution images

Details magazine (click here and this external folder)

Social media platforms  Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

SOURCE Canada Post

Cision

View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/March2023/01/c9680.html
BEIJING, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Beijing on Wednesday.

Xi said in Samarkand in September last year, he and Lukashenko jointly announced upgrading bilateral relations to an all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership, injecting strong impetus into bilateral cooperation in various fields.

For China, this year marks the beginning of the full implementation of the guiding principles laid down at the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. China's high-quality development and modernization process will bring new opportunities to other countries including Belarus, Xi said.

Hailing the unbreakable China-Belarus friendship, Xi stressed that the two sides should further enhance political mutual trust and remain each other's good friends and partners.

He said China highly appreciates Belarus's firm support for China's justified position on issues related to Taiwan, Xinjiang and Hong Kong, and on human rights.

The two sides should firmly support each other's choice of development path, support each other in safeguarding respective core interests, oppose external interference in internal affairs, and protect their sovereignty and political security, Xi said.

The two presidents agreed to expand economic and trade cooperation, do a good job in building the China-Belarus Industrial Park, and focus on the joint building of the Belt and Road to advance cooperation in connectivity projects such as the China-Europe Railway Express service. 
President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has signed a decree approving the National action plan to combat the legalization of property acquired by criminal means and terrorism financing for 2023-2025.

to be updated
Bekaert

Bekaert announces the sale of its Steel Wire Solutions businesses in Chile and Peru

Bekaert today announces it has reached an agreement on the sale of its Steel Wire Solutions businesses in Chile and Peru to its current partners. The transaction, with a total enterprise value of approximately US$ 350 million and resulting in net proceeds for Bekaerts stake of US$ 136 million, is expected to close in 2023, subject to applicable regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.

Disposal entities

The transaction covers the production and distribution facilities of the Steel Wire Solutions activities in Chile and Peru. These facilities manufacture, sell, and distribute steel wire products primarily for construction, agricultural fencing, mining, and industrial applications. The intended transaction regards the sale of the shares held by Bekaert in the following entities: Industrias Chilenas de Alambre-Inchalam SA in Talcahuano, Chile; and Prodalam SA in Santiago, Chile; along with their subsidiaries in Chile and Peru. Bekaert currently holds 52% of the shares in the Chilean entities and 38% of the shares in the Peruvian entities. The transaction excludes Bekaerts wholly owned Bridon-Bekaert ropes entities in Chile and Peru.

Rationale

Bekaerts strategy in recent years, has been to improve its business portfolio by reducing the Groups exposure to more commoditized and volatile markets, while increasing its presence in faster growing markets particularly in new mobility, green energy, and low-carbon concrete solutions, which typically offer higher profit margins and higher returns on capital. While the partnership has been successful for nearly 75 years, Bekaert believes it is now the right time to exit these businesses and focus on our target segments, while securing a long-term future for the customers and employees of the divested entities.

Financial impact

The activities subject to the transaction generated approximately  650 million in consolidated revenue in 2022, with a profit margin below the Bekaert target range. The proceeds from the transaction will further strengthen our balance sheet and support our commitment to shareholder returns and investment plans for growth.

Story continues



Oswald Schmid, CEO of Bekaert, commented: Bekaert was an early entrant into the Latin American market. Our partnership with the current shareholders in Chile dates back to 1948 and was extended with the establishment of our partnership in Peru in 1994. We are thankful to the partners, employees, and customers for the successes we have achieved together, and we wish them a bright future under the new ownership. At the same time, it is another important strategic step in the ongoing transformation of Bekaert and its further positioning it in new, fast-growing markets.

Attachment




BlackRock Asset Management Canada Limited

TORONTO, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BlackRock Asset Management Canada Limited (BlackRock Canada), an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of BlackRock, Inc. (BlackRock) (NYSE: BLK), is pleased to announce that at a special meeting held today, unitholders approved the proposal to merge (the Merger) the iShares Short Term High Quality Canadian Bond Index ETF (Merging ETF) into the iShares Core Canadian Short Term Bond Index ETF (the Continuing ETF)



The Merging ETF will be wound down following completion of the Merger. Unitholders of the Merging ETF will receive full units of the Continuing ETF based on the Continuing ETFs net asset value per unit, and cash in lieu of fractional units.

BlackRock Canada expects that the Merger will be implemented on or about March 27, 2023. The last day of trading of the Merging ETF will be March 24, 2023.

The Merger is expected to take place on a taxable basis, and for tax purposes, will generally be treated as a disposition of the property and units of the Merging ETF.

The approved change aims to simplify product offering and provide better diversification opportunities for investors. The Merging ETF and Continuing ETF have substantially similar underlying investment exposure. In addition, the Continuing ETF has greater secondary market liquidity, measured by average spreads and volumes, to that of the Merging ETF.

For more information about the Merging ETF and Continuing ETF, please visit www.blackrock.com/ca.

Unitholders of the iShares High Quality Canadian Bond Index ETF voted against approving the proposal to merge the iShares High Quality Canadian Bond Index ETF into the iShares Core Canadian Universe Bond Index ETF.

Helen Hayes, Head of iShares Canada, BlackRock:

BlackRock is continuously looking for ways to innovate not just our product suite, but also how we meet changing client needs and navigate evolving market conditions. The priorities and needs of Canadian investors are key as we evolve our ETF lineup to provide more investor choice. We would like to thank unitholders for participating in the special meetings.

Story continues

BlackRock Canada is also announcing that, as the quorum requirement with respect to the special meeting of the unitholders of the iShares U.S. High Yield Fixed Income Index ETF (CAD-Hedged) held on March 1, 2023 (the Meeting) was not satisfied, the Meeting has been adjourned. The adjourned meeting has been scheduled for 10:00 a.m. (Toronto time) on March 13, 2023, solely as a virtual (online) meeting by way of live audio webcast online at www.virtualshareholdermeeting.com/ishares2023.

At the adjourned meeting, the business of the meeting will be transacted by those unitholders of the iShares U.S. High Yield Fixed Income Index ETF (CAD-Hedged) present in person (virtually) or represented by proxy. Unitholders who are entitled to vote are encouraged to exercise their right to vote until 5:00pm (Toronto time) on March 9, 2023 via the internet at www.proxyvote.com or by telephone by calling 1-800-474-7493 (English) or 1-800-474-7501 (French), and using the 16-digit control number listed on the form of proxy or voting instruction form sent to unitholders. Eligible unitholders can also vote by completing, dating, signing and returning the form of proxy or voting instruction form, as applicable, to Broadridge at PO Box 3700, Stn Industrial Park, Markham, Ontario, L3R 9Z9, Attention: Data Processing Centre so that it arrives before 5:00PM (Toronto time) on March 9, 2023.

About BlackRock

BlackRocks purpose is to help more and more people experience financial well-being. As a fiduciary to investors and a leading provider of financial technology, we help millions of people build savings that serve them throughout their lives by making investing easier and more affordable. For additional information on BlackRock, please visit www.blackrock.com/corporate.

About iShares

iShares unlocks opportunity across markets to meet the evolving needs of investors. With more than twenty years of experience, a global line-up of 1300+ exchange traded funds (ETFs) and US$2.91 trillion in assets under management as of December 31, 2022, iShares continues to drive progress for the financial industry. iShares funds are powered by the expert portfolio and risk management of BlackRock.

iShares ETFs are managed by BlackRock Asset Management Canada Limited.

Commissions, trailing commissions, management fees and expenses all may be associated with investing in iShares ETFs. Please read the relevant prospectus before investing. The funds are not guaranteed, their values change frequently and past performance may not be repeated. Tax, investment and all other decisions should be made, as appropriate, only with guidance from a qualified professional.

Contact for Media:

Reem Jazar

Email: reem.jazar@blackrock.com




Blender Bites Limited

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Blender Bites Ltd. (the Company, Blender Bites or Blender), (CSE: BITE, FWB: JL4, WKN: A3DMEJ), an award-winning Canadian company involved in the development and marketing of a line of premium, organic and plant-based pre-portioned frozen functional foods, is pleased to announce record sales revenues in the fiscal year ended October 31, 2022, representing more than a 300% increase compared to the annual revenue period in 2021, as well as the Companys highest yearly revenue on record.



The Company saw total revenues of $3,845,209 with related cost of goods sold of $3,435,307 during the fiscal year ended October 31, 2022. This represents a significant 308% increase in revenue when compared to the fiscal year ended October 31, 2021, which generated $941,852 in revenues with related cost of goods sold of $809,720.

This increase in revenue for 2022 can be attributed to Blender Bites rapid progress and expansion in the Canadian functional beverage market during that year. The Companys business highlights in 2022 include:

Expanded its product offerings with the introduction of an immune supporting smoothie innovation, Daily Defen-C;

Supported by Canadas largest chain of retail grocery stores, carrying three flavours of superfood smoothie pucks at its Canadian stores nationwide and expanding throughout the year to Western Canada.

Expanded its product offerings in Canadas largest chain of retail grocery stores with the introduction of Green Detox.

Entered into a manufacturing agreement to increase volume output capacity at a 250,000 sq ft facility in Ontario, Canada.

Won the award of Best Product Canada in the Organic Beverage Category.

Enhanced marketing strategy, with a full digital exposure on social channels and celebrity partnerships.

Maintained broker and distribution agreements to support continued Canadian retail sales.



2022 was our strongest year to date with record setting revenue for the Company. Our increase in sales is due to the quality of the product and the continually increasing distribution network, led by our partnership with Canadas leading club store. We expect to continue to scale up growth throughout 2023 with our plans for increased US expansion, stated Chelsie Hodge, the Companys CEO and Founder.

Story continues

For the complete financial results for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2022, readers are encouraged to review the audited financial statements of the Company which are available under the profile for the Company on SEDAR (www.sedar.com).

ABOUT BLENDER BITES

Blender Bites is an award-winning Canadian company involved in the development and marketing of a line of premium frozen food products with a focus on functionality. Blender Bites was founded in 2016 and was first to market in Western Canada with a pre-portioned easy smoothie product that is free of any unnecessary inner plastic packaging. Blender Bites products are certified organic, vegan, non-GMO, gluten free, dairy free and soy free. They contain no added sugars and are made in Canada. Blender Bites products are distributed internationally across Canada and the US, and are currently sold in over 900 stores, including Sobeys, Loblaws, Safeway, Save on Foods, Real Canadian Superstore, Whole Foods Market, Buy-Low/Nesters, IGA, Thrifty and Fresh Street.

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

Blender Bites Limited

Chelsie Hodge, Chief Executive Officer

Email  chelsie@blenderbites.com

Telephone  236-521-0626

For further information, contact Blender IR Team at:

Email  investors@blenderbites.com

Telephone  1-888-997-2055

CAUTIONARY DISCLAIMER STATEMENT

This news release includes certain forward-looking statements under applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon several estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to general business, economic, competitive, political, and social uncertainties, and uncertain capital markets. Readers are cautioned that 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.




Molson Coors Beverage Company

On March 3, Blue Moon is inviting Canadians to disconnect from tech and reconnect with friends by going on #MoonMode

Moon Mode Coasters

Moon Mode Coasters

TORONTO, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Its no secret that Canadians' outlook isnt as bright as it once was - only 1 in 10 Canadians report being truly happy and Canada slipped 10 spots on the World Happiness Report since 2010 . And while many factors might be to blame, its clear that an endless cycle of scrolling and double tapping through our phones is contributing to our growing unhappiness: a recent survey conducted by Blue Moon revealed 73% of 19-34 year old Canadians experience FOMO or negative emotions because of things they see online at least some of the time. Thats why, as a beer made brighter, Blue Moon is interrupting our mobile routines and encouraging Canadians to disconnect to reconnect with their friends and family IRL on March 3, the National Day of Unplugging, by putting phones on Do Not Disturb a.k.a #MoonMode.



Moon Mode Coasters





Always-on, overly connected and tech dependent Canadians are forgetting to leave room for the important bright spots that contribute to our happiness, like putting down phones, spending time with friends, and making IRL memories over a Blue Moon beer! Because its not just those using their phones whose moods are suffering for it: 62% of Canadians ages 19-34 have a negative reaction when friends and family spend time on their phones around them.

To remind Canadians of the importance of taking time to truly unplug, Blue Moon is launching the first-ever line of coasters for your phone. These artfully-crafted coasters will put phones on #MoonMode and allow users to spend meaningful moments with friends, helping the 55% of Canadians (19-34) who say they find it hard to stay off their phones in social settings at least some of the time.

We want to remind Canadians that unplugging to be truly present during lifes bright moments, can have a drastic impact on how you walk away from an experience or interaction, says Luca Garofalo, Brand Manager, Blue Moon Canada. #MoonMode is all about disconnecting to reconnect, and our coasters will help you do just that by disabling your notifications. Allowing you to enjoy a refreshingly bright Blue Moon, in good company, completely undisturbed from the digital world.

Story continues

The exclusive #MoonMode coasters will be available for purchase at bluemooncanada.ca/moonmode while quantities last. For those who miss the chance to purchase, Blue Moon encourages setting phones to DND or silencing notifications to join Blue Moon in going #MoonMode on March 3rd. But dont stop there: Blue Moon reminds Canadians to turn on #MoonMode beyond National Day of Unplugging to combat the unhappiness brought on by digital distractions. After all, Canadians could ALL use a little more brightness in their lives - and a little less brightness on their screens.

Be sure to stay tuned to Blue Moons social channels for more stats and unplugging tips! And dont forget to tag @bluemoon_canada and use #MoonMode to share your moments of brightness on National Day of Unplugging.

About the Blue Moon Brightness Survey

This Maru Public Opinion survey conducted on behalf of Blue Moon was undertaken by the sample and data collection experts at Maru/Blue . 1,498 randomly selected Canadian adults of drinking age (19 years or older) who are Maru Voice Canada online panelists were surveyed from February 10th to February 11th 2023. The results of this study have been weighted by education, age, gender and region (and in Quebec, language) to match the population, according to Census data. This is to ensure the sample is representative of the entire adult population of Canada. For comparison purposes, a probability sample of this size has an estimated margin of error (which measures sampling variability) of +/- 2.5%, 19 times out of 20. Discrepancies in or between totals when compared to the data tables are due to rounding.

About Molson Coors

For over two centuries Molson Coors has been brewing beverages that unite people to celebrate all lifes moments. From Coors Light, Miller Lite, Molson Canadian, Carling, and Staropramen to Coors Banquet, Blue Moon Belgian White, Blue Moon LightSky, Vizzy, Leinenkugels Summer Shandy, Creemore Springs, Hop Valley and more, Molson Coors produces many beloved and iconic beer brands. While the companys history is rooted in beer, Molson Coors offers a modern portfolio that expands beyond the beer aisle as well. Molson Coors Beverage Company is a publicly traded company that operates through Molson Coors North America and Molson Coors Europe, and is traded on the New York and Canadian Stock Exchange (TAP). The companys commitment to raising industry standards and leaving a positive imprint on our employees, consumers, communities, and the environment is reflected in Our Imprint and our 2025 sustainability targets. Learn more about Molson Coors Beverage Company, visit molsoncoors.com , MolsonCoorsOurImprint.com or on Twitter through @MolsonCoors.

About Maru Group

The experience & insights platform

Maru is a world leading CX and insights software and advisory services company. The company was founded to disrupt the data and insight delivery industry with a combination of software and advisory services delivering data in real time via a unique service model. Maru helps its clients make informed decisions in near real time by combining proprietorial software, deep industry experience, and access to the best minds in research. A flexible service model makes it possible for clients to choose to self-serve using the software platform directly to create, launch and analyze projects; or choose to utilize the software along with knowledgeable support from insights experts. Maru is a proud member of the Stagwell Marketing Cloud .

Media Contact:

Rebecca McLaren

Citizen Relations

rebecca.mclaren@citizenrelations.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/a2f0f384-474d-4d31-bafb-85422797b07c




Growth Plus Reports

Newark, New Castle, USA, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to a new market research report titled,  Cardiovascular Medical Tourism Market by Treatment Type (Coronary Artery Bypass, Cardiac Valve Replacement or Reconstruction), Service Provider (Public and Private) - Global Outlook and Forecast 2020-2030 " published by Growth Plus Reports, the cardiovascular medical tourism market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.6% from 2021 to reach US$ 7.0 billion by 2030.

Cardiovascular medical tourism can be broadly characterized as the delivery of cost-effective private cardiovascular treatment in partnership with the travel and tourism sector for people needing specialized surgical and other medical care. Both the commercial and public tourism industries and the corporate sectors are parties to medical tourism. A patient from any nation could select cardiovascular medical travel for a number of reasons. The patient may not want to wait on a long waiting list for care in their native country, and the ailment may require urgent care due to its severity. Secondly, the patient might travel to receive care that is not offered in their country of domicile. Also, the patient might fly to a prime vacation spot for surgery, staying in opulent accommodations with first-class care. Moreover, a patient may seek medical tourism of the cost of domestic healthcare in the native country is significantly high.

Download PDF Brochure of Cardiovascular Medical Tourism Market Size - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis with Strategic Developments at: https://www.growthplusreports.com/inquiry/request-sample/cardiovascular-medical-tourism-market/8228

Market Drivers

The primary drivers of the expansion of the global cardiovascular medical tourism market are accessibility and affordability of high-quality healthcare services as well as support from local governments and tourism bureaus. Additionally, the growing availability of cutting-edge medical technology in medical tourism hotspots around the globe is anticipated to fuel market growth. The medical tourism industry anticipating growth challenges due to long payment times from payers, partial reimbursement, travel challenges, language obstacles, a lack of available documentation, and problems with VISA acceptance. However, growing base of hospital networks covered by insurance for cashless transactions is anticipated to present growth prospect for the global cardiovascular medical tourism market.

Story continues

Excerpts from By Treatment Type Segmentation

Based on treatment types, the global cardiovascular medical tourism market is segmented into:

Percutaneous Coronary Angioplasty and Stenting

Cardiac Valve Replacement or Reconstruction

Coronary Artery Bypass

Among these, the coronary artery bypass segment accounted for the largest revenue share of the global cardiovascular medical tourism market. The rise in coronary artery disease prevalence around the globe explains the sector expansion. Through coronary artery bypass surgery, an completely or partially clogged artery is circumvented. The benefits of bypass surgery over stents include the fact that a surgical re-vascularization often lasts longer than a stent procedure. The significant price disparity across countries for coronary artery bypass surgery creates a sizable patient pool for those considering cardiovascular medical tourism.

Excerpts from By Region Segmentation

Based on the regions, the global cardiovascular medical tourism market is segmented into:

North America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Rest of the World

North America has the largest revenue share of the global cardiovascular medical tourism market in 2021. The market in North America is characterized by a significant growth in the prevalence of chronic and cardiovascular disease, a rapidly aging population, and a growth in the number of tourists seeking cardiovascular treatments in the U.S., which boosts provider income generation.

The cardiovascular medical tourism market is rapidly growing in the Asia Pacific region, and this trend is projected to continue in the years to come. An increase in market share is anticipated throughout the projection period as a result of the growing desire for medical travel in emerging countries. Additionally, China has the greatest market share in the Asia-Pacific region due to its superior healthcare system and more affordable healthcare costs. Finally, the market for cardiovascular medical tourism in Asia is supported by the expanding trend of cardiac surgeries in nations such as Thailand and India.

Request for Customization  https://www.growthplusreports.com/inquiry/customization/cardiovascular-medical-tourism-market/8228

Excerpts from Competitive Landscape

The global cardiovascular medical tourism market is fiercely competitive, and major competitors have used various tactics to gain a strong market position. Key companies operating the global cardiovascular medical tourism market are Aditya Birla Memorial Hospital, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise, Asian Heart Institute, Barbados Fertility Center, Fortis Healthcare Limited, KPJ Healthcare Berhad, NTT Medical Center Tokyo, Prince Court Medical Centre, SamitivejSukhumvit Hospital PCL, Seoul National University Hospital, Wooridul Spine Hospital, Gleneagles Hospital, MIn-Sheng General Hospital, Raffles Medical Group, Clemenceau Medical Centers, Anadolu Medical Center, Bangkok Hospital, and Bumrungrad International Hospital, among others.

Cardiovascular Medical Tourism Market Scope

Report Attribute Details Market size value in 2021 US$ 3.9 billion Revenue forecast in 2030 US$ 7.0 billion Growth Rate CAGR of 7.6% from 2022 to 2030 Base year for estimation 2021 Forecast period 2022-2030 Historical Year 2020 Segments covered Treatment Type, Service Provider, and Region Regional scope North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Rest of the World (ROW)

Table of Content

INTRODUCTION Market Ecosystem Timeline Under Consideration Historical Years  2020 Base Year  2021 Forecast Years  2022 to 2030 Currency Used in the Report RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Research Approach Data Collection Methodology Data Sources Secondary Sources Primary Sources Market Estimation Approach Bottom Up Top Down Market Forecasting Model Limitations and Assumptions PREMIUM INSIGHTS Current Market Trends (COVID-19 Perspective) Key Players & Competitive Positioning (2021) MARKET DYNAMICS Drivers Restraints/Challenges Opportunities GLOBAL CARDIOVASCULAR MEDICAL TOURISM MARKET - ANALYSIS & FORECAST, BY TREATMENT TYPE Coronary Artery Bypass Cardiac Valve Replacement or Reconstruction Percutaneous Coronary Angioplasty and Stenting GLOBAL CARDIOVASCULAR MEDICAL TOURISM MARKET - ANALYSIS & FORECAST, BY SERVICE PROVIDER Public Private

VALUE PROPOSITIONS RELATED TO THE REPORT:

Powered with Complimentary Analyst Hours and Expert Interviews with Each Report

Comprehensive quantitative and qualitative insights at segment and sub-segment level

Covid 19 impact trends and perspective

Granular insights at global/regional/country level

Deep-rooted insights on market dynamics (drivers, restraints, opportunities) and business environment

Blanket coverage on competitive landscape

Winning imperatives

Exhaustive coverage on 'Strategic Developments' registered by leading players of the market

CUSTOMIZATION OPTIONS:

Distributor Landscape Assessment

Pricing Intelligence

Customer Base Assessment

Investment & Initiatives Analysis

'Business Profile' of Key Players

Schedule a call with our analyst: https://appoint.ly/s/salesZ3Jvd3RocGx1c3JlcG9ydHMuY29t/introduction

Visit our report store at - https://www.growthplusreports.com/report-store

Browse related reports:

Bioremediation Technology and Services Market by Type (In-situ, Ex-situ), Technology (Phytoremediation, Fungal Remediation), Services (Soil Remediation, Wastewater Remediation)  Global Outlook & Forecast 2022-2030

Pharmacy Automation Market by Product (Medication Dispensing Systems, Automated Medication Compounding Systems), End Use (Inpatient Pharmacies, Retail Pharmacies)  Global Outlook & Forecast 2022-2030

Pharmaceuticals and Food Anti-Counterfeiting Technologies Market by Application (Food, Pharmaceuticals), Technology (Authentication, Inks and Dyes, Holograms, Watermarks)  Global Outlook & Forecast 2022-2030

Global Orthopedic Trauma Fixation Devices Market by Product (Internal, External fixators), Site (Lower, Upper Extremities), Material (Titanium, Stainless Steel), End-user (Hospitals, Orthopedic Centers)  Global Outlook & Forecast 2022-2030

Neonatal Intensive Care Respiratory Devices Market by Device Type (Nebulizers, Inhalers), End-user (NICU Hospitals, Specialty Clinics)  Global Outlook & Forecast 2022-2030

About Us:

Growth Plus Reports is part of GRG Health, a global healthcare knowledge service company. We are proud members of EPhMRA (European Pharmaceutical Marketing Research Association).

Growth Plus portfolio of services draws on our core capabilities of secondary & primary research, market modelling & forecasting, benchmarking, analysis and strategy formulation to help clients create scalable, ground-breaking solutions that prepare them for future growth and success.

We were awarded by the prestigious CEO Magazine as "Most Innovative Healthcare Market Research Company in 2020.

CONTACT: Manan Sethi Director, Market Insights Email: sales@growthplusreports.com 256 Chapman Road STE 105-4, Newark, New Castle - 19702, USA Phone no: +1 888 550 5009 Web: https://www.growthplusreports.com/




Allied Market Research

Surge in adoption of CSF management devices among the geriatric patients and rise in awareness toward CSF-related risks drive the growth of the global cerebrospinal fluid management market. By age group, the adult segment accounted for the highest share in 2021. By region, on the other hand, Asia-Pacific would showcase the fastest CAGR by 2031.

Portland, OR, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to the report published by Allied Market Research, the global cerebrospinal fluid management market was estimated at $0.67 billion in 2021 and is expected to hit $1.03 billion by 2031, registering a CAGR of 4.4% from 2022 to 2031. The report provides a detailed analysis of the top investment pockets, top winning strategies, drivers & opportunities, market size & estimations, competitive landscape, and evolving market trends. The market study is a helpful source of information for the frontrunners, new entrants, investors, and shareholders in crafting strategies for the future and heightening their position in the market.

Download a Sample of the Report- https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/11289

Report coverage & details:

Forecast Period 20222031 Base Year 2021 Market Size in 2021 $0.67 Billion Market Size in 2031 $1.03 Billion CAGR 4.4% No. of Pages in Report 220 Segments Covered Type, Age Group, and Region. Drivers Surge in adoption of CSF management devices among the geriatric patients Rise in awareness toward CSF-related risks Restraints Complications related to the proper functioning of the CSF shunts Intricacies associated with the life span of CSF shunts from the period of implantation among the healthcare professionals and target patient population Opportunities Increase in research activities by manufacturers for developing innovative solutions in cerebral spinal fluid management technology

Impact of Covid-19 on Cerebrospinal Fluid Management Market-

The outbreak of the pandemic was not allowing people to travel to the hospital for any kind of treatment that is less severe than the Covid-19 disease. Therefore, patients with cerebral spinal fluid-related disorders were made to postpone the treatment procedure, which impacted the global cerebrospinal fluid management market negatively.

However, as the global situation got back to normalcy, the market for cerebrospinal fluid management also recovered slowly and steadily.

Story continues

Procure Complete Report (220 Pages PDF with Insights, Charts, Tables, and Figures)

https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/checkout-final/cerebrospinal-fluid-management-market

The global cerebrospinal fluid management market is analyzed across type, age group, and region. The report takes in an exhaustive analysis of the segments and their sub-segments with the help of tabular and graphical representation. Investors and market players can benefit from the breakdown and devise stratagems based on the highest revenue-generating and fastest-growing segments stated in the report.

By type, the CSF shunts segment contributed to more than three-fourths of the global cerebrospinal fluid management market share in 2021, and is projected to rule the roost by 2031. The external drainage system segment, on the other hand, would display the fastest CAGR of 4.7% throughout the forecast period.

By age group, the adult segment accounted for the highest share in 2021, generating nearly two-thirds of the global cerebrospinal fluid management market revenue. The pediatric segment, however, would portray the fastest CAGR of 4.6% during the forecast period.

For Purchase Inquiry- https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/11289

By region, North America held the major share in 2021, garnering more than two-fifths of the global cerebrospinal fluid management market revenue. Asia-Pacific, simultaneously, would showcase the fastest CAGR of 5.6% from 2022 to 2031. The other provinces studied through the report include Europe and LAMEA.

The key market players analyzed in the global cerebrospinal fluid management market report B. Braun Melsungen AG, Spiegelberg GmbH & Co. KG, Moller Medical GmbH, Tokibo Co.,Ltd, Medtronic plc, G. Surgiwear Ltd., Integra LifeSciences Holdings, Natus Medical Incorporated, Delta Surgical, and Wellona Pharma. These market players have embraced several strategies including partnership, expansion, collaboration, joint ventures, and others to highlight their prowess in the industry. The report is helpful in formulating the business performance and developments by the top players.

Similar Research Reports for Information, Communication, and Technology:

Ophthalmic Drugs Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212030

Spine Biologics Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212030

Regenerative Medicine Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212030

Autoinjectors Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212030

Surgical Imaging 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 online access to quantitative and qualitative data in PDF and Excel formats along with analyst support, customization, and updated versions of reports.

Get 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

help@alliedmarketresearch.com

Web: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com




Clairvest Group Inc.

TORONTO, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Clairvest Group Inc. (TSX: CVG) (CVG) today announced that it, together with Clairvest Equity Partners VI (CEP VI, collectively Clairvest) has made a US$32 million equity investment in Bluetree Dental (Bluetree or the Company) with CVGs portion of the investment equaling US$9 million.



Bluetree Dental is a multi-specialty, pediatric and orthodontics-focused dental service organization with 45+ offices centered in the Mountain West region of the United States. Bluetree was founded in 2012 by Steve DeLong, Brent Corbridge and Lance Bruntz, all of whom have rolled significant equity alongside Clairvest in the transaction. Management together will maintain control post-closing. The rationale for the investment is to provide the Bluetree team with the capital, expertise and experience to accelerate the growth of Bluetree.

This represents Clairvests second partnership in the dental industry after conducting over five years of domain research and relationship building in this space.

We have known the Bluetree management team for over three years and we are excited to partner with these owner-operators who share an aligned vision. The Company has shown impressive growth over the past few years and the team has a strong track record of building a scalable platform, said Robbie Isenberg, Managing Director of Clairvest.

We look forward to partnering with Clairvest and embarking on this journey together to build a leading dental service organization. Beyond capital, Clairvest brings a wealth of relationships and experience in the dental industry that will assist Bluetree in this next chapter of growth, said Steve DeLong, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Bluetree Dental.

The Bluetree Dental investment is Clairvests 61st platform investment and 10th investment in the Clairvest / CEP VI co-investment pool which is capitalized at US$850 million.

About Clairvest

Clairvests mission is to partner with entrepreneurs to help them build strategically significant businesses. Founded in 1987 by a group of successful Canadian entrepreneurs, Clairvest is a top performing private equity management firm with over CAD $3.3 billion of capital under management. Clairvest invests its own capital and that of third parties through the Clairvest Equity Partners limited partnerships in owner-led businesses. Under the current management team, Clairvest has initiated investments in 61 different platform companies and generated top quartile performance over an extended period.

Story continues

Contact Information

Stephanie Lo

Manager, Investor Relations and Marketing

Clairvest Group Inc.

Tel: (416) 925-9270

stephaniel@clairvest.com




Clearstead's eighth acquisition will expand its presence in the Southwest and bolster its trust capabilities.

CLEVELAND, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Clearstead Advisors ("Clearstead"), a high-net-worth focused independent financial advisory firm serving private and institutional clients, has acquired Avalon Trust ("Avalon"), a similarly high-net-worth focused wealth management firm based in New Mexico with additional offices in Ridgewood, New Jersey, and Portland, Oregon. This acquisition reflects a continuation of Clearstead's strategy to expand its national presence, bolster its value-added services, and add seasoned executives to its platform. Avalon expands Clearstead's trust capabilities following Clearstead's acquisition of Atlantic Trust in 2021. In addition, Avalon represents Clearstead's second acquisition since Flexpoint Ford's majority investment in February 2022.

Clearstead Logo

The combined firm will oversee $28 billion of assets under advisement and management. Together, Clearstead and Avalon are well-positioned to provide clients and multi-generational families with a comprehensive suite of value-added services, including in-house and vertically integrated wealth management, trust, tax planning, alternative investments, and family office administration. This expertise is supported by best practices developed through 30+ years of experience providing first-class service.

Like Clearstead, Avalon is a client-focused, growth-oriented advisory business. Avalon offers highly customized solutions across investment management, trust, family office administration, and financial planning services to individuals, families, trusts, non-profits, and foundations. The firm, including its 13 employees, is managed by industry veterans Andrew Wallerstein, Christine McDermott, and Julia Peters, all of whom will continue as senior leaders in the combined firm. Through this combination, Avalon's clients will gain access to tax planning, alternative investments, and other complementary services.

Story continues

Clearstead Chairman and CEO Dave Fulton said, "We are excited to join forces with Avalon. Partnering with the Avalon team furthers our strategy of providing high net worth families across the United States a holistic and differentiated wealth management offering. The Avalon team members are outstanding individuals who have done a first-rate job in building a leading wealth management and trust business. In particular, Avalon's focus on client values aligns with our Sustainable Clearstead initiatives. We are delighted to have them as partners."

Andrew Wallerstein, Christine McDermott, and Julia Peters will become partners of Clearstead. Mr. Wallerstein said, "Partnering with Clearstead helps us expand our resources and strengthen services for our clients. By joining Clearstead, our next generation of team members will have more opportunities to grow and ensure we are able to work with our clients for many years to come."

District Capital Partners served as the exclusive financial advisor to Clearstead on the transaction. Colchester Partners served as the exclusive financial advisor to Avalon Trust on the transaction.

About Clearstead: Founded in 1989, Clearstead is an independent, wealth management firm headquartered in Cleveland OH. Clearstead's in-house financial planning, tax planning, investment management, trust, family office, and OCIO experts are focused on delivering best-in-class services to private clients and institutions. Clients are served by over 130 employees of which more than 40 are employee partners. The firm has $26 billion in assets under advisement and management. The firm tackles complex investment, financial, tax, and governance needs for institutional and private clients. For more information about Clearstead, please visit https://www.clearstead.com.

About Avalon Trust: Founded in 1998, Avalon Trust is a trust and wealth management firm headquartered in Santa Fe, New Mexico. With employees in New Mexico, New Jersey, and Oregon, Avalon manages approximately $2 billion in assets under management. Avalon provides investment management, trust services, and financial planning to families, trusts, and foundations nationwide. For more information about Avalon Trust, please visit https://www.avalontrust.com/.

Dave Fulton, Chairman and Chief Executive

Clearstead Advisors, LLC.

(216) 621  1090

info@clearstead.com

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/clearstead-advisors-acquires-santa-fe-based-avalon-trust-301758797.html

SOURCE Clearstead
CloudMD Software & Services Inc.

The study conducted by ANDx Research Group shows that employees want more choice, better communication, and support with navigating options and coverage

Unlocking the Potential of Employer-Provided Health Benefits

Unlocking the Potential of Employer-Provided Health Benefits

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CloudMD Software & Services Inc. (TSXV: DOC, OTCQX: DOCRF, Frankfurt: 6PH) (the Company or CloudMD), an innovative health services company transforming the delivery of care, is pleased to share the results of its study conducted by ANDx Research Group: Unlocking the Potential of Employer-Provided Health Benefits. CloudMD sought to investigate what kind of healthcare benefits employees are using, what services arent being used and why, and what could be done to improve utilization. Overall, the study identified a misalignment in the market today between the rise of employee mental health struggles and the limited utilization of support programs offered to them.



Key findings include:

Employees are feeling more stress and burnout, leading to lowered mental health and productivity in the workplace. Despite this, only 37% of employees are utilizing their mental health benefits. The least utilized services were Paramedical benefits for Mental Health and Employee and Family Assistance Plans (EFAP).

Employees who used paramedical benefits for mental health support reported greater satisfaction with their benefits offering than those who didnt utilize them.

The three biggest barriers to utilization include: confusion around costs and services available, lack of time to participate with the programs offered and wait time to access the services.

Employees want more choice in services, help navigating their benefits and coverage, proof that the programs work, and a better customer experience with less waiting.

Younger employees want more choice in services, while male employees wanted more evidence that the programs work.



There is a clear opportunity for companies to increase employee wellness and job satisfaction and thereby reduce burnout and absenteeism by removing the barriers that prevent employees from fully benefiting from the supports offered to them.

Story continues

The full whitepaper including suggested improvements to traditional benefits is available for download here.

This survey tells us that employees want help in understanding and navigating their mental and physical health benefits. Employers investment in health & wellness programs needs to include navigation services to enable people to gain access to care that meets not only their needs, but also their preferences, said Karen Adams, CEO of CloudMD. If employees arent fully utilizing the care available to them, this diminishes the value that both employees and employers receive, resulting in lower employee satisfaction, deteriorating mental and physical health, and higher rates of absenteeism.

Karen Adams continued, Weve repeatedly demonstrated that health navigation closes the utilization gap and increases return on healthcare investments. Historically this approach was used to navigate complex disability cases. Now we use that same process to help connect employees to the right services and support them throughout their entire journey. Our unique set of services are proven to break down traditional barriers around availability, time, confusion, and stigma and provide the widest choice in access and delivery to meet patients where they are.

CloudMD will present the study findings and recommendations at the inaugural HRD Wellbeing Summit Canada on March 1st which is bringing together thought leaders and HR innovators from across the country to share their strategies for launching the workplace into the era of wellness.

CloudMD will also present a session with Manulife on implementing TAiCBT in the workplace to improve mental health and disability outcomes.

The HRD Wellbeing Summit Canada will also see presentations from Air Canada, Hootsuite, Cowan Insurance Group, Marriot Hotels, LCBO, RBC Insurance, Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, Starbucks, and many others. The full agenda is available at https://www.wellbeingsummit.ca/.

Unlocking the Potential of Employer-Provided Health Benefits





About ANDX

ANDX has been supplying Customer Experience research, reporting, and consulting services for more than two decades working with some of the largest brands across an array of verticals in the US, Canada and around the globe. We have experience managing enterprise-wide Customer Experience programs, measuring multiple moments of truth across and several lines of business. ANDX provides a leading-edge Customer Feedback Management (CFM) platform that enables our customers to analyze results in real-time, together with an account team of industry professionals that become an extension of your team.

About CloudMD Software & Services

CloudMD is an innovative North American healthcare service provider focused on empowering healthier living by combining leading edge technology with an exceptional national network of healthcare professionals. Every day, our employees and health care providers live our values of deliver excellence, collaboration, connected communication and accountability to solve complex health problems. CloudMD s industry leading workplace health and wellbeing solution, Kii, supports members and their families with a personalized and connected healthcare experience across mental, physical and occupation health. Kii delivers superior clinical health outcomes, consistent high engagement, and measurable ROI for payers such as employers, educational institutions, associations, government, and insurers. CloudMD is also a market leader in workplace absence management through data-driven prevention, intervention and return to work programs.

In addition, the Company sells health and productivity tools to hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare service providers to empower them to deliver better care. Visit www.cloudmd.com to learn more about the Companys comprehensive healthcare offerings.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Karen Adams

Chief Executive Officer

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws, including statements about the Companys growth strategy and profitability. These statements are based upon information currently available to CloudMDs management. All information that is not clearly historical in nature may constitute forwardlooking statements. In some cases, forwardlooking statements may be identified by the use of terms such as forecast, assumption and other similar expressions or future or conditional terms such as anticipate, believe, could, estimate, expect, intend, may, plan, predict, project, will, would, and should. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based on certain factors and assumptions made by management of CloudMD based on their current expectations, estimates, projections, assumptions and beliefs regarding their business and CloudMD does not provide any assurance that actual results will meet managements expectations. While management considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available to them, they may prove to be incorrect. Such forwardlooking statements are not guarantees of future events or performance and by their nature involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, including those risks described in the Companys MD&A (which is filed under the Companys issuer profile on SEDAR and can be accessed at www.sedar.com), that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forwardlooking statements. Although CloudMD has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forwardlooking statements, other factors may cause actions, events or results to be different than anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could vary or differ materially from those anticipated in such forwardlooking statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forwardlooking information. CloudMD does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information or future events or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable securities laws.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/36500f8e-342f-4d41-8fe5-55b2569fd7de

CONTACT: FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, CONTACT: Investor Relations Investors@cloudmd.ca




Qabil Ashirov

The 273rd meeting of the Council of Permanent Representatives (CPR) was held within the framework of Azerbaijan's chairmanship of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), Azernews reports, citing Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry.

The event occurred in a hybrid format with the participation of Ali Alizada, Azerbaijani Ambassador to Iran, Khusrov Noziri, Secretary General of the OIC, and heads of the diplomatic missions of the OIC member states in Tehran, the report adds.

The meeting discussed the results of the 26th meeting of the OIC Council of Ministers held in Tashkent on January 24, 2023, and the issues related to the preparation for the 27th meeting of the Organization's Council of Ministers, scheduled to be planned in Baku this year, as well as the 16th summit meeting to be held in Uzbekistan.

Taking into account the terror attack against the Azerbaijani embassy in Iran, a new item was added to the agenda of the meeting at the initiative of Azerbaijan.

It was brought to the attention of the representatives of the member states that the organizers and perpetrators of the terrorist act should be quickly identified and brought to justice, as well as the need for the host country, the Islamic Republic of Iran, to fulfill its obligations arising from the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, and to ensure the protection and security of diplomatic missions. In this regard, emphasizing that Iran also hosts the OIC headquarters, the importance of ensuring the diplomatic immunities of the OIC Secretariat and OIC member states was highlighted, the ministry said.

The ambassador noted at the event that since the Azerbaijani embassy was evacuated from Iran as a result of the terrorist attack, there were difficulties in direct presiding over the meetings of the Council of Permanent Representatives of OIC. However, he added that with the implementation of the events, planned to be hosted by Azerbaijan within the framework of the OIC presidency in 2023, and the events arising from our chairmanship, the discharge of other obligations will be fully ensured.
College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants

BURLINGTON, Ontario, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --



The College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants (the College) is a proud member of the Fraud Prevention Forum, which is led by the Competition Bureau, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. Each March, the College raises awareness about the risks of immigration fraud and where to find publicly available College tools to help prevent fraud. This year, the College is proud to participate in its 10th annual Fraud Prevention Month campaign.

For many prospective immigrants to Canada, working with a licensed immigration or citizenship consultant who helps them navigate the immigration process is a step toward a better future. As such, the College encourages prospective immigrants to verify the status of an immigration consultant using the Colleges Public Register available on its website, or on the Colleges mobile app available for download in the App Store or Google Play by searching CICC CCIC.

The College also has a dedicated fraud prevention page on its website, under Protecting the Public, which contains educational resources such as Top Tips to prevent immigration fraud and a Consumer Guide that provides questions to ask immigration consultants before accepting their services.

During Fraud Prevention Month, the Colleges awareness campaign aims to inform those in Canada and abroad about the risks of working with unauthorized practitioners who impersonate immigration consultants to assist with immigration applications. The Colleges global digital media ad campaign spreads its anti-fraud message, ensuring those most at risk know which steps to take to protect themselves against unauthorized practitioners.

Our Fraud Prevention Month campaign is an integral part of the Colleges strategy to combat unauthorized practitioners who seek to target individuals hoping one day to call Canada home, said John Murray, President & CEO of the College. We are pleased to work in partnership with Canadas foreign missions and the Fraud Prevention Forum to educate prospective immigrants about the College and help them avoid becoming victims of immigration fraud.

Story continues

Canada welcomes hundreds of thousands of immigrants and refugees each year. Many rely on professional immigration consultants and lawyers to help guide them through the application process, said the Honourable Sean Fraser, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship. Unfortunately, immigration fraud continues to be a serious issue. Fraud Prevention Month is an important opportunity to help potential newcomers understand the warning signs to recognize, reject, and report fraud. I encourage all prospective immigrants to learn more and be informed. In addition to the Colleges website, you can also find out more about common types of immigration scams and where to report immigration fraud, at Canada.ca/immigration-fraud.

Please join the fight against immigration fraud by visiting the Colleges website www.college-ic.ca to learn more, and by following our social media accounts, sharing our fraud prevention tips, and using the hashtags below.

#FPM2023

#CanadaImmigration

About the College

The College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants is the authority mandated by the Government of Canada to regulate the practice of Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultants (RCICs) and Regulated International Student Immigration Advisors (RISIAs). Its role, authority and powers are established in the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants Act (Canada). The College sets and enforces the licensing, education and ethical standards of the profession in the public interest.

Any immigration consultant who provides Canadian immigration and citizenship services, whether domestically or abroad, must be licensed by the College.

Learn more at www.college-ic.ca.

Press Contact

Michelle Garrett

Interim Director, Communications and Stakeholder Relations

College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants

mgarrett@college-ic.ca

T: 1-877-836-7543




Fortune Business Insights

Key companies covered in cotton yarn market are Texhong, Vardhman Group, BROS, Weiqiao Textile, Lutai Textile, Huafu, Alok, Huamao, China Resources, Nahar Spinning, Nishat Mills, Trident Group, Fortex, Aarti International, KPR Mill Limited and Others.

Pune - India, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global cotton yarn market size was valued at USD 94.40 billion in 2022 and is estimated to expand from USD 82.81 billion in 2023 to USD 100.68 billion by 2028, exhibiting a CAGR of 4.0% over the estimated period. The rise is being credited to the unique characteristics of yarn that influence the quality of finished textile goods.

List of Key Players Mentioned in the Cotton Yarn Market Report:

Texhong (China)

Vardhman Group (India)

BROS (China)

Weiqiao Textile (China)

Lutai Textile (China)

Huafu (China)

Alok (India)

Huamao (China)

China Resources (China)

Nahar Spinning (India)

Nishat Mills (Pakistan)

Trident Group (India)

Fortex (Vietnam)

Aarti International (India)

KPR Mill Limited (India)

Get a Free Sample Research PDF:

https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/request-sample-pdf/cotton-yarn-market-107241

Report Scope & Segmentation:

Report Coverage Details Forecast Period 2023-2028 Forecast CAGR 4.0% 2028 Value Projection USD 100.68 Billion Base Year 2022 Cotton Yarn Market Size in 2022 USD 94.40 Billion Historical Data 2017-2021 No. of Pages 272 Segments Covered By Type, End-user and Regional Insights Cotton Yarn Industry Growth Drivers Rising Demand for the Product in the Automotive & Transportation Industry to Surge Market Development Acquisition Strategies by Key Market Players to Set Market Development

Segments:

Carded Yarn Segment to Record Appreciable Growth Due to Surging Product Adoption in Textile Manufacturing

On the basis of type, the market is segmented into combed yarn, carded yarn, and others. Of these, the carded yarn segment is estimated to depict considerable expansion over the forecast period. The rise is due to the increasing usage of the product for manufacturing woolen threads.

Story continues

Get a Quote Now:

https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/get-a-quote/cotton-yarn-market-107241

Apparel Segment to Depict Substantial Expansion Owing to Growing Yarn Demand

Based on application, the market is fragmented into textiles, apparel, and others. The apparel segment is set to register commendable growth over the estimated period. The surge can be attributed to the escalating disposable income, growing penetration of e-commerce, and others.

Based on geography, the market for cotton yarn has been analyzed across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa.

Report Coverage:

The report gives an in-depth analysis of the significant trends that are expected to drive the global industry outlook over the forthcoming years. It further delves into the key factors boosting market expansion throughout the projected period. These insights have been provided after extensive research and data collation from credible sources.

Drivers and Restraints:

Market Value to Rise Owing to Increasing Support from Government Bodies

One of the key factors propelling the cotton yarn market growth is the increase in government initiatives for supporting the growth of their domestic textile sectors. These initiatives are focused on skill development, the creation of infrastructure, and sectoral development in the textile sector.

However, the industry expansion could be hampered due to the high price of the product compared to synthetic yarn.

Browse Detailed Summary of Research Report with TOC:

https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/cotton-yarn-market-107241

Regional Insights:

Asia Pacific to Gain Traction Driven by Surging Product Demand from the Increasing Population

The Asia Pacific cotton yarn market share is expected to record substantial expansion over the projected period. The rise can be credited to the escalating product demand from the growing population and an increase in consumer expenditure in the region.

The Europe market is estimated to grow at a lucrative pace over the analysis period. The surge is being driven by the growing demand for raw materials and technical textiles over the forthcoming years.

Competitive Landscape:

Pivotal Players Enter into Partnership Agreements to Expand Product Reach

Major cotton yarn companies are focused on the adoption of a series of strategic steps such as mergers, acquisitions, and the formation of alliances to strengthen their position in the market. Some industry players are also undertaking research activities for the development of new products.

Table of Content:

Cotton Yarn Market Overview Product Overview and Scope of Cotton Yarn Cotton Yarn Segment by Type Global Cotton Yarn Sales Growth Rate Comparison by Type (2017-2028) Carded Yarn Combed Yarn Market Analysis by Application Cotton Yarn Sales Comparison by Application (2017-2028) Apparel Textiles Global Market Growth Prospects Global Cotton Yarn Revenue Estimates and Forecasts (2017-2028) Global Cotton Yarn Sales Estimates and Forecasts (2017-2028) Global Cotton Yarn Market Size Estimates and Forecasts by Region: 2017 VS 2022 VS 2028 Global Cotton knitted fabric Market Size Global Apparel Market Size, 2017-2028

Market Competition by Manufacturers Global Cotton Yarn Sales and Market Share by Manufacturer Global Cotton Yarn Revenue and Market Share by Manufacturer Cotton Yarn Market Share by Company Type (Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3) Global Cotton Yarn Average Price by Manufacturers Manufacturers Cotton Yarn Production Capacity Sites, Area Served, Product Types Cotton Yarn Market Competitive Situation and Trends Cotton Yarn Market Concentration Rate Global Top 5 and Top 10 Players Market Share by Revenue Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion

Cotton Yarn Retrospective Market Scenario by Region Global Cotton Yarn Retrospective Market Scenario in Consumption by Region: 2017-2022 Global Cotton Yarn Consumption by Region Global Cotton Yarn Consumption Market Share by Region North America Cotton Yarn Consumption North America Cotton Yarn Consumption by Country (2017-2022) North America Cotton Yarn Revenue by Country (2017-2022) U.S. Cotton Yarn Consumption and Growth (2017-2022) Canada Cotton Yarn Consumption and Growth (2017-2022) Europe Cotton Yarn Consumption Europe Cotton Yarn Consumption by Country (2017-2022) Europe Cotton Yarn Revenue by Country (2017-2022) Germany Cotton Yarn Consumption and Growth (2017-2022) France Cotton Yarn Consumption and Growth (2017-2022) U.K. Cotton Yarn Consumption and Growth (2017-2022) Italy Cotton Yarn Consumption and Growth (2017-2022) Russia Cotton Yarn Consumption and Growth (2017-2022) Rest of Europe Cotton Yarn Consumption and Growth (2017-2022) Asia Pacific Cotton Yarn Consumption Asia Pacific Cotton Yarn Consumption by Country (2017-2022) Asia Pacific Cotton Yarn Revenue by Country (2017-2022) China Cotton Yarn Consumption and Growth (2017-2022) India Cotton Yarn Consumption and Growth (2017-2022) Japan Cotton Yarn Consumption and Growth (2017-2022) South Korea Cotton Yarn Consumption and Growth (2017-2022) South East Asia Cotton Yarn Consumption and Growth (2017-2022) Rest of APAC Cotton Yarn Consumption and Growth (2017-2022) Latin America Cotton Yarn Consumption Latin America Cotton Yarn Consumption by Country (2017-2022) Latin America Cotton Yarn Revenue by Country (2017-2022) Brazil Cotton Yarn Consumption and Growth (2017-2022) Mexico Cotton Yarn Consumption and Growth (2017-2022) Rest of LATAM Cotton Yarn Consumption and Growth (2017-2022) Middle East and Africa Cotton Yarn Consumption Middle East and Africa Cotton Yarn Consumption by Country (2017-2022) Middle East and Africa Cotton Yarn Revenue by Country (2017-2022) Turkey Cotton Yarn Consumption and Growth (2017-2022) Egypt Cotton Yarn Consumption and Growth (2017-2022) Nigeria Cotton Yarn Consumption and Growth (2017-2022) South Africa Cotton Yarn Consumption and Growth (2017-2022) UAE Cotton Yarn Consumption and Growth (2017-2022) Rest of MEA Cotton Yarn Consumption and Growth (2017-2022)

Global Cotton Yarn Sales, Revenue, Price Trend by Type Global Cotton Yarn Sales and Market Share by Type (2017-2022) Global Cotton Yarn Revenue Market Share by Type (2017-2022) Global Cotton Yarn Price by Type (2017-2022)

Global Cotton Yarn Consumption Analysis by Application Global Cotton Yarn Consumption Market Share by Application (2017-2022) Global Cotton Yarn Consumption Growth Rate by Application (2017-2022)



TOC Continued!

Get your Customized Research Report:

https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/ask-for-customization/cotton-yarn-market-107241

Key Industry Development:

May 2022  Texhong shared plans to establish a key facility in Vietnam to sharply boost its fabric production. The move was taken in a bid to complement the companys cotton-based yarn business.

Read Related Insights:

Textile Market Size, Share, and Regional Forecast, 2023-2030

Organic Cotton Market Size, Share, and Regional Forecast, 2021-2028

About Us:

Fortune Business Insights delivers accurate data and innovative corporate analysis, helping organizations of all sizes make appropriate decisions. We tailor novel solutions for our clients, assisting them to address various challenges distinct to their businesses. Our aim is to empower them with holistic market intelligence, providing a granular overview of the market they are operating in.

Contact Us:

Fortune Business Insights Pvt. Ltd.

9th Floor, Icon Tower,

Baner - Mahalunge Road, Baner,

Pune-411045, Maharashtra, India.

Phone:

US: +1 424 253 0390

UK: +44 2071 939123

APAC: +91 744 740 1245

Email: sales@fortunebusinessinsights.com

Connect us via Social Media Channels:

LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Blogs




SHENZHEN, China, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Creality, a global pioneer in 3D printing, has been providing support to assist those impacted by the recent earthquakes in Turkey.

Together with Genix, a leading printing solutions provider and Creality's major distributor in Turkey, Creality has donated about 1500 emergency supply kits including tents and blankets to the affected regions through Ahbap Association, a non-governmental organization founded by the Turkish musician and philanthropist Haluk Levent. All the supplies were sent to Aahbap's community recovery warehouse in Osmaniye in southern Turkey by February 26, and will be distributed to the surrounding villages as requested by Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD).

Crealitys emergency supplies arrived at the warehouse in Osmaniye on February 26.

"It is heartbreaking to see so many people affected by the devastating earthquakes, and our deepest condolences go to the families who have lost their loved ones," said Ao Danjun, CEO of Creality. "As a global company, we are responsible for providing timely aid to people in need. Our local colleagues and business partners are sparing no effort in allocating supplies and helping victims, and we will continue to stand with the local people during this challenging time."

Creality has been proactive in charitable contributions for years and established the Creality Charity Fund in 2020. In early 2020, Creality quickly responded to the COVID-19 outbreak and donated 300,000 RMB (43,200 USD) to Wuhan Charity Federation for epidemic prevention and control, and procured 50,000 KN95 masks worth 500,000 RMB and shipped them to the United States, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and other countries.

About Creality

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.

Story continues

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.

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/creality-donates-emergency-supplies-to-turkish-earthquake-relief-efforts-301759202.html

SOURCE CREALITY 3D
The Company continues to expand its adult-use services across the state

NEW YORK, March 1, 2023 /CNW/ -- Curaleaf Holdings, Inc. (CSE: CURA) (OTCQX: CURLF) ("Curaleaf" or the "Company"), a leading international provider of consumer cannabis products, today announced that it will commence adult-use sales at its Hartford, Connecticut location beginning March 1 at 9:00 am EST. Curaleaf Hartford, located at 92 Weston St, is the Company's second dispensary to serve adult-use consumers in Connecticut and the first dispensary in the capital city to offer adult-use products.

In January, Curaleaf began adult-use cannabis sales at its Stamford location. The Company currently serves medical patients at two of its other Connecticut dispensaries in Milford and Groton, and anticipates welcoming adult-use customers at additional locations in the future, pending regulatory approvals.

"Curaleaf is well positioned to serve Connecticut's quickly expanding needs for both the adult-use and medical markets," said Matt Darin, CEO of Curaleaf. "We continue to expand our product offerings, and our knowledgeable team provides our patients and customers with guidance and education on how cannabis can meet their wellness and lifestyle needs."

Curaleaf's dispensaries in Hartford and Stamford both offer adult-use consumers a diverse collection of cannabis goods and services, including whole flower, pre-rolls, Select Elite vaporizers, and Curaleaf's breakthrough vape hardware, Cliq by Select. Patients and customers across Connecticut can participate in Curaleaf's revamped rewards program earning loyalty points for every dollar spent that can be redeemed for savings on future purchases made at any Curaleaf-operated dispensary.

At Curaleaf Hartford, existing medical patients will have priority access into the dispensary through a dedicated medical patient entrance, experience quicker check-ins with a dedicated staff, and will have a separate line for check-out. In addition, patients will continue to have access to Curaleaf's Compassionate Care Plan, along with its outstanding pharmacy team and patient consult rooms.

Story continues

As an appreciation for the Company's patients and consumers, Curaleaf Hartford will host a celebration on Friday, March 3rd, featuring vendor sponsored giveaways, product discounts, music and complimentary food and drinks. Curaleaf Hartford operates from 9:00 am to 8:00 pm EST Monday through Saturday, and 9:00 am to 7:00 pm EST on Sundays. For more information on Curaleaf's locations, patient resources and products in Connecticut, please visit https://ct.curaleaf.com/ .

About Curaleaf Holdings

Curaleaf Holdings, Inc. (CSE: CURA) (OTCQX: CURLF) ("Curaleaf") is a leading international provider of consumer products in cannabis with a mission to improve lives by providing clarity around cannabis and confidence around consumption. As a high-growth cannabis company known for quality, expertise and reliability, the Company and its brands, including Curaleaf and Select, provide industry-leading service, product selection and accessibility across the medical and adult-use markets. In the United States, Curaleaf currently operates in 19 states with 148 dispensaries, and employs nearly 5,500 team members. Curaleaf International is the largest vertically integrated cannabis company in Europe with a unique supply and distribution network throughout the European market, bringing together pioneering science and research with cutting-edge cultivation, extraction and production. Curaleaf is listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the symbol CURA and trades on the OTCQX market under the symbol CURLF. For more information, please visit https://ir.curaleaf.com .

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This media advisory contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. These statements relate to future events or future performance. All statements other than statements of historical fact may be forwardlooking statements or information. Generally, forward-looking statements and information may be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or, "proposed", "is expected", "intends", "anticipates", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases, or by the use of words or phrases which state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, or might occur or be achieved. More particularly and without limitation, this news release contains forward-looking statements and information concerning the commencement of adult-use sales at Curaleaf Hartford. Such forward-looking statements and information reflect management's current beliefs and are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to the company with respect to the matter described in this new release. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, which are based on current expectations as of the date of this release and subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Additional information about these assumptions and risks and uncertainties is contained under "Risk Factors and Uncertainties" in the Company's latest annual information form filed March 9, 2022, which is available under the Company's SEDAR profile at http://www.sedar.com, and in other filings that the Company has made and may make with applicable securities authorities in the future. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made only as to the date of this press release and we undertake no 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. We caution investors not to place considerable reliance on the forward looking statements contained in this press release. The Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed, approved or disapproved the content of this news release.

INVESTOR CONTACT

Curaleaf Holdings, Inc.

Camilo Lyon, Chief Investment Officer

IR@curaleaf.com

MEDIA CONTACT

Curaleaf Holdings, Inc.

Jordon Rahmil, Sr. Director Corporate Communications

media@curaleaf.com

Cision

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/curaleaf-is-the-first-dispensary-to-begin-adult-use-cannabis-sales-in-hartford-ct-301759230.html

SOURCE Curaleaf Holdings, Inc.

Cision

View original content: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/March2023/01/c8988.html
SAN DIEGO, Feb. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Inc. Magazine revealed that Cymbiotika is No. 22 on its third annual Inc. 5000 Regionals: Pacific List, the most prestigious ranking of the fastest-growing Pacific private companies based in Alaska, Hawaii, California, Oregon, and Washington.

Cymbiotika Logo (PRNewsfoto/Cymbiotika)

"Cymbiotika is proud to be on this prestigious list for the second year in a row. Cymbiotika's growth can be attributed to our hard-working team members and devoted customers," said Shahab Elmi, CEO and Co-Founder.

The 2023 Inc. 5000 Regionals are ranked according to percentage revenue growth when comparing 2019 and 2021. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2019. They had to be U.S.-based, privately held, for profit, and independent, not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies as of December 31, 2021.

"This year's Inc. 5000 Regional winners represent one of the most exceptional and exciting lists of America's off-the-charts growth companies. They're disruptors and job creators, and all delivered an outstanding impact on the economy. Remember their names and follow their lead; these are the companies you'll be hearing about for years to come," said Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc. magazine.

The companies on this list show a remarkable growth rate across all industries in the Pacific. Between 2019 and 2021, these private companies had an average growth rate of 559 percent, and in 2021 alone, they added 14,536 jobs and $4.6 billion to the Pacific region's economy.

About Cymbiotika

Cymbiotika is an innovative wellness brand based in San Diego. With the motto, "Your mind and body deserve the best," Cymbiotika is driven by the higher purpose of inspiring everyday people to achieve their optimal health. Founded in 2018, Cymbiotika uses the most advanced bioavailable absorption technology and sources only the highest quality plant-based nutrients to resolve specific nutritional deficiencies and support healthy aging, detoxification, and longevity. Cymbiotika never uses synthetics, GMOs, fillers, chemicals, preservatives, or additives in its products. For more information, visit www.cymbiotika.com .

Story continues

About Inc. Media

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 various channels, including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced yearly 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.

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cymbiotika-ranks-no-22-on-inc-magazines-list-of-the-pacific-regions-fastest-growing-private-companies-301758853.html

SOURCE Cymbiotika
Hearing Health Alliance Of Canada

Advocates, researchers and hearing health care professionals urge the Government of Canada to act first ... and act now

TORONTO, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Canada is on the cusp of a potential public health crisis as the number of Canadians with some degree of hearing loss is expected to substantially increase as our population ages, and noise-induced hearing damage among young people rises. Swift and decisive action is therefore required by the government to create a bold, ambitious National Hearing Health Strategy.



To achieve this goal, the Hearing Health Alliance of Canada (HHAC) urges the Government of Canada to establish a multi-stakeholder committee to facilitate a national dialogue, foster stakeholder collaboration, and crystalize a pan-Canadian effort to develop a comprehensive National Hearing Health Strategy.

The HHACs call to action - Towards a National Hearing Health Strategy: An Agenda for Change  is backed by an abundance of research and statistics and is a low-cost initiative that has the potential to provide tremendous health and socio-economic benefits for all Canadians. It also aligns with a World Health Organization (WHO) resolution, which urges all member states, including Canada, to develop a national framework and recognize hearing loss as a public health issue and an essential component of universal health coverage.

Unless measures are taken in the near term, the costs of hearing loss will continue to rise with an enormous impact on the government-funded health care system, and the Canadian economy in terms of lost productivity, career, educational and training opportunities, employee earnings, and tax revenue. Meanwhile, the quality of life for Canadians with hearing loss will continue to decline.

To view our call to action, please visit: hearinghealthalliance.com

For additional information, please contact:

Daniel Tessier-Young, National Coordinator

Hearing Health Alliance of Canada

info@hearinghealthalliance.com

289.338.9626

Story continues

A media backgrounder accompanying this announcement is available here: http://ml.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/2dfb3bd0-b437-40dd-a75d-03ab5472e550








Deleum Berhad (KLSE:DELEUM) Full Year 2022 Results

Key Financial Results

Revenue: RM698.0m (up 25% from FY 2021).

Net income: RM41.9m (up 121% from FY 2021).

Profit margin: 6.0% (up from 3.4% in FY 2021). The increase in margin was driven by higher revenue.

EPS: RM0.10 (up from RM0.047 in FY 2021).

All figures shown in the chart above are for the trailing 12 month (TTM) period

Deleum Berhad Earnings Insights

Looking ahead, revenue is forecast to grow 4.1% p.a. on average during the next 3 years, compared to a 4.4% growth forecast for the Energy Services industry in Malaysia.

Performance of the Malaysian Energy Services industry.

The company's shares are up 2.1% from a week ago.

Risk Analysis

Before we wrap up, we've discovered 2 warning signs for Deleum Berhad that you should be aware of.

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
Denarius Metals Corp.

TORONTO, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Denarius Metals Corp. (Denarius Metals or the Company) (TSXV: DSLV; OTCQB: DNRSF) announced today that it has completed a maiden Mineral Resource estimate (MRE) for its 100%-owned Zancudo Project in Colombia prepared by SRK Consulting (U.S.), Inc. (SRK) in accordance with the Canadian Institute of Mining Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) Definition Standards incorporated by reference in National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101) with an effective date of December 31, 2022. The Company also announced today that it has rationalized its assets in Colombia through a mutual agreement with Aris Mining Corporation (Aris Mining) to terminate the Guia Antigua license within Aris Minings Segovia mining title.



Serafino Iacono, Executive Chairman and CEO of Denarius, commented, We are very excited about the potential for our Zancudo Project in Colombia where we see an opportunity to develop near-term production and cash flow through local contract miners and long-term growth through exploration. Reminiscent of how our group initiated operations in Segovia in 2010 after it was acquired by Gran Colombia Gold, we are preparing the Zancudo Project, which includes the former producing Independencia Mine, to start up operations later this year with mining within the existing mine workings and veins by a local contract miner while we will carry out in-fill drilling to upgrade current resources and for mine planning purposes. The maiden MRE we are announcing today gives us a solid foundation on which to execute our strategy for this project. ESG is an integral component of how we build our projects and we are working with the local community to ensure we incorporate them into this important project within the local economy. The local contract miner has already commenced activities to rehabilitate the mine workings and, with the decision to hand the Guia Antigua Project back to Aris Mining, we have secured approximately US$2.2 million of cash that will be used to fund our initial investments already underway at the Zancudo Project related to road construction, infrastructure rehabilitation and acquisition and installation of onsite crushing equipment.

Story continues

Highlights of the maiden MRE include:

Total Inferred Resources of 2.8 million tonnes grading 6.5 g/t gold and 112 g/t silver totaling 576,000 ounces of gold and 10.0 million ounces of silver.

At a gold equivalent grade of 8.0 g/t, the Inferred Resources total 718,000 gold equivalent ounces based on a 4 g/t cut-off grade over a 1.0 m minimum mining width.

Mineralization at the Zancudo Project occurs in stacked mantos and steeply dipping veins that have been exploited over a strike length of 3,500 m. The average vein width is 0.35 m with a maximum width of 3.0 m. The known vertical extent of mineralization is 400 m.

A total of 40,100 m of diamond drilling in 149 holes has been carried out at the Zancudo Project, including 33 underground holes drilled in the Independencia Mine.

The principal veins that have been drilled by Gran Colombia Gold and IAMGOLD from 2011 through 2021 are the steeply east dipping Santa Catalina Vein over 2,700 m strike length, the high angle Porvenir Vein System and the low angle Manto Antiguo, Manto Inferior and La Miel Vein.

Gold and silver mineralization is associated with intermediate sulfidation epithermal mineralization, structurally controlled, and hosted within schists of the Arquia Complex, sedimentary rocks of the Amaga Formation, and the Late Miocene andesite porphyry intrusions. The mantos and veins have early stage, base metal sulphides (pyrite, sphalerite, galena, arsenopyrite) infilled by quartz or quartz-carbonate gangue, with banded textures that are typical of epithermal veins.

This initial MRE confirms the historically significant high gold-silver grade potential of this project, as it remains open for further expansion in all directions.

Mineralization still exists outside the estimated block, but further exploration will be needed to improve the geological confidence to a sufficient level to define Mineral Resources.

The following table summarizes the maiden MRE for the Zancudo Project:

Class



Tonnes

(kt)



Grade Material Content Au

(g/t) Ag

(g/t) AuEq

(g/t) Au

(koz) Ag

(koz) AuEq

(koz)



Inferred 2,776 6.5 112 8.0 576 9,974 718

Notes:

Mineral resources are not ore reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. All gures rounded to reect the relative accuracy of the estimates. Gold and silver assays were capped where appropriate. Given historical production, it is the Companys opinion that all the elements included in the metal equivalents calculation have a reasonable potential to be recovered and sold.

The Mineral Resources are reported at an in-situ cut-off grade of 4.0 g/t AuEq over a 1.0 m mining width, which has been derived using a gold price of US$1,800/oz and silver price of US$24.0/oz, and suitable benchmarked technical and economic parameters for underground mining (mining = US$105.0, processing = US$42.0, G&A and selling costs = US$21.0, Royalties = 3.2%).

Gold (or Au) Equivalent is calculated with the formula AuEq = (Au *Au Recovery (75%) * AuPrice + Ag *Ag Recovery (80%) * AgPrice)) / (Au Recovery (75%) *Au Price)

It assumed that the Zancudo Project will produce a dore product based on assumed conventional gold and silver processing recoveries of 75% Au, and 80% Ag from initial preliminary metallurgical sampling and benchmarked projects within the region.

The Mineral Resource estimation process was completed by SRK using the initial geological models provided by Zancudo geological staff and refined by SRK. The Company provided SRK with an exploration database with logging indicating the main geological features and units. In addition to the database, SRK has worked with the preliminary geological interpretations, which SRK has made minor alterations accordingly to incorporate additional intersections.

The resource estimation methodology involved the following procedures:

Database compilation and verification;

Construction of wireframe models for the fault networks and centerlines of mining development per vein;

Definition of resource domains;

Data conditioning (compositing and capping) for statistical analysis, geostatistical analysis;

Variography;

Block modeling and grade interpolation;

Resource classification and validation;

Assessment of reasonable prospects for economic extraction and selection of appropriate reporting cut-off grades (CoG); and

Preparation of the Mineral Resource estimate.





SRK has completed the geological modelling and Mineral Resource estimate using Seequent Leapfrog. The procedure involved construction of wireframe models for the fault networks, key geological/mineralization domains, data conditioning (compositing and capping) for statistical analysis, geostatistical analysis, variography analysis, block modeling and grade interpolation followed by validation. Grade was estimated using inverse distance weighted (power 2) estimates for gold and silver. Grade estimation has been based on parent block dimensions of 20 m x 20 m x 20 m, for the 2022 model. The block size reflects potential size variations for any underground smallest mining units, but the blocks have been subcelled to reflect the relatively narrow nature of the mineralization with a minimum block size of 0.3215 m. Classification has been limited to estimates within 125 m of the closest single hole, located in either vein or manto domains, and by more than two drillholes.

The resource evaluation work was completed by Mr. Benjamin Parsons, MAusIMM (CP#222568), according to CIM Definition Standards, who undertook a site inspection in January 2023. The MRE will be supported by a NI 43-101 independent report which will be published and filed on the Companys website and SEDAR profile within 45 days. Mr. Parsons is a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101. The NI 43-101 report will include detailed information on the key assumptions, parameters and methods used to estimate the mineral resources.

Guia Antigua Project Update

In conjunction with the RTO Transaction in February 2021, Denarius Metals had acquired a license giving the Company the right for exploration, mining and processing operations and the commercialization of mineral products from the Guia Antigua Project, a 386-hectare area located northeast of Medellin within the Segovia mining title owned by Aris Mining in the Department of Antioquia, Colombia. In 2021 and 2022, the Company carried out an exploration campaign at the Guia Antigua Project, including approximately 6,700 m of drilling in 37 holes. Although the Guia Antigua Project continues to look promising, the Company concluded its potential would be enhanced if it is developed in conjunction with the neighboring mines in Aris Minings Segovia mining title. Based on this conclusion, the Company and Aris Mining agreed to terminate the license agreement effective February 22, 2023. Aris Mining has reimbursed the Company for exploration expenditures incurred by the Company in the amount of COP 10,692,000,000 (equivalent to approximately US$2.2 million) in cash.

About Denarius Metals

Denarius Metals is a Canadian junior company engaged in the acquisition, exploration, development and eventual operation of polymetallic mining projects in high-grade districts, with its principal focus on the Lomero Project in Spain. The Company signed a definitive option agreement with Europa Metals Ltd. in November 2022 pursuant to which Europa has granted Denarius Metals two options to acquire up to an 80% ownership interest in the Toral Zn-Pb-Ag Project, Leon Province, Northern Spain. The Companys 100%-owned Zancudo Project in Colombia provides an opportunity to develop near-term production and cash flow through local contract miners and long-term growth through exploration.

Additional information on Denarius can be found on its website at www.denariusmetals.com and by reviewing its profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com .

Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Information

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release contains "forward-looking information", which may include, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the MRE and mineralization outside the MRE, the potential to commence mining operations at the Zancudo project, the potential to expand the MRE through exploration and other business plans or strategies. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "believes" or variations (including negative 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 statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Denarius to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements are described under the caption "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Information Form dated November 23, 2022 which is available for view on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this press release and Denarius disclaims, other than as required by law, any obligation to update any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, results, future events, circumstances, or if management's estimates or opinions should change, or otherwise. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

Cautionary Statement on Mineral Resources

Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. The estimate of mineral resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, title, socio-political, marketing, or other relevant issues. In particular, the quantity and grade of reported inferred mineral resources are uncertain in nature and there is insufficient exploration to define these inferred mineral resources as an indicated or measured mineral resource in all cases. It is uncertain in all cases whether further exploration will result in upgrading the inferred mineral resources to an indicated or measured mineral resource category.

For Further Information, Contact:

Michael Davies

Chief Financial Officer

(416) 360-4653

investors@denariusmetals.com








Market Research Future

Market Research Future (MRFR) 's report highlights Digital Shipyard Market Research Report: Information by Process, Shipyard Type, Capacity, Digitalization Level, Technology  Forecast by 2030 Digital Shipyard Market is projected to reach USD 4,768.33 Million by 2030 and register a CAGR of 20.2%.

New York, US, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Digital Shipyard Market Scope:

Market Research Future (MRFR) 's report highlights Digital Shipyard Market Research Report: Information by Process, Shipyard Type, Capacity, Digitalization Level, Technology  Forecast by 2030 Digital Shipyard Market is projected to reach USD 476.8 Billion by 2030 and register a CAGR of 20.2%.



Ships are constructed and maintained in shipyards, sometimes known as dockyards. Currently, shipbuilding industries have been concentrating on automation for the past few years. The automation method reduces the amount of time needed for ship construction. Various businesses are now implementing digitization in the shipbuilding industry.

The phrase "digital shipyard" refers to the use of Industry 4.0 capabilities in the design, construction, and maintenance of our ships and submarines as well as the use of this technology to monitor and maintain the related infrastructure. It makes use of sensors and monitoring systems installed by Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), which may provide massive amounts of data to an IoT device and improve the ability to foresee and schedule future repairs. To minimize operational downtime, this acquired data can be shared with other IoT devices used in an industrial setting, generally known as the Industrial IoT or IIoT.

Get Free Sample PDF Brochure @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/9632

Report Scope:

Report Attribute Details 2030 Market Size 476.8 Billion CAGR 20.2%. (2022-2030) Base Year 2021 Forecast Period 2022-2030 Historical Data 2020 Forecast Units Value (USD Billion) Report Coverage Revenue Forecast, Competitive Landscape, Growth Factors, and Trends Segments Covered By Process, Shipyard Type, Capacity, Digitalization Level, Technology Geographies Covered North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and Latin America Key Market Drivers The rise in adoption of the digital twin in the shipbuilding industry

Competitive Dynamics:

The key players of the market are:

Siemens (Germany)

Dassault Systemes (France)

AVEVA Group plc (UK)

Accenture (Ireland)

SAP SE (Germany)

BAE Systems (UK)

HexagonAB (Sweden)

Altair Engineering, Inc. (US)

Wartsila (Finland)

IBM Corporation

Inmarsat Plc (UK)

IFS AB (Sweden)

Pemamek Ltd (Finland)

Aras Corporation (US)

Kreyon Systems Pvt. Ltd (India)

KUKA AG (Germany)

iBASEt (US)

PROSTEP (Germany)

KRANENDONK Smart robotics (Netherlands)

Damen Shipyards Group (Netherlands)

Navantia (Spain)

Story continues

Market USP:

Market Drivers

Due to factors including growing international seaborne trade, the Global Digital Shipyard Market is anticipated to experience considerable growth during the forecast period. Additionally, the industry is anticipated to rise as navies throughout the world purchase increasingly sophisticated warships. Additionally, growing investments by shipyard firms in the digital shipyard market are anticipated to fuel market expansion.

The rise in environmental concerns worldwide to reduce the carbon footprint produced by the shipping industry, the rise in adoption of digital twin technology, and the increase in demand for cargo ships as a result of increased maritime trade all contribute to the growth of the digital shipyard market. However, it is anticipated that the high cost of digitization, the high cost of training, the complexity of the systems, and other problems will restrain the development of the digital shipyard sector. The industrial internet of things (IIoT) and increased robot technology use in the shipbuilding industry are also anticipated to offer a wealth of chances for the major players in the digital shipyard market.

Browse In-depth Market Research Report (168 Pages) on Digital Shipyard Market: https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/digital-shipyard-market-9632

Market Restraints

The market's expansion could be hampered by problems with rising cyber threat vulnerability and expensive acquisition costs for digital shipyard software solutions.

COVID-19 Analysis:

Uncertainty is being caused by the COVID-19 situation in the market. The whole lockdown and temporary shutdown of industries have already been proclaimed by governments in several places, which has a negative impact on overall production and sales. Countries all throughout the world have implemented tight limitations that might last for days or even months. Many businesses have ceased operations as a result of the epidemic and are waiting for better market circumstances. In contrast to other sectors, the COVID-19 disease has also had an impact on the maritime sector. In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, the government implemented lockdown, which required shipyards to cease all shipbuilding operations.

Due to the travel restrictions put in place by the governments to contain the COVID-19 spread, shipyards' digitalization initiatives are placed on hold for lack of labor. Due to the worldwide financial crisis that is the COVID-19 scenario, countries are also experiencing delays in the procurement of cutting-edge technology and components necessary for manufacturing navy ships like submarines and destroyers. Consequently, the orders for new ships have been canceled due to a decline in the need for sea transportation and trade. The most lucrative area of shipbuilding in European nations is cruise ships.

However, the production and travel of cruise ships were tied and moored because of the decline in sea passenger travel during the COVID-19 pandemic. To optimize their fleets and maintain their businesses, shipping companies have been encouraged by the epidemic to implement digital technologies and remote working. While the need has increased in reaction to the manpower scarcity brought on by the pandemic, this move is anticipated to be a digitalization catalyst, increasing the potential for highly automated technologies in the shipbuilding industry.

Buy Now @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=9632

Market Segmentation:

By Process Research & Development: In 2019, the market was controlled by the category. The market for digital shipyards is likely to have increased R&D activity, which will fuel the segment's expansion.

By Capacity

Because small shipyards have more modernization plans than larger shipyards, the small shipyards segment is anticipated to grow at the greatest CAGR throughout the forecast period.

By Digitalization Level

Because more cutting-edge ships are being purchased by navies in nations like China, India, and the US, the fully digital shipyard category, which dominated the market in 2019, is anticipated to experience the greatest CAGR over the forecast period.

Using technology

Due to the growing use of AR & VR devices for various shipbuilding operations, the category is anticipated to develop at a high rate over the forecast period.

Regional Analysis:

A substantial portion of the worldwide market belonged to North America, which was expected to experience rapid expansion in the years to come. Automation and digitalization are major industries in the US. It has the required infrastructure and financial support. The market in North America is soon anticipated to strengthen as a result of this. A variety of capabilities relevant to the digital transformation of shipyards are being developed and modernized by North American nations, creating a substantial potential for system integrators and maritime technology vendors. An increase in demand for modern, intricate, and technologically advanced marine vessels from military shipyards is one of the factors boosting the market's growth.

Any Question @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/9632

The presence of important solution providers in the region will also support the growth of the digital shipyard. The region has led the way in integrating cutting-edge technology for various levels of digitalization and performing cutting-edge digital shipyard renovations. In terms of automation and digitalization, the United States is a significant nation. It has the infrastructure and financial support needed. This will probably benefit the market in North America in the near future.

Over the projection period, the global market in the Asia Pacific region is anticipated to grow at the fastest rate. During a period of rapid economic growth, maritime trade has grown in the area. During the projection period, demand for process improvements, quick delivery, lower costs, strict regulations, etc., is projected to increase, driving the growth of the global market in developing countries like China and India. The governments of these countries are also modernizing and encouraging the expansion of shipyards.

Discover more research Reports on Aerospace & Defense Industry , by Market Research Future:

Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV) Market : Information by Type (Wheeled and Tracked), by Configuration (Amphibious and Non-Amphibious), by Application (Combat, Armored Reconnaissance, and Ambulance Others), and by Region Global Forecast till 2030

Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) Market: Information by Type (Wheeled and Tracked), by Configuration (Amphibious and Non-Amphibious), by End-User (Military and Law Enforcement Others), and by Region  Global Forecast till 2027

Degaussing System Market: Information by Solution (Degaussing, Ranging, and Deperming), by Vessel Type (Small Vessel, Medium Vessel, and Large Vessel), by End User (OEM, Aftermarket, and Services) and by Region  Global Forecast till 2030

About Market Research Future:

Market Research Future (MRFR) is a global market research company that takes pride in its services, offering a complete and accurate analysis with regard to diverse markets and consumers worldwide. Market Research Future has the distinguished objective of providing the optimal quality research and granular research to clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help answer your most important questions.

Follow Us: LinkedIn | Twitter

CONTACT: Market Research Future (Part of Wantstats Research and Media Private Limited) 99 Hudson Street, 5Th Floor New York, NY 10013 United States of America +1 628 258 0071 (US) +44 2035 002 764 (UK) Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Website: https://www.marketresearchfuture.com




Azerbaijan has designated MP Ramin Mammadov as a point person for the contacts with the Armenian residents of the Karabakh region, Azernews reports.

On March 1, 2023, MP Ramin Mammadov held a meeting with the representatives of the Armenian residents living in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan in the city of Khojaly at the headquarters of the Russian peacekeeping contingent temporarily deployed in the territory of Azerbaijan.

Masim Mammadov, head of the monitoring group inspecting illicit exploitation of Azerbaijani natural resources, also attended the meeting.

The monitoring group is made up of experts from the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, the State Service on Property Issues under the Ministry of the Economy, and AzerGold Closed Joined-Stock Company.

Initial discussions were held on the reintegration to the Republic of Azerbaijan of Armenian residents living in the Karabakh region under the Azerbaijani constitution and its legislature.

Contacts with Armenian residents living in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan will continue.
Banpu NEXT increases its existing shareholding in Durapower to 65.10 percent

SINGAPORE, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Singaporean Lithium-ion battery manufacturer, Durapower Holdings Pte Ltd ("Durapower") wishes to announce that Banpu NEXT Company Limited ("Banpu NEXT"), a subsidiary of Banpu Public Company Limited ("Banpu") has increased its shareholding in Durapower, from 47.68 percent to 65.10 percent following a US$70 million investment.

Following this transaction, Durapower will become a subsidiary of Banpu NEXT and the transaction is part of Banpu NEXT's strategy to scale up its Energy Storage business and enhance the presence of company as part of its growth plans.

The injection of funds will support Durapower's expansion plans to better support increasing demand in markets across the globe where it operates in, including scaling Durapower's China production, and accelerating the set-up of Durapower's assembly plants in Thailand and Poland. This is part of the company's strategy to establish a diversified manufacturing base and localized supply chain to achieve around 4Gwh by 2025.

Mr Kelvin Lim, Chief Executive Officer of Durapower Group commented: "We welcome Banpu NEXT's commitment and confidence in Durapower, and this strategic transaction will allow Durapower to expand quickly to better support increasing demands of our customers in the global market while being able to leverage on Banpu NEXT's network of companies and partners to synergistically benefit all partners involved. I look forward to the next phase in Durapower's journey and am excited with all the opportunities it brings."

Mr. Sinon Vongkusolkit, Chief Executive Officer of Banpu NEXT remarked: "We are pleased to welcome Durapower into the Banpu group. This investment aligns with Banpu NEXT's strategy to scale up our energy storage business value chain, and it reflects our commitment to growth and increases our competitiveness. We believe that Durapower's strong product offering, large customer base worldwide, and spotless safety record will boost our foray into the lithium battery market.

Story continues

About Durapower Group (www.durapowergroup.com)

Headquartered in Singapore, Durapower offers closed-loop, end-to-end energy storage solutions for the electric mobility and renewable energy applications including on and off-road Electric, Hybrid and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles, electric marine vessel and stationary energy storage solutions. Since 2009, Durapower has been a leading innovator of Lithium-Ion cell technology, focusing on the research and development of battery materials, battery cell manufacturing and system integration. With a global presence spanning 23 countries and 48 cities, including European Countries, China, India and Southeast Asia. Durapower Group strives to make scalable, sustainable batteries that support the circular economy, empowering lives and transforming the future towards a carbon neutral economy.

About Banpu NEXT (www.banpunext.co.th)

Banpu NEXT Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Banpu PCL., is a leading smart energy solutions provider in Asia-Pacific with a vision of "Innovating Infinite Energy Solutions to All". The company aims to create business growth by responding to future energy trends and smart city development and living needs of modern-day consumers. With customers in mind, Banpu NEXT combine customer centric, data-driven approach with our expertise in clean energy, technology, and hardware to top up our solution development, resulting in "Smart Energy Solutions for Sustainability" to drive growth across our five business groupsRenewable Power, Energy Storage, Energy Trading, e-Mobility, and Smart City and Energy Managementas we provide end-to-end solutions with great value for money, reliability, and eco-friendliness to support sustainable development of all businesses.

For more information, visit www.banpunext.co.th, www.facebook.com/banpunext, www.linkedin.com/company/banpu-next-company-limited/

SOURCE Durapower Group
Efecte Oyj

EFECTE PLC -- NOTICE TO ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING -- 1 March 2023 at 8.30

EFECTE PLC: NOTICE TO THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Notice is given to the shareholders of Efecte Plc to the Annual General Meeting to be held on 22 March 2023 starting at 11:00 a.m. (EET) at Laurea Leppavaara Campus, main building, meeting room Tuomo (Vanha maantie 9, 02650 Espoo). The reception of persons who have registered for the meeting and the distribution of voting tickets will commence at 10:00 a.m. (EET).

The Companys shareholders and their proxy representatives may also participate in the Annual General Meeting and exercise their shareholder rights by voting in advance. Instructions for advance voting are provided in this notices section C.

A. MATTERS ON THE AGENDA OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

At the Annual General Meeting, the following matters will be considered:

1. Opening of the meeting



2. Calling the meeting to order

3. Election of person to scrutinise the minutes and to supervise the counting of votes

4. Recording the legality of the meeting

5. Recording the attendance at the meeting and adoption of the list of votes

6. Presentation of the financial statements, consolidated financial statements, the report of the Board of Directors and the auditors report for the year 2022

Presentation of the CEOs review.

The Companys financial statements, consolidated financial statements, the report of the Board of Directors and the auditors report will be available on the Companys website at https://investors.efecte.com as of 1 March 2023.

7. Adoption of the financial statements and the consolidated financial statements

8. Resolution on the use of the profit shown on the balance sheet and the payment of dividend

Efecte Plcs Board of Directors proposes to the Annual General Meeting that no dividend be distributed for the financial year that ended on 31 December 2022.

9. Resolution on the discharge of the members of the Board of Directors and the CEO from liability

10. Resolution on the remuneration of the members of the Board of Directors

Efecte Plcs shareholders representing in total over 30% of all shares and votes in Efecte Plc have proposed that remuneration for the elected board members remains unchanged and is paid for the following term of office as follows: Chairman of the Board EUR 45,000 and other members of the Board of Directors EUR 25,000 per year.

Story continues

In addition, the above-mentioned shareholders propose that approximately 40% of the remuneration be paid for in Efecte Plcs shares and approximately 60% be paid in cash. The part of the remuneration paid in shares will be paid by issuing new shares and/or transferring the Companys own shares to Board members within four weeks from the release of the business review for 1 January to 31 March 2023 or, if this is not possible considering insider rules, as soon as possible thereafter. The Company shall be liable for any transfer tax payable as a result of the payment of the share part of the remuneration.

In addition, it is proposed that the members of the Board of Directors be compensated for reasonable travelling and other costs for attending the Board meetings and relating to other Board work.

11. Resolution on the number of members of the Board of Directors

The Board of Directors proposes to the Annual General Meeting that five (5) members be elected to the Board of Directors.

12. Election of members of the Board of Directors

Efecte Plcs shareholders representing in total over 30 % of all shares and votes in Efecte Plc have proposed that the current members of the Board Pertti Ervi, Turkka Keskinen, Esther Donatz and Eric Gustavsson be re-elected as members of the Board of Directors, and that Panu Hannula be elected as a new member of the Board of Directors for a term ending at the close of the next Annual General Meeting.

Paivi Rekonen, current member of the Board of Directors, has informed that she is not available for re-election.

The CVs and evaluations of independence of all persons proposed as Board members are available on the Company's website at https://investors.efecte.com/en. All proposed members have given their consent to the election.

13. Resolution on the remuneration of the auditor

The Board of Directors proposes to the Annual General Meeting that the remuneration of the auditor be paid against an invoice approved by the Company.

14. Election of the auditor

The Board of Directors proposes to the Annual General Meeting that KPMG Oy Ab, a firm of authorised public accountants, be elected as the Companys auditor for a term ending at the close of the next Annual General Meeting. KPMG Oy Ab has notified the Company that Authorised Public Accountant Miika Karkulahti would act as the auditor with principal responsibility.

15. Amendment of the articles of association

The Board of Directors proposes to the Annual General Meeting that Article 9 of the articles of association be amended to enable holding a general meeting entirely without a meeting venue as a so-called remote meeting in addition to the Companys domicile Espoo or in Helsinki as currently provided in the articles of association. In its amended form, said provision of the articles of association would read as follows (unofficial translation in English below for informational purposes only):

9  Annual General Meeting

The Annual General Meeting is to be held each year within six months from the end of the financial year.

At the Meeting, the following shall be presented:

1. financial statements for the company and possibly for the group as well as a report of the Board of Directors;

2. auditors report;

resolved upon:

3. confirmation of the companys financial statements and possibly that of the group;

4. use of the profit indicated in the financial statements;

5. discharge of liability for the Board members and the CEO;

6. number of the Board members;

elected:

7. the members of the Board of Directors as well as

8. the auditor.

The Annual General Meeting may be held in the companys domicile or Helsinki. In addition, the Board of Directors may resolve on organising the general meeting without a meeting venue whereby the shareholders have the right to exercise their decision-making power in full in real time during the meeting using telecommunication connection and technical means.

The proposal is based on amendments made to Chapter 5 of the Finnish Companies Act, including the possibility to arrange remote general meetings. The legislative amendments are based on the premise that shareholder rights shall not be compromised, and that all participating shareholders are able to exercise their shareholder rights in full, including the right to request information and to vote, in real time during the general meeting, irrespective of the chosen general meeting format. The possibility to organise remote general meetings enables the Company to be prepared for rapidly changing conditions in the Companys operating environment and society in general, for example due to pandemics. It is important for the Company to have means available to offer its shareholders the possibility to exercise their shareholder rights and resolve on any matters presented to the general meeting under all circumstances.

It is proposed that the articles of association will otherwise remain unchanged.

16. Authorising the Board of Directors to decide on the repurchase of the Companys own shares

The Board of Directors proposes that the Annual General Meeting authorises the Board of Directors to resolve on the repurchase of a maximum of 450,000 shares in the Company in one or several instalments by using funds from unrestricted equity. The proposed number of shares corresponds to approximately 7,0% of all shares in the Company.

The shares may be repurchased in order to improve the capital structure of the Company, to carry out acquisitions or other arrangements related to the Companys business, to be transferred or cancelled for other purposes, to be used for the Companys incentive plans, or if the Board of Directors otherwise deems it to be in the interest of shareholders.

The price paid for the shares repurchased under the authorisation shall be based on the market price of the Companys share in public trading. The minimum price to be paid shall be the lowest market price of the share quoted in public trading during the authorisation period and the maximum price the highest market price quoted during the authorisation period.

The Companys own shares may be repurchased otherwise than in proportion to the shareholding of the shareholders (directed repurchase).

It is proposed that the authorisation be valid until the next Annual General Meeting, however, no longer than until 30 June 2024. The authorisation will revoke the repurchase authorisation granted by the Annual General Meeting on 17 March 2022.

17. Authorising the Board of Directors to decide on the issuance of shares, and option rights and other special rights entitling to shares

The Board of Directors proposes that the Annual General Meeting authorises the Board of Directors to resolve on the issuance of shares, and option rights and other special rights entitling to shares as referred to in Chapter 10, Section 1 of the Finnish Companies Act in one or several instalments as described below.

The Board of Directors would, pursuant to the authorisation, be entitled to resolve on the issuance of an aggregate maximum of 620,000 new shares. The Board of Directors may decide to issue new shares or shares held by the Company. The maximum number of shares included in the proposed authorisation accounts for approximately 9,7% of all shares in the Company.

The authorisation includes the right to issue shares, option rights and/or other special rights entitling to shares through private offering, in other words, to deviate from the shareholders pre-emptive rights, if there is a weighty financial reason from the Companys point of view, such as using them as consideration to carry out acquisitions or other arrangements or investments related to the Companys business, and/or as part of the remuneration of Board members paid for in shares as resolved by the Annual General Meeting. The authorisation also includes the right to issue shares, option rights and/or other special rights entitling to shares against payment or for free. A directed issue without payment requires that there is an especially weighty financial reason from the Companys point of view and taking the interests of all of its shareholders into consideration.

Under the authorisation, the Board of Directors will be entitled to resolve on the terms and conditions of the issuance of shares, option rights and other special rights entitling to shares, including the recipients and the compensation to be paid.

It is proposed that the authorisation be valid until the next Annual General Meeting, however, no longer than until 30 June 2024. The authorisation will revoke the share issue authorisations granted by the Annual General Meeting on 17 March 2022.

18. Closing of the meeting

B. DOCUMENTS OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

The above-mentioned proposals for decisions relating to the agenda of the Annual General Meeting as well as this notice are available on Efecte Plcs website at https://investors.efecte.com/en. The financial statements, consolidated financial statements, the report of the Board of Directors, and the auditors report of Efecte Plc will be available on the above-mentioned website no later than 1 March 2023. The proposals for decisions and other above-mentioned documents are also available at the Annual General Meeting. Copies of these documents and of this notice will be sent to shareholders upon request. The minutes of the general meeting will be available on the above-mentioned website as of 5 April 2023 at the latest.

C. INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE PARTICIPANTS OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

1. Shareholders registered in the shareholders register

Each shareholder who on the record date of the Annual General Meeting, i.e. on 10 March 2023, is registered in the shareholders register of the Company held by Euroclear Finland Ltd has the right to participate in the Annual General Meeting. A shareholder whose shares are registered on their personal Finnish book-entry account is registered in the shareholders register of the Company.

Registration for the Annual General Meeting will begin on 1 March 2023 at 5:00 p.m. (EET). A shareholder who is registered in the shareholders register of the Company and who wants to participate in the Annual General Meeting shall register for the meeting no later than by 10:00 am (EET) on 15 March 2023, by which time the registration must be received. Registration may be made:

via the Companys website at https://investors.efecte.com/en

by telephone +358 10 2818 909 from Monday to Friday at 9:00 am to 12:00 noon and 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm; or

by mail addressed to Innovatics Ltd, General Meeting/Efecte Oyj, Ratamestarinkatu 13 A, 00520 Helsinki.

In connection with the registration, a shareholder shall notify the requested information such as his/her name, personal identification number and contact details. The personal data given to Efecte Plc is used only in connection with the Annual General Meeting and with the processing of related registrations.

The shareholder, his/her legal representative or proxy representative shall, if necessary, be able to prove his/her identity and/or right of representation at the meeting venue.

2. Holders of nominee-registered shares

A holder of nominee-registered shares has the right to participate in the Annual General Meeting by virtue of such shares, based on which he/she would be entitled, on the record date of the Annual General Meeting, i.e. on 10 March 2023, to be registered in the shareholders register of the Company held by Euroclear Finland Ltd. In addition, the right to participate in the Annual General Meeting requires that the shareholder has, on the basis of such shares, been temporarily registered in the shareholders register held by Euroclear Finland Ltd at the latest by 17 March 2023 at 10:00 a.m. (EET). This constitutes the required registration for the general meeting for nominee-registered shares. Changes in the shareholding after the record date of the general meeting do not have any impact on the right to participate in the general meeting nor on the number of votes.

Holders of nominee-registered shares are advised to request from their custodian bank, without delay, necessary instructions regarding the temporary registration in the shareholders register of the Company, the issuing of proxy documents and voting instructions and the registration for the Annual General Meeting. The account management organisation of the custodian bank shall register a holder of nominee-registered shares, who wishes to participate in the Annual General Meeting, temporarily in the shareholders register of the Company by the aforementioned time 17 March 2023 at 10:00 a.m. (EET) at the latest, and, if needed, to arrange for advance voting on behalf of a nominee-registered shareholder before the registration concerning nominee-registered shareholders has ended.

3. Proxy representative and powers of attorney

A shareholder may participate in the Annual General Meeting and exercise his/her rights at the meeting by way of proxy representation. A proxy representative may also vote in advance as described in this notice.

A proxy representative must identify to the electronic registration service and advance voting in person with strong identification, after which he/she will be able to register and vote in advance on behalf of the shareholder he/she represents. A proxy representative shall provide a dated proxy document or otherwise in a reliable manner demonstrate his/her right to represent the shareholder in the general meeting. A statutory representation right may be demonstrated by utilising the suomi.fi e-authorisations service used in the electronic registration service.

When a shareholder participates in the Annual General Meeting by means of several proxy representatives who represent the shareholder with shares on different securities accounts, the shares by which each proxy representative represents the shareholder shall be identified in connection with the registration.

Proxy and voting instruction template will be available on the Companys website at https://investors.efecte.com/en on 1 March 2023 at 5:00 p.m. (EET) at the latest. Proxy documents are recommended to be delivered either as an attachment in connection with the electronic registration, by email to agm@innovatics.fi or by mail to Innovatics Ltd, Annual General Meeting/Efecte Oyj, Ratamestarinkatu 13 A, 00520 Helsinki before the registration for the general meeting has ended, by which time the proxy documents must be received. Efecte Plc may demand original proxy documents if considered necessary by the Company.

A holder of nominee-registered shares is advised to follow the instructions regarding proxies given by such holders custodian bank as described in section 2. Holders of nominee-registered shares above. If a holder of nominee-registered shares wishes to be represented by a party other than such holders custodian, such legal representative must provide Innovatics Ltd with a dated proxy demonstrating the right to represent the shareholder.

4. Advance voting

Registration for the Annual General Meeting and advance voting will begin on 1 March 2023. A shareholder who is registered in the shareholders register of the Company and who wishes to participate in the Annual General Meeting by voting in advance must register for the Annual General Meeting and vote in advance by Wednesday 15 March 2023 at 10:00 a.m. (EET) at the latest, by which time the registration and advance votes must be received.

In connection with the registration, a shareholder shall notify the requested information such as his/her name, personal identification number and contact details. The personal data given to Efecte Plc is used only in connection with the Annual General Meeting and with the processing of related registrations.

A shareholder who has voted in advance may request information under the Finnish Companies Act, request a vote at the general meeting or vote on a possible counterproposal, if they are present at the general meeting.

Shareholders holding a Finnish book-entry account may register and vote in advance on certain items on the agenda of the Annual General Meeting between 1 March 2023 and 15 March 2023 at 10:00 a.m. (EET) in the following ways:

a) via the Companys website at https://investors.efecte.com/en

Electronic registration and advance voting require strong identification of the shareholder or his/her legal representative or the proxy representative via Finnish or Swedish online bank service or mobile certificate.

b) By mail or email



A shareholder voting in advance by mail or email must send the advance voting form available on the Companys website https://investors.efecte.com/en or corresponding information to Innovatics Ltd by mail to Innovatics Ltd, Annual General Meeting/Efecte Oyj, Ratamestarinkatu 13 A, 00520 Helsinki or by email to agm@innovatics.fi.

If a shareholder participates in the Annual General Meeting by submitting advance votes by mail or email to Innovatics Oy, the submission of votes before the end of the registration and advance voting period is considered as official participation in the Annual General Meeting, provided that the shareholders registration includes the information required for registration mentioned on the advance voting form.

An agenda item subject to advance voting is considered to have been presented unchanged to the general meeting. Voting instructions will be available on the Companys website at https://investors.efecte.com. Additional information on registration and advance voting is also available by telephone at +358 10 2818 909 during the registration period between 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon and 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. (EET) on weekdays.

5. Other instructions and information

The Annual General Meeting will be held in Finnish.

Pursuant to Chapter 5, Section 25 of the Finnish Companies Act, a shareholder who is present at the Annual General Meeting has the right to request information with respect to the matters to be considered at the meeting.

The Company will publish video recordings of the address of the Chairman of the Board and the review of the CEO on the Companys website at https://investors.efecte.com after the Annual General Meeting. Shareholders are requested to note that the video recordings are not a part of the official General Meeting material.

On the date of this notice to the Annual General Meeting, 1 March 2023, the total number of shares in Efecte Plc is 6,383,590 and the total number of votes in Efecte Plc is 6,383,590. Changes in the shareholding after the record date of the general meeting do not have any impact on the right to participate in the general meeting nor on the number of votes.

Espoo, 1 March 2023

EFECTE PLC

The Board of Directors

Further inquiries:

Tatu Paavilainen

Head of Legal

Efecte Plc

tatu.paavilainen@efecte.com

+358 400 383 064

Certified Adviser:

Evli Plc, tel +358 40 579 6210

Efecte Plc

Efecte helps people digitalize and automate their work. Customers across Europe leverage our cloud service to operate with greater agility, to improve the experience of end-users, and to save costs. The use cases for our solutions range from IT service management and ticketing to improving employee experiences, business workflows, and customer service. We are the European Alternative to the global goliaths in our space. Our headquarters is located in Finland and we have regional hubs in Germany, Poland and Sweden. Efecte is listed on the Nasdaq First North Growth Market Finland marketplace.

www.efecte.com




TORONTO, March 1, 2023 /CNW/ - Elevate Farms Inc. ("Elevate" or "Elevate Farms"), a tech-based vertical farming company focused on cost-effectively growing leafy green vegetables at mass scale, is pleased to announce the commencement of operations at its first wholly-owned US farm, located in Orange, New Jersey ("Elevate New Jersey"). The entire Elevate New Jersey facility measures 14,000 square feet (1,300 square meters) which includes 4,750 square feet (441 square meters) of unmanned, fully autonomous, grow room space along with processing, packaging and administration. The farm has a capacity to produce up to 11,000,000 plants, or equal to 500,000 pounds (227,000 kilograms) of plants, annually. 

Elevate Farms Announces Commencement of Operations at first U.S. Farm, located in City of Orange, New Jersey (CNW Group/Elevate Farms Inc.)

Located only 20-miles from Manhattan, Elevate New Jersey is exceptionally well positioned on the US Eastern Seaboard. Our facility is able to locally supply and distribute food to an astounding 19 million people - all within a one-hour drive of the facility. This latest Elevate Farm facility is among the most efficient in the world with over 105 lbs per foot of annual production over the grow area and fewer than 15 employees. 

Elevate Farms is committed to building farms to supply high quality, locally grown, fresh produce to feed the masses. With plans for expansion in the US, New Zealand and Central Europe, Elevate Farms will look to become one of the largest producers of leafy greens in the world. 

"The entire team has been working relentlessly to bring this latest farm on line. We are extremely pleased with the early results from New Jersey" said Kevin Epp the Chief Operating Officer of Elevate Farms. 

"At over 100 pounds per square foot of grow space, Elevate Farms is among the most efficient vertical farms in the world. This latest farm will be supplying high quality leafy greens directly to wholesale distribution in the North East, a model which we expect to replicate around the world in the near future" said Amin Jadavji, the Chief Executive Officer of Elevate Farms.

Story continues

ABOUT ELEVATE FARMS

Elevate Farms Inc., a patented technology-driven vertically-stacked indoor farming enterprise, is developing high-yield and competitively priced leafy-green food production systems towards realizing a safe and sustainable future. With well over a decade of advanced photobiology research already deployed Elevate Farms has built farms in several countries on multiple continents and offers a truly scalable global solution.

www.elevate.farm

Elevate Farms Inc. (CNW Group/Elevate Farms Inc.)

SOURCE Elevate Farms Inc.

Cision

View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/March2023/01/c3104.html
Konica Minolta Healthcare Americas, Inc.

Emory Associate Professor Michael Gottschalk, MD, will discuss how DDR can improve the diagnosis and assessment of the upper extremity at AAOS 2023

Dynamic Digital Radiography Shoulder Series

DDR is the next evolution in X-ray, enabling clinicians to visualize the dynamic interaction of anatomical structures, such as tissue and bone, with physiological changes over time.

WAYNE, N.J., March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A study by Emory Healthcare reports that Konica Minolta Healthcares Dynamic Digital Radiography (DDR), an enhanced version of a standard X-ray system that captures motion, provides more quantitative information on shoulder motion and a greater understanding of the injury and postoperative improvement than static imaging alone. Angel X. Xiao, MD, led the team of researchers to explore the Variation in Scapulohumeral Rhythm on Dynamic Radiography in Pathologic Shoulders: A Novel Diagnostic Tool, published in the Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery. The team also found DDR is a reproducible method to quantify and compare the scapulohumeral rhythm (SHR), enabling clinicians to visualize both the pattern and extent of motion impairment in the shoulder, which varies across different types of injuries and pathologies.



With DDR, we can very clearly see how structures move in relation to one another in the shoulder anatomy in a way weve never been able to see before  both when it is moving and at a particular time point, says Eric R Wagner, MD, MSc, Assistant Professor in the Department of Orthopaedics at Emory University and Director of Upper Extremity Research at Emory Healthcare. We can obtain more critical information from this dynamic motion analysis using DDR, and that is an inherent advantage for both diagnosis and post-surgical treatment monitoring.

DDR is the next evolution in X-ray, helping to enhance diagnosis and management of diseases and injuries, including many orthopedic conditions. DDR enables clinicians to visualize the dynamic interaction of anatomical structures, such as tissue and bone, with physiological changes over time. DDR is not fluoroscopy; it is a series of individual digital images acquired at high speed and low dose. In the same study, clinicians can acquire static and dynamic images.

Story continues

In the study, 121 patients underwent a DDR exam to assess arm motion, beginning with the arm at rest by the patients side and then proceeding to maximal abduction, or with the arm raised away from the body. Using the DDR imaging data, humeral abduction, scapular upward rotation and scapulohumeral rhythm were all quantified. Differences in SHR were identified using multivariate linear regression between normal controls and patients with pathologic conditions.

Although SHR has been studied observationally since the 1930's, inter-pathological comparisons in the literature are scarce. The study reported that DDR makes it possible to cost-effectively and reproducibly assess shoulder motion. DDR was also found to be a reliable and efficient method for quantifying the severity of motion aberrancies in an array of shoulder pathologies. Additionally, the authors wrote that DDR is a simple-to-operate technology that can be realistically implemented into the clinical workflow.

At the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) 2023 Annual Meeting, Michael Gottschalk, MD, Associate Professor and Director of Clinical Research in the Department of Orthopaedics at Emory Healthcare and a co-author of the SHR paper, will present data demonstrating the clinical utility of DDR in assessing the upper extremity. Dr. Gottschalk will review cases where dynamic visualization impacted diagnosis and treatment, and discuss an array of clinical conditions where DDR can be utilized to supplement static imaging. The lecture will be held in the AAOS Product Innovation Theater on Thursday, March 9.

Konica Minolta congratulates the Emory Healthcare Orthopaedic research team on the recent publication of their study comparing SHR across different shoulder pathologies. This research validates the clinical utility that the Emory Orthopaedic physicians have seen from their use of DDR as standard of care for upper extremity imaging, says John Sabol, PhD Clinical Research Manager, Konica Minolta Healthcare. "This publication joins the growing body of evidence that demonstrates the clinical utility and value of DDR across a range of patient conditions. We are confident that as more organizations adopt this cost-effective and easy-to-use technology, they will continue to uncover additional novel applications of DDR that will help physicians rethink how they use X-ray to make better patient decisions, sooner.

About Konica Minolta Healthcare Americas, Inc.

Konica Minolta Healthcare is a world-class provider and market leader in medical diagnostic imaging and healthcare information technology. The companys focus is to contribute to life changing advances through the transformation of primary imaging, allowing the invisible to be seen. Primary imaging, the most commonly used medical imaging technologies, include X-ray, ultrasound and imaging management systems. By advancing these readily available technologies, we can bring greater diagnostic capabilities to the greatest number of people.

With 150 years of endless innovation, imaging is in Konica Minoltas DNA. From roots as a camera and film manufacturer, the company has cultivated its own technologies and continues to evolve techniques for visualizing what is not visible. Innovation allows the company to be a strong strategic partner, understanding what value means to customers and how Konica Minoltas innovations can address specific needs and lead to better decisions, sooner.

Konica Minolta Healthcare Americas, Inc., headquartered in Wayne, NJ, is a division of Konica Minolta, Inc. For more information on Konica Minolta Healthcare Americas, Inc., follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, or visit https://healthcare.konicaminolta.us.

Contact:

Mary Beth Massat

224.578.2388

mbmassat@massatmedia.com

https://healthcare.konicaminolta.us

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/6d34688e-871b-4d1f-8241-f56f6d7f7e41




Fortune Business Insights

Electric Vehicle (EV) Insurance Market to Reach USD 687.62 billion by 2029; Direct Line Partners with Zoom EV to Boost Insurance Sales: Fortune Business Insights

Pune, India, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global Electric Vehicle (EV) Insurance market size was USD 40.27 billion in 2021. The market is expected to grow from USD 64.18 billion in 2022 to USD 687.62 billion by 2029 at a CAGR of 40.33% in the 2022-2029 period. This information is provided by Fortune Business Insights, in its report titled, Electric Vehicle (EV) Insurance Market, 2022-2029.

The demand for electric vehicles is increasing rapidly due to growing fossil fuel prices, concerns regarding the environment, and government initiatives to boost EV adoption. However, electric vehicles are expensive as compared to fossil fuel powered alternatives owing to the high cost of lithium-ion batteries, which generate demand for EV insurance.

Request a Free sample PDF: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/request-sample-pdf/electric-vehicle-ev-insurance-market-107153

Market Drivers & Restraints:

Increasing awareness and easy availability of Electric Vehicle (EV) insurance are the primary factors driving the Electric Vehicle (EV) insurance market growth in the coming years. Most of the insurance companies offer car insurance for electric vehicles nowadays. Insurance providers are focusing on providing programs and policies to satisfy consumer requirements. Leading EV manufacturers such as Tesla have also started offering insurance on electric vehicles. The above-mentioned factors will stimulate market expansion in the coming years.

On the other hand, high costs of insuring EVs as compared to gas or diesel-powered vehicles will act as a challenge for businesses operating in this domain.

EV Insurance Market Scope:

Report Coverage Details Forecast Period 2022-2029 Forecast Period 2022 to 2029 CAGR 40.33% 2029 Value Projection USD 687.62 Billion Base Year 2021 Market Size in 2021 USD 40.27 Billion Historical Data for 2018-2020 No. of Pages 151 Segments covered Electric Vehicle (EV) Insurance Market Size, Share & COVID-19 Impact Analysis, By Propulsion Type (Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) and Hybrid), By Vehicle Type (Passenger Cars and Commercial Vehicles), By Coverage Type (Accidental Damage, Theft or Malicious Damage, Car Battery & Auto Parts Replacement, and Others) Growth Drivers Increasing Awareness and Demand for Electric Vehicle (EV) Insurance to Escalate the Market Progress Rapid Electrification of Vehicles to Promote Asia Pacific Market Augmentation

COVID-19 Impact:

High Demand and Sales of EVs Amid the Pandemic Propelled Market Expansion

The implementation of stringent lockdowns and closure of manufacturing facilities worldwide due to the surging number of COVID-19 cases worldwide affected the automotive industry negatively as prices of raw materials increased. However, increased demand and sales of EVs amid the pandemic boosted the market. Rising concerns regarding pollution and environmental health, supportive government policies, and need for private transport elevated EV sales, which further propelled the demand for EV insurance worldwide.

Story continues

To get to know more about the short-term and long-term impact of COVID-19 on this market, please visit: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/electric-vehicle-ev-insurance-market-107153



Segmentation of Report:

Rising Adoption of Emission-free Vehicles to Boost Demand for BEVs

As per propulsion type, the market is bifurcated into hybrid and BEV. The BEV segment dominated the market in 2021 owing to surging demand for emission-free vehicles and stringent emission norms announced by regulatory bodies. These norms will boost the adoption of pure electric vehicles, thus increasing the demand for EV insurance services.

Passengers Cars Segment to Lead Backed by Surging Demand for Private Transport

Based on vehicle type, the market is divided into commercial vehicles and passenger cars. The passenger cars segment captured the largest market share in 2021 owing to rising demand for private transport after the pandemic. The launch of passenger EVs is also escalating the adoption of EV insurance designed specifically for private transport.

Accidental Damage Segment to Grow Stoked by Increasing Road Traffic Congestion

According to coverage type, the market is split into accidental damage, theft or malicious damage, car battery & auto parts replacement, and others. Among these, the accidental damage segment held a major market share in 2021. Rising number of road crashes reported coupled with growing traffic congestion has accelerated the demand for accidental damage coverage, thus contributing to the growth of this segment.

Geographically, the market is segregated into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa.

Regional Insights:

Rapid Electrification of Vehicles to Promote Asia Pacific Market Augmentation

Asia Pacific held majority of the global Electric Vehicle (EV) insurance market share and was gauged at USD 19.40 billion in 2021. Rapid electrification of commercial and passenger transport in countries such as Japan, China, South Korea, and India is a key attributor to market expansion in this region. The development of EV infrastructure and rising EV sales in China will also facilitate market growth in Asia Pacific.

The Electric Vehicle (EV) insurance domain in Europe is predicted to expand rapidly in the coming years due to stringent emission norms enforced by the European Union and rising EV sales due to subsidies and incentives on EV purchases.

North America is projected to grow substantially over the forecast timeframe owing to increasing adoption of User-Based Insurance (UBI) in the region. The presence of leading manufacturers and well-developed EV infrastructure in the region is boosting the adoption of commercial EVs and aiding market growth in the region.

Buy this Report: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/checkout-page/107153

Competitive Landscape:

Key Players Announce Partnerships to Support Market Growth

Industry leaders often make strategic decisions such as collaborations, mergers & acquisitions, and product launches to generate massive revenues and profits. One such move is partnering with other leading companies to improve geographical reach or enhance product offerings to escalate profit generation. In August 2022, Liberty Mutual Insurance Company partnered with Autonomy, an EV subscription company, to launch a digital month-to-month auto insurance offering for EV users. This partnership will enable onboard, evaluate, and qualify a subscriber for auto insurance coverage on a monthly basis. This deal will also create seamless and easy access to electric vehicles for users.

Industry Developments:

September 2022: Aviva launched standalone insurance products for EV charging points owing to the surge in demand for EVs in the U.K. The insurance product offers Erection All Risks (EAR) and Operational All Risks (OAR) cover for EV chargers, which is aimed at targeting business customers, including car park operators, contractors, local authorities, asset managers, and forecourt operators. The policies will cover businesses against the risk of fire, flood, and malicious or accidental damage and will be available for single chargers.

Speak with Analyst: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/speak-to-analyst/electric-vehicle-ev-insurance-market-107153

List of Key Players Covered in the Electric Vehicle (EV) Insurance Market Report

Allianz (Germany)

AXA (France)

Zurich Insurance Group (Switzerland)

Liberty Mutual Insurance Company (U.S.)

Aviva (U.K.)

Direct Line Insurance Group plc (U.K.)

The Progressive Corporation (U.S.)

GEICO (U.S.)

Allstate Insurance Company (U.S.)

State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (U.S.)

Electric Vehicle (EV) Insurance Market Segmentation:

By Propulsion Type

Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV)

Hybrid

By Vehicle Type

Passenger Cars

Commercial Vehicles

By Coverage Type

Accidental Damage

Theft or Malicious Damage

Car Battery & Auto Parts Replacement

Others

Table of Content:



1. Introduction

1.1. Research Scope

1.2. Market Segmentation

1.3. Research Methodology

1.4. Definitions and Assumptions

2. Executive Summary

3. Market Dynamics

3.1. Market Drivers

3.2. Market Restraints

3.3. Market Opportunities

3.4. Market Trends

4. Key Insights

4.1 Key Industry Developments - Merger, Acquisitions, and Partnerships

4.2 Porters Five Forces Analysis

4.3 PEST Analysis

4.4 Technological Developments

4.5 Impact of COVID-19

5. Global Electric Vehicles (EV) Insurance Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2018-2029

5.1. Key Findings / Summary

5.2. Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Propulsion Type

5.2.1 Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV)

5.2.2 Hybrid

5.3. Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Vehicle Type

5.3.1 Passenger Cars

5.3.2 Commercial Vehicles

5.4. Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Coverage Type

5.4.1 Accidental Damage

5.4.2 Theft or Malicious Damage

5.4.3 Car Battery & Auto Parts Replacement

5.4.4 Others

5.5. Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Region

5.5.1 North America

5.5.2 Europe

5.5.3 Asia Pacific

5.5.4 Rest of the World

Toc Continued

Ask For Customization: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/ask-for-customization/electric-vehicle-ev-insurance-market-107153

About Us:

Fortune Business Insights offers expert corporate analysis and accurate data, helping organizations of all sizes make timely decisions. We tailor innovative solutions for our clients, assisting them address challenges distinct to their businesses. Our goal is to empower our clients with holistic market intelligence, giving a granular overview of the market they are operating in.

Contact Us:

Fortune Business Insights Pvt. Ltd.

Phone:

US: +1 424 253 0390

UK: +44 2071 939123

APAC: +91 744 740 1245

Email: sales@fortunebusinessinsights.com




Leveraging the strength of "Real business combined with technology" to expand business in a variety of industries

TOKYO, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- GA technologies (Head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo, Representative Director and CEO: Ryo Higuchi, Securities code: 3491, hereinafter referred to as "GA technologies") will renew its Visual Identity (VI) and corporate website in March 2023, the 10th anniversary of its foundation.

VI logo and official website renewal

Since our founding in 2013, GA technologies has been committed to our corporate philosophy of "building a world leading company that inspires and impresses people with the power of technology and innovation." We have been working to improve the customer experience through online transactions and the use of data, and to change the way the real estate industry works by providing SaaS products for real estate companies. The renewal of our Visual Identity (VI) and corporate website is a declaration of our transformation into a technology company that is committed to business reform not only in real estate but also in various other industries, while leveraging the strength of "Real business combined with technology" that we have cultivated in the real estate field.

Kenjiro Sano (MR_DESIGN INC) was appointed as Art Director for our new VI, and mount inc. was in charge of planning and production of the corporate website. Together with people who are highly regarded both in Japan and abroad, we have created a new image of GA technologies, which aims to become a world-leading company.

Expansion into other industries

The real estate industry is an analog industry where faxes, paper, and face-to-face interactions are still used, resulting not only in a poor customer experience, but also in various challenges such as a lack of symmetry in information between customers and real estate agents, and a low-productivity work environment. Since our founding in 2013, GA technologies has been committed to our corporate philosophy of "building a world leading company that inspires and impresses people with the power of technology and innovation." We have promoted DX in the real estate industry as a whole by developing and providing SaaS for real estate companies that contributes to the promotion of DX throughout the entire real estate industry, while providing real estate DX services to our own clients

Story continues

As a result, GA technologies has earned recognition for promoting DX in analog industries, including being the only company in the growth market and real estate industry to be selected as a Digital Transformation Stock for three consecutive years.

Value creation areas targeted by GA technologies

Until now, we have been recognized and acclaimed as a PropTech (real estate DX) company, but from now on, we will go beyond the confines of the real estate industry and work to transform businesses in various industries while leveraging our strengths and expertise in real estate DX that we have cultivated since our founding. The first step in this direction is our entry into the M&A intermediary DX business*1, which we are also announcing today.

*1For more information on the development of the M&A intermediary DX business, refer to the March 1, 2023 announcement, "Launch of the M&A intermediary DX service 'MtechA'".

New VI

Development of new company logo

Comments from Kenjiro Sano

Representative of MR_DESIGN, Art Director and Creative Director

I was amazed when I visited the GA technologies office. The youth, the speed with which they use technology, the sincerity, the well-organized and playful work environment. I thought it was a new unconventional organization that is further evolving and changing. Therefore, we aimed to create a graphic design that is bold, graceful, and striking, yet still light enough to be printed on a T-shirt. Blue is a color that evokes images of speed, cleanliness, and technology.

New corporate website ( https://www.ga-tech.co.jp/)

Masahiro Yonemichi

mount inc./Art Direction, Planning, Information Architect, Design

First, I was wondering how GA technologies can grow so fast of its size and business when I started to work with them on the design. As we approached our project, I also figured out my answer. The Company no doubt provides services and products that incorporate sophisticated technical elements. On top of that, the people who work in the group are awesome. The kind of people who have a strong will for chasing big goals, passionate and eager for growth. This passion also influences us in a good way to transform these positive attributes into our design. The power of technology, the skill of communication, the speed of its growth, and finally, the will of facing future challenges while carrying on past experiences with it. We hope we depict these characteristics well enough with our design.

10 years of GA technologies

As of December 15, 2022

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: 7,238,798,466 yen (by October 2022)

Services:

Internet real estate marketplace business: RENOSY

BtoB PropTech SaaS development

GA technologies group: ITANDI, RENOSY PLUS, Shenjumiausuan and 12 other group companies

Contact: Judy Yu E-mail: y_yu@ga-tech.co.jp; Phone: +81-3-6230-9180

l (PRNewsfoto/GA technologies)

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ga-technologies-has-renewed-their-visual-identity-vi-and-corporate-website-in-march-the-10th-anniversary-of-the-companys-founding-301759280.html

SOURCE GA technologies Co .,Ltd.
DUBLIN, Feb. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The "GCC Data Center Market - Investment Analysis & Growth Opportunities 2023-2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Research and Markets Logo





The GCC data center market is expected to reach a value of $5.5 billion by 2028 from $3.44 billion in 2022, growing at a CAGR of 8.14%

This report analyses the GCC data center market share. It elaboratively analyses the existing and upcoming facilities and investments in IT, electrical, mechanical infrastructure, general construction, and tier standards. It discusses market sizing and investment estimation for different segments.



DRIVING FACTORS FOR INVESTMENT IN THE REGION



The increased demand for the facilities is driven by the presence of smart cities, 5G and its applications, and the adoption of artificial intelligence and cloud-based services.



The increase in the adoption of cloud-based services in the region is growing the establishment of cloud regions by major cloud service providers such as Microsoft, Tencent cloud, Oracle, Amazon Web Services, and Alibaba Cloud. Microsoft Azure is opening its new cloud region in Qatar, a global data center facility. The region is also witnessing the adoption of cloud services as the governments adopt policies for implementing cloud services in the region. For instance, the Saudi Arabian government implemented the Cloud first policy to adopt cloud services in the region.



Telecom operators such as Saudi Telecom Company (stc), Mobily, Zain, Atlas, Sirius Telecom, Ooredoo, Nokia, Ericsson, and Vodafone are the major companies that deploy 5G connectivity in the GCC data center market. In the GCC region, around five submarine cables are currently under development. In terms of existing submarine cables, United Arab Emirates has the largest network of Submarine cables, with more than 15 submarine cables connected.



DRIVING FACTORS FOR AREA IN THE REGION



The government initiatives for developing the GCC data center market include the steps taken to reduce the price of the land to promote investment in the country. For instance, the Oman government reduce the cost of the land to facilitate the investment of the data centers in the country.



The presence of industrial parks, the availability of land, and the government's support motivate the operators to develop facilities in GCC countries. For instance, the Government of Bahrain announced the launching of its first data center park, which includes the development of its first data center by stc Bahrain through collaboration with the ministry of transport and Telecommunications.



The majority of the GCC countries have the availability of Free Trade Zones (FTZs). For instance, Oman has free trade zones such as the Al Mazunah Free Zone, Salalah Free Zone, Sohar Free Zone, and Duqm SEZ. These zones provide multiple benefits to investors, including corporate tax exemption, full exemption of import and export taxes, and local labor recruitment.



DRIVING FACTORS OF THE POWER CAPACITY IN THE REGION



In terms of renewable energy, GCC countries produce renewable energy majorly from solar, geothermal, and wind energy sources & aim to be carbon neutral. For instance, the UAE announced its plan to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 with an investment of over USD 160 billion towards renewable energy.



The GCC countries make initiatives for the development of renewable energy. For instance, the Bahrain government took National Energy Efficiency Action Plan (NEFAP), and the National Renewable Energy Action Plan (NREAP) was formed to increase the renewable energy addition by 10% in 2035.



In addition, the GCC region is witnessing a rise in investments in solar parks and renewable energy sources, which facilitate increasing renewable energy usage during the forecasted period. For instance, Shagaya renewable-energy park plans to expand its generation capacity of 4 GW by developing concentrated solar power (CSP) plants, solar PV farms, and wind farms by 2027.



The region also witnessed the power purchase agreement for powering the data centers. For instance, Khazna Data Centers formed a new Joint Venture (JV) with BEEAH Digital and planned to build a new 9 MW data center that will likely be powered by solar power. In terms of IT load, Saudi Arabia is dominating the GCC data center market with the addition of IT load by upcoming facilities during the forecast period. The UAE, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, and Bahrain follow Saudi Arabia.



SUPPLY & DEMAND IN THE GCC DATA CENTER MARKET



Government support and initiatives in digitalization are expected to boost the GCC data center market. For instance, the Arab League Digital Economy Federation (AFDE) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with ATDXT, a UAE-based digital transformation company, to build a new regional facility to promote digital transformation across the Gulf region.



The UAE is the most advanced technology market among GCC countries in the GCC region due to the presence of two smart cities, such as Abu Dhabi and Dubai, which drives the demand for data center investments. The expansion of cloud regions by hyperscale operators and internet service providers is fuelling the region's significant demand for data center investments.



The major colocation service providers in the GCC data center market include Ooredoo, Khazna Data Centers, Equinix, Gulf data hub, Zajil Telecom, Moro Hub, Oman Data Park, Mezza, Etisalat, and Saudi Telecom Company (stc). In addition, the region is also witnessing investments from new entrants such as ZeroPoint DC, EDGNEX, and Quantum Switch.



The migration of the on-premises data centers to colocation is increasing in the GCC region. For instance, the Abu Dhabi Accountability Authority (ADAA) was the first government entity to migrate its workloads from the on-premises data center to the G42 (Group 42) cloud.



In the GCC region, several sectors, such as BFSI, healthcare, education, hospitality, government, and transport, have observed data migration to the cloud. For instance, the educational institutions in the GCC region migrated their core applications, such as Student Information System (SIS) and Correspondence Management System (CMS), to the AWS cloud.



WHY SHOULD YOU BUY THIS RESEARCH?

Story continues

The GCC market investments are classified into IT, power, cooling, and general construction services with sizing and forecast.

A comprehensive analysis of the latest trends, growth rate, potential opportunities, growth restraints, and prospects for the industry.

Business overview and product offerings of prominent IT infrastructure providers, construction contractors, support infrastructure providers, and investors operating in the industry.

A transparent research methodology and the analysis of the demand and supply aspects of the market.

Coverage

Facilities Covered (Existing): 78

Facilities Identified (Upcoming): 44

Coverage: 6 Countries

Existing vs. Upcoming (Area)

Existing vs. Upcoming (IT Load Capacity)

VENDOR LANDSCAPE

Major Vendors

IT Infrastructure Providers

Arista Networks

Atos

Broadcom

Cisco Systems

Dell Technologies

Fujitsu

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Hitachi Vantara

Huawei Technologies

IBM

Juniper Networks

Lenovo

NetApp

Oracle

Data Center Construction Contractors & Sub-Contractors

AECOM

Al Latifia Trading & Contracting

Aldar Properties

Arup

Ashi & Bushnag

Atkins

Capitoline

Dar

DC PRO BV

Direct Services

Edarat Group

EGEC

Egis

HATCO

HHM Building Contracting

Hill International

ICS Nett

INT'LTEC Group

JAMED

James L. Williams (JLW)

Laing O'Rourke

Linesight

M+W Group

Mace

Marafie Group

McLaren Construction Group

Red Engineering

RW Armstrong

SANA Creative Systems

Specialist Technical Services (STS Group)

Turner & Townsend

Support Infrastructure Providers

ABB

Airedale

Alfa Laval

Canovate

Caterpillar

Cummins

Delta Electronics

Eaton

Enrogen

Envicool

Grundfos

Honeywell International

Johnson Controls

Legrand

Mitsubishi Electric

Rittal

Rolls-Royce

STULZ

Schneider Electric

Siemens

Vertiv

Data Center Investors

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Batelco

Etisalat (e&)

Equinix

Gulf Data Hub

Google

Khazna Data Centers

MEEZA

Mobily

Moro Hub

Oman Data Park

Ooredoo

Saudi Telecom Company (stc)

Tencent Cloud

Zain

Zajil Telecom

New Entrants

EDGNEX

Quantum Switch

ZeroPoint DC

EXISTING VS. UPCOMING DATA CENTERS

Existing Facilities in the region (Area and Power Capacity)

UAE

Saudi Arabia

Bahrain

Oman

Kuwait

Qatar

List of Upcoming Facilities in the region (Area and Power Capacity)

REPORT COVERAGE:

The segmentation includes:

IT Infrastructure

Servers

Storage Systems

Network Infrastructure

Electrical Infrastructure

UPS Systems

Generators

Transfer Switches & Switchgears

PDUs

Other Electrical Infrastructure

Mechanical Infrastructure

Cooling Systems

Racks

Other Mechanical Infrastructure

Cooling Systems

CRAC & CRAH Units

Chiller Units

Cooling Towers, Condensers & Dry Coolers

Other Cooling Units

General Construction

Core & Shell Development

Installation & Commissioning Services

Engineering & Building Design

Fire Detection & Suppression Systems

Physical Security

Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM)

Tier Standard

Tier I & Tier II

Tier III

Tier IV

Geography

UAE

Saudi Arabia

Bahrain

Oman

Kuwait

Qatar

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/7knt03-data-center?w=5

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.



Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



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

Cision

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gcc-data-center-market-report-2023-2028-featuring-key-dc-investors---aws-batelco-e-equinix-google-khazna-meeza-mobily-moro-hub-oman-data-park-ooredoo-stc-tencent-zain--zajil-telecom-301758584.html

SOURCE Research and Markets
Ontario joins Quebec, Alberta and Saskatchewan to fund gene-based treatment for previously untreatable genetic retinal conditions 1





Luxturna is the first and only pharmacological treatment for an inherited retinal disease designed to help improve functional vision in patients with RPE65-mediated inherited retinal dystrophies (IRDs)

DORVAL, QC, March 1, 2023 /CNW/ - Novartis Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc. is pleased to announce that Luxturna (voretigene neparvovec) is now funded by the Ontario government for the treatment of adults and pediatric patients with vision loss due to inherited retinal dystrophy caused by confirmed mutations in both copies of the RPE65 gene and who have sufficient, viable retinal cells.

Novartis Pharmaceuticals Canada (CNW Group/Novartis Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc.)

"Our government is proud to fund the first gene therapy to fight blindness and treat Ontarians living with inherited retinal disease," said Sylvia Jones, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. "With this first effective treatment for those living with inherited vision loss, this therapy will support individuals suffering from this rare disease and their families."

"This is the good news patients, families and the Ontario vision loss community have been eagerly waiting for. Prior to the arrival of Luxturna, progressive and irreversible vision loss was the inevitable end result for RPE65 retinal degeneration," said Dr. Larissa Moniz, Director, Research and Mission Programs, Fighting Blindness Canada. "We are delighted that the Ontario government has recognized the need for public access and has prioritized public funding for this important therapy that brings new hope and a chance for improved vision."

Inherited retinal dystrophies (IRDs) are a group of rare, progressive, genetic conditions1 that typically manifest in childhood or young adulthood2. IRDs have a profound impact on quality of life and independence and can lead to total blindness. Luxturna is injected into the subretinal space where it provides functioning copies of the RPE65 gene to act in place of the mutated RPE65 genes3.

Story continues

"This is an exciting development and I am thrilled to now have the opportunity to deliver this life-changing therapy to children and adults with who are affected by RPE65 mutations. We now have the chance to treat patients with the goal of preventing disabling vision loss," said Dr. Peter Kertes, the past Ophthalmologist-in-Chief at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and a vitreo-retinal surgeon at Sunnybrook and The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto.

Prior to Luxturna the only treatment options for RPE65-mediated IRDs were supportive4.

"Novartis is proud to play a part in helping to change the outlook on IRDs and, for the first time, giving physicians the tools they need to treat patients in the best possible way. We are pleased that Ontario is making this much-needed treatment option available, bringing optimism and hope to children and young adults in need," said Andrea Marazzi, Country President, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc. "Our goal is to ensure that all eligible patients in Canada have the same opportunity."

About RPE65 mutation-associated inherited retinal dystrophy

Mutations in both copies of the RPE65 gene affect approximately 1 in 200,000 people and can lead to blindness5,6. Early in the disease patients can suffer from night blindness (nyctalopia), loss of light sensitivity, loss of peripheral vision, loss of sharpness or clarity of vision, impaired dark adaptation, and repetitive uncontrolled movements of the eye (nystagmus)6. Patients with mutations in both copies of the RPE65 gene may be diagnosed, for instance, with subtypes of either retinitis pigmentosa or Leber congenital amaurosis7.

About Novartis in Gene Therapy and Rare Disease Novartis is at the forefront of cell and gene therapies designed to halt diseases in their tracks or reverse their progress rather than simply manage symptoms. The company is collaborating on the cell and gene therapy frontier to bring this major leap in personalized medicine to patients with a variety of diseases, including genetic disorders and certain deadly cancers. Cell and gene therapies are grounded in careful research that builds on decades of scientific progress. Following key approvals of cell and gene therapies by health authorities, new treatments are being tested in clinical trials around the world.

About Novartis

Novartis is reimagining medicine to improve and extend people's lives. We deliver high-value medicines that alleviate society's greatest disease burdens through technology leadership in R&D and novel access approaches. In our quest to find new medicines, we consistently rank among the world's top companies investing in research and development. About 106,000 people of more than 140 nationalities work together to bring Novartis products to nearly 800 million people around the world. Find out more at www.novartis.com



In Canada, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc. employs approximately 900 people to serve the evolving needs of patients and the healthcare system and invests over $30 million in R&D yearly in the country. We pride ourselves on our commitment to diversity and inclusion. We are recognized as a Great Place to Work, and ranked among the Top 50 Best Workplaces, 2022 Best Workplaces for Women, for Giving Back, and for Hybrid Work in Canada. For more information, visit www.novartis.ca

Luxturna is a registered trademark of Spark Therapeutics Inc., used under license by Novartis Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc.

References 1. Patel U BM, de Leseleuc L, et al. Voretigene Neparvovec: An Emerging Gene Therapy for the Treatment of Inherited Blindness. CADTH Issues in Emerging Health Technologies Ottawa (ON): Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health; 2016. 2018 (169). 2. Gong J, Cheung S, Fasso-Opie A, Galvin O, Moniz LS, Earle D, Durham T, Menzo J, Li N, Duffy S, Dolgin J, Shearman MS, Fiorani C, Banhazi J, Daly A. The Impact of Inherited Retinal Diseases in the United States of America (US) and Canada from a Cost-of-Illness Perspective. Clin Ophthalmol. 2021 Jul 1;15:2855-2866. doi: 10.2147/OPTH.S313719. PMID: 34234408; PMCID: PMC8257071. 3. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc. Luxturna (voretigene neparvovec) Product Monograph. April 20, 2022. 4. Maguire AM, Bennett J, Aleman EM, Leroy BP, Aleman TS. Clinical Perspective: Treating RPE65-Associated Retinal Dystrophy. Mol Ther. 2021 Feb 3;29(2):442-463. doi: 10.1016/j.ymthe.2020.11.029. Epub 2020 Dec 3. PMID: 33278565; PMCID: PMC7854308. 5. Novartis. Data on file. 2018. 6. Astuti GD et al. Comprehensive genotyping reveals RPE65 as the most frequently mutated gene in Leber congenital amaurosis in Denmark. European Journal of Human Genetics 2016; 24: 107179. 7. Morimura H et al. Mutations in the RPE65 gene in patients with autosomal recessive retinitis pigmentosa or Leber congenital amaurosis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA. 1998; 95: 308893.

SOURCE Novartis Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc.

Cision

View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/March2023/01/c1728.html
Company Logo

iot-node-and-gateway-market-share.jpg

iot-node-and-gateway-market-share.jpg

Dublin, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global IoT Node and Gateway Market Size, Share & Industry Trends Analysis Report By Hardware (Connectivity IC, Processor, Sensor, Memory Device and Logic Device), By End User, By Regional Outlook and Forecast, 2022 - 2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The Global IoT Node and Gateway Market size is expected to reach $596.1 Million by 2028, rising at a market growth of 6.9% CAGR during the forecast period.

Companies Mentioned

Cisco Systems, Inc.

Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company

Dell Technologies, Inc.

Intel Corporation

Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)

Texas Instruments, Inc.

NXP Semiconductors N.V.

Microchip Technology, Inc.

Advantech Co., Ltd.

TE Connectivity Ltd.

The security and filtering of data, protocol conversion, processing, connecting devices, and other critical duties are all carried out by an IoT node and gateway hardware and software. It serves as a junction for them because many peripheral systems comprise devices, controllers, sensors, and the cloud. By using IoT nodes and gateways, extra storage, security, and processing services are thereby offered to the end nodes at a level that is both cost- and power-effective.



Additionally, several communication methods are employed to enable nodes to communicate with one another within the network. As a result, they find use in a variety of end uses, including consumer electronics, retail, oil & gas, automotive, agriculture, BFSI, transportation, healthcare, and other industries. To enable connection with networks of several IoT sensors, IoT nodes and gateways are utilized.



It takes advantage of the installed sensor nodes based on the WiFi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, LoRA, and 6LoWPAN protocols. Using data encryption techniques and security certifications (SSL/TSL), IoT nodes and gateways enable secure IoT. Hardware security for IoT gateway devices is provided by the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) as well as Trusted Execution Environment (TEE).



IoT node and gateway technology provides ramp-IP/ramp-down of IoT sensor networks and is scalable, affordable, and simple to deploy, and configure. All IoT device settings and configurations are kept in the memory of the gateway device. Device security, strong data protection, and network security are all provided by the IoT gateway.



Crypto authentication chips are used in the gateway hardware to implement device identification and device security so that the IoT gateway does not boot from unapproved firmware, hence enhancing security. In order to reduce the cost of data transfer and the processing power required by applications, the IoT gateway has the intelligence to review and determine which data needs to be cached and which data needs to be delivered over the network for processing.



COVID-19 Impact Analysis



The IoT node and gateway market were negatively impacted by COVID-19 as a result of businesses cutting back on their investments in cutting-edge products and services to remain competitive. However, The COVID-19 outbreak has had a substantial impact on the global IoT node and gateway market.

Story continues

Owing to workers staying at home and the inability of existing devices in various warehouses to be transported due to present rules and regulations, the manufacturers have struggled to produce and assemble novel IoT nodes and gateways, which has disrupted the supply chains across the world.



Market Growth Factors

Increasing Penetration Of 5g Technology All Over The World



In industrialized nations, the proportion of people who use the Internet has significantly increased over the past 10 to 15 years. The IoT sector is anticipated to benefit from the future rollout of 5G, the fifth generation of mobile communications. This is basically because 5G networks is expected to significantly boost the functionality and dependability of these connected devices. A faster, more capable network that can meet connectivity needs is expected to be provided by 5G.



Increasing Government Support And Initiatives In Research And Development Of The Iot Technology



A key factor in the development of any new technology or product, research and development activities play a key role in accelerating its introduction of it. There is an increase in the number of research and development activities all over the world in the sector of IoT technology. Moreover, governments are also contributing their part in order to accelerate the process. To increase their productivity, governments all over the world are supporting and sponsoring IoT research and development.



Marketing Restraining Factor:

Concerns Regarding Data Security And Privacy



IoT has enormous potential since it is being adopted at a rapid rate across all end-use industries, including wearables, healthcare, and retail. Data security and privacy concerns, however, are significant business barriers. A significant amount of data is being produced as the number of connected devices grows along with the adoption of IoT in end-use applications. Cybercriminals are able to break into networks and utilize this information to track the behavior of a company's strategy, evaluate a person's health status, and more.

Key Topics Covered:



Chapter 1. Market Scope & Methodology

Chapter 2. Market Overview

2.1 Introduction

2.1.1 Overview

2.1.1.1 Market composition and scenario

2.2 Key Factors Impacting the Market

2.2.1 Market Drivers

2.2.2 Market Restraints



Chapter 3. Strategies deployed in IoT Node and Gateway Market



Chapter 4. Global IoT Node and Gateway Market by Hardware

4.1 Global Connectivity IC Market by Region

4.2 Global Processor Market by Region

4.3 Global Sensor Market by Region

4.4 Global Memory Device Market by Region

4.5 Global Logic Device Market by Region



Chapter 5. Global IoT Node and Gateway Market by End-Use

5.1 Global Consumer Electronics Market by Region

5.2 Global Automotive & Transportation Market by Region

5.3 Global Healthcare Market by Region

5.4 Global Retail Market by Region

5.5 Global Building Automation Market by Region

5.6 Global Manufacturing Market by Region

5.7 Global BFSI Market by Region

5.8 Global Oil & Gas Market by Region

5.9 Global Others Market by Region



Chapter 6. Global IoT Node and Gateway Market by Region



Chapter 7. Company Profiles

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/8ztmdg-iot-node?w=12

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

Attachment

CONTACT: CONTACT: ResearchAndMarkets.com Laura Wood,Senior Press Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./ CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900




DUBLIN, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Social Commerce Market Intelligence and Future Growth Dynamics Databook - 50+ KPIs on Social Commerce Trends by End-Use Sectors, Operational KPIs, Retail Product Dynamics, and Consumer Demographics - Q1 2023 Update" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Research and Markets Logo



According to the publisher, Global social commerce industry is expected to grow by 17.3% on annual basis to reach US$661033.6 million in 2023.



The social commerce industry is expected to grow steadily over the forecast period, recording a CAGR of 12.7% during 2022-2028. The global social commerce GMV will increase from US$661033.6 million in 2023 to reach US$1353208.7 million by 2028.



With the shift in consumer shopping behavior and changing marketing strategies, social media channels have emerged as a leading growth driver for retailers globally. Social shopping, while extremely popular in China, the trend is also gaining steady momentum in many other nations around the world. More brands are working with platforms such as TikTok to build new customer relationships and drive incremental revenue through fun and engaging content.



Amid the rapid growth achieved by TikTok in the space, more players in the online commerce space are increasing their investment to launch social shopping features onto their platforms.

This coupled with the emergence of innovative startups is driving the competitive landscape of the global social commerce market. The growing market size has also resulted in increased investment from private equity and venture capital firms in the sector, and the publisher expects the trend to further continue over the next three to four years.



Chinese social commerce firms are seeking to expand their operations globally to accelerate growth



Social shopping is a mainstream phenomenon in China. Consumers across demographics are buying products through live stream events and social platforms. The trend is also gaining momentum in other nations, and as a result, to capitalize on the growing trend and accelerate their growth, China-based firms are expanding their geographical footprint.- SuperOrdinary, the Chinese social commerce firm, facilitates deals between brands and influencers, helping both to find consumers.

Story continues

Four years after its launch in China, the firm is now taking the business model to the global market, with an initial focus on the United States creators. The firm owns an array of sites and platform that allows creators to earn when they share products on their platforms and profiles.- Kuaishou, another Chinese social commerce firm, is seeking to expand its global footprint as it competes for market share with TikTok, one of the leading players in the global social commerce segment.

The firm is targeting expansion in the Brazilian market and has adopted a localization strategy to better its retention rate and drive increased traffic to the short video-sharing mobile application.



While both SuperOrdinary and Kuaishou are seeking to expand their international footprint, TikTok is also making an increasing investment in the global market to further strengthen its position as the market leader.



Social commerce firms are raising funding rounds globally to scale and grow their business



Amid the growing market size and demand for the innovative social commerce shopping experience, many startups have emerged in the global market. These startups are now raising funding rounds to further accelerate their growth as well as scale their business.

As more innovation takes place in the growing social commerce segment, the publisher expects an increasing amount of venture capital and private equity funds to flow into the global market over the next three to four years.



E-commerce retailers are making further inroads into the social commerce sector amid growing competition



With social platforms becoming a preferred shopping channel for some consumers, e-commerce marketplaces are losing market share to social commerce platforms, such as TikTok and Facebook. Consequently, e-commerce retailers are investing in the space to build their presence in the social commerce sector.- Amazon and Walmart, two of the leading retailers in the United States, are increasingly investing in the space. While Amazon has launched a TikTok-inspired shopping feature, Walmart has launched a platform for creators to sell products, in a major push in the social commerce sector in the United States.

With big giants investing in the space, the publisher expects the competition to further intensify over the next three to four years, which also supports the growth of the global social commerce industry.



Scope



This title is a bundled offering, combining 20 reports (880 tables and 1140 charts).



Country reports in this bundled offering provide in-depth analysis of Social Commerce industry. Below is a summary of key market segments offered at country level:

Ecommerce Industry Market Size and Future Growth Dynamics by Key Performance Indicators, 2019-2028

Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Future Growth Dynamics by Key Performance Indicators, 2019-2028

Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Retail Product Categories, 2019-2028

Clothing & Footwear

Beauty and Personal Care

Food & Grocery

Appliances and Electronics

Home Improvement

Travel

Hospitality

Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by End Use Segment, 2019-2028

B2B

B2C

C2C

Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by End Use Device, 2019-2028

Mobile

Desktop

Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Location, 2019-2028

Domestic

Cross Border

Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Location, 2019-2028

Tier-1 Cities

Tier-2 Cities

Tier-3 Cities

Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Payment Method, 2019-2028

Credit Card

Debit Card

Bank Transfer

Prepaid Card

Digital & Mobile Wallet

Other Digital Payment

Cash

Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Platforms

Video Commerce

Social Network-Led Commerce

Social Reselling

Group Buying

Product Review Platforms

Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Consumer Demographics & Behaviour,2022

By Age

By Income Level

By Gender

Reasons to buy

In-depth Understanding of Social Commerce Market Dynamics: Understand market opportunities and key trends along with forecast (2019-2028).

Insights into Opportunity by end-use sectors - Get market dynamics by end-use sectors to assess emerging opportunity across various end-use sectors.

Develop Market Specific Strategies: Identify growth segments and target specific opportunities to formulate social commerce strategy; assess market specific key trends, drivers, and risks in the industry.

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/m4dcv1-social?w=5

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



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

Cision

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/global-social-commerce-market-intelligence-and-future-growth-dynamics-databook-2023-e-commerce-retailers-are-making-further-inroads-into-the-social-commerce-sector-amid-growing-competition-301759639.html

SOURCE Research and Markets
President Ilham Aliyev decreed amendments to Decree No. 1304 dated March 18, 2021 "On some issues related to the management of urban development activities on the liberated from occupation territories".

The current Decree amends the Decree of the President of Azerbaijan No. 1304 dated March 18, 2021 "On some issues related to the management of urban development activities on the liberated from occupation territories":

- In paragraph 1.1, after the word "construction", add the words "geological exploration of the subsoil and exploitation of mineral deposits, as well as the construction and exploitation of underground structures not related to mining";

- In paragraph 1.3, after the word "construction" add the words "and exploitation of mineral deposits".
Company Logo

Dublin, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Travel Insurance Market By Insurance Cover, By Distribution Channel, By End User, By Age Group: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2021-2031" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

According to this report the global travel insurance market size was valued at $19.24 billion in 2019, and projected to reach $37.0 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 8.6% from 2020 to 2027.

Key Market Players

American International Group, Inc.

Assicurazioni Generali S. P. A.

Aviva

AXA

Zurich

Just Travel Cover

PassportCard

Trailfinders Ltd.

Staysure

Insurefor. com

Travel insurance is a protection policy for tourists and travelers that covers unforeseen losses and damages while traveling. Most travel insurance plans primarily cover emergency medical bills while traveling abroad. However, comprehensive policies usually include trip cancellation, lost luggage, aircraft delays, public liability, as well as other costs. Travel insurance policies are usually available for both international tourists as well as domestic travelers.

Moreover, travel insurance can provide travelers with a sense of security and safety while visiting a foreign land. However, with slowdowns in the travel and hospitality segment caused by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global travel insurance industry experienced significant shrinkage during the period. Although, with the average travel scene returning back on levels of pre-pandemic levels, the travel insurance market is expected to grow in the coming years.



The growth of the global travel insurance market is driven by factors such as the rise in tourism demands post the pandemic. Owing to the COVID-19 outbreak and the government-imposed lockdowns, the travel industry saw a massive decline in the market. However, the global tourism sector has been recovering from the pandemic, and the tourism sector has seen a considerable increase in revenue generation.

Story continues

The increase in revenge spending among people is considered an essential factor in increasing tourism revenue. In addition, government-mandated travel policies further fuel the growth of the travel insurance market. However, the lack of awareness regarding travel insurance policies among users limits the growth of this market. Contrarily, new technological developments in the travel insurance industry are anticipated to provide lucrative growth opportunities to the market in the upcoming years.

With the growth in adoption of smartphones and handheld devices, travel bookings and insurance policies have become more accessible for the common people. Travel agency websites and services have made it easier for consumers to book, transact & cancel tickets and bookings. In addition, the expansion of products and services in a travel insurance policy is expected to provide numerous opportunities for the expansion of the travel insurance market during the forecast period.



The travel insurance market is fragmented on the basis of insurance cover, distribution channel, end user, age group, and region. By insurance cover, it is segmented into single-trip travel insurance, annual multi-trip travel insurance, and long-stay travel insurance. By distribution channel, the market is divided into insurance intermediaries, insurance companies, banks, insurance brokers, and insurance aggregators.

By end user, it is classified into senior citizens, education travelers, business travelers, family travelers, and others. Based on age group, it is segregated into 1-17 years old, 18-30 years old, 31-49 years old, and above 50 years. By region, it is analyzed across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and LAMEA.



Key Benefits

The study provides in-depth analysis of the global travel insurance market along with the current & future trends to illustrate the imminent investment pockets.

Information about key drivers, restrains, & opportunities and their impact analysis on the global travel insurance market size are provided in the report.

Porter's five forces analysis illustrates the potency of buyers and suppliers operating in the industry.

The quantitative analysis of the global travel insurance market from 2022 to 2031 is provided to determine the market potential.



Key Topics Covered:



CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1. Report description

1.2. Key market segments

1.3. Key benefits to the stakeholders

1.4. Research Methodology

1.4.1. Secondary research

1.4.2. Primary research

1.4.3. Analyst tools and models



CHAPTER 2: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

2.1. Key findings of the study

2.2. CXO Perspective



CHAPTER 3: MARKET OVERVIEW

3.1. Market definition and scope

3.2. Key findings

3.2.1. Top investment pockets

3.3. Porter's five forces analysis

3.4. Top player positioning

3.5. Market dynamics

3.5.1. Drivers

3.5.2. Restraints

3.5.3. Opportunities

3.6. COVID-19 Impact Analysis on the market



CHAPTER 4: TRAVEL INSURANCE MARKET, BY INSURANCE COVER

4.1 Overview

4.1.1 Market size and forecast

4.2 Single-Trip Travel Insurance

4.2.1 Key market trends, growth factors and opportunities

4.2.2 Market size and forecast, by region

4.2.3 Market share analysis by country

4.3 Annual Multi-Trip Travel Insurance

4.3.1 Key market trends, growth factors and opportunities

4.3.2 Market size and forecast, by region

4.3.3 Market share analysis by country

4.4 Long-Stay Travel Insurance

4.4.1 Key market trends, growth factors and opportunities

4.4.2 Market size and forecast, by region

4.4.3 Market share analysis by country



CHAPTER 5: TRAVEL INSURANCE MARKET, BY DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL

5.1 Overview

5.1.1 Market size and forecast

5.2 Insurance Intermediaries

5.2.1 Key market trends, growth factors and opportunities

5.2.2 Market size and forecast, by region

5.2.3 Market share analysis by country

5.3 Insurance Companies

5.3.1 Key market trends, growth factors and opportunities

5.3.2 Market size and forecast, by region

5.3.3 Market share analysis by country

5.4 Banks

5.4.1 Key market trends, growth factors and opportunities

5.4.2 Market size and forecast, by region

5.4.3 Market share analysis by country

5.5 Insurance Brokers

5.5.1 Key market trends, growth factors and opportunities

5.5.2 Market size and forecast, by region

5.5.3 Market share analysis by country

5.6 Insurance Aggregators

5.6.1 Key market trends, growth factors and opportunities

5.6.2 Market size and forecast, by region

5.6.3 Market share analysis by country



CHAPTER 6: TRAVEL INSURANCE MARKET, BY END USER

6.1 Overview

6.1.1 Market size and forecast

6.2 Senior Citizens

6.2.1 Key market trends, growth factors and opportunities

6.2.2 Market size and forecast, by region

6.2.3 Market share analysis by country

6.3 Education Travelers

6.3.1 Key market trends, growth factors and opportunities

6.3.2 Market size and forecast, by region

6.3.3 Market share analysis by country

6.4 Business Travelers

6.4.1 Key market trends, growth factors and opportunities

6.4.2 Market size and forecast, by region

6.4.3 Market share analysis by country

6.5 Family Travelers

6.5.1 Key market trends, growth factors and opportunities

6.5.2 Market size and forecast, by region

6.5.3 Market share analysis by country

6.6 Others

6.6.1 Key market trends, growth factors and opportunities

6.6.2 Market size and forecast, by region

6.6.3 Market share analysis by country



CHAPTER 7: TRAVEL INSURANCE MARKET, BY AGE GROUP

7.1 Overview

7.1.1 Market size and forecast

7.2 1-17 Years Old

7.2.1 Key market trends, growth factors and opportunities

7.2.2 Market size and forecast, by region

7.2.3 Market share analysis by country

7.3 18-30 Years Old

7.3.1 Key market trends, growth factors and opportunities

7.3.2 Market size and forecast, by region

7.3.3 Market share analysis by country

7.4 31-49 Years Old

7.4.1 Key market trends, growth factors and opportunities

7.4.2 Market size and forecast, by region

7.4.3 Market share analysis by country

7.5 Above 50

7.5.1 Key market trends, growth factors and opportunities

7.5.2 Market size and forecast, by region

7.5.3 Market share analysis by country



CHAPTER 8: TRAVEL INSURANCE MARKET, BY REGION



CHAPTER 9: COMPANY LANDSCAPE

9.1. Introduction

9.2. Top winning strategies

9.3. Product Mapping of Top 10 Player

9.4. Competitive Dashboard

9.5. Competitive Heatmap

9.6. Key developments



CHAPTER 10: COMPANY PROFILES

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/nswmqg-insurance?w=12

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

CONTACT: CONTACT: ResearchAndMarkets.com Laura Wood,Senior Press Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./ CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900




GURU Organic Energy Corp.

Award-winning brand marketing and digital global leader to drive GURUs global marketing team and sales strategy

MONTREAL, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GURU Organic Energy Corp. (TSX: GURU) (GURU or the Company), Canadas leading organic energy drink brand, is pleased to announce the appointment of Rajaa Grar as Chief Revenue Officer for the Company, effective immediately.



Rajaa Grar is an award-winning brand marketing and digital global leader with close to 20 years of experience. From July 2020 until August 2022, she was Chief Marketing and Digital Officer at Nutrabolt, owner of C4 Energy, where she successfully refocused the companys marketing efforts, resulting in doubling the companys digital and total revenue over a two-year period. Ms. Grar also served as Head of Global Brand Marketing at Paulas Choice Skincare (acquired by Unilever in 2020) where she oversaw social, influencer, digital content and omnichannel sales, led a complete creative rebrand and transformed the 25-year skincare brand into a social media darling, propelling its brand buzz and awareness with young millennials and Gen-Z consumers. Ms. Grar has extensive marketing experience building many of todays most popular CPG and retailer brands, including Amazon, Starbucks, and Coors Light.

Ms. Grar holds a Master of Business Administration from Northwestern University  Kellogg School of Management, a Bachelor of Arts from McGill University in Marketing and International Business, and a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology from the University of Montreal.

We are thrilled that Rajaa has agreed to join the GURU team, said Carl Goyette, President and CEO of GURU. Her achievements as CMO and Chief Digital Officer fit perfectly with what we were looking for to grow our brand and revenue streams in Canada and the U.S. The timing of her appointment could not be better as we enter a pivotal year where marketing and digital will be key to our ongoing brand awareness and revenue generation activities in Canada. In addition, her extensive knowledge of the U.S. energy drink market is a huge asset and could lead us to accelerate the timeline of our growth initiatives in the $18+ billion U.S. market.

Story continues

GURU has all the ingredients it needs to succeed in this competitive but large and growing market  a truly clean, functional, organic energy drink brand with untapped potential in Canada and the U.S. where health and wellness consumer trends are ever growing, a strong management team, a premium distribution partner and a solid balance sheet, said Rajaa Grar, Chief Revenue Officer of GURU. Its success so far in Quebec and in California natural food stores is a strong indicator of what we will be able to achieve in North America. I am eager to jump in and help make it happen.

About GURU Products

All GURU energy drinks are plant-based, high in natural caffeine, free of artificial sweeteners, artificial colours and flavours, and have no preservatives. In addition, all drinks are organic, vegan and gluten free  and the best thing is their amazing taste.

About GURU

GURU Organic Energy Corp. (TSX: GURU) is a dynamic, fast-growing beverage company launched in 1999, when it pioneered the worlds first natural, plant-based energy drink. The Company markets organic energy drinks in Canada and the United States through an estimated distribution network of over 25,000 points of sale, and through guruenergy.com and Amazon. GURU has built an inspiring brand with a clean list of organic plant-based ingredients. Its drinks offer consumers good energy that never comes at the expense of their health. The Company is committed to achieving its mission of cleaning the energy drink industry in Canada and the United States. For more information, go to www.guruenergy.com or follow us @guruenergydrink on Instagram and @guruenergy on Facebook.

For further information, please contact:

GURU Organic Energy

Investors

Carl Goyette, President and CEO

Ingy Sarraf, Chief Financial Officer

514-845-4878

investors@guruenergy.com

Media

Lyla Radmanovich

PELICAN PR

514-845-8763

media@rppelican.ca

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Such forward-looking statements include, but is not limited to, information with respect to our objectives and the strategies to achieve these objectives, as well as information with respect to our beliefs, plans, expectations, anticipations, estimates and intentions. These forward-looking statements are identified by the use of terms and phrases such as may, would, should, could, expect, intend, estimate, anticipate, plan, believe, or continue, the negative of these terms and similar terminology, including references to assumptions, although not all forward-looking statements contain these terms and phrases. Forward-looking statements are provided for the purposes of assisting the reader in understanding the Company and its business, operations, prospects and risks at a point in time in the context of historical and possible future developments and therefore the reader is cautioned that such statements may not be appropriate for other purposes. Forward-looking statements are based upon a number of assumptions and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those that are disclosed in or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the following risk factors, which are discussed in greater detail under the RISK FACTORS section of the annual information form for the year ended October 31, 2022: management of growth; reliance on key personnel; reliance on key customers; changes in consumer preferences; significant changes in government regulation; criticism of energy drink products and/or the energy drink market; economic downturn and continued uncertainty in the financial markets and other adverse changes in general economic or political conditions, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and geopolitical developments, global inflationary pressure or other major macroeconomic phenomena; global or regional catastrophic events; fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; inflation; revenues derived entirely from energy drinks; increased competition; relationships with co-packers and distributors and/or their ability to manufacture and/or distribute GURUs products; demand for GURUs product is somewhat seasonal; relationships with existing customers; changing retail landscape; increases in costs and/or shortages of raw materials and/or ingredients and/or fuel and/or costs of co-packing; failure to accurately estimate demand for its products; history of negative cash flow and no assurance of continued profitability or positive EBITDA; repurchase of common shares; intellectual property rights; maintenance of brand image or product quality; retention of the full-time services of senior management; climate change; litigation; information technology systems; fluctuation of quarterly operating results; risks associated with the PepsiCo distribution agreement; accounting treatment of the PepsiCo Warrants; and conflicts of interest, as well as those other risks factors identified in other materials we have made public, including those filed with Canadian securities regulatory authorities from time to time and which are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Additional risks and uncertainties not currently known to us or that we currently deem to be immaterial could also cause actual results to differ materially from those that are disclosed in or implied by such forward-looking statements. Although the forward-looking statements contained herein is based upon what we believe are reasonable assumptions as at the date they were made, investors are cautioned against placing undue reliance on these statements since actual results may vary from the forward-looking statements. Certain assumptions were made in preparing the forward-looking statements concerning availability of capital resources, business performance, market conditions, and customer demand. Consequently, all of the forward-looking statements contained herein is qualified by the foregoing cautionary statements, and there can be no guarantee that the results or developments that we anticipate will be realized or, even if substantially realized, that they will have the expected consequences or effects on our business, financial condition or results of operation. Unless otherwise noted or the context otherwise indicates, the forward-looking statements contained herein are provided as of the date hereof, and we do not undertake to update or amend such forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable law.




NEWARK, DE / ACCESSWIRE / February 28, 2023 / As per the recent market research conducted by FMI, the global disposable cutlery market is expected to value US$ 2.6 billion by 2033. In 2023, the market size is anticipated to be US$ 1.6 billion. The CAGR during the forecast period is projected to be at 4.9%.

The COVID-19 pandemic has taught the world to focus more on hygiene. Owing to this, the food sector has been laying lots of emphasis on cleanliness. This has led to an increase in the demand for disposable cutlery as these are hygienic and wrapped when sold by manufacturers.

The manufacturers in the market are making use of biodegradable products to put a check on land pollution. Moreover, biodegradable disposable cutleries are affordable as compared to their non-biodegradable counterparts.

The cloud kitchen market has been witnessing massive growth over the past few years. The US$ 65 billion worth of cloud kitchen market presents huge opportunities. The key players who are into cloud kitchens are making bulk purchases of disposable cutlery items. These are being given as complimentary products to the end customers.

Request A Sample PDF: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-8180

The frozen food market is also expected to surge the sales of disposable cutlery during the forecast period. By 2025, the frozen food market is set to exceed US$ 320 billion. The wooden disposable cutleries are preferred as these are sturdy and the same time light as well. However, the adoption of plastic disposable cutleries is expected to challenge the growth as these lead to an increase in pollution.

FMI analysts are of the view that increasing focus on hygiene, application of biodegradable products, growth of cloud kitchen market and frozen food market, and number of other factors are expected to surge the disposable cutlery market during the forecast period.

Key Takeaways:

In 2023, the market size is likely to be at US$ 1.6 billion.

By 2033, the numbers are expected to be at US$ 2.6 billion.

The market is expected to record a CAGR of 4.9%.

On the basis of regional analysis, Asia Pacific is expected to hold the leading market share.

The United States market is expected to secure a CAGR of 3.8%.

The United Kingdom is projected to register a CAGR of 4.2%.

Germany market is anticipated to witness a CAGR of 3.9%.

India market is expected to advance at a CAGR of 7.8%.

China market is projected to post a CAGR of 6.8%.

On the basis of fabrication process, the thermoforming segment is expected to hold the leading market share, and is projected to expand at a CAGR of 4.5%.

On the basis of cutlery type, the dispensed cutlery segment is projected to hold the dominant position in the market, and is anticipated to advance at a CAGR of 4.4%.

Story continues

Customized Research Report As per your Requirements: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/customization-available/rep-gb-8180

Competitive Landscape:

The manufacturers who are operating in the disposable cutlery market are taking important steps toward sustainable development. Thus, there is an increasing effort toward adopting green products. The key players are also making massive investments in mergers and acquisitions to increase their market share. There are also lots of emphasis being laid on making use of the latest technology in order to produce the product of the right dimensions. Manufacturers are investing in research and development activities to focus on quality. The idea is also to invest in marketing and sales activity in order to increase awareness about the product.

In December 2022, Huhtamaki's MSCI score was upgraded to A,' driven by improved management practices and decreased water intensity.

Future Market Insights, Inc., Tuesday, February 28, 2023, Press release picture

Access Full Report: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/disposable-cutlery-market

Disposable Cutlery Market Segmentation

By Product Type:

Spoon (Plastic, Wood)

Fork (Plastic, Wood)

Knife (Plastic, Wood)

By Fabrication Process:

Thermoforming

Die Cutting

Injection Molding

By Cutlery Type:

Wrapped Cutlery

Dispensed Cutlery

By Sales Channel:

Direct Sales

Distributors

E-retail

Retailers (Hypermarkets, Supermarkets, Convenience Stores, Specialty Stores, Discount Stores & Warehouse/Wholesale Clubs)

By End Use:

Food Service Outlets (Hotels, Restaurants & Cafes, Quick Service Restaurants)

Institutional Food Services (Cinemas, Airline & Railway Catering, Schools & Offices, Hospitals)

Household Use

By Region:

North America

Latin America

Europe

East Asia

South Asia

Oceania

The Middle East and Africa

To Buy this Report Visit: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/checkout/8180

Table of Content

1. Executive Summary | Disposable Cutlery Market

1.1. Global Market Outlook

1.2. Demand-side Trends

1.3. Supply-side Trends

1.4. Technology Roadmap Analysis

1.5. Analysis and Recommendations

2. Market Overview

2.1. Market Coverage / Taxonomy

2.2. Market Definition / Scope / Limitations

3. Market Background

3.1. Market Dynamics

3.2. Scenario Forecast

3.3. Opportunity Map Analysis

3.4. Product Life Cycle Analysis

3.5. Supply Chain Analysis

3.6. Investment Feasibility Matrix

3.7. Value Chain Analysis

3.8. PESTLE and Porter's Analysis

3.9. Regulatory Landscape

3.10. Regional Parent Market Outlook

3.11. Production and Consumption Statistics

3.12. Import and Export Statistics

4. Global Market Analysis 2017 to 2022 and Forecast, 2023 to 2033

4.1. Historical Market Size Value (US$ Million) & Volume (Units) Analysis, 2017 to 2022

4.2. Current and Future Market Size Value (US$ Million) & Volume (Units) Projections, 2023 to 2033

Full TOC Cont

Explore wide-ranging Coverage of FMI's Packaging Market Insights Landscape:

Bag-in-Box Market Size: The global bag-in-box market size is projected to reach US$ 3.5 billion in 2023. By 2033, it is expected to generate a valuation of US$ 6.1 billion. A CAGR of 5.7% is expected for the global market from 2023 to 2033.

Pulp Molding Machines Market Share: The pulp molding machine market is estimated to reach a valuation of US$ 740.5 million in 2023. The market is expected to register a CAGR of 3.7% and reach a valuation of US$ 1.1 billion in 2033 from 2023 to 2033.

Aluminum Foil Containers Market Demand: The aluminum foil containers market is expected to reach a valuation of US$ 3.8 billion in 2023 and record a CAGR of 5.5%. The valuation is projected to reach US$ 6.5 billion over the forecast period.

USA Stretch Hood Films Market Growth: The USA stretch hood films market size is expected to reach a valuation of US$ 225.9 million in 2023. It is further anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 5.2% between 2023 and 2033.

Intelligent Packaging Market Analysis: The global intelligent packaging market is expected to account for US$ 23.6 billion in 2023. Total demand for intelligent packaging will rise at 9.0% between 2023 and 2033. By the end of 2033, the global intelligent packaging industry size is set to reach US$ 56.0 billion.

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.

Contact Us:

Future Market Insights Inc.

Christiana Corporate, 200 Continental Drive,

Suite 401, Newark, Delaware - 19713, USA

T: +1-845-579-5705

LinkedIn| Twitter| Blogs | YouTube

For Sales Enquiries: sales@futuremarketinsights.com

SOURCE: Future Market Insights, Inc.





View source version on accesswire.com:

https://www.accesswire.com/741154/Increasing-Focus-on-Hygiene-to-Surge-the-Valuation-of-Disposable-Cutlery-Market-to-US-26-billion-by-2033-Future-Market-Insights-Latest-In-depth-Analysis




Fortune Business Insights

Industrial Laundry Machine Market to Reach USD 3.86 Billion by 2030; Shift Toward Tourism Activities to Propel Market Growth: Fortune Business Insights

Pune, India, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

The global Industrial Laundry Machine market size was USD 2.61 billion in 2022. The market is expected to grow from USD 2.68 billion in 2023 to USD 3.86 billion by 2030 at a CAGR of 5.3% in the 2023-2030 period. This information is provided by Fortune Business Insights, in its report titled, Industrial Laundry Machine Market, 2023-2030. Steady shift of consumers toward tourism activities has increased the demand for laundry services and dry cleaning. Owing to daily requirement of daily cloth cleaning and drying activities, consumers look for proper laundry machines, which is projected to aid market development.

Market Drivers & Restraints:

Technological Advancements in the Laundry Services to Propel the Demand for Product

Technological advancements in the laundry services are anticipated to drive the Industrial Laundry Machine Market growth. Post-pandemic, consumers increased the usage of chemicals, detergents, and other chemicals for washing cycles. Integration of advanced features such as AI for enhancing the capabilities in easing interaction that helps in improving customer experience. Such features help in the adoption of laundry machines and sales of such machines, which are set to expand the market growth.

However, higher investments and high costs of maintenance and shortage of resources are expected to hamper the market growth.

Get a Free Sample Research PDF: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/request-sample-pdf/industrial-laundry-market-105371

Report Scope and Segmentation:



Report Coverage Details Forecast Period 2023-2030 Forecast Period 2023-2030 CAGR 5.3% 2030 Value Projection USD 3.86 billion Base Year 2022 Market Size in 2022 USD 2.61 billion Historical Data 2019-2021 No. of Pages 120 Segments covered Type, Application, Region Growth Drivers Technological Advancements Across Laundry Services to Trigger Market Growth

COVID-19 Impact:

Decline in Sales of Manufactures During Pandemic Led to Decline in the Market Progress

The COVID-19 pandemic affected the sales of washing machine manufacturers. Supply chain interruptions and halt in manufacturing activities directly impacted the sales of industrial laundry machines, which restrained the growth of the market. Net sales of Girbau dropped by 38% in 2020 compared to 2019. However, the recovery of the market is attributed to the shift toward traveling & tourism to hoist demand for laundry equipment.

Story continues

Click here to get the short-term and long-term impact of COVID-19 on this market. Please visit: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/industrial-laundry-market-105371

Segmentation of Report:

Industrial Washer to Lead the Segment Due to Adoption in Numerous Sectors

On the basis of type, the market is divided into industrial washer, industrial dryer, industrial cleaner, industrial extractor, and others (garment finishing). Industrial washer is anticipated to lead due to increasing adoption of such systems in various sectors such as hospitality, automotive, and marine. Industrial dryer is also set to have a strong growth as it is largely utilized in hospitality, food & beverages, and automotive sectors. Others segment includes ironing and garment finishing and is set to have decent market growth due to higher demand for ironing clothes from healthcare, hospitality, and marine industries.

Hospitality Sector to Lead the Segment Due to Increasing Demand for Such Machines

On the basis of application, the market is divided into hospitality, healthcare, food and beverage, automotive, and others (marine). Hospitality sector to have highest CAGR due to increasing demand for machines in hotels, restaurants, and others. Healthcare and automotive sectors are set to have moderate growth due to increasing health concerns, which increased the usage of detergents in industrial applications.

Regional Insights:



Asia Pacific to Lead Market Share Due to Rising Health Concerns

Asia Pacific is expected to have a high part in the Industrial Laundry Machine Market share due to rising health concerns. Post pandemic, consumers have been conscious about cleanliness which led to rise in the usage of commercial washing solutions. Ease in lockdown restrictions led to the shift of consumers to buy industrial washing machines. China dominates the region with highest CAGR as it has largest working population and they prefer to wash their clothes daily.

North America to have a substantial growth due to message updates and AI integration. In addition, consumers need more smart solutions to give live updates about the whole laundry process.

Competitive Landscape:

Integration of IoT Solutions in the Product to Propel Market Development

The market is highly fragmented with various industrial laundry players such as Kannegiesser, MAG Laundry Equipment, and others. Market players have been offering IoT solutions that allow end-users to control and manage the time of wash cycles using applications. In November 2022, Girbau, a leader in laundry solutions, presented an innovative self-service model named La Mamorta in the laundry market. The facility has cutting-edge technologies that offer a one-stop solution for self-service, delivery, and wet cleaning. Vega Systems, a leading washing solution provider, offers technological innovations such as VEGA Finishing Technology, VEGA Washing Technology, VEGA Garment Technology, and VEGA Material Handling Technology.

Key Industry Development:

October 2022- Jensen partnered with CWS Healthcare for the development of 100% automated laundry solution at the CWS premise. This new laundry facility is focused on disinfected washing process and conserving resources.

Speak with Analyst: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/speak-to-analyst/industrial-laundry-market-105371

List of Key Players Profiled in the Report

MAG Laundry Equipment (U.K.)

Laundrylux Inc. (U.S.)

Herbert Kannegiesser GmbH (Germany)

Vega Systems Group (Netherlands)

Lavatec Laundry Technology GmbH (Germany)

Girbau Group (Spain)

Jensen Group (Belgium)

Ferrotec Holding Corporation (Japan)

Domus (Italy)

Pellerin Milnor Corporation (U.S.)

Table Of Content:



Introduction Definition, By Segment Research Methodology/Approach Data Sources

Executive Summary

Market Dynamics Macro and Micro Economic Indicators Drivers, Restraints, Opportunities and Trends Impact of COVID-19

Competition Landscape Business Strategies Adopted by Key Players Consolidated SWOT Analysis of Key Players Global Industrial Laundry Machine Market Key Players Market Share Insights and Analysis, 2022

Global Industrial Laundry Machine Market Size Estimates and Forecasts, By Segments, 2019-2030 Key Findings By Type (USD) Industrial Washer Industrial Dryer Industrial Cleaner Industrial Extractor Others (Garment Finishing, Ironing, etc.) By Application (USD) Hospitality Healthcare Food & Beverages Automotive Others (Marine, etc.) By Region (USD) North America Europe Asia Pacific South America Middle East and Africa

North America Industrial Laundry Machine Market Size Estimates and Forecasts, By Segments, 2019-2030 Key Findings



Continued

Ask For Customization: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/ask-for-customization/industrial-laundry-market-105371

Read Related Reports:



Bakery Processing Equipment Market Size, Share & COVID-19 Impact Analysis

Fertilizer Spreader Market Size, Share & Trends

Cooling Towers Market Size, Share & Forecast

Outdoor Heating Market Share, Size & Growth

North America HVAC System Market Size, Share

About Us:

Fortune Business Insights delivers accurate data and innovative corporate analysis, helping organizations of all sizes make appropriate decisions. We tailor novel solutions for our clients, assisting them to address various challenges distinct to their businesses. Our aim is to empower them with holistic market intelligence, providing a granular overview of the market they are operating in.

Contact Us:

Fortune Business Insights Pvt. Ltd.

US: +1 424 253 0390

UK: +44 2071 939123

APAC: +91 744 740 1245

Email: sales@fortunebusinessinsights.com




DUBLIN, Feb. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Infection Surveillance Solutions Market by Software (On-Premise, Web-Based), Services (Product Support & Maintenance, Implementation, Training & Consulting), End User (Hospitals, Long-Term Care Facilities), and Region - Global Forecast to 2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Research and Markets Logo

The infection surveillance solutions market is anticipated to grow from an estimated USD 577 million in 2022 to USD 1,100 million in 2027, at a CAGR of 13.8%

The market has a promising growth potential due to increased demand the increasing prevalence of hospital-acquired infections, increasing surgical procedures, and rising healthcare expenditure among other factors. However, the Shortage of skilled healthcare IT professionals and Data security concerns are expected to limit the growth of this market to a certain extent.

Training & Consulting Services: The fastest-growing segment of the infection surveillance services market, by type.

Training & consulting services are expected to witness the fastest growth in the infection surveillance services market during the forecast. Training and consulting services increase healthcare providers' awareness of the latest infection surveillance solutions available in the market.

Most large and mid-size companies actively provide technical assistance to hospitals, independent laboratories, and physician office laboratories that use infection surveillance software. Factors such as the increasing importance of value-based care, technological advancements, and growing consolidation in healthcare are driving the market for consulting services.

The Large Hospitals Segment is anticipated to be the largest infection surveillance solutions market for hospitals, by type, during the forecast period.

Based on type (the number of beds), hospitals are segmented into large (>450 beds), medium-sized (250-449 beds), and small (<249 beds) hospitals. The large hospitals segment accounted for the largest share of the infection surveillance solutions market for hospitals.

Story continues

The rising number of private hospitals in China and other developing countries is expected to drive the demand for technologically advanced HCIT solutions deployed in ICUs and other departments of hospitals. Furthermore, the complexity of managing HAIs rises with the size of hospitals, as more patients need to be monitored continuously; this is the primary reason for the large share of this end-user segment.

Europe accounted for the second-largest share in the infection surveillance solutions market during the forecast period.

Europe accounted for the second-largest share of the infection surveillance solutions market during the forecast period. Growth in the European market can be attributed to the increasing adoption of HCIT solutions, the increasing incidence of HAIs, the increasing number of surgeries, and the rising geriatric population.

The increasing need to improve patient outcomes has contributed to the adoption of infection surveillance solutions across the region. Several policies and guidelines have been implemented in Europe as infection prevention strategies for hospitals and long-term care facilities which are propelling the demand for infection surveillance solutions in the region.

Competitive landscape

The prominent players in this market are Becton, Dickinson and Company (US), Premier, Inc. (US), Wolters Kluwer N.V. (Netherlands), Cerner Corporation (US), Baxter International Inc. (US), GOJO Industries, Inc. (US), Clinisys (US), Deb Group Ltd. (UK), BioVigil Healthcare Systems (US), RLDatix (UK), Merative (US), Vecna Technologies, Inc. (US), VigiLanz Corporation (US), and VIZZIA Technologies (US).

Premium Insights

Growing Incidence of Hospital-Acquired Infections to Drive Market Growth

Hospitals Held the Largest Share of the North American Market in 2021

China to Register Highest Revenue Growth from 2022 to 2027

North America to Dominate Global Market During Forecast Period

Developing Markets to Register Higher Growth Rates During Forecast Period

Market Dynamics

Industry Trends

Shift Toward Web-Based Solutions

Ai-Powered Surveillance Software

Shift Toward Automation in Healthcare Facilities

Infection Surveillance Using Mobile Application Tools

Market Drivers

Increasing Prevalence of Hospital-Acquired Infections

Increasing Adoption of Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs

Increasing Number of Surgeries

Growing Geriatric Population and Increasing Incidence of Chronic Diseases

Growing Investments to Improve Healthcare Systems

Market Restraints

High Cost of Deployment for Small Healthcare Organizations

Reluctance Among Medical Professionals to Adopt Advanced Healthcare It Solutions

Market Opportunities

Increasing Consolidation in Healthcare Industry

Cloud-Based Software Solutions

Emerging Markets

Market Challenges

Shortage of Skilled Healthcare It Professionals

Data Security Concerns

Company Profiles



Key Players

Becton, Dickinson and Company

Cerner Corporation

Premier, Inc.

Baxter International Inc.

Wolters Kluwer N.V.

Merative

Ecolab

Biomerieux Sa

Gojo Industries, Inc.

Rldatix

Vigilanz Corporation

Deb Group Ltd

Clinisys

Biovigil Healthcare Systems

Vecna Technologies

Harris Healthcare

Perahealth

Medexter Healthcare

Centrak

Ckm Healthcare Incorporated

Other Players

Asolva Inc.

Pointclickcare

Vitalacy Inc.

Stanley Healthcare

Vizzia Technologies

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/6ecdao

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.



Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



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

Cision

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/infection-surveillance-solutions-market-report-2023-product-support--maintenance-implementation-training--consulting---global-forecast-to-2027-301758663.html

SOURCE Research and Markets
Innovator Capital Management

Defined Outcome ETFs BMAR, PMAR and UMAR seek to provide SPY exposure up to a cap, with downside buffer levels of 9%, 15% or 30% over one-year Outcome Period starting March 1st, 2023

CHICAGO, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Innovator Capital Management, LLC (Innovator), the Defined Outcome ETFs pioneer, today announced the upside caps and return profiles for the March series of the U.S. Equity Buffer ETFs  Innovator U.S. Equity Buffer ETF  March (Cboe: BMAR), Innovator U.S. Equity Power Buffer ETF  March (Cboe: PMAR) and Innovator U.S. Equity Ultra Buffer ETF  March (Cboe: UMAR)  which completed their third annual outcome period and reset at the end of the month. The 36 total ETFs in the flagship U.S. Equity Buffer ETF lineup seek to provide investors with upside participation, to a cap, in Large-cap U.S. stocks via options on the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) with buffers against market losses of 9%, 15% or 30% over one-year periods. Three Innovator U.S. Equity Buffer ETFs reset each month. With the stock market drawdown that commenced in 2022, the March series of Innovators U.S. Equity Buffer ETFs have shielded investors who have held shares since the beginning of the current outcome period from a portion of SPY losses to date.



Return profiles for the Innovator U.S. Equity Buffer ETFs  March Series, as of 3/01/2023

INNOVATOR BUFFER ETFS Ticker ETF Name  Buffer Level Cap* Reference

Asset Downside Buffer** Outcome

Period BMAR U.S. Equity Buffer ETF  9% 21.24% SPY 0% to -9% 12 mos PMAR U.S. Equity Power Buffer ETF  15% 15.96% SPY 0% to -15% 12 mos UMAR U.S. Equity Ultra Buffer ETF  30% 14.67% SPY -5% to -35% 12 mos

* Cap refers to the maximum potential return, before fees and expenses and any shareholder transaction fees and any extraordinary expenses, if held over the full Outcome Period. **Buffer refers to the amount of downside protection the fund seeks to provide, before fees and expenses, over the full Outcome Period. Outcome Period is the intended length of time over which the defined outcomes are sought. Upon commencement of the Outcome Period, the Caps can be found on a daily basis via www.innovatoretfs.com.

Story continues

The March series of the Innovator U.S. Equity Buffer ETFs (BMAR; PMAR; UMAR) reset annually and can be held indefinitely. For additional information, visit the Innovator Defined Outcome ETF Pricing Tool.

Innovator Defined Outcome ETFs - Benefits to Advisors

Pioneer and creator of Defined Outcome ETFs with 80 ETFs and $11.4 billion AUM across family 1 , as well as 6 Managed Outcome ETFs with $325 million in AUM

Tax-efficient exposure 2 to five broad equity benchmarks with buffers against loss (Large-cap U.S. Equity (SPY), Growth (QQQ), Small-Cap U.S. Equity (IWM), International Developed (EFA), Emerging Markets (EEM)), and the 20+ Year U.S. Treasury Market (TLT); as well as the Accelerated ETFs, the worlds first ETFs to seek to offer a multiple of the upside return of a reference asset, up to a cap, with approximately single exposure on the downside

Reset annually or quarterly and can be held indefinitely as core holdings

Innovators Defined Outcome ETF lineup has amassed 212 outcome period completions with the ETFs successfully resetting for the coming outcome period 3

Monthly issuance on SPY with three buffer levels (9,15, or 30%)



Innovator's Defined Outcome ETFs are the subject of a patent application filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

The Funds have characteristics unlike many other traditional investment products and may not be suitable for all investors. For more information regarding whether an investment in the Fund is right for you, please see Investor Suitability in the prospectus.

About Innovator Defined Outcome ETFs

Defined Outcome ETFs are the worlds first ETFs that seek to provide investors with known ranges of future investment outcomes prior to investing. These outcome ranges include multiple and single upside exposure, to a cap, with defined levels of downside risk with buffers and floors over a set amount of time. The Innovator Defined Outcome ETFs cover a large spectrum of domestic and international equities and bonds. Innovators category-creating Defined Outcome ETF family includes Buffer ETFs, Stacker ETFs and Floor ETFs.

The Buffer ETFs seek to provide the upside performance of broadly recognized benchmarks (e.g., SPY, QQQ, IWM, EFA, and EEM, as well as TLT) to a cap, with built-in buffers, over an outcome period of one year. The ETFs reset annually and can be held indefinitely.

Each Buffer ETF in Innovators Defined Outcome ETF suite seeks to provide a defined exposure to a broad market benchmark where the downside buffer level, upside growth potential to a cap, and Outcome Period are all known, prior to investing. In 2019, Innovator began expanding its suite of U.S. Equity Buffer ETFs into a monthly series to provide investors more opportunities to purchase shares as close to the beginning of their respective Outcome Periods as possible.

Investors can purchase shares of a previously listed Defined Outcome ETF throughout the entire Outcome Period, obtaining a current set of defined outcome parameters, which are disclosed daily through a web tool available at: http://innovatoretfs.com/define.

Innovator is focused on delivering defined outcome-based solutions inside the benefit-rich ETF wrapper, retaining many of the features that have contributed to the success of structured products4 (e.g., downside buffer levels, upside participation, defined outcome parameters), but with the added benefits of transparency, liquidity, the elimination of credit risk5 and lower costs afforded by the ETF structure.

About Innovator Capital Management, LLC

Awarded ETF.com's "ETF Issuer of the Year - 2019"*, Innovator Capital Management LLC (Innovator) is an SEC-registered investment advisor (RIA) based in Wheaton, IL. Formed in 2017, the firm is headed by ETF visionaries Bruce Bond and John Southard, founders of one of the largest ETF providers in the world. Bond and Southard reentered the asset management industry to bring to market the Defined Outcome ETFs, first-of-their-kind investment products that they felt would change the investing landscape and bring more certainty to the financial planning process. Innovators category-creating Defined Outcome ETF family includes Buffer ETFs, Floor ETFs, Accelerated ETFs and Managed Outcome ETFs. Since the 2018 launch of their flagship Innovator U.S. Equity Buffer ETF suite, Innovators solutions have helped advisors construct portfolios and manage risk to fit their clients unique financial needs. Built on a foundation of innovation and driven by a commitment to help investors better control their financial outcomes, Innovator is leading the Defined Outcome ETF Revolution. For additional information, visit www.innovatoretfs.com.

About Milliman Financial Risk Management LLC

Milliman Financial Risk Management LLC (Milliman FRM) is a global leader in financial risk management to the retirement industry, providing investment advisory, hedging, and consulting services on approximately $161 billion in global assets as of December 31, 2022. Milliman FRM is one of the largest and fastest-growing subadvisors of ETFs. For more information about Milliman FRM, visit https://frm.milliman.com/en/.

Media Contact

Paul Damon

+1 (802) 999-5526

paul@keramas.net

Interim Period Shareholders

Unlike structured notes, which offer limited liquidity, Innovator Defined Outcome ETFs trade throughout the day on an exchange, like a stock. As a result, investors purchasing shares of a Fund after its launch date may achieve a different payoff profile than those who entered the Fund on day one. Innovator recognizes this as a benefit of the Funds and provides a web-based tool that allows investors to know, in real-time throughout the trading day, their potential defined outcome return profile before they invest, based on the current ETF price and the Outcome Period remaining. Innovators web tool can be accessed at http://www.innovatoretfs.com/define.

Although each Fund seeks to achieve the defined outcomes stated in its investment objective, there is no guarantee that it will do so. The returns that the Funds seek to provide do not include the costs associated with purchasing shares of the Fund and certain expenses incurred by the Fund.

Investing involves risks. Loss of principal is possible. The Funds face numerous market trading risks, including active markets risk, authorized participation concentration risk, buffered loss risk, cap change risk, capped upside return risk, correlation risk, liquidity risk, management risk, market maker risk, market risk, non-diversification risk, operation risk, options risk, trading issues risk, upside participation risk and valuation risk. For a detail list of fund risks see the prospectus.

Foreign and Emerging Markets Risk. Non-U.S. securities and Emerging Markets are subject to higher volatility than securities of domestic issuers due to possible adverse political, social or economic developments, restrictions on foreign investment or exchange of securities, lack of liquidity, currency exchange rates, excessive taxation, government seizure of assets, different legal or accounting standards, and less government supervision and regulation of securities exchanges in foreign countries.

Technology Sector Risk. Companies in the technology sector are often smaller and can be characterized by relatively higher volatility in price performance when compared to other economic sectors. They can face intense competition, which may have an adverse effect on profit margins.

Small-Cap Risk. Small-cap companies may be more volatile and susceptible to adverse developments than their mid- and large-cap counterpart. In addition, the small-cap companies may be less liquid than larger companies.

FLEX Options Risk. The Fund will utilize FLEX Options issued and guaranteed for settlement by the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC). In the unlikely event that the OCC becomes insolvent or is otherwise unable to meet its settlement obligations, the Fund could suffer significant losses. Additionally, FLEX Options may be less liquid than standard options. In a less liquid market for the FLEX Options, the Fund may have difficulty closing out certain FLEX Options positions at desired times and prices. The values of FLEX Options do not increase or decrease at the same rate as the reference asset and may vary due to factors other than the price of reference asset.

These Funds are designed to provide point-to-point exposure to the price return of the Reference Asset via a basket of Flex Options. As a result, the ETFs are not expected to move directly in line with the Reference Asset during the interim period.

Investors purchasing shares after an outcome period has begun may experience very different results than funds' investment objective. Initial outcome periods are approximately 1-year beginning on the funds' inception date. Following the initial outcome period, each subsequent outcome period will begin on the first day of the month the fund was incepted. After the conclusion of an outcome period, another will begin.

Fund shareholders are subject to an upside return cap (the "Cap") that represents the maximum percentage return an investor can achieve from an investment in the funds' for the Outcome Period, before fees and expenses. If the Outcome Period has begun and the Fund has increased in value to a level near to the Cap, an investor purchasing at that price has little or no ability to achieve gains but remains vulnerable to downside risks. Additionally, the Cap may rise or fall from one Outcome Period to the next. The Cap, and the Fund's position relative to it, should be considered before investing in the Fund. The Funds' website, www.innovatoretfs.com, provides important Fund information as well information relating to the potential outcomes of an investment in a Fund on a daily basis.

The Funds with buffer mechanisms only seek to provide shareholders that hold shares for the entire Outcome Period with their respective buffer level against Reference Asset losses during the Outcome Period. You will bear all Reference Asset losses exceeding 9, 15 or 30%. Depending upon market conditions at the time of purchase, a shareholder that purchases shares after the Outcome Period has begun may also lose their entire investment. For instance, if the Outcome Period has begun and the Fund has decreased in value beyond the pre-determined buffer, an investor purchasing shares at that price may not benefit from the buffer. Similarly, if the Outcome Period has begun and the Fund has increased in value, an investor purchasing shares at that price may not benefit from the buffer until the Fund's value has decreased to its value at the commencement of the Outcome Period.

THE CORPORATIONS MAKE NO WARRANTIES AND BEAR NO LIABILITY WITH RESPECT TO THE PRODUCT(S).

Cboe Global Markets, Inc., and its affiliates do not recommend or make any representation as to possible Benefits from any securities, futures or investments, or third-party products or services. Cboe Global Markets, Inc., is not affiliated with S&P DJI, Milliman, or Innovator Capital Management. Investors should undertake their own due diligence regarding their securities, futures and investment practices.

Cboe Global Markets, Inc., and its affiliates make no warranty, expressed or implied, including, without limitation, any warranties as of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, completeness or timeliness, or as to the results to be obtained by recipients of the products.

* ETF.coms editorial team chose the finalists and then the ETF.com Awards Selection Committee, an independent panel comprised of fifteen of the ETF industrys leading analysts, consultants and investors, decided the winners.

Innovator ETFs, Defined Outcome ETF, Buffer ETF, Enhanced ETF, Define Your Future, Leading the Defined Outcome ETF Revolution and other service marks and trademarks related to these marks are the exclusive property of Innovator Capital Management, LLC.

The Funds' investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses should be considered carefully before investing. The prospectus contains this and other important information, and it may be obtained at innovatoretfs.com. Read it carefully before investing.

Innovator ETFs are distributed by Foreside Fund Services, LLC.

Copyright  2023 Innovator Capital Management, LLC.

800.208.5212

_____________________________________________________

1 ETF count and AUM in all Innovator Defined Outcome ETFs as of 2.17.2023, excluding Managed Outcome ETFs BUFF, BUFB, BSTP, PSTP, XUSP, SFLR

2 ETFs use creation units, which allow for the purchase and sale of assets in the fund collectively. Consequently, ETFs usually generate fewer capital gain distributions overall, which can make them somewhat more tax-efficient than mutual funds.

3 As of 3.01.2023

4 Structured notes and structured annuities are financial instruments designed and created to afford investors exposure to an underlying asset through a derivative contract. It is important to note that these ETFs are not structured notes or structured annuities.

5 Defined Outcome ETFs are not backed by the faith and credit of an Issuing institution, so they are not exposed to credit risk.








DUBLIN, Feb. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Livestock Monitoring Global Market Report 2022" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Research and Markets Logo

This report provides strategists, marketers and senior management with the critical information they need to assess the global livestock monitoring market.

The global livestock monitoring market is expected to grow from $2.41 billion in 2021 to $2.76 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.60%. The livestock monitoring market is expected to grow to $5.18 billion in 2026 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.03%.



Reasons to Purchase

Gain a truly global perspective with the most comprehensive report available on this market covering 12+ geographies.

Understand how the market is being affected by the coronavirus and how it is likely to emerge and grow as the impact of the virus abates.

Create regional and country strategies on the basis of local data and analysis.

Identify growth segments for investment.

Outperform competitors using forecast data and the drivers and trends shaping the market.

Understand customers based on the latest market research findings.

Benchmark performance against key competitors.

Utilize the relationships between key data sets for superior strategizing.

Suitable for supporting your internal and external presentations with reliable high quality data and analysis

Major players in the livestock monitoring market are DeLaval Inc, Afimilk Ltd, Boumatic, Dairymaster, Lely, Fullwood Packo Ltd, GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft, Communications Group Lethbridge, Sensaphone, SUM-IT Computer Systems, SCR Dairy, Fancom BV, Infovet, Nedap NV, Allflex Livestock Intelligence and Antelliq Corporation.



The livestock monitoring market consists of sales of livestock monitoring system by entities (organizations, partnerships, and sole proprietors) that is used to keep a check on farm animals remotely. Livestock monitoring system tracks and monitors the activities such as eating, drinking, resting, fertility, temperature, and movement patterns of farm animals such as cattle.

Story continues

This tracking system helps identify any issues faced by the livestock before they escalate and causes harm to them. Various tools and technologies used in livestock monitoring include a camera, microphones, thermometers, accelerometers, IoT, machine learning, deep vision, and others.



The main types of livestock in the livestock monitoring market are cattle, poultry, swine, equine and others. The cattle livestock monitoring solutions used for monitoring a group of animals including cows, and buffalos. Livestock monitoring uses sensor technology to monitor and ensure the safety of cattle.

Livestock monitoring is offered through hardware, software and services and have application in milk harvesting management, heat detection monitoring, feeding management, heat stress management, health monitoring management and sorting and weighing management.



North America was the largest region in the livestock monitoring market in 2021. The regions covered in the livestock monitoring market report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East and Africa.



This livestock monitoring 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 increasing focus on early disease detection and real-time monitoring in livestock is expected to significantly drive the growth of the livestock monitoring market. The focus on real-time monitoring and early disease detection are crucial for providing proper care for the animals and helping maintain the animal's good health. With sensor technologies aids in real-time tracking and monitoring any issues in livestock can be identified so that they can be rectified as early as possible.

Technological advancement such as heard management systems is a key trend gaining popularity in the livestock monitoring market. Farmers can keep their cows fresh and healthy by using herd management systems.

The herd management system is an advanced system with a single tag that uses software modules to analyze the real-time behavior of livestock. These devices allow farmers to increase milk output while never overworking the cow. It is a less invasive method of keeping track of cows, as it does not need branding or more tagging.



The countries covered in the livestock monitoring market report are Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, South Korea, UK and USA.



Key Topics Covered:



1. Executive Summary



2. Livestock Monitoring Market Characteristics



3. Livestock Monitoring Market Trends And Strategies



4. Impact Of COVID-19 On Livestock Monitoring



5. Livestock Monitoring Market Size And Growth

5.1. Global Livestock Monitoring Historic Market, 2016-2021, $ Billion

5.1.1. Drivers Of The Market

5.1.2. Restraints On The Market

5.2. Global Livestock Monitoring Forecast Market, 2021-2026F, 2031F, $ Billion

5.2.1. Drivers Of The Market

5.2.2. Restraints On the Market



6. Livestock Monitoring Market Segmentation

6.1. Global Livestock Monitoring Market, Segmentation By Livestock Type, Historic and Forecast, 2016-2021, 2021-2026F, 2031F, $ Billion

Cattle

Poultry

Swine

Equine

Others

6.2. Global Livestock Monitoring Market, Segmentation By Offering, Historic and Forecast, 2016-2021, 2021-2026F, 2031F, $ Billion

Hardware

Software

Services

6.3. Global Livestock Monitoring Market, Segmentation By Application, Historic and Forecast, 2016-2021, 2021-2026F, 2031F, $ Billion

Milk Harvesting Management

Heat Detection Monitoring

Feeding Management

Heat Stress Management

Health Monitoring Management

Sorting And Weighing Management

7. Livestock Monitoring Market Regional And Country Analysis

7.1. Global Livestock Monitoring Market, Split By Region, Historic and Forecast, 2016-2021, 2021-2026F, 2031F, $ Billion

7.2. Global Livestock Monitoring Market, Split By Country, Historic and Forecast, 2016-2021, 2021-2026F, 2031F, $ Billion

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/a20oeb

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.



Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



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

Cision

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/insights-on-the-livestock-monitoring-global-market-to-2031-increasing-focus-on-early-disease-detection-and-real-time-monitoring-in-livestock-drives-growth-301758558.html

SOURCE Research and Markets
Firm maintains strong safety record with results including Aviation, Railroad, Energy and Government Projects.

ARLINGTON, Texas, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Kinley Construction has extended its continued outstanding construction industry safety reputation, officially surpassing 1.7 million hours of incident-free industrial construction work since July, 2017.

Built On Relationships Since 1909.

"Safety is the top priority for our company. We're very proud of the long and outstanding safety record our employees have upheld through hard work and compassion for others," Jimmy Kinley, CEO of Kinley Construction, stated, "We realize with safety, there is no 'finish line.' We must be diligent in emphasizing, focusing and practicing safety every day to ensure the well-being of our employees and their families. For that reason, every employee in our company has the authority to stop work for any reason. We encourage them to use that authority whenever necessary."

Kinley has delivered a consistently excellent reputation and record in safety, covering fueling infrastructure projects in aviation, rail, energy, and government. Since 2018, Kinley has recorded an annual Experience Modification Rating (EMR), a standard measurement for construction safety, of well under the industry-accepted rating of one/1. Furthermore, the firm has recorded a 0/zero rating for both Total Case Incident Rate and OSHA's DART rate (Days Away, Restricted or Transferred).

"I'm pleased the organization has performed so well as it's reflective of our commitment to safety," said Roy Crocker, Corporate Safety Manager for Kinley Construction. "However, you can never be satisfied with your safety program or rest on your record. Safety requires constant attention, training, and keen awareness to maintain the highest level of performance. Safety is every minute of every day. There are no off days. Our employees and their families literally depend on a safe working environment."

For more information about Kinley Construction, visit www.kinleyconstruction.com/.

Story continues

About Kinley Construction

The Kinley family has been in the oil and gas industry for six generations and over 110 years. Today, Kinley Construction is a premier industrial fueling contractor for the aviation, railroad, government and energy industries, specializing in construction, service and maintenance of midstream terminals, hydrant fueling facilities, bulk storage facilities, diesel fueling platforms, and industrial waste systems as well as service, maintenance and parts for rotating equipment.

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/kinley-construction-surpasses-1-7-million-hours-of-incident-free-industrial-fueling-work-301759897.html

SOURCE Kinley Construction
Celebrating its 10-year anniversary, Kueski continues to expand financial access across Mexico with its tailored product ecosystem

GUADALAJARA, MEXICO / ACCESSWIRE / March 1, 2023 / Kueski , the online financial ecosystem for consumers in Mexico, today announced that it has disbursed a record 10 million loans. With more than 1.8 million unique customers and more than $1.6 billion in loan transactions, this marks an important milestone for the company on its mission to expand access to traditional financial services and products for Mexican consumers.

Founded in 2012, Kueski has become a market leader in Mexico for buy now, pay later (BNPL) and online consumer lending. The company uses AI and Machine Learning-powered credit decisioning models to expand access to financial products and now serves customers via Kueski Cash, a cash loan product, and Kueski Pay, its BNPL solution. Both products continue to experience substantial growth:

Kueski Cash: Kueski disbursed almost half a million loans since the beginning of 2023. This product has proven to be a valuable and popular resource for Mexican consumers who typically use the capital for investment, monthly expenses, health, and education.

Kueski Pay: Kueski's online and brick-and-mortar retailer network across Mexico is approaching 10,000 merchants. More than 70% of these merchant partners declare they have attracted new customers by offering Kueski Pay, and over 80% state that they perceive their credibility has increased by incorporating this product as a payment method.

"Since Kueski's inception over a decade ago, we have been committed to improving the financial lives of consumers. It is incredible to see that we have now had an impact on 1.8 million customers, with most of them choosing Kueski for their first-ever financial experience," said Adalberto Flores, Founder and CEO of Kueski. "Our goal is to be the go-to provider of innovative financial solutions that meet consumers where they are, no matter how far along on their financial journey."

Story continues

Kueski is mission-driven to improve the financial lives of Mexicans, and the data shows the company is succeeding. More than 50% of users say Kueski has provided them with their first financial services experience, and through the use of the Kueski Cash and Kueski Pay products, more than 40% of customers say that they have been able to access other types of financial products thanks to the credit history built using Kueski.

In addition to this loan landmark, Kueski celebrated its 10-year anniversary in December of 2022 and, this year, will once again be a Main Sponsor for Mexico's "HOT SALE," the country's largest sales campaign. "HOT SALE" is organized by the Mexican Association of Online Sales and offers access to discounts and exclusive promotions on a wide variety of products and services. Participating merchants that offer Kueski Pay empower customers who do not have bank accounts to shop online and in store.

About Kueski

Kueski is one of the largest buy now, pay later (BNPL) and online consumer lending companiesin Latin America, providing financial services to consumers and connecting the Mexicaneconomy through its innovative product ecosystem. This ecosystem consists of Kueski Pay, thecompany's BNPL product available online and in-store, and Kueski Cash, its personal loansproduct. Founded in 2012 with the mission of making the financial lives of people in Mexicoeasier, Kueski leverages technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data to expandaccess to traditional financial products and services. To date Kueski has raised over $300million in equity and debt financing and, among its growing list of accolades, was recentlynamed to CB Insights' Fintech 250 List.

U.S. Media Contact

Rachel Stingone

914-473-5742

rachel@calibercorporateadvisers.com

SOURCE: Kueski





View source version on accesswire.com:

https://www.accesswire.com/741425/Kueski-Achieves-10M-Loans-Disbursed-to-More-Than-18M-Consumers




RESTON, Va., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Leidos (NYSE: LDOS), a FORTUNE 500 science and technology leader, was recently awarded a prime contract and three subcontracts by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) totaling approximately $102 million. The prime contract will support the Office of Information Technology (OIT) and the Infrastructure and User Services Group (IUSG). The firm-fixed-price, time and materials prime contract has a five-year period of performance, including an eight-month base period, and an estimated value of $79 million.

Leidos logo. (PRNewsFoto/Leidos)

"We're ready to strengthen CMS' mission-critical programs and ensure their operations remain agile, secure and resilient," said Liz Porter, Leidos Health Group President. "Building off our expertise in IT modernization, Leidos will deliver key foundational services for CMS OIT and support their evolving needs."

Through this contract, Leidos will focus on managing operations, managed services, and application workloads. Leidos' support services will provide onboarding, migration planning, modernization support and maintenance for the current and future applications hosted in the enterprise's hybrid cloud environments.

Leidos was also awarded three subcontract positions to support CMS' Center for Clinical Standards and Quality (Quality Data Analytics Services Task Order), the Marketplace Information Technology Group within the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (Marketplace Service Desk) as well as the Office of Information Technology (Enterprise Portal Services).

About Leidos

Leidos is a Fortune 500 technology, engineering, and science solutions and services leader working to solve the world's toughest challenges in the defense, intelligence, civil and health markets. The company's 45,000 employees support vital missions for government and commercial customers. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $14.4 billion for the fiscal year ended December 30, 2022. For more information, visit www.Leidos.com.

Story continues

Certain statements in this announcement constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the rules and regulations of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). These statements are based on management's current beliefs and expectations and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. These statements are not guarantees of future results or occurrences. A number of factors could cause our actual results, performance, achievements, or industry results to be different from the results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to, the "Risk Factors" set forth in Leidos' Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 30, 2022, and other such filings that Leidos makes with the SEC from time to time. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. Leidos does not undertake to update forward-looking statements to reflect the impact of circumstances or events that arise after the date the forward-looking statements were made.

Contact: Melissa Duenas

(571) 526-6850

duenasml@leidos.com





Thomas Doheny

(571) 474-4735

dohenyt@leidos.com





Lauren Reddington

(202) 924-2226

lauren.a.reddington@leidos.com

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/leidos-awarded-new-contracts-to-support-centers-for-medicare-and-medicaid-services-301758813.html

SOURCE Leidos
Sabina Mammadli

Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Elnur Mammadov and UN High Human Rights Commissioner Volker Turk discussed the current agenda of cooperation between Azerbaijan and the UN in human rights, as well as the regional situation and the protests on the Lachin-Khankandi road.

According to Azernews, the two officials met as part of the 52nd session of the UN Human Rights Council on February 28.

During the meeting, Elnur Mammadov expressed satisfaction with the existing cooperation and noted that there are prospects for their further expansion.

Besides, the Azerbaijani official noted that the countrys peace and construction efforts are facing continuous political and military provocations by Armenia. He added that in this vein, attempting to overshadow the legitimate protest of Azerbaijani civil society representatives around the Lachin road, Armenia tries to mislead the international community by its position about a blockade of the road and the "humanitarian crisis" in the region.

He also emphasized that Azerbaijan is ready to ensure the safety of Armenians on the territory, just as it ensures the safety of other citizens.

During the meeting, the sides also exchanged views on other matters of mutual interest.

The failure of the Russian peacekeeping contingent to prevent the illicit exploitation of natural resources in Karabakh has resulted in the ongoing protest on the major road that passes by Shusha. As a result of the December 3 and 7, 2022, talks with the Russian peacekeeping command, a delegation comprising specialists from the Ministries of Economy, Ecology and Natural Resources, the State Property Service under the Ministry of Economy, and AzerGold Company was to conduct a preliminary monitoring of the illegal exploitation of mineral deposits in Karabakh, where peacekeepers are temporarily stationed, as well as related environmental and other problems.

However, due to the inaction of the peacekeepers, the monitoring did not take place and resulted in the continuous protest of the Azerbaijani eco-activists, thus paving the way for the birth of a new movement.
HAIKOU, China, March 2, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The 1st China (Hainan) Dongpo Cultural Tourism Festival (Hainan Dongpo Fest) commenced on February 18, according to the Hainan International Media Center.

Opening ceremonies for Hainan Dongpo Fest, which will continue until the end of March, were held concurrently in Haikou, the capital of southern China's Hainan Province, and Danzhou, the former place of exile of Su Shi (Su Dongpo), the life of whom the festival explores and celebrates. Communities around the island province will also be holding a variety of activities during the festival.

Aerial view of Danzhous Dongpo Academy, regarded as Hainan's first institute of higher education. (Photo / Chen Yuancai) (PRNewsfoto/Hainan International Media Center (HIMC))

The festival has led to a resurgence of interest in Su Dongpo (1037-1101), a cultural giant of the Song Dynasty who was a prominent figure in Chinese classic literature known for his achievements in poetry, prose, calligraphy, painting, and even gastronomy. Su was denounced and exiled to Hainan for involvement in political factions. He lived on the island for three years, leaving local residents with a profound and influential cultural heritage.

At the International Forum on Dongpo Culture held in Haikou, Professor Wang Zhaopeng of Sichuan University shared the fruits of his research. Of the 1485 academicians involved in studying Song Dynasty history during the 20th century, a vast majority of them specialized in researching the life and historical context of Su Shi, both on his own merits and as a representative figure of the Song Dynasty.

"In recent years, there has been an increasing emphasis on Dongpo culture across Hainan," Li Gui, a professor at Shanghai Normal University's School of Humanities, said at the forum. Last summer, he visited Danzhou, where he had found elements of Dongpo culture incorporated at every corner.

Returning to Hainan after a year away, Li has discovered further developments concerning Dongpo culture. "Haikou has developed the Dongpo Old Wharf as a complex integrating culture, tourism, and commerce and bringing elements of Su Dongpo's gastronomical acclaim to life. I've even seen young people dressed up in Song-Dynasty attire to live the 'Dongpo Experience'. Dongpo culture clearly runs deep in Hainan."

Story continues

Residents and visitors experiencing a variety of Dongpo culture themed activities at the garden party in Haikous GDF Plaza on February 19. (Photo / Wu Wei) (PRNewsfoto/Hainan International Media Center (HIMC))

Su Dongpo's fame is not limited to China. In 2000, France's Le Monde chose 12 figures from around the globe as "Heroes of the Millennium", with Su being the only one from China selected. In recent years, Hainan has also strengthened studies on Dongpo culture, organizing regular seminars and establishing a research center. Dongpo culture offers a promising platform for research cooperation between Hainan and the rest of the world.

"As a free trade port with Chinese characteristics, Hainan has continued to open its door wider, and the island will receive increasing numbers of visitors from around the globe." Li Gui indicated that Hainan should capitalize on the global fame of Su Dongpo and, by innovatively developing more targeted cultural products to appeal to the broadest range of visitors, spread Dongpo culture further beyond China's borders.

SOURCE Hainan International Media Center (HIMC)
More than 30% of enterprise and personal users were exposed to mobile phishing attacks every quarter; highly regulated industries most heavily targeted

SAN FRANCISCO, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Lookout, Inc. , the endpoint to cloud security company, today released its Global State of Mobile Phishing report . According to Lookout data, 2022 had the highest percentage of mobile phishing encounter rates ever, with an average of more than 30% of personal and enterprise users exposed to these attacks every quarter. Lookout also found that users on all devices  whether personal or work provided  are tapping more on mobile phishing links in comparison to just two years ago.

Report findings also include:

The potential annual financial impact of mobile phishing to an organization of 5,000 employees is nearly $4 million.

Since 2021, mobile phishing encounter rates have increased roughly 10% for enterprise devices and more than 20% for personal devices.

In 2022, more than 50% of personal devices were exposed to a mobile phishing attack every quarter.

The percentage of users falling for multiple mobile phishing links in a year is increasing rapidly year over year.

Organizations operating in highly regulated industries  including insurance, banking, legal, healthcare and financial services  were the most heavily targeted enterprises.

Non-email based phishing attacks are growing rapidly, with vishing (voice phishing), smishing (SMS phishing) and quishing (QR code phishing) increasing seven-fold in the second quarter of 2022.

Users, endpoints and applications are now so closely connected that threat actors can initiate advanced attacks simply by stealing user credentials. Mobile phishing is one of the most effective tactics to steal login credentials, which means that mobile phishing itself poses significant security, compliance, and financial risk to organizations in every industry. It is likely that the rise of remote work has contributed to this, as organizations relax bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies to accommodate employees accessing corporate networks outside the traditional security perimeter.

Story continues

Mobile phishing attacks are also growing more sophisticated. The share of mobile users in enterprise environments clicking on more than six malicious links annually has jumped from 1.6% in 2020 to 11.8% in 2022, indicating that users are having a tougher time distinguishing phishing messages from legitimate communications.

"Mobile as a threat surface will continue to grow, and hybrid work continues to grow in tandem, introducing huge numbers of unmanaged devices into the enterprise environment," said Aaron Cockerill , chief strategy officer at Lookout. "It is more important now than ever for organizations to evolve their cybersecurity strategy to proactively combat mobile phishing. As one of the most effective attack vectors for threat actors, often serving as a starting-point for more advanced attacks, mobile phishing protection should be a top priority for organizations of any size."

The Global State of Mobile Phishing report from Lookout is based on data and trends derived from Lookout's ever-growing mobile dataset of security telemetry, which is built on graph-based machine intelligence that analyzes data globally from more than 210 million devices, 175 million applications and ingests four million URLs daily.

Download Lookout's Global State of Mobile Phishing Report here.

Additional Resources:

Sign up for a complimentary Data Risk Assessment .

Listen and subscribe to Security Soapbox, the Lookout podcast covering privacy, security, and everything in between.

About Lookout

Lookout, Inc. is the endpoint to cloud security company purpose-built for the intersection of enterprise and personal data. We safeguard data across devices, apps, networks and clouds through our unified, cloud-native security platform  a solution that's as fluid and flexible as the modern digital world. By giving organizations and individuals greater control over their data, we enable them to unleash its value and thrive. Lookout is trusted by enterprises of all sizes, government agencies and millions of consumers to protect sensitive data, enabling them to live, work and connect  freely and safely. To learn more about the Lookout Security Platform, visit www.lookout.com and follow Lookout on our blog , LinkedIn and Twitter .

Contact Lookout PR: press@lookout.com

 2023 Lookout, Inc. LOOKOUT, the Lookout Shield Design, LOOKOUT with Shield Design, and SIGNAL FLARE are registered trademarks of Lookout, Inc. in the United States and other countries. DAY OF SHECURITY, LOOKOUT MOBILE SECURITY, and POWERED BY LOOKOUT are registered trademarks of Lookout, Inc. in the United States. Lookout, Inc. maintains common law trademark rights in EVERYTHING IS OK, PROTECTED BY LOOKOUT, CIPHERCLOUD, SCREAM, the 4 Bar Shield Design, and the Lookout multi-color/multi-shaded Wingspan design.

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lookout-global-state-of-mobile-phishing-report-2022-marks-the-highest-percentage-of-encounter-rates-ever-301759151.html

SOURCE Lookout
Contrive Datum Insights Pvt Ltd

According to a market research study published by Contrive Datum Insights, The Medical Devices industry in North America was worth 188.14 billion USD in 2021.

Farmington, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Global Medical Devices Market Size Was Valued At USD 488.98 Billion In 2021. The Market Is Projected To Grow From USD 495.46 Billion In 2022 To USD 718.92 Billion By 2030, Exhibiting A CAGR Of 5.5% During The Forecast Period. The COVID-19 pandemic has been shocking and unprecedented on a worldwide scale. As a consequence, compared to levels prior to the pandemic, demand for medical devices is lower than anticipated across all regions. According to our study, the global market shrank by 1.4% in 2020 compared to 2019.

Because chronic diseases are more prevalent and healthcare organizations are emphasizing early diagnosis and therapy, more people are undergoing diagnostic and surgical treatments.

For instance, according to the American Hospital Association (AHA), there will be approximately 33.4 million hospital patients in the United States in 2021.

Both established and developing nations are experiencing an increase in the demand for medical devices, including capital goods and consumables. This is due to an increase in hospital stays, surgeries, and diagnostic treatments.

Request Sample Copy of Report  Medical Devices Market Size, Share & Trends Estimation Report By Type (Orthopedic Devices, Cardiovascular Devices, Diagnostic Imaging, In-vitro Diagnostics, Minimally Invasive Surgery, Wound Management, Diabetes Care, Ophthalmic Devices, Dental Devices, Nephrology, General Surgery, and Others), By End-user (Hospitals & ASCs, Clinics, and Others), By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2023 - 2030 , published by Contrive Datum Insights.

Recent Developments:

January 2022  Medtronic received US FDA approval for the Intellis Rechargeable Neurostimulator and the Vanta Rechargeable Neurostimulator for the treatment of chronic pain associated with diabetic peripheral neuropathy.

November 2021  Siemens Healthineers launches the NAEOTOM Alpha, the world's first photon counting technology CT scanner approved for clinical use in the US and Europe.

Story continues

Segment Overview

Type Insights

Because more people are using real-time diagnostic tests to determine precisely what is wrong with people with chronic and infectious illnesses like diabetes, cancer, and HIV/AIDS, the in-vitro diagnostics (IVD) market is anticipated to have the highest CAGR. The others market category held the largest market share in 2021. This was due to the increased demand for and usage of hospital goods such as medical clothing, masks, gloves, surgical lights, and foetal sensors. Because medical device companies are investing more money in developing novel wound devices and bioactive therapies, the wound management market is also anticipated to expand at a rapid CAGR.

The expansion of the Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) market is also anticipated to be fueled by the development of surgery robot technology and the rising popularity of its users among healthcare professionals. However, it is anticipated that the orthopaedic and cardiovascular device industries will expand much more quickly. This is because there are more individuals with bone and heart conditions than ever before.

End-User Insights

As more people use real-time diagnostic tests to determine what is wrong with people who have chronic and infectious illnesses like diabetes, cancer, and HIV/AIDS, the in-vitro diagnostics (IVD) market is anticipated to have the highest CAGR. The others category accounted for the largest market share in 2021. This resulted from a greater need for and increased use of hospital goods such as medical apparel, masks, gloves, surgical lights, and foetal monitors. Due to increased investment by medical device companies in developing novel wound devices and bioactive therapies, the wound management market is also anticipated to expand at a rapid CAGR.

Technological advancements in surgical robots and the rising use of them by healthcare providers are also anticipated to be major drivers of the development of the Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) segment. However, much faster growth is anticipated for the orthopaedic and cardiovascular device sectors. This is because there are more individuals worldwide who are suffering from bone and heart conditions.

Regional Outlook:

The industry in North America was worth 188.14 billion USD in 2021. The major players in the area, good and equitable reimbursement policies, a well-established healthcare infrastructure, rapid adoption of cutting-edge medical technologies, and these factors all contribute to its dominance. This is made worse by the fact that there are more patients as a result of the increasing number of locals who are being identified and treated for long-term illnesses.

Due to increased healthcare spending, well-developed infrastructure, and the use of more sophisticated diagnostic and therapeutic technologies, the European market is anticipated to grow rapidly. Due to a strong emphasis on bringing medical care into home care settings and the introduction of portable medical equipment by top international and regional players in the area, the market is anticipated to expand during the forecast period.

Due to the increased prevalence of diseases like diabetes, heart disease, infectious diseases, and dental issues, Asia-Pacific is predicted to develop at a faster CAGR than other regions. To meet the requirements of patients in this area, market players are also working harder to increase their direct presence in developing nations like China and India.

Buy this Premium Research Report@

https://www.contrivedatuminsights.com/buy/248575

Scope of Report:

Report Attributes Details Growth Rate CAGR of 5.5% from 2023 to 2030. Revenue Forecast by 2030 USD 718.92 Billion By Type Orthopedic Devices, Cardiovascular Devices, Diagnostic Imaging, IVD, MIS, Wound Management, Diabetes Care, Ophthalmic, Dental, Nephrology, General Surgery, Others By End-user Hospitals & ASCs, Clinics, Others By Companies Medtronic (Ireland), Stryker (U.S.), Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc. (U.S.), Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA (Germany), Koninklijke Philips N.V. (Netherlands), F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd (Switzerland), General Electric Company (U.S.), Siemens Healthineers AG (Germany), BD (U.S.), Boston Scientific Corporation (U.S.) Regions and Countries Covered North America: (US, Canada, Mexico, Rest of North America)

Europe(Germany, France, Italy, Spain, UK, Nordic Countries, Benelux Union, Rest of Europe)

Asia-Pacific (Japan, China, India, Australia, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Rest of Asia-Pacific)

The Middle East & Africa(Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, South Africa, Rest of the Middle East & Africa)

Latin America(Brazil, Argentina, Rest of Latin America)

Rest Of the World Base Year 2022 Historical Year 2017 to 2022 Forecast Year 2023 to 2030

Latest Trends:

Customers' increasing desire for wearable technology is a significant development.

Wearable technology can't always protect your info and keep it private, for example. Fitness trackers and activity monitors are still very common despite these issues because they are simple to use and have numerous advantages. Adult fitness is becoming more essential globally, and regional and national health organizations are placing more emphasis on monitoring and diagnosis. The demand for fitness trackers has increased as a result of both of these reasons.

After the COVID-19 pandemic broke out and people began to worry more about their health, the market for these devices grew rapidly. Approximately 21.0% of adults in the U.S. possessed a fitness tracker in 2019, according to a number of independent surveys conducted there.

Driving Factors:

The prevalence of chronic illnesses will increase demand for medical devices.

People are becoming less active and other variables are contributing to the rise in diabetes, cancer, and other infectious diseases. Additionally, by implementing more information campaigns, health organizations in various nations hope to increase the number of people who receive diagnoses and treatment. The number of individuals who require diagnostic procedures and tests is rising along with public awareness of and propensity for these conditions.

For instance, according to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), 537 million individuals worldwide will have diabetes by 2021. 783 million individuals will have diabetes by 2045, up from the current 643 million cases.

Restraining Factors:

The market's expansion will be slowed by high device costs and subpar reimbursement practices in emerging nations.

The use of new technologies and modifications to designs are just two of the significant changes that have occurred in the business over the past ten years. But the cost of these gadgets is high. They are expensive to purchase as well as maintain. As a result, owning and using the gadget will cost you more money overall. Some of the more sophisticated devices have additional components, such as processors, batteries, sensors, and other accessories, that occasionally need to be changed.

For instance, according to a 2020 piece by the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy, an insulin pump typically costs between USD 4,500 and USD 6,500 per unit in the United States. In addition, the annual expense of the device's extras, such as batteries and syringes, is about USD 1500.

Key Segments Covered:

Top Market Players:

Medtronic (Ireland), Stryker (U.S.), Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc. (U.S.), Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA (Germany), Koninklijke Philips N.V. (Netherlands), F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd (Switzerland), General Electric Company (U.S.), Siemens Healthineers AG (Germany), BD (U.S.), Boston Scientific Corporation (U.S.), and others.

By Component Type

Orthopedic Devices

Cardiovascular Devices

Diagnostic Imaging

IVD

MIS

Wound Management

Diabetes Care

Ophthalmic

Dental

Nephrology

General Surgery

Others

By End-user

Hospitals & ASCs

Clinics

Others

Regions and Countries Covered

North America: (US, Canada, Mexico, Rest of North America)

Europe: (Germany, France, Italy, Spain, UK, Nordic Countries, Benelux Union, Rest of Europe)

Asia-Pacific: (Japan, China, India, Australia, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Rest of Asia-Pacific)

The Middle East & Africa: (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, South Africa, Rest of the Middle East & Africa)

Latin America: (Brazil, Argentina, Rest of Latin America)

Rest Of the World

Check out more related studies published by Contrive Datum Insights:

Menstrual Cup Market - The global Menstrual Cup Market was valued at USD 835.6 Million in 2022 and is projected to reach USD 1,557.8 Million by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 6.3% from 2023 to 2030.

Medical Supply Delivery Service Market - The global Medical Supply Delivery Service Market size was USD 50.33 Billion in 2022 and is expected to reach USD 97.5 Billion by 2030, with a CAGR of 7.6% from 2022 to 2030.

Physiotherapy Equipments Market - The global Physiotherapy Equipment market size was valued at USD 19.1 Billion in 2022. It is expected to expand at a CAGR of around 6.69% from 2023 to 2030.

Customization of the Report: The report can be customized as per client needs or requirements.For any queries, you can contact us on anna@contrivedatuminsights.com or +1 215-297-4078. Our sales executives will be happy to understand your needs and provide you with the most suitable reports.

About Us:

Contrive Datum Insights (CDI) is a global delivery partner of market intelligence and consulting services to officials at various sectors such as investment, information technology, telecommunication, consumer technology, and manufacturing markets. CDI assists investment communities, business executives, and IT professionals to undertake statistics-based accurate decisions on technology purchases and advance strong growth tactics to sustain market competitiveness. Comprising of a team size of more than 100 analysts and cumulative market experience of more than 200 years, Contrive Datum Insights guarantees the delivery of industry knowledge combined with global and country-level expertise.

Social: Facebook / LinkedIn / Twitter

Contact Us:

Anna B. | Head Of Sales

Contrive Datum Insights

Phone: +91 9834816757 | +1 2152974078

Email: anna@contrivedatuminsights.com

Website:

https://www.contrivedatuminsights.com

Contrive Datum Insights Press Releases

Latest Contrive Datum Insights Latest Reports




Company to host radiologist peer-to-peer workshops on TBS Osteo software used to monitor bone health

GENEVA, March 01, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Medimaps Group, a Swiss/Global med-tech company specializing in image-processing software for assessing bone health, announced today results showing that its new spine segmentation (SpS) deep learning algorithm may be a reliable, time-efficient tool to enhance patient monitoring and osteoporosis diagnosis. The SpS algorithm has been designed to enhance bone measurement accuracy on dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) lumbar spine (LS) scans with potential application in X-ray based imaging systems. The data is scheduled to be presented1 at the European Congress of Radiology (ECR), held in Vienna, Austria, March 1-5, 2023.

"Our main aim is to bring clinically-driven innovations to radiologists that increase efficiency by reducing technical errors, save time and augment productivity," said Prof Didier Hans, CEO and co-founder of Medimaps Group, and Head of the R&D Bone Diseases Center Lausanne University Hospital, Switzerland. "Our data show, for the first time, the efficacy of an algorithm to assess lumbar spine segmentation on DXA scans to enable better screening for osteoporosis. Based on these promising results, we have moved this algorithm into further development stage, and look forward to submitting our next generation product for regulatory approval later this year."

The results1 were obtained from a study using Medimaps Groups SpS deep learning algorithm on thousands of scans from the OsteoLaus cohort and evaluated on an independent test set. Results showed a significant improvement for the measured bone mineral density (BMD), trabecular bone score (TBS) and surface compared to the machine default bone mask, and similar results as obtained from a human expert bone mask.

According to the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF), osteoporosis causes more than 8.9 million fractures globally every year, resulting in an osteoporosis fracture every three seconds. 1 in 5 men and 1 in 3 women will be affected by this disease in their lifetime. This suggests that approximately 500 million men and women worldwide may be affected by osteoporosis annually.2

Story continues

"The volume of patients requiring scanning is steadily increasing in the radiology practice, therefore computerized tools such as the spine segmentation algorithm embedded into the TBS Osteo software represent a way forward to optimize the workflow while improving clinical patient management. This best-in class software has proven to be a precious aid in our clinical routine to detect more cases of osteoporosis, and to improve patients bone health prognostic reliably, " said Prof. Giuseppe Guglielmi, Foggia University School of Medicine and Dimiccoli Teaching Hospital, Barletta, Italy, and former President of the European Society of Musculoskeletal Radiology (ESSR).

During the congress, Medimaps Group will also hold a series of radiologist peer-to-peer workshops to present TBS Osteo, a software product used by radiologists to monitor bone health. The software calculates TBS, an index of the bone microarchitecture and a BMD-independent bone fracture risk predictor. The use of TBS is proven to help identify approximately 30%3 more patients at risk of fracture compared to BMD alone, without additional examination time nor radiation. Entitled "Osteoporosis: augmented intelligence solutions for better patient care", these workshops will be co-presented by densitometry experts Prof Giuseppe Guglielmi and Prof Didier Hans. Delegates can register here to this in-person event held on Medimaps Group booth (#AI 41) on March 2,3,4 at 12:00pm-12:20pm.

Medimaps Groups imaging software TBS Osteo has received regulatory approval and benefits from reimbursement in the US, and certain European countries. It is commercially available in 60 markets worldwide.

References

1. Gatineau G. et al, Evaluation of a deep learning spine segmentation (SpS) algorithm for accurate and reproducible monitoring of lumbar spine DXA scans, Poster #C-24875, ECR 2023.

2. Facts & Statistics: epidemiology of osteoporosis and fragility fractures, IOF, https://www.osteoporosis.foundation/facts-statistics/epidemiology-of-osteoporosis-and-fragility-fractures, last accessed, February 22, 2023

3. Hans D, Goertzen AL, Krieg MA, Leslie WD. Bone microarchitecture assessed by TBS predicts osteoporotic fractures independent of bone density: the Manitoba study. J Bone Miner Res. 2011 Nov;26(11):2762-9. doi: 10.1002/jbmr.499. PMID: 21887701.

About Medimaps Group

Medimaps Groups medical imaging software applications, based on patented multi-purpose technology with artificial intelligence capabilities, provide healthcare solutions that fit seamlessly into the workflow for the benefit of the patient. TBS iNsight (Osteo) has been used for years in clinical practice worldwide in the field of osteoporosis. It has become the new gold standard for bone texture assessment in routine clinical practice. TBS has gained international recognition with more than 900 peer-reviewed scientific publications and is included in many guidelines and used by more than 30,000 physicians worldwide including leading healthcare institutions. Learn more at https://www.medimapsgroup.com/.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230228006219/en/

Contacts

Shelley Horn

Head of Business Development

Mob: +1 240 994 0248

shorn@medimapsgroup.com

Saoyuth Nidh

Global Corporate Communications Manager

Mob: +41 79 969 77 57

snidh@medimapsgroup.com
Mezmo

Company attributes 360% revenue growth to demand for solutions that make telemetry data consumable and actionable

SAN FRANCISCO, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mezmo, the leading observability data platform , today announced that it ranked No. 53 on the Inc. 5000 Regionals: Pacific list, the most prestigious ranking of the fastest-growing Pacific private companies, based in Alaska, Hawaii, California, Oregon, and Washington. Part of the Inc. 5000 franchise, this prestigious list represents a unique look at the most successful private companies within the Pacific economy.



Mezmos chief executive officer, Tucker Callaway, attributes the companys rapid growth to the rising demand for solutions that help companies seamlessly harness the flow of telemetry data across the entire enterprise to promptly react, adapt, and respond to events in real time.

Research shows that more teams are using telemetry data to understand the health of their applications and environments so they can more effectively respond to issues and mitigate risk. However, many companies are challenged to manage and extract value from this data, said Callaway. The Mezmo team is building innovative solutions to empower the consumers of telemetry data and our ability to address this market need has positioned us for continued growth.

In addition to its 360% growth in revenue over the reviewed two-year period, Mezmo, previously known as LogDNA, has continuously expanded its customer base, now serving more than 3,400 organizations worldwide, including many global brands, such as Lifesize and IBM Cloud. It also continues to innovate, bringing to market new control and cost-saving offerings, such as its new telemetry data pipeline, which makes data accessible, consumable and actionable. Mezmo ranked at No. 695 on Inc. 5000s List of Fastest Growing Companies in 2022 and it was included as a 2022 Deloitte Technology Fast 500 honoree and one of Y Combinators Top Companies of 2022 .

Story continues

The companies on the Inc. Regionals list show a remarkable rate of growth across all industries in the Pacific. Between 2019 and 2021, these 185 private companies had an average growth rate of 559 percent and, in 2021 alone, they added $4.6 billion to the Pacific regions economy.

This years Inc. 5000 Regional winners represent one of the most exceptional and exciting lists of Americas off-the-charts growth companies. Theyre disrupters and job creators, and all delivered an outsize impact on the economy. Remember their names and follow their lead. These are the companies youll be hearing about for years to come, said Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc. magazine.

Complete results of the Inc. 5000 Regionals: Pacific, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, metro area, and other criteria, can be found at inc.com/pacific .

Visit the Mezmo website to learn more about how Mezmo is transforming modern data observability .

About Mezmo

Mezmo, formerly LogDNA, is an observability platform to manage and take action on your data. Launched in Y Combinators Winter 2015 cohort, the company fuels massive productivity gains for modern engineering teams at hyper-growth startups and Fortune 500 companies alike, including Asics, Better.com, Sysdig, and 6 River Systems.

Mezmo is the sole logging provider for IBM Cloud, where theyve partnered to drive innovation in observability at hyper scale since 2018. The company has been recognized as one of Forbes Cloud 100 Rising Stars, Gartners Top 25 Enterprise Software Startups to Watch, CRNs 10 Hottest Cloud Startups, and Fortunes Best Small and Medium Workplaces, and it received the IBM Cloud Embed Excellence Award.

More about Inc. and the Inc. 5000

Methodology

The 2023 Inc. 5000 Regionals are ranked according to percentage revenue growth when comparing 2019 and 2021. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2019. They had to be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independentnot subsidiaries or divisions of other companiesas of December 31, 2021. (Since then, a number of companies on the list have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2019 is $100,000; the minimum for 2021 is $1 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons.



About Inc. Media

The worlds most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent.



The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit www.inc.com .

Media contact:

Jennifer Tanner

Look Left Marketing

mezmo@lookleftmarketing.com




The payroll tax that finances Social Security requires workers to pay 6.2% of their earnings up to a cap of $160,200 for this year. Employers pay another 6.2%. Sarah Rawlins of the left-leaning Center for Economic and Policy Research notes that the cap means that anyone earning $1 million this year is done contributing to Social Security as of today.

When the payroll tax cap was implemented in 1983 only 10 percent of earnings exceeded it and went untaxed, Rawlins writes. But by 2021, the share of earnings above the cap had grown to 18.6 percent. Continued upward income redistribution has shifted more earnings out of range of the programs supporting tax.

You can play with CEPRs Social Security tax calculator here.

Like what you're reading? Sign up for our free newsletter.
Just 28% of Hispanic Households in the US own Stocks, compared to 61% of White Households

First-of-its-Kind Partnership Takes Aim at Hispanic Underinvestment by Offering Fractional Shares of Stock as Rewards for Everyday Spending

IRVINE, Calif. and AMSTERDAM, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- DNERO, the Digital Wallet offering financial services for the Hispanic market, and Bits of Stock, the platform that powers Stock Rewards & loyalty programs, have announced a partnership that will allow users to earn fractional shares of stock on everyday purchases.

Bits of Stock Logo, Dark Text (PRNewsfoto/Bits of Stock)

The DNERO App will be the first platform dedicated to empowering Hispanic wealth-building via Stock Rewards. Starting next month, DNERO users will be able to automatically earn Stock Rewards on qualifying purchases made with their DNERO debit card, with up to 10% back at over 10,000 top brands and merchants. The next-generation rewards offering will be powered by the Bits of Stock Growth Rewards API.

According to a recent CNBC survey, only 28% of Latino families in the US are invested in the Stock Market, compared to 61% of white families. DNERO CEO, Carlos Orellana, believes Stock Rewards will set our business apart by incentivizing more Hispanics to learn how to build wealth.

"By offering rewards in the form of fractional shares of stock, we can provide an entry point for under-invested members of our community to start building wealth," said Orellana. "We're thrilled to partner with Bits of Stock to offer this innovative reward that will strengthen our relationship with our market and provide real value for our community members."

"DNERO is an ideal partner," said Arash Asady, CEO of Bits of Stock. "As a mission-driven startup, we're proud that they're leveraging our technology to empower financial wellness and help us build the ownership economy."

About DNERO

DNERO is an inclusive digital platform that will improve the financial habits of the un- and underbanked, with an emphasis on the Hispanic community, by incentivizing spending, investing, receiving, earning, and managing money! For more information visit www.DNEROapp.com.

Story continues

About Bits of Stock

Bits of Stock enables financial institutions and brands to reward their customers in fractional shares of stock. Their Growth Rewards API includes merchant funded offers, customizable rewards technology & brokerage service. For more information visit www.bitsofstock.com .

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/on-a-mission-to-get-more-hispanics-investing-dnero--bits-of-stock-team-up-to-offer-wealth-building-rewards-301759912.html

SOURCE Bits of Stock
HOUSTON, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Moleculin Biotech, Inc., (Nasdaq: MBRX) (Moleculin or the Company), a clinical stage pharmaceutical company with a broad portfolio of drug candidates targeting highly resistant tumors and viruses, today announced the first subject has been treated in Italy in the Company's Phase 1/2 trial evaluating Annamycin in combination with Cytarabine (Ara-C) for the treatment of subjects with AML who are refractory to or relapsed after induction therapy (MB-106).

Moleculin Biotech, Inc. is a clinical stage pharmaceutical company focused on the development of a broad portfolio of oncology drug candidates for the treatment of highly resistant tumors. (PRNewsfoto/Moleculin Biotech, Inc.)

"We continue to be highly encouraged by the data demonstrated from the successfully concluded Annamycin single agent trials and the no evidence of cardiotoxicity seen to date. We remain very optimistic in Annamycin's potential to be an important treatment for refractory or relapsed AML in combination with Cytarabine. We are pleased to commence subject dosing in Italy and are continuing our efforts to bring additional sites online and build momentum in enrollment. We are committed to driving the development of Annamycin for the treatment of AML and look forward to continuing our evaluations of Annamycin in combination with Ara-C," commented Walter Klemp, Chairman and CEO of Moleculin.

Annamycin is the Company's next-generation anthracycline that has been designed to be non-cardiotoxic and has been shown in animal models to accumulate in the lungs at up to 30-fold the level of doxorubicin (a commonly prescribed anthracycline), as well as demonstrating the ability to avoid the multidrug resistance mechanisms that typically limit the efficacy of doxorubicin and other currently prescribed anthracyclines. Annamycin is currently in development for the treatment of relapsed or refractory AML and STS lung metastases and the Company believes it may have the potential to treat additional indications.

The Phase 1/2 MB-106 trial is an open label trial that builds on the safety and dosage data from the two successfully concluded single agent Annamycin AML Phase 1 trials, MB-104 and MB-105, conducted in the U.S. and Europe, respectively. Highlights from the final data demonstrated in the MB-105 study include:

Story continues

MB-105 demonstrated 80% overall response rate (ORR) in final cohort for treatment of relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia (R/R AML).

Final reported results showed one CRi (complete response with incomplete recovery of peripheral blood count) and three PRs (Partial Response).

The responses in the MB-105 trial were seen in subjects 62-73 years of age and the CRi was from a subject 65 years of age.

The clinical study report for MB-105 has been finalized and the Company expects to publish detailed data in a paper or publication in the near future.

Data so far have resulted from treatment with Annamycin as a single agent, however, additional preclinical animal data from sponsored research demonstrated Annamycin in combination with Cytarabine had a 68% improvement in the median overall survival (OS) compared to Annamycin as a single agent and a 241% increase in OS compared to Cytarabine alone.1

Annamycin currently has Fast Track Status and Orphan Drug Designation from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of STS lung metastases and the treatment of relapsed or refractory AML. For more information about the MB-106 Phase 1/2 trial, visit clinicaltrialsregister.eu and reference EudraCT 2020-005493-10 or clinicaltrials.gov and reference NCT05319587.

About Moleculin Biotech, Inc.

Moleculin Biotech, Inc. is a clinical stage pharmaceutical company focused on the development of a broad portfolio of drug candidates for the treatment of highly resistant tumors and viruses. The Company's lead program, Annamycin is a next-generation anthracycline designed to avoid multidrug resistance mechanisms with little to no cardiotoxicity. Annamycin is currently in development for the treatment of relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and soft tissue sarcoma (STS) lung metastases.

Additionally, the Company is developing WP1066, an Immune/Transcription Modulator capable of inhibiting p-STAT3 and other oncogenic transcription factors while also stimulating a natural immune response, targeting brain tumors, pancreatic and other cancers, and WP1220, an analog to WP1066, for the topical treatment of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. Moleculin is also engaged in the development of a portfolio of antimetabolites, including WP1122 for the potential treatment of COVID-19 and other viruses, as well as cancer indications including brain tumors, pancreatic and other cancers.

For more information about the Company, please visit www.moleculin.com and connect on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Forward-Looking Statements

Some of the statements in this release are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, without limitation, whether the results of Moleculin's preclinical animal models can be replicated in human trials and Moleculin's ability to expand its MB-106 clinical trial using Annamycin in combination with Cytarabine for the treatment of R/R AML into additional sites in Poland and other countries in Europe to potentially improve recruitment rates. Although Moleculin believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable as of the date made, expectations may prove to have been materially different from the results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Moleculin has attempted to identify forward-looking statements by terminology including 'believes,' 'estimates,' 'anticipates,' 'expects,' 'plans,' 'projects,' 'intends,' 'potential,' 'may,' 'could,' 'might,' 'will,' 'should,' 'approximately' or other words that convey uncertainty of future events or outcomes to identify these forward-looking statements. These statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, including those discussed under Item 1A. "Risk Factors" in our most recently filed Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") and updated from time to time in our Form 10-Q filings and in our other public filings with the SEC. Any forward-looking statements contained in this release speak only as of its date. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this release to reflect events or circumstances occurring after its date or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Investor Contact:

JTC Team, LLC

Jenene Thomas

(833) 475-8247

MBRX@jtcir.com

DC:82440151.1

1 Zal T, Zielinski R, Grela K, Cardenas-Zuniga R, Skora S, Fokt I, Zal A, Andreeff M, Gil L Shephard R, Priebe W, High Efficacy of Liposomal Annamycin (L-ANN) in Combination with Cytarabine in Syngeneic p53-Null AML Mouse Model, Blood (2020) 136 (Supplement 1): 6-7. https://doi.org/10.1182/blood-2020-143344

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/moleculin-announces-dosing-of-first-subject-in-italy-for-phase-12-trial-evaluating-annamycin-in-combination-with-cytarabine-ara-c-for-the-treatment-of-acute-myeloid-leukemia-aml-301758929.html

SOURCE Moleculin Biotech, Inc.
New Drug Approval for Friedreich's ataxia

Muscular Dystrophy Association celebrates FDA approval of Skyclarys, the first ever treatment for Friedreichs Ataxia, from Reata Pharmaceuticals.

New York, NY, Feb. 28, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) celebrates the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of Omaveloxolone (Skyclarys), the first ever treatment for Friedreichs Ataxia (FA), a rare neuromuscular disease on Rare Disease Day today, February 28. Skyclarys will be made available in the United States (US) and marketed by Reata Pharmaceuticals.

The approval of SKYCLARYS is supported by the efficacy and safety data from the MOXIe Part 2 trial and a post hoc Propensity-Matched Analysis of the open-label MOXIe Extension trial.

This is an incredible milestone for the Friedreichs ataxia community, said Sharon Hesterlee, Ph.D., Chief Research Officer, MDA. Any therapy with the potential to alter the course of disease progression offers hope for this disease to so many families we serve.

MDA is proud to have provided steadfast support over a period of five years to principal investigator David Lynch from Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, an MDA Care Center, for the establishment of a clinical research network for FA. Dr. Lynch is one of the lead investigators of the MOXIe trial who has published seminal manuscripts reporting on the safety and efficacy of Omaveloxolone for viewing here and here.

MDAs pivotal support for this network has helped towards collecting clinical data and biospecimens of FA patients over the years; an infrastructure that has aided in the clinical testing of Skyclarys in patients. Additionally, clinical trials of Skyclarys took place at MDA Care Center Network locations including UCLA, University of Florida Neurology, Emory University Hospital, The Ohio State University, and Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia.

Since the inception of MDA, the organization has invested more than $20 million in FA research.

The approval of this groundbreaking, first-ever treatment for Friedreichs Ataxia is both an answer to prayer and the result of hard work, said Tom Henry, a volunteer MDA National Vice President and proud member of the MDA family as a father of two young adult sons living with the disease. When my children were diagnosed, we partnered with our community of friends, business colleagues, and other MDA families to enable research and accelerate treatments through fundraising and volunteer work. Today, it is beyond gratifying to see the fruits of our labors starting to pay off giving families like ours hope that their loved ones with genetic, neuromuscular diseases may live long and pain-free lives. Many thought it was impossible to develop treatments for rare genetic diseases, but our family, alongside the Muscular Dystrophy Association, has never wavered in our efforts to make a day like today possible. We are grateful to be surrounded by a community that will never give up on each other, and we are so excited about this new treatment. With that being said, this is just the beginning, because we do not plan to stop working until all genetic diseases are cured.

Story continues

Since Friedreichs ataxia is a devastating disease that results in loss of corradiated movement, speech and sensory deficits, as well as fatal heart disease; an impactful therapy like Skyclarys brings new hope to patient community served by MDA Care Centers in partnership with the Friedreichs Ataxia Research Alliance (FARA). We at MDA are delighted to see this and other transformative therapies supported by MDA move to approval and become available to patients, said Barry Byrne, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Medical Advisor, MDA, and Associate Chair of Pediatrics and Director of the Powell Gene Therapy Center at the University of Florida.

As an MDA Care Center Director, I have seen improved management options for several of the MDA-covered diseases. Having success with one drug often paves the way for more treatment options, so Im delighted to have a disease modifying treatment to offer to my FA patients! said Katherine Mathews, M.D., MDA Care Center Director and Professor of Pediatrics-General Neurology at University of Iowa Health Care. FA is a rare and complex disease. It is important that patients can go to a clinic and know that they have cared for others with this disease and will be able to help get the best possible treatment, she said of the MDA Care Center Network.

Reata Pharmaceuticals will present on this novel treatment at the 2023 MDA Clinical & Scientific Conference on Monday, March 20, 2023, at 7am CDT.

About Friedreichs Ataxia

First described by German physician Nikolaus Friedreich in 1863, FA is a neuromuscular disease that mainly affects the nervous system and the heart. FA affects about one in 50,000 people worldwide, making it the most common in a group of related disorders called hereditary ataxias. It shouldnt be confused with a group of diseases known as autosomal dominant spinocerebellar ataxias.

About Muscular Dystrophy Association

Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) is the #1 voluntary health organization in the United States for people living with muscular dystrophy, ALS, and related neuromuscular diseases. For over 70 years, MDA has led the way in accelerating research, advancing care, and advocating for the support of our families. MDA's mission is to empower the people we serve to live longer, more independent lives. To learn more visit mda.org and follow MDA on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and LinkedIn.

Attachment

CONTACT: Mary Fiance, Vice President, Public Relations, Muscular Dystrophy Association Muscular Dystrophy Association press@mdausa.org




SkyQuest Technology Consulting Pvt. Ltd.

SkyQuest's research report on the neurocosmetics market is an essential resource for investors and market participants seeking a thorough and trustworthy understanding of the industry. The rapidly growing industry combines neuroscience and skincare to develop products that enhance skin health and overall well-being. It also offers regional market analysis, providing insights into the market's performance in various regions worldwide. This information is essential for investors and market participants to identify potential growth opportunities and make informed investment decisions.

Westford, USA,, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- North America to take a leading position in the neurocosmetics market with close competition from the Europe region, driven by several key factors. Another key driver is the increasing demand for personalized skincare solutions. Consumers prefer products tailored to their individual needs and preferences, and neurocosmetics offer a unique approach to personalization. Additionally, the rise of e-commerce and social media has played a significant role in the market's growth. Consumers spending more time online are exposed to a wider range of products and are more likely to try new and innovative skincare solutions. Finally, the aging population and growing focus on anti-aging skincare has led to a surge in demand for neurocosmetics.

The premium cosmetics market is set to garner significant growth, with a projected value of USD 24.96 billion by 2028, as reported by SkyQuest. This growth prospect bodes well for the neurocosmetics market, which is predicted to benefit from the overall expansion of the cosmetics industry. Moreover, as the demand for premium cosmetics grows, consumers will likely be willing to pay a premium for neurocosmetic products that offer additional benefits beyond traditional cosmetics.

Get sample copy of this report:

https://skyquestt.com/sample-request/neurocosmetics-market

Browse in-depth TOC on "Neurocosmetics Market"

Pages - 278

Tables - 69

Figures - 59

Story continues

Neurocosmetics are skincare products with unique ingredients designed to work on a neurological level. These products are non-toxic and bio-active, meaning they are designed to work with the body's natural functions. In addition, they are formulated to provide benefits that go beyond the skin's surface, targeting the neural pathways to enhance the individual's overall well-being.

Prominent Players in Neurocosmetics Market

Arkana Cosmetics

Amway Corp.

Greentech (ExpoZen)

GliSODin Skin Nutrients

Blackmores Limited

PROSPERA biotech

Swanrose Inc.

Lukso NeuroCosmetics

Omya Kinetik

BASF SE

Herbalife Nutrition Ltd.

Anti-Aging Segment to Offer Tremendous Growth Potential Thanks to Advance Neurocosmetic Products Providing Anti-Aging Solutions

The neurocosmetics market is experiencing significant growth, with the anti-aging segment capturing the largest revenue share in 2022. As we move into the future, this segment is predicted to continue exhibiting strong growth from 2023 to 2030. The global population is aging, with every country experiencing growth in both the size and proportion of older persons, according to SkyQuest. By 2030, it is projected that one in six people worldwide will be aged 60 years or over. This demographic shift presents challenges and opportunities, with the market likely benefitting from this trend.

The neurocosmetics market has seen significant growth in recent years, and the North American region has emerged as the most dominant player in this market. The region held the most substantial market share in 2022, thanks to various factors contributing to its growth. One of the primary reasons for the positive growth of the regional market in North America is the increasing buying power of the population. Moreover, the rising demand for luxury and premium products has further pushed the market dynamics positively.

Niacinamide and Antioxidants Adaptogens Segment to Retain Dominance owing to Its Increasing Usage in Skin Care Products

The neurocosmetics market is witnessing significant growth due to the rising demand for products that promote skin health and combat various neurological conditions. Among the different segments, the niacinamide and antioxidants adaptogens segment held a substantial market share in 2022 and is expected to grow even further in the coming years. Niacinamide, a derivative of vitamin B3, is beneficial for skin health in many ways. Moreover, it has anti-inflammatory properties, effectively treating various skin conditions, including acne, rosacea, and eczema.

Browse summary of the report and Complete Table of Contents (ToC):

https://skyquestt.com/report/neurocosmetics-market

The neurocosmetics market in the European region is on a fast-paced growth trajectory, with a projected high CAGR for 2023 to 2030 that closely matches North America's. This growth is largely driven by leading players in the industry who are making significant contributions to the sector. As a result, the future looks bright for Europe's beauty and personal care industry, with a strong growth trajectory expected to continue into the foreseeable future. This presents a range of opportunities for companies looking to expand into this region and consumers who are increasingly invested in looking and feeling their best.

SkyQuest's analysis of the neurocosmetics market utilizing Porter's Five Forces model has revealed valuable insights into the industry's competitive landscape. According to the analysis, the market is highly competitive due to numerous suppliers vying for business. This finding warns companies that they must differentiate themselves through various means, such as product innovation, pricing, and other factors. In addition, the insights gained from industry analysis can be particularly beneficial for companies seeking to enhance their market position and expand their businesses.

Key Developments in Neurocosmetics Market

Vytrus Biotech, a company specializing in plant stem cell culture for the cosmetic industry, has recently launched an innovative new ingredient that represents a significant step forward in neuro-cosmetics. Known as Kannabia Sense, this ingredient is the first derived from Cannabis sativa plant stem cells. As a result, Kannabia Sense is a breakthrough ingredient that has the potential to revolutionize the neuro-cosmetics industry.

BASF, a global leader in the chemical industry, has recently presented new research findings and innovative technologies at the IFSCC Congress. The company's research initiatives have been aimed at advancing the field of cosmetics and skincare by developing new methods and technologies that can help to improve skin health and well-being. For example, one of BASF's latest research projects involves a groundbreaking new neuro skin-on-chip method developed by NETRI. This innovative approach has the high potential to revolutionize the field of neuro-cosmetics.

NETRI, a French startup specializing in neuro-organs-on-chip technology, has partnered with Cambridge biotech company Axol Bioscience to commercialize novel kits in this highly specialized field. The kits will feature NETRI's organs-on-chip devices and Axol's hiPSC (human induced pluripotent stem cell)-derived cells. NETRI is a leader in developing neuro-organs-on-chip technology, which involves creating miniature models of the nervous system on microfluidic devices. The partnership between NETRI and Axol Bioscience is expected to result in the development of novel kits that will help advance the neuro-organs-on-chip technology field.

Speak to Analyst for your custom requirements:

https://skyquestt.com/speak-with-analyst/neurocosmetics-market

Key Questions Answered in Neurocosmetics Market Report

What are the primary factors that have positively impacted market growth in different regions, and how have they contributed to the overall expansion of the target market?

In what ways have recent technological advancements and significant events influenced the target market, and how can businesses capitalize on these changes to foster future growth?

Who are the major players driving innovation and adoption of new technologies in the target market, and what are the key competitive advantages that set them apart from their rivals?

How have various regions adapted to regulatory shifts within the target market, and what successful strategies have organizations employed to navigate these changes and remain competitive?

Related Reports in SkyQuests Library:

Global Functional Cosmetic Market

Global Essential Oils Market

Global Cosmetic Packaging Market

Global Teeth Whitening Market

Global Beauty Devices Market

About Us:

SkyQuest Technology is leading growth consulting firm providing market intelligence, commercialization and technology services. It has 450+ happy clients globally.

Address:

1 Apache Way, Westford, Massachusetts 01886

Phone:

USA (+1) 617-230-0741

Email: sales@skyquestt.com

LinkedIn Facebook Twitter




Qabil Ashirov

On behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov made an online opening speech at the "High-level meeting commemorating the 35th Anniversary of the Declaration on Right to Development" held within the framework of the high-level segment of the 52nd session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The event was initiated by Azerbaijan as the chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement and was organized by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights together with the Azerbaijani chairmanship of the National Assembly in accordance with the resolution No. 49/8 adopted at the 49th session of the Human Rights Council.

In his speech, Minister Jeyhun Bayramov thanked the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights for the cooperation in organizing the event on behalf of the NAM and emphasized that the 35th anniversary of the Declaration defines "development" as a human right.

He noted that, despite the unanimous recognition of the right to development as an independent human right in the Vienna Declaration and Plan of Action adopted in 1993, attempts to misinterpret its concept and divisive international discourse have been observed.

Touching on the COVID-19 pandemic, Jeyhun Bayramov said that the wide economic and social costs of the uneven distribution of vaccines against Covid-19 around the world and the different situations in the states during the recovery phase further set back the development prospects and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

In addition, the weakening of the role of multilateral institutions, the slow progress of the recovery process from the pandemic, and the negative effects of climate change made it even more necessary to have a good-faith dialogue on existing inequalities.

For this reason, the NAM member countries attached importance to this measure and, referring to paragraph 10 of the Declaration, reminded that the international community bears joint responsibility for the implementation of the right to development.

On behalf of the NAM, he recommended to the UN agencies and international financial institutions that they include the right to development in their activities. In this regard, also referring to the mandate of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, he reminded that the High Commissioner is responsible for spreading the right to development within the wider UN system.
Amouyel Brings 15+ Years of Social Impact Experience to a Radically Good Nonprofit That Helps Kids

WESTPORT, Conn., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Newman's Own Foundation has announced Alex Amouyel as its incoming President and Chief Executive Officer, starting in April. The Foundation was established by the late actor, racecar driver, and philanthropist Paul Newman to carry on his radically good legacy of giving away 100% of profits from Newman's Own food and beverages. Amouyel will succeed Miriam E. Nelson, Ph.D., who is retiring after three years of transformative leadership at the Foundation. With Amouyel at the helm, Newman's Own Foundation will lean into its mission to nourish and transform the lives of children who face adversity. Amouyel's experience in philanthropy and impact investing in underserved communities will be invaluable as the Foundation continues to create positive change.

Alex Amouyel, Incoming President and CEO of Newman's Own Foundation.

Amouyel brings over 15 years of experience in social impact work to Newman's Own Foundation, with a strong record of supporting social innovators around learning, health, and economic development, including with U.S. Indigenous communities. She is the outgoing Executive Director of MIT Solve, whose mission is to drive innovation to solve world challenges. Previously, Amouyel was the Director of Program for the Clinton Global Initiative. She also worked for Save the Children International in London and across Asia, the Middle East, and Haiti, and at the Boston Consulting Group. Amouyel holds a double master's degree in International Affairs from Sciences Po, Paris, and the London School of Economics, and a bachelor's degree in Biochemistry, Natural Sciences from Trinity College, Cambridge, UK. She is the author of The Answer is You: A Guidebook to Creating a Life Full of Impact.

"I have been so inspired by the work of Newman's Own Foundation," says Amouyel, "in particular, their collaborative and trusting approach with partners, and I look forward to continuing Paul Newman's legacy of 'giving it all away' to support impactful organizations."

Story continues

"Newman's Own Foundation is thrilled to welcome Alex Amouyel as its new President and CEO," says Michael Clayton, Chair of the Board, Newman's Own Foundation. "Across her career, Alex has brought together brilliant minds and scalable resources to tackle the world's biggest challenges. We are highly confident in her abilities to carry on Paul Newman's legacy, accelerating our impact as we nourish and transform the lives of children who face adversity."

Paul Newman was a pioneering social entrepreneur who made the radically good decision to start a company that was uniquely created to give. With its latest distributions, Newman's Own has given away more than $600 million since Paul Newman started the company in 1982. For more information on Newman's Own Foundation, visit NewmansOwn.org.

About Newman's Own Foundation

Legendary actor and philanthropist Paul Newman was committed to helping make the world a better place. In 2005, he created Newman's Own Foundation to continue giving away 100% of profits and royalties from the sale of Newman's Own food and beverages, something he had been doing since founding Newman's Own, Inc., in 1982. As of 2022, more than $600 million has been donated to good causes, especially to help kids who face adversity.

(PRNewsfoto/Newmans Own Foundation)

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/newmans-own-foundation-names-alex-amouyel-as-new-president-and-ceo-301758965.html

SOURCE Newmans Own Foundation
March 1 st , 2023  release at 7:30 am CET Sophia Antipolis, France Nicox SA (Euronext Paris: FR0013018124, COX), an international ophthalmology company, today announced that all the resolutions submitted to the Ordinary Shareholder Meeting of the Company held yesterday, have been voted. The shareholders have approved the transfer of the listing of securities issued by the Company from compartment C of the Euronext Paris regulated market to the Euronext Growth Paris multilateral trading system and granted the Board of Directors all powers necessary to carry out this transfer. The transfer to Euronext Growth Paris is subject to the approval of the Euronext Paris market operator and must become effective within 12 months, as per the shareholder authorization.

Nicox SA is an international ophthalmology company developing innovative solutions to help maintain vision and improve ocular health. Nicoxs lead program in clinical development is NCX 470, a novel nitric oxide-donating bimatoprost, for lowering intraocular pressure in patients with open-angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension. The company is also conducting research on NCX 1728, a nitric oxide-donating phosphodiesterase 5 inhibitor, in retinal conditions. NCX 4251, a novel, patented, ophthalmic suspension of fluticasone propionate nanocrystals for topical ocular application for dry eye disease, is being developed by Ocumension Therapeutics in China under an exclusive license agreement and is available for partnering elsewhere. Nicox generates revenue from 2 out-licensed products; VYZULTA  in glaucoma, and ZERVIATE  in allergic conjunctivitis, licensed in multiple geographies, including to Eyevance Pharmaceuticals, LLC (a wholly owned subsidiary of Santen Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.), in the U.S. and Ocumension Therapeutics in the Chinese and in the majority of Southeast Asian markets. Nicox is headquartered in Sophia Antipolis, France, is listed on Euronext Paris (Compartment C: Mid Caps; Ticker symbol: COX) and is part of the CAC Healthcare, CAC Pharma & Bio and Next 150 indexes. For more information on Nicox, its products or pipeline, please visit: www.nicox.com .
TipRanks

There are conflicting signals coming from the markets lately. We all know the accumulated headwinds; rising interest rates, the banking failures, and the Fed, in the minutes from its last FOMC meeting, indicated that a mild recession is highly likely in the second half of this year. Yet, the markets have seen sound gains year-to-date, with the S&P 500 up 7.5% and the NASDAQ an even better 15%. Looking at the current market conditions, Jeremy Siegel, a Wharton economic professor and a long-time
Current Deputy Has Proven Track Record of Standing Up for Workers

WASHINGTON, Feb. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The following is a statement from Teamsters General President Sean M. O'Brien regarding President Joe Biden's nomination of Julie Su as Labor Secretary:

International Brotherhood Of Teamsters. (PRNewsFoto/International Brotherhood of Teamsters)

"The Teamsters applaud the nomination of Julie Su for the top job at the U.S. Department of Labor. Su is highly qualified and will be a phenomenal ally of working families. She has proven herself as someone who isn't afraid to stand up to white-collar criminals and corporate greed. The Senate has already confirmed her once, so we encourage them to do so again  expeditiously and without political sideshows for the benefit of all Americans."

Su is the Deputy U.S. Secretary of Labor, a position she has held for over two years. Previously, she was the California Secretary of Labor, where she tackled issues critical to Teamsters, including worker misclassification, wage theft, and holding employers accountable for unsafe workplaces.

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.2 million hardworking people in the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico. Visit Teamster.org to learn more. Follow us on Twitter @Teamsters and "like" us on Facebook at Facebook.com/teamsters.

Contact:

Kara Deniz, (202) 624-8142

kdeniz@teamster.org

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/obrien-teamsters-strongly-support-nomination-of-julie-su-as-labor-secretary-301758866.html

SOURCE International Brotherhood of Teamsters
OCTO TELEMATICS SPA

Veratelli OCTO Group CEO

Veratelli OCTO Group CEO

Following the recent announcement of the Tokyo Office opening, the leader in connected mobility and in telematics solutions for the insurance sector announces that the Group operates in Singapore.

ROME, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- OCTO has just announced that it will operate its business in Singapore as part of the growth strategy of OCTO Group for 2022/2023 in the APAC Region.

The opening in Singapore will allow the leaders in telematics to further contribute to developing connected mobility in Eastern Countries.

OCTO announced the appointment of Florian Weber as Regional Leader APAC. Florians experience covers the handling of several long-term complex financial, insurance and OEM partnerships. His career began at Porsche, where he covered several strategic roles. He then worked for Alliance Group and Safe-guard Products Australia as Group General Manager & Director. Before joining OCTO, Florian was General Manager Finance, Insurance and Leasing at Eurokars Group.

Besides consolidating the already established sales support for its customers of the insurance sector and further developing its core business areas  Fleet Management, Smart Mobility, Digital and data analytics solutions for smart cities  the presence of OCTO in Singapore will translate into additional sales support to existing and new customers.

Nicola Veratelli, OCTO Group CEO, said: Our presence in Singapore is an additional step in our worldwide growth strategy. Our turnover abroad is constantly growing, and developing new markets is paramount. APAC is a key area for us, and we expect a significant increase in the coming years as well as opportunities for cultural exchange aimed at developing new solutions tailored to the specific features of the market, which could also be the starting point for the development of innovative solutions in other Countries where OCTO is already operation or will soon be.

About OCTO Telematics

OCTO has always been an innovator in connected mobility. A pioneer in telematics for the insurance sector, OCTO is today the leading provider of smart analytics and advanced telematics solutions to insurance, Fleet Management and Smart Mobility, using Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to transform data into value added solutions.

The multiple business applications and numerous use cases enable OCTO to bring telematics to the heart of smart cities and usher in a new era of smarter analytics aligned with the global sustainability goals expressed in the company's Vision Zero: zero crashes, zero congestion, zero pollution.

OCTO currently has 5.5 million connected users and holds the largest global database of telematics data, with more than 510 billion driving kilometers collected and 501,000 claims and insurance events analyzed with an operational management capacity of more than 400,000 vehicle rentals per month. www.octotelematics.com

Story continues

OCTO Telematics Media contact

Adriana Zambon

+39 339.3995640

press@octotelematics.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d40e491e-ce06-4508-aee1-8dd2dfed182d




Petrolympic Ltd.

Figure 1

General location of the Rayon dOr and Vauquelin Property within the Val-dOr Mining Camp.

Figure 2

Location of previous drilling in the Rayon dOr gold mineralization area.

Figure 3

Geology map of the Rayon dOr and Vauquelin Property with Induced Polarization (IP) conductors axes and biogeochemical sampling results.

TORONTO, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Petrolympic Ltd. (TSX.V:PCQ) (OTC:PCQRF) (the Company) is pleased to provide an update on its exploration campaign in the Vauquelin-Rayon dOr Property (the Property). The Property consists of 37 mining claims totaling 2,129 hectares located 30 km east of the city of Val-dOr, Quebec, on the eastern extension of the world-famous Cadillac Break within the Val-dOr Mining Camp.



General location of the Rayon dOr and Vauquelin Property within the Val-dOr Mining Camp.





Figure 1: General location of the Rayon dOr and Vauquelin Property within the Val-dOr Mining Camp.

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d97554c6-9fa0-4ec5-9ed1-8aa2eb305266

The Rayon dOr gold zone was previously discovered by drilling on the southwest side of Gueguen Lake. It is composed of several gold-bearing structures oriented NW-SE and the most significant values obtained at shallow depth were: 12.74 g/t Au / 3.96 m (DDH 1), 3.83 g/t Au / 3.08 m (DDH 6W-C-5) and 3.37 g/t Au / 3.44 m (DDH V-89-75). Based on previous significant drill intersections at Rayon dOr, the auriferous mineralization is found associated to both disseminations, veins and veinlets of sulphides (mostly pyrite and pyrrhotite) within altered fractures and quartz veins and veinlets which well correspond to the IP Resistivity geophysical method.

Location of previous drilling in the Rayon dOr gold mineralization area.





Figure 2: Location of previous drilling in the Rayon dOr gold mineralization area.

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/b4fe8ced-8965-4ab8-ac93-1ea5655ad712

One of the gold-bearing zones of the Rayon d'Or deformation corridor was already localized by diamond drill hole # 82-6 which returned a gold intersection of 2.06 g/t Au / 1.83 m, including 3.08 g/t Au / 0.61 m.

Anomalous gold, copper and zinc values were obtained during a prospecting and biogeochemical sampling program carried out on the central and eastern parts of the Property. These anomalies coincide with mineralized structures located in the southeastern extension of the Rayon d'Or deformation corridor and confirm the gold-bearing structures on the Vauquelin Property.

Story continues

Geology map of the Rayon dOr and Vauquelin Property with Induced Polarization (IP) conductors axes and biogeochemical sampling results.





Figure 3: Geology map of the Rayon dOr and Vauquelin Property with Induced Polarization (IP) conductors axes and biogeochemical sampling results.

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/9566ee7c-d003-4003-807e-d87c5f3c1fa1

In the Fall 2022, Magnetic and Induced Polarization Resistivity (Mag-IP) surveys were carried out on grid lines (Grid 1 on the map) established in order to locate the extensions of the mineralized structures hosting the Rayon d'Or deposit. The data collected during this survey indicate the presence of numerous NW-SE structures intersected locally by NE oriented faults. Anomalies detected in the northern sector (IP-6 to IP-9) are trending ENE and are associated along a mafic dyke. At the center of the survey, the anomalies (IP-1 to IP-5, IP-12) are oriented NW-SE with lateral extensions reaching 500m and are associated with the SE extension of the deformation corridor interpreted from Rayon d'Or. Similar NW trending mineralized structures are evidenced by two anomalies (IP-10 and IP-11) detected in the northern sector of the Property. All these NW-SE anomalies associated with mineralized structures are subparallel to the North #1 and Central Gold zones previously defined by extensive drilling and located less than 1km south of the Property.

An IP survey is currently in progress (Grid 2) in order to link the structures associated with those containing the Rayon d'Or gold zones.

The drilling program in preparation will be oriented on chosen priority targets provided by geochemical, mag and IP-Resistivity surveys (Grid 1 and Grid 2) as well as on the lateral and depth extensions of the known Rayon dOr gold mineralized zones.

The 2022 geophysical and sampling program has allowed to define a structural context on the Vauquelin Property comprising several deformation corridors which are favorable to the presence of mineralization, as evidenced by the mineralization previously defined by drilling on the Rayon d'Or zones. This structural context is similar to that of the Chimo mine owned by Cartier Resources and located less than 5 km south of the Property. Like on the Vauquelin-Rayon dOr Property, mineralization at Chimo includes numerous gold zones associated with structures present in three (3) deformation corridors (Cartier Resources web site).

Petrolympic is a gold exploration company with projects located in Quebec. The Province of Quebec has consistently ranked as one of the worlds best mining jurisdictions.

Qualified Person

Alain-Jean Beauregard, B. Sc., P. Geo. (OGQ # 227), is the Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the geological information reported in this news release. Mr. Beauregard is independent from the company.

For further information please contact:

Mendel Ekstein

President

Tel. 845-656-0184

Fax 845-231-6665

82 Richmond St East

Toronto, ON M5C 1P1

This news release contains information about adjacent properties on which the Company has no right to explore or mine. Readers are cautioned that mineral deposits on adjacent properties are not indicative of mineral deposits on the Company's properties.

NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATIONS SERVICES PROVIDER HAVE REVIEWED OR ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

Certain information contained or incorporated by reference in this press release, including any information regarding the proposed acquisition, constitutes "forward-looking statements." All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are to be considered forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based on a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by the Company, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, geological and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. 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. Known and unknown factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Such factors include but are not limited to: economic and global market impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, fluctuations in market prices, exploration and exploitation successes, continued availability of capital and financing, changes in national and local government legislation, taxation, controls, regulations, expropriation or nationalization of property and general political, economic, market or business conditions. Many of these uncertainties and contingencies can affect our actual results and could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements made by, or on behalf of, us. Readers are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and, therefore, readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such uncertainties. All of the forward-looking statements made in this press release, or incorporated by reference, are qualified by these cautionary statements. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements.




Royal Philips

Clinicians using the Advanced Visualization Workspace

Imaging Orchestrator - the Radiology Operations Command Centre interface

Philips SmartSpeed MR software image

Philips MR 7700 product image

Spectral CT product side view

March 1, 2023

Fully interoperable smart imaging systems and informatics solutions connect teams in radiology, oncology, cardiology and pathology to enhance clinical confidence and advance precision in diagnosis and treatment

Vienna, Austria and Amsterdam, the Netherlands  Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, today announced its radiology portfolio of smart connected imaging systems and vendor-neutral integrated radiology workflow solutions featured at the European Congress of Radiology (ECR) international meeting (March 1-5, Vienna, Austria). Visitors to Philips @The Blue Level at ECR, the largest exposition space at the Congress, will experience how Philips AI-powered technology turns data into actionable insights to increase diagnostic confidence and improve clinical outcomes, enhancing patient and staff experience, driving operational efficiency, and helping lower the cost of care.

At this years ECR, together with our customer partners, Philips will demonstrate how our latest AI-powered integrated smart diagnostic systems and informatics solutions can help reduce clinical complexity and drive operational efficiency to address workforce shortages and staff burnout, all while optimizing the right care pathway for patients, said Bert van Meurs , Chief Business Leader of Image Guided Therapy and Precision Diagnosis at Philips. With our AI-enabled technology, we can automate and accelerate routine tasks to generate patient-centric insights from large volumes of data to help improve productivity and enhance patient outcomes. Underpinning each of our innovations at ECR is Philips commitment to delivering sustainable, resilient diagnostic solutions that help hospitals receive ongoing value from their investments.

Story continues

Smart connected imaging systems powered by leading clinical and AI technology

Philips will showcase its latest innovations connecting radiology, cardiology, pathology and oncology across MR, CT, diagnostic X-ray and ultrasound, including MR SmartSpeed , the next-generation imaging technology that leverages Philips state-of-the-art speed engine and an award-winning Artificial Intelligence (AI) [1] reconstruction technology that boosts speed and image quality. In partnership with Leiden University Medical Center (Leiden, The Netherlands) Philips is innovating with AI to further speed up and improve MR examinations, with the aim to reduce scan times to less than five minutes and to reconstruct detailed MR images despite patient or internal organ movement. The approach is already showing promising results in leading hospitals worldwide.

In systematic research studies, we have seen strong evidence of the ability of SmartSpeed to significantly accelerate acquisition times for knee and spine examinations without compromising image quality, with scan times that can be reduced up to 64% for certain sequences, said Dr. Andra-Iza Iuga, Department of Radiology at the University Hospital of Cologne, Germany. Since musculoskeletal (MSK) exams make up a large part of all MR procedures, these acceleration benefits have the potential to result in significant operational cost reductions and we are currently successfully implementing the results of our research studies into our clinical routine.

Integrated radiology workflow solutions driving operational efficiency

Optimizing clinical workflows can help eliminate waste and allow hospitals to use their resources more efficiently, which translates into improved patient flow and delivery of higher quality care to patients. At ECR, Philips will spotlight its advanced technology to simplify and connect workflows to help reduce variability and staff workload, drive operational efficiency, and enhance the patient experience.

For more information on Philips fully integrated radiology portfolio of imaging and informatics solutions being featured at ECR, visit the Philips ECR Press Backgrounder. Read more about Philips partnerships with public and private customers, peers, and industry-leading global organizations to help reduce the environmental impact of radiology .

Join Philips in person at the Blue Level at ECR, or virtually via the Philips interactive online radiology experience and follow @PhilipsLiveFrom for #ECR2023 updates throughout the event.

[1] According to the definition of AI from the EU High-Level Expert Group.

For further information, please contact:

Kathy OReilly

Philips Global Press Office

Tel.:+1 978 221 8919

E-Mail: kathy.oreilly@philips.com

Twitter: @kathyoreilly

About Royal Philips

Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) is a leading health technology company focused on improving people's health and well-being through meaningful innovation. Philips patient- and people-centric innovation leverages advanced technology and deep clinical and consumer insights to deliver personal health solutions for consumers and professional health solutions for healthcare providers and their patients in the hospital and the home. Headquartered in the Netherlands, the company is a leader in diagnostic imaging, ultrasound, image-guided therapy, monitoring and enterprise informatics, as well as in personal health. Philips generated 2022 sales of EUR 17.8 billion and employs approximately 77,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries. News about Philips can be found at www.philips.com/newscenter .

Attachments




Sustainable hemp food startup announces its first expansion into the non-dairy dessert category with four fantastic flavors

VANCOUVER, BC, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ - Planet Based Foods Global Inc. (CSE: PBF) (OTCQB: PBFFF) (FRA: AZ0) ("PBFG", "Planet Based Foods" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that its wholly-owned subsidiary Planet Based Foods , the first and only company to produce nutritious plant-based meat with sustainable hemp as its number one ingredient, today announced its expansion into the non-dairy frozen dessert category with the unveiling of new hemp-based, organic vegan ice cream at Natural Products EXPO West. Show attendees will have the first opportunity to sample Planet Based Foods' better-for-the planet, allergen-free ice cream flavors  butter pecan, chocolate, coffee chip and vanilla  at Booth #893 in Hall A.

Planet Based Foods logo (CNW Group/Planet Based Foods)

Made with an organic hemp milk base and premium plant-based ingredients, Chief Innovation Officer Robert Davis drew on decades of non-dairy category experience to develop Planet Based Foods' exceptionally creamy formulations that pop with rich, natural flavors.

"With a sumptuous mouthfeel and creamy flavor, Planet Based Foods' new organic vegan ice creams are a mouthwatering option for those with a dairy-free lifestyle, and for traditional ice cream lovers who want a conscious luxury that's as good for the planet as it is for their taste buds," said Robert Davis, chief innovation officer, Planet Based Foods. "We used our favorite dairy ice cream as inspiration because we want to appeal to as many people as possible. Our goal is to wow mainstream consumers with the taste and quality of our desserts, while also building awareness for hemp as a sustainable choice."

Planet Based Foods' newest product innovation with hemp debuts after the brand successfully launched its plant-based burgers, sausages and crumbles made with hemp seed, pea protein and brown rice, as well as tasty vegan taquitos, in 2022. The brand's hemp-based burgers and taquitos are currently available in more than 700 Kroger stores across 10 states, with sales velocity outpacing projections by 20 percent. Planet Based Foods will also showcase new Original and Southwest taquito formulations with Violife dairy-free Colby Jack Shreds at EXPO West.

Story continues

"We're excited to show the world that plant-based meat is just the beginning for Planet Based Foods. With our expansion into non-dairy frozen desserts, we're now showcasing the utility of hemp in a range of delicious, better-for-the-planet foods," said Planet Based Foods CEO and Co-Founder Braelyn Davis. "We're relentlessly driven to innovate with hemp as part of our larger vision to help build a more sustainable and resilient food system. With climate change, soil depletion and water shortages putting significant strain on our agricultural system, the time is now to prioritize hemp as a regenerative, carbon-negative ingredient."

EXPO West 2023 attendees have the first opportunity to sample Planet Based Foods' new hemp milk-based organic vegan ice cream in four flavors at Booth #893, Hall A, March 9  11:

Butter Pecan  satisfies with creamy, buttery taste and the crunch of lightly-sweetened organic pecans. SRP $7.99 per 14 oz. pint.





Chocolate  serves up rich chocolate flavor drawn from a blend of organic Dutch cocoa and organic natural cocoa. SRP $7.99 per 14 oz. pint.





Coffee Chip  features non-dairy dark chocolate chips in a vibrant coffee base made with organic Colombian freeze-dried coffee and the highest-quality organic coffee extract. SRP $7.99 per 14 oz. pint.





Vanilla Bean  made with organic vanilla beans and organic Madagascar vanilla t give rich, natural flavor to this classic. SRP $7.99 per 14 oz. pint.

Planet Based Foods' sumptuous vegan ice creams will be available to retail and foodservice buyers looking for organic, sustainable frozen desserts free from soy, gluten, dairy and GMO ingredients, with a direct-to-consumer launch slated for summer 2023.

Founded in 2019 by former nutritionist and hemp marketer Braelyn Davis, food scientist and plant-based pioneer Robert Davis, and restaurant veteran Ted Cash, Planet Based Foods represents the culmination of six years of research and development around how to utilize hemp seed first in plant-based meat applications, and now in non-dairy formulations. Hemp regenerates soil, requires less water than traditional crops, and sequesters carbon efficiently  making it an ideal rotation crop that can help mitigate climate change and its impacts on the food system. Planet Based Foods sources 100 percent of its hemp from the United States as part of its commitment to support American farmers and reduce its supply chain carbon footprint.



For more information, visit planetbasedfoods.com and stop by Planet Based Foods' Booth #893, Hall A, March 9  11, 2023 at EXPO West.



About Planet Based Foods

Planet Based Foods is a purpose-driven hemp foods company on a mission to establish hemp as part of a sustainable food system that nourishes people and rejuvenates the planet for generations to come. Planet Based Foods is the first and only company to produce plant-based meat made with nutrient-dense hemp seed as the number-one ingredient. Since its founding in 2019 by nutritionist and hemp marketer Braelyn Davis, food scientist and plant-based pioneer Robert Davis, and restaurant industry veteran Ted Cash, Planet Based Foods has developed a full line of non-GMO, soy-free, and gluten-free hemp-based burgers, sausages, crumbles, and taquitos. As part of the company's vision to demonstrate the utility of hemp across the food industry, Planet Based Foods is now expanding into non-dairy with the launch of its vegan organic ice cream made with hemp. The San Diego-based company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Planet Based Foods Global Inc., which is publicly traded on the Canadian Stock Exchange (CSE: PBF), the US-based OTCQB (OTCQB: PBFFF) and the German Borse Frankfurt exchange (FRA: AZO). Visit planetbasedfoods.com and follow @PlanetBasedFoods on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

On Behalf of the Board

Braelyn Davis

President, Chief Executive Officer and Director

For more information, please visit:

www.planetbasedfoods.com or contact: invest@planetbasedfoods.com

Forward Looking Statements:

Certain statements included in this news release constitute forward-looking information or statements (collectively, "forward-looking statements"), including those identified by the expressions "anticipate", "assume" "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "may", "should" and similar expressions to the extent they relate to the Company or its management. The forward-looking statements are not historical facts but reflect current expectations regarding future results or events. This news release contains forward looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions which are difficult to predict. Such statements are based on current expectations and various estimates, factors and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors. Such statements and information are based on numerous assumptions regarding present and future business strategies and the environment in which the Company will operate in the future. The Company assumes no responsibility to update or revise forward-looking information to reflect new events or circumstances unless required by law. Readers should not place undue reliance on the Company's forward-looking statements.

The Canadian Securities Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/planet-based-foods-to-debut-organic-hemp-based-vegan-ice-cream-at-natural-products-expo-west-301759403.html

SOURCE Planet Based Foods
MarketsandMarkets Research Pvt. Ltd.

Chicago, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The plasma fractionation industry is expected to experience robust growth in the near future. This will be driven by the increasing demand for therapeutic and diagnostic plasma-based products, such as albumin, immunoglobulins, and clotting factors. In addition, the development of new treatments and therapies using plasma fractions is expected to further fuel the growth of this industry. Additionally, the increasing demand for plasma fractionation from the biopharmaceutical industry is expected to drive the industrys growth. Moreover, the growing prevalence of chronic diseases, such as cancer, is likely to propel the market for plasma fractionation. The rising prevalence of hemophilia and other blood clotting disorders is also expected to further fuel the industrys growth. Moreover, the increasing demand for therapeutic and diagnostic plasma-based products in emerging markets is expected to present lucrative opportunities for the plasma fractionation industry.

Plasma Fractionation market in terms of revenue was estimated to be worth $26.5 billion in 2022 and is poised to reach $36.3 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 6.5% from 2022 to 2027 according to a latest report published by MarketsandMarkets. The growing use of immunoglobulins in various off-label indication and growing genetic research for characterizing and diagnosing immunodeficiency resulting in increased application of plasma fractionation products, growing geriatric population such as the population of people above 60 age expected to reach 2.1 billion by 2050, increased use of protease inhibitors such as alpha-1-antitrypsin for the treatment of lung diseases, and increased incidence of communicable diseases are the major factors driving the growth of this market.

Download an Illustrative overview: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=93798284

Plasma Fractionation Market Scope:

Report Coverage Details Market Revenue in 2022 $26.5 billion Estimated Value by 2027 $36.3 billion Growth Rate Poised to grow at a CAGR of 6.5% Market Size Available for 20202027 Forecast Period 20222027 Forecast Units Value (USD Billion) Report Coverage Revenue Forecast, Competitive Landscape, Growth Factors, and Trends Segments Covered Product, end user, and region Geographies Covered North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa Report Highlights Updated financial information / product portfolio of players Key Market Opportunity Increased risk of communicable diseases Key Market Drivers Growing use of immunoglobulins in various therapeutic areas

Notable Plasma Fractionation mergers and acquisitions for 2022  2022 include:

Grifols and CSL Limited: Grifols, a Spanish healthcare company, has agreed to acquire CSL Limited, an Australian biotechnology firm, for $3.1 billion.

Roche Holding AG and Spark Therapeutics: Roche Holding AG, a Swiss pharmaceutical company, has agreed to acquire Spark Therapeutics, a U.S. biotechnology company, for $4.3 billion.

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited and Shire Plc: Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, a Japanese pharmaceutical company, has agreed to acquire Shire Plc, a British biotechnology company, for $62 billion.

CSL Behring and Bioverativ: CSL Behring, a subsidiary of CSL Limited, has agreed to acquire Bioverativ, a U.S. biotechnology company, for $11.6 billion.

Baxter International Inc. and Baxalta Incorporated: Baxter International Inc., a U.S. healthcare company, has agreed to acquire Baxalta Incorporated, a biopharmaceutical company, for $32 billion.

Story continues

Growth Drivers of Plasma Fractionation Market from Macro to Micro:

Macro Level:

Increasing prevalence of chronic diseases such as immunodeficiency, hemophilia, cancer, etc.

Increasing demand for plasma-derived medicines, such as immunoglobulins, clotting factors, albumin, etc.

Increasing government initiatives and funding for the development and commercialization of plasma-derived products.

Technological advancements in the plasma fractionation process.

Micro Level:

Increasing demand for affordable and safe plasma fractionation products.

Growing focus on improving the efficacy and safety of plasma fractionation products.

Growing adoption of new technologies, such as membrane filtration and chromatography, for improving plasma fractionation process performance.

Increasing collaborations and partnerships between plasma fractionation companies and research institutions.

Request for FREE Sample Pages: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestsampleNew.asp?id=93798284

Hypothetic Challenges of Plasma Fractionation Market in Near Future:

Increasing competition from recombinant proteins and biosimilars: As recombinant proteins and biosimilars become more widely used, they may displace the need for plasma fractionation in certain therapeutic areas. Additionally, these alternatives may be more cost-effective and present fewer risks of adverse reactions.

Poor donor compliance: Plasma fractionation requires a steady supply of high-quality plasma. As donor compliance rates decline due to new regulations or a lack of financial incentives, this could limit the availability of plasma and increase the cost of fractionation.

Regulatory hurdles: The regulatory environment for plasma fractionation is constantly changing. Companies must ensure that their processes and products meet all applicable laws and regulations in order to remain competitive.

Rising costs of production: The costs of producing plasma-derived products are increasing due to the need for advanced processing techniques and the rising cost of raw materials. This could lead to higher prices for consumers, reducing demand for these products.

Changing consumer preferences: Consumers are increasingly looking for more natural and sustainable products. As a result, demand for plasma-derived products may decrease as other alternatives become more popular.

Top 3 Use Cases of Plasma Fractionation Market:

Immunoglobulin Replacement Therapy: Plasma fractionation is used to produce immunoglobulin replacement products, such as intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) and subcutaneous immunoglobulin (SCIG). These are used to treat primary immunodeficiency diseases, such as chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP).

Blood Clotting Factor Replacement Therapy: Plasma fractionation is used to produce blood clotting factors, such as Factor VIII and Factor IX, which are used to treat patients with hemophilia.

Albumin Replacement Therapy: Plasma fractionation is used to produce albumin, which is used to treat acute infections, burns, and shock. Albumin is also used to treat protein-energy malnutrition.

Get 10% Free Customization on this Report: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestCustomizationNew.asp?id=93798284

Related Reports:

Interventional Oncology Market

Biosimilars Market

Apheresis Market

Hemostasis/Coagulation Analyzers Market

Leukemia Therapeutics Market

CONTACT: About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets is a blue ocean alternative in growth consulting and program management, leveraging a man-machine offering to drive supernormal growth for progressive organizations in the B2B space. We have the widest lens on emerging technologies, making us proficient in co-creating supernormal growth for clients. The B2B economy is witnessing the emergence of $25 trillion of new revenue streams that are substituting existing revenue streams in this decade alone. We work with clients on growth programs, helping them monetize this $25 trillion opportunity through our service lines - TAM Expansion, Go-to-Market (GTM) Strategy to Execution, Market Share Gain, Account Enablement, and Thought Leadership Marketing. Built on the 'GIVE Growth' principle, we work with several Forbes Global 2000 B2B companies - helping them stay relevant in a disruptive ecosystem. Our insights and strategies are molded by our industry experts, cutting-edge AI-powered Market Intelligence Cloud, and years of research. The KnowledgeStore (our Market Intelligence Cloud) integrates our research, facilitates an analysis of interconnections through a set of applications, helping clients look at the entire ecosystem and understand the revenue shifts happening in their industry. To find out more, visit www.MarketsandMarkets.com or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Contact: Mr. Aashish Mehra MarketsandMarkets INC. 630 Dundee Road Suite 430 Northbrook, IL 60062 USA: +1-888-600-6441 Email: sales@marketsandmarkets.com




Company Logo

Global Plastics in Electronics Components Market

Global Plastics in Electronics Components Market

Dublin, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Plastics in Electronics Components: Technologies and Global Markets" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

From the early days of valves to the creation of the transistor and later the integrated circuit, much of the progress made by the electronics industry towards ever-greater miniaturization has only been made possible due to the availability of different polymeric materials. The development of numerous novel plastics expressly for use in electrical and electronic device applications has led to the ongoing growth of both the electronics and plastics sectors. Electronics components have seen a large drop in real cost performance over time. This decline can be partially attributable to the availability and performance of novel polymeric materials.

A specific example is the development of the personal computer, where advancements in polymer-based photoresists and plastic encapsulation techniques have made it possible to mass produce high-density memories and microprocessors at a price that makes devices more potent than mainframe computers of thirty years ago available for barely more than the cost of a toy. The creation of electrical and electronic equipment today uses a variety of plastic materials extensively, from insulator moldings for the largest bushings and transformers to alpha particle barriers on memory devices.

Plastics, or more precisely polymers, are used in a variety of applications including equipment casings, protective coatings, wire and cable insulators, printed circuit board components, die-to-attach adhesives, and packaging for individual microcircuits.



The electronics sector is a significant user of high-performance thermoplastic and thermosetting polymers. Almost all engineering thermoplastics (ETPs) are used in some form of electronics component, but standard nylons (polyamides) and thermoplastic polyesters (typically polybutylene terephthalate) are by far the two most common polymer families.

Story continues

This is particularly true among connectors, which make up the majority of the market for electronic components. Even as the average size of each component used continues to shrink and wall thicknesses can be reduced thanks to advancements in polymer processability and end-use performance, the consumption of engineering thermoplastics in this industry is rising as the use of electronic devices permeates more areas of our working and leisure lives.



ETPs are frequently viewed as commodities by specifiers, particularly in certain types of connectors, and the choice of material is likely influenced by cost as much as by performance. This is much less of an issue in higher-performance applications, but even in these markets, suppliers of high-temperature nylons (a class that includes nylons 46, 4T and polyphthalamides) compete with those of polyphenylene sulfide (PPS), liquid crystal polymers (LCPs), and other polymer types. LCPs are a specific type of thermoplastic polyester. Different varieties of polyaryletherketone, the most prevalent of which is polyetheretherketone, are still further up the performance ladder.



In the market for electronic components, polyimides occupy a certain niche. They are mostly utilized in film form for flexible electronics and come in thermoset and thermoplastic varieties. When thermal stability is not a concern, they encounter some competition from films made of various forms of polyester (polyethylene terephthalate and, to a lesser extent, polyethylene naphthalate). This particular submarket is now expanding quickly.

Report Includes

61 data tables and 23 additional tables

An overview of the global markets and technologies for plastics in electronics components

Analyses of the global market trends, with data for 2022, 2023 and projections of compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) through 2028

Estimation of the market size and revenue forecast for plastics in electronics components, and market share analysis by type, end-user, and region

Highlights of the market opportunities, and major issues and trends affecting the plastic industry

Insight into the recent industry structure, regulations and policies, pipeline products, and the vendor landscape of the market leading participants

Company profiles of major players within the industry, including BASF, Covestro AG, Henkel AG, Mitsubishi Engineering-Plastics Corp., and SABIC

Report Attribute Details No. of Pages 218 Forecast Period 2022 - 2027 Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2022 $7.9 Billion Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2027 $10.3 Billion Compound Annual Growth Rate 5.5% Regions Covered Global



Key Topics Covered:





Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2 Summary and Highlights

Chapter 3 Market and Technology Background

3.1 Overview

3.2 Snapshot of the Electronic Device Market

3.3 Computers

3.4 Electronic Displays

3.5 Printers

3.6 "All-In-One" Machines

3.7 Phones

3.8 Fax Machines

3.9 Scanners

3.10 Mobile Electronics Devices

3.11 Automotive Market

Chapter 4 Market Breakdown by Technology Type

4.1 Overview

4.2 Types of Polymers

4.3 Thermoplastics

4.4 Thermoset Polymers

Chapter 5 Overview of Key Components, Pcbs and Encapsulants

5.1 Introduction

5.2 the Focus of this Report

5.3 Resin Consumption

5.3.1 Background

5.3.2 Markets

5.3.3 Growth

5.3.4 Market Drivers

5.4 Printed Circuit Boards

5.4.1 Overview

5.4.2 Property Requirements for Laminates

5.4.3 Physical Composition

5.4.4 Assembly Technologies

5.4.5 Pcb Substrates

5.4.6 Specific Polymers Used in Printed Circuit Boards

5.4.7 Other Materials Used in Printed Circuit Boards

5.4.8 Fiber Reinforcements

5.4.9 Production of Circuitry

5.4.10 Environmental Issues

5.4.11 Flexible Printed Circuit Boards

5.4.12 Soldering

5.4.13 Production Statistics

5.4.14 Industry Trends

5.4.15 Electronics Packaging

5.4.16 Market Estimates and Forecasts

5.5 Encapsulants

5.5.1 Definitions and Background

5.5.2 Primary Purposes of Encapsulation

5.5.3 Encapsulant Materials

5.5.4 Epoxy Encapsulation Formulations

5.5.5 Encapsulated Electrical and Electronic Components

5.5.6 Epoxy Encapsulant Systems

5.5.7 Silicone Encapsulants

5.5.8 Thermoplastic Encapsulants

5.5.9 Selected Major Encapsulant Producers and Their Product Lines

5.5.10 Market Estimates and Forecasts

Chapter 6 Molded Electronic Products

6.1 Overview

6.1.1 Background

6.1.2 Polymers Used

6.1.3 Market Drivers

6.2 Connectors

6.2.1 Background

6.2.2 Functions and Components of Connectors

6.2.3 Trends

6.2.4 Applications for Electronic Connectors

6.2.5 Material Selection

6.2.6 Flame Retardance

6.2.7 Standards Relating to Connectors

6.2.8 Manufacturers

6.2.9 End-Use Markets

6.2.10 Market Estimates and Forecasts

6.3 Switches

6.3.1 Background

6.3.2 Market Estimates and Forecasts

6.4 Coil Formers

6.4.1 Background

6.4.2 Manufacturers

6.4.3 Market Estimates and Forecasts

6.5 Relays

6.5.1 Background

6.5.2 Market Estimates and Forecasts

6.6 Capacitors

6.6.1 Background

6.6.2 Applications

6.6.3 Capacitor Materials

6.6.4 Consumption by Market Segment

6.6.5 Market Estimates and Forecasts

6.7 Other Types of Molded Electronic Components

6.7.1 Resistors

6.7.2 Market Estimates and Forecasts

6.8 Summary of Market Estimates and Forecasts

Chapter 7 New Developments

7.1 Background

7.2 Importance of Miniaturization

7.2.1 High-Density Interconnect Technology to Drive Market for Pcb

7.3 Thin-Walling Electronic Components

7.3.1 Background

7.3.2 Effects of Thin-Walling on Performance Requirements and Design

7.3.3 Application Requirements

7.3.4 Material and Process Selection

7.3.5 Properties Required

7.3.6 Challenges in Downsizing

7.3.7 Software That Aids Thin-Wall Design

7.4 Flexible Electronics

7.4.1 Overview

7.5 Wearable Electronics

7.6 Cloud Computing and Big Data

7.7 the Internet of Everything

7.8 Changes in Electronics Component Manufacturing That Could Influence Resin Choices

7.9 Recent Patents Related to the Industry

Chapter 8 Electronic Component Industry Overview and Plastics Producers

8.1 Top Semiconductor Producers and Customers

8.2 Manufacturing and Marketing Aspects

8.2.1 Globalization

8.2.2 What Component Suppliers Are Doing

8.3 Plastics Producers

8.3.1 Overview

8.4 Polymer Producers According to Material Type

8.4.1 Thermosets

8.4.2 Thermoplastics

Chapter 9 Environmental Issues

Chapter 10 Performance Requirements Related to Electronic Components

Chapter 11 Competitive Landscape

Chapter 12 Company Profiles

Chapter 13 Appendix: Acronyms

Companies Mentioned

Asahi Kasei Corp.

Ashland Inc.

Basf

Celanese

Covestro AG

Cytec Industries Inc.

Dsm

Dupont De Nemours and Co.

Ems Grivory

Epic Resins

Henkel AG

Huntsman International LLC

Interplastic Corp.

Kingfa Science and Technology Co. Ltd.

Lanxess AG

Mitsubishi Engineering-Plastics Corp.

Polyplastics

Sabic Innovative Plastics

Solvay Specialty Polymers

Sumitomo Bakelite

Toray Plastics

Victrex plc

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/fnsxb1

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

Attachment

CONTACT: CONTACT: ResearchAndMarkets.com Laura Wood,Senior Press Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./ CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900




Sabina Mammadli

Azerbaijani Science and Education Minister Emin Amrullayev said that the teachers' salary is expected to increase by another 15 percent in the next four years.

the minister made the remarks during a briefing and added that in two-three years the salary should reach 1,000 manat ($588.2), Azernews reports, per the ministry.

"Teachers who showed high results in the certification exam last year receive a salary of 1,195 manat ($702.9)," the official noted.

Previously, the salaries of teachers working in state general educational institutions and who have passed a diagnostic assessment of the knowledge and skills of teachers, as well as directors and deputy directors of these institutions, and heads of pre-conscription training of young people have increased by an average of 10 percent from February 1, 2023

Salaries, pensions, benefits, increased by the orders signed in 2023, are the continuation of the 4th package of social reforms from 2019, and this package is supposed to cover around two million Azerbaijanis throughout this year. It is planned to allocate an extra AZN750m ($441.1m) to this end.
WASHINGTON, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- A global group of leading primate protection and animal welfare experts led by Born Free USA have offered support to the Government of St. Maarten in a bid to halt reported plans to kill members of a troop of free-living green monkeys on the island as a means of population control. In a letter sent to the Minister for the Environment on Feb. 2, 2023, and made public today, the groups outline concerns over current plans and make an offer of collaboration with the Caribbean Dutch territory and neighboring French Saint Martin to implement a humane sterilization program in place of the announced lethal cull.

A global group of leading primate protection and animal welfare experts led by Born Free USA have outlined concerns about reported plans to kill members of a troop of free-living green monkeys on the island of St. Maarten.

Said Angela Grimes, CEO of Born Free USA: "Our coalition is standing ready to offer expertise, including voluntary veterinary services, to the Government of St. Maarten to save the innocent lives of the 450 monkeys who currently make their home there. A sterilization program will effectively and humanely reduce the non-native monkey population over time, and we have offered to work with St. Maarten authorities to help mitigate short-term issues caused by the monkeys, such as crop damage and encroachment into homes and schools. We are awaiting a response from the government to our letter, signed by 75 signatories, including world-renowned experts and organizations."

In order to demonstrate support for non-lethal control, Born Free USA has also launched a petition to the St. Maarten Government to call for the cull to be abandoned.

The letter sent to the Government of St. Maarten in February highlights concerns over the research behind the proposed cull, citing multiple flaws in the work, including estimations surrounding population growth of the monkey population. The report, authored by the St. Maarten non-profit, The Nature Foundation, makes the erroneous claim that the monkey population can double in the space of one year, using this to justify their swift and drastic killing. In fact, if the population cited by the report is correct, the troop grows at around 10% per year, meaning that the level of population expansion feared by residents will take almost a decade. This, says the collective of primate experts, allows the government plenty of time to explore non-lethal control as a humane and effective response.

Story continues

The letter further questions methodology and information provided as part of the public survey whereby the researchers sought views on the monkey's presence. Not only was information provided in the survey skewed towards eradication as a preferred option, but the respondents to the survey were also predominantly self-identified as involved in agriculture (72%)  a group that would be arguably biased toward eradication of the monkeys as they perceive them as a nuisance. Data shows that over 85% of residents on St. Maarten are employed in tourism, and that agriculture makes up just 1% of St. Maarten's GDP. That 72% of respondents to the public survey identified as being involved in agriculture suggests that little effort was made to ensure that the survey results were representative of the island's wider population. Even with the identified biases in the survey, only 55% of respondents were in favor of eradication with the other 45% in favor of sterilization or leaving the monkeys alone.

Claims made in the report and on the social media page of the non-profit responsible for it suggested that sterilization of the monkeys would cost five times that of killing and that there was not enough funding to implement sterilization. It is unclear how the financial costs of sterilization have been calculated, and the groups behind the letter have asked for clarification on this point and for the opportunity to cost the project themselves, factoring in the offers of voluntary veterinary and project staff services.

Grimes continued: "We believe that a humane sterilization program is the compassionate choice for the St. Maarten government, will be the most cost-effective solution, and will position St. Maarten as a leader in humane wildlife management."

Born Free USA operates one of the largest primate sanctuaries in the United States, caring for monkeys formerly exploited in the pet trade, in laboratories, and in zoos.

Read the letter to the Government of St. Maarten: https://bit.ly/stmaartenmonkeysletter

Sign the petition to Save the St. Maarten Monkeys: https://bit.ly/stmaartenmonkeys

About Born Free USA

Born Free USA works to ensure that all wild animals, whether living in captivity or in the wild, are treated with compassion and respect and are able to live their lives according to their needs. We oppose the exploitation of wild animals in captivity and campaign to keep them where they belongin the wild. Born Free USA's Primate Sanctuary is the largest in the United States and provides a permanent home for hundreds of primates rehomed from laboratories or rescued from zoos and private ownership. We're social: www.bornfreeusa.org , www.twitter.com/bornfreeusa , www.facebook.com/bornfreeusa , www.instagram.com/bornfreeusaorg , www.tiktok.com/@bornfreeusaorg.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Heather Ripley

Orange Orchard

(865) 977-1973

hripley@orangeorchardpr.com

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/primate-experts-call-for-halt-to-st-maarten-monkey-cull-public-petition-launched-301759164.html

SOURCE Born Free USA
CINCINNATI, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Startup Train, the inclusion focused US tech ecosystem tour is being launched by Lightship Foundation to reach and connect entrepreneurs and ecosystems across the country. The tour takes place over five consecutive days (Monday through Friday) with city to city travel aboard Amtrak's Acela train.

Startup Train Logo

This year's inaugural journey will take place May 1-5 and cover the Northeast corridor beginning in Providence, RI with stops in New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, and ending in Washington, D.C.. There will be founder focused events planned for each city including a press conference, investor meetup and founder/startup showcase. Lightship Foundation will be in one city per day with investors and founders from each city along the route welcomed and encouraged to join along the way, lending to the spirit of traditional socialization and connection promoted by the Startup Train.

"The train has been utilized for centuries to connect people and places while enabling economic expansion and innovation." says Candice Matthews Brackeen, Founder and CEO of Lightship Foundation. "At Lightship we see value in the history, purpose and networking enabled by locomotive travel, so we're leveraging it to connect with founders and ecosystem partners from city to city. We look forward to sharing the unique experience of our Startup Train journey."

Startup Train is one of many in-person FOC (founder of color) focused events planned for 2023 by Lightship Foundation. Black Tech Week , an inclusive ecosystem-building experience driven by community and corporate collaboration will return to Cincinnati, OH in July, while Lightship Bootcamp and Lightship Accelerator continue to be facilitated throughout the year in cities including Tulsa, Ok, Columbus, Oh, Miami, FL and more.

Find information and sponsorship opportunities for Startup Train here

Media contact Vanessa@lightship.foundation

About Lightship Foundation

Lightship Foundation is an impact-driven organization serving remarkable entrepreneurs & ecosystems across the US. By leveraging corporate partnerships, specialized programming, and capital investments Lightship drives sustainable growth within the minority innovation economy. Since 2017, the organization has guided over 200 companies led by women, FOC (Founders of Color), and those representing the LGBTIQ and disabled communities to more than $120M in venture funding across the US.

Story continues

About Startup Train

Startup Train is a multi-city startup ecosystem tour leveraging locomotive travel to connect remarkable founders and ecosystem partners across the country. The Lightship Foundation team will be in one city per day for five consecutive days, with investors and founders from each city along the route welcomed and encouraged to join the journey. The Startup Train tour features founder focused events planned for each city including a press conference, investor meetup and founder/startup showcase.

Lightship Foundation Logo

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/progress-in-motion-lightship-foundations-startup-train-connects-tech-ecosystems-from-rhode-island-to-washington-dc-301759808.html

SOURCE Lightship Foundation
RCI Banque

01/03/2023

PLACEMENT OF A 719 MILLION EURO SECURITIZATION BACKED BY FRENCH AUTO LOANS

Mobilize Financial Services announces the placement of a securitization backed by auto loans originated by its German Branch.

FCT Cars Alliance Auto Loans Germany V 2023-1 has placed 700m(1) of Senior notes and 19m of Junior notes. These notes are rated AAA(sf) / Aaa(sf) and AA(low)(sf) / A1(sf) respectively by DBRS and Moodys.

The Senior tranche, with a weighted average life of 2.6 years, has a coupon(2) of Euribor 1 month + 51bps. The Junior notes, with a weighted average life of 4.7 years, have a coupon(2) of Euribor 1 month + 127bps.

The successful placement demonstrates investors' continued confidence in RCI assets quality and receivable management process. This transaction also confirms the diversified financing sources to which the company has access.

(1) : Of which 100m have been retained by RCI Banque

(2) : Priced at par

Contact





Analystes et Investisseurs







Communication financiere

+ 33(0) 1 76 88 81 74

contact_investor@rcibanque.com





About Mobilize Financial Services:

As a partner caring for all its customers, Mobilize Financial Services builds innovative financial services to create sustainable mobility for all. A subsidiary of the Renault Group whose activity started almost 100 years ago, Mobilize Financial Services is the commercial brand of RCI Banque SA, a French Bank specializing in automotive financing and services for Alliance customers and dealers. With operations in 35 countries and nearly 4,000 employees, the group financed over 1.2 million contracts (new and used vehicles) in 2022 and sold 3.8 million services. At end 2022, average performing assets stood at 44.7 billion in financing and pre-tax income at 1,050 million euros.

Since 2012, the group has rolled out a deposits collection business in several countries. At the end of December 2022, net deposits collected totaled 24.4 billion or 49% of the company's net assets.

Story continues

To find out more about Mobilize Financial Services : www.mobilize-fs.com/

Follow us on Twitter : @Mobilize_FS

Attachment




HOUSTON, TX / ACCESSWIRE / March 1, 2023 / Refugee Services of Texas has received a donation of 10 Baby Lock Sewing Machines, private sewing classes and notions from B-Sew Inn Sewing and Software Center, a valued customer of Tacony Corporation.

B Sew Inn Delivers Baby Lock Sewing Machines to Refugee Services of Texas

The donation from B-Sew Inn will be utilized for sewing classes and as donations directly to clients. Sewing machines will provide the clients with a creative outlet and help them gain financial stability. The women served especially benefit from access to sewing machines because they can work from home as tailors to support their families.

"We are deeply grateful for their support and generosity, which will help us continue our mission to provide compassionate and quality support services to refugees and other vulnerable populations. We are excited to put this contribution to work and make a difference in the lives of the people we serve." Jennifer Linscomb, Area Director for Refugee Services of Texas.

Refugee Services of Texas has been providing support to those in need across Texas for over 40 years. They are dedicated to serving refugees, asylees, survivors of human trafficking, and other vulnerable populations and strive to make a positive impact in the community. For more information about Refugee Services of Texas and how you can support their work, please visit www.rstx.org.

"We are so pleased to support this important organization and their mission to support those in need in the Houston community." Mary Hess, Owner B-Sew Inn.

B-Sew Inn is the world's largest Baby Lock retailer with six locations across Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, and the newest location outside of Houston in Humble, TX. B-Sew Inn offers superior education and service to all customers, along with incredible products, including Baby Lock Sewing Machines, Koala Sewing Furniture, and a variety of sewing essentials. For more information about B-Sew Inn, visit www.bsewinn.com

Baby Lock USA and Canada is brought to you by Tacony Corporation. To learn more about Baby Lock and Tacony, visit www.tacony.com.

Story continues

Contact Information:

Emily Dameron

Director of Marketing, Sewing & Home Floor Care - Tacony Corporation

636-349-3000

SOURCE: Tacony Corporation

.





View source version on accesswire.com:

https://www.accesswire.com/741590/Refugee-Services-of-Texas-Receives-Donation-From-B-Sew-Inn




l'Universite de l'Ontario francais

Semaine de la francophonie de Toronto 2023

Semaine de la francophonie de Toronto 2023: 2023 Edition

Organizing committee

Organizing committee of the Semaine de la francophonie de Toronto 2023

Platinum Sponsors

Platinum Sponsors

Gold Sponsors

Gold Sponsors

TORONTO, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- After two years of virtual activities, the Semaine de la francophonie de Toronto (SFT) makes its return in-person for its 22nd edition. From March 20th to the 26th, the francophone community is invited to take part in a wide range of mostly free activities to celebrate francophone culture and the French language.

The SFT will officially launch with a cocktail reception on Monday March 20th, which is on la Journee internationale de la Francophonie. Moreover, the entire community will be brought together during a family day event with a modern twist the classic sugar shack, hosted on Saturday March 25th in the courtyard of lUniversite de lOntario francais. The SFTs programming will close on Sunday March 26th with a live contemporary dance show presented by lAlliance francaise de Toronto at the Isabel Bader Theatre. For more details, please visit the website: www.semainefrancophonietoronto.ca

Additionally, throughout the month of March, a whole host of activities are being organized by organizations who represent Torontos French-speaking community and who have a shared desire to amplify the diversity found within it; therefore, we invite you to take a look at the calendar to find your next francophone outing. March is really a month of francophone networking opportunities and artistic excellence for our franco-torontonian community. For a monthly view of the activities, please consult our calendar: www.semainefrancophonietoronto.ca/calendrier

Finally, lUOF has proudly collaborated with lAlliance francaise de Toronto, Bureau du Quebec a Toronto, College Boreal, and College La Cite to plan the 2023 edition of the SFT. The activities organized by the community groups, with whom the SFTs organizing committee is equally thrilled to collaborate, contribute significantly to bringing to life the month of march. Importantly, events of such magnitude would not be possible without the support of our many sponsors: Bureau du Quebec a Toronto, Caisse Populaire Desjardins, Centre francophone du Grand Toronto, College universitaire de Glendon, Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir, Le journal lExpresse, and Le journal Le Metropolitain, among others who can be found on our website: www.semainefrancophonietoronto.ca/partenaires

Story continues

Follow along throughout the month of march by finding our social media pages on our website.

About the Semaine de la francophonie de Toronto :

The Semaine de la francophonie de Toronto is organised by a committee grouping five leading organisations within the French-speaking community in the spirit of spreading francophone pride. This annual commemoration is a unique opportunity to not only bring together over a hundred francophone organization in and around the city of Toronto, but also to celebrate a community so rich in culture through activities, conferences, and the arts. Francophones from every corner of the world choose to make this metropolitan city the place they call home and the place in which they proudly display their diversity.

Contact

Sadie Schmalz: sadie.schmalz@uontario.ca

Telephone : 437-291-7280

Website: www.semainefrancophonietoronto.ca

Le comite organisateur





banniere_logo_CO

Les commanditaires niveau platine





banniere_logo_platine

Les commanditaires niveau or





banniere_logo_or

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/a182e29a-8f52-42f8-b249-849b99313f3a

Images accompanying this announcement are available at

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d1ffd524-a5d8-4837-80b4-3b109b67abf1

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f113f75d-374e-45c9-ae3b-3495b3700244

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/821cbfac-2115-4786-a6da-2eaf12de4c2b




FACT.MR

Augment In Mobility-As-A-Service Trend To Drive Ride-Hailing Service Market. Increased Vehicle Ownership Costs to Drive Market Growth

Rockville, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global ride-hailing service market is projected to be worth US$ 109.3 billion in the fiscal year 2023, up from US$ 97 billion in the fiscal year 2022. The emergence of prominent stakeholders in new geographies and increased consumer ridership due to ease and convenience are propelling the expansion of the ride-hailing services market.



Consumers' desire to prevent the high overhead costs of vehicle ownership and servicing, together with rising traffic jams and a shortage of available parking spaces, drives the global market expansion. For a variety of reasons, the rural population is considering transitioning to urban areas and metro metropolitan areas, likely to result in a high population. Furthermore, evolving ride-hailing and taxi-booking applications, along with greater internet service infiltration and mobile phone accessibility, are driving the worldwide ride-hailing service market.

Download Sample Copy of This Report:

https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=8355







Report Attributes



Details Forecast Period 2023 - 2033 Value Projection (2032) US$ 361.3 Billion Growth Rate (2022-2032) 12.7 %CAGR No. of Pages 170 pages No. of Tables 42 Tables No. of Figures 74 Figures

Key Takeaways from the Market Study

East Asia is predicted to lead the industry with a 32% market share.

The East Asia region market is expected to grow at the fastest rate of 13.3%.

The four-wheeler will have an 83% market share in 2023 and will dominate the global market from 2023 to 2033.

In 2023, the personal four-wheeler segment is estimated to account for 78% of the market.

North America is expected to have a 28% global market share by 2023.



Story continues

Ride-hailing services that are digitally enabled effectively manage requirement while also providing an easy and cost-effective alternative to private vehicle ownership, which is expected to drive market expansion over the forecast period. says Fact.MRs analyst.

Get Customization on this Report for Specific Research Solutions:

https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=RC&rep_id=8355

Prominent Players

Arro

BluSmart.

Capital EV

Curb

Didi Chuxing Technology Co.

EEETaxi.

Gett

GoGreen Cabs

Gojek

Hitch

Indriver

Lyft, Inc.

Meru cabs

Rapido bike taxi

Uber



Competitive Landscape

The presence of a large number of international corporations distinguishes the global market. The majority of these businesses are heavily reliant on alliances, partnerships, mergers, and acquisitions. Some of the most significant innovations made by key players are referenced below.

Uber Technologies Inc. entered into a partnership with EVgo in January 2021 to offer EV charging special offers to drivers in over 800 cities across the United States.

Gett and Curb partnered up in April 2021 to boost post-pandemic business trips. The collaboration of the two companies will allow it to to provide enterprise customers on its application limousine, nearby taxi, and ride-hailing services like Lyft.

Didi Chuxing introduced Latin America's first pooled electric vehicle (EV) fleet through its application in Mexico in January 2020, as the company plans to spend on sustainable transportation developments in the region.



The growth of the ride-hailing service industry in North America is the result of substantial investments by car manufacturers, service providers, and investment firms. The massive support of the US administration for the business and acknowledgment of various on-demand ride-hailing solutions drives the industry. For instance, in July 2019, International Automotive Components (IAC) spent US$ 250 million on Turo, a car-sharing corporation. The capital money will be employed to enhance the experience for clients.

Key Segments Covered in the Ride-Hailing Service Market Report

By Vehicle Type : Four Wheeler Others (Two Wheeler, Three Wheeler)

By End User : Personal Business

By Region : North America Latin America Europe East Asia South Asia & Oceania Middle East & Africa





Get Full Access of Complete Report:

https://www.factmr.com/checkout/8355

More Valuable Insights

Fact.MR, in its new offering, presents an unbiased analysis of the global cheddar cheese market, presenting historical analysis from 2017 to 2021 and forecast statistics for the period of 2023-2033.

The study reveals essential insights based on ride-hailing service market analysis by Vehicle Type (Four Wheeler, Others (Two Wheeler, Three Wheeler)), By End-User Type (Personal, Business) and by region (North America, Latin America, Europe, East Asia, South Asia and Oceania, And the Middle East & Africa).

Key Questions Covered in the Ride-Hailing Service Market Report

What is the projected value of the Ride-Hailing Service Market in 2023?

At what rate will the global Ride-Hailing Service Market grow until 2033?

Which are the factors hampering the growth in the Ride-Hailing Service Market?

Which region is expected to lead in the global Ride-Hailing Service Market during 2023 to 2033?

Which are the factors driving the Ride-Hailing Service Market during the forecast period?

What is the expected market value of the Ride-Hailing Service Market during the forecast period?

Check out more related studies published by Fact.MR Research:

Tax Preparation Services Market: The global tax preparation services market is expected to be worth US$ 28.2 billion in fiscal year 2023, up from US$ 27.0 billion in fiscal year 2022. From 2022 to 2032, the market is expected to grow at a 4.7% CAGR, reaching a value of US$ 44.7 billion by the end of 2033.

Management Consulting Services Market: The global management consulting services market is expected to be worth US$ 298.6 billion in fiscal year 2023, up from US$ 285.0 billion in fiscal year 2022. From 2023 to 2033, the market is expected to grow at a 4.8% CAGR, reaching a value of US$ 477.3 billion by the end of 2033.

Car Washing and Detailing Services Market: The global car washing and detailing services market has closed in on a valuation of US$ 34.8 billion in 2022. The market is forecasted to expand at a CAGR of 4.8% and reach a size of US$ 55.6 billion by the end of 2032.

Succession Advisory Market: The global succession advisory market is set to reach a market value of US$ 5.2 billion in 2023. The market is further expected to climb to US$ 8.4 billion by 2033, expanding at a CAGR of 4.8% during the 2023-2033 study period.

About Fact.MR

We are a trusted research partner of 80% of fortune 1000 companies across the globe. We are consistently growing in the field of market research with more than 1000 reports published every year. The dedicated team of 400-plus analysts and consultants is committed to achieving the utmost level of our clients satisfaction.

Contact:

US Sales Office

11140 Rockville Pike

Suite 400

Rockville, MD 20852

United States

Tel: +1 (628) 251-1583, +353-1-4434-232 (D)

Connect to Author: Mr. Yash Pathak

Email : yash@factmr.com

Sales Team : sales@factmr.com

Follow Us: LinkedIn | Twitter | YouTube




ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is committed to helping small businesses, especially those in underserved markets. SBA's North Florida District Office, along with the Georgia District Office and North Carolina District Office, entered a first-of-its-kind multi-state Strategic Alliance Memorandum with Prospera to help bring resources to Hispanic-owned businesses in the Southeast U.S. Prospera is an economic development, nonprofit organization headquartered in Orlando and specialized in providing bilingual assistance to Hispanic entrepreneurs trying to start, sustain, or grow their business.

Prospera, a nonprofit economic development organization that helps start, sustain, and grow Hispanic-owned businesses to achieve community prosperity. (PRNewsfoto/Prospera)

"In FY22, over $506 million in SBA loans went to Hispanic businesses in Florida, and we intend to grow that number. This year, SBA's top focus is helping small businesses overcome the capital challenge, especially startups and small, disadvantaged businesses. Working with organizations like Prospera is one of the ways we intend to do that. This strategic alliance will bring SBA's most valuable small business resources into reach for many entrepreneurs and furthers the Biden-Harris Administration's commitment to build equity and opportunity in Hispanic communities," stated Allen Thomas, SBA Region IV Administrator.

The North Florida District has worked with Prospera since 2014 to provide counseling and technical assistance for bilingual business owners. In part as a result of the Alliance, Prospera has assisted Hispanic business owners in the process of applying for over $70 million in SBA-backed loans.

The newly signed multi-state Strategic Alliance Memorandum (SAM) will increase the participation of Prospera's clients with special emphasis on Women-Owned, Minority, Hispanic, and Veteran-Owned businesses in the SBA's capital-access, procurement, international trade, women's business, and advocacy programs.

Jonel Hein, SBA North Florida District Director stated, "Hispanic businesses contribute to their communities, they hire from their neighborhoods, and they pay into their local tax base; but significant opportunity gaps persist due to underinvestment. We hope partnerships like this will continue to help lessen the gap and increase opportunities for our Hispanic business owners in our district, and across the region."

Story continues

"The U.S. Small Business Administration has been an important partner to Prospera in helping us strengthen and grow Hispanic-owned small businesses," said Prospera President and CEO Augusto Sanabria. "As we continue to grow, we are grateful to renew our partnership with the SBA and extend its reach across the three states we currently serve  Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina. We look forward to facilitating collaborations in our various offices to help our small business owner clients access capital, procurement, and advocacy opportunities through the SBA."

About Prospera

Prospera is an economic development, nonprofit organization that has specialized since 1991 in providing bilingual assistance to Hispanic entrepreneurs who want to start, sustain, and grow their business. In the last five years alone, Prospera facilitated over $70 million in loans for small business clients, trained 17,300 entrepreneurs, and helped consulting clients create or retain more than 16,000 jobs. Prospera currently serves Florida, North Carolina, and Georgia. For more information, visit www.prosperausa.org.

About the U.S. Small Business Administration

The U.S. Small Business Administration makes the American dream of business ownership a reality. As the only go-to resource and voice for small businesses backed by the strength of the federal government, the SBA empowers entrepreneurs and small business owners with the resources and support they need to start, grow or expand their businesses, or recover from a declared disaster. It delivers services through an extensive network of SBA field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations. To learn more, visit www.sba.gov.

Media Contacts:

Maria Yabrudy, 407-412-3303, MYabrudy@prosperausa.org

Nayana Sen, 904-443-1933, Nayana.Sen@sba.gov

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sba-expands-outreach-to-hispanic-businesses-with-historic-multi-state-alliance-with-prospera-301758818.html

SOURCE Prospera
SiriusPoint Ltd.

HAMILTON, Bermuda, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As previously disclosed, SiriusPoint Ltd. (the Company) (NYSE: SPNT) entered into the Contingent Value Rights Agreement, dated as of February 26, 2021, by and between the Company, Computershare Inc. and Computershare Trust Company, N.A. (the CVR Agreement).

Pursuant to the CVR Agreement, the Company issued contingent value rights (CVRs), representing the right to receive, on the Maturity Date (as defined below), a contingent cash payment of $13.73 minus the volume weighted average price (VWAP) of the Company Shares measured over the fourteen (14) consecutive trading day period prior to the Maturity Date multiplied by 0.743.

The CVRs matured on February 26, 2023 (the Maturity Date). The volume weighted average price of Company common shares over the fourteen (14) consecutive trading day period immediately preceding the Maturity Date as reported by Bloomberg L.P. was $7.1609 per common share. Accordingly, holders of CVRs will receive a cash payment of $8.4095 per CVR. If your CVRs are held with your broker, please contact your broker for information specific to your holdings. If your CVRs are held at Computershare, please contact Computershare for information specific to your holdings.

About SiriusPoint

SiriusPoint is a global underwriter of insurance and reinsurance providing solutions to clients and brokers around the world. Bermuda-headquartered with offices in New York, London, Stockholm and other locations, we are listed on the New York Stock Exchange (SPNT). We have licenses to write Property & Casualty and Accident & Health insurance and reinsurance globally. Our offering and distribution capabilities are strengthened by a portfolio of strategic partnerships with Managing General Agents within our Insurance & Services segment. With $2.9 billion total capital, SiriusPoints operating companies have a financial strength rating of A- (Excellent) from AM Best, S&P and Fitch. For more information, please visit www.siriuspt.com.

Story continues

Contacts

Investor Relations

Dhruv Gahlaut, Chief Strategy Officer & Head of Investor Relations

dhruv.gahlaut@siriuspt.com

+44 7514 659 918

Media

Clare Kerrigan, Chief Communications Officer

clare.kerrigan@siriuspt.com

+44 7720 163 949

Source: SiriusPoint Ltd.








WAGENINGEN, Netherlands, March 01, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Solynta and PepsiCos Ethiopia-based Foods Unit, Senselet Food Processing PLC (Senselet), have launched a project to introduce hybrid true potato seeds (HTPS) to Ethiopia. Hybrid breeding is the focused breeding of desirable traits like pest resistance and hardiness - improving food security and ensuring more sustainable income for farmers.

Ethiopian researchers and farmers will test the seeds, and Solynta/PepsiCo will work closely with Ethiopian authorities to establish legal frameworks for seed import, seed variety registration, and certification of hybrid seed tubers.

"Our teams will develop with farmers the best practices for Ethiopian conditions," said Charles Miller, Solyntas Director of Business Development. "Hybrid breeding will significantly affect crop practices, productivity, and reliance on pesticides."

The partnership aligns with the Ethiopia-Netherlands Seed Partnership (ENSP), whose mission is to "enable the private sector in Ethiopia to deliver farming men and women high-quality seed of improved varieties much needed for food security, nutrition, and climate resilience."

PepsiCo is the leading Ethiopian potato processing company. The announcement of its cooperation with Solynta closely follows PepsiCos $40 million cash injection to expand in Ethiopia. "This investment will allow us to leverage PepsiCos global expertise to boost the business potato sourcing programs, as well as its manufacturing and go-to-market capabilities," said Chris Wijnterp, Senselets GM at the time of the investment announcement. "We want to help build a more sustainable food system in Ethiopia by meeting human needs while bolstering global economic and social development."

About PepsiCo

PepsiCo products are enjoyed by consumers more than one billion times a day in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. PepsiCo Positive is our strategic end-to-end transformation that puts sustainability and human capital at the centre of how we will create value and growth by operating within planetary boundaries and inspiring positive change for planet and people. For more information, visit www.ssa.pepsico.africa.

Story continues

About Solynta

Solynta is a Dutch hybrid potato innovator whose mission is to help create global solutions for food and nutritional insecurity by giving farmers better, stronger and more cost-efficient ways to grow crops. Solyntas technology will provide resistance to disease and pests, provide ease of use, and facilitate production speed and scalability. To learn more, visit www.solynta.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230224005264/en/

Contacts

Press Contact

Hannah Foster

(Maneuvre, on behalf of Solynta)

press@solynta.com

Gugu Gowera

(FleishmanHillard, on behalf of PepsiCo)

gugu.gowera@fleishman.co.za
President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has signed a decree on the appointment of Saadat Yusifova as the Deputy Culture Minister, Azernews reports.

Until this appointment, Saadat Yusifova worked in various positions in the Presidential Administration.

In 2014-2019, she headed the Political Analysis and Information Assurance Department of the Presidential Administration.

In 2019, Saadat Yusifova was appointed as the Deputy Director of the Department of Work with Non-Governmental Organizations of the Presidential Administration under the presidential decree.

Saadat Yusifova is a graduate of Baku State University and Robert Schuman University in France.
SUDBURY, ON, March 1, 2023 /CNW/ - SPC Nickel Corp. (TSXV: SPC) ("SPC Nickel"), is pleased to provide an update on its recently consolidated West Graham-Crean Hill 3 Project (collectively, the "Project") and to announce the commencement of the Phase 1 drill program.

On January 23, 2023, SPC Nickel announced the signing of an Agreement with Vale Canada ("Vale") granting SPC Nickel the right to earn 100% interest in the Crean Hill 3 Property which is adjacent to SPC Nickel's West Graham Property (see Figure 1 for property location and SPC Nickel's January 23, 2023, press release for full details of the Agreement).

Highlights

As an advanced project, the combination of the West Graham and Crean Hill 3 assets is a transformational opportunity for SPC Nickel. The historical mineral resources on these properties form one contiguous near-surface deposit and consist of the following:

Previous drilling indicates that the highest-grade mineralization occurs along the property boundary between West Graham and Crean Hill 3 and is interpreted to extend up-dip (southwest) onto the Crean Hill 3 Property.

The 5,000 metre Phase 1 drill program of a total 25,000 metre resource definition drill program is schedule to began on March 3 rd , 2023.

The contract for the global mineral resource estimation has been awarded to SGS Geological Services.

SPC Nickel considers the West Graham and Crean Hill 3 resource estimates to be historic mineral estimates for purposes of NI 43-101. Neither the Company nor a qualified person on behalf of SPC Nickel have done sufficient work to classify the historical estimates as current mineral resources and SPC Nickel is not treating such historical estimates as current mineral resources. SPC Nickel considers the historic mineral estimates to be relevant to an understanding of the Project but has not done any work to validate the estimates. Nickel Equivalent value (NiEq) % equals Ni% + Cu% x 0.32 + Co% x 0.53 and does not factor in Pt, Pd, Au or Ag values. No allowances have been made for recovery losses that may occur should mining eventually result. The NiEq% calculation used in this release is consistent with the relative metal prices used in the West Graham Resource report published by First Nickel Inc. in 20092.

Story continues

Grant Mourre, President and CEO of SPC Nickel, commented: "We are very excited to embark on the 2023 Crean Hill 3 drill program, which will be our most ambitious drilling campaign to date. The Phase 1 program will focus on an area adjacent to the West Graham Deposit where historic drilling returned assay values 30 to 80% higher than the average grade of the resource. The program will then transition into Phase 2, where the remainder of the property will be tested with wide spaced drilling. We expect that this approach will allow SPC Nickel to complete a mineral resource estimate for the combined property by the end of 2023."

Commencement of Drilling:

SPC Nickel is pleased to announce the commencement of the first phase of the 25,000 metre Crean Hill 3 Property drill program. This 5,000 metre Phase 1 program will represent the first drilling to be completed on the Crean Hill 3 Property since 1960 and the first by SPC Nickel since the signing of the Agreement with Vale. The goal of the drill program is to test the continuity and grade of the mineralized zone across the property allowing SPC Nickel to complete a new updated mineral resource estimate across the combined property (West Graham  Crean Hill 3) by the end of 2023. The program will be completed in stages with Phase 1 drill program starting this week and is expected to take between 2 and 3 months to complete.

Phase 1 will comprise of 5,000 metres of drilling (at 50 metre spacings) focused on an area along the property boundary where previous drilling returned numerous high-grade intersections over comparable width to the adjacent West Graham Deposit but with grades between 30-80% higher than the reported grade of the resource. See Figure 2.

Phase 2 will consist of 20,000 metres of drilling (at 100 metre spacings) designed to test the extent and continuity of the mineralized zone across the property. See Figure 2.

Resource Update:

SPC Nickel is pleased to announce that it has awarded the contract to complete an initial Mineral Resource Estimate to SGS Geological Services. The Mineral Resource Estimate will encompass both the West Graham and Crean 3 properties and provide SPC Nickel with an updated estimate of the full potential of the Project. The study is anticipated in Q3 or Q4 2023, following the completion of the 25,000 metre drill program.

Reference

Van Wiechen, A.G (1990): December 31, 1989 Mineral Resource Inventory table in: The Exploration Potential for Sulphide Mineralization in the Crean Hill  Ellen  Crean Hill No.3 Environment, Internal Inco Report, December 13, 1990. Routledge, Richard and Churchill, Bruce (2009): Technical Report on the West Graham Property Conwest Zone Resource Estimate, Graham Township, Ontario, Canada prepared for First Nickel Inc., January 15, 2009. Scott Wilson Roscoe Postle Associates Inc. Historic Vale drill hole assay results were sourced from the Vale drill hole database.

Quality Assurance, Quality Control and Qualified Persons

The technical elements of this news release have been approved by Mr. Grant Mourre, P.Geo. (PGO), CEO and President of SPC Nickel Corp. and a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101.

The historical technical information presented in this release was obtained from historical work reports produced by Vale Canada Limited1,3 or by First Nickel Inc2 and has not been independently verified by a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101.

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.

About SPC Nickel Corp.

SPC Nickel Corp. is a Canadian public corporation focused on exploring for Ni-Cu-PGMs within the world class Sudbury Mining Camp. SPC Nickel is currently exploring its key 100% owned exploration project Lockerby East located in the heart of the historic Sudbury Mining Camp that includes the Graham West Resource and the Crean Hill 3 property under option from Vale. In addition to the Lockerby East Project, SPC Nickel holds three additional projects across Canada including the past producing Aer-Kidd Project (located in the Sudbury Mining Camp), the Janes Project (located 50 km northwest of Sudbury) and the large camp-scale Muskox Project (located in Nunavut). Although the corporate focus is on Sudbury, the Company continues to look for new opportunities to add shareholder value. Additional information regarding SPC Nickel and its projects can be found at www.spcnickel.com

Figure 1: Aerial plan map of the Lockerby East area. The surface projection of the West Graham Resouce is shown in red and the interpreted contiguous mineralized zone of the Crean Hill 3 Property is shown in orange. Additional current and historic mineralized zones including the Crean Hill Mine (current and historic), Lockerby Mine (historic) and the Ellen Pit (historic) are also shown. (CNW Group/SPC Nickel Corp.)

Figure 2: Aerial plan map of the West Graham  Crean Hill 3 area showing historic drill hole locations3 as well as the location of the Phase 1 and 2 holes and selected assay results. Reported drill hole intersections refer to down-hole intersection length. True widths cannot be estimated with available information (CNW Group/SPC Nickel Corp.)

Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Information

Except for statements of historical fact contained herein, the information in this news release constitutes "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities law. Such forward-looking information may be identified by words such as "plans", "proposes", "estimates", "intends", "expects", "believes", "may", "will" and include without limitation, statements regarding estimated capital and operating costs, expected production timeline, benefits of updated development plans, foreign exchange assumptions and regulatory approvals. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate; actual results and future events could differ materially from such statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include, among others, metal prices, competition, risks inherent in the mining industry, and regulatory risks. Most of these factors are outside the control of SPC Nickel. Investors are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking information. Except as otherwise required by applicable securities statutes or regulation, SPC Nickel expressly disclaims any intent or obligation to update publicly forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Further information is available at www.spcnickel.com.

(CNW Group/SPC Nickel Corp.)

SOURCE SPC Nickel Corp.

Cision

View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/March2023/01/c0900.html
Relationship brings connectivity and communication services to over 21 million users nationwide

BARCELONA, Spain and MEXICO CITY, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Mobile World Congress -- AT&T Mexico is moving critical IT and business processes to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) to expand the benefits of mobile internet to more than 21 million subscribers and business customers in industries such as education, health and banking nationwide. With OCI, the company will be able to manage OSS/BSS workloads, analytics, and databases more efficiently in the cloud.

Oracle Logo (PRNewsfoto/Oracle)

"AT&T Mexico's cloud transition continues to be a strategic lever for our growing and evolving business, enabling us to complete end-to-end processes with the agility and scalability necessary to deliver connectivity services to a growing number of users," said Jeronimo Diez de Sollano, chief information officer, AT&T Mexico. "Oracle has been a trusted collaborator with AT&T Mexico; this collaboration plays a part in our digital transformation program and the search for efficiencies and new market opportunities."

Building on OCI's capabilities in the Oracle Cloud Queretaro region, AT&T Mexico can run critical applications while meeting data residency requirements. Additionally, AT&T expects to see benefits in terms of productivity, and reductions in the total cost of ownership (TCO) over five years. This will positively impact the company's efficiency and innovation in technology helping it adapt to market demand quickly.

OCI helps telcos run, build, and optimize mission critical workloads with TCO benefits through optimum price performance, low network-egress charges, and consistent global pricing. Collaborating with Oracle, AT&T Mexico is creating more reliable and agile platforms, allowing them to offer innovative services to the customers they serve.

"Having clients like AT&T in the Oracle Cloud Queretaro region reflects the strong customer growth OCI is seeing across the country," said Angel Alija, senior vice president, Telecommunications, Oracle. "We're privileged to work with AT&T to build capabilities that will allow them to create more and better services that optimize the experiences of all AT&T users."

Story continues

Learn how we can help transform every part of your communications' operation at Mobile World Congress, February 27-March 2 by booking a meeting here.

AT&T Mexico selected Oracle Cloud Infrastructure in May 2021.

About Oracle



Oracle offers integrated suites of applications plus secure, autonomous infrastructure in the Oracle Cloud. For more information about Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), please visit us at oracle.com.

Additional Resources

Learn more about Oracle Cloud Infrastructure

Trademarks

Oracle, Java, and MySQL are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation.

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/att-mexico-transforms-its-technology-strategy-with-oracle-cloud-infrastructure-301758906.html

SOURCE Oracle
Telenor

(Oslo/Singapore - 1st March 2023) Today, Telenor Asia announces the completion of the amalgamation of the telco operations of True and dtac in Thailand. The transaction is the largest telco merger in Southeast Asia by combined enterprise value.

The new company, named True Corporation, is well placed to serve Thailands increasing demand for high-speed data and capture growth opportunities in a fast-changing digital region. According to Telenor Asia's Digital Lives Decoded 2022 survey, 82 percent of Thais are expected to significantly increase their mobile usage over the coming years, more so than in any other market surveyed. By combining the strengths of True and dtac, the new company will be a future-fit leading telecom tech company at the forefront of digitalisation in Thailand.

The completion of the transaction is a new milestone in Thailands impressive digital journey. The pace of innovation is expected to accelerate, creating growth opportunities for the country. Telenor is ready to support True Corporation with access to advanced technology, a network of global partners and cutting-edge industry insights. The new company will combine the strengths of dtac and True to deliver high quality connectivity and leverage the latest developments in 5G, AI and IoT. With the completion of the mergers in Thailand and Malaysia, Telenor is expanding its role in Asia, serving over 200 million customers through leading local champions well placed to create value for customers and society, says Jrgen A. Rostrup, Executive Vice President of Telenor Group and Head of Telenor Asia.

On a proforma basis for the financial year 2022: True Corporation served an estimated 55 million mobile customers, 5 million broadband connections and 3.2 million pay-tv subscribers and had EBITDA of USD 2.4 billion and revenues of USD 6.2 billion. The new company will have an Enterprise Value of more than USD 20 billion.

Following completion, the new company will be able to leverage partners, vendors, and local talents to bring more benefits to customers on an expanded network footprint, distribution touchpoints and broader range of products and services.

Story continues

To accelerate and stimulate growth in Thailands digital ecosystem, the new company, together with partners, intends to raise USD 200 million in venture capital, supporting promising digital startups focusing on new products and services that benefit Thai consumers.

Telenor and CP Group will be equal partners with a 30.3 percent ownership stake each in the new company. The Board of Directors of True Corporation will consist of 11 directors. Mr. Suphachai Chearavanont has been appointed as Chair of the Board of Directors and Mr. Jrgen A. Rostrup will be Deputy Chair, in addition to chairing the Executive Committee.

Press contact:

David Fidjeland

Director Media Relations, Telenor Group

+47 93 46 72 24 | david.fidjeland@telenor.com




By Valentina Za

MILAN (Reuters) -UniCredit will ask shareholders to approve a new pay structure for Chief Executive Andrea Orcel which offers a 30% rise if the Italian bank beats a wide set of targets this year, a document showed on Wednesday.

Orcel's current pay package of up to 7.5 million euros ($8 million) a year makes the former head of investment banking at Swiss lender UBS one of Europe's best paid bank executives.

UniCredit had said its board would review the CEO's pay based on 2022 earnings, noting that European Union rules capping variable compensation at up to twice the fixed salary made it impossible to reward outperformance.

Starting from a higher fixed salary of 3.25 million euros versus 2.5 million previously, the new system ties a higher overall pay of up to 9.75 million euros to the bank's ability to beat targets set for 2023, the document showed, confirming what sources had told Reuters.

But a lower variable component than last year, ensures that in hitting the targets Orcel would get in 2023 the same compensation as in 2022.

The variable component will be paid all in shares and deferred to 2030, UniCredit said.

"The salary increase is not immaterial but it was necessary to create a proper system of incentives in the 'pay-for-performance' spirit driving other changes within the bank," UniCredit said.

Underperformance curtails the pay package more than in the past.

After Spain's Santander withdrew its offer to make him CEO, Orcel in Aprile 2021 took the reins of Italy's second-biggest bank, which had been through years of restructuring to clean up its balance sheet and rebuild capital reserves.

A hard-charging executive, he vowed to end an era of "active retrenchment" and went on to de-centralise decision making to speed up the response to clients' needs.

Helped like other lenders by higher interest rates but also able to grow net fees slightly despite tough markets, UniCredit posted its best net profit in a decade in 2022.

Story continues

UniCredit shares have gained 42% this year, against a 19% rise in Europe's banking index.

Orcel, who forfeited millions of euros in deferred compensation from UBS in joining UniCredit, narrowly dodged a shareholder revolt on his arrival over his pay, which was double that of his predecessor and included a 4.8 million euro sign-on bonus unrelated to performance.

Since then, UniCredit's share price has more than doubled, adding nearly 20 billion euros to the bank's market value and ensuring its return this week into the euro zone's blue-chip index Euro Stoxx 50 after seven years.

UniCredit has also increased capital distribution to shareholders by 40% in 2022 and is paying out 5.25 billion euros as dividends and, mainly, share buybacks. ($1 = 0.9369 euros)

(Reporting by Valentina ZaEditing by Keith Weir and Diane Craft)
Company Logo

Dublin, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Vietnam Social Commerce Market Intelligence and Future Growth Dynamics Databook - 50+ KPIs on Social Commerce Trends by End-Use Sectors, Operational KPIs, Retail Product Dynamics, and Consumer Demographics - Q1 2023 Update" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



Social commerce industry in Vietnam is expected to grow by 45.7% on annual basis to reach US$3370.2 million in 2023.



The social commerce industry is expected to grow steadily over the forecast period, recording a CAGR of 22.0% during 2022-2028. The social commerce GMV in the country will increase from US$3370.2 million in 2023 to reach US$11134.5 million by 2028.



This report provides a detailed data centric analysis of social commerce industry, covering market opportunities and risks. With over 50+ KPIs at country level, this report provides a comprehensive understanding of social commerce market dynamics, market size and forecast, and market share statistics.



The research methodology is based on industry best practices. Its unbiased analysis leverages a proprietary analytics platform to offer a detailed view on emerging business and investment market opportunities.

Reasons to buy

In-depth Understanding of Social Commerce Market Dynamics: Understand market opportunities and key trends along with forecast (2019-2028).

Insights into Opportunity by end-use sectors - Get market dynamics by end-use sectors to assess emerging opportunity across various end-use sectors.

Develop Market Specific Strategies: Identify growth segments and target specific opportunities to formulate social commerce strategy; assess market specific key trends, drivers, and risks in the industry.

Scope



Vietnam Ecommerce Industry Market Size and Future Growth Dynamics by Key Performance Indicators, 2019-2028

Vietnam Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Future Growth Dynamics by Key Performance Indicators, 2019-2028

Vietnam Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Retail Product Categories, 2019-2028

Clothing & Footwear

Beauty and Personal Care

Food & Grocery

Appliances and Electronics

Home Improvement

Travel

Hospitality

Story continues

Vietnam Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by End Use Segment, 2019-2028

B2B

B2C

C2C

Vietnam Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by End Use Device, 2019-2028

Mobile

Desktop

Vietnam Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Location, 2019-2028

Domestic

Cross Border

Vietnam Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Location, 2019-2028

Tier-1 Cities

Tier-2 Cities

Tier-3 Cities

Vietnam Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Payment Method, 2019-2028

Credit Card

Debit Card

Bank Transfer

Prepaid Card

Digital & Mobile Wallet

Other Digital Payment

Cash

Vietnam Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Platforms

Video Commerce

Social Network-Led Commerce

Social Reselling

Group Buying

Product Review Platforms

Vietnam Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Consumer Demographics & Behaviour,2022

By Age

By Income Level

By Gender

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/hipz4w-social?w=12

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

CONTACT: CONTACT: ResearchAndMarkets.com Laura Wood,Senior Press Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./ CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900




SALT LAKE CITY, March 01, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--VLCM, the biggest IT solution provider in the State of Utah, marks its 40th anniversary.

VLCM will be celebrating its 40th anniversary throughout 2023 through online and in-person events, starting at VLCMs IT eXchange Conference and Trade Show on March 22, 2023, at Mountain America Expo Center. IT eXchange is VLCMs marquee event and is open to all IT professionals free thanks to VLCMs participating partners. The one-day show features over 50 IT vendors, 24 presentations geared to optimizing IT strategy, and gamified participation with thousands in prizes and swag.

VLCM started as a company that sold center-pivot irrigation systems to farmers. "We thought farmers could use computers to make their life a little easier, so we applied to be an IBM reseller," said VLCMs Founder, Rich Linton. "We were chosen out of a pool of three-hundred applicants to distribute the IBM PC throughout the West. Since then, we expanded from just a handful of employees to more than 130 employees today."

Since the early days of 1983, VLCM has grown from selling computers to farmers to equipping organizations of all shapes and sizes with enterprise data, technology, and cybersecurity solutions and services. VLCM solves complex business problems by consulting, designing and implementing the best technology solutions for its clients. The company accomplishes this by partnering with a wide range of technology vendors and employing over 25 talented engineers.

VLCM CEO Mike Linton said, "Were excited to celebrate our 40th year in business. We credit our longevity and success to the people we work with every day. Every employee, every client, and every vendor partner has made it possible for VLCM to survive and thrive for so many years. Its been quite the journey to see how VLCM has grown, changed and adapted many times over to stay relevant and innovative amidst the ever-changing technology landscape, while staying true to our core purpose of taking care of all those we work with. I am deeply grateful to all who have helped us get to 40 years in business, and Im excited for the next 40."

Story continues

In its 40 years, VLCM has stood out in the industry, receiving accolades from CRN, MountainWest Capital Network, The Salt Lake Tribune, Utah Business Magazine, and fellow partners for extraordinary service to customers from Arctic Wolf, Aruba Networks, Fortinet, and NetSPI, among others.

For more about VLCM, its services, and whom they partner with, visit www.vlcm.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230213005605/en/

Contacts

Name: Jessica Caley

Organization: VLCM

Address: 852 East Arrowhead Lane, Salt Lake City, UT 84107

URL: https://www.vlcm.com

Phone: +1 800-817-1504
Enhances retail solutions portfolio with omnichannel retail, wholesale, and e-Commerce fulfillment to support customers' supply chains.

Expands U.S. Contract Logistics Group's network with an additional 2.9 million square feet of Tier 1 distribution space on the East and West Coasts.

Allows Yusen Logistics to tap Taylored Services' automation solutions to provide fast and reliable service for e-commerce and direct-to-consumer processing.

SECAUCUS, N.J., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Yusen Logistics, a leading global supply chain provider, announced that it has acquired ownership of Taylored Services, a U.S. multichannel 3PL fulfillment organization. The deal expands Yusen Logistics' Contract Logistics Group's warehouse network in key distribution areas of the United States and further strengthens its end-to-end supply chain portfolio with specialized services, such as omnichannel retail, wholesale, and e-Commerce fulfillment.

Yusen Logistics & Taylored Services

Taylored Services will become part of Yusen Logistics (Americas) Inc., the U.S. operating company of Yusen Logistics Co., Ltd. and a subsidiary of NYK Group. The purchase agreement includes 11 distribution centers strategically located near the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, New York/New Jersey, Savannah, and Miami, as well as in Louisville, KY, totaling approximately 2.9 million square feet of Tier 1 distribution space. The respective Yusen Logistics and Taylored Services names and brands will remain in place.

"We are deeply impressed by the people, performance, and capabilities of Taylored Services brought together over the past 10 years by its private equity owner Saybrook," said Mikhail Kholyavenko, CEO of Yusen Logistics Americas."We are excited to welcome 350+ employees, who will be led by Matt Ennis, the new President and CEO of Taylored Services. Combining the strengths of Taylored fulfillment centers in U.S. port-centric gateway markets with Yusen Logistics' global and domestic capabilities in international freight forwarding, warehousing and transloading operations, and supply chain orchestration will allow us to provide a full suite of supply chain logistics solutions to our current and future customers."

Story continues

Jim DeVeau, the prior President & CEO of Taylored Services, will be staying in an advisory role to support a smooth transition and provide ongoing guidance to Yusen Logistics. Jim stated, "We are delighted to join Yusen Logistics, a global logistics group with over 68 years of heritage. Taylored employees and customers will benefit from access to Yusen's extensive global network and supply chain solutions including international air and ocean freight forwarding and 4PL/Lead Logistics capabilities." Taylored's Executive Chairman Jonathan Rosenthal praised Yusen for its effort, saying, "Mikhail and his team showed extraordinary commitment and understanding as we worked through this acquisition. We will do everything possible to ensure a smooth transition and a successful outcome for our new friends at Yusen and our employee-partners who drove the company's 5-fold growth."

About Yusen Logistics:

Yusen Logistics is a leading global supply chain company providing ocean and air freight forwarding, warehousing, distribution services, and supply chain management. The company offers logistics services and consulting for optimal supply chain development, including end-to-end supply chain management, with Kaizen-based performance improvement. Utilizing a network of more than 631 offices in 47 countries and regions worldwide, more than 24,000 employees provide optimal solutions to customers' diverse and complex supply chain demands. Yusen Logistics (Americas) Inc. has 1900 employees and 40 operational sites in the United States, with over 5 million square feet of warehouse capacity. www.yusen-logistics.com

About Taylored Services:

An Edison, New Jersey-based company founded in 1992, Taylored Services has grown to become a multichannel logistics provider offering fulfillment, warehousing, and transportation services, drayage, and transloading. The company provides services to a diversified client base, including wholesalers, manufacturers, and retailers (traditional and online-only e-tailers), with expertise that extends to multiple brand and accessory categories. Their distribution centers are located near the nation's busiest ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, New York/New Jersey, Savannah, and Miami. In November 2012 Taylored Services was acquired by private equity firm Saybrook based in Los Angeles, California. https://tayloredservices.com/

Taylored Services facility at The Port of Los Angeles

Taylored Services Facility at The Port of Los Angeles

Taylored Services storage at the Port of Los Angeles

Taylored-Yusen Logo

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/yusen-logistics-announces-strategic-acquisition-of-taylored-services-to-accelerate-contract-logistics-capabilities-in-the-us-301760184.html

SOURCE Taylored Services LLC; Yusen Logistics
Spotsylvania County Public Schools new chief of staff will be responsible for general staff administration and serving as the legislative liaison for the school division, according to a job description provided last month by the division.

The School Board approved the new position and appointed Jon Russell to fill it at its Feb. 13 meeting. The budgeted salary is $107,225.

Russell was hired in August 2022 to fill a different, new position  manager of executive communications  at a salary of $102,119. There has been no discussion among board members about filling the communications position now that Russell is chief of staff.

School Board member Kirk Twigg said at the Feb. 13 meeting that the chief of staff position would be a zero net position for the division.

Russell was employed by the Virginia Department of Education before being hired in Spotsylvania and assisted Twigg  the former School Board Chair and division superintendent Mark Taylor through the process of getting Taylors application for a superintendents license approved by the Board of Education.

Russells original position as manager of executive communications was funded by money saved from other unfilled positions, the division said in August.

Russell was a member of Culpeper Town Council from 2014 to 2021 and ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2021. According to his biography on the Culpeper Town Council website, he has degrees in homeland security studies and criminal justice from Thomas Edison State University in New Jersey.

In January 2021, then-Council member Russell came under fire after posting an online comment referring to the U.S. Capitol rioters as patriots.

According to the Culpeper StarExponent, Culpeper Democrats called for his resignation after he posted Patriots have breached the barricades at the U.S. Capitol to his personal Facebook page as the riots unfolded.

Russell told the newspaper that he removed the post as further events of Jan. 6, 2021, transpired and described calls for his resignation as part of an orchestrated smear campaign.

In 2016, Russell worked for the American City County Exchange, a program of the American Legislative Exchange Council, which is an organization of conservative legislators and business representatives that drafts model state-level legislation focused on removing regulations and reducing taxes.

ALEC also advocates for school choice and school privatization by drafting legislation that supports charter schools, voucher programs, tax credit scholarships, homeschool and education savings accounts, according to its website.

The job description for Spotsylvanias new chief of staff position was originally authored by Virginia Beach City Public Schools and most recently edited by Spotsylvania on Feb. 13, according to the document.

Essential functions of the job include:

providing administrative coordination for the school divisions overall operations and related support activities

receiving, monitoring and responding to legal updates and matters of concern

recommending, implementing and evaluating policies and procedures that assist staff in the operation of the school division

providing administrative oversight for the preparation of reports

representing the superintendent or deputy superintendent at meetings

and advis[ing] the superintendent of unusual trends or problems and recommend[ing] appropriate corrective action.

Virginia Beach City Public Schools  which has 86 schools compared to Spotsylvanias 32  employs a superintendent and chief of staff, but no deputy superintendents, according to the divisions website.

Virginia Beach schools chief of staff, Donald Robertson, has a doctorate and oversees the executive director of planning, innovation and accountability; the director of research and evaluation; and the director of student assessment, according to the website.

In addition to Taylor, Spotsylvanias senior leadership includes Kelly Guempel, deputy superintendent and chief academic officer.

At the Feb. 13 meeting, some School Board members said they dont believe the chief of staff position is necessary.

I consider the superintendent to be the chief of staff, Dawn Shelley said.

School Board member Nicole Cole said Taylor described the chief of staff position as needed for him to effectively do his job.

This position is duplicate of the job of superintendent, she said.

Taylor comes to the job of superintendent with years of experience as a county administrator and county attorney, but no experience in public education.
The Nebraska Department of Education recognized four Fremont High School students as Distinguished World Language Scholars during World Language Week 2023.

A total of 49 Nebraska students were honored as Distinguished World Language Scholars.

The World Language Distinguished Scholar Award recognizes Nebraska students for their leadership in language learning, commitment to language study, appreciation for cultural diversity, and communicative competence. Students were nominated by their teachers and submitted a portfolio.

We are incredibly proud to have teachers like Brenda and Shea to teach our students world languages at such a high level of language proficiency, Myron Sikora, FHS principal, stated in a press release.

The following Fremont High School students were recognized in German and Spanish languages.

High Honors: Daxton Graham, German Novice (Levels 1 and 2), Brenda Schiermeyer, teacher; McKenna Olson, German Intermediate Low (Levels 3 and 4), Schiermeyer, teacher.

Honors: Rebeka Voss, German Language Learning, Schiermeyer, teacher; Braeden Willnerd, Spanish Language Learning, Shea Aherns, teacher.
Sabina Mammadli

Azerbaijan has broken the logjam that kept the long-anticipated revival of contacts with ethnic Armenians of Karabakh to reintegrate them into the fabric of their own society and end Yerevans unauthorized intervention and command over the regional population.

Azerbaijan has repeatedly initiated contacts with representatives of the breakaway region following the victory in the second Karabakh war though they were torpedoed by foreign countries and the latest intruder was the self-styled state minister of the separatist Karabakh, Ruben Vardanyan, viewed as the man of Russia though the latter distanced from him.

Driven by its own peace agenda and reconciliation, Azerbaijan has been vocal about its position on Karabakh residents of Armenian origin. Azerbaijani president and officials have repeatedly stated that Armenian residents of Karabakh are Azerbaijani citizens and will be provided with all the rights ensured by the Azerbaijani constitution, the same as the countrys other citizens.

Back in 2022, in an interview with AzTV on August 12, 2022, the Azerbaijani president spoke about unfolding contacts with ethnic Armenians of the separatist region and the determination of his government to overcome obstacles through new projects the region has not seen for 30 years.

Today, there is no Karabakh issue on the agenda of the normalization process between Armenia and Azerbaijan. There were such attempts, but I never agreed to that. What does Armenia have to do with it? This is our affair. There is no talk of status at the negotiating table now. What is being discussed? The rights and security of the Armenians living in Karabakh. I have said yes, their rights and security will be ensured by the state of Azerbaijan, and I always do what I say, the president said, adding that these contacts are already taking place. And this is very important  I welcome them. People-to-people contacts will contribute to lasting peace, the president said.

The resolute steps of the Azerbaijani president, his insistent calls for the elements sabotaging the people-to-people contacts and normalization process to abandon the region, the unity between the nation and government expressed in the form of defense of the national interests and the open-ended protests of the Azerbaijani eco-activists on the major road in Karabakh are among numerous factors that compelled the separatist Vardanyan, designed to be a key figure in retaining the region in tension and fear and under foreign influence, quit the bogus post, and pave the way for contacts.

The news that came today proves the Azerbaijani governments determination to make it happen.

Azerbaijan has assigned MP Ramin Mammadov as a point person for contact with the Armenian residents of Karabakh. Moreover, the first meeting between the Azerbaijani official and the representatives of the Armenian residents was already held in the city of Khojaly at the headquarters of the Russian peacekeeping contingent temporarily deployed in the territory of Azerbaijan.

Masim Mammadov, head of the monitoring group inspecting illicit exploitation of Azerbaijani natural resources, made up of experts from the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, the State Service on Property Issues under the Ministry of the Economy, and AzerGold Closed Joined-Stock Company, also attended the meeting.

Addressing the Munich meeting on February 19, 2023, the Azerbaijani president identified a two-track approach to the situation in the region. First, the Azerbaijan-Armenia peace talks track. Second, Azerbaijans communications with the Armenian population in Karabakh.

So, this two-track-solution actually separates our talks with Armenia from our internal issues like our communications with Armenians in Karabakh. And also it was agreed with our international partners that there will be discussions on the rights and securities of the Armenian minority in Karabakh. And we are ready to do it. But with those representatives of the Armenian community who lived, who were born, and who lived in Karabakh throughout their life. But not with the person who was exported from Russia to have the leading position in Karabakh. Maybe export is not the right word. I would probably prefer the word smuggled into. Because nobody knows how he emerged in Karabakh and how he is trying and achieving to go back to Yerevan and from there to Moscow, and then back to Yerevan and then to Karabakh, the president said on February 19.

Armenias Sputnik media news agency also reported that the meeting took place, where issues of resuming the unhindered passage of vehicles along the Lachin road and the usage of the road for its intended purposes were discussed.

The report added that the parties also discussed issues of resuming electricity supply and uninterrupted gas supply though this point should be treated with suspicion as ethnic Armenians in Karabakh have never been tested with power or gas.

The meeting allegedly touched upon the possibility of environmental monitoring by Azerbaijani representatives of two deposits. Agreements were reached on further cooperation, reduction of tension, the establishment of a peaceful life in the region, and the search for ways to resolve the conflict.

Commenting on the days major issue, EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus Toivo Klaar welcomed this initiative.

Encouraging news from Khojaly today regarding contacts between Baku representatives and Karabakh Armenians. Good that discussions appear to have focused both on immediate concerns and broader issues, he tweeted.

It is worth noting, that back on February 24, a similar meeting between Azerbaijani and Armenian representatives was held with the direct participation of peacekeepers.

It was also informed that the next such meeting of representatives of official Baku with representatives of Karabakhs ethnic Armenians might take place in Baku, Ganja, or Agdam.

There is progress now and needs to be retained at the right and workable level to overcome discrepancies and bring about a normalization of the situation in the region and fuller integration of the Karabakh Armenians into Azerbaijani society.




The Prescott Elementary School student who brought a loaded handgun to school Friday and used it to threaten a classmate will not face legal consequences, but his parents might, according to the Lancaster County Attorney.

The fifth grader, who flashed a handgun in a backpack while threatening another fifth grader while the two were in a hallway Friday, is too young to be adjudicated even as a juvenile in Nebraska, County Attorney Pat Condon said Monday.

The Lincoln Police Department had referred the student, a 10-year-old boy, to the prosecutor's office on suspicion of terroristic threats, use of a weapon to commit a felony, unlawful possession of a firearm at a school and possession of a handgun by a minor, Sgt. Chris Vollmer said Monday morning.

But the student is simply too young to prosecute, even in juvenile court, Condon said.

"The child's under 11 years old, so we can't," said Condon, who did not rule out charging the boy's parents with a crime stemming from the incident.

Police responded to the school at about 12:30 p.m. Friday after the student who was reportedly threatened told a teacher, who alerted administrators at the school near 20th and South streets.

Staff located the backpack hanging from a coat rack in the hallway and took it to the office before calling police, who responded and found a loaded handgun inside the backpack, the district said.

This could have had a very different result, no question about it, Superintendent Paul Gausman said at a news conference Friday afternoon, where he praised the response by staff and law enforcement and the student who reported the threat.

Only a couple of minutes passed from when the threat was reported to when the gun was secured, according to the school district.

It remains unclear how the 10-year-old got the gun  and whether his parents will face criminal charges.

The Police Department declined to make officials available for an interview on the incident Monday, repeatedly deferring to the school district.

In response to questions regarding who owned the firearm, whether it was stored at the boy's house and whether the handgun had been locked away, Lincoln Police Capt. Todd Kocian said:

"At this time we are still working on this investigation and will be providing additional details once complete."

Condon said any potential charges for the boy's parents would depend on the outcome of that investigation, but speaking generally, he said his office could file child neglect-related charges if the facts of the case called for it, such as if the gun was unsafely stored.

Condon, who has been the county's top prosecutor since 2018, said his office hasn't previously used the child neglect statute to file charges in an incident like the one at Prescott.

"I have not had these circumstances come up before," he said. "Thankfully, I should say."

He said investigators would also work to determine whether the gun owners were in lawful possession of the weapon.

"Did the parents have the ability to own that firearm?" he said. "If it turns out the parents were convicted felons and they shouldn't have a firearm, we look at those things too to make a determination if there's anything to be charged on the parent criminally.

"But then, otherwise, it would be under the neglect side of things."

He declined to say how the student in Friday's case acquired the gun, pointing to the ongoing investigation.

City ordinance very narrow

Lincoln's only ordinance dealing with the storage of firearms relates to guns stored in vehicles. The narrow ordinance, which the City Council passed in 2019 after months of debate, requires residents who store guns in their cars to keep the weapons out of sight and the vehicle's doors locked.

That ordinance was in part a response to lobbying efforts from the nonprofit Nebraskans Against Gun Violence, which repeatedly urged the City Council to pass an ordinance requiring all guns in homes be kept in a locked container, prompting former Mayor Chris Beutler to create the Child Access to Firearms/Safe Storage Task Force in 2019.

"It's not a new problem," the nonprofit's executive director Melody Vaccaro said Monday. "It's a problem thus far we haven't had the political will to resolve."

Vaccaro was among 17 community members  which included police officers, public health and school officials and a gun store owner, among others  who served on the task force charged with examining ways to keep guns away from children and to increase safe storage of firearms.

In a 21-page report, the task force noted that 69% of guns reported stolen in Lincoln from 2008 to 2018 were taken during home or car break-ins. And of cases solved by police, nearly half of the guns stolen from cars from 2014 to 2019 were taken by juvenile offenders, the task force said.

The task force also noted that from 1995 to 2018, there were 12 juvenile suicides that involved firearms in Lancaster County. In all 12 cases, the guns were either unsecured or kept in glass display cases considered easily accessible, the task force said.

And between 2014 and 2018, there were eight reported incidents involving guns being brought onto Lincoln public middle or high school campuses. The report does not mention elementary schools.

After meeting six times in early 2019, the task force failed to provide an unanimous recommendation for any potential safe storage legislation, stopping short of endorsing the mandatory storage law that some task force members  including Vaccaro  had advocated for.

"Some in the group felt that the numbers were not high enough to justify actions where there was not a consensus," the task force said in its report.

Former City Councilman Roy Christensen proposed two gun ordinances that would have required residents to lock up firearms left unattended in their vehicles and report firearm thefts in the city within 48 hours.

In October 2019, the council ultimately passed a narrowed version of one of Christensen's ordinances, requiring residents who store guns in their cars to keep said guns out of sight and with the car's doors locked  a far cry from the legislation advocates initially sought.

People found in violation of the amended ordinance once or twice would be guilty only of an infraction, punishable by a $100 fine.

In the years since the council passed the ordinance, police data shows it's been an ineffective tool in preventing gun thefts.

After there were 99 guns reported stolen in Lincoln in 2019, there were 123 reported stolen in 2020 and 135 in 2021, the latest year for which data is available.

"I just don't know what people expect to happen," Vaccaro said. "Like, of course, this is gonna keep happening."

Vaccaro, who described Lincoln's current gun storage ordinance as inadequate, also expressed concern that the measure could itself be nullified by the Legislature, which is set to debate Sen. Tom Brewer's so-called constitutional carry bill Wednesday.

The Gordon senator's proposal (LB77) would allow Nebraskans to carry concealed weapons without a permit or safety training and would prevent cities, counties or village boards from regulating "the ownership, possession, storage, transportation, sale or transfer of firearms."

The bill would also nullify any current city ordinances regulating firearms and would require cities to post a public notice alerting residents that previous gun possession and storage laws are void, according to an amendment Brewer filed in January.

Brewer's proposal, which has 26 co-sponsors, faces continued opposition from police officials in Omaha and Lincoln.

School day was normal

At a Friday news conference, Gausman praised the quick response by school staff and law enforcement to secure the weapon, as well as the student for reporting the threat.

On Monday, staff worked to keep the school day as normal as possible for Prescott students, LPS Director of Communications Mindy Burbach said. There was no police presence, although school counselors, a social worker and a member of LPS security team were on site.

Its an important step in the healing process for our students to get back into routines as quickly as possible, Burbach said.

Officials were not aware of any parents who kept their students home because of the incident. Burbach said there were actually fewer absences than a normal Monday.

All grade levels discussed what to do when students notice something wrong as part of the districts social-emotional curriculum. The curriculum teaches students to tell an adult if they see a student breaking the rules and to refuse to take part in similar behavior.

Fridays incident was only discussed in classrooms where appropriate, like grade levels where students were talking about it, Burbach said.

Principal JJ Wilkins also held meetings with staff members Monday.

Wilkins said LPS safety protocols have been developed in coordination with national school security experts and carefully balances school safety with the warmth and caring feeling of how a school should be for our children.

He added that LPS and its threat-assessment team would review those protocols. Wilkins also shared information on how parents can talk to their children about the incident.

Friday's incident was only the latest instance in what Vaccaro said has emerged as a trend  and a reminder of the city and state's failure to address the rising accessibility of guns, she said.

"Our elected officials  from both parties  are not addressing this problem of adults leaving guns around for children to find," she said. "And they bring guns to school. Every single year, guns show up in our schools. Every year."

Condon, a Republican, declined to say definitively Monday whether he would support local or statewide legislation to strengthen or create gun storage laws.

Condon said he would have to review specific legislation to make sure it doesn't present any "constitutional issues." And he pinned the availability of guns not on a lack of effective gun storage policies, but on gun owners themselves.

"Bottom line, it just comes down to people being responsible for the guns that they have," he said. "You can have all the safe storage laws, but if somebody still makes a mistake of having that gun unsecured in a vehicle, more than likely there's a good chance that gun's gonna get stolen."
Authorities are cracking down on trespassing and camping complaints among the homeless population in southeast Colorado Springs as camp cleanup efforts continue throughout the week, according to the Colorado Springs Police Department.

Police said the cleanup is being conducted by Colorado Springs Quality of Life Team, with the assistance of crews from the Colorado Department of Transportation.

According to authorities, Homeless Outreach Team officers had posted notices to the camps near the 1800 block of Hancock Drive multiple times in the last several weeks to advise the trespassers of the clean-up coming soon to the area.

Officers said they provided exact dates that officers and the clean-up crew would begin the process of dismantling camps located on Colorado Springs, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad and CDOT property.

Police said that during Feb. 27 and 28, there were 29 adults cited for trespassing, and 15 were transported to the Criminal Justice Center, clearing out 15 misdemeanor and seven felony warrants. Authorities also made two narcotics-related arrests, and transported a sex offender for address verification, CSPD said.

Sign up for free: Springs AM Update Your morning rundown of the latest news from Colorado Springs and around the country overnight and the stories to follow throughout the day delivered to your inbox each evening. Sign Up View all of our newsletters. Success! Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. View all of our newsletters.

According to CSPD Sgt. Olav Chaney, cleanup work will continue through the week, if weather prevails, with a possibility of crews working into next week.

As of late Wednesday morning, CDOT crews were moving cleanup efforts to the north side of the Leon Young Service Center, Chaney said.
Penrose Library will resume regular hours on Wednesday following closures prompted by initial screening results indicating methamphetamine in recent weeks, according to a news release from the Pikes Peak Library District.

Restrooms, which were the focus of meth contamination the week of Feb. 19, also will reopen Wednesday at the downtown branch at 20 N. Cascade Ave., along with the library district's mobile book service, the news release said.

The safety of all Library patrons and staff is always a priority," Board of Trustees President Aaron Salt said in the news release. "I am grateful for Interim Chief Librarian and CEO Teona Shainidze Krebs and her dedicated team that worked around the clock to ensure all the testing was completed, and proper precautions were in place.

PPLD leadership worked closely with El Paso County Public Health and KEMWest to understand the impact of the results and create a safe, thoughtful reopening strategy for Penrose (Library). 

Since airflow is moving away from occupied areas of the library, the potential for people in the building to be exposed to meth from this contamination is very low, KEMWest President James Devalois said in the news release.

Penrose Library joined a list of at least four other libraries in Colorado in recent months that temporarily shuttered due to meth contamination.

Sign up for free: Springs AM Update Your morning rundown of the latest news from Colorado Springs and around the country overnight and the stories to follow throughout the day delivered to your inbox each evening. Sign Up View all of our newsletters. Success! Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. View all of our newsletters.

A branch of the Pueblo City-County Library District last Friday was the most recent to announce a temporary closure in order to handle meth residue detected in restrooms. The Barkman Library was scheduled to be closed this week.

Initial testing conducted on Feb. 8 produced samples from several restrooms in Penrose Library that showed contamination levels above the maximum threshold.

Results from the most recent restroom tests revealed that the only areas with actionable meth contamination above the acceptable limits are the exhaust system ductwork, fans and vents in those spaces. Samples from all other surfaces in the restrooms did not result in any actionable contamination.

According to the release, PPLD will be contracting vendors to handle the cleaning or replacement of the contaminated equipment in the affected exhaust vents.

The district said it will be installing environmental sensors in all library bathrooms across the district that will be able to detect changes in air quality, and will alert the library districts safety and security team if changes occur. According to the release, PPLD will begin the process of installing the sensors within the next several weeks.
A suspect from San Jose, Calif., was arrested on seven outstanding warrants for sexual assault in north Colorado Springs Tuesday night, according to the Colorado Springs Police Department.

Police said that around 7:30 p.m. they received a tip regarding the suspects location near the 2222 block of N. Nevada Ave. The suspect had fled the scene prior to their arrival.

Through further investigative work, authorities were able to locate the suspects vehicle, and the suspect was discovered shortly after, police said.

According to police, the suspect was taken into custody without incident, and is awaiting extradition back to California.
Sabina Mammadli

Pakistani newspaper Pakistan Observer carries a report about the heinous massacre carried out by Armenian military formations, with the support of the 366th motorized rifle regiment in Azerbaijans Khojaly city on the night of February 25-26, 1992. The brutal ethnic cleansing in Khojaly killed 613 people, including 106 women, 63 children, and 70 older people, 8 families were completely wiped out, 25 children lost both parents, 130 children lost one of their parents, 487 people were seriously injured, 1,275 people were taken hostage, and the fate of 150 of them is still unknown.

According to the article, Azerbaijani Ambassador to Pakistan Khazar Farhadov has acknowledged the countrys support for Azerbaijan in the second Karabakh war and noted Azerbaijans appreciation of Pakistan as it was the first country to recognize Khojaly genocide", Azernews reports.

The article also pointed out that a seminar on Khojaly Genocide was organized by the Youth Advocacy Network and The Dayspring in collaboration with the Islamic Cooperation Youth Forums Eurasian regional Centre (ICYF-ERC) and the School of Politics and International Relations. The purpose of the seminar was to discuss the causes and impacts of the conflicts in the OIC region. This also marked the 31st anniversary of the Khojaly Genocide. The seminar mostly focused on Humanitarian Tragedies in OIC geography with special reference to Khojaly Genocide.

The article emphasized that the Azerbaijani diplomat noted that the Armenian military-political leadership continued its crimes against the civilian population and innocent people of Azerbaijan during the Great Patriotic War as well and this was due to the fact that the perpetrators of massacres such as the Khojaly genocide were left unpunished.

Besides that, Farhadov prayed for a peaceful resolution of Kashmir soon and emphasized that UN Security Council resolutions should be implemented on Kashmir.

As reported in the article, Prof Dr Zafar Nawaz Jaspal, Director SPIR, QAU, Islamabad, Ambassador (R) Salahuddin Choudhry, Former Ambassador of Pakistan to the United Kingdom, Mushaal Mulllik, Human Rights activist and advocate from Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJ&K) and Asim Nawaz Abbasi, Founder of the Dayspring also spoke at the event.
Do you find yourself checking if your car doors are locked even while youre idling at a stoplight? Or, trying your hatchback by hand after securing it with your key fob when you leave your vehicle in a parking lot?

Who could blame you for being overly cautious in a state ranked No. 1 in the nation for auto theft, and where violence associated with stolen vehicles  including carjackings  too often makes headlines? If your car hasnt been stolen yet, you probably know someone whose has.

A big part of the blame lies with watered-down penalties for auto theft  brought to you by a Legislature bent on feel-good, soft-on-crime justice reform. The dogma has backfired, helping drive skyrocketing auto theft over the past several years.

This week, lawmakers came a step closer to fixing what they broke. A state Senate committee OKd a bipartisan bill that would restore sanity to the law on auto theft  and put more of the thieves behind bars.

Current law bases the severity of penalties for auto theft on the stolen vehicles value. Stealing a vehicle valued under $2,000 is only a misdemeanor. That approach might make sense for some other kinds of theft, but its absurd for motor vehicles.

They typically provide essential transportation regardless of make, model or condition. If anything, an old car worth little represents an even bigger loss if stolen because its owner likely cant afford a replacement  yet still needs to get to work.

Senate Bill 23-097, which unanimously passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday, eliminates the state criminal codes sliding scale tying the value of a vehicle to the penalty.

All vehicle thefts would be a felony. The vast majority of vehicles stolen in Colorado are valued at the lower end of the scale, says a 2022 report from Colorados Common Sense Institute.

Sign up for free: Gazette Opinion Receive updates from our editorial staff, guest columnists, and letters from Gazette readers. Sent to your inbox 12:00 PM. Sign Up View all of our newsletters. Success! Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. View all of our newsletters.

The bill also imposes tougher penalties on repeat offenders. According to the Colorado Auto Theft Prevention Authority, most of the people arrested for auto theft in the past three years have an extensive record of auto theft.

A few critics in Mondays committee hearing claimed the measure wouldnt work because too few perpetrators are arrested for stealing cars in the first place.

Theres no doubt it would help if more auto thieves were arrested. A number of factors influence arrest rates for auto theft or any other crime. One factor is penalties so paltry that, amid limited resources, police and prosecutors have to prioritize which offenses to pursue first.

Raising the penalties for auto theft will help make it a priority once again.

Of course, the critics are being disingenuous. They simply dont want more auto thieves arrested. They dont want more criminals in general going to prison. In the never-never land of the justice-reform crusaders, the accused are merely hapless victims of an unjust society.

Meanwhile, back here on earth, and definitely, in Colorado, we need to take more auto thieves off the street, and SB 97 holds that promise. Its support base attests to it.

Supporters include the cities of Denver, Broomfield, Lakewood, Aurora, Greeley, Colorado Springs and Lone Tree as well as the Colorado District Attorneys' Council, Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police, County Sheriffs of Colorado, Colorado State Patrol and the Colorado Municipal Judges Association.

Gov. Jared Polis called for a crackdown on auto theft in his State of the State address to lawmakers at the outset of the 2023 legislative session. Lets pass SB 97 and send it to the governor.
US war veteran to return wartime diary this weekend

A US war veteran will arrive in Vietnam this weekend to return a wartime diary to a Vietnamese family in the central province of Ha Tinh this weekend, according to local authorities.













Peter Mathews would arrive in Vietnam on March 4 to return the diary of a dead Vietnamese soldier, Cao Van Tuat, to his family in Ky Anh District.



Speaking with Dantri/Dtinews on Wednesday morning, vice chairman of Ha Tinh Provincial People's Committee, Le Ngoc Chau, said that Peter Mathews would arrive in Vietnam on March 4 to return the diary of a dead Vietnamese soldier, Cao Van Tuat, to his family in Ky Anh District.



"We're going to hold a ceremony to receive the diary on March 5," the official said. "We've carefully arranged relevant agencies to ensure security and good reception when receiving the US veteran and media at the handover ceremony. Mathews will leave Vietnam the day after the ceremony.



Earlier, the US war veteran had emailed Vietnamese authorities expressing his desire to return a diary of the dead Vietnamese soldier he found decades ago.



In his email, Mathews said has kept the diary for more than five decades, and he wanted to return it to the dead soldiers family.



In an interview with North Jersey published on January 27, Mathews said he found the diary in an abandoned backpack after a battle in the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum during the American War in November 1967. He had kept the notebook for 56 years.



Recently the 77-year-old veteran asked a friend to help translate the diary and published some pages on social media in the hope of gathering information about the owner of the diary. Through some translations, he found out that it was probably written by a soldier named Cao Van Tuat from Ky Anh District in Ha Tinh Province.



In an interview with Dantri/Dtinews on February 9, Mathews shared that he was conscripted by the US army in 1966 and was sent to Vietnam where he was trained as a machine gunner. He completed his military service and left Vietnam in December 1967 and had never returned to the country since.



Sharing the reason for not talking about the diary for such a long time, Mathews said that he just tried to put things relating to the war behind him so as to forget about it.



"I put the diary and everything else about the war in a box and I'd never looked at them again for over 50 years," he said. "Recently I was meeting a person who had adopted two children from Vietnam, I mentioned the book and he said I should put it on the internet and see what happens."



Mathews said that when he opened the box to take out the book again after so many years, he was still amazed by the beauty of the drawings and handwriting. And he decided that he should try to find out if anyone knew about it and wanted to help return it to Vietnam.



Hearing about the news, authorities in Ha Tinh Province searched for the information and confirmed that the owner of the diary was Cao Van Tuat in Ky Anh District.










Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev appointed Sabina Hajiyeva as the new head of the State Service for Protection, Development, and Restoration of Cultural Heritage under the country's Culture Ministry, Azernews reports.

Notably, Sabina Hajiyeva is a professor at Azerbaijan's University of Architecture and Construction and the head of the department of architectural constructions and monuments restoration. Besides, she is a corresponding member of the Moscow branch of the International Academy of Architecture.

In 1994, Hajiyeva graduated from the Azerbaijani Institute of Civil Engineers (now the Azerbaijan University of Architecture and Construction).

She participated in the "Policy of Housing Construction" course organized by the JICA-Japan International Cooperation Agency in Tokyo, the RSEP program organized by the American Council on International Education, and completed an internship at the University of Miami.

The official worked in various positions in the "Monuments restoration and protection" scientific research laboratory operating under the Azerbaijan University of Architecture and Construction. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Union of Architects of Azerbaijan.

Additionally, Hajiyeva was awarded Taraqqi (Progress) medal and the honorary title of "Honored Architect" by the relevant decrees of the Azerbaijani president.
After working at the same company for over 20 years, Michelle Siemer said she was still paid less than the men she supervised.

Siemer, an Eagle County mother of three, said she spent decades collecting accolades and additional responsibilities at her job. But while Siemer had the same duties as many of the male senior managers at her company, she remained a manager, and her pay reflected the lower status. Siemer said she advocated for promotions and raises but was repeatedly denied, leading her to leave the company last year.

I stayed as long as I did because I wanted to provide for my family, Siemer said. Many other women have also been underpaid by my former employer and are afraid of rocking the boat. Women with children dont rock the boat because we are afraid our kids will fall out.

Though Colorado passed the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act in 2019, requiring businesses to provide equal pay to employees performing substantially similar work, many women say they continue to face pay discrimination in the workplace.

Lawmakers are trying to address these gaps with Senate Bill 105. If passed, the bill would implement measures to enforce the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act and make other updates to the law. The bill cleared its first committee hearing on Tuesday.

The Equal Pay for Equal Work Act is working  but we have learned many things since it passed, said Sen. Janet Buckner, D-Aurora, who sponsored the act in 2019 and is now sponsoring SB 105. This bill is a result of conversations with stakeholders, people in the community and organizations about how we can improve.

The Equal Pay for Equal Work Act took effect on Jan. 1, 2021. The law included several mandates intended to even the playing field for workers, such as requiring employers to notify employees of promotion opportunities, including pay or a pay range in job postings and allowing employees to sue employers for gender-based pay discrepancies.

In 2021, women working full-time in Colorado were paid 83% of what men earned, according to the Womens Foundation of Colorado. Thats higher than 78% in 2020 before the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act took effect, but still falls short of the states all-time high of 86% in 2019, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The difference is only exacerbated for women of color.

If passed by the full state legislature, SB 105 would require the Department of Labor and Employment to investigate pay inequities and enforce equal pay mandates. The bill would also extend the maximum back pay period for pay inequalities to six years and allow employers to not notify employees about career development changes that are not technically promotions or jobs that other candidates could be considered for.

The Senate Business, Labor and Technology Committee voted 7-2 to advance the bill on Tuesday, sending it to the Senate Appropriations Committee for further consideration.

Men and women are still being paid different for the exact same work, said Sen. Jessie Danielson, D-Wheat Ridge, who also sponsored both bills. The reality is unless we continue to strengthen the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act, women will be underpaid when compared to men.

The bills advancement came after hours of debate and testimony spread over two committee hearings, with more than a dozen organizations registering both against and in favor of the bill.

Opponents argued that the original Equal Pay for Equal Work Act had unintended consequences that negatively impacted Colorado businesses and workers. Particularly, critics pointed to the requirement that employers include pay or pay ranges in job postings.

Sign up for free: News Alerts Stay in the know on the stories that affect you the most. Sign Up For Free View all of our newsletters. Success! Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. View all of our newsletters.

In 2021, the Wall Street Journal reported that national companies excluded Coloradans from applying for remote work positions because of this requirement.

SB 105 falls short of addressing many functional gaps created by the 2019 law, said Jessica Kostelnik with the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, which opposed the bill. "The 2019 bill unintentionally limited opportunities for Coloradans rather than expanding those opportunities and building equity, ultimately hurting the exact communities the initial proposal was intended to help.

Other opponents argued that requiring employers to notify employees of promotion opportunities makes it more difficult to promote internal candidates and award step promotions. While SB 105 is seeking to address this component of the 2019 bill, many business organizations want the notification element to be eliminated entirely.

Hiring and promotion decisions are complex and many factors drive those decisions, said Alison Morgan with the Colorado Bankers Association. "In the absence of contextual information, the notification requirement can create workplace conflict more than it can help with transparency.

But proponents of the bill say change is needed as some businesses simply arent obeying the requirements under the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act.

Stephanie Charlton said she was the human resources manager of a Denver manufacturing company for five years, including when the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act went into effect in 2021. She said company leadership pushed back on attempts to comply with the new law, including telling her not to hire women to work on the shop floor because they would distract male employees.

The next year, Charlton went on maternity leave after having a baby. On the day she returned to the office, Charlton said she was told she was being replaced by a man. Charlton said the man was immediately paid more than her for the same job and received the position as a promotion which was not announced to other employees as required by the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act. She called the experience devastating for her family.

Its a year later and were still trying to put the pieces back together, Charlton said. I dont want this to happen to anybody else. (The company) employs around 150 people in Colorado and they are not taking the rules of Colorado seriously.

Groups backing the bill include the Colorado Business and Professional Women, Colorado Fiscal Institute, Colorado Childrens Campaign, Interfaith Alliance of Colorado, League of Women Voters of Colorado, Womens Foundation of Colorado and 9to5 Colorado.

Organizations opposed to the bill include the chambers of commerce of Denver, Colorado Springs and the state of Colorado, in addition to the Colorado Hospital Association, Economic Development Council of Colorado, Colorado Bankers Association and Colorado Contractors Association.

Six Democrats and one Republican voted in support of the bill Tuesday, while two Republicans voted against it, citing solidarity with business organizations.

If passed by the full state legislature, the bill would go into effect on Jan. 1, 2024.
Democratic legislators this week advanced legislation to allowing local governments to match offers on apartment buildings in hopes they'll turn those units into affordable housing.

But some local governments aren't interested, and several real estate lawyers who have spent their careers in developing affordable housing sharply criticized the proposal.

One a developer called it the worst real estate bill he's seen in 15 years.

Supporters, on the other hand, believe it will provide another tool for local governments starved for affordable housing.

House Bill 1190 won a 9-4 party-line vote from the House Transportation, Housing and Local Government Committee and now heads to the full House.

Rep. Andrew Boesenecker of Fort Collins, who cosponsored the bill with Rep. Emily Sirota of Denver, told the committee Tuesday that the bill will grant a "right of first refusal" to local governments so they can match a seller's purchase price on a multi-family housing unit and subsequently preserve or convert it into affordable housing.

It's similar to a law passed last year, also carried by Boesenecker, that allowed a public entity to purchase a mobile home park to preserve it as long-term affordable housing.

Sirota said the 2023 bill is based partly on the model developed in Prince George's County, Maryland, which has preserved or created 1,213 units of affordable housing since 2020. She argued that proves that a right of first refusal "is a powerful tool in not only creating affordable housing, but also in preventing the loss of affordable housing that can occur when multi-family housing units are sold."

But the Prince Georges ordinance is significantly different from what HB 1190 proposes in one area. The county requires a minimum of 20 units in a multifamily building to qualify for purchase under their first right of refusal, while HB 1190 sets a much lower figure. For urban settings, it's a minimum of five, and a minimum of three for a rural community, witnesses noted.

Boesenecker said the bill is permissive: A local government is not required to purchase or to designate another public entity, such as a housing authority, to make that purchase.

A seller would provide advanced notice to a local government that they're planning to sell, with various timelines established in the bill to make the offer. Under the bill, and as amended by the committee, a local government or its designated housing authority has 14 days to preserve its first right of refusal. It must make the offer within the next 30 days, and close on the property within 180 days after reaching an agreement to buy.

The bill was amended to change the timeline from business days to calendar days at the request of Andrew Hamrick, representing the Colorado Apartment Association. He pointed out that 180 business days was more than nine months, too long for the market to bear.

HB 1190 also designates the income levels for the newly-acquired building to qualify as affordable housing. In urban counties, it's 80% of the area median income, 120% for rural counties and 140% for rural resort counties. Witnesses noted that the bill will require people living in those newly-acquired units whose incomes don't qualify for affordable housing rents to move out at the end of their leases.

Sign up for free: News Alerts Stay in the know on the stories that affect you the most. Sign Up For Free View all of our newsletters. Success! Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. View all of our newsletters.

But whether the bill will be a good tool for local governments to address affordable housing, or make the situation worse, was a matter for debate among the witnesses.

"It's a mess," said Bill Callison, a real estate attorney who said he has worked on affordable housing for 35 years, including helping to draft legislation on the issue.

If the bill made sense, Callison said he'd be the first to support it. But he said the legislation reaches too far, too deeply.

It'll affect the ability of owners to deal with buyers, or affect the ability of developers to do acquisition and rehab deals, including for nonprofits, he explained. The bill is not fixable, even with the plethora of amendments the sponsors offered.

"Table this thing, to allow thoughtful, interested parties" to work with the sponsors to explore whether legislation like this could work. He pledged to help, "unless I just finished burning all my bridges, which is a complete possibility."

The Prince George's model cited by the sponsors isn't the panacea they're hoping for, according to Tyler Carlson, managing partner at Evergreen Development and representing NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association.

Carlson said he's learned that what's happened in Prince Georges County is "absolutely horrible."

"The real estate industry, developers and investors are turning away from Prince George's County because of what's being contemplated today by this committee...This is the worst bill for the commercial real estate industry that I have ever reviewed in 15 years," he said.

On the other side, the bill drew support from county commissioners, such as Colorado Counties Acting Together (CCAT), a group of county commissioners in largely Democratic-led counties.

Summit County Commissioner Tamara Pogue told the committee HB 1190 is her favorite housing bill of this session and probably for several sessions before.

In her resort county, where they are desperate to provide affordable housing, local governments can't compete when properties don't sit on the market long enough for the county to even put in a bid, she said. Properties are sold within brokerage firms, from one agent to another, without being listed, sold within 24 hours or with cash offers, she said.

"We often are unable to bid on the properties we most need to protect our residents," she said.

Cathy Alderman of the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless pointed out that if the market could solve this problem it would have, but it hasn't.

"We've seen more supply. We've seen homes both for rent and for sale become more and more unaffordable as time goes on. We need to start putting measures in place to ensure that we can capture naturally occurring affordable housing and keep it in our communities, making it available to those that work in the community, those that live in the community. And this is one way to potentially do that," she said.
Colorado's 150th birthday is still more than three years away, but the state is getting an early start on the party.

Gov. Jared Polis on Wednesday unveiled the two winners of a contest to design the state's 150th anniversary license plate.

The two plates will be available to purchase beginning Aug. 1, the state's official birthday, and through Aug. 1, 2027, the governor said.

Wednesday's unveiling marked the first official celebration for the state's sesquicentennial, which coincides with the 250th birthday of the United States, he pointed out.

The plates came from a contest held by the Department of Revenue and its division of motor vehicles, with 30,000 votes cast.

Sign up for free: News Alerts Stay in the know on the stories that affect you the most. Sign Up For Free View all of our newsletters. Success! Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. View all of our newsletters.

And the winners are:

 Calista Blaschke, who won the 13-and-under contest. She's 11 and attends Grant Beacon Middle School in Denver.

Her design picks up on the state's signature mountain, Pikes Peak, and includes the state bird, the lark bunting and the state tree, the Colorado blue spruce. She said she was inspired by an article she read about the history of Pikes Peak.

Blaschke has yet to visit the summit of Pikes Peak, she said. The governor advised her to take the Cog Railway and avoid the "scary" drive.

Evan Griesheimer, a 2021 graduate of Colorado State University, designed the plate for the over-13 contest. His design draws from the colors of the state flag; a badge in the middle comes from the state seal, representing the history of the state, including its mining heritage, he explained.

The plate will be available at no additional cost, unlike specialty license plates, the governor explained. "We want to make sure everyone can take part" in the celebration of the state's birthday, he added. The designs "share the vision of who we are, can be and want to be," he said.
If its done right, a restaurant can become a destination, not just a place to eat, industry experts say.

Restauranteur Chuck Schafers latest Colorado Springs project will have four chances to do just that.

Schafer, who owns Five Times Hospitality Group, is targeting a late March opening for his Manhattan Room Tapas Kitchen and Cansano Italian Steakhouse and a late April opening for Longboard Tacos and Pause Ultra Lounge & Sushi  four restaurants being built as part of a single dining complex and with multiple customer options.

The high-end restaurants are under construction at the Victory Ridge mixed-use development on the citys far north side, southeast of InterQuest and Voyager parkways. A limited liability company formed by Schafer paid nearly $620,000 for a less than 1-acre parcel on the north side of the 155-acre Victory Ridge, El Paso County land records show.

The project isnt a food hall; each restaurant will have its own entrance, menu, kitchen, look, feel and concept.

Yet, because theyll be under one ownership and constructed adjacent to each other, diners can have a drink at one restaurant and transfer their bar tab over to another when their reservation is called, Schafer said.

When I got this lot, I tried to think many times, what do I want to create? Schafer said. What do I want to do? Its a destination. I want people to believe that, Hey, I can go to one place and enjoy myself. I dont have to go here and eat and then go somewhere else later.

Schafers restaurant background includes ownership of the Prime25 steakhouse south of downtown Colorado Springs. He and his uncle, local businessman and nightclub owner Sam Guadagnoli, opened Prime25 in early 2017.

Guadagnoli died in September; Schafer said he continues to own Prime25 with new partner John Goede, an attorney who stepped in after Guadagnoli died. Goede also has partnered on several hotel and restaurant projects with Springs attorney Perry Sanders Jr.

Schafer tapped his friend and award-winning chef Christopher Lee to create the restaurants menus and recipes; executive chef Phil Griffin will help run the restaurants day to day.

Schafer said hes envisioned a restaurant project in northern Colorado Springs for more than 2 years. He liked the location of Victory Ridge, which is one of four residential and commercial developments in the fast-growing InterQuest area thats home to restaurants, stores, service-oriented businesses, hotels and apartments.

The new St. Francis-Interquest Hospital will open in the area this summer, while Ent Credit Union built an expanded headquarters nearby that opened in 2021. Victory Ridge also is a few miles south of Polaris Pointe, another mixed-use development where the 8,000-seat Sunset amphitheater is targeted to open in 2024; Schafer said he hopes concertgoers will frequent his restaurants before or after shows.

Victory Ridge includes In-N-Out Burgers first Colorado restaurant and the companys production and distribution facility; several additional chain restaurants; hundreds of townhomes constructed by Denver-area builder Lokal Homes; the ICON movie theater complex; a four-story office building; and a 474-unit apartment complex thats now under construction.

Schafer expects his restaurants to appeal to residents on the far north side, which U.S. Census figures show has some of the Pikes Peak regions highest household incomes. Many of those residents dont want to drive across town to reach a restaurant, he said.

When I drive to Prime, its a long ways away for me, said Schafer, who lives northeast of Victory Ridge in unincorporated Black Forest. And a lot of my friends live in Flying Horse (a nearby, upscale development) and they go to Prime and stuff. Theyre like, we can go down there and eat and drink, but then weve got to drive all the way home. I feel like this part of town has been missing out on a little bit.

Schafer said his new restaurants have been designed with open kitchens that customers can see from dining rooms and interiors decorated to reflect a particular locations concept. Food will be refrigerated, but not frozen; none of the restaurants will use freezers, he said.

Three fire pits will create outdoor gathering spots for diners, while Cansano, Longboard Tacos and Pause will have patios. Eight large concrete pads with tables and festoon lighting in front of Cansano will allow its diners to lounge outside the restaurant.

A walkway between Cansano and Longboard Tacos links to a free, 1,100-space parking garage on the south side of the restaurants; the garage was one of the first amenities built at Victory Ridge when the development got off the ground more than a decade ago.

Restaurant details include:

 Manhattan Room Tapas Kitchen is envisioned as an intimate dining spot that will seat about 100 at booths and tables and offer live music  soft, not loud, Schafer said  performed on a corner stage perched above a bar. Its menu will feature small plates of food from around the world, including some Mediterranean and Japanese dishes, he said. Several whiskeys, wines and cocktails also will be available. A private dining room will seat about 30 and open up to allow its diners to join other restaurantgoers.

This one, I would say its like that date night out, Schafer said. This is where the parents are coming out to have a nice meal, listen to some soft jazz up there on the stage and just mingle with themselves.

 Cansano Italian Steakhouse was named for a town in northern Italy where Schafers grandfather was born and where his family originated, he said. The upscale steakhouses menu will include pastas, noodles, pizza and 400 pounds of steaks and meats aged on site, Schafer said. Its circular booths and tables will seat 150. Another 80 can sit on an enclosed patio whose windows open when the weather is nice; heaters will allow the patio to be used year-round. A separate chefs table near the front of the dining room will allow customers to pay a set amount and have food served to them family style  everyone at the table gets to sample a little bit of everything, he said.

An espresso machine, wines and liquors will be on display near the restaurant bar. Diners also can purchase bottles of wine from the restaurant and store them in decorative lockers installed on a wall behind the bar  allowing them to have their favorite wine on hand when they come in for a meal, Schafer said.

This is family friendly, but upscale, Schafer said. Kids will enjoy this because of the pizzas, because of the pastas and all that. Adults will enjoy it because of the steaks and different types of stuff were doing, adult-wise.

 Longboard Tacos will have a Southern California vibe. Its bar counter has been designed to look like an ocean beach; the bar itself has tiki hut touches; a pair of palm trees  portions of real trees make up their base, though their leaves are artificial  dominate the dining room; a specially made surfboard will serve as a 10-seat table; and license plates from all 50 states decorate one of the walls. Three garage doors will open the dining room to the outside and a year-round, heated patio; combined, the dining room and patio will seat 210. Longboard will specialize in its namesake tacos, fish and other fresh foods, Schafer said. .

 Pause Ultra Lounge & Sushi will operate on the second floor of the building that houses Longboard Tacos, and will be reached via a staircase or elevator. While Longboard has the feel of Southern California, Pause is meant to conjure up Miamis South Beach neighborhood. Its name reflects Schafers goal for customers to relax. Pause  like take a break, he said. Push pause in life.

Pause will have a pair of bars  one for sushi, which is the only menu item, and another for drinks. A patio will have a disc jockey booth, fireplaces and couches, where diners will be served bottled drinks and enjoy views of the Air Force Academy through large windows. The patio will have heaters, though its not covered for now, Schafer said. The dining room and patio will seat 150.

Schafer expects a nonstop happy hour atmosphere at Pause.

I see up here being heavy on the drinking, he said.

Contact the writer: rich.laden@gazette.com
A Sudanese protester was killed on Tuesday after being shot in the chest during a demonstration against military rule, the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors said in a statement.

Sudanese police said in a statement the shooting was an individual action that went against orders and that legal procedures had been immediately taken against the policeman involved.

The protester, who was killed in the Sharg al-Nil area near Sudans capital, became the 125th protesters killed in weekly protests set off by a coup in October 2021.

Protesters seen marching towards the presidential palace in Khartoum and neighboring Omdurman were met with tear gas from police, a Reuters witness said.

Khartoum State police said in a previous statement they were investigating the death, and said that protesters had been aggressive towards police, using tear gas, rocks, and molotov cocktails, and injured several policemen.

The protests come as military leaders who took over in the coup are negotiating a deal with the civilian political parties previously in power to restore a civilian government.

Most recently, tensions have emerged within the military, with army leaders demanding a clear timeline for the integration of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces as well as a wider group of participants in the negotiation.

Leaders of the Rapid Support Forces have denied the desire for any tension with the military, and said they are committed to forming one army.

The resistance committees who have organized the weekly protests, have rejected the talks as elite dealings, and demand the complete withdrawal of the military from power.
Sabina Mammadli

Azerbaijani Health Minister Teymur Musayev and his Cuban counterpart Jose Angel Portal Miranda discussed healthcare and activities within the Non-Aligned Movement.

According to Azernews, Cuban Ambassador to Azerbaijan Carlos Enrique Valdes de la Concepcion also attended the meeting.

T. Musayev stressed the significance of interstate cooperation in healthcare and medical science, as in all areas.

"The arrival of Cuban specialists in Azerbaijan in 2020, as part of measures aimed at preventing the widespread COVID-19 infection, is an indicator of solidarity, which made a significant contribution to the further strengthening of relations between Azerbaijan and Cuba," the minister added.

Further to him, he outlined Azerbaijans activities as the chairman of NAM, saying that the country has put forward a number of global initiatives, such as equitable and universal access to vaccines.

In turn, the Cuban official emphasized the close ties existing between the two states, noting the significance of dynamic interaction in healthcare and medical science.

"As it has already been noted, the arrival of a team of Cuban doctors in Azerbaijan during the COVID-19 pandemic serves as proof of these relations. I believe our relations will further continue to grow," the minister stressed.

Furthermore, the parties reviewed new prospects for the development and strengthening of the Azerbaijan-Cuba cooperation in the pharmaceutical industry and discussed the opening of the Azerbaijan-Cuba Clinic in the future.

Meanwhile, Cuban Vice President Salvador Valdes Mesa participated in meetings with the rector of Azerbaijans University of Languages, its students and staff, as well as representatives of the Movement of Solidarity with Cuba.

Among the mentioned above, the Cuban delegation, which arrived in Azerbaijan, includes the countrys Deputy Foreign Minister Anayansi Rodriguez Camejo and other directors and officials of the foreign ministry.

The delegation arrived to attend the Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) dedicated to post-COVID recovery that will be held on March 2.

Diplomatic relations between our countries were established on March 27, 1992. The embassy of Cuba in Azerbaijan was established on October 12, 2007.

The working group on Azerbaijani-Cuban Inter-Parliamentary Relations operates in the Milli Majlis of Azerbaijan. At the same time, the Cuban-Azerbaijani Inter-Parliamentary Friendship Group operates in the National Assembly of Peoples Power of the Republic of Cuba.

In total, ten documents were signed between Azerbaijan and Cuba.
DES MOINES  Lily Bjorklund looked directly at state lawmakers and made her plea.

Lily, a 7-year-old transgender girl from Ankeny, testified Tuesday at the Iowa Capitol in a legislative hearing on a proposal from Republican legislators to bar transgender students from using school restrooms for the gender with which they identify.

While supporters of the proposal expressed concern  despite a preponderance of evidence to the contrary  that allowing transgender students to use bathrooms that align with their gender identity puts non-transgender students in harms way, Lily attempted to assure lawmakers that she is just like any other second-grader in Iowa.

Banning me from the bathroom I have already been using for years would be so humiliating and make more bullies come after me, Lily said. I thought adults like you were supposed to protect kids like me and to solve problems. But this bill is solving no problem.

Lilys mother, Jill Bjorklund, followed with her own plea to lawmakers.

This girl poses no threat in her bathrooms, Jill said. And I want you to look in her face. I want you to look at her face and tell her she is a danger. Because she will remember your faces when she is walking across the entire school (to go to another bathroom). She will remember your faces when her friends ridicule her.

Throughout two legislative hearings on the proposal Tuesday, students safety in bathrooms was the reason most cited by its supporters. However, data clearly and overwhelmingly shows that incidents of sexual assault in school bathrooms are rare, but that transgender individuals are far more likely to be victims of sexual assault than non-transgender people, including at schools with prescriptive bathroom policies.

Transgender and gender-nonbinary teens face greater risk of sexual assault in schools that prevent them from using bathrooms or locker rooms consistent with their gender identity, according to a 2019 study by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Reports of privacy and safety violations in public restrooms, locker rooms and changing rooms are rare, and evidence that fears of increased safety and privacy violations as a result of non-discrimination laws are not grounded in data, according to a 2018 study from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law.

And in 2016, more than 300 national, state and local organizations that advocate for victims of sexual assault signed a letter that stated it is a myth that prescriptive bathroom and locker room policies protect non-transgender people from sexual assault.

Transgender people already experience unconscionably high rates of sexual assault, and forcing them out of facilities consistent with the gender they live every day makes them vulnerable to assault, the coalitions letter said. As advocates committed to ending sexual assault and domestic violence of every kind, we will never support any law or policy that could put anyone at greater risk for assault or harassment.

The Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault and the Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence both are registered in opposition to the proposed Iowa legislation, according to state lobbying records.

There is absolutely no evidence that letting transgender people use public facilities that align with their gender identity decreases safety, Elizabeth Barnhill, executive director for the Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault, said in a statement. Schools have done great work in making accommodations for people, and balancing everyones safety. They have done that with greater supervision or more often more privacy options.

Critics of the proposal also noted potential legal issues: that it would violate the Iowa Civil Rights Act and be at odds with federal protections against discrimination in education.

The sole Iowa organization registered in support of the bill is the Christian conservative advocacy organization The Family Leader.

Even more studies show that transgender people are more than four times more likely than cisgender people to experience violent victimization, and roughly half of transgender individuals are sexually abused or assaulted at some point in their lives.

Despite that data, multiple speakers warned that allowing transgender students in bathrooms with which they identify will lead to the danger of sexual assault, men posing as transgender women in order to commit sexual assault and students having intercourse in the bathroom. A woman who spoke in favor of the bill, saying she is a retired teacher, described a movement that is feeding nihilism, narcissism and a social contagion.

Roger George, school board president for the Albia Community School District, expressed a common sentiment from supporters of the proposal.

I am not opposed to transgender kids. Im just opposed to males entering female bathrooms, George said during the hearing via video call.

Republican lawmakers in both the House and Senate advanced the proposals Tuesday through the first step of the lawmaking process. House Study Bill 208 and Senate File 335 are now eligible for consideration by the House and Senates judiciary committees.

Later Tuesday, Republican lawmakers gave their initial legislative blessing to bills that would bar physicians from providing gender-affirming health care to Iowans under age 18. The bills would prohibit puberty blockers, the administering of testosterone or estrogen and gender-affirming surgeries.

Republicans argued the proposals are needed because children are too young to make life-altering decisions like gender transition care. Opponents of the proposal, including health care professionals and parents of transgender children, testified that transgender youth take months and often years before reaching a decision to transition, and that once they do, they receive gender-affirming care only with their parents blessing and physicians input.

Aime Wichtendahl, a transgender woman from Hiawatha and a City Council member there, called the proposal big government overreach during a legislative hearing.

This is the government interfering in private medical decisions, Wichtendahl said. This is not your place to tell us what we can have for care.

Republican lawmakers advanced the twin bills, Senate Study Bill 1197 and House Study Bill 214, making them eligible for consideration by the full judiciary committees.

Also Tuesday, Republican lawmakers introduced legislation that would propose an amendment to the Iowa Constitution that would ban same-sex marriages. The Iowa Supreme Court cleared the way for same-sex marriage in the state in 2009, and the U.S. Supreme Court followed that nationwide on 2015.

The proposal, House Joint Resolution 8, was introduced Tuesday. It has not yet been scheduled for a subcommittee hearing, the first step in the legislative process. Bills like it must be passed out of a subcommittee and a full committee by the end of this week in order to remain eligible for consideration for the rest of this years session.
An Iowa nurse who was sanctioned by the state Board of Nursing for adopting the baby of a former patient was fired last week after the board mistakenly claimed she had been charged with financially exploiting a patient.

In January, the Iowa Board of Nursing sanctioned Miriam Simon of Waverly for violating state regulations pertaining to patient privacy and for attempting to initiate an emotional, social or business relationship with a patient for personal gain regardless of the patients consent.

Those charges stemmed from Simons decision to adopt the baby of a patient she treated while working in the obstetrics unit at Decorahs Winneshiek Medical Center in September 2021. The hospital fired Simon after learning of the adoption in 2022. The Iowa Capital Dispatch reported the boards sanctions on Feb. 17 and five days later, on Wednesday, Simon was fired by her new employer, Crescos Regional Health Services of Howard County.

The Cresco hospital apparently based its decision, at least in part, on incorrect information the Board of Nursing had transmitted to a national database called Nursys. The Nursys.com website is the National Council of State Boards of Nursings public repository of disciplinary data.

Simon said that while checking the Nursys database, hospital officials in Cresco saw erroneous information suggesting Simon had been sanctioned by the Board of Nursing for the financial exploitation of a patient  a serious offense that can lead to criminal charges. After Simons attorney contacted the Board of Nursing about the error, a board official apologized and the information on the Nursys website was corrected.

Simon said Friday that the correction, so far, hasnt made any difference in her employment status: Shes still without a job.

Part of me now is, like, Do I even want to be a nurse, and is all this even worth it? she said Friday. But nursing is my career, my passion and my whole life. I am good at it, and my patients love me. My refrigerator door is (covered) with notes from patients.  And I just feel like everything has been ripped out from under me, all for something I did purely out of love and compassion for this baby and his mother.

The adopted child, named Ezra, is now 17 months old and in good health, but Simon said the boards actions have created a financial and emotional nightmare for her entire family, including the seven children she had before the adoption.

Two of my kids have birthdays in a couple weeks, she said. Ive been crying, and theyve been telling me, Dont worry. Dont buy me anything for my birthday. You know, things like that  these are things children shouldnt have to deal with, not having a birthday because their mom lost her job.

According to the Board of Nursing, it was the 43-year-old Simon who had initiated efforts to adopt Ezra, but Simon said thats not accurate. She said that after raising seven children of her own she initially had no interest at all in adopting a child until the birth mother contacted her through Facebook and raised the issue. Simon said Ezras birth mother was in the United States on a visa and risked being deported if she dropped out of school to care for the child.

Simon and the board eventually agreed to settle the charges against her with an agreement that stipulates she must complete 30 hours of educational training on patient privacy and take a three-day course in professional boundaries and ethics.

Simons attorney, Steve Lombardi of West Des Moines, said hes unhappy with the Iowa Board of Nursing because of the incorrect information that was relayed to Nursys, and because the Nursys site doesnt host the detailed board documents that show Simon never admitted any wrongdoing as part of her settlement agreement.

Why does the Iowa Board of Nursing make it so difficult to read what the truth is? Lombardi said, adding that the Cresco hospital currently employs nurses who have been sanctioned for violating patient privacy  the same offense Miriam Simon was accused of committing in the adoption case.

Miriam Simon is being treated differently than Regional Health Services of Howard Countys other nurse employees who have had the same, or similar, actions taken against them by the Iowa Board of Nursing, Lombardi said.

Officials at the Iowa Board of Nursing and Regional Health Services of Howard County didnt respond to requests for comment on the matter.
Students across Iowa are walking out of class Wednesday to protest a flurry of bills targeting LGBTQ rights introduced in the Legislature this session.

Dubbed the Iowa We Say Gay Walkout, the statewide event seeks to highlight the growing number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills that could potentially become law in the state.

These include bills that would force teachers to out transgender students, ban K-3 class discussions on LGBTQ issues, prohibit doctors from providing gender-affirming medical care to minors, and/or bar teachers from mentioning gender identity to students up to eighth grade.

The initiative is being led by the student groups IowaWTF  described as a coalition of young people fighting discriminatory legislation through advocacy, activism and civic engagement  and the Iowa Queer Student Alliance (IowaQSA) a group of young Iowans fighting back against harmful legislation attacking queer youth.

Recent legislation has been targeting this group, including Dont Say Gay and Dont Say Trans bills, IowaQSA wrote on Instagram last week, calling all students in the state to join the protest.

Well, here in Iowa, WE SAY GAY, the group added.

As of Tuesday morning, students at 14 school districts across the state and one university were planning to participate in the walkout, which was organized to tell lawmakers to listen to those who would be most affected by the bills  the students.

According to the Des Moines Register, walkouts are planned at schools in Johnston, Ankeny, Ames, West Des Moines, Storm Lake, Des Moines, Waukee, Marion, Urbandale, Iowa City, Fort Dodge, Bettendorf, and Iowa State University for Wednesday afternoon. In Des Moines, students are arranging walkouts at Central Campus and East High School.

There have been children, psychiatrists, doctors, parents, teachers who have been talking directly to (lawmakers) about how these bills are harming students and will cause things like bullying, depression, anxiety, IowaWTF and IowaQSA member Jemma Bullock told the Des Moines Register.

They just will not listen, the high school senior added.

Republican lawmakers across the U.S. have introduced a record number of bills targeting LGBTQ youths this year  legislation that especially affects an already vulnerable population.

With over 250 anti-LGBTQ bills introduced so far in 2023, we need to organize our community and allies to push back against these damaging bills, Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of LGBTQ media advocacy group GLAAD, said last week.

In Iowa, at least 14 bills have been slammed as anti-LGBTQ by IowaWTF. The organization offers more details on each piece of legislation, their sponsors and potential consequences for LGBTQ people in the Iowa Legislature Bill Watch, a list that is updated each week.

Wednesdays walkout will be a historic moment for our community, IowaQSA said.
On Monday night, a gathering of North Iowa residents came together to Lift Every Voice and Sing during a Black History Month Celebration at First Congregational United Church of Christ in Mason City.

The event was an opportunity to recognize through song, sermon and poetry the contributions of North Iowas Black community and the trailblazers whose dauntless pursuit of their own dreams cleared a path for those to come.

Martin Luther King Jr.s dream was front and center, with a dramatic reading of his I Have a Dream speech from the 1963 March on Washington presented by Erick Nganyange and Regan Banks. Banks is the first Black mayor of Manly. Nganyange hosts the Iowa Civil Rights History podcast.

The ceremony also featured a solo from Marilyn Brown and a rendition by Mason City High School student Mya McWilliams of Amanda Gormans poem The Hill We Climb  made famous at President Joe Bidens Inauguration.

McWilliams plans to attend North Iowa Area Community College after graduating to focus on a career teaching English as a second language.

I want to help. I want to make a difference, and I can, McWilliams said.

Honorees from the evening included librarians and sisters Madelyn and Esther Walls. While Madelyn Walls made Mason City and its public library her home for decades, her sister built a career on the East Coast, culminating in a position as associate director of libraries at the University of New York at Stony Brook. She oversaw a staff of 450 as well as the main library and five satellite locations.

Donte Todd, associate principal at Lincoln Elementary School, and Peterson Jean-Pierre, school board member, were recognized for their work as well. Pastor Le Anne Clausen de Montes noted in her presentation those honored have touched hundreds, if not thousands of young lives.

Community, belonging and remembrance were the theme of the evening. At the ceremonys conclusion, attendees sang We Shall Overcome as they made their way downstairs to share a meal.

Next years celebration is scheduled for January 15. If you would like to honor a Black North Iowan who has made a difference in our community please call the First Congregational UCC in Mason City at (641) 423-0105.
Iowa House lawmakers advanced a bill that would require carbon dioxide pipeline companies to clear high standards before being granted a permit in the state, keeping the bill on the table ahead of a key legislative deadline.

The bill was one of several that the House and Senate Judiciary Committees advanced on Tuesday. Most bills need to be advanced out of a committee by Friday this week  the first legislative funnel  in order to be considered for the rest of the session.

House File 368, proposed by Rep. Steven Holt of Denison, House Speaker Pat Grassley of New Hartford, and a cadre of other Republicans, would stop carbon dioxide pipeline companies from being granted eminent domain unless they secure 90% of the miles of their proposed route through voluntary easements.

The Iowa Utilities Board would be barred from permitting new CO2 pipeline projects until the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration develops new rules that govern the pipelines. It also imposes requirements that projects be in line with local zoning rules and obtain permits in all other states along the route, along with adding stronger land restoration standards.

The bill passed the committee 12-7, with two abstaining. Two Republicans and five Democrats voted against the bill, while all but one yes vote were Republicans.

I do not believe that the blunt force of government should be allowed to be used by private individuals seeking eminent domain to seize other peoples property for their own economic benefit, Holt said in the committee on Tuesday.

Rep. Ross Wilburn, a Democrat from Ames and ranking member of the committee, said he opposed the bill, in part, because he was concerned that it could lead to further erosion of eminent domain rights of local governments.

My experience so far in the Legislature, there have been some topics that have been controversial, and there is some chipping away, he said. ... and the very next session weve added on.

He also said he supported the possibility of the projects to create union jobs in the state.

Activists who have been lobbying legislators to oppose the pipelines say the bill does not go far enough, but it is a significant improvement on the current pipeline permitting process.

Pipeline companies oppose the bill, saying it unfairly singles out the industry and changes the permitting rules as the companies are in the process of applying for permits.

Summit Carbon Solutions, Navigator CO2 Ventures and Wolf Carbon Solutions have all applied for permits to construct a pipeline that runs through the state. Summit and Navigator have indicated an intent to use eminent domain for the projects, while Wolf said it will not.

A Senate panel on Monday voted down a bill that would have put weaker restrictions on utilities, including pipelines, and would have exempted the three projects already in the works. Senate leaders have not said whether the bill will get a hearing in the Senate if the House passes it.

Fentanyl sales, drug deaths

Lawmakers passed a bill that would heighten penalties for selling fentanyl and drug sales that result in a death, a key priority of Gov. Kim Reynolds and Attorney General Brenna Bird, both Republicans.

The bills, Senate Study Bill 1096 and House Study Bill 104, would heighten the criminal penalties for distributing a mixture containing fentanyl.

It would triple the sentence for selling or providing a drug that results in the death of another person, and double the sentence if the drug results in bodily injury. People who manufacture certain drugs in the presence of a minor or deliver to a minor would be sentenced to twice the term imposed by law.

It also expands the availability of drugs that reverse overdoses like naloxone and expands who can provide them.

The legislation passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously, but Democrats in the House opposed the bill, saying they were concerned it would discourage people from seeking emergency services if an overdose occurs. The bill keeps in place legal protections for someone who reports an overdose if that person complies with law enforcement.

We already see so much stigma because people are concerned about getting into trouble if they were to call because they see their friend overdosing or in a troublesome situation, and because of that we come to the scene too late, Rep. Megan Srinivas, D-Des Moines, said.

Restitution

House Lawmakers also advanced a bill that would exempt people under 18 and victims of human trafficking from being required to pay restitution if they are convicted of a felony that resulted in the death of another person.

The bill, House File 125, was inspired by the case of a Des Moines woman who killed a man who had trafficked and raped her. Her sentence was eased, but she was still required to pay restitution by Iowa law.

Prosecuting crimes by police

County attorneys could not prosecute law enforcement officers whose actions result in a death if the state attorney general determines the use of force was justified under a bill the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced.

Senate File 256 amends a 2020 law that allows the attorney general to intervene in cases where a police use of force results in a death, adding that charges cannot be brought if the attorney general determines the use of force was justified.

Democrats opposed the bill, saying it cedes too much authority to the attorney general, and a jury trial is sufficient to find out if there is not evidence that a crime was committed in instances where a county attorney brings charges.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, a Republican, determined in January that three Des Moines police officers acted with legal justification in a fatal shooting of a 16-year-old.

PHOTOS: Nikki Haley in Iowa Election 2024 Haley APTOPIX Election 2024 Haley Election 2024 Haley Election 2024 Haley Election 2024 Haley Election 2024 Haley Election 2024 Haley Election 2024 Haley Election 2024 Haley Election 2024 Haley Election 2024 Haley
Danvilles general district court judge seat has been vacant since Judge Robert Adams retired Dec. 31, and local officials are frustrated at the hold-up with getting that slot filled again.

Adams announced his retirement in April 2021, nearly two years ago, and the Virginia General Assembly has not appointed anyone to replace him.

Danville General District Court has had to struggle to make sure that seat is occupied by someone daily so cases can be heard.

Its been a challenge, said Clerk of General District Court Julie Carlisle. Its very time-consuming along with our many other tasks we have. Fortunately, we have been able to fill the seat every day.

Individuals from all over the state have been brought in to cover for the absence of a full-time, permanent judge, said Daniel Rouleau, secretary for the Danville Bar Association, which recommends judge candidates to the General Assembly.

Were having to bring judges from as far away as Loudoun County, Rouleau said. They are being pulled from the entire commonwealth to have this seat covered every single day.

Some have been practicing attorneys, he added.

Due to this vacancy, the General District Court seat has seen a revolving door of judges, Danville Bar Association President Yerisbel Jimenez wrote in a letter to the General Assembly. This not only creates a roadblock for attorneys to provide well-informed and adequate representation for their clients, but it also poses a great injustice to the residents of Danville.

The bar association has already unanimously endorsed a qualified judicial candidate to fill the seat, she wrote.

It is now up to the General Assembly to fulfill its obligation not only to Danville and its residents, but also to the rule of law, she wrote.

The General Assembly has been neglecting Danvilles residents by failing to act to immediately fill the position, Jimenez added.

Danville Commonwealths Attorney Michael Newman agreed.

Its a disservice to the citizens of Danville that they have to wait to have this position filled, said Danville Commonwealths Attorney Michael Newman.

Whether the cases are criminal or civil, there are two or three different judges in Danville General District Court per week, Newman said.

On any given day, you may not know which judge is there, he said.

Thats definitely difficult for attorneys and litigants to properly advise their clients, Newman said.

Dan River Region delegates did not return phone calls for the Register & Bee requesting comment for this story by late Wednesday afternoon.

Carlisles office began making calls in September to get retired judges to fill the judges seat after Adamss retirement, she said. Starting April 1, Adams will be serving for as many dates as he can through June 30, Carlisle said.

In one instance since Adamss retirement, a judge called in sick with COVID-19.

We had to scramble at the last minute to find a judge, Carlisle said.

Without a full-time judge, there is no consistency, especially when it comes to sentencing, he pointed out. Adams had a consistent sentencing range, but with two or three different judges per week, that is gone, Newman said.

A consistent application of justice is important, said Joseph Schenk, chief public defender at the Danville Public Defenders Office.

In addition, each judge does things differently in other aspects as well, Schenk said.

Adams implemented some changes when he took the bench, he said. This is all kind of up in the air.

For example, Adams would automatically schedule a bond hearing for defendants arrested and jailed without requiring a written motion from defenders from Schenks office, he said.

That would result in us getting a bond hearing for the very next day, Schenk said. That was a tangible benefit ... for a lot of our clients. Its something that he didnt have to do, but he did it because he believed it was a good thing to do.

Now, the defense must file a motion asking for a bond hearing and there might be a one- or two-day delay for that hearing, he said. As a result, the defendant has to sit in jail and miss a day or two of work.

For a lot of people, thats one or two days without a paycheck, one or two days away from their job or one or two days away from knowing if they have a job, Schenk said.

Adams was appointed to the judgeship in November 2014 and served from Jan. 1, 2015, to the end of 2022. He replaced Lee Stilwell.

I do hope that the General Assembly acts as quickly as theyre able to fill the seat, Schenk said.

For Carlisle, there is no excuse for the delay.

Im disappointed in our legislators, Carlisle said.
With investment in Dubai International Financial Centres (DIFC) FinTech and innovation community exceeding $615 million in 2022, Dubai continues to solidify its reputation as a global hub for FinTech and Innovation.

Ahead of the Dubai FinTech Summit, taking place from May 8 to 9, the total number of active firms in the sector has grown 36% to 686.

The Fintech and Innovation sector in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) region is growing at pace with market value forecast to double in size from $135.9 billion in 2021 to $266.9 billion in 2027, according to DIFC FinTech Hives 2022 FinTech Report.

Perfect environment

The Dubai FinTech Summit will provide the perfect environment for connecting start-ups, investors and industry leaders tapping into this opportunity as they advance in the region and beyond.

Organised by DIFC, the leading international financial hub in the (MEASA) region, the Summit will bring together 5,000 global FinTech and technology experts to discuss innovations and challenges in the sector, as well as spotlight all things impacting the future of finance  from Web 3.0, Metaverse and Blockchain to decentralised finance, regulation and policymaking, and the greater need for increased financial inclusivity. Visitors will also be able to meet more than 100 FinTech exhibitors and join a series of panels and fireside chats. The Dubai FinTech Summit will take place at Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai.

The event will host notable local voices such as Abdullah Bin Touq Al Marri, UAE Minister of Economy and Essa Kazim, Governor of DIFC. The impressive roster of speakers at the summit includes Bill Winters, Group Chief Executive of Standard Chartered PLC; Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple; Melissa Guzy, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Arbor Ventures; and Michael Shaulov, CEO of Fireblocks; among others.

Centre of innovation

Currently home to 60% of all FinTech companies based in the GCC, Dubai and DIFC are being recognised as a global centre for innovation, with its unique ecosystem and comprehensive approach to business, driving not only the future of finance but increasingly the future economy. As per MAGNITT, FinTech start-ups in Mena recorded a 183% year-over-year growth in funding in 2021.

Highlighting the impact of the growing FinTech sector in the region, Mohammad Alblooshi, Head of DIFC Innovation Hub and FinTech Hive said: The demand for FinTech services has grown significantly in the last few years, powered by digital technologies and innovation across sectors. In recent years, DIFC has successfully cemented its position as the finance and innovation hub in the MEASA region by offering the most comprehensive FinTech and venture capital environments. In line with its vision to drive the future of finance, DIFC has created lucrative opportunities for start-ups, global players, and unicorns to set up base in the Emirate.

He added: Im confident that the Dubai FinTech Summit, organised by DIFC, will soon become the premier platform allowing us to capture the industrys attention and fulfil our vision of making Dubai a new home for the future of FinTech and finance.

Digital asset space

Dubais work in the digital asset space, in the last few years, has been nothing short of remarkable. The governments collaborative approach with the industry has drawn some of the most dynamic and innovative companies in the digital asset space to its shores, cementing its position as a leading FinTech hub and securing its economy for the future. Fireblocks is excited to participate in the Dubai FinTech Summit and explore some of the best FinTech solutions from around the world, said Michael Shaulov, CEO, Fireblocks - a secure digital asset infrastructure company.

Luis Valdich, Managing Director at Citi Ventures added: FinTech is one of the most exciting industries in tech and banking alike. Trends like digitisation, open banking, embedded finance, financial inclusion, the democratisation of investing, the modernisation of the core banking stack, and the emergence of the creator and shared economies are driving disruption and economic progress, all over the world. I am excited to further explore these and other innovations we are seeing across the industry, as part of this exciting summit.

The Summit will be held under the patronage of Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai; Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of the UAE; and President of the Dubai International Financial Centre.-- TradeArabia News Service
Averett Universitys School of Nursing hosted its 7th Annual Career Fair Tuesday at Averetts Riverview Campus at 512 Bridge St. Nursing students from the school attended the event to network with more than a dozen health care employers throughout the region recruiting for positions including certified nursing assistants, licensed practical nurses and registered nurses. Employers included Carilion Clinic, Cone Health Systems, Person Memorial Hospital, Piney Forest Health & Rehab Center, Sentara Healthcare, Southern Virginia Mental Health Institute, SOVAH Health, UNC Rockingham Health Care, Piedmont Access to Health Services (PATHS), Virginia Department of Health, Epic Health Partners, AHEC Scholars Program and Roman Eagle Nursing Home.
Russell William Tucker was a Black man on trial for murder in 1996.

He was accused of killing Maurice Travone Williams, 23, a Kmart security guard shot to death on his first day of work. The 1994 killing happened after Tucker had stolen clothes and pulled out a gun when Williams and others tried to stop him from leaving the Kmart. Tucker fired at Williams and others as they ran away. Tucker later opened fire on a police car, injuring two others.

The evidence against Tucker was substantial, but two Winston-Salem prosecutors didnt depend on that alone to win a conviction, Tuckers lawyers say. Instead, they skirted the law to make sure he appeared at trial before an all-white jury.

Prosecutors used a cheat sheet from a seminar dubbed Top Gun II that taught attorneys across the state how to get around a U.S. Supreme Court ruling forbidding the rejection of jurors based on race, Tuckers argument to the state Supreme Court states.

Prosecutors were encouraged to paint Black jurors as exhibiting resistance to authority, an air of defiance, lack of eye contact, and anti-prosecution tendencies, Tuckers filing states about the Top Gun II training held by the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys.

The result, Tuckers attorneys argue, is that their client was convicted and sentenced to death by an all-white jury.

Now, about 27 years after his conviction, his attorneys have asked the North Carolina Supreme Court to order a new trial.

Civil rights advocates say the Supreme Court has an opportunity with Tuckers case to correct one injustice, and to also clarify what claims it will accept as evidence that prosecutors unfairly excluded jurors because they are Black.

The exclusion of Black people from juries is a long-standing problem in North Carolina stretching back to the days of Jim Crow, said Gretchen M. Engel, executive director of The Center for Death Penalty Litigation, in a statement. But rarely is the evidence so clear as in Mr. Tuckers case.

About half of the 137 people on North Carolinas death row were convicted with juries that were all white or had one person of color, according to the center.

North Carolina courts are behind other neighboring states in terms of enforcing a 1996 U.S. Supreme Court decision that prevents prosecutors from excluding jurors on the basis of race, experts say. Until last year, no North Carolina convictions had been overturned in response to the decision. The situation allowed prosecutors to strike prospective Black and Hispanic jurors with impunity, according to center.

However, before the Supreme Court can consider whether prosecutors excluded jurors based on their race, they must decide whether they can even consider Tuckers arguments about jury selection for his trial.

A Superior Court judge previously denied Tuckers motion to have his conviction vacated, saying he couldnt consider the jury selection argument because no new evidence has been presented.

It was the appeal of that judges decision that recently led to the case being heard before the Supreme Court.

Senior Deputy Attorney General Danielle Elder also contends the cheat sheet isnt new evidence. Tucker should have raised the concern, which was brought up at the trial, sooner in his many previous appeals and motions to have his convictions vacated.

Tuckers attorneys contend they didnt discover the cheat sheet until 2015 after it was provided as evidence in another Forsyth County case. But Elder contends it was provided to Tuckers defense team much sooner.

The Superior Court judge also rejected a Michigan State University study as new evidence. It showed that one of the prosecutors in Tuckers trial struck 62% of Black jurors and only 20% of white people in four of his cases.

Prosecutors didnt seat two Black men on the jury who said they were reluctant to impose the death penalty, Elder contends. A third Black juror, who fell asleep during jury selection, said her shift work made it hard to stay awake during the trial.

Tuckers attorneys argued that white jurors who had similar concerns were allowed on the jury.
RALEIGH  North Carolinians want their election laws to include a photo ID requirement. Theyve made this clear many times. In 2018, a large majority of voters chose to add such a requirement to the state constitution.

Critics of voter ID know full well they represent a small minority of North Carolinians. They dont care. Defining the policy as voter suppression, they proclaim it a waste of resources and a violation of the civil right to cast a ballot.

They are wrong about that. They are wrong at every level of analysis.

Voter ID doesnt suppress the vote, for starters. Most scholarly studies of voter ID conclude that it has little to no effect on turnout in general, or on variations in turnout among partisan, racial, or ethnic groups. For example, a 2019 paper in the Atlantic Economic Journal found no evidence that strict identification laws affect overall turnout or black turnout and found a small reduction in Hispanic turnout only within one version of the authors model. Even when researchers find a turnout effect, its usually quite small. In South Carolina, implementation of voter ID decreased turnout in the 2014 general election by 0.19%, wrote the authors of a Political Research Quarterly study, while having no discernible racial impact.

Nor is voter ID intended to suppress legal votes. Most states and many foreign countries employ some version of the safeguard, including most European democracies. To accuse the likes of Norway and the Netherlands of engaging in voter suppression is preposterous.

Now, if the introduction of a voter ID law doesnt significantly reduce turnout, then basic math tells us there cant be rampant impersonation fraud in our election system! Otherwise, the number of ballots cast would go way down (because lots of illegal votes would be blocked). Based on this fact, critics say theres no point in having ID laws.

Theyre still wrong. Impersonation fraud is very rare but does occur on occasion, such as someone casting a ballot on behalf of a recently deceased relative. Also very occasionally, elections are settled by just a handful of votes. In 2017, partisan control of the Virginia House of Delegates had to be settled by drawing lots because the two candidates in the pivotal district each got 11,608 votes.

Besides, the best case for voter ID isnt about impersonation. Its about residency. A just-released study by scholars at the University of California-San Diego and the University of Alberta estimated that some 6.1 million Americans are registered to vote in more than one state. Most of these registrations are probably accidental. Folks relocate and dont notify their former state. And only a tiny number actually attempt to vote multiple times, obviously an illegal act. But a far larger share  the authors estimate more than 300,000 in 2020  engage in cross-state strategic voting.

Think of a college student who could either cast an absentee ballot in his home state or vote in person where hes enrolled. Think of a wealthy couple with residences in multiple states. These conditions shouldnt allow people to choose which place to vote based on where they think their votes are more likely to tip the outcome. They should vote where theyre truly domiciled. How can we tell? The possession of an ID card issued by the jurisdiction is a pretty good tell. In our state, the law already requires you to register your vehicle and get a North Carolina drivers license if you live and drive here for more than a few weeks. And its not too much to ask non-drivers to get a photo ID if they want to vote here.

Indeed, having a photo ID is handy in many other ways, so providing them is a valuable public service!

Lastly, ID laws dont deny anyone the right to vote. They serve merely to establish the identity and residency of those casting ballots. Lets stop the litigation merry-go-round. Lets enact a reasonable ID law and move on. Enough already.
GREENSBORO  Humanitarian chef Jose Andres believes in the healing power of food.

One plate of food at a time can build a better tomorrow, he told the Bryan Series audience Tuesday night about showing up in places under attack to provide sustenance to the citizenry.

But showing up in times of crisis also feeds the soul.

Named one of Time magazines most influential people in 2012 and 2018 and awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2015 by President Barack Obama, the popular chefs nonprofit World Central Kitchen specializes in getting meals to disaster areas around the world  and often first, as was with Ukraine at the start of Russian aggression.

There are many ways to fight injustice, Andres told audience members. Everyone has to find their own way. When we are silent, we are part of the problem, too.

Andres, who was born in Spain but became an American citizen in 2013, flew in to Greensboro from Turkey on Monday to speak. His group has served millions of meals after the recent earthquakes in Syria and Turkey that have left death, despair and destruction in their wake.

World Central Kitchen partnered with restaurants, small farms and community leaders around the country to combat food security during the pandemic. And was in Wilmington when Hurricane Florence caused billions of dollars in damage to the North Carolina coast in 2018.

Andres, a natural storyteller who was met with laughter and a standing ovation during his visit, focused on the need for planning but also adjusting as needed in life.

With the ports cut off to get into Ukraine, for example, his team got a boat and sailed to Poland and trucked the items to various border crossings out of Ukraine.

We didnt do it to be heroes, Andres said, but to find ways to bring not only food but supplies.

Ukraine produces grain for significant parts of the world, including Africa, he said. If the war lasts much longer, Andres thinks it will have an effect on other parts of the globe.

We are going to have refugees everywhere, he said.

In lighter moments, Andres humored the audience with a description of his mother using scraps and nearly inedible foods to make the best dishes. It could have been a metaphor for people like Andres who pick up the pieces wherever they are to be that force of good.

The missions the World Center Kitchen undertake are dangerous. Two workers were killed during the bombing in Ukraine.

Andres said he has spoken with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy several times.

Hope was on the menu, he said.

Thats what I fed Zelenskyy, he said.
GREENSBORO  One person was fatally shot early Wednesday in Greensboro and the case is being investigated as a homicide, city police said.

Officers responded about 5 a.m. to the scene near the intersection of Martin Luther King Drive and Carolyn Coleman Way, according to a police news release.

Police are not releasing any information about the victim until next-of-kin is notified, the department said

This is the city's 11th homicide of 2023.

Anyone with information about this shooting is asked to contact Greensboro/Guilford Crime Stoppers at 336-373-1000. Citizens can also download the mobile P3tips app for Apple or Android phones to submit a mobile tip, or go to P3tips.com to submit a web tip. All tips to Crime Stoppers are completely anonymous.
GREENSBORO  Elissa Minet Fuchs saw all and knew all at the Greensboro Ballet.

While in her 90s, the Ballet Mistress taught two adult classes a week, occasionally leading rehearsals, choreographing, keeping a keen eye on dancers progress and advising then-artistic director and CEO Maryhelen Mayfield, who she assisted.

As a young dancer she had been a soloist with the New York City Ballet at the Metropolitan Opera.

In Greensboro, where she died Feb. 17 at age 103, generations of ballerinas performed to her choreography of The Nutrackers Dance of the Flowers.

All I ever wanted to do in my life was to be on the stage, Fuchs, then 92, told the News & Record in a 2011 interview.

Later, Fuchs would prepare others for their turn in the spotlight.

She could be a real taskmaster when she wanted, for sure, recalled Jennifer Gentry, the companys executive director. But, of course, everybody loved her.

Before coming to Greensboro, Fuchs, who is from Louisiana, founded the Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre, which is still in existence five decades later. She had started dancing professionally in a 1935 vaudeville show at age 16, after having taken dance lessons at age 3 and classical ballet training at age 7.

Born Elise Minette Levy, she was just 16 and a high school senior when a dancer friend urged her to come to Chicago and change her name.

Within four days, she got a touring job as a chorus girl.

She was later recruited to the New York stage, rising to ballet soloist. She also made trips to Hollywood to dance in short films.

What a life she had! wrote Kristin Rittby on the Greensboro Ballets Facebook page, where former students and others shared memories. Im grateful to have known her.

The Metropolitan Opera was where she would meet future husband Peter Paul Fuchs, a conductors assistant who played piano for ballet rehearsals.

They married in 1949 and in 1950 she quit dancing to follow his conducting career, which took her to the San Francisco Opera and then back to her hometown where he taught at Louisiana State University.

Fuchs worked in local theatre and choreographed for musicals and operas before founding the Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre.

Fuchs and her husband moved to Greensboro in 1976 when he was hired as music director of the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra and artistic director of the Greensboro Opera Company.

She acted in local theatre and served on the Greensboro Ballets board of directors before she was hired to teach.

Fuchs would later watch her husband suffer for 17 years with Alzheimers disease. He died at age 90 in 2007.

Elissa was such a magnetic woman, said former Greensboro student Megan Elizabeth LeCrone, now a soloist ballerina with the New York City Ballet. She truly loved life and people, her family, her students and she loved the arts and working.

LeCrone said she was so grateful to have trained with Fuchs.

She stayed young even in her 80s and 90s, was so active and engaged and just one of those rare gems.
The Helena City Commission voted unanimously during a special meeting Tuesday to offer Tim Burton the job as its full-time city manager.

Burton, serving as interim city manager since the abrupt departure of former City Manager Rachel Harlow-Schalk more than a year ago, also held the job as city manager from 2000 to 2009.

Throughout the lengthy interview process  which included public interviews with the Helena Citizens' Council, city department heads and the commission  Burton pointed to his work to stabilize operations over the past year such as developing comprehensive capital improvement plans for every department and delivering a balanced budget during a time when the city's finance department was largely depleted of staff.

The commissioners selected Burton with a 5-0 vote after an hour of closed-door deliberation over fellow finalists for the job, Clifford Strachan of South Jordan, Utah, and Michael Thomas of Amity, Oregon.

City Commissioners Emily Dean and Andy Shirtliff praised Burton for his lengthy resume and forward-thinking ideas.

"His ability to come to solutions with partners who can be finicky is evident," Dean said, citing Burton's work during his previous stint as city manager to complete the pedestrian tunnel under a state highway linking Great Northern to Centennial Park.

Shirtliff said he appreciated that Burton has hired four department heads since taking on the job on an interim basis in March 2022.

"I'm proud to have Tim Burton as our city manager," Shirtliff said as the commission's decision became public.

Both Dean and Shirtliff said they agreed with his tentative plan mentioned during his interview to establish a deputy city manager position.

"It's very clear he's committed to this community," Dean said.

Prior to their closed-door deliberation, the commissioners discussed each candidate's response to each question and presented a score for each, averaging those marks for a single score for each candidate to guide their deliberation, per the suggestion of CMS representative Jim Kerins.

Burton scored the highest with 4.7 out of a possible 5.

Strachan told the commission during one of his interviews he was fired from a recent job as head administrator in Sandy, Utah, after things "did not work out" over a difference in management style.

Dean said "(g)iven the complexity of our budget," she hoped for more specific examples of Strachan's experience with budgets.

City Commissioner Melinda Reed said she felt as though Strachan's response to the commission's question about furthering the city's sustainability resolutions lacked specificity and called it "very conservative."

Thomas told the commissioners he had recently tendered his resignation as head administrator in Amity, a town of about 2,000 people, for reasons known only to him.

Helena Mayor Wilmot Collins commended Thomas for having survived through four mayors as the head administrator in Amity.

Reed docked Thomas for a lack of experience in the arenas of tax increment financing and urban renewal districts, municipal tools Thomas referred to as the big league governance as opposed to the minor leagues of Amity.

Dean said she appreciated Thomas' candidness throughout the interview and that he brought his personality.

Strachan boasted decades of experience as a public employee in his home country of Canada and the United States. Thomas' resume included more than 20 years of service in the Air Force.

Having seen six different people hold the title of Helena's city manager since the departure of Ron Alles in 2018, the commission hired a third-party consultant, Helena-based Communication and Management Services, to help in the recruitment and hiring process at the cost of $150 an hour.

City Commissioner Sean Logan and Collins also established a city commission-city manager relations subcommittee to further expedite the process.

According to Kerins, the HCC representatives and city staff who interviewed the candidates provided copies of their individual reports for each candidate for the commission's consideration.

That commission and manager relations subcommittee previously hired CMS to survey commissioners and city department heads to catalogue issues, concerns and recommendations regarding the selection criteria and process for the new city manager.

The survey results were compiled in a report given to the subcommittee in October.

The report states most city commissioners expressed concerns about a "lack of understanding or agreement on what the city needs in a city manager during (the hiring) process."

One unnamed commissioner referenced the previous city manager hiring process and stated "the two top candidates had divergent backgrounds, approaches and characteristics 'two quite different people,'" according to the report.

Dean said she was pleased with the process.

"We have been deliberate in ensuring our t's are crossed and our i's dotted," she said.

Collins said it hasn't been an easy task.

"I myself wondered at times what the heck we were doing, but we prevailed in the process," he said.

No public comment was offered during Tuesday's meeting. Burton did not address the commission.

When asked for comment Wednesday morning, city spokesman Jacob Garcin said Burton "would prefer to wait until the agreement process is complete..."

Burton is not technically hired until his contract is finalized by the commission.

In a news release Wednesday, the city stated upon finalizing his employment agreement with the city commission and city manager relations subcommittee, Burton will be hired at the next regular city commission meeting.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to say Burton declined comment until the agreement is complete.
It said the winds initially increased along the Rocky Mountain Front on Nov. 4, before a strong Pacific cold front propelled the strong winds eastward into the plains and valleys the next day.

"During the peak of the event many locations reported wind gusts in the 50 to 80 mph range, leading to numerous impacts to personal/commercial property, utility infrastructure, and aviation/ground transportation," the National Weather Service stated. "In addition to that, at least one fire was ignited by fallen trees and power lines."

Meteorologist Ray Greely said Wednesday he remembered that day.

"It was quite an event," he said.

Gusts topped off at 80 mph in West Helena, 76 mph at Sieben Flats and 68 mph at the Helena Regional Airport.

He said Helena typically does not get such high gusts, and that any gusts of 60 mph can cause damage.

"There's no saying what causes trees to come down and what doesn't," he said.

Richards said being able to get the damage repaired depends on the weather and could last until April. He said workers were being careful to make sure no other stones would be damaged.
Investopia 2023 will launch its newly innovative investment platform Marketplace, with the aim of enhancing the UAE attractiveness to foreign investments.

Investments are targeted in various economic and commercial sectors, in particular the new economy sectors. Besides, the Marketplace aims to position the UAE as a leading investment destination at the regional and global level.

The launch will take place during the 2nd edition of Investopia conference from March 2 to 3 in the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi.

Flexible policies

Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri, Minister of Economy and Chairman of Investopia, said the UAE has pursued competitive and flexible investment policies that have been instrumental in enhancing its investment climate and positioning it as a prominent player on the global investment map.

He highlighted that the Marketplace platform supports the UAE's ambitious vision We the UAE 2031, which aims to establish the country as a leading global partner and a desirable and influential economic centre by providing new investment opportunities and enablers to business communities through a single portal, which enhances the country's appeal to potential investors and supports the national target of doubling the country's gross domestic product to reach AED3 trillion ($820 billion) by 2031."

Investopia Marketplace is open to members of the Investopia community, including local, regional, and global partners, venture capitalists and angel investors, institutional investors, large investment funds, sovereign wealth funds, family investment offices, and banks.

New economy

The platform provides opportunities in all promising sectors of the new economy such as renewable energy, healthcare, transportation, logistics, agricultural and financial technology, and other promising new sectors that benefit from technology and innovation and lead growth in the next decade in the UAE, which contributes to increasing the flow of investments towards future projects and sectors.

Investopia will also support the UAE objectives on the international level, in particular through supporting its green growth agenda, and work on spurring international investments in sustainable and environment-friendly projects.

Investopia will engage and work closely with its strategic partners and industry leaders, including the International Finance Corporation (IFC), SALT, Crypto.com, and iConnections to develop this newly launched platform.

The platform will allow companies from the public and private sectors, institutions, governments, and investors from Investopia communities worldwide to explore and invest in opportunities, including the cities which hosted Investopias Global Talks like New York, Milan, Rabat, New Delhi, Mumbai, Cairo, Havana, and others.

Investment projects

Within the platforms working mechanism, companies, institutions and governments are guaranteed to present their investment projects and opportunities, sectors, locations, stages, goals, and the capital needed for the project. In turn, Investopia communities of investors and partners review projects and choose the ones that are suitable for their portfolios and investment strategies.

The Marketplace currently includes various investment projects proposed by many countries around the world, particularly in the energy sector such as hydropower, and projects in agriculture from Kyrgyzstan. In addition, there are projects in sectors such as energy and electricity from Romania.

Investopia adopts an ambitious target of accelerating the pace of attracting investments to the country and attracting AED550 billion of inward foreign direct investment to the country by 2031, reaching AED1 trillion by 2051.

Foreign direct investments in the country are witnessing continuous growth, as the UAE attracted foreign direct investments worth $20.7 billion in 2021, with a growth rate of 4% from 2020, positioning the UAE in the first place in West Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.

It is expected that foreign direct investment inflows to the country will reach $22 billion in 2022, which represents 4.3% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the national economy, according to a report issued by the Institute of International Finance. This reflects the confidence of investors and businessmen in the UAE as a global destination for investment and trade.-- TradeArabia News Service
Justin Murgel will take over as PureView Health Center's new chief executive officer effective March 20, officials with the health care provider said Wednesday.

"Murgel brings years of experience in the health care industry and has a proven track record of successful leadership and supporting quality outcomes for patients," PureView stated in a news release.

He is replacing Jill-Marie Steeley, who left after seven years to take a job at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Montana.

In his new role at PureView, Murgel will "continu(e) their mission of providing quality, patient-centered, accessible health care with comfort," officials said.

PureView provides integrated medical, dental, behavioral health care and pharmacy services to nearly 9,000 people in Lewis and Clark as well as surrounding counties. It is a Federally Qualified Healthcare Center with clinics in Helena and Lincoln.

Murgel said he is looking forward to joining PureView.

"The company has a strong reputation for providing high-quality, accessible health care services, and I am excited to be part of the team that will continue and improve those services," he said. "I look forward to working with the management team, employees, and health care providers to continue to deliver exceptional care to our patients."

Interim CEO Laurie Francis, who will remain with the company during this transition, said, "I am delighted to welcome Justin to PureView. His extensive experience in the health care industry, coupled with his exceptional leadership skills, make him the ideal candidate to continue PureView's legacy.

"Justin is joining an incredible organization full of experts committed to the mission of accessible services. I am confident Justin will be a tremendous asset to our team, and I look forward to working with him to ensure a seamless transition," Francis said.

Lori Ladas, chair of PureView's board of directors, said Murgel was selected after a "rigorous" search.

"I'm thrilled we have found such a great fit in Justin. He brings a great background, and he will be an amazing addition to the wonderful team at PureView," she said in the news release.

Murgel holds a degree from the University of Montana-Western. He is the Lewis and Clark City-County Board of Health chair and plans to remain on the board until his second term ends in 2024.

For more information, visit pureviewhealthcenter.org.
A bill passed out of the Senate Business Labor and Economic Affairs Committee Monday would prohibit internet service providers or any other company from allowing anyone within Montanas borders access to the app TikTok under the threat of a $10,000 fine per incident compounded daily until people are no longer able to access the app.

Sen. Shelley Vance, R-Belgrade, is the sponsor of Senate Bill 419.

TikTok endangers the safety of Montanans and Americans at large. We know beyond a doubt that TikToks parent company ByteDance is operating as a surveillance arm of the Chinese Communist Party and gathers information about Americans against their will through TikTok, which markets itself as a harmless mobile app for teenagers to join viral dance trends and funny and post funny content, Vance said.

Should the ban be enacted, it would only penalize internet service providers and other companies who allow the public access to the app in Montana, not users themselves.

There were three proponents of the bill representing the state Department of Justice and the cybersecurity industry. They said TikTok can gather information like IP addresses, users location, what type of device a user is on and more. Eric Tarr is the information security officer under the Information Technology Services Division in the Department of Justice. He said TikTok is exporting roughly 36% of the data it collects from users back to China, something users who accepted the privacy settings already said was OK.

Looking at the privacy policies between, say, Instagram or TikTok, two social media apps that people use all the time. TikTok is blatantly saying this is what they're doing. Instagram, you actually have to go out there and approve them to take that information from you, Tarr said.

There was only one opponent of the bill. Shane Scanlon represented AT&T. He said its opposition didnt have to do with Montanas policy on TikTok, but rather the way they decided to implement it. He said holding internet service providers accountable for giving users access to TikTok isnt feasible. He said an ISP is like a highway, sure they provide access to the internet but they dont control what people do online. He said regulating where the app is allowed to function could be a different solution.

With gambling applications, if you're in one state where it's legal to online gamble and you have that app, you can use it no problem. You cross into another state where you can't use the app, you can't use it. And it's on that application's ability, the app store, the application to be able to distinguish between the both, Scanlon said.

There are already similar, albeit smaller-scope bans on TikTok in Montana. The Montana University System banned use of the app on its Wi-Fi January 20 after the State of Montana banned use of the app on all state-owned devices in December.

The bill will be heard on the Senate floor before the end of the week as it must clear the chamber by Friday.
A proposal to simplify Montanas election calendar would upend how local district elections are held, according to groups opposing legislation endorsed by a House committee Tuesday.

Rep. Mike Hopkins, R-Missoula, framed his bill as an attempt to boost turnout in elections that often fly under the radar for voters, but ultimately have major impacts on their property tax bills.

If an individual is being taxed out of their home, I would like them to know that their taxes were levied or spent or raised, along with a pretty darn decent vote from the people that are living in the surrounding area, Hopkins told the House State Administration Committee during a hearing Tuesday.

Those elections  whether theyre for municipal government or school, fire, irrigation or other special districts  would be held alongside the federal primary and general elections that take place in even-numbered years, under House Bill 774. Rather than the thousands of different special elections that occur across the state each biennium, Hopkins said, his proposal would require only two.

Hopkins also acknowledged it would be a big transition for those districts and for local election officials. But organizations representing election administrators and school board members said a cascade of unintended consequences would follow, and would largely be borne by those local officials.

Lance Melton, a lobbyist representing the Montana School Boards Association, said the proposal would have a number of ripple effects on the ability of local school officials to properly budget and calculate funding requirements each year. He said his concerns could be alleviated somewhat by setting up a biennial levy system, but like other opponents he cited the looming deadline for bills to pass one of the Legislatures two chambers by weeks end.

Hopkins 76-page proposal didnt become available until last week, part of a deluge of last-minute legislation delayed by a backlog in the bill-drafting process this session. Just on Tuesday, the committee held hearings on and voted on eight pieces of legislation. Testimony and subsequent committee discussion was limited to just 30 minutes per bill.

Theres just a multitude of things that are captured in this aggregation of all the elections into the general and primary, that I think need to be evaluated slowly and methodically, said Jason Rittal, executive director of the Montana Association of Counties.

Several opponents and committee members suggested that given the truncated timeline, the Legislature could instead put forth a study bill, which would allow an interim committee to take its time analyzing the proposal after the session. Hopkins said he would prefer the bill go forward and be amended as needed.

The committee initially deadlocked on the bill, failing to pass it 9-9 and tabling the proposal. But after the committees chair, Rep. Julie Dooling, R-Helena, urged her fellow lawmakers to reconsider their actions, the bill passed 12-6.

I think this is a super important conversation that needs to continue and go forward, Dooling said. ... I think we want more participation in elections, and getting more people there on one day gets more people involved.

A pair of Republican lawmakers with extensive public education backgrounds continued to oppose the bill, along with most of the committees Democrats.

Rep. Denise Baum, D-Billings, said the bill was drafted with complete disregard to all the intricacies that weve heard on numerous election bills.

After pulling it off the table, the committee voted 12-6 to send the bill to the full House for consideration.

The committee also held hearings and voted on several other proposals that would substantially impact the states election laws this week.

House Bill 598 would prohibit ranked-choice voting in Montana. The committee passed it 10-8 on Monday.

House Bill 807 sought to require that election administrators  currently an appointed position that counties can elect to create  was tabled after several opponents and lawmakers cast it as an attack on local control.

House Bill 806 would have drastically restricted which Montanans are eligible to vote absentee, a form of voting that more than 70% of the states voters have opted for in federal elections held in the past five years. It also would have shrunk the timeline to get an absentee ballot from the current 30-day period. It failed to pass Tuesday on a 17-1 vote.

House Bill 756 sought to enact automatic voter registration in Montana, triggered by an application for a new drivers license of state ID. It was voted down Monday 12-6 on party lines, with Republicans opposing it and Democrats in support.
DECATUR  Union employees at Decaturs Caterpillar Inc. plant will vote soon on a tentative six-year agreement that was reached between the United Auto Workers and the company.

The UAWs bargaining team has reached a tentative agreement with Caterpillar Inc. before the contract expiration, the national union said in a statement.

The UAW leadership said it will not be saying more about the deal, hammered out in the dying moments of the old contract that expired at the stroke of midnight Tuesday.

The union says it now wants to give the more than 2,400 members of its Decatur Local 751 and the three other locals in Illinois and Pennsylvania a chance to review the deal prior to ratification votes, expected to come soon.

But key features of the package have been published on the Local 751 Facebook page.

Among the attractions: a $6,000 ratification bonus for all employees if the six-year agreement is approved.

There is also a 7% wage increase tied to ratification and then a 4% lump sum payment scheduled for March of 2024. That is followed by a 4% wage hike a year later in March of 2025 and then another 4% lump sum payment in March of 2026. Two more 4% wage increases will follow in March of 2027 and March of 2028.

Other goodies have been thrown in too, in a list of benefits that runs on for several closely-spaced pages. Some highlights include increases to the night shift premium, a fifth week of vacation at 20 years service, increases to parental leave time and enhancements to retention bonuses.

The company has also agreed to remove marijuana from its random drug tests and tests given to workers returning from leave.

The tentative agreement was announced early Wednesday and came in the wake of UAW members, including the Decatur local, voting overwhelmingly to give their bargaining team authority to call a strike if negotiations had stalled.

The four locals voting on the central labor agreement represent workers at Caterpillar operations in Decatur, East Peoria, Mapleton, Mossville, Morton, Pontiac and York, Pennsylvania.

Caterpillar said in a statement: "Caterpillar and the United Autoworkers have reached a new six-year tentative labor agreement.

"The union will schedule a ratification vote soon, and we will communicate the date. The current agreement will be extended until the voting is complete. We will communicate the results as soon as they become available."

Staff Writer Tony Reid contributed to this story.

Photos: Caterpillar operations in Illinois 061022-blm-loc-caterpillar6 061022-blm-loc-caterpillar4 061022-blm-loc-caterpillar5 061022-blm-loc-caterpillar2 061022-blm-loc-caterpillar3 061022-blm-loc-caterpillar1 100718-blm-loc-4bicentennial-cat 100718-blm-loc-3bicentennial-cat 100718-blm-loc-2bicentennial-cat 100718-blm-loc-1bicentennial-cat 052018-blm-loc-3bicentennial-war 052018-blm-loc-1bicentennial-war 052018-blm-loc-2bicentennial-war
DECATUR  Bradley M. Gensler, the Decatur drug dealer who told police he carried a gun after bad experiences with narcotics deals that went bad, has been sent to prison for 16 years.

Gensler, 37, took a plea deal negotiated by defense attorney Courtney Anderson when he appeared in Macon County Circuit Court on Feb. 23. He admitted a charge of armed violence, a Class X felony, while Judge James Coryell dismissed further charges of dealing in methamphetamine and being a felon in possession of a weapon.

A sworn affidavit said members of the Decatur Police Community Action Team, which targets gun violence and drug offenses, had pulled Gensler over on the evening of Oct. 21.

Officer Kyle Borders, who signed the affidavit, said Gensler had more than 30 grams of meth with him at the time and he was armed with a .380 Ruger pistol loaded with an extended magazine.

Bradley admitted to selling methamphetamine and stated he sells several ounces a day, added Borders.

Bradley advised he had purchased the Ruger .380 from a subject at the street level a day prior. Bradley stated he had purchased the firearm for protection because he has been robbed during drug deals that went bad.

Illinois Department of Corrections records show that Gensler had been on parole when police encountered him.

In April of 2021 he had been released from prison after serving 14 years of a 30 year sentence following a 2007 conviction for armed robbery in DeWitt County.

Updated mugshots from the Herald & Review Joseph A. Williams William A. Hosea Randolph Hayes Byron D. Theus Jetrevius O. Jarrett Phillip Gehrken Emmanuel White Aaron L. Hand
Vote now until noon on April 20th to support the businesses that you think are the best in the New Braunfels area.
A 33-year-old Hickory man was sentenced to 50 years in prison for production and possession of child pornography.

Vincent Deritis was also sentenced to a lifetime of supervised release and ordered to register as a sex offender after he is released from prison, U.S. District Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina Dena J. King said in a news release.

On June 22, 2022, a federal jury convicted Deritis of three counts of production of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography. Deritis was sentenced during U.S. District Court in Statesville on Tuesday, King said.

Between October 2018 and March 2019, Deritis created child pornography of an unknowing minor victim on three occasions, according to court documents and presented evidence, King said.

On April 3, 2019, Hickory police officers executed a search warrant at Deritis residence. A forensic analysis of electronic devices seized from the defendants home and files in his cloud storage account revealed that Deritis possessed images and videos of the minor victim naked while getting in or out of the shower, photos of the minors genitalia, and thousands of images of child pornography Deritis had downloaded from the internet, King said.

Deritis is currently in federal custody. He will be transferred to the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility, King said.

Deritis is a child predator who caused a minor victim substantial harm, King said, according to the release.

Protecting children and holding perpetrators accountable is a priority for my office. Federal prosecutors work hand-in-hand with our law enforcement partners to investigate and prosecute child exploitation cases, and our victim assistance unit ensures that victims and their families receive the support and assistance they need throughout the court process and beyond.
A Hickory man pleaded guilty to first-degree burglary.

During the burglary, David Wayne Chafin II ate stolen Cool Whip dessert topping in the bedroom of the sleeping residents, according to District Attorney Scott Reillys Office.

Chafin, 40, was sentenced to a minimum of six years in prison during Catawba County Superior Court on Monday, the district attorneys office said in a news release.

The burglary that Chafin pleaded guilty to happened on May 1, 2021. The location of the burglary was not mentioned in the release.

According to investigative findings, Chafin entered the residence through a garage door before taking steak and Cool Whip out of the homeowners refrigerator, the district attorneys office said.

Chafin took the items to the bedroom of the home. The occupants awoke to find Chafin standing over them eating the Cool Whip with a knife, the district attorneys office said.

The male occupant retrieved a .22-caliber firearm and forced Chafin out of the home. Chafin was apprehended a short time later by deputies. Chafin still had a creamy, white substance on his beard when he was arrested, the district attorneys office said.

Catawba County Superior Court Judge Gregory R. Hayes imposed the prison term. Chafin will serve his period of incarceration in the custody of the North Carolina Division of Adult Corrections, the district attorneys office said.

Prosecutor Howard Wellons credited law enforcements swift response time as a key factor in the prosecution. The case was investigated by the Catawba County Sheriffs Office, the district attorneys office said.
Editor's Note The story was updated at 9:58 a.m. on March 3 to include Spring break.

The Catawba County Schools Board of Education approved a school calendar for the upcoming year that combines two options: the 167-day calendar for middle and high schools and the 164-day calendar for elementary schools.

The school system is in the process of finalizing the calendar, but some important dates appear to have been finalized.

Spring break will be from March 29 to April 5.

According to the draft calendar, exams during the first semester will be the week before Christmas, lasting from Dec. 15 to Dec. 21. Dec. 21 will be an early release day, and Christmas break should begin Dec. 22. Jan. 8 is the first day of the second semester.

End of year exams will start on May 20. May 24 will be an early release day.

Elementary school teachers will have three full workdays and two half workdays designated for planning and professional development.

The draft calendar does not indicate a time for a spring break.

The first semester for middle and high school will be 78 days, and the second will be 89 days. For elementary students, the first semester will be 76 days, and the second will be 88. There are 215 teacher days.

A public survey was sent out in January seeking feedback on several calendar drafts. A total of 4,016 people responded, said Assistant of Human Resources Rae Thompson, and that feedback was used to reach consensus on the school calendar.
Abu Dhabis office and industrial markets are showing signs of growth, with a rebound in rents already underway, according to global real estate consultancy, Knight Frank.

Office rents in three out of the six prime office submarkets monitored by Knight Frank experienced growth ranging from 3.5% to 12% during 2022.

This turn around is attributed to the rebound in economic growth and the increase in employment levels, it stated.

Faisal Durrani, the Partner and Head of Middle East Research, Knight Frank, said: "While Abu Dhabis office market has been slower to recover from the pandemic when compared to neighbouring Dubai, rapid economic expansion  estimated at 8.8% last year  has significantly contributed the change in the fortunes of the office market."

"This, combined with an uplift in job creation rates has started to filter through in the form of new office demand," he stated.

"Indeed, our teams have recorded 344,900 sq ft of new office demand in Abu Dhabi last year  an increase of 5% on 2021, with the banking and finance sector (20%) accounting for the bulk of new requirements," he added.

According to Knight Frank, the employment data from Oxford Economics which estimates employment to have reached 1.29 million at the end of last year.

While this figure is still shy of pre-pandemic levels, by the end of 2023, 1.32 million people are expected to be working in the capital, eclipsing pre-pandemic levels, it stated.

David Crook, Partner  Head of Abu Dhabi, Knight Frank, said: "The most critical factor in supporting rental growth is the severe shortage of prime Grade A office space. This is of course a double-edged sword  a lack of supply is to an extent holding back true demand, with occupiers willing to settle for older stock in more secondary locations."

"With just 275,000 sqft of new office stock expected over the next two years, the upward pressure on best-in-class rents is likely to persist, particularly as occupancy levels in the citys best buildings is hovering at, or above 95%," he noted.

Knight Frank pointed out that the picture in Abu Dhabis industrial market was more stable, with warehouse rents in the six main markets remaining unchanged during 2022.

Rates in Abu Dhabi Airport Free Zone (AED 550 per sq m) are still the most expensive in the city. Even though ADAFZ leased more space in 2022 than it did in 2021, rents remain stable, primarily because vacancy levels remain stubbornly high.

Other industrial areas in Abu Dhabi such as Kezad did not experience any change in rents as demand remains steady.

Crook said: "The industrial sector is rapidly emerging as a core pillar in Abu Dhabis economic diversification strategy and the last 18-24 months has seen a raft of new occupiers establishing large-scale facilities at Kezad, while existing occupiers are expanding their footprints."

Knight Frank points to various authorities initiatives, such as the Smart Manufacturing Index which is helping industrial occupiers reduce their operational and efficiency gaps, in addition to positioning Abu Dhabi as a key industrial and manufacturing hub in the region.

"In Abu Dhabi, a key pillar of demand is materialising in the form of banking and finance, and education occupiers  in fact together, these two sectors accounted for 39% of the total level of new requirements we recorded last year," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Kristen Whisenant approached the podium with a poster in her hands.

At the Catawba Schools Board of Education meeting on Monday night, Whisenant introduced herself as a concerned parent who pulled her children out of public school because she disagreed with the policies.

Whisenant said when she heard the uproar about challenged books, she was inspired to research and find out why the books had generated controversy.

When Whisenant raised her poster, it was covered with sexually explicit quotes from Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, written by Jesse Andrews.

Whisenant said the book has been approved to remain high school reading material. She criticized the book-review process as long and detailed, adding: Its easy to get these books in there. They just sneak them right in. But to get them out is an act of Congress.

Catawba County (is where) voters went out by the truckload to vote some very conservative Christians in on the school board, Whisenant said. So I hope the rest of you take that into consideration.

Whisenant also mentioned she is a member of the Mama Bears group, which was co-founded by board member Michelle Teague.

According to the Mama Bears Facebook description, the group is a boots on the ground group dedicated to fighting for our faith, families and freedoms.

Several members of the Freedom Readers group also spoke. The Freedom Readers are a group that formed in response to the 24 challenged books in early 2022. The group advocates against banning books.

Kevin Sparks addressed the book, Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov. Sparks called it the most troubling book of the 24 challenged books.

Anyone who has opened this book would know it is not a book about pedophilia, Sparks said. It is not an erotic book. Nabokov himself rolled on the floor with laughter when he was asked if it would be considered an erotic book.

Sparks said the book was influenced by several authors, including Edgar Allan Poe. Writers like Poe did not always write in good taste, Sparks said, nor was their content always in line with the social norms of the time.

Art is meant to be troubling, Sparks said. Its meant to challenge  The goal of this school system, which I applaud with all my heart, is to raise students to think independently on difficult and controversial matters.

Lastly, Sparks said, If you dont want your child to read the book, theres a well-documented procedure of making sure your child cannot check the book out. Why do you need to impress your opinions on that book on my children? Why are your views taking primacy over mine? My family has values. Those values include diversity, love, respect and independence.

Joan Gardner opened with quotes from The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini: It hurts to say this, but better to get hurt by the truth than comforted with a lie. Children arent coloring books. You dont get to fill them in with your favorite colors.

Gardner said banning books will not make children treat one another with more respect.

I just want to ask that we do not try to censor what (children) are exposed to as far as literature goes, Gardner said. And, if you havent read The Kite Runner, read it. (It shows how) cultures fall apart.

The book also depicts how religion can be weaponized against others, Gardner said, including those who share the same faith.

Clayton Mullis, who ran for a seat on the board of education in 2022, restated that he is a Christian and takes offense to groups saying that Christian conservatives are ruining the country.

Mullis said that conversations about sexuality and other sensitive topics should be had between parents and children and should not be discussed in elementary and middle schools.

Mullis said many people are missing the bigger picture: I have harped this and I will continue to harp it. If you open the door just an inch about these books  youve seen what has happened across this country. It will open the floodgates to an agenda that does nothing to help educate our children.

Mullis said, I want our kids to go in the classroom and learn about education, (and) learn those basic things that will help them be a betterment to society.
Emergency SNAP benefits for approximately 24,500 people in Catawba County will end today. The Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Programs emergency funds were released during the pandemic to help low-income families put food on the table.

The change will be devastating to many of those people, especially the disabled and elderly, Jimmiann Huffman with the Catawba County Department of Social Services said Tuesday.

Huffman oversees food assistance and program integrity for the county.

Huffman said the disabled and elderly were the most likely to receive the maximum emergency allotment of $281. That amount will drop to $23 in most cases, she said.

Families enrolled with the N.C. Food and Nutrition Services received at least $95 per month in addition to their regular food stamps, according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. Starting in March, those families will only receive their normal pre-pandemic assistance.

Families and individuals can check what their monthly benefits will be at ebtedge.com, according to NCDHHS.

Catawba County United Way Executive Director Mark Bumgarner expects to see a rise in homelessness among working families and elderly people living in poverty. Bumgarner said elderly people are often choosing between buying food, paying rent or getting medicine.

As the benefits reduce, the strain of the affordable housing crisis will become more apparent. More families will be choosing between food and rent, Bumgarner said. Rents are already unreasonably high in our area for working families, and this will lead to more of the working homeless with families living in their cars or couch surfing while working.

The Catawba County United Way provides little direct assistance. Instead, the organization gives financial support to the agencies that do provide aid, Bumgarner said. The Catawba County United Way helps people find the programs and assistance they need through referrals to local partners.

Weve received very few calls regarding food over the past year given the increased benefits, but we are now receiving those calls, Bumgarner said. Our Blessings Box that we stock in our parking lot is emptied almost nightly, reflecting increased need. Initially, it was not.

Bumgarner said the increase in need will be a potential strain on local nonprofits, especially since the Greater Hickory Cooperative Christian Ministries no longer operates a food pantry. He said Eastern Cooperative Christian Ministries and the Hickory Soup Kitchen are helping fill that gap. Another issue Bumgarner foresees is accessibility for working families.

Most food pantries operate Monday-Friday on an 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. basis, Bumgarner said. Which are hours often worked by the persons needing the support. They may have to choose between obtaining food and missing work, which means reduced pay or lost jobs. And that exacerbates the problem.

In preparation for the reduced SNAP benefits, the Catawba County United Way updated its list of local food resources, Catawba County United Way Director of Community Impact John Bailey said. The list can be accessed at ccunitedway.com under food resources.

I worry about what this reflects on our society, Bumgarner said. For anyone to be hungry in America is a blight we should be ashamed of.
The Humane Society of Catawba County is open to the public by appointment. Visit www.catawbahumane.org to view available pets and fill out an adoption application. Once approved a staff member will contact you to schedule a time to visit. If you have any questions, call 828-464-8878.

Catawba County Animal Shelter, 201 Government Services Drive in Newton, is open to the public Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Visit www.catawbacountync.gov/county-services/emergency-services/animal-services/adopt-foster/ to view available pets. Call 828-466-6812 for more information.
NEWTON  Carolina Caring is hosting "Walk a Mile with Me," an online support group for caregivers, spouses and widows/widowers of deceased veterans.

The group will meet on the first Tuesday of each month and is designed to be a welcoming place to talk about the journey before and after the passing of a veteran.

Carolina Caring for Veterans is proud to be a Level IV partner of the We Honor Veterans program, an awareness initiative spearheaded by the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The program has also been recognized as a partner by the United States of America Vietnam War Commemoration Commemorative Partner Program.

For more information, contact Cindy Stamey, Carolina Carings director of community and veteran relations, at cstamey@carolinacaring.org or call 828-466-0466.

Carolina Caring, founded in 1979, is an independent, community-based, nonprofit health care provider. It specializes in programs that offer relief from chronic conditions, serious illnesses, and the challenges they bring, including palliative medicine and hospice care for all ages, primary care and grief counseling. Currently, Carolina Caring serves 12 counties across western North Carolina and the Charlotte region. For more information, call 828-466-0466 or visit www.CarolinaCaring.org.
Much is gained with a little perspective.

For example, we have heard about dairy exports from the U.S. achieving a new record for multiple years now. When records are continually surpassed, it can be harder to appreciate just how remarkable they were. Its impressive to take a step back and recognize that in 2021, overseas dairy sales totaled a massive $7.75 billion  and yet, that number still climbed to $9.5 billion last year!

Perspective might also make us ask why billions of dollars of products shipped to other countries matters to our industry right here at home. That is a question answered by market balance, product value, jobs, demand, and opportunity.



Your farm might not be exporting, but every little bit helps, said Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture agricultural trade specialist Kristina Watson at the Pennsylvania Dairy Summit Innovation Forum. One way to describe exports is as a method to make room for more product on the domestic market, she explained. Tony Rice echoed the balancing effect of world markets, noting there is not much domestic demand for something like non-fat dry milk, but global customers can boost the value of these products.

Overseas demand also affects what dairy products U.S. processors make, continued Rice, the U.S. Dairy Export Councils manager of trade policy. This is important to American dairy farmers since they are paid depending on their milks end-product use. Were not just exporting commodities, stated Rice, who is also a trade policy manager with the National Milk Producers Federation. Moving value-added product such as cheese makes a difference in U.S. milk checks.

For an off-farm perspective, attendees of the Innovation Forum heard from Dominic OBrien, senior marketing manager for the Port of Philadelphia. The port handles more refrigerated cargo than many other locations and is the ninth-largest port for dairy on the East Coast, he said. Even during the pandemic, they saw a rise in the number of containers going through their waters. We think of ourselves as a Pennsylvania economic engine, he described, noting that more trade means they employ more people in well-paying jobs across the facility.



When dairy products are sold to customers outside our borders, American farmers benefit from all of this economic activity. It is rooted in the fact that people all around the world are ready for and demanding more dairy. Rice noted that dairy is making up a rising portion of the global populations protein consumption, driven by an expanding middle class and the fact that 95% of the worlds customers live outside of the U.S. Our dairy industry can help meet that need, and exports are how our products get to those who desire them.

To comment, email your remarks to intel@hoards.com.

(c) Hoard's Dairyman Intel 2023

February 23, 2023
RALEIGH  Elaine Marshall North Carolinas Secretary of State since 1997, thought she knew the patterns of new businesses registering with her office, but starting in mid-2020 she saw a puzzling change.

It was June 2020 and "the rocket started shooting up, she said.

Amid the disruptions of the pandemic, the numbers surged. Filings for new business in 2021 set a record at 178,300. Last years filings nearly matched that peak. Since 2019, new business creations in North Carolina are up by more than 70%.

Marshalls office began a survey, she said, to find out what was going on. More than 4,000 people responded.

The results revealed that many new businesses were being launched by women and minorities, with low-income counties in eastern North Carolina showing major upticks. Some people were looking for ways to balance work and child care. Some had lost jobs and learned new skills. Some were turning a hobby into a business.

There are a lot of folks who really want to be their own boss, Marshall said.

Of course, thats not a new feeling, but the pandemic has created new opportunities to act on it. The American Rescue Plan Act has provided more than $6.6 billion for small business expansion and the worker shortage has given individuals confidence that if a venture fails, they can find a job.

The trend is a national one. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that 10.4 million new businesses were formed in 2021 and 2022  the highest two-year total on record.

There are a lot of unknowns about this surge, especially how long it will last and how many of the startups will survive. But it may well be an indicator that President Joe Biden is moving the nation away from trickle-down economic policies of tax cuts and deregulation that benefit corporations to a build from the middle out approach that favors middle-class entrepreneurs.

In Raleigh, Amanda Buck, 36, is part of that trend. A veterinary technician, she recently launched her own pet care business.

This is something Ive been thinking about for years, she said.

A strong job market provides a backup as Buck sets out on her own. My field is very short-staffed, she said. So, if I need to get a job, I can find one. Thats a very big plus for me.

Anne Shaw, state director of the Small Business Center Network, an agency within the community college system said, North Carolina is just a hotbed for entrepreneurship right now. Its part of what she called a great reset as people look for more autonomy in their work.

I do believe we have had a fundamental shift in terms of how people look at the work that they do and how they want to live their lives and that is translating into an economic shift, she said. Whether that is temporary or long term, it will take a long time before we are able to see that.

Marshall is encouraged by so many people starting their own businesses, but shes worried about how many will make it. She said 25% of new businesses fail in the first three years and 50% end within seven years.

We want to improve those odds, she said.

One problem with people going into business on their own, she explained, is that they often have passion, but lack planning. Most people surveyed by her office said they relied on the Secretary of States registration process for information on how to get started, but Marshall said they also need help with business plans and funding options. Her office has set up a new business checklist to make those starting out aware of the many state services that can help.

Marshall is still not sure whats behind this burst of new businesses, but she knows its still happening.

Januarys numbers were the highest for January ever, she said. We were just a few shy of 60,000 new entities. So this years off to a robust start.
include_once "/home/jwreview/public_html/$theme/includes/sidebar.php"; ?> The La Jolla Comedy Store has me onstage for San Diego crowds this weekend. While I'm down there, I love buying books at Warwick's Book Store because I have trust issues with Amazon orders. I paid twenty-seven dollars for a book called How to Scam People, and it hasn't arrived in three months.

 Petco is planning to hold its board meeting in San Diego this month to roll out new products for pet health and wellness. Petco stores will be expanding their pet food brands to include healthier food for your dog or cat. My dog will eat anything, but put a pill in it, and suddenly he's Gordon Ramsey.

 Minnesota protesters are targeting the thirty-foot-high Viking statue named Big Ole glorifying the Scandinavian ancestry of the state's original pioneer settlers. I certainly understand their resentment toward the Vikings. They've been to the Super Bowl four times in 56 years and still no Lombardi Trophy.

 The Department of Energy confirmed what millions of Americans already suspected on Monday, saying Covid came from the Wuhan lab not an infected bat. Dr. Fauci changed his story and said the virus came from a bear high on cocaine. So he's now invested in Universal Studios as well as Pfizer.

 The State Department issued the most alarming safety advisory since the end of the Cold War last week and told U.S. citizens to leave Russia immediately. And don't stand near any open windows. Last Friday night in Moscow a Putin opponent fell off the roof of a nightclub and he wasn't the bouncer.

 New York Governor Kathy Hochul's poll numbers fell Monday over all the crime in New York City and in towns. Citizens are answering the bell. Last week at Half Moon, a man who was high on LSD and cough syrup rescued his neighbor's dog from a non-existent fire, proving that not all heroes wear capes.

 The White House enacted a ban on Tik Tok being an app on any U.S. government phones for fear that China can use it to spy on the United States. Its posts are the most juvenile content you can imagine. The reason they call it Tik Tok is because watching the videos remind you that the end is near.

 President Biden enjoyed a nice bounce in his job approval ratings published Monday following his trip to Poland and Ukraine. More details are emerging about Biden's eight-hour train trip when he slipped into the war zone from Poland. Even more impressive, at Joe's age, that it wasn't part of a cruise.

GET ARGUS' DAILY SMILES TO YOUR INBOX. SIGN UP FOR THE JWR UPDATE. IT'S FREE. Just click here.

 Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen gave President Zelinsky one billion dollars to fund their welfare programs Monday, with nine more billion to come. The Ukraine-U.S. relationship provides a lesson for our own daily lives. Never call anybody stupid until you first find out if they will lend you fifty bucks.

 White House spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. will not be equipping Ukraine's defense forces with F-16 fighter jets which they'd requested. However if you love action, the long-awaited German Army battle tanks arrived in Ukraine Saturday. I wonder if they went through Poland for old times' sake.

 Kiev church bells rang on Saturday, marking the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Biden's spent over a hundred billion tax dollars backing a war Ukraine can't win in the long run. Having Ukraine as an ally is like having a brother-in-law with a gambling problem and no car.

 Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams was dropped by papers after remarks pointing out reverse racism against whites that sound racist when his words are taken out of context. As a comic I say racism is stupid. No race is any more special than another whether you are Black, Hispanic, Asian or Normal.

(COMMENT, BELOW)
MATTOON  A new John Deere parts distribution center is set to open this spring in the former LSC Communications Printing Co. plant in Mattoon.

Local officials said they are excited about the distribution center creating more than 100 jobs and about the prospects of the former General Electric Mattoon Lamp Plant, which LSC site owner Phoenix Investors recently purchased.

The Moline-based manufacturer of agricultural machinery and other heavy equipment confirmed its plans for a Mattoon distribution center in statement from Brent Thomsen, Aftermarket & Customer Support Global network and automation lead.

To help accommodate ongoing growth in our Aftermarket & Customer Support business, we are expanding our warehousing, packaging and logistics operations," Thomsen said. "The new distribution center in Mattoon will improve our ability to receive material directly from suppliers and enable us to ship outbound directly to dealers."

The Mattoon facility will serve as a secondary parts distribution center for its U.S. network and that its primary parts distribution center will remain in Milan, located just southwest of Moline.

"John Deere, in collaboration with two of our suppliers (SC2 and Phoenix), will be ramping up operations (in Mattoon) over the course of the next several months. Once fully operational, there will be a total of 100-125 workers employed by Deere and its suppliers," Thomsen said.

"With deep roots in agriculture, Coles County is pleased to welcome John Deere, one of the worlds leading agricultural companies, to the industrial and manufacturing base in the community," said Angela Griffin, president of the Coles Together economic development organization. "As Deere grows its operation in Coles County, we know our roots in the industrial sector will also be of value to the company."

Griffin said Coles Together is working to assist John Deere with efforts to recruit employees to support the company's operations at the former LSC/RR Donnelly facility.

Ed Dowd, executive director of the Mattoon Chamber of Commerce, said having a Fortune 500 company like John Deere locate in Mattoon and create more than 100 jobs there will be great for the local economy.

The former LSC printing plant, 6821 E. County Road 1100 North, closed in 2020 and was purchased at the end of that year by Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based Phoenix Investors, a national commercial real estate firm that specializes in revitalizing former manufacturing facilities. Phoenix has been marketing the property to prospective occupants since then.

Phoenix has reported that the 84-acre property includes 1.1 million square feet of improvements, including clear heights up to 80 feet, 41 loading docks, 11 drive-in doors, large parking lots, and two interior rail spurs with interior loading, supported by Canadian National. The property is located just north of County Road 1000 North, which provides direct access to an Interstate 57 interchange.

"The location was chosen due to its size, readiness of the facility and potential available workforce," Thomsen said, adding that the company will use approximately 900,000 square feet of the facilities there.

Mattoon Mayor Rick Hall said the city is excited about seeing a very good company like John Deere move into the former LSC location.

"This 1-million-square-foot building should be a great place for John Deere, with access to highways and rail," Hall said. "We look forward to officially welcoming them to Mattoon.

Griffin said Coles Together also looks forward to continuing to work with Phoenix Investors. Dowd added that this company has a reputation for getting vacant industrial spaces filled as "quickly as possible."

"With the company's purchase of the (LSC Communications) facility and, recently, the General Electric facility, their partnership and track record of success has opened the door to many opportunities for Coles County."

Coles County property tax assessment records show that Phoenix Investors purchased the former General Electric Mattoon Lamp Plant in January. This factory building at 1501 S. 19th St. was closed by GE in 2017.

More than a dozen trailers bearing John Deere's signature leaping deer logo could be seen in recent days parked in the former LSC property's east parking lot or attached to loading docks on the west side of the building. John Deere recently posted a job notice for an operations coordinator at the planned distribution center in Mattoon.

Coles County already has some ties to the Moline-based Fortune 500 company. Lake Land College in Mattoon is home to a John Deere Tech Program that is specifically designed to advance the skill level of new John Deere service technicians. In addition, Alliance Tractor LLC in Mattoon and AHW LLC in Ashmore are both John Deere farm equipment dealerships.

"Deere is one of many industrial firms making decisions to locate or grow in Coles County over the past three years because the local workforce has demonstrated it is very productive at making things, Griffin said.

Coles Together appreciates the foresight and work by local school districts, Lake Land College, and Eastern Illinois University to invest in skills training in the workforce, Griffin said. These efforts and workforce support from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity has given Coles County a reputation for having skilled and trained workers needed to support todays industrial sector, she said.

"With very few empty facilities and a steady demand for industrial and warehouse space, it is time to bury the phrase 'Rust Belt' when referring to Coles County," Griffin said.
TD Bank Groups proposed $13.4 billion megadeal for First Horizon Corp. no longer has a closing date.

First Horzion disclosed Wednesday there is no guarantee that all regulatory approvals would have been received by the May 27 deadline.

TD said in a statement Wednesday that "we are in quiet period and cannot comment until tomorrow, but TD remains committed to the transaction."

"We also refer you to First Horizon's public disclosure in its (fiscal 2022) 10-K, which notes that TD has initiated discussions about an extension" of the closing date.

It would be the second-largest U.S. bank deal since the Great Recession of 2008-11, eclipsed only by BB&T Corp.s $33.5 billion purchase of SunTrust Banks Inc. in December 2019 that led to the creation of Truist Financial Corp.

If approved, TD would gain in the megadeal First Horizons 92 North Carolina branches, including 12 in Forsyth County and 30 altogether in the Triad and Northwest N.C.

Investors responded to the disclosure by sending First Horizons share price down as much as 16.4% during trading Wednesday before closing down 10.6%, or by $2.63 to $22.14.

TD cannot provide a new projected closing date at this time, First Horizon said. There can be no assurance that an extension will ultimately be agreed.

First Horizon said its uncertain whether TD will satisfy all regulatory requirements so that the regulatory approvals required to complete the pending TD merger will be received.

Either TD or First Horizon may unilaterally elect to terminate the merger agreement in certain circumstances.

The merger agreement would require First Horizon to pay $435.5 million to TD upon termination under certain circumstances.

Toronto-based TD announced plans on Feb. 27, 2022, to buy First Horizon  at that time the 37th-largest U.S. bank.

The deal was slated to close by the first quarter of fiscal 2023, but on Feb. 9 the banks moved the closing date to May 27.

On Jan. 19, the banks cited U.S. and Canadian regulatory approval issues in projecting a close in the second quarter. Those include the Federal Reserves Board of Governors, the U.S. Justice Department and the Tennessee Department of Financial Institutions.

Reactions

This opens new uncertainty on FHNs ability to close its sale to TD, which should change the stocks discount to the original $25 cash price and minor additional cash payment for each day past nine months that it takes to close, Janney Montgomery Scott analyst Christopher Marinac said.

For context, Marinac said this week crossed the 12-month threshold.

We anticipate First Horizon renegotiates a closing date later in 2023, and that the merger ultimately closes, Marinac said.

In our opinion, First Horizon does not have many alternatives better than TD.

Marinac said the regulatory approval delay likely relates to the Federal Reserve Board taking longer to approve large bank mergers.

Marinac cited as an example that First Citizens BancShares Inc.s $2.16 billion purchase of CIT Group Inc. of New York was delayed from an initial Oct. 15, 2021, closing date to Jan. 4, 2022.

First Citizens said on Oct. 4, 2021, that the Federal Reserve had not signed off on the deal at that time. It was the largest deal in First Citizens 122-year history.

The grumblings on the street are that TD is concerned about regulatory approvals and may seek to reduce the buyout price, said Bowman Gray IV, a local independent stockbroker.

My experience is that when closing dates are changed, and when there is a discussion of revaluing a deal, that deal is in jeopardy.

Megadeal concerns

In June, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., requested that the federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency consider blocking the megadeal.

Warren is joined by U.S. Reps. Katie Porter, D-Calif., and Jesus Garcia, D-Ill., in a letter asking the agency to investigate a recent Capitol Forum report that alleged customer abuses.

The lawmakers compared the TD issues with those involving the fraudulent customer-account scandal that has overshadowed Wells Fargo & Co. since the scandal erupted in September 2016.

The slowness of gaining regulatory approvals reflects that both the Fed and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have been signaling for months that theyre going to be looking more carefully and rigorously at big-bank mergers, said Tony Plath, a retired finance professor at UNC Charlotte.

Were not exactly in a target-rich environment for big-bank mergers these days, so when the Fed signals its going to take a closer look, we all know what its really talking about.

Plath said slowing down the closing date to perhaps allow an opening for the renegotiation of the all-cash deal price signals TD has everything to gain and nothing to lose, while First Horizon is clearly over a barrel facing a $400 million termination fee if the deal fails to complete.

First Horizon is going to be a quite willing and most anxious dance partner these days.

CFRA Research analyst Alexander Yokum maintained his "hold" rating on First Horizon's stock following the disclosure.

"A total termination of the deal is on the table, in our vie," Yokum said.

If the megadeal is not consummated, Yokum said First Horizon's standalone value is between $16 and $18 a share.

Yokum also said the delay could be" somewhat positive for TD as the bank may be able to negotiate a cheaper acquisition price."

A 15%-20% reduction in acquisition price seems reasonable, in our view."

Yokum also shared the perspective that for the banking industry, "it's a bad omen for future large bank acquisitions as many large bank deals have been delayed as of late. "
Dubais prime residential market has emerged as the fourth most active in the world with 219 $10 million+ home sales last year, ranking just behind New York (244), Los Angeles (225) and London (223), said global property consultant Knight Frank in its 2023 Wealth Report.

According to Knight Frank, Dubais prime residential areas are The Palm Jumeirah, Emirates Hills and Jumeirah Bay Island.

As per the report, Dubai is now the fifth most active city for $25 million home sales as well, with 26 last year  ranking behind London (43), New York (43), Los Angeles (39) and Hong Kong (28).

On the report, Faisal Durrani, Partner  Head of Middle East Research, said: "Dubai has arrived. The emirate has taken its place among long-established hub cities as one of the worlds most sought-after luxury residential markets."

However, Durrani pointed out that Dubais luxury residential market remained significantly undersupplied.

"Just 8 new villas are expected in the citys prime neighbourhoods until 2025 - and the fact that it is more affordable than its global counterparts is also adding to the overall appeal of owning a home in Dubai amongst the worlds elite," he noted.

Indeed, $1 million in Dubais prime residential precincts translates into 1,130 sq ft of space, roughly five-times more than Hong Kong and three-times more than London or Singapore, explained Durrani.

"These factors have fuelled business and economic confidence and have in turn helped to supercharge demand for luxury homes," he added.

Knight Frank also points to the diversity in Dubais buyer base, which has contributed to the overall markets performance.

"With the strongest prime residential growth rate in the world forecast this year at 13.5%, Dubais market still represents outstanding relative value. It is this value that continues to drive UHNWI buyers into our market, most of whom are seeking a sun-sand-sea lifestyle that is now synonymous with Dubai," remarked Andrew Cummings, Partner  Head of Prime Residential.

"The city's appeal stretches right across the world, but in 2022, we saw a resurgence of investment from our traditional long-time stalwarts of the buyer nationality league table. This showed continued interest from the UK and India, as well as Europeans that had slowed down but picked up in 2022. Chinese investors have also bounced back post-pandemic, making Middle East residential investments very lucrative," he added.

Knight Franks 2023 Wealth Report also includes findings of its annual Attitudes Survey. 500 private bankers, wealth advisors and family offices were interviewed around the world, with respondents in the Middle East naming the UK (85%) the most popular residential investment target for 2023. The UAE (48%) is ranked second, with the USA (37%) following in third place. France and Switzerland round out the top five.

Shehzad Jamal, Partner  Head of Strategic Consulting  UAE, Real Estate, Healthcare and Education, said: "The other discernible difference in investment strategies between Middle East UHNWI and their global counterparts is their apparent heavier weighting towards offices."

"At 63%, offices form the single largest non-residential sector of preference for Middle East UHNWI, well above the global average of 43%. Logistics and Industrial (41%) follow in second place," he noted.

"With key cities in the Middle East such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh experiencing rising office and warehouse demand against a backdrop of record high occupancy levels and a restricted development pipeline, it is easy to see why offices and warehouses are attractive targets for some," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Black Mountain Chocolate will close for good on March 11, the downtown shop said in a Facebook post on Tuesday.

In the post, the company said it wasnt doing enough business to stay open.

We just needed a few more people to experience our magic, and we couldnt seem to get them in the door. Combined with the lingering impact of the pandemic, the difficulty in finding BMC-quality staff, dramatic cost increases for all of our raw materials and supplies, the hill was just too high to climb, the post said.

Black Mountain Chocolate was founded in Black Mountain, but moved to Winston-Salem in 2014 after Brent and Millie Peters bought the company.

Just two years ago, in January 2021, Black Mountain moved from its first Winston-Salem location, at 732 N. Trade St., into a much larger space at 450 N. Patterson Ave. in Innovation Quarter  making it the first retail business in the Bailey South building.

The move was designed to create more of a gathering spot, with an increased emphasis on sales of coffee, baked goods, gelato and alcoholic beverages, though the company continued to make chocolate.

The Facebook post thanked supporters and hinted that the company had some special plans for its final weekend.

You will have one last chance to stow away your favorite treats! Dont miss out. Saturday, March 11. Stay tuned for more details as the date approaches. Thank you for helping create the magic that was the BMC community. You have been the best supporters, and we will be forever grateful for the time we got to spend with you.
Forsyth County has been reported with five additional COVID-19 deaths, while the weekly new case count dropped to a three-month low, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services reported Wednesday.

Three of the latest COVID-19 related deaths were listed as occurring during the week that ended Feb. 25, while the other two were reported the previous week.

DHHS cautions its weekly totals are subject to revision, including factoring in cases and deaths that occurred weeks or months ago, but were only recently confirmed as related to COVID-19.

There were 319 cases listed for Forsyth, down from a revised 441 in the previous report.

The most recent time the weekly case count was lower was 259 for the week that ended Nov. 26.

About 20%, or 64, of the new cases were listed as reinfections by DHHS.

Altogether, Forsyth has had 125,394 confirmed cases and 969 COVID-related deaths since the pandemic began in mid-March 2020.

Forsyth health director Joshua Swift and Novant Health Inc. infectious diseases expert Dr. David Priest have stressed that the DHHS weekly case totals include only laboratory confirmed cases, and dont include most people who determine they are positive with an at-home test.

Forsyth, along with all of the Triad and Northwest North Carolina, were reported last week in the low category for COVID-19 community spread.

Forsyth had been in the medium category during the previous five reports.

Long-term care centers

The number of Forsyth long-term care facilities with current COVID-19 outbreaks decreased by four to eight in the latest report  the lowest weekly count since the COVID-19 subvariant outbreak began in April.

Meanwhile, five outbreaks were declared as over by DHHS.

The outbreak at Forsyth County Detention Center involves 26 inmates was considered as over by DHHS.

The number of infected residents linked to current outbreaks is at 77, down 75 from the previous report, while infected staff members are at 43, down 30.

At least 14 long-term care residents have died since early April from a COVID-related illness, including at least two in the latest report.

An outbreak is considered over if there is no evidence of continued transmission within the facility, according to DHHS. If new positive COVID-19 cases occur after an outbreak is considered as ended, it is listed as a separate outbreak.

DHHS spokeswoman Bailey Pennington Allison has said it is important to remember that the number of cases associated with an ongoing outbreak are the cumulative total for that outbreak, not the number of people currently positive for COVID-19.

Current outbreaks of at least 20 COVID-19 cases in Forsyth long-term care centers include:

Willow Valley Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, with 23 residents and eight staff (both unchanged).

Oak Forest Health and Rehabilitation, with 24 residents, including two deaths, and six staff (both unchanged).

Arbor Acres United Methodist Retirement Community Inc., with 19 staff and six residents (both unchanged).

The following long-term care facilities were removed from the dashboard: Trinity Glen (20 staff and 17 residents); Mill Creek Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation (30 residents and three students); Silas Creek Rehabilitation Center (18 residents, including one death, and seven staff); Clemmons Village I (10 residents).

Also removed was Old Vineyard Youth Services with three staff and one resident.

COVID-19 statewide

DHHS reported the statewide count for last week was 7,295, compared with a revised 9,392 in the previous report.

The latest weekly count is the lowest since 6,903 for the week that ended Nov. 26.

Of those North Carolinians with a positive test result in the latest weekly report, 1,708, or 23.4% were considered re-infected.

North Carolinas total confirmed case count since the onset of the pandemic is 3.47 million.

There were 21 COVID-related deaths reported statewide last week, along with another 22 confirmed from previous weeks, for a total of 28,389.

Last week, the number of COVID-19 patients admitted to hospitals in North Carolina was at 778, compared with 843 for the week that ended Feb. 18.

Hospitals in a 17-county version of the Triad region averaged 167 COVID-19 patients, down from 192 for the week that ended Feb. 18.

The current dominant omicron subvariants have proven to be more contagious, contributing to the surge in hospitalizations. DHHS lists seven active subvariants, down from 10 in the previous report.

The XBB 1.5 subvariant made up 70% of new cases from Feb. 5 to Feb. 18, along with 22% the BQ 1.1 subvariant.
Guilford County had  at 249  the most confirmed overdose deaths in North Carolina during 2021, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services reported.

Statewide, there were a record 4,041 overdose deaths at an average of 38.5 per 100,000 individuals.

DHHS said more than 77% of overdose deaths in the state likely involved fentanyl, often in combination with other substances.

The Guilford total went up a stunning 51.8% from 164 in 2020. There were 46.4 overdose deaths per 100,000 residents.

Meanwhile, Forsyth Countys overdoses rose by 14.6%, or from 130 to 149. There were 39 overdose deaths per 100,000 residents.

The Forsyth and Guilford annual overdose death totals were the highest since DHHS began disclosing those statistics in 1999.

By comparison with the other N.C. metros, Wake County went from 198 to 240, Mecklenburg County from 236 to 237 and Durham County from 82 to 108.

Davidson County, going from 98 to 119 deaths, had among the states highest rates by county at 71 per 100,000.

The mental health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic will be felt for years to come, and sadly we are just beginning to see the negative impact, Forsyth health director Joshua Swift said.

DHHS said the overdose death totals involves all types of medications and drugs: opioids (commonly prescribed opioids, heroin, and synthetic narcotics like fentanyl and fentanyl-analogues), stimulants (cocaine, methamphetamine), benzodiazepines, and others.

Yet, the rise in overdose deaths in recent years is driven by illegally manufactured fentanyl.

DHHS said about 90% of deaths statewide were unintentional.

DHHS said the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this crisis.

Overdose deaths have increased 72% from 2019 to 2021, with a 40% jump in 2020 during the first year of the pandemic.

In 2021, there were nearly 17,000 emergency department visits related to drug overdoses.

DHHS said the number of people who have died from overdose has worsened in some historically marginalized communities, although the overall number of overdose deaths is highest among whites at 42 per 100,000, compared with Blacks at 38.5 per 100,000.

DHHS goals

DHHS tracks data on five primary goals: reducing deaths; reducing oversupply of prescription opioids; reducing drug diversion and illicit drug flow; increasing naloxone access; and increasing access to treatment and recovery services.

DHHS has set a goal of reducing the expected number of overdose deaths by 20% by the end of 2024.

Part of the strategy is expanding mobile crisis care, peer support initiatives, treatment programs, collegiate recovery programs and other efforts to improve behavioral health services across the state  all to get people the care they need at the right time and place, state Health Secretary Kody Kinsley said.

DHHS said it has assisted in the distribution of more than 719,000 units of naloxone to agencies across the state to assist in overdose response efforts.

DHHS also launched the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, which offers 24/7 access to trained crisis counselors who can help people experiencing behavioral health-related distress.

Since the launch of the easy-to-remember number in July, the NC Suicide and Crisis Lifeline call center has seen an 85% increase in callers identifying substance use as their primary reason for calling.

DHHS is working to increase access to medication assisted treatment by changing regulations so mobile medication units can provide methadone and other FDA-approved medications for the treatment of opioid use disorders in North Carolina.

With the right treatment and support, recovery is possible, and individuals can go on to live full and productive lives, Kinsley said in a statement.

Medicaid expansion role

Kinsley previously made another plea for the Republican-controlled General Assembly to approve Medicaid expansion language during the 2023 session.

The N.C. House wont vote until this week on whether to accept significant Senate changes to its historic Medicaid expansion bill.

House speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, said during Thursdays floor session that the House would not vote on any bills in the Monday and Tuesday sessions, meaning the first day the bill could come before the House is March 22.

The Senate voted 44-2 on third reading Wednesday to approve the latest version of House Bill 76, which means expanding the state Medicaid program to between 450,000 and 650,000 North Carolinians is one vote away from potentially being signed into law.

HB76 has been returned to the House for a vote on whether to accept substantial changes, primarily the easing or elimination of certificate-of-need restrictions on certain health-care providers.

It is important to remember everyone can help combat the crisis by speaking with their doctors about prescribed medication and taking the medication responsibly, locking up your medication, safely disposing of your medication and supporting community-wide harm reduction efforts, Swift said.

Additionally, if you know someone that may have a substance use problem, educate yourself about addiction and provide them with support.
Just another Wednesday in paradise. So much for in like a lion, huh March?

On the surface, it would seem as if nothing connects the shooting death of a 35-year-old man early Monday with a horrid hit-and-run crash in March 2019.

In one, a fight outside a bar led to gunfire and the killing of Quante Donnell Tae Wilder of Winston-Salem. In the other, a now 69-year-old man named Robert Jordan was run over, suffered a life-changing brain injury and left for dead.

Not at all alike - save one important thing: unserved arrest warrants play a prominent role in each incident.

The suspect in Mondays killing, 19-year-old Nehemiah Chandler, had outstanding warrants from in September connected to the wounding of a man inside one of those shady-but-quasi-legal electronic gambling halls.

Kernersville police charged Chandler and Simir Miller, who was arrested soon afterward. But since Chandler lived in Winston-Salem, he apparently was allowed to wander freely despite charges demonstrating a proclivity toward gun violence.

The warrant would languish in a computer somewhere until cops bumped into him again.

That came Monday in the shooting on Burke Street.

In the hit-and-run, a man named Gregory Lucas Jr. - whod been ducking serious DWI and assault on an officer charges in Wake County - was charged almost immediately.

So far he has managed to avoid accountability because hes been allowed to walk out of jail twice on low bonds. A warrant charging him with felony hit-and-run languished from 2019 until January when Raleigh finally arrested him.

See the theme?

At any given time, tens of thousands of unserved arrest warrants are flitting through the states system awaiting service on the chance that law-enforcement runs across someone wanted in connection with a crime.

And for all but a select few, the attitude appears to be: Eh, nobody died. So what?

As illustrated by two very different incidents, the truth of the matter is that serving arrest warrants is a resource issue.

Its no secret that Winston-Salem barely has enough cops to respond to 911 calls as is. Expecting the department to actively hunt fugitives - much less do more than perfunctory investigations into all but the most violent offenses - is folly.

Still, had Chandler been picked up on the gun charges and Lucas been forced to deal with his outstanding legal issues surrounding a bad DWI, one man might still be alive and another still able to walk without assistance.

Compassionate care

RALEIGH - The state Senate, on a 36-10 vote, once more approved a bill called the N.C. Compassionate Care Act that would legalize the use of medical marijuana.

Co-sponsored by Sen. Paul Lowe, D-Forsyth, and Republican Sens. Bill Rabon (Brunswick) and Michael Lee (New Hanover), the bill would allow, in very limited circumstances, very sick people to use marijuana to ease debilitating symptoms stemming from disease - or treatment.

(Think chemotherapy.)

Thats not terribly surprising; the Senate passed a similar bill in 2022. And even lock em up prosecutors such as District Attorney Jim ONeill of Forsyth County had endorsed legalization of marijuana for compassionate care.

Prospects for passing the state House are iffy, though Speaker Tim Moore did tell The (Raleigh) News & Observer that some newly elected members have softened their opposition.

Opponents, meanwhile, keep harping on an argument which has it that legalizing pot for cancer patients will be a short off-ramp to full on legalization for recreational use.

And to that we say, Bring it on.

The benefits of more tax revenues - and attendant increases in tourism - have been proven over and over again in other states.

Virginia is about to take a giant bite out of North Carolina wallets when it goes online in a year or two. Just like it did for years when we buried our collective heads over the lottery.

As to the dangers of weed, well defer to the wisdom offered by a veteran narcotics cop who said in a long-ago casual conversation: Unless its enough to kill somebody if it fell on them, I could care less about marijuana.

Pesky vegetation

WINSTON-SALEM - Technically speaking, the closing of the 1500 block of Cloverdale Avenue today from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. is considered vegetation management.

City crews will be taking down troublesome trees, and that no doubt will affect the commuting habits of Ardmore folks, parents hustling kids to Brunson Elementary and active souls cutting through to the YMCA.

Because six hours have been blocked off, its safe to assume the trees in question are huge.

Detours obviously will be in place and unsuspecting motorists will be taken by surprise. Still, credit to city crews for prudence in avoiding bigger problems.

Youve been warned.
The N.C. Houses revival of a bill that would force sheriffs to cooperate with federal ICE office is headed to a floor vote after clearing the House Rules and Operations committee Tuesday.

Republican-sponsored House Bill 10, with Rep. Destin Hall, R-Caldwell, as primary sponsor, is titled Require Sheriffs to Cooperate with ICE.

ICE stands for the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The legislation requires all sheriffs to hold suspects in certain crimes for at least 48 hours when their immigration status is unknown or they are in the country illegally.

Legislative analysts project HB10 could be among the first  if not the first  tests of whether House Democrats are able and willing to uphold Gov. Roy Coopers veto of a divisive Republican bill. Following an expected veto  as Cooper did with similar legislation in 2019 and 2022  it would take just one of the 49 House Democrats to vote for a veto override to allow HB10 to become law.

Bill sponsors said HB10 and companion Senate Bill 50 contain language that they believe address Coopers concerns about the previous bills.

Instead of requiring a query of ICE on any infraction of anyone who is brought into a jail, it only requires an inquiry when someone is accused of the most heinous crimes, they said.

They would be held long enough for ICE to come in and do their job in a more controlled environment rather than in local communities in a much more dangerous environment, Hall said.

The second major difference reflects concerns expressed by Cooper about potential criminal penalties for sheriffs who decline to cooperate with ICE in detaining inmates.

Urban opposition

Although more than 90 sheriffs in North Carolina comply with ICE requests, several Democratic sheriffs, including Sheriff Bobby Kimbrough of Forsyth County, have limited their cooperation.

Those sheriffs also have stated their opposition to the previous ICE legislation.

The Forsyth Sheriffs Office issued a statement after Senate Bill 101 cleared the legislature on July 1, 2022, that included a quote from Kimbrough.

We will continue to do what is moral, what is legal and what is right, Kimbrough said. We have been and will continue to be a law-abiding law enforcement agency.

Other sheriffs have made similar statements.

Hall told the Judiciary 2 committee that the non-cooperating sheriffs are putting partisan politics ahead of public safety.

This bill would end that controversy because I believe they will follow the law if this (bill) is passed. But if they wont, there are a number of remedies already in law, including potential removal from office, and a judge can require a sheriff to follow the law.

Opponents say voters in those counties elected Democratic sheriffs knowing their stance on ICE cooperation, and the bill is an attempt to usurp their authority.

Opposition perspective

Critics of the ICE legislation say the measure could increase jail time for suspects who have otherwise met the conditions for release.

They also point out it would force sheriffs offices to investigate the immigration status of anyone booked into the jail.

Rep. Marcia Morey, D-Durham, told the committee she is concerned that HB10 would expand the categories of individuals subject to the 48-hour hold, including for non-serious crime, to make time to check their immigration and potential criminal status.

Hall said HB10 would not allow that.

Being held for 48 hours for non-serious crimes can change someones life for good, Morey said, citing potential loss of job as an example.

Bill prospects

Republican-sponsored Senate Bill 50 contains the same language as HB10. That bill is expected to pass the Senate given the 30-20 GOP super-majority.

Meanwhile, HB10 will serve as the litmus test for the legislation.

After being dormant since March 2021, SB101 was fast-tracked in the final week of the regular 2022 session. Sen. Joyce Krawiec, R-Forsyth, was among the cosponsors.

The controversial bill cleared the House by a 65-49 vote on June 30 and the Senate by a 25-19 vote on July 1  both along partisan lines.

Cooper vetoed the bill on July 11. There was no veto override attempt the rest of the 2022 session.

This law is only about scoring political points and using fear to divide North Carolinians, Cooper said in his 2022 veto statement. As the states former top law enforcement officer, I know that current law already allows the state to incarcerate and prosecute dangerous criminals regardless of immigration status.

This bill is unconstitutional and weakens law enforcement in North Carolina by mandating that sheriffs do the job of federal agents, using local resources that could hurt their ability to protect their counties.
A bipartisan  and controversial  medical marijuana bill is poised to clear the N.C. Senate for the second consecutive year.

Senate Bill 3, titled NC Compassionate Care Act, was passed by a 36-10 vote on second reading Tuesday after a brief debate.

Because the bill contains financial considerations, a third vote is required.

Several significant changes were made to the legislation in the Judiciary committee.

Sen. Paul Lowe, D-Forsyth, is one of three primary sponsors, along with Republican Sens. Bill Rabon of Brunswick County and Michael Lee of New Hanover County.

During the 2022 session, the Senate voted 36-7 for Senate Bill 711 on June 6  the first medical marijuana bill to ever clear a chamber.

However, as was the case with the 2022 version, its unclear whether House Republican leadership will allow SB3 to be placed in a committee, much less advance to a floor vote.

Potential opposition from House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, and House Majority Leader John Bell IV, R-Johnston, could derail SB3 in the House, said John Dinan, a Wake Forest University political science professor and national expert on state legislatures.

However, the News & Observer of Raleigh quoted Moore as saying last week that SB3 has decent prospects of passage given that new House members elected in 2022.

Last year when we didnt take it up, it was overwhelmingly opposed by most of the caucus, Moore told the Raleigh newspaper. Attitudes have changed, and I think some folks have had an opportunity, once they were back home and met with folks, to see that theres some potentially legitimate uses for this.

Dinan said that at this point, we have to rely on the comments of (Moore and Bell), who have cast significant doubt on plans to consider medical marijuana legalization.

Heartstrings

Although Rabon did not use medical marijuana as part of his treatment for cancer, he said his own experience, coupled with discussions with other cancer patients, convinced him of the need for making the option available.

Rabon has shared letters from North Carolinians whose family members used marijuana to provide relief in their dying days, or relied upon it as part of their recovery from serious illness.

It can help a number of people at the end of their life at a time that they need compassion  what time they have left should be as comfortable and as easy as they can be, Rabon said. Theres not anyone in this room who has not had someone in their family, or a close friend, that could have benefited from this legislation.

Opponents have expressed numerous concerns, including that the legislation would serve as a gateway to legalizing marijuana in North Carolina by 2024. The opponents also say the licensing fee for vendors is too low.

Rabon called SB711 the tightest, best-written bill, seeing what other states did wrong and trying to omit those pitfalls.

Bill changes

SB3 has undergone three major changes since being re-filed.

Perhaps the foremost change was exempting suppliers of medical marijuana products from criminal prosecution.

Bill sponsors said the amendment assures that suppliers would not be subject to arrest for possessing, producing, delivering or transporting cannabis, or aiding and abetting in those actions, if their conduct fits within the proposed laws parameters.

The bill would allow for up to 20 recommended applicants to fill the 10 licensee spaces, with suppliers being given priority if they commit to placing a medical cannabis center into more than one Tier 1 county.

The amendment also would encourage preventing an overconcentration of medical cannabis centers in any one area.
The latest legislative attempt at allowing civilian investigators to handle minor traffic accidents cleared its first N.C. House committee step Wednesday.

House Bill 140, titled Civilian Traffic Crash Investigators, has primary sponsors that include Reps. John Faircloth and Jon Hardister, both R-Guilford, and Rep. Donny Lambeth, R-Forsyth.

The bill was recommended by House Judiciary 2 committee after some significant changes and clarifications were made. Next step is the gatekeeper House Rules and Operations committee.

Although the legislation was requested as a local bill by the Greensboro Police Department, Faircloth said it has been amended to a public bill with statewide application. A public bill is subject to a governors veto.

The focus of HB140 is allowing municipalities to hire and utilize those investigators to address accidents involving only property damage, including authority to have a vehicle towed or removed from the accident site if it is obstructing a public street or highway.

Faircloth said that includes allowing sheriff offices to utilize the investigators as well.

Civilian investigators would not be allowed to write citations in HB140.

Faircloth said that civilian investigators would be able to call in law enforcement  either in person or by video conference  if a citation is warranted.

House Bill 303, filed during the 2021 session, allowed for citation writing. That authority appeared to be the primary reason the legislation was shelved in the Senate after passing the House in April 2021.

HB140 was amended in Judiciary 2 to require a statewide training standard for the civilian investigators, rather than the standards being set city by city, Faircloth said.

Faircloth said that ideally retired law-enforcement officers would be among those recruited to serve as civilian investigators.

Rep. Deb Butler, D-New Hanover, said that since the Wilmington Police Department began using civilian investigators in 2008, it has utilized retired law enforcement officers. Wilmingtons two investigators had averaged handling more than 1,000 accidents every year.

The use of civilian investigators has allowed police to be where they are needed, and our police chief thoroughly endorses it, Butler said.

Representatives from the N.C. Association of Chiefs of Police told the Judiciary 2 committee that its membership is in favor of HB140.

Sen. Paul Lowe, D-Forsyth, filed a similar bill during the 2022 session that would have allowed just Winston-Salem to hire those investigators. That bill was not heard in committee.

The civilian traffic investigators bill was included in the City Councils 2023 legislative priorities package, which was approved by council on Nov. 14, Winston-Salem city attorney Angela Carmon said.

Police departments or city elected officials in Asheville, Durham, Greenville, Raleigh and Wilmington also have requested the use of civilian investigators as part of addressing workforce shortages.

Main HB140 details

According to HB140, a report completed by a civilian traffic investigator shall be treated the same as if it were completed by a law enforcement officer.

However, only law enforcement would be able to investigate a crash involving alcohol, personal injury or a fatality.

Civilian traffic investigators would be issued credentials, but no badges or weapons, by the city. They would wear a uniform color substantially different in color and style from a local police officer.

The civilian traffic investigator would be required to produce those credentials when requested by a member of the public involved in or a witness to a crash.

Their vehicle may have emergency equipment and lights installed, but shall not use blue lights in any manner or form. Red and amber lights are permissible.

According to state statute 20-166.1, if a motor vehicle accident happens in a city or town, drivers are required to call the local police department.

If the accident occurs outside a city or town, drivers must call the N.C. Highway Patrol or the county sheriffs office.
Margaret Reist Local government reporter Margaret Reist is a recovering education reporter now writing about local and county government and the people who live in the city where she was born and raised. Follow Margaret Reist 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

It started with one mom picking up the phone.

It progressed to a packed mayors conference room Tuesday for an uncharacteristically exuberant news conference to announce a $400,000 federal grant that will provide half the funding for an all-inclusive playground.

It will lead to a 32,000-square-foot inclusive playground at Mahoney Park in northeast Lincoln next year  the largest inclusive enclosed play space in the state, the citys first fully inclusive playground and the product of more than a year and half of advocacy, planning and persistence.

All of this happened because one mom spoke up and one government official listened, said Cathy Martinez, president of the Autism Family Network.

Shes the one who got a phone call in the summer of 2021 from BriAnna Olson, a mom wanting more adaptive play equipment for her son, who has autism.

Martinez, no stranger to advocating for families whose children or others have special needs, called her city councilman, James Michael Bowers. He convinced a majority of City Council members to add $100,000 to the budget for an inclusive playground.

The $100,000 turned into $300,000 the city earmarked for the Lincoln Parks and Recreation Department's capital improvement program over three years and the grant  from the National Park Service, managed by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission  announced Tuesday.

Between those funds, other city dollars and donations, Parks and Recreation Director Maggie Stuckey-Ross said theres enough money to make the new park a reality, with construction slated to begin the spring of 2024.

The efforts of Martinez, Olson and other advocates, Bowers and parks and recreation officials led to an advisory committee that hammered out plans for Mahoney Park and a strategic plan to update Antelope Park into an inclusive playground and add adaptive and inclusive features at all new parks and others as theyre renovated. Ultimately there will be playgrounds with inclusive equipment within 5 miles of each home in Lincoln, Stuckey-Ross said.

This project easily comes to the top of the list of the work I'm most proud of and a legacy that our community can leave for the next generation of families in northeast Lincoln and citywide, said Bowers, a social worker.

He said the playground will give all residents access to play, where the only limitation will be their creativity, not their ability.

It will be designed to accommodate families and children of all ages, Stuckey-Ross said.

There will be 10 play zones, including swinging, music, spinning, water, rocking and climbing. There will be respite areas scattered around the park to accommodate children who get overstimulated.

There will be a year-round family restroom with an adult changing table, benches, shaded areas, a drinking fountain, picnic areas and  something important to many families who have children with autism who wander  the entire playground will be enclosed with a fence and will have a single entry point.

A playground is really a metaphor for the type of community we want Lincoln to be, Stuckey-Ross said. Playgrounds welcome the body you were born into, supports the body you are living in today and is prepared for the body you will have in the future.

Martinez said the playground is a victory for the marginalized and underserved disabled in the community.

The work of advocates  families with children and adults who have special needs  is apparent: the enclosed space, the water feature, the year-round bathroom are all things they know from experience are important.

Martinez mentioned her 20-year-old son, who loves to swing but sometimes  because of his age and size  makes people uncomfortable at playgrounds.

In an inclusive playground, where there is an expectation to see people with special needs, hell be accepted, she said. Her 7-year-old grandson with cerebral palsy, who uses a wheelchair, will have the same access to play equipment as other children.

The committee consulted many organizations that represent people with different needs to make sure everyone is represented, she said.

Lincoln has offered adaptable and accessible equipment at playgrounds since 1987 at Antelope Park. The adaptable playground was updated in 2000 with the help of Southeast High School.

But today, much of the equipment is old and outdated, and Stuckey-Ross promised that the committee would remain active and up to date on the latest play equipment available.

Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird said in a polarized world, public parks bring people together.

That may be true, but this much is certain: On Tuesday, the newest planned addition to Lincolns 137 parks and 93 playgrounds made the mayors conference room  full of parents and kids, along with the public officials at the podium  a lot more fun.

Top Journal Star photos for February 2023
Prosecutors charged a 32-year-old Lincoln man Monday with first-degree sexual assault of a child after a grade school-aged girl told her mother that he had been sexually assaulting her for more than a year, police said in court records.

Brandon Ryan allegedly sexually assaulted the girl more than 20 times over the course of more than a year, Lincoln Police investigators said in court records.

Police arrested Ryan at his north Lincoln house Saturday night after the girl's mother reported the alleged assaults to police.

At his arraignment hearing Monday, Judge Laurie Yardley set Ryan's percentage bond at $500,000. He must pay $50,000 to be released.
A 30-year-old Lincoln man has been jailed on suspicion of sexually abusing a young girl late last year.

Prosecutors on Tuesday charged Randy Abbott with first-degree sexual assault of a child, and at an initial court appearance Lancaster County Court Judge Thomas Zimmerman set his bond at $500,000.

In court records, Lincoln Police Officer Michael Barry said the investigation started Jan. 26, after a 10-year-old girl made a report about the abuse to her school counselor.

On Feb. 2, she underwent a medical exam and a forensic interview at the Child Advocacy Center, where she accused Abbott of touching her sexually.

In the affidavit for Abbott's arrest, Barry said Abbott denied touching the girl purposely in an interview at the police station Friday. They arrested him Monday.
As part of its ongoing efforts to provide students with unique learning opportunities, Abu Dhabi Universitys (ADU) has inaugurated a 3D Concrete Printing Research Lab within its campus.

The Lab, which was set up by the ADU's College of Engineering, features advanced 3D printing technologies that will contribute to the prototyping of concrete structures.

The technology enables the creation of intricate shapes and designs that would be difficult to achieve using traditional construction methods, said a statement from ADU.

3D printing technology enables creative and unique building designs. In addition, it promotes sustainable construction practices by enabling precise measurements and minimum waste of raw materials during the construction process and reducing energy consumption compared to traditional construction methods due to the decreased need for transportation of raw materials and construction time.

The Lab is the fruit of ADUs recent win in the prestigious ASPIRE grant awarded by the Advanced Technology Research Council in the UAE, it stated.

The research team led by Dr Samer Al Martini, Associate Professor of Civil Engineering at ADU and Dr. Reem Sabouni, Associate Professor, received a grant to study the application of 3D concrete technology for the UAE construction industry to help in promote sustainability in the UAEs construction sectors.

The Lab provides faculty and students with state-of-the-art 3D printing equipment, including the 3D Concrete Gantry Lab printer. The printer, first of its type in a university lab in the UAE, can produce various lab scale concrete structural elements (e.g., columns, beams, walls) in different shapes and sizes.

Through similar innovative learning opportunities, ADU aims to foster innovation and creativity in the fields of 3D concrete printing and sustainability among its students.

The Lab will also contribute to ADUs environmental sustainability efforts by reducing waste and material usage, promoting energy efficiency, and encouraging innovative designs among faculty and students. It will also help provide more inclusive environment for females to participate in a male-dominated industry as 3D Concrete printing is a less labour-intensive construction technique relying more on technology.

ADU Chancellor Professor Ghassan Aouad said: "The 3D Concrete Printing Lab represents a significant step forward in the field of construction technology. With this facility, we seek to provide our students and faculty with the tools and resources to explore new ideas and push the boundaries of what is possible in this field."

"At ADU, we maximise our innovation efforts to provide students, faculty and the wider UAE community with sustainable and inclusive solutions to industry-focused challenges. Additionally, we aim to provide a well-rounded educational experience and the latest innovative technologies to develop our students futuristic skillset and prepare a generation of researchers and innovators," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
The Lincoln City Council late Monday unanimously denied an accommodation under the federal fair housing act to Michael House, a sober living home near 27th and Washington streets that neighbors and some nonprofit leaders oppose.

The decision followed hours of testimony and questions from council members about the support and therapeutic services the home provides, as well as testimony from neighbors who outlined what they perceived as a lack of support and supervision, as well as illicit activity at the house.

In the end, council members said they werent convinced of the therapeutic value of allowing up to 12 people to live together in the home.

I understand that there is a therapeutic value of communal sober living for some individuals, said Councilwoman Sandra Washington. But I dont feel like youve told us, in your experience, why youve found 12 people being the number necessary for therapeutic value.

Washington  after this issue has arisen repeatedly  has asked city officials to research how to create an ordinance governing collaborative living homes. She said she sees the need for such housing but is grappling with the situation at hand, including that the house operated outside the law for months.

The home is owned by MAK Development of Omaha, which operates Michael Houses in Lincoln and Omaha that provide a sober living environment for people recovering from alcohol and drug problems.

City zoning ordinances prohibit more than three unrelated people from living together in one residence, and the Michael House sought an exception to that rule  or an accommodation under the federal Fair Housing Act, which says cities cannot discriminate against people with disabilities, which courts have ruled includes those in recovery.

The request before the council Monday was the latest of several, which, until Monday, the council had granted. Michael House runs two other homes in Lincoln, both of which received the accommodation, as well as an Oxford Home, an umbrella organization for sober living homes across the country.

The decision could set the city up for a lawsuit, which has happened in other communities when local governments have denied the fair housing accommodations.

The Lincoln-Lancaster County Planning Commission recommended denial of the accommodation for the 27th and Washington streets home, though it had recommended approval for the other homes.

An assistant city attorney told the council Monday that although the city initially recommended approval of the accommodation, theres been enough evidence presented that the city could likely defend either approval or denial of the accommodation.

Several of the requests have been opposed by neighbors  as well as some nonprofit groups that offer transitional living homes for people recently released from prison, who say some for-profit groups are stacking too many residents in homes to make money and not providing the support and services they need.

In the 27th and Washington streets house, a central issue, at least for some council members, is that the states parole administration removed all the residents from the home last week, following a parole board hearing where a neighbor testified about problems hed witnessed.

Both state parole and probation pay, through a voucher system, for reentry housing for people recently released from prison. Michael House has received some voucher payments, but some of the parolees living there were self-pay, manager Julie Knight told the council.

Michael Corrado, who owns MAK Development, which runs Michael Houses in Lincoln and Omaha, said he didnt know the parole board would be discussing the house at 27th and Washington and wasnt given an opportunity to address the board. Parole administration has not returned his calls to tell him why residents were removed, he said.

Steve Henrichsen, with the planning department, told council members they had to consider three factors in deciding whether to grant an accommodation from city zoning laws: whether the accommodation is therapeutically or financially necessary, whether it affords an equal opportunity to enjoy living in a home or neighborhood, and whether it causes an undue administrative or financial burden on the city.

Ryan Watson, the attorney representing Corrado, told the council Monday that the debate had turned into a forum or referendum on how one operates a sober living house, but thats outside the purview of the council.

Unfortunately, its tipped the balance from the focus here, which ultimately is, can 12 unrelated people live in this house, and I think they can, he said.

Ultimately, what Carrado is doing is a private venture to help care for underserved people in the community. Although he gets some state funding, he's trying to operate a business that can support itself.

In the discussion about how much money Coraddo makes, Watson said, no one asked about the costs to insure such places or pay staff or handle other expenses, he said, nor has anyone acknowledged the risk Carrado is undertaking.

There arent insurance policies that cover this kind of thing, he said.

Some of the concern by opponents is that the house has just four legal bedrooms and two bathrooms, which they said isnt a safe place for 12 adult men to live together.

But Watson said other city codes cover safety issues and have been met. Despite testimony of neighbors, the activity at the house isnt out of line and managers handled any problems with residents, he said.

Its not that this is some kind of wild, wild West going on, he said. Theres been five calls to Lincoln police. Wheres the undue administrative burden from us?

Councilman James Michael Bowers said he has been supportive of such housing in the past, and his concern was not with neighbor complaints but with the fact that all the residents were removed from the house, which put them at more risk.

He also questioned why Carrado, knowing the issue had arisen with two other of his homes, didn't tell city officials he was opening the home at 27th and Washington, and instead waited until a complaint had been filed to apply for the accommodation.

Top Journal Star photos for February 2023
NEW YORK  Republican presidential contenders typically fight for prime speaking slots at the Conservative Political Action Conference. But as conservative activists gather in suburban Washington this week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will be courting donors more than a thousand miles away in Texas and California.

The apparent CPAC snub is nothing new for DeSantis, who has emerged in the early phase of the 2024 presidential election as a leading contender for the GOP nomination even as he ignores many conventions of modern politics.

DeSantis is a frequent voice in conservative cultural fights on cable television, but he often avoids gatherings of fellow Republican governors and party leaders, who are quick to complain in private about his go-it-alone approach. He is the only top-tier presidential prospect yet to court voters in Iowa, New Hampshire or South Carolina, the states hosting the GOP's opening presidential primary contests. And he is often at odds with the press, refusing even to notify local media of last week's rare three-state tour with law enforcement.

Indeed, as DeSantis moves toward a White House run, it is becoming increasingly clear that the 44-year-old Republican governor will manage his presidential aspirations in his own way, on his own timeline, with or without allies in national GOP leadership or relationships with the press.

DeSantis has, in his style and the actions hes taken as governor, shown a willingness to fight the traditional powers that be, the establishment, said David McIntosh, president of the Club for Growth, an influential conservative group based in Washington. McIntosh described DeSantis style as refreshing" and suggested the GOP is ready to move on from former President Donald Trump.

For now, DeSantis is perhaps the most potent threat to Trump's effort to win the GOP nomination for the third time. The Club for Growth will host DeSantis among a half-dozen presidential prospects at a closed-door retreat in Florida next weekend with top donors. Trump is not invited.

Meanwhile, DeSantis has quietly begun to expand his political coalition on his terms just as he releases a book, The Courage to be Free, which comes out Tuesday.

He spent the weekend huddled behind closed doors at a south Florida luxury hotel for a Freedom Blueprint retreat with more than 100 donors, elected officials and conservative influencers. The attendees included former Trump chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton and Texas-based donor Roy Bailey, a former member of Trump's national finance committee.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt and Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee were also in attendance, along with Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, Utah Sen. Mike Lee, Texas Rep. Chip Roy and Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie.

In the coming weeks, DeSantis will use the release of his book to introduce himself to voters beyond Florida, having established his political dominance there last fall by winning reelection by more than 19 percentage points.

He is expected to make his first appearances in key states on the primary calendar such as Iowa and New Hampshire in the coming weeks in addition to general election battlegrounds like Georgia and Pennsylvania. Last week, he made surprise stops in New York City, Philadelphia and Chicago to court law enforcement leaders, although the events were private and he did not notify local media.

The Florida governor is already scheduled to headline two Republican fundraisers in Texas on Saturday. The next day hell speak at a $500-a-head reception for the GOP of Orange County, California. Hell serve as the keynote speaker for the Alabama GOP the following week.

While he has begun to expand his profile, DeSantis has done far less than most of the early 2024 class to connect with primary voters and would-be allies in key states.

He has long avoided gatherings of Republican governors or top GOP officials, who privately condemn his approach as arrogant. He's never set foot in Iowa.

Former New Hampshire GOP chair Jennifer Horn noted that Republican primary voters often embrace anti-establishment candidates who are willing to create their own lane or take their own path.

But when youre running for president, and in this environment, I think he has to be careful not to be a victim of his own arrogance, she said. He has this belief that he knows better than everyone about everything, and thats never a good thing.

Meanwhile, DeSantis' team feels no urgency to enter the 2024 contest, which already features three Republican candidates. Trump announced three months ago.

He's also shown no interest in responding to Trump's increasingly personal attacks, which include recent social media posts suggesting that DeSantis behaved inappropriately with underage girls when he briefly taught high school in his early 20s.

Trump refers to the Florida governor as Ron DeSanctimonious" and Meatball Ron.

Trump's increasing focus on DeSantis may unintentionally help the Florida governor by defining him as the strongest Republican Trump alternative, according to Sam Nunberg, a former Trump aide turned critic.

Look, Donald is worried, and if I was working for him, Id say he needs to update the playbook, Nunberg said.

Here are 20 Republicans considering 2024 presidential runs In: Donald Trump In: Nikki Haley Ron DeSantis Mike Pence Tim Scott Ted Cruz Glenn Youngkin Chris Sununu Kristi Noem Greg Abbott Out: Larry Hogan Asa Hutchinson Chris Christie Mike Pompeo Liz Cheney Will Hurd Keep an eye on: Brian Kemp Keep an eye on: Rick Scott Keep an eye on: Josh Hawley Keep an eye on: John Bolton
WASHINGTON  A special House committee dedicated to countering China began its work Tuesday with a prime-time hearing in which the panel's chairman called on lawmakers to act with urgency and framed the competition between the U.S. and China as an existential struggle over what life will look like in the 21st century.

While some critics have expressed concern the hearings could escalate U.S.-Chinese tensions, lawmakers sought to demonstrate unity and the panel's top Democrat made clear that he doesn't want a clash of civilizations but a durable peace.

Tensions between the U.S. and China have been rising for years, with both countries enacting retaliatory tariffs on an array of imports during President Donald Trumps time in office. Chinas opaque response to the COVID-19 pandemic, its aggression toward Taiwan and the recent flight of a possible spy balloon over the U.S. have fueled lawmakers desire to do more to counter the Chinese government. The new Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party is expected to be at the center of many of their efforts over the next two years.

The committee's chairman, Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., opened the hearing with a call for action. Addressing the difficulty of finding common ground on China-focused legislation, he said the Chinese government has found friends on Wall Street and in lobbyists on Washington's K Street who are ready to oppose the committee's efforts.

Time is not on our side. Just because this Congress is divided, we cannot afford to waste the next two years lingering in legislative limbo or pandering for the press, Gallagher said. We must act with a sense of urgency.

Gallagher is looking for the committee to shepherd several bills over the finish line during the next two years and issue a set of recommendations on long-term policies. So far, Gallagher appears to have Democratic buy-in and support. The vote to create the committee was bipartisan, 365-65.

Opponents on the Democratic side largely voiced the concern that the committee could stir an even greater rise in anti-Asian hate crimes. Gallagher said he is committed to ensuring the focus is on the Chinese Communist Party, not on the people of China.

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., the ranking Democrat on the committee, said both Republicans and Democrats have underestimated the Chinese Communist Party. He said its goal is to pursue economic and trade policies that undermine the U.S. economy.

We do not want a war with the (People's Republic of China), not a cold war, not a hot war, Krishnamoorthi said. We don't want a clash of civilizations. But we seek a durable peace and that is why we have to deter aggression.

The hearing was interrupted by two protesters, one saying, this committee is about saber rattling, its not about peace. Both were ushered out by police.

The witnesses for Tuesday's hearing included two former advisers to Trump: Matthew Pottinger, the deputy national security adviser who resigned immediately after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol; and H.R. McMaster, who was national security adviser from February 2017 to April 2018.

McMaster and Pottinger delivered sweeping assessments of what they said was the challenge the United States was facing from China. That ranged from combatting TikToks influence on Americans online discourse and reducing Chinas dominance over supply chains to hardening Taiwan to make it impossible for Chinas military to take.

Pottinger said the main emphasis of his testimony was to open people's eyes to how the U.S. has become too complacent. Before we can seize the initiative we have to react to the fact that our national interest has been deeply undermined over the course of the last quarter century, he said.

Tong Yi, a Chinese human rights advocate, amplified human rights concerns at the hearing. She was arrested in the 1990s after serving as an interpreter to a leading dissident who had urged the U.S. to condition trade on China's human rights performance. She spent nine months in detention before being handed a two-and-half year sentence for disturbing social order" and sent to a labor camp, where she said authorities organized other inmates to beat her up.

In the U.S., we need to face the fact that we have helped feed the baby dragon of the CCP until it has grown into what it now is, she said.

Scott Paul, president of an alliance formed by some manufacturing companies and the United Steelworkers labor union, testified that "51 years of wishful thinking by American leaders" has failed to alter the dynamic that the CCP represents a clear and present danger to the American worker, our innovation base, and our national security.

The hearings come at a time of heightened rivalry and tensions between China and the United States. Both sides  the U.S. and its allies, and China  are consolidating military positions in the Indo-Pacific in case of any confrontation over self-ruled Taiwan, which China claims as its territory.

Last summer, Chinese warships and warplanes fired missiles over Taiwan in what were days of intense Chinese military exercises following then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to the U.S. ally. President Xi Jinpings government at the time rejected President Joe Bidens declarations that his administration had no control over the actions of U.S. lawmakers.

And three weeks ago, the Biden administration used a Sidewinder missile fired by an F-22 to end the journey of what the U.S. says was a giant Chinese surveillance balloon traveling across U.S. territory.

Both incidents, especially the balloon, captured American public and political attention, and put debate over how to handle China in the center of U.S. political debate.
A former Fremont Police Department sergeant left the department Dec. 1, 2020, after being accused of sexually assaulting a woman in her home while he was on duty.

According to a Decertification Attestation Letter from the Nebraska Commission on Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice dated Jan. 8, 2021, former Sgt. Bradley Hansen lost his law enforcement certification effective May 14, 2021, after surrendering it earlier to state officials.

On Feb. 20, the Fremont Tribune received a copy of the decertification letter that detailed allegations against Hansen and how he had lost his law enforcement license in Nebraska.

The Tribune has verified that the Nebraska Commission on Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice letter is authentic.

In the summary of the officers conduct on the form, state officials wrote why Hansen was losing his law enforcement certification.

Sgt. Hansen was accused of sexually assaulting a woman at her residence while on duty, state officials wrote.

The form also said Hansen was allowed to retire in lieu of termination from the Fremont Police Department.

A source familiar with the investigation  who was granted anonymity by the Fremont Tribune  into the allegations against Hansen confirmed there was a lengthy investigation.

The Tribune was unable to locate any records of criminal charges or allegations filed against Hansen in Dodge County Court records.

According to other documents obtained from the Nebraska State Police Standards Advisory Council, the first complaint filed against Hansen was dated Jan. 29, 2019.

The same advisory council documents say Hansen went on an extended leave of absence from the Fremont Police Department on June 4, 2020, and that he had his law enforcement certification suspended for not meeting his annual continuing education requirements of 22 hours of training.

State officials listed Hansens last day of work for the Fremont Police Department as Nov. 30, 2020. Fremont officials said Hansen retired from the police department effective Dec. 1, 2020.

The Tribune made repeated requests to city officials for information about whether Hansen was paid during his leave of absence and if he was working in any capacity from the date of the first allegation through his Dec. 1, 2020, retirement. No information was provided about the payroll queries.

According to minutes from the March 10 Police Standards Advisory Council meeting, Hansen opted to not contest the allegations made by state officials against him and to voluntarily surrender his law enforcement certification as of Jan. 27, 2021.

(Hansen) acknowledges the complaint made against him arose out of the alleged facts and circumstances that occurred while he was a certified Nebraska law enforcement officer. He is aware of his rights under the statutes and our rules and regulations of the commission; to resist the complaint, to be represented by counsel, to have full administrative evidentiary hearing before this body if the complaint is pursued by the commission and appeal any adverse action of the council and commission to the Nebraska courts, PSAC officials wrote.

Rather than to resist, contest or dispute the complaint, (Hansen) wishes to voluntarily surrender his law enforcement officer certificates, the meeting minutes state. And by signing this document, Exhibit #1, (Hansen) freely and voluntarily consents to the revocation of both his Nebraska Law Enforcement Officer Certificate and his Nebraska Supervisor Certificate by this body and the Nebraska Commission on Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice.

On Feb. 21, Fremont Police Chief Jeff Elliott confirmed that Hansen left the employment of the department in late 2020. Elliott verified that the decertification form was real and that he had signed it on the date listed.

I dont have any answers for you, Elliott said during a brief telephone interview on Feb. 21. Im not going to comment until Ive talked to legal and HR. I am waiting on that.

In a followup email on Feb. 22, Elliott wrote to the Tribune, Sgt. Hansen announced his retirement in December of 2020, and the change in status report was provided to the Crime Commission.

Additional efforts to get information on Hansens alleged crime and his departure from the Fremont Police Department have been thwarted by city officials.

A public records request made by the Fremont Tribune to the City of Fremont seeking a wide range of documents the newspaper believes are public records in relation to Hansen was rejected on Feb. 21.

The City of Fremont is unable to produce documents responsive to this request as pursuant to Neb. Rev. Stat.84-712.05(8) those documents are an exception to the Nebraska public records statute, wrote Fremont legal counsel Patrick J. Sullivan.

Attempts to locate Hansen for comment in this article were unsuccessful.

Little information into probe of allegations

Suzanne Gage, director of communications for Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers, said the office does not have an open investigation against Hansen and noted that any investigation in the past would have been conducted by the former attorney general who is no longer in office.

No reason was given why the Attorney Generals Office would not retain documents relating to criminal cases prosecuted by the office. The Tribune is continuing its efforts to obtain those public records.

The Tribune has not been able to verify whether Hansen is still under investigation by any law enforcement agency, state or federal, or if he has been exonerated of the allegations.

Multiple telephone calls to the Nebraska State Patrol Investigations Division were not returned by deadline Feb. 28. A spokesperson for the Nebraska State Patrol referred all inquiries into the allegations against Hansen to the state Attorney General's Office.

A Fremont Police Department Facebook post dated Jan. 16, 2015, shows Elliott honoring Hansen for 20 years on duty at the police department. The post notes that Hansen began work in December 1994 as a patrol officer and was promoted to a police sergeant in 1998. He was described as a U.S. Air Force veteran of Operation Desert Storm.

State official discusses decertification

The Tribune was able to learn many details of Hansens loss of law enforcement certification from Brenda Urbanek, director of the Nebraska Law Enforcement Training Center in Grand Island, who confirmed Hansen had officially lost his certification to be a law enforcement officer and supervisor in May 2021.

Urbanek said that while Hansens law enforcement certification revocation was dated May 2021, the process to get to that point can takes many months and that Hansen had surrendered his certification in early 2021.

When criminal charges were filed against him, I filed what is known as an informal complaint against his law enforcement certification. That goes to Lincoln, where (officials) contact the officer who has had the complaint filed against them, and gives the officer the opportunity to voluntarily surrender their certificate without having to go through an administrative license revocation process. That was what Mr. Hansen chose to do, Urbanek explained.

Urbanek said she did not have official details of the allegations against Hansen, but she said the investigation was conducted by the Nebraska Attorney General's Office. The agency also filed criminal charges against Hansen, she added.

I do believe it was a sexual crime, Urbanek said of the allegations. That was the Attorney Generals Office of Nebraska. Since he has surrendered his law enforcement certification, I havent really followed the criminal case.

On Feb. 28, Urbanek said that because of privacy laws and restrictions, she was not able to release more details on the charges, whether Hansen made a plea deal or had been cleared.

Urbanek said that when a complaint is filed against a police officer, sheriffs deputy or other law enforcement officer, the person has three options to proceed: voluntary surrendering of the certification; contesting and rebutting the allegations or requesting the claim be dismissed.

She said the certification removal process occurs only when there are serious criminal charges or certain misdemeanor convictions.

In Mr. Hansens case, he was criminally charged. At that time, he can voluntarily surrender his certification. Or, he could provide mitigating evidence that this is a bogus complaint and be dismissed, or he can request the complaint be dismissed, Urbanek said. Mr. Hansen had his law enforcement certification formally revoked on May 14, 2021.

Urbanek said Hansen can no longer work or be employed as a law enforcement officer in the state of Nebraska and added that his name has been added to a national database of decertified law enforcement officers in the event he tries to find employment as a peace officer in another state.

According to Dodge County real estate transactions provided to the Tribune, Hansen sold his residence in Fremont on Aug. 27, 2022.

Hansen had also been accused in the criminal activities of former Dodge County Attorney Oliver Glass, who was sentenced to nine months in prison on Feb. 17.

According to prior reporting in the Omaha World-Herald, Hansen was alleged to have helped Glass stalk a man who was dating Glass ex-wife by reportedly instructing other Fremont Police officers to follow the man at Glass request.

Three Fremont officers have lost certifications since 2018

The incident was the third time since 2018 that a Fremont Police Department officer has had their law enforcement certification revoked. Since 1995, 146 law enforcement officers across the state of Nebraska have lost their law enforcement certification.

Former Fremont police Officer Austin R. Williams had his law enforcement certification revoked on June 17, 2022, and worked his last day for the Fremont Police Department on Feb. 20, 2019.

According to a Fremont Tribune article from January 2021, Williams was sentenced to 30 months in prison after being found guilty in September 2020 of sexually abusing a minor.

The third Fremont officer to have his law enforcement certification revoked was Nicholas J. Carlson, who lost his certificate on Jan. 19, 2018. His last day of work for the city was Dec. 9, 2016.

According to an article published by the Associated Press, Carlson, 26 at the time, was charged in Dodge County Court with three counts of suspicion of misdemeanor public indecency and single counts of suspicion of disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace.

The Nebraska Police Standards Advisory Council accepted the voluntary surrender of Carlsons certificate.

Most dangerous cities in Nebraska Dangerous Cities in Nebraska 6. South Sioux City 5. Scottsbluff 4. North Platte 3. Lincoln 2. Grand Island 1. Omaha A note about the numbers
Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers said he felt confident in the arguments made Tuesday before the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of several states challenging a plan to wipe out billions of dollars of student loan debt for borrowers across the country.

Six states, led by Nebraska, sued the Biden administration after the program was announced last year, alleging the education secretary had exceeded the authority granted to him under the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act.

During oral arguments that lasted more than two hours Tuesday, Nebraska Solicitor General Jim Campbell argued the program was unconstitutional because the executive branch had assumed a power not explicitly granted to it by Congress.

Campbell, who led arguments in the case at the district and appeals court levels last year under then-Attorney General Doug Peterson, also asserted the states had met the legal threshold to sue by demonstrating potential damages they would suffer if the court upholds the administrations plan.

Speaking to reporters via Zoom on Tuesday afternoon, Hilgers said the states opposition had nothing to do with whether or not discharge is a good idea, but focused on whether Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona had authority to enact the plan.

Our argument before the Supreme Court was that there was no statutory authorization and that Congress did not permit the secretary (to do) this really massive action without a vote of Congress, Hilgers said.

The administration said the COVID-19 pandemic created an emergency situation that allowed the education secretary to discharge student loans or offer other forgiveness to borrowers under HEROES, which was passed by Congress in 2003.

Hilgers said the Republican-led states that challenged the federal government felt that reading was too broad: It doesnt reference discharge, it doesnt mention cancellation.

Members of Congress who were serving in Washington, D.C., when the HEROES Act was passed said  according to Hilgers  discharge or forgiveness of student loans was not intended, and recent attempts to pass such a measure were unsuccessful.

If allowed to stand, Nebraska and the other states said they would face negative financial impacts. The Nebraska Investment Council, for one, has some investments in student loan-backed assets, which receive income from student loan payments.

That wasnt the focus of oral arguments, however; Campbell asserted the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority, a public corporation that manages student loans and other programs in Missouri, would have its budget slashed by up to 40% if student loans were discharged under the Biden plan.

While the states focused on the impacts to their budgets Tuesday, thousands of Nebraskans and millions of Americans are waiting to learn what will come of the program.

In January, the White House said 154,000 of the 232,100 borrowers in Nebraska who were deemed eligible to receive up to $20,000 in loan forgiveness had been accepted into the program.

Of that amount, 97,000 borrowers in Nebraska were notified that their applications had been sent to loan servicing companies to be discharged before the court-ordered pause, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

Nationwide, nearly 16.5 million of the 26.2 million borrowers who sought debt relief also had their information forwarded to a loan servicer, education department data showed.

Hilgers, asked about what he would say to those who were anticipating receiving forgiveness or having their debts wiped clean, said the states feel the education department was not given permission to use taxpayer money to discharge student loans.

In a statement Tuesday afternoon, Cardona said the Biden-Harris Administration mounted a powerful defense of the program, which it said would provide debt relief to 40 million Americans, most working- and middle-class.

The Department of Justice argued against the lawsuits aimed at denying relief to borrowers, made clear that challengers to the program lack standing to even bring their cases to court, and explained the Department of Educations decades-old authority used by multiple administrations to protect borrowers from the effects of national emergencies, Cardona said in the news release.

The Supreme Court also heard arguments on behalf of two individual borrowers who sued to stop the program last year.

Hilgers hesitated to make a decision about which way the court  which currently has a 6-3 conservative majority  would rule, however, saying he has listened to enough oral arguments to know not to guess the ultimate outcome: Im not in the prediction game.

I will say, though, going into the argument we were very well prepared, he said, adding nothing came up during arguments that the states hadnt considered or anticipated, or that he believed undermined their argument.

Justices are expected to rule on the case sometime before the end of the current term, potentially in late June or early July.

Top Journal Star photos for February 2023
RACINE  An inmate at the Racine County Jail has been accused of throwing a cup of urine at a corrections officer.

Mohammad T. Alnabulsi, 38, of Middletown, Connecticut, was charged with a felony count of assault by prisoners.

According to a criminal complaint, on Sunday, corrections officers were distributing medication at the Racine County Jail when Alnabulsi allegedly threw a cup of fluid at an officer, striking him in the face.

Alnabulsi then allegedly yelled "that was my ----, good luck!"

The officer reported that he could smell the odor of urine. He used an eye wash and was medically cleared at the hospital.

Alnabulsi was given a $500 cash bond in Racine County Circuit Court on Monday. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for March 8 at the Racine County Law Enforcement Center, online court records show.

Mugshots: Racine County criminal complaints, Feb. 27, 2023 Today's mugshots: Feb. 27 These are images of people charged with a crime in Racine County. Booking photos are provided by Racine County law enforcement officials. A defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty and convicted. Adric S. Centell-Dunk Adric S. Centell-Dunk, 2300 block West Lawn Avenue, Racine, possession of drug paraphernalia, misdemeanor bail jumping. Tommy E. Dennison Tommy E. Dennison, 4300 block South Loomis Road, Waterford, felony personal ID theft (financial gain). Charissa L. Earl Charissa L. Earl, 3200 block of Indiana Street, Racine, carrying a concealed weapon. Maurice D. Hatchett Maurice D. Hatchett, 3300 block of 17th Street, Racine, possession of a firearm by a felon, carrying a concealed weapon, obstructing an officer, possession of THC, felony bail jumping. Jacob E. Heeter Jacob E. Heeter, 1700 block of Howe Street, Racine, obstructing an officer. Dawann L. Johnson Dawann (aka X Birdman) L. Johnson, 1500 block of Dr. Martin Luther King Drive, Racine, operating a motor vehicle while under the influence (5th or 6th offense, general alcohol concentration), operate motor vehicle while revoked, felony bail jumping. Camarion D. King Camarion D. King, 2800 block of Wright Avenue, Racine, possession of drug paraphernalia, misdemeanor bail jumping. Dexter D. Love Dexter D. Love, 1900 block of Taylor Avenue, Racine, criminal trespass, obstructing an officer. David C. Pierce Jr. David C. Pierce Jr., 5400 block of Byrd Avenue, Racine, misdemeanor bail jumping. Orlando C. Robinson Orlando C. Robinson, 2000 block of Gillen Street, Racine, resisting an officer, misdemeanor bail jumping. Dennis C. Ross Dennis C. Ross, Old Mill Creek, Illinois, possession of cocaine, possession of drug paraphernalia. David E. Schrank David E. Schrank, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, operating a motor vehicle while under the influence (3rd offense, general alcohol concentration enhancer), resisting an officer. Jeffery D. Sheppard Jeffery D. Sheppard, 300 block of Main Street, Racine, substantial battery (domestic abuse assessments), disorderly conduct (domestic abuse assessments). Arvontre D. Taylor Arvontre D. Taylor, 2000 block of Grange Avenue, Racine, carrying a concealed weapon, possession of THC. Luis M. Bardales Luis M. Bardales, 100 block of Ohio Street, Racine, manufacture/deliver THC, manufacture/deliver schedule IV drugs. Devontae O. Bracken Devontae O. Bracken, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, possession of a firearm by a felon, strangulation and suffocation (domestic abuse assessments), operating a motor vehicle without owner's consent (domestic abuse assessments), negligent handling of a weapon (domestic abuse assessments), misdemeanor battery (domestic abuse assessments), disorderly conduct (domestic abuse assessments). Jasmine D. Keys Jasmine D. Keys, Beach Park, Illinois, felony retail theft (intentionally take between $500-$5,000). Alexie Reyes Alexie Reyes, West Allis, Wisconsin, battery by prisoners, aggravated battery. Mohammad T. Alnabulsi Mohammad T. Alnabulsi, Middletown, Connecticut, assault by prisoners. Davarico A. Bass Davarico A. Bass, 5600 block of 32nd Avenue, Kenosha, obstructing an officer. Shaquille B. Buckley Shaquille B. Buckley, 2100 block of Howe Street, Racine, attempting to flee or elude an officer, possession with intent to deliver/distribute/manufacture THC (less than or equal to 200 grams), possession with intent to deliver fentanyl (less than or equal to 10 grams), maintaining a drug trafficking place, obstructing an officer, felony bail jumping. Lejon J. Cadd Lejon J. Cadd, 1800 block of Franklin Street, Racine, operating a motor vehicle while under the influence (3rd offense, general alcohol concentration enhancer), possession of THC, possession of drug paraphernalia, operate motor vehicle while revoked, failure to install ignition interlock device.
STURTEVANT  An inmate at Racine Correctional Institution suffered multiple injuries after allegedly getting into a fight with his cellmate.

Alexie Reyes, 34, of West Allis was charged with felony counts of battery by prisoners and aggravated battery.

According to a criminal complaint, on April 2, a deputy was sent to the Racine Correctional Institution at 2019 Wisconsin St. after a report of a fight between inmates.

Reyes reportedly got into a fight with another inmate in their cell.

The inmate reportedly suffered significant bruising on the left side of his face and neck, as well as a brain bleed.

The injuries reportedly were compounded because the inmate is taking blood thinners and receiving chemotherapy treatment.

The deputy spoke to Reyes, who reportedly said the inmate had an awful attitude and was always grumpy.

Reyes allegedly claimed the inmate was being disrespectful and called him racial slurs.

According to the complaint, Reyes admitted that he finally lost his cool and punched the inmate several times  including after the inmate had fallen to the ground and did not fight back.

The deputy also spoke to the inmate at the hospital.

The inmate reportedly said that Reyes called him into their cell and once the correctional staff left, Reyes began to attack him.

The complaint said the inmate denied using racial slurs and said that it would be foolish to antagonize Reyes because he is bigger, stronger and younger.

Reyes was given a $100 cash bond in Racine County Circuit Court on Monday. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for March 15 at the Racine County Law Enforcement Center, online court records show.

Mugshots: Racine County criminal complaints, Feb. 27, 2023 Today's mugshots: Feb. 27 These are images of people charged with a crime in Racine County. Booking photos are provided by Racine County law enforcement officials. A defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty and convicted. Adric S. Centell-Dunk Adric S. Centell-Dunk, 2300 block West Lawn Avenue, Racine, possession of drug paraphernalia, misdemeanor bail jumping. Tommy E. Dennison Tommy E. Dennison, 4300 block South Loomis Road, Waterford, felony personal ID theft (financial gain). Charissa L. Earl Charissa L. Earl, 3200 block of Indiana Street, Racine, carrying a concealed weapon. Maurice D. Hatchett Maurice D. Hatchett, 3300 block of 17th Street, Racine, possession of a firearm by a felon, carrying a concealed weapon, obstructing an officer, possession of THC, felony bail jumping. Jacob E. Heeter Jacob E. Heeter, 1700 block of Howe Street, Racine, obstructing an officer. Dawann L. Johnson Dawann (aka X Birdman) L. Johnson, 1500 block of Dr. Martin Luther King Drive, Racine, operating a motor vehicle while under the influence (5th or 6th offense, general alcohol concentration), operate motor vehicle while revoked, felony bail jumping. Camarion D. King Camarion D. King, 2800 block of Wright Avenue, Racine, possession of drug paraphernalia, misdemeanor bail jumping. Dexter D. Love Dexter D. Love, 1900 block of Taylor Avenue, Racine, criminal trespass, obstructing an officer. David C. Pierce Jr. David C. Pierce Jr., 5400 block of Byrd Avenue, Racine, misdemeanor bail jumping. Orlando C. Robinson Orlando C. Robinson, 2000 block of Gillen Street, Racine, resisting an officer, misdemeanor bail jumping. Dennis C. Ross Dennis C. Ross, Old Mill Creek, Illinois, possession of cocaine, possession of drug paraphernalia. David E. Schrank David E. Schrank, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, operating a motor vehicle while under the influence (3rd offense, general alcohol concentration enhancer), resisting an officer. Jeffery D. Sheppard Jeffery D. Sheppard, 300 block of Main Street, Racine, substantial battery (domestic abuse assessments), disorderly conduct (domestic abuse assessments). Arvontre D. Taylor Arvontre D. Taylor, 2000 block of Grange Avenue, Racine, carrying a concealed weapon, possession of THC. Luis M. Bardales Luis M. Bardales, 100 block of Ohio Street, Racine, manufacture/deliver THC, manufacture/deliver schedule IV drugs. Devontae O. Bracken Devontae O. Bracken, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, possession of a firearm by a felon, strangulation and suffocation (domestic abuse assessments), operating a motor vehicle without owner's consent (domestic abuse assessments), negligent handling of a weapon (domestic abuse assessments), misdemeanor battery (domestic abuse assessments), disorderly conduct (domestic abuse assessments). Jasmine D. Keys Jasmine D. Keys, Beach Park, Illinois, felony retail theft (intentionally take between $500-$5,000). Alexie Reyes Alexie Reyes, West Allis, Wisconsin, battery by prisoners, aggravated battery. Mohammad T. Alnabulsi Mohammad T. Alnabulsi, Middletown, Connecticut, assault by prisoners. Davarico A. Bass Davarico A. Bass, 5600 block of 32nd Avenue, Kenosha, obstructing an officer. Shaquille B. Buckley Shaquille B. Buckley, 2100 block of Howe Street, Racine, attempting to flee or elude an officer, possession with intent to deliver/distribute/manufacture THC (less than or equal to 200 grams), possession with intent to deliver fentanyl (less than or equal to 10 grams), maintaining a drug trafficking place, obstructing an officer, felony bail jumping. Lejon J. Cadd Lejon J. Cadd, 1800 block of Franklin Street, Racine, operating a motor vehicle while under the influence (3rd offense, general alcohol concentration enhancer), possession of THC, possession of drug paraphernalia, operate motor vehicle while revoked, failure to install ignition interlock device.
1. Yes. Having a community member interview panel is an excellent opportunity for input.

2. Yes. Its good that the city will allow residents to meet the finalist at a reception.

3. No. The city should have conducted a public survey early in the process, as KISD is doing.

4. No. Residents should be able to meet candidates before a lone finalist is chosen.

5. Unsure. Its hard to know how to gauge the proper level of public involvement.

Vote

View Results
Kuwait Telecommunications Company (stc) and Samsung Gulf Electronics, a world-class digital leader, have announced a new partnership to introduce more smart solutions in the country.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) setting up the collaboration was signed at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona by Doohee Lee, President of Samsung Gulf Electronics, and engineer Maziad Alharbi, Chief Executive Officer of stc Kuwait.

As per the agreement, stc will provide all Samsung consumer and business solutions to stc customers. The two companies will also work jointly to enhance all stc channels through extensive engagement and training programmes. The collaborative efforts extend to improving the visibility of Samsung through various stc channels to elevate Samsung customers to stc's preferred customer tier.

Cutting-edge network

Eng Maziad Alharbi, stcs CEO said: "Samsung is one of the world's leading smartphone brands, with a solid reputation built on industry-leading innovations, R&D and iconic designs. The signing guarantees our customers access to the latest Samsung devices backed by our exceptional customer service. Considering the strength of our 5G infrastructure and cutting-edge network, our customers can leverage the full range of advanced features available in Samsung devices."

Lee said: "Kuwait is a very important market for Samsung thanks to a highly developed digital infrastructure by the country's service providers, including stc and a tech-savvy population. This new partnership allows us to delight existing and new customers in new ways by ensuring they get their hands with the latest devices faster, supported by our enhanced customer service initiatives jointly with stc." -- TradeArabia News Service
BERTRAND  It was the height of the pandemic when Jason and Mel McNierney decided to take a break from their life in Denver by going on a road trip.

The couple rented an RV, packed up their three children and began traveling through Colorado and Nebraska. They soon began recognizing not only a change of scenery but a change of culture.

There were nice people. There were crosses everywhere. It didnt feel like chaos. Theres 5 million people back home. The shootings were getting closer, kidnappings were happening half a block away on the route to school. It just got overwhelming, Mel said.

As they began approaching central Nebraska, Mel and Jason entertained the thought of moving from Denver to rural Nebraska. They looked at homes in Curtis, but they soon found themselves in Bertrand. The family was taking a pit stop near the Bertrand Community School when they saw a home that caught their eye. After touring the house, they put in an offer that was accepted. When they returned to Denver, they put their house on the market, and it sold in one day.

It was just too easy for God to not be like, This is where youre supposed to be. This is my plan for you. Just do as youre told, said Mel.

The McNierneys moved to Bertrand in October 2021, and they began integrating themselves into the community. Jason is an elected official in town, a member of Bertrand Community Builders and works as a contractor and roofer. Mel is a certified yoga instructor, nutritionist and holistic practitioner. When she learned about a building in downtown Bertrand that may be torn down, she wanted to restore it to its former glory.

All the other businesses in Bertrand are open. ... And to have this building just be torn down, it just seems like a shame to not keep it open somehow, Mel said.

Mel purchased the building that formerly housed the Bertrand Senior Center and American Legion. The couple spent six months working non-stop to remodel the building to its former glory. Mel received grants through the Phelps County Development Corporations GO! DREAM program that helped to purchase a new roof, signage, gutters and windows for the building.

She opened her yoga studio, 607 Studio, last year, and she just recently hosted a ribbon-cutting event at the studio with the Holdrege Area Chamber of Commerce.

607 Studio 607 Minor Ave., Bertrand 308-474-8029 Owner Mel McNierney is certified in yoga, trauma yoga, restorative yoga, prenatal/baby and mom yoga, breathwork, life coaching, nutrition, holistic remedies and muscle therapy. 607 Studio also offers sessions/special events in smudging, herbal cleansing, Reiki, sound therapy and meditation.

For Mel, the studio is about whole-body wellness, including mental and emotional health.

If youre sick, you cant really help anybody with anything, not even your own family. But if you are strong and healthy and well inside, then you have endless gifts that you can share with your community, with everything, she said.

When community members learned about the studio, they called Mel to organize group classes despite the on-going construction in the facility. She now holds evening classes on Tuesday and Thursday as well as Saturday morning sessions. With a flexible schedule, Mel is available to set up times for people to practice yoga throughout the week. They can do one-on-one sessions or in a group. Its important to her to meet each of her clients individual needs.

Ive gotten good at seeing how comfortable they are, where theyre at. How can I help you so that you can live a functional life? she said. Its not really like a fitness workout regimen; its more functional so that way you can keep your balance and you can keep your strength and you feel good about yourself without lifting weights or running.

Along with yoga classes, Mel has reached out to other practitioners to offer different classes and workshops such as meditation, smudging, sound therapy and Reiki. Jason has taught painting classes in the space, and theyve also hosted ladies nights events.

The flexibility of the space has been the best part for Mel.

I know how to do so much, but I know theres so much more out there as far as healing and helping people, and its hard to find unless youre looking for it. When Im able to just flexibly meet these other people and have them have a space and say, Hey, come share your ideas and see if it takes. Just spread what you know, she explained.

Mel is grateful for the support the community has provided her business and family, and she is excited to give back to the place she now calls home.

If the community says they need something and I can do it, then lets do it. I feel like that is my purpose here, she said. Thats our basis is that you are just overall happy and healthy on the inside. Then you can serve your God, your community and family whole-heartedly the best that you can.
KEARNEY  Three performers, 30 different characters and the stories of Willa Cather  thats how Karim Muasher describes the heart of the new play, Henrietta Solway.

It is inspired by the works of famed Nebraska author, Willa Cather, he said in an interview while on tour in Lincoln. It is a mash-up of her various short stories, serialized novels, as well as her biography. It is performed by just three performers with minimal sets and props, performers who use their bodies and live instruments to portray more than 30 different characters. They play live music and take the audience on a journey from small-town Nebraska to New York City and back again.

The play focuses on a young girl growing up in rural Nebraska in 1896 who dreams of bigger and different things.

She ends up, like Cather, moving to New York City to become an author, Muasher said. The show is interested in the theme of memory and childhood.

As the character matures, she finds herself looking back to her roots  and trying to make sense of her childhood memories.

Muasher, along with his wife, Carrie Brown, will perform Henrietta Solway at the Merryman Performing Arts Center at 9:45 a.m. and 1 p.m. Friday.

Admission to both shows is free.

The duo perform as Animal Engine.

When it comes to memory, Muasher understands that it comes from experiences and from other sources. He believes that theater serves as a useful way to explore those concepts.

I think memory, in many ways, lives in the body, he said. Its a smell, its a feeling, its a way of walking or moving. So by experiencing that with actors on stage, youre able to have a visceral experience of seeing a characters go from being a young girl, being scolded by her father, to then growing up and returning to her hometown  and her father is gone, right? But the memory is still there.

The National Willa Cather Center commissioned Henrietta Solway.

They were having their annual spring conference, which was focusing on Cathers magazine writings, Muasher said. They commissioned us to write a new play inspired by her works. What we did as a company was to read all of her short stories, all of her serialized novels and we also dug into some of her personal letters.

Cather never wanted anyone to read her letters. Muasher describes the Nebraska author as a very private person.

She had her partner burn a draft of a new novel, after Cather died, and all of her letters, he said. We do have access to some of her letters. We read all of these things to find these interesting themes emerging, this idea of a love of a place where you come from.

Cather grew up in small-town Nebraska on the prairie.

In order to be her full self as an artist and a person, she needed to ultimately leave and live somewhere else, Muasher said. And yet she was drawn back to Nebraska through her writing. You see that in all of her short stories; that there is some sort of disdain for the prairie, for Nebraska  and at the same time a very deep love for it. Places where we grow up have such a strong pull on us, both for the good things that happened and for the difficult ones.

Through this project, Muasher learned that our identity changes over time.

We make of our memories what we want, he said. We can tell the story we want to tell of our own lives. We have all of these things happen to us and we do all of these different things  and we get to choose what that says about us.

Muasher was born in the Middle East and moved to the United States as an infant. He spent most of his childhood in Norfolk, Virginia. Brown, who grew up in Lincoln, gave Muasher a copy of My Antonia. They both now live in New York City.

Its really funny that I have no connection to this region, he said. I think its a testament to Willa Cathers writing that once I started reading My Antonia, like so many people, I was completely hooked by the way she described the landscape and the love she had for the different people she based her characters on.
KEARNEY  Concrete is one of the worlds most important resources.

Each year, billions of tons are produced to meet the growing demand for new buildings, bridges, roads and other infrastructure  making concrete the most used artificial material on the planet.

Its a big business with a big environmental impact.

Concrete is made by mixing cement with sand, gravel and crushed stone. As global construction accelerates, so too does the need for these natural resources. The annual demand for these aggregates is estimated to be more than 1.8 billion tons in the U.S. alone.

Cement production is also a very energy-intensive process that generates approximately 8% of carbon emissions worldwide. For every ton of cement produced, a nearly equal amount of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas linked to global warming, is released into the atmosphere.

The demolition and disposal of concrete structures poses another problem. A huge volume of construction waste is generated every year, with concrete accounting for roughly 70% of this debris. Currently, only about 5% of waste concrete is recycled and reused.

Manufacturing concrete has a huge carbon footprint, and theres a lot of old concrete that just goes to waste. When buildings and highways are demolished, much of this ends up in landfills, said Chris Exstrom, a chemistry professor at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

Exstrom and his collaborators at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln recently received $805,000 in grant funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to address these issues. The research team, which includes professor Jiong Hu and assistant professor Seunghee Kim from the UNL Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and professor Eric Thompson from the UNL Department of Economics, will study ways to improve recycled concrete while lowering carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.

One of the most promising ways to reuse waste concrete is to crush it and remove any contaminants, producing a material known as recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) that can be used as a replacement for gravel and natural crushed stone. This material is then mixed with cement to create recycled concrete.

The downside, according to Exstrom, is this recycled concrete is weaker than the original product made with natural aggregates. However, research has shown you can increase the strength and durability of recycled concrete through a process called carbonation.

There are a couple of compounds in concrete  calcium hydroxide and calcium silicate hydrate  that can be reacted with carbon dioxide to form a compound called calcium carbonate, which improves the recycled concrete aggregate and makes it better for reuse in new concrete, Exstrom explained.

Because concrete absorbs carbon dioxide, the gas is captured within the calcium carbonate and permanently stored there.

Thats the carbon sequestration term that you often hear, Exstrom said. Youre literally locking it away in another substance so it doesnt get back out into the atmosphere.

Through their project, the University of Nebraska researchers will use specialized reactors to accelerate the carbonation process and identify the ideal pressure and carbon dioxide levels needed to modify recycled concrete aggregate.

Were going to try to find a step-by-step breakdown of how this is occurring, along with the optimum conditions for this process, said Exstrom, a co-principal investigator on the project.

His role is to help determine the mechanisms by which recycled concrete aggregate reacts with carbon dioxide, as well as analyze concrete samples using X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy.

This project could lead to developments where we can use more recycled concrete in new concrete manufacturing and help reduce the carbon footprint of the industry, Exstrom said. Its one of several ways that we can help lower carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.

The Department of Energy awarded $131 million to 33 research and development projects that advance the wide-scale deployment of carbon management technologies to reduce carbon dioxide pollution and help deliver on President Joe Bidens goal of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. When combined with matching funds, the total award for the University of Nebraska project is just over $1 million over two years, with nearly $100,000 coming to UNK.

That money will support at least two undergraduate research positions, giving UNK students an opportunity to participate in a project that addresses a timely and meaningful climate challenge.

I cant stress enough the importance of including undergraduate students in this work, Exstrom said. Having this kind of experience makes chemistry applicable and more fun and really helps students prepare for what they will encounter beyond graduation. It connects students to real-world applications so they can incorporate the knowledge theyre gaining in the classroom and also gives them an opportunity to go above and beyond into some concepts that we dont necessarily address in our classes.
The newly opened Chippewa Area History Center offered its first public program Sunday. Marge Hebbring, 75, of Chippewa Falls, talked to about 60 visitors on the nature of Ojibwe storytelling.

I really love my Ojibwe heritage, so I like to share it, Hebbring said. This land that were living on here, this was all Ojibwe land at one time.

Hebbring is an elder of the Lac Courte Oreilles. Shes spent decades learning, and sharing, her ancestry.

Ojibwe now live mainly in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and Ontario.

We actually have three names. The government calls us the Chippewa. Our neighbors called us the Ojibwe, which means the people with the puckered moccasins, she said. But we call ourselves the Anishinaabe, which means the original people.

Hebbring said that though she goes by Marge, she is also known by her Indian name, Red Bird Woman  a name she got from a Dakota pipe carrier when she graduated from college.

Hebbring has worked on multiple reservations from here to the Dakotas. She previously worked for the Eau Claire school district as the liaison between Native families and the district before taking on a job at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claires American Ethnic Coordinating Office, recruiting Native students. She also spent 15 years coordinating GEAR UP, a college readiness program for low-income students, for the Department of Education in the region.

Now, shes a board member at the Chippewa Area History Center, where she continues to teach people about her heritage. Shes been a crucial part of creating an impressive museum exhibit on the Ojibwe peoples on the second floor of the Chippewa Area History Center.

On Sunday, during her talk on Ojibwe storytelling, Hebbring said the Ojibwe do not tell stories unless there is snow on the ground. Due to recent snowstorms, she said, she felt comfortable now telling lots of stories.

The reason for that is all the little animals, they like the stories too and they like to come around, and if were telling stories all summer, they wouldnt get ready for winter. They wouldnt be gathering nuts or making their nests, Hebbring said.

Hebbring added that elders used to tell their children, If you tell a story in the summertime, youre going to end up with a frog or a snake in your bed.

Animals can talk, according to Ojibwe lore, but a person can only speak the Ojibwe language to them.

Hebbring said every time she sees a deer, she rolls down the window of her car and calls out to them, giving an Ojibwe greeting.

Many of the Ojibwe stories go back tens of thousands of years, Hebbring said. Sometimes their creation stories can stretch on for up to four days.

There was no written language, so everything was passed down orally. And so storytellers have to remember these stories, she said. Theres lots of teachings in the stories. There is the language, the history, the culture of the tribe. The stories teach children how to behave, and elders too.

In that spirit, Hebbring shared stories on Sunday of the first peoples on the planet. This included discussion of Nikomus, the wise grandmother, the western winds and Weniboozhoo (or Waynaboozoo). She also spoke about the importance of birch trees, lightning and the thunderbird.

Hebbring said she hopes to continue to teach locals about Lac Courte Oreilles and the Ojibwe peoples.

This is what I do now. And its really important for Native people. But its important for those living on this land to know this history too.
Huawei has launched a series of innovative solutions to GUIDE the intelligent world including intelligent cloud-networks with cloud-network synergy, simplified architecture and energy-saving features.

At the 2023 Mobile World Congress (MWC 2023) in Barcelona, Spain, Huawei, together with global industry customers, partners and opinion leaders, discussed how digital technologies will affect the future - from the development of the world economy, through to global cultures, societies and the environment.

At Huawei 5th Industry Digital Transformation Summit, Huawei released a new series of advanced solutions for simplified networks, with which DCs can build a solid network foundation, leading to the development of new DCs, and unleashing digital innovation, to meet the requirements and pain points of enterprise network management efficiency, connection experience, data center (DC) security, and computing power.

Deepening its roots

In his opening speech, David Wang, Huawei's Executive Director of the Board, Chairman of the ICT Infrastructure Managing Board, and President of the Enterprise BG, said: Huawei will deepen its roots in the enterprise market and continue our pursuit of innovation. We are ready to use leading technologies and dive deep into scenarios. Together with our partners, we will enable industry digitalisation, help SMEs access intelligence, and promote sustainable development, creating new value together.

Bob Chen, Vice President of Huawei Enterprise BG, delivered a keynote speech entitled: "Digital Technology Leads the Way to the Intelligent World", which outlined how digital technologies have impacted the development of the worlds economy, cultures, societies and environment.

Chen stated that connectivity is crucial to digitalisation, while networks are key to connectivity. He noted that Huawei is committed to helping enterprises build intelligent cloud-networks with cloud-network synergy, simplified architecture and energy-saving features, thereby maximising digital productivity and creating the ultimate experience.

ICT Digital Intelligence Service and Software Solution

During MWC, Huawei also released a new ICT Digital Intelligence Service and Software Solution.

Bruce Xun, Vice President of Huawei Global Technical Service Dept, said: ICT infrastructure has become the foundation of the intelligent world. Being Green, Efficient, Secure, and Intelligent are key requirements in order to deliver the Ultimate experience and support Open Innovation. We are now pleased to offer a portfolio that is intelligent, green and efficient, offering comprehensive digital services and the ultimate experience across the whole lifecycle of the network, including planning, construction, O&M, optimisation and service operations.

Huawei believes the most important thing is to continually develop the talents and capabilities of staff. Huawei Learning Service provides a comprehensive talent development service, covering both digital leadership and certification in broad ICT skills, to accelerate talent transformation. In 2022, Huawei has provided training to 160,000 ICT talents worldwide, and over 100,000 engineers are certified by Huawei every year.

In parallel, Huawei held Product & Solution Launch 2023 at MWC, and Huawei Cloud released its new global offerings such as Landing Zone and Cloud on Cloud.

Jacqueline Shi, President of Huawei Cloud Global Marketing and Sales Service, delivered a keynote speech entitled "Unleash Digital with Everything as a Service".

Everything on the cloud

"We hope to provide reliable, secure, and sustainable services for our customers, partners, and developers, with everything done on the cloud." said Shi.

Landing Zone is a sustainable, scalable multitenancy solution to automate B2B services for carriers. The solution offers layered cloud resource management, identity and permissions design, data boundaries, compliance audit, and financial management.

To help carriers expand into the enterprise market, Huawei Cloud releases the Cloud-on-Cloud solution. Carriers now make the most of the services, technologies, ecosystems, and sales resources of Huawei Cloud, together with their own industry-leading networks, to fuel digital transformation.

Deeply integrating ICT

In the future, Huawei will continue to invest and innovate, working alongside global customers and partners to deeply integrate ICT, accelerate digital transformation, promote digital economy development and speed up the realisation of the intelligent world within industries, in order to create new value.

MWC Barcelona 2023 runs from February 27 to March 2 in Barcelona, Spain. Huawei showcases its products and solutions at stand 1H50 in Fira Gran Via Hall 1.-- TradeArabia News Service
FFA is an organization offered to grades sixth through 12th, where students can be members of a group that is dedicated to giving back to the community as well as working side by side with them. FFA members have the opportunity to take part in different leadership events where they also get to meet new people around the country. Our advisors, Andrew Simon, Nelda Bailey, and our past advisor Emma Huber, have worked extremely hard to help the chapter gain new opportunities and help them be more prepared for the future. This year the chapter has had more than 150 members participating in FFA events including workshops, leadership development events, career development events, and different conventions.

Spring/summer eventsCareer development: On March 24 we competed in career development events with five teams at University of Wisconsin-Platteville. The meat evaluation team of Josie Bailey, Kaden McDonald and Carter Vandervort placed 11th. The horse evaluation team of Kallie Pleuss and Colton Wilcox placed 10th. The agriculture sales team of Erin Perry, Skylar Pierce, Emma Brandvig and Abby Dohlman placed fifth. The agronomy team of Dawson Downey, Megan Samson, Tanner Wooden and Gabe Miller placed 11th. The agriculture mechanics team of Kole Peterson, Gabe Tucker and Kaden Dohlman placed first. CDEs are a great opportunity for members to learn and develop more knowledge and experience in these different categories. These competitions are always extremely fun for the members!

EDGE Leadership Conference: We had six middle school members attend the Experience Discovery, Growth and Excellence Leadership Conference in Green Bay. The members attended workshops and were able to learn more about themselves as a growing leader.

FFA awards banquet: Every year we hold our FFA awards banquet. At the banquet members are presented awards to those who have participated in events throughout the year such as our fundraisers, leadership development events, Distinguished Service Award and proficiencies.

Wisconsin FFA state convention: The Wisconsin FFA State Convention takes place every June at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison. State convention consists of sessions with keynote speakers, workshops and other events. This event allows FFA members to learn more about FFA as well as meet other members from around the state. Josie Bailey and Kiera Tupper competed in the agriscience fair. Josies project compared various soil types and impact on seed germination, Kieras project surveyed participants preference in low at regular fat dairy products, and both projects placed second in the state! Josie Bailey and Brad Granahan participated in the FFA art contest. Brad placed second overall for state in 3-D art. Morgan Jensen and Lucas Salzwedel qualified and played in the Wisconsin State FFA Honors band. Kendyl Hericks, Skylar Pierce, Sam Lindsmeyer, Emma Brandvig, Hannah Walters and Taylor Franks received their State Degrees. Cody Hall was the state winner for the Forage Production Proficiency Award. Finally, our Conduct of Chapter team (Carter Ollendick, Hailey Pederson, Cale Ollendick, Kiera Tupper, Kylie Moake, Addy Gerke and Izzy Hayes) placed second in state. It was a great week with many of the students being recognized. The members did a great job representing the Tomah FFA chapter.

Budweiser Dairyland Super National Truck and Tractor Pull: Every year the alumni and FFA members sell 50/50 raffle tickets during the tractor pull sessions. In addition, Monroe County FFA chapters were able to participate in Salute to the Farmer pre-show on Saturday, June 25. This was a great way to display agriculture to the community and spectators of the tractor pull and was a great fundraiser.

Monroe County Fair: This year the fair was July 27- 31. A lot of work was put into preparing the fairgrounds for this years fair. FFA members displayed a wide variety of projects that projected their hard work over the past year. Projects ranged from plants and art to sewing and animal exhibits. Members showed goats, sheep, swine, beef, dairy, poultry, rabbits and horses. The theme for our FFA chapter last year was, We Are FFA. FFA members decorated their fair boards with the famous blue and gold colors of FFA and agriculture facts. The fair was a great success this year, with everybody involved having a great time and gaining a valuable experience.

Other summer trips included a Milwaukee Brewers game, the Wisconsin State Fair, National Night Out, canoeing down the Kickapoo River, Farm Technology Days, biking the Wilton Bike Trial, running the cranberry tours at Cranfest, touring a lavender farm and the Baraboo Zoo.

Monroe County Mobile Food Pantry: Tomah FFA members volunteered at the Monroe County Mobile Food Pantry. Volunteers from all over Tomah come to the fairgrounds to help the Tomah Lions Club with passing out food items and helping customers get their items to their vehicles. It is a great way for FFA members to get community service hours and help them out when it comes time for scholarships and applications!

Fall/winter events

Sectional leadership workshop: Twenty-one middle and high school FFA members attended the sectional leadership workshop in Whitehall on Sept. 21. This event consists of workshops hosted by the Wisconsin State Officer team. They learned how to communicate more effectively, build leadership skills and serve others. Overall, they gained many new abilities that will help improve the FFA chapter better, and it was a very beneficial experience for everyone who attended.

World Dairy Expo: World Dairy Expo is held every year in Madison. This event displays dairy production around the world, and helps the community learn more about Wisconsins leading industry. People from around the world travel to Madison for this educational event to show their cattle and learn about new technology coming to the industry. A bus full of FFA members went to the World Dairy Expo. This event allowed them learn more about the dairy industry and how it influences not only their home state, but the rest of the world as well. FFA members were able to participate in judging dairy products and forages and had the opportunity to see different products that farms are producing and get a taste of the different opportunities that the industry offers.

National Convention: This year, eight of our FFA members (Brad Granahan, Josie Bailey, Carter Ollendick, Gabe Tucker, Grace Schindler, Kylie Moake, Addy Gerke and Carter Vandervort) went to the national FFA convention in Indianapolis. This year receiving their American Degree were Kieth Clark, Emma Brandvig, and Cody Hall. While at the National Convention, they had the opportunity to attend sessions led by the national officer team as well as hear motivational speakers. They were able to meet FFA members from all over the nation. The convention also featured a career show that housed many agricultural businesses and colleges. They also got a lot of free Culvers custard, which was amazing. This was a great way to network with other members and different agricultural businesses around the nation. It was a great experience for the members and showed them the impact of FFA across our country.

Parli pro workshop: Several schools attended the Parliamentary Procedure workshop to gain more knowledge about parliamentary procedures. Tomah High School hosted this workshop, and UW-River Falls set up different areas for students to learn at different levels about what goes into parliamentary procedure. This was a great workshop for students to gain more confidence when competing in the future.

Fall activity: FFA members traveled to the Hidden Valley Corn Maze in West Salem to bond as an FFA chapter and just have fun!

Leadership development events: Tomah FFA attended the District 8 leadership development event at G-E-T High School. Students competed in various speaking events which helped them to step out of their comfort zones and practice public speaking. Marshall Reiman placed first for Creed Speaking. Erin Perry placed second in extemporaneous speaking. Josie Bailey placed second in discussion meet. The parliamentary procedure team placed first. The team included Brad Granahan, Kylie Moake, Josie Bailey, Addy Gerke, Hailey Pederson, Carter Ollendick and Cale Ollendick. The Quiz Bowl team placed second. The team included Payton Marth, Kieralynn Tupper, Caden Fravel, Aidan Hernandez, Marshall Reiman, Erin Perry and Josie Bailey, The parli pro team and Quiz Bowl team will be moving on to compete at Whitehall on March 1. Other members who competed were Morgan Jensen, Carter Vandervort and Cally Von Haden.

National FFA Week: FFA week celebrates the FFA mission: premier leadership, personal growth and career success. This week is filled with various events such as FFA Assembly, leadership activities, and dress up days. This week is a great way to promote FFA in the Tomah school and community. Their annual pancake supper is their largest event of the year. They held the all-you-can-eat supper Feb. 20 in the high school cafeteria.

FFA is a great opportunity for all students, not just students who are interested in agriculture. There are opportunities to volunteer in the community, develop leadership and speaking skills and create great friendships with members from across the nation. If you are interested in helping or joining FFA or the FFA Alumni & Supporters, contact Nelda Bailey at 608-372-7964 or Andrew Simon 608-317-0239.

If you are interested in joining the FFA Alumni, you do not have to be a previous FFA member to be an alumni member. You just have to have an interest in helping kids in agricultural education and supporting our youth. All help is greatly appreciated.

On behalf of the Tomah FFA advisors and officer team, they would like to send out a huge thank you to everyone who participated and supported their chapter in the past year. As FFA members they are all about Learning to Do, Doing to Learn, Earning to Live, and Living to Serve! They appreciate all of you; with your support you are helping them to grow into the next generation of leaders and achievers.
Tomah Health board chair Greg Gaarder says the hospital is well positioned heading in to another year.

Organizationally, we are in a really good position; both financially and where we are heading with health care, said Gaarder, the former business manager of the Tomah Area School District. I could not be more pleased with the work and investments in health care and staff as well. We have been very fortunate here in Tomah, and it all starts with the staff.

Gaarder was re-elected chair during the hospitals organizational meeting Jan. 17.

It has been a privilege to be the chair, Gaarder said. We have a great administrative staff and staff in general that really makes the boards job easy, so Im looking forward to continuing that work with them.

The biggest change for the organization over the past year was the hiring of CEO Derek Daly who replaced longtime CEO Phil Stuart in August.

Derek has done an excellent job. He has a personality that has made this transition very easy, Gaarder said. Im excited for what he has done and to see where he and the rest of the team can take us in the future.

Gaarder was quick to thank current administrative staff during the leadership transition.

It really speaks highly to the administrative team that is in place. There is a lot of stability in the organization, he said.

Considering the stresses on hospital staff as the result of COVID-19 and staff shortages, Gaarder had high praise for hospital employees over the last 12 months.

What they have accomplished and what they have done is unbelievable. Its nice to see the stability that we have had with our staff and their continual effort to provide quality health care to our community, he said.

During the boards election of officers, director Keith Laugen was re-elected vice-chair, while B. Scott Nicol was elected secretary and Deb Buswell was elected treasurer. Nicol replaced Spencer Stephens, while Buswell replaced John Laufenberg.

Stephens, Laufenberg and Penny Precour wrapped up their terms on the board.

They were there when we built the new hospital, guided us through COVID and took us through the hiring of a new CEO, so in a lot of respects, their work is going to drive Tomah Health for the next five to 10 years and longer, Gaarder said.

Tomah residents Beth Arity, Diana Gerke and Wes Revels were elected to three-year terms to fill the board vacancies. Revels is the Monroe County sheriff who previously served on the hospital board. Arity is the safety patient handling and mobility facility coordinator at the Tomah Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Gerke is a real estate broker at First Weber Realtors, Tomah.

The other hospital board directors include Sue Playter Mubarak, Mayo Health System Family Medicine provider Tiffany Casper, D.O. and Gundersen Health System obstetrician/gynecologist Robert Holness, M.D.

Casper and Holness will serve on the board as medical staff representatives. Casper replaced Mayor Health System Family Medicine provider Jeffrey Cavaness, M.D. who fulfilled his term. Casper and Holness both serve on the hospital Medical Executive/Peer Review Committee, which meets monthly and oversees medical practices at Tomah Health.

In 2008, members of the former hospital corporation amended the organizations Articles of Incorporation to allow for a self-perpetuating board, which relies on a nominating committee of board members and community leaders to nominate the new candidates. A list of the Tomah Health board of directors is available at https://www.tomahhealth.org/about-us/board-of-directors.
A volunteer brings comfort to people displaced from a home fire, blood collections teams welcome back donors after winter storms disrupt the blood supply, a military officer returns home from deployment to be with family, and a local community member learns hands-only CPR.

All these actions make our communities strongerand they all happened because of support and involvement with the American Red Cross.

This March, the Red Cross of Wisconsin is honoring those who make its mission possible during the 80th annual American Red Cross Month celebration  a national tradition that began in 1943 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued the first Red Cross Month proclamation. Here in Wisconsin, Gov. Tony Evers and many local community mayors have signed proclamations declaring March 2023 as Red Cross month.

When help cant wait during emergencies, people in Wisconsin rally together to provide relief and hope for neighbors in need, said Mark Thomas, CEO and Regional Executive for the Red Cross of Wisconsin. This humanitarian spirit is at the heart of our community, and we are proud to honor all those who make our mission possible during this years Red Cross Month celebration. You can join in their commitment by donating, volunteering, giving blood or platelets, or taking a lifesaving skills course.

Participate in Red Cross Month by visiting redcross.org to make a financial donation, give blood or platelets, become a volunteer or take a class in lifesaving skills, such as first aid, CPR and how to use an AED. On March 22, you can also join our annual Red Cross Giving Day campaign by donating at redcross.org/givingday to help provide shelter, food, relief items, emotional support and other assistance for people affected by disasters big and small.

Help cant wait during emergenciesOver 630 people have received comfort and essentials from Red Cross disaster teams after more than 150 home fires across Wisconsin and the western Upper Peninsula of Michigan since the start of 2023. Our teams are in search of new volunteers who want to help people through their darkest time following local disasters. Areas of particular disaster volunteer need include Milwaukee, Beloit, Hayward, Monroe, Rhinelander, Racine and Ladysmith. To join or share our many in-person and virtual disaster volunteer roles, visit redcross.org/DAT.

Prevent a

blood shortageWhen volunteer blood and platelet donors lend an arm this March, theyll help keep the blood supply from dropping this spring. All who come to give blood, platelets or plasma March 1-31, will receive a $10 Visa Prepaid Card by email.* Plus, theyll be automatically entered for a chance to win a $3,000 Visa Prepaid Card  which could help toward expenses like gas or groceries. There will be five lucky winners.* To make an appointment, visit RedCrossBlood.org, call 1-800-RED CROSS or download the Red Cross Blood Donor App.

Upcoming blood donation opportunities in Vernon County March 1-31 are as follows:

Ontario: 3/21/2023, 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Brookwood High School, 28861 State Hwy. 131;

Readstown: 3/10/2023, 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., Peace Lutheran Church, 112 East Center St.;

Stoddard: 3/24/2023, 12:30 to 4:30 p.m., St. Matthews Evangelical Lutheran Church, 303 N. Main St.;

Viroqua: 3/28/2023: 12 to 5:30 p.m., Church of Christ, 825 Nelson Pkwy.;

Westby: 3/10/2023: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Westby High School, 206 West Ave. S.

*Terms for both offers apply. Visit rcblood.org/help for details.
In southwestern Wisconsin, tobacco has assumed a symbolic significance as a marker of rural Norwegian-American ethnic identification. Researchers Robert Ibarra and Arnold Strickon asserted this in their 1989 scholarly article, The Norwegian-American Dairy-Tobacco Strategy in Southwestern Wisconsin.

You can learn more about Norwegians and tobacco at our next free public program, which will be held on Tuesday, March 7, at 7 p.m. at the museum. Historian and retired Lutheran pastor Glenn Borreson will speak on the topic of The Norwegian Crop: Tobacco Raising in Wisconsin.

Glenn writes that, Long before the days of anti-smoking campaigns, tobacco raising was not only a matter of Norwegian pride in some Wisconsin communities, but also a crop that enabled immigrants to make hard-to-come-by cash, and their descendants to thrive or at least survive on the farm. (Tobacco raising was in Glenns own family for five generations.) Norwegians adopted the crop early in their arrival in Wisconsin and made two areas in the states south and southwest mainstays of tobacco raising for decades before the business went up in smoke.

He describes himself as a retired Lutheran pastor, ordained in 1971 in North Beaver Creek Lutheran Church, rural Ettrick, Wisconsin. A graduate of Luther College, Decorah, Iowa, and Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota, he has served congregations in Decorah, Iowa, and in South Wayne, Elroy, Mauston, and Holmen, Wisconsin. After he retired, he began researching his family history, a move that led to preparing and presenting programs on his Norwegian-American heritage. Glenn and his wife Mary live in Holmen.

Come to learn more about tobacco farming in Vernon County and to share your own stories at this event on March 7. Thank you to Driftless Books and Music for sponsoring the program. The event will be held in the museums first-floor, wheelchair-accessible conference room. Currently on display in the conference room are several tobacco-related artifacts including a miniature model of a tobacco wagon, and a 1952 map of Tobacco Growing Districts of the U.S. Copies of the tobacco farming article mentioned above will be available for sale.

The next meeting of the genealogy class will be held on Thursday, March 9, at 10 a.m. at the museum. Teacher Karen Sherry will talk about naming practices, and how these practices can affect your family history research. Maybe your family tree contains a lot of people with the same name, or maybe your family had a tradition of giving the name of a deceased child to the next child born in the family. Learn more about names at the March 9 class.

New students are always welcome to join the genealogy class. Vernon County Historical Society members attend for free, and non-members are asked to pay $5.
When we first met, Tim was in a private law practice, a significant part of his practice was as a criminal defense attorney. We had a hard time reconciling the kindhearted friend we knew with his job of defending some people accused of terrible crimes. Tim would always say, Everyone is innocent until proven guilty, and entitled to a defense under the law." He had faith in the legal process and was committed to giving everyone the same opportunity to a defense. As a District Attorney for Vernon County, Tim now has the ability to choose his cases based on merit and, is in a position to select who to prosecute. We feel that he has done this admirably, and with thoughtfulness, kindness, and discretion.
While politicians and others way above my station and pay grade continue to debate, expound upon and expunge homosapien influence on the stratosphere, one thing I know for sure. The winter weather has changed and were seeing way more rain and ice.

Recently our farm was in the middle of the imaginary weather line, with more rain south of us and more snow to the north. Just a few days after we were on the snow end of the weather front with about 9 inches, we received freezing rain and a coating of ice.

Ice when you are doing outside chores  driving or even walking  is bad news. As my late engineer father turned farmer was fond of saying, the coefficient friction of ice is pretty much nil. In other words, you get more traction by walking on a linoleum floor with banana peels strapped to your feet.

One of Wisconsins historically worst ice storms was Feb. 21-23, 1922, with ice accumulations of 1 to 2 inches and as much as 4 inches of ice buildup on trees and power poles. Power, telephone and telegraph service were knocked out for up to 15 days. The storm dropped up to 4 inches of rain and northern parts of the state had up to 3 feet of snow. Property damage was $10 million.

More recently  at least during my lifetime  was the ice storm on March 4 and 5, 1976, left up to 5 inches of ice in the southern parts of the state, knocked out power for up to 10 days and caused $50.4 million in damage.

The National Weather Service says the most severe icing was from Grant County eastward to Washington and Ozaukee counties. Washington County was hard hit with 1,500 utility poles snapped off and roads closed by fallen trees, poles and wires.

Personally I remember an ice storm on Dec. 28, 1980. My folks were in Las Vegas and I was helping my cousin with the daily chores, but had the Sunday afternoon off. I was 17 and I picked up my girlfriend (now wife) Sherry and we went to La Crosse for the day to see a movie and do some shopping.

I could have cared less about the weather or even the weather forecast. I remember hearing the sound of rain on the roof of the movie theater and the streets were wet when the movie ended in the early evening. There was nothing that made me concerned, so we had supper and went to ShopKo.

My car at the time was a 1978 Mustang II with rear-wheel drive and bias ply tires. A pretty steady drizzle was coming down as we headed through Holmen to her home outside of Mindoro.

It wasnt until we were a couple of miles out of Holmen (which now would be close to the village limits) and turned left to follow Hwy. D toward Mindoro that we realized how slippery it was. As soon as we turned, the car started to slide and fishtail. I slowed way up but a few hundred yards later we went straight into the ditch as I was helpless to stop it.

In those pre-cell phone days, you had to hike for help, which is what I started to do when I saw a farmer coming down the road with a tractor. I flagged him down and asked if he would pull us out. He replied that he would  after he took care of another car ahead of us that also had gone into the ditch.

Soon the farmer was back and he pulled us back to where we turned off. I slipped him some cash  probably the last of the slim pickings in my wallet  and we decided to continue down Hwy. M to try an alternative route to Mindoro. Another car passed us and went into the ditch. The farmer had a busy evening.

There is no way to get from Holmen to Mindoro without going over a big ridge. So to help us get some traction  any traction, really  I drove with the passenger side tires on the gravel shoulder. It was a white-knuckled ride, as much of the hill had no guard rail and we were only a few feet away from tumbling down a steep ravine.

Foot by foot, we slowly climbed the hill and I crept down the other side. When we reached Mindoro, we stopped at a friends house and called Sherrys parents  who lived on the other side of another big hill. Using the same driving on the shoulder technique, we pulled into her yard late that night.

I called my cousin and said because of the terrible roads, I was going to stay at Sherrys house that night, so I wouldnt be there for the morning chores. He laughed and said that was a likely story, but he knew the conditions were bad. There was no school the next day as it was the holiday break.

Monday morning I waited several hours for the sand and salt trucks to do their job and headed for home  which was still about 20 miles away. The roads were fine until I got past Melrose and turned on Hwy. N  about 9 miles from home. That road had not been sanded and I slid into the ditch about a mile down the road.

Miraculously, I was able to get myself unstuck and I proceeded down the road. But a small incline was too much to overcome  no gravel shoulders  and I slid into the ditch again. I walked about a mile to a local farmer I knew and he came to pull me out  just as the highway department came by with sand.

I arrived home about 2 p.m. and almost immediately had to turn around and drive 15 miles back the same direction that I just came to go to wrestling practice.

No damage to the car.

No one was hurt.

A lesson learned.

Oh, to be young and foolish again.

Heres a l

ink to a WSJ photo gallery of the 1976 ice storm
Within the first two months of the year, at least 13 people living unsheltered have died in the La Crosse area, already surpassing the number of unsheltered people who died in all of last year.

Medical professionals and homeless service providers all said they are seeing an alarming increase of fatalities in this population compared to data from previous years.

Julie McDermid, who works directly with the unsheltered community as the director of Karuna Housing, said a significant number of these deaths have been caused by overdoses.

The frequency of recent overdose deaths among the homeless locally is the worst McDermids seen. She attributes this uptick to a lack of 24-hour shelter for people who are struggling with homelessness.

Of the 13 individuals who have passed away, only one was considered stably housed but had survived homelessness, according to Couleecap Inc., a nonprofit that collects data on those who are homeless in the community, though the data likely doesnt capture the full picture.

There may be a lot of individuals in unsheltered community that we dont know of or dont have track of, for lack of a better way to say it, said Becky Koske, assistant of housing and community services at Couleecap.

In La Crosse, there are about 240 individuals experiencing homelessness, according to a Point in Time count taken in June 2022.

Sandy Brekke, a senior consultant with the Office of Population Health at Gundersen Health System, said she has noticed similar patterns to McDermid, but that fatal overdoses have been impacting the community at large primarily due to an influx of fentanyl in street drugs.

Fentanyl: A deadly epidemic  Part one: The devastation of addiction Across the nation, state and our community, fentanyl is leading the drug addiction crisis, surpassing all other substances in overdose deaths.

Even without the overdose deaths, Brekke said the number of fatalities is still cause for concern.

When we had high incidents of overdose that did hit the homeless community, there were a number of deaths, Brekke said. But even without that there have been a higher number of deaths in the homeless community than we would normally expect.

Last year, 26 homeless or formerly homeless people died and were remembered at a memorial in December. Only 9 of those remembered were actively unsheltered at the time of their death, the other 15 experienced homelessness at some point in their life.

Community members gather to honor lives lost due to homelessness On the longest night of the year  the winter solstice  the La Crosse community remember the 26 homeless or formerly homeless individuals who

If the fatalities continue at the current rate, that number will likely be surpassed before the end of the year.

None of these people had to die

Overdoses have plagued the entire community this year. In the first five weeks of 2023, there were a reported 11 overdoses to law enforcement.

An overdose while unsheltered can be a lot deadlier, largely because there is a higher likelihood the person may be using drugs alone.

Narcan doesnt work when you use all by yourself, said Christopher Eberlein, emergency medicine doctor at Gundersen. You have to have someone sober to administer it.

Naloxone  colloquially known by its brand name Narcan  is an opioid overdose antidote to reverse or reduce the effects of an overdose.

Eberlein said lack of access to call 911, being in a remote area that is hard for emergency services to reach and the sharing of drugs are all additional factors that can make an overdose fatal for someone who is experiencing homelessness.

More street drugs are being laced with synthetic fentanyl, a deadlier and more addictive opioid. Its being traced in drugs like heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and even marijuana, where it is not usually found.

Fentanyl impacts the opioid receptor in the brain and can increase a drugs deadliness by decreasing responsiveness to narcan.

McDermid has been warning all her homeless clients about the increased prevalence of fentanyl in street drugs, cautioning them not to use alone and always have narcan nearby.

Narcan is available for free at clinics around town like Gundersen, Vivent Health and St. Clare Health Mission. It can also be purchased at pharmacies, where it is kept behind the counter. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is set to make a decision on expanding narcan access at the end of March.

Medical professionals like Eberlein and Brekke have also worked hard to distribute narcan to the homeless community, but its not the solution.

Narcan is really just a stop gap, Eberlein said. The whole point of that is to keep someone alive until they can get into treatment. If the treatment is farther and farther out, the risk (of overdose) is still there and everyday gets higher.

McDermid attributes the increase in overdoses to not having a 24 hour shelter for people. When people are in one area, she  and other service providers  can do outreach, provide support and get people connected with medical services.

We did not see these numbers of overdose deaths because people were around each other, they had people looking out for each other, distributing narcan, McDermid said about the Econo Lodge shelter situation of 2021.

Fentanyl: A deadly epidemic -- Part two: Fighting the addiction crisis Its all going to be OK mom, no matter what happens. I love you and miss you so much.

McDermid recognizes that the Econo Lodge situation wasnt perfect, but she claims it saved people from dying from an overdose.

The thing that I think people didnt realize about the hotel, McDermid said. No matter what, you always had someplace warm to bring people and now there just isnt that.

During the Econo Lodge shelter, McDermid and her team were able to help 17 individuals get into addiction recovery treatment. Many have successfully completed the program and some are still working toward sobriety.

None of these people had to die. Nobody should ever have to die on the cold concrete of a parking ramp, McDermid said. I feel like its morally wrong for us not to work together as a community to define homelessness as we see it. So that we can truly address the issue and prevent people from dying.

Preventable deaths

Overdoses are not the only cause of death in the unsheltered community. Not all who are homeless use drugs and not all who struggle with drug addiction are homeless.

In general, Brekke said, there is always a higher number of deaths in the unsheltered population just due to the conditions of living outside, focusing on surviving each day and not always thinking about long-term health care.

It is really detrimental to somebodys health to be homeless, Brekke said. In fact, people who are homeless, their life expectancy is 25 years less than somebody whos housed.

Inadequately treated chronic diseases, constant exposure to weather, lack of proper nutrition, sleep and increased stress levels all impact someones ability to be healthy and can take years off of someones life.

Many who pass away while living outside are deemed to have died of natural causes, Brekke said. But what that really means is complications with untreated health conditions compounded by the harsh conditions of living unsheltered.

Eberlein said these deaths are often preventable because there is treatment for chronic diseases like hypertension and diabetes. Left untreated, they can be deadly.

Many factors can prevent someone who is homeless from receiving adequate medical care. Accessibility, be it transportation or ability to make and follow up with appointments, is a large issue when it comes to medical care. There can also be a distrust of medical professionals that prevents care.

The bottom line is when somebody is out in the streets, with all of the things that we know theyre exposed to, it is super hard to get somebody healthy and treated, Brekke said.

Brekke noted more people experience homelessness in La Crosse than ever before, which ultimately results in more casualties. In June 2022, a Point In Time count identified 243 people who were homeless in the city.

In 2020, that number was 71. In July 2019, 57 unsheltered individuals were located during the count. In 2018, there were 33 people living without shelter.

Much has changed in five years. A global pandemic led to many losing their jobs, loss of income can lead to evictions and housing insecurity.

In 2020, La Crosse County saw 159 evictions or a 60% eviction rate, according to an article by the La Crosse Independent, even with a state eviction moratorium from March to May and a nationwide moratorium that began in September and lasted until July 2021.

This rate is based on data from the Consolidated Court Automation Programs  an open record system in Wisconsin that landlords use to vet renters.

Housing first, treatment second

A community is really only as good as the least among us, and we have people dying early that dont need to be dying early, Brekke said.

When talking about solutions and ways to prevent deaths in this vulnerable community, Brekke said the answer is supportive housing.

Weve tried treating people with substance use disorder out on the street and its just extremely, extremely difficult, Brekke said. We need to be able to provide shelter for people and get them in a supportive environment.

This is a housing first model, an approach that prioritizes providing permanent housing to people experiencing homelessness.

Last week, the city of La Crosse presented plans to address affordable housing and homelessness with federal grants.

The city plans to use over $650,000 of the funding for the development of affordable housing targeted toward people who are currently homeless.

The affordable housing plan focuses on the development of multi-family affordable housing units, income restricted for people who make below the county median income.

If people are not having to survive out on the streets, and they can be in a place where they have privacy and autonomy, they can sleep, they can eat, let their body heal and can surround them with support. People will do better, Brekke said.

It also comes down to addressing the root causes of homelessness, Brekke said, making sure all people in the community have access to affordable health care, mental health care or addiction treatment, as well as a variety of housing supports.

If theres a lot of upstream work to prevent homelessness in the first place. If somebody becomes insecure in their housing, there should be intervention right away, Brekke said.

The loss of 13 lives in the homeless community affects an entire community, but is particularly felt by the people who work directly with those individuals.

This is also really taking a toll on the workers who are working with these people, Brekke said. It sounds like were just losing those homeless people, but this is impacting our workforce in a really significant way. And this is a really vital workforce that works really hard, is very underpaid and just takes all of this on without support from the larger community.

If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, you can call the La Crosse County Human Services Department at 608-784-HELP (4357) to get connected with local services.

Throwback from Tribune files: Life in the La Crosse area in the 1950s 1951: La Crosse Central High School 1951: YMCA at Seventh and Main streets 1954: Triangle Cafe 1954: Estell Tall Fashions 1954: Howards Clothes 1954: Crescent Jewelers 1954: Tom's Speedometer Shop 1954: YMCA basketball 1954: 5 and 10-cent Store fire 1955: La Crosse Beauty School 1956: Christmas shoppers in downtown La Crosse 1956: Central High School Memorial Day assembly 1957: Kroger 1957: Jackson Plaza 1957: Old Style newspaper advertisement 1958: 1st National Bank 1958: State Bank of La Crosse 1958: Heat exchanger plant 1958: American Legion parade
Wisconsin wildlife officials arent saying when theyll release hundreds of public comments on their new draft wolf management plan.

Department of Natural Resources officials released their first new wolf management plan in almost 25 years in November. The plan doesnt include a statewide population goal, recommending instead that the DNR work with local advisory committees on whether local wolf populations should be reduced, kept stable or allowed to grow.

The public comment period was initially slated to end Jan. 10, but the DNR extended the deadline to midnight Tuesday.

Asked when the DNR would release the comments, agency spokesperson Katie Grant said in an email to The Associated Press that the department plans to release them eventually but likely not as soon as Wednesday. She said the department needs to process everything weve received and will make them publicly available as soon as possible.

Grant said in a follow-up email Tuesday morning that the DNR has received about 4,000 comments and needs time to put them in a format that is easily accessible online. She said the agency doesnt plan to edit content but will redact personal contact information and may remove inappropriate language.

We hope to have (the comments) published as soon as we possibly can but are currently unable to put an exact timeline on the process, she said.

DNR officials have said theyll consider all feedback as they revise the wolf plan before submitting a final version to the agencys board for approval.

See the Wisconsin State Journal photo staff's favorites of 2022
WHITEWATER  The College of Arts and Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater announces the next show of the Theatre/Dance season, DanceScapes 23.

The production will run from Saturday and Sunday, March 4 and 5, at 2 p.m.; and Tuesday and Wednesday, March 7 and 8, at 7:30 p.m. The Barnett Theatre is located in the Greenhill Center of the Arts at 950 W. Main St., Whitewater.

DanceScapes 23 features works from UW-Whitewater student choreographers, faculty members and international dance artist Dr. Jin-Wen Yu, who has created, performed, directed and produced over 100 works.

Barbara Grubel, professor of dance and artistic director of DanceScapes 23, said the show is a platform for students, faculty and guest artists to play and experiment with the possibilities of what dance can be.

We are extremely proud of our students, alumni, faculty and guest artist Jin Wen Yu, who are sharing their work with you, said Grubel.

Yu is a Patrick M. Virginia Horne Henry-Bascom professor of dance and Vilas Distinguished Achievement professor in the UW-Madison Dance Department.

He has created, performed, directed, and produced in the Americas and Asia. Before his study in the U.S., he was a soloist for the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre.

Yu is a six-time gala concert winner of the American College Dance Association Conference. As the past president of World Dance Alliance-Americas, he has directed international dance festivals in Madison, New York City and Vancouver.

In 1999, Yu founded the Madison-based Jin-Wen Yu Dance and has been presenting its annual concert at Madison since. The company has performed internationally.

Yu has received numerous grants, honors, commissions, and awards, such as the NEA grant, the Outstanding Dance Artist Award from Taiwan, the Wisconsin Arts Board Choreographer Award, the first Madison CitiARTS Commission Signature Grant, the Dane County Arts Grant, among others.

In 2017 and 2018, his works were presented at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. Some of his most notable works as a choreographer are Refresh (2019), 1-2-1 (2017) Paged (2017)

Paging into the Realm of Imagination (2017), Fine Without You/Me? (2016), Late Winter (2016), Water (2016), Dis/connect I (2015), and Time to Cut Space (2015), It is You, You, and You... (2014).

Tickets are on sale for the performances and can be purchased online at tickets.uww.edu or by calling 262-472-2222. There is a $2 surcharge for tickets purchased at the door at the time of the event.